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This Day in Baseball History
July 28th

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43 Fact(s) Found
1890 Giants hurler Mickey Welch joins Pud Galvin and Tim Keefe in becoming baseball's third hurler to record his 300th victory. After today's 4-2 victory over Pittsburgh, the 31-year-old Brooklyn native will win only seven more games before ending his 13-year career next season.
1943 In a Red Cross charity game, Babe Ruth leads the Yank-Lands, a club featuring former Yankees and Indians, against the Cloudbusters, a U.S. Navy team from the University of North Carolina's Chapel Hill Naval Pre-Flight School. 'The Bambino,' appearing as a pinch-hitter in his only plate appearance in the 8-5 loss to the servicemen at Yankee Stadium, is walked by a 25-year-old Navy pilot trainee and Boston Braves right-hander Johnny Sain.
1952 The seventh-place Reds dismiss manager Luke Sewell, replacing him with the recently released skipper of the Browns, Rogers Hornsby. While the 'Rajah' takes a week to review the Cincinnati farm system, coach Earle Brucker will take over the team on an interim basis.
1962 After disappearing to use the restroom with Gene Conley when the Red Sox bus got stuck in New York traffic two days ago, infielder Pumpsie Green shows up in the team's hotel in Washington D.C., having missed a doubleheader loss to the Senators. The prodigal infielder is fined $500 for his disappearance, while his teammate, who will return on June 30, remains AWOL.
1962 One hundred and three miles west of Philadelphia, the Phillies Special, a train carrying fans to the game, derails 3.7 miles east of Harrisburg, killing 19 and leaving 105 injured. Fourteen adjoining rows of empty seats along Connie Mack Stadium's first-base line become conspicuous as 12,450 spectators watch the home team beat the cross-state rival Pirates, 9-2.
1963 Dick Ellsworth strikes out Cardinals' left fielder Stan Musial three times in the Cubs' 5-1 victory at Wrigley Field. It will be the only time 'Stan the Man' is whiffed three times in a game during his 22-year career, a span of 3,026 contests.
1964 During a 3-1 victory over the Yankees in New York, Angel infielder Jim Fregosi becomes the first player to complete the cycle in the three-plus years of the franchise's existence. The Los Angeles shortstop will repeat the feat in 1968, making it the second occurrence in club history.
1967 The Indians break a five-game losing streak when Tony Horton hits a walk-off homer leading off the bottom of the 12th inning. The first baseman's round-tripper breaks up a scoreless pitching duel between Steve Hargan and Orioles' right-hander Moe Drabowsky, who allows only six hits in the extra-inning contest at Cleveland Stadium.
1970 At Anaheim Stadium, Angels' catcher Tom Egan has a tough day when he allows five passed balls on pitches thrown by three Halo hurlers. The California backstop also commits a sixth-inning error, allowing the eventual winning run to score in a 6-5 loss to the Yankees.
1971 Orioles' third baseman Brooks Robinson, a sixteen-time Gold Glove winner, commits three errors. Thanks to Frank Robinson's ninth-inning three-run walk-off home run off Rollie Fingers, the Orioles prevail and beat the A's, 3-2.
1976 White Sox pitchers John 'Blue Moon' Odom (5 innings) and reliever Francisco Barrios (4 innings) combined to no-hit the A's, 2-1. The victory will be the Chicago starter's last of his 84 in the major leagues.
1978 At Candlestick Park, the Giants beat the Cubs 9-8 in a game that began at Wrigley Field. The Chicago contest, interrupted three times by rain, was suspended with a man on first and two out in the top of the eighth inning because of darkness.
1979 Cubs' slugger Dave Kingman, who hit a pair of round-trippers yesterday, becomes the sixth player in major league history to hit three home runs in one game twice in the same season. Sky King's trio of long flies isn't enough when Chicago drops the Shea Stadium contest to the Mets, 6-4.
1983 American League president Lee MacPhail upholds the Royals' protest, ruling George Brett's 'Pine Tar' home run should count. The game resumes on August 18, continuing from the point of the third baseman's controversial round-tripper, with the Royals beating the Yankees, 5-4.

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1985 The Hall of Fame welcomes new inductees Cardinal outfielder Lou Brock, Country Enos Slaughter, infielder Arky Vaughan, and right-handed reliever Hoyt Wilhelm. 'Old Sarge' becomes the first pitcher inducted because of his role as a relief pitcher.

1985 Darrell Evans's home run, a sixth-inning solo blast off Ken Schrom, proves to be the difference when the Tigers beat Minnesota at the Metrodome, 3-2. The Detroit third baseman's 300th career round-tripper comes on a 3-0 pitch at exactly 3:00 pm.
1990 At Candlestick Park, Giants' hurler Scott Garrelts is perfect, putting away the first 26 Reds batters he faces. Paul O'Neill's two-out single to shallow center field in the ninth inning breaks up the no-hitter, and the right-hander ends up with a one-hit 4-0 blanking of Cincinnati.
1991 Expos right-hander Dennis Martinez pitches a perfect game, defeating Los Angeles 2-0 at Dodger Stadium. Ron Hassey becomes the first backstop ever to catch two perfect games, as he also was behind the plate on May 15, 1981, when Indian hurler Len Barker faced 27 batters, beating the Blue Jays, 3-0.
1993 Facing Willie Banks in a 5-1 loss to the Twins at the Kingdome, Mariner Ken Griffey Jr. homers in his eighth straight game to tie a major league record established by Dale Long (1956) and Don Mattingly (1987). Junior barely misses breaking the record in tomorrow's game when he hits a long double off the right-center field wall at the Kingdome.
1993

"That wasn't even a big monkey that was on my back. It was a zoo. The guys treated it like I had won a World Series game for them." - ANTHONY YOUNG, commenting on his teammates' reaction to the end of his 27-game losing streak.

After a shaky one-inning relief performance, in which he gave up the go-ahead run, Anthony Young's record-setting 27-game losing streak comes to an abrupt end when the Mets scored twice in the ninth for a 5-4 walk-off victory over Florida at Shea Stadium. The infamous string of bad luck covered 81 appearances over two seasons, including 14 losses as a starter and 13 as a reliever.

1994 Kenny Rogers hurls the 12th perfect game in modern major league history and becomes the first American League left-hander to accomplish the feat when he beats the Angels, 4-0. The Rangers' southpaw throws the fifth no-hitter in franchise history, being the first to do it perfectly.

1995 The Yankees trade Danny Tartabull to the A's for Jason Beverlin and Ruben Sierra. Oakland's newest outfielder signed a lucrative free-agent deal worth more than $5 million a year with New York after the 1991 season, never producing offensively on the level he played with Kansas City.
1995 The Yankees obtain David Cone from the Blue Jays in exchange for Marty Janzen and two minor leaguers, Jason Jarvis and Mike Gordon. The trade for the right-hander, considered one of the best deals in franchise history, will be an essential piece of the team's success in the late nineties.
1996 Darryl Strawberry's 300th career round-tripper is a dramatic ninth-inning, two-run dinger, which gives the Yankees a come-from-behind 3-2 win over the Royals. The 34-year-old 'Straw' will finish his stormy 17-year major league career with 335, hitting 75% of his round-trippers as a member of New York's other team, the Mets.

1998 After setting the record yesterday for hitting the most home runs before getting a grand slam, Sammy Sosa hits another today in the Cubs' 7-5 loss to Arizona at Bank One Ballpark. The Chicago slugger becomes the 18th major leaguer to hit a bases-loaded homer on consecutive days.
2000 Unable to win in four months, David Cone is sent to the team's minor league camp in Tampa by Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. The struggling veteran will be under the supervision of Billy Connors, the Yankees' vice president of player personnel.
2000 The Mets have a busy day on the trading block, obtaining Oriole shortstop Mike Bordick for utility players Melvin Mora and Mike Kinkade and minor pitchers Lesli Brea and Pat Gorman. A few hours later, New York completes a four-player deal with the Devil Rays, receiving reliever Rick White and outfielder Bubba Trammell in exchange for minor leaguers Jason Tyner and Paul Wilson.
2001 Oriole outfielder Melvin Mora's wife, Gisel, gives birth to quintuplets. The three boys and two girls, weighing under two and a half pounds each, are doing well.
2001 With two outs in the ninth inning at PNC Park, Brian Giles erases a three-run deficit with a walk-off grand slam, defeating an astounded Astros squad, 9-8. Houston's All-Star closer, Billy Wagner, gives up the Pittsburgh left fielder's 'Sayonara Slam.'

2002 During his induction speech at the Hall of Fame ceremonies in Cooperstown, with the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow playing in the background and with a copy of The Wizard of Oz in his hands, Ozzie Smith compares his baseball career to Dorothy's away trip from Kansas. The 47-year-old, citing the recipe for his success during his 19-year career with the Cardinals and Padres, tells the crowd he had the mind to dream, which the Scarecrow cherished, a heart to believe, which the Tin Man wanted, and courage to persevere, which the Lion lacked.

2002 The Giants trade two minor league pitchers, right-hander Felix Diaz and left-hander Ryan Meaux, to obtain veteran center fielder Kenny Lofton from the White Sox. The 35-year-old outfielder will finish the season with the second-place club, hitting .267 in 46 games before signing as a free agent with the Pirates.
2002 Gary Sheffield's team record of reaching base ends at 52 straight games in the Braves' 7-1 loss to the Phillies at Turner Field. The Atlanta right fielder surpassed Dale Murphy's previous mark of 48 consecutive contests.
2004 Troy Percival strikes out Alfonso Soriano and gets Mark Teixeira to ground out to nail down a 2-0 Angels victory over Texas in Anaheim. The 34-year-old right-hander becomes the 18th major league closer to record 300 career saves and the fifth-fastest to reach the milestone.
2005 At Whataburger Field, a trio of pitchers of Frisco RoughRiders (Rangers-AA) hurls nine perfect innings to beat the hometown Corpus Christi Hooks (Astros-AA), 3-0. A.J. Murray (6), Steve Karsay (2), and Scott Feldman (1) combine to throw only the third nine-inning perfect game, the first by a combination of hurlers, in the 117-year history of the Texas League.
2006 The Brewers have a busy day wheeling and dealing as the team sends All-Star left-fielder Carlos Lee and a minor league outfielder to the Rangers and acquire third baseman David Bell from the Phillies in separate deals. The Brew Crew gets reliever Francisco Cordero, fly chasers Kevin Mench and Laynce Nix, and a minor league southpaw from Texas and trade Class A right-hander Wilfrido Laureano to Philadelphia to get their new infielder.
2006 In an 8-7 loss to the Diamondbacks at Minute Maid Park, Luke Scott becomes the first rookie and sixth player in franchise history to hit for the cycle. The Houston 28-year-old right-fielder, who had a three-run homer in the fourth, a fifth-inning triple, and a double in the seventh inning, completes the rare feat with a two-out single in the 11th inning.
2007 With the help of two day-night doubleheaders, MLB establishes a new daily attendance record when 717,478 go through the turnstiles for the 17 games played on Saturday. The former mark of 640,412, set on July 3, 1999, was accomplished with the same number of games played.
2011 The Mets acquire 21-year-old right-hander Zack Wheeler, a top minor league prospect, from the Giants in exchange for outfielder Carlos Beltran and cash considerations. New York bid farewell to their All-Star outfielder, who batted .289 with 15 home runs and 66 RBIs in the final season of his seven-year deal with the team.
2011 With their 10-9 victory, the visiting Mets complete a four-game sweep in Cincinnati for the first time in franchise history. The Great American Ball Park victory is especially rewarding because Carlos Beltran, the team's best offensive player, was traded to San Francisco during the series.
2012 Ike Davis drives in all of the runs in the Mets' 6-3 loss in Arizona when he becomes the ninth player in franchise history to hit three home runs in a game. The New York first baseman joins Steve Finley (2004, Diamondbacks), Eddie Murray (1980, Orioles), and Clyde McCullough (1942, Cubs) as only the fourth player in baseball history to account for all three of his team's runs with solo homers in a defeat.
2013 After being elected by the Pre-Integration Veterans Committee in December, the induction of Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert, 19th-century backstop Deacon White, and umpire Hank O'Day marks the first time the Hall of Fame ceremony doesn't include a living selection. The last time all the inductees were posthumously honored happened in 1968, with the enshrinement of Pud Galvin, the game's first 300-game winner, 63 years after his death.
2017 In his second appearance with the independent San Rafael Pacifics, 37-year-old southpaw Lou Evans sings the Star-Spangled Banner, becoming the first starting pitcher in professional baseball to perform the National Anthem before taking the mound. The 2001 Marlins' nineteenth-round draft pick will retire after the game, ending his comeback from a 12-year hiatus due to injuries.
2023 In a 5-1 victory over the Nationals at Citi Field, Pete Alonso homers twice, becoming the second player in Mets history with four 30-homer seasons. The 28-year-old first baseman joins Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza in accomplishing the feat for the team.
43 Fact(s) Found