The following are the events that happened world-wide throughout the sport of baseball.
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1800s[]
- 1894 - Bobby Lowe of the Boston Beaneaters became the first major leaguer to hit four home runs in one game in a 20–11 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.
1900s[]
1910s[]
- 1913 - John McGraw joined Fred Clarke, Cap Anson, Frank Selee and Connie Mack as managers who have won 1,000 games.
1920s[]
- 1922 - Between the morning and afternoon games of a Memorial Day doubleheader, Cliff Heathcote and Max Flack exchanged their Cardinals and Cubs uniforms respectively. The pair will both get hits for their new teams in the nightcap.
- 1925 - Rogers Hornsby was named manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, replacing Branch Rickey, who remained as general manager. Hornsby will be the only player-manager to win the Triple Crown, which he did by topping a .400 batting average for the third time in four years, hitting .403 with 39 home runs and 143 RBI.
- 1927:
- In the fourth inning of a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, shortstop Jim Cooney of the Chicago Cubs caught a line drive of Paul Waner, stepped on second base to retire Lloyd Waner and then tagged Clyde Barnhart coming from first base for an unassisted triple play.
- In his first appearance of the season, Walter Johnson pitched the last shutout of his major league career, number 113, in a Washington Senators 3–0 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
1930s[]
- 1935 - Babe Ruth made his last major league appearance. He played only the first inning of the opener of a doubleheader between the Boston Braves and Philadelphia Phillies at Baker Bowl. Phillies pitcher Jim Bivin retired Ruth on an infield grounder in the Babe's final major league at-bat.
1940s[]
- 1940 - Carl Hubbell of the New York Giants threw 87 pitches in a 7–0 one-hitter against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Hubell faced the minimum 27 batters, as Johnny Hudson, who singled, was caught stealing.
1950s[]
- 1956 - Mickey Mantle hit a home run that came within a foot-and-a-half of leaving Yankee Stadium. It hit the face of the upper deck in right field, 370 feet from home plate and 117 feet in the air. Mantle also became the first player in major league history to hit 20 home runs by the end of May as the Yankees beat the Washington Senators 4–3.
1960s[]
- 1961 - Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Bill Skowron each hit two home runs to lead the New York Yankees to a 12–3 rout of the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Yogi Berra also homered for New York. Ralph Terry was the winning pitcher, Gene Conley the loser.
- 1962 - Pedro Ramos of the Cleveland Indians pitched a three-hitter and hit two home runs, including a grand slam, for a 7–0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in the first game of a doubleheader at Memorial Park. Cleveland won the second game with identical score.
- 1967 - New York Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford announced his retirement from baseball because of an elbow injury. His final appearance was a start in Detroit on May 21, but he lasted just one inning for the Yankees. He finished his major league career with a 236-106 record.
1970s[]
- 1970 - All-Star voting was returned to the fans, as computerized punch-card ballots appeared in stores and ballparks coast to coast. Since 1958 the All-Star squads had been selected by managers, coaches, and players.
- 1971 - Willie Mays hit his 638th major league career home run with the Giants franchise, adding in the process his National League record 1,950th run scored.
- 1977 - Dennis Eckersley pitched a no-hitter as the Cleveland Indians beat the California Angels 1–0. Frank Tanana, with three shutouts in his last four games, was the loser.
1980s[]
- 1982 - Cal Ripken, Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles began his major league record consecutive game streak by starting at third base (position for the first 27 games during the streak), appearing eight in the batting order against the Toronto Blue Jays.
- 1987 - Eric Davis of the Cincinnati Reds became the first National League player to hit three grand slams in a month in a 6–2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, joining Jim Northrup of the Detroit Tigers who did the same in the American League in June 1968. Davis' major league leading 19 home runs also broke the NL record for most home runs batted between April and May.
1990s[]
- 1992 - Scott Sanderson of the New York Yankees became the ninth pitcher to beat all 26 major league teams as the Yankees defeated Milwaukee 8–1. Sanderson joined Doyle Alexander, Rich Gossage, Tommy John, Gaylord Perry, Nolan Ryan, Don Sutton, Mike Torrez and Rick Wise, as those who had defeated every ML club.
- 1995 - Mark McGwire tied a major league record by hitting five home runs in back-to-back games. His three homers today in consecutive at-bats helped the Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 8–1.
2000s[]
- 2001 - Barry Bonds hit two home runs, moving past Willie McCovey and Ted Williams into 11th place on the major league career list with 522. Bonds, with 17 home runs in May, surpassed the mark set by Mark McGwire in 1998 and Mickey Mantle in 1956.
- 2003 - Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning and a go-ahead homer in the top of the 11th to lead Cincinnati over Florida 4–3.
- 2006:
- Vernon Wells hit three home runs for the first time in his career and Troy Glaus homered twice to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to an 8–5 victory over the Boston Red Sox. It was the first time two Toronto players had multihomer games together since Carlos Delgado hit three and Raul Mondesi hit two on April 20, 2001, against Kansas City. Gustavo Chacín (6-1) was the winning pitcher, Josh Beckett (7-2) the loser.
- José Castillo hit two home runs and finished with a career-high six RBI to help Pittsburgh rout the Brewers 12–1.
- 2006 - At Dolphin Stadium, slugger Miguel Cabrera hit a three-run home run and had four RBI as the Florida Marlins beat the San Francisco Giants, 5–3. Cabrera leads the National League in batting average (.346) and doubles (21) and ranks in the top 10 in hits, RBI and total bases.
- Craig Biggio tied Hank Aaron for ninth place on the ML career doubles list with his 624th in the Astros 6–3 victory over St. Louis. Biggio now has 2,850 hits, two more than Brooks Robinson for 40th place in the all-time list. A day earlier, Biggio became the 23rd major leaguer to reach 10,000 at-bats.
Births[]
- 1871 - Amos Rusie, Hall of Fame pitcher (d. 1942)
- 1878 - Mike Donlin, outfielder (d. 1933)
- 1884 - Rube Oldring, outfielder (d. 1961)
- 1894 - Al Mamaux, pitcher (d. 1963)
- 1942 - John Felske, manager
- 1946 - Mike LaCoss, All-Star pitcher
- 1972 - Scott Eyre, pitcher
- 1972 - Manny Ramírez, All-Star outfielder