This Weekend in Baseball History
May 8th, 2010: Henry Blanco is the second straight Mets catcher to hit a walk off homer. The day after Rod Barajas' heroics, Blanco connects off ex-Met Guillermo Mota in the 11th inning for a 5-4 victory over the Giants.
May 8th, 2001: Randy Johnson strikes out a record-tying 20 batters (out of 29 men faced), but settles for a no-decision in the Diamondbacks 4-3, 11-inning win over the Reds at Bank One Ballpark.
May 8th, 2000: Jason and Jeremy Giambi each hit a home run in the A's 9-8 loss to the Angels in Anaheim. It's the first of four times the brothers will homer in the same game for Oakland.
May 8th, 1996: Dwight Gooden wins his first game as a Yankee. He works the first eight innings, striking out eight in a 10-3 win over the Tigers.
May 8th, 1974: George Brett smacks the first home run of his career -- off fellow future Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins of the Rangers.
May 8th, 1968: Catfish Hunter of the A's fires a perfect game against the Twins.
May 8th, 1966: The Giants beat the Cardinals 10-5 in the final game at the first Busch Stadium (a/k/a Sportsman's Park). Willie Mays hit the park's final home run; Jim Ray Hart gets the last hit; Alex Johnson is the final batter, grounding into a game-ending double play.
May 8th, 1961: New York's upcoming NL expansion team announces they will be called the Mets.May 8th, 1950: Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers is on the cover of Life magazine.
May 9th, 2019: Albert Pujols homers off the Tigers' Ryan Carpenter at Comerica Park, to join Hank Aaron and Alex Rodriguez as the only players with 2000 official RBI.
But this comes with an asterisk: Runs Batted In didn't become an official statistic until 1920, so the 224 runs Babe Ruth drove in during the first six years of his career don't "count." That leaves the Bambino with 1992 officially, 2214 otherwise, still second all-time to Aaron.
May 9th, 2010: Dallas Braden authors the 19th perfect game in baseball history, a 4-0 A's victory over the Rays in Oakland.
May 9th, 2002: Mariano Rivera becomes the Yankees all time leader in saves, nailing down his 225th in a 3-1 win over the Devil Rays at Tropicana Field. That surpasses Dave Righetti's previous mark.
May 9th, 1993: Mariano Duncan's grand slam in the bottom of the 8th inning powers the Phillies to their third straight come-from-behind victory over the Cardinals. The 6-5 final caps a series sweep at Veterans Stadium.
May 9th, 1987: Eddie Murray of the Orioles becomes the player ever to homer from both sides of the plate in consecutive games as Baltimore routs the White Sox 15-6 at Comiskey Park. The future Hall of Famer connects off lefty Joel McKeon in the 4th inning and righthander Bob James in the 6th.
May 9th, 1967: Roger Maris belts his first home run in a Cardinal uniform -- a 6th inning solo shot off Woody Fryman in a 6-3 Forbes Field victory. Several reports say the ball -- hit by the star known for wearing number-9 -- was caught by a fan in seat 9 of section 9 on the 9th day of the month.
May 9th, 1962: The Mets obtain their first ex-Yankee, trading catcher Hobie Landreth to the Orioles for Marv Throneberry. The one-time slugging prospect -- who played in 141 games for Casey Stengel during the 1950s-- was born to be a Met: his initials are M-E-T for Marvin Eugene Throneberry.
May 9th, 1950: Pirates slugger Ralph Kiner homers twice, including his second grand slam in four games, as Pittsburgh doubles up on the Dodgers 10-5 at Forbes Field.
May 10th, 2015: Felix Hernandez reaches 2,000 strikeouts when he whiffs A's outfielder Sam Fuld in the Mariners' 4-3 victory at Safeco Field. Only Walter Johnson, Bert Blyleven, and Sam McDowell have accomplished the feat the 29 year-old Seattle righty.
May 10th, 1999: Nomar Garciaparra hits a pair of grand slams and adds a two-run homer for a total of 10 RBI in the Red Sox 12-4 win over the Mariners at Fenway Park. Garciaparra is just the 11th man to hit two bases-loaded homers in the same game -- but, oddly, the second in 19 days (Fernando Tatis Sr. of the Cardinals did the same on April 23rd.)
May 10th, 1986: John Kruk's first major league home run comes off Dennis Eckersly of the Cubs in the top of the 1st inning at Wrigley Field. Chicago went on to a 6-5 win.
May 10th, 1971: Ex-Phillie Ferguson Jenkins fires the first shutout in Veterans Stadium history, while Jim Hickman's two-run homer is the big hit in the Cubs 3-0 victory.
May 10th, 1970: Two weeks shy of his 47th birthday, Hoyt Wilhelm becomes the first pitcher to appear in 1000 games. It didn't turn out to be a classic appearance as the knuckleballer gives up the winning hits and runs in a 6-5 Braves loss to the Cardinals at Fulton County Stadium.
May 10th, 1955: Don Newcombe faces only 27 batters when he one-hits the Cubs at Wrigley Field, 3-0. After Gene Baker's 4th inning single, he was thrown to steal second base; that was all that stood between the Dodgers ace and perfection.
May 10th, 1934: Lou Gehrig ties a big league record with four extra-base hits, two doubles and two home runs, as the Yankees rout the White Sox 11-3 at Comiskey Park. Battling a bad cold, the Iron Horse tallies 12 total bases and seven RBIs in just five innings before taking the rest of the day off.
Comments
If only Gehrig had gone the full 9 -and it would have been nine since the game was at Comiskey.
What names- Mays, Jackie, Kiner, Newk, Yaz, Catfish (not that he was keen on that moniker) and Hoyt.
An obscure name stood out- Steve Bilko at the Other Wrigley Field. Although that was the Angels' debut in the major leagues, Bilko had been there (Wrigley) before.
After debuting with the Cardinals in 1949 and enjoying three abbreviated April "cups of coffee" as the nominal job winner, Bilko finally was the regular first baseman in 1953 and hit 21 home runs. (Bilko's first minor league game was at the age of 16).
He then faded from the majors for three years, only to become a minor league rock star, for, who else, the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. Phil Wrigley owned the Angels so guess where they played?
Bilko blasted 148 home runs during his three seasons there, the last of which was as a Dodger farm team. 111 cobined in '56 and '57.
So guess who bought the Angels and the rights to the L.A. market in early 1957? No, not Horace Stoneham...
A rock star? Yeah, he was. A triple crown and three consecutive PCL MVP awards.
Bilko made it back to the bigs in '58, only to return to the PCL for the '59 campaign.
Expansion created a final career opportunity. Bilko hit 20 home runs in 294 At Bats (and drew 58 free passes), platooning with Ted Kluzewski on the big league Angels in their 1961 debut.
Bilko played one more season with the Angels and then concluded his career in Rochester in 1963, where he platooned with Luke Easter and Joe Altobelli.
Sadly, Bilko passed at the very young age of 49.
Oh, the last hit ever at Wrigley Field in L.A.? Of course, a Bilko home run, pinch hitting with two outs in the 9th of that last game.
No, not a walk-off. That would have been too good to be true...