BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS:
1842 Al Wright
Alfred Hector Wright was the manager for the 1876 Philadelphia Athletics, where his team went 14 – 45 with one tie. He actually resigned his role as secretary on the board of directors to take over for a retiring Al Reach. From what I gather, he wasn’t really that active in managing the game on the field – but he certainly would have been running the business from day to day. He’s much more famous as a baseball writer – Henry Chadwick recommended he edit the Philadelphia Sunday Mercury and later was the baseball editor for the New York Clipper. He spent eleven years as secretary for the Athletic Club of Philadelphia, was the official score keeper, and traveled with the team on its trip to England in 1874 and the world tour of 1888. The son of Alfred E. and Annie Morrison Wright, Wright died of a severe case of locomotor ataxia on 20 April 1905, a disorder which had affected him for more than thirty years.
“Who Shall Be Catcher?”, Philadelphia Times, 09 May 1876, Page 1.
“Base Ball Notes”, Philadelphia Times, 14 April 1876, Page 4.
“The Athletic Club”, Philadelphia Times, 13 June 1876, Page 2.
“The Pioneer Tourists”, Sporting Life, 6 December 1913, Page 1.
Chadwick, Henry. “Chadwick’s Chat”, Sporting Life, 29 November 1890, Page 5
“Died”, New York Times, 21 April 1905, Page 9.
“Veteran Ballplayer Dead”, Buffalo Enquirer, 21 April 1905, Page 10.
“Death’s Doings”, Sporting Life, 5 April 1913, Page 1.
1852 Tom Evers
Johnny Evers’ uncle. Got a one game tryout with Baltimore in 1882, then played with the Washington Nationals in the Union Association for a season.
1853 James Pirie
A native of Dundas Canada, Pirie played on the Philadelphia Quakers for the five games between 25 September and 29 September 1883. In those games, he had just three hits and committed eleven errors at his post at shortstop. By then, he was already 30 and Philadelphia had other options.
Pirie spent that season playing shortstop for a team in Port Huron, where he batted fifth and was an active base runner.
1862 Art Benedict
1867 Bill Hallman
1868 Jack Stivetts
1880 Ernie Ross
1882 Big Jeff Pfeffer (Francis Xavier)
1884 Frank Truesdale
1886 Fred Kommers
1887 Chick Brandom
1891 Johnny Couch
1891 Jim Brown
1894 Tom Sheehan
1894 Ben Mallonee
1895 Carson Bigbee
1899 Ed Johnson
1901 Mule Suttles
1904 Sam Dailey
1904 Red Rollings
1918 Marv Grissom
1920 Dave Koslo
1931 Gene Snyder
1938 Moose Stubing
1938 John Herrnstein
1940 Gonzalo Marquez
1946 Bill Denehy
1953 Tom Hausman
1961 Tracy Jones
1964 Chris Cron
1964 Rafael Montalvo
1964 Balvino Galvez
1975 Ryan Rupe
1975 Tim Christman
1977 Jamie Brown
1979 Josh Kinney
1979 Charlie Manning
1980 Chien-Ming Wang
1983 Jeff Mathis
1987 Peter Bourjos
1989 Alfredo Marte
1989 Josmil Pinto
1992 Ryan Cordell
1993 Ty Buttrey
1994 Ryan Borucki
1995 David McKay
OBITUARIES:
1878 Henry Burroughs
1900 George “Foghorn” Bradley
1901 George Popplein
1921 John Fitzgerald
1935 Steve Libby
1936 Anton Falch
1941 Kit McKenna
1942 Ray O’Brien
1957 Billy Meyer
1966 Grady Adkins
1968 Grover Lowdermilk
1971 Sam Post
1973 Roland Howell
1974 Bunny Hearn
1977 Johnny Mann
1979 Bob Schultz
1992 Ken Silvestri
1999 Ike Kahdot
2015 Riccardo Ingram
2016 Tom Butters
2016 Orlando Alvarez
2017 Ruben Amaro
2019 Jake Jaeckel
2021 Ken Reitz
YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!
1994 The White Sox assign outfielder/shooting guard Michael Jordan to the Birmingham Barons, their AA affiliate (managed by Terry Francona).
1998 Ouch!!! Playing in place of the injured Barry Larkin, Pokey Reese makes four errors on the first three opportunities to make a play. He throws away a relay on a double play in the first inning, misplayed a grounder in the second inning, and then compounded a misplayed grounder in the third by throwing the ball away.
1998 This day marks the first games in the history of two franchises – the Tampa Bay Devil Rays lose to the Detroit Tigers in Tampa’s Tropicana Field, 6 – 2, and the Arizona Diamondbacks lose to the Colorado Rockies, 9 – 2, in the new Bank One Ballpark.
TRANSACTION WIRE:
1935 The Cubs purchase pitcher Kirby Higbe from Atlanta in the Southern Association.
1942 Washington spends $40,000 to acquire Bobo Newsome from the Tigers. Newsome, who pitched in the majors from 1929 to 1953, would be acquired by the Senators five different times…
1945 Pittsburgh sends outfielder Vince DiMaggio to the Phillies for Al Gerheauser. Who??? Gerheauser, a former Yankee farmhand, won 18 of 53 decisions as a starter for the Phillies, who weren’t very good. Gerheauser went 5 – 10 for Pittsburgh and was let go.
To be fair, Vince had one decent year with the Phillies and when everyone else came back from the war, his career in the majors was over. The Phillies sent him to the Giants in 1946, where Vince would go hitless in 25 at bats.
1971 The Mets send Ron Swoboda and Rich Hacker to the Expos for Don Hahn. Meanwhile, the Twins cut loose pitcher Luis Tiant. Oops.
1982 Texas sends Al Oliver to the Expos for Larry Parrish and Dave Hostetler. Oliver would lead the NL in hitting that year…
1984 A little remembered deal that helped the Cubs immensely – two minor leaguers sent to the Oakland As for future Northwestern baseball coach Tim Stoddard.
1986 Cincinnati gives up Wayne Krenchiki to get Norm Charlton.
Mighty Casey Baseball 