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BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1820 Alexander Cartwright
1852 Cap Anson
1862 Henry Mullin
1863 Charlie Ferguson
1864 Jersey Bakley
1867 Walter Fisher
1869 John Grimes
1870 Ad Yale
1875 Charlie Jaeger
1876 Mike Jacob
1878 Judge Fuchs

Emil Fuchs, owner of the Boston Braves, installed himself as manager for the Boston Braves in 1929. His “bench coach” was Johnny Evers.

It didn’t go well – 56 wins against 98 losses (which actually was 6 more wins than in 1928) and a last place finish. Not one time was he tossed by an umpire. The Braves finished last and Fuchs went back to being an owner/president (and a judge).

1879 Tom Needham
1884 Jake Daubert

A coal miner turned ballplayer, captain of two teams that went to the World Series (Brooklyn, 1916 and Cincinnati, 1919), and one of the finest players of his day.  Jim Sandoval wrote this biography for SABR.  I also encourage you to check out the Baseball Hall of Fame site, too.

1891 Scott Perry
1892 Morrie Schick
1903 Elmer Miller
1903 Bob Osborn
1906 Eddie Delker
1907 Bobby Stevens
1907 Henry Nears
1909 Chuck Sheerin
1913 Zack Clayton
1914 Clyde (Lefty) Smoll
1917 Harry Cozart
1917 Stan Andrews
1923 Solly Hemus
1937 Roberto Pena
1945 Dennis Paepke
1950 Pedro Garcia
1954 Denny Walling
1955 Tom Runnells
1957 Dave Huppert
1965 Craig Worthington
1967 Marquis Grissom
1969 Jeff Ball
1971 Keith Johnson
1972 Gary Bennett
1973 Andy Barkett
1979 Jorge Piedra
1980 Max St. Pierre
1981 Ryan Raburn
1984 Jed Lowrie
1987 Dan Jennings
1989 Deolis Guerra
1990 Chris O’Grady
1992 Ronny Rodriguez
1993 Greg Mahle
1995 Keon Wong
1996 Mauricio Llovera
1997 Logan Gillespie

OBITUARIES:

1883 John Bergh
1893 Joe Farrell
1898 Bobby Mathews
1909 Oscar Westerberg
1912 Ace Stewart
1913 Jerry Harrington

Harrington was in a Keokuk, Iowa bar when Tom Merritt came in.  Harrington recognized Merritt – an African-American – and for reasons not provided, starting calling Merritt foul words and said that he had been looking for him.  At some point, he punched Merritt in the ribs, so Merritt took his bucket of beer and left the bar.  Harrington followed him outside, putting his hand in his pocket which scared Merritt, who believed that Harrington would follow up on his threats and kill him.  So, Merritt swung the bucket at Harrington, knocking him over.  Harrington’s head smashed against the hard ground – his skull cracked, and a couple of weeks later he was dead.

Upon his death, the local sports editor noted, “[Harrington’s] companions of his later years describe him as a man generous to a fault and his own worst enemy.”

Merritt, who had a long history of getting in trouble with the law as it was, turned himself in immediately and was arrested and charged with both disturbing the peace and murder.  Six weeks later, he was cleared by a grand jury, noting that Merritt had acted in self defense and that swinging the bucket specifically was not the cause of Harrington’s death.

“Flour Man Lost Bunch of Money,” Daily Gate City, July 8, 1910: 5.
“Jerry Harrington Injured Last Night,” Daily Gate City (Keokuk, IA), April 2, 1913: 5.
“Coroner’s Jury Returns Verdict,” Daily Gate City (Keokuk, IA), April 18, 1913: 5.
“Sporting Views by the Editor,” Daily Gate City (Keokuk, IA), April 17, 1913: 5.
“Merrit Freed of Murder Charge,” Daily Gate City, May 13, 1913: 2.

1923 Frank Keffer
1933 Thomas Griffin
1937 Bill Foxen
1938 Alex Beam
1946 Jack Quinn
1948 Pat Deisel
1959 Fred Brainard
1960 Ricardo Torres
1964 Kid Willson
1967 Dutch Rudolph
1970 Dick Brown
1973 Vic Aldridge
1973 Lefty Weinert
1979 Joe Conzelman
1980 Ed Miller
1980 Hooks Iott
1983 Dutch Leonard
1984 Sanford Jackson
1991 Les Mallon
1994 Walter Wilson
1994 Don Jefferson
1995 Sonny Boy Jeffries
1996 Bill Serena
2012 Stan Johnson
2023 Dave Frost

YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!

1925 Babe Ruth undergoes surgery on an intestinal abcess that would sideline him for the first 40 games of the season.

1934 Red Barber works his first game on the radio – for the Reds, of course.

1945 Pete Gray makes his debut for the Senators – getting a hit on four trips.  Gray, now 30, has but one arm.

1953 Mickey Mantle’s homer off of Chuck Stobbs is measured at 565 feet (disputed these days), which is considered the longest MLB homer.

1969 Montreal’s Bill Stoneman tosses a no-hitter to beat the Phillies, 7- 0.  It was just the ninth game in Expo history – Stoneman also made the first start for the Expos, but only got one out in the first inning before being removed.

1976 Mike Schmidt hits four consecutive homers to help the Phillies beat the Cubs, 18 – 16, in extra innings.  The Cubs had an eleven run lead at one point.  (Schmidt added a single in six at bats.)

2001 Barry Bonds hits his 500th career homer – into McCovey Cove.

2009 Gary Sheffield launches his 500th homer…  Meanwhile, Jason Kubel hits for the cycle – with a grand slam completing the task.

2010 Ubaldo Jimenez throws a no-hitter to beat the Braves in Atlanta, 4 – 0.  Jimenez is the first Rockie to accomplish the feat.  A pickoff play and a double play helped Jimenez survive six walks in the first five innings.

TRANSACTION WIRE:

1909 Boston purchases Jimmy Slagle from the Cubs.

1960 For some reason, the Indians agreed to trade Rocky Colavito to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn.  Kuenn was the batting champ, while Colavito was the homer champ.