BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS:
1850 Al Nevin
1866 Mike Goodfellow
1872 Fred Clarke
Boy wonder, then boy manager of the Louisville Colonels and later the Pittsburgh Pirates. I got familiar with him writing about his teammate, Rube Waddell. Clarke was a midwesterner – a farmer and rancher from Kansas – but boy could he play. Could run like the wind, chasing down all kinds of fly balls. Could hit enough – cleared .380 once – and was sharp in the use of his pitchers… The outfield version of Lou Boudreau. Deservedly a Hall of Famer.
First player to have five hits in his first game.
1874 John Callahan
1877 Bill Byers
1880 Henry Thielman
1881 Phil Reardon
1887 Armando Marsans
The Cuban import was a fine hitter in three leagues – NL, FL, and AL, though his hitting was not nearly as good with the St. Louis Browns or New York Yankees as his career ended in 1918…
Anyway… Marsans played in integrated “Negro/Cuban” teams prior to joining the Reds in 1911, would bat .317 in 1912 and just missed .300 in 1913 and 1914 before jumping to St. Louis in the Federal League. He got to the FL a bit late – it was pretty much done when he got there. Joined the Browns in 1916 where he batted .254 with 60 RBI, but faded quickly from there.
Marsans returned to play in Cuba, later managed for many, many years there and was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame.
1890 Willam Edward (Fred) House
1892 Jack Richardson
1895 Bert Lewis
1900 Charles Dwight (Red) Dorman
1905 Johnny Riddle
1909 Johnny Broaca
Johnny Broaca had a short major league run in the 1930s in the Yankees rotation where he had great teammates, helping him to a 44 – 29 career record. Arm troubles and an inability to get along with people contributed to a hasty demise from the game.
Yale educated, gave up on baseball and his life for a year. Tried professional boxing, apparently didn’t talk much about his baseball career after he left the game, and deserted his wife and son – who, I gather, he never got to know. Spent his entire post-baseball career as a laborer and a loner.
His son, Peter, was a basketball coach. As a coach of the freshman classes at UMass, he coached Rick Pitino and Julius Irving, among others.
Found this article about him from the Eagle Tribune.
1910 Bob Bowman
1913 Dom Dallessandro
Cubs favorite of the war years (well, Phil Cavaretta was THE favorite, but how do you argue with his nickname? “Dim Dom”)… Hit a little until 1944. Then he, too, was off to help with the war effort. It means he missed out on the last Cubs pennant season in 1945. Came back about 75% of the player he used to be and was done in two seasons.
1914 Elwood Pierce (Woody) Wheaton
1915 Charlie Letchas
1917 Frank Kalin
1919 Joe Wood
1922 Jake Eisenhart
1925 Chris Haughey
1927 Bill Harrington
1928 Dave Melton
1931 Bob Skinner
Joel’s dad. Skinner was a hitter – batted between .268 and .321 for seven years – was one of the bats who helped the Pirates win the 1960 World Series. Had better years in 1958 and 1962, but his 1960 season was just fine… When his batting eye started to fade, he was moved to Cincinnati and then the Cards where he was an effective bench player until 1966. Managed the Phillies in 1968 and 1969…
You can read his SABR BIO here…
1932 Phil Clark
1936 Jack Lamabe
1947 Chuck Scrivener
1949 Steve Foucault
Rangers and Tigers reliever of the 1970s – a busy pitcher and moderately successful. Arm left him after 1978, though, and his career ended quickly.
1949 Jim Breazeale
1951 Dave Winfield
Many of you probably know more about him than I do… I loved the guy. Always seemed to be in a good mood – always doing the right things. I saw him more when he was with the Padres and I could watch him beat up the Cubs on WGN. The teams he played on weren’t always very good, but he was AWESOME. Took a lot of heat for having to replace Reggie Jackson, but that’s a tough act to follow. I know he can’t in real life, but in my mind I think he could DH today and hit .260 with some power.
1954 Dennis Eckersley
Third Hall of Famer born this day – famous for many, many things. As a young man he was gifted and out of control. When he could no longer start, he found a home as a reliever for Tony LaRussa and was known for having extraordinary control.
1954 Bert Roberge
1954 Joe Gates
1956 Bob Kearney
1958 Daryl Sconiers
Angels prospect of the 1980s who was never as good looking on the field as he was in his picture. Later admitted that he had issues with substance abuse.
1962 Rich Surhoff
1966 Darrin Fletcher
1966 Scott Taylor
1967 Junior Felix
Another perennial prospect – he was a Toronto farmhand – who had blazes of glory but no lasting success. One reason? He was probably seven years older than originally listed.
The Marlins drafted him in the expansion draft thinking he was mid-20s. But the premature gray and stories of his real age from neighbors in his Dominican hometown told a story of a player who was likely closer to 35 than 30. He never played for the Fish.
1968 Jim Byrd
1970 Roger Bailey
Rockies pitcher who looked like he might be one of the pretty good ones until his body told him otherwise.
1970 Manny Martinez
1971 Wil Cordero
Stunning athletic infielder and outfielder with the Expos (twice), Red Sox, White Sox, Indians (twice), Pirates, Marlins and Nationals. Had many decent seasons, though he was a bit of a free-swinger, and never played more than 140 games in a season (in his 14 seasons, he cleared 100 games just six times).
1971 Tim Hyers
1973 Brandon Hyde
1973 Kerry Robinson
1974 Alex Ramirez
1975 Scott Cassidy
1975 Mike Johnson
1977 Eric Munson
1978 Steven Kent
1981 Matt Murton
People who watched WGN in the early 2000s might remember this outfielder who could hit but for some reason couldn’t keep a regular job with the Cubs.
When he was released by the Rockies in 2009, I wrote this about him (bottom of the Article – look for “Is it Over?”).
1982 Brett Carroll
1982 Matt Young
1988 Philip Gosselin
1988 Mike Belfiore
1991 Brock Stewart
1991 Adam Plutko
1993 Kevin Kramer
1994 Jen-Ho Tseng
OBITUARIES:
1895 Harry Wright
1938 Morgan Murphy
1941 Bert Inks
1942 Pinky Hargrave
1949 John Donahue
1962 Don Songer
1965 Jerry McCarthy
1965 Delos Drake
1967 Fritz Mollwitz
1975 Elmer Knetzer
1986 Heinie Mueller
1986 Vince DiMaggio
1995 Nippy Jones
1999 Paul Burris
2004 Ken Brondell
2004 John Cerutti
The former pitcher was a TV broadcaster for his former team, the Blue Jays, and was found in his hotel room the morning of the last day of the season.
2005 Mario Encarnacion
2007 Bunky Stewart
2013 Bob Chance
2017 John Herrnstein
2018 Marty Pattin
2020 Charlie Haeger
YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!
1924 The Kansas City Monarchs top the Hilldale Giants in the first game of the first Colored World Series. Kansas City would go on to capture the crown.
1947 Pinch hitter Cookie Lavagetto breaks up Bill Bevens’ no-hit bid with a two-out double – which drove in the winning runs in a 3 – 2 win over the Yankees.
1951 The Giants win the pennant!!! Bobby Thomson’s homer off of Ralph Branca gives New York a win over Brooklym and earns the Giants a trip to the World Series.
2015 Max Scherzer smokes the Mets, 2 – 0, giving the Nationals ace his second no-hitter of the season.
TRANSACTION WIRE:
1939 New York drafts Paul Dean from the Cardinals in the Rule 5 Draft.
1958 Cincinnati sends Alex Grammas, George Crowe, and Alex Kellner to the Cardinals for Del Ennis, Eddie Kasko and Bob Mabe.
1978 Texas sends Bobby Bonds and Len Barker to Cleveland for Jim Kern and Larvell (Sugar Bear) Blanks.
2008 Michael Brantly was the player to be named later, heading to Cleveland when Milwaukee acquired CC Sabathia.
Mighty Casey Baseball 