<— JULY 19   JULY 21 —>

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1847 John Hatfield
1855 Sam Weaver
1877 John Peter (Red) Kleinow
1878 Oscar Graham
1880 Harry Cassady
1880 Eddie Kolb
1885 Si Pauxtis
1888 Dave Callahan
1890 Raymond Ellis (Red) McKee
1896 William Clarence (Mutt) Wilson
1896 Ollie Fuhrman
1897 August G. (Happy) Foreman
1900 Hunter Lane
1901 Henry Emmett (Heinie) Manush
1903 Howard Maple
1904 Anthony Cooper
1908 David Campbell
1908 Ed Madjeski
1909 Otto Bluege
1912 Emmett Jerome (Heinie) Mueller
1915 Gene Hasson
1916 Don Black
1918 Booker Robinson
1924 Claude Crocker
1936 Jim McManus
1938 Tony Oliva
1942 Mickey Stanley
1946 John Lamb
1953 Gary Woods
1960 Mike Witt
1964 Mark Lee
1964 Jim Lewis
1971 Charles Johnson
1971 Ray McDavid
1974 Bengie Molina
1982 Jake Fox
1982 Jason Miller
1984 Danny Dorn
1984 Alexi Casilla
1988 Ty Kelly
1988 Stephen Strasburg
1989 Kevin Siegrist
1989 Tyler Saladino
1989 Matt Szczur
1989 Steve Selsky
1989 Mike Marjama
1990 Tyler Webb
1992 Tyrell Jenkins
1993 Pedro Severino
1994 Taylor Kohlwey
1994 Duane Underwood, Jr.
1994 Anthony Alford
1995 Jake Walsh
1997 Francisco Perez
1998 Keibert Ruiz
1998 Chris Rodriguez
2005 Colt Emerson

OBITUARIES:

1920 John (Tip) O’Neill

Are all guys named O’Neill nicknamed Tip?

O’Neill hailed from St. Johns, New Brunswick but came to America because he could run and play ball. His claim to fame was being a regular outfielder on the Hitless Wonders Chicago White Sox in 1906.

He was in New York when he died from tuberculosis, according to his SABR biographer, Bill Nowlin. As alluded to in Nowlin’s essay, O’Neill’s obit didn’t really cover what O’Neill did in the eight years between the end of his baseball days and his death.

“John ‘Tip’ O’Neill,” St. Johns (NB, CAN) Daily Telegraph, July 22, 1920: 4.

1922 Dick Pierson
1929 Rupert Mills
1939 Jack Reis
1941 Ralph Kreitz
1944 Rap Dixon
1955 Joe Shannon
1959 Morrie Arnovich
1964 Bill Schardt
1964 Bill Narleski
1972 Jose Maria Fernandez
1977 Red Longley
1983 Chick Sorrells
1986 Bill Steinecke
1987 Tom Winsett
2000 Jim Suchecki
2010 Jimmy McMath
2022 Bill Burbach
2024 Mel Held
2024 Mike Ferraro

YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!

1906 Brooklyn’s Mal Eason blanks the Cardinals, 2 – 0, without allowing a hit.

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat noted that his 95-minute effort was a lot of simple outs – “The Cardinals didn’t even ‘nearly’ make a hit.” The last batter tapped weakly to Eason for the last out.

Eason struck out five and walked three. Another batter reached on an error. Of the 23 balls put into play nobody made hard contact. Maybe the Cardinals were mailing it in – they were in 7th place with a 32 – 55 record at the end of the day.

“Mal Eason Shuts Out Cardinals Without Semblance of Safe Hit,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 21, 1906: 13.

1944 Brown pitcher Nelson Potter (right) is the first pitcher since the pitch was banned to be suspended (ten days) for throwing a spitball.

It was throught that half the pitchers in baseball did something illegal in throwing the ball toward the plate, but Potter was having his first successful season for a team that usually wasn’t competitive – and had been warned by umpire Cal Hubbard in his game against the Yankees.

Grayson, Harry. “Banished Pitcher Just Unlucky; Half of Pitchers Use Sly Stuff,” Great Falls Tribune (NEA Wire Copy), 01 August 1944: 8.

1958 Jim Bunning, would-be US Senator, blanks the Red Sox, 3 – 0, without allowing a hit.

Bunning fanned twelve, walked Gene Stephens twice, and plunked Jackie Jensen. (Oddly, the #2 hitter, Pete Runnells, left with an injury after running out a grounder. In Bill Singer’s gem (below), Oscar Gamble was batting second when he had to leave after running out a grounder.)

Bunning, a Tiger in 1958, would throw a perfect game with the Phillies six years later – the first to throw a no-hitter in both leagues.

1970 Dodger starter Bill Singer fires a no-hitter to top the Phillies, 5 – 0.

Singer fought through injuries in 1970 – missing two months from mid-April to mid-June. When he came back, it took him a few starts to find his consistency before he hit a solid stretch in July. He pitched four straight complete games with good strikeout numbers. In the middle of that stretch, Singer threw his gem. He fanned ten, hit one batter (Oscar Gamble in the first inning), and one other (Don Money) reached on an error. In fact, both Dodger errors that day were committed by Singer.

1976 Hank Aaron takes Dick Drago deep to left for his final MLB homer – #755 – against the Angels.

Aaron appeared in 23 games over the last two-plus months of the season, but his batting average fell off and, for some reason, he drew a large number of walks in those games.

TRANSACTION WIRE:

1907 The Giants purchase Larry Doyle from Springfield in the Three I League for $4,500.

What made this interesting was that a month later, the Giants could have drafted him – but they didn’t want to wait.

Apparently the check itself was big news and, at the same time, thought to be a hoax. A “picture” of the check was duplicated and sold for a nickel each. Later, NL President Harry Pulliam confirmed the price and validity of the deal.

“The Famous Larry Doyle Check,” Decatur Herald and Review, 30 August 1907: 3.

Also, the deal certainly happened a couple of days earlier, as it made the front page of the Streator (IL) Free Press on 18 July 1907. Maybe it wasn’t reported to the league until the 20th.

1916 New York sends Christy Mathewson, Edd Roush and Bill McKechnie to the Reds for Buck Herzog and Red Killefer. Matty wanted to manage, so McGraw let him go.

1961 The Mets signed amateur outfielder Paul Blair.

2012 Houston sends J.A. Happ, Brandon Lyon, and David Carpenter to Toronto for Francisco Cordero, Ben Francisco, Joe Musgrove, Carlos Perez, David Rollins, Asher Wojchiechowski and (later) Kevin Comer.