This Week in Baseball History

This Week in Baseball History

1961 - U.S. President John F. Kennedy threw out the first pitch at Griffith Stadium. The Senators lost to the Chicago White Sox, 4-3 

            -The Washington Senators were established as a franchise the same year and became the Texas  Rangers in 1972.  However, the original Senators [of the original 8 of the American League] moved to Minnesota [to become the Twins] in 1960, subsequently a new Senators franchise was established the next year.

1969 - Bill Singer of the Dodgers is credited with the first official save as Los Angeles defeats Cincinnati, 3-2.

            -Singer pitched a three inning shutout in relief of Don Drysdale on Opening Day. It is the first save statistic to be noted by the MLB, but the term save [as well as relievers] was used as far back as 1952.

1974-In the home opener in Atlanta Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth's home run record when Aaron connected off of Al Downing [of Los Angeles] in the fourth inning to hit his 715th home run.

            -On July 20, 1976 Aaron hit his 755th [and final homerun]  at Milwaukee County Stadium, which stood until 2007 when it was broken by Barry Bonds.  He also holds the record for most RBIs [2,297], most career extra base hits [1,477], and most career total bases [6,856].

1975-Frank Robinson, the first black manager in the majors, debuts as player-manager for the Cleveland Indians. Robinson hits a home run in his first at-bat — as a designated hitter — to help beat the New York Yankees 5-3.

            -In addition to being the first black manager of the American league, he also became of the first black manager in the National League, upon joining the Giants. He was Manager of the year in 1989 and rather than relying on statistics to determine his lineup he is have said to use his gut.   

1986 - On Opening Day at Tiger Stadium, Boston's Dwight Evans achieves a major league first by hitting a home run off Jack Morris on the first pitch of the entire season. Detroit's Kirk Gibson later hits two home runs of his own to lead the Tigers to a 6-5 victory.

            -Morris would finish the year with 21 wins [but flew under the radar of cy young winner Roger Clemens]  Morris also had 162 wins in the 80s, the most by any pitcher during the decade

1998 - On the same day that major league baseball returned to Wisconsin 28 years earlier, National League baseball returned to Milwaukee for the first time in 32 years. It's a complicated story with a happy ending: The Milwaukee Braves were an N.L. team that moved to Atlanta in 1966 the Seattle Pilots, who formed as an A.L. West expansion team in 1969, moved to Milwaukee and played their first game as the Brewers on April 7, 1970. Five years after their team owner became commissioner of baseball, the Brewers became an N.L. club. And on this day they were 6-4 winners over the Expos in their home opener.

[This is the 1998 Brewers logo] 

            -The Brewers finished the season second to last in the NL central with a record of 74-88, and weren't the first team asked if they wished to be a part of the NL expansion

2000 - Ken Griffey Jr. became the youngest player in baseball history to reach 400 home runs. He was 30 years, 141 days old. 

            -His 630 career home runs ranks 6th in MLB history, he is tied for the most consecutive games with a home run [at 8 with Don Mattingly and Dale Long] and won 10 golden gloves over his career