May 25, 2013

On this day in Baseball History...

• 1906 - Jesse Tannehill snaps the Boston Pilgrims' 20-game losing streak (19 at home, both A.L. records) with a 3-0 win over the White Sox. Both Boston teams will finish last, while both Chicago teams finish first. It's the first time two cities have had two winners and two cellar-dwellers.

• 1919 - Ever-popular Casey Stengel, now a Pirate, is good-naturedly applauded when he comes to bat in the seventh inning at Brooklyn. He doffs his cap in response and, to everyone's delight, releases a sparrow he had hidden there.

• 1922 - Babe Ruth is suspended one day and fined $200 for throwing dirt on an ump after being called out on a play at second base, then going into the stands after a heckler. He is also stripped of his title as team captain.

• 1935 - Babe Ruth has a last hurrah, hitting three home runs at Pittsburgh. The final one, the last of his 714 career home runs, is the first to clear the right field grandstand at Forbes Field and is measured at 600 feet.

• 1941 - Ted Williams raises his batting average over .400 for the first time during the season. His run to be the first since Bill Terry in 1930 to exceed the magic number will be marked in newspapers throughout the season, although it will often give way to the batting streak by Joe DiMaggio.

• 1951 - Giants rookie Willie Mays, who was hitting .477 with Minneapolis, goes 0-for-5 in his major league debut against the Phils.

• 1960 - George Crowe's major league-record 11th pinch-hit home run, off Don McMahon, gives the Cardinals a 5-3 win over the Braves. Crowe began the season tied with Smoky Burgess and Gus Zernial in career pinch home runs.

• 1975 - Cleveland's Dennis Eckersley, in his first major league start, hurls a three-hit shutout in beating Oakland 6-0.

• 1981 - Carl Yastrzemski plays in his 3,000th major league game, scoring the winning run in Boston's 8-7 triumph over Cleveland. Yaz joins Ty Cobb, Stan Musial, and Hank Aaron as the only major leaguers to appear in 3,000 games.