What is the story about?
Free
of charge for the discerning reader. Charlie Lau passes, and other stories. Welcome to the Tokyo Dome.
Today in baseball history:
- 1886 – The New York State League admits clubs from Buffalo, Toronto and Hamilton. The inclusion of the Canadian teams causes the league to change its name to the International League.
- 1942 – Two black players, Jackie Robinson and Nate Moreland, request a tryout with the Chicago White Sox during spring training in Pasadena, California. Sox manager Jimmie Dykes allows the two to work out but later dismisses them. Robinson will have to wait five years before making his major league debut.
- 1943 – Due to wartime travel restrictions, spring training camps begin opening in northern locations. Some of the locales include Bear Mountain, New York (Brooklyn Dodgers), French Lick Springs, Indiana (Cubs and White Sox), Asbury Park, New Jersey (Yankees), Medford, Massachusetts (Boston Red Sox) and Wallingford, Connecticut (Boston Braves).
- 1953 – The Milwaukee Braves become the first franchise to move since 1903, when the Baltimore Orioles became the New York Highlanders. The Braves have been in Boston, MA for 77 years. In a related move, the minor league Milwaukee Brewers move to Toledo, Ohio, where they become the latest incarnation of the Toledo Mud Hens.
- 1970 – The Cleveland Indians and Seattle Pilots play an exhibition game with the experimental X-5 ball, which is reported to be five per cent livelier than a regulation ball. The Pilots beat the Indians, 19-14. One week later, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn orders the livelier ball to be discontinued.
- 1984 – Charlie Lau, renowned batting instructor, dies in Key Colony Beach, FL, at age 50 after a long bout with cancer. Lau, whose major league career batting average was .255, earned his fame as the Kansas City Royals batting coach from 1971 to 1978, where his star pupil was George Brett. Lau also served as a batting coach for the Baltimore Orioles, Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox and wrote a book called The Art of Hitting .300.
- 1985 – Commissioner Peter Ueberroth reinstates Hall of Fame members Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, who had been banned from association with organized baseball by former commissioner Bowie Kuhn due to their employment by Atlantic City casinos. Ueberroth’s ruling will allow both men to pursue employment with major league teams.
- 1990 – Major league players and owners reach a new collective bargaining agreement that will end the 32-day lockout of spring training camps. Highlights of the deal include increasing the clubs’ contributions to the players’ pension fund, raising the major league minimum salary to $100,000, and a compromise on salary arbitration that leaves 17 percent of players with between two and three years of major league experience eligible.
- 2009 – The Chicago Cubs announce that they will retire number 31 on May 3rd in honor of Ferguson Jenkins and Greg Maddux.
- 2025 – The first game of the 2025 MLB season features the Cubs playing the Dodgers at the Tokyo Dome, with both teams starting a Japanese pitcher – Shota Imanaga* for Chicago and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for Los Angeles. Both pitchers do well, but it’s Shohei Ohtani who plays local hero with two hits and two runs to lead the Dodgers to a 4-1 win.
Cubs Birthdays: Jimmy Callahan, Hiram Bithorn, Dick Littlefield, Fernando Rodney, Trey Mancini.
Today in history:
- 37 – Roman Senate annuls Tiberius’ will and proclaims Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (aka Caligula = Little Boots) emperor.
- 1314 – Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake by King Philip IV of France.
- 1662 – First public bus service begins, promoted by Blaise Pascal, operates in Paris as the “Carosses a Cinq Sous” until 1675.
- 1881 – Barnum & Bailey Circus, traveling as “The Greatest Show on Earth”, debuts at Madison Square Garden in New York City following the merger of two existing circus groups.
- 1965 – Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov leaves his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes and becomes the first person to conduct a spacewalk.
*pictured.
