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Happy birthday to Neil Ramirez, and a mighty host of others.
Today in baseball history, in 2002 – With four homers on May 23rd, one on May 24th, and two more today, Shawn Green becomes the first major leaguer to hit seven round-trippers in three games. The Dodgers outfielder’s nine big flies in a week also breaks a National League record, established by Ralph Kiner with eight and tied by Ted Kluszewski and Nate Colbert. In this game, Diamondbacks southpaw Randy
Johnson passes Walter Johnson to become seventh on the all-time career strikeout list with his 3,509th. After fanning Green in the 1st to catch the “Big Train”, Dodgers outfielder Brian Jordan swings and misses a 2-2 pitch in the 2nd inning to become the “Big Unit’s” historic victim — and other stories as well.
Today in baseball history:
- 1922 – After being thrown out at second base trying to stretch a single, New York’s Babe Ruth throws dirt in the face of umpire George Hildebrand and then goes after a fan. Ruth is ejected, and eventually fined $500 and suspended one game by American League president Ban Johnson. The Babe is also stripped of his captaincy, a title he has held for barely a week.
- 1923 – Crossing the plate for the 1,741st time, Ty Cobb surpasses Honus Wagner‘s record for most runs scored in a career. The “Georgia Peach” will tally 2,245 runs during his 24-year tenure in the major leagues, a mark which will not be equaled until 2001, when Rickey Henderson breaks the record.
- 1935 – Babe Ruth shows flashes of his past glory by hitting the final three home runs of his career in the Boston Braves’ 11-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. In addition, his final homer is the first in Forbes Field‘s history to clear its right field roof.
- 1951 – Willie Mays debuts for the New York Giants, striking out in the 1st inning against Bubba Church. Mays goes 0 for 5, but makes three good plays in the field.
- 1958 – In a doubleheader sweep by the Pirates at Forbes Field, the Giants’ Willie Mays acts as a peace-maker, preventing a berserk Orlando Cepeda from causing havoc with a bat during a bench-clearing brawl in the opener. The melee results from lingering bad feelings between the two teams after an exchange of beanballs in an earlier game on May 7th, and breaks out with P Ruben Gomez batting for the Giants. Mays tackles the bigger Cepeda, rushing to the defense of his countryman, and pins him down until things calm down.
- 1981 – Carl Yastrzemski becomes just the fourth player ever to appear in 3,000 games.
- 1982 – Ferguson Jenkins of the Chicago Cubs fans Garry Templeton of the Padres for the 3,000th strikeout of his career. Jenkins is the seventh player to reach the plateau, but loses the game, 2-1.
- 1984 – The Boston Red Sox trade Dennis Eckersley and Mike Brumley to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for Bill Buckner.
- 1989 – The Montreal Expos, hoping to add the last piece to a playoff contender, trade three young pitchers, Brian Holman, Gene Harris, and 6′ 10″ Randy Johnson, to the Seattle Mariners for Mark Langston. Mike Campbell will go to Montreal in July to complete the trade, but he will never appear in a game for them. Langston will win 12 games for the Expos, Johnson 130 for Seattle on his way to the Hall of Fame.
- 2009 – The Pirates beat the Cubs, 10-8. Freddy Sanchez goes 6 for 6 with four runs, three RBI, a double and a homer, the first Pirate in 19 years to have six hits in a game. Jason Jaramillo and Andy LaRoche each go 3 for 5.
- 2009 – Jim Thome passes Mike Schmidt for 13th on the all-time home run list, as the White Sox thump the Angels, 17-3.
Cubs Birthdays: Neil Ramírez*, Brad Snyder, Scott Hairston, Randall Simon, Todd Walker, Angel Echevarria, Jim Marshall, Bob Wicker. Also notable: Martín Dihigo HOF.
Today in history:
- 1721 – John Copson becomes America’s 1st insurance agent.
- 1787 – Constitutional convention opens at Philadelphia, George Washington presiding.
- 1842 – Christian Doppler presents his idea, now known as the Doppler Effect (through the changing colors of binary stars), to the Royal Bohemian Society, Prague.
- 1927 – Henry Ford announces that he is ending production of the Model T Ford.
- 1935 – Legendary American athlete Jesse Owens equals or breaks four world records in 45 minutes at a Big Ten meet at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan; remembered as “the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport”.
- 1965 – Muhammad Ali KOs Sonny Liston at 2:12 of round 1 at Central Maine Civic Center, Lewiston to retain his WBC/WBA heavyweight boxing title.
- 2013 – Yuichiro Miura of Japan becomes the oldest person to climb Mount Everest at 80.
Today in Music History:
- 1962 – Wand Records releases The Isley Brothers’ cover single “Twist & Shout”; it becomes their first top-20 hit, peaking at #1.
- 1965 – Dave Davies of The Kinks knocked unconscious in an on stage scuffle with drummer Mick Avory at Cardiff’s Capital Theatre.
- 1967 – John Lennon takes delivery of his psychedelically painted Rolls Royce.
- 1968 – Rolling Stones release song “Jumping Jack Flash”.
- 1973 – George Harrison releases single “Give Me Love” in UK
- 1979 – RCA releases David Bowie‘s 13th studio album, “Lodger”; his third collaboration with Brian Eno in what becomes known as his ‘Berlin trilogy’ features contributions from guitarist Adrian Belew.
*pictured
