TODAY IN BASEBALL: June 17

june 17

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TODAY IN BASEBALL courtesy of National Pastime

1960 – Ted Williams becomes the fourth major leaguer to hit 500 career home runs when he goes deep off Tribe’s moundsman Wayne Hawkins. ‘Teddy Ballgame’s’ two-run blast proves to be difference when the Red Sox beat the Indians at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium, 3-1.

2004 – At New Hampshire’s Holman Stadium, the Nashua Pride of the independent Atlantic League celebrate the 32nd anniversary of the Watergate break-in by giving away Richard Nixon bobbleheads to the first 1,000 fans in attendance. The minor league promotion, which included free entrance to anyone named Woodward or Bernstein and 18 1/2 minutes of silence to match the time of the gap in the infamous Watergate tape, had no reports of stolen signs during the game.

2007 – At the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Blue Jay Frank Thomas strokes his record-setting 244th round-tripper as a designated hitter in a 4-2 loss to Washington. The third-inning solo shot off Micah Bowie moves the 39-year-old veteran past Edgar Martinez for the most home runs hit by a DH in major league history.

And finally…in 2009, at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Astros catcher Ivan Rodríguez passes Carlton Fisk for the most games caught in a career when he makes his 2,227th appearance behind the plate. The veteran backstop, also known as Pudge, establishes the mark against the Rangers, the team he broke in with as a 19 year-old in 1991.

PLAYERS BORN TODAY

Pete Browning (1861), Dave Concepcion (1948), Joe Charboneau (1955) and Shawn Abner (1966)

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