HOVG REWIND: April 17, 2016

TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY courtesy of National Pastime

1956 – Luis Aparicio, Don Drysdale and Frank Robinson play in their first Major League games, respectively, for the White Sox, Dodgers and Reds. It marks the first time that three future Hall of Famers have debuted on the same day.

2001 – Barry Bonds becomes the 17th major leaguer, as well as the fourth Giant, to join the 500 home run club as he hits a Terry Adams’ 2-0 heater into McCovey Cove at Pac Bell Park. The San Francisco left-fielder is joined at home plate by two other members of the elite fraternity, Willie Mays (660) and Willie McCovey (521) for a brief ceremony.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLEuFxohTeg] 2009 – At Citi Field, Gary Sheffield becomes the 25th player to hit 500 career home runs. Joining Ty Cobb and Rusty Staub as the only major leaguers to homer as a teen-ager and as a forty year-old, the recently released Tiger DH becomes the first to reach the milestone as a pinch hitter and the first to accomplish the feat in a Mets uniform.

And finally…in 2012, throwing seven strong innings in the Rockies’ 5-3 victory over San Diego, Jamie Moyer becomes the oldest pitcher to win a major league contest. The 49-year, 150 day old southpaw surpasses Brooklyn’s Jack Quinn, who was almost three months younger when he got the victory pitching five frames in relief against St. Louis in 1932.

STAT OF THE DAY provided by @HighHeatStats

40 years ago today, Mike Schmidt hit 4 homers in a game vs the Cubs. Schmidt is probably the only third baseman to do it (though Ed Delahanty might have been playing 3rd when he hit 4 inside-the-park homers on July 13, 1896). For the Phillies, Schmidt, Delahanty, and Chuck Klein all had 4-homer games. They are the only franchise in MLB history with more than one player to achieve the feat.

PLAYERS BORN TODAY

Alexander Cartwright (1820), Cap Anson (1852), Jake Daubert (1884), Marquis Grissom (1967) and Dan Jennings (1987)

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