HOVG REWIND: July 20, 2016

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TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY courtesy of National Pastime

1976 – Hank Aaron hit his last big league homer off Angels’ hurler Dick Drago en route to a 6-2 Brewers’ win. The round tripper is ‘Hammerin’ Hank’s’ 755th and establishes the all-time major league record for career home runs.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS8tIOQD1cQ]

1976 – Mark Fidrych throws his twelfth complete game in his 13th start of the season, a streak that includes three 11-inning contests. The 21 year-old Tiger rookie right-hander from Massachusetts gives up ten hits, defeating Minnesota at Metropolitan Stadium, 8-3.

1987 – Don Mattingly ties a major league mark when he is credited with 22 putouts in the Yankees’ 7-1 victory in the Metrodome. ‘Donnie Baseball’ matches the one-game record established in 1906 by Hal Chase, another Bronx Bomber first sacker

And finally…in 2011, Hideki Matsui, leading off the sixth inning in Oakland’s 7-5 victory in Detroit, hits his 500th career home run. The Japanese native went yard 332 times for the Yomiuri Giants before collecting another 168 round-trippers since 2003 playing with the Yankees, Angels, and A’s.

PLAYERS BORN TODAY

Heinie Manush (1901), Tony Oliva (1938), Mike Witt (1960) and Stephen Strasburg (1988)

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