HOVG REWIND: May 21, 2016

TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY courtesy of National Pastime

1952 – Joe Nuxhall, best known for signing with Cincinnati in 1944 after attaining the permission of his parents and high school principal, returns to the Reds seven years after pitching two-thirds of an inning in his major league debut as a 15 year-old. The southpaw gives ups just one hit in the final three frames of the team’s 19-1 loss to Brooklyn at Ebbets Field.

1992 – Manager Buck Rodgers and eleven others are injured when the Angels’ team bus goes out of control on the New Jersey Turnpike and crashes into trees. The 53 year-old skipper is seriously injured and will miss nearly 90 games.

2012 – Cincinnati fan Caleb Lloyd catches both home run balls hit in consecutive at-bats, just three pitches apart, by starter Mike Leake and shortstop Zack Cozart during the fourth inning of the Reds’ 4-1 victory over Atlanta at Great American Ball Park. The 20 year-old Thomas More College junior keeps neither as he gives the infielder’s ball to Nick Rise, a friend who had help get the tickets to the game, and, at the request of the Reds, gives the pitcher, who hit his first career round-tripper, the other in exchange for a tour of the Reds’ clubhouse and an autographed bat and ball signed by the grateful hurler.

And finally…in 2013, Mike Trout becomes the youngest player in American League history to hit for the cycle when he goes 4-for-5 in the Angels’ 12-0 rout of the Mariners. The 21 year-old ‘Millville Meteor’ beats out an infield single in the third, triples in the fourth, doubles in the sixth and goes deep in the eighth, becoming the sixth player in franchise history to accomplish the feat.

STAT OF THE DAY provided by @HighHeatStats

30 years ago today, Rafael Ramirez hit four doubles, his only game with more than three extra-base hits. The only Braves to do it since are Marcus Giles (2003) and Adam LaRoche (2004).

PLAYERS BORN TODAY

Earl Averill (1902), Bobby Cox (1941), Kent Hrbek (1960) and Josh Hamilton (1981)