TODAY IN BASEBALL courtesy of National Pastime
1905 – With the Giants leading the Superbas, 11-1, Archibald ‘Moonlight’ Graham makes his major league debut in the bottom of the eighth inning as a defensive replacement in right field at Brooklyn’s Washington Park. The career minor leaguer, who will not have a major league at-bat in his only appearance in the big leagues, will become immortalized by W.P. Kinsella’s book “Shoeless Joe” and the movie based on the author’s work, “Field of Dreams.”
1990 – For the first time since 1917 (Hippo Vaughan and Fred Toney), two no-hitters are thrown on the same day when the A’s Dave Stewart shuts out the Jays 5-0 and the Dodgers’ Fernando Valenzuela blanks the Cardinals, 6-0.
2004 – At Bank One Ballpark, Diamondbacks’ 40 year-old fireballer Randy Johnson records his 4000th career strikeout, whiffing Padres’ third baseman Jeff Cirillo, a fellow USC Trojan, to become the fourth player in major league baseball history to reach the plateau. The ‘Big Unit’ (3,237 1/3) needs less innings than Nolan Ryan (3,844 2/3), Roger Clemens (4,151), and Steve Carlton (4,991 1/3) to accomplish the feat.
And finally…in 2005, Craig Biggio breaks Don Baylor’s record for being hit by a pitch when he is plunked for the 268th time in his career. At Coors Field, Rockies starter Byung-Hyun Kim hits the Astros’ second baseman on the left elbow in the fourth inning to establish a new mark, both literally and figuratively.
PLAYERS BORN TODAY
Wilbert Robertson (1864), Harmon Killebrew (1936), Rick Honeycutt (1954) and Pedro Guerrero (1956)
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