TODAY IN BASEBALL courtesy of National Pastime
1944 – Six weeks shy of his 16th birthday, Joe Nuxhall becomes the youngest person to play in a Major League contest in this century. After being called in the ninth inning into a 13-0 rout by the Cardinals at Crosley Field, the 15 year-old high school southpaw, who will stay in the Reds organization for over sixty years, becoming best known as the voice for the team’s radio broadcasts, retires the first batter he faces, but is unable to get out of the inning, yielding five walks, two hits, one wild pitch and five runs.
1972 – Henry Aaron passes Willie Mays into second place on the all-time home run list. The Braves outfielder connects for a grand slam, his 14th, to tie Gil Hodges’ National League mark, against the Phillies for his 649th career homer, 65 shy of Babe Ruth’s total.
2002 – In front of 45,698 fans at Yankee Stadium, Marcus Thames becomes the 17th player in history to hit a home run on the first pitch he sees in the Major Leagues. The New York rookie, who hit his two-run dinger off four-time Cy Young winner Diamondback southpaw Randy Johnson, joins John Miller (1966) as only the second Yankee to homer in his first at bat.
And finally…in 2010, White Sox third baseman Omar Vizquel, who made his Major League debut in 1989, becomes the fourth player to hit a home run in four different decades when he goes deep off Max Scherzer in the first inning of the team’s 3-0 victory over Detroit at U.S. Cellular Field. The 43 year-old Venezuelan infielder joins Ted Williams (1939-1960), Willie McCovey (1959-1980), and Rickey Henderson (1979-2003) on the a short list of big leaguers who have accomplished the rare feat.
PLAYERS BORN TODAY
Ken Singleton (1947), Floyd Bannister (1955), Pokey Reese (1973) and Al Albuquerque (1986)
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