TODAY IN BASEBALL courtesy of National Pastime
1951 – After starting his career 0-for-12, Giants rookie Willie Mays gets his first hit, a 450-foot homer off Braves left-hander Warren Spahn. Ironically, it is the first of 18 home runs the ‘Say Hey Kid’ will hit off the Hall of Fame hurler, the most he will hit off any one pitcher.
1980 – Lotte Orions outfielder Isao Harimoto, who began his professional career in 1959 with the Toei Flyers, is the first player to collect 3000 hits in Japan when he homers to right field in a game played against the Hankyu Braves at Tokyo’s Kawasaki Stadium. The former Pacific League Rookie of the Year, using a combination of both power and speed, will compile 3085 hits during his 23-year career to establish a Nippon Professional Baseball record.
2004 – Matt Clement becomes the twenty-first big league pitcher, and the first Cubs’ hurler in over a century, to hit three batters in one inning. The right-hander ties a major league record when he plunks Bobby Hill, Jason Kendall and Craig Wilson in the fifth inning of a 5-4 loss in the first game of a doubleheader against Pittsburgh at PNC Park.
And finally…in 2006, at AT&T Park, Barry Bonds passes Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list, taking sole possession of second place when he hits the 715th homer of his 21-year big league career. The historic homer, which comes off a 90-mph fastball thrown by Byung-Hyum Kim of the Rockies, makes the Giants outfielder the most prolific left-handed slugger in baseball history.
PLAYERS BORN TODAY
Jim Thorpe (1887), Kirk Gibson (1957), Steve Jeltz (1959) and Craig Kimbrel (1988)
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