May 4
1869 — Henry Chadwick published his first annual baseball handbook. The book eventually evolved into Spalding’s Official Baseball Guide.
1869 — The Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first all-professional team, played its first regular season game and beat the Great Westerns of Cincinnati 45-9.
1871 — The Fort Wayne Kekiongas beat the Cleveland Forest Citys, 2-0, in the first game played in the National Association. In the 127 games during the 1871 season, there were a total of four shutouts.
1910 — The Browns and Cardinals played home games in St. Louis, and President Taft, not wanting to offend either club, saw parts of each game at Robinson Field and Sportsman’s Park.
1931 — In an effort to put less strain on his leg, Babe Ruth plays first base as Lou Gehrig moves to right field.
1939 — Boston rookie Ted Williams became the first player to hit a home run that cleared the right field seats at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. It was his first at-bat at Detroit. The Red Sox edged the Tigers 7-6.
1944 — Blacks were allowed to buy grandstand seats for the first time in St. Louis history. St. Louis was the last of the major league clubs to integrate seating. Negroes had been restricted to the bleachers.
1963 — Bob Shaw of the Milwaukee Braves sets a major league record by committing five balks.
1966 — Willie Mays broke the National League record with the 512th home run of his career in a 6-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Candlestick Park. Mays passed another Giant, breaking the mark established by Mel Ott in 1946.
1969 — The Houston Astros set an NL record by turning seven double plays against the San Francisco Giants. First baseman Curt Blefary participated in all seven.
1975 — Bob Watson of the Houston Astros, sensing baseball history, raced around the bases on Milt May’s home run and crossed the plate at Candlestick Park in time to score major league baseball’s 1 millionth run, seconds ahead of Dave Concepcion of Cincinnati.
1980 — Chicago White Sox first baseman Mike Squires caught the final inning of an 11-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. He was the first left-handed catcher to play in major league baseball since Dale Long in 1958.
1981 — New York Yankees relief pitcher Ron Davis strikes out eight consecutive batters in a 4 – 2 victory over the California Angels at Anaheim Stadium, tying an American League record set by Nolan Ryan.
1987 — Candy Maldonado hit for the cycle to help the San Francisco Giants overcome a six-run deficit and beat the St. Louis Cardinals 10-7.
1991 — Chris James drove in nine runs with two homers and two singles, breaking Cleveland’s club record for RBIs and leading the Indians to a 20-6 victory over the Oakland Athletics.
1996 — The Texas Rangers became the first American League team in 79 years to pitch consecutive one-hitters as Roger Pavlik held Detroit to a fifth-inning home run in a 3-1 win. Ken Hill one-hit Detroit on May 3, retiring the last 26 batters he faced.
2001 — Raul Mondesi of the Blue Jays went 4-for-4, with two homers, two doubles and six RBIs, leading Toronto to an 8-3 victory over Seattle.
2002 — Barry Bonds hits his 400th home run with the San Francisco Giants.
2015 — Toronto Blue Jays hitting coach Brook Jacoby was suspended 14 games for his postgame conduct toward the umpire crew assigned to the April 29 game at Boston. Jacoby was accused of pinning umpire Doug Eddings against a wall in a dugout tunnel at Fenway Park, putting his forearms up near the ump’s neck following Toronto’s loss.
2018 — Dodger Rookie Walker Buehler and a trio of Los Angeles relievers combined for the franchise’s 23rd no-hitter in a 4-0 victory over the San Diego Padres in the opener of a neutral-site series at Monterrey, Mexico. In just his third start in the majors, Buehler went six innings before Tony Cingrani, Yimi Garcia and Adam Liberatore closed it out.
2018 — Los Angeles Angels slugger Albert Pujols got his 3,000th hit, reaching the mark with a broken-bat single in a 5-0 win against Seattle. Pujols joined Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez as the only players in baseball history with 3,000 hits and 600 homers.
2021 — The minor leagues start their season, after having been on hiatus since September of 2019 due to the Coronavirus pandemic. In the interim, the governing structure, Minor League Baseball, has been thoroughly reorganized and in effect replaced by the Professional Development League.
2022 — By pitching 7 innings of one-hit ball, Adam Wainwright gets credit for a 10 – 0 win by the Cardinals over the Royals. It is the 202nd time that the battery of Wainwright and C Yadier Molina have combined on a win, tying the all-time record set by Warren Spahn and Del Crandall of the Boston and Milwaukee Braves.
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