On this day in Yankee history...
1980: Chien-Ming Wang is born.
1995: The longest strike action in
American professional sports history ends ~ in a courtroom. A U.S. District court order
handed down by future SCOTUS justice Sonia Sotomayor forbids owners from
implementing new financial working conditions in the wake of the
impasse in negotiations. The court decides that conditions will revert
to the old rules from
the previous season. Because of the timing of the court order, 18 games
will have to be trimmed from the major league schedule.
2011: The Yankees have a successful opening, beating Detroit 6-3 at home. Curtis Granderson, whose
health was a concern before the start of the game because of a strained
right oblique muscle, makes a diving catch of a line drive hit by Will Rhymes in the 1st, then breaks a 3-3 tie with a solo homer off Phil Coke in the 7th. Mark Teixera had earlier hit a three-run blast to tie the score in the 3rd. New Yankee starting catcher Russell Martin scores twice in his debut in pinstripes as Joba Chamberlain picks up the win and Mariano Rivera the save.
On this day in Yankee history...
1955: The Yankees
sell pitcher Ewell Blackwell to the Kansas City A's. Blackwell, who was
injured in 1954, will pitch in only two games for the Athletics this
season before retiring.
2001: Dwight Gooden announces
his retirement. A four-time All-Star and Cy Young Award winner, Gooden
posted a 194-112 record with a 3.51 ERA and 2293 strikeouts over a
16-season career.
2013: 'Bullet' Bob Turley dies at the age of 82.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Bob_Turley
On this day in Yankee history...
1966: Former Yankee relief ace Wilcy Moore dies at the age of 65.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Wilcy_Moore
1975: The
Yankees release Mel Stottlemyre, who is suffering from a torn rotator
cuff. The pitcher compiled a 164-139 record and a 2.97 ERA as well as 40
shutouts in an eleven-season major league career, all with New York.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Mel_Stottlemyre
1984:
The Yankees trade one of the key members of their '70s World
Championship teams when they dispatch Graig Nettles to the San Diego
Padres for pitcher Dennis Rasmussen and a player to be named later.
Nettles, who angered George Steinbrenner by criticizing him in his book
'Balls', will hit 20 home runs and help the Padres reach the 1984 World
Series.
On this day in Yankee history...
1919: Vic Raschi is born.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/raschvi01.shtml
1927: In
a final exhibition game between the previous World Series' opponents,
the Yankees score four runs in the 1st inning off Grover Cleveland
Alexander and the Cardinals. Then, Alexander shuts down the Yankees
until leaving in the 8th, and
the Cardinals score two in the 9th to win 6-4. Both teams use their
regular lineups ~ the only teams to make no starting changes from last
year's teams. The four runs off Alexander are the first the 40-year-old
veteran has allowed in 15 innings of spring training work.
1961:
In their first meeting since Pittsburgh's dramatic World Series win
over New York, the Bucs, behind would-be World Series goat Bob Friend,
beat up the banged-up Bombers 9-2. The game's first run comes in the
bottom of the 2nd on Roberto Clemente's bases-empty bomb over the
left-field fence. Pittsburgh go up 3-0 in the 3rd on Dick Stuart's
two-run shot, likewise to left field. By the 7th, the Bucs have built
their lead to 8-0 before the Yankees can push across their initial
tally.
Today's win boosts the Bucs' Grapefruit League-leading record to 13-5,
while miring New York ever more deeply in the pre-season cellar.
1970: In this first (and last?) 'Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial All-Star Baseball Classic', with
all proceeds going to the late Dr. King's Southern Christian Leadership
Conference and a memorial center planned for Atlanta, the East, managed
by Joe DiMaggio, scores a 5-1 victory over the West. The losers are skippered by ex-Dodger Roy Campanella, confined to a wheelchair since a 1958 auto accident, A crowd of 31,694 watches the charity event at Dodger Stadium.
1988: The Yankees waive knuckleballer Phil Niekro four days shy of his 47th birthday.
2003: Three days prior to Opening Day, the YES Network claims Cablevision has
pulled out of a proposed deal signed 17 days ago which would have
provided televised Yankees games to nearly three million cable
subscribers in the New York City metropolitan area. According to a YES
press release, the giant cable television company failed to sign a
finalized version of the hand-written document that both parties
exchanged on March 12th, but Cablevision president, James L. Dolan, said when YES sent him a revised typewritten draft on two days later, the document contained alterations that he found unacceptable.
