On this day in Yankee history...
1872: Willie Keeler is born in Brooklyn. A
remarkable hitter, 'Wee Willie' will hit over .300 16 times in 19
seasons (7 of them with the NY Highlanders, his longest stint with any
one club), hit over .400 once, and will finish with a .341 career BA,
currently 14th on the all-time list. He will be elected to the Hall of
Fame in 1939.
1980: Jerry Priddy, a utility infielder for the 1941 championship team, dies in Los Angeles at the age of 60.
1987: Jay Bruce is born.
1998: The Yankees offer the San Diego Padres a choice of one from a list of players for the negotiating rights to Japanese pitcher Hideki Irabu. The list includes Brian Boehringer, David Weathers, Chris Cumberland, Andy Fox and Matt Luke. The Yankees also offer one player from a list of five minor leaguers,
plus $3 million. The Padres are talking to several other teams beside
the Yankees.
On this day in Yankee history...
1918: The Yankees purchase first baseman 'Tioga' George Burns from the Tigers and immediately trade him to the Philadelphia A's for Ping Bodie.
1931:
At Engel Stadium in Chattanooga, TN, Miss Jackie Mitchell strikes out
Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game. The 17-year-old girl, a
member of the Chattanooga Lookouts roster, also walks Tony Lazzeri in
the local lub's 14-4 loss to the Yankees. In 1933, Mitchell will pitch
for the House of David team.
1957: Hank Steinbrenner is born.
1997: Tino Martinez leads the Yankees to a 16-2 romp over the Mariners at the Kingdome.
The former M's first baseman hits three home runs ~ a solo job, a
two-run dinger and a three-run shot. With the game out of reach and the
crowd chanting his name, he has two opportunities to hit a grand slam,
but fails to become the first player to hit home runs for the cycle. He
ends the game going 4 for 6 with seven RBI, a walk and five runs scored.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1997/B04020SEA1997.htm
2001: On
Opening Day, Roger Clemens becomes the all-time American League career
strikeout leader, passing Walter Johnson. Royals infielder Joe Randa is
his 3,509th victim. Passing Johnson, Clemens now takes over the seventh
spot in major league history.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2001/B04020NYA2001.htm
2003: Todd Zeile hits
a home run in his first at-bat for the Yankees, becoming the only major
leaguer to hit round tripper for ten different
teams. In addition to homering with the Yankees, Zeile had also gone
deep for the Cardinals, Cubs, Phillies, Orioles, Dodgers, Marlins,
Rangers, Mets and Rockies. He will add the Montreal Expos to the list
before the end of the year.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2003/B04020TOR2003.htm
On this day in Yankee history...
1939: Phil Niekro is born.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Phil_Niekro
2001:
Andy Pettitte breezes to a win as the Yankees rout the Blue Jays in
Toronto 10-1 for their first April Fools Day victory in franchise
history.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2003/B04010TOR2003.htm
2008: The Yankees set
a major league record by winning their 11th straight home opener.
Oddly, the record had been held by the 1945-54 Pittsburgh Pirates, a club which lost 100 or more games three times in that period. The Yankees beat the Blue Jays 3-2. Chien-MingWang allows
two runs in 7 innings for the win over Roy Halladay. Derek Jeter also
sets a record by starting his 12th consecutive Yankee opener at
shortstop, surpassing the mark held previously by Phil Rizzuto.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2008/B04010NYA2008.htm
2014: The Yankees and the Astros are the last two teams to open their season, meeting before a crowd of 42,117 at Minute Maid Park. The
game does not follow the expected script as the Astros, coming off
three straight 100-loss season and having lost their last 15 games in
2013, defeat the Bronx Bombers 6-2. Scott Feldman pitches 6 2/3 scoreless innings, while Jesus Guzman and L.J. Hoes homer against Yankee starter C.C. Sabathia.
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2014/04012014.htm
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.
