On This Date in Baseball: July 20

1859 - At a racetrack on Long Island, about 1,500 fans become the first ever to pay to see a baseball game. The spectators spend fifty cents to watch New York defeat Brooklyn, 22-18. 50 cents seems pretty pricey for a pre-Civil War game not featuring A-Rod or the Babe.

1938 - Johnny Mize of the Cardinals has three HRs in a game for the second time this season.

1944 - The Browns' Nels Potter becomes the first pitcher suspended for throwing spitballs. He is banished for 10 days for allegedly "putting an illegal substance on the ball." See, cheating and baseball go back a LONG way. By the way, I'm pretty sure this is Harry Potter's grandfather. I can't be sure.

1965 - Mel Stottlemyre Sr. of the Yankees becomes the first pitcher to hit an inside-the-park grand slam since 1910.

1976 - Hank Aaron hits the 755th, and last, home run of his career.

1982 - In the 3rd inning of a 3-1 loss to the Pirates at Riverfront Stadium, a 21-year-old woman jumps to her death from the red seats landing 35 feet below. Her death is ruled a suicide. Why would anyone, aside a Cubs fan, ever commit suicide at a baseball game? It's un-American.

2004 - At Wrigley Field, Albert Pujols goes 5-for-5, including three home runs and five RBIs, as the Cardinals beat Central Division rivals Cubs, 11-8.

What a badass.

On This Date in Baseball: June 8

1969 - New York Yankees' uniform No. 7 was retired on Mickey Mantle Day. A crowd of 60,096 came to Yankee Stadium to honor Mantle and watched New York sweep the Chicago White Sox 3 - 1 and 11 - 2.

1982 - 27 years ago today, the great Satchel Paige died.

On This Date in Baseball: June 4

1940 - The St. Louis Cardinals played their first night game at Sportsman's Park, against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1964 - Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers becomes the fourth major league pitcher to hurl three no-hitters by blanking the Philadelphia Phillies 3 - 0 at home.

On This Date in Baseball: June 1

1925 - Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees pinch-hit for Pee Wee Wanninger, beginning his streak of playing in 2,130 consecutive games. The next day, first baseman Wally Pipp showed up with a headache, and Gehrig took over.

Feliz Cumpleanos Loco Zambrano! You still suck.

On This Date in Baseball: May 5

1935 - At Braves Field, young pitcher Dizzy Dean of the St. Louis Cardinals faced the Boston Braves and 40-year-old veteran Babe Ruth. Dean walked Ruth his first two times up, then with two strikes on the Bambino, Dean waved his outfielders back and threw a fastball down the middle that Ruth missed for a strikeout. Dean won the game, 7 - 0, and in his first at bat, hit a home run over Ruth's head in right field. Dean will face Ruth again on May 19th, holding him hitless again, and winning that game as well.

1999 - At Wrigley Field, the Colorado Rockies became the first team in 35 years and only the third in the 20th century to score in every inning in a 13 - 6 win over the Chicago Cubs. The last time a team scored in all nine innings was also at Chicago, when the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cubs on September 13, 1964. Hmmmm...imagine that. Yet more proof that...

2001 - Sammy Sosa homered and had four RBI, and Julian Tavarez pitched seven solid innings as the Chicago Cubs beat the Dodgers 20 - 1 at Wrigley Field. Chicago scored eight runs in each of the last two innings.

While the Cubs looked good for a night, they still finished behind the Cardinals in the Central Division in 2001 because Jesus hates them.

On This Date in Baseball: May 3

I posted the first one last year, but since it's so significant to the history of the game, it warranted a repeat posting.

1936 - Joe DiMaggio made his major league debut for the New York Yankees and had three hits in a 14 - 5 victory over the St. Louis Browns.

1980 -Willie McCovey of the San Francisco Giants hit his 521th and final career home run. His shot tied him with Ted Williams on the all-time list. McCovey will enter the Hall of Fame in 1986.

1986 - Chicago Cubs third baseman, Ron Cey, hit his 300th and 301st career home runs and Chicago scores four times in the top of the ninth inning to beat the Giants 6 - 5.

The baby bears may have won that game due to "The Penguin's" two home runs, but they still managed to continue their eternal suckitude. With a record of 70-90, they finished 5th in NL East. Once again they languished in mediocrity behind the Cardinals and missed the postseason.

I wonder if Cubs fans looked like this in 1986 too. Boy, I sure hope so.

On This Date in Baseball: April 30

1949 - At Wrigley Field, Rocky Nelson of the St. Louis Cardinals hit an inside-the-glove two-run home run to turn a ninth inning 3 - 2 Chicago Cubs lead into a 4 - 3 Cardinals victory. Cubs center fielder Andy Pafko caught a blooper that was strewn with paper cups, and umpire Al Barlick called Nelson safe on a supposedly "trapped" catch. Pafko started arguing with Barlick, and forgot to call time. Nelson circled the bases, for perhaps the only "inside the glove" home run history.

Oh Cubbies...will you ever not suck?

On This Date in Baseball: April 28

1956 - Cincinnati Redlegs rookie Frank Robinson hits the first of his 586 lifetime home runs at Crosley Field.

1971 - Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves joins Babe Ruth and Willie Mays as the only major league player to hit 600 home runs.

2001 - Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals ties the major league record for home runs in April by a rookie with eight.

2006 - St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols hits his 13th home run in April to tie the major league record, matching the mark shared by Ken Griffey, Jr. in 1997 with Seattle and Luis Gonzalez in 2001 with Arizona.

On This Date in Baseball: April 16

1929 - The New York Yankees are the first team in major league baseball to permanently feature numbers on the backs of their uniforms. The numbers correspond to each player's position in the batting order. The numbers also allow fans and broadcasters to more easily identify the players.

1940 - Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians hurls the first and only Opening Day no-hitter in major league history. Bob Feller, unlike the Cubs, does not, nor did he ever, suck.

1948 - The super station WGN-TV televises a MLB game for the first time. With Jack Brickhouse doing the play-by-play, the White Sox beat the Cubs, 4-1, in the first game of the Windy City Classic played at Wrigley Field. History tells us that the Cubs sucked in 1948 and again in 1958, 1968, 1978, 1988 and...well, you get the picture.

1978 - Bob Forsch of the St. Louis Cardinals no-hit the Philadelphia Phillies, 5 - 0. Less than a year later, his brother Ken, of the Houston Astros, pitched a no-hitter against the Atlanta Braves, making the siblings the only brothers to throw no-hitters in major league baseball.

1997 - The Chicago Cubs set the mark for worst start in National League history, making three more errors as they extended their losing streak to 12 with a 4 - 0 loss to the Colorado Rockies. Chicago broke the modern NL record of 0-10 set by the 1988 Braves and the overall NL record of 0-11 by the 1884 Detroit Wolverines.

Moral of the story: The Cubs still suck.

On This Date in Baseball: April 14

1910 - William Howard Taft becomes the first U.S. President to throw out a ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day.

1955 - Elston Howard becomes the first African-American player in New York Yankees history.

1968 - At the Astrodome, New York Mets pitcher, Nolan Ryan, earns the first of his 324 major league victories.

1998 - Mark McGwire hits three home runs, breaking an eight-game homerless drought, to help the Cardinals 15 - 5 victory over Arizona. After tying Willie Mays' major league record by homering in the first four games of the season, McGwire had not homered since April 4.

On This Date in Baseball

1928 - St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander opens his 18th season by shutting out the Pittsburgh Pirates 5 - 0. Kyle Lohse accomplished the same feat today by shutting out the Houston Astros. Interesting...

1980 - At County Stadium, Cecil Cooper and Don Money of the Milwaukee Brewers each hit second inning grand slams against the Boston Red Sox. Too bad that the Astros (managed by the same Cecil Cooper) couldn't manage more than three singles off of Kyle Lohse today. Interesting...

On This Date in Baseball: April 9

1962 - President John F. Kennedy throws out the first ball to open the 1962 baseball season at new District of Columbia Stadium. Despite rain, a record Washington crowd of 42,143 shows up to see the Senators stop Detroit with a 4 - 1 victory.

1974 - San Diego Padres owner Ray Kroc criticizes his club over the public address system-during a game! "Ladies and gentlemen, I suffer with you," Kroc says. "I've never seen such stupid baseball playing in my life."

In this photo, the San Diego Chicken tries to make out with Ray Kroc as either Ronald McDonald or notorious serial killer, John Wayne Gacy, stalks from over the Chicken's shoulder... Scary.

1981 - In Opening Day, Dodgers rookie pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, in replacement of injured starter Jerry Reuss, shuts out the visiting Astros 2 - 0, on five hits, in his first major league start. Valenzuela goes on to win the NL Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards that year.

Happy Birthday to ESPN baseball guru, Peter Gammons.

On This Date in Baseball: April 4

1974 - Atlanta Braves slugger Hank Aaron blasts a historic three-run home run against Cincinnati Reds pitcher Jack Billingham on Opening Day. The home run is the 714th of Aaron's career, tying him with the legendary Babe Ruth for the most home runs in major league history.

1993 - At Camden Yards, Bill Clinton becomes the first U.S. President to throw the first pitch of the season from the pitcher's mound.

2000 - The St. Louis Cardinals obtain All-Star center fielder Jim Edmonds from the Anaheim Angels in exchange for pitcher Kent Bottenfield and second baseman Adam Kennedy. I miss Edmonds patrolling center field and I threw up repeatedly seeing him in a Cubs uniform. Now, he's just a statistic in the national 8.1% unemployment rate.

Bottenfield sucked once he left and Adam Kennedy sucked worse when he came back to the Cardinals. Now Kennedy is with the Rays. Hope he doesn't suck as bad in Tampa as he did in the STL. Hope? Change? Not likely with this tool.

On This Date in Baseball: March 22

1952 - Robert Quinlan "Bob" Costas born in Queens, New York. Costas' career began as play-by-play announcer for the Spirits of St. Louis of the American Basketball Association, followed by a stint with KMOX radio in St. Louis.

1976 - The California Angels' groundskeeper finds hundreds of marijuana plants growing in the outfield at Anaheim Stadium. The culprits? Most likely rock concert fans who attended a recent performance at the stadium by The Who.

1993 - Cleveland Indians pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews are killed, and Bob Ojeda is seriously injured, when the motorboat in which they are riding strikes a pier on Little Lake Nellie in Winter Haven, Florida. Crews and Olin are the first active major leaguers to die since Thurman Munson in 1979.
1999 - The St. Louis Cardinals announce that starter Matt Morris, expected to be the ace of their pitching staff, will miss the entire season because of a torn ligament in his right elbow. What a joyful time that was in Cardinal Nation.

1977 - Detroit Tigers pitching sensation Mark Fidrych tears cartilage in his left knee. The injury will require surgery, which will effectively end his promising career. Fidrych, who was elected the 1976 American League Rookie of the Year, gained national attention for his strange gyrations and mannerisms on the mound, which earned him the nickname "The Bird."

On This Date in Baseball

1961 - The Boston Red Sox announce that rookie Carl Yastrzemski will start the regular season in left field, succeeding the legendary Ted Williams. Yastrzemski will remain a fixture in the Red Sox' lineup for the next 23 years and will gain election to the Hall of Fame in 1989.

1981 - Toronto Blue Jays third baseman and All-American basketball player Danny Ainge drives the length of the court for a lay-up with two seconds to play, giving Brigham Young University a 51 - 50 upset victory over seventh-ranked University of Notre Dame in the NCAA East Regional semifinals. Ainge will hit .187 in 86 games for Toronto this season, retire, then sign to play for the NBA Boston Celtics.

On This Date in Baseball: March 18

1991 - California Angels pitcher Jim Abbott, born without a right hand, lashes a 400-foot triple in an exhibition game against the San Francisco Giants in Scottsdale, Arizona. Pitcher Rick Reuschel surrenders the three-bagger.