March 17 in Tigers and mlb history:
1871: The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players is founded, setting the stage for the future National League in 1876. The entry fee for a National Association franchise is set at $10.
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1886: The Sporting News, the weekly that will become "The Baseball Paper of the World," publishes its first issue.
1907: Tigers manager Hughie Jennings sends a telegram to the Cleveland Indians offering to trade Ty Cobb for Elmer Flick.
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1919: The Boston Red Sox, minus holdouts Carl Mays and Babe Ruth, sail from New York aboard the USS Arapahoe. The trip to spring training is stormy and most of the players will be seasick. Ruth will sign on the 21st in New York and leave that night for Florida. Mays, unsigned, will join Ruth and the Sox in Tampa.
1921: The New York Yankees, training in Shreveport, Louisiana, journey to Lake Charles to play a game against the St. Louis Cardinals, based in Orange, Texas. The game is proclaimed "Ruth-Hornsby Day," but Hornsby hits only a single while Ruth lofts a home run over the short right field fence. The Yankees win, 14 - 5.
1936: Much-heralded rookie Joe DiMaggio makes his debut with the New York Yankees, collecting four hits including a triple.
1946: In Daytona Beach, the Brooklyn Dodgers take the field against their minor-league farm team, the Montreal Royals. With Jackie Robinson in the lineup for Montreal, the game marks the first appearance of an integrated team in Organized Baseball in this century. A crowd of 3,100 attends the game at City Island Park, which will be renamed "Jackie Robinson Stadium" in 1990.
1953: Bill Veeck says that he will accept an offer of $2.475 million for his 80 percent of the St. Louis Browns stock. Baltimore Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro seeks a syndicate to buy Veeck out. The group will eventually purchase 206,250 shares at $12 per share.
1953: Milwaukee County Stadium will be available to the Boston Braves at a very reasonable rental rate.
1965: Jackie Robinson is signed as a member of the ABC-TV major league baseball broadcast team, becoming the first black broadcaster to receive a network position. ABC provides the first-ever nationwide baseball coverage with weekly Saturday broadcasts on a regional basis.
1966: Pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale play hardball when negotiating with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The duo signs movie contracts showing they are serious about retiring from baseball if their salary demands are not met.
1969: The St. Louis Cardinals trade former National League MVP Orlando Cepeda to the Atlanta Braves for catcher/first baseman Joe Torre. The trade will benefit both teams; Cepeda will help the Braves make the playoffs this year and Torre will win the MVP Award in 1971.
1971: Accomplished imposter William Street is charged w/ trying to extort $20K from Tigers' Willie Horton.
1977: U.S. Federal Judge Frank McGarr rules in favor of Bowie Kuhn, saying that the baseball commissioner acted within his authority in voiding the 1976 player sales engineered by Oakland Athletics owner Charlie Finley.
1978: For a St. Patrick's Day exhibition game, the Cincinnati Reds wear special green uniforms, rather than their traditional red, starting an annual ritual. The good luck works and the Reds beat the New York Yankees, 9 - 2. The St. Louis Cardinals, among other teams, will be next to follow suit. Although the Reds will never use the uniforms in regular season play, the green colors will become a spring training tradition for the team.
1984: Ferguson Jenkins announces his retirement. The 1971 National League Cy Young Award winner, Jenkins posted a record of 284-226 with 3192 strikeouts and a 3.34 ERA in 4500 innings pitched in a 19-season major career. He will be elected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America in 1991.
1992: Pitcher Hal Newhouser and umpire Bill McGowan are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. "Prince Hal" won two MVP awards with the Tigers and still has the record for most wins by a pitcher before his 30th birthday with 188 and won an even 200 games with the Detroit Tigers.
2005: During more than 11 hours of hearings by the Committee on Government Reform concerning major league players' use of steroids, Mark McGwire refuses to talk about the past and does not deny taking performance enhancing drugs. Other players testifying include Curt Schilling, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, and former big leaguer Jose Canseco, whose recent book, Juiced, prompted the congressional hearing. Palmeiro will be found guilty of steroid usage later this year.
2014: The Detroit Tigers signed Bryan Augenstein as a free agent.
2015: The Detroit Tigers signed Brendan Harris as a free agent.
Tigers players and coaches birthdays:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Oscar_Stanage
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/stanaos01.shtml
Oscar Stanage 1909-1920, 1925, coach 1925.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wilsova01.shtml
Vance Wilson 2005-2006.
Tigers players who passed away:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/purtebi01.shtml
Billy Purtell 1914.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Howard_Ehmke
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/e/ehmkeho01.shtml
Howard Ehmke 1916-1917, 1919-1922.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/fletcva01.shtml
Van Fletcher 1955.
Baseball Reference
