May 2 in Tigers and mlb history:
1876: Ross Barnes hits the first home run in the history of National League.
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1881: The Detroit Wolverines play their first major league game, at Recreation Park in Detroit, losing 6-5 to Buffalo.
1887: Hall of Famer Eddie Collins was born this day in Millerton, NY. In a career spanning 25 years, Collins has great numbers with over 3330 Hits, over 1800 Runs, 700+ Stolen Bases, and an OPS+ of 142, and a career Batting Average of .333 Voted into the Hall of fame in 1939.
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1901: Tigers win the first forfeit in American League history, after the umpire penalizes Chicago for attempting stalling tactics in order to secure a rainout.
1909: Honus Wagner steals his way around the bases in the 1st inning of a game against the Cubs. It is the fourth time he steals second base, third and home in a same inning, a National League record. The record holder in the American League is Ty Cobb, who will pull the trick four times between 1909 and 1924. No player in major league history has ever accomplished this feat in each league, and only two more have accomplished the feat twice during their careers: Max Carey (NL) and Jackie Tavener (AL).
1920: The first game in the history of the Negro National League is played. The Indianapolis ABCs host the Chicago American Giants, managed by Rube Foster. The ABCs, featuring Oscar Charleston, win the game 4 - 2.
1920: Tigers lose 5-2 to Cleveland, falling to 0-13 and tying the major league record for the worst start to a season.
1923: Walter Johnson records his first shutout of the season and the 100th of his major league record 113 career shutouts as the Washington Senators defeat the New York Yankees, 3 - 0. Yankees shortstop Everett Scott receives a medal from the American League for playing in his 1,000th consecutive game.
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1937: Gee Walker goes 3-for-3 with a walk, a stolen base, and the go-ahead home run in the 7th inning to give the Tigers a 6-5 win over the White Sox.
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1939: Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees does not play against the Detroit Tigers at Briggs Stadium, ending at 2,130 his streak of consecutive games played. An ailing Gehrig removes himself from the lineup, telling his manager Joe McCarthy that he cannot play because of continuing weakness. Gehrig meets with the managers and umpires at home plate. Doctors will later diagnose Gehrig with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal disease that affects the muscles. Gehrig will never play again.
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1939: Gates Brown born in Crestline, Ohio. Tigers outfielder & DH 1963-75. His 107 career pinch hits remain an American League record, and his 16 pinch hit home runs are a Tigers record.
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1943: Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Schoolboy Rowe pinch hits with the bases loaded in the 6th inning and cracks a grand slam off the Boston Braves' Al Javery to break a tie. The Phillies win, 6 - 5, but it takes them 12 innings. For Rowe, it is his second career grand slam. He hit one in 1939 while with Detroit, as he is the only pitcher in major league history to hit a grand slam in each league. Rowe will finish the season with a .306 batting average as a pinch hitter.
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1946: Red Sox announce they will install lights at Fenway Park, leaving only Briggs (Tiger) Stadium and Wrigley Field without lights.
1947: At Cleveland Stadium, Bob Feller fires his second one-hitter in 10 days, stopping the Boston Red Sox, 2 - 0, while striking out 10. Johnny Pesky has the only hit for Boston. Joe Gordon's home run off Dave Ferriss is the only run Feller needs.
1949: In his first major league start, Don Newcombe of the Brooklyn Dodgers shuts out the Cincinnati Reds, 3 - 0.
1951: Rogovin, Ginsberg, and Limmer make Jewish baseball history together. Writing for SABR?s Games Project, Bruce Harris chronicled the 1951 matchup between the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia A?s that saw a Jewish pitcher pitching to a Jewish batter, with a Jewish catcher behind the plate. Per Harris, it had never before happened in an MLB game, and hasn?t since.
1954: Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals hits five home runs in a doubleheader split against the New York Giants. The Cardinals win the first game, 10 - 6, but lose the second, 9 - 7.
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In a strange twist, one of the fans in attendance at Sportsman's Park is a young boy named Nate Colbert. In 1966, Colbert will make his major league debut. Six years later, he will tie Musial's record by hitting five home runs in a doubleheader.
1955: At Ebbets Field, Carl Furillo hits his sixth home run of the season with Jackie Robinson on base in the 12th inning to give the Brooklyn Dodgers a 2 - 0 victory over the Milwaukee Braves. Carl Erskine wins his fourth game in a row, beating Gene Conley, as both pitchers post complete games.
1956: At Wrigley Field, the New York Giants (25) and Chicago Cubs (23) set a major league record with 48 players on the field in a 17-inning marathon finally won by the visiting Giants, 6 - 5. The two teams combine to intentionally walk 11 batters, also a record, with the Cubs contributing seven of the free passes. Losing pitcher Jim Brosnan chips in with four walks, all intentional. Cubs third baseman Don Hoak is not one of the strollers, as he sets a National League record with six strikeouts, all against different pitchers, while Ernie Banks, Willie Mays and Wes Westrum are twice walked intentionally. Whitey Lockman starts in left field, switches to first base, returns to LF, and finishes at 1B. Ex-Giant Monte Irvin is 0 for 5 against five pitchers. The game is six minutes shy of the 5:19 record set by the Dodgers-Bees in 20 innings in 1940.
1959 - Frank Robinson of the Cincinnati Redlegs hits for the cycle, in a 16 - 4 rout of the Dodgers.
1959: The Detroit Tigers traded Billy Hoeft to the Boston Red Sox for Ted Lepcio and Dave Sisler.
1961: Tigers 6 - Senators 3. Jake Wood hits 2 triples. Norm Cash hits a home run. Jim Bunning strikes out 7 in a complete game.
Tigers are 11-4, up 1 in the AL #60thof61 #101in61
1964: At Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, the visiting Minnesota Twins hit four consecutive home runs in one inning. Tony Oliva, Bob Allison, Jimmie Hall, and Harmon Killebrew go deep in the 11th inning to defeat the Athletics, 7 - 3.
1972: The long holdout of Oakland Athletics All-Star pitcher Vida Blue comes to an end. Blue, who won both the American League MVP and Cy Young awards in 1971, agrees to a contract for $63,000, after balking at owner Charlie Finley's previous offers. Perhaps affected by the long layoff, Blue will win only six games this year but will pitch well in the postseason.
1984: Tigers 9th-inning rally from 5-0 falls short, lose to Red Sox 5-4. Strand tying run on 2B. Tigers suffer just their third loss of the season.
1984: Jack Morris and Alan Trammell named AL Pitcher and Player of the month for April #Relive84
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1995: Hideo Nomo of the Los Angeles Dodgers becomes the first Japanese native to play in the majors in three decades. Nomo pitches five scoreless innings of one-hit ball, but the Dodgers blow a 3 - 0 lead and lose to San Francisco, 4 - 3. Nomo will have an excellent season and win the Rookie of the Year Award, opening the gates for a large number of Japanese players to follow him to the major leagues.
1997: The Detroit Tigers selected Kevin Jarvis off waivers from the Cincinnati Reds.
2000: The Atlanta Braves become the first National League team in 49 years to win 15 straight games by defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5 - 3. The last team to do so was the 1951 New York Giants. The Braves' streak will end tomorrow.
2002: Mike Cameron hits four home runs and comes close to a record-setting fifth in leading the Seattle Mariners to a 15 - 4 victory over the Chicago White Sox. Cameron is only the 13th player in major league history to homer four times in a game. He connects in his first four at-bats in just five innings as he joins Bret Boone as the first teammates to hit two home runs in the same inning. They connect back-to-back twice in a 10-run 1st.
2007: Jarrod Saltalamacchia, on his 22nd birthday, makes his major league debut. With 14 letters in his last name, the Braves backstop has the longest surname in baseball history, besting 15 other major leaguers who played with 13 letters in their family name.
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2013: The Detroit Tigers released John Lindsey.
2013: The Tigers score four times in the 13th inning to defeat the Astros, 7 - 3. Austin Jackson leads off the inning with a double off Dallas Keuchel and takes third on a ground out; Astros manager Bo Porter orders that sluggers Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder be issued intentional Walks, but light-hitting Don Kelly comes through with a single to open the floodgates; Matt Tuiasosopo follows with a two-run double. Luke Putkonen, called up from AAA earlier in the day, earns his first big league win for Detroit. Miguel Cabrera becomes the 30th player in franchise history to get 1,000 hits as a Tiger.
2014: The Detroit Tigers signed Joel Hanrahan as a free agent.
2018: Mookie Betts hits three solo homers to lead the Red Sox to a 5 - 4 win over the Royals. All three blasts come off Danny Duffy, with the last one breaking a 4 - 4 tie in the 7th. It is already the second three-homer game for Betts this season and the fourth of his career, tying him for the franchise record held by Ted Williams. At 26, he is the youngest player to have four such games.
2018: The Tigers win on walk-off bunt by John Hicks and beat the rays 3 - 2.
2021: Teammates A.J. Pollock (8) and Matt Beaty (7) combine for 15 RBIs in the Dodgers' 16 - 4 win over the Brewers. They are only the sixth pair of teammates to each have at least 7 RBI in a game.
Tigers players, coaches, and writers birthdays:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=wesley000edg
https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=wesle01edg
Edgar Wesley Detroit Stars Negro Leagues 1919-1923, 1925-1927.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Joe_Falls
Joe Falls, a tough talking New Yorker, came to Detroit in 1953 after an eight-year stint with the Associated Press. He wrote for three different newspapers in Detroit and also had a weekly column in The Sporting News before his retirement in 2003.
He is the author of the seminal history of the Detroit Tigers, published in 1975.
Falls won the 2001 J.G. Taylor Spink Award.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Gates_Brown
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/brownga01.shtml
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Gates Brown 1963-1975, coach 1978-1984.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Steve_Grilli
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Steve Grilli 1975-1977.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Jim_Walewander
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Jim Walewander 1987-1988.
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Keith Moreland 1989.
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Mark Johnson 2000.
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Neftali Feliz 2015.
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Jarrod Saltalamacchia 2016, 2018.
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Erasmo Ramirez 2021.
Tigers players and coaches who passed away:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Archie_Yelle
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/y/yellear01.shtml
Archie Yelle 1917-1919.
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Steve Larkin 1934.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Johnny_Grodzicki
Johnny Grodzicki coach 1979.
Baseball Reference
