1938 After accepting GM Larry MacPhail's offer to coach first base, Babe Ruth wears a Dodger uniform for the first time as a coach and takes batting practice with the team. The 'Bambino' will quit at the end of the season, ending his ties with major league baseball.
1947 Reds' hurler Ewell Blackwell no-hits the Braves, 6-0. First baseman Babe Young hits two three-run homers to account for all of Cincinnati's runs.
1950 In the second game of a twin bill against the A's at Cleveland Stadium, the Indians establish an American League record by scoring 14 runs in the first inning as they rout Philadelphia, 21-2.
Cleveland also won the first game from the Mackmen, 7-0.
1961 Eddie Gaedel, the 3' 7" Illinois native made famous by Bill Veeck, who employed him to be the Browns’ lead-off batter for one at-bat in a game played in 1951, is found dead lying in his bed with bruises on the left side of his face, most likely as the result of an assault after being followed home from a Chicago bowling alley. Bob Cain, the opposing Tiger pitcher who issued a base-on-balls in the infamous stunt, is the only person from major league baseball to attend the funeral of the 36 year-old unemployed small person, whose cause of death will be determined by a coroner's inquest to be the result a heart attack.
1977 In the bottom of the sixth inning at Fenway Park, Yankees manager Billy Martin yanks Reggie Jackson out of the game after the outfielder’s curious approach to a fly ball turns a questionable hit into a cheap double for Jim Rice. In the dugout, the skipper and superstar begin screaming at one another and have to be separated by coaches Yogi Berra and Elston Howard.
1986 Angels' hurler Don Sutton becomes the 19th major league pitcher to earn his 300th victory when the Alabama native three-hits the Rangers, 4-1. The 43 year-old right-hander will finish with a total of 324 victories during his 23-year playing career.
2001 Citing he wants to spend more time with his family, Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr. announces he will retire at the end of the season. The two-time MVP will be best remembered for his streak of playing in 2,632 consecutive games.
2001 A mandate issued by the commissioner's office imposes a two-minute limit for warm-up tosses thrown by relievers who come in during an inning, with the time starting when the pitcher enters fair territory. At the beginning of a frame the allotted warm-up time for a hurler will be one-minute and forty-seconds unless the game is on national television, in that event the time limit will be increased by 20 seconds.
2002 In the first major league game to feature four players with 400 career homers, the Cubs beat the Rangers, 4-3, when Alex Gonzalez hits a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth inning. Sammy Sosa (475), Fred McGriff (459) and Juan Gonzalez (401) watched Rafael Palmeiro add his 460th home run to the total.
2005 Julio Franco becomes the oldest player to hit multiple home runs in a game when he goes deep on two occasions in the Braves' 6-1 victory over Cincinnati. The 46 year, 299 day-old Atlanta first baseman homers twice off Cincy starter Eric Milton, going yard in the first and third innings at the Great American Ball Park.
2012 R.A. Dickey throws his second consecutive one-hitter when he allows only a fifth-inning single by Wilson Betemit in the Mets' 5-0 victory over Baltimore at Citi Field. The 37 year-old knuckleball pitcher, who hasn't allowed an earned run in 42.2 innings, also limited Tampa Bay to a lone safety in his last start.
2014 With the only batter reaching base as a result of a throwing error by shortstop Hanley Ramirez in the seventh inning, Clayton Kershaw no-hits the Rockies at Dodger Stadium, striking out a career-high 15 batters. The left-hander’s teammate Josh Beckett also threw a no-hitter 24 days ago, making it the shortest span between no-hitters by a team since the Reds’ Johnny Vander Meer accomplished it in consecutive starts, four days apart, in 1938.