On September 19 in Baseball History... 1910 - A Southern Association game between Mobile and Atlanta takes just thirty-two minutes to complete. The game is conducted as an experiment with batters swinging at every good pitch and little time taken between pitches. There are no strikeouts and one walk as Mobile wins 2-1.
1925 - Ted Lyons lost his bid for a no-hitter when Bobby Veach singled with two outs in the ninth inning. The Chicago White Sox routed the Washington Senators 17-0.
1926 - The St. Louis Cardinals pounded the Philadelphia Phillies 23-3 in the first game of a doubleheader and beat them 10-2 in the second game.
1929 - Joe Sewell sets a major league record by playing in his 115th consecutive game without striking out. The Indian third baseman will be fanned only four times in 578-at-bats this season.
1931 - Lefty Grove wins his 30th game over the White Sox 2-1. He is the first to win 30 since Jim Bagby of Cleveland in 1920 and will be the last American League hurler to do so until Denny McLain in 1968.
1935 - The Cubs win their 16th consecutive game as they beat Carl Hubbell completing a four-game sweep of the Giants. The mark is the most since the 1924 Dodgers won 15 straight games.
1937 - Tigers' first baseman Hank Greenberg becomes the first player to hit a homer into the center field bleachers at Yankee Stadium. The area will become known as 'the black' when seats are covered in the dark color to serve as a batting eye.
1939 - September call-up Elmer Gedeon collects all three of his major league hits of his five-game career in the Senators' 10–9 victory over the Indians at Griffith Stadium. The Washington starting center fielder will be the first of two major leaguers to be killed in World War II when his plane is shot over France in 1944.
1939 - Ted Williams hits a home run off Thornton Lee, one of thirty-one home runs he will hit in his rookie season. Williams will homer off Thornton's son, Don Lee, twenty-one years later.
1949 - In a 6-4 loss to the Giants at Forbes Field‚ Pirates slugger Ralph Kiner hits his 50th home run off Kirby Higbe. Having hit 54 homers in his sophomore season of 1947, the 26-year old all-star outfielder becomes the first National League player to accomplish the feat in two different seasons.
1949 - With their 77th victory of the year, a 4-3 win in St. Louis, the Phillies are assured of not having a losing season for the first time since 1932. Philadelphia's record 16-year skid of playing under .500 will be surpassed by the Pirates in 2009, who haven't won more than they've loss since 1993.
1951 - Indian Larry Doby walks five times in a 15-2 drubbing of the Red Sox when Early Wynn picks up his 20th victory. The intimidating right-hander, who win exactly 300 games in a 23 year big league career, will post 20 or more wins in five of those seasons.
1955 - Cubs' infielder Ernie Banks hit his fifth grand slam of the season to establish a new major league mark, but Rip Repulski's 12th inning homer off of Jim Davis proves to be the difference as the Cardinals beat Chicago, 6-5.
1955 - After being on a flag pole since June 23, Bill Sherman leaves his perch after deciding he couldn't keep his promise to sit there until the Braves won seven consecutive games. Milwaukee will win six games in a row on three different occasions, but can't get the elusive seventh victory during the 89 day span.
1956 - Orioles catcher Tom Gastall dies as the plane he is piloting crashes into the Chesapeake Bay. The 24-year old backup backstop, who signed a $40,000 contract as a "bonus baby" with Baltimore after being drafted by the NFL's Detroit Lions, was the captain of the Boston University's basketball and baseball teams in his senior year and played quarterback for the Terriers' football team.
1959 - Richie Ashburn becomes the all-time franchise leader collecting his 2,212th hit wearing a Phillies uniform. The historic hit is a ball which caroms off first base for a single in Philadelphia's 9-3 loss to the Braves at Connie Mack Stadium.
1962 - Dick Donovan becomes the Indians' first 20-game winner since Early Wynn, Bob Lemon, and Herb Score each hit the total in 1956. The contest will be best remembered for the pair of back-to back-home runs hit in the first and seventh innings hit by Tribe teammates Walter Bond and Johnny Romano, who also both had doubles, in the team's 10-9 victory at Kansas City's Municipal Stadium.
1964 - With two outs in the bottom of the 16th inning‚ Willie Davis, after singling, swiping second, and advancing to third on a wild pitch, steals home giving the Dodgers a 4-3 victory over Philadelphia. The fleet outfielder's theft of the plate is the latest frame in a National League game the feat has ever been accomplished and ties Hal Trosky's major league record set in 1944.
1968 - Denny McLain won his 31st game, the most in the American League since Lefty Grove's thirty-one in 1931. The Detroit Tigers beat the New York Yankees 6-2 while Mickey Mantle hit his 535th and next-to-last career homer.
1973 - Frank Robinson hit his first home run in Arlington Stadium, as a member of the California Angels. It was the 32nd Major League ballpark in which he had homered.
1973 - Braves' Davey Johnson hits his 43rd (42nd as a second baseman) homer tying Rogers Hornsby's record for the most home runs for a second baseman.
1973 - Astros' infielder Dave Campbell hits a first-inning two-run double against San Diego right-hander Clay Kirby to snap an 0-for-45 drought, tying a major league record set in 1909 by Bill Bergen, a catcher who played with Brooklyn. 'Soup', who will become a respected national baseball broadcaster, endured the futility while playing for three teams, combining a 17 at-bat hitless streak with the Padres and another 21 at-bat hitless streak for the Cardinals before hitting the two-bagger in his eighth at-bat with Houston.
1977 - With two singles in his first two at bats, Ted Cox ties and then breaks Senators' Cecil Travis 1933 record of five consecutive hits at the start of a career. The Red Sox rookie designated hitter had gone 4-for-4 in Baltimore yesterday and is 6-for-6 in his first six major league plate appearances.
1980 - At Tiger Stadium, Al Kaline becomes the first player in franchise history to have his uniform number retired. The Hall of Famer, who wore the number 6, roamed the outfield for Detroit from 1953 to 1974.
1980 - In the Royals' 13-3 victory over the visiting A’s, George Brett goes 2-for-4. The third baseman’s two singles keeps his batting average at .400, the latest date in the season the plateau has been reached since the feat was last accomplished in 1941 by Ted Williams.
1981 - The Red Sox snap the Yankees' nine-game winning streak at Fenway Park finally beating the Bronx Bombers at home, 8-5. Trailing for most of the game, Boston explodes for seven runs in the bottom of the eighth inning which includes Rick Miller's three-run homer off New York reliever, Dave LaRoche.
1982 - Mariner rookie Orlando Mercado becomes the third player to hit a grand slam for his first major league hit. Bill Duggelby (1898 - first at bat) and Bobby Bonds (1968 - third at bat) were the other two players to accomplish the feat.
1984 - Pete Rose reached the 100-hit plateau for the 22nd consecutive year, an all-time record. He also tied the National League record for doubles with 725 as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves 4-2.
1986 - Joe Cowley walks seven batters and gives up a run, but the White Sox right-hander no-hits the Angels at Anaheim Stadium, 7-1. The 28-year old Kentuckian will become the first pitcher in major league history never to win another game after tossing a no-hitter when he is released by the Phillies next season. 1993 - Tom Glavine notches his 20th victory of the season as the Braves beat the Mets at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, 11-2. The southpaw becomes the first National League hurler since Ferguson Jenkins (1973) to win 20 games in three consecutive seasons.
1995 - In a 15-4 rout of the Rockies, Ken Caminiti becomes the first major leaguer to hit homers from both sides of the plate in the same game three times in one month. The Padres third baseman accomplishes the feat in just four games.
1997 - Mark McGwire hit his 54th homer and became the first in the majors to hit 20 or more homers for two teams in the same season.
1997 - In the first inning of the nightcap of a twin bill at Royals Stadium, Matt Williams tricks Jed Hansen with the rarely used hidden ball trick. The Kansas City rookie second baseman, deceived about the location of the ball, is tagged out by the Indians veteran infielder taking a lead off third base in an eventual 6-2 Cleveland victory.
1998 - Indian Manny Ramirez belts two homers to raise his five-game total to eight becoming only the second player in history to do so. Frank Howard accomplished the feat twice in 1968.
1998 - In a 5-3 loss to the Angels at Edison International Field, Mariner shortstop Alex Rodriguez hits his 40th home run of the season off Jack McDowell becoming the first infielder and third player in major league history to have 40 homers and 40 stolen bases in the same season. Jose Canseco (A’s - 1988) and Barry Bonds (Giants - 1996) are the other members of the 40-40 club.
2000 - A Dodger fan, in addition to other court-ordered restrictions, has been banned from attending home games in Los Angeles for 18 months. The irate patron threw coffee in the face of a Mets fan who was cheering a grand slam hit by New York's catcher Todd Pratt.
2001 - Defeating White Sox, 6-3, Roger Clemens becomes the first major league pitcher to have a season won-loss record of 20-1. The five-time Cy Young Award winner has won his last 16 decisions for the Yankees. 2001 - Cardinal freshman Albert Pujols sets a National League rookie mark with 120 RBIs. The 21-year-old infielder broke the mark of 119 established in 1930 by Wally Berger of the Boston Braves.
2001 - Major League Baseball and the Players Association announce the creation of the MLB-MLBPA Disaster Relief Fund. The organizations will each donate $10 million to aid the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
2002 - In his major league debut, Twins' rookie Mike Ryan strokes two singles, scores two runs and drives in two runs in the nine-run first inning against the Tigers. Unfortunately, the game is rained out in the second inning meaning none of the statistics will be official.
2006 - Heritage Toronto commemorates the spot where Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run with a plaque at Canada's Hanlan's Point. The historic home run, the only one the Bambino would hit as a minor leaguer, came on September 5, 1914, as the visiting Providence Grays' hurler goes deep against the Maple Leafs in the International League contest.
2006 - In a game against Florida, Julio Franco starts at third base for the Mets, who clinched the NL East flag yesterday. This is the 48 year-old infielder's first start at the hot corner since his rookie year in 1982, marking 24 years between starts at the position.
2007 - For the tenth consecutive season, the Devil Rays lose their 90th game. Tampa Bay is the only team in big league history to lose as many as 90 games each year over the span of a decade.
2007 - Driving in Jose Reyes with a third inning single, David Wright becomes the first Mets player in franchise history to collect 100 RBIs in three consecutive seasons. The 24-year old third baseman will finish the season with 107 ribbies.
2008 - In only his second appearance in the Marlins’ starting lineup, Cameron Maybin equals a franchise record by getting on base in 10 consecutive plate appearances, matching the accomplishments of Derrek Lee and Juan Encarnacion. The 21-year old outfielder’s streak includes hits in eight straight at-bats, which also ties a team record shared by Preston Wilson and Gary Sheffield.
2008 - In Tampa Bay's 11-1 rout of Minnesota, Carlos Pena's fourth-inning home run is the result of the first reversal determined by baseball's new instant replay system. Umpire Mike DiMuro at first signals fan interference, but changes the call after reviewing the video of the Rays first baseman's line drive.
2009 - In the Brewers' 7-2 victory over Houston, Prince Fielder sets the team's RBI mark with his eighth inning sacrifice fly. The Milwaukee first baseman's league-leading 127 RBI total surpasses the 1983 club record established by Cecil Cooper, the Astros' manager who watches his record be broken from the opposing bench.
2010 - Nationals Park hosts a simulcast of the Washington National Opera's production of Verdi’s dramatic musical play, 'The Masked Ball', as it is performed at the Kennedy Center. The annual free program, called Opera in the Outfield, features special events, kids activities, and prizes in an effort to introduce the genre to a broader audience, especially children.
2010 - Standing on third base, Tyler Colvin's chest is punctured when he is hit by a piece of Welington Castillo's shattered maple bat. The Cubs' rookie outfielder, who will not play another game this season, scores on his teammate's double, but leaves the game in the bottom half of the inning to be taken to a hospital.
2011 - In front of the smallest crowd in the three-year history of new Yankee Stadium, Mariano Rivera retires Trevor Plouffe, Michael Cuddyer and Chris Parmelee to finish New York's 6-4 win over Minnesota. The save, the 602nd in the closer's career, breaks Trevor Hoffman's major league mark.
2014 - LA’s Clayton Kershaw becomes the first 20-game winner of the season when the team routs Chicago at a windy Wrigley Field, 14-5. The 26 year-old southpaw, who has compiled a 20-3 (.870) along with an ERA of 1.80. is the first Dodger hurler to reach the 20-win plateau twice since Claude Osteen accomplish the feat in 1969 and 1972.
Baseball Birthdays on September 19... 1856 - Baker, Phil
1859 - Robinson, Yank
1860 - Glenn, Ed
1862 - Marr, Lefty
1867 - McMahon, Sadie
1871 - McDougal, Dewey
1872 - Lampe, Henry
1884 - Ryan, Jack
1886 - Harter, Frank
1889 - Young, Ralph
1890 - McInnis, Stuffy
1890 - Hartranft, Ray
1899 - Douglass, Astyanax
1900 - Wright, Jim
1902 - Connatser, Bruce
1902 - Begley, Jim
1903 - Lind, Carl
1906 - Clark, Cap
1909 - Martin, Hersh
1909 - Reiber, Frank
1913 - Barkley, Red
1913 - Etten, Nick
1915 - Kardow, Paul
1916 - Fischer, Rube
1916 - McNamara, Bob
1924 - Benson, Vern
1926 - Snider, Duke
1926 - Wall, Murray
1927 - Sarni, Bill
1929 - Shearer, Ray
1930 - Turley, Bob
1931 - Shoop, Ron
1937 - Short, Chris
1943 - Derrick, Mike
1943 - Morgan, Joe
1944 - Nagelson, Russ
1946 - Lolich, Ron 1946 - Ferguson, Joe
1950 - Schultz, Buddy
1951 - Contreras, Nardi 1960 - Stephenson, Phil
1962 - Myers, Randy
1967 - Abbott, Jim 1968 - Munoz, Pedro
1969 - Ronan, Marc
1971 - Dawley, Joey
1975 - Valentin, Javier
1977 - Smith, Mark
1978 - Johnson, Nick
1979 - Good, Andrew
1980 - Roberts, Ryan
1980 - Sadler, Ray
1981 - Baker, Scott
1983 - Devine, Joey
1983 - Diaz, Robinzon
1983 - Haeger, Charlie 1983 - Jaso, John
1984 - Valencia, Danny
1985 - Gonzalez, Gio 1986 - Vasquez, Anthony
1988 - Jones, Christopher
1989 - Springer, George
1992 - Querecuto, Juniel
Baseball Deaths on September 19... 1930 - Pond, Arlie
1932 - Neu, Otto
1936 - Hart, Bill
1938 - Hawley, Pink
1949 - Danner, Buck
1960 - Brockett, Lew
1963 - Harriss, Slim
1970 - Danforth, Dave
1972 - Bartholomew, Les 1974 - Taylor, Zack
1977 - Livingston, Paddy
1980 - Capron, Ralph
1993 - Wurm, Frank
1995 - Lovett, Mem 1996 - Fernandez, Nanny
1997 - Butland, Bill
2001 - Stafford, Bill
2005 - Grissom, Marv
2006 - Peterson, Buddy 2008 - Andres, Ernie
2015 - Etheridge, Bobby
2015 - Young, Walter