Willie Mays hits his 638th major league career home run with the Giants franchise, adding in the process his National League record 1,950th run scored.
In a great trade for Cincinnati‚ the Giants ship OF George Foster to the Reds for SS Frank Duffy and P Vern Geishert.
The Mets feature firepower as Nolan Ryan and Tom Seaver combine to strike out 26‚ tying the Mets’ own major league record set on September 9‚ 1970, in a doubleheader sweep of the Padres. Seaver wins the opener‚ 5 – 1‚ with 10 K’s and Ryan cops the nitecap‚ 2 – 1. Mets batters strike out 15 times: the 41 strikeouts ties the major league record.
Clete Boyer, involved in a dispute with Atlanta Braves general manager Paul Richards and manager Lum Harris over alleged silly rules and mismanagement, is released and retires. Boyer hit safely in the last nine games of his 16-season career, including five home runs and 14 runs batted in. A Gold Glove third baseman, Boyer was a .242 hitter with 162 home runs and 654 RBI in 1725 games for the Kansas City Athletics, New York Yankees, and Atlanta.
1971 – In the opener of a doubleheader in San Diego, Al Santorini starts against an Astro lineup stacked with seven lefty hitters. Santorini gets the first out and is yanked for lefty Dave Roberts. Houston wins, 2-1, behind Wade Blasingame. Santorini returns to start the nightcap, tossing six innings, but Larry Dierker bests him in an 8-0 one-hitter. The lone Padre hit was a broken-bat single by Ollie Brown in the seventh.
5/25/1971: Two homers were lost due to rain in Baltimore. Frank Robinson homered off Cleveland’s Alan Foster with two out and no one on in the bottom of the first inning. Ken Harrelson hit one in the second with one out and no one on off Oriole Pat Dobson.
In Philadelphia‚ the Reds’ Gary Nolan loses a one-hitter to the Phils‚ 2 – 1. The only hit is Denny Doyle’s two-run homer in the 2nd inning.
With 53‚337 on hand, Mickey Lolich and Les Cain‚ with 3 innings from Joe Niekro‚ notch shutouts as the Tigers sweep a doubleheader from the Senators, 5 – 0 and 11 – 0. The loser in the opener is Denny McLain‚ making his first appearance in Detroit since being traded. Al Kaline and Norm Cash each hit two-run homers off Denny‚ with Cash adding another pair‚ one with the sacks full‚ in the nitecap.
Martin Dihigo dies in Cienfuegos, Cuba, at the age of 65. Over the course of his career, Dihigo made seamless transitions between all nine positions and played in several countries. As a hitter, he won both batting average and home run titles; as a pitcher, he won more than 250 games and once defeated Satchel Paige while touring Cuba. He will be elected to the American Hall of Fame in 1977 and also was or will be voted into the Cuban, Mexican and Latin American Baseball Hall of Fame.
In its inaugural season, Riverfront Stadium’s first-ever inside-the-park home run is hit by Roberto Clemente, a smash off Gary Nolan. The ball is hit high off the left-field wall over the reach of Bernie Carbo. The ball bounces high and back toward the infield past Buddy Bradford in center and by the time he is able to retrieve it on the rain-soaked turf, Clemente is rounding third. Clemente adds a triple that drives in a run and comes to score himself, then singles in another run in the 9th inning in a 6 – 1 decision over Cincinnati.
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