Ken Griffey Jr. hits his 200th home run as a member of the Cincinnati Reds. He becomes the fourth player in major league history to hit 300 for one team and 200 with another. Preceding him are Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Jimmie Foxx.
David Price, the first overall pick in the 2007 amateur draft, finally makes his professional debut, delayed by an elbow injury. Price hits 98 mph in the 1st inning for the Vero Beach Devil Rays and tosses five scoreless frames for the victory. He will appear in the World Series before the year is out.
“It’s been a lot of negative stuff going on around here and I’ve been feeling some of that and I was just expressing how I felt at the time, but it wasn’t anything to do with race. I wasn’t trying to bring race into it. I probably should have thought more about what I was going to say.” – Mets manager Willie Randolph. Willie Randolph apologizes for his negative remarks concerning SNY’s coverage of him as the Mets skipper. The first black major league manager hired in New York had brought up race when asked about the way he is being portrayed by the team’s TV network.
5/21/2008: For the second time in four days Yankee Stadium was the site of an incorrect HR call by the umpires. After having homered in the third, in the bottom of the sixth Alex Rodriguez hit of line shot to right center off of Lance Cormier that cleared the fence, but bounced back into the field off of a set of stairs above the fence painted yellow. Orioles right field Nick Markakis played the ball and threw to second where Rodriguez was standing. Immediately after the play, Rodriguez pointed to the stairs and said the ball had hit there. After a brief consultation the umpires ruled the ball had bounced back from the top of the fence, so the hit became a double. However, replays showed the ball cleared the fence by a couple of feet.
On May 20, 2008, Mike Piazza announces his retirement. A 12-time All-Star, Piazza hit .308/.377/.545 in 16 seasons after having been picked in the 62nd round of the amateur draft. He socked 427 home runs, with a record 396 home runs as a catches scored 1,048 runs and drove in 1,335 and set the all-time major…
In a 7 – 6 Twins victory over the Royals, rookie Bobby Korecky gets his first big league win with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. More notably, he connects for a single, the first Twins pitcher ever to get a hit outside an interleague contest since the enactment of the designated hitter rule in 1973.
On May 19, 2008, Jon Lester of the Boston Red Sox hurls a no-hitter in his 7-0 victory over the visiting Kansas City Royals at Fenway Park. Lester became only the third lefty in franchise history to throw a no-no at Fenway Park. It was the first complete game of Lester’s career. Lester, who was…
5/18/2008: In the top of the fourth, Carlos Delgado of the Mets hit the ball down the LF line in Yankee Stadium, and it was ruled a home run by 3B umpire Mike Reilly. However, the crew huddled and reversed the call. Replays showed that the ball hit the black base of the pole and thus was a home run. Mets manager Willie Randolph argued briefly. Moments later, HP umpire Bob Davidson ejected Mets bench coach Jerry Manuel, who had seen a replay and was yelling from the bench.
With San Francisco’s 3-1 interleague loss to the White Sox, Barry Zito becomes the first Giants’ hurler in 98 years to start a season with eight consecutive losses. Jesse Burkett opened the 1890 campaign without a victory, also losing eight straight decisions.
Before the start of the Subway Series at Yankee Stadium, the visiting Mets conduct a closed-door clubhouse meeting to clear the air concerning comments made yesterday by closer Billy Wagner about his teammates’ availability after games. Although the reliever addresses the issue, his remarks put focus the team’s lackluster start to the season, and the need to get it done on the field.
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