Yankee Tony Lazzeri steals second base, reaches third, then steals home in the 12th to give Lefty Gomez a 2 – 1 win over Detroit in the lidlifter. New York edges the Tigers, 4 – 3, in the nitecap although Earl Whitehill holds them to six hits. One of the hits is a 2-run home run by Lou Gehrig in the 6th.

After the Giants lose, 1 – 0, to Larry Benton in the opener, Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons pitches New York to a 9 – 4 nitecap win over the Reds. Bill Terry contributes two doubles and two home runs in the win.

Cardinal P Paul Derringer has his scoreless inning streak stopped at 33, but manages to beat the Phils, 6 – 2, on six hits.

1931 – At Boston, Eddie Durham and Detroit’s Arthur “Red” Herring hook up in a 13-inning pitching duel, won by the Sox pitcher, 1 – 0.

1931 – To raise funds to help the unemployed in the Depression, the Yankees, Giants, and Robins agree to a series of benefit games. Sixty thousand fans, paying regular prices, raise $59,000 in the first match-up, as Babe Ruth homers and the Yankees beat the Giants, 7 – 2.

1931 – Bill Harris, 31, who last pitched in the majors for the Reds, in 1924, makes his first appearance for Pittsburgh and shuts out Cincinnati, 3 – 0.

In the morning game of a doubleheader in Philadelphia, the Yankees begin with eight walks and score eight times in the 1st inning on only two hits. Ed Rommel, the 4th pitcher in the frame, retires Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Ben Chapman on strikes. The Yanks win, 15 – 3. In the second game, Ruth and Gehrig bang 6th-inning homers off Waite Hoyt, and Ruth adds another blow off Hoyt in the 9th, his 40th. The Yanks roll, 9 – 4, over the first-place A’s.

The Pirates sweep a holiday pair from the Reds, 6 – 1 and 4 – 3, scoring three in the 8th of the p.m. game. The Bucs lose SS Tommy Thevenow when he fractures his ankle in two places sliding in the 6th inning of the opener.