Tag: 1938

1938 – Jimmie Wilson resigns as manager of the Phillies. He will be replaced by Doc Prothro.

In the ninth inning at Wrigley Field, Gabby Hartnett’s ‘Homer in the Gloamin’ gives the Cubs a 6-5 victory. Their ninth consecutive win proves to be significant in Chicago’s quest of the National League pennant.

In the ninth inning at Wrigley Field, Gabby Hartnett’s ‘Homer in the Gloamin’ gives the Cubs a 6-5 victory. Their ninth consecutive win proves to be significant in Chicago’s quest of the National League pennant.

1938 – Gabby Hartnett hits his famous “Homer in the Gloamin'” in the 9th inning against the Pirates’ Mace Brown to give the Chicago Cubs a 6 – 5 victory, their ninth straight, at Wrigley Field. It is a key triumph en route to the Cubs’ National League pennant.

In Detroit’s 10-2 rout of St. Louis in the nightcap of a twin bill, Hank Greenberg hits two home runs, both off Bill Cox, to extend his major league-leading total to 58. The pair of round-trippers gives the Tiger first baseman a total of 39 at Briggs Stadium, establishing a major league record for the most round-trippers hit at home in one season.

1939 – The hometown White Sox play the first “day-night” doubleheader against Cleveland, but lose both games, 5 – 2 and 7 – 5. Fans are charged separate admissions for each game.

Hank Greenberg again hits 2 homers, extending his record to 11 times in the same season. They are the last he will hit this season, as he falls 2 short of Babe Ruth’s 1927 record of 60.

In Detroit’s 10-2 rout of St. Louis in the nightcap of a twin bill, Hank Greenberg hits two home runs, both off Bill Cox, to extend his major league-leading total to 58. The pair of round-trippers gives the Tiger first baseman a total of 39 at Briggs Stadium, establishing a major league record for the most round-trippers hit at home in one season.

An ailing Lou Gehrig hits his 493rd and final major league home run off Senators’ right-hander Dutch Leonard. On the same date 15 years earlier, the Yankee first baseman had gone deep off Bill Piercy at Fenway Park for his first career home run.

1938 – Although they drop a doubleheader to the Browns, the Yankees clinch the pennant.

In the top of the seventh inning of the Cubs’ 4-0 victory over New York at the Polo Grounds, Ripper Collins hits his last career home run, finishing with 135 round-trippers during his nine-year tenure in the major leagues. The Chicago first baseman will remain the all-time switch-hitter home run leader for 18 years until Yankee slugger Mickey Mantle surpasses his total in 1956.

Johnny Rizzo becomes the first Pirates player in franchise history to hit 20 home runs in a season. The 25 year-old rookie outfielder from Texas, who becomes hurt next season, never playing regularly for the Bucs again, finishes the campaign batting .301 with 23 round-trippers and 111 RBIs.

1938 – Brothers Lloyd and Paul Waner of the Pirates hit consecutive homers off Cliff Melton in the 5th inning at the Polo Grounds. Pirates P Jim Tobin puts Mel Ott in the record book, hitting him with a pitch 3 times. Tobin wins 7 – 2. The Waners’ feat marks the first time in major league history that brothers have gone deep back-to-back; the next time will come on April 23, 2013, courtesy of B.J. and Justin Upton of the Atlanta Braves.

For the fifth time in a major league game, brothers homer in the same contest when Pirates teammates Lloyd and Paul Waner both go deep off Cliff Melton in the fifth inning in the fifth inning of the Bucs’ 7-2 victory over New York at the Polo Grounds. Although ‘Big and Little Poison’ have completed the deed twice before, they are the first siblings in history to hit the home runs in consecutive at-bats, a feat which will not be duplicated again until the Upton Brothers go back-to-back for the Braves in 2013.

1938 – A special committee names Alexander Cartwright to Baseball’s Hall of Fame for originating the sport’s basic concepts. Henry Chadwick, inventor of the box score and the first baseball writer, is also honored.