The Tampa Bay Rays’ record stands at 31-20, the best in the majors. This makes them the second team in major league history to have the best record on Memorial Day a year after having the worst record in the majors.
In a doubleheader loss to the Marlins, Giants shortstop Omar Vizquel ties (in the first game) and then breaks (in the second) the major league record for career games played at the position. By reaching 2,584 games played, Vizquel passes a fellow Venezuelan, Luís Aparicio.
In the German Bundesliga, Enorbel Márquez of the Solingen Alligators throws a 16-strikeout perfect game in a 9 – 0 rout of the Bonn Capitals. Márquez, a star of the German national team, is paired once again with backstop Kai Gronauer. Gronauer signed with the New York Mets earlier in the season but visa issues have kept him in Germany longer than anticipated.
2008 – Jose Valverde takes a line drive off the face yet stays in the game to notch his league-leading 15th save in a 4-3 triumph against the Phillies. Hunter Pence had drilled two solo homers and Brandon Backe allowed just one run over 7-1/3rd innings but Valverde steals the spotlight with his amazing toughness.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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