The first major league game on artificial turf is played in the Astrodome – Don Sutton Picks up his first career win
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The first major league game on artificial turf is played in the Astrodome – Don Sutton Picks up his first career win

ByThis Day in Baseball

1966 – The first major league game on artificial turf is played in the Astrodome. Two future Hall-of-Famers face off. 21-year-old rookie Don Sutton stymies Robin Roberts and the Astros for a 6-3 Dodger win, the first of his career. The infield was carpeted with the Monsanto product Judge Roy Hofheinz dubbed “Astroturf”. The outfield and foul grounds were still dirt but had the zippered sod installed after the homestand.

Ted Williams becomes the first major leaguer to homer in four different decades 

Ted Williams becomes the first major leaguer to homer in four different decades 

ByThis Day in Baseball

Ted Williams becomes the first major leaguer to homer in four different decades when he blasts a pitch from Senators’ right-hander Camilo Pascual 500 feet over the center field wall for the only run in the Red Sox’s 10-1 Opening Day loss at Griffith Stadium. In 1939, the then 20 year-old ‘Kid’ hit the first of his 521 career round-trippers, a first-inning two-run shot off Philadelphia’s Bud Thomas at Fenway Park.

Vada Pinson connects on Grandslam in his second game
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Vada Pinson connects on Grandslam in his second game

ByTom

VINTAGE BASEBALL MEMORABILIA Vintage Baseball Memorabilia April 18, 1958 – In his 2nd major league game‚ Vada Pinson‚ 19 (Total Baseball will list Pinson’s birth year as 1938: Macmillan and Bill James Abstract will list it as 1936) belts a grand slam in the 3rd inning off Ron Kline to account for all the Reds…

The Los Angeles Dodgers play their first game at the Los Angeles Coliseum in front of a crowd of 78,672. Carl Erskine gets the win, besting Al Worthington and the San Francisco Giants, 6 – 5.

The Los Angeles Dodgers play their first game at the Los Angeles Coliseum in front of a crowd of 78,672. Carl Erskine gets the win, besting Al Worthington and the San Francisco Giants, 6 – 5.

ByBaseball

The Los Angeles Dodgers play their first game at the Los Angeles Coliseum in front of a crowd of 78,672. Carl Erskine gets the win, besting Al Worthington and the San Francisco Giants, 6 – 5.

Luis Arroyo hits 8th and Bill Mazeroski 9th for the Pirates. It will be 51 years before another Pirate pitcher hits 8th when Paul Maholm does so in 2008. Manager Bobby Bragan had batted the pitcher 7th 20 games in a row in August-September of 1956.

Luis Arroyo hits 8th and Bill Mazeroski 9th for the Pirates. It will be 51 years before another Pirate pitcher hits 8th when Paul Maholm does so in 2008. Manager Bobby Bragan had batted the pitcher 7th 20 games in a row in August-September of 1956.

ByThis Day in Baseball

Luis Arroyo hits 8th and Bill Mazeroski 9th for the Pirates. It will be 51 years before another Pirate pitcher hits 8th when Paul Maholm does so in 2008. Manager Bobby Bragan had batted the pitcher 7th 20 games in a row in August-September of 1956.

Roger Maris hits a game-winning, grand-slam home run in the top of the 11th inning against Detroit

Roger Maris hits a game-winning, grand-slam home run in the top of the 11th inning against Detroit

ByThis Day in Baseball

At Briggs Stadium, Roger Maris hits a game-winning, grand-slam home run in the top of the 11th inning against Detroit in the Indians’ second game of the season. In his major league debut two days ago, the 22 year-old rookie outfielder went 3-for-5 in the Tribe’s 3-2 loss to Chicago at Cleveland Stadium.

Ed Rommel becomes the first major league umpire to wear glasses during a game when he mans third base during the Yankees’ 9-5 victory over Washington at Griffith Stadium. The bespectacled arbitrator, known as the father of the modern knuckleball, played 13 seasons with Philadelphia, compiling an impressive record of 171-119 with the A’s from 1920 to 1932.

ByTom

Ed Rommel becomes the first major league umpire to wear glasses during a game when he mans third base during the Yankees’ 9-5 victory over Washington at Griffith Stadium. The bespectacled arbitrator, known as the father of the modern knuckleball, played 13 seasons with Philadelphia, compiling an impressive record of 171-119 with the A’s from 1920 to 1932.

Roberto Clemente’s first major league home run – a 440- to 450-foot inside-the-parker off Giants southpaw Don Liddle – arrives three games into his big league career and it’s just his luck that it occurs in the one stadium that, due to its freakish configuration, could possibly have contained this blast, namely the Polo Grounds, that semi-rectangular oddity wherein 279- and 257-foot foul lines coexist with 455- and 449-foot power alleys. This first New York visit also has a deeper significance for Clemente since, in his third major league game, he’s playing on the same field with both his new mentor and role model, Willie Mays (alongside whom he was playing just two months earlier in Santurce), and his boyhood hero, Monte Irvin, whose winter ball career Clemente monitored religiously in the late 1940s and who, in the interim, has himself become both a teammate and something of a mentor to Mays.

Roberto Clemente’s first major league home run – a 440- to 450-foot inside-the-parker off Giants southpaw Don Liddle – arrives three games into his big league career and it’s just his luck that it occurs in the one stadium that, due to its freakish configuration, could possibly have contained this blast, namely the Polo Grounds, that semi-rectangular oddity wherein 279- and 257-foot foul lines coexist with 455- and 449-foot power alleys. This first New York visit also has a deeper significance for Clemente since, in his third major league game, he’s playing on the same field with both his new mentor and role model, Willie Mays (alongside whom he was playing just two months earlier in Santurce), and his boyhood hero, Monte Irvin, whose winter ball career Clemente monitored religiously in the late 1940s and who, in the interim, has himself become both a teammate and something of a mentor to Mays.

ByBaseball

Roberto Clemente’s first major league home run – a 440- to 450-foot inside-the-parker off Giants southpaw Don Liddle – arrives three games into his big league career and it’s just his luck that it occurs in the one stadium that, due to its freakish configuration, could possibly have contained this blast, namely the Polo Grounds, that semi-rectangular oddity wherein 279- and 257-foot foul lines coexist with 455- and 449-foot power alleys. This first New York visit also has a deeper significance for Clemente since, in his third major league game, he’s playing on the same field with both his new mentor and role model, Willie Mays (alongside whom he was playing just two months earlier in Santurce), and his boyhood hero, Monte Irvin, whose winter ball career Clemente monitored religiously in the late 1940s and who, in the interim, has himself become both a teammate and something of a mentor to Mays.