Cleveland trades pitchers Luis Tiant and Stan Williams to the Twins for 3B Graig Nettles, OF Ted Uhlaender, and pitchers Dean Chance and Bob Miller. Tiant led the American League in ERA in 1968.
Kansas City Royals trade pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm to the California Angels
The U.S. Supreme Court, by a vote of 4 to 3, refuses to review Wisconsin’s suit to block the Braves’ move to Atlanta. The team originally announced its intention to move to the Peach State for the 1965 season, but the injunction filed by the state in Wisconsin forced the club to stay put in Milwaukee for one final year.
1964 – While the official name will remain the Harris County Domed Stadium, Judge Roy Hofheinz introduces his new ballpark as the “Astrodome” for the first time while displaying the team’s new logo of baseballs in orbit around a likeness of the new stadium.
1963 – Minnesota LF Harmon Killebrew undergoes knee surgery.
1962 – The Red Sox ship Carroll Hardy to Houston for Dick Williams.
1954 – Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente lead the North to victory in the Puerto Rican Winter League’s annual all-star fund-raiser. The Sporting News correspondent Pita Alvarez De La Vega gives the exuberant young duo’s exploits some national exposure: “The league took a break from its pennant battle to stage the annual ‘Three Kings’ all-star game at Mayaguez. All proceeds went into a YMCA fund to buy gifts for the island’s poor children in keeping with the old Latin tradition of the Three Kings bringing gifts on January 6… The All-Star North team, made up of players from the Santurce and Mayaguez clubs, won the game, 7 to 5. Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente hit home runs for the winners.”
1952 – Peter J. McGovern becomes president of the Little League, succeeding Charles Durban, who resigns because of ill health. The Little League began in 1939 with eight teams in two leagues and has grown to over 1,800 leagues in 44 states and several foreign countries.
1950 – The owners vote to drop the bonus and high school rule which was designed to prevent the wealthier clubs from buying up all of the available talent. The rule required that all “bonus players” had to stay on the major league roster after one season in the minors.
1949 – By a 7-1 vote, the American League rejects a proposal to bring back the legal spitball. The rules committee also alters the strike zone to the space between the armpits and the top of the knees. The new rule eliminates the batter’s shoulders being within the strike zone.
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