1936 – After spring training, the Yomiuri Giants beat the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League managed by Lefty O’Doul, 5 – 0. On March 5th, the Giants will win again, 11 – 7.
1919 – Philadelphia Athletics owner Connie Mack makes one of his biggest player mistakes, trading third baseman Larry Gardner, outfielder Charlie Jamieson, and pitcher Elmer Myers to the Cleveland Indians for OF Braggo Roth. Veteran writer Ernest Lanigan predicts that Roth will lead the circuit in home runs at Shibe Park, but Roth will be shipped to the Boston Red Sox by midseason. Gardner will put in six more .300 years, and Jamieson will be a top leadoff man and .303 hitter for the next 14 years.
1910 – The National Commission prohibits giving mementos to players on winning World Series teams. This will later be reversed, making way for the traditional winners’ watches, rings, and stickpins.
1909 – The Pittsburgh Pirates begin construction of their new stadium near Schenley Park near the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. The state-of-the-art stadium will be named Forbes Field in honor of John Forbes, a pre-Revolutionary British general.
1903 – Baseball Rules Committee chairman Tom Loftus of the Washington Senators proclaims that the pitcher’s mound must not be more than 15 inches higher than the baselines or home plate.
1893 – John Pickett wins $1,285.72 in a lawsuit against the Baltimore Orioles, his most recent team. Baltimore had claimed that they did not owe him this sum – Picket’s entire 1892 salary – because he “was slow in his movement, and had a sore arm which incapacitated him from being of service to the club.”
1892 – The first meeting of the united National League and American Association takes place in New York. Only four teams from the collapsed 1891 AA are invited to join the NL, which will expand to 12 teams with a 154-game schedule split into two championship series.
1891 – The Pittsburgh Alleghenys and Cleveland Spiders are the two National League clubs making the heaviest raids against American Association player contracts, following the latter’s denunciation of the National Agreement two weeks ago. Pittsburgh further earns its new nickname of “Pirates” by signing good-hitting outfielder Pete Browning and pitcher Scott Stratton away from the Louisville Colonels.
1889 – The Philadelphia Quakers head for Jacksonville, Florida, for spring training. No other major league clubs will train in the Deep South this season.
1888 – The Washington Nationals National League club leaves on its southern tour a day earlier than scheduled, due to a superstition against starting a trip on a Friday.
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