2010 – Brad Mills’ managerial debut is a 15-5 Astros victory over a split squad of Washington Nationals. Hunter Pence gives the new skipper a happy send-off with two homers in the fourth inning during a nine-run frame which turned the momentum.
1978 – Rodrigo Rosario is born in La Romana, DR. The slender Dominican righthander wins his 2003 big league debut in memorable fashion but lands on the DL after injuring himself in his second start.
1966 – Andy Mota is born in Santo Domingo, DR. A September call-up during the 1991 season, the second baseman bats .189 in 27 games. His father Manny Mota was with the Houston franchise in the spring of 1963 but was traded before the regular season began.
2019 – San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer takes a leave of absence from his duties after a video showing him physically abusing his wife Pamela in a public park a few days earlier surfaces on the web.
2015 – The College Baseball Hall of Fame inducts eight new members. They are Joe Arnold (MVP of the 1966 NJCAA Baseball World Series and successful coach), Lance Berkman (Dick Howser Trophy winner in 1997 after leading NCAA Division I with 41 HR), Larry Hays (fifth coach to 1,400 wins), Al Holland (national ERA leader at both the NAIA and NCAA levels), Bill Holowaty (coach of four national champions in NCAA Division III), Mike Kelly (consensus Player of the Year in 1990 and three-time All-American), Rick Reichardt (.443 in 1964) and Frank Viola (26-2 at St. John’s).
With the Yankees struck by a number of key players either injured, or trying to return from serious injuries, GM Brian Cashman joins the fray. He breaks his fibula and dislocates his right ankle while making a charity parachute jump with the U.S. Army’s skydiving team, the Golden Knights, at Homestead Air Force Base.
Major League Baseball organizes a symposium on “Science Behind Anti-Doping” at its New York City headquarters. The meeting shares information about the latest developments in testing and involves both leading scientists and officials responsible for labor policy from the United States Olympic Committee, the NHL, the NFL, the NBA, the PGA and the NCAA, as well as the US Anti-Doping Agency, all of which are members of the “Partnership for Clean Competition”. MLB President Bob DuPuy gives the keynote address. The conference puts a particular focus on developments in the detection of human growth hormone.
Top Boston Red Sox prospect Ryan Westmoreland has to leave spring training for medical reasons and is diagnosed the next day with a cavernous malformation in the brain, a condition with effects similar to a stroke. He will undergo emergency surgery lasting five hours in Phoenix, AZ on March 16th.
2009 – The last major free agent left on the market, Manny Ramirez, reaches terms with the Los Angeles Dodgers for two years and $45 million. Ramirez had been a key playoff run pick-up for LA in 2008.
Replacing the $3,925,000, one-year contract signed in January, Brad Hawpe and the Rockies agree to a $17,425,000, three-year deal. The Colorado right fielder becomes the team’s fourth young player of the National League champs to receive a long term deal from the club.