On July 28, 1969, Roy Campanella and Stan Musial join the legends of the Hall of Fame when they are inducted during a ceremony in Cooperstown. Catcher Campanella starred for the Brooklyn Dodgers, winning three Most Valuable Player Awards. Musial colleted 3,630 hits in a stellar career that included seven batting titles. Pitchers Stan Coveleski…
February 2, 1969 – Pitchers Stan Coveleski and Waite Hoyt are voted into the Hall of Fame by the Special Veterans Committee. Stan Coveleski learned control as a youngster by throwing rocks at tin cans that swung from a tree. Though he pitched a shutout in his first big league start with the Athletics in…
1951 – Smokey Joe Williams dies in New York City at age 62. Williams has been considered by many historians to be one of the game’s greatest pitchers, even though he never played a game in the major leagues. He spent his entire 27-year career (1905-1932) pitching in the Negro Leagues, Mexico and the Caribbean, but his path to the majors was barred by the color line. During his stellar career, he defeated five Hall of Fame pitchers in exhibition competition: Grover Alexander, Chief Bender, Waite Hoyt, Walter Johnson and Rube Marquard. In 1999, after extensive research on the early years of black baseball reveal his outstanding numbers, Williams will gain Hall of Fame honors himself.
September 22, 1940 – At Ebbets Field‚ the 2nd-place Dodgers sweep a pair from the last-place Phillies‚ winning 6-3 and 8-6. In between games‚ there is a 3-inning oldtimer match between the Robins and Dodger players of the 1930s. Included on the Robins side are fan-favorite Zach Wheat‚ Tim Jordan‚ Otto Miller‚ Rube Marquard‚ Sherry…
1936 – In an exhibition game in Pittsburgh, former Yankee Waite Hoyt stops his old teammates, 7 – 2. Lou Gehrig’s 6th-inning homer is the first score for New York. Ted Kleinhans is cuffed in his eight innings. While Hoyt wins, another old pitcher loses as the Pirates hand Guy Bush his release. The Bees will sign him.
1934 – Burleigh Grimes, in his second stint with the Pirates this year, picks up his 270th win, in relief, as the Pirates beat the Giants, 9 – 7. It is the Hall of Famer’s last major league win.
The veteran Waite Hoyt stops Dizzy Dean’s win streak at 10 with a 5 – 4 win in Pittsburgh.
1932 – The New York Giants release pitchers Waite Hoyt and Clarence Mitchell.
1932 – Waite Hoyt is released by the Philadelphia Athletics and will sign with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
In his attempt to break Walter Johnson’s consecutive game winning streak of 17 games, Lefty Grove loses when Browns’ hurler Dick Coffman throws a three-hit shutout, his only whitewash this season, against the A’s. Reserve outfielder Jimmy Moore, playing in place of the absent Al Simmons, misjudges a fly ball, which leads to the decisive run and subsequently to Lefty’s meltdown in the locker room.