May 15
The greatest of events sometimes start off in the quietest ways. In a 13-1 hammering at the hands of the White Sox on May 15, 1941, Joe DiMaggio got a single in four trips against Ed Smith, but it was the first hit (and game) in Joe's unprecedented (and unmatched) 56-game hitting streak.
If you read here, you know that I never tire of sharing Mickey Mantle exploits. The Yanks won the first game of a twin bill, 8-4, vs. the A's on this day in 1955, thanks to Irv Noren's inside-the-park grand slam. The New Yorkers had to settle for a split after losing the other contest, 4-3, even though Mickey went 4-for-9 on the day.
Then on May 15, 1963, Number 7 brought the Yanks from behind against Pedro Ramos of the Twins. Trailing 3-0, Mickey Mantle got the Yanks going with a two-run homer. Later, he scored the winning run as the Yanks prevailed, 4-3.
And finally, two years later on May 15, 1965, Mickey Mantle served an opposite-field dinger in Memorial Stadium off Dick Hall in a 3-2 Yankee win over the Orioles.
WithJason Giambi struggling mightily early in the 2005 season, Tino Martinez caught fire in May. On the 15th he homered his first two times up in a 6-4 win over the A's in Oakland. It was Randy Johnson's 250th career victory, and it started a 10-game Yankee winning streak. The loss was Oakland's eighth straight.
It was a move that smacked of desperation and certainly one that fans thought would be of no consequence when the Yankees acquired righthander Tanyon Sturtze from the Los Angeles Dodgers for a player to be named on May 15, 2004. Minor league infielder Brian Myrow would be that player, but Sturtze excelled in long relief and spot starting to a 6-2, one-save season.
Struggling lefty reliever Sean Henn was optioned to AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on May 15, 2007, as the Yanks purchased the contract of lefty Ron Villone to take his place. Room on the 40-man roster was cleared when righty Jose Veras was transferred from the 15-day to the 60-day disabled list.
It was a bleak day in what would be a glorious season in New York when the Mariners stormed back from a 4-0 deficit and hammered Jimmy Key and most of the New York pen in a 10-5 win over the Yanks on May 15, 1996. Key, who had missed much of the previous season after arm surgery, was placed on the DL following his fifth straight loss. But he would return, rebound to a 12-11 season mark, and get the win in the Yanks' Game Six deciding triumph in the World Series. In the May 15 tilt, Edgar Martinez led Seattle with four rbi's, while Mariano Rivera extended his streak to 21.7 innings without allowing a run.
Second baseman Robinson Cano scored the Yanks's first run and drove in their second, but it wasn't enough as the Yanks fell 4-2 to Kevin Millwood and the Texas Rangers in a rainy Yankee Stadium on May 15, 2006.
Lou Gehrig stole home 15 times in his illustrious career, all of them as the front end of double steals. He last accomplished the feat on this day in 1935 in a 4-0 win over the Tigers.
May 15 is the day of two Yankee "lowlights" featuring the legendary Ty Cobb. A disputed base hit (hit or error?) on a grounder to short by the irascible Tiger in a 6-1 Detroit win in Hilltop Park in 1922 resulted in his .401 season mark that year (rather than the .399 that would have resulted from an E-6). And Cobb would earn a suspension in the 1912, 8-4 Tigers win after he charged the stands and attacked a crippled fan.
Union Grounds, the sport's first-ever baseball enclosure, opened on May 15, 1862, in Brooklyn, New York.
The Yankees took a misstep on May 15, 1996, when they outbid four other teams for Japanese hurler Katsuhiro Maeda, who not only never made it to the parent club, he didn't appear in the bigs at all.
The Bombers sent two players to St. Louis on May 15, 1950, selling the contract of veteran outfielder Johnny Lindell to the Cardinals, and moving pitcher Clarence "Cuddles" Marshall to the Browns.
The Yanks parted ways with two other players on May 15. Outfielder Dusty Cooke, who had been dispatched to the minors the year before, was grabbed by the Red Sox in 1933, while the parent club in the Bronx sold hurler Russ Van Atta to the Giants in 1935.
We will start a slew of pitching achievements with Nolan Ryan's 12-strike out shutout over Kansas City on May 15, 1973 in the first of his seven career no-hitters.
In other May 15 no-hitters, Reds relief pitcher Clyde Shoun made a rare start on this day in 1944, and he made it count and squeaked out a 1-0 victory as he no-hit the Boston Braves. Reserve third baseman Chuck Alevo's only home run of the '44 campaign accounted for the scoring. Virgil "Fire" Trucks was 33 when he no-hit the Tigers on May 15, 1952, also by a 1-0 score, winning on a two-out, ninth-inning home run off the bat of Vic Wertz. And one-time Mets hurler Don Cardwell no-hit the Cardinals as a Chicago Cub on this day in 1960. Finally, Claude Hendrix also threw a no-hit, no-run game on May 15, 1915, for the Federal League Chicago Whales over the Pittsburgh Rebels.
And all the feats in that impressive May 15 pitching streak were topped in 1981 as Indians pitcher Len Barker threw the ninth Perfect Game in major league history, a 3-0 victory over the Blue Jays.
In honor of the Yankee first-base coach, we'll report that Tony Pena was hired to manage the K.C. Royals on May 15, 2002. Also on May 15, two pitchers with Pinstripes on their resumes had big days with their bats two years apart. Rick Rhoden doubled and homered in a nine-run Piittsburgh third inning in their 12-9 win over the Reds in 1982. And Tim Lollar collected all four San Diego rbi's when they fell 6-4 to the Braves on May 15, 1984. They were done in by light-hitting hurler Joaquin Andujar's grand slam. And in one last feat by a future Yankee player on May 15, Wee Willie Keeler drove the ball past startled Phillies left fielder Ed Delahanty for an inside-the-park grand slam in Brooklyn's 8-5 win on May 15, 1899.
Players Who Have Died This Day
Lefty-hitting catcher Bill Drescher (1968) is the only Yankee player to have died on May 15. Drescher played only for New York, collecting 16 rbi's with no home runs in 57 games in 1944 through 1946. He managed 37 hits in 139 at bats.
We'll list infielder Patsy Tebeau (1918) first among three noteworthy nonYankee players to have died this day. Tebeau hit most of his 27 home runs with 735 rbi's from 1887 through 1900 with Cleveland. Lefty-hitting outfielder Goose Goslin (1971) was a thorn in the Yankees' side from 1921-1938, when he blasted 248 long balls and knocked in 1,609 runs with the Senators, the Tigers, and the Browns. And switch-hitting catcher Johnny Gooch (1975) hit most of his seven long balls good for 293 runs driven in from 1921-1930 and in 1933 with the Pirates.
Players Born This Day
The first of two Yankee May 15 birthdays belongs to a player familiar to all who have been following the Yanks during the just concluded Joe Torre era, Japanese pitcher Hideki Irabu. He arrived in New York in May 1997 in a deal that was actually agreed upon that April. The Padres sent Irabu, Homer Bush, and minor-leaguers Gordon Amerson and Vernon Maxwell to the Yankees for Rafael Medina, Ruben Rivera, and cash. Irabu posted a 29-20 record in New York while earning the wrath of owner George Steinbrenner, and was shipped to the Montreal Expos for pitchers Jake Westbrook, Ted Lilly, and Christian Parker in December 1999.
And C.B. Burns (1879) is listed with no position in the only big-league game he ever played. Because he stroked a hit in his only at bat in that game playing for the 1902 Baltimore Orioles, he is the rare player who goes down in history with a 1.000 batting average. And those Orioles, of course, are the franchise that moved to New York the following season and became the Highlanders, and eventually the Yankees.
Other May 15 birthdays: Hall of Famer and Yankee tormentor George Brett (1953) leads off here (even though he batted third and fourth for most of his career); Oakland A Billy North (1948); Steve Dunning (1949); Cleveland Indians hurler Rick Waits (1952), who beat the Yanks on the 1978 season's last day to force the playoff game that featured Bucky Dent's homer over the Green Monster in Fenway; Braves former starter then closer and now starter again John Smoltz (1967); A.J. Hinch (1974); Steve Woodard (1975); Eric Dubose (1976); Tyler Walker (1976); Josh Beckett (1980); and Justin Morneau (1981).
|
