August 3, 1888 - Kansas City Cowboys rookie Billy Hamilton, recently purchased from Worcester, steals his first base in the major leagues. Before returning to the minors in 1902, Sliding Billy will amass 912 stolen bases, a record broken by Lou Brock in 1979.
August 3, 1906 - Tom Hughes of the Washington Nationals becomes the first pitcher to win a 1-0 extra-inning game with his own home run when he homers in the tenth for a 1-0 win over the St. Louis Browns.
August 3, 1940 - With Ernie Lombardi hurt, Reds catcher Willard Hershberger is hitting .309 after taking over. However, depressed in recent weeks, Hershberger commits suicide by slashing his throat in Boston's Copley Plaza Hotel. Hershberger blamed himself for calling wrong pitches in the 5-4 loss to New York July 31. Hershberger's father had also committed suicide, in 1928.
August 3, 1941 - The Browns Johnny Niggeling gets Joe DiMaggio in four at bats to stop DiMaggio's streak of 74 games in reaching base.
August 3, 1948 - Cleveland's Satchel Paige made his first major league start and went seven innings to lead the Indians to a 5-3 victory over the Washington Senators.
August 3, 1959 - For the first time, there are two All-Star Games in the same year. With the managers picking the starting lineup, the American League wins this second contest 5-3 at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
August 3, 1961 - The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals 19-0 for the largest shutout margin in a National League night game.
August 3, 1980 - Al Kaline, Duke Snider, Chuck Klein, and Tom Yawkey are inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
August 3, 1982 - The White Sox sweep a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium, 1-0, and 14-2, prompting Yankees owner George Steinbrenner to fire manager Gene Michael and replace him with pitching coach Clyde King. King is the Yankees' third manager this season.
August 3, 1986 - Willie McCovey, Bobby Doerr, and Ernie Lombardi are inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
August 3, 1987 - Twins pitcher Joe Niekro is caught with a file on the mound and is ejected during Minnesota's 11-3 win over the Angels. He will be suspended for ten games by American League president Bobby Brown, who doesn't buy Niekro's story that he had been filing his nails on the bench and stuck the file in his back pocket when the inning started.
August 3, 1989 - The Reds score fourteen runs in the first inning of an 18-2 demolition of the Astros. Major league records set during the onslaught include most hits in an inning (16), most players with two hits in an inning (7), and most singles in an inning (12).
August 3, 1997 - Knuckleball pitcher Phil Niekro, former Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda, second baseman Nellie Fox, and Negro League shortstop Willie Wells are inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
August 3, 2004- In a game in which Cardinal first baseman Albert Pujols becomes the first player in history to hit at least 30 homers in each of his first four big league seasons, Tony Batista goes deep twice, knotting the score in the ninth and winning the game in the 12th. The Expos third baseman’s 199th and 200th career blasts helps Montreal beat the St. Louis in extra innings, 10-6.
August 3, 2006- The 715th home run ball hit by Barry Bonds to pass Babe Ruth for second place on the all-time career list fetches $220,100 during an 10-day EBay auction. The money, which will go to Andrew Morbitzer, the fan who caught the ball, is much less than the $800,000 dished out in 2004 for the ball the Giants left fielder's hit for his 700th career homer.
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