Lou Gehrig Speech Mantle's 300th Righetti No-Hitter

July 4, 1905 - In the afternoon game of a doubleheader, Philadelphia's Rube Waddell bests Cy Young in a 25-inning marathon as the Athletics down Boston 4-2. A's catcher Ossee Schreckengost works twenty-eught innings in one day, a Major League record.

July 4, 1911 - In the morning game between Chicago and Detroit, Ed Walsh stops Ty Cobb's 40-game hitting streak as the White Sox win 7-3. Cobb has batted .491 since the streak started on May 15.

July 4, 1939 - A tearful Lou Gehrig tells 61,808 fans at Yankee Stadium, 'I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.' Gehrig's uniform number four is retired, the first Major League player so honored.

July 4, 1960 - Mickey Mantle's three-run first-inning home run off Hal Woodeshick is the 300th of his career. Mantle becomes the 18th player to join the 300 club, but the Yankees drop a 9-8 decision to Washington.

July 4, 1974 - Mike Marshall picks up a 3-2 win over Reds. Over the past 30 days, Marshall is 9-0 with three saves and a 1.82 ERA in twenty appearances.

July 4, 1980 - Nolan Ryan fans Reds outfielder Cesar Geronimo to become the fourth pitcher ever to reach 3,000 career strikeouts. Geronimo was also Bob Gibson's 3,000th career strikeout victim. Despite the milestone, Ryan is tagged with the 8-1 loss.

July4, 1983 - Dave Righetti pitches the Yankees' first no-hitter since Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series. He handcuffs the Red Sox 4-0 before a holiday crowd of 41,077 at Yankee Stadium.

July 4, 1984 - Phil Niekro strikes out five batters in the Yankees' 5-0 win over Texas to become the ninth pitcher in major league history to record 3,000 career strikeouts.

July 4, 1985 - In a marathon game that borders on the surreal, the Mets endure two rain delays and six hours and ten minutes of playing time to beat the Braves 16-13 in 19 innings. Relief pitcher Rick Camp, an .060 career hitter, homers in the 18th inning to tie the game no pitcher has ever homered that late in a game. Keith Hernandez hits for the cycle in a game that ends at 3:55 a.m. on July 5, the latest finish in Major League history. At 4:01 a.m., the post-game fireworks display begins, causing some local residents to think the city is under attack.

Happy Birthday George Steinbrenner

Mike Schmidt Retires

May 29, 1976 - The only home run of Joe Niekro's 22-year career comes at the expense of brother Phil as the Astros tie the Braves in the seventh, then win 4-3.

May 29, 1989 - Phillies third baseman Mike Schmidt, 39, retires. He is seventh on the all-time home run list with 548, but was hitting just .203 this season before making his tearful farewell speech.

May 29, 1990 - Rickey Henderson steals his 893rd career base in Oakland's 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays, surpassing Ty Cobb as the A.L.'s all-time leader. Lou Brock's mark of 938 is next.

May 29, 1992 - Tim Raines of the White Sox swipes his 700th career base.

1993 - Jose Canseco, who three days earlier had a ball bounce off his head for a home run, pitches an inning in a blowout in Boston. The result? Besides the Rangers' 15-1 loss, Canseco winds up having to undergo season-ending elbow surgery from his ill-advised outing.

Ty Cobb First To 1,000 Career Extra Base Hits

May 26, 1925 - In Detroit's 8-1 win over the White Sox, Ty Cobb becomes the first to collect 1,000 career extra-base hits. He will finish with 1,139.

May 26, 1930 - Joe Sewell strikes out twice facing lefthander Pat Caraway of the White Sox. It is the last time the Indians third baseman will fan this season, striking out only three times in 353 at-bats.

May 26, 1946 - At 2-for-42 and hitting .048 for the season, Mel Ott stops playing and only manages the Giants.

May 26, 1950 - The Athletics make some changes. Connie Mack's son, Earle, who had been assistant manager, assumes the duties of chief scout. Earle, who had hoped to succeed his father as manager, is replaced by Jimmy Dykes. Mickey Cochrane is named general manager.

May 26, 1959 - In a singular performance, Harvey Haddix of the Pirates pitches a perfect game against Milwaukee for 12 innings, only to lose in the 13th. Felix Mantilla opens the last inning by reaching base on an error. A sacrifice and an intentional walk to Hank Aaron brings up Joe Adcock, who hits one out of the park in right-center field for an apparent 3-0 victory. Aaron leaves the field, and Adcock passes him on the basepaths. Both are called out as Mantilla scores. Lew Burdette goes all the way for his eighth win, scattering 12 hits.

May 26, 1997 - Two inside-the-park home runs are hit in a span of five minutes on Memorial Day in Pittsburgh. First, Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa touches them all in the top of the sixth inning, then Tony Womack flies around the bases in 13 seconds in the bottom of the inning. The Cubs hold off the Bucs, 2-1, but it is the first time in 21 years that two N.L. players hit inside-the-parkers in the same game.

Joe DiMaggio Starts 56 Game Hitting Streak

May 15, 1894 - In the aftermath of a fierce fight between Baltimore's John McGraw and Boston's Tommy Tucker in the third inning, a devastating fire starts in the right field stands at Boston's South End Grounds. The fire destroys $70,000 worth of equipment as well as the park, the only truly double-decked grandstand Boston would ever have.

May 15, 1912 - Ty Cobb charges into the stands in New York and attacks heckler Claude Lueker. Other fans and Tigers mix it up. A.L. president Ban Johnson suspends Cobb indefinitely.

May 15, 1922 - In a game at New York, Ty Cobb beats out a grounder to shortstop Everett Scott. Veteran writer Fred Lieb scores it a hit in the box score he files with the Associated Press. But official scorer John Kieran of the Times gives an error to Scott. At the season's end, the A.L. official records, based on AP box scores, list Cobb at .401. New York writers complain unsuccessfully that it should be .399, based on the official scorer's stats.

May 15, 1941 - Joe DiMaggio gets a single against Eddie Smith of the Chicago White Sox to start his 56-game hitting streak. Joe D's hit goes unnoticed as the Yankees lose 13-1.

May 15, 1960 - Two days after being traded from the Phillies to the Cubs, Don Cardwell pitches a no-hitter. Two brilliant defensive plays — a leaping catch of Carl Sawatski's drive by right fielder George Altman in the eighth inning and Walt Moryn's game-ending sliding grab — save Cardwell's gem. Ernie Banks' home run paces the 4-0 win, the first no-hitter against the Cards since May 11, 1919.

May 15, 1968 - The first A.L. game played in Milwaukee since 1901 is a 4-2 California win against Chicago before 23,403 fans. This is the first of the nine games the White Sox will play in Milwaukee in 1968.

May 15, 1973 - California's Nolan Ryan strikes out 12 and hurls his first career no-hitter in beating Kansas City 3-0. For catcher Jeff Torborg, it is his third no-hitter.

May 15, 1981 - Len Barker pitches the ninth perfect game in the 20th century. The Indians righthander hurls the 3-0 perfecto over the Blue Jays before just 7,290 fans on a rainy night in Cleveland. Barker, the 1980 strikeout leader in the A.L., fans 11 Jays.

May 15, 1989 - The Blue Jays fire manager Jimy Williams and replace him with hitting coach Cito Gaston. Williams led the club to a 12-24 start and had several publicized run-ins with star slugger George Bell, who refused to be the club's designated hitter.

May 15, 1991 - The Red Sox and White Sox play the slowest nine-inning game to date in major league history (four hours, 11 minutes), but Boston rallies from a 5-0 deficit for a 9-6 win.
1998 - A blockbuster trade involves seven players whose guaranteed contracts combine for a record $98 million. The Dodgers get Gary Sheffield, Bobby Bonilla, Charles Johnson, and Jim Eisenreich and send Mike Piazza and Todd Zeile to the Marlins. With the trade, Florida has officially purged itself of a dozen costly and quality players from the team that won the World Series seven months earlier. Piazza, a superstar in Los Angeles, had turned down a six-year, $80-million offer to stay with the Dodgers.

Happy Birthday John Smoltz, George Brett and Josh Beckett