Okay, now on to the good stuff, courtesy of baseball-almanac.com … enjoy!
June 19, 1846
Alexander Cartwright
The first baseball game using the Cartwright Rules is played. The first baseball game between two different teams was played on June 19, 1846 at Elysian Field in Hoboken, New Jersey. The two teams, the 'Knickerbockers' and the 'New York Nine,' played with Cartwright's 20 rules. Cartwright’s team, the Knickerbockers, lost 23 to 1 to the New York Nine club in four innings. Some say that Cartwright's team lost because his best players did not want to make the trip across the river. Cartwright was the umpire during this game and fined one player six cents for cursing. Don’t believe anyone who tells you Abner Doubleday invented the Great American Game – as the famous saying goes, “the only thing Abner Doubleday ever started was the Civil War.” Doubleday fired the first Union shot at Fort Sumter, as a matter of historical record.
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1871
Baseball’s second statistic (right after the final score) is invented – the batting average, after a game between Boston and Cleveland.
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May 12, 1876
Ross Barnes
Baseball’s first great hitter, secondbaseman Ross Barnes, hits the first home run in the history of the National League. Barnes was a lifetime .359 hitter whose career was cut short due to illness.
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September 10, 1881
Roger Connor of Troy hits the first grand slam in National League history off Worcester's Lee Richmond.
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May 1, 1884
Moses Fleetwood Walker
Moses Walker becomes the first African-American player to appear in a major league game with the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association. His brother Weldy also played in the major leagues, 63 years before Jackie Robinson played for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
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September 10, 1885
A gentleman named Joe Harrington becomes the first big-leaguer ever to homer in his first at-bat.
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June 6, 1892
Benjamin Harrison
President Harrison makes history by becoming the first Chief Executive to attend a major league game.
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April 17, 1901
The first game in the history of the American League sees the White Sox win 8-2. The Sox take the first AL flag that season with a record of 83-53.
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May 1, 1920
Let’s play three: Brooklyn’s Leon Cadore and Joe Oeschger of the Boston Braves duel to a 1-1 tie in the longest game in big league history – 26 innings.
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August 5, 1921
The first radio broadcast of a baseball game is heard on Pittsburgh’s KDKA radio. The Pirates beat the Phillies 8-5.
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March 5, 1922
Babe Ruth
The Bambino becomes the first ballplayer in history to make $50,000 per year. How times have changed!
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June 9, 1946
Let’s play none: Nearly 100 years to the day after Alexander Cartwright fined a player six cents for cursing. New York Giants manager Mel Ott becomes the first manager ever to be thrown out of both ends of a doubleheader. Cartwright might have been perturbed.
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April 15, 1947
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson re-breaks the color barrier in major league baseball. He goes on to win the 1947 Rookie of the Year award and changes the game forever.
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September 8, 1965
Bert Campaneris
Kansas City’s Bert Campaneris becomes the first player to play all nine positions in a single game.
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June 15, 1976
The “Eighth Wonder of the World”, the Houston Astrodome, makes history as the first domed stadium ever to host a rainout. The roof didn’t leak – but the roads leading to the park were impassable after torrential rains.
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July 17, 1990
My beloved Minnesota Twins become the first and only team to turn two triple plays in the same game, at Fenway against the Red Sox. Gary Gaetti is the lucky thirdbaseman who started both triple killings. The next season they became the only team ever to go from last place in one season to World Series champs the next.
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The evolution of the baseball salary
Upthread we saw that Babe Ruth became baseball’s first $50,000 man in 1922. Since the advent of free agency in the 1970s, however, the top salaries have zoomed higher and higher. How many of these players do you remember, and how many were worth the money?
First $500,000 player – Mike Schmidt, Philadelphia, 1977
First $1 million player – Nolan Ryan, Houston, 1979
First $5 million player – Roger Clemens, Boston, 1991
First $10 million player – Albert Belle, White Sox, 1996
First $15 million player – Kevin Brown, Los Angeles Dodgers, 1998
First $20 million player – Manny Ramirez, Boston, December 11, 2000
First $25 million player – Alex Rodriguez, Texas, later that same day (he’ll make $27 million in 2007)
