Baseball History on August 21
Major League Baseball Events on August 21 | Baseball Almanac
Baseball history on August 21, including a list of every Major League baseball player born on August 21, a list of every Major League baseball player who died on August 21, a list of every Major League baseball player who made their big league debut on August 21, and a list of every Major League baseball player whose final big league game was on August 21.
"No matter how your mind works, baseball reaches out to you. If you're an emotional person, baseball asks for your heart. If you are a thinking man or a thinking woman, baseball wants your opinion. Whether you are left-brain or right-brain, Type A or Type Z, whether your mind is bent towards mathematics or toward history or psychology or geometry, whether you are young or old, baseball has its way of asking for you. If you are a reader, there is always something new to read about baseball, and always something old. If you are a sedentary person, a TV watcher, baseball is on TV; if you always have to be going somewhere, baseball is somewhere you can go. If you are a collector, baseball offers you a hundred things that you can collect. If you have children, baseball is something you can do with children; if you have parents and cannot talk to them, baseball is something you can still talk to them about." - Baseball Historian Bill James in The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (Free Press Publishing, 06/13/2003, "Part 1: The Game", Page 5)
Baseball history on August 21 includes a total of Major League baseball players born that day of the year, Major League baseball players who died on that date, baseball players who made their Major League debut on that date, and Major League baseball players who appeared in their final game that date.
On August 21 in Baseball History...
- 1883 - In the most decisive shutout in major league history, the Philadelphia Quakers rout the Providence Grays 28-0.
- 1917 - Now with Philadelphia, Chief Bender, 34, pitches his third straight shutout, winning 6-0 over the Cubs. In his last active season, Bender will turn in four shutouts, finishing 8-2 with a 1.67 ERA.
- 1926 - Ted Lyons of the Chicago White Sox pitched a no-hitter over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, winning 6-0 in a quick 1 hour, 7 minutes.
- 1931 - Babe Ruth hits his 600th home run, off George Blaeholder of the Browns, as the Yankees win 11-7.
- 1932 - Cleveland's Wes Ferrell becomes the first 20th-century pitcher to win 20 or more games in each of his first four seasons, beating Washington 11-5.
- 1947 - The first Little League World Series tournament is held in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Maynard Midgets of Williamsport, with a tourney batting average of .625, win the World Series 16-7.
- 1948 - Aaron Robinson homers in the ninth inning off Bob Lemon to help the White Sox beat the Indians 3-2. The run breaks the 47-inning scoreless streak by Indians pitchers. Baltimore will extend the record in 1974 to 54 innings.
- 1949 - A barrage of bottles from the Philadelphia stands as protest of a decision by umpire George Barr over a trapped line drive by Richie Ashburn results in the first forfeiture in the major leagues in seven years. The Giants are leading 4-2 with one out in the ninth when the forfeit occurs.
- 1972 - Steve Carlton of Philadelphia had his 15-game winning streak snapped when Phil Niekro and the Atlanta Braves beat the Phillies 2-1 in 11 innings.
- 1975 - Pitching brothers Rick and Paul Reuschel combine to hurl the Cubs to a 7-0 victory over the Dodgers. This is the first time brothers have collaborated on a shutout.
- 1982 - Milwaukee's Rollie Fingers records his 300th career save in a 3-2 win at Seattle, becoming the first player to reach that milestone.
- 1986 - Spike Owen had four hits and became the first major leaguer in 40 years to score six runs in a game as the Boston Red Sox routed the Cleveland Indians 24-5 with a 24-hit attack.
- 1989 - Cubs rookie outfielder Jerome Walton goes 0-for-4 in a 6-5, ten-inning loss to the Reds, ending his hitting streak at 30 consecutive games.
- 1997 - Oakland hit six home runs, including a team record four in one inning as the Athletics posted a 13-6 win over the Boston Red Sox. Oakland hit homers off Steve Avery in each of the first three innings and three off reliever Kerry Lacy in the third.
Did you know that there were baseball players born on every date of the year and baseball players who died on every date of the year? Use the calendar below to select any date in baseball history.
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Bill James, on the same page of the same book we used at the top of this page, said, "But as I began to do research on the history of baseball (in order to discuss the players more intelligently) I began to feel that there was a history a baseball that had not been written at that time, a history of good and ordinary players, a history of being a fan, a history of games that meant something at the time but mean nothing now." To that end, I have created Baseball Almanac. A site to worship baseball. A site by a fan who is trying to tell the history of good and ordinary baseball players.