Baseball History on September 4
Major League Baseball Events on September 4 | Baseball Almanac
Baseball history on September 4, including a list of every Major League baseball player born on September 4, a list of every Major League baseball player who died on September 4, a list of every Major League baseball player who made their big league debut on September 4, and a list of every Major League baseball player whose final big league game was on September 4.
"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 September 4 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 September 4 in Baseball History...
- 1891 - Cap Anson shows up for today's game wearing a wig and a long white beard, much to the delight of the Chicago crowd. Anson wears the costume throughout the game, which his Colts win over the Beaneaters 5-3.
- 1899 - The Superbas, already famous for their late rallies, stage "Brooklyn finishes" in two different boroughs. They win the morning game at home with two in the ninth, and then take the afternoon game in Manhattan with four in the eighth.
- 1908 - The Pirates and Cubs are tied 0-0 in the last of the tenth at Pittsburgh. With two outs and the bases loaded, Pittsburgh's Chief Wilson singles to center, scoring Fred Clarke with the winning run. Warren Gill, on first base, does not get to second base buts stops short, turns, and heads for the dugout, a common practice. The Cubs' Johnny Evers calls for the ball from Jimmy Slagle, touches second base, and claims the run does not count as Gill has been forced. The lone umpire, Hank O'Day, has left the field. When queried, he rules that Clarke had already scored, so the run counts. The Cubs protest the game, but are denied. This is the first time the Cubs try this tactic, but not the last.
- 1916 - Longtime pitching rivals Christy Mathewson and Mordecai Brown closed out their careers, by special arrangement, in the same game. Mathewson won the game, 10-8.
- 1928 - The Boston Braves started a grueling string in which they played nine straight doubleheaders, a Major League record.
- 1941 - The New York Yankees clinched their third straight pennant on the earliest date in baseball history with a 6-3 victory over Boston.
- 1966 - Los Angeles became the first team in Major League history to draw more than 2 million at home and on the road as the Dodgers beat the Reds, 8-6, before 18,670 fans in Cincinnati.
- 1969 - After hitting in 31 straight games, the third-best streak to date in modern National League history, Willie Davis of the Dodgers is stopped in a 3-0 loss to San Diego.
- 1974 - Don Wilson of the Houston Astros was replaced by a pinch hitter after pitching eight no-hit innings against Cincinnati. Mike Cosgrove pitched the ninth inning and gave up a leadoff single to Tony Perez for the only hit as the Reds won the game, 2-1.
- 1985 - Gary Carter hit a pair of solo home runs to tie a Major League record and singled in another run to lead the New York Mets to a 9-2 victory over San Diego. Carter's feat followed a three-homer performance the night before as he became the 11th player in Major League history to hit five home runs in two games.
- 1993 - Jim Abbott pitched the New York Yankees' first no-hitter in 10 years in a 4-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians.
- 1995 - Robin Ventura became the eighth player in Major League history - and the first in 25 years - to hit two grand slams in one game as the Chicago White Sox beat Texas, 14-3.
- 1998 - The New York Yankees reached 100 wins on the earliest date in Major League history - five days before the 1906 Chicago Cubs and 1954 Cleveland Indians - with an 11-6 victory over the Chicago White Sox. The '06 Cubs set the Major League record for fewest games to reach 100 victories (132).
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.