Baseball History on April 26
Major League Baseball Events on April 26 | Baseball Almanac
Baseball history on April 26, including a list of every Major League baseball player born on April 26, a list of every Major League baseball player who died on April 26, a list of every Major League baseball player who made their big league debut on April 26, and a list of every Major League baseball player whose final big league game was on April 26.
"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 April 26 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 April 26 in Baseball History...
- 1905 - Jack McCarthy becomes the second outfielder to complete three double plays in one game when he throws out three Pirates at home, preserving the 2-1 Chicago Cubs victory.
- 1941 - The Chicago Cubs are the first team to install an organ, with Roy Nelson manning the keyboard. But the Cubs hit sour notes, losing 6-2 to the St. Louis Cardinals.
- 1961 - Roger Maris hits his first home run of 1961 (off Paul Foytack) and Mickey Mantle adds home runs from both sides of the plate (for the eighth time) as New York wins 13-10 at Tiger Stadium.
- 1980 - Steve Carlton of the Phillies sets the modern N.L. record with his sixth career one-hitter, a 7-0 shutout of his former team, the Cardinals.
- 1986 - The game between the Angels and Twins is delayed for nine minutes when strong winds tear a hole in the Metrodome roof, causing suspended lights and speakers to sag toward the field. The roof is reinflated and California rallies for six runs in the ninth to win 7-6.
- 1990 - Nolan Ryan tied Bob Feller's major league record of 12 one-hitters as the Texas Rangers beat the Chicago White Sox 1-0. Ryan struck out 16 batters as he allowed only Ron Kittle's check-swing single to right field in the second inning.
- 1995 - Coors Field, the N.L.'s first baseball-only stadium in 23 years, opens in dramatic fashion in Denver. Dante Bichette hits a three-run home run in the 14th inning for an 11-9 win over the Mets.
- 1997 - Ryne Sandberg breaks Joe Morgan's major league record for home runs by a second baseman with his 267th career blast at the position in a 7-6 Cubs' victory over the Pirates. Sandberg hit the first five home runs of his career as a third baseman before he moved over to second.
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.