Baseball History on May 20
Major League Baseball Events on May 20 | Baseball Almanac
Baseball history on May 20, including a list of every Major League baseball player born on May 20, a list of every Major League baseball player who died on May 20, a list of every Major League baseball player who made their big league debut on May 20, and a list of every Major League baseball player whose final big league game was on May 20.
"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 May 20 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 May 20 in Baseball History...
- 1920 - Requested by Cubs officials, policemen disguised as soldiers, farmers, and bootblacks raid the bleachers and arrest 24 fans for gambling. Meanwhile, Grover Alexander blanks the Phillies 6-0.
- 1941 - Outfielder Taffy Wright of the Chicago White Sox doubles to drive in a run and sets a Pale Hose record by driving in at least one run in 13 consecutive games. Wright has 22 RBI in the streak, and is one RBI-game shy of tying the A.L. record for most consecutive games an RBI.
- 1945 - Pete Gray is the star in St. Louis as the Browns sweep the Yankees 10-1 and 5-2. Gray, who has only one arm, has two RBI on three hits in the opener and in the nightcap scores the winning run and hauls in seven fly balls, three on spectacular catches.
- 1946 - Claude Passeau of the Chicago Cubs makes his first error since September 21, 1941, ending his streak with an all-time pitcher's fielding record of 273 consecutive errorless chances.
- 1983 - In a 5-0 loss to the Padres, Steve Carlton strikes out four batters to move past Walter Johnson into second place on baseball's all-time strikeout list. Carlton's 3,511 strikeouts leave him ten behind Nolan Ryan, who broke Johnson's record earlier this season.
- 1984 - Boston's Roger Clemens strikes out seven batters in seven innings en route to his first major league victory, 5-4 over the Twins.
- 1985 - The Indians-Brewers game at Cleveland Stadium becomes the first one rained out this season, ending a record string of 458 major league games played since Opening Day without a payoff on a rain check. Since 1900, no season had survived without at least one April shower.
- 1991 - Jeff Reardon gains his 300th career save in relief of Matt Young and Jeff Gray. Reardon preserves the 3-0 Boston win over Milwaukee.
- 1992 - After a 12-inning loss to the Yankees, Angels manager Buck Rodgers says, "We can't start feeling sorry for ourselves or we'll get run over."
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.