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.
Baseball Almanac Top Quote

"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

Major League Baseball Events on May 20

1879John Murphy1889Oscar Walker
1879Jake Thielman1891Jim Fogarty
1884Paul Howard1905Ed Kennedy
1889Ted Cather1914Chub Collins
1890Jess Buckles1917Pete Galligan
1891Joe Harris1933Billy Lauder
1893Walter Bernhardt1942Amby McConnell
1893Fritz Von Kolnitz1948Frank Browning
1897Wilcy Moore1957Roy Hutson
1900Claral Gillenwater1958Frank Bird
1900George Grantham1958Cotton Minahan
1900Ollie Klee1960Pat Collins
1904Pete Appleton1964Frank Moore
1911Bert Delmas1964Cy Neighbors
1913Lou Scoffic1969Charlie Pickett
1914Stan Benjamin1972Wally Dashiell
1916Joe Wood1972Hoge Workman
1919Harry Taylor1978Bob Logan
1921Hal Newhouser1982Leo Taylor
1921Earl Rapp1983Fred Schulte
1923Jose Zardon1989Mike Reinbach
1925Lee Griffeth1991Pete Runnels
1930Tom Morgan1993Al Aber
1931Ken Boyer2001Bob Keely
1937Bob Giallombardo2001Bud Thomas
1943Dave McDonald2008Herb Hash
1946Jim Lyttle2021Phil Lombardi
1946Bobby Murcer
1961Ralph Bryant
1963David Wells
1964Gordon Dillard
1964Jeff Schwarz
1965Wayne Housie
1965Todd Stottlemyre
1974Brian McNichol
1975Amaury Garcia
1975Luis Garcia
1976Ramon Hernandez
1977Steve Stemle
1978Wilson Valdez
1979Jayson Werth
1980Austin Kearns
1981Kensuke Tanaka
1983Adam Rosales
1985Toru Murata
1988Kyle Jensen
1988Carlos Rivero
1988Tony Sanchez
1989Ariel Pena
1990Chris Reed
1996Seth Elledge
1876George Bechtel 1876Bob Valentine
1876Ned Cuthbert 1882Jake Goodman
1876Wes Fisler 1884George Mundinger
1876George Heubel 1887Larry Corcoran
1876Terry Larkin 1894William Brown
1876Dick McBride 1897Art Herman
1876Levi Meyerle 1897Bill Hutchison
1876Bob Valentine 1901Frank Cross
1878Bill McClellan 1910Swat McCabe
1878Jim McCormick 1912Hank Griffin
1884Kid Butler 1916Shorty Des Jardien
1886Dan Dugdale 1925Joe Batchelder
1896Bill Keister 1925Chink Taylor
1901Frank Cross 1927Jack Bentley
1911Pat Paige 1932Joel Hunt
1913Nick Cullop 1933Liz Funk
1914Medric Boucher 1934Tim McKeithan
1914Snipe Conley 1935Alex Hooks
1914Dolf Luque 1937Sid Gautreaux
1914Cy Rheam 1940Gene Lillard
1914Jack Ridgway 1941George Jumonville
1914Ducky Yount 1944Walter Ockey
1916Shorty Des Jardien 1945Nick Polly
1920Larry Woodall 1947Felix Mackiewicz
1925Oscar Siemer 1953Dick Aylward
1926Norm Lehr 1956Jerry Dahlke
1944Eddie Basinski 1959Bill Renna
1947Dick Adams 1962John DeMerit
1949Don Newcombe 1965Tom Butters
1950Jim Suchecki 1968Bob Heffner
1961Jimmie Schaffer 1970Bob Meyer
1964Joe Sparma 1973Tom Kelley
1974Kent Tekulve 1982Dennis Kinney
1975Ryan Kurosaki 1989Manny Trillo
1977Mark Williams 1992Tony Perezchica
1978Nelson Norman 1993Keith Hughes
1979Randy Niemann 1994Randy Tomlin
1981Greg Harris 1995Matt Dunbar
1983Dan Morogiello 1997Ken Grundt
1985Jack Howell 2000Mike Garcia
1990Shawn Boskie 2001Chris Seelbach
1991Pat Kelly 2002Brady Anderson
1994Dave Stevens 2004Eddie Oropesa
1995Ron Rightnowar 2006Alex Gonzalez
1995Sid Roberson 2006Ben Hendrickson
1996Esteban Yan 2006Joe McEwing
1999Brent Billingsley 2006Travis Smith
2000Darwin Cubillan 2007Darren Clarke
2003Jeff Duncan 2008Franklyn German
2004Jamie Brown 2010Jonathan Van Every
2005Jorge Campillo 2010Gregg Zaun
2005Aaron Hill 2011Mike Rivera
2006Ty Taubenheim 2014Frank Francisco
2007Tyler Clippard 2015Rey Navarro
2009Wilkin Ramirez
2011Ryan Adams
2011Ezequiel Carrera
2012Matt Adams
2013Caleb Thielbar
2014Francisco Pena
2014Rob Rasmussen
2015Slade Heathcott
2015Tyler Wilson
2016Matt Purke
2016Steve Selsky
2019David McKay
2022Dairon Blanco
2022Nolan Gorman
2022Nick Vespi

Players Born on, Died on, Debut on, Finished on May 20

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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.