Baseball History on August 12
Major League Baseball Events on August 12 | Baseball Almanac
Baseball history on August 12, including a list of every Major League baseball player born on August 12, a list of every Major League baseball player who died on August 12, a list of every Major League baseball player who made their big league debut on August 12, and a list of every Major League baseball player whose final big league game was on August 12.
"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 12 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 12 in Baseball History...
- 1887 - At the Metropolitans' grounds on Staten Island, Athletic batter Gus Weyhing hits an apparent triple that right fielder Eddie Hogan kicks onto the stage of the play The Fall of Babylon. Since the ground rules at the park call for a double on hits into the theatrical set, the American Association umpire orders Weyhing back to second. After a futile argument, the Athletics leave and forfeit the game.
- 1921 - Philadelphia's George Smith gave up 12 hits and still pitched a shutout as the Phillies beat the Boston Braves 4-0.
- 1934 - Making a farewell appearance in Boston, Babe Ruth draws a record 46,766 fans, with an estimated 20,000 turned away, at Fenway Park, the place where he began his career as a pitcher twenty years earlier. Ruth leaves the field to standing cheers in the eighth inning of the second game of the doubleheader.
- 1936 - The largest crowd ever to watch a baseball game, between 90,000 and 125,000, sees a demonstration game at the Berlin Olympics. The world amateurs beat the U.S. amateurs 6-5.
- 1948 - The Cleveland Indians beat the St. Louis Browns 26-3 with a 29-hit barrage. The Indians set a major league record as 14 different players had hits.
- 1954 - Eddie Yost of the Senators draws his 100th walk for the fifth year in a row.
- 1963 - Stan Musial announces he will retire at the end of the year.
- 1964 - Mickey Mantle homers from each side of the plate in the same game for the tenth and final time, a major league record, as New York beats Chicago 7-3 at Yankee Stadium.
- 1966 - Art Shamsky of the Cincinnati Reds hit three home runs in a 14-11, 13-inning loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates at Crosley Field. Two of the homers came in the 10th and 11th innings. The game featured 11 homers by both clubs. Shamsky entered the game in the eighth inning for defensive purposes. In the bottom of the eighth, Shamsky hit a two-run homer to put the Reds ahead 8-7. Shamsky hit a solo shot to tie the game 9-9 in the 10th. He came back the in 11th inning with a two-run homer to tie the game again, 11-11. The Pirates scored three runs in the 13th to win.
- 1970 - Curt Flood loses his $4.1 million antitrust suit against baseball, as Federal Judge Irving Ben Cooper upholds the legality of the sport's reserve clause. Cooper does recommend changes in the reserve system, to be achieved through negotiation between players and owners. In fewer than six years, this recommendation would become a reality.
- 1974 - Nolan Ryan strikes out 19 and walks only two as the Angels top the Red Sox 4-2.
- 1977 - For the second straight day, Oakland's Manny Sanguillen foils a no-hit bid. Today's single is off the Orioles' Jim Palmer, who settles for a two-hit 6-0 victory. Yesterday's hit was off Mike Torrez, who finished with a 3-0 two-hitter for the Yankees.
- 1984 - Harmon Killebrew, Rick Ferrell, Don Drysdale, Pee Wee Reese, and Luis Aparicio are inducted into the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York.
- 1986 - Don Baylor of the Boston Red Sox set an American League record when he was hit by a pitch for the 25th time for the season, breaking the record he had shared with Bill Freehan (1968) and Kid Elberfeld (1911). Kansas City's Bud Black was the pitcher as the Royals completed a doubleheader sweep with a 6-5 victory.
- 1987 - The Braves send veteran pitcher Doyle Alexander to the Tigers in exchange for minor leaguer John Smoltz. Alexander will help lead the Tigers to the American League East title by posting a perfect 9-0 record.
- 1988 - The Red Sox beat the Tigers 9-4 for their 23rd consecutive win at home, breaking the American League record held by the 1931 A's. Boston has not lost at Fenway Park since June 24.
- 1994 - The players went on strike for the sport's eighth work stoppage since 1972.
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.