Baseball History on December 4
Major League Baseball Events on December 4 | Baseball Almanac
Baseball history on December 4, including a list of every Major League baseball player born on December 4, a list of every Major League baseball player who died on December 4, a list of every Major League baseball player who made their big league debut on December 4, and a list of every Major League baseball player whose final big league game was on December 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 December 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 December 4 in Baseball History...
- 1914 - Walter Johnson accepts an advance from the Federal League Chicago Whales. Clark Griffith threatens to take Johnson to court, claiming he has paid Johnson for the reserve option in his contract. Griffith travels to Coffeyville, Kansas, to persuade his franchise player that the option clause is legal and binding. Whales manager Joe Tinker says he has signed Johnson for $16,000 and given him a $6,000 bonus. Two weeks later Griffith signs Johnson for three years at $12,500 per year and returns the bonus to the Feds.
- 1927 - Pirates outfielder Paul Waner noses out Frank Frisch for NL MVP honors, 72 points to 66. Rogers Hornsby, Cubs pitcher Charlie Root, and Giants shortstop Travis Jackson also score high.
- 1964 - Baseball approves a free agent draft. At their winter meetings in Houston, the minor-league and major-league organizations establish a system, basically like that of professional football, which will take effect in January 1965 and be held every four months thereafter. Choices will be exercised by clubs in inverse order of their previous year's standing. Draftees must be included in their club's forty-man roster or be susceptible to claim at the waiver price the following season.
- 1965 - Masanori Murakami, 4-1 in 1965, does not renew his contract with the Giants, signing instead with the Nankai Hawks of Osaka for $40,000.
- 1976 - Aurelio Rodriguez becomes the first AL third baseman since 1959 to beat out Brooks Robinson for the Gold Glove Award. Other newcomers on The Sporting News fielding team include third baseman Mike Schmidt, outfielder Dwight Evans, and catcher Jim Sundberg. That trio will combine to win 24 Gold Gloves.
- 1988 - The Orioles trade veteran first baseman Eddie Murray to the Dodgers for pitchers Ken Howell and Brian Holton and infield prospect Juan Bell.
- 1997 - The White Sox hire Jerry Manuel as manager, replacing Terry Bevington, who was fired after a disappointing season. The Marlins, who have jettisoned their best and highest-paid stars weeks after winning the World Series, now lose their bench coach in Manuel. It is his first major-league managing job.
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.