This day in baseball: Joe Hauser’s kneecap troubles

During a spring training game on April 7, 1925, A’s first baseman Joe Hauser shattered his kneecap, an injury that would cause him to miss the entire season. After batting .323 and blasting 27 homers, second only to Babe Ruth’s total (46) during the 1924 season, Hauser would only remain in the majors a few more years, until 1929, eventually returning to the minor leagues. Back in the minors, Hauser became a prodigious home run hitter before a batted ball broke a kneecap again in 1934.

Joe Hauser (public domain)

This day in baseball: McCatty’s toy bat

On April 2, 1982, during an exhibition contest at Jack Murphy Stadium against the San Diego Padres, Oakland manager Billy Martin ordered pitcher Steve McCatty to go to home plate with a 15-inch toy bat. The move was a protest of the rule preventing the use of the designated hitter in National League ballparks. Umpire Jim Quick refused to let McCatty use the bat, however, so McCatty instead took three called strikes while holding a real bat.

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Billy Martin as the manager of the New York Yankees, 1983 (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

This day in baseball: Ted Williams Breaks collarbone

On the first day of spring training, March 1, 1954, Ted Williams broke his collarbone running after a line drive. Williams would be out for six weeks, and in April he wrote an article with Joe Reichler of the Saturday Evening Post saying that he intended to retire at the end of the season. Williams instead returned to the Red Sox lineup on May 7th, and during the 1954 season he hit .345 with 386 at bats in 117 games.

Ted Williams 1948 Leaf baseball card (public domain)

This day in baseball: Yankees acquire Babe Dahlgren

On February 17, 1937, the New York Yankees purchased the contract of Babe Dahlgren from the Boston Red Sox. Dahlgren would go on to replace Lou Gehrig in the Yankees lineup at the end of the Iron Horse’s consecutive game streak in 1939. During his four-year tenure with the Bronx Bombers, Dahlgren would compile a .248 batting average in 1,143 at-bats before being bought by the Boston Braves.

Babe Dahlgren, 1940 (public domain)

This day in baseball: Preacher Roe fights a basketball ref

While coaching a high school basketball team on February 9, 1946, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Preacher Roe got into a fight with the referee that resulted in him hitting his head on the floor and fracturing his skull. As a result, the southpaw would report to spring training a month late, and his pitching suffered during the season, with his record falling to 3–8 and posting an ERA of 5.14 in 1946.

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Preacher Roe, 1953 (public domain)