After leaving the team without permissions three days prior, Detroit Tigers outfielder Ty Cobb got married to his first wife, Charlie, on August 6, 1908. Club co-owner Frank Navin considered Cobb’s six-day absence during a pennant race the most arrogant act he had ever heard of in baseball.
On August 4, 1909 (some sources list the date as August 3rd), umpire Tim Hurst instigated a riot by spitting at Athletics second baseman Eddie Collins, who had questioned a call. Hurst would have to be escorted off the field with a police guard. This incident eventually resulted in Hurst’s banishment from baseball two weeks later.
The first of five perfect games in the history of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was pitched on July 29, 1944. Annabelle Lee, the aunt of future major leaguer Bill Lee, was a southpaw knuckleballer for the Minneapolis Millerettes, and she managed to stop the Kenosha Comets from reaching first base as the Millerettes trounced the Comets, 18-0.
On July 26, 1975, Bill Madlock went 6-for-6 at Wrigley Field as the Cubs lost to the New York Mets, 9-8, in ten innings. Madlock’s hits consisted of five singles and a triple, and that year, he would go on to win his first (of four) batting title with a .354 average.
You know how the foul poles at a ballfield have those screen extensions sticking out of them? Those screens were born on July 15, 1939. National League president Ford Frick ordered the two-foot screens affixed inside all foul poles following a dispute between Billy Jurges of the Giants and umpire George Magerkurth. It seems that Jurges and Magerkurth spit at each other after a disputed call down the left-field line at the Polo Grounds. The American League would install the screens on the foul poles in their own ballparks shortly thereafter.
On July 11, 1925, St. Louis Browns first basemen George Sisler hit a triple with the bases loaded in the third inning and then followed it up with a grand slam in the fourth. Sisler’s phenomenal offensive performance led the Browns to a 10-5 victory over the Washington Senators in front of 15,000 fans at Sportsman’s Park.
The full box score from the game can be found here.
Spec Shea became the first rookie pitcher to win an All-Star Game on July 8, 1947, when the American League defeated the National League, 2-1. In the game, Shea pitched the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings in relief for Hal Newhouser. The New York Yankees hurler allowed one earned run and was declared the winning pitcher.
The Pittsburgh Pirates played their final game at Exposition Park against the Chicago Cubs on June 29, 1909. The Pirates won the game 8–1 in front of 5,545 spectators, with George Gibson collecting the final National League hit in the ballpark. The very next day, the Pirates once again played the Cubs, this time with the team opening up Forbes Field.
Jackie Robinson’s first major league steal of home plate came against the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 24, 1947. The Brooklyn Dodgers would go on to win that game 4-2 over the Pirates at Forbes Field. Robinson would steal the dish a total of 19 times over the course of his career.
In the ninth inning of a game played on June 20, 1912, the New York Giants and Boston Braves scored a whopping 17 runs combined. New York scored seven runs in the top of the frame, and the Braves scored ten runs in the bottom of the ninth. Unfortunately for Boston, this wasn’t enough to rally back as they lost the contest, 21-12.
