This date in baseball
1925 Cleveland's Tris Speaker got his 3,000th career hit, off Tom Zachary in a 2-1 loss to the Washington Senators.
1939 The first baseball game on television was broadcast by W2XBS, an experimental station run by NBC in New York. Bill Stern handled the play by play, with Princeton beating Columbia 2-1 in 10 innings.
1945 For the fourth time in four days, every American League game in the country was postponed by rain.
1961 Roger Maris hit his first home run of the season at Yankee Stadium (fourth overall) on his way to a record 61.
1963 Don Nottebart pitched Houston's first no-hitter, leading the Colt .45s past the visiting Philadelphia Phillies 4-1.
1970 Hank Aaron scratched out an infield single against Cincinnati's Wayne Simpson to become the ninth player with 3,000 hits. The hit came in the nightcap of the Atlanta Braves' doubleheader loss to the Reds in Cincinnati.
1977 The Chicago Cubs hit seven home runs in beating the San Diego Padres 23-6 at Wrigley Field. Larry Biittner, Jerry Morales and Bobby Murcer hit consecutive home runs in the fifth for the Cubs.
1979 Dave Kingman of the Cubs hit three home runs and Mike Schmidt of the Phillies hit two, and Philadelphia beat Chicago 23-22 in 10 innings at Wrigley Field. Bill Buckner had a grand slam and seven RBI for Chicago. The game included 11 home runs and 50 hits.
1984 Alan Wiggins of the San Diego Padres tied a National League record by stealing five bases in one game. He joined three others who have performed the feat -- Dan McGann in 1904, Davey Lopes in 1974 and Lonnie Smith in 1982.
1992 Toronto surpassed the 1 million mark in attendance earlier than any team in major league history. It took the Blue Jays 21 dates to draw 1,006,294. The previous record was shared by the 1991 Blue Jays and the 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers.
1998 David Wells pitched the 13th perfect game in modern major league history as the New York Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins 4-0.
2008 Barry Zito became the first Giants pitcher to open a season with eight consecutive losses since 1890 when San Francisco lost 3-1 to the White Sox. Zito (0-8) worked five innings and gave up only two runs in matching Jesse Burkett's record.
2009 A pregame lineup mistake cost Tampa Bay its designated hitter for the game. The Rays listed both Ben Zobrist and Evan Longoria as the third baseman. Longoria was supposed to be DH, but Tampa Bay lost that position because of the mistake and was forced to put pitcher Andy Sonnanstine in the third spot of the lineup. Sonnanstine hit an RBI double and gave up 5 runs and 7 hits in 5⅔ innings in a 7-5 victory over Cleveland.
2016 Khris Davis hit a game-ending grand slam with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning for his third homer of the night, giving the Oakland Athletics an 8-5 victory over the Texas Rangers. Ian Desmond hit a two-run home run off Ryan Madson in the top of the ninth to put Texas ahead 5-4. Davis hit solo home runs off Cole Hamels in the second and sixth innings for the first three-home run game of his career. Davis matched his career high with six RBI.
2016 Steve Delabar issued four consecutive bases-loaded walks after relieving starter Alfredo Simon in the fifth inning, the low point in Cincinnati's 13-1 loss to the Cleveland Indians. Delabar walked 5 of the 6 batters he faced, threw 36 pitches and was charged with 2 runs in one-third of an inning.
Today's birthday Ben Gamel, 26.
-- The Associated Press
Sports on 05/17/2018