AUGUST 18

1886: Owner of the STL. Maroons, Henry Lucas, quits baseball due to its skyrocketing costs to operate a team. In three years, Lucas has spent $27,000 on his club.

1943: With a 3-2 win over Pittsburgh, Carl Hubbell wins his 253rd & final game.

1960: Lew Burdette faces the minimum 27 batters as he no-hits the Phillies, 1-0. The only run of the game was scored by Burdette himself.

1967: Red Sox Nation suffers a brutal reminder of ‘The Curse.’ Superstar Tony Conigliaro has his promising future come to an end when he is hit by Angels’ Jack Hamilton just below the left eye socket. Conigliaro does not play in the majors again until 1969 but his career is never the same.

1975: Ralph Kiner is inducted into the Hall of Fame along with Earl Averill, Bucky Harris and Billy Herman.

1989: Playing in his 1208th consecutive game, Cal Ripken passes Steve Garvey and moves into 3rd place.

1998: The Braves defeat the Giants, 8-4 and Greg Maddux earns his 200th win.

2002: In a pre-game ceremony at Shea, Tommie Agee is inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame. Agee, who died a year earlier of a heart attack, is best remembered for two remarkable catches in the 69 World Series as well as hitting the longest HR in team history.

AUGUST 19:

1917: Taking a day off from playing, Ty Cobb serves as Tigers 3B coach. With the game tied 1-1, Cobb’s teammate, George Burns, ignored Cobb waving him home and stopped at 3rd. Irate, Cobb shoves his teammate towards the plate. After this incident, the rules are changed and coaches are no longer allowed to touch base runners.

1921: With a base hit off Boston’s Elmer Meyers, Ty Cobb reaches 3000 hits. At only 34, he is the youngest player to reach that mark.

1931: Lefty Grove wins his 16th straight game, tying an AL record held by Walter Johnson and ‘Smokey’ Joe Wood.

1941: Pirates MGR. Frankie Frisch is ejected by umpire Jocko Conlan. In an attempt to prove his point that the game needs to be postponed, Frisch walks onto the field holding an umbrella. This is forever immortalized in a famous painting by Norman Rockwell.

1945: Although known to be one of the most prolific HR hitters of his day, 37 year old Jimmie Foxx is the starting pitcher for the A’s and wins the game, 4-1. Throughout his career, Foxx pitched 10 times. His career ERA was 1.52.

1951: At 3 feet 7 inches, Eddie Gaedel, wearing number one-eighth, walks on 4 pitches in his only ML at-bat. Two days later, ‘midgets’ are banned from playing in the majors.

1957: Giants owner Horace Stoneham announced that by a 9-1 vote, the teams Board of Directors has decided the team will move to San Francisco. The only vote against the move was cast by Joan Whitney Payson. Five years later, Mrs. Payson founded the Mets and returned NL baseball to New York. A lifelong Giants fan, it was Payson’s idea for the new teams ‘NY’ logo to be the same as her much loved Giants.

1992: With Bret Boone making his debut, the Boone family is now the first family to have three generations of ballplayers. Bret’s grandfather Ray played from 1948-1960 and father Bob played from 1972-1990.

AUGUST 20:

1915: The White Sox obtain outfielder Joe Jackson from Cleveland in exchange for Larry Chappell, Braggo Roth, Ed Klepfer and $31,500.

1948: 78,382 fans, the largest ever at a night game, jam Municipal Stadium in Cleveland and see Satchel Paige shut-out the White Sox.

1965: Eddie Mathews homers as the Braves beat the Pirates, 4-3. The duo of Mathews/Aaron has now become the top HR tandem in baseball history, surpassing Ruth/Gehrig.

1974: Davey Lopes hits 3 homers, a double and a single. His 15 total bases is the most ever for a lead-off hitter.

1985: Doc Gooden fans 16 as the Mets defeat the Giants, 5-0. Gooden joins Herb Score as the only pitchers in history to strikeout 200 or more their first 2 seasons in the majors.

1989: Although the Mets lose to LA 5-4, Howard Johnson joins Willie Mays and Bobby Bonds as the only players in history to hit 30 Homers and 30 Steals in 2 different seasons.

1998: With a blast off of Willie Blair, Mark McGwire becomes the 1st player in history to hit 50 HR’s 3 straight years.

AUGUST 21:

1883: In the biggest shutout in history, the Philadelphia Quakers destroy the Providence Grays, 28-0.

1902: Baltimore’s Joe McGinnity is thrown out of baseball for punching and spitting on an umpire. However, McGinnity is quickly reinstated due to his popularity.

1926: In only 1 hr 27 minutes, Ted Lyons of Chicago no-hits the Red Sox, 6-0.

1931: Babe Ruth becomes the first player to reach 600 HR’s when he goes deep against George Blaeholder of the Browns.

1977: In a bittersweet moment, Tom Seaver returns to Shea for the first time since being traded by the team he loved pitching for. The Reds easily defeat the Mets, 11-5. ‘Tom Terrific’ throws a 6-hitter, fans 11 and to add insult to injury, also doubles and scores 2 runs.

1982: Rollie Fingers becomes the 1st pitcher to record 300 saves.

2007: The Angels outslug the Yankees, 18-9. The offensive attack is led by Garret Anderson who becomes only the 12th player in history to knock in 10 RBI’s in a single game.