This Date in Baseball - Alex Rodriguez ties Willie Mays for 4th place on the all-time home run list
May 1
1884 — Toledo's Moses Fleetwood Walker became the first black player in the pre-modern era of the major leagues. His Blue Stockings lost 5-1 to Louisville.
1891 — In front of almost 10,000 fans, Cy Young of the Cleveland Spiders defeats the Cincinnati Reds, 12 - 3, in the first game ever played in Cleveland's League Park.
1901 — Chicago's Herm McFarland hit the first grand slam in American League history and Dummy Hoy also homered in the Chicago White Sox' 19-9 rout of the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers committed an AL record 12 errors, 10 by the infield, in the loss.
1906 — John Lush of the Philadelphia Phillies pitched a no-hitter at Brooklyn, beating the Dodgers 6-0.
1920 — Joe Oeschger of the Boston Braves and Leon Cadore of the Brooklyn Dodgers each pitched 26 innings in a 1-1 tie, the longest in major league history.
1920 — Babe Ruth hit his first home run as a Yankee, and 50th of his career, as New York beat Boston 6-0 at the Polo Grounds.
1925 — The Philadelphia Athletics introduce another future Hall of Famer, 17-year-old catcher Jimmie Foxx, who pinch-hits a single in the 9-4 loss to the Washington Senators.
1926 — Legendary pitcher Satchel Paige makes his debut in the Negro Southern League.
1944 — George Myatt of Washington went 6-for-6 and the Senators beat the Boston Braves 11-4.
1951 — New York's Mickey Mantle hit his first major league home run in an 8-3 loss at Chicago. The first of Mantle's 536 homers came in the sixth inning off Randy Gumpert.
1968 — Philadelphia Phillies pitcher John Boozer was ejected by umpire Ed Vargo at Shea Stadium for throwing spitballs during his warmup pitches. Boozer was the second major league pitcher to be ejected from a game for this.
1969 — Houston's Don Wilson beat the Cincinnati Reds with a 4-0 no-hitter at Crosley Field, one day after the Reds' Jim Maloney no-hit the Astros and nine days after Wilson absorbed a 14-0 pounding by Cincinnati.
1973 — The San Francisco Giants scored seven runs with two outs in the ninth inning to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-7.
1975 — Hank Aaron collects four hits and two RBI in the Brewers' 17-3 win over Detroit. This brings his career RBI total to 2,211, breaking Babe Ruth's published record of 2,209.
1984 — Dwight Gooden became the first teenager to strike out a least ten batters in a game since Bert Blyleven did it in 1970. The Mets' 19-year-old phenom would set a major league rookie record with 276 strikeouts.
1991 — Rickey Henderson surpassed Lou Brock as baseball's career stolen base leader with his 939th steal as the Oakland Athletics beat the New York Yankees 7-4.
1991 — Nolan Ryan pitched his seventh no-hitter, struck out 16 and shut down the best-hitting team in the majors, as the Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0.
1992 — The Dodgers postponed a three-game series against Montreal because of rioting in Los Angeles following the Rodney King verdict.
1992 — Rickey Henderson garners his 1,000th stolen base.
2000 — San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds becomes the first player to hit a ball into San Francisco Bay (McCovey's Cove) as the first 'splashdown' home run at Pacific Bell Park.
2002 — With a save against the Chicago Cubs, San Diego closer Trevor Hoffman set the major league record for the most saves with one team, 321. He broke Dennis Eckersley's record of 320 with Oakland.
2012 — Orioles manager Buck Showalter wins his 1,000th game as a major league skipper when the O's defeat the Yankees, 7-1.
2015 — Alex Rodriguez ties Willie Mays for fourth place on the all-time home run list when he hits number 660 against the Red Sox.
2020 — Even though there is no baseball being currently played, P Emmanuel Clase of the Indians manages to get himself suspended, as the results of a test are positive for Boldenone, an anabolic steroid. He will be suspended for 80 games from whenever the season eventually starts.
2022 — Kelsie Whitmore becomes the first woman to start a game in the Atlantic League, which is now part of Organized Baseball as a partner league of Major League Baseball, when she starts in left field for the Staten Island FerryHawks against the Gastonia Honey Hunters.
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Noa Essengue dropped 20 points in an NBA preseason game when he was 17 🔥 — Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) June 26, 2025 My question going into the NBA Draft on Wednesday night: Would the Bulls draft a European lottery ticket like Essengue, the 18-year-old big man for Ratiopharm Ulm in Germany, or a safe college player? I was heavily leaning toward the former option because, well, the Bulls need to hit on a long shot. They're not a Derik Queen or a Carter Bryant or a Thomas Sorber away from being anything more than the Play-In team they already are. I have little regard for the Bulls as an organization, but I do like this pick. So, if you already didn't trust Karnišovas and Eversley, here's another reason to be nervous: I'm also an Essenguy. I've watched and read enough to know he's a project. That's fine. The Bulls are a project, too. Esesngue was the second-youngest player in the draft and has only been playing basketball since he was in middle school. 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The draft pundits liked him but thought he'd take years to develop. Instead, Giannis was an instant contributor, and it took him until his fourth season to be an MVP candidate. Of course, you can't compare every foreign player to the biggest success stories — how many guys who look like Nikola Jokić can actually play like him — but you have to hope, right? The Bulls changed their identity last season to be a run-and-gun team. They finished second in pace and sixth in points per game, as promised, but they were 20th in offensive efficiency, 20th in net rating and 28th in points allowed. Essengue should help on both sides of the ball, though Donovan will make him earn his minutes. 'I think I can do like pretty much everything, shooting, passing the ball, attacking the rim,' Essengue said. 'But I think my biggest thing right now is the open-court game.' Eversley noted the Bulls took a step back, but that's not really true. They said goodbye to vets like Alex Caruso and DeMar DeRozan before the season, and then traded Zach LaVine during it, but they still finished 39-43 for the second straight year and lost to the Miami Heat in the Play-In Tournament for the third straight one. Everyone thought the Bulls should tank, but the lottery gods wouldn't have rewarded them with much. As we saw this spring, they were only a tiebreaker away from lucking into drafting Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 pick. They've been lousy with luck, too. But with a host of expiring contracts on the roster, the Bulls are set up to be players in the summer of 2026 in the draft and in free agency. For a team like the Bulls, where mediocrity is a goal, not a fireable offense, a brighter tomorrow is always within sight, but just out of reach. 'I think for us, we need to remain diligent and pragmatic about how we build this,' Eversley said. 'We don't want to skip steps. I think sometimes when you do skip steps, expectations kind of build and you make mistakes. And I don't think we want to do that.'
