IN THE NEWS: The Yankees' new phenom, Mickey Mantle, connects for his first ML home run, off Randy Gumpert of the White Sox. Minnie Minoso becomes the first black to play for the White Sox. He plays 3B and, facing Vic Raschi in his first ML at bat, rips a home run to CF. The Yankees win 8–3, with Mantle collecting three RBIs.
The A's (2-12) score a record eight runs in the 11th inning to beat Detroit, 9–1, and end their 10-game losing streak. Dave Philley, in his 1st day as an Athletic, hits a bunts single and triple in the big frame.
University of New Mexico pitchers walk 21 Arizona batters in college baseball.
IN THE NEWS: Before 4,976 at the Polo Grounds, the Giants score six runs in the 7th to defeat the Cubs, 8–1. George Spencer, who won the final game of the 1950 season, makes his 1951 debut a successful one, allowing six hits. Johnny Schmitz takes the loss for Chicago. Ray Noble has two ribbies for New York. Noble is playing for Wes Westrum, who broke his finger yesterday when he was hit by a foul tip.
IN THE NEWS: In St. Louis, Gil McDougald hits a grand slam and a triple in the 9th, as the Yanks score 11 runs in the inning to rout St. Louis, 17–3. McDougald, destined to be Rookie of the Year, racks up six RBIs in the frame. Jackie Jensen follows McDougald's triple with one of his own, then homers after Gil's grand slam. Allie Reynolds is the winner.
IN THE NEWS: NY Representative Emanuel Celler, citing the case of Danny Gardella, plans a probe of ML baseball for antitrust violations.
In St. Louis, the Yanks pummel the Browns 8–1 behind Eddie Lopat. Mickey Mantle, again batting leadoff and playing RF, connects for his 2nd home run, off Duane Pillette, a 450-shot in the 6th inning.
IN THE NEWS: In a Western International League game at Victoria, visiting Salem wins 1–0 in 23 innings. Victoria's losing pitcher Roland Smith hurls the entire game.
IN THE NEWS: Pirate P Cliff Chambers throws a no-hitter at the Boston Braves in Boston, winning 3–0. He walks eight and throws one wild pitch but hangs on to record only the second no-hit game in Pirate history. Chambers, hitting .429, drives in Wally Westlake with the 3rd run in the 8th. The loser is George Estock, a Braves reliever making his only ML start and the loss is his only ML decision. For Chambers, it is his last win in a Pirates' uniform before he's traded to St. Louis.
The Reds a Giants split a pair at the Polo Grounds, with the Reds taking the opener, 4–3, in 10 innings. Reds 2B Connie Ryan nabs Whitey Lockman in the 10th with the hidden ball trick, the 2nd time in two years that he's pulled it off against New York. The Giants take the nitecap, 8–5, behind Dave Koslo.
Boom Boom Beck, 46-year-old coach for the Toledo Mud Hens, takes the mound in the Game One of a twinbill against Minneapolis (AA) and wins 10–2. The victory gives the former major leaguer an overall pro mark of 236-236.
IN THE NEWS: Bobby Shantz, A's lefty, wins his first game of the season, stopping the White Sox, 9–4, on 12 hits. Ferris Fain and Eddie Joost hit consecutive homers for the A's.
IN THE NEWS: Although Boston's Dom DiMaggio begins his 27-game hitting streak, the longest of the season in the American League, with three hits against the Senators, Washington wins 5–4.
In the 2nd game of a double header, Stan Musial, on the Cards bench because he has flu, pinch hits in the 8th inning and blasts a 3-run homer into the RF stands at Crosley Field. Teammate Bill Howerton had earlier hit a 2-run pinch homer, only the 3rd time in National League history that two pinch hitters have hit four-baggers (it will happen four more times in the 1950s). The Cards win 8–6, after dropping the opener, 7–2.
IN THE NEWS: At Philadelphia's Shibe Park, Mickey Mantle hits his first righty homer, off Alex Kellner, in the majors, then makes the last out by popping up his bunt attempt with the tying run on 3rd. The A's win 5–4, then win the nitecap as well. Mantle has no homers in the 2nd game loss, but misses 2nd base on a hit.
The Dodgers spot the Braves six runs, then roar back to win, 12–6 and take over the National League lead. Erv Palica gives up just two hits over the last seven innings for his first win. Brooklyn scores five runs off Max Surkont in the 3rd and 4th innings, and Carl Furillo adds a three-run homer in the 5th off Dave Cole.
At Ft. Worth, ex-Dodger Rex Barney walks 16 Houston batters in seven 2/3 innings to set a Texas League record. Barney faces 41 batters and is behind on all but seven off them, and adds two wild pitches. He leaves with a 2–1 score after walking across a run in the 8th, and ends up losing 6–2 to Vinegar Bend Mizell.
The game that followed the ceremony featured dramatic home runs as Ted Williams hits the 300th of his career in the 4th inning against Chicago's Howie Judson. With Williams up in the 8th inning, White Sox manager Paul Richards moves reliever Harry Dorish to 3B and brings in Billy Pierce to pitch to Ted. Williams pops up against the lefty, and Dorish then returns to the mound. Boston ties the game against Dorish at 7–7, but little Nellie Fox, playing in his 6th season, cracks his first major league homer in the 11th to give Dorish a 9–7 victory. Ray Scarborough is the loser. The Sox will win their next 13 games.
At Crosley Field, Braves P Vern Bickford pitches a 2-hitter, but Ewell Blackwell bests him by allowing one hit, as the Reds win, 1–0. Connie Ryan's 6th inning hit is the 1st off Bickford, and Johnny Pramesa's homer in the 7th is the other. The only Boston hit is a 5th inning double by Bob Elliott. The Reds tie the National League record (set in 1911) for nine innings by going to bat just 24 times.
In a fine trade for Chicago, the White Sox send lefty Bob Cain to the Tigers for hurler Saul Rogovin.
IN THE NEWS: At Yankee Stadium, Mickey Mantle drives in four runs and scores three as New York routs the Indians, 11–3. Mantle connects for the first of his 206 homers at the Stadium, the blast coming off Dick Rozek.
IN THE NEWS: Gus Zernial hits his 7th home run in four successive games to tie the major-league record set by Tony Lazzeri in 1936, as his A's beat the Browns 7–6.
IN THE NEWS: Catcher Walker Cooper of the Braves goes 5-for-5 in a 12–3 route of the Pirates. Max Surkont (5–1) is the winner, scattering 10 hits and giving up late inning home runs to Ralph Kiner and Wally Westlake.
IN THE NEWS: Before 42,088 at Wrigley, Dutch Leonard wins a pair, beating the Braves, 4–3 and 5–4. Dutch tosses two innings in each game as the Cubs beat Chet Nichols and Vern Bickford. The Cubs are now a game back of the front-running Dodgers.
The Phils defeat the Pirates 17–0 and 12–4, as Richie Ashburn gets four hits in each game. Russ Meyer tosses the shutout in the first game pasting over Murry Dickson.
IN THE NEWS: Mel Parnell gives up four hits in shutting out the Browns, while stroking four hits himself. Ted Williams walks five times in the 12–0 win. Vern Stephens sets an assist record for third baseman, with an assist from SS Johnny Pesky. On the last out of the game, a grounder to Pesky, he flips to Stephens, who fires to 1B to set the record at 10 assists. Frank Malzone will equal the record in 1957 and Ken McMullen will top it in 1966.
Rookie P Bill MacDonald of the Pirates blanks the Phils 6–0 in his first ML start.
The Reds Connie Ryan clouts an 11th inning grand slam to beat the Cardinals, 5–1, in St. Louis.
IN THE NEWS: Cleveland whips the Senators 16–0, with Bob Feller pitching a 2-hitter. Larry Doby has a homer and four RBIs to lead the Tribe.
Mickey Mantle is 0-for-5 but reaches base twice after striking out on a wild pitch. The 2nd time, in the 6th inning, he reaches 2B before Detroit C Joe Ginsberg can retrieve the ball, and Joe DiMaggio follows with a homer to deep left field. New York wins, 11–1, behind Joe Ostrowski.
IN THE NEWS: Giants rookie Willie Mays, who was hitting .477 with Minneapolis, goes 0-for-5 in his ML debut against the Phils. He strikes out in his first at bat, against Bubba Church. New York wins, 8–5.
IN THE NEWS: The Dodgers use 12 different hitters in the number nine slot, seven of them pitchers, in losing to the Braves 12–10.
At Yankee Stadium, the Yanks top the A's, 8–5, with Mickey Mantle belting a bases-loaded triple off Dick Fowler that bounces off the bleacher railing in CF.
IN THE NEWS: The Indians sign high school star Billy Joe Davidson for a reported $150,000, eclipsing the $100,000 the Pirates paid to Paul Pettit in 1949. Several teams sought the services of the tall lefty, alleged to be the best Indians prospect since Bob Feller.
Indians hurler Bob Lemon one-hits the Tigers 2–1. The only Bengal hit is Vic Wertz's home run.
IN THE NEWS: In a doubleheader loss with Boston, Yankee slugger Mickey Mantle strikes out three times in the opener, and twice more to start the 2nd game: Casey Stengel lifts the slugger in the middle of the game for Cliff Mapes. In the opener, Ted Williams scores from 2B on a sacrifice bunt, and then ties the game with a home run. Vern Stephens 15th inning homer off Spec Shea wins it for Boston, 11–10. Williams then ties the nitecap with a double and Stephens' single drives him home with the game winner as Boston triumphs, 9–4. Ray Scarborough and Bill Wight are today's winners. The loss drops the Yanks into 2nd place, where they'll stay for a month.
The first place White Sox beat the Browns, 5–2 behind Billy Pierce. But in game 2, Randy Gumpert (3–0) stops Chicago's 4-game winning streak, beating the Sox, 8–1. Gumpert has two hits and two runs batted in. Al Widmar is the loser.
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