IN THE NEWS: With one out in the 8th inning, A's Skeeter Kell beats out an infield hit to break up Joe Dobson's no hitter. The A's Dave Philley adds a solid single in the 9th as Dobson and the White Sox win, 3–0.
IN THE NEWS: After allowing no hits through eight innings, the Cubs Turk Lown cracks under the strain and gives up three hits and loses to the Dodgers, 3–1. Billy Loes is the winner in relief. The Cubs score in the first on a double steal by Bob Addis and Frankie Baumholtz.
IN THE NEWS: The Red Sox beat the Browns 5–2 in Fenway though odd occurrences interrupt the game. In the bottom of the first, two fraternity boys dressed in baseball uniforms run onto the field and start throwing a rubber ball around. Two innings later a one-legged man on crutches jumps onto the field to talk to Browns SS Marty Marion and P Earl Harrist. He then shakes hands with Red Sox base runner Don Lenhardt before being hurried off the field.
The Indians lose, but go down swinging as they use a record 23 players including the first black battery in the American League. 39-year-old Negro League veteran Quincy Trouppe is behind the plate when reliever Sam Jones comes in. Bob Chakales loses it for the Tribe with two outs in the 9th. Jones and Trouppe are the battery tomorrow as Jones will pick up a 9–6 win against the Red Sox in relief.
The New York Yankees send promising reserve outfielder Jackie Jensen, along with OF Archie Wilson, P Spec Shea, and SS Jerry Snyder to the Senators for slick-fielding OF Irv Noren and infielder Tom Upton. Shea will have two fine seasons on the hill before going over it, while Jensen, the former heir to Joe DiMaggio's spot, will eventually emerge as a star with the Red Sox. Noren will have his best year in 1954, when the left fielder will be an All-Star.
IN THE NEWS: Boston 1B Faye Throneberry hits his 2nd grand slam of the season off Early Wynn of the Indians, but the Tribe wins, 9–6. The Red Sox have accounted for all four of the American League's grand slams thus far, as the infielder joins teammates Walt Dropo and Don "Footsie" Lenhardt.
IN THE NEWS: Paul Minner allows just four hits but loses his 7th straight to the Giants, 3–2. He has never beaten them. Reliever Monte Kennedy allows just one hit in six 1/3 innings for the win.
Mickey Mantle's father dies of Hodgkin's Disease and Mantle will miss six games attending funeral and seeing to family matters in Oklahoma. Mickey's grandfather died eight years earlier of the same disease.
IN THE NEWS: In his first ML start since returning from 19 months in the army, the Phils Curt Simmons allows just two hits while fanning 12 to beat the Cubs, 2–0. Joe Hatten is the loser.
P Ron Necciai of Bristol (Appalachian League) no-hits Welch and strikes out 27 batters, including four in one inning, to win, 7–0. In his next start he will strike out 24 while giving up two hits. Necciai will later compile a career 1-6 mark with the Pirates.
IN THE NEWS: Despite eight interruptions by Reds manager Luke Sewell asking the umps to examine the ball, Sal Maglie records his 6th straight win, 6–3, at the Polo Grounds. After the last play stoppage, an angry Maglie heaves the ball over the umps head, but manager Leo Durocher calms the sizzling Sal down. Bobby Thomson starts the scoring with a triple and a steal of home in the 1st.
IN THE NEWS: After pitching four no-hitters in the minors, 33-year-old Virgil "Fire" Trucks of Detroit pitches his first in the ML, a 1–0 blanking of the Senators. Vic Wertz's dramatic two-out home run in the 9th off Bob Porterfield wins the game at Briggs Stadium.
IN THE NEWS: Behind the spectacular pitching of Ben Wade, the Dodgers coast to a 12–7 win over the Pirates. Wade strikes out six batters in a row and does not allow a hit until rookie Tony Bartirome's single in the 6th when the Corsairs plate six runs. The Brooks get 11 hits including a bases loaded triple by Duke Snider. Roy Campanella is hit on the hand by a pitch from Ron Kline but x-rays reveal no fracture.
Vet Hank Edwards, replacing the slumping Johnny Wyrostek in RF, is 5-for-5, including two doubles and a triple, as the Reds defeat the Phils, 7–3.
IN THE NEWS: Senators' owner Clark Griffith sells his nephew, C Sherry Robertson, to the A's. Robertson will return to the Senators' front office in 1953, and from 1958 to 1970, will serve as farm director.
IN THE NEWS: In his first start following his no-hitter, Detroit's Virgil Trucks and Dick Littlefield combine to two-hit the Athletics, 5–1.
Playing center field and batting third, Mickey Mantle displays his switch-hitting skills by collecting two singles from each side of the plate. His first two hits are against righty Ken Holcombe, while the last two come off lefty Chuck Stobbs. Johnny Sain scatters six White Sox hits to win, 3–1.
IN THE NEWS: After leadoff batter Billy Cox grounds out against Ewell Blackwell, the Whip loses his snap. The Dodgers then score 15 runs in the first inning as a record 19 consecutive batters reach 1B. Captain Pee Wee Reese walks twice in reaching base safely three times. Andy Pafko is thrown out trying to steal 3B, and Duke Snider mercifully strikes out to end the barrage against the Reds. The Dodgers score 15 runs on 15 RBIs in the frame, and coast at home, 19–1. Winning pitcher Chris Van Cuyk has the most hits with four—two in the first inning off Bud Byerly and Frank Smith, while Bobby Morgan has a pair of two-run homers and Snider another two-run homer. The Reds lone run is a homer by reserve catcher Dixie Howell.
IN THE NEWS: The Celler committee finds legislation for government control of baseball to be unnecessary. It says that the sport can solve its own problems, and opposes legislation exempting the reserve clause from antitrust laws.
IN THE NEWS: The Dodgers jar the Phils, 5–1, as Roy Campanella drives in all five runs. Campy has two homers (#99 and #100) in his first two at bats, including a grand slam. In his final at bat yesterday against the Reds, Campy also homered. Ben Wade wins over Karl Drews.
Sal Maglie wins his 8th without a loss, stopping the Braves, 5–3. Maglie tires in the 9th, giving up three hits, including a 2-run homer by Ebba St. Claire. Al Dark's 2-run homer in the 5-run 4th is the big blow for the Giants, who stay a half-game in back of the Dodgers.
IN THE NEWS: Jimmy Piersall and New York's Billy Martin first exchange insults before a game in Boston, then exchange punches in the tunnel under the stands. It takes coaches Bill Dickey and Oscar Melillo, along with starter Ellis Kinder, to break the fight up. Piersall goes to the clubhouse to change his bloody shirt and gets into another brawl with teammate Maury McDermott. He sits as Ellis Kinder stops the Yanks, 5–2.
At Crosley Field, Reds catcher Andy Seminick drives in six runs with two homers, one a grand slam, in an 11–5 win over St. Louis.
IN THE NEWS: In a Memorial Day doubleheader in St. Louis, 13,000 fans at Sportsman's Park cheer as the Browns sweep two from Detroit. Satchel Paige picks up a save in the opener and then wins his 4th game in the nitecap.
Bill Bell, only 18, a Bristol (Appalachian League) teammate of Ron Necciai, hurls his 2nd consecutive no-hitter, beating Bluefield 4–0.
IN THE NEWS: Boston's Maury McDermott fires a one-hitter to beat the visiting Senators, 1–0. Mel Hoderlein's 4th inning single is the only hit.
The Giants Willie Mays enters the army. Although Mays is hitting just .236, the Giants are two 1/2 games in first place. They will lose eight of their next 10 games.
Meanwhile, the Giants lose another young Birmingham player as Braves scout Dewey Griggs signs Henry Aaron to a contract. The Indianapolis Clowns receive telegram offers from both clubs, and Aaron, thinking he'll have a better chance to make the team, prefers the Braves.
IN THE NEWS: At New York, Mickey Mantle's homer in the 3rd is all the scoring the Yanks can muster against Bobby Shantz, as the "Mighty Molecule" strikes out 11. Mantle doubles off Shantz in the 14th, but the A's hold on for a 2–1 victory. Dave Philley knocks home the winner. In game 2, Bob Hooper loses a shutout with two out in the 9th, but wins, 4–2.
The Senators and Red Sox split a pair, Washington taking the opener, 5–2, and Boston the nitecap, 5–3. Tom Ferrick beats Ellis Kinder in Game One behind Eddie Yost's 3-run homer, while in game two Mel Parnell wins his 17th in a row against Washington. Parnell last lost to Washington on May 28, 1948. Kinder (vs. Chicago) and Parnell are tied for Red Sox record for consecutive wins against an opponent, but Kinder will move ahead on June 1. The Senators will run up a streak of their own winning their next nine vs. Boston.
Over the protests of manager Paul Richards, White Sox GM Frank Lane swaps fleet CF Jim Busby, along with Mel Hoderlein, to Washington for Sam Mele. Busby's loss leaves a defensive hole in the outfield, which the Sox will fill when they acquire Jim Rivera in July.
In front of 35,999 at Wrigley, Big Bob Rush shuts out the Reds on two hits and the Cubs light up Bud Byerly and Joe Nuxhall for 15 hits and 11 runs. Dee Fondy has a double and triple to drive home three runs. Rush walks none while striking out ten and has now pitched 29 straight scoreless innings.
IN THE NEWS: Charlie Grimm succeeds Tommy Holmes as manager of the Boston Braves. Holmes will sign on with the Dodgers as a pinch hitter, but hit just .111.
BALLPLAYERS | TEAMS | CHRONOLOGY | TODAY | BOOKS | NEWSLETTER | ERRATA | FAQ
