2000
» The Rockies sign free agent OF Darren Bragg to a contract.
The Milwaukee Brewers sign pitcher Juan Acevedo to a two-year contract.
1999
» The Reds acquire outfielders Greg Vaughn and Mark Sweeney from the Padres for OF Reggie Sanders, IF Damian Jackson and P Josh Harris.
1998
» Yankees GM Bob Watson announces his resignation. He is replaced by 30–year–old Brian Cashman.
1989
» Bill White, a 6-time All-Star and longtime Yankees broadcaster, is elected president of the National League. He becomes the highest-ranking black official in American professional sports.
1987
» Three-time 20-game winner Dennis Leonard, who returned to the majors last season after a 3-year absence due to a knee injury, announces his retirement. Leonard was 8-13 with a 4.44 ERA for the Royals in 1986.
The Blue Jays trade 2B Damaso Garcia and P Luis Leal to the Braves for P Craig McMurtry.
1976
» The Special Veterans Committee selects old-time players Roger Connor and Fred Lindstrom, and umpire Cal Hubbard, for Cooperstown. Hubbard becomes the first man elected to both the Football and Baseball Halls of Fame.
1972
» The Special Veterans Committee selects former players Lefty Gomez and Ross Youngs, and former AL president William Harridge for the Hall of Fame.
1970
» The Pirates trade Bo Belinsky to the Reds for Dennis Ribant.
1969
» Pitchers Stan Coveleski and Waite Hoyt are voted into the Hall of Fame by the Special Veterans Committee.
1964
» The Hall of Fame Special Veterans Committee tabs Red Faber, Burleigh Grimes, Tim Keefe, Heinie Manush, John Montgomery Ward, and Miller Huggins for induction, the biggest veterans class ever. Keefe and Ward were teammates and brothers-in-law, with Ward married to the famous actress Helen Dauvrey and Keefe married to her sister Clara Gibson.
1954
» Mickey Mantle has his second operation since the end of last season, this one to remove a cyst behind the right knee.
1950
» The TV show WHAT'S MY LINE premiers with Phil Rizzuto as the very first mystery guest.
1949
» Brothers Bill DeWitt and Charlie DeWitt gain control of the Browns by acquiring 57 percent of the stock from Dick Muckerman for $1 million.
1944
» The leagues meet at New York to discuss postwar action. They decide players with war service will be guaranteed 30 days of trial at pay and restrictions of their release or assignment. Military service will count as playing time.
1943
» After experimenting with a vest worn over knit jerseys, the Cubs return to conventional baggy flannels for 1943. The outfitting change saves the organization $2,000 on the cost for uniforms.
1936
» The baseball writers vote for the first players to be named to the new Baseball Hall of Fame. Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson each receive the requisite 75 percent of ballots cast. Active players also are eligible in this first election, with Rogers Hornsby finishing 9th, Mickey Cochrane 10th, Lou Gehrig 15th, and Foxx 19th. Tainted former star Hal Chase receives 11 votes for 25th place, and Joe Jackson has two votes to tie for 36th place.
1933
» Honus Wagner rejoins the Pirates as a coach and goodwill ambassador.
1930
» The Yankees waive Leo Durocher out of the American League and sell him to the Reds. Whispered rumors, repeated by Urban Shocker in his 2001 autobiography, contend that Leo was stealing money and jewelry from his teammates. Allegedly, roommate Babe Ruth beat up Durocher after a theft of marked money confirmed his suspicions. The Yankees, according to Shocker, prevail on the rest of the AL to waive Durocher. [Another story has Durocher, in debt, asking for a $1,000 advance on his salary from Ed Barrow so he can pay a hotel bill. When Barrow turns him down, Leo curses him, and Barrow trades him the next day to the Reds.]
1926
» The National League holds its Golden Jubilee Banquet in New York. Among nearly 1,000 invited guests are 10 players from the 1876 season and two umpires, including Billy McLean, who was the umpire for the first NL game.
1925
» The National League inaugurates its Golden Jubilee Year by holding its spring meeting in the same room in New York's Broadway Central Hotel where the league was organized on February 2, 1876.
1905
» Hugh Jennings, now managing Baltimore in the Eastern League, is admitted to the Maryland bar after completing law studies at Cornell. In two weeks Yankees OF Dave Fultz, a Columbia graduate, passes the New York bar exam. Fultz will suffer a late September collision with teammate Kid Elberfeld, breaking his nose and jaw, and retire at 31. In 1912 he will organize and lead the Players' Fraternity.
1895
» The New York Clipper and the Cincinnati Times-Star both express disapproval of the proposal of putting numbers on uniforms as a means of identifying individual players. The Times-Star advocates a return to the use of "distinctive colors in club uniforms," or the practice of assigning to each position a specific color pattern, first enacted in the early 1880s.
1889
» A new Indianapolis group, headed by John T. Brush, is granted an National League franchise.
1888
» Indianapolis announces that the roof of its new grandstand will hold 42 private boxes, to be sold to season subscribers only.