November 12th in Baseball History

.	.	THIS DATE IN BASEBALL HISTORY
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2002 2001 1999 1998 1997 1992 1986 1980 1975 1969 1966 1964 1959 1958 1957 1952 1940 1939 1936 1923 1920
	.	November 12th
		2002 ť Oakland SS Miguel Tejada wins the American League MVP award, Texas' Alex Rodriguez finishes second in the voting. 2001 ť Cardinals' 3B Albert Pujols is the unanimous choice for NL Rookie of the Year. In the AL, Ichiro Suzuki takes rookie honors. 1999 ť In the 1999 Intercontinental Cup tourney in Sydney, Australia, Cuban righthander Ciro Licea shuts out Team USA, 7-0 striking out 13. Team USA will play for the bronze medal against either Australia or Japan while Cuba, with its second win against the Americans in the tournament, will play the winner of that game for the gold medal. 1998 ť The Orioles sign free agent P Mike Timlin to a 4-year contract. The Mariners sign free agent P Jose Mesa to a 2-year contract. 1997 ť Ken Griffey Jr. is named American League MVP. The Athletics sign free agent IF Dave Magadan. 1992 ť Arbitrator George Nicolau overturns the suspension of Yankees P Steve Howe for being too severe. The pitcher is resigned by the Yankees. 1986 ť Roger Clemens wins the American League Cy Young Award unanimously, joining Denny McLain (1968) as the only pitchers to do so. 1980 ť Baltimore's Steve Stone, who led the American League in wins with a 25-7 record, edges Oakland's Mike Norris for the AL Cy Young Award. Don Zimmer is named manager of the Texas Rangers, becoming the 10th manager in the club's 9-year history. 1975 ť The Mets Tom Seaver wins his 3rd Cy Young Award. He led the National League with 22 wins, notched 243 strikeouts, and had a 2.38 ERA. 1969 ť Minnesota's Harmon Killebrew is voted American League MVP honors. 1966 ť The Dodgers complete an 18-game tour of Japan with a 9-8-1 record, the most losses ever for a ML club touring the Far East. 1964 ť Former Cincinnati manager Fred Hutchinson, 45, dies of cancer in Florida. 1959 ť The White Sox 2B Nellie Fox wins the American League's MVP award. Teammates Luis Aparicio and Early Wynn finish 2nd and 3rd in the voting. 1958 ť The Yankees Bob Turley wins the Cy Young Award, gathering five votes to four for last year's winner, Warren Spahn. 1957 ť Frank Lane resigns as GM of the Cardinals, who replace him with Bing Devine. 1952 ť The baseball writers name Philadelphia P Bobby Shantz as the American League MVP. He was 24-7 for the 79-75 A's. The White Sox place OF Jim Rivera on a one-year probation after he is cleared of a rape charge. 1940 ť Alva Bradley wouldn't fire Oscar Vitt on his players' demand during the season, but he does now. Today he hires Roger Peckinpaugh to become Cleveland boss, the 2nd hitch for Peck. 1939 ť The youngest of the three DiMaggio brothers, Dom DiMaggio, is bought for $40,000 by the Boston Red Sox from San Francisco (PCL). P Victor Starfin wins his 42nd game in a 96-game season, leading the Yomiuri Giants to the pennant, and setting a post-1900 world record for season victories that will be equaled (by Kazuhisa Inao in 1961) but never broken. Starfin, the 6'4" son of Russian immigrants, was exempt from the military call-up of able-bodied Japanese. From 1936-55 he won 303 games, the first in Japanese baseball to top the 300 mark. Except for Sadaharu Oh, he is the only non-Japanese player in the Japanese baseball Hall of Fame. 1936 ť Following the death of Phil Ball, wealthy owner of the St. Louis Browns, his estate sells the team to a syndicate headed by Donald L. Barnes and William O. DeWitt. As the new owners of Sportsman's Park, they announce their intention to install lights and bring night baseball to the American League, an idea endorsed by the Cardinals as well. 1923 ť John McGraw sends OF Casey Stengel, SS Dave Bancroft, and OF Bill Cunningham to the Braves for P Joe Oeschger and OF Billy Southworth. Bancroft will be named player-manager, one of three players in the swap who will skipper the Braves. 1920 ť With Ban Johnson barred from the meeting, the 16 ML clubs settle their differences. The 12-team-league idea is discarded, and the two leagues will continue with their same identities. The owners unanimously elect Kenesaw Mountain Landis chairman for seven years. Judge Landis accepts, but only as sole commissioner with final authority over the players and owners, while remaining a federal judge (with his $7,500 federal salary deducted from the baseball salary of $50,000). The agreement will be signed on January 12, 1921, when he is to begin his duties.