1976 in baseball


Champions

Major League Baseball

Winter Leagues

Major league baseball final standings

Events

January

  • January 2 – Pitchers Robin Roberts and Bob Lemon are voted into the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
  • January 9 – San Francisco Giants owner Horace Stoneham agrees to sell his team for USD $13.25 million to a Toronto group consisting of Labatt Brewing Company, Vulcan Assets Ltd., and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. The sale price includes $5 million that is set aside to cover indemnification costs for relocating the financially strapped franchise from San Francisco. If the sale and transfer is approved by ten of the National League's 12 teams, the Toronto Giants would begin play this season at Exhibition Stadium.
  • January 14 – Ted Turner completes the purchase for full control ownership of the Atlanta Braves.
  • January 15 – Seattle is awarded the American League's 13th franchise to begin play in. On February 6, the club's ownership structure is revealed, with entertainer Danny Kaye and Seattle businessman Lester Smith as principals. The owners pay the AL an entry fee of $5.53 million.
  • January 27 – The Pittsburgh Pirates sign undrafted free agent Pascual Perez.

    February

  • February 3 – The Special Veterans Committee selects players Roger Connor and Freddie Lindstrom, and umpire Cal Hubbard, for the Hall of Fame. Hubbard becomes the first person elected to both the Pro Football and Baseball Halls of Fame.
  • February 9 – Oscar Charleston is selected for the Hall of Fame by the Special Committee on the Negro Leagues.
  • February 11 – The transfer of the Giants to Toronto is thwarted when, after a Superior Court judge issues an injunction sought by San Francisco mayor George Moscone, the franchise is tentatively sold to Bay Area real estate developer Bob Lurie and controversial former MLB owner Bob Short for $8 million. Under the arrangement, each man will own half the team. Short is notorious for having moved the Washington Senators to Arlington, Texas, in after refusing to pay two years of rent he owed for the capital's district-owned stadium.
  • February 17 – Mike Scott of Pepperdine pitches a perfect game against California Lutheran University. He will be selected in the 2nd round of the June draft.

    March

  • March 1 – The 1976 Major League Baseball lockout is instated, the second lockout in league history.
  • March 2
  • *The National League unanimously approves the sale of the San Francisco Giants. The majority owner is Bay Area financier Bob Lurie, with Arizona meat-packing tycoon Arthur "Bud" Herseth emerging in the eleventh hour as Lurie's minority partner as a replacement for Bob Short. The reported purchase price is $8 million. The transaction finally ends Horace Stoneham's term as the Giants' owner after 40 years.
  • *Lurie immediately appoints Bill Rigney, 58, as the Giants' field manager for 1976. It will be Rigney's second term in the job: he was the skipper when the franchise moved from New York to San Francisco in, and compiled a 332–342 record from 1956 to June 17, 1960.
  • *The St. Louis Cardinals trade second baseman Ted Sizemore to the Los Angeles Dodgers for outfielder Willie Crawford. The deal restores Sizemore to his original team where he won the National League Rookie of the Year Award.
  • March 3 – The Boston Red Sox unexpectedly trade relief pitcher Dick Drago to the California Angels for infielder Dave Machemer and outfielders John Balaz and Dick Sharon. Drago had been a major contributor to the Bosox' 1975 pennant; Machemer, Balaz and Sharon never appear in a Boston uniform.
  • March 16 – Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally are officially granted free agency as a result of the December 1975 Seitz decision that struck down the reserve clause.
  • March 17 – Major League Baseball's lockout ends as Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn orders team owners to open spring training camps to their players immediately.
  • March 20 – Leo Durocher, hired to manage Japan's Yokohama Taiyō Whales of the Central League, is sick with hepatitis and asks for a five-week delay in reporting. Durocher receives a telegram from the Whales stating: "Since the championship starts in 20 days, it's better if you stay home and take care of yourself for the remainder of the season."
  • March 26 – The American League officially expands to 14 teams for 1977, approving the purchase of the new Toronto franchise by the Labatt Brewing Company for $7 million. In January, the Junior Circuit added Seattle as its 13th team, then, on March 20, its owners voted 11–1 to draft the Toronto territory.

    April

  • April 2 – The coming of post-Seitz decision era free agency looms large in a major trade between the Oakland Athletics and Baltimore Orioles. Oakland deals outfielder Reggie Jackson and pitchers Ken Holtzman and minor leaguer Bill VanBommel to Baltimore for outfielder Don Baylor and pitchers Mike Torrez and Paul Mitchell. Jackson, Holtzman and Baylor will be free agents at the close of the 1976 season; Torrez will opt for free agency a year later.
  • April 3 – The Chicago White Sox sign veteran free-agent outfielder Cleon Jones, released by the New York Mets on July 27, 1975. Jones will appear in 12 games for the White Sox, collect eight hits and five bases on balls in 47 plate appearances, and be unconditionally released on May 2.
  • April 8 – The Cincinnati Reds begin defense of their world championship by thrashing the Houston Astros 11–5 in the National League's traditional opening game at Riverfront Stadium. The "Big Red Machine" hits no homers, but steals four bases off pitchers J. R. Richard and Elias Sosa. Houston's Joaquín Andújar makes his major league debut as a mop-up man. He will later become a starting pitcher and twice in his career win 20 games or more in a season.
  • April 9 – In a classic Opening Day pitchers' duel between future Hall of Famers Jim Palmer of the Baltimore Orioles and Ferguson Jenkins of the Boston Red Sox, who will combine for 552 major league wins, Palmer prevails 1–0.
  • April 10
  • *The Atlanta Braves sign free agent pitcher Andy Messersmith to a "lifetime contract" worth $1 million.
  • *Don Money of the Milwaukee Brewers hits what appears to be a game winning grand slam off Dave Pagan of the New York Yankees. However, just before the pitch, Yankee first baseman Chris Chambliss had called time. The grand slam is waived off, and Money is ordered to return to the plate. Money then hits a sacrifice fly to bring the score to 9–7. It's not enough and the Brewers lose the game; they later also lose a protest they file with the American League.
  • April 14 – At Wrigley Field, Dave Kingman of the New York Mets launches a home run estimated at 550 feet that plunks a house some 530 feet from home plate, but the Chicago Cubs survive to win 6–5.
  • April 15 – Newly remodeled Yankee Stadium is jammed with 52,613 fans for Opening Day ceremonies. The 1923 Yankees, the first team to play in "The House That Ruth Built," are honored, and Bob Shawkey, winner of the 1923 opener, throws out the first ball. The Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins 11–4 on 14 hits, but the only home run is hit by Minnesota's Dan Ford.
  • April 16 – At Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium, Los Angeles Dodgers southpaw Tommy John throws a pitch in an official MLB game for the first time since Dr. Frank Jobe performed his breakthrough ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction surgery on John's injured elbow on September 25, 1974. John faces 24 Atlanta Braves hitters over five innings, and allows five hits, four bases on balls, and three earned runs, absorbing a 3–1 defeat. But he will throw 207 innings in 1976, go 10–10, and play 14 more major-league seasons before retiring from the mound at age 46 in. Moreover, he will achieve a measure of immortality when Jobe's procedure is christened "Tommy John Surgery."
  • April 17 – With the wind blowing out at Wrigley Field, Mike Schmidt leads the Philadelphia Phillies assault with a single, four consecutive home runs, and eight RBI to overcome a 12–1 deficit after three innings and beat the Chicago Cubs in 10 innings, 18–16. Schmidt becomes the tenth player in Major League history to hit four home runs in a game.
  • April 18 – Seattle's American League expansion team names Lou Gorman vice president and its first director of baseball operations. Gorman, 47, comes from the Kansas City Royals, where he oversaw the former expansion club's player development and scouting organizations before becoming assistant general manager.
  • April 19 – At Busch Memorial Stadium, the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals take 17 innings to decide a game that the Mets win, 4–3, on Del Unser's solo homer off southpaw reliever Mike Wallace.
  • April 21
  • *At Wrigley Field, Tim Foli of the Montreal Expos hits for the cycle, but it takes him two days to do it. Foli has a single, double and triple against the Cubs, but with the Expos ahead 11–3, the game is suspended on account of darkness. When play resumes the next day, Foli will add a home run in the eighth inning.
  • *In another early-season marathon contest, the Houston Astros down the Los Angeles Dodgers in 16 innings, 1–0 at the Astrodome. J. R. Richard, Ken Forsch and Mike Barlow combine for the shutout, with Barlow claiming the "W".
  • April 25
  • *Chicago Cubs outfielder Rick Monday snatches an American flag from two fans who are about to set it on fire in the outfield during a game at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers win 5–4 in 10 innings. The next day, the Illinois legislature unanimously approves May 4 as Rick Monday Day.
  • *The Atlanta Braves top the Philadelphia Phillies 3–2, as Darrell Evans draws a walk in his 13th consecutive game to set a new National League record. He'll draw passes in two more games, until April 27, before being shut out. Evans has 19 walks in the 15 games.
  • April 28 – The St. Louis Cardinals prevail in another extra-inning contest, scoring two runs in the top of the 16th, then holding off the San Francisco Giants 4–2 at Candlestick Park. Rookie Doug Clarey provides the winning margin with his two-run homer off Mike Caldwell; the long ball will be Clarey's only major-league hit.