1995 in baseball


Champions

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball final standings

  • ''The asterisk denotes the club that won the wild card for its respective league.''

    Managers

[American League]

National League">National League (baseball)">National League

Events

January–June

  • March 9 – Major League Baseball goes ahead with choosing the cities for the 1998 expansion: Phoenix, Arizona, and St. Petersburg, Florida. Phoenix gets the National League Arizona Diamondbacks, and St. Petersburg gets the American League Tampa Bay Devil Rays. To keep the leagues even-numbered, the Milwaukee Brewers switch to the National League after the 1997 season, giving the NL 16 teams and the AL 14 teams.
  • March 10 – Michael Jordan announces that he is leaving the Chicago White Sox organization and will return to the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association.
  • April 2 – After 232 days, the 1994–95 MLBPA Players Strike comes to an end when judge Sonia Sotomayor ends the strike.
  • April 8 – The Colorado Rockies sign free agent outfielder Larry Walker.
  • April 25 – Major League Baseball begins its strike-shortened 144-game season.
  • April 26 – The Colorado Rockies open Coors Field with an 11-9 victory over the New York Mets in 14 innings.
  • May 23 - Opposing pitchers Kevin Foster of the Chicago Cubs and Marvin Freeman of the Colorado Rockies each hit a home run off each other. Chicago defeated Colorado 7-6 in a game at Coors field in Colorado.
  • May 26 – Ken Griffey Jr. of the Seattle Mariners fractures his left wrist while making a spectacular catch at the wall during the Mariners 8-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. Griffey would miss the next 73 games as a result of the injury.
  • May 28 – The Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers combine for a record 12 home runs in one game at Tiger Stadium.
  • June 3 – Pedro Martínez of the Montreal Expos pitches 9 perfect innings against the San Diego Padres before losing the perfect game on a 10th inning leadoff double by Bip Roberts as the Expos defeat the Padres 1-0 in 10 innings at Jack Murphy Stadium.
  • June 30:
  • *Eddie Murray of the Cleveland Indians gets his 3,000th career hit in a 3-1 Cleveland win over the Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome.
  • *Mark McGwire hits a walk-off grand slam in the ninth inning off closer Lee Smith to give the Oakland Athletics an 8–5 victory over the California Angels.

    July–September

  • July 11 – The National League defeats the American League in the All-Star Game 3-2, on an 8th-inning pinch-hit home run by Jeff Conine. Conine becomes the 10th player to homer in his first All-Star at bat, and is named the Game's MVP. Frank Thomas, Craig Biggio and Mike Piazza also hit home runs.
  • July 14 – At Dodger Stadium, Ramón Martínez of the Los Angeles Dodgers no-hits the Florida Marlins 7-0. On June 3 of this same season, Martínez' brother Pedro, pitching for the Montreal Expos against the San Diego Padres at Qualcomm Stadium, pitches nine perfect innings only to have his bid for a perfect game broken up by a Bip Roberts single leading off the 10th. Otherwise the Martinezes are not the second brother combo, after Bob and Ken Forsch, to pitch Major League no-hitters, and they do not become the first to do so in the same season.
  • July 18 – Albert Belle of the Cleveland Indians becomes the second player to hit a walk-off grand slam against California Angels closer Lee Smith this season. Mark McGwire of the Oakland Athletics does that on June 30. The only other pitchers in major-league history to surrender two game-ending grand slams in one season are Satchel Paige and Lindy McDaniel. New York Mets closer Francisco Rodríguez joins this group during the season.
  • July 22 - A prerecorded message from Mickey Mantle is played over the Jumbotron at Yankee Stadium. The video is a part of the Yankees Old-Timers game celebration. It would be the last appearance of any kind from Mantle, as he dies 22 days later from Liver disease.
  • July 30 – Mike Schmidt, Richie Ashburn, Vic Willis, William Hulbert and Leon Day are inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
  • August 10 – The Los Angeles Dodgers are forced to forfeit to the visiting St. Louis Cardinals when inebriated fans react to several close calls by throwing souvenir baseballs onto the field.
  • August 13 – New York Yankees Hall of Fame outfielder Mickey Mantle loses his battle with liver cancer and dies at the age of 63. He had undergone a liver transplant on June 8. One of his last public appearances was at a news conference on July 11 in Dallas, the same day that the MLB All-Star Game that year was held in nearby Arlington, Texas. His funeral is held 2 days later with Bob Costas delivering the eulogy.
  • August 25 – The Philadelphia Phillies defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers 17-4 at Veterans Stadium. Hideo Nomo only pitches 3 innings. Jeff Juden hits a grand slam in the 4th inning. Gregg Jefferies hits for the cycle, the first Phillie to do so since Johnny Callison in 1963.
  • August 29 – Against the Colorado Rockies at Three Rivers Stadium, Paul Wagner of the Pittsburgh Pirates has a no-hitter broken up by an Andrés Galarraga single with two out in the ninth. The hit is the only one Wagner allows in defeating the Rockies 4-0. The no-hitter would have been the first by a Pirate since John Candelaria in.
  • September 4 – Robin Ventura of the Chicago White Sox becomes the eighth player in major league history to hit two grand slams in a single game, doing so in the 4th and 5th innings of the White Sox 14-3 win over the Texas Rangers. The last to do it is Frank Robinson in 1970.
  • September 6 – Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles plays in his 2,131st consecutive major league game to surpass Lou Gehrig's 56-year record. When the game becomes official in the middle of the fifth inning, Ripken takes a victory lap around Camden Yards during the 22-minute standing ovation from the sellout crowd, including President Bill Clinton. In the game, Ripken goes 2-for-4, including a home run, in Baltimore's 4-2 win over California. It is baseball's most memorable moment in the 1990s.
  • September 8 – The Cleveland Indians clinch the American League Central Division with a 3-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles. It is Cleveland's first postseason appearance since 1954, and ends the then-longest post-season drought in the Major Leagues.
  • September 13 – Second baseman Lou Whitaker and shortstop Alan Trammell of the Detroit Tigers play in their 1,915th game together, setting an American League record.
  • September 15 – The St. Louis Cardinals' shortstop Ozzie Smith is a part of his 1,554th double play to establish a new Major League record, despite the Cardinals losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-6.
  • September 25 – In a 7-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field, Frank Castillo of the Chicago Cubs has a no-hitter broken up with two out in the ninth—by inches. Bernard Gilkey hits a line drive to right field and despite an all-out attempt by Sammy Sosa to make a diving catch, the ball falls in for a hit and eventually rolls to the wall for a triple, the Cardinals' lone hit of the game. The near no-hitter is almost the first by a Cub pitcher and the first one the Cubs are involved in, since Milt Pappas in.
  • September 28 – Greg A. Harris of the Montreal Expos becomes the first major league pitcher since 1893 to pitch with both hands in one game. Harris faces four batters, two from his usual right side and two from the left, in the ninth inning of a 9–7 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.
  • September 30 – Albert Belle hits his 50th home run of the season, and becomes the first player in Major League history to collect 50 home runs and 50 doubles in a season.

    October–December

  • October 2 – In a one-game playoff the Seattle Mariners beat the California Angels 9–1 at Seattle after finishing tied atop the AL West.
  • October 8 – After being down 2 games-to-zero in the best of 5 series to the New York Yankees, the Seattle Mariners complete a comeback, capped by the late inning heroics of Edgar Martínez, their designated hitter. Forever known as "the double" in Mariner lore, Martinez strokes a breaking ball into left field, scoring Joey Cora and Ken Griffey Jr. in the bottom of the 11th to erase a 1 run deficit and win the game and the series.
  • October 23 – The St. Louis Cardinals hire Tony La Russa as their manager.
  • October 28 – In a pitchers' duel, the Atlanta Braves win Game 6 of the World Series 1-0, on a combined one-hitter by Tom Glavine and Mark Wohlers. David Justice's sixth-inning home run accounts for the game's only run. In winning, the Braves become the first team to win World Championships representing three different cities – Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta. Catcher Tony Peña's leadoff single in the 6th is Cleveland's only hit. Glavine is named Series MVP.
  • November 2 – The New York Yankees name Joe Torre as their new manager, replacing Buck Showalter.
  • November 9 – Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Hideo Nomo is named National League Rookie of the Year, becoming the first Japanese player ever to win a Major League award. Nomo posts a 13-6 record with 236 strikeouts and a 2.54 ERA in innings of work.
  • December 22:
  • *Anheuser-Busch agrees to sell the St. Louis Cardinals for $150 million to an investment group that agrees to keep the team in St. Louis.
  • *The Florida Marlins sign free agent pitcher Kevin Brown.
  • *The Philadelphia Phillies sign free agent third baseman Todd Zeile.
  • *The Boston Red Sox sign free agent pitcher Jamie Moyer.