1996 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.''

    Events

January–April

  • January 8 – For only the seventh time in history, and the first time since, the Baseball Writers' Association of America fails to select a player for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
  • February 8 – Future Hall-of-Famer Dave Winfield announces his retirement. He is the oldest to hit for the cycle and is one of five players to reach at least 3,000 hits, 450 home runs and 200 stolen bases. Winfield was born on the day that Bobby Thomson hit the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" that led the New York Giants to the 1951 NL pennant.
  • March 5 – The Veterans Committee elects four new members to the Hall of Fame, and just misses naming a fifth. The group elected includes Earl Weaver, Baltimore Orioles manager for 17 seasons; pitcher Jim Bunning, who wins 100 games in each league; 19th-century manager Ned Hanlon, who wins pennants in Baltimore and Brooklyn, and Bill Foster, the Negro leagues' winningest pitcher. Second baseman Nellie Fox receives the necessary 75% of the Committee's votes, but the rules allow for election of only one modern player, and Bunning has more votes.
  • April 1:
  • *Seven pitches into the first game of the season, at Cinergy Field in Cincinnati, home plate umpire John McSherry collapses on the field and dies of a massive heart attack. The game between the Cincinnati Reds and Montreal Expos is postponed, while most of the games scheduled for that day were played. Reds owner Marge Schott later comes under fire for wanting the game in Cincinnati to continue despite the events, saying that she feels "cheated" when it's canceled.
  • *For the first time since the 1977 season, Alan Trammell takes the field in a Detroit Tigers uniform without Lou Whitaker on the roster. Whitaker and Trammell were teammates for 19 seasons, a record for a shortstop/second base combination.
  • April 9 – In a wild Opening Day game at Tiger Stadium, the Detroit Tigers defeat the Seattle Mariners 10-9, scoring their 10 runs on just 4 hits. Alan Trammell hits a 3rd-inning home run, the final one of his career.
  • April 11 – Atlanta Braves pitcher Greg Maddux ends his major league record for consecutive road victories with a 2–1 loss to the San Diego Padres. Maddux is 18-0 with an 0.99 earned run average in 20 regular-season road starts since losing to the Montreal Expos on June 27, 1994.
  • April 16 – Cecil Fielder hits three home runs helping the Detroit Tigers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 13–8.
  • April 27 – Barry Bonds hits his 300th career home run helping the San Francisco Giants beat the Florida Marlins, 6-3.
  • April 30 – At Cinergy Field, Jeff King of the Pittsburgh Pirates hits two home runs in the fourth inning of a 10-7 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. King, who had hit two home runs in the second inning of the Pirates' August 8, game against the San Francisco Giants, becomes the third player to hit two home runs in one inning on two occasions, joining Willie McCovey and Andre Dawson.

    May–August

  • May 1 - Dion James is released by the New York Yankees.
  • May 7 – Mike Piazza hits his 100th career home run as the Los Angeles Dodgers lose to the Cincinnati Reds 3-2.
  • May 11 – At Pro Player Stadium, Al Leiter of the Florida Marlins no-hits the Colorado Rockies 11-0, the first no-hitter in Marlins history.
  • May 12 – Rafael Palmeiro hits his 200th career home run as the Baltimore Orioles lose to the Milwaukee Brewers 6-4.
  • May 14 – New York Yankee pitcher Dwight Gooden pitches the first Yankee Stadium no-hitter in 3 years as his Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners 3-0.
  • May 17 – At Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Chris Hoiles, batting with the bases loaded and his Baltimore Orioles trailing the Seattle Mariners 13-10, hits a grand slam home run off Norm Charlton for a 14-13 Oriole victory. Hoiles' home run, one of only 29 "ultimate grand slams" in Major League history, occurs on a full count with two outs. Hoiles becomes only the second player in Major League history to do so after Alan Trammell in 1988.
  • May 21 – Ken Griffey Jr. hits his 200th career home run helping the Seattle Mariners beat the Boston Red Sox 13-7.
  • May 24 – Ken Griffey Jr. hits 3 home runs helping the Seattle Mariners beat the New York Yankees 10-4.
  • May 28 – Cal Ripken Jr. hits 3 home runs helping the Baltimore Orioles beat the Seattle Mariners 12-8.
  • * In a game against the Chicago White Sox, Frank Viola of Toronto Blue Jays gives up four runs on five hits, two of them home runs, in 5.2 innings. Viola is relieved by Jeff Ware, and is tagged with the loss. This would be the last appearance in the majors for the former Cy Young winner, as he's released by Toronto weeks later.
  • June 5 – Sammy Sosa hits 3 home runs helping the Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies 9-6.
  • June 6 – The Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox 7-4, as John Valentin of Boston hits for the cycle and the White Sox complete a triple play. It marks the first time since July 1, 1931, that both events occur in the same game. The cycle makes Valentin, who turned an unassisted triple play in, the first player to turn an unassisted triple play and hit for the cycle. Later, Troy Tulowitzki joins Valentin in accomplishing both feats.
  • June 23 – The Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Houston Astros at Dodger Stadium by a score of 4-3. It is the last game and victory in Tommy Lasorda's career. The next day he checks himself into a hospital with abdominal pains which he learns are the symptoms of a heart attack. He retires formally on July 29 with 1,599 wins.
  • June 29 – Mike Piazza hits 3 home runs helping the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies 13-10.
  • July 9 – At Veterans Stadium, the National League defeats the American League 6-0 in the All-Star Game. Ken Caminiti and Mike Piazza hit home runs for the winners. The game is the first All-Star contest in which no walks are issued by either team. The Orioles' Cal Ripken Jr. starts the game, despite suffering a broken nose when he accidentally catches a forearm from White Sox reliever Roberto Hernández when the latter slips on the tarp during the AL team photo shoot.
  • July 12 – After the failure of two operations to repair the glaucoma-induced damage that blinded him in his right eye, the Minnesota Twins' much loved outfielder Kirby Puckett announces his retirement effective immediately.
  • July 28 – Darryl Strawberry hits his 300th career home run, which helps the New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 3-2.
  • July 31 - The Detroit Tigers trade Cecil Fielder to the New York Yankees in exchange for Ruben Sierra and minor league pitcher Matt Drews.
  • August 6 – Darryl Strawberry hits 3 home runs helping the New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox 9-2.
  • August 16 – The first official Major League game to be played outside of Canada and the United States takes place at Estadio Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico. The San Diego Padres win behind, appropriately, Mexican pitcher Fernando Valenzuela.

    September

  • September 2 – At the Kingdome, Mike Greenwell drives in all nine Boston Red Sox runs in his team's 9-8, 10-inning victory over the Seattle Mariners. The nine RBIs are the most by one player accounting for all of his team's runs in one game. Greenwell, whose evening includes two home runs, singles in the tenth to score Wil Cordero for the winning run.
  • September 6:
  • *Eddie Murray of the Baltimore Orioles becomes the 15th player in major league history to hit 500 home runs. He homers off Felipe Lira in the seventh inning of the Orioles' 5-4, 12-inning loss to the Detroit Tigers at Camden Yards. Murray also joins Hank Aaron and Willie Mays as the only big leaguers to reach both this milestone and also the 3,000 hit mark.
  • *Brett Butler returns to the Los Angeles Dodgers line-up four months after having surgery for throat cancer. The 39-year-old center fielder scores the decisive run in a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
  • September 14 – The New York Mets' Todd Hundley hit his 41st home run of the season in a 6-5 win at home against the Braves to set a Major League record for home runs in a season by a catcher.
  • September 16 – Paul Molitor of the Minnesota Twins becomes the first DH with 3,000 career hits. He is the first player in history to reach the milestone by collecting a triple.
  • September 17 – Hideo Nomo pitches a no-hitter against the Colorado Rockies, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 9-0 victory. Nomo walks four batters and strikes out eight.
  • September 18 – Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox ties his own Major League record for a nine inning game by striking out twenty Detroit Tigers en route to a 4-0 win.
  • September 27 – Barry Bonds steals his 40th base of the season, becoming the second member of Major League Baseball's 40–40 club. Bonds' San Francisco Giants defeat the Colorado Rockies, 9-3.
  • September 29 – Against the Toronto Blue Jays at the SkyDome, Brady Anderson of the Baltimore Orioles hits his 50th home run of the season. The home run, leading off the game, breaks Frank Robinson's single-season franchise record of 49 home runs in. Anderson also becomes the first player to hit 50 home runs in one season and steal 50 bases in another, having stolen 52 in. However, the Blue Jays give up no more runs and defeat the Orioles 4-1 for Pat Hentgen's 20th victory of the season. Hentgen, the eventual American League Cy Young Award winner, becomes only the second 20-game winner in Jays history, after Jack Morris won 21 games in the Blue Jays championship season.