I had my worst ever experience in Yankee Stadium on June 27, 2016, when a rain delay declared with one down in the top of the ninth — a 3:56 rain delay! — halted what should have been a hard-fought 6-5 Yankee win over the visiting Rangers. A Mark Teixeira seventh-inning home run gave the Yanks a 6-4 lead, and Rougned Odor halved the Yankee edge with a blast off Andrew Miller in the eighth. With a hard rain having fallen for innings, Aroldis Chapman couldn’t even stand on the soaked mound in the ninth, much less push off from it. Each team had batted for eight innings, with the visitors having scored last; the field was unplayable, with the rain expected to continue for hours — it did not disappoint. It should have been called right then, an eight-inning, rain-shortened 6-5 Yankee win. Kirby Yates had a disastrous ninth inning four hours later, twice hitting batters with pitches when it seemed he might escape early trouble. Texas scored four, and had themselves a 9-6, eight-hour win, played before 25 or 30 rain-drenched fans. That home plate ump John Tumpane still has his job in 2017 baffles and infuriates me.

Behind a strong Vidal Nuno start (two hits through six innings), the Yankees shut out Brandon Workman and the visiting Red Sox 6-0 on June 27, 2014. Much of the offense came via home runs from Brett Gardner, Kelly Johnson, and Brian McCann, with the catcher chipping in two hits, two rbi’s, and two runs scored.

Despite cashing in a 5-4 win over Cleveland in Yankee Stadium on June 27, 2012, Yankee season hopes took a big hit when a Kelly Shoppach grounder up the middle broke Andy Pettitte‘s leg. The two runs the Indians scored that fifth inning gave them a 3-2 lead, but a Robinson Cano two-run homer and a late Eric Chavez rbi single gave the Yanks the win.

It was a rarity in 1978 when Ron Guidry didn’t go deep into a game, and when the opposition scored. But the Yanks picked him up on June 27, when Gator only went six innings and gave up eight hits to the Red Sox. Graig Nettles won the game in the 14th inning with a two-run jack off Dick Drago, 6-4. Sparky Lyle got the win in relief, and Guidry’s record held at 13-0.

The Yanks held on to beat Denny McLain and the Tigers 5-4 on June 27, 1964, once Mickey Mantle‘s dinger in the fourth had given them a 4-1 lead.

Phil Hughes posted an uncharacteristically strong 2013 start on June 27 vs. Texas, allowing just five hits with an economical 105 pitches through eight. But a depleted Yankee lineup featuring Jayson Nix, Vernon Wells, Zoilo Almonte, David Adams, Albert Gonzalez, and Austin Romine responded with just two singles and two walks against southpaw Derek Holland in a 2-0 loss. Rookie Texas third baseman Jurickson Profar scored both runs for the Rangers, the latter on a fifth-inning home run.

The Mets tied the Yanks 5-5 in the sixth inning of a Friday, June 27 contest in the Bronx in 2003 on a Tony Clark home run, but Raul Mondesi knocked in the game winner in a 6-5 Yankee win. But the aspect of this game that is perhaps most noteworthy is the guy who closed it. This was Dan Miceli‘s lone Yankee save.

Cuban defector Jose Contreras had one of his better Yankee starts in an 8-1 interleague victory over the crosstown Mets in Shea Stadium on June 27, 2004. Two Derek Jeter homers off Steve Trachsel and one by Gary Sheffield got the Bombers started on their way. But the day got better as in the second game played that day as an ESPN Sunday night game in the Bronx, the Yanks jumped on Matt Ginter for six tallies in the first inning. Ruben Sierra capped that frame with a three-run home run, Miguel Cairo homered later, and the Yanks won going away 11-6, calming the hometown fans with four more tallies in the eighth.

The White Sox reached young Jim Bouton for all the runs in the first five frames, and Ray Herbert spread out five Bomber singles in a 6-0 win over the Yanks on June 27, 1963.

It was sad, really, when the Yanks visited Shea Stadium on June 27, 1998, with the Bombers off to a historic year, and the entire Mets pregame scoreboard highlight show focused on the defensive play of shortstop Rey Ordonez. In the game that followed the Yanks beat Bobby Jones 7-2 while scoring only three earned runs, with the other four scoring after errors by first sacker John Olerud and by Ordonez. Tino Martinez doubled, homered, and knocked in three, and Andy Pettitte got the win.

Rooting for a team that lost two-thirds of its starting outfield for most of the year one month into the 2006 season, Yankee fans surely did not realize how long young Robinson Cano would be out once he went on the DL June 27 with a strained left hamstring. He would be out for six weeks.

The highlight of the Brewers’ 5-4 victory over the Yanks on June 27, 1990, was that Milwaukee Designated Hitter Dave Parker got his 2,500th hit.

On a hot and steamy Wednesday afternoon in the Bronx on June 27, 2001, the Yanks came out smoking against young Cleveland lefty C.C. Sabathia, racing to a 10-2 lead after four on 13 hits including Tino Martinez‘s homer. Mike Mussina coasted to the 15-5 victory. Sabathia throws for the good guys now, and is signed to do so for a long time.

With Detroit’s Mickey Lolich going on two days’ rest, the Yanks fell 5-2 on this day in 1972 once the Tigers plated four in the first on consecutive home runs by Aurelio Rodriguez, Al Kaline, and Willie Horton. Wade Blasingame took the New York loss, and Bobby Murcer accounted for one of their runs with a tater.

My recollection has always been that Doc Gooden was a particularly valuable cog in the Yankee rotation in 1996 during the long months of David Cone‘s recovery from aneurysm surgery, but that after that Dwight’s best days were behind him. However, he threw a beaut in beating Cleveland in Yankee Stadium on June 27, 1997. He allowed one run on five singles and no walks over seven innings in a 3-1 New York win.

It was big news on this day in 1973, as Rangers owner Bob Short followed through with his promise. Fresh out of high school and the number-one pick in the draft, 18-year-old David Clyde was given the start in front of the largest Texas crowd of the year. He walked the first two, then struck out the next three swinging. But Clyde won the battle and lost the war. He got the win that day, but was 4-8 on the year and left baseball after five seasons with an 18-33 mark.

Highlanders (Yankees) outfielder Patsy Dougherty stroked three hits off ex-teammate Jesse Tannehill on June 27, 1904, in an 8-4 win over the Red Sox at the Huntington Ave. Baseball Grounds in Boston.

On June 27, 2019, the Yankees sent righthander Domingo German on a rehab assignment to the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

On June 27, 2018, the Yankees sent righthander A.J. Cole on a rehab assignment to the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

On June 27, 2017, the Yankees placed second baseman Starlin Castro on the 10-day disabled list, with a right hamstring strain; and selected the contract of infielder Tyler Wade from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. The team also optioned righthander Jonathan Holder to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre; and recalled lefthander Tyler Webb from that same location. Finally, the team signed lefthander Dalton Lehnen; and righties Trevor Stephan, Aaron McGarity, Ron Marinaccio; and Harold Cortijo.

On June 27, 2014, the Yankees signed free agent lefthander Jonny Drozd to a minor league contract.

Compounding the Yankee troubles alluded to in an earlier graph, the Andy Pettitte leg break, the Yankees placed lefty starter CC Sabathia on the 15-day disabled list on June 27, 2012, retroactive to June 25, with a strained abductor muscle.

To see how badly the 2008 Yankees season was spinning out of control, you need look no further than the transactions they made on June 27. First, the badly misused but talented righthander Ross Ohlendorf was optioned to AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, with the inept lefty Kei Igawa recalled from AAA to take his spot. Then the hobbled outfielder Hideki Matsui was placed on the 15-day disabled list. Finally, the contract of righthander Sidney Ponson was purchased from AA Trenton so he could take his place in the rotation alongside the likes of Darrel Rasner.

Recent Yankee reliever Ron Villone was traded from Colorado to Houston for hurler Jake Powell on June 27, 2001. Also on June 27, two players with Yankee on their resumes hit for the cycle. 1 Yankee skipper from 1996 through 2007 Joe Torre did it in a 15-4 Cardinals win over Pittsburgh on June 27, 1973; Johnny Callison‘s Phillies also beat the Pirates, this time 13-4, as he cycled on this day in 1963. Callison would finish his career playing with the Yanks.

Signed just the day before, righthander Adam Warren was assigned to the Staten Island Yankees on June 27, 2009.

L.A. Dodgers hurler Jerry Reuss pitched an 8-0 no-hitter over the Giants in Candlestick Park on this day in 1980.

It was only fitting that Ken Griffey, Jr. stroked the last home run in Seattle’s Kingdome history in a June 27, 1999 Mariners 7-5 win over the Rangers. Safeco Field would open on July 15.

 
Players Who Have Died This Day

Outfielder Pat Maloney (1979) is the only Yankee player to have passed away on June 27. Pat went 17-for-79 in 25 games for the 1912 Highlanders in his only big-league season; he hit no homers, but drove in four runs.

Of the six noteworthy nonYankee players to have passed this day, three are righty pitchers, one a catcher, and two patrolled the outfield. Ray Benge (1997) put together a 101-130 record with 19 saves from 1925-1938 pitching more often than not for the Phillies, the Dodgers, and the Indians; and backstop Dick Dietz (2005) cleared 66 fences good for 301 rbi’s almost totally for the Giants from 1966-1973. Righthanded Hugh Nicol (1921) hit five home runs with 272 runs driven in with the Browns, the Redlegs, and the White Stockings from 1881-1890; and lefty Sandy Amoros (1992) played almost all of his games with the Dodgers in Brooklyn and Los Angeles from 1952-1960, during which time he hit 43 long balls with 180 rbi’s. Righthander Anthony Young (2017) is best known for having lost 27 consecutive games in which he had a decision, setting an MLB record. Young pitched for the Mets (three years), the Cubs (two), and the Astros from 1991 through 1996, finishing with a 15-48 win-loss record with 20 saves. And most recently, righthander Adrian Devine (2020) posted a 26-22 record with 31 saves from 1973-1980, spending five seasons with Atlanta and two with Texas.

 
Players Born This Day

Although no ballplayer who has ever actually taken the field of play with the Yankees was born June 27, southpaw reliever Ricardo Jordan (1970), with a 5-4 mark and one save with the Blue Jays, the Phillies, the Mets, and the Reds from 1995 through 1998, was signed as a free agent by the Yankees in August 1998, and he was released two months later.

Although he also has never played a game for the Yanks, we’ll list outfielder Abraham Almonte (1989), who played three seasons for the Indians and in 2018 with the Royals, after earlier having recorded 28 rbi’s for the Mariners and the Padres. A 2005 Yankee draftee, Abraham was sent to Seattle prior to the 2013 season for very effective righty reliever Shawn Kelley, then subsequently shipped to San Diego. He was traded to Cleveland during the 2015 season; KC claimed him off waivers from the Indians. After part-time play with KC in 2018, and in 2019 in Arizona, along with some games for the 2020 Padres and the 2021 Braves, he had 23 career home runs, and 116 rbi’s, until he added one and two, respectively, in 15 games for the Red Sox in 2022.

We lead off the list of other baseball birthdays with the man behind the legend: There is a real Bull Durham (1877), and he pitched for four years in the bigs, ending with the Giants in 1909. Others: lefthander Rube Benton (1887), who won 150 while losing 144 for the Reds and the Giants from 1910-1925; Gus Zernial (1923); Wayne Terwilliger (1925); Eddie Kasko (1932); slugging Red Sox shortstop Rico Petrocelli (1943), who played for the Sox only from 1963-1976, with 210 homers and 773 rbi’s; Jeff Conine (1966); Jim Edmonds (1970); Andy Larkin (1974); Daryle Ward (1975); Chris Woodard (1976); Johnny Estrada (1976); Oscar Salazar (1978); Luis Rodriguez (1980); Jim Johnson (1983); Steve Edlefsen (1985); A.J. Schugel (1989); Nick Martini (1990); Yacksel Ríos (1993); Jonah Heim (1995); and Yordan Alvarez (1997).