The Yankees honored two of their core four, plus Bernie, on back-to-back August days in 2015, with catcher Jorge Posada getting his ceremony, and plaque, on the 22nd. Then the Bombers jumped on Cleveland’s Danny Salazar for five runs through two frames, featuring home runs from Brett Gardner and Brian McCann. Rookie Luis Severino went six innings to record the 6-2 win on the day No. 20 was retired in Monument Park.

Singleton home runs from Washington’s Carter Kieboom and pinstriper Ben Rortvedt in the third inning of an August 22, 2023, game in the Bronx had the teams tied for the next six innings in one of the few solid outings by Yankee leftander Carlos Rodon of the year. But CJ Abrams reached Tommy Kahnle for a homer in the eighth, and the Nationals cashed in a 2-1 win. Outfielder Everson Pereira had his MLB debut in this game, and he went 0-for-3 with a walk.

On August 22, 2022, the Yankees placed righthander Scott Effross on the 15-day injured list retroactive to August 21, with a right shoulder strain, and recalled righty Clarke Schmidt from the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.

The Yankees defeated the visiting crosstown Mets 4-2, also on August 22, 2022. Domingo Germaan pitched into the seventh for the win, Aaron Judge homered, and Adrew Benintendi had two rbi’s in the victory.

It looked to be a long day in the Bronx on August 22, 2014, when two singles and a Jose Abreu home run leading off the top of the first against Shane Greene put the Yanks in a quick hole. But Greene stiffened, Shawn Kelley and Dellin Betances followed with strong relief, and it was Martin Prado to the rescue. He homered for two in the third, and his two-out, bottom-of-the-ninth rbi single plated the winner in a 4-3 Bombers victory over the visiting White Sox.

Better weather forecasting can be a real boon to a baseball team, but sometimes it is overused. While it is true that a light rain was falling in the Bronx on Saturday, August 22, 2013, at 1:00 pm, and that by the time they started the game at 4:37, the day had cleared, at no point did the rain fall hard enough to stop a game. Had they started the game when scheduled, the announced 40,000-plus in attendance could have enjoyed a Yankee win and still had some time to get ready for a fun Saturday night, or to take care of some chores, once they were on their way before the eventual first pitch. In this game, the Yankee offense was initiated when Curtis Granderson, playing in the short period between his two disabled list stints, both with broken bones caused by thrown pitches, homered off Toronto’s J.A. Happ in the home fourth, leading to a 5-3 home team victory. This was ironic because it was Happ who had originally derailed Curtis’s season, as he had broken a bone in the lefty-hitting outfielder’s forearm in the first inning of that year’s first Spring Training game.

The Yankee Faithful got one more positive answer to the question, “What will we do without our cleanup hitter?” with Alex Rodriguez injured on August 22, 2010, as Robinson Cano‘s fifth-inning grand slam took a 1-0 lead over Seattle and propelled it to the 10-0 laugher it became. Mark Teixeira, who reached safely all five times on two hits and three walks, one intentional preceding Cano’s bomb, scored twice, CC Sabathia got the win, and Cano drove in six runs.

It seems there are more “experts” than ever second-guessing every Yankee move both on and off the field these days, but you can count me among the many who had no idea how canny and significant a move it was when the club claimed Luis Sojo off waivers from the Seattle Mariners on August 22, 1996.

Many baseball reporters and fans were proven wrong yet again, at least for one day, when Jaret Wright allowed just four hits to the Blue Jays in seven innings of a 7-0 home victory on August 22, 2005. Wright had largely been ineffective and after he walked off the mound holding his shoulder in the early season, it was feared that he was lost for the year. And things started badly this day. The recovering righty walked the bases loaded in the top of the first, the only three free passes he would issue all day, but he finished by retiring 17 of 21. Alex Rodriguez had three hits, Hideki Matsui drove in three, and when hometown fave Tino Martinez ran for Jason Giambi in the seventh, it marked his 2,000th career big-league game. Unfortunately, Wright’s career took a downturn, both from a performance and from an injury standpoint, since that day.

There have been struggling bullpens as long as there has been baseball. The Yankees lost the first of two to the Red Sox on August 22, 1964, 5-3, as the Sox plated three in the eighth to come from behind. But the Yanks ended their then six-game losing streak by crushing Boston, 8-0, in the nightcap. Mickey Mantle and Johnny Blanchard homered, Roger Maris knocked in three runs, and young Mel Stottlemyre won his third game in a row since being recalled from Richmond.

Veteran Baltimore righty Pat Hentgen pitched into the eighth in a 4-3 Orioles victory in Yankee Stadium on Sunday afternoon, August 22, 2003. David Wells couldn’t hold the 2-0 lead Nick Johnson‘s homer in the first gave him or the 3-2 edge the tape measure shot by Alfonso Soriano provided in the third, as O’s catcher Brook Fordyce singled doubled, homered, and drove in two.

Oakland’s Bob Welch was the 2-0 winner over Nolan Ryan and the Rangers on August 22, 1989, but the big news of the night was that when the Texas righty made A’s (and former Yankee) outfielder Ricky Henderson one of his 13 strike-out victims in the fifth, he became the only hurler in major league history to strike out 5,000 batters.

Southpaw Denny Neagle settled down after Texas’s four-run uprising in the first on August 22, 2000, and the Bombers tied it against Rick Helling on Luis Polonia and Paul O’Neill homers in the sixth and Tino Martinez and Luis Sojo doubles in the seventh. But Neagle’s 122nd and last pitch was hit for a leadoff home run by Rafael Palmeiro in the eighth, etching the final score, a 5-4 Rangers win.

Was $40,000 a fortune in 1949? That was the amount the Yanks paid the crosstown Giants on August 22 of that year to purchase the contract of veteran Johnny Mize. As you may have read elsewhere in this history, after a long career posting top ten offensive numbers with the NL Giants and the Cardinals, Mize finished near the top in no category in the Bronx. All he did was win five rings in five seasons.

The White Sox slowed the Yankees’ drive to the flag when they stopped an eight-game Bombers win streak with a 5-3 victory on August 22, 1977, but the Yankees lost no ground due to a Minnesota win over Boston.

Few days stand out more starkly in the history of the two teams that once plied their game in New York and then moved shop to California than this day in 1965. Pitcher Juan Marichal of the Giants, batting against the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax, became enraged when catcher Johnny Roseboro‘s return throws to the mound came close to hitting him. Marichal retaliated by turning and striking the Dodgers catcher in the head with his bat. Once the resulting 14-minute brawl was concluded, Marichal earned an eight-day suspension and an at-the-time record $1,750 fine.

The home run pace set by Babe Ruth in 1927 and that of Roger Maris in 1961 were vastly different from one another. Maris became the first player to hit no. 50 in the month of August when he hit that milestone number in a 4-3 Yankees loss to the Angels on August 22, 1961. Exactly 34 years earlier, The Babe hit his 40th in a tilt with the Indians, ironically also a Yankee loss, 9-4. By September 4, the Babe would be up to no. 50.

Young Mets hurler Doc Gooden became the 11th rookie ever to manage 200 strike outs in a season when he reached that number on August 22, 1984.

As both would figure in a game reported on above this day, the first two player moves the Yankees made on August 22, 2023, were that they activated lefthander Carlos Rodón from the 15-day injured list, and recalled outfielder Everson Pereira from the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. The team also recalled shortstop Oswald Peraza from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre; and designated center fielder Greg Allen for assignment.

On August 22, 2021, the Yankees optioned center fielder Estevan Florial to the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. The team also sent third baseman Gio Urshela on a rehab assignment to the Somerset Patriots.

On August 22, 2018, the Yankees placed lefty closer Aroldis Chapman on the 10-day disabled list, with left knee tendinitis. The team then recalled righthander Chance Adams from the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders to fill the spot. The Yankees also claimed catcher Chris Rabago off waivers from the Colorado Rockies, then optioned him to the AA Trenton Thunder.

On August 22, 2017, the Yankees activated righthander Masahiro Tanaka from the 10-day disabled list.

The Yankees recalled righthander Branden Pinder from the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on August 22, 2015, creating roster space by designating lefty Chris Capuano for assignment, not the only time this would happen that year.

Another roster adjustment was needed and carried out by the Yankees on August 22, 2013, as they placed infielder Jayson Nix on the 15-day disabled list, with a fractured left hand; and recalled reliever Preston Claiborne from the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders to fill the spot. Additionally, the Yankees sent shortstop Derek Jeter on a rehab assignment to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, a move that would eventually frustrate the Yankee captain and his fans; Derek would miss almost the entire season.

On August 22, 2012, the Yankees optioned catcher Austin Romine to AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

The Yankees signed recent draftee and center fielder Zachary Heathcott on August 22, 2009.

One of the stranger practices from the early days of the game was the use of a “courtesy pinch runner,” exemplified in the Yanks’ permitting Les Nunnaker of the Indians to run for pitcher George Uhle after he had singled in the sixth on August 22, 1922. Uhle’s shoe needed repairs, but he was allowed to return to the mound to finish the game in a 6-2 Indians win.

Yankee slugger Mickey Mantle deprived Minnesota’s Jim Merritt of a shutout when he blasted a solo pinch home run in the ninth inning in the Metrodome on August 22, 1968, but the Twins prevailed, 3-1. The tater moved The Mick into a third-place tie with Jimmie Foxx on the all-time home run list at the time.

When the Yankees traded Sterling Hitchcock to the St. Louis Cardinals for minor-league pitchers Ben Julianel and Justin Pope on August 22, 2003, one of GM Brian Cashman‘s more onerous tasks was finally complete. After the early exit from the 2002 postseason, goal number one was to unload the “unholy three” from the roster. Rondell White and $5 mil plus went to San Diego in March, another $6 million accompanied disgruntled outfielder Raul Mondesi to Arizona in July, and the removal of the ineffective Hitch’s $6 million made the task complete.

During the 2005 season, the Yankees used a big late-inning rally to overcome a deficit to the Angels forged by an Izzy Molina three-run home run. They were unable to overcome another Molina three-run jack on August 22, 2004. Gary Sheffield plated two on a double and a home run, but the Yanks fell 4-3 once the Anaheim backstop reached Kevin Brown for the home run.

On August 22, 2010, the Yankees recalled righty Ivan Nova from AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

When catcher Brent Mayne of the Rockies pitched in the 12th inning of the Rockies 7-6 win over the Braves on August 22, 2000, he became the first position player to win as an emergency relief pitcher for his club since Rocky Colavito had turned the trick for the Yankees back in 1968.

Two Oakland players who would spend time in the Bronx later in their careers used bookended solo homers to beat the Red Sox, 2-1, on this day in 1971. Bert Campaneris led off the contest with a solo homer, and 26 outs later Reggie Jackson won the game with a two-out jack in the ninth.

And continuing with August 22 highlights involving former or future Yankee players, Bert “Campy” Campaneris also had a good game on this day in 1976 when he led the A’s to a 7-6, 11-inning win over the Red Sox with five hits. And Luis Tiant is another one-time Yank who had two big August 22 days. He won his 20th game in the 1974 season on the 22nd in a 3-0 Red Sox victory over the A’s. He threw for Cleveland seven years earlier, when he posted 16 strike outs in a 3-2 win over the Angels on August 22, 1967.

 
Players Who Have Died This Day

The Yankees had no players who have died on August 22 until lefty-hitting, righty-throwing catcher Charlie Sands passed away in 2016. Sands made the briefest of debuts with the 1967 Yankees, having one at bat in one game, during which he struck out; he compiled no defensive stats in the Bronx. He would go on to play with the Pirates, the Angels, and the A’s from 1971 through 1975, stroking six home runs and driving in 23 over that time.

Five noteworthy nonYankees died on August 22: Catcher Chief Zimmer (1949) hit most of his 26 long balls with 625 rbi’s from 1884-1903 with Cleveland; and third baseman Jim Tabor (1953) cleared 104 fences good for 598 runs driven in playing with the Red Sox from 1938-1943 and the Phillies from 1946-1947. Righthander Dummy Taylor (1987) went 116-106-3 mostly with the Giants from 1900-1908; third baseman Heinie Groh (1968) hit 26 homers with 566 rbi’s with the Reds and the Giants from 1912-1927; and second baseman George Cutshaw (1973) delivered 25 long balls and knocked in 653 runs playing with the Dodgers, the Pirates, and the Tigers from 1912-1923.

 
Players Born This Day

We’ll lead off with former troubled Yankee starter Jeff Weaver (1976), who went 12-12 with two saves for the Yanks in 2002 and 2003, as the first of seven Yankee August 22 birthdays. Weaver arrived in a July 2002 in a three-team deal that cost the Yankees Ted Lilly, Jason Arnold, and John-Ford Griffin. New York sent Weaver and two minor leaguers to the Dodgers for veteran righthander Kevin Brown in December 2003.

The next most recent Pinstriper before that, Ray Burris (1950), posted a 1-3 record in 15 games for the 1979 Yanks after 15 years with the Cubs and Expos. Burris arrived in New York via a May 1979 trade with the Chicago Cubs for Dick Tidrow, and was selected off waivers by the Mets from the Yankees that August.

Bill Burbach (1947) served the Yanks exclusively, with six wins and 11 losses from 1969 through 1971. A June 1965 Yankee first round (19th pick) amateur draft selection, Burbach was sent to the Baltimore Orioles for Jim Hardin in May 1971.

Great old-time starter Urban Shocker (1892) sandwiched a 1918-1924 stint with the Browns in the middle of two tours with the Bombers during a 13-year career during which he won 187 while losing only 117, with 25 saves. The New Yorkers sent Shocker packing along with Nick Cullop, Joe Gedeon, Fritz Maisel, and Les Nunamaker to the Browns in January 1918 for Eddie Plank, Del Pratt, and cash. They got him back from St. Louis for Joe Bush, Milt Gaston, and Joe Giard in December 1924. Shocker won 61 and lost 37 with the Yankees.

Catcher Wally Schang (1889) hit 16 homers with 213 rbi’s over a career with Philly, Boston, St. Louis (Browns), and the Yanks. Wally left and arrived with some big names. He was acquired from the Boston Red Sox with Harry Harper, Waite Hoyt, and Mike McNally in the December 1920 trade that sent Muddy Ruel, Del Pratt, Sammy Vick, and Hank Thormahlen to Boston. The Yanks sent Schang to the Browns for George Mogridge, who would throw the first Yankee no-hitter, in February 1926.

The injury-plagued 2013 and 2014 seasons would see another August 22 Yankee birthdayer when the club selected southpaw David Huff (1984) off waivers from the Cleveland Indians in May of the earlier year. In 11 games (two starts), Huff would post a 3-1 mark, only to have his contract sold to the Giants in January 2014. But with four of five Yankees starters injured in 2014, the club brought Huff back in June. Huff won one game with San Fran and went 3-1 with New York in 30 games, all in relief. Adding in David’s work with Cleveland from 2009 to 2013, he stood at 25-28 in his big league career before the 2015 season. He has pitched in Los Angeles since, with the Dodgers in ’15, and the Angels in the following year.

Ike Butler‘s (1857) 1-10 mark in 16 games (14 starts) for the 1902 Baltimore Orioles, his only big-league experience, also qualifies for the Yankee list, as the franchise was just seven months removed from relocating to New York as the Highlanders.

Other birthdays: Hall of Fame Manager Ned Hanlon (1857), and Hall of Fame Boston outfielder, owner of the AL’s last Triple Crown, Carl Yastrzemski (1939); Doug Bair (1949); recent Hall of Fame inductee Paul Molitor (1956); Darrin Jackson (1962); Hipolito Pichardo (1969); Steve Kline (1972); Randy Wolf (1976); Sandy Rosario (1985); Ryan Feierabend (1985); Drew Hutchison (1990); Ryan Carpenter (1990); Alan Busenitz (1990); Chris Stratton (1990); Ryan Carpenter (1990); Hunter Dozier (1991); Braden Bishop (1993); Shed Long Jr. (1995); and Chayce McDermott (1998).