The highlight of the Oakland/Yankee game in the Stadium on August 30, 2019, happened before first pitch, as fans were presented with Gleyber Torres bobbleheads as they entered. The home team actually held a 2-1 lead on fielder’s choice grounders through five, with CC Sabathia and Luyis Cessa doing the pitching. But Tommy Kahnle had a bad sixth inning, surrendering three tallies on two doubles, and the A’s coasted to an 8-2 win.
In what had all the earmarks of a great and victorious day in the Bronx, the Yanks tragically fell 8-7 to visiting Detroit on August 30, 2018, on Dellin Betances‘s worst game of the year. In for the save with the Bombers up 8-6 on Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres, and Luke Voit home runs, Dellin got a leadoff strike out but then yielded a four-pitch walk. It was bad enough that Victor Martinez then homered for the tie, but he was followed by first baseman Niko Goodrun, who went yard to give the Tigers the lead and the win. That Dellin finished the frame with two more strike outs was no comfort at all.
On August 30, 2022, the Yankees signed free agent righthander Chi Chi Gonzalez to a minor league contract. The team also signed free agent righthanders Wilking Rodriguez and Jacob Barnes to minor league contracts.
On August 30, 2021, the Yankees activated righthander Corey Kluber from the Injured List, and optioned righty Albert Abreu to the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. The team also placed lefthander Zack Britton on the 60-day injured list, with a left elbow sprain.
An August 30, 2017, (single-entry!) doubleheader in Yankee Stadium got off to a bad start, and pretty much stayed that way. An unlikely solid start by newly acquired southpaw Jaime Garcia got off poorly, as Cleveland scored two in the first inning of Game One (a remake of the rainout from the night before), and then held on for a 2-1 final. Then the Tribe pounded Jordan Montgomery for four runs in the first in a 9-4 win in which the score was only remotely respectable due to a three-run late-game Greg Bird home run.
In an 8-5 win over Miguel Gonzalez and Baltimore on August 30, 2014 in Yankee Stadium, two-run homers by Alfonso Soriano in the fourth and by Ichiro Suzuki in the fifth would do most of the damage.
The Yankees completed a three-game sweep over the Red Sox in Yankee Stadium with a 5-0 win on August 30, 2007, in a game where hometown starter Chien-Ming Wang threw no-hit ball until Mike Lowell singled with one out in the seventh inning. On offense, Robbie Cano homered off Curt Schilling his first two times up, Derek Jeter had four singles, and Bobby Abreu stroked his 400th career double. It was in this game that young Yankee reliever Joba Chamberlain earned an ejection and a suspension after throwing two straight balls over Kevin Youkilis‘s head in the ninth inning.
It was a night of milestones in the Yankees’ 8-3 victory over the White Sox in Yankee Stadium on August 30, 2009, as Jorge Posada tied Bob Meusel on the Yankee list in career doubles and Johnny Damon gave the team an early lead with his 24th home run, tying his highest season total to date. The Yankees broke open a tight game with a five-run eighth, capped by a three-run Mark Teixeira home run, a blast that extended the Yankee first baseman’s string of 30-home run/100-rbi seasons to six.
A team from the Little League World Series took the field with the Yankee players before the game against the Oakland A’s on August 30, 2010, and then the team beat the visitors 11-5 on the strength of a five-run fifth inning, crowned by DH Marcus Thames‘s three-run home run. Dustin Moseley did not pitch well, but making a rare relief appearance, Javier Vazquez got the win and struck out at least one batter in his 347th straight major league game. Nick Swisher led the way with three hits, a run scored, and three rbi’s, and Mark Teixeira had three hits, scored three times, and knocked in one run.
The Yankees blasted the Red Sox 14-4 on August 30, 1931, as Ben Chapman and Lou Gehrig evenly split eight hits between them, with Lou going yard for his 37th and Ben homering twice. Hal Rhyne had four safeties for the losing team.
Minnesota’s Jim Kaat surrendered Mickey Mantle‘s 47th homer of the year on August 30, 1961, as the Yanks prevailed, 4-0.
Boston’s Boo Ferriss, trying for his 21st win, was on the short end of a 7-1 score against the Yanks on August 30, 1945. Bombers rookie Floyd Bevans set down the first 18 Sox he faced and settled for a one-hitter after allowing a walk and a Bob Johnson double.
Within the tolerances of the measuring devices available at the time, Yankee Atley Donald set the at-the-time record by throwing a pitch 94.7 mph on this day in 1939.
Although the string of 26 world titles would not even begin for another 17 years, the Yanks had a great day back on August 30, 1906, in a doubleheader sweep of the Washington Nationals, their first of five two-victory days in the next six 24-hour periods. Slow Joe Doyle became the first 20th-century player to earn shutouts in his first two starts with the 5-0 victory in Game One. New York took the nightcap 9-8, and Highlanders (Yankees) first baseman Hal Chase stroked three triples in one of the wins, perhaps the first time that already-mentioned troika was achieved?
Hall of Famer Ty Cobb made his debut in a game vs. the Highlanders exactly one year earlier, doubling off Jack Chesbro in a 5-3 Tigers win.
Speaking of the Tigers, the Yanks looked to continue a dominant 2006 regular season against Detroit, a team that had been routinely battering all comers, when a Derek Jeter two-run double and an Alex Rodriguez fielder’s choice rbi gave the home-standing Bombers and Jaret Wright a 3-2 lead after six innings on August 30. But with an overused Mariano Rivera on the shelf for one day, Scott Proctor allowed two walks around two outs in the top of the ninth, and then was reached for a game-winning home run by Craig Monroe, for a 5-3 Yankee loss. The Tigers would swamp the Yanks six weeks later in the ALDS as well.
Former major league outfielder Billy Bean revealed the fears he had experienced as a gay ballplayer in an article in The New York Times that appeared on this day in 1999.
Former Yankee pitcher David Wells is no stranger to press coverage of his controversial off-field activities, as evidenced by his threat to punch out Yankee owner George Steinbrenner during a clubhouse argument on August 30, 1997. It happened after Wells had taken the loss in a 7-2 defeat at the hands of the Expos.
It was all for naught when the Mariners staged a comeback to tie the Yanks at five after eight innings on August 30, 1977, as Mickey Rivers‘s 11th-inning homer carried the day for New York, 6-5.
Jorge Posada homered twice in a 10-7 Yankee victory in Fenway Park on August 30, 2003. The first highlighted a three-run fourth inning that drove Pedro Martinez from the mound, and the two-run ninth-inning blast gave Yankee closer Mariano Rivera a three-run cushion, most of which he did not need.
Former Yankee Manager Casey Stengel announced he would be retiring from that same position with the crosstown Mets at season’s end on August 30, 1965, following his doctor’s advice.
Despite a horrible stay in the Bronx once he was acquired in mid-season in 2001, Jay Witasik managed to post a 3-0 record. He earned one by pitching the 11th inning of a 5-4 victory over the Blue Jays in Yankee Stadium on August 30. The Yanks took a 4-3 lead on an Enrique Wilson home run, but Jose Cruz, Jr., homered in the Bronx yet again for the tie. Following three perfect innings of relief by future Yank reliever Paul Quantrill, Bernie Williams plated Wilson with the deciding run on a sac fly off Scott Eyre.
Afterwards on that same 2001 Thursday, we subwayed and ferried our way to a 6-3 Staten Island Yankees victory over the Hudson Valley Renegades. The winner was southpaw Charlie Manning, whom the Yanks had drafted in the ninth round two months before. Manning was shipped to the Reds with Brandon Claussen for Aaron Boone in July 2003, but was reacquired in the trade that sent Gabe White back to Cincinnati in June 2004.
When the Indians completed an 11-game home sweep (all their games hosting Boston that season) of the Red Sox on this day in 1954, they tied what the Yanks had done with the St. Louis Browns in 1927.
Two Yankee transactions occurred on August 30, as the team admitted their mistake and shipped Ken Phelps to Oakland for a minor league pitcher in 1989, and they added third baseman Charlie Hayes to the roster for the stretch drive on August 30, 1996.
On August 30, 2023, the Yankees released righthander Spencer Howard.
On August 30, 2020, the Yankees recalled righthanders Deivi Garcia and Albert Abreu from the team’s Alternate Training Site. They also optioned righty Brooks Kriske to the Site.
On August 30, 2019, the Yankees placed third baseman Gio Urshela on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to August 29, with a left groin injury. The team then activated first baseman Luke Voit from the 10-day injured list.
On August 30, 2018, the Yankees sent outfielder Clint Frazier on a rehab assignment to the Tampa Tarpons.
On August 30, 2016, the Pirates traded outfielder Tito Polo and lefthander Stephen Tarpley to the Yankees as payment for righty starter Ivan Nova, which would be announced separately. More addition by subtraction, the move was made to make room on the Bronx roster for the players they foresaw would be leading the team in the future. On the same day the team would recall lefty Chasen Shreve from the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, while creating the roster spot by optioning righthander Kirby Yates to the Pulaski Yankees. The club also signed free agent righty Juan Carderon to a minor league contract.
The Yankees signed two draftees on August 30, 2011, both lefthanded pitchers: Daniel Camarena and Chaz Hebert.
Former Yankee righthander Jeff Weaver was the lucky recipient of the quick offensive support when the Bombers jumped on Toronto’s Pete Walker for five runs in the first two frames on August 30, 2002. Alfonso Soriano homered twice and Bernie Williams once in the 9-7 Yankee win.
On August 30, 1910, Highlander (Yankee) Tom Hughes pitched no-hit ball against the Indians for 9.3 innings, only to succumb to a rally and lose the game in 11, 5-0.
Two years later, Browns hurler Earl Hamilton threw a no-hitter against Detroit in a 5-1 win; Dutch Leonard of the Red Sox threw a 4-0 no-no against the Browns in 1916; and Lou Warneke of the Cardinals likewise whitewashed the Reds, 2-0, on August 30, 1941, allowing only three outfield flies with the no hits he gave up.
Another Yankee name from the recent past about whom you don’t hear much is that of lefty Allen Watson, who got the 7-4 win over Oakland in relief of Hideki Irabu in the Bronx on August 30, 1999. A bases-loaded walk and two singles by, in order, Jorge Posada, Luis Sojo, and Chuck Knoblauch off Jason Isringhausen in the eighth inning provided the winning tallies.
Hideki Irabu wasn’t as fortunate on August 30 the year before, as the Mariners used 10 hits in three-plus off the portly Yankee righty and two homers from Ken Griffey, Jr., to crush the Bombers in the Stadium 12-3.
Hot-tempered Yankee legend Babe Ruth was tossed and suspended for the fifth time in the 1922 season on August 30, this time for arguing a called strike, after he had hit his 28th homer in the first inning of a 5-4 win over Washington.
It may be Yankee history we trumpet here, but allow a tip of this Yankee cap to Tigers Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker, as it was on this day in 1995 that they tied the AL record by playing in their 1,914th game as teammates in a 10-7 loss to the White Sox.
Even in the middle of a five-year World-Series win streak, the Yanks struggled. The idle Bombers managed to back into first place on August 30, 1951, when the A’s did the Yanks a favor by beating Bob Feller and the Indians 6-2.
The Yankees did some roster shuffling on August 30, 2005, signing ex-Boston infielder Mark Bellhorn to a major league contract. Righthander Carl Pavano was transferred from the 15-day to the 60-day disabled list, and infielder Felix Escalona was optioned to AAA Columbus. Bellhorn would appear in nine games down the stretch, delivering one home run and two rbi’s. He appeared in one ALDS game vs. Anaheim, with no at bats.
It’s a bit of a stretch to include the grand slam home run Pete Incaviglia hit in a 5-2 Orioles win over the Mariners in 1996 as an August 30 highlight for a future Yankee player, and not only because his Pinstriped service amounted to just five games the following season. The Orioles victory hardly represented a highlight for the Bombers, as it moved them within four games of the Yanks, who had had a 12-game lead one month earlier.
Players Who Have Died This Day
Not only is lefthanded first baseman Joe Collins (1989) the lone Yankee player to have died on August 30, he is also one of the handful that played just for the Yankees throughout his career, which spanned 1948-1957. He reached 86 fences good for 329 rbi’s while playing with the team that called “The House That Ruth Built” their home.
Of five noteworthy nonYankee players to have died on this day, we’ll mention two righthanded pitchers first: Bill Duggleby (1944) posted most of his 92-102-6 mark between 1898 and 1907 with the Phillies; and Claude Passeau (2003) won 162, lost 150, and saved 21 games from 1935-1947 with the Phillies and the Cubs after spending the first year with the Pirates. Lefty-hitting shortstop Arky Vaughan (1952) hit 96 home runs and drove in 926 runs with the Pirates and the Dodgers from 1932-1948; outfielder Frank Demaree (1958) delivered 72 long balls and drove in 591 from 1932-1944, mostly with the Cubs, the Giants, and the Braves; and lefty-hitting third baseman Bob Jones (1964) played with the Tigers only from 1917-1925, hitting seven roundtrippers and knocking in 316 runs in that time.
Players Born This Day
The fascinating Johnny Lindell (1916) is the first of seven birthdaying Yankees we’ll list for August 30. He pitched for the Yankees in 1942, then switched to playing outfield where he hit 63 homers and notched 369 rbi’s by 1950, although he would appear in both roles once he moved on to St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Philly from 1950 until he retired after the 1954 season. The Cardinals purchased Johnny from the Yanks in May 1950.
Andy Cook‘s (1967) only mlb experience was 5.3 innings for the ’93 Yanks, going 0-1 once he was selected in the 11th round of the 1988 amateur draft. Cook was released in August 1993.
Roger Erickson (1956) posted four wins and six losses with one save for the ’82-’83 club after five years in Minnesota. He arrived in New York with Butch Wynegar in May 1982 in a trade with the Twins that sent John Pacella, Larry Milbourne, Pete Filson, and cash to Minnesota. Erickson accompanied Steve Balboni in a trade to the Kansas City Royals for Mike Armstrong and Duane Dewey in December 1983.
Once signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent before the 1963 season, lefty outfielder/first baseman Archie Moore (1941) played in 40 games in 1964 and 1965, with one homer and five rbi’s, in his only big-league play.
Lefty-hitting outfielder George Wilson (1925) finished up playing 11 games in the Bronx in 1956, with one homer and two rbi’s once he was selected off waivers from the New York Giants in August 1956, after five years toiling across town in the NL.
Red Embree (1917) went 5-3 in 20 games for the ’48 team after seven years in Cleveland once the Yanks got him from the Indians in October 1947 for Allie Clark. The Yanks shipped him with Sherm Lollar, Dick Starr, and cash to the St. Louis Browns for Roy Partee and Fred Sanford the following December.
Third baseman Billy Johnson (1918) played on four series winners, and collected 45 homers and 388 rbi’s while playing in Pinstripes from 1943 through 1951, before finishing up with two years in St. Louis.
Outfielder Billy Burns (1989), who played for Oakland from 2014 through 2016, then Kansas City in 2016 and 2017, signed a minor league deal with the Yankees in January 2019, and has played much of the ensuing season with AAA Scranton-Wilkes Barre. Burns has hit five home runs with 55 rbi’s in the bigs.
Other birthdays lead off with Hall of Famers Kiki Cuyler (1898), who patrolled the outfield for the Pirates and Cubs for 18 years; and “Teddy Ballgame,” Ted Williams (1918) whom many consider to be the best lefty batter ever in the bigs. (Some would remove the “Lefty” qualifier.) With a career .344 average, Williams amassed 521 home runs and 1,839 rbi’s from 1939-1960, while Cuyler went yard 128 times and delivered 1,065 tallies. Other notables: Tug McGraw (1944), famous for “You Gotta Believe” for the 1973 Mets; Mike Koplove (1976); Jon Adkins (1977); Marlon Byrd (1977); Todd Wellemeyer (1978); Cliff Lee (1978); Luis Rivas (1979); Scott Richmond (1979); Russ Adams (1980); Roberto Hernandez (1980), incorrectly known as Fausto Carmona during his first six years in Cleveland; Adam Wainwright (1981); Sean Marshall (1982); Chris Getz (1983); Mike Ekstrom (1983); Steven Wright (1984); DJ Johnson (1989); Shane Carle (1991); Taylor Hearn (1994); Sean Reid-Foley (1995); José Caballero (1996); Angel Felipe (1997); Luke Little (2000); and Hayden Birdsong (2001).
