Important Dates in Major League Baseball for the Month of June

One of baseball's true greats, Ty Cobb

Good heavens, we should be rolling into the second week of the season, and what have we here? A COVID-19 global tsunami. This is the third "Important Dates" blog post in this series.

You can read Important Dates for April  and Important Dates for May or you can jump right into June after these warmup pitches...

"The baseball mania has run its course. It has no future as a professional endeavor"
--Cincinnati Gazette, 1879

"Nearly everyone's son wants to be a baseball player. Why not? What other profession could he choose where he can slide around in the dirt, never work when it rains and spit whenever he wants?"
--Erma Bombeck

"I grew up in central Illinois midway between Chicago and St. Louis and I made an historic blunder. All my friends became Cardinals fans and grew up happy and liberal and I became a Cubs fan and grew up embittered and conservative."
--George Will

"Baseball is almost the only orderly thing in a very unorderly world. If you get three strikes, even the best lawyer in the world can't get you off."
--Bill Veeck

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IMPORTANT DATES -- JUNE

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June 1, 1925
Lou Gehrig bats for PeeWee Wanninger in the eighth inning, replacing Wally Pipp at 1st base to start his streak of 2,130 consecutive games.

The Iron Man, Lou Gherig. 1933 Goudey baseball card.

June 3, 1932
Lou Gehrig becomes the first Major League player to hit four consecutive home runs in a game, giving the Yankees a 20-13 win over the A's.

June 3, 1932
John McGraw resigns as manager of the New York Giants

June 4, 1974
Darin Erstad was born.

June 8, 2001
Damion Easley, Detroit second baseman, hits for the cycle. First time a Detroit player has done this since July 28, 1993.

June 17, 1914
Sherwood Robert Magee hits a home run, but it is taken away from him by the antiqued rule that says an extra inning game can only be won by one run. Rule was changed in 1920.

June 24, 1955
Harmon Killebrew hits his first Major League home run off Billy Hoeft in Griffith Stadium. Tigers, however, beat the Nationals 18-7.

June 26, 1916
Cleveland wore numbers on their sleeves.

June 26, 1976
Rangers' Tobey Harrah, shortstop, plays a Double Header without handling a batted ball from the White Sox.

June 29, 1941
In a Double Header against the Nationals, Joe DiMaggio tied, and then broke, the American League record of hitting in 41 straight games. Batting 1 for 4 in the first and 1 for 5 in the second, he broke the record set by George Sisler in 1922.

June 29, 2001
Dave Burba of Cleveland gives up four home runs in one inning to Kansas City's Sweeney, Dye, Ibanez and Beltran.

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"Baseball can be summed up in one word — youneverknow."
--Joaquin Andujar

"You know what baseball is? It's playing cards, sleeping, watching TV. Dress. Batting practice. Fool around with the fans. Joke with teammates. Football is a little different. Before the game, everybody sits on the floor, quietly, thinking whose head they're going to take off."
--Bo Jackson

Trivia: Did you know Bob Dylan once recorded a song about a Major League pitching star? What was his name and who did he play for?