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July 18
TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
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David Cone’s Perfect Day
David Cone thrived under pressure. In 1996, he returned from a life-threatening aneurysm to throw seven no-hit innings for the Yankees. But his most magical day came three years later.
On July 18, 1999 — Yogi Berra Day at Yankee Stadium — Cone delivered a perfect game. Berra, recently reconciled with George Steinbrenner after a 14-year feud, caught the ceremonial first pitch from Don Larsen, whose own perfecto in the 1956 World Series remains iconic. Cone joked with Larsen about recreating the celebration. “You got it wrong, kid,” Larsen snapped. “He jumped into my arms.”
Cone, 36, had been an All-Star days earlier and was already a key piece of the Yankees' dynasty. That day, he faced the struggling Montreal Expos, the youngest lineup in baseball, arriving in New York at 3:30 a.m. after a road trip. Their starter, Javier Vazquez, gave up five runs early, including home runs to Ricky Ledee and Derek Jeter.
Cone, meanwhile, was masterful. He struck out the side in the third, and needed just 88 pitches to retire all 27 batters — never reaching a three-ball count. Defensive gems helped: Paul O’Neill’s diving catch in the first, Scott Brosius’s stab in the seventh, and Chuck Knoblauch’s pinpoint throw in the eighth. In the ninth, with the crowd hanging on every pitch, Cone fanned Chris Widger, got a flyout from Ryan McGuire, then induced a pop-up from Orlando Cabrera.
As Brosius caught it, Cone dropped to his knees. Catcher Joe Girardi bear-hugged him before the Yankees mobbed the mound. Fittingly, the number 8 — Berra’s — was painted behind home plate that day.
“It was like the stars aligned,” Cone said. “You probably have a better chance of winning the lottery.” It would be his final peak. Cone struggled afterward, finishing 1999 with a 2-5 record and posting a 6.91 ERA in 2000. But on that hot July day, with history in the stands and perfection on the field, Cone etched his name into baseball lore.
Vazquez, who lost that day, remembered it fondly: “It was probably as much fun as I’ve had losing a game.”
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Todays Trivia . . .
Who is the only native of the state of Utah to become a major league manager?
Hint: #1 He oversaw the major league efforts of four Cy Young Award winners, four Rookies of the Year, seven MVPs and seven players who are now in the Hall of Fame as well as those of the first Japanese-born player to play in the majors.
Hint: #2 He was one baseball’s most infamous sign stealers.
Answer in a bit!
Quote of the day:
“It was like the stars aligned,” David Cone said “You probably have a better chance of winning the lottery.”
Game of The Day:
Game of the Day — July 18, 1999 New York Yankees vs Montreal Expos
(Read above)
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🎧 Classic Broadcasts — July 18
July 18, 1960 — Kansas City Athletics vs. Chicago White Sox
The Athletics were a year away from their westward move to Oakland, still the mid-market club that served as a Yankees farm system by reputation if not by design. The White Sox had won the pennant the year before and were trying to sustain it.
July 18, 1966 — Kansas City Athletics vs. Boston Red Sox
One year before the Red Sox Impossible Dream season and the A's move to Oakland. Both franchises on the verge of transformation — the Sox about to become pennant contenders, the A's about to become a dynasty in a new city.
July 18, 1968 — Baltimore Orioles vs. Detroit Tigers (Partial)
The Tigers were on their way to a championship. The Orioles were the AL's dominant team for the better part of the decade.
July 18, 1975 — Cincinnati Reds vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
The Big Red Machine at full throttle against a Dodgers club that won the pennant in 1974. Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, and Tony Perez against Don Sutton and Mike Marshall. As good as the NL got in 1975.
July 18, 1977 — Philadelphia Phillies vs. San Francisco Giants
Mike Schmidt was establishing himself as the NL's best power hitter. Steve Carlton was mid-dynasty. The Giants had a young club but no real competition for the Phillies that year in the NL East.
July 18, 1978 — Boston Red Sox vs. Oakland Athletics
The Red Sox were deep into their 1978 pennant race — eventually squandering a 14-game lead to the Yankees. Carl Yastrzemski still anchoring the lineup at 38. A summer that seemed perfect until September.
July 18, 1979 — New York Yankees vs. Kansas City Royals
One week after the All-Star break, the pennant races tighten. The Royals and Yankees had met in the ALCS three straight years. George Brett and Thurman Munson — Munson would be gone in 12 days.
July 18, 1982 — Houston Astros vs. New York Mets
Nolan Ryan and the Astros against a young Mets club still two years from becoming a contender. Ryan was in his Houston prime — and given today's lead story, a fitting choice to feature alongside his 5,000th strikeout anniversary.
July 18, 1986 — New York Mets vs. Atlanta Braves
The Mets were running away with the NL East — Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, and Gary Carter at their collective peak. The Braves were deep in a rebuilding phase. A dominant team at the height of its power.
Todays Podcast
July 18 highlights and Historic Days!
July 18, 1921 — At Navin Field in Detroit, Babe Ruth becomes the all-time home run leader when he hits his 139th career blast as a major leaguer. The Yankee slugger’s 36th homer of the season, off Bert Cole mammoth shot that travels over 575 feet, the longest in major league history, puts him ahead of Roger Connor, who connected for 138 round-trippers during his 18 years in the National League.
July 18, 1927 – At Shibe Parh The Philadelphia A’s 40 year old Ty Cobb makes what is celebrated at the time as his 4,000th hit, a first inning double off Sam Gibson of Detroit. Cobb’s double caroms off the glove of Detroit Tigers outfielder Harry Heilmann. Detroit wins, 5 – 3, over Lefty Grove. The research will later reveal that he had two fewer hits than was thought at the time, and that number 4,000 actually three days later, on July 21st. Cobb will hold the record for most hits until 1985, when Pete Rose surpasses him
July 18, 1939 — The Red Sox send 21 year-old farmhand Pee Wee Reese to the Dodgers for $35,000 and a player to be named later (Red Evans), along with three minor leaguers due to a less-than-enthusiastic scouting report filed by Joe Cronin, the team’s current player-manager, who deliberately downplayed the prospect’s talent to keep his own job in the Boston infield. The Louisville Colonels regular shortstop, a future Hall of Famer, will become a crowd favorite, helping Brooklyn to win seven pennants during his 16 seasons with the team.
July 18, 1948, In the first game of a doubleheader at Shibe Park, Pat Seerey, chunky White Sox left fielder, hits four home runs, the last in the 11th inning, to lead Chicago to a 12 – 11 victory over the Athletics in Philadelphia. Seerey is the 5th major league player to accomplish the feat and is the only player in major league history to twice reach 15 or more total bases in a game, having totaled 15 bases in 1945. Fat Pat’s first shot is over the LF bleachers’ roof off Carl Scheib, the next two – off Scheib and Bob Savage – are on the roof, and the last, off Lou Brissie, into the upper LF stands. Brissie, the 5th pitcher, is the loser against Howie Judson. The A’s take the second game, 6 – 1, in five innings as Seerey is 0 for 2. On the 24th, Seerey will become the first player to strike out seven times in a doubleheader.
Seerey became only the fifth player in major league history to accomplish the four homer feat. To this day, only a total of 17 players have done it.
July 18, 1951 — The Pirates’ Ralph Kiner drives in seven runs, hitting three home runs, including his 10th grand slam, in a 13 – 12 slugfest win over the Dodgers. His final homer, a solo shot off Erv Palica in the 8th, breaks a 12 – 12 tie. Manager Chuck Dressen berates Palica, publicly questioning the pitcher’s courage by clutching his throat in a choke signal. In Kiner’s final at bat, in the 9th, Carl Furillo pulls down the slugger’s long drive near the CF gate. Joe Garagiola and Gus Bell also homer for the Bucs, while Roy Campanella and Jackie Robinson homer for Brooklyn.
July 18, 1957 — At Ebbets Field Brooklyn Dodger slugger Gil Hodges hits his 12th career grand slam to tie the National League record of Rogers Hornsby and Ralph Kiner, as the Dodgers edge the Cards, 10 – 9. St. Louis remains a game behind the Phils. The slam comes against the Cardinals’ Wilmer Mizell with one out in the bottom of the 9th to tie the game.
The Cardinals had scored seven runs in the top of the 9th to take the lead. The Dodger’s walk-off in the bottom of the 10th when Duke Snider scored on an Eddie Kasko throwing error.
July 18, 1964 — At Crosley Field, Cincinnati Reds’ Pete Rose hits the only grand slam of his career as he drives in six runs in the Reds’ 14 – 4 home win against the Philadelphia Phillies. His grand slam is served up by his future manager, Dallas Green.
Costen Shockley and Clay Dalrymple homered for the Phillies, who lost Wes Covington in the first inning. Covington was hit in the head by a Tsitouris pitch and had to be carried from the field. Covington later was reported in fair condition.
July 18, 1970, 39-year-old San Francisco Giants outfielder Willie Mays collects the 3,000th hit of his career – a second-inning single against Montreal’s Mike Wegener. The umpires stopped the game, enabling Mays to be honored in ceremonies that feature Hall of Famer Stan Musial.
Mays hit comes in his 2,639th major league game, The ‘Say Hey Kid’ reaches the milestone in the second inning of San Francisco’s 10-1 rout of Montreal at Candlestick Park. He joins Hank Aaron, who stroked his 3,000th a month earlier. Aaron’s was hit in his 2,460th game.
July 18, 1975 — In a 9 – 3 win over the Kansas City Royals, Boston’s Jim Rice clouts a tremendous homer over the CF wall at Fenway Park, to the right of the flag pole, just the 6th player to accomplish this feat. Owner Tom Yawkey calls it the longest shot he’s ever seen at Fenway. The others: Detroit’s Hank Greenberg, on May 22, 1937; Boston’s Jimmie Foxx, on August 12, 1937; Yankee Bill Skowron, on April 20, 1957; Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski, on May 16, 1970; Brewer Bobby Mitchell, on September 29, 1973.
July 18, 1987, At Arlington Stadium, With his home run leading off the top of the fourth inning off Jose Guzman New York Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly ties a major league record when he homers in his eighth consecutive game. Mattingly connects in a 7-2 loss to the Texas Rangers, matching a 31-year-old record set by Dale Long set in 1956.
July 18, 1989, Donnie Moore, 35, shoots himself to death at his home after shooting and critically wounding his estranged wife Tonya. Friends say Moore was haunted by the two-run home run he surrendered to Dave Henderson in Game Five of the 1986 ALCS, costing the Angels a trip to the World Series, and that he had been even more depressed since his release last month by minor league Omaha.
July 18, 1999, On Yogi Berra Day at Yankee Stadium, David Cone pitches 14th perfect game of the modern era and the 16th overall in major league history and the third Yankee to toss a perfect game, Cone doesn’t reach a three-ball count on a single batter and throws only 88 pitches in shutting down the Montreal Expos, 6-0.
In pre-game ceremonies, Don Larsen throws out the ceremonial first pitch to Yogi, commemorating his 1956 World Series perfect game. Coincidentally, these are the only two perfect games ever pitched in interleague games.
News Reels — July 18
July 18, 1971 — Oakland A's vs. Chicago White Sox: "Joe Rudi Robs Tommie Reynolds"
Rudi was one of the great defensive left fielders of the era and criminally underrated given the star power around him on those Oakland dynasties. This catch became one of his signature moments.
Leo Cloutier Interviews Glenn Beckert — Wrigley Field, 1972
Beckert was the Cubs' second baseman through the late 1960s and early '70s — a key part of that beloved but heartbreaking 1969 club. A ground-level view of what it was like to play at Wrigley during Chicago's golden era of near-misses.
This Week in Baseball — July 18, 1981
The players' strike of 1981 had just ended after 50 days — the longest work stoppage in baseball history. Teams were resuming play with a split-season format nobody quite understood. A genuinely strange moment in the game's history.
Bob Elson Interviews Paul Richards — July 18, 1981
Richards was one of the great baseball minds of the 20th century — manager, executive, innovator. He resurrected franchises in Baltimore and Houston and shaped the game's approach to pitching as much as anyone of his era.
This Week in Baseball — July 18, 1987
Paul Molitor's 5-for-5 in a 20-inning marathon falls in this window — Molitor was in the middle of a 39-game hitting streak, the seventh-longest in AL history. The Brewers were hanging around a pennant race nobody expected them to be in.
Houston Astros vs. New York Mets — July 18, 1990: "Nolan Ryan Beats the Mets on His 5,000th Strikeout Anniversary"
Not the actual 5,000th — that was against Texas — but Ryan facing the Mets on the same calendar date is a fitting bookend to today's lead story. He knew how to make the Mets feel his presence.
Milestones July 18
🎙️ Did you know? Red Schoendienst was born on this day — Hall of Fame second baseman and Cardinals legend — and has 45 broadcasts in our library.
[Explore the Full Library →]
Birthdays:
Notable: Joe Torre
Debuts:
Notable: Steve Rogers
Final Games:
Highlights: Donnie Moore
Passings:
Notable: Dale Long
New From Around the League!
ANSWER TO TODAY’S TRIVIA
TRIVIA ANSWER: Herman Franks
Franks was born in the mining community of Price, UT on 04-Jan-1914. He managed SFG for 4 seasons & CHC for 3.
- #1 Franks managed SFG for 4 seasons: 1965-1969 & managed CHC for 3: 1977-1979. (Full list of the notables he managed, available on request.)
- #2 It was Franks in the center field bleachers with a telescope during the 1951 NL
Thank you Horsehide Trivia
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