by Lynette Alice

Created on: June 02, 2010

The month of June has had some great moments in baseball history - as well as a few less than stellar ones. As time moves on, people tend to forgot about many of those things that happened way back when, or even fairly recently which is hard to imagine in this era of 24/7 coverage. Some of the events listed you will remember, a few will be unbelievable, and somewhere in between fall the oddities that make baseball the great game it is. Maybe a few tidbits will even win you a bar bet and help you score a few drinks.

June 3, 1989 was the day the Dodgers and Astros met for what would be the longest game in national league History. Both teams were hovering around .500 and pretty much going nowhere, yet they fought it out for 22 very, very, long innings. All told 16 pitchers were used in the game that lasted 7 hours and 14 minutes. The Astros eventually won 5-4.

June 5, 1981 was the day Nolan Ryan set one of his lesser known records. In the course of tossing a ten strikeout shutout against the Mets, Ryan walked two hitters raising his career total to 1,776 which was just enough to pass Early Wynn as the all time leader in walks surrendered during a career. He piled more up as he pitched better than another decade after that, but it was this day he made history.

On June 9, 1999, Mets manager Bobby Valentine is ejected from the game, but returns to the dugout in the worst disguise ever consisting of sunglasses and a fake moustache. He was caught and suspended for two games to go along with a $5,000 fine.

On June 10, 1944, Joe Nuxhall makes his major league debut at the age of 15 years, 10 months old. In a relief appearance, he walked five hitters, threw a wild pitch, gave up two hits and five runs, while retiring just one batter. It would be the only batter he got out all season.

On June 11. 1972 Willie Davis and Manny Mota hit inside the park home runs in the same game. So far as records indicate, it was the only time that two different players have had inside the park home runs in the same game since 1900.

On June 13, 1994, Ryne Sandberg walks away from a $28 million contract (which was among the richest in baseball at the time) citing he lost his passion for the game at the age of 34. He returned a year and ahalf later, played two more seasons, and then really retired.

On June 14, 1996, was the day Cal Ripken Jr. broke Sachio Kinugasa’s record for endurance by appearing in 2,216 consecutive games. Lou Gherig’s record for endurance of 2,135 consecutive

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