FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Doubleday Field is a baseball stadium in Cooperstown, New York named for Abner Doubleday and located two village blocks from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
The grounds have been used for baseball since 1920, on what was Elihu Phinney‘s farm. A wooden grandstand was built in 1924, later replaced by a steel and concrete grandstand built in 1939 by the Works Project Administration. Subsequent expansion has increased seating capacity to 9,791 spectators.
HALL OF FAME GAME
Each year from 1940 to 2008, Doubleday Field hosted the Hall of Fame Game, an exhibition game between two major league squads. Originally, the game and induction ceremony for new Hall of Fame members were held on the same day, a Monday. Starting in 1979, the induction ceremony was moved to Sunday, with the game played on Monday. Starting in 2003, the game was scheduled in May or June, to better accommodate the participating teams’ travel schedules.
As MLB’s last remaining in-season exhibition game, its results did not count in the official standings, and substitute players were generally used to avoid injury to starters. The curiosity factor of two teams from different leagues playing each other in this game outside of a World Series or spring training situation was eventually removed in 1997 with the launch of interleague play, further reducing the game’s cachet.
On January 29, 2008, Major League Baseball announced that the final Hall of Fame Game would be played on June 16, 2008, between the Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres, citing “the inherent challenges” of scheduling teams in the modern day as the reason for ending the annual contest. However, the contest was canceled on account of rain, making the 2007 matchup between the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays the last Hall of Fame Game that was played.
HALL OF FAME CLASSIC
In November 2008, the Hall of Fame and the MLB Players Alumni Association announced the creation of the Hall of Fame Classic, an exhibition game involving Hall of Famers and other retired MLB players to be played on Father’s Day weekend, and in recent years on the Saturday before Memorial Day. The inaugural Hall of Fame Classic was played on Sunday, June 21, 2009. The Hall of Fame game lasts seven innings or two hours, whichever comes first. In addition to the game, there is a parade and a home run derby beforehand. The game has been played annually since 2011. In March 2020 it was announced by the Hall of Fame that that year’s game would be canceled “in accordance with recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and government officials to limit opportunities for large gatherings and the further spread of the COVID-19 virus.” The 2021 game was cancelled as well. In 2022, the Hall announced the game would resume.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
What does it mean when a pitcher throws to Broadway in a baseball game?
Broadway in baseball is slang for the middle of the plate.
Advice of the Day
To stop the hiccups, eat something spicy hot.
Home Hint of the Day
To make a solution for washing aluminum siding, combine 1/3 cup of laundry detergent, 2/3 cup of TSP (or another product containing trisodium phosphate), 1 quart of household (5 percent) bleach and 3 quarts of water. Wash the siding, then immediately rinse.
Word of the Day
Frigophobia
Fear of cold
Puzzle of the Day
The father of states. (Abbreviation of a U.S. state)
Pa
Born
- William Butler Yeats (poet) – 1865
- Paul Lynde (actor) – 1926
- Malcolm MacDowell (actor) – 1943
- Richard Earl Thomas (actor) – 1951
- Tim Allen (actor) – 1953
- David Gray (musician) – 1968
- Ethan Embry (actor) – 1978
- Chris Evans (actor) – 1981
- Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen (actresses) – 1986
Died
- Benny Goodman (musician) – 1986
- Geraldine Page (actress) – 1987
- Lane Smith (actor) – 2005
- Tim Russert (moderator for NBC’s Meet the Press) – 2008
Events
- Theologian Martin Luther wed Katharina von Bora– 1525
- The Boxer Rebellion began in China– 1900
- The first sodium vapor lamps were installed on Balltown Road, in Schenectady, N.Y.– 1933
- The Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs became the first major league baseball teams to play at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York, in the Hall of Fame Game– 1940
- Germany’s highly publicized secret weapon, the flying bomb, was dropped on English targets for the first time– 1944
- The United States Supreme Court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them– 1966
- Thurgood Marshall nominated to U.S. Supreme Court– 1967
- Pioneer 10, an unmanned U.S. space probe, became the first man-made object to leave the solar system when it crossed the orbit of Neptune– 1983
- A 7.9-magnitude earthquake shook Chile– 2005
- San Francisco Giants pitcher Matt Cain threw a perfect game; a first for the franchise– 2012
- Raccoon completed climb of 25-story skyscraper in St. Paul, Minnesota– 2018
Weather
- Deadly hurricane hit Labrador– 1871
- Tamarack, California, reported a temperature of 2 degrees F– 1907
- Deerfield, South Dakota, received 10 inches of snow– 1969
- Snowplows were called out in Denver, Colorado, to clean up softball-size hailstones– 1984
- Cedar River crested at 31.12 feet (19.12 feet above flood stage), Cedar Rapids, Iowa– 2008
COURTESY www.almanac.com
