Today in Baseball History

On September 21 in Baseball History...

• 1922 - The Americna League reinstates the Most Valuable Player award, last given in 1914, appointing a committee of one writer from each city. The trophy goes to George Sisler. The National League will pick up the idea two years later.
  
• 1923 - Babe Ruth is the unanimous choice of the American League committee of baseball writers for the Most Valuable Player Award.
  
• 1934 - Dizzy Dean of the St. Louis Cardinals pitched a no-hitter against the Brooklyn Dodgers for 3-0 victory in the second game of an Ebbets Field doubleheader.
  
• 1939 - The National League announces that for the first time in the 20th century, games will be transferred from one city to another. A doubleheader in Philadelphia will be moved to Brooklyn in an effort to top one million paid attendance.
  
• 1944 - After a 5-15 stretch that ate away a chunk of their 20-game lead, the Cardinals finally clinch the National League flag with a 5-4 win over Boston. They will finish with 105 victories and their third title under Billy Southworth, whose clubs won 316 games in three years.
  
• 1957 - Gail Harris is the last player to hit a home run as a New York Giant in a 9-5 win over the Pirates in the second game of a doubleheader. Ruben Gomez gains the last victory for the New York Giants.
  
• 1959 - Warren Spahn notches his 20th win and his 266th National League victory to tie Eppa Rixey of the Phils and Reds for the career high in wins by a left-hander. The Braves and the Dodgers are now tied for the lead in the three-team pennant race.
  
• 1964 - Manager Gene Mauch's first-place Phillies lost 1-0 to the Cincinnati Reds on Chico Ruiz's steal of home in the sixth inning. It was Philadelphia's first of ten straight losses, a streak that cost the National League pennant.
  
• 1970 - Oakland's Vida Blue pitched a no-hitter in his eighth Major League start, beating Minnesota 6-0.
  
• 1981 - Steve Carlton struck out Andre Dawson in the third inning for the left-hander's 3,118th career strikeout, the most in the National League. But the Philadelphia Phillies lost to Montreal, 1-0 in 17 innings.
  
• 1982 - Playing against the Royals at Anaheim Stadium, outfielders Fred Lynn and Brian Downing crash through the left field fence while trying to catch a fly ball. Lynn makes the catch and it is ruled an out, the umpires reasoning that it is the same as if he had tumbled into the seats.
  
• 1986 - No. 1 draft pick Jimmy Jones pitched a one-hitter in his Major League debut, leading the San Diego Padres to a 5-0 victory over the Houston Astros.
  
• 1987 - Darryl Strawberry joins Howard Johnson as the first teammates ever to achieve 30 homers and 30 steals in the same season.
  
• 1995 - Colorado's John Vander Wal set a Major League record with his 26th pinch-hit of the season, a home run in the seventh inning against San Francisco.
  
• 1997 - Mike Piazza becomes the first Dodger, and the first player in 25 years, to hit a ball out of Dodger Stadium. Piazza's 478-foot drive off Colorado's Frank Castillo bounces off the left field pavilion roof. Pittsburgh's Willie Stargell was the only other player to hit a ball out of the stadium (in right field), accomplishing the feat in both 1969 and 1973.