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May 31st

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Happy ’80s Birthday to Tippy Martinez, who won 55 games out of the bullpen over 14 seasons, but most impressively, he once picked off three runners in a single inning. 

Joe Orsulak

Happy ’80s Birthday to Joe Orsulak, who hit .300 with 24 SBs as a rookie for the Pirates in 1985.

Larry Owen baseball card

Happy ’80s Birthday to Larry Owen, who six seasons in the big leagues for the Braves and Royals. 

Happy ’80s Birthday to Jeff Schaefer, who spent five seasons in the bigs with the Mariners, White Sox, and A’s. 

Charles Hudson 1983 baseball card

5/31/83

Charles Hudson goes six against the Dodgers in his big league debut. 

He’d win eight games as a rookie and another in the NLCS. 

Deion Sanders 1989 baseball card

5/31/89

Deion Sanders goes 1 for 4 with a single for the Yankees in his big league debut for the Brewers. 

He hits .234 as a rookie and plays nine seasons in the bigs.

Big Days

Ken Landreaux 1980 baseball card

5/31/80

Ken Landreaux goes hitless and the longest hitting streak of the season is over. Here’ the story of the streak. 

Gary Carter 1980 Topps

5/31/80

Gary Carter homers twice, including his second career inside-the-park homer, but the Expos still lose to the Cardinals 8-6.

5/31/83

A. L. President Lee MacPhail suspends Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for one week, for his repeated criticism of umpires. 

Ivan Calderon 1987 Fleer

5/31/87

In his first game back after a stint on the DL, Ivan Calderon goes 4 for 4 with 2 homers and 6 RBI but the Sox still fall to Boston 10-9.

Dave Stieb 1988 baseball card

5/31/88

Dave Stieb throws a 1-hit shutout with just 99 pitches in a 9-0 win over the Brewers.

It’s the 5,354th 1-hitter of Stieb’s career. Pretty sure that’s correct.

5/31/88

Al Leiter throws one pitch in his start against the A’s and gets hits with a line drive and knocked out of the game. Neil Allen comes in in relief and goes the rest of the way, allowing just 3 hits. The Yankees beat Oakland 5-0.

Fights

5/31/82

Soto drills Schmitty and Dernier

Ron Reed drills Soto and it’s on between the #Phillies and #Reds

Reed suffers cracked ribs during the melee and is forced to the D.L.

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