This Date in Baseball: May 1
1884 — Toledo’s Moses Fleetwood Walker became the first black player in the pre-modern era of the major leagues. His Blue Stockings lost 5-1 to Louisville.
1901 — Chicago’s Herm McFarland hit the first grand slam in American League history and Dummy Hoy also homered in the Chicago White Sox’ 19-9 rout of the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers committed an AL record 12 errors, 10 by the infield, in the loss.
1906 — John Lush of the Philadelphia Phillies pitched a no-hitter at Brooklyn, beating the Dodgers 6-0.
1920 — Joe Oeschger of the Boston Braves and Leon Cadore of the Brooklyn Dodgers each pitched 26 innings in a 1-1 tie, the longest in major league history.
1920 — Babe Ruth hit his first home run as a Yankee, and 50th of his career, as New York beat Boston 6-0 at the Polo Grounds.
1944 — George Myatt of Washington went 6-for-6 and the Senators beat the Boston Braves 11-4.
1951 — New York’s Mickey Mantle hit his first major league home run in an 8-3 loss at Chicago. The first of Mantle’s 536 homers came in the sixth inning off Randy Gumpert.
1968 — Philadelphia Phillies pitcher John Boozer was ejected by umpire Ed Vargo at Shea Stadium for throwing spitballs during his warmup pitches. Boozer was the second major league pitcher to be ejected from a game for this.
1969 — Houston’s Don Wilson beat the Cincinnati Reds with a 4-0 no-hitter at Crosley Field, one day after the Reds’ Jim Maloney no-hit the Astros and nine days after Wilson absorbed a 14-0 pounding by Cincinnati.
1973 — The San Francisco Giants scored seven runs with two outs in the ninth inning to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-7.
1984 — Dwight Gooden became the first teenager to strike out a least ten batters in a game since Bert Blyleven did it in 1970. The Mets’ 19-year-old phenom would set a major league rookie record with 276 strikeouts.
1991 — Rickey Henderson surpassed Lou Brock as baseball’s career stolen base leader with his 939th steal as the Oakland Athletics beat the New York Yankees 7-4.
1991 — Nolan Ryan pitched his seventh no-hitter, struck out 16 and shut down the best-hitting team in the majors, as the Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0.
1992 — The Dodgers postponed a three-game series against Montreal because of rioting in Los Angeles following the Rodney King verdict.
2002 — With a save against the Chicago Cubs, San Diego closer Trevor Hoffman set the major league record for the most saves with one team, 321. He broke Dennis Eckersley’s record of 320 with Oakland.