This Day in Yankees History: Derek Jeter sets a franchise record

Welcome to This Day in Yankees History. The season may be underway, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take a trip into the past. These daily posts will highlight two or three key moments in Yankees history on a given date, as well as recognize players born on the day. Hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane with us!

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93 Years Ago

The Murderers’ Row Yankees beat the St. Louis Browns 8-3 to improve to 18-0 on the season against their AL “rival.” The Yankees would beat the Browns in the next three games as well before falling to them in the final meeting of the season, finishing with a 21-1 record against St. Louis. In related news, in 1954, the Browns moved to Baltimore and are today known as the Orioles.

69 Years Ago

After throwing just 1.1 innings with the team the year before and spending most of the 1951 season in the minors, the Yankees trade 24-year old pitcher Lew Burdette to the Boston Braves for multi-time All-Star Johnny Sain.

Sain would spend four years and a part of a fifth with the Yankees, helping them to World Series titles in ‘51, ‘52 and ‘53. However, sending Burdette away would come back to haunt the Yankees. In the 1957 World Series against the Yankees, he threw three complete games, winning all of them, and shutting them out in Games Five and Seven. For that, Burdette won World Series MVP against the team that discarded him.

22 Years Ago

Derek Jeter hits his 17th home run to set a franchise record for most by a Yankees’ shortstop in a season. He would go on to hit two more and finish the ‘98 season with 19. The record would only stand for one year, as Jeter would follow that up with 24 in 1999. Didi Gregorius currently holds the record with 27 in 2018, after having broke Jeter’s record with 25 the season prior.

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Today’s Yankee birthdays belong to Ensign Cottrell, Hal Stowe, and George Zeber.

The most any of the three of them played for the Yankees was Zeber’s 28 games across the 1977 and ‘78 seasons. He does have a World Series ring thanks to his appearances in two games of the ‘77 World Series. He got two at bats and went 0-2, both times coming in to pinch hit in the pitcher’s spot before being replaced.

Meanwhile, Stowe has the notable distinction of having only appeared in one major-league game ever. On September 30, 1960, he pitched one inning, allowing one run against the Red Sox. That would be it for his major league career.

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We thank Baseball-Reference and Nationalpastime.com for providing background information for these posts.