This Day in Yankees History: Mark Teixeira and Johnny Damon set a record

The start of the 2020 season is finally underway! The Pinstripe Alley team is going to continue to keep these daily posts that highlight a few key moments in Yankees history on a given date, as well as recognize players born on the day. Let’s take a trip down memory lane.

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This Day in Yankees History (August 9)

21 Years Ago

The major leagues as a whole made history on this day in 1999, and Bernie Williams was a part of it. For the first time in MLB history, the league combined to hit five grand slams in one day, with Williams hitting one of them against the A’s in a 12-8 victory. For Williams, it was his lone hit of the day, but he also drew three walks. The other grand slams around the league belonged to Fernando Tatis, Jay Buhner, Jose Vidro and Mike Lowell.

11 Years Ago

On this day in 2009, the Yankees’ dynamic duo of Mark Teixeira and Johnny Damon hit back-to-back home runs for the sixth time that season, which set the record for a pair of Yankees in a single season. The home runs were big ones, as the Yanks trailed Boston 2-1 before Damon tied it and Teixeira put the Yankees ahead as the team continued to pound the Red Sox following a brutal start to the season against their archrivals.

The historic blasts were no small feat for a franchise that has boasted power-hitting duos like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.

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Birthdays

Happy birthday to Deion Sanders! The two-sport star played in 71 games for the Yanks in 1989 and 1990, though his stardom was more on the gridiron. Ralph Houk was also born on this day, and was a part of the Yankees’ four straight World Series titles before The Major took over for Casey Stengel as team manager and won another two championships in 1961 and 1962.

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