A club of visiting major leaguers to Japan were defeated by a Japanese All Star team, 6-4, when one of the members of the home team hit a grand slam home run off Shane Reynolds of the Astros on November 9, 1996. The batter who cleared the fence was former Yankee Designated Hitter Hideki Matsui, the 2009 World Series MVP, before his time playing in the U.S.
It was on November 9, 1998, that it was first revealed that Hall of Fame Oakland A’s and New York Yankee pitcher Jim Hunter was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig‘s disease. Sadly, the pitcher nicknamed “Catfish” would pass away 10 months later.
Former Yankee star player Lou Piniella, who had managed both the Yankees and the Cincinnati Reds, was named to pilot the Seattle Mariners on November 9, 1992. And speaking of ex-Yankees in the managing ranks, the Orioles grabbed New York first base coach (and bench coach) Lee Mazzilli to be their field boss on November 9, 2003.
On November 9, 2014, the Yankees re-signed free agent outfielder Chris Young. A former Met, Young had closed the ’14 season with the club after a late-season signing, and would contribute mightily to the team’s 2015 fortunes in the season’s first half. Chris, who struggled down the stretch, as many pinstripers did, contributed 17 home runs and 52 rbi’s to the Yankee cause.
On November 9, 1953, in a case involving Yankee farmhand George Toolson, who had refused a move from the AAA Newark Bears to AA, the United States Supreme Court upheld a three-decades-old opinion that baseball is a sport and not a business, and therefore not subject to antitrust laws.
Switch-hitting second baseman Otis Johnson (1915), the only Yankee player to have died on November 9, played 71 games for the New York Highlanders in 1911. He had 49 hits in 209 at bats, hit three home runs, and drove in 36 runs.
Greg Bird (1992), whose 2015 debut with the Yanks held out so much hope, is the first of nine November 9 birthdaying Yankees. Before succumbing to poor hitting and a string of injuries into the 2019 season, Greg hit 32 home runs with 98 rbi’s, and he hit a home run to win a 2017 ALDS game, 1-0. Infielder Jerry Priddy (1919), three homers and 54 rbi’s for the 1941-1942 Yankees; second baseman Roy Schalk (1908), three hits in 12 ab’s during three games for the 1932 Bombers; and lefty hitting outfielder Harvey Hendrick (1897), four home runs and 23 rbi’s for the ’23-’24 Yanks, all debuted in New York. Lefty Kevin Mmahat (1964) went 0-2 in four games for the 1989 Yanks in his only major league service, while lefthanded outfielder Dion James (1962) finished 14 years in the bigs in New York by hitting 12 homers and knocking in 79 runs from 1992 through 1996. Next is pitcher Dave Wehrmeister (1952), who played five games for the 1981 club, and lefty-hitting outfielder Ted Sepkowski (1923), who got three hits in 12 ab’s during three games for the 1932 Bombers. And finally, though he never took the field with the team, former Royals and Cardinals Manager Whitey Herzog (1931), who played the outfield and first base, signed with the Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1949.
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