Events
January
- January 3 – The Cincinnati Reds announce that manager Fred Hutchinson has contracted lung cancer. He will begin two months of radiology treatment in Seattle and will make spring training with the team.
- January 6:
- Charlie Finley signs a two-year pact to move the Athletics‚ pending American League approval‚ from Kansas City, Missouri to Louisville, Kentucky.
- The Chicago White Sox introduce their new powder-blue road uniforms.
- January 15:
- Major League Baseball executives vote to hold a free-agent draft in New York City. A new TV pact is also signed.
- Willie Mays‚ the highest-paid player in baseball‚ signs a $105‚000 contract with the Giants.
- January 16 – American League owners vote 9–1 against Charlie Finley's Louisville moving proposal. Finley is given an ultimatum to sign a lease in Kansas City or lose his franchise.
- January 28 – Cincinnati Reds center fielder Vada Pinson is cleared of assault charges stemming from a September 5‚ 1963 incident when Cincinnati sportswriter Earl Lawson does not pursue charges further.
- January 29 – Pitcher-author Jim Brosnan is given permission by the Chicago White Sox to make his own deal with another team. His in-season writing has been censured by Sox general manager Ed Short.
- January 30 – The United States Senate Subcommittee on Monopolies begins hearings on baseball.
February
- February 2 – Red Faber, Burleigh Grimes, Tim Keefe, Heinie Manush, John Montgomery Ward, and Miller Huggins are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Special Veterans Committee.
- February 13 – Chicago Cubs second baseman Ken Hubbs, 1962 National League Rookie of the Year and Gold Glove winner, is killed in the crash of his private plane.
- February 17 – Former Chicago White Sox shortstop Luke Appling is selected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers' Association of America in a runoff election. In 1953, the first year of eligibility for Appling, he received just two votes.
March
- March 23:
- Finally, Charlie Finley gives in to American League pressure and signs a four-year lease with the municipal government to keep the Athletics in Kansas City. Finley wanted two years. His exasperated AL colleagues voted 9-1 that KC's offer was reasonable.
- The San Francisco Giants sign pitcher Masanori Murakami‚ third baseman Tatsuhiko Tanaka‚ and catcher Hiroshi Takahashi, the first Japanese ballplayers ever to play for American teams. Murakami played for the Fresno Giants and later the MLB Giants, while Tanaka and Takahashi played for the Magic Valley Cowboys.
April
- April 1 – Cleveland Indians manager Birdie Tebbetts suffers a heart attack. Third-base coach George Strickland will fill in for three months until the 51-year old skipper returns to the team with limited duties.
- April 8 – Houston Colt .45s relief pitcher Jim Umbricht dies of cancer at the age of 33. In 1965, the franchise will retire his uniform number 32.
- April 9 – To the chagrin of special consultant Branch Rickey, the St. Louis Cardinals trade Jimmie Coker and Gary Kolb to the Milwaukee Braves for reserve catcher Bob Uecker. After introducing himself, the Redbirds' new backstop is quickly informed by Rickey. "I didn't want you. I wouldn't trade one Gary Kolb for a hundred Bob Ueckers".
- April 10 – Demolition of the Polo Grounds in Manhattan begins, using the same wrecking ball that demolished Ebbets Field in Brooklyn four years earlier.
- April 13 – After beating the Reds 6–3 in the traditional home opener in Cincinnati, the Houston Colt .45s sit in first place in the National League for the only time under their original nickname. The next year the Colt .45s are renamed the Astros, to reflect Houston's status as the home of the NASA space program.
- April 14 – Sandy Koufax goes all the way in his only opening day start, allowing no walks and beating the St. Louis Cardinals, 4–0. at Dodger Stadium. Frank Howard homers for the Dodgers.
- April 17 – The New York Mets play their first game at brand-new Shea Stadium and lose 4–3 to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Willie Stargell hits the first home run in the stadium's history, a second-inning solo shot off the Mets' Jack Fisher. In the first-ever "Kiner's Korner" from Shea, Ralph Kiner's guest is Casey Stengel.
- April 19 – The Mets win their first of 1,859 victories at Shea Stadium as they beat the Pirates 6–0 behind Al Jackson's 6-hitter.
- April 23 – At Colt Stadium, Ken Johnson of the Houston Colt .45s no-hits his former team, the Cincinnati Reds, but loses 1–0. Two ninth-inning errors allow the Reds to score the game's lone run: a two-base throwing error by Johnson himself on Pete Rose's ground ball, and the second by Nellie Fox on Vada Pinson's grounder, which scores Rose. To date, the game is the only one in Major League history whose losing pitcher had pitched a nine-inning no-hitter.
May
- May 2 – The Minnesota Twins become the third club in MLB history to hit four consecutive home runs in the same inning, as Tony Oliva, Bob Allison, Jimmie Hall and Harmon Killebrew go deep in the top of the 11th inning in a 7–3 victory against the Kansas City Athletics. The Twins also become the first team to hit at least three consecutive home runs in an extra innings game.[1]
- May 6 – Dave Nicholson of the Chicago White Sox belts a home run off of Athletics' pitcher Moe Drabowsky which either bounces atop the left-field roof of Comiskey Park or is said to have entirely cleared it. The home run is officially measured at 573 feet, one of baseball's longest of all time.
- May 31 – The second game of a double header at Shea Stadium between the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets lasts 23 innings. The Giants eventually win it, 8–6.
June
- June 4 – Sandy Koufax pitches the third of his four career no hitters, to pace the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 3–0 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium.
- June 10 – Eddie Lopat, manager of the last-place Kansas City Athletics (17–35), is fired and replaced by coach Mel McGaha.
- June 15 – The Chicago Cubs trade Lou Brock, Jack Spring and Paul Toth to the St. Louis Cardinals for Ernie Broglio, Doug Clemens and Bobby Shantz. The swap eventually gains notoriety as perhaps the most lopsided in the history of baseball, as Brock goes on to a Hall of Fame career in St. Louis while Broglio posts a 7–19 record in a Cubs uniform.
- June 21 – On Father's Day at Shea Stadium, Jim Bunning fans ten, drives in two runs, and pitches the first perfect game (excluding Don Larsen's 1956 World Series effort, and Harvey Haddix's 1959 extra-innings loss) since Charlie Robertson's on April 30, 1922, as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the New York Mets 6–0. Bunning also becomes the first pitcher to throw no-hitters in both leagues, and Gus Triandos becomes the first catcher to catch a no-hitter in each league. Bunning throws just 90 pitches in winning his second no-hitter. The next time Bunning faces the Mets he will shut them out, the first no-hit pitcher in the 20th century to do that. The Mets fare little better in the nightcap, as 18-year-old rookie Rick Wise pitches into the seventh inning to win his first game, giving up just three hits and three walks (Johnny Klippstein pitched the final three innings). The Phillies increase their National League lead to two games over the San Francisco Giants.
- June 26 – Hard-hitting sophomore Cleveland Indians third baseman Max Alvis, 26, is hospitalized in Boston after an attack of spinal meningitis. He will recover completely but miss six weeks of action.
July
- July 7 – At Shea Stadium, Johnny Callison's ninth-inning three-run home run off Dick Radatz caps a four-run rally and gives the National League a 7–4 win over the American League in the All-Star Game. Callison is named Game MVP as the NL triumph evens the series at 17.
- July 15 – At Metropolitan Stadium, Minnesota Twins pitcher Mudcat Grant serves up thirteen singles and a walk during eight innings—but none of the Washington Senators batters comes around to score. The totals in Grant's 6–0 shutout win rank one behind the major league record.
- July 19 – Luis Tiant pitches a complete-game, four-hit shutout in his Major League debut, leading the Cleveland Indians to a 3–0 victory over Whitey Ford and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Tiant allowed just four singles while striking out eleven.[2]
- July 23 – Bert Campaneris of the Kansas City Athletics became the second player in Major League history to hit two home runs in his Major League debut, joining Bob Nieman, who did it in the 1951 season. Mark Quinn will join the select group in 1999.
August
- August 12:
- Mickey Mantle hits a home run from both sides of the plate in a 7–3 Yankees win over the Chicago White Sox. It is the tenth time in his career that he has done so and a major league record for switch-hit homers in a game.
- At Crosley Field, the Cincinnati Reds host an emotional, 45th-birthday tribute to their cancer-stricken manager, Fred Hutchinson, before their game with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Hutchinson enters the hospital the next day to fight the disease, and coach Dick Sisler acts as manager for the rest of the baseball season. Hutchinson resigns as skipper October 19, and he passes away November 12.
- August 17 – With the fifth-place St. Louis Cardinals at 62–55 (.530) and nine games behind the Phillies, owner August A. Busch Jr. replaces general manager Bing Devine with Bob Howsam, former owner of the minor-league Denver Bears. The roster that Howsam inherits goes 31–14 (.689) to edge Philadelphia and Cincinnati for the National League pennant, and defeats the Yankees in the 1964 World Series. Devine, meanwhile, earns his second consecutive Major League Executive of the Year award from The Sporting News.
- August 20 – At Comiskey Park, the Chicago White Sox complete a four-game sweep of the New York Yankees with a 5–0 shutout. As the Yankees' team bus heads to O'Hare International Airport after the game, infielder Phil Linz takes out a harmonica and plays a plaintive version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Manager Yogi Berra tells Linz to put the harmonica away. After Linz asks what Berra had said, Mickey Mantle tells Linz to "play it louder", which he does, prompting an unusually angry Berra to storm to the back to the bus and slap the harmonica out of Linz' hands; the instrument strikes Joe Pepitone's knee. The "Harmonica Incident" convinces the Yankee front office that Berra has lost control of the team and cannot command respect from his players. As a result, the decision is made to fire Berra at the end of the season.
- August 27 – The New York Mets sign Jerry Koosman as an amateur free agent.
- August 31 – Ground breaking is held for the new Anaheim Stadium.
September
- September 1 – At Shea Stadium, pitcher Masanori Murakami of the San Francisco Giants becomes the first Japanese player to appear in the Major Leagues. He enters the game in the ninth inning of the Giants' 4–1 loss to the New York Mets and strikes out Charley Smith, the first batter he faces; Ed Kranepool also strikes out two batters later.
- September 9 – The St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies go into extra innings at Connie Mack Stadium tied at five. An error by Dick Allen leads to three unearned runs as the Cards score five in the eleventh for a 10–5 victory.
- September 12 – Frank Bertaina of the Baltimore Orioles beats Bob Meyer of the Kansas City Athletics, 1–0, in a game in which both pitchers throw a one-hitter.
- September 17 – Seattle Mayor James d'Orma Braman announces publicly his intentions on luring the Cleveland Indians to the city. The following month, the Indians' board of directors announce the club will remain in Cleveland.
- September 19 – The Houston Colt .45s (61–88) change managers, with coach Lum Harris taking the reins from the team's first pilot, Harry Craft.
- September 20 – Jim Bunning strikes out John Roseboro in the ninth inning to preserve the Philadelphia Phillies' 3–2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Los Angeles. The win comes after two straight losses (both charged to Jack Baldschun) and leaves the first place Phils in front of the National League by six and a half games with 12 games to play. When they return to Philadelphia in the early morning, 2,000 fans, including mayor James Tate are on hand to greet the team.
- September 21 – John Tsitouris hurls a 1–0 shutout for the Cincinnati Reds over Art Mahaffey and the first-place Phillies, launching a 10-game Phillies losing streak. Rookie Chico Ruiz scores the only run when, with Frank Robinson at bat, he steals home with two outs in the sixth inning.
- September 27 – Johnny Callison hits three home runs, but the Phillies lose to the Milwaukee Braves 14–8. The Phils suffer the seventh loss in their 10-game losing streak, while the Reds sweep the New York Mets (4–1 and 3–1). These results knock Philadelphia out of first place, with the Reds replacing them atop the NL standings. The Phillies would never return to first place in 1964.
- September 29 – The Pittsburgh Pirates blank the Reds 2–0 at Crosley Field (despite the Reds getting 11 hits off Bob Friend) to end the Reds' nine-game winning streak. Meanwhile, Ray Sadecki records his 20th victory as his St. Louis Cardinals defeat the Phillies 4–2 at Busch Stadium, the seventh win in the Cardinals' eight-game winning streak and the ninth loss in the Phillies' 10-game losing streak. The win puts the Cardinals into a tie for first place with the Reds; St. Louis had been 11 games out of first on August 23.
- September 30 – Danny Murtaugh, 46, announces his pending retirement as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates due to ill health after 7½ seasons, including their 1960 world championship campaign. But he remains with team in a front-office post, and will return to the Pirates' helm three more times through 1976, and lead them to a second world title in 1971.
October
- October 1 – Johnny Pesky is fired as manager of the Boston Red Sox with two games remaining in his second season. Future Hall of Fame second baseman Billy Herman, 55, the Bosox' third-base coach, replaces Pesky.
- October 3:
- The New York Yankees clinch their 14th American League pennant in 16 years with an 8–3 victory over the Cleveland Indians, holding off the Chicago White Sox by a single game.
- As a result of the now-concluded Philadelphia Phillies' ten-game losing streak, the day begins with four teams still having a mathematical shot at the National League pennant, and a four-way tie is also still a possibility. But then one of the four, the San Francisco Giants, is eliminated with a 10–7 loss to the Chicago Cubs. At the end of the day, the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals are tied for first place, with the Phillies a game back. In recent days, the NL has had to scramble to schedule various possible playoffs.
- October 4
- The Phillies defeat the Reds, 10–0, in the last regular-season game for both teams unless there is a playoff; because of the Reds' loss, the Cardinals clinch a tie for the NL pennant. At the end of that game, the Phillies and Reds are a half-game back of the Cardinals, and await the result of the Cardinals-Mets game. Then, the Cardinals, never in first place until the last week of the season, clinch their first pennant since 1946 with an 11–5 win over the New York Mets, who had just beaten the Cardinals twice in the two preceding days. The win by the Cardinals averts a three-way tie for the NL pennant, with the Phillies and the Reds finishing one game back in a second-place tie.
- As soon as their season is completed, the San Francisco Giants fire manager Alvin Dark and replace him with Herman Franks, a coach whose links to the team extend to the Leo Durocher era in New York.
- October 11 – A team of U.S. college baseball players defeats a Japanese amateur all-star team, 6–2, in the lone game of baseball at the 1964 Summer Olympics, featured as a demonstration sport.
- October 14 – The Los Angeles Dodgers release Jim Gilliam and Lee Walls. Gilliam will return to active status as a player-coach for the 1965 Dodgers.
- October 15 – The St. Louis Cardinals take an early lead in the deciding World Series Game Seven over the New York Yankees. Lou Brock hits a fifth-inning home run to give pitcher Bob Gibson a 6–0 lead. Mickey Mantle, Clete Boyer and Phil Linz homer for New York, but the Yankees fall short. The Cardinals win the game 7–5 and are the World Champions. The Boyer brothers, Ken for St. Louis and Clete for the Yankees, homer in their last World Series appearance, a first in major league history.
- October 16 – The day after the final game of the World Series, the managerial posts of both pennant winning teams are vacant. In the morning, Johnny Keane, manager of the victorious St. Louis Cardinals, resigns, much to the surprise of owner Gussie Busch. Hours later, New York Yankee general manager Ralph Houk fires Yogi Berra as his manager, citing Berra's lack of control over team and his inability to command respect from his players. Less than a week later, Houk replaces Berra with Keane, who himself will be replaced (as St. Louis manager) by coach and former Cardinal star Red Schoendienst. Meanwhile, Berra reunites with Casey Stengel by becoming a coach with the New York Mets.
- October 19 – Harry "The Hat" Walker is named to succeed Danny Murtaugh as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. A gifted batting instructor and successful minor-league pilot, Walker's last MLB managerial assignment came with the Cardinals during the latter half of the 1955 season.
November
- November 2 – CBS Broadcasting Inc. becomes the first corporate owner of a Major League team after buying eighty percent of the New York Yankees assets for $11,200,000.
- November 10 – The Braves sign a 25-year lease to play in the new Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium.
- November 18 – Baltimore Orioles third baseman Brooks Robinson, who hit .317 with 28 home runs and 118 RBI, is named American League Most Valuable Player with 269 points, becoming the first non-Yankee to win the award since Nellie Fox of the Chicago White Sox in 1959. The Yankees' Mickey Mantle (171) and his Yankee teammate Elston Howard (124) are the runners-up.
- November 24 – St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Ken Boyer, who hit .295 with 24 home runs and 119 RBI, is named National League Most Valuable Player with 243 points, becoming the first Cardinals player to win the award since Stan Musial won his 3rd MVP award in 1948. The Phillies' Johnny Callison (187) and Boyer's Cardinal teammate Bill White (106) are the runners-up.
December
- December 1 – The Houston Colt .45s officially change their nickname to Astros. The change coincides with the team's impending move from Colt Stadium to the Harris County Domed Stadium, also known as the Astrodome. A change in name for the three-year-old franchise is necessitated due to a dispute with the Colt firearm company; the Astros name is chosen due to Houston being the home of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center (later the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center).
- December 4:
- The Minnesota Twins acquire extremely versatile utility César Tovar from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for pitcher Gerry Arrigo. Tovar will play eight seasons in Minnesota.
- MLB owners decide to use a free agent draft beginning in January 1965. The inverse order of the previous year's standings will be used to select players every four months.