• January 9 –
Johnny Bench and
Carl Yastrzemski are elected to the
Hall of Fame by the
Baseball Writers' Association of America in their first year of eligibility. Bench was named on 96.4 percent of the ballots, the third-highest figure in history at the time behind
Ty Cobb and
Hank Aaron. • February 3 –
Bill White, a former MLB player and broadcaster, was elected president of the National League. • February 28 –
Red Schoendienst, a former second baseman and manager of the
St. Louis Cardinals, and
Al Barlick, a National League umpire for 28 seasons, are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Special Veterans Committee. • April 3 – Outfielder
Ken Griffey Jr. debuts with the
Seattle Mariners and hits the first pitch he sees for a double (thrown by
Dave Stewart of the
Oakland Athletics). Griffey's father,
Ken Griffey Sr., is still active with the
Cincinnati Reds, making them the first father-son combination to play simultaneously in Major League Baseball (Griffey, Sr. would join the Mariners the following year, becoming first father/son combo playing in the same Major League game). • May 7 –
Chicago mayor
Richard M. Daley presides over the groundbreaking of the new
Comiskey Park. • May 28 –
George Bell ends the
Toronto Blue Jays' twelve-year stay at
Exhibition Stadium with a walk-off
home run to win the Jays' final game there with a 7–5 win over the
Chicago White Sox, the same team the Jays' faced in their first game at Exhibition Stadium and in franchise history twelve years earlier. • May 29 –
Mike Schmidt of the
Philadelphia Phillies calls a press conference and tearfully announces his retirement, effective immediately. Nonetheless, he will be voted to start the
All-Star Game, and is permitted to appear in uniform. • June 3 – At the
Astrodome, the
Houston Astros and
Los Angeles Dodgers engage in a 22-inning battle lasting seven hours and fourteen minutes, setting a new record for the longest night game in National League history. Houston's ace pitcher
Mike Scott, never known for his batting abilities, surprises everyone by coming through with a walk-off
sacrifice fly to give the Astros a 5–4 victory. Amazingly, the two teams meet again just hours later and wage another marathon, with Houston once again emerging victorious, 7–6 in 13 innings. • June 5 – Just eight days after leaving
Exhibition Stadium, the
Toronto Blue Jays inaugurate their brand-new home,
SkyDome, the first Major League stadium with a fully retractable roof. As in the final game at Exhibition Stadium,
George Bell hits a home run, but the Blue Jays fall to the
Milwaukee Brewers, 5–3. • June 8 – At
Veterans Stadium, the visiting
Pittsburgh Pirates score 10 runs in the top of the first inning against the
Philadelphia Phillies, three of which come on a
Barry Bonds home run. As the Phillies come to bat in the bottom of the first, Pirate broadcaster
Jim Rooker says on the air, "If we lose this game, I'll walk home." Both
Von Hayes and
Steve Jeltz hit two home runs to trigger the comeback for the Phillies, who finally tie the game in the 8th on a wild pitch, then take the lead on
Darren Daulton's two-run single and go on to win 15–11. After the season, Rooker conducts a 300-plus-mile charity walk from
Philadelphia to
Pittsburgh. • July 4 – At
Veterans Stadium,
Cincinnati Reds pitcher
Tom Browning, having already pitched a
perfect game a year earlier, misses becoming the first pitcher in Major League history to throw two perfect games.
Dickie Thon's leadoff double in the ninth breaks up this bid; Thon later scores on a
Steve Jeltz single.
John Franco then relieves Browning and induces
Lenny Dykstra to hit into a game-ending double play for a 2–1 Reds victory. • July 5 –
Mark McGwire of the
Oakland Athletics hits his 100th career home run. However, the
Kansas City Royals come out on top by a score of 12–9 in 11 innings. • July 11 – At
Anaheim Stadium,
Bo Jackson and
Wade Boggs lead off the bottom of the first inning with back-to-back home runs off
Rick Reuschel to spark the
American League to a 5–3 win over the
National League in the
All-Star Game. Jackson earns MVP honors. • August 3 – The
Cincinnati Reds set a Major League record for the most
singles in an inning, with 12 in the 1st inning against the
Houston Astros at
Riverfront Stadium in an 18–2 victory. • August 4 –
Dave Stieb, pitching for the
Toronto Blue Jays, loses a
perfect game with two outs in the ninth inning when
Roberto Kelly of the
New York Yankees doubles and later scores on a single by
Steve Sax. Stieb wins a 2–1 two-hitter, but it is the third
no-hitter that he has lost in the ninth inning in the past 11 months. • August 15 –
San Francisco Giants pitcher
Dave Dravecky, making a comeback from
cancer in his
deltoid muscle, snaps his
humerus bone while throwing a pitch to
Tim Raines in the sixth inning of a game against the
Montreal Expos. The bone had been frozen as part of surgery for his cancer the previous year. Dravecky's cancer would return after the Giants' pennant win, forcing his retirement and the eventual amputation of his arm. • August 21 –
Cal Ripken Jr. hits his 200th career home run, helping his
Baltimore Orioles beat the
Milwaukee Brewers, 5–0. • August 22 –
Nolan Ryan of the
Texas Rangers becomes the first (and so far only) pitcher in Major League history to record 5,000 career
strikeouts. Ryan whiffs
Rickey Henderson in the top of the fifth inning of an eventual 2–1 loss to the
Oakland Athletics to reach the milestone. • August 23 – The
Los Angeles Dodgers and
Montreal Expos play a twenty-two inning game without a single
base on balls, setting a Major League record which still stands. • August 24 – Commissioner
A. Bartlett Giamatti announces in a press conference that
Pete Rose is banned from baseball for life, in the wake of evidence that has come to light regarding Rose's gambling history. • September 1 – Commissioner
A. Bartlett Giamatti unexpectedly dies of a heart attack. • September 14 –
Jeff Reardon of the
Minnesota Twins earns his 30th
save of the season in a 2–0 win over the
Toronto Blue Jays. He becomes the first pitcher to save 30 games in five consecutive seasons. • September 26 – The
Chicago Cubs clinch the
National League East division title with a 3–2 win over the
Expos in
Montreal. • September 27 – The
Oakland Athletics clinch their second straight
American League West title with a 5–0 blanking of the
Texas Rangers. • September 27 – Despite a 1–0 loss to the arch-rival
Los Angeles Dodgers, the
San Francisco Giants secure their second
National League West crown in three years when the second-place
San Diego Padres lose a 2–1 heartbreaker in 13 innings to the
Cincinnati Reds. • September 30 – The
Toronto Blue Jays win the
American League East title with a narrow 4–3 victory over the
Baltimore Orioles, whom they had overtaken for first place on September 1. • October 3 –
Kirby Puckett wins an unlikely (at the time)
American League batting title, taking advantage of an off-year by Boston's
Wade Boggs due to marital issues. Puckett clinches the title in
Seattle on a double in the final game of the season, finishing with a final average of .339. • October 9 – After 43 years on the air,
NBC concludes its run as the #1 over-the-air television broadcaster for Major League Baseball games. Game 5 of the
NLCS between the
San Francisco Giants and
Chicago Cubs is the final baseball broadcast shown on the network (it would return to baseball broadcasting five years later, with the establishment of
The Baseball Network). • October 17 – Game 3 of the
World Series is postponed due to the
Loma Prieta earthquake, which struck immediately before the game was set to begin. It would be rescheduled for ten days later, on October 27. • October 28 – The
Oakland Athletics complete a four-game sweep of the
San Francisco Giants in the
World Series, the first Series sweep since
1976. Oakland pitcher
Dave Stewart, who won two games, is named MVP. It is also the latest in the calendar year that a World Series game has ever been played up to this point; it was also the last MLB game broadcast by ABC for five years. • November 20 –
Milwaukee Brewers outfielder
Robin Yount is named
American League MVP for the second time. With his 1982
MVP Award coming in a year he played shortstop, he becomes the third player to win two such awards while playing different positions, after
Hank Greenberg and
Stan Musial. ==Movies==