Andruw Jones scores a major financial win in arbitration.
Braves Franchise History
1923: Future Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson becomes president and owner of the Boston Braves. Mathewson purchases the team for $300,000 with New York attorney Judge Emil Fuchs. The deal does not include Braves Field, which still belongs to James Gaffney. There are also 85 minority stockholders.
1929: The Boston Red Sox announce they will play Sunday games (allowed for the first time in Boston) at Braves Field, because Fenway Park is located too close to a church and therefore barred from hosting games by a city ordinance.
2001: Atlanta Braves outfielder Andruw Jones wins a record $8.2 million contract in salary arbitration. The previous record of $7.25 million was set last year by New York Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera.
MLB History
1953: August A. Busch buys the St. Louis Cardinals from Fred Saigh for $3.75 million and pledges not to move the team from St. Louis, Missouri
1963: After leading the San Francisco Giants to the pennant the previous season, Willie Mays becomes the highest-paid player in baseball, signing a $100,000 contract.
1966: The American League officially announces the hiring of Emmett Ashford, who will become the first black umpire in major league history.
1984: Pedro Guerrero becomes the highest-paid player in Dodgers history when he signs a five-year, seven-million-dollar contract to play in Los Angeles.
1992: The episode of the animated series The Simpsons entitled “Homer at the Bat” gets its first broadcast on FOX. In the episode, Springfield Nuclear Plant owner C. Montgomery Burns hires a team of major league ringers in order to win a bet he placed on a softball game against a rival businessman. In the end, though, it’s the hapless Homer Simpson who saves the day with a walk-off hit-by-pitch. A number of contemporary major league stars, many of them future Hall of Famers, lend their voices and likeness to the show, which is considered one of the classic episodes of the series.
2012: The A’s sign slugger Manny Ramirez to a minor league contract, ending a retirement that began last April when he preferred to hang up his spikes rather than face a 100-game suspension for violating the Major Leagues’ PED policy. In spite of the time missed, he still faces a 50-game suspension before the A’s can add him to their major league roster. He will serve the suspension but never make it back to the Show.
2015: Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announces a series of measures to quicken the pace of the game. Chief among them are that a batter will need to keep at least one foot in the batter’s box at all times during an at-bat, and that the intermission between half innings will be strictly timed. Pitchers will be required to complete their warm-up pitches before there are only 30 seconds left before resumption of play, or risk forfeiting any unmade pitches. More dramatic changes, such as adding a pitch clock, are not introduced at this time. Violation of the new guidelines will result in fines, and not in game-related penalties.
Information for this article was found via Baseball Reference, NationalPastime.com and Today in Baseball History.