Template:Today in Baseball/September 8

December 28: Today's featured birthday is that of Melvin Nieves, who turns 53.

1916 - Wally Schang becomes the first major leaguer to hit home runs from both sides of the plate in a game against the New York Yankees. Only a handful of people brave the rain and see the feat.
1939 - Bob Feller is the youngest 20-game winner of this century, as the 20-year-old beats the St. Louis Browns, 12-1.
1963 - Warren Spahn records his 13th 20-win season, tying Christy Mathewson's National League record.
1965 - Bert Campaneris plays all nine positions for the Kansas City A's against the California Angels.
1980 - Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspends Ferguson Jenkins indefinitely as a result of his August 25th drug arrest in Toronto. On September 22nd, the suspension will be overturned by arbitrator Raymond Goetz, the first time ever a commissioner's decision is overruled by an arbitrator.
1992 - Following the game, Toronto rookie C Mike Maksudian (pictured) wins $800 from his teammates, who bet that he wouldn't eat a live locust. Maksudian, who claims to have eaten moths, grasshoppers, frogs, lizards, roaches and aquarium fish, swallowed the one-and-a-half-inch-long insect, but declined an offer of $2,000 to swallow a rat.
1998 - St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire connects off Chicago Cubs hurler Steve Trachsel and sends a 341-foot line drive over the left field fence for his historic 62nd home run, breaking the single-season home run record set in 1961 by Roger Maris. Big Mac's historic homer comes in the 4th inning of a nationally televised game.

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