Historically Speaking: 5-28-09

There are a couple of good series going down over in the NBAs and the NHLs are set to drop the puck for the big one, so what are we bringing to the mix? Nothin' but baseball, baby. That's how we roll. Peep our massive sense of untimeliness after the jump.

* Today in 1951, Willie Mays got his first Major League hit. It happened to be a home run. Mays had gone 0-12 prior to the jack, and his solo shot wasn't enough to give the Giants a victory over Warren Spahn and the Braves. Mays joined the army the following year, which may or may not've contributed to the first-place-by-two-and-a-half-games Giants losing eight of their next 10. And don't, by the way, get Cecil started on anybody but Mays being the greatest living baseball player in history. If you're lucky, he'll school you for 37 minutes and then punch you in the gut. The unlucky? They just get the gut shot.

* Infamy riddled baseball today in 1957 when the National League approved of the move of the Dodgers and Giants to head west to Californ-eye-ay.

* The American League, in 1968, agreed on the following divisional alignments: Boston, New York, Cleveland, Baltimore, Washington, and Detroit in the Eastern; and Chicago, Kansas City, Minnesota, Seattle, Oakland, and California in the Western. The decision would be put into effect the following year, and lasted, more or less, until 1993, when each league received a Central division.

* The year was 1995 when the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox hit a collective 12 home runs in one game to set an MLB record. The home team Tigers hit seven of the blasts, but still drop the contest, 14-12.

* Finally, it was three years ago today that The Head hit home run number 715 to move beyond Babe Ruth's mark on the all-time list and into second place.

And your quote of the day came from former MLB catcher, long-time MLB hitting coach, the author of The Art of Hitting .300 and Lau's Laws on Hitting,



the late Charley Lau, who, for all the young Willie Mays and Barry Bonds out there, said, "Don't try to hit the ball far. Try to hit it hard."