Lots of interesting things happened on this date in baseball history, but this one most struck me:

1945 In a 7-1 victory over the Tigers, the Browns' Pete Gray, an one-arm outfielder, makes his major league debut with one hit in four at-bats.

There were a lot of cultural pressures building that would enable baseball's color line to finally be broken down, but obvious insanity of the idea that a one-armed white man could possibly be better than a two-armed black man was one aspect of the shift. True, he only got to the majors due to the manpower shortage caused by the War, but still. . .

Also, a funny reminder of the mind-games played within the game:

1978 After getting ahead in the count 3-0, Reggie Jackson, knowing he has a green light to hit away, pretends to be angered by getting a bogus take sign from third base coach Dick Howser. Oriole right-hander Tippy Martinez, deceived by the batter's behavior, grooves a fastball down the middle of the plate that the Yankee slugger promptly puts over the fence giving the Yankees a 4-3 walk-off victory.

And speaking of mind games, Milton Bradley is having some mysterious invisible injury issues, as no one could have predicted.* Meanwhile, in Chicago on Friday, Carlos Silva pitched his second straight excellent game, and got the win. ERA so far is an anorexic 0.69, and credit is being given to the Cubs coaching staff for finding some mechanical things to fix, including positioning on the rubber. Silva also showed a ton of class when he blamed himself for allowing two un-earned runs after an error by center fielder Marlon Byrd:

The only runs off Silva (1-0) were unearned after an error by Marlon Byrd in the fourth — but Silva blamed himself for not buckling down with two outs after the miscue.

''It would be tough to find someone who plays harder than Marlon Byrd,'' Silva said. ''I should have picked him up.''

Thanks again, Seattle!

*See here.