This Day In New York Yankees History: The Boss Is Born

First and foremost the greatest owner in Major League Baseball history, and especially of the New York Yankees, George Steinbrenner was born on this day in 1930. Baseball is America's past time and George Steinbrenner loved baseball more than anyone on this planet, and I'm hard to beat in that category, and baseball lost a great man and a great mind, albeit an impatient one, when they lost Mr. Steinbrenner.

Moving on to this day in 1925 the Yankees Herb Pennock and the A's Lefty Grove had themselves a good old fashioned 15 inning pitchers duel. The Yankees would win in Yankee Stadium 1-0 on this day behind Pennock retiring the first 18 batters he faced and the last 21 batters he faced.

On this day in 1939 the Yankees held Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day at the stadium and Gehrig gave his "luckiest man" speech that we will cover in detail later in the day. Gehrig's #4 uniform was the first to ever be retired on this day. Originally Gehrig was too moved to speak but manager Joe McCarthy encouraged Gehrig to address his fans, and the rest is history.

On this day in 1983 Dave Righetti no-hits the Boston Red Sox to become the first Yankee left-hander to throw a no hitter since George Mogridge did it in 1917. The Yankees would win 4-0 and would throw the first New York no hitter since Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

On this day in 1984 the Yankees Phil Niekro reached the 3,000 strikeout milestone when he struck out the Rangers Larry Parish. Niekro would become the ninth major league player to reach the mark in history.