2005: Jeter clubs first -- and only -- career grand slam

After 136 at-bats and 155 plate appearances with the bases full, Derek Jeter hits his first -- and only -- career grand slam off Cubs reliever Joe Borowski in the sixth inning. It ends the longest drought (at-bats and number of homers) among current Major Leaguers without hitting a grand slam. Jeter would homer again in the eighth inning for the seventh multi-homer game of his career. The grand slam blows the game open, and his solo shot in the eighth ends the scoring, as the Yankees defeat the Cubs, 8-1. It’s the second of a three-game sweep during the Northsiders’ first-ever regular season visit to Yankee Stadium, and their first overall visit to the Bronx since the 1938 World Series.

1977: Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin argue in dugout

In the bottom of sixth inning at Fenway Park, Yankees manager Billy Martin yanks Reggie Jackson out of the game after the outfielder’s approach to a fly ball turns a questionable hit into a double for Jim Rice. While making a pitching change during the nationally televised game, Martin instructs Paul Blair to head into right field and replace Jackson in the middle of the inning. Once Jackson returns to the dugout, Martin and Jackson begin screaming at one another and have to be separated by coaches Yogi Berra and Elston Howard. After the game, Martin told reporters, “If you don’t hustle, I don’t accept it. If a player shows up the club, I show up the player.” The Yankees would lose, 10-4, as part of a three-game sweep.

1976: Vida Blue’s near-Yankee experience

In one of the more bizarre transactions in Yankees history, the team’s acquisition of Vida Blue from the Oakland Athletics is canceled by commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Blue and two other players believed they were being ripped off in contract negotiations and had not signed with Oakland. They were set to enter free agency at the end of the year, so on June 15, A’s owner Charlie Finley sold LF/1B Joe Rudi and reliever Rollie Fingers to the Red Sox for $1 million each and sold Blue to the Yankees for $1.5 million. But on this date, Kuhn voided all three transactions. In a later autobiography, he wrote he voided the moves because it would have allowed “more affluent clubs” to buy success. Multiple media outlets derided Kuhn’s decision, and Yankees manager Billy Martin told Sports Illustrated, “I’m dumbfounded. This is worse than Watergate.”

For more on this story, please visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s website.