July 7 - Satchel Paige is Signed by Cleveland

1948 - The Indians stun the baseball world by signing Satchel Paige, veteran Negro League pitcher. The move is ridiculed by some as a Bill Veeck publicity stunt, and J.G. Taylor Spink in The Sporting News editorializes, "Veeck has gone too far in his quest for publicity [...] To sign a hurler at Paige's age is to demean the standards of baseball in the big circuits." The 42-year-old Paige will answer the critics in his first game tomorrow, getting a relief decision in a 8 - 6 win over New York in a doubleheader sweep. He will finish at 6 - 1. Paige is the oldest player to debut in the majors, but not the first 40-year-old: Chuck Hostetler in 1944 was 40.

1964 - Johnny Callison's 9th-inning 3-run home run off Dick Radatz caps a 4-run rally and gives the National League a 7 - 4 win in the All-Star Game at Shea Stadium. This evens the series at 17.

1971: In his Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech in 1966, Ted Williams made a strong plea for inclusion of Negro league stars in the Hall. After the publication of Robert Peterson's landmark book Only the Ball was White in 1970, the Hall of Fame found itself under renewed pressure to find a way to honor Negro league players who would have been in the Hall had they not been barred from the major leagues due to the color of their skin.

On July 7 1971 - Commissioner Bowie Kuhn announces that players from the Negro Leagues elected to the Hall of Fame will be given full membership in the museum. It had been previously announced that they would be honored in a separate wing, Satchel Paige was the first Negro League player inducted in 1971. In total there are 35 players and exeutives who have been elected to the Hall of Fame from the Negro Leagues.

2005 - The sports of baseball and softball are dropped from the for the 2012 Olympic Games scheduled to take place in London. It is the first time in 69 years that events have been cut from the games. There is criticism that these events are American-dominated, though the Cuban national team won Gold in 2004 and Australia won Silver. Japan and South Korea have appeared in the Silver Medal game in the past as well. Another reason given is that top professional players do not always appear, though Nippon Pro Baseball and the Korea Baseball Organization have routinely sent their top stars, as does the Cuban National League.

Historical Recap performed by:

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