December 7, 1995: The New York Yankees send pitcher Sterling Hitchcock and 3rd baseman Russ Davis to the Seattle Mariners for 1st baseman Constantino "Tino" Martinez and pitchers Jeff Nelson and Jim Mecir.
Davis and Mecir were incidental. Hitchcock pitched well for the Mariners, and then pitched against the Yankees for the San Diego Padres in the 1998 World Series. Nelson turned out to be a key reliever for the Yankees over the next few years.
The key was Martinez. He had already become a star for the Mariners, and was a big reason why they beat the Yankees in the 1995 American League Division Series. And, with Don Mattingly retiring, the Yankees needed a new 1st baseman.
December 7, 1995 was Martinez's 28th birthday -- and his daughter, Victoria, was born the same day. He had started his career wearing Number 14, in honor of Lou Piniella, a former Yankee star and a friend of the family in their shared hometown of Tampa, Florida. But when Piniella became the Mariners' manager, Martinez knew he had to give the number up. He switched to 23. When he became a Yankee, that was the number worn by the outgoing Mattingly. He knew he didn't want the backlash that would have come from wearing 23. He saw that 24 was available, and that the next-lowest number was much higher, so he took 24.
Broadcaster John Sterling called the lefty slugger "The Bamtino." He did far more for the Yankees than Donnie Baseball. Blasphemy, you say? No, it's not, and I'll give you 4 reasons why: 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000. In 1997 -- oddly, not one of the Yanks' Pennant years -- he had 141 RBIs, and his 44 homers were the most by a Yankee between Roger Maris (and Mickey Mantle) in 1961 and Alex Rodriguez in 2005.
The Tampa native hit 339 home runs in his career, 192 as a Yankee. And he hit 2 of the most dramatic homers in Yankee history, the grand slam that won Game 1 of the 1998 World Series, and the homer that sent Game 4 of the 2001 Series to extra innings.
Tino was the 1st player of the Joe Torre Dynasty to get a Monument Park Plaque, although his Number 24 remains in circulation. As much as anyone else, he was one of the player who got the Yankees over the hump in 1996, and kept them there into the dawn of the 21st Century.
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December 7, 1995 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 5 games played in the NBA:
* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Atlanta Hawks, 104-102 at The Omni in Atlanta. David Robinson had 31 points and 17 rebounds.
* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 112-103 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. Vin Baker had 32 points and 15 rebounds.
* The Denver Nuggets beat their arch-rivals, the Utah Jazz, 124-119 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf scored 51 points.
* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the expansion Toronto Raptors, 96-88 at the Rose Garden (now the Moda Center) in Portland, Oregon.
* And the Detroit Pistons beat the other expansion team, the Vancouver Grizzlies, 93-84 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver. The Grizzlies moved to Memphis in 2001.
And there were 8 games in the NHL:
* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 7-3 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.
* The Florida Panthers and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim played to a tie, 3-3 at the Miami Arena.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 7-5 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Dallas Stars, 3-1 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
* The Ottawa Senators beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-2 at the United Center in Chicago.
* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Colorado Avalanche, 5-3 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.
* And the San Jose Sharks beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-3 at the San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center).
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