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A Fourth of July without Major League Baseball is sporting sacrilege. Thankfully, this season won’t be a repeat of 2020, when the pandemic shut down the sport until August.
It was only the second time since 1871 there was no big-league baseball on the nation’s most patriotic holiday. The other came in 1981, when a work stoppage interrupted the season.
July 4 is also when Lou Gehrig gave his “luckiest man in the world speech” while announcing his retirement in 1939 — the same day Boston’s Jim Tabor hit two grand slams in one game.
This Fourth, the Tampa Bay Rays take on the Toronto Blue Jays in Buffalo at Sahlen Field.
– Joe Henderson, Extensive Enterprises Media