This Day in Sports History

0
65
- Advertisement -

1930: Chicago Cubs catcher Leo Hartnett breaks the altitude record for a catch by gloving a baseball dropped from the Goodyear blimp 800 feet over Los Angeles, California.

1948: England’s tour of the Caribbean ended with defeat in the fourth Test, in Jamaica, the first time that any England side had gone through a tour without winning one first-class match. Thirty-six-year-old debutant fast bowler Hines Johnson took ten wickets for West Indies and Everton Weekes scored his maiden century, in his fourth Test. It was also England captain Gubby Allen’s last Test, at the age of 45 years, 245 days – their second-oldest leader after W.G. Grace.

1953: The three Ws made centuries in the same innings of a drawn fifth Test in Jamaica, where a total of six hundreds were scored. Frank Worrell batted for nine and a half hours for his 237, Everton Weekes made 109 and Clyde Walcott 118. For India, Polly Umrigar weighed in with a hundred. Only spinners found success on the track: Alf Valentine took five in the first innings and Subhash Gupte and Vinoo Mankad five each when West Indies batted. The hosts were set 181 to get in 135 minutes but they didn’t go for the chase (they were already one up in the five-match series). In the second innings Weekes passed George Headley’s 1929-30 record of 703 runs in a Test series in the West Indies.

1967: Record set for most points by both teams in the 3rd quarter in a playoff game with 82, in a game between the Hawks and Warriors.

1996: Veteran American MLB umpire John McSheery dies of heart attack while umpiring on Opening Day at the Cincinnati Reds’ Riverfront Stadium; he was 51.

1999: Detroit Pistons guard Joe Dumars becomes 10th player in NBA history to play 1,000 games with the same team and one of 8 to play 1,000 games with his only team; scores 18 points in 107-75 rout of Chicago Bulls.

2007: American super swimmer Michael Phelps smashes his own world record in the 400m individual medley (4:06.22) to win his record 7th gold medal at the World Championships in Melbourne, Australia.

- Advertisement -