Sports history is made every day of the year. We will preserve at least a small sampling from some great athletes every day based on the uniform number they wore.
53 - 21 - 7 - 23 -
April 11, 1907 - Probably tired of nursing the bumps and bruises, New York Giants future Baseball Hall of Fame backstop Roger Bresnahan, became the first catcher to wear shin guards.
April 11, 1959 - Los Angeles Dodgers future Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale, Number 53 hit an opening day homerun for the second time in his career. It gave the Dodgers their only scoring though as the home team Chicago Cubs won the game 6-1, scattering 6 runs off of the big right hander, damaging his stellar ERA.
April 11, 1963 - The Milwaukee Braves had a future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher themselves that made history on this day. Warren Spahn, Number 21 gave the New York Mets fits all day as the Braves secured a 6-1 victory for his 328th win. It was the most "W"s by a left-hander in MLB history.
The website of NBA.com offers these nuggets of history for the day.
April 11, 1991 - Milwaukee Bucks Number 7, Adrian Dantley scored five points in the Bucks’ 111-92 win over Boston at the Bradley Center, moving him into what was then ninth place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list with 23,152 points.
April 11, 1998 - Michael Jordan, Number 23 of the Chicago Bulls handed out his 5,000th career assist in an 87-78 win over the Orlando Magic.
April 11, 1999 - The New Jersey Nets retired the Number 52 jersey of Buck Williams in ceremonies at New Jersey’s home game against New York. Williams accumulated 16,784 points and 13,017 rebounds during his standout 17-year NBA career with New Jersey, the Portland Trail Blazers and Knicks.
Here are a couple of items from the Vintage Hockey Jerseys website
April 11, 1936 - The Detroit Red Wings led by Head Coach Jack Adams, defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 to win the best of five series three games to one and win their first Stanley Cup championship.
April 11, 1964 - In game one of the Stanley Cup Finals the Leafs defeated the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 with Number 20, Bob Pulford getting the game winning goal by lighting the lamp with two seconds left in the third period, setting a record for the latest game winning goal in regulation time in Stanley Cup history.
