17 August in Sports History

In this edition of the Sports Break, we cover the top events in sports history along with the players and athletes that were a part of them on August 17. As a bonus, we place the jersey number worn at the time with the athlete.

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.

4 - 8 - 1 - 9 - 24 - 44 - 3 - 32 - 35 - 5 - 14

August 17, 1933 - MLB player Lou Gehrig, Number 4 of the New York Yankees, played in a record 1,308th consecutive game in St. Louis. Gehrig got two singles in a 7–6 loss to the Browns to reach the milestone. The record was previously held by Everett Scott set 1925. Gehrig would go on to play 822 more straight games, and his record would last until it was broken by Number 8 of the Baltimore Orioles, Cal Ripken Jr. on September 6, 1995

August 17, 1944 - New York Yankees star Johnny Lindell, Number 8 tied a record with 4 consecutive doubles in a game

August 17, 1950 - Pee Wee Reese (Number 1 with the Dodgers) and Sam Calderone (Giants Number 6) each hit an inside park home run during the game between these two New York area teams.

August 17, 1957 - Baseball player Richie Ashburn, Number 1 fouled off a ball and hit a fan named Alice Roth twice in the same game at bat playing for the Philadelphia Phillies. The 1st hit broke her nose and the 2nd one hit her while she is on the stretcher being carted out of the stadium after an initial delay.

August 17, 1963 - Jim Hickman, Number 9 became the first New York Met to hit for cycle.

August 17, 1966 - Willie Mays, Number 24 reached 2nd place on all-time HR list with a blast off of Number 44, Ray Washburn, the starting pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. Mays launched a 3-2 fastball straight over the right field fence at Candlestick Park to surpass long time Number 3 legend, Jimmie Foxx with the 535 home run of his career.

August 17, 1972 - MLB Philadelphia Phillies Steve Carlton, Number 32 won his 15th straight game

August 17, 1973 - Willie Mays, Number 24 hits 660th & last HR (off Don Gullett, Number 35 of Cincinnati)

August 17, 1980 - George Brett, Number 5 went 4-for-4, raising his batting average to .401

August 17, 1984 - Pete Rose, Number 14 returns to Cincinnati Reds as player-manager (gets 2 hits)

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: On This Day Sports, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & Stathead.com.

Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of the Johnny Lindell 1950 Bowman card in the Baseball card in the Hall of Fame's collection from Bowman Gum.