29 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 for August 29. As a bonus, we place the jersey number worn at the time with the athlete as well.

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.

7 - 3 - 32 - 24 - 33 - 5 - 25 - 9

August 29, 1885 - Philadelphia's Charlie Ferguson tossed no-hitter against Providence, by the score of 1-0. An all-around natural athlete who starred for the Philadelphia Quakers of the National League from 1884 through 1887, and then at the age of 25 suffered and untimely death. His trajectory prior to his death showed that he very well could have been one of the top MLB players of the 19th century.

August 29, 1925 - After a night on the town, Babe Ruth showed up late for batting practice and so Yankees skipper, Miller Huggins suspended Ruth and slapped a $5,000 fine on him

August 29, 1964 - On Elston Howard Night, to celebrate the first African-American Yankees roster member, Mickey Mantle, Number 7 tied (Number 3) Babe Ruth's career strikeout record at 1,330 when he went down swinging. Howard had worn Number 32 with the Yankees back in 1955.

August 29, 1965 - Willie Mays, Number 24 set a National League record for home runs in a month with his 17th of August

August 29, 1972 - San Francisco Giants Jim Barr, Number 33 retired the 1st 20 batters he faced which when added to last 21 he retired in his last prvious start, some 6 days earlier, it took it to an MLB record of 41 in a row.

August 29, 1977 - MLB St Louis Cardinals Lou Brock, Number 20 eclipsed Ty Cobb's 49-year-old career stolen bases record at 893 as Padres win 4-3

August 29, 1982 - George Brett, Number 5 of the Kansas City Royals batted his 1,500th hit

August 29, 1985 - New York Yankees batter Don Baylor, Number 25 was hit by a pitch for an MLB record 190th time. Just 5 days prior to this he tied legend Minnie Minoso at the mark of 189.

August 29, 2009 - Cristiano Ronaldo, wearing Number 9 made his debut for Real Madrid, scoring a penalty in their 3-2 win over Deportivo La Coruña

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 Charlie Ferguson and Tommy McCarthy, Philadelphia Quakers from The A.G. Spalding Baseball Collection via the New York Public Library system collection.