3 August in Sports History

In this episode of the Daily Sports Numbers we discuss the players and their Jersey numbers that made hsitory on August 3.

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.

5 - 31 - 47 - 24 - 25 - 44 - 1

August 3, 1914 - New York Yankees catcher Les Nunamaker threw out three Detroit Tigers' runners to 2nd base during the 1st innings, only time in 20th Century

August 3, 1921 - MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Landis hands out life bans to 8 Chicago White Sox players accused in Black Sox scandal despite their acquittal by a Chicago jury

August 3, 1930 - Lightning strikes twice! For the 2nd time in the year, Phillies outfielder Chuck Klein hits safely in 26 straight games, run halted in 2nd game of doubleheader v Boston Braves

August 3, 1933 - Philadelphia A's defeated the New York Yankees, 7-0. Why is that special? Well it was the first time in 308 games the Yankees team was shut out

August 3, 1941 - Joe DiMaggio, Number 5 goes 0-4 in Yankees 6-2 loss v St. Louis Browns, ending his on-base streak of 74 games, 2nd in MLB history

August 3, 1948 - Negro League veteran pitcher Satchel Paige, Number 31 at the age 42, debuts in Cleveland after controversial signing, goes 7 innings in 5-3 win v Washington

August 3, 1949 - Basketball Association of America (BAA) & National Basketball League (NBL) merge to form National Basketball Association (NBA), Maurice Podoloff elected head of new league

August 3, 1960 - For the only time in MLB history teams exchange managers as Detroit trades Jimmy Dykes (44-52) for Cleveland's Joe Gordon (49-46)

August 3, 1962 - New York Met Frank Thomas, Number 25 hit his 6th home run in 3 games

August 3, 1986 - Willie McCovey (Number 44), Bobby Doerr (Number 1) and Ernie Lombardi (So many numbers) were all inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY

August 3, 1987 - Detroit Tigers ace Jack Morris wearing Number 47 had a bad day of control when he tied the American League record with 5 wild pitches in a 4-2, 10 innings loss to the Kansas City Royals

August 3, 1989 - Future Baseball Hall of Fame left fielder Rickey Henderson, Number 24 set an AL mark of 50 stolen bases in 9 of his first 11 seasons in MLB

August 3, 1999 - Arsenal FC completed a huge signing coup snapping up ace French striker Thierry Henry, who wore Number 14 that season,  for a bargain £10 million from Italian club Juventus.

August 3, 2017 - Brazilian soccer forward jersey Number 10, Neymar transfered from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for a world-record transfer fee of €222 on a 5-year deal

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 Les Nunamaker, Boston AL (baseball) from the Bain News Service, publisher circa 1912