4 August in Sports History

Looking back through history at some of the top sports moments in history through the players and their uniform numbers is what we do and in this edition we remember August 4.

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 - 45 - 10 - 25 - 17 - 43 - 18 - 25 - 29 - 16 - 41 - 19 - 14 - 25 - 34 - 44 - 13

August 4, 1910 - MLB pitching duel; Philadelphia A's Jack Coombs and White Sox Ed Walsh pitch a 0-0 tie in 16 innings

August 4, 1934 - Giants outfielder Mel Ott, Number 4 becomes first player in MLB history to score 6 runs in a game as New York beats Phillies, 21-4

August 4, 1941 - Brooklyn Dodgers catcher Mickey Owen wearing Number 10 became the first MLB player to take 3 foul pop-ups in one inning (3rd) in 11-6 win v NY Giants

August 4, 1945 - Boston Red Sox outfielder Tom McBride, Number 25 drove in an MLB record tying 6 runs in an inning (4th) during 15-4 win v Washington

August 4, 1953 - New York Yankees Vic Raschi, Number 17 set an MLB record for a pitcher by driving in 7 runs in a 15-0 win v Detroit

August 4, 1973 - New York Yankees pitcher Number 43, Lindy McDaniel puts in one of the best relief stints in MLB history, entering in 2nd inning, allows only 1 run in 13 innings in 3-2 win v Detroit Tigers

August 4, 1982 - Outfielder Joel Youngblood becomes only MLB player to get hits for 2 different teams in 2 different cities on the same day; singles for Mets in Chicago day game; traded, then singles for Expos in Philadelphia night game. He donned Number 18 with the Mets and for the Expos he wore Number 25

August 4, 1985 - New York Yankees retire Baseball Hall of Fame shortstop Phil Rizzuto's Number 10

August 4, 1985 - Future Hall of Fame infielder Rod Carew, Number 29 of the California Angels singles off Minnesota's Frank Viola, Number 16 to collect his MLB 3,000th career hit; Angels win, 6–5

August 4, 1985 - Tom Seaver, Number 41 of Chicago White Sox becomes 17th pitcher to win 300 MLB career games, beating New York, 4-1; 54,032 at Yankee Stadium

August 4, 1993 - Tony Gwynn, Number 19 gets 6 hits in 11-10 win v Giants, 4th time this season the Padre has 5 or more hits; ties MLB record

August 4, 1996 - Jim Bunning (Number 14), Earl Weaver (Number 4), Bill Foster , and Ned Hanlon were all inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY

August 4, 2007 - San Francisco slugger Barry Bonds, Number 25 homers off Clay Hensley, Number 34 in 2nd inning of 3-2 loss to San Diego to tie Number 44, Hank Aaron’s 33 year-old MLB career home run record of 755

August 4, 2007 - 32-year-old Alex Rodriguez, Number 13 becomes the youngest player in MLB history to hit 500 home runs, connecting on the 1st pitch he sees as New York Yankees beat Kansas City, 16-8

August 4, 2010 - On 3rd anniversary of his 500th MLB career home run, Number 13 Alex Rodriguez reaches the 600 HR mark in the NY Yankees 5-1 win v Toronto; 7th and youngest to reach milestone.

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 Jack Coombs, Philadelphia AL circa 1914 from the Bain News Service, publisher