5 August in Sports History

Stars of baseball and football grace the history of August 5 and we cover them along with their uniform numbers that they wore.

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.

25 - 8 - 35 - 33 - 14 - 4 - 44 - 32 - 5 - 1 - 92 - 70 - 53 - 47

August 5, 1927 - Phillies outfielder Cy Williams hits for cycle in just 4 at bats in 9-7 win v Pirates

August 5, 1940 - St Louis Brown's pitcher John Whitehead, Number 25 pitched a no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers, 4-0 in a rain shortened 6 inning game.

August 5, 1948 - Cleveland Indians set club record for most double plays in a game (6) in a 3-0 win v Washington

August 5, 1969 - Pirates outfielder Willie Stargell, Number 8 smashes first and longest home run ever hit out of Dodger Stadium; the incomparable shot off Alan Foster, measures 506 feet

August 5, 1972 - Detroit Tigers shortstop Ed Brinkman, Number 8 commits an error, ending record streak of 72 games & 331 total chances without a misplay

August 5, 1973 - Atlanta Braves pitcher Phil Niekro, Number 35 no-hits San Diego Padres, 9-0; first no-hitter for franchise in Atlanta

August 5, 1975 - Philadelphia Phillies create MLB record when first 8 batters get hits off Bill Bonham, Number 33, beat Cubs 13-5

August 5, 1979 - Philadelphia Phillies 3rd baseman Pete Rose, Number 14 registered a NL record 2,427th career single in a 5-2 home loss vs Pirates

August 5, 1979 - Willie Mays ( Number 24), Warren Giles , and Hack Wilson (Number 4) inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY

August 5, 1984 - Toronto designated hitter Cliff Johnson, Number 44 hit an MLB record 19th career pinch-hit HR in Blue Jays 4-3 win over Baltimore Orioles

August 5, 1986 - Giants left-handed pitcher Steve Carlton, Number 32 becomes 2nd to reach 4,000 strikeout milestone when he gets center-fielder Eric Davis in 11-5 loss v Reds

August 5, 1999 - St. Louis slugger Mark McGwire, Number 25 becomes only the 16th MLB player to reach the 500 home run milestone as the Cardinals lose 10-2 v San Diego at Busch Stadium

August 5, 2005 - St. Louis Cardinals 1st baseman Albert Pujols, Number 5 becomes the first player to connect for 30 home runs in each of his first 5 MLB seasons

August 5, 2006 - Warren Moon (Number 1) became the first black quarterback to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. Also iducted in that same HOF Class of 2006 were Troy Aikman (Number 8), John Madden, Rayfield Wright ( Number 70), Harry Carson (Number 53) and  (Number 92) Reggie White

August 5, 2007 - Atlanta left-hander Tom Glavine, Number 47 becomes only the 23rd pitcher in MLB history to reach the 300 win milestone as the Braves beat Cubs, 8-3

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 a cropped version of the 1921 Oxford Confectionery baseball card of Cy Williams.