8 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 8. 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.

25 - 10 - 14 - 20 - 37 -  45 - 7 - 4 - 6 - 9 - 11 - 5 -13 - 8 - 10 - 12 - 14 - 15

August 8, 1920 - The Detroit Tigers beat the New York Yankees 1-0 in shortest AL game which lasted only a mere 73 minutes. Tigers pitcher Howard Ehmke used his curve ball effectively to allow only three New York hits fanning eight of the Yankees batters. Babe Ruth was one of the Yanks held hitless.

August 8, 1922 -  The Pittsburgh Pirates set record of 46 hits in a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies. The scores of 19-8 and 7-3 were part of a run the third place Pirates were making on the NL top dogs of the New York Giants and St Louis Cardinals. FOr the three game series against the Phils the Pirates whalloped an amazing 68 hits in the span going back the Monday August 7 game.

09 Aug 1922, Wed The Selma Times-Journal (Selma, Alabama) Newspapers.com

August 8, 1963 - Los Angeles Dodgers Frank Howard (Number 25) and Bill Skowron (Number 14) were the third duo to hit consecutive pinch home runs with starter Al Ferrara, Number 20 adding one for LA too but the Dodgers still tumbled by the score of 5-4 to the Chicago Cubs as Ron Santo, Number 10 belted two wall clearers of his own for Chicago.

August 8, 1970 - The New York Yankees honored Casey Stengel, retiring his Number 37.

August 8, 1976 - Historic Uniform Alert! The Chicago White Sox entered the field for a game with the entire roster wearing shorts.

August 8, 1987 - Milwaukee Brewers' Rob Deer , Number 45 struck-out 5 times in a game. Bo Jackson also tied the record of 5 Ks in a game earlier in the 1987 season with Kansas City  on April 18.

August 8, 1988 - Minnesota Twins turned the 2nd triple-play of year in 6-2 win over Cleveland

August 8, 1988 - It was something never tried before but they would have to wait a bit longer to accomplish the feat. The Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies attempted to play the first game ever under the lights at Wrigley Field but the contest was a rain out in 4th inning with Chicago leading, 3-1

August 8, 1990 - Carlton Fisk (Number 72) tied the record set years ealier by Johnny Bench (Number 5)  for a catcher hitting 327 career home runs.

August 8, 1992 - The original US 'Dream Team' wins the basketball gold at the Barcelona Olympics 117-85 over Croatia; features superstars Michael Jordan (Number 9), Magic Johnson (Number 15), Larry Bird (Number 7), Scottie Pippen (Number 8), Charles Barkley (Number 14), Patrick Ewing (Number 6), John Stockton (Number 12), Chris Mullin (Number 13), Christian Laettner (Number 4), Karl Malone (Number 11), David Robinson (Number 5) and Clyde Drexler (Number 10)

August 8, 1997 - Seattle Mariners, The Big Unit, Randy Johnson, Number 51 struck out 19 Chicago White Sox

August 8, 2004 - John Elway, Number 7 of the Denver Broncos was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame

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 Casey Stengel, Brooklyn NL Bain News Service, published by the Bain News Service circa 1915.