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.
43 - 22 - 99
February 18, 1909 - The Boston Red Sox traded away their legendary pitcher, Cy Young who was 41 at the time mind you, to the Cleveland Naps franchise. Who are the Naps you may ask well they were the city of Cleveland's American League MLB team from 1903 to 1914. They were briefly renamed the Cleveland Molly Maguires in 1911 before returning to the Naps. In 1915 the franchsise again rebranded themselves as the Cleveland Indians until after the 2021 season their name was once again revised to the Cleveland Guardians. The name Naps was dderived from their manager Larry Lejoie whose God given first name was Napleon, thus the team adopted the shortened "Nap" portion for thie moniker.
February 18, 1919 - Cy Denneny of the NHL's Ottawa Senators scored a league record 52nd goal of his career in just the midst of his second season. We are not quite sure if he ever wore a number on his sweater or not as records are non-revealing.
February 18, 1944 - The youngest MLB player ever signed to a contract took place. 15-year-old Joe Nuxhall was inked by the Cincinnati Reds to play baseball just one day after playing in a high school basketball game. His debut in the big leagues with the club would not occur until later that year when he wore Number 43 that season.
February 18, 1962 - The Daytona 500's fourth running the man with a name that even sounds fast, Fireball Roberts dominated the event, leading 144 of the 200 laps and drove his blalck Number 22 Pontiac
February 18, 1981 - Another Wayne Gretzky record setting moment arises as the star 20 year old forward of the Edmonton Oilers tallied his fifth career NHL hatrick, becoming the first skater to ever do that. In the game agiant the St Louis Blues Number 99 scored 5 goals and two assists to lead the Oilers to a dominant
