12 July in Sports History

A baseball game promotion gone wrong, a hitting streak ended and more legendary sporting events and players to be remembered in this July 12 Sports Break!

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.

1 - 47 - 25 - 22

July 12, 1945 - Boston Brave outfielder Tommy Holmes, in his Number 1 Uniform was on a mission during this 1945 MLB season. Going into the game againt the Chicago Cubs on this day he had hit safely in a National League record of 37 games. The Cubs beat Boston, 6-1  and put a stop to Holmes' streak. The record of Tommy H. from 1945 stood all the way to 1978 when Pete Rose (Number 14) sailed past it with 44 games, eventhough a couple of players reached 31 including Willie Davis (Number 3)in 1969, and Rico Carty (Number 25) in 1970.

July 12, 1946 - Vance Dinges, Number 47 hit the only Philadelphia Phillies pinch hit inside-the-park Home Run in franchise history.

July 12, 1949 - The NFL's Los Angeles Rams signed Quarterback Norm Van Brocklin to a contract. The Dutchman played for the Rams through the 1957 season. In his last three seasons of 1958 through 1960 he played with the Philadelphia Eagles even winning an NFL Championship with each team, the Rams in 1951 and the Eagles in 1960. He wore Number 25 for his first few years on the Rams and then switched to the number he would wear the reaminder of his career, Number 11.

July 12, 1951 - The New York Yankees pitcher known as Allie Reynolds, Number 22 threw a no-hit masterpiece in Cleveland against the Indians, his former team, in a 1-0 Yanks win.

July 12, 1954 - The MLBPA was founded to help players have their rights protected in an organized union.

July 12, 1979 - In one of the most bizzare forfeits of all time, "Disco Demolition Night" at Comiskey Park was the promotion in between the games of a double header between the White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. The promotion was a success in the fact that fans actively participated , however when the crowd went wild and stormed the field destroying the disco records it caused game officials to declare that the White Sox had to forfeit second game of the twinbill. FOr the promotion local Chicago DJ Steve Dahl promised to blow up disco records in between games. It did not go to plan as midway through the first game records started to fly out of the stands frisbee style on to the playing field causing delays while attendants had to remove them so that players would not get hurt. Police arrested 39 people after the mob stormed the field setting fires that destroed a batting cage, pulling up bases and other vanadlism.

13 Jul 1979, Fri The Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, Indiana) Newspapers.com

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 Newspapers.com from the July 13, 1979, edition The Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, Indiana) UPI postesd photo.