14 July in Sports History

The Sports Break for July 14 has the story of a pitcher that may have made a blunder that cost him a decision, this and more legendary events.

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.

5 - 9 -  17 - 2 - 44 - 40

July 14, 1916 - St Louis Browns ace Ernie Koob pitched every single frame of a 17 inning game. Koob gave up 14 hits in a 0-0 tie versus the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. It was a no-decision after all of that work, but Koob in essence cost himself and his team the victory by a boo-boo he made on the basepaths.  A Sabr.org article tells of Ernie's baserunning blunder in the 15th and how it cost him the victory.  Koob tried to advance from second base to home on Ward Miller’s hit and ran over pitcher Carl Mays at the plate.  Mays ended up injured in the collision and left the game. The initial call was that Koob was declared safe by home-plate umpire Brick Owens. The ump reversed his call when Red Sox players protested and made him aware that Koob had failed to touch third base in his trip home. Perhaps Koob’s gaffe was not that all that unexpected as he had little experience on the basepaths. A notoriously poor hitter, Koob went 0-for-41 in 1916; however, he did draw 15 walks and scored four times.

July 14, 1946 - Cleveland's Lou Boudreau, wearing Number 5 hit 4 doubles and a Homerun, but still the Red Sox overcame and prevailed in an 11-10 win powered by Sox player Number 9, Ted Williams 3 homeruns and 8 total RBIs in the contest.

July 14, 1956 - Boston Red Sox pitcher Mel Parnell, Number 17 tosssed a gem of a no-hit game against the Chicago White Sox, for a 4-0 Red Sox victory at Fenway Park.

July 14, 1964 - I am not sure if I would ever want to be in the starting line up if I was Bob Johnson, Number 2 of the Baltimore Orioles. Johnson's ripped hi 6th straight hit as a pinch hitter for Baltimore.

July 14, 1968 - Atlanta Braves legendary hitter, Hank Aaron, Number 44 reached a milestone in his career swatted his 500th HR off the San Francisco Giants pitcher Mike McCormick, Number 40.

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 Boston Braves players on the cover of Baseball Magazine, February 1915.