20 July in Sports History

Some amazing feats of athletic accomplishment by pitchers fill our Sports Break for July 20.

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.

24 - 16- 41 - 14 - 30 - 40 - 44 - 41 

July 20, 1906 - Brooklyn Superbas pitcher Mal Eason no-hit the St Louis Cardinals line-up, for a 2-0 victory at Robison Field in St. Louis

July 20, 1911 - Boston Red Sox pitching sensation Smokey Joe Wood tossed a no-hitter of his own against the St Louis Browns line-up, in a 5-0 blanking.

July 20, 1912 - Philadelphia Phillies player Sherry Magee stole home plate twice in a single game. According to an article on SABR.org they say Wood.  "was undoubtedly the National League’s most valuable player in 1910, and either he or Johnny Evers deserved the appellation in 1914. That season one Philadelphia writer called Magee “probably the best all-around ball player in the National League,” and a Cincinnati reporter went a step further: “To my mind Sherwood Magee is one of the best all-around players the game has ever seen.”"

July 20, 1916 - New York Giants traded future Baseball HOF pitcher Christy Mathewson to the Cincinnati Reds

July 20, 1944 - St Louis Browns Number 24, Nelson Potter became the first pitcher suspended for throwing illegal spitballs. Potter denied the charge against him but to no avail as the suspension held. It is a shame because he was on his way to a 20-win season in that season when he became the first player in big-league history not only to be suspended but also ejected from a game throwing a spitter.  Well reknown for the screwball and slider he mastered were reasons with his success with these two legal pitches played a big role in the Boston National League club reaching its first World Series in 34 years in 1948.

July 20, 1956 - New York Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford, Number 16 tied an American League record of 6 straight strike-outs. This amazing record would eventually fall as Hall of Famer Tom Seaver, Number 41 and more recently Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola, Number 27 threw 10 consecutive strikeouts within one game

July 20, 1958 - Detroit Tigers future Baseball Hal of Fame pitcher Jim Bunning wearing Number 14 threw an amazing no-hit masterpiece against the Boston Red Sox to cruise to a 3-0 win.

July 20, 1965 - NY Yankee pitcher Mel Stottlemyre (Number 30) hit an inside-the-park grand slam home run!

July 20, 1970 - LA Dodgers Bill Singer in his Number 40 uniform no-hits the Phillies 5-0, giving up no walks

July 20, 1976 - Hank Aaron, Number 44 hit his 755th career and final home run off California Angels pitcher Number 41, Dick Drago

July 20, 2020 - Cristiano Ronaldo, in uniform jersey Number 7 became the first man to score 50 goals in Series A, La Liga and the Premier League with a double in Juventus' 2-1 win over Lazio

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 "Smokey" Joe Wood, Boston AL (baseball) Harris & Ewing, photographer, circa 1915.