21 July in Sports History

On this episode of the Football By Numbers we discuss Jersey number 41 players and pick a top ten greatest number 41's in NFL history! From the Pigskin Dispatch archives of 2021.

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.

46 - 12 - 43 - 27 - 9

July 21, 1956 - Cincinnati Reds pitcher Brooks Lawrence, Number 46 suffered a loss after 13 straight victories on the mound.

July 21, 1959 - The last of the MLB teams have movement toward racial integration. The Boston Red Sox signed Pumpsie Green, Number 12 to their roster and played him in a game.

July 21, 1970 - San Diego's Number 43, Clay Kirby had a whale of day on the mound. The Padre hurler had a no-hitter going for 8 innings, but sadly was sent to the bench for a pinch hitter to fill his spot to try and manufacture some runs. Reliever Jack Baldschun, wearing Number 27, entered in the 9th in relief however he gave up 3 hits and the Padres lost the contest by the score of, 3-0.

July 21, 1973 - The Atlanta Braves Hammerin' Hank Aaron, wearing his famous Number 44 jersey drives a Philadelphia Phillies Ken Brett's fastball out of the Atlanta ball park for his 700th career homerun. 

July 21, 1975 - It was a game of fours. New York Mets hitter, veteran 2nd baseman, Félix Millán, Number 17 had 4 singles in the contest however these were balanced out by erased by Joe Torre's (Number 9) 4 double plays that he hit into against the Houston Astros in a game where Houston triuphed 6-2. Torres quote in the Tampa Bay Times aftre the game, "When I retire I'm gonna buy a shortstop and put him in my den. At night, when I'm lonely, I'm gonna go down there and hit grounders to him." Millán happened to be the man on base in each of those double plays.

July 21, 1991 - Great honor was bestowed upon some baseball legends. Ferguson Jenkins, Gaylord Perry, Rod Carew, Tony Lazzeri, & Bill Veeck were all elected to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY

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 Benedetti Diamond baseball field - University of San Francisco - San Francisco, California, USA, taken by Daderot in 2015.