1 June in Sports History

Here is what happened in Sports Jersey History on June 1:  Listen in to learn more about these stories of sports history and more from the uniforms and jerseys the players wore. 

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.

4 - 30

June 1, 1917 -  Hank Gowdy, the Boston Braves first baseman was first active MLB player to enlist for service in World War I. His bravery and patriotism transcends even that as he was also the only player to fight in both World War I and II. Interesting facts about Gowdy are that played with both the Braves and the New York Giants teams at two different times from 1910-1930. He was a member of the 1914 World Series champion Braves, batting a clutch .545 in the series, and hitting the only home run in the series. He was reknown as a strong defensive catcher. Gowdy hit .270 in his career, and had 322 runs batted in. After his playing career, Gowdy coached with three different teams in the majors.  Hank had received votes in 17 years for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but was never inducted, at least not yet, keep plugging away for this legend to get in.

June 1, 1918 - Frank Baker turned a rare game winning triple play to help preserve a New York Yankees 5-4 victory over the Chicago White. The feat was even more dramatic as being down by one the Sox had loaded the bases in 9th with no outs when Chick Gandil hit a screaming liner to Baker.

June 1, 1925 - Future New York Yankees Hall of Famer and Number 4, Lou Gehrig pinch hit for shortstop Pee-Wee Wanninge in a 5-3 loss to Washington. It doesn't sound like much but that game was his first of a record 2,130 consecutive games. The original Iron Man.

June 1, 1943 - Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Rip Sewell, Number 30 patented his "eephus" or "blooper ball" pitch. This was the weapon of choice that aided him to a 20-win campaign that season.

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. Pictured here as a member of the Boston Braves, Hank Gowdy (1889–1966) who was a catcher and first baseman in the major leagues with the New York Giants and Braves., taken by an unknown.