14 October in Sports History

In this edition of the Sports Break, we cover the top events in sports history along with the players and athletes that were a part of them on October 14. As a bonus, we place the jersey number worn at the time with the athlete as well.

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 - 9 - 7 - 24 - 32 - 38 - 25 - 44 - 99 - 10 - 5 - 12 - 34 -16 - 22 - 18

October 14, 1862 - Early Baseball player James Creighton ruptured his bladder hitting a home run. The injury was so severe that the player passed away four days later on October 18.

October 14, 1905 -  World Series Game 5 action saw the New York Giants defeat the Philadelphia A's, 2-0 at the Polo Grounds to win first league sanctioned World Series, 4 games to 1. For pitcher Christy Mathewson it was his 3rd straight World Series game shutout

October 14, 1926 - Walter Johnson retired, signs 2-year contract to manage Newark

October 14, 1951 - Detroit Lions future Hall of Famer Number 24, Jack Christiansen returns 2 punts for touchdowns vs LA Rams

October 14, 1962 - Houston Oiler Number 16, George Blanda throws for 6 TD passes vs NY Titans 56-17

October 14, 1964 - Number 9, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle (Number 7) each hit home run on back-to-back pitches

October 14, 1965 -  World Series: LA Dodgers edge Minnesota Twins, 2-0 in Game 7 at Metropolitan Stadium. It was the Dodgers 3rd title since their move to LA. MVP: LA pitcher Sandy Koufax, Number 32

October 14, 1972 - Oakland catcher Number 38, Gene Tenace is first to homer in first 2 World Series at-bats as A's beat Reds, 3-2 in Game 1 at Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati

October 14, 1973 - 42 year old future Baseball Hall of Fame center fielder Number 25, Willie Mays' last MLB career hit, as NY Mets beat A's, 10-7 in World Series Game 2 in Oakland

October 14, 1976 - Chris Chambliss' (Number 10) 9th inning lead off homer gives  the NY Yankees the franchise 30th pennant 

October 14, 1978 - Despite Islanders Number 5, Denis Potvin's hat trick in 3:21 NY Islanders lose 7-10 making Islander record when scoring a hat trick-22-2-1

October 14, 1978 - NY outfielder Reggie Jackson, Number 44 caused a World Series controversy when he interfered with a throw to 1st base. During the event Jackson deflected the ball away during Yankees, 4-3 Game 4 win over LA Dodgers at Yankee Stadium

October 14, 1979 - NHL NY Rangers retire Rod Gilbert's uniform Number 7, which was the first number to be retired by the franchise

October 14, 1979 - The NHL's greatest scorer Number 99, Wayne Gretzky scored his 1st NHL goal as a member of the Edmonton Oilers

October 14, 1981 - Yankee Graig Nettles, Number 9 became the 1st player to get 2 hits in same inning of an ALSC game

October 14, 1985 - New York Jets retired Joe Namath's Number 12 on nationally televised Monday Night Football. His former squad the Jets beat the Miami Dolphins, 23-7

October 14, 1989 - Dave Stewart, Number 34 of the A's became the 1st since 1976 to start consecutive World Series openers

October 14, 1990 - San Francisco 49er Number 16, Joe Montana passed for 6 touchdowns vs Atlanta (45-35)

October 14, 1991 - NY Rangers right wing Mike Gartner, Number 22 becomes 1st NHL player to score his 500th goal, 500th assist, and 1000th point all in the same season

October 14, 2003 - Fan Steve Bartman deflects the ball away from Chicago Cubs outfielder Number 18, Moises Alou. Cubs gave up eight runs in the inning and lose to the Marlins 8-3, and the Bartman incident is seen as the turning point in the series

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 Jim Creighton Excelsior. This is a scaled-down scan from the book Baseball in America, Robert Smith, Holt Rinehart Winston, 1961, p.10. The letter on his shirt front is an Olde English "E" for Excelsior.