8 October in Sports History

We cover the greatest moments in sports history on a daily basis recognizing the athletes that performed them and the uniform numbers they wore for the date of October 8 in history.

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.

18 - 41 - 51 - 16 - 30 -19 - 5 - 6 - 13 - 11 - 9

October 8, 1929 - Philadelphia A's Howard Ehmke  set a World Series record when he struck out 13 Chicago Cubs in the opening game of the series. The Athletics won the game 3-1, eventually taking the series in 5 games

October 8, 1956 - Yankees pitcher Don Larsen, Number 18 threw a perfect game as New York defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers, 2-0 in Game 5 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium

October 8, 1958 - Braves Eddie Mathews, Number 41 who was eventually placed in the Hall of Fame as he was a 12-time All-Star and mulptiple MVP winner uncharacteristically struck out for a World Series record 11th time

October 8, 1959 -  We had a World Series clincher as the LA Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox, 9-3 at Comiskey Park to claim  the championship, 4 games to 2. The series MVP was given to Dodgers pitcher Larry Sherry, Number 51

October 8, 1961 - New York Yankee pitcher Number 16, Whitey Ford breaks Babe Ruth's record of 29-2/3 consecutive scoreless innings in the World Series. FOrd did not stop there either as he went on to extend the streak to 33-2/3 innings, which stood until the 2000 season.

October 8, 1972 - Detroit Tiger pitcher Number 30, Lerrin LaGrow and Oakland A's shortstop Number 19, Bert Campaneris, were each fined and suspended from baseball when Campaneris flung his bat at the mound after getting hit by a pitch LaGrow threw.

October 8, 1978 - American Mario Andretti in the Number 5 Lotus finishes 10th in the season ending Canadian Grand Prix at Île Notre-Dame Circuit, but wins his first Formula 1 World Drivers Championship by 13 points from Number 6 Lotus driver, Ronnie Peterson

October 8, 1995 - Miami Dolphin's Number 13, Dan Marino breaks Tarkenton's NFL career completions record

October 8, 1995 - Edgar Martinez, wearing the Number 11 jersey he made famous, drove home the tying and winning runs to rally the Seattle Mariners to 6-5 win in bottom of 11th to beat the Yankees to win AL Division Series

October 8, 2018 - New Orleans quarterback Number 9, Drew Brees needed 201 yards to pass Number 18 of the Colts and Broncos, Peyton Manning's NFL all-time leader in passing yards record. Brees gets 363  along with 3 TD tosses in the Saints 43-19 win over the Washington Redskins at the SuperDome.

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 Howard Ehmke, of Boston AL & Bob Shawkey, of New York AL published in 1924 by the Bain News Service.