14 September 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 September 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.

11 - 4 - 24 - 27 - 17 - 19 - 56 - 16 - 8 - 41 - 25 - 9 - 31

September 14, 1913 - Chicago Cubs Larry Cheney tossed a record 14-hit shutout against Giants (7-0)

September 14, 1916 - Christy Mathewson pitched and won his final MLB game

September 14, 1923 - Red Sox 1st baseman George Burns pulls off an unassisted triple play

September 14, 1924 - Walter Johnson selected as the American League MVP

September 14, 1930 - Detroit Lions (as Portsmouth Spartans) play 1st NFL game, win 13-6

September 14, 1936 - Pittsburgh Pirates' future Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Paul Waner (Number 11) tied Rogers Hornsby's (Number 4 that season) National League record of 200 hits for 7th season in a career.

September 14, 1954 - New York Giants' Number 24, Willie Mays reached his 82nd extra-base hit for the season, breaking famous Number 4 Mel Ott's record

September 14, 1955 - Herb Score, Number 27 set a rookie record of 235 strikeouts and added 10 more as the season wound down for a total of 245

September 14, 1968 - Detroit Tigers' Denny McLain, Number 17 knotted his 30th victory of season

September 14, 1975 - Milwaulkee Brewer Robin Yount, Number 19 broke another one of Mel Ott's record, playing in 242 MLB games as a teen

September 14, 1978 - Atlanta Braves' pitcher Jim Bouton, Number 56 was 38 year old, beats Giants for his 1st win since 1970

September 14, 1986 - Kansas City's Number 16, Bo Jackson blasted his first career home run which traveled  475-feet and longer than any other at Royal Stadium.

September 14, 1987 - Orioles' Number 8 Cal Ripken Jr's streak of 8,243 consecutive innings (908 games) is broken

September 14, 1989 - Jeff Reardon, Number 41 was the first to record 30 saves in 5 consecutive seasons

September 14, 1996 - Oakland As' Mark McGwire, Number 25 became just the 13th player to hit 50-HRs in a season

September 14, 1996 - New York Mets Todd Hundley, Number 9 established a record of 41 HRs by a catcher

September 14, 2003 - Baltimore running back Jamal Lewis, Number 31 set the NFL single-game rushing record when he runs for 295 yards and 2 touchdowns on 30 carries in the Ravens 33-13 victory over Cleveland, which ironically later would be another team he played for

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 Larry Cheney, Brooklyn NL (baseball) circa 1916 from its publisher, the Bain News Service.