18 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 18. 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.

21- 24 - 14 - 17 - 19 - 44 - 20 - 30 - 41 - 46 - 20 - 21

September 18, 1848 - The baseball rule whereby a 1st baseman can tag base for out instead of runner was approved

September 18, 1903 - Philadelphia Phillies' Chick Fraser no-hits Chicago Cubs, 10-0

September 18, 1930 - New York Yankee future Baseball HOF pitcher Red Ruffing Number 21 hit 2 home runs to beat St Louis Browns, 7-6 at Sportsman's Park, St. Louis

September 18, 1955 - Number 24, Willie Mays hits record tying 9th HR at Ebbets Field  and tied a Joe Adcock mark.

September 18, 1962 - Bob Aspromonte, Number 14 of the Houston Colt 45s set a NL 3rd baseman record of 57 consecutive errorless games

September 18, 1965 - Mickey Mantle Day at Yankee Stadium: Mantle, Number 7 played his 2,000th game

September 18, 1966 - Baltimore quarterback Johnny Unitas, Number 19 threw 4 touchdown passes in 38-23 win at Minnesota to surpass Y.A. Tittle as NFL's career leader with 212; finishes career with 290 TD passes

September 18, 1968 - Ray Washburn, Number 44 of the St Louis Cardinals, threw a no-hit gem against the San Francisco Giants for a 2-0 win

September 18, 1976 - Cleveland Indians player-manager Frank Robinson, Number 20 played in his last game as a player

September 18, 1984 - Tim Raines, Number 30 of the Montreal Expos, became the 1st player with 4 consecutive 70-stolen-base seasons

September 18, 1987 - Detroit first baseman Darrell Evans, Number 41 became the first 40 year old to hit 30 MLB HRs in a season. Evans smashed this 30th home run off Bill Wegman (Number 46) in 5th inning of Tigers' 7-6 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.

September 18, 1993 - In what is a true oddity of sports circumstance. Trailing 3-1 with 2 outs in 9th, time is called prior to Mike Stanley, Number 20 pop out, gets a 2nd chance, and gives way to a Yankee rally that helped defeat the Boston Red Sox 4-3.

September 18, 1996 - Roger Clemens, Number 21 of the Boston Red Sox tied his own major league record with 20 strikeouts in a contest against the Detroit Tigers.

19 Sep 1996, Thu Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut) Newspapers.com

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 a Major League Baseball dinner program and menu, Shamrock Hotel, cropped to show only Dean Chance, Bob Aspromonte, and Johnny Keane, per the University of Houston Digital Library.