19 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 19. 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.

10 - 42 - 17 - 7 - 20 - 40 - 24 - 25 - 5 - 47 - 3 - 21 - 80 - 36

September 19, 1931 - Lefty Grove, Number 10 of the Philadelphia Athletics, won his 30th game of season over the Chicago White Sox, by the score of 2-1

September 19, 1947 - Number 42, Jackie Robinson is named 1947 "Rookie of Year"

September 19, 1955 - Chicago Cubs slugger Ernie Banks, Number 14 hit a record 5th grand slam of season

September 19, 1968 - Number 17, of the Detroit Tigers Denny McLain earned his 31st win of the season and Number 7, Mickey Mantle's 535th HR of his career from a McLain pitch as the Tigers whalloped the Yankees 6-2

September 19, 1973 - Frank Robinson, Number 20 of the California Angels, homered in a record 32nd major league ballpark - Arlington Stadium (Arlington, Texas), against the Rangers

September 19, 1986 - Chicago White Sox Joe Cowley, wearing Number 40 tossed a no-hitter against the California Angels, in a 7-1 ChiSox triumph

September 19, 1992 - Barry Bonds wearing the Number 24 of the Pittsburgh Pirates joined his Godfather Number 25 Willie Mays, Howard Johnson (Number 20) and Ron Gant (Number 5) as having (2) 30-HR/30-steal MLB seasons

September 19, 1993 - Tom Glavine, Number 47 wins 20 games in 3 straight years

September 19, 1993 - San Diego Chargers' kicker John Carney, Number 3 boots 6 field goals in an 18-17 win over Houston to set a new NFL record with 29 consecutive field goals made

September 19, 1995 - San Diego Padres Ken Caminiti, Number 21 switch hits HRs in a 3rd of 4 games

September 19, 2000 - Ken Griffey Jr., Number 24 pinch-hits his 400th home run becoming the first major league player to reach the mark as a pinch-hitter

September 19, 2004 - NFL Oakland Raider wide receiver Jerry Rice, Number 80 ends NFL streak of 274 consecutive games with a reception in a 13-10 victory over Buffalo Bills

September 19, 2008 - Greg Maddux, Number 36 of the LA Dodgers, pitched his 5,000th career inning against the San Francisco Giants

September 19, 2017 - New MLB record for most home runs in a season was establshed when 5,694 bomb of the season was sent into orbit off of the bat of Rookie Alex Gordon, Number 7 of the Kansas City Royals

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 Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove from Sports Exchange All-Stars trade cards.