22 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 22. 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.

48 - 4 - 12 - 25 - 1 - 28 - 8 - 34

 September 22, 1911 - Boston Rustlers' future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young beats Pittsburgh Pirates, 1-0 at Forbes Field for his final career victory, number 511

September 22, 1912 - Philadelphia second baseman Eddie Collins becomes only player in MLB history to steal 6 bases in one game for a second time as A's beat St. Louis Browns, 8-2

September 22, 1925 - New York left fielder Ben Paschal hits 2 inside-the-park-home runs as the Yankees score an 11-6 home victory over Chicago White Sox

September 22, 1927 - New York Yankee Earle Combs hits 3 triples

September 22, 1954 - Brooklyn Dodger pitcher Karl Spooner, Number 48 struck out 15 New York Giants in his first MLB game

September 22, 1957 - Number 4, Duke Snider's 39th and 40th home runs of the season were last hit out of the legendary Ebbets Field. The longtime home of the Brooklyn Dodgers became irrelevant when the Dodgers moved at the end of the season to Los Angeles. In a post script, Ebbets Field was demolished in 1960 and replaced by the Ebbets Field Apartments, later renamed the Jackie Robinson Apartments.

September 22, 1961 - Baltimore Orioles Jim Gentile, Number 4 tied a record of 5 grand slams in a single season

September 22, 1968 - Minnesota Twins utility César Tovar, Number 12 pitched a hitless inning and played all 9 positions in a 2-1 win over Oakland A's at Metropolitan Stadium

September 22, 1969 - San Francisco Giant, Number 25 Willie Mays, became just the second player in MLB history to hit 600 home runs

September 22, 1973 - Baltimore Oriole Al Bumbry, Number 1 hits 3 triples vs Milwaukee Brewers

September 22, 1977 - Minnesota Twin Bert Blyleven, Number 28 no-hits California Angels, 9-0

September 22, 1990 - Andre Dawson, Number 8 stole his 300th base and became the only player other than Willie Mays to have 300 HRs, 300 steals and 2,000 hits in his career.

September 22, 1993 - Number 34, Nolan Ryan, at age 46, pitched his final MLB game

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 Ben Paschal, New York Yankees published by the Bain News Service.