30 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 30. 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.

26 - 5 - 4 - 18 - 53 - 21 - 32 - 35 - 31 - 2 -21

September 30, 1904 - Chicago White Sox lefty pitcher Doc White, pitches his 5th shutout in 18 days

September 30, 1927 - Yankees slugger Babe Ruth crusshed his MLB record 60th home run off Tom Zachary in 8th inning of New York's 4-2 win over Washington Senators at Yankee Stadium

September 30, 1939 - Chicago pitcher Clint Brown, Number 26  sets MLB record with his 61st relief appearance as White Sox beat St. Louis Browns, 7-5

September 30, 1945 - Detroit's future Baseball Hall of Fame first baseman Number 5, Hank Greenberg hit an AL pennant-winning grand slam on the final day of the season as the Tigers beat St. Louis Browns, 6-3

September 30, 1949 - A late season batting terror! Pittsburgh Pirates Ralph Kiner, Number 4  hits his 54th HR & NL record 16th in September

September 30, 1956 - White Sox Number 18, Jim Derrington, 16, is youngest to start a game (he loses)

September 30, 1965 - LA Dodger Number 53, Don Drysdale (23-12) wins 13th straight game, 7 by shutouts

September 30, 1972 - Pittsburgh right fielder Number 21, Roberto Clemente doubled off Mets' pitcher Number 32, Jon Matlack to become the 11th MLB player to record 3000 hits as Pirates beat NY, 5-0

September 30, 1980 - Oakland outfielder Number 35, Rickey Henderson sets AL stolen base record with his 97th in A's 5-1 win over Chicago White Sox; breaks Ty Cobb's mark of 96 set in 1915

September 30, 1984 - California Angel Number 39, Mike Witt, pitched a perfect game over Texas Rangers, 1-0. He was the 11th Angel to do so.

September 30, 1992 - KC Royal Number 5, George Brett gets 4 hits and became the 18th to get 3,000 hits

September 30, 1997 - New York Yankees Tim Raines (Number 31), Derek Jeter (Number 2) and Paul O'Neill (Number 21) were the first trio to hit 3 consecutive homers in post season.  It was in a game where the Yankees beat Cleveland Indians 8-6.

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 Guy Harris "Doc" White, pitcher for the Chicago American League, throwing ball from the George Grantham Bain Collection