TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
SATURDAY 1948 Joe Cronin pinch hit home runs in both ends of a doubleheader. 1960 Ted Williams hits his 500th home 1962 Brazil beats Czechoslovakia in soccer’s seventh World Cup at Santiago. 1978 Ron Guidry sets New York Yankees’ record with 18 strikeouts. 1994 The 1994 FIFA World Cup soccer competition begins in the United States. 2001 A.S. Roma wins the scudetto (Italian championship). 2008 The Boston Celtics win a record 17th NBA championship by defeating the Los Angeles Lakers 131-92 in Game 6. 2009 Ivan Rodriguez, back catcher for the Houston Astros, catches his 2,227th game, beating the old record in Major League Baseball. 2010 The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics 83-79 in the decisive seventh game of the NBA finals and secure back-to-back titles. SUNDAY 1915 Jerome Travers becomes the second amateur to win golf’s U.S. Open. 1947 Cincinnati Reds’ Ewell Blackwell no-hits Boston Braves, 6-0. 1953 Eugene Stephens gets three hits and Boston Red Sox score 17 runs in one inning (7th). 1967 Houston Astros’ Don Wilson nohits Atlanta Braves, 2-0. 1973 NCAA makes urine testing mandatory for participants. 1975 Fred Lynn gets 10 RBIs in a Boston Red Sox 15-1 victory over Detroit Tigers. 1976 NBA and ABA agree to merge. 1977 Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson get into a dugout altercation. 1979 Billy Martin returns to dugout to manage the New York Yankees for second time. 1986 San Francisco Giants’ Robby Thompson sets a major league record when he is thrown out four times trying to steal in the 12-inning 7-6 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. 1986 Don Sutton of the California Angels becomes 19th pitcher to win 300 games. 1989 Curtis Strange wins his second U.S. golf open. 1990 First sudden death U.S. Open Golf Championship is won by Hale Irwin. 1991 San Francisco Giants’ pitcher Dave Dravecky’s cancerous left arm is amputated. 1991 New York Yankees’ pitchers pick off three Toronto Blue Jays. 2000 The Oakland Athletics beat the Kansas City Royals 21-3; the 18-run difference is largest margin of victory for the Athletics and the largest margin of defeat for the Royals in the teams’ respective histories.