THIS WEEKEND IN SPORTS HISTORY
Saturday 1903 - Philadelphia Phillies suffer record 9th straight postponed game. 1909 - First race at the Indianapolis 500 Motor Speedway in Indiana. 1917 - Sunday benefit baseball game at the Polo Grounds results in John McGraw and Christy Mathewson’s arrest for violating Blue laws. 1951 - Bill Veeck, owner of the St. Louis Browns sends Eddie Gaedel, a midget, to pinch-hit. 1957 - New York Giants vote to move their franchise to San Francisco in 1958. 1962 - Homer Blancos plays the finest round in golf, shooting a 55. 1965 - Cincinnati Reds’ Jim Maloney’s second no-hitter of year; beats Chicago Cubs, 1-0. 1982 - Renaldo Nehemiah of the U.S. sets record for 110 m hurdles, 12.93 seconds. 1983 - LSU football player Billy Cannon sentenced to five years for counterfeiting. 1984 - Lee Trevino wins the PGA Championship. 1988 - New York Rangers sign ex-Montreal Canadiens’ great Guy Lafleur. Sunday 1920 - Allen Woodring wins Oympic 200m dash wearing borrowed shoes. 1920 - Preliminary meeting in Akron to form American Pro Football Association. 1945 - Brooklyn Dodgers’ Tommy Brown becomes youngest player to hit a home run at age 17. 1949 - 78,382 watch the Chicago White Sox play the Cleveland Indians at Cleveland, Ohio. 1958 - Dale Long becomes first major league lefty catcher in 52 years. 1961 - Philadelphia Phillies set dubious record of 23 straight losses. 1974 - Nolan Ryan pitch measured at record 161.6 kph (100.4 mph). 1980 - New York Yankees’ Bob Watson hits Seattle Kingdome speaker, second straight day. 1985 – New York Mets Dwight Gooden becomes the first National League pitcher to strike out 200+ in first two seasons. 1990 - George Steinbrenner steps down as New York Yankees owner. 2008 - Jamaica’s Usain Bolt wins the 200m sprint at the Beijing Olympic Games in world record time of 19.30 seconds. 2009 - At the Athletics World Championships in Berlin, Germany, Usain Bolt of Jamaica sets a new world record in the 200m dash with a time of 19.19 seconds.