TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1839 — First baseball game played in America.

1880 — First baseball perfect game: John Richmond of Worcester Ruby Legs beats Cleveland Blues.

1907 — New York Yankees commit 11 errors and lose 14-6 to the Detroit Tigers.

1922 — St. Louis Browns get record 10 hits in a row and beat Philadelphia Phillies 14-8.

1939 — Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown, New York. 1947 — Babe Didrikson is first American to win British Women’s Amateur Golf Championship. 1948 — Eddie Arcaro becomes first jockey to win the Triple Crown twice aboard Citation.

1981 — Major League Baseball goes on strike, forcing the cancellation of 38 per cent of the schedule. 1989 — Ben Johnson, Canadian Olympian, admits using steroids. 1990 — New York Yankees’ reliever Dave Righetti becomes 9th to record 200 saves.

1990 — Oakland Athletics’ Rickey Henderson becomes second player to steal 900 bases. 1991 — The Chicago Bulls win their first NBA championship by defeating the Los Angeles Lakers in the best-of-7 series in 5 games. 2002 — The Los Angeles Lakers defeat the New Jersey Nets in four games to win the NBA finals. 2009 — The Pittsburgh Penguins win the NHL’s Stanley Cup for the third time in franchise history, defeating the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1, in Game 7.

2014 — The 2014 FIFA World Cup opens in Brazil, and is won by Germany.

Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby takes the Stanley Cup after defeating the Red Wings, 2-1, to win Game 7 of the final series in Detroit, Pittsburgh’s third title and the first of Crosby’s three, nine years ago today.