TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1919 — Boston Red Sox star Babe Ruth sets the regular-season homer mark at age 28 off of New York Yankees’ Bob Shawkey. 1922 — Roger Hornsby sets the National League baseball home-run mark at 42.
1927 — New York Yankees set a record of 106
Major League Baseball victories. 1930 — Portsmouth beats Brooklyn in the first NFL game played under the floodlights.
1934 — 2,500 fans see Babe Ruth’s farewell New York Yankees’ appearance at Yankee Stadium. 1938 — Don Budge becomes first tennis player to win a grand slam. 1940 — Jimmy Foxx hits his 500th career home run.
1957 — Brooklyn Dodgers play their last game at Ebbets Field, defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-0. 1968 — New York Mets manager Gil Hodges suffers a heart attack. 1972 — Oakland Raiders’
Jack Tatum returns a fumble 104 yards against the Green Bay Packers (a record).
1972 — New York Jets’ Joe Namath passes for six touchdowns versus the Baltimore Colts (44-34).
1974 — Al Kaline gets his 3,000th career hit.
1977 — Ken Hinton of the CFL’s British Columbia Lions returns a punt 130 yards.
1978 — Ron Guidry beats the Cleveland Indians 4-0, raising his record to 23-3, with a 1.74 ERA. 1985 — Montreal Expos’ Andre Dawson is ninth to get six RBIs in an inning (fifth).
1988 — Canada’s Ben Johnson runs (drug-assisted) 100 metres in 9.79 seconds at the Seoul Games. 1988 — Jackie Joyner-Kersee of the U.S. sets the heptathlon women’s record (7,291 points). 1993 — The International Olympic Committee selects Sydney, Australia, to be the site of the 2000 Summer Olympics. 2005 — Australian Rules Football team the Sydney Swans win the 2005 Grand Final, to become the AFL Premiers, defeating the West Coast Eagles at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to end a 72-year Premiership drought. 2006 — Europe wins the Ryder Cup in Ireland.