TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

Saturday

1793 — Tennis is first mentioned in an English sporting magazine.

1920 — Babe Ruth sets home run season record at 54.

1927 — Babe Ruth ties Major League Baseball record by hitting grand slams in consecutive games.

1930 — First Canadian football game played under lights, Hamilton-UBC.

1941 — Heavyweight Champ Joe Louis knocks out Lou Nova in 6 rounds.

1951 — First colour telecast of football game on network, Philadelphia (CBS).

1953 — American League approves Baltimore group purchase of St. Louis Browns for US$2,475,000.

1954 — Willie Mays makes his famous over-the-shoulder catch of Vic Wertz’ 460-foot drive.

1963 — St. Louis Cardinals’ Stan Musial’s final game, gets his 3,630th hit.

1973 — Insurance industry announces auto racers get into more highway accidents.

1977 — Muhammad Ali wins a unanimous, 15-round decision over Earnie Shavers.

1991 — USA beats Europeans 14.5 to 13.5 to capture the Ryder’s cup.

2004 — Major League Baseball announces the Montreal Expos will move to Washington D.C. in time for the 2005 season. Sunday

1659 — Peter Stuyvesant of New Netherlands forbids tennis playing during religious services.

1887 — Sailing ship Volunteer

(USA) beats Thistle (Scotland) in 8th America’s Cup.

1916 — New York Giants lose to Braves 8-3, ends 26 consecutive win streak.

1922 — New York Yankees clinch pennant No. 2.

1927 — Babe Ruth hits recordsetting 60th home run in a single Major League Baseball season (off Tom Zachary).

1939 — First televised college football game (Fordham versus Waynesburg at New York City).

1945 — Hank Greenberg’s final day home run wins the pennant for the Detroit Tigers.

1947 — New York Yankees beat Brooklyn Dodgers 5-3 in front of largest World Series crowd: 73,365; also first World Series game televised.

1956 — Philadelphia Phillies’ player Robin Roberts gives up a Major League Baseball record 46th home run.

1971 — Last Washington Senators’ home game, New York Yankees win career 5th forfeit; New York Yankees trailing 4-2 in the 9th with two outs, fans rush the field.

1978 — Major Indoor Soccer League grants first six franchises to Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

1981 — Seoul, South Korea is selected to host 1988 Summer Olympics.

1984 — Bowie Kuhn ends career as Baseball Commissioner.

1988 — Los Angeles Dodgers’ Orel Herschiser breaks former Dodger Don Drysdale mark by pitching 59 consecutive scoreless innings.

Running at top speed with his back to the plate, New York Giant centrefielder Willie Mays gets under a 450-foot blast off the bat of Cleveland first baseman Vic Wertz to pull the ball down in front of the bleachers wall in the eighth inning of the World Series opener at the Polo Grounds in New York in what may be the most famous catch in baseball history, 64 years ago today.