ON THIS DATE
1910: Joe Tinker of the Chicago Cubs becomes the first major leaguer to steal home twice in the same game. (And he does it without help from Evers or Chance.)
1919: Carl Mays of Boston pitches two complete games against the New York Yankees. (Pitch count kept him from working the third game.)
1960: John Elway, born in Port Angeles, Wash., is 60 today. (What?!!)
1970: In the final game at Forbes Fields in Pittsburgh, the Pirates beat the Cubs 4-1 to sweep a doubleheader.
1971: Muhammad Ali wins a fouryear legal battle to overturn his 1967 conviction for draft evasion in an 8-0 vote by the U.S. Supreme Court.
1986: Phil Niekro of the Cleveland Indians and Don Sutton of the California
Angels become the first 300-game winners to start against each other in this century. (Neither got the win that day.)
1994: Giants third baseman Matt Williams tied Willie Stargell’s 1971 NL record for home runs before July with his 28th. (He was on pace to beat Roger Maris’ record, cleanly, when the strike wiped out everything including the World Series.)
1997: Evander Holyfield, bleeding badly from his right ear after being bitten by Mike Tyson, retains the WBA heavyweight championship in Las Vegas when Tyson is disqualified after the third round.
2007: Frank Thomas becomes the 21st player with 500 home runs on the same day Craig Biggio becomes the 27th player with 3,000 hits.
2008: Golf legend Greg Norman (53) weds former tennis star Chris Evert (53) in Paradise Island, Bahamas. (They barely made it a year before divorce did they part.)
2009: Mariano Rivera becomes the second pitcher with 500 saves, joining Lee Smith.
2012: Kentucky becomes the first school — er, college basketball program — to produce the first two picks in the NBA draft as freshmen one-and-doners Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-gilchrist go 1-2.
2016: Pat Summitt, the winningest coach in women’s basketball history — Tara Vanderver and Geno Auriemma will pass her next season — dies of Alzheimer’s disease at 61.
2016: Buddy Ryan — Hall of Famer, or not? — dies at 85