On This date
1932: Lou Gehrig becomes the first major league player to hit four consecutive home runs in a game, giving the New York Yankees a 20-13 win over the Philadelphia A’s. Gehrig’s feat, however, is overshadowed by the resignation of John Mcgraw, manager of the New York Giants for 30 years.
1944: Bounding Home, ridden by G.L. Smith, wins the Belmont Stakes by one-half length over Pensive, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.
1961: Sherluck, ridden by Braulio Baeza, wins the Belmont Stakes. Carry Back, the winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, finishes seventh.
1984: Patty Sheehan wins the LPGA championship by a record 10 strokes over Beth Daniel and Pat Bradley. 1991: Thomas Hearns becomes a world champion for the sixth time, capturing the World Boxing Association’s lightheavyweight title with a 12-round unanimous decision over Virgil Hill.
1992: Chicago’s Michael Jordan scores a record 35 points, including a record six 3-pointers, in the first half as the Bulls beat Portland 122-89 in the opening game of the NBA Finals. Jordan finishes with 39 points and Chicago is only two points shy of the largest victory margin in the finals.
1995: Pedro Martinez of Montreal pitches nine perfect innings against San Diego before giving up a leadoff double to Bip Roberts in the 10th inning of the Expos’ 1-0 win.
1999: Four days after her first LPGA Tour victory, Kelli Kuehne ties the Women’s U.S. Open record with an 8-under 64 in the first round to take a one-stroke lead over Juli Inkster.
2001: Karrie Webb wins the U.S. Women’s Open in a runaway for the second year in a row. Webb shoots a 1-under 69 for an eight-stroke victory, the largest margin at a Women’s Open in 21 years.
2004: Calgary ties an NHL record with its 10th road win of the playoffs with a 3-2 overtime victory over Tampa Bay in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals. The New Jersey Devils also won 10 road playoff games during their championship seasons of 1995 and 2000.
2006: Jeff Burton has the biggest come-from-behind win ever in a Busch race, overcoming a 36th-place starting position in the Dover 200 for his second victory of the season.
2006: Russia’s Nikolai Valuev retains his WBA heavyweight title in Hanover, Germany, stopping Jamaican challenger Owen Beck with a right uppercut in the third round. 2011: Roger Federer ends Novak Djokovic’s perfect season and 43-match winning streak, beating him 7-6 (5), 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5) in the French Open semifinals.
2014: Kirsti Merritt hits a 3-run homer and Florida defeats Alabama 6-3 to win its first NCAA softball championship.
2015: Novak Djokovic ends Rafael Nadal’s 39-match French Open winning streak, beating the nine-time champion in a surprisingly lopsided quarterfinal 7-5, 6-3, 6-1. It’s only the second defeat for Nadal in 72 career matches at Roland Garros. The other came in the fourth round in 2009 against Robin Soderling.
2015: Florida wins its second straight national softball championship behind Lauren Haeger’s complete game in a 4-1 victory over Michigan. Florida is the third program to repeat as Women’s College World Series champion, and the first since Arizona in 2006-07.