ON THIS DATE
1939: The New York Yankees tied a major league record by scoring in every inning against the St. Louis Browns.
1956: Dorothy Hamill, America’s first ice-skating sweetheart, is born in Chicago.
1962: Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves sets the National League record for home runs by a pitcher with his 31st. (The major league record is 37 by Wes Ferrell. Madison Bumgarner has 19 and a five-year contract, but this season — 60 games and a DH in the NL — is a killer.)
1970: Johnny Bench homers in three consecutive at-bats against Steve Carlton. That’s Hall of Fame stuff.
1975: Joe Smith, whose NBA career was as extraordinary as his name, is born in Norfolk, Va.
1981: With a third-place finish at the U.S. Open, Kathy Whitworth becomes the first LPGA player to reach $1 million in career winnings. (Oh, Pat Bradley shoots a record 279 to win the tournament.)
1991: Mark Gardner of the Montreal Expos no-hits the Dodgers for nine innings — the first time in 53 years they’d been no-hit at home — but the Dodgers get three hits in the 10th to win 1-0. (Two days later, at Dodger Stadium, the Expos’ Dennis Martinez pitches a perfect game.)
1996: Amy Van Dyken wins the 50-meter freestyle in Atlanta to become the first U.S. woman swimmer to win four gold medals in one Olympics.
1998: Three spectators are killed — the first fan deaths at a major race in the U.S. in more than a decade — and six are injured by flying debris from a one-car crash at the U.S. 500 at Michigan Speedway.
1998: Trevor Hoffman’s bid for a major-league record 42nd consecutive save goes bye-bye with the ball Moises Alou hits on the first pitch of the ninth inning of a 4-3 game.
2005: Greg Maddux of the Chicago Cubs becomes the 12th pitcher with 3,000 strikeouts; Omar Vizquel of the Giants caught looking.
2010: Matt Garza pitches the first nohitter in the history of the Tampa Bay Rays franchise (est. 1998).
2015: At the world championships in Russia, Christina Jones and Bill May of the U.S. win the first gold medal in new mixed duet technical synchronized swimming.
2015: Zack Greinke’s shutout streak ends at 45 2/3 innings, the longest since Orel Hershiser set the record with 59 for the Dodgers in 1988.