the mad sports man

early this morning, Japan qualified for the world cup finishing first in their group with one game left in qualification.  they are the 4th team to qualify for the world cup. congrats.

Nik Lewis of the Montreal Alouettes is now the all time CFL reception leader, passing Geroy Simon on the list.  his 9th catch of the game gave him 1030.  he finished tonight's game with 10 catches.  Simon with 1029.  Winnipeg beat Montreal in overtime 34-31.

Rich Hill of the L.A. Dodgers carried a perfect game into the ninth inning.  first batter of the ninth - Jordy Mercer - grounded to third baseman Logan Forsythe, only to have Forsythe boot the ball (i saw the replay and to me it looked like the ball hit Forsythe's palm and bounced away). Hill managed to retired the next two batters with a no hitter still intact going into the 10th with the score at 0-0.  Dodgers get nothing in the top half.  Pirates come up.  first batter ends up the only one. Josh Harrison breaks up the no hitter with a game winning home run for the Pirates.  Hill became the first pitcher to lose a perfect game in the 9th by an error (Forsythe booting the ball).  he also became the first pitcher to lose a no hitter with a walk off home run.  (would have been the second, but that is another story). so that happened

today in 1951, in the bottom of the first inning between the St. Louis Browns and Detroit Tigers, 3'7" Eddie Gaedel makes his only plate appearance pinch hitting for Frank Saucier.  Bill Veeck had found him at booking agency and wanted to used him for a publicity stunt.  him and manager Zach Taylor had a copy of Gaedel's contract on hand.  the contract had been filed late on the 17th and it would not be looked at until the 20th (now a contract has to be approved by the Commisioners' office).  Gaedel was walked on 4 pitches - all high.  pitcher Bob Cain was almost laughing on the mound and Bob Swift was catching.  Gaedel was replaced by pinch runner Jim Delsing.

tonight was game 5 of the Western Major Baseball League championship series and the Swift Current 57's beat the Edmonton Prospects 4-0 to win the WMBL championship three games to two. was a good season.  i even went to a couple of Prospects games.  some good baseball played.  Swift Current are back to back champs.  congrats

Bob Gibson throws Three Rivers Stadium's first no hitter as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-0.  Gibson waled three and struck out 10.  Bob Johnson of the Pirates took the loss, lasting only 1/3rd of an inning giving up 5 runs, 4 hits and a walk.  Three Rivers Stadium opened July 16, 1970 with the Pirates losing to the Cincinnati Reds 3-2.  it was also the first no hitter thrown in Pittsburgh thrown in Pittsburgh in 64 years. Nick Maddox threw the last one in Pittsburgh with the Pirates beating the Brooklyn Superbas 2-1. (although Cliff Chambers threw a no hitter in 1951 against the Boston Braves in Boston)

1. in 1976, the Chicago White Sox play the first game of a double header against the Kansas City Royals wearing shorts with their jerseys.  they stole 5 bases with the shorts and won 5-2.  they play the second game in regular pants and lost 7-1.  that was the last of a 5 game series.  they had also played a double header two days prior. 2. in 1988 the Chicago Cubs attempted to play their first ever night game at Wrigley Field.  they had turned on the lights, but Mother Nature had other plans.  with the Cubs up 3-1 and the Philadelphia Phillies finished the top of the 4th, it started to rain as a thunderstorm rolled in.  it was first suspended, then called off.  as the game did not reach the 5th inning, it was not an official game.  the Cubs played their first official game the next night against the N.Y. Mets and won 6-4.

Justin Gatlin of the U.S. dethroning Bolt by winning the 100m final. Christian Coleman came second and Bolt finished 3rd.  holy guacamole folks.  this just happened.  Bolt will be in the 4x100m with his last chance.  we will see how that turns out.

in 1972 Nate Colbert hit 5 home runs and drove in 13 runs as the San Diego Padres swept the Atlanta Braves in both ends of a double header (9-0 and 11-7).  the 5 home runs tied a record for most home runs in a double header (Stan Musial in 1954) and broke an RBI  record (11).  Musial and Colbert are the only two players to have hit 5 homers in a double header.

hard to believe it's been 30 years since this:

tomorrow is the possible announcement that L.A. will pull out of the 2024 Olympics and solely run for 2028, leaving Paris to have 2024.  both can be "officially" announced September 13 in Lima, Peru.  although rare, this has happened before.  infact a century ago.  and it also involved Paris and Los Angeles.  Pierre de Coubertin came up with the plan in Lausanne at the 1921 IOC session.  the world was still reeling after the first world war and sport was struggling.  de Coubertin came up with the plan of having to decide back to back hosts and wanted both hosts in Europe to keep travel costs down.  there were two different votes.  first one was for the double allocation announcement, the second was to announce the games announcement.  Paris was awarded the 1924 games, and it was Amsterdam was announced the 1928 hosts over L.A.  L.A. was eventually chosen to host the 1932 games unopposed at a later session.  if this years double...

Adrian Beltre collected his 3000th hit with a double off of  Baltimore's Wade Miley, becoming the 31st player and first Dominican born player to reach it.  he is also the third primary third baseman to reach there (behind George Brett and Wade Boggs).

1.  in 1991, Dennis "El Presidente" Martinez threw the Montreal Expos only perfect game in a 2-0 win at Dodger stadium. Chris Gwynn (younger brother of Tony) flew out to Marquis Grissom for the final out, to which Expos play-by-play guy Dave Van Horne uttered "El Presidente, El Perfecto."  was the last Expos no hitter/perfect game before moving to Washington.  catcher Ron Hassey became the first catcher to catch two perfect games (he caught Len Barker's perfect game in 1981). 2.  three years later Kenny Rogers became the next pitcher to throw a perfect game in a 4-0 Texas win over the California Angels. he threw 98 pitches and had struck out 8.  Rusty Greer preserved the game with a great diving catch on Rex Hudler for the first out in the 9th.  Greer caught Gary DiSarcina's fly ball to end the game.  Rogers was the third lefty to record a perfect game (Sandy Koufax in 1965 and Tom Browning in 1988).

on this day in 1976, Hank Aaron hits his 755th and final home run in Milwaukee off of Dick Drago of the California Angels.  the Brewers won the game 6-2.  Jerry Augustine got the win, Danny Frisella picked up the save and Gary Ross took the loss.

in tonight's 24-19 loss to Ottawa, Montreal's Nik Lewis caught his 1000th pass in his illustrious career that started in 2004.  he joins Geroy Simon (1029), Ben Cahoon (1017) and Terry Vaughn (1006).  he finished tonight with 1003 catches.  and we are only into week 5 of the season.

the L.A. Dodgers are the 4th team to won multiple 10+ game winning streaks this century, joining the 2015 Toronto Blue Jays, the 2013 Atlanta Braves and 2001 St. Louis Cardinals.  crazy fact - neither of the previous three won a world series.  crazy eh.

at the 1976 summer games in Montreal, Nadia Comaneci scored the first ever perfect 10 score in gymnastics for her uneven bars routine. Omega believed that no one would ever get a perfect score in gymnastics, when they manufactured their scoreboards to go as high as 9.99.  when the score was posted, it came out as 1.00, the only way of judges could indicate that she had the 10, while confusing the spectators.  they then figured out that she scored the 10 and gave her an ovation.  she would receive six more 10's.  she left Montreal with 5 medals (3g 1s 1b).

the 1971 all star game at Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Reggie Jackson hit a home run for the ages.  in the bottom of the third, Jackson hit a Dock Ellis pitch that ended up hitting one of the light towers that was on the right field roof.  it was estimated to go 520 feet.  the A.L. won 6-4.  Jackson was one of six players that homered in the game.  Frank Robinson was MVP of that game.  it was the only AL all star win between 1962 and 1983.

1.  in 1979, the most ill fated promotions happened.  Disco Demolition night was in between games of a double header between the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox in Chicago.  Detroit had won the first game 4-1.  then came the promotion.  Steve Dahl headed the promotion, and the days leading to the promotion had invited radio listeners to bring their records they wanted destroyed to the ball park and they could get in for 98 cents (the radio station frequency of WLUP was 97.9).  the promotion ended up filling the ball park and an extra 15 to 20 thousand stuck out side Comiskey Park (some didn't stay out for long).  Harry Caray had even commented during the first game that there was "and odor of marijuana in the air."  first game ended, and soon afterwards Dahl, his broadcasting partner Garry Meier and Lorelei raced onto the field on an ATV with the box of records and a detonater.  after making a speech he detonated the box, blew up the rec...

in a 4-3 win over the N.Y. Mets, Nolan Ryan strikes out Danny Heep to record his 4000th strikeout in front of a home crowd in Houston.  Ryan eventually finishes his career with 5714 - the only pitcher to record more than 5000 K's