This day in sports: Shawn Green has four-homer game for Dodgers
The Dodgers’ Shawn Green, who had struggled to hit the ball out of the infield, enjoyed one of the most prolific games in baseball history on this date in 2002 when he hit four home runs and set a major-league record of 19 total bases in a 16-3 rout of the Brewers in Milwaukee.
Green capped a six-hit, six-run, seven-RBI day with a 450-foot drive off reliever Jose Cabrera in the ninth inning that made him the 14th player to hit four homers in a game.
“That was awesome — it was like slow-motion when that last ball went out,” Dodger third base coach Glenn Hoffman said. “It gave me goose bumps. It gave me chills.”
Green, who had been batting just .238, joined Gil Hodges as the only Dodgers to hit four homers in a game.
By playing ball this season, California could save $45 million in “jock tax” revenue.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Dodgers were scheduled to play the Cleveland Indians on Saturday in the second of three games at Dodger Stadium on what would have been “Legends of Dodger Baseball” bobblehead night. The Angels and the Athletics had a date to play the second of three games at Oakland.
In Major League Soccer, the Galaxy and Real Salt Lake would have met at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah.
Here is a look at other memorable games and outstanding sports performances on this date:
1922 — Harry Greb, nicknamed “The Pittsburgh Windmill,” beats his idol Gene Tunney at Madison Square Garden to win the American light-heavyweight title. Greb is awarded a unanimous decision after 15 brutal rounds in which he fractures Tunney’s nose in the first round and opens a deep gash over his left eye. It’s the only loss in Tunney’s professional career, as he retired at 65-1-1 six years later.
1935 — The first major league night baseball game, scheduled in Cincinnati at Crosley Field, is postponed because of rain. The next evening, the Reds play the Philadelphia Phillies before a crowd of 20,422 and win 2-1 in a complete game pitched by Paul Derringer.
1936 — Rushaway, ridden by Johnny Longden, wins his second stakes race in as many days when he takes the 1¼-mile Latonia Derby by six lengths at Latonia Race Track in Covington, Ky. The gelding had won the 1 1/8-mile Illinois Derby, held 300 miles away at Aurora, the day before.
1953 — Native Dancer, with Eric Guerin in the saddle, avenges his loss by a head to Dark Star in the Kentucky Derby when he edges Jamie K. by a neck in the Preakness Stakes. Nicknamed the “Gray Ghost,” Native Dancer would go on to win the Belmont Stakes and the Travers Stakes.
Eric Stevens was relentless as a Cal football player. He battles ALS with the same approach.
1976 — Boston Celtics center Dave Cowens dominates Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Phoenix Suns with a 25-point, 21-rebound performance in a 98-87 victory. Jo Jo White scores 22 for Boston and Alvan Adams has 26 for the Suns, who shoot just 38%.
1991 — Paul Dougherty, a former English League player and at 5 feet 2 inches one of the shortest in the sport, scores two goals and adds two assists to help the San Diego Sockers win their fourth straight Major Indoor Soccer League championship 8-6 over the Cleveland Crunch.
1997 — In the first all-freshman singles final in NCAA tennis history, Stanford’s Lilia Osterloh beats Florida’s M.C. White 6-1, 6-1 to win the women’s singles championship. The eighth-seeded Osterloh takes just 50 minutes to beat the unseeded White, breaking her serve six times. Osterloh is just the third freshman to win a singles title.
2002 — Sam Snead, whose picture-perfect golf swing carried him to a record 82 PGA Tour victories including three Masters, and earned him the reputation as one of the most gifted athletes to play the game, dies at his home in Hot Springs, Va., at the age of 89. Snead is one of the first golfers to draw overflowing galleries with unerringly precise drives that gained him the nickname “Slammin’ Sammy.”
2005 — Anastasia Myskina of Russia is the first French Open defending champion to be eliminated in the first round when she is beaten by Spain’s Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 at Roland Garros in Paris. Myskina plays listlessly in the final set, winning just 14 points while committing 19 unforced errors.
2009 — Alabama sophomore Kelsi Dunne is the first player to pitch back-to-back no-hitters in NCAA softball postseason play. Dunne holds Jacksonville State hitless for the second consecutive day in a 9-0 win played in steady rain at the Tuscaloosa Super Regional. The two no-hitters tie an NCAA postseason record and help send the Crimson Tide to the Women’s College World Series for the sixth time.
2017 — In their spring league meeting in Chicago, the NFL owners vote to cut the overtime period from 15 minutes to 10 during preseason and regular-season games. They also agree to give players plenty of leeway to celebrate after a touchdown.
Sources: The Times, Associated Press
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