This day in sports: Yankees’ Derek Jeter collects 3,000th career hit with home run
Derek Jeter, the shortstop and captain of the New York Yankees, collects his 3,000th hit on this date in 2011 when hits a 400-foot home run into the left-field bleachers at Yankee Stadium.
Jeter’s milestone comes in the third inning with the count 3-and-2 on a curveball thrown by David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays. Jeter is the first Yankee to join 27 players in the exclusive hit club.
His single in the eighth inning caps a five-for-five day at the plate and drives home the go-ahead run in New York’s 5-4 win.
Jeter, who hadn’t hit a home run in more than a year, said, ”If you wrote this as a script, even I wouldn’t have bought it.”
A look at some of the biggest moments in sports history to have occurred on May 8.
Other memorable games and outstanding sports performances on this date:
1922 — Johnny Weissmuller is the first to swim the 100-meter freestyle in under one minute when he breaks Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku’s world record with a time of 58.6 seconds. Weissmuller would meet Kahanamoku two years later at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris and beat him in the 100 for the gold medal.
1940 — Under a broiling midsummer sun in St. Louis, five National League pitchers combine for the first shutout in an All-Star game when the NL beats the American League 4-0 at Sportsman’s Park. Max West of the Boston Bees hits a three-run home run off Red Ruffing of the New York Yankees in the first inning that gives the NL hurlers more than enough run support.
1966 — Jack Nicklaus wins the British Open for the first time with a two-under-par total of 282 at Muirfield Golf Links in Gullane East Lothian, Scotland, to join Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Gary Player as the only players to win all four of golf’s major championships. Nicklaus beats Doug Sanders and Dave Thomas by a stroke when he shoots a final round 70 at Muirfield, which he calls “the best golf course in Britain.” It is the sixth of his all-time leading 18 major titles.
1967 — Mark Spitz and Catie Ball, both 17, swim to world records, and 14-year-old Debbie Meyer sets two marks in one day at the Santa Clara International Invitational meet. Spitz sets a 100-meter butterfly record in 56.3 seconds and Ball is the first U.S. swimmer to register a world record in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:40.5. Meyer breaks the 800-meter freestyle mark with a 9:35.08 effort and follows with a 18:11.1 best in the 1,500 meters.
1991 — South Africa is readmitted by the International Olympic Committee to the Olympic movement, ending 21 years of sports isolation after being expelled for its racist apartheid policy. The IOC’s decision clears the way for the country’s participation in the 1992 Winter Olympics at Albertville, France, and the 1992 Summer Games at Barcelona.
2000 — Pete Sampras passes Roy Emerson for the most tennis Grand Slam championships and also ties Willie Renshaw, a player in the 1880s, for the most Wimbledon titles when he wins in four sets over Pat Rafter, 6-7 (10), 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-2. Sampras, the winner of seven Wimbledon Silver Cups, 13 Grand Slam championships and 28 straight matches at Wimbledon, extends his eight-year record at the All-England Club to 53-1.
2006 — Italy beats France for its fourth World Cup in a penalty-kick shootout 5-3 after overtime ends in a 1-1 tie. Outplayed for most of the game, the Italians are victorious after French captain and midfielder Zinedine Zidane is ejected in the 107th minute for a vicious head butt to the chest of Marco Materazzi. Earlier, Zidane puts the French ahead 1-0 on a penalty kick in seventh minute, but Materazzi ties the match with a goal 12 minutes later.
A look at some of the biggest moments in sports history that occurred on April 12.
2009 — Just two months after returning from a long layoff and suspension related to marijuana use, Michael Phelps breaks the world record in the 100-meter butterfly at the U.S. national championships in Indianapolis, where he swims the two-lap final in 50.22 seconds. Phelps lowers the mark of 50.40 set by Ian Crocker at the 2005 world championships in Montreal. Tyler McGill is second in 51.06 and Aaron Peirsol is third in 51.30.
2013 — Chris Wondolowski scores three goals in the first half and the U.S. men’s soccer team goes on to a 6-1 victory over Belize in the opening round of the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament at Jeld Wen Field in Portland, Ore. Landon Donovan adds a goal and two assists to become the first player with at least 50 career goals and 50 assists in U.S. team history.
Sources: The Times, The Associated Press
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