Historically Speaking: 4-23-09

The wife just informed me that it's Denim Day out there, so, if you're a woman, and you're up early gettin' your HoG read on, make sure you've got some jeans or a nice jean jacket picked out for today's outfit. (Editor's Note: Shows self-restraint for once; avoids snarky comment.) If you didn't know that, go haves a readsky. It's good learnin', which also takes place just after the jump.

* Today in 1950 the Minneapolis Lakers acquired themselves some National Basketball Association championship hardware by knocking off the Syracuse Nationals, four games to two.

* It was ol' Kenny Johnson of the Houston Colt 45s that became the first dad-gummed MLB pitcher to lose a nine-inning no-hitter today in 1964. The Reds o' Cincinnati done licked 'em 1-0.

* Speaking of the Reds, the impressive errorless streak of Cincy second-baseman Joe Morgan came to an end today in 1978. The streak had gone for nearly nine months, though the Reds hung on to win 2-1 over the Giants.

* The year was 1989 when a begoggled man by the name of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played his last regular-season NBA game. In just over 1500 games, Abdul-Jabbar tallied 35,387 points, 5660 assists, 17,440 rebounds, 3189 blocks, six championships, six MVP awards, a rookie-of-the-year award, and 19 all-star appearances. And those are just the numbers he generated when he went by Lew Alcindor (Editor's Note: Complete and total lie.). The legend attended UCLA, and was the first overall pick in the 1969 NBA draft, taken by the Milwaukee Bucks.

* And let's close with some National League baseball, shall we? Nineteen ninety-nine, Cards-Dodgers. Fernando Tatis, St. Louis third baseman, knocks two grand slams out of the park in the same inning, giving him the record of being the only guy to do that, as well as breaking an RsBI/inning record with eight. On the unlucky end of things was Chan Ho Park, who became only the second pitcher in history to surrender two bases-loaded blasts in the same frame. Park gave Bill Phillips of the 1890 Alleghenys a little company.

Your Sports Illustrated quote of the day? It was uttered by none other than...



...Philadelphia Phillies sportscaster Richie Ashburn, who said, circa 1977, of rookie first baseman Dane Iorg: "The kid doesn't chew tobacco, smoke, drink, curse or chase broads. I don't see how he can possibly make it."