Historically Speaking: Insert Bangles Lyrics Here

Monday sucks. Real original, right? Baseball and boxing (and Bangles!) after the jump.

* Couple Chicago-involved baseball bits to kick things off: The Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds played a nine-inning game today in 1916 using only one baseball; and Detroit Tiger Jim Northrup hit his third grand slam in a week today in 1968. This third bases-loaded jack gave the Tigers the win over the White Sox, 5-2.

* Today in 1933, Primo Carnera knocked out Jack Sharkey in the sixth round for the heavyweight title. The fight, which took place in Long Island, was Sharkey's first title defense attempt, having won the belt from Max Schmeling one year prior.

* Two mid-80s baseball treats: Pete Rose played in his 3,309th baseball game today as a Montreal Expo, passing Carl Yastremski as the all-time leader. Though he went 0-5 at the plate, Rose's Expos defeated the Reds, 7-3. Two years later, Detroit skipper Sparky Anderson saw his Tigers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 9-5 in game one of a double-header. The victory made Anderson the first manager in Major League Baseball history to win 600 games in both leagues.

* George Foreman was stripped of his International Boxing Federation title today in 1995 when he refused to give Axel Schulz a rematch. Having won both the IBF and the World Boxing Association titles in November 1994, Foreman's spring of '95 looked like this: stripped of WBA belt in March for refusing to give number-one contender Tony Tucker a fight; defeated Schulz via split decision in April; then surrendered his second title in three months time.

* Eleven years ago today, the National Basketball Association, based on a labor-agreement standstill, decided that a lockout would be imposed at midnight.

And your Sports Illustrated quote of the day came from the mouth of...



...one-time Texas Ranger pitcher Jim Kern, who, in 1979, thought back to a time when a manager pulled him for a reliever. Kern told his skipper that he "wasn't tired," and his manager replied, "No, but he outfielders sure are."