Today in sports history, September 29

Sept. 29

Today in sports history

Today is Sept. 29. On this date in:

1879: National League owners meeting in Buffalo, New York, secretly adopted the reserve clause, a landmark business move that reshaped player movement and baseball economics for decades.

1913: Washington Senators ace Walter Johnson won his 36th game of the season, defeating the Philadelphia Athletics 1-0 to cap one of the greatest pitching seasons in baseball history.

1915: The Philadelphia Phillies clinched the first National League pennant in franchise history with a 5-0 victory over the Boston Braves behind Grover Cleveland Alexander’s one-hitter.

1920: Babe Ruth hit his 54th home run of the season on the final day of the season, nearly doubling the major-league record of 29 he had set the previous year.

1923: Gene Sarazen defeated Walter Hagen 1-up at Pelham Country Club to win his second consecutive PGA Championship.

1935: The United States defeated Great Britain 9-3 in the Ryder Cup, beginning a streak of seven consecutive American victories.

1941: Heavyweight champion Joe Louis knocked out Lou Nova in the sixth round at the Polo Grounds in New York to retain his world title.

1954: Willie Mays made his famed over-the-shoulder catch of Vic Wertz’s deep drive in the eighth inning, and Dusty Rhodes hit a three-run homer in the 10th as the New York Giants defeated Cleveland in Game 1 of the World Series.

1963: St. Louis Cardinals great Stan Musial played his final game, collecting two hits to finish his 22-season career with 3,630.

1966: Sandy Koufax became the first pitcher in major league history to record three seasons with at least 300 strikeouts.

1967: Emile Griffith regained the world middleweight championship with a 15-round decision over Nino Benvenuti at Shea Stadium in the second fight of their celebrated trilogy.

1976: The Los Angeles Dodgers promoted Tommy Lasorda to manager following Walter Alston’s retirement, beginning a Hall of Fame managerial tenure that lasted through 1996.

1976: San Francisco Giants rookie John Montefusco threw a 9-0 no-hitter against the Atlanta Braves.

1977: Muhammad Ali defeated Earnie Shavers by unanimous decision after 15 rounds at Madison Square Garden to retain the world heavyweight championship.

1983: Oakland Athletics rookie Mike Warren threw a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox in only the ninth major league start of his career.

1983: Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench played the final game of his Hall of Fame career against the San Francisco Giants.

1988: Florence Griffith Joyner won the Olympic women’s 200 meters in Seoul in 21.34 seconds, setting a world record that remains standing decades later.

1988: Jackie Joyner-Kersee won the Olympic women’s long jump with an Olympic-record 7.40-meter leap, adding a second Seoul gold medal after her heptathlon victory.

1991: Pat Bradley won the MBS LPGA Classic for her 30th career LPGA Tour victory, qualifying her for the LPGA Hall of Fame.

2000: The United States men’s basketball team survived Lithuania 85-83 in the Sydney Olympic semifinals, its closest Olympic victory since NBA players began participating in 1992.

2001: Seattle Mariners rookie Ichiro Suzuki collected his 234th hit of the season, breaking Shoeless Joe Jackson’s major league rookie record.

2002: Seattle Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander scored five touchdowns in a 48-23 victory over Minnesota, including an NFL-record five touchdowns in the first half.

2004: Major League Baseball announced that the Montreal Expos would relocate to Washington for the 2005 season, returning MLB to the nation’s capital after a 33-year absence.

2009: Diana Taurasi was named WNBA Most Valuable Player for the first time after averaging 20.4 points for the Phoenix Mercury.

2009: The Phoenix Mercury defeated the Indiana Fever 120-116 in overtime in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals, producing 236 combined points in what remained the highest-scoring playoff game in league history.

2012: West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith passed for 656 yards and tied a Big 12 record with eight touchdown passes in a 70-63 victory over Baylor, completing 45 of 51 passes without an interception.

2013: Miami Marlins pitcher Henderson Álvarez threw a no-hitter against Detroit and watched from the on-deck circle as the Marlins scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth for a 1-0 walk-off victory.

2016: Brad Marchand scored a short-handed goal with 43.1 seconds remaining as Canada defeated Team Europe 2-1 to complete a sweep of the World Cup of Hockey final.

2017: Major League Baseball renamed its World Series Most Valuable Player Award in honor of Willie Mays on the 63rd anniversary of “The Catch.”

2018: Seventeen-year-old Hailie Deegan won the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Meridian Speedway, becoming the first female driver to win a race in the series.

2019: Lewis Hamilton won the Russian Grand Prix at Sochi, leading a Mercedes one-two finish with Valtteri Bottas after Sebastian Vettel’s retirement triggered a virtual safety car that helped reshape the race.

2021: Manny Pacquiao announced his retirement from boxing after a 26-year career in which he became the only boxer to be world champion in eight weight divisions; he later returned to competition.

— USA TODAY Network

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Today in sports history, September 29