St. Patricks Day Sports Moments

When we think of St. Patrick's Day, we think of the Irish, three and four-leafed clovers, and wearing green every March 17. It is a time where we think of luck as well. In sports, March 17 has seen some "lucky" moments for some teams and players, and not so much for others. Now let's take a look at some of sports best moments in the past on St. Patrick's Day.

1871: The National Association of Professional Baseball Players is founded which will last for five seasons. The Boston Red Stockings(now the Atlanta Braves) dominated the league during its existence, but that was part of the reason for its demise, too. Gambling, teams playing in small markets, and not having a neutral figure to control the league also contributed to it folding in 1875. "Lucky" for everyone, this marked the beginning of the oldest active professional sports league in North America: the National League in 1876. The Braves and Chicago Cubs are the only currently active teams that played in the NA.

1897: In Carson City, Nevada, boxing's World Heavyweight Championship was on the line as champion James Corbett defended the belt against Bob Fitzsimmons. Despite being outweighed by 16 lbs, Fitzsimmons won a very competitive bout to win the title from Corbett on a 14th Round knockout. Also, the fight was so financially "lucky", that it earned over $2.7 million which was unheard of at the time. "The Fight of the Century" was the most successful fight of the 19th century, and is the crowing achievment for Fitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons was the first person to hold the heavyweight, middleweight, and lightweight titles in a career, but would lose the heavyweight title to James Jeffries in 1899. "Unlucky" for Corbett, he would only win one more fight out of last four he boxed in his career before retiring for good in 1903.

1908: Boxing would witness a record day and "lucky" win when World Heavyweight Champion Tommy Burns defended his title against Jem Roche in Dublin, Ireland. "Unlucky" for Roche, he lasted only 88 seconds as Burns knocked him out to retain the title. To this day, it is the quickest boxing bout in heavyweight title match history as Burns went on to defend the belt five more times on the year. "Luck" ran out for Burns losing the title to Jack Johnson in December that year after becoming the first to take on an African American for the heavyweight title. Burns is still "lucky" to be the only Canadian-born boxer to win the heavyweight title though.

1946: This was a "lucky" day for Major League Baseball in a very influential exhibition game at Daytona Beach, Florida. The Los Angeles Dodgers played against the Montreal Royals, their own minor league team. In the game, Jackie Robinson made his debut for the Royals playing shortstop to become the first African-American player in minor league baseball history. Also, this marked the first time since the turn of the century that integrated team played pro baseball. Later in the spring, Robinson switched positions to play second base which would become his position when he debuted for the Dodgers the following season. City Island Park, where this game took place, would later be renamed Jackie Robinson Ballpark over 40 years later.

1953: Two years after buying 80 percent interest into the St. Louis Browns baseball club, Bill Veeck announces that he intends to sell his share for over $2.4 million. After being blocked by owners to move to Milwaukee, Los Angeles, and Baltimore, he decided to sell his share to a Baltimore group led by attorney Clarence Miles. So after 52 years in St. Louis, the Browns began play in Baltimore as the Orioles in 1954. "Lucky" for Veeck, he was able to buy into the Chicago White Sox franchise on two different occasions beginning in 1959 before selling them for good in 1981. He died in 1984, but was even more "lucky" to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame five years later.

1955: Montreal was the site of one of the most "unlucky" and violent scenes in NHL history. Montreal Canadiens right winger Maurice "Rocket" Richard was suspended for the remainder of the season by NHL President Clarence Campbell for punching an official twice during a March 13 game against the Boston Bruins. As a result, the Richard Riot took place on St. Patrick's Day in Montreal which resulted in over 40 arrests and a dozen injured police officers in protest of the suspension. In that game, Richard was restrained from fighting Bruins player Hal Laycoe by official Cliff Thompson. Thompson was punched twice because of that, and this was the second time Richard hit an official on the season which was part of the reason for the suspension. Many have stated that this riot sparked the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec, Canada during the 1960s.

1977: A Federal Judge got himself involved with a major decision for Major League Baseball on this day. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn had blocked the sale of players by Oakland Athletics owner Charlie Finley to the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees in 1976. A grievance was filed by Finley which led to a federal court getting involved. Judge Frank McGarr ruled that Kuhn acted within his position as Commissioner to block the sale of players by Finley. Also, Finley was "unlucky" in his attempt to have Kuhn removed from his position, and would sell the Oakland franchise in 1981. Kuhn would stay as Commissioner until 1984 when Peter Ueberroth took over.

1988: In the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, the Lions of Loyola Marymount coached by Paul Westhead made a lasting impression beating the Wyoming Cowboys 119-115 in Salt Lake City. At the time, this was the highest scoring basketball game in NCAA Tournament history. Star forward Bo Kimble led all scorers with 29 points while teammate Hank Gathers added 19 points and 12 rebounds for Loyola Marymount to advance to the next round. They would lose to North Carolina in the next game. Unfortunately, Gathers died in 1990 at the young age of 23 during the West Coast Conference tournament. Almost two years later after this game(on March 18, 1990 to be exact), Loyola Marymount beat the defending NCAA Champion Michigan Wolverines 149-115 to set the record for the highest scoring game ever in NCAA Tournament play. Loyola Marymount made a memorable run in the tournament after the death of Gathers making it to the Elite Eight before losing to UNLV, the eventual 1990 NCAA Tournament champions.

1999: In an otherwise "unlucky" season for the NBA after a lockout, another record was obtained by Atlanta Hawks head coach Lenny Wilkens on this day. Wilkens coached in his 2,051st game passing Bill Fitch's record as the Hawks lost to the Miami Heat at home 86-85. Wilkens would coach the Hawks for one more year and retire coaching in 2,487 games after the 2004-05 season with the New York Knicks. The Hawks weren't so "lucky" as a franchise having ten losing seasons in a row before finally having a winning season in 2008-09.

2005: One of the "unlucky" days of Major League Baseball took place as Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, and Jose Canseco talk about performance enhancement drugs in front of the House Government Reform Committee. Canseco had named McGwire and Palmeiro in his book Juiced for using performance enhancement drugs. Palmeiro and Sosa denied using them, and McGwire never said either way if he did so. In August, Palmeiro was suspended for ten games after a positive test for performance enhancement drugs which really opened up to the public how serious of a problem it was. McGwire released a statement in 2010 admitting to using PEDs during his career. Palmeiro and Sosa still deny using while the Mitchell Report continues to release names as to who used PEDs during their careers. It is by far the biggest headline in baseball since this "unlucky" St. Patrick's Day.