First Pick Blog

A daily look on any special events that happened on this date in history!

1983 – The Indiana Pacers began a 28 game road losing streak.

The 2010-2011 Washington Wizards came dangerously close to that number, losing 25 straight games on the road

1998 – Rob Smith (Cure) did battle with the forces of musical evil (Barbara Streisand) on the TV show South Park.

One of the SP classics

2001 – NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Sr., was killed in a crash during the Daytona 500 race.

RIP Dale Earnhardt Sr., clearly your legacy will continue to shine not only in the racing world, but in the entire sports world as well.

1943 – Joe DiMaggio (New York Yankees) joined the U.S. Army as a voluntary inductee.

No jokes here, the man was a legend and served his country. Also lost a bunch of statistical years due to WWII. As Ted Williams said, “Joe DiMaggio was the greatest all-around player I ever saw.”

1996 – World chess champion Garry Kasparov beat the IBM supercomputer “Deep Blue” in Philadelphia, PA.

Rumored that Kasparov upon winning stood up and screamed “Suck it computer!” and broke into a Prime Time dance.

1963-On this day the greatest basketball player to ever walk the earth was born in Brooklyn, New York, later moving to Wilmington, North Carolina. Michael Jordan finished with 6 rings, 5 MVPS, 24 All-Star appearances, 6 Finals MVPS, 10 Scoring Titles, and won Rookie of the year among many other accolades. Jordan is the standard for which every basketball player strives to be. Love him or hate him, but you gotta respect him.

A daily look on any special events that happened on this date in history!

2004 – Baseball commissioner Bud Selig approved the swap of Alex Rodriguez (Texas Rangers) and Alfonso Soriano (New York Yankees). The Rangers would also get a minor league player in the deal.

Clearly that one worked out well….

1972 – Los Angeles Laker Wilt Chamberlain topped the 30,000-point mark in his career during a game against the Phoenix Suns. He was the first NBA player to reach 30,000 points.

Wilt also passed the 300-womensleptwith mark in his career after a game against the Boston Celtics. He was the first NBA player to reach 300 women.

1991 – The 300th episode of “Saturday Night Live” aired on NBC

NBA assures the nation, “Don’t worry, we promise it will get funnier!” It doesn’t.