The first pro football player was William (“Pudge”) Heffelfinger.
He made his professional debut for the Allegheny Athletic Association on November 12, 1892.
He was paid $500 for his performance against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, in which he led his team to victory, 4-0.
The first baseball game was on June 19, 1846, at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, the New York Club beat the Knickerbockers, 23-1. On that date, another baseball tradition began: The New York Club pitcher, James Whyte Davis, was fined 6 cents for swearing at the umpire.
The term, the Baltimore chop came into vogue in 1890. It refers to a batted ball that bounces so high that it cannot be fielded successfully before the batter reaches first base. It is said to have been named for two Baltimore players, John McGraw and Willie (“Wee Willie”) Keeler, who often reached base this…
An official baseball weighs between 5 and 5.25 ounces.
Dodgers was an abbreviation for trolley dodgers. The term developed during the early to mid-twentieth century, when trolley cars were common sights in urban areas such as Brooklyn. To be a trolley dodger meant that you were able to slip through traffic. The players on the field needed the same kind of agility.
Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings, who scored 801 goals in his 25-year career, from 1946 to 1971 has the lifetime record for scoring goals.
The first publicly televised sporting event was a Japanese baseball game, broadcast on September 27, 1931. The Ushigome and Awazi Shichiku Higher Elementary Schools battled it out on the Tozuka Baseball Ground, watched by viewers on 8-by-5-inch screens.