February 22, 1938
The Cardinals sign NFL Washington Redskins' quarterback Sammy Baugh as an infielder. The former All-American will never play a game in the major leagues.

January 27, 1956

The New York football Giants switches its NFL home games to Yankee Stadium fueling speculation the baseball Giants will also be leaving the Polo Grounds.

September 19, 1956

Orioles catcher Tom Gastall dies when the plane he is piloting crashes into the Chesapeake Bay. The 24-year old backup backstop, who sign a $40,000 contract as a "bonus baby" with Baltimore after being drafted by the NFL's Detroit Lions, was the captain of the Boston University's basketball and baseball teams in his senior year and played quarterback for the Terriers' football team.

April 24,
1956

At Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, Frank Umont becomes the first umpire wear glasses during a regular season game. Although he is heckled by some A's fans as the home team loses to the Tigers, 7-4, the former NFL tackle (N.Y. Giants) has no problem being the second base arbitrator.

January 15, 1967

Tom Brown becomes the first major leaguer to play in the Super Bowl. The Green Bay defensive back, an outfielder and first baseman for the Senators in 1963, is best remembered for his last-minute interception of Cowboy's Don Meridith's Hail Mary pass in the NFL Championship game, making Green Bay a participant in the first-ever Super Bowl.

July 11,
1968

In Kansas City, ground is broken for the Harry S. Truman Sports Complex which will include separate side-by-side stadiums built specifically for baseball and football. Arrowhead Stadium, home of the NFL's Chiefs, will open in 1972 followed by the debut a year later of Royals Stadium, the new home ballpark of the American League's franchise in the City of Fountains.

October 11, 1975

As the first host of Saturday Night Live, George Carlin compares baseball to football in the opening monologue of the ground-breaking show. The comedian jokes the national pastime is a gentler game portraying the sport as one which is pastoral and played in a park opposed to football in which the objective is to march downfield and penetrate enemy territory in a stadium.


February 2, 1976
With his election into Cooperstown, umpire Cal Hubbard becomes the only person to be elected to both the baseball and football Halls of Fame. The big man from Keytesville, Missouri, who was name All-time NFL’s offensive takle, played with the Giants, Packers and Pirates (Steelers) during his ten-year career in the National Football League and was inducted into pro gridiron Hall of Fame in 1966.

June 8,
1979

Dan Marino and John Elway are selected fourth and seventeenth, respectively, by the Kansas City Royals during the free-agent baseball draft. The two future NFL Hall of Fame quarterbacks will never play a day of professional baseball.

June 21,
1986

Bo Jackson signs a three-year contract to play baseball with the Royals. The Heisman Trophy winner will also play in the NFL as a running back with the Los Angles Raiders.

September 14, 1986

At Royals Stadium, Kansas City rookie outfieder Bo Jackson’s hits his first major league home run. The 475-foot blast hit by the NFL running back is the longest homer ever hit in the ballpark.

September 5, 1989

Deion Sanders, the fifth player selected overall in the 1989 NFL Draft, hits a home run as the Bronx Bombers rout the Mariners at the Kingdome, 12-2. Five days later in his NFL debut with the Atlanta Falcons, the Yankee rookie returns a punt 68 yards for a touchdown.

June 15,
1992

The NY-Penn Minor League Erie Sailors beat the Jamestown Expos in 13 innings at College Stadium, 6-5, marking the first ever game played by a team representing the National League's new expansion team, the Florida Marlins. The first pitch of the franchise is thrown by John Lynch, who will leave baseball to eventually become a safety for the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Denver Broncos.

October 11, 1992

After participating in a game against the Dolphins in Miami, NFL Falcons' cornerback Deion Sanders flies to Pittsburgh hoping to become the first athlete to play in two professional leagues on the same day. The traveling outfielder, however, will not be in the lineup for the Braves' 7-1 loss in Game 5 of the NLCS against the Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium that evening.

January 29, 1995

Deion Sanders appearance with the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers in Superbowl XXVIX at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami makes the cornerback the first athlete to have played in both a Super Bowl and a World Series. In 1992, ‘Neon Deion’ played left field for Atlanta Braves in the 1992 Fall Classic against the Toronto Blue Jays.

October 10, 1999

Scoring more than 19 NFL teams, the Red Sox establish a major league record for most runs and biggest margin of victory in a post-season game when they rout the Indians, 23-7 to tie the 5-game series at two games a piece.

October 21, 2006

After hosting Super Bowl XL at Ford Field in February, Detroit becomes just the second city to host both a Super Bowl and a World Series in the same calendar year. San Diego was the site of the NFL Championship game and Fall Classic in 1998.

November 11, 2006

Although the team has declined to comment, several newspapers and internet sites report the Mets' new ballpark will be known as CitiField. The deal with CitiCorp, the nation's largest bank may be worth as much as $20 million annually for 20 years, making it the richest naming rights agreement in sports history exceeding the 32-year, $300 million contract between the NFL's Texans and Reliant Energy Inc.

September 23, 2007

The 41-year old RFK Stadium, one-time home to the NFL Redskins and American League Senators, hosts its last major league baseball game as Washington beats the Phillies in the home finale, 5-3. When District's new expansion team moved to Texas in 1972, the 56,000-seat facility lost baseball until the Montreal Expos arrived in D.C. to become the Nationals in 2005.

February 3, 2008

Eli Manning leads the Giants to an upset victory over the previously undefeated Patriots making it the second consecutive year a Manning has been the quarterback for the victorious NFL Super Bowl team. Eli and Peyton, who QBs for the Indianapolis Colts, join a select group brothers who have won world championship games in back-to-back years that include Liván (Marlins, 1997) and Orlando Hernández (1998, Yankees), Irish (Giants, 1922) and Bob Meusel (Yankees, 1923), and Bubba (Colts, 1970) and Tody Smith (Cowboys, 1971).

October 20, 2008

Two storied franchises, the NFL Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees, form a partnership which will handle concession and merchandise sales at the clubs’ new stadiums. The company, known as Legends Hospitality Management, LLC, and founded in cooperation with Goldman Sachs and CIC Partners, envisions expanding its services to other other professional franchises and college programs.