This Day in Philly Sports History – April 29

Presented by the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame

The Sixers stayed alive with a vintage Joel Embiid performance. Don Mattingly is undefeated and the bats come alive. The Flyers look to eliminate the Penguins. April 29 in Philly Sports History features backup goalie heroics, April Phillies records, and the NFL Draft in Philly. Today we look at some key moments from the Flyers, Sixers, Phillies, and Eagles.

Welcome to the Club Lefty

Heading into a 1981 game against the Expos Steve Carlton needed three strikeouts to reach 3000 for his career. In the top of the first he struck out Tim Raines, Jerry Manuel, and Tim Wallach to join the 3K club. Lefty became the sixth overall pitcher to achieve the feat and the first left-hander. Del Unser hit a 3-run double as the Phillies beat the Expos 6-2. Carlton added to his total pitching a complete game and adding in 9 strikeouts. Carlton would finish third in the Cy Young voting that year behind Fernando Valenzuela and Tom Seaver.

Trivia – Since Steve Carlton in 1981, 14 other pitchers have joined the 3000-strikeout club. Name them.

Rallying Around the Backup

Moments before the Flyers’ Patrick Division Final matchup against the Penguins they found out that starting goalie Ron Hextall was not able to go. Enter Ken Wregett (future Penguin Ken Wregett). Four different Flyers scored goals and Mark Howe added 2 assists. Wregett had a monster game saving 39 of the 40 shots he took helping the Flyers cruise to a 4-1 win. Down 3 games to 2 the Flyers completed the comeback and moved on to the Wales Conference Finals to take on the Canadiens. It was a memorable run for the Flyers who finished the regular season 36-36-8.

Hot Start for the Phillies

Everyone talks about the 4-Aces the Phillies had in 2011, but the offense wasn’t too shabby either. On this day they took on the Mets and Ryan Howard hit 2 homers and had 6 RBIs, giving him 27 for the month – setting a team record for April. Placido Polanco had 2 hits giving him 39 for the month breaking the team record set in 2008 by Chase Utley. Vance Worley pitched six solid innings and struck out 5 to get the 10-3 win over the Mutts.

Best Draft Ever?

In 2017 the NFL Draft was held April 27-29 in Philly. The NFL converted the Art Museum steps into a stage for the future NFL stars. Over 250,000 fans attended over the course of three days setting a draft attendance record. This was the first time since 1961 that the draft was held in Philly and set the bar high for future on location drafts. In the first round the Eagles selected Derrick Barnett who would have the huge fumble recovery of Brandon Graham’s strip sack of Tom Brady in Super Bowl LVII.  Unfortunately for the Eagles he was really the only pick in that draft that had extended success. Myle Garrett went #1 but the draft in general featured many future NFL stars including: Christian McCaffery, Patrick Mahomes, Temple’s Haason Reddick, TJ Watt, Alvin Kamara, Cooper Kupp, Trey Hendrickson, George Kittle, and current Eagles kicker Jake Elliott. Maybe the draft should be in Philly every year as the Eagles were the center of the NFL Universe from Draft Day till the Super Bowl Parade in February…

Jimmy Buckets

The Sixers bounced back in Game 2 of their playoff series against the Raptors. After losing Game 1 by 13 they responded by beating the Raptors 94-89, shifting the series back to Philly tied at a game apiece. Jimmy Butler led the Sixers with 30 points, adding 10 rebounds and 5 assists. Joel struggling with knee tendinitis and an upper respiratory infection only scored 12 and had 10 rebounds. This series would go the full seven games and only ended after Kawhi Leonard’s game winner bounced off the rim four times before falling in.

Trivia Answer – Ferguson Jenkins, Don Sutton, Phil Niekro, Bert Blyleven, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz, CC Sabathia, Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, and Clayton Kershaw.

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