September 21, 1949: England 0-2 Ireland

September 21, 1949: The Republic of Ireland soccer team defeats England 2-0 at Goodison Park in Liverpool, the home ground of Everton Football Club. As a result, Ireland become the 1st non-United Kingdom team to defeat England on English soil.

Cornelius "Con" Martin of Birmingham team Aston Villa, and Peter Farrell of Everton (thus playing on his home pitch), scored the goals. Davy Walsh, a forward whose best years were with Belfast team Linfield, Birmingham-area team West Bromwich Albion, and Aston Villa (where he was a teammate of Martin), was the last survivor from this team, living until 2016.

Things would get worse for England over the next few years: In 1950, they participated in the World Cup for the 1st time, and were humiliated by the U.S. team; followed by shreddings at the hands of the "Magnificent Magyars" of Hungary in 1953 and 1954, and poor performances in the 1954, 1958 and 1962 World Cups. It would take until 1966 for them to redeem themselves.

Ireland, however, were unable to follow up on this triumph. They didn’t make the World Cup until 1990 (reaching the Quarterfinals), doing so again in 1994 and 2002, but not since.

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September 21, 1949 was a Wednesday. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Artis Gilmore was born.

And these baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Chicago White Sox, 10-9 at Yankee Stadium. The White Sox scored 3 runs in the 8th inning and 3 more in the 9th, to come from behind to win. Rocky Krsnich and Gus Zernial hit home runs for the Pale Hose. Joe DiMaggio did not play.

* A doubleheader was split at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The New York Giants lost the opener to the Cincinnati Reds, 5-4. Sheldon "Available" Jones should not have been so available, as he walked Danny Litwhiler with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th inning. The Giants won the nightcap, 5-2. The game was called due to rain after 7 innings.

* A doubleheader was split at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The St. Louis Cardinals won the opener, 1-0. Max Lanier pitched a 5-hit shutout, outpitching Don Newcombe. The Brooklyn Dodgers won the nightcap, 5-0. Elwin "Preacher" Roe pitched a 2-hit shutout, while Harry Brecheen didn't get out of the 4th inning. Duke Snider hit a home run. Over the 2 games, Jackie Robinson went 0-for-6 with 2 walks, while tan Musial went 1-for-7.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 9-6 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ted Williams and Al Zarilla hit home runs for the Red Sox. Ellis Kinder won his 22nd game of the season.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-1 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Senators beat the St. Louis Browns, 7-0 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Dick Welk pitched a 3-hit shutout.

* The Boston Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-7 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Ralph Kiner hit 2 home runs for the Bucs, but it wasn't enough.

* And a doubleheader was split at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Philadelphia Phillies won the 1st game, 3-1. The Chicago Cubs won the 2nd game, 9-6.

May 5, 1928: Dixie Dean Scores 60 Goals In a Season

May 5, 1928: Everton Football Club play Arsenal Football to a 3-3 draw at Goodison Park in Liverpool. Everton's biggest star, forward William Ralph Dean Jr., known as "Dixie" Dean, scores all their goals -- his 58th, 59th and 60th of the Football League Division One season. This remains, far and away, a record for English soccer's top division.

The preceding Saturday, April 28, Dean had scored 4 goals in Everton's 5-3 win away to Lancashire team Burnley. Huddersfield Town defeated Portsmouth, 4-1 at Leeds Road in Huddersfield, Yorkshire. As a result, Everton clinched the League title.

They finished 2 points ahead of Huddersfield, 53 to 51, with 2 points for a win at the time. In fact, Everton had clinched the League title on May 2, despite not being scheduled, when Huddersfield, in a makeup game, lost to Aston Villa, 3-0 at Villa Park in Birmingham.

Had Huddersfield won that game, Everton would have needed at least a draw against Arsenal to take the League title. With a draw, the title would have been decided on goal ratio. In which case, having Dean would have been more key than he already was, in this, Everton's 50th Anniversary season, having been founded in 1878.

Born on January 22, 1907, in Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, across the River Mersey from Liverpool, William Jr. had been taken to a game by William Sr. in the team’s last title season, 1915, and made him a fan for life. His nickname was unfortunate: Some people thought his dark complexion made him look like a black man of the American South, and so he was nicknamed "Dixie."

Dixie Dean was a lifelong resident of that city. He and his contemporary, American baseball pitcher Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean, almost certainly never knew of each other. It is also unlikely that Dean knew much about another baseball star, George Herman "Babe" Ruth, who, the previous September 30, completed a record-setting season of 60 home runs.

Dixie Dean helped Everton win the League title again in 1932, and the FA Cup in 1933. Oddly, he was not selected for the England team that beat World Cup winners Italy, 3-2 at Arsenal's home, Highbury, in 1934. His Everton teammate, right half Cliff Britton, was selected. And, since a dispute with FIFA meant that none of Britain's "Home Nations" competed in the World Cup until 1950, Dean never played in the World Cup. Nor was he, or any other Everton player, included in the 1935 match in which England defeated Nazi Germany at Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane.

Dean died on March 1, 1980, of a heart attack, in the stands at Goodison Park, while watching Everton play their arch-rivals, Liverpool Football Club. He was 73 years old. A statue of him now stands outside the stadium. His total of 60 goals in one season remains the record for the top division in any of the Home Nations: England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, or (no longer part of the United Kingdom) the Republic of Ireland

Bill Shankly, who starred for Preston North End in the 1930s before coaching Liverpool F.C. to glory in the 1960s and '70s, said of Dixie Dean, "He belongs to the company of the supremely great, like Beethoven, Shakespeare and Rembrandt." As much as any British athlete of the decade, he made "The Roaring Twenties" roar, but he was timeless.

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May 5, 1928 was a Saturday. This was also the day that the famed West Indies cricket team debuted. I have a separate entry for that event.

These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-0 at Yankee Stadium. George Pipgras pitched a 7-hit shutout. Babe Ruth went 0-for-3 with 2 walks. Lou Gehrig went 1-for-3 with an RBI.

* The New York Giants lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 11-3 at Redland Field (later renamed Crosley Field) in Cincinnati. Mel Ott went 2-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Brooklyn Robins (as the Dodgers were known while Wilbert Robinson managed them) beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Watson Clark outpitched future Hall-of-Famer Jesse Haines. Del Bissonette and Harry Riconda hit home runs.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-4 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-5 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Ty Cobb, playing for the A's against his former team, went 2-for-5. Tris Speaker, also wrapping up his career with the A's, went 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk and 2 RBIs.

* The Washington Senators beat the St. Louis Browns, 6-5 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Boston Braves, 6-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Paul Waner went 1-for-4. Lloyd Waner went 3-for-4. For the Braves, Rogers Hornsby went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* And the Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Although it was the 1st Saturday in May, which is the traditional date of the running of the Kentucky Derby, that was not yet traditional. In 1928, the Derby was run on May 19, and Reigh Count won it. His son, Count Fleet, won the Triple Crown in 1943.

April 29, 1939: Everton: Lucky But Unlucky Again

April 29, 1939: Everton Football Club, the "blue club" in Liverpool, clinch the Football League First Division championship, defeating Birmingham team Aston Villa, 3-0 at their home ground, Goodison Park.

Known as the "Toffees," due to a pair of toffee shops near their original ground, in the Everton neighborhood of the north side of Liverpool, they got off to a fast start that season, winning their 1st 6 games. From January 14 to April 15, 1939, they won 12 games, drew 3, and lost only 1, to Birmingham-area team Wolverhampton Wanderers. "Wolves" also knocked them out of the FA Cup, in the Quarterfinal.

Everton lost again on April 22, away to South London team Charlton Athletic, but clinched the title at home on April 29. They put the game early, with Stan Bentham, Torry Gillick and Billy Cook all scoring in the 1st half-hour. Everton had won the title with a game to spare, and ended up beating Wolves by 4 points, at a time when a win was 2 points. Defending Champions Arsenal, of North London, were 5th, 12 points back.

The same day, the FA Cup Final was held, at the original Wembley Stadium in London. Wolves lost to South Coast club Portsmouth, who won with a pair of goals late in the first half, by John Anderson and Cliff Parker.

Stan Cullis, Wolves' Number 5 in that game, would later manage them to 3 League titles and 2 FA Cups between 1949 and 1960. Portsmouth would win the Football League in 1949 and '50, but would not win the Cup again for 69 years after this game -- and when they did, it was through moves by manager Harry Redknapp that bankrupted the club and nearly drove them out of business, damage from which they are still recovering.

This would be the last FA Cup Final until 1946, as the 1939-40 season was suspended shortly after its start due to World War II. Everton had also won the title in 1914-15, the last season before League competition was suspended for the duration of World War I. Throw in the fact that Everton won the League in 1985, right before the Heysel ban, and in 1987, during it, and they might be the unluckiest club in English football history.

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April 29, 1939 was a Saturday, as the FA Cup Final always is. Elsewhere in English football, Arsenal went to the East Midlands, and beat Derby County, 2-1 at The Baseball Ground in Derby. Derbyshire was one of the few places in England where baseball was popular, and while that didn't last long, and neither did the stadium's shape as a baseball-ready ground, the name lasted until it was replaced in 1997.

And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Washington Senators, 3-1 at Yankee Stadium. Ken Chase outpitched Lefty Gomez. Joe DiMaggio singled and scored in the 1st inning, then left the game with an injury. Lou Gehrig drew a walk in the 2nd inning, and singled in the 4th. But his batting average fell to .167. These would be his last times reaching base in the major leagues. He went 0-for-4 the next day, took himself out of the lineup, and never played again.

* The New York Giants lost to the Boston Bees, 8-1 at National League Park in Boston. This was during the short-lived "rebrand" of the Boston Braves and Braves Field. "Milkman" Jim Turner outpitched "Prince" Hal Schumacher. Max West went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs. Mel Ott went 1-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-0 at Ebbets Field. Whitlow Wyatt pitched a 7-hit shutout, defeating Hugh Mulcahy, who lost so many games pitching for the Phils that it became his nickname: Hugh "Losing Pitcher" Mulcahy. Dolph Camilli went 2-for-3 with a home run, a walk, and 3 RBIs.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 3-2 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Lefty Grove started against his former team, but it would be Jack Wilson who was the winning pitcher. Jimmie Foxx, another ex-Athletic, went 1-for-3 with a walk. Rookie Ted Williams went 1-for-4.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Harry Craft hit a home run for the Reds. For the Pirates, Paul Waner went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI, and his brother Lloyd Waner went 1-for-5.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-1 at Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Bob Feller outpitched Lynwood "Schoolboy" Rowe. Julius "Moose" Solters went 2-for-6 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Hank Greenberg went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 2-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Lon Warneke, a 3-time 20-game winner for the Cubs, came within 2 baserunners of a perfect game: He hit Billy Herman with a pitch in the 4th inning, and allowed a single by Stan Hack in the 7th.

* And the Chicago White Sox beat the St. Louis Browns, 9-8 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.