August 14th in sports history is known for MLB icon Pete Rose accomplishing multiple milestones while MLB fans witnessed a long-standing rookie home run record getting broken and the NFL’s biggest competitor announced the beginning of their rivalry. Many significant sports events that occurred in history on August 14th make it a remarkable day to review with sports records on and off the court/field.

Ricky Eisenbart also contributed to this article.

Rose Sets Career Milestones

#TodayInHistory 1986: Pete Rose collected his 4,256th and final Major League hit. pic.twitter.com/LD3NW3wl
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) August 14, 2012

YEAR: 1982 AND 1986

SIGNIFICANCE: Pete Rose became the all-time at-bats leader (12,365) & 4 years later, recorded his final base hit (MLB record)

On this day in 1982, Pete Rose stepped up to the plate in what was his 12,365th career at-bat, making him the all-time leader in that category, by passing Hank Aaron. Rose is still atop of the AB leaders with 14,053 big-league ABs, 1,689 more than second-place Aaron (12,364) and 2,065 more than third-place Carl Yastrzemski (11,988). Albert Pujols is the active ABs leader with 10,742, but likely won’t get close to surpassing Rose.

Exactly four years later, Rose would record the final base hit of his career. That was number 4,256 and is also the all-time best in that category. Rose is just the second player ever to reach the 4,000 hit mark alongside Ty Cobb. Rose is recognized as one of the greatest hitters of all-time, achieving 10 seasons of 200-plus hits. Rose finished his career as a .303/.375/.784 hitter through 24 seasons.

AFL Formation

The American Football League was formed on this day in 1959 and franchises were announced in Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis St-Paul, Denver, New York and Los Angeles https://t.co/SbNDM8eWgz pic.twitter.com/dT45cbMCEc
— The New York Times Archives (@NYTArchives) August 14, 2020

YEAR: 1959

SIGNIFICANCE: The American Football League and its charter franchises were officially announced

On this date over 60 years ago, the greatest challenger to the NFL was officially announced in the American Football League, along with six of its original eight teams. Officially forming on August 14th, the league had originally granted only six franchises — Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Minnesota, and New York. The Minnesota Vikings, however, were later offered a spot in the well-established NFL and promptly accepted it, forcing the AFL to move quickly to replace them with the Oakland Raiders.

In October, Buffalo would be granted the seventh franchise and shortly after the initial announcement, the Boston Patriots would also join the AFL as the eighth and final team for its inaugural season. Beginning play the following year, all eight squads would be admitted into the NFL after the 1970 merger and they all remain in the American Football Conference to this day. While the AFC West is the lone division fully consisting of original AFL teams (Broncos, Chargers, Chiefs, Raiders), the AFC East is also comprised of four former AFL teams, though the Miami Dolphins were an expansion franchise (1966).

On this day in 1959, the Boston Patriots joined the American Football League. pic.twitter.com/dzFif4PIsX
— The Fours (@TheFoursBar) November 23, 2017

McGwire Breaks Rookie Record

YEAR: 1987

SIGNIFICANCE: Mark McGwire (39 HR) broke the AL Rookie Home Run record

Two games after tying the MLB Rookie Home Run record, Oakland Athletics’ 1B broke the all-time record previously held by Frank Robinson and Wally Berger. McGwire took Hall of Famer Don Sutton deep to left field in the sixth inning. McGwire went 3-for-6 this game, increasing his OPS at the time to 1.001. McGwire would go on to hit 49 HR and hold the record until the Yankees’ Aaron Judge hit 52 in 2017. The record is currently held by Mets’ 1B Pete Alonso, who hit 53 bombs in his rookie season just last year.

Historic Franchise Sale

YEAR: 2019

SIGNIFICANCE: The owner of the Brooklyn Nets sold 51% of the franchise at a sports franchise record valuation ($2.4B)

In 2010, the Russian man Mikhail Prokhorov became the first ever foreign-born NBA owner. However, only a year ago today, Prokhorov sold his 51% ownership to Joseph Tsai. The Taiwan and Canadian citizen then became the first ever NBA owner of Chinese ethnicity. Most notably, this sale was made at a valuation of $2.35B, the largest sum ever for an American sports franchise. Prokhorov brought plenty of excitement at the origin of his ownership reign as the then-New Jersey Nets were moving into a new market in Brooklyn, NY with a state-of-the-art arena. He boldly said he would win a Championship in the first five years or would force himself to get married (before backing off those claims after failing).

While the Nets now have a very bright future with Kyrie in KD in town, Brooklyn failed to win many meaningful games during Prokhorov’s administration. In the nine years of ownership prior to the sale, the Nets only won one playoff series (a seven-game victory over the Raptors). The real significance of the deal is the money involved as Prokhorov originally became an owner on a $223M price tag, but ended up selling a majority of his ownerships stake for a sports franchise record, that shows the incredible continuous growth of sports during this digital era.

Foreign-Born Hits Leader

Albert Pujols broke the hits record for foreign-born players, but it’s not the only one he owns 🇩🇴

HRs 💥 651
2Bs 💥 653
Runs 💥 1,815
RBI 💥 2,052 pic.twitter.com/mFuZGkuRYK
— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) August 15, 2019

YEAR: 2019

SIGNIFICANCE: Albert Pujols became the all-time hits leader among foreign-born players (3,167)

One year ago, Angels’ DH Albert Pujols broke another record for foreign-born players. With a two-out single off the Pirates’ Chris Archer, Pujols surpassed his compatriot Adrian Beltre as the all-time hits leader for players born outside of the United States. The future Hall of Famer is no stranger to such records, as he also owns the record for most Home Runs, doubles, runs, and RBI among all foreign-born Major Leaguers in history.