2001 at a glance

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April May June

July August September

October November December

October

 Oct. 2 -- Sammy Sosa became the first player in major league history with three 60-homer seasons, but the Reds held on for a 5-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs. Sosa hit a solo shot in the first inning.

 Oct. 3 -- Barry Bonds broke Babe Ruth's walks record and scored three times to lead San Francisco over Houston 11-8. Bonds walked three times to pass Ruth's mark of 170 set in 1923, and finished the night with 172.

 Oct. 4 -- Barry Bonds hit his 70th home run to tie Mark McGwire's 1998 record in a 10-2 victory over Houston.

 Oct. 4 -- Texas' Alex Rodriguez hit his 52nd homer in a 16-1 loss at Seattle to become the fourth player with 50 home runs and 200 hits in the same season, joining Babe Ruth (1921), Hack Wilson (1930) and Jimmie Foxx (1932).

 Oct. 4 -- Tim Raines Sr. and his son, Tim Jr., both started for the Orioles in a 5-4 loss to Boston. The younger Raines went 1-for-4 with a stolen base and scored a run, and Raines Sr. drove in a ninth-inning run with a groundout, but was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.

 Oct. 4 -- Rickey Henderson homered to pass Ty Cobb and become baseball's career leader in runs scored with 2,246 during San Diego's 6-3 win over Los Angeles. Henderson celebrated by sliding into home plate.

 Oct. 5 -- Barry Bonds set a new mark for home runs in a single season, hitting Nos. 71 and 72, but San Francisco was eliminated from the playoffs with an 11-10 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The game time was four hours, 27 minutes, setting a record for the longest nine inning game ever played.

 Oct. 5 -- The Atlanta Braves clinched their 10th straight division championship, scoring 10 runs in the first inning after being down 3-0, in a 20-3 rout of the Marlins. Atlanta became the first pro sports team to win 10 division titles in row. The Boston Celtics (1975-65) and Los Angeles Lakers (1982-90) captured nine straight in the NBA.

 Oct. 5 -- The Mariners won their 115th game of the year to become the winningest team in American League history, passing the record the Yankees set it three years ago. Jamie Moyer became the oldest first-time 20-game winner, leading Seattle to a 6-2 victory over the Rangers.

 Oct. 5 -- Tim Hudson pitched Oakland to its 100th victory of the season as the Athletics beat the Angels 6-2. The Athletics became the eighth team in modern major league history to win 100 games but finish second in their division.

 Oct. 5 -- Blaise Alexander, a 25-year-old ARCA driver who also competed on NASCAR's Busch Series, was killed in a wreck at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

 Oct. 6 -- Levron Williams gained 280 yards on 20 carries and scored a school-record six touchdowns in Indiana's 63-32 win over Wisconsin.

 Oct. 6 -- Eric Crouch scored four times in a 48-14 win over Iowa State to set an NCAA Division I-A record for rushing TDs by a quarterback with 51.

 Oct. 6 -- Maurice Hicks ran for record 416 yards and four touchdowns, but it wasn't enough as Morgan State defeated N. Carolina A&T 52-42. Hicks broke the Division I-AA single-game rushing record of 409 yards set by Charles Roberts of Sacramento State in a 1999 game against Idaho State.

 Oct. 6 -- Georgia Southern's Adrian Peterson has gained more than 100 yards in 48 straight games. His 105 yards in the Eagles' 50-14 win over Western Carolina also extended his NCAA record for regular-season games, at 36.

 Oct. 6 -- Middle Tennessee State beat Idaho 70-58 as the teams set a Division I record for total points scored in a game. The teams combined for 1,445 yards of offense.

 Oct. 6 -- Tony Lukins tied an NCAA Division I-A record by returning two kickoffs for touchdowns as New Mexico State beat Tulsa 24-7.

 Oct. 6 -- Phil Nevin had his first three-homer game, including a grand slam, as the San Diego Padres beat the Colorado Rockies 10-4. Colorado's Todd Helton became the first player in major league history to have consecutive seasons with 400 or more total bases. His seventh-inning double gave exactly 400 bases this year.

 Oct. 6 -- Michigan's victory, combined with Yale's 32-27 loss to Dartmouth, gave the Wolverines the record for all-time wins in all divisions at 809.

 Oct. 6 -- Roman Turek recorded his second consecutive shutout to begin the season, making 23 saves as the Calgary Flames beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-0. Calgary is only the fifth team in NHL history to open the season with consecutive shutouts. The Flames join the 1919-20 Ottawa Senators, 1955-56 Montreal Canadiens, 1973-74 Philadelphia Flyers and the 1930-31 Toronto Maple Leafs, who set the record with five.

 Oct. 7 -- San Diego's Rickey Henderson became the 25th player with 3,000 hits with a bloop double in a 14-5 loss to Colorado. Teammate Tony Gwynn ended his 20-year by grounding out to shortstop in the ninth inning. Gwynn left the game with eight NL batting titles, a .338 lifetime average and 3,141 hits.

 Oct. 7 -- Barry Bonds wrapped up his record-breaking season with his 73rd homer and shattered the slugging percentage record that Babe Ruth had owned for 81 years. Bonds' heroics came as San Francisco completed its season with a 2-1 win over Los Angeles. He finished the season with a .328 batting average, a career-high 137 RBIs and a slugging percentage of .863, easily surpassing the mark of .847 that Ruth set in 1920.

 Oct. 7 -- The Mariners fell one win short of setting a major league record for victories in a year, losing their regular-season finale 4-3 to Texas. Seattle (116-46) equaled the record set by the 1906 Chicago Cubs yesterday.

 Oct. 7 -- Mariano Rivera got three outs for his 50th save, the third-most in AL history as the New York Yankees beat Tampa Bay 1-0.

 Oct. 7 -- The Braves became the first team to make the playoffs with a losing record at home when they dropped their final game of the regular season at Turner Field, 4-2 to Florida. Atlanta finished 40-41 at home.

 Oct. 7 -- Catherine Ndereba of Kenya easily won the Chicago Marathon and broke the world mark set just a week ago by nearly a minute with a time of 2 hours, 18 minutes, 47 seconds. Ndereba eclipsed the world mark of 2:19:46 set in Berlin by Japan's Naoko Takahashi.

 Oct. 7 -- Jerome Bettis rushed for 153 yards as Pittsburgh opened Heinz Field with a 16-7 victory over Cincinnati. Bettis went over 10,000 yards rushing for his career.

 Oct. 7 -- Deltha O'Neal picked off four passes, tying a team record, and returned one for a 27-yard TD as Denver beat Kansas City 20-6.

 Oct. 7 -- Tennessee guard Bruce Matthews played in his 283rd game, an NFL record for a non-kicker.

 Oct. 7 -- Shannon Sharpe of the Baltimore Ravens passed Ozzie Newsome's mark for yards receiving (7,980) by a tight end.

 Oct. 10 -- Randy Johnson extended his major league record for consecutive playoff losses to seven as Woody Williams and the Cardinals beat Arizona 4-1, tying their first-round NL series at one game each.

 Oct. 13 -- DeShaun Foster of UCLA ran for a school-record 301 yards and four touchdowns as the Bruins beat Washington 35-13.

 Oct. 13 -- Georgia Southern fullback Adrian Peterson was held to 71 yards rushing, snapping his NCAA-record streak of 36 straight regular-season games with at least 100 yards. The Eagles still beat Appalachian State 27-18.

 Oct. 16 -- In a matchup of pitchers who have combined for seven Cy Young Awards and 457 victories, Randy Johnson threw a three-hit masterpiece as Arizona beat Greg Maddux and the Braves 2-0 in Game 1 of the NL championship series. It was Johnson's first win in the playoffs since beating the Yankees twice in the 1995 AL division series for Seattle.

 Oct. 17 -- Tom Glavine allowed Arizona one run in seven innings to tie teammate John Smoltz's major league record with his 12th postseason victory as Atlanta posted an 8-1 win.

 Oct. 18 -- Jaromir Jagr, the league's scoring leader for five of the last six seasons, signed the richest contract in NHL history. Jagr signed an eight-year, $88 million contract with the Washington Capitals.

 Oct. 18 -- North Carolina women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance became just the third soccer coach in NCAA Division I to win 500 games and the first women's coach to reach the mark with a 3-0 victory over Clemson.

 Oct. 21 -- Randy Johnson pitched seven solid innings to beat Atlanta 3-2 and send Arizona to its first World Series. The Diamondbacks reach the World Series faster than any expansion team ever, doing it in only their fourth year of existence.

 Oct. 21 -- Alfonso Soriano hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to give New York a 3-1 win over Seattle in Game 4 of the AL championship series.

 Oct. 21 -- Washington rookie Rod Gardner had six catches for 208 yards, including an an 85-yard touchdown, in the Redskins' 17-14 overtime win over Carolina.

 Oct. 21 -- Dwayne DeRosario scored six minutes into overtime as the San Jose Earthquakes beat the Los Angeles Galaxy 2-1 to win their first MLS Cup.

 Oct. 22 -- New York routed Seattle 12-3 in Game 5 to win the AL pennant for the 38th time. The Yankees became the first team since their predecessors in 1960-64 to win four straight pennants.

 Oct. 27 -- Joe Paterno won his 324th game to pass Bear Bryant for the most victories by a Division I-A coach when Penn State rallied for a 29-27 win over Ohio State.

 Oct. 27 -- Tiznow became the first two-time winner of the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic, repeating his 2000 triumph with a nose victory over Sakhee at the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships at Belmont Park. It was the fifth Classic win for jockey Chris McCarron.

 Oct. 30 -- Michael Jordan missed his biggest shot of the night and committed two crucial late turnovers in the Washington Wizards' 93-91 loss to the New York Knicks, Jordan's first regular-season game after a 31/2-year retirement. Jordan spent the majority of his minutes at point guard, scoring 19 points, but he missed a 3-pointer in front of the Knicks' bench with 18 seconds left that would have tied the game.

 Oct. 30 -- Derek Jeter hit a walkoff home run in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift New York over Arizona 4-3 and tie the World Series at 2-2. The Yankees' Tino Martinez connected for a game-tying, two-run homer in the ninth inning off Byung-Hyun Kim. It was the first time in World Series history that a team tied a game with a ninth-inning homer and won with a homer in extra innings.