May 5 in sports history: Champ Celtics pop Lakers' balloons

2013: Earning every first-place vote except one, Miami's LeBron James won his fourth NBA MVP.

"It's probably a writer out of New York that didn't give me the vote," James told reporters during an MVP news conference. "I know the history between the Heat and the Knicks. So I get it." (Actually, a writer from Boston gave his first-place vote to Knicks star Carmelo Anthony.)

"The King" averaged 26.8 points and eight rebounds for the Heat, who went on to win the NBA Finals in seven games over the Spurs. 

1973: On his way to the Triple Crown and immortality, Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby by 2 1/2 lengths with Ron Turcotte aboard. The winning time of one minute, 59.4 seconds was, and still is, the fastest ever in the Run for the Roses.

1904: In a 3-0 win over the Philadelphia Athletics, Cy Young of the Boston Americans pitched the first perfect game in modern baseball history. An "unparalleled feat," a newspaper called the 37-year-old pitcher's effort.  

"It was a wonderful exhibition of pitching," the Buffalo Commercial wrote, "and the venerable twirler deserves all the praise that is being showered upon him."

Wrote a Boston Globe sportswriter: "Yes, it remained for Denton B. Young, big, brawny. good-natured, hustling Cy, today the king of them all, to turn the trick, which has been the aim of all pitchers — to shut 'em out clean.

Young finished his career in 1911 with a big-league record 511 wins, a record that will never be broken.

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1978: On a gray, raw day at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Pete Rose singled in the fifth inning against Montreal to become the 14th, and youngest, player with 3,000 hits. "At 37 he remains [MLB's] most exciting participant," Bob Hertzel of the Cincinnati Enquirer wrote of Rose.  "And there is more to come. He figures more than 600 hits, which is four more years, at least."

Rose finished his career eight years later with a major-league record 4,256 hits.

1995: In the final basketball game at the historic Boston Garden, the Orlando Magic eliminated the Celtics in a first-round playoff series in four games. Afterward, fans rushed the court in the old barn — some even kissed the famous leprechaun logo on the parquet floor.

"Even though I grew up in California, it was the Celtics playing in the Garden that I watched on television," former Celtic Bill Walton told Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy. "I can't believe what a basketball building this is. It's a temple. It's a shrine. It's a place where people make religious pilgrimages." 

"It's also a dump," Shaughnessy wrote. "But it's our dump."

1999: Strange but true: In a 13-6 win against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, Colorado became the third team in the 20th century to score in every inning. "When we get beat," Cubs first baseman Mark Grace said, "we don't mess around, do we?" The Rockies' Larry Walker wasn't surprised by his team's offensive showing: "A high school team could come in here and score 10 runs the way the ball was blowing out today."

2007:  In one of the richest bouts to date, Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeated Oscar De La Hoya in 12-round split decision to win the WBC 154-pound title. Mayweather's estranged dad, who used to train De La Hoya, wasn't so sure about the decision. "My son had good defense and caught a lot of his punches," he said, "but I still thought Oscar pressed enough to win the fight." De La Hoya earned at least $25 million; Mayweather at least $10 million.

Happy birthday ...

• Steelers running back James Conner, who fought back from cancer to finish his college career at the University of Pittsburgh. Conner was taken in the third round of the 2017 draft by Pittsburgh. (25)
• Two-time Super Bowl champion Ike Taylor, who spent 12 seasons with the Steelers and ended his career with 14 interceptions. (40)

R.I.P.

1951: American golfer Leo Diegel, two-time PGA champion and member of the first four Ryder Cup teams. He died of throat and lung cancer at the age of 52.

2005: Jockey Ted Atkinson, Hall of Fame member who at one time led all jockeys in wins and money earned. He became the first jockey to win more than $1 million in a season. He was 88.

May 5: How an Astro earned a million Tootsie Rolls