Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Brian Cashman for Trading for Alex Rodriguez

July 26, 2020, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: Torres Sparks Yankee Comeback In Washington, But Fear Floats In Philly

July 27, 1975: Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez is born in Manhattan, and spends most of his youth -- I won't say, "grows up" -- in Miami.

February 16, 2004: The biggest trade in baseball history -- in terms of money and hype, if not in terms of number of players -- is announced.

The Texas Rangers got Alfonso Soriano, age 28, one of the most exciting talents in baseball, who had mainly been a 2nd baseman, but could also play shortstop and 3rd base; and a player to be named later, who, on April 23, turned out to be Joaquin Arias, 19, a minor-league infielder who ended up playing 474 games in the major leagues, including winning 2 World Series rings as a backup with the 2012 and 2014 San Francisco Giants.

The Yankees got Alex Rodriguez, a shortstop, soon to be 29, accepted by some as the best player in baseball, and the last 7 years of the biggest contract ever signed in professional sports to that point: $252 million.

I had to explain about Arias. But we know what happened to the 2 big names. Soriano bounced around, including back to the Yankees at the end, finishing with 412 home runs and 289 stolen bases, including (as far as we know, he was clean) the only honest season in MLB history with at least 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases, with the 2006 Washington Nationals.

And yet, he got traded again, not because the Nats no longer wanted to deal with him, but because the Chicago Cubs were going for broke, and he did help them reach the postseason in 2007 and 2008.

As for A-Rod: He moved to 3rd base, because Derek Jeter had earned the right to keep playing at shortstop for the Yankees, and ended up helping the Yankees reach the postseason 7 times, but won only 1 Pennant, 2009, also winning the World Series. His regular seasons were solid, sometimes spectacular. His postseasons, 2009 excepted, were horrendous.

He seemed personally responsible for the Yankees' failures to show up in the 2005 American League Division Series, the 2006 ALDS, the 2007 ALDS, the 2010 AL Championship Series, the 2011 ALDS, the 2012 ALCS, and the 2015 AL Wild Card Game. And it all seemed to start with his stupid "Slap Play" in Game 6 of the 2004 ALCS.

He finished his career with 14 All-Star berths, 3,115 hits, 696 home runs, 2,086 RBIs, 329 stolen bases, a batting title (before he was a Yankee), 2 Gold Gloves (both before he was a Yankee), 3 AL Most Valuable Player awards (2 as a Yankee)... and 1 World Championship, the category that Yankee Fans should care about.

And he frequently embarrassed the Yankees. If it was just little things, like the various manifestations of his huge ego, I could have lived with it. After all, my favorite player of all time is Reggie Jackson, and I lived with his similar issues.

But Reggie never cheated, as far as we know. A-Rod got caught cheating. Twice. And that was on top of his many postseason failures, and his single postseason success.

No player in the history of baseball has ever polarized fans more. If that's incorrect, then, certainly, none has ever done so within the fandom of his own team.

Since he retired in August 2016, the Yankees have not given uniform Number 13 back out. But they probably won't officially retire it. He may never get a Plaque in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium.

And, while he will be eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022, don't count on him being elected. Ever. Meanwhile, David Ortiz, who cheated, lied about it, got caught, and still lies about it, becomes eligible at the same time, and will get in on his first chance.

*

So, was it a bad trade? Was A-Rod more trouble than he, and the 1 World Championship he helped bring, were worth? Saying we would have won more without him is, at best, a guess.

But the trade made sense at the time.

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Brian Cashman for Trading for Alex Rodriguez

5. Third Base. In the Abbott & Costello routine "Who's On First?", the third baseman's name is "I Don't Know." And 3rd base has been a troublesome position over the years. In the 1980s, Sports Illustrated did a story examining why the Hall of Fame had fewer players at 3rd base than at any other position. And, a few times, they used the line from the routine: "I don't know. Third base."

The position has often been problematic for both New York teams. The Mets, in particular, made some dumb trades over the years, looking for the right 3rd baseman. After the 1969 World Series, Ed Charles retired, leaving them with Wayne Garrett. In hindsight, trusting Garrett would have left them better off.

Instead, they traded Amos Otis to the Kansas City Royals for Joe Foy. Otis became a star, while Foy was already struggling with drug addiction that shortened his career and, later, his life.

Two years later, they traded a fireballer struggling with his control to the California Angels for Jim Fregosi. Fregosi had been a fine shortstop, but was injured. The Mets were betting on him recovering and being able to play 3rd base. They lost that bet. And the pitcher they traded away? He found his control. His name was Nolan Ryan.

Even in their World Championship year of 1986, they platooned at 3rd base, because Howard Johnson, while he had power and speed, was a lousy fielder, and so Ray Knight played there frequently, enough to be named the Most Valuable Player of that year's World Series. And the Mets' all-time leader in most hitting categories? David Wright, who is now best known for his injuries and his unavailability than he is for any actual achievements or good qualities.

The Yankees have struggled at the position as well. Name a Hall of Fame 3rd baseman for the Yankees. Go ahead. I'll wait.

They had Joe Sewell in 1932, and Wade Boggs in the 1990s. But both made the Hall for what they did earlier. The Yankees have had some very good 3rd basemen, including Red Rolfe, Gil McDougald, Clete Boyer, Graig Nettles and Scott Brosius. But none of those is going to the Hall.

In 2002, following Brosius' retirement, the Yankees alternated between the veteran Robin Ventura and the struggling prospect Alfonso Soriano. In 2003, Soriano didn't seem to want the job, so Aaron Boone was picked up in midseason, and hit the Pennant-winning home run.

Alfonso Soriano

Then Boone wrecked his knee, and the Yankees, once again, needed a 3rd baseman. So the Yankees made the same bet on A-Rod that the Mets made on Fregosi, 32 years earlier. In regular-season play, it worked. In the postseason, not so much.

4. Public Relations. The Red Sox had signed Curt Schilling, to go with their already-loaded team. The Yankees thought they needed a big signing. And the Red Sox almost got A-Rod. This was a chance to put one over on them. Because...

3. Alex Rodriguez -- At the Time. These were A-Rod's OPS+'s from 1996, his 1st full season, until 2003, right before the trade was made: 161, 120, 136, 134, 163, 160, 158 and 147. He had led the AL in batting average once, slugging percentage once, hits once, doubles once, home runs the last 3 seasons, runs batted in once, runs scored once, and total bases 3 times.

And he had won a regular-season MVP award, and the Gold Glove at shortstop -- over Jeter, mind you, and over Boston's Nomar Garciaparra, too -- the last 2 seasons. And he was 28 years old, at his peak.

True, he would be playing a new position, and hitting in a ballpark much far less friendly to righthanded hitters like himself than to lefthanded hitters. But he looked like the prime acquisition of all time. And, needless to say, the Yankees could afford it.

He remains the only active player who had never yet played for the Yankees to have been interviewed by Yankee broadcaster Michael Kay for his YES Network talk show CenterStage. (Kay later brought him back as a Yankee.) Kay told him, "You playing in Texas is like putting the Mona Lisa up in the bathroom."

Alex laughed, because he knew what Kay meant: Dallas is a big metro area, but not a big baseball market, and the Rangers, then as now, were a joke franchise. With his skills, he needed to be at a high-profile team. The Red Sox tried to make that happen. The Yankees succeeded.

What about the red flags? He didn't do well in the postseason for the Seattle Mariners in 1995, but he was 20 and not yet a full-time player. He hit very well in the Playoffs in both 1997 and 2000. And the Texas Rangers were far from Playoff contenders while he was with them, so that wasn't an issue.

The other red flag? His personality? That was barely even a rumor. It was like Michael Jackson before 1991: There were whispers about him being weird (although in very different ways from Jackson), but nothing that was being taken remotely seriously. It was only with the Yankees, and the attention of the New York media, that his quirks were brought to the forefront.

2. Alex Rodriguez -- As He Became. These were A-Rod's OPS+'s from 2004 until 2010, his last full season until injuries and steroid-related suspensions started costing him time (he had 1 more full season, in 2015): 131, 173, 134, 176, 150, 138, 123. He led the AL in slugging 3 times, total bases once, runs twice, home runs twice, and RBIs once.

He won 2 MVPs, and the only season in that stretch in which he wasn't named to the All-Star Game, 2009, he was the leading factor in the Yankees winning the World Series.

And was his postseason performance really that bad? In the 2004 AL Division Series, he batted .421 and a homer and 3 RBIs. In the AL Championship Series, he disappeared over the last 4 games, but in the 1st 3, he had 2 homers and 5 RBIs. He was awful in 2005 and '06, but so was just about every other Yankee in those ALDS's. Even in 2007, he batted .267 with a solo homer.

In the 2009 postseason, he batted over .400 in both the ALDS and the ALCS, and finished with 6 homers, including the only one he would ever hit in World Series play (and even that was controversial: The 1st potential World Series homer ever reviewed by instant replay), and 18 RBIs -- 6 in each round.

In 2007, Major League Baseball expanded the Babe Ruth Award to be the MVP of the entire postseason, the way hockey does with the Conn Smythe Trophy. In 2009, A-Rod got it, and deserved it. (Hideki Matsui got the official World Series MVP Award.)

Along with the chance to hold the Commissioner's Trophy,

which goes to the entire team.

A-Rod was weak in his subsequent postseason appearances, but, again, in each case, so was pretty much every other player on the Yankees. He could have hit well and inspired them to do better, but the defeats were hardly all his fault.

So, in a regular-season sense, the trade for A-Rod was justified. In a postseason sense? There's the $64 million question.

1. George Steinbrenner. Ultimately, The Boss could have put the kibosh on the deal. But it was exactly the kind of move that he loved, and he jumped at it.

So even if you do think the trade wasn't worth it, it was Steinbrenner who should be held responsible, not Cashman. Cashman guessed that this was what the Boss wanted him to do, and the Boss confirmed it.

VERDICT: Not Guilty.In 2019, on the 15th Anniversary of the trade, I did a "What If?" post, suggesting that the Yankees would have been better off not doing it. But that's just speculation, and I could have been way off.

Without knowing for sure what would have happened, it's difficult to make a serious case that Cashman shouldn't have made the trade. There have been many transactions made by Cashman that made him look like a fool, but this isn't one of them.

↧

Torres Sparks Yankee Comeback In Washington, But Fear Floats In Philly

July 27, 2020, 7:40 am

≫ Next: You Want to Keep Politics Out of Sports? You Can't.

≪ Previous: Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Brian Cashman for Trading for Alex Rodriguez

The Yankees were totally flat on Saturday night at Nationals Park, so they needed a big rebound game yesterday afternoon. And, for most of the game, it looked like it wasn't going to happen.

With Masahiro Tanaka unavailable due to concussion comeback protocol (he pitched a simulated game in Scranton), and Domingo Germán unavailable due to being suspension without the due process of law (based on the word of one man who is too much of a coward to identify himself or his evidence), it was another "cast of thousands" pitching performance. Or, as Brian Cashman calls it, "All part of the plan."

Jonathan Loáisiga went 3 innings, allowing a run on 2 hits and a walk. Not bad, if your team will hit for you. David Hale allowed a run in the 4th. The Yankees got a scoreless 5th inning from Adam Ottavino, and Chad Green, frequently the starter in a situation like this, pitched a hitless 6th and 7th.

But you gotta score runs. And Patrick Corbin, a Yankee target each of the last 2 seasons but stinking with Washington, retired 18 of the 1st 19 batters he faced. It looked like it wouldn't be our day.

With 1 out in the 7th, Gleyber Torres, recognizing once again the words of the poet Robert W. Service -- "Now, a promise made is a debt unpaid" -- hit a home run. Nats manager Dave Martinez decided it was time to pull Corbin. This "Cashman made me do it, but I can't actually say that, so I, as the manager, have to look like an idiot before the public" move backfired, as Martinez brought in Will Harris, and Luke Voit homered off of him to tie it.

Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Aaron Hick walked to lead off the top of the 8th. Gary Sanchez struck out, but DJ LeMahieu singled. Aaron Judge flew out to left, but Torres came through again, singling home Hicks to make it 3-2 Yankees.

Tommy Kahnle got into a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the 8th -- partly thanks to an error by Cashman's golden boy Torres, putting the hero in position to be the goat instead, and I do mean goat, not "G.O.A.T." -- but worked out of it. Zack Britton, in place of the COVID-afflicted but recovering Aroldis Chapman, finished it off.

Yankees 3, Nationals 2. WP: Green (1-0). SV: Britton (1). LP: Sean Doolittle (0-1).

Now, the Yankees have to go to Philadelphia, where the Phillies just played the Miami Marlins, who had a COVID outbreak, and will be using the same visitors' clubhouse.

I am not blaming the Phillies. After all, the Marlins are in Florida, which, right now, is "the front" in this war, because Governor Ron DeSantis is a Trump-pandering asshole.

And Trump canceled his August 15 first ball ceremony at Yankee Stadium, because he says he's focusing on the pandemic. The real reason is that he doesn't want to see the players kneeling in a Black Lives Matter gesture. The coward.

Just our luck, half the team will come down with it -- and the Scranton callups will come through, until they don't, which will be when the regulars would come back, but they'd reach the postseason, and then..

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. It's 2 games in Philly, followed by 2 games with the Phillies in The Bronx. Come on you Bombers!

Back in New York, the Mets got clobbered 14-1 by the Atlanta Braves, after a 9th-inning bullpen meltdown the night before.

So, it's a typical season for the Mets: The highlight was a win on Opening Day, and now, it's late July, and they're terrible.

↧

You Want to Keep Politics Out of Sports? You Can't.

July 27, 2020, 12:32 pm

≫ Next: Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Blame George Steinbrenner for Hiring Billy Martin 5 Times

≪ Previous: Torres Sparks Yankee Comeback In Washington, But Fear Floats In Philly

You want to keep politics out of sports? Dream on.

You don't want people kneeling as the National Anthem is being played before a game?

In case you haven't noticed, playing the National Anthem before the game is a political act. So maybe we should just stop playing it before games.

Hell, just having a City's or State's name as part of a team's name could be considered a political act.

Would you rather do it the way Japan does it, and have corporate names in place of city names? The 2 teams in Tokyo in Japan's baseball league are the Yomiyuri Giants, named for a newspaper; and the Yakult Swallows, named for a dairy.

We could have the JPMorganChase Yankees, the CitiGroup Mets, the Blue Cross Red Sox (that sounds dumb, but Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is already one of their sponsors), the Wrigley Cubs, the Budweiser Cardinals, the Coca-Cola Braves, and...

The Dodge Dodgers. And, with a supermarket chain, the Giant Giants. There is no longer a 1st Mariner Bank, so the 1st Mariner Mariners is out. One name that could work out is if Kraft bought the naming rights to the Phillies, and named them after their brand of cream cheese: They would still be the Philadelphia Phillies.

But, "Keep politics out of sports"? As if.

Nobody says, "Stick to sports (or whatever it is that you do professionally), leave politics out of it" when they agree with your politics. None of these "patriots" (in New England or otherwise) is telling Mike Ditka to shut the hell up about the kneeling and stick to football.

And as for the people telling entertainers to stop talking about politics: Fool, you voted for Donald Trump, because you saw him on television and you thought he was rich and competent -- and he is neither.

You want to keep politics out of sports? No, you can't. Don't even try.

So put the sweatiest of socks in it.

↧

Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Blame George Steinbrenner for Hiring Billy Martin 5 Times

July 28, 2020, 9:00 pm

≫ Next: How Long It's Been: A Major League Baseball Game Was Played In Buffalo

≪ Previous: You Want to Keep Politics Out of Sports? You Can't.

July 24, 1978: Billy Martin resigns as manager of the New York Yankees.

Over the course of the 1977 season, Billy said that team owner George Steinbrenner had fired him 5 times, and he'd "fired himself 3 times." The Yankees won the World Series anyway.

But in '78, injuries mounted, and so did tension between Billy and George, and between Billy and Reggie Jackson. On July 17, Billy suspended Reggie for disobeying a sign. On July 23, when Reggie returned, Billy was getting on a plane for the team's roadtrip to Kansas City, and a sportswriter asked him what George thought about all of it. Referring to comments Jackson had made and team owner George Steinbrenner's 1972 violation of campaign-finance laws: "They're made for each other. One's a born liar, the other's convicted."

That was it: Billy had to go. George flew out to Kansas City, too, and Billy knew the game was up. He announced his resignation, but who was kidding who. He was replaced by Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Lemon, who had previously managed the Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox.

July 29, 1978: Old-Timers' Day at Yankee Stadium. A big question was whether Billy would be invited -- and, if so, whether he would accept. He did, and public address announcer Bob Sheppard read an announcement that Lemon would remain the manager through the end of the 1979 season, and then become the general manager. At which point, the field manager would, again, be Billy Martin.

Billy ran out onto the field in his Number 1 uniform, and got the greatest ovation of his career. And, under Lemon, the Yankees rebounded, got healthy, and won another World Series.

Billy's first tenure as manager was his most awkward -- but also, by far, his most successful. Although he returned in mid-1979, for the 1983 season, for most of 1985, and for the start of 1988, he only managed another 470 games for the Yankees -- almost exactly as many games as he managed in his first tenure (471).

And while he came very close to getting the Yankees into the postseason in 1985, by 1988 he was a neurotic relic. He died in a car crash on Christmas Day 1989, and there are those who believe that George was thinking of hiring him for Billy VI.

Why did Billy keep accepting George's offers? Because managing the Yankees meant everything to him. Too much.

Why did George keep bringing Billy back?

Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Blame George Steinbrenner for Hiring Billy Martin 5 Times

5. The Death of Jerry Lemon. On October 27, 1978, just 10 days after Bob Lemon managed the Yankees to win the World Series, his son Jerry was killed in a car accident. Bob was not emotionally prepared to manage the Yankees in 1979, and, in mid-season, George moved him to a scouting position, and brought Billy back.

Had Jerry not been killed, the plan would have been kept in place: In 1979, Bob manages; in 1980 and onward, Billy manages and Bob is GM. Would Billy have survived the contretemps over Mike Ferraro in the 1980 American League Championship Series? Maybe: I can imagine Billy sacrificing a coach to keep his job. Then, Billy could have won the 1981 World Series. And then, who knows?

4. Dick Howser. Once Billy's 3rd base coach, he got the Yankees to the AL Eastern Division title in 1980, but they lost the ALCS to the Kansas City Royals. George and Dick got into a huge argument, and Dick said the heck with this, I'm out.

He never returned to the Yankees. Ironically, despite having won the Royals their 1st Pennant, Jim Frey was fired as manager the next year, and replaced with Howser. He got the Royals to the AL Western Division title in 1984, and then took them all the way in 1985. But he developed cancer, and died in 1987.

Had George and Dick worked things out, Dick might have won it all in 1981. After all, a returned Lemon got them to within 2 games of a title. Things might not have fallen apart under Dick in 1982, the way they did under Lemon and then Gene Michael.

Dick might have managed the Yankees all the way until the 1986 All-Star Game -- which was the last game he ever managed, before leaving the Royals to focus on his health, unsuccessfully as it turned out.

Dick can hardly be blamed for not sticking with George. But if Dick I had not ended, there might still have been a Billy II later, but there probably wouldn't have been a Billy III, a Billy IV, or a Billy V.

3. George Was a Sucker. He loved a hard-luck story. Yes, putting one over on the Mets was why he acquired Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden and David Cone, and it might also have had something to do with why he hired Joe Torre. But Darryl and Doc, especially, had fallen on hard times, and George thought that, if someone showed faith in them, they could rebound and help the Yankees. He was right.

And nobody in baseball was a rebound guy as much as Billy Martin. George always thought Billy could be redeemed. And, competitively, this seemed to be true. It was off the field where Billy ruined himself.

2. Billy's Loyalty. Here's a list of men other than Billy Martin who managed for George twice from Billy's "resignation" in 1978 until George's ban in 1990: Bob Lemon, Gene Michael, Lou Piniella. Once in that stretch? Dick Howser, Clyde King, Yogi Berra, Bucky Dent, Stump Merrill.

George liked to say that he never fired anybody, he just moved them around in the organization. In the case of Lemon, Michael, Piniella, King and Merrill, that was true. But Howser, Berra and Dent all said, "Forget it," and didn't come back. They quit on George. I can't blame them.

Billy never quit on George. Even the 1st time, when, officially, it was a resignation, it wasn't, "I've had enough of this guy." It was, "I blew it, and I have to go, and I know it." But he came back when George apologized.

This makes it sound like Billy was a battered wife, always returning to the domestic abuse. Well, Billy abused George a bit as well.

1. Winning. The 5th time: The Yankees were doing okay, until an injury crisis hit. On June 22, 1988, the Yankees lost for the 4th straight time in Detroit, the last 3 in walkoff fashion, but they were still only 2 1/2 games out of 1st place. It was off-the-field stuff that led George to fire Billy. They were 40-28. After that, with Piniella in charge? 45-48. They ended up 3 1/2 games behind the Boston Red Sox.

The 4th time: They were 6-10 when George fired Yogi on April 29, 1985, and Billy led them to 91-54 the rest of the way. They finished 2 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays. On June 11 and 12, the Yankees lost to the Jays, at home, in extra innings. Had they won either of those games, the AL East race would have ended tied.

Given the injuries the Yankees had, it might have been Billy's best managing job ever. Again, it was off-the-field stuff that led George to fire Billy.

The 3rd time: In 1983, the Yankees went 91-71, 7 games behind the Baltimore Orioles. There was little wrong with Billy's managing that year. And, given that the Yankees had been awful the year before, and were in a bit of a transition, this was a good job.

The Detroit Tigers ran away with the Division the next year, but if Billy had been kept on, to build with that team, the 1985 race might have had a very different ending. This time, it's not clear why George fired Billy. Certainly, a 12-game improvement can't be considered a failure.

The 2nd time: As I said, Lemon lost his son to a car crash right after the 1978 World Series, and his heart wasn't in managing. Replacing him on June 18, 1979, with the Yankees at 34-31 and in yet another injury crisis, was the right thing to do.

Was bringing Billy back the right thing to do? From that point onward, they went 55-40 under Billy -- including 31-23 after Thurman Munson was killed in a plane crash on August 2. So they didn't fall apart after Thurman died. Billy got them back on the right track, although the Orioles ran away with the Division. So why didn't George keep Billy for 1980? Again, an off-the-field incident.

So Billy did well as Yankee manager in runs 2 through 5, but not quite well enough to make the Playoffs.

But the 1st time? He won. Let's face it: If the Yankees hadn't won the Pennant in 1976, George probably would have fired Billy outright in 1977, instead of giving him several "one last chance"s, and he might not have won the Pennant in 1977, either. And he might never have won a Pennant, under any manager.

And then, George would have gone down in history as the blowhard who wasted all that money on the Yankees and got nothing out of it.

Billy needed George. But George needed Billy, too.

VERDICT: Not Guilty.

↧

How Long It's Been: A Major League Baseball Game Was Played In Buffalo

July 28, 2020, 10:40 pm

≫ Next: Hasty Rescheduling Benefits Yankees, Hurts Orioles

≪ Previous: Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Blame George Steinbrenner for Hiring Billy Martin 5 Times

Tonight, at 6:05 PM, the Toronto Blue Jays will play their COVID-19-delayed home opener, against the Washington Nationals. Because of restrictions in Canada and Pennsylvania, and Florida being just too damn dangerous, it will be played in the closest large American city to Toronto: Buffalo, New York, at the ballpark currently named Sahlen Field.

Built in 1988 as the home of the Class AAA Buffalo Bisons of the International League, it was built with a cabability for addition, in case Buffalo got one of the 1993 expansion teams, raising seating capacity from 19,500 to 40,000. It didn't happen, and capacity is now officially listed as 16,600, still the largest in Triple-A ball.

It was known as Pilot Field until 1995, then North AmeriCare Park until 1999, then Dunn Tire Park until 2009, then Coca-Cola Field until 2019. Sahlen is a local meatpacking company.

The Blue Jays were founded in 1977. From then until midway through the 1989 season, they played at Exhibition Stadium. Since then, they played at the SkyDome, now named the Rogers Centre. Both stadiums were built for football, and had artificial turf. So this will be their 1st regular-season home game at a stadium designed for baseball, and their 1st home game on real grass.

More than that, it is the 1st Major League Baseball game played in Buffalo since...

Well, that depends on how you define "major league." Buffalo had a team in the Federal League, which only lasted 2 seasons. The Buffalo Blues finished 4th out of 8 teams in 1914, going 80-71; and 6th in 1915, going 74-78.

Players of note included former Yankees Russ Ford (a pitcher renowned for his curveball, and no relation to Whitey) and Hal Chase (often hailed as the best-fielding 1st baseman of all time, but known to throw games and later banned from baseball); Solly Hofman, an outfielder who had helped the Chicago Cubs win the 1907 and 1908 World Series; and Hugh Bedient, a pitcher who had helped the Boston Red Sox win the 1912 World Series.

Hal Chase in a Buffalo Blues uniform

They played at the International Fair Association Grounds, a few blocks away from Olympic Park, where the Triple-A Bisons then played. That ballpark would be replaced by Offermann Field in 1924. In 1960, the Bisons moved into War Memorial Stadium, which had been built for football in 1938, and was home to the AFL's/NFL's Buffalo Bills until 1972. The ballpark scenes from The Natural were filmed there in 1983. It was demolished after the Bisons moved to Pilot/Sahlen Field in 1988.

But if you don't count the Federal League as "major," then the last MLB game in Buffalo was played on October 7, 1885, at Olympic Park. The Bisons, then a National League team, got swept in a doubleheader, 4-0 and 6-1, by the Providence Grays. Despite winning the Pennant the year before, this was also the last day of competition for the Grays. Rhode Island has not returned to the major leagues since, and, except for the Federal League, Western New York hasn't, either -- until now.

Although Buffalo has an NFL team and an NBA team, and it has an in-city population of 261,000 that isn't that much less than those of St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, its metropolitan area population of 1,135,000 ranks it 51st among American metro areas. The current smallest area with an MLB team, Milwaukee, has over half a million more: 1,671,000. If you count Canadian cities, Buffalo drops to 56th.

It makes more sense to use the FL Blues, rather than the NL Bisons, as the basis for this post. By that measure, the last MLB game played in Buffalo, or anywhere in Western New York, was on September 8, 1915, before the Blues went on a season-ending 17-game roadtrip: It was a doubleheader, and the Blues swept it, beating the FL version of the Baltimore Orioles, 4-0 and 5-4. Attendance was listed at 5,000, but even that may have been exaggerated.

So that's a little less than 105 years. How long has that been?

*

Had you been around back then, you would have had to be in the ballpark to find out what happened as it was happening. There was no Internet, because there were no computers. There was no television. There was radio transmission, but not radio broadcasting the way that there would be from 1920 onward.

There were no photocopies, credit cards or automatic teller machines. Air conditioning was hardly known. Very few people had telephones. In spite of the fiction of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, no one had yet launched a rocket toward space.

Had you been around back then, if you were in the home country of the home team, you were probably safe from being drafted to fight in World War I. But Buffalo is a border city, and some people at the game might have come over from Canada. Some of them stood a good chance of being drafted – not for their own country, so much, as for the British Empire, to which Canada was still, essentially, a client nation.

Today, Queen Elizabeth II is Canada's head of state – officially, she is "Queen of Canada"– but this is largely a ceremonial post. Her grandfather, King George V, was commander-in-chief, and Prime Minister Robert Borden (now on Canada's $100 bill) answered to him.

Not counting the Federal League, what we would now call Major League Baseball had 16 teams. None was further west than St. Louis. None was further south than St. Louis, Cincinnati or Washington. There was a National League team in Boston, an American League teams in Philadelphia and St. Louis. The New York Yankees had only been the Yankees officially for 3 seasons, as they were the Highlanders before that. And they had never won a Pennant.

All of these facts are no longer true.

There was professional football, but no National Football League, and the governing body of Canadian football was the Canada Rugby Union, not the Canadian Football League. There was basketball, but not really any professional basketball to speak of. There was no National Hockey League.

There was the National Hockey Association in the East, and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in the West, and the champions of those leagues would face each other for the Stanley Cup until 1917, when the NHL replaced the NHA. Then, the NHL and PCHA champions would face each other for the Cup, until 1926, when it became an all-NHL affair.

The Vancouver Millionaires had won the Cup. No Vancouver team has won it since. The Boston Braves would still be baseball's World Champions for another few days, before being succeeded by the nearby Red Sox.

The idea of flying an airplane anywhere was risky; that of flying one across the Atlantic Ocean was lunacy. Charles Lindbergh was in junior high school. The automobile was becoming more affordable, and thus more popular, but most cars were still open rather than enclosed. Only in this year were the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts (specifically, New York and San Francisco) linked by telephone wires. Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison were both still alive, and would be for several years to come.

Babe Ruth was a rookie, and mainly a pitcher. So was George Sisler, who went on to become one of the best hitters, and one of the best 1st basemen, the game has seen to this day. Baseball's biggest stars, as they had been for a few years, were Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Walter Johnson, Eddie Collins, and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. Christy Mathewson and Nap Lajoie each had 1 more season in him; Honus Wagner, 2 more.

Lou Gehrig was 12 years old. Joe DiMaggio was 10 months old. Ted Williams, Bob Feller, Stan Musial and Jackie Robinson would all be born over the next 5 years and change.

The top player in pro football, such as it then was, was Jim Thorpe of the Canton Bulldogs, the 1912 Olympic decathlon champion. The Heavyweight Champion of the World was Jess Willard, who had taken the title by knocking out Jack Johnson, the 1st black Champion, earlier in the year. Willard ended up defending his title just once, in 1916, before getting slaughtered by Jack Dempsey in 1919.

None of these sports stars of 1915 would live to see 1977. Mathewson wouldn't even live to see 1926, Johnson died in 1946, Ruth in 1948, Collins and Jackson in 1951, Speaker in 1958, Lajoie in 1959, Cobb in 1961, and Sisler made it to 1973.

Such was medicine at the time. There were no antibiotics. This, alone, helped to keep the average human life expectancy at around 50. Also, artificial organs were not yet possible. Transplantation of organs was not possible. There was no polio vaccine. Insulin was known to exist, but was not yet used to treat diabetes. There was no birth control pill, but there was no Viagra, either.

The English Football League was won by Everton, the blue club in Liverpool. The FA Cup was won by Sheffield United, the red club in Sheffield. Due to wartime travel restrictions in London, the Final was played at Manchester United's Old Trafford ground, even though the other team, Chelsea, was a London club.

This was the last season of English soccer before the end of the war, and when the game resumed, Liverpool and Manchester United were punished for fixing a match at the end of the 1915 League season. This led to the sports-administration equivalent of a plea-bargain: In exchange for the support of London club Arsenal against a rougher penalty, those clubs would support Arsenal's admission to the League's Division One – at the expense of the team that finished last in the last League season of 1915, which just so happened to be Arsenal's arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur.

(And now you know the story behind Spurs fans' claim of how Arsenal "cheated" to get into the first division: They didn't. And Spurs were not yet in North London, or in London at all: The city's boundaries would be redrawn in 1965, and that's how "the Middlesex club" got into the city.)

The Mayor of Buffalo was Louis P. Fuhrmann. The Mayor of New York was John Purroy Mitchel, the Governor of New York was Charles S. Whitman (no relation to the 1966 University of Texas sniper), and the Governor of New Jersey was James F. Fielder. None of these men would live to see 1955.

The President of the United States was Woodrow Wilson. Former Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft were still alive. So were the widows of James Garfield and Grover Cleveland. Warren Harding had just been sworn in as U.S. Senator from Ohio. Calvin Coolidge was a State Senator in Massachusetts. Herbert Hoover was running food-relief efforts to Europe as it was stricken by World War I. Franklin Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a position his cousin Theodore had once held.

Harry Truman was farming in Missouri. Dwight D. Eisenhower was about to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Lyndon Johnson was in elementary school; Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan hadn't yet started school. John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, both George Bushes, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden were not yet born.

The Motion Picture Directors Association, forerunner of the Screen Directors' Guild, was founded in 1915. The films they made were all silent. Audrey Munson, a sculptor's model, became the first woman to appear nude in a mainstream film, Inspiration. (No print of this film survives, but a few photos of her so unclothed do – and, how can I put this politely, she was a good choice.)

Broncho Billy Anderson, Harold Lloyd, Theda Bara (the first actress to be called a "vamp" and the performer with a higher percentage of lost films than any other actor with a Hollywood star on the Walk of Fame), Mary Pickford, and a young Charlie Chaplin were the biggest film stars of the time.

Vaudeville star W.C. Fields made his film debut, in Pool Sharks. Douglas Fairbanks (not yet married to Pickford) made his film debut, in The Lamb. The film Regeneration was released, and is considered the 1st gangster film.

D.W. Griffith premiered his film The Birth of a Nation, with its pro-South and pro-Ku Klux Klan propaganda; Griffith gave President Wilson a private screening in the White House, and Wilson said, "It is like writing history with lightning," (true, I suppose) and, "It is all so terribly true" (the hell it was).

Indeed, the American Civil War had only been over for 50 years, and there were still living veterans of the Mexican-American War (1846-48) and the Texas War of Independence (1836) – which included the Battle of the Alamo, which Griffith made into the film Martyrs of the Alamo. I wonder if he knew that the Texans were slaveholders? Maybe he did, and still didn't think the victorious Mexicans were the good guys.

J.R.R. Tolkein was about to graduate from Exeter College, Oxford. C.S. Lewis was studying at Lurgan College, in County Omagh in what is now Northern Ireland. F. Scott Fitzgerald was at Princeton University, and James Thurber was at The... Ohio State University.

Ernest Hemingway was 16 years old, Margaret Mitchell was 14, John Steinbeck was 13, Theodor Seuss Geisel was 11, Ian Fleming and Richard Wright were 7, and Tennessee Williams was 4 (and still going by Thomas Lanier Williams III). Albert Camus and William S. Burroughs were babies. Arthur Miller was born the next month. The births of Gene Roddenberry, George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg, George R.R. Martin and J.K. Rowling were well into the future.

Edgar Rice Burroughs had published Tarzan of the Apes just 3 years earlier. He preceded every superhero, none of whom had yet been created; indeed, Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had been born only the preceding year, and Batman creator Bob Kane was born the next month.

Laurel & Hardy had not yet met. Nor had Abbott & Costello. The Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges had not yet begun their acts. No one had yet heard of Zorro, Hercule Poirot, Our Gang (a.k.a. the Little Rascals), Charlie Chan, the Hardy Boys, Mickey Mouse, Popeye, Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon.

Inflation has been such that what $1.00 would buy then, $25.52 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 2 cents, and a New York Subway ride 5 cents. The average price of a gallon of gas was 15 cents, a cup of coffee 15 cents, a movie ticket 7 cents, a Ford Model T $390, and a new house $3,200. Don't ask what a burger-fries-and-Coke meal cost: French fries, as we now know them, didn't exist yet, and the hamburger hadn't yet caught on. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed that day at 81.16. No, that is not a misprint: Eighty-one point sixteen.

The tallest building in the world was the Woolworth Building in New York. There were no telephone numbers as we now understand the term: You just asked the operator to connect you with someone else's phone. There were no ZIP Codes, either.

There was a World's Fair in 1915, the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, and it marked that city's coming-out party as a completion of its comeback from its 1906 earthquake and resultant devastating fire.

This expo introduced the mainland U.S. to the ukulele. Popular songs of 1915 included "I Love a Piano" by Irving Berlin, "M-O-T-H-E-R" by Howard Johnson (not the hotelier, or the 1980s Mets 3d baseman), "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" by Alma Gluck, and the World War I-themed songs "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" by John McCormack, "Pack Up Your Troubles" by George Asaf, and "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier" by Alfred Bryan.

In the late Summer and early Autumn of 1915, the Ottoman Empire was undertaking the Armenian Genocide, leading to the deaths of 1.5 million people. Britain's military made the combat debuts of the tank and the aircraft carrier. The British also used poison gas for the 1st time, at the Battle of Loos, after the German Army had debuted it earlier in the year. The Imperial Russian Army abandoned Warsaw, allowing the Polish capital to be occupied by Germany.

In events unrelated to sports or World War I, construction had recently begun on the Lincoln Memorial. The Pennsylvania Railroad began electrified commuter rail service, between Philadelphia and Paoli. John B. Gruelle patented the Raggedy Ann doll. And the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that persons from the Middle East were racially "white," and had the right to become naturalized U.S. citizens. (Try getting a federal court with Bush and Trump appointees to make that ruling now.)

Paul Ehrlich, and Anthony Comstock, and Albert Goodwill Spalding died. Ingrid Bergman, and Hall of Fame basketball coach Pete Newell, and Hall of Fame hockey goaltender Frank Brimsek were born.

September 8, 1915. A Major League Baseball game is played in Buffalo, New York. With the Buffalo Blues playing the rest of their season on the road, and the Federal League then folding, no MLB game has been played in Buffalo since.

Tonight, that will no longer be the case, as the Toronto Blue Jays "host" the Washington Nationals. For the 1st time in 105 years, "The City of Light" will host baseball at the highest level.

It will only be for the next 2 months -- 3, if the Jays make the Playoffs. But maybe this will show people that Buffalo should be treated as a major league city.

↧

Hasty Rescheduling Benefits Yankees, Hurts Orioles

July 30, 2020, 9:14 am

≫ Next: Judge Saves Yanks' Bacon In Baltimore

≪ Previous: How Long It's Been: A Major League Baseball Game Was Played In Buffalo

In the early 1990s, I tried to write a baseball-themed novel. I got about 1/3rd of the way through it, and, for reasons I've long since forgotten, I stopped.

The setting was Garden City, named after New Jersey, the Garden State. I imagined that Newark, Jersey City, Paterson and environs were one large city, with multiple boroughs like New York, with about 3 million people -- at the time, about the same as Chicago and Los Angeles. I made maps, complete with a rapid-transit system.

The Meadowlands Sports Complex was included, with a baseball team that I called the Garden City Knights, which I named after the fictional New York-based team in The Natural. But they had their own NFL team, the Tornadoes, named after a briefly-existing NFL team in Newark. So, in this reality, the Giants and Jets were still in New York City, not the Meadowlands.

And the basketball and hockey teams at the Arena were old ones, not new ones. Calling the NHL team the Generals worked, but I couldn't think of a good team for the NBA team, and ended up with "Palisaders," which I was never satisfied with.

My main character was a sports columnist for a Garden City newspaper. I named him Donald. This was before Trump went into politics, and before I started working for another businessman from New York named Donald. If I were to start over, I would not name this character Donald.

I set the novel in what was then the near future: The year 2000. Obviously, not knowing that the Yankees and Mets would play each other in the 2000 World Series, I meant for the Knights to go on a Pennant run, winning Game 6 of the World Series in a 16-inning 1-0 thriller, and then winning Game 7 in the bottom of the 9th, on a hit (not a home run) -- by the 1st woman to play in Major League Baseball. (This was before the TV show Pitch, and my pioneering character was a catcher, not a pitcher like on that show.)

One other storyline I put in: I correctly predicted that the Florida Marlins would change their name to the Miami Marlins, and I also correctly predicted that they would have a season curtailed by a disease outbreak. In the book, they were nicknamed the Malaria Marlins.

*

Come back to real-life 2020. Major League Baseball does not have a Coronavirus problem. The Miami Marlins have one. One team.

So the Yankees' 4-game, 2-in-Philly-2-in-The-Bronx series with the Phillies was postponed, due to the Marlins having infected the Phillies' visiting clubhouse. The schedule was rearranged and, since the Yankees were already just down the road in Washington, they went up the Parkway to Baltimore, to play a series with the Orioles.

From the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, regardless of how good the Yankees were, the Orioles were good, and drove the Yankees crazy. The rivalry was rekindled in the mid-1990s, but tailed off once the Orioles did. It got going again in the early 2010s, but the Yankees have dominated the last few years.

At least this time, due to virus restrictions, the Orioles didn't have to deal with Yankee Fans "taking over their ballpark." The only people allowed in Camden Yards were essential employees. Unfortunately for the Orioles, those essential employees included the Yankee players.

The Yankees didn't waste any time. On the 1st pitch of the game, DJ LeMahieu hit a home run off Asher Wojciechowski, who may have Met pitcher Noah Syndergaard's hairstyle, but not his stuff. It was the 1st of 4 hits that "LeMachine" got on the night.

The Yankees scored another run in the 1st, before the O's got 1 of their own. From there, the much-hyped Gerrit Cole cruised into the 7th, before allowing a home run to Dwight Smith Jr., son of the former Chicago Cub Rookie of the Year. Cole was not happy about it.

But he had to be happy about the runs support he got. It included home runs by Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks, and some sloppy Baltimore defense. Yankees 9, Orioles 3. WP: Cole (2-0). No save. LP: Wojciechowski (0-1).

The Yankees improved to 3-1. Elsewhere in the American League Eastern Division, the Tampa Bay Rays are 4-2, the Toronto (Buffalo) Blue Jays 3-3, the Orioles 2-2, and the Boston Red Sox 2-4. The Sox dropped the 1st 2 games of their series with the Mets at Citi Field, before coming from behind to win last night.

The Minnesota Twins and the Colorado Rockies are 4-1, the only teams with a better record than the Yankees. The Red Sox are 1 of 9 teams at the current bottom of MLB, at 2-4.

The Yankees and Orioles are scheduled to go again tonight. J.A. Happ and John Means are listed as the starters. If all goes well -- and I'm not talking about winning and losing here -- the Yankees will have their home opener tomorrow night, against the Red Sox.

↧

Judge Saves Yanks' Bacon In Baltimore

July 31, 2020, 12:04 pm

≫ Next: Gumby's Return, Homers Lead Yanks Past Scum In Home Opener

≪ Previous: Hasty Rescheduling Benefits Yankees, Hurts Orioles

The Yankees should have cruised to an easy victory over the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards last night. Instead, they blew it -- until Aaron Judge came to the rescue.

DJ LeMahieu grounded out to start the game, but then Oriole starter John Means hit Judge and then Gleyber Torres with pitches. Torres ended up having to leave the game, but he should be fine for the series starting tonight.

Giancarlo Stanton singled Judge home. Aaron Hicks drew a walk to load the bases. And then Luke Voit crushed one to center field, for a grand slam. So it was 5-0 Yankees before the Orioles even came to bat.

But J.A. Happ wasn't going to let it be easy. He allowed 2 runs in the bottom of the 1st inning, and 2 more in the 2nd. It stayed 5-4 Yankees, through an hour-long rain delay in the 6th inning. Adam Ottavino pitched the 5th, but the delay meant Brian Cashman, the real manager of this team (whoever is his field manager is essentially his press secretary), sent in a new pitcher, Jonathan Loaisiga.

He did okay in the 6th and the 7th. But in the 8th, he hit Anthony Santander with a pitch, and then allowed a home run to Pedro Severino. No relation to the Yankees' Luis Severino, but a reminder that, if our Sevy weren't out for the season, he might have started this game, and done better than Happ and Loaisiga.

Top of the 9th. The Yankees remembered that they are playing the Orioles, whom they do not lose to in recent times. Cole Sulser was now pitching for Baltimore. Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Sulser walked Gio Urshela. He got Mike Tauchman to fly to left. But LeMahieu singled.

That brought Judge to the plate. The big man drove one 413 feet to left-center, to save the Yankees' bacon. Speaking of meat: Happ and Loaisiga need to go halfsies and buy Judge the biggest steak they can find.

Zack Britton shut the O's down 1-2-3. Yankees 8, Orioles 6. WP: Loaisiga (1-0, and hardly deserved, ut the letter of the rule says he is the winning pitcher). SV: Britton (2). LP: Sulser (0-1).

The Yankees thus swept this hastily-rearranged series with the Orioles, and come home to finally, at the end of July, play their 1st home game of this Coronavirus-addled season, starting a series with The Scum, the Boston Red Sox.

They come off a 4-game, home-and-home series with the Mets. The road team won all 4 games: The Mets won both games at Fenway Park, while the Red Sox won both games at Citi Field.

The starting pitchers are currently listed as follows:

* Tonight, 7:00, on YES: Jordan Montgomery for us, Ryan Weber for them.

* Tomorrow, 7:00, on Fox: Masahiro Tanaka makes his season debut against Zack Godley.

* Sunday, 7:00, on ESPN: James Paxton vs. Matt Hall.

In addition to Torres' HBP not being especially series, the Yankees got more good news: Closer Aroldis Chapman, who had been stricken with COVID-19, has been cleared to return to play.

So, Yankees vs. Red Sox. The Hundred Year War. Come on you Pinstripes!

↧

Gumby's Return, Homers Lead Yanks Past Scum In Home Opener

August 1, 2020, 8:44 am

≫ Next: List of Arsenal Cup Finals, 1927-2020

≪ Previous: Judge Saves Yanks' Bacon In Baltimore

Finally, on July 31, the Coronavirus-delayed home opener for the New York Yankees. And against The Scum, the Boston Red Sox, no less.

The teams went through most of the motions of a traditional opener. There was red, white and blue bunting hung around Yankee Stadium II. The starting lineups were announced, and the players stood on the foul lines, although not the entire teams -- "social distancing," and all that. Suzyn Waldman sang the National Anthem. CC Sabathia threw out the ceremonial first ball. And there was a ceremony honoring health care workers -- complete with both teams, and even their owners (Hal Steinbrenner and John W. Henry) hitting trash can lids with bats. (A swipe at the Houston Astros, maybe?)

The game was scoreless until the top of the 3rd inning. Michael Chavis hit a home run of Jordan Montgomery to make it 1-0 to the Bad Guys. But in the bottom of the inning, DJ LeMahieu got aboard, and Aaron Judge hit yet another homer to make it 2-1 to the Good Guys. Gio Urshela added a homer in the 45th. Brett Gardner, who had gotten off to a terrible start at the plate, iced the game with a homer in the 8th.

Montgomery, known as "Gumby," hadn't pitched since May 1, 2018, due to Tommy John surgery and complications, but he pitched into the 6th inning, and, aside from the Chavis homer, was exceptional. Aaron Boone took him out, probably because he'd thrown 81 pitches, and Boone didn't want to overdo it in Montgomery's 1st start back.

Chad Green, Adam Ottavino and Jonathan Holder went the rest of the way, with the only baserunner being a walk by Holder. Yankees 5, Red Sox 1. WP: Montgomery (1-0). No save. LP: Ryan Weber (0-2).

The tams play again tonight, with Masahiro Tanaka making his injury-delayed season debut, and Zack Godley starting for Boston. Come on you Pinstripes: Beat The Scum!

The Mets blew a 10-2 lead last night, and lost to the Atlanta Braves 11-10. A familiar story for Met fans: They win on Opening Day, and think this is the year they're finally going to take New York back from the Yankees. And then, at the end of July, their team is revealed to stink. The Coronavirus hasn't changed that.

↧

List of Arsenal Cup Finals, 1927-2020

August 1, 2020, 5:00 pm

≫ Next: Yankees on Arsenal Trophy Win Days, 1930-2020

≪ Previous: Gumby's Return, Homers Lead Yanks Past Scum In Home Opener

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette

using the FA Cup to copy their goalscoring celebration,

which is usually a handshake.

Today, Arsenal won the Football Association Cup Final, coming from behind to beat Chelsea, 2-1, in front of a Coronavirus-mandated empty new Wembley Stadium in London. It redeemed a season in which Arsenal finished in 8th place in the Premier League, its worst performance in 25 years.

It was the 3rd time the North Londoners had beaten the West Londoners in the FA Cup Final, following 2002 and 2017. It also avenged a defeat to Chelsea in last season's UEFA Europa League Final, a ghastly loss.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Arsenal's Captain, scored both Arsenal goals, matching the feat of Reg Lewis in the 1950 Final win over Liverpool. Auba one-upped Lewis, though, because he scored 1 from open play and 1 on a penalty. In fact, it was the 1st penalty converted for Arsenal in an FA Cup Final, not counting the 2005 Final against Manchester United going to penalty kicks.

Mikel Arteta, who captained the 2014 Final win over Hull City, became the 2nd man to win the FA Cup for Arsenal as both a player and as the manager. George Graham had done it in 1971 as a player and 1993 as the manager.

Arsenal Cup Finals

April 23, 1927, FA Cup Final, at the original Wembley Stadium, West London: Arsenal lose to Cardiff City of Wales, 1-0. In their 1st Cup Final, Arsenal are victimized by a freak play. A shot by Hughie Ferguson of Cardiff is stopped by Arsenal goalkeeper Dan Lewis, but the ball squeezes through his elbow and back into the net.

This is the only time a team from outside England has won the FA Cup. Cardiff also reached the Final, but lost, in 1925 and 2008. They are 1 of 5 teams in Wales eligible to play in English competitions, the others being Swansea City, Newport County, Wrexham and Merthyr Town.

Queen's Park of Glasgow, Scotland lost the Final in 1884 and 1885, but an 1887 ruling by the Scottish FA made Scottish teams ineligible for England's FA Cup.

April 26, 1930, FA Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal defeat Huddersfield Town of Yorkshire, 2-0. The goals are scored by Alex James and Jack Lambert -- no relation to the later legendary Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker. It is The Arsenal's 1st major trophy. They win their 1st Football League title the next season.

The game began with both teams walking out together, as Arsenal's manager was Herbert Chapman, who had built the Huddersfield team that had won a few trophies in the 1920s. This was the 1st time it had been done, and it has been done ever since -- except in 2020, due to "social distancing."

April 23, 1932, FA Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal lose to Newcastle United of the North-East, 2-1. Bob John of Arsenal opens the scoring. Newcastle's 1st goal comes when Jimmy Richardson stops an errant pass at the end line, or over it (thus it was out of bounds, and should have been a goal kick to Arsenal) as many people thought, and crosses it back to Jack Allen, who scores it. Allen later adds the winner.

This may have been the 1st time in a big game that Arsenal had been robbed by the officials. It would not be the last.

April 25, 1936, FA Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal defeat Sheffield United of Yorkshire, 1-0. This game is notable for a labor dispute that forbids newsreel cameras inside the stadium, so news services send airplanes, and one uses an early helicopter, to try to film the action from above. They get some great shots of the stadium, but not of the only goal of the game, scored by Ted Drake.

May 4, 1941, Football League War Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal and Preston North End of Lancashire play to a 1-1 draw. A replay is necessary.

May 31, 1941, Football League War Cup Final Replay, Ewood Park, Blackburn, Lancashire: Arsenal lose 2-1 to Preston. Ewood Park, then as now, was the home ground of Blackburn Rovers.

May 15, 1943, Football League War Cup Final, Stamford Bridge, West London: Arsenal lose 4-2 to Blackpool of Lancashire. Stamford Bridge, then as now, was the home ground of Chelsea.

April 29, 1950, FA Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal defeat Merseyside club Liverpool, 2-0. Reg Lewis scores both goals. Arsenal Captain Joe Mercer had long played for the other major team in Liverpool, Everton, but goes out of his way to praise Liverpool when interviewed for the official newsreel of the match.

May 3, 1952, FA Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal lose 1-0 to Newcastle. Right back Walley Barnes twists his knee in the 35th minute, with the score still 0-0. No substitutes were allowed in English soccer, so The Arsenal are down to 10 men for the last 55 minutes of the game. There would be several more Cup Finals marred by injuries, until substitutes were finally allowed in the 1966-67 season.

George Robledo, a Chilean playing in England, scores the goal. Arsenal would win the League the next season, but didn't play for a major trophy again for 15 years.

March 2, 1968, Football League Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal lose 1-0 to Leeds United of Yorkshire. The League Cup began in 1960. While every team in England, over 700 of them at various levels (plus the aforementioned 5 in Wales), are eligible for the FA Cup, only the 92 teams in the 4 divisions of The Football League (including, from 1992-93 onward, the Premier League) are eligible for the League Cup.

March 15, 1969 League Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal lose 3-1 to Swindon Town of Wiltshire in extra time. The pitch (field) was a mess because of a previous event. Then, half the Arsenal team was stricken by the flu -- similar to the lasagne story at Tottenham in 2006, although not with sinister implications.

Then it rained, making the pitch even worse. On the day before the game, the Arsenal players who felt well enough to get out of bed went to look at the pitch, and told the officials it was unplayable, and the game should be postponed. It wasn't. The officials screwing Arsenal over did not begin with Arsène

Wenger becoming their manager, or even with the start of the Premier League in 1992.

Despite Swindon being a 3rd division team, they lead Arsenal from the 35th minute until the 86th, when Bobby Gould scored. But the weakened players can't handle extra time on a bad pitch, and allow 2 goals by Don Rogers, the 1st one on a defensive error by centreback Ian Ure, who would be abused by Arsenal fans for this mistake for the rest of his career.

This may still be the most disastrous loss in Arsenal history, ahead of the famous losses to Walsall in the 1933 FA Cup and the 1983 League Cup, and "The Wrexham Disaster" in the 1992 FA Cup. (Note that none of these happened in Finals.)

April 22, 1970, Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Final, 1st Leg, Stade Constant Vanden Stock, Anderlecht, Belgium: Arsenal lose 3-1 to Anderlecht. Trailing 3-0 in the 82nd minute, Ray Kennedy, not quite 19 years old, scores a goal, giving them a lifeline -- or a "Ray of hope," as the newspapers called it. But Arsenal would have to win by at least 2 goals in the home leg to take this trophy -- 3 if Anderlecht got an away goal.

April 28, 1970, Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Final, 2nd Leg, Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, North London: Arsenal beat Anderlecht, 3-0. Eddie Kelly scores in the 25th minute, and then come goals by John Radford in the 75th and Jon Sammels just 1 minute later. Thus, Arsenal win 4-3 on aggregate. Given the away goals rule, Sammels' goal was not necessary, but it was welcomed.

The Fairs Cup began in 1958. It was renamed the UEFA Cup for the 1971-72 season, and the UEFA Europa League for the 2010-11 season.

May 8, 1971, FA Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal beat Liverpool 2-1. Regulation ends scoreless, and Steve Heighway gives Liverpool the lead in extra time. But Arsenal follow with goals by Eddie Kelly and the iconic blast and the lie-on-the-ground celebration by Charlie George. Having already won the League, by beating Tottenham away 5 days earlier, Arsenal thus clinch "The Double."

May 6, 1972, FA Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal lose to Leeds 1-0. The Centenary Cup Final has a pregame ceremony where many previous Cup Final heroes were introduced. But, having just missed another League title, Arsenal fall short of successfully defending the Cup, losing on a diving header by Allan Clarke.

Starting goalkeeper Bob Wilson was injured, and his replacement, Geoff Barnett, has been blamed for allowing the goal. This is unfair: I've seen the video many times, and it was a great shot. I don't think Wilson would have stopped it, either.

May 6, 1978, FA Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal lose to Suffolk team Ipswich Town 1-0. Liam Brady is played even though injured, and Roger Osborne scores the only goal, in the 77th minute.

May 12, 1979, FA Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal beat Manchester United 3-2. Brian Talbot and Frank Stapleton score in the 1st half, and Arsenal lead 2-0 late. But United score in the 86th and the 88th to tie it. Then Alan Sunderland scores in the 89th to win it. Brady assists on all 3 Arsenal goals. It becomes known as "The Five-Minute Final."

May 10, 1980, FA Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal lose to East London team West Ham United 1-0. Trevor Brooking scores early, and the Gunners can't equalize. The Hammers remain the last team from outside the top division to win the Cup -- and this remains their last major trophy, unless you want to count the 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup.

May 14, 1980, European Cup Winners' Cup Final, Heysel Stadium, Brussels, Belgium: Arsenal play Spanish team Valencia to a 0-0 draw, then lose 5-4 on penalties. Brady is soon lured away by the money of Juventus. A year later, Stapleton is lured away by Manchester United.

In 1985, Heysel would host the European Cup Final, at which 39 fans were killed due to a wall collapse inside. The game was played anyway, and Juventus (with Brady already having been sold) beat Liverpool. I've talked to some Arsenal fans who were at the 1980 Final, and they said the stadium was already unsuitable for a major event then.

April 5, 1987, League Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal beat Liverpool 2-1. There was a daunting statistic: Liverpool had never lost when Ian Rush scored, and, sure enough, he opens the scoring for the Scousers. It looks like Arsenal's bid for a 1st trophy in 8 years would end with a bit of a hangover from their dramatic Semifinal win over arch-rival Tottenham.

But Charlie Nicholas, one of the highest-profile, and thus most disappointing, acquisitions in Arsenal history, justifies the team's 1983 faith in him by scoring twice, netting the winner in the 83rd minute.

April 24, 1988, League Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal lost 3-2 to Luton Town of Bedfordshire. In one of their few seasons in the top division, Luton win their only major trophy, as a ghastly mistake by backup Arsenal centreback Gus Caesar gifts Danny Wilson an equalizer in the 82nd minute, and Mark Stein gets the winner at the death.

As with Ian Ure in the League Cup Final 19 years earlier, Caesar was never forgiven by Arsenal fans. As with Ure, Arsenal would find some glory in the next few years -- in this case, the League title in 1989 and 1991 -- but he wouldn't be a part of it.

April 18, 1993, League Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal beat Sheffield Wednesday of Yorkshire, 2-1. This was the 1st match in the history of European soccer in which players wore uniform numbers of their own choosing and their names on the back. Previously, numbers were assigned to positions, not players, and thus putting names on the back would have been cost-prohibitive.

John Harkes of Wednesday, a native of Kearny, Hudson County, New Jersey, becomes the 1st American to score a goal at Wembley, and gives the Owls the lead in the 8th minute. But Paul Merson equalizes in the 20th, and Steve Morrow wins it in the 68th.

Ironically, Morrow does not receive his winner's medal at the postgame ceremony. Arsenal Captain Tony Adams tries to pick him up and carry him off the pitch on his shoulders, but slips, and Morrow lands on his arm and breaks it. He is given his medal at the FA Cup Final the next month.

May 15, 1993, FA Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal and Wednesday play to a 1-1 draw. By a weird turn of events, the only time this has ever happened, the opponents for the FA Cup Final are the same opponents as were in the League Cup Final. Arsenal take a 1-0 lead on an Ian Wright goal, but Wednesday find an equalizer. The game goes to a replay. It will be the last time: From the 1993-94 season onward, if the Final is still tied at the end of extra time, it will go to a penalty shootout.

May 20, 1993, FA Cup Final Replay, Wembley: Arsenal beat Wednesday 2-1. As he had in the 1st game, Ian Wright opens the scoring. Former Tottenham star Chris Waddle equalizes for Wednesday. Extra time is played, and just when it looks like there will be penalties, in the 119th minute, Arsenal take a corner, and rarely-used centreback Andy Linighan heads the ball into the net.

His partner in central defense was David O'Leary, making his 722nd and last appearance for The Arsenal, still a team record.

May 4, 1994, European Cup Winners' Cup Final, Parken Stadium, Copenhagen, Denmark:

Arsenal beat Parma of Italy, 1-0. Given the presence in the Parma lineup of Gianfranco Zola, Faustino Aspirlla and Thomas Brolin, and the absence from the Arsenal lineup of Wright, suspended due to yellow card accumulation, Parma were solidly favored.

But a mistake in the 20th minute leads to an Alan Smith goal, and "the famous back four" of right back Lee Dixon, centrebacks Tony Adams and Steve Bould, and left back Nigel Winterburn hold on for the quintessential "One-nil to The Arsenal" victory. Along with the League title win over Liverpool in 1989, this is considered manager George Graham's masterstroke.

May 10, 1995, European Cup Winners' Cup Final, Parc des Princes, Paris: Arsenal lose 2-1 to Real Zaragoza of Spain. The worst Arsenal season in 19 years includes a 12th-place finish, and Graham being fired, not for poor performance, but for managerial improprieties. Arsenal were still in the CWC, due to being defending Champions. The game goes to extra time, but Zaragoza's Turkish midfielder Mohamed Ali Amar, who goes by the nom de soccer Nayim, lobs the ball over Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman in the last minute.

Nayim played 5 seasons for Tottenham. To this day, Tottenham fans sing Nayim's name, because his goal defeated and embarrassed Arsenal, even though the game in question had nothing to do with Tottenham. In the 2002 World Cup, Ronaldinho would score a very similar goal for Brazil, lobbing a ball over Seaman and into the net to defeat England.

May 16, 1998, FA Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal beat Newcastle 2-0. Having already won the League, this clinches The Double. There would be no repeat of the upset wins of 1932 and 1952 for "The Toon," as Paul Merson in the 1st half and Nicolas Anelka in the 2nd dust them.

This was Arsenal's 1st cup final under manager Arsène Wenger. Under him, Arsenal would play in 13 cup finals. Under all other managers combined: 25, not counting replays and 2-legged finals.

It would also be their last game at the old Wembley. The old stadium, which opened in April 1923, the same month as the original Yankee Stadium, with an FA Cup Final (Bolton Wanderers over West Ham), was closed in 2000, demolished, replaced with a new one, and opened in time for the 2007 FA Cup Final (Chelsea over Manchester United).

May 17, 2000, UEFA Cup Final, Parken Stadium: Arsenal lose to Galatasaray of Istanbul, Turkey, 4-1 on penalties following a scoreless game. The Copenhagen stadium, site of the 1994 Cup Winners' Cup Final, would not be the site of a 2nd great Arsenal win on this occasion.

May 12, 2001, FA Cup Final, Principality Stadium, Cardiff, Wales (then named the Millennium Stadium): Arsenal lose to Liverpool, 2-1. With Wembley having been closed, the national stadium of Wales was now the biggest stadium in the United Kingdom, and thus, for the 1st time, the Final was held outside England, and wouldn't return until the new Wembley opened in 2007.

As with Arsenal against Newcastle, Liverpool find the 3rd time against Arsenal to be the charm. Liverpool commit some blatant handballs, but referee Steve Dunn doesn't call them. Still, Freddie Ljungberg gives Arsenal the lead in the 72nd minute. But Michael Owen scores in the 83rd and the 88th, giving Liverpool the win.

May 4, 2002, FA Cup Final, Principality Stadium: Arsenal beat Chelsea of West London, 2-0. As with the year before, the game is scoreless well into the 2nd half. As with the year before, Arsenal break the deadlock, this time with a screamer by Ray Parlour in the 70th minute. But unlike the year before, Arsenal manage to get a 2nd, by Ljungberg in the 80th, and that that ices it. Four days later, Arsenal beat Manchester United at Old Trafford, and won their 3rd Double.

May 17, 2003, FA Cup Final, Principality Stadium: Arsenal beat Southampton of Hampshire, 1-0. Robert Pires, who seemed to specialize in scoring against Southampton, does so again, in the 38th minute, and Arsenal hold on.

May 21, 2005, FA Cup Final, Principality Stadium: Arsenal beat Manchester United, 5-4 on penalty kicks after a 0-0 draw. The season before, Man U had beaten Arsenal in the Semifinal before winning the Final and taking the Cup away. They had also famously beaten Arsenal in the 1999 Semifinal. Earlier this season, they had cheated their way to ending Arsenal's 49-game League unbeaten streak.

This is a very rough game, as most AFC-MUFC games have been from the 1980s onward, but Arsenal hold on, and extend the game to penalties. Ruud van Nistelrooy and Lauren trade successful conversions, but Jens Lehmann stops Paul Scholes, and that makes the difference. Ljungberg scores for Arsenal. Both 3rd round shooters make theirs, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robin van Persie. So do both 4th round shooters, Wayne Rooney and Ashley Cole. Roy Keane makes his in the 5th round, but Patrick Vieira, in his last act as an Arsenal player, makes his, and Arsenal get the Cup back.

May 17, 2006, UEFA Champions League Final, Stade de France, Saint-Denis, outside Paris: Arsenal lose 2-1 to FC Barcelona. Arsenal's 1st game for the European Cup is ruined in the 18th minute, when goalkeeper Jens Lehmann is wrongly sent off by referee Terje Hauge, for how he stopped Samuel Eto'o, making him the 1st player ever sent off in a European Cup/Champions League Final.

Then Wenger makes a key mistake: He has to take an attacking player off, so that he could send in backup keeper Manuel Almunia, but he choses Pires, instead of a younger, less-proven player like

Cesc Fàbregas or Aleksandr Hleb.

Incredibly, Arsenal take the lead in the 37th minute, on a goal by a defender, no less, Sol Campbell. The 10 Gunners hold the lead against the 12 Blaugrana until the 76th minute, when Eto'o scores a goal that was clearly offside. In the 80th, Juliano Belletti scores the winner.

This was probably the most crushing defeat in Arsenal's history, and it was the end of the era: Not only was it the final season for Highbury, but it was the final game in Arsenal's colors for Campbell (though he would briefly return in 2010), Pires, Cole and Dennis Bergkamp. Henry remained for 1 more year.

February 25, 2007, League Cup Final, Principality Stadium: Arsenal lose 2-1 to Chelsea. As has become his habit, Wenger starts mostly kids in a League Cup match: The only players in his starting XI who were in his usual XI are Fàbregas and Kolo Touré. In contrast, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has all of his usual starters at the start.

It almost works: Theo Walcott scores in the 12th minute. But Didier Drogba, the diving master from the Ivory Coast, equalizes in the 20th. In the 63rd, Abou Diaby goes for the ball, and accidentally kicks Chelsea captain John Terry in the jaw. As Terry is one of the most execrable people in the sport in the last 20 years, this earns Diaby goodwill that his performance never does. Drogba scores the winner in the 84th.

February 27, 2011, League Cup Final, new Wembley Stadium, London: Arsenal lose 2-1 to Birmingham City. It isn't Arsenal's 1st visit to the new Wembley: That was the 2009 FA Cup Semifinal, a 2-1 loss to Chelsea.

For once, Wenger goes against his kids-in-the-League-Cup policy, and goes for it. Like everyone else, he had heard the whine of "Arsenal haven't won a trophy in X years" reach 6, and he wanted it.

But Fàbregas was unavailable due to injury, and Arsenal really could have used him. Birmingham City, known for being a dirty team -- their Martin Taylor had infamously broken Diaby's leg in 2006 -- were terrible, and would be relegated at the end of the season. Even a half-strength Arsenal team should have handled them.

But Nikola Zigic scores for the Brummies in the 28th. van Persie scores in the 39th, and it remains 1-1 until the 89th, looking like it will go to extra time. That's when Zigic shoots, and, in attempt to block it, goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny collides with centreback Laurent Koscielny, allowing a loose ball that Obafemi Martins fires into the net.

It is probably the most humiliating Arsenal loss since the 1969 edition of the event, against Swindon Town. And it was the beginning of the idiotic #WengerOut movement.

May 17, 2014, FA Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal beat Hull City of Yorkshire, 3-2 in extra time. The trophy drought had reached 9 years. And when Hull score 2 goals in the 1st 8 minutes, it looks as if it would be extended to a 10th season, and perhaps be the end of the line for Wenger.

But Santi Cazorla scores in the 17th. A long lull follows, including halftime. Koscielny scores in the 71st to tie it. It goes to extra time, and, in the 109th minute, off a cheeky backheel by Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey scores. He copies Charlie George's 1971 celebration, sliding on the (new) Wembley turf and lying on his back.

The last 12 minutes of the game are agony for Arsenal fans, especially those of us in America who had joined, thanks to the growth of satellite TV, since the last trophy in 2005, and had never won one with the team. When it is over, there is so much joy and relief. And yet, Wenger looks happier than any of us.

May 30, 2015, FA Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal beat Aston Villa of Birmingham, 4-0. I watched this game at Mulligan's in Hoboken, New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. There, the TV screens are on the ground floor, and the bathroom is in the basement.

I was trying to hold it until halftime, but I couldn't make it. I was finishing up, washing my hands, in the 40th minute, when a huge roar went up. Since there were about 100 Arsenal fans in the place, and only 6 people wearing Villa colors, I knew it was an Arsenal goal. As I got up the stairs, I yelled, "Who scored it?" The answer came back: "Walcott!"

Perfect: The previous season, in the 3rd Round game against Tottenham, Theo Walcott had scored, but had later gotten injured, and missed the rest of the season. That injury cost Arsenal dearly in the League, but not in the Cup. Still, he was just a spectator for the Final. This time, he was in it, and won it. Watching the halftime highlights, I saw the goal, and the look of elation on his face. It was easy to see just how much this meant to him.

The 2nd half started a little nervy. It looked like "a movie I'd seen before": An Arsenal player (sometimes Walcott himself) would score in the 1st half, and they'd hang on for dear life before allowing an equalizer. Not this time: Alex Sanchez scored a beauty in the 50th, Captain and centreback Per Mertesacker scored in the 62nd, and Giroud finished it off in the 90th.

The pressure was off -- but then, having won it the season before, there wasn't as much pressure anyway. This win was nice, and I'm glad Arsenal got it. But it would never mean as much to me as the one before did. It sure meant a lot to Theo, though.

May 27, 2017, FA Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal beat Chelsea, 2-1. Chelsea had been a "bogey team" for Arsenal since the 2004 Champions League Quarterfinal: It seemed, the bigger the game, the better Chelsea was, and the less effectiveness Arsenal had. Not this time: Alexis scores in the 4th minute to settle our nerves early.

But, again, it seems like one of those hang-on-for-dear-life games. Sure enough, in the 76th minute, Diego Costa, who had succeeded Drogba as Chelsea's Master of Cheating, equalizes. It looks like a game of "Name Your Poison": Would you rather lose in regulation, in extra time, or on penalties?

What do we say to the God of Defeat? Aaron Ramsey, once again, says, "Not today." As in 2014, he takes a Giroud pass and puts it into the net, this time a header in the 79th. Chelsea are completely deflated, and it is 3 FA Cups in 4 years.

February 25, 2018, League Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal lose 3-0 to Manchester City. Every previous Arsenal cup final defeat had been by 1 goal or on penalties. Sergio Aguero scores in the 18th, but it is still only 1-0 as the hour mark approaches, so there is hope. But Vincent Kompany scores in the 58th, and that's it. David Silva's goal in the 65th is just a cherry on their sundae.

May 29, 2019, UEFA Europa League Final, Bakı Olimpiya Stadionu, Baku, Azerbaijan: Arsenal lose 4-1 to Chelsea. In spite of having an obvious penalty denied early on, Arsenal are the better team in the 1st 35 minutes, but begin to break down.

New manager Unai Emery needed to straighten them out at halftime. He doesn't: Giroud, having been sold to Chelsea, scores in the 49th, and it is all downhill from there. Alex Iwobi scores in the 69th to make it 3-1 and give some hope to those Gooners who somehow made it to Baku against long odds, but it wasn't going to happen.

August 1, 2020, FA Cup Final, Wembley: Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1. The English media, always hating Arsenal, emphasizes the previous year's cup final loss to Chelsea, not the last time the teams met in the Final of this tournament. The American media goes nuts over Christian Pulisic, the next great hope of American soccer. And, in just the 5th minute, he becomes the 1st American ever to score in an FA Cup Final.

And, just as with the Ian Rush hex with Liverpool, it is mentioned that Chelsea have never lost an FA Cup Final in which they have scored first. (They had previously won the Cup in 1970, 1997, 2000, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2018.) But, just as with the Rush hex, it doesn't hold up.

Anthony Taylor, a referee with a history of robbing Arsenal, is the 1st man in over 100 years to be allowed to officiate at a 2nd FA Cup Final, due to the unusual circumstances caused by the COVID-19 epidemic. Arsenal fans don't want the referees to favor them, just to apply the rules correctly to both teams. And he awards 6 yellow cards to Chelsea -- including 2 to Mateo Kovačić, sending him off in the 73rd minute, and awards Arsenal a penalty in the 28th minute, which Captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang converts.

Aubameyang scores again in the 67th minute. Due to concerns over the virus, and the fact that the season's interruption had pushed the Final back to, as Neil Diamond would have said, a hot August night, there is a "drinks break" at the 22nd and 67th minutes, roughly the game's one-quarter and three-quarter marks. Because of this, the cards, the goal celebration, and an injury, an FA Cup Final record of 7 minutes' stoppage time is awarded -- and it ends up being twice that, 14 minutes, before Taylor finally blows his whistle, giving Arsenal the Cup.

Overall: Won 18, lost 21, drawn 1. 2-6 in European Finals, 16-15-1 in domestic ones.

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Yankees on Arsenal Trophy Win Days, 1930-2020

August 1, 2020, 7:31 pm

≫ Next: Mets On Arsenal Trophy Win Days, 1970-2020

≪ Previous: List of Arsenal Cup Finals, 1927-2020

Arsenal's New York supporters' club.

Yours truly at the left, with the "We're Number 1" finger.

April 26, 1930: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Huddersfield Town of Yorkshire, 2-0 at the original Wembley Stadium, West London. The Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-3 at the original Yankee Stadium in The Bronx.

April 6, 1931: Arsenal clinch the title of the old Football League Division 1 (hereafter referred to as "the League"), with a draw against Portsmouth of Hampshire, 1-1 at the Arsenal Stadium (hereafter referred to as "Highbury"), North London. The Yankees are working their way north from Spring Training, and do not play an official game.

April 22, 1933: Arsenal clinch the League, beating Chelsea of West London, 3-1 at Chelsea's ground, Stamford Bridge. The Yankees beat the Red Sox, 2-1 at Fenway Park in Boston.

April 28, 1934: Arsenal clinch the League, with a draw against Chelsea, 2-2 at Stamford Bridge. The Yankees lose to the Red Sox, 4-2 at Yankee Stadium.

April 20, 1935: Arsenal clinch the League, beating Huddersfield 1-0 at Highbury. The Yankees beat the Philadelphia Athletics (now the Oakland Athletics), 3-1 at Yankee Stadium.

April 25, 1936: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Sheffield United of Yorkshire, 1-0 at Wembley. The Yankees lose to the Red Sox, 7-2 at Fenway.

May 7, 1938: Arsenal clinch the League, beating Bolton Wanderers of Lancashire, 5-0 at Highbury. The Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 12-8 at Yankee Stadium.

April 10, 1948: Arsenal clinch the League, with a draw against Huddersfield at their ground, Leeds Road, 1-1. The Yankees are working their way north from Spring Training, and do not play an official game.

April 29, 1950: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Merseyside club Liverpool, 2-0 at Wembley. The Yankees beat the Washington Senators (now the Minnesota Twins), 6-2 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

May 1, 1953: Arsenal clinch the League, beating Burnley of Lancashire, 3-2 at Highbury. The Yankees lose to the Chicago White Sox, 6-5 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

April 28, 1970: Arsenal win the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (the tournament now known as the Europa League), beating Anderlecht of Brussels, Belgium, 3-0 at Highbury. The Yankees beat the California Angels (the team now known as the Los Angeles Angels, 7-5 at Yankee Stadium.

May 3, 1971: Arsenal clinch the League, beating their North London arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, 1-0 at Spurs' ground, White Hart Lane. The Yankees are not scheduled to play on this day.

May 8, 1971: Arsenal win the FA Cup, clinching "The Double," beating Liverpool, 2-1 in extra time at Wembley. The Yankees beat the White Sox, 2-1 at Comiskey.

May 12, 1979: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Manchester United, 3-2 at Wembley. The Yankees beat the Angels, 6-5 at Yankee Stadium.

April 5, 1987: Arsenal win the Football League Cup, beating Liverpool, 2-1 at Wembley. The Yankees open their regular season the next day.

May 26, 1989: Arsenal clinch the League, beating Liverpool, 2-0 at Liverpool's ground, Anfield. The way the tiebreakers worked, Arsenal had to beat Liverpool by 2 goals, and get the 2nd from Michael Thomas in the last minute of the last game of the season. The Yankees lose to the Oakland Athletics (a.k.a. the A's), 4-0 at Yankee Stadium.

May 6, 1991: Arsenal clinch the League, beating Manchester United, 3-1 at Highbury. Actually, they clinched earlier in the day, without playing, when Liverpool lost to Nottingham Forest. The next season was the last for the old Football League Division One; thereafter, it would be the Premier League (again, herefore referred to as "the League"). The Yankees lose to the Seattle Mariners, 4-2 at Yankee Stadium.

April 18, 1993: Arsenal win the League Cup, beating Sheffield Wednesday of Yorkshire, 2-1 at Wembley. The Yankees lose to the Texas Rangers, 12-2 at Yankee Stadium.

May 20, 1993: After the Final ended 1-1 5 days earlier, Arsenal play Sheffield Wednesday again, in a replay, and again win 2-1 at Wembley. The Yankees are not scheduled to play on this day.

May 4, 1994: Arsenal win the European Cup Winners' Cup, beating Parma of Italy, 1-0 at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Yankees lose to the Angels, 7-6 at Yankee Stadium.

May 3, 1998: Arsenal clinch the League, beating Everton of Merseyside, 4-0 at Highbury. The Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals, 10-1 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

May 16, 1998: Arsenal win the FA Cup, and the Double, beating North-East club Newcastle United, 2-0 at Wembley. The Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-2 at Yankee Stadium. The next day, while Arsenal were having their victory parade, David Wells pitched a perfect game for the Yankees against the Twins.

May 4, 2002: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Chelsea, 2-0 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. This was the seat of the Final between the 2000 closing of the old Wembley and the 2007 opening of the new one. The Yankees lose to the Mariners, 6-5 at Yankee Stadium.

May 8, 2002: Arsenal clinch the League, and the Double, beating Manchester United, 1-0 at United's ground, Old Trafford. The Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now known as the Tampa Bay Rays), 7-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.

May 17, 2003: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Southampton of Hampshire, 1-0 at the Millennium Stadium. The Yankees lose to the Rangers, 5-2 at Yankee Stadium.

April 25, 2004: Arsenal clinch the League, with a draw against Spurs, 2-2 at White Hart Lane. Arsenal had now won the League at White Hart Lane as many times as Spurs had: 2. The Yankees also play their arch-rivals, the Red Sox, and aren't so lucky, losing 2-0 at Yankee Stadium.

May 21, 2005: Arsenal win the FA Cup, after drawing with Manchester United, 0-0, despite being down to 10 men, beating them 5-4 on penalty kicks, at the Millennium Stadium. The Yankees aren't so lucky, losing an Interleague game to the New York Mets, 7-1 at Shea Stadium in Queens.

May 17, 2014: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Hull City of Yorkshire, 3-2 in extra time, at the new Wembley Stadium in West London. The Yankees win an Interleague game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-1 at the new Yankee Stadium in The Bronx.

May 30, 2015: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Aston Villa of Birmingham, 4-0 at Wembley. The Yankees beat the A's, 5-3 at the Oakland Coliseum.

May 27, 2017: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Chelsea, 2-1 at Wembley. The Yankees beat the A's, 3-2 at Yankee Stadium.

August 1, 2020: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Chelsea, 2-1 at Wembley. (Is there an echo in here?) The Yankees beat the Red Sox, 5-2 at Yankee Stadium.

Overall: The Yankees have won 15 games on days when The Arsenal have won trophies, lost 11, and were not scheduled to play on 5 such days.

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Mets On Arsenal Trophy Win Days, 1970-2020

August 1, 2020, 9:15 pm

≫ Next: Early Homers Power Yanks Past Sox

≪ Previous: Yankees on Arsenal Trophy Win Days, 1930-2020

And how have the Mets done on days when Arsenal have won a trophy, you ask? Well, keep in mind, the Mets weren't founded until 1962, so the Arsenal trophies of 1930 to 1953 don't matter here.

April 28, 1970: Arsenal win the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (the tournament now known as the Europa League), beating Anderlecht of Brussels, Belgium, 3-0 at Highbury. The Mets beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

May 3, 1971: Arsenal clinch the League, beating their North London arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, 1-0 at Spurs' ground, White Hart Lane. The Mets beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-2 at Shea Stadium.

May 8, 1971: Arsenal win the FA Cup, clinching "The Double," beating Liverpool, 2-1 in extra time at Wembley. The Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-5 at Shea.

May 12, 1979: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Manchester United, 3-2 at Wembley. The Mets lose to the San Diego Padres, 2-1 at San Diego Stadium, which would soon be renamed Jack Murphy Stadium, after the sports columnist whose advocacy got the city its major league teams, and was also the brother of longtime Mets broadcaster Bob Murphy.

April 5, 1987: Arsenal win the Football League Cup, beating Liverpool, 2-1 at Wembley. The Mets were scheduled to open their regular season 2 days later.

May 26, 1989: Arsenal clinch the League, beating Liverpool, 2-0 at Liverpool's ground, Anfield. The way the tiebreakers worked, Arsenal had to beat Liverpool by 2 goals, and get the 2nd from Michael Thomas in the last minute of the last game of the season. The Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

May 6, 1991: Arsenal clinch the League, beating Manchester United, 3-1 at Highbury. Actually, they clinched earlier in the day, without playing, when Liverpool lost to Nottingham Forest. The next season was the last for the old Football League Division One; thereafter, it would be the Premier League (again, herefore referred to as "the League"). The Mets are not scheduled to play on this day.

April 18, 1993: Arsenal win the League Cup, beating Sheffield Wednesday of Yorkshire, 2-1 at Wembley. The Mets lose to the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

May 20, 1993: After the Final ended 1-1 5 days earlier, Arsenal play Sheffield Wednesday again, in a replay, and again win 2-1 at Wembley. The Mets are not scheduled to play on this day.

May 4, 1994: Arsenal win the European Cup Winners' Cup, beating Parma of Italy, 1-0 at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Mets beat the Giants, 7-4 at Shea.

May 3, 1998: Arsenal clinch the League, beating Everton of Merseyside, 4-0 at Highbury. The Mets beat the Colorado Rockies, 5-2 at Shea.

May 16, 1998: Arsenal win the FA Cup, and the Double, beating North-East club Newcastle United, 2-0 at Wembley. The Mets beat the Giants, 4-1 at Candlestick.

May 4, 2002: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Chelsea, 2-0 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. This was the seat of the Final between the 2000 closing of the old Wembley and the 2007 opening of the new one. The Mets lose to the Houston Astros, 3-1 at Shea.

May 8, 2002: Arsenal clinch the League, and the Double, beating Manchester United, 1-0 at United's ground, Old Trafford. The Mets lose to the Giants, 8-2 at Shea.

May 17, 2003: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Southampton of Hampshire, 1-0 at the Millennium Stadium. Again, the Mets play the Giants, and beat them, 5-1 at Candlestick

April 25, 2004: Arsenal clinch the League, with a draw against Spurs, 2-2 at White Hart Lane. Arsenal had now won the League at White Hart Lane as many times as Spurs had: 2. The Mets lose to the Cubs, 4-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

May 21, 2005: Arsenal win the FA Cup, after drawing with Manchester United, 0-0, despite being down to 10 men, beating them 5-4 on penalty kicks, at the Millennium Stadium. The Mets must feel like they've won a trophy as they beat the Yankees in an Interleague game, 7-1 at Shea.

May 17, 2014: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Hull City of Yorkshire, 3-2 in extra time, at the new Wembley Stadium in West London. The Mets beat the Washington Nationals, 5-2 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

May 30, 2015: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Aston Villa of Birmingham, 4-0 at Wembley. The Mets lose to the Miami Marlins, 9-5 at Citi Field.

May 27, 2017: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Chelsea, 2-1 at Wembley. The Mets lose to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-4 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

August 1, 2020: Arsenal win the FA Cup, beating Chelsea, 2-1 at Wembley. The Mets lose to the Atlanta Braves, 7-1 at Truist Park in Cumberland, Georgia.

Overall: The Yankees have won 10 games on days when The Arsenal have won trophies, lost 8, and were not scheduled to play on 3 such days.

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Early Homers Power Yanks Past Sox

August 2, 2020, 4:02 pm

≫ Next: Aaron Is Judge, Jury and Executioner as Yanks Sweep Sox

≪ Previous: Mets On Arsenal Trophy Win Days, 1970-2020

Yesterday was a day of many aggravations, right down to not being able to watch the FA Cup Final on American television. Since 2008, when I became aware that this competition existed, the opportunity to watch it had always been there, even if, for whatever reason, outside circumstances prevented me from watching it.

But when Arsenal beat Chelsea, a team all Gooners despise, to win the FA Cup, a trophy all Gooners prize (whether they admit it or not), and the Yankees go on to beat the Boston Red Sox, then, no matter what else happened -- barring a genuine tragedy or a nasty personal injury, neither of which happened -- it's a good day.

Following the comebacker that hit him in the head during "Spring" Training, Masahiro Tanaka had been held back, but last night was his 2020 season debut. It was decided to keep him on a 50-pitch limit. But he couldn't finish the 3rd inning, even with 51 pitches, so he was taken out.

Fortunately, the Yankees had already taken the lead, on home runs by Aaron Judge in the 1st inning (455 feet) and Gio Urshela in the 2nd (412 feet and a grand slam). That gave the bullpen a chance. Luis Avilán, a 31-year-old Venezuelan who actually managed to go 4-0 for the Mets last season, finished the 3rd and pitched the 4th. Nick Nelson, a 24-year-old righthander from Florida, made his major league debut, and pitched the next 3 innings. David Hale pitched the last 2.

Yankees 5, Red Sox 2. WP: Nelson (1-0). SV: Hale (1). LP: Zach Godley (0-1). The Yankees have now taken the 1st 2 games of this series against The Scum, and are 6-1 to start the season, the best record in baseball.

The series concludes tonight. James Paxton starts against Austin Brice. Come on you Pinstripes, sweep The Scum!

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Aaron Is Judge, Jury and Executioner as Yanks Sweep Sox

August 3, 2020, 7:36 am

≫ Next: Cole, Urshela Shine for Yanks vs. Phils

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Find yourself someone who will love you as much as Aaron Judge loves beating the Boston Red Sox.

It's getting to the point where you cannot stop him, and even "You can only hope to contain him" might be going by the boards.

And that whole debate with Met fans that Pete Alonso might be better? Yeah, that's over. This is not Mickey Mantle vs. Willie Mays: Alonso is in full "sophomore jinx" mode, while it's beginning to look like Elvis Presley was the Aaron Judge of music.

Aaron is being Judge, Jury, and definitely Executioner.

The Auld Enemy did not want to get swept at Yankee Stadium this weekend, and, last night, they showed up as if the pharmacist and the Apple Watch repairman had both arrived. Xander Bogaerts went 4-for-4, including home runs in the 1st and 5th innings. Thanks to him, the Sox had 2 runs before the Yankees even got to bat.

But Judge hit one out as well, in the bottom of the 1st, giving the Yankees a 3-2 lead. That was his 5th straight game with a home run. The major league record is 8, shared by a Yankee (Don Mattingly in 1987), a player who would go on to become a Yankee (Dale Long of the 1956 Pittsburgh Pirates), and a player who refused to become a Yankee (Ken Griffey Jr. of the 1993 Seattle Mariners).

The Sox retook the lead in the top of the 3rd, going up 5-3, and ending James Paxton's night. But in the bottom of that inning, back-to-back doubles by a finally-waking-up Gary Sanchez and an already-wide-awake Gio Urshela tied it, 5-5. This was beginning to look like a typical Yanks-Sox game at Fenway Park, but it was at Yankee Stadium II.

The teams traded home runs again in the 5th, Bogaerts for them, Luke Voit for us, to make it 6-6. Rafael Devers hit one out in the 7th, to make it 7-6 Boston. Mike King gave up both of those home runs. Out he went, in came Adam Ottavino.

In the bottom of the 8th, the Yankees staged a good-old-fashioned 2-out rally. Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you. Or, if you're the team whose players are drawing them, they can save you. Mike Tauchman drew a walk, and stole 2nd base. DJ LeMahieu singled him home to tie the game.

And then Judge hit one 468 feet to left center. Had this one been hit at the old Yankee Stadium, this would have been over Monument Park. That's 6 home runs in 5 games for him.

On the ESPN broadcast, Matt Vasgersian went nuts. And he's no kid: He's about to turn 53. Nor is he a New Yorker or a Yankee Fan: He was born in Oakland, and grew up in nearby Moraga, and may be an Oakland Athletics fan. But he acted like he was a kid who had never seen one of these before.

One of these days, Judge is going to hit one so far, whoever is broadcasting it is simply going to say, "Holy shit," on the air, and no one will fine him for it, because they'll understand.

Zack Britton closed it out. Yankees 9, Red Sox 7. Sweep. WP: Ottavino (1-0). SV: Britton (3). LP: Matt Barnes (0-1).

The Yankees are now 7-1. Next-best in the major leagues are the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago Cubs at 7-2. In the American League Eastern Division, the Baltimore Orioles are 5-3, the Buffalo Blue Jays are 3-4, the Tampa Bay Rays are 4-6, and the Red Sox are 3-7. The Mets are also 3-7, including a couple of embarrassing losses to the Atlanta Braves this weekend. The only team with a worse record than that is the Pittsburgh Pirates, at 2-7.

So, with the rearranged schedule, the Yankees start a home series with the Philadelphia Phillies tonight -- further COVID-19-connected rulings permitting. The intended starting pitchers are Gerrit Cole for us, Jake Arrieta for them.

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Cole, Urshela Shine for Yanks vs. Phils

August 4, 2020, 1:08 pm

≫ Next: Yanks, Phils Split Twinbill Honors

≪ Previous: Aaron Is Judge, Jury and Executioner as Yanks Sweep Sox

For Coronavirus-related reasons beyond their control, the Philadelphia Phillies hadn't played in 8 days. Now, they were set to play the Yankees, who have been hitting the tar out of the ball, at Yankee Stadium II, which is even more of a hitters' park than the Phils' Citizens Bank Park.

For the 1st time in 6 games, Aaron Judge did not hit a home run, although he did go 2-for-4. But Gio Urshela led off the bottom of the 1st inning with an opposite-field home run. In the top of the 3rd, Jay Bruce tied it with a solo home run, off Gerrit Cole, in his Yankee Stadium home debut. But Brett Gardner led off the bottom of the 3rd with a home run. After groundouts by Tyler Wade and LeMahieu, Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks hit back-to-back doubles, and it was 3-1 Yankees.

Urshela hit another home run in the bottom of the 6th, a 3-run job, to make it 6-1. Then the rain came, and, after the delay, Cole's night was finished. Brooks Kriske allowed a run in the top of the 7th, and Luis Avilan allowed one in the 8th, before Zack Britton pitched a 1-2-3 9th.

Yankees 6, Phillies 3. WP: Cole (3-0). SV: Britton (4). LP: Jake Arrieta (0-1). The Yankees are now 8-1, with the best record in Major League Baseball. And, beyond any reasonable doubt, Gerrit Cole was the best pitcher for a New York team last night. (Jacob deGrom pitched for the Mets last night, but Cole had a better night.)

What was supposed to be the 2nd game in the series, tonight, has been postponed, due to Tropical Storm Isaias, which drenched the Tri-State Area last night (including the rain delay) and today (although, at this writing, while the winds are still stronger than usual, the clouds have parted and the Sun in shining).

The current schedule is as follows, and, as always, especially these days, is subject to change:

* Tomorrow, 4:05 PM: The game that was supposed to be played at Yankee Stadium II tonight will be played at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, 108 miles to the southwest. This will be confusing, because the Yankees will be designated the home team, and will bat in the bottom half of the innings.

* Tomorrow, 7:05 PM: The game that was supposed to be played at Citizens Bank Park will be played on schedule. This could turn out to be one of those twi-night doubleheaders where both games get limited to 7 innings. Hopefully, that won't be done again after this season. Hopefully, that will also apply to the dumb "start an extra inning with a runner on 2nd base" rule that's been put into place for this shortened season. (I know, it sounds like the season should have an asterisk, but as long as every team is playing by the same rules, we can't complain that much.)

* Thursday, 6:05 PM: Yankees vs. Phillies in Philly again.

* Then the Yankees head for the Coronavirus State itself, Florida, to play 4 weekend games against the Tampa Bay Rays, including a twi-night doubleheader on Saturday.

Under normal circumstances, playing in that dome is not something to look forward to. After all, inside that dome, there are no normal circumstances. But playing in there, in this situation? Pardon me for using a technical term, but... Hoo, boy.

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Yanks, Phils Split Twinbill Honors

August 6, 2020, 10:51 am

≫ Next: Yanks Drop Series Finale to Powder Blue Phillies

≪ Previous: Cole, Urshela Shine for Yanks vs. Phils

One thing that living within close range of the New York media has taught me is how to speak -- and, much more, to write -- tabloidese. Rather than say, "Yesterday, the New York Yankees lost the first game of a doubleheader to the Philadelphia Phillies, but won the second game," I can say, "Yanks, Phils split twinbill honors."

This setup was forced by the previous day's tropical storm-induced rainout. Despite both games being played at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, the 1st game was, officially, the game that was supposed to be played the night before at Yankee Stadium II. Therefore, the Yankees were designated the home team, wore their home Pinstriped uniforms, and batted in the bottom halves of the innings, while the Phils wore their road grays in their own house.

The Phils didn't seem to mind. Despite being staked to a 3-0 lead, including a home run by Brett Gardner, former Phillie J.A. Happ was hapless, allowing 4 runs on 3 hits and 6 walks in just 3 innings. Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you.

But it was only 4-3 Philly when he left. The real disaster was Nick Nelson, who allowed 6 runs in the top of the 6th. A 4-run 7th, including yet another home run from the smoking hot Aaron Judge, wasn't enough.

Phillies 11, Yankees 7. The Yankees outhit the Phillies 12-11, but it's runs that count. WP: Former Met Zack Wheeler (2-0). SV: Hector Neris (1). LP: Happ (0-1).

After a 35-minute turnaround -- which was about normal in the days when Major League Baseball scheduled true doubleheaders, on holidays and often on Sundays -- the 2nd game got underway.

It is true that Yankee Stadium II is a good hitter's park, and fans of other teams mock the Yankees for playing in one. But CBP is also a good hitter's park, and the fact is that the Yankees can smack the ball around any yard.

Luke Voit "used the Force" to hit one out in the top of the 2nd inning, but the Philies tied it 1-1 in the bottom half. But in the 7th, a Mike Tauchman double and a Gio Urshela single gave the Yankees the runs they needed.

The Yankees used 5 pitchers, as Jonathan Loaisiga has become this season's "Chad Green," starting but only going into the 3rd inning, even though he used to be a starter. Adam Ottavino threw only 3 pitches, to 1 batter, but because he was the last pitcher the Yankees had used when they took a lead they never relinquished, he was officially the winning pitcher.

Yankees 3, Phillies 1. WP: Ottavino (2-0). SV: Zack Britton (5). LP: Tommy Hunter (0-1).

So the doubleheader was split, and the Yankees, who started off 8-1, are now 9-2.

Speaking of relief pitchers named Tommy, Tommy Kahnle underwent Tommy John surgery. He might be back for the 2021 run-in, but Opening Day 2022 sounds more likely -- if, that is, it's with the Yankees. We saw how Brian Cashman dumped Nathan Eovaldi -- and that came back to bite the Yankees.

The Yanks and Phils play in Philly again tonight, with a first pitch scheduled for 6:05.

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Yanks Drop Series Finale to Powder Blue Phillies

August 7, 2020, 12:24 pm

≫ Next: Yanks Waste Tanaka Effort, Get Shut Out By Rays

≪ Previous: Yanks, Phils Split Twinbill Honors

So a weird series, in a weird season, got a little weirder last night at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. The Yankees, as the visiting team, or their road gray uniforms. But the host Philadelphia Phillies wore throwback uniforms, the powder blue road uniforms that they wore from 1972 to 1988. So both teams were wearing road uniforms.

Jordan Montgomery continued his comeback from injury. Intending to be careful, the Yankees might not have let him pitch more than 4 innings anyway. But allowing 5 runs in 4 innings made the decision easier.

The Yankees gave him 2 runs in the 2nd inning, and scored 2 more in the 7th, as Gary Sanchez, off to a terrible start at the plate this season, shook off the rust with a home run. And, between them, David Hale and Jonathan Holder, who both also spent significant time on the Injured List last season, pitched 4 scoreless innings.

But it was not to be enough. Phillies 5, Yankees 4. WP: Deolis Guerra (1-0). SV: Hector Neris (2). LP: Montgomery (1-1).

The Yankees close the series at 9-3, leading the American League Eastern Division by 4 games each over the Baltimore Orioles, the Tampa Bay Rays and the now-Buffalo-based Toronto Blue Jays. The hated Boston Red Sox are 5 back.

The Yankees begin a 4-game series in Tampa Bay tonight, including a traditional, if 7 innings each, doubleheader tomorrow. Tonight, Masahiro Tanaka starts against Blake Snell.

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Yanks Waste Tanaka Effort, Get Shut Out By Rays

August 8, 2020, 9:51 am

≫ Next: Scores On This Historic Day: August 9, 1974, Nixon Resigns

≪ Previous: Yanks Drop Series Finale to Powder Blue Phillies

Met fans get really pissed when I tell them that Jacob deGrom would only be the 4th starter, at best, in the Yankees' rotation. They especially don't like it when I tell them that Masahiro Tanaka is better.

Well, last night, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Tanaka was deGrom's equal: He pitched great, but the Yankees didn't hit for him.

The Yankees opened a 4-game weekend series with the Tampa Bay Rays by embarrassing themselves. Here's all their baserunners, all night:

* 1st inning: D.J. LeMahieu started the game by drawing a walk. The Cliche Alert was not necessary this time: A leadoff walk did nothing to hurt the Rays. Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks and Giancarlo Stanton all struck out.

* 3rd: Gary Sanchez, currently the target of a lot of abuse from his own team's fans, led off with a walk. He got to 2nd on a wild pitch. But no hits.

* 6th: LeMahieu singled with 1 out, to break up the no-hitter. Judge ended the inning by grounding into a double play.

* 7th: The Yanks' only real threat. Hicks and Stanton walked to put men on 1st & 2nd with nobody out. But Luke Voit and Gleyber Torres both flew out. Gio Urshela walked to load the bases. Then Sanchez struck out.

* 8th: Mike Tauchman led off with a double. The score is still 0-0 at this point. The Yankees are a hit away from maybe having the game won. But LeMahieu grounded into a fielder's choice. That put Tauchman on 3rd with less than 2 outs. But Judge struck out, and Hicks grounded out.

In the bottom of the inning, it was time for the Cliche Alert about walks: Adam Ottavino walked 2 batters, threw a wild pitch, and allowed a sacrifice fly. The Yankees went down quietly in the 9th. Rays 1, Yankees 0. WP: Chaz Roe (2-0). No save. LP: Ottavino (2-1). This is the Yankees' 1st 2-game losing streak of the season.

Today, the Yankees play an old-fashioned doubleheader. At 2:10 PM, Gerrit Cole starts against Tyler Glasnow. The starting pitchers for the game scheduled to begin at 5:10 PM have not yet been announced. Under COVID conditions, both games will be limited to 7 innings.

Hopefully, the Yankees won't limit their hitting.

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Scores On This Historic Day: August 9, 1974, Nixon Resigns

August 9, 2020, 7:40 pm

≫ Next: Yanks Drop 3 of 4 to Tampa Bay

≪ Previous: Yanks Waste Tanaka Effort, Get Shut Out By Rays

August 9, 1974: Richard Nixon resigns as President of the United States, due to the crimes he committed that fell under the umbrella term "Watergate." Gerald Ford is sworn in as the 38th President.

Major League Baseball scores on this historic day:

* California Angels 7, New York Yankees 1 at Anaheim Stadium.

* New York Mets 4, Cincinnati Reds 1 at Shea Stadium.

* Atlanta Braves 3, Philadelphia Phillies 2 in 11 innings at Veterans Stadium.

* Pittsburgh Pirates 7, San Diego Padres 3 at Three Rivers Stadium.

* Chicago White Sox 5, Cleveland Indians 3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* San Francisco Giants 3, Chicago Cubs 0 at Wrigley Field.

* Minnesota Twins 6, Baltimore Orioles 2 at Metropolitan Stadium.

* St. Louis Cardinals 5, Los Angeles Dodgers 3 at Busch Stadium.

* Kansas City Royals 13, Milwaukee Brewers 3 at Royals (Kauffman) Stadium.

* Montreal Expos 4, Houston Astros 3 at Astrodome.

* Texas Rangers 4, Detroit Tigers 3 in 14 innings at Arlington Stadium.

* Boston Red Sox 6, Oakland Athletics 2 at Oakland Coliseum.

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Yanks Drop 3 of 4 to Tampa Bay

August 11, 2020, 8:54 am

≫ Next: Yankees Beat Braves In "A Game of Two Halves"

≪ Previous: Scores On This Historic Day: August 9, 1974, Nixon Resigns

I hate losing. I especially hate losing to a bad team. But to lose to a classless organization like Tampa Bay Rays? That is infuriating.

On Saturday, the Yankees had to play one of those COVID-forced not-so-traditional (7 innings each) "traditional doubleheaders" at the Stupid Dome in St. Petersburg. The opener went far better for the Yankees. They scored 4 runs in the top of the 3rd inning, including a home run by Mike Ford. Giancarlo Stanton added a solo homer in the 5th.

(Of course, he did. A solo homer when we're already 4 runs up.)

That should have been enough for Gerrit Cole to cruise, and he did so through the 1st 4 innings. But he got shaky in the 5th, allowing 3 runs, and Aaron Boone took no chances, taking him out 1 out short of qualifying for the win. (Even in games limited to 7 innings, the rule is that the starting pitcher can't be the winning pitcher if he doesn't go at least the 1st 5.)

Chad Green ended the inning. DJ LeMahieu singled to lead off the 6th, and Aaron Judge homered, pretty much ending the Tampa Bay threat for this game. The Rays scored in the bottom of the 6th, the Yankees did so in the top of the 7th, and that was it.

Yankees 8, Rays 4. WP: Green (2-0). No save. LP: Tyler Glasnow (0-1).

Mike King, who had exactly 2 innings of big-league experience entering this season, started the 2nd game, instead of the out-for-the-season Luis Severino and the chased-out-of-baseball Domingo German. He had nothing, and didn't get out of the 4th inning. In the 1st, he walked the bases loaded and walked home a run. Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you.

Albert Abreu wasn't much better in relief. The Yankees mounted a rally in the 7th, but wasn't enough, and limiting the games to 7 innings ended the threat.

Rays 5, Yankees 3. WP: Pete Fairbanks (2-1). SV: Nick Anderson (2). LP: King (0-1).

The Sunday game will be one of those games where, if the Yankees don't win the Division and end up losing in the Playoffs, will stick in our memories as being a sign that it wasn't meant to be.

The Yankees loaded the bases in the top of the 1st, and Charlie Morton -- one of those cheating 2017 Houston Astros -- hit Mike Ford with a pitch. Since that gave the Yankees an early lead, it almost certainly wasn't intentional. But the Rays are still a dirty team, as they were when Joe Maddon was their manager (Kevin Cash has been since 2015), so you never know.

The Yankees added 2 runs on a Rays error in the top of the 5th. Going to the bottom of the 7th, it was still 3-0, and James Paxton was cruising. But he ran out of gas, allowing back-to-back home runs to Mike Brosseau and Brandon Lowe, tying the game.

This was a single game, so it was set to go a full 9 innings. But John Curtiss struck out the side for the Rays in the 8th, and the Yankees went down 1-2-3 in the 9th as well. Zack Britton had done a great job for the Yankees so far, in place of the COVID-recovering Aroldis Chapman. Not this time: In the bottom of the 9th, he allowed double, fielder's choice, wild pitch, walk, groundout, single. Game over.

Rays 4, Yankees 3. WP: Ryan Thompson (1-0). No save. LP: Britton (0-1).

That was 3 out of 4 in Tampa Bay. The Yankees are now 10-6, still in 1st place in the American League Eastern Division, but they need to win games like Sunday's.

Also, Stanton was injured. It's a hamstring injury, which could be 6 weeks -- most of the rest of the regular season. Which could mean the return to the roster of Clint Frazier, he of the million-dollar bat, the two-bit glove and the five-cent head.

Tonight, they start a home series against the Atlanta Braves. Jordan Montgomery starts against Touki Toussaint

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Yankees Beat Braves In "A Game of Two Halves"

August 12, 2020, 2:57 pm

≫ Next: August 14, 1945: V-J Day + 75

≪ Previous: Yanks Drop 3 of 4 to Tampa Bay

I was once asked to write "99 Reasons Why Baseball Is Better Than Football." I thought it would take me all day, but I finished before lunch. I started with "Baseball has no halftime."

-- Thomas Boswell, The Washington Post.

The great baseball columnist had a point. Unlike soccer, no one can really describe baseball with the words so often used to describe soccer: "A game of two halves." But that's pretty much what the Yankees played last night, in the opener of a 2-game series against the Atlanta Braves at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees wasted little time. DJ LeMahieu led off the bottom of the 1st with a hit. After an Aaron Judge lineout, Aaron Hicks tried to bnt DJ over, but Braves starting pitcher Dany "Touki" Toussaint threw the ball away for an error. And then Luke Voit crushed a home run to make it 3-0 Bronx Bombers. They picked up 3 more runs in the 3rd inning, and 2 more in the 5th, including yet another homer by Judge.

(Toussaint is from the Fort Lauderdale area, and is of Haitian descent. His nickname is a combination of his parents' surnames, Toussani and Kiti.)

An 8-0 lead should have been plenty, and Jordan Montgomery was pitching like it. He got into trouble in the 2nd and 3rd innings, but kept the shutout going through 5. He allowed a 2-run homer in the 6th, and Aaron Boone decided not to take chances, bringing David Hale in to pitch the 7th. He began that inning by allowing 2 singles, and then got a strikeout.

And then Boone took him out, and brought in Adam Ottavino. This made absolutely no sense: The Yankees still led by 6 runs, Hale had gotten the previous hitter out, and he, Adam Ottavino, and the next batter, Dansby Swanson, were all righthanded hitters. It wasn't like he made the Boone Logan "Lefty-one-out-guy" move (which should never be done, ever).

Well, we can't exactly blame Ottavino for what happened next. Swanson hit a grounder that LeMahieu mishandled, everybody was safe, and a run scored. Despite allowing a walk (which, as we have seen, can be deadly to a team's chances of winning), Ottavino got out of the inning with just the 1 run being scored. The Yankees still led, 8-4, and got the run back in the bottom of the inning.

Not letting Ottavino pitch the 8th was understandable. Bringing in Luis Cessa, who should not even be pitching in the major leagues, was not. The inning opened with shortstop Gleyber Torres mishandling a ball that Didi Gregorius probably would have been able to handle.

(Until Torres helps the Yankees win a World Series, then, no matter what he does that's good, I will still insist that Brian Cashman's moves to accommodate him, including getting rid of Aroldis Chapman, Starlin Castro and Gregorius, were stupid.)

But the error unnerved Cessa, which is hardly an achievement. He bracketed a flyout with 2 doubles, driving in 2 runs. Boone took Cessa out, and replaced him with Chad Green, who got a strikeout and a groundout to end the threat. Zack Britton bounced back from a bad last outing, and pitched a 1-2-3 9th to end it.

Yankees 9, Braves 6. WP: Montgomery (2-1). SV: Britton (6, although it could be argued that Green really saved the game). LP: Toussaint (0-1).

The series continues tonight. It will continue without Judge, whom Boone says he is holding back due to "lower body tightness." Just say his legs don't feel good. There will be a day off tomorrow, and then the Boston Red Sox come in.

Tonight's starting pitchers are Masahiro Tanaka for the Yankees, and Huascar Ynoa, a 22-year-old Dominican righthander, for the Braves. A pitcher the Yankees have never seen before is usually a bad sign.

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