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How to Be a New York Basketball Fan In Atlanta -- 2015-16 Edition

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This Wednesday night, the Brooklyn Nets go to Atlanta to visit the Hawks, and go back on January 15. The Knicks visit on December 26 and January 5.

Knicks vs. Hawks isn't much of a rivalry. Nor is Nets vs. Hawks. But, since the Hawks have long struggled at the box office, due to their ineptitude and Atlanta's status as a city with a lot of transplants, this will be a good chance for fans of either New York City team to get another arena, and even a road win, under your belts.

Before You Go. Being well south of New York, Atlanta is usually warmer than we are. Granted, this won't make much of a difference with an indoors sport, but you should still be aware. Check the website of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (used to be 2 papers, now 1) before you go. For the moment, they're predicting pretty mid-60s for the afternoon, mid-50s for the evening.

Although Georgia, a.k.a. The Heart of the South, seceded from the Union in 1861, it was readmitted in 1870. You do not need a passport, and you don't need to change your U.S. dollars into Confederate money. And it's in the Eastern Time Zone, so you don't have to fiddle with your watch or your phone clock. Do keep in mind, though: They think you talk as funny as you think they do.

Tickets. The Hawks averaged 17,412, fans per home game last season, about 93 percent of capacity, and a huge improvement over 2013-14, when they averaged only 14,339. In spite of there being quite a few New York and New Jersey natives in Atlanta, getting tickets should be fairly easy, as long as you have the money.

In the lower level, the 100 sections, tickets are $1094 to $116 between the baskets, $50 to $607 behind them. In the 200 level, $45 between and $33 behind. In the 300 level, $33 between and $17 behind. The 400 level is closed off, since they don't think they can sell seats on those sections.

Getting There. It’s 868 miles from Times Square in New York to Five Points, Atlanta’s center of attention. Google Maps says the fastest way from New York to Atlanta by road is to take the Holland Tunnel to Interstate 78 to Harrisburg, then I-81 through the Appalachian Mountains, and then it gets complicated from there.


No, the best way to go, if you must drive, is to take the New Jersey Turnpike/I-95 all the way from New Jersey to Petersburg, Virginia. Exit 51 will put you on I-85 South, and that will take you right into Atlanta.

You’ll be in New Jersey for about an hour and a half, Delaware for 20 minutes, Maryland for 2 hours, inside the Capital Beltway (Maryland, District of Columbia and Virginia) for half an hour if you’re lucky (and don’t make a rest stop anywhere near D.C.), Virginia for 3 hours, North Carolina for 4 hours, South Carolina for about an hour and 45 minutes, and Georgia outside I-285 (the beltway known as the Perimeter, the Atlanta Bypass or “the O around the A”) for an hour and a half.

Throw in traffic in and around New York at one end, Washington in the middle, and Atlanta at the other end, and we’re talking 16 hours. Throw in rest stops, preferably in Delaware, near Richmond, near Raleigh, and in South Carolina, and it’ll be closer to 19 hours. Still wanna drive? Didn’t think so.

Take the bus? Greyhound has 7 buses a day leaving from Port Authority to Atlanta, but only 2 of them are no-changeover routes. It costs as much as $330 round-trip (though it can be as low as $112 on advanced purchase). Yeah. That’s not better than driving. And, at 21 hours each way (usually including an hour-and-a-half stopover in Richmond, Virginia), it saves you no time. At least the station is downtown, at 232 Forsyth Street at Brotherton Street, by the Garnett station on the subway.

Take the train? Amtrak’s New York-to-New Orleans train, the Crescent, leaves Penn Station at 2:15 PM and arrives at 8:13 he next morning. That's just under 18 hours. It returns at 8:04 PM (meaning you'll need an overnight stay in Atlanta) and arrives back in New York at 1:46 the next afternoon. The round-trip fare is $324. It’s as long as driving and riding the bus, and costs a lot more than the bus. The station is at 1688 Peachtree Street NW at Deering Road, due north of downtown. From there, take the 110 bus into downtown.

Perhaps the best way to get from New York to Atlanta is by plane? If you book now, American Airlines can get you from Newark Liberty International Airport to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (named for 2 late Mayors of Atlanta) for $455 round-trip. True, that’s more expensive than the train, and it requires a stopover at Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, but 4½ hours each way beats the hell out of 18. United Airlines can get you there nonstop, but it'll cost over $1,000. The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) Gold Line or Red Line subway from Hartsfield-Jackson to Five Points takes just half an hour.

Once In the City. When you get to your hotel in Atlanta (and, let’s face it, if you went all that way, you’re not going down for a single 3-hour game and then going right back up the Eastern Seaboard), pick up a copy of the Journal-Constitution. It’s a good paper with a very good sports section. The New York Times may also be available, but, chances are, the Daily News and the Post won’t be.


Founded in 1837, and originally named "Terminus" because it was established as a railroad center, but later renamed because the railroad in question was the Atlantic-Pacific Railroad, Atlanta is a city of about 450,000 people (less than Staten Island), in a metropolitan area of about 6.1 million (still less than 1/3 the size of the New York Tri-State Area). The sales tax in Georgia is just 4 percent, but it's 5 percent in the City of Atlanta.

Be advised that a lot of streets are named Peachtree, which can confuse the hell out of you. Even worse, the city uses diagonal directions on its streets and street signs, much like Washington, D.C.: NW, NE, SE and SW. The street grid takes some odd angles, which will confuse you further. Five Points -- Peachtree Street, Marietta Street & Edgewood Avenue -- is the centerpoint of the city.
A building boom in the 1980s gave the city some pretty big skyscrapers, so, while it won't seem quite as imposing as New York or Chicago, it will seem bigger than such National League cities as Cincinnati and St. Louis. The building currently named Bank of America Plaza, a.k.a. the Pencil Building because of its shape, is the tallest in the State of Georgia, at 1,033 feet. It stands at 600 Peachtree Street NE at North Avenue.

MARTA's 3-stripes logo of blue, yellow and orange is reminiscent of New Jersey Transit's blue, purple and orange. A single trip on any MARTA train is $2.50, now slightly cheaper than New York's. A 10-trip is no bargain at $25. The subway started running with tokens in 1979, and switched to farecards in 2006.
Going In. Philips Arena, named for the Dutch electronics company, and opened in 1999 on the site of the former Hawks arena, The Omni, is part of the Georgia World Congress Center complex, at Marietta Street & Centennial Olympic Park Drive NW, which also includes the Georgia Dome, the site of the new Falcons' stadium and CNN headquarters.

The official address is 1 Philips Drive. If you're driving, parking costs $13. If you're not, take MARTA's Blue or Green Line to Dome-GWCC-Philips Arena-CNN Station. Hawk Walk is a street that connects the station, the arena and the CNN headquarters.

There are steel columns on the Georgia Dome side of the arena that spell out "ATLANTA," and on the CNN side that spell out "CNN." Other than that, there's not much about it that's remarkable, at least not architecturally.
The Philips Arena was the home of the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers from 1999 to 2011, before they moved to become the new version of the Winnipeg Jets. The WNBA's Atlanta Dream, named for Atlanta native Martin Luther King's 1963 March On Washington speech, also plays there.

Unlike most arenas, the court is laid out on a diagonal, instead of more or less east-to-west or north-to-south: Northeast-to-southwest. The center scoreboard at Philips is the same one from The Omni, with some modern touches added. 
Food. Son, Ah say son, this bein’ the South, y’all can expect good eatin' and good hospitality. What the Hawks lack in history and atmosphere, they make up in food. Some arena restaurants are open only to club-seating patrons.

Available to all are RED and Taco Mac. Hawk Walk has stands for Courtside Grill, Fry Baby, Buckhead Diner Express, Backcourt BBQ, Corona Beach Hut Bar, 3 Point Play Pizza, sandwich & salad shop The Works, Nava Taqueria, Peachtree Pretzels, Italian-style sandwich bar Veni Vidi Vici, Delaney's Irish Pub, Crown Royal Bar and Rock and Roll Bar


In the arena concourses, you can find barbecue stands Buzzer Beaters (Portals 12 and 25) and Full Court Press (3), Slam Dunk Pizza (3, 11, 15 and 26), burger & chicken place Burgers & Birds (2 and 21), chicken stand Fowl Line (27), hot dog stand Hot Diggity Dog (20), Dessert Shoppe (2) and Gluten Free Portable (12).

Team History Displays. The Hawks hang banners for their 1970 Western Division title; their 1980, 1987 and 1994 Central Division titles; and their 2015 Southeast Division title.
The Hawks banners, photo taken during a Thrahsers game
prior to their 2011 move and the Hawks' 2015 Division title

The Hawks have officially retired 3 numbers: Number 9, forward Bob Pettitt, 1954-65 (their last season in Milwaukee and their 1st 10 in St. Louis); Number 21, forward Dominique Wilkins, 1982-94; and Number 23, forward Lou Hudson, 1966-77 (their last 2 seasons in St. Louis and their 1st 9 in Atlanta). The Number 55 of Dikembe Mutombo, center 1996-2001, will be retired on November 24. Center Jason Collier played the 2004-05 season with the Hawks, and then died from an enlarged heart at age 28. The Hawks have not retired his Number 40, but they have removed it from circulation.

Their banners for Pettit and Hudson are to the left of their title banners, the one for Wilkens to the right, where it will, presumably, be joined by Mutombo's. They do not hang a banner for their 1958 NBA Championship, won in St. Louis.

The Hawks do not have a team Hall of Fame. Besides Wilkins and Mutombo, they haven't had a Hall of Fame player for more than 4 Atlanta seasons. Pete Maravich and Walt Bellamy played 4 seasons for them, Moses Malone for 3, Connie Hawkins for 1.

Although Pistol Pete Maravich is probably, except maybe for 'Nique, the franchise's best player of the last half-century, and died young, the Number 44 that he wore with the Hawks remains in circulation. (He did get Number 7 retired by the Jazz.) Lenny Wilkens (note the spelling, so not related to Dominique) played for them in St. Louis and coached them in Atlanta, but there's no mention of him, either. 


Stuff. Hawksshop stores can be found in the arena and along Hawk Walk, selling pretty much any kind of memorabilia you could find at any other arena.

While there are several good books about Atlanta's favorite team, the Braves, the Hawks have hardly any written about them. Last year, as part of the NBA's A History of Hoops series, Jim Whiting published The Story of the Atlanta Hawks. That's about as good as it's going to get until the Hawks actually make a serious run at a title. And as for DVDs with the Hawks as the subject, I searched Amazon.com and found exactly none.

It's almost as if the Hawks don't exist. And, at the rate they're going, soon, they won't -- at least, not in the Big Peach.

During the Game. Atlanta can be a rough city, but, aside from a brief rivalry with the Orlando Magic when each team had some Georgia natives on their roster, they don't have any real rivalries. Despite the Charlotte Hornets, New Orleans Pelicans and Memphis Grizzlies being regional rivals, they're not that close -- certainly not like the Boston-New York-Philly-Washington corridor.

NFL Falcons and Georgia Tech college football games might be good places to keep your guard up. But Hawks fans are not going to pick fights with you. As I said, they barely care enough to show up. You do not have to worry about wearing Knicks, Nets, or any other team’s, gear in Philips Arena. Hawks fans will generally not act like New York, Philadelphia or Boston fans and get snippy (or worse, rough) because of it.

The Hawks hold auditions for National Anthem singers, rather than have a regular performer. I do not know if Hawks fans follow their Braves-leaning lead by concluding the National Anthem not with “ …and the home of the brave” but “ …and the home of the Braves!” I hope they don't. It’s not as dumb as the Baltimore “O! say does that… ” but it’s bad enough.

Foster Carson, a.k.a. "Sir Foster," is perhaps the most renowned organist in the NBA. Atlanta-based rapper and minister J4J has recorded a theme song for the Hawks. I don't know if they do the Braves' annoying Tomahawk Chop and its song, the War Chant: “Oh, oh-whoa-oh-oh… whoa-oh-oh… oh-whoa-oh-oh…”


The team's mascot is Harry the Hawk, and they do have cheerleaders who perform dance routines -- and, given the Hawks' perennial attendance struggles, I don't envy the ladies or Harry their jobs.

After the Game. You should have no trouble with Hawks fans on your way out, and you may even find a few of your fellow travelers ready to celebrate a Knick (or Net) win – or commiserate with you on a Knick (or Net) loss. But, if it’s a night game, be sure to get on the subway and then back to your hotel. Atlanta does have a bit of a crime problem; while you’ll probably be safe in the World Congress Center area and on the subway, you don’t want to wander the streets late at night.

A good way to have fun would seem to be to find a bar where New Yorkers hang out. Unfortunately, the best ones I could come up with were all outside the city. Hudson Grille (sure sounds like a New York-style name), 6317 Roswell Road in Sandy Springs, is 15 miles north of Five Points. MARTA Red Line to Dunwoody, then transfer to Number 5 bus.

Mazzy’s, at 2217 Roswell Road in Marietta, is the home of the local Jets fan club, but it's 20 miles north, and forget about reaching it by public transportation. The club also lists Bada Bing's, at 349 Decatur Street SE, just 1 stop east of Five Points on the MARTA Green Line (fitting), but they claim Mazzy's is their "perfect place."

A Facebook page titled “Mets Fans Living In Atlanta” was no help. Your best bet may be to research hotel chains, to find out which ones New Yorkers tend to like, and meet up with fellow N'Yawkuhs (or N'Jerseyans) there.

Sidelights. When the Thrashers moved to become the new Winnipeg Jets in 2011, it marked the 2nd time in 31 years that Atlanta had lost an NHL team. They still have teams in MLB, the NFL and the NBA, plus a Division I-A college which has been successful in several sports, the annual Southeastern Conference Championships for both football and basketball, and an annual college football bowl game, the Chick-fil-A Bowl (formerly the Peach Bowl).

But that doesn’t make Atlanta a great sports town. All of their major league teams have tended to have trouble filling their buildings.

* The Omni. The Philips Arena was built on the site of the previous Atlanta arena, The Omni, a.k.a. the Omni Coliseum. That arena hosted the Hawks from 1972 to 1997, the NHL’s Atlanta Flames from 1972 to 1980 (when they moved to Calgary), the 1977 NCAA Final Four (Queens native and ex-Knick Al McGuire leading Marquette over Dean Smith’s North Carolina), and the 1988 Democratic Convention (Michael Dukakis was nominated for President, which didn’t work out too well).

Elvis Presley sang there on June 21, 29, 30 and July 3, 1973; April 30, May 1 and 2, 1975; June 4, 5, 6 and December 30, 1976.

The Omni had to be replaced because the architects built it with steel that didn't hold up in Georgia's humid climate, and so, by the late 1990s, they had a 25-year-old arena that was in roughly the condition of one 75 years old. So The Omni had to go. The Philips Arena is built with more resistant steel, and should last for a while. (Then again, you never know: Following the "death" of The Omni at age 25, Turner Field is going to die at age 20, and the Georgia Dome at 26.)

* Georgia Dome and Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Georgia Dome, next-door to Philips Arena, opened in 1992, and has since been home to the Falcons, he SEC Championship Game, and the Chick-fil-A Bowl (formerly the Peach Bowl). It hosted the 2006 Sugar Bowl due to the Superdome still being unusable after Hurricane Katrina.

It hosted the NCAA Final Four in 2002 (Maryland beating Indiana), 2007 (Florida beating Ohio State), and 2013 (Louisville over Michigan). It's also hosted the 1996 Olympic basketball games, several SEC basketball tournaments and the 2003 Women's Final Four. It's hosted 7 soccer games, including a recent CONCACAF Gold Cup loss by the U.S. men's team to Panama, a 2014 U.S. women's team win over Russia, and games by legendary club sides AC Milan, Manchester City and Mexican side Club America.

A new retractable-roof stadium for the Falcons, and for a proposed Atlanta team for Major League Soccer, is planned for just south of the Georgia Dome, which, presumably, will be demolished -- like Turner Field, remarkably soon after its construction. Like the new Braves ballpark, it's expected to open in 2017, allowing both the Falcons and the MLS expansion team Atlanta United to move in. Naming rights have been sold to Mercedes-Benz -- giving them the names of both the Falcons and their NFC South Division rivals, the New Orleans Saints.

* Turner Field and site of Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Known as Atlanta Stadium from 1966 to 1974 and Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium from 1974 to 1997, this round, multipurpose stadium was home to the Southern Association’s Atlanta Crackers in their last season, 1965; to the Braves from 1966 to 1996; and to the Falcons from 1966 to 1991. It was in what’s now the parking lot north of Turner Field.

The old stadium hosted the World Series in 1991, 1992, 1995 and 1996, the last 3 games there being the Yankees' wins in Games 3, 4 and 5 of the '96 Series. It hosted NFC Playoff games in 1978 and 1991, the Peach Bowl from 1971 to 1991, and 2 matches of the U.S. national soccer team: A win over India in 1968, and a win over China in 1977. It also hosted the Beatles shortly after its opening, on August 18, 1965.

Turner Field was built as the centerpiece of the 1996 Olympics, and then the northern end of the 80,000-seat track & field stadium was torn down to make way for the bleachers of the 51,000-seat ballpark, opening the following spring. The Braves made the Playoffs every season there from 1997 to 2005, and again in 2012 and 2013. So far, though, they've won just 1 Pennant there, in 1999, and got swept by the Yankees.

Georgia Avenue and Pollard Blvd. The official address is 755 Hank Aaron Drive SE. MARTA 55 bus from Five Points station.

* Alexander Memorial Coliseum. The Georgia Institute of Technology (a.k.a. Georgia Tech) has played basketball here at “the Thrillerdome” since 1956, and recently completed a renovation. This building, named for legendary football coach Bill Alexander, also hosted the Hawks from their 1968 arrival from St. Louis to The Omni’s opening in 1972, and again from 1997 to 1999 while Philips was built on The Omni’s site. 965 Fowler Street NW. MARTA Gold or Red to Midtown.

* Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field. The oldest stadium in Division I-A college football? It sure doesn’t look it, having been modernized several times since its opening a little over 100 years ago, on September 27, 1913. Dodd, who played at the University of Tennessee and coached at Georgia Tech (first as an assistant to Alexander, then as head coach), is 1 of only 3 people elected to the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.

Georgia Tech's teams have two nicknames, the Yellow Jackets and the Ramblin’ Wreck. There is a 1930 Ford Model A called the Ramblin’ Wreck (don’t let the name fool you, they love their college traditions in the South and this vee-hicle is kept in tip-top condition) that drives onto the field before every game, carrying the Tech cheerleaders, including Buzz the Yellow Jacket, with the team running behind it. I would advise against going to Dodd/Grant when Tech plays their arch-rivals, the University of Georgia, as those games not only sell out, but have been known to involve fights. Other than that, the stadium has a great atmosphere. 177 North Avenue NW (yeah, another one of those). MARTA Gold or Red to North Avenue.

A few steps away, over the North Avenue Bridge (over I-75/85) at 61 North Avenue NW, highlighted by a huge neon letter V (as seen in the photo at the top of this post), is The Varsity. No visit to The A-T-L is complete without a stop at The Varsity. Basically, it’s a classic diner, but really good. Be careful, though: They want to keep it moving, much like the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld and its real-life counterpart The Original Soup Man, and also Pat’s Steaks in Philadelphia.

The place has a language all its own, and, when they ask, “What’ll you have?”, being a Met fan, you do not want to order what they call a Yankee Dog – or a Naked Dog, which, oddly, is the same exact thing: A hot dog whose only condiment is mustard (which hardly makes it “naked,” but that’s what they call it). Check out this link, and you’ll get an idea of what to say and what not to say.

* Site of Ponce de Leon Park. The Southern Association's Atlanta Crackers played at 2 stadiums with this name, from 1907 to 1923, and then, after a fire required rebuilding, from 1924 to 1964. The second park seated 20,000, a huge figure for a minor league park then -- and a pretty big one for a minor league park now.

"Crackers"? The term is usually applied to a poor white Southerner, and is, effectively, black people's response to what we now call "the N-word." It has also been suggested that the term referred to plowboys cracking a whip over their farm animals, or that it was a shortened version of an earlier team called the Firecrackers, or that it comes from the Gaelic word "craic," meaning entertaining conversation, or boasting, or bantering.

The team won a Pennant in 1895, before the 1st ballpark with the name was built. In the first park, they won Pennants in 1907, 1909, 1913, 1917 and 1919. In the 2nd, they won in 1925, 1935, 1938, 1945, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1960 and 1962. So, 15 in all. After that 1962 Crackers Pennant, Atlanta would not win another until the Braves finally did it 29 years later. All told, Atlanta has won 20 Pennants.

The park was known for a magnolia tree that stood in deep center field, until 1947 when Earl Mann bought the team and moved the fence in a bit, so that the tree was no longer in fair play. Although it never happened during a regular-season professional game, in exhibition games both Babe Ruth and Eddie Mathews hit home runs that hit the tree.

The park also hosted high school football and the occasional prizefight, including the last fight of Jack Dempsey, in 1940, when he was 45 years old and beat pro wrestler Clarence "Cowboy" Luttrell.

The Southern Association, a Double-A League (since replaced by the Southern League) folded in 1961, rather than accept integrated teams. The Crackers, known (ironically, considering their location) as "the Yankees of the Minors," were accepted into the Triple-A American Association, and remained there until their final season, 1965, before the Braves arrived the next year. That last season, 1965, was played at what became Fulton County Stadium for their final season, its 52,000 seats making it the largest stadium ever to regularly host minor-league games, a record that would later be broken by the Denver Bears after Bears Stadium was expanded to 74,000 seats and became Mile High Stadium.

The Midtown Place Shopping Center is now on the site. Unlike the park, and the 1st shopping center that was on the site, before Midtown Place, the magnolia tree has never been torn down. 650 Ponce de Leon Avenue NE. MARTA Gold to North Avenue, then transfer to Number 2 bus.

* SunTrust Park. The Braves have now broken ground for the stadium they hope to open in April 2017, in Cumberland, Cobb County, Georgia. It's in Atlanta's northwestern suburbs. The Braves have tried to justify the move by saying that this is "near the geographic center of the Braves' fan base." This may be true.

But the proposed move would also get them out of the majority-black City of Atlanta and into the center of mostly-white, Tea Party-country Georgia. Gee, I wonder if there's a connection, especially now that the famously inclusive Ted Turner no longer owns the team? (Ironically, Tea Party groups have opposed the building of the stadium, citing the taxes that would have to be implemented for it.)

Capacity will be about 41,000. It will be northwest of the interchange of Interstates 75 and 285, on Circle 75 Parkway, 13 miles northwest of Five Points. MARTA Gold to Arts Center, then transfer to Number 10 bus. The Braves also plan to use a "circulator" bus system to shuttle fans to and from the stadium.

* Dahlberg Hall. Formerly the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium, this structure opened in 1909, and was the longtime home of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra until 1968, when Woodruff Arts Center opened. In 1970, it was the site of Muhammad Ali's return to boxing, after his legal exile. He knocked Jerry Quarry out in the 3rd round.

In 1979, Georgia State University bought the Auditorium, and converted it into their alumni hall, renaming it for alumnus Bill Dahlberg. Courtland Street & Auditorium Place SE. Just 5 blocks east of Five Points, and within walking distance.

* Non-Sports Sites. There’s the Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum, 800 Cherokee Avenue SE, which tells the true story of that fire you saw in Gone With the Wind

At the other end of the spectrum, giving all people their equal due, is the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site at 449 Auburn Avenue NE, which includes the house that was Dr. King’s birthplace and boyhood home, the Ebenezer Baptist Church where he and his father Martin Sr. preached, and his tomb. The King Memorial stop on MARTA's Blue and Green Lines serves both the King Center and the Cyclorama.

The Carter Center, housing Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Library and Museum, and the Carter Center for Nonviolent Social Change, is at 453 Freedom Parkway. Bus 3 or 16 from Five Points stop on MARTA. The Carters have announced that, unlike most recent Presidents, they will not be buried at their Presidential Library, but rather in their hometown of Plains, 140 miles south of Atlanta.

There are also museums honoring Gone With the Wind author and Atlanta native Margaret Mitchell, Atlanta’s native drink Coca-Cola, and Atlanta’s native news network CNN. And there's the city's major shopping district, Underground Atlanta, in the Five Points area.

Elvis sang at the historic Fox Theater early in his career, giving 6 shows in 2 days, March 14 and 15, 1956. 660 Peachtree Street NE at Ponce de Leon Avenue. MARTA Gold or Red to North Avenue. He topped that from June 22 to 24, giving 10 shows in 3 days (including a personal record 4 on the 23rd -- he was a lot younger then) at the Paramount Theater, next-door to the Loew's Grand Theater, famous for being the site of the world premiere of Gone With the Wind. Both the Paramount and the Loew's Grand (which burned in a suspected insurance scam in 1978) have been demolished, and replaced by the Georgia-Pacific Tower. John Wesley Dobbs Avenue & Peachtree Street NE. MARTA Gold or Red to Peachtree Center.

Atlanta is the home base of actor-writer-producer-director Tyler Perry, and all his TV shows and movies are set there. The house that stands in for the home of his most famous character, Mabel "Madea" Simmons, is at 1197 Avon Avenue SW, 3 miles southwest of downtown. MARTA Gold or Red to Oakland City, then a 10-minute walk north. I think it's a private home, so don't bother whoever lives there. Especially if there's somebody living there who's like Madea.

The most famous TV show set in Georgia was The Dukes of Hazzard. The State in which Hazzard County was located was never specified in the script, but the cars had Georgia license plates, and Georgia State Highway signs could be clearly seen. The first few episodes were filmed in Covington, about 37 miles southeast of Five Points; after returning from a Christmas break from filming in 1978-79, new sets were built in Southern California to mimic a small Southern town's courthouse square.

Years later, the 1988-92 TV version of In the Heat of the Night would also film in Covington. The 1967 movie version, like the TV version set in the fictional town of Sparta, Mississippi, was filmed in Tennessee and Illinois, as Sidney Poitier refused to cross the Mason-Dixon Line to film his scenes.

Atlanta has attracted the supernatural, including The Walking Dead, The Vampire Diaries and the TV series version of Teen Wolf. Much of Andy Griffith's ole-country lawyer show Matlock was filmed around the Fulton County Government Center and the State Capitol along MLK Drive, centered on Central Avenue.

But, for the most part, Matlock, like another Atlanta-based show, Designing Women, was filmed in L.A. The house that stood in for Julia Sugarbaker's home, at 1521 Sycamore Street in the show (the address does exist in neighboring Decatur), isn't even in Georgia: It's in Little Rock, Arkansas, hometown of series co-creator and writer Harry Thomason. (His co-creator and writer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason is from Poplar Bluff, Missouri.)


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Atlanta is an acquired taste, especially for a New Yorker. Is it worth going? That's up to you to decide.

But if your mission is simply to have a good time in an unfamiliar city, and to “cross one more arena off your list,” then, by all means, go, stay safe, and have fun.

Alex Burr, the Yankee Who Gave His Life for Our Country

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A player for the New York Yankees once died for America in a war. And, mostly likely, you've never heard of him.

November 1, 1893: Alexander Thomson Burr is born in Chicago. Usually listed as "Alex Burr" in baseball reference sources, but known as "Tom Burr" to his friends, he went east to attend the Choate prep school (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut, and became a star pitcher. He then attended Williams College in Williamstown, in the Berkshire Mountains, in the northwestern corner of Massachusetts, bordering the States of New York and Vermont.


He signed a pro contract before ever appearing in a college game, so he never played for Williams. But he didn't last long. Frank Chance, the legendary Chicago Cubs manager now struggling to lift the Yankees to success, was impressed with him in spring training, and brought him north with the club.

But Tom Burr appeared in exactly 1 major league game, on April 21, 1914, at the Polo Grounds, and not as a pitcher. He played center field for the New York Yankees -- not yet an exalted position. He only played in the field, in the 10th inning, had no fielding chances, and never came to bat -- a true "Moonlight Graham." The Yankees went on to beat the Washington Senators 3-2.

He was soon released, and never reached the majors again. He played 7 games for the Jersey City Skeeters of the International League. He went back to Williams, but when the U.S. got into World War I in April 1917, he enlisted in the U.S. Army without getting his degree, and became a pilot.

On October 12, 1918, just 1 month before the Armistice ended the war, Tom Burr was killed in action in a plane crash, in Cazaux, France. It was an accident: Rather than being shot down, another U.S. pilot crashed into him -- what became known as "friendly fire." His plane caught fire, and crashed into a lake. It took 12 days to find his body.


He wasn't quite 25 years old. He was 1 of 8 major league players killed in "The War to End All Wars." Another, former St. Louis Cardinals catcher Harry Glenn, died of pneumonia the same day as Burr. Only 1 other played for a New York team, former Giant 3rd baseman Eddie Grant.

For all their history, and for all their attention to it, the Yankees make no mention at Yankee Stadium of the one and only player from their ranks to have died in military service. This becomes all the more glaring when you remember how much longtime team owner George Steinbrenner, whose prep school was Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, pandered to patriotism and to our armed forces, down to the Monument to the 9/11 victims and rescuers in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park.

Where did The Boss go to college? Williams, also the alma mater of Tom Burr. You'd think he would have seen some kind of memorial there, and remembered it.

Alas, all the men and women who served in World War I are dead now -- of combat wounds, of wartime illness, of later shortcuts of life, of old age. Army Corporal Frank Buckles of Oakwood, Oklahoma was the last living American veteran of that conflict, dying on February 27, 2011, age 110. Chief Petty Officer Claude Choules of Britain's Royal Navy was the last combat veteran, dying on May 5, 2011, also 110. And Florence Green, of the Women's Royal Air Force, was the last veteran of any kind of that war, living until February 5, 2012, just short of turning 111.

On the 75th Anniversary of the Armistice, November 11, 1993, ABC News did a piece on it, and taped a French survivor, in his late 90s, visiting a military cemetery. France had suffered terribly, especially since most of the action on the Western Front was on their soil (and some of it in their airspace).

I can't remember the man's name, but he looked into the camera, held up a finger, and said something. The reporter covering it translated it as, "All should remember to never do this again."

There it is: The best way to honor your dead soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines is to not make any more of them.

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November 1, 1870: In Chicago, the Mutuals of New York visit the White Stockings at Dexter Park before 6,000 people. With Chicago leading 7-5 after 8 innings, the Mutuals score 8 runs in the to of the 9th, to make it 13-7.

In the bottom o the 9th, Chicago adopts a waiting game, and the Mutuals' pitcher, Dutch-born Reinder Albertus "Rynie" Wolters, loads the bases on walks‚ and complains that the umpire is not calling strikes. A few hits and passed balls make the score 13-12 in favor of the Mutes when McAfee‚ the next batter for the Whites‚ lets a dozen balls go by without swinging. Wolters throws up his hands and walks off. The ump reverts the score to the 8th inning and the Whites win‚ 7-5.


Chicago has now defeated the Mutes twice since they took the Championship away from the Atlantics. The controversial ending of the game makes the Mutual club unwilling to give up the Championship.


The New York Clipper, the closest thing America had to a sports-only publication in those days, says‚ "In 1867 the Union club happened to defeat the Atlantics two games out of three of the regular series them played between them-only one series being played between clubs at that time. By this victory a precedent was established giving the championship title only to the club that defeated the existing champions two games while they were the champions. Of course this is an. absurd rule but it has prevailed ever since."


November 1, 1874: The National Association season ends today, with the Boston Red Stockings being declared the Champions with a record of 43-17. Boston actually had a record of 52-18, but the Committee running the league throws out the games played by the Baltimore Canaries (not "Orioles"), because they did not complete their schedule. The Mutuals finish 2nd.

November 1, 1894: Former Providence Grays pitcher Charlie Sweeney is convicted of manslaughter in San Francisco, after killing a man in a bar fight.

Just 10 years earlier, he had been the toast of the baseball world, becoming the 1st pitcher to strike out 19 batters in a major league game. But the fame went to his head: He began drinking, staying out late, and feuding with the Grays' other starting pitcher (only 2 were necessary in those days), Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn. He was finally released after choosing to spend the morning with his girlfriend in Woonsocket rather than report to the Providence ballpark, the Messer Street Grounds, for a scheduled start.

No other National League team would take him, and although he got picked up by the St. Louis Maroons, who dominated the Union Association so much that the league folded after a year. Sweeney overworked himself, and was never as good on the mound again. In an 1886 game, he gave up 7 home runs, still a major league single-game record. He threw his last major league pitch in 1887, only 24 years old.

He served 8 years in prison before being released, when it was obvious that he was dying, from tuberculosis. He returned to his hometown of San Francisco, and died there in 1902, just 38.



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November 1, 1914: Connie Mack begins cleaning house, putting together what would, today, be called a fire sale. The Philadelphia Athletics' manager and part-owner -- effectively, also the general manager, although that term wasn't used in baseball in those days -- asks waivers on pitchers Eddie Plank, Albert "Chief" Bender and Jack Coombs -- 2 future Hall-of-Famers, and a man who would have been a perennial All-Star if there'd been an All-Star Game back then.

Colby Jack goes to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Gettysburg Eddie and the Chief escape Mack's maneuvering by jumping to the Federal League. Although all have some life left in their soupbones‚ they are near their careers' end‚ and their departure is more sentimental than serious.

Mack's excuse: Retrenchment. Despite the Pennant‚ Philadelphia fans did not come out to Shibe Park in sufficient numbers, and the club lost $50‚000. It doesn't sound like much -- even with a century's worth of inflation factored in, it's a little under $1.2 million -- but by 1914 baseball standards, it was a fortune.


This is the 1st time a great A’s team is broken up to save money. Mack would do it again starting in 1932, because he had lost all of his non-baseball investments in the stock market Crash of 1929, and needed cash badly. In Oakland, Charlie Finley would do it in 1974-76, and Billy Beane in 2007 and 2011. Only on the last occasion did the A’s “get away with it,” competitively speaking.


November 1, 1916: Harry Harrison Frazee‚ New York theater owner and producer‚ and Hugh Ward buy the Red Sox for $675‚000 ($14.75 million in today's money, although one report puts the figure at $750‚000, or $16.4 million) from Joseph Lannin. Bill Carrigan announces that he will retire as Red Sox manager to pursue his interests in Lewiston‚ Maine.


November 1, 1925, 90 years ago: After 3 defeats, plus 5 games against non-NFL teams, the expansion New York Giants win a game against another NFL team, defeating the 3-time defending Champion Cleveland Bulldogs, 19-0 at the Polo Grounds.

However, the win is not as impressive as it may seem, because the champs had fallen apart due to a dispute over the rights to pro football in the Cleveland area. And only 18,000 fans came out. Still, for the Giants, a win is a win.

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November 1, 1942: Brooklyn Dodger president Larry MacPhail, already a hero of World War I (how much of one depends on who's telling the story), reenters the Army, and gives up his ownership stake. The Dodgers look to St. Louis for leadership. After 2 decades at Sportsman's Park, Branch Rickey splits with Cardinals owner Sam Breadon. He will sign to become the president of the Dodgers.


As Cardinal GM, he had already changed the game, by inventing the farm system. As Dodger president, he will change the world, by signing, and sticking by, Jackie Robinson. MacPhail, upon his return, will join with Del Webb and Dan Topping, and remake the New York Yankees.


November 1, 1945, 70 years ago: Branch Barrett Rickey, a.k.a. Branch Rickey III, is born in New York. Like his famous grandfather, he played baseball at Ohio Wesleyan University, and also wrestled there. He became a wrestling referee, and officiated in the Olympics.

He served in the Peace Corps in 1971, and the next year joined the Kansas City Royals organization. He later served in the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds organizations. He became President of the American Association, 1 of 3 Triple-A leagues at the time, along with the International League and the Pacific Coast League. In 1997, a realignment led to the elimination of the AA and the absorption of its teams into the IL and the PCL, and Ricky was named President of the PCL, a title he still holds.

November 1, 1946: The right foot of Cleveland owner Bill Veeck is amputated‚ a result of a war injury in the South Pacific 2 years before.

Veeck has already had a tremendous impact on promotion in a half season of ownership. A minor but typical change is the regular posting of NL scores on the Cleveland scoreboard‚ a departure from the long-standing practice of both Leagues, whose teams would only post the scores from around their own League.



Veeck doesn't let the amputation slow him down. He walks around on a prosthesis, and frequently stubs out his cigarette on it. He even says, "I'm not disabled. I'm crippled." In other words, his ability was reduced, but not eliminated. And, as long as his brain worked (however strangely at times), he had plenty of ability.


Also on this day, the 1st NBA game is played at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. (Until 1949, the National Basketball Association was known as the Basketball Association of America, or the BAA.) A crowd of 7,090 -- about half of capacity -- attends, and the New York Knickerbockers beat the Toronto Huskies, 68-66.


The Huskies go out of business after just 1 season. The Knicks are 1 of only 2 charter NBA teams still playing in their current city. The other is the Boston Celtics. They've just started their 70th season.


They are not, however, pro basketball's oldest franchise. The Philadelphia SPHAs were founded in 1917, as the team of the South Philadelphia Herbrew Association. They, too, were a charter BAA/NBA team, as the Philadelphia Warriors. They are still playing today, as the Golden State Warriors, in Oakland, although they are building a new arena to open near the Giants' ballpark in downtown San Francisco, with the start of the 2017-18 season as the target date.

Ossie Schectman, a former Long Island University star who scored the 1st NBA basket, died on July 30, 2013, at the age of 94. He was the last surviving player from this game.

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November 1, 1960: Fernando Valenzuela Anguamea is born in Navojoa, Sonora, Mexico. In 1981, the chunky, screwballing lefthander for the Los Angeles Dodgers was the hottest thing in baseball, He won his 1st 8 starts, with 5 shutouts and an ERA of 0.50. He was only 20 years old.

On May 15, 1981, I was traveling with my family to a weekend vacation in Williamsburg, Virginia. We stopped off at a rest area on Interstate 95, and I saw the new Sports Illustrated. Fernando was on the cover, with the headline, "UNREAL!" No, the cover didn't jinx him: He was 7-0 at that point, and won his next start, before falling to 8-1. That night, Len Barker of the Cleveland Indians pitched the 1st major league perfect game of my lifetime.

"Fernandomania" made the Dodgers what they remain to this day: Mexico's favorite team, despite the San Diego Padres playing a short drive from the border. It was tamed somewhat by the strike, as he went just 5-7 after his amazing start. But he pitched a complete-game win over the Yankees in Game 3 of the World Series. The Dodgers won in Game 6; had it gone to Game 7, he would have started it.

He had his only 20-win season in 1986, and struck out a record-tying 5 straight batters in that season's All-Star Game. He missed most of the 1988 season due to injury, but still got a 2nd World Series ring. He was released in 1991, and bounced around, signing with the Padres.

In 1996, the Padres played 3 games in Monterrey, the 1st regular-season games ever played in Mexico. He started the opener against the Mets, and benefited from a 15-0 lead. The Mets came back, and he left to a standing ovation. The Padres hung on to win, 15-10. He retired after the season, his career record 173-153.

A member of the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame and the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame, the Dodgers have not officially retired his Number 34 -- aside from Jim Gilliam, they don't do that unless the man in question is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame -- but they've kept it out of circulation.

He is now a broadcaster for the Dodgers' Spanish network, bringing up memories of his struggles to learn English. It was said in 1981 that, "The two best lefthanded pitchers don't speak English: Fernando Valenzuela and Steve Carlton." (Referencing Carlton's refusal to talk to the media.) Manager Tommy Lasorda said the only English words he knows are "beer,""food" and "light beer." On The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson said, "Fernando Valenzuela learned another English word today: 'Million.'"

November 1, 1971:Cold Spring Harbor, the 1st album by Billy Joel, is released. The record is made at the wrong speed, and the songs don't sound right. Billy gets out of his contract, signs with Columbia Records, releases Piano Man 2 years later, and the rest is history.

Before Game 3 of the 1979 Stanley Cup Finals at Madison Square Garden, Billy, by then one of the biggest music stars in the world on the back-to-back successes of The Stranger and 52nd Street, sang the National Anthem. When he's done, Ranger Captain Dave Maloney skates up behind him, and swats him on the rear end with the blade of his stick. The Rangers lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 4-1, and won the Cup in Game 5, although I don't think Maloney's childishness with Billy had anything to do with it.

Before Game 1 of the 1986 World Series at Shea Stadium, Billy, on the success of a new album, The Bridge, sang the Anthem. The Mets and Boston Red Sox players left him alone. The Sox won a thriller, 1-0.

On June 22, 1990, Billy became the 1st non-festival music act to play Yankee Stadium, hosting the 1st of 2 sold-out concerts. On July 16 and 18, 2008, he played the last 2 concerts at Shea. He has never been invited to perform at halftime of the Super Bowl, but he sang the Anthem at numbers XXIII (1989) and XLI (2007) -- both in Miami, and neither in 2017.

Two nights ago, Billy sang the Anthem before Game 3 of the World Series at Citi Field. In the middle of the 8th inning, as they have all season long, the Mets played "Piano Man," and the fans sang along, looking at Billy in the owner's box. He had a puzzled look on his face, as if to say, "No, this is not a happy sing-along song." Actually, the Bronx-born, Long Island-raised Billy is a Yankee Fan, so the real question to ask was, "Man, what are you doing here?" Oh la, da, da-dee-da, la-da, da-dee-dah, da-dum.


November 1, 1979: Edward Bennett Williams buys the Baltimore Orioles from Jerold Hoffberger for a reported $12.3 million (about $40.3 million in today's money). NFL rules prohibit a majority owner from being the majority owner of a team in another sport, so he sells some stock in the Washington Redskins to former Los Angeles Lakers and Kings owner Jack Kent Cooke.

In 1983, Williams becomes the 1st, and still only, owner to win championships in both football and baseball in the same calendar year. Not long thereafter, he will sell the rest of his Redskins stock to Cooke.

He remains Orioles owner until his death in 1988. Orioles fans were afraid that the Washington "superlawyer" would move the team to D.C., especially after the NFL's Colts were moved out of town in 1984. But, not long before his death, he cut a deal with the State of Maryland to build the ballpark that became Oriole Park at Camden Yards.


Also on this day, in separate deals‚ the Yankees acquire outfielder Ruppert Jones from the Seattle Mariners, and catcher Rick Cerone and pitcher Tom Underwood from the Blue Jays. They give up 7 players‚ including popular 1st baseman Chris Chambliss‚ shortstop Damaso Garcia‚ aging outfielder Juan Beniquez‚ and young pitchers Jim Beattie and Paul Mirabella.


This could have been a great pair of trades for the Yankees, as Cerone filled in admirably in the wake of the death of Thurman Munson, and he and Underwood were key in winning the American League Eastern Division in 1980 and the Pennant in 1981. But Jones, named the Mariners' 1st-ever All-Star in their expansion season of 1977, and essentially acquired to replace the traded Mickey Rivers, crashed into an outfield fence making a great catch in 1980, injured his shoulder, and was never the same player. The Yankees, the team of Earle Combs, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Bobby Murcer, wouldn't find a great regular center fielder again until Bernie Williams.


The M's and Jays didn't even do that well. None of the players they got from the Yankees did much. Chambliss did absolutely nothing for the Jays, through no fault of his own: They traded him, almost immediately, to the Atlanta Braves for outfielder Barry Bonnell. Once an All-Star, Bonnell was terrible in Toronto, while Chambliss helped the Braves win the NL West in 1982 and nearly did so again in 1983. Ironically, it was his tenure with the Braves, not the Yankees, that did the most to make him a major league coach: The Braves' manager at that time was Joe Torre.


November 1, 1984: The Los Angeles Clippers play their 1st home game after moving up the California coast from San Diego, at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. They had played 2 away games first. Oddly enough, their 1st game under the Los Angeles name was away to the Utah Jazz, the team they beat in their last game in San Diego.

The Clips beat the New York Knicks, 107-105. Last season's breakout Knicks star, Bernard King, scores 25, but some players who had won NBA Championships elsewhere led the Clips to victory: 1971 Milwaukee Buck Junior Bridgeman, 1980 and '82 Laker Norm Nixon, and, overcoming a never-ending foot injury, 1977 Portland Trail Blazer, San Diego native and UCLA star Bill Walton.


For several years, this opener stood as the highlight of Los Angeles Clipper basketball, as, much like the Nets behind the Knicks in the New York Tri-State Area, they have been stuck behind the Lakers, partly due to the older team being so well-established, successful and popular, and partly due to their own perennial losing, due to team owner Donald Sterling caring only about schmoozing his pals at the games rather than winning.

To make matters worse, since 1999 they have had to share the Staples Center with the Lakers, whereas they only had to share the Sports Arena with USC basketball; from 1999 onward, not only were they the worst pro basketball team in their city, they’re not even the best basketball team in their own building.  Indeed, despite a recent Playoff revival, with the NHL’s Kings having won 2 Stanley Cups, the Clips could arguably be said to have been the 3rd-best sports team in their own building.


But now, they're rid of the cheap racist Sterling, and they've gotten good, while the Lakers have gotten old. Maybe the next title at the Staples Center will go to the Clippers.


November 1, 1997: The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum opens in its new home in Kansas City‚ Missouri. It had been occupying a temporary site there for 4 years.

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November 1, 2001: Game 5 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. Steve Finley and Rod Barajas hit solo home runs for the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 5th inning, and those remain the only runs of the game going into the bottom of the 9th.

In an amazing case of history repeating itself‚ the Yankees again come from 2 runs down with 2 outs in the 9th inning, to win 3-2 in 12 innings. Byung-Hyun Kim is again victimized‚ this time by Scott Brosius' 2-run HR in the 9th. Alfonso Soriano's single wins it in the 12th. Steve Finley and Rod Barajas homer in the 5th for Arizona's runs. 


In 97 previous years of World Series play, only twice had teams come from 2 or more runs down in the bottom of the 9th to win a game. The Yankees had now done it on back-to-back nights -- albeit in different months (October 31 & November 1).

Also on this day, the Memphis Grizzlies play their 1st game, after 6 seasons in Vancouver. But they get torched by 34 points from Jerry Stackhouse, and lose 90-80 to the Detroit Pistons, at the arena then named the Great American Pyramid.

November 1, 2005, 10 years ago: A bronze sculpture featuring the friendship of Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson is unveiled at Brooklyn's KeySpan Park, home of the Mets' Single-A team, the Brooklyn Cyclones. (The stadium is now named MCU Park.)

The William Behrends sculpture captures the moment when the Dodger captain showed support by putting his arm around his black teammate's shoulder, hushing an unruly crowd hurling racial slurs at his teammate at Crosley Field in Cincinnati in 1947.

November 1, 2009: Game 4 of the World Series at Citizens Bank Park. Yankee manager Joe Girardi starts CC Sabathia, ALCS MVP but loser of Game 1, on 3 days' rest. It seems to work, as the Yankees lead the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 going into the bottom of the 7th.

One of the Phils' runs shouldn't have counted, because Ryan Howard didn't touch the plate. This could have been an epic controversy. And it might have been, because Chase Utley hit a home run off CC in the 7th, and Pedro Feliz hit one off Joba Chamberlain in the 8th to tie it.

But in the 9th, Johnny Damon fouled off pitch after pitch from Brad Lidge before singling with 2 outs. Mark Teixeira was up, and the Phils went into their lefthanders' switch. This was an echo of the shift used by the Cardinals on Ted Williams of the Red Sox in the 1946 World Series. But Damon realized that, if he stole 2nd, he could steal 3rd, too, because no one would be covering. He went for it, bringing up memories of another factor of the '46 Series, Enos Slaughter's "Mad Dash" that won Game 7 for the Cardinals.

Unnerved, Lidge accidentally hit Teix, and Alex Rodriguez got the biggest hit of his career (and regardless of what he wins from 2016 onward, it will remain so), a double to score Damon. Joe Posada singled home Teix and A-Rod, and Mariano Rivera shut the Phils down it the bottom of the 9th, securing a 7-4 Yankee victory, stunning the defending World Champions in their own raucous, not strangely silence, house. The Yanks can wrap it up tomorrow night.


November 1, 2010: The Giants win their 1st World Series since moving to San Francisco. Edgar Renteria, who drove in the winning run for the Florida Marlins against the Cleveland Indians in the 11th inning during Game 7 of the 1997 Fall Classic, joins Yankees legends Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra as only the 4th player in baseball history to collect two World Series-winning hits. (He had also made the last out for the St. Louis Cardinals as the Boston Red Sox won the 2004 World Series *.)

The Series MVP's 3-run homer off Cliff Lee in the 7th inning leads to San Francisco's 3-1 victory over the Rangers, and brings an end to 56 seasons of what some Giants fans had been, in recent days, describing as "torture." (Clearly, they'd never been truly tortured.)

I'll do the milestones for November 2 through 8 tomorrow, since there will be so many fewer of them.

This Blog Is NOT a Gloat-Free Zone

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The Yankees have had their bad moments in postseason play. They just had another in the AL Wild Card game. They've gotten swept in the World Series in 1976, 1963, and, for all intents and purposes, 1922. 1960 was bad. 1981 was worse. They got swept in the ALCS in 1980 and 2012. There was the pathetic hitting of the 2002, '05, '06 and '07 ALDS. And, of course, there was 2004... but it doesn't count as "blowing it" if you got cheated.

Never have the Yankees humiliated themselves the way the Mets did in this World Series.

* Game 1: Blew a 3-1 lead in the 6th inning, when their big pitching hero, Matt Harvey, choked; and a 4-3 lead in the 9th, and lost in 14 innings.

* Game 2: Blew a 1-0 lead in the 5th, when another pitching hero, Jacob deGrom, got rocked.

* Game 3: Even in the 1 game they won, blew a 2-1 lead in the 2nd.

* Game 4: Blew a 3-2 lead in the 8th, thanks to a fielding error by their NLDS and NLCS hero, Daniel Murphy, and a baserunning blunder by their stretch-drive hero, Yoenis Cespedes.

* Game 5: Blew a 2-0 lead in the 9th, thanks to Harvey choking again; and Jeurys Familia set a new World Series record with 3 blown saves; allowed 5 runs in the 12th inning to lose it.

Five runs in the twelfth inning -- or any extra inning -- of a World Series game. What team has ever allowed that?

Only the Mets.

The Kansas City Royals are deserving World Champions.

But let us not overlook the fact that this World Series was so much more lost than it was won.

Met fans on Twitter are telling me to shut up, because the Yankees are at home, while the Mets made the World Series.

The Mets made damn fools of themselves in the World Series. They made a hash of the World Series.

Their 1st chance in 15 years, and they looked like idiots.

Met fans are telling Yankee Fans, "Have some class."

Puh leeze. Met fans lecturing Yankee Fans on "class" is like Donald Trump lecturing the Mafia on how to run a casino.

But probably safer.

Just as the Yankees did in April and against in September, just as Chase Utley (his teammates, not so much) did in Game 2 of the NLDS, I knew that if someone, anyone, would just stand up to the Mets and remind them that they're the Mets, and that they don't belong in the postseason, they would fold.

The Washington Nationals didn't. The Los Angeles Dodgers (except for Utley) didn't. The Chicago Cubs didn't even show up.

The Royals showed up, and stood up to the Mets, and the Mets did, indeed, fold.

Still the biggest joke club in baseball.

29 years: The Curse of Kevin Mitchell lives.

Gloat away, Yankee Fans. You've earned it, 27 times over. This blog is not a gloat-free zone, and neither is the New York Tri-State Area.

How to Be a New York Football Fan In Tampa Bay -- 2015 Edition

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Yesterday, the New York Giants scored 49 points away to the New Orleans Saints, and lost. And the Jets, away to the Oakland Raiders, also lost.

Boy, did the New York football teams pick the right day to look like idiots! Because the Mets completed their throwing away of the World Series.

So now, it's football season. And this coming Sunday afternoon, at 4:05 PM, the Giants will play away to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Before You Go. Unlike Tampa Bay's baseball and hockey teams, their football team plays outdoors. The weather could be a factor. Also, Florida must be where the cliche, "It's not the heat that's so bad, it's the humidity" began.

Indeed, even in early Florida, the Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times) and the Tampa Tribune are predicting mid-80s for daylight hours, and low 70s for evening. So if you're flying, pack summer clothes, get on the plane with a short-sleeved shirt and a jacket, and then remove the jacket at your hotel.

The Tampa Bay region is in the Eastern Time Zone, so you don't have to change your watch, or the clock on your smartphone. And while Florida is in the South, it was readmitted into the Union, so you won't need your passport, and you won't need to change to Confederate money.

Tickets. You would think that, being a football team, the 1st major league sports team and the 1st team to win a World Championship in a football region, and also being in a football State, the Bucs would have good attendance.

But they don't: They averaged 59,659 fans per game last season, and only Oakland, St. Louis and Minnesota (the latter playing in a temporary stadium seating just 52,000 while their new stadium is built on the site of the Metrodome) had fewer. That 59,659 figure is about 90 percent of capacity, and only St. Louis did worse (86 percent).

Buccaneers tickets are among the cheapest in the NFL. In the Lower Level, seats on the sidelines are $99, and in the end zones $75. In the Upper Level, they're between $50 and $75 along the sidelines, and just $35 in the corners. There are no Upper Level seats over the end zones.

Getting There. It is 1,136 road miles from Times Square in Manhattan to downtown Tampa, and 1,132 miles from MetLife Stadium to Raymond James Stadium. Sounds like you’re gonna be flying.

If you don't mind changing planes in Philadelphia, Charlotte, or even overshooting Tampa and changing in Miami, you can get a round-trip ticket for under $700. Otherwise, it's going to be over $800, and you'll still have to change in Charlotte. The stadium is a short bus ride from the airport.

If you want to take a side-trip to Disney World, you could fly to Orlando (which is 92 miles from Tampa) and rent a car, but I suspect that hotels will be cheaper in the Tampa Bay area, and get more expensive the closer you get to Disney.

Amtrak is longer, but a bit cheaper: $442 round-trip from Newark Penn Station. Amtrak’s Silver Star train leaves Penn Station at 11:02 every morning, and arrives in Tampa at 12:23 the following afternoon. That’s right, 25½ hours. It leaves Tampa at 5:17 PM (arriving in New York at 6:50 the following night).

Greyhound has 5 daily departures from Port Authority to Tampa. It takes 28 1/2 hours, and you'll
Round-trip fare is $468, but it can drop to as little as $207 with advanced purchase. You'll have to change buses twice, in Richmond and Orlando. And the layover in Richmond is 3 hours and 15 minutes. And I don't like the Richmond Greyhound station, and I doubt that you will, either. There's also hourlong layovers in Fayetteville, North Carolina and Jacksonville. The Tampa Greyhound station is at 610 E. Polk Street, 4 blocks from the Amtrak station.

If you do prefer to drive, see if you can get someone to split the duties with you. Essentially, you’ll be taking Interstate 95 almost all the way down, turning onto Interstate 10 West at Jacksonville and then, after a few minutes, onto Interstate 75 South to Interstate 275 South. Take Exit 46B, and go west on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., County Route 574. It's about 3 miles, including over the Hillsborough River, past St. Joseph's Hospital, to U.S. Route 92, Dale Mabry Highway, on which you'll turn left. Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees' spring training facility, will be on your right, and Raymond James Stadium will be on your left.

It should take about 2 hours to get through New Jersey, 20 minutes in Delaware, an hour and a half in Maryland, 3 hours in Virginia, 3 hours in North Carolina, 3 hours in South Carolina, 2 hours in Georgia, and about 5 hours between crossing into Florida and reaching downtown Tampa.

Given proper 45-minute rest stops – I recommend doing one in Delaware, and then, once you’re through the Washington, D.C. area, doing one when you enter each new State, and then another around Orlando, for a total of 7 – and taking into account city traffic at each end, your entire trip should take about 26 hours. Maybe you can do it in 24 if you speed and limit your rest stops to half an hour each, especially if one of you drives while the other sleeps, but I wouldn’t recommend this.

Once In the City. "Tampa" is believed to be a Native American name meaning "sticks of fire," while St. Petersburg, like the city of the same name in Russia that was known as Leningrad in the Soviet era, is named after the first Pope, the Apostle Peter. Tampa, founded in 1849, is home to 350,000 people; St. Petersburg, founded in 1888, is home to 250,000; and the metro area as a whole 2.8 million. So, while neither city is big, it's a decent-sized market (and thus should be drawing more people for baseball and football games).

In Tampa, Whiting Street divides the city's streets into North and South, and the Hillsborough River into East and West. In St. Petersburg, Central Avenue divides the city into North and South, and while there appears to be no East-West divider, 1st Street seems to set off a section with Northeast addresses.

HART, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit, runs buses, $2.00 Local and $3.00 Express. PSTA runs $2.00 buses around St. Petersburg. So, if you want to go into St. Pete, taking the 100X bus from downtown Tampa ($3.00) and transferring to a bus in St. Pete ($2.00) will be $5.00 each way.

The sales tax in Florida is 6 percent.

Going In. The official address of Raymond James Stadium is 4201 N. Dale Mabry Highway, about 5 miles northwest of downtown. The old Tampa Stadium was just to the north. Take Bus 14 to the West Tampa Transfer Center, and switch to Bus 45.

Dale Mabry was a Tallahassee native and Tampa resident, a Captain in the U.S. Army Air Service, the earliest forerunner of the U.S. Air Force, and a pilot in World War I. Unfortunately, he was also the pilot for the first large-scale air disaster in American history, piloting the Roma, a dirigible that crashed at Norfolk, Virginia in 1922, killing 34 people, including himself. (There were 11 survivors.) The cause was found to be mechanical failure, and it was the last U.S. airship to be filled with hydrogen; all American airships since, including the Goodyear Blimps, are filled with helium. Mabry, not at fault for the crash, is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Raymond James isn't a local politician, football coach, or figure from the Buccaneers' history. Rather, it's a locally-based financial services holding company, founded in 1964 by the merger of companies run by St. Petersburg broker Robert James and Edward Raymond. James' son, Thomas A. James, is executive chairman of the company, but is now retired from day-to-day operations.

Parking is plentiful at "Ray Jay," and can cost as little as $16. This being the South, and Central Florida being the home of Southeastern Conference titans the University of Florida, tailgating is not only permitted, it's encouraged. Escalator towers are at each corner.
The stadium opened in 1998. It hosted Super Bowls XXXV in 2001 (the Giants lost to the Baltimore Ravens, unlike their win over the Buffalo Bills at the old Tampa Stadium 10 years earlier) and XLIII in 2009 (Pittsburgh Steelers over Arizona Cardinals). The University of South Florida also plays home games there. The stadium hosts the Outback Bowl on or around New Year's Day, and has been selected as the host for the College Football National Championship Game for the 2016 season, to be held on January 9, 2007.
MLS' Tampa Bay Mutiny played there from 1998 to 2001, and were then disbanded. The U.S. national soccer team has played 4 games there, and has never lost, winning 3 and drawing 1. They also played 3 games at Tampa Stadium.

The field, like most NFL fields, is laid out north-to-south. The big scoreboard is at the north end, and the Pirate Ship, firing off cannons when the Bucs score, is at the south end, a.k.a. Buccaneers Cove. This is where mini-fan clubs of individual players are given tickets, as seen in the photo below.

Food. The Tampa Bay region, discovered by Spanish explored Hernando DeSoto, is known for its Spanish and Hispanic heritage, particularly the so-called Cuban sandwich, featuring freshly sliced ham, pork, and Genoa salami on toasted Cuban bread with Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard.

On the 100 Level, DeSoto Deli is at Sections 107 and 132 (you'll notice that all of these are on each side of the stadium, on diagonals from each other), Pizza Plank at 109 and 134, The Galley at 110 and 136, Taste of Tampa at 112 and 137, Red Sail Spice at 114 and 139, Bay Burgers at 118 and 143, Chicken Coup at 103 and 129, Captain's Grill at 123 and 148, and Endzone Galley at 124 and 149.

On the 300 Level, First Down Deli is at 309 and 334, Pass the Pizza at 311 and 336, Sideline Salsa at 312 and 336, Grid Iron Grill at 304, 317, 329 and 341; and Goal Line Stand at 307, 314, 332 and 339.

Team History Displays. The stadium does not have a public display of a banner or sign stating that the Buccaneers won Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003. Nor is there any mention of the NFC Championship they won for that 2002 season to get into said Super Bowl. Nor for their NFC Central Division titles of 1979, 1981 and 1999; nor for their NFC South Division titles of 2002, 2005, 2007; nor for their Wild Card Playoff berths of 1982, 1997, 2000 or 2001.

The Buccaneers have 3 uniform numbers officially retired: 63, for defensive end Lee Roy Selmon; 55, for linebacker Derrick Brooks; and 99, for defensive tackle Warren Sapp. Selmon was their 1st-ever draft pick, suffered through the misery of the 0-26 start to their history in 1976 and '77, played for them into the rise from that and in the 1979 NFC Championship Game, and remained with the team through 1984, their last remaining original player. Brooks and Sapp both joined in 1995, and took the team their long-term status as one of the NFL's true joke franchises to the Playoffs in 1997 and to the Super Bowl win. These are also the only 3 players, thus far, who have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame based mostly on what they did for the Bucs.

In addition, the Bucs have not officially retired, but nor have they returned to circulation, the 42 of running back Ricky Bell, a star on the 1979 team who died of a brain tumor while still an active player; the 40 of Mike Alstott, a running back on the 1997-2007 Playoff teams and in the Super Bowl; and the 47 of John Lynch, a safety who was also a part of their turn-of-the-21st-Century glory days and their Super Bowl win.

None of these numbers hang by themselves as "retired numbers" anywhere in the stadium. What the Bucs do have is a Ring of Honor, which includes Selmon, Sapp, Brooks, Alstott, original head coach John McKay (who also coached Bell on a National Championship team at USC), 1979 quarterback Doug Williams, tight end Jimmie Giles who was his most frequent passing target, and offensive tackle Paul Gruber, who lasted from the bad old days of the late 1980s and through the 1990s, all the way up to the return to the Playoffs, but not to the Super Bowl. Gruber held the record for most games played for the Bucs, until surpassed by Brooks.

Previously, from 1991 to 1998, the Bucs had a Krewe of Honor at Tampa Stadium, honoring Selmon, Bell, Williams, McKay, and original team owner Hugh Culverhouse, who has not yet been inducted into the Ring of Honor. Perhaps that will happen with the team's 40th Anniversary next season.
Tampa Bay Buccaneer Ring of Honor

Stuff. According to the Raymond James Stadium website:

RJS does not have a Buccaneers or USF team store. Merchandise is sold only on event days. On the main concourse there are four permanent merchandise booths located near sections 107, 114, 132 and 139. In each of the clubs there is one permanent merchandise store, located across from sections 211 and 235. In the upper concourse, permanent merchandise stands are located near Sections 330 and 341. Other locations may be available depending on the event. Check with  Guest Services for a list of available merchandise booths.

I've never been to a Bucs' home game, but I wonder if these stands sell pirate hats and, like Rutgers University, the Scarlet Knights, foam swords.

Did I mention that the Bucs were, and may still be to some people, a "joke franchise"? This is reflected in the 1st 2 books that come up when you plug their team name into Amazon.com: Ted Mecklenburgh's The Funniest Tampa Bay Buccaneers Joke Book Ever, and Orlando-based standup comedian Rich Sims' new Tampa Bay Buccaneers Football Dirty Joke Book: The Perfect Book For People Who Hate the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Why would anyone hate the Bucs enough to write an entire book of jokes about them? They don't really have rivals. The Florida-Georgia rivalry doesn't translate into animosity between the Bucs and the Atlanta Falcons, nor to the other NFC South teams, the Carolina Panthers and the New Orleans Saints. The other Florida teams, the Miami Dolphins and the Jacksonville Jaguars, are in the AFC, so they can't meet in the postseason unless it's in the Super Bowl. Even the team they beat in their 1 Super Bowl, the Oakland Raiders, has many team they hate more.

In 2011, Denis M. Crawford wrote a book about he team's early days, Hugh Culverhouse and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers: How a Skinflint with a Losing Team Made the Modern NFL. Shortly after Super Bowl XXXVII, Scott Smith wrote a happier story: World Champions: The Official Story of the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The NFL released an official DVD highlight film of the Bucs' Super Bowl season, and a package featuring all their 2002-03 postseason games including the Super Bowl. In 1991, Mario Van Peebles starred in Triumph of the Heart: The Ricky Bell Story, and it's available on Amazon.com.

During the Game. Rays fans don't like it when the visiting fans "take over their ballpark." That won't be an issue, as Bucs fans do a better job of filling the place (although not a great one). If this were a Florida vs. Georgia, Florida vs. Miami, Florida vs. Florida State or Florida State vs. Miami game, you'd have issues while rooting for the visiting team. But it's Bucs vs. Giants. Don't be obnoxious to the home fans, and they'll leave you alone.

The team's mascot is a pirate named Captain Fear. The Bucs' cheerleaders are among the most highly-regarded in the NFL. They hold auditions for National Anthem singers, rather than having a regular singer. The original theme song of "Hey, Hey, Tampa Bay!" has been replaced by the hip-hop "Bucs Theme Song" by J. Skeete. But "TAM-pa-BAY!" is the best chant their fans have come up with thus far.

After the Game. The stadium is far from downtown Tampa, and is not in an especially high-crime area. And, as I said, Bucs fans do not tend to get violent. You might get a little bit of verbal if you're wearing opposing team gear, but it won't get any worse than that.

If you're looking for a place to relax with a postgame snack and drink, your nearby options are limited. South of the stadium, at the intersection of Dale Mabry Highway and Columbus Drive, there's a shopping center with a Burger King, a Chili's, a Moe's Southwest Grill, a Sonic, and a VariAsian Crazy Buffet. North of the stadium, there's a Panera at MLK Blvd. and Himes Avenue.

If you're looking to spend time with others from the Tri-State Area, Bobalouie's Grille & Sports Garden is the home of the New York Giants Fan Club of Tampa Bay. But it's at 1913 E. Bearss Avenue, on the north side of Tampa, about 12 miles northeast of the stadium and about 12 miles due north of downtown. The home of the New York Jets Fan Club of Tampa Bay, Peabody's Bar & Grill, is similarly far away, at 15333 Amberly Drive on the north side of Tampa, 14 miles northeast of the stadium, and also 14 miles northeast of the arena. I can find no listing for bars that serve as gathering places for Yankee or Met fans.

Sidelights. The Yankees' spring training home, George M. Steinbrenner Field (formerly Legends Field), is at Dale Mabry Highway and Tampa Bay Blvd., across from Raymond James Stadium. The University of South Florida (USF) also plays football at Raymond James, and the U.S. national soccer team has played 4 games there, and has never lost, winning 3 and drawing 1. They also played 3 games at Tampa Stadium.

North of Raymond James was Al Lopez Field, named for the Tampa native who was a Hall of Fame catcher and manager. North of that was the Buccaneers' first home, Tampa Stadium, known as The Big Sombrero because of its weird shape. It was built in 1967 with 46,000 seats, and expanded to 74,000 when the Bucs were expanded into existence in 1976. The Giants won Super Bowl XXV there. It was demolished in 1999.

One of the legendary homes of spring training baseball, Al Lang Field (now Progress Energy Park), named for the Mayor who promoted St. Petersburg as a spring training site, is at 1st Street SE & 2nd Avenue S., 2 miles east of the Trop, in downtown St. Pete on the shore of Tampa Bay.

The spring home of the Yankees from 1947 to 1961, the Mets from 1962 to 1987, and the St. Louis Cardinals from 1947 to 1997, it is no longer used as a major league spring training or Florida State League regular season facility. In fact, it was supposed to be torn down so that the new Rays ballpark could be built on the site, but they haven't been able to get the funding, so Al Lang Field remains standing. It is the home of the new version the Tampa Bay Rowdies, in the new version of the North American Soccer League, the second division of North American soccer. From downtown Tampa, take Bus 100X to Bus 4.

Tampa-based teams have won Florida State League Pennants in 1920, '25 (Tampa Smokers), '57, '61 (Tampa Tarpons), '94, 2001, '04, '09 and '10 (Tampa Yankees). St. Petersburg teams have done it in 1975, '86 (St. Petersburg Cardinals) and '97 (St. Petersburg Devil Rays, who won a Pennant before their parent club had even played a game). The Clearwater Phillies won a Pennant in the same year as their parent club in Philadelphia, 1993, and won another under their current name, the Clearwater Threshers, in 2007, presaging their parent club's success.

The Amalie Arena, previously known as the Ice Palace, the St. Petersburg Times Forum and the Tampa Bay Times Forum, opened in downtown Tampa in 1996, and the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning moved in for the 1996-97 season.

It is at 401 Channelside Drive, across Old Water Street from the area's premier museum, the Tampa Bay History Center, and both are across Meridian Blvd. from the Channelside Bay Plaza mall, the Florida Aquarium, and the American Victory Ship, symbolic of the American effort in the Spanish-American War of 1898. Tampa was a gathering and training center for that war.

To get to Tropicana Field, home of the Rays since their inception in 1998, you'll have to go onto Interstate 275, and cross the Howard Frankland Bridge – a bridge so traffic-ridden it's known locally as “Frankenstein” and “the Car-Strangled Spanner” – over Tampa Bay itself and into St. Pete.

Opened in 1990 as the Florida Suncoast Dome, and nicknamed the White Elephant because of its exterior color and lack of a tenant for the sport for which it was intended, the name was changed in 1993 when the NHL's Lightning came in, making the stadium the ThunderDome. But they were only there for 3 seasons, until the building now known as the Amalie Arena opened.

In their home opener, October 10, 1993, the Bolts set what was then an NHL record of 27,227 fans in the quirky seating configuration the place had at the time. So an expansion hockey team -- in Florida, mind you -- in the era before you could buy game tickets online, managed to outdraw a winning, Internet-era baseball team.

Anyway, when the Devil Rays (as they were known from 1998 to 2007) arrived, the stadium's name was changed to Tropicana Field -- but, make no mistake, this blasted thing (or thing that should be blasted) is a dome. In 1999, it became the only building in Florida (so far) to host an NCAA Final Four, and Connecticut beat Duke in the Final.

The Lightning played their 1st season, 1992-93, at Expo Hall, part of the Florida State Fairgrounds. It seats only 10,425 people, so it was never going to be more than a temporary home, but they outgrew it immediately, because, unlike the new Ottawa Senators, who came into the NHL at the same time and played at the Ottawa Civic Centre, which had almost exactly the same number of seats, they weren't horrible; indeed, they were rather respectable from the off. 4800 U.S. Route 301, about 8 miles northeast of downtown. It would take 3 buses to get there.

Tampa Bay does not have an NBA team, nor does it seem to be interested in trying for one. The Orlando Magic play 93 miles from downtown Tampa, while the Miami Heat are 279 miles away. Yet, according to a May 2014 article in The New York Times, mainly due to LeBron James (but also due to Shaquille O'Neal being much more recently in Miami than in Orlando), the Heat are more popular in the Tampa Bay region than the Magic are -- and the Los Angeles Lakers are nearly as popular as the Magic, probably because of Shaq and Kobe.

Busch Gardens, with its African theme (for political correctness reasons, they can't call it "The Dark Continent" anymore), is at 10165 N. Malcolm McKinley Drive, 10 miles northeast of downtown. Take the Number 8 bus to 7th Avenue & 15th Street, then walk up 15th Street to 11th Avenue and catch the Number 18 bus, and take that to Busch Blvd.

Busch Gardens, the History Center, the Aquarium and the Victory Ship should provide you with some non-sports things to do in the Tampa Bay region. And, if you want to go there, Walt Disney World is 70 miles up Interstate 4, an hour and 15 minutes by car from downtown Tampa.

Malio's, in downtown Tampa at 400 N. Ashley Drive at Kennedy Blvd., is a locally famous restaurant, known around there as George Steinbrenner's favorite. He had a private room there, as does the still-living Tampa native and Yankee Legend Lou Piniella.

The Tampa Bay region doesn't have a lot of tall buildings. The tallest, at 579 feet, is 100 North Tampa, named for its address at Whiting Street downtown, formerly named the Regions Building and the AmSouth Building.

Oh, and, get this: As New York is known as the Big Apple, Tampa likes to call itself the Big Guava. In the words of the immortal Jack Paar, I kid you not.

As far as I know, the only major-network TV show set in the Tampa Bay region  has been Second Noah, ABC's 1996-97 series starring Daniel Hugh Kelly as a veterinarian at Busch Gardens. Quite a few films have been set there, though, including Cocoon, Edward Scissorhands and A Time to Kill.

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So, if you can afford it, go on down and join your fellow Giant fans as the Big Blue Wrecking Crew take on the Men In Pewter. Enjoy the warmth -- and remember, it's not the heat that's so bad, it's the humidity!

November 2, 1995: "Clueless Joe"

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November 2, 1995, 20 years ago: The Yankees name Joe Torre as their new manager‚ replacing Buck Showalter.

Torre had been a good catcher in the 1960s, a decent 1st baseman in the early 1970s, and a very good hitter throughout his playing career. His managing was another matter. He managed the Mets in the late 1970s, and he didn't have much to work with. He managed the Atlanta Braves in the early 1980s, and got them to a Division title in 1982 and almost to another in 1983, but that was it. He managed the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1990s, and didn't get too far.

The Cardinals fired him in 1995, and he thought he'd never manage again. "I'd run out of teams," he said, noting that he'd played for 3 teams, and managed all of them. He'd been a broadcaster between his Braves and Cardinals jobs, and figured he'd go back into the broadcast booth, and that's how he'd finish out his days in baseball.

Then George Steinbrenner called to offer him the Yankee managing job. Joe had never played in the American League, let alone managed in it. But George thought he was the guy. 

The New York Daily News, citing his lackluster managerial record up until then, and also the circus that tended to surround Steinbrenner, especially where managers were concerned, prints the headline "CLUELESS JOE."

You know the rest of the story. World Champions in his 1st season, 1996. Wild Card in 1997. World Champions in 1998, winning more games than any team ever had in a regular season and postseason combined, 125, including a 4-game sweep in the World Series. World Champions in 1999, including the best postseason record of the 1995-present Division Series era, 11-1. World Champions in 2000, beating the Mets in the World Series. American League Champions in 2001, missing another title by 1 run. Division Champions in 2002. AL Champions in 2003, with the dramatic AL Championship Series win over the Boston Red Sox.

Then, of course, the downturn, the kind of things that the Daily News probably expected when it printed the headline. A shocking ALCS loss in 2004. Pathetic performances in the AL Division Series in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Joe got lowballed by George's heirs: His sons Hank and Hal, Yankee brass Randy Levine and Lonn Trost, and general manager Brian Cashman. He walked out, and managed the Los Angeles Dodgers to a pair of Division titles, before taking a job in Major League Baseball's office.

Joe and the House of Steinbrenner made up. He's been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and is honored in Monument Park at the new Yankee Stadium.

The Daily News called him "CLUELESS JOE." They get reminded of that more than they do of "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD."

November 2, 1995 was also the day Seinfeld aired the episode "The Soup Nazi." Happy Anniversary, Schmoopie!

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November 2, 1865, 150 years ago: Warren Gamaliel Harding is born in Blooming Grove, Bloom Township, Ohio, outside Columbus, and lives most of his life in nearby Marion. Elected President in 1920, he died in office on August 2, 1923, as the Teapot Dome scandal began to swirl around his Administration. He got off easy with the law (2 of his Cabinet officers went to prison), but not with history (he is generally regarded as one of the worst, and dumbest, Presidents ever, and that's before you get into his womanizing).

He was a big baseball fan, and on Opening Day of the 1923 season, as the Yankees visited Washington to face the Senators, he threw out the ceremonial first ball, and shook hands with Babe Ruth.
November 2, 1881: The American Association of Professionals is founded, challenging the National League, with the motto "Liberty to All." The members are St. Louis‚ Cincinnati‚ Louisville‚ Allegheny‚ Athletic (Philadelphia)‚ and Atlantic (Brooklyn). This AA has officially, for many years, been considered by Major League Baseball to be a "major league."

The AA elects H.D. McKnight as its president. It votes to honor the NL blacklist in the case of drunkenness, but not to abide by the NL reserve clause. The new league will rely on home gate receipts‚ visiting teams getting just a $65 guarantee on the road‚ as opposed to the NL's policy of giving 15 cents from each admission to the visitors. The AA will allow Sunday games‚ liquor sales‚ and 25-cent tickets (about $6.50 in today's money)‚ all prohibited by the NL (which then charged 50 cents for all games).

Six of their clubs would eventually join the National League. Two would be contracted out of existence in 1900: The Louisville Colonels and the original Baltimore Orioles. The other 4 are still in business today, albeit under other names: The St. Louis Browns (St. Louis Cardinals), the Cincinnati Red Stockings (Cincinnati Reds), the Pittsburgh Alleghenys (Pittsburgh Pirates), and the Brooklyn Grays (who replaced the Atlantics in 1884, and are known today as the Los Angeles Dodgers).

November 2, 1889: North Dakota is admitted to the Union as the 39th State. At the same time, South Dakota is also admitted, as the 40th State. This is the only time 2 States have been admitted on the same day, and it begins a 10-day stretch in which 4 States are added.

Neither State has any major league teams, and very few professional teams at any level, due to being so sparsely populated: Between them, they have only 1.6 million people, and aside from Mount Rushmore, which is outside Rapid City, South Dakota, they don't have much in the way of tourist attractions.

For the most part, the Dakotas are considered part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul sports "market," and most people there are Twins and Vikings fans, though western South Dakota has a noticeable presence of Denver Broncos fans.

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November 2, 1913: Former St. Louis Browns manager George Stovall is the 1st figure from either of the established major leagues to jump to the Federal League‚ signing to manage the Kansas City Packers.

With glib salesman Jim Gilmore as its president‚ and backed by several millionaires‚ including oil magnate Harry Sinclair and Brooklyn baker Robert Ward‚ the Feds declare open war 2 weeks later by announcing they will not honor the major leagues' reserve clause. It will prove a long‚ costly struggle‚ similar to the AA's and AL's beginnings‚ but with more losers than winners.

On this same day, Burton Stephen Lancaster is born in Manhattan. One of the most acclaimed actors of the 20th Century, one of his last roles (but not his very last) was as an old doctor who used to be a baseball player in Field of Dreams.

November 2, 1914: John Samuel Vander Meer is born in Prospect Park, Passaic, County, New Jersey, and grows up in nearby Midland Park, Bergen County. On June 11 and 15, 1938, pitching for the Cincinnati Reds, he became the 1st, and remains the only, pitcher ever to throw back-to-back no-hitters. He blanked the Boston Braves at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, and then did the same to the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, in the 1st major league night game ever played in New York City.

Many years later, Johnny Vander Meer was interviewed by a reporter for the Chicago Daily News for the anthology book My Greatest Day In Baseball. He said, "It would seem natural for me to name the second successive no-hitter I pitched in 1938 as my biggest day in baseball, and I'll have to explain why it isn't. I was still just a novelty, a kid who had done a freakish thing."

He was sick the next year and couldn't get untracked. While the Reds won the Pennant, he was not called on to pitch in the 1939 World Series, which the Reds lost to the Yankees. He got sent back to the minors in 1940. "I knew that was what I needed. At the same time it made me realize just how quickly a fellow can fall from the pedestal."

He pitched solidly for the Indianapolis Indians, then the Reds' Triple-A team, and was called back up. On September 18, 1940, he started what could have been the Pennant-clinching game for the Reds, against the Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park. The game went 13 innings, and he pitched 12 innings. He batted in the top of the 13th and doubled, was sacrificed to 3rd, and Ivan Goodman hit a sacrifice fly to get him home. He was relieved by Joe Beggs for the bottom of the 13th, and the Reds won, 4-3. The Reds won the Pennant, and Vander Meer had his greatest day in baseball.

This time, he pitched in the World Series, tossing 3 scoreless innings against the Detroit Tigers in Game 5. The Reds won in 7 games, and he had his ring.

He went 16-12 in 1941, and came close to a 3rd no-hitter. He peaked at 18 wins the next year, and led the NL in strikeouts in 1941, '42 and '43. He was a 4-time All-Star, so he wasn't just a guy who caught lightning in a bottle for 5 days.

He served in the U.S. Navy in World War II. Although he missed the entire seasons of 1944 and '45, at ages 29 and 30, prime years, he said that pitching on a Navy team helped his control, and the statistics do back that up somewhat. He won 17 in 1948, but that was it, and after a stint with the Chicago Cubs, he last pitched in the majors in 1951 with the Cleveland Indians. In 1952, pitching for the Tulsa Oilers of the Texas League, he pitched another no-hitter, at age 37.

Much like a later no-hit hero, Don Larsen, Vander Meer was actually slightly under .500 for his career: In his case, 119-120. He had allowed so much as 1 hit in each of those 1938 games, he might be remembered today for that feat, but not nearly as well.

Instead, for 77 years, every time a pitcher has thrown a no-hitter, the name of Johnny Vander Meer has come up, with people wondering if the new no-hit hero can match his feat. None ever has -- at least, not in the major leagues. I have heard that 1 pitcher did it in the minors since 1938, but I can find no reference to this achievement.

Vander Meer became a minor league manager in the Reds' organization for 10 seasons, before retiring in 1962. He then worked for a brewing company. He was inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame in 1958. He retired to Tampa, where the Reds long had their spring training complex, threw out ceremonial first balls at 6 World Series for the Reds (1961, 1970, 1972, 1975, 1976 and 1990), jsat for an interview for the Reds' 100th Anniversary team video in 1992, and lived until October 6, 1997, suffering an abdominal aneurysm. He was 82.

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November 2, 1950: The Baseball Writers Association of America selects Phillies relief pitcher Jim Konstanty as the NL's Most Valuable Player. This was the 1st time it had been awarded to a relief pitcher, and, presuming you think pitchers should be eligible at all, it was totally justified: Without him, the Phils would have been in the middle of the stadings; with him, they won the Pennant. It would be another 31 years before another reliever won it, Rollie Fingers of the 1981 Milwaukee Brewers.

November 2, 1960: George Weiss‚ recently turned 66‚ resigns as general manager of the Yankees. He had seen the firing of manager Casey Stengel by co-owners Dan Topping and Del Webb, and figured he was next.

He said the Yankee farm system was drying up, and no one knew that better than he did: He'd built it, and seen Topping and Webb tell him, year after year, to trade prospects for a player or two who could help them win the Pennant in a given year. He said, at the time, that he gave the Yankees 5 years before they all fell apart. In the next 4 years, they won the Pennant. In the 5th, 1965, they crashed to 6th place.

Weiss is in the Hall of Fame, for having been GM for 11 Pennants and 8 World Championships, and for having been farm system director for 8 Pennants and 7 World Championships before that. But don't expect to see him ever get a Plaque in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park: He was hated by the players for being so cheap, and was very much a racist. He's one of those "He was great at what he did, but... " figures in sports history.

He should not be confused with George David Weiss, who, in 1961, would write 2 classics of the early Rock and Roll Era: "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by the Tokens, and "Can't Help Falling In Love" by Elvis Presley.

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November 2, 1971: The Baltimore Orioles' Pat Dobson pitches a no-hitter against the Yomiuri Giants‚ winning 2-0. It is the 1st no-hitter in the history of exhibition games between Japanese and American teams. The Orioles compile a record of 12-2-4 on the tour.

November 2, 1972: Former Boston Red Sox shortstop Freddy Parent dies at the age of 96. Parent had been the last surviving player from the 1st modern World Series between Boston and Pittsburgh in 1903. He was also the last surviving player from the first Pennant race between the teams now known as the Yankees and the Red Sox, in 1904.

November 2, 1974: The Braves trade Hank Aaron to the Brewers for outfielder Dave May and a minor league pitcher to be named later. Aaron will finish his major league career in Milwaukee‚ where he started it in 1954.

Later that off-season, Aaron‚ the Home Run King of American baseball‚ and Sadaharu Oh‚ his Japanese counterpart‚ square off for a home run hitting contest at Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo. Aaron wins 10-9. Aaron finishes his major league career with 755 home runs, Oh finishes his Japanese Leagues' career with 868. How many Oh would have hit in the North American majors is a mystery.

November 2, 1975, 40 years ago: A surreal event takes place at Madison Square Garden. The New York Rangers had traded popular goaltender Eddie Giacomin to the Detroit Red Wings, sparking outrage among their fans. As it happened, the Rangers' next home game was against the Wings.

Seeing Giacomin in not the white jersey with the blue Number 1, but the red jersey with the white Number 31, the Garden crowd chanted, "Ed-DIE! Ed-DIE! Ed-DIE!" all night long, and actually booed the Rangers when they scored.

The Red Wings won, 6-4, and, for perhaps the only time in Madison Square Garden history, the home fans cheered a visiting team's victory.

It was the end of an era that had seen the Rangers rise to championship contention, but the closest they'd gotten to the Stanley Cup was the 1972 Finals, losing to the Boston Bruins in 6 games. They were knocked out of the previous season's Playoffs by a 3rd-year expansion team, the suburban Islanders.

Just 9 days after The Giacomin Game, they would trade Brad Park, Jean Ratelle and Joe Zanussi to the Bruins for Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais. The Rangers would miss the Playoffs in 1976 and '77, before bouncing back in '78 and reaching the Finals in '79.

With new management coming in, the Rangers made peace with Eddie, and retired his Number 1 in 1990.
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November 2, 1999: The Texas Rangers trade outfielder Juan Gonzalez‚ pitcher Danny Patterson and catcher Gregg Zaun to the Detroit Tigers for pitchers Justin Thompson‚ Alan Webb and Francisco Cordero‚ outfielder Gabe Kapler‚ catcher Bill Haselman‚ and infielder Frank Catalanotto.

The trade of "Juan Gone" is the beginning of the breakup of the Rangers' first postseason team, winners of 3 of the last 4 AL West titles.

Meanwhile, the Seattle Mariners announce that superstar Ken Griffey Jr. is requesting a trade closer to his home. The Mariners agree to try to trade him during the off-season. The superstar outfielder will get his wish in February when Seattle trades him to the Reds for Mike Cameron, Antonio Perez and Brett Tomko, and minor leager Jake Meyer.

Of course, Cincinnati, where his father Ken Griffey Sr. once played, isn't all that close to Junior's adopted hometown of Orlando, Florida.

November 2, 2004: After a groundskeeper finds a grenade in the Wrigley Field turf, police bomb and arson investigators are called to evaluate the right field discovery. The rusty, hollowed-out shell turns out to be harmless and its origins remain a mystery.

November 2, 2005, 10 years ago: Andrew Bynum, a native of Plainsboro, Mercer County, New Jersey, plays 6 minutes for the Los Angeles Lakers in their season opener, against the Denver Nuggets at the Pepsi Center, becoming the youngest NBA player ever: 18 years and 6 days old. The Lakers won, 99-97.

Ironically, but appropriately, the center had been personally instructed in the preseason by Laker legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had once (erroneously, it turned ought) been thought to have been the NBA's oldest player ever. Kareem was 42 when he bowed out after the 1989 Finals, but research showed that Pat Hickey, who played with the Providence Steamrollers in the league's 1st 2 seasons, was just short of 46 when he last played in 1948.

Bynum is now 28, but his record still stands. He won NBA Championships with the Lakers in 2009 and '10, and was an NBA All-Star in 2012. But he's already missed the entire 2012-13 and 2014-15 seasons due to injuries, and is now a free agent, his career in jeopardy at age 28. But then, he does have 2 titles, and I don't think we'll be seeing any more 18-year-olds playing in the NBA -- certainly not for a team with a pedigree anywhere near the Lakers'.

November 2, 2009: Game 5 of the World Series. Trying to stave off elimination at home at the hands of the Yankees, the defending World Champion Philadelphia Phillies back Cliff Lee with a 6-1 lead after 3 innings, thanks to 2 home runs by Chase Utley (a future Met villain) and another by Raul Ibanez (a future Yankee hero). Utley's shots tied him with Reggie Jackson for the record for most home runs in a single World Series: 5.

The Phillies led 8-2 after 7, but the Yankees came storming back, and had closed to within 8-6 with the tying runs on in the 9th. As the Fox cameras panned Citizens Bank Park, I could see the looks on the faces of Phillies fans. Most remembered 1993. Many remembered 1977. Some remembered 1964. They all at least knew of the earlier team disasters. They all seemed to be saying, "Oh, no, it's happening again!" But Ryan Madson got the final out for the save, and the Phillies would play Game 6 in New York 2 nights later.

Madson, who'd been with the Phillies the year before and won the Series then, is the only member of the newly-crowned 2015 World Champion Kansas City Royals who had previously won a World Series. He has become the 46th player to win the Series representing both Leagues. Among the others are his 2008 Phils teammate Shane Victorino, and 15 Yankees, including Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden, both of whom also won with the Mets. The other Mets to have done it are both from the 1986 team: Howard Johnson (who also won with the 1984 Detroit Tigers) and Rick Aguilera (1991 Minnesota Twins).

Happy Paul O'Neill Day!

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Met fans probably think their team made a great trade in getting Yoenis Cespedes. But they've never made a trade as good as this one. Even their 1983 trade for Keith Hernandez and their 1985 trade for Gary Carter only got 1 World Series win. This one led to 4 World Series wins for the Yankees.

November 3, 1992: On the same day that Bill Clinton is elected President of the United States, the Yankees trade center fielder Roberto Kelly and 1st baseman Joe DeBerry to the Cincinnati Reds, in exchange for right fielder Paul O'Neill.

At the time, I thought this was a great trade for both teams. O'Neill was a good hitter and a good fielder, who had done well in Cincinnati, playing for an equally fiery right fielder, his manager, Yankee Legend Lou Piniella. (Sweet Lou doesn't have his Number 14 retired or a Plaque in Monument Park, but he helped the Yankees win 4 Pennants and the YES Network gave him a Yankeeography, so I'm calling him a Yankee Legend -- capital Y, capital L.) Playing in Yankee Stadium, with the short porch in right field, I figured O'Neill would hit more home runs than in the more neutral confines of Riverfront Stadium, and that Yankee Fans would love his intense personality.

I was right on both counts, as Paulie was our right fielder for the next 9 years, effectively taking the spot that many fans thought that Jay Buhner should have still had. In those 9 years, the Yankees made the Playoffs 7 times, winning 5 Pennants and 4 World Series. (He also won the Series with the Reds in 1990.) Although his Number 21 hasn't been officially retired, it's hardly been given out since. Last season, he got his Monument Park Plaque.

Jay Buhner for Ken Phelps has been mocked as a lousy trade. Think of it, instead, as Jay Buhner for Paul O'Neill: 5 Pennants for New York, none for Seattle.

I also figured that Kelly, a native of Panama and an All-Star in 1992, would find the Reds a better fit. He'd been held back by being a righthanded hitter in Yankee Stadium, where left-center and center fields, while not as pronounced as in the pre-renovation era, was known as Death Valley. Riverfront was not only friendlier to righthanders, but had artificial turf, accommodating his speed. I thought the Reds were getting a great player.

As it turned out, I was wrong on this count. Although he made another All-Star Team with the Reds in 1993, injuries plagued him, and while he was on postseason teams with the 1995 Los Angeles Dodgers, the 1997 Seattle Mariners, and the 1998 and 1999 Texas Rangers, he never played on a Pennant winner. In 2000, the Yankees brought him back, but released him in April, and he never played in the majors again.

A sad story? Not so fast. He managed in the minor leagues, and since 2008, he has been the 1st base coach and hitting instructor for the San Francisco Giants. With them, he now has 3 World Series rings, only 2 fewer than O'Neilly. Also on manager Bruce Bochy's staff are forer Yankees Dave Righetti Hensley "Bam Bam" Meulens and Joe Lefebvre. How about that?
(Kelly, with former Giants star Pablo Sandoval.)

Not that this gives the Reds any comfort: They still haven't won a Pennant, or even a National League Championship Series game, since 1990. "Curse of Paul O'Neill," Ohio Valley?

*

November 3, 1926: Two of the top players of the last decade -- in the case of one, of the last 2 decades -- resign as player-managers. George Sisler, arguably the greatest 1st baseman who has ever lived to this point, resigns as manager of the St. Louis Browns, but will remain a player. Dan Howley is named his replacement.

On the same day, Ty Cobb resigns as manager of the Detroit Tigers, and announces his retirement from baseball. Soon after, a 3rd legend retired as a player-manager, Tris Speaker of the Cleveland Indians.

Unlike Sisler, for whom everything seems to have been above-board, it soon came out that the Georgia Peach and the Grey Eagle were coerced into retirement because of allegations of game-fixing brought about by Dutch Leonard, a former pitcher managed by Cobb. Leonard claimed proof existed in letters written to him by Cobb and Smoky Joe Wood, former ace pitcher, who'd been Speaker's teammate on the Boston Red Sox and again with the Indians.

Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis held a secret hearing with Cobb, Speaker and Wood. A second secret meeting among the AL directors led to the unpublicized resignations of Cobb and Speaker. Rumors of the scandal led Judge Landis to hold additional hearings, in which Leonard subsequently refused to participate.

Cobb and Wood admitted to writing the letters, but claimed that a horse-racing bet was involved, and that Leonard's accusations were in retaliation for Cobb's having released him from the Tigers, thereby demoting him to the minor leagues. Speaker denied any wrongdoing.

On January 27, 1927, Judge Landis cleared Cobb and Speaker of any wrongdoing, because of Leonard's refusal to appear at the hearings. Landis allowed both Cobb and Speaker to return to their original teams, but each team let them know that they were free agents, and could sign with any club they wanted.

Speaker signed with the Washington Senators for 1927, and Cobb with the Philadelphia Athletics. Speaker then joined Cobb in Philadelphia for the 1928 season, the last in the majors for each of them. (Sisler played on until 1930.) Cobb said he had come back only to seek vindication, and to say that he left baseball on his own terms.

Cobb's replacement as Tiger manager was George Moriarty, a former Tiger infielder who is, until now, an American League umpire. He is the only man to hold the positions of player, umpire, scout and manager. He will also become the grandfather of Michael Moriarty, who becomes an actor, best known for playing a baseball player in the film Bang the Drum Slowly. Speaker's successor in Cleveland is Jack McCallister, and having succeeded Speaker is about the only noteworthy thing about him.

*

November 3, 1953: Baseball's rules committee restores the 1939 rule which says that a sacrifice fly is not charged as a time at bat.

Also‚ the committee votes for the "no gloves on the field rule." Hank Greenberg‚ who proposed the change‚ says "Aside from the possibility of hindering the play‚ gloves on the field look sloppy." It also made it easy for opposing players to sneak creepy-crawly or otherwise disgusting things in the glove of an easily scared player, such as the Yankees' Phil Rizzuto.

The committee also makes a rule that any runner will be called out for deliberately running the bases backwards or even taking a lead off the base in the wrong direction.

A new balk rule is instituted which gives the batter an option: If he gets a hit after a balk is called‚ he has the option of accepting the outcome of the pitch‚ instead of being limited to the advance of the runner(s). This is the baseball equivalent of a football team that is the beneficiary of a penalty having the option to decline it, if the outcome of such is more advantageous to them than the outcome of the penalty.

Rule suggestions rejected‚ as noted by Bob Timmerman‚ include the re-legalization of the spitball‚ 2 bases for an intentional walk‚ and the option of declining ball 4.

November 3, 1954: The Yankees tour Japan, and draw a record crowd of 64‚000 when they play the 1st game against the All-Japan Stars in Osaka. Andy Carey slugs 13 home runs‚ and catching prospect Elston Howard bats .468 on the 25-game tour. Each has thoroughly impressed the Yankee brass, and both get promoted to the Yankees for 1955 -- in Howard's case, making him the 1st black player for the Yankees in a regular-season game.

November 3, 1964: Philadelphia voters approve a bond issue raising $25 million to pay for a new stadium that will house both the Phillies and the Eagles.

Due to cost overruns, a 1967 measure will be needed to authorize an additional $13 million, bringing the final price tag to approximately $50 million, making Veterans Stadium one of the most expensive ballparks ever built. (To put that in perspective: The inflation-adjusted total cost of $384 million compares with the $24 million, or $184 million in today's money, needed to build Shea Stadium.) Various delays will keep The Vet from opening for 6 1/2 years, before it does so on April 10, 1971.

As bad as The Vet was in its last few years, it served its purpose: It saved the Phillies and Eagles from moving out of Philadelphia. Until then, the Phils were playing at Connie Mack Stadium, formerly named Shibe Park, which seated only 33,608 and was stuck in the North Philadelphia ghetto, which was just struck by a race riot the summer before the 1st bond issue, which certainly didn't help the atmosphere in the stands as the Phils lost 10 straight games to blow what looked like a sure Pennant.

And the Eagles were playing in Franklin Field, a much nicer stadium that seated 67,000 at the time, but was built in 1922 with absolutely straight grandstands, providing bad sightlines if the ball was at the other end of the field; no luxury boxes, and a poor lighting system.

Both teams needed a modern stadium, and, while the "cookie-cutter" trend got old in a hurry, and The Vet did as well, without it, the Phillies might, today, be in Denver or Seattle or Toronto, while the Eagles, instead of almost moving to Phoenix, as they apparently were considering for the 1985 season, due to owner Leonard Tose's financial woes, might have actually done so.

November 3, 1968: Cardinal broadcaster Harry Caray is struck by a car while crossing a street in St. Louis. Both of his legs are broken‚ as are his nose and one of his shoulders.

He recovers, but while he does, it is revealed that he was having an affair with Susan Busch, the wife of Augie Busch, the son of Cardinal owner Gussie Busch. Harry never denied it, only saying, "I never raped anybody" -- essentially admitting it and calling Susan Busch a slut. (Augie would divorce her and marry Virginia, a lawyer. He has 2 children with each wife.)

Gussie fires Harry, and Harry heads to Chicago, and burnishes his already-potent legend by broadcasting for first the White Sox, then the Cubs. Today, it's hard to imagine Harry with any team but the Cubs, or to imagine anyone else as the voice of the Cardinals other than Jack Buck.

November 3, 1970: The Phillies trade Curt Flood to the Senators for 3 minor league players. The embattled outfielder had refused to go to Philadelphia after the 1969 trade from the Cardinals, citing he was not a piece of property to be sold, becoming the first player to seriously challenge the reserve cause. He would quickly wash out with the Senators, unable to shake off the rust from missing the entire 1970 season.

November 3, 1989: The NBA's expansion Minnesota Timberwolves play their 1st game. They lose 104-96 to the Seattle SuperSonics at Seattle Center Coliseum. Tyrone Corbin leads the T-Wolves with 20 points, while Dale Ellis of the Sonics leads all scorers with 33.

*

November 3, 1993: Cleveland pitcher Cliff Young is killed in a truck crash in Willis‚ Texas. He is only 29. He is the 3rd Indians pitcher to die this year, following Steve Olin and Tim Crews in the spring training boating accident that also badly injured ex-Met Bob Ojeda.
November 3, 1995, 20 years ago: The NBA's expansion Toronto Raptors play their 1st game. Unlike the Timberwolves, their debut is at home and a win. They beat the New Jersey Nets, 94-79. Alvin Robertson scores 30 for the Raps, the only major league sports team ever named for a dinosaur.

November 3, 1996: Kobe Bryant makes his NBA debut at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Just 18 years old, and the 2nd-youngest player in NBA history to that point, the son of former Philadelphia 76er Joe "Jellybean" Bryant plays just 6 minutes and does not score, nor does he record any assists, and just 1 rebound.

He does, however, play on the winning side: Shaquille O'Neal, the former Orlando Magic star also playing his 1st game for the Lakers, drops 35 points on the Timberwolves, and the Lakers win 91-85.

November 3, 2001: The Arizona Diamondbacks even the World Series at 3 games apiece with a 15-2 win over the Yankees in Game 6. Randy Johnson gets the win for Arizona, while Danny Bautista drives in 5 runs. Arizona knocks out a Series-record 22 hits‚ and scores 8 runs in the 3rd inning, knocking Andy Pettitte out of the box.

November 3, 2004: The Mets name Yankee coach Willie Randolph, who grew up in Brooklyn as a Met fan, as their new manager. The Phillies name Charlie Manuel as their new manager. One of these moves will work out only so well, and no more. The other will work out very, very well.

On this same day, Sergei Zholtok dies. He played for several team in his NHL career, most recently the Nashville Predators, and had gone back to his native Latvia to play during the NHL lockout. He suffered a heart attack while playing for Riga 2000 against Dinamo Minsk of Belarus, in Minsk. He was only 31.

November 3, 2012: The Nets make their Brooklyn debut, a little delayed due to Hurricane Sandy. The opponents are the Toronto Raptors, who played their 1st game at home to the Nets, 17 years to the day before.

This time, the Nets announce their freakin' presence with authority. Despite 28 points from the Raps' Kyle Lowry, the Nets win 107-100, led by 27 points from Brook Lopez. Attendance: 17,732.

Ballparks Hosting the World Series, 1903-2015

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Active ballparks in bold type, and ranked. Parks no longer in use (regardless of whether they're still standing) in normal type with an asterisk.

Ties broken by most recent. For those that have not yet hosted, ties broken by most LCS hosted, then most LDS, then age (newest, therefore gone less without having hosted, to oldest, therefore gone longer).

For each stadium, I am using its best-remembered name, not necessarily its current name.

* Yankee Stadium, New York (opened in 1923, torn down in 2010), 37: 1923, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003.

* Polo Grounds, New York (1911-1964), 13: 1911, 1912, 1913, 1917, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1933, 1936, 1937, 1951, 1954. No, 1921 and 1922 don't get counted twice because the Yankees and Giants both made it and both then used the Polo Grounds.

* Sportsman's Park (1909-1967, the 1st stadium to be known as Busch Stadium), St. Louis, 10: 1926, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1934, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1964. No, 1944 doesn't get counted twice because both St. Louis teams made it and both used Sportsman's Park.

1. Fenway Park, Boston (1912), 9: 1912, 1914, 1946, 1967, 1975, 1986, 2004, 2007, 2013. The Braves used Fenway in 1914, because it was larger than the South End Grounds. They opened Braves Field the next year, and invited the Red Sox to use their new larger stadium for World Series home games in 1915, 1916 and 1918, which is why Fenway didn't host a World Series between 1914 and 1946.

* Ebbets Field, Brooklyn (1913-1960), 9: 1916, 1920, 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956.

2. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles (1962), 8: 1963, 1965, 1966, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1988.

* Connie Mack Stadium, Philadelphia (1909-1976), 8: 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1950. Known as Shibe Park from 1909 to 1952.

* Busch Stadium, St. Louis (1966-2005), 6: 1967, 1968, 1982, 1985, 1987, 2004.

3. Oakland Coliseum (1966), 6: 1972, 1973, 1974, 1988, 1989, 1990.

* Tiger Stadium, Detroit (1912-2006), 6: 1934, 1935, 1940, 1945, 1968, 1984. Known as Navin Field from 1912 to 1937, and Briggs Stadium from 1938 to 1960.

* Memorial Stadium, Baltimore (1954-2002), 6: 1966, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1979, 1983.

* Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati (1970-2002), 5: 1970, 1972, 1975, 1976, 1990.

4. Wrigley Field, Chicago (1914), 5: 1929, 1932, 1935, 1938, 1945. The Cubs used the White Sox' larger Comiskey Park for their World Series games in 1918, but not in 1910. (See West Side Park, below.)

5. Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City (1973), 4: 1980, 1985, 2014, 2015.

6. AT&T Park, San Francisco (2000), 4: 2002, 2010, 2012, 2014.

* Shea Stadium, New York (1964-2008), 4: 1969, 1973, 1986, 2000.

* Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium (1965-1997), 4: 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996.

* Crosley Field, Cincinnati (1912-1972), 4: 1919, 1939, 1940, 1961.

* Forbes Field, Pittsburgh, 4 (1909-1971): 1909, 1925, 1927, 1960.

* Comiskey Park, Chicago (1910-1991), 4: 1917, 1918, 1919, 1959.

* Braves Field, Boston, 4 (1915-1955): 1915, 1916, 1918, 1948.

* West Side Park, Chicago (1885-1920), 4: 1906, 1907, 1908, 1910.

7. Busch Stadium, St. Louis (2006), 3: 2006, 2011, 2013.

* Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia (1971-2004), 3: 1980, 1983, 1993.

* Milwaukee County Stadium (1953-2001), 3: 1957, 1958, 1982.

* Griffith Stadium, Washington (1911-1965), 3: 1924, 1925, 1933.

* Bennett Park, Detroit (1896-1911), 3: 1907, 1908, 1909.

8. Comerica Park, Detroit (2000), 2: 2006, 2012.

9. Globe Life Park, Arlington (1994), 2: 2010, 2011.

10. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia (2004), 2: 2008, 2009.

* Sun Life Stadium, Miami (1987, still used for college & pro football), 2: 1997, 2003.

* Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego (1967, still used for college & pro football), 2: 1984, 1998.

11. Jacobs Field, Cleveland (1994), 2: 1995, 1997.

12. SkyDome, Toronto (1989), 2: 1992, 1993.

* Metrodome, Minneapolis (1982-2014), 2: 1987, 1991.

* Candlestick Park, San Francisco (1960-2015), 2: 1962, 1989.

* Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh (1970-2001), 2: 1971, 1979.

* Cleveland Municipal Stadium (1931-1996), 2: 1948, 1954.

13. Citi Field, New York (2009): 1, 2015.

14. Yankee Stadium, New York (2009), 1: 2009.

15. Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg (1990), 1: 2008.

16. Coors Field, Denver (1995), 1: 2007.

17. U.S. Cellular Field, Chicago (1991), 1: 2005.

18. Minute Maid Park, Houston (2000), 1: 2005.

19. Angel Stadium, Anaheim (1966), 1: 2002.

20. Chase Field, Phoenix (1998), 1: 2001.

21. Turner Field, Atlanta (1997), 1: 1999.

* Metropolitan Stadium, Minneapolis (1956-1985), 1: 1965.

* Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (1923, still used for college football), 1: 1959.

* League Park, Cleveland (1910-1951), 1: 1920.

* Baker Bowl, Philadelphia (1895-1950), 1: 1915.

* South Side Park, Chicago (1890-1940), 1: 1906.

* Columbia Park, Philadelphia (1901-1912), 1: 1905.

* Polo Grounds, New York (1890-1911), 1: 1905.

* Exposition Park, Pittsburgh (1890-1915), 1: 1903.

* Huntington Avenue Grounds, Boston (1901-1912), 1: 1903.

22. Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore (1992): 3 ALCS, 1996, 1997, 2014.

23. Nationals Park, Washington (2008): 2 NLDS, 2012, 2014.

24. Safeco Field, Seattle (1999): 2 ALCS, 2000, 2001.

25. Great American Ballpark, Cincinnati (2003): 2 NLDS, 2010, 2012.

26. Miller Park, Milwaukee (2001): 2 NLDS, 2008, 2011.

27. PNC Park, Pittsburgh (2001): 1 NLDS, 2013.

28. Target Field, Minneapolis (2010): 1 ALDS, 2010.

29. Petco Park, San Diego (2004): 1 NLDS, 2006.

30. Marlins Park, Miami (2012): No postseasons in 4 years.

That the Mets were dead last among active ballparks, until their Pennant this season moved them all the way up to 13th, is a quirk, due to having a relatively new stadium. That the Yankees are 14th among active ballparks is a shock, but remember: Like Citi Field, the new Yankee Stadium only opened in 2009.

*

By City:

1. New York (including Brooklyn): 66
(Bronx separately: 37)
2. St. Louis: 19
3. Philadelphia: 15
4. Chicago: 15
5. Boston: 14
(Manhattan separately: 14)
6. San Francisco (including Oakland): 12
7. Detroit: 11
8. Los Angeles (including Anaheim): 10
9. Cincinnati: 9
(Los Angeles separately: 9)
(Brooklyn separately: 9)
10. Pittsburgh: 7
(San Francisco separately: 6)
(Oakland separately: 6)
11. Baltimore: 6
12. Atlanta: 5
13. Cleveland: 5
(Queens separately: 5)
14. Kansas City: 3
15. Minneapolis: 3
16. Milwaukee: 3
17. Washington: 3
18. Dallas: 2
19. Miami: 2
20. San Diego: 2
21. Toronto: 2
22. Tampa Bay: 1
23. Denver: 1
24. Houston: 1
(Anaheim separately: 1)
25. Phoenix: 1
26. Seattle: 0

By State:

1. New York: 66
2. California: 24
3. Missouri: 22
4. Pennsylvania: 22
5. Illinois: 15
6. Massachusetts: 14
7. Ohio: 14
8. Michigan: 11
9. Maryland: 6
10. Georgia: 5
11. Texas: 3
12. Florida: 3
13. Minnesota: 3
14. Wisconsin: 3
15. District of Columbia: 3
16. Colorado: 1
17. Arizona: 1
18. Washington 1:

Canada: 2

How to Be a New York Basketball Fan In Toronto -- 2015-16 Edition

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The Knicks visit the Toronto Raptors next Tuesday night, and again on January 28. The Nets visit on January 18 and March 8.

Being in a foreign country has its particular challenges -- and, yes, for all its similarities to America, Canada is still a foreign country.

Before You Go. Make sure you call your bank and tell them you’re going. After all, Canada may be an English-speaking country, and a democracy (if a parliamentary one), and a country with a Major League Baseball team, but it is still a foreign country. If your bank gets a record of your ATM card making a withdrawal from any country other than the U.S., it may freeze the card, and any other accounts you may have with them. So be sure to let them know that you will, in fact, be in Canada for a little while.

And, since June 1, 2009, you need a passport to cross the border in either direction. Even if you have a valid driver’s license (or other State-issued ID) and your birth certificate, they ain’t lettin’ you across into the True North Strong and Free. Not even if you’re a Blue Jays season-ticket holder living in Buffalo or if you sing hosannas of praise to Wayne Gretzky. You don’t have a passport? Get one. You do have one? Make sure it’s valid and up to date. This is not something you want to mess with. Canadian Customs officials do not fuck around: They care about their national security, too.

Do yourself another big favor: Change your money before you go. There are plenty of currency exchanges in New York City, including one on 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenue.

Leave yourself $50 in U.S. cash, especially if you’re going other than by plane, so you’ll have usable cash when you get back to your side of the border. At last check, on the morning of November 3, 2015, US$1.00 = C$1.30 – or, C$1.00 = US 77 cents. However, since the currency exchanges need to make a profit, the current rate may come close to actually favoring Canada.  (I was actually in Canada on the day when it most favored the U.S.: January 18, 2002, $1.60 to $1.00 in our favor.)

The multi-colored bill were confusing on my first visit, although we have those now, too. The $5 is blue, and features Wilfrid Laurier (Prime Minister 1896-1911). The $10 is purple, and features John A. Macdonald (the 1st Prime Minister, 1867-1873 and again 1878-1891, essentially he’s their George Washington without having fought a war for independence). The $20 is green, and features the nation’s head of state, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. The $50 is red, and features William Lyon Mackenzie King (the longest-serving Prime Minister, 1921-1926, 1926-1930, 1935-1948, including World War II). And the $100 is yellow, and features Robert Borden (Prime Minister 1911-1920, including World War I).

The tricky part is going to be the coins – and you’ll thank me for telling you this, but keep your U.S. coins and your Canadian coins separate, for the simple reason that their penny, nickel, dime and quarter are all the same colors and just about the same size as our respective coins. (To make matters more confusing, as we recently did with our States, they had a Provincial quarter series.)

All coins have Queen Elizabeth’s portrait on the front, but she’s been Queen since 1952, and depending on how old the coin is, you might get a young woman, or her current 87-year-old self, or anything in between. You might even get a penny or a nickel old enough to feature her father, King George VI. Such a coin is still legal tender, however.

They have a $1 coin, copper-colored, bigger than a quarter, and 11-sided, with a bird on the back. This bird is a loon – not to be confused with the people lunatic enough to buy Maple Leafs season tickets. The coin is thus called the “loonie,” although they don’t say “ten loonies”: They use “buck” for “dollar” the way we would.  In fact, the term is connected to Canada: Their first English settlers were the Hudson’s Bay Company, and they set the value of a dollar to the price of the pelt of a male beaver, the male of the species being called, as are those of a deer and a rabbit, a buck. (And the female, a doe.) The nation’s French-speakers (Francophones) use the French word for loon, and call it a “huard,” but since the Montreal Expos are gone, you probably won’t hear that term unless you’re a hockey fan and go to see the Rangers, Devils or Islanders in Montreal – or maybe Ottawa, which is on the Ontario-Quebec border and has a lot of French-first-speakers.

Then there’s the $2 coin, or “toonie.” It’s not just two dollars, it’s two-toned, and even two-piece. It’s got a copper center, with the Queen on the front and a polar bear on the back, and a nickel ring around it. This coin is about the size of the Eisenhower silver dollars we used to have. This is the coin that drives me bonkers when I’m up there.

My suggestion is that, when you first get your money changed before you begin your trip, ask for $1 coins but no $2 coins. It’s just simpler. I like Canada a lot, but their money, yikes, eh?

This is Canada, the Great White North, so, being April, it may still feel like winter, especially if the wind is blasting off Lake Ontario. In which case the Rogers Centre roof will be likely to be closed. So you should pack a winter jacket. If you're going from May onward, even in late September, it will probably be warm enough to not bring any jacket, but bring a light one just in case.

According to the Toronto Star website, there's going to be rain next Tuesday. The temperature will be in the mid-50s in the afternoon and the low 40s at night, so expect the dome to be closed anyway.

Toronto is in the Eastern Time Zone, so you won't have to reset your watch or fiddle with your smartphone's clock.

Tickets. The Raptors averaged 19,751 fans per game last season, nearly a sellout every game, and a figure topped in the NBA only by Chicago, Cleveland and Dallas. This, despite not having any big names on their roster. Okay, they have Anthony Bennett, that's a big name, but it's not that Tony Bennett. (Too bad, that Tony Bennett can remember when the Maple Leafs regularly won the Stanley Cup.) They did, however, win a franchise record number of games last season... but that's 49, not an especially high number, and they did flop in the 1st round of the Playoffs.

This attendance is also at odds with a particular fact: Raptors tickets are freakin' expensive! Even with the exchange rate and the accompanying taxes, lower level seats should not go for C$265 between the baskets and C$116 behind them. In the upper level, however, they're much cheaper: C$45 between the baskets and C$30 behind them.

Getting There. The best way is by plane. (Note that these prices, unlike the preceding, will be in U.S. dollars.) Air Canada runs flights out of Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia International Airport, and the flight to Toronto's Lester Pearson International Airport takes about an hour and a half.  Book on Air Canada today, while they're having a sale, and you can get a round-trip flight for under $300, making this one of the cheapest roadtrips-by-plane in North America.

Greyhound runs 8 buses a day from Port Authority Bus Terminal to the Toronto Coach Terminal, at 610 Bay Street. (Countries in the British Commonwealth, including Canada, call a local bus a bus and an inter-city bus a “coach.”) The ride averages about 11 hours, and is $166 round-trip -- although an advance purchase can drop it to $90.

The TCT is big and clean, although a little confusing, as it seems to be two separate buildings. You shouldn’t have any difficulties with it. It's one block down Bay to Dundas Street, and turn left to get to the Dundas subway station.
Amtrak, however, runs just 1 train, the Maple Leaf, in each direction each day between New York and Toronto, in cooperation with Canada’s equivalent, VIA Rail. This train leaves Pennsylvania Station at 7:15 AM and arrives at Union Station at 7:42 PM, a trip of 12 hours and 22 minutes – 9:10 of it in America, 32 minutes of it at Customs (4:25 to 4:57 PM) and 2:45 of it in Canada. The return trip leaves Toronto at 8:20 AM, reaches the border at 10:22, and gets back to Penn Station at 9:50 PM. Round-trip fare is $248. Be advised, though, that this is one of Amtrak's most popular routes, and it could sell out.
Toronto’s Union Station, at 65 Front Street West, is one of the world’s great rail terminals, and is the heart of the city. It's the centerpoint of the city's subway system, so it's not just in the heart of the city.
If you’re driving, it’s 500 miles – well, 492 miles from Times Square to downtown Toronto. Get into New Jersey to Interstate 80, and take it all the way across the State. Shortly after crossing the Delaware River and entering Pennsylvania, take I-380, following the signs for Scranton, until reaching I-81. (If you’ve driven to a game of the Yankees’ Triple-A farm team, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, you already know this part.) Take I-81 north into New York State. (If you’ve driven to a game of the Mets’ Double-A farm team, the Binghamton Mets, you already know this part.) Continue on I-81 past Binghamton and to Syracuse, where you’ll get on the New York State Thruway, which, at this point, is I-90. Continue on the Thruway west, past Rochester, to Buffalo.

What happens next depends on where you cross the border. But first, let’s discuss what you should do when you're actually at the border. Because you need to take this seriously. Because Canadian Customs will.

You'll be asked your citizenship, and you'll have to show your passport and your photo ID. You'll be asked why you're visiting Canada. Seeing a Yankees vs. Blue Jays game probably won't (but might) get you a smart-aleck remark about how the Jays are going to win, but they won't keep you out of their country based on that alone.

If you're bringing a computer with you (counting a laptop, but probably not counting a smartphone), you don't have to mention it, but you probably should. Chances are, you won't be carrying a large amount of food or plants; if you were, depending on how much, you might have to declare them.

Chances are, you won't be bringing alcohol into the country, but you can bring in one of the following items duty-free, and anything above or in addition to this must have duty paid on it: 1.5 litres (53 ounces) of wine, or 8.5 litres (300 ounces or 9.375 quarts) of beer or ale, or 1.14 litres (40 ounces) of hard liquor. If you have the slightest suspicion that I'm getting any of these numbers wrong, check the Canada Customs website. Better yet, don't bring booze in. Or out.

As for tobacco, well, you shouldn't use it. But, either way over the border, you can bring up to 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars, and 200 grams (7 ounces) of manufactured tobacco. As for the embargo against Cuban cigars, this past January, President Obama loosened it, so that $100 worth of Cuban tobacco can be brought into the U.S. for the first time since 1962. 

If you've got anything in your car (or, if going by bus or train) that could be considered a weapon, even if it's a disposable razor or nail clippers, tell them. And while Canada does have laws that allow you to bring in firearms if you're a licensed hunter (you'd have to apply for a license to the Province where you plan to hunt), the country has the proper attitude concerning guns: They hate them. They go absolutely batshit insane if you try to bring a firearm into their country. Which, if you're sane, is actually the sane way to treat the issue.

You think I'm being ridiculous? How about this: Seven of the 44 U.S. Presidents -- 9 counting the Roosevelts, Theodore after he was President and Franklin right before -- have faced assassins with guns, 6 got hit and 4 died; but none of the 23 people (including 1 woman) to serve as Prime Minister of Canada has ever faced an assassination attempt. John Lennon recorded "Give Peace a Chance" in Montreal and gave his first "solo concert" in Toronto, but he got shot and killed in New York. In fact, the next time I visit, I half-expect to see a bumper sticker that says, "GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE, AMERICANS WITH GUNS KILL PEOPLE."

(Another note about weapons: I’m a fan of the TV show NCIS, which airs in Canada on Global Network TV. If you are also a fan of this show, and you usually observe Gibbs Rule Number 9, "Never go anywhere without a knife," you need to remember that these are rules for members of Gibbs' team, not for civilians. So, this time, forget the knife, and leave it at home. If you really think you're going to need it -- as a tool -- mention the knife to the border guard, and show it to him, and tell him you have it to use as a tool in case of emergency, and that you do not plan to use it as a weapon. Do not mention the words "Rule Number 9" or quote said rule, or else he'll observe his Rule Number 1: "Do not let this jackass into your country, eh?" And another thing: Border guards, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, most likely will observe a variation on Gibbs Rule Number 23: "Never mess with a Mountie's Tim Hortons coffee if you want to live.")

And if you can speak French, don't try to impress the Customs officials with it. Or the locals, for that matter. You're going into Ontario, not Quebec. (And even if you were going into Quebec, they're not going to be impressed by your ability to speak their first language.) A, People of French descent are a minority west of Quebec (although singers Alanis Morrissette and Avril Lavigne are both Franco-Ontarians); and, B, They can probably speak English, let alone French, and possibly another language or two, better than you can. If you try to speak French in Toronto, you won't sound like you're from Montreal, and you certainly won't sound like you're from Paris. You'll sound like a smartass.  That's if you speak French well. If you don't, you'll sound like a damn fool.

When crossing back into the U.S., in addition to what you would have to declare on the way in (if you still have any of it), you would have to declare items you purchased and are carrying with you upon return, items you bought in duty-free shops or (if you flew) on the plane, and items you intend to sell or use in your business, including business merchandise that you took out of the United States on your trip. There are other things, but, since you're just going for baseball, they probably won't apply to you. Just in case, check the Canadian Customs website I linked to above.

Precisely where will you be crossing the border? It could be at the Peace Bridge, built to commemorate the U.S. and Canada having “the world’s longest undefended border,” from Buffalo into the Ontario city of Fort Erie.

After going through Customs, this would take you right onto the Queen Elizabeth Way (the QEW). After the Pennsylvania Turnpike, this was North America’s second superhighway, and was named not for the current Queen but for her mother, the wife of King George VI, the woman most people now under the age of 65 called the Queen Mother or the Queen Mum. (You know: Helena Bonham-Carter in The King's Speech.) This road will hug Lake Ontario and go through the Ontario cities of Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and Hamilton before turning north and then east toward Toronto. Toronto’s CN Tower is so tall that you may actually see it, across the lake, before you get to Hamilton.

The most common route from Buffalo to Toronto, however, is to go north on I-190, the Thruway’s Niagara Extension, to Niagara Falls. After you go through Customs, the road will become Ontario Provincial Highway 405, which eventually flows into the Queen Elizabeth Way.

At the edge of the "megacity" of Toronto (Montreal is also now a "megacity"), the QEW becomes the Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway. ("Big Daddy" Gardiner was a major Toronto politician, and was responsible for getting it built.) The Gardiner does not have numbers on its exits. If you're only going for the game, and are leaving Toronto right afterward (I don't recommend this this: Spend a day in the city), you'll take the York/Yonge/Bay Street exit to get to the Air Canada Centre.

If you make 3 rest stops – I would recommend at or near Scranton and Syracuse, and count Customs, where they will have a restroom and vending machines – and if you don’t do anything stupid at Customs, such as fail to produce your passport, or flash a weapon, or say you watch South Park (a show with a vendetta against Canada for some reason), or call Sidney Crosby a cheating, diving pansy (even though he is one) – the trip should take about 11 hours.

Though that could become 12, because Toronto traffic is every bit as bad as traffic in New York, Boston and Washington. As Canada native (Regina, Saskatchewan) Leslie Nielsen would have said, I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley: Toronto traffic is awful.

Once In the City. Founded as York in 1793, it became the City of Toronto in 1834, the name coming from Taronto, a Native American name for the channel of water between Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching. There are 2.6 million people in the city, and 5.6 million in the metro area; in each case, making it larger than any in North America except New York, Los Angeles and Chicago -- unless you count Mexico to be part of "North America" instead of "Central America," in which case add Mexico City to those that are larger.

Since Canada is in the British Commonwealth, there are certain subtle differences from the U.S. Every measurement will be in the metric system. Dates are written not as Month/Day/Year, as we do it, but as Day/Month/Year as in Britain and in Europe. So, for us, this game will be played on "November 10, 2015," but for them on "10 November 2015." We would write the date as 11/10/15, but they will do so as 10/11/15 -- the 10th of the 11th, not October 11.

They also follow British custom in writing time: A game starting at 7:00 PM would be listed as 1900. Those of you who have served in the military, you will recognize this as, in the words of M*A*S*H's Lt. Col. Henry Blake, "all that hundred-hours stuff." And every word we would end with -or, they will end with -our; and some (but not all) words that we would end with -er, they end with -re, as in "Air Canada Centre."

Another thing to keep in mind: Don't ask anyone where the "bathroom" is -- ask for the "washroom." This difference was a particular pet peeve of mine the first time I arrived at the Toronto Coach Terminal, although it wasn't a problem in Montreal's Gare Centrale as I knew the signs would be in French.

Every measurement will be in the metric system: Temperatures will be in Celsius, not Fahrenheit; distances will be in "kilometres," not miles (including speed limits, so don't drive 100 thinking it's miles); and gas prices will be per "litre," not per gallon (so don't think you're getting cheap gas, because a liter is a little more than a quart, so multiply the price by 4, and you'll get roughly the price per gallon, and it will be more expensive than at home, not less).

When you arrive, I would recommend buying the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. The former newspaper is local, the latter is national, and both are liberal enough to suit my sensibilities (or, should I say, sensible enough to suit my liberalism). And The Star has a very good sports section, and should do a good job covering the Jays, although, being a hockey city in a hockey Province in a hockey country, you’ll see a lot of stuff about the Maple Leafs and nearby minor-league, collegiate and “junior” hockey teams no matter what time of year it is.

I would advise against buying the Toronto Sun, because it’s a right-wing sensationalist tabloid, and every bit the journalistically sloppy rag that the New York Post is. (It also has conservative “sister papers” called the Sun in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary, although the Vancouver Sun is not connected.) The National Post, while also politically conservative (and thus a national competitor for The Globe and Mail), is a broadsheet and thus conservative in the sense that it is calmer and more sensible with its journalism.

If you can get to Union Station after leaving your hotel, you may also be able to get out-of-town papers, including the New York ones, as well as Canadian papers such as the Montreal Gazette and the Ottawa Citizen.

Toronto's sales tax is 13 percent -- in 2010, this replaced the former Provincial sales tax of 5 percent and the federal GST (Goods & Services Tax) of 8 percent. In other words, the Conservative Party government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper wanted Canadians to think he'd killed the hated GST, when, in fact, Ontarians (who only make up 36 percent of the country) are paying pretty much the same taxes that they did before. See how stupid it is to vote for conservative candidates? It doesn't work in any country. (And now, Harper is out, and Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau is in, making him and his late father Pierre Trudeau the only father & son PMs in Canadian history.)

Union Station is at the intersection of Bay & Front Streets. Bay runs north-south, and divides Toronto's east and west sides, and the street numberings thereof; the lake serves as the "zero point" for streets running north and south, and thus there's no North and South on street names. Bay Street is also Canada's "Wall Street," the center of Toronto's financial district, and is not particularly well-liked by, well, anybody who isn't conservative in Canada. Unlike the New York Stock Exchange at Wall & Broad, however, the Toronto Stock Exchange is at King & York, not on Bay.

Toronto has a subway, Canada’s oldest, opened in 1954 and known locally as “the Rocket.” (I’ll bet Montrealers hated that, since it was the nickname of their beloved hockey star Maurice Richard, well before future Blue Jay and Yankee Roger Clemens was even born.) Along with Philadelphia, it's one of the last 2 subway systems in North America that still uses tokens rather than a farecard system such as New York's MetroCard.
Tokens are not sold individually. You must buy a minimum of 3, for C$8.40 (US$6.47), and the price per token goes down the more you buy. A Daypass is a much better value, at C$11.50, or US$8.86.

Toronto also runs a light rail system, calling the vehicles "streetcars" as they always have. The same fare system applies.
Going In. The Air Canada Centre (ACC), a.k.a. "The Hangar," is at 40 Bay Street. Opening in 1999, it has been the home of the Raptors and the Maple Leafs ever since.
The east entrance, with the CN Tower behind it

From the arena website:

The Galleria is a public walkway running east to west at the north end of Air Canada Centre. It is a covered, climate-controlled walkway that houses the Ticket Office and public entrances to CentreSports and Union Market. The east end Galleria entrance features a display of historical artifacts from the original Canada Post Delivery Building.

Maple Leaf Square is a vibrant global entertainment destination located just outside Gate 6 of Air Canada Centre. Connected to the city's transit system and underground PATH network, Maple Leaf Square is a touchstone linking visitors and residents to Toronto's vast cultural tapestry. Maple Leaf Square includes: Real Sports Bar & Grill, E11even Restaurant, Hôtel Le Germain and much more.

Both teams, and the arena, are owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. The company knows on which side its bread is buttered: The board named the company after Canada's most popular, and yet most underachieving, sports team. It is the successor company to Maple Leaf Gardens, Ltd., founded by Leafs boss Conn Smythe in 1931.

The company also owns the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League (named for the Ontario Hockey League's old Toronto Marlboros, a longtime Leafs farm team), Raptors 905 of the NBA Development League (based in adjoining Mississauga and named for their Area Code), and Major League Soccer's Toronto FC.

Having already hosted the NHL All-Star Game in its 1st season, 1999-2000, the ACC will host the NBA All-Star Game in 2016. The World Cup of Hockey will be played from September 17 to October 1, 2016, and the ACC will host all the games. Participating will be the national teams of Canada, the U.S., Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic, a team featuring the rest of Europe's nations under the name of Team Europe, and a Team North America comprised of U.S. and Canadian players under age 23. NHL players will be eligible.

Most likely, you will be entering from the north, through Union Station -- especially if you took the subway, to Union Station subway stop. Hopefully, if you drove into Toronto, you will have left your car in a hotel's parking deck. You could get a space nearby for as little as C$6.00 (US$4.62), but it's more likely to be at least C$10.00 (US$7.70). The court is laid out east-to-west. 

Food. According to the ACC website:

Forty concessions are featured on the two public concourses, including a food market adjacent to the Galleria that is open to the public on non-event days.

Concessions at Air Canada Centre offer interesting food choices under the banner of the "Union Market Food Co." The market theme presented at Air Canada Centre is inspired by Toronto's local St. Lawrence and Kensington Markets, and is evident throughout our selection of fresh, quality foods displayed at our Grill, Deli, Café, Trattoria and Food Co. concepts. 

Local vendors such as Pizza Pizza, Mr. Sub, and Tim Hortons are featured in these locations to provide fans with premium fare and highlight the "crowd pleasing" brands Toronto has to offer. In addition to the normal arena fare of pizza, hot dogs, popcorn, nachos, pretzels and candies, we also offer a wide selection of hot carved sandwiches, sushi and kosher foods. 


Crown Corner is a vibrant, modern bar with a view of the arena bowl as well as a western view of the Toronto skyline. Open to the ticketed public at all sports events and many other arena events, Crown Corner features a full concession service of premium menu items and provides a large socializing environment with seating before and during the game. 

• Location: West side of Level 300; accessed via Level 300 concourse and Gate 5 elevators and escalators 


Molson Brew House is located on the south side of the main concourse and has an attached brewery by Molson, under the careful eye of brew master Paul Swindle. The brewery provides the Rickard's Red beer served at Air Canada Centre. In addition, various grilled and prepared foods from The Carvery complement the energized atmosphere under the copper hooded open kitchen. 

• Location: South side of Level 100 concourse

Team History Displays. The Raptors don't have much of a history, including (as yet) no retired numbers. Bbut they have won Division titles in 2007, 2014 and 2015. But, by far, most of the banners in the ACC are for the Maple Leafs. Indeed, the Raptors have so few, they still hang a banner for their 1995-96 inaugural season -- 20 years ago.
Whose number could they retire? Only 1 player already in the Basketball Hall of Fame has ever played for them, and then only in the final season of his career: Hakeem Olajuwon in 2001-02. (No, I didn't remember him playing for them, either.) Only 2 players have been All-Stars more than once in a Raptor uniform: Vince Carter, whose career has had a lot of sizzle but little steak; and Chris Bosh, who, like "Vinsanity," was an All-Star 5 times while with the Raps, but is now better remembered with another team (the Miami Heat). Carter remains the face of the franchise, even though he's been gone for 11 years.

Stuff. There is a team store, or rather a teams store, at ACC. From the arena website:

Located at Gate 1, Air Canada Centre, Real Sports Apparel is 3,000 square-feet of the most authentic sports retail experience outside of the locker room. Located just steps from the ice and from the court, Real Sports Apparel brings fans closer to the action in a 360-degree mecca to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC and Toronto Marlies. Specializing in on-site jersey personalization, exclusive merchandise collections and game-worn gear, Real Sports Apparel is as a must-stop shop for Toronto's most passionate fans.

Not surprising, given their short and lackluster history, the Raptors are not well represented in print and on video. Sara Gilbert (not the Roseanne actress, now a panelist on CBS'The Talk) wrote the Raptors' edition in The NBA: A History of Hoops series, but that was published in 2006. J.M. Skogen wrote the Raptors' edition in the On the Hardwood series, which is more recent, having come out last year.

As for DVDs, forget it: Amazon.com doesn't have any on the Raptors, and the Real Sports store might not have any, either.

During the Game. You do not need to fear wearing your Knick or Net gear to the Air Canada Centre. Although quite a few U.S.-based crime dramas (and other shows, and films, particularly those that supposedly take place in Chicago) have been filmed in and around Toronto, it’s not a particularly crime-ridden city.

Since you’re in Canada, there will be two National Anthems sung. “The Star-Spangled Banner” will probably be sung by about half of the few dozen Knick or Net fans who show up, but “O Canada” will be sung by the home fans with considerable gusto. The Raptors hold auditions for Anthem singers, rather than having a regular singer.

The Raptors' mascot is a dinosaur, with the rather unimaginative name of "The Raptor." He wears Number 95, because the Raptors came into the NBA in 1995.

TSN, the Canadian version of ESPN, has a theme song written for Raptors broadcasts. That's is okay: Like the Blue Jays, but unlike the Maple Leafs, they are the only team in the country in their league. Toronto-based rapper Kardinal Offishall has written "Raptors Playoff Anthem." As for fan chants, don't expect anything more than, "Let's go, Raptors!"

Fans are frequently given white T-shirts to have a "whiteout" in the stands. They also have a large "WE THE NORTH" banner that gets passed around, similar to soccer "ultras."

After the Game. Toronto is an international city, every bit as much as New York is, and some of these people may have cut their teeth as sports fans in European soccer. But we’re not talking about hooligans here. Canadians are stereotypically polite, and you're not rooting for Montreal or Ottawa. Almost certainly, they will leave you alone.

To the south, if you walk under the Gardiner Expressway, you'll find a pub named The Fox at 35 Bay Street. The Miller Tavern is at 31 Bay Street. And Harbour Sixty Steakhouse is at 60 Harbour Street. To the west, Real Sports Bar & Grill is at 15 York Street, across Bremner Blvd. from the ACC. Hoops Sports Bar & Grill is at 125 Bremner Blvd., 2 blocks west of the ACC.

I would also advise avoiding Jack Astor’s, a smart-alecky-named chain of Canadian restaurants that includes one at 144 Front Street West, a block west of Union Station. I ate there the last time I was in Toronto, and the food and service would be mediocre at half the price. They have only one location in the U.S. -- not surprisingly, in nearby Buffalo, at the Walden Galleria east of downtown.

Next-door to Jack Astor's is the Loose Moose Tap & Grill, at 146 Front Street West. There, as they say, you’ll “eat like a king then party like a rock star!” You’ll be dining like a typical Torontonian, rather than with guys likely to jump into the Monty Python “Lumberjack Song.” (If you’ve never seen that sketch, let me put it this way: Don’t ask, and I won’t tell.) And the Lone Star Texas Grill, a block away at 200 Front Street West, is jointly owned by several former CFL players, and is a fair takeoff on the U.S. chain Lone Star Steakhouse.

Actually, your best bet may be, as Vancouver native Cobie Smulders of the TV series How I Met Your Mother would put it, “the most Canadian place there is”: Tim Hortons. (Note that there is no apostrophe: It’s “Hortons,” not “Horton’s,” because Quebec's ridiculous protect-the-French-language law prohibits apostrophes and the company wanted to keep the same national identity.) They have a 62 percent share of the Canadian coffee market (Starbucks has just 7 percent) and 76 percent of the Canadian baked goods market. They also sell sandwiches, soup, chili, and even (some of you will perk up faster than if you’d drunk their coffee) New York-style cheesecake. It’s fast food, but good food. I rate them behind Dunkin Donuts, but ahead of Starbucks.

Tim Horton, a defenceman (that’s how they spell it up there) for the Maple Leafs, and businessman Ron Joyce started the doughnut/coffee shop chain in 1964, while in the middle of the Maple Leafs’ 1960s dynasty. He played a couple of years for the Rangers, then went to the Buffalo Sabres and opened a few outlets in the Buffalo area. He was still playing at age 44, and the only thing that stopped him was death. Specifically, a 100-MPH, not-wearing-a-seat-belt crash on the Queen Elizabeth Way over Twelve Mile Creek in St. Catharines, Ontario. (In other words, if you’re driving or taking the bus from New York to Toronto, you’ll pass the location.)

Joyce, whose son Ron Jr. married Horton’s daughter Jeri-Lyn, joined with Dave Thomas of Wendy’s and merged the two companies in 1995, becoming its largest shareholder, with even more shares than Thomas. Although the companies have since split again, it was mutually beneficial, as Wendy's gained in Canada and Timmy's poked their heads in the U.S. door.

There are now over 3,000 Tim Hortons locations in Canada, including inside the Air Canada Centre, one at Toronto's Union Station, and several on Canadian Forces Bases around the world. There's now over 500 in the U.S., and they’re heavily expanding in New York, including 3 in the Penn Station complex alone (despite Horton himself only briefly having played for the Rangers upstairs at the “new” Madison Square Garden). They are also partnered with Cold Stone Creamery, with an outlet on 42nd Street, a 2-minute walk from Port Authority. These Hosers know what they're doing.

I can find no reference to a bar or restaurant in Toronto where New Yorkers are known to gather.

Sidelights. Being the largest and most influential city in Canada, Toronto is loaded with tourist traps. This has been spoofed in “The Toronto Song,” a bit by the Edmonton-based comedy trio Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie. (It’s not obvious that 3DTB are from Edmonton until the end of the song, by which point they’ve said everything in Ontario sucks, as do all the other Provinces, except “Alberta doesn’t suck – but Calgary does.”)

They’re not far off.  Toronto is much cleaner than most American cities: U.S. film crews, trying to save money by filming there, have had to throw garbage onto the streets so it would look more like New York, Boston, Chicago or Los Angeles, and then they have to do it again between takes, because the street-sweepers clean it up that quickly.  But the city does have slums, a serious homeless problem, ridiculous rents, never-ending lakefront high-rise construction (mirroring recent New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s similar projects), and their share of metalheads, punks, Goths and chavs.

I wouldn't call then-Mayor David Miller a dork, as 3DTB did, although his predecessor, Mel Lastman, was often a Canadian version of Rudy Giuliani. With better hair. You may have heard about recent Mayor Rob Ford: He's a crook, an alcoholic and a crackhead, who was just barely able, through legal action, to keep his office, before losing his bid for re-election last year. I don't know much about the current Mayor, John Tory, but if he votes like his name suggests (Conservative Party or "Tories"), the city is in trouble.

Torontonians can’t quite decide whether they want to be Canada’s New York (national media, culture and finance capital, home of the CBC and CTV, and Bay Street is their “Wall Street”), Canada’s Chicago (a gritty blue-collar “drinking town with a sports problem”), or Canada’s L.A. (movie-filming center.) Actually, Montreal is Canada’s New York (international city, city of islands, great food city, great neighborhood city), Hamilton its Chicago, and Vancouver its L.A.

Toronto is... Toronto is something else. Scientists have yet to figure out what. But check out these locations:

* Hockey Hall of Fame. If you go to Toronto and you don’t go to the Hockey Hall of Fame, they should deport you from Canada and never let you back in. This place is great, and the actual Stanley Cup is there. Well, 2 of them are, the original bowl that was so damaged that they replaced it in 1970, plus some of the bands with old-time winners on it, and a display copy. The one that gets awarded every year is also stored there in preparation for its annual awarding, then gets to go wherever the winning team’s players want to take it for almost a year.

You’ll also see why Canadians call hockey jerseys “sweaters”: They used to be sweaters, as you’ll see in the display cases. You’ll also see why they’re not sweaters anymore: Holes where they were eaten by moths. Hockey eventually got that right.

They also got the location for their Hall of Fame right: While it’s not clear where hockey was invented, and the NHL was founded in Montreal, they put their Hall of Fame in an easily accessible city, unlike baseball (hard-to-reach Cooperstown, New York is not where baseball was invented), basketball (Springfield, Massachusetts is where it was invented, but it’s a depressing town), and pro football (Canton, Ohio is where the NFL was founded, but it's so drab and bleak it makes Springfield look like Disney World… Sorry, Thurman).

30 Yonge Street, blocked by Yonge, Front, Bay and Wellington. Union Station stop on the TTC subway.

* Rogers Centre. Opening in 1989 as the SkyDome and as the 1st retractable-roof stadium in the world, the Blue Jays and the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts have played here ever since.

The Jays won back-to-back World Series while playing here in 1992 and 1993, while the Argos have won 5 Grey Cups since moving in: 1991, 1996, 1997, 2004 and 2012. The last was won at Rogers Centre. (Like its American counterpart, the Super Bowl, the Grey Cup Final is held at a preselected site, but with only 9 teams in the CFL, it has a far lesser chance of turning out to be a neutral site than the Super Bowl does.)

The official address is 1 Blue Jays Way, and it's bordered by Front Street and the railroad on the north, a walkway separating it from the CN Tower complex on the east, Bremner Blvd. and the Gardiner Expressway on the south, and a walkway leading into Blue Jays Way leading into Peter Street on the west. Public transportation access isn't very good, so your best bet is to walk in from Union Station, nearly a mile away.

* Exhibition Place. The Canadian National Exhibition is kind of a nationwide “State Fair.” It was on the grounds, off Princes Boulevard, that Exhibition Stadium, or the Big X, stood from 1948 to 1999. It was home to the Blue Jays from 1977 to 1989 and the Argonauts from 1959 to 1988. It hosted only one MLB postseason series, the 1985 ALCS, which the Jays lost to the Kansas City Royals.

It hosted 12 Grey Cups (Canadian Super Bowls), although only one featured the Argos, and that was the 1982 game, won by the Edmonton Eskimos in a freezing rain, with fans chanting, “We want a dome!” The SkyDome/Rogers Centre project soon began, and Exhibition Stadium never hosted another Grey Cup. Rogers Centre has now hosted 4, including the 100th, in November 2012, which the Argos won over the Calgary Stampeders.

BMO Field (pronounced "BEE-moh"), home of Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame and Major League Soccer’s rather unimaginatively-named Toronto FC, was built on the site of Exhibition Stadium. The parking lot immediately south of BMO Field has plaques embedded in the pavement where home plate and the other three bases were once located at "The Bix X."

Exhibition stop on the Lakeshore West line of GO, Toronto’s commuter-rail service out of Union Station.

* Varsity Stadium. The home of the athletic complex of the University of Toronto, this is the 3rd stadium on the site, replacing one that stood from 1911 to 2002 and the one before that from 1898 to 1911. It only seats 5,000, but its predecessor could hold 21,739, and hosted more Grey Cups than any other facility, 29, from 1911 to 1957.

Unlike Exhibition Stadium, the Argos won 9 of their 16 Grey Cups at home at Varsity Stadium: 1914, 1921, 1937, 1938, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950 and 1952. (They also won at Sarnia in 1933, Vancouver in 1983, Winnipeg in 1991, Hamilton in 1996, Edmonton in 1997 and Ottawa in 2004.)

Varsity Stadium was home to the various Toronto teams in the North American Soccer League, and hosted the 1969 Rock ‘n Roll Revival Concert, as shown in the film Sweet Toronto, featuring John Lennon and his Plastic Ono Band (of course, with Yoko Ono, but also with Eric Clapton), the Doors, Alice Cooper, and founding fathers of rock Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent. This was the concert where a live chicken was thrown at Cooper from the seats, and he threw it back, thinking it could fly, but it died.

299 Bloor Street West and Devonshire Place. Museum stop on the Yonge-University Line, or St. George stop on the Yonge-University or Bloor-Danforth Lines.

* Rosedale Park. This is where the first Grey Cup game was held, on December 4, 1909. The University of Toronto defeated the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club, 26-6. There’s now a soccer field on the site of the original stadium.

Scholfield and Highland Avenues. Unfortunately, the closest subway stop is Summerhill, on the Yonge-University Line, and you’ll have to walk a roundabout path to get there. If you really want to see it, you may want to take a cab. In fact, if your time is limited, and you have to cross some of these off your list, I'd say cross this one off first.

* Maple Leaf Gardens. Home of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs from 1931 to 1999, this was arguably the most famous building in Canada. The Leafs won 11 Stanley Cups while playing here: 1932, 1942, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1967 – and they haven’t been back to the Finals since.

The Gardens (always plural, never “The Garden” like in New York and Boston) also hosted the 1st NHL All-Star Game, a benefit for injured Leafs star Ace Bailey in 1934, one of the Canada-Soviet “Summit Series” games in 1972, and the 1st Canada Cup in 1976, where Leafs star Darryl Sittler stole the show.

On November 1, 1946, the first NBA game was held at the Gardens, with the Knicks winning 68-66 over the Toronto Huskies, who folded after that first season of 1946-47. It hosted the Beatles on all 3 of their North American tours (1964, ’65 and ’66), and Elvis Presley in 1957 – oddly, in his early period, not in his Vegas-spectacle era.

But somebody who doesn’t give a damn about history, only money, decided the Gardens was obsolete, and the Leafs moved into the Air Canada Centre in 1999. A plan to turn the arena into a shopping mall and movie multiplex, as was done with the Montreal Forum, was dropped because of the way the building was built: Unlike the Forum, if the Gardens’ upper deck of seats is removed, the walls will collapse.

Fortunately, it has been renovated, and is now part of the athletic complex of Ryerson University, including its hockey team, with its seating capacity reduced to 2,796 seats, down from its classic capacity which ranged from 12,473 in the beginning to 15,726 at the end, with a peak of 16,316 in the 1970s.

So, while the old Madison Square Garden, the old Boston Garden, Chicago Stadium, and the Olympia are gone, and the Montreal Forum has been converted into a mall, one of the "Original Six" arenas is still standing and being used for hockey. It also has a Loblaws supermarket.

60 Carlton Street, at Church Street. College stop, on the Yonge-University Line.

* Site of Mutual Street Arena. This arena stood at this location from 1912 until 1989, when condos were built there, and was the home of the Toronto Blueshirts, National Hockey Association Champions and Stanley Cup winners 1914, and the Maple Leafs from 1917 to 1931.

They were known as the Toronto Arenas when they won the 1st NHL Championship and their 1st Stanley Cup in 1918, and the Toronto St. Patricks when the won the Cup in 1922. Conn Smythe renamed them the Maple Leafs, after the city’s minor-league baseball team, when he bought them in 1927.

Bounded by Mutual, Shuter, Dundas and Dalhousie Streets. Queen or Dundas stops on the Yonge-University Line.

* Hanlan’s Point. This was the home of Toronto baseball teams from 1897 to 1925, and was the site of Babe Ruth’s 1st professional game, on April 22, 1914, for the Providence Grays, then affiliated with the Red Sox, much as their modern counterparts the Pawtucket Red Sox are. The Grays played the baseball version of the Maple Leafs, and the Babe pitched a one-hitter and hit a home run in a 9-0 Providence win.

Unfortunately, Hanlan’s Point is on one of the Toronto Islands, in Lake Ontario off downtown. The stadium is long gone, and the location is only reachable by Ferry.

* Site of Maple Leaf Stadium, at  Home to the baseball Maple Leafs from 1926 to 1967, it was demolished a year later, with apartments built on the site. The Leafs won 5 International League Pennants here, and it was the 1st sports team owned by Jack Kent Cooke, who would later own the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings, the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats and, most notably, the NFL’s Washington Redskins.

Stadium Road (formerly an extension of Bathurst Street) and Queens Quay West (that’s pronounced “Queen’s Key”). Fleet St at Bathurst St station on the city's streetcar system.

* Fort York, Bathurst Street and Front Street West. You should see at least one place that doesn't have anything to do with sports, and with the bicentennial of the War of 1812 having recently concluded, this place has become more interesting. In that war, the 2nd and last time the U.S. seriously tried to take Canada away from the British Empire, the U.S. Army, led by Zebulon Pike (for whom the Colorado Peak was named), burned the fort and what was then the city of York, now Toronto, on April 27, 1813. However, Pike was killed in the battle. In revenge, the British burned Washington, D.C.

Essentially, Fort York is Canada’s Alamo. But not their Gettysburg: That would be Lundy’s Lane, in Niagara Falls, and I recommend that you make time for that as well.

* Royal Ontario Museum and Gardiner Museum. “The ROM” is at the northern edge of Queen’s Park, which includes the Ontario provincial Parliament complex and the University of Toronto, and is, essentially, next-door to Varsity Stadium. It is Canada’s answer to New York’s Museum of Natural History. 100 Queens Park at Bloor Street West.

The Gardiner Museum, housing the Gardiner family's large collection of ceramic art, is across Queen's Park street. Museum stop on the Yonge-University Line, or St. George stop on the Yonge-University or Bloor-Danforth Lines.

* CN Tower, 301 Front Street West at John Street. It rises 1,815 feet above the ground, but with only its central elevator shaft and its 1,136-foot-high observation deck habitable, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) ruled that it was never a candidate for the title of "the world's tallest building." From 1975 until Burj Khalifa opened in Dubai in 2007, it was officially listed as "the world's tallest freestanding structure." The CN stood for Canadian National railways, but with their bankruptcy and takeover by VIA Rail, the CN now stands for Canada's National Tower.

Like New York's Empire State Building, at night it is lit in colors (or "colours") for special occasions, with its usual colors being the national colors, red and white. Admission is C$35.00 -- US$26.95, making it pretty expensive, but still cheaper than the Empire State Building, $32.00. It's next-door to the Rogers Centre and accessible via a skywalk from Union Station.
Note that the Rogers Centre is still lit in blue,
the color of both the Jays and the Argos.

Toronto has quite a few very tall actual "buildings." First Canadian Place has been the nation's tallest building since it opened in 1976, 978 feet high, northwest corner of King & Bay Streets. There are 9 other buildings in excess of 700 feet, including, sadly, one built by Donald Trump and named for himself. Commerce Court North, built in the Art Deco style in 1930, was the tallest building in Canada until 1962, at 476 feet, but is now dwarfed by the 784-foot Commerce Court West, a far less interesting structure that went up in 1972.

Being outside the U.S., there are no Presidential Libraries in Canada. The nation's Prime Ministers usually don't have that kind of equivalent building. Of Canada's 23 Prime Ministers, 15 are dead, but only one is buried in Toronto: William Lyon Mackenzie King, who led the government on and off from 1926 to 1950, longer than anyone, and is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery. 375 Mount Pleasant Road, Yonge Street Line to St. Clair, then 74 Bus.

There have been plenty of TV shows set in Toronto, but most Americans wouldn't know them, so I won't list their filming locations. Probably the most familiar, due to its being shown on PBS, is Degrassi Junior High and its related series. Recently, ABC ran the Toronto-based cop series Rookie Blue.

Because Toronto has a lot of surviving Art Deco structures from the 1920s and '30s, it's frequently used as a filming location for period-piece movies, including the movie version of Chicago (despite Chicago also having many such buildings survive). There were also several scenes from the U.S. version of Fever Pitch that were shot in Toronto. One is the scene of the barbecue in the park: In the background, a statue can be seen. It's a statue of Queen Victoria. I seriously doubt that there are any statues of British monarchs left in Boston.

*

The Raptors are the least accomplished of Canada's 4 major league sports teams, but, especially now that the Blue Jays are a Playoff team again, they are probably the easiest for which to get tickets.

Good luck, and remember: You are a guest in their country, so try to match their legendary politeness. If you can't do that, just don't go overboard with your New Yorkiness.

Finishing up the Milestones

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Thanks to baseball milestones and trip guides, I set a new personal best in October: 74 posts. Now, I am finally wrapping up the baseball and other sports milestones.

November 4, 1955, 60 years ago: Cy Young dies in Newcomerstown, Ohio. Belying his name, he was 88.

The next season, Major League Baseball instituted the Cy Young Award, for the most valuable pitcher in baseball. In 1967, they began handing them out for the most valuable pitcher in each League.

His 511 wins -- and 313 losses -- will never be approached under the current rules and thought processes of baseball. In 1999, 88 years after he pitched his last game, he was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team, and The Sporting News named him Number 14 on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.

November 4, 1988: The expansion Charlotte Hornets make their NBA debut. It didn't go so well: They got clobbered, 133-93 by the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Charlotte Coliseum. Laker legend Kurt Rambis and Bloomfield, New Jersey native Kelly Tripucka each put up 16 points for the Hornets, but the Cavs got 22 points from Ron Harper and 20 from Brad Daugherty.

November 4, 1989: The expansion Orlando Magic make their NBA debut, at the now-demolished Orlando Arena (a.k.a. the O-Arena). The New Jersey Nets spoil the party, winning 111-106. Dennis Hopson scored 24 points for the visitors, while the Magic's Terry Catledge led all scorers with 25.

November 4, 2001: Game 7 of the World Series, at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix. Although the record has been tied, this remains the latest date that a Major League Baseball game that counts has ever been played.

It started as a duel between 2 of the greatest and most controversial pitchers of the time, Roger Clemens for the Yankees, and Curt Schilling for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Both of them would become much more controversial as the years went on.

Both lived up to the occasion and the matchup, and pitched very well: Schilling held the Yankees to 1 run on 4 hits over the first 7 innings; Clemens held the Diamondbacks to 1 run on 7 hits before Yankee manager Joe Torre called on Mike Stanton to get the last 2 outs in the top of the 7th.

Diamondback manager Bob Brenly stuck with Schilling for the top of the 8th, with the game tied 1-1, and Alfonso Soriano hit a home run. 2-1 Yankees, and it looked like Soriano had become one of the biggest World Series heroes ever -- the man who had hit the 2nd-latest home run in World Series history, behind only Bill Mazeroski's bottom-of-the-9th homer to beat the Yankees for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960.

Brenly brings Randy Johnson, who'd already beaten the Yankees in Games 2 and 6, to relieve. One day's rest? It's Game 7: Win or lose, there's no tomorrow, and you've got until late February to rest. Torre relieves Stanton by sending supercloser Mariano Rivera out for a 2-inning save.. He'd gotten away with that 5 times in this postseason. This was the 6th time he'd tried it.

It was still 2-1 Yankees in the bottom of the 9th, and Mariano needed to get just 3 more outs to give the Yankees their 4th straight World Championship, their 5th in the last 6 years, their 27th overall.

It didn't happen. Mark Grace led off with a single to center. Brenly sent in David Dellucci to pinch-run for him. Damian Miller grounded back to Mariano, who threw to 2nd to start a double play -- and threw it away. Tying run on 2nd. World Series-winning run on 1st.

Brenly sent Jay Bell up to pinch-hit for the Big Unit. He bunted, and Mariano threw to 3rd to get Dellucci on a force. The tying run is still on 2nd, the World Series-winning run is on 1st, but now there's 1 out. Just need to get 2 more.

Mariano wouldn't get his next 2 outs until April 3, 2002 -- 5 months later, or 148 days.

Brenly sends Midre Cummings to pinch-run for Miller at 2nd. Tony Womack doubles down the right field line. Cummings scores. Bell reaches 3rd with the run that could win the Series, and could score on a sacrifice fly.

Craig Counsell, who had been the man who drove in the tying run and scored the winning run for the Florida Marlins in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series, comes up with the chance to be the hero again. Mariano hits him with a pitch. Not known as a purpose pitcher, Mariano was, for one of the very few times in his career, rattled.

Up steps Luis Gonzalez. A man whose seasonal home run totals had been 13 at age 23, 10 at 24, 15 at 25 (okay, he was playing his home games in the Houston Astrodome), 8 at 26 (1994, strike-shortened season), 13 at 27, 15 at 28 (the last 2 as a Chicago Cub, and remember that the wind blows in at Wrigley Field half the time), 10 at 29 (back in Houston, still in the Astrodome), and then...

He hit 23 home runs at age 30. Yes, he was now playing for the Detroit Tigers at Tiger Stadium, but this was also 1998. The year of whatever it was that Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were using to hit 70 and 66 home runs, respectively. Gonzalez hit 26 at 31, and 31 at 32. Very good, but no big deal -- until you realize that those last 2 years were with the Diamondbacks, playing their home games at "The BOB," which, like the Astrodome but unlike most other indoor stadiums, is a bad ballpark for hitters. At age 34, Gonzalez hit 28 homers. At 35, 26. At 36, 17. At 37, 24. At 38 and 39, 15 both times. He closed his career with 8 homers at age 40 in 2006. Respectable numbers, if they were achieved honestly.

In 2001, at age 33, the year of Barry Bonds hitting 73 home runs, Luis Gonzalez hit 57 home runs. That's 26 more than he had ever hit before, and 29 more than he would ever hit again. People talk about Brady Anderson hitting 50 in 1996, when he'd only topped 16 once before, had never topped 21, and would never top 24 again nor 19 but once, and they suspected steroids.

What Luis Gonzalez did on the night of November 4, 2001 did not suggest steroids. Just as Bobby Thomson said that, 50 years earlier, he didn't need help to know that Ralph Branca was going to throw a meaty fastball. Doesn't mean Thomson didn't take advantage of the help that the Giants had been offering for the last few weeks. And it doesn't mean that Gonzalez hadn't been using steroids since 1998.

Gonzalez hit a looper into center field for a base hit. Bell scored the run that won the World Series for the Diamondbacks in only their 4th season.

At the time, I was terribly disappointed. But not crushed. There were a lot of really good players on that team who had played for a long time, some with awful teams, and had struggled to get to this point, and really deserved it: Grace with the Cubs. Johnson with the Mariners. Schilling with the Philadelphia Phillies. Gonzalez with the Astros. Bell and Womack with the Pirates. Matt Williams with the San Francisco Giants and Cleveland Indians.

For the Yankees, Paul O'Neill and Scott Brosius retired, and Tino and Chuck Knoblauch were allowed to leave via free agency. So 4 starters needed to be replaced. The game had a true "end of an era" feel, emphasized by Buster Olney when he titled his book about the 1996-2001 Yankees, and especially this game, The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty.

Some Yankee Fans were heartbroken. Not me. I was over it fairly quickly, and by Opening Day I was really optimistic again.

Over the next few years, things would change, and make this defeat something to get really angry about. Williams would be revealed as a caught steroid user. Gonzalez would call a press conference and angrily deny that he had used them, after a newspaper article danced around the question of whether he did. Although never publicly revealed to have been caught, people have often wondered about Johnson and Schilling, chosen the co-Most Valuable Players of this Series.

And, of course, accusations have also been leveled at some of the Yankees from this Series, including Clemens (the proof has still never been publicly revealed), Knoblauch (who admitted taking human-growth hormone, or HGH, but also said that it hurt more than it helped, which doesn't take him completely off the hook, but hardly makes him a cheater on the level of, say, David Ortiz), and Andy Pettitte (the one thing that can be proven was a brief moment the next season,which didn't help the Yankees win a Pennant).

But no one suggests the D-backs' win was "tainted." Indeed, the only team whose World Series wins or Pennants are said to not be fairly won are those of the Yankees.

Take out all suspected steroid cheats, and declare their World Series wins vacant, and, between 1996 and 2013, you've got the '97 Marlins (they didn't have Ivan Rodriguez yet), the '02 Angels, the '05 White Sox, the '06 and '11 Cardinals, the '08 Phillies, and the '10 and '12 Giants. That's it: 8 out of 18.

Unless you're prepared to vacate the titles won by the Diamondbacks in 2001; the Marlins in 2003; and the Red Sox in 2004, 2007 and 2013, then don't tell me the Yankees cheated.

November 4, 2004: With the original Charlotte Hornets having been moved to New Orleans 2 years earlier, the expansion Charlotte Bobcats make their NBA debut, 16 years to the day after the original Hornets did.

This game was also played at the now-demolished Charlotte Coliseum, but it didn't go much better: The Washington Wizards beat the 'Cats, 103-96. Emeka Okafor scored 19 for the hosts, but Antawn Jamison (a North Carolina graduate) dropped 24 on them for the Wiz.

When the Hornets changed their name to the New Orleans Pelicans, the Bobcats were given the Charlotte Hornets name and records (1988-2002), and have added them to the Bobcats' history (not that it was much).

November 4, 2009: Game 6 of the World Series. The Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-3 at the new Yankee Stadium, and clinched their 27th World Championship, 8 years to the day after they should have.

Hideki Matsui, in what turned out to be his last game with the Yankees, drove in 6 runs, including hitting a home run, a blast, off a "blast from the past," Pedro Martinez. I don't think any Yankee homer -- not by Chris Chambliss, Reggie Jackson, Bucky Dent, Don Mattingly, Jim Leyritz, Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius, Derek Jeter, even Aaron Boone -- has ever made me feel better, because of what Pedro the Punk represents.

Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte and Jorge Posada, the holdovers from 2001, got their rings, Posada his 4th (his 5th title, though I don't think he got a ring for 1996), the others their 5th. For Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia, their 1st.

The slates had been wiped clean. As Hank Steinbrenner requested, the universe had been restored to order.

Let's hope that no future baseball season will ever have to wait until November 4 to be resolved. We need scheduling reform.

*

November 5, 1605: Guy Fawkes, a Catholic fanatic, is arrested beneath the House of Lords at Britain's Parliament, for plotting to blow it up, taking with it the Protestant King James I, his wife Queen Anne, and his sons Henry and Charles. The idea was to place James' daughter, Elizabeth, who was just 9 years old, and would, under their order, be raised as, and be married to, a Catholic.

In hindsight, the plot was doomed to failure. The gunpowder was too damp: Lighting it would have had little effect, and aside from whoever lit it, nobody would have died. And if it had worked? Instead of the people of England rising up in celebration, the reaction would have been like America's after Pearl Harbor and 9/11, or after Britain's after the Brighton bombing of 1985 failed to kill Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: A moment of fear, followed by righteous rage. The conspirators would not have lived to see Christmas, no matter what they did.

Although all the conspirators were caught and hanged, Fawkes is generally the only one remembered. Today, Britain choose to "Remember, remember, the 5th of November, the gunpowder treason and plot," and it's known as Guy Fawkes Night, commemorated with fireworks.

The 1982 graphic novel and 2006 film V for Vendetta feature an antihero wearing a mask designed to look like Fawkes, and his attempt to take down a tyrannic government in a dystopian future (1997 in the book, 2038 in the film). Except "V" got one big thing very wrong: The government Fawkes was trying to bring down was actually more tolerant toward his faith than the one that came before (under Queen Elizabeth I), while the one he wanted to impose would have been a faith-based dictatorship that would have brooked no dissent -- much like the one "V" was trying to bring down. Not the only inconsistency in the character.

What does Guy Fawkes or his Night have to do with sports? Not much, I just like the story, and the story that uses it.

November 5, 1869: The Cincinnati Red Stockings complete their 1st season as the 1st openly professional baseball team, going 65-0, and playing from coast (Boston) to coast (San Francisco), doing as much to spread the growth of the game than any other team had ever done.

* Pitcher, Asa Brainard, from whose name we supposedly get the word "ace," a native of Albany, New York, 1841-1888.
* Center fielder and manager, Harry Wright, born in Sheffield, England, and grew up in New York, 1835-1895.
* 3rd baseman, Fred Waterman, Manhattan, 1845-1899
* Left fielder, Andy Leonard, born in Ireland and grew up in Newark, 1846-1903
* 2nd baseman, Charlie Sweasy, Newark, 1847-1908
* Catcher, Doug Allison, Philadelphia, 1846-1916.
* Right fielder, Cal McVey, born in Montrose, Iowa and grew up in Indianapolis, 1849-1926
* Substitute, but mainly an outfielder, Dick Hurley, Honesdale, Pennsylvania, born in 1847, and history has lost track of him, the last record of him being in 1916.
* 1st baseman, Charlie Gould, the only one actually from Cincinnati, 1847-1917.
* Shortstop, George Wright, Yonkers, the last survivor, 1847-1937.

So it was a pair of Wright Brothers in southern Ohio who, essentially invented professional baseball, just as another invented the airplane. Harry and George are in the Baseball Hall of Fame, 1 of only 2 pairs of brothers both in. The other is Paul and Lloyd Waner.

November 5, 1988: The expansion Miami Heat make their NBA debut, at the now-demolished Miami Arena. They probably thought that picking the Los Angeles Clippers as their 1st opponent would help.

Just as their arch-rivals, the Orlando Magic, will do a year later when they choose the Nets, the Heat chose wrong: The Clips win, 111-91. Dwayne "the Pearl" Washington comes off the bench to lead the Heat with 16 points, but the Clips get 22 from Ken Norman and 21 from Reggie Williams.

November 5, 1995, 20 years ago: The expansion Vancouver Grizzlies make their NBA debut, at the new General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena). Unlike the Hornets, Magic and Heat, they win their premiere, beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 100-98.

Christian Laettner scores 26 for the T-Wolves to lead all scorers, but the Grizz get 18 off the bench from ex-Laker star and future Net head coach Byron Scott, 17 from ex-Knick Greg Anthony, and 16 from James "Blue" Edwards.

The Grizzlies never make the Playoffs in Vancouver, and they move to Memphis in 2001. The NBA has shown no indication that they will give the city a 2nd team.

*

1869 wasn't just a big year for baseball. It was also the year that American football is said to have been invented -- somewhat erroneously.

November 6, 1869: What is generally recognized as the 1st college football game is played. Rutgers College plays the College of New Jersey, on Rutgers' campus in New Brunswick.

The game is essentially a very large soccer game, with a round leather ball, and 25 men on a side. The Rutgers men, finding the color inexpensive to obtain, wrap scarlet red cloth around their heads like turbans, so that they can tell each other apart on the field. Thus did they invent school colors and the football helmet.

The men of Old Queens must have had less trouble telling team from team than the men of Old Nassau did, as Rutgers won, 6-4 -- that's 6 goals to 4, or 42-28 under today's scoring system.

The next week, the CNJ men returned the favor in Princeton, and won, 8-0. There was supposed to be a 3rd game, but the college presidents got together and decided that too much emphasis was being placed on athletics, and forbade it.

The field where "the first football game" was played is now the parking lot for Rutgers' College Avenue Gym.

In 1874, Harvard University would accept a challenge from McGill University in Montreal, and discover on their arrival that by "football," McGill meant "rugby," not "soccer." Adjustments were made, Harvard liked the results, and convinced the other "football"-playing schools to join them in this adaptation of "football." In 1906, the forward pass was legalized and hashmarks prevented dangerous scrimmages close to the sideline. "Football" as America knows it now was on its way.

In 1896, the College of New Jersey changed its name to Princeton University, while a nearby school would later be founded as Trenton State College, and change its name to The College of New Jersey. Rutgers College would become, and remains, the centerpiece of the larger system of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

November 6, 2009: The Yankees get a ticker-tape parade for winning the World Series. Only 1 other New York team has gotten one since: The Giants in February 2012.

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November 8, 1971: The National Hockey League grants a franchise to Long Island, and the New York Islanders are born.

November 8, 1989: The NBA's expansion Minnesota Timberwolves play their 1st home game, at the Target Center in Minneapolis. But they really chose the wrong opponent: The Chicago Bulls, who win, 96-84. Michael Jordan blitzes his way to 45 points, while Tony Campbell nets 31 for the shellshocked hosts. At least the inaugural fans got their money's worth from Jordan.

Cities' Finals Appearances through October 2015

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This list includes the following:

Baseball
* National Association Pennant winners, 1871-1875.
* Pre-World Series National League Pennant winners, 1876-1881 and 1898-1902.
* National League vs. American Association series, 1882-1891.
* Temple Cup, 1892-1897.
* Chronicle-Telegraph Cup, 1900.
* Pre-World Series American League Pennant winners, 1901-1902.
* World Series, 1903-2015.
Football
* NFL Championships in the pre-title game era, 1920-1931.
* NFL Championship Game, 1932-1965.
* AFL Championship Game, 1960-1965.
* AAFC Championship Game, 1946-1949.
* Super Bowl, 1967-2015.
* World Bowl (WFL Championship Game), 1974.
* USFL Championship Game, 1983-1985.
* Grey Cup (Canadian Football League), 1909-2014.
Basketball
* ABL Finals, 1926-1946.
* NBL Finals, 1938-1949.
* NBA Finals, 1947-2015.
* ABA Finals, 1968-1976.
* WNBA Finals, 1997-2015.
Hockey
* Stanley Cup Finals, 1927-2015, plus 1893-1926 appearances by cities with current NHL teams.
* Avco World Trophy Finals (WHA), 1973-1979.
Soccer
* NASL Finals, 1968-1984.
* MLS Cup, 1996-2014.
* U.S. Open Cup in the MLS era, 1996-2015. (Before that, it could not have been considered "major league.")
* Voyageurs Cup (Canadian Championship), 2008-2015.
* CONCACAF Champions League, 1962-2015.

No Arena Football. No American Football League other than the one of the 1960s that formed the bulk of today's AFC. No indoor soccer. No U.S. Open Cup soccer finals. Professional titles only: No college football, basketball, baseball or hockey titles. No neutral-site hostings, such as Super Bowls, Final Fours, Olympics or World Cups.

When a final featured 2 teams from the same metropolitan area, I list it twice.

1. New York (includes North Jersey & Long Island), 156: AA Champions, 1884, 1889; NL Champions, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1899, 1900, 1904; Temple Cup, 1894; World Series, 1905, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1921, 1921, 1922, 1922, 1923, 1923, 1924, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1933, 1936, 1936, 1937, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1947, 1947, 1949, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1951, 1952, 1952, 1953, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1955, 1956, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1969, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1986, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2009, 2015; NFL Champions, 1927; NFL Championship, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1944, 1946, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963; AAFC Championship, 1946, 1947; Super Bowl, 1969, 1987, 1991, 2001, 2008, 2012; ABL Finals, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1930, 1935, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1938, 1939, 1939, 1941; NBA Finals, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1994, 1999, 2002, 2003; ABA Finals, 1972, 1974, 1976; WNBA Finals, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002; Stanley Cup Finals, 1928, 1929, 1932, 1933, 1937, 1940, 1950, 1972, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2012, 2014; NASL Final, 1972, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982; MLS Cup Final, 2008; U.S. Open Cup Final, 2003.

Manhattan separately, 52: AA Champions, 1884; NL Champions, 1888, 1904; Temple Cup, 1894; World Series, 1905, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1917, 1921, 1921, 1922, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1933, 1936, 1937, 1951, 1954; NFL Champions, 1927; NFL Championship, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1944, 1946; NBA Finals, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1994, 1999; WNBA Finals, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002; Stanley Cup Finals, 1928, 1929, 1932, 1933, 1937, 1940, 1950, 1972, 1979, 1994, 2014.

Brooklyn separately, 26: AA Champions, 1889; NL Champions, 1890, 1899, 1900; World Series, 1916, 1920, 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956; ABL Finals, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1930, 1935, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1938, 1939, 1939, 1941.

Bronx separately, 46: World Series, 1923, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 976, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2009; NFL Championship, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963; AAFC Championship, 1946, 1947.

Queens separately, 6: World Series: 1969, 1973, 1986, 2000, 2015; Super Bowl, 1969.

Staten Island separately, 1:  NL Champions, 1889.

New Jersey separately, 19: Super Bowl, 1987, 1991, 2001, 2008, 2012; NBA Finals, 2002, 2003; Stanley Cup Finals, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2012; NASL Final, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982; MLS Cup Final, 2008; U.S. Open Cup Final, 2003.

Long Island separately, 9: ABA Finals, 1972, 1974, 1976; Stanley Cup Finals, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984; NASL Final, 1972.

2. Boston (includes Foxboro, Providence, Hartford & Mohegan Sun), 91: NA Champions, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875; NL Champions, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1883, 1884, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1897, 1898; AA Champions, 1891; World Series, 1903, 1904, 1912, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1946, 1948, 1967, 1975, 1986, 2004, 2007, 2013; NFL Champions, 1928; NFL Championship Game, 1936; AFL Championship Game, 1963; Super Bowl, 1986, 1997, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2015; NBA Finals, 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 2009, 2010; WNBA Finals, 2004, 2005; Stanley Cup Finals, 1927, 1929, 1930, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1946, 1953, 1957, 1958, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1988, 1990, 2011, 2013; Avco Trophy Finals, 1973, 1978; MLS Cup Final, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2014; U.S. Open Cup Final, 2001, 2007.

Providence separately, 3: NL Champions, 1879, 1884; NFL Champions, 1928. (Since 1971, the New England Patriots have played slightly closer to downtown Providence than to downtown Boston, but that doesn't count.)

Connecticut separately, 3: WNBA Finals, 2004, 2005; Avco Trophy Finals, 1978.

3. Montreal, 78: Grey Cup, 1931, 1944, 1949, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1970, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010; Stanley Cup Finals, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1910, 1914, 1916, 1917, 1919, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1935, 1944, 1946, 1947, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1986, 1989, 1993; Voyageurs Cup, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2015; CONCACAF Champions League, 2015.

4. Chicago, 73: NL Champions, 1876, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1885, 1886; AL Champions, 1901; World Series, 1906, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1910, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1929, 1932, 1935, 1938, 1945, 1959, 2005; NFL Champions, 1921, 1925; NFL Championship Game, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1937, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1956, 1963; Super Bowl, 1986, 2007; NBL Finals, 1947; NBA Finals, 1947, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998; WNBA Finals, 2014; Stanley Cup Finals, 1931, 1934, 1938, 1944, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1971, 1973, 1992, 2010, 2013, 2015; Avco Trophy Finals, 1974; NASL Final, 1981, 1984; MLS Cup Final, 1998, 2000, 2003; U.S. Open Cup Final, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2011.

5. Toronto, 72: World Series, 1992, 1993; Grey Cup, 1909, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1914, 1915, 1920, 1920, 1921, 1924, 1924, 1926, 1927, 1930, 1933, 1937, 1938, 1940, 1942, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950, 1952, 1971, 1982, 1983, 1991, 1996, 1997, 2004, 2012; Stanley Cup Finals, 1902, 1904, 1908, 1914, 1918, 1922, 1932, 1933, 1935, 1936, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1942, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1967; NASL Final, 1976, 1983, 1984; Voyageurs Cup, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014.

6. Los Angeles (includes Anaheim, Inglewood & Carson), 66: World Series, 1959, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1988, 2002; NFL Championship Game, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1955; AFL Championship Game, 1960; Super Bowl, 1980, 1984; NBA Finals, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2009, 2010; ABA Finals, 1970; WNBA Finals, 2001, 2002, 2003; Stanley Cup Finals, 1993, 2003, 2007, 2012, 2014; NASL Final, 1974; MLS Cup Final, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014; CONCACAF Champions League, 1997, 2000; U.S. Open Cup Final, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006.

Inglewood separately, 19: NBA Finals, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991; Stanley Cup Finals, 1993.

Anaheim separately, 3: World Series, 2002; Stanley Cup Finals, 2003, 2007.

Carson separately, 15: MLS Cup Final, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014; CONCACAF Champions League, 1997, 2000; U.S. Open Cup Final, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006.

7. Philadelphia (includes South Jersey & Delaware), 58: NA Champions, 1871; AA Champions, 1883; AL Champions, 1902; World Series, 1905, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1950, 1980, 1983, 1993, 2008, 2009; NFL Champions, 1926; NFL Championship Game, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1960; Super Bowl, 1981, 2005; USFL Championship Game, 1983, 1984; ABL Finals, 1934, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1943, 1944, 1944, 1945, 1946; NBA Finals, 1947, 1948, 1956, 1967, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1983, 2001; Stanley Cup Finals, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1985, 1987, 1997, 2010; NASL Final, 1973; U.S. Open Cup Final, 2014, 2015.

8. Detroit, 51 (includes Pontiac & Auburn Hills): NL Champions, 1887; World Series, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1934, 1935, 1940, 1945, 1968, 1984, 2006, 2012; NFL Championship Game, 1935, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1957; USFL Championship Game, 1983; NBA Finals, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2004, 2005; WNBA Finals, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008; Stanley Cup Finals, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2008, 2009.

9. Winnipeg, 37: Grey Cup, 1925, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1950, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1984, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 2001, 2007, 2011; Stanley Cup Finals, 1896, 1899, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1908; Avco Trophy Finals, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979.

10. St. Louis, 34: AA Champions, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1888; World Series, 1926, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1934, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1944, 1946, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1982, 1985, 1987, 2004, 2006, 2011, 2013; Super Bowl, 2000, 2002; NBA Finals, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961; Stanley Cup Finals, 1968, 1969, 1970; NASL Final, 1972.

11. Cleveland (includes Akron, Canton & Richfield), 34: Temple Cup, 1892, 1895, 1896; World Series, 1920, 1948, 1954, 1995, 1997; AAFC Championship Game, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949; NFL Champions, 1920, 1922, 1923, 1924; NFL Championship Game, 1945, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1964; ABL Finals, 1926, 1927, 1929, 1930; NBL Finals, 1938, 1939, 1940; NBA Finals, 2007, 2015.

12. Edmonton, 34: Grey Cup, 1921, 1922, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1960, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1993, 1996, 2002, 2003; Stanley Cup Finals, 1908, 1910, 1923, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990, 2006; Avco Trophy Finals, 1979.

13. Hamilton, 33: Grey Cup, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1915, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1932, 1935, 1943, 1944, 1953, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1998, 1999, 2013, 2014; Stanley Cup Finals, 1910, 1911.



14. Milwaukee (includes Green Bay, Oshkosh & Sheboygan), 32: World Series, 1957, 1958, 1982; NFL Champions, 1929, 1930, 1931; NFL Championship Game, 1936, 1938, 1939, 1944, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1965; Super Bowl, 1967, 1968, 1997, 1998, 2011; NBL Finals, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1949; NBA Finals, 1971, 1974.

15. Washington (includes Landover & College Park), 32: World Series, 1924, 1925, 1933; NFL Championship Game, 1937, 1940, 1942, 1943, 1945; Super Bowl, 1973, 1983, 1984, 1988, 1992; USFL Championship Game, 1985; ABL Finals, 1940; NBA Finals, 1949, 1975, 1978, 1979; Stanley Cup Finals, 1998; NASL Final, 1970; MLS Cup Final, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2004; U.S. Open Cup Final, 1996, 1997, 2008, 2009, 2013; CONCACAF Champions League, 1998.

16. San Francisco (includes Oakland & San Jose), 31: World Series, 1962, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1988, 1989, 1989, 1990, 2002, 2010, 2012, 2014; AAFC Championship Game, 1949; Super Bowl, 1968, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1995, 2003, 2013; USFL Championship Game, 1985; NBA Finals, 1964, 1967, 1975, 2015; ABA Finals, 1969; MLS Cup Final, 2001, 2003.

San Francisco separately, 15: World Series, 1962, 1989, 2002, 2010, 2012, 2014; AAFC Championship Game, 1949; Super Bowl, 1982, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1995, 2013; NBA Finals, 1964, 1967.

Oakland separately, 14: World Series, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1988, 1989, 1990; Super Bowl, 1968, 1977, 1981, 2003; USFL Championship Game, 1985; NBA Finals, 1975, 2015; ABA Finals, 1969.

San Jose separately, 2; MLS Cup Final, 2001, 2003.

17. Ottawa, 31 (includes Kanata): Grey Cup, 1925, 1926, 1936, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1948, 1951, 1960, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1976, 1981; Stanley Cup Finals, 1894, 1897, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1915, 1920, 1921, 1923, 1927, 2007.

18. Pittsburgh, 23: Chronicle-Telegraph Cup, 1900; NL Champions, 1901, 1902; World Series, 1903, 1909, 1925, 1927, 1960, 1971, 1979; Super Bowl, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1996, 2006, 2009, 2011; ABA Finals, 1968; Stanley Cup Finals, 1991, 1992, 2008, 2009.

19. Baltimore, 23: Temple Cup, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897; World Series, 1966, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1979, 1983; NFL Championship Game, 1958, 1959, 1964; Super Bowl, 1969, 1971, 2001, 2013; Grey Cup, 1994, 1995; ABL Finals, 1945, 1946; NBA Finals, 1948, 1971.


20. Vancouver, 22: Grey Cup, 1963, 1964, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1994, 200, 2004, 2006, 2011; Stanley Cup Finals, 1915, 1918, 1921, 1922, 1982, 1984, 2011; NASL Final, 1979; Voyageurs Cup, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015.

21. Minneapolis (includes St. Paul & Bloomington), 21: World Series, 1965, 1987, 1991; Super Bowl, 1970, 1974, 1975, 1977; NBL Finals, 1948; NBA Finals, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1959; WNBA Finals, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015; Stanley Cup Finals, 1981, 1991; NASL Final, 1976.

22. Indianapolis (includes Fort Wayne & Anderson), 21: Super Bowl, 2007, 2010; ABL Finals, 1928, 1929, 1931; NBL Finals, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1949; NBA Finals, 1955, 1956, 2000; ABA Finals, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1975; WNBA Finals, 2009, 2012, 2015.


23. Dallas (includes Arlington & Irving), 21: World Series, 2010, 2011; AFL Championship Game, 1962; Super Bowl, 1971, 1972, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1993, 1994, 1995; NBA Finals, 2006, 2011; Stanley Cup Finals, 1999, 2000; NASL Final, 1971, 1973; MLS Cup Final, 2010; U.S. Open Cup Final, 1997, 2005, 2007.

24. Regina, 19: Grey Cup, 1923, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1951, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1972, 1976, 1989, 1997, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013.

25. Houston, 19: World Series, 2005; AFL Championship Game, 1960, 1961, 1962; NBA Finals, 1981, 1986, 1994, 1995; WNBA Finals, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000; Avco Trophy Finals, 1974, 1975, 1976; MLS Cup Final, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012.

26. Buffalo (includes Orchard Park, Rochester & Syracuse), 19: AAFC Championship Game, 1948; AFL Championship Game, 1964, 1965; Super Bowl, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994; ABL Finals, 1930; NBL Finals, 1946, 1947, 1948; NBA Finals, 1951, 1954, 1955; Stanley Cup Finals, 1975, 1999; NASL Final, 1970; U.S. Open Cup Final, 1996, 1999.

Rochester alone, 7: NBL Finals, 1946, 1947, 1948; NBA Finals, 1951; NASL Final, 1970; U.S. Open Cup Final, 1996, 1999.

Syracuse alone, 2: NBA Finals, 1954, 1955;.

27. Seattle, 18: Super Bowl, 2006, 2013, 2015; NBA Finals, 1978, 1979, 1996; WNBA Finals, 2004, 2010; Stanley Cup Finals, 1917, 1919, 1920; NASL Final, 1977, 1982; U.S. Open Cup Final, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014.

28. Calgary, 17: Grey Cup, 1948, 1949, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2008, 2012, 2014; Stanley Cup Finals, 1924, 1986, 1989.

29. Miami (includes Fort Lauderdale), 16: World Series, 1997, 2003; Super Bowl, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1983, 1985; NBA Finals, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014; Stanley Cup Finals, 1996; NASL Final, 1974, 1980; U.S. Open Cup Final, 2000.


30. Denver, 14: World Series, 2007; Super Bowl, 1978, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1998, 1999, 2014; ABA Finals, 1976; Stanley Cup Finals, 1996, 2001; MLS Cup Final, 1997, 2010; U.S. Open Cup Final, 1999.

31. Kansas City (includes K.C., Missouri & K.C., Kansas), 13: World Series, 1980, 1985, 2014, 2015; Super Bowl, 1967, 1970; NASL Final, 1969; MLS Cup Final, 2000, 2004, 2013; U.S. Open Cup Final, 2004, 2012, 2015.

32. Cincinnati (includes Portsmouth), 13: AA Champions, 1882; World Series, 1919, 1939, 1940, 1961, 1970, 1972, 1975, 1976, 1990; NFL Championship Game, 1932; Super Bowl, 1982, 1989.

33. Atlanta, 12: World Series, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1999; Super Bowl, 1999; WNBA Finals, 2010, 2011, 2013; NASL Final, 1968, 1969, 1971.

34. Phoenix (includes Glendale), 9: World Series, 2001; Super Bowl, 2009; USFL Championship Game, 1984; NBA Finals, 1976, 1993; WNBA Finals, 1998, 2007, 2009, 2014.

35. Salt Lake City, 8: ABA Finals, 1971, 1974; NBA Finals, 1997, 1998; MLS Cup Finals, 2009, 2013; U.S. Open Cup Final, 2013; CONCACAF Champions League, 2011.

36. San Diego, 8: World Series, 1984, 1998; AFL Championship Game, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1965; Super Bowl, 1995; NASL Final, 1968.

37. Tampa Bay (includes Tampa & St. Petersburg), 7: World Series, 2008; Super Bowl, 2003; Stanley Cup Finals, 2004, 2015; NASL Final, 1974, 1978, 1979.

38. San Antonio, 7: NBA Finals, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2013, 2014; WNBA Finals, 2008.

39. Kingston (Ontario), 6: Grey Cup, 1922, 1923, 1924; Stanley Cup Finals, 1895, 1899, 1906.

40. Carolina (includes Charlotte, Raleigh & Charleston), 5: Super Bowl, 2004; WNBA Finals, 2001; Stanley Cup Finals, 2002, 2006; U.S. Open Cup Final, 2008.

41. Portland, 5: NBA Finals, 1977, 1990, 1992; Stanley Cup Finals, 1916; NASL Final, 1975.


42. Columbus (not close enough to counted with Cincinnati), 4: MLS Cup Final, 2008; U.S. Open Cup Final, 1998, 2002, 2010.

43. Quebec City, 4: Stanley Cup Finals, 1912, 1913; Avco Trophy Finals, 1975, 1977.

44. Louisville, 4: AA Champions, 1890; ABA Finals, 1971, 1973, 1975.

45. Sarnia (Ontario), 3: Grey Cup, 1933, 1934, 1936.

46. Orlando, 3: World Bowl (WFL), 1974; NBA Finals, 1995, 2009.

47. Victoria (British Columbia, not close enough to be counted with Vancouver), 3: Stanley Cup Finals, 1914, 1925, 1926.

48. New Orleans, 2: Super Bowl, 2010; ABA Finals, 1968.

49. Sacramento, 2: WNBA Finals, 2005, 2006.

50. Oklahoma (includes Oklahoma City & Tulsa), 2: NBA Finals, 2012; NASL Final, 1983.

51. Tennessee (includes Memphis & Nashville), 1: Super Bowl, 2000.

52. Birmingham, 1: World Bowl (WFL), 1974.

53. Jacksonville is the only metropolitan area currently with a team in either MLB, the NFL, the NBA, the NHL or MLS that has never had a team in the final of any of those sports. It has, however, hosted a Super Bowl.

How to Be a New York Basketball Fan In Charlotte -- 2015-16 Edition

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The Knicks travel to play the Charlotte Hornets next Wednesday night, and the Nets do so the following Wednesday. The Knicks go back on January 23, and the Nets on April 8.

Before You Go. Being in the South, it's going to be warmer in Charlotte than in New York. But, this being November, it won't be hot. The Charlotte Observer is predicting high 50s for daylight, but low 40s for evening. Bring a winter jacket.

Charlotte is in the Eastern Time Zone, so you won't have to fiddle with your timepieces. It is in North Carolina, a former Confederate State, but you won't need your passport or to change your money.

Tickets. The Hornets averaged 17,192 fans per game last season. That's only a little over 90 percent of capacity, so your chances of getting a ticket are better than for most teams.

Tickets in the lower level, the 100 sections, are $109 between the baskets and $84 behind them. In the upper level, the 200 sections, they're $49 between and $35 behind.

Getting There. It’s 634 miles from Times Square in New York to downtown Charlotte. It's in that tricky range: A bit too close to fly, a bit too far to go any other way.

If you're going to drive, take the New Jersey Turnpike/I-95 all the way from New Jersey to Petersburg, Virginia. Exit 51 will put you on I-85 South, and that will take you right into Charlotte.


You’ll be in New Jersey for about an hour and a half, Delaware for 20 minutes, Maryland for 2 hours, inside the Capital Beltway (Maryland, District of Columbia and Virginia) for half an hour if you’re lucky (and don’t make a rest stop anywhere near D.C.), Virginia for 3 hours, and North Carolina for 4 hours. Throw in traffic at each end, rest stops, preferably in Delaware, near Richmond and near Raleigh, and it’ll be close to 14 hours.

Greyhound has 7 buses a day leaving from Port Authority to Charlotte, but only 2 of them are no-changeover routes. It costs as much as $130 round-trip (though it can be as low as $53 on advanced purchase). The station is at 601 W. Trade Street, 9 blocks west of the arena.

Amtrak actually isn't a good option. Their New York-to-New Orleans train, the Crescent, leaves Penn Station at 2:15 PM and arrives in Charlotte at 2:20 the next morning. And their other option, the Carolinian, leaves New York at 7:05 AM and arrives at 8:12 PM, meaning you'll have to leave the day before the game. The Carolinian leaves the next morning at 7:00 and arrives at 8:47 PM, while the Crescent leaves at 1:46 AM and arrives at 1:46 PM. Round-trip fare is $257. The station is at 1914 N. Tryon Street, a mile and a half north of downtown. Take the Number 11 bus in.

Perhaps the best way to get from New York to Charlotte is by plane. After all, lots of routes change planes at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (named for Ben E. Douglas Sr., the 1st directly-elected Mayor). And a round-trip fare can be had for just $255. That's right, flying is cheaper than Amtrak. The airport is 8 miles west of downtown, and the Number 5 bus can get you downtown in about 25 minutes.

Once In the City. Although both North Carolina and South Carolina were named for the King of England at the time of their initial settelments, King Charles I, Charlotte was named for a Queen, the wife of King George III. For this reason, the city is known as the Queen City of the Southeast. (Cincinnati is the Queen City of the Midwest, and Seattle the Queen City of the Northwest.)

Founded in 1755, Charlotte is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country, with a city population of about 810,000, making it the largest city in the Carolinas and the 5th-largest city in the South (the 2nd-largest behind Jacksonville if you don't count Texas), and a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million, ranking it 23rd among the 30 NBA markets.

The street grid isn't north-south-east-west, at least not geographically. Rather, it's on a diagonal. However, Trade Street separates street addresses from north and south, and Tryon Street separates them from east and west. Their centerpoint intersection is sometimes known as "Trade & Tryon,""Independence Square" or just "The Square."

The Charlotte Area Transportation System (CATS) runs buses, the LYNX Blue Line light rail system, and the CityLYNX Gold Line streetcar service. The fare is $2.20.
LYNX Blue Line

The sales tax in North Carolina is 4.75 percent, but it rises to 7.25 percent in Charlotte.

Going In. The official address of the Time Warner Cable Arena is 333 E. Trade Street, at Caldwell Street. If you drive in, parking can be had for as little as $5.00. If you're using public transportation, use the CTC/Arena stop. Most likely, you'll be going in through the arena's west or south gates.
The arena opened in 2005, and was named Charlotte Bobcats Arena until 2008. The expansion team was named after its 1st owner, Robert L. Johnson, the TV executive who became America's 1st black billionaire -- yes, before Oprah Winfrey -- and the 1st black majority owner of a major league sports franchise. But the name made sense for an additional reason, as the bobcat is indigenous to the Carolinas. Johnson sold the team to Michael Jordan in 2010.

The Hornets name, which had also been used by a minor-league baseball team and the city's entry in the ill-fated World Football League of 1974-75, refers to the American Revolution, when the British commander Lord Cornwallis the Carolinas "a veritable hornet's nest of rebellion."

In addition to the Bobcats/new Hornets, it also hosted the WNBA's Charlotte Sting in their last season, 2006; and minor-league hockey's Charlotte Checkers from 2005 until this year, when they moved to a smaller arena, the Bojangles Coliseum. It also hosted the 2012 Democratic National Convention.
The court is aligned north-to-south -- or, more precisely from a literal geographic standpoint, northeast-to-southwest.

Food. This is the South, tailgate party country, and North Carolina is among the places in this country particularly known for good barbecue. Tailgating is usually not done before NBA games, but the arena website is a little vague on concessions. Here's the entirety of what they have to say about food options:

Throughout the arena, guests will find traditional event-goer favorites such as char-grilled hamburgers, hot dogs with regional toppings and chicken along with more unique items such as shrimp po’ boy sandwiches, chicken wings, Carolina fried pickles and homemade ice cream shakes.

Sounds good, but no map of where the concession stands are.

Team History Displays. Of all 30 NBA teams, only 2 have never won at least a Division title: The Hornets and the Memphis Grizzlies. (The New Orleans Pelicans have won one under the New Orleans Hornets name). Therefore, the Hornets don't have any title banners. The old version (the one that's now the Pelicans) won 5 Playoff series, but the furthest they got in the Playoffs was losing to the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 2001. And the Bobcats/new Hornets have made the Playoffs only twice, in 2010 and 2014, winning exactly zero Playoff games. Not since 2002, the last season of the old Hornets, has a Charlotte team won a Playoff game.

The Hornets have 1 retired number, 13, for guard Bobby Phills, who played for the original version of the Hornets from 1997 until 2000, when he was killed in a car crash. Only 2 Hornets players have yet been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame: Centers Robert Parish who played only 2 seasons for them and Alonzo Mourning, who played only 3. Neither has yet had his number retired by the Hornets. Nor do the Hornets have a team hall of fame.

When Mourning came into the NBA in 1992, he did a Nike commercial that imagined the honors he would go on to receive. One was the retirement of his jersey. Ironically, the commercial was half-right: His Number 33 has been retired, but by the Miami Heat, not the Hornets. Nor has Larry Johnson, a Hornet before he was a Knick and made nationally famous by his "Grandmama" commercials for Converse, seen his Number 2 raised to the rafters; but then, he's not in the Hall of Fame yet, either.

Stuff. The Hornets Fan Shop is on the Trade Street (south) side of the arena. The arena website mentions that it sells not only Hornets merchandise, but Jordan brand items. Just so you know who's in charge. (Of course, that means that, in 5 years, Jordan the owner has won nothing, not even a single Playoff game, which must truly gall Jordan the player. Then again, Bill Russell was a lousy coach when he didn't have Bill Russell playing for him.)

With a lackluster history, there aren't many books written about the Hornets. In 1989, Joe Drape published In the Hornets' Nest: Charlotte and Its First Year in the NBA. Original owner George Shinn, with collaborator Jim Nelson Black, ripped off the Mets and Tug McGraw for the title of his team memoir, You Gotta Believe! The Story of the Charlotte Hornets. Even that was all the way back in 1996. For something more recent, Jim Whiting recently published the Hornets' edition of the NBA's A History of Hoops series.

Team DVDs are out of the question. Not only have the Hornets never reached the NBA Finals (or even the Conference Finals), so there's no commemorative official videos, but they technically didn't exist for their 20th (2008) and 25th (2013) Anniversaries. Perhaps the 30th (2018) will lead to an official team history, even if they haven't done anything special by then. (Although a moved team "returning" is certainly special.)

I looked the Hornets up in the Movies & TV section of Amazon.com, and the only Hornets-related video I could find was a VHS commemorating their 1st season: Hornets Hysteria. The Hornets were the team coached by of the two main villains, Dennis Farina's coach character, in the movie Eddie, in which Whoopi Goldberg plays a fan who, through a weird series of events, is named head coch of the Knicks, and they have to beat the Hornets in the last game of the regular season to make the Playoffs.

During the Game. Unless you're going to a basketball game between Duke University and the University of North Carolina -- especially at Duke -- North Carolina fans, in any sport, don't have a rough reputation. Your safety is unlikely to be an issue.

A special note to Knicks fans: The Hornets' current head coach is former Knicks assistant Steve Clifford, one of his assistants is Patrick Ewing, and one of their current players is briefly famous Knick Jeremy Lin.

The Hornets hold auditions for singing the National Anthem, rather than having a regular singer.
They have cheerleaders, named the Charlotte Honey Bees. But the most famous person associated with the Hornets -- aside from Jordan, and how many people associate him with them? -- never shows his face.

Hugo the Hornet was introduced as the Hornets' mascot on their debut, and became famous for being lowerd from the arena ceiling, and, at least once a game, removing his wings and padding, to become the stripped-down "Super Hugo" that would perform stunt dunks, like the Phoenix Suns' Gorilla.

He went with the team to New Orleans, and when the Bobcats arrived in 2004, their mascot was named Rufus D. Lynx, as Lynx rufus is the scientific name for the bobcat. Rufus became popular, but not as much as Hugo. When the franchise got the Hornets name back, effective at the end of the 2013-14 season, Rufus was retired, and a new-look Hugo was introduced. It remains to be seen if Rufus will return, as some former mascots have done.

Hornets fans haven't yet come up with a chant more imaginative than "Let's go, Hornets!" Chris Miller (no relation to the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback) recorded a theme song, "Hornets Fever." Other songs frequently played during Hornets games are "Let's Do It Again" by the Staple Singers, "Don't Bring Me Down" by Electric Light Orchestra, "Every Little Step" by Bobby Brown, "Feel So Real" by Steve Arrington, and "Just Another Day" by New Jersey's own Queen Latifah (an All-State basketball player at Irvington High under her birth name of Dana Owens).

After the Game. Charlotte is not notorious for having a crime problem. It's still a city, so you should be aware of the possibility. But, most likely, you will be safe, and if you drove in, so will your car.

There are several restaurants within a short walk of the arena, but finding one with an obvious sports connection in the name might be hard. Lebowski's Neighborhood Grill was rated by Yelpers as Charlotte's best sports bar, but it's at 1524 East Blvd., over 2 miles from the arena, and not reachable by the LYNX system. And I can't find a reference to any bar in the Charlotte area that is home to a local fan club for any New York team.

Sidelights. Charlotte's sports history, at least as far as the major league level is concerned, is not very long, having only gotten their 1st team that could remotely be considered major league

* Bank of America Stadium. After playing their 1st season at Clemson University's Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina, the NFL's Carolina Panthers moved into this Uptown stadium (originally named Ericsson Stadium for the mobile phone company) for the 1996 season. They've reached the Playoffs 6 times, including 3 NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl loss, in their 1st 20 seasons.

800 S. Mint Street at W. Stonewall Street. Number 2 bus from downtown.

* American Legion Memorial Stadium. It doesn't look like much, just a concrete horseshoe seating 21,000 people. But this relic is the city's leading high school football stadium, and, in 1974 and '75, was the home of the city's 1st pro football team, the World Football League version of the Charlotte Hornets.

Despite its age (it opened in 1936), it still hosts high school sports, and the Charlotte Hounds of Major League Lacrosse. 310 N. Kings Drive at Armory Drive. Number 27 bus from downtown.

* Bojangles' Coliseum. Previously known as the original Charlotte Coliseum, the Independence Arena and the Cricket Arena, this arena went up in 1955, and is now named after the fast-food fried chicken franchise. When it opened, it had the world's largest dome, but didn't hold that title for long.

This Coliseum was the home base of the Carolinas' 1st team that could have been called major league: The Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association, from 1969 to 1974. At the time, none of the Carolinas' cities were large enough to support a team by itself so, management used several home courts, including this one, Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, and the Winston-Salem Memorial Coliseum. This path would be followed by the ABA's Virginia Squires (Norfolk, Hampton, Richmond and Roanoke) and Texas Chaparrals (the forerunners of the San Antonio Spurs played in Dallas, Fort Worth and Lubbock).

In 1973, with Larry Brown in his 1st season as a head coach anywhere, the Cougars, led by Billy Cunningham, Joe Caldwell, Gene Littles, Roger Brown and Steve "Snapper" Jones, lost the ABA Finals to the Indiana Pacers. Despite some success on the court and at the box office -- both rare for ABA teams -- it was thought that a "regional franchise" could not succeed in the NBA, with whom merger talks were ongoing, so the team was moved to what was then a larger market, St. Louis. On occasion, the Hornets will wearing Cougars "throwback" uniforms.

The Charlotte Checkers brought minor-league hockey there in 1956, left in 1977, returned in 1993, left for the larger new Bobcats (Time Warner Cable) Arena in 2005, and this fall they returned, and are now the major tenant in the Carolinas' 1st major sports building. Elvis Presley sang there on June 26, 1956, April 13, 1972, March 9, 1974, March 20, 1976, and February 20 and 21, 1977. (The Beatles never performed in the Carolinas.)

2700 E. Independence Blvd. Number 27 bus to Chipley Avenue, then walk 3 blocks up Chipley.

* Site of Charlotte Coliseum. When "The Hive" (a nickname now transferred to the new arena) opened in 1988, it seated just under 23,000, making it the largest arena in the NBA. (The Detroit Pistons played many years at the Silverdome and the Seattle SuperSonics many home games at the Kingdome, but neither was meant to be a permanent facility.) And the Hornets filled it, getting 364 consecutive home sellouts -- just under 9 full seasons.

Founding owner George Shinn -- whose son Chris Shinn is lead singer of the rock band Live -- moved the team to New Orleans in 2002, because he thought he could no longer live in the Carolinas due to the local anger over his sex scandals, as fans stopped going to games, just to spite him. He ended up selling the team in 2010, and it shouldn't surprise anyone that the Hornets name wasn't given to the replacement team until after that. He also owned the Charlotte Knights baseball team, and the Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks of the short-lived World League of American Football. (Playing at N.C. State's stadium, they've been called the worst team in pro football history.) He also tried and failed to get an NHL expansion team for the Norfolk area in 1997.

The WNBA's Charlotte Sting played home games there, and it was used for the basketball-themed films Eddie, He Got Game and Juwanna Mann.

A new arena, downtown (as the Coliseum and the Coliseum before it most definitely were not) with better luxury boxes was seen as a prerequisite for getting a replacement franchise, and so the Bobcats only played their 1st season there, 2004-05. Ironically, the Coliseum's last major use was as a refugee center for people made homeless by Hurricane Katrina's near-destruction of New Orleans in 2005. It was demolished in 2007 -- after only 19 years, a disgraceful waste, but Camden Yards really did change the game in 1992 when it came to stadium and arena construction -- and mixed-use development is currently under construction on the site.

100 Paul Buck Blvd. Number 501 bus to Tyvola Station, then transfer to Number 60 bus to N. Falls Drive, then walk up Tyvola Parkway and Yorkmont Road. The street leading to the arena site is still named Hive Drive.

* Charlotte ballparks. The original Charlotte Hornets were a minor-league baseball team, on and off from 1892 to 1973. Prior to the building of their most familiar ballpark, they won the Southern League Pennants in 1923.

From 1937 to 1972, they were owned by the Griffith family as a farm team of the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins franchise. In 1940, they opened a new ballpark, named Griffith Park after team owner Clark Griffith. When he died in 1955, his nephew Calvin Griffith inherited the franchise. He wasn't willing to stick his own name on the Senators' D.C. ballpark, but renamed the Charlotte facility Calvin Griffith Park. At this stadium, they won the South Atlantic League Pennant in 1957, the Southern League Pennant in 1969 and 1971.

Founded in 1976 as a Class AA team, the Charlotte Knights have been a Class AAA team since 1993, and a Chicago White Sox farm team since 1990. They won Pennants at Griffith Park, renamed Jim Crockett Sr. Park, after the new owner, and won SL Pennants in 1980 and 1984, before the park burned down in 1985 -- due to arson, although not an insurance scam. George Shinn bought the team in 1987, and moved them after the 1989 season. 400 Magnolia Avenue, in the Dilworth section of the city, about 2 miles south of downtown. Number 10 bus to East Blvd., then a half-mile walk down South Blvd. and Magnolia.

Shinn built Knights Castle, later renamed Knights Stadium across the State Line, 16 miles south of downtown Charlotte. A stadium seating 10,002, it was intended to showcase the Charlotte area as a future site for a Major League Baseball team, either expansion or moved. And the Knights did do well there, getting as many as 15,427 fans for a 2007 game with the Durham Bulls. They won International League Pennants there in 1993 and 1999, and a Division title as recently as 2012.

In 1990, MLB chose Charlotte as 1 of the 10 Semifinalists for the 2 new teams they wanted for the 1993 season. But, in spite of a decent ballpark by Triple-A standards and a growing fanbase, MLB did not choose Charlotte as 1 of the 6 finalists, also eliminating Nashville, Phoenix and Sacramento. In mid-1991, they rejected Buffalo, Orlando, Tampa Bay and Washington, and chose Denver and Miami. Charlotte did not even submit an application in 1994 for the 1998 expansion that went to Phoenix and Tampa Bay.

Knights Stadium closed after the 2013 season, and will soon be demolished. 2280 Deerfield Drive, Fort Mill, South Carolina. Not reachable by public transportation, unless you want to take a train to a bus and then walk 4 miles from the closest bus stop.

BB&T Ballpark (named for a bank) opened in 2014. It seats 10,200, slightly more than Knights Stadium, and has a nice view of downtown Charlotte, which is actually called Uptown. However, there is no room to expand it to 35,000 or more seats, as a major league ballpark would need, so, despite the inabilities of the Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland Athletics to get new ballparks thus far, the new Uptown Charlotte ballpark pretty much eliminates the Carolinas from future contention, unless MLB expands again in the next few years. 324 South Mint Street at W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 2 blocks north of the Panthers' stadium.

According to an April 23, 2014 article in The New York Times, the Yankees are actually the most popular MLB team in Charlotte, a little bit ahead of the Atlanta Braves, the closest team at 244 miles away. (The Washington Nationals are the next-closest, 402 miles.)

The U.S. national soccer team has never played a game in Charlotte. There have been 6 such games played in North Carolina: 3 in High Point, and 1 each in Greensboro, Cary and Davidson.

Auto racing is not a sport. But, if you think it is, the NASCAR Hall of Fame is at Brevard & Stonewall Streets. Stonewall station on LYNX.

In addition to the old Charlotte Coliseum in 1956, Elvis Presley sang in Charlotte earlier in the year, doing (believe it) 4 shows at the Carolina Theater on February 10, 1956: 2:30, 4:30, 7:00 and 9:00. 224 N. Tryon Street, downtown.

Charlotte features some downtown museums. The Levine Museum of the New South is about Southern life since the American Civil War, and it doesn't shy away from racial issues. 200 E. 7th Street at College Street. Discovery Place, a child-oriented science museum, is 2 blocks away at 301 N. Tryon Street at 6th Street.

Bechtler Museum of Modern Art is at 420 S. Tryon Street at 1st Street. The Mint Museum Uptown is not, as its name might suggest, a museum dedicated to money. Rather, it's a former mint converted into an art museum. 500 S. Tryon Street, across 1st Street from the Bechtler Museum.

Bank of America Corporate Center, at 871 feet, is not only the tallest building in town, but the tallest building between Philadelphia and Atlanta. 100 N. Tryon Street at 5th Street.

Charlotte has never produced a President. The Carolinas have produced 3. No one is precisely sure where Andrew Jackson was born -- not even whether it happened in North or South Carolina, only that it was in the Waxhaw region along the State Line. He was the 1st President born in a log cabin, but that cabin is long-gone. Andrew Jackson State Park, at 196 Andrew Jackson Park Road in Lancaster, South Carolina, is considered the likeliest place. It's about 33 miles south of Charlotte and not reachable by public transportation.

James K. Polk State Historical Site is in Pineville, which, like Charlotte, is in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. It's about 12 miles south, at 12031 Lancaster Highway. It's easier to reach without a car: The Number 20 bus can get you to within half a mile.

Andrew Johnson was born in the State capital of Raleigh, 167 miles to the northeast. All 3 Carolina-born Presidents have their main historical sites in Tennessee: Polk is buried on the State House grounds in Nashville; Jackson's home, The Hermitage, is in the Nashville suburbs; and Johnson's Museum is in Greeneville.

A few TV shows have been filmed in North Carolina, most notably Dawson's Creek in Wilmington. But shows set in Charlotte are few and far between. Currently, The Carmichael Show, based on the standup comedy of Jerrod Carmichael, is airing on NBC. Homeland has had scenes shot in Charlotte. Scenes from the Hunger Games films, whose "District 12" includes the Carolinas, have been shot in Charlotte.

*

Charlotte had no major league sports teams as recently as the Summer of 1988. By the Fall of 1996, it had the NBA and the NFL, and MLB in the future is not yet out of the question.

It's true that North Carolina isn't the hotbed of professional basketball that it is for the college game. But a Knicks vs. Hornets or Nets vs. Hornets game could be a fun experience.  

How to Be a New York Basketball Fan In Houston -- 2015-16 Edition

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The Brooklyn Nets visit the Houston Rockets next Wednesday night. The New York Knicks visit on Friday, November 21.

Before You Go. Most Americans hear "bayou" and think "Louisiana." But Houston is known as, among other things, the Bayou City. It can get hot, it can get humid, and it gets a lot of rain. Why do you think the world's 1st indoor stadium designed for baseball and football was built there? So while the Rockets play indoors, the weather could still be a factor.

The Houston Chronicle is predicting daytime temperatures in the mid-70s, and nighttime temperatures in the high 60s, plus a 20 percent chance of rain on Wednesday. You won't be indoors for the entire visit, so dress accordingly, with lighter clothes than you would wear in New York at this time of year, and bring an umbrella.

Houston is in the Central Time Zone, so you’ll be an hour behind New York time. Although Texas is a former Confederate State, you will not need your passport, and you won't need to change your money.

Tickets. The Rockets averaged 18,229 fans per game last season, more than a sellout. They are Houston's most successful sports team, and, having won their Division last season, are the hardest local team for which to get tickets.

Seats in the lower level are insanely expensive, running over $200. Seats in the upper level are $50 between the baskets and $25 behind them.

Getting There. It’s 1,629 miles from Times Square in New York to downtown Houston. You’re probably thinking that you should be flying.

The good news: Flying to Houston can be done for as little as $623. Considering how far it is, that is relatively cheap. The bad news: Your flight won't be nonstop: You'll have to change planes in either Dallas or Charlotte to get to Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport. (That's named for the father, not the son.)

There are 2 ways to get there by train. One is to change trains in Chicago, and then change to a bus in Longview, Texas. The other is to change trains twice, in Washington and New Orleans, and then stay overnight in New Orleans. No, I'm not making that up. You don't want that -- and don't be fooled by the fact that Houston's Union Station and the ballpark are next-door to each other, because Amtrak uses a different station a mile away, at 902 Washington Street. Round-trip fare is $448, almost as my as flying. Maybe we should just forget Amtrak, and move on.

Greyhound has 8 runs a day from Port Authority Bus Terminal to Houston, averaging 42 hours, and requiring you to change buses in Atlanta and New Orleans. It's $220 round-trip, but it can drop to $149 with advanced purchase. The Houston Greyhound station is at 2121 Main Street, a mile from the arena.

If you actually think it’s worth it to drive, get someone to go with you so you’ll have someone to talk to and one of you can drive while the other sleeps. You’ll be taking Interstate 78 across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania to Harrisburg, where you'll pick up Interstate 81 and take that through the narrow panhandles of Maryland and West Virginia, down the Appalachian spine of Virginia and into Tennessee, where you'll pick up Interstate 40, stay on that briefly until you reach Interstate 75, and take that until you reach Interstate 59, which will take you into Georgia briefly and then across Alabama and Mississippi, and into Louisiana, where you take Interstate 12 west outside New Orleans. Take that until you reach Interstate 10. Once in Texas, Exit 770 will get you to downtown Houston.

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 3 hours in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes in Maryland, half an hour in West Virginia, 5 and a half hours in Virginia, 3 hours and 45 minutes in Tennessee, half an hour in Georgia, 4 hours in Alabama, 2 hours and 45 minutes in Mississippi, 4 hours and 30 minutes in Louisiana and 2 hours in Texas. Including rest stops, and accounting for traffic, we’re talking about a 40-hour trip.

Even if you’re only going for one game, no matter how you got there, get a hotel and spend a night. You’ll be exhausted otherwise. Trust me, I know: Trains and buses are not good ways to get sleep.

Once In the City. Houston was founded in 1836 as Allen's Landing, and was renamed for Sam Houston, "the Father of Texas." There are 2.2 million people in the city proper, making it the 4th-largest in America, and 6.3 million in the metropolitan area, making it 5th. But with multiple teams, it's only the 10th-largest market in the NBA, and the 7th-largest in MLB and the NFL.

The sales tax in the State of Texas is 6.25 percent, but in the City of Houston it goes up to 8.25 percent. The city doesn't appear to have a "centerpoint," where the address numbers start at 1, but there is a Main Street, running northeast/southwest.

There is a light rail system, called METRORail, but you probably won't need it to get from a downtown hotel to the arena. One zone is $1.25, and the price rises to $4.50 for 4 zones, so a daypass is a better bargain at $3.00.
Going In. The Toyota Center is in Downtown Houston. The mailing address is 1510 Polk Street, also bounded by Jackson, Bell and La Branch Streets. It's 5 blocks east of Main Street and the light rail, with Bell Street the closest station. If you drive in, parking is $15.
The arena opened in 2003, replacing the Summit. It took 8 years from Rockets owner Les Alexander's demand for a new arena until first tipoff, in which time NBA Commissioner David Stern announced that the Rockets would have to move without a new arena (not that there was anything wrong with the Summit, aside from a low number of luxury boxes), and NHL Comissioner Gary Bettman announced that Houston would not get an NHL team. But tip off the Rockets did, on October 30, 2003.
It's hosted the Rockets ever since, the WNBA's Houston Comets from 2003 until they folded after the 2007 season, and the Houston Aeros of the American Hockey League (not the old WHA team of the same name) from 2003 until 2013, when their parent club, the Minnesota Wild, moved them to Des Moines, where they became the Iowa Wild. It's also hosted wrestling, Ultimate Fighting, concerts (including by Houston native Beyonce, both with and without the rest of Destiny's Child) and the Latin Grammys.

The court is laid out north-to-south -- or, given the actual directions of Houston's street grid northeast-to-southwest. It is 32 feet below street level, because Alexander didn't want fans, having already gotten through Houston's weather, to have to walk upstairs to their seats. (But they'll have to walk upstairs to get out.)

Food. Being a “Wild West” city, you might expect Houston to have Western-themed stands with “real American food” at its ballpark. Being a Southern State, you might also expect to have barbecue. And you would be right on both counts.

Baskets Grill, featuring burgers, chicken and corn dogs, can be found at Sections 113, 125, 403, 408 and 427. H.O.U. B.B.Q. is at 125 and 403. Space City Dogs, featuring customized hot dogs, is at 102 and 114. Bell Street Grill, featuring the Double Dribble Burger, is at 102 and 433. Taqueria Roja, featuring Mexican food, is at is at 125 and 433. TC Wings is at 102 and 433. Copper Canyon Carvery, featuring barbecue, is at 115. And Courtside Creamery, featuring ice cream, is at 124 and 432.

Clutch City Pizza is at 102, 113, 125, 403, 408, 427 and 433, but don't go there: The pizza in question is Papa John's. Not only is it not very good, but the owner won't pay living wages or for his employees' health insurance, and doesn't deserve your money.

Team History Displays. The Rockets have been around since 1971, and have the best history of any of Houston's sports teams, especially now that the 4-time WNBA Champion Comets have folded. At one end, next to the U.S. and Canadian flags, they have banners for each of their back-to-back NBA Championships, 1994 and 1995, plus a banner listing all of their Conference titles (1981, 1986, 1994 and 1995), and another for all of their Division titles (1977, 1986, 1993, 1994 and 2015).
The Rockets have retired 5 numbers, plus a banner with the initials CD, honoring longtime assistant coach and general manager Carroll Dawson. All are in the Basketball Hall of Fame, except for Rudy Tomjanovich, and I can't understand why he isn't, unless the voters don't think he's yet retired as a coach (he's 67, so he could come back), and are thus waiting for that to elect him. Here they are:

* From their 1981 Conference Champions: 45, forward Rudy Tomjanovich; 23, guard Calvin Murphy; and 24, center Moses Malone.

* From their 1986 Conference Champions: 34, center Hakeem Olajuwon. Forward Ralph Sampson, Number 50, is in the Hall of Fame, but the Rockets have not retired his number. But neither is it currently being worn.

* From their 1994 NBA Champions: Tomjanovich, by this point head coach, and Olajuwon.

* From their 1995 NBA Champions: Tomjanovich, Olajuwon, and 22, guard Clyde Drexler. Hakeem the Dream and Clyde the Glide had been teammates on the University of Houston team that made 3 straight NCAA Final Four appearances, 1982 to 1984, but didn't win the title.
In addition, the 11 of center Yao Ming has not been given out since he retired, and team owner Les Alexander has dropped hints that it will be retired, possibly after Yao is elected to the Hall. (He is now eligible.) Forward Elvin Hayes (11, another University of Houston star), forward Charles Barkley (4, as Hakeem was wearing his usual 34), and center Dikembe Mutombo (55) have also played at least 4 seasons for the Rockets and been elected to the Hall, but have not had their numbers retired. The Rockets do not have a team Hall of Fame. Kevin McHale is now in his 5th season as head coach, but he's in the Hall of Fame for his playing with the Boston Celtics.

Stuff. The Team Shop is on the north, Polk Street side of the arena. The usual NBA fan gear can be found there. Since this is Texas, you might find cowboy hats, boots or belt buckles with the Rockets logo on them.

In spite of the Rockets' success, there aren't many books about them. (Houston doesn't exactly scream "literary city.") Ron Berman wrote the Rockets' entry in the NBA's On the Hardwood series, and Clayton Geoffreys wrote the biography Hakeem Olajuwon: The Remarkable Story of One of 90s Basketball's Greatest Centers.

Official NBA Finals highlight films were released for their back-to-back titles in 1994 (Clutch City) and 1995 (Double Clutch).

During the Game. If you were wearing Dallas Cowboy gear to a Houston Texans game, you might be in trouble. But Rockets fans aren't especially hostile to New Yorkers, so safety won't be an issue.

The Rockets hold auditions instead of having a regular National Anthem singer, but, during last year's Playoffs, 12-year-old Nicholas Connors brought the house down with his rendition. A group called Clymax produced a theme song for the Rockets, "Blasting Off." Badluck Traffic King produced another, "Red Nation."

The Rockets' mascot is Clutch the Bear. I'm not sure what a bear has to do with rockets, but he's named for the Rockets' 1994 and 1995 titles, when the former "Choke City" became known as "Clutch City." He was named NBA Mascot of the Year in 2013. They have a female dance team called the Rockets Power Dancers, a male dance team called the Launch Crew, a drumline called Sonic Boom, a dunk team called Anti-Gravity, a coed kids' dance team called the Little Dippers, and a coed senior citizens' dance team called the Space City Seniors. No, I'm not making any of that up.
Clutch and Dwight Howard

The Red Rowdies sit behind the north end (Polk Street side) basket in Section 114, and are a fan group in the style of European soccer "ultras." Not hooligans: They are not violent. They are, however, loud, and very well organized.

After the Game. Houston is a comparatively low-crime city, and as long as you behave yourself, the home fans will probably behave themselves, win or lose.

The Grove, at 1611 Lamar Street in park named Discovery Green, calls itself "upscale-casual," which sounds like a contradiction to me. Andalucia serves Spanish food, and Guadalajara serves Mexican; both are at the buildng at 1201 San Jacinto Street. China Garden is at 1602 Leeland Street. All of these are within 3 blocks of the Toyota Center.

Lucky's Pub appears to be the go-to bar for New Yorkers living in the Houston area. It is at 801 St. Emanuel Street at Rusk Street, a 12-minute walk from the United Center, adjacent to BBVA Compass Stadium, the new home of MLS' Houston Dynamo.

Sidelights. Before the Toyota Center, the Rockets played at The Summit, later known as the Compaq Center, from 1975 to 2003. It's been converted into the Lakewood Church Central Campus, a megachurch presided over by Dr. Joel Osteen. 3700 Southwest Freeway at Timmons Lane. Number 53 bus.

Before that, between their 1971 move from San Diego and the 1975 opening of The Summit, they played some home games at the Astrodome, some at the Astrohall, some at the Sam Houston Coliseum, and some at the Hofheinz Pavilion.

In 1965, the Astrodome opened, and was nicknamed "The Eighth Wonder of the World." It sure didn't seem like an exaggeration: The first roofed sports stadium in the world. (Supposedly, the Romans built stadia with canvas roofs, but that's hardly the same thing.) The Astros played there until 1999, and then moved into Enron Field/Minute Maid Park for the 2000 season. The AFL/NFL's Oilers played at the Astrodome from 1968 to 1996, when they moved to Tennessee to become the Titans.

In 2002, the new NFL team, the Houston Texans, began play next-door to the Astrodome, at Reliant Stadium, now named NRG Stadium, which, like Minute Maid Park, has a retractable roof. Suddenly, the mostly-vacant Astrodome seemed, as one writer put it, like a relic of a future that never came to be. (This same writer said the same thing of Shea Stadium and, across Roosevelt Avenue, the surviving structures of the 1964 World's Fair.)

Once, the Astrodome was flashy enough to be the site of movies like The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training and Murder at the World Series. (Both were released in 1977. In the latter, the Astros, who had never yet gotten close to a Pennant, played the Series against the Oakland Athletics, who had just gotten fire-sold by owner Charlie Finley.)

The Astrodome also hosted the legendary 1968 college basketball game between Number 1 UCLA (with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then still Lew Alcindor) and Number 2 University of Houston (whose Elvin Hayes led them to victory, before UCLA got revenge in that year's Final Four), and the cheese-tastic 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, the "Battle of the Sexes."

Elvis Presley sang there on February 27, 1970 and on March 3, 1974. It hosted Selena's last big concert before her murder in 1995, and when Jennifer Lopez starred in the film Selena, it was used for the re-creation. In 2004, the same year NRG (then Reliant) Stadium hosted the Super Bowl (which was won by... Janet Jackson, I think), the Astrodome was used to film a high school football playoff for the film version of Friday Night Lights; the old Astros division title banners can be clearly seen.

Today, though, the Astrodome seems, like the Republican Party that held a ridiculously bigoted Convention there in 1992, stuck in the past. The former Eighth Wonder of the World is now nicknamed the Lonely Landmark, and while it served as a shelter for people displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, since 2008, when it was hit with numerous code violations, only maintenance workers and security guards have been allowed to enter. The stadium's future is not clear: Some officials are worried that demolishing it would damage the new stadium and other nearby structures.

NRG Stadium was built roughly on the site of Colt Stadium, which was the baseball team's home in their first 3 seasons, 1962, '63 and '64, when they were known as the Houston Colt .45's (spelled with the apostrophe), before moving into the dome and changing the name of the team. Astrohall, built in 1971, was torn down in 2002 to make way for parking for the new stadium (which, after all, was built on Astrodome parking).

The climate-controlled Astrodome was necessary because of not just the heat and the humidity, but because of the mosquitoes. Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers said, "Some of those mosquitoes are twin-engine jobs."

Later, seeing the artificial turf that was laid in the Astrodome for 1966 after the grass died in the first season, due to the skylights in the dome having to be painted due to the players losing the ball in the sun, Koufax said, "I was one of those guys who pitched without a cup. I wouldn't do it on this stuff. And Dick Allen of the Philadelphia Phillies, looking at the first artificial field in baseball history, said, "If a horse can't eat it, I don't want to play on it."

The Astrodome hosted a 1988 match between the national soccer teams of the U.S. and Ecuador, which Ecuador won. NRG Stadium has hosted 2 such matches, a 2008 draw with Mexico and a 2011 win over Panama. The Mexico team has made it a home-away-from-home, playing several matches there.

The NRG complex, including the Astrodome, is at 8400 Kirby Drive at Reliant Parkway. Number 700 bus, or Reliant Park station on METRORail.

Minute Maid Park opened in 2000, at 501 Crawford Street, attached to Union Station. The Astros were able to play on God's own grass for the 1st time since 1965, and under God's own sky for the 1st time since 1964. They have now reached the postseason there 4 times: The 2001 National League Division Series, the 2004 NL Championship Series, the 2005 World Series, and the 2015 American League Division Series. Preston Station on METRORail.

The Houston Aeros, with Gordie Howe and his sons Mark and Marty, won the World Hockey Association championships of 1974 and 1975, while playing at the Sam Houston Coliseum, before moving into the Summit in 1975 and folding in 1978. The Beatles played there on August 19, 1965. It was built in 1937 and demolished in 1998. The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts is now on the site. 801 Bagby Street, at Rusk Street, downtown.

The Houston Oilers played at Jeppesen Stadium from 1960 to 1964. They won the 1960 AFL Championship Game there, won the 1961 title game on the road, and lost the 1962 title game there -- and, as the Oilers and the Tennessee Titans, haven't gone as far as the rules allowed them to since 1961.

Built in 1942, it became Robertson Stadium, and was the former home of the University of Houston football team and the former home of MLS' Houston Dynamo. The new John O'Quinn Field at TDECU Stadium (named for Texas Dow Employees Credit Union) has been built at the site. 3874 Holman Street at Cullen Blvd. Number 52 bus.

The Dynamo have moved to BBVA Compass Stadium, at 2200 Texas Avenue at Dowling Street. Within walking distance of downtown. On January 29, 2013, it hosted its first U.S. national team match, a draw with Canada.

The Oilers played the 1965, '66 and '67 seasons at Rice Stadium, home of Rice University. Although built in 1950 and probably already obsolete, it seated a lot more people than did the Astrodome, and so Super Bowl VIII was played there in January 1974, and the Miami Dolphins won it -- and haven't won a Super Bowl since. It has been significantly renovated, and Rice still uses it. University Blvd. at Greenbriar Street, although the mailing address is 6100 S. Main Street. Number 700 bus.

Before there were the Astros, or even the Colt .45's, there were the Houston Buffaloes. The Buffs played at Buffalo Stadium, a.k.a. Buff Stadium, for most of their history, from 1928 to 1961, when the Colt .45's made them obsolete.

They were a farm team of the St. Louis Cardinals, and as a result in its last years Buff Stadium was renamed Busch Stadium. The Cardinal teams of the 1930s that would be known as the "Gashouse Gang" came together in Houston, with Dizzy and Daffy Dean, Joe Medwick, Pepper Martin and Enos Slaughter. Later Buff stars included Cleveland Indians 3rd baseman Al Rosen, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Wilmer "Vinegar Bend" Mizell, Negro League legend Willard Brown, Cardinal MVP Ken Boyer, and Phillies shortstop Ruben Amaro Sr.

Wanting to lure in more customers but also to beat the infamous Houston heat, lights were installed in 1930, 5 years before any major league park had them. The Buffs won 8 Texas League Pennants: 1928, 1931, 1940, 1947, 1951, 1954, 1956 and 1957. The stadium was at the southwest corner of Leeland Street & Cullen Blvd., about 2 1/2 miles southeast of downtown. A furniture store is on the site now. Number 20 bus.

There's another notable sports site in Houston: The U.S. Military Entry Processing Station, in the Customs House, where Muhammad Ali, then living and training in Houston, had to report to fulfill his draft obligation. He did report there, on April 28, 1967, and refused to be drafted. (To be fair, they did call his birth name, Cassius Clay, not his legal name, Muhammad Ali.) Ali was convicted of draft evasion and stripped of the Heavyweight Title. He stayed out of prison on appeal, and case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which overturned the conviction.

The Customs House is still standing, and still used in part by the U.S. Department of Defense. 701 San Jacinto Street. Central Station on METRORail.

The tallest building in Houston, and in Texas, is the JPMorgan Chase Tower, formerly the Texas Commerce Tower. It was built in 1982 at 600 Travis Street at Texas Avenue, downtown, and stands 1,002 feet tall, rising 75 stories above the concrete over the bayou.

Houston's version of New York's American Museum of Natural History is the Houston Museum of Natural Science, in Hermann Park, at Main Street and Hermann Park Drive. The Sam Houston Monument is a few steps away. The Houston Museum of Fine Arts is at 1001 Bissonnet Street, just 5 blocks away. Both can be reached by the Number 700 bus.

Of course, the name "Houston" is most connected with two things: Its namesake, the legendary Senator, Governor and war hero Sam Houston; and the Johnson Space Center, the NASA control center named after President Lyndon B. Johnson, who, as Senate Majority Leader, wrote the bill creating NASA and the Space Center, because he thought it would bring a lot of jobs and money to Houston (and he was right).

Aside from his Monument, most historic sites relating to Sam are not in the city that bears his name. As for reaching the Johnson Space Center, it's at 1601 NASA Parkway and Saturn Lane. The Number 249 bus goes there, so if you don't have a car, Houston, you won't have a problem.

Although Houston is the post-Presidential home for George H.W. and Barbara Bush, his Presidential Library is at Texas A&M University, 100 miles away in College Station.

There have been a few TV shows set in Houston, but the only one that lasted was Reba, starring country singer Reba McIntire. But it was filmed in Los Angeles, so if you're a fan, you won't find the house in Houston. Films set in Houston, in addition to the sports-themed ones, include Brewster McCloud (which also used the Astrodome), Logan's Run (which used the Houston Hyatt Regency for some scenes), Telefon (set there but filmed in California), Terms of EndearmentReality Bites, and, perhaps most iconically, Urban Cowboy.

*

Houston can be hot, but it's a good sports town, and, best of all, it's not Dallas. So there can be a good old time in the hot town tonight.

How to Be a Devils Fan In Chicago -- 2015-16 Edition

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Last night, the New Jersey Devils defeated the Chicago Blackhawks, defending Stanley Cup Champions and winners of 3 of the last 6, 4-2 at the Prudential Center.

This coming Thursday night, they face each other again, at the United Center in Chicago.

Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler,
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.

And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.

And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.

And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,

Bareheaded, shoveling, wrecking, planning, building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.
And under his ribs the heart of the people, laughing!

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

-- Carl Sandburg, 1916.

Sandburg knew. He was right then. He is still right now. And this legendary poem "Chicago" fits the Blackhawks, one of the National Hockey League's traditional "roughhouse" teams.

Before You Go. Chicago weather can be unpredictable. This game being played in mid-November, cold weather can be expected. However, the arena is 3 miles inland from Lake Michigan, so the local wind, a.k.a. The Hawk (not named for the hockey team), which tends to produce "Bear Weather," won't be that much of a problem while you're right outside.

The Chicago Tribune is predicting temperatures to be in the low 50s during daylight, and the high 40s at night. They're also predicting showers for Thursday. That won't present problems during the game, which will be indoors, but you won't be indoors the entire trip. The Chicago Sun-Times backs up its rivals' temperature predictions, but is more optimistic about the chance of rain.

Wait until you cross into Illinois to change your clocks. Indiana is one of 2 States, Arizona being the other, where Daylight Savings Time is an issue; however, the State now uses it throughout. Once you approach the Chicago suburbs and edge cities such as Gary, you'll be moving from Eastern to Central Daylight Time.

Tickets. Like their co-tenants at the United Center, the Bulls, the Blackhawks lead their league in per-game attendance: 21,769. And, as I said, they're the defending Champions. The Hawks are the toughest ticket in town. Which, as you might guess, makes them expensive.

Seats in the lower level, the 100 sections, are $240 between the goals and $190 behind them. In the club level, the 200 sections, they're $190 and $145. In the upper level, the 300 sections, they're $85 and $70. Standing-room tickets are $42.

I would, however, recommend avoiding Sections 321 to 330 in the upper deck, behind the west goal, because that's the Blackhawk equivalent of the 400 level, the old "Blue Seats," at Madison Square Garden.

Getting There. Chicago is 789 land miles from New York. Knowing this, your first reaction is going to be to fly out there.

Unlike some other Midwestern cities, this is a good idea if you can afford it. If you buy tickets online, you can get them for $857 round-trip. O'Hare International Airport (named for Lt. Cmdr. Edward "Butch" O'Hare, the U.S. Navy's first flying ace, who was nevertheless shot down over the Pacific in World War II), at the northwestern edge of the city, is United Airlines' headquarters, so nearly every flight they have from the New York area’s airports to there is nonstop, so it’ll be 3 hours, tarmac to tarmac, and about 2 hours going back.

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Blue Line train will take you from O’Hare to the downtown elevated (or “L”) tracks that run in “The Loop” (the borders of which are Randolph, Wells, Van Buren and Wabash Streets) in 45 minutes. From Midway Airport, the Orange Line train can get you to the Loop. Both should take about 45 minutes.

Bus? Greyhound’s run between the 2 cities, launched 5 times per day, is relatively easy, but long, averaging about 18 hours, and is $322 round-trip -- but can drop to as low as $130 on Advanced Purchase. Only 1 of the 5 runs goes straight there without requiring you to change buses: The one leaving Port Authority Bus Terminal at 10:15 PM (Eastern) and arriving at Chicago at 2:30 PM (Central). This includes half-hour rest stops at Milesburg, Pennsylvania and Elkhart, Indiana, and an hour-and-a-half stopover in Cleveland.

The station is at 630 W. Harrison Street at Des Plaines Street. (If you’ve seen one of my favorite movies, Midnight Run, this is a new station, not the one seen in that 1988 film.) The closest CTA stop is Clinton on the Blue Line, around the corner, underneath the elevated Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway.

Train? Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited (formerly known as the Twentieth Century Limited when the old New York Central Railroad ran it from Grand Central Terminal to Chicago's LaSalle Street Station) leaves New York's Penn Station at 3:40 every afternoon, and arrives at Union Station at 225 South Canal Street at Adams Street in Chicago at 9:45 every morning. It leaves Chicago at 9:30 every evening, and returns to New York at 6:23 the following night. It’s $212 round-trip, very cheap per mile by Amtrak standards. The closest CTA stop is Quincy/Wells, in the Loop, but that’s 6 blocks away – counting the Chicago River as a block; Union Station is, literally, out of the Loop.
The Lake Shore Limited leaves Chicago at 9:30 every evening, and returns to New York at 6:23 the following night. It’s $212 round-trip, very cheap per mile by Amtrak standards. The closest CTA stop is Quincy/Wells, in the Loop, but that’s 6 blocks away – counting the Chicago River as a block; Union Station is, literally, out of the Loop.
If you do decide to walk from Union Station to the Loop, don’t look up at the big black thing you pass. That’s the Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower, which, until the new World Trade Center was topped off, was the tallest building in North America, which it had officially been since it opened in 1974, surpassing the old WTC. If there’s one thing being in New York should have taught you, it’s this: “Don’t look up at the tall buildings, or you’ll look like a tourist.”
But since you’ve come all this way, it makes sense to get a hotel, so take a cab from Union Station or Greyhound to the hotel – unless you’re flying in, in which case you can take the CTA train to within a block of a good hotel. There are also hotels near the airports.

If you decide to drive, it’s far enough that it will help to get someone to go with you and split the duties, and to trade off driving and sleeping. The directions are rather simple, down to (quite literally) the last mile. You'll need to get into New Jersey, and take Interstate 80 West. You'll be on I-80 for the vast majority of the trip, through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. In Ohio, in the western suburbs of Cleveland, I-80 will merge with Interstate 90. From this point onward, you won’t need to think about I-80 until you head home; I-90 is now the key, and will take you right past Union Station the Loop.

Note that the dividing line between Eastern and Central Time on I-80/90, the Indiana Toll Road, is between Exits 39 (in LaPorte County) and 31 (in Lake County).

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 5 hours and 15 minutes in Pennsylvania, 4 hours in Ohio, 2 hours and 30 minutes in Indiana, and half an hour in Illinois before you reach the exit for your hotel. That’s 13 hours and 45 minutes. Counting rest stops, preferably halfway through Pennsylvania and just after you enter both Ohio and Indiana, and accounting for traffic in both New York and Chicago, it should be no more than 18 hours, which would save you time on both Greyhound and Amtrak, if not on flying.

Once In the City. A derivation of a Native American name, "Chikagu" was translated as "Place of the onion," as there were onion fields there before there was a white settlement. Some have suggested that the translation is a little off, that it should be "Place of the skunk." Others have said, either way, it means "Place of the big stink."

Founded in 1831, so by Northeastern standards it's a young city, Chicago's long-ago nickname of "the Second City" is no longer true, as its population has dropped, and Los Angeles' has risen, to the point where L.A. has passed it, and Chicago is now the 3rd-largest city in America. But at 2.7 million within the city limits, and 9.5 million in the metropolitan area, it's still a huge city -- and if you divide the Los Angeles market equally between the Kings and the Ducks, that makes Chicago the largest market in the NHL. If you count Anaheim separately, boosting the Kings' share, then Chicago falls to 2nd lace.

The "Loop" is the connected part of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)'s elevated railway (sometimes written as "El" or "L") downtown: Over Wells Street on the west, Van Buren Street on the south, Wabash Street on the east and State Street on the north. Inside the Loop, the east-west streets are Lake, Randolph, Washington, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Jackson and Van Buren; the north-south streets are Wells, LaSalle (Chicago's "Wall Street"), Clark, Dearborn, State and Wabash.

The city's street-address centerpoint is in the Loop, at State & Madison Streets. Madison separates North from South, while State separates East from West. The street grid is laid out so that every 800 on the house numbers is roughly 1 mile. As the United Center is at 1901 West Madison Street, and on the 3600 block of North Sheffield Avenue, now you know it's on the main east-west axis, and a little more than 2 miles west of State Street and the center of the Loop.

The CTA's rapid-rail system is both underground (subway) and above-ground (elevated), although the El is better-known, standing as a Chicago icon alongside the Sears Tower, Wrigley Field, Michael Jordan, deep-dish pizza, and less savory things like municipal corruption, Mrs. O'Leary's cow and Al Capone. The single-ride fare is $2.25, a 1-day pass is $10, a 3-day pass is $20, and a 7-day pass is $28.
(By the way, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was more likely the result of Mr. O'Leary hosting a poker game in his barn, in which he, or one of his friends, dropped cigar ash, rather than Mrs. O'Leary's cow, knocking a lantern, onto some hay.)

Illinois' State sales tax is 6.25 percent, but in the City of Chicago it's 9.25 percent -- higher than New York's. So don't be shocked when you see prices: Like New York, Boston and Washington, Chicago is an expensive city.

Chicago's legendary crime problem has evolved: It's no longer Al Capone-style gangs running things, it's poor kids with guns. So whatever precautions you take when you're in New York, take them in Chicago as well.

Going In. From 1929 to 1994, the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks played at Chicago Stadium, “the Madhouse on Madison,” at 1800 W. Madison Street at Wood Street. The NBA’s Bulls played there from 1967 to 1994. The United Center opened across the street at 1901 W. Madison at Honore Street.
Public transportation is a little tricky. You can take the CTA Blue Line to Illinois Medical District Station, and then walk 2 blocks up Ogden Avenue and 5 blocks up Wood Street. Or you can take the Green Line or the Pink Line (no joke: The CTA acutally does have a Pink Line) to Ashland, walk 4 blocks down Ashland Avenue, and then walk 3 blocks down Madison Street. The best way is to take the Number 20 bus, which goes right down Madison.

If you drive in, parking can be had for as little as $5.00. What you don't want to do is park outside of official lots. In a 1992 article, in advance of Chicago Stadium hosting the NBA and Stanley Cup Finals at the same time, a writer for Sports Illustrated suggested that, due to their success having been more recent, Bulls fans were much more likely than Blackhawks fans to say, "I got a great parking space, over in those condos!" Those aren't condos: Those are West Side housing projects.

However you go in, you're least likely to enter from the west side (Damen Avenue). More likely, you'll go in from the north (Madison Street), east (Wood Street) or south (Monroe Street) side.

The United Center has hosted both the Blackhawks and the Bulls since the 1994-95 season, although, due to the 1994 NHL strike, it was January 1995 before the Hawks actually took their new ice for the 1st time. Each team has now won 6 World Championships, and each has won 3 since it moved in. The Bulls clinched at home in 1996 and 1997, the Blackhakws in 2015. At Chicago Stadium, the Blackhawks clinched at home in 1934 and 1938, the Bulls in 1992.

The United Center has become Chicago's top venue for concerts and professional wrestling, and it hosted the 1996 Democratic Convention, at which President Bill Clinton was nominated for a 2nd term.

The rink is laid out east-to-west. The Blackhawks attack twice toward the west end.
The Democrats had their Convention at Chicago Stadium in 1932, ’40 and ’44, nominating Franklin D. Roosevelt each time; the Republicans also had their Convention there in ’32 and ’44. Elvis Presley gave concerts at the Stadium on June 16 and 17, 1972 -- giving the last of these as burglars were breaking into the Watergate complex in Washington.

Food. As one of America’s greatest food cities, in Big Ten Country where tailgate parties are practically a sacrament, you would expect the Chicago sports venues to have lots of good options. The United Center lives up to this obligation.

The north side of the arena has DiGiorno pizza, a Captain Morgan/Don Julio cocktail bar, Madison Street Eats and a Ketel One cocktail bar. The east side has Chicago Dish pizza, Chicago Burger, and a Goose Island cocktail bar. The south side has Monroe Street Eats and a Smirnoff/Crown Royal cocktail bar. The west side has Leghorn Chicken, a Crown Royal Whiskey Bar and a Sweet Baby Rays barbecue stand. That's just on the 100 Level. The 300 Level has fewer theme stands, but quite a few of them, including Breakaway (in keeping with the hockey theme) and Fast Break (the basketball theme).

Team History Displays. The Blackhawks' banners are at the east, Wood Street, side of the building. The Blackhawks' banners are at the west, Damen Avenue, side.

The Blackhawks have banners for their 6 Stanley Cups: 1934, 1938, 1961, 2010, 2013 and 2015. (Their 49-year drought seemed impossible to break, but for today's kids, it seems impossible to imagine.) They have 15 banners for Division titles (from 1970 to 2013 -- they won the Cup without winning their Division last season), 2 banners for President's Trophies (1991 and 2013), and 4 banners for Conference Championships (1992, 2010, 2013 and 2015). They do no have banners for pre-1992 seasons in which they reached the Stanley Cup Finals (1931, 1944, 1962, 1965, 1971 and 1973), unless they also won the Division in those years.
The Blackhawks have retired 6 numbers for 7 players. On October 19, 1980, the Hawks retired Number 21 for the recently retired center Stan Mikita, a member of their 1961 Cup winners. Due to a feud between left wing Bobby Hull and the team-owning Wirtz family, stemming from Hull's defection to the World Hockey Association in 1972, they hadn't retired Number 9 for "the Golden Jet." Dale Tallon, an All-Star defenseman, was acquired in 1973, and was given 9, and joked, "They forgot the decimal point." (Tallon is now the general manager of the Florida Panthers.) Hull and the Wirtzes patched things up, and his 9 was retired on December 18, 1983.

On November 20, 1988, the Hawks honored their 2 greatest goaltenders, retiring 1 for Glenn Hall (1961 Cup winners) and 35 for Tony Esposito (1971 and 1973 Cup Finalists). When the last regular-season game was played at Chicago Stadium in 1994, each man was given the banner for his number that had hung in the rafters, and was invited back the next season when new banners were raised to the roof at the United Center.
On March 19, 1998, the Hawks retired 18 for center Denis Savard (1992 Cup Finalists). On November 12, 2008, they retired 3 for a pair of defensemen: Keith Magnuson (1971 and 1973 Cup Finalists, killed in a car crash in 2003) and Pierre Pilote (1961 Cup winners, on hand for the ceremony).

The Hawks dedicated statues to Hull and Mikita on the east side of the United Center in 2012. A plaque with the words "Chicago Stadium - 1929–1994 - Remember The Roar" is located behind a statue of the Blackhawks greatest players on the north side of the United Center.

In 2001, a 75th Anniversary Team was named:

* From the 1934 and 1938 Cup winners: Only right wing Harold "Mush" March. Goaltender Charlie Gardiner, and defensemen Lionel Conacher and Art Coulter, Hall-of-Famers all, were not selected. Neither were should-be-Hall-of-Famers defenseman Taffy Abel and left wings Paul Thompson and Johnny Gottselig.

* From the 1961 Cup winners: Hall, Pilote and Mikita.

* From the 1971 and 1973 Finalists, but not the '61 Cup winners: Esposito, Magnuson, and left wing Dennis Hull, Bobby's brother, a.k.a. the Silver Jet.

* From between the 1973 and 1992 Finalists: Savard; Defensemen Doug Wilson, Pat Stapleton and Bill White; and left wing Al Secord.

* From the 1992 Finalists: Goaltender Ed Belfour, defenseman Chris Chelios, center Jeremy Roenick, and right wing Steve Larmer.

* Tony Amonte was with the Hawks at the time of the 2001 vote. Obviously, no one from the 3 recent Cups was selected.

Stuff. The Blackhawks Store and the Bull Market -- 2 sides of a large store -- are on the lower level of the arena's west end. They may sell Indian headdresses and foam tomahawks, in keeping with the "Blackhawk" image.

Chicago is a great literary city, and while the Cubs have been seen as the city's most romantic sports, there have been some good books about the Blackhawks. George Vass wrote The Chicago Black Hawks Story in 1970. (Until 1986, when the team's original charter was found, and the name of it was found to be written as one word, "Blackhawks," it was usually written as two words, "Black Hawks." This made sense, as the team was named after Chief Black Hawk, the early 19th Century leader of Native American tribes in the Midwest.)

Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Verdi and former head coach Billy Reay collaborated on Chicago Blackhawks: Seventy-Five Years in 2000 (a little early). Lew Freedman recently published Chicago's Big Teams: Great Moments of the Cubs, Bears, White Sox, Blackhawks and Bulls.

DVD packages should be available for the 2010, 2013 and 2015 Cup wins.

During the Game. The United Center is on the West Side, but the well-policed parking lots should buffer you from neighborhood crime. Chicago fans can get a bit rough, and they do like to drink. However, if you don't antagonize them, they will probably give you no worse than a bit of verbal.

Wayne Messmer, former Cubs public address announcer, used to sing the National Anthem for both the Cubs and the Blackhawks. But when he became part-owner of the minor-league Chicago Wolves, the Hawks dropped him. Jim Corneilson has sung the Anthem since 2008.

The Blackhawks' mascot is Tommy Hawk, a black hawk wearing the 4 feathers shown on the team's logo, in colors red, green, yellow and orange.
The main chant for Blackhawks fans is "Let's go, Hawks!" -- definitely not, "Let's go, Blackhawks! (Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)," because, to a Chicagoan, it sounds too much like, "Let's go, Red Wings!" Wings vs. Colorado Avalanche was never a real rivalry: Wings vs. Hawks has been going on since 1926. However, unlike us, and Islanders fans, with our "Rangers suck!" chant (and our addition of "Flyers swallow!"), they only use "Dee-troit sucks!" when they're playing the Wings. Otherwise, they put that chant away.

The goal song is "Chelsea Dagger" by The Fratellis: "Dip-diddle-ip-diddle-ip... " And their victory song is the Notorious B.I.G.'s "Old Thing Back." A little touch of our Tri-State Area on Chicago's West Side.

After the Game. The neighborhood should be safe after a day game, but after a night game, with all that extra time to drink, it can get a little dodgy. As I said, leave them alone, and they'll probably leave you alone.

There are no bars or restaurants worth going to in the vicinity. As I said, the parking lots are a buffer zone against the dodgy neighborhood.

If you want to be around other New Yorkers and New Jerseyans, I found listings of 4 Chicago bars where New York Giants fans gather: Red Ivy, just south of Wrigley Field at 3519 N. Clark Street at Eddy Street; The Bad Dog Tavern, 4535 N. Lincoln Avenue at Wilson Avenue (Brown Line to Western); Racine Plumbing Bar and Grill, 2642 N. Lincoln Avenue at Kenmore; and Trinity, at 2721 N. Halsted Street at Diversey Parkway (Brown or Purple Line to Diversey for either Racine or Trinity). Racine Plumbing is also listed as the local bar for Mets and Notre Dame fans.

And I found these 2 which show Jets games: Rebel Bar & Grill, also just south of Wrigley at 3462 N. Clark at Cornelia Avenue; and Butch McGuire's, 20 W. Division Street at Dearborn Street (Red Line to Clark/Division).

Note that all of these are a lot closer to Wrigley than to the United Center. But there are plenty of good places in the city to get a postgame meal, or just a pint.

Sidelights. Chicago is one of the best sports cities, not just in America, but on the planet. Check out the following – but do it in daylight, as the city’s reputation for crime, while significantly reduced from its 1980s peak, is still there. For my thoughts on Wrigley Field, check out my post on the subject.

* Wrigley Field. Built in 1914 for the Chicago Whales of the Federal League, and home of the Cubs since 1916, it is by far the oldest ballpark in the National League, and only Fenway Park in Boston is older among North American major league sports venues.

The Cubs have never won the World Series here, but won 6 Pennants between 1918 and 1945 -- and none since. They've made the Playoffs 7 times in the last 32 seasons (including this year), which is better than some teams have done over that stretch -- but no Pennants. The Bears played here from 1921 to 1970, and won 8 NFL Championships between 1921 and 1963. It hosted the NHL Winter Classic in 2009, with the Hawks losing to the Wings.

If you go, don't watch a game from one of the rooftops on Waveland (left field) or Sheffield (right field) Avenues. What's the point of watching a game at Wrigley Field if you're not in Wrigley Field? 1060 W. Addison Street at Clark Street. Red Line to Addison.

* U.S. Cellular Field. Home of the White Sox since 1991, and originally named the new Comiskey Park, they've made the Playoffs 4 times since, including winning the 2005 World Series. 333 W. 35th Street at Shields Avenue (a.k.a. Bill Veeck Drive), off the Dan Ryan Expressway. Red Line to Sox-35th.

* Site of old Comiskey Park. The longtime home of the White Sox, 1910 to 1990, was across the street from the new one, at 324 W. 35th Street, is now a parking lot, with its infield painted in. This was the home field of Big Ed Walsh (the pitcher supposedly helped design it to be a pitchers’ park), Eddie Collins, Shoeless Joe Jackson and the rest of the “Black Sox,” Luke Appling, the great double-play combination of Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox of the ’59 “Go-Go White Sox,” Dick Allen, the 1977 “South Side Hit Men” of Richie Zisk and Oscar Gamble, and the 1983 Division Champions of Carlton Fisk, Ron Kittle, LaMarr Hoyt and Harold Baines.

The old Comiskey was also where future Yankee stars Russell “Bucky” Dent and Rich “Goose” Gossage began their careers, and where, in the last game the Yankees ever played there, Andy Hawkins pitched a no-hitter – and lost, thanks to his own walks and 3 errors in the 8th inning.

The NFL’s Chicago Cardinals played there from 1922 to 1959, and the franchise, now the Arizona Cardinals, won what remains their only NFL Championship Game (they didn’t call ‘em Super Bowls back then) there in 1947. And in 1979, during what was supposed to be intermission between games of a White Sox vs. Tigers doubleheader, was Disco Demolition Night. Today, it’s called a fiasco, but the sentiment was right: Disco really did suck. But the biggest music event there was the Beatles' concert on August 20, 1965.

* Previous Chicago ballparks. The Cubs previously played at these parks:

State Street Grounds, also called 23rd Street Grounds, 1874-77, winning the NL’s first Pennant in 1876, 23rd, State, and Federal Streets & Cermak Road (formerly 22nd Street), Red Line to Cermak-Chinatown.

Lakefront Park, also called Union Base-Ball Grounds and White-Stocking Park (the Cubs used the name “Chicago White Stockings” until 1900, and the AL entry then took the name), 1878-84, winning the 1880, ’81 and ’82 Pennants, Michigan Avenue & Randolph Street in the northwest corner of what’s now Millennium Park, with (appropriately) Wrigley Square built on the precise site. Randolph/Wabash or Madison/Wabash stops on the Loop.

West Side Park I, 1885-91, winning the 1885 and ’86 Pennants, at Congress, Loomis, Harrison & Throop Streets, now part of the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Blue Line to Racine.

South Side Park, 1891-93, just east of where the Comiskey Parks were built.

West Side Park II, 1893-1915, winning the 1906 and 1910 Pennants and the 1907 and 1908 World Series, the only World Series the Cubs have ever won, at Taylor, Wood and Polk Streets and Wolcott Avenue, now the site of a medical campus that includes the Cook County Hospital, the basis for the TV show ER, Pink Line to Polk.  (Yes, the CTA has a Pink Line.)

Prior to the original Comiskey Park, the White Sox played at a different building called South Side Park, at 39th Street (now Pershing Road), 38th Street, & Wentworth and Princeton Avenues, a few blocks south of the Comiskey Parks.

* Soldier Field. The original version of this legendary stadium opened in 1924, and for years was best known as the site of the Chicago College All-Star Game (a team of graduating seniors playing the defending NFL Champions) from 1934 to 1976.

It was the site of the 1927 heavyweight title fight between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney, the famed “Long Count” fight, which may have had what remains the greatest attendance ever for a U.S. sporting event, with figures ranging from 104,000 to 130,000, depending on who you believe. It definitely was the site of the largest football crowd ever, 123,000 to see Notre Dame play USC a few weeks after the Long Count. In spite of various expansions, the universities of Michigan and Tennessee and Penn State still can’t top this. The 1926 Army-Navy Game was played there, in front of over 100,000.

Games of the 1994 World Cup were also held at the old Soldier Field, MLS' Chicago Fire made it their 1st home ground, winning the MLS Cup in 1998; and 13 matches of the U.S. soccer team have been played on the site, most recently a 2013 win over Panama. The U.S. has won 6 of these games, lost 4 and tied 3. An NHL Stadium Series game was played there earlier this year, with the Blackhawks beating the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-1.

Amazingly, the Bears played at Wrigley from 1921 to 1970, with the occasional single-game exception. The story I heard is that Bears founder-owner-coach George Halas was a good friend of both the Wrigley and Veeck families, and felt loyalty to them, and that’s why he stayed at Wrigley even though it had just 47,000 seats for football. But I heard another story that Halas was a Republican and didn’t like Chicago’s Democratic Mayor, Richard J. Daley (whose son Richard M. recently left office having broken his father’s record for longest-serving Mayor), and didn’t want to pay the city Parks Department a lot of rent. (This is believable, because Halas was known to be cheap: Mike Ditka, who nonetheless loved his old boss, said, “Halas throws nickels around like manhole covers.”) The real reason the Bears moved to Soldier Field in 1971 was Monday Night Football: Halas wanted the revenue, and Wrigley didn’t have lights until 1988.

A 2002-03 renovation demolished all but the iconic (but not Ionic, they're in the Doric style) Greek-style columns that used to hang over the stadium, and are now visible only from the outside. It doesn’t look like “Soldier Field” anymore: One critic called it The Eyesore on the Lake Shore.

Capacity is now roughly what it was in the last few years prior to the renovation, 61,500. And while the Bears won 8 Championships while playing at Wrigley, they’ve only won one more at Soldier Field, the 1985 title capped by Super Bowl XX. The Monsters of the Midway have been tremendous underachievers since leaving Wrigley, having been to only 1 of the last 28 Super Bowls (and losing it).

1410 S. Museum Campus Drive, at McFetridge and Lake Shore Drives, a bit of a walk from the closest station, Roosevelt station on the Green, Orange and Red Lines.

* Site of Chicago Coliseum. There were 2 buildings with this name that you should know about. One hosted the 1896 Democratic National Convention, where William Jennings Bryan began the process of turning the Democratic Party from the conservative party it had been since before the Civil War into the modern liberal party it became, a struggle that went through the Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt years before it finally lived up to its promise under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. It was here that Bryan gave the speech for which he is most remembered, calling for the free coinage of silver rather than sticking solely to the gold standard: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." Now a part of Jackson Park, at 63rd Street & Stony Island Avenue. 63rd Street Metra (commuter rail) station.

The other was home to every Republican Convention from Theodore Roosevelt’s in 1904 to Warren Harding’s in 1920, including the 1912 Convention where TR split from the party after being maneuvered out of the nomination to return to office, and his subsequent Progressive Party Convention was also held there.

It was also the original home of the Blackhawks, from 1926 to 1929 and briefly again in 1932. In 1935, roller derby was invented there. In 1961, an NBA expansion team, the Chicago Packers, played there, becoming the Zephyrs in 1962 and moving to become the Baltimore Bullets in 1963 (and the Washington Bullets in 1973, and the Washington Wizards in 1997).

The Coliseum hosted a few rock concerts before the Fire Department shut it down in 1971, and it was demolished in 1982. The Soka Gakkai USA Culture Center, a Buddhist institute, now occupies the site. East side of Wabash Avenue at 15th Street, with today’s Coliseum Park across the street. Appropriately enough, the nearest CTA stop is at Roosevelt Avenue, on the Red, Yellow and Green Lines.

* Site of International Amphitheatre. Home to the Bulls in their first season, 1966-67, and to the World Hockey Association’s Chicago Cougars from 1972 to 1975, this arena, built by the stockyards in 1934, was home to a lot of big pro wrestling cards. Elvis sang here on March 28, 1957. The Beatles played here on September 5, 1964 and August 12, 1966.

But it was best known as a site for political conventions. Both parties met there in 1952, the Democrats in 1956, the Republicans in 1960, and, most infamously, the Democrats in 1968, with all the protests. The main protests for that convention were in Grant Park and a few blocks away on Michigan Avenue in front of the Conrad Hilton Hotel, one of the convention headquarters (now the Chicago Hilton & Towers. 720 S. Michigan).

The Amphitheatre, torn down in 1999, was at 4220 S. Halsted Street, where an Aramark plant now stands. Red Line to 47th Street. This location is definitely not to be visited after dark; indeed, unless you’re really interested in political history, I’d say, if you have to drop one item from this list, this is the one.

* Northwestern University. Chicago’s Big Ten school is just north of the city, in Evanston. Dyche Stadium/Ryan Field, and McGaw Hall/Welsh-Ryan Arena, are at 2705 Ashland Avenue between Central Street and Isabella Street. (Purple Line to Central.)

While Northwestern’s athletic teams have traditionally been terrible, the school has a very important place in sports history: The 1st NCAA basketball tournament championship game was held there in 1939, at Patten Gymnasium, at 2145 Sheridan Road: Oregon defeated Ohio State. The original Patten Gym was torn down a year later -- don't be too hard on them, no one had any idea how important this historical distinction would become -- and the school’s Technological Institute was built on the site. Sheridan Road, Noyes Street and Campus Drive. Purple Line to Noyes.

Welsh-Ryan, under the McGaw name, hosted the Final Four in 1956: Bill Russell and K.C. Jones, soon to be Boston Celtics stars, led the University of San Francisco past Iowa. These are the only 2 Final Fours ever to be held in the Chicago area.

* Toyota Park. MLS' Chicago Fire have played here since 2006. The U.S. soccer team has played here once, a 2008 win over Trinidad & Tobago. 7000 S. Harlem Avenue, Bridgeview, in the southwestern suburbs. Orange Line to Midway Airport, then transfer to the 379 or 390 bus.

* National Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame. Appropriately in Chicago's Little Italy, west of downtown, it includes a state uf Yankee legend Joe DiMaggio.  Other New York native or playing baseball players honored include Joe Torre, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Billy Martin, Vic Raschi, Tony Lazzeri, Dave Righetti, Frank Crosetti, Roy Campanella, Sal Maglie, Mike Piazza, Bobby Valentine, John Franco, Carl Furillo, Frank Viola, Jim Fregosi, Ralph Branca, Rocky Colavito, broadcaster Joe Garagiola, and the last active player to have been a Brooklyn Dodger, Bob Aspromonte, and his brother Ken Aspromonte. 1431 W. Taylor Street at Loomis Street.  Pink Line to Polk.

* Museums. Chicago’s got a bunch of good ones, as you would expect in a city of 3 million people. Their version of New York’s Museum of Natural History is the Field Museum, just north of Soldier Field. Adjacent is the Shedd Aquarium. On the other side of the Aquarium is their answer to the Hayden Planetarium, the Adler Planetarium.

They have a fantastic museum for which there is no real analogue in New York, though the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia is similar: The Museum of Science & Industry, at 57th Street & Cornell Drive, near the University of Chicago campus; 56th Street Metra station. The Art Institute of Chicago is their version of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at 111 S. Michigan Avenue, just off the Loop.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. If you’re a fan of that movie, as I am (see my 25th Anniversary retrospective, from June 2011), not only will you have taken in Wrigley Field, but you’ll recognize the Art Institute as where Alan Ruck focused on Georges Seurat’s painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

Other sites visited by Ferris, Cameron and Sloane were the Sears Tower, then the tallest building in the world, 1,454 feet, 233 S. Wacker Drive (yes, the name is Wacker), Quincy/Wells station in the Loop; and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, 335 S. La Salle Street, LaSalle/Van Buren station in the Loop. (That station is also where Steve Martin & John Candy finally reached Chicago in another John Hughes film, Planes, Trains and Automobiles). The von Steuben Day Parade goes down Lincoln Avenue every September, on or close to the anniversary of Baron von Steuben's birth, not in the spring as in the film.

While the Bueller house was in Long Beach, California, the Frye house is in Highland Park, north of the city. Remember, it’s a private residence, and not open to the public, so I won’t provide the address. And the restaurant, Chez Quis, did not and does not exist.

Nor did, nor does, Adam's Ribs, a barbecue joint made famous in a 1974 M*A*S*H episode of the same title. Today, there are 18 restaurants in America named Adam's Ribs, including two on Long Island, on Park Boulevard in Massapequa Park and on the Montauk Highway in Babylon; and another on Cookstown-Wrightstown Road outside South Jersey's Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base. But only one is anywhere near Chicago, in Buffalo Grove in the northwestern suburbs.

Not far from that, in the western suburbs, is Wheaton, home town of football legend Red Grange and the comedic Belushi Brothers, John and Jim. John and Dan Aykroyd used Wrigley Field in The Blues Brothers, and Jim played an obsessive Cubs fan in Taking Care of Business. Their father, an Albanian immigrant, ran a restaurant called The Olympia Cafe, which became half the basis for John's Saturday Night Live sketch of the same name, better known as the Cheeseburger Sketch: "No hamburger! Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger... No fries, chips!... No Coke, Pepsi!"

Don Novello, an SNL writer who played Father Guido Sarducci, said the other half of the inspiration was the Billy Goat Tavern, originally operated by Greek immigrant William "Billy Goat" Sianis, originator of the supposed Billy Goat Curse on the Cubs, across Madison Street from Chicago Stadium, from 1937 until 1963. At that point, Sianis moved to the lower deck of the double-decked Michigan Avenue, since it was near the headquarters of the city's three daily newspapers, the Tribune, the Sun-Times, and the now-defunct Daily News. Mike Royko, who wrote columns for each of these papers, made it his haunt and frequently mentioned it in his columns.

Novello and Bill Murray, Chicagoans, were regulars at the Billy Goat, but John Belushi later said he'd never set foot in the place, so while the others may have drawn inspiration from it, his came from his father's restaurant.

Sam Sianis, nephew of the original Billy, still serves up a fantastic cheeseburger (he was there when I visited in 1999), he deviates from the sketch: No Pepsi, Coke. It's open for breakfast, and serves regular breakfast food. It looks foreboding, being underneath the elevated part of Michigan Avenue, and a sign out front (and on their website) says, "Enter at your own risk." But another sign says, "Butt in anytime." 430 N. Michigan Avenue, lower deck, across from the Tribune Tower. Red Line to Grand. The original location near Chicago Stadium has effectively been replaced, at 1535 W. Madison Street.

The Tribune Tower is a work of art in itself. Its building, Tribune publisher "Colonel" Robert R. McCormick, had stones taken from various famous structures all over the world: The Palace of Westminster in London, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, the Grand Canyon.  (He must've paid a lot of people off.) These can be seen at near ground level, but the building itself is so grand that it doesn't need it.

The building is also the headquarters of the TV and radio station that McCormick named for his paper: WGN, "The World's Greatest Newspaper," a line that has long since disappeared from the paper's masthead. 435 N. Michigan Avenue. Red Line to Grand.

The Wrigley Building is right across from it, at 400 N. Michigan. The block of North Michigan they're on is renamed Jack Brickhouse Way, and Brickhouse's statue is on the grounds of the Tribune Tower.

You may notice some other film landmarks. The Chicago Board of Trade Building was used as the Wayne Tower in Christopher Nolan’s Batman films. And Chicago stood in for Metropolis in the Superman-themed TV series Lois & Clark, with the Wrigley Building and the Tribune Tower as standout landmarks.

TV shows set in Chicago include The Untouchables, about Eliot Ness and his Depression-era crimebusters; Good Times, set in the infamous, now-demolished Cabrini-Green housing project; the related sitcoms Perfect Strangers and Family Matters (Great shows? Well, of course, they were, don't be ridiculous!); Married... with Children, Fox's longest-running non-cartoon (though the Bundy family was pretty darn cartoonish); the 1990s hospital dramas ER and Chicago HopeBoss, the current show with Kelsey Grammer as a corrupt Mayor; and The Bob Newhart Show, with Bob as psychiatrist Dr. Bob Hartley.

Nearly every one of these shows was actually filmed in Los Angeles, and the exterior shots were also mostly L.A. sites, so don't bother going to look for them. However, a statue of Newhart is at the Navy Pier, near its amusement rides, between Grand Avenue & Illinois Street at the lake.

*

Every American should visit Chicago. And with the Sox having the smaller attendances, you'll have an easier time getting into U.S. Cellular Field than into Wrigley. Have fun -- but remember, be smart, and don't go out of your way to antagonize anyone.

The Missouri Precedent: Good and Bad

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The President of the University of Missouri system, Timothy M. Wolfe, resigned today. He did so because, in response to his inaction against several bigoted incidents on campus, the entire football team -- black players and white players alike, over 100 young men -- went on strike, threatening to not practice or play again until Wolfe resigned.

In this endeavor, they were completely backed by head coach Gary Pinkel and athletic director Mack Rhoades, both of them white.

Wolfe could have made a spectacle of himself. Instead, he ended it quickly, quietly, and without denigrating the principled young men who chose to stand up for something they felt was important. If these incidents were as bad and as frequent as has been suggested, then I agree with them.

The question has been asked, "What if they were 9-0, instead of 4-5?" Indeed, after winning 4 of their 1st 5, they have dropped 4 straight, including to Georgia and Vanderbilt by a combined 13 points.

It's hard to say, but when you get an entire team to agree on a principle -- not one holdout -- it sounds to me like, to borrow a cliche, you can throw out the records.

But what if it wasn't Missouri? They've had some success recently. They've won the last 2 Southeastern Conference East Division titles. Before that, they'd won 3 Big 12 North Division titles in 4 years. That's 5 Division titles in the last 8 season -- although they didn't win the overall Conference title on any of those occasions.

But Missouri is not Alabama, or Texas, or Nebraska, or Ohio State, or Michigan, or Penn State, or USC, or Notre Dame.

Suppose, for a moment, that something had happened at the University of Alabama. In 1963, Governor George Wallace personally blocked the entrance to the registration building -- which, at the time, was also the school's main gymnasium -- to ensure that 2 black students, James Hood and Vivian Malone, could not register, the legendary "stand in the schoolhouse door." President John F. Kennedy and his Attorney General, also his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, sent RFK's deputy (and eventual successor), Nicholas Katzenbach, down to Tuscaloosa with federal marshals, and he told Wallace that he was in violation of federal law, and that instead of standing for white supremacy on national television, he would be arrested as a federal criminal for white supremacy on national TV. And the students registered. It would be another 8 years before the football would be integrated, which is a heck of a story in itself.

But today's State government is trying to put severe restrictions on voting rights. Can you imagine the entire Alabama football team going on strike if a black member of the team tried to register to vote, and was refused? Imagine him saying, "Sir, I have a regulation Alabama driver's license, my University of Alabama student identification card, and I play football, everybody in the State knows me." And still being denied.

Would the Crimson Tide revolt? How would the mostly-white, conservative, holdover-from-segregation (when they were Democrats) Republican establishment react to it?

And that's a progressive extension of the Missouri precedent. Now, imagine a more sinister one. I could have used my home-State Rutgers Scarlet Knights as an example here, but, let's face it, even if it had been as successful as Alabama over the last half-century, it's still the Northeast, not the South, and Rutgers would never be Alabama. They're in the Big 10 now, but they'll still never be Michigan or Ohio State, or even relative Big 10 newcomers Nebraska or Penn State.

I used to admire Alabama, although it's harder now with the not-fully-scrupulous Nick Saban as head coach. I am not trying to mock the team, the school, or the State as a whole. I use Alabama only as a hypothetical example, because no state school, with the possible exception of Texas, is more football-intensive.

The only other contender among private universities is Notre Dame, and bringing religion into it isn't something that I want to deal with right now. And, yes, I know, some Southerners cosider football a "religion," and it's been joked that, in Alabama, an atheist is someone who doesn't believe in Bear Bryant.

Suppose that, one day, the starting quarterback at Alabama -- I don't know the current one's name, and it doesn't matter, and the race of this as-yet-hypothetical 'Bama QB shouldn't matter, either -- flunked an exam right before the Iron Bowl, their annual rivalry game with Auburn University.

Now, imagine that the rest of the team didn't think they could beat Auburn without him, and that they were going on strike unless the university president declared him eligible. And imagine that Saban backed them up on this.

No doubt, the NCAA would get involved, and so would the Southeastern Conference.

Let's also suppose that the game were at Auburn. If the players were on strike, the game wouldn't be played, and Auburn would lose the revenue from 87,000 people filling Jordan-Hare Stadium. And, for once in a truly nasty history, Alabama fans and Auburn fans were on the same side.

All because players are going on strike in support of a teammate who, by all rights, should be ineligible.

But would the people at large stand with the players? After all, the 'Bama fans don't want to forfeit to Auburn. And Auburn fans sure as hell don't want to hear, "We woulda beaten ya if (the quarterback) had played!" for the next 50 years. Simply saying, "How do you know?" wouldn't cover it.

And what if players went on strike to finally force the issue of paying college athletes?

That's an entire cannery worth of worms right there. If you think recruiting is vicious and/or corrupt now, imagine a thousand 17-year-old boys being courted like baseball free agents were in that first free agent draft of 1976. Somebody is going to be an analogue to Reggie Jackson. And somebody is going to turn out to be an analogue to poor, shredded-shouldered Wayne Garland.

Unintended consequences are a part of life. We think something's a great idea, and it may seem to be one in the short term. But in practical long-term fact... ?

I'm glad the Mizzou players stood up for their fellow students' right to not be treated like a second-class citizen, or, worse, as (to borrow George Orwell's term from his novel 1984) an un-person.

But this could become something no one can control. In the immortal words of Harrison Ford, I've got a bad feeling about this.

How to Be a New York Basketball Fan In Sacramento -- 2015-16 Edition

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The Brooklyn Nets visit the Sacramento Kings this Friday night. The New York Knicks will visit on December 10.

Before You Go. Sacramento is 90 miles inland from San Francisco, so the city's notorious weird weather won't be a factor. The Sacramento Bee website is predicting mid-60s for Friday afternoon, and low 40s for the evening. You won't need a jacket before the game, but you'll definitely need one for after.

Sacramento is in the Pacific Time Zone, which is 3 hours behind us. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.

Tickets. Once a guaranteed sellout of 17,317 fans per game, every game, the Kings have fallen off significantly, Their per-game attendance last season was just 16,586, about 95 percent of capacity. So tickets shouldn't be all that hard to come by.

This reduced attendance, coupled with the fact that their current arena was built before Camden Yards in Baltimore, and thus before the skybox revolution, has led to rumors that the Kings will move.

A year ago, they were said to be on their way to becoming the new Seattle SuperSonics. The season before that, they seemed to be headed for Anaheim -- as if being the Number 3 team in the Los Angeles area would mean more fans than being the Number 1 team in Sacramento or the Number 2 team in Northern California.

However, the Kings got the City of Sacramento to contribute the lion's share of the cost of building a new arena. The Golden 1 Center, named for a credit union, will open next season, ending the Kings' 28-year tenure at the ARCO/Sleep Train Arena.

Tickets in the lower level, the 100 sections, are $164 between the baskets and $135 behind them. In the upper level, the 200 sections, they're $48 and $30.

Getting There. It's 2,822 miles from Times Square to the Kings' arena. Unless you want to spend 41 hours, plus rest stops making it more like 48 hours, each way, on Interstate 80, or take an even longer-time trip on Amtrak, you're flying. And it's kind of an expensive flight. It'll be nearly $1,200, and you'll have to change planes each way, in Dallas or Phoenix.

If you board Greyhound at Port Authority by 5:00 PM on Tuesday, you'll get to Sacramento at 5:45 PM local time on Friday, which will be in time to get to the game. It's $526 round-trip, but, depending on when you leave, it can be reduced to $438 on advanced purchase. The Greyhound station is at 420 Richards Blvd. at 7th Street -- next to a mall and the new arena that's being built for the Kings.

To get there in time via Amtrak, you'd have to take the Lake Shore Limited out of Penn Station at 3:40 PM on Tuesday, get to Union Station in Chicago at 9:45 AM on Wednesday, switch to the California Zephyr at 2:00 PM, and arrive in Sacramento at 2:13 PM on Friday. Then you'd have to leave Sacramento at 11:09 in the morning on Saturday, and arrive back in New York at 6:23 PM on Tuesday. Round-trip fare is $454. The Amtrak station is at 4th & I Streets.

Once In the City. Founded in 1850, and the capital of the State of California since 1854 (Monterey had been the capital when California was ruled by Spain and Mexico), Sacramento is home to a little over 500,000 people, and growing. The metropolitan area is home to 2.6 million people, ranking it 21st out of the NBA's 30 teams, and larger than older NBA markets like Indianapolis, Portland, San Antonio, Milwaukee and Salt Lake City.

Sacramento still tries to retain a small-town feel, and to resist its connections to far-out places like San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Los Angeles and Hollywood. Or, as Nancy Reagan said when her husband was working there as Governor, "Sacramento is not in California."

The Sacramento River divides street addresses into east and west, and the railroad into north and south. The Sacramento Regional Travel District runs buses and a light-rail system. A single fare is $2.50, while a daily pass is $6.00. The sales tax in the State of California is 7.5 percent, in the County of Sacramento 8 percent, and in the City of Sacramento 8.5 percent.
Going In. The Sleep Train Arena -- built in 1988, currently named for a bedding store chain, and formerly the 2nd ARCO Arena and the Power Balance Pavilion -- has an address of One Sports Parkway. It's 5 miles north of downtown. You take the Number 11 bus to Truxel Road & Terracina Drive, and then a 15-minute walk west on Terracina, down "E Entrance."
No, that's not any kind of racetrack to the left.

The setup is a relic of the idea that ruled from the 1950s to the 1980s, that teams should have their homes in the suburbs, away from the crime of the inner city and with lots of parking stretching out. (The new arena, as I said, is going up downtown.) No guaranteed parking is available, so public transport, including that walk across the parking lot to and from the bus, may be your only option.

It was built for $40 million, which was cheap by the standards of the time, and there are few frills. Like the Meadowlands Arena and the Nassau Coliseum, it's 1 level of concourse for 2 levels of seating, and that just doesn't work. The court is laid out east-to-west.
The arena has hosted NCAA Tournament games, and is one of the leading West Coast sites for Ultimate Fighting. From 1997 until they folded in 2009, it was home to the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs. (Why not "Queens" to go with "Kings"? Does "Monarchs" sound like they have more power? Or were they afraid of gay jokes?) There has been talk of reviving the Monarchs for the new arena in 2017.

The Nets' visit will be a Flashback Friday. To commemorate their last season at the arena, on every Friday that the Kings are at home, they will wearing their original (in Sacramento, anyway) powder-blue jerseys.

Food. With just 1 level of concourse, concessions are easy to reach, but if the game sells well, you might miss an entire quarter online. Better to get your food before the game.

Stands include K Street Deli at Section 101, Supreme Bean coffee and smoothies at 101, Cafe to Go health food at 104, Basket Bowls (rice bowls, chicken salad and lettuce wraps) at 107, Capital Cut Carvery sandwich stands at 107 and 109, The Original Garlic Fries! (a favorite from being served at Candlestick Park) at 109 and 119, Nacho Nook at 110, Top Cellar wines at 112, Smoque House BBQ at 113, Sweet Stop frozen yogurt at 113, Jimboy's Tacos (not "Jimbo's") at 116, the Pop Corn Stop at 117, California Craft House including local beers at 118, Sweet Shop (different from "Sweet Stop," including real ice cream and waffle cones) at 121, and Gourmet Pretzel (there is no such thing as a "gourmet pretzel") at 123.

Team History Displays. The Kings have a complicated history. They are the oldest franchise in the NBA, yet they have gone longer without winning a title than any other team, and their last title was 3 cities ago.

They began in 1923 -- at which point there were only 16 current MLB franchises, 3 from the NFL, and 2 from the NHL -- as the Rochester Pros. At some point, they became the Rochester Royals, winning the championship of the Midwest-based National Basketball League in 1945. In 1948, they moved to the fledgling NBA (known for 1 more season as the Basketball Association of America), and in 1951 won the NBA Championship. That's 64 years, and they haven't even been back to the Finals since. (It's also, unless you count the 1955 NBA Champion Syracuse Nationals, the last time a team from Western New York won a World Championship.)

But, as with Syracuse and Fort Wayne, Rochester was not big enough to support a truly major league team (though their Red Wings baseball team and Americans hockey team are minor-league legends), so in 1957 they moved, becoming the Cincinnati Royals. The closest they got to a title was the 1963 and 1964 Eastern Division Finals.

In 1972, they moved to become the Kansas City-Omaha Kings. (They couldn't remain the Royals because Kansas City already had a baseball team with that name, and they didn't want to double-up like the NFL's Chicago Cardinals did upon moving to St. Louis.) After 3 years dividing between K.C. and their status as the only major league team the State of Nebraska has ever known, they played all game games in Kansas City from 1975 to 1985, but didn't like their arena deal, and moved to Sacramento in 1985. Until the Golden 1 Center deal was cut, their threats to move to Anaheim and Seattle were very real.

The Kings hang a banner for the Rochester Royals' NBA title of 1951, and also for their Division titles from 1979 (Kansas City), 2002 and 2003. The Kings reached the Western Conference Finals in Kansas City in 1981 and in Sacramento in 2002 -- in the latter, combining an epic choke against the Los Angeles Lakers with an equally epic screwing-over by the referees. (Ironically, it was Mitch Richmond, arguably the greatest player in Sacramento Kings history, who dribbled out the clock for the Lakers.) For this reason, the Lakers, not the much-closer Golden State Warriors, will remain the Kings' arch-rivals.
Most of the Northern California sports teams don't honor retired numbers from their previous cities. The San Francisco Giants do it for New York, but neither the Oakland Athletics nor the Warriors do it for Philadelphia (Wilt Chamberlain, who moved with them to the West Coast, is an exception), and the Raiders don't retire numbers at all, for Oakland or Los Angeles.

The Kings do. It makes sense that the NBA's oldest franchise would have so many retired numbers; in their case, 11. Number 11, guard Bob Davies, and Number 12, forward Maurice Stokes, played for them as the Rochester Royals. Number 14, guard, Oscar Robertson, and Number 27, forward Jack Twyman, are honored for their time with the Cincinnati Royals. (Number 16, forward Jerry Lucas, has not been so honored, despite having been named to the Basketball Hall of Fame and the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players.)

From the Kansas City Kings period, they honor Number 1, guard Nate "Tiny" Archibald, and Number 44, center Sam Lacey. And despite having had only one close call in their 30 years in Sacramento (2002), they have honored 4 players from this period: Number 2, guard Mitch Richmond; Number 4, forward Chris Webber; Number 16, forward Predrag "Peja" Stojaković; and Number 21, center Vlade Divac. The 2 Serbs are now both working in the team's front office. And the Kings have recognized a long sellout streak that began with their arrival in 1985 and extended into their current Playoff drought (they haven't made it since 2006) by retired Number 6 for the fans, "The Sixth Man."

The banners show the style of uniforms the plyaers were wearing at the time, and they numbers go in chronological order, from right to left: Stojakovic, Divac, Sixth Man, Richmond, Lacey, Archibald, Roertson, Twyman, Stokes, Davies.

In the Basketball Hall of Fame, Rochester is represented by Davies, Stokes, Arnie Risen, Bobby Wanzer, and coach Al Cervi; Cincinnati by Robertson, Twyman and Lucas; Kansas City by Archibald; and Sacramento by Richmond. Robertson, Lucas and Archibald were named to the NBA's 50 Anniversary 50 Greatest Players.

The Monarchs won the WNBA title in 2005 and reached the Finals again in 2006. They have banners honoring general manager Jerry Reynolds, who previously worked in the Kings' front office, was their interim head coach in 1987 and official head coach from 1988 to 1990; and Number 6, Ruthie Bolton. Despite the team having been folded, their banners are still in the rafters.
It seems odd to leave up retired number banners
for a team that no longer exists. 
Who's going to wear the numbers,
 now that there's no team to issue them?

Stuff. The arena has souvenir stands at Sections 108, 114, 120 and 124.

Having had such a disjointed history, there are no official NBA videos about the Kings, but there are some good books about them. Zach Wyner wrote the Kings' edition of the NBA's On the Hardwood series. In 2005, Jerry Reynolds wrote a book about his 20 years of experiences with the Kings called Reynolds Remembers Tales from the Sacramento Kings. And Jason Coldiron wrote of the now-successful struggle to save what is, for the moment, the only major league sports team in the area: Saving Sacramento: A Story of Fans, Sports & Politics.

During the Game. While Sacramento, like most large California cities, has developed a problem with gang violence, the Sleep Train Arena is an island in a sea of parking, and Kings fans will not treat Knicks or Nets fans with the same kind of contempt that they have for Laker fans. You (and, if you drove in, your car) will be safe.

Naturally, given their royal name, the King's mascot is a "king of the jungle," a lion named Slamson. (A play on "Samson" and "slam dunk.") Not only do the Kings hold auditions for singing the National Anthem instead of having a regular singer, but, with a purchase of 75 tickets and "performance approval," a group may sing it together. Their theme song is "Kings of the Court." But the biggest fan chant is, "SAC-ra-MEN-to! (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)." At least they're cheering for their city, as much as for their team.
Slamson the Lion

After the Game. Win or lose, Kings fans will not bother you. Your safety will not be an issue. But if you came by public transportation, your best bet for a postgame meal will be to take the bus back downtown. If you drove, there are nearby options, although none that is a place where New York sports fans are known to gather.

At Truxel Road and Arena Commons Driveway, there's a Mexican restaurant named Taqueria Rincon Alteno, Chinese restaurants named C.F. Cheng's and Liang's Joy Luck Garden, a Kobe Japanese Sushi & Grill, an Original Mel's, a Pork Belly Grub Shack, and a Tapioca Express.

Sidelights. Aside from the Kings -- and a State government that might make California 1 of the 10 strongest nations in the world all by itself -- Sacramento is a minor-league town.

The Sacramento River Cats, now a Giants farm team, play at Raley Field, which opened in 2000 with 10,624. Counting lawn seating, they can have over 14,000 fans in the place, which is big for the minors, even Triple-A. They led the minor leagues in attendance in each of their 1st 8 seasons in Raley, got rated as the most valuable minor-league franchise by Forbes magazine in 2012, and have won 4 Pennants since moving in: 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008.

But if Sacramento ever wants to lure an established MLB team, or get an expansion team, there is room to add outfield seating, but they'd also have to add a 2nd deck to the main grandstand to get the number of seats above 35,000. This seems unlikely. 400 Ballpark Drive at 5th Street, West Sacramento, just over Tower Bridge and the Sacramento River from downtown.

The old PCL team, the Sacramento Solons, was not particularly successful. They played from 1909 to 1976, and won Pennants only in 1938 and 1939. From 1910 to 1960, they played at Edmonds Field. The field was located at the southeast corner of Broadway and Riverside Boulevard. A Target store currently occupies the footprint of the former field, and there is a plaque in the parking lot where home plate used to sit. Number 51 bus.

According to an April 23, 2014 article in The New York Times, the San Francisco Giants are way ahead of the Oakland Athletics when it comes to baseball popularity in Sacramento, averaging 55 percent of local fandom to around 12 percent for the A's. Considering that the Coliseum is a little closer, and that the A's had so much more success prior to the Giants' current run of glory that began in 2010, the A's should have a much higher percentage than they do.

According to a September 5, 2014 article in The Atlantic, the San Francisco 49ers are easily the most popular NFL team in the Sacramento area, even though the Oakland Coliseum is a little closer to Sacramento than Candlestick Park was (87 miles to 92 -- Levi's Stadium is 114 miles away). Major college football and basketball isn't all that close, either: If you live in or around Sacramento, and you don't want to go to California State University at Sacramento (a.k.a. Sac State), you're out of luck: Cal-Davis is 15 miles west, but it's FCS (formerly known as Division I-AA); and the University of Pacific is 47 miles to the south, so you might as well go the distance to the Bay Area, all the way to Cal or Stanford.

The best-known museum in Sacramento is the California State Capitol Museum, under the dome at 1315 10th Street. The Crocker Art Museum is at 2nd & O Streets. The only Presidentially-related site in the city is the Governor's Mansion, where Ronald Reagan lived during his 1967-1974 Governorship. It's a State Historic Park, at 1526 H Street downtown. The tallest building in town is the Wells Fargo Center (same name as the Philadelphia arena currently has), 429 feet high, at Capitol Mall & 4th Street.

Elvis Presley never performed in Sacramento. Neither did the Beatles. The best-known TV shows set in Sacramento have been the late 1970s, early 1980s ABC comedy-drama Eight Is Enough, and the recent CBS crime drama The Mentalist. There haven't been many movies set or filmed there. Those that were include Clint Eastwood's 1989 Pink Cadillac, The Al Pacino & Michelle Pfeiffer movie Frankie & Johnny, John Travolta's Phenomenon, Kurt Russell's Breakdown, and Almost Famous, the film that made Cameron Crowe and Kate Hudson more than that.

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Sacramento is a bigger city than you think it is, but not as big a city as it would like to be. If you're an NBA fan and have to cross all 30 teams off your list, this should be a good guide for you.


How to Be a New York Basketball Fan In the Bay Area -- 2015-16 Edition

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This Saturday, the Brooklyn Nets will visit the defending NBA Champions, the Golden State Warriors, in Oakland. The New York Knicks will visit on March 16.

Don't worry: The creatures who plow into the Oakland Coliseum for Raiders games are a lot calmer inside the Oracle Arena for Warriors games, even with their newfound title swagger.

Before You Go. The San Francisco Bay Area has inconsistent weather. San Francisco, in particular, partly because it’s bounded by water on three sides, is the one city I know of that has baseball weather in football season and football weather in baseball season. Or, as Mark Twain, who worked for a San Francisco newspaper during the Civil War, put it, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” The game will be indoors, but you won't be indoors on the entire trip.

The website of the Oakland Tribune and SFgate.com, the website of the San Francisco Chronicle, are predicting mid-60s for daylight on Saturday, and low 50s for the evening.

As with the rest of California, Oakland is in the Pacific Time Zone, 3 hours behind New York. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.

Tickets. The Warriors averaged 19,596 fans per game last season, a sellout every game. And, as defending champions, tickets might be hard to come by.

Tickets in the Lower Level, the 100 sections, are sold only to season-ticket holders between the baskets, and are $100 behind them. In the Club Level, the 200 sections, they're $68 between the baskets and $42 behind.

Getting There. It’s over 2,900 miles from Midtown Manhattan to the Oakland Coliseum complex. This is the longest Knicks or Nets roadtrip there is, and will remain so, unless clueless Roger Goodell or some future Commissioner decides to put a franchise in London.  In other words, if you’re going, you’re flying.

You think I’m kidding? Even if you get someone to go with you, and you take turns, one drives while the other one sleeps, and you pack 2 days’ worth of food, and you use the side of the Interstate as a toilet, and you don’t get pulled over for speeding, you’ll still need over 2 full days. Each way.

But, if you really, really want to drive... Get onto Interstate 80 West in New Jersey, and – though incredibly long, it’s also incredibly simple – you’ll stay on I-80 for almost its entire length, which is 2,900 miles from Ridgefield Park, just beyond the New Jersey end of the George Washington Bridge, to the San Francisco end of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Getting off I-80, you’ll need Exit 8A for I-880, the Nimitz Freeway – the 1997-rebuilt version of the double-decked expressway that collapsed, killing 42 people, during the Loma Prieta Earthquake that struck during the 1989 World Series between the 2 Bay Area teams. From I-880, you’ll take Exit 37, turning left onto Zhone Way (no, that’s not a typo), which becomes 66th Avenue, and then turn right onto Coliseum Way.

Not counting rest stops, you should be in New Jersey for an hour and a half, Pennsylvania for 5:15, Ohio for 4 hours, Indiana for 2:30, Illinois for 2:45, Iowa for 5 hours, Nebraska for 7:45, Wyoming for 6:45, Utah for 3:15, Nevada for 6:45, and California for 3:15. That’s almost 49 hours, and with rest stops, and city traffic at each end, we’re talking 3 full days.

That’s still faster than Greyhound and Amtrak. Greyhound does stop in Oakland, at 2103 San Pablo Avenue at Castro Street. But the trip averages about 80 hours, depending on the run, and will require you to change buses 2, 3, 4 or even 5 times. And you'd have to leave no later than Thursday morning to get there by Sunday gametime. Round-trip fare is $570, but it can drop to $504 with advanced purchase.

On Amtrak, you would leave Penn Station on the Lake Shore Limited at 3:40 PM on Wednesday, arrive at Union Station in Chicago at 9:45 AM Central Time on Thursday, and switch to the California Zephyr at 2:00 PM, arriving at Emeryville, California at 4:10 PM Pacific Time on Saturday. Round-trip fare: $673. Then you'd have to get to downtown Oakland on the Number 26 bus, which would take almost an hour.

Getting back, the California Zephyr leaves Emeryville at 9:10 AM, arrives in Chicago at 2:50 PM 2 days later, and the Lake Shore Limited leaves at 9:30 PM and arrives in New York at 6:23 PM the next day. So we're talking a Wednesday to the next week's Thursday operation by train.

Newark to San Francisco is a relatively cheap flight, considering the distance. You can get a round-trip fare for under $600. There is an Oakland International Airport, but it's actually a more expensive flight, a little over $600. And whereas you'd have to change planes once on the way to San Francisco, most likely, you'd have to change twice on the way to Oakland. So you're better off flying into San Francisco International Airport, and then taking BART into either San Francisco or Oakland. It's also a lot cheaper, could be around $900 or even less. BART from SFO to downtown San Francisco takes 30 minutes, to Oakland City Center 42 minutes. It's $8.65 to San Fran, $8.95 to Oakland. Oakland Airport to City Center is 37 minutes, $7.85

Once In the City. Founded in 1852 and named after oak trees in the area, Oakland is a city of a little over 400,000 people. But if you count the "Oakland area" of the San Francisco Bay Area as being the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Merced, San Joaquin, Solano, Stanislaus, Sutter and Yolo (not "YOLO"), it comes to 4,723,778 people -- almost as much as the San Francisco side of the area, counting the Counties of Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara (including San Jose), Santa Cruz and Sonoma: 4,855,538.

So anyone who says, "Oakland is a small market," or, "The East Bay is a small market," is wrong: The Oakland part of the Bay Area has more people than the metro areas of every major league city except New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Washington, Miami, Atlanta and San Diego.
Most Oakland street addresses aren't divided into north-south, or east-west.  The city does have numbered streets, starting with 1st Street on the bayfront and increasing as you move northeast. One of the BART stops in the city is called "12th Street Oakland City Center," and it's at 12th & Broadway, so if you're looking at a centerpoint for the city, that's as good as any.

Sales tax in California is 7.5 percent, and rises to 9 percent in Alameda County, including the City of Oakland.

Going In. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) subway line has a Coliseum stop, which can be accessed from nearly every city in the Bay Area. It takes 21 minutes to ride either the Green (Fremont) or Blue (Dublin/Pleasanton) Line from downtown San Francisco to the Coliseum stop, and it will cost $4.15 each way – a lot more expensive than New York’s Subway, but very efficient.
From downtown Oakland, it will take about 10 minutes on the Fremont Line, and cost $1.85, cheaper than New York's (because, in this case, you would be staying not just on the Oakland side of the Bay but wholly within the City of Oakland).

The official address of the Coliseum, including the Arena, is 7000 Coliseum Way. If you’re driving in (either having come all the way across the country by car, or from your hotel in a rental), there are 4 major lots, and going clockwise from the north of the stadium they are A, B, C and D, each corresponding with an entry gate at the stadium. Parking is $20 for A's games, $30 for the Warriors, and $35 for the Raiders. Tailgating is encouraged, but must be done in either the A or B lots, and beer kegs and glass containers are prohibited.

If you’re coming from the BART station, there will be a walkway over San Leandro Street, which may remind you of the walkway from the Willets Point station into the parking lot of Shea Stadium and its successor Citi Field. (Hopefully, it won't be as creepy as the Meadowlands' walkway over Route 120 from the Giants Stadium side of the parking lot to the Arena.) That will drop you off at the due east side of the Coliseum, dead center field.

The complex includes the stadium that has been home to the A’s since 1968 and to the NFL’s Oakland Raiders from 1966 to 1981 and again since 1995; and the Oracle Arena, a somewhat-renovated version of the Oakland Coliseum Arena, home to the NBA’s Golden State Warriors on and off since 1966, and continuously since 1971 except for a one-year hiatus in San Jose while it was being renovated, 1996-97. Various defunct soccer teams played at the Coliseum, and the Bay Area’s former NHL team, the Oakland Seals/California Golden Seals, played at the arena from 1967 to 1976.

The Coliseum faces east, away from San Francisco, and is 6 miles northwest of downtown Oakland. From the outside, it won’t look like much, mainly because it was mostly built below ground. Above ground, you’ll be seeing only the upper deck. If you come in by BART, you'll almost certainly be coming in from the east.
The Oakland Coliseum Arena opened on November 9, 1966, and became home to the Warriors in 1971 -- at which point they changed their name from "San Francisco Warriors" to "Golden State Warriors," as if representing the entire State of California had enabled the "California Angels" to take Los Angeles away from the Dodgers, and it didn't take L.A. away from the Lakers, either.
The arena also hosted the Oakland Oaks, who won the American Basketball Association title in 1969; the Oakland Seals, later the California Golden Seals (didn't work for them, either), from 1967 to 1976; the Golden Bay Earthquakes of the Major Indoor Soccer League; and select basketball games for the University of California from 1966 to 1999. It's also been a major concert venue, and hosted the Bay Area's own, the Grateful Dead, more times than any other building: 66. Elvis Presley sang at the Coliseum Arena on November 10, 1970 and November 11, 1972.

In 1996-97, the arena was gutted to expand it from 15,000 to 19,000 seats. (The Warriors spent that season in San Jose.) This transformed it from a 1960s arena that was too small by the 1990s into one that was ready for an early 21st Century sports crowd. It was renamed The Arena in Oakland in 1997 and the Oracle Arena in 2005. The Warriors plan to move into a new arena in San Francisco for the 2017-18 season.

The court runs east-to-west, and that ceiling might remind you of Madison Square Garden.
Food. San Francisco, due to being a waterfront city and a transportation and freight hub, has a reputation as one of America’s best food cities. Oakland benefits from this. According to the Oracle Arena website:

Oracle Arena is proud to partner with Levy Restaurants to create an incredibly diverse menu of food and beverage options with something for everyone. Whether it's our award-winning cuisine, quality presentation, genuine hospitality or attention to every detail, our goal is to make sure your dining experience is a winning one. We look forward to creating a memorable experience for you and your guests.
Check out how our chefs have re-invented the fan food experience with the Dungeness Crab sandwich on ACME torpedo roll or the selections of Kinders BBQ, Saags Italian sausage and Kielbasa.  Our Bahn Mi cart features fantastic sandwich selections including a ginger garlic tofu sandwich or a Vietnamese BBQ Pork Bahn Mi.  Right next door you can dig into a Fried Chicken Po’Boy sandwich and finish it all up with fresh squeezed lemonade.
For more traditional fare, try our burger of the month or build your own monster dog at the Mod Dog Cart.  Pair it with an order of Slam Dunk Nachos to complete your dining experience.  You can hang out in the Timeout Taproom for a fresh microbrew or head over to Jamba Juice and grab a smoothie.  Whatever you’re craving, you’ll find something to get your taste buds in the game! 
On the lighter side, there is a wide variety of tasty salads from wheat berry with grilled vegetable dressing to the golden beet salad with quinoa, orange segments, shallots, pistachios & an orange miso dressing.
If your seats have access to one of our sideline clubs you will have exclusive access to our Wok locations featuring Ribs, egg rolls, BBQ pork buns and more!  Grab a Bud or Stella and a seat and enjoy.  Finish it all off with a cup of frozen yogurt with all the toppings. 
We provide a seamless guest experience and offer a wide range of food items for your every need. Some of our fan favorites include:  California Cheddar Bacon Burger, made to order Caesar Salads, Dungeness Crab Sandwiches, Hummus Wraps, Pizza and our famous Slam Dunk Nachos. The menu doesn’t stop there; we offer a full bar with only Premium top shelf liquors and dessert to satisfy that sweet tooth.
Team History Displays. Until this new NBA season began, the Warriors had their banner for the 1 title they'd won in the Bay Area flanked by the 2 they'd won in Philadelphia, and those, in turn, flanked by their retired numbers. Now, they have the NBA Championship banners in sequence: Philadelphia 1946-47, Philadelphia 1955-56, Golden State 1974-75, Golden State 2014-15. They do not, however, hang banners for their Conference titles in which they lost the NBA Finals, in 1948, 1964 and 1967; or for their other Division title, in 1976.

The numerical sequence of their retired numbers also works well, as the 3 lowest retired numbers, hung to the left of the title banners, are of players who played in Philadelphia, and made the 1962 move across the continent: 13, center Wilt Cahmberlain; 14, forward Tom Meschery; and 16, guard Al Attles. All of them played on the 1964 team that reached the Finals, and all of them played in the 1967 Finals -- although, in Wilt's case, it was against the Warriors for the new Philadelphia team, the 76ers.

The numbers to the right of the title banners are: 17, guard Chris Mullin, a star of the 1980s and '90s (and, as New Yorkers, you may note that he is now head coach at St. John's, where he played for Lou Carnesecca); 24, forward Rick Barry, the Roselle Park, New Jersey native who bridged the "San Francisco" and "Golden State" eras, winning an ABA title with the Oakland Oaks and an NBA title with the Warriors in the same building; and 42, center Nate Thurmond, who reached the Finals with them in 1964 and 1967, but was gone by 1975.
Chamberlain, Barry, Thurmond and Mullin are in the Basketball Hall of Fame. So is Jamaal Wilkes, a member of the 1975 team (he was named Keith Wilkes at the time) who also won titles with the Lakers. So is Šarūnas Marčiulionis, the Lithuanian legend who reluctantly starred with the Soviet national team, and wore 13 with the Warriors before it was retired for Wilt.

The Warriors do not honor players who played the bulk of their careers with them in Philadelphia, such as 1947 original Joe Fulks, the NBA's 1st-ever scoring leader; and 1956 titlists Neil Johnston, Paul Arizin, Tom Gola and Guy Rodgers. All 4 of those are in the Hall of Fame. Arizin, Chamberlain, Thurmond and Barry were named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players.

The Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame (BASHOF) is unusual in that its exhibits are spread over several locations. But, among the Warriors inductees, Mullin alone is honored at the Arena. Barry, Thurmond and Attles are honored at the Coliseum, and Meschery at San Francisco International Airport, at Gate 88. Chamberlain has not yet been honored.

Stuff. The Warriors have 3 Adidas Team Stores inside Oracle Arena, opening the 3rd, outside Section 105, in time for last season's NBA Finals. The previous ones are near the Plaza next to the Box Office, and on the Main Concourse outside Section 102.

As you might guess, the Warriors' title brought out celebratory books. Bay Area News Group (BANG), which publishes the San Jose Mercury News, published Golden Boys: The Golden State Warriors' Historic 2015 Championship Season. KCI Sports Publishing came out with Striking Gold - Golden State Warriors NBA ChampionsFor a discussion of their 1975 title season, and any other part of their history, you may have to settle for the Warriors' edition in the NBA's A History of Hoops series, written by Nate Frisch, with poor timing: Just 5 months later, and it would have been published with the new championship. An official DVD highlight package was released by the NBA.

During the Game. This is not a Raider game. Nor is this a Giant game where you might be wearing Dodger gear. This is a Warrior game, and even if you were wearing Laker gear (and you're not), you'd almost certainly be safe. Like A's fans, Warriors fans are blue-collar, but much more laid-back than the pirate, biker and Darth Vader wannabes who dressed up to go to Raider games.

Still: In spite of your New York (and possibly Brooklyn) origins, and their team name, don't yell out the iconic (and ad-libbed) line from the classic New York film The Warriors: "Warr-i-ors! Come out and play-ay!"

The Warriors -- a.k.a. The W's in print and The Dubs when spoken -- do not have a mascot. They do have cheerleaders. They do not have a regular National Anthem singer, but they had a good-luck charm in 10-year-old San Jose kid Nayah Damasen: They won every Playoff game at which he sang it.

The band Stroke 9 recorded a theme song, "Dem Dubs Doh" (Them Dubs, Though), to the tune of Jack Jones' legendary theme from The Love Boat. However, the best fan chant you're going to here is the rather generic, "Let's go, Warriors!" I suppose it could be worse: "GSW" stands for "Golden State Warriors," but it also stands for "gunshot wound."

After the Game. Oakland has a bit of a rough reputation, but, again, Dubs fans are not Raider fans. The Coliseum complex being a pair of islands in a sea of parking, not in any neighborhood, will help. Don't antagonize anyone, and you'll be fine.

If you want to go out for a postgame meal or drinks, be advised that some sections of town are crime-ridden. And, in this case, wearing out-of-town team gear might not be a good idea. It’s probably best to stay within the area from the 12th Street/Oakland City Center BART station and Jack London Square, center of the city’s nightlife.

There are three bars in the Lower Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco that are worth mentioning. Aces, at 998 Sutter Street & Hyde Street in San Francisco’s Lower Nob Hill neighborhood, is said to have a Yankee sign out front and a Yankee Fan as the main bartender. It’s also the home port of Mets, NFL Giants, Knicks and Rangers fans in the Bay Area.

R Bar, at 1176 Sutter & Polk Street, is the local Jets fan hangout. And Greens Sports Bar, at 2239 Polk at Green Street, is also said to be a Yankee-friendly bar. Of course, you’ll have to cross the Bay by car or by BART to get there.

Sidelights. The San Francisco Bay Area, including the East Bay (which includes Oakland), has a very rich sports history. Here are some of the highlights, aside from the Oakland Coliseum complex:

* Emeryville Park. Also known as Oaks Park, this was the home of the Pacific Coast League’s Oakland Oaks from 1913 until 1955. The Oaks won Pennants there in 1927, ’48, ’50 and ’54.

Most notable of these was the 1948 Pennant, won by a group of players who had nearly all played in the majors and were considered old, and were known as the Nine Old Men (a name often given to the U.S. Supreme Court). These old men included former Yankee 1st baseman Nick Etten, the previous year’s World Series hero Cookie Lavagetto of the Brooklyn Dodgers (an Oakland native), Hall of Fame catcher Ernie Lombardi (another Oakland native), and one very young player, a 20-year-old 2nd baseman from Berkeley named Billy Martin. Their manager? Casey Stengel. Impressed by Casey’s feat of managing the Nine Old Men to a Pennant in a league that was pretty much major league quality, and by his previously having managed the minor-league version of the Milwaukee Brewers to an American Association Pennant, Yankee owners Dan Topping and Del Webb hired Casey to manage in 1949. Casey told Billy that if he ever got the chance to bring him east, he would, and he was as good as his word.

Pixar Studios has built property on the site. 45th Street, San Pablo Avenue, Park Avenue and Watts Street, Emeryville, near the Amtrak station. Number 72 bus from Jack London Square.

* Seals Stadium. Home of the PCL’s San Francisco Seals from 1931 to 1957, the Mission Reds from 1931 to 1937, and the Giants in 1958 and ’59, it was the first home professional field of the DiMaggio brothers: First Vince, then Joe, and finally Dom all played for the Seals in the 1930s. The Seals won Pennants there in 1931, ’35, ’43, ’44, ’45, ’46 and ’57 (their last season). It seated just 18,500, expanded to 22,900 for the Giants, and was never going to be more than a stopgap facility until the Giants’ larger park could be built. It was demolished right after the 1959 season, and the site now has a Safeway grocery store.

Bryant Street, 16th Street, Potrero Avenue and Alameda Street, in the Mission District. Hard to reach by public transport: The Number 10 bus goes down Townsend Street and Rhode Island Avenue until reaching 16th, but then it’s an 8-block walk. The Number 27 can be picked up at 5th & Harrison Streets, and will go right there.

* Candlestick Park. Home of the Giants from 1960 to 1999, the NFL 49ers since 1970, and the Raiders in the 1961 season, this may have been the most-maligned sports facility in North American history. Its seaside location (Candlestick Point) has led to spectators being stricken by wind (a.k.a. The Hawk), cold, and even fog. It was open to the Bay until 1971, including the 1962 World Series between the Yankees and the Giants, and was then enclosed to expand it from 42,000 to 69,000 seats for the Niners. It also got artificial turf for the 1970 season, one of the first stadiums to have it – though, to the city’s credit, it was also the 1st NFL stadium and 2nd MLB stadium (after Comiskey Park in Chicago) to switch back to real grass.

The Giants only won 2 Pennants there, and never a World Series. But the 49ers have won 5 Super Bowls while playing there, with 3 of their 6 NFC Championship Games won as the home team. The NFL Giants did beat the 49ers in the 1990 NFC Championship Game, scoring no touchdowns but winning 15-13 thanks to 5 Matt Bahr field goals. The Beatles played their last “real concert” ever at the ‘Stick on August 29, 1966 – only 25,000 people came out, a total probably driven down by the stadium’s reputation and John Lennon’s comments about religion on that tour.

The Giants got out, and the 49ers have now done the same, with their new stadium opening last year. The last sporting event was a U.S. national soccer team win over Azerbaijan earlier this year, the 4th game the Stars & Stripes played there (2 wins, 2 losses). It has now been demolished, and good riddance.

Best way to the site by public transport isn’t a good one: The KT light rail at 4th & King Streets, at the CalTrain terminal, to 3rd & Gilman Streets, and then it’s almost a mile’s walk down Jagerson Avenue. So unless you’re driving/renting a car, or you’re a sports history buff who HAS to see the place, I wouldn’t suggest making time for it.

In spite of the Raiders' return, the 49ers are more popular -- according to a 2014 Atlantic Monthly article, even in Alameda County. The Raiders remain more popular in the Los Angeles area, a holdover from their 1982-94 layover, and also a consequence of L.A. not having had a team since.

* AT&T Park. Home of the Giants since 2000, it has been better for them than Candlestick -- aesthetically, competitively, financially, you name it. Winning 3 World Series since it opened, it's been home to The Freak (Tim Lincecum) and The Steroid Freak (Barry Bonds).

It's hosted some college football games, and a February 10, 2006 win by the U.S. soccer team over Japan. 24 Willie Mays Plaza, at 3rd & King Streets.

* Kezar Stadium. The 49ers played here from their 1946 founding until 1970, the Raiders spent their inaugural 1960 season here, and previous pro teams in the city also played at this facility at the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park, a mere 10-minute walk from the fabled corner of Haight & Ashbury Streets. High school football, including the annual City Championship played on Thanksgiving Day, used to be held here as well. Bob St. Clair, who played there in high school, college (University of San Francisco) and the NFL in a Hall of Fame career with the 49ers, has compared it to Chicago’s Wrigley Field as a “neighborhood stadium.” After the 49ers left, it became a major concert venue.

The original 60,000-seat structure was built in 1925, and was torn down in 1989 (a few months before the earthquake, so there’s no way to know what the quake would have done to it), and was replaced in 1990 with a 9,000-seat stadium, much more suitable for high school sports. The original Kezar, named for one of the city’s pioneering families, had a cameo in the Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry. Frederick & Stanyan Streets, Kezar Drive and Arguello Blvd. MUNI light rail N train.

* Frank Youell Field. This was another stopgap facility, used by the Raiders from 1962 to 1965, a 22,000-seat stadium that was named after an Oakland undertaker – perhaps fitting, although the Raiders didn’t yet have that image. Interestingly from a New York perspective, the first game here was between the Raiders and the forerunners of the Jets, the New York Titans.

It was demolished in 1969. A new field of the same name was built on the site for Laney College. East 8th Street, 5th Avenue, East 10th Street and the Oakland Estuary. Lake Merritt BART station.

* Cow Palace. The more familiar name of the Grand National Livestock Pavilion, this big barn just south of the City Line in Daly City has hosted just about everything, from livestock shows and rodeos to the 1956 and 1964 Republican National Conventions. (Yes, the Republicans came here, not the “hippie” Democrats, although they did hold their 1984 Convention downtown at the George Moscone Convention Center.)

The ’64 Convention is where New York’s Governor Nelson Rockefeller refused to be booed off the podium when he dared to speak out against the John Birch Society – the Tea Party idiots of their time – and when Senator Barry Goldwater was nominated, telling them, “I would remind you, my fellow Republicans, that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And I would remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” (Personally, I think that extremism in the defense of liberty is no defense of liberty.)

Built in 1941, it is one of the oldest remaining former NBA and NHL sites, having hosted the NBA’s Warriors (then calling themselves the San Francisco Warriors) from 1962 to 1971, the NHL’s San Jose Sharks from their 1991 debut until their current arena could open in 1993, and several minor-league hockey teams. The 1960 NCAA Final Four was held here, culminating in Ohio State, led by Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek (with future coaching legend Bobby Knight as the 6th man) beating local heroes and defending National Champions California, led by Darrell Imhoff.

The Beatles played here on August 19, 1964 and August 31, 1965, and Elvis sang here on November 13, 1970 and November 28 & 29, 1976. It was the site of Neil Young’s 1978 concert that produced the live album Live Rust and the concert film Rust Never Sleeps, and the 1986 Conspiracy of Hope benefit with Joan Baez, Lou Reed, Sting and U2. The acoustics of the place, and the loss of such legendary venues as the Fillmore West and the Winterland Ballroom, make it the Bay Area’s holiest active rock and roll site. 2600 Geneva Avenue at Santos Street, in Daly City. 8X bus.

In addition to the preceding, Elvis sang at the Auditorium Arena (now the Kaiser Convention Center, near the Laney College campus in Oakland) early in his career, on June 3, 1956 and again on October 27, 1957; and the San Francisco Civic Auditorium (now the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 99 Grove Street at Polk Street) on October 26, 1957.

* SAP Center at San Jose. Formerly the San Jose Arena and the HP Pavilion, this building has hosted the NHL’s San Jose Sharks since 1993. The Warriors played here in 1996-97, while their Oakland arena was being renovated. If you’re a fan of the TV show The West Wing, this was the convention center where the ticket of Matt Santos and Leo McGarry was nominated. 525 W. Santa Clara Street at Autumn Street, across from the Amtrak & CalTrain station.

* Spartan Stadium. Home to San Jose State University sports since 1933, it hosted both the old San Jose Earthquakes, of the original North American Soccer League, from 1974 to 1984; and the new version, of Major League Soccer, from 1996 to 2005. It's hosted 3 games of the U.S. national team, most recently a 2007 loss to China.

1251 S. 10th Street, San Jose. San Jose Municipal Stadium, home of the Triple-A San Jose Giants, is a block away at 588 E. Alma Avenue. From either downtown San Francisco or downtown Oakland, take BART to Fremont terminal, then 181 bus to 2nd & Santa Clara, then 68 bus to Monterey & Alma.

* Levi's Stadium. The new home of the 49ers, whose naming rights were bought by the San Francisco-based clothing company that popularized blue jeans all over the world, opened last year at 4701 Great America Parkway at Old Glory Lane in Santa Clara, next to California’s Great America park, outside San Jose. ACE (Altamont Commuter Express) to Great America-Santa Clara.

The NHL hosted a Stadium Series outdoor hockey game there this past February, with the Sharks losing to their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Kings. On February 7, 2016, it will host Super Bowl 50. (The Roman numeral L will not be used, even though they used V for 5 and X for 10 -- I for the 1st one was only used retroactively. It really should have been in the city/metro area of Super Bowl I, but the NFL is not currently satisfied with Los Angeles' facilities, either the Coliseum or the Rose Bowl.) And with the 49ers having gotten to 2 recent NFC Championship Games, winning 1, the chance is not bad at all for the 49ers becoming the first team ever to play a Super Bowl in their own house.

* Stanford Stadium. This is the home field of Stanford University in Palo Alto, down the Peninsula from San Francisco. Originally built in 1921, it was home to many great quarterbacks, from early 49ers signal-caller Frankie Albert to 1971 Heisman winner Jim Plunkett to John Elway. It hosted Super Bowl XIX in 1985, won by the 49ers over the Miami Dolphins – 1 of only 2 Super Bowls that ended up having had a team that could have been called a home team. (The other was XIV, the Los Angeles Rams losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Rose Bowl.)

It also hosted San Francisco’s games of the 1994 World Cup, and the soccer games of the 1984 Olympics, even though most of the events of those Olympics were down the coast in Los Angeles. It hosted 10 games by the U.S. national team, totaling 4 wins, 2 losses, 2 draws.

The original 85,000-seat structure was demolished and replaced with a new 50,000-seat stadium in 2006. Arboretum Road & Galvez Street. Caltrain to Palo Alto.

* California Memorial Stadium. Home of Stanford’s arch-rivals, the University of California, at its main campus in Berkeley in the East Bay. (The school is generally known as “Cal” for sports, and “Berkeley” for most other purposes.) Its location in the Berkeley Hills makes it one of the nicest settings in college football. But it’s also, quite literally, on the Hayward Fault, a branch of the San Andreas Fault, so if “The Big One” had hit during a Cal home game, 72,000 people would have been screwed. With this in mind, the University renovated the stadium, making it safer and ready for 63,000 fans in 2012. So, like their arch-rivals Stanford, they now have a new stadium on the site of the old one.

The old stadium hosted 1 NFL game, and it was a very notable one: Due to a scheduling conflict with the A’s, the Raiders played a 1973 game there with the Miami Dolphins, and ended the Dolphins’ winning streak that included the entire 1972 season and Super Bowl VII. 76 Canyon Road, Berkeley. Downtown Berkeley stop on BART.

Yankee Legend Joe DiMaggio, who grew up in San Francisco and later divided his time between there and South Florida, is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, on the Peninsula. 1500 Mission Road & Lawndale Blvd. BART to South San Francisco, then about a 1-mile walk.

The Fillmore Auditorium was at Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard, and it still stands and hosts live music. Bus 38L. Winterland Ballroom, home of the final concerts of The Band (filmed as The Last Waltz) and the Sex Pistols, was around the corner from the Fillmore at Post & Steiner Streets. And the legendary corner of Haight & Ashbury Streets can be reached via the 30 Bus, taking it to Haight and Masonic Avenue and walking 1 block west.

Oakland isn’t much of a museum city, especially compared with San Francisco across the Bay. But the Oakland Museum of California (10th & Oak, Lake Merritt BART) and the Chabot Space & Science Center (10000 Skyline Blvd., not accessible by BART) may be worth a look.

San Francisco, like New York, has a Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), at 151 3rd Street, downtown. The California Palace of the Legion of Honor is probably the city’s most famous museum, in Lincoln Park at the northwestern corner of the city, near the Presidio and the Golden Gate Bridge. (Any of you who are Trekkies, the Presidio is a now-closed military base that, in the Star Trek Universe, is the seat of Starfleet Command and Starfleet Academy.) And don’t forget to take a ride on one of them cable cars I’ve been hearing so dang much about.

While San Francisco has been the setting for lots of TV shows (from Ironside and The Streets of San Francisco in the 1970s, to Full House and Dharma & Greg in the 1990s), Oakland, being much less glamorous, has had only one that I know of: Hangin' With Mr. Cooper, comedian Mark Curry's show about a former basketball player who returns to his old high school to teach.

In contrast, lots of movies have been shot in Oakland, including a pair of baseball-themed movies shot at the Coliseum: Moneyball, based on Michael Lewis' book about the early 2000s A's, with Brad Pitt as general manager Billy Beane; and the 1994 remake of Angels In the Outfield, filmed there because a recent earthquake had damaged the real-life Angels' Anaheim Stadium, and it couldn't be repaired in time for filming.

Oakland's status as a Navy city has allowed some nautical-themed films to be filmed there, including the 1934 pirate classic Treasure Island, various versions of The Sea Wolf, the World War I film Hell's Angels (predating the Oakland-based motorcycle gang founded in 1948 and taking the name), the World War II film Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home -- with the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, away at sea, having the USS Ranger stand in for it. Movies set in San Francisco often have Oakland-filmed scenes, including Pal Joey, Mahogany, Basic Instinct, and the James Bond film A View to a Kill. The Jim Belushi film The Principal and Janet Jackson's gang-themed debut, Poetic Justice, were Oakland all the way. Robin Williams, a San Francisco native, filmed scenes from Mrs. Doubtfire and Flubber in Oakland. And the aforementioned George Lucas made his first film, THX-1138, in Oakland in 1970.

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So, if you can afford it, go on out and join your fellow Knick or Net fans in going coast-to-coast, and take on the defending World Champions, the Golden State Warriors. They should inspire your team. After all, the Knicks (in the NBA) and the Nets (in the ABA) also haven't won a league title since the mid-1970s. If the Warriors can do it, there is hope!

How to Be a Devils Fan In Calgary -- 2015-16 Edition

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Next Tuesday, the Devils travel to play the Calgary Flames. With their "C of Red" fans, the Flames are never an easy team to beat at the Saddledome. But the Devils are better this season, so we'll see.

Before You Go. Aside from Edmonton's Rexall Place, no arena in the NHL is further north than the Saddledome -- indeed, aside from each Alberta city's CFL stadium, no venue in North American sports is further north except Rexall Place. And this is late November. It will be cold. The Calgary Herald is predicting that temperatures will be in the mid-30s by day and the low 20s by night. Bundle up.

This is Canada, so you will need your passport. You will need to change your money. At this writing, C$1.00 = US$1.32, and US$1.00 = C 75 cents. And I advise you to call your bank and let them know that you will be in a foreign country, so they won't see credit or debit card purchases from a foreign country pop up and think your card has been stolen.

Also, remember that they use the metric system. A speed limit of 100 kilometers per hour means 62 miles an hour. And don't be fooled by the seemingly low gas prices: That's per liter, not per gallon, and, in spite of Canada being a major oil-producing nation, you'll actually be paying more for gas up there. So, in order to avoid both confusion and "sticker-shock," get your car filled up before you reach the border.

Calgary is in the Mountain Time Zone, so they are 2 hours behind New York and New Jersey. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.

Tickets. The Flames averaged 19,097 fans per home game last season, nearly a sellout. As you might expect from a Canadian city. Tickets will be hard to get.

Seats in the lower level, the 100 sections, are $160 throughout. In the upper level, the 200 sections, they're $66 between the goals and $52 behind them. The uppermost level, labeled PL (for "Press Level"), has seats for $38. And since that comes from ticketmaster.ca, that's in Canadian dollars, so they're cheaper for you. And a lot cheaper than for the Edmonton Oilers.

Getting There. It's 2,445 miles from the Prudential Center in Newark to the Saddledome in Calgary. It would be natural if your first thought would be to fly.

If you're driving, you'll need to get into New Jersey, and take Interstate 80 West. You'll be on I-80 for the vast majority of the trip, through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. In Ohio, in the western suburbs of Cleveland, I-80 will merge with Interstate 90. From this point onward, you won’t need to think about I-80 until you head home; I-90 is now the key, through the rest of Ohio and Indiana.

Just outside Chicago, I-80 will split off from I-90, which you will keep, until it merges with Interstate 94. For the moment, though, you will ignore I-94. Stay on I-90 through Illinois, until reaching Madison, Wisconsin, where you will once again merge with I-94. Now, I-94 is what you want, taking it into Minnesota and the Twin Cities.

However, unless you want to make a rest stop actually in Minneapolis or St. Paul, you're going to bypass them entirely. Take Exit 249 to get on Interstate 694, the Twin Cities' beltway, until you merge with Interstate 494 to reform I-94. Crossing Minnesota and North Dakota, you'll take Exit 211 to Montana Route 200, and take that up to the town of Circle. There, you take Montana Route 13 until it splits and forms Montana Route 25. After just 6 miles, that takes a right turn in the town of Wolf Point, and then a quick left to U.S. Route 2 West. In Shelby, you'll leave US-2 for Interstate 15, and take that to the Canadian border.

Presuming you don't do anything stupid that makes Customs officials keep you out of Canada, I-15 will become Alberta Provincial Route 4. At Lethbridge, you'll turn onto Provincial Route 3 West. Take Provincial Route 23 to Provincial Route 519 to Provincial Route 2. From Route 2, take Exit 245 for Southland Drive, make a left on Southland, and then a quick right onto Blackfoot Trail. A left on 42nd Avenue and a right on MacLeod Trail, and you'll be at the edge of downtown Calgary, with the Saddledome on your right.

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 5 hours and 15 minutes in Pennsylvania, 4 hours in Ohio, 2 and a half hours in Indiana, an hour and a half in Illinois, 2 and a half hours in Wisconsin, 4 and a half hours in Minnesota, 6 hours in North Dakota, 7 and a half hours in Montana, and 6 hours and 45 minutes in Alberta. That's 42 hours. Throw in rest stops, and we're talking closer to 56 hours -- 2 and one-third days. You'd have to really love both driving and hockey, and not mind cold weather, to do that.

Taking Greyhound takes 70 hours, and you have to transfer in Buffalo, Toronto and Winnipeg. Round-trip fare is $458, but it would drop to $438 with advanced purchase. The Greyhound station is at 850 16th Street NW at Bow Trail.

Forget the train: You'll have to switch from Amtrak to VIA Rail Canada in Toronto, take a train to Edmonton, and then take a bus to Calgary. Round-trip, it would take 8 days. No, the train is no good.

So flying is easily the best way to get there. You can fly Air Canada from Newark to Calgary and back, nonstop, for $1,052.

Once In the City. At 1.1 million people, Calgary is the 3rd-largest city in Canada, behind Toronto and Montreal, and ahead of Vancouver and Edmonton. However, like most of Canada's larger cities, the huge amount of land area contained within its city limits means it has almost no suburbs, and its metropolitan area gives it only 1.2 million, 5th behind Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa -- but still ahead of Provincial capital Edmonton.

Founded in 1882 at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers, there is some dispute as to the origin of the name, although both accepted versions are Scottish in origin. Some say it's from the Gaelic meaning "beach of the meadow," or "pasture." Others say it comes from the words the Vikings brought to northern Scotland's Hebrides, meaning "cold garden."

The Bow River and, east of its bend, Memorial Drive separate Calgary addresses into North and South, while Centre Street separates them into East and West. The sales tax in the Province of Alberta is 5 percent, and it doesn't go up in the City of Calgary. The city has buses and a light rail system nicknamed CTrain, and a single fare is $3.00 (which works out to about $2.25, so it's less expensive than New York's).
CTrain downtown, with Calgary Tower in the background

Going In. The Scotiabank Saddledome -- originally the Olympic Saddledome, and built in 1983 for the Flames and as the centerpiece of the 1988 Winter Olympics -- is at 555 Saddledome Rise SE, across Olympic Way from the Stampede Corral, site of the world's largest rodeo, the Calgary Stampede. It's about a mile and a quarter southeast of the downtown shopping district. If you're driving, parking is $10. (US$7.50.) If you're coming in by light rail, it's about a 12-minute ride to Victoria Park-Stampede station, and then you'll have to walk across a big parking lot to get to the arena, entering from the west.

Like the Capital Centre, the suburban Washington arena that was once home to the Bullets (now Wizards) and Capitals, it has a saddle-shaped roof; hence, the name "Saddledome." (Why a bank based in Nova Scotia, in Canada's eastern Maritime Provinces, bought the naming rights to a western arena, I have no idea.)

The rink is laid out north-to-south (I apologize for getting that wrong last year), and the Flames attack twice to the north end. The arena is also home to the minor-league Calgary Hitmen, and their rivalry with the Edmonton Oil Kings is nearly as intense as the "Battle of Alberta" between the Flames and the Oilers.
With the Oilers moving into a new arena in the fall of 2016, and the Detroit Red Wings doing so a year after that, the Saddledome will be the 2rd-oldest arena in the league, behind Madison Square Garden. For the moment, the Flames organization says it has a plan to replace the Dome, but they have not released it. It is likely the Flames will open the decade of the 2020s still playing there.

Food. There's not much information available online about Saddledome concession stands, but the arena's website mentions several onsite restaurants, including Dutton's Lounge, the Alumni Lounge and the King Club. The Saddleroom Restaurant is on the arena's east side (another thing I had wrong last year), and the Platinum Club on the west side (ditto), but these are open only to season-ticket holders, much like the Prudential Center's Fire Lounge and Ice Lounge.

According to the arena website, concessions include: 

Time Out (Hot Dogs, Popcorn, Snacks)
Centre Ice (Hot Dogs, Popcorn, Snacks)
Pizza 73
Skyline Deli
Spolumbos Italian Eatery
Mac Shack (Mac 'n Cheese)
Flame Broiled Burgers
The Dog House (Specialty Hot Dogs)
The Zone
The Rotisserie

Cash or credit cards are accepted at all concession stands.


Team History Displays. All in a row, over the center red line, the Flames hang banners for their various championships and their retired numbers. The title banners including: The 1989 Stanley Cup; the 1986, 1989 and 2004 Conference Championships; the 1986, 1989, 1994, 1995 and 2006 Division titles; and the 1988 and 1989 President's Trophy for best overall record in the NHL regular season.
Despite having played for 35 years (43 counting their tenure in Atlanta), the Flames have only 2 retired numbers, both from the 1989 Cup winners: 9, for right wing Lanny McDonald; and 30, for goaltender Mike Vernon. A banner for Brad Moran, whose Number 20 was retired by the Calgary Hitmen, is also hung at the Saddledome.

In 2012, the Flames organization introduced "Forever A Flame," to honor team legends while still allowing future Flames the opportunity to wear the numbers of some of the team's all-time greats -- essentially, a team hall of fame. Defenseman Al MacInnis was the 1st to earn this distinction, with a banner with his picture and the Number 2 raised to the rafters. Center Joe Nieuwendyk (who also won a Cup with the Devils) followed him, with a banner with his Number 25 on it. So that's 4 honorees, all from the 1989 Cup win.
I suspect that, when Number 12, Jarome Iginla, star of their 2004 Stanley Cup Finalists, retires as a player, he will be honored as well as "Forever A Flame" as well. Other possible future honorees could be Hockey Hall-of-Famers Joe Mullen (from 1989), Doug Gilmour (ditto), Phil Housley (starred for them after the '89 Cup), general manager Cliff Fletcher (1989), longtime owner Harley Hotchkiss, and broadcaster Peter Maher.

There is no reference to the Flames' time in Atlanta (the name references the burning of Atlanta during the American Civil War), unless you count the "A" for Alternate Captain being the Flames' old A logo. (The "C" for Captain is the current C logo.) The Flames didn't win anything in Atlanta, so there are no banners to raise, although they did make the Playoffs there.

At the north end of the arena are Canadian and U.S. flags. At the south end are Canadian and British flags (Canada remains in the British Commonwealth), an Olympic flag, and a banner representing the 1988 Winter Olympics, for which the Saddledome and McMahon Stadium, home of the CFL's Stampeders, were the leading venues.

Stuff. There is a Flames Fan Attic (as in "fanatic") team store at the Saddledome, although I can't find a reference as to where in the arena. There are also Flames Fan Attics at the North Hill Centre mall and Calgary International Airport. I suspect that, due to the city's Western heritage, you can buy cowboy hats with the Flames' logo on them.

In spite of having won a Stanley Cup, and nearly winning 2 others, there aren't many books about the Flames. The Calgary Herald staff put together a coffee-table book titled Calgary Flames: The Fire Inside, but that's a big book at a big price. Last month, Mark Spector published The Battle of Alberta: The Historic Rivalry Between the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames.

The NHL has released a DVD set, Calgary Flames: 10 Great Playoff Games. They include a Game 7 win over the Philadelphia Flyers in 1981, their 1st season in Calgary; the shocking Game 7 win over the arch-rival Oilers in 1986, won by Steve Smith's own goal; another Game 7 win in 1986, over the St. Louis Blues; a Game 7 win over the Vancouver Canucks in 1989; the Cup-clincher of 1989, the only time a team ever clinched over the Montreal Canadiens at the Montreal Forum; the 1991 Game 6 win over the Oilers won by Theoren Fleury's goal that produced a memorable celebration; the Game 7 win over Vancouver in 2004; the Game 5 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004; and the Game 3 win over the San Jose Sharks in 2008.

During the Game. You are not Edmonton Oilers fans. You will not be wearing Oilers gear. Therefore, you will almost certainly be safe.

The seats are blue, but they become "the C of Red." (Never "the Red C.") The Flames' home jerseys are red, like the Devils'. I don't know if it would be better to wear a red Devils jersey to fit in, or a white one to stand out. But the C of Red is as pervasive as the one in the St. Louis Cardinals' Busch Stadium.
The C of Red

George Canyon, a country singer from Nova Scotia who now lives in Calgary, and has been appointed the Colonel Commandant of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets, is the Flames' regular singer of the National Anthem(s). There isn't much in the way of fan chants or songs, just "Go, Flames, Go!" Their goal song is "Righteous Smoke" by Monster Truck.

Although they sometimes wear a 3rd jersey with a fire-breathing dragon on it, their mascot is Harvey the Hound, a big white silly-looking dog with its tongue hanging way out -- which has driven some frustrated fans, and even one opposing coach (Craig MacTavish of the arch-rival Oilers), to grab it and try to rip it out. He was introduced in 1983, and was the 1st mascot in NHL history. (His name has confused me: I thought it was not Harvey, but Harley, named for longtime owner Harley Hotchkiss.)

After the Game. Canada does not have much of a problem with crime, and while hockey fans like to drink, Flames fans will probably leave you alone. Just don't praise the Oilers, and you should be safe.

Mavericks Dining Room & Lounge is on 2nd Street, at the southwest edge of the parking lot. Effectively, it marks the beginning (or the end) of the Red Mile, a strip of bars and restaurants along 17th Avenue that gained fame for its party atmosphere during the 2004 Playoffs.

Sidelights. As with the other major cities of Canada, Calgary isn't just about hockey.

* Stampede Corral. Home to the Calgary Stampede, the world's largest rodeo, since 1950, the Flames played here from their 1980 move from Atlanta until the Saddledome opened across the street in 1983. At just 6,475 seats, it was too small to be their long-term home, but with the Saddledome already planned, they could afford to wait. Several minor-league hockey teams had used it before the Flames arrived. 10 Corral Trail SE at Olympic Way. (There are no plans to build a new arena to replace the Saddledome.)

* McMahon Stadium. Home to the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (who are owned by the Flames), and the University of Calgary football team, since 1960, it was named for a pair of brothers who funded its construction. Its current capacity is 37,317. Temporary seating raised it to 60,000 so that it could host the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olympics.

The Stampeders, a.k.a. the Stamps, won the Grey Cup, Canada's Super Bowl, while playing here in 1971, 1992, 1998, 2001 and 2008. (Previously, they played at Mewata Stadium, and won the 1946 Grey Cup while playing there. That facility was built in 1906 and demolished in 1999.) The stadium hosted the Grey Cup in 1975, 1993, 2000 and 2009. It hosted an NHL Heritage Classic between the Flames and the Canadiens in 2011, which the Flames won, 4-0. 1817 Crowchild Trail NW at 23rd Avenue.

* Foothills Stadium. Adjacent to McMahon Stadium, this 6,000-seat ballpark went up in 1966, and is the home of the University of Calgary baseball team. It was home to several minor league teams, including the Calgary Expos, who won Pioneer League Pennants there in 1979 and 1981. The Pacific Coast League's Calgary Cannons won Division titles in 1985, 1987, 1989 and 1991, but never won a Pennant. 2255 Crowchild Trail NW. Banff station on light rail.

* Museums. Calgary's best-known museum is the Glenbow, which is both their Museum of Natural History and their Metropolitan Museum of Art. 130 9th Avenue SE at 1st Street downtown, across from the iconic Calgary Tower.

Gasoline Alley Museum at Heritage Park Historical Village sounds like a copy of the Henry Ford Museum outside Detroit, as it documents the dawn of the automobile age, with first- and second-generation automobiles and a recreated turn-of-the-20th-Century street scene -- significant because Alberta didn't turn from Territory to full Province until 1905. visitcalgary.com says of it, "It's probably the only time you'll ever find yourself in the thick of a traffic jam without a hint of road rage." 1900 Heritage Drive SW at 14th Street, on Glenmore Reservoir. Light rail to Heritage station, then switch to 502 bus.

Calgary has produced 2 Prime Ministers. The recenly-defeated PM, Stephen Harper, represents a Calgary district (or "riding" as they'd say in Canada). The other is Richard B. Bennett, who served from 1930 and 1935, rising to power after the 1929 stock market crash but was seen as doing nothing to ease the Depression, and became the most hated man in the country's history, so much so that he left Canada for the mother country, Britain. He's the only head of government in either America or Canada who died on foreign soil, or is buried in it. As you might guess, there's no historic site in his memory, either in Calgary or in his hometown in the Province of New Brunswick.

The tallest building in Calgary, and in Canada between Toronto and Vancouver, is The Bow, a weird-looking X-framed downtown building, 774 feet high. 500 Centre Street SE

TV Shows set in Calgary are generally not shown in America. Probably the best-known movie to use Calgary and/or its environs as a filming location was Brokeback Mountain.

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Calgary is Canada's Dallas and its Denver rolled into one, its great Western city of toughness and excess. And it's a great hockey town. Hopefully, next season, I can get this done on time, so you can actually enjoy it.

November 11, 1915: A Star Is Born In New Jersey's Capital

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November 11, 1915, 100 years ago: George Washington Case Jr. is born in Trenton, New Jersey. It was somewhat appropriate, given his name and his birthplace in a State capital (whose own team, for a time, was called the Trenton Senators), that he played most of his career for the Washington Senators.

But since the Senators no longer exist -- the originals became the Minnesota Twins in 1961, the replacement team became the Texas Rangers in 1972, and the current Washington Nationals have no connection beyond playing in the same city -- he is proof that it is possible for a 4-time All-Star to have slipped through the cracks of history.

George Case went to the Peddie School, a prep school in Hightstown, New Jersey, and upon graduation was signed by the Senators. He made his major league debut on September 8, 1937, appropriately enough at the closest big-league ballpark to Trenton: Shibe Park in Philadelphia, later renamed Connie Mack Stadium, for the longtime manager and owner of the Philadelphia Athletics. Batting 7th, playing left field, and wearing Number 25, he went 0-for-4 in a 2-0 A's victory over the Senators.

He was up to the big club to stay in 1938, and he led the American League in stolen bases in 1939, '40, '41, '42 and '43, the year he hit his peak with 61 steals. He also led he AL in runs scored in 1943, and 3 times batted over .300, peaking at .320 in 1942.

The Senators' ballpark, named Griffith Stadium for their owner, Hall of Fame pitcher Clark Griffith, had ridiculous dimensions that made it nearly impossible to hit a home run unless you pulled the ball down the right-field line, or if you were Mickey Mantle. He never hit more than 5 home runs in a season, and topped out at 56 RBIs in 1940.

But he was generally regarded as the fastest player in the AL between Ty Cobb and Luis Aparicio -- Number 1 in that regard, as well as 1 being his most frequent uniform number. His speed made him a good outfielder as well: He played 534 major league games in left field, 424 games in right field, and 243 games in center field. Unfortunately for him, there was no Gold Glove award in those days. He was named to the American League All-Star Team in 1939, 1943, 1944 and 1945, although wartime travel restrictions canceled the '45 All-Star Game.

In 1945, the Senators finished only a game and a half behind the Detroit Tigers. This remains the closest any Washington baseball team has gotten to a Pennant since 1933, and it was easily the closest Case ever got to playing in the World Series.

In the following off-season, the Senators traded him to the Cleveland Indians for Jeff Heath. New Indians owner Bill Veeck decided to stage one of his trademark promotions: He would race "the fastest man in baseball" against "the fastest man alive," 1936 Olympic Gold Medalist Jesse Owens, who had grown up in Cleveland. It was a close race, but Owens won. In spite of it having been 10 years since Owens' feats in Berlin, he was only 2 years older than Case, 33 years old to 31, so it was a "fair fight."

Case won his 6th stolen base title in 1946, swiping 28 bags. He was traded back to the Senators for Roger Wolff for the 1947 season, but he retired due to a back injury -- the same thing that would cut short the careers of Hank Greenberg, Ralph Kiner, Al Rosen, Keith Hernandez and Don Mattingly. Of those, only Greenberg and Kiner have been elected to the Hall of Fame. Case finished with a .282 lifetime batting average, but just 1,415 hits -- decent stats, but not enough to get him to Cooperstown.

Sometime before his death on January 23, 1989, he narrated a set of home movies, showing some of the legends of the 1930s and '40s, and the ballparks in which they played, in full color. I recognize some of them from the documentary When It Was a Game. They are introduced in this teaser by his son, George W. Case III.

He was not totally forgotten by Washingtonians: His name was listed on a panel of the Washington Hall of Stars, which was featured on an end-zone wall at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, but has since been removed. He has yet to be recognized on the new Ring of Honor at Nationals Park, which honors Senators and Homestead Grays stars, and Frank Robinson, the Nationals' 1st manager.

Each of these men has been elected to the Hall of Fame. George Case has not. Neither have Mickey Vernon, Cecil Travis, Joe Judge, Ossie Bluege, Roy Sievers or Eddie Yost. Yet all were deemed significant enough to Washington baseball history to be included in the display at RFK Stadium. Frank Howard hasn't been elected to Cooperstown, either, and isn't on the Ring of Honor; yet he was on the old Hall of Stars, and he has a statue outside Nationals Park, along with the greatest Senators player, Walter Johnson, and the most famous Homstead Gray, Josh Gibson.

It is time to restore these unfairly demoted players to their former honor at Nationals Park. 2015, the 100th Anniversary of his birth, would have been a good time to do it for George Case.

Opening Day 2016 is as good a day as any for the Nationals to fill in these important blanks.

Norm Siebern, 1933-2015

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The Yankees of the 1950s were already retired and legendary by the time I was old enough to start paying attention to baseball in the late 1970s. Now that my nieces are old enough, those Fifties Yankees are getting to be fewer and fewer in number.

Norm Siebern was not one of the more celebrated of those Fifties Yankees. But the few we have left should be celebrated.

Norman Leroy Siebern was born on July 26, 1933 in St. Louis. He was signed by the Yankees out of high school in 1951, went into their minor-league system, and attended Southwest Missouri State University, which is now named Missouri State University, in Springfield. He played basketball there (then as now, it was legal to be a professional in one sport and a college athlete in another), and among his classmates and teammates there was a future Yankee teammate, Jerry Lumpe.

He made his debut for the Yankees on June 15, 1956. Batting 2nd, playing left field, and wearing Number 36, he singled off Mike Garcia in his 1st at-bat, and immediately scored on a Mickey Mantle home run. He went 2-for-4, and the Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-2.

A lefthanded hitter whose stroke seemed to be designed for Yankee Stadium, he split the 1956 season between the Yankees and their top farm club of the time, the Denver Bears of the American Association. He had one at-bat in the 1956 World Series. He spent the entire 1957 season with the Bears, helping them win the Pennant with one of the best seasons any minor-league team has ever had. The Sporting News named him its Minor League Player of the Year.

That got him called back up to the Yankees in 1958, wearing Number 25, and was in the majors to stay, batting .300 with 14 home runs and 55 runs batted in. He played in 3 games of that year's World Series, and was awarded one of the 1st American League Gold Gloves that year.

He had a decent season in 1959, but the Yankees had an uncharacteristically weak season, finishing 3rd, just 79-75. Some changes had to be made, and this made Siebern, among others, expendable. On December 11, he was traded, along with Hank Bauer, Don Larsen and Marv Throneberry -- each of those 3 a legend, although in Throneberry's case it was for his later ineptitude with the Mets, but he was considered a great prospect in the late 1950s -- to the Kansas City Athletics for Roger Maris, Joe DeMaestri and Kent Hadley. If you know anything about Yankee history, you know that Maris was the key.

*

Siebern benefited from the move to Kansas City, as he wasn't going to crack the Yankees' starting lineup without an injury. He was an AL All-Star in 1962, '63 and '64. His best season was in 1962, when he batted .308, hit 25 homers, and had 117 RBIs, all career highs. In 1964, he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles, then managed by Bauer, one of the men with whom he was traded. He led the AL in walks, and the O's only finished 2 games behind the Yankees.

After the 1965 season, the O's traded him to the California Angels for Dick Simpson, and won the 1966 World Series without him. But in 1967, he was acquired by the Boston Red Sox, and while he was clearly at the end of the line, he did help them win their "Impossible Dream" Pennant, and appeared in 3 games of the World Series. He retired after the 1968 season, with career totals of a .272 batting average, 132 homers and 636 RBIs.

After retiring as a player, he appears never to have worked in baseball again. He was married with 3 daughters, owned an insurance agency in Naples, Florida, and died there on October 30, 2015 in Naples, Florida. He was 82.
This is the only photo I could find of him as a retired player.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find one showing him
wearing a uniform, a jersey, or even a cap.

With his death, there are now just 4 surviving players from the 1956 World Champion Yankees: Whitey Ford, Don Larsen, Charlie Silvera and Bob Cerv. And there are now just 7 surviving players from the 1958 World Champion Yankees: Ford, Larsen, Bobby Shantz, Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Art Ditmar and Zach Monroe.

How to Be a New York Basketball Fan In Oklahoma City -- 2015-16 Edition

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The New York Knicks visit Oklahoma City to play the Thunder a week from tomorrow. The Brooklyn Nets visit the following Wednesday.

The Nets formerly played in Newark, "Brick City," and Oklahoma City is known as "Bricktown," not to be confused with Brick Township on the Jersey Shore, which also (in their case, incorrectly) gets called "Bricktown" or "Brick Town."

Judging by how the fans of OKC have embraced their 1st real major league sports team -- the USFL's Oklahoma Outlaws played in Tulsa, as do the WNBA's Tulsa Shock, and, besides, those are hardly major leagues -- it can safely be said that the people of Oklahoma City deserved their own team. But not the Seattle SuperSonics: They should have gotten either an expansion team or a team whose fans weren't supporting it.

But we should not hold Oklahoma accountable for that. Besides, it's not like they went out of their way to steal a team: It was the owner who bought the Sonics and moved them, because he didn't like Seattle's Key Arena.

No, don't hold Oklahomans responsible for stealing the Sonics -- they didn't. If you want to knock them for something, knock them for electing Tea Party dimwits to public office.

Before You Go. Oklahoma is part of the Great Plains region. There aren't a lot of trees to shade you or to block the wind. As a result, it gets beastly hot in the summer, and brutally cold in the winter. This will be late November, so cold could have been expected.

However, the website for The Daily Oklahoman is predicting low 60s for Friday and Saturday afternoon, and low 40s for Friday night. And it could be wet: Rain is predicted for both days. And since you're liable to be outdoors for some of the time, you should bring a jacket and an umbrella.

Oklahoma City -- indeed, the entire State except for the westernmost Panhandle, which is on Mountain Time -- is in the Central Time Zone, 1 hour behind New York. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.

Tickets. The Thunder averaged 18,203 fans per home game last season -- a sellout every game. They're the only game in town -- the Sooners are a 45-minute drive away -- and have been fully embraced by a populace used to following just the one sport, college football. Getting tickets will be tough.

The Thunder are restricting online ticket sales to residents of Oklahoma and the surrounding States:

*** VERY IMPORTANT !! *** Sales to the Oklahoma City Thunder 2015-2016 Home Games at Chesapeake Energy Arena will be restricted to residents of Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. Residency will be based on credit card billing address. Orders by residents outside of this area will be cancelled without notice and refunds given. This restriction does not apply to resale tickets. 

I guess they don't want opposing fans "taking over the ballpark." I'm not sure how big a problem that is. Maybe they got upset by fans coming in for the 2012 NBA Finals to root for LeBron James instead of the Thunder.

Tickets in the lower level, the 100 sections, are $191 between the baskets and $89 behind them. The 200 level is club seating, and available only to season ticketholders. The Balcony and Loft level, the 300 sections, has seats going for $95 between the baskets and $53 behind them.

Getting There. It's 1,451 miles from Madison Square Garden to the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Knowing this, your first reaction is going to be to want to fly. (And, since I'm late again, it will be your only reasonable option.)

You won't get a nonstop flight. There are any number of cities in which you would have to change planes, depending on the airline: Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, for example. But if you play your cards right, you could get a round-trip flight for under $500. Will Rogers World Airport is southwest of downtown, but there is no local bus service between them.

Amtrak isn't all that convenient to OKC. You'd have to board the Cardinal at Penn Station at 6:45 AM Eastern Time, then arrive at Union Station in Chicago at 10:05 AM Central Time the next morning, then there's a 3-hour, 40-minute layover until the Texas Eagle leaves at 1:45 PM, and it arrives in Fort Worth the next day at 1:25 PM, and then you'd have to change trains again, with a 4-hour layover -- in Fort Worth, not the despised but much more modern city of Dallas -- before taking the Heartland Flyer at 5:25, finally arriving in Oklahoma City at 9:23 PM. That's 62 hours and 38 minutes. And it's $510 round-trip. And the Cardinal doesn't even leave New York every day. Not worth the hassles. At any rate, the station is on Gaylord Blvd., between Reno and Sheridan Avenues, just 2 blocks from the arena -- sure, now, at the end, it's convenient.

On Greyhound, the trip is much shorter, about 39 hours, and you only have to transfer once, and, believe me, 4 hours in Chicago is good. (More hours in Chicago is better, but that's a story for another time.) It's also possible that your transfer may be in Kansas City. The round-trip fare is $372, but can drop to as little as $278 with advanced purchase. The station is at 1948 E. Reno Avenue at Martin Luther King Avenue, on the same street as the arena, but 2 miles to the east, so what it makes up for in convenience during the trip, it blows up at the end -- the opposite of Amtrak.

If you decide to drive, it’s far enough that it will help to get someone to go with you and split the duties, and to trade off driving and sleeping. You’ll need to get on the New Jersey Turnpike, and take Interstate 78 West across New Jersey, and at Harrisburg get on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which at this point will be both I-70 and I-76. When the two Interstates split outside Pittsburgh, stay on I-70 west. You’ll cross the northern tip of West Virginia, and go all the way across Ohio (through Columbus), Indiana (through Indianapolis) and Illinois. When you cross into Missouri, you'll be in St. Louis. Switch to Interstate 44 West, the Will Rogers Turnpike, and take that across southern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma. Outside Edmond, you'll turn onto Interstate 35 South, then onto Interstate 40 West, taking Exit 150B for downtown Oklahoma City and the Arena.

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and 15 minutes in New Jersey, 5 hours in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes in West Virginia, 3 hours and 45 minutes in Ohio, 2 hours and 30 minutes in Indiana, 2 hours and 30 minutes in Illinois, 5 hours in Missouri, and 3 hours and 30 minutes in Oklahoma before arriving. That’s going to be nearly 24 hours. Counting rest stops, preferably 6 of them, and accounting for traffic at both ends, it should be about 30 hours.

Once In the City. Oklahoma City, the capital of the State of Oklahoma, was founded in 1889 as a result of the Oklahoma land rush, after the former Indian Territory was legally (if not morally) opened up to white settlers. (As a result, their minor-league baseball team was long called the 89ers.) The name comes from the Choctaw tribe, meaning "red people."

It's a decent-sized city, with about 580,000 people, but the metropolitan area is small, just 1.3 million. This makes it the 2nd-smallest market in the NBA, larger than only Salt Lake City, home of the Utah Jazz. It would also be the smallest in MLB, larger than only Buffalo in the NFL, and smaller than all U.S.-based NHL cities except Buffalo, though it would also be larger than Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg.

The sales tax in the State of Oklahoma is 4.5 percent, but in Oklahoma City it nearly doubles to 8.375 percent. Gaylord Blvd. divides street addresses into east and west, while Sheridan Avenue divides them into north and south. Oklahoma City doesn't have a subway or a light rail system (not surprising, they're more Southern than Midwestern), but they are planning a light rail system. EMBARK buses charge just $1.75.

Going In. The Thunder's building opened in 2002 as the Ford Center, but became the Chesapeake Energy Arena in 2011. When the Thunder reached the NBA Finals in 2012, the exposure of the arena's name caused the namesake company's stock to surge. The address is 100 W. Reno Avenue, and the arena is bounded by Reno, Gaylord Blvd., 3rd Street and Robinson Avenue, which is known as Thunder Drive as it passes the arena. Parking is $8.00.
The building is in the usual post-Camden Yards style, with concourses for each level. The court is laid out northwest to southeast. It remains a college basketball center (having hosted the Big 12 Conference Tournament), and a site for pro wrestling and Ultimate Fighting. It has also hosted minor-league hockey, but currently does not.
Interior shot, showing the original Ford Center name

Food. Levy Restaurants runs the concessions at Chesapeake Energy Arena. In addition to the usual array of stands selling typical sports-stadium food, they have, according to the arena's website:

* The Jack Daniels Old No. 7 Club is located on the 100 level concourse at section 114-115. Old No. 7 provides a trendy and unique atmosphere with full bar offerings and several beers on tap. A selection of appetizers are available in this local hot spot.

* The Center Court Carvery is located on the 100 level concourse at section 114-115 across from the Jack Daniels Old No. 7 Club. Center Court Carvery provides a unique, upscale dining experience with a full buffet at each game featuring carved meat options, an assortment of salads, potatoes, vegetables and breads. A carved sandwich option with one side is also available for those looking for something quick, yet filling. Center Court Carvery’s buffets change nightly, so check back often to see what’s on the cutting board at Center Court!

* Center Court Grill is the new urban hot spot for guests inside Chesapeake Energy Arena. Center Court Grill will be open 2 1/2 hours prior to every Thunder home game for ticket holders. The restaurant will also be open for ticketed concerts and other select ticketed events throughout the year. Center Court Grill features a menu that has a balance between grilled entrees, sandwiches and house-made BBQ.

Team History Displays. As the newest team in the NBA, dating back to 2008 (though one of its older franchises, dating back to 1967), the Thunder's history is nearly all that of the Seattle SuperSonics. While it should be noted that they have made the Playoffs every full season since moving in -- 7 so far -- being stuck in the Western Conference with the Los Angeles Lakers, the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs has put a limit on their development. (Indeed, since 1998, the count of Western Conference titles is as follows: L.A. 7, San Antone 6, Dallas 2, Golden State Warriors 1, OKC 1.

The Thunder have won their Division in 4 of the last 5 seasons, and hang 4 white banners with blue lettering to denote this. They also hang a blue banner with white lettering to denote their 2012 Western Conference title. As the Sonics, they previously won the 1979 NBA title; the West in 1978, 1979 and 1996; and the Pacific Division in 1979, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2005, but they make no mention of this at the Arena. The Sonics' banners, and those of the WNBA's Seattle Storm, remain at the Key Arena at Seattle Center.
The Sonics retired 6 uniform numbers, and, with them in the rafters at the Key Arena, hung a banner for broadcaster Bob Blackburn. Except for 10, for guard Nate McMillan from their 1996 Western Conference Champions, all of those numbers (as well as Blackburn) were from their 1978 Western Conference Champions and their 1979 NBA Champions: 1, guard Gus Williams; 19, guard Lenny Wilkens (who, by that point, was a non-playing coach, but did play 4 years for the Sonics); 24, forward Spencer Haywood; 32, guard Fred "Downtown" Brown; and 43, center Jack Sikma. The 20 of Gary Payton and the 40 of Shawn Kemp from the 1996 team might have been retired had the Sonics still been in Seattle when they retired.

For the moment, none of those 8 numbers are worn by any Thunder players, nor have they been. But neither do they hang in the arena's rafters, so their status is open to question. My guess is that the Thunder's management is waiting until Seattle gets a new (expansion or moved) team, at which point the Sonics' records and achievements will be officially given back to them, and the Thunder can then give those numbers out with a clear conscience. (Or a mostly-clear one: It's still an unfairly moved franchise, although, as I said, you can't blame the people of Oklahoma for that.)

Stuff. Concession stands selling team merchandise are scattered throughout the arena. I can find no reference to where in the arena a team store is located, but I find it hard to believe that an organization as professional as the Thunder have been the last 6 seasons would not have at least one large one. Since Oklahoma likes to think of itself as a Western State, you may be able to buy cowboy hats with team logos on them.

As they are not yet a historic franchise, there aren't many books about the Thunder. Nate LeBoutillier has written The Story of the Oklahoma City Thunder as part of the NBA's A History of Hoops book series. (I wonder if it goes over the history of the SuperSonics, or if it just mentions them as the Thunder's predecessors.) As part of the NBA's The Inspirational Story of Basketball Superstar...
series, Bill Redban has written books about Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. These are, admittedly, unauthorized biographies.

There aren't yet team DVDs of the Thunder, but there is a movie about them: Thunderstruck, a cross between Freaky Friday and Space Jam, in which a kid unwittingly and magically exchanges basketball abilities with Kevin Durant, as in the kid becomes a high school basketball star, while Durant can't buy a basket. Amazon.com has Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team, but that's more for the Seattle fan.

During the Game. You do not need to worry about wearing Knicks or Nets gear as an opposing fan against the Thunder. Their main rivals are the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs, and their fans don't get rough with them, so they won't get rough with you.

Nevertheless, having just the 1 team in the 4 major league sports -- not even in MLS, and the WNBA's Tulsa Shock are a ways off -- the same effect applies to the Thunder as applies to NBA-only cities like San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Sacramento and Portland, where the team means everything. (To be fair, San Antonio also has a WNBA team, while Salt Lake and Portland have the WNBA and MLS.) As Bill Simmons, in a rare thoughtful moment for him, wrote for ESPN:

With the possible exception of  Portland, no NBA team means more to its city. This goes beyond having the loudest fans. There's genuine devotion here. These people arrived a good 45 minutes early for last night's Game 1 — and by "these people" I mean "everyone with a ticket" — then clapped their way through pregame warm-ups with such infectious enthusiasm that I remember saying to a friend, "No way these yahoos keep this up for three hours, they're going to burn out." Wrong. You know what burned out? My eardrums. My head is still ringing.

Simmons speculated that the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing played a major part in the team's culture, noting that Thunder general manager Sam Presti has every new Thunder player visit the memorial to the event, and encourages players to look into the stands and consider that many of the team's fans were personally affected by the event.

On February 17, 2009, Rumble the Bison was introduced as the Thunder's mascot during the halftime of a game against, appropriately enough, the team that used the arena (then still named the Ford Center) as their temporary home after Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Hornets. Rumble was a big hit in that 1st season, and was awarded the 2008–09 NBA Mascot of the Year. Although I'm not sure having a mascot with a "beard" that covers up the team name on his jersey is a good idea. They also have the Thunder Girls cheerleaders.
Rumble don't wanna work. He just wanna bang on the drum all day.

The Thunder hold auditions for singing the National Anthem, instead of having a regular singer. The OKC-based band The Flaming Lips rewrote their song "Race for the Prize," giving it the title "Thunder Up," to use as a team fight song. The words "Thunder Up" have also become a team slogan.

Like fans of the Winnipeg Jets hockey team, Thunder fans tend to wear white T-shirts in the stands, providing a "Whiteout" effect that supposedly distracts opposing players. (How much it does so is debatable.)
After the Game. In Oklahoma City, the violent crime rate is one of the highest in the nation. However, if you stick to the downtown area, you should be safe.

Most of the notable places to eat are to the northeast of the arena, across the railroad tracks and closer to the ballpark. Mickey Mantle's Steakhouse -- unlike the now-closed restaurant named for him on New York's Central Park South, it didn't open until after he died -- is across the street from the ballpark, at 7 S. Mickey Mantle Drive.

Bricktown Brewery, Spaghetti Warehouse, TapWerks Ale House, Pearl's Crabtown and the Wormy Dog Saloon (I swear, I am not making that name up) are along E. Sheridan Avenue. Jazmo'z Bourbon Street Café and Whiskey Chicks are along Reno Avenue.

Sidelights. Oklahoma's sports history includes Jim Thorpe, Johnny Bench, and Yankee Legends Mickey Mantle, Bobby Murcer and Allie Reynolds. And then there's all those college football legends, although not every OU and OSU legend was originally from Oklahoma.

* Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Opened in 1998, this is the home of the Oklahoma City Dodgers, now the top farm team of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Previously, they were known as the 89ers and the RedHawks. They haven't yet won a Pennant since moving into the Class AAA Pacific Coast League (and Oklahoma isn't exactly on any coast), but they have won Division titles in 1999, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2015.

Every street bordering the ballpark is named for a local legend. The official address is 2 S. Mickey Mantle Drive, but outside the ballpark it's Walnut Avenue. It runs along the 3rd base side. Reno Avenue runs along the 1st base side, where it is named Johnny Bench Drive. The right field side is Russell M. Perry Avenue, except next to the ballpark where it is Joe Carter Avenue, after the Toronto Blue Jays legend. And a street that only exists for a few blocks along the left field side is named for the aforementioned local band, Flaming Lips Alley. A statue of Mantle is outside the park.

Prior to the new ballpark opening, the team was known as the Oklahoma City 89ers, and competed in the Class AAA American Association. They played at All Sports Stadium, and won Pennants in 1963, 1965, 1992 and 1996. It was located in State Fair Park at 333 Gordon Cooper Blvd. at Eighty-Nine Drive, about 5 miles west of downtown. Number 38 bus from downtown.

According to an April 24, 2014 article in The New York Times, the most popular MLB team in Oklahoma City, according to Facebook Likes, is the Texas Rangers, which is not surprising, since they are the closest team, 209 miles away. However, they get only about 20 percent of the fans, and the Yankees and Red Sox are not far behind. By the time we got into Tulsa town, them bears was a-gettin' smart... Sorry, drifted into C.W. McCall's "Convoy" there. But before you get all the way from OKC to Tulsa, it becomes mainly St. Louis Cardinals territory. The Kansas City Royals? You need to get into northernmost Oklahoma, near the Kansas State Line, to find their fans, although that may have changed in the 7 months since the article, due to the Royals having won the Pennant last month.

According to a September 5, 2014 article in The Atlantic Monthly, when it comes to the NFL, the most popular team in the entire State of Oklahoma -- and all of Texas except the part around Houston, and all but the northwesternmost part of New Mexico, and all but the southeasternmost part of Arkansas -- is Dallas Cowboys territory. The Cowboys are 210 miles away. Fans of the Kansas City Chiefs and the St. Louis Rams, and even the Denver Broncos, not that far from the western tip of the Oklahoma Panhandle, need not apply. Dallas is also home to the nearest NHL team, the Stars, 204 miles away.

* Site of Oklahoma City Bombing. In 1977, the federal government opened the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, named for a federal judge whom U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren had called "one of the foremost figures in the American judiciary." He was not widely known outside Oklahoma, but nearly 20 years after his death, his name became ingrained into the American memory. Since 1963, Timothy McVeigh, who carried out the bombing, is the only prisoner ever executed by the federal government.

This wasn't the first plot to bomb the building: A man named Richard Snell, a member of a "Christian" extremist group, had threatened to blow the buildup up with a van bomb, perhaps inspiring McVeigh to use the same method. He was convicted of an unrelated murder, and his execution was set for April 19, 1995 -- the very day that the building was destroyed by a bomb anyway. The execution happened as scheduled.

A memorial to the 168 victims of the worst domestic terrorist attack in American history is now on the site. 200 NW 5th Street & N. Harvey Avenue, about 7 blocks north of the arena. A new federal building was built on a 2-city-block site, 1 block north and west of the former site. It carries out the same functions as the former building, hosting regional offices for the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Secret Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, recruiting offices for the Army and the Marine Corps, and, most significant in McVeigh's mind, as he was seeking revenge for the Ruby Ridge incident of 1992 and the Waco incident exactly 2 years earlier on April 19, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

* Other Historic Sites. The State Capitol (or State House, if you prefer) is at 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd. at NE 23rd Street, about 3 miles northeast of the arena. Number 2 bus. The Oklahoma History Center is to the immediate northeast of the State House, at 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive at Lincoln Blvd. According to its website, "The goal is to span the entire breadth of Oklahoma's diverse history from Native Americans to oil."

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is a short walk from the Arena, at 415 Couch Drive at Walker Avenue. Contrary to an easy guess, it does not specialize in Western-themed and Native American art. If those interest you, you can visit the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, at 1700 N. 63rd Street, off Grand Blvd., northeast of downtown. Number 22 bus.

The Beatles never performed in Oklahoma, but Elvis Presley did, including a few times before he was nationally known. He did 2 shows at the Oklahoma City Municipal Auditorium on October 16, 1955, and 2 more on April 19, 1956. (There's that date again.) It's now named the Civic Center Music Hall. 201 N. Walker Avenue at Lee Avenue, about a mile northwest of the arena.

He also performed at the Fair Ground Arena, next-door to the All Sports Stadium (and also since demolished) on November 16, 1970. He also performed at the Myriad Convention Center on July 2, 1973; July 8, 1975; and May 29, 1976. Seating 13,846, this arena, now named the Cox Convention Center, is across Reno Avenue from the Chesapeake Energy Center, which augmented it, rather than replacing it, as it still hosts lots of conventions.

The University of Oklahoma is in Norman, 23 miles south of Oklahoma City, and plays its football games at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Originally built in 1923 as Owen Field, it now seats 82,112 people. Led by running back Tommy McDonald and center-linebacker Jerry Tubbs, from 1953 to 1957 the Sooners won 47 straight games, a college football record. (Both the last team and the next team to beat them was Notre Dame.)

The stadium was the site of the 1971 "Game of the Century," when Oklahoma and Nebraska, a great rivalry which has fallen by the wayside as they've gone into separate leagues, played each other on Thanksgiving Day, with the Sooners ranked Number 1 and the Cornhuskers ranked Number 2. Nebraska won, and went on to win the National Championship. But the Sooners have won 7 National Championships: 1950, 1955 and 1956 under Bud Wilkinson; 1974 and 1975 under Chuck Fairbanks; 1985 under Barry Switzer, and 2000 under current coach Bob Stoops.

Oklahoma has had 5 winners of the Heisman Trophy: 1952 running back Billy Vessels, 1969 running back Steve Owens, 1978 running back Billy Sims, 2003 quarterback Jason White and 2008 quarterback Sam Bradford. Their litany of football legends also includes Pro Football Hall-of-Famers Tommy McDonald and Lee Roy Selmon, and All-Pros Greg Pruitt, Joe Washington, Dewey Selmon, Tony Casillas and Keith Jackson (not the sportscaster, who did have to call some of his games). It also includes Bob Kalsu, a Buffalo Bills tackle who was killed in action in Vietnam; Brian Bosworth, the linebacker known more for his attitude and "style" than his playing; and, ironically, the 1949 quarterback who became the greatest coach ever at their biggest rivals -- not Oklahoma State, but the University of Texas: Darrell Royal.

The stadium is located at 180 W. Brooks Street & S. Jenkins Avenue. The OU (never "UO," even though that's more correct) campus can be reached from Oklahoma City via the Number 24 bus. The ride takes about an hour.

Oklahoma State University is in Stillwater, 67 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. They play at Boone Pickens Stadium, formerly named Lewis Field. Built in 1920, it was the oldest stadium in the former Big 8 Conference, and is now the oldest in the league currently (but erroneously) known as the Big 12. It seats 60,218. Oil baron T. Boone Pickens, an OSU alum, had donated $165 million to his alma mater to boost their athletic facilities.

Their stars have included 1940s halfback Bob Fenimore, Super Bowl-winning Dallas Cowboy and chewing tobacco spokesman Walt Garrison, 4-time Super Bowl-winning Pittsburgh Steeler tackle Jon Kolb, Cleveland Browns All-Pro tackle Jerry Sherk, 1988 Heisman Trophy winner Barry Sanders and current Dallas Cowboys All-Pro receiver Dez Bryant. In the 1940s, they had a 2-way end named Neill Armstrong. Note the extra L: This man did not walk on the Moon. Aside from his name, he's best known as the head coach the Chicago Bears fired in 1981 to make way for Mike Ditka.

The Cowboys have never won a National Championship, although they have won their conference 10 times, most recently taking the Big 12 title in 2011. Pickens Stadium is at 700 W. Hall of Fame Avenue & Hester Street. You're going to need a car to get there.

The OU-OSU rivalry, known as "The Bedlam Series," includes one of the most lopsided college football matchups, maybe the most lopsided among major rivalries: The Sooners have won 84 times, the Cowboys only 18, with 7 ties.

Oklahoma also has decent programs in baseball, track, wrestling, and basketball, having made the NCAA Final in 1947 and 1988 (though losing both times). Oklahoma State, known until 1958 as Oklahoma A&M, won the National Championship in basketball in 1944 and 1945, coached by Hank Iba, and led by one of the first 7-footers, Bob "Foothills" Kurland, who, despite his size and talent, never played in the NBA. They also reached the Final Four in 1949, 1951, 1995 and 2004. They also have the nation's most successful wrestling program (even more National Championships than the University of Iowa), built by coach Ed Gallagher.

OSU's Gallagher-Iba Arena opened in 1938, still uses its original basketball court, and is known as "The Rowdiest Arena in the Country,""The Madison Square Garden of The Plains" and "Mr. Iba's House of Horrors." OU plays basketball at the Lloyd Noble Center.

Tulsa, Oklahoma's other major city, home to 400,000 people, is 106 miles northeast of Oklahoma City -- roughly as far apart as New York and Philadelphia, without the advantage of high-speed rail in between. And yet, Tulsa, the smaller city and not the State Capital, had a permanent "major league" team before OKC did, unless you count the temporary New Orleans-Oklahoma City Hornets. The WNBA's Tulsa Shock, formerly the Detroit Shock, play at the BOK Center. (BOK, at least officially, stands for Bank of Oklahoma.) Opening in 2008, it seats 17,839, a big arena for a city that size.

The University of Tulsa, whose teams are called the Golden Hurricane, play football at Skelly Field at Chapman Stadium, a 30,000-seat facility built in 1930 but heavily renovated since, so that it looks nothing like a stadium from that period. It was home to the Tulsa Roughnecks of the old North American Soccer League, winning the 1983 title. (Another team of that name will has begun play in U.S. soccer's 3rd division, but in a smaller stadium.) The USFL's Oklahoma Outlaws played their one and only season there, in 1984. Steve Largent starred there for the Hurricane, Doug Williams for the Outlaws. S. Florence & E. 8th Streets.

Outside of sports, the most famous native of Oklahoma is probably Will Rogers. The ranch where he was born is on a lake northeast of Tulsa, at 9501 East 380th Road in Oologah. And the Will Rogers Memorial Museum is near it, at 1720 W. Will Rogers Blvd. in Claremore.

Yankee Legend Mickey Mantle was born in Spavinaw, 174 miles northeast of Oklahoma City; grew up in a shotgun shack at 319 S. Quincy Street in Commerce, 198 miles northeast; and played semipro ball, since Commerce High School didn't have a baseball team (though it did have a football team on which he excelled), in towns where 4 States come together: Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas. Joplin, Missouri, just 28 miles northeast of his home, was the site of his 1st pro team, a Class C (equivalent to Class A ball today) team called the Joplin Miners. The house still stands, but while there's been discussions of turning it into a Mantle museum, it remains vacant. Mickey lived his adult life (the off-season part of it, anyway) in Dallas, 205 miles south of Oklahoma City, and is interred there.

Mickey's successor as Yankee center fielder (if you don't count the 2 years he switched positions with 1st baseman Joe Pepitone to ease the strain on his legs in those pre-DH days), Bobby Murcer, lived his whole off-season life in Oklahoma City, graduating from Southeast High School. Like Mantle, he attracted some attention from OU football, but chose baseball instead. Cincinnati Reds superstar Johnny Bench, although born in Oklahoma City, grew up 60 miles to the west, in Binger.

The greatest athlete ever to come from Oklahoma wasn't Mantle, or Murcer, or Bench, or the many great running backs at OU and OSU. It was Jim Thorpe, both the greatest football player and the greatest track and field performer of the 1st quarter of the 20th Century, and a man who once hit .317 in Major League Baseball. The only Oklahoma home of his known to still stand is one he owned from 1917 to 1923, and it's now a museum. 706 E. Boston Avenue in Yale, about 83 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, closer to Tulsa.

There has never been a President who was born or spent significant time in Oklahoma, and so there's no Presidential Library there. Dwight D. Eisenhower was born close to the State Line in Denison, Texas -- but grew up in Abeline, Kansas, and always considered himself to be from there. Herbert Hoover's Vice President was an Oklahoman, Charles Curtis, believed to be the 1st person of Native American descent to serve in the U.S. Congress (and he served in both houses). Typical for Vice Presidents, he tends to get forgotten; then again, Hoover should have been so lucky.

The Devon Energy Center, opening in 2012 at 844 feet, is tallest building in Oklahoma -- indeed, it's the tallest building between Chicago and Dallas. 280 W. Sheridan Avenue at Robinson Street.

Aside from Thunderstruck, the most notable movies set in Oklahoma are the 1940 version of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of WrathThe Outsiders, Far and Away, Twister (as you might guess for a State known as "Tornado Alley"), Elizabethtown and The Killer Inside Me. The TNT crime drama Saving Grace was set in Oklahoma City, hometown of its creator Nancy Miller. While it used some location shots, it was largely filmed in Los Angeles and Vancouver. The HBO series Carnivàle
was also set in Oklahoma, but filmed in Southern California.

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Oklahoma is a long way from New York, but Oklahoma City is no one-horse town in the middle of nowhere. It's an interesting place, and a good place to watch a basketball game. Good luck to anyone going to see the Knicks or the Nets play the Thunder there this season.
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