I had hoped that this weekend's 4-game series in Boston against the Red Sox would be a repeat of the September 7-10, 1978 series that became known as "The Boston Massacre." I wasn't asking for scores of 15-3, 13-2, 7-0 and 7-4. But I was hoping to have gone in 4 games behind the Sox for the lead in the American League Eastern Division, and emerge tied.

Here's how close that came to happening:

* Thursday night: Yanks led 5-2 going into the bottom of the 9th inning, and were ahead 5-4 needing 1 more out to finish the win.

* Friday night: Yanks trailed only 3-2 going into the bottom of the 6th.

* Saturday afternoon: Yanks led 5-4 going into the bottom of the 7th.

* Sunday night: Yanks led 4-3 going into the bottom of the 6th.

Instead, the Red Sox won, 7-5, 7-4, 6-5 and 5-4.

These games were lost because Brian Cashman dealt Joe Girardi a lousy hand by gutting the bullpen, and Girardi played that hand horribly.

This was not a Boston Massacre. This was a Boston Miscue.

So now, the Yankees are 8 games out, and 4 games out in the Wild Card race. When they could have, and should have, had a very serious chance to win the Division and avoid that win-or-go-home Game 163 entirely.

Don't tell me the Yankees were never in it. That's a lie. Don't tell me the Yankees "had to rebuild." That's an even bigger lie. Had they merely split this series, they would have been 4 games back with 13 to go, and would still have had a chance at the Division, especially with 3 more games with the Sox in The Bronx.

Don't tell me the farm system needed to be rebuilt. The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders have won the International League Pennant. The Trenton Thunder made the Eastern League Playoffs. The Tampa Yankees made the Florida State League Playoffs. The Charleston RiverDogs made the South Atlantic League Playoffs as 1st-half champions of their Division. The Staten Island Yankees made the Playoffs. The top 5 teams in the farm system all made the Playoffs.

The Yankees' farm system was fine. It's the major-league team that needed help.

Instead, Cashman and Girardi made a difficult situation worse.

Both must go in the off-season. Because the purpose of the New York Yankees is to win the World Series. And they have not brought us closer to achieving that goal next season, or the season after, or the season after that. They have pushed us further away.

George Steinbrenner would have fired both years ago.

But Hal and Hank Steinbrenner haven't. What will it take? Must Girardi get caught punching out a guy in a bar? Must Cashman, as the old saying goes, be caught with a dead girl or a live boy?

They should be fired on merit. Or, rather lack thereof.

Don't wait until the end of the season. Do it now.

At this point, I'd even take Alex Rodriguez in either post over those two.

I don't want to be one of those guys. The guys who hear about a movie, and say, "The book was better."

But if you liked the baseball-themed movie Field of Dreams, do yourself a favor, and get the book on which it was based: Shoeless Joe, by W.P. Kinsella. You will love it.

*

William Patrick Kinsella was born on May 25, 1935 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He grew up nearby in Darwell, Alberta. Like me, he was taught to read early by his mother, so he was already reading when most kids were struggling with it. The family moved to Edmonton when he was 10, and his literary education came when he worked in his high school's library.

He worked for the Alberta Provincial government, and in 1967 moved to Victoria, the capital of the Province of British Columbia, when he ran an Italian restaurant and drove a taxi. He took writing courses at the University of Victoria, got his bachelor's degree there in 1970 (at the age of 35), and then moved to Iowa, where he got a master's degree at their famed Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1978. This is why he used Iowa as the setting for his most famous work.

He moved back to Alberta, teaching English at the University of Calgary, and spent the rest of his life writing about 2 subjects: Baseball, and the indigenous peoples of North America -- which we Americans have, so frequently, ignorantly called "Indians" but have begun to call "Native Americans" or "First Americans," and the Canadians call "First Nations." About them, Kinsella would publish Dance Me Outside, Scars, Born Indian, Moccasin Telegraph, The Fencepost Chronicles, and others.

In 1979, he began to write a story about a poor Iowa farmer named Ray Kinsella,  who hears a voice in his cornfield, telling him to take steps to bring back to life the 8 Chicago White Sox players banned from baseball for life for their role in the 1919-21 Black Sox Scandal, particularly their best player, the all-time hero of the protagonist's father, Joe Jackson.

Jackson had once played a game in his native South Carolina, before signing a professional contract, with new shoes that didn't fit well, and they hurt his feet, so he took them off and played the rest of the game in just his socks. The nickname that would follow him for the rest of his life, and would become the title of W.P. Kinsella's book, was Shoeless Joe.

SPOILER ALERT: In 1989, the film Field of Dreams was released, based on the book, with significant differences:

* Ray has an identical twin brother, Richard, distinguishable by a scar on his forehead, until Ray bumps into something, and develops an identical scar. The movie mentions no siblings for Ray.

* The author who had written about losing his dream of playing baseball was J.D. Salinger, author of Catcher In the Rye, a book that had a deep effect on W.P. and many other boys of his generation (and later ones). Salinger had used characters named Ray Kinsella and Richard Kinsella (the protagonist and his brother) in stories. He had also written that he had wanted to play for the New York Giants, but never made it, the Giants moved, and the Polo Grounds was torn down. At the time, the real Salinger was living on a hilltop in New Hampshire, and refused to write again or see visitors. In order to avoid a lawsuit, the filmmakers made the author Terence Mann, a fictional black author involved in the 1960s civil rights and antiwar movements, who had wanted to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers, lamented their move and the tearing down of Ebbets Field, used a character named John Kinsella (Ray's father), gave up his causes ("I was the East Coast distributor of 'involved'") after the disastrous year that was 1968, and secluded himself in a small apartment in Boston, where he became a computer programmer, designing ways to teach children to solve conflicts without violence.

* Ray and Salinger -- or "Jerry," as he ends up calling Jerome David Salinger -- do the smart thing and look Archibald Wright "Moonlight" Graham up in The Baseball Encyclopedia (what we used before Wikipedia and Baseball-Reference.com came along), and knew before heading out that he was already dead. In the movie, Ray and Terence don't find out until they get to Graham's adopted hometown of Chisholm, Minnesota. Maybe hoping that Graham was elderly but still alive as they set out worked better for dramatic effect, but their lack of preparation was foolish and out of character, at least for Terence.

* The timeline is moved up. The novel clearly takes place in 1979 (I'll explain later). Ray and Annie don't make mentions of any 1960s activism -- although, unlike the movie's versions of them, they would have been old enough. And Graham's real history is used: His one and only major league appearance is on June 29, 1905, in the middle of a season, the scene where Ray time-travels to see him is in 1955, and he dies in 1965. In the movie, it's 1988, Ray specifically says he was born in 1952 (making him 17 when the 1960s ended and thus unlikely to have been involved in major events or even to have been at Woodstock), Graham's one appearance is in the last game of the 1922 season, he dies in 1972, and Ray's unwitting time-warp brings him to shortly before Dr. Graham dies.

* There's a character and a storyline in the book that didn't make it into the movie. Ray and Annie had bought the farm from Eddie Scissons, an old eccentric who had told the locals that he was the oldest living former Chicago Cub. He gets exposed as a fraud, something Ray had already suspected due to a mistake Scissons had made: He claimed to have played with Cub icons Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance at Wrigley Field, which didn't open until after they had all left the Cubs (although Tinker had played there for the Chicago Whales and returned to the Cubs when they moved in). After his exposure as a fraud, Scissons sees his younger self walk out of the cornfield in a 1908 Cubs uniform and take the mound, but, as penance, gets clobbered, and leaves without recording an out. He dies the next day, and is buried in the outfield, and Ray is now sure that if he looks in The Baseball Encyclopedia where Scissons' name would be, it will be there.

My favorite part of the book concerns the trip back from Chisholm to the farm in Iowa. In a scene that does not appear in the film, Ray, Salinger, and young Archie Graham stop off at Metropolitan Stadium outside Minneapolis to watch the Minnesota Twins play the Yankees. Ray takes a particular interest in the Yankees' banged-up, grumpy but heroic catcher, Thurman Munson, and notes (after the fact) that Munson would die in a plane crash only a few weeks later. (This definitively dates the story: The Yankees visiting the Twins in June 12, 13 and 14, 1979. The Yankees won the opener of the series 4-1, and the Twins took the next 2, 8-7 and 4-2.)

He also mentions going back the next day, and watching the groundskeepers water the field, taking notes on how to do it for his own field back on his farm, and pointing out that, by the time the book was done, the Twins had moved out of The Met and into the downtown Metrodome, which had artificial turf, and didn't need any watering.

*

Shoeless Joe was a bestseller and made Kinsella a literary star, and Field of Dreams made him a legend. He wrote a 2nd baseball novel, The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, about an Iowa minor league team playing the 1908 World Champion Cubs in what turns out to be a days-long game that simply doesn't want to end. It was excerpted in Sports Illustrated at its publication in 1986.

He had also invoked the Cubs in a 1984 story, The Last Pennant Before Armageddon, in which it looks like the Cubs might finally win the National League Pennant for the 1st time since 1945, just as America and the Soviet Union might actually be heading for a nuclear exchange, thus preventing the Pennant -- or, if the Pennant does happen first, preventing anyone from enjoying it for very long. It was very fortuitous: This turned out to be the same year President Ronald Reagan, himself a former broadcaster for the Cubs in Iowa (doing games by telegraph over Des Moines radio station WHO), made a joke about bombing Russia that mistakenly went out during preparations for his weekly radio address; and the Cubs reached the postseason for the 1st time since the 1945 World Series, and came within 1 game of that elusive Pennant, but blew it. The story was adapted for a stage play in 1990.

In 1993, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada; he would later receive the Order of British Columbia. In 1996, his story Lieberman in Love was turned into a short film that won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Somehow, the film had been made without him even knowing about it, until he watched the Oscar telecast and heard it announced. He was not mentioned in the film's credits. Nor did Christine Lahti, the actress who directed it, mention him in her acceptance speech. Variety, the show-business newspaper, took out a full-page ad apologizing to him, and that seemed to settle things.

In 1997, Kinsella was hit by a car. His impact injuries were minor, but he suffered another injury when his head hit he ground. He would later say he lost his senses of smell and taste, and his ability to concentrate. He also developed diabetes. He became embittered about the publishing industry, bemoaning the shrinking audience for academic fiction.

Shortly after his accident, the last novel he had written before it was released: Magic Time, which followed a group of activists from the early 1960s to the late 1970s. I read it. It showed so much promise. It went someplace I didn't want it to go. Timothy Leary, the doctor who became the high priest of LSD, was still alive when Kinsella wrote it, but had died before it came out. Early in he book, Kinsella wrote of the group's first "acid trip," and had one of them think, "Timothy Leary looked like an angel." Toward the end, one of the characters has an "acid flashback," and thinks, "Timothy Leary looked like the Devil."

By the end of the 2000s, he had settled in Yale, British Columbia, a small rural town well inland from the big city of Vancouver and the Provincial capital of Victoria. In a way, he was emulating Salinger, who died in 2010. By that point, Kinsella had begun to write again. In 2011, another baseball novel was published, Butterfly Winter.

His diabates would soon leave him debilitated. On June 18 of this year, physician-assisted suicide was legalized in Canada. Three months later, on September 18, 2016, in Hope, British Columbia, W.P. Kinsella and his doctor took advantage of this law. The author was 81 years old. He was survived by his 4th wife, Barbara; 2 daughters, Erin Kinsella and Shannon Kinsella; 3 stepchildren, Scarlet Gaffney, Aaron Gaffney and Lyn Calendar; and 4 grandchildren.

"I just think magically," he told the Vancouver Sun in 2011. "I always have."

Anyone who reads Shoeless Joe or watches Field of Dreams would have to agree with that.

On Saturday, October 1, Rutgers University will play The... Ohio State University in football, in Columbus.

Refresh my memory: Who thought that RU joining the Big Ten Conference was going to be a good idea?

Before You Go. Columbus can get really hot in the summer, but this game will be played in early October. The Columbus Dispatch website is predicting low 60s for Saturday afternoon, and low 40s for the evening. It should be dry. You should definitely bring a jacket. If you're not going just for the game, but plan to spend Saturday night into Sunday morning in Columbus, bring a winter jacket, and drop it off in your hotel, and switch to it if you're going out on Saturday night.

Columbus is in the Eastern Time Zone, so you won't have to set your clocks back.

Tickets. The legendary ABC Sports college football announcer Keith Jackson called Ohio Stadium "The Big Horseshoe on the Olentangy." It is so big! (How big is it?) The official seating capacity is currently listed as 104,944, making it the 4th-largest non-racing stadium in the world. And yet, that's only 2nd in the Big Ten, behind Michigan Stadium -- but "The Big House" is no architectural marvel. Ohio Stadium is.

What are your chances of getting one of those 104,944 seats? Not good: OSU's average attendance in 2015 was 107,244 -- about 102 percent of capacity. (For comparison's sake: In the same season, their 1st season in the Big Ten, Rutgers averaged 47,723 at their 52,454-seat High Point Solutions Stadium.)

If tickets were available from the school, they'd run between $50 and $105. Most likely, you'll have to order from StubHub or some other ripoff outfit ticket broker. Visiting fan groups (ordering block tickets through their own school) are placed in the upper right corner of the south end zone -- the southwest corner of the stadium, at the open end of the horseshoe.

Getting There. It's 536 miles from Times Square in New York to Capitol Square in Columbus, and 515 miles (and a whole lot of football talent) from Rutgers Stadium to Ohio Stadium.

Flying may seem like a good option, although with a destination city as close as Columbus, you shouldn't have to change planes. If you fly United Airlines, you can go nonstop for as little as $320 round-trip, although you will probably have to pay more like twice that if you don't want to fly out to Port Columbus International Airport or back first thing in the morning.

Amtrak does not go to Columbus. Its main train station was demolished in 1979 to make way for the Columbus Convention Center (which is too bad, because it was just 2 blocks from the Arena), and it is now the largest metropolitan area in America that doesn't have Amtrak access.

Greyhound's run between New York and Columbus is about 14 hours with no change of buses necessary, costing $140, and dropping to as little as $94 with advanced-purchase. The station is at 111 E. Town Street, at 3rd Street, downtown, 2 blocks south of the State House.

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. Take it to Exit 14, to Interstate 78. Follow I-78 west all the way through New Jersey, to Phillipsburg, and across the Delaware River into Easton, Pennsylvania. Continue west on I-78 until reaching Harrisburg. There, you will merge onto I-81. Take Exit 52 to U.S. Route 11, which will soon take you onto I-76. This is the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the nation’s first superhighway, opening in 1940.

The Turnpike will eventually be a joint run between I-76 and Interstate 70. Once that happens, you’ll stay on I-70, all the way past Pittsburgh, across the little northern pandhandle of West Virginia, and into Ohio all the way to Columbus.

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and 15 minutes in New Jersey, 5 hours and 30 minutes in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes in West Virginia, and about 2 hours and 15 minutes in Ohio. That’s about 9 hours and 15 minutes. Counting rest stops, preferably halfway through Pennsylvania and just after you enter Ohio, and accounting for traffic in both New York and Columbus, it should be no more than 11 hours, which would save you time on Greyhound, if not flying.

Once In the City. Founded in 1816, Columbus, named for Christopher Columbus, celebrates its 200th Anniversary this year. It is easily the largest city in Ohio by population, with about 823,000 people, to a mere 397,000 for Cleveland and 298,000 for Cincinnati. But its metropolitan area has just 2.4 million people, still larger than Cincy's 2.2 million but considerably smaller than Cleveland's 3.5 million, because Cleveland has a much larger suburban area.

High Street, the main drag for Ohio State students, is the street address divider between East and West, and Broad Street serving as the divider between North and South. The southeaster corner of High & Broad includes Capitol Square, with the State House. The sales tax in the State of Ohio is 5.75 percent, rising to 7.5 percent in Franklin County, including the City of Columbus.

The Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) runs buses, but no rapid transit rail system: No subway, no elevated, no light rail, no commuter rail. The fare is $2.00.

Going In. The most famous building in the State of Ohio is Ohio Stadium, or, as ABC Sports' legendary college football announcer Keith Jackson called it, The Big Horseshoe On the Olentangy -- home field of the school usually referred to as "THE... Ohio State University." It opened in 1922, and its address is 411 Woody Hayes Drive (formerly Woodruff Avenue). It is 3 1/2 miles north of downtown, and can be reached by the Number 18 bus. If you're driving in, parking is $20.
Do you know of any other college football stadium with stained-glass windows in its main entrance? Ohio Stadium has them inside its northern entrance. It has the arched entrances so common to college football stadiums built in the 1920s, particularly in the Midwest.
Officially, capacity is set at 104,944 seats. So far, they've topped out at 108,975 fans, for last season's game against Michigan State, which they lost 17-14. (Ohio State came in ranked Number 3 in the nation, Michigan State Number 9, so it wasn't a big upset.)
The stadium is, as previously stated, in a horseshoe shape, with the south end being the open end. The field is aligned north-to-south, and is made of FieldTurf.

The stadium also hosted the Ohio Glory of the World League of American Football in 1992, and the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer from 1996 to 1998. The enormous size of the stadium led the Crew to close off the upper deck and the south stand, so soccer capacity was usually 25,243, although they topped out at 31,550 for a game against our MetroStars (now the New York Red Bulls) in 1996.

Pink Floyd hosted the 1st concert at the stadium in 1988, and the record attendance for a single-act concert is 75,250 for their return visit in 1994. Last year, they sold over 90,000 tickets to the Buckeye Country Superfest, including Blake Shelton, Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban. Two months later, One Direction got a mere 31,626 -- although that would have filled the Blue Jackets' arena and then some.

Food. Being in Big Ten Country, where tailgate parties are practically a sacrament, you would expect Ohio Stadium to have lots of good options. Unfortunately, the school's website is rather vague about it, saying only the following:

Levy Restaurants is excited to offer fans this season a variety of game day options -- from gluten-free (located at 19A) to in-house smoked BBQ (located at 15A), to fan favorites, such as hot dogs, bratwurst, popcorn, pretzels and nachos (offered at stands throughout the stadium), there is something for everyone!

Alcohol is served inside this college stadium, however sales are cut off with 10 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. (Presumably, to handle overflow from people hitting concession stands at halftime.)

Team History Displays. Ohio State has won the league now known as the Big Ten Conference 35 times, the 1st time in 1906, the most recent time in 2014. They claim 8 National Championships: 1942 under head coach Paul Brown, later the 1st coach of the Cleveland Browns and the founding owner of the Cincinnati Bengals; 1954, 1957, 1961, 1968 and 1970 under Woody Hayes (although the 1970 one, awarded to them by the National Football Foundation, is dubious, since they lost the Rose Bowl); 2002 under Jim Tressel; and 2014 under current coach Urban Meyer.

There is no display for the Conference Championships in the field area, but stanchions for the National Championships are shown in the northwest corner.
Apparently, to get your uniform number retired at Ohio State, you need to have won the Heisman Trophy, and have graduated more than 10 years ago: Number 22, running back Les Horvath, 1944; Number 31, running back Vic Janowicz, 1950; Number 40, running back Howard "Hopalong" Cassady, 1955; Number 45, running back Archie Griffin, 1974 and 1975, the only 2-time Heisman winner; and Number 27, Eddie George, 1995. Quarterback Troy Smith won it in 2006, but his Number 10 remains in circulation. The retired numbers are on display in the northeast corner.
Since 1934, every OSU First Team All-American has been recognized by the planting of a buckeye tree and installation of a plaque in Buckeye Grove, now located near the southwestern corner of Ohio Stadium, next to Morrill Tower. Trees are planted in ceremonies held prior to the Spring Game. All 126 Buckeye All-Americans dating back to 1914 have been so honored.
Stuff. According to the school website, "Authentic Buckeye merchandise may be purchased throughout the Stadium. The Official Team Shops are located at Section 11A, 12A, 23A, 24A, 16C, in the south stands and in the Huntington Club. A customized jersey stand is located near Section 16A. For additional merchandise, please visit www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com."

There are lots of good books about Ohio State football, including the about-to-be-published Ohio State Football: The Forgotten Dawn, about the program's early days, by Robert J. Roman, a New Yorker but also an OSU graduate.

David Hyde's 1968: The Year that Saved Ohio State Football and Michael Rosenberg's War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest both tell of the 1968 season as the one that turned Hayes from a relic who may have needed to be pushed aside into both relic and icon at the same time.

The latter book tells of "The Ten-Year War," in which Wayne Woodrow Hayes and Glenn Edward Schembechler Jr. -- who played for him at Miami University of Ohio, coached under him at Ohio State, and then became head coach at Michigan -- had what looked like the ultimate college football rivalry from 1969 (when Bo's Wolverines ended Woody's long winning streak and ended talk of "the greatest college football team of all time) until 1978 (when Woody ended his career by punching a Clemson player in the Gator Bowl). 

This is my 2,500th published post.

Number 1: September 26, 2007, titled "The Big Premiere," introducing the blog. The post was not about any subject in particular.

Number 100: December 10, 2008, "Oh, Say, Can You CC? Yes, We Can! And Flash In the Hall," about the Yankees signing CC Sabathia as a free agent, and Yankee Legend Joe "Flash" Gordon being elected by the Veterans Committee to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Number 500: November 10, 2010, "Jeter Deserved His Gold Glove." Yes, he did.

I had listed my post of May 17, 2012, as "My 1,000th Post: Top 10 Events That Defined This Era." But that was counting all posts listed in my blog, including those that had, for whatever reason, not yet been published.

The actual Number 1,000, as it turned out: June 9, 2012, "Yankees Bring Santana Down to Earth," about a 9-1 Yankees win over The Other Team and their "ace," The Great Johan Santana.

Number 1,500: January 10, 2014, "Baseball Hall-of-Famers By Team," a piece I update every year. That year, the new inductees (via the Writers' Association) were Frank Thomas, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine.

Number 2,000: August 7, 2015, "CC and Ells Bounce Back, Beat The Scum." Always good to have a Yankee victory over the Boston Red Sox to report.

Now, Number 2,500: September 25, 2016: "How to Watch a Game With Me." This is a takeoff on my "How To Be a (Name of Local Team) Fan In (Name of City)" series.

*

First, note where the game will be: Live, in a bar, or in a private home. There will be different rules for each.

If It's Live 

I will dress for the game. If it's Major League Baseball's New York Yankees, I will wear my cap. I have many caps, acquired over 30 years of adult sports fandom, but there's 2 that get regular usage: A cap for regular usage, and a cap I use only for gamedays, which is going to be considerably cleaner.

If it's the National Hockey League's New Jersey Devils, I'll wear a cap and my jersey with my name on it. Remember, they can never trade you, or choose not to re-sign you to save money. And you don't retire. Players come and go, but your fandom is forever. So having your own name on the back isn't stupid or childish, it's a badge of honor.

If it's the football team or the basketball team at Rutgers University, I have a cap and a sweatshirt.

I have several shirts of English Premier League team Arsenal Football Club, including a throwback from their 1971 "Double" season, which I wore when they came to America to play a friendly against the New York Red Bulls. Which one I would wear if I ever actually went to London remains to be decided.

I will not paint any part of my body. I painted my face for 1 high school basketball game in 1986, and regretted it. I won't do it again. I once asked a Rutgers student painted from the waist up, head and hair included, how long it took to get it done. He said it was 20 minutes. That's nuts. They called me "Crazy Mike" in high school, but I was never that crazy, and I certainly am not now.

There is only one way to go to the game, and that's on the Subway. If the city in question doesn't have one, a light rail system will do. If it doesn't have that, either, I will make the sacrifice of going on a bus.

I like to arrive early, and explore the venue, including any feature they may have such as the Yankees' Monument Park. A team hall of fame, statues, things like that. I also want to know where the best place to get food is within the stadium or arena, and where the closest restroom is to my seat. I will want to take care of "output," then "input," before the first pitch/kickoff/tipoff/faceoff/opening whistle. Once the game begins, I want my food tray in my lap and my drink in the cupholder. This way, I don't have to wait until halftime (or, in the case of hockey, the 1st or 2nd intermission) to get my lunch/dinner. If I still need something, I can use that time for a snack or an additional drink, or an additional trip to the can, and probably spend less time on line.

I usually don't drink beer at a live game. It's not just the ridiculous prices that the concessionaires charge. I generally don't like beer. There are maybe 5 or 6 brands that I can drink without making a face. And Budweiser is not one of them. Nor is Bud Light. Certainly not Coors Light. I once tried to type that it was "barley-flavored water." It came out "barely-flavored water." I left it alone, because that's true, too! This will be very different if I'm at a bar or at someone's house.

I will stand for the National Anthem. I will not sing it, because I'm a lousy singer. The exception is if my team is playing a Canadian team. Then, I sing "O, Canada" -- in French. (Yes, I know the words, and, when translated into English, they're a bit different from the English version.) This pleases visiting Montreal Canadiens fans. It angers Toronto Blue Jays and Maple Leafs fans. Fans of the Edmonton Oilers and the other Canadian NHL teams just think it's weird.

It matters whether the game will involve one of my teams. If it does, I will be very much into it. The word "intense" comes to mind. If it doesn't, my attitude will be very different. I will be a lot calmer. Though I still reserve the right to question the decision of an umpire/referee. Out loud.
If it's a high school game, the standards are different. You don't yell things at a kid that you would yell at an adult. Although, since the regular readers of this blog generally aren't fellow EBHS graduates, we almost certainly won't be going to a high school sporting event together.

If it's college, then I don't care if they're not professionals: They're still adults, and poor play is fair game. I was once at a Rutgers game where the season started with a great deal of promise, and by the end of the 1st quarter, the entire season was effectively over. Complete incompetence. Now, I wasn't calling them "bums" or worse, but I was yelling that they had to block better, that they had to tackle better, that they had to hang onto the ball. And this woman across the aisle yells and me for not supporting the team. I had paid $50 to get into the game, and the least I should get for my money is the right to say what I want if I don't get competent product.

Any official -- umpire, referee, or whatever -- gets a light jab the 1st time in a game that he gets a call wrong. The 2nd time, I let him know he's getting on my nerves. The 3rd time and thereafter, he's a bum. Or worse. I might use the "Where's your father... " song from English soccer. But I will not use some of the harder language you might hear at one of those games. (More on that later.)

If the manager or head coach makes what I think is a dumb decision, I reserve the right to say so. If he turns out to be right, I'll admit it. If I turn out to be right, I reserve the right to say, "I told you so!" Or something harsher.

I will curb my language if there's kids around. If not, the "George Carlin words" may well fly.

I will not dance. Especially to "YMCA" or "Cotton Eye Joe." I hate those songs. And so should you.

I may follow the pattern of English soccer fans and adapt a song to a player. This usually doesn't work well. People heard me sing, "One Derek Jeter, there's only one Derek Jeter!" and unless they knew the Premier League, they'd wonder what the hell I was doing. One I miss doing, and the only thing I miss about former Devils star Ilya Kovalchuk, is singing, to the tune of "Jesus Christ, Superstar,""Kovalchuk! Kovalchuk! He scores a goal and the Rangers suck!"

If it's a Devils game, there will be "Rangers suck!" chants, and I will join in. But if it's a Yankee game, it's a little different. It's hard to say, "Red Sox suck!" So they usually say, "Boston sucks!" But I really like Boston as a city. It's the sports teams I hate. So I usually don't join in with "Boston sucks!""Mets suck!" is another matter.

If it's a baseball game, and "God Bless America" is played during the 7th Inning Stretch, I will stand, but I will not sing along. It's been 15 years since 9/11, and it is well past time to retire this tradition. We go to sporting events to escape from the world at large, not to be reminded of it. The National Anthem before the game, I accept; being told to be patriotic when we should be cheering on our local team is overkill. But I do sing along with "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." The definitive version of that is not by an opera singer like the late Robert Merrill, but by the boozy old broadcaster Harry Caray, so if you sing it poorly, you're fine.

If the result seems clear early -- win or lose -- I will be considerably calmer than I will if the result is still in doubt until the end. Words like, "Oy vey,""I can't look" and "I can't take this" may be heard.

If it's an away game, much of what I've said thus far goes out the window. I would be "a guest in someone else's house." So the language would be calmer, even if the ump/ref really screws my team over (intentionally or otherwise). Unlike European and Latin American club soccer, all the visiting fans are not grouped together, so you have to be very careful.

And never, ever mock the host city. It's one thing, if you're at home, to say, "You still have to go live in Detroit!" or, "You still have to live under Mayor/Governor (name of corrupt idiot)!" It's another thing if you're surrounded by people proud of their City or their State. They will defend it, with words, possibly with fists.

At home, surrounded by fellow fans, I will gloat and, as they say in English soccer, "take the piss." On the road, I try to follow the advice of the great football coach Paul Brown: "When you win, say little. And when you lose, say less." Lose, suck it up; win, do not gloat. Smile, yes; enjoy it, yes; gloat in public, no.


If It's In a Bar

Know the clientele. Get a feel for what you can say, and what you shouldn't say. A bar showing an English soccer game will have fans shouting obscenities that you wouldn't hear even at the toughest of baseball, football or hockey bars, like "cunt,""twat" and "wanker." This includes the women.

Knowing the clientele also involves knowing what percentage is rooting for my team. If I'm watching the Yankees, but there's also a Met game on, and there are Met fans in the place, I do as little as possible to engage those troglodytes. But if they try to get into it with me, and the Yankees end up winning, and the Mets end up losing, well, they're fair game.

When it comes to drinking, I pace myself. Soccer, I have a drink in each half. Baseball, 1 for every 3 innings. Hockey, 1 for every period. Football, 1 before the game to get me through the 1st quarter, 1 to get me through halftime, 1 to get me through the 2nd half. That way, I never have more than 1 full drink in my system.

I always pay my check before the game ends, so that, after the game, I can finish my meal and/or drink, and get out. No reason to stick around. Do more drinking? Suit yourself, but I don't need it.

If It's In a Home

Host's house, host's rules. I abide, no matter what. I sit where the host says to sit. If he/she doesn't say where, then any open seat is available. If the host offers a beer, and it's a brand I don't like (most of them), I will politely ask what my other options are. Usually, there will be a good one.

Again, I have to know the character of the "crowd." If they're intense people, I'll be intense. If they're more sedate, I will adjust. If any of the other guests are rooting for the other team, I'll have fewer people having my back than I would in a bar, let alone in a stadium or arena, in which case I'll let the scoreboard do the talking.

I have this nasty habit of overdoing it with chips and dip, and also with shrimp. Keep this in mind; it may cause you to rethink inviting me.

When the host says it's over, Yogi Berra lines aside, it's over. I would almost certainly have been driven by someone else, so we head for the car and go home.

Regardless of where the viewing is: If my team simply did not put up the effort, I will be angrier than if we were cheated by the opposition or the officials (or both). Take that into account.

*

Watching a game with me could be a hazardous and/or exasperating experience. Or it could be fun. Or it could be all of the above.

You have been briefed, and warned.

Baseball was the victim of a tragedy this morning, as José Fernández of the Miami Marlins died in a boating accident.

José D. Fernández -- I don't have a record of what the D. stood for -- was born on July 31, 1992, in Santa Clara, Cuba. He grew up there, as a neighbor and friend of Aledmys Díaz, now the All-Star shortstop of the St. Louis Cardinals. In 2005, his stepfather defected to America. Only 13 years old on the 1st try, José made 3 attempts to defect, but was caught and jailed each time. In 2008, just 15, he made a 4th attempt, with his mother and sister. His mother fell overboard when the boat hit turbulent waters, and he had to dive into the water to save his mother's life. They all made it.

They joined his stepfather in Tampa, where he became a high school pitching star. He had to sue to regain his eligibility for his senior year, as he had attended the 9th grade in Cuba, but he won his case. He did this despite getting a free-agent offer from the Cincinnati Reds, essentially turning down a bonus of $1.3 million -- proving that he wasn't in baseball just for the money.

He was drafted by the Miami Marlins (then in their last year under the Florida Marlins name) in the 1st round in 2011, and accepted a signing bonus of $2 million. A Cuban defector playing ball in Miami? Aside from playing in a liberated Cuba (which still hasn't happened), this was as good as it could get for him.

Before the 2013 season, Baseball America, the definitive source for baseball prospects, rated him the 5th-best in all of organized baseball. He made his debut against the Mets at Citi Field on April 7. "I’ve been in jail," he told the Miami Herald before the game. "I’ve been shot at. I’ve been in the water. I’m not scared to face David Wright. What can he do?"

Wearing the Number 16 that he would keep, he started and pitched 5 innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits, with 8 strikeouts. But Marlins manager Mike Redmond pulled him after 5, and the bullpen blew it, and the Mets won it in the bottom of the 9th, 4-3. What could Wright do? He hit a home run off one of the Marlin relievers, making the Mets' win possible. But that did not diminish the impact of Fernández's arrival in the major leagues.

He was the National League Rookie of the Year in 2013, going 12-6 with a 2.19 ERA, and a sizzling WHIP of just 0.979. He finished 3rd in the NL Cy Young Award voting. He pitched a perfect 6th inning in the All-Star Game at Citi Field.

He even hit a home run against the Atlanta Braves on September 11 of that year. But he flipped his bat and took his time trotting around the bases. Braves catcher Brian McCann, now with the Yankees, didn't like that, and started shouting at him, and a bench-clearing brawl erupted. But Fernández was not intimidated. I guess when you've been in a Cuban jail, a loudmouthed Atlanta Brave isn't going to faze you. They later made peace with each other.

He had a rare bad start in an Interleague game with the Tampa Bay Rays on May 27, but their manager, Joe Maddon (now the manager of the Chicago Cubs), said, "José Fernández might be the best young pitcher I've ever seen, at that age. I believe he will go far."

He battled injuries in 2014 and 2015, going just 4-2 and 6-1 respectively, on the either side of Tommy John surgery. But when he could pitch, his ERAs were still low: 2.44 and 2.92. He was back in form this season. He was 16-8, his ERA was a strong 2.86, and his WHIP 1.119, making him an All-Star for the 2nd time.

His pitches included a 4-seam fastball, a changeup, a sinker and a slurve. (I used to think "slurve" was a portmanteau of "slow curve," but it's actually one of "slider" and "curve," because it's a curveball thrown with the grip used for a slider.)

His last game was on September 20. He pitched 8 shutout innings in a 1–0 win over the Washington Nationals at Marlins Park. He should have started today, and had 1 more start this season afterward.

His career statistics were 38-17, 2.58, 1.054. According to Baseball-Reference.com, the pitcher in baseball's entire history whose performance at age 20 most statistically resembled his was Fernando Valenzuela. The 20th Century pitcher whose stats through his current age most resembled his was Mark Fidrych. 

He had just turned 24. He was on a rising team in a city that doesn't always show it at the box office, but loves baseball. Today's Miami Herald called him "an electric fan favorite." What's more, he had a gorgeous girlfriend, Carla Mendoza, and was about to become a father for the first time.

He could have been told in sincerity what an infamous fictional Miami resident, Tony Montana (played by Al Pacino) in the 1983 remake of the 1932 gangster classic Scarface), was told in jest: "The world is yours."

*

In the middle of the night last night, José Fernández was killed in a boating accident off Miami Beach that also killed 2 others. The Coast Guard found the boat at about 3:15 AM, overturned on a jetty near Government Cut and South Pointe Park, and found 3 victims, 2 on top of the water, and 1 underneath the boat.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation, but the Coast Guard has said that none of the victims were wearing their life vests, suggesting that they didn't realize that they were in danger. The Coast Guard also said that they'd stopped the boat, belonging to a friend of several Marlins players, several times for safety inspections, and never found any infractions. They also said that there’s no evidence that alcohol or drugs played a role in the crash.

It appears from reports that they crashed into a jetty, similar to the boating accident on a Florida lake during 1993 Spring Training that killed Cleveland Indians pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews, and badly injured Bob Ojeda, one of the stars of the 1986 World Champion Mets who was trying to revive his career in Cleveland.

The Marlins canceled their game for today with the Braves. At the press conference announcing this, the Marlins' manager, former Yankee Don Mattingly, said, “When I think about José, I see such a little boy. The way he played, there was just joy with him.” We can probably expect them to retire his Number 16.

“His death is a huge loss for our community,” Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado said in a statement.

Fellow Cuban superstar Yoenis Céspedes had a Number 16 Mets jersey with "FERNANDEZ" made up, and hung it in the Mets' dugout before today's game with the Philadelphia Phillies. Another exciting young Cuban star, Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers, tweeted, “Hermano (brother), wherever you are, you know how much I loved you. Sin palabras. (Without words.) My heart is with the families.”

Met manager Terry Collins said, "This is not only one of the greatest pitchers in the modern game, but one of the finest young men you'd ever meet. He played the game with passion and fun, and enjoyed being out there."

Met pitcher Jacob deGrom, now having to consider Tommy John surgery himself, added, "You never know how long you get to play this game. You don't want to take this for granted. And I don't think he did. Every day, he went out there and gave 100 percent, and he put it all out on the field."

His former antagonist McCann said, "It's sickening. One of those competitors you loved competing against, because you knew he was going to bring his best. He was one of the best pitchers in the game. What he did in a short amount of time was incredible."

Yankee manager Joe Girardi, who managed the Marlins for a year, but well before Fernández got there, never met him, but said, "I don't know how you ever get over it. It's going to be difficult around baseball today. Your thoughts are always going to go back to José, and the Marlins, and the community."

José Fernández's last tweet was on September 19, showing a picture of pregnant Carla Mendoza on the beach, saying, "I'm so glad you came into my life. I'm ready for where this journey is gonna take us together. #familyfirst"

The journey had just gone into high gear. Now, it has stopped, in a shocking way. A woman has lost the love of her life, a child will never know his or her father, many people lost a friend, a team lost a very talented, much-admired teammate, and baseball has lost a star who seemed destined to shine very bright. Now, we simply will never know.

David Ortiz is retiring. This 2016 season has been The Retirement Tour for the man who, for better or for worse, has been the face of baseball exclusively since Derek Jeter retired in September 2014, and side-by-side with Jeter since October 2004.

He has, as of this writing, 540 career home runs -- 4 more than Mickey Mantle, who ingested substances that were most definitely not performance-enhancing -- and has won 3 World Championships.

Of course, he cheated. And don't tell me I have to respect the achievement. Alex Rodriguez got to 500, 600, 660, and ended with 696. Do Red Sox fans respect his achievements? Do they, hell.

*

For the record, here's the 27 current members of the 500 Home Run Club, in chronological order of when they reached it:

1. George Herman "Babe" Ruth, "the Sultan of Swat," Baltimore, Maryland, 1895-1948, right field, New York Yankees, off Willis Hudlin of the Cleveland Indians, at League Park in Cleveland, August 11, 1929.

The 1st player with 138 career home runs, and the 1st to 200, 300, 400, 500, 600 and 700. Held the career home run record from 1921 to 1974. Finished with 714. Hit 659 of them as a Yankee, easily the club's all-time leader. Won 1915, '16 and '18 World Series with the Boston Red Sox; and 1923, '27, '28 and '32 World Series with the Yankees. One of the 1st 5 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. All-Century Team. Number 3 retired and Monument dedicated by the Yankees. East 161st Street outside new Yankee Stadium co-named Babe Ruth Plaza.

2. James Emory Foxx, "Double X" or "the Beast," Sudlersville, Maryland, 1907-1967, 1st base, Boston Red Sox, off Bill Beckmann of the Philadelphia Athletics, at Shibe Park in Philadelphia (where he'd previously played for the A's), September 24, 1940.

The 1st righthanded hitter to do it, his name was nearly always written as "Jimmie," not "Jimmy." He was 32 when he hit Number 500, making him the youngest to do it until A-Rod. (Ruth was 34.) Finished with 534, and remained 2nd behind Ruth until surpassed by Willie Mays in 1966. Won 1929 and '30 World Series with the A's. Hall of Fame. Neither the Athletics (who don't do it for players from their Philadelphia period) nor the Red Sox have retired a number for him (his most common number was 3), but the Red Sox have elected him to their team Hall of Fame.

3. Melvin Thomas Ott, "Master Melvin," Gretna, Louisiana, 1909-1958, right field, New York Giants, off Johnny Hutchings of the Boston Braves, at the Polo Grounds in New York, August 1, 1945.

The 1st National League player to do it, Mel was the NL's all-time leader until surpassed by Mays in 1966. Finished with 511. Won 1933 World Series with Giants. Hall of Fame. Number 4 retired by the Giants.

4. Theodore Samuel Williams, "The Splendid Splinter,""The Thumper" and "The Kid," San Diego, California, 1918-2002, left field, Boston Red Sox, off Wynn Hawkins of the Cleveland Indians, at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, June 17, 1960.

Finished with 521, including a home run in his final career at-bat. Won 1946 American League Pennant with Red Sox, but never a World Series. Hall of Fame. All-Century Team. Number 9 retired and statue outside Fenway Park dedicated by the Red Sox. Lansdowne Street outside Fenway renamed Ted Williams Way.

5. Willie Howard Mays Jr. (not "William"), "the Say Hey Kid," Fairfield, Alabama, born 1931, center fielder, San Francisco Giants, off Don Nottebart of the Houston Astros, at the Astrodome in Houston, September 13, 1965. The 1st to do it indoors, although it wouldn't be until the next year that the Astrodome got baseball's 1st artificial turf. (I don't have footage of his 500th, but here's his 600th.)

Finished with 660. Had been 2nd all-time from 1966 to 1972, when Hank Aaron passed him with Number 649. Became the 2nd player, after Aaron, to have 500 homers and 3,000 hits. Won 1954 World Series with the New York edition of the Giants, including his legendary catch that saved Game 1. Hall of Fame. All-Century Team. Number 24 retired officially by the Giants, and unofficially (with a couple of brief exceptions) by the Mets. Statue dedicated by the Giants outside AT&T Park whose official address is 24 Willie Mays Plaza.

6. Mickey Charles Mantle (not "Michael"), "the Commerce Comet," Commerce, Oklahoma, 1931-1995, center fielder, New York Yankees, off Stu Miller of the Baltimore Orioles, at the original Yankee Stadium in New York, May 14, 1967.

Finished with 536, still the all-time leader among switch-hitters. Hit Number 500 lefthanded. Won 1951, '52, '53, '56, '58, '61 and '62 World Series with the Yankees, 12 Pennants total. Hall of Fame. All-Century Team. Number 7 retired by the Yankees.

7. Edwin Lee Mathews, "Eddie," born in Texarkana, Texas but grew up in Santa Barbara, California, 1931-2001, 3rd base, then with the Houston Astros, off Juan Marichal of the San Francisco Giants, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, July 14, 1967.

Eddie finished with 512. Won 1957 World Series with the Milwaukee Braves, and also the 1958 NL Pennant. He and Aaron hit 863 home runs while teammates, an all-time record. Hall of Fame. Number 41 retired by the Braves after they moved to Atlanta. 

8. Henry Louis Aaron, "Hammerin' Hank" or "Bad Henry," Mobile, Alabama, born 1934, right fielder, Atlanta Braves, off Mike McCormick of the San Francisco Giants, at Atlanta Stadium (later renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium), July 14, 1968, exactly 1 year to the day after Mathews did it (and against the same team).

Hank ended up with 755, making him the all-time leader from 1974 to 2007. His 733 home runs with the Braves franchise (albeit in 2 different cities) are the most with 1 single team. He just edged Willie Mays by a few weeks to become the 1st player to have both 500 home runs and 3,000 hits. Finished with 3,771 hits. This means that even if you took away all 755 of Hank's home runs, he still had over 3,000 hits (3,016). He and Mathews still hold the record for most home runs hit by teammates: 863.

I don't have footage of his 500th home run, but I do have footage of his 715th home run. Won the 1957 World Series with the Milwaukee Braves, winning the Pennant-clinching game (not the season finale) with an 11th-inning home run. Won another Pennant in 1958, and the NL Western Division title in 1969. Hall of Fame, All-Century Team, Number 44 retired by Braves and their successors in Milwaukee, the Brewers.

9. Ernest Banks (no middle name), "Ernie" or "Mr. Cub," Dallas, Texas, 1931-2015, shortstop and later 1st baseman, Chicago Cubs, off Pat Jarvis of the Atlanta Braves, at Wrigley Field, May 12, 1970.

Finished with 512. Never reached the postseason. Hall of Fame. All-Century Team. Number 14 retired and statue dedicated by the Cubs.

10. Harmon Clayton Killebrew, "Harm" or "The Killer" (actually, was renowned as a nice guy), Payette, Idaho, 1936-2011, 3rd baseman and later 1st baseman, Minnesota Twins, off Mike Cuellar of the Baltimore Orioles, at Metropolitan Stadium, August 10, 1971.

Finished with 573, still the leader among righthanded hitters in American League play. Helped the Twins win the 1965 AL Pennant, and the 1969 and '70 AL Western Division titles. Hall of Fame. Number 3 retired and statue dedicated outside Target Field by Twins. The street that separated Metropolitan Stadium from the Metropolitan Sports Center was named Killebrew Drive, and it still exists, as part of the Mall of America complex.

11. Frank Robinson (no middle name), "Robbie" or "The Judge," born in Beaumont, Texas but grew up in Oakland, California, born 1935, right fielder, Baltimore Orioles, off Fred Scherman of the Detroit Tigers, at Memorial Stadium, September 13, 1971, just 34 days after Killebrew reached the mark.

Finished with 586. Won the 1961 NL Pennant with the Cincinnati Reds (and nearly another in 1964). Won the AL Pennant with the Orioles in 1966, 1969, 1970 and 1971, winning the World Series in 1966 and 1970. NL Most Valuable Player in 1961, AL MVP in 1966, making him the only man to win the MVP in both Leagues. Hall of Fame. Number 20 retired by the Reds, who dedicated a statue of him outside Great American Ball Park, and also by the Orioles.

12. Willie Lee McCovey, "Stretch," Mobile, Alabama, born 1938, 1st baseman (also played some left field), San Francisco Giants, off Jamie Easterly of the Atlanta Braves, at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, June 30, 1978. (I've seen footage of this homer, but YouTube doesn't seem to have it. Here's a profile of him.)

Finished with 521. Won the 1962 NL Pennant and the 1971 NL West title with the Giants. Hall of Fame. NL MVP in 1969. Number 44 retired by the Giants, who also dedicated a statue of him outside AT&T Park, and named the body of water beyond the right field fence McCovey Cove.

13. Reginald Martinez Jackson, "Reggie,""Jax,""Buck,""Candyman" or "Mr. October," Wyncote, Pennsylvania, born 1946, right fielder, California Angels, off Bud Black of the Kansas City Royals, At Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium), September 17, 1984. It came 17 years to the day after his 1st home run.

Finished with 563. With the Oakland Athletics, won the World Series in 1972, 1973 and 1974, and the AL West in 1971 and 1975. With the Yankees, won the World Series in 1977 and 1978, the AL Pennant in 1981, and the AL East in 1980. With the Angels, won the AL West in 1982 and 1986. MVP of the AL and the World Series in 1973. In 1977, became the 1st man, and is still the only one, to win the World Series MVP with 2 different teams.

Number 9 retired by the A's, Number 44 retired by the Yankees. With Graig Nettles wearing 9 on the Yankees, Reggie wanted to switch to 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson, but that was already worn, too, so he chose 44 in honor of the aforementioned Hank Aaron. Hall of Fame, Monument Park.

14. Michael Jack Schmidt, "Schmitty" or "Schmitter," Dayton, Ohio, born 1949, 3rd baseman, Philadelphia Phillies, off Don Robinson of the Pittsburgh Pirates, at Three Rivers Stadium, April 18, 1987.

Finished with 548. Won the 1980 World Series, the 1983 NL Pennant, and the 1976, 1977 and 1978 NL East titles with the Phillies. Won the NL MVP in 1980, 1981 and 1986. Won 10 Gold Gloves.

Grew up as a fan of the Cincinnati Reds, and wore Number 20 in honor of the aforementioned Frank Robinson. Number 20 retired and statue outside Citizens Bank Park dedicated by the Phillies. On the Phillies' 100th Anniversary in 1983, their fans voted him the franchise's greatest player ever -- and he still had 5 more full seasons, 1 of them an MVP season, to go.

15. Eddie Clarence Murray (not "Edward"), Los Angeles California, born 1956, 1st baseman, Baltimore Orioles, off Felipe Lira of the Detroit Tigers, at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, September 6, 1996. 

Finished with 504. Along with Aaron and Mays, 1 of 3 to get 500 homers and 3,000 hits honestly. Palmeiro and A-Rod made it 5, dishonestly. Murray is the only one to get to 3,000 hits first. Won the 1979 AL Pennant and the 1983 World Series with the Orioles. Also won the 1995 AL Pennant with the Cleveland Indians, in between his tenures in Baltimore, and was with them when he got his 3,000th hit. Hall of Fame, Number 33 retired by the Orioles.

16. Mark David McGwire, "Big Mac," from the Los Angeles suburb of Pomona, California, born 1963, 1st baseman, St. Louis Cardinals, off Andy Ashby of the San Diego Padres, at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, August 5, 1999.

Finished with 583. Had he not taken steroids, injuries may well have ended his career in the mid-1990s, with about half that. Won the AL Pennant with the Oakland Athletics in 1988, 1989 and 1990, and another AL West title with them in 1992. Won the NL Central Division with the Cardinals in 2000. But 1989 remained his only World Series win.

He was voted to the All-Century Team while still active, before his humiliation before Congress and his eventual confession. He has never come close to election to the Hall of Fame. His Number 25 has not been retired by either of his teams, although the Cardinals withheld it from circulation until David Bell arrived as a coach, since his father Buddy and grandfather Gus both wore it as players. And the Missouri legislature, which had previously voted to name the St. Louis area's section of Interstate 70 the Mark McGwire Highway, has renamed it the Mark Twain Highway.

17. Barry Lamar Bonds, born in the Los Angeles suburb of Riverside, California but grew up in the San Francisco suburb of San Carlos, California, born 1964, left fielder, San Francisco Giants, off Terry Adams of the Los Angeles Dodgers, at AT&T Park in San Francisco, April 17, 2001.

Finished with 762, the most in major league history. The only man with at least 400 home runs and 400 stolen bases, and has 500 of both. He probably would have reached all of those milestones even if he hadn't used steroids, making his use of them even less excusable.

He won NL Eastern Division titles with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1990, 1991 and 1992; and NL Western Division titles with the Giants in 1997, 2000 and 2003. The Giants won the NL Wild Card and then the Pennant in 2002, but he never won a World Series.

He has never come close to election to the Hall of Fame. The Giants have not officially retired Number 25, but have withheld it from circulation in honor of Barry and in memory of his father Bobby Bonds.

18. Samuel Kelvin Peralta Sosa, "Slammin' Sammy," San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, born 1968, right fielder, Chicago Cubs, off Scott Sullivan of the Cincinnati Reds, at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, April 4, 2003.

Finished with 609. He might have had half of that had he never used steroids. Won the NL's Wild Card in 1998 and its Central Division in 2003, but never won a Pennant. He has never come close to election to the Hall of Fame. His Number 21 is not currently being worn by a Cubs player, but it has never been seriously considered for retirement.

19. Rafael Palmeiro Corrales, "Raffy," born in Havana, Cuba but grew up in Miami, Florida, born 1964, 1st baseman, Texas Rangers, off Dave Elder of the Cleveland Indians, at what's now named Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas, May 11, 2003, only 37 days after Sosa did it.

Finished with 569. The 4th man to have both 500 home runs and 3,000 hits, and easily the least legitimate to have both. Without steroids, he might have reached 400 home runs and 2,700 hits. Had 3,020 hits when he was released by the Orioles following the public release of the fact that he had failed a steroid test -- thus proving that he had lied to Congress when he said he never used them -- and while he hasn't gone to jail for perjury, neither has he ever been employed in professional baseball again.

Reached the postseason with the Orioles in 1996 and '97, and the Texas Rangers in 1999 before returning to the O's. He has never come close to election to the Hall of Fame, and his number has not been retired by any team.
20. George Kenneth Griffey Jr., "Ken" or "Junior," born in Donora, Pennsylvania (as were his father, who hit 152 in his career, and Stan Musial, who finished with 475) but grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, born 1969, center fielder, Cincinnati Reds, off Matt Morris of the St. Louis Cardinals, at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, June 20, 2004.

Finished with 630, and, as far as is publicly known, they were all legit. He won AL Western Division titles with the Seattle Mariners in 1995 and 1997, but never won a Pennant. But he has a very special legacy that may be more important than any postseason achievement: More than any single person, he saved Major League Baseball in the Pacific Northwest with his performance in 1995. If not for what he did that season, the bond issue to fund Safeco Field would not have passed, and the Mariners would have moved to Tampa Bay for the next season. 

He was elected to the All-Century Team while only halfway through his career. He was honored this year by election to the Hall of Fame, the retirement of his Number 24 by the Mariners, and election to the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.

21. Frank Edward Thomas Jr., "the Big Hurt," Columbus, Georgia, born 1968 (on May 27, the same day as Jeff Bagwell), 1st baseman, Toronto Blue Jays, off Carlos Silva of the Minnesota Twins, at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, June 28, 2007.

Finished with 521, and, as far as is publicly known, they were all legit. Won Division titles with the Chicago White Sox in 1993 and 2000, but was hurt for most of their 2005 World Championship season, and did not appear in the postseason, but was given a World Series ring. Won another Division with the 2006 Oakland Athletics. Hall of Fame, and the White Sox have retired his Number 35 and dedicated a statue to him at U.S. Cellular Field. 

22. Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez, "Alex" or "A-Rod," born in Manhattan, New York, New York, but grew up in Miami, Florida, born 1975, shortstop and later 3rd baseman, New York Yankees, off Kyle Davies of the Kansas City Royals, at the old Yankee Stadium, August 4, 2007, only 37 days after Thomas did it.

He is the youngest player to achieve the milestone, and the only one to do it with me in the ballpark: I was in the upper deck in right field, and had the perfect view of it. He is the 5th player to have 500 homers and 3,000 hits, and the 3rd, after Aaron and Mays, to have 600 homers and 3,000 hits. He finished with 696 homers -- more than anyone except Bonds, Aaron and Ruth -- and 3,115 hits. How many he'd have if he hadn't used performance-enhancing drugs -- or hadn't been caught, or if MLB had decided it wasn't worth pursuing -- is open to speculation.

Won the World Series with Yankees in 2009, 1 of 11 postseason berths in his career so far. It seems unlikely he'll ever get into the Hall of Fame, although the Yankees giving him a Plaque in Monument Park and retiring his Number 13 once again seem possible, especially if Brian Cashman is no longer the general manager by the time those decisions would need to be made.

23. James Howard Thome, "Jim" or "the Thomenator," Peoria, Illinois, born 1970, 1st baseman, Chicago White Sox, off Dustin Moseley of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, September 16, 2007, only 41 days after A-Rod did it. He was the 1st player to do it with a walkoff home run.

Finished with 612, and, as far as is publicly known, they were all legit. Reached the postseason with the Cleveland Indians in 1995, '96, '97, '98, '99 and 2001; the White Sox in 2008; the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2009; the Minnesota Twins in 2010; and the Baltimore Orioles in 2012. Won AL Pennants with the Indians in 1995 and '97. Seemed to especially enjoy going deep against the Yankees, especially in the '97 and '98 Playoffs.

The Indians have dedicated a statue to him at Progressive Field. His number is not currently being worn by an Indians player, and they may be waiting until he is elected to the Hall of Fame before they retire it. He will be eligible in 2018.

24. Manuel Aristides Ramirez Onelcida, "Manny" or "ManRam," born in Santo, Domingo, Dominican Republic, went to high school in Manhattan, New York, New York, born 1972, left fielder, Boston Red Sox, off Chad Bradford of the Baltimore Orioles, at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, May 31, 2008.

Finished with 555. He might have finished with 500 without the steroids. Reached the postseason with the Cleveland Indians in 1995, '96, '97, '98 and '99; the Red Sox in 2003, '04, '05 and '07; the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2008 and '09; and the Tampa Bay Rays in 2011. Won AL Pennants in 1995, '97, 2004 and '07. Won the World Series in 2004 and '07. We may never know when he started cheating, thus we may never know which of his Cleveland achievements are legit; none of his Boston achievements are.

He will be eligible for the Hall of Fame in the election whose results will be announced this January. He will not get in this time, and he should never get in. Both the Indians and the Red Sox, who could have retired his number, are currently giving Number 24 to pitchers. If that's an insult on purpose, I like it.

25. Gary Antonian Sheffield, "Sheff," Tampa, Florida, born 1968, right fielder, New York Mets, off the Milwaukee Brewers, April 17, 2009. He is the only player to do it as a pinch-hitter.

Finished with 509. He probably would have had at least 400 without the steroids. Reached the postseason with the 1997 Florida Marlins (his only Pennant and his only World Series ring); the 2002 and '03 Atlanta Braves; and the 2004, '05 and '06 Yankees.

He is eligible for the Hall of Fame, but has not gotten in. He has usually wore Number 10 or 11, but no team has retired one for him. Nor has any team elected him to their team Hall of Fame. 

26. Jose Alberto Pujols Alcantara, "Albert,""Phat Albert" or "El Hombre" (a not to Musial's nickname "Stan the Man"), born and raised in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, went to high school in New York, New York and in Independence, Missouri, born 1980, 1st baseman, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, off Taylor Jordan of the Washington Nationals, at Nationals Park in Washington, April 22, 2014.

He currently has 591, putting him in the discussion with Aaron, Mays and Musial -- and Bonds, if you don't care that he used -- as the greatest offensive force the National League has ever known. He says he has never used steroids. A previous slugging St. Louis Cardinals 1st baseman, Jack Clark, accused him of it on a radio show, and Pujols sued him. Clark retracted his accusation and apologized, and Pujols dropped the suit. Reached the postseason with the Cardinals in 2001, '02 '04, '05, '06, '09 and '11; and with the Angels in 2014. Won the NL Pennant with the Cards in 2004, and the World Series with them in 2006 and 2011.

He is still active, so he is not yet eligible for the Hall of Fame. Without serious evidence of steroid use, he will probably get in. The Cardinals have not given out Number 5 since he left, so it will likely be retired for him after he retires as a player.

27. David Americo Ortiz Arias, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, born 1975, designated hitter, Boston Red Sox, off Matt Moore of the Tampa Bay Rays, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, September 12, 2015.

Currently has 540. Had he not used steroids, he'd have been lucky to get half that many. Reached the postseason with the Minnesota Twins in 2002; and with the Red Sox in 2003, '04, '05, '07, '08, '09, '13 and '16, winning both the Pennant and the World Series in 2004, '07 and '13. Was caught cheating in 2003, therefore every achievement in Boston, and possibly the one in Minnesota, is fraudulent.

He cheated. He got caught. He lied about it. He got exposed as a cheater and a liar about it. He still lies about it. But all his achievements have been allowed to stand. And he will almost certainly be elected to the Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible in 2022. The Red Sox will almost certainly retire his Number 34. They'll probably put up a statue of him outside Fenway Park. I wonder if the inscription will include his "Our Fuckin' City!" quote?

*

Lou Gehrig, who had to retire due to illness, and Fred McGriff both finished with 493, coming the closest to 500 without going over. The active players between 400 and 500 are: Adrian Beltre with 445, Miguel Cabrera with 443, Carlos Beltran with 420, and Mark Teixeira with 408. Beltre is 37, and has a good shot at it. Cabrera is 33, and will almost certainly make it. Beltran is 39, and probably won't make it. Teix is retiring this week.

he next active player is Ryan Howard with 381, but at 36 and with his injuries, I don't think he's going to make it. No other active player even has 311; with the "Steroid Era" apparently over with Ortiz's retirement, we will have the fewest number of players over the 300 mark in a long time.

The position with the most players with at least 500 home runs is 1st base, with 9. There have been 7 right fielders, 3 center fielders, 3 left fielders, 3 3rd basemen, 1 shortstop and 1 designated hitter. No 2nd baseman has done it. Nor has any catcher.

Ruth, Mantle, Jackson, A-Rod and Sheffield played for the Yankees, but only Ruth, Mantle and A-Rod did it as Yankees. Reggie hit his 300th as a Yankee, and he and Sheff each hit his 400th in Pinstripes.

Ott hit his 500th with the New York Giants. Mays did it with the Giants, but after the move to San Francisco. No player has 500 with the Dodgers, in Brooklyn or Los Angeles, or both. The Dodgers' all-time leader is Duke Snider, with 389 of his 407 as a Dodger. He is also the Brooklyn leader with 316. Eric Karros is their leader in Los Angeles, with 270. Mays, Murray and Sheffield have over 500 and have played for the Mets, but only Sheff, who spent the least time as a Met of the 3, did it as a Met. The Mets' career home run leader is Darryl Strawberry with 252. David Wright, already the club's all-time hits leader, has 242, but with his injuries, he may not be able to surpass Straw in home runs by a Met.

A-Rod hit his 500th in the city where he was born, but not in the one where he grew up. Bonds and Thome did it near, if not actually in, their hometowns. Bonds, Griffey, A-Rod and Thome all, in one way each, did it for their "hometown teams."

Ruth, Ott, Williams, Mays, Mantle, Aaron, Banks, Killebrew, Schmidt and Bonds each hit at least 500 home runs for one team. But only Ruth, Ott, Williams, Mantle, Banks and Schmidt did it for only one team.

Of the 27, 10 grew up (or "were trained as players," if you prefer, a better gauge of "where they were from" than "were born") in the Southeast: Mays, Aaron and McCovey from Alabama; Palmeiro, A-Rod and Sheffield from Florida; Ott from Louisiana, Mantle from Oklahoma, Banks from Texas, and Thomas from Georgia. If you count Texas and Oklahoma as part of the Southwest, that's 2, and 8 from the Southeast. California has 6: Williams, Mathews, Robinson, Murray, McGwire and Bonds. The Caribbean has 4: Sosa, Ramirez, Pujols and Ortiz from the Dominican Republic. The Northeast has 3: Ruth and Foxx from Maryland, and Jackson from Pennsylvania. (All from the Middle Atlantic States. New England has produced none.) The Midwest has 3: Schmidt and Griffey from Ohio, and Thome from Illinois. Killebrew, from Idaho, is the only one from the Rocky Mountains.

Eleven of them were black Americans: Mays, Aaron, Banks, Robinson, McCovey, Jackson, Murray, Bonds, Thomas, Griffey and Sheffield. Six were Hispanics: Sosa, Palmeiro, A-Rod, Ramirez, Pujols and Ortiz. Williams was Mexican on his mother's side, but he refused to accept this, so, as we would say today, he "self-identified" as a non-Hispanic white man. Of the non-Hispanic white players, 4 were of German descent (Ruth, Ott, Schmidt and Thome), 3 were English (Foxx, Williams and Mathews), 1 was Welsh (Mantle), 1 was Irish (McGwire) and 1 was French (Killebrew).

Thirteen were righthanded: Foxx, Mays, Aaron, Banks, Robinson, Killebrew, Schmidt, McGwire, Sosa, A-Rod, Thomas, Ramirez and Pujols. Twelve were lefthanded: Ruth, Ott, Williams, Mathews, McCovey, Jackson, Bonds, Palmeiro, Griffey, Thome, Sheffield and Ortiz.

Two were switch-hitters: Mantle and Murray. Both hit many more home runs lefty, since there are far more righty pitchers than lefty ones, but Mantle always insisted he had more power righty. He may have been right: He hit the longest home run ever hit in Washington, and may have hit the longest ones ever in Philadelphia and St. Louis, all within a few days of each other in April 1953; and may have hit he longest in Chicago, in 1955; and all of these were hit righthanded. All 3 of his confirmed home runs off the old Yankee Stadium's frieze (usually erroneously called "the facade") were lefty.

Of the 27, 14 did it at what was then their current home field, 13 on the road. Mathews, Schmidt, Thomas and Ortiz are the only ones to do it on artificial turf; Mathews, Thomas and Ortiz did it in domes.

Of the 27, 14 hit 500 home runs all or mostly in the AL, 11 in the NL. Robinson (343 to 243 NL) and McGwire (363 to 220 AL) were split close to the middle.

Numbers most commonly worn by these players: Ruth, Foxx and Killebrew 3; Ott 4, Pujols 5, Mantle 7, Williams 9, Sheffield 11, A-Rod 13, Banks 14, Robinson and Schmidt 20, Sosa 21; Mays, Griffey and Ramirez 24; McGwire, Bonds, Palmeiro and Thome 25; Murray 33, Ortiz 34, Thomas 35; Mathews 41; Aaron 44, McCovey and Jackson 44.

The player with the most career home runs who's eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame, but not yet in -- and not tainted by steroids -- is the aforementioned Fred McGriff, with 493. Considering how many he has, and there being no serious accusation against him, it's ridiculous to keep him out.

Also with 400 to 499, eligible and not seriously accused are: Jeff Bagwell with 449 (he deserves election), Dave Kingman with 442 (he doesn't), and Darrell Evans with 414 (he doesn't). Retired but not yet eligible: Carlos Delgado with 473 (I don't think he makes it), Chipper Jones with 468 (he'll make it), Adam Dunn with 462 (I don't think so), Vladimir Guerrero with 449 (maybe, his defense will help), Paul Konerko with 439 (I don't think so), Andruw Jones 434 (yes, his defense will make the difference) and Alfonso Soriano with 412 (no, baserunning will help, defense certainly won't).

Jose Canseco has 462, Jason Giambi 440, Juan Gonzalez 434. Good luck.

Between 400 and 499 and in are: Lou Gehrig with 493, Stan Musial and Willie Stargell with 475, Dave Winfield with 465, Carl Yastrzemski with 452, Andre Dawson with 438, Cal Ripken with 431, Mike Piazza with 427 (but he is tainted) and Billy Williams with 426.

Among Yankee Legends not yet mentioned: Joe DiMaggio only played 13 seasons, and finished with 361; Yogi Berra had 358, Graig Nettles had 390 (but that total and his great fielding haven't offset a .248 lifetime batting average which is keeping him out of the Hall), Tino Martinez 339, Bernie Williams 287, Paul O'Neill 281, Roger Maris 275, Derek Jeter 260, Bobby Murcer 252.

A neat quirk, if a sad one due to injury ending the son's career this year: Cecil Fielder and his son Prince Fielder both retired with 319 career home runs. But Bobby and Barry Bonds still have the most of any father-son combination: 1,094 (Barry 762, Bobby 332). The most home runs by brothers is 768, by Hank and Tommie Aaron. Tommie, who also played for the Braves, hit 13.

Between them, these men won 40 World Series: Ruth 7 (1915, '16, '18, '23, '27, '28 and '32), Mantle 7 (1951, '52, '53, '56, '58, '61 and '62), Jackson 5 (1972, '73, '74, '77 and '78), Ortiz 3 (2004, '07 and '13), Foxx 2 (1929 and '30), Robinson 2 (1966 and '70), Ramirez 2 (2004 and '07), Pujols 2 (2006 and '11), and 1 each for Ott (1933), Mays (1954), Mathews and Aaron (both 1957), Schmidt (1980), Murray (1983), McGwire (1989), Sheffield (1997), Thomas (2005) and A-Rod (2009).

Her'es the career hit totals of the club's members: Aaron 3,771, Mays 3,283, Murray 3,255, A-Rod 3,115, Palmeiro 3,020, Robinson 2,943, Bonds 2,935, Ott 2,876, Ruth 2,873, Pujols 2,825 and counting, Griffey 2,781, Sheffield 2,689, Williams 2,654 (remember, he lost 5 years due to military service), Foxx 2,646, Jackson 2,584, Banks 2,583, Ramirez 2,574, Ortiz 2,469 and maybe a few more over these last few days, Thomas 2,468, Mantle 2,415, Sosa 2,408, Thome 2,328, Mathews 2,315, Schmidt 2,234, McCovey 2,211, Killebrew 2,086, McGwire 1,626 -- easily the fewest of the club.

There are 19 members still alive: Mays, Aaron, Robinson, McCovey, Jackson, Schmidt, Murray, McGwire, Bonds, Sosa, Palmeiro, A-Rod, Thomas, Griffey, Ramirez, Sheffield, Thome, Pujols and Ortiz.

While a shocking 126 pitchers have given up 3,000 or more hits in major league play, only 2 has given up 500 or more home runs: Jamie Moyer gave up 522, to 319 different hitters; and Robin Roberts gave up 505. It didn't stop Roberts from getting into the Hall of Fame, and it won't be what keeps Moyer out, as he wasn't quite good enough.

In the 2016 NFL season, 2 teams have switched to new stadiums. The St. Louis Rams have moved back to Los Angeles, and reclaimed the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on a temporary basis, until their new stadium in Inglewood can open, presumably for the 2019 season.

The only team having moved into a brand-new stadium this season is the Minnesota Vikings, into U.S. Bank Stadium. On Sunday, October 3, the New York Giants will travel to Minneapolis to play them there for a Monday Night Football game.

Before You Go. The Vikings once again play indoors, but you will only be indoors for 4 hours at most. So you should consult the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press websites for their forecasts. They're predicting low 60s for Monday afternoon, and mid-50s for evening. So the legendary Minnesota cold won't be an issue. However, they're calling for a 60 percent chance of rain. Take that into consideration.

Minnesota is in the Central Time Zone, 1 hour behind New York. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.

Tickets. The Vikings averaged 52,430 fans per home game last season. That was next-to-last in the NFL, slightly ahead of the lame-duck Rams. But that stat is misleading, since having to groundshare with the University of Minnesota while their new stadium was built meant they have the smallest stadium in the NFL. That 52,430 was a sellout. Presumably, having a new, NFL-ready, state-of-the-art stadium will be a novelty, plus they seem to be an improved team. So getting tickets will be tough.

No longer having a college own their stadium and set prices, Vikings tickets have gone from among the least expensive in the NFL to among the most expensive. Every seat between the 30-yard lines is a club seat, even in the upper deck. Even with that, expect to pay at least $100 for any seat.

Getting There. It's 1,199 road miles from Times Square in New York to Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis (the spot where Mary Tyler Moore threw her hat in the air in the opening sequence of her 1970-77 CBS sitcom), and 1,191 miles from MetLife Stadium to U.S. Bank Stadium. Knowing this, your first reaction is going to be to fly out there.

If you order early, you could get a round-trip nonstop flight on United Airlines from Newark to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for under $500. When you get there, the Number 55 light rail takes you from the airport to downtown in under an hour, so at least that is convenient.

Bus? Not a good idea. Greyhound runs 3 buses a day between Port Authority and Minneapolis, all with at least one transfer, in Chicago and possibly elsewhere as well. The total time, depending on the number of stops, is between 26 and 31 hours, and costs $198 round-trip. The Greyhound terminal is at 950 Hawthorne Avenue, at 9th Street North, just 3 blocks from Nicollet Mall, 2 from the Target Center arena, and from there just across the 7th Street overpass over Interstate 394 from Target Field.

Train? An even worse idea. Amtrak will make you leave Penn Station on the Lake Shore Limited at 3:40 PM Eastern Time, arrive at Union Station in Chicago at 9:45 AM Central Time, and then the Empire Builder, their Chicago-to-Seattle run, will leave at 2:15 PM and arrive in St. Paul (not Minneapolis) at 10:03 PM. From there, 730 Transfer Road, you’d have to take the Number 16 or 50 bus to downtown Minneapolis. And it's $348 round-trip.

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 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, with Exit 235B being your exit for the University of Minnesota area, and Exit 233A for downtown Minneapolis.

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, and half an hour in Minnesota. That’s 17 hours and 45 minutes. Counting rest stops, preferably halfway through Pennsylvania and just after you enter both Ohio and Indiana, outside Chicago and halfway across Wisconsin, and accounting for traffic in New York, the Chicago suburbs and the Twin Cities, it should be no more than 23 hours, which would save you time on both Greyhound and Amtrak, if not on flying.

Once In the City. Like the baseball Twins, who arrived at the same time (1961), and the subsequent NBA Timberwolves (1989) and NHL Wild (2000), and the departed NHL North Stars (1967-1993), the Vikings are called "Minnesota," because they didn't want to slight either one of the "Twin Cities."

Well, these "twins" are not identical: They have different mindsets, and, manifesting in several ways that included both having Triple-A teams until the MLB team arrived, have been known to feud as much as San Francisco and Oakland, Dallas and Fort Worth, Baltimore and Washington, if not as much as Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Minneapolis has about 400,000 people, St. Paul 300,000, and the combined metropolitan area about 3.7 million, ranking 15th in the U.S. -- roughly the combined population of Manhattan, The Bronx and Staten Island -- or that of Manhattan and Queens. Denver is the only metropolitan area with teams in all 4 sports that's smaller. And, despite being the smaller city, St. Paul is the State capital.

"Minneapolis" is a combination of the Dakota tribal word for water, and the Greek word for city. It was founded in 1867 with the name St. Anthony Falls, and, of course, St. Paul, founded in 1854, is also named for an early Christian saint. In Minneapolis, Hennepin Avenue separates the numbered Streets from North and South, and the Mississippi River is the "zero point" for the Avenues, many (but not all) of which also have numbers.

Each city once had 2 daily papers, now each is down to 1: Minneapolis had the Star and the Tribune, merged in 1982; St. Paul the Pioneer and the Dispatch, merged into the Pioneer Press and Dispatch in 1985, with the Dispatch name dropped in 1990. Today, they are nicknamed the Strib and the Pi Press.

The sales tax in the State of Minnesota is 6.875 percent. It's 7.775 percent in Minneapolis' Hennepin County, and 7.625 percent in St. Paul's Ramsey County. Bus and Light Rail service is $2.25 per ride during rush hours, $1.75 otherwise.
Going In. The official address of the brand-new, downtown U.S. Bank Stadium is 900 South 5th Street -- the Metrodome's having been 501 Chicago Avenue, before they changed it to 34 Kirby Puckett Place in honor of the Twins Hall-of-Famer. The light rail station formerly named Metrodome has been renamed U.S. Bank Stadium Station. If you drive in, parking can be had for as little as $5.00.

It was patterned after the largest glass building in the world, the Crystal Cathedral, the "megachurch" run by the late Dr. Robert H. Schuller in Garden Grove, Orange County, California. With 66,655 seats -- expandable to 73,000 for the Super Bowl, and it could also host a Final Four -- it is the largest stadium in Minnesota history.

As with so many 21st Century stadiums and arenas, entryways are named not by numbers or letters, but by corporations. As with the Prudential Center, home of the New Jersey Devils, Verizon is involved. The North entrance is the Ecolab Gate, the East entrance is the Verizon Gate, the South entrance is the Pentair Gate, and the West entrance is the Polaris Gate.

As with all fixed-roof stadiums, the field is artificial turf, specifically UBU Sports Speed Series S5-M. It is aligned east-to-west (well, northwest-to-southeast), but with the roof, the sun won't be an issue.

It opened on July 22 of this year. The 1st sporting event was a game between European soccer powers Chelsea of London and AC Milan on August 3. The 1st concert was by Luke Bryan on August 19. The Vikings played their 1st preseason game on August 28, and their 1st regular-season game on September 18, beating their arch-rivals, the Green Bay Packers. (The Minnesota-Wisconsin rivalry isn't just for college sports.) It will host Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018, and the NCAA Final Four on March 30 and April 1, 2019.

Although designed to host both baseball and soccer, local team Minnesota United opted to build a soccer-specific stadium in St. Paul, rather than play at U.S. Bank Stadium upon their entry into Major League Soccer.

It also has a baseball-hosting capability, and the University of Minnesota will begin hosting the annual Dairy Queen Classic there next February. But with retractable seating allowing for a right field pole only 301 feet from home plate, and with the Twins having opened Target Field only in 2010, they're not moving in anytime soon. On the other hand, in the event that Target Field is unplayable for any reason (Minnesota isn't exactly hurricane country, but it is cold and snow country, and if they know a blizzard is coming sometime in April), it's nice to know that they can move games to U.S. Bank in an emergency.

Food. Considering that Minnesota is Big Ten Country, you would expect their stadium to have lots of good food, in particular that Midwest staple, the sausage. They don't disappoint. What does is the stadium's website, which isn't much for navigation.

It does, however, list some interesting items, if not their locations within the stadium: 612 Burger Kitchen (named for Minneapolis' Area Code), Andrew Zimmern's Canteen Hoagies (the New York-born TV chef lives in the Twin Cities area), Andrew Zimmern's Canteen Rotisserie (sounds like a chicken stand), Bud's BBQ (named for legendary Vikings coach Bud Grant), Fire & Rice (sounds like a Chinese food stand), Mill City Classics (Minneapolis was long known as a flour-producing city), North Star Grill, Prairie Dogs (hopefully serving hot dogs, not actual prairie dog meat), R Taco, State Fair Favorites (a copy of the stand at Target Field that serves things like corn dogs and ice cream in waffle cones), Stone Arch Pizza Company and Twin City Foodies.

Team History Displays. There is no display at U.S. Stadium for the Vikings achievements. They do not display mentions of their 1969 NFL Championship (losing Super Bowl IV); their 1973, 1974 and 1976 NFC Championships (losing Super Bowls VIII, IX and XI); their 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1989, 1992, 1994, 1998 and 2000 NFC Central Division Championships; and their 2008, 2009 and 2015 NFC North Division Championships.

Being the last Champions of the pre-merger NFL made the Vikings the last recipients of the Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy, named for an early referee who died in 1934, and was given to the NFL Champions from then until 1969, when the Super Bowl trophy, which became the Vince Lombardi Trophy after Lombardi died in 1970, took its place. It was supposed to go to the winning team for a year, then handed to the next champions. While some teams had replicas made, the current Vikings organization has no idea where the original trophy is. Some people think that the team has been cursed because of this. This season that just got underway is the Vikings' 56th season, and they have never gone as far as the league structure of the time has allowed them to go.

Nor are their 6 retired numbers displayed. Of the 6, 4 are from their Super Bowl teams: 10, quarterback Fran Tarkenton; 53, center Mick Tinglehoff; 70, defensive end Jim Marshall; and 88, defensive tackle Alan Page. They also retired 80 for 1990s receiver Cris Carter, and 77 for 1990s offensive tackle Korey Stringer, who suffered heatstroke and during during training camp in 2001.

However, they have transplanted the Ring of Honor they had at the Metrodome to U.S. Bank Stadium. There are currently 21 individuals honored:

* From the 1960s, but not making it to the 1969 title: Tarkenton.

* From the 1969 NFL Championship: Tinglehoff, Marshall, Page, running back Bill Brown, offensive tackle Ron Yary, defensive end Carl Eller, safety Paul Krause, head coach Bud Grant, general manager Jim Finks, and medical adviser Fred Zamberletti. Interestingly, Joe Kapp, the starting quarterback on this team, has not been honored.

* From the 1973 and 1974 NFC Championships: Tarkenton (who was traded to the Giants and traded back to the Vikings), Tinglehoff, Marshall, Page, Brown, Yary, Eller, Krause, Grant, Finks, Zamberletti and running back Chuck Foreman.

* From the 1976 NFC Championship: Tarkenton, Foreman, Tinglehoff, Marshall, Page, Yary, Eller, Krause, Grant, Zamberletti and linebacker Matt Blair.

* From the 1980s: Grant, Zamberletti, Blair, defensive end Chris Doleman, linebacker Scott Studwell, safety Joey Browner and coach Jerry Burns.

* From the 1990s: Zamberletti, Carter, Stringer, guard Randall McDaniel and defensive tackle John Randle.

* Thus far, no one has been inducted from the 21st Century, although Zamberletti is still with the organization.
Tarkenton was named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Football Players in 1999. He, Page and Randy Moss were named to the NFL Network's 100 Greatest Players in 2010.

Stuff. The Vikings Locker Room Official Team Store is located on the Main Concourse, across from Section 101. Another Vikings Locker Room is located on the Upper Concourse,  between sections 302-304. They also have a Team Store on the site of their 1st stadium, at the Mall of America in Bloomington. Whether that store or any of the stands sells horned helmets, the team's symbol and long the symbol of the original Vikings, even though they never actually wore them, you'd have to go to find out.

With an uneven history that, as yet, doesn't include a World Championship, there aren't many books about the Vikings. But that history does include an NFL Championship. Pat Duncan wrote about it in Last Kings of the Old NFL: The 1969 Minnesota Vikings. Star-Tribune columnist and 1500 ESPN radio host Patrick Reusse and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar combined in 2010 to write a 50th Anniversary retrospective, Minnesota Vikings: The Complete Illustrated History.

As for DVDs, the NFL's official History of the Minnesota Vikings came out in 2001, so it only goes up to the team's 40th Anniversary. In 2009, the NFL released Minnesota Vikings: 5 Greatest Games. Except none of the 5 are from their 1970s glory days, which is inexcusable due to the vast library of NFL Films.Instead, they chose a Playoff win over the San Francisco 49ers from the 1987 season, a Playoff win over the Arizona Cardinals from the 1998 season, a Playoff win over the Dallas Cowboys from the 1999 season, Adrian Peterson's NFL record 296 yards against the San Diego Chargers in a 2007 regular season game, and the 2008 Division title clincher against the Giants.

During the Game. Because of their Midwest/Heartland image, Vikings fans like a "family atmosphere." Therefore, while they don't especially like the Giants, they will not directly antagonize you. I would advise against saying anything complimentary about the Green Bay Packers, the University of Wisconsin, the Dallas Stars (the hockey team that used to be the Minnesota North Stars) or Norm Green (the owner who moved them).

The Vikings hold auditions for the National Anthem, instead of having a regular singer. Before every game, a large Gjallarhorn -- Old Norse for "yelling horn" -- is blown as the team comes onto the field. This is usually done by a specially-selected person. For example, before the 1st regular season game at the new stadium, 89-year-old Hall of Fame coach Harry Peter Grant Jr., a.k.a. "Bud" Grant, still an official consultant for the team, blew the horn. A sound effect of the horn is played for every score, 1st down, or other big play.

For many years, a man in a traditional (if historically inaccurate) Viking costume showed up at games at Metropolitan Stadium. In 1994, Joseph Juranitch, born the same year as the team, 1961 -- ironically, in Milwaukee, territory of their arch-rivals, the Green Bay Packers, but grew up in Ely, Minnesota -- took up the mantle, calling himself Ragnar the Viking.

His contract was not renewed for the 2015 season, but he still makes public appearances in costume. He is a security officer for a Twin Cities high school. He was replaced by the foam-costumed Viktor the Viking.

The team's purple helmets and jerseys got them nicknamed "The Purple People Eaters," although the outer-space creature in the original 1958 song only ate purple people -- making him an enemy to the as-yet-unfounded Minnesota football team!

Their fight song is "Skol, Vikings" -- "Skol" being a variation on "Skål," a Scandinavian word meaning "good health." In effect, this is a toast, equivalent to the Gaelic "Sláinte," the Spanish "Salud," the Italian "Salute," the German "Prost," the Hebrew "L'chaim" or the Slavic "Na zdrowie.""Skol, skol, skol" is also the main fans' chant.

And, in case you're wondering, Minnesota (and, to a lesser extent, the neighboring States of Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota) have a large concentration of people of Scandinavian descent (Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Icelandic), which is why the team was named the Vikings. Just as the Boston basketball team was named the Celtics in honor of Boston's Irish heritage. And teams in places with Native American influence have been named the Kansas City Chiefs and the Florida State Seminoles. But nobody's ever had the guts to name a team in a city with a large Italian population the Philadelphia Paisans or the Chicago Godfathers. There's no New York Jews, L.A. Chicanos or San Francisco Chinamen, either. Nor should there be. Although "New York Mensches" would be complimentary.

After the Game. Minneapolis is a relatively safe city. As long as you don't go out of your way to antagonize anybody, you should be all right.


Sidelights. Minnesota's sports history is long, but very uneven. Teams have been born, moved in, moved around, and even moved out. But there are some local sites worth checking out.

U.S. Bank Stadium was built on the site of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Home of the Twins from 1982 to 2009, the University of Minnesota football team from 1982 to 2008, the NFL's Vikings from 1982 to 2013, and the NBA's Timberwolves in their inaugural season of 1989-90, that infamous blizzard and roof collapse in 2010 brought the desire to get out and build a new stadium for the Vikes to the front burner, and it finally led to action. Until then, there were threats that the Vikes would move, the most-mentioned possible destinations being Los Angeles and San Antonio.
The Twins won the 1987 and 1991 World Series at the Metrodome – going 8-0 in World Series games in the Dome, and 0-6 in Series games outside of it. The Vikings, on the other hand, were just 6-4 in home Playoff games there – including an overtime defeat in the 1998 NFC Championship Game after going 14-2 in the regular season.
From October 27, 1991 to April 6, 1992, the Metrodome hosted 3 major events in less than 6 months: The World Series (Twins over Atlanta Braves), Super Bowl XXVI (Washington Redskins over Buffalo Bills), and the NCAA Final Four (Duke beating Michigan in the Final). It also hosted the Final Four in 2001 (Duke won that one, too, over Arizona).

In May 2012, faced with the serious possibility of the Vikings moving without getting a suitable stadium, the Minnesota State legislature approved funding for a new stadium for the Vikings, to be built on the site of the Metrodome and on adjoining land.

In a piece of poetic justice, just as the damn thing was (with considerable ballyhoo) built and completed ahead of schedule and under budget, so did the demolition take place ahead of schedule and under budget. The people of Minnesota seemed to be proud of its having been built on the cheap and on time, but it served its purpose, to keep the Twins and Vikings from moving for a generation, and now replacement stadiums are achieving the same purpose.

Billy Martin, who hated the place, had the best word on it, though the awkward wording of it may have been inspired in part by his pal Yogi Berra: "It's a shame a great guy like HHH had to be named after it." (Billy's 1st managing job was with the Twins, at the Met in 1969.)

* Target Field. Home of the Twins since 2010, it gives Minnesota's baseball team its 1st true ballpark after a half-century of waiting, rather than the Bloomington ice tray and the Homerdome. The official address is 1 Twins Way, along 3rd Avenue N., between 5th and 7th Streets. It has its own stop on the light rail system.

* Mall of America and sites of Metropolitan Stadium and the Metropolitan Sports Center. In contrast to their performance at the Metrodome, the Vikings were far more successful at their first home, while the Twins were not (in each case, playing there from 1961 to 1981).
The Vikings reached 4 Super Bowls while playing at The Met, while the Twins won Games 1, 2 and 6 of the 1965 World Series there, but lost Game 7 to the Los Angeles Dodgers on a shutout by Sandy Koufax. (So the Twins are 11-1 all-time in World Series home games, but 0-9 on the road.) The Vikings were far more formidable in their ice tray of a stadium, which had no protection from the sun and nothing to block an Arctic blast of wind.

In fact, the Met had one deck along the 3rd base stands and in the right field bleachers, two decks from 1st base to right field and in the left field bleachers, and three decks behind home plate. Somebody once said the stadium looked like an Erector set that a kid was putting together, before his mother called him away to dinner and he never finished it. At 45,919 seats, it had a capacity that was just fine for baseball; but at 48,446, it was too small for the NFL.

Prior to the 1961 arrivals of the Twins and Vikings, the Met hosted the Triple-A Minneapolis Millers from 1956 to 1960, and 5 NFL games over the same stretch, including 4 "home games" for the Packers. (Viking fans may be sickened over that, but at least University of Minnesota fans can take heart in the University of Wisconsin never having played there.)

The experiments worked: The Met, built equidistant from the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul, in the southern suburb of Bloomington, was awarded the MLB and NFL teams, and Midway Stadium, built in 1957 as the new home of the St. Paul Saints (at 1000 N. Snelling Avenue in the city of St. Paul, also roughly equidistant from the two downtowns), struck out, and was used as a practice field by the Vikings before being demolished in 1981.

The NHL's Minnesota North Stars played at the adjoining Metropolitan Sports Center (or Met Center) from 1967 to 1993, before they were moved to become the Dallas Stars by owner Norm Green, earning him the nickname Norm Greed. The Stars reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1981 and 1991, but never won the Cup until 1999 when they were in Dallas.

The Beatles played at Metropolitan Stadium on August 21, 1965 -- making 1 of only 3 facilities to host an All-Star Game, a Finals and a Beatles concert in the same year. (The others were the Boston Garden and Maple Leaf Gardens in 1964.) Elvis Presley sang at the Met Center on November 5, 1971 and October 17, 1976.

8000 Cedar Avenue South, at 80th Street -- near the airport, although legends of planes being an issue, as with Shea Stadium and Citi Field, seem to be absent. A street named Killebrew Drive, and the original location of home plate, have been preserved. A 45-minute ride on the Number 55 light rail (MOA station).

* Site of Nicollet Park. Home of the Millers from 1912 to 1955, it was one of the most historic minor-league parks, home to Ted Williams and Willie Mays before they reached the majors. With the Met nearing completion, its last game was Game 7 of the 1955 Junior World Series, in which the Millers beat the International League Champion Rochester Red Wings. A few early NFL games were played there in the 1920s. A bank is now on the site. Nicollet and Blaisdell Avenues, 30th and 31st Streets. Number 465 bus.

* TCF Bank Stadium. Designed to look like the old red-brick horseshoe college football stadiums of the 1920s, the Vikings' stopgap home of the 2014 and '15 seasons is on the campus of the University of Minnesota, across the Mississippi River from most of Minneapolis, 3 miles due east of Nicollet Mall and the homes of the Twins and T-Wolves.

The stadium opened in 2009, allowing the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers to play home games on campus as they did at Memorial Stadium from 1924 to 1981. Their alumni were sick of playing in the cold, so when the Metrodome opened for the Twins and Vikings in 1982, they wanted in (figuratively and literally). But, even during winning seasons (which have been few and far between since the 1960s), attendance was lousy. So an on-campus facility was built. Unlike most football stadiums, due to solar and wind patterns, the field is laid out east-to-west, and is made of FieldTurf.
The Vikings played a home game there in 2010, under emergency circumstances, following the snow-caused collapse of the Metrodome roof. The Vikings lost to the Chicago Bears, and it turned out to be Brett Favre's last NFL game. It's also hosted an outdoor game for UM hockey, and earlier this year, the Wild beat the Chicago Blackhawks in an outdoor hockey game. It hosted a match between soccer teams Manchester City of England and Olympiacos of Athens, Greece.

The official address of TCF Bank Stadium is 420 SE 23rd Avenue. Coming from downtown, you would take the Green Line light rail to Stadium Village stop.

Memorial Stadium, a.k.a. "Old Memorial," seated 56,000 people, and was across University Avenue from where the new stadium now stands. The McNamara Alumni Center and the University Aquatic Center are on the site. The Vikings had played a home game at "Old Memorial" in 1969, due to a conflict with a Twins Playoff game at Metropolitan Stadium.

Across Oak Street from the new stadium's west end, on opposite sides of 4th Street, are the University's basketball and hockey homes. The Gophers play their basketball games at Williams Arena, a classic old barn built in 1928. The 1951 NCAA Final Four was held there, with Kentucky beating Kansas State in the Final.

Across 4th Street from Williams is Mariucci Arena, home of the hockey team that has won National Championships in 1974, '76, '79, 2002 and '03. Named for John Mariucci, a member of the Chicago Blackhawks' 1938 Stanley Cup winners who coached the Gophers. The arena was built in 1993, after the team previously played hockey at Williams.

Legend has it that 4th Street is the "Positively 4th Street" used as the title of a song by former UM student Robert Zimmerman, a.k.a. Bob Dylan, although, as is often the case with Dylan songs, there is no mention of the title in the songs. Whether the "friend" who's "got a lot of nerve" was a fellow UM student, I don't know. It's also been suggested that the 4th Street in question is the one in New York's Greenwich Village.

* Site of Lexington Park. Home of the Saints from 1897 to 1956, it wasn't nearly as well regarded, although it did close with a Saints win over the arch-rival Millers. The site is now occupied by retail outlets. Lexington Parkway, University Avenue, Fuller & Dunlap Streets.

* Xcel Energy Center and site of the St. Paul Civic Center. Home of the NHL's Minnesota Wild since their debut in 2000, and site of the 2008 Republican Convention that nominated John McCain for President and Sarah Palin for Vice President. (The GOP met in Minneapolis in 1892, renominating President Benjamin Harrison at the Industrial Exposition Building at 101 Central Avenue SE. It was torn down in 1940, and condos are on the site now.)

The place is a veritable home and hall of fame for hockey in Minnesota, the most hockey-mad State in the Union, including the State high school championships that were previously held at the Civic Center.

That building was the home of the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the World Hockey Association from 1973 to 1977. The Fighting Saints had played their first few home games, in late 1972, at the St. Paul Auditorium. Elvis sang at the Civic Center on October 2 and 3, 1974, and April 30, 1977. The Civic Center is also where Bruce Springsteen and Courteney Cox filmed the video for Bruce's song "Dancing In the Dark." 199 Kellogg Blvd. West. at 7th Street.

* Target Center. Separated from Target Field by I-394 and 2nd Avenue, this arena has been home to the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves since the team debuted shortly after its 1989 opening. The T-Wolves have only made the Western Conference Finals once, and are probably best known as the team Kevin Garnett and GM (and Minnesota native) Kevin McHale couldn't get over the hump, before Garnett went to McHale’s former team, the Boston Celtics.

The Minnesota Lynx also play here, and have become the WNBA's answer to the San Antonio Spurs, winning league titles in odd-numbered years: 2011, 2013 and 2015. 600 N. 1st Avenue at 6th Street.

* Site of Minneapolis Auditorium. Built in 1927, from 1947 to 1960 this was the home of the Minneapolis Lakers – and, as Minnesota is "the Land of 10,000 Lakes" (11,842, to be exact), now you know why a team in Los Angeles is named the Lakers. (The old Utah Jazz coach Frank Layden said his team and the Lakers should switch names, due to L.A.'s "West Coast jazz" scene and the Great Salt Lake: "Los Angeles Jazz" and "Utah Lakers" would both make more sense.)

The Lakers won the National Basketball League Championship in 1948, then moved into the NBA and won the Championship in 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953 and 1954. In fact, until the Celtics overtook them in 1963, the Minneapolis Lakers were the most successful team in NBA history, and have still won more World Championships than all the other Minnesota major league teams combined: Lakers 5, Twins 2, the rest a total of 0. (Unless you count the Lynx, who make it Lakers 5, everybody else 5.)

They were led by their enormous (for the time, 6-foot-10, 270-pound) center, the bespectacled (that's right, he wore glasses, not goggles, on the court) Number 99, George Mikan. The arrival of the 24-second shot clock for the 1954-55 season pretty much ended their run, although rookie Elgin Baylor did help them reach the Finals again in 1959. Ironically, the owner of the Lakers who moved them to Los Angeles was Bob Short – who later moved the "new" Washington Senators, the team established to replace the team that moved to become the Twins.

Elvis sang there early in his career, on May 13, 1956. The Auditorium was demolished in 1989, and the Minneapolis Convention Center was built on the site. 1301 2nd Ave. South, at 12th Street. Within walking distance of Target Field, Target Center and the Metrodome.

* Minnesota United. Originally NSC Minnesota and then the Minnesota Stars, this team began play in 2010, and, except for the occasional game moved to the Metrodome for more seats, has played its home games at a 10,000-seat stadium at the National Sports Center in Blaine, about 15 miles north of downtown Minneapolis. 1700 105th Avenue NE at Davenport Street NE. Hard to reach by public transportation: You'll need at least 2 buses, and to then walk a mile and a half.

The team has been promoted from the new North American Soccer League to Major League Soccer, and will begin play in the 2017 season, at U.S. Bank Stadium. Opening in time for the 2018 season (they hope) will be a new 20,000-seat, soccer-specific stadium, in St. Paul, at 400 N. Snelling Avenue, at the intersection of St. Anthony Avenue, just off I-94/U.S. 12/U.S. 52, about a mile and a half south of the site of old Midway Stadium. Green Line light rail to Snelling Avenue.

Until the MLS edition of MUFC (same initials as Manchester United Football Club, hopefully with less cheating) get underway, the closest MLS franchise to the Twin Cities will be the Chicago Fire, 416 miles away.
* Museums. The Twin Cities are very artsy, and have their share of museums, including one of the five most-visited modern art museums in the country, the Walker Art Center, at 1750 Hennepin Avenue. Number 4, 6, 12 or 25 bus. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is at 2400 3rd Avenue South. Number 17 bus, then walk 2 blocks east on 24th Street. The Science Museum of Minnesota is at 120 W. Kellogg Blvd. in St. Paul, across from the Xcel Center.

Minnesota is famous for Presidential candidates that don't win. Governor Harold Stassen failed to get the Republican nomination in 1948, and then ran several more times, becoming, pardon the choice of words, a running joke. Senator Eugene McCarthy opposed Lyndon Johnson in the Democratic Primaries in 1968, but lost his momentum when Robert Kennedy got into the race and LBJ got out, then ran in 1976 as a 3rd-party candidate and got 1 percent of the popular vote.

Vice President Walter Mondale was the Democratic nominee in 1984, losing every State but
Minnesota in his loss to Ronald Reagan. In the 2012 election cycle, the moderate former Governor Tim Pawlenty and the completely batty Congresswoman Michele Bachmann ran, and neither got anywhere.

Most notable is Hubert Horatio Humphrey. Elected Mayor of Minneapolis in 1945 and 1947, he became known for fighting organized crime, which put a price on his head, a price it was unable to pay off.  In 1948, while running for the U.S. Senate, he gave a speech at the Democratic Convention, supporting a civil rights plank in the party platform, a movement which culminated in his guiding the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through the Senate as Majority Whip. He ran for the Democratic nomination for President in 1960, but lost to John F. Kennedy, then was elected LBJ's Vice President in 1964.

He won the nomination in 1968, but lost to Richard Nixon by a hair. He returned to the Senate in 1970, and ran for President again in 1972, but lost the nomination to George McGovern. He might have run again in 1976 had his health not failed, as cancer killed him in 1978 at age 66. His wife Muriel briefly held his Senate seat.

Not having been President (he's come closer than any other Minnesotan ever has), he has no Presidential Library, but there is the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, 301 19th Avenue South, only a short walk from the Dome that would be named for him. Hubert and Muriel are laid to rest in Lakewood Cemetery, 3600 Hennepin Avenue. Number 6 bus.

The tallest building in Minnesota is the IDS Center, at 80 South 8th Street at Marquette Avenue, rising 792 feet high. The tallest in the State outside Minneapolis is Wells Fargo Place, at 30 East 7th Street at Cedar Street in St. Paul, 472 feet.

Nicollet Mall is a pedestrians-only shopping center that stretches from 2nd to 13th Streets downtown. At 7th Street, in front of Macy's, in roughly the same location that Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards threw her hat in the air in the opening to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, is a statue of "Mare" doing that. It was the first in a series of statues commissioned by TV Land that now includes Jackie Gleason outside Port Authority, Henry Winkler in Milwaukee, Bob Newhart in Chicago, Andy Griffith and Ron Howard in Raleigh, Elizabeth Montgomery in Salem, Massachusetts and Elvis in Honolulu. However, the show had no location shots in Minneapolis.

The sitcom Coach, which aired on ABC from 1989 to 1996, was set at Minnesota State University. At the time, there was not a real college with that name. But in 1999, Mankato State University was renamed Minnesota State University, Mankato; and in 2000, Moorhead State University became Minnesota State University, Moorhead.

The University of Minnesota was originally a model for the school on the show, but withdrew its support: Although some game action clearly shows the maroon and gold of the Golden Gophers, the uniforms shown in most scenes were light purple and gold. In one Season 1 episode, the Gophers are specifically mentioned as one of the Screaming Eagles' opponents, suggesting that Minnesota State might have been in the Big Ten. Show creator Barry Kemp is a graduate of the University of Iowa -- like Wisconsin, a major rival of the Gophers -- and most of the exterior shots you see of the campus were filmed there. In addition, the main character, Hayden Fox, was named after then-Iowa coach Hayden Fry. No scenes were actually shot in Minnesota, not even Hayden's oft-snowy lake house.

St. Paul is the capital of the State of Minnesota. The Capitol Building is at University Avenue and Capital Blvd. It's a half-hour ride from downtown on the Number 94 bus (named because most of its route is on I-94).

*

Bob Wood, a native of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and a graduate of Michigan State University, wrote a pair of sports travel guides: Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks, about his 1985 trip to all 26 stadiums then in MLB; and Big Ten Country, about his 1988 trip to all the Big Ten campuses and stadiums. (Penn State, Nebraska, and soon-to-be members Rutgers and Maryland were not yet in the league).

The Metrodome was the only stadium that featured in both books, although if either were updated to reflect current reality, it would feature in neither. In Big Ten Country, Wood said, "Now, don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't like Minneapolis. How can you not like Minneapolis?... No, Minneapolis is lovely. It's the Metrodome that sucks!"

Thankfully, the Metrodome is gone, the Vikings now play in a new stadium on the site, the Twins also play in a new stadium that actually feels like a ballpark, and, from what I understand, Minneapolis and St. Paul are still terrific cities, including for sports. A Giants or Jets fan should definitely take in a game against the Vikings there.

There are two kinds of folks who sit around, thinking about how to kill people: Psychopaths and mystery writers. I'm the kind that pays better. Who am I? I'm Rick Castle.
-- Nathan Fillion, in the opening narration to the 2nd and 3rd seasons of the ABC drama Castle

Once, just for my own edification, I opened a dictionary, and looked up the definitions of "psychopath" and "sociopath."

Without getting technical, here's the difference that dictionary gave me:

* A psychopath is someone wants what he wants, and goes after it without thinking about it. He cannot help himself. It does not occur to him that society considers his actions unfair, insane, or evil. He has lost his conscience. He is within society, but lives apart from it. He is asocial and amoral.

* A sociopath is someone wants what he wants, but does put thought into going after it. If he considers that the odds are against him, he can stop, or he can find ways of evening the odds. It does
occur to him that society considers his actions unfair, insane, or evil. But he does not care. He has chosen to throw away his conscience. He despises the society that stands in his way, but can still work within it, often seeming to be normal, even charming. sometimes even doing the right thing, if he thinks it will benefit him. This is a facade, because he wants pleasures, and has no qualms about inflicting pain to achieve them, may even enjoy it. He is anti-social and immoral.

Having observed the Boston Red Sox since their 1998 revival that coincided with the arrival of Pedro Martinez, including their glory days that began in 2003 with the arrival of David Ortiz, I -- trained as an observer of baseball, but not a licensed practitioner of psychology or psychiatry -- have made the following diagnoses:

* Pedro Martinez is a psychopath. He doesn't get that he is wrong. He's probably been told, but he still went on acting like he does.

* David Ortiz is a sociopath. He knows that what he did was wrong, but he not only still does it, he still denies that he's ever done it.

We ended Pedro's career, in Game 6 of the 2009 World Series. Big Papi plays his final game against us tonight.

Best way to pay tribute to him? When he is introduced, everyone should stand up, and turn their backs on him, and remain silent.

He deserves worse. But it would be a unique response in sports history, one that would never be forgotten.

I told myself I wouldn't begin my 2016-17 NHL how-to-go-to-a-game posts until the Yankees were eliminated from Playoff eligibility. Well, now they have been.

And my beloved, if frequently irritating, New Jersey Devils, open the season away to the Florida Panthers on Thursday, October 13, and their home schedule on Tuesday, October 18, against the Anaheim Ducks.

Despite the ongoing rebuilding project, a Devils game can still be a good time. Be warned, though: I am convinced that it's the Mulberry Street Marauders (adaptation of Meadowlands Marauders, both nicknames that I bestowed upon the team), rather than the Yankees, Rutgers football, or any other team that will give me the heart attack or stroke that puts me in the ground.

*

Before You Go. Newark's weather is practically identical to New York's. However, I should warn you that the Prudential Center is just 5 blocks from the Passaic River, which is very wide, and when the winter wind comes blasting in off it, it can make the walk into and out of the arena very cold. That shouldn't be a problem in October, but, later in the season, it will be. So check your local weather before you go, and dress accordingly.

Of course, crossing the Hudson, Hackensack and Passaic Rivers does not mean you cross a time zone. You can leave your watch, your phone, whatever else you have that tells time, alone.

Tickets. The Prudential Center is nicknamed "The Rock," after the symbol of Prudential Financial, Inc., the Rock of Gibraltar. It is often shortened to "The Prudential" -- never "The Pru," although that is the nickname of the Boston skyscraper and shopping mall complex also named the Prudential Center.

The hockey capacity of the arena is 17,625 seats, 1,415 fewer than the Meadowlands arena was. Nevertheless, and despite The Rock having several advantages over the Brendan Byrne Arena/Continental Airlines Arena/IZOD Center, the Devils have, sometimes comically, had trouble filling the place. The average attendance in the 2015-16 season was 14,969, 720 per game less than the previous season, 26th out of the NHL's 30 teams. Only Columbus, Arizona, Carolina and the Islanders did worse. It was 84.9 percent of capacity, ranking 27th, ahead of just Arizona, Columbus and Carolina.

Still, getting nearly 15,000 a game, when they haven't made the Playoffs in 4 straight seasons, and so failing while there's 3 relatively close teams that did make the Playoffs -- the New York Rangers, the New York Islanders and the Philadelphia Flyers -- is nothing to sneeze at.

Forget the lower bowl, the single-digit and double-digit sections. These seats are ridiculously expensive, going for $129 to $335. And people wonder why the Devils can't get sellouts. Actually, these seats usually get sold, but to corporations, who then have trouble giving them away to clients. Why watch a New Jersey team, even with 3 Stanley Cups in the last 20 years (3 more than the Rangers and Islanders combined), when you can watch a New York team, however spectacularly failed over the last generation, at Madison Square Garden, The World's Most Famous Arena? (As if Mark Messier, Willis Reed or Elvis Presley could help them now.) Lower bowl seats behind the goal can run between $96 and $178.

The second deck, the 100 sections, provide a better view anyway. Along the east and west sides, tickets can run $160, but closer to the goal are $103. The main end sections, north and south, run from $78 to $84. The third deck, the 200 sections above the east and west sides, are $46.

Getting There. The Prudential Center is 13.5 road miles from Times Square. Obviously, you're not going to be flying. You could take a train or a bus, but you won't need to spend the big bucks on Amtrak or Greyhound.

Taking New Jersey Transit by rail between the Penn Stations, New York's and Newark's, should take less than 20 minutes. Unfortunately, NJT just raised their fares again, and it will cost $10.50 round-trip. Taking a bus in from Port Authority is also possible, but don't do it: The train is cleaner, faster, more frequent, has shorter lines, and you can bring a snack or a drink on the train, which you can't do on the bus.


The PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) train is cheaper, $5.50 round-trip, but it takes longer, 24 from World Trade Center to Newark Penn, and 33 minutes from 33rd Street (Herald Square) to Newark, and on that line you'd have to change trains at Journal Square in Jersey City. So NJT Rail, despite the fare, is the way to go if you're not driving (and you shouldn't, unless you come from a part of New Jersey that doesn't have bus or rail service to Newark Penn).



When you come out of Newark's Penn Station, turn left, and walk a block to Market Street. Turn right on Market, and walk 2 blocks to Mulberry Street. The arena is a block away on your left.

If you're going to drive, there are plenty of parking lots available around the arena, and despite Newark's reputation for crime, especially car-related crime, these lots are well-policed. Most lots will charge around $15.

If you're coming from Midtown Manhattan, take the Lincoln Tunnel to the New Jersey Turnpike South. Take Exit 15E, and get on Interstate 280 West. From I-280, take Exit 15B (don't get the 2 exits confused), and turn left onto Broad Street. The Rock will be about a mile away, on your right.

If you're coming from Lower Manhattan, take the Holland Tunnel to "Truck Route 1 & 9" (at least until the Pulaski Skyway, regular U.S. Routes 1 & 9, gets its repairs finished, already past its presumed date of April 2016). When you get into Newark, follow the sign for Raymond Blvd. West. Cross under Penn Station and past the McCarter Highway (N.J. Route 21), and turn left on Broad Street. The Rock will be 4 blocks away, on your right. If you're coming from Brooklyn or Queens, or you're an Islander fan coming in from Long Island, get into Manhattan and follow the preceding directions.

If you're coming from Staten Island, take Interstate 278 to the Goethals Bridge to the Turnpike North, to Exit 13A. Take N.J. Route 81 to U.S. 1 & 9, to the McCarter Highway, until you reach Lafayette Street. The Rock will be 2 blocks to your left.

If you're coming from Bergen or Passaic County, New Jersey, take Interstate 80 East to Exit 68 (the last one), onto Interstate 95 South, which becomes the Turnpike, then follow the directions from Midtown.

If you're coming from any other part of North Jersey, take any road that gets you to I-280 East, to Exit 14, and turn right on Broad Street.

If you're coming from the Lower Hudson Valley or Connecticut, take any road that will get you to the George Washington Bridge, and then follow the directions from Bergen County.

If you're coming from Central Jersey or further south, take the Turnpike North to Exit 13A, and then follow the directions from Staten Island.

The official address of the Prudential Center is 25 Lafayette Street, but that's new: It was previously 165 Mulberry Street, and putting either address into your GPS will get you there.

Once In the City. New Jersey is named for Jersey, one of the United Kingdom's Channel Islands, birthplace of Sir George Carteret, who in 1664 was granted the part of the former New Netherland across the Hudson River from what became New York. He gave the Colony of New Jersey freedom of religion. (The Borough of Carteret is named for him, the City of Elizabeth for his wife.) While the name was written as Caesarea in Latin, it is apparently not named for Julius Caesar: "Jers" comes from a word meaning "earl," and the -ey suffix denotes an Island, as with the other of the large Channel Islands, Guernsey.

Newark, founded in 1666 by Puritans unhappy with church conduct in Connecticut, was named after Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, England. Having a population of over 450,000 in 1960, white flight to the suburbs dropped it to about 260,000 by 1990, but estimates now have it back up to 280,000, still the largest city in New Jersey. The population for the entire State is just under 9 million, meaning that, for the first time, it has exceeded that of New York City.

New Jersey's State sales tax is 7 percent, but since Newark is in an Urban Enterprise Zone, it's halved to 3 1/2 percent. The major newspapers in North Jersey include The Star-Ledger (based in Newark), the Jersey Journal (Hudson County), The Record (Bergen County), the completely separate Daily Record (Morris County), and The Herald News (Passaic County). In addition, Central Jersey has the Home News Tribune (Middlesex County), the Asbury Park Press (Monmouth and Ocean Counties), the Courier-News (Somerset County), and The Times and The Trentonian (Mercer County).

Newark doesn't have a "centerpoint," from which all addresses go up from zero, but the city's main intersection is Broad & Market Streets, a block east and north of the Prudential Center. New Jersey Transit buses have a fare of $1.60 for 1 zone, $2.55 for 2, and $3.15 for 3.

Going In. The Prudential Center, named for the Newark-based insurance company, opened on October 25, 2007 with a Bon Jovi concert. Two days later, the Devils played their opener, and lost to the Ottawa Senators.

There are 2 escalator towers on the east/Mulberry Street side of The Rock: The Verizon Tower and the PNC Bank Tower. I guess naming the building after one corporation wasn't enough.
The lower level concourse has a nice touch: Jerseys of every high school hockey team in the State. It also has a mural showing past Devils greats.
Unlike the Meadowlands Arena (apparently patterned after the Nassau Coliseum), with its 2 levels of seats forcing people to jam onto 1 level of concourse to hit the concession stands or the restrooms, the Prudential Center has 3 levels of seats with 2 levels of concourse, making getting to and from your seats, concessions and restrooms a lot easier, even during sellouts.

The rink is aligned north-to-south. The Devils attack twice toward the north end, the end with the Stanley Cup and retired number banners. The press box is on the east side, so the Devils logo at center ice is seen right-side-up from the east stands. The south end is the stage end when the building hosts concerts.

The arena is also the man home of the basketball team at Seton Hall University in nearby South Orange, and has hosted concerts and boxing. For a few years, it was home to the New Jersey Ironmen, an indoor soccer team run by Tony Meola, the longtime U.S. goalie from across the river in Kearny. Because "ultimate fighting" is illegal in the State of New York, UFC can't hold events at Madison Square Garden, the Barclays Center, or the Nassau Coliseum. So they've made The Rock their main venue for the New York Tri-State Area.

Food. It's all over the place. For those of you with pricey tickets, the Goal Bar is at the north end, the Fire Lounge (lit up in red) is on the east side, and the Ice Lounge (lit up in blue) is on the west side. The food is all-you-can-eat with your ticket, and the soda is all-you-can-drink. However, beer will still set you back some money.

For those of you with less pricey tickets, there are lots of stands, but the main one is the Taste of Newark series at the south end, featuring everything from Italian to Polish to Portuguese dishes. You can also get Nathan's hot dogs and crinkle-cut fries. I've never liked Nathan's hot dogs (which is why people shoot me dirty looks in Brooklyn), but Nathan's crinkle-cut fries are the best fries in the world. There are also a few Carvel Ice Cream and Dippin Dots stands.
Team History Displays. At the northeast corner of the building, at Mulberry Street & Edison Place, the Devils have installed Championship Plaza, honoring their 1995, 2000 and 2003 Stanley Cup wins. It will be joined on October 22 by a statue of Martin Brodeur.
Inside the arena, the north end has the Devils' 3 Stanley Cup banners: 1994-1995, 1999-2000 and 2002-2003. (They put both entire years on them, not "2003" or even "2002-03.")
The north end also has their 4 retired numbers so far: 3, defenseman Ken Danyeko, 1983-2003; 4, defenseman Scott Stevens, 1991-2004 (although it's listed as 1991 to 2005); 27, defenseman Scott Niedermayer, 1991-2004; and 30, goaltender Martin Brodeur, 1992-2014 (although it's listed as 1990 to 2014).
The south end has their other banners: 1988 Patrick Division Playoff Champions; 1995, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2012 Eastern Conference Champions; 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010 Atlantic Division Champions. Note, however, that the last banner was 5 seasons ago (or will be by the time this new regular season ends in April 2017).

The south end also has banners for the other team that calls The Rock home, the basketball edition of the Seton Hall Pirates. One is for their 1989 NCAA Final Four berth. Another is for the Pirates' 1953 NIT win. Others mark their 1991 Big East Tournament title, their 1992 Big East regular-season crown, and taking both in 1993. Another banner shows their 8 retired numbers: 3, Frank "Pep" Saul, guard, Class of 1949; 5, Walter Dukes, center, '53; 8, Bobby Wanzer, guard, '46; 11, Bob Davies, forward, '42; 12, Richie Regan, guard, '55; 24, Terry Dehere, guard, '93; 34, Glenn Mosley, forward, '77; and 44, Nick Werkman, forward, '64.

Saul, Wanzer and Davies were teammates on the 1951 NBA Champion Rochester Royals, the franchise now known as the Sacramento Kings, who also retired 11 for Davies. Regan played for the Royals later, and later still coached the Pirates. Saul also played on the Minneapolis Lakers titlists of 1952, '53 and '54. Dukes played for the Harlem Globetrotters, and in the 1955-56 season for the Knicks.

There are several murals around the building, all painted by local artists, including one on the upper level concourse featuring some Devils players, some Seton Hall players, stylized interpretations of other shows at The Rock, and other scenes from Newark, such as the gold-domed City Hall a couple of blocks away and the carousel at Branch Brook Park on the north side of town.

One in particular, on the east side of the lower level concourse, is the closest thing the Devils have to a team Hall of Fame. It includes all 3 of their Cup-winning head coaches, standing behind the team bench: Jacques Lemaire, Larry Robinson and the late Pat Burns. The players it shows, from left to right, roughly in order of their arrival in New Jersey, are: Goaltender turned broadcaster Glenn "Chico" Resch, defenseman Bruce Driver, defenseman Ken Daneyko, right wing John MacLean, center Peter Stastny, right wing Claude Lemieux, defenseman Scott Stevens, defenseman Scott Niedermayer, left wing Patrik Elias, center Scott Gomez, and, out of the chronological order, so that the team is flanked by 2 goalies, Martin Brodeur.

In 1998, The Hockey News celebrated its 50th Anniversary by naming its selections for the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. Since Brodeur was still active, they didn't choose players whose best years were outside North America and thus excluded Russian Hall-of-Famer Viacheslav Fetisov, and, for whatever reason, they didn't choose Stevens, either, the only former Devil they selected was Stastny.

Mark Johnson, Neal Broten and Jack O'Callahan of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team went on to play for the Devils. So did Bill Baker and Steve Janaszak when the team was still the Colorado Rockies. Broten and Ken Morrow were the only members of that team to go on to win a Stanley Cup: Morrow did so immediately, becoming a part of the Islander dynasty; Broten, whose brothers Aaron and Paul also played for the Devils (Aaron was the last original 1982-83 Devil still with the team, in 1989), took 15 years to do it, but scored 2 goals, including the game-winner, in Game 4 of the 1995 Finals to clinch the Devils' 1st Cup.

Stuff. There are several souvenir stands, with a main team store, the Devils Den, on the ground floor behind the north end. It is open on non-game days, but on game days, you need a game ticket to get in.
The stores do sell a lot of devil-themed merchandise, including plastic horns, plastic pitchforks, and devil masks, looking a lot more like interpretations of the Devil than the mythical Jersey Devil for which the team was named, or like N.J. Devil, the somewhat mischievous creature used as a representation of the team and as its mascot.

They also sell a lot of merchandise geared toward women ("The Devil In Her"), and for kids and babies ("Little Devils"), knowing that, with the Rangers just 13 road miles away and still having a bit of a hold over the northern half of New Jersey (that's geographically, more like 2/3rds in terms of population), they need all the fans they can get, not just the stereotypical drunken 21-to-35-year-old guy trying a little too hard to be macho.

If you're looking for team videos, you're out of luck. The 3 Stanley Cup wins are available in highlight packages, but the titles aren't all that imaginative: Heaven: The New Jersey Devils' 1994-95 Champion Season; Second Heaven: New Jersey Devils 2000 Stanley Cup Champions; and New Jersey Devils Stanley Cup 2002-2003 Champions. There was no official team history video to commemorate their 10th, 20th, 25th or 30th Anniversary (1992, 2002, 2007 and 2012).

Despite having now played for a third of a century, the Devils don't have very many books written about them. Mike Kerwich and Chico Resch edited Tales from the New Jersey Devils Locker Room: A Collection of the Greatest Devils Stories Ever Told. And Martin Brodeur wrote the memoir Brodeur: Beyond the Crease.

But for a retrospective of the team's history, the best is probably 25: The History of Devils Hockey In New Jersey, by the Star-Ledger sportswriting staff, taking the team from the negotiations to bring the former Colorado Rockies (not to be confused with the current baseball team of that name) to New Jersey in 1982 through 2007, which marked both the team's 25th Anniversary and the opening of the Prudential Center. That book is available at the team stores.

During the Game. A November 19, 2014 article on The Hockey News' website ranked the NHL teams' fan bases, and listed the Devils' fans 21st -- in the bottom 1/3rd of the League, well below the Rangers and the Flyers, but 1 place ahead of the Islanders. The article cited the Devils' low attendance regardless of the team's record.

Devils fans hate the New York Rangers and their fans. (Can you blame them?) And the Philadelphia Flyers and their fans. (Ditto?) And since a lot more Devils fans are Yankee Fans than Met fans, they also tend to hate the Boston Bruins and their fans. But we are not Ranger, Flyer or Bruin fans. And while New Jersey has a rough reputation, not helped by Mob stories, both real and imagined, you do not need to fear for your safety, inside The Rock or out on the streets: We do not start fights, and the Newark Police are very thorough, knowing that their city has an image that they have to alleviate.

When the Devils are introduced, a natural song is played: "Hell's Bells" by AC/DC. (But no one has suggested renaming the McCarter Highway "the Highway to Hell.") The National Anthem is (or, if a Canadian team is the opponent, the National Anthems are) usually sung by Arlette Roxborgh, who uses only her first name professionally. She released her 1st album in 2014, after 20 years as a lounge singer, and about 15 years as the Devils' anthem singer. (In other words, she predates the 2nd and 3rd Cups, if not the 1st, and she did sing at the Meadowlands.) She's from the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad, but has lived in Brooklyn and Staten Island as an adult.

With the arena in Newark, and staffed by people living nearby, it's not so strange to see black people at a Devils game. She wears a Devils jersey when she sings, with the name ARLETTE and the Number 1, which has rarely worn by a Devils goalie since the arrival of Brodeur, although Keith Kinkaid wears it now.
It was another black female singer, Irvington native Queen Latifah, who was the 1st person, other than a Devils player, to wear a Devils jersey on television, on her sitcom Living Single. On the back, she wore the Number 1, and the name was the name of the magazine her character, Khadijah James, owned and published: FLAVOR.

The mascot is N.J. Devil, a guy in a foam costume, with a stereotypical thin mustache and a goatee, but also a big, un-fanged smile, as if that makes "the Devil" look more kid-friendly.

Indeed, the team name doesn't make sense: Aside from offending people of faith by making them think of Satan, the legend of the Jersey Devil comes from the Pine Barrens of South Jersey. That's Flyer territory. To make matters worse, there was a longtime hockey player from Slovakia named Miroslav Šatan (pronounced "Sha-TANN"), and the Devils never tried to acquire him. They should have, because he usually played well against them, and scored 363 goals in 15 NHL seasons.

For years, the Devils' goal song was "Rock and Roll Part II" (a.k.a. "The Hey Song") by Gary Glitter. Following a conviction on what would once have been quaintly called "a morals charge," they dropped it in favor to soccer staple "The Ole Song." When Glitter was released from prison, the Hey Song returned, but after another conviction, the team dropped it again, in favor of "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes. This also means that the chant, while pointing at the goalie who let the goal in, of, "Hey -- you suck!" has been replaced by, "Oh, whoa oh ah oh, whoa... you suck!"

But "Seven Nation Army" didn't really catch on with the Jersey faithful, and so local musician Rich Andruska has written a new song, "Devils Rule," and given it to the team. It is catching on.

Like Islander fans before us, Devils fans will start a whistle, and punctuate it with the entire crowd (except for those rooting for the visiting team -- and, depending on the team, sometimes even them, as the Rangers are not admired around the NHL) yelling, "Rangers suck!" What we add to the old Islander chant is a reminder that "suck" used to mean not, "They are very bad," but, "They perform perverted sex acts," is, "Flyers swallow!" A lot of people bring children to the games, and I don't want to have to be the one to explain that chant.

This chant will usually start from the east side balcony, from Section 232, home of the 232 Crazies. They used to be the 228 Crazies at the Meadowlands, but, like the Bleacher Creatures having to move from Section 39 to Section 203 at the new Yankee Stadium, they had to change their number. They're rowdy, but they're not that crazy -- unless you're a Ranger or Flyer fan who wants to start something.
They should not be confused with the Devils Fan Club, who sit in Section 11 in the southwest corner of The Rock.

After the Game. Since the Prudential is so close to Newark Penn Station, a major transportation hub, they have a feature which, I think, is unique: Video screens posting New Jersey Transit train times out of the station. You would think that Madison Square Garden, built on top of New York's Penn Station, and the TD Garden, built (like its predecessor) on top of Boston's North Station, would also have this, but they don't.

As I said, the police have a significant presence outside. Your walk back to your car, or to Penn Station, will be completely safe. If anyone does try to hassle you, a cop to complain to will not be far away.

There are quite a few places to eat and drink nearby. Across Lafayette Street from The Rock is Edison Ale House. A block away, at 224 Market Street, is Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. If you've got a little extra to spend, the renowned Chateau of Spain is 2 blocks south of the arena, at 11 Franklin Street.

Across the railroad, ringed by rails and the Passaic River, is the Ironbound section of Newark, a famous Portuguese neighborhood. Several bars and restaurants, many along Market Street with a Spanish and/or Portuguese theme, cater to fans of the Devils and, across the River in Harrison, the New York Red Bulls.

These include MMMBello's at 376, Spain Restaurant at 419, Titanic at 486, and Catas at 538. (R.I.P. El Pastor, at 570: One of the best eateries in the neighborhood, and a major gathering place for Red Bulls fans, the place went out of business, and the building has been demolished. Now I'm sad.) Ferry Street includes Forno's of Spain at 47, and the castle-resembling Iberia at 80. There are others, including some Portuguese bakeries with tasty treats, but they may not be open late at night after a Devils home game.

Sidelights. The North Jersey portion of the New York Tri-State Area's sports history isn't especially long, but it's had more success than the rest of the Area (minus The Bronx).

* Meadowlands Sports Complex. The complex, run by the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority, opened with the opening of the Meadowlands Racetrack, a.k.a. The Big M, on September 1, 1976, hosting only harness racing for a year, until it began hosting thoroughbred racing in the fall of 1977. Since 1981, it has been home to the Hambletonian Stakes, one of harness racing's biggest events and the 2nd leg of its Triple Crown. (It was previously held at several locations, including Yonkers Raceway, before its previous "permanent" home of the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds Racetrack in southern Illinois from 1957 to 1980.)

Giants Stadium opened on October 10, 1976, with the Giants losing to the Dallas Cowboys. Still, the stadium not only served as a new beginning for a football team that had been all but irrelevant for years, but as a coming-out party for New Jersey sports. In a year, the Rutgers Athletic Center would open, home to both the Rutgers basketball team and the former New York Nets.

It would "welcome" the USFL's New Jersey Generals from 1983 to 1985, the Jets starting in 1984, the New York/New Jersey Knights of the World League of American Football in 1991 and '92, and he New York/New Jersey Hitmen of the ill-advised, ill-mannered, ill-performing, ill-fated XFL in 2001. The 1985 USFL Championship Game, played at Giants Stadium and won by the Baltimore Stars over the Oakland Invaders, turned out to be the last-ever USFL game. Despite lasting only 34 seasons, due to hosting both Big Blue and Gang Green, no other stadium has hosted more NFL regular-season games: 466.

Rutgers played several home games there, due to the original Rutgers Stadium seating only 23,000, and played their entire 1993 schedule there while their stadium was rebuilt. Princeton also played a home game there in 1997, while their stadium was rebuilt. It hosted 4 Army-Navy Games.

Giants Stadium hosted the North American Soccer League's New York Cosmos from 1977 to 1984, including icons Pele and Franz Beckenbauer; and the New York-New Jersey MetroStars of Major League Soccer starting in 1996, changing their name to the New York Red Bulls in 2005. It hosted several international soccer matches, including 7 matches of the 1994 World Cup, among them a Group Stage match between Ireland and Italy (which certainly made sense, given the Tri-State Area's ethnic makeup), Bulgaria's Quarterfinal win over Germany, and Italy's Semifinal win over Bulgaria. (Italy would lose the Final to Brazil at the Rose Bowl.) It hosted the 1st 2 MLS All-Star Games in 1996 and '97, and 4 games of the 1999 Women's World Cup, including America's win over Denmark. The men's U.S. National Team played there 9 times.

Despite a rainstorm, Pope John Paul II delivered Mass there on October 5, 1995. The crowd of 82,948 was a stadium record, surpassed only by a U2 concert in 2009, 84,472. Other major musical events there included the Jacksons' Victory Tour in 1984, Freehold, New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen's Born In the U.S.A. Tour in 1985, the 1986 Amnesty International "Conspiracy of Hope" show, and a 1988 Guns 'N Roses show that was filmed as the video for their song "Paradise City."

The Giants, Jets and Red Bulls played their final seasons at Giants Stadium in 2009, with the Jets playing what turned out to be the final event, a Playoff-clinching win over the Cincinnati Bengals, on January 3, 2010. A limit on how many luxury boxes could be added was the reason for its replacement, rather than the awful artificial turf or the nasty wind, a.k.a. "The Hawk," that chilled spectators and made placekicking and punting difficult.

The 82,566-seat MetLife Stadium opened on April 10, 2010, with, of all things, a college lacrosse tournament. The Red Bulls had already moved into Red Bull Arena, and have never played at MetLife. The Giants and Jets moved into the place, then still called the New Meadowlands Stadium, in September. They own the stadium 50/50, and the exterior lighting can be changed to either Giant blue or Jet green, depending on who is at home. For the first time -- not at Shea Stadium, and certainly not at Giants Stadium -- the Jets can feel as though they are at home, while the Giants have gone on as before.

The U.S. National Team has played there twice: A loss to Brazil on August 10, 2010, and a draw with Argentina on March 26, 2011. (I was there for the Argentina match.) And Super Bowl XLVIII was held there in 2014, with the Seattle Seahawks crushing the Denver Broncos, 43-8. It probably earned the right to host another Super Bowl, and if the U.S. ever gets to host another World Cup, it will certainly be a host site and may even host the Final.

The arena, originally known as the Brendan Byrne Arena for the Governor who got it built (and successor of William T. Cahill, who got the rest of the Complex built), opened on July 2, 1981, with a Springsteen concert. The New Jersey Nets soon moved in, and stayed until 2010, when they spent 2 years in the Prudential Center before moving to Brooklyn in 2012. The Devils arrived in 1982, and stayed until 2007 when the Prudential Center opened. Capacity for basketball is 20,089; for hockey, 19,040.

The arena saw the Devils clinch the Stanley Cup on home ice on June 24, 1995, and again -- by this point, renamed the Continental Airlines Arena (leading Byrne to say, "I was immortal for 15 years") -- on June 9, 2003. (They also clinched the Cup away to Dallas on June 10, 2000.) It hosted many NCAA Basketball Tournament games, including the 1996 NCAA Final Four, won by Kentucky over Syracuse.

With no pro teams still calling it home starting in 2010, the Izod Center (that name took hold in 2007 after the Devils left) mainly hosted concerts, circuses, and various family-friendly shows like Sesame Street Live, until this past January 15, when the NJSEA shut it down. The current plan is to demolish the Devils' 1st home in 2017.

The Complex is at the intersection of the Western Spur of the New Jersey Turnpike (Exit 16W), and New Jersey Routes 3 & 120. It can be reached by New Jersey Transit bus route 320 from Port Authority. On NFL game days only, it can also be reached by NJT rail when you transfer at Secaucus Junction.

According to a May 12, 2014 article in The New York Times, the Nets' failure in New Jersey has left them the 2nd favorite NBA team in most of the State, behind the Knicks, and sometimes 3rd behind the Los Angeles Lakers. In most Counties, the Knicks have about 25 percent of NBA fans, while the Nets average around 14 percent.

The Jets are only slightly luckier. According to a September 5, 2014 article in The Atlantic, they tend to have a better percentage of local fans than the Nets, or the Mets, but there is no place at all in the world where they have a majority. The last one where they did was their former headquarters of Nassau County. The Giants' 8-year head start at the Meadowlands made them "Jersey's Team" well before the Devils started marketing themselves with that slogan, even though the Giants have never used "New Jersey" in their name.

* Site of Ruppert Stadium. The original Newark Bears, of the International League, played here, built in 1926 as David's Stadium, before Jacob Ruppert bought it and the team and brought it into the Yankee organization. He also expanded the capacity from 12,000 to 19,000, making it larger than most minor-league stadiums (and larger than Philadelphia's Baker Bowl, and nearly as large as Cleveland's League Park). The Negro Leagues' Newark Eagles started playing there in 1936. In the original American Football League, of 1926, a football team called the Newark Bears played there.

With Yankee resources at their disposal, the Bears won 5 IL Pennants: 1932, 1937, 1938, 1940 and 1945. Future Yankee stars Joe Gordon, Tommy Henrich and Yogi Berra played for them. The Eagles, owned by Effa Manley, the first woman elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and led by future Hall-of-Famers Leon Day, East Orange native Monte Irvin, Paterson native Larry Doby, Willie Wells and Ray Dandridge, plus Don Newcombe, a Madison, New Jersey native who should be in the Hall, the Eagles won the 1946 Negro World Series. In 1948, Tony Zale regained the Middleweight Championship of the World there by knocking out Rocky Graziano.

However, the raids of black teams' rosters by the white majors began the decline of their leagues, and the Eagles left Newark after the 1948 season. The growth of television meant that fans could stay home and watch the Yankees, Giants or Dodgers for free, instead of going out to the Ironbound and paying to watch the Bears, and they left after 1950.

Ruppert Stadium was demolished in 1967, and a meat wholesaler's plant occupies the site now. 258 Wilson Avenue, southeast corner of Wilson and Avenue K. Number 25 bus. This is an industrial area, right underneath the elevated Routes 1 & 9, and I would advise avoiding it at night.

* Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium. Named for both of Newark's historical baseball teams, this new ballpark opened in 1999, for the new Bears of the independent Atlantic League. Newark native, Seton Hall graduate and former Yankee catcher Rick Cerone was the 1st owner. The team had legends Rickey Henderson and Jose Canseco trying to work their way back to the majors, and also Jose's twin brother Ozzie, and featured ex-Yankees Jim Leyritz and Ramiro Mendoza, and ex-Mets Edgardo Alfonzo and Armando Benitez. Managers included Bill Madlock, Tim Raines and Garry Templeton.

The Bears won a Division title in 2001, and Atlantic League Pennants in 2002 and 2007. The latter was particularly satisfying, defeating their arch-rivals, the Somerset Patriots, the team with the multicultural urban fan base beating the team of conservative suburbanites who foisted Republican Governors named Christie on the State (Christine Todd Whitman and Chris Christie).

But they were forever short of money, never promoted themselves well, always struggled for attendance, nearly went bankrupt in 2008, shifted to the Can-Am League where there was a built-in rivalry with the New Jersey Jackals, only made the CAL Playoffs once (in 2009), and folded after the 2013 season. The rights to the team, its records and its trademarks are currently for sale, and the ballpark is now targeted for demolition and replacement by housing, for commuters for NJ Transit's Broad Street Station, across the street.

450 Broad Street, at Division Street. Light Rail (formerly the Newark City Subway) from Penn Station to Riverfront Stadium Station. The ride takes 7 minutes.

* Harrison Park. Although the Indianapolis Hoosiers won the 1st Federal League Pennant in 1914, they lost money, so they moved east. Blocked by the major league teams from establishing a base in Manhattan, and unable to use Brooklyn because another FL team was already playing there, they built 21,000-seat Harrison Park across the River, in Harrison, Hudson County. Calling themselves the Newark Peppers, they are the only major league team ever to officially call New Jersey home.

They featured center fielder Edd Roush, later a Hall-of-Famer for the Cincinnati Reds; 3rd baseman Bill McKechnie, later a Hall of Fame manager; and former Chicago Cubs pitcher Ed Reulbach. But they went just 80-72, finishing 5th. The FL went out of business after the season, and only briefly has Major League Baseball returned to New Jersey. Indeed, the last Peppers game was on October 3, 1915 -- 100 years ago today.

Harrison Park continued to be used by minor-league and local teams, before being destroyed by a fire in 1923. Home plate was at the southeast corner of 2nd & Middlesex Streets (Middlesex is now Angelo Cifelli Drive), and the park was also bounded by 3rd & Burlingston Streets. Warehouses are on the site now. The Harrison PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) station is adjacent, making it easily accessible from Newark's Penn Station. Red Bull Arena, the soccer stadium, is a 5-minute walk away.

* Red Bull Arena. Home to the New York Red Bulls since it opened in 2010, this 25,000-seat facility is probably the best soccer-specific stadium in America. The Red Bulls have made the MLS Playoffs every year since it opened (including 2016). Led by Arsenal legend Thierry Henry, former Everton star Tim Cahill, and short but wily midfielder Dax McCarty, "Metro" (the nickname a holdover from their MetroStars days) won the Supporters' Shield, the trophy given to the team with the best overall record in the League, in 2013. Led by McCarty and Bradley Wright-Phillips, son of Ian Wright (whom Henry replaced as Arsenal's all-time leading scorer), they won the Supporters' Shield again last season. However, they have never won an MLS Cup, it took them 18 seasons to get that 1st trophy of any kind, and some fans think the team is jinxed.

The Arena has hosted 2 U.S. national team matches: A win over Ecuador on October 11, 2011, and a draw with Turkey on June 1, 2014.

The U.S. national team has also played 3 matches within the confines of the City of Newark, in the early days, between 1885 and 1935; however, the locations have not been recorded. It may have been Dreamland Park, where the football Giants played their 1st game in 1925. The infamous Seth Boyden Houses project is on the site now, at Freylinghuysen Avenue (N.J. Route 27) & Seth Boyden Terrace, near Weequahic Park. It could also have been at the recently demolished and rebuilt Newark City Schools Stadium, in the North Ward at Bloomfield & Roseville Avenues.

Red Bull Arena's official address is 600 Cape May Street, at Pete Higgins Blvd., in Harrison. PATH to Harrison is the most common way to get there if you're not driving. The most fun way is to go to Penn Station, walk out the east entrance, make a "pub crawl" down Market Street, and then join the various "ultra" groups as they walk across the Jackson Street Bridge, over the River, to the stadium.

Yes, ultras. Not hooligans: While incredibly enthusiastic, and will defend themselves if attacked, as they had to do recently with fans of expansion New York City F.C. (taking up temporary residence at the new Yankee Stadium) they will never instigate violence.

* Site of Roosevelt Stadium. Named for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose Works Project Administration (WPA) made it possible, this 24,000-seat stadium on Newark Bay, in the Droyer's Point section of Jersey City, hosted the International League's Jersey City Giants until 1950. It also briefly hosted the IL's Jersey City Jerseys (yes, that was the name) in 1960 and '61, and the Eastern League's Jersey City Indians in 1977 and Jersey City A's in 1978.

The "Little Giants" won Pennants in 1939 and 1947. On April 18, 1946, they hosted the Montreal Royals, in Jackie Robinson's debut in "organized ball."

In 1956 and 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers took advantage of its big parking lot -- something the larger Ebbets Field did not have -- to play 7 games a season, 1 vs. each of the other National League teams, at Roosevelt. It was a ploy by Walter O'Malley, to show that he would move the Dodgers a lot further west than New Jersey if he didn't get a new ballpark. Robert Moses, the City's construction czar, either thought O'Malley was bluffing, or that it wasn't worth keeping the Dodgers, and they moved to Los Angeles.

The 1st Dodger game there was on April 19, 1956, and the Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-4. The last was on September 3, 1957, also against the Phils, who won 3-2. Average attendance for the Jersey City games: 18,432, better than the Dodgers were doing at Ebbets Field. Despite this, since September 3, 1957, no MLB games have been played in the State of New Jersey.

In his first fight after regaining the Middleweight title at Ruppert Stadium in 1948, Tony Zale lost it at Roosevelt Stadium, beaten by Marcel Cerdan. In 1950, Sugar Ray Robinson defended the Welterweight Championship there. The Grateful Dead played 6 shows there in the 1970s. Today, Roosevelt Stadium is probably best remembered for its Thanksgiving Day high school football games, with the field laid out from 3rd base to right field (north to south).

It was demolished in 1985, and a gated community, named Droyer's Point for the old neighborhood, and a shopping center called Stadium Plaza have been built on the site. Danforth Avenue & N.J. Route 440. PATH to Journal Square, transfer to the Number 80 bus.

According to an April 24, 2014 article in The New York Times, the Yankees now have an absolute stranglehold on the baseball fandom of New Jersey. Percentage wise, the Yankees lead the Mets as follows, County by County: 66-14 in Bergen, 65-10 in Morris, 65-12 in Passaic, 65-14 in Sussex, 64-14 in Somerset, 63-10 in Essex (including Newark), 63-12 in Hunterdon, 63-16 in Middlesex, 60-13 in Ocean, 60-14 in Hudson, and 59-17 in Monmouth. In Warren County, bordering Pennsylvania, it's Yankees 42, Phillies 28, Mets 11. In Mercer, home of State capital Trenton, and accessible to Philadelphia by rail, it's Yankees 41, Phillies 27, Red Sox 10 -- the Mets are actually 4th in that County.

* Site of Boyle's Thirty Acres. This was a temporary stadium built by boxing promoter George "Tex" Rickard to host the July 2, 1921 Heavyweight Championship fight between titleholder Jack Dempsey and French fighter Georges Carpentier, the Light Heavyweight Champion. Why there? Because, at the time -- and for 2 more years -- boxing would be illegal in the State of New York.

On 34 acres owned by paper manufacturer John Boyle, and in a deal negotiated by Mayor Frank "I Am the Law" Hague (who later made the deal with the WPA to build Roosevelt Stadium), Rickard constructed a 90,000-"seat" facility, all wooden benches. (Had someone dropped a cigarette, and the stands caught fire, it could have made the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster in England look like a picnic.) The fight sold out, and Dempsey knocked the real-life World War I flying ace out in the 4th round.

Boxing was soon legalized in New York, and Rickard's promotion company staged fights at the 2nd Madison Square Garden, the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium. Rickard built the 3rd Garden, and turned it into "the Mecca of Boxing." (He also built the original Boston Garden.) All this made Boyle's Thirty Acres obsolete, and it was demolished in 1927. A housing project named Montgomery Gardens went up on the site in 1957, but the city demolish it this past August 29, and plans to replace it with new, better housing. Montgomery, Florence & Bright Streets & Corneilson Avenue. PATH to Journal Square, transfer to Number 6 bus.

* Hinchliffe Stadium. One of the few surviving stadiums to have hosted a Negro Leagues game, this 10,000-seat horseshoe, designed for football, was built by Paterson Mayor John Hinchliffe in 1932, above the city's Great Falls on the Passaic River. It hosted the 1933 Negro World Series, and hosted some (but not all) home games of the New York Black Yankees (yes, a team with that name did exist, though it wasn't nearly as successful as its white counterpart) and the New York Cubans (so named because so many natives of Cuba are the descendants of African slaves, so that, to many white people, "Cuban" came to be thought of as "black").

The stadium is home to both Eastside and John F. Kennedy (formerly Central) High Schools, and their Thanksgiving Day tussle is one of the biggest games in the State. Larry Doby, born in South Carolina but raised in Paterson, played there for both Eastside High and the Newark Eagles. It's in bad shape now, but efforts are underway to restore it. Maple & Liberty Streets. Number 72 bus from Newark Penn Station, then a 20-minute walk from Paterson's Broadway Terminal. Not to be visited at night.

* Army-Navy Game. The battle between the service academies has been played in New Jersey: At Osborne Field in Princeton (that was 2 stadiums ago for the Princeton Tigers) in 1905; and at Giants Stadium in 1989, 1993, 1997 and 2002. It has not yet been played at MetLife Stadium, and, for the moment, there are no plans to host it there (it's scheduled through 2017).

* Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center and Yogi Berra Stadium. Few people get a museum in their honor while they're still alive. A group of Yogi's friends thought he deserved one.

It's hard to argue against it: He not only won more World Series than any other player, 10, and 3 American League Most Valuable Player awards, but he was also the only major league ballplayer who also fought in the D-Day invasion. He was also the 1st Yankee on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and The Dreaded SI Cover Jinx didn't seem to affect him. That, alone, may justify a museum! But then, as the man himself might have said if he'd thought of it first, "I don't believe in bad jinxes."

Since he lived in Upper Montclair until he and his wife Carmen began to fail and moved to a nursing home -- both have since passed away -- the museum was built on the campus of Montclair State University, straddling the towns of Montclair (in Essex County) and Little Falls (the museum is actually in Passaic County).

The Museum has exhibits about Yogi's life and career, the Yankees in general, and tributes to the Negro Leagues and ballplayers in military service. It goes out of its way to be kid-friendly, hence the "Learning Center." Check it out: As the man himself would have said if he'd thought of it first, "If you don't go, you won't know what you're not missing."

Admission is $6.00, $4.00 for students under age 18. They're open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 5:00 -- or, as the website itself says, "We're open 'til we close." 8 Yogi Berra Drive (to match his uniform number), Little Falls. Easy driving access from U.S. Route 46. Or, take the Newark Light Rail to Broad Street Station, one stop from Riverfront Stadium, and take the Montclair-Boonton Line to MSU station. Or, take the NJ Transit Number 28 bus from downtown Newark to the MSU campus.

Attached to the Museum is Yogi Berra Stadium, home of the New Jersey Jackals of the American Association, formerly of the Northeast League and the Can-Am League (both now defunct, as the AA is named for a pair of defunct pro leagues). They've won 4 Pennants: 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2004, all in the Northeast League. While they haven't won a Pennant in 11 years, they've made their league's Playoffs in each of the last 7 years. Alumni include Pete Rose Jr., former AL Rookie of the Year Angel Berroa, former Met Timo Perez, and a Yankee prospect who never panned out, D'Angelo Jimenez. A skybox attached to the museum was built so that Yogi and his guests could watch the games.

* Colleges. The aforementioned Montclair State is NCAA Division III. Division I schools in the northern half of New Jersey are: Rutgers University in New Brunswick, 27 miles away; Princeton University in Princeton, 41 miles; Monmouth University in West Long Branch, 45 miles; Seton Hall University in South Orange, 4 miles; St. Peter's University in Jersey City, 6 miles; and Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, 19 miles.

Rutgers is easily the most popular college football team in North Jersey, although there's plenty of Penn State and Notre Dame fans. For shame. Indeed, Saint Joe Paterno University dominates West Jersey and South Jersey. Yes, even after the scandal. Old habits die hard.

* Non-Sports Sites. The Newark Museum is worth a visit, at 49 Washington Street, off Washington Park. Use that stop on the Newark Light Rail. There are some other points of note in the city, and you can check out the city's website to decide which ones you want to see. Penn Station, built in 1935 in the Art Deco style so popular at the time, is a destination in and of itself. And don't forget all the nice places to eat in the Ironbound, the one section of Newark that actually smells good.

Branch Brook Park, on the north side of Newark, is home to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, a carousel, a skating rink, and cherry blossom trees that light up the area in early April. Sacred Heart is at 6th Street & Clifton Avenue, across from Barringer High School (which happens to have been my father's alma mater). Park Avenue stop on the Light Rail. The rink is at 7th & Clifton; take the Orange Street stop.

The only President born in New Jersey was Grover Cleveland. His father was a minister, and the house where the future 22nd and 24th (non-consecutive terms) President of the United States was born was a church parsonage. 207 Bloomfield Avenue, Caldwell. Number 29 bus. (Not far away is the real-life house used as Tony's house on The Sopranos. However, it is privately owned, so leave them alone.)

Elvis Presley never gave a concert in the State of New Jersey, not even at a smaller venue like Newark's Symphony Hall early in his career. By the time he started touring again in 1970, the only venue in the State that could have held him was Convention Hall, now known as Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, but he was never booked there. The Beatles were, on August 30, 1964.

The tallest building in Newark is the National Newark & Essex Building, another Art Deco masterpiece, going up in 1931 and rising 466 feet, with the flagpole increasing its height to 578 feet. 744 Broad Street at Clinton Street, 1 block west and 2 blocks north of the Prudential Center.

It remained the tallest building in New Jersey until 1989, a distinction held since 2004 by the Goldman Sachs Tower, on the Jersey City waterfront (a.k.a. the Gold Coast). It's 781 feet high, and, from traffic on the Turnpike, could easily be mistaken for one of the towers of the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, across the Hudson River. 30 Hudson Street at Essex Street. PATH to Exchange Place, then 5 blocks south on Hudson Street. Also accessible via the Essex Street station on the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and the Paulus Hook Ferry.

*

With the Giants, the Jets, the Red Bulls, and, yes, the 3-time Stanley Cup Champion New Jersey Devils, North Jersey doesn't have to take a back seat to anybody. Indeed, from January 25, 1987 (Super Bowl XXI) onward, New Jersey has been home to 7 World Championships (Giants 4, Devils 3), New York City to 6 (Yankees 5, Rangers 1). New Jersey has also hosted a Super Bowl and World Cup matches since then, while New York City never has; and has hosted an NCAA Final Four, something New York City hasn't done since 1951.

Going to a Devils game is more fun than an Islander game because the Isles have become irrelevant. And it's more fun than a Ranger game because, well, the Rangers suck. Let's go, Devils!

On Sunday, October 9, the Giants will be in Wisconsin to play the Green Bay Packers. This is a rarity in the NFL: These two teams have been trying to crush each other since 1925.

Before You Go. You've heard the legends of how cold it gets in Green Bay -- and, indeed, it is further north than Toronto, roughly as far north as Plattsburgh, New York and Burlington, Vermont, which are about 300 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. However, this is the middle of September, so the bitterly cold weather they sometimes get will not be a factor.

By the way, John Facenda, the longtime Voice of NFL Films, never said, on any highlight reel, the words "the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field." (They've checked.) It is now believed that ESPN's Chris Berman, doing an impression of Facenda, made it up. Though I did hear another announcer, talking about the 1967 NFL Championship Game, the legendary Ice Bowl, say it was "a day savage enough to make a Saint Bernard whimper," and add, "It is called Russian Winter: The kind of cold that made Napoleon and Hitler flee in terror from the doorstep of Moscow. But, in Green Bay, it is known as Packer Weather."

(In fact, Hitler's troops never quite got that far, and he didn't go with them. Napoleon, to his credit, did share his troops' hardships, and they did reach Moscow, but the locals had burned it, leaving it not worth keeping, and Napoleon and his Grand Army left.)

According to the Green Bay Press Gazette, on Sunday afternoon, the temperatures should be in the high 50s. But the game will be played on Saturday night, at 7:30 PM local time, when it is projected to be in the low 40s, maybe the high 30s. So while you might not need a winter jacket in daylight, you will need one at night, during the game.

Green Bay is in the Central Time Zone, 1 hour behind New York. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.

Tickets. Unless you've already got them, or want to pay through the nose to a scalper, forget it. Last season, the Packers averaged 78,413 fans per home game -- a sellout. These people loved their football even before Vince Lombardi came along. Once he did, well... The Ice Bowl? Attendance that day was 50,861. That was the capacity of Lambeau Field at the time. So, for the coldest game in football history (or so it's been said), there was not one empty seat in the house.

Having sold out every seat since Lambeau opened nearly 60 years ago, and having a waiting list that makes the traffic backup at the Meadowlands seem small by comparison, tickets are simply not available at the stadium window or on the team website. I do see tickets available from the NFL Ticket Exchange on Ticketmaster, but most seem to come in pairs (in other words, you'll have to buy both seats), and they're starting at around $100. Most of them are in the $150-250 range.

Getting There. Downtown Green Bay is an even 1,000 miles from Midtown Manhattan, and Lambeau Field is 990 miles from MetLife Stadium. If you don't want to take most of a day to get there, you'll want to fly.

Yeah, good luck with that. There is an airport in Green Bay, Austin Straubel International Airport, but it doesn't have nonstop flights from New York or Newark. In fact, getting a nonstop flight from home just to General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee is something you're probably not going to be able to do. Your best bet may be to fly to Chicago and rent a car for the last... 194 miles. That's right: Instead of flying or driving, you'd have to do both.

(Billy Mitchell was an Army General from the Milwaukee suburbs, and an early advocate for air power. Austin Straubel was an Army Air Force Major from Green Bay who was killed in action in World War II.)

Forget the train: Amtrak goes to Milwaukee, but not to Green Bay, and there's no secondary service such as New Jersey Transit, Metro-North or the Long Island Rail Road to connect Wisconsin's major city with its football city.

Bus? Greyhound does go there, but you'd have to leave Port Authority, change buses in Chicago and again in Milwaukee. And, the way the schedules work out, you'll probably need 2 nights in a hotel. I don't know what your chance is of getting a hotel room within a 50-mile radius of Green Bay on an Autumn weekend is, but I'm not optimistic. Round-trip bus fare: $198. The Greyhound station is at 800 Cedar Street, at Main and Van Buren Streets.

So your best bet really is 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 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 the key, until it merges with Interstate 94, which will merge with Interstate 43.

I-94 will split off from I-43 at downtown Milwaukee. Stay on I-43 North. Take Exit 180 to State Route 172 West. Exit onto State Route 32, and turn left on Pilgrim Way. You'll see a sign for Holmgren Way, named for the former Packer coach. On your right will be the Bay Park Square Mall. Turn right on Oneida Street. Before you reach Lombardi Avenue, you will see Lambeau Field on your left, and on your right, Green Bay's arenas: The old one, the Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena; and the new one, the Resch Center (named for a local businessman, not Devils goalie-turned-broadcaster Chico Resch). The official address for the stadium is 1265 Lombardi Avenue.

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, an hour and a half in Illinois, and about 3 hours in Wisconsin. That's about 17 hours and 45 minutes. Counting rest stops, and accounting for traffic in both New York and Chicago, it should be no more than 23 hours, which would save you time on Greyhound, if not on flying.

Once In the City. As you might guess, Green Bay -- named for the body of water it's on, and incorporated as a French fur-trading village in 1754, making it older than most of the big Midwestern cities -- is by far the smallest city in any of the 4 major North American sports: 104,057 people at the time of the 2010 Census, making it the 3rd-largest city in Wisconsin after Milwaukee and the State capital of Madison.

Its "metropolitan area" (if you don't count it as part of Milwaukee's) has about 300,000 people -- by comparison, Milwaukee has a little over 2 million in its area, making it the smallest in Major League Baseball. If you combine the 2 into one "market," in the NFL, they'd still be 26th out of 32, ahead of only Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Nashville, Jacksonville, Buffalo and New Orleans.

So why did Green Bay survive as an NFL city, when larger, but still not big, cities didn't get out of the NFL's founding era (1920-32)? Cities like Providence, Rhode Island; Rochester, New York; Pottsville, Pennsylvania; Canton, Ohio; Muncie, Indiana; Rock Island, Illinois; and Duluth, Minnesota? At one point, after a rocky beginning to their relationship, starting a rivalry between the teams that continues to this day, Chicago Bears boss and NFL co-founder George Halas stepped in and had his fellow team owners chip in to bail the team out of a serious debt. Between this, and the fact that the Packers are publicly owned through stock sales (the only such team in the big 4 North American sports), and the expansion of Lambeau Field, means the Packers will never have to move -- not to "nearby" Milwaukee, not anywhere else.

Walnut Street divides Green Bay addresses into North and South, but the only major road divided into an East and West is Walnut, divided at the Fox River, which bisects the city. While the Fox flows into the body of water named Green Bay, a New Yorker might appreciate this: The city also has an East River, which flows into the Fox, downtown. The sales tax in Wisconsin is 5 percent.

As you might guess, a city as small as Green Bay doesn't have a subway. Public buses are $1.50.

Going In. Green Bay Metro buses offer free rides from downtown to the stadium, which is 3 miles southwest of downtown. Lambeau is an island in a sea of parking, which costs $18. Not surprising, considering that this is the Midwest, Big Ten County, tailgating is encouraged.

All stadium gates open 2 hours prior to kickoff, and are accessible to fans with disabilities. Fans with seats in the South End (i.e. section numbers ending with the letter "S") must enter through the Shopko Gate on the south side of the stadium, which is for the exclusive use of South End ticket holders. Fans sitting elsewhere in the stadium are encouraged to use the gate suggested on their ticket for the most direct route to their seats.

For most of its history, Lambeau Field was not an architectural marvel. It looked like a typical American sports stadium of the post-World War II era: Functional, but nothing special. It was the Packers who provided the glory, but how the stadium looked was not a factor.

A recent renovation, which expanded capacity to 78,200 (officially, it's 80,735, however 78,200 is listed as the record attendance), also changed the exterior. Whereas it was built in 1957 as looking like an oversized high school football stadium -- with an appropriate name, City Stadium -- and by the 1980s had a green exterior on the sides that held up the luxury boxes, now it's surrounded by a red brick exterior, trying to copy the look of lots of "Memorial Stadiums" throughout the country, especially in the Midwest, built in the 1920s as memorials to World War I. (These include those at the universities of Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, and the former stadium in Minnesota -- but not Indiana, as their Memorial Stadium was built after World War II and isn't nearly as classic-looking.)
This added exterior includes a new facility for the Packers Hall of Fame, and a bar called Curly's Pub, named for Earl "Curly" Lambeau, the Green Bay native and Notre Dame football star who founded the team, as a "company team" from co-workers at the Indian Packing Company, which was the team's initial sponsor. (English soccer fans would call a company team a "works side." The arch-rival Chicago Bears were also originally a company team, based at the A.E. Staley Starch Company of Decatur, Illinois, and were known as the Decatur Staleys before moving upstate to Chicago.)

Lambeau played for the team from its 1919 founding until 1929, and coached it from 1919 to 1949. Like Bears founder George Halas, he was a good player, but a very good coach, and, most importantly in the long run, a great administrator. The team wouldn't have gotten through the Depression, let alone to the post-merger era, without him, and without help from his rival Halas, who stood up for the NFL's last small-city team when that help was needed most. (Halas stepped in again in 1955 to convince the other owners to chip in to build Lambeau Field. Perhaps this was his way of making up for almost killing the team in 1921, when he blew the whistle on them for using ineligible players.) When Lambeau died in 1965, the new stadium was renamed for him.

Stadium Tours are not available on game days. If you do stay overnight, you can take a tour on Saturday before the Sunday game. The Classic Tour includes the locker room, the field level, and a luxury box, lasts about an hour, and costs $11. The Champion's Tour includes the preceding, plus other amenities, lasts an hour and a half, and costs $19. The Legendary Tour offers more, takes 2 hours, and costs $28.

Don't scoff: The Packers are one of the few NFL teams that can legitimately do this, especially since they're 1 of only 2 teams that currently has a stadium that was in use, let alone hosting a championship team, prior to the start of the Super Bowl era in the 1966 season. For the next 3 seasons, the only other NFL stadium that's played host to Sammy Baugh, Sid Luckman, Steve Van Buren, Otto Graham, Norm Van Brocklin, Doak Walker, Chuck Bednarik and even Giants legend Frank Gifford, and the only one older than Lambeau (built in 1923 but not hosting an NFL game until 1937) is the Los Angeles Coliseum, which the returned Rams will use until their new stadium opened in 2019. (The next-oldest active NFL stadium is the Oakland Coliseum, which opened in 1966.)

Like most football stadiums, Lambeau is aligned north-to-south. Despite the cold weather, the field is natural grass. Knowing that the field tended to freeze, in 1967, Lombardi had a system of heating coils installed underneath. It was nicknamed Lombardi's Electric Blanket. But on New Year's Eve, the morning of the NFL Championship Game, it was so cold that the control system broke, and the field froze anyway, resulting in the Ice Bowl, and one of the greatest and most iconic football games ever played, pro or college -- and, as it turned out, Lombardi's last game at Lambeau, as he retired after the Super Bowl. (In his 1981 book Pro Football's Ten Greatest Games, John Thorn, who usually writes about baseball, called Bart Starr's winning quarterback sneak "the most famous touchdown in football history.")

A better system was installed, and now, no matter how cold the air gets, the field is fine. Something for Canada to think about: Green Bay is further north than Toronto and Hamilton, and not much further south than Montreal and Ottawa, yet all 9 Canadian Football League stadiums have artificial turf, for the sole purpose of combating the cold.
Food. Tailgating not enough for you? As I said, Curly's Pub is now open, on the 2nd floor of the Lambeau Field Atrium. On game days, it is accessible only via a game ticket, from the inside of the stadium. The Atrium also offers Goin' Deep Pizza and, in a nod to the team's beginnings, the Meat Packing Company, a restaurant concept developed exclusively for Lambeau Field, featuring overstuffed sandwiches, giant bratwursts and desserts.

There are other concession stands throughout the stadium, but they stop serving entirely -- not just beer -- at the end of the 3rd quarter.

Team History Displays. No team has won more NFL Championships than the Packers, with 13: 1929, 1930, 1931, 1936, 1939, 1944, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1996 and 2010. (The Chicago Bears are next with 9, the Giants next with 8.) This includes 2 of the only 3 threepeats in NFL history: 1929-31 and 1965-67. (The other is the 1922-24 Canton Bulldogs.) It also includes Super Bowls I, II, XXXI and XLV (1, 2, 31 and 45). These titles, which gave rise to Green Bay's nickname of Titletown, are shown in yellow lettering on the green background of the skyboxes.

On the other sideline's skyboxes are the team's officially retired numbers: 3, Tony Canadeo, running back, 1941-52; 4, Brett Favre, quarterback, 1992-2007; 14, Don Hutson, receiver-defensive back, 1935-45; 15, Bart Starr, quarterback, 1956-71; 66, Ray Nitschke, linebacker, 1958-72; and 92, Reggie White, defensive end, 1993-98. The Number 5 of Paul Hornung, running back, 1957-66, has not been officially retired, but it is rarely given out.

Outside the stadium are statues of the coaches (also general managers) who brought the 1st 11 titles, Lambeau (1929 through 1944) and Lombardi (1961 through 1967); and also of Starr, the only man to quarterback 5 NFL Championships. (And if Tom Brady becomes the 2nd, Starr will remain the only one to have done it honestly.)

In addition to the preceding, the Packers have had the following players elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Quarterback Arnie Herber; running backs Johnny "Blood" McNally, Clarke Hinkle and Jim Taylor; receiver James Lofton; center Jim Ringo, guard Mike Michalske, and offensive tackles Cal Hubbard and Forrest Gregg; defensive tackle Henry Jordan, defensive end Willie Davis, linebacker Dave Robinson, cornerback Herb Adderley, safety Willie Wood, and kicker Jan Stenerud. Other Hall-of-Famers have played for the Packers, but these are the players generally considered "Packer Hall-of-Famers."

The Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame has, along with a recreation of Lombardi's office, more inductees than any other team hall of fame in North American sports, 157. It recently reopened after its part of the continuing renovation of Lambeau Field. Members include:

* From the 1929-36 titles: Lambeau; backs McNally, Herber, Hinkle, Charlie Mathys, Verne Lewellen, Red Dunn, Swede Johnston, Hank Bruder and Bob Monnett; linemen Hubbard, Michalske, Cub Buck, Whitey Woodin, Jug Earp, Boob Darling, Lavvie Dilweg, Nate Barragar, Milt Gantenbein and Lon Evans. (Swede? Cub? Jug? Boob? Lavvie? Johnny Blood?They knew how to give athletes nicknames back then.)

* From the 1939 and 1944 titles: Lambeau; backs Canadeo, Joe Laws, Ed Jankowski, Cecil Isbell, Andy Uram, Charley Brock, Lou Brock (related to Charley but not to the baseball star), Larry Craig (no relation to the scandalous Senator), Ted Fritsch and Irv Comp; receiver Hutson; linemen Charles "Buckets" Goldenberg, Tiny Engebretsen, brothers George and Earl "Bud" Svendsen, Russ Letlow, Pete Tinsley, Carl Mulleneaux and Harry Jacunski.

(A personal note: The Jacunskis are from Connecticut, and Harry's son Dick moved to New Jersey. He, his wife, and their daughters lived next door to my parents when I was born, and what remains of each family is still close. I got to meet Harry a couple of times: Although football left him debilitated, and I never saw the man stand up, he was still mentally sharp into his 80s.)

* Between the Lambeau and Lombardi eras: Quarterback Tobin Rote, running backs Bob Forte, Fred Cone, Al Carmichael and Howie Ferguson; ends Bob Mann, John Martinkovic and Billy Howton; offensive tackle Dick Wildung; linebacker Deral Teteak, and defensive back Bobby Dillon.

* From the 1961-67 titles: Lombardi, assistant coaches Red Cochran and (Lombardi's much less successful successor) Phil Bengtson; quarterbacks Starr and Zeke Bratkowski; running backs Hornung, Taylor, Elijah Pitts, Donny Anderson and Travis Williams; receivers Gary Knafelc, Max McGee, Ron Kramer, Bowd Dowler, Marv Fleming and Carroll Dale; centers Ringo and Ken Bowman; guards Jerry Kramer, Fred "Fuzzy" Thurston and Gale Gillingham; offensive tackles Gregg and Bob Skoronski; defensive tackles Jordan, Dave Hanner and Ron Kostelnik; defensive ends Davis and Lionel Aldridge; linebackers Nitschke, Bill Forester, Dan Currie, Dave Robinson and Lee Roy Caffey; cornerbacks Adderley, Hank Gremminger and Bob Jeter; safeties Wood and Jesse Whittenton; and placekicker-punter Don Chandler. (Hornung and Anderson also did some kicking in this era. Thurston also played for the 1958, but not 1959, Baltimore Colts, while Gregg and Adderley also played for the 1971 Dallas Cowboys, making them the only 3 players ever to play on 6 NFL Championship teams.)

* Between the Lombardi and Holmgren eras: Quarterbacks Lynn Dickey and Don Majkowski; running backs John Brockington and Gerry Ellis; receivers Lofton and Sterling Sharpe; tight end Paul Coffman; center Larry McCarren; offensive tackle Greg Koch; defensive end Ezra Johnson; linebackers Fred Carr, Mike Douglass, John Anderson and Johnny Holland; cornerbacks Ken Ellis and Willie Buchanon; safeties Johnnie Gray and Mark Murphy; and kickers Stenerud and Chester Marcol.

* From the 1996 title: Coach Holmgren, general manager Ron Wolf, and team president Bob Harlan; Favre; running backs Edgar Bennett, Dorsey Levens and William Henderson; receivers Robert Brooks and Antonio Freeman; tight end Mark Chmura; center Frank Winters; guard Marco Rivera; offensive tackle Ken Ruettgers; defensive end White; defensive tackle Gilbert Brown; safety Leroy Butler; and placekicker Chris Jacke.

* Between the Holmgren and McCarthy eras: Running back Ahman Green and defensive end Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila.

* From the 2010 title: Offensive tackle Chad Clifton and safety Nick Collins. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers and anyone else will have to wait a while; since Clifton and Collins both retired in 2011 and got elected this year, it looks like 5 years after retirement is the eligibility, as with most sports halls of fame.

* Spanning the eras: Team executives George Calhoun, Frank Jonet, A.B. Turnbull, Fred Leicht, Emil Fischer, Lee Joannes, Lee Remmel (a sportswriter turned team executive who'd been involved with the club from 1944 until his death in 2015, linking the Lambeau, Lombardi, Holmgren and McCarthy eras), Jack Vainisi, F.N. Trowbridge, Jerry Atkinson, Dominic Olejniczak, Tom Miller and Robert Parins; team doctors Webber Kelly and E.S. Brusky, and trainer Carl Jorgensen; broadcasters Russ Winnie, Ray Scott and Jim Irwin; team attorney Gerald Clifford; team photographer Vernon Biever and video director Al Treml; journalist Art Daley; longtime band director Wilner Burke; team Hall of Fame founder William Brault; and one longtime fan, Al Schneider.

Hutson, Gregg, Nitschke and White were named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary Team in 1994. They, Starr, Adderley, Davis and Favre were named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Football Players in 1999. All of those men were named to the NFL Network's 100 Greatest Players in 2010.

Stuff. Lambeau Field opened a new Pro Shop in 2015, and, along with smaller souvenir stands, it includes the usual items you'll find at a football game. What you won't find anywhere else is one of those big yellow triangular foam "cheeseheads.""Cheesehead" has been a nickname for a Wisconsan for many years, and when the Packers got good again in the 1990s, someone decided to capitalize on the nickname, and it stuck. It's been copied by the archrival Bears (a triangular foam wedge made to look like a slice of deep-dish pizza) and the Philadelphia Eagles (a cheesesteak head, naturally), among others. (Could lobsterheads be far away for New England, or crabheads for Baltimore?)

There are lots of books about the Packers, most of them focusing on the Lombardi era. For a general look at the team's history, Lew Freedman (author of a lot of sports history books, mainly baseball) published The Packers Experience: A Year-by-Year Chronicle of the Green Bay Packers in 2014. Leroy Butler, inventor of the Lambeau Leap (more about that in a moment), wrote Packers Pride: Green Bay Greats Share Their Favorite Moments.

The 2 biggest names in Packer history -- and, no, they're not Paul Hornung and Brett Favre -- have recent biographies about them: Lambeau: The Man Behind the Mystique, by David Zimmerman; and When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi, by David Maraniss (who has also written superb bios of President Bill Clinton and baseball legend Roberto Clemente).

On the lighter side -- and I doubt that the very Catholic "Saint Vincent" Lombardi would have allowed this -- Judy DuCharme recently published The Cheesehead Devotional: Daily Meditations for Green Bay Packers, Their Fans, and NFL Football Fanatics.

Available DVDs include The Complete History of the Green Bay Packers (not so complete anymore, it came out in 2003, before the most recent title), the Packers' entry into the NFL's Greatest Games series (6 games, including Super Bowl XXXI, but none prior to 1992), and the official Super Bowl XLV highlight film.

I expect that, as the year 2019 approaches, the team will begin preparations for their 100th Anniversary (the first NFL team to reach that milestone -- sort of, the Arizona Cardinals began as a Chicago social club in 1898), and more and better items connected with the Centennial will be released.

During the Game. You do not have to worry about your safety at Lambeau Field. Maybe if you were a Bears fan, with the NFL's oldest rivalry taking hold; or possibly a Vikings fan, with the natural Wisconsin-Minnesota rivalry kicking in. While the Packers have been playing the Giants since 1925, and the Giants have laid 2 famous Playoff knockouts at Lambeau on the Packers (they almost never lose at home in the postseason), the Packer Backers don't consider the Giants to be an enemy, either. Feel free to wear whatever Big Blue team gear you want.

The Packers hold auditions for National Anthem singers, instead of having a regular. When the Packers receive their pregame introductions, and after every Packer extra point, their traditional fight song is played: "Go! You Packers! Go!" It was written in 1931, but the current recording is from 1992. When the Packers score a touchdown, instead of the fight song, they play Todd Rundgren's 1983 classic "Bang the Drum All Day." The usual Packer Backer cheer is "Go, Pack, Go," rather than the old-timey "Go, You Packers, Go."

Speaking of drums: The Packers now have a Tundra Line, a percussion group (not an entire band) that plays throughout the game. But the Lumberjack Band, so named for their flannel jackets, which entertained at Packer games starting in 1921, was disbanded in 1997. At least they got to play for the Holmgren/Favre/White title.

The Packers are one of 5 NFL teams that does not currently have a mascot. The others are the Giants, the Jets, the Washington Redskins and the San Diego Chargers. The Packers also no longer have cheerleaders.

In 1993, Leroy Butler returned a fumble for a touchdown. Seeing a fan in the south stands who had his arms out and, as Butler put it, seemed to be saying, "Hug me," he jumped into the stands. Thus was born the Lambeau Leap. I don't know what Curly or Lombardi would have thought of it, but Holmgren and his boys loved it. It became a Packer tradition, and, last season, outside the Pro Shop (outside the stadium), with Butler invited back to recreate the moment, the Packers dedicated the Leap Wall, a padded green wall with statues of 4 fans behind it (one waving a big foam "We're Number 1" finger).

After the Game. You should be safe going out. As I said, Lambeau Field is in the middle of a parking lot, not in a neighborhood, good or bad. You might have a traffic issue, but not a safety issue.

The Stadium View, calling itself "Not Just a Bar & Grill," is a block away from the stadium, at 1963 Holmgren Way at Tony Canadeo Run. Shenanigans Pub, long owned by the late 1960s Packer guard Fred "Fuzzy" Thurston, is probably the most famous eatery or bar in town. 1279 Main Street at Irwin Avenue, almost right across the river from the site of City Stadium. A bar named Hagemeister Park, festooned with Packer memorabilia, now stands at 325 N. Washington Street between Main and Pine.

It's unlikely a city as small as Green Bay will have many expatriate New Yorkers, and would thus be a good place for visitors to take in. I also haven't been able to find a reference to any Milwaukee bar or restaurant that caters to New Yorkers.

Sidelights. Green Bay is a big town, but a small city. Aside from Packer-connected stuff, there isn't a whole lot to see there:

* Site of Bellevue Park. The Packers played the 1923 and 1924 seasons at this minor-league baseball park. It seated just 5,000, and was east of downtown, across the East River. Although it probably saved the Packers in the short term -- any professional football team playing at a professional baseball park was considered to be of a higher class than one playing on a simple sandlot such as Hagemeister Park -- it was not a football stadium, and the Packers needed a real one. 1600 block of Main Street, by Franz Avenue.

The Brewers are the closest MLB team, 119 miles away. The Minnesota Twins are considerably further, 278 miles.

* Hagemeister Park and City Stadium. Owned by the long-gone Hagemeister brewery, Hagemeister Park was the Packers' first home, from 1919 to 1922. There wasn't much in the way of seating, and fans would often sit in their cars to watch games. George Calhoun, who founded the team with Lambeau, would get out and pass a hat for contributions at halftime, and that's the main reason the team lasted long enough to get a proper home stadium.

The park was cleared for the construction of a new building for East High School -- oddly enough, Curly Lambeau's alma mater. When the new East High School opened in 1923, on a triangle bordered by Walnut Street, Baird Street and the East River, City Stadium was built behind it. Originally seating 6,000, it was expanded into a 25,000-seat horseshoe, open at the south end.

Although the Packers won 6 titles there, it was seen as too small for the bigger game that pro football was becoming after World War II. Just as George Halas of the Bears saved them with the velvet glove 25 years earlier, in the mid-1950s he saved them with the iron fist, talking the other NFL owners into providing the funds to build a new stadium, or they would order the moving of the team, to Milwaukee or somewhere else. In 1956, the City Council voted to build new City Stadium, which opened the next year.
City Stadium, renamed East Stadium until the new one was renamed for Lambeau, remained the home field of East High School, and in 2008 was renovated, leaving no part of the original structure remaining. 1415 E. Walnut Street. It's within walking distance of downtown, unlike Lambeau Field.

The nearest NBA team is the Milwaukee Bucks, 115 miles away, easily beating the Chicago Bulls (206) and the Minnesota Timberwolves (278). The nearest NHL teams are the Chicago Blackhawks (206) and the Minnesota Wild (268). And the nearest MLS team is the Chicago Fire (216).

What else is there to do in Green Bay? Well, there's Bay Beach Amusement Park: 1313 Bay Beach Road at Irwin Avenue. There's a Botanical Garden: 2600 Larsen Road, off Packerland Drive. There's a zoo: 4378 Reforestation Road of Sunrise Road. And a National Railroad Museum, 2285 S. Broadway at Bosar Avenue -- ironic, considering that Amtrak doesn't go to Green Bay.

There have been plenty of TV shows and movies set in Wisconsin, but never in Green Bay. You would think that, by now, someone would have made a movie out of the Ice Bowl. In 1973, 3 years after Lombardi's death from cancer (like Babe Ruth, his funeral was at St. Patrick's Cathedral), ABC aired a TV-movie titled Etched In Granite, with Ernest Borgnine playing Lombardi. Eric Simonson wrote Lombardi, a play based on Maraniss' book, that ran on Broadway from October 2010 to May 2011, and while it got some good reviews, it failed to capitalize on the Pack's Super Bowl XLV win in February. Dan Lauria, best known as the father on The Wonder Years, played the coach; Judith Light, best known as the mother on Who's the Boss?, played his wife Marie.

And if you'd like to pay your respects at Lombardi's grave, surprise: You can do that almost anytime, because he's buried in New Jersey. He is so identified with Green Bay that a lot of people forget his New York Tri-State Area roots. He was from Brooklyn, went to Fordham, coached at the now-defunct St. Cecelia's High School in Kearny, at West Point and with the Giants, before becoming the Packers' head coach. Marie was from Red Bank, and they are buried across the Navesink River, at Mount Olivet Cemetery, on Chapel Hill Road off State Route 35 in Middletown. Lambeau, however, is buried in Green Bay, at Allouez Catholic Cemetery, 2121 Riverside Drive at Allouez Avenue.

For Milwaukee sites, here's my 2016 guide for that city. The Packers played a game at Borchert Field (home of the old minor-league Milwaukee Brewers) in 1933, 2 games a year at State Fair Park in suburban West Allis from 1934 to 1951, 2 at Marquette Stadium in 1952, 2 at Milwaukee County Stadium from 1953 to 1977, and then 3 at County Stadium from 1978 to 1994. It was only in 1995 that they've played all their home games in Green Bay, save for 1 exhibition game at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, home of the University of Wisconsin, 136 miles southwest of Green Bay.

*

Essentially, the reason to go to Green Bay is for the Green Bay Packers. They are the most storied franchise in the National Football League. The Giants have many stories, some of them great, but the Packers have the most stories, and some of the best.

But, seeing as how it won't be "Green Bay cold," you should be able to have fun watching the Giants play the Packers at Lambeau Field.

Last night, the Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 5-1 at Yankee Stadium II, clinching a series sweep, highlighted by the previous night's walkoff grand slam by the retiring Mark Teixeira.

It was the big 1st baseman's 206th "Teix Message" as a Yankee, and the 409th and probably last home run of a pretty good career, that includes 3 All-Star Games, 5 Gold Gloves, 6 postseason appearances, and the 2009 season in which he won the American League home run and RBI titles and the World Championship.

But the Baltimore Orioles also won, eliminating the Yankees from postseason competition.

The biggest deal of all last night, in the long run, was that this was the last time the big fat lying cheating bastard, David Ortiz, will ever play for the Yankees. He went 0-for-10 in this series. Would that he had gone 0-for-10 at any point in the 2004 American League Championship Series.

No player, not even his former Boston teammates Curt Schilling or Manny Ramirez, is more identified with beating the Yankees. And the North American sports establishment remains in operation of the Yankee Doodle Double Standard: They treat someone they know is corrupt like Donald Trump, a quirky entertainer who "knows how to win" and, with his Boston teammates, "made baseball great again"; while treating the Yankees the way the national media treats Hillary Clinton, as if every accusation, no matter how ridiculous, is absolutely true.

David Cone (who did pitch in Boston in 2001, but before Ortiz got there in 2003) and former teammate Jacoby Ellsbury gave him a leather-bound "book of farewells." Mariano Rivera gave him a painting of the new Yankee Stadium. (Not his own work. He only painted corners of the strike zone.)

What kind of tribute would I have given Ortiz? I would have had every Yankee Fan in The Stadium wait for him to be introduced, then get up, and turn their backs on him. Then, when he began to speak, get up and go to the bathroom, because his public statements thus far have been full of shit.

*

With 3 games left in the regular season, home to the Orioles, the Yankees are 9 games behind the Red Sox in the American League Eastern Division, which the Sox clinched on Tuesday despite the walkoff Teix Message. They are 4 out of the 2nd AL Wild Card. They are mathematically eliminated.

That they stayed in the race until September 29 is irrelevant. The purpose of the New York Yankees is not to stay in the race as long as possible. The purpose of the New York Yankees is to win the World Series. That general manager Brian Cashman did not give the team what it needed to do that is inexcusable, and he should be fired for it.

It could have been so much better. The Yankees had a chance. Since Cashman traded Aroldis Chapman on July 26, later trading the other great closer, Andrew Miller, and the team's best hitter through that point in the season, Carlos Beltran, they have gone 32-28.

Of those 28 losses, 9 were by 2 or fewer runs; 3 of those were to the Red Sox. If Chapman and Miller had been available, and would have prevented, say, just under half of those disasters, 4; and if Beltran had been available, and would have provided enough offensive production to prevent, say, 2; thus turning 2/3rds of those 9 1-run or 2-run losses, 6, into wins, including 2 of the 3 against the Sox (thus gaining us 2 games in the standings, not just 1)...

Then the Yankees would trail the Sox by 1 game with 3 to go, and would hold the 1st Wild Card slot (meaning they would host Game 163, as they did last season, for all the good it did them).

So don't tell me the Yankees were never in it. That's a lie.

Don't tell me the Yankees "had to rebuild." That's an even bigger lie. The Yankees' top 5 farm teams -- Scranton, Trenton, Tampa, Charleston and Staten Island -- all made their leagues' Playoffs. Charleston won a 1st-half Division title. Scranton won their Pennant.The Yankees' farm system was fine. It's the major-league team that needed help. They didn't get it.

You don't give away the store for "prospects" when you already have prospects. We did not need to "restock our farm system."

The problem is that Cashman didn't call up the prospects we already had when he should have. The most notorious example of this was letting Rob Refsnyder rot in Triple-A when Stephen Drew was struggling to reach a .200 batting average.

"Be patient"? Be patient for what? The "prospects" that Cashman got are 2 years away from Triple-A, at which point, Cashman will still be letting Chase Headley, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner block them. These "prospects," assuming they pan out enough just to get to Triple-A, will start feeling like Vic Power, wondering what might be the real reason they're not getting called up to the Yankees.

If I were in charge, I'd fire Cashman. I'd also fire Joe Girardi, who was bad enough with the bullpen when he could rely on Miller to pitch the 8th inning and Chapman the 9th, and was worse when it was Dellin Betances set to pitch the 9th, and a big 2-inning hole between the starter and Betances, all too rarely realizing that the starter could go more than 6 innings.

I would put Gene Michael, despite his age (78), back in the GM's office. I would let him make the necessary off-season deals. I would have him select the new field manager. And I would have him stay on as GM until next Opening Day, by which point he will have chosen his own successor as GM.

We cannot be patient and wait for these "prospects" to pan out. I'm still waiting for Steve "Bye-Bye" Balboni, Hensley "Bam-Bam" Meulens, Dan Pasqua, Scott Bradley, Jim Deshaies, Kevin Maas, Clay Parker, Kevin Mmahat and Brien Taylor to pan out.

(Yes, Mmahat, spelled with 2 M's at the beginning, and pronounced, "MOM-a-hot.")

When Cashman goes, and Girardi goes, then we can be optimistic again. Until then, I have to wonder if Cashman's next move won't be to trade Gary Sanchez for "prospects."

Sanchez and a few others could be part of the rebuilding job we didn't need before, but need now.

*

Anyway, it's October milestones time again -- including the end of September, though baseball doesn't play postseason games in September anymore.

September 28, 1955: Game 1 of the World Series, at the original Yankee Stadium. Yes, a World Series game was played on a September 28. This was also the 1st World Series game broadcast in color, on NBC (as were all World Series from the 1st telecast of one in 1947 until 1975), although hardly anyone has a color TV set at this point, and no TV recording of it, in color or otherwise, is known to survive.

There is film footage, though. That footage shows Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers stealing home plate against the New York Yankees. Home plate umpire Bill Summers rules him safe. Yankee catcher Yogi Berra says Jackie was out, and has a fit.

To the end of his life, Yogi insisted that he wouldn't have argued that strenuously if he wasn't sure, or if Jackie was definitely safe, as Monte Irvin of the New York Giants was when he stole home on Yogi in the 1951 World Series.

Whitey Ford was pitching, and he insists to this day that Jackie was out. But Phil Rizzuto claimed that Jackie was safe, and he knew because he was playing shortstop and had the best view of the play.

Whitey didn't like that, so he looked it up. The steal was in the top of the 8th inning -- and in the bottom of the 6th, manager Casey Stengel had pinch-hit Eddie Robinson for the Scooter! In the top of the 7th, a new shortstop took the field: Jerry Coleman (normally a 2nd baseman). Coleman was playing short when Jackie stole home.

So who was right? Judge for yourself. Here's the film. It's hard to tell from there. But this photo makes it obvious: He was out!
And if the Yankees had lost the game, and the World Series, because of this, there would have been an uproar -- or, as the Dodgers' legendary broadcaster, ironically now with the Yankees, Red Barber, would have put it, a rhubarb.

But the Yankees did not lose the Series, or even the game, because of the steal. The Yankees won the game, 6-5. Left fielder (and backup catcher) Elston Howard, a "rookie" at age 30, hit a home run off Don Newcombe in the 2nd inning, while 1st baseman Joe Collins hit 2 homers off Big Newk. Carl Furillo and Duke Snider hit home runs off Ford.

Like Carlton Fisk's home run in Game 6, 20 years later, Robinson's steal of home was a spectacular moment, but, ultimately, had no effect on the result of the Series.

Still, stealing home plate has become Jackie Robinson's signature, along with his grace under more pressure than any American athlete has ever faced. He did in 19 times in the regular season, plus this time in the World Series -- still the last steal of home in a World Series game. (One of the many records that Ty Cobb set, and one that he still holds, is the most steals of home in a career: 54.) It even became a point of reference in Buddy Johnson's 1949 song about Jackie, with the Count Basie Orchestra having made the best-known recording:

Did you see Jackie Robinson hit that ball?
Did he hit it?
Yeah!
And that ain't all:
He stole home!
Yes, yes, Jackie's real gone.

"Gone" meaning "cool." Not as in "left the vicinity" or "gone in the head." No player ever kept his head -- or had to -- as much as Jack Roosevelt Robinson of Pasadena, California (and Stamford, Connecticut).

Newcombe, Ford, Eddie Robinson, and Yankee left fielder Irv Noren are the only players from this game who are still alive, 61 years later.

This Series was a classic, and it went to 7 games. In the end, as would be said in the Brooklynese accent, the Dodgers finally dooed it. After World Series losses in 1916, 1920, 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953 (the last 5 of those 7 against the Yankees), losses in Playoffs for the National League Pennant in 1946 and 1951 (the latter against the hated New York Giants), losing the Pennant on the final day of the regular season in 1942 and 1950, and finishing 2nd to the Giants in 1954 -- 10 close calls in a span of 14 years -- 1955 turned out to be the "Next Year" that Dodger fans from Williamsburg to Coney Island, from Morristown to Montauk, from Poughkeepsie to Point Pleasant, had waited for.

*

September 28, 1932: Game 1 of the World Series. The Chicago Cubs score 2 runs in the 1st inning, but the Yankees outscore them 37-17 over the rest of the Series. Lou Gehrig hits a home run, and the Yankees win, 12-6.

September 28, 1959: Game 1 of the National League Playoff. It was the Braves' move to Milwaukee, with is (then) modern stadium and its huge parking lot, that made Walter O'Malley want a better ballpark for the Brooklyn Dodgers, and ultimately made him move the team to Los Angeles. Now, after the Braves have won the last 2 Pennants, there is a tie for the flag, and these 2 teams, representing cities that didn't even have teams 7 seasons ago face off at Milwaukee County Stadium.

Dodger manager Walter Alston starts Danny McDevitt, who pitched a shutout in the last game at Ebbets Field, 2 years and 4 days earlier. But he doesn't get out of the 2nd inning this time, as he falls behind, 2-1. Alston brings Larry Sherry in to relieve, and he goes the rest of the way. John Roseboro hits a home run off Carlton Willey, and the Dodgers win, 3-2, to take a 1-0 lead back to L.A.

September 28, 1998: The Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants, having finished in a tie for the NL's Wild Card berth, face each other in a Playoff game at a raucous Wrigley Field. Former Minnesota Twins World Series winner Gary Gaetti hits a home run, and Rod Beck holds off his former team to save a fine performance by Steve Traschel, and the Cubs win, 5-3.

Sammy Sosa goes 2-for-4 for the Cubbies, and scores 2 runs. Barry Bonds goes 0-for-4 for the Jints. I guess Sammy's steroids were working that night, and Barry's weren't.

September 28, 2011: One of the most remarkable days in the history of regular season baseball. The Yankees have won the American League East, with help from the Red Sox, who went 7-20 in September, a month they began by leading the Division by 1 game and the Wild Card by 9.

But the Baltimore Orioles come from 3-2 down in the bottom of the 9th at Camden Yards, as Robert Andino singles off Jonathan Papelbon to give the O's a 4-3 win. This gives the Yankees the Division title. The Sox can still win the Wild Card, but the Rays complete a sweep of the Yankees, coming from 7-0 down to win 8-7 in the 12th inning on Evan Longoria's 2nd home run of the game.

Yankee Fans have a good laugh, though: The Sox become the 1st team ever to miss the Playoffs completely after having a 9-game lead for any berth in September. The Sox may have won the World Series twice in the last 8 years, but this night adds to their long list of chokes.

The Atlanta Braves also choke, having led the St. Louis Cardinals by 10 1/2 games for the NL Wild Card on August 25, but going 11-20 since, while the Cards went 23-9. On the final day, the Cards beat the Houston Astros 8-0 as Chris Carpenter pitches a 2-hit shutout, while the Braves lose to the Phillies, 4-3 in 13 innings. The Braves are out.

Also on this day, the Florida Marlins play their last game under that name and at the Miami Dolphins' stadium. They lose 3-1 to the Washington Nationals, ending 19 years of play in the suburb of Miami Gardens. The next season, they will be named the Miami Marlins, and move to the new, garish, retractable-roof Marlins Park, built on the Little Havana site of the Orange Bowl.

*

September 29, 1932: Game 2 of the World Series. The Chicago Cubs take a 1-0 in the 1st inning, but the Yankees score 2 in the bottom half, and Lefty Gomez handles the Cubs the rest of the way. The Yankees win, 5-2, and take a 2 games to 0 lead as the Series heads out to Chicago.

September 29, 1954: Willie Mays makes The Catch. It was Game 1 of the World Series. The New York Giants had won the National League Pennant, beating out their crosstown rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Cleveland Indians had won the American League Pennant, winning League record 111 games to beat out the Yankees, who had won the last 5 World Series. Indeed, the last 8 AL Pennants had been won by the Indians (1948 & '54) and the Yankees (1947, '49, '50, '51, '52 & '53).

Game 1 was played at the Polo Grounds in New York. The game was tied 2-2 in the top of the 8th, but the Indians got Larry Doby on 2nd base and Al Rosen on 1st with nobody out.

Giant manager Leo Durocher pulled starting pitcher Sal Maglie, and brought in Don Liddle, a lefthander, to face the lefty slugger Vic Wertz, and only Wertz. Somehow, this got into Joe Torre's head (despite being a native of Brooklyn, Torre says he grew up as a Giants fan) and into Joe Girardi's binder (Girardi wasn't even born for another 10 years).

Liddle pitched, and Wertz swung, and drove the ball out to center field. The Polo Grounds was shaped more like a football stadium, so its foul poles were incredibly close: 279 feet to left field and 257 to right. In addition, the upper deck overhung the field a little, so the distances were actually even closer. But if you didn't pull the ball, it was going to stay in play. Most of the center field fence was 425 feet from home plate. A recess in center field, leading to a blockhouse that served as both teams' clubhouses -- why they were in center field, instead of under the stands, connected to the dugouts, is a mystery a long-dead architect will have to answer -- was 483 feet away.

Mays, at this point in his career, was already a big star. Just 23 years old, he had won that season's NL batting title. He had been NL Rookie of the Year in 1951, but had missed most of the 1952 season and all of 1953 serving in the U.S. Army, having been drafted into service in the Korean War. He had become known for playing stickball in the streets of Harlem with local boys in the morning, and then going off to the Polo Grounds to play real baseball in the afternoon. This raised his profile, and made him an accessible figure to City kids. His cap flying off as he ran around the bases, his defensive wizardry, and his yelling of, "Say hey!" endeared him to Giant fans. (Note that, while he made the "basket catch" nationally popular, he didn't invent it. In fact, he wasn't even the first Giant to use it, as Bill Rigney, who would succeed Durocher as manager in 1956, was using it in the 1940s.)

Even so, the days when the Giants were the team in New York sports were long gone, this week's events notwithstanding. At this moment, Mays was, in the public consciousness, where Babe Ruth was in May 1920, where Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams were in May 1941, where Mickey Mantle was in May 1956, where Reggie Jackson was in September 1977, where Roger Clemens was in April 1986, where Derek Jeter was in September 1996, where David Ortiz was in September 2004: A star, well-known and popular, but not yet a legend.

Mays ran back to try to catch the ball. In mid-stride, he thumped his fist into his mitt. His teammates, who had seen this gesture before, knew that this meant that he thought he would catch it. But most fans didn't know this. Watching on television (NBC, Channel 4 in New York), they figured the ball would go over his head, scoring Doby and Rosen, and that Wertz, not exactly fleet of foot, had a chance at a triple, or even an inside-the-park home run.

Willie has said many times that he was already thinking of the throw back to the infield, hoping to hold Doby to only 3rd base.

With his back to the ball all the way, he caught the ball over his head, stopped, pivoted, and threw the ball back to the infield. Doby did get only to 3rd.

The announcers were Jack Brickhouse, who normally did the home games for both of Chicago's teams, the Cubs and the White Sox, but was the lead announcer for NBC in this Series; and Russ Hodges, the usual Giants announcer, made nationally famous 3 years earlier when Bobby Thomson's home run made him yell, "The Giants win the Pennant!" over and over again.

Brickhouse: "There's a long drive, way back in center field, way back, back, it is... Oh, what a catch by Mays! The runner on second, Doby, is able to tag and go to third. Willie Mays just brought this crowd to its feet with a catch which must have been an optical illusion to a lot of people. Boy! See where that 483 foot mark is in center field? The ball itself... Russ, you know this ballpark better than anyone else I know. Had to go about 460, didn't it?"

Hodges: "It certainly did, and I don't know how Willie did it, but he's been doing it all year."

It has been argued by many, including Bob Feller, the pitching legend sitting on the Indians' bench, that the reason so much is made of this catch, to the point where it is known as The Catch, capital T, Capital C, is that it was in New York, it was in the World Series, and it was on television. "It was far from the best catch I've ever seen," Feller said. Mays himself would say he'd made better catches. But none more consequential.

Durocher yanked Liddle, and brought in Marv Grissom. Upon reaching the Giant dugout, Liddle told his teammates, "Well, I got my man."

Yeah, Don. You got him. As Jim Bouton, then a 15-year-old Giant fan who'd recently moved from Rochelle Park, Bergen County, New Jersey to the Chicago suburb of Chicago Heights, Illinois, would later say, "Yeah, surrrre!"

Grissom walked Dale Mitchell to load the bases with only 1 out. But he struck out Dave Pope, and got Jim Hegan to fly out, to end the threat.

When the Giants got back to the dugout, they told Willie what a hard catch it was. He said, "You kiddin'? I had that one all the way."

The game went to extra innings. Future Hall-of-Famer Bob Lemon went the distance for the Tribe, but in the bottom of the 10th, he walked Mays, who stole 2nd. Then he intentionally walked Hank Thompson to set up an inning-ending double play. It didn't happen: Durocher sent Dusty Rhodes up to pinch-hit for left fielder Monte Irvin, and Rhodes hit the ball down the right-field line. It just sort of squeaked into the stands.

On the film, it looks a little like a fan reached out, and it bounced off his hand. A proto-Jeffrey Maier? To this day, no one has seriously argued that the call should be overturned.

The game was over: Giants 5, Indians 2. The Indians, heavily favored to win the Series, never recovered, and the Giants swept. The Series ended on October 2, tied with 1932 for the 2nd-earliest end to a World Series. (In 1918, the season was shortened due to World War I, and ended on September 11.)

Still alive from this game, 60 years later, are: From the Giants: Mays, Irvin, and shortstop Alvin Dark; from the Indians, Rosen, and his usual backup, a pinch-runner in this game, Rudy Regalado.

Victor Woodrow Wertz, a native of Reading, Pennsylvania, was a right fielder and 1st baseman. He made his name with the Detroit Tigers, hit 266 home runs in his career, had 5 100-plus RBI seasons, and made 4 All-Star Teams. He went 4-for-5 with 2 RBIs in this game. He should be remembered as more than a man who hit a 460-foot (or so) drive that was caught, while another guy in the same game hit a 260-foot drive that won the game as a home run. He died in 1983, aged only 58.

Willie Howard Mays Jr., a native of Fairfield, Alabama, outside Birmingham, became one of baseball's greatest legends. He hit 660 home runs, collected 3,283 hits, made 24 All-Star Games (there were 2 every season from 1959 to 1962), won a Gold Glove the 1st 12 seasons it was given out (1957 to 1968), won the 1954 and 1965 NL Most Valuable Player awards, and played on 4 Pennant winners -- but 1954 would be his only title.

The Giants, with whom he moved to San Francisco in 1958, retired his Number 24, dedicated a statue to him outside AT&T Park, and made its official address 24 Willie Mays Plaza. He played with the Giants until 1972, when he was traded to the Mets, going back to New York at age 41. He retired in 1973, and the Mets have rarely given out Number 24 since.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in his 1st year of eligibility, 1979. In 1999, he was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team, and The Sporting News put him at Number 2 on its list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players -- 2nd only to the long-dead Babe Ruth, so Willie was tops among living players. No player has since come along to suggest otherwise -- not later Giant Barry Bonds, not Derek Jeter. Willie is 85 years old.

September 29, 1955: Game 2 of the World Series. Tommy Byrne goes the distance and singles in a run, as the Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4-2.

The Yankees have a 2-games-to-0 lead as the Series goes to Brooklyn. Dem Bums is in deep trouble.

September 29, 1959: Game 2 of the National League Playoff, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Like in 1946, but not 1951, the Dodgers make sure the Playoff series doesn't go to a Game 3. They score 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th to send the game to extra innings. With 2 outs in the 12th, Gil Hodges draws a walk, Joe Pignatano singles, and Carl Furillo singles home Hodges with the Pennant-winning run, 6-5.

The Dodgers had won the 1st Pennant by any team west of St. Louis. The City of Milwaukee has had just 1 Pennant winner in the 56 years since, the 1982 Brewers; and the Braves wouldn't win another Pennant for 32 years, and by that point they were in their 26th season in Atlanta.

September 29, 1977: Billy Joel releases his album The Stranger, including the title track, "Just the Way You Are,""Only the Good Die Young,""She's Always a Woman," and perhaps his best (if not his most-played) song, "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant," a.k.a. "The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie." Or "Brender 'n' Eddie." It is one of the greatest albums in history.

This album wouldn't seem to have anything to do with sports, but the cover does show a pair of boxing gloves hanging from a nail on the wall.

September 29, 1988: Kevin Wayne Durant is born in Washington, D.C. A 6-time All-Star, he's already played in an NBA Finals for the Oklahoma City Thunder (2012) and won an NBA MVP award (2014).

September 29, 2015: The Los Angeles Dodgers win their 3rd straight National League Western Division title, and away to their arch-rivals, no less. Clayton Kershaw pitches a 1-hit, 13-strikeout, 1-walk shutout, and the Giants beat the San Francisco Giants, 8-0 at AT&T Park. However, the Dodgers still have Don Mattingly as manager. The Curse of Donnie Baseball will strike again.

On this same day, across the Bay, the Oakland Athletics announce the hiring of Dr. Justine Siegal, to pitch batting practice for their off-season Instructional League team, in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa, Arizona. This makes her the 1st female coach to be hired by a Major League Baseball team. This is the closest any woman has ever gotten to a major league roster.

*


September 30, 1942: Game 1 of the World Series. Red Ruffing of the Yankees takes a no-hitter into the 8th inning against the St. Louis Cardinals, before Terry Moore breaks it up with 2 out. In the bottom of the 9th, the Cardinals score 4 runs, and then manage to load the bases, bringing Stan Musial -- then a rookie, a few years away from getting his nickname "Stan the Man," but already one of the game's top hitters -- to the plate as the winning run.

Yankee manager Joe McCarthy brings Spurgeon "Spud" Chandler in to relieve. He gets Musial to ground out. Final score: Yankees 7, Cardinals 4.

As historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, 3 months away from being born, would later say, "There's always these omens in baseball." Going into that bottom of the 9th, the Yankees led 7-0. Over the rest of the Series, including that bottom of the 9th, the Cardinals outscored the Yankees 21-11.

September 30, 1944: James Connolly Johnstone in born in Viewpark (now Uddingston), a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. An outside right (a right winger in today's formations), Jimmy Johnstone, a.k.a. Jinky, played for hometown soccer team Celtic from 1961 to 1975, winning 9 League titles and 4 Scottish Cups, and was voted the club's greatest player ever by its fans.

In 1967, he was the big star of their team that became the 1st British side to win the European Cup (the tournament now known as the UEFA Champions League), defeating Internazionale Milano at Lisbon, Portugal (earning the team the nickname the Lisbon Lions). Later that year, he played for the Scotland national team that beat World Cup holders England, leading Scottish fans to proclaim their team "World Champions." (It doesn't work that way, as boxing does.)

In 1975, he played for the original San Jose Earthquakes, in the original North American Soccer League. He died in 2006.


But they still had a World Series to play, in front of 73,365 people -- over twice the capacity of Ebbets Field. Dodger Captain Pee Wee Reese scores all the way from 2nd base on a wild pitch by rookie starter Frank "Spec" Shea in the 7th inning. But that's the only real highlight for the Dodgers, as the Yankees batter 21-year-old 21-game winner Ralph Branca for 5 runs in the 5th, and go on to win 5-3.

*

September 30, 1951: After being 13 1/2 games behind the Brooklyn Dodgers on August 11, the New York Giants think they have the Pennant won, as they beat the Boston Braves 3-2 at Braves Field in Boston. The hero, with a home run, is 3rd baseman Bobby Thomson.

But the Dodgers, having blown that huge lead, aren't done yet. At Shibe Park in Philadelphia, Jackie Robinson makes a sensational catch at 2nd base in the bottom of the 12th inning, then hits a home run in the top of the 14th, and the Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies 9-8. There will be a best-2-out-of-3 Playoff for the National League Pennant, starting the next day.

A coin is tossed to determine home-field advantage. The Dodgers win the toss -- and elect to host Game 1 at Ebbets Field, thus letting the Giants host Games 2 and 3 at the Polo Grounds. This will turn out to be one of the greatest blunders in the history of baseball.

In the meantime, the American League Champions, the Yankees, wait to see whom they will face in the World Series. Rookie right fielder, and center fielder in waiting, Mickey Mantle asks his teammates who he should root for. He's told it should be the Giants, since Ebbets Field seats only 31,000 people, while the Polo Grounds seats 56,000, and the gate receipts, and thus the winners' share, will be much bigger if the Giants win.

September 30, 1953: Game 1 of the World Series. Gil Hodges, George "Shotgun" Shuba and Jim "Junior" Gilliam hit home runs for the Dodgers. It's not enough, as Yogi Berra and Joe Collins do the same for the Yankees, who win 9-5.

Johnny Sain is the winning pitcher. The Yankees gave up Lew Burdette to get Sain from the Boston Braves. Burdette would help the Braves, by then in Milwaukee, drive the Yankees crazy in the 1957 and '58 Series. But Sain helped the Yankees big-time, so it was an even trade.

September 30, 1955: Game 3 of the World Series. The Dodgers get back into the Series, thanks to the pitching of Johnny Podres and a home run by Roy Campanella. They beat the Yankees 8-3, and close to within 2 games to 1.


The next day is the last day of the regular season. All the Yankees need to do is beat the Indians again, or have the Boston Red Sox lose to the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park, and the Yankees will win their 3rd straight American League Eastern Division title.

They didn't get the win, and they didn't get the Boston loss. It would go to a Playoff at Fenway. Well, we know how that story ends, don't we?


Just short of his 47th birthday, and already successful as a manager, he seemed like a good choice for The Arsenal, who had won 6 trophies from 1987 to 1994, but had struggled in the Premier League, finishing 10th in 1993, 4th in 1994, 12th in 1995, and 5th in 1996.

But, at the time, it was rare for a manager not from the British Isles to manage in England. One newspaper printed the headline, "ARSENE WHO?" No less a personage than Arsenal's captain, centreback Tony Adams, asked, "What does this Frenchman know about English football?"

He knew enough to know that Adams had recently made a public admission of being a recovering alcoholic. He straightened out the team's diet (including no booze the night before a game) and exercise program. He also brought in several European players, including fellow Frenchmen Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit and Nicolas Anelka, and Dutchman Marc Overmars. Together with already-present Dutch star Dennis Bergkamp, and the club's English core of Adams, David Seaman, Lee Dixon, Steve Bould, Nigel Winterburn, Martin Keown, David Platt, Ray Parlour and the legendary striker Ian Wright, In 1997, he finished his 1st season in charge in 3rd place. In 1998, he won the Premier League and the FA Cup, a.k.a. "doing The Double."

He finished runner-up in both in 1999, and Anelka, only 19 years old, thought his performances demanded a big raise, or a sale to a bigger club. Wenger sold him to Real Madrid, and used half the profits to build a new training ground, and the other half to buy young French winger Thierry Henry, whom he converted into a striker, who broke Wright's club record for career goals. Wenger would also sign a great pair of wingers in Sweden's Freddie Ljungberg (in 1998) and France's Robert Pires (in 2000), develop great young defenders in Ashley Cole and Kolo Toure, and make the stunning acquisition (in 2001) of English centreback Sol Campbell, who had been captain of Arsenal's North London arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur.

Wenger finished 2nd and lost the UEFA Cup Final in 2000, finished 2nd and lost the FA Cup Final in 2001, won The Double again in 2002, finished 2nd and won another FA Cup in 2003, and, in the 2003-04 season, did something that had not been done since the League had only a 22-game season: He went unbeaten. As the broadcaster said after it was achieved: "Played 38, won 26, drawn 12, lost exactly none!" He would win another FA Cup in 2005, and reach the Final of the UEFA Champions League in 2006.

But the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury after its neighborhood, only seated 38,000, and its east and west stands had been built in the 1930s. A modern stadium was needed if Arsenal was to compete, but paying for it meant that transactions needed to be made, perhaps sacrificing trophies for expediency. The new Emirates Stadium opened in 2006, and here's what happened: Arsenal lost the League Cup Final in 2007, finished 2nd in the League in 2008, reached the Semifinals of the Champion League and the FA Cup in 2009, lost the League Cup Final in 2011, just barely scraped into Champions League qualification in 2012 and 2013, were struck by several injuries in just about every season, and had to sell several players because of financial concerns: Vieira in 2005, Pires in 2006, Henry in 2007, Manuel Almunia and Gilberto Silva in 2008, Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor in 2009, Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri in 2011, and Robin van Persie in 2012.

But Wenger built another great team: Signing Theo Walcott and Tomas Rosicky in 2006, Bacary Sagna in 2007, Aaron Ramsey in 2008, Laurent Koscielny in 2010, Per Mertesacker and Héctor Bellerín in 2011, Olivier Giroud and Santi Cazorla in 2012, Mesut Özil and Nacho Monreal in 2013, Alexis Sánchez in 2014, Petr Čech in 2015, Mohamed Elneny in this year's January transfer window, and, just this summer, Granit Xhaka, Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Pérez. The result has been continuous Champions League knockout round qualification, and the FA Cup in 2014 and 2015.

Wenger is known for his clichés, which seem a little grammatically odd when they move from his French mind to his English words: A player who is good, "He has the quality"; if he's smart, "He has the mental strength"; if he's unsure of himself, "He lacks the confidence"; and dropping the qualifier "a little bit" into phrases, i.e., "He lacked a little bit the confidence." He doesn't like it when opposing players foul his, but when one of his players is charged, he tells the media, "I did not see it."

His critics like to say, "The game has passed him by,""His tactics are shit," and that it's time for him to go. But he has just about paid off the new stadium, meaning he can put the profits into the team for a change. And, despite the crunched finances, he has kept The Arsenal in contention for trophies. He is a remarkable man, an idealist in a cynical age. Whereas some managers want to win in the worst way, he wants to win in the best way. He's done it before. Turning 67 on October 22, I have no doubt that he will again.

*

September 30, 2006, 10 years ago: On Arsène Wenger’s 10^th Anniversary in charge, Arsenal visit South London club Charlton Athletic, and win 2-1. Robin van Persie scores a wonder goal.

van Persie could have been an all-time legend at Arsenal if he had stayed, or at his hometown club, Feyenoord in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, had he stayed there. Instead, he got greedy, and demanded to be sold. He has moved on to Manchester United, where he won the League title in 2013, then saw manager Alex Ferguson retire, leaving the club in a bit of a mess. Now, he plays for Fenerbahçe in Istanbul, Turkey.

He could have been a legend. Instead, he has become a footnote in the history of every team for whom he's played. That is what he got along with that 1 League title. Was it worth it?

Also on this date, Julio Franco breaks his own record as the oldest player ever to hit a home run in a major league game. He's 48 years old as he takes Beltran Perz deep in the 2nd inning. David Wright, Shawn Green, Ramon Castro and Endy Chavez also homer for the Mets, who beat the Washington Nationals, 13-0 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

The Mets are the Champions of the National League Eastern Division -- the only time they will finish 1st between 1988 and 2015. They are the favorites for the NL Pennant as the regular season comes to an end.

September 30, 2007: This is the game that got Tom Glavine branded "The Manchurian Brave" by Met fans. Having led the NL East by 7 games with 17 to go, the Mets have collapsed, but they go into the regular-season finale, against the Florida Marlins at Shea Stadium, needing a win or a Philadelphia Phillies loss to clinch their 2nd straight NL East title, and a win or a Colorado Rockies loss to at least win the 1 Wild Card available at the time.

Glavine starts. He walks Hanley Ramirez. He gets Dan Uggla to ground into a force play at 2nd base. So far, not terrible. But the roof caves in. He gives up a single to Jeremy Hermida. He gives up a single to Miguel Cabrera, scoring Ramirez. He gives up a double to Cody Ross, and when the ball comes back to him in the infield, he tries to throw Ross out at 3rd, and makes a bad throw, and he becomes the 3rd run of the at-bat.

He allows a single to Mike Jacobs. He walks Matt Treanor. He gives up a single to future Met Alejandro de Aza, loading the bases. He faces the opposing starting pitcher, Dontrelle Willis, and hits him, forcing Jacobs in. Manager Willie Randolph has seen enough, and removes him with the score 5-0. He'd faced all 9 batters in the Marlin starting lineup, and had gotten exactly 1 of them out.

Jorge Sosa is the new pitcher, and he strikes Ramirez out. But he allows a double to Uggla, who drives in Treanor and de Aza, both of whose runs are charged to Glavine. When he finally gets Hermida to ground to 1st, it is Marlins 7, Mets 0.

By the time one of the most traumatic days in Met history is over, the Mets have used 8 pitchers, and lost 8-1. The Phillies beat the Nationals, 6-1 at Citizens Bank Park, and win a Playoff berth and the Division for the 1st time in 14 years. And the Rockies complet their own amazing surge, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-3 at Coors Field. It's not enough to win them the NL West, but it's enough to get them a tie with the San Diego Padres for the Wild Card berth, instead of it going to the Mets.

"I'm not devastated," Glavine says after the game. "I'm disappointed, but devastation is for much greater things in life." Feeling pretty devastated themselves, Met fans never forgive him for this, and he never pitches for them again. He is released, and returns to Atlanta for a final season.

September 30, 2014: The current and former Kansas City teams face off in the American League Wild Card game at Kauffman Stadium. The Oakland Athletics score 5 runs in the top of the 6th inning to take a 5-2 lead over the Kansas City Royals, but the Royals score 3 in the bottom of the 8th to stun the A's and send the game to extra innings.

It looked like the A's have it won in the top of the 12th, as Josh Reddick leads off with a walk, gets bunted to 2nd by Jed Lowrie, advances to 3rd on a wild pitch by Jason Frasor, and then scores on a single by Alberto Callaspo.

But in the bottom of the 12th, Eric Hosmer triples with 1 out, and Christian Colon singles him home with the tying run. Colon steals 2nd, and Salvador Perez singles him home with the run that puts the Royals in the Playoffs proper, 9-8.

September 30, 2015: The Toronto Blue Jays clinch their 1st AL East title, and their 1st Playoff berth, since 1993. They beat the Baltimore Orioles 15-2 at Camden Yards. And the St. Louis Cardinals defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-1 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, to clinch the NL Central title.

C.S. Lewis wrote of Narnia as "a land where it is always winter, but never Christmas."

This month that just began is October. But, for the 3rd time in the last 4 years, for me and all other Yankee Fans, it will be October but not the postseason.

The Playoff teams are as follows: The despised Boston Red Sox won the American League Eastern Division, the Cleveland Indians won the AL Central, the Texas Rangers won the AL West; the Baltimore Orioles will probably host the Wild Card game, against one of the following: The Detroit Tigers, the Toronto Blue Jays or the Seattle Mariners; the Washington Nationals won the National League East, the Chicago Cubs won the NL Central, the Los Angeles Dodgers won the NL West; the Mets, of all teams, will probably host the NL Wild Card game, and their opponent will be the San Francisco Giants.

The Mets, the Giants, the Dodgers. The Yankees will be the only current or former New York team not in the Playoffs.

All because Brian Cashman traded away Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller and Carlos Beltran, for no one that will be helping us in 2016, 2017 or 2018.

I am reminded of "The Green Fields of the Mind," which A. Bartlett Giamatti, so emblematic of the thoughtful, erudite, romantic, pre-1998, pre-Pedro Martinez, pre-chav, pre-thug Red Sox fan, wrote in 1977, while he was a professor of comparative literature at of Yale University, right before being appointed Yale's President, before becoming the President of the National League, before becoming Commissioner of Baseball, before the confrontation with Pete Rose that hastened his death from a heart attack at only 51 years old, and before his sons Paul and Marcus Giamatti became famous as actors.

Bart Giamatti was born in Boston, and grew up in nearby South Hadley, in the Berkshire region of Western Massachusetts. His specialty was how Italian Renaissance literature, particularly the pastoral poetry that tried to show city people that rural life was simpler and thus better, influenced English-language literature. Since the defining feature of what's come to be understood as New England life is the small town, not the big city (the 6 States, combined, really only have 1 big city, Boston), this appealed to him.

Not to me: As a New Jerseyan, the defining feature of New Jersey life is the town that is close to a big city (New York or Philadelphia) and has the advantages of city life (the sense of community, the easy access to conveniences) but not the drawbacks (the high crime rates, the venal politicians, although many New Jersey cities have each of those).

Giamatti, born in Boston but raised nearby but not in it, working in New Haven, Connecticut which combines city and small-town academic life and serves as kind of a "neutral zone" between Red Sox Nation and Yankees Universe, loved the Red Sox, but understood fans of all kinds.

These sound like the words of a New Englander. Or a New Yorker, a New Jerseyan, a Philadelphian, or perhaps a Midwesterner. No matter how much a person from the Sun Belt might love baseball, he could not have written this, as Bart did at the age of 39:

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.

You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.

Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.

Somehow, the summer seemed to slip by faster this time. Maybe it wasn't this summer, but all the summers that, in this my fortieth summer, slipped by so fast. There comes a time when every summer will have something of autumn about it. 

It goes on in that vein, but there are specifics that won't apply in most situations. I have not edited this for grammar: Where I might have stopped a sentence and started a new one, or added a comma, I didn't. This man was a professor of literature: If he thinks it was fine as he wrote it, I'm not going to dispute him. On baseball, maybe; on language, no. I am not going to change his writing style to suit mine.

This was my 47th summer. I am less than 5 years younger than Bart Giamatti was when he died. I will never be as accomplished as he was, or as admired as he already was when he wrote that at 39.

The knowledge that my team has already won 7 World Series in my lifetime, and his won none, and that my team out-Pennanted his 11 to 4, is small consolation for that.

Not that there aren't joys in my life. And sports has provided many. A big one is how I passed my love of the Yankees on to my 1st 2 nieces, now 9 years old -- and now have the chance to do so with a 3rd.

But the last 3 years have been financially tight. I haven't had a standard summer since 2013. My father died just as Summer 2014 began. I lost a job just as Summer 2015 began.

And, baseball-wise, despite coming close to the Playoffs in 2013, '14, '15 and '16, there's always been this thought that, as long as Brian Cashman is making decisions for the Yankees in the front office, and as long as Joe Girardi is making decisions for them on the field, even if they had made the Playoffs, it would end badly, as it did in last year's Wild Card game. No ultimate victory followed by a parade. No valiant last stand where our courage in the face of defeat could be admired. Not even a, "Well, we just got shut down, nothing we can do but tip our caps to the opposition."

Just a pathetic effort, and the result such effort earns: Ignominious defeat. Like in the 2003 World Series. Or the ALCS of 2010 and 2012. Or the last 4 games of the 2004 ALCS. Or the ALDS of 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2011. Or last year's Wild Card game. Or the stretch runs of 2013, 2014 and this September.

No matter how hot and muggy, these Summers had something of Autumn about them.

And then, on Friday night, the chill rains came, and, right on cue, the Yankees were mathematically eliminated from postseason consideration.

Baseball hasn't stopped yet. It continues, but with 10 teams other than the Yankees.

And the air is chilled, and the streets are wet, and the leaves fall, making the streets even slicker. Football and European soccer are underway, North American soccer is closing its regular season, hockey will arrive shortly, basketball a little bit after that.

Yankees: Done, as of tomorrow. Red Bulls: In the Playoffs. Arsenal: A very promising season well in progress. Devils: Looking improved. Rutgers football: Don't ask, they're playing Ohio State as I type this, and I can't look. East Brunswick football: Playing a Saturday afternoon game, once a weekly ritual, now, in the era of Fright night lights, a rarity.

I used to love this time of year. But that was when the Yankees were in the postseason every year: 1995 to 2012, except for 2008. They didn't always win, but at least they were always in it. At least they'd always given themselves a chance.
Life moves on. One day, it will move on without me. Frequently, it already feels like it moves on without me, with me only as an observer, not as a spectator.

The green fields of the mind are covered with fallen branches. Soon, it will be fallen leaves of many colors. But is that a comfort? George Carlin said, "Baseball begins in the Spring, the season of new life. Football begins in the Fall, when everything is dying!"

*

October 1, 1730: Richard Stockton is born in Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey, at Morven, the home of his father, John Stockton. John was one of the founders of Princeton University, and Richard became a trustee in it, as well as perhaps the foremost lawyer in the Colony of New Jersey. He married poet Annis Boudinot, and their children included future Congressman Richard Stockton, and Julia Stockton, who married the father of American medicine, Benjamin Rush.

However, he may also have been the first cynic about New Jersey politics, writing, "The public is generally unthankful, and I will never become a Servant of it, till I am convinced that by neglecting my own affairs I am doing more acceptable Service to God and Man."

He had little choice: Because of his influence, he was appointed to the Provincial Council and then the Provincial Supreme Court, all before his 44th birthday. He was elected to the Continental Congress, as was his son-in-law Dr. Rush, and both signed the Declaration of Independence. He lost the subsequent election to be the 1st Governor of the State of New Jersey to William Livingston by a single vote. As a consolation prize, he was unanimously elected Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court.

But on November 30, 1776, he was captured by the British Army. He was offered a pardon if he would "remain in peaceful obedience to the King." He turned it down. He was imprisoned for 5 months and intentionally starved. His health never recovered. Morven was stripped of its belongings, and all the books of its renowned library removed and burned. He resigned from the Continental Congress, returned to the practice of law, developed cancer due to smoking, and died on February 28, 1781, at Morven.

Morven still stands, and from 1956 to 1981 was the official Governor's Mansion of the State of New Jersey. It is now a museum. It is on U.S. Route 206, which is named Stockton Street. Further south on Stockton Street is a much larger house, Drumthwacket, which became the Governor's Mansion. Stockton University in Galloway, Atlantic County, New Jersey is named for him.

*

October 2, 1978: The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox play that famous one-game Playoff at Fenway Park, the Boston Tie Party. When the top of the 7th begins, the Sox lead 2-0, with Mike Torrez pitching a 2-hit shutout.

Think about it: Today, Torrez would probably have been told he'd pitched a great game, and let the bullpen handle it from here. Although, to be fair, Sox fans generally don't blame Torrez for what happened next.

They blame the manager of the Sox at the time, Don Zimmer.

But Zimmer leaves Torrez in. He gets Graig Nettles to fly to right, but allows singles to Chris Chambliss and Roy White. Jim Spencer pinch-hits for Brian Doyle, who was substituting at 2nd base for the injured Willie Randolph. (Fred "Chicken" Stanley took over at 2nd for the rest of the game). Spencer flies to left.

And then up comes shortstop Russell Earl "Bucky" Dent. Dent takes ball one. Then he fouls a ball off his foot for strike one. Yankee trainer Gene Monahan sprays some ethyl chloride on his foot to freeze the pain. Mickey Rivers, the on-deck batter, notices that Bucky broke his bat, then gave one of his bats, which White had lent him, to the batboy, saying, "Give this bat to Bucky. It has a home run in it." Meanwhile, Torrez, fully entitled under the rules to throw as many warmup pitches as he can during the delay, throws none.

Bucky steps back into the batter's box. You know what happens: As Yankee broadcaster Bill White said on WPIX-Channel 11: "Deep to left, Yastrzemski will… not get it! It’s a home run! A three-run home run for Bucky Dent, and now, the Yankees lead it by a score of 3-2!"

Then Torrez walks Rivers. Only then does Zimmer take him out of the game, and bring in Bob Stanley. Mick the Quick steals 2nd. Thurman Munson doubles him home, before Stanley finally ends the rally by getting Lou Piniella to fly to right. It is 4-2, and the Yanks would win, 5-4.

On July 20, the Sox led the American League Eastern Division by 9 1/2 games. The Yankees were 14 games back. Now, the Sox have won 99 games, and they don't even make the Playoffs.

The Yankees? They go on to win their 22nd World Championship, all since the Sox won their last, 60 years ago.

To this day, even after their team has finally cheated its way to 3 World Series wins, October 2, 1978 still bothers Sox fans.

Let it.

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Don Zimmer for the Boston Red Sox Losing the 1978 American League Eastern Division Title

An obvious reason is the guy who gave up the home run, but he's, at best, a "Best of the Rest":

Mike Torrez. Torrez won 16 games that season, more than any Sox starter except for Dennis Eckersley. More than Luis Tiant. More than Bill Lee. If not for Torrez pitching as well as he did, the Sox don't get to a Game 163. And he did have that 2-hit shutout through 6 innings of the Playoff. Even at the moment he threw that pitch to Dent, he'd pitched a 4-hit shutout for 6 2/3rds innings.
If I'm going into a win-or-go-home game, at Fenway Park no less, and you tell me my starting pitcher will pitch shutout ball for 6 2/3rds innings, with no guarantee of what will happen in pursuit of the last 7 outs, I will gladly take that chance.

If you had told George Steinbrenner on the morning of October 2, 1978 that Ron Guidry was going to do that on the afternoon, he would have taken it, given the Yankee bullpen. Indeed, for 6 innings, Mike Torrez outpitched Ron Guidry, who was only having the greatest season any pitcher has had since Lefty Grove in 1931.

You could blame Zimmer for not relieving Lee with Bob Stanley sooner. You could blame Torrez for not throwing any warmup pitches during the injury delay. And you could blame Torrez for throwing Dent a meatball.

But, as I said, he was a big reason why the Sox were in the game in the first place. Or tied for 1st place, as it were.

Let me get another "Best of the Rest" out of the way, because it's not real:

The Curse of the Bambino. Just as the common argument for the omnipotence of God is that, "He does not need to exist in order to save us," a sports curse does not need to actually exist for it to get into a player's head and let it affect him. Maybe the Sox players believed in it.

Babe Ruth was angry with Red Sox owner Harry Frazee for being mean to him (he was an overgrown kid at age 24) and for not paying him what he thought he was worth. But he wasn't angry at Frazee for selling him to New York. Or maybe he was, but it didn't last long, when he saw how much fun he was having, and how much money he was making, in New York.

And even if he was still mad at Frazee, that was on the owner. Not on the team, or the city, or the fans. He loved Boston and its people to the end of his life, and had no particular anger toward the Red Sox organization, during the remainder of Frazee's time as owner (until 1923) or after (until his death in 1948). Ruth never cursed the Red Sox.

Nor did "the baseball gods" (whoever and whatever you might think those are, or were) curse the Red Sox for selling Ruth to the Yankees. The sale was bad for the Sox, but great for baseball as a whole. If there are baseball gods, they would have approved.
Now, on to the real reasons:

5. Fenway Park. And I don't just mean that the Green Monster, the 37-foot-high left field wall that Sox fans usually call simply "The Wall," was too close, turning what would have been a popup by Dent in any other ballpark into a cheap home run. I'm talking about the shifting wind that was a major feature of the park, before the 1988 addition of that big press box/luxury box area behind home plate, and later the roof boxes down the lines, literally changed the climate at the little green pinball machine in the Back Bay.

In the bottom of the 2nd inning, the wind was blowing from left field to right field. This enabled Carl Yastrzemski to pull the ball down the right field line and curl it around Pesky's Pole for a home run that was every bit as cheap as Dent's. Yes, Yaz was a Hall-of-Famer who was still going strong at age 39, but he was still a 39-year-old lefthanded hitter batting against a lefthanded pitcher having the greatest season any pitcher had had since Herbert Hoover was President. (Lefty Grove in 1931. Even Dizzy Dean in 1934, Hal Newhouser in 1944, Whitey Ford in 1961, Sandy Koufax in 1965 and 1966, and Bob Gibson and Denny McLain in 1968, weren't as good in the years in question.)

Don't forget: While it's 380 feet to straightaway right field at Fenway, the pole is 302 feet away, the shortest distance in all of Major League Baseball since the renovation of the old Yankee Stadium in 1973 took away the old right field distance of 296 feet. While the marker at the bottom of the Green Monster was then labeled at 315 feet, and has since been changed to 310 feet, the field dimensions of Fenway have not changed at all in the intervening 38 years.

Still, to hit one out to right field at Fenway, you need at least 1 of 4 things: The ability to pull the ball right down the line (Yaz had it), extraordinary power (Yaz had that, too), a strong wind blowing in that direction (Yaz had that, as well), or steroids (which explains why David Ortiz has 540 home runs, instead of about half that, which he should have had, but as far as I know, Yaz didn't use them). Yaz hit that home run, with his considerable power and ability, but also with the help of the wind.

But by the 6th inning, the wind had shifted, going from right field to left field. This not only pushed Dent's lazy fly over The Wall, but also kept 2 balls that could have gone out in the yard, enabling Lou Piniella to make key catches in right field, 1 in the 6th inning, 1 in the 9th.

4. Bill Lee. Legend has it that, on September 10, 1978, before the 4th game of the series that became known as the Boston Massacre, Yaz, as team captain, went into Zim's office, and begged him to start Lee against the Yankees.

Lee, a 31-year-old native of the Los Angeles suburbs, part pitching ace and part mad philosopher, was known as the Spaceman. He used a sinking fastball to go 12-5 vs. the Yankees in his career. And he was a lefthander, and, thanks to the Kansas City Royals in the previous year's AL Championship Series, the word had gotten around that, "The Yankees can't hit lefthanded pitching."
It was also suggested that Luis Tiant, also with with a good record against the Yankees, start, but he was 37 and would have been on 3 days' rest.

Zim refused to start Lee, and, to explain why, reached into his desk, and showed Yaz a bunch of newspaper clippings he had saved, in which Lee had insulted him, calling him things like "the Designated Gerbil." Zim said he was sticking with his established choice for the game, Bobby Sprowl, a 22-year-old from Sandusky, Ohio with 1 major league game (7 innings) under his belt, who, to be fair, was a lefthander. Zim he was told by Sox scouts that Sprowl "has icewater in his veins."

Sprowl got knocked out of the box in the 1st inning, and the Yankees won 7-4, and completed the sweep and tied the Sox for 1st. Sprowl made 1 more appearance for the Sox in '78, was traded to the Houston Astros, made 3 major league appearances for them in '79, 1 more in '80, and 15 more in '81, spent the next 3 season in the minor leagues, and threw his last professional pitch before turning 30. A graduate of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, he is back in that city, as the head coach at Shelton State Community College.

So did Zimmer really keep Lee out of the starting rotation, and cost the team at least a Division title, maybe their 1st World Championship in 60 years, out of spite? It sounds like the sort of thing that Donald Trump would do. And it's become accepted Red Sox lore that Zimmer did this, and that, if he'd started Lee instead, Lee would have beaten the Yankees.

As Trump himself would say, "Wrong." Rather than being the answer to the hole in the rotation that Bobby Sprowl couldn't fill, Lee was the hole in the rotation.

On July 15, 1978, Lee was 10-3, and a big reason why the Sox had a big Division lead. From then until September 7, the start of the Boston Massacre series, he'd made 9 appearances, 48 1/3rd innings. He was 0-7. His ERA was 5.96 -- and that doesn't count 5 unearned runs during that stretch.

In those 9 appearances, there were 6 in which he didn't get out of the 6th inning, 4 in which he didn't get out of the 5th, 3 in which he didn't get out of the 4th, 2 in which he didn't get out of the 3rd, 1 in which he didn't even get out of the 1st. He lost 3 games to Milwaukee, and 1 each to Minnesota, Kansas City, Cleveland and Oakland. The only game Boston won during that stretch, a 10-9 home win over expansion Seattle on August 28, Lee did not get out of the 5th and was not the winning pitcher.

And 3 of those losses were by 1 or 2 runs. Had the Sox won any one of those, there never would have been a Bucky Dent Game.

And if Zim was keeping Lee out of games due to spite, why would he have brought him in to relieve in Game 2 of the Massacre series, the 13-2 Yankee win? He went 7 innings, and allowed only 1 earned run -- although he allowed 4 others that were charged to starter Jim Wright.

Now, think about that: If you had a must-win game, would you trust the start to a guy who pitched 7 innings only 2 days ago, no matter how good he was? I wouldn't. Don Zimmer didn't. We'll never know if he was right, but the stats show that it was probably a good idea to not start Lee on September 10, 1978.

By the way, Zim did bring Lee in during that game. He pitched 2 1/3rd innings, allowing no runs -- but the game was already lost. And pitching 2 1/3rd innings effectively isn't the same as pitching 7 or more. There's no guarantee that Lee would have been the right choice to start.

And let's not forget that, in the biggest game of his career, Game 7 of the 1975 World Series, Lee blew a 3-0 lead by deciding to clown around with a blooper pitch that Tony Perez deposited onto the Mass Pike, and the Sox lost.

3. The Media. The Boston media is among the most vicious in the country when a team, or an individual player, isn't going well. So is the New York media. But the New York newspapers were on strike from August 9 until November 5. The Boston papers were not. The Yankees had fewer reporters hounding them, while the Sox faced questions about "choking" from late July onward.

A newspaper strike, which ended up killing The Pittsburgh Press, is also often credited with helping the Pittsburgh Penguins successfully defend the Stanley Cup in 1992.

2. Red Sox Management. The Yankees had key injuries in the 1st half of the season, but had the bench to outlast them. The Red Sox had key injuries in the 2nd half of the season, but did not have enough quality in their reserves. That's on their general managers: Dick O'Connell, who held the job from 1965 until October 1977, and Haywood Sullivan, who held it thereafter until 1984. It's also on the team's owner: Jean Yawkey, who fired O'Connell at a time when he should have been able to use his considerable clout in baseball to get better players.

O'Connell built the teams that won the "Impossible Dream" Pennant of 1967 and the Pennant of 1975. But 1976 was a transition year, and he failed to recognize that. Would he have gotten 1 player that could have made the difference in 1978? He certainly tried to find that player for 1977, signing Bill Campbell as a free agent. Campbell was sensational in 1977, but gained 0.95 on his ERA and 0.33 on his WHIP in 1978. Bob Stanley became the Sox bullpen stopper for the next several years -- including, to New Englanders' dismay, 1986.

O'Connell is one of the most important figures in Sox history, but by 1978, he wasn't the man for the job anymore.

1. The Yankees Were Better.

Yes, they were. From 1976 to 1981, only in 1979 -- a year even more loaded with injuries than '78 -- did the Sox have a better record. The Sox won 97 games in 1977 and 99 in 1978, and didn't make the Playoffs. Today, they would have gotten in through the Wild Card. Then? They were out of luck.

Did the Sox not have enough talent? Did they not have enough desire? Did they not have enough character? Whatever they did have, the Yankees had more of it, winning 5 Division titles, 4 Pennants and 2 World Series in 6 years.

Blaming Zimmer for that has some merit. After all, you still gotta play the hand you're dealt. But there were many more factors at work.

VERDICT: Not Guilty.

If you want to talk about guilt, let's discuss what Pedro Martinez did to Zimmer 25 years later, when Zimmer was on the Light Side of the Force.

October 2, 1936, 80 years ago: Richard Barnett (no middle name) is born in Gary, Indiana, outside Chicago. A guard on the Tennessee State University basketball team at the same time that Wilma Rudolph was leading their "Tigerbelles" women's track team, he was then known as "Dick the Skull." He won a championship in the short-lived American Basketball League in 1962. They were the 1st sports team owned by George Steinbrenner, then just 31 years old.

When the ABL folded a few months later, he joined the Los Angeles Lakers, and helped them reach the NBA Finals in 1963 and 1965. His fallaway jump shot led Laker announcer Chick Hearn to nickname him "Fall Back Baby Barnett." The nickname followed him to the Knicks, where he became an All-Star in 1968, and an NBA Champion in 1970 and 1973.

He retired after the 1973 title, got a Ph.D. in education from Fordham University in The Bronx, and taught sports management at St. John's University in Queens until retiring in 2007. Due to his doctorate, he is nearly always referred to as "Dr. Dick."

The Knicks retired his Number 12 on March 12, 1990. He is a member of the College Basketball and Tennessee Sports Halls of Fame, along with his Tennessee State coach, John McLendon.
He is still alive, still attends Knicks home games, and turns 80 today. Happy Birthday, Dr. Dick.


He was a teammate of Oscar Robertson in Cincinnati, both on the UC Bearcats and on the NBA's Cincinnati Royals. He remained in the NBA until 1971, and died in 2013. His daughter Cammy Dierking is a news anchor at WKRC-Channel 12 in Cincinnati.

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October 2, 1452: Richard Plantagenet is born at Fotheringhay Castle in Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire, England. This is also where Mary, Queen of Scots would be imprisoned and executed in 1587. It was demolished a few decades after that. The subject of this entry wouldn't fare much better than Mary and the castle.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester, of the House of York, was a great horseman (thus tangentially connecting this entry to sports), a great soldier, and, as his supporters would tell us over 500 years later, a great administrator.

Unfortunately, he was also quite evil. He may have been behind the 1471 assassination of the deposed King Henry VI. He may have been behind the charges that led to the 1478 execution of his older brother, George, Duke of Clarence. And then, when his eldest brother, King Edward IV of England, died in 1483, Richard was named Lord Protector of Edward's sons, 13-year-old King Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. Instead of watching over them and the country until young Edward turned 18 and could rule in his own right, he had them imprisoned, declared illegitimate, and murdered. Thus did Gloucester become King Richard III.

This, of course, was told in William Shakespeare's play Richard III, containing the legendary opening soliloquy that begins, "Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this sun of York!" and continues into a woe-is-me tirade for the man then 4th in line for the throne.

Richard was not a hunchback, as Shakespeare suggested, but when his remains were discovered Leicester in 2012, it was found that he had scoliosis, which could have provided a similar effect. Yet a body double of similar age was found, and given a contemporary-style suit of armor, for a documentary, Resurrecting Richard III, proving that his form of scoliosis would have been no impediment to riding a horse, jousting, or even horseborne combat.

But on horseback in battle did Richard ride, because, after just 2 years, the people of England had had enough of him, and support surged to Henry Tudor, a Welsh-born descendant of Edward III, and Richard fell at the Battle of Bosworth Field in Leicestershire on August 22, 1485. He was 32 years old.

Tudor became King Henry VII, and he married Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, thus uniting the Houses of Lancaster (through himself) and York (through her), absorbing the House of Plantagenet into the House of Tudor, and ending the Wars of the Roses after 30 years. Despite this monumental achievement, Henry VII is best known today, over 500 years after his death, as the father of King Henry VIII.

Oh well, it could be worse: Today, over 200 years after he fell from power for the last time, Napoleon Bonaparte is remembered for his hat, being short (but not as short as we think he was, and not particularly short for his time), and as the namesake of a pastry.

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October 2, 1535: French explorer Jacques Cartier -- "Jimmy Carter" in English, if you will -- discovers what will become the Island of Montreal in New France (Quebec). Thus does he make possible 52 Stanley Cup wins (24 by the Montreal Canadiens), 9 Grey Cup wins (7 by the Montreal Alouettes), the integrated baseball debut of Jackie Robinson in 1946, the 1976 Olympic Games, and the tragedy of the Montreal Expos.

October 2, 1803: Samuel Adams dies in Boston, probably as a result of Parkinson's disease. He was 81. One of the leading figures of the American Revolution, he was the man who started the Boston Tea Party (thus giving the name Boston Tie Party to the 1978 Playoff) -- not just because it was good patriotism, but also because it was good business: He was the leading brewer in Massachusetts, and his best friend was John Hancock, the leading distiller and transporter of hard liquor in the Colony. He was an early Governor once Massachusetts became a State. And, of course, he was a cousin of President John Adams.

Today, when he is remembered, it is for starting the Boston Tea Party, and as the namesake of a Boston-produced beer, loved by Red Sox fans. It's good beer -- but because of its connection with the team, I won't touch the stuff. Like Samuel Adams, I am a principled man.

October 2, 1869: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is born in Porbandar, Gujarat, India. Despite his nickname "The Mahatma" (meaning "Great Soul") also being given to the great baseball executive Branch Rickey (and I have no idea what he, a devout Methodist, thought of that), as far as I know, he had nothing to do with sports.

But in 1983, an article titled "Gandhi at the Bat" was printed in The New Yorker, taking place in 1933, 50 years earlier, a completely fictional story that featured him meeting Babe Ruth and "playing for the Yankees."

He and his friend Jawaharlal Nehru are the founding fathers of the modern Indian nation, which, despite its oppression by the British, came to love the British sports of cricket and field hockey, and now finally seems to be absorbing soccer as well.


October 2, 1897: William Alexander Abbott is born in Asbury Park, Monmouth County, New Jersey. With fellow New Jersey native Lou Costello of Paterson, Passaic County, Bud Abbott formed one of the great comedy teams of the 1st half of the 20th Century, best known for their "Who's On First?" routine. Legend has it that Abbott was watching that very routine on TV in 1959 when he got a phone call telling him that Lou had died. Bud lived on until 1974.

October 2, 1898: Unlike the 1891 Milwaukee Brewers, the Brooklyn Superbas (forerunners of the Dodgers) did escape New York City's blue laws so that they could play on a Sunday. They play the Washington Nationals (not to be confused with the current team of that name) across the Hudson River in Weehawken, New Jersey. Candy LaChance hits a home run, and Brooklyn wins, 4-3.

October 2, 1899: Rube Waddell of the Louisville Colonels sets a major league record with 14 strikeouts, beating the Chicago Orphans 6-1. (This team was not yet the Cubs: They got the Orphans named because they "missed their Pop," the now-retired Adrian C. "Cap" or "Pop" Anson), 6-1. Oh yeah: Waddell's 14 Ks came in only 8 innings, because the game was called due to darkness.

Clark Griffith took the loss. He would become the 1st manager of the Chicago White Sox in 1901, and, with himself as staff ace, win the 1st AL Pennant. He would then become the 1st manager of the New York Highlanders (forerunners of the Yankees) in 1903, and nearly manage and pitch them to a Pennant in 1904.

Waddell, already the best lefthanded pitcher in the game, starred for the Philadelphia Athletics, before Connie Mack finally got tired of his drinking and his wandering mind. He died of tuberculosis in 1914, only 37 years old.

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October 2, 1903: The 1st World Series is tied at 1 game apiece, as the Boston Americans beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-0. Bill Dinneen pitches a shutout for the proto-Red Sox, and Patsy Dougherty hits the 1st and 2nd World Series home runs, off Pirate pitcher Sam Leever.

October 2, 1908:  In a wild 3-team American League race, every bit as tight as the 3-team race going on in the National League at the same time, the AL has perhaps its greatest pitching duel ever, between 2 future Hall-of-Famers, at League Park in Cleveland.

Big Ed Walsh of the White Sox strikes on 15 batters, breaking Waddell's record, and setting what will be an AL record for 30 years. But it's not enough, as Addie Joss, a.k.a. the Human Hairpin for his slender build and his tight pitching motion, pitches a perfect game for the Cleveland Indians, and the Indians win, 1-0.

And yet, neither team wins the Pennant. The Detroit Tigers do, the Indians finishing half a game behind, the White Sox 1 1/2 behind: Detroit 90-63, Cleveland 90-64, Chicago 88-64. Why wasn't the Tigers' missing 154th game made up? I don’t know: Neither The Unforgettable Season by G.H. Fleming nor Crazy '08 by Cait Murphy explains why.

It's the 2nd of 3 straight Pennants for the Tigers. The ChiSox had won in 1901 and 1906. The Indians will not get this close to a Pennant again until they win it all in 1920. I'll get to that in a moment.

October 2, 1914: The Yankees make 5 errors, and lose to the Boston Red Sox, 11-5 at Fenway Park. The Boston pitcher, a 19-year-old rookie, also gets his 1st major league hit, a double off Yankee pitcher Leonard Leslie "King" Cole.

Cole will not be long for this world: He soon develops tuberculosis, and dies in 1916, only 29 years old. But the Sox rookie will be heard from again. His name is George Herman Ruth Jr. That's right, the Babe. There would be 2,872 other hits in his career, 714 of them home runs, 659 of those for the Yankees.

October 2, 1916, 100 years ago: The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Boston Braves, 2-0 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, as Grover Cleveland Alexander notches his 33rd win of the season, and his 16th shutout, a record. He got those 16 whitewashes, and 12 the season before, as a righthanded pitcher playing home games in Baker Bowl, whose right-field fence was only 280 feet from home plate.

October 2, 1917: Alexander wins his 30th of this season, defeating the New York Giants 8-2, also at Baker Bowl. He also hits 2 doubles. But this will be his last game in a Philadelphia uniform: Fearing that he might get drafted into World War I, and killed or incapacitated in combat, the Phils sell him to the Chicago Cubs.

He was indeed drafted. Although he was not wounded in combat, the shelling damaged his hearing, and shell-shock -- which became "battle fatigue" in World War II, and today we would call it "post-traumatic stress disorder" -- caused him to develop epilepsy. It also intensified his drinking problem. In spite of his mound success, both before and after "The War to End All Wars," Alexander was a tragic figure.

October 2, 1919: Game 2 of the World Series. The Cincinnati Reds beat the White Sox 4-2, to go up 2 games to none. Sox pitcher Lefty Williams holds the Reds scoreless for 3 innings, but in the 4th, he walks 3 batters, gives up a single to Edd Roush, and then a triple to Larry Kopf.

Sox manager Kid Gleason tells owner Charlie Comiskey that he's suspicious of his players. But Comiskey has been feuding with his old friend Ban Johnson, President of the American League, with the 2 men having founded the League. So Comiskey goes to National League President John Heydler. Heydler tells Johnson about Gleason's suspicions. But Johnson does nothing about it, thinking people will see it as a vengeful act against Comiskey.

Gleason is not the only one who is suspicious: Hugh Fullerton of the Chicago Herald-Examiner, and his protégé, Ring Lardner of the Chicago Tribune, make note of some questionable plays. So does former Giants pitcher Christy Mathewson, covering the Series for a national newspaper syndicate.

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October 2, 1920: The only tripleheader ever played in the 20th Century, forced by rainouts, is played at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The Cincinnati Reds win the 1st 2 games, 13-4 and 7-3, with the Pittsburgh Pirates avoiding the sweep in the finale, 6-0. Peter Harrison is the home plate umpire for all three games.

October 2, 1925: Wren Alvin Blair is born in Lindsay, Ontario. He wasn't much of a hockey player, but as a scout for the Boston Bruins, he convinced them to sign Bobby Orr. That alone would be enough reason to remember him.

When the NHL expanded for the 1967-68 season, he became the 1st head coach and the 1st general manager of the Minnesota North Stars. He later served as GM of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and died in 2013.

October 2, 1926, 90 years ago: Game 1 of the World Series, the 1st ever played by the St. Louis Cardinals. Bill Sherdel allowed only 6 hits for them, but Herb Pennock allowed only 3, and the Yankees won, 2-1.

October 2, 1927: A benefit game is played at Shibe Park between Philadelphia's teams, to build a gymnasium at Gettysburg College, alma mater of Athletics pitcher Eddie Plank, a 300-game winner who died the year before. The Phillies score in the 2nd inning, and lead 1-0 after 6, when the umpires call the game due to rain.

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October 2, 1932: The Yankees win their 12th consecutive World Series game and sweep the Fall Classic for the 3rd time, for their 4th World Championship overall. At Wrigley Field, the Bronx Bombers (the nickname has now replaced "Murderers' Row") bang out 19 hits as they club the Chicago Cubs, 13-6.

The last survivor of the 1932 Yankees was pitcher Charlie Devens, who lived until 2003 -- insisting to the end that, in Game 3, Babe Ruth did so call his shot.

Also on this day, Maurice Morning Wills is born in Washington, District of Columbia. Maury was a switch-hitting shortstop, mostly for the Los Angeles Dodgers, a 7-time All-Star who, along with his White Sox contemporaries Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio, brought the stolen base back as a major baseball weapon.

In 1962, he stole 104 bases, earning himself the National League Most Valuable Player award, and breaking the established major league record of 96 set by Ty Cobb in 1915. That record would stand for 12 years. Maury helped the Dodgers win the World Series in 1959, 1963 and 1965. He also won 2 Gold Gloves, and finished his career with a .281 batting average and 586 stolen bases.

After broadcasting, and managing in Mexico, he wrote a book titled How to Steal a Pennant, claiming he could take a last-place club and turn it into champions (world, league or division, he didn't specify) in 4 years. Supposedly, the San Francisco Giants offered him their managing job, but he turned it down. (Ill feelings toward them as a result of their rivalry with the Dodgers, perhaps?)

Late in the 1980 season, by which point his son Elliott "Bump" Wills was a 2nd baseman for the Texas Rangers, the Seattle Mariners hired Maury. On May 6, 1981, they fired him, after a series of inexplicable gaffes led to a record of 26-56, a percentage of .317, a pace for 111 losses. He later said he should have taken a minor-league job in organized baseball first, something many players who'd like to manage in the majors have been reluctant to do.

As it turned out, there was an explanation for his behavior: He was an alcoholic and a cocaine addict. He eventually got treatment thanks to the woman who became his 2nd wife. He soon returned to the Dodger organization, played their 3rd base coach in the "present" sequence of the film The Sandlot, and has been a member of the Dodgers Legends Bureau (what some sports teams call a "club ambassador") and a broadcaster for a minor-league team he once managed in Fargo, North Dakota.

Like Roger Maris, who grew up in Fargo, he has a museum there in his honor, even though he's far more associated with D.C. and L.A.

October 2, 1934: Earl Lawrence Wilson is born in Ponchatoula, Louisiana. On July 28, 1959, he became the 2nd black player for the Red Sox, after Elijah "Pumpsie" Green. On June 26, 1962, pitching against the Los Angeles Angels, he became the 1st black pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the American League. (Sam Jones of the Cubs had done it in the National League, in 1955.) In this game, he also hit a home run off Bo Belinsky, who had pitched a no-hitter earlier in the season.

Wilson is 1 of only 5 pitchers to toss a no-hitter and hit a home run in the same game. The others are Frank Mountain in 1884, Wes Farrell in 1931, Jim Tobin in 1944 and Rick Wise in 1971 (and he hit 2 homers).

Wilson would be traded to the Detroit Tigers, and was part of a rotation that included Denny McLain and Mickey Lolich, and won the 1968 World Series. He went 121-109 over his career, founded an automotive parts company, taught phys ed and coached basketball at a Florida high school, and died in 2005, at age 70.

October 2, 1936, 80 years ago: Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees score more runs than any team has ever scored in a Series game, and win by the largest margin in Series history, both records still standing through 2015: 18-4 over the Giants. Tony Lazzeri (only the 2nd grand slam in Series play) and Bill Dickey hit home runs, to make an easy winner out of Lefty Gomez.

Twice, Hank Greenberg is a strikeout victim of Feller's. Greenberg finishes the season with 58 home runs, the 3rd time someone has come close to Babe Ruth's record of 60 set in 1927. (Jimmie Foxx, who hit 50 this year, had hit 58 in 1932. Hack Wilson had hit 56 in 1930.)

Some people argue that, due to Greenberg being Jewish, he was frequently walked (intentionally or "not") so that he wouldn't break the Babe's record. Hank would go to his grave maintaining his belief that pitchers had pitched to him fairly.

I've seen film from this game: Feller, then wearing Number 14 rather than the 19 for which he would later become better associated, was certainly challenging the original Hammerin' Hank, throwing hard, choosing to, as they would say in Jim Bouton's Ball Four, smoke him inside.

October 2, 1939: This was the day after the regular season ended, so, if the film The Natural had been a true story, this would have been the day of the National League Playoff game between the New York Knights and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In real life, the Cincinnati Reds won the NL Pennant. The New York Giants, whose place the Knights had taken in the film's world, finished 5th, 18 1/2 games back. And the Pirates finished 6th, 28 1/2 games back.

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Steve won 35 Emmy Awards, and was admired by everyone. Without his contributions to NFL Films, there would almost certainly be no Major League Baseball Productions, and thus no This Week In Baseball or anything else MLB Productions did. Nor would the NBA or the NHL have their own versions. Sadly, he died of cancer in 2012, predeceasing his father by 3 years.

October 2, 1947: Game 3 of the World Series. Yogi Berra hits the 1st pinch-hit home run in Series history. The historic homer comes off Ralph Branca in the 7th inning at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. But the Dodgers win the game anyway, 9-8, and close to within 2 games to 1.

October 2, 1948: Avery Franklin Brooks is born in Evansville, Indiana, and, like Dick Barnett, grows up across the State in Gary. He got a master's degree from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1976, and has lived in New Jersey ever since.

Paul Robeson, who was, among other things, a Rutgers football player in the 1910s, died in 1976, and inspired Brooks to write and star in the play Paul Robeson, which had its premiere at the State Theatre in New Brunswick. Brooks starred as "Hawk" -- I can find no other name for the character -- on the ABC series Spenser: For Hire and A Man Called Hawk, based on the mystery novels by Boston-based writer and baseball fan Robert B. Parker.

But because of the reach of Star Trek, he'll be best remembered as Captain Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. One of the big problems I have with Star Trek is the canon "future history" that says baseball stopped in 2042, due to a lack of popularity. Sisko almost singlehandedly revives the sport throughout the United Federation of Planets in the 2370s.
In the episode "Take Me Out to the Holosuite," he tells his crewmates/teammates, "There is more to baseball than physical strength. It's, uh... (thinks for a moment) it's about courage. And it's also about faith. And it is also about heart." 

Also on this day, Trevor David Brooking is born in Barking, East London. A midfielder, he led East London soccer team West Ham United to the 1975 FA Cup, to the Final of the 1976 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, and to the 1980 FA Cup Final, where he scored the only goal of the game against North London's Arsenal. It remains the last time a team from outside the 1st division has won the Cup. He also played for England in the 1982 World Cup.

He has spent his post-playing career as a pundit for the BBC. In 2004, he was knighted. In 2009, the North Bank at West Ham's stadium, the Boleyn Ground, a.k.a. Upton Park, was renamed the Sir Trevor Brooking Stand. When they moved into the Olympic Stadium this Summer, the north stand there was renamed the Sir Trevor Brooking Stand.

October 2, 1949: October 2 is not a good day in Boston Red Sox history. Especially where the New York Yankees are concerned. But it's a good day in Yankee history. Especially when they play the Red Sox.

They play each other in the last game of the season, and the winner was going to win the AL Pennant (in the pre-Divisional play era). The Yankees lead 1-0 going into the top of the 8th, when Joe McCarthy, who’d led the Yankees to 7 World Championships but was now managing the Red Sox, sends up Tom Wright to pinch-hit for pitcher Ellis Kinder (in the pre-Designated Hitter era).

This proves to be a mistake, as Mel Parnell and Tex Hughson -- pretty good starting pitchers for Boston -- let in 4 more runs in the bottom of the 8th. The Sox pull 3 back in the top of the 9th, but the Yankees hold on to win, 5-3.

Among the Yankees who played in that game, 67 years ago, there are no more surviving players, as Yogi Berra was the last one. Bobby Brown is still alive, but he did not get into the game. From the Red Sox, only Wright and Hall of Fame 2nd baseman Bobby Doerr survive.

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October 2, 1950: The comic strip Peanuts, by Charles Schulz, is first published. The follies of Charlie Brown and his baseball team became well-known over the 50 years that the strip appeared. So did Charlie Brown (his first and last names always used, except when Peppermint Patty called him "Chuck" and Marcie called him "Charles") falling flat on his back ("WHUMP"!) when Lucy Van Pelt pulled away the football he was trying to kick, and she would come up with a new ridiculous excuse every time.

Charlie Brown's beagle, Snoopy, was his shortstop, and frequently imagined himself playing hockey and tennis, surfing ("There's only one thing that's embarrassing: Whenever I have a 'wipe out,' I have to 'dog paddle.'") and ice skating (intending to go to the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France by walking there, and coming back because, "Well, there was this ocean, see... ")

October 2, 1951: Game 2 of the National League Playoff. The Dodgers bounce back in a big way, with home runs from Jackie Robinson, Gil Dodges, Andy Pafko and Rube Walker. (Home runs on the season: Hodges 40, Pafko 30, Robinson 19, Walker... 4.) Clem Labine pitches a 6-hit shutout, and the Dodgers beat the Giants 10-0 at the Polo Grounds.

The Dodgers and their fans will regret manager Charley Dressen having stuck with Labine the whole way, making it next to impossible for him to pitch in the deciding game tomorrow, also at the Polo Grounds. Instead, when Dressen needs to relieve Don Newcombe, he'll have a choice of Carl Erskine and Ralph Branca. The choice he makes turns out to be one still second-guessed today, 65 years later.

October 2, 1952: Game 2 of the World Series. Billy Martin loved playing the Dodgers. He hits a home run off Billy Loes, to back the pitching of Vic Raschi, and the Yankees tie the Series, 7-1.

October 2, 1953: Carl Erskine, owner of perhaps the best curveball of his generation, strikes out 14 Yankees in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium, to establish a new World Series mark. The Dodger hurler's performance bests the record of Howard Ehmke, who struck out 13 Cubs for the Philadelphia Athletics in Game 1 of 1929 Fall Classic. Roy Campanella homers in the 8th inning to win it, as "Oisk" outpitches Vic Raschi, and the Dodgers beat the Yankees 3-2. They trail the Series, 2 games to 1.

Only 1 player is still alive from this game, 63 years later: Erskine himself.

October 2, 1954: The Giants complete the World Series sweep of the Indians, when Don Liddle beats Bob Lemon, 7-4. The Tribe won an AL record 111 games, not losing 4 straight all season. Now they have.

As for the Giants, it is their 5th World Series win. They would not win another for 46 years. No one would have believed that at the time. Nor would they have believed that the Giants would leave New York just 3 years later. Nor would they have believed that center fielder Willie Mays would never win another World Series.

There are 2 Giants are still alive from their '54 World Series roster, 61 years later: Mays and pitcher Johnny Antonelli.


*

October 2, 1990: The A's beat the Angels 6-4, giving Oakland pitcher Bob Welch his 27th win of the season. No pitcher since has even won 24.

October 2, 1991, 25 years ago: The Blue Jays clinch the AL East title, beating the Angels 6-5, in their last home game of the season. The sellout crowd of 50,324 allows them to become the first sports franchise in history to draw 4 million fans in one season: 4,001,527.

Also on this day, Roberto Firmino Barbosa de Oliveira is born in Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil. A forward, he played for Brazilian club Figueirense and German club Hoffenheim, before moving to his current side, Liverpool.

Also on this day, Gideon Baah (no middle name) is born in Accra, Ghana. He is a defender for the New York Red Bulls, and scored a goal in their 7-0 demolition of New York City F.C. at Yankee Stadium earlier this year.

October 2, 1992: Mr. Baseball premieres, starring Tom Selleck as Jack Elliot, a former All-Star 1st baseman for the Yankees, who seems washed up, and the only team that will take him is in Japan. He runs afoul of the entire country, and in particular his manager -- and that's before he discovers that his new girlfriend is his manager's daughter.

Frank Thomas, the Big Hurt, has a cameo as the player whose rise leads the Yankees to release Jack, and Dennis Haysbert, who previously played Cuban slugger/voodoo priest Pedro Cerrano in Major League (and would again in a sequel), plays the only other American on the team, who helps straighten Jack out. Former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Brad "The Animal" Lesley, who had pitched in Japan, also plays an expat American player. He would also pitch in the film Little Big League 2 years later.

Also on this day, The Mighty Ducks premieres, starring Emilio Estevez as a lawyer busted for DUI, whose community service requires him to coach a youth hockey team. Unfortunately, this Disney movie is so successful, it inspires Disney to name they expansion team they'd gotten the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. It was a stupid name, and before the 2006-07 season, they changed it to just the Anaheim Ducks -- and won the Stanley Cup.

October 2, 1995: In a 1-game playoff for the AL West title, Seattle Mariners southpaw Randy Johnson throws a 3-hitter and beats the Angels, 9-1. The Big Unit finishes the season with an 18-2 record to establish a new AL mark for winning percentage by a lefthander, of .900, surpassing the record set of .893 by Ron Guidry in 1978. (Guidry still has the mark for lefty AL pitchers winning at least 20 games.)

The Angels led the Division by 11 games on August 9, and 6 games on September 12. But a 9-game losing streak, and a 7-game winning streak by the Mariners, doomed the Halos to one of the worst collapses in major league history.

October 2, 1996, 20 years ago: After losing badly to the Rangers in Game 1 of the AL Division Series, it looks like the Yankees are going to fall behind 2-0 -- at home. Juan Gonzalez hits his 3rd homer of the series -- a drive down the left-field line that is pulled into foul territory by a fan reaching across the foul pole. In other words, he does the exact opposite of what Jeffrey Maier does a week later.

This yutz is soon caught a by Fox Sports camera, yammering on his mobile phone, about what he did and how he's on TV. I'm surprised he didn't get the crap beaten out of him, right there in the stands.

But the Yankees bounce back, tie it up, and send it to extra innings. In the bottom of the 12th, Charlie Hayes attempts to bunt Derek Jeter over to 3rd base (and Tim Raines to 2nd), when Ranger 3rd baseman Dean Palmer, who had homered in Game 1, throws the ball away, allowing Jeter to score the winning run. Yankees 5, Rangers 4.

The Rangers would not win another game that counted until April 1, 1997, and would not win another postseason game until October 6, 2010.

October 2, 1997: DeWitt "Tex" Coulter dies in Austin, Texas at age 83. A center, he was a member of Army's 1944 and 1945 National Championship teams. He reached the NFL Championship Game as a rookie with the 1946 Giants. He moved to Canada, and played in the Grey Cup, their Super Bowl, for the Montreal Alouettes in 1954, '55 and '56, but they lost all 3.

October 2, 1998: Gene Autry dies at age 91. The Singing Cowboy, one of the most beloved entertainers who ever lived, was also the founding owner of the team then known as the Anaheim Angels. They retired their uniform Number 26 for him, as "the 26th Man."

October 2, 1999: The Atlanta Thrashers play their 1st game. They host the New Jersey Devils at Philips Arena. The 1st goal in Thrasher history is scored by Kelly Buchberger, their 1st Captain and a former Stanley Cup winner with the Edmonton Oilers. But the Devils spoil the lid-lifter, 4-1. Bobby Holik (later to be the Thrashers' Captain) scores 2 goals, and tallies are added by very unlikely sources, Sergei Brylin and Polish enforcer Krzystof Oliwa.

A "thrasher" is a bird native to Georgia, not a tough guy who "thrashes" people, or beats them up -- although, in hockey, such confusion would be understandable. The Thrashers would win just 14 games in their 1st season.

Despite a Southeast Division title in 2007, they never won a Playoff game, getting swept that season by the New York Rangers in the 1st round. That was their only trip to the Playoffs, and in 2011, beset by declining attendance, were moved to become the new Winnipeg Jets. Atlanta's 2nd venture into the NHL lasted 12 seasons, a little longer than its 1st, with the Atlanta Flames (1972-80) moving to Calgary.

Also on this day, the Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 3-2 at Tropicana Field. Mariano Rivera finishes the regular season by recording his 45th save. He had allowed only 43 hits all season.

*

October 2, 2004: Jeff Kent of the Houston Astros hits 2 home runs, reaching 302 for his career, and 278 as a 2nd baseman, breaking the career record set by Ryne Sandberg.

October 2, 2005: In a recorded message shown at the start of the last regular-season game at the 1966 edition of Busch Stadium (they won the NL Central, so there will be Playoff games played there), Joe Buck, unable to be in attendance due to calling a NFL game on national television, asks the crowd to honor his late father by singing the "Star-Spangled Banner"a cappella. A stirring rendition fills the ballpark when 50,000 voices join in unison to sing the National Anthem, a fitting tribute to the late and beloved Cardinal broadcaster.

In the top of the 6th inning, Ozzie Smith emerges from the gate in right field wall in an open convertible. After touring warning track, the former Cardinal shortstop removes the digit "1," his old uniform number, which is affixed to the outfield wall, revealing a "0," to indicate the number regular-season games left to be played in the stadium. The Cards beat the Reds, 7-5.

Also on this day, Mike Piazza plays his last game for the Mets. It is already rumored that the team will not offer him a new contract, so while it is not yet official, the fans have a pretty good idea that this is it. A pregame video montage of his Flushing highlights all but confirms that, and he gets a standing ovation from the Shea Stadium crowd of 47,718 (about 8,000 short of a sellout). He goes 0-for-3 before being lifted for a defensive replacement, and the Mets lose to the Colorado Rockies, 11-3.

October 2, 2008: In the franchise's 1st postseason game, the Tampa Bay Rays (the "Devil" had been dropped before the season) defeat the visiting White Sox at Tropicana Field, 6-4. Tampa Bay's rookie 3rd baseman, Evan Longoria, joins Gary Gaetti of the 1987 Twins in becoming only the 2nd player to homer in his 1st 2 postseason at-bats.

*

October 2, 2010: With 70 former players and coaches sitting on the infield clad in white Braves jerseys in front of a sell-out crowd, Atlanta honors Bobby Cox with a pregame ceremony. The longtime manager, who will remain with the team as a consultant, is given a 2010 Lexus LS460 from the team, and an 11-night cruise from his current players during the moving tribute at Turner Field. The Braves lose to the Phillies, 7-0.

Cox will be elected to the Hall of Fame, and the Braves will retire his Number 6. Counting his 1985 AL East title with the Blue Jays, he reached the postseason 15 times, winning 5 Pennants (just missing 3 others), but only 1 World Series, in 1995.

October 2, 2013: The Pittsburgh Pirates beat their Ohio River arch-rivals, the Cincinnati Reds, 6-2 at PNC Park, to win the NL Wild Card Play-in game, and advance to the Playoffs proper. Russell Martin — whom Yankee GM Brian Cashman let get away, resulting in the Pinstripes struggling at the catcher position all season long — hits 2 home runs.

This is the 1st time the Pirates have won a postseason game in 21 years, since George Bush was President. The father, not the son. And it’s the 1st time they've advanced in the postseason since they were "Family" in 1979. The Seventies. The Carter years. The dreaded Disco Period.

October 2, 2016: Vin Scully ends his 67-season MLB broadcasting career by calling his last game for the Los Angeles Dodgers, against their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, at AT&T Park.

Scully had been with the Dodgers for 17 postseason appearances, 13 trips to the World Series, and all 5 of their World Championships. He had called games for 11 Hall-of-Famers. He had seen 9 National League Most Valuable Player awards, 12 Cy Young Awards, 14 Rookies of the Year, 43 Gold Gloves, and 15 no-hitters by his team and 13 against it. He had called games during the Administrations of 12 Presidents (nearly 13), 2 British monarchs, and 9 Commissioners of baseball.

He had been there for Carl Erskine's 14 strikeouts and Sandy Koufax's 15. He had been there for Koufax's perfect game for the Dodgers and Don Larsen's, Tom Browning's and Dennis' Martinez's against them. He had been there for legendary home runs by Bobby Thomson, Reggie Jackson, Rick Monday, Ozzie Smith, Jack Clark, Kirk Gibson and David Justice -- all but Monday's and Gibson's against the Dodgers. He saw Black Friday against the Philadelphia Phillies and Blue Monday against the Montreal Expos. He saw Fernandomania, Nomomania and Mannywood.

He watched Jackie Robinson and Maury Wills redefine baserunning, and Sandy Koufax, Mike Marshall and Tommy John, each in their own way, redefine pitching. He saw Edwin Snider, whose hair turning white early got him nicknamed Duke; Don Sutton, with his 1970s perm; Steve Garvey, with his 1970s helmet hair; and Manny Ramirez, with his greasy dreadlocks.

He broadcast for the Dodgers in Brooklyn and Los Angeles; against the Giants in New York and San Francisco; against the Braves in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta; against the Expos in Montreal and after their move as the Nationals in Washington. He broadcast World Series games in Brooklyn, The Bronx, the South Side of Chicago, the suburbs of Minneapolis, Baltimore, Oakland, and, of course, Los Angeles, first in South Central at the Coliseum and then downtown at Dodger Stadium.

He broadcast games at Shibe Park and Forbes Field, which opened in 1909, and at Marlins Park, which opened in 2012 and is one of several ballparks that could, conceivably, still be used in 2109. He broadcast at a time when Connie Mack, who was born in 1862 and first played in the major leagues in 1884, was still managing; and he broadcast games pitched by Julio Urías, who was born in 1996 and, if he becomes a star, could still be pitching in the late 2030s.

And while he won't be broadcasting any postseason games, the Dodgers will be in them. Who knows what could happen? He might even be invited to throw out a ceremonial first ball.

The Los Angeles Dodgers play their last regular-season game today, against their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants.

It is the last game behind the microphone for Vin Scully, who has been broadcasting for the team since 1950, when it was still in Brooklyn. He has said he won't be broadcasting any postseason games. He closes his 67th and final season for the team.

To put that in perspective: Phil Rizzuto broadcast for the Yankees for 40 seasons, 1957 to 1996, and was on the club's payroll since signing with them as a prospective player in 1937: 60 seasons. Connie Mack, baseball's touchstone for longevity, was involved with the Athletics for their entire run in Philadelphia, 1901 to 1954: 54 seasons. Mack's 1st season in the major leagues in any capacity was as a player in 1886, making his total 69 seasons, but he was removed as manager and operating owner by his sons after 1950, so his real total is 65 seasons, 2 fewer than Scully's.

Casey Stengel, like Mack known as "The Grand Old Man of Baseball," first put on a big-league baseball uniform in 1912, and was last actively involved in the game in 1965, 54 seasons. Don Zimmer, in the last few years of his life, famously wore as his uniform number the number of seasons he'd been involved in professional baseball, his last being 66. Scully has topped even that.

Scully has been with the Dodgers for 17 postseason appearances, 13 trips to the World Series, and all 5 of their World Championships. He had called games for 11 Hall-of-Famers. He had seen 9 National League Most Valuable Player awards, 12 Cy Young Awards, 14 Rookies of the Year, 43 Gold Gloves, and 15 no-hitters by his team and 13 against it. He had called games during the Administrations of 12 Presidents (nearly 13), 2 British monarchs, and 9 Commissioners of baseball.

He has been there for Carl Erskine's 14 strikeouts against the Yankees in the 1953 World Series, and Sandy Koufax's 15 against them 10 years later. He had been there for Koufax's perfect game for the Dodgers and Don Larsen's, Tom Browning's and Dennis' Martinez's against them.

He has been there for legendary home runs by Bobby Thomson, Reggie Jackson, Rick Monday, Ozzie Smith, Jack Clark, Kirk Gibson and David Justice -- all but Monday's and Gibson's against the Dodgers. He saw Black Friday against the Philadelphia Phillies and Blue Monday against the Montreal Expos. He saw Fernandomania, Nomomania and Mannywood.

He watched Jackie Robinson and Maury Wills redefine baserunning, and Sandy Koufax, Mike Marshall and Tommy John, each in their own way, redefine pitching. He saw Edwin Snider, whose hair turning white early got him nicknamed Duke; Don Sutton, with his 1970s perm; Steve Garvey, with his 1970s helmet hair; and Manny Ramirez, with his greasy dreadlocks.

He broadcast for the Dodgers in Brooklyn and Los Angeles; against the Giants in New York and San Francisco; against the Braves in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta; against the Expos in Montreal and after their move as the Nationals in Washington. He broadcast World Series games in Brooklyn, The Bronx, the South Side of Chicago, the suburbs of Minneapolis, Baltimore, Oakland, and, of course, Los Angeles, first in South Central at the Coliseum and then downtown at Dodger Stadium.

He broadcast games at Shibe Park and Forbes Field, which opened in 1909, and at Marlins Park, which opened in 2012 and is one of several ballparks that could, conceivably, still be used in 2109. He broadcast at a time when Connie Mack, who was born in 1862 and first played in the major leagues in 1884, was still managing; and he broadcast games pitched by Julio Urías, who was born in 1996 and, if he becomes a star, could still be pitching in the late 2030s.

And while he won't be broadcasting any postseason games, the Dodgers will be in them. Who knows what could happen? He might even be invited to throw out a ceremonial first ball.

The last time the Dodgers played a game without Vin Scully as part of their official broadcast staff was Game 5 of the 1949 World Series.

October 9, 1949. That's 67 years. Two-thirds of a century. How long has that been?

*

The Dodgers were based at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. Their starting lineup in that game was as follows: Harold "Pee Wee" Reese, shortstop; Johnny "Spider" Jorgensen, filling in for usual starter Billy Cox at 3rd base; Edwin "Duke" Snider, center field; Jackie Robinson, 2nd base; Gene Hermanski, filling in for Carl Furillo in right field; Gil Hodges, 1st base; Marv Rackley, left field; Roy Campanella, catcher; and Rex Barney, pitcher. (Jackie batting 4th instead of 1st? Campy batting 8th instead of 4th or 5th?) Their manager was Burt Shotton, who had previously started Don Newcombe, Elwin "Preacher" Roe, Ralph Branca and Newcombe again on the mound.
The only ballparks still in use from the 1949 season are Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago. There were 16 major league teams, none further west than St. Louis, nor further south than St. Louis, Cincinnati and Washington. Robinson had become the 1st black player in modern MLB history only 2 1/2 years earlier. Minnie Miñoso had just become the 1st black Hispanic player.

"I don't deserve this!" -- Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman)
"Deserve's got nothin' to do with it." -- Will Munny (Clint Eastwood)
-- Unforgiven

The 2016 Major League Baseball regular season is over. Although they had their 24th consecutive winning season, the longest active streak in the major leagues, the Yankees missed the postseason for the 3rd time in the last 4 years. That is unacceptable, but that's a post for another time.

I am now going to list the 10 teams that did make it, in the order of how much they deserve to win the World Series. Remember, this is not who I think will win, but who I believe should win.

Spoiler Alert: While you can probably guess who's last, the Cubs are not first!

10. Boston Red Sox, Champions of the American League Eastern Division.

Pro: I love Boston as a city. It is a liberal city. It is a great sports city. Fenway Park is a treasure.

Con: They cheat. They still have David Ortiz. Their fans are "Massholes." Besides, even if you don't hold their cheating against them, they won the whole thing only 3 seasons ago, and have won 3 titles in the last 13 seasons. And the Patriots won the Super Bowl only 2 seasons ago -- again, by cheating. Boston's won 9 World Championships in the last 15 years. That's more than enough. Screw 'em!

9. New York Mets, National League Wild Card representative.

Pro: New York, the greatest city in the world. Citi Field is a very good ballpark. The Mets haven't won a World Series in 30 years. Their fans have suffered enough.

Con: No, they have not. They are, by and large, obnoxious, idiots, with all the arrogance of Yankee Fans, having earned very little of it. Even if you don't buy that, they won the Pennant just last season. They don't deserve it. Also, Bartolo Colon is a steroid cheat. Yoenis Cespedes might be as well: Some fans call him "CesPEDes."

8. Texas Rangers, Champions of the American League Western Division.

Pro: They've never won a World Series, which certainly suggests they, or at least their fans, deserve to win one. Globe Life Park is a retro park, although not one of the better ones.

Con: It's Texas. It's Dallas (or its suburbs). These are people who think George W. Bush, Rick Perry, Greg Abbott, Ron Paul and Louie Gohmert are acceptable, and the rest of us are deplorable. Also, that stupid "Claw and Antlers" thing has got to go.

7. Los Angeles Dodgers, Champions of the National League Western Division.

Pro: L.A. is a liberal city, and a good sports city. Dodger Stadium is a classic ballpark, although it was never the best one, as the L.A. media machine has long told us. They're owned by Earvin "Magic" Johnson, basketball legend, and a billionaire who actually is a "job creator." They haven't won a World Series, or even a Pennant, in 28 years. Their fans have suffered enough.

Con: Or have they? Los Angeles has won 7 World Championships in the last 16 years. If you count the WNBA and MLS, that's 14 titles. (I won't count Anaheim, since anybody who roots for the Dodgers won't root for the Angels, and will root for the Kings, not the Ducks.) Also, it's L.A. The most shallow city on the continent. If there's a shallower city on another continent, I'm not aware of it. And it's the Dodgers. 1957. Never forget, never forgive.

Also, can we really stand a full moth of "Win It For Vin"? Seriously: If Vin Scully were broadcasting in Cincinnati, or Milwaukee, or even for the Chicago White Sox, he would have been overlooked, and probably forced into retirement 20 years ago. If Ken Harrelson, the much-derided White Sox broadcaster, broadcast for the Dodgers, the O'Malley family's public-relations apparatus and the L.A. media machine would be telling us how wonderful he is. Wake up, people: Vin Scully was always good, but he was never the best broadcaster in the business.

6. Toronto Blue Jays, American League Wild Card representative.

Pro: They haven't won a World Series, or even a Pennant, in 23 years. And Jose Bautista follows me on Twitter.

Con: Toronto is not my kind of city. It's liberal, but with some conservative populism that helped keep a Tory government in charge of the country for 10 years. It did win a championship only 4 years ago, the Grey Cup with the Argonauts. The Rogers Centre is a horrible stadium for baseball, with artificial turf and lousy atmosphere. Blue Jay fans didn't seem to exist from the return from the Strike in 1995 until those premature predictions of 2014. They are kind of acting like the Los Angeles Kings fans of MLB.

5. San Francisco Giants, National League Wild Card representative.

Pro: San Francisco is a wonderful city, a liberal city, a great sports city. AT&T Park is a great ballpark. The Giants are easy to root for. And Dodger fans hate them.

Con: They won only 2 years ago. And 4 years ago. And 6 years ago. Throw in the title the Golden State Warriors won last year, and nearly again this year, and the San Jose Sharks reached the Finals this year, and the 49ers reached a Super Bowl only 4 years ago... In the last 6 years, the Bay Area has reached 7 Finals, winning 4 titles. Also, orange uniforms.

Besides, the Giants also abandoned New York in 1957. It wasn't as bad, because there was far more reason for the Giants to leave town than the Dodgers.

4. Chicago Cubs, Champions of the National League Central Division.

Pro: I love Chicago. It is a liberal city. It is a great sports city. Wrigley Field might be the greatest ballpark there is, and the modern touches that have been added have helped. Cub fans have waited so long: 71 years for a Pennant, 108 years for a World Championship. It's time.

Con: Theo Epstein, who helped build the cheating Red Sox of 2003-11 (Ben Cherington built their 2013 "champions"), is their general manager. Joe Maddon, the classless thug who managed the Tampa Bay Rays of 2006-14, is their field manager. And there's the concern that, like the fans of the Red Sox after 2004 and the New York Rangers after 1994, their fans would go from annoying as losers to absolutely unbearable as winners.

3. Baltimore Orioles, American League Wild Card representative.

Pro: Baltimore is a terrific city, a liberal city, a good sports city. They haven't won a World Series, or even a Pennant, in 33 years. Camden Yards is a great ballpark.

Con: Buck Showalter. Also, orange uniforms. Also, Baltimore won a title only 4 years ago, with the Ravens.

2. Washington Nationals, Champions of the National League Eastern Division.

Pro: I like Washington as a city. It is a liberal city. It's not a great sports city -- it is still Redskins 1st, everything else 2nd -- but it's getting better. Nationals Park is a very good ballpark. And the city hasn't won a Pennant in 83 years (12 years longer than the Cubs) or a World Series for 92 years (not that much less than the Cubs, and a lot more than the Indians). Indeed, it hasn't won a title in 25 years (since the Redskins won Super Bowl XXVI) or even been in the Finals in 18 years (since the Capitals got swept by Detroit).

Con: It's hard to like Bryce Harper. The team doesn't have much history (even if you count its 1969-2004 tenure as the Montreal Expos), and the history it does have (in Montreal and in Washington) is full of clutch-situation chokes. And betting on a team managed by Dusty Baker has never yet panned out. Besides, with Harper, Ryan Zimmerman and Stephen Strasburg, their window for a title is far from closing.

1. Cleveland Indians, Champions of the American League Central Division.

Pro: I like Cleveland as a city. It is a liberal city. It is a good sports city. Progressive Field is a really good ballpark. And the Indians haven't won a Pennant in 19 years or a World Series in 68 years. Enough is enough.

Con: The city just won the NBA title. It may be their only title in 52 years, but it is still, for the moment, the most recently won World Championship. And they're managed by Terry Francona, who won those tainted titles with the Red Sox.

So, the most deserved World Series would be Cleveland over Washington.

I would be fine with either of them winning. Or the Cubs. Or Baltimore. Or San Francisco.

With my luck, it'll be Mets vs. Red Sox again, like in 1986. Fortunately, John Farrell is no John McNamara, Craig Kimbrel is no Calvin Schiraldi or Bob Stanley, and Hanley Ramirez is uninjured, unlike Bill Buckner in October 1986.

Or maybe Big Papi will juice up and be ready to humiliate New York one more time.

Black Hawk fought with the British against the Americans in the War of 1812, and fought against U.S. troops again in 1832, in Illinois and Wiscoinsn, in what became known as the Black Hawk War. He was captured, and imprisoned for a short time. In his last years, he worked to reconcile his people with his former enemies.

What does he have to do with sports? He was the namesake of the hockey team, whose name was usually written as "Chicago Black Hawks," until 1986, when someone found the team's original charter, and found that it was written as "Chicago Blackhawks," and so it has officially been registered with the NHL ever since.

From the beginning of the franchise in 1926, the Hawks have used an Indian head, a left-facing profile with 4 feathers, as their logo. However, most depictions of Black Hawk show him with a Mohawk or similar hairstyle, even though the Mohawk tribe lived hundreds of miles to the east, in New York State.

October 3, 1897: Adrian Constantine Anson of the Chicago Colts (forerunners of the Cubs) hits 2 home runs against Willie Sudhoff of the St. Louis Browns (forerunners of the Cardinals) at Robison Field in St. Louis. The Colts win, 7-1.

Hitting a home run is a lot harder in this period than it would become, and hitting 2 in 1 game is rare. But "Cap" Anson, the Colts' 1st baseman and manager, is 45 years old. For over 100 years, he will rank as the oldest man ever to hit a home run in the major leagues, until surpassed by Julio Franco in 2006.

It is the last game that Cap will ever play, after 22 major league seasons (27 if you count the National Association of 1871-75). He retires -- counting his NA stats -- with a .334 lifetime batting average, an OPS+ of 142, 3,435 hits (then a record), 97 home runs (not a record but great for the era), and 2,075 RBIs (then a record).

However, today, he is best remembered as the man whose refusal to play against black players led baseball to draw the color line in the 1880s. And, judging by his memoir, he wasn't too fond of Catholics, Jews and Native Americans, either. A great player, but a skunk.

*

October 3, 1900: The Dodgers, then known as the Superbas, beat the Boston Braves at the South End Grounds to win the NL Pennant — and, with the setup then in place, the unofficial World Championship of baseball. They would not win another for 55 years, but, then, it would be official.

The last surviving player from that Dodger team was pitcher Harry Howell, soon to be an original 1903 New York Highlander (Yankee), who lived on until 1956, aged 79.

October 3, 1904: Christy Mathewson sets a NL record by striking out 16 batters, and the Giants beat the Cardinals 3-1.

October 3, 1909: The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-1 at South Side Park in Chicago. The Tigers have already clinched their 3rd straight Pennant, and extend what was then the American League record with their 98th win of the season.

But the game is hardly meaningless, as Ty Cobb finishes the season with .377, 9 home runs (all inside-the-park) and 107 runs batted in, making him the 1st player in either League to win the Triple Crown.

October 3, 1915: For the last time, a team officially calling New Jersey home plays a Major League Baseball game. Two, in fact: The Newark Peppers play a doubleheader against the Baltimore Terrapins at Harrison Park, losing the opener 9-5, and winning the nightcap 6-0, behind the shutout pitching of Ed Reulbach, for his 20th win of the season. The ballpark seated 21,000, but no attendance figure is listed in the box score.

With the Yankees, the Mets and the Phillies all having opened new ballparks within the last 12 seasons, and the Oakland Athletics' options (should they decide they can't get a new ballpark in Oakland) not including a return to the Philadelphia area such as South Jersey (the Phils would put the kibosh on that anyway), it doesn't look like New Jersey will be getting a major league team anytime soon.

The baseball establishment of the time -- the American League and the National League -- did not recognize the Feds as "major league" then. However, every authority since the first "baseball encyclopedia" came out in 1951 has done so, and now MLB, the Elias Sports Bureau, Baseball-Reference.com, everybody includes FL stats with AL and NL stats.

October 3, 1915 was the final day of Federal League action (not that anyone knew so at the time), and, in addition to the Newark-Baltimore doubleheader, the St. Louis Terriers beat the Kansas City Packers 6-2, and the Chicago Whales beat the Pittsburgh Rebels 3-2.

The Whales win the Pennant when the Terriers' 2 remaining rainouts are not made up. St. Louis may have been robbed. This is not the most notorious moment of the Chicago-St. Louis baseball rivalry -- in large part because it has been all but forgotten.
There is no one alive today who remembers the Federal League. But the League does have one lasting legacy. In 1914, Chicago Whales owner Charles Weeghman, a pioneer in what we would now call fast food restaurants, built a ballpark on the North Side, naming it Weeghman Park for himself. When the FL folded, the owners of the National League's Chicago Cubs offered to sell him their team. "Lucky Charlie" accepted, and moved the Cubs from West Side Park into Weeghman Park. Within a few years, his luck ran out, and he sold the team, and the ballpark became Cubs Park. Chewing gum boss William Wrigley Jr. bought the team next, and in 1926 double-decked the stadium and renamed it Wrigley Field. And Wrigley Field it remains, still hosting Major League Baseball after 102 seasons.

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October 3, 1919: Rookie lefthander Dickie Kerr pitches a 3-hit shutout, Shoeless Joe Jackson gets 2 hits, and Chick Gandil gets 2 RBIs. The Chicago White Sox win Game 3 of the World Series, 3-0 over the Cincinnati Reds, and close the Reds' lead to 2 games to 1. Jackson and Gandil were in on the fix, but Kerr was not.

Adolfo "Dolf" Luque, the Reds' Cuban pitcher, pitches in relief, and thus becomes the first Latin American player to appear in a World Series game. He pitched a scoreless 8th inning.

October 3, 1923: Babe Ruth, playing for the New York Giants? Impossible. John McGraw allowing it? Implausible. And yet, it happened.

On this date, a benefit game was held at the Polo Grounds, for 2 destitute men who had been at the founding of the Giants, as the New York Gothams, in 1883: Original owner John B. Day, a tobacco magnate who had lost his fortune in the Players' League war of 1890; and original manager Jim Mutrie, who gave the team its permanent name in 1886, when he referred to his players as, "my big boys, my giants."

Ruth and McGraw swallowed their differences, despite being about to have their teams play each other in the World Series for the 3rd straight season. Ruth's Yankee teammates Aaron Ward and Elmer Smith also suited up for the Giants. The opponents were the champions of the International League, the Baltimore Orioles -- as it happens, Ruth's 1st professional team (So shouldn't he have played for them?) and the namesake of the team for whom McGraw played and made his reputation as a rough but smart baseball man. Ruth was 1 of 4 Giants who hit home runs, in his case a 5th-inning blast that soared over the right-field roof, as the Giants won, 9-3.

It's not clear how much money was raised. Day, already ill with cancer, died a little over a year later, in early 1925. Mutrie lasted until 1938.

October 3, 1925: Texas Tech University, in Lubbock, plays its 1st football game, against McMurry University at the Panhandle South Plains Fair. Tech's Elston Archibald attempts a game-winning 20-yard field goal. It appears to be good. But the referee rules that the clock had run out before the snap, and the scoreless tie is final. It was later reported that the ref made the call as revenge for not being named Tech's 1st head coach, a job given instead to Ewing Freeland.

At the time, Tech's teams were called the Matadors. It would later be changed to the Red Raiders, with a mascot called the Masked Raider, riding a horse and dressed like a red version of Zorro.

Also on this day, Christopher Francis Haughey (pronounced "HOY") is born in Astoria, Queens, New York City. A pitcher, Chris debuted on his 18th birthday, a September call-up necessitated by World War II, in 1943. He pitched 7 innings of relief for the Brooklyn Dodgers against the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field, and, well, pitched like a teenager: 5 hits, 10 walks, 6 runs (but only 3 earned). The Reds won, 6-1.

"Bud" Haughey never appeared in the major leagues again, and I have no record of what he did after this, although he is still alive. A 3rd baseman also making his debut for the Dodgers that day, however, did, although we remember him as a 1st baseman: Gil Hodges.

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October 4, 1955: For the 1st time, the Brooklyn Dodgers win a World Series. They had been 0-7 in the competition, 0-5 of that against the Yankees.

This time, Dem Bums dooed it, and against the Yanks, at Yankee Stadium, to boot.

After losing the World Series to Boston in 1916, to Cleveland in 1920, and to the Yankees in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953; blowing Playoffs for the National League Pennant to St. Louis in 1946 and to the New York Giants in 1951; and blowing Pennants on the last weekend of the season to St. Louis in 1942 and Philadelphia in 1950, the Dodgers had finally won their 1st undisputed World Championship in 55 years, since they finished the 1900 season as National League Champions, with no postseason series available.

But in 1955, it all seemed to come together. True, the Dodgers had traded away 2 of the beloved players who would later be known, in the title of the book that Roger Kahn wrote in remembrance of his days covering them for the New York Herald Tribune, as "The Boys of Summer": Pitcher Elwyn "Preacher" Roe and 3rd baseman Billy Cox.

The team was in transition: Jackie Robinson was still a factor, but his replacements had arrived in Jim "Junior" Gilliam and Don Zimmer. Ralph Branca, the goat of the 1951 Playoff, had retired, but the Dodgers still had Don Newcombe and Carl Erskine, and they were joined by a hotshot lefty named Johnny Podres. The Dodgers won their first 13 games of the '55 season, and finished 13 games ahead of the preseason favorites, the Milwaukee Braves.

But the Yankees took the first 2 games of the World Series, despite Robinson's steal of home plate in Game 1. But the Dodgers took the next 3 at Ebbets Field. Then the Yankees tied it up. In fact, the home team won each of the first 6 home games. Bad news for the Dodgers, since Game 7 would be at Yankee Stadium. A team with the kind of luck they'd had didn't need no bad omens.

The Boys of Summer were getting old. The younger Dodgers didn’t quite seem ready. The team was in transition, and it did seem like it had been a seamless one; but for veterans like shortstop Pee Wee Reese, 1st baseman Gil Hodges, center fielder Duke Snider and catcher Roy Campanella — along with Robinson, all but Hodges are in the Hall of Fame, and he damn well should be — it seemed like it was now or never.

Podres was the choice of manager Walter Alston, having won Game 3. Yankee manager Casey Stengel, with ace Whitey Ford having pitched brilliantly in Game 6, had to go with Tommy Byrne, a lefty who was occasionally wild, but had come up big for Stengel in several big games.

The Dodgers scored a run in the 4th and another in the 6th, to take a 2-0 lead. But the Yankees got 2 men on in the bottom of the 6th. And Yogi Berra, as much a "Mr. October"” as the Yankees have ever had, was coming up. Yogi had delighted in hitting Series homers off the Dodgers, and would again. To hell with the lefty-on-lefty matchup: Yogi had no fear. And, despite usually being a pull hitter, Yogi hooked the ball down the left-field line, into the corner.

Left field had long been a troublesome position for the Dodgers. Gene Hermanski. Cal Abrams. George "Shotgun" Shuba and Andy Pafko had played it well, but, for whatever reasons, none of them seemed to stick, although Shuba was still on the roster. (In fact, he became the last surviving Dodger from this game.) Now Zimmer was the usual left fielder, though he was a natural infielder.

But Alston had pinch-hit Gilliam for Zimmer, and put Gilliam in at 2nd, replacing the righty-throwing Zimmer in left with lefty-throwing Sandy Amoros, a Cuban whose English was halting but whose play, on this day, changed baseball history.

A righthanded fielder, like Zimmer, never could have caught this ball, no matter how fast he was. But Amoros was fast and lefthanded, and he stuck out his right hand and caught the ball. Then he wheeled it back to the infield. Reese relayed it to Hodges, and Gil McDougald was unable to get back to 1st base in time. Double play end of threat. Just 9 outs to go.

At the time, Doris Kearns was a 12-year-old girl living in Rockville Centre, Long Island, 18 miles east of Ebbets Field. Nearly 40 years later, interviewed for Ken Burns' Baseball miniseries, award-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin would cite Amoros' robbery of Berra and the ensuing rally-killing double play as a sign that the Dodgers would win. "There's always these omens in baseball," she said. Translation: If the Dodgers could get Yogi out in a key situation, then that was it: The Yankees' luck had run out, and they would not threaten again.

Bottom of the 9th. Two out. Podres has pitched a stomach-churning game: Eight hits, but no runs. The last batter is Elston Howard. Six months earlier, Howard had become the 1st black man to play in a regular-season game for the Yankees, and was now the left fielder and Yogi's backup at catcher. In 1959, they would switch positions, and Ellie would become one of the game's best catchers. In 1955, he was a 26-year-old "rookie,"” having played in the Negro Leagues for a while.

Howard grounded to short. It was so appropriate that it went to Harold Henry Reese, the Dodgers' Captain and senior player. Pee Wee threw it to Gil Hodges, and Hodges, perhaps the best-fielding 1st baseman of his era, had to trap it on the ground to keep it from being an error and bringing the tying run to the plate. But he got it.

Ballgame over. World Series over. With Red Barber having been chased out of Brooklyn by team owner Walter O'Malley after the 1953 season, it was Vin Scully who got to make the announcement over the airwaves: "Ladies and gentlemen, the Brooklyn Dodgers are the World Champions of baseball."

Simple, and correct, with no embellishments or histrionics. Not exactly how Mel Allen, Phil Rizzuto or John Sterling would have described it.

It had been 55 years — or 52 years if you count only from the 1st World Series forward. All the near-misses, all the heartbreak, all the taunts from fans of the Giants and the Yankees? Those things no longer mattered.

"Please don't interrupt," Shirley Povich wrote for the next day's Washington Post, "because you haven't heard this one before: The Brooklyn Dodgers are World Champions of baseball." (Povich wrote for the Post from 1924, when Walter Johnson finally pitched them to the World Series, until his death in 1998. His son is the TV journalist Maury Povich.)

And they did it at Yankee Stadium, no less. They never clinched a World Championship at Ebbets Field -- although the Yankees had, in 1941, 1949 and 1952, and would again in 1956. Not until 1963 would the Dodger franchise clinch a World Series win on their home field.

The party in Brooklyn was the biggest since V-J Day ended World War II 10 years earlier, and hasn't been matched since. Scully told the story for Ken Burns' Baseball: "When we were riding through Manhattan, it was fall. Football was in the air. We came out the other end of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, and it was New Orleans chaos!"

No more "Wait 'Til Next Year," as the Brooklyn Eagle -- which had, sadly, gone out of business a few months too soon to report on the Dodgers' title -- had first blared in a headline after the 1941 Series. This was Next Year. So said the back page of the next day's New York Daily News: "THIS IS NEXT YEAR!". The front page of the next day's Daily News was even more demonstrative: "WHO’S A BUM!" Willard Mullin, who had drawn the original version of the "Dodger Bum" cartoon character, drew him again, a big nearly-toothless smile, for that front page, consisting only of that headline and that drawing.
It would remain the most famous New York headline ever, for 20 years, until the Daily News did "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD" on October 30, 1975. The New York Post tried to top that with "HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR" on on April 15, 1983, but who's kidding who?

Two personnel notes should be made. One is that Mickey Mantle was injured and unable to play in Game 7 for the Yankees. Does that mean the one and only World Series won by the Brooklyn Dodgers should have an asterisk? No: There's no guarantee that Mickey would have made the difference, even though he had hit the Dodgers hard in the '52 and '53 Series, and would again in '56. Although he was one of the true Mr. Octobers, he didn't always have a good Series, and in fact went only 2-for-10 in the 3 Series games he did get into in '55, even if one of those hits was a homer off Podres in Game 3.

The other personnel note is that Jackie Robinson was not put into the lineup in Game 7. The noblest character in the history of baseball was deemed unworthy of this moment by his manager. Alston was not a Jackie Robinson fan. Neither was owner O'Malley. But on the highlight film, you can see Number 42 running onto the field. After all he’d been through, at 36 he still had enough energy to be one of the first men into the celebratory pile, if not enough energy to persuade his manager to put him into the lineup. But can we really argue with the decision? After all, it worked.

There are still 5 living members of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers: Carl Erskine, Roger Craig, Ed Roebuck, and 2 lefthanded pitchers worth mentioning.

One was a chunky guy from outside Philadelphia who had starred for the Dodgers' Triple-A farm team, the Montreal Royals, but his entire big-league career consisted of 4 games for Brooklyn in both the '54 and '55 seasons, then 18 more the next season for the Kansas City Athletics. Despite his pitching for that team, he never got on the Kansas City/Bronx shuttle. Maybe it was because, in '56, he got into a fight with Yankee 2nd baseman Billy Martin.

In the middle of the ’55 season, he was told by Dodger general manager Emil "Buzzie" Bavasi that he was being sent back down to Montreal. He objected. Bavasi said, "If not you, who should we send down?" The portly portsider said to send down the other lefty, because he had no control. Bavasi told him that the other lefty couldn't be sent down, because he was a "bonus baby," and under the rules of the time, he had to stay on the major league roster for 2 full seasons, no matter what. This rule was designed to discourage teams from just throwing big (for the time) sums of money at prospects.

The bonus baby was a local boy, a Brooklyn kid who had made his major league debut that season, appearing in 12 games, but hadn't shown anything remarkable yet. He wanted to be an architect, and had so studied at the University of Cincinnati. He also preferred basketball to baseball.

The fat lefty insisted that he was a better pitcher than the bonus baby -- and, 61 years later, he still insists that, at the time, he was better.

Eventually, the bonus baby would get his pitching straightened out, and become one of the very best men ever to mount a pitcher's mound. His name was Sandy Koufax.

The hefty lefty? His name was Tommy Lasorda. In 1977, he and his former antagonist Billy were shaking hands in World Series pregame ceremonies, as fellow, mutually-admiring, Pennant-winning Italian-American managers.

Ironically, it was Lasorda's Dodgers who went back to his old stomping grounds of Montreal and ended the one and only postseason run ever made by the Royals' National League successors, the Expos.

There are 5 living members of the 1955 New York Yankees. Now that Yogi Berra has died, Bob Cerv is the last man alive who played in Game 7, on either side. Also on the roster were Ford, Don Larsen (still a year away from his moment in time), Irv Noren and Tom Carroll (a Queens native who was a defensive replacement in 2 games and only played 64 games in the majors, kept on the roster because he was a bonus baby).

October 4, 1955, 3:43 PM Brooklyn Standard Time. Dem Bums had finally dooed it.

Two years later, it would all be over. And only one man had imagined such a blasphemy.  Unfortunately, the blasphemer was the caretaker of the faith, Walter Francis O'Malley.

In 1962, the Metropolitan Baseball Club of New York — that was the original corporate name of the team we know as the Mets — did something that had previously been done only by hatred of the Yankees: They united the fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the fans of the New York Giants. Until 1996, including even the Yankees' quasi-dynasty of 1976-81, the Mets were New York's most popular team.

That is no longer the case, and a person would have to be nearly at least 65 years old to have any memory of the previous National League teams of New York; more like 70 to remember such events as the '55 win and Willie Mays' catch in '54, nearly 75 to accurately remember Bobby Thomson's homer in '51, at least 75 to remember Jackie Robinson’s debut season in '47, about 80 to remember the '41 season that began the Dodgers' renaissance, and at least 85 to remember the Giant teams that won 3 Pennants in the 1930s.

Long time passing.

Oh, if you ever wanted to know what a Brooklyn Dodgers World Series ring looks like, take a look.
*

October 4, 1822: Rutherford Birchard Hayes is born in Delaware, Ohio, outside Columbus. In 1876, as Governor of Ohio, a former Congressman and a Union General in the American Civil War, he was elected President under dubious circumstances. But his actual time in office was blameless, and many people credit him with restoring the credibility of the Presidency after the scandals of Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant (who was personally honest, but made poor choices in friends appointees).

As far as I know, Hayes had nothing to do with baseball, although his time in office, including the 1877, 1878, 1879 and 1880 seasons, was a time of big growth for the game.

October 4, 1867: At Brooklyn’s Satellite Grounds‚ two black teams play a match called "the championship of colored clubs" by the Daily Union newspaper. The Philadelphia Excelsiors outscore the Brooklyn Uniques‚ 37-24‚ in a game called after 7 innings on account of darkness.

October 4, 1876: The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas opens in College Station. In 1963, they made their nickname their official name: Texas A&M University. The "Aggies" have long had stories programs in baseball and football, producing Heisman Trophy winners John David Crow and Johnny Manziel, and producing such baseball greats as Rip Collins, Wally Moon and Chuck Konblauch.

October 4, 1880: At a special National League meeting in Rochester‚ the League prohibits its members from renting their grounds for use on Sundays and from selling alcoholic beverages on the premises. These rules are aimed at the Cincinnati club‚ which has sold beer and rented out the park to amateur teams for Sundays.

This led directly to the formation, with the Cincinnati Reds as founding member, of the American Association in 1882. They became known as the Beer and Whiskey League.

Also on this day, Alfred Damon Runyon is born in Manhattan, Kansas. But it would be Manhattan Island in New York City where he would make his name -- but first, he dropped his first name. Damon Runyon became an icon, associated with the more raffish side of New York, full of gamblers, con men, cops on the take, men on the make.

His stories would be adapted for the film Little Miss Marker and the musical Guys and Dolls. Even today, 70 years after his death, when you call someone or something "Runyonesque," people know exactly what you're talking about.

October 4, 1892: Amos Rusie of the New York Giants pitches 2 complete-game victories over the Washington Nationals (no connection to the current NL team with the name) at the Polo Grounds‚ winning 6-4 and 9-5.

The next season, the pitching distance will be extended from 50 feet to 60 feet, 6 inches, making achievements in pitching durability a lot harder. Many star pitchers of the time will never be the same, although Rusie will remain successful through the rest of the 1890s. However, it is the speedy pitching of Rusie, the Indiana native known as "the Hoosier Thunderbolt," that lead the NL to believe that a longer pitching distance would be safer for hitters.

October 4, 1895: The 1st U.S. Open golf tournament is held, at the Newport Country Club in Rhode Island. Horace Rawlins, a 21-year-old Englishman, won it.

Dustin Johnson won this year's tournament, at Oakmont Country Club, outside Pittsburgh. It was his 1st win in a major tournament. Willie Anderson, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus hold the record for the most U.S. Open victories, with 4 each. Hale Irwin was the oldest winner, at 45 in 1990. 

The youngest winner was John McDermott, in 1911: He would still be a teenager for a few more weeks. With the death this year of Arnold Palmer, Gene Littler, in 1961, is the earliest surviving former winner. The 2017 tournament will be held from June 15 to 18, at Erin Hills Golf Club, outside Milwaukee.

Also on this day, Joseph Frank Keaton is born in Piqua, Kansas. He didn't grow up in any one place, as his parents were traveling vaudeville performers. A fall at the age of 18 months led a friend of the family to say, "That was a real buster!" The friend was Harry Houdini, and the boy was Buster Keaton for the rest of his life.

Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle gave him his start in silent films, and he built a career as perhaps the greatest silent comedian after Charlie Chaplin. Orson Welles called his 1926 Civil War film The General "perhaps the greatest film ever made."

He developed a drinking problem, but recovered from it, and made the transition to talking pictures. Among his last roles were as a time traveler on a 1962 episode of The Twilight Zone, and in the 1963 cast-of-thousands comedy epic It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

*

October 4, 1905: Just 1 point apart in the batting race on the final day of the season, Cincinnati Reds center fielder Cy Seymour and Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Honus Wagner played against each other in a doubleheader. Seymour entered the last day with a league-leading .365 average, and Wagner was in 2nd place, batting .364. A very good day at the plate for Honus combined with a poor one for Cy would have reversed their positions.

Seymour had 4 hits in 7 attempts to end up with the NL batting title (.377), while Wagner collected 2-for-7 to end up in 2nd place (.363). Don't weep for Honus, though: He won 8 batting titles.
A newspaper account of the day stated "…10,000 were more interested in the batting achievements of Wagner and Seymour than the games…cheer upon cheers greeted the mighty batsmen upon each appearance at the plate…"

October 4, 1906: The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-0, and notch their 116th win of the season. It remains a major league record, although it was tied in 2001 by the Seattle Mariners. But the Cubs' winning percentage of .763 remains a record for either of the current major leagues. Both the 1906 Cubs and the 2001 M's found out that it doesn't mean a whole lot if you don't win the World Series.

*

October 4, 1910: Frank Peter Joseph Crosetti is born in San Francisco. "The Crow" played for the Yankees from 1932 to 1948, and coached for them from 1949 to 1968. No other uniformed man has been a part of as much baseball title-winning as he has: 23 Pennants and 17 World Championships. (That's 8 Pennants and 7 World Championships as a player, 15 Pennants and 10 World Championships as Yankee 3rd base coach.) He was also a 2-time All-Star

The shortstop was a good fielder, but not much of a hitter, batting .245 lifetime. He did hit a home run off Dizzy Dean, who was running out the string with the Cubs, in Game 2 of the 1938 World Series. He was also the last survivor of the Yankees' 1936 World Series win.

In 1969, wanting to be closer to home on the Pacific Coast -- he'd moved to Stockton, California -- he accepted the 3rd base coach's job with the expansion Seattle Pilots, who included former Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton. Frankie didn't think much of Jim, and the feeling was mutual. A segment in Bouton's book Ball Four suggests that Crosetti holds the record for "slaps on the ass" given by 3rd base coaches to home run hitters rounding the bases. It's estimated that he waved 16,000 runners home.

When the Pilots moved to Milwaukee to become the Brewers in 1970, Crosetti didn't go with them, coaching with the Minnesota Twins in 1970 and '71, before finally calling it quits. He and the Yankees had a bit of a strained relationship: He never returned to Old-Timers' Day, usually saying he didn't want to fly across the country; and he was the only member of the 1932 Yankees to publicly say that he thought Babe Ruth did not "call his shot" in that year's World Series. He was not the last survivor of the '32 Yanks, though: He died in 2002, and pitcher Charlie Devens outlived him by a year.

October 4, 1913: Washington Senators manager Clark Griffith uses 8 pitchers -- unheard-of in that era -- in an end-of-season farce game with the Boston Red Sox‚ including 5 in the 9th inning. At age 43‚ the former Chicago Cubs hurler pitches an inning himself. Coach John Ryan‚ also 43‚ catches. Griffith also plays right field, where he plays one off his head and misplays Hal Janvrin's liner into an inside-the-park homer.

On the other end of the scale‚ 17-year-old Merito Acosta, a white Cuban who was one of the 1st Hispanic players in the American major leagues, plays left field alongside Walter Johnson in center field. Johnson then comes in for the 8th inning to lob pitches to 2 hitters. Both batters‚ Clyde Engel and Steve Yerkes, lace hits to send Johnson back to center. Then‚ in relief‚ Nats catcher Eddie Ainsmith‚ in his only major league pitching appearance‚ gives up 2 triples to allow the baserunners to score.

The Sox score in the 9th on Hal Janvrin's 2nd inside-the-park homer of the game. Joe Gideon‚ in his only pitching appearance, retires the last 2 batters as Washington wins‚ 10-9‚ beating Fred Anderson who goes the distance.

The 2 runs "allowed" by the Big Train will have historical repercussions: His ERA for the season goes from 1.09 to 1.14‚ and Bob Gibson's 1.12 ERA in 1968 will put Johnson's ERA in 2nd place on the all-time list (in the post-1893 60-feet-6-inches era, anyway). The 8 pitchers sets a MLB record that won't be matched until the Dodgers do it on September 25‚ 1946.

October 4, 1918: At 7:36 PM, the T.A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant, making munitions for the U.S. effort in World War I, explodes on Cheesequake Creek in the Morgan section of Sayreville, Middlesex County, New Jersey. The fires started could be seen for miles, including across the Arthur Kill in Staten Island. Over 300 buildings were destroyed -- including the company's records, so it's not known for sure how many people died, but the number is believed to be over 100.

I've lived my whole life in Middlesex County, and this is the greatest tragedy ever to befall Central Jersey. Today, the Morgan Marina and a housing development are on the site. It's a gated community, so it might be difficult to visit.  

*

October 4, 1922: Game 1 of the World Series. The Yankees lead the Giants 1-0 in the bottom of the 8th, but the Giants rally off Bullet Joe Bush, and make a 3-1 winner out of Rosy Ryan.

Also on this day, Donald Eugene Lenhardt is born. He was a utility player who was with the St. Louis Browns when they moved to become the Baltimore Orioles in 1953-54. He served as the 1st base coach for the Red Sox from 1970 to 1973, and then as one of their scouts until 2004. He died in 2014.

October 4, 1923: John Charles Carter is born in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette, Illinois. We knew him as Charlton Heston -- and as historical figures Moses, Marc Antony (in 3 different films), John the Baptist, El Cid, Michelangelo, King Henry VIII, Cardinal Richelieu, William Clark (of Lewis & Clark), Andrew Jackson (in 2 films), General Henry Hooker, Buffalo Bill Cody and General Charles "Chinese" Gordon; and fictional characters Judah Ben-Hur, Peer Gynt and Robert Neville.

He played Ron Catlan, an aging quarterback, in the 1969 film Number One. In 2010, with the demolition of the original Yankee Stadium complete, I knew -- especially in a city still hurting from the 9/11 attacks -- it would have been wrong, but I wanted to yell his line as Colonel George Taylor, at the end of Planet of the Apes: "Oh my God. I'm back. I'm home. All the time, it was... We really, finally did it. You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!"

Despite his real name, and showing no aversion to science fiction (as Taylor, as Neville in The Omega Man, and as Detective Frank Thorn in Soylent Green), Charlton Heston never played John Carter of Mars.

He was dedicated to civil rights, even attending the March On Washington in 1963. But he was a conservative on other issues, and proudly delivered the National Rifle Association's catchphrase when he spoke at its conventions: "The only way you're going to get my gun is to pry it from my cold, dead hands!" His hands, and the rest of him, became cold and dead in 2008. The status of his gun collection is unknown, but it likely left to family members.

October 4, 1924: Game 1 of the World Series, the 1st Series game ever to be played in the Nation's Capital. President Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace Coolidge attend. She loves baseball. He doesn't.

Walter Johnson, of course, starts for the Washington Senators. But the postseason experience of the New York Giants, who've won their 4th straight Pennant, shows as they tie the game in the 9th and win it in the 12th, 4-3.

October 4, 1928: Game 1 of the World Series. Bob Meusel hits a home run to make a winner out of Waite Hoyt, and the Yankees beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-1.


October 4, 1934: Robert Lee Huff is born in Edna Gas, West Virginia -- a company town, I'm presuming. I can find no record of why he was called Sam. He starred at linebacker for West Virginia University, and along with basketball star Jerry West still ranks as 1 of their 2 greatest athletes. He was a regular All-American and an Academic All-American.

He was a 5-time All-Pro with the New York Giants, the cornerstone of the 1st great NFL defense of the 2-platoon era. He helped the Giants reach 6 NFL Championship Games, although they only won the 1st, in 1956. In 1960, CBS News' The Twentieth Century did a feature on him, "The Violent World of Sam Huff," a precursor to NFL Films in that, for the 1st time, non-players got to hear what playing football really sounds like. To put it another way: He was Lawrence Taylor (without the sex and drug scandals) before Lawrence Taylor was even born.

In 1964, he was traded to the Washington Redskins, and has been with them ever since, first as a linebacker, then an assistant coach, and then as a broadcaster, teaming with ex-teammate Sonny Jurgensen until Sam retired in 2012. He was named to the NFL 1950s All-Decade Team, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the New York Giants Ring of Honor and the Washington Redskins' Ring of Fame. He is still alive.

October 4, 1935: Game 3 of the World Series is a wild one. Chicago Cubs manager Charlie Grimm and 2 of his players, 3rd baseman Woody English and outfielder Tuck Stainback, are thrown out of the game for bench-jockeying. Coach Del Baker of the Detroit Tigers is also thrown out, for arguing a pickoff play at 3rd base. That's 4 uniformed men thrown out of 1 World Series game -- and none was actually playing in the game!

The game goes to 11 innings, and is won 6-5 by the Tigers, on Jo-Jo White's single scoring Marv Owen.

On the official World Series highlight film, but it's not clear how bad the injury is. Fitzsimmons is shown limping off the field under his own power -- probably a good thing, since he would have been pretty hard to carry off with all that weight, It turns out that the kneecap is broken.

Once an All-Star for the Giants, who seemed to specialize in beating the Dodgers, he had crossed town to be welcomed by the Flatbush Faithful, and they wouldn't have won the 1941 Pennant without him. But, at age 41, he will pitch in just 1 game in 1942, before accepting his injury and retiring to the coaching ranks and running a Brooklyn bowling alley that was popular with Dodger fans for many years.
It is the 1st Series in which all the games are played west of the Mississippi River. There will not be another until 1965, and not another until 1974. The Series is dubbed the Streetcar Series (as opposed to a Subway Series), and is played with no days off.
October 4, 1959: Game 3 of the World Series is played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, in front of 92,394 fans, a record crowd for a baseball game anywhere. It is the 1st World Series game played in Los Angeles, in the State of California, indeed anywhere west of St. Louis. The Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-1.

*

October 4, 1960: Joseph Martin Boever is born in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood, Missouri. Nicknamed "Boever the Saver" (it rhymes), the relief pitcher appeared in the 1985 World Series as a rookie for his hometown Cardinals, and was then a journeyman, remaining in the major leagues until 1996.

October 4, 1961: Game 1 of the World Series. Whitey Ford continues his shutout streak, Elston Howard and Bill "Moose" Skowron hit home runs, and the Yankees beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-0.

October 4, 1962: Game 1 of the World Series is played at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, the 1st World Series game played in Northern California. The Yankees beat the Giants, 6-2. Whitey Ford is the winning pitcher for a record 10th time in Series play, but it will be for the last time, and his record streak of 33 2/3 scoreless World Series innings is stopped.

October 4, 1963: A.C. Green Jr. is born in Portland, Oregon. Like his father, his initials are just that, and don't stand for anything. A 1990 NBA All-Star, the forward won NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1987 and 1988, played for the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks, and came back to the Lakers to win another title in 2000. His streak of 1,192 consecutive games played, from November 19, 1986 to April 18, 2001, is easily the longest in NBA history. It did not end due to injury or being cut: At age 37, he simply retired. He now runs a youth foundation.

This Sunday, the New York Jets, coming off a lousy game at home to the Seattle Seahawks, travel to Pittsburgh to play the Steelers, who just put a major hurtin' on the Kansas City Chiefs.

It's a bit odd that each New York football team, on that day, will be away to the most successful franchise in their respective conference: No team has won more NFL Championships than the Giants' opponents that day, the Green Bay Packers, with 13; and no team has won more Super Bowls than the Steelers. The Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots, have, like the Steelers, won 8 AFC Championships, but in Super Bowls, it's Steelers 6, Patriots 4, Broncos 3.

Before You Go. Pittsburgh is at roughly the same latitude as New York City, so roughly the same weather can be expected. As always, check out the newspaper website (the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) before you head out. They're predicting mid-60s for the afternoon, high 40s for night. Bring a jacket.

Pittsburgh is in the Eastern Time Zone, so you won't have to adjust your timepieces.

Tickets. The Steelers averaged 64,356 fans per home game last season. That ranked them 22nd out of 32 NFL teams, but it was about 98 percent of capacity. This is, after all, a football town in a football State. Presume that getting tickets will be hard.

Lower Level (100 sections) seats are $138 along the sidelines and $127 in the end zones. Upper Level (500 sections) seats are $113 and $96. If it helps, the West Stand gives you a view of downtown, whereas the East Stand doesn't.

Getting There. I'm not going to kid you here: There's only one way to do so, and that's by car. You do not want to fly, because you'll end up spending over a thousand bucks to go less than 400 miles, and Pittsburgh International Airport is out in Imperial, Pennsylvania, near Coraopolis and Aliquippa, so it's almost as close to West Virginia and Ohio as it is to downtown Pittsburgh.

The Amtrak schedule doesn't really work. The Pennsylvanian leaves Penn Station at 10:52 AM, and doesn't get to Pittsburgh's station of the same name until 8:05 PM, after the kickoff. And there's no overnight train that would leave at, say, 11 PM and arrive at 8 AM. And going back, the Pennsylvanian leaves at 7:30 AM and arrives back at 4:50 PM. So in order to watch all 3 games of this Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday series, you'd have to leave New York on Sunday morning, and leave Pittsburgh on Thursday morning. At least it's cheap by Amtrak standards: $118 round-trip.

From the City, you'll need to get on the New Jersey Turnpike. Take it to Exit 14, to Interstate 78. From elsewhere in New Jersey, taking Interstate 287 should get you to I-78.  Follow I-78 west all the way through New Jersey, to Phillipsburg, and across the Delaware River into Easton, Pennsylvania. Continue west on I-78 until reaching Harrisburg. There, you will merge onto I-81. Take Exit 52 to U.S. Route 11, which will soon take you onto I-76. This is the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the nation’s first superhighway, opening in 1940.

You'll be on it for another 3 hours – Pennsylvania is huge compared to a lot of Northeastern States. The political consultant James Carville, who got Bob Casey Sr., father of current U.S. Senator Bob Casey Jr., elected Governor in 1986, says, "Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Alabama in the middle." He wasn’t kidding: Between Philly and Pitt, it is very, very rural, hence the nickname "Pennsyltucky." It certainly explains the State's love of football: The Philadelphia Eagles, the Pittsburgh Steelers, Penn State and high school ball.

You'll take the Pennsylvania Turnpike to Exit 57, the signs showing I-376 and U.S. 22 – the same Route 22 you might know from New Jersey, which I-78 was designed to replace – and the sign will say "Pittsburgh."
There will be several exits on I-376, the Penn-Lincoln Parkway, into the city of Pittsburgh. Most likely, if your hotel (which I hope you've reserved before you left) is downtown, you'll take Exit 71B, "Second Avenue."

From anywhere in New York City, allow 6½ hours for the actual driving, though from North Jersey you might need "only" 6. I recommend at least 2 rest stops, preferably after crossing over into Pennsylvania around Easton, and probably around either Harrisburg or Breezewood. So the whole thing, assuming nothing goes wrong, will probably take about 8 hours.

Once In the City. Pittsburgh has, by American standards, a long history. It was settled by the French as Fort Duquesne in 1717, and captured by the British in 1758, and renamed Fort Pitt, for Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder.

The General who captured it, John Forbes (for whom the Pirates' former park Forbes Field would be named), was a Scotsman, and he intended the town that grew around it to be named "Pittsburgh" -- pronounced "Pitts-burrah," like the Scottish capital Edinburgh. From 1891 to 1911, the H was dropped from the city's name, and this was reflected on the Pirates' uniforms, which sometimes read "PITTSBURG," as seen on the famous 1909 "T-206" baseball card of Honus Wagner. But the Germanic "Pittsburg" went back to the Scottish "Pittsburgh," while keeping the Germanic pronunciation. (There is, however, a town named Pittsburg, no H, in Kansas.)

With this long history, a great architectural diversity, and a dramatic skyline with lots of neat-looking skyscrapers, Pittsburgh looks like a much bigger city than it actually is. While the metropolitan area is home to 2.7 million people, the city proper has only 306,000, having lost over half its population since the nearby steel mills, coal mines, and other factories closed starting in the 1970s.

The reduction of blue-collar jobs led people to take comfort in their sports teams, especially in the 1970s. Either the Pirates or the Steelers made the Playoffs in every year of that decade, both of them did so in 4 of those 10 years, and the University of Pittsburgh (or just "Pitt," though they don't like that nickname at that school) had an undefeated National Championship season in 1976. The Pirates won 2 World Series in the decade, the Steelers 4 Super Bowls in 6 years. Calendar year 1979, with spillover into January 1980, was an annus mirabilis, in which the "Steel Curtain" won Super Bowl XIII in January, the "Bucs" (or "Buccos," or "Lumber Company," or "Family") won the World Series in October, and the Steelers then went on to win Super Bowl XIV, with the Pirates' Willie Stargell and the Steelers' Terry Bradshaw being named Co-Sportsmen of the Year by Sports Illustrated and the city government advertising itself as the City of Champions.

(It was also at that time that, in order to ride the Pirates/Steelers bandwagon, the NHL's Penguins switched their colors from navy blue and yellow to black and gold, but it was several more years before they became a championship contender.)

While the loss of industry did mean a sharp, long-term decline, the financial, computer and health care industries opened new doors, and Pittsburgh is very much a now and tomorrow city. And they love their sports, having won 14 World Championships in 19 trips to their sports' finals (which gives them a .737 winning percentage in finals, the best of any city of at least 3 teams) -- and that doesn't count the 9 National Championships won by Pitt football, the Negro League Pennants won by the Homestead Grays (10) and the Pittsburgh Crawfords (4), or the 1968 ABA Championship won by the Pittsburgh Pipers.

Pittsburgh has numbered streets, moving east from Point State Park, where the Allegheny River to the north and the Monongahela River to the south rivers merge to become the Ohio River -- hence the name of the former Pittsburgh sports facility, Three Rivers Stadium.  North-south streets start their numbers at the Monongahela, and increase going north.

There is a subway system in the city, and it's free within the downtown triangle. But outside that area, a one-zone ride is $2.50, and a two-zone ride is $3.75. A 75-cent surcharge is added during rush hour -- in other words, on your way into the Thursday and Friday night games, making the charge $3.25 instead of $2.50. These fares are the same for city buses, although they're not free within the downtown triangle.
The sales tax in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is 6 percent, and Allegheny County (including the City of Pittsburgh) pushes it to 7 percent.

The old Pittsburgh Press, once the 2nd-largest newspaper in Pennsylvania behind the Philadelphia Inquirer, went out of business due to a strike in 1992, before the city's remaining daily, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, brought it back in online form in 2011. That strike gave Richard Mellon Scaife, the current head of the legendary Pittsburgh metals and banking family, a chance to turn a local suburban paper into the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, spouting his right-wing fanatic views. It may be that the P-G brought back the Press to give the city 2 liberals voices against the 1 nutjob voice.

Going In. Having the working name of Art Rooney Field during construction, the new Steeler stadium's naming rights were bought by Pittsburgh corporate leader H.J. Heinz & Company, and so it opened in 2001 with the name Heinz Field.

From most of downtown, the complex that includes Heinz Field and the Pirates home of PNC Park is within a mile's walk, crossing the 6th Street Bridge, now the Roberto Clemente Bridge, over the Allegheny River, shortly before it joins with the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River.

There are local buses (including the Number 14) that go from downtown to the ballpark. The subway/light rail system's Blue Line has now been extended to Allegheny Station, at Reedsdale & North Shore Drive, across from the northwest corner of the stadium.

The stadium is bounded on the north side by Reedsdale Street, on the east side by Art Rooney Avenue, on the south and west sides by North Shore Drive. The official address is 100 Art Rooney Avenue. (Three Rivers Stadium's address, famously, was 600 Stadium Circle.) There are several nearby parking garages, most of them charging only $5.00.
At the southwestern corner of the stadium, there's a West Ramp. At the southeastern corner, there's an East Ramp. Together, they form Gate A. Gate B is at the northeast corner, and Gate C is at the northwest corner. Don't ask me why, I didn't design the place.

The Steelers hosted the AFC Championship Game in the stadium's 1st season, 2001 (losing it to the New England Patriots, and again in 2004 (losing to the Pats again), 2008 (beating the Baltimore Ravens) and 2010 (beating the Jets).

The field is natural grass, and is aligned north-to-south. (Well, northwest-to-southeast, anyway.) A 2007 ESPN.com article named Heinz Field the best stadium in the NFL, tied with Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

The Steelers groundshare with the University of Pittsburgh football team, as they did at Pitt Stadium in the 1960s. This past September 10, the renewal of the Pitt-Penn State rivalry, now labeled the Keystone Classic, set a stadium attendance record of 69,983. (Pitt won a thriller, 42-39.) It also hosted the 2011 NHL Winter Classic, in which the Pittsburgh Penguins lost 3-1 to the Washington Capitals. In the Summer of 2014, it hosted a soccer game, in which defending English champions Manchester City beat Italian giants AC Milan 5-1.
Food. Pittsburgh is a city of many ethnicities, and most of them love to eat food that really isn't good for you: Irish, Italian, Polish, Greek, and African-Americans with Soul Food and Barbecue. Yes, I did mean to capitalize those last two. They deserve it.

Aramark, the successor organization to Harry M. Stevens, runs the concessions at Heinz Field. They have Goal Line Stand stands all over, with hot dogs (some "super dogs"), cheesesteak sandwiches (wrong side of Pennsylvania, guys), pizza, nachos, pretzels, popcorn and candy. The legendary sandwichmaking Primanti Brothers have a stand outside Section 110.

They also have Benkovitz Seafood (fish sandwiches, fish & chips) at 106; Quaker Steak and Lube (including wings and fries) at 112 and 136; Red Zone Express (hot dogs, pretzels and nachos) at 119, 129 and 425; Grid Iron Grill (various ethnic sausages) at 122, 132, 509 and 532; Nacho Zone at 227, 241, 522 and 535; and First Down Fries (garlic fries, also "super dogs") at 442.

Pub 33 Bar and Grill is on the lower level, in the southeast corner, named for the number on Rolling Rock bottles, not for any Steelers player who wore Number 33 (or for Honus Wagner of the Pirates, for that matter). The number has many rumored sources: The Steelers having been founded in 1933,  Prohibition having been repealed that year, the alleged proper Fahrenheit temperature to keep beer, the 33 degrees of Scottish Rite Freemasonry, Rolling Rock getting their brewing formula right on the 33rd try, 33 steps from their original brewery's floor to the brewmaster's office, and the 33 words in the beer's original pledge of quality that is still printed on the label of every bottle. In fact, the number 33 is from a racehorse that was owned by the brewery's owners, hence the racehorse pictured on the label -- but nobody seems to wonder about that picture!

Team History Displays. The Steelers have won 6 NFL Championships, all in the Super Bowl era; the former is not a record, but the latter is. They've won Super Bowls IX, X, XIII, XIV, XL and XLIII, making them World Champions for the seasons of 1974, 1975, 1978, 1979, 2005 and 2008. While there is no banner display in the field area, the 6 Vince Lombardi Trophies are on display on the concourse.
A statue of the team's founding owner, Art Rooney, complete with his ever-present cigar and overcoat, is outside Gate A at the southwest entrance -- which, as you'll see here, used to be labeled Gate D.
Art was known as "The Chief." Byron White, an All-American in football and basketball at the University of Colorado, a Steelers running back in 1938, and a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1962 to 1993, said, "Art Rooney is the finest person I've ever known." Head groundskeeper Ralph Giampaolo recalled his meeting with the great sportscaster Curt Gowdy: "I'll never forget the way he introduced me: 'This is Ralph Giampaolo, a member of our organization.' Not, 'a member of our ground crew.' Not some rinky-dink bum. But 'a member of our organization.' As far as Gowdy knew, I was vice president of the team. Mr. Rooney made me feel 10 feet tall."

He truly loved sports, none more than football, but also horse racing, baseball and boxing. He won an amateur welterweight boxing championship in 1918 and nearly made the U.S. Olympic team in 1920. He played minor-league baseball and football in the 1920s. He founded the Steelers (named the Pirates after the baseball team until 1939) in 1933, at the same time that Bert Bell founded the Philadelphia Eagles, and this may have been the reason the Pennsylvania legislature finally lifted the legal ban on hosting sporting events in the State on Sunday.

Legend has it that he bought the Steeler franchise with $2,500 in winnings from a local horse track. While the price is correct, the legend is not: While he did have a tremendous day at the track, winning $160,000 (about $2.7 million in today's money), it was in 1936, after he was already the owner. And it wasn't at a local track, either, it was at Saratoga Race Course in Upstate New York.

But it did keep the team funded until 1941, at which point some machinations were necessary to save both Pennsylvania teams, resulting in Art selling his Steelers share, buying 70 percent of the Eagles, and Bell becoming Steelers owner. After World War II, things went back to normal: Art was able to sell the Eagles and buy the Steelers back, and Bell was named NFL Commissioner.

Art occasionally stepped in with a little cash to keep the Negro Leagues' Homestead Grays afloat, and used his influence to get Pittsburgh into the NHL for the 1967 expansion, resulting in the birth of the Penguins. He would eventually buy Yonkers Raceway outside New York and Liberty Bell Park in Northeast Philadelphia.

All that said, his love for football far surpassed his knowledge of it. He drafted Pittsburgh native Johnny Unitas in 1955, but coach Walt Kiesling, not one to throw the ball, cut him, and Art didn't step in to overrule Kiesling. Art would also have Len Dawson and Jack Kemp on the roster in the late 1950s, and let them go, and they became stars elsewhere. From 1933 until 1969, only once did the Steelers make the Playoffs, tying the Eagles for the Eastern Division title in 1947, and losing the Playoff even though they hosted it at Forbes Field. They fell just short of another Division title in 1963. In 1969, despite having drafted Joe Greene, they won only 1 game.

It was then that his sons asked him to let them make the personnel decisions, while Art Sr. would run the organization as a whole. Art Sr. relented, and, with Dan as the operating boss, Art Jr. as chief scout, and Tim, Pat and John also as directors, they hired Chuck Noll as head coach, made the key drafts, and built the team that dominated the 1970s. Art Sr. and Dan are, along with Tim and Wellington Mara of the Giants, the only father-son combination in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Art Sr. died in 1988, and Dan and his son Art II now run the team. Pat's son Tom Rooney is now a Republican Congressman from Florida. His brother Patrick Rooney Jr. is a State legislator there. Dan's brother Tim runs Yonkers Raceway, and his wife Kathleen is the daughter of Wellington Mara. Thus their daughters, actresses Kate Mara and Rooney Mara, are both great-granddaughters of the founders of the Steelers and the Giants. Kate has sung the National Anthem at both Steeler and Giant games, and has been present for each team's last 2 Super Bowl wins. (Although it is possible for the Steelers and the Giants to meet in the Super Bowl, they never have.)

When defensive tackle Ernie Stautner retired after the 1963 season, the Steelers retired his Number 70, but later announced that they wouldn't retire any more numbers. Officially, this remained true until 2014, when they retired Number 75 for another defensive tackle, perhaps the greatest in the history of the game, the man who personified their 1970s "Steel Curtain" defense: Mean Joe Greene. A display of these numbers, in the styles of the uniforms the Steelers had during their playing days, is on the stadium concourse.
There are several other numbers that the Steelers do not give out, making them "unofficially retired": 1, for 1980s kicker Gary Anderson; 12, for 1970s quarterback Terry Bradshaw; 32, for 1970s running back Franco Harris; 36, for 1990s-2000s running back Jerome Bettis; 43, for 2000s linebacker Troy Polamalu; 47, for 1970s cornerback Mel Blount; 52, for 1970s center Mike Webster; 58, for 1970s linebacker Jack Lambert; 59, for 1970s linebacker Jam Ham; 63, for 1990s center Dermontti Dawson; and 86, for 2000s receiver Hines Ward. However, both numbers of their 1970s Hall of Fame receivers, the 82 of John Stallworth and the 88 of Lynn Swann, are still given out.

Steelers in the Pro Football Hall of Fame include:

* From the 1940s: Art Rooney, Bert Bell, head coach Walt Kiesling and running back "Bullet Bill" Dudley.

* From the 1950s: Art Rooney, Stautner, cornerback Jack Butler.

* From the 1960s: Art Rooney, Stautner, quarterback Bobby Layne, running back John Henry Johnson.

* From the Super Bowl IX, X, XIII and XIV winners in 1975, 1976, 1979 and 1980: Art Rooney, Dan Rooney, Coach Chuck Noll, Blount, Bradshaw, Greene, Ham, Harris, Lambert, Stallworth, Swann, Webster.

* From the 1995 AFC Champions: Dan Rooney, Bettis, Dawson, cornerback Rod Woodson..

* From the Super Bowl XL winners in 2006: Dan Rooney and Bettis (it was his last game, as he was retiring). Aside from Dan Rooney, no one associated with the Super Bowl XLIII winners of 2009 is in yet. Polamalu, who played in both XL and XLIII, will be eligible in 2020. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is still active, and thus ineligible.

* Myron Cope, who broadcast for the Steelers from 1970 to 2005, was given the Hall's Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, the broadcasters' equivalent to induction. As the man himself would say, "Yoi! And double yoi!"

Webster, Greene, Ham, Lambert, Blount and Woodson were named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary team in 1994. All of those, plus Layne, Bradshaw and Harris, were named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Football Players in 1999. Bradshaw, Webster, Greene, Lambert, Ham, Blount and Woodson were named to the NFL Network's 100 Greatest Players in 2010.

Stuff. The Steelers Pro Shop is inside Gate B at the southeast corner of Heinz Field. The usual kinds of team gear can be found there, as well as black Steelers hard hats, Terrible Towels, Steely McBeam dolls, and other novelty items. These may include steel-beam hats.

You don't usually think of Pittsburgh as a great literary city. But there are some really good books about the Steelers. David Aretha and Abbey Mendelson wrote The Steelers Experience: A Year-by-Year Chronicle of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Mendelson also wrote The Pittsburgh Steelers: The Official Team History, covering them from their 1933 founding until their loss to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV in 2011.

Gary M. Pomerantz focused on the Steel Curtain era, with Their Life's Work: The Brotherhood of the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers, Then and Now. Roy Blount Jr., then with Sports Illustrated, covered them in the 1973 season, and turned it into the book About Three Bricks Shy of a Load. 

Chad Millman and Shawn Coyne wrote The Ones Who Hit the Hardest: The Steelers, the Cowboys, the '70s, and the Battle for America's Soul. It does a terrific job of telling the cultural histories of both Pittsburgh and Dallas, and the teams that played in those cities, including their meeting in Super Bowl X in 1976, up until their meeting in Super Bowl XIII in 1979. The problem is, the book ends with the postgame of that Super Bowl, and doesn't really explain who won "the battle for America's soul."

Indeed, while the Seventies Steelers are now regarded as one of the greatest football teams of all time, and the Seventies Cowboys are a level below them, looking at America from the Eighties onward, we have become much more like Dallas and the Cowboys (materialistic, self-indulgent, instant-gratification-seeking, drug-ridden, yet sanctimonious about religion) than we have like Pittsburgh and the Steelers (hard-working, patient, team-oriented, magnanimous in victory, appreciative of the people who got us there). Good book, but the lack of a true epilogue stops it from being a great book. But it is as good a look at the building of the Steeler dynasty (or the 1st 20 years of the Cowboys) that we are likely to get anytime soon.

Books by individual Steelers include Dan Rooney: My 75 Years with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL, It's Only a Game by Terry Bradshaw, and The Bus: My Life In and Out of a Helmet by Jerome Bettis.
Did I say, "legend"? How about "phenomenon"? Department stores all over Western Pennsylvania soon had a run on yellow dish towels. The Terrible Towel became as identified with the Steelers as their black & gold uniforms, the Steelmark logo, Bradshaw, the Steel Curtain defense, Art Rooney's cigar, and Cope's "Yoi!" exclamation of joy over the radio. It was the original sports-team gimmick, preceding the Minnesota Twins'"Homer Hanky" by nearly 12 years, and the Atlanta Braves' foam Tomahawk by almost 16 years.