The Brooklyn Nets visit Oklahoma City to play the Thunder on Friday, November 18, and again on March 14. The Knicks' visits will be on November 28 and on February 15, 2017.

The Nets formerly played in Newark, "Brick City," and Oklahoma City is known as "Bricktown," not to be confused with Brick Township on the Jersey Shore, which also (in their case, incorrectly) gets called "Bricktown" or "Brick Town."

Judging by how the fans of OKC have embraced their 1st real major league sports team -- the USFL's Oklahoma Outlaws played in Tulsa, as didthe WNBA's Tulsa Shock, and, besides, those are hardly major leagues -- it can safely be said that the people of Oklahoma City deserved their own team. But not the Seattle SuperSonics: They should have gotten either an expansion team or a team whose fans weren't supporting it.

But we should not hold Oklahoma accountable for that. Besides, it's not like they went out of their way to steal a team: It was the owner who bought the Sonics and moved them, because he didn't like Seattle's Key Arena.

No, don't hold Oklahomans responsible for stealing the Sonics -- they didn't. If you want to knock them for something, knock them for electing Tea Party dimwits to public office.

Before You Go. Oklahoma is part of the Great Plains region. There aren't a lot of trees to shade you or to block the wind. As a result, it gets beastly hot in the summer, and brutally cold in the winter. This will be late November, so cold could have been expected.

However, the website for The Daily Oklahoman is predicting low 70s for Friday and Saturday afternoon, and low 50s for Friday night. So you should bring a jacket.

Oklahoma City -- indeed, the entire State except for the westernmost Panhandle, which is on Mountain Time -- is in the Central Time Zone, 1 hour behind New York. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.

Tickets. The Thunder averaged 18,203 fans per home game last season -- a sellout every game. They're the only game in town -- the Sooners are a 45-minute drive away -- and have been fully embraced by a populace used to following just the one sport, college football. Getting tickets will be tough.

Unlike last season, the Thunder are not restricting online ticket sales to residents of Oklahoma and the surrounding States. So you may be able to use the team website as a source. But don't overlook other sources, as you may be able to get a better deal.

Tickets in the lower level, the 100 sections, are $191 between the baskets and $89 behind them. The 200 level is club seating, and available only to season ticketholders. The Balcony and Loft level, the 300 sections, has seats going for $95 between the baskets and $53 behind them.

Getting There. It's 1,451 miles from Madison Square Garden to the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Knowing this, your first reaction is going to be to want to fly.

You won't get a nonstop flight. There are any number of cities in which you would have to change planes, depending on the airline: Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, for example. And, this week, it's kind of an expensive flight: over $1,000 at the minimum. Will Rogers World Airport is southwest of downtown, but there is no local bus service between them.

Amtrak isn't all that convenient to OKC. You'd have to board the Lake Shore Limited at Penn Station at 3:40 PM Eastern Time, then arrive at Union Station in Chicago at 9:45 AM Central Time the next morning, then there's a 4-hour layover until the Texas Eagle leaves at 1:45 PM, and it arrives in Fort Worth the next day at 1:25 PM, and then you'd have to change trains again, with a 4-hour layover -- in Fort Worth, not the despised but much more modern city of Dallas -- before taking the Heartland Flyer at 5:25, finally arriving in Oklahoma City at 9:27 PM. That's 62 hours and 42 minutes. And it's $482 round-trip. That may not be worth the hassles. At any rate, the station is on Gaylord Blvd., between Reno and Sheridan Avenues, just 2 blocks from the arena -- sure, now, at the end, it's convenient.

On Greyhound, the trip is much shorter, about 39 hours, and you only have to transfer once, and, believe me, 4 hours in Chicago is good. (More hours in Chicago is better, but that's a story for another time.) It's also possible that your transfer may be in Kansas City. The round-trip fare is $278, and you don't save much with advanced purchase. The station is at 1948 E. Reno Avenue at Martin Luther King Avenue, on the same street as the arena, but 2 miles to the east, so what it makes up for in convenience during the trip, it blows up at the end -- the opposite of Amtrak.

If you decide to drive, it’s far enough that it will help to get someone to go with you and split the duties, and to trade off driving and sleeping. You’ll need to get on the New Jersey Turnpike, and take Interstate 78 West across New Jersey, and at Harrisburg get on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which at this point will be both I-70 and I-76. When the two Interstates split outside Pittsburgh, stay on I-70 west. You’ll cross the northern tip of West Virginia, and go all the way across Ohio (through Columbus), Indiana (through Indianapolis) and Illinois. When you cross into Missouri, you'll be in St. Louis. Switch to Interstate 44 West, the Will Rogers Turnpike, and take that across southern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma. Outside Edmond, you'll turn onto Interstate 35 South, then onto Interstate 40 West, taking Exit 150B for downtown Oklahoma City and the Arena.

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and 15 minutes in New Jersey, 5 hours in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes in West Virginia, 3 hours and 45 minutes in Ohio, 2 hours and 30 minutes in Indiana, 2 hours and 30 minutes in Illinois, 5 hours in Missouri, and 3 hours and 30 minutes in Oklahoma before arriving. That’s going to be nearly 24 hours. Counting rest stops, preferably 6 of them, and accounting for traffic at both ends, it should be about 30 hours.

Once In the City. Oklahoma City, the capital of the State of Oklahoma, was founded in 1889 as a result of the Oklahoma land rush, after the former Indian Territory was legally (if not morally) opened up to white settlers. (As a result, their minor-league baseball team was long called the 89ers.) The name comes from the Choctaw tribe, meaning "red people."

It's a decent-sized city, with about 580,000 people, but the metropolitan area is small, just 1.3 million. This makes it the 2nd-smallest market in the NBA, larger than only Salt Lake City, home of the Utah Jazz. It would also be the smallest in MLB, larger than only Buffalo in the NFL, and smaller than all U.S.-based NHL cities except Buffalo, though it would also be larger than Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg.

The sales tax in the State of Oklahoma is 4.5 percent, but in Oklahoma City it nearly doubles to 8.375 percent. Gaylord Blvd. divides street addresses into east and west, while Sheridan Avenue divides them into north and south. Oklahoma City doesn't have a subway or a light rail system (not surprising, they're more Southern than Midwestern), but they are building a light rail system, the Oklahoma City Streetcar, scheduled to open late next year. EMBARK buses charge just $1.75.

Going In. The Thunder's building opened in 2002 as the Ford Center, but became the Chesapeake Energy Arena in 2011. It's now known as "The 'Peake" for short. When the Thunder reached the NBA Finals in 2012, the exposure of the arena's name caused the namesake company's stock to surge. The address is 100 W. Reno Avenue, and the arena is bounded by Reno, Gaylord Blvd., 3rd Street and Robinson Avenue, which is known as Thunder Drive as it passes the arena. Parking is $8.00.
The building is in the usual post-Camden Yards style, with concourses for each level. The court is laid out northwest to southeast. It remains a college basketball center (having hosted the Big 12 Conference Tournament), and a site for pro wrestling and Ultimate Fighting. It has also hosted minor-league hockey, but currently does not.

Food. Levy Restaurants runs the concessions at Chesapeake Energy Arena. In addition to the usual array of stands selling typical sports-stadium food, they have, according to the arena's website:

* The Jack Daniels Old No. 7 Club is located on the 100 level concourse at section 114-115. Old No. 7 provides a trendy and unique atmosphere with full bar offerings and several beers on tap. A selection of appetizers are available in this local hot spot.

* The Center Court Carvery is located on the 100 level concourse at section 114-115 across from the Jack Daniels Old No. 7 Club. Center Court Carvery provides a unique, upscale dining experience with a full buffet at each game featuring carved meat options, an assortment of salads, potatoes, vegetables and breads. A carved sandwich option with one side is also available for those looking for something quick, yet filling. Center Court Carvery’s buffets change nightly, so check back often to see what’s on the cutting board at Center Court!

* Center Court Grill is the new urban hot spot for guests inside Chesapeake Energy Arena. Center Court Grill will be open 2 1/2 hours prior to every Thunder home game for ticket holders. The restaurant will also be open for ticketed concerts and other select ticketed events throughout the year. Center Court Grill features a menu that has a balance between grilled entrees, sandwiches and house-made BBQ.

Team History Displays. As the newest team in the NBA, dating back only to 2008 (though one of its older franchises, dating back to 1967), the Thunder's history is nearly all that of the Seattle SuperSonics, even though they can't count it as such.

While it should be noted that they have made the Playoffs every full season since moving in -- 7 so far, not counting their lockout-truncated original 2008-09 season -- being stuck in the Western Conference with the Kobe Bryant Lakers, the Dirk Nowitzki Mavericks, the Tim Duncan Spurs and the Steph Curry Warriors has put a limit on their development. Indeed, since 1998, the count of Western Conference titles is as follows: L.A. 7, San Antone 6, Dallas 2, Golden State 2, OKC 1.

The Thunder have won their Division in 5 of the last 6 seasons, and hang 5 white banners with blue lettering to denote this. They also hang a blue banner with white lettering to denote their 2012 Western Conference title.
As the Sonics, they previously won the 1979 NBA title; the West in 1978, 1979 and 1996; and the Pacific Division in 1979, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2005. But they make no mention of this at the Arena. The Sonics' banners, and those of the WNBA's Seattle Storm, remain at the Key Arena at Seattle Center.

The Sonics retired 6 uniform numbers, and, along with them in the rafters at the Key Arena, hung a banner for broadcaster Bob Blackburn. Except for 10, for guard Nate McMillan from their 1996 Western Conference Champions, all of those numbers (as well as Blackburn's honor) were from their 1978 Western Conference Champions and their 1979 NBA Champions: 1, guard Gus Williams; 19, guard Lenny Wilkens (who, by that point, was a non-playing coach, but did play 4 years for the Sonics); 24, forward Spencer Haywood; 32, guard Fred "Downtown" Brown; and 43, center Jack Sikma.

The 20 of guard Gary Payton and the 40 of forward Shawn Kemp from the 1996 team might have been retired had the Sonics still been in Seattle when they retired. Those 2, and the 6 that are officially retired, have been kept out of circulation: No member of the Thunder from 2008 onward has worn any of them.

My guess is that the Thunder's management is waiting until Seattle gets a new (expansion or moved) team, at which point the Sonics' records and achievements will be officially given back to them, and the Thunder can then give those numbers out with a clear conscience.

Wilkens was the only Sonics player named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players in 1996.

Stuff. Concession stands selling team merchandise are scattered throughout the arena. I can find no reference to where in the arena a team store is located, but I find it hard to believe that an organization as professional as the Thunder have been the last 6 seasons would not have at least one large one. Since Oklahoma likes to think of itself as a Western State, you may be able to buy cowboy hats with team logos on them.

As they are not yet a historic franchise, there aren't many books about the Thunder. Nate LeBoutillier has written The Story of the Oklahoma City Thunder as part of the NBA's A History of Hoops book series. (I wonder if it goes over the history of the SuperSonics, or if it just mentions them as the Thunder's predecessors.) As part of the NBA's The Inspirational Story of Basketball Superstar...
series, Bill Redban has written books about Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. These are, admittedly, unauthorized biographies.

There aren't yet team DVDs of the Thunder, but there is a movie about them: Thunderstruck, a cross between Freaky Friday and Space Jam, in which a kid unwittingly and magically exchanges basketball abilities with Kevin Durant, as in the kid becomes a high school basketball star, while Durant can't buy a basket. Amazon.com has Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team, but that's more for the Seattle fan.

During the Game. A November 13, 2014 article on DailyRotoHelp ranked the NBA teams' fan bases, and listed the Thunder's fans 10th. Of course, it's worth noting that, aside from their 23-59 1st season, when the fans still came out due to the novelty, they've averaged 53 wins a season. So we don't yet know how their fans would react to a bad established team.

You do not need to worry about wearing Knicks or Nets gear as an opposing fan against the Thunder. Their main rivals are the Mavs and the Spurs, and their fans don't get rough with those guys, so they won't get rough with you.

Nevertheless, having just the 1 team in the 4 major league sports -- not even in MLS, and the WNBA's Tulsa Shock were a ways off -- the same effect applies to the Thunder as applies to the other NBA-only cities, where the NBA team means everything: San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Sacramento and Portland. (To be fair, San Antonio also has a WNBA team, while Salt Lake and Portland have the WNBA and MLS.)

As Bill Simmons, in a rare thoughtful moment for him, wrote for ESPN:

With the possible exception of  Portland, no NBA team means more to its city. This goes beyond having the loudest fans. There's genuine devotion here. These people arrived a good 45 minutes early for last night's Game 1 — and by "these people" I mean "everyone with a ticket" — then clapped their way through pregame warm-ups with such infectious enthusiasm that I remember saying to a friend, "No way these yahoos keep this up for three hours, they're going to burn out." Wrong. You know what burned out? My eardrums. My head is still ringing.

Simmons speculated that the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing played a major part in the team's culture, noting that Thunder general manager Sam Presti has every new Thunder player visit the memorial to the event, and encourages players to look into the stands and consider that many of the team's fans were personally affected by the event.

On February 17, 2009, Rumble the Bison was introduced as the Thunder's mascot during the halftime of a game against, appropriately enough, the team that used the arena (then still named the Ford Center) as their temporary home after Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Hornets. Rumble was a big hit in that 1st season, and was awarded the 2008–09 NBA Mascot of the Year. Although I'm not sure having a mascot with a "beard" that covers up the team name on his jersey is a good idea.

They also have the Thunder Girls cheerleaders. There is also Thundor, a "celebrity fan" who dresses like a luchador, a Mexican professional wrestler. (Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks also have one, and he's official.) His real name is Garret Havilland -- not Mexican, or even Spanish -- and he carries a megaphone, making him a pain in the neck to free-throw shooters when the visiting team is playing toward his end.
In real life, he has a psychology degree and runs a home for troubled teenage girls, so, despite his silly appearance, he is a very serious and admirable man, unlike some other infamous NBA fans like Robin Ficker, the disbarred lawyer known for heckling opponents at Washington Wizards games. He even shows enough respect for the girls he works with that he asks them to teach him dance moves, so he can stay current.

The Thunder hold auditions for singing the National Anthem, instead of having a regular singer. The OKC-based band The Flaming Lips rewrote their song "Race for the Prize," giving it the title "Thunder Up," to use as a team fight song. The words "Thunder Up" have also become a team slogan.

Like fans of the Winnipeg Jets hockey team, Thunder fans tend to wear white T-shirts in the stands, providing a "Whiteout" effect that supposedly distracts opposing players. (How much it does so is debatable.)
After the Game. In Oklahoma City, the violent crime rate is one of the highest in the nation. However, if you stick to the downtown area, you should be safe.

Most of the notable places to eat are to the northeast of the arena, across the railroad tracks and closer to the ballpark. Mickey Mantle's Steakhouse -- unlike the now-closed restaurant named for him on New York's Central Park South, it didn't open until after he died -- is across the street from the ballpark, at 7 S. Mickey Mantle Drive.

Bricktown Brewery, Spaghetti Warehouse, TapWerks Ale House, Pearl's Crabtown and the Wormy Dog Saloon (I swear, I am not making that name up) are along E. Sheridan Avenue. Jazmo'z Bourbon Street Café and Whiskey Chicks are along Reno Avenue.

If your visit to Oklahoma City is during the European soccer season, as we are now in, your best bet for a place to watch your club is Skinny Slim's, at 201 E. Main Street, downtown.

Sidelights. Oklahoma's sports history includes Jim Thorpe, Johnny Bench, and Yankee Legends Mickey Mantle, Bobby Murcer and Allie Reynolds. And then there's all those college football legends, although not every OU and OSU legend was originally from Oklahoma.

* Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Opened in 1998, this is the home of the Oklahoma City Dodgers, now the top farm team of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Previously, they were known as the 89ers and the RedHawks. They haven't yet won a Pennant since moving into the Class AAA Pacific Coast League (and Oklahoma isn't exactly on any coast), but they have won Division titles in 1999, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2015.
Every street bordering the ballpark is named for a local legend. The official address is 2 S. Mickey Mantle Drive, but outside the ballpark it's Walnut Avenue. It runs along the 3rd base side. Reno Avenue runs along the 1st base side, where it is named Johnny Bench Drive. The right field side is Russell M. Perry Avenue, except next to the ballpark where it is Joe Carter Avenue, after the Toronto Blue Jays legend. And a street that only exists for a few blocks along the left field side is named for the aforementioned local band, Flaming Lips Alley. Statue of Mantle and Bench are outside the park.
Prior to the new ballpark opening, the team was known as the Oklahoma City 89ers, and competed in the Class AAA American Association. They played at All Sports Stadium, and won Pennants in 1963, 1965, 1992 and 1996. It was located in State Fair Park at 333 Gordon Cooper Blvd. at Eighty-Nine Drive, about 5 miles west of downtown. Number 38 bus from downtown.

According to an April 24, 2014 article in The New York Times, the most popular MLB team in Oklahoma City, according to Facebook Likes, is the Texas Rangers, which is not surprising, since they are the closest team, 209 miles away. However, they get only about 20 percent of the fans, and the Yankees and Red Sox are not far behind. By the time we got into Tulsa town, them bears was a-gettin' smart... Sorry, drifted into C.W. McCall's "Convoy" there. But before you get all the way from OKC to Tulsa, it becomes mainly St. Louis Cardinals territory. The Kansas City Royals? You need to get into northernmost Oklahoma, near the Kansas State Line, to find their fans, although that may have changed in the 7 months since the article, due to the Royals having won the Pennant last month.

According to a September 5, 2014 article in The Atlantic Monthly, when it comes to the NFL, the most popular team in the entire State of Oklahoma is the Dallas Cowboys. Cowboys territory also includes all of Texas except the part around Houston, and all but the northwesternmost part of New Mexico, and all but the southeasternmost part of Arkansas.

The Cowboys are 210 miles away. Fans of the Kansas City Chiefs and the St. Louis Rams, and even the Denver Broncos, not that far from the western tip of the Oklahoma Panhandle, need not apply for Oklahoma City football fandom. Dallas is also home to the nearest NHL team, the Stars, 204 miles away; and the nearest Major League Soccer team, FC Dallas, 189 miles away.

Oklahoma City Energy
United Soccer League
2014
Taft Stadium, 7,500, renovated in 2015 after opening in 1934

Rayo OKC, owned by Rayo Vallecano of Spain's La Liga
North American Soccer League
2016
Miller Stadium, Yukon, OK, 7,000

Because of its comparatively low metropolitan population, Oklahoma City would rank 31st in MLB, and 33rd in the NFL, in each case dead last. So don't expect them to be awarded a franchise in either league anytime soon.

* Site of Oklahoma City Bombing. In 1977, the federal government opened the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, named for a federal judge whom U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren had called "one of the foremost figures in the American judiciary." He was not widely known outside Oklahoma, but nearly 20 years after his death, his name became ingrained into the American memory. Since 1963, Timothy McVeigh, who carried out the bombing, is the only prisoner ever executed by the federal government.

This wasn't the first plot to bomb the building: A man named Richard Snell, a member of a "Christian" extremist group, had threatened to blow the buildup up with a van bomb, perhaps inspiring McVeigh to use the same method. He was convicted of an unrelated murder, and his execution was set for April 19, 1995 -- the very day that the building was destroyed by a bomb anyway. The execution happened as scheduled.

A memorial to the 168 victims of the worst domestic terrorist attack in American history is now on the site. 200 NW 5th Street & N. Harvey Avenue, about 7 blocks north of the arena. A new federal building was built on a 2-city-block site, 1 block north and west of the former site. It carries out the same functions as the former building, hosting regional offices for the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Secret Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, recruiting offices for the Army and the Marine Corps, and, most significant in McVeigh's mind, as he was seeking revenge for the Ruby Ridge incident of 1992 and the Waco incident exactly 2 years earlier on April 19, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

* Other Historic Sites. The State Capitol (or State House, if you prefer) is at 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd. at NE 23rd Street, about 3 miles northeast of the arena. Number 2 bus. The Oklahoma History Center is to the immediate northeast of the State House, at 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive at Lincoln Blvd. According to its website, "The goal is to span the entire breadth of Oklahoma's diverse history from Native Americans to oil."

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is a short walk from the Arena, at 415 Couch Drive at Walker Avenue. Contrary to an easy guess, it does not specialize in Western-themed and Native American art. If those interest you, you can visit the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, at 1700 N. 63rd Street, off Grand Blvd., northeast of downtown. Number 22 bus.

The Beatles never performed in Oklahoma, but Elvis Presley did, including a few times before he was nationally known. He did 2 shows at the Oklahoma City Municipal Auditorium on October 16, 1955, and 2 more on April 19, 1956. (There's that date again.) It's now named the Civic Center Music Hall. 201 N. Walker Avenue at Lee Avenue, about a mile northwest of the arena.

He also performed at the Fair Ground Arena, next-door to the All Sports Stadium (and also since demolished) on November 16, 1970. He also performed at the Myriad Convention Center on July 2, 1973; July 8, 1975; and May 29, 1976. Seating 13,846, this arena, now named the Cox Convention Center, is across Reno Avenue from the Chesapeake Energy Center, which augmented it, rather than replacing it, as it still hosts lots of conventions.

The University of Oklahoma is in Norman, 23 miles south of Oklahoma City, and plays its football games at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium at Owen Field. Originally built in 1923, it now seats 82,112 people. Led by running back Tommy McDonald and center-linebacker Jerry Tubbs, from 1953 to 1957 the Sooners won 47 straight games, and that's still a college football record. (Both the last team and the next team to beat them was Notre Dame.)
The stadium was the site of the 1971 "Game of the Century," when Oklahoma and Nebraska, a great rivalry which has fallen by the wayside as they've gone into separate leagues, played each other on Thanksgiving Day (the only major college football game scheduled for that day that year, thus the entire country could watch it), with the Sooners ranked Number 1 and the Cornhuskers ranked Number 2. Nebraska won, and went on to win the National Championship. But the Sooners have won 7 National Championships: 1950, 1955 and 1956 under Bud Wilkinson; 1974 and 1975 under Chuck Fairbanks; 1985 under Barry Switzer, and 2000 under current coach Bob Stoops.

Oklahoma has had 5 winners of the Heisman Trophy: 1952 running back Billy Vessels, 1969 running back Steve Owens, 1978 running back Billy Sims, 2003 quarterback Jason White and 2008 quarterback Sam Bradford. Their litany of football legends also includes Pro Football Hall-of-Famers Tommy McDonald and Lee Roy Selmon, and All-Pros Greg Pruitt, Joe Washington, Dewey Selmon, Tony Casillas and Keith Jackson (not the sportscaster, who did have to call some of his games). It also includes Bob Kalsu, a Buffalo Bills tackle who was killed in action in Vietnam; Brian Bosworth, the linebacker known more for his attitude and "style" than his playing; and, ironically, the 1949 quarterback who became the greatest coach ever at their biggest rivals -- not Oklahoma State, but the University of Texas: Darrell Royal.

The stadium is located at 180 W. Brooks Street & S. Jenkins Avenue. The OU (never "UO," even though that's more correct) campus can be reached from Oklahoma City via the Number 24 bus. The ride takes about an hour.

Oklahoma State University is in Stillwater, 67 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. They play at Boone Pickens Stadium, formerly named Lewis Field. Built in 1920, it was the oldest stadium in the former Big 8 Conference, and is now the oldest in the league currently (but erroneously) known as the Big 12. It seats 60,218, and is unusual among U.S. football stadiums in that its field is aligned east-to-west. (Most, including Owen Field, are north-to-south due to sun issues.) Oil baron T. Boone Pickens, an OSU alum, had donated $165 million to his alma mater to boost their athletic facilities.

Their stars have included 1940s halfback Bob Fenimore, Super Bowl-winning Dallas Cowboy and chewing tobacco spokesman Walt Garrison, 4-time Super Bowl-winning Pittsburgh Steeler tackle Jon Kolb, Cleveland Browns All-Pro tackle Jerry Sherk, 1988 Heisman Trophy winner Barry Sanders and current Dallas Cowboys All-Pro receiver Dez Bryant. In the 1940s, they had a 2-way end named Neill Armstrong. Note the extra L: This man did not walk on the Moon. Aside from his name, he's best known as the head coach the Chicago Bears fired in 1981 to make way for Mike Ditka.

The Cowboys have never won a National Championship, although they have won their conference 10 times, most recently taking the Big 12 title in 2011. Pickens Stadium is at 700 W. Hall of Fame Avenue & Hester Street. You're going to need a car to get there from Oklahoma City.

The OU-OSU rivalry, known as "The Bedlam Series," includes one of the most lopsided college football matchups, maybe the most lopsided among major rivalries: The Sooners have won 84 times, the Cowboys only 18, with 7 ties.

Oklahoma also has decent programs in baseball, track, wrestling, and basketball, having made the NCAA Final in 1947 and 1988 (though losing both times). Oklahoma State, known until 1958 as Oklahoma A&M, won the National Championship in basketball in 1944 and 1945, coached by Hank Iba, and led by one of the first 7-footers, Bob "Foothills" Kurland, who, despite his size and talent, never played in the NBA. They also reached the Final Four in 1949, 1951, 1995 and 2004. They also have the nation's most successful wrestling program (even more National Championships than the University of Iowa), built by coach Ed Gallagher.

OSU's Gallagher-Iba Arena opened in 1938, at the eastern end of Lewis Field/Pickens Stadium. It still uses its original basketball court, and is known as "The Rowdiest Arena in the Country,""The Madison Square Garden of The Plains" and "Mr. Iba's House of Horrors." OU plays basketball at the Lloyd Noble Center.
Tulsa, Oklahoma's other major city, home to 400,000 people, is 106 miles northeast of Oklahoma City -- roughly as far apart as New York and Philadelphia, without the advantage of high-speed rail in between. And yet, Tulsa, the smaller city and not the State Capital, had a permanent "major league" team before OKC did, unless you count the temporary New Orleans-Oklahoma City Hornets. The WNBA's Tulsa Shock, formerly the Detroit Shock, played at the BOK Center, before moving to Dallas for the 2016 season. (BOK, at least officially, stands for Bank of Oklahoma.) Opening in 2008, it seats 17,839, a big arena for a city that size.

The University of Tulsa, whose teams are called the Golden Hurricane, play football at Skelly Field at Chapman Stadium, a 30,000-seat facility built in 1930 but heavily renovated since, so that it looks nothing like a stadium from that period. It was home to the Tulsa Roughnecks of the old North American Soccer League, winning the 1983 title. (Another team of that name has begun play in U.S. soccer's 3rd division, but in a smaller stadium.) The USFL's Oklahoma Outlaws played their one and only season there, in 1984. Steve Largent and Dennis Byrd played there for the Hurricane, Doug Williams for the Outlaws. S. Florence & E. 8th Streets.

Outside of sports, the most famous native of Oklahoma is probably Will Rogers. The ranch where he was born is on a lake northeast of Tulsa, at 9501 East 380th Road in Oologah. And the Will Rogers Memorial Museum is near it, at 1720 W. Will Rogers Blvd. in Claremore.

Yankee Legend Mickey Mantle was born in Spavinaw, 174 miles northeast of Oklahoma City; grew up in a shotgun shack at 319 S. Quincy Street in Commerce, 198 miles northeast; and played semipro ball, since Commerce High School didn't have a baseball team (though it did have a football team, on which he excelled), in towns where 4 States come together: Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas. Joplin, Missouri, just 28 miles northeast of his home, was the site of his 1st pro team, a Class C team (equivalent to Class A ball today) called the Joplin Miners. The house still stands, but while there's been discussions of turning it into a Mantle museum, it remains vacant. Mickey lived his adult life (the off-season part of it, anyway) in Dallas, 205 miles south of Oklahoma City, and is interred there.

Mickey's successor as Yankee center fielder (if you don't count the 2 years he switched positions with 1st baseman Joe Pepitone to ease the strain on his legs in those pre-DH days), Bobby Murcer, lived his whole off-season life in Oklahoma City, graduating from Southeast High School. Like Mantle, he attracted some attention from OU football, but chose baseball instead. Cincinnati Reds superstar Johnny Bench, although born in Oklahoma City, grew up 60 miles to the west, in Binger.

The greatest athlete ever to come from Oklahoma wasn't Mantle, or Murcer, or Bench, or the many great running backs at OU (such as Heisman winners Billy Vessels, Steve Owens and Billy Sims) and OSU (such as Thurman Thomas and Heisman winner Barry Sanders, who were teammates for 2 seasons in the 1980s). It was Jim Thorpe, both the greatest football player and the greatest track and field performer of the 1st quarter of the 20th Century, and a man who once hit .317 in Major League Baseball.

The only Oklahoma home of Thorpe's known to still stand is one he owned from 1917 to 1923, and it's now a museum. 706 E. Boston Avenue in Yale, about 83 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, closer to Tulsa.

There has never been a President who was born or spent significant time in Oklahoma, and so there's no Presidential Library there. Dwight D. Eisenhower was born close to the State Line, in Denison, Texas, but grew up in Abeline, Kansas, and always considered himself to be from there. Herbert Hoover's Vice President was an Oklahoman, Charles Curtis, believed to be the 1st person of Native American descent to serve in the U.S. Congress (and he served in both houses). Typical for Vice Presidents, he tends to get forgotten; then again, Hoover should have been so lucky.

The Devon Energy Center, opening in 2012 at 844 feet, is tallest building in Oklahoma -- indeed, it's the tallest building between Chicago and Dallas. 280 W. Sheridan Avenue at Robinson Street.

Aside from Thunderstruck, the most notable movies set in Oklahoma are the 1940 version of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, The Outsiders, Far and Away, Twister (as you might guess for a State known as "Tornado Alley"), Elizabethtown and The Killer Inside Me.

Cimarron, made in 1931 off Edna Ferber's novel, and based on the 1889 land rush that created Oklahoma as we know it, was perhaps the 1st great Western of the sound film era. It was remade in color in 1960, shortly after NBC aired an unrelated Western series named Cimarron City. A few years later, CBS aired a Western series named Cimarron Strip. However, none of those movies was actually filmed in Oklahoma, instead using Southern California locations.

The TNT crime drama Saving Grace was set in Oklahoma City, hometown of its creator Nancy Miller. While it used some location shots, it was largely filmed in Los Angeles and Vancouver. The HBO series Carnivàle was also set in Oklahoma, but filmed in Southern California.

*

Oklahoma is a long way from New York, but Oklahoma City is no one-horse town in the middle of nowhere. It's an interesting place, and a good place to watch a basketball game. Good luck to anyone going to see the Knicks or the Nets play the Thunder there this season.

This coming Monday night, the Devils will be in the San Francisco Bay Area, to play the San Jose Sharks.

This could be a bit upsetting to any Devils fans visiting. Not because there's any rivalry with the Sharks, or anything particularly unlikable about either the team, or the arena, or the city, but because the Sharks' current head coach is Peter DeBoer, who guided the Devils to the 2012 Eastern Conference Championship, then proved over the next 2 1/2 seasons that the team got there in spite, not because, of his coaching. We can now say the same for last season's Sharks.

Before You Go. The San Francisco Bay Area has inconsistent weather. San Francisco, in particular, partly because it's bounded by water on three sides, is the one city I know of that has baseball weather in football season and football weather in baseball season. Or, as Mark Twain, who worked for a San Francisco newspaper during the Civil War, put it, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

The websites of the San Jose Mercury News and the Oakland Tribune, and SFgate.com, the website of the San Francisco Chronicle, should be checked before you leave. For most of next week, they're predicting the mid-60s during the day and the high 40s at night, with rain from Saturday through Wednesday.

San Jose, the Bay Area as a whole, and the entire State of California are in the Pacific Time Zone, 3 hours behind New York and New Jersey. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.

Tickets. The Sharks averaged 16,861 fans per game last season, about 96 percent of capacity. And their run to the Stanley Cup Finals may jack attendance up. So, even though the Devils are not a regional or historical rival, getting tickets could be very difficult.

Seats in the lower level, the 100 sections, are $85 between the goals and $80 behind them. In the upper level, the 200 sections, they're $55 between the goals and $40 behind them.

Getting There. It's 2,906 miles from Times Square in Midtown Manhattan to Union Square in downtown San Francisco, and 2,928 miles from the Prudential Center in Newark to the SAP Center at San Jose. This is the 2nd-longest Devils roadtrip, behind only Vancouver. In other words, if you're going, you're flying.

You think I'm kidding? Even if you get someone to go with you, and you take turns, one drives while the other one sleeps, and you pack 2 days’ worth of food, and you use the side of the Interstate as a toilet, and you don’t get pulled over for speeding, you’ll still need over 2 full days. Each way.

But, if you really, really want to drive... Get onto Interstate 80 West in New Jersey, and – though incredibly long, it's also incredibly simple – you'll stay on I-80 for almost its entire length, which is 2,900 miles from Ridgefield Park, just beyond the New Jersey end of the George Washington Bridge, to the San Francisco end of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

If you're driving directly to San Jose (i.e., if your hotel is there), then, getting off I-80, you’ll need Exit 8A for I-880, the Nimitz Freeway – the 1997-rebuilt version of the double-decked expressway that collapsed, killing 42 people, during the Loma Prieta Earthquake that struck during the 1989 World Series between the 2 Bay Area teams. From I-880, you’ll take Exit 3A, for Santa Clara Street.

Not counting rest stops, you should be in New Jersey for an hour and a half, Pennsylvania for 5:15, Ohio for 4 hours, Indiana for 2:30, Illinois for 2:45, Iowa for 5 hours, Nebraska for 7:45, Wyoming for 6:45, Utah for 3:15, Nevada for 6:45, and California for 3:15. That’s almost 49 hours, and with rest stops, and city traffic at each end, we’re talking 3 full days.

That's still faster than Greyhound and Amtrak. Greyhound does stop in San Jose, at 70 S. Almaden Avenue at Post Street, within walking distance of the arena. But the trip averages about 80 hours, depending on the run, and will require you to change buses 2, 3, 4 or even 5 times. And you'd have to leave no later than Thursday morning to get there by Sunday gametime. Round-trip fare is $642, but it can drop to $504 with advanced purchase.

On Amtrak, to make it in time for a Monday night puck-drop, you would leave Penn Station on the Lake Shore Limited at 3:40 PM on Friday, arrive at Union Station in Chicago at 9:45 AM Central Time on Saturday, and switch to the California Zephyr at 2:00 PM, arriving at Emeryville, California at 4:10 PM Pacific Time on Monday. Round-trip fare: $596. Then you'd have to get to downtown San Francisco or San Jose.

Amtrak service has been restored to downtown Oakland, at 245 2nd Street, in Jack London Square. Unfortunately, it's a half-mile walk to the nearest BART station, at Lake Merritt (8th & Oak). For A's and Raiders games, the station at the Coliseum site, which is part of the BART station there, might be better. 700 73rd Street. And yet, for either of these stations, you'd   still have to transfer at Emeryville to an Amtrak Coast Starlight train.

Getting back, the California Zephyr leaves Emeryville at 9:10 AM, arrives in Chicago at 2:50 PM 2 days later, and the Lake Shore Limited leaves at 9:30 PM and arrives in New York at 6:23 PM the next day. So we're talking a Thursday to the next week's Thursday operation by train.

Newark to San Francisco is sometimes a relatively cheap flight, considering the distance. This week, you can get a round-trip nonstop flight on United Airlines for a little over $600. BART from SFO to downtown San Francisco takes 30 minutes, and it's $8.65. San Jose does have its own airport, named for the still-living former Congressman Norman Y. Mineta, but it's a little more expensive, and it won't be nonstop.

If you're trying to get from downtown San Francisco to San Jose, a 48-mile trip, CalTrain takes an hour and a half, and it's $19.50 round-trip to Diridon Station, 65 Cahill Street, 2 blocks south of the arena.

Once In the City. San Francisco was settled in 1776, and named for St. Francis of Assisi. San Jose was settled the next year, and named for Joseph, Jesus' earthly father. Both were incorporated in 1850. Oakland was founded in 1852, and named for oak trees in the area.

With the growth of the computer industry, San Jose has become the largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a little over 1 million people. San Francisco has about 850,000, and Oakland 400,000. Overall, the Bay Area is home to 8.6 million people and rising, making it the 4th largest metropolitan area in North America, behind New York with 23 million, Los Angeles with 18 million, and Chicago with just under 10 million.


Going In. Named the San Jose Arena from its 1993 opening until 2001, the Compaq Center at San Jose until 2002, and the HP Pavilion at San Jose until 2013, the SAP Center at San Jose, a.k.a. the Shark Tank, is easily identifiable by its triangular, "shark-toothed" roof.
The official address is 525 W. Santa Clara Street. If you're driving in, there's plenty of parking, as it's a mile west of downtown, and it's cheap at $9.50. Most likely, someone who drove in would enter from the north or the west gates.

The rink runs northeast-to-southwest. The Sharks attack twice at the northeast end.
The arena also hosts the San Jose Barracudas of the American Hockey League. The Golden State Warriors played the 1996-97 season there, while their arena at the Oakland Coliseum complex, now named the Oracle Arena, was being renovated. The San Jose SaberCats of the Arena Football League played there, making the Playoffs 16 times, winning 10 Division titles and 4 ArenaBowls: 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2015. And yet, despite being the current holders of the league title, the SaberCats have suspended operations.

In the entire world, only Madison Square Garden, the Manchester Evening News Arena in England, and the Air Canada Centre in Toronto are stadiums or arenas that sell more tickets to non-sporting events, including concerts and wrestling.

If you’re a fan of the TV show The West Wing, this was the convention center where the ticket of Matt Santos and Leo McGarry was nominated.

Food. San Francisco, due to being a waterfront city and a transportation and freight hub, has a reputation as one of America’s best food cities. San Jose's arena benefits from this.

Classix stands are at Sections 103, 113, 116 and 128. These have Nachos, Polish sausage, salad, fruit and snacks. Show Dogs has a specialty hot dog and baked potato stand at 104. Gordon Biersch, at 106, has the classic made famous at Giants games, Garlic Fries.

At 109 and 123, GrillWorks has Philly-style cheesesteaks, burgers, fries, onion rings and sausage. At 110, Sweet Spot has ice cream, cupcakes and cotton candy. At 117 and 127, Rio Adobe has Mexican food. At 118, Le Boulanger has sandwiches, salads and chowder bread bowls. At 120, Panda Express has Chinese food. At 121, Amici's has pizza. At 126, Togo's has deli sandwiches.

In the upper level, at 206, Armadillo Willy's has barbecue. At 210, The Carvery has deli sandwiches. At 220, Sonoma Chicken Coop has chicken dishes. And at 223, Pasta Pomodora has Italian food.

Team History Displays. The Sharks haven't yet won a Stanley Cup. Last season was the 1st in which they won a Western Conference Championship. In only 4 seasons have they even reached the Conference Finals: In 2004, 2010, 2011 and 2016. They did win the President's Trophy, for best overall record in the League, in the 2009 season, for which they also hang a banner for being "Western Conference Regular Season Champions." And they've won 7 Division Championships: 2002, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2016. They have banners reflecting these titles, hanging from the rafters at the northeast end.
Despite celebrating their 25th Anniversary last season, the Sharks have not yet retired any numbers. There are 4 players who played for them have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, but, between them, played less than 7 full seasons for them: Igor Larionov, Ed Belfour, Rob Blake and Sergi Makarov.

The Sharks did, however, have fan voting for their 25th Anniversary Team, as follows: Forwards Patrick Marleau, Owen Nolan, Joe Thornton, Jonathan Cheechoo, Joe Pavleski and Mike Ricci; defensemen Brent Burns, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Dan Boyle and Douglas Murray; and goaltenders Evgeni Nabovkov and Arturs Irbe. Marleau, Thornton, Burns, Vlasic and team Captain Pavleski are still with the Sharks.

Mark Pavelich, a member of the Gold Medal-winning 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, lasted long enough in the NHL to become an original Shark in 1991-92, even assisting Craig Coxe on the team's 1st-ever regular-season goal. No players who had yet played for the Sharks, and no players from the Seals franchise, where named to The Hockey News' 100 Greatest Players in 1998.

The Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame (BASHOF) is unusual in that its exhibits are spread over several locations. No induction plaques are on display at the SAP Center, and no Sharks have yet been inducted. Nor have any Seals.

Stuff. The Sharks Store is on the south side of the arena, on the ground floor. They also have team stores throughout the Bay Area. These stores include hats with shark fins on them.

The Giants, the A's, the 49ers, the Raiders, and even the Warriors are historic Bay Area sports teams, with 17 World Championships and 25 finals appearances between them. But in a quarter of a century, the Sharks have never been to a Stanley Cup Finals. So there is no video retrospective, and even books about them are few and far between. You would think that the 25th Anniversary would have changed this, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

In 1994, entering their 4th season and coming off 2 awful expansion seasons and a 3rd with an epic 8th seed vs. 1st seed Playoff upset of the Detroit Red Wings, Steve Cameron wrote Feeding Frenzy! The Wild New World of the San Jose Sharks. In 2001, Ken Arnold wrote Decade of Teal: 10 Years With the San Jose Sharks. And, just last Summer, Laura Winters wrote the Sharks' entry in the Inside the NHL series.

During the Game. A November 19, 2014 article on The Hockey News' website ranked the NHL teams' fan bases, and listed the Sharks' fans 15th, right in the middle: "Fans come out in droves, but middling ratings otherwise push them down."

This is not a Raider game, where people come dressed as pirates, biker gangsters, Darth Vader, the Grim Reaper, and so on. Nor is this a Giant game where you might be wearing Dodger gear. This is a Sharks game. While they're not particularly fond of their fellow West Coasters the Los Angeles Kings, the Anaheim Ducks or the Vancouver Canucks, you will be safe wearing your Devils colors.

The Sharks' game against the Devils will, since they'll be on the road on the 17th, have a St. Patrick's Day theme, with green Sharks hats given away.

The Sharks skate onto the ice through a large shark mouth around the tunnel entrance, to the tune of Metallica's "Seek and Destroy." They have a variation on the "Hey, you suck!" chant by yelling it at the entire opposing team after they're introduced.

They hold auditions for National Anthem singers, instead of having a regular. After years of having "Rock and Roll Part II" by Gary Glitter as their goal song, they wisely dropped the convicted sex offender's song and had new "Hey Song" written and recorded for them by a local group called SixxAM.
The mascot is S.J. Sharkie (S.J. for San Jose), although he looks more like a weird dog than a man-eating fish.

As a Sharks power play begins, the theme from Jaws plays, and the fans move their arms like shark jaws, similar to the University of Florida Gators gesture. When the familiar "Da da da DAT da DAAAA!" is played, instead of "Charge!" the response is "Sharks!"

And, trying to copy the tradition from Detroit of throwing an octopus onto the ice, Sharks fans have taken to throwing leopard sharks, a small variety of the fish, onto the ice.

After the Game. Again, Shark fans are not Raider fans. And the San Jose arena is far from any crime issues. Don't antagonize anyone, and you'll be fine.

If you want to go out for a postgame meal or drinks, across the railroad tracks, Santa Clara Street becomes The Alameda, and at 754 The Alameda is a place with a name that sort of ties into the Sharks' theme: Bluefin Sushi & Japanese Restaurant. If you want something on the go, a Whole Foods is at 777 The Alameda. The Poor House Bistro is just down the block at 91 S. Autumn Street. Henry's World Famous Hi-Life, a renowned Bay Area barbecue joint, is just across the Guadelupe River at 301 W. St. John Street.

There are three bars in the Lower Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco that are worth mentioning. Aces, at 998 Sutter Street & Hyde Street in San Francisco’' Lower Nob Hill neighborhood, is said to have a Yankee sign out front and a Yankee Fan as the main bartender. It’s also the home port of Mets, NFL Giants, Knicks and Rangers fans in the Bay Area.

R Bar, at 1176 Sutter & Polk Street, is the local Jets fan hangout. And Greens Sports Bar, at 2239 Polk at Green Street, is also said to be a Yankee-friendly bar. A recent Thrillist article on the best sports bars in every State named as California's the Kezar Pub, at 770 Stanyan Street, opposite the new Kezar Stadium in Golden Gate Park. Number 7 bus. Of course, you’ll have to cross the Bay by car or by BART to get to these bars.

The Kezar Pub is also rated as one of the best bars to watch European soccer games. If you visit the Bay Area during that sport's season (which is in progress), these San Francisco bars are also recommended, due to their early openings: Maggie McGarry's, 1353 Grant Avenue, Bus 30; The Mad Dog in the Fog, 530 Haight Street, MUNI N Line or Bus 6; and Danny Coyle's, 668 Haight Street, MUNI N Line or Bus 6.

Sidelights. The San Francisco Bay Area, including the East Bay (which includes Oakland), has a very rich sports history. Here are some of the highlights:

* AT&T Park. Home of the Giants since 2000, it has been better for them than Candlestick -- aesthetically, competitively, financially, you name it. Winning 3 World Series since it opened, it's been home to The Freak (Tim Lincecum) and The Steroid Freak (Barry Bonds).

It's hosted some college football games, and a February 10, 2006 win by the U.S. soccer team over Japan. 24 Willie Mays Plaza, at 3rd & King Streets.

Bryant Street, 16th Street, Potrero Avenue and Alameda Street, in the Mission District. Hard to reach by public transport: The Number 10 bus goes down Townsend Street and Rhode Island Avenue until reaching 16th, but then it’s an 8-block walk. The Number 27 can be picked up at 5th & Harrison Streets, and will go right there.

* Candlestick Park. Home of the Giants from 1960 to 1999, the NFL 49ers since 1970, and the Raiders in the 1961 season, this may have been the most-maligned sports facility in North American history. Its seaside location (Candlestick Point) has led to spectators being stricken by wind (a.k.a. The Hawk), cold, and even fog.

It was open to the Bay until 1971, including the 1962 World Series between the Yankees and the Giants, and was then enclosed to expand it from 42,000 to 69,000 seats for the Niners. It also got artificial turf for the 1970 season, one of the first stadiums to have it – though, to the city's credit, it was also the 1st NFL stadium and 2nd MLB stadium (after Comiskey Park in Chicago) to switch back to real grass.

The Giants only won 2 Pennants there, and never a World Series. But the 49ers have won 5 Super Bowls while playing there, with 3 of their 6 NFC Championship Games won as the home team. The NFL Giants did beat the 49ers in the 1990 NFC Championship Game, scoring no touchdowns but winning 15-13 thanks to 5 Matt Bahr field goals. The Beatles played their last "real concert" ever at the 'Stick on August 29, 1966, 50 years ago this summer. Only 25,000 people came out, a total probably driven down by the stadium’s reputation and John Lennon's comments about religion on that tour.

The Giants got out, and the 49ers have now done the same, with their new stadium opening last year. The last sporting event was a U.S. national soccer team win over Azerbaijan earlier this year, the 4th game the Stars & Stripes played there (2 wins, 2 losses). It has now been demolished, and good riddance.

Best way to the site by public transport isn't a good one: The KT light rail at 4th & King Streets, at the CalTrain terminal, to 3rd & Gilman Streets, and then it’s almost a mile’s walk down Jagerson Avenue. So unless you’re driving/renting a car, or you’re a sports history buff who HAS to see the place, I wouldn’t suggest making time for it.

In spite of the Raiders' return, the 49ers are more popular -- according to a 2014 Atlantic Monthly
article, even in Alameda County. The Raiders remain more popular in the Los Angeles area, a holdover from their 1982-94 layover, and also a consequence of L.A. not having had a team since.
* Kezar Stadium. The 49ers played here from their 1946 founding until 1970, the Raiders spent their inaugural 1960 season here, and previous pro teams in the city also played at this facility at the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park, a mere 10-minute walk from the fabled corner of Haight & Ashbury Streets.

High school football, including the annual City Championship played on Thanksgiving Day, used to be held here as well. Bob St. Clair, who played there in high school, college (University of San Francisco) and the NFL in a Hall of Fame career with the 49ers, has compared it to Chicago's Wrigley Field as a "neighborhood stadium." After the 49ers left, it became a major concert venue.

The original 60,000-seat structure was built in 1925, and was torn down in 1989 (a few months before the earthquake, so there's no way to know what the quake would have done to it), and was replaced in 1990 with a 9,000-seat stadium, much more suitable for high school sports. The original Kezar, named for one of the city’s pioneering families, had a cameo in the Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry. Frederick & Stanyan Streets, Kezar Drive and Arguello Blvd. MUNI light rail N train.

* Emeryville Park. Also known as Oaks Park, this was the home of the Pacific Coast League's Oakland Oaks from 1913 until 1955. The Oaks won Pennants there in 1927, '48, '50 and '54.

Most notable of these was the 1948 Pennant, won by a group of players who had nearly all played in the majors and were considered old, and were known as the Nine Old Men (a name often given to the U.S. Supreme Court). These old men included former Yankee 1st baseman Nick Etten, the previous year’s World Series hero Cookie Lavagetto of the Brooklyn Dodgers (an Oakland native), Hall of Fame catcher Ernie Lombardi (another Oakland native), and one very young player, a 20-year-old 2nd baseman from Berkeley named Billy Martin. Their manager? Casey Stengel. Impressed by Casey’s feat of managing the Nine Old Men to a Pennant in a league that was pretty much major league quality, and by his previously having managed the minor-league version of the Milwaukee Brewers to an American Association Pennant, Yankee owners Dan Topping and Del Webb hired Casey to manage in 1949. Casey told Billy that if he ever got the chance to bring him east, he would, and he was as good as his word.

Pixar Studios has built property on the site. 45th Street, San Pablo Avenue, Park Avenue and Watts Street, Emeryville, near the Amtrak station. Number 72 bus from Jack London Square.
* Frank Youell Field. This was another stopgap facility, used by the Raiders from 1962 to 1965, a 22,000-seat stadium that was named after an Oakland undertaker – perhaps fitting, although the Raiders didn't yet have that image. Interestingly from a New York perspective, the first game here was between the Raiders and the forerunners of the Jets, the New York Titans.

It was demolished in 1969. A new field of the same name was built on the site for Laney College. East 8th Street, 5th Avenue, East 10th Street and the Oakland Estuary. Lake Merritt BART station.

* Cow Palace. The more familiar name of the Grand National Livestock Pavilion, this big barn just south of the City Line in Daly City has hosted just about everything, from livestock shows and rodeos to the 1956 and 1964 Republican National Conventions. (Yes, the Republicans came here, not the "hippie" Democrats.)
The ’64 Convention is where New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller refused to be booed off the podium when he dared to speak out against the John Birch Society – the Tea Party idiots of their time – and when Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona was nominated, telling them, "I would remind you, my fellow Republicans, that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And I would remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." (Personally, I think that extremism in the defense of liberty is no defense of liberty.)

Built in 1941, it is one of the oldest remaining former NBA and NHL sites, having hosted the NBA's Warriors (then calling themselves the San Francisco Warriors) from 1962 to 1971, the NHL's San Jose Sharks from their 1991 debut until their current arena could open in 1993, and several minor-league hockey teams.

The 1960 NCAA Final Four was held here, culminating in Ohio State, led by Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek (with future coaching legend Bobby Knight as the 6th man) beating local heroes and defending National Champions California, led by Darrell Imhoff.

The Beatles played here on August 19, 1964 and August 31, 1965, and Elvis Presley sang here on November 13, 1970 and November 28 & 29, 1976. It was the site of Neil Young's 1978 concert that produced the live album Live Rust and the concert film Rust Never Sleeps, and the 1986 Conspiracy of Hope benefit with Joan Baez, Lou Reed, Sting and U2. The acoustics of the place, and the loss of such legendary venues as the Fillmore West and the Winterland Ballroom, make it the Bay Area’s holiest active rock and roll site. 2600 Geneva Avenue at Santos Street, in Daly City. 8X bus.

In addition to the preceding, Elvis sang at the Auditorium Arena (now the Kaiser Convention Center, near the Laney College campus in Oakland) early in his career, on June 3, 1956 and again on October 27, 1957; and the San Francisco Civic Auditorium (now the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 99 Grove Street at Polk Street) on October 26, 1957.

* Levi's Stadium. The official address of Levi's Stadium is 4900 Marie P. DeBartolo Way, after the mother of former 49ers owner and newly-elected Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Eddie DeBartolo. (If you're going to apply to the U.S. Postal Service to make it 4900, why not 4949?) The intersection is Marie P. DeBartolo Way and Tasman Drive. It's 46 miles southeast of downtown San Francisco, 39 miles southeast of downtown Oakland, and 9 miles northwest of downtown San Jose. CalTrain from downtown San Francisco to Santa Clara station. California's Great America theme part is next-door. From downtown San Jose, take the 916 trolley.

It hosts the Pacific-12 Conference Championship Game, and in 2019 (for the 2018 season) it will host the College Football Playoff National Championship.

The NHL hosted a Stadium Series outdoor hockey game there last year, with the San Jose Sharks losing to their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Kings. It is contracted to host 1 San Jose Earthquakes game per year, and last year Manchester United beat Barcelona there. It hosted games of the 2016 Copa America.

* Avaya Stadium. The brand-new home of Major League Soccer's San Jose Earthquakes, it is soccer-specific and seats 18,000 people. 1123 Coleman Avenue & Newhall Drive; 41 miles from downtown Oakland, 46 from downtown San Francisco, 3 1/2 from downtown San Jose. ACE (Altamont Commuter Express) to Great America-Santa Clara.

This is actually the 3rd version of the San Jose Earthquakes. The 1st one played in the original North American Soccer League from 1974 to 1984, at Spartan Stadium. This has been home to San Jose State University sports since 1933, it hosted both the old Earthquakes, of the original North American Soccer League, from 1974 to 1984. It's hosted 3 games of the U.S. national team, most recently a 2007 loss to China, and games of the 1999 Women's World Cup.

1251 S. 10th Street, San Jose. San Jose Municipal Stadium, home of the Triple-A San Jose Giants, is a block away at 588 E. Alma Avenue. From either downtown San Francisco or downtown Oakland, take BART to Fremont terminal, then 181 bus to 2nd & Santa Clara, then 68 bus to Monterey & Alma.

The 2nd version of the Quakes played at Spartan Stadium from 1996 to 2005, but ran into financial trouble, and got moved to become the Houston Dynamo. The 3rd version was started in 2008, and until 2014 played at Buck Shaw Stadium, now called Stevens Stadium, in Santa Clara, on the campus of Santa Clara University. Also accessible by the Santa Clara ACE station.

* Stanford Stadium. This is the home field of Stanford University in Palo Alto, down the Peninsula from San Francisco. Originally built in 1921, it was home to many great quarterbacks, from early 49ers signal-caller Frankie Albert to 1971 Heisman winner Jim Plunkett to John Elway. It hosted Super Bowl XIX in 1985, won by the 49ers over the Miami Dolphins – 1 of only 2 Super Bowls that ended up having had a team that could have been called a home team. (The other was XIV, the Los Angeles Rams losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Rose Bowl.)

It also hosted San Francisco's games of the 1994 World Cup, a game of the 1999 Women's World Cup, and the soccer games of the 1984 Olympics, even though most of the events of those Olympics were down the coast in Los Angeles. It hosted 10 games by the U.S. national team, totaling 4 wins, 2 losses, 2 draws.

The original 85,000-seat structure was demolished and replaced with a new 50,000-seat stadium in 2006. Arboretum Road & Galvez Street. Caltrain to Palo Alto, 36 miles from downtown Oakland, 35 from downtown San Francisco, 19 from downtown San Jose.

* California Memorial Stadium. Home of Stanford’s arch-rivals, the University of California, at its main campus in Berkeley in the East Bay. (The school is generally known as "Cal" for sports, and "Berkeley" for most other purposes.) Its location in the Berkeley Hills makes it one of the nicest settings in college football. But it's also, quite literally, on the Hayward Fault, a branch of the San Andreas Fault, so if "The Big One" had hit during a Cal home game, 72,000 people would have been screwed. With this in mind, the University renovated the stadium, making it safer and ready for 63,000 fans in 2012. So, like their arch-rivals Stanford, they now have a new stadium on the site of the old one.

The old stadium hosted 1 NFL game, and it was a very notable one: Due to a scheduling conflict with the A's, the Raiders played a 1973 game there with the Miami Dolphins, and ended the Dolphins' winning streak that included the entire 1972 season and Super Bowl VII. 76 Canyon Road, Berkeley. Downtown Berkeley stop on BART; 5 1/2 miles from downtown Oakland, 14 from downtown San Francisco, 48 from downtown San Jose.

Yankee Legend Joe DiMaggio, who grew up in San Francisco and later divided his time between there and South Florida, is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, on the Peninsula. 1500 Mission Road & Lawndale Blvd. BART to South San Francisco, then about a 1-mile walk.

The Fillmore Auditorium was at Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard, and it still stands and hosts live music. Bus 38L. Winterland Ballroom, home of the final concerts of The Band (filmed as The Last Waltz) and the Sex Pistols, was around the corner from the Fillmore at Post & Steiner Streets. And the legendary corner of Haight & Ashbury Streets can be reached via the 30 Bus, taking it to Haight and Masonic Avenue and walking 1 block west.

San Francisco, like New York, has a Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), at 151 3rd Street, downtown. The California Palace of the Legion of Honor is probably the city's most famous museum, in Lincoln Park at the northwestern corner of the city, near the Presidio and the Golden Gate Bridge. (Any of you who are Trekkies, the Presidio is a now-closed military base that, in the Star Trek Universe, is the seat of Starfleet Command and Starfleet Academy.) And don't forget to take a ride on one of them cable cars I've been hearing so dang much about.

Oakland isn't much of a museum city, especially compared with San Francisco across the Bay. But the Oakland Museum of California (10th & Oak, Lake Merritt BART) and the Chabot Space & Science Center (10000 Skyline Blvd., not accessible by BART) may be worth a look.
While San Francisco has been the setting for lots of TV shows (from Ironside and The Streets of San Francisco in the 1970s, to Full House and Dharma & Greg in the 1990s), Oakland, being much less glamorous, has had only one that I know of: Hangin' With Mr. Cooper, comedian Mark Curry's show about a former basketball player who returns to his old high school to teach. And San Jose hasn't had enough that much.

In contrast, lots of movies have been shot in Oakland, including a pair of baseball-themed movies shot at the Coliseum: Moneyball, based on Michael Lewis' book about the early 2000s A's, with Brad Pitt as general manager Billy Beane; and the 1994 remake of Angels In the Outfield, filmed there because a recent earthquake had damaged the real-life Angels' Anaheim Stadium, and it couldn't be repaired in time for filming.

Movies set in San Francisco often take advantage of the city's topography, and include the Dirty Harry series, Bullitt (based on the same real-life cop, Dave Toschi); The Maltese Falcon, starring Humphrey Bogart; Woody Allen's Bogart tribute, Play It Again, Sam; The Lady from Shanghai, the original version of D.O.A., 48 Hrs., and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home -- with the aircraft carrier USS Ranger, at the Alameda naval base, standing in for the carrier USS Enterprise, which was then away at sea and unavailable.

The Fan, about a fan's obsession with a Giants player, filmed at Candlestick Park. So did Experiment In Terror, Freebie and the Bean, and Contagion.

The 1936 film San Francisco takes place around the earthquake and fire that devastated the city in 1906. And Milk starred Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, America's 1st openly gay successful politician, elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 1977 before being assassinated with Mayor George Moscone the next year.

Movies set in San Francisco often have scenes filmed there and in Oakland, including Pal Joey, Mahogany, Basic Instinct, the James Bond film A View to a Kill, and Mrs. Doubtfire, starring San Francisco native Robin Williams.

San Jose hasn't yet been as lucky. No notable TV show has been set or filmed there. Alfred Hitchcock filmed Vertigo and The Birds in and around San Francisco, but used San Jose's Diridon Station as a stand-in for a Connecticut station for his 1964 film Marnie.

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So, if you can afford it, go on out and join your fellow Devils fans in going coast-to-coast, and take on the San Jose Sharks. Just be nice to your hosts, and ignore Peter Da Bore, and you should be all right.

Warning: If you are a Penn State fan, and are still a defender of Joe Paterno...

Well, then you're probably too stupid to be able to read, so, no problem.

Rutgers played the 1st college football game in 1869. Penn State started playing football in 1887. They first met in 1918. They meet for the 27th time this Saturday night at 8:00, at High Point Solutions Stadium (a.k.a. the new Rutgers Stadium) in Piscataway, Middlesex County, New Jersey.
Here is the complete record, every game played between the Scarlet Knights and the Nittany Scum:

November 9, 1918: Just 2 days before the Armistice ends World War I, Rutgers College (as they were known at the time) and Pennsylvania State University play each other in football for the 1st time. The game is in State College, Pennsylvania, at Beaver Field (roughly on the site of the current Nittany Parking Deck, and the field was probably as hard as that concrete now is), and Rutgers wins, 26-3.

For Rutgers against Penn State, it will never be so good again. Indeed, it will be 32 years, 5 Presidents and another entire World War before they even play each other again.

November 18, 1950: RU and PSU play again. PSU wins 18-14.

November 17, 1951: They play each other in New Jersey for the 1st time, at the old Rutgers Stadium, on whose site the current High Point Solutions Stadium was built, on the University Heights Campus (now the Busch Campus) in Piscataway. Penn State 13, Rutgers 7.

November 15, 1952: Penn State 7, Rutgers 6 at Beaver Field.

November 14, 1953: Penn State 54, Rutgers 26 at Rutgers Stadium.

November 13, 1954: Penn State 37, Rutgers 14 at Beaver Field.

November 12, 1955: On the day that the events of the 1st Back to the Future film come to a climax, Penn State beats Rutgers 34-13 at Rutgers Stadium.

September 2, 1977: Fresh off their undefeated season the year before, but having not been invited to a bowl game larger than the Independence Bowl -- which they stupidly turned down -- Rutgers realizes it has to upgrade its schedule if it wasn't to be taken serious in what it's now calling "bigger-time football." So they play Penn State again, at the relatively new Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands of East Rutherford. This is also the 1st time Rutgers plays against a team coached by Joe Paterno.

And, for the 1st time since October 11, 1975 (34-20 to Lehigh), RU lose. For the 1st time since November 2, 1974 (9-7 to Connecticut), they lose "at home." And for the 1st time since November 24, 1973 (42-0 to  Colgate), they are blown out at home. Penn State wins 45-7. "Bigger time" has not yet come for the Scarlet Knights.

The announced crowd of 64,790 was then the biggest official home crowd in the 108-year history of Rutgers football, although it may have sounded like a home game for Penn State.

September 9, 1978: Penn State 26, Rutgers 10. This is the 1st game Rutgers plays at Beaver Stadium, which opened in 1960.

September 15, 1979: Penn State 45, Rutgers 10. This is Penn State's 1st game at Rutgers Stadium in 24 years, making it Paterno's 1st game there as head coach.

September 18, 1982: After 2 seasons apart, Penn State comes back to Piscataway, and wins 49-14.

October 1, 1983: RU gets a "home game" 2 seasons in a row, but it does no good. Penn State wins 36-25 at the Meadowlands. This 11-point deficit is the closest Rutgers has come to beating them in 31 years, but that is small consolation. Only 32,804 turn up, a crowd that could almost have fit into Rutgers Stadium.

September 8, 1984: Penn State wins 15-12 at Beaver Stadium, the closest Rutgers has come since the Truman Administration, but still a loss.

September 28, 1985: In front of 54,560 at the Meadowlands, the Knights lose to Penn State 17-10.

October 4, 1986: Penn State wins 31-6 at Beaver Stadium.

October 10, 1987: Penn State wins 35-21 at Beaver Stadium.

September 24, 1988: Finally, for the 1st time in 70 years, Rutgers beats Penn State. The score is 21-16, and it happens in Happy Valley, in front of 85,531 fans. Penn State mounted a late comeback, led by Tony Sacca, a quarterback from Delran, Burlington County, New Jersey, but the Scarlet defense made a courageous stand and stopped the Lions.
Along with the 2006 win over Louisville, it is arguably the most treasured football game in Rutgers history.
Just 5 months later, Rutgers would beat Penn State for the Atlantic 10 Conference basketball title, which remains that program's biggest win since the Final Four season of 1975-76.

October 17, 1989: Seeking revenge for the 1st time... ever, really, since after the 1st game they didn't play again for 32 years, Penn State comes into the Meadowlands and beats Rutgers 17-0, in front of 57,688 fans, the majority of whom were rooting for Penn State.

September 28, 1990: Penn State 28, Rutgers 0 at Beaver Stadium.

October 19, 1991: Penn State wins 37-17 at Beaver Stadium.

October 3, 1992: Penn State 38, Rutgers 24 at Giants Stadium. The crowd of 72,203 remains a record for a Rutgers "home" game, but, again, the Penn State fans easily outnumbered the Scarlet faithful.

September 25, 1993: Penn State 31, Rutgers 7 at Beaver Stadium.

September 24, 1994: Penn State wins 55-27 at Beaver Stadium. This is the most points that Penn State had ever scored on Rutgers. Since the 1988 loss at Happy Valley, Paterno had driven his team to punish Rutgers, beating them by an average score of 34-14. Apparently, Ol' Ratface was just getting warmed up.

September 23, 1995: Penn State 59, Rutgers 34, in front of 58,870 fans in a nationally-televised game at the Meadowlands. Penn State scored 8 touchdowns. That's right: Eight touchdowns. The last was on a 58-yard pass following a fake handoff, with 1 minute and 6 seconds left, and the Lions already up by 18 points. There was no excuse for this. Paterno was just trying to be an asshole, to show that his team was Penn State, and that he could do whatever he wanted, and never be punished for it.

Or was there an excuse for it? The spread, going into the game, was 20 points. The pass ensured that Penn State covered the spread. The Penn State quarterback was Mike McQueary. He would be rewarded with a place on Paterno's staff.

Years later, it was McQueary who caught Jerry Sandusky in the act, and whose testimony brought Sandusky and Paterno down. Making him, I suppose, the John Dean, if not the Joe Valachi, of Penn State.

But Sandusky's defense team attacked McQueary's character, saying he had a gambling problem, and that his rub-it-in touchdown against Rutgers was to cover the spread and win a bet -- something which, if known at the time, would have gotten Penn State put on probation, costing it scholarships, making it ineligible for the conference title and bowl games, and possibly costing Paterno his job long before those things did happen to Penn State.

It would be another few years before we found out just how much Paterno was covering up in Happy Valley -- and another few years after that before we found out that his players' crimes (including an armed robbery) paled in significance compared to those of his most trusted assistant coach.

At any rate, when the time came for the postgame handshake between the coaches, Graber got in Paterno's rodentlike face and said, "I didn't think you played like that." Paterno, outraged that someone would call him on the 30-year lie that was his squeaky-clean image, yelled back at Graber, "Awwww, bullshit!" Hey, Paterno was the expert on bullshit. Graber was the one who kept his cool, and refused to swear, not Paterno.
Anyway, with Rutgers having joined the Big East for the 1991 season, and Penn State having joined the Big Ten for the 1993 season, conference scheduling requirements put an end to the rivalry for 19 years, until the Big East began falling apart, and Rutgers, not wanting to be stuck in a minor league (as they effectively were for so long as an "Eastern Independent" until the Big East was founded), accepted a lifeline from the Big Ten.

November 4, 2011: The Jerry Sandusky scandal breaks. Paterno knew, but kept him around. Like the man he supported to the end, Richard Nixon, the question became, "What did he know, and when did he know it?" And, like Tricky Dick, Ol' Ratface was a criminal who had to go.
Five days later, Paterno announced he was retiring at the end of the season. Within hours, the University denied him the right to go out on anything resembling his own terms, and fired him. Hundreds of Penn State students rioted in support of a man who had covered up his knowledge of what used to be known as "unspeakable acts."

Within days of this, it was announced that Paterno had lung cancer. He died on January 22, 2012, 39 days after he was fired. Paterno won 409 games as a head coach, making him the all-time leader in what used to be known as Division I-A, now the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The previous leader was Bear Bryant, with 323 wins, 232 of them at the University of Alabama. Bryant was once asked what he do in retirement, and said, "Quit coaching? I'd croak in a week." He died 28 days after coaching his last game. Bryant did a lot of things wrong in his coaching career, but nothing like what Paterno did.
July 30, 2014: With the matchup being revived in the coming season, the rivalry was reborn, and it wasn't Rutgers who started it.

Bill Belton of Sicklerville, Camden County, a graduate of Winslow Township High School, told a reporter for the Penn State-themed website OnwardState.com, "Rutgers recruited me, but I wanted to play big-time football, so I came to Penn State."

"Big-time football"? There are currently 31 Penn State players on NFL rosters. There are currently 18 Rutgers players on NFL rosters -- and that doesn't count Ray Rice, who isn't on one, but, before his exile, was better than any from either school. True, 18 is not 31, but it's a big-time number.

"Big-time football"? Rutgers has never played in a New Year's Day bowl. But Penn State hasn't played in one since the 2008-09 season. And Rutgers has never been made ineligible for a bowl. At least, not officially.

"Big-time football"? In Belton's 4 years at Penn State -- 2011, '12, '13 and '14 -- Penn State went 31-19, and went to 2 bowl games, winning 1. Over that same stretch, Rutgers went 32-20, going to a bowl game all 4 years, winning 2 of them. In league play, Penn State finished 2nd, 2nd, 3rd and 6th. Rutgers finished 1st, 4th, 4th and 6th. In other words, competitively speaking, Penn State and Rutgers were pretty much equal. And Rutgers achieved this without being able to recruit with Penn State's pre-scandal reputation.

When Bill Belton said that stupid statement, he was entering his senior year. He was not drafted by any of the 32 NFL teams. He was signed by the Jets, but cut in training camp. He has never played a down of pro football. Wow, that Penn State tenure really helped you, didn't it?

September 13, 2014: Rutgers plays its 1st official Big Ten Conference football game, and Penn State plays its 1st game at High Point Solutions Stadium, formerly "the new Rutgers Stadium." In front of a crowd of 53,774 -- a full house and then some, if official capacity is to be believed -- Rutgers blows a 10-0 2nd half lead at home, and Penn State wins 13-10.

This was the 1st time social media was available after a Rutgers-Penn State game, and, naturally, the Penn State fans rubbed it in like the scum they are. Rutgers would finish 3-5 in their 1st season in the Big Ten, Penn State 2-6. Ol' Ratface and his pederast pal may have been gone, but as far as the rivalry between the Scarlet Naughts and the Nittany Scum was concerned, nothing had changed.

September 19, 2015: Penn State 28, Rutgers 3, in front of 103,323 spectators, all but a few thousand of them Paterno's yokels, at Beaver Stadium.

The current record: Penn State has won 24 games, Rutgers only 2.

November 19, 2016: The Scarlet Knights and the Nittany Lions play each other again, in Piscataway, just 11 days after Pennsylvania gave its Electoral Votes to Donald Trump, in an election that could well have been called "The Revenge of Joe Paterno's Fans." (Paterno was a longtime Republican donor, and one of his sons ran for Congress as a Republican -- and lost. But he also had a son and a daughter who are Democrats.)

RU goes in at 2-8, having already lost to Michigan 78-0, Michigan State 49-0, Ohio State 48-0, and Pac-12 opponent Washington 48-13. Penn State goes in at 8-2, ranked Number 9 in the country, having already beaten Ohio State, then ranked Number 2, and hung 62 points on Purdue.

The game will be the Big Ten Network's Saturday night showcase. It could be a Saturday night massacre.

However, if this were an English soccer game, some "footy fan" might say, "Penn State are going to rape Rutgers."

And they say Americans don't know about irony.

September 24, 1988: Finally, for the 1st time in 70 years, Rutgers beats Penn State. The score is 21-16, and it happens at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania, in Happy Valley, in front of 85,531 fans.

Penn State mounted a late comeback, led by Tony Sacca, a quarterback from Delran, Burlington County, New Jersey, but the Scarlet Knight defense made a courageous stand and stopped the Lions.

Along with the 2006 win over Louisville, it is arguably the most treasured football game in Rutgers history.
Just 5 months later, Rutgers would beat Penn State for the Atlantic 10 Conference basketball title, which remains that program's biggest win since the Final Four season of 1975-76.

If I had been doing this at the time, I would have had to say the last time Rutgers beat Penn State was in their 1st-ever meeting, in 1918, 70 years earlier, during World War I and the Spanish Flu Epidemic.

Now, this wasn't nearly as long ago. Still... 9 meetings over a period of 28 years and 2 months, with the next meeting coming up this Saturday. How long has that been?

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There was no Big East Conference, which is just as well, as Rutgers was never going to win it, regardless of whether Penn State was going to be in it. It would have hurt Penn State far more anyway, since it would have meant a tougher schedule for Ol' Ratface Joe Paterno.

As I said, Beaver Stadium could fit over 85,000 people, and it's since been expanded so that over 110,000 can squeeze in. Rutgers Stadium could seat a mere 23,000, with room on grass berms to raise "seating" capacity to 30,000, not that it was needed very often. It's since been replaced by a stadium capable of holding over 53,000.

Despite opening the season by beating defending Big Ten Champion Michigan State and then beating Penn State, coach Dick Anderson's Scarlet Knights only went 5-6. Meanwhile, the Nittany Lions started out 4-1, Rutgers being the only team to beat them in that stretch, but then lost 5 out of their last 6, including losing to Pittsburgh at Beaver Stadium and away to Notre Dame, who went on to win the National Championship.

The defending National Champions were the University of Miami, a year after Penn State stopped them from winning the National Championship in a thrilling Fiesta Bowl. The defending World Champions at the time were the Minnesota Twins (with the Los Angeles Dodgers about to replace them), the Washington Redskins, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Edmonton Oilers.

Only 6 stadiums in use by MLB teams in 1988 are still in use: Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Anaheim (now Angel) Stadium down Interstate 5, the Oakland Coliseum up Interstate 5, Fenway Park in Boston, Wrigley Field in Chicago, and Royals (now Kauffman) Stadium in Kansas City. 

There were 7 current NFL stadiums in use then: Rich Stadium (New Era Field) outside Buffalo, Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, the Los Angeles Coliseum (albeit then the home of the Raiders, not the Rams), Joe Robbie (Hard Rock) Stadium outside Miami, the Superdome in New Orleans and Jack Murphy (Qualcomm) Stadium in San Diego.

Only 4 NBA arenas from the Autumn of 1988 are still in use: Madison Square Garden in New York, the Palace of Auburn Hills outside Detroit, the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, and the Oakland Coliseum (Oracle) Arena. Only 3 NHL arenas are left: The Garden, the Saddledome in Calgary, and the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit (and that will be gone after this season).

The defining football players of the era in which I grew up? Aside from Joe Montana, they were pretty much all retired. Ray Lewis was 13 years old, Peyton Manning was 12, Tom Brady 11, Drew Brees 9, Tony Romo 8, Eli Manning and Troy Polamalu 7, Ben Roethlisberger 6, Ryan Fitzpatrick 5, Aaron Rodgers 4. Clay Matthews 2, Richard Sherman was 6 months old, and Russell Wilson, Cam Newton, Rob Gronkowski, Andrew Luck, Johnny Manziel and Marcus Mariota weren't born yet.

The current coaches of each team were in high school: Chris Ash of Rutgers in Ottumwa, Iowa, and James Franklin of Penn State in Langhorne, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Of the current New York Tri-State Area teams' mangers and head coaches: Terry Collins of the Mets was managing in the Dodgers' minor-league system, Alain Vigneault of the Rangers was coaching in junior hockey, Jeff Hornacek of the Nets was playing for with the Phoenix Suns, Todd Bowles of the Jets was a defensive back with the Washington Redskins, Joe Girardi of the Yankees was in the Chicago Cubs' minor-league system, Jack Capuano of the Islanders was in the minor leagues, Kenny Atkinson of the Nets was at the University of Richmond, Derek Fisher of the Knicks and John Hynes of the Devils were freshmen in high school, and Ben McAdoo of the Giants was 11 years old.

The Olympics were in progress in Seoul, Korea. They have since been held in America twice, France, Spain, Norway, Japan, Australia, Greece, Italy, China, Canada, Britain, Russia and Brazil. The World Cup has since been held in America, Italy, France, Japan, Korea, Germany, South Africa and Brazil.

The President of the United States was Ronald Reagan. Vice President George H.W. Bush was about to be elected to replace him. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon, their wives, and the widows of Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy were still alive. Bill Clinton was in his 4th term as Governor of Arkansas. George W. Bush was working for his father's campaign, and was soon to buy the Texas Rangers. Barack Obama had just entered Harvard Law School.

The Governor of Pennsylvania was Bob Casey, father of the current U.S. Senator of that name; of New Jersey, Tom Kean; and of the State of New York, Mario Cuomo. His son Andrew Cuomo, now Governor himself, was a lawyer running an organization named Housing Enterprise for the Less Privileged (HELP). Current Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf was running his family's building materials company, and current New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was practicing law in Cranford. The Mayor of the City of New York was Ed Koch. Current Mayor Bill de Blasio was working for a charity in Nicaragua. Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy were the only Justices of the Supreme Court who are still there.

This Friday, the Brooklyn Nets will play away to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

It should be the New Jersey Nets playing away to the Seattle SuperSonics.

I began this blog just prior to the 2007-08 NBA season, which was the last one for the Sonics before they moved. I wasn't yet doing these travel guides. If I had been, with the Nets making their final visit on November 23, and the Nets their last on February 2, the one for the Sonics would have gone something like this (with updates in italics):

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Yes, that really is Seattle. Yes, that really is a nice blue sky overhead. When the clouds part, and you can see Lake Washington and the Cascadia Mountains, including Mount Rainier, it's actually a beautiful city. It's just that it rains so much, such a sight isn't all that common.

Before You Go. Seattle is notorious for rain, and while this game will be indoors, you will have to spend quite a bit of time outdoors. Check the websites of the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for the weather forecast. Right now, they're predicting the high 50s for daylight on November 23, and the low 40s for the evening.

Seattle is in the Pacific Time Zone, 3 hours behind New York. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.

There is high-speed passenger ferry service from Seattle to the Canadian city of Victoria, the capital of the Province of British Columbia. But it takes 2 hours and 45 minutes, and costs a bundle: $187 round-trip. (The scenery in Washington State and British Columbia is spectacular, and this is clearly part of what you're paying for.) From there, you can easily get to Vancouver. (I don't know what it actually would have cost in 2007. That's what it costs in 2016.)

If you want to make this trip, you will have to give confirmation within 48 hours of booking. And it's a passenger-only ferry service: No cars allowed. If you'd like to make a side trip to Vancouver, you're better off driving or taking the train. But any way you go over the border, you should have your passport with you.

Tickets. The SuperSonics averaged 15,955 fans per home game in 2006-07, about 93 percent of capacity. And they're not very good at the moment, so tickets shouldn't be difficult to obtain.

(Unfortunately, I can find no reference to what Sonics ticket prices were in their final season, or in any other.)

Getting There. It's 2,854 miles from Times Square to Pioneer Square in Seattle. In other words, if you're going, you're going to want to fly.

After all, even if you get someone to go with you, and you take turns, one drives while the other one sleeps, and you pack 2 days' worth of food, and you use the side of the Interstate as a toilet, and you don’t get pulled over for speeding, you'll still need over 2 full days to get there. One way.

But, for future reference, if you really, really want to drive... Get onto Interstate 80 West in New Jersey, and stay on that until it merges with Interstate 90 west of Cleveland, then stay on 90 through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, into Wisconsin, where it merges with Interstate 94. Although you could take I-90 almost all the way, I-94 is actually going to be faster. Stay on I-94 through Minnesota and North Dakota before re-merging with I-90 in Montana, taking it through Idaho and into Washington, getting off I-94 at Exit 2B.

Not counting rest stops, you should be in New Jersey for an hour and a half, Pennsylvania for 5:15, Ohio for 4 hours, Indiana for 2:30, Illinois for 2 hours, Wisconsin for 3:15, Minnesota for 4:30, North Dakota for 6 hours, Montana for a whopping 13 hours (or 3 times the time it takes to get from New York to Boston), Idaho for 1:15 and 6:45 in Washington. That’s 50 hours, and with rest stops, you're talking 3 full days.

That's still faster than Greyhound (70 hours, changing in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minneapolis and Missoula, $362 round-trip) and Amtrak (67 hours, changing in Chicago, $746 before booking sleeping arrangements). (Note that these prices were in place for a Yankees-Mariners series in August 2016, but were probably close to what they were in November 2007 or February 2008.)

On Amtrak, you would leave Penn Station on the Lake Shore Limited at 3:40 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, arrive at Union Station in Chicago at 9:45 AM Central Time on Wednesday, and board the Empire Builder at 2:15 PM, and would reach King Street Station at 10:25 AM Pacific Time on Friday. (Of course, for the Nets-Sonics game on November 23, this would have been complicated by the day before being Thanksgiving.)

King Street Station is just to the north of the stadium complex, at S. King St. & 3rd Ave. S., and horns from the trains can sometimes be heard as the trains go down the east stands of CenturyLink Field and the right-field stands of Safeco. The Greyhound station is at 811 Stewart St. at 8th Ave., in the Central Business District, about halfway between the stadiums and the Seattle Center complex.

A round-trip flight from Newark to Seattle, if ordered now, could be had, although not nonstop, on American Airlines for around $550. You can get a nonstop on United Airlines for around $850. Link Light Rail can get you out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac), and the same system has Stadium Station to get to Safeco and CenturyLink Fields. The fare is $2.75.

Once In the City. Founded in 1853, and named for a Chief of the Duwamish Indians, Seattle is easily the biggest city in America's Northwest, with 635,000 people within the city limits and 3.6 million in its metropolitan area. Just as Charlotte is called the Queen City of the Southeast, and Cincinnati the Queen City of the Midwest, Seattle is known as the Queen City of the Northwest. All its greenery has also gotten it the tag the Emerald City. With Lake Washington, Puget Sound, and the Cascade mountain range nearby, including Mount Rainier, it may be, on those rare clear days, America's most beautiful metro area.

East-west street addresses increase from Puget Sound and the Alaskan Way on eastward. North-south addresses are separated by Yesler Way. 

The Times is Seattle's only remaining daily print newspaper. The Post-Intelligencer is still in business, but in online form only. This is mainly due to the high cost of both paper and ink, and has doomed many newspapers completely, so Seattle is lucky to still, sort of, have 2 daily papers.

Sales tax in the State of Washington is 6.5 percent, but in the City of Seattle, it's 9.5 percent. Off-peak bus fare in Seattle is $2.25. In peak hours, a one-zone ride (either totally within the City of Seattle or in King County outside the city) is $2.50 and a two-zone ride (from the City to the County, or vice versa) is $3.00. The monorail is $2.25. The light rail fares, depending on distance, are between $2.00 and $2.75. Fares are paid with a farecard, or, as they call it, an ORCA card: One Regional Card for All.
Going In. Erected for the 1962 World's Fair, Seattle Center is at 400 Broad Street at John Street, about a mile north of downtown. It can be reached from downtown by the Number 33 bus, although the nearest Link station is several blocks' walk away.

The complex includes the city's trademark, the Space Needle. Also there is Memorial Stadium, a high school football stadium built in 1946. It used to host the old North American Soccer League version of the Sounders, and now hosts the women's soccer team, the Seattle Reign. On June 24, 1975, it hosted a game between the national teams of the U.S. and Poland, ending in a draw.

For our purposes, the most important building in this complex is the KeyArena, home of the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics, the WNBA's Seattle Storm, and the basketball team at Seattle University. The old Seattle Center Coliseum was built on the site in 1962, 3 blocks west and 2 blocks north of the Space Needle, and the expansion Sonics moved in for the 1967-68 season.

The Beatles performed at the old Coliseum on August 21, 1964, and did 2 shows there on their final tour on August 25, 1966. Elvis Presley, who filmed It Happened At the World's Fair at Seattle Center in 1962, sang at the Coliseum on November 12, 1970, and 2 shows on April 29, 1973.

It was demolished, and rebuilt while the Sonics played the 1994-95 season at the Tacoma Dome. The Arena's official address is 305 Harrison Street. Parking is $8.00. 

Since the arena is north of downtown, most fans are likely to enter from the south. The court is laid out north-to-south.
On May 12, 2014, The New York Times printed a story that shows NBA fandom by ZIP Code, according to Facebook likes. With the loss of the Sonics, Seattle fans not only refused to accept their former heroes as Oklahoma City Thunder (Thunders? Thunderers? Thundermen?), but also refused to accept the next-closest team, their former arch-rivals, the Portland Trail Blazers, 171 miles away, as their new team. They seem to divide their fandom 4 ways, none of which should surprise you: The Chicago Bulls, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat. But if Seattle should ever get another team, these fans would certainly get behind the new Sonics.

Food. As a waterfront city, and as the Northwest's biggest transportation and freight hub, it is no surprise that Seattle is a good food city, with the legendary Pike Place Market serving as their "South Street Seaport." Fortunately, KeyArena lives up to this.

The northwest corner has Uptown Kitchen, which includes seafood like fish & chips and clam chowder; and La Choza, a Mexican food stand. The northeast corner has Grill 206, with burgers, hot dogs and fries; and Ceres, with roasted nuts. The southeast corner has Seven Hills Grill, named for the 7 hills of Rome, and featuring pizza and Italian sausages; and a gluten-free food stand. The southwest corner has World's Fare, featuring what it calls "global street food." In addition, there are what the arena calls "general concession stands" all over.

(All of these stands are still in place, 8 years after the Sonics left.)

Team History Displays. The Sonics began play in 1967, and have usually been at least good. They've made the Playoffs 22 times in their 1st 40 seasons; won 5 regular-season division titles, most recently in 2005; reached the Western Conference Finals 6 times; won the Western Conference in 1978, 1979 and 1996; and won the NBA Championship in 1979. That remains Seattle's only World Championship in any sport, except for the Seattle Metropolitans becoming the 1st team from outside Canada to win the Stanley Cup, in 1917.

In addition, the Seattle Storm won the WNBA Championship in 2004. The north end of the arena has the 1979 NBA title and the 2004 WNBA title at the center of a banner display, with the other banners arranged in chronological order -- oddly, with the Storm's other banner, for their 2004 Western Conference title, mixed in with the Sonics' banners.

(The Seahawks have since won Super Bowl XLVIII, and the Storm won another WNBA title in 2010.)
The Sonics have retired 6 numbers. The 1st was the 19 of Lenny Wilkens, a guard in their early days and the head coach of their 1979 title, retiring it just as their next season started. Later, from that title team, they retired the 1 of guard Gus Williams, the 32 of guard Fred "Downtown" Brown, and the 43 of center Jack Sikma.

They've also retired the 24 of forward Spencer Haywood, from their early days; and the 10 of guard Nate McMillan, from their 1996 Conference title. So far, they haven't retired the 20 of guard Gary Payton or the 40 of forward Shawn Kemp from the '96 Sonics. They have, however, retired a microphone for Bob Blackburn, who broadcast for them from their 1967 debut until 1992.


Wilkens, Haywood and Payton are in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Bill Russell was elected while he was Sonics coach, but was fired, and replaced by Wilkens. Russell was a great coach when he had Bill Russell to play for him; when he didn't, not so much.

Since the Sonics moved, Dennis Johnson, also a member of the 1979 title team, was elected. Like Haywood, he wore 24 with the Sonics. While some teams (including the Yankees and the Knicks) have retired a number for 2 players, the Sonics never so honored him, although the Boston Celtics retired the 3 he wore with them. Also since the Sonics moved, the Storm have retired a number, the 15 of Australian forward Lauren Jackson, 2001-12.

Wilkens was the only player with significant time with the Sonics to have been named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players in 1996.

The Storm's Jackson and Sue Bird  were named to the NBA's 15th Anniversary 15 Greatest Players in 2012.

Alas, the Sonics are gone now.
Stuff. The Huddle, the main team store, is in the southwest corner of the arena, behind Section 118. Sonics and Storm items are available there.

There aren't many books about the team. Probably the best one is Nate Leboutillier's 2006 contribution to the NBA: A History of Hoops series, The Story of the Seattle SuperSonics. A DVD collection from their 1979 title team should be available.

In 2014, a video titled Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team premiered.

During the Game. Wearing Knick or Net gear in Seattle, including inside KeyArena, will not endanger your safety. Sonics fans hate the Portland Trail Blazers, and they don't much like the Los Angeles Lakers. But they don't mind the New York-area teams.

The Sonics hold auditions for National Anthem singers, instead of having a regular. Their mascot is Squatch, short for "Sasquatch," or "Bigfoot," a creature that supposedly inhabits the Pacific Northwest. His "uniform number" is a footprint. Like Go the Gorilla in Phoenix, he does trick dunks -- indeed, he may have been inspired by Go, since he debuted for the 1993-94 season, the year after the Charles Barkley-led Suns won the NBA West.
After the 2008 season, Marc Taylor, who'd played Squatch since 1999, moved with the Sonics to become the Thunder's mascot, Rumble the Bison. The Squatch character remains a Sonics trademark, and, should the team ever return, would return with them, although Taylor remains a Thunder employee.

After the Game. Seattle Center is not an especially high-crime area, and Sonic do not tend to get violent. You might get a little bit of verbal if you're wearing Knick or Net gear, but it won't get any worse than that.

To the northwest of the Arena, on Republican Street, in the Queen Anne neighborhood, are a few bars known for serving Sonics fans after games. Taylor Oyster Bars at 124, Triumph Bar at 114, Agave Cocina at 100, and Dick's Drive-In at 500 Queen Anne Avenue North.

Two bars are usually identified with Mariners and Seahawks games, but they're 2 miles southeast of the Arena. Sluggers, formerly known as Sneakers (or "Sneaks" for short), is at 538 1st Avenue South, at the northwest corner of CenturyLink Field. A little further up, at 419 Occidental Avenue South, is F.X. McRory's. Pike Place Market is about halfway between, about a mile southeast, and may still be open after Sonics games.

As for New York-friendly bars, while there are Yankee Fans everywhere, I couldn't find anything specific on the Internet. I've been told that Buckley's in Queen Anne is good for football Giants fans. It is at 232 1st Avenue West, at Thomas Street, 3 blocks west and 1 block south from the Arena.

The Sonics' last season in Seattle, 2007-08, was the early days of mass satellite TV exposure of world soccer in America, making this next line viable.

If you visit during the European soccer season, which will soon be upon us, the leading "football pub" in the Pacific Northwest is The George and Dragon Pub, 206 N. 36th Street, 5 miles north of downtown. Bus 40.

Sidelights. Aside from the KeyArena and the Safeco/CenturyLink complex, Seattle doesn't have a lot of sports sites worth mentioning. But these should be mentioned:

* Safeco Field, CenturyLink Field and site of Kingdome. The Mariners new ballpark is at 1516 First Avenue South. It is in a neighborhood called SoDo, for "South of Downtown." 
CenturyLink Field, formerly Seahawks Stadium and Qwest Field, home of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks and MLS' Seattle Sounders, is just to the north of Safeco, across Royal Brougham Way, on the site of the Kingdome. It is regarded as the loudest outdoor facility in the NFL, and it has one of the better soccer atmospheres in the U.S. as well. The U.S. soccer team has played at CenturyLink 4 times, and won them all. It also hosted the 2009 MLS Cup Final.

In case you're wondering, Safeco is an insurance company, and CenturyLink is a telecommunications outfit, which bought similar company Qwest.

CenturyLink was built on the site of the Kingdome, home to the Seahawks from 1976 to 1999, the Mariners from 1977 to 1999, the old Sounders from 1976 to 1984, and the Sonics for some home games from 1978 to 1984. 

The Kingdome hosted the Final Four in 1984 (Georgetown over Houston), 1989 (Michigan over Seton Hall), and 1995 (UCLA over Arkansas). It also hosted 3 U.S. soccer team matches: A win, a loss, and a draw.

It was functional, and that's about it. It was demolished, and that was best for everyone from sports fans to architecture fans.
* Sick's Stadium. The Pacific Coast League team, known for most of its history as the Seattle Rainiers, played 2½ miles southeast of Safeco, first at Dugdale Field (1913-1932) and then at Sick’s Stadium (1938-68 and 1972-76, built by Rainiers' owner Emil Sick). The Seattle Pilots also played at Sick's, but lasted only one year, 1969, before being moved to Milwaukee to become the Brewers, and are now chiefly remembered for ex-Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton’s diary of that season, Ball Four.
The book gives awful details of the place's inadequacy: As an 11,000-seat ballpark, it was fine for Triple-A ball in the 1940s, '50s and '60s; expanded to 25,420 seats for the Pilots, it was a lousy place to watch, and a worse one to play, baseball in anything like the modern era.

Elvis Presley sang at Sick's on September 1, 1957 (since it had more seats than any indoor facility in town). Supposedly, Hendrix, then 15, was there. A few days prior, Floyd Patterson defended the heavyweight title there by knocking out fellow 1956 Olympic Gold Medalist Pete Rademacher.

Demolished in 1979 after the construction of the Kingdome (whose inadequacies were very different but no less glaring), the site of Sick's Stadium is now occupied by a Lowe's store. 2700 Rainier Avenue South, bounded also by McClellan & Bayview Sts. & Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Mount Baker station on the Link light rail system.

* Husky Stadium. The home of the University of Washington football, the largest stadium in the Pacific Northwest (including Canada) is right on Lake Washington, and is one of the nicest-looking stadiums in college football. A rare feature in major college football is that fans can dock right outside and tailgate by boat.  (The only others at which this is possible: Neyland Stadium at the University of Tennessee, and Heinz Field for University of Pittsburgh games.)

It opened in 1920, making it the oldest stadium in the Pacific-12 Conference. The Seahawks played a few home games here in 1994, after some tiles fell from the Kingdome roof, and played their games here in 2000 and 2001 between the demolition of the Kingdome and the opening of what's now CenturyLink Field. In 1923, it was the site of the last public speech given by President Warren G. Harding before his death in a San Francisco hotel.

Sadly, The Wave was invented here in 1981, by university yell leader (think male cheerleader) Robb Weller, later one of Mary Hart's co-hosts on Entertainment Tonight.

A major renovation was recently completed, necessary due to age and the moisture from being on the water and in Seattle's rainy climate. Pretty much everything but the north stand of the east-pointing horseshoe was demolished and replaced. The Huskies played the 2012 season at CenturyLink, and moved into the revamped, 70,138-seat Husky Stadium for the 2013 season. Rutgers University will play its 1st game of the 2016 football game against Washington here, on Saturday, September 3.

3800 Montlake Blvd. NE, at Pacific St. Bus 545 to Montlake & Lake Washington Blvd., then walk half a mile across Montlake Cut, a canal that connects Lake Washington with Lake Union. Or, Bus 511 to 45th St. & 7th Ave., then Bus 44 to Pacific & Montlake, outside UW Medical Center, then walk a quarter of a mile.

* Edmundson Pavilion. Adjacent to Husky Stadium, at 3870 Montlake, is Alaska Airlines Arena at Clarence S. "Hec" Edmundson Pavilion, the home of "U-Dub" basketball since 1927. Hec was the school's longtime basketball and track coach, and "Hec Ed" hosted the NCAA Final Four in 1949 (Kentucky over Oklahoma A&M, the school now known as Oklahoma State) and 1952 (Kansas over St. John's). It has also hosted the State of Washington's high school basketball finals.

UW has been to the Final Four only once, in 1953, although they've won the regular-season title in the league now called the Pac-12 11 times, including 2012; and the Conference Tournament 3 times, most recently in 2011. Washington State, across the State in Pullman, reached the Championship Game in 1941, but hasn't been back to the Final Four since.

* Tacoma Dome. The Sonics used this building during the 1994-95 season, as the Seattle Center Coliseum was demolished and the KeyArena put up in its place. Opening in 1983, it seats 17,100, and its most common use has been for minor-league hockey and concerts. 2727 East D Street, about 32 miles south of downtown Seattle. It can be reached from downtown Seattle by Bus 590, 592, 594 or 595, and it would take about 45 minutes.
The night Elvis sang at Sick's Stadium, September 1, 1957, he gave an afternoon concert in Tacoma, at the Lincoln Bowl, the football stadium of Lincoln High School. 707 S. 37th Street. The day before, he sang across the State, at Memorial Stadium in Spokane. He returned to Spokane to sing at their Coliseum on April 28, 1973.

The Spokane Coliseum, at Boone Street and Howard Avenue, seated 5,400, lasted from 1954 to 1995, and was replaced by the 12,200-seat Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, across the street. It's home to minor-league hockey's Spokane Chiefs. 720 W. Mallon Avenue. Spokane is 280 miles east of Seattle.

* Seattle Ice Arena. The Seattle Metropolitans played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association from 1915 to the league's folding in 1926, and won 5 league championships: 1917, 1919, 1920, 1922 and 1924. In 1917, they defeated the National Hockey Association champion Montreal Canadiens, and became the 1st American team to win the Stanley Cup. This would be Seattle's only world title in any sport for 62 years.

They played at the Seattle Ice Arena, which seated only 4,000 people, and was demolished in 1963. The IBM Building, a typically tacky piece of 1960s architecture, now stands on the site. 1200 Fifth Avenue at University Avenue, downtown.
If Seattle ever got a new NBA team, it would rank 17th among NBA metro areas in population. It would also rank 17th in the NHL. The closest NHL team is the Vancouver Canucks, 144 miles away.

* Museums. In addition to the KeyArena, the Seattle Center Complex features the city's tradmark, the 605-foot Space Needle. Admission is $22, less than the cost of the Empire State Building, and it's open 'til 11:00 PM, with great views of the region's natural splendor.

Seattle Center also has the Pacific Science Center (think of it the Northwest's version of the American Museum of Natural History and its Hayden Planetarium), the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (not sure why Seattle was chosen as the Hall’s location, although the city is a major aerospace center).

Aside from the Pacific Science Center and the Science Fiction Museum, Seattle isn't a big museum city, although the Seattle Art Museum, at 1300 1st Avenue at University Street, might be worth a visit.

At 967 feet high, Columbia Center, a.k.a. The Black Tower, is the tallest building in the Northwest, and, for the moment, the tallest building in North America west of the Rocky Mountains except for the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles. (A building going up in San Francisco, and another in Los Angeles, are both expected to top the Black Tower in 2017.) 

Aside from Seattle Center and its Space Needle, and the stadiums, Seattle's best-known structure is the Pike Place Market. Think of it as their version of the South Street Seaport and Fulton Fish Market. (Or Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market, Baltimore's Harborplace, or Boston's Quincy Market/Faneuil Hall.) It includes the 1st-ever Starbucks store, which is still open. Downtown, 85 Pike Street at Western Avenue.

Not many TV shows have been set in Seattle. Northern Exposure was filmed in the State of Washington, and Twin Peaks was both filmed and set there, but not in the City of Seattle. The science-fiction series Dark Angel, which vaulted Jessica Alba and Michael Weatherly to stardom, was set in a dystopian future Seattle, but was filmed in Vancouver. So was Millennium. So was Smallville, but that wasn't meant to be Seattle. Arrow, about another superhero, is filmed in Vancouver, and perhaps due to Green Arrow wearing a green costume, I've often thought of his hometown of Star City (Starling City on the show) as being DC Comics' analogue for Seattle. While Frasier was set in Seattle, and Grey's Anatomy still is, there were hardly any location shots.

Nor have there been very many movies set in Seattle. The most obvious is Sleepless in Seattle, and the city was home to Matthew Broderick's and Ally Sheedy's characters in WarGames (in which Broderick's computer hacking has much greater consequences than it would 3 years later in the Chicago-based Ferris Bueller's Day Off).

Singles came along in 1992, at the height of grunge and the rise of Starbucks, which helped make Seattle the hippest city in the country in the years of George Bush the father and Bill Clinton's first term -- or, as Jason Alexander put it on Seinfeld, "It's the pesto of cities." It also reminded us of how good an actor Matt Dillon is, how gorgeous Kyra Sedgwick is, and that Bridget Fonda (daughter of Peter, niece of Jane and granddaughter of Henry) and Campbell Scott (son of George C. and Colleen Dewhurst) were worthy of their genes.

*

So, if you could have afforded it, it would have been nice to go on out and join your fellow Knick and Net fans in watching your team play the SuperSonics in Seattle. Who knows, maybe, one day, it will be again.

The Brooklyn Nets travel to play the Indiana Pacers on November 25, the day after Thanksgiving, and will again on January 5, 2017. The New York Knicks will do so on January 7 and 23.

Before You Go. Indianapolis is about as far south as Baltimore and Washington. Despite being in the Midwest, it is not on a Great Lake, bringing strong winds and "lake effect snow." So the weather won't be substantially different from what we get in the Middle Atlantic States. The website of the Indianapolis Star is predicting low 60s for next Friday afternoon, and low 40s for the evening. Bring a winter jacket.

Indiana used to be 1 of 2 States, Arizona being the other, where Daylight Savings Time was an issue; however, since 2006 -- 4 years after a West Wing episode lampooned this -- the State has used it throughout. There will be no need to adjust your timepieces.

Tickets. The Pacers averaged 16,699 fans per home game last year, less than 92 percent of capacity. So, despite Indiana's reputation as a basketball-crazy State, tickets shouldn't be hard to get.

Seats in the lower level are $115 between the baskets and $70 behind them. In the upper level, they're considerably cheaper: $41 between and just $25 behind.

Getting There. It's 714 miles from Times Square in Manhattan to Monument Circle in the center of the City of Indianapolis. Knowing this, your first reaction is going to be to fly out there.

Despite this being Thanksgiving week, you could get nonstop flights on United Airlines from Newark to Indianapolis International Airport for a round-trip fare of under $500. The Number 8 bus is a 45-minute ride from the airport to downtown.

If you take Amtrak, it will be simple to go out: You would board the Cardinal at Penn Station on Wednesday at 6:45 AM, and arrive at Union Station in Indianapolis on Thursday at 5:20 AM. Unfortunately, the Cardinal only runs 3 times a week, so you'll have a day and a half to kill in Indianapolis before the game. Going back, you'll leave Indy at 11:59 PM on Sunday (a wait of over 26 hours after the game ends), getting back to New York at 9:58 PM on Sunday.

Except, this time, it's Thanksgiving week, and the Cardinal is sold out for this coming Wednesday. So a Nets fan who would prefer to take the train would have to wait until the January 7 game. Round-trip fare would be $166. Union Station is at 350 S. Illinois Street, corner of South Street, 6 blocks from the Fieldhouse.

Greyhound runs 7 buses a day from Port Authority Bus Terminal to Indianapolis, although 4 of these require you to change buses, mostly in Pittsburgh. The fare is $322, but it can drop to $170 with advanced purchase. The station is at 154 W. South Street, at Illinois Street, around the corner from Union Station. (That's right, "West South Street," but that's South Street, west of downtown.)

If you decide to drive, it's far enough that it will help to get someone to go with you and split the duties, and to trade off driving and sleeping. You’ll need to get on the New Jersey Turnpike, and take Interstate 78 West across New Jersey, and at Harrisburg get on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which at this point will be both I-70 and I-76. When the two Interstates split outside Pittsburgh, stay on I-70 west. You’ll cross the northern tip of West Virginia, and go all the way across Ohio (through Columbus), and halfway through Indiana.

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and 15 minutes in New Jersey, 5 hours in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes in West Virginia, 3 hours and 45 minutes in Ohio, and an hour and 15 minutes in Indiana. That’s going to be 11 and a half hours. Counting rest stops, preferably 6 of them, and accounting for traffic in both New York and Indianapolis, it should be about 14 hours.

Once In the City. Indianapolis, named (as was its State) for the Native Americans, was founded in 1821, and is home to over 840,000 people -- making it the 2nd-largest city in the Midwest, behind Chicago -- with a metropolitan area of 2.4 million. The centerpoint of the City, and indeed of the State, is the 284-foot-high Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument inside Monument Circle, at Market & Meridian Streets.

The sales tax in the State of Indiana is 7 percent. There's no subway, but IndyGo offers a $4.00 all-day pass for its buses.

Going In. The official address of Bankers Life Fieldhouse is 125 E. Georgia Street, at Pennsylvania Street. Built in 1999 as Conseco Fieldhouse, the Pacers' new arena was designed to be a throwback, "the Camden Yards of basketball," if you will. (A little ironic, but at least this time they only took Baltimore's idea, not it's team. Then again, Washington, D.C. already took the Bullets, now Wizards, in 1973.)

In particular, there is a strong resemblance to "Indiana's Basketball Cathedral," Hinkle Fieldhouse. It seats 18,165. The court is laid out north-to-south.
In their first season at the new arena, 1999-2000, the Pacers reached the NBA Finals for the first time, but got swept by the Los Angeles Lakers. They have not gotten back since.

Minor-league hockey's Indianapolis Ice also play at Bankers Life. However, you should not expect an NHL team to play there: Due to the layout, the capacity for hockey is just 12,300, and some of the seats end up being obstructed view. The place was built for basketball. The WNBA's Indiana Fever play there, and it has regularly (but not every year) hosted the Big Ten Conference Men's Basketball Tournament.

Food. Indiana is in the heart of the Midwest, right-smack-dab in the middle (or what used to be the middle, before Penn State, and then Nebraska, Rutgers and Maryland, were admitted) of Big Ten Country, where tailgate parties are practically a sacrament. So you would expect there to be great food inside the Pacers' arena.

Coors Light Beer Wagon (if you're willing to say that Coors Light is "beer") can be found at Section 2; Mr. Smoothie at 3, 14, 207, 220 and 226; Snack Shoppe at 4, 16, 202 and 217; Dippin' Dots at 4, 208, 220 and 229; Crossroads Tavern at 5 and 15; Homestead Favorites (including the evil Papa John's Pizza) at 5, 15, 208 and 224; Union Smokehouse at 6, 14, 215 and 231; Sno Zone (cotton candy and snow cones) at 6, 17 and 222; Sun King (local craft beer) at 6; Nacho Cart at 7 and 213; Gluten Free Cart at 8; Hardee's at 10; Red Burrito at 10; Salt & Lime Bar (margaritas) at 10; Golden Kettle (popcorn & pretzels) at 11 and 212; Merchant Bar at 13; Street Taco Cart at 13 and 232; Sun King (local craft beer) at 13, 216 and 224; Bud Light Lima-A-Rita at 16; The Amazing Potato Chip Company at 18 and 225; Blue Moon Tap Room at 19; Philly Cheese Steak Cart at 19 and 201; Capital Sausage Cart at 207 and 226; Scratch Food Truck at 224; and Indiana Ale House at 231.

And there's a Dunkin Donuts inside the Fieldhouse, in the Entry Pavilion, on the building's north, Pennsylvania Street side, next to the Pacers Home Court Gift Shop. 

Team History Displays. The Pacers, who celebrate their 50th Anniversary this season, were the most successful team in the American Basketball Association of 1967 to 1976, reaching 4 Finals, winning 3. (The Nets went 2-1, and no other team reached 3 Finals or won 2 titles.) Since joining the NBA, the exciting moments have been many, but the achievements have been few. Indeed, they had no 1st-place finishes for 22 years (1973 to 1995).

The Pacers hang banners for their 1970, 1972 and 1973 ABA Championships; their 2000 NBA Eastern Conference Championship; and for their 1995, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2013 and 2014 NBA Central Division Championships. They do not, however, hang banners for their 1969 and 1971 ABA Eastern Division Championships.

The Pacers honor 6 men with banners: Former owner Mel Simon (no number on the banner), former head coach Bobby "Slick" Leonard (529, for the number of games he won as Pacer coach, not counting the postseason and the 3 ABA titles), and 4 players. Naturally, they honor 1990s-2000s guard Reggie Miller. The other 3 are from the ABA days: Forwards George McGinnis (30) and Roger Brown (35), and center Mel Daniels (34).
The Fieldhouse also includes banners for the Indiana Fever's 2012 WNBA Championship, and their Conference titles in 2009, 2012 and 2015.
In 2007, Pacers fans chose a 40th Anniversary Team. In addition to Miller, Daniels, McGinnis and Brown, they chose guards Billy Keller, Billy Knight (now general manager of the Nets) and Mark Jackson (the ex-Knick, now ESPN NBA analyst), forwards Clark Kellogg (former CBS college basketball analyst analyst, also working in the Pacers' front office), Dale Davis, Antonio Davis and Jermaine O'Neal, center Rik Smits.

Miller was the only Pacer named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players in 1996. Brown, Daniels, McGinnis, Donnie Freeman, Freddie Lewis and Bob Netolicky were named to the ABA All-Time Team. Tamika Catchings of the Fever was named to the WNBA's 15th Anniversary 15 Greatest Players in 2012.

Stuff. The Pacers Home Court Gift Shop is located in the Entry Pavilion on the building's north side, on Pennsylvania Street.

Despite nearly half a century of history with some success, there aren't many books about the Pacers. Your best bet is probably Nate Frisch's entry about the Pacers in the NBA's A History of Hoops series, publishes earlier this year.

As part of its 30 For 30 series, ESPN produced the documentary Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks. Other than that, the most notable DVD about the Pacers is the NBA's official Indiana Pacers Greatest Games collection. Two Playoff games against the Knicks (including that
one), two against the Chicago Bulls.

During the Game. A November 13, 2014 article on DailyRotoHelp ranked the NBA teams' fan bases, and listed the Pacers' fans at 18th, in the lower half. They site low attendance as a reason. Or, it could be that Indiana, while a great State for high school and college basketball, simply isn't one for the pros. (See also: Neighboring Kentucky, neighboring Ohio, North Carolina, which, for all their hoop mania -- 7 legendary college basketball programs between them -- have a combined total of 2 NBA teams.)

Because of their Midwestern/Heartland image, Pacer fans like a "family atmosphere." They don't much like New York, but they won't bother Knick or Net fans just for being Knick or Net fans, or for wearing Knick or Net gear in their arena. As long as you don't say anything bad about Reggie Miller or former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight, you should be okay.

The Pacers hold auditions for National Anthem singers, instead of having a regular. Their mascot is Boomer the Panther, although what a panther has to do with pace (the cheetah is the fastest land animal) or Indiana is unclear.
Pacers player Paul George sang lead on a new theme song for the Pacers, mixing in the team colors: "Blue Collar Gold Swagger." You likely won't hear any fan chants more imaginative than, "Let's go, Pacers!" But the fans do have a tradition of wearing yellow team jerseys and T-shirts, providing a takeoff on the "whiteout" effect seen at some basketball and hockey games.
After the Game. Indianapolis is a big city, bigger than most people realize, and has every problem that comes with that, including crime. But since the stadium is right downtown, this will probably not affect you. As I said, leave the home fans alone, and they'll probably leave you alone.

There are several eateries near the arena, with, at the least, interesting names. Howl at the Moon is 2 blocks away at 20 E. Georgia Street. Kilroy's Bar & Grill is across from it, at 201 S. Meridian Street. Cadillac Ranch (named for the Amarillo, Texas pop art display that also inspired the title of a Bruce Springsteen song) is inside Union Station. Although connected to a different Indianapolis team, the Indianapolis Colts Grille is at 110 W. Washington Street at Illinois Street, and is festooned with local sports memorabilia.

I can only find one reference to a bar in Indianapolis where expatriate New Yorkers gather to watch their teams: Claddagh Irish Pub, at 234 S. Meridian Street, corner of Jackson Street, 3 blocks from the Fieldhouse, is said to be the local headquarters of Jet fans.

If your visit to Indianapolis is during the European soccer season, as we are now in, your best bet to see your club is at Chatham Tap, 719 Massachusetts Avenue, on the northeastern edge of downtown. Bus 17.

Sidelights. Indianapolis is often said to be boring: Its most common nickname is "India-no-place." But there are some things worth visiting, particularly for a sports fan. Helpfully, the city's new NFL stadium, new NBA arena, and new minor-league ballpark are within a few blocks of each other downtown.

* Victory Field. This 12,230-seat ballpark opened in 1996 as the home of the Indianapolis Indians of the International League (formerly in the American Association), one of the oldest and proudest minor-league franchises. While the Indians have won just 1 Pennant since moving in, in 2000, they are still a legendary franchise, winning 10 International League Pennants.
There have been 10 future Hall-of-Famers who have played for them: Napoleon Lajoie, Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown, Rube Marquard, Ray Schalk, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Gabby Hartnett, Al Lopez, Harmon Killebrew and Randy Johnson. Three others managed them: Luke Appling, Joe McCarthy and Al Lopez. In addition to McCarthy, Yankee Legends associated with them are Roger Maris, Don Zimmer and Aaron Boone.

Considering their name, it is a bit odd that they were only briefly, from 1952 to 1956, a farm team of the Cleveland Indians. They contributed players to the Pennant winners of the 1939 and '40 Cincinnati Reds, the 1948 Boston Braves, the 1954 Indians, the 1959 Chicago White Sox; and the Reds again in 1970, '72, '75 and '76. Currently, they are the top farm team of the Pittsburgh Pirates. 501 W. Maryland Street & West Street.

* Bush Stadium. This was the Indians' home from 1931 to 1995. It was first known as Perry Field, after the Indians' owner. In 1942, he took his own name off it, and, in line with the war effort, renamed it Victory Field, a name brought back for its replacement. In 1967, it was renamed Owen J. Bush Stadium, in honor of "Donie" Bush, a former major league shortstop from Indianapolis who had managed the Pirates to the 1927 National League Pennant, and also served the Indianapolis Indians as manager and team president.
Like Wrigley Field in Chicago and Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Bush Stadium had ivy on its outfield walls. In 1987, it was dressed up to resemble both Chicago's Comiskey Park and Cincinnati's Redland Field (later Crosley Field) for the movie Eight Men Out, about the 1919-21 Black Sox Scandal, as it was one of the few remaining pre-1920 ballparks left. (Comiskey Park was still standing, but it didn't yet have an upper deck in 1919, so it was unsuitable for the film.) Interestingly enough, both the White Sox and the Reds had the Indians as their top farm team for some time (though not, of course, at the same time).

The Indians won Pennants at Bush Stadium in 1949, 1956, 1963, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1994. Peak capacity was 15,000. Parts of the stadium have been preserved and turned into housing. 1501 W. 16th Street, northwest of downtown. Number 25 bus.

Across W. 16th Street, at 1502, is Kuntz Stadium, a 5,257-seat soccer stadium. The U.S. national team played 3 games there in the late 1980s. That shows you how far that team has come: They couldn't even sell out 5,000 seats. If they were to play in Indy now, they would sell out the 62,000-seat Lucas Oil Stadium.

Don't expect Indianapolis to get a major league team anytime soon: The metro area would rank 29th in Major League Baseball. It would actually rank higher in the NHL, 24th, but who thinks of hockey when they think of Indiana sports?

The nearest MLB teams to Indianapolis are the Cincinnati Reds, 112 miles away; the Chicago White Sox, 178 miles; the Chicago Cubs, 188 miles; and the St. Louis Cardinals, 242 miles. But according to a recent New York Times article, the most popular team in and around Indianapolis is the Cubs, with the Yankees 2nd, and the Reds and the Boston Red Sox battling it out for 3rd. Why? And why not the much-closer White Sox or Cardinals? Because of the media, particularly the influence of Chicago's superstation WGN, and ESPN and Fox constantly showing the Yankees and Red Sox.

* Lucas Oil Stadium. Home of the Colts since 2008, the stadium looks like red brick, as do a lot of buildings in the city. Actually, it's made out of Indiana limestone -- as is the decidedly not-brick-looking Empire State Building. This makes it look more like an oversized version of an old-style gym.
In spite of its retractable roof, the stadium has artificial turf, specifically FieldTurf. While fully enclosed, behind each end zone is a large window that can be opened; however, there's not much of a view to speak of, since Indianapolis isn't exactly loaded with interesting skyscrapers.
Lucas Oil Stadium hosted the NCAA Final Four in 2010 (Duke beating Butler despite Butler playing in their hometown) and 2015 (Duke winning for the 5th time, the 3rd time in Indy, over Wisconsin). Indianapolis is where the NCAA keeps its headquarters, and after 4 Final Fours were held at the Hoosier Dome, they've decided to make sure the Final Four is held in Indianapolis at least once every 5 years. For this event, the stadium can be adjusted into a 70,000-seat configuration. It has also hosted the Big Ten Football Championship since its first game in 2011, and is under contract to do so through 2021.

500 S. Capitol Avenue. It is bounded by Capitol, McCarty Street, Missouri Street and South Street. It's downtown, with Union Station only a block away.

* Site of Hoosier Dome/RCA Dome. The 60,000-seat building that, along with Bob Irsay's greed, made the move of the Colts to Indianapolis possible hosted only 24 seasons of NFL football, from 1984 to 2007. The building, whose name was changed in 1994, hosted 4 Final Fours: 1991 (Duke's 1st title, shocking defending champion UNLV and then beating Michigan's Fab Five), 1997 (Arizona's only title to date, over defending champion Kentucky), 2000 (Michigan State over Florida) and 2006 (Florida over UCLA).
The stadium was demolished in 2008, and its fabric roof was recycled to make hundreds of new products. An expansion of the Indiana Convention Center is now on the site. 100 S. Capitol Avenue at Georgia Street.

* Site of Market Square Arena. Home of the Pacers from 1974 to 1999, this 16,530-seat arena had a weird egg shape, possibly the result of a Seventies-inspired drug haze. It also hosted minor-league hockey, and the World Hockey Association's Indianapolis Racers from 1974 to 1979. This was the first major league team of Wayne Gretzky.
It also hosted the NCAA Final Four in 1980 (Louisville over UCLA), and what turned out to be Elvis Presley's last concert, on June 26, 1977. 300 E. Market Street at Alabama Street.

The closest NHL team to Indianapolis is the Columbus Blue Jackets, 174 miles away. The Chicago Blackhawks are a little further away, 184 miles.

* Hinkle Fieldhouse. Formerly Butler Fieldhouse, and renamed for longtime basketball coach Tony Hinkle, this gym was built for Butler University in 1928, and has hosted countless Indiana basketball memories, including the State high school championships. Most notably, it hosted the 1954 Final, which saw Milan defeat Muncie Central, inspiring the film Hoosiers, which filmed on the same court and used the original announcers. (Milan had also been to the Final 2 years earlier, with some of the same players, so while it was an upset, it wasn't like Milan was a total unknown. An underdog, yes; a tremendous longshot, no.)
The NBA team known first as the Indianapolis Jets, and then as the Indianapolis Olympians, played there from 1948 to 1953, but the 1951 collegiate point-shaving scandal implicated some of its players (who had also played in the 1948 Olympics, hence the name change), and doomed them to the trashcan of history. And after the Fort Wayne Pistons moved to Detroit in 1957, not until the 1976 ABA-NBA merger would another NBA team play in the most basketball-crazy State of all.
Seating 15,000 at its peak (a sellout of which at the 1987 Pan American Games becoming, to this day, the largest crowd ever to attend a volleyball match in America), modernizations, including wider seats, have reduced capacity to 10,000. But it still stands, and is one of the oldest remaining buildings to have hosted one of the 4 major sports leagues in North America. 510 W. 49th Street, north of downtown. Number 28 bus, then walk west on 49th from Illinois Street to Rookwood Avenue.

* Fairgrounds Coliseum. Opening in 1939 as part of the Indiana State Fair complex, this was the Pacers' first home, from 1967 to 1974. It was their home when they won the American Basketball Association Championship in 1970, 1972 and 1973. It still stands, and now hosts the Indianapolis Fuel minor-league hockey team. 1202 E. 38th Street, northeast of downtown. Number 39 bus.
Indiana University is in Bloomington, 50 miles to the southwest. Purdue University is in West Lafayette, 68 miles to the northwest. And the University of Notre Dame, easily more popular in Indianapolis than either IU or PU, is in South Bend, 149 miles to the north.
* Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The most famous building in the State of Indiana, and the largest sports facility in the world, has nothing to do with basketball or football or baseball. It's the home of the Indianapolis 500, held there every year (usually on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend) since 1911 (except for the World War years: 1917, '18, '42, '43, '44 and '45).

The track opened in 1909, and has spread the name of the city all over the world, as drivers from as far away as Britain (Dan Wheldon and Dario Franchitti), Brazil (Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan), Australia (Scott Dixon) and Colombia (Juan Pablo Montoya) have won the 500 in recent years.
The permanent seating capacity of "The Old Brickyard" is 257,325. Infield seating can push it to over 400,000 -- and the Indy 500 sells out every year. Although the mailing address is "4790 W. 16th Street, Speedway, Indiana 46222," it's within the city limits of Indianapolis, 5 miles northwest of downtown. Number 25 bus.

* Michael Carroll Stadium. This is the home of the Indy Eleven, of the new version of the North American Soccer League, the 2nd division of North American soccer. It sets 12,111. 1001 W. New York Street, a mile west of downtown. There is no bus service there. The nearest MLS team is the Columbus Crew, 178 miles away. The Chicago Fire are 183 miles away.
* Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. Standing 284 1/2 feet high at the geographic center of the City and the State, this tower was dedicated in 1902, commemorating the Indiana military personnel of the recent Spanish-American War, the American Civil War, the Mexican-American War, the frontier conflicts that were a part of the War of 1812 (which produced several battles in Indiana), and the American capture of Vincennes from the British during the War of the American Revolution. During the holiday season, it is decorated like a Christmas tree. (If that sounds sacrilegious, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the considerably shorter Civil War Monument is turned into an artificial Christmas tree, and nobody objects.) Monument Circle, at Meridian & Market Streets.

The tallest building in the State of Indiana is the Chase Tower, with a roof 700 feet high and spires rising to 830 feet. 111 Monument Circle.

Indianapolis is not big on museums. The best-known is the Indiana State Museum, at a complex that includes the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. Washington & West Streets, downtown. Number 8 bus if you don't feel like walking.

William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States and former Territorial Governor (died just 1 month after his 1841 Inauguration), and his grandson, Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President (1889-1893), both lived in Indiana (as did Abraham Lincoln as a boy). But Grouseland, the house of "Old Tippecanoe," is 130 miles away in Vincennes. The Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site is just north of downtown, at 1230 N. Delaware Street. Number 19 bus.

Only 3 TV shows are known to have been set in Indianapolis. Close to Home and the U.S. version of the British hit Men Behaving Badly are best forgotten. But the CBS sitcom One Day at a Time, which aired from 1975 to 1984, and starred Bonnie Franklin and launched Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli to stardom, was groundbreaking: It was not only the first TV show to show a divorced single mother (rather than a widowed one), but it actually made Indianapolis seem like a fun place to be.

Movies set in Indianapolis are also rare. Some early scenes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind were set there, before moving out to the iconic Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming. The 2015 cult hit The Fault In Our Stars was set there, but filmed in Pittsburgh.

*

Indiana is the most basketball-crazy State of them all. That love of the game extends to the Pacers, though success has been in short supply for them.

But New Yorkers love their basketball, too, and memories of past Knicks-Pacers games will keep this rivalry fresh. Enjoy yourself, but don't rub it in if you win.

On November 26, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the Rutgers University football team will travel to the Washington, D.C. area to face the University of Maryland. Although within the Old Line State, as is Baltimore and the State capital of Annapolis, UMd is closer to Washington, D.C., and within the Capital Beltway, so, like Georgetown in the District and George Mason in Virginia, it's considered a Washington-area school.

The 2 newest teams in the Big 10 (or the Big Ten, or the B1G) haven't exactly stood up to Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Nebraska. Maybe this could be a good rivalry, due to the long distance to the other Conference teams, and due to the relatively close distance to each other.

Or, it could be just a bad football game.

Before You Go. D.C. can get really hot in summer, but this will be mid-November, so that won't be an issue. For this coming Thursday, The Washington Post is predicting mid-60s for the afternoon, and mid-40s for the evening. You should bring a winter jacket if you're staying overnight and "doing the city" on Saturday and Sunday.

Washington is in the Eastern Time Zone, so you won't have to fiddle with your clocks, digital or otherwise.

Tickets. The Terrapins are averaging 41,494 fans per game this season, only about 80 percent of capacity. So getting tickets shouldn't be a problem.

Visiting fans are put in the lower level in Section 2, for $50; and in the upper deck in Section 302, for $27. Be warned: The upper deck is very high, and very steep. It is not for the faint of heart, figuratively or literally.

Unlike the Capitals, with whom they share the arena, ticket prices aren't as high as the Washington Monument. Seats on the Main Concourse can be had for as little as $64, on the Club Concourse for $64, and on the Upper Concourse for as much as $63 and as little as $22.

Getting There. Getting to Washington is fairly easy. If you have a car, I recommend using it, and getting a hotel either downtown or inside the Capital Beltway, because driving in Washington is roughly (good choice of words there) as bad as driving in New York.

It's 227 miles by road from Times Square in Midtown Manhattan to tdowntown Washington, and 193 miles from High Point Solutions Stadium to Maryland Stadium. If you’re not "doing the city," but just going to the game, take the New Jersey Turnpike all the way down to the Delaware Memorial Bridge (a.k.a. the Twin Span), across the Delaware River into the State of, well, Delaware. This should take about 2 hours, not counting a rest stop.

Speaking of which, the temptation to take an alternate route (such as Exit 7A to I-195 to I-295 to the Ben Franklin Bridge) or a side trip (Exit 4, eventually leading to the Ben Franklin Bridge) to get into Pennsylvania and stop off at Pat's Steaks in South Philly can be strong. But if you want to get from New York to Washington with making only 1 rest stop, you’re better off using the Delaware House Service Area in Christiana, between Exits 3 and 1 on the Delaware Turnpike. It’s almost exactly the halfway point between New York and Washington.

Once you get over the Twin Span – the New Jersey-bound span opened in 1951, the Delaware-bound one was added in 1968 – follow the signs carefully, as you’ll be faced with multiple ramp signs for Interstates 95, 295 and 495, as well as for US Routes 13 and 40 and State Route 9. You want I-95 South, and its signs will say "Delaware Turnpike" and "Baltimore." You'll pay tolls at both its eastern and western ends, and unless there’s a traffic jam, you should only be in Delaware for a maximum of 15 minutes before hitting the Maryland State Line.

At said State Line, I-95 changes from the Delaware Turnpike to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway, and you'll be on it for about an hour (unless you want to make another rest stop, either the Chesapeake House or the Maryland House) and passing through Baltimore, before reaching Exit 27W, Interstate 495, the Capital Beltway.

You'll get off the Beltway after just 1 exit, Exit 25A, and head south on U.S. Route 1, known here as Baltimore Avenue. Turn right on Campus Drive, right on Library Lane, and left on Fieldhouse Drive. The stadium will be on the right.

If all goes well -- getting out of New York City and into downtown Baltimore okay, reasonable traffic, just the one rest stop, no trouble with your car -- the whole trip should take about 4 hours.

Washington is too close to fly, just as flying from New York to Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore, once you factor in fooling around with everything you gotta do at each airport, doesn’t really save you much time compared to driving, the bus or the train. So forget about flying from JFK, LaGuardia or Newark to Reagan National or Dulles International Airport. (John Foster Dulles was President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Secretary of State.)

The train is a very good option, if you can afford it. Washington's Union Station is at 50 Massachusetts Avenue NE, within sight of the Capitol Building. But Amtrak is expensive. They figure, "You hate to fly, you don't want to deal with airports, and Greyhound sucks, so we can charge whatever we want." New York to Washington will run you $178 round-trip on a standard Northeast Regional, $326 on an Acela Express, formerly named the Metroliner. That's before you add anything like Business Class or, God forbid, Amtrak's overmicrowaved food. Still, it's less than 3 hours if you take the Acela Express, and 3 hours and 40 minutes if you take a regular Northeast Corridor train.
Greyhound has rectified a longtime problem. They now use the parking deck behind Union Station as their Washington terminal, instead of the one they built 6 blocks away (and thus 6 blocks from the nearest Metro station), in the ghetto, back in the late 1960s. So neither safety nor aesthetics will be an issue any longer. Round-trip fare on Greyhound from Port Authority in New York to Union Station in Washington can be as high as $84, but you can get it for as little as $64 on advanced purchase. It takes about 4 1/2 hours, and usually includes a rest stop about halfway, either on the New Jersey Turnpike in South Jersey or on the Delaware Turnpike.

Again, the game will end around 9:30 PM. If you took Amtrak down, the last train of the night leaves Union Station at 10:10 PM. There's a 10:00 PM Greyhound back to Port Authority, but it doesn't get in until 2:20 AM; and an 11:15 that arrives at 4:15 AM. Have you ever been in Port Authority before sunrise? I have, and it's pretty depressing. Better to stay over, if you can afford it.

Once In the City. Founded in 1800, and usually referred to as "The National City" in its early days, and "Washington City" in the 19th Century, the city was named, of course, for George Washington, although its "Georgetown" neighborhood was named for his predecessor as our commander-in-chief, King George III of England.

The name of its "state," the District of Columbia, comes from Columbia, a historical and poetic name used for America, which was accepted as the nation's female personification until the early 20th Century (as opposed to its male personification, Uncle Sam), when the Statue of Liberty began to take its place in the public consciousness. "Columbia" was derived from the man who "discovered America," Christopher Columbus, and places throughout the Western Hemisphere -- from the capitals of Ohio and South Carolina to the river that separates Washington State from Oregon, from the Ivy League university in Manhattan to the South American nation that produces coffee and cocaine, are named for him, albeit with different spellings.

Like a lot of cities, Washington suffered from "white flight," so that, while the population within the city limits has seriously shrunk, from 800,000 in 1950 to 650,000 today; the metro area went from 2.9 million to double that, 5.8 million. As a result, the roads leading into the District, and the one going around it, the Capital Beltway, Interstate 495, are rammed with cars. Finally, someone wised up and said, "Let's build a subway," and in 1976, the Metro opened.

That metropolitan growth was boosted by the Maryland and Virginia suburbs building housing and shopping areas for federal-government workers. And, perhaps more than any other metro area, the poor blacks who once lived in the city have reached the middle class and built their own communities (especially to the east, in Maryland's Prince Georges County, which includes Landover). The metro area now has nearly 6 million residents -- and that's not including the metro area of nearby Baltimore, which would boost it to nearly 8.5 million and make it the 4th-largest "market" in the country, behind New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, slightly ahead of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Lots of people from the District and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs went up the Parkway to Baltimore to see the Orioles during the District's 1972-2004 baseball interregnum. However, during the NFL interregnum between Robert Irsay's theft of the Colts in 1984 and the arrival of the Ravens in 1996, Baltimore never accepted the Redskins as their team, despite 2 Super Bowl wins in that period.

Before you get to Union Station, read the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun online -- or, if you want to go old-school, buy paper copies of them at the Station. The Post is a great paper with a very good sports section, and in just 6 seasons (now into a 7th) has covered the Nats very well, despite the 1972-2004 era when D.C. had no MLB team of its own. As a holdover from that era, it still covers the Orioles well. The Sun is only an okay paper, but its sports section is nearly as good as the Post's, and their coverage of their town's hometown baseball team rivals that of any paper in the country -- including the great coverage that The New York Times and Daily News give to the Yankees and Mets.

Do not buy The Washington Times. It was founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon in 1982 as a replacement for the bankrupt Washington Star as the area’s conservative equivalent to the "liberal" Post. (That’s a laugh: The Post has George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Michael Gerson and Kathleen Parker as columnists!)

Under editor-in-chief Wesley Pruden, the Times was viciously right-wing, "reporting" every rumor about Democrats as if they were established, proven fact, and giving Republicans a free pass. Moon's "Unification Church" sold the paper in 2009, and Pruden retired the year before. But it has cut about 40 percent of its employees, and has dropped not only its Sunday edition but also its sports section.

And now, there's another paper, the Washington Examiner, owned by the same company as the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard, and it is so far to the right it makes The Washington Times look like the Daily Kos. It is a truly loony publication, where Michael Barone of the American Enterprise Institute and Byron York of National Review are considered moderates.

So avoid the loonies and the Moonies, and stick with the Post. Even if you don't agree with my politics, you're going down to D.C. for hockey, and the Post's sports section kicks ass.

The sales tax in the District, once as high as 9 percent, is now just 6 percent.

The centerpoint for street addresses is the Capitol Building. North and South Capitol Streets separate east from west, and East Capitol Street and the National Mall separate north from south. The city is divided into quadrants: Northwest, Northeast, Southeast and Southwest (NW, NE, SE and SW). Because of the Capitol's location is not in the exact geographic centerpoint of the city, NW has about as much territory as the other 3 quadrants put together.

Remember: On street signs, 1st Street is written out as "FIRST," and I Street is written out as "EYE," in order to avoid confusion. And for the same reason, since I and J were virtually indistinguishable in written script when D.C. was founded in 1800, there is no J Street. Once the letters get to W, there is no X, Y or Z Street. Instead, they go to to 2- and then 3-syllable words beginning with the sequential letters: Adams, Bryant, Clifton, etc.

As for the town in which the University is located, College Park is, of course, named for the school itself. The sales tax in Maryland is 6 percent.

Going In. Washington's subway, the Metro, opened in 1976, but College Park wasn't connected to it until the Green Line station opened on December 11, 1993 -- meaning it wasn't until the 1994 season that you could take it to a University of Maryland football game.

From Union Station (having taken either the train or the bus in) to the stadium, you'll get on the Red Line toward Silver Spring, and it's 4 stops to Fort Totten, then transfer to the Green Line toward Greenbelt, and it's another 3 stops to College Park. At which point you go downstairs and transfer to the C8 bus headed for White Flint station. It will let you off at Campus Drive and Union Lane, about 3 blocks from the stadium. It should take about 50 minutes, and cost $2.95 each way. (It sounds expensive, but it's not much more than New York's Subway, and, unlike New York's, it does go outside the city.)
The stadium sits at the foot of the campus' North Hill. Its official address is 90 Stadium Drive, College Park, MD, about 9 miles from downtown Washington. Parking is $17, but don't drive in unless you absolutely need to tailgate, which is permitted.
The stadium opened in 1950, and was named Byrd Stadium after Harry "Curley" Byrd, who played football at the school, and rose to the San Francisco Seals in what we would now call Triple-A baseball, before returning to Maryland and coaching both sports. In 1936, he was named the University's President, building the stadium that bore his name, just in time for the football team playing there to begin its most successful period.

He resigned the position in 1954, so he could run for Governor of Maryland, winning the Democratic nomination but losing to incumbent Republican Theodore McKeldin, a once and future Mayor of Baltimore. (McKeldin is the namesake of McKeldin Mall, to the southeast of the stadium, and the McKeldin Library at its western end.) He later ran for the Senate in 1964 and the House of Representatives in 1966, but lost again. He was appointed to various State offices, and was a champion of the environment in a State heavily dependent on the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay, before dying in 1970.

In 2006, Capital One Bank bought naming rights, and it became Capital One Field at Byrd Stadium. But in 2015, student groups demanded that Byrd's name be removed, since he had personally kept the school all-white until 1951. The school's Board of Regents agreed, and it's now Capital One Field at Maryland Stadium.
The stadium is a horseshoe, with its open end at the southeast, meaning the field, which is FieldTurf, runs northwest-to-southeast. In 1985, when an injunction prevented the USFL's Baltimore Stars from playing home games at Memorial Stadium, they played them at Byrd Stadium, and won the league title.

I attended the 2009 Rutgers-Maryland game. It rained like crazy, making the steep steps in the upper deck slippery, and thus even more treacherous than usual. It also caused the men's room in that part of the upper deck to spring a leak, making it perhaps the most disgusting bathroom I've been in during a sporting event, with the exception of Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia during an Eagles game. (Don't ask.)

Maryland's teams are called the Terrapins, or the Terps for short. A terrapin is a turtle, common to Maryland, and a slogan you will see on campus is "Fear the Turtle." On the one hand, real terrapins are snapping turtles, and can hurt you. On the other hand, turtles are slow, and football players are expected to be fast. So maybe it's not such a good nickname.

Food. Food at D.C. sports venues runs from the very good at Nationals Park to the very bad at RFK Stadium. Terps football seems to have figured out that they're now in the Big Ten, because they have seriously improved their food options.
This humongous bastard of a snack is The Chessie, short for "Chesapeake," and even with the fried turkey legs available under the West Stand, Rutgers can't top this. What does top this pretzel big enough to fit in a dadgum pizza box is cheese and crab seasoning. The Terps also serve crab-seasoned nachos.

Here's a guide, direct from the team website, umterps.com:

• Stand 01- Sect. 28- Flamed Broiled Burgers, Sausages, Hoffman's Hot Dogs, Fries, Nachos
• Stand 02- Sect. 22- Chicken Strips, Hot Dogs, Nachos, Fries, Coffee
• Stand 03- Sect. 19- Pizza, Hoffman's Hot Dogs, Nachos, Fries, UMD Ice Cream, Sno-Cones, Root Beer Float, Chessie Crab Pretzel
• Stand 04- Sect. 18- Crab Cakes, Flamed Broiled Burgers, Logan’s Italian Sausages, Grilled Chicken, Hoffman's Hot Dogs, Fries,
• Stand 06- Sect. 17- Pit Beef, Pit Turkey, Pork BBQ, Veggie Burgers, Fries
• Stand 08- Sect. 14- Chicken Strips, Hoffman's Hot Dogs, Nachos, Fries, Crab Fries, Crab Nachos
• Stand 10- Sect. 11- Flamed Broiled Burgers, Sausages, Grilled Chicken, Hoffman's Hot Dogs, Fries, Funnel Cakes, Coffee
• Stand 12- Sect. 10- Pizza, Hoffman's Hot Dogs, Nachos, Fries, Dill Pickle Spears, Cotton Candy
• Stand 13- Sect. 05- Chicken Strips, Hoffman's Hot Dogs, Nachos, Fries
• Stand 14- Sect. 02- Flamed Broiled Burgers, Logan's Italian Sausage, Hoffman’' Hot Dogs, Fries,
• Stand 21- Sect. 210- Green Turtle- Hog Hammers, Turtle Bites, Buffalo Chicken Dip
• Stand 22- Sect. 208- Flamed Broiled Burgers, Logan's Italian Sausages, Grilled Chicken, Hoffman's Hot Dogs, Fries, UMD Ice Cream, Sno-Cones, Root Beer Float
• Stand 25- Sect. 205- Pizza, Chicken Strips, Hoffman's Hot Dogs, Fries, Nachos, crab fries, crab nachos
• Stand 31- Sect. 312- Hoffman's Hot Dogs, Jumbo Pretzels,
• Stand 32- Sect. 309- Hoffman's Hot Dogs, Fries, Nachos, Coffee
• Stand 33- Sect. 304- Hoffman's Hot Dogs, Fries, Nachos
• Stand 34- Sect. 302- Hoffman's Hot Dogs, Jumbo Pretzels

Curley's Fresh-Fruit Cups? I guess it's not named for Curley Byrd. Either that, or the student groups that successfully got his name removed from the stadium don't care.
Team History Displays. UMd has been to 26 bowl games, the 1st in 1947 and the most recent in 2014. Included in this is their 1 win in a mayor bowl game, the 1952 Sugar Bowl, over Tennessee, which clinched an undefeated season and a share of the National Championship in the 1951 season. They were declared National Champions in 1953 as well, but, at the time, that honor was conferred by the polls before the bowl games, and they lost the 1954 Orange Bowl to Oklahoma, who was near the beginning of their 47-game winning streak, still an NCAA Division I record. Their last visit to a big bowl was the 2002 Orange Bowl, which they lost to Florida. Their last win in any bowl was over East Carolina in the 2010 Military Bowl.

They had undefeated regular seasons in 1893, 1951, 1953, 1955 and 1976, although each of the last 3 was ruined by a bowl game loss. They won the Southern Conference Championship in 1937, 1951 and 1953; and the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship in 1955, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1983, 1984, 1985 and 2001.

These achievements are honored on the front wall of the fieldhouse, containing their offices and locker room, at the open end of the horseshoe.

The Terrapins do not retire uniform numbers. They do have an athletic hall of fame, with the following members from their football program:

* From the 1900s: Back Curley Byrd.

* From the 1910s: Head Coach Byrd, and backs William Morris, Burton Shipley and Kenneth Knode.

* From the 1920s: Byrd; ends Geary Eppley and Bill Supplee; backs Charles Mackert, Brooke Brewer, Harry Semler, Thomas McQuade, Myron Stevens, Fred Linkous and Gerald Snyder; center Caleb Bailey, guard John Hough and tackle Joseph Burger.

* From the 1930s: Byrd; running backs Julius Radice, William Evans, Joseph Deckman, Charles May, Bosey Berger, George Chalmers, Norwood Sothoron, Earl Widmyer, Bill Guckeyson, Frederick Hewitt and Jim Meade; ends Al Heagy, John Norris, Albert Woods, Francis Buscher and Vic Willis; quarterback Ray Poppelman; guard Jessee Krajovic; and tackle Ed Minion.

* From the 1940s: Head Coach Jim Tatum; running backs Pershing Mondorff and John Gilmore; tackle William Krouse; center Robert Smith; and quarterback Tommy Mont.

* From the 1950s: Tatum; tackles Ray Krouse, Stan Jones, Dick Modzelewski and Mike Sandusky; quaterbacks Stan Lavine, Jack Scarbath and Bernie Faloney; running backs Ed Modzelewski and Chet Hanulak; guard Bob Ward, centers Tom Cosgrove and Bob Pellegrini, and end Bill Walker.

* From the 1960s: End Gary Collins (not the game-show host), defensive back Tom Brown and a quarterback with the unfortunate name of Dick Shiner.

* From the 1970s: Head Coach Jerry Claiborne and defensive tackle Randy White.

* From the 1980s: Kicker Dale Castro, quarterback Norman Julius "Boomer" Esiason, center Kevin Glover and offensive tackle J.D. Maarleveld.

* From the 1990s onward: No honorees to date. Indeed, they had no First Team All-Americans at all in the 1990s, although former New York Jet LaMont Jordan was a Second Team All-American for the Terps. In the 2000s, their All-Americans included linebacker E.J. Henderson and tight end Vernon Davis. So far, they've only had 2 in the 2010s: Kicker Brad Craddock and safety William Likely.

Ward, Scarbath, Dick Modzelewski, Jones, Pellegrini and White have been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. So have Tatum and Claiborne. So have head coaches Clark Shaughnessy and, in his 1st head coaching job in 1945, Paul "Bear" Bryant, although both of those were elected based on what they achieved elsewhere. Jones, of the Chicago Bears teams of the 1950s and '60s, and White, of the Dallas Cowboys' late 1970s "Doomsday Defense," are the only former Terrapins in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Stuff. Although there are souvenir stands at the stadium, there's no official team store. You'd have to go to the University Bookstore. Fortunately, that's a 5-minute walk from the stadium, at 370 Union Lane, and you'd have to pass it going from the Metro shuttle bus stop to the stadium, and back.

The best book -- not that it's much of a contest -- about Terp football is The University of Maryland Football Vault by John McNamara (not the former Boston Red Sox manager), which carries the program from its 1892 beginning through the 2008 season. As far as I can tell, there's no video history of Terp football.

During the Game. Maryland's biggest rivals have been Virginia, West Virginia, Navy and Penn State. That's in football. In basketball, it was Virginia, North Carolina and Duke. With changing conference memberships, only the one with Penn State is still played every year, now that both are in the Big Ten.

Being so close together, and usually being played late in the season, Maryland and Rutgers could develop a good rivalry. So far, it is a good one, not a nasty one -- to the point where, at the 2009 game I went to, many fans from both schools were wearing Baltimore Ravens Number 27 jerseys, for local pro star and Rutgers All-American Ray Rice. (You won't find too many of those on either campus anymore, for unfortunate reasons.) But you can wear your RU gear on the Maryland campus without any trouble.

Maryland students occupy the closed, round end of the horseshoe, with the band in the very front. The band will play the National Anthem, and will frequently play the fight song, "The Maryland Victory Song."

The mascot is Testudo, a diamondback terrapin. Testudo is a genus of tortoises, although the scientific name for the turtle that the UMd mascot represents is Malaclemys terrapin. When the players come onto the field before the game, for luck, they touch a statue of a terrapin.

Maryland used to have simple red helmets with "Terps" in white semi-script lettering on them. Then they switched to plain white ones, making them look like a high school team. Now, their helmets and jerseys are decorated like the State Flag. It looks great on a flag, but it's hideous on uniforms.

Because from 1972 to 2004, Baltimore had a Major League Baseball team and the much-closer Washington didn't, there is one annoying trait from Oriole games that Terps fans brought back with them: The "O!" shout during the National Anthem, on, "O, say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave... ?"

I hate that. What's more, traditionally, Washingtonians hate Baltimore. (Much more so than Baltimoreans hate Washington.) Why would you adopt one of their habits? At least they didn't adopt the Orioles' 7th Inning Stretch song, even though, for people coming into D.C. from Virginia, it would be a bit more appropriate: John Denver's "Thank God I'm a Country Boy." That would have made much more sense than the "O!" shout.

After the Game. As I said, you should be safe walking around the campus. If you're looking for a postgame meal (or even just a pint), the nearby choices are many. Popular choices on or around campus include Bobby's Burger Palace, The Board and Brew, and Looney's Pub (all at 8150 Baltimore Avenue/Route 1, about a mile east of the stadium), and the following that are all within a 5-minute walk of each other, near the intersection of Baltimore Avenue and Knox Road, about a mile southeast of the stadium: Jason's Deli (7356 Baltimore), Cornerstone Grill & Loft, (7325 Baltimore), Terrapin's Turf (4410 Knox), Ledo Restaurant (4509 Knox), and an outlet of that now-gone Rutgers standby, Cluck-U Chicken (7415 Baltimore).

Back in D.C., a particular favorite of mine is Fado, an Irish-themed bar that shows international soccer games. It's a short walk away, at 808 7th Street NW. The bar 51st State is a known hangout for Yankees, Mets, Giants, Jets, Knicks and Rangers fans. (No mention of the Nets, Islanders or Devils, though.) 2512 L St. NW at Pennsylvania Avenue. Metro: Blue or Orange to Foggy Bottom. Nanny O'Brien's is also said to be a Giants fan bar. 3319 Connecticut Ave NW. Metro: Red to Cleveland Park.

If you need a real Rutgers fix before going back -- especially likely if the Scarlet Knights lose -- Washington has a Thomas Sweet! It's in the Georgetown section, at 3214 P Street NW. Not reachable by Metro, which doesn't go to Georgetown: You'll need a bus if you're not driving, either the D2 or the D6.

Sidelights. Before Byrd/Maryland Stadium opened, they played from 1923 to 1947 at the original Byrd Stadium, which Curley Byrd also had built. It wasn't much, only seating 5,000, and the Terrapins played most games against major opponents at either Griffith Stadium in D.C. (home of baseball's Senators and later football's Redskins) or Municipal Stadium in Baltimore (which was later converted into Memorial Stadium for baseball's Orioles and football's Colts).
The Terrapins played all of their 1948 and 1949 home games at Griffith Stadium, despite it not actually being in the State of Maryland, and what became Byrd Stadium and now Maryland Stadium opened in 1950. Old Byrd Stadium, as it became known, was torn down in 1953.

It was on what's now known as Fraternity Fields, on Baltimore Avenue, about a mile southeast of the stadium, across from Ritchie Coliseum, which was the school's basketball home from 1931 to 1955. While playing there, the Terps won the Southern Conference Tournament in 1931 and the regular-season title in 1932.
* Cole Field House. Ritchie Coliseum seated only 1,500, and with the founding of the ACC in 1953, a bigger arena was needed. The William P. Cole, Jr. Student Activities Building, better known as Cole Field House, named for the chairman of the Board of Regents who got it built, opened in 1955, and Maryland played its home basketball games here until 2002.
It is home to more upsets of Number 1-ranked teams than any venue in the history of college basketball, with Duke becoming the 7th in 2002, the final season of play, which also became the season that the Terrapins won their 1st National Championship. They had also made the Final Four the year before, and won Conference Championships at Cole in 1975, 1980, 1995 and 2002, and ACC Tournament Championships in 1958 and 1984. It was home to All-Americans Tom McMillen, Len Elmore, John Lucas, former Knick and Net Albert King (Bernard's brother), Nets star Buck Williams, Joe Smith, former Knick Steve Francis, Juan Dixon (star of the 2002 title team), and, most famously and also tragically, Len Bias.

The building has a more important legacy. On March 19, 1966, it hosted the NCAA Tournament Final, in which Texas Western University, which was renamed the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) a year later, coached by Don Haskins, fielded an all-black starting lineup that beat Adolph Rupp's all-white University of Kentucky (including a 21-year-old guard named Pat Riley), striking a blow for integration. Gary Williams, who would coach Maryland to the 2002 title, attended this game. The fact that it took place at an until-recently segregated university adds to the mystique of the event. It was depicted in the film Glory Road, which filmed on Cole's court. It was the only time a Number 1-ranked team was beaten at Cole by a team other than Maryland.

Cole also hosted the NCAA Final Four in 1970, with UCLA beating Jacksonville University in the FInal. These 2 instances are the only times that either the State of Maryland or the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area has ever hosted the Final Four. In 1991, Cole hosted the 1st-ever win in an NCAA Tournament by a 15th seed over a 2nd seed, as the University of Richmond beat Syracuse.

While Cole was their home, the women's basketball team at Maryland won the ACC regular-season title in 1979, 1982, 1988 and 1989; the ACC Tournament title in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1988 and 1989; and reached the Final Four in 1978, 1982 and 1989. Notable players included 1988 U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist Vicky Bullett, who went on to play in the WNBA For the Charlotte Sting and the Washington Mystics; and Jasmina Perazić, an original 1997 member of the New York Liberty.

Other historic events included perhaps the most famous high school basketball game in American history (or maybe 2nd, after the 1954 Indiana final fictionalized in Hoosiers). In 1965, DeMatha Catholic High School of Hyattsville, just 2 1/2 miles south of Cole, faced Power Memorial Academy of New York, which came in having won 71 straight games, led by 7-foot-2 center Lew Alcindor -- whom we now know as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. With 14,000 fans giving the Stags a tremendous home-court advantage, DeMatha won 46-43.

DeMatha's coach from 1956 to 2002, Morgan Wootten, would go on to win more games than any coach in the history of high school basketball, 1,274 (a total since surpassed by Robert Hughes of Dunbar High in Fort Worth, Texas), and became the 1st person elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame based on high school achievements alone. He is still alive, age 85.

DeMatha's alumni include Adrian Dantley, 1983 North Carolina State stars Sidney Lowe and Dereck Whittenburg, Duke star Danny Ferry, baseball pitchers Steve Farr and Brett Cecil, football stars Brian and Byron Westbrook, U.S. Olympic track and field Gold Medalist Derek Mills, sportscaster James Brown, sportswriter David Aldridge, and Coy Gibbs, son and former assistant coach of Joe Gibbs, who now runs Joe Gibbs Racing.

Power closed in 1984 because they couldn't afford the drastic repairs their 1931 building needed. (It stood at 161 West 61st Street, and was demolished. In a slap to the poor Irish immigrant community of Hell's Kitchen for which it was built, it was replaced by luxury apartments.) In addition to Kareem, their alumni include Chris Mullin, Mario Elie, the aforementioned Maryland star Len Elmore, hockey stars Joe and Brian Mullen, and actor Bruno Kirby.

In 1972, Cole Field House "did its bit for king and country," helping to thaw the Cold War, hosting the 1st-ever sporting event between the U.S. and the People's Republic of China, a table tennis match; and an exhibition of the Soviet gymnastics team, including the star of the recent Olympics in Munich, Olga Korbut, who would come to live and coach in America.

In the Autumn of 1973, when the Baltimore Bullets moved, calling themselves the Capital Bullets that season before becoming the Washington Bullets in 1974 and the Washington Wizards in 1977, their new arena, the Capital Centre in suburban Landover, Maryland, wasn't ready for the new season, so they played home games at Cole.

On September 27 and 28, 1974, Elvis Presley gave his 1st concerts in the D.C. area, at Cole. His staff didn't like it, as the quarters were too cramped. (That had nothing to do with the weight that Elvis was putting on.) So he played the Cap Centre on his 1976 and '77 tours. Other big stars who played at Cole included Queen in 1977, the Grateful Dead in 1981, and Bob Dylan in 1998. I guess they didn't have the entourage that The King had.

Cole seated 14,596 -- and that was after coach Lefty Driesell added 3,000 seats in the 1970s. So it was too small for an ACC program. (Or, as it turned out, a Big Ten program.) Despite head coach Gary Williams, on his way to leading the team to its 1st National Championship, wanting to stay due to the building's great atmosphere, a new arena was built.
In 2014, the University began retrofitting Cole Field House. It now includes their football headquarters, the Terrapin Performance Center, and will, by the time the process is completed in 2018, house the Center for Sports Medicine and The Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Doesn't sound like something worthy of such a historic place, but at least they're not tearing it down completely. 4095 Union Line, across Fieldhouse Drive from the stadium.

* Xfinity Center. Opening in 2002 at 8500 Paint Branch Drive, about 3/4 of a mile northeast of the stadium, and known as the Comcast Center until 2014, Maryland basketball has done fairly well at this 17,950-seat modern arena. The men's team won the ACC Tournament in 2004 and the regular-season title in 2010, although they haven't reached the Final Four there, and have found the Big Ten rough going. Stars since the new area opened including former Los Angeles Laker Steve Blake and former Net Greivis Vásquez.
The women's team has done better, winning the National Championship in 2006. They reached the Final Four again in 2014 and 2015, won the ACC regular-season and Tournament in 2009, won the ACC Tournament in 2012, and won both the regular-season and the Tournament in the Big Ten in 2015 and 2016. Stars including former New York Liberty player Shay Doron, the Seattle Storm's Crystal Langhorne, the Los Angeles Sparks' Kristi Toliver, the Indiana Fever's Marissa Coleman, the Washington Mystics' Tianna Hawkins and the Connecticut Sun's Alyssa Thomas. (All but Doron are still active in the WNBA.)
Washington's sports history is long, but not good. The Redskins haven't won a championship in 25 seasons; the Bullets/Wizards, 39 years; all of its baseball teams combined, 92 years; the Capitals, in 43 years, never have they ever. Indeed, no D.C. area team has even been to its sport's finals since the Caps made it, and even that was 19 years ago.

Although in different directions, the Wizards' and Capitals' Verizon Center (601 F Street NW, Metro Green, Red or Yellow to Gallery Place), the Redskins' FedEx Field (1600 FedEx Way, Metro Blue or Silver to Morgan Blvd.), and D.C. United's Robert F. Kennedy Stadium (2400 E. Capitol Street SE, Metro Blue, Orange or Silver to Stadium-Armory) are all 9 miles from Maryland Stadium. Nationals Park (1500 S. Capital Street SE, Metro Green to Navy Yard) and the new D.C. United stadium (at about 1700 S. 1st Street, also Navy Yard) are 10 miles away, and downtown Baltimore is 28 miles away.

*

If things go well, Rutgers and Maryland could produce exciting Big Ten football (and other sports) without having to go anywhere from 500 miles (to Ohio State) to 1,300 miles (to Nebraska). Then again, how often have things gone well for Rutgers? But you should be able to enjoy yourself at Maryland when Rutgers plays there.

This past Saturday was the beginning of College Football Rivalry week. USC beat UCLA. Stanford beat California. And, ugh, Rutgers laid another egg, falling 39-0 to the team RU fans hate the most (or should), Penn State (whose fans consider RU just another team on the schedule).

Yesterday, there was the pro football version of such a rivalry, as the Pittsburgh Steelers visited the Cleveland Browns, still a bigger rivalry than Penn State vs. Ohio State. The Steelers won, 24-9, to keep the Browns winless at 0-11.

Thanksgiving Day won't have a big college football rivalry this time. The only major-conference game will be Louisiana State against Texas A&M, and neither considers the other to be much of a rival. Friday will see North Carolina vs. North Carolina State, Nebraska vs. Iowa (neighboring States that should have had a rivalry for years, but only recently has Nebraska joined the Big Ten), Arkansas vs. Missouri (ditto, but only recently has Missouri joined the Southeastern Conference), Texas vs. Texas Christian, Arizona vs. Arizona State and Washington vs. Washington State.

Saturday is the big day. Rutgers vs. Maryland, despite their proximity, were long in different leagues and weren't a rivalry, but going into the Big Ten together may make it one. Also, Pittsburgh vs. Syracuse. Virginia vs. Virginia Tech. Kentucky vs. Louisville (much bigger in basketball). South Carolina vs. Clemson. Georgia vs. Georgia Tech. Florida vs. Florida State. Central Florida vs. South Florida. Grambling vs. Southern. Tennessee vs. Vanderbilt. Mississippi vs. Mississippi State. Indiana vs. Purdue (also much bigger in basketball). Illinois vs. Northwestern. Minnesota vs. Wisconsin. Kansas vs. Kansas State. Utah State vs. Brigham Young. Nevada vs. UNLV. Oregon vs. Oregon State. Notre Dame vs. USC.

And the 2 biggest rivalries in college football: Michigan vs. Ohio State (which I can cover as Big Ten opponents of Rutgers), and Alabama vs. Auburn (which I have chosen to cover even though it has very little to do with New York or New Jersey).

The following Saturday, December 3, Oklahoma will play Oklahoma State. The next, December 10, Army will play Navy, in Baltimore instead of the usual Philadelphia.

*

Alabama vs. Auburn is called the Iron Bowl, because of Alabama's role in America's steel industry. Birmingham, Sheffield and Leeds were all "steel cities" in England, and cities in Alabama were named for them, and produced steel as well. (Birmingham is sometimes known as "The Pittsburgh of the South.") And "Iron Bowl" sounds a lot better than "Steel Bowl."

I realize that most people in the New York Tri-State Area won't want to go -- and this is a rivalry so nasty that you'd almost have to be stereotypically New York tough in order to survive it. And I freely admit that I have never gone -- or even set foot in the State of Alabama. But, based on what I've read, and what I've heard from people who have, this is what it's like:

Before You Go. Being well south of New York, Alabama is usually warmer than we are. It also gets rather humid. Check Al.com, the website of The Birmingham News, before you go. Temperatures for next Saturday are projected as being in the mid-60s on Saturday afternoon, but the low 40s at night. Bring a jacket.

Although Alabama, a.k.a. The Heart of Dixie (not to be confused with Georgia, a.k.a. The Heart of the South), seceded from the Union in 1861, it was readmitted in 1868. You do not need a passport, and you don't need to change your U.S. dollars into Confederate money. The State is in the Central Time Zone, 1 hour behind us. Adjust your timepieces accordingly. And keep in mind: They think you talk as funny as you think they do.

Tickets. Good luck. Whether in Tuscaloosa (101,821 seats), Auburn (87,421) or Birmingham (71,594), this is always the 1st game on either team's schedule to sell out.

At the moment, StubHub has upper end zone seats going for $140, upper sideline seats for $240, lower end zone seats for $300, and lower sideline seats for $350. Think you can get them cheaper than that? I hope you speak the Southern dialect of Scalperese.

Getting There. From Times Square, the 'Bama campus is 1,020 miles; the Auburn campus, 991 miles. The shortest distance to each begins with taking Interstate 78 West across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania, then switching to Interstate 81 South, and taking that across the panhandles of Maryland and West Virginia, into Virginia. This will allow you to bypass the potential traffic messes of the cities of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond and Raleigh.

At Exit 81 in Virginia, the routes to the schools diverge. If you're going to 'Bama, continue on I-81 across the Virginia panhandle, into Tennessee, until flowing into Interstate 40 West. Pass Knoxville, home of the University of Tennessee, and take Interstate 75 South to Chattanooga. There, you will take Interstate 24 West over the State Line into Georgia, and switch to Interstate 59 South. You'll take that into Birmingham, and switch to Interstate 20 West, which will take you into Tuscaloosa. Then you get off at Exit 71B, and take Interstate 359 North to Exit 2. You'll make a right on Paul W. Bryant Drive, formerly 10th Street but named for the Bear, and the stadium will be a mile ahead on your left, with the rest of the campus to follow. Bryant-Denny Stadium is at 920 Paul W. Bryant Drive. It should take about 15 hours, or 19 hours counting rest stops.

If, however, you are going to Auburn, you take Interstate 77 South to Charlotte, switch there to Interstate 85 West, cross South Carolina, cross Georgia including going through Atlanta, cross into Alabama and take Exit 57 onto Bent Creek Road, make a left on E. Glenn Avenue, and follow that west for 4 miles to the campus. Jordan-Hare Stadium is at 251 S. Donahue Drive. It should take about 14 1/2 hours, or 18 hours counting rest stops.

Now, you're thinking you should fly. But neither Tuscaloosa nor Auburn has an airport with a lot of flights going in and out. Even Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport isn't exactly a major hub. You're unlikely to get a nonstop flight there. And even then, you're talking about having to rent a car for an hour and 15 minutes to get to 'Bama, nearly 2 hours to get to Auburn, which is really in the middle of nowhere, even by Southern standards.

What about other ways? Neither Amtrak nor Greyhound even goes to Auburn. (Well, Amtrak goes to Auburn, California, but not the one in Alabama.) So, really, you're better off flying to Atlanta or Birmingham and driving the rest of the way.

They do both go to Tuscaloosa. On Greyhound, you'd have to change buses twice, in Richmond and Atlanta, and it would cost $430, but it can drop to $348 with advanced-purchase. Now for the really hard part: The station is at 7022 Route 6, over 6 miles from the heart of the 'Bama campus.

Amtrak's Crescent takes almost exactly 24 hours. The problem is, it leaves Penn Station at 2:15 PM Eastern and arrives at 1:07 PM Central the next day. So if you leave on Friday, you'll miss the kickoff; and if you leave on Thursday, you'll have to kill almost an entire day before kickoff. And, because it's Thanksgiving weekend, it's kind of expensive: $661 round-trip. The station is considerably closer to campus, but not that close: At 2105 Greensboro Avenue, a mile and a half from the stadium and 2 miles from the Denny Chines at the heart of the campus.

Once In the City. The source of the name "Alabama" is disputed. It definitely comes from a Native American word, but it might mean "gathering of herbs" or "clearing of weeds." This is reflected in the way the State treats its people: Sometimes as nutrition or spice, sometimes as something to attack and get rid of. The State's sales tax is 4 percent.

Birmingham was named for the city in England, whose name comes from "settlement of Beormingas." The Beormingas were "Beorma's people," Beorma having been a tribal leader in England's early Middle Ages. Auburn may also have been named for a place in England, near Barmston in East Yorkshire. Tuscaloosa was the name of a Native American chief defeated by Hernando de Soto's Spanish soldiers in 1540.

Tuscaloosa is 56 miles southeast of Birmingham, and 103 miles northwest of the State House in Montgomery. Auburn is 109 miles southeast of Birmingham, and 55 miles northeast of Montgomery. The 'Bama and Auburn campuses are 157 miles apart, separated by U.S. 82 from Tuscaloosa southeast to Montgomery, and then I-85 northeast to Auburn.

In addition, Tuscaloosa is 200 miles west of Atlanta, 244 miles south of Nashville, 233 miles southeast of Memphis, and 298 miles northeast of New Orleans. Auburn is 108 miles southwest of Atlanta, 301 miles southeast of Nashville, 348 miles southeast of Memphis, 364 miles northeast of New Orleans, and 326 miles northwest of Jacksonville.

Tuscaloosa, situated on the Black Warrior River (probably named for dark-skinned Native Americans rather than men of African descent) is home to about 95,000 people -- not counting students, who are not official residents. It was founded in 1819, and the University of Alabama was founded the following year.

The centerpiece of the 'Bama campus is the Denny Chimes, a 115-foot-high bell tower, like the stadium named for George H. Denny, President of the University from 1912 to 1936. Surrounding it is the Walk of Fame, where captains of the football team have placed their handprints and footprints at its base since 1948. Among these are names most football fans would recognize: Lee Roy Jordan, Ozzie Newsome, Cornelius Bennett, Derrick Thomas, Shaun Alexander, and New York Jet stars Joe Namath, Richard Todd and Marty Lyons.
Auburn is home to 62,000 people, again, not counting students. The "Greater Columbus-Auburn-Opelika Region," straddling the Georgia-Alabama line, is home to about 500,000. However, from Columbus to Auburn is about 36 miles, and in between, as the saying goes, there's miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles, at least until you get to Opelika, about 9 miles northeast of Auburn.

East Alabama Male College was founded in 1856. It became Alabama Agricultural & Mechanical College (Alabama A&M) in 1872, became the 1st school in the State to admit women in 1892, became Alabama Polytechnic Institute (Alabama Tech) in 1899, and Auburn University in 1960.

Toomer's Corner is the intersection of Magnolia Avenue and College Street, and it marks the transition from downtown Auburn to the University campus to the southwest. Toomer's Drugs, on the northeast corner at 100 N. College Street, is an Auburn institution.
At the southwest corner is a park, which contained Toomer's Oaks. From the 1950s onward, whenever something good happens involving the school, people would go to the trees and throw rolls of toilet paper into them, a tradition known as "rolling the corner."
On the day after Thanksgiving 2010, Auburn came from 24-0 down to beat Alabama 28-27, and the corner was rolled.
On January 27, 2011, a man later identified as Harvey Updyke Jr. of Dadeville, Alabama, enraged by this and by his alleged memory of Auburn fans rolling the corner upon hearing the news of Bear Bryant's death in 1983 (there is no record of this having happened), called in to the radio show of Birmingham sports-talk host Paul Finebaum, and announced that he'd poisoned Toomer's Oaks with an herbicide.

The soil around the trees was tested, and, at least about his vandalism, Updyke had told the truth. He ended up serving 104 days in jail and getting fined nearly $800,000. The trees were found to be dying and beyond saving, and were removed on April 23, 2013. Replacement trees were planted, but they died, too. As of 2016 Iron Bowl Week, the site is vacant.

Going In. Denny Stadium opened in 1929, with 12,000 seats. Only what's now the lower deck of the east stand is original. President Denny envisioned a 66,000-seat stadium, which would have made it roughly the size of Yankee Stadium at the time. It had 31,000 seats by the time Paul W. "Bear" Bryant, who had played end on their 1934 National Championship team, arrived as head coach in 1958, after being head coach at Maryland, Kentucky and Texas A&M.

He boosted it to 60,000 in 1966, a west upper deck was added to make it 70,000 in 1988, an east upper deck to make it 84,000 in 1998, and upper decks were added to the end zones, the north in 2006 and the south in 2010, raising it to its current capacity of 101,821 in 2010.
So while the site has a lot of history, most of the stadium is not particularly old. Then again, given the success of Gene Stallings and Nick Saban, those newer parts have already seen more football glory than the site of Rutgers Stadium has seen in almost 80 years. At any rate, Bryant-Denny Stadium does not have "old-stadium problems."

In 1975, the Bear's name was added to the stadium, and he spent 8 seasons coaching in a stadium named for him, before retiring with 323 wins, at the time the most in Division I history, 232 of them at 'Bama. (A native of Moro Bottom in south-central Arkansas, he got his nickhame from having agreed to wrestle a captive bear during a carnival promotion when he was 13.)
Auburn Stadium opened in 1939, with 15,000 seats. In 1949, it was expanded to 21,000 and named Cliff Hare Stadium. Hare had played in what is frequently (but incorrectly) called the 1st football game in the South, between Auburn and the University of Georgia, on February 20, 1892, a 10-0 Auburn win in Atlanta. (Georgia did play the South's 1st college football game, but it was against Mercer University of Macon, Georgia, at UGa's campus in Athens, 3 weeks earlier, on January 30, and won 50-0. Hare later served Auburn as a professor of chemistry, and was president of the Southern Conference, the predecessor league to both the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

Ralph Jordan (and, like Jimmy Carter's Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan did, he pronounced it "JUR-den," not "JOAR-den"), known as "Shug" for his boyhood love of sugary snacks, was a 3-sport star at Auburn in the late 1920s and early '30s -- a better all-around athlete than Bear Bryant, if not better in football. He coached basketball at Georgia, and both football and basketball at Auburn, running their football team from 1951 to 1975, and in 1973, the University renamed the stadium Jordan-Hare Stadium, so Jordan beat Bryant to the honor by 2 years. Jordan died in 1980.
On his watch, capacity went from 21,000 to 61,000, and under Pat Dye it went to 85,000 -- as if he and the school had a mission to outdo 'Bama wherever they could. As a result, it's now "Pat Dye Field at Jordan-Hare Stadium." Since 2004, capacity has been 87,451, but now Bryant-Denny well surpasses it in that regard. With that in mind, Auburn is planning upper decks for the end zones, which would raise capacity over 100,000, and possibly surpassing Bryant-Denny.
Due to Auburn's relative inaccessibility, the school played a lot of his rivalry games at neutral sites. For many years, they played Georgia at Memorial Stadium in Columbus, Georgia. (It's now named A.J. McClung Memorial Stadium, for a Mayor and civil rights leader, and seats just 15,000.) They played all their "home" games against Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia Tech at Legion Field in Birmingham.

Eventually, due to the nastiness of the rivalry, only the Iron Bowl was still played at Legion Field, with tickets divided evenly and the fans split down the middle, like Texas vs. Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl and some other such rivalries.

'Bama, too, used Legion Field, then larger and more accessible, for many of its bigger games (thus making Bryant-Denny its home for "lesser" opponents, and the Bear had a whopping 72-2 record there), to the point that Auburn officials, and Dye in particular, believed that no matter how many tickets Auburn fans got, it was a "home game" for 'Bama. Dye wanted the game at Auburn every other year, and in 1989 he finally got his wish. (Dye had to leave Auburn under a cloud in 1992, his last game an Iron Bowl loss at Legion Field. He is still alive, age 77.)

As Bryant-Denny got bigger, and Legion Field deteriorated (it opened in 1927), 'Bama scheduled fewer games there. They played at least 3 games there every year until 1998, but now, they haven't played a "home game" there since 2003.

Both stadiums are aligned north-to-south. Jordan-Hare has always had real grass. Bryant-Denny had the plastic stuff from 1968 to 1991, but then went back to God's own. Neither stadium hosts anything but football. However, beginning in 2009 -- 'Bama in odd-numbered years, Auburn in even-numbered years -- the Super Six, the Alabama High School Athletic Association's games for the State Championship, are held at the universities, after previously being held at Legion Field.

Food. Son, Ah say son, this bein' the South, y'all can expect good eatin' and good hospitality. You want the usual ballpark fare, including hot dogs and beer? They got 'em and they got 'em good. You want Southern specialties such as fried chicken and barbecue? They got that, too.

This being the South, Coke dominates the beverage selection, but since it gets so hot down there, they have more concession stands at Bryant-Denny than at any other college football stadium. They're cheap, too: Their most expensive item is a chicken tenders and fries meal, at $9.00.

Jordan-Hare's concessions are dominated by Domino's Pizza and Chik-fil-A. They also have Bodacious Burgers, Fat Boy's BBQ, Habanero's (Cuban sandwiches), Nuts About Auburn and Tiger Treats

Best of all, both stadiums have stands serving items from Dreamland BBQ, run by the restaurant of the same name in Birmingham that might just be the best barbecue restaurant in the dang universe.

There are no alcoholic beverages served in either stadium, because they're on college campuses. Considering it's Southern football, that's for the best.

Team History Displays. From University Blvd. to the north stand of Bryant-Denny Stadium is the Walk of Champions, a brick plaza with granite monuments, commemorating 'Bama's SEC and National Championships. On the west side are statues of the 5 coaches who have led the Crimson Tide to National Championships: Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Bear Bryant, Gene Stallings and the current head coach, Nick Saban.
At the entrance to the north stand is a statue of 2 players. The one on the left is white, holds a Crimson Tide flag, and wears the Number 18. The one on the right is black, points into the distance, and wears Number 92. The numbering represents 1892, the year 'Bama started playing football. (Auburn also started that year.)
Alabama has won 29 Conference Championships. The 1st 4 were in the old Southern Conference: 1924, '25, '26 and '30. The rest have been in the Southeastern Conference: 1933 (the 1st season), '34, '37, '45, '53, '61, '64, '65, '66, '71, '72, '73, '74, '75, '77, '78, '79, '81, '89, '92, '99, 2009, '12, '14 and '15. The last 6 of these have come since the addition of the SEC Championship Game. 'Bama is the only SEC school to win a Conference Championship in every decade since the league was founded.

Since the expansion and divisional split, they've won the SEC Western Division in 1992, '93 '94, '96, '99, 2008, '09, '12, '13, '14, '15 and '16 -- and will play Florida for the SEC title the weekend after the Iron Bowl.

Alabama claims 16 National Championships: 4 wins in the officially-recognized National Championship Game from January 2010 (2009 season) onward, 8 in the sportswriters' polls conducted by the Associated Press (AP) from 1936 to 2008, and 4 others before that, retroactively awarded by one source or another: 1925, '26, '30, '34, '41, '61, '64, '65, '73, '78, '79, '92, 2009, '11, '12 and '15. Some sources recognize Alabama as National Champions in 1945, '66, '75 and '77, although only the '66 title -- going 11-0 while Notre Dame and Michigan State played to their famous 10-10 tie to both finish at 9-0-1 -- is accepted as being even close to legitimate.


Auburn claims the National Championship for 1957 (recognized by the AP, though the coaches' poll of United Press International, UPI, recognized Ohio State) and 2010 (won the BCS title game). Some sources give it to them for 1913, 1983 and 1993 (when they went undefeated under Terry Bowden, but were ineligible for a bowl game due to the violations up until the year before by Pat Dye).

Auburn has 4 coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame: The aforementioned John Heisman, Shug Jordan and Pat Dye, and early 20th Century head coach Iron Mike Donahue. And 8 players have been inducted: 1930s quarterback Jimmy Hitchcock, 1930s center Walter Gilbert, 1950s running back Ed Dyas, 1960s running back Tucker Frederickson (played 7 years with the Giants), 1970s quarterback Pat Sullivan and receiver Terry Beasley, and 1980s running back Bo Jackson and defensive tackle Tracy Rocker.

Unlike most schools, neither Alabama nor Auburn has a big championship display in the fan-viewable areas of their stadiums. Nor does Auburn show their retired numbers in the field area.

Alabama has won the SEC title 25 times, Auburn 8 times, and all other schools combined just 51 other times. (Some titles have been shared.) Tennessee has won 13: 1938, '39, '40, '46, '51, '56, '67, '69, '85, '89, '90, '97 and '98. Georgia has won 12: 1942, '46, '48, 59, '66, '68, '76, '80, '81, '82, 2002 and 2005. Louisiana State, a.k.a. LSU, has won 12: 1935, '36, '58, '61, '70, '84, '86, '88, 2001, '03, '07 and '11. Florida has won 8: 1991, '93, '94, '95, '96, 2000, '06 and '08, and also won in 1984, but that title was vacated due to rule violations. The University of Mississippi, a.k.a. Ole Miss, has won 6: 1947, '54, '55, '60, '62 and '63, plus a Division title in 2003. Kentucky won in 1950 (with Bear Bryant as head coach) and 1976. Mississippi State has won it only in 1941, but did win a Division title in 1998.

Georgia Tech won the SEC title in 1943, '44 and '52. Tulane won it in 1949. Neither school is in the SEC any longer. Arkansas won 13 Southwest Conference (SWC) titles, but only 3 Division titles since entering the SEC. Texas A&M won 17 titles in the SWC and 1 in the Big 12. Missouri won 12 titles in the Big Eight and 3 others in their league before that. South Carolina won the Southern Conference in 1933 and the ACC in 1969. Vanderbilt won 14 Conference Championships, the last in the Southern Conference in 1923. None of those schools, however, has won a title since coming into the SEC.

The Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, in Birmingham, has a statue of a generic player, flanked by Bryant and Jordan.
Stuff. Neither stadium has a large team store like a pro stadium would. Your best bet for school merchandise would be at the university bookstores. The University of Alabama Supply Store is at 751 Campus Drive West, at 7th Avenue, a 15-minute walk north of the stadium and a 10-minute walk north of Denny Chimes. At Auburn, the Bookstore is in the Haley Center, across Heisman Drive from the stadium.

I was surprised to find that copies of Bryant's famous houndstooth hat are sold, and not just by the Supply Store. I suppose it's 'Bama's answer to Pittsburgh's Terrible Towel. I thought it would be revered too much to be sold -- blasphemy, even. As they say, "In Alabama, an atheist is a man who doesn't believe in Bear Bryant."
A lot of trees would have to be cut down to match the paper used to print books about Alabama football. (Too soon, Auburn fans?) Eli Gold just published Crimson Nation: The Shaping of the South's Most Dominant Football Team. Allen Barra, who's written biographies of Wyatt Earp, Yogi Berra, and a dual bio of Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, wrote The Last Coach: A Life of Paul "Bear" Bryant. Although born and raised in New Jersey, Barra's first post-college job was in Birmingham, and he was immersed in Alabama sports lore, to the point where he also wrote Rickwood Field: A Century In America's Oldest Ballpark. And last year, Monte Burke wrote Saban: The Making of a Coach, about the current Tide coach.

Rod Bramblett just published Touchdown Auburn: Carrying on the Tradition of the Auburn Tigers. There are also lots of videos about Crimson Tide football, including the new Defining Moments: Alabama Football. Videos of the 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015 National Championship Games are available. There's Defining Moments: Auburn Football, and a video of the 2010 National Championship Game.

During the Game. The best advice I can give you for attending a football game at either Alabama or Auburn -- especially if it's the Iron Bowl -- is, Whichever is the home team, be nice to them, and don't praise the other guys. Also: If you tailgate, be willing to share. If you are, they will be, too.

Crimson had been Alabama's school color because they wanted to be "The Harvard of the South." I don't know if there is a true "Harvard of the South," but 'Bama ain't it. Nevertheless, as Harvardians might, they look down on other schools, especially Auburn, formerly Alabama Agricultural & Mechanical, and call the "the Cow College." Auburn's pride was so wounded, and their resentment at Alabama's long-term success so deep, that the rivalry between the schools is perhaps more intense than any other.

The fact that Auburn chose orange and blue, the colors of one of Harvard's rivals, Princeton -- hence, their mascot became the Tigers -- deepens this. (The University of Georgia doesn't wear blue like Harvard's real rival, Yale, but they did make Bulldogs their mascot because they were founded by missionaries from Yale.)

In 1907, Auburn, then Alabama Tech, was favored to beat Alabama. But it rained, and the game was played in a sea of red mud. This served as an equalizer -- literally, as 'Bama, until then simply "The Crimson," held the favored Tigers to a 6-6 tie. Hugh Roberts of the Birmingham Age-Herald used the phrase "crimson tide" to describe Alabama then, and the name stuck. Eventually, the cheer became "Roll Tide,""Roll Tide Roll," or sometimes "Roll Damn Tide!"
At 'Bama, they don't throw rolls of toilet paper into oak trees. They put them on sticks atop boxes of Tide detergent. Get it? "Roll, Tide."
So if 'Bama's teams are called the Crimson Tide, why is the mascot an elephant? In 1930, Everett Strupper (himself a former college football player, for Georgia Tech) wrote in the Atlanta Journal about a recent game between Alabama and Mississippi:

At the end of the quarter, the earth started to tremble, there was a distant rumble that continued to grow. Some excited fan in the stands bellowed, "Hold your horses, the elephants are coming!" and out stamped this Alabama varsity. 

The metaphor caught on. In the 1940s, the University kept a life elephant mascot named Alamite, and it carried the Homecoming Queen onto the field before kickoff of Homecoming games. This proved to be too expensive, so they started renting elephants for such events.

In the late 1970s, as costumed mascots became popular in major league sports (a trend recently begun by the San Diego Chicken and the Phillie Phanatic), and colleges were adding them to use along with live mascots (such as Georgia's Uga the Bulldog and LSU's Mike the Tiger), a student committee asked Bear Bryant (the athletic director as well as the football coach) for permission, and he gave it, and Big Al the Elephant debuted at the 1980 Sugar Bowl. (As it turns out, "Al" is not only short for "Alabama," but a tribute to Al Brown, then a popular deejay in Tuscaloosa.)
So if Crimson is the color, what's "Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer"? The Rammer-Jammer was a student magazine in the 1920s, and the yellowhammer is Alabama's State Bird.

On October 14, 1922, Alabama went to Atlanta to play Georgia Tech, and lost 33-7. Tech's head coach, Bill Alexander (for whom their basketball arena is named), told the Alabama fans, "Your football team isn't worth a nickel, but you have a million-dollar band." The 'Bama band has been "The Million Dollar Band" ever since.

Three weeks later, on November 4, 'Bama went to Philadelphia and beat the University of Pennsylvania 9-7 at Franklin Field. (They finished the season 6-3-1, so Alexander was wrong about the quality of the team.) This is considered a landmark day in the history of Southern football, and it helped launch 'Bama on a run of success that continued throughout the 1920s and '30s and established the school's legend, before the Bear was even a player (and while he was one).

In the 1960s, Doug Barfield, then Auburn's coach, invited fans to come out and support the team as it walked from the Auburn Athletic Complex to Jordan-Hare Stadium. Every home game, thousands do, shaking their hands or patting them on the back. This has become known as Tiger Walk, and is called "the most-copied tradition in all of college football."

While Auburn have been the Tigers for over 100 years, it wasn't until 1959 that a cartoonist drew a Tiger to represent the team, naming it "Aubie" for Auburn. In 1979, beating 'Bama to the punch by a few weeks (the Auburn fans must've loved that), an Aubie the Tiger costume was created and debuted. Aubie wears an Auburn jersey, Number 01.
So if Auburn are the Tigers, why do they shout, "War Eagle"? There are varying stories. Like a lot of stories in the South, the most common version of the legend dates to the Civil War. And like a lot of stories about the Civil War, it's pure baloney.

A soldier from Alabama was the sole Confederate survivor of the Battle of the Wilderness. (This was on May 7, 1864, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, and was inconclusive, so there were many survivors, but also great losses, on both sides.) Supposedly, the soldier found a wounded eagle. He nursed it back to health, and brought the bird with him to Auburn when he became a professor there, and it became known as the War Eagle. When Auburn played its 1st football game in 1892, the eagle took off and flew around the field, until the game ended with Auburn victorious, at which point the proud old bird fell to the ground and died.

This story was first published in 1959 by Jim Phillips of the Auburn Plainsman, and Phillips, still alive, has asked the school to find the true origin of the phrase, "before my fictitious story gets carved in stone." It hasn't yet been carved in stone, and, unlike "The Auburn Creed," it hasn't actually been put on a metal plaque on a stone. But it is ingrained in the Auburn consciousness.

On November 25, 1914 -- the day Joe DiMaggio was born -- Auburn played the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (which had recently graduated Jim Thorpe) at Piedmont Park in Atlanta. Behind quarterback Legare "Lucy" Hairston, Auburn won, 7-0. That much is true. Supposedly, Carlisle had a lineman named Bald Eagle, and Hairston decided he was an easy mark, and called every play to be run at him. Before every snap, he yelled, "Bald Eagle!" But the fans misheard him, and started shouting, "War Eagle!"

This story sounds believable because, unlike the Civil War story, it's not dripping with melodrama -- or easily disprovable facts. The problem with it is that Carlisle didn't allow its players to keep their Native American names, so if a player had been born with the name Bald Eagle, the Auburn players wouldn't have known it. And Hairston, who lived until 1980, never claimed credit for "War Eagle."

Finally, in 1998, the Plainsman decided to follow Jim Phillips' advice and find the truth. They decided the most likely origin was from a pep rally in 1913, before the game against Georgia. (After an incident in 1908, Auburn and Alabama didn't play each other again until 1948, so Georgia became Auburn's biggest rival in that period.) Gus Graydon, Auburn's head cheerleader, said, "If we are going to win this game, we'll have to get out there and fight! Because this means war!"

Sidelights. Since I'm doing this for 2 schools, and for an entire State, I'll have to break this up.

* At Alabama. Before there was Bryant-Denny Stadium, there was University Field, which became Denny Field. Playing here, between 1915 and 1928, that the Crimson Tide first became a national power. Their record at Denny Field was 43-2. It was located at 10th Avenue (now Bryant Drive) and 7th Street, and is now occupied by a parking lot surrounded by fraternity houses.

The Paul W. Bryant Museum is at 300 Paul W. Bryant Drive, about a mile east of the stadium. Essentially, it's a monument to the Bear and the team he built. His famous houndstooth hat is on display there.

Sewell-Thomas Stadium, the baseball complex, and Coleman Coliseum, the basketball arena, are across Bryant Drive. Sewell-Thomas is named for Joe Sewell, the Cleveland Indians and Yankees Hall-of-Famer who went to 'Bama, and Frank Thomas, the coach who built 'Bama into a power in both baseball and football.

Elvis Presley sang at Coleman Coliseum on November 14, 1971; June 3, 1975; and August 30, 1976. From 1981 to 1992, Alabama's basketball coach was Winfrey "Wimp" Sanderson, known for his loud plaid jackets, and in tribute to him, the boundary of the court at Coleman Coliseum was painted plaid, and the arena was known as the Plaid Palace.

About halfway between these buildings and the stadium is Foster Auditorium, on Magnolia Drive between 6th Avenue and Hackberry Lane. This is the most important place in the post-Civil War history of the State. While it was the University's main gym from 1939 until 1968 (when Coleman Coliseum opened), and again hosts the school's women's basketball and volleyball programs, it was also long the school's registration center.

It was there, on June 11, 1963, that James Hood and Vivian Malone attempted to register as students. Governor George C. Wallace personally stopped them, making, as he promised he would, a "stand in the schoolhouse door."

President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy sent Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach (a Trenton, New Jersey native) and federal marshals there, and they told Wallace that if he didn't get out of the door, he would be arrested for violating the federal law that allowed people of all races to attend any government sponsored school in the country. Not wanting to be put in handcuffs on national television, Wallace decided that looking weak was better than looking like a criminal, and he backed down. But he was still a hero to America's bigots.

Nevertheless, accompanied by Katzenbach and the marshals, Malone walked in, and became the 1st black person to register as a student at the University of Alabama. Hood followed. Auburn's desegregation was considerably less dramatic, as Harold A. Franklin was the 1st black student admitted, in 1964.

The Alabama Museum of Natural History is at 427 6th Avenue in Tuscaloosa. The Tuscaloosa Museum of Art is 2 miles northeast of the campus, at 1400 Jack Warner Parkway NE.

* At Auburn. Auburn Arena is across Beard-Eaves Court from the stadium. It replaced Beard-Eaves Coliseum, across Heisman Drive, Auburn basketball's home court from 1969 to 2010. Elvis sang at Beard-Eaves on March 5, 1974. The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art is Auburn's cultural center, at 901 S. College Street. Shug Jordan is buried at Memorial Park Cemetery, at Samford Avenue and Oak Street, about 2 miles east of campus.

*  In Birmingham. Birmingham is 964 miles southwest of Midtown Manhattan, 59 miles northeast of Tuscaloosa, and 110 miles northwest of Auburn. It is the largest city in the State, with 212,000 people, and a metropolitan area of 1.1 million -- about 1/4 of the entire State's population. But let's not kid ourselves: It would rank dead last in population among each of the "Big Four" North American sports.

The Amtrak station is at 1 19th Street North. The Greyhound Station, the scene of a firebombing of a "Freedom Ride" bus on May 7, 1961 -- Mother's Day -- is at 618 19th Street North.

Lakeview Park was the 1st home of Birmingham professional baseball (1885-1910), and the 1st home of Universityof Alabama football (1892-94). The Birmingham Barons won the 1906 Southern Association Pennant there. It was located at the streets now named Highland and Clairmont Avenues. The Highland Park Golf and Tennis Centers were built on the site, 2 1/2 miles southeast of downtown. Bus 12.

Rickwood Field is America's oldest ballpark, opening on August 18, 1910 -- making it a year and 8 months older than Fenway Park in Boston. The Birmingham Barons of the Southern Association played there from 1910 to 1961, and the Birmingham Black Barons of various Negro Leagues did so from 1920 to 1960. Hall-of-Famers who played for the Barons include Rube Marquard, Burleigh Grimes and Pie Traynor. The Black Barons had Satchel Paige, Mule Suttles and, at age 17, in his 1st pro baseball job in 1948, Willie Mays, whose father had played semipro ball in the Birmingham area.
The Barons won Southern Association regular-season titles while playing at Rickwood in 1912, 1914, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1958 and 1959. They won Playoffs for the Pennant in 1928, 1936, 1948, 1951 and 1958. The Black Barons won Pennants in 1943, 1944, and, with the teenaged Mays, 1948.

The old Southern Association also included Alabama's Montgomery Rebels and Mobile Bears; Georgia's Atlanta Crackers and Macon Peaches; Tennessee's Memphis Chicks, Nashville Vols, Knoxville Smokies and Chattanooga Lookouts; Arkansas' Little Rock Travelers; and Louisiana's New Orleans Pelicans and Shreveport Sports.
By the late 1950s, the SA was boycotted by civil rights leaders, to the point where some member clubs joined already-integrated leagues. Finally, in 1961, a court ruled that the league had to field black players. In response, the league went out of business. In 1964, the original South Atlantic League (SAL or "Sally League") changed its name to the Southern League, and moved into many of the SA's cities, while a new league took the South Atlantic League name.

A new Barons team began play. In 1967, Birmingham native Charlie Finley, owner of the Kansas City Athletics (whom he moved to Oakland the next season), bought the team, and renamed them the Birmingham A's. Most of the Oakland dynasty of the 1970s played for this team at Rickwood, including Reggie Jackson, Joe Rudi, Sal Bando and Rollie Fingers, and won the 1967 Pennant.

This team lasted until 1975, and a new Barons was established in 1981, and played at Rickwood until 1987, winning SL Pennants in 1983 and 1987, making 10 Pennants won at Rickwood (counting years when they won both the regular season and the Playoffs as a single Pennant).

Since 1988, they have played the occasional game there, as Rickwood is now treated as a "living museum." Because of its age and its preservation, it has been used as a filming site for baseball-themed films such as Cobb and 42 (with computer-generated imagery allowing it to "play" Ebbets Field and the other 7 National League ballparks of 1947). 1137 2nd Avenue West, 3 miles west of downtown. Bus 5.

* Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. Home of the Barons from 1988 to 2012, it seats 10,800. Since 1986, the Barons have been a farm team of the Chicago White Sox, and "The Met" was the home field for future Pale Hose stars Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura, Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland and Paul Konerko -- as well as for a couple of guys who are better known for other sports, Bo Jackson and Michael Jordan. The Barons won Pennants there in 1989, 1993 and 2002.
Like many stadiums and arenas built in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, it was derided for not having the atmosphere of its predecessor. Also like many stadiums and arenas built in the JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan years, it was ripped for being too far from the center of town. So the Barons moved back to the city.

The Met still stands, mostly hosting high school football. It also hosted the NCAA Soccer Championships in 2011 and 2012. 100 Ben Chapman Drive -- named for the Alabama-born All-Star left fielder for the 1930s Yankees who became the notoriously racist manager of the 1947 Phillies, something he lived long enough to regret in an interview -- in Hoover, 15 miles south of downtown. No public transit access.

* Regions Field. Opening in 2013, this 8,500-seat stadium is considerably nicer and more accessible than the Met, and considerably more comfortable than Rickwood. It is an ideal park for a Class AA baseball team, as the Barons have always been. The Barons won the SL Pennant in their 1st season in the park, making a total of 15 Pennants in their various leagues.
1401 1st Avenue South, a mile southwest of downtown. Several buses go to the area, including the 8 and the 18.
* Legion Field. "The Gray Lady on Graymont" opened in 1927, and has been the center of sports in Alabama ever since. It seated 83,091 people at its peak.

As stated earlier, it hosted some home games of both 'Bama and Auburn. Since 1991, it's hosted games of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. (UAB's main campus is a mile and a half south of downtown, at University Blvd. and 15th Street. Bus 8.) It's hosted bowl games: The Dixie Bowl (1948 and '49), the Hall of Fame Bowl (1977-85), the All-American Bowl (1986-90), and the Birmingham Bowl (2006-present).

It's been home to several pro teams: The Birmingham Americans, the only Champions of the World Football League (1974, changing their names to the Birmingham Vulcans for the never-completed 1975 season); the Birmingham Stallions, one of the better teams in the United States Football League (1983-85); the Birmingham Fire of the World League of American Football (1991-92); the Birmingham Barracudas, part of the Canadian Football League's ill-fated 1995 venture into the U.S.; and the Birmingham Thunderbolts of the ridiculous XFL in 2001.

From 1970 to 1995, it had artificial turf. It switched back to real grass so it could host some of the soccer games for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, 150 miles to the east. The U.S. team lost 3-1 to Argentina there on July 20, but beat Tunisia 2-0 2 days later.

But since switching back to artificial turf in 2006, the U.S. Soccer Federation hasn't used it as a site for either the men's or women's national team. The last national team game in the entire State of Alabama was the March 20, 2005 2-0 win over Guatemala at Legion Field.

The upper deck on the east side (there never was one on the west side) that was built in 1961 was removed in 2005, after an inspection deemed it unsafe. It was renovated in 2015, and now meets all safety requirements. It can now hold 71,594. 400 Graymont Avenue West, 2 miles west of downtown. Bus 38.
* Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center. Formerly the Jefferson County Civic Center, this complex opened in 1976, and includes a 19,000-seat arena that became home to the Birmingham Bulls (formerly the Toronto Toros) of the World Hockey Association.

They reached the WHA Playoffs in 1978, and featured such players as Rod Langway (the eventual Washington Capitals Hall-of-Famer was named to the WHA All-Time Team), Michel Goulet (a Hall-of-Famer for the Quebec Nordiques), Rick Vaive (who became the 1st Toronto Maple Leaf to score 50 goals in a season), Buzz Schneider (who went on to play for the U.S. team that won the 1980 Olympic Gold Medal -- eligible because he wasn't an NHL player), and, in his final season, Frank Mahovlich (the Maple Leafs' greatest player ever).

They were not among the WHA teams admitted to the NHL in 1979, and continued for 2 years in the Central Hockey League. Another team with the name played in the East Coast Hockey League from 1992 to 2001. It's hosted UAB basketball, pro wrestling and concerts. Elvis sang here on December 29, 1976.
The arena is now known as the Legacy Arena. The Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, with its joint statue of the Bear and Shug, is part of the complex. 2100 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. North (named for Birmingham's 1st black Mayor (1979-99, and still alive at age 82), at the intersection of 19th Street and 9th Avenue, across from City Hall, downtown.

The Birmingham Museum of Art is at 2000 Reverend Abraham Woods Jr Boulevard, formerly 8th Avenue. The 16th Street Baptist Church, site of a bombing that killed 4 teenage girls and injured 22 other people on September 15, 1963, is at 1530 6th Avenue North. The Bear is buried at Elmwood Cemetery, 600 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, 4 miles west of downtown. Bus 8. 

And while you're in Birmingham, don't forget to try the barbecue at Dreamland. 1427 14th Avenue South, 2 miles south of downtown, near the UAB campus. Bus 14.
* Montgomery. The State capital is 91 miles south of downtown Birmingham, 103 miles southeast of Tuscaloosa, and 54 miles southeast of Auburn.

The State House is at 600 Dexter Avenue. It was the 1st capitol building of the Confederate States of America. On its front portico is a star, marking the spot where Jefferson Davis stood as he was sworn in as the Confederate President. Alabama's Governors have been sworn in on that spot ever since, including George Wallace, who, the 1st time he was sworn in, on January 14, 1963, declared in his Inaugural Address, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever!" He turned out to be right on the 1st 2, but wrong on the last a whole lot sooner than he expected.
The State House was also the end of the Voting Rights March that began in Selma, Alabama in March 1965. And it is just 1 block east of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King was pastor during the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott. 454 Dexter Avenue at Decatur Street. The Southern Poverty Law Center is next-door, at 400 Washington Avenue. The Civil Rights Memorial is across the street from the SPLC.

It was in front of the Empire Theater that Rosa Parks was arrested on the Cleveland Avenue bus on December 1, 1955. The theater was torn down, and the Rosa Parks Museum was erected on the site. 252 Montgomery Street, 8 blocks west of the State House. (The actual bus was preserved, and is now at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit.) About 5 blocks north, at 200 Coosa Street at Tallapoosa Street, is Montgomery Riverwalk Stadium, home of the Montgomery Biscuits, a Class AA farm team of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Elvis sang at the Garrett Coliseum on December 3, 1955 (the arena was then known as the State Coliseum); March 6, 1974; and February 16, 1977. 1555 Federal Drive, 3 miles northeast of downtown. Like so many of Birmingham's notable sites, it is reached by a bus labeled Bus 8.

* Selma. The aforementioned Voting Rights March began at the Edmund Pettus Bridge -- built in 1940 and named for a Senator and Klansman -- 89 miles south of Birmingham, 77 miles southeast of Tuscaloosa, and 102 miles west of Auburn.

* Tuskegee. This small city is home to Tuskegee University, formerly the Tuskegee Institute, and its legendary scientist Booker T. Washington -- who, contrary to the Eddie Murphy bit from Saturday Night Live, died as perhaps the wealthiest black person in America due to his patents, not "penniless and insane, still trying to figure out how to play a record with a peanut."

The Institute was also home to the World War II pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen, and the city was the birthplace of the aforementioned Rosa Parks. It is just 19 miles southwest of Auburn, just a half-hour away by car. It's 140 miles southeast of Tuscaloosa, and 130 miles southeast of Birmingham.

In addition to the preceding locations, Elvis gave concerts in Alabama at:

* Sheffield: The Sheffield Community Center on January 19, 1955; August 2, 1955 (2 shows); November 15, 1955 (2 shows);

* Mobile: Ladd Stadium on May 4 and 5, 1955; Curtis Gordon's Radio Ranch on June 29 and 30, 1955, and again on October 28, 1955; and at the Municipal Auditorium on September 14, 1970; June 20, 1973; June 2, 1975 (2 shows); and August 29, 1976 (2 shows). He was supposed to give another concert there on April 1, 1977, but, his lifestyle catching up with him, the show was canceled.

* Prichard: A morning show at Vigor High School, and afternoon and evening shows at the Greater Gulf States Fair, all on October 26, 1955.

* Jackson: National Guard Armory on October 27, 1955.

* Huntsville: The Von Braun Civic Center on May 30, 31, and June 1, 1975 (2 shows each on the 31st and the 1st); and September 6, 1976 (2 shows).

According to an article in the September 2014 issue of The Atlantic, the most popular NFL team in most of Alabama, including Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, is the New Orleans Saints, but Auburn is in the easternmost sliver of the State, where the Atlanta Falcons are preferred.

An article in the April 23, 2014 New York Times says that Atlanta has a much stronger hold over Alabama in baseball, with the Braves having 34 percent share in Birmingham, 36 in Tuscaloosa, and a majority, 51, in Auburn. In each case, the Yankees and Red Sox are the 2nd- and 3rd-most popular. It may help that neither New Orleans, nor Memphis, nor Nashville has an MLB team.

And an article in the May 12, 2014 New York Times says the most popular NBA teams are the teams that had won recently: The Miami Heat, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics. If they were to update that article, most likely, allegiances would have shifted to the LeBron-returned Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors. If so, the closest NBA teams -- the Atlanta Hawks, the New Orleans Pelicans and the Memphis Grizzlies -- would remain out of luck. As for hockey fandom, forget it: They don't care.

No President of the United States has ever been born in Alabama, or had a home there. George Wallace, Governor 1963-67, 1971-75, and 1979-87, ran for President 3 times, and in 1968 won 5 States for 46 Electoral Votes as a 3rd-party candidate, making him the last person not either the Democratic nor the Republican nominee to get more than 1 Electoral Vote. And he ended up finishing 3rd in Democratic delegates in 1972. But he never really got close to the Presidency.

Only 1 Alabama native has even served as Vice President, and he was the briefest Vice President: William Rufus King, a longtime U.S. Senator. He was elected with Franklin Pierce in 1852, but was already sick, and died on April 18, 1853, just 45 days after being sworn in. He had long shared a room in a Washington boardinghouse with Senator James Buchanan, and it was rumored then, and believed by some now, that they were a gay couple. The friendship with King influenced the Pennsylvanian Buchanan's views on the South, making him too friendly with politicians from slave States and essentially allowing the Civil War to happen.

The tallest building in Alabama is the RSA Battle House Tower, 745 feet, at 11 N. Water Street in Mobile. It's considerably taller than the next-tallest, the Wells Fargo Tower, 454 feet, 420 20th Street North in Birmingham.

As far as I know, there's never been a TV show set in Alabama, but lots of movies have, especially those set around the Civil Rights Movement, and a few around Alabama football. Most of the latter have featured Bear Bryant as a character. These include The Bear (1984, played by Gary Busey), Forrest Gump (1994, played by Sonny Shroyer, a.k.a. Deputy Enos Strait on The Dukes of Hazzard), and Woodlawn (2015, played by Jon Voight).

Forrest's hometown of Greenbow, Alabama is fictional, and its scenes were filmed in Varnville, South Carolina. Most of the movie was filmed in that area, and the football scenes were filmed not in Alabama, but at Weingart Stadium, at East Los Angeles College. The scene of Forrest's graduation from 'Bama was filmed at the Bovard Administration Building at the University of Southern California.

Dewey Cox's hometown of Springberry, Alabama, as seen in Walk Hard, is also fictional. I suspect it was chosen because a section of rural Alabama would have been roughly halfway between the hometowns of the performers the film most clearly parodies: Johnny Cash of Dyess, Arkansas and Ray Charles of Greenville, Florida.

*

I don't expect too many of you to ever go to a football game at Alabama or Auburn. And the Iron Bowl simply may be unavailable to you due to ticket demand. But if you ever do visit, this guide should be very helpful.

Remember: Be kind to the home fans, and they will be kind back.

The New Jersey Devils make their 1st trip to Pittsburgh in the 2016-17 season this coming Saturday. I like Pittsburgh as a city very much. I admire the Steelers. I respect the Pirates and the University of Pittsburgh Panthers. But I loathe the Penguins.

Why? Because I have taste. And because Commissioner Gary Bettman loves Crosby and has fixed games for him. Including, as of last June, 2 Stanley Cups.

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 high 50s for Sunday afternoon and mid-40s for the night, with some showers.

Pittsburgh is in the Eastern Time Zone, so you won't have to adjust your timepieces.

Tickets. The Penguins averaged 18,548 fans per home game last season. That's more than a sellout, and it includes standing-room. This has been the case pretty much since Mario Lemieux arrived over 30 years ago (has it been that long already?), and it will be the case as long as Crosby is around.

Penguins tickets are also insanely expensive. In the lower bowl, you can expect to pay at least $223 between the goals and $112 behind them. In the upper bowl, at least $110 between the goals and $75 behind them.

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 and change planes in Philadelphia to go less than 400 miles, and the airport is out in Imperial, Pennsylvania, near Coraopolis and Aliquippa -- it's almost as close to West Virginia and Ohio as it is to downtown Pittsburgh. Oh, hell, no!

You do not want to take the train, because the Amtrak schedule just doesn't work. It's relatively cheap at the moment, $156 round-trip. But 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 first puck-drop. 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. No good. Furthermore, this being Thanksgiving weekend, train rides back on Sunday are sold out anyway.

Greyhound isn't much better, but at least you have options. There are 14 buses a day between New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal and Pittsburgh, and it's $166 round-trip (though advanced purchase can get it down to $124 -- I'm guessing Thanksgiving weekend is also the reason these prices are higher than normal). Leaving at 6:15 AM on Tuesday will get you to downtown Pitt at 5:55, giving you just enough time to get to a hotel and then get to the arena for a 7:00 start. The Greyhound station is at 55 11th Street, across Liberty Avenue from the Amtrak station.

The only sensible way is by car – especially if there's more than one of you going and you can take turns driving. It’s 360 miles from the Prudential Center in downtown Newark to the PPG Paints Arena in downtown Pittsburgh.

Take any highway that will get you to Interstate 78: For most of you, this will be the New Jersey Turnpike (Exit 14), the Garden State Parkway (Exit 142), or Interstate 287 (Exit 21). 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. It also explains why John McCain and Mitt Romney thought they could win Pennsylvania in a Presidential election, and why Donald Trump actually did.

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." If you're not staying over, and just going for the game, take Exit 72B for Boulevard of the Allies. Make a right on Gist Street, then a left on Fifth Avenue. The arena will soon be on your right.

From North Jersey, you will probably need almost 6 hours just for driving. 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.

In other words, if you're driving in just for the game, and leaving right thereafter, you should leave New Jersey at 10 AM to arrive by 6 PM, and then leave at 10 PM to arrive back home around 6 AM. Again, I recommend getting a hotel and staying over. After all, you're not going to be in much shape to go to work on Wednesday morning, so you might as well ask for two days' off.

Once In the City. Pittsburgh has, by American standards, a long history. It was settled by the French as Fort Duquesne (Doo-KANE) 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, with 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.

The the ABA's Pipers were gone early the decade, but the city got a fictional basketball team because, in 1979, it was considered cool enough to film a sports movie there: The astrology-inspired The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, starring Julius "Dr. J" Erving.

(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 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 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 1-zone ride is $2.50, and a 2-zone ride is $3.75. A 75-cent surcharge is added during rush hour, thus said subway fare is not free at that time. These fares are the same for city buses, although they're never 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. The PPG Paints Arena -- the name was changed from the CONSOL Energy Center a few weeks ago -- is right downtown. The official address is 1001 Fifth Avenue. It was built across Centre Avenue from the Penguins' previous home, the Civic Arena, now demolished, and its address of 66 Mario Lemieux Place has been stricken from the U.S. Postal Service's records.
If you're driving in, parking is remarkably cheap for a big-league sporting event: It can be had at most nearby lots for as little as $6.75. You're most likely to be going in by the south (Fifth Avenue) or west (Washington Place) entrances.

The new arena seats 18,087 for Penguins and other hockey games, including the 2013 NCAA Championships (a.k.a. the Frozen Four); and 19,000 for basketball, for college tournaments and, in the unlikely event the NBA returns to Pittsburgh, the pros. Just as the Civic Arena hosted the Beatles on one of their North American tours, its successor opened with a concert by ex-Beatle Paul McCartney on August 18, 2010.  It's been rated one of the country's top concert venues.

The building and opening of this arena means that, for perhaps the first time in franchise history, the Penguins' long-term future in Pittsburgh is secure. The rink is laid out north-to-south. The Penguins attack twice toward the north end of the arena.
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. The styles deserve it.)

Primanti Brothers, the famous Pittsburgh deli chain that puts French fries on sandwiches, has a stand at Section 119. Chef's Carvery serves sandwiches outside 107. Stack, at 108, also serves sandwiches. SH Smokehouse, a barbecue stand, is at 205. A bar called the Miller Lite Brewhouse is outside 207 and overlooks the city's skyline. Highmark Healthier Choices is at 103, 106, 113, 116, 206, 211 and 230. Dairy Queen is at 105 and 234. Pizza Hut is at 107, 120, 212 and 232. Nakama Express serves Japanese food at 101, 105 and 111. Burgatory serves burgers, fries and shakes at 206. Pastries A-la-Carte is at 102.

Pierogi nachos, a Pittsburgh specialty, are served at stands all over the arena. And, just to show you that Pittsburgh is a civilized city, there are Dunkin Donuts stands at 109, 118 and 212.

Team History Displays. Because the Penguins are the arena's only major tenant, their championship banners are hung over center ice: The 1991, 1992, 2009 and 2016 Stanley Cups; the 1991, 1992, 2008, 2009 and 2016 Conference Championships; and the Division titles in 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2008, 2013 and 2014. (They won the Cup in 1992 and 2016 without finishing 1st in their Division.)
As the Devils do, the Penguins hang their retired numbers along the side. In their case, 1 on each side: 21, Michael Briere; and 66, Mario Lemieux. Most likely, the 68 of Jaromir Jagr will be retired when he retires from hockey -- which he will do, eventually. And, of course, the 87 of Sidney Crosby will also go up there.
The Penguins have a team Hall of Fame, but I don't know where the display is at the arena. The 18 current members are:

* From the pre-Cup years, 1967 to 1990: General manager Jack Riley, center Syl Apps Jr. (son of the Toronto Maple Leafs legend), right wings Jean Pronovost and Rick Kehoe, defenseman Dave Burrows and goaltender Les Binkley.

* From their 1991 and 1992 Stanley Cup Champions: Team owner Edward J. DeBartolo (father of the former San Francisco 49ers owner), longtime front office executive Elaine Heufelder (one of the few women with her name stamped on the Stanley Cup), general manager Craig Patrick (of hockey's first family, grandson of Lester Patrick), head coach Bob Johnson -- known as Badger Bob because he had been the head coach of the University of Wisconsin -- center Mario Lemieux, right wing Joe Mullen, defensemen Paul Coffey and Ulf Samuelsson, broadcaster Mike Lange, organist Vince Lascheid, and locker room attendants Anthony Caggiano and Frank Sciulli.

In 2003, a Pittsburgh Penguins Millennium Team was announced, displayed in a mural that was moved from the old arena to the new one: Johnson, Patrick, Binkley, Burrows, Kehoe, Pronovost, Lemieux, Jagr, Coffey, Samuelsson, later coach Herb Brooks (also head coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team that featured later Penguin Mark Johnson, Badger Bob's son); and, also from the 1991 and '92 Cups, goalie Tom Barrasso, center Ron Francis, defenseman Larry Murphy, left wing Kevin Stevens and right wing Mark Recchi.

So far, no members of their 2009 Cup winners have been elected to either group. And, as I said, Jaromir Jagr has not been. Oddly, neither has center Bryan Trottier, a star from the Islander dynasty who played on then Pens' Cup winners and has been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Nor has Scotty Bowman, director of player development for the '91 and '92 Cups and head coach for the '92 win, replacing Johnson.

Lascheid was the organist at Three Rivers Stadium and the Civic Arena. Much like Gladys Goodding at Ebbets Field and the old Madison Square Garden, and John Kiley at Fenway Park and the Boston Garden, Lascheid was the answer to a trivia question: Who was the only man to play for the Pirates, the Steelers and the Penguins?

In 1998, The Hockey News named its 100 Greatest Players. In spite of their still being active, they named Lemieux, Jagr and Coffey. And a statue of Leimeux stands outside the new arena.
Badger Bob's son, and one of his players at Wisconsin, was Mark Johnson. Mark and Mike Ramsey were both members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team, and both went on to play for the Penguins.

Stuff. The PensGear store is on the ground floor, on the northwest corner of the arena, on Centre Avenue. Smaller souvenir stands are all around the arena.

There aren't many books about the team. Right after the 2nd of the back-to-back Cup wins, Dave Molinari published Best In the Game: The Turbulent Story of the Pittsburgh Penguins' Rise to Stanley Cup Champions. As for their more recent triumph, Andrew Podnieks wrote Year of the Penguins: Celebrating Pittsburgh's 2008-09 Stanley Cup Championship Season.

Highlight DVDs from the 4 Stanley Cup seasons are available. The NHL also produced a Pittsburgh Penguins: 10 Greatest Games video, but it was released before the 2009 Cup win. Not surprisingly, the 1991 and 1992 Cup clinchers are included. Also unsurprisingly, there are no games in the set from before Lemieux arrived in 1984.

The set includes Lemieux's 5-goal-3-assist Playoff game against the Flyers in 1989, another 5-goal game from Number 66 clinching their NHL record 16th straight win in 1993, their 4-overtime Playoff epic with the Washington Capitals in 1996, Lemieux ending his 2nd retirement to score against the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2000, Darius Kasparaitis' overtime winner against the Buffalo Sabres in a Playoff Game 7 in 2001, and, to your dismay and mine, 2 games against the Devils: The 1991 Playoff clincher and a 2006 game with Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal, none more than 20 years old, all scoring to beat our boys.

During the Game. A November 19, 2014 article on The Hockey News' website ranked the NHL teams' fan bases, and listed the Penguins' fans 9th: "Hugely popular, but the fan base left the building last time Pens were a bad team." That is not Steeler-level loyalty.

If you were a Flyers fan going into the PPG Paints Arena, or a Cleveland Browns fan or (a little less so) a Baltimore Ravens fan, going into Heinz Field to face the Steelers, you might be in a bit of trouble. But as a Devils fan going into the PPGPA, you'll be fine. You can wear your Scarlet &Black gear without fear of drunken bums physically hassling you.

They're certainly not going to hurt you if you don't provoke them. Just don't say anything bad about Lemieux or the Steelers, and you should be fine. And, for God's sake (not to mention that of its inventor, the late Steelers broadcaster Myron Cope), do not mock or deface The Terrible Towel, that great symbol of Steelerdom. You might not see any at a Penguins game, but they take that particular item very seriously, even pointing out that other NFL teams have lost after mocking it, leading to the phrase "The Curse of the Terrible Towel."

The Cleveland Indians are in the American League, Pittsburgh doesn't have an NBA team, Cleveland doesn't have an NHL team, and neither city has an MLS team, so the Steelers-Browns dynamic doesn't cross over into any other sports, the way Yankees-Red Sox becomes Jets-Patriots or Knicks-Celtics or Rangers-Bruins – or Mets-Phillies becomes Giants-Eagles or Rangers-Flyers. Being put in a separate Conference, let alone Division, and being mostly terrible since coming into existence, Ohio’s NHL team, the Columbus Blue Jackets, doesn't generate much heat from Penguin fans. Even Penn State-Ohio State isn't that big a rivalry. Pitt-Penn State is another story, as is Pitt-West Virginia, "the Backyard Brawl."

The Penguins mascot is named Iceburgh, and he looks nothing like either of the logos the team has worn over the years. Indeed, he looks more like something you'd find on The Muppet Show than at a hockey game. Like N.J. Devil, he wears Number 00.

Jeff Jimerson sings the National Anthem for the Penguins, and did so in the 1995 film Sudden Death.
The Penguins' goal song is "Kernkraft 4000" by Zombie Nation, replacing "Song 2" (a.k.a. "Whoo Hoo!") by Blur. Pens fans have a habit of remembering that they're also Steeler fans and singing, "Here we go, Steelers, here we go!" during their games. (It's been known to happen at Pirate and Pitt football games, too.) As far as I can tell, the Pens don't have a postgame victory song, but I don't think the current Pirates would mind if they adopt the 1979 Bucs' anthem, "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge.

After the Game. There are several sports-themed bars near the arena, many of which date to the glory days at the Civic Arena. Souper Bowl is at 5th & Washington, while Tailgaters is at Centre & Crawford. However, the amount of establishments around the arena is limited by the parking lot where the old arena used be on the north, and the Catholic (and therefore, at least officially, discouraging of drinking) Duquesne University campus to the south.

South of downtown, across the Monongahela River on the South Shore – or, they say in Pittsburghese, the Sou'side – is Station Square, an indoor and outdoor shopping, dining and entertainment complex. This is a popular gathering place, although as New Yorkers you'll be hopelessly outnumbered. When I first visited Pittsburgh in 2000 (I saw the Pirates hit 4 homers at Three Rivers but lose to the Cards thanks to a steroid-aided mammoth blast by Mark McGwire), there was a restaurant with a Pittsburgh Sports Hall of Fame at Station Square, but as far as I can tell it is no longer there.

North of downtown, where the Monongahela and the Allegheny come together to form the Ohio, where PNC Park and Heinz Field are, across from where Three Rivers Stadium used to be, is Jerome Bettis' Grille 36, named for the Steeler legend and his uniform number. It's at 393 North Shore Drive.

Carson City Saloon, at 1401 E. Carson Street, is said to be a Jets fans' bar. Bus 51. So is the William Penn Tavern, at 739 Bellefonte Street in the Shadyside section of town. Also in that neighborhood is the area's top Giant fans' bar, The Casbah, 229 S. Highland Avenue. Bus 71 for the WPT and the Casbah.

When I did this piece in 2014, I was told by a local that the Brillo Box was owned by a New Yorker, but, not having been to Pittsburgh since, I cannot confirm this. And one source I found to back it up calls it a "hipster" place. If "yinz" (Pittsburghese for "youse") want to take your chances, it's at 4104 Penn Avenue at Main Street. Bus 88.

If you visit Pittsburgh during the European soccer season, which we are now in, the city's leading soccer bar is Piper's Pub, at 1828 East Carson Street. No matter what club you support, you can almost certainly find its game on TV there. Bus 48.

Sidelights. Pittsburgh has a long and storied sports history, if a real hit-and-miss one. As I said, the Civic Arena was across the street from the new arena, between Bedford Avenue, Crawford Street, Centre Avenue and Washington Place. The official mailing address for "the Igloo" in its last few years was 66 Mario Lemieux Place.
Built in 1961 for the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, it had a retractable roof before additional seating made such retraction impossible. It hosted the American Hockey League's Pittsburgh Hornets from then until 1967, and then the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins until 2010. It was officially known as the Mellon Arena from 1999 to 2010, when the naming rights expired.
The Pittsburgh Pipers, later renamed the Pittsburgh Condors, played there, and won the first ABA Championship in 1968, led by Brooklyn native Connie Hawkins. (He would be named to the ABA's All-Time Team.) The Beatles played there on September 14, 1964. Elvis Presley sang there on June 25 & 26, 1973 and December 31, 1976. It was demolished in 2011.

Pittsburgh hasn't had professional basketball since the Condors moved in 1973. If it did, its metro area would rank 22nd in population among NBA markets.

On May 12, 2014, the New York Times printed a story that shows NBA fandom by ZIP Code, according to Facebook likes. The PPG Paints Arena is 134 miles from Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena, but don't let that fool you into thinking that Pittsburghers toss aside their NFL-bred hatred of Cleveland to support the Cavaliers, not even to root for the returned LeBron James: They seem to divide their fandom up among 4 "cool teams": The Chicago Bulls, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat. The Philadelphia 76ers, only 309 miles away? Forget it.

* PNC Park. The Pirates opened this 38,362-seat ballpark, which opens to a spectacular view of downtown Pittsburgh, on the North Side in 2001. It took them until 2013 to reach the postseason there, but they've now done so in 3 straight seasons. 115 Federal Street at 6th Street. Metro to North Side Station. Or you can walk there from downtown. over the 6th Street Bridge, now renamed the Roberto Clemente Bridge and painted Pittsburgh Gold.

Exposition Park, home of the Pirates from 1891 to 1909, was nearly on the site of PNC Park. The first home of the Pirates, Recreation Park, was roughly on the site of Heinz Field.

This was also the site of the 1st football game played by an openly professional player. Yale University star William "Pudge" Heffelfinger was paid $500 (about $12,800 in today's money) to play for the Allegheny Athletic Association against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, and scored the game's only points in a 4-0 Allegheny win. (Under the scoring system of the time, a touchdown was 4 points.)

There are historical markers in the complex for both Exposition Park (as one of the sites, along with the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston, of the 1st World Series) and Recreation Park (as the site of the 1st professional football game -- though the 1st all-professional game was in 1895 in nearby Latrobe).

* Heinz Field. This is a far better palace for football than the concrete oval Three Rivers Stadium was. It has a statue of Steeler founder-owner Art Rooney outside, and, on gameday, 68,400 Terrible Towel-waving black and gold maniacs inside.

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).

A 2007 ESPN.com article named it the best stadium in the NFL, tied with Lambeau Field in Green Bay. It also hosts the University of Pittsburgh's football team. In 2014, it hosted a soccer game between defending English champions Manchester City and Italian giants AC Milan.

On New Year's Day 2011, it hosted the NHL Winter Classic, but the Penguins lost 3-1 to the Washington Capitals. Next year, on February 25, it will host an NHL Stadium Series game between the Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers. 100 Art Rooney Avenue.

Three Rivers' address, famously, was 600 Stadium Circle, and that location, which has (like the Civic Arena's 66 Mario Lemieux Place) been stricken from postal records, was between Heinz Field and PNC Park. It was there that the Steelers won the 1971 and 1979 World Series (actually, they clinched in Baltimore both times), and the Steelers reached 5 Super Bowls, winning 4.

* Senator John Heinz History Center, 1212 Smallman Street at 12th Street, a couple of minutes’ walk from Union/Penn Station and Greyhound. It includes the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, open daily from 10 AM to 5 PM. (Senator Heinz, of the condiment-making family, was the first husband of Teresa Heinz Kerry, who nearly became First Lady in 2004.)

* Forbes Quadrangle, intersection of Forbes Avenue and Bouquet Street. This set of buildings, part of the University of Pittsburgh campus, was the site of Forbes Field, home of the Pirates from 1909 to 1970 and the Steelers from 1933 to 1963.

Included on the site is the last standing remnant of Forbes Field, part of the outfield wall, with ivy still growing on it. (Wrigley Field in Chicago wasn't the only park with ivy on its outfield wall.) Where the wall stops, you'll see a little brick path, and eventually you'll come to a plaque that shows where the ball hit by Mazeroski crossed over the fence to win the Series.

Home plate has been preserved, in Wesley W. Posvar Hall, named for the longtime UP Chancellor. An urban legend says that, if it was in its exact original location, it would now be in a ladies’ restroom; this isn't quite the case, but it's still at roughly the same spot.

If you've ever seen the picture of Mazeroski in mid-swing, you'll recognize the Carnegie Museum & Library in the background, and it is still there. If you've ever seen a picture of a Gothic-looking tower over the 3rd-base stands, that's the Cathedral of Learning, the centerpiece of UP (or "Pitt"), and it's still there as well. A portion of the wall, including the 406-foot marker that can be seen with the Mazeroski ball going over it, was moved to Three Rivers and now to PNC Park.

Pick up the Number 71 bus at 5th Avenue at Ross Street, and it will take you down 5th Avenue to Oakland Avenue. From there, it's a 2-minute walk to the Quadrangle and Posvar Hall.

* Petersen Events Center, at Terrace Street and Sutherland Drive. The home arena for Pitt basketball, it was built on the site of Pitt Stadium, where they played their football games from 1925 to 1999, and where the Steelers played part-time starting in 1958 and full-time starting in 1964 until 1969. Part-time from 1970 to 1999, and full-time in 2000, Pitt shared Three Rivers with the Steelers, and they’ve shared Heinz Field since 2001.

Pitt Stadium was home to such legends as Dr. Jock Sutherland (a dentist and football coach), Marshall "Biggie" Goldberg, Mike Ditka and Tony Dorsett. If you're a Giants fan, this is where they played the Steelers on September 20, 1964, and Giant quarterback Y.A. Tittle got clobbered by the Steelers' John Baker, resulting in that famous picture of Tittle kneeling, with blood streaming down his bald head, providing a symbolic end to the Giants' glory days of Frank Gifford, Sam Huff and quarterbacks Charlie Conerly and Tittle. The Petersen Center is a 5-minute walk from Forbes Quadrangle.

* Roberto Clemente Museum. A fan group tried to buy Honus Wagner's house in nearby Carnegie and turn it into a museum, but this is the only museum devoted to a single Pittsburgh athlete. Clemente wasn't the 1st Hispanic player in the major leagues (white Cuban Charles "Chick" Pedroes played 2 games for the Cubs in 1902), nor was he the 1st black Hispanic (Minnie Minoso debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 1949).

But he was the 1st to really take hold in the public imagination, to the point where later Hispanic stars wore Number 21 in his honor, and there is a movement to have the number retired throughout baseball as was done for Jackie Robinson (but it is not likely to succeed). 3339 Penn Avenue at 34th Street. Bus 87 to Herron Avenue.

Pittsburgh has never hosted an NCAA Final Four. Duquesne University reached the 2nd Final Four (not that it was called that back then) in 1940, and Pitt did so in 1941 -- no Western Pennsylvania school has done so since.

In fact, Pittsburgh has never been a big basketball city: The Pittsburgh Ironmen played in the NBA's first season, 1946-47, and only that season, and are best known now for having had Press Maravich, father of Pistol Pete, play for them; and the ABA's Pittsburgh Pipers, later the Pittsburgh Condors, won that league's first title in 1967-68, but that was it. The most successful Pittsburgh basketball team may well have been the Pittsburgh Pisces in The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.

The University of Pittsburgh is on the town's East Side. Penn State is 139 miles to the northeast in State College. West Virginia University, Pitt's other big rival, is 76 miles to the south in Morgantown. Greyhound provides service to State College, Megabus to Morgantown.

The U.S. Steel Tower, at 7th & Grant Avenues, is the tallest building in Pittsburgh, at 841 feet -- although there are 3 buildings in Philadelphia that surpass it for the title of tallest building in Pennsylvania. Built in 1970, it surpassed the 1932-built Gulf Tower, on the opposite corner from U.S. Steel.

There haven't been many TV shows set in Pittsburgh. Mr. Belvedere, starring Christopher Hewett as a butler to a family led by a sportswriter played by ballplayer-turned-broadcaster Bob Uecker, was set in nearby Beaver Falls, hometown of Jets legend Joe Namath, but it was filmed in Los Angeles. The most notable TV shows actually taped in Pittsburgh, at the PBS station WQED-Channel 13, were Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego?

Fred Rogers was from Latrobe, and in spite of his show's success, he never moved the taping to New York or Hollywood. He notably had Steeler receiver Lynn Swann on his show, to show that even a big tough football player (or, at least, a graceful wide receiver) could love ballet (which explained how Swannie got such nice moves in the first place). A statue of Mr. Rogers, sponsored by TV Land, is near Heinz Field, as is one of Steeler founder-owner Art Rooney.

A lot of movies have been shot in Pittsburgh, due to its varied architecture. Many have had sports scenes. You may have seen the 1994 version of Angels in the Outfield, which involved the team then known as the California Angels. The original black-and-white version came out in 1951, and the downtrodden team they featured was the Pirates, and there's some nice shots of Forbes Field in it. Some nice shots of Janet Leigh, too. (Jamie Lee Curtis' mom -- no, unlike in some other films such as Psycho, Janet doesn't flash any skin in this one, but now you know why Tony Curtis married her, and where Jamie Lee inherited the goods.)

The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh was a very silly, very Seventies movie, with Julius "Dr. J" Erving playing for the good guys and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar playing for the opposition. Sudden Death had Jean-Claude Van Damme trying to stop an assassination attempt at the Stanley Cup Finals. Both featured the old Civic Arena. Van Damme also filmed Timecop in Pittsburgh.

While most of The Dark Knight Rises was filmed in New York (with a few CGI bridges added to the skyline to create the atmosphere of the fictional Gotham City), and its 2 predecessors were filmed in Chicago, the football game scene was filmed at Heinz Field, with the fictional Gotham Rogues wearing Steeler black & gold. (They even made up a fake website for the team, including the Rogue Rag, a takeoff on the Terrible Towel.) Real-life Steeler legend Hines Ward returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown as Bane's bomb collapsed the field behind him, and playing the opposition's kicker was real-life Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.

The scene where Gary Oldman goes to Matthew Modine's house to prepare for the final assault may also have been filmed in Pittsburgh, although the row-house style resembles Philadelphia. Some of the movie was filmed in Newark, but that street doesn't look like any part of Newark I've ever seen. You'd have to get as far south as Trenton to see Philly-style rowhouses in New Jersey, but then they've got 'em all along the Delaware River, in places like Bordentown, Burlington and Camden. Maybe it's a Pennsylvania thing.

One of Tom Cruise's first big films was All the Right Moves, a high school football movie set in Pittsburgh. He returned to Pittsburgh to film Jack Reacher. A movie with more life in it, the original 1968 Night of the Living Dead, was filmed in Pittsburgh. Its sequel Dawn of the Dead was filmed at the Monroeville Mall in the eastern suburbs, and the concluding chapter Day of the Dead back in the city.

Gung Ho, with Michael Keaton, spoofed the decline of Pittsburgh industry. Flashdance, with Jennifer Beals, turned the declining Pittsburgh dream on its head. Boys On the Side seemed to wink at it. And Groundhog Day starts in Pittsburgh before moving east to Punxsutawney. However, those aren't sports movies. (Although, with Jennifer Beals, Drew Barrymore and Andie MacDowell in them, there may be some heavy breathing.)

*

Pittsburgh is a terrific city that loves its sports, and PPG Paints Arena is one of the best of the new hockey arenas. Hopefully, the Devils can muss up "Cindy" Crosby and his teammates. And win the game, too.

On Sunday, December 22, the New York Giants travel down to Philadelphia to play the Eagles in a big NFC East matchup.

Eagle fans, given the choice between beating the Giants or the Dallas Cowboys, but not both, might choose the Cowboys. It really doesn't make much sense, given the geography: The Giants and Eagles are closer than any other Divisional rivals in the NFL. But then, Eagles fans are, well, different.

I attended 17 baseball games at Veterans Stadium, including 2 against the Mets, and an Interleague game against the Yankees. I never had a serious problem at any of them.

I attended 1 football game at The Vet. It was a Giants-Eagles game. It was, in more ways than one, a whole different ballgame. While I wasn't abused myself, I saw some things that sickened me.

Things are a bit better at Lincoln Financial Field, partly because the place hasn't yet developed the kind of sinister atmosphere that The Vet did. Well, maybe I should say, "Give it time."

Before You Go. Philadelphia is just down the road, so it's in the Eastern Time Zone, and you don't have to worry about fiddling with various timepieces. And the weather will be almost identical to what you'd have on the same day in New York. Still, check the combined website for the Philadelphia newspapers, the Inquirer and the Daily News, before you head out.

For the moment, it looks like, for next Monday night, temperatures in Philly will be in the high 50s in the afternoon, but in the mid-40s at night. You'll definitely need a winter jacket.

Tickets. The Eagles averaged 69,596 fans per home game last season -- that's over official capacity. Indeed, the Eagles have sold out every home game in the 21st Century. The last one they didn't sell out was on September 12, 1999, the 1st game for both head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Donovan McNabb. So, yes, order your tickets ahead of time -- especially since this meeting could set the tone for the NFC East the rest of the way.

As of Thursday morning, the Eagles' website says there's only standing room tickets available and "not many left." So if you don't "know a guy," and you don't want to try your luck with a scalper (though I did get to see the aforementioned Giants-Eagles game for $60 on a list price of $50 -- it was very cold that day, and I think the guy was desperate), your best bet is probably the NFL Ticket Exchange. If you use that, no matter where you sit, be prepared to spend at least $200, and possibly over $300 depending on how close you want to get.

Getting There. It’s 99 miles from Times Square in Manhattan to City Hall in Center City Philadelphia, and 96 miles from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford to Lincoln Financial Field in South Philadelphia.

This is close enough that a typical Giants fan could leave his house, drive to the Meadowlands, pick up some friends, head down to The Linc, watch a game, head back, drop his friends off, and drive home, all within 9 hours. But it's also close enough that you could spend an entire day in Philadelphia, and, hopefully, you've already done this. Having done so many times myself, I can tell you that it’s well worth it.

If you are driving, you'll need to get on the New Jersey Turnpike. If you're not "doing the city," but just going to the game, take the Turnpike's Exit 3 to NJ Route 168, which forms part of the Black Horse Pike, to Interstate 295. (The Black Horse Pike later becomes NJ Route 42, US Route 322 and US Route 40, going into Atlantic City. Not to be confused with the White Horse Pike, US Route 30, which also terminates in A.C.)

Take I-295 to Exit 26, which will get you onto Interstate 76 and the Walt Whitman Bridge into Philly. Signs for the sports complex will soon follow, and the park is at 11th Street and Pattison Avenue (though the mailing address is "1 Lincoln Financial Field Way").

From anywhere in New York City, allow 2½ hours for the actual drive, though from North Jersey you might need only 2, and from Central Jersey an hour and a half might suffice. But you’ll need at least another half-hour to negotiate the last mile or so, including the parking lot itself.

If you don’t want to drive, there are other options, but the best one is the train. Philadelphia is too close to fly, just as flying from New York (from JFK, LaGuardia or Newark) to Boston, Baltimore and Washington, once you factor in fooling around with everything you gotta do at each airport, doesn’t really save you much time compared to driving, the bus or the train.

And I strongly recommend not taking the bus. If you do, once you see Philadelphia's Greyhound terminal, at 10th & Filbert Streets in Center City, the nation's 2nd-busiest behind New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal, you'll say to yourself, "I never thought I'd say this, but thank God for Port Authority!"
The Philly terminal is a disgrace. I don’t know how many people are in Atlantic City on an average summer day, when both the beaches and the casinos are full (I'm guessing about half a million, or one-third the size of Philly), but it has a permanent population of 40,000 people, compared to the 1.6 million of Philadelphia, and it has a bus station of roughly equal size and far greater cleanliness than Philly's. Besides, Greyhound service out of Newark's Penn Station is very limited, and do you really want to go out of New Jersey into Manhattan just to get across New Jersey into Philadelphia?

If you can afford Amtrak, and that will be $110 round-trip between New York and Philly, it takes about 2 hours to get from Penn Station to the 30th Street Station at 30th & Market Streets, just across the Schuylkill River from Center City. Unlike the dull post-1963 Penn Station, this building is an Art Deco masterpiece from 1933, and is the former corporate headquarters of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Ironically, it never had the official name "Pennsylvania Station" or the nickname "Penn Station." You might recognize its interior from the Eddie Murphy film Trading Places. (If you can't afford Amtrak, or if you can but you'd rather save money, I'll get to what to do in a minute.)

However, this is an 8:30 PM kickoff, and the last train of the night from 30th Street to New York is at 12:14 AM, and you might not get back in time, especially if the game goes to overtime. So unless you want to hang around a Philadelphia train station from about 12:30 to 5:15 in the morning when the first train of the night leaves, or you can get a hotel and leave Monday morning (which would be a problem if you have to work that day), Amtrak really isn't an option on this occasion.

If you do want to go for it, from 30th Street Station, you can take a cab that will go down I-76, the Schuylkill Expressway, to I-95, the Delaware Expressway, to South Broad Street to the Sports Complex. I would advise against this, though: When I did this for a Yankees-Phillies Interleague game at the Vet in 1999, it was $15. It's probably $25 now.

Instead, you'll need to take the subway, which, like Philly's commuter-rail and bus systems, is run by SEPTA, the SouthEastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. You might recognize their "S" logo from Trading Places, and the bus that hits Tommy Morrison at the end of Rocky V. You'll have to exit 30th Street Station and cross 30th Street itself to get into the 30th St. station on the Market-Frankford Line.

Philadelphia and Toronto are the only 2 cities left on the North American continent, as far as I know, that still use tokens rather than farecards (or "MetroCards" as New York's MTA calls them) or tickets for their subways. One ride on a SEPTA subway train is $2.25, cheaper than New York's, but they don’t sell single tokens at booths. They come in packs of 2, 5 and 10, and these packs are damn hard to open. Two cost $3.60; five are $9.00, and a ten-pack costs $18.00. They are also available for bulk purchase.

From 30th Street, take the Market-Frankford Line to 15th Street (that's just one stop), where you'll transfer to the Broad Street Line at City Hall Station. Being a Met fan, you’ll notice that the MFL's standard color is blue, while the BSL's is orange. Blue and orange. Don't think that means they want to make Met, Knick or Islander fans feel at home, though.

From City Hall, if you're lucky, you’ll get an express train that will make just 2 stops, Walnut-Locust and AT&T (formerly "Pattison" -- yes, they sold naming rights to one of their most important subway stations). But you’ll want to save your luck for the game itself, so don't be too disappointed if you get a local, which will make 7 stops: Walnut-Locust, Lombard-South, Ellsworth-Federal, Tasker-Morris, Oregon, Snyder and AT&T. The local should take about 10 minutes, the express perhaps 7 minutes.

If you don't want to take Amtrak, your other rail option is local. At Newark Penn, you can buy a combined New Jersey Transit/SEPTA ticket to get to Center City Philadelphia. Take NJT's Northeast Corridor Line out of Penn Station to the Trenton Transit Center. This station recently completed a renovation that has already turned it from an absolute hole (it was so bad, it made Philly's bus station look like Grand Central) into a modern multimodal transport facility. At Trenton, transfer to the SEPTA commuter rail train that will terminate at Chestnut Hill East, and get off at Suburban Station, at 17th Street & John F. Kennedy Blvd. (which is what Filbert Street is called west of Broad Street). Getting off there, a pedestrian concourse will lead you to the City Hall station on the Broad Street Line, and then just take that to Pattison.

Because there will be a lot more stops than there are on Amtrak (especially the SEPTA part), it will take 2 hours and 10 minutes, but you'll spend $43 round-trip, about what you'd spend on a same-day purchase on Greyhound, and less than half of what you’d be likely to spend on Amtrak. However, again, time will be an issue: The last SEPTA Trenton Line train of the night that will connect to an NJT train leaves Suburban Station at 11:57 PM (and the NJT train it will connect to won't get to Penn Station until 2:46 AM), so this might not be an option for you this time, either.

The subway's cars are fairly recent, and don’t rattle much, although they can be unpleasant on the way back from the game, especially if it’s a football game and they're rammed with about 100 Eagles fans who've spent the game sweating and boozing and are still loaded for bear for anyone from outside the Delaware Valley. It’s highly unlikely anyone will give you anything more than a little bit of verbal on the subway ride into the Sports Complex, while they might give a little more gusto to the verbal on the ride back. But despite Philly sports fans' reputation, this will not be the equivalent of the London Underground on a Saturday afternoon in the 1980s: They might tell you that your team sucks (even if your team is ahead of theirs in the standings), but that’s about the worst you'll get.
Once In the City. Philadelphia is a Greek word meaning "brotherly love," a name given to it by its founder, William Penn, in 1683. So the city is nicknamed "The City of Brotherly Love." The actions and words of its sports fans suggest that this is ridiculous. Giants coach Bill Parcells was once caught on an NFL Films production, during a game with the Eagles at the Vet, saying to Lawrence Taylor, "You know, Lawrence, they call this 'the City of Brotherly Love,' but it's really a banana republic." And Emmitt Smith, who played for that other team Eagles fans love to hate, the Dallas Cowboys, also questioned the name: "They don't got no love for no brothers."

On a map, it might look like Penn Square, surrounding City Hall, is the city's centerpoint, but this is just geographic, and only half-refers to addresses. Market Street is the difference between the north-south numbering on the numbered Streets. But the Delaware River is the start for the east-west streets, with Front Street taking the place of 1st Street. Broad Street, which intersects with Market at City Hall/Penn Square, takes the place of 14th Street.

In the Colonial and Revolutionary periods, Philadelphia was the largest city in America, before being overtaken by New York. As recently as 1970, it had about 2 million people. But "white flight" after the 1964 North Philadelphia riot led to the population dropping to just over 1.5 million in 2000. It has inched back upward since then. The metro area as a whole -- southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey and most of Delaware -- is about 7 million, making it the 6th-largest in the country, behind New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Boston.

The sales tax is 6 percent in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Massachusetts, Virginia and Kentucky are also "commonwealths" in their official State names), 8 percent within the City of Philadelphia.

Going In. The Philadelphia sports complex is at Broad Street and Pattison Avenue, 36 blocks -- 7 miles -- south of City Hall. It once included Sesquicentennial/Municipal/John F. Kennedy Stadium (1926-1992), The Spectrum (1967-2009), and Veterans Stadium (1971-2004). The arena now known as the Wells Fargo Center was built on the site of JFK Stadium. Citizens Bank Park, the new home of the Phillies, was built to the east of The Vet. And Lincoln Financial Field was built south of the new ballpark, and east of the Spectrum.
There is plenty of parking in the complex, including a lot on the site of  The Vet. But you'll be a lot better off if you take the subway. Not really because of the price of parking, but because traffic is going to be awful.

The first time I went to a sporting event in Philadelphia, it was a 4th of July celebration at the Vet, and 58,000 people showed up to see the Phils face the Houston Astros, with Nolan Ryan pitching. The game and the fireworks combined did not last as long as it took to get out of the parking lot and onto the Walt Whitman Bridge: 2 hours and 40 minutes. Trust me: Take the freakin' subway.

Coming out of the AT&T subway station, you’ll walk down Pattison Avenue, with a parking lot on the former site of Veterans Stadium to your left, and the site of the Spectrum to your right. Further to your right is the successor to the Spectrum, the Wells Fargo Center, named for the banking and insurance company. Further to your right is Lincoln Financial Field. You'll be likely to enter either at the north end zone or the west sideline.

If you drove in, parking is $35 (nearly double what it is for Phillies games), and the lot on the site of The Vet is among those available. Tailgating is permitted.

The new home of the Eagles has seen them make the Playoffs more often than not, and reach the Super Bowl in the 2004 season. And fan behavior, while still rowdy, is not as criminal as it was at The Vet: No more municipal court under the stands is necessary.
"The Linc" has hosted the Army-Navy Game every year since it opened, except for 2007, 2011 and 2014. It will also not host it in 2016, as Baltimore will on those occasions. It's hosted 3 games of the U.S. National Soccer Team, games of the 2003 Women's World Cup, an MLS All-Star Game, and several games by touring European teams such as Manchester United, Glasgow Celtic and A.C. Milan.

Inside the stadium, concourses are wide and well-lit, a big departure from The Vet. Escalators are safe and nearly always work, as opposed to the Vet, which did not have escalators, only seemingly-endless ramps. Getting to your seat should be easy.

Sometimes, instead of their usual home green jerseys, they'll wear white ones, especially against the Dallas Cowboys, since there is a myth that the Cowboys don't do well in their blue ones. (Notable in Eagles lore, the Eagles wore white, forcing the Cowboys to wear blue, in the 1980-81 NFC Championship Game and the "4th & 1, twice" game in 1995.) Sometimes, they will wear all-black jerseys, as they did for last year's home game against the Giants.

Food. From the famed Old Original Bookbinder's (125 Walnut Street at 2nd, now closed) and Le Bec Fin (1523 Walnut at 16th) to the Reading Terminal Market (Philly's version of  the South Street Seaport, at 51 N. 12th St at Filbert) to the South Philly cheesesteak giants Pat’s, Geno’s and Tony Luke’s, Philly is a great food city and don’t you ever forget it.

The variety of food available at The Linc. Little of it is healthy (no surprise there), but all of it is good. Tony Luke's has a stand (as it also does at the ballpark and the arena). So does Chickie's & Pete's, to sell their fish and their "crab fries" -- French fries with Old Bay seasoning mix, not fries with crabmeat. Also at The Linc are outlets of Bassett's Original Burgers & Fresh Cut Fries, Seasons Pizza, and Melt Down grilled cheese stands.

When The Linc opened, the Eagles instituted a policy that the City had previously allowed at The Vet, which it, not the team, owned: No longer would fans be allowed to bring hoagies (hero/sub sandwiches) into the stadium. The fans revolted, and the old policy was restored, making The Linc one of the few sports venues in North America where you can bring in your own food -- but only hoagies.

Team History Displays. The Eagles' history is pretty bleak for a team over 80 seasons old. They won NFL Championships in 1948, 1949 and 1960 -- and that's it. The Frankford Yellow Jackets, based in Northeast Philly, won the title in 1926, but although Eagles founders Bert Bell and Lud Wray bought the territorial rights to the NFL in Philly, hardly any players from the last Jackets team of 1931 were on the debut Eagles team of 1933, and the Eagles are officially not considered a continuation of the Jackets. (Even if they were, it doesn't help much: 4 titles in 91 years is 1 every 23, while 3 titles in 82 years is 1 every 27.)

But the Eagles do have an outward display, along the roof on the west stand, for those 3 NFL titles, or for the 1980 and 2004 NFC Championships, or for their NFL and NFC Eastern Division titles of 1947, 1948, 1949, 1960, 1980, 1988, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2010 and 2013.
The Eagles have 9 retired numbers, and they hang banners for them under the roof along the east stand: 5, Donovan McNabb, quarterback, 1999-2009; 15, Steve Van Buren, running back & defensive back, 1944-51; 20, Brian Dawkins, safety, 1996-2008; 40, Tom Brookshier, safety, 1953-61; 44, Pete Retzlaff, running back, 1956-66; 60, Chuck Bednarik, center & linebacker, 1949-62; 70, Al Wistert, two-way tackle, 1943-51; 92, Reggie White, defensive end, 1985-92; and 99, Jerome Brown, defensive tackle, 1987-91. While it is not officially retired, no one has worn the Number 12 of Randall Cunningham, quarterback, 1985-95, since he left the team.
While not on display in the playing area, the team does have an Eagles Hall of Fame (originally named the Eagles Honor Roll) and a 75th Anniversary Team (1933-2008), on display on the stadium concourse. The Honor Roll was founded in 1987, and the initial inductees were every Eagle already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Here they are:

* From the Eagles' founding era, 1933-47, but not making it to their title teams immediately thereafter:  Founder-owner Bert Bell, later NFL Commissioner; two-way end Bill Hewitt (better known as a Chicago Bear).

* From the 1948 & 1949 NFL Champions: Bednarik, Van Buren, Wistert, coach Earle "Greasy" Neale, two-way end Pete Pihos, center & defensive tackle Alex Wojciechowicz,

* From the 1960 NFL Champions: Bednarik, Brookshier, Retzlaff, team executive Jim Gallagher, quarterbacks Norm Van Brocklin and Sonny Jurgensen, running back Timmy Brown, receiver Tommy McDonald, linebacker Maxie Baughan and ticket manager Leo Carlin.

* From the 20-year interregnum (not on either the '60 or the '80 team): Running back Ollie Matson, center Jim Ringo, offensive tackle Bob Brown, safety & punter Bill Bradley (no relation to the basketball player turned Senator). From these teams, guard Wade Key and receiver/special teams player Vince Papale (played by Mark Wahlberg in the film Invincible) made the 75th Anniversary Team, but not yet the Honor Roll.

* From the 1980 NFC Champions: Gallagher, Carlin, head coach Dick Vermeil, quarterback Ron Jaworski, running back Wilbert Montgomery, receiver Harold Carmichael, offensive tackles Stan Walters and Jerry Sisemore, linebacker Bill Bergey, and trainer Otho Davis. From this team, defensive tackle Charlie Johnson made the 75th Anniversary Team.

* From the 1988 NFC East Champions: Gallagher, Davis, Carlin, Cunningham, White, Brown, receiver Mike Quick, cornerback Eric Allen. From this team, running back Keith Byars, defensive end Clyde Simmons, linebacker Seth Joyner and safety Andre Waters made the 75th Anniversary Team.

* From the teams that reached 4 straight NFC Championship Games, losing in 2001, '02 and '03, and winning in '04: Carlin, McNabb, Dawkins, defensive coordinator Jim Johnson and cornerback Troy Vincent. From these teams, head coach Andy Reid, running back Bryan Westbrook, guard Shawn Andrews, offensive tackles Tra Thomas and Jon Runyan, kicker David Akers and punter Sean Landeta made the 75th Anniversary Team. (Landeta also played in Philadelphia for the USFL Champion Stars, on the Giants' Super Bowl XXI and XXV winners, and the St. Louis Rams' Super Bowl XXXIV winners, making the Rams' 10th Anniversary Team for their St. Louis edition.) No current Eagles players remain from the 75th Anniversary Team.

Van Buren and White were named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary Team in 1994. They and Bednarik were named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Football Players in 1999. White was still active (though no longer an Eagle) for both honors, and all were alive at the time; they're all dead now. Those 3 and Van Brocklin were named to the NFL Network's 100 Greatest Players in 2010.

The Eagles are the only one of the 4 teams in the Philly sports complex that don't have any statues honoring players. The obvious choice would be Bednarik: "Concrete Charlie," a World War II air gunner, went to the University of Pennsylvania on the G.I. Bill, and was the only playing link between the Eagles' 1949 (his rookie season) and 1960 titles. He was the last of the "sixty-minute men," playing both offense and defense, including in the '60 season.

If he's not the greatest player in Eagle history, he's a convenient symbol for a Philadelphia team: A son of immigrants, from the tough steel-mill town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania who beat the Ivy Leaguers at their own game (figuratively and literally), and starred for (for all intents and purposes) the home team. He died earlier this year at the age of 89, and they may have been waiting until his death to commission a statue. He did, however, live to see one of him unveiled at Franklin Field.

Stuff. The Linc has a Pro Shop, and there are also outlets in the Market Place at Garden State Park (built on the site of the old horse racing track in Cherry Hill) and in Lancaster (way out in Pennsylvania Dutch Country).

You might be able to buy DVDs and books about the Eagles in said stores. The NFL released Philadelphia Eagles: The Complete History in 2004 (so it's no longer complete, and it came out just before their most recent trip to the Super Bowl). I have this DVD, and it's got some great special features, including a look inside the mind of the Eagle fan (a potentially scary place), NFL Films' productions about the 1948-49 and 1960 title teams, a piece on Dick Vermeil, and a look at Veterans Stadium from its debut as a modern sports palace to its last few years as a symbol of an age of dreams that turned into a nightmare.

The NFL has also released Philadelphia Eagles: 10 Greatest Games. The selection is not comprehensive: None of their NFL Championships are included, and the earliest game is from 1978 -- and, since you're a Giants fan, let me warn you: It's "The Miracle of the Meadowlands." It also includes their 1980 and 2004 NFC Championship Game wins, "The Body Bag Game" against Washington in 1990, the "4th & 26" Playoff win over Green Bay in 2004, a 1995 win over Detroit that remains the highest-scoring game in NFL postseason history (58-37), and notable wins over the Cowboys (beyond that January 11, 1981 conference title clincher) in 2006 and 2008.

Although football isn't the most literary of sports, and Philadelphia not one you would ordinarily consider among America's most intellectually-friendly cities, there are some good books about the Eagles. Bob Gordon wrote The 1960 Philadelphia Eagles: The Team They Said Had Nothing But a Championship. Books about the late Forties' Eagle champs are hard to come by, but there are 2 good bios of Bednarik, who bridged the title teams: Sports Illustrated writer Jack McCallum's 1977 epic Bednarik: Last of the Sixty-Minute Men, and Concrete Charlie: An Oral History of Philadelphia's Greatest Football Legend, Chuck Bednarik, a 2009 piece by Ken Safarowic and Eli Kowalski. (The nickname comes not from his legendary toughness, but from the fact that, in those days when an athlete needed an off-season job to make ends meet, Bednarik sold concrete.

If you really want to get a feel for Philly sports, not just the Eagles, get these 3, all co-written by WIP host Glen Macnow with one of his colleagues: The Great Philadelphia Fan Book with Anthony Gargano, The Great Philadelphia Sports Debate with Angelo Cataldi (who is Philly's answer to Mike & the Mad Dog, all in one guy), and The Great Book of Philadelphia Sports Lists, with Ed Gudonis, a.k.a. Big Daddy Graham, also a Philly and Jersey Shore-based standup comic and a great guy who writes a regular column for Philadelphia magazine. And Jere Longman, writing from the perspective of a long-suffering Eagle fan, published If Football Is a Religion, Why Don't We Have a Prayer? in 2009.

During the Game. Unlike most venues in North American sports, an Eagles home game -- and a Flyers home game, but not so much the Phillies and 76ers -- carries with it the specter of fan violence. In fact, with the possible exception of the Oakland Raiders, no NFL fan base is more renowned for being threatening.

A recent Thrillist article named Eagles fans as the 5th most obnoxious in the NFL -- ahead of the Giants at 8th, but behind New England, Oakland, Dallas and, believe it or not, in 4th, the Jets. The article cites the jail cell and municipal court that were set up in the basement of The Vet, and says, "Eagles fans are the people who get into fights at an 8-year-old girls' T-ball game, possibly with an 8-year-old girl. They just enjoy spite and hatefulness for the sake of spite and hatefulness."

Chances are, you won't get anything more than some verbal abuse. But if even 1 fan out of every 1,000 is willing to fight, you're still talking about nearly 70 people -- and a few of them might be together.
This is one time I would recommend not wearing your hometown team's gear on the road -- unless it's one of those blue Giants hard hats.

The chant of "E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles!" will go up about 100 times during the game. When the Eagles score, they play their fight song, "Fly, Eagles, Fly." It's not a great recording, and it's not great lyrics, but it's at least as memorable as "Bear Down, Chicago Bears," if not "Hail to the Redskins."

The Eagles' mascot is Swoop, a guy in an Eagle suit. They also have an unofficial mascot, a guy who's been coming to Eagles games since 1997 wearing an Eagles jersey, an Eagles helmet, a cape, a black Lone Ranger-style mask, and a beak mask over his nose. He calls himself "Birdman," and he squawks and shrieks like a bird of prey.

Unlike the character played by the actor played by Michael Keaton in the recent film Birdman, he's not really a superhero. Fortunately, he's not a supervillain, either. He won't hurt you. In fact, he carries spare beak masks, and gives a Beak of the Week out to a selected fan at every home game.

"I call myself a 'fanscot,'" says the man behind the masks, Joseph Ripley, a contractor living in Gloucester County, New Jersey, "because I'm not an official mascot, but I'm more than an average fan." He's been coming in costume since 1997.
The Eagles also have Sign Man. Unlike Birdman, I can't find a real name for him, but he's been quoted as calling himself a season-ticketholder for over 40 years, which means he might go all the way back to the Franklin Field years.

He operates with signs much bigger than the late Carl Ehrhardt, the Mets' Sign Man of the 1960s and '70s. His signs used to drape the facing of an entire section at The Vet, but the way The Linc is built, it's a little harder to have signs that long. He still gets his message across: All through 2012, he made signs telling coach Andy Reid to quit, or the team to fire him. (He got his wish: Reid was fired at the end of the season.)
After the Game. Philadelphia is a big city, with all the difficulties of big cities as well as many of the perks of them. Especially at night, the risk of Eagle fans getting rough increases, as they’ve had time to drink, but not by much. Again, don't antagonize them, especially if the Giants win, and you'll probably be okay.

What you should do at the end of the game depends on what time it is and how you got there. If it's a regular Sunday afternoon game (a 1:00 or 4:00 start) and you took the train(s) down, you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting back onto the subway, and to Suburban Station, in time to catch a SEPTA Trenton Line train, and then an NJT train at Trenton back to New Jersey or New York City. If it's a Sunday or Monday night game, then you may have problems, as I outlined above.

If you drove down, and you want to stop off for a late dinner and/or drinks (except, of course, for the designated driver), the nearby Holiday Inn at 9th Street & Packer Avenue has a bar that is co-owned by former Eagles quarterback, now ESPN pundit, Ron Jaworski. As I mentioned earlier, the original outlet of Chickie's & Pete's is at 15th & Packer. Right next to it is a celebrated joint, named, appropriately enough, Celebre Pizzeria.

The legendary Pat's and Geno's Steaks, arch-rivals as intense as any local sports opponents, are across 9th Street from each other at Passyunk Avenue in the Italian Market area. My preference is Pat's, but Geno's is also very good. Be advised, though, that the lines at both are of Shake Shack length, because people know they're that good.
Also, Pat's was the original "Soup Nazi": You have to have your cash ready, and you have to quickly order your topping, your style of cheese, and either "wit" or "widdout" -- with or without onions. I haven't been there in a while, but I've been there often enough that I have a "usual": "Mushroom, whiz, wit."

Both Pat's and Geno's are open 24 hours, but, because of the length of the line, unless you drove down to the game, I would recommend not going there after the game, only before (if you can make time for it). Broad Street Line to Ellsworth-Federal, then 5 blocks east on Federal, and 1 block south on 9th.

The Tavern on Broad, at 200 S. Broad Street at Walnut, seems to be the headquarters of the local Giants fan club. Another supposed Giant fan spot is the Fox & Hound, at 1501 Spruce in Center City. Revolution House, in Old City at 200 Market Street, is supposedly Jets country. A particular favorite Philly restaurant of mine is the New Deck Tavern, at 3408 Sansom Street in University City, on the Penn campus.

You can also pick up a sandwich, a snack or a drink at any of several Wawa stores in and around the city. If you came in via Suburban Station, there's one at 1707 Arch, a 5-minute walk away; if the game lasts 3 hours or less, you have a shot at getting in, getting your order, getting out, and getting back to the station in time to catch your train.

If your visit to Philly is during the European soccer season (which is in progress), you can probably watch your favorite club at Fadó Irish Pub, at 1500 Locust Street in Center City. Be advised that this is home to supporters' groups for Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Celtic FC; so if you're not particularly fond of any of those teams, you might want to stay away.

Sidelights. The Philadelphia sports complex once included 3 buildings that have all been replaced and demolished: From north to south, the Vet, the Spectrum and JFK Stadium. The arena now known as the Wells Fargo Center was built on the site of JFK Stadium. Citizens Bank Park, the new home of the Phillies, was built to the east of The Vet. And Lincoln Financial Field was built south of the new ballpark, and east of the Spectrum.

* Sesquicentennial/Municipal/JFK Stadium. Built in 1926 for a 150th Anniversary (Sesquicentennial of American independence) world's fair in Philadelphia, this 105,000-seat horseshoe (open at the north end) was designed for football, but one of its earliest events was a fight for the Heavyweight Championship of the World. For the 1st time, that title changed hands on a decision, rather than on a knockout. But Gene Tunney so decisively outfought champion Jack Dempsey that no one disputed it. (When they had their rematch a year later, at Soldier Field in Chicago, that was another story.)

The stadium was renamed Municipal Stadium in 1931 (sometimes it was called simply Philadelphia Stadium), and, due to being (roughly) halfway between the service academies, became the site of the Army-Navy Game from 1936 to 1941, and again from 1945 to 1979, before it was moved to The Vet.

The Eagles played home games there from 1936 to 1939, and select games thereafter, including the 1950 season opener that was, as soccer fans would call it, a "Charity Shield" game: The 2-time defending NFL Champion Eagles vs. the Cleveland Browns, 4-time titlists in the All-America Football Conference. The Browns were 47-4-3 over the AAFC's 4-season history; the Eagles, 22-3-1 over the last 2 years, thanks to a 5-2 alignment that was the 1st defensive unit to have a memorable nickname: Before San Diego and Los Angeles had a Fearsome Foursome, Philly had a Suicide Seven.

Some people then called it "The Game of the Century," and some now think of as an unofficial "first Super Bowl" -- ironic, since neither team has won an NFL Championship in the Super Bowl era, and the Browns haven't even been to a Super Bowl yet. Playing on a Saturday night -- making it, sort of, not just "the 1st Super Bowl" but "the 1st Monday Night Football game" -- in front of 71,237 fans, still the largest crowd ever to watch a football game in Philadelphia (and nearly double the capacity of Shibe Park, which really limited the Eagles' attendance), the Browns beat the Eagles 35-10, stunning football fans all over the nation. The Eagles never recovered, while the Browns won the NFL title that year, and appeared in 7 title games in 8 years, winning 3.

In 1964, Municipal Stadium was renamed John F. Kennedy Stadium. On August 16, 1966, the Beatles played there. On July 13, 1985, it hosted the American end of Live Aid. But that show exposed to the world that it already falling apart. The Rolling Stones, who had packed the place on their 1981 Tattoo You tour, chose the considerably smaller Vet for Steel Wheels in 1989. It was demolished in 1992, and the new arena opened on the site in 1996.

* The Spectrum. This modern (for its time) arena opened in 1967, and 2 teams at the opposite ends of the competitive, uh, spectrum moved in: The 76ers, the NBA's defending Champions; and the Flyers, an NHL expansion team. Although the Flyers won inspirational (and confrontational) Stanley Cups in 1974 and '75, they also lost in the Finals in 1976, '80, '85 and '87. And while the Sixers won the 1983 NBA title in a dominating season-long performance, they also lost in the Finals in 1977, '80 and '82, and were lost after a couple of puzzling Draft Day trades in 1986.

The Spectrum hosted the NCAA Final Four in 1976 and 1981, both times won by Bobby Knight's Indiana. Since 1976 was the Bicentennial year, it also hosted the NBA and NHL All-Star Games. The Vet also hosted baseball's All-Star Game that year. And the Spectrum was the site of both fights between Philly native Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed, the former in the first Rocky, on New Year's Day 1976, and the latter in Rocky II, on Thanksgiving of that year. (All the movies' fights were actually filmed at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, due to its proximity to Hollywood.)

The Spectrum was also a big arena for college basketball: Villanova used it for home games that were too big for its on-campus Pavilion, the Atlantic 10 Conference used it for its tournament, and it hosted NCAA Tournament games at the sub-Final Four level, including the 1992 thriller that put Duke into the Final Four at Kentucky's expense, thanks to the last-second shot of Christian Laettner. The first rock concert there was by Cream, on their 1968 farewell tour. The last, and the last public event there, was by Pearl Jam in 2009.

Elvis Presley sang at The Spectrum on November 8, 1971; June 23, 1974 (2 shows), June 28, 1976; and May 28 1977.

The Spectrum became, in the words of its promoters, "America's Showplace" and the most-used sports arena in the world. This was a blessing and a curse: They could make a lot of money off of it, but it was limited. So Spectacor, the company that owned the Spectrum and the Sixers, built Spectrum II -- which, in a series of naming-rights changes due to bigger banks swallowing old ones, became the CoreStates Center, the First Union Center (Flyer fans loved calling it "the F.U. Center"), the Wachovia Center and now the Wells Fargo Center.

From 1996 to 2009, the arenas stood side-by-side. The main Spectrum tenants said goodbye as follows: The Flyers with an exhibition game on September 27, 2008, with all their former Captains on hand, as the Fly Guys beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2; Villanova with the building's last college basketball game on January 28, 2009, a win over the University of Pittsburgh; and on March 13, 2009, the Sixers beat the Chicago Bulls 104-101 in a special regular-season game.

The Spectrum was demolished the next year, and replaced in part with a live concert venue called "Xfinity Live!" (Yes, the exclamation point is included in the official name.) This structure now hosts the statues that were outside the Spectrum. A hotel is planned for the rest of the Spectrum site.

* Veterans Stadium. When it opened on April 10, 1971, it was considered state of the art and wonderful. And, as the Phillies had a great team from 1976 to 1983, reaching 6 postseasons in 8 years, winning 2 Pennants and the 1980 World Series, it became beloved by Phils fans. The Eagles, too, had a resurgence in the late 1970s, and hosted and won the 1980 NFC Championship Game. The Vet was seen as everything that Connie Mack Stadium was not: New instead of old, in good shape instead of falling apart, in a safe place (unless you were a New York Giants or Dallas Cowboys fan) instead of a ghetto, and representative of victory instead of defeat.

The Eagles had a down period in the mid-1980s, but rebounded toward the end of the decade. But the Phils had collapsed, and the Vet's faults began to be seen: It was ugly, the sight lines were bad for baseball, and the turf was bad for everything, from eyes to knees. By the time the Phils won the Pennant in 1993, Camden Yards had opened just down the road in Baltimore, and suddenly everyone wanted a "retro park," and no one wanted a "cookie-cutter stadium."

It took a few more years, and a lot of complaints from opposing NFL players that the stadium was deteriorating and the turf was dangerous, for a new stadium to be approved. The Eagles closed the Vet out with a shocking and devastating loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2002 NFC Championship Game, and the Phils did so with a loss to the Atlanta Braves on September 28, 2003. The Eagles had already moved into their new stadium by that point, and the Phils moved into theirs the next April, a few days after the Vet's demolition. The baseball and football sculptures that were outside have been placed on Pattison Avenue, in front of the parking lot where the Vet once stood.

The Vet hosted the Army-Navy Game every year from 1980 to 2001, except for 1983, 1989, 1993, 1997 and 2000. (The 1983 game was played at the Rose Bowl, the 2000 game at the new Ravens' stadium in Baltimore, and the rest, as well as the 2002 game, at the Meadowlands.) Various pro soccer teams, including the North American Soccer League's Philadelphia Atoms, also played there.

* Citizens Bank Park. It opened in 2004, and the Phils were in the Playoff race until September that year. In 2005 and '06, they were in it until the last weekend. In 2007, they won the Division. In 2008, they won the World Series. In 2009, they won another Pennant. In 2010 and '11, they won the Division -- 5 straight Playoff berths, and 8 seasons in the ballpark with all good-to-great seasons. Only in 2012, when injuries flurried in and the team suddenly seemed to get old all at once, did the bad times return, and it doesn't look like they're going away anytime soon.

Baker Bowl was a dump. Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium was already neglected due to Mack's strapped finances by the time the Phils arrived, and by the time they left the neighborhood was a ghastly ghetto. The Vet was a football stadium. CBP is a ballpark, and a great one. (Okay, on January 2, 2012, it was a hockey rink. To make matters worse, the Flyers lost to the one team I would want them to beat, the Rangers.)

"The Bank" has statues of Phils greats like Richie Ashburn and Mike Schmidt, great food like Greg Luzinski's Bull's Barbecue, and lots and lots of souvenirs, some of which don't involve the Phillie Phanatic. And, with the Phils now being terrible, tickets are easier to get.

* Wells Fargo Center. Home to the 76ers and Flyers since 1996, it's a very modern arena, and if you're a Devils fan you'll notice that it seems to have been the one on whose design the Prudential Center is based.

This building is 19 years old, and is now under its 5th name. It was built on the site of John F. Kennedy Stadium, formerly Municipal Stadium, a 105,000-seat structure that hosted all kinds of events, from the Army-Navy Game to heavyweight title fights (Gene Tunney taking the title away from Jack Dempsey in 1926 and Rocky Marciano doing the same to Jersey Joe Walcott in 1952), from the occasional Eagles game that was too big for Shibe Park in the 1940s and ’50s to the U.S. half of Live Aid in 1985. And it hosted the Phils’ victory celebration in 1980, with its huge capacity coming in handy. By that point, it was crumbling, and it surprised no one when it was demolished to make way for the new arena.

The Republican Party nominated George W. Bush for President at their Convention there in 2000. The Democratic Party nominated Hillary Clinton there this past Summer.

* Site of Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium. The A's played at 33,608-seat Shibe Park from 1909 to 1954, the Phils from 1938 to 1970, and the Eagles in 1940, and from 1944 to 1957. The name was changed to Connie Mack Stadium in 1952. The A's played World Series there in 1910, '11, '12, '13, '14, '29, '30 and '31, and the Phils (against the Yanks) in '50.

The Eagles played and won the 1948 NFL Championship Game there, beating the Chicago Cardinals 7-0 in a snowstorm, and also won the NFL title in '49 (though the title game was played in Los Angeles against the Rams). The Frankford Yellow Jackets sometimes used it in the 1920s, winning the 1926 NFL Championship. On October 14, 1948, shortly after Israel declared its independence, its national soccer team faced the U.S. at Shibe Park, shortly after doing so at Yankee Stadium. These were Israel's 1st 2 matches, and the U.S. won them both.

A fire gutted the place in 1971, and it was demolished in 1976. It remained an empty lot until Deliverance Evangelistic Church was built on the site in 1991. Across the street is Dobbins Tech, a high school known for its great basketball program. (Remember the story of Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble? They went to Dobbins. So did Dawn Staley.)

Be advised, though, that this is North Philly, and the church is easily the nicest building for several blocks around. 21st Street & Lehigh Avenue. By subway, use the North Philadelphia station on the Broad Street Line, and walk 7 blocks west on Lehigh.

* Site of Baker Bowl. This was where the Phils played from 1887 to 1938, and the Eagles from 1933 to 1943 (though sometimes moving to Municipal Stadium, the one renamed for JFK). The Phils won one Pennant there, in 1915. It was also the Eagles' 1st home, in the 1933, '34 and '35 seasons.

Southwest corner of Broad Street and Lehigh Avenue, 8 blocks east of the Connie Mack Stadium site. Same subway stop as Shibe/Connie Mack. The A's original home, Columbia Park, was at 29th Street & Columbia Avenue, but I wouldn't recommend going there. If you're going to any of these, do it in daylight.

* The Palestra. Built in 1927, this is the arena aptly nicknamed the Cathedral of Basketball. It even has stained-glass windows. (I swear, I am not making that up.) The home gymnasium of the University of Pennsylvania (or just "Penn"), it also hosts some games of Philly's informal "Big 5" basketball programs when they play each other: Penn, Temple, La Salle, St. Joseph's and Villanova.
Penn, a member of the Ivy League, has one of the nicest college campuses anywhere, but do not be fooled by its Ivyness: In Philadelphia, even the Ivy Leaguers are tough. 235 South 33rd Street, a mile and a half west of City Hall. Take the "Subway-Surface Line" trolley, either the Number 11, 13, 34 or 36, to the 33rd Street stop.
As I said, Philadelphia has hosted 2 NCAA Final Fours, both at the Spectrum. 'Nova has made it 4 times: 1939, 1971, 1985 and 2009. La Salle made it in back-to-back years, 1954 and 1955. Temple made it in 1956 and 1958, although never under legendary coach John Chaney. St. Joe's made it in 1961, and just missed in 2004. Penn made it in 1979, under future Detroit Pistons coach Chuck Daly. Temple won the NIT in 1938, but the only Philly-based National Champions under the NCAA banner (which began in 1939) are La Salle in 1954 and 'Nova in 1985.

* Franklin Field, right next to the Palestra. The oldest continuously-used college football site, Penn has played here since 1895 (which is also when the Penn Relay Carnival, the nation's premier track-and-field event, began), and in the current stadium since 1922. That year, it supposedly hosted the first football game ever broadcast on radio (a claim the University of Pittsburgh disputes), and in 1939 it supposedly hosted the first football game ever televised (a claim New York’s Columbia University disputes). The amazing building in the west end zone is the University administration building.

The original Franklin Field was the 1st midpoint/neutral site game for Army vs. Navy: 1899 to 1904, 1906 to 1912, and 1914. The current structure hosted it in 1922, and 1932 to 1935, before it was moved to Municipal/JFK Stadium.
The Eagles played here from 1958 to 1970, including their last NFL Championship, December 26, 1960, beating the Green Bay Packers in a thriller, 17-13. Half a century. Penn’s football team has been considerably more successful, having won 14 Ivy League titles since the league was formally founded in 1955.
The stadium is in surprisingly good shape (must be all those Penn/Wharton Business School grads donating for its upkeep), although the playing field has been artificial turf since 1969. Same trolley stop as the Palestra.

The stadium was on a plot bounded by Frankford Avenue, Devereaux Avenue, Hawthorne Street and Benner Street. An AutoZone (at 6137 Frankford) and rowhouses are on the site now. Market-Frankford Line to Frankford Transportation Center, then transfer to SEPTA Bus 66 Frankford & Harbison Avenues.


*

So, to sum up, I would definitely recommend to Giant fans to take the trip to Philadelphia to face the Eagles. It's practically a test of your devotion to Big Blue.

I’d tell you to have fun, but, since you’re facing Philly fans, I'll say, instead, "Try not to get yourself or anybody else killed." And, on this occasion, that's no joke.

The New York Knicks visit the Charlotte Hornets on November 26, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The Brooklyn Nets do so after the New Year, on January 21 and February 7.
Before You Go. Being in the South, it's going to be warmer in Charlotte than in New York. The Charlotte Observer is predicting low 70s for daylight, but mid-40s for evening. Bring a light jacket.

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

Tickets. The Hornets averaged 17,388 fans per game last season. That's only a little over 91 percent of capacity, so your chances of getting a ticket are better than for most teams.

Tickets in the lower level, the 100 sections, are $108 between the baskets and $83 behind them. In the upper level, the 200 sections, they're $46 between and $35 behind.

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

Going In. The official address of the Spectrum Center is 333 E. Trade Street, at Caldwell Street. If you drive in, parking can be had for as little as $5.00. If you're using public transportation, use the CTC/Arena stop. Most likely, you'll be going in through the arena's west or south gates.
The arena opened in 2005, and was named Charlotte Bobcats Arena until 2008. The expansion team was named after its 1st owner, Robert L. Johnson, the TV executive who became America's 1st black billionaire -- yes, before Oprah Winfrey -- and the 1st black majority owner of a major league sports franchise. But the name made sense for an additional reason, as the bobcat is indigenous to the Carolinas. Johnson sold the team to Michael Jordan in 2010. Charter Communications recently bought Time Warner Cable from Time Warner, and renamed the arena for their cable service, Spectrum. This may confuse some of you who remember the old Philadelphia arena of 1967 to 1996, The Spectrum.

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

In addition to the Bobcats/new Hornets, it also hosted the WNBA's Charlotte Sting in their last season, 2006; and minor-league hockey's Charlotte Checkers from 2005 until this year, when they moved to a smaller arena, the Bojangles Coliseum. It also hosted the 2012 Democratic National Convention, which renominated President Barack Obama.

The court is aligned north-to-south -- or, more precisely from a literal geographic standpoint, northeast-to-southwest. In keeping with the "hive" theme, it has a honeycomb pattern.
Food. This is the South, tailgate party country, and North Carolina is among the places in this country particularly known for good barbecue. Tailgating is usually not done before NBA games, but the arena website is a little vague on concessions. Here's what they have to say about food options:


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

The Hornets have 1 retired number, 13, for guard Bobby Phills, who played for the original version of the Hornets from 1997 until 2000, when he was killed in a car crash. Only 2 Hornets players have yet been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame: Centers Robert Parish, who played only 2 seasons for them; and Alonzo Mourning, who played only 3. (Dave Cowens coached them from 1996 to 1999, and Larry Brown from 2008 to 2010, but both were already in the Hall before they got to the Bobcats.) Neither has yet had his number retired by the Hornets. Nor do the Hornets have a team hall of fame.

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

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

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

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

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

During the Game. A November 13, 2014 article on DailyRotoHelp ranked the NBA teams' fan bases, and listed the Bobcats/new Hornets dead last, in 30th place. That's understandable, since they're the newest franchise: It's not that they have a bad reputation, it's that they have hardly any reputation.

But they were only without a team for 2 seasons, 2002 to 2004, so these are basically the same fans that the old Hornets had, and there wasn't anything particularly notable about them, either: No great moments of class, no shocking moments of misbehavior, no intimidation (clean or otherwise). They were "just sort of there." Which, I suppose, is better than having a bad reputation.

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

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

This Saturday's game against the Knicks is Hornets T-Shirt Night. The Hornets hold auditions for singing the National Anthem, rather than having a regular singer. They have cheerleaders, named the Charlotte Honey Bees. But the most famous person associated with the Hornets -- aside from Jordan, and how many people associate him with them? -- never shows his face.

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

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

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

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

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

If your visit to Charlotte is during the European soccer season, as we are now in, your best bet to watch your club play is at Ri Ra, 208 N. Tryon Street, downtown.

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

* Bank of America Stadium. After playing their 1st season at Clemson University's Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina, the NFL's Carolina Panthers moved into this Uptown stadium (originally named Ericsson Stadium for the mobile phone company) for the 1996 season. They've reached the Playoffs 6 times, including 3 NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl loss, in their 1st 20 seasons. 800 S. Mint Street at W. Stonewall Street. Number 2 bus from downtown.

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

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

* Bojangles' Coliseum. Previously known as the original Charlotte Coliseum, the Independence Arena and the Cricket Arena, this arena went up in 1955, and is now named after the fast-food fried chicken franchise. When it opened, it had the world's largest dome, but didn't hold that title for long.
This Coliseum was the home base of the Carolinas' 1st team that could have been called major league: The Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association, from 1969 to 1974. At the time, none of the Carolinas' cities were large enough to support a team by itself so, management used several home courts, including this one, Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, and the Winston-Salem Memorial Coliseum. This path would be followed by the ABA's Virginia Squires (Norfolk, Hampton, Richmond and Roanoke) and Texas Chaparrals (the forerunners of the San Antonio Spurs played in Dallas, Fort Worth and Lubbock).

In 1973, with Larry Brown -- who would later be named to the ABA's All-Time Team -- in his 1st season as a head coach anywhere, the Cougars, led by Billy Cunningham, Joe Caldwell, Gene Littles, Roger Brown and Steve "Snapper" Jones, reached the ABA Finals, but lost them to the Indiana Pacers.

Despite some success on the court and at the box office -- both rare for ABA teams -- it was thought that a "regional franchise" could not succeed in the NBA, with whom merger talks were ongoing, so the team was moved to what was then a larger market, St. Louis. On occasion, the Hornets will wearing Cougars "throwback" uniforms.

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

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

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

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

This Coliseum hosted the NCAA Final Four in 1994, with Arkansas winning the title, beating Duke, despite Durham-based Duke having (for all intents and purposes) home-court advantage. The only other time a Final Four has been held in the Carolinas, a "home team" did win: Raleigh-based North Carolina State over Milwaukee's Marquette at the Greensboro Coliseum in 1974.

The WNBA's Charlotte Sting played home games there. They won the WNBA's Eastern Conference in 2001. Dawn Staley was named to the league's 15th Anniversary 15 Greatest Players, and Andrea Stinson had her Number 32 retired. The Coliseum was used for the basketball-themed films Eddie, He Got Game and Juwanna Mann.

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

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

* Charlotte ballparks. The original Charlotte Hornets were a minor-league baseball team, on and off from 1892 to 1973. Prior to the building of their most familiar ballpark, they won the Southern League Pennant in 1902, 1916, 1923, 1931 and 1938.

From 1937 to 1972, they were owned by the Griffith family as a farm team of the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins franchise. In 1940, they opened a new ballpark, named Griffith Park after team owner Clark Griffith. When he died in 1955, his nephew Calvin Griffith inherited the franchise. He wasn't willing to stick his own name on the Senators' D.C. ballpark, but renamed the Charlotte facility Calvin Griffith Park. At this stadium, they won the South Atlantic League Pennant in 1946, 1947, 1952 and 1957, and the Southern League Pennant in 1969 and 1971.

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

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

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

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

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

According to an April 23, 2014 article in The New York Times, the Yankees are actually the most popular MLB team in Charlotte, a little bit ahead of the Atlanta Braves, the closest team at 246 miles away. (The Washington Nationals are the next-closest, 402 miles.) The closest NHL team is the Carolina Hurricanes, 160 miles away.

The Charlotte Independence play in the United Soccer League, the 3rd tier of American soccer. Their home field is a 4,300-seat stadium at Ramblewood Soccer Complex. 10200 Nations Ford Road, about 10 miles south of downtown, near the Carolina State Line. Public transportation is probably not worth it.

Until Atlanta United begins play (243 miles away) in the Spring of 2017, the closest Major League Soccer team will remain D.C. United, 404 miles away in Washington.

Due to population as much as to the size of the ballpark, I wouldn't count on Charlotte getting an MLB team anytime soon: It would rank 28th among MLB markets. And, unless the 'Canes want to become a "regional team," as was experimented with in pro basketball in the 1970s and '80s (most recently with the Boston Celtics in Hartford in 1995), Charlotte won't get an NHL team either, as they'd rank 22nd -- 3 places ahead of where Raleigh is now. Combining the 2 markets would jump it to 15th, but the logistics of alternating between Charlotte and Raleigh would make the move too risky.

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

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

Charlotte has the University of North Carolina at Charlotte as a "mid-major" college basketball team, but in terms of college football, here's the distances to the closest Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly "Division I-A") teams: Wake Forest University, 82 miles away in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; University of South Carolina, 99 in Columbia; Clemson University, 139 in Clemson, South Carolina; University of North Carolina, 140 in Chapel Hill; Duke, 141 in Durham; North Carolina State, 160 in Raleigh; Virginia Tech, 173 in Blacksburg; University of Tennessee, 231 in Knoxville; and East Carolina, 247 in Greenville, North Carolina. (Wake Forest's Wait Chapel hosted Presidential Debates in 1988, between George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis, and in 2000, between George W. Bush and Al Gore.)

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

In addition to Charlotte -- Raleigh, which I've covered in my guide for the Hurricanes -- Elvis sang at the following North Carolina locations: In New Bern, at the Shrine Auditorium in New Bern on May 14 and September 13, 1955; in Asheville, at the City Auditorium on May 17 and September 16, 1955, and at the Asheville Civic Center on July 22, 23 and 24, 1975; in Thomasville at the High School Auditorium on September 17, 1955; in Wilson at Fleming Stadium on September 14, 1955, and 3 shows at the Charles L. Coon Auditorium on February 14, 1956; in Greensboro, 4 shows in 1 day at the National Theater on February 6, 1956, and at the Greensboro Coliseum on April 14, 1972; March 13, 1974; July 21, 1975; June 30, 1976; and April 21, 1977; in High Point, 4 shows in 1 day at the Convention Center on February 7, 1956; in Williams, at the High School Auditorium on February 15, 1956; in Winston-Salem, 3 shows in 1 day at the Carolina Theater on February 16, 1956; in Lexington, at the YMCA Gym on March 21, 1956; and in Fayetteville, at the Cumberland County Memorial Arena in Fayetteville on August 3, 4 and 5, 1976.

If you're paying attention, you saw that he did 4 shows in 1 day on February 6, 7, 8 and 10, 1956. That's 16 shows in a span of 5 days. He was 21. It was easier to do that than to do 2 in 1 day when he was packing on the pounds in his early 40s in 1975, '76 and '77.

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

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

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

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

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

Andrew Johnson was born in the State capital of Raleigh, 167 miles to the northeast. His birthplace was a log cabin (which didn't help him as much as it helped his predecessor, Abraham Lincoln) on the grounds of Casso's Inn, where his father worked, at Morgan Street and Fayetteville Street, across from the State House. It was moved to Mordecai Historic Park at 1 Mimosa Street, a mile north of downtown. Number 1 Bus.
All 3 Carolina-born Presidents have their main historical sites in Tennessee: Polk is buried on the State House grounds in Nashville; Jackson's home, The Hermitage, is in the Nashville suburbs; and Johnson's Museum is in Greeneville.

A few TV shows have been filmed in North Carolina, most notably Dawson's Creek in Wilmington. The Andy Griffith Show, of course, was set in the fictional North Carolina town of Mayberry and based on Griffith's hometown of Mount Airy, but was filmed in Southern California.

Shows set in Charlotte are few and far between. Currently, The Carmichael Show, based on the standup comedy of Jerrod Carmichael, is airing on NBC. Homeland has had scenes shot in Charlotte. Scenes from the Hunger Games films, whose "District 12" includes the Carolinas, have been shot in Charlotte.

*

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

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

This coming Tuesday night, November 29, the Devils will be in the capital of the Province of Manitoba to play the reborn Winnipeg Jets.

If this were a World Hockey Association game in the 1970s... well, it wouldn't be that big, since we'd be the New York Raiders and we'd stink.

Before You Go. Winnipeg is in Manitoba. Manitoba is in Canada. In the entire National Hockey League, only Edmonton and Calgary have arenas further north. It's late November. It's going to be cold.

But not that cold, this time: The website for the Winnipeg Free Press is predicting low 30s for daylight and mid-20s for night. That's Fahrenheit. Don't look at the Celsius numbers, the ones you're used to are cold enough. You'll still have to bundle up, but it won't be as bad as usual.

Winnipeg is in Canada, so you're going to need to have, and bring, a valid passport. It's also in the Central Time Zone, 1 hour behind New York and New Jersey. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.

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

Leave yourself $50 in U.S. cash, especially if you’re going other than by plane, so you’ll have usable cash when you get back to your side of the border. At this writing, the exchange rate is US$1.00 = C$1.34, while C$1.00 = US 75 cents, so, for the moment, it really favors us.

Tickets. At 15,016, the MTS Centre has the smallest capacity of any current NHL arena, smaller than even the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. But the fans in Winnipeg are so thrilled to have their Jets back that they've sold out every seat since the re-premiere. Getting tickets might be tough.

The prices I'm citing are in Canadian dollars. Seats in the lower bowl, the 100 sections, are $123 and $139 between the goals, $101 behind them. Seats in the mezzanine, the 200 sections, are $123 between the goals and $85 behind them. Seats in the upper level, the 300 sections, are $69 between the goals and $58 behind them, with the last few rows behind the goals going for $42.

Getting There. It's 1,653 miles from Times Square to the Manitoba Legislative Building, the Province's capitol building; 1,648 miles from the Prudential Center in Newark to the MTS Centre in Winnipeg; and 66 miles from the closest border crossing, at Pembina, North Dakota, to downtown Winnipeg. (I won't be doing these for the CFL teams, but Regina, Saskatchewan, which only has a team in that League, is 1,940 miles from Times Square, and 101 miles from the closest border crossing, at Raymond, Montana.)

Knowing this, your first instinct will be to fly. Air Canada offers round-trip flights from Newark Liberty to Winnipeg's James Armstrong Richardson International Airport for as little as $720. (Richardson was a Member of Parliament, and Minister of Defence under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the 1970s.) Unfortunately, you'd have to change planes in either Montreal or Toronto.

You can't get from New York to Winnipeg directly by train, either. You have to change trains in Toronto. Amtrak, however, runs just one train, the Maple Leaf, in each direction each day between New York and Toronto, in cooperation with Canada’s equivalent, VIA Rail. This train leaves Pennsylvania Station at 7:15 AM and arrives at Union Station at 7:42 PM, a trip of 12 hours and 22 minutes – 9:10 of it in America, 32 minutes of it at Customs (4:25 to 4:57 PM) and 2:45 of it in Canada. The return trip leaves Toronto at 8:20 AM, reaches the border at 10:22, and gets back to Penn Station at 9:45 PM.

Likewise, VIA Rail has just 1 train running every other day from Toronto to Winnipeg, leaving Toronto at 10:00 PM (giving you 2 hours and 18 minutes to make the change) and taking 35 hours to get to Winnipeg, arriving at 8:00 AM. It then leaves Winnipeg at 10:30 PM and arrives in Toronto at 9:30 AM 2 days later. In other words, this would be your itinerary (all times local):

Leave New York 7:15 AM Thursday
Arrive Toronto 7:42 PM Thursday (2 hour, 18 minute layover)
Leave Toronto 10:00 PM Saturday
Arrive Winnipeg 8:00 AM Monday

Game in Winnipeg 6:00 PM Tuesday
Game ends around 8:30 PM Tuesday (50 hours to make train)
Leave Winnipeg 10:30 PM Thursday
Arrive Toronto 9:30 AM Saturday (22 hour, 50 minute layover)
Leave Toronto 8:20 AM Sunday
Arrive New York 9:50 PM Sunday

In other words, you'd have to sit around Winnipeg for a day and a half, waiting for the puck to drop at a hockey game, and then for 2 more days, waiting for your train to board! Good thing I'm telling you about other things to do in the city! And then almost another full day in Toronto -- making for 3 nights in a hotel, meaning you don't save on hotel fare by taking the train!

And the price? From Toronto to Winnipeg and back, a mere C$440.70. Or US$328.88. With the New York to Toronto fare of $296 added on, the total is $624.88. So unless you're rich, the train is out. At any rate, Winnipeg's Union Station is at 123 Main Street at Broadway.

How about the bus? Greyhound does serve Canada. But you'd have to start out from Port Authority at 10:15 PM Saturday, and arrive at Winnipeg at the same time on Monday, in order to attend the game on Tuesday night. That's 48 hours: Not only is Ontario huge, but you'll be going around 3 of the 5 Great Lakes: Ontario, Huron and Superior. And you'd have to change buses in Toronto.It'll cost you $526, $400 with advanced-purchase.

Or maybe driving would be better. Keep in mind, it's better to do this with 2 people, so 1 can drive while the other sleeps. And you'll both need passports. And make sure your companion isn't someone who would say or do some wiseass thing at Customs, like answer the question, "Do you have anything to declare?" with, "I declare that I'm proud to be an American."

The most direct route bypasses Buffalo, Hamilton and Toronto -- in fact, it doesn't go through Ontario at all.

You'll need to get into New Jersey, and take Interstate 80 West. You'll be on I-80 for the vast majority of the trip, through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. In Ohio, in the western suburbs of Cleveland, I-80 will merge with Interstate 90. From this point onward, you won’t need to think about I-80 until you head home; I-90 is now the key, through the rest of Ohio and Indiana.

Just outside Chicago, I-80 will split off from I-90, which you will keep, until it merges with Interstate 94. For the moment, though, you will ignore I-94. Stay on I-90 through Illinois, until reaching Madison, Wisconsin, where you will once again merge with I-94. Now, I-94 is what you want, taking it into Minnesota and the Twin Cities.

However, unless you want to make a rest stop actually in Minneapolis or St. Paul, you're going to bypass them entirely. Take Exit 249 to get on Interstate 694, the Twin Cities' beltway, until you merge with Interstate 494 to reform I-94. Crossing Minnesota into North Dakota, you'll take Exit 349B to get on Interstate 29 North. At Pembina, North Dakota, you'll reach Customs.

Assuming you have everything in order and don't do anything stupid, you'll be allowed to cross over into Emerson, Manitoba, and your highway will continue as Manitoba Route 29. This will soon flow into Manitoba Route 75, the Lord Selkirk Highway. Upon crossing Route 300, it will become Manitoba Route 42. Take that to Manitoba Route 62, and that will take you into downtown Winnipeg.

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 5 hours and 15 minutes in Pennsylvania, 4 hours in Ohio, 2 and a half hours in Indiana, an hour and a half in Illinois, 2 and a half hours in Wisconsin, 4 and a half hours in Minnesota, 2 hours and 45 minutes in North Dakota, and a shade over an hour in Manitoba. That’s 24 hours and 30 minutes.

Counting rest stops, preferably halfway through Pennsylvania and just after you enter both Ohio and Indiana, outside Chicago, halfway across Wisconsin, outside the Twin Cities, outside Grand Forks, and counting Customs, which should have a bathroom and vending machines, it should be no more than 33 hours, which would save you time on both Greyhound and Amtrak, if not on flying.

Once In the City. The name Winnipeg comes from the Western Cree words for "muddy waters." The region was a trading center for aboriginal peoples (usually called "First Nations" in Canada, rather than "Indians" or "Native Canadians") before the arrival of Europeans. French traders built the first fort on the site in 1738. A settlement was later founded by the Selkirk settlers in 1812, the nucleus of which was incorporated as the City of Winnipeg in 1873.

Since Canada is in the British Commonwealth, there are some subtle differences. Every measurement will be in the metric system. Dates are written not as Month/Day/Year, as we do it, but as Day/Month/Year as in Britain and in Europe. So the game is played for us on "November 29, 2016," but for them on "29 November 2016" -- we write it as 11/29/16, they write it as 29/11/16.

They also follow British custom in writing time: This game is scheduled to start at 6:00 PM, and will be listed as 1800. (Those of you who have served in the military, you will recognize this as, in the words of M*A*S*H's Lt. Col. Henry Blake, "all that hundred-hours stuff.") And every word we would end with -or, they will end with -our; and some (but not all) words that we would end with -er, they end with -re, as in "MTS Centre."

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

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

Manitoba's sales tax is 13 percent -- in 2010, this replaced the former Provincial sales tax of 5 percent and the federal GST (Goods & Services Tax) of 8 percent. In other words, the Conservative Party government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper wanted Canadians to think he'd killed the hated GST, when, in fact, Manitobans are paying pretty much the same taxes that they did before. See how stupid it is to vote for conservative candidates? It doesn't work in any country, as Canada recently admitted by dumping Harper and his Tories for Justin Trudeau and his Liberals.

The Red River divides street addresses into east and west, and the Assiniboine River divides the city into north and south. Winnipeg doesn't have a subway, and its buses are $2.50 cash and $2.15 for a prepaid ticket. Again, that's in Canadian dollars, making it cheaper than New York's MTA or New Jersey Transit.

The drinking age in Manitoba is 18.

Going In. The MTS Centre is downtown. The official address is 300 Portage Avenue, at Donald Street. If your hotel is downtown, you can walk there, and you won't need a bus. If you drove all the way in, and aren't staying in Winnipeg overnight, most parking in downtown Winnipeg is $10 or less.
The arena is named for Manitoba Telecom Services, and opened in 2004, having been built in the hopes of attracting a moved or expansion team to the former city of the team now known as the Arizona Coyotes. In the meantime, the minor-league Manitoba Moose played at the old Winnipeg Arena from 1996 to 2004, and at the MTS Centre from 2004 to 2011.

One of the first events held there was the 2005 Juno Awards, Canada's equivalent of the Grammys. After a few preseason exhibition games, including one by the ex-Jets (then named the Phoenix Coyotes), the Atlanta Thrashers made the move, and played their 1st regular-season home game as the new Winnipeg Jets on October 9, 2011.
The rink is laid out north-to-south. The Jets attack twice toward the south end.

Food. Centerplate operates the arena's concessions. Among the chains with stands there are Subway and that hockey-connected must-have of Canada, Tim Hortons. The arena also has The Exchange Restaurant & Beer Market, and the Observation Deck Bar & Buffet.

Team History Displays. In their 1st 3 seasons, the new Jets didn't make the Playoffs. They did make it in Year 4, last season, but got swept in the 1st Round by the Anaheim Ducks. But they do hang banners for the old Jets' WHA Championships of 1976, 1978 and 1979. The old Jets won nothing in the NHL, not even a Division title, so there's nothing to hang.
Along the side of the east stands, in front of the luxury boxes, the Jets show the retired numbers of the old Jets: 9, left wing Bobby Hull; 10, center Dale Hawerchuk; 25, right wing Thomas Steen; and 27, defenseman Teppo Numminen. Wayne Gretzky's universally-retired 99 is also up there.

These numbers were kept semi-retired by the Arizona Coyotes, who also added the 7 of center Keith Tkachuk, whose number, as yet, isn't shown at the MTS Centre. Ben Ciarot is wearing 7 for the new Jets. (The Coyotes also added the 97 of center Jeremy Roenick, who never played for the Jets/Coyotes franchise in Winnipeg.)

Left wing Evander Kane wore 9 with the Atlanta Thrashers, and, when they became the new Jets, he asked Hull for permission to continue wearing it. He got it. He's now gone, but Andrew Copp wears it now. Also unworn at the moment is the 13 with which Teemu Selanne began in Winnipeg. The Coyotes haven't retired it, but the Ducks have retired 8 for him.

While the Thrashers didn't have any officially retired numbers, they had withdrawn 37 from circulation following the car crash death of Dan Snyder. The Jets kept it out of circulation until this season, but it has now been given to Connor Hellebuyck.

Oddly, True North Enterprises, which had owned the Moose, have kept the Moose's banners up: The retired Number 12 of Mike Keane, a Winnipeg native whose first pro team was the Winnipeg Monarchs of junior hockey, and played the last 5 seasons of his career after 16 years in the NHL, Stanley Cups in 1993 with the Montreal Canadiens, 1996 with the Colorado Avalanche, and 1999 with the Dallas Stars; Division Championships in 2007 and 2009, the 2009 regular-season league title and the 2009 Conference Championship.

The Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame is located at the MTS Centre. Its inductees include original Jets founder Ben Hatskin; old Jets Hull, Hawerchuk, Anders Hedberg, Ulf Nilsson (the last 2 being ex-Rangers) and Randy Carlyle; and Manitoba-born NHL legends, including Terry Sawchuk, Bobby Clarke, and ex-Rangers Murray Murdoch, Babe Pratt, Ivan "Ching" Johnson, Art Coulter, Bryan Hextall, Alex Shibicky, Chuck Rayner, Andy Bathgate, Pete Stemkowski and coach Fred Shero. (Hextall's sons, Bryan Jr. and Dennis, have also been elected; Bryan Jr.'s son Ron has not yet been.)

Hull, Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, the old "Hot Line," were the 1st inductees into the Jets' team Hall of Fame. Those 3, plus Kent Nilsson, Joe Daley, Lars-Erik Sjoberg, Danny Lawson, Ernie Wakely, Ted Green and Terry Ruskowski were named to the WHA's All-Time Team. Hull was the only Jet named to The Hockey News' 100 greatest Players in 1998. If THN were to do it again now, Teemu Selanne might be added. Dave Silk and Dave Christian from the 1980 U.S. Olympic team played for the old Jets.

Stuff. The Jets Gear Authentic Team Store calls itself "the best place in Winnipeg to pick up authentic Winnipeg Jets merchandise. With 3 locations to serve you, and open year-round, we're looking forward to outfitting every Winnipeg Jets fan."

There aren't yet any good books about the revived Jets, but there are some about the old ones. Curtis Walker and Timothy Gassen wrote Winnipeg Jets: The WHA Years Day By Day. And Curtis Walker wrote the next chapter: Coming Up Short: The Comprehensive History of the NHL's Winnipeg Jets (1979-1996).

Videos on the Jets are in short supply. The only one I could find on Amazon.com was a rivalry piece on the WHA version of the Jets and the Houston Aeros, Bobby Hull vs. Gordie Howe. Between them, in the 7 seasons the WHA existed, one of those teams was in the Finals every season -- and, in 1976, they both were, as the Jets' ended the Aeros' 2-year dominance of the league.

During the Game. A November 19, 2014 article on The Hockey News' website ranked the NHL teams' fan bases, and listed the Jets' fans 7th, 5th among Canadian teams: "Jet fans pay through the nose but come out in droves despite no playoff games." The novelty of having the NHL back in town has not yet worn off. It remains to be seen if 'Peg fans will come out to watch a team that has disappointed them repeatedly.

You do not need to fear wearing Devils gear to a Jets game at the MTS Centre. Their rivals are the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Ottawa Senators, the Edmonton Oilers (due to the WHA connection) and, to a lesser but understandable extent, the Arizona Coyotes. They don't care any more about the Devils than they would about any other team. You will be safe.

Stacey Nattrass is the Jets' regular singer for the National Anthems. She teaches music at a local high school. The Jets use Primal Fear's "Higher Power" as their fight song and the Isley Brothers'"Shout!" as their goal song.

Jet fans are noted for their creative chants. When the Buffalo Sabres came in with Ryan Miller, the goalie for the U.S. team that finished 2nd to Canada at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Winnipeggers showed some Hoser pride by chanting, "SIL-ver ME-dal!" When the Washington Capitals came in with Alexander Ovechkin, they invoked the other chosen superstar of this generation of NHL players, the Pittsburgh Penguins' Sidney Crosby, and chanted,"CROS-by's BET-ter!" When the San Jose Sharks came in last year, having just stripped Joe Thornton of the captaincy, they chanted, "WHO'S your CAP-tain?"

The Winnipeg White Out is a hockey tradition that dates back to 1987, when fans were asked to wear white clothing to home Playoff games, creating a very intimidating effect and atmosphere. It was created as a response to the "C of Red" created by fans of the Calgary Flames, who the Jets were facing in the 1st round of the Playoffs. The Jets eliminated the Flames in 6 games, and fans wore white for every home playoff game thereafter. Marketing for the team during the Playoffs referred to the "charge of the white brigade." Fans of the now relocated AHL Manitoba Moose (now the St. John's Ice Caps in St. John's, Newfoundland) also continued this tradition, as did fans of the continuing Jets/Coyotes franchise in Phoenix.

True North Enterprises, which owns the Jets and the MTS Centre, kept the Moose' mascot, Mick E. Moose. Obviously a play on "Mickey Mouse," he had averaged over 100 community appearances per season for the past 15 years in Winnipeg and rural Manitoba. Slight modifications to the costume were made, including a Jets jersey with Number 00 on the back, and a vintage leather aviator helmet, one that far preceded jet airplanes.

After the Game. Winnipeg is a city, but it's a Canadian city. You're going to be safer than in most American cities. And while Canadians like to drink, the fact that the Devils and the Jets have no rivalry means that, if you behave yourself and don't antagonize anyone, the home fans will do the same.

The MTS Centre is downtown, so there are plenty of places to get a postgame meal or drink. A bar named Tavern United and a Japanese restaurant named Samurai are across Hargrave Street on the arena's west side. A restaurant called The Allen is across Donald Street on the arena's east side, although it looks more like "fine dining" than "postgame meal" territory.

There is unlikely to be a bar in Winnipeg that caters to expatriate or visiting New Yorkers and New Jerseyans. Your best bet is to look for red or white Devils jerseys, see which fans look like they've been there before, presume that they know what they're doing, and follow them.

If your visit to Winnipeg is during the European soccer season, as we are now in, your best bet to watch your club is at The Pint, at 274 Garry Street, downtown.

Sidelights. Despite Winnipeg's hockey struggles after leaving the WHA, they've actually got a decent sports history.

There was a 3-building complex at 1430 Maroons Road, at the corner of Empress Street. This included the Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg Stadium and the Polo Park horse racing track.

The Arena was home to the Winnipeg Warriors of the Western Hockey League from its opening in 1955 until 1961, the Winnipeg Jets of the Western Canada Hockey League from 1967 to 1972, the orginal WHA/NHL Jets from 1972 to 1996, and the Manitoba Moose of the International Hockey League and the American Hockey League from 1996 to 2004, when the MTS Centre Opened.
It also hosted Game 3 of the 1972 Canadian-Soviet "Summit Series," even though Winnipeg was, at the time, not an NHL city, and was, in fact, pandering to the WHA. This was awkward because Team Canada only included players from the NHL, barring defectors to the WHA like Bobby Hull (Chicago to Winnipeg), Bernie Parent (Toronto to Philadelphia, before Philly again in the NHL) and Gerry Cheevers (Boston to Cleveland).

That, plus Bobby Orr's injury, made the series a down-to-the-last-minute-of-the-last-game affair. Had Hull been allowed and Orr able to play, the legend of the great Red Army team might have been strangled in the crib.

Like the Colisee de Quebec, 10,000 seats was enough for the WHA, but not for the NHL. So, like their WHA bretheren the Nordiques, they expanded their Louis St. Laurent-era arena to 15,000 seats. Unfortunately, also like the Nords, the Jets found the NHL rough going from 1979 onward, losing the core of their WHA dynasty in a dispersal draft, and setting a league record in 1980-81 for longest winless streak: 30 games (23 losses, 7 ties), and earning the nickname "Loseipeg."

Also like the Nords, they got better in the 1980s, and made the Playoffs again in the 1990s. But, again, like the Nords, it was too late, as the combination of a bad exchange rate and an outdated arena led to them moving. Like Winnipeg, Quebec City now has a new arena, too, so, like the Jets, the Nords could come back, too.

Winnipeg Stadium stood at 1465 Maroons Road, and was home to the Canadian Football League's Winnipeg Blue Bombers from 1953 to 2012. The Bombers have won 10 Grey Cups, 7 of them on Maroons Road: 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1984, 1988 and 1990. It was also home to baseball's Winnipeg Whips in 1970 and '71. Another baseball team, the Winnipeg Goldeyes, played there from 1954 to 1964, as a farm team of the St. Louis Cardinals, winning Northern League Pennants in 1957, 1959 and 1960. The new version of the Goldeyes played there from 1994 to 1998.

The Stadium seated about 33,000 at its peak, although temporary seating for the 1991 Grey Cup raised it to 51,985. In 2000, a hotel chain bought the naming rights, and it became Canad Inns Stadium for the rest of its existence.

The Arena and the Stadium did not share space with Polo Park for long. Polo Park hosted thoroughbred racing from 1925 to 1956, and was demolished shortly thereafter. The Polo Park Mall opened in 1959. Today, an industrial site sits across Maroons Road from the mall, where the Arena and the Stadium once stood. Bus 11 from downtown.

Today, the Blue Bombers play at Investors Group Field. Opening in 2013 on the campus of the University of Manitoba, it is a 33,500-seat facility that can be expanded to 40,000. It hosted the 2015 Grey Cup (Edmonton beat Ottawa), and 7 games of the 2015 Women's World Cup, including the U.S.' win over Australia and draw with Sweden en route to winning the Cup.

Taylor Swift played its 1st concert, but its 1st sold-out concert was by then 71-year-old Paul McCartney. (For comparison's sake: When Taylor Swift was born in 1989, Paul was 47, on one of his biggest tours and was still making the U.S. Top 40. Taylor should be so lucky in 2036.) The King and Queen of recent pop music, Jay-Z and Beyonce, played it in 2014, 1 of only 2 Canadian venues on their tour (the other being the Rogers Centre in Toronto). This coming October 23, it will host the NHL Heritage Classic, between the Jets and the Edmonton Oilers.

315 Chancellor Matheson Road at University Crescent, about 6 miles south of downtown. Number 60 bus.

Prior to the construction of Winnipeg Stadium, the Blue Bombers played at Osborne Stadium from 1935 to 1952, winning the Grey Cup in 1935, 1939 and 1941. A baseball team called the Winnipeg Reo Rods also called it home. Opened in 1932, with just 7,800 seats it was too small for CFL play. It was demolished in 1956, and the Great-West Life Assurance Building now stands on the site. 60 Osborne Street at Granite Way, across from the Manitoba Legislative Building.

The current version of the Winnipeg Goldeyes has played at Shaw Park since it opened in 1999. Formerly named CanWest Global Park, it seats 7,461, making it ideal for independent leagues like the current version of the American Association (not to be confused with the longtime Triple-A league or the 1880s major league of the same name).

These Goldeyes have won 9 division titles, and Pennants in 1994 and 2012, making for 5 Pennants for Winnipeg baseball teams. "The Fishbowl" stands at 1 Portage Avenue East, at Waterfront Drive along the Red River. Number 1 or 10 bus from downtown.

From 1909 to 1955, Winnipeg's hockey center (or, should I say, "centre") was Shea's Auditorium. For many years, it held Canada's only artificial ice surface between Toronto and Vancouver. The University of Winnipeg Library now stands on the site, although their hockey rink, the Duckworth Centre, is adjacent. 515 Portage Avenue, 6 blocks west of the MTS Centre. In other words, when the new arena opened in 2004, Winnipeg hockey was coming home, even if it took the Jets a little longer.

Winnipeg has won the Stanley Cup 3 times. Did you know that? But it was a really long time ago. In fact, they've gone longer without winning the Cup than any city that has actually won it: 114 years. The Winnipeg Victorias won it in 1896, 1901 and 1902. The Victorias played at the Winnipeg Auditorium, at Garry Street and York Avenue, downtown. The Auditorium was destroyed by a fire in 1926. A bank and a parking deck now stand on the site of the greatest achievement in the history of Manitoba sports.

The Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame is at 145 Pacific Avenue at Lily Street. Number 20 bus.

Minneapolis is both the closest MLB city and the closest NBA city to Winnipeg: 456 miles away. Don't count on Winnipeg ever getting a team in either league: It would rank dead last in metropolitan area population. It already ranks last in the NHL, and still would if Quebec City returns, although not if Hamilton, Ontario gets a team as it has tried to do for the last 30 years. Even in the CFL, the Blue Bombers, at least in terms of metro population, have a "Borg ranking": 7 of 9, ahead of only the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Regina-based Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Like most major (or major-wannabe) cities, Winnipeg has museums. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is at 85 Israel Asper Way, at York Avenue, across Pioneer Avenue from Shaw Park. Number 1 or 10 bus. Across Asper Way and the railroad tracks is the Winnipeg Railroad Museum. The Manitoba Planetarium and Science Gallery is at 190 Rupert Avenue at Main Street. Number 20 bus.

Adjacent to the Museum for Human Rights is The Forks, named for the splitting of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. Because of this confluence, it was a meeting place for early Aboriginal peoples (Indians/Native Canadians/First Nations), European fur traders, hunters, riverboat and railway workers, and Manitoba's immigrants.

The complex now includes the Forks Market, in effect Winnipeg's South Street Seaport, Reading Terminal Market, Harborplace or Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market. 1 Forks Market Road, at Israel Asper Way. The Manitoba Children's Museum is also part of the complex, at 45 Forks Market Road. Number 1 or 2 bus.

Arthur Meighen, who served briefly twice (1920-21 and for a few weeks in 1926), is the only Prime Minister of Canada to have represented a riding (district) in Manitoba, in his case the nearby town of Portage La Prairie. There is no historical site in his honor, though.

The tallest building in Winnipeg is 201 Portage, standing a mere 420 feet at the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street, 3 blocks from the MTS Centre. It looks nice, but it's no skyscraper.

Any TV shows set in Winnipeg would only be shown on Canadian television, and wouldn't be familiar to Americans. There have, however, been major films that you would recognize shot in and around Winnipeg. Many of these have been westerns or more recent period pieces that take advantage of the surrounding prairies, such as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (set in 1882 Missouri) and Capote (set in 1959 Kansas while Truman Capote was researching the murders that became the basis of his book In Cold Blood). Other movies with scenes filmed in Winnipeg include K-19: The Widowmaker, Shall We Dance, The Constant Gardener and The Haunting in Connecticut (despite the title).

*

Winnipeg is not very big city, and it's far away, with little to attract the local hockey fan besides hockey. But once you're there, it turns out to be a much more interesting place. Give it a go, whether you're a hockey fan or not.

Honorable Mention. Barney Miller, "Thanksgiving Story," November 24, 1977. Mental patients have escaped from a private hospital, and are loose in an automat. Yes, they still had automats in New York, even as recently as 1992.

10. Home Improvement, "Thanksgiving," November 25, 1997. The Taylors are invited to watch the Detroit Lions' annual Thanksgiving Day game from a luxury box at the Silverdome. Tim is given a tour of the stadium, and, being himself, he manages to black out the building. Rodney Dangerfield has a cameo as another guest of the Taylors' skybox patron.

9. Bewitched, "Samantha's Thanksgiving to Remember," November 23, 1967. Aunt Clara accidentally transports the family back to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621, to observe the first Thanksgiving.

Except that it's the period where anyone in Massachusetts who behaved improperly was considered a witch. So who goes on trial for witchcraft? Not Samantha, who actually is a witch, but Darren. And Samantha ends up using her witch powers to rove him innocent.

8. Full House, "The Miracle of Thanksgiving," November 20, 1987. It's Danny's 1st Thanksgiving without his wife, and his daughters' 1st without their mother. He wants to make it extra special. But Grandma Tanner can't make it. So Danny, Joey and Jesse wants to make a reservation at a restaurant. Older daughters D.J. and Stephanie insist that they all make the dinner together at home. Hilarity ensues -- until they realize that baby Michelle finally realizes that Mommy is not coming back.

7. Happy Days, "The First Thanksgiving," November 21, 1978. Marion is unhappy that the rest of the Cunningham family would rather watch football on television than help with the dinner, so she tells them her version of the story of how the Pilgrims and the Indians came together for the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621.

The various actors play period-specific versions of themselves, including Henry Winkler playing "the odd one," who seems to already be in good with the Natives. Because, even in the era of King James I, the Fonz is just that cool.

6. Cheers, "Thanksgiving Orphans," November 27, 1986. Everybody's got some reason or another to not spent the holiday with their families. So Diane invites them all to dinner -- at Carla's. Norm brings a huge frozen turkey, and when it takes forever to cook, Carla calls it "Birdzilla."

Bored and hungry, a food fight starts, which ends with Diane throwing a pie at Sam. He ducks, and it hits Norm's late-arriving wife Vera instead. As a result, Vera, making her 1st onscreen appearance after all her mentions, still doesn't show her face. She is played, uncredited, by Bernadette Birkett, the real-life wife of Norm's portrayer George Wendt.

5. ER, "Great Expectations," November 25, 1999. Carol goes into labor on Thanksgiving Day, and it gets complicated. This is the debut episode of Maura Tierney as Abby Lockhart.

4. The West Wing, "The Indians In the Lobby," November 21, 2001. For reasons of political correctness, this episode is sometimes referred to as "The Butterball Hotline." Two Native Americans refuse to leave the West Wing lobby until the President (or someone high up in the federal government) hears their grievance. Josh has to both get to Florida, where his widowed mother is after moving from Connecticut, and convince a Georgia prosecutor not to seek the death penalty for a 13-year-old boy who killed his teacher.

President Bartlet tells everyone who will listen (and when your boss is the President, you willlisten) how his family turkey is cooked, but is reminded that an improperly cooked turkey might kill his guests. "I'm not saying that's necessarily a dealbreaker." So Charlie tells him that the Butterball company has a hotline for answering cooking questions, and he calls it, pretending to be a private citizen. He is also very annoyed that Bruno has taken a poll on where the First Family should spend Thanksgiving.

The previous season's Thanksgiving episode, "Shibboleth," is often held up as one of the best Thanksgiving episodes any TV series has ever had. I like this one better.

3. WKRP in Cincinnati, "Turkeys Away," October 30, 1978. Why did this air right before Halloween, instead of right before Thanksgiving? Anyway, Mr. Carlson thinks dropping turkeys out of a helicopter is a great Thanksgiving promotion. Live turkeys. "As God is my witness," the Big Guy says, "I thought turkeys could fly!" Spoiler alert: They can't.

2. Friends, "The One Where Underdog Gets Away," November 17, 1994. Ross and Monica's parents are going on a cruise for Thanksgiving, so instead of going to Long Island for the dinner, Monica decided to do it herself in Greenwich Village. Joey can't spend Thanksgiving with his family on Staten Island because an acting job he got goes awry. Chandler hates Thanksgiving because of something that happened as a boy.

In the middle of preparations, the Underdog balloon breaks away from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and they all go up to the roof to see it. When they get back, they discover that they're locked out.

Later Thanksgiving episodes would show Ross and Monica renewing their football rivalry (the Geller Bowl, competing for the Geller Cup), a confrontation between a pregnant Rachel and a high school rival (played by Jennifer Aniston's then-real-life-husband Brad Pitt), and a flashback episode that showed why Chandler hates Thanksgiving, how Chandler inspired Monica to lose 100 pounds, and how Monica's revenge inadvertently cost Chandler a toe.

1. Mad About You, "Giblets for Murray," November 17, 1994. One of my very favorite episodes of any TV series, on any subject. It also aired right before "The One Where Underdog Gets Away," and an hour before the Seinfeld episode "The Mom & Pop Store," so that was one great night of television comedy.

Paul and Jamie are hosting Thanksgiving for the first time. Their families are driving them nuts. They admonish the Buchmans and the Stemples for their behavior, and remind them that they're adults and that they know what they're doing. Then they discover that Murray the dog has eaten the turkey.

So they have to get a replacement turkey. The one they actually serve is the 5th try. With each try, more family members learn the truth, until Paul's mother is the last to know -- and, normally a shrew who treats Paul like dirt and hates Jamie, she comes through in the end: "What? I never had a mother-in-law?"

1970 to 1973: Thanksgiving is held at my maternal grandparents' house in Nutley, North Jersey. Grandma is in charge.

1974 to 1978: After my grandparents moved, it was held at their new house, in a retirement community in the Jersey Shore town of Brick. Always invited were the elderly couple that were friends in North Jersey, then moved down there, and recommended the community to them. They were invited because they had no children to spend the holiday with, and their siblings were already dead. They were terrific people.

My parents would leave me there, and I would spend the weekend over, with Mom or Dad picking me up on Sunday night.

1979 to 1983: My sister is added to the mix.

1984 to 1986: Grandpa died, so there was one less. By now, Grandma and I would usually take a short trip on the Friday or Saturday after, sometimes to Smithville, a kind of mini-Colonial Williamsburg just north of Atlantic City.

1987: A car crash a few days earlier led to me spending the holiday in the hospital. Stitches in my mouth meant that I couldn't really eat, anyway. So it was turkey soup. I was released the next day.

It was still a better holiday than Halloween in a New York hospital when I was 5 -- and if my mother tells you I had a wonderful time that day, let me remind you that she frequently remembers things wrong.

1988 to 1993: Normal service was restored.

1994 to 1996: By this point, the elderly couple involved were no longer coming: The husband had died, and the wife was in cognitive decline, and she and Grandma fell out. I don't even remember hearing when she died.

This was also the year that the 2 high schools in Old Bridge were consolidated, and began playing my alma mater, East Brunswick, on Thanksgiving. EB won the 1st game, but lost badly in 1995 and 1996. I told Grandma that, from now on, if EB wins, I will eat turnips at the dinner. She was proud of her turnips.

1997 to 2005: As it turned out, I never had to be held to that promise -- and not because EB won. In 1997, at age 73, Grandma announced that she was now too old and tired to do the whole shebang. She would still have me over for Thanksgiving weekend, and still make enough Thanksgiving stuff for the two of us for the weekend, including those wonderful sandwiches with turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce.

But, from this point onward, we would eat Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant. It was a different one in or around Brick every year, and most of them did it well.

Finally, in 2005, EB won again. The restaurant did not offer turnips.

2006 to 2008: Grandma died in 2006. By this point, my sister was married, and we had Thanksgiving dinner at her in-laws'. This included my twin nieces' 1st 2 Thanksgivings, in 2007 and 2008.

2009: By this point, my sister and her husband had split up, and we had Thanksgiving dinner at her apartment in South River, a 10-minute drive from the East Brunswick house.

Despite going on to win the State Championship the following weekend, the EB football team lost to Old Bridge on Thanksgiving. (That also happened in 2004.) And I haven't been to an EB-OB "Battle of Route 18" since. That would have been unthinkable to me not that long before, no matter how bad the game turned out to be.

2010: My sister found a new boyfriend, whom she later married, and he invited us to Thanksgiving dinner at his mother's house in Rochelle Park, North Jersey. It was nice.

It was also my 1st online Thanksgiving, where I used Twitter to find out that, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, the Big Green had actually beaten the Purple Bastards! (It hasn't happened since.)

2011 to 2013: Thanksgiving dinner was again held at my sister's apartment.

2014: Dad died at the start of Summer, and the 2nd husband walked out at the end of it. My sister wasn't in the mood to put together a dinner for the remaining family, especially since she'd just bought her first house, and she didn't think the house was ready for a big meal. (By Christmas, she'd decided that it was.) But she was more determined than ever that the remainder of the family be together for the holiday.

A couple with 4 kids that she'd met at the local swim club, who lived a couple of blocks from Mom and me, was spending the 4-day weekend at Cape May, at the southern tip of New Jersey, and suggested that we do the same. And so, for the 1st time, we went away for Thanksgiving.

It was a great idea. I was able to relax for the first time since Dad died. Mom had her first good time since it happened as well -- and treated me like an adult. The girls loved it. We decided to make it a tradition.

2015: My sister had reconnected with an old boyfriend, he'd moved in with his daughter, and another baby was on the way, and she didn't feel like going on a trip. So, with help, the dinner was at her house.

2016: With the new baby now 6 months old, we were ready to go away again. But the hotel we stayed at in 2014 was dilly-dallying on its Thanksgiving setup, so my sister decided on someplace else. In Ocean City. The one on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, not the one in South Jersey.

I love Ocean City, New Jersey. I'd been to Ocean City, Maryland once before. I probably shouldn't have gone at that time: I hadn't slept well, I didn't have enough money, and it was really hot, and I wasn't taken with the place. It's 25 miles south of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, which I like very much, but it seemed more like Atlantic City, except tackier -- and redneckier. (It's not only south of the Mason-Dixon Line -- a big chunk of South Jersey also is -- it's further south than Washington, D.C.) Hopefully, I got the wrong impression last time, and it'll be okay this time.

And, oh yeah: Go, Bears, go! We are E.B.! Beat Old Bridge!

This coming Wednesday night, the New York Knicks will visit Minneapolis, to play the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Brooklyn Nets will do so on January 28.

Before You Go. The game will be played indoors, but you'll only be indoors for 4 hours at most. This is Minnesota, and November 30 is out late Autumn, and January 28 is our mid-Winter. Minnesota's Winter lasts from Halloween to Easter.

So you should consult the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press websites for their forecasts. The temperatures that they're predicting for next Wednesday aren't so bad: Mid-30s for daylight, mid-20s for night. Fortunately, they're not talking about any chance of snow.

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

Tickets. The Timberwolves averaged 14,137 fans per home game last season. That ranks 29th in the NBA, ahead of only the Denver Nuggets. It's about 73 percent of capacity, ahead of only the Philadelphia 76ers. This has led to suggestions that the Twin Cities really aren't big enough to support teams in all 4 sports, and, with the Twins having a new stadium, the Vikings about to get one, and no one willing to take the NHL away from Minnesota a 2nd time, the T-Wolves are the likeliest to go.

At any rate, most likely, you'll be able to show up 5 minutes before the scheduled tipoff, and get any seat you can afford. In the lower level, the 100 sections, T-Wolves tickets between the baskets can be had for as low as $289, and behind them at $81. In the upper level, the 200 sections, they go $50 between and $31 behind.

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). Knowing this, your first reaction is going to be to fly out there.

If you order early, you could get a round-trip flight from Newark to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for under $700, but your flight will probably not be nonstop. More likely, you'll have to pay at least $800. 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 $480 round-trip, although it can be dropped to $364 with advanced purchase. The Greyhound terminal is at 950 Hawthorne Avenue, at 9th Street North, just 3 blocks from Nicollet Mall, 2 from the Target Center.

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 $429 round-trip. And you'd probably have to spent not one but two nights in a hotel.

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 242D being your exit for downtown St. Paul, 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 in 1961), the NFL Vikings (also 1961), the NHL Wild (2000) and the departed NHL North Stars (1967-1993) and the WHA Fighting Saints (1972-1977), the Timberwolves (1989) are called "Minnesota," because they didn't want to slight either one of the "Twin Cities." The previous NBA team, the Minneapolis Lakers (1947-1960), took the name of their host city.

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 3.8 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. 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. In St. Paul, Wabasha Street separates East and West, and while there's no North and South, address numbers rise as you get further north of the River.

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. Separated from Target Field by I-394 and 2nd Avenue, the Target Center -- the discount store chain is headquartered in Minneapolis -- has been home to the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves since the 1990-91 season, their 2nd.

The official address is 600 First Avenue North, and the arena is also bounded by 6th and 7th Streets and Rod Carew Drive, downtown. The Blue and Green Lines on the light rail stop at Warehouse Hennepin Avenue station. From there, it's a 2-block walk to the arena down 5th Street and 1st Avenue. If you drive in, parking can be had for as little as $5.00.

The court is laid out northeast-to-southwest. 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. The T-Wolves, however, 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.
Food. Considering that Minnesota is Big Ten Country, you would expect their basketball arena to have lots of good food, in particular that Midwest staple, the sausage. They don't disappoint. Delaware North runs the concessions.

District Dogs (hot dogs) and Corner Creamery stands are at each corner of the lower level of the arena. District Dogs can be found in the upper level at Sections 205, 209, 229, 233 and 237; Corner Creamery, at 209 and 233.

Big Red's BBQ is at 104, Eastside Grill at 109 and 211, Hoops & Hops (mostly bratwurst & beer) at 111, State Fare at 113, Loco Lobos (Mexican food) at 126, 133 and 213, Westside Grill at 129 and 231, Lotsa Mozza Pizza at 131, Full Court Press at 136, and Southside Grill at 225. (There is no Northside Grill.)

Team History Displays. As 1 of the NBA's 4 newest teams, you would expect the T-Wolves to not have many championship banners. There is 1, for the 2004 Midwest Division title. And the only photo of it I could find on the Internet came with photos of the WNBA banners won by the Lynx: The league titles of 2011, '13 and '15, and the conference title of 2012.
Nor could I find a picture of their retired number banner. They only have 1 of those, too, the Number 2 of forward Malik Sealy, whom some of you will remember from playing in New York, for Tolentine High School in The Bronx and St. John's University in Queens. He played for the Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers and Detroit Pistons, and was in his 1st season with the T-Wolves -- where Kevin Garnett was already wearing the Number 21 Sealy had worn throughout his career, so he switched to 2 -- when he was killed at age 30 by a drunk driver.
Presumably, when he retires as a player, Garnett's 21 will also go up in the rafters. It would also not surprise me to see a tribute of some kind to the late Flip Saunders, still the only coach to guide them into the Playoffs.

No player who has ever played for the T-Wolves has yet been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, although Kevin McHale was already in it for what he did as a Boston Celtics player while he was their head coach and general manager. Nor did they have anyone chosen for the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players in 1996. Katie Smith of the Lynx was chosen for the WNBA's 15th Anniversary 15 Greatest Players in 2012.

Stuff. The Timberwolves and Lynx Pro Shop is on the Skyway Level of the Target Center. You can find the usual team stuff there.

As a relatively new teams (among NBA teams, only the Toronto Raptors, the Memphis Grizzlies and the Charlotte Bobcats/new Hornets were founded more recently), there aren't many books about the Timberwolves. Pete Birle wrote their entry in the NBA's On the Hardwood series in 2013 and Nate LeBoutillier their entry in The NBA: A History of Hoops in 2015. No titles, no luck when it comes to team videos: Anything you could find on Garnett would probably focus on his Celtics days.

During the Game. Because of their Midwest/Heartland image, Timberwolves like a “family atmosphere.” Therefore, while they don’t like the Chicago Bulls or the Milwaukee Bucks (regional rivals) or the Los Angeles Lakers (the former Minneapolis team, stolen from them), they don't have any special animus for the Knicks or the Nets.

The T-Wolves hold auditions to sing the National Anthem, as opposed to having a regular singer. A group called Power Surge recorded a theme song for them, "Roll With It" (not to be confused with the Steve Winwood song of the same title). Their mascot is Crunch the Wolf. He was named NBA Mascot of the Year in 2012. He wears Number 00 and, like the Phoenix Gorilla and some other NBA mascosts, performs stunt dunks.
After the Game. Minneapolis and St. Paul's are fairly safe as cities go. As long as you don't go out of your way to antagonize anybody, you should be all right as you make your way out of the arena and back to your car, or to your hotel.

If you're looking for a postgame meal, or just a pint, Hubert's Sports Bar & Grill, named for Minnesota's most famous politician, is in the arena. O'Donovan's Irish Pub, in Minneapolis at 700 1st Avenue North at 7th St., right across from the arena, and is said to cater to football Giants fans. Kieran's Irish Pub is at 85 N. 6th Street, a block from the arena. Cowboy Jack's is at 126 N. 5th Street, and many others are within a 2-block walk. Jet fans are said to go to the Lyndale Tap House, at 2937 Lyndale Avenue South, but that's 2 1/2 miles southwest of downtown Minneapolis. Number 4 bus.

Another restaurant that may be of interest to New York baseball fans is Charley's Grill, at 225 3rd Avenue South at 2nd Street.  It was popular among visiting players from other American Association cities when they came to play the Minneapolis Millers and the St. Paul Saints. Legend has it that, when the Yankees gathered for spring training in 1961, they were trying to figure out which restaurants in the new American League cities were good, and someone who'd recently played for the Denver Bears mentioned Charley's. But Yogi Berra, who'd gone there when the Yanks' top farm team was the Kansas City Blues, said, "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." Well, someone must still be going there, because it's still open.

(That Yogi said the line is almost certainly true, but the restaurant in question was almost certainly Ruggiero's, a place in his native St. Louis at which he and his neighbor Joe Garagiola waited tables.)

If you visit Minnesota during the European soccer season, as we are now in, Nomad World Pub has been voted the State's best "football pub." 501 Cedar Avenue, in West Bank, about a mile and a half east of downtown. Bus 22 from Nicollet Mall. Brit's Pub is at 1110 Nicollet Mall, and may also be to your liking.

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.

* Site of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome and U.S. Bank Stadium. 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 Timberwolves in their 1st season, 1989-90 -- they got over 46,000 fans in there for a game -- 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 19, 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. 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 first managing job was with the Twins, at the Met in 1969.)

U.S. Bank Stadium is now open and hosting Vikings games. It will host Super Bowl LII in February 2018, and the 2019 NCAA Final Four. 900 South 5th Street at Centennial (Kirby Puckett) Place. Metrodome station on Light Rail.

* 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 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.

* 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. Home to the NHL's Wild since it opened in 2000, it is also 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 St. Paul Civic Center, which stood on the same site from 1973 to 1998.

That arena hosted 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."

"The X" hosted the 2008 Republican Convention that nominated John McCain for President and Sarah Palin for Vice President. She probably loved the hockey part, but, unlike Mary Richards, she can only turn on a small part of the world with her smile, and she's not gonna make it after all. (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.)

* University of Minnesota. Coming from downtown, you would take the Green Line light rail to Stadium Village stop to reach the UM campus. TCF Bank Stadium, home of the Golden Gophers and, for the last 2 seasons, the Vikings is at 420 SE 23rd Avenue.

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.

Before moving in for the 2014 and '15 seasons, the Vikings played a home game there in 2010, following a 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 this coming February 21, it will play host to the Wild against the Chicago Blackhawks. It hosted a match between soccer teams Manchester City of England and Olympiacos of Athens, Greece.

Across Oak Street from the open west end of the stadium are the basketball and hockey venues. Williams Arena opened in 1928, and has hosted UM basketball ever since, UM hockey from then until 1993, and the 1951 NCAA Final Four (Kentucky over Kansas State). Mariucci Arena opened in 1993, and has hosted UM hockey ever since. Memorial Stadium was across University Avenue from Williams Arena. The UM alumni center and swimming venue were built on the site.

* 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 than their current names.)
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.

Elvis sang there early in his career, on May 13, 1956, as his evening show after his matinee in St. Paul. 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.


* Minneapolis Armory. Built in 1936 for the Minnesota National Guard, the Lakers used it as their home court part-time throughout their Minneapolis tenure, and full-time in their final season in Minneapolis, 1959-60. 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.
It was later the video-filming site for Minneapolis native Prince's "1999" and Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." It's been kept standing as a parking lot. 500 6th Street, downtown.

* 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 2018 season. Opening in time for that season (they hope) will be a new 20,000-seat, soccer-specific stadium, in St. Paul, at about 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 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 in his Ralph Kramden bus driver's uniform outside Port Authority, Henry Winkler (a statue known as The Bronze Fonz) in Milwaukee, Bob Newhart in Chicago, Andy Griffith and Ron Howard with their fishing poles in Raleigh, Elizabeth Montgomery in Salem, Massachusetts and Elvis in Honolulu. However, the show had no location shots in Minneapolis, aside from the iconic opening montage.

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, within the fictional universe of the show, 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 at Iowa. 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 new 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!”

From what I understand, Minneapolis and St. Paul are still terrific cities, including for sports. A Knicks or Nets fan should definitely take in a game against the Timberwolves there.

My mother thinks football on Thanksgiving is wrong, because players could get hurt, and have to spend the rest of the holiday in the hospital.

She has a point. Look at what the game is doing to its players -- without whom, there is no game.

*

It occurred to me that one of the differences between New York and Boston is how each city treats its marathon race.

When Boston holds its marathon, it has to reschedule a Red Sox game, so the traffic for it doesn't affect the marathon. New York holds its marathon after the World Series, so that it can never clash with a baseball game.

Boston built a statue of one of its Marathon winners. In New York, the Marathon is always on a Sunday in Autumn, and we forget who won it within hours, as we move on to watching the Giants win and the Jets lose.

A bombing at the Boston Marathon killed 3 people, and the next year's marathon became a cause célèbre. Which is understandable. But a hurricane kills over 100 people in the New York Tri-State Area alone, and the marathon is canceled, and 4 years later, we have to be reminded that this effect of the hurricane even happened.

*

Bob Gain died last week, at the age of 87. He was a member of the only University of Kentucky football team to win the Southeastern Conference title outright, in 1950, the 1st SEC title won as a head coach by Paul "Bear" Bryant, before moving on to Alabama. Kentucky would also win a share of the SEC title in 1976.

Gain was a defensive tackle, playing the 1951 season with the Ottawa Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League, and then the next 13 seasons with the Cleveland Browns, reaching the NFL Championship Game in 1952, '53, '54, '55, '57 and '64, winning it in 1954, 1955 and 1964.

This is a test. It's a test to see if I can write the most disgusting things about teams that I hate write objectively, with the help of crossing things out.

Tomorrow morning, Thursday, November 24, Thanksgiving Day, at Vince Lombardi Field in Old Bridge, New Jersey, "The Battle of Route 18" will be played, the 23rd annual Thanksgiving game, and the 56th game overall, between my Alma Mater, East Brunswick High School, and their arch-rivals, The Scum the school now known as Old Bridge High School.

This is a rivalry between the most angelic of good and the most despicable of evil a pair of teams, and a pair of towns, that really don't like each other, but it's hardly the nastiest high school football rivalry in the State of New Jersey. But it would be, if my school cared enough to realize what a bunch of disgusting slimeballs these guys really are.

Before You Go. The temperature is expected to be in the high 40s or low 50s during the game. It will be cloudy, but no rain is predicted.

Same time zone. No passport or change of money required.

Tickets. $5.00 for adults. The stadium seats about 4,000 people. They will not sell out. After all, it's not the view that keeps people away, it's the smell.

Getting There. It's 38 miles from Midtown Manhattan to Carl Sandburg Middle School. (Yes, a middle school. I'll explain shortly.) A plane is not necessary. No train service there. (New Jersey Transit's North Jersey Coast Line does go through the Township of Old Bridge, but in the Laurence Harbor section on Raritan Bay, not near the school.) And if there was train service there, bandits would probably rob it.

New Jersey Transit does offer bus service, although, being a holiday, they offer less than usual. Bus 139, with a destination sign saying, "Lakewood," leaves from Gate 325, upstairs at the North Wing of Port Authority Bus Terminal. If you take the 9:00 bus, it will drop you off at Throckmorton Lane at 9:46. (Or so they say.) Turn left, cross the overpass over Route 9, and Throckmorton Lane becomes Ticetown Road. Then turn left into the school. You should arrive right before the 10:00 kickoff. I hope you brought a gas mask.

If you're driving, take the New Jersey Turnpike South to Exit 11, to the Garden State Parkway. Take the Parkway South to Exit 123, for U.S. Route 9 South. Take 9 to County Route 516 East. Just past the interchange for 9 & 516, on your right, is the ramp for the school. Be advised that this is a one-way street, and you will not be able to exit this way.

They really don't have much parking, and you may end up parking next to the gym, a 5-minute walk from the stadium. Also, be aware of kids demanding 5 bucks to "watch your car." If you do it right, it should take you about 50 minutes.

Once In the Town. Separated from South Amboy in 1869 because South Amboy couldn't stand them anymore, the town was originally Madison Township, named for President James Madison, as the town to the west was named for President James Monroe. But objections from the Madison family confusion with Madison Borough in Morris County resulted. So a new name was selected in 1975.

Not any of the localities actually in the town, such as Browntown, Sayre Woods, Cheesequake, Laurence Harbor, or the one that would have been the easiest to use, Madison Park. They chose Old Bridge -- which was an adjoining part of East Brunswick. To this day, the oldest established part of East Brunswick, the southeastern corner, is "The Old Bridge Historic District."In other words, they stole it. I was not happy about that as a 6-year-old boy, and I'm not happy about it now.

Regardless, if you head south on New Jersey Route 18 from E.B. to O.B., you can see a rusty old sign that says, "Madison Jaycees Welcomes You," possibly the last remaining reminder of the old name. Maybe the school color should have been rust, because it would match lots of things in the town.

Like E.B., it experienced massive growth from 1950 to 1970, necessitating the building of Madison Township High School in 1961 and then Cedar Ridge High School in 1968. And yet, when the name of the town was changed in 1975, instead of renaming MTHS "Old Bridge High School," they renamed it "Madison Central High School." True, it was roughly in the town's geographic center, but it was no longer in a town named Madison. Regardless, it would still be called "Madison" for short.

Madison/Old Bridge would eventually build middle schools named for polio conqueror Jonas Salk and Carl Sandburg, and elementary schools named for astronauts. Except for Gus Grissom, the "Mercury 7" astronaut killed in the Apollo 1 fire, all of these men, including Salk and Sandburg, were still alive when the schools named for them were opened. (Now, only Gemini 4 and Apollo 9 astronaut James McDivitt is still alive.) Maybe all those guys became astronauts so they could get as far away from Madison/Old Bridge as possible.

In the early 1990s, enrollment began to go down, so the 2 high schools were reconsolidated into 1. Madison Central had been the Spartans, navy blue and sky blue. Cedar Ridge had been the Cougars, green and gold. When the 1994-95 schoolyear began, the students had chosen the mascot Knights and the colors purple and black for the new Old Bridge High School.

At first, though, they had the idiotic unwieldy experiment of the freshmen and sophomores attending the old Madison Central, as OBHS West Campus, and the juniors and seniors the old Cedar Ridge, as OBHS East Campus. Finally, they changed it up: The old Cedar Ridge and the adjoining Sandburg Middle School were redesignated Old Bridge High School, and what was Madison Central was given the Sandburg Middle School label.

Which led to the current status of a high school football team playing its home games at a middle school. There are several schools in New Jersey that do this, because the current middle/junior high school is the old high school, and the new high school was built elsewhere in town. But I know of 2 schools in the State that did it the other way around, building the new high school adjacent to the established stadium: Belleville in Essex County and Perth Amboy in Middlesex County.

At any rate, today, Old Bridge is home to about 67,000 people, making it about half again as large as East Brunswick. It's more conservative town than most of Middlesex County, which generally votes Democratic. They even had a Republican Mayor named George Bush. Before that, he was President of the Township Council, and so there's a plaque in the Municipal Complex with "President George Bush" on it, from before either of the George Bushes you know was President of the United States. Despite this, Democrat Frank Pallone remains the Congressman for the 6th District, which includes Old Bridge.

Old Bridge is served by New Jersey Transit bus lines 67 and 139, down U.S. Route 9; 138, a rush-hour-only line down N.J. Route 18; and 818, down County Route 516. A 1-zone bus ride is $1.60, and a 2-zone ride is $2.55.

Going In. The official address of Old Bridge High School is 4209 Route 516, although, oddly enough, the mailing address is Matawan, an adjoining town in Monmouth County. I'm sure the people Matawan are thrilled with that. But the stadium is at the former Madison Central, now Carl Sandburg Middle School, with the address being 3439 County Route 516, which does use the Old Bridge postal address. It's almost directly across Route 516 from the Municipal Complex. The schools are 2 miles apart.

The odd thing is that Cedar Ridge never had its own football stadium, and played every "home game" in its 25-season history of varsity football at the home of its greatest rival. Perhaps because of this "groundsharing," Vince Lombardi Field was the 2nd football stadium in Middlesex County to have lights, enabling one school to play on Friday night and the other on Saturday afternoon, just in case one school had to postpone a game until the other school's home weekend.
(Memorial Stadium in New Brunswick, which the now-defunct St. Peter's shared, was the 1st. Now, most high schools in Middlesex County have lights at their field. South River is a notable exception.)

They named the stadium Vince Lombardi Field after the legendary football coach died in 1970. Although his wife was from Red Bank, and he coached at the now-defunct St. Cecilia's High School in Kearny, he had no connection to Old Bridge. They just wanted to honor the most popular man in the history of the NFL. If he ever spent any time in the town, he probably would have said, "What the hell's goin'on out here?"
The field is artificial, and is aligned north-to-south. Route 9 runs behind the west stand, which is the visitors' stand. Prior to a reconstruction a few years ago, which involved leveling the entire shit pit  replacing the wooden stands with aluminum bleachers and replacing the natural grass field with the artificial one, it was the other way around, with the home fans on the west stand. But the locker room was behind the east stand, and the players got tired of having to go past the visiting fans who, naturally, would have hated their guts, if they had any guts to hate tended not to like them.

The field hosts some of OBHS' soccer and field hockey games, and their track meets. The high school down 516 hosts their gym sports like basketball and wrestling, their baseball and softball games, their tennis matches, and some soccer and field hockey games.

Food. The concession stand is at the south end of the west stand. It's standard high school football game fare. Nothing special like Woodbridge High School's popcorn or the great nachos available at either of the Edison Township schools, Edison and J.P. Stevens. But also nothing particularly bad, like the foul hot dogs at Sayreville.

Team History Displays. There aren't any. You'd have to walk into the actual high school and look at the trophies in the cases and the banners in the gym.

East Brunswick went 17-14-2 against Madison Township/Madison Central from 1963 to 1993, and 16-3 against Cedar Ridge from 1969 to 1993. But they're just 3-19 on Thanksgiving Day against the merged Old Bridge High School. If you count Madison and Old Bridge as a single school, Old Bridge leads the series 33-20-2. If you count all games between East Brunswick and schools from Old Bridge, then the series is tied, 36-36-2.

Cedar Ridge beat Madison on a last-minute field goal to complete an undefeated Conference and State Championship season in 1973 -- their only title. That season included their 1st-ever win over EB, after dropping the 1st 4, including the biggest blowout win in EB history, 64-0 in 1969 in only the 5th game CRHS ever played. Cedar Ridge also beat EB in 1975, and that year, the year of the Township's name change from Madison to Old Bridge, was the only season in which both schools beat EB. 1973 and 1975 were also the only years in which Cedar Ridge beat Madison on Thanksgiving. Only 1 other time did Cedar Ridge beat EB, in a rain-soaked game in 1981.

Madison won Central Jersey Group IV Championships in 1987 and 1988, blowing EB out in the Semifinals both times. They do enjoy running up the score at that fucking school.

Stuff. There is a souvenir stand, but it's not much. No books. No videos.

During the Game. Most likely, your safety will not be an issue. The Old Bridge fans will not attack you. Maybe they would, if they vastly outnumbered you, but if the numbers are even close to being even, they will run like the pathetic cowards that they are. The situation is not unlike that of an English hooligan firm, except that the Old Bridge fans barely speak any determinable language, let alone English.

The Old Bridge Marching Knights are a pathetic excuse for a musical aggregation, even by high school standards, certainly not the equal of EB's Marching Bears will play the National Anthem before the game.
They once had a guy in a suit of purple armor (not sure what it was made of, but not the same metal as actual knights wore) as a mascot. Maybe they still do, but I can't find a picture of it online. Maybe they didn't want to scare anyone with its hideousness.

After the Game. If you drove in, you'll have to exit through the back way, regardless of whether you came in through the front or the back entrance. Just follow the directions of the cops, and you won't end up stuck in that godawful place for the rest of your life in Matawan. They'll lead you to turn right on Throckmorton Lane, and you'll be able to turn onto Route 9 North right after that, and head wherever you want to go.

There are a number of places to eat nearby, but, of course, this is Old Bridge, and you'll want to get the hell out of there as fast as you possibly can Thanksgiving Day, and you're preparing for the big meal later today.

Sidelights. There's not exactly any tourist attractions in Old Bridge. You'll notice that I didn't cros that out. That's because it's not smack talk, it's the truth.

There are some famous people from Old Bridge. Singer and actress Colleen "Vitamin C" Fitzpatrick, Clerks actor Brian O'Halloran and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Junot Diaz are all 1987 graduates of Cedar Ridge. Actor Ken Leung is a 1988 graduate of Madison Central. Jodi Lyn O'Keefe of The Vampire Diaries is a 1996 graduate of OBHS. And Laurie Hernandez, who was part of the U.S. women's gymnastics team that won the all-around Gold Medal at the recent Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is an OBHS student.

Then there's the soccer-playing brothers, R.J. Allen of New York City FC and Brandon Allen of the New York Red Bulls. But they went to St. Joseph's High School in Metuchen, not to OBHS. (I have separate issues with that school, which don't matter here.) But, as far as I can tell, no Madison, Cedar Ridge or Old Bridge athlete has ever made the major leagues in any sport.

There are 2 Madison Central High Schools in America today: One in Kentucky, the other in Mississippi. There are 3 Cedar Ridge High Schools: In Arkansas, North Carolina and Texas. But the combined school is the only one in the country named Old Bridge.

*

Go, Bears, Go! Go Big Green! Bob Molarz' Green-White Army! Beat the Purple Bastards! Beat The Scum! And remember: You can't spell "slob" without "OB"!

Oh, did I forget to cross that out? No, I did not forget!

Good morning, and Happy Thanksgiving from Ocean City, Maryland. I'm posting from 205 miles from home base. That's not a personal best: On August 22, 2009, I blogged from Cambridge, Massachusetts, 245 miles away. I would very much like to break that record. Maybe my finances will soon turn around and make that possible. (When I did it from Cape May, New Jersey, 2 Thanksgivings ago, that was 130 miles.)

Someone told me that Royal Farms, which owns the naming rights to the old Baltimore Civic Center arena, was the Chesapeake region's answer to Wawa. Well, this morning, I went there, and bought a breakfast sandwich and a lemonade, and walked over to the beach to eat it.

I was quickly eyes by a flock of seagulls. Not "A Flock of Seagulls," the early 1980s new wave band from Liverpool with the stupid hair. (At least their leader has a name that caught my attention: Mike Score.) Actual seagulls. I took the picture above, and, as you can see, they looked ready to pounce on me and my breakfast. And I've been told that seagulls are mean.

"How mean are they?" Well, on Labor Day 2004, I saw a pigeon and a seagull have a tug-o-war with a slice of pizza on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City. (Shades of New York's recent Subway pizza rat.) And the pigeon won. The city bird beat the suburban bird. So, not that mean.

I glared at them and said, "Forget it, birds, this city boy ain't givin' you squat."

They didn't rush me, but neither did they back down. Maybe, to drive home the point that I'm a suburban boy but that "I identify as a city boy" (though neither born nor raised in South Detroit), I should have called them "boids."

Anyway, I enjoyed my Thanksgiving beach sunrise, and took my 1st-ever bite of that Middle Atlantic States (but not really New Jersey) pedestrian delicacy (pedelicacy?), scrapple.

You know what? Not so good. The croissant, the egg and the cheese were okay. The "meat," no.

Royal Farms works with Cloverland Dairy, which is headquartered in Baltimore, a few blocks from the site of Memorial Stadium. So their drinks are good. Their lemonade is nearly a match for Wawa's.

But, no, Royal Farms is not the Chesapeake region's version of Wawa. More like their version of 7-Eleven. Not just in level of quality, but they don't have the specialty sandwiches, bowls or drinks. At least their ice cream is cheaper -- but that could be a regional difference (as in, we're further from New York), rather than a brand difference. I think the person who told me they were equivalent was thinking of the fact that, like many Wawas but unlike every 7-Eleven I've ever seen, Royal Farms stores (including the one at 8307 Coastal Highway in Ocean City), has a gas station.

Anyway, after my wonderful lunch yesterday at the British Chip Shop in Haddonfield, New Jersey, and my spectacular dinner last night at Bull On the Beach in Ocean City (do yourself a favor: Go to both -- but not in the same day, you will risk a heart attack), my next meal was a big disappointment.

Happy Thanksgiving, may your Alma Mater win (if they play today, or this weekend), and may your Thanksgiving dinner (and mine) be better than my breakfast!

This coming Thursday, the New Jersey Devils face the Chicago Blackhawks, at the United Center in Chicago.

Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler,
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:

They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.

And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.

And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.

And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:

Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.

Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;

Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,

Bareheaded, shoveling, wrecking, planning, building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.
And under his ribs the heart of the people, laughing!

Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.
-- Carl Sandburg, 1916.

Sandburg knew. He was right then. He is still right now. And this legendary poem "Chicago" fits the Blackhawks, one of the National Hockey League's traditional "roughhouse" teams.

Before You Go. Chicago weather can be unpredictable. This game being played in mid-November, cold weather can be expected. However, the arena is 3 miles inland from Lake Michigan, so the local wind, a.k.a. The Hawk (not named for the hockey team), which tends to produce "Bear Weather," won't be that much of a problem while you're right outside.

The Chicago Tribune is predicting temperatures to be in the low 40s during daylight, and the low 30s at night. They are not, however, predicting rain or snow. The Chicago Sun-Times backs up its rivals' temperature predictions.

Wait until you cross into Illinois to change your clocks. Indiana used to be 1 of 2 States, Arizona being the other, where Daylight Savings Time was an issue; however, since 2006 -- 4 years after a West Wing episode lampooned this -- the State has used it throughout. Once you cross into Illinois, you'll be moving from Eastern to Central Daylight Time.

Tickets. Like their co-tenants at the United Center, the Bulls, the Blackhawks led their league in per-game attendance last season: 21,826. Even now that the Cubs have finally won a World Series, the Hawks are the toughest ticket in town. Which, as you might guess, makes them expensive, more expensive than Bulls tickets. (Think of how silly that would have sounded in 1998, or even in 2009.)

Seats in the lower level, the 100 sections, are $215 between the goals and $155 behind them. In the club level, the 200 sections, they're $150 and $130. In the upper level, the 300 sections, they're $77 and $55. Standing-room tickets are $45.

I would, however, recommend avoiding Sections 321 to 330 in the upper deck, behind the west goal, because that's the Blackhawk equivalent of the 400 level, the old "Blue Seats," at Madison Square Garden.

Getting There. Chicago is 789 land miles from New York. Knowing this, your first reaction is going to be to fly out there.

Unlike some other Midwestern cities, this is a good idea if you can afford it. If you buy tickets online, and you're willing to fly out of LaGuardia, you can get them for under $200 -- nonstop and round-trip. If you'd prefer to use Newark, they'll cost twice as much, but $400 or so is still a huge bargain.

O'Hare International Airport (named for Lt. Cmdr. Edward "Butch" O'Hare, the U.S. Navy's 1st flying ace, who was nevertheless shot down over the Pacific in World War II), at the northwestern edge of the city, is United Airlines' headquarters, so nearly every flight they have from the New York area’s airports to there is nonstop, so it’ll be 3 hours, tarmac to tarmac, and about 2 hours going back.

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Blue Line train will take you from O'Hare to the downtown elevated (or "L") tracks that run in "The Loop" (the borders of which are Randolph, Wells, Van Buren and Wabash Streets) in 45 minutes. From Midway Airport, the Orange Line train can get you to the Loop. Both should take about 45 minutes.

Bus? Greyhound's run between the 2 cities, launched 5 times per day, is relatively easy, but long, averaging about 18 hours, and is $114 round-trip -- but can drop to as low as $94 on Advanced Purchase. Only 1 of the 5 runs goes straight there without requiring you to change buses: The one leaving Port Authority Bus Terminal at 10:15 PM (Eastern) and arriving at Chicago at 2:30 PM (Central). This includes half-hour rest stops at Milesburg, Pennsylvania and Elkhart, Indiana, and an hour-and-a-half stopover in Cleveland.

The station is at 630 W. Harrison Street at Des Plaines Street. (If you’ve seen one of my favorite movies, Midnight Run, this is a new station, not the one seen in that 1988 film.) The closest CTA stop is Clinton on the Blue Line, around the corner, underneath the elevated Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway.

Train? Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited (formerly known as the Twentieth Century Limited when the old New York Central Railroad ran it from Grand Central Terminal to Chicago's LaSalle Street Station) leaves New York's Penn Station at 3:40 every afternoon, and arrives at Union Station at 225 South Canal Street at Adams Street in Chicago at 9:45 every morning. It leaves Chicago at 9:30 every evening, and returns to New York at 6:23 the following night.
It's $170 round-trip, very cheap per mile by Amtrak standards. The closest CTA stop is Quincy/Wells, in the Loop, but that’s 6 blocks away – counting the Chicago River as a block; Union Station is, literally, out of the Loop.
If you do decide to walk from Union Station to the Loop, don't look up at the big black thing you pass. That's the Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower, which, until the new World Trade Center was topped off, was the tallest building in North America, which it had officially been since it opened in 1974, surpassing the old WTC. If there's one thing being in New York should have taught you, it’s this: "Don't look up at the tall buildings, or you'll look like a tourist."
But since you've come all this way, it makes sense to get a hotel, so take a cab from Union Station or Greyhound to the hotel – unless you’re flying in, in which case you can take the CTA train to within a block of a good hotel. There are also hotels near the airports.

If you decide to drive, it’s far enough that it will help to get someone to go with you and split the duties, and to trade off driving and sleeping. The directions are rather simple, down to (quite literally) the last mile. You'll need to get into New Jersey, and take Interstate 80 West. You'll be on I-80 for the vast majority of the trip, through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. In Ohio, in the western suburbs of Cleveland, I-80 will merge with Interstate 90. From this point onward, you won’t need to think about I-80 until you head home; I-90 is now the key, and will take you right past Union Station the Loop.

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 5 hours and 15 minutes in Pennsylvania, 4 hours in Ohio, 2 hours and 30 minutes in Indiana, and half an hour in Illinois before you reach the exit for your hotel. That’s 13 hours and 45 minutes. Counting rest stops, preferably halfway through Pennsylvania and just after you enter both Ohio and Indiana, and accounting for traffic in both New York and Chicago, it should be no more than 18 hours, which would save you time on both Greyhound and Amtrak, if not on flying.

Once In the City. A derivation of a Native American name, "Chikagu" was translated as "Place of the onion," as there were onion fields there before there was a white settlement. Some have suggested that the translation is a little off, that it should be "Place of the skunk." Others have said, either way, it means "Place of the big stink."

Founded in 1831, so by Northeastern standards it's a young city, Chicago's long-ago nickname of "the Second City" is no longer true, as its population has dropped, and Los Angeles' has risen, to the point where L.A. has passed it, and Chicago is now the 3rd-largest city in America. But at 2.7 million within the city limits, and 9.5 million in the metropolitan area, it's still a huge city -- and if you divide the Los Angeles market equally between the Kings and the Ducks, that makes Chicago the largest market in the NHL. If you count Anaheim separately, boosting the Kings' share, then Chicago falls to 2nd lace.

The "Loop" is the connected part of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)'s elevated railway (sometimes written as "El" or "L") downtown: Over Wells Street on the west, Van Buren Street on the south, Wabash Street on the east and State Street on the north. Inside the Loop, the east-west streets are Lake, Randolph, Washington, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Jackson and Van Buren; the north-south streets are Wells, LaSalle (Chicago's "Wall Street"), Clark, Dearborn, State and Wabash.

The city's street-address centerpoint is in the Loop, at State & Madison Streets. Madison separates North from South, while State separates East from West. The street grid is laid out so that every 800 on the house numbers is roughly 1 mile. As the United Center is at 1901 West Madison Street, and on the 3600 block of North Sheffield Avenue, now you know it's on the main east-west axis, and a little more than 2 miles west of State Street and the center of the Loop.

The CTA's rapid-rail system is both underground (subway) and above-ground (elevated), although the El is better-known, standing as a Chicago icon alongside the Sears Tower, Wrigley Field, Michael Jordan, deep-dish pizza, and less savory things like municipal corruption, Mrs. O'Leary's cow and Al Capone. The single-ride fare is $2.25, a 1-day pass is $10, a 3-day pass is $20, and a 7-day pass is $28.
(By the way, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was more likely the result of Mr. O'Leary hosting a poker game in his barn, in which he, or one of his friends, dropped cigar ash, rather than Mrs. O'Leary's cow, knocking a lantern, onto some hay.)

Illinois' State sales tax is 6.25 percent, but in the City of Chicago it's 9.25 percent -- higher than New York's. So don't be shocked when you see prices: Like New York, Boston and Washington, Chicago is an expensive city.

Chicago's legendary crime problem has evolved: It's no longer Al Capone-style gangs running things, it's poor kids with guns. So whatever precautions you take when you're in New York, take them in Chicago as well.

Going In. From 1929 to 1994, the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks played at Chicago Stadium, "the Madhouse on Madison," at 1800 W. Madison Street at Wood Street. The NBA’s Bulls played there from 1967 to 1994.
The United Center opened across the street at 1901 W. Madison at Honore Street. The public transportation situation is a little tricky. You can take the CTA Blue Line to Illinois Medical District Station, and then walk 2 blocks up Ogden Avenue and 5 blocks up Wood Street. Or you can take the Green Line or the Pink Line (no joke: The CTA acutally does have a Pink Line) to Ashland, walk 4 blocks down Ashland Avenue, and then walk 3 blocks down Madison Street. The best way is to take the Number 20 bus, which goes right down Madison.
If you drive in, parking can be had for as little as $5.00. What you don't want to do is park outside of official lots. In a 1992 article, in advance of Chicago Stadium hosting the NBA and Stanley Cup Finals at the same time, a writer for Sports Illustrated suggested that, due to their success having been more recent, Bulls fans were much more likely than Blackhawks fans to say, "I got a great parking space, over in those condos!" Those aren't condos: Those are West Side housing projects.

However you go in, you're least likely to enter from the west side (Damen Avenue). More likely, you'll go in from the north (Madison Street), east (Wood Street) or south (Monroe Street) side.

The United Center has hosted both the Blackhawks and the Bulls since the 1994-95 season, although, due to the 1994 NHL strike, it was January 1995 before the Hawks actually took their new ice for the 1st time. It is 1 of 10 arenas currently home to both an NBA team and an NHL team.

Each team has now won 6 World Championships, and each has won 3 since it moved in. The Bulls clinched at home in 1996 and 1997, the Blackhakws in 2015. At Chicago Stadium, the Blackhawks clinched at home in 1934 and 1938, the Bulls in 1992. The city's 1st NBA team, the Chicago Stags, played there from 1946 to 1950, and reached the 1st NBA Finals there in 1947.

The United Center has become Chicago's top venue for concerts and professional wrestling, and it hosted the 1996 Democratic Convention, at which President Bill Clinton was nominated for a 2nd term.

The rink is laid out east-to-west. The Blackhawks attack twice toward the west end.
The Democrats had their Convention at Chicago Stadium in 1932, '40 and '44, nominating Franklin D. Roosevelt each time; the Republicans also had their Convention there in '32 (renominating Hebert Hoover) and '44 (nominating Thomas E. Dewey).

Elvis Presley gave concerts at Chicago Stadium on June 16 and 17, 1972; October 14 and 15, 1976; and May 1 and 2, 1977 -- meaning he was singing while 

burglars were breaking into the Watergate complex in Washington, and while Chris Chambliss as hitting a Pennant-winning home run for the Yankees.

Food. As one of America’s greatest food cities, in Big Ten Country where tailgate parties are practically a sacrament, you would expect the Chicago sports venues to have lots of good options. The United Center lives up to this obligation.

The north side of the arena has DiGiorno pizza, a Captain Morgan/Don Julio cocktail bar, Madison Street Eats and a Ketel One cocktail bar. The east side has Chicago Dish pizza, Chicago Burger, and a Goose Island cocktail bar. The south side has Monroe Street Eats and a Smirnoff/Crown Royal cocktail bar. The west side has Leghorn Chicken, a Crown Royal Whiskey Bar and a Sweet Baby Rays barbecue stand. That's just on the 100 Level. The 300 Level has fewer theme stands, but quite a few of them, including Breakaway (in keeping with the hockey theme) and Fast Break (the basketball theme).

Team History Displays. The Blackhawks' banners are at the east, Wood Street, side of the building. The Blackhawks' banners are at the west, Damen Avenue, side.

The Blackhawks have banners for their 6 Stanley Cups: 1934, 1938, 1961, 2010, 2013 and 2015. (Their 49-year drought seemed impossible to break, but for today's kids, it seems impossible to imagine.) They have 15 banners for Division titles (from 1970 to 2013 -- they won the Cup without winning their Division last season), 2 banners for President's Trophies (1991 and 2013), and 4 banners for Conference Championships (1992, 2010, 2013 and 2015). They do no have banners for pre-1992 seasons in which they reached the Stanley Cup Finals (1931, 1944, 1962, 1965, 1971 and 1973), unless they also won the Division in those years.
The Blackhawks have retired 6 numbers for 7 players. On October 19, 1980, the Hawks retired Number 21 for the recently retired center Stan Mikita, a member of their 1961 Cup winners. Due to a feud between left wing Bobby Hull and the team-owning Wirtz family, stemming from Hull's defection to the World Hockey Association in 1972, they hadn't retired Number 9 for "the Golden Jet." Dale Tallon, an All-Star defenseman, was acquired in 1973, and was given 9, and joked, "They forgot the decimal point." (Tallon is now the general manager of the Florida Panthers.) Hull and the Wirtzes patched things up, and his 9 was retired on December 18, 1983.

On November 20, 1988, the Hawks honored their 2 greatest goaltenders, retiring 1 for Glenn Hall (1961 Cup winners) and 35 for Tony Esposito (1971 and 1973 Cup Finalists). When the last regular-season game was played at Chicago Stadium in 1994, each man was given the banner for his number that had hung in the rafters, and was invited back the next season when new banners were raised to the roof at the United Center.
On March 19, 1998, the Hawks retired 18 for center Denis Savard (1992 Cup Finalists). On November 12, 2008, they retired 3 for a pair of defensemen: Keith Magnuson (1971 and 1973 Cup Finalists, killed in a car crash in 2003) and Pierre Pilote (1961 Cup winners, on hand for the ceremony).

The Hawks dedicated statues to Hull and Mikita on the east side of the United Center in 2012. A plaque with the words "Chicago Stadium - 1929–1994 - Remember The Roar" is located behind a statue of the Blackhawks greatest players on the north side of the United Center.
In 2001, a 75th Anniversary Team was named:

* From the 1934 and 1938 Cup winners: Only right wing Harold "Mush" March. Goaltender Charlie Gardiner, and defensemen Lionel Conacher and Art Coulter, Hall-of-Famers all, were not selected. Neither were should-be-Hall-of-Famers defenseman Taffy Abel and left wings Paul Thompson and Johnny Gottselig.

* From the 1961 Cup winners: Hall, Pilote and Mikita.

* From the 1971 and 1973 Finalists, but not the '61 Cup winners: Esposito, Magnuson, and left wing Dennis Hull, Bobby's brother, a.k.a. the Silver Jet.

* From between the 1973 and 1992 Finalists: Savard; Defensemen Doug Wilson, Pat Stapleton and Bill White; and left wing Al Secord.

* From the 1992 Finalists: Goaltender Ed Belfour, defenseman Chris Chelios, center Jeremy Roenick, and right wing Steve Larmer.

* Right wing Tony Amonte was with the Hawks at the time of the 2001 vote. Obviously, no one from the 3 recent Cups was selected.

Gardiner, Hull, Hall, Mikita, Esposito, Chelios, 1938 Cup hero Earl Seibert, 1940s star brothers Max and Doug Bentley, and 1950s star Bill Gadsby were named to The Hockey News' 100 Greatest Players in 1998. Stapleton, who also played for the Chicago Cougars of the World Hockey Association, was named to the WHA's All-Time Team.

Gardiner and Conacher were named to the NHL All-Star Team that opposed the host Toronto Maple Leafs in the Ace Bailey Benefit Game in 1934. Gottselig and Marsh were named to the team that opposed a combined Canadiens and Maroons team in the Howie Morenz Memorial Game at the Montreal Forum in 1937. Gottselig and Seibert -- note the difference in the spelling, they were not related -- played for the team that faced the Canadiens in the Babe Siebert Memorial Game at the Forum in 1939.

The Bentley brothers and Bill Mosienko -- best known for his 1952 feat of scoring 3 goals in a span of 21 seconds against the Rangers -- were on the team that faced the defending Champion Leafs in the 1st official NHL All-Star Game in 1947. Esposito, Mikita, Stapleton, White and Dennis Hull were named to the Team Canada that faced the Soviets in the 1972 Summit Series. (Bobby was not: It was only open to NHL players, and he had just jumped to the WHA.) And Dave Christian and Jack O'Callahan of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team went on to play for the Blackhawks.

Stuff. The Blackhawks Store and the Bull Market -- 2 sides of a large store -- are on the lower level of the arena's west end. They may sell Indian headdresses and foam tomahawks, in keeping with the "Blackhawk" image.

Chicago is a great literary city, and while the Cubs have been seen as the city's most romantic sports, there have been some good books about the Blackhawks. George Vass wrote The Chicago Black Hawks Story in 1970. (Until 1986, when the team's original charter was found, and the name of it was found to be written as one word, "Blackhawks," it was usually written as two words, "Black Hawks." This made sense, as the team was named after Chief Black Hawk, the early 19th Century leader of Native American tribes in the Midwest.)

Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Verdi and former head coach Billy Reay collaborated on Chicago Blackhawks: Seventy-Five Years in 2000 (a little early). Lew Freedman recently published Chicago's Big Teams: Great Moments of the Cubs, Bears, White Sox, Blackhawks and Bulls.

DVD packages should be available for the 2010, 2013 and 2015 Cup wins.

During the Game. A November 19,2014 article on The Hockey News' website ranked the NHL teams' fan bases, and listed the Blackhawks' fans as 2nd: "Hawks fans are boisterous and publicly supportive. Spoiled with wins, though."

Nevertheless, they still came out 20,000 strong during that long stretch from their Conference Finals berth of 1995 until 2007, when longtime cheapskate owner William Wadsworth "Bill" Wirtz died and his son William Rockwell "Rocky" Wirtz took over and rebuilt the team. This was a time when the Hawks were barely even relevant: Only the low level of support for soccer and thus for the Chicago Fire, and for women's basketball and thus for the Chicago Sky, kept them from being the 5th team in a 5-team town; instead, they were 5th out of 7, behind the Bears, Cubs, Bulls and White Sox.

The United Center is on the West Side, but the well-policed parking lots should buffer you from neighborhood crime. Chicago fans can get a bit rough, and they do like to drink. However, if you don't antagonize them, they will probably give you no worse than a bit of verbal.

This Thursday night's game against the Devils is Blackhawks Goal Light Ornament Night. They'll be giving away a Christmas tree ornament in the form of a goal whose red light with blink, as if a goal has been scored.

Wayne Messmer, former Cubs public address announcer, used to sing the National Anthem for both the Cubs and the Blackhawks. But when he became part-owner of the minor-league Chicago Wolves, the Hawks dropped him. Jim Corneilson has sung the Anthem for both the Blackhawks and the Bulls since 2008.

The Blackhawks' mascot is Tommy Hawk (as opposed to "tomahawk"), a black hawk wearing the 4 feathers shown on the team's logo, in colors red, green, yellow and orange.
The main chant for Blackhawks fans is "Let's go, Hawks!" -- definitely not, "Let's go, Blackhawks! (Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)," because, to a Chicagoan, it sounds too much like, "Let's go, Red Wings!" Wings vs. Colorado Avalanche was never a real rivalry: Wings vs. Hawks has been going on since 1926. However, unlike us, and Islanders fans, with our "Rangers suck!" chant (and our addition of "Flyers swallow!"), they only use "Dee-troit sucks!" when they're playing the Wings. Otherwise, they put that chant away.

The goal song is "Chelsea Dagger" by The Fratellis: "Dip-diddle-ip-diddle-ip... " And their victory song is the Notorious B.I.G.'s "Old Thing Back." A little touch of our Tri-State Area on Chicago's West Side.

After the Game. The neighborhood should be safe after a day game, but after a night game, with all that extra time to drink, it can get a little dodgy. As I said, leave them alone, and they'll probably leave you alone.

As I said, the parking lots are a buffer zone against the dodgy neighborhood, but also put distance between the arena and any bars or restaurants worth going to: None are in the vicinity.

If you want to be around other New Yorkers and New Jerseyans, I found listings of 4 Chicago bars where New York Giants fans gather: Red Ivy, just south of Wrigley Field at 3519 N. Clark Street at Eddy Street; The Bad Dog Tavern, 4535 N. Lincoln Avenue at Wilson Avenue (Brown Line to Western); Racine Plumbing Bar and Grill, 2642 N. Lincoln Avenue at Kenmore; and Trinity, at 2721 N. Halsted Street at Diversey Parkway (Brown or Purple Line to Diversey for either Racine or Trinity). Racine Plumbing is also listed as the local bar for Mets and Notre Dame fans.

And I found these 3 which show Jets games: Rebel Bar & Grill, also just south of Wrigley, at 3462 N. Clark at Cornelia Avenue; Wabash Tap, 1233 S. Wabash Avenue (Red Line to Roosevelt); and Butch McGuire's, 20 W. Division Street at Dearborn Street (Red Line to Clark/Division).

Note that, with the exception of Wabash Tap, all of these are a lot closer to Wrigley than to the United Center. But there are plenty of good places in the city to get a postgame meal, or just a pint.

If your visit to Chicago is during the European soccer season (which were are now in), the best place to watch your favorite club is at The Globe Pub, 1934 W. Irving Park Rd., about 6 miles northwest of The Loop. Brown Line to Irving Park.
Sidelights. Chicago is one of the best sports cities, not just in America, but on the planet. Check out the following – but do it in daylight, as the city’s reputation for crime, while significantly reduced from its 1980s peak, is still there. For my thoughts on Wrigley Field, check out my post on the subject.

* Wrigley Field. Built in 1914 for the Chicago Whales of the Federal League, and home of the Cubs since 1916, it is by far the oldest ballpark in the National League, and only Fenway Park in Boston is older among North American major league sports venues.

The Cubs have never won the World Series here, but won 6 Pennants between 1918 and 1945 -- and none since. They've made the Playoffs 7 times in the last 32 seasons (including this year), which is better than some teams have done over that stretch -- but no Pennants. The Bears played here from 1921 to 1970, and won 8 NFL Championships between 1921 and 1963. It hosted the NHL Winter Classic in 2009, with the Hawks losing to the Wings.

If you go, don't watch a game from one of the rooftops on Waveland (left field) or Sheffield (right field) Avenues. What's the point of watching a game at Wrigley Field if you're not in Wrigley Field? 1060 W. Addison Street at Clark Street. Red Line to Addison.

* Guaranteed Rate Field. Home of the White Sox since 1991, and originally named the new Comiskey Park and later U.S. Cellular Field, they've made the Playoffs 4 times since, including winning the 2005 World Series. 333 W. 35th Street at Shields Avenue (a.k.a. Bill Veeck Drive), off the Dan Ryan Expressway. Red Line to Sox-35th.

* Site of old Comiskey Park. The longtime home of the White Sox, 1910 to 1990, was across the street from the new one, at 324 W. 35th Street, is now a parking lot, with its infield painted in. This was the home field of Big Ed Walsh (the pitcher supposedly helped design it to be a pitchers' park), Eddie Collins, Shoeless Joe Jackson and the rest of the "Black Sox," Luke Appling, the great double-play combination of Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox of the '59 "Go-Go White Sox," Dick Allen, the 1977 "South Side Hit Men" of Richie Zisk and Oscar Gamble, and the 1983 Division Champions of Carlton Fisk, Ron Kittle, LaMarr Hoyt and Harold Baines.

The old Comiskey was also where future Yankee stars Russell "Bucky" Dent and Rich "Goose" Gossage began their careers, and where, in the last game the Yankees ever played there, Andy Hawkins pitched a no-hitter – and lost, thanks to his own walks and 3 errors in the 8th inning.

The NFL's Chicago Cardinals played there from 1922 to 1959, and the franchise, now the Arizona Cardinals, won what remains their only NFL Championship Game (they didn't call 'em Super Bowls back then) there in 1947. And in 1979, during what was supposed to be intermission between games of a White Sox vs. Tigers doubleheader, was Disco Demolition Night. Today, it's called a fiasco, but the sentiment was right: Disco really did suck. But the biggest music event there was the Beatles' concert on August 20, 1965.

* Previous Chicago ballparks. The Cubs previously played at these parks:

State Street Grounds, also called 23rd Street Grounds, 1874-77, winning the NL’s first Pennant in 1876, 23rd, State, and Federal Streets & Cermak Road (formerly 22nd Street), Red Line to Cermak-Chinatown.

Lakefront Park, also called Union Base-Ball Grounds and White-Stocking Park (the Cubs used the name “Chicago White Stockings” until 1900, and the AL entry then took the name), 1878-84, winning the 1880, ’81 and ’82 Pennants, Michigan Avenue & Randolph Street in the northwest corner of what’s now Millennium Park, with (appropriately) Wrigley Square built on the precise site. Randolph/Wabash or Madison/Wabash stops on the Loop.

West Side Park I, 1885-91, winning the 1885 and ’86 Pennants, at Congress, Loomis, Harrison & Throop Streets, now part of the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Blue Line to Racine.

South Side Park, 1891-93, just east of where the Comiskey Parks were built.

West Side Park II, 1893-1915, winning the 1906 and 1910 Pennants and the 1907 and 1908 World Series, the only World Series the Cubs have ever won, at Taylor, Wood and Polk Streets and Wolcott Avenue, now the site of a medical campus that includes the Cook County Hospital, the basis for the TV show ER, Pink Line to Polk.  (Yes, the CTA has a Pink Line.)

Prior to the original Comiskey Park, the White Sox played at a different building called South Side Park, at 39th Street (now Pershing Road), 38th Street, & Wentworth and Princeton Avenues, a few blocks south of the Comiskey Parks.

* Soldier Field. The original version of this legendary stadium opened in 1924, and for years was best known as the site of the Chicago College All-Star Game (a team of graduating seniors playing the defending NFL Champions) from 1934 to 1976.

It was the site of the 1927 heavyweight title fight between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney, the famed "Long Count" fight, which may have had what remains the greatest attendance ever for a U.S. sporting event, with figures ranging from 104,000 to 130,000, depending on who you believe. It definitely was the site of the largest football crowd ever, 123,000 to see Notre Dame play USC a few weeks after the Long Count. In spite of various expansions, the universities of Michigan and Tennessee and Penn State still can't top this. The 1926 Army-Navy Game was played there, in front of over 100,000.

Games of the 1994 World Cup and the 1999 Women's World Cup, were also held at the old Soldier Field. MLS' Chicago Fire made it their 1st home ground, winning the MLS Cup in 1998; and 13 matches of the U.S. soccer team have been played on the site, most recently a 2013 win over Panama. The U.S. has won 6 of these games, lost 4 and tied 3. An NHL Stadium Series game was played there earlier this year, with the Blackhawks beating the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-1.

Amazingly, the Bears played at Wrigley from 1921 to 1970, with the occasional single-game exception. The story I heard is that Bears founder-owner-coach George Halas was a good friend of both the Wrigley and Veeck families, and felt loyalty to them, and that’s why he stayed at Wrigley even though it had just 47,000 seats for football. But I heard another story that Halas was a Republican and didn’t like Chicago’s Democratic Mayor, Richard J. Daley (whose son Richard M. recently left office having broken his father’s record for longest-serving Mayor), and didn’t want to pay the city Parks Department a lot of rent. (This is believable, because Halas was known to be cheap: Mike Ditka, who nonetheless loved his old boss, said, “Halas throws nickels around like manhole covers.”) The real reason the Bears moved to Soldier Field in 1971 was Monday Night Football: Halas wanted the revenue, and Wrigley didn’t have lights until 1988.

A 2002-03 renovation demolished all but the iconic (but not Ionic, they're in the Doric style) Greek-style columns that used to hang over the stadium, and are now visible only from the outside. It doesn’t look like “Soldier Field” anymore: One critic called it The Eyesore on the Lake Shore.

Capacity is now roughly what it was in the last few years prior to the renovation, 61,500. And while the Bears won 8 Championships while playing at Wrigley, they’ve only won one more at Soldier Field, the 1985 title capped by Super Bowl XX. The Monsters of the Midway have been tremendous underachievers since leaving Wrigley, having been to only 1 of the last 28 Super Bowls (and losing it).

1410 S. Museum Campus Drive, at McFetridge and Lake Shore Drives, a bit of a walk from the closest station, Roosevelt station on the Green, Orange and Red Lines.

* Site of Chicago Coliseum. There were 2 buildings with this name that you should know about. One hosted the 1896 Democratic National Convention, where William Jennings Bryan began the process of turning the Democratic Party from the conservative party it had been since before the Civil War into the modern liberal party it became, a struggle that went through the Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt years before it finally lived up to its promise under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

It was here that Bryan gave the speech for which he is most remembered, calling for the free coinage of silver rather than sticking solely to the gold standard: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."

Now a part of Jackson Park, at 63rd Street & Stony Island Avenue. 63rd Street Metra (commuter rail) station.

The other was home to every Republican Convention from 1904 to 1920. Here, they nominated Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, William Howard Taft in 1908 and 1912, Charles Evans Hughes in 1916 and Warren Harding in 1920. When TR was maneuvered out of the nomination to return to office at the 1912 Convention, he held his subsequent Progressive Party Convention was also held there.

It was also the original home of the Blackhawks, from 1926 to 1929 and briefly again in 1932. In 1935, roller derby was invented there. In 1961, an NBA expansion team, the Chicago Packers, played there, becoming the Zephyrs in 1962 and moving to become the Baltimore Bullets in 1963 (and the Washington Bullets in 1973, and the Washington Wizards in 1997).
The Coliseum hosted a few rock concerts before the Fire Department shut it down in 1971, and it was demolished in 1982. The Soka Gakkai USA Culture Center, a Buddhist institute, now occupies the site. East side of Wabash Avenue at 15th Street, with today’s Coliseum Park across the street. Appropriately enough, the nearest CTA stop is at Roosevelt Avenue, on the Red, Yellow and Green Lines.

* Site of International Amphitheatre. Home to the Bulls in their first season, 1966-67, and to the World Hockey Association’s Chicago Cougars from 1972 to 1975, this arena, built by the stockyards in 1934, was home to a lot of big pro wrestling cards. Elvis sang here on March 28, 1957. The Beatles played here on September 5, 1964 and August 12, 1966.

But it was best known as a site for political conventions. Both parties met there in 1952 (the Republicans nominating Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Democrats nominating their host, Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois), the Democrats in 1956 (Stevenson again), the Republicans in 1960 (Richard Nixon), and, most infamously, the Democrats in 1968 (Hubert Humphrey), with all the protests. The main protests for that convention were in Grant Park and a few blocks away on Michigan Avenue in front of the Conrad Hilton Hotel, one of the convention headquarters (now the Chicago Hilton & Towers. 720 S. Michigan).

The Amphitheatre, torn down in 1999, was at 4220 S. Halsted Street, where an Aramark plant now stands. Red Line to 47th Street. This location is definitely not to be visited after dark; indeed, unless you’re really interested in political history, I’d say, if you have to drop one item from this list, this is the one.


While Northwestern’s athletic teams have traditionally been terrible, the school has a very important place in sports history: The 1st NCAA basketball tournament championship game was held there in 1939, at Patten Gymnasium, at 2145 Sheridan Road: Oregon defeated Ohio State. The original Patten Gym was torn down a year later -- don't be too hard on them, no one had any idea how important this historical distinction would become -- and the school’s Technological Institute was built on the site. Sheridan Road, Noyes Street and Campus Drive. Purple Line to Noyes.

Welsh-Ryan, under the McGaw name, hosted the Final Four in 1956: Bill Russell and K.C. Jones, soon to be Boston Celtics stars, led the University of San Francisco past Iowa. These are the only 2 Final Fours ever to be held in the Chicago area.

The University of Illinois is in Champaign, 137 miles south on Interstate 57.

* Toyota Park. MLS' Chicago Fire have played here since 2006. The U.S. soccer team has played here once, a 2008 win over Trinidad & Tobago. 7000 S. Harlem Avenue, Bridgeview, in the southwestern suburbs. Orange Line to Midway Airport, then transfer to the 379 or 390 bus.

* Allstate Arena. Known from its 1980 opening until 1999 as the Rosemont Horizon, this 17,500-seat area was built as a modern (for the time) suburban alternative to the ghetto-ridden Chicago Stadium. It became Chicagoland's premier site for NCAA Tournament basketball, rock concerts, "professional wrestling" and the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Mostly, it's known as the home court for DePaul University basketball, and the playing surface is named the Ray and Marge Meyer Court for the coaching legend and his wife. It's also been home to the WNBA's Chicago Sky, minor-league hockey's Chicago Wolves, and Arena Football's Chicago Rush, winners of the 2006 ArenaBowl and hosts of the game in 1988. (The Rush, named for the city's Rush Street nightclub district, suspended operations in 2013, and are currently listed as dormant rather than folded.)

6920 N. Mannheim Road at Lunt Avenue, 18 miles northwest of the Loop, across I-90 from O'Hare Airport. Possible to reach by public transportation, but not really worth it: If you're pressed for time, and need to cross some items off your list, this should be one of them.

* National Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame. Appropriately in Chicago's Little Italy, west of downtown, it includes a state uf Yankee legend Joe DiMaggio.  Other New York native or playing baseball players honored include Joe Torre, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Billy Martin, Vic Raschi, Tony Lazzeri, Dave Righetti, Frank Crosetti, Roy Campanella, Sal Maglie, Mike Piazza, Bobby Valentine, John Franco, Carl Furillo, Frank Viola, Jim Fregosi, Ralph Branca, Rocky Colavito, broadcaster Joe Garagiola, and the last active player to have been a Brooklyn Dodger, Bob Aspromonte, and his brother Ken Aspromonte. 1431 W. Taylor Street at Loomis Street.  Pink Line to Polk.

* Museums. Chicago’s got a bunch of good ones, as you would expect in a city of 3 million people. Their version of New York’s Museum of Natural History is the Field Museum, just north of Soldier Field. Adjacent is the Shedd Aquarium. On the other side of the Aquarium is their answer to the Hayden Planetarium, the Adler Planetarium.

They have a fantastic museum for which there is no real analogue in New York, though the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia is similar: The Museum of Science & Industry, at 57th Street & Cornell Drive, near the University of Chicago campus; 56th Street Metra station. The Art Institute of Chicago is their version of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at 111 S. Michigan Avenue, just off the Loop.

* Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. If you’re a fan of that movie, as I am (see my 25th Anniversary retrospective, from June 2011), not only will you have taken in Wrigley Field, but you’ll recognize the Art Institute as where Alan Ruck focused on Georges Seurat’s painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

Other sites visited by Ferris, Cameron and Sloane were the Sears Tower, then the tallest building in the world, 1,454 feet, 233 S. Wacker Drive (yes, the name is Wacker), Quincy/Wells station in the Loop; and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, 335 S. La Salle Street, LaSalle/Van Buren station in the Loop. (That station is also where Steve Martin & John Candy finally reached Chicago in another John Hughes film, Planes, Trains and Automobiles). The von Steuben Day Parade goes down Lincoln Avenue every September, on or close to the anniversary of Baron von Steuben's birth, not in the spring as in the film.

While the Bueller house was in Long Beach, California, the Frye house is in Highland Park, north of the city. Remember, it’s a private residence, and not open to the public, so I won’t provide the address. And the restaurant, Chez Quis, did not and does not exist.

Nor did, nor does, Adam's Ribs, a barbecue joint made famous in a 1974 M*A*S*H episode of the same title. Today, there are 18 restaurants in America named Adam's Ribs, including two on Long Island, on Park Boulevard in Massapequa Park and on the Montauk Highway in Babylon; and another on Cookstown-Wrightstown Road outside South Jersey's Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base. But only one is anywhere near Chicago, in Buffalo Grove in the northwestern suburbs.

Not far from that, in the western suburbs, is Wheaton, home town of football legend Red Grange and the comedic Belushi Brothers, John and Jim. John and Dan Aykroyd used Wrigley Field in The Blues Brothers, and Jim played an obsessive Cubs fan in Taking Care of Business. Their father, an Albanian immigrant, ran a restaurant called The Olympia Cafe, which became half the basis for John's Saturday Night Live sketch of the same name, better known as the Cheeseburger Sketch: "No hamburger! Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger... No fries, chips!... No Coke, Pepsi!"

Don Novello, an SNL writer who played Father Guido Sarducci, said the other half of the inspiration was the Billy Goat Tavern, originally operated by Greek immigrant William "Billy Goat" Sianis, originator of the supposed Billy Goat Curse on the Cubs, across Madison Street from Chicago Stadium, from 1937 until 1963. At that point, Sianis moved to the lower deck of the double-decked Michigan Avenue, since it was near the headquarters of the city's three daily newspapers, the Tribune, the Sun-Times, and the now-defunct Daily News. Mike Royko, who wrote columns for each of these papers, made it his haunt and frequently mentioned it in his columns.

Novello and Bill Murray, Chicagoans, were regulars at the Billy Goat, but John Belushi later said he'd never set foot in the place, so while the others may have drawn inspiration from it, his came from his father's restaurant.

Sam Sianis, nephew of the original Billy, still serves up a fantastic cheeseburger (he was there when I visited in 1999), he deviates from the sketch: No Pepsi, Coke. It's open for breakfast, and serves regular breakfast food. It looks foreboding, being underneath the elevated part of Michigan Avenue, and a sign out front (and on their website) says, "Enter at your own risk." But another sign says, "Butt in anytime." 430 N. Michigan Avenue, lower deck, across from the Tribune Tower. Red Line to Grand. The original location near Chicago Stadium has effectively been replaced, at 1535 W. Madison Street.

The Tribune Tower is a work of art in itself. Its building, Tribune publisher "Colonel" Robert R. McCormick, had stones taken from various famous structures all over the world: The Palace of Westminster in London, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, the Grand Canyon.  (He must've paid a lot of people off.) These can be seen at near ground level, but the building itself is so grand that it doesn't need it.

The building is also the headquarters of the TV and radio station that McCormick named for his paper: WGN, "The World's Greatest Newspaper," a line that has long since disappeared from the paper's masthead. 435 N. Michigan Avenue. Red Line to Grand.

The Wrigley Building is right across from it, at 400 N. Michigan. The block of North Michigan they're on is renamed Jack Brickhouse Way, and Brickhouse's statue is on the grounds of the Tribune Tower.

You may notice some other film landmarks. The Chicago Board of Trade Building was used as the Wayne Tower in Christopher Nolan’s Batman films. And Chicago stood in for Metropolis in the Superman-themed TV series Lois & Clark, with the Wrigley Building and the Tribune Tower as standout landmarks.

TV shows set in Chicago include The Untouchables, about Eliot Ness and his Depression-era crimebusters; Good Times, set in the infamous, now-demolished Cabrini-Green housing project; the related sitcoms Perfect Strangers and Family Matters (Great shows? Well, of course, they were, don't be ridiculous!); Married... with Children, Fox's longest-running non-cartoon (though the Bundy family was pretty darn cartoonish); the 1990s hospital dramas ER and Chicago Hope; Boss, the current show with Kelsey Grammer as a corrupt Mayor; and The Bob Newhart Show, with Bob as psychiatrist Dr. Bob Hartley.

Nearly every one of these shows was actually filmed in Los Angeles, and the exterior shots were also mostly L.A. sites, so don't bother going to look for them. However, a statue of Newhart is at the Navy Pier, near its amusement rides, between Grand Avenue & Illinois Street at the lake.

No President has ever come from Chicago, and none has a Presidential Library anywhere near it --Abraham Lincoln's is 200 miles away, in the State capital of Springfield -- although many have Presidential connections. Most notably, the 1st true Presidential Debate, between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, was held on September 26, 1960, at the old CBS Studio, home to WBBM, 780 on your AM dial and Channel 2 on your TV. 630 N. McClurg Street. The building is no longer there. Red Line to Grand, then an 8-minute walk.


Every American should visit Chicago. And with the Blackhawks having won 3 of the last 6 Stanley Cups, a visit to the United Center can be an epic experience. Have fun -- but remember, be smart, and don't go out of your way to antagonize anyone.

On September 25, 2003, Bob Murphy retired after 42 seasons as a Mets broadcaster. He had not publicly revealed that he was already dying of cancer. But I think the Met fans suspected something was up, because when Bob's final message was piped in to the public-address system, there were a lot of people crying. And not because the Mets had lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-1.

At the 7th inning stretch, "God Bless America" was sung -- by 77-year-old Ralph Branca. Who also happened to be the father-in-law of recent Met manager and former Met player Bobby Valentine. He nailed it. And the fans gave him a standing ovation.

I have frequently slammed the intelligence of Met fans. But I must give them credit for recognizing that this man's life amounted to more than 1 pitch that he threw 52 years earlier.

*

Ralph Theodore Joseph Branca was born on January 6, 1926 in Mount Vernon, Westchester County, New York. He was the 15th of 17 children of an Italian-born father (a trolley conductor) and a Hungarian-Jewish mother. He played baseball and basketball at New York University (NYU), and was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers.

He made his major league debut on June 12, 1944 -- against the very team, the New York Giants, and in the very ballpark, the Polo Grounds, that would be permanently attached to his story 7 years later. The Giants won the game, 15-9, and, of the 5 pitchers the Dodgers used that day, Branca, only 18 years old, was hit the least hard.

He entered the game in the bottom of the 3rd, with the Giants already leading 11-5, with 2 men on and 2 out. He struck out Buddy Kerr, pitched a scoreless 4th, and got the 1st 2 outs in the 5th -- Mel Ott and Joe Medwick, the National League's 2 most dangerous hitters of the 1930s -- before giving up a home run to Phil Weintraub. He got the last out in the 5th, and pitched a scoreless 6th, before manager Leo Durocher sent a pinch-hitter up for him.

He got into 21 games that season, going 0-2 with a 7.05 ERA. Clearly, he would not have been in the major leagues if not for the manpower drain of World War II. But in 1945, he was ready. He got better in 1946, but there was some foreshadowing. The Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals finished in a tie for 1st place, and, for the 1st time (the 1908 "Merkle Playoff" isn't officially counted as such), there was a Playoff for a Pennant. Branca lost Game 1, and the Cards completed the sweep in Game 2.

In 1947, the Dodgers promoted Jackie Robinson, making him the 1st black player in modern Major League Baseball. Few of his teammates stood up for him. Branca was one, because he understood discrimination better than most of them did: He was half-Italian, half-Jewish, raised Catholic, and he might also have been discriminated against for having, to put it politely, a prominent proboscis.

When the film 42 premiered in 2013, telling the story of Jackie's "rookie" season, Ralph was played by Hamish Linklater. He was already the last surviving member of the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers. He also turned out to be the last survivor of his 17 siblings.

And that was his best season. He won 21 games at age 21, had a 2.67 ERA, and made the National League All-Star Team for the 1st of 3 straight seasons. In the World Series, he was the Dodger starter and the losing pitcher in Game 1. In Game 3, he gave up the 1st pinch-hit home run in World Series history, to Yogi Berra, but the Dodgers won anyway. He was the winning pitcher in Game 6, which was highlighted by Al Gionfriddo's catch of a Joe DiMaggio drive in deep left-center field at the original Yankee Stadium. The Yankees won the Series in 7 games.

That was the closest Ralph would get to a ring. He went 14-9 in 1948. In 1949, he went 13-5, his .722 winning percentage leading the NL. He started Game 3 of the World Series, and held a 1-1 tie into the 9th inning, but the Yankees beat him. He never appeared in another postseason game.

*

In 1951, wearing Number 13, the unlucky number, he won 13 games, losing 12. Again, the NL race ended in a tie, this time between the Dodgers and their intracity arch-rivals, the Giants. Ralph took a 1-0 lead into the 4th inning of Game 1 of the Playoff at Ebbets Field, but hit Monte Irvin with a pitch, and gave up a home run to Bobby Thomson. The Giants won, 3-1. The next day, at the Polo Grounds, the Dodgers won, 10-0, to set up the title decider at the Polo Grounds on October 3, 1951.

No single game in the history of baseball has had more written about it than this one -- not either of the "Merkle Games" between the Giants and the Chicago Cubs in 1908, not Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, not the 1978 Yankees-Red Sox Playoff, not Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. The Dodgers led 4-2 with 1 out in the 9th, but the Giants put men on 2nd and 3rd bases. Starting pitcher Don Newcombe was out of gas, and Dodger manager Charlie Dressen called his bullpen.

Clyde Sukeforth, who, as a Dodger scout, had found Robinson, was the pitching coach. He was observing the 2 Dodgers warming up. He told Dressen that Carl Erskine had bounced some pitches in the dirt, but that Branca was pitching well. And so, Dressen called for Branca.

This was one of the most boneheaded decisions in baseball history. Thomson could only hit a fastball, and Branca had nothing but a fastball, and a tendency to give up home runs. In contrast, Erskine, although this reputation was still in the process of developing, had one of the best curveballs in the major leagues. Given the events of Game 1, and of Game 1 of the 1946 Playoff, Branca was the wrong man to face Thomson.

He was such a wrong choice that when my grandmother heard the public address announcer at the Polo Grounds say, through her radio, "Now coming in to pitch for Brooklyn, Number 13, Ralph Branca," she turned the radio off, because she knew he would give up a home run.

Branca through a fastball, and Thomson let it go. It hit the outside corner for strike 1. Branca tried to sneak a fastball high and inside, a jam pitch, but Thomson hit it to straightaway left field, for a home run that ensured that, in the words of Giants broadcaster Russ Hodges, "The Giants win the Pennant!" Although it was between 2 teams in the same city, it became known as "The Shot Heard 'Round the World."

In the parking lot of the ballpark, he was met by his fiancee, Ann Mulvey, daughter of James and Elizabeth Mulvey. Mrs. Mulvey, better known as Dearie, was the daughter of Steve McKeever, who had been a partner of former Dodger owner and ballpark building Charlie Ebbets. The McKeevers and the Mulveys were, like the Brancas, residents of Westchester County (in their case, White Plains). As her father's heir, Dearie was a part-owner of the Dodgers. Also with Ann was her cousin, a priest, Father Pat Rowley.

Ralph asked a totally understandable question: "Why me?" Rowley told him, "Ralph, God chose you, because He knew you'd be strong enough to bear this cross."

Rowley turned out to be right. Ralph never became bitter about his role in the defeat. He even became friends with Thomson thereafter. What's more, the Giants still ended up losing the World Series to the Yankees -- and Ralph got the girl. They were married for 65 years, and had daughters Mary Valentine and Patti Barnes. He lived to see 3 grandsons born.

Branca later learned that the Giants had installed a system for stealing signs at the Polo Grounds. Thomson insisted until his death in 2010 that he had not been tipped off about Branca's pitches. But, as I said, he didn't need to be: Branca had only one good pitch, a fastball. Branca insisted that he wasn't angry at Thomson, but that he was angry at the Giants.

*

Lots of people speculated that giving up the most famous home run of all time got into Ralph's head, and that he was never the same pitcher after that. He insisted that his decline was the result of an injury in Spring Training in 1952, when he leaned back too far in a chair and fell, hurting his back. He appeared in only 12 games in the 1952 season.

In 1953, the Dodgers waived him, and he was picked up by the Detroit Tigers. They released hi in 1954. The Yankees hired him as -- save your jokes -- a batting practice pitcher. They signed him, and he appeared in 5 games, going 1-0 with a 2.84 ERA. They released him after the season.

In 1955, he pitched for the Minneapolis Millers -- ironically, the Triple-A farm team of the Giants. But he hurt his arm, and it looked like his career was over. But in 1956, the Dodgers made him a September call-up, and he appeared in 1 more game, tossing 2 scoreless innings on September 7.

He closed his career at age 29, with a record of 88-68, for a winning percentage of .564, and a 3.79 ERA. To put that in perspective: His contemporary Don Larsen, pitcher of the only World Series perfect game, had an 81-91 record; while Johnny Vander Meer, who pitched the only back-to-back no-hitters in baseball history in 1938, went 119-121. Of course, Vander Meer won a World Series with the Cincinnati Reds in 1940, while Larsen won them with the Yankees in 1956 and 1958. Branca never won one.

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Ralph became an insurance salesman, successful enough at it to become a member of the prestigious Westchester Country Club. In 1963, he was a contestant on the TV game show Concentration, winning 17 straight games. In 1972, he was a pallbearer at Jackie Robinson's funeral. He ran the Baseball Assistance Team (BAT), which aided indigent former ballplayers. Keeping his friendship with Jackie in mind, he extended its aid to former Negro League players.

He was a standup guy, willing to talk about his brush with immortality, but also to remind people that he once won 21 games to help the Dodgers win a Pennant. He attended memorabilia shows alongside Thomson. He entertained with his singing voice. And he attended Old-Timers' games and similar events nearly until the end.

He lived in Rye, Westchester County, until his frailty led him to move into a rehabilitation center in adjoining Rye Brook. He died there, shortly after midnight, on November 23, 2016. He had survived his rendezvous with destiny by 65 years.

There are now only 2 men who played in that game who are still alive: Willie Mays, the last survivor of the 1951 Giants; and Don Newcombe of the Dodgers. Also still alive from the 1951 Dodgers' roster, but not appearing in the game, are Carl Erskine, Tommy Brown and Wayne Terwilliger.

Ralph Branca lived 89 years, and was the opposing pitcher in 6,449 at-bats in major league play. He deserves to be remembered for more than one at-bat in a flickering black-and-white film image from the Harry Truman years, before coast-to-coast major league baseball, before rock and roll, before credit cards and mobile phones and desktop computers. He deserves to be remembered for all the lives he touched -- not just Bobby Thomson's.