Happy 90th Birthday, Whitey Ford!

October 21, 1928, 90 years ago: Edward Charles Ford is born in Manhattan, and grows up in the adjoining Queens neighborhoods of Long Island City and Astoria.

Known as Whitey for his hair, now white but even as a kid it was very light blond, and as the Chairman of the Board because he was such a commanding figure on the mound (and he loved the nickname, as he was a big Frank Sinatra fan and Sinatra also had the nickname), his 236 wins are the most by any Yankee.

He reached the major leagues in the 1950 season, and won the clinching Game 4 of the World Series. He missed the next 2 seasons in the U.S. Army, serving in the Korean War. He returned in 1953, and helped the Yankees win 11 Pennants and 6 World Series: Winning in 1950, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1961 and 1962; and losing in 1955, 1957, 1960, 1963 and 1964.

Whitey Ford has never gotten the credit he deserves -- not during his career, when he was always overshadowed by Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Roger Maris; and not in the nearly half-century since his retirement. Fans under the age of 55 have never seen him pitch, except in Old-Timers' Games. Fans whose memories begin with the Torre/Jeter/Rivera era haven't even seen him do that. They don't get just how good he was, just how important he was.

Among all pitchers with at least 200 decisions, his .690 career winning percentage is the highest. (For a while, Pedro Martinez was ahead of him, but finished his career at .687.) And that percentage is higher than the percentage of the Yankees he pitched for, so as good as the Yankees were when he didn't pitch, he still made them better when he did.

Of the 2 pitchers, with more than a few decisions, ahead of him, 1 is Al Spalding, who pitched in the 1870s with the pitching distance at 45 feet; the other is former Yankee Spurgeon "Spud" Chandler, was 109-43 for .717, but that's just 152 decisions; Whitey was 236-106 in 342. The current active leader is Clayton Kershaw, at .689, but that's at 153-69, just 222 decisions.

Whitey's career WHIP (Walks and Hits, divided by Innings Pitched) is 1.215. His 2.75 career earned-run average is the best among retired starting pitchers in the post-1920 Lively Ball Era. The leader among all post-1920 pitchers, at 2.21, is Mariano Rivera. The only other pitcher ahead of Whitey is also a reliever, Hoyt Wilhelm. Among Lively Ball Era starters, Sandy Koufax is 2nd, at 2.76. Pedro Martinez was ahead of Whitey for a while in this category, too, but fell to 2.93. The current active leader, given enough innings to qualify, is Kershaw at 2.39, but that's only over 11 years. Among pitchers with at least 12 seasons, it's Adam Wainwright, at 3.32.

Manager Casey Stengel would sometimes move him up or back in the rotation, to face a tougher team. This makes his .690 winning percentage and his 2.75 ERA even more amazing. In 1950, and from 1953 to his last game on May 21, 1967, the Yankees went 1,486-1,027, and 1,250-921 in games that he didn't pitch, for a percentage of .576.

This made Whitey 11.4 percent more likely to win than his team -- which, don't forget, had Hall-of-Famers Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra on it, as well as Phil Rizzuto early on, not to mention All-Stars such as Moose Skowron, Elston Howard, Roger Maris and Joe Pepitone, and fellow pitchers Allie Reynolds, Bob Turley and Ralph Terry.

When Ralph Houk succeeded Casey in 1961, he asked Whitey how he'd like to pitch every 4 days (or every 4 games), no matter what. Whitey said, "I'd love to!" And over the next 3 seasons, he went 66-19. He made 10 American League All-Star Teams. He led the AL in wins in 1955, 1961 and 1963, and in ERA in 1956 and 1958.

In 1961, he won the Cy Young Award -- from 1956 to 1967, an award for the best pitcher in both Leagues -- and the Babe Ruth Award as World Series Most Valuable Player, as he broke Ruth's record of 29 2/3rds consecutive scoreless innings in Series play. Before his Game 4 start, Whitey was asked by the press about the record. He said, "What record?" They told him. He said he didn't even know Ruth had been a pitcher.

Whitey's 10 wins in World Series play has never been approached. Bob Gibson won 7, and as great as he was in his wins, Koufax won "only" 4. And Whitey still holds the record for consecutive scoreless innings in Series play, 33. Mariano holds the record for postseason play, 33 1/3.

"There's really only four numbers that should be retired" by the Yankees, he once said, "and mine's not one of them." He meant Babe Ruth's 3, Lou Gehrig's 4, Joe DiMaggio's 5 and Mickey Mantle's 7. Nevertheless, his Number 16 was retired by the Yankees in 1974, when he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, making him the 1st Yankee pitcher thus honored. He was also 1 of the 1st 2 Yankee pitchers awarded a Plaque in Monument Park, honored along with Lefty Gomez in 1987.

It says something about this great competitor that my Grandma, a dedicated Brooklyn Dodger fan who hated the Yankees (especially Casey Stengel and Yogi Berra, for some reason), loved 2 Yankees: Phil Rizzuto and Whitey Ford.

That both were from her home Borough of Queens had something to do with it, but she also loved that Whitey was smart and didn't rely on overwhelming force, mixing up his pitches like her favorite Dodger pitchers, Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine and especially Preacher Roe. (And also like her favorite Met pitchers, Tom Seaver, Ron Darling, David Cone and Al Leiter.) She had no patience for pitchers who were fastball-reliant, like Ralph Branca of the Dodgers. She also hated hotheads like Billy Martin, Eddie Stanky and Roger Clemens. She loved that Whitey kept his cool.

Years later, Erik Schrody, a white rapper from Long Island using the nom de rap of Everlast, would also nickname himself "Whitey Ford," and title an album Whitey Ford Sings the Blues, with the follow-up titled Eat at Whitey's and another Love, War and the Ghost of Whitey Ford.
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October 21, 1805: In Champions League action, Arsenal defeat Paris Saint-German and their Spanish striker. Actually, no: A British fleet under Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet under Admiral
Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve, off Cape Trafalgar, Spain.

Although Nelson himself was killed in the battle, the British didn't lose a single ship. Their opponents lost 22. It ended Napoleon Bonaparte's attempts to invade Britain by sea. Villeneuve was captured, and committed suicide in prison the following April.

October 21, 1837: James Addams Beaver is born in Millerstown, Pennsylvania. He served in the Union Army at the Civil War battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville (where he was wounded), Gettysburg (not far from his hometown), Spotsylvania Court House and Cold Harbor.

He was elected Governor of Pennsylvania in 1886, and was President of the Pennsylvania State University from 1906 to 1908. Their Beaver Stadium is named for him. He died in 1914, at age 76.

October 21, 1845: According to John Thorn, author of a bunch of books about baseball and now Major League Baseball's official historian, the first real baseball game may have been played on this date. It also begins the baseball rivalry between New York and Brooklyn, which will still be separate cities until 1898.

October 21, 1848, 170 years ago: Julian Sturgis is born in Boston. At the age of 7 months, he was moved with his family to London. He and his brother Howard Sturgis both became writers. He was a lawyer and wrote the libretti for operas, including working for William Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.

Why am I mentioning him? Because, in 1873, the 2nd year of Britain's Football Association Cup, he became the 1st person born outside the British Isles to play in the tournament. His position would, today, be called "centre forward" or "striker" or "Number 9." He helped London-based Wanderers win the FA Cup that year, beating Oxford University 2-0 at the Lillie Bridge ground in Southwest London. He died in 1904.

October 21, 1851: George Ulyett (no middle name) is born in Sheffield, Yorkshire. I don't know what makes a cricket player great, but he played for Yorkshire from 1873 to 1893, and, according to Wikipedia, was "noted particularly for his very-aggressive batsmanship." In modern baseball terms, he would swing at anything.

In 1877, he played for England against Australia in what is called the first-ever Test match, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. He also played as a goalkeeper for the soccer team now known as Sheffield Wednesday from 1882 to 1884.

In 1898, watching the Yorkshire club play in poor weather at Bramall Lane (the current version of the stadium is the home of soccer team Sheffield United), he caught a cold that turned into pneumonia. With no antibiotics available, he died at age 46.

October 21, 1861: At the Elysian Fields in Hoboken‚ the greatest event of the baseball season‚ the Grand Match for the Silver Ball‚ takes place between all-star teams from Brooklyn and New York. The Silver Ball Trophy is the same size as a regular baseball, and will be kept by the club whose members score the most runs during the match.

A crowd of 15,000 fans sees the Brooklyn team‚ behind their star Jim Creighton‚ defeat New York 18-6. This is the same Jim Creighton who will be dead within a year.

October 21, 1879: Thomas Edison announces his creation of a practical incandescent light bulb at his laboratory in the Menlo Park section of Raritan Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey. This is one of the things that made the modern world possible, including the survival of professional sports.

In 1954, to avoid confusion with Raritan Borough in Somerset County, and Raritan Township in Hunterdon County, the name of the Township is changed to Edison.

October 21, 1880: George Vincent Brown is born in Boston, and grows up in nearby Hopkinton, Massachusetts. In 1897, the Boston Marathon was first run, starting in Hopkinton, as it still does. In 1899, he began working for the Marathon's governing body, the Boston Athletic Association. From 1904 to 1936, he was an official with the U.S. Olympic Team. From 1905 to 1937, he fired the starter's pistol that began the Boston Marathon.

In 1910, he founded an ice hockey team under the BAA's leadership. In 1917, he became the athletic director at Boston University, and founded its hockey team, one of the most successful programs in American college hockey. That same year, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and became its athletic director. In 1919, he became the manager of the Boston Arena (now the Matthews Arena).

In 1924, he managed the U.S. hockey team at the 1st Winter Olympics in Chamonix, in the Alps of southeastern France. Later that year, he accepted the NHL's 1st U.S.-based team, the Boston Bruins, at his Arena. In 1928, when the Boston Garden opened, he was named its operator, and continued his involvement with the Bruins. He died in 1937.

He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961. His son, Walter Brown, managed the Boston Garden, technically making him the owner of the Bruins and, from 1946 until his death in 1965, the NBA's Boston Celtics. He joined his father in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as well.

October 21, 1883: Ernest Russell (no middle name) is born in Montreal. A center, Ernie Russell won the Stanley Cup with the Montreal Wanderers in 1906, 1907, 1908 and 1910. He died in 1963, and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1965.

October 21, 1887: The National League Champion Detroit Wolverines clinch the World Championship with their 8th victory in Game 11 of the series this afternoon, over the American Association Champions, the St. Louis Browns, 13-3 on neutral ground in Baltimore.

With a rainout yesterday in Washington‚ this morning's rescheduled Game 10 sees the Browns pull off a triple play and win‚ 11-4‚ to delay elimination. But the Wolverines take Game 11 later in the day to clinch.

But they will end up losing money, and fold at the end of the next season. Detroit will not return to major league ball until the American League and the Tigers arrive in 1901, and will not win another World Championship for 48 years.

The Browns will win their 4th straight AA title the next season, but will go 38 years before winning another Pennant. In 1892 they join the NL; by 1901, they will be named the Cardinals.

October 21, 1891: Ed Daily of the American Association's Washington Statesmen dies at age 29. I can't find a record of how he died, but he last played on July 14, which suggests a lingering illness, possibly tuberculosis, or any number of other ailments in those pre-antibiotic days.

He reached the major leagues as a pitcher with the 1885 Philadelphia Quakers (Phillies), winning 26 games (a common, but still impressive, feat at the time). The next year, despite going 16-9, he began to lay more as an outfielder. He won the 1890 AA Pennant with the Louisville Colonels, but was traded to Washington, where he died.

October 21, 1892: For the 1st time, the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University play each other in football. Vanderbilt, hosting the game in Nashville, wins 22-4.

Despite early dominance by Vandy, this rivalry is lopsided in the Volunteers' favor: They lead the Commodores 75-32-5, despite Vandy having won the last 2 and 4 of the last 6.

October 21, 1893, 125 years ago: For the 1st time, the University of Tennessee and the University of Kentucky play each other in football. Despite Tennessee hosting the game in Knoxville, Kentucky wins, 56-0.

The game becomes known for the trophy that is set up for it: The Battle for the Beer Barrel. Despite early dominance, this rivalry is even more lopsided than that between the Vols and Vandy: The Vols lead the Wildcats 79-25-9.

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October 21, 1901: Joseph Sill Clark Jr. is born in Philadelphia. He was elected Mayor of Philadelphia in 1951, but his tenure included the Athletics leaving for Kansas City. Nevertheless, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1956 and 1962, but was defeated in 1968 because of his opposition to the Vietnam War and guns. He died in 1990, at age 88.

October 21, 1916: Edwin Elliott Carnett is born in Springfield, Missouri, and grows up in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Eddie Carnett was a pitcher who appeared in 2 games in his "cup of coffee" with the 1941 Boston Braves, went into the U.S. Navy during World War II, and then reappeared with the Chicago White Sox in 1944 and the Cleveland Indians in 1945, pitching 2 games each for them.

But he had mainly become an outfielder, playing 126 games for the '44 ChiSox, before even the manpower shortage of WWII wouldn't allow him to play in more than 30 for the '45 Tribe.

He didn't have much of a major league career, but, unlike the vast majority of people reading this post, he did have one. He remained in the minor leagues until 1955, and later ran a country club and became vice president of a chemical company.

Eddie Carnett died in Ringling, Oklahoma on November 4, 2016, just 2 weeks after his 100th birthday. Fred Caliguiri, who played 18 games for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1941 and '42, and is set to turn 100 tomorrow, is now the oldest former MLB player.

Also on this day, Floyd Clifford Bevens is born in Hubbard, Oregon. I can find no reference as to why he was called Bill. He pitched for the Yankees from 1944 to 1947. In June 1947, in an interview for Baseball magazine, he said, "I do not use anything odd or unorthodox. I have a sinker, but it is a natural delivery. Fastball, curve, change, and change in speeds. That is my repertoire."

In Game 6, Dodger left fielder Al Gionfriddo made a great catch to rob Joe DiMaggio of an extra-base hit. In Game 7, Bevens pitched 2 2/3rds innings of scoreless relief, and the Yankees won. Neither Bevens, nor Lavagetto, nor Gionfriddo ever appeared in another major league game.

Bevens' career record was 40-36, with a 3.08 ERA. He pitched for the Newark Bears of the International League in 1948, and last pitched in 1952, for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacfic Coast League. He died on October 26, 1991, just 5 days after his 75th birthday. He was a decent pitcher, and he did earn a World Series ring with the Yankees in 1947. However, he was not the best Yankee pitcher born on an October 21 and wearing Number 16.

October 21, 1917: An exhibition game in Kansas City features the 2nd and last matchup between Walter Johnson and Grover Cleveland Alexander. Alex's team wins‚ 4-3. Included in Alexander's lineup is 21 year-old Cardinal rookie Rogers Hornsby. In his 1962 book My War With Baseball, Hornsby described his last at-bat:

Johnson had two strikes on me. He threw me a real fast ball and I knocked it straight for the fence. The ball knocked out the knot and went through the fence for a home run and we won 4-3. The hole‚ I admit‚ was one of the biggest cases of pure luck I ever heard of. I'm convinced he absolutely had the best fastball of anyone who ever played baseball.

Hornsby will face Johnson again in 1924.

Also on this day, John Birks Gillespie is born in Cheraw, South Carolina. Jay Hanna Dean was known as "Dizzy" for a whacked-out mind. Dizzy Gillespie was one of the great scholars of music, and was known as Dizzy because his fellow musicians got dizzy trying to keep up with him. It's been said that trumpeters in the 1950s and '60s copied Miles Davis because Gillespie was too complicated a player to copy. He lived until 1993.

October 21, 1918, 100 years ago: Harry Chapman dies of the Spanish Flu epidemic at a U.S. Army base in Nevada, Missouri. He was 30 years old, and 1 of 8 Major League Baseball players to die in the service during World War I -- in his case, despite seeing no combat.

A native of Severance, Kansas, Chapman was a catcher, who played for the Chicago Cubs in 1912, the Cincinnati Reds in 1913, the St. Louis Terriers of the Federal League in 1914 and 1915, and the St. Louis Browns in 1916.

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October 21, 1920: Louis Herman Klotz is born in Philadelphia. In 1939 and 1940, he starred at South Philadelphia High School, and was named the city's basketball player of the year. He played at Villanova University, served in World War II, and was a member of the 1948 NBA Champion Baltimore Bullets. (This team went out of business in 1954, and is not connected to the new Bullets that began in 1963 and are now known as the Washington Wizards.)

"Red" Klotz played for several teams, including against the Harlem Globetrotters. Trotters owner Abe Saperstein asked him to form a team that would serve as the Trotters' traveling opponents. He named the team the Washington Generals, in honor of the new President, Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Eventually, having settled outside Atlantic City in Margate City, New Jersey, he changed the name of the team to the New Jersey Reds. He only beat the Trotters twice. The last time was in 1971. He was 50 years old, and he said, "The crowd wanted to kill me."

He resumed the Washington Generals name, and last played for them at age 68. In 1995, while keeping his organization in place -- and, legally, separate from the Globies -- he "disbanded" the Generals and former the New York Nationals. He kept that name until 2007, and it didn't work. He changed the name back to the Washington Generals. He died in 2014, still insisting that the Generals tried to win every time they took the court. Even though he never played for them, the Number 3 he wore with the Generals/Reds/Nationals was retired by the Globetrotters.

Also on this day, Cyril Charles Done is born in Liverpool. A forward, he helped Liverpool FC win England's Football League in 1947. He died in 1993.

October 21, 1924: Edward Joseph McIlvenny is born in Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland. A right half -- today, he'd be a right back -- Ed McIlvenny played for hometown club Greenock Morton and Wrexham in Wales, before coming to America, and playing for the Philadelphia Nationals.

He had begun the process of becoming an American citizen. Under the rules of the time, that made him eligible to play for the U.S. national team. Not just play: He was their Captain at the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, and his throw-in led to the goal by Joe Gaetjens that won their tremendous upset against England.

That got the attention of his fellow Scot, Matt Busby, who signed him for Manchester United. He only played twice for them in 3 seasons, and then went to Ireland to play for Waterford. He became a teacher, and died in 1989, having never become an American citizen. He is, however, a member of the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame.

Also on this day, Joyce Sirola is born in Detroit. We know her as Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie Norton on The Honeymooners. At 94, she is, as far as I know, the only actor who ever appeared on the show who is still alive. Even the actors who played various children have since died: Tommy Manicotti, Johnny Bennett (both were played by Ralph Roberts, who died in 2014), Judy Connors and Harvey Wohlstetter Jr.

She has a baseball connection: She is the great aunt of Tim Redding, who pitched in the major leagues from 2001 to 2009, including for both New York teams.

October 21, 1926: Melvin Simon (no middle name) is born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and grows up in The Bronx. After being stationed at Fort Benjamin Harrison during the Korean War, he stayed in Indianapolis, and went into the real estate business, taking his brother Herb with him and founding what's now the Simon Property Group, which runs several malls, including the Brunswick Square Mall in my hometown of East Brunswick, New Jersey.

Mel and Herb Simon bought the NBA's Indiana Pacers in 1983, reaching the NBA Finals in 2000. Mel died in 2009. Herb is still alive, about to turn 84.

October 21, 1928, 90 years ago: Arild Verner Agerskov Mikkelsen is born in the Fresno suburb of Parlier, California, and grows up in Askov, Minnesota. Minnesota was heavily settled by Scandinavians, hence the State's football team was named the Vikings. But Vern Mikkelsen's sport was basketball, and the forward was a 6-time All-Star, and helped the Minneapolis Lakers win the 1950, '52, '53 and '54 NBA Championships.

He later coached the Minnesota Pipers of the ABA. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, and, in 2002, he and the other Minneapolis players in the Hall were honored at halftime of a Los Angeles Lakers game, with a banner honoring their achievements (even though they had nothing to do with L.A.), and with the championship rings they never got. He died in 2013.

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October 21, 1931: James Michael Parks is born in Haywards Heath, Sussex, England. Like his father, James Horace Parks -- so he wasn't actually "Jim Parks Junior," but that's what he was called -- he played cricket for Sussex, played in 46 Tests for England between 1954 and 1968, and was considered England's best wicket-keeper (equivalent to a catcher in baseball).

He went into management, and is still alive. His son Bobby played county cricket for both Hampshire and Kent.

October 21, 1933: Francisco Gento López is born in El Astillero, Cantabria, Spain. A left winger by position, he starred for a very right-wing soccer team, Real Madrid, winning 12 La Liga titles from 1954 to 1969, the last 6 (1963 to 1969) as Captain.

"Paco" Gento was with Los Blancos as they won the 1st 5 European Cups: 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1960. He was their Captain when they won it again in 1966, making him the 1st man to play on 6 European Cup winners. The tournament became known as the UEFA Champions League in 1992, but he's still the only player to win it 6 times.

He was selected for Spain for the 1962 and 1966 World Cups, but not for the 1964 European Nations' Cup (Euro 64), which Spain won on home soil. He later managed lower-league teams, and became a club ambassador for Real Madrid. At 84, he is the last surviving member of the 1st European Cup winners, of 1956; and, with the 2017 death of Raymond Kopa, he is also the last survivor of the 1957 European Cup winners.

October 21, 1934: Brian Blair Kilrea is born in Ottawa. A center, he was a victim of the "Original Six" era of the NHL, stuck in the high minor leagues, unable to break through, playing just 1 game for the Detroit Red Wings in 1958. The Great Expansion of 1967 allowed him to play a season for the Los Angeles Kings, but by season's end, he was nearly 34 years old, and never played in the NHL again, remaining in the minors until 1970.

In 1974, he became the head coach of the Ottawa 67's of the Ontario Hockey League. He remained their coach through the 2009 season, winning its playoff title, the Robertson Cup, in 1977 and 2001; and the championship of Canadian junior hockey, the Memorial Cup, in 1984 and 1999.

He remained general manager, and on October 17, 2014 -- the closest home game to his 80th birthday -- he got permission from the OHL to serve as head coach one more time, becoming the oldest head coach in the history of professional hockey anywhere in the world, defeating the Mississauga Steelheads 6-3. It was his 1,194th career win, extending his record as the winningest coach in the history of junior hockey.

His uncles Wally, Kenny and Hec Kilrea all played for the Red Wings, and won Stanley Cups. Unlike them, however, Brian "Killer" Kilrea is in the Hockey Hall of Fame, in the Builder category. He is still alive.

October 21, 1936: Louisiana State University introduces its 1st live Tiger mascot. He was named for Mike Chambers, LSU's athletic trainer at the time. The 1st Mike the Tiger lived until 1956, at the age of 21, despite having once been kidnapped and spray-painted green by students at arch-rival Tulane University. The mascot introduced last season is Mike VII.

October 21, 1938, 80 years ago: Carl Thomas Brewer is born in Toronto. A 4-time All-Star defenseman for his hometown Maple Leafs, he helped them win the Stanley Cup in 1962, '63 and '64. He died in 2001.

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October 21, 1940: James Beaumont is born in Pittsburgh. With his doo-wop group The Skyliners, Jimmy had several hits from 1959 to 1963. He died last year. As far as I know, he has had nothing to do with sports. Certainly, none of The Skyliners' hits have become sports anthems.

But I think of all the players who could have helped the Yankees win, and whom Brian Cashman failed to acquire (or keep), and I'm reminded of The Skyliners' 1st and biggest hit, with the group members wrote together: "Since I Don't Have You."

October 21, 1942: Louis P. Lamoriello (I can't find a record of what the P stands for) is born in the Providence suburb of Johnston, Rhode Island. He coached the hockey team at Providence College into the NCAA Final Four, a.k.a. the Frozen Four, and from 1987 to 2015 was the general manager of the New Jersey Devils.

The team made the Playoffs every year but one from 1990 to 2010, including 10 Atlantic Division titles, 4 Eastern Conference championships and 3 Stanley Cups. It added a 5th Conference Championship in 2012.

But El Baldo also made some puzzling trades, and was so cheap (How cheap was he?) that he let some terrific players go without lifting a finger, including Scott Niedermayer (who helped the Anaheim Ducks win the Cup in his first season away from the Devils, 2007), Brian Rafalski (who helped the Detroit Red Wings win the Cup the very next season, 2008), John Madden, Brian Gionta and Zach Parise. The Devils missed the Playoffs 5 seasons in a row until making them earlier this year.

He finally stepped down as team president and general manager in 2015, perhaps 2 or 3 years too late. But now, the team has started over, with GM Ray Shero and head coach John Hynes as new blood. Ironically, despite turning 76 today, Lou has also become "new blood," as he is the GM of the rebuilding Islanders. Why not, he does remember them winning Cups, and might know how to restore them.

But maybe the game has passed him by -- another reason he might be a good fit for the Maple Leafs, who haven't won the Cup or even made the Finals since 1967, and have only made the Conference Finals 4 times since then, none at all since 1999.

I have never figured Lamoriello out, and I doubt that I ever will.

October 21, 1944: Thomas James Wright is born in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Everton fans have voted Tommy Wright the team's all-time greatest right back, as he was part of the team that won the 1966 FA Cup and the 1970 League title.

Manchester United legend George Best called him the most difficult defender he ever played against. He played for England in Euro 1968 and the 1970 World Cup. He is still alive.

October 21, 1946: James Webster Hill is born in San Antonio. A defensive back, he played 2 seasons in the AFL and 6 in the NFL. In 1976, he became the sports anchor at Los Angeles station KCBS-Channel 2, switched to KABC-Channel 7 in 1987, helped ABC cover the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, and went back to KCBS in 1992, and has been there ever since.

Though he's not from Southern California and never played a home game there at any level, Jim Hill is a sports icon there. He's even got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He should not be confused with Jimmy Hill the late English soccer player, coach and TV personality.

October 21, 1949: Two very different kind of legends of hockey are born. Michel Edouard Brière, of Malartic, was one of the brightest young players the Province of Quebec has ever produced, and put together a terrific rookie season for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1969. But in 1970, he was in an awful car crash and fell into a coma. He died in 1971. His Number 21 was immediately taken out of circulation by the Pens, although there was no official retirement ceremony for 30 years.

Also on this day, Michael Edward Keenan was born in Bowmanville, Ontario. He coached the Philadelphia Flyers into the Stanley Cup Finals in 1985 and 1987, and did the same with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1992.

But he's best known for the one and only season in which he coached the New York Rangers, 1994. With the highest payroll the NHL had yet seen, and seasons veterans all over the place (many of them, led by Captain Mark Messier, from the Edmonton Oilers, including some who had beaten his Flyers in the '85 and '87 Finals), he led the Broadway Blues to their 1st Stanley Cup in 54 years -- now their only Cup in the last 75 years. Ranger broadcaster Sam Rosen was right: This one now has lasted a lifetime.

But Mike Keenan demanded a big new contract right after that, and threatened to take the Madison Square Garden Corporation to court if he didn’t get it. Instead, they let him walk, and he signed with the St. Louis Blues. It was one of the most shocking "divorces" in the history of New York Tri-State Area sports, and the Rangers have won just 1 Stanley Cup Finals game since. The Curse of Keenan?

He is a mad genius, but except for once, and that once just barely, the madness is what has triumphed. In 2014, he led Metallurg Magnitogorsk to the Gagarin Cup, the championship of Russia's Kontinental Hockey League.

Also on this day, Benjamin Netanyahu (no middle name) is born in Tel Aviv, Israel. He is now Prime Minister of his nation for the 2nd time. As with the 1st time, he has been unable to avoid being a warmonger, though (as far as we know) he has avoided the financial scandals and adulteries of his 1st term, that made him look like he was taking the worst of Bill Clinton and the worst of Newt Gingrich and combining them, instead of the best of each. (I’m still not sure Gingrich has a “best” – he and Netanyahu are both really smart, but have serious blind spots.)

For part of his childhood, he and his family lived in the Philadelphia suburb of Cheltenham, Pennsylvania. He and his brother Yonatan attended Cheltenham High School. Yonatan graduated from that school in 1964, along with Reggie Jackson, and was the Israeli commander in the 1976 raid on Entebbe Airport in Uganda, successfully completing the raid at the cost of his own life.

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October 21, 1950: Ronald Erwin McNair is born in Lake City, South Carolina. In 1959, he wanted to check books out of that town's public library. It was segregated, and he was black. His mother and the police were called. The police talked the librarian into letting him borrow the books.

He became a physicist, leading to him becoming a mission specialist on space shuttle missions, the 2nd black American to fly in space after Guy Bluford. He was launched on 2 missions, both on the shuttle Challenger. The 1st, in 1984, was a success. The 2nd, on January 28, 1986, was not: He and the other 6 astronauts were killed, most likely the result of the cockpit, from which there was no escape, crashing into the Atlantic Ocean after the explosion. He was 35.

The Lake City Library is now named for him.

October 21, 1952: Patricia Ann Reagan is born in Los Angeles, the daughter of actors Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis -- 7 months after their marriage. Taking her mother's maiden name, Patti Davis did not fall in with their doctrinaire conservatism. She became an actress and a writer, and her books became controversial; lived with Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon, and together they wrote "I Wish You Peace," a song that went on their 1975 album One of These Nights; dated actors Timothy Hutton and Peter Strauss; married a yoga instructor and got divorced, and has never had children; got involved in the anti-nuclear movement; and posed nude for Playboy and was put on the cover -- at age 41.

When her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, she got involved in the movement to fight it, and now runs Beyond Alzheimer's, an organization based at UCLA, at whose Medical Center her father died in 2004.

October 21, 1954: The smog in Los Angeles is so bad! (How bad is it?) It's so bad, on this day, the City actually closes its public schools for several days. People were just beginning to figure out that having millions of cars and thousands of diesel-powered buses jammed in between the Pacific Ocean and the San Gabriel Mountains, in a city that gets an average of only an inch and a quarter of rain per month, was a bad thing.

On July 26, 1943, the smog in L.A. was so bad, people began calling the police, thinking that the Japanese were conducting chemical warfare as part of their war effort in World War II. The Japanese military never developed anything like that.

On October 6, 1966, the smog in L.A. was so bad, it was blamed for the 3 errors that Willie Davis made that cost the Dodgers Game 2 of the World Series, and possibly the Series itself: He couldn't see the white ball against the gray sky. Small penance for Walter O'Malley to pay for moving the Dodgers out of Brooklyn.

The founding of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the passage of the Clean Air Act, both in 1970, helped. So did an additional Clean Air Act in 1990. L.A.'s last Stage 1 Smog Alert was in 1974; its last Stage 2 Smog Alert, in 1988. The again, the Dodgers didn't win a Pennant since 1988, until now. The Curse of the Smog Monster, anyone? And the American Lung Association still ranked L.A. as the nation's most-polluted city as recently as 2013.

October 21, 1955: Richard Marvin DeVos Jr. is born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dick DeVos succeeded his father Rich DeVos as CEO of Amway, and was the Republican nominee for Governor of Michigan in 2006. When Rich, the founder and still the owner of the NBA's Orlando Magic, dies, Dick will probably succeed him as owner. (Whether he will keep the team is another matter: Often, children of deceased owners decide to sell rather quickly.)

He is married to Betsy DeVos, whom Donald Trump appointed U.S. Secretary of Education. She is not only unqualified for this position, she is anti-qualified, and should have been disqualified.

October 21, 1956: The New York Giants football team plays its 1st home game at Yankee Stadium. They beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 38-10. They had previously been there as the visiting team playing teams named the New York Yankees, none of whom lasted very long.

Also on this day, Carrie Frances Fisher is born in Beverly Hills, California. No relation to Frances Fisher, a redheaded actress of similar age. But she was the daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, and the half-sister of actress Joely Fisher (daughter of Eddie and actress-singer Connie Stevens).

She will forever be known as Princess/General Leia Organa in the Star Wars saga, but she was also an accomplished writer and director, having written the novel Postcards On the Edge about her relationship with her mother and her struggle with drug addiction, later writing the screenplay for the film version. She co-wrote the TV-movie These Old Broads, which starred her mother, and Shirley MacLaine (who played the Reynolds character in the film version of Postcards), and Elizabeth Taylor, the woman her father left her mother for.

We lost her right after Christmas in 2016, and her mother died the very next day. Debbie Reynolds may have died of a broken heart over losing her daughter. Carrie Fisher may have died of a broken heart over the nation getting Donald Trump as President.

Carrie would not seem to have a sports connection, but country singer Carrie Underwood is married to hockey player Mike Fisher of (appropriately enough) the Nashville Predators, so her married name is Carrie Fisher.

October 21, 1959: Jorge Antonio Bell Mathey born in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. A left fielder and a 3-time All-Star for the Toronto Blue Jays, George Bell hit a walkoff for the last home run in Exhibition Stadium. He also hit the 1st homer at the SkyDome.

At that dome, now named the Rogers Centre, his name hangs in the "Level of Excellence," the Jays' team hall of fame that, until Roberto Alomar's Number 12 was retired, served as a substitute for retiring numbers such as Bell's 11. (The NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs don’t retire numbers, either, except for 2 very special cases; instead, they have a system of "Honoured Numbers" that remain in circulation.) However, the Jays never won a Pennant until after trading Bell, brother of major leaguer Juan Bell.

He's also a member of the Caribbean Baseball, Canadian Baseball and Ontario Sports Halls of Fame.

Also on this day, Kevin Mark Sheedy is born in Bulith Wells, Wales. A midfielder, he is one of the few soccer players admired by fans of both Liverpool clubs. With Liverpool FC, he won the 1982 League Cup. With Everton, he won the FA Cup in 1984, the League in 1985 and 1987, and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1985.

Although he was from Wales, his father was from the Republic of Ireland, and thus he holds ROI citizenship, and played for that country in "international football." He played for them in Euro 1988, and in 1990 became the 1st man from his country to score a World Cup goal. He later managed Everton's reserves.

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October 21, 1962: David Ian Campese is born in the Canberra suburb of Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia. One of Australia's top rugby union players, he scored 64 tries (equivalent to touchdowns) in Test matches, a world record at the time of his retirement. He played for the "Wallabies" in 3 Rugby World Cups, winning in 1991. His brother Terry Campese is a renowned rugby league player in England.

October 21, 1964: After just 12 seasons in Milwaukee‚ the Braves' Board of Directors votes to ask the National League for permission to move to Atlanta. Officials of Milwaukee County, who own the namesake stadium, sue to block the move. The end result is that the Braves must play the 1965 season in Milwaukee, as lame ducks.

Attendance, once booming as the city embraced Major League Baseball for the first time in 50 years, collapses, and only 14,000 come out for the final Milwaukee Braves home game 11 months later. The reason? Partly, it was the novelty wearing off. Partly, it was the Minnesota Twins taking away huge chunks of their market, including the entire States of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, and even westernmost Wisconsin. The Brewers will arrive in Milwaukee in 1970.

October 21, 1965: Ion Andoni Goikoetxea Lasa is born in Pamplona, Navarre, Spain. Yes, the city famous for The Running of the Bulls. A midfielder of Basque descent, Andoni Goikoetxea played for the nearest La Liga side, Osasuna, before being purchased by Barcelona, with whom he won 4 straight La Liga titles, 1991 to 1994.

"Goiko" came on as a substitute in the 1992 European Cup Final, Barcelona's 1st win in the tournament now known as the UEFA Champions League. He played for Spain at the 1994 World Cup. He later returned to Osasuna as assistant manager.

October 21, 1967: The Minnesota North Stars play their 1st home game, at the Metropolitan Sports Center, across Cedar Road from Metropolitan Stadium, home of MLB's Twins and the NFL's Vikings, in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington. They beat the Oakland Seals 3-1, getting their 1st win after 2 losses and 2 ties. This was the 1st event at the arena.

The Stars played at the Met Center until 1993, when owner Norm Green moved them to become the Dallas Stars. It should have been "Dallas Lone Stars." The Met Center was demolished in 1994, an IKEA was built on the site as part of the Mall of America complex, and the Minnesota Wild were added to the NHL in 2000, playing at the new Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

Also on this day, Paul Emerson Carlyle Ince is born in East London. The midfielder helped restore Manchester United to glory, winning back-to-back Premier League titles after not having won England’s predecessor league for 26 years, and winning 2 FA Cups – taking both titles, or "doing The Double," in 1994. He was also the 1st black Captain of the England national team.

After managing some lower-division teams, including Milton Keynes Dons, in 2008 Blackburn Rovers signed him, making him the 1st black manager in the 1st division of English football (either as "the Football League Division One" or as "the Premier League"). He won only 3 of 17 matches in 6 months and was fired. He has since managed MK Dons again and also Notts County and Blackpool, a team that included his son Tom Ince, also a midfielder. Tom now plays for Stoke City.

Also on this day, an antiwar protest hits Washington, D.C. The marchers head across the Potomac River to the Pentagon, and, to this day, some marchers claim they actually "levitated" the building. Uh-huh. This was the day of the famous Pulitzer Prize-winning "Flower Power" photograph, taken by Bernie Boston of The Washington Star, of the long-haired (but not hippie-length-haired) kid in the turtleneck sweater sticking a carnation in the barrel of a rifle held by a soldier "protecting" the Pentagon from the demonstrators.

The kid is usually identified as George Harris, then an 18-year-old actor from New York. He later took the stage name Hibiscus and formed a drag troupe in San Francisco, and died in the 1st wave of the AIDS epidemic in 1982.

Although there was not a demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial that day, it's been suggested that this was the day of the demonstration shown in Forrest Gump, which Forrest (Tom Hanks) wanders into after leaving the White House, where he'd just been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Lyndon B. Johnson. A cop pulled the microphone cable out to prevent people far away from hearing Forrest as he spoke. So filmgoers never heard it.

The script has Forrest saying, "Sometimes, when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mamas without any legs. Sometimes, they don't go home at all. That's a bad thing." That's when the cable gets plugged back in, and Forrest concludes, "That's all I have to say about that." And an activist obviously meant to be Abbie Hoffman (Richard D'Alessandro, the only historical figure in the film portrayed by an actor rather than being digitally inserted in), says, "That's okay, man: You said it all."

October 21, 1968, 50 years ago: Elston Howard announces his retirement after 14 big-league seasons, the 1st 12½ with the Yankees. He will soon be named a Yankee coach, making him the 1st black coach in the American League.

He was preceded in the National League by former Kansas City Monarchs 1st baseman and manager John "Buck" O'Neil, with the Chicago Cubs, and former 2nd baseman Jim "Junior" Gilliam with the Dodgers.

Also on this day, Alexis Alexandris is born in Kiato, Greece. A forward, he helped AEK Athens with the Superleague Greece in 1992, '93 and '94; and the biggest Athens club, Olympiakos, to do so in 1997, '98, '99, 2000, '01, '02 and '03 -- 10 titles. He also won the Greek Cup in 1999, for a Double. He played for Greece in the 1994 World Cup, and now manages Aris Archangelou.

October 21, 1969: Morris Clyde Lewis III is born in Atlanta. The All-Pro linebacker played in 200 games for the New York Jets, 3rd-most in franchise history at the time he retired.

He is probably best known for his sack of Drew Bledsoe of the New England Patriots early in the 2001, which injured Bledsoe and forced the Pats to bring in a new quarterback. Tom Brady. So maybe we shouldn't be so quick to praise Mo, because that sack altered the course of NFL history, and not for the better!

His son Mo IV plays basketball at the U.S. Naval Academy, and his son Chris plays basketball at Harvard. Smart kids.

Also on this day, Jack Kerouac dies. The novelist and poet whose works led the Beat Generation writing genre had been a football and track star at Lowell High School in Massachusetts, but injuries and squabbles with coach Lou Little ended his football scholarship at Columbia.

By the mid-Sixties, his fellow Beat writer and close friend Allen Ginsberg noticed that he no longer looked like the handsome young athlete he had so recently been when they met in 1944, or even the mature (physically if not emotionally) writer who became famous with the publication of On the Road in 1957. Rather, Allen though that Jack now looked like his father Leo, the result of 25 years of massive drinking. That drinking burned an ulcer in his esophagus, and that's what killed him at age 47.

(By contrast, Ginsberg, who rather enjoyed various mind-altering drugs, but wasn't a serious boozer, lived to be 70; and the other member of the Beats' Big Three, William S. Burroughs, who abused himself in countless ways, turned out to be the last survivor, outliving Ginsberg by a few weeks and passing away peacefully at 83.)

Kerouac and the early Beats loved jazz, especially bebop, whose 2 main leaders were saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker and the aforementioned trumpeter John "Dizzy" Gillespie. Parker died in 1955, on March 12, Kerouac's birthday, which crushed Jack. Jack himself then died on an October 21, which was Gillespie's birthday.

Also on this day, the "Paul Is Dead" rumor reaches New York. A disc jockey at the University of Michigan's radio station had put together a few "clues" on Beatles album covers and in song lyrics that suggested that Paul McCartney had been killed in a car crash in 1966, and replaced with a lookalike. It certainly explained why the Beatles weren't touring anymore.

On this night, Roby Yonge, the overnight host on New York's biggest radio station, WABC, 770 on the AM dial -- or "W-A-Beatle-C," as it called itself in those heady "British Invasion" days of 1964 and '65 -- he had already been told that his contract would not be renewed. This is a fact that a lot of people forget.

Yonge mentioned the rumor, and the clues, and continued talking about it for an hour and a half. The ABC switchboard lit up like Times Square, and program director Rick Sklar, who had built the most successful station in the history of music radio, was awakened by phone, and he got the station's regular newsman, Les Marshak, to go in and tell Roby he was relieved.

Oddly, on WABC's sister station, WABC-FM -- 95.5, which became WPLJ in 1971 -- Bob Lewis, a.k.a. "Bob-a-Loo," a former WABC-AM jock, did a full "Paul Is Dead" show on November 14. Since Sklar had no authority over him anymore, he was not fired.

Another part of the story that people get wrong is that Yonge never worked in New York again, and fled to his native Florida. He was hired at WCBS-FM, not yet "New York's Oldies Station" (it became that in 1972), and worked there for a while before heading to Miami, where he worked at various stations until his death from a heart attack in 1997. He was only 54. In Miami, he's a legend. In New York's he's a different kind of "legend."

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October 21, 1971: William R. Daley dies in Cleveland after a long illness at age 79. He owned the Cleveland Indians from 1952 to 1962, and was the largest stakeholder, 47 percent, in the Seattle Pilots in 1969, but had to sell them due to the team's near-bankruptcy.

October 21, 1972: The Pride of the Southland Band, the marching band of the University of Tennessee, plays "Rocky Top" for the 1st time. It doesn't help the team, as Alabama beats them 17-10 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville. But a legend is born.

In 1967, married songwriters Felice & Boudleaux Bryant, famed for writing most of the Everly Brothers' hits, wrote it, detailing a city dweller's lament over his lost life "down in the Tennessee hills." Lynn Anderson had a hit with it in 1970, and Roy Clark played and sang a fiddle version of it on The Muppet Show in 1978.

W.J. Julian, the band director from 1961 to 1993, said, "If 'Rocky Top' were ever not played, then there would be a mutiny among Vol fans." Although not an official fight song, and originally having nothing to do with the University, USA Today named it the Number 1 fight song in college football in a 2015 article.

Also on this day, Orlando Thomas (no middle name) is born in Crowley, Louisiana. An All-Pro safety with the Minnesota Vikings as a rookie in 1995, he died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) in 2014.

Also on this day, Jim Duncan walks into a police station in his hometown of Lancaster, South Carolina, grabs the sidearm of an officer, and shoots himself in the head. That was the police department's story, anyway. His family members, noting that he was a black man in an all-white station in the South, found inconsistencies in the story.

Duncan played football and basketball at what's now the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. He played cornerback for the Baltimore Colts for 3 seasons, and started for them in Super Bowl V, which they won.

But in 1971, he sustained a head injury. This was not the earliest example of football-induced brain trauma, but, given his age and the swiftness of its ultimate effect, it may be one of the worst. He began experiencing memory loss, and his once bright personality became dark.

He was traded to the New Orleans Saints, but was cut from them. He then signed with the Miami Dolphins (possibly on the recommendation of former Colt teammate Earl Morrall, who had backed up Johnny Unitas there and was now doing the same for Bob Griese), but never played a down for them. He lost thousands of dollars in a business, his wife left him, and he developed an ulcer.

The police began to follow him, suspecting him of drug use. He may have been "rubbed out" by the police. Whatever really happened, his misery was over, but that of his family was only deepened. He was 26 years old.

October 21, 1973: Game 7 of the World Series at the Oakland Coliseum. Bert Campaneris and Reggie Jackson hit home runs off Jon Matlack, and the A’s beat the Mets, 5-2, for their 2nd straight World Championship.

Reggie is named Series MVP. After having missed the previous year’s Series with an injury sustained while scoring the winning run in the NLCS, he has begun to build his reputation as a big-time postseason performer.

A's reliever Darold Knowles -- who once said of Reggie, "There isn't enough mustard in the world to cover that hot dog" -- becomes the 1st pitcher, and through 2014 remains the only one, to appear in all 7 games of a Series.

The Mets had a 3-games-to-2 lead, but considering what that A’s team was capable of, and that the A's had the home-field advantage for Games 6 and 7, it’s hard to say that the Mets "choked." They just got beat.

They had a great run, coming from last place and 12 1/2 games back on July 8, 11 1/2 back on August 5, and 5 1/2 back on September 5, to win a Division that no one seemed to want to win, doing it with just 82 wins, and fighting off Cincinnati's Big Red Machine in the NLCS and taking the defending World Champion A’s to the limit.

And, considering how good the A's were, it might not be fair to blame Yogi Berra, then the Met manager, for losing the Series by pitching Tom Seaver on 3 days' rest in Game 6. A, Yogi was hoping he could prevent a Game 7 entirely.  B, Seaver didn't pitch all that badly on short rest.

Reliever Frank "Tug" McGraw had given the Mets their late-season rallying cry, "Ya gotta believe!" But what you should believe is that this Series was not lost by the Mets nearly so much as it was won by the A's, the better team. This time, unlike in 1969 (and 1986), the Mets simply ran out of miracles.

There are 22 surviving players from the 1973 A's: Reggie, Campaneris, Knowles, Rollie Fingers, Vida Blue, Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Gene Tenace, Dick Green, John "Blue Moon" Odom, Angel Mangual, Ted Kubiak, Dave Hamilton, Jesus Alou, Ray Fosse, Dave Duncan, Allan Lewis, Vic Davalillo, Mike Andrews, Horacio Pina, Pat Bourque and Billy Conigliaro, who thus won the World Series ring that his brother Tony never won.

Also on this day, Fred Dryer of the Los Angeles Rams becomes the 1st player in NFL history to score 2 safeties in the same game. The Rams beat the Green Bay Packers, 24-7 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Dryer, an All-Pro defensive end, remains the only player ever to accomplish the feat, but will become better known as an actor, starring in the police drama Hunter.

Also on this day, John Barnhill dies in Fayetteville, Arkansas at age 70. He coached football at the University of Arkansas from 1946 to 1949, and was their athletic director from 1946 to 1971. He won the Southwest Conference Championship in 1946.

Arkansas' former basketball arena is named for him, but was nicknamed "Barnhell" in the early 1990s, before coach Nolan Richardson's program got good enough to build the larger Bud Walton Arena.

October 21, 1975: Mere hours before Game 6 of the World Series, the World Football League folds in the middle of its 2nd season. Unlike the 1946-49 AAFC and the 1960-69 AFL, it didn't get to merge or even partly merge with the NFL. Unlike the 1983-85 USFL, it didn't go out with a bang (in the USFL's case, the bang of a judge's gavel). It went out with a whimper. Indeed, if you weren't a fan of a WFL team, most likely, in the wake of Games 6 and 7 of the World Series, you might not have even heard about it for days.

On this same day, football legend Alex Karras, now a correspondent for ABC's Monday Night Football, begins a 5-game stint on CBS's Match Game 75. (It was taped the previous month, but aired on October 21, 22, 23, 24 and 27, 1975.)

He was one of 3 pro athletes who appeared as panelists on the classic Match Game. The others were football star Rosey Grier on April 19 and 22 to 25, 1974; and baseball star Don Sutton, who appeared 5 times: November 1976, May 1977, May and December 1978, and December 1980.

On this same day, Toby Jason Hall is born in Tacoma, Washington, outside Seattle. A catcher, he was with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays from 2000 to 2006, closing his career with the White Sox in 2008.

Also on this day, Henrique Hilário Meireles Sampaio is born in the Porto suburb of São Pedro da Cova, Portugal. Known professionally as simply Hilário, the goalkeeper won the Primeira Liga with FC Porto in 1997 and '98, and the Taça de Portugal (Portuguese Cup) in 1998, 2000 and '01. With West London's Chelsea, he was a backup to Petr Cech on teams that won the 2010 Premier League title, 4 FA Cups (including a Double in 2010), the 2012 UEFA Champions League, and the 2013 UEFA Europa League. He is now an assistant coach at Chelsea.

As for that Game 6 of the World Series: In The Curse of the Bambino, his somewhat skewed history of his beloved Boston Red Sox, Dan Shaughnessy called it "a brilliant autumn day in New England," following a 3-day delay for rain. Brilliant though the Tuesday afternoon may have been, this game was played at night at Fenway Park.

The Red Sox trail the Cincinnati Reds 3 games to 2, and must win to force a Game 7. The Sox haven't won the World Series in 57 years, including a loss as recently as 1967; the Reds, 35 years, including 2 Series losses in this decade already. Both teams need it badly. Something's gotta give.

Just 14 years later, not 43 years as we now have, Shaughnessy wrote, "Game Six has taken on a life of its own in the years since it was played, and it gets larger and more thrilling in each retelling. Some distance allows that there may be other contenders for the title of The Greatest Game Ever Played, but by any measure, 1975's Game Six will stand as one of the top ten games in World Series history, and one that came at a time when baseball needed it most."

In The New Yorker magazine, Roger Angell wrote, "Game Six... what can we say of it without seeming to diminish it by recapitulation or dull it with detail?" Roger, one of the greatest writers ever on the subject of baseball, and still writing at age 96, was wrong on this one: The details are necessary.

Due to the rain, Sox manager Darrell Johnson was able to start Luis Tiant, winner of Games 1 and 4. Reds manager Sparky Anderson started Gary Nolan. Fred Lynn’s home run gave the Sox a 3-0 lead in the 1st inning, and Tiant pitched shutout ball through 4.

But, as they would say in English soccer, Three-nil, and they fucked it up. The Reds got 2 men on in the 5th, and Ken Griffey Sr. sent Lynn to the wall. Lynn crashed, telling NBC's Bob Costas years later that he'd hurt his ribs, and for a moment was barely conscious and couldn't feel his legs. Griffey's triple scored 2 runs, and then Johnny Bench singled Griffey home to tie the game. A 2-run double by George Foster in the 7th and a solo homer by Cesar Geronimo in the 8th gave the Reds a 6-3 lead, with just 6 outs to go for the title.

Typical Boston choke, leading to a Reds win? As ESPN college football analyst Lee Corso would say, Not so fast, my friend. Six-three, and they fucked it up. In the bottom of the 8th, Reds reliever Pedro Borbon (who, like Griffey, would later see his son and namesake play in the major leagues) gave up a single to Lynn and a walk to Rico Petrocelli.

Sparky brought in Rawley Eastwick, who struck out Dwight Evans and got Rick Burleson to line out to left. He got 2 strikes on Bernie Carbo, a former Red, pinch-hitting for pitcher Roger Moret (who had relieved Tiant in the 8th), but Carbo drove one to dead center, and tied it up.

In the bottom of the 9th, Denny Doyle drew a leadoff walk. Carl Yastrzemski singled him over to 3rd. Sparky brought in reliever Will McEnaney, and had him intentionally walk Carlton Fisk -- a premonition? Lynn flew to left, and Foster threw home. Doyle tagged up and broke for home, because he thought Sox 3rd-base coach Don Zimmer was telling him, "Go, go, go!" In fact, Zim was saying, "No, no, no!" Doyle was out at the plate. Had he scored, winning it for the Sox right there, this would still have been a superb game. Instead, it went to extra innings.

Dave Concepcion singled and stole 2nd with 1 out in the top of the 10th, but Sox reliever Dick Drago stranded him. Pat Darcy sent the Sox down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 10th.

Pete Rose led off the top of the 11th, and turned to Sox catcher Fisk, and said, "Can you believe this game?" (Some sources have Rose's comment as, "Some kind of a game, isn't it?") Fisk may not have taken kindly to that, because Drago -- who would bean Thurman Munson in a Yanks-Sox game at Fenway 3 years later -- hit Rose with a pitch.

Griffey bunted, and, unlike the Ed Armbrister play in Game 3, did not even appear to interfere with Fisk, who threw Rose out at 2nd. With Griffey on 1st and 1 out, Joe Morgan drove the ball to right field, and at Fenway the right-field fence was, and remains, only 3 feet high. Evans reached over the fence to make a great catch, and then started a double play, throwing to Yaz, who threw to Burleson who had run over to cover 1st, to eliminate Griffey and end the Reds’ rally.

The Sox went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 11th. In the top of the 12th, Tony Perez and Foster singled off Rick Wise, but Wise stranded them.

At 12:34 AM on October 22, 1975, Fisk led off the bottom of the 12th against Darcy, and hit a 1-0 pitch down the left-field line. It had distance. Would it be fair? Would it be foul? Fisk, thinking it would actually influence the flight of the ball, waved his arms to his right. The ball hit the pole near its top, for a home run. Final score, Boston 7, Cincinnati 6. The Series was tied, and would go to a Game 7.

John Kiley, the organist at Fenway Park (and also at the Boston Garden, thus the answer to the corny old trivia question about "the only man to play for the Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins"), played George Friedrich Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus." Then he played "Stout-Hearted Men." Then he played "The Beer Barrel Polka." ("Roll out the barrel, we'll have a barrel of fun.") Then he played "Seventy-six Trombones." (I have no idea why he played that one.)

The shot of Fisk thinking he can wave the ball fair, which I've dubbed the Fenway Twist, is the most familiar clip in the history of televised sports. (As they had with every World Series since 1947, NBC was televising it, although they would begin to alternate with ABC starting the 1977 season.)

From seeing this clip so much, and hearing so much talk about Game 6 of '75 from Red Sox fans, a reasonable person might have asked (through 2004 anyway), "Wait a minute. The Red Sox haven't won the World Series since 1918. That means... they lost Game 7! So why do people make such a big deal about this homer?" Well, it won one game, not a World Series, but it was still one of sports' greatest epics.

Game 6 of the 1975 World Series has been called "The Greatest Baseball Game Ever Played" by many people. Certainly, it is in the discussion, along with Game 8 in 1912 (Game 2 was tied when called due to darkness), Game 7 in 1924, Game 7 in 1960, and Game 7 in 1991, and also with the 1951 Giant-Dodger Playoff and the 1978 Yanks-Sox Playoff.

Dick Stockton, born in Philadelphia but grew up in Queens, then the 32-year-old lead broadcaster on Sox games for WSBK-Channel 39, and previously for Boston Celtics games on WBZ-Channel 4, then an NBC station, was the lead broadcaster for NBC in this Series. A 22-year-old writer from Quincy named Lesley Visser was part of the Boston Globe's coverage. Stockton and Visser would both go on to become key cogs in CBS Sports' programming. Supposedly, they met on this night. Other sources say they met at another Boston-based event in 1982. Either way, they married in 1983, but got divorced in 2010, and each has since married someone else.

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October 21, 1976: The Cincinnati Reds beat the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, and complete a 4-game sweep of the World Series. Johnny Bench hits 2 home runs and is named Series MVP. The 9th inning featured Bench’s homer, which helped the Reds go from a 3-2 to a 7-2 lead, which holds until the end.

A frustrated Billy Martin, with nothing left to lose (except maybe a fine from the Commissioner), angrily throws a ball from the dugout onto the field, and gets thrown out of the game, the only uniformed person in Yankee history ever to be tossed from a World Series game.

Thurman Munson excels in defeat, tying a Series record with 6 straight hits. On the official Series highlight film, Reds manager Sparky Anderson is heard telling Bench and Pete Rose, "That fella can flat-out hit, now. Ooh, is he a good hitter. He just stays with the ball." Rose responds by comparing Munson to Bill Madlock, then with the Chicago Cubs, who had just won the 2nd of what turned out to be 4 NL batting titles.

But in a postgame press conference, Anderson is asked to compare Munson to Bench, and he says, "Don't ever embarrass someone by comparing him to Johnny Bench." In all fairness, even at his best, and 1976 was his MVP year, Munson was not as good as Bench. Bench was the greatest catcher in NL history, and in all of baseball history the only catchers that could be greater are the 2 Yankee legends, Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra. Bench and Berra were voted by fans to the All-Century Team in 1999. But Munson did have the right to be offended: Comparing him to Bench did not embarrass him, nor did it embarrass Bench.

The Reds have their 4th World Championship, and become the 1st (and still only) NL team to win back-to-back World Series since the 1921-22 New York Giants. (The 1995-96 Atlanta Braves came within 2 games of doing it, but we all know how that ended.) The Reds had also swept the Phillies in the NLCS, and they remain the only team ever to make it through both the LCS and the World Series undefeated. Their 7-0 postseason record has never been matched, although the Yankees went through the '99 postseason, with an extra round, 11-1.

There are 24 surviving players from the '76 Reds: Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Tony
Pérez, Dave Concepcion, George Foster, César Gerónimo, Ken Griffey Sr., Dan Driessen, Doug Flynn, Fred Norman, Ed Armbrister, Don Gullett, Will McEnaney, Gary Nolan, Pat Zachry, Jack Billingham, Rawly Eastwick, Bill Plummer, Mike Lum, Joel Youngblood, Santo Alcala & Manny Sarmiento. 

As for the '76 Yankees, they were in their 1st Series in 12 years, most of them were in postseason play for the 1st time, and they were physically and emotionally exhausted after their ALCS battle with the Royals that ended with Chris Chambliss' Pennant-winning home run. Against the rested and more experienced Reds, they had little reason for confidence. But they will be back, while the Reds will win only 1 Pennant in the next 40 years.

Also on this day, the New York Knicks retire a uniform number for the 1st time, the Number 19 of their 1970 and 1973 title-winning Captain, Willis Reed. The Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers 102-97 at Madison Square Garden -- not quite the 113-99 score by which they beat the Lakers in Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals on that court, but they did hold the Lakers to under 100 points.

Also on this day, Lavinia Corina Miloșovici is born in Lugoj, Romania. She won 2 Gold Medals, a Silver and a Bronze in gymnastics for Romania at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, and 2 more Bronze Medals in 1996 in Atlanta.

October 21, 1977: After 9 seasons on Long Island, the New Jersey Nets return to the State where they were born as the New Jersey Americans, playing there only their 1st season, 1967-68, before moving and becoming the New York Nets.

It doesn't go so well: Despite 28 points from Al Skinner, Pistol Pete Maravich torches them for 41 points, and the Nets lose 111-103 to the New Orleans Jazz at the brand-new Rutgers Athletic Center, on RU's Livingston Campus in Piscataway.

Dave Wohl, like me a graduate of East Brunswick High School, 9 miles away from the RAC, plays for the Nets, but scores no points. Perth Amboy native and Princeton graduate Brian Taylor had won 2 ABA titles with the Nets, was, by this point, with the Denver Nuggets.

Also on this day, singer Meat Loaf and songwriter Jim Steinman release their album Bat Out of Hell. It includes the huge hit "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad," and the cult hit "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." The latter song is a duet with singer-actress Ellen Foley, who would later play the public defender on the 1st season of the NBC sitcom Night Court, before being replaced by Markie Post.

It also includes a voice-over by Yankee broadcaster Phil Rizzuto, then 60 years old. When he came in to record his part, which included 2 utterances of "Holy cow," he innocently asked, "Do I have to be high to understand this song?" No, you just have to remember what it was like to be a teenager.

In 1994, after Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell was released, making Meat bigger than ever, he was invited to sing the National Anthem at the All-Star Game, at which Rizzuto, newly-elected to the Hall of Fame, was named the American League's honorary captain. For the National League, it was Negro League legend Buck Leonard, who had played in the host city, Pittsburgh.

In 2006, Meat made Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose -- without Steinman. This remains a bone of contention between them, as Steinman registered the "Bat Out of Hell" trademark.

Also on this day, the CBS version of Wonder Woman airs the episode "The Pied Piper." Martin Mull plays a singer with, perhaps a nod to Jethro Tull lead singer, a hypnotic flute. He uses it to brainwash groupies into robbing for him, to pay for his expensive lifestyle. One of them is Elena Atkinson, played by Eve Plumb, a.k.a. Jan Brady on The Brady Bunch. Her character was the daughter of Joe Atkinson (Norman Burton), head of the IADC, the agency for which Diana Prince and Steve Trevor Jr. (Lyle Waggoner) work.

I would have liked Lynda Carter to put her Lasso of Truth around episode writers David Ketchum (a.k.a. Agent 13 on Get Smart), Tony DiMarco and Brian McKay, and ask them, "What were you thinking?"

October 21, 1978, 40 years ago: Wichita State beats Southern Illinois, 33-7 at Cessna Stadium in Wichita. Joe Williams kicks a 67-yard field goal for WSU, tying a record that had been set twice the year before. A rule change, banning kicking tees, has prevented another attempt so long.

Williams never played in the NFL, and the Shockers' program was canceled after the 1986 season. The other 2 should have been so lucky: Russell Erxleben of Texas and Steve Little of Arkansas were both flops in the NFL, the former is now in prison for securities fraud for the 2nd time, and Little was paralyzed in a car crash in 1980 and died in 1999.

Also on this day, John Joseph Harrington Jr. is born in Portland, Oregon. Joey, a star at the University of Oregon, was supposed to be the quarterback who led the Detroit Lions out of the wilderness. Unfortunately, the highlight of his career was a game after they cut him, and he led the Miami Dolphins to victory over, yes, the Lions at the Silverdome. He has since retired, become a broadcaster, and runs a charitable foundation.

October 21, 1979: Khalil Thabit Greene is born in Butler, Pennsylvania. An All-Star shortstop for the San Diego Padres, he has since gone into the music business.

Also on this day, Gabriel Jordan Gross is born in Baltimore. The son of former New Orleans Saints center Lee Gross, Gabe was an outfielder for the Tampa Bay Rays, and played on their 2008 AL Pennant winners before retiring before the 2011 season.

*

October 21, 1980: After 98 seasons of play, the Philadelphia Phillies are 1 game away from finally winning their 1st World Championship. They are the last of the "Original 16" teams not to have won a World Series. The last World Series won by a Philadelphia team was by the Athletics, 50 years ago.

It's Game 6 against the Royals at Veterans Stadium. Steve Carlton pitches 8 shutout innings, and closer Tug McGraw, one of the heroes of the Mets' 1969 and '73 postseason runs, takes a 4-0 lead into the 9th in front of 65,838 Phanatics. But he lets a run in, and loads the bases with one out.

Nervous about fans running onto the field and vandalizing the stadium, as happened 10 years earlier when the Phils played their last game at Connie Mack Stadium, Philadelphia Mayor Bill Green has ordered police on horseback to surround the field to keep fans from running onto it.

McGraw, already in a jam, looks around, sees one of the horses, and sees the horse's tail go up. "They did not send us stadium-trained horses," he would later say. "And I'm thinking, 'If I don’t get these guys out, and something bad happens, that’s what I'm gonna be: What that horse is getting rid of.'" In baseball, "horseshit" is a common term for something lousy.

A popup sails over the area in front of the Phillies' dugout, and catcher Bob Boone grabs it, but he can't hang onto it, and it pops out of his glove. This is the kind of play that has led Phillies fans to think that their team is jinxed, that they will never win the big one.

Except, this time, the bobbled ball is snared by 1st baseman Pete Rose, who shows it to the umpires so they know it's a legit catch, and promptly spikes the ball on the Vet's hideous artificial turf, as if he's just scored a touchdown. (Pete was a high school football star, as well as baseball.)

All that remains is for Tug to get the Royals' Willie Wilson out. At 11:29 PM, the exhausted Tugger fires, and Wilson swings and misses for strike 3.

(While tipping your hat to the Phils for this magnificent victory, have a moment of silence for Wilson: It was his 12th strikeout of the Series, a record that would stand until 2009 when it was broken by... Phillies 1st baseman Ryan Howard.)

From Scranton in the north to Rehoboth Beach in the south, from Atlantic City in the east to Harrisburg in the West, Phillies fans erupt in the kind of joy they had never experienced – not with this team, anyway.

Dallas Green's wild (or, at least, wild-haired) bunch has done it. Boone, Mike Schmidt, Greg Luzinski, Larry Bowa, Garry Maddox, all the rest, after 3 failed trips to the postseason before this, they have their ring at long last. Rose and McGraw, opponents in the '73 NLCS and each with a previous ring (McGraw with the '69 Mets, Rose with the '75 and '76 Reds), add to their collection. So do Carlton, who'd won with the '67 Cardinals; and Manny Trillo, the 2nd baseman who'd won with the '74 A's, and made a huge difference for the '80 Phils, particularly as the MVP of the NLCS.

The next day’s Philadelphia Daily News fills up their entire front page beneath the masthead with the words "We Win!" A parade goes down Broad Street from City Hall to the Sports Complex, and a massive rally at John F. Kennedy Stadium, whose 105,000 seats is a lot more than the Vet’s 65,000. Tug holds the Daily News up for all to see. It remains the greatest moment in the history of Philadelphia sports.

Also on this day, Kimberly Noel Kardashian is born in Los Angeles. Unlike another L.A.-based heiress with an embarrassingly released sex tape, Kim is not an "heirhead." She actually works for a living, and not just as a model: She worked for the music-marketing company that was run by her late father, Robert Kardashian, who had given up being a high-powered L.A. lawyer to do it, returning for one last case in 1994-95 (the murder defense "Dream Team" of O.J. Simpson).

She and her sisters Kourtney and Khloe also run high-end women's clothing stores, one in their hometown near L.A., one in Miami's South Beach, and one in New York's SoHo. She has been the main focus of the E! reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

What does Kim have to do with sports? Well, after her parents Robert and Kris divorced, Kris married Olympic decathlon Gold Medalist Bruce Jenner, though they have split up, and Bruce has "transitioned" into what he, now she, has always considered his, now her, true identity of Caitlin Jenner.

Kim married then-Nets player Kris Humphries, following sister Khloe's marriage to Los Angeles Lakers player Lamar Odom. However, the Kardashian-Humphries marriage collapsed after 72 days, and Kim is now married to Kanye West, and they have a baby girl named North West, and a baby on the way. Khloe and Lamar split, and after an attempted reconciliation after Lamar was hospitalized a year ago, they've called it quits again. Khloe is now dating Tristan Thompson of the Cleveland Cavaliers, but the rumor that Khloe is pregnant have yet to be officially confirmed (as has the same rumor about half-sister Kylie Jenner).

Previously, Kim dated, among others, running back Reggie Bush, in a relationship the gossip pages liked to call "Kush." And if "Bush" and "Kush" rhyme with a prominent part of Kim's anatomy, that's not my fault!

October 21, 1981: The Yankees take a 2-0 lead in the World Series, as Tommy John and Goose Gossage combine on a 3-0 shutout of the Dodgers at Yankee Stadium. Bob Watson has 2 hits and an RBI.

The Yankees are 2 wins away from their 23rd World Championship. No one can imagine it now, but the team will not win another competitive game until April 12, 1982, Reggie Jackson will never play for them again, and it will take them 15 more years to get that 23rd title.

The Yankees also make a trade today, sending 22-year-old outfielder Willie McGee to the St. Louis Cardinals for pitcher Bob Sykes. It will be one of the worst trades in Yankee history, as Sykes, a native of nearby Neptune, New Jersey, is already damaged goods, and never appears in another big-league game, finished at 27; while McGee helps the Cards win the next year’s World Series and 3 of the next 6 NL Pennants, and by the time his career begins to slow down in the mid-1990s, Bernie Williams will have been ready.

Also on this day, Willis Andrew McGahee III is born in Miami. The former University of Miami star has been plagued by injuries, but made 2 Pro Bowls while with the Baltimore Ravens. He rushed for 8,474 career yards in the NFL, and is now retired.

Also on this day, Nemanja Vidić is born in Uzice, Serbia. He was a dirty soccer player, and was the Captain of Manchester United. I don’t think we need a 3rd reason to loathe him. He won a League title and 2 national cups with Red Star Belgrade. With Man U, he won 5 League titles and the 2008 UEFA Champions League. Now retired, he is married to a woman named Ana Ivanović, although it's not the tennis star of the same name.

October 21, 1982: James Duffey Henderson is born in Calgary, Alberta. Jim Henderson pitched for the Milwaukee Brewers from 2012 to 2014, but a shoulder injury sidelined him. He pitched for the Mets in 2016, and is back in the Brewers' organization.

Also on this day, James William White IV is born in Washington, D.C. A guard, he was an NBA Champion as a rookie with the 2007 San Antonio Spurs. However, he has bounced around European leagues, and is now playing in the Italian league.

October 21, 1983: Donald Zackary Greinke is born in Orlando, Florida. Zack won the AL's Cy Young Award in 2009, and pitched the Milwaukee Brewers to their 1st Division title in 29 years in 2011. He now pitches for the Arizona Diamondbacks, and his career record currently stands at 187-118, with 2,435 career strikeouts.

The 5-time All-Star and 4-time Gold Glove is married to Emily Kuchar, a former beauty-pageant winner and Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader. Their son Bode was born in 2015. I hope the Cowboy gene is the recessive one.

Also on this day, Casey Michael Fien is born in the San Francisco suburb of Santa Rosa, California, but grows up in the Los Angeles suburb of La Palma. He is a relief pitcher, who has pitched for a few teams, mostly for the Minnesota Twins, but is now a free agent.

Also on this day, Andy Manuel Marte is born in Villa Tapia, Dominican Republic. An infielder, he was with the Cleveland Indians when they reached the ALCS in 2007, and was killed in a car crash in San Francisco de Macorís, Dominican Republic on January 22, 2017.

Also on this day, Shelden DeMar Williams is born in Oklahoma City. The forward graduated from Duke University as their all-time leader in rebounds and blocked shots. He briefly played for the Knicks and the Nets, and last played professionally in China in 2015.

October 21, 1984: Steve Cox kicks a 60-yard field goal for the Cleveland Browns, but the Cincinnati Bengals win "the Battle of Ohio," 12-9 at Riverfront Stadium -- a game without a touchdown.

The 1984 Bengals went 8-8, scored 339 points, and allowed 339 points. Talk about "midtable mediocrity." In spite of this, they missed the AFC Central Division title by just 1 game, as the Pittsburgh Steelers went only 9-7.

Also on this day, José Manuel Lobatón is born in Acarigua, Venezuela. A catcher in the Mets' minor-league system, he was playing for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2012, when they allowed him to marry his wife Nina on the field at Tropicana Field.

Also on this day, Marvin Mitchell (no middle name) is born in Norfolk, Virginia. A linebacker, he was a member of the New Orleans Saints when they won Super Bowl XLIV. He last played for the Minnesota Vikings in 2013.

Also on this day, Kenneth Scott Cooper Jr. is born in Baltimore, where his father, Kenny Cooper Sr., had just managed the Baltimore Blast to the championship of the Major Indoor Soccer League. Kenny Sr. was a Blackpool native who played as a goalkeeper for the Dallas Tornado of the old North American Soccer League, winning the 1971 title, and after the MISL folded, he moved his family back to Dallas, where Kenny Jr. grew up.

A forward, Kenny Jr. was signed to Manchester United's youth program, but never played a senior game for them. getting loaned to Academica Coimbra in Portugal and Man U's lower-division neighbors Oldham Athletic. He returned to his hometown, playing 3 seasons for FC Dallas, went back to Europe to play 2 season for 1860 Munich, and has bounced around Major League Soccer. He played the 2012 season with the New York Red Bulls, and last played in 2015 with the Montreal Impact. He scored 4 goals for the U.S. national team.

Also on this day, Kieran Edward Richardson is born in Greenwich, Southeast London, England. The midfielder won the 2006 League Cup and the 2007 Premier League with Manchester United, and last played in 2016 for Welsh club Cardiff City.


October 21, 1986: Game 3 of the World Series at Fenway Park. Desperate for a win to keep their "inevitable" World Championship alive, the Mets turn to lefty Bob Ojeda, who had been with the Red Sox until last season. With Len Dykstra leading off the game with a homer, as he had also hit the walkoff homer in Game 3 of the NLCS, Ojeda cruises, and the Mets win, 7-1, to get back in the Series.

This would not, however, turn out to be the worst thing that happened to Boston on this exact date. That would be the fact that Tamerlan Tsarnaev is born in Elista, Russia. He and his brother Dzhokhar carried out the bombing at the 2013 Boston Marathon.

October 21, 1987: Game 4 of the World Series. The St. Louis Cardinals score 6 runs in the bottom of the 4th, including a home run by light-hitting Tom Lawless off eventual AL Cy Young Award winner Frank Viola, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-2 at Busch Memorial Stadium. The Series is tied.

Also on this day, Justin Andrew De Fratus is born in the Los Angeles suburb of Oxnard, California. After 5 seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, reaching the Playoffs in 2011, he reached them again in 2015 with the Washington Nationals. He is now in the Dodgers' organization, but did not appear in the major leagues this season.

October 21, 1989: Kathleen Turner hosts Saturday Night Live, and the musical guest is Billy Joel. He sings his Number 1 hit, "We Didn't Start the Fire," with its references to Joe DiMaggio, Sugary Ray Robinson, Rocky Marciano, Roy Campanella, the Brooklyn Dodgers winning the World Series and then moving, and Mickey Mantle. He also sings "The Downeaster Alexa," naming his fictional fisherman's boat after his real-life daughter, now a jazz pianist.

Also on this day, Samuel Michael Vokes is born in Southampton, Hampshire, England. The forward helped Birmingham-area club Wolverhampton Wanderers gain promotion to the Premier League in 2009, and Lancashire club Burnley do the same in 2016.

Despite his English birth, his grandfather was born in Wales, making him eligible to play for their national team, as long as he hadn't yet played a senior match for England. Sam Vokes was a part of the Wales team that reached the Semifinal of Euro 2016.

*

October 21, 1993, 25 years ago: Curt Schilling's stellar pitching and Kevin Stocker's 2nd-inning RBI double keeps the Phillies alive, beating the Toronto Blue Jays 5-0 in Game 5 of the World Series.

This is the kind of pitching that will lead Phillies GM Ed Wade to say of Schilling, "One day out of every five, he's a horse; the other four, he's a horse's ass." But Schilling will not reach his greatest fame with the Phillies. Neither will most of the baseball world realize what a horse's ass he is during his tenure with the Fightin' Phils.

This turns out to be the last postseason baseball game ever played in Veterans Stadium, and the last postseason game the Phillies will win for 15 years.

Also on this day, Bob Hunter, longtime sportswriter for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, dies at age 80. For his coverage of the Dodgers, he had received the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, tantamount to election to the Baseball Hall of Fame for sportswriters.

October 21, 1995: Vada Pinson dies of complications from a stroke in his hometown of Oakland, California. The 4-time All-Star outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds was 57.

October 21, 1996: Greg Maddux shuts out the Yankees, as the Braves take Game 2 of the World Series, 4-0. The Yankees have been embarrassed in the 1st 2 games, and now have to go to Atlanta in front of 52,000 war-chanting, tomahawk-chopping rednecks.

The outlook is grim. Anybody predicting a new "Yankee Dynasty" at this point sure looks delusional.

October 21, 1997: Game 3 of the World Series, at Jacobs Field in Cleveland, is the coldest World Series game of all time -- for the moment. The Cleveland Indians lead the Florida Marlins 2-1 after the 1st inning. Going to the bottom of the 4th, it's 3-2 Marlins. Going to the top of the 6th, it's 7-3 Indians. At the 7th inning stretch, it's a 7-7 tie.

Pardon the pun on such a cold night, but both teams are just getting warmed up. The Marlins score 7 runs in the top of the 9th. The Indians try to come back in the bottom of the 9th, but only score 4, and lose, 14-11. Gary Sheffield, and 1993 Phillies "Macho Row" veterans Darren Daulton and Jim Eisenreich hit home runs for Florida. Jim Thome does so for Cleveland.

October 21, 1998, 20 years ago: The Yankees beat the San Diego Padres, 3-1 at Jack Murphy (Qualcomm) Stadium, and complete the sweep for their 24th World Championship. Scott Brosius, who hit 2 homers last night, takes a grounder at 3rd base for the final out, and is named Series MVP.

The Padres had maybe their best team ever. Arguably, so did the Cleveland Indians that the Yankees beat in the ALCS. Maybe, so did the Texas Rangers that the Yankees beat in the ALDS. All of them had the bad luck to run into what may have been anybody’s best team ever.

Also on this day, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine airs the episode "Take Me Out to the Holosuite." I love Star Trek, but one thing that I don't like about it is that DS9 made it clear that, in their fictional history, baseball died out, its last World Series being played in 2042 (just 25 years from now), and only 300 people showing up for Game 7. Of course, in their fictional history, World War III was going on. (Probably not to be confused with the war you'll see in the 2013 entry.)

In contrast, the 1994-95 series Space Precinct featured Ted Shackleford as an interstellar cop attending Game 1 of the 2040 World Series, between the Yankees and the Yomiyuri Giants, and the Tokyo Dome was packed!

Anyway, DS9's Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) is responsible for restarting the game in the United Federation of Planets in the 2370s. He keeps a baseball on his desk, and had taken various crewmembers into the station's holosuite to watch recreations of historic games. So when an old rival of his, the Captain of an all-Vulcan ship, challenged him to a baseball game, he had to accept.

Sisko on baseball: "It's about courage. And it's also about faith. And it is also about heart. And if there's one thing our Vulcan friends lack, it's heart!" Maybe so, but the Vulcans win, 10-1 -- but Sisko gets a measure of satisfaction from the game.

*

October 21, 2000: Game 1 of the 1st Subway Series since 1956 – it doesn't matter what Met fans call those Interleague series in the regular season, it's not a true Subway Series unless it happens in October – is played at the original Yankee Stadium. It turns out to be, quite possibly, the greatest game I've ever seen. At the least, it was the most nerve-wracking game I've ever seen.

After 39 years of hoping, wishing, praying for a chance to beat the Yankees in a World Series, Met fans finally have that chance. And they were sure they were going to win it.

After all, Al Leiter was going to start Games 1 and 5, and Mike Hampton was going to start Games 2 and 6. And, as everybody knows, "The Yankees can't hit lefthanded pitching. Especially in the postseason." I guess Met fans, the Flushing Heathen, hadn't noticed how the Yankees beat all pitchers, left and right alike, in winning the Series in 1996, '98 and '99, and winning another Pennant to put them in this Series.

Still, Met fans always wanted this chance. In the immortal words of Leonard Nimoy -- who, being a Bostonian, probably knew just how illogical baseball can be -- "You may find that having is not so fine a thing as wanting."

Leiter outpitches Andy Pettitte, but 4 baserunning blunders by the Mets leave the score 3-2 in the Mets' favor entering the bottom of the 9th. Still, to be able to take Game 1 at Yankee Stadium would be a huge boost to the Mets.

Manager Bobby Valentine brings in his closer. Unfortunately for him, it's Armando Benitez. Paul O’Neill fouls off pitch after pitch, and finally draws the most clutch walk in baseball history. The Yankees bring him around to score on DH Chuck Knoblauch's sacrifice fly, and the game goes into extra innings.

It goes to the bottom of the 12th, and a Met castoff, Jose Vizcaino, playing 2nd base because Knoblauch is not fielding well, singles home the winning run.

Yankees 4, Mets 3. Essentially, the World Series that Met fans had waited their whole lives for has been decided in Game 1. Had the Mets won this game, the Series would have been very, very different.

Maybe the Yankees would have been shaken by the events of Game 1, and instead of just holding the Mets off in Game 2, 6-5, they would have fully blown that lead. The Mets won Game 3, and their idiot fans would have been thinking sweep.

Would the Yankees still have won Game 4? It was pretty shaky in the 5th inning. Would they still have won Game 5? It was tied in the 9th. Would they have won a Game 6? Would they have completed the ultimate comeback in Game 7, 4 years before the Red Sox did it to them?

No matter how bad the 2004 ALCS was, losing the 2000 World Series to the Mets would have been 10 times worse.

As we saw in 2015, we don't have to live around very many Red Sox fans with their cheated-for arrogance, but we do have to live around Met fans with their unearned arrogance.

For the moment, the count remains 27 to 2, and 5 to 0 since 1986.

As we've seen, the Yankees are (depending on your point of view: again, or still) the better team now. And let us not pretend that any Met World Series win -- be it 1969, 1986, or any future win -- is better than all of the Yankees' World Series wins.

*
October 21, 2001: The Arizona Diamondbacks defeat the Atlanta Braves‚ 3-2‚ to win the NLCS and reach the World Series for the 1st time in their history. They get to the Series faster than any expansion team in history‚ doing so in the 4th year of their existence. Randy Johnson gets the win for Arizona. Erubiel Durazo's pinch-hit 2-run homer is the key blow. Craig Counsell is named the NLCS MVP.

The Yankees take a 3-1 lead in their ALCS matchup with Seattle‚ defeating the Mariners by a score of 3-1 at Yankee Stadium. Bret Boone's 8th inning homer broke a scoreless tie‚ but Bernie Williams homers in the bottom half of the inning to tie the score. The Yankees win on Alfonso Soriano's 2-run walkoff dinger in the 9th. Mariano Rivera gets the victory in relief.

In spite of this defeat, Mariner manager Lou Piniella makes a bold prediction: His team will win Game 5. "We're going back for Game 6," he tells the media, meaning back to Seattle. Sweet Lou should have known better than to test the Yankees' Ghosts of October. After all, he was one of them.

Also on this day, the MLS Cup Final is played at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. It is a "California Classico," perhaps the league's best rivalry, and the San Jose Earthquakes beat the Los Angeles Galaxy 2-1.

The Gals, led by Cobi Jones and Paul Caligiuri, take a 1-0 lead in the 21st minute on a goal by Luis Hernandez. But the Quakes tie it up in the 43rd when Landon Donovan tallies. The game goes to extra time, and, with the "golden goal" rule still in effect, Dwyane De Rosario, a Canadian son of Guyanese immigrants, wins it in the 96th minute.

October 21, 2001: The Cleveland Browns beat the defending NFL Champion Baltimore Ravens 24-14 at what's now named FirstEnergy Stadium. It is Cleveland's 1st win over Art Modell and the former Browns.

October 21, 2003: The Yankees beat the Marlins‚ 6-1‚ behind the pitching of Mike Mussina and the hitting of Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams. Jeter gets 3 hits off losing starter Josh Beckett (the only hits Beckett allows)‚ while Williams and Aaron Boone hit home runs.

Williams' homer is his record 19th in postseason play, breaking the record shared by fellow Yankee Legends Mickey Mantle (all in World Series play) and Reggie Jackson (who never had a Division Series available to him except in strike-forced 1981). His 65 RBI are also a new postseason record.

The Yankees lead this World Series 2 games to 1. Things are looking good for them. No one can yet imagine that it will take them 6 years to win another World Series game -- and that, when they do, it will be in a new Yankee Stadium.

October 21, 2004: After blowing a 2 games to none lead, the Cardinals come from 3 games to 2 down to beat the Houston Astros 5-2 in Game 7 of the NLCS. Craig Biggio leads off the game with a home run off Jeff Suppan, but Scott Rolen takes Roger Clemens deep, and the series concludes with the home teams having won every game.

For the Cards, it is their 1st Pennant in 17 years, and the beginning of a run that saw them win 4 Pennants in 10 seasons. For the Astros, Year 43 ended just like Years 1 through 42: Without a Pennant. Fortunately for them, they only have to "Wait 'Til Next Year" 1 more time.

October 21, 2005: The Charlotte Bobcats Arena opens in downtown Charlotte, with an exhibition game by the eponymous team. They have played there ever since.

Neither has the same name now: The arena became the Time Warner Cable Arena in 2008, and the Spectrum Center in 2016 when Spectrum Sports bought Time Warner Cable from Time Warner; and Charlotte got the rights to the name "Charlotte Hornets" back when the former Charlotte team, now in New Orleans, became the Pelicans. The arena also hosted the 2012 Democratic Convention.

October 21, 2006: In the 1st-ever match-up of rookies to start Game 1 of the World Series, Anthony Reyes bests Justin Verlander as the visiting Cardinals beat the Tigers at Comerica Park, 7-2. The 25-year old righthander allows 2 runs and 4 hits, striking out 5 Redbirds in 8 innings of work.

This game also makes Detroit the 2nd city to host a Super Bowl and a World Series in the same calendar year. San Diego had done so in 1998. Detroit had also hosted a World Series and an NFL Championship Game in the same year in 1935. Cleveland did so in 1964. New York did it 7 times: 1934, 1936, 1938, 1941, 1956, 1958 and 1962.

Reaching the World Series and the NFL Championship Game in the same calendar year? New York 11 times (1933, '38, '39, '41, '56, '58, '61, '62, '63, '69 and 2001; '33 being both sets of Giants, '69 being the Mets and Jets, and all the others being the Yankees and the football Giants), Baltimore twice (1969 and '71), Boston twice (1986 and 2004), and once each for Chicago (1932), Detroit (1935), Cleveland (1954), Pittsburgh (1979), San Francisco (1989) and Atlanta (1999).

October 21, 2009: In Game 5 of the NLCS, the Phillies defeat the Dodgers, capturing their 2nd straight pennant, the 1st time the franchise has ever done it, and the 1st time any Philly baseball team has done it since the 1929-30-31 A's.

Philadelphia, with their 10-4 victory at Citizens Bank Park, becomes the 1st NL team to win back-to-back Pennants since the Braves in 1995-96.

October 21, 2011: Apocalyptic cult leader Harold Camping had said on his nationally syndicated radio show that The Rapture would take place on May 21 of this year, and that the end of the world would come on this date. Neither happened. Which was lucky for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers, who were in the travel day for the World Series. The Series was tied 1-1.

He had previously predicted it would come in 1994. In March 2012, he announced that he was no longer going to predict the end times. On December 15, 2013, the end came -- for him. He was 92 years old.

October 21, 2013: Kenneth Stanley Adams Jr. dies of natural causes in Houston at age 90. Bud Adams had been the only owner in the history of the franchise then known as the Tennessee Titans, and, at that point, had more wins than any current NFL owner, with 409.

Bud had founded the team with the founding of the American Football League in 1960, as the Houston Oilers, and won the 1st 2 AFL Championships in 1960 and 1961. But he never went as far as the rules allowed him to go again: He lost the AFL Championship Game in 1962 and 1967, and the AFC Championship Game in 1978 and 1979.

Controversially, he moved the Oilers to Memphis in 1997 and Nashville in 1998, and the Titans won the 1999 AFC Championship, but lost Super Bowl XXXIV to the St. Louis Rams. They never got close again in his lifetime.

Also on this day, Castle airs the episode "Time Will Tell." The main suspect in a murder, Simon Doyle (Joshua Gomez) claims to be a time traveler, trying to stop an assassination that will lead to the wrong side winning World War III, which will be fought over energy in the early 2030s. The episode includes Tim Russ, who played Lieutenant Commander Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager.

Was the (as it turned out, innocent) suspect telling the truth? He said that Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) would stop writing murder mysteries and go on to write serious literature. He said that NYPD Detective Kate Beckett would go on to be elected to the Senate -- though he didn't specify U.S. or New York State. And he said Castle and Beckett would have 3 children together.

According to the series finale, 2 1/2 years later, but set 10 1/2 years later (in May 2024), only that last prediction had definitively come true.

Then again, the finale didn't take us up to the 2030s, so we don't know if the war happens. Maybe Castle and Beckett taking LokSat down in the finale prevents that war. But maybe Donald Trump stealing the Presidential election in 2016 leads to it.

October 21, 2014: During Game 1 of the World Series at Kauffman Stadium, Laurence Leavy, better known as the Marlin Man, is approached by a Kansas City Royals representative, who informs him that team owner David Glass is upset with his bright orange Miami jersey that is diverting attention from the home team on national television.

Although he is offered a variety of inducements, including autographed memorabilia and an opportunity to sit in the luxury boxes, the workers compensation attorney refuses to remove his colorful garb, choosing to remain in his $8,000 seat behind home plate.

This must have particularly infuriated Glass, as he married into the Walton family of Walmart infamy, noted for their poor treatment of employees and distate for workers comp. Laurence Leavy is a hero, for both workers and freedom of expression.

As for the game, the 1st World Series game in Kansas City in 29 years, the Royals are beaten by the San Francisco Giants 7-1, behind a home run by Hunter Pence and the pitching of Madison Bumgarner, who allows just 4 hits, 1 a home run by Salvador Perez.

Also on this day, Edward Gough Whitlam dies in Elizabeth Bay, a suburb of Sydney, at age 98. The Melbourne native had been Leader of Australia's Labour Party from 1967 to 1977, and Prime Minister from 1972 to 1975, before he was fired by Sir John Kerr, the Governor-General, entitled to act as head of state in place of the actual head of state, the monarch of Australia -- Queen Elizabeth II of Britain. He did not consult her, or any of her Cabinet officials, unilaterally increasing, rather than settling, what had come to be known as the country's "constitutional crisis," which Gough Whitlam did not cause.

October 21, 2015: Game 4 of the NLCS at Wrigley Field. Home runs by Lucas Duda, Travis d'Arnaud and Daniel Murphy back Bartolo Colon, and the Mets complete the sweep of the Chicago Cubs, 8-3.

This is the Mets' 1st Pennant in 15 years. As of now, it is the only Pennant won by a New York baseball team in the last 9 years.

It did not, however, mean that the Mets had "taken back New York." That would require a World Series win over the Yankees. In the immortal words of Yankee Fan Paul Reiser, "Never gonna happen, my friend!"

Of course, in the film Back to the Future Part II, this was the day on which the Cubs won the World Series, against... Miami? Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) decided to buy a sports almanac, and take it back to 1985 with him, to place bets on sporting events whose results he would know in advance. Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) told him to get rid of it, to avoid contaminating the timeline.

He did -- with disastrous results: It was found by elderly Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), who stole the book and the DeLorean time machine, took them back to 1955, and gave the book to his teenage self. 

Result: When Marty and Doc got back to 1985, Hill Valley was a hellhole, Richard Nixon was in his 5th term as President, the Vietnam War was still going on, and middle-aged Biff was a combination of Fat Elvis and Donald Trump -- except, in real life, most of the country didn't know about Trump yet. And Biff's casino made money, unlike Trump's. Marty and Doc had to go back to 1955 to set things right.

October 21, 2016: Jerry Rullo dies in Philadelphia at age 93. The South Philly native and Temple University graduate was the last surviving player from the 1st NBA Champions, the 1947 Philadelphia Warriors.

He was a rookie on that team, and played for them through 1949, before playing a little longer in the minor leagues, and then served as a coach and supervisor for the Philadelphia Department of Recreation from 1950 until he retired in 1983.

October 21, 2017: Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. It was an ugly ending to the Yankees' season. How ugly was it? If it were any uglier, Muhammad Ali would have had to come back from the dead and fight it. The Yankees didn't go out with a bang, they went out with a whimper.

CC Sabathia was fine for 3 innings, and we dared to hope he would come through in the clutch one more time. But Evan Gattis hit a home run in the 4th, and our hearts sank. Being 1-0 down at that point felt like being down 8-0. Joe Girardi brought Tommy Kahnle in, and he got out of it. But he allowed 3 runs in the 5th, and that was it: Astros 4, Yankees 0.

In the 3 games of this series in New York, the Yankees outscored the Astros 19-5. In the 4 games in Houston, they were outscored 15-3. On the average: In New York, won 6-2; in Houston, lost 4-1.

For the Astros: Their 2nd Pennant in their 56-season history. For the Yankees: Another failure, and, finally, it cost Joe Girardi his job. Brian Cashman kept his.