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The Los Angeles Lakers clinched the NBA Chamionship last night, beating the Miami Heat 106-93 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, at the COVID-19-forced neutral site of the AdventHealth Arena in the Orlando suburb of Bay Lake, Florida.
It is the 4th NBA Championship, and the 4th Most Valuable Player awrd in the Finals, for the 3rd different team, for LeBron James. He had previously won with the Heat in 2012 and 2013, and with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016.
It's also the 4th title for 40-year-old Udonis Haslem, who was LeBron's teammate on the 2012 and '13 Heat, and who also won with the Heat in 2006. It's the 3rd title for Danny Green, who beat LeBron, Udonis and the Heat in the '14 Finals for the San Antonio Spurs, and won last year with the Toronto Raptors. It's also the 3rd title for JaVale McGee, who beat LeBron's Cavs with the 2017 and '18 Golden State Warriors.
It's the 2nd title for 4-time All-Star Rajon Rondo, who previously won with the 2008 Boston Celtics. It's the 2nd title for Quinn Cook, who was on the '18 Warriors. And it's the 2nd title for J.R. Smith, the Lakewood, New Jersey native who won with LeBron and the '16 Cavs, but was a target of ridicule for hims mistake in the '17 Finals.
It's the 1st title, at any level, for the Lakers' head coach, Frank Vogel. It's also the 1st title for 34-year-old 8-time All-Star Dwight Howard, 27-year-old 7-time All-Star Anthony Davis, 35-year-old never All-Star Jared Dudley, 30-year-old never All-Star Markieff Morris, and for Kostas Antetokounmpo, younger brother of 4-time Milwaukee Bucks All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has yet to reach an NBA Finals.
Rondo becomes the 1st player ever to win titles with both the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. Clye Lovellette had won titles with the Celtics and the Minneaolis Lakers.
McGee and Quinn Cook join Jamaal Wilkes as the only players to win titles with both the Lakers and the Warriors, regardless of what cities those franchises played in. (The Warriors played in Philadelphia from 1946 to 1962, and the Lakers in Minneapolis from 1947 to 1960.)
LeBron and Danny Green (2014 Spurs and 2019 Raptors) join John Salley (1989 and '90 Pistons, 1996 Bulls, 2000 Lakers) and Robert Horry (1994 & '95 Houston Rockets; 2000, '01 & '02 Lakers; 2005 & '07 San Antonio Spurs ) as the only players to win titles with 3 different teams. Haslem joins Salley and Tim Duncan (1999, 2003, '05, '07 and '14 Spurs) as the only players to win NBA titles in 3 different decades.
Rondo joins A.C. Green as the only players to win an NBA title in one decade, not win one in the next, and then win one in the next. His 12-year gap between titles exceeds Green's 11-year gap (1988-2000), and is 2nd all-time only to that of Sam Cassell, his teammate on the '08 Celtics, who had also won with the 1995 Houston Rockets, 13 years earlier.
Finally, in this, the NBA's 74th and longest season, the Lakers tie the Celtics for the most NBA Championships, 17:
* Celtics: 1957, '59, '60, '61, '62, '63, '64, '65, '66, '68, '69, '74, '76, '81, '84, '86 and 2008.
* Lakers: 1949, '50, '52, '53, '54, '72, '80, '82, '85, '87, '88, '2000, '01, '02, '08, '09 and 2020.
Of course, the 1st 5 Laker titles came in Minneapolis, so, really, the Celtics still lead 17-12. The next-closest teams are the Bulls with 6 and the Spurs with 5.
And the Lakers and Celtics have faced each other in more NBA Finals than any other matchup, 12: The Celtics winning in 1959, '62, '63, '65, '66, '68, '69, '84 and 2008; and the Lakers winning in 1985, '87 and 2009.
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October 12, 322 BC: This is the traditional date of the death of Demosthenes, the ancient Greek orator whose name became synonymous with speechmaking. His speeches in Athens, denouncing King Philip II of Macedon, led to any denunciatory speech becoming known as a "philippic."
After Philip died in 336 BC, his son, King Alexander III, became the target of Demosthenes' speeches. But he also became the greatest conqueror that Europe has ever known, putting big chunks of Africa and Asia under his rule, and becoming known as Alexander the Great. Alexander died of causes still debated in 323 BC, and Antipater, whom he'd put in charge of Greece, had enough of Demosthenes, and decided to have him arrested. Rather than let this happen, as it would surely have meant execution, Demosthenes chose suicide by hanging, on the island of Kalaureia. He is believed to have been 62 years old.
October 12, 1492: Christoffa Corombo – as he was known in his native Genoa, or Christophorus Columbus as he was known in Latin, or Cristobal Colon as his patron, Queen Isabella I of Spain, calls him -- finally gets his ships to land. He believes he has reached South Asia. He names the island on which he lands San Salvador, after Jesus. Eventually, the island will be taken over by the English, and renamed Watling Island. Today, it is a part of the Bahamas.
Eventually, the man the English-speaking world knows as Christopher Columbus will make 4 voyages west, never fully realizing he was in what became known as "the New World," always thinking he was in Asia. But he does start the wave of European exploration that will make the Americas -- eventually named for rival Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci – possible.
Yet, considering previous voyages of the Vikings (and, some believe, the Chinese), it is disingenuous to say, "Columbus discovered America." In fact, he never set foot on the soil of the continental U.S., coming the closest when he reached Puerto Rico.
As far as I can tell, it was Juan Ponce de Leon, who came with Columbus on his second voyage in 1493, who was the 1st European to set foot on present-day U.S. soil, reaching Florida in 1513. (Vespucci did reach land in what’s now called South America, but not North America. The Vikings reached present-day Canada, and possibly present-day Maine.)
It's also not true that Columbus "proved the world is round." By 1492, most people already believed that. Even so, it would be 1522, and the conclusion of the Ferdinand Magellan expedition, before anyone sailed all the way around the world and back to his starting point, and proved through firsthand experience that the world was round.
What does this have to do with baseball? Today, there is a Triple-A minor league baseball team in Columbus, Ohio, and a Double-A team in Columbus, Georgia. And a major league team in Washington, District of Columbia. And, of course, there is a tremendous amount of talent in lands that Columbus revealed to the Old World, including the places now known as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
October 12, 1537: Edward Tudor is born at Hampton Court Palace in Richmond-upon-Thames, in what is now Southwest London, the son of King Henry VIII of England and Queen Jane Seymour. Jane, Henry's 3rd wife, dies shortly after his birth, but Henry finally gets the son he wants.
Henry dies in 1547, and, at age 9, Edward becomes King Edward VI. But in 1553, only 15, he died of tuberculosis, setting off a succession crisis that was hardly abated when it was won by the Protestant Edward's Catholic half-sister Mary, and only settled when she died 5 years later, and was succeeded by their Protestant half-sister Elizabeth.
October 12, 1565: Jean Ribault, leader of France's early expeditions to the New World, is executed by the Spanish at their settlement at St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest continuously-occupied (by people of European descent, anyway) place in America. He was believed to be 45 years old.
The new Spanish governor of La Florida, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, was, like his King, Philip II, a militant Catholic, and Ribault and most of his followers were Protestant. Over 700 Frenchmen were killed by the Spanish in the Autumn of 1565.
Florida would remain under Spanish rule until 1763, when Spain traded it to Britain for control of Havana, Cuba. Britain sold Florida back to Spain in 1783, and Spain held it until the military victories of General Andrew Jackson (later President of the United States) convinced them to sell it to America in 1821. It gained Statehood in 1845, seceded from the Union to join the Confederate States of America in 1861, and, following the Union victory in the American Civil War, was readmitted to the Union in 1868.
October 12, 1692: Sir William Phips, colonial Governor of Massachusetts, orders that the witch trials in Salem be stopped. There had been 20 executions, although none were, as the legend says, burned at the stake.
In other words, the Boston Red Sox aren't the cause of New Englanders being messed-up. They, their failures, the angst those failures have caused, and their turning to cheating, are by-products of New England already being messed-up.
October 12, 1773: Eastern State Hospital opens in Williamsburg, Virginia. It is America's 1st psychiatric hospital. It predates Fenway Park by 139 years.
October 12, 1798: Pedro de Alcântara Francisco António João Carlos Xavier de Paula Miguel Rafael Joaquim José Gonzaga Pascoal Cipriano Serafim is born in Queluz Palace, the royal residence in Lisbon, Portugal. When Napoleon Bonaparte's troops invaded Portugal in 1807, the entire House of Braganza, including Dom Pedro, his father the heir to the throne and the Prince Regent, and his insane grandmother Queen Maria I, fled to Portugal's colony in South America, Brazil. Although Portugal was liberated after the Napoleonic Wars, the Queen never returned, and died in Brazil in 1816.
King João VI returned to Portugal in 1821, but Dom Pedro, now heir to the throne, remained behind in Brazil, whose independence he declared in 1822. He built the colonial backwater into what would then have been considered a modern country. Upon his father's death in 1826, he became King Pedro IV of Portugal, but he soon abdicated in favor of his daughter, who became Queen Maria II. (Ironically, she married a grandson of Josephine de Beauharnais, who was thus a step-grandson of Napoleon.)
Pedro's brother Miguel deposed Maria, and Pedro returned to Portugal to lead her forces in the civil war. He won, and became known as "The Liberator," but it wrecked his health, and he died of tuberculosis in 1834, not quite 36. His son became Emperor Pedro II, the last Emperor of Brazil before the abolition of the monarchy in 1889.
Because of Dom Pedro's development, Brazil became the first truly modern country in South America, one to which Europeans -- not just Portuguese -- flocked. This allowed them, later in the 19th Century, under Pedro II, to bring with them their culture, including their sports, allowing it to develop into the continent's, and eventually the world's, greatest soccer nation. Without Dom Pedro I, no Garrincha, no Pelé, no Sócrates, no Romário, no Ronaldo, no Ronaldinho, no Neymar.
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October 12, 1803: Alexander Turney Stewart is born in Lisburn, in what's now Northern Ireland. He came to America as a young man, opened a grocery store, and in 1848 opened what would today be considered the 1st department store, on Broadway between Chambers Street and Reade Street in Lower Manhattan. His real estate holdings were his true fortune, though, and they made him one of the richest people in history by the time he died in 1876.
October 12, 1813: Lyman Trumbull is born in Colchester, New London County, Connecticut. In 1840, he was elected Secretary of State for the State of Illinois. However, he left the Democratic Party over the issue of slavery. In 1854, he was one of the 1st members of the newly-formed Republican Party to be elected to office, to the U.S. Senate from Illinois. He served until 1873, and died in 1896.
October 12, 1853: Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne is born in Watertown, Connecticut, and grows up in Peoria, Illinois. He was elected Mayor of Chicago in 1905, and his tenure included the all-Chicago World Series of 1906, when the White Sox beat the Cubs. He was elected Governor of Illinois in 1912.
In both offices, he was aligned with Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive wing of the Republican Party. He fought for women's suffrage and public works, and against the Ku Klux Klan. He lived until 1937.
October 12, 1858: John Lawrence Sullivan is born in the Roxbury section of Boston. John L. Sullivan (always listed with the middle initial) is considered the 1st "true" heavyweight champion of the world, reigning from 1882 to 1892, and was a great hero for America’s Irish Catholic immigrants and their children.
His personal life, however, was greatly criticized, mostly by the English Protestant establishment of the time, but who remembers them more than they remember "the Great John L.?"
October 12, 1859: The visiting Atlantics whip the Eckford Club‚ 22-12 to win the baseball championship of the year. Both clubs are based in Brooklyn. The Atlantics score 7 in the 1st inning and lead 16-4 at the end of 3. They finish the year at 11-1.
October 12, 1864: Roger Taney dies in Washington, D.C., after years of failing health. He was 87. After serving in both houses of Maryland's legislature and as its Attorney General, he became Andrew Jackson's staunches supporter in that State. Jackson rewarded him by appointing him Secretary of War, Attorney General, Secretary of the Treasury, and in 1836, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was the 1st Roman Catholic to serve either in the Cabinet or on the Court.
It was Jackson's biggest mistake -- more so than the Indian Removal Act, because it affected more people. Taney was still Chief Justice in 1857, when he made the worst ruling in the Court's history, in Dred Scott v. Sanford, that not only did the U.S. Congress constitutionally not have the right to restrict the spread of slavery into any State or Territory, but that black people -- including those born free -- were not citizens of the United States. If the Civil War was still a question of "if," this was when it became a question of "when."
Taney administered the Oath of Office to a record 7 Presidents. The 1st 6 were Martin Van Buren (March 4, 1837), William Henry Harrison (March 4, 1841), James Polk (March 4, 1845), Zachary Taylor (March 5, 1849 -- the 4th was a Sunday that year), Franklin Pierce (March 4, 1853) and James Buchanan (March 4, 1857). As Harrison and Taylor died in office, and their successors had to be sworn in quickly, he was not available to administer the Oath to John Tyler (April 6, 1841) or Millard Fillmore (July 10, 1850).
On March 4, 1861, Taney had to swear his harshest critic, Abraham Lincoln, in as President. As the Civil War began, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus, and Taney ruled that Lincoln couldn't do that. Lincoln ignored the ruling, and got away with it. The day Taney died, his home State of Maryland, which remained in the Union despite not having abolished slavery, officially abolished it, not yet knowing of his death. Lincoln appointed Salmon Chase, who had also served as Secretary of the Treasury, as Taney's successor.
On August 16, 2017, as part of the controversy concerning Confederate and other white-supremacist statues, a statue of Taney was removed from Mount Vernon Place in downtown Baltimore, following a vote of the City Council. Two days later, upon the recommendation of Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland -- a Republican -- an identical statue was removed from the grounds of the State House in Annapolis.
Now, with the recent death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we have a Supreme Court with a 5-3 archconservative majority: Chief Justice John Roberts, and Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. If Judge Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed by the Sneate, resulting in a 6-3 archconservative majorityThey could end up doing as much damage as Taney did as Chief Justice.
October 12, 1866: James Ramsay MacDonald is born in Lossiemouth, Morayshire, Scotland. A Member of Britain's Parliament on and off from 1906 until his death in 1937, he was the Leader of the Labour Party from 1922 to 1935, and served as Prime Minister for 9 months in 1924 (making him the 1st member of the Labour Party to hold the post), and again from 1929 to 1935.
October 12, 1870, 150 years ago: Robert E. Lee dies in Lexington, Virginia, from the effects of a stroke suffered 14 days earlier. The commander of the Confederate armies was 63.
Lee was a noble officer in the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War of the 1840s, and up until the attack on Fort Sumter in 1861. And he worked to reconcile North and South in the 5 years between his surrender at Appomattox Court House and his death.
But in the 4 years in between, he was no hero. He betrayed his country to fight for, as he saw it, his "home" of Virginia. And he commanded the Army of a nation founded on the principles of white supremacy and slavery. The question of whether he should have statues, or his name on public schools and other government institutions, goes on.
October 12, 1872: The University of Oregon is founded by an act of the State legislature. Its motto is Mens agitat molem -- "The mind moves mountains." It is built in Eugene, where it remains. Ironically, its original name was Oregon State University, the name that would be adopted by Corvallis State Agricultural College in 1937. The schools are arch-rivals, and their annual late-November football game is known as the Civil War.
UO is best known for 3 things: Winning the 1st NCAA basketball tournament in 1939, its association with Nike boss Phil Knight, and its hideous football uniforms.
Also on this day, Canada holds its 2nd federal election since their sort-of independence in 1867. The Conservative Party wins, keeping the 1st Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald, in power.
October 12, 1874: The University of Nevada is founded in Reno. But it is far lesser-known than is Las Vegas campus, a.k.a. UNLV.
Also on this day, James Timothy Burke is born in St. Louis. He was a 3rd baseman, playing for the 1st American League Pennant winners, the 1901 Chicago White Sox. He then jumped back to the National League, and won another Pennant with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
In 1905, he closed his playing career as player-manager for his hometown St. Louis Cardinals, and he won a World Series ring as a coach with the 1932 Yankees. He lived until 1942.
October 12, 1878: Thomas Truxtun Hare is born in Philadelphia. He played guard, kicked and punted at the University of Pennsylvania, his hometown Ivy League school, and was named to the All-America team 4 times, later earning a law degree at Penn. A 2008 Sports Illustrated article awarded retroactive
Heisman Trophies, and said that Truxtun Hare would win the 1900 Heisman.
He later practiced law and became a novelist, and lived until 1956. His son, Truxtun Hare Jr., was an All-American at Yale.
October 12, 1882: John Preston Hill is born in Culpeper, Virginia, and grows up in Pittsburgh. A left fielder, a baseball historian has called "Pete" Hill "black baseball's first superstar." He played professionally from 1889 (at age 16) until 1925, starring for the Trenton, New Jersey-based Cuban X-Giants (like the Globetrotters with "Harlem," and the Lincoln Giants with "Lincoln," the name "Cuban" practically advertised their blackness), the Philadelphia Giants, the Chicago-based Leland Giants, and Rube Fosters Chicago American Giants.
He died in 1951. In 2006, he was 1 of 16 "overlooked" pre-1947 black baseball legends elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
October 12, 1884: John Rutherford (no middle name) is born in Percy Main, Northumberland, England. Like many Scotsmen, or (in his case) men of Scottish descent, his nickname was Jock. A winger, he starred for the closest Football League club to Northumberland, Newcastle United, winning the League title in 1905, 1907 and 1909. He appeared in 5 FA Cup Finals for them, but only won once, in 1910. Jock Rutherford later played 13 seasons for Arsenal, and died in 1963.
October 12, 1892: The University of Illinois and cross-State rival Northwestern University play each other in football for the 1st time, on the Illini's campus in Champaign. The game is a 16-16 tie. Illinois leads the rivalry, 55-53-5. Despite their infamous football woes, Northwestern has won the last 5, and 1e of the last 17.
Since 2009, the schools have played for the Land of Lincoln Trophy, a brass copy of Honest Abe’s famed top hat.
October 12, 1893: George Ritchie Hodgson is born in Montreal. A swimmer, he won 2 Gold Medals for Canada at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. He died in 1983, and was elected to the Quebec Sports Hall of Fame.
October 12, 1895, 125 years ago: Sporting Life magazine notes, "There has never been a negro player in the National League. Though the colored brethren have turned out some excellent players‚ the color lines have been drawn very closely around the major body‚ and no colored man ever got into the ranks."
Black players had appeared in the American Association, a major league that played from 1882 to 1891, up until the 1887 season. But none would play in the NL until 1947.
October 12, 1896: Volatile New York Giants owner Andrew Freedman is found guilty of an April 22 assault on baseball writer Edward Hurst. He receives a suspended sentence -- most likely, because he was rich, and the judge didn't want to put a rich man in jail.
Freedman was a piece of work. He was a director of the Interborough Rapid Transit company (IRT), which ran horse-drawn carriage lines in New York, and built the City's 1st Subway in 1904. He raced yachts. He seemed to be a respectable New York businessman.
But in 1895, he bought the Giants, and became New York's 1st fabulously wealthy but eccentric sports-team owner, preceding George Steinbrenner by nearly 80 years, Donald Trump (who owned the USFL's New Jersey Generals) by nearly 70, and Larry MacPhail by over 40.
But he underpaid his players, even by the standards of the day. His star pitcher Amos Rusie sat out the entire 1896 season, rather than accept a pay cut. Freedman suspected anyone who opposed him of anti-Semitism -- and was the target of some genuine anti-Jewish bigotry. Finally, in 1902, he sold the Giants to John T. Brush, and was out of baseball, and all of baseball rejoiced. He died in 1915, only 55, but worth over $4 million -- about $95 million in today's money.
October 12, 1898: The University of Michigan and the school now known as Michigan State University play each other in football for the 1st time. The Wolverines beat the Spartans 39-2 in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines lead the series, 71-36-5. They will play each other in Ann Arbor on October 31, Halloween.
He later practiced law and became a novelist, and lived until 1956. His son, Truxtun Hare Jr., was an All-American at Yale.
October 12, 1882: John Preston Hill is born in Culpeper, Virginia, and grows up in Pittsburgh. A left fielder, a baseball historian has called "Pete" Hill "black baseball's first superstar." He played professionally from 1889 (at age 16) until 1925, starring for the Trenton, New Jersey-based Cuban X-Giants (like the Globetrotters with "Harlem," and the Lincoln Giants with "Lincoln," the name "Cuban" practically advertised their blackness), the Philadelphia Giants, the Chicago-based Leland Giants, and Rube Fosters Chicago American Giants.
He died in 1951. In 2006, he was 1 of 16 "overlooked" pre-1947 black baseball legends elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
October 12, 1884: John Rutherford (no middle name) is born in Percy Main, Northumberland, England. Like many Scotsmen, or (in his case) men of Scottish descent, his nickname was Jock. A winger, he starred for the closest Football League club to Northumberland, Newcastle United, winning the League title in 1905, 1907 and 1909. He appeared in 5 FA Cup Finals for them, but only won once, in 1910. Jock Rutherford later played 13 seasons for Arsenal, and died in 1963.
October 12, 1892: The University of Illinois and cross-State rival Northwestern University play each other in football for the 1st time, on the Illini's campus in Champaign. The game is a 16-16 tie. Illinois leads the rivalry, 55-53-5. Despite their infamous football woes, Northwestern has won the last 5, and 1e of the last 17.
Since 2009, the schools have played for the Land of Lincoln Trophy, a brass copy of Honest Abe’s famed top hat.
October 12, 1893: George Ritchie Hodgson is born in Montreal. A swimmer, he won 2 Gold Medals for Canada at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. He died in 1983, and was elected to the Quebec Sports Hall of Fame.
October 12, 1895, 125 years ago: Sporting Life magazine notes, "There has never been a negro player in the National League. Though the colored brethren have turned out some excellent players‚ the color lines have been drawn very closely around the major body‚ and no colored man ever got into the ranks."
Black players had appeared in the American Association, a major league that played from 1882 to 1891, up until the 1887 season. But none would play in the NL until 1947.
October 12, 1896: Volatile New York Giants owner Andrew Freedman is found guilty of an April 22 assault on baseball writer Edward Hurst. He receives a suspended sentence -- most likely, because he was rich, and the judge didn't want to put a rich man in jail.
Freedman was a piece of work. He was a director of the Interborough Rapid Transit company (IRT), which ran horse-drawn carriage lines in New York, and built the City's 1st Subway in 1904. He raced yachts. He seemed to be a respectable New York businessman.
But in 1895, he bought the Giants, and became New York's 1st fabulously wealthy but eccentric sports-team owner, preceding George Steinbrenner by nearly 80 years, Donald Trump (who owned the USFL's New Jersey Generals) by nearly 70, and Larry MacPhail by over 40.
But he underpaid his players, even by the standards of the day. His star pitcher Amos Rusie sat out the entire 1896 season, rather than accept a pay cut. Freedman suspected anyone who opposed him of anti-Semitism -- and was the target of some genuine anti-Jewish bigotry. Finally, in 1902, he sold the Giants to John T. Brush, and was out of baseball, and all of baseball rejoiced. He died in 1915, only 55, but worth over $4 million -- about $95 million in today's money.
October 12, 1898: The University of Michigan and the school now known as Michigan State University play each other in football for the 1st time. The Wolverines beat the Spartans 39-2 in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines lead the series, 71-36-5. They will play each other in Ann Arbor on October 31, Halloween.
So far, no Michigan-based filmmaker -- admittedly the best-known one, Michael Moore, only seems to make preachy documentaries -- has decided to make a movie about what would happen if the superhero Wolverine took on the ancient Spartan army.
October 12, 1899: The American League is founded by Byron Bancroft "Ban" Johnson, a Cincinnati sportswriter. It plays as a minor league in 1900, and goes all-out as a major league in 1901.
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October 12, 1905: Richard Benjamin Ferrell is born in Durham, North Carolina. A catcher, Rick Ferrell was an 8-time American League All-Star, including playing in the 1st 6 All-Star Games from 1933 to 1938. He played for the St. Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox and Washington Senators from 1929 to 1947, and, except for the 1945 Senators, 1 game out, never came close to a Pennant.
He was later a scout and an executive for the Detroit Tigers, the team that beat his Senators out for that 1945 Pennant. His work for them got him World Series rings in 1968 and 1984. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984, retired from the Tiger organization in 1992, and died in 1995.
His brother, Wes Ferrell, won 193 games as a pitcher and hit 37 home runs, more than any other player who was primarily a pitcher. (Babe Ruth, of course, did not stay a pitcher.) It is a common belief among baseball fans that the wrong brother was elected to the Hall. Both brothers were also elected to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame and the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame.
October 12, 1906: Joseph Edward Cronin is born in San Francisco. Both shortstop and manager for the Washington Senators, he led them to the 1933 AL Pennant, still the last Pennant ever won by a Washington baseball team (unless you count the Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues, and even then they split their "home" games between Washington and Pittsburgh).
Senators owner Clark Griffith, himself a former pitcher good enough to make the Hall of Fame even if he hadn't been a pioneering team owner, liked Cronin so much he let him marry his daughter Mildred. But when Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey offered the perennially broke Griffith big bucks for Cronin, he sold his son-in-law, his shortstop, and his manager off all in one fell swoop. The price: $225,000 -- about $4.36 million in today's money.
Yawkey made Cronin his shortstop and manager, but ego made Cronin the manager keep Cronin the player at shortstop long after his skills had deteriorated. This caused the Red Sox to trade away the star shortstop of their Louisville farm team, Harold "Pee Wee" Reese.
True, this allowed Johnny Pesky to become an All-Star shortstop once Cronin finally accepted that he didn't have it anymore, but it also led the greatest of all Red Sox, Ted Williams, to say that if the Sox had Phil Rizzuto at short, they would have won "all those Pennants" instead of the Yankees.
Finally, in 1946 -- a year after he finally retired as a player, which may not be a coincidence -- Cronin led the Red Sox to the Pennant, but lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals, a loss often blamed on… drumroll please… shortstop Pesky "holding the ball." (His 40th birthday fell on a travel day during the Series.)
Cronin only lasted another year as manager, then was "promoted" to team president. He left the team presidency in 1959 when he was offered the presidency of the American League, a post he held until 1973.
That the Red Sox became the last team to integrate is often blamed on owner Yawkey and his drinking buddy, Michael "Pinky" Higgins, who famously declared that there would never be a (racial slur beginning with N) on the team as long as he was the manager, as which he was hired in 1955. And, once Yawkey fired him in 1959, the Sox then integrated. However, about a year later, Yawkey hired him back, and at that point, Higgins managed more black players than his fired successor, Rudy York, or the man hired to replace York, Bucky Harris.
Could it be that the real Yawkey drinking buddy/roadblock to integration was Cronin? After all, the year that the Sox integrated, with Elijah "Pumpsie" Green, was 1959, the very year Cronin left to become AL President.
Joe Cronin is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and his Number 4 has been retired by the Red Sox. But if he hadn't managed the Sox to that '46 Pennant, I wonder if he would have deserved these honors. After all, he wasn't a great shortstop for the same length of time that his contemporaries Rizzuto, Reese, Luke Appling, Lou Boudreau or Marty Marion were. (Marion is the only one of these not in the Hall, and I think he deserves it.) And, as far as I can tell, he was the 1st manager ever to walk out to the mound and tell his pitcher, "Don't give him anything good to hit – but don't walk him."
October 12, 1907: At Detroit's Bennett Park, Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown throws a 2-0 shutout, beating the Tigers to capture the World Championship for the Cubs. Although Game 1 ended in a 3-3, 12-inning tie, Chicago becomes the first club to sweep a Fall Classic.
The last surviving member of the Cubs' 1907 World Champions was rookie 3rd baseman Henry "Heinie" Zimmerman, who was also the last survivor of their 1908 World Champions. He lived until 1969.
Also on this day, Philip Weintraub (no middle name) is born in Chicago. The 1st baseman had a minor-league batting average of .337, and a major-league average of .295. Phil played 8 games for the New York Giants near the end of their World Championship season in 1933, but did not make their World Series roster.
Despite his hitting, he was out of baseball after 1938, only returning to the Giants in 1944 and '45 due to the manpower drain of World War II. Anti-Semitism has been suspected. He played in the "Tricornered Game" of the 3 New York teams for war bonds in 1944. He became a successful businessman, and lived until 1987.
Also on this day, Alfred John Smith is born outside St. Louis in Belleville, Illinois. A pitcher, he helped the New York Giants win the 1936 and '37 National League Pennants, and was an All-Star with the Cleveland Indians in 1943.
But he is best known for being the starting pitcher for the Indians on July 17, 1941, the night the Indians stopped Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Yankees won the game anyway, 4-3, and Smith was the losing pitcher. That made the difference for his career: His record ended up at 99-101. He died in 1977.
October 12, 1899: The American League is founded by Byron Bancroft "Ban" Johnson, a Cincinnati sportswriter. It plays as a minor league in 1900, and goes all-out as a major league in 1901.
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October 12, 1905: Richard Benjamin Ferrell is born in Durham, North Carolina. A catcher, Rick Ferrell was an 8-time American League All-Star, including playing in the 1st 6 All-Star Games from 1933 to 1938. He played for the St. Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox and Washington Senators from 1929 to 1947, and, except for the 1945 Senators, 1 game out, never came close to a Pennant.
He was later a scout and an executive for the Detroit Tigers, the team that beat his Senators out for that 1945 Pennant. His work for them got him World Series rings in 1968 and 1984. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984, retired from the Tiger organization in 1992, and died in 1995.
His brother, Wes Ferrell, won 193 games as a pitcher and hit 37 home runs, more than any other player who was primarily a pitcher. (Babe Ruth, of course, did not stay a pitcher.) It is a common belief among baseball fans that the wrong brother was elected to the Hall. Both brothers were also elected to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame and the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame.
October 12, 1906: Joseph Edward Cronin is born in San Francisco. Both shortstop and manager for the Washington Senators, he led them to the 1933 AL Pennant, still the last Pennant ever won by a Washington baseball team (unless you count the Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues, and even then they split their "home" games between Washington and Pittsburgh).
Senators owner Clark Griffith, himself a former pitcher good enough to make the Hall of Fame even if he hadn't been a pioneering team owner, liked Cronin so much he let him marry his daughter Mildred. But when Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey offered the perennially broke Griffith big bucks for Cronin, he sold his son-in-law, his shortstop, and his manager off all in one fell swoop. The price: $225,000 -- about $4.36 million in today's money.
Yawkey made Cronin his shortstop and manager, but ego made Cronin the manager keep Cronin the player at shortstop long after his skills had deteriorated. This caused the Red Sox to trade away the star shortstop of their Louisville farm team, Harold "Pee Wee" Reese.
True, this allowed Johnny Pesky to become an All-Star shortstop once Cronin finally accepted that he didn't have it anymore, but it also led the greatest of all Red Sox, Ted Williams, to say that if the Sox had Phil Rizzuto at short, they would have won "all those Pennants" instead of the Yankees.
Finally, in 1946 -- a year after he finally retired as a player, which may not be a coincidence -- Cronin led the Red Sox to the Pennant, but lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals, a loss often blamed on… drumroll please… shortstop Pesky "holding the ball." (His 40th birthday fell on a travel day during the Series.)
Cronin only lasted another year as manager, then was "promoted" to team president. He left the team presidency in 1959 when he was offered the presidency of the American League, a post he held until 1973.
That the Red Sox became the last team to integrate is often blamed on owner Yawkey and his drinking buddy, Michael "Pinky" Higgins, who famously declared that there would never be a (racial slur beginning with N) on the team as long as he was the manager, as which he was hired in 1955. And, once Yawkey fired him in 1959, the Sox then integrated. However, about a year later, Yawkey hired him back, and at that point, Higgins managed more black players than his fired successor, Rudy York, or the man hired to replace York, Bucky Harris.
Could it be that the real Yawkey drinking buddy/roadblock to integration was Cronin? After all, the year that the Sox integrated, with Elijah "Pumpsie" Green, was 1959, the very year Cronin left to become AL President.
Joe Cronin is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and his Number 4 has been retired by the Red Sox. But if he hadn't managed the Sox to that '46 Pennant, I wonder if he would have deserved these honors. After all, he wasn't a great shortstop for the same length of time that his contemporaries Rizzuto, Reese, Luke Appling, Lou Boudreau or Marty Marion were. (Marion is the only one of these not in the Hall, and I think he deserves it.) And, as far as I can tell, he was the 1st manager ever to walk out to the mound and tell his pitcher, "Don't give him anything good to hit – but don't walk him."
October 12, 1907: At Detroit's Bennett Park, Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown throws a 2-0 shutout, beating the Tigers to capture the World Championship for the Cubs. Although Game 1 ended in a 3-3, 12-inning tie, Chicago becomes the first club to sweep a Fall Classic.
The last surviving member of the Cubs' 1907 World Champions was rookie 3rd baseman Henry "Heinie" Zimmerman, who was also the last survivor of their 1908 World Champions. He lived until 1969.
Also on this day, Philip Weintraub (no middle name) is born in Chicago. The 1st baseman had a minor-league batting average of .337, and a major-league average of .295. Phil played 8 games for the New York Giants near the end of their World Championship season in 1933, but did not make their World Series roster.
Despite his hitting, he was out of baseball after 1938, only returning to the Giants in 1944 and '45 due to the manpower drain of World War II. Anti-Semitism has been suspected. He played in the "Tricornered Game" of the 3 New York teams for war bonds in 1944. He became a successful businessman, and lived until 1987.
Also on this day, Alfred John Smith is born outside St. Louis in Belleville, Illinois. A pitcher, he helped the New York Giants win the 1936 and '37 National League Pennants, and was an All-Star with the Cleveland Indians in 1943.
But he is best known for being the starting pitcher for the Indians on July 17, 1941, the night the Indians stopped Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Yankees won the game anyway, 4-3, and Smith was the losing pitcher. That made the difference for his career: His record ended up at 99-101. He died in 1977.
October 12, 1909: Game 4 of the World Series at Bennett Park. For the 1st time, due to a dispute over a foul ball earlier in the Series, baseline umpires are used, along with the home plate umpire, and one for all the bases.
Detroit Tiger pitcher Wild Bill Donovan is thrown out of the game by those umpires, for arguing a call. George Mullin pitches a 5-hit shutout, and is backed by 2 runs in the 2nd inning and 3 in the 4th, and the host Tigers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-0, tying the Series at 2 games apiece.
Also on this day, Paul S. McBrayer is born in Kavanaugh, Kentucky. (I can find no record of what the S stands for.) He played basketball at the University of Kentucky, and was named an All-American in 1930. After serving as a Kentucky assistant under Adoph Rupp, he served as head coach at Eastern Kentucky University from 1946 to 1962, with a record of 214-142. He died in 1999, and EKU's arena is named McBrayer Arena for him.
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October 12, 1910, 110 years ago: With the AL's season ending a week earlier than the NL's‚ the champion Philadelphia Athletics tune up with a 5-game series against an AL all-star team‚ which includes Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers‚ Tris Speaker of the Red Sox‚ Doc White and Ed Walsh of the Chicago White Sox‚ and Walter Johnson of the Senators.
The A's drop 4 out of 5 to the all-stars‚ but manager/part-owner Connie Mack will later state‚ "Those games‚ more than anything else‚ put the Athletics in a condition to outclass the National League champions." These are not baseball's first "all-star games," but they were very consequential as far as determining the World Champions of baseball -- indeed, an entire era.
October 12, 1911: Vijay Madhavji Thakersey is born in Bombay, British India -- now known as Mumbai, India. Under the name Vijay Merchant, he played for what was then named "Bombay Cricket Team" (now Mumbai Cricket Association) from 1929 to 1951, and played 10 test matches for India.
He is regarded as the founder of the Bombay School of Batsmanship, that placed more importance on proper technique, steely temperament, and conservative approach rather than free flow of the bat, a tradition broken and remolded only after the arrival of Sachin Tendulkar in the late 1980s.
His batting average (in cricket, that means runs divided by outs) of 71.64 is the 2nd-highest first class average in history, behind only that of Australia's Don Bradman. CB Fry, who starred in English cricket from the 1890s to the 1910s, and finished his career with Europeans, a club based in India, said, "Let us paint him white and take him with us to Australia as an opener." He died in 1987, age 76.
October 12, 1912: Woolwich Arsenal lose to fellow Londoners Chelsea 1-0 before 20,000 at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, Southeast London. The Gunners have now won only 1 of their 1st 8 League games. They are on course to be relegated.
They would be, for the only time in the team's history. But team owner Henry Norris was already preparing to build a new stadium, across the River Thames, in the Highbury section of North London. It would enable Arsenal, who dropped the geographic identifier in 1914, to get much more money in gate receipts, and get back into the Football League Division One.
October 12, 1910, 110 years ago: With the AL's season ending a week earlier than the NL's‚ the champion Philadelphia Athletics tune up with a 5-game series against an AL all-star team‚ which includes Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers‚ Tris Speaker of the Red Sox‚ Doc White and Ed Walsh of the Chicago White Sox‚ and Walter Johnson of the Senators.
The A's drop 4 out of 5 to the all-stars‚ but manager/part-owner Connie Mack will later state‚ "Those games‚ more than anything else‚ put the Athletics in a condition to outclass the National League champions." These are not baseball's first "all-star games," but they were very consequential as far as determining the World Champions of baseball -- indeed, an entire era.
October 12, 1911: Vijay Madhavji Thakersey is born in Bombay, British India -- now known as Mumbai, India. Under the name Vijay Merchant, he played for what was then named "Bombay Cricket Team" (now Mumbai Cricket Association) from 1929 to 1951, and played 10 test matches for India.
He is regarded as the founder of the Bombay School of Batsmanship, that placed more importance on proper technique, steely temperament, and conservative approach rather than free flow of the bat, a tradition broken and remolded only after the arrival of Sachin Tendulkar in the late 1980s.
His batting average (in cricket, that means runs divided by outs) of 71.64 is the 2nd-highest first class average in history, behind only that of Australia's Don Bradman. CB Fry, who starred in English cricket from the 1890s to the 1910s, and finished his career with Europeans, a club based in India, said, "Let us paint him white and take him with us to Australia as an opener." He died in 1987, age 76.
October 12, 1912: Woolwich Arsenal lose to fellow Londoners Chelsea 1-0 before 20,000 at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, Southeast London. The Gunners have now won only 1 of their 1st 8 League games. They are on course to be relegated.
They would be, for the only time in the team's history. But team owner Henry Norris was already preparing to build a new stadium, across the River Thames, in the Highbury section of North London. It would enable Arsenal, who dropped the geographic identifier in 1914, to get much more money in gate receipts, and get back into the Football League Division One.
Since the FA canceled seasons 1939-40 through 1945-46 due to World War II, the 2020-21 season that is now underway is Arsenal's 95th straight in the top flight, even though it's been more than 100 years. Barring an absolute disaster, their 100th will be 2025-26..
October 12, 1913: Following the World Series, which his New York Giants lost to the Philadelphia Athletics, John McGraw hosts a reunion for Hughie Jennings and the 1892-99 NL version of the Baltimore Orioles.
After a night of heavy drinking‚ McGraw blames his longtime friend‚ business partner and teammate Wilbert Robinson, perhaps baseball's 1st great pitching coach, for too many coaching mistakes in the 1913 Series. "Uncle Robbie" replies that McGraw made more mistakes than anybody. McGraw fires him. Eyewitnesses say Robbie doused McGraw with a glass of beer and left.
Six days later, Robbie will begin a legendary 18 years as manager of the crosstown Brooklyn franchise‚ replacing Bill Dahlen. The team will carry the nickname Robins‚ as well as Dodgers‚ during his tenure.
Robbie and Mac won't speak to each other for 17 years, and after winning 3 straight Pennants together, McGraw will win just 1 Pennant in the next 7 years, while Robbie will win 2 -- the only Pennants the Brooklyn team will win between 1900 and 1941.
This is not the beginning of the rivalry between the Giants and the Dodgers, not by a long shot. That rivalry had its beginning in rivalries between clubs of New York (Manhattan) and Brooklyn when they were separate cities prior to 1898, even going back to the days of amateur baseball in the 1850s and '60s. And the rivalry between Manhattan and Brooklyn would have happened even if baseball had never been invented. (But what cruel person would want to live in such a world?)
But the McGraw-Robinson bustup is the beginning of a rivalry that ruined one of baseball's great friendships, not resolved until both men were retired and near death. Still, they both ended up in the Hall of Fame -- neither lived to see the Hall's establishment, though -- and are buried in the same Baltimore cemetery.
Somebody should write a book about it: We've seen books about the Giants, about the Dodgers, about the Dodger-Giant rivalry, about McGraw, and even about the old Orioles -- but the McGraw-Robinson relationship is a fascinating one. They're like the John Adams and Thomas Jefferson of baseball: Great friends in a great cause, then a nasty split and a nastier rivalry, and the relationship was repaired and the great friendship restored toward the end.
October 12, 1915: Edith Cavell, a British nurse who had tended to wounded men on both sides of World War I, is executed for treason by German troops at Schaerbeek, outside Brussels, Belgium. She was 49, and this infuriated the international community, already angry at the Germans for their imperial aggression in the war.
October 12, 1916: The Red Sox defeat the Dodgers/Robins, 4-1, and win the World Series by the same margin. After winning back-to-back World Series – still the only manager in the history of Boston baseball to do so – Bill Carrigan announces his retirement. He will return to the post in 1927, but, without future Hall-of-Famers such as Speaker, Harry Hooper and, uh, Babe Ruth, he will finish at the bottom of the American League instead of the top.
The last surviving member of the 1916 Red Sox was pitcher Ernie Shore, who lived until 1980.
Also on this day, Club América is founded in Mexico City. They are the most popular sports team in Mexico, but, as so often happens (as with the Yankees), the most popular team has even more people who hate them. This is likely due to their being the most successful team: They have won 17 League titles between 1924 and 2018, the Copa México 7 times between 1938 and 2019, and the CONCACAF
Champions League 7 times: 1977, 1987, 1990, 1992, 2006, 2015 and 2016. All of these are records.
Since 1966, they have played at the 87,523-seat Estadio Azteca, which seated nearly 120,000 at its peak. They have 3 major rivalries, playing El Super Clásico with C.D. Guadalajara (a.k.a. Chivas),
Since 1966, they have played at the 87,523-seat Estadio Azteca, which seated nearly 120,000 at its peak. They have 3 major rivalries, playing El Super Clásico with C.D. Guadalajara (a.k.a. Chivas),
El Clásico Capitalino with Mexico City's Club Universidad Nacional (a.k.a. U.N.A.M. or Pumas), and El Clásico Joven with Mexico City's Cruz Azul (Blue Cross).
As would be expected, half (13) of their current players (26) are Mexican, and all 26 of their players are Spanish-speaking Latin Americans (also including 3 Argentines, 3 Colombians, 3 Paraguayans, 2 Uruguayans, a Guatemalan and a Chilean).
As would be expected, half (13) of their current players (26) are Mexican, and all 26 of their players are Spanish-speaking Latin Americans (also including 3 Argentines, 3 Colombians, 3 Paraguayans, 2 Uruguayans, a Guatemalan and a Chilean).
Also on this day, Estádio Vila Belmiro opens in Santos, São Paulo state, Brazil, as the home of Santos Futebol Clube. In the 1st game, Santos beat Clube Atlético Ypiranga, 2-1. Now named Estádio Urbano Caldeira, for a former player, manager and chairman of the team, it seats 16,068, and has been the home of Santos FC ever since, including Pelé from 1956 to 1974.
However, World War I made 1916 a terrible year for sports in general: Most European soccer leagues were suspended, England did not contest the FA Cup (they did have a version of it during World War II, although League play was suspended), the Olympic Games were not held (they were set for Berlin, in aggressor Germany), most major horse races outside still-neutral America were not contested, and the British Open golf tournament, Wimbledon, the French Open and the Australian Open were not staged (although the U.S. Open, in both sports, was).
Canada, still part of the British Empire, and thus subject to the whims of the Parliament in London, canceled its Grey Cup football tournament. America could not stage its own pro football playoffs, since there was no NFL as yet. Pro basketball barely existed, and, since both sports were then dominated by British Empire dominions, no major cricket or rugby competitions were held.
In so many ways, 1916 was a horrible year. And, due to the Great War (as it was then called) dragging on, things would get worse before they got better. For example:
It also remains one of the few battles in human history in which both sides claimed a defeat, which is accurate, since both sides lost over 200,000 men over the 3-month course of the battle, and no territory exchanged hands. They literally died for nothing.
Also on this day, Thomas George Jones is born in Queensferry, and grows up in nearby Connah's Quay. Although in Wales, it is just 17 miles from Liverpool, England, where "T.G. Jones" played as a goalkeeper for Everton Football Club from 1936 to 1950. He was the last survivor of their 1939 League Champions, living until 2004.
Also on this day, Roque Gastón Máspoli Arbelvide is born in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.
Roque Máspoli was the goalkeeper for the Uruguay team that won the 1950 World Cup. At club level, he played for both of the arch-rival Montevideo clubs. With Nacional, he won Uruguay's league in 1934 and 1939. With Peñarol, he won titles in 1944, 1945, 1949, 1951, 1953 and 1954.
He later managed Peñarol to League titles in 1964, 1965, 1967 and 1986, and the Copa Libertadores, South America's "Champions League," in 1966. In 1997, he managed the national team at age 80, making him the oldest national team manager in any country. He died in 2004.
October 12, 1918: There were 8 Major League Baseball players, all of them Americans, who died serving their country in World War I, and 2 of them did so on this day.
Lieutenant Alexander Thomson Burr, U.S. Army Air Service, a Chicagoan known as Tom Burr as a pitcher, played just 1 game in the majors, in the outfield for the Yankees in 1914, and never got to bat -- a true "Moonlight Graham." He is killed in a plane crash, in Cazaux, France.
It was an accident: Rather than being shot down, another U.S. pilot crashed into him -- what became known as "friendly fire." His plane caught fire, and crashed into a lake. It took 12 days to find his body. He wasn't quite 25 years old.
There is no mention of him at Yankee Stadium, not in Monument Park, and not in the Yankees Museum. You would think that, for all his nods toward American patriotism, George Steinbrenner would have done something to honor the one and only Yankee who ever died in the service of his country. I wonder if he even knew.
The last survivor of the 1920 Indians was rookie Joe Sewell, who took over at shortstop for Ray Chapman after he was hit in the head by a pitch from Carl Mays of the Yankees on August 16, and died the next day. Sewell went on to a Hall of Fame career as a 3rd baseman, and ended up with the Yankees, winning another Series in 1932. He lived until 1990.
Also on this day, a match race is held at Kenilworth Park in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit. The previous year, Sir Barton had become the 1st horse to win the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes, the combination that would become known as the Triple Crown. Man o' War was the dominant horse of the time, having entered only the Belmont among the 3 in 1920, and won it. Sir Barton was unused to hard tracks like Kenilworth, and couldn't keep up. Man o' War won the race by 7 lengths.
October 12, 1921: Game 7 of the World Series -- not the deciding game, as this one was best-5-out-of-9. Phil Douglas outpitches Carl Mays, and the New York Giants beat the Yankees 2-1. The Giants can wrap it up tomorrow in Game 8.
Also on this day, Jaroslav Drobný is born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). He survived the Nazi occupation of his homeland to become one of the world's top athletes: A great tennis player, and a hockey player who led his country to the 1947 amateur World Championship and a Silver Medal at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland. But didn't like how the subsequent Communist government was using him for propaganda, and he defected while at a tournament in Switzerland in 1949.
Egypt offered him citizenship. He is the only citizen of an African nation ever to win a Grand Slam tennis tournament: The French Open in 1951 and 1952, and Wimbledon in 1954. He had sustained an eye injury in hockey, so he wore glasses on the tennis court. He is the only man to win major championships in both tennis and what we in North America would consider one of the "Big Four" sports. He is also the only man to win Wimbledon while wearing glasses. (Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova did so, but by the time he won it in 1975, Arthur Ashe had switched to contact lenses.)
He soon moved to London, became a British citizen, married an Englishwoman, and wrote a memoir,
Champion in Exile. He died in 2001, shortly before his 80th birthday.
Also on this day, Leslie Horvath (no middle name) is born in South Bend, Indiana. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, but, despite being born in South Bend, he didn't go to the University of Notre Dame.
Shortly after he was born, his family moved to the Cleveland suburb of Parma, Ohio, and he grew up there, and went to Ohio State University, winning the National Championship as a sophomore in 1942 and the Heisman Trophy as a senior in 1944, the Buckeyes' 1st Heisman winner. His Number 22 was retired.
He played for the Los Angeles Rams in 1947 and 1948, and for his hometown Cleveland Browns in 1949, winning the Championship of the All-America Football Conference. He then left pro football, deciding to enter the profession for which his degree qualified him: Dentistry. Dr. Les Horvath lived until 1995.
Also on this day, Senator Philander C. Knox of Pennsylvania dies in office, at age 68 in Washington. He had previously served in th Cabinets of 3 Presidents: William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt as Attorney General, and William Howard Taft as Secretary of State.
October 12, 1923: In front of the largest paying crowd in baseball history to that point, 62,430 fans are on hand at Yankee Stadium. They see Casey Stengel hit his 2nd home run of the World Series. The round-tripper proves to be the difference when Giant hurler Art Nerf outduels Yankee starter Sam Jones in Game 3 of the Fall Classic, 1-0.
The Giants now lead 2 games to 1. They will not win another game that counts until April 15, 1924.
Also on this day, Alfred Perry Lucas dies in Great Waltham, Essex, England. He was 66. Known in cricket records as A.P. Lucas, but known to his friends as Bunny Lucas and to fans as The Boss, he played that sport at its highest level from 1874 to 1907.
October 12, 1926: John Irvin Kennedy is born in Jacksonville, Florida. A shortstop, he played in the minor leagues from 1951 to 1961. On April 22, 1957, he became the 1st black player for the Philadelphia Phillies. This made the Phillies the last team in the National League to integrate, and left the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox of the American League the only teams not yet having done so.
Given that, 10 years earlier, the Phillies, then managed by Ben Chapman, heaped so much racist abuse on the 1st black player of the modern era, Jackie Robinson, it is appropriate that Kennedy's debut takes place at Robinson's home ballpark, Ebbets Field. It is also appropriate that Kennedy, wearing Number 8, enters the game in the 8th inning as a pinch-runner for Solly Hemus, who would later be revealed as one of the era's nastiest baseball racists. Kennedy is stranded at 2nd base, and is not put into the field. The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Phillies, 5-1.
Kennedy, already 30 years old, makes only 5 appearances for the Phillies, coming to the plate twice without reaching base, and is sent back down to the minors in May. He died in 1998, just 72 years old.
He should not be confused with John Edward Kennedy, a white infielder (mostly 3rd base), who played in the major leagues from 1962 -- playing in Washington while John Fitzgerald Kennedy was President there -- until 1974, including winning a World Series ring with the 1965 Dodgers, and playing for the Yankees in 1967 and the infamous Seattle Pilots of 1969.
Also on this day, Mkrtych Pogosovich Simonyan is born in Armavir, in the Soviet Union. Of Armenian descent, he took the Russian name Nikita Pavlovich Simonyan. A striker, from 1949 to 1959, he starred for the most popular sports team in the USSR, Spartak Moscow.
He helped them win Soviet Top League titles in 1952, 1953, 1956 and 1958, and the Soviet Cup in 1950 and 1958 (meaning they "did the Double" in 1958). He is the all-time leading scorer for the Soviet and post-Soviet Russian 1st division. He helped the USSR win the Olympic Gold Medal in 1956, and reach the Quarterfinals of the 1958 World Cup.
He didn't stop there. He managed Spartak to the Soviet Top League title in 1962 and 1969, and the Soviet Cup in 1963, 1965 and 1971. Returning to his native Armenia, he led Ararat Yerevan to the Soviet League and Cup Double in 1973. He managed the Soviet national team from 1977 to 1979.
At age 94, he is the greatest-ever athlete of Armenian descent, and the greatest living Soviet or Russian soccer player.
October 12, 1929: Game 4 of the 1929 World Series, at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, remains one of the wildest in postseason history. Having started a seemingly washed-up Howard Ehmke in Game 1 and having it work, this time, Philadelphia Athletics owner-manager Connie Mack starts 45-year-old Jack Quinn. (Already approaching his 67th birthday, Mack was not yet known as "The Grand Old Man of Baseball," but, apparenlty, he already had an affinity for veterans.)
This seems to work, too, until the 6th inning, when the Chicago Cubs start scoring. By the time they stop, they lead, 7-0. Cub manager Joe McCarthy starts Charlie Root, who would later become a victim of McCarthy's Yankees, including Babe Ruth’s "called shot," though this quirk of history/legend does not do Root justice, as he was a fine pitcher for many years. Root enters the bottom of the 7th with an 8-0 lead.
Then the A's come storming back. It's already 8-4 Cubs when Hack Wilson, a great slugger but not the best of outfielders even when not drunk or hungover, misjudges a fly ball from Mule Haas, and it turns into a 3-run inside-the-park home run, making the score 8-7 Cubs.
One of the runners scoring on the play is Al Simmons, and the great slugger storms into the dugout, yelling, "We're back in the game, boys!" and his momentum causes him to crash into Mack – as I said, nearly 67, if not the elderly figure some of us imagine him to have always been. Simmons apologizes profusely, but Mack, a former big-league catcher and familiar with ballplayers crashing into him, is just as enthused and tells him, "That's all right, Al."
The A's score a Series record 10 runs in the inning, and ace Lefty Grove comes in to relieve and finish the Cubs off, as 10-8 remains the final score. The A's close down the shellshocked Cubs the next day.
Also on this day, Sanford Stadium opens in Athens, Georgia. Named for Dr. Steadman Vincent Sanford, an English professor and an early supporter of the school's athletic program, the University of Georgia opens it with 15-0 win over Yale in front of 30,000 fans. Since UGa had been founded by missionaries from Yale, and had also borrowed Yale's team name of Bulldogs, they were the invited guests.
Known for the privet hedges that surround the field, and the end zone containing the crypts for the deceased Uga the Bulldog mascots, Sanford Stadium has seen several expansions and renovations that have put its current seating capacity at 92,746. It hosted the soccer games of the 1996 Olympics, even though Athens and Atlanta, despite being in the same State, are not all that close.
With stars like Frankie Sinkwich, Charlie Trippi, Theron Sapp, Fran Tarkenton, Jake Scott, Herschel Walker, Garrison Hearst, Champ Bailey and Knowshon Moreno, the Georgia Bulldogs have won 15 Southeastern Conference Championships since moving in, most recently in 2017, as well as the 1942 and 1980 National Championships. They've also had All-Americans named Johnny Carson (not the talk show host), Randy Johnson (not the baseball pitcher) and George Patton (not the general).
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October 12, 1930, 90 years ago: Denis Joseph Germain Stanislaus Brodeur is born in Montreal. He was the goaltender for the Canada hockey team that won the Bronze Medal at the 1956 Winter Olympics. Later, he was the team photographer for the Montreal Canadiens and Expos. He is best remembered, though, as the father of Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur. He lived until 2013.
Also on this day, Private Harry Melville Glenn, U.S. Army Signal Corps, a Shelburn, Indiana native known in baseball as "Husky" Glenn, played a portion of the 1915 season as a catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, in the middle of an 8-year run of professional play, mostly with the St. Paul Saints.
He did not die in combat or in an accident: He developed pneumonia and, in those pre-antibiotic days, died in a St. Paul Hospital. He was 28.
Also on this day, the Cloquet Fire breaks out in northern Minnesota. It is believed to have caused 453 deaths and the rendering of 52,000 people homeless.
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October 12, 1920, 100 years ago: The Cleveland Indians win their 1st World Series, in Game 7 of the best-5-out-of-9 Series, 3-0 over Uncle Robbie's Dodgers/Robins, as Stan Coveleski outduels fellow future Hall-of-Famer Burleigh Grimes, for his 3rd win of the Series. It will be 21 years before the Dodgers get back into the Series; for the Indians, 28 years.He did not die in combat or in an accident: He developed pneumonia and, in those pre-antibiotic days, died in a St. Paul Hospital. He was 28.
Also on this day, the Cloquet Fire breaks out in northern Minnesota. It is believed to have caused 453 deaths and the rendering of 52,000 people homeless.
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The last survivor of the 1920 Indians was rookie Joe Sewell, who took over at shortstop for Ray Chapman after he was hit in the head by a pitch from Carl Mays of the Yankees on August 16, and died the next day. Sewell went on to a Hall of Fame career as a 3rd baseman, and ended up with the Yankees, winning another Series in 1932. He lived until 1990.
Also on this day, a match race is held at Kenilworth Park in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit. The previous year, Sir Barton had become the 1st horse to win the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes, the combination that would become known as the Triple Crown. Man o' War was the dominant horse of the time, having entered only the Belmont among the 3 in 1920, and won it. Sir Barton was unused to hard tracks like Kenilworth, and couldn't keep up. Man o' War won the race by 7 lengths.
October 12, 1921: Game 7 of the World Series -- not the deciding game, as this one was best-5-out-of-9. Phil Douglas outpitches Carl Mays, and the New York Giants beat the Yankees 2-1. The Giants can wrap it up tomorrow in Game 8.
Also on this day, Jaroslav Drobný is born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). He survived the Nazi occupation of his homeland to become one of the world's top athletes: A great tennis player, and a hockey player who led his country to the 1947 amateur World Championship and a Silver Medal at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland. But didn't like how the subsequent Communist government was using him for propaganda, and he defected while at a tournament in Switzerland in 1949.
Egypt offered him citizenship. He is the only citizen of an African nation ever to win a Grand Slam tennis tournament: The French Open in 1951 and 1952, and Wimbledon in 1954. He had sustained an eye injury in hockey, so he wore glasses on the tennis court. He is the only man to win major championships in both tennis and what we in North America would consider one of the "Big Four" sports. He is also the only man to win Wimbledon while wearing glasses. (Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova did so, but by the time he won it in 1975, Arthur Ashe had switched to contact lenses.)
He soon moved to London, became a British citizen, married an Englishwoman, and wrote a memoir,
Champion in Exile. He died in 2001, shortly before his 80th birthday.
Also on this day, Leslie Horvath (no middle name) is born in South Bend, Indiana. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, but, despite being born in South Bend, he didn't go to the University of Notre Dame.
Shortly after he was born, his family moved to the Cleveland suburb of Parma, Ohio, and he grew up there, and went to Ohio State University, winning the National Championship as a sophomore in 1942 and the Heisman Trophy as a senior in 1944, the Buckeyes' 1st Heisman winner. His Number 22 was retired.
He played for the Los Angeles Rams in 1947 and 1948, and for his hometown Cleveland Browns in 1949, winning the Championship of the All-America Football Conference. He then left pro football, deciding to enter the profession for which his degree qualified him: Dentistry. Dr. Les Horvath lived until 1995.
Also on this day, Senator Philander C. Knox of Pennsylvania dies in office, at age 68 in Washington. He had previously served in th Cabinets of 3 Presidents: William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt as Attorney General, and William Howard Taft as Secretary of State.
October 12, 1923: In front of the largest paying crowd in baseball history to that point, 62,430 fans are on hand at Yankee Stadium. They see Casey Stengel hit his 2nd home run of the World Series. The round-tripper proves to be the difference when Giant hurler Art Nerf outduels Yankee starter Sam Jones in Game 3 of the Fall Classic, 1-0.
The Giants now lead 2 games to 1. They will not win another game that counts until April 15, 1924.
Also on this day, Alfred Perry Lucas dies in Great Waltham, Essex, England. He was 66. Known in cricket records as A.P. Lucas, but known to his friends as Bunny Lucas and to fans as The Boss, he played that sport at its highest level from 1874 to 1907.
October 12, 1926: John Irvin Kennedy is born in Jacksonville, Florida. A shortstop, he played in the minor leagues from 1951 to 1961. On April 22, 1957, he became the 1st black player for the Philadelphia Phillies. This made the Phillies the last team in the National League to integrate, and left the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox of the American League the only teams not yet having done so.
Given that, 10 years earlier, the Phillies, then managed by Ben Chapman, heaped so much racist abuse on the 1st black player of the modern era, Jackie Robinson, it is appropriate that Kennedy's debut takes place at Robinson's home ballpark, Ebbets Field. It is also appropriate that Kennedy, wearing Number 8, enters the game in the 8th inning as a pinch-runner for Solly Hemus, who would later be revealed as one of the era's nastiest baseball racists. Kennedy is stranded at 2nd base, and is not put into the field. The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Phillies, 5-1.
Kennedy, already 30 years old, makes only 5 appearances for the Phillies, coming to the plate twice without reaching base, and is sent back down to the minors in May. He died in 1998, just 72 years old.
He should not be confused with John Edward Kennedy, a white infielder (mostly 3rd base), who played in the major leagues from 1962 -- playing in Washington while John Fitzgerald Kennedy was President there -- until 1974, including winning a World Series ring with the 1965 Dodgers, and playing for the Yankees in 1967 and the infamous Seattle Pilots of 1969.
Also on this day, Mkrtych Pogosovich Simonyan is born in Armavir, in the Soviet Union. Of Armenian descent, he took the Russian name Nikita Pavlovich Simonyan. A striker, from 1949 to 1959, he starred for the most popular sports team in the USSR, Spartak Moscow.
He helped them win Soviet Top League titles in 1952, 1953, 1956 and 1958, and the Soviet Cup in 1950 and 1958 (meaning they "did the Double" in 1958). He is the all-time leading scorer for the Soviet and post-Soviet Russian 1st division. He helped the USSR win the Olympic Gold Medal in 1956, and reach the Quarterfinals of the 1958 World Cup.
He didn't stop there. He managed Spartak to the Soviet Top League title in 1962 and 1969, and the Soviet Cup in 1963, 1965 and 1971. Returning to his native Armenia, he led Ararat Yerevan to the Soviet League and Cup Double in 1973. He managed the Soviet national team from 1977 to 1979.
At age 94, he is the greatest-ever athlete of Armenian descent, and the greatest living Soviet or Russian soccer player.
October 12, 1929: Game 4 of the 1929 World Series, at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, remains one of the wildest in postseason history. Having started a seemingly washed-up Howard Ehmke in Game 1 and having it work, this time, Philadelphia Athletics owner-manager Connie Mack starts 45-year-old Jack Quinn. (Already approaching his 67th birthday, Mack was not yet known as "The Grand Old Man of Baseball," but, apparenlty, he already had an affinity for veterans.)
This seems to work, too, until the 6th inning, when the Chicago Cubs start scoring. By the time they stop, they lead, 7-0. Cub manager Joe McCarthy starts Charlie Root, who would later become a victim of McCarthy's Yankees, including Babe Ruth’s "called shot," though this quirk of history/legend does not do Root justice, as he was a fine pitcher for many years. Root enters the bottom of the 7th with an 8-0 lead.
Then the A's come storming back. It's already 8-4 Cubs when Hack Wilson, a great slugger but not the best of outfielders even when not drunk or hungover, misjudges a fly ball from Mule Haas, and it turns into a 3-run inside-the-park home run, making the score 8-7 Cubs.
One of the runners scoring on the play is Al Simmons, and the great slugger storms into the dugout, yelling, "We're back in the game, boys!" and his momentum causes him to crash into Mack – as I said, nearly 67, if not the elderly figure some of us imagine him to have always been. Simmons apologizes profusely, but Mack, a former big-league catcher and familiar with ballplayers crashing into him, is just as enthused and tells him, "That's all right, Al."
The A's score a Series record 10 runs in the inning, and ace Lefty Grove comes in to relieve and finish the Cubs off, as 10-8 remains the final score. The A's close down the shellshocked Cubs the next day.
Also on this day, Sanford Stadium opens in Athens, Georgia. Named for Dr. Steadman Vincent Sanford, an English professor and an early supporter of the school's athletic program, the University of Georgia opens it with 15-0 win over Yale in front of 30,000 fans. Since UGa had been founded by missionaries from Yale, and had also borrowed Yale's team name of Bulldogs, they were the invited guests.
Known for the privet hedges that surround the field, and the end zone containing the crypts for the deceased Uga the Bulldog mascots, Sanford Stadium has seen several expansions and renovations that have put its current seating capacity at 92,746. It hosted the soccer games of the 1996 Olympics, even though Athens and Atlanta, despite being in the same State, are not all that close.
With stars like Frankie Sinkwich, Charlie Trippi, Theron Sapp, Fran Tarkenton, Jake Scott, Herschel Walker, Garrison Hearst, Champ Bailey and Knowshon Moreno, the Georgia Bulldogs have won 15 Southeastern Conference Championships since moving in, most recently in 2017, as well as the 1942 and 1980 National Championships. They've also had All-Americans named Johnny Carson (not the talk show host), Randy Johnson (not the baseball pitcher) and George Patton (not the general).
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October 12, 1930, 90 years ago: Denis Joseph Germain Stanislaus Brodeur is born in Montreal. He was the goaltender for the Canada hockey team that won the Bronze Medal at the 1956 Winter Olympics. Later, he was the team photographer for the Montreal Canadiens and Expos. He is best remembered, though, as the father of Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur. He lived until 2013.
Also on this day, Joseph Gerard Trimble is born in Providence, Rhode Island. A pitcher, he made 43 appearances in the major leagues, with the 1955 Boston Red Sox and the 1957 Pittsburgh Pirates, going 0-2 with a 7.48 ERA. He died in 2011.
Also on this day, Byron Ledare Bailey is born in Omaha, Nebraska. He might be the best football player you've never heard of. The Washington State University graduate won an NFL Championship as a rookie 2-way back with the 1952 Detroit Lions, then played with the Green Bay Packers in 1953.
In 1954, he was signed by a new team, the B.C. Lions of Vancouver, British Columbia, in the Canadian Football League. He scored their 1st regular-season touchdown, and retired after helping them win the Grey Cup, the CFL Championship, in 1964.
The Lions retired his Number 38. He was named to the Washington State University Athletic Hall of Fame, the B.C. Lions Wall of Fame, the BC Sports Hall of Fame, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, and, in a 2006 poll by TSN, the Canadian version of ESPN, the Honour Roll of the CFL's Top 50 Players. He died in 1998.
October 12, 1931: Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) is dedicated, overlooking Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The 98-foot-high statue (124 feet, counting its pedestal) was designed by French sculptor Paul Landowski and built by Brazilian engineer Heitor da Silva Costa. It is the most famous structure in South America, even more than the city's largest soccer stadium, the Maracanã.
So the 2 most famous statues in the Western Hemisphere were both designed by Frenchmen: This one, and the Statue of Liberty in New York by Frédéric Bartholdi.
October 12, 1932: Richard Claxton Gregory is born in St. Louis. Dick Gregory became a track star at Southern Illinois University, but dropped out: "They didn't want me to study, they wanted me to run." So he ran to Chicago, and began doing standup comedy in clubs. Hugh Hefner saw him, signed him for the city's Playboy Club, and he became a star.
Being black, he did not shy away from civil rights material: "Segregation is not all bad. Have you ever heard of a collision where the people in the back of the bus got hurt?" In 1961, the year Barack Obama was born, his act was filmed, and he said, "At the rate we're making progress, someday, we might have a black President. So laugh at my jokes, or I'll raise your taxes." After people stopped laughing, he added, "I wouldn't mind paying taxes if I knew they were going to a free country."
In 1964, with sportswriter Robert Lipsyte as his ghostwriter, he wrote a memoir, whose title was the N-word. He said, "Now, whenever people say that word, they're promoting my book." In 1968, he ran for President as the nominee of the Freedom and Peace Party. He got 47,097 votes.
In 1996, he appeared at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and noted that Newt Gingrich, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, had shut down the federal government because President Bill Clinton, in attendance that night, had made Gingrich get off Air Force One at a rear entrance. Dick said, "Newt shut down the government because you made him a Negro!" Clinton cracked up laughing. Gregory died in 2017.
October 12, 1935: Anthony Christopher Kubek is born in Milwaukee. The American League Rookie of the Year with the 1957 Yankees, he played shortstop in the World Series against his hometown team (not that they were there while he was growing up), the Milwaukee Braves, in his 1st 2 seasons, losing in 1957 and winning in 1958, and excelling in both Series.
In Game 7 of the 1960 Series, the day after his 25th birthday, he was hit in the throat by a ground ball that took a bad hop off a pebble on the Forbes Field infield dirt. That led to a Pittsburgh Pirates rally, and the Pirates won the game on Bill Mazeroski's home run.
But in 1961, Kubek and 2nd baseman Bobby Richardson formed one of the best double-play combinations in baseball history, as the Yankees won the Series, aided by Roger Maris' record of 61 home runs. They won the Series again in 1962, although Kubek missed much of the season due to military service. They won Pennants again in 1963 and '64, but lost the Series both times. Kubek had been in the majors for 8 seasons, and had won 7 Pennants and 3 World Series.
A back injury in 1965 convinced him to retire at age 30, and he went into broadcasting, a career that would see him given the Ford Frick Award, the Baseball Hall of Fame's award for broadcasters. He worked regular-season games for NBC for 24 years, including 12 World Series, and also did games for the expansion Toronto Blue Jays. When NBC lost its TV rights after the 1989 season, he rejoined the Yankees on the Madison Square Garden Network.
He quit broadcasting during the Strike of '94, and claims not to have even watched a game since: "I hate what the game's become: The greed, the nastiness. You can be married to baseball, give your heart to it, but when it starts taking over your soul, it's time to say, 'Whoa.'"
He attended his Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2009, but has never returned to Yankee Stadium, old or new. Indeed, only once has he participated in an Old-Timers' Day ceremony: In 1986, celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the 1961 team -- and plugging the book he wrote with Cleveland-based sportswriter Terry Pluto: Sixty-One: The Team, the Record, the Men.
He is 1 of 5 surviving players from the Yankees' 1958 World Champions; 8 from their 1961 World Champions; and 9 from their 1962 World Champions.
Also on this day, Donald Howe (no middle name) is born in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. He was a talented right back, but his hometown soccer team, Wolverhampton Wanderers, a.k.a. Wolves, weren't interested in him. Their arch-rivals, West Bromwich Albion, were, and he played for them from 1952 to 1964.
He quit broadcasting during the Strike of '94, and claims not to have even watched a game since: "I hate what the game's become: The greed, the nastiness. You can be married to baseball, give your heart to it, but when it starts taking over your soul, it's time to say, 'Whoa.'"
He attended his Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2009, but has never returned to Yankee Stadium, old or new. Indeed, only once has he participated in an Old-Timers' Day ceremony: In 1986, celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the 1961 team -- and plugging the book he wrote with Cleveland-based sportswriter Terry Pluto: Sixty-One: The Team, the Record, the Men.
He is 1 of 5 surviving players from the Yankees' 1958 World Champions; 8 from their 1961 World Champions; and 9 from their 1962 World Champions.
Also on this day, Donald Howe (no middle name) is born in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. He was a talented right back, but his hometown soccer team, Wolverhampton Wanderers, a.k.a. Wolves, weren't interested in him. Their arch-rivals, West Bromwich Albion, were, and he played for them from 1952 to 1964.
He played for England in the 1958 World Cup, and moved to North London club Arsenal in 1964 -- ironically, then managed by Wolves' greatest player ever, Billy Wright. But in 1966, he broke his leg in a game, and his playing career was over at age 30.
The next season, Arsenal fired Wright (a great player but a terrible manager), and hired Bertie Mee as manager. Mee made Howe his assistant coach, and, together, they built the team that won the League and FA Cup "Double" in 1971.
Howe built a tough defense, with goalkeeper Bob Wilson, right back Pat Rice, left back Bob McNab (father of actress Mercedes McNab), centrebacks Frank McLintock and Peter Simpson, and defensive midfielder Peter Storey. With the midfield also having George Graham and George Armstrong -- future Arsenal manager and reserves manager, respectively -- and a forward line of John Radford, Ray Kennedy, and the iconic long-haired Charlie George, Arsenal were a juggernaut in 1970-71.
A lot of it involved changing positions: Graham was moved from forward to midfield, Storey from right back to midfield, and McLintock, the team Captain, from midfield to central defense. McLintock, a lantern-jawed Scotsman, was the team's rock, and they followed his lead as much as Bertie's and Don's.
As McLintock put it, "Once we were one-nothin' up, that was it. You could go get yer fish 'n' chips, yer cup o' tea, get on yer bike. Because I don't think we gave up a 1-0 lead all season." I checked, and he was right: They didn't. They did, however, come from behind a few times, including in extra time in the Cup Final against Liverpool.
After that annus mirabilis, Howe's old club, West Brom, wanted him as manager. "I can't take it back," he said. "That was the time when I left when I should have stayed, because that team, the Double team, had more in them." He was probably right: Arsenal came close to the League title again in 1972 and '73, and lost the FA Cup in the '72 Final and the '73 Semifinal. With his guidance, they could have won more trophies.
He left West Brom after 4 years to become head coach at Turkish giants Galatasaray, and then an assistant at Leeds United under his former England teammate Jimmy Armfield (not to be confused with his former England teammate and Arsenal player Jimmy Bloomfield), and then returned to Arsenal in 1977, under his former defense partner Terry Neill. They reached 4 cup finals in 3 years, but only won 1, the 1979 FA Cup.
When Neill was fired in 1983, Howe was promoted to the manager's role. "That's the time when I stayed when I should have left!" he said, making the point that he ended up using pretty much the same system that Neill had, so it wasn't really a change.
This was after several of the club's better players had been sold off, resulting in the 4th-to-7th-place side (the Football League Division One then had 22 teams) that became known as "Boring, Boring Arsenal." In 1986, despite having won 4 straight matches and not being threatened with firing, he decided he'd had enough, and resigned. From that time onward, very few managers of English clubs have left their jobs by their own choice.
He helped former Arsenal teammate Bobby Gould lead South London club Wimbledon to the 1988 FA Cup, in a stunning run that ended with a grand upset of Liverpool in the Final. He assisted another former England teammate, Bobby Robson, on the England team at the 1986 and 1990 World Cups, also assisting Terry Venables with England at Euro '96. He and Gould switched places to manage and assist, respectively, at West London's Queens Park Rangers, and, in his last managing job, he got Coventry City promoted to the Premier League in 1993.
He coached Arsenal's youth team from 1997 to 2003, and then retired for good, having sent to the big club such players as Ashley Cole and Cesc Fabregas. He taught them about defending and passing, but it's a shame he couldn't teach those 2 about loyalty. He became a pundit for the BBC and Channel 4, and died on December 23, 2015, at the age of 80.
Also on this day, Samuel David Moore is born in Miami. He and Dave Prater formed the singing duo Sam & Dave, whose late 1960s hits "Hold On, I'm Comin'" and "Soul Man" are all-time classics. They are among the acts name-checked in Arthur Conley's song "Sweet Soul Music." Dave died in 1988, but Sam is still alive.
Also on this day, Luciano Pavarotti (no middle name) is born in Modena, Emilia-Romagna, in northern Italy. The most famous opera singer of all time, and the only non-rock performer to bring 500,000 people to a concert in New York's Central Park, he had sports connections.
He (a fan of Rome soccer team AS Roma), Plácido Domingo (a Madrid native and a Real Madrid fan) and José Carreras (a Barcelona native and an FC Barcelona fan) made their debut as "The Three Tenors" at a concert at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome in 1990, celebrating the next day's World Cup Final at the Olympic Stadium. The live album of this show became the best-selling album in the history of classical music.
They also sang at the ceremonies before the World Cup Finals in 1994 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles (the final itself was at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena), in 1998 at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and in 2002 at International Stadium Yokohama. Pavarotti died of cancer in 2007. His last performance was the year before, at the Winter Olympics in Turin.
October 12, 1937: John Edward Green is born in West Point, Mississippi. A quarterback, he was a rookie with the Toronto Argonauts when he played in the 1st game between a CFL team and an NFL team, on August 5, 1959. Despite the Argos having the home-field advantage at the new Exhibition Stadium, they got clobbered 55-26 by the woeful Chicago Cardinals.
In 1960, Johnny Green became an original member of the Buffalo Bills, and in 1962 and '63, he played for the New York Titans, who changed their name to the Jets in 1963. He died in 2019.
Also on this day, Robert Paul Hawkins is born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Paul Hawkins, a.k.a. Hawkeye, never won a race, and was killed in a crash at the RAC Tourist Trophy at English track Oulton Park on May 26, 1969. He was 31.
October 12, 1938: Leo Durocher, already the Brooklyn Dodgers' shortstop, is named their manager. He will hold the post for nearly 10 years, nearly all of them controversial.
He had previously been a virtual coach on the field for Frankie Frisch on the St. Louis Cardinals when they won their "Gashouse Gang" World Series in 1934. However, unlike Joe Cronin in Boston, Durocher would recognize that his shortstop skills were fading, and allow Pee Wee Reese, whom the Dodgers had purchased from the Red Sox, to succeed him in the field and in the lineup.
Also on this day, Murray Chass is born in Pittsburgh. From 1969 to 2008, he covered baseball for The New York Times; from 1986 to 2008, he was its chief baseball writer. He was given the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, the Baseball Hall of Fame's award that is tantamount to election for broadcasters.
After being unwillingly retired by the Times, he began a blog, Murray Chass On Baseball. He has been roundly criticized for it, including for a 2011 post in which he accused St. Louis Cardinals legend Stan Musial of racism for refusing to seat black teammates at a St. Louis restaurant he owned. Curt Flood Jr., a writer and the son of one of the players involved, came forward and denied that the event ever happened. Given the elder Flood's admission, "I am glad that God made my skin black, but I wish He had made it thicker," I believe that, if the event had happened, it would have been revealed much sooner. Musial, still alive at the time, made no comment. Chass is still alive.
Also on this day, Robert James Miller is born in Chicago. Bob Miller broadcast for the Los Angeles Kings from 1973 to 2017. The Kings then dedicated a statue to him, outside the Staples Center. The Hockey Hall of Fame honored him with its Foster Hewitt Award, tantamount to election for broadcasters. He died this past September 30.
Also on this day, Hugh Massie dies in the Sydney suburb of Port Piper, New South Wales, at age 84. He was a member of the Australia cricket team that stunned England in London in 1882, their 1st win over England. British newspaper The Sporting Times wrote, "English cricket has died. The body will be cremated, and the ashes taken to Australia." Ever since, matches between England and Australia have been called "The Ashes."
October 12, 1939: Gerald Allen Hill is born in Torrington, Wyoming, and grows up in nearby Lingle. A running back, Jerry Hill played for the Baltimore Colts from 1961 to 1970, losing Super Bowl III by winning Super Bowl V. Still alive, he was named Wyoming Football Player of the Century.
Pabst Brewery, current makers of Colt 45 malt liquor, claim that it was named for Hill and his uniform number, rather than the Colt .45 handgun. The fact that the brand was invented by the Baltimore-based National Brewing Company, makers of National Bohemian Beer (a.k.a. Natty Boh), which Pabst bought out, and the fact that the brand still has both a horse and a horseshoe on its label, makes this claim very plausible, if not definitive.
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October 12, 1940, 80 years ago: Glenn Alfred Beckert is born in Pittsburgh. A 2nd baseman, he won a Gold Glove with the Chicago Cubs in 1968, and made the All-Star Game the next 4 seasons. He was a member of the Cubs team that made the "September Swoon" that cost them a postseason berth in 1969, but made the franchise cult heroes. He retired in 1975, with a lifetime batting average of .283. He died this past April 12.
Also on this day, Irving Lee Goode is born in Newport, Kentucky. A guard, Irv Goode was named to the University of Kentucky's All-Century Team -- in football, not in their storied basketball program. He played 10 seasons for the NFL version of the St. Louis Cardinals, then won Super Bowls VII and VIII with the Miami Dolphins in 1973 and 1974. He is still alive, and a member of the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Lawrence Joseph Jeffrey is born in Goderich, Ontario. A left wing, Larry Jeffrey is 1 of 11 surviving players from the 1967 Stanley Cup Champion Toronto Maple Leafs. He also played for the New York Rangers. He is also still alive.
Also on this day, Tom Mix, the 1st big star of Western movies, is killed in a car accident on what is now Arizona Route 79 near Florence. He was 60 years old. He swerved to avoid construction, and crashed. But that's not what killed him: He had a large suitcase in the packing shelf in the back seat, unsecured, and it rushed forward, hit him in the back of the head, and broke his neck.
Mix, one of the few actors to be successful both before and after the switch from silent films to "talkies," was a big influence on actors John Wayne and Ronald Reagan. My grandmother mentioned him many times: "Tom Mix and his Wonder Horse Tony!"
October 12, 1942: David Melvin English is born in Montgomery, Alabama, and grows up in Detroit. We knew him as Melvin Franklin, the bass singer in The Temptations. He died in 1995, after years of suffering through ill health. "And that ain't right."
October 12, 1943: George Moorhouse dies in Long Beach, Long Island, New York. He was only 42, and, like singer Harry Chapin would 38 years later, the cause was a heart attack while driving on Long Island. He was the 1st native of England to play in the World Cup -- but England didn't play in the World Cup until 1950, because of a dispute with FIFA, the governing body of world soccer.
A Liverpool native, Moorhouse served in the British Merchant Marine during World War I. A left back, he played for hometown club Tranmere Rovers, then came to North America, playing for semipro teams in Montreal and Brooklyn, and then, from 1923 to 1937, for soccer teams that carried the names of established Big Apple sports teams: The New York Giants (baseball and football), the New York Yankees (baseball), and the New York Americans (hockey).
Apparently, residency qualified him for the U.S. national team under the rules of the time, and he 1st played in a 1926 win over Canada. He was selected for the team for the 1st World Cup in 1930, and the U.S. reached the Semifinal in Uruguay before falling to Argentina. In 1934, he was named Captain of the U.S. team in the 1934 World Cup in Italy, but the team was eliminated in the 1st round in a loss to Mexico. He was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1986.
Also on this day, NBC fully divests itself of its "Blue Network." It becomes the American Broadcasting Company, or ABC. "NBC Red" becomes NBC as we have come to know it.
October 12, 1944: Frank Sinatra appears at the Paramount Theater in New York's Times Square. A full house of 3,664 is on hand to see him. About 25,000 others, mostly teenage girls -- "bobbysoxers" in the lingo of the day -- are turned away, and they vent their frustrations by smashing store windows.
It becomes known as the Columbus Day Riot, and for those Sinatra fans who grew up to have kids screaming over Elvis Presley and/or the Beatles, complaining that they never acted that way over a musical act they liked, well, guess what, old-timers, you did.
Just as One Direction ain't no Beatles, and Justin Timberlake ain't no Elvis, singers from Bobby Darin to Harry Connick Jr. to Sean Combs have deluded themselves into thinking they were "the new Sinatra," but none of them is in Sinatra's league. The man has more charisma dead than any of them do alive.
What does this have to do with sports? Well, by itself, nothing. But Sinatra was a big sports fan. He sang “There Used to Be a Ballpark” about Ebbets Field, although he remained a Dodger fan after they moved to L.A. He was a great boxing fan who talked Life magazine into making him their official photographer for the 1971 "Super Fight" between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier – and, I have to say, he knew what he was doing: He took good pictures.
On a 1972 Pittsburgh Steelers roadtrip to San Diego, the Steeler fan club known as "Franco's Italian Army" (named after the half-black, half-Italian running back Franco Harris, as well as for the general whose "Italian Army" enabled him to win the Spanish Civil War) invited Sinatra, then living in nearby Palm Springs, and offered to make him an "Honorary General" in the Army. Although he had no connection to Pittsburgh, he posed for pictures with them and accepted a helmet with generals' stars on it.
Also on this day, Mike Bookie dies in a U.S. Army training accident at Camp Eglin, Florida. He was only 40. Like George Moorhouse, he was a star of American soccer in the 1920s and '30s, and was also on the 1930 World Cup team, although he didn't get into a game. He was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame along with Moorhouse in 1986.
Also on this day, John Warren Marin is born in Sharon, Pennsylvania. A forward, Jack Marin helped Duke University reach the NCAA Final Four in 1964 and 1966, long before they began doing so regularly. A 2-time NBA All-Star, he was with the Baltimore Bullets when they reached the 1971 NBA Finals, and also helped the Houston Rockets, Buffalo Braves and Chicago Bulls make the Playoffs.
He went back to Duke and got his law degree. He now represents the National BAsketball Retired Players Assication, and works with Hope For The Warriors, a group aiding wounded U.S. Marines. He is a member of the Pennsylvania and North Carolina Sports Halls of Fame.
October 12, 1948: The Yankees hire Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel as their manager. Stengel had just managed the Oakland Oaks -- including former star big-league catcher Ernie Lombardi and a 20-year-old sparkplug local boy from West Berkeley named Billy Martin -- to the Pacific Coast League Pennant, so chances were that some big-league team would have snapped him up in the next year or two if the Yankees didn't.
But his 2 previous big-league managing jobs, with the Brooklyn Dodgers (managing them in between Wilbert Robinson and Leo Durocher) and the Boston Braves, were terrible. In Brooklyn in 1935, it was quipped that overconfidence might cost the Dodgers 6th place.
In Boston in 1943, Casey was slightly injured when hit by a cab, and a sportswriter called the driver the man who had done the most for Boston baseball that season. One man wrote an open letter to Casey, sending it to a Boston newspaper, saying, "There is a train leaving Boston at 6:00 tonight. Be under it." Not on it, under it.
He was 58 years old in 1948, and, like Connie Mack, he always looked even older than he was. And he had a reputation as a "clown," for such antics as tipping his cap and letting a bird fly out from under it, and protesting the weather to an umpire by walking out of the dugout with an umbrella. This was not a man who would manage "the Yankee way," sportswriters said.
Then again, Casey really didn't have the players in Flatbush or in Allston. Once he proved everyone wrong by winning the 1949 Pennant, he said, with a mixture of pride and humility, "I couldn't have done it without my players."
Finally having the horses in The Bronx, Casey went on to manage the Yankees for 12 years, winning 10 Pennants and 7 World Series. As Newark Star-Ledger sportswriter Jim Ogle, later director of the Yankees Alumni Assciation, said, "Well, the clown did pretty well. He made the Yankee legend and mystique grow volumes."
He then managed the Mets in their first 4 years, 1962-65, prompting Warren Spahn, running out the string with the Mets after 22 years with the Braves, to say, "I'm the only man who played for Casey both before and after he was a genius."
Yogi Berra, by then one of Casey's coaches, came out of retirement and played a few games, including behind the plate. Someone asked him if he and Spahn were the oldest "battery" -- pitcher-catcher combination -- in baseball history. Yogi told him, "I don't know if we're the oldest, but we're certainly the ugliest."
Casey is still the most successful manager in baseball history. He was fast-tracked to election to the Hall of Fame after his retirement, the Yankees dedicated a Plaque in Monument Park to his memory, and he lived to see both the Yankees and the Mets retire his Number 37. The parking lot at Shea, and now at Citi Field, is named Casey Stengel Plaza, and the Long Island Rail Road yard across Roosevelt Avenue is named the Casey Stengel Depot.
Also on this day, John Tice Dolbin Jr. is born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. A receiver, Jack Dolbin was a member of the Denver Broncos team that won the 1977 AFC Championships, instituting "Broncomania" throughout the Rocky Mountains. He died in 2019, at 70.
*
October 12, 1954: The American League owners approve the shift of the Philadelphia Athletics franchise to Kansas City. Roy and Earle Mack, sons of the now-senile 92-year-old Connie Mack, sell the A's to Arnold Johnson, a Chicago-based trucking magnate, 25 years to the day after the team’s magnificent 10-run inning in the '29 World Series.
Johnson's bid is $3‚375‚000 -- about $32.6 million in today's money -- for the team and the stadium‚ Shibe Park, recently renamed Connie Mack Stadium. He says he will sell the stadium to the Phillies for $1‚675‚000, although Phils owner Bob Carpenter, a very wealthy man as a member of both the Carpenter and the duPont families, says, "I need Shibe Park like I need a hole in the head."
One of the offers for the team is from a wealthy Texas group that proposes to move the A's to Los Angeles, but Kansas City, long a hotbed of minor league and Negro League baseball, gets major league status for the first time since the Kansas City Packers of the Federal League in 1915 – or, if you don't count that, since the Kansas City Cowboys of the old American Association in 1889.
The A's had won AL Pennants in 1902, 1905, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1929, 1930 and 1931. They had won the World Series in 1910, 1911, 1913, 1929 and 1930. Connie Mack had built 2 dynasties, then broke them up because he needed money.
Unlike in Boston, where the Red Sox stayed and the Braves left, and St. Louis, where the Cardinals stayed and the Browns left, in Philadelphia, the more historically successful team was the one that moved. The A's then had 9 Pennants to the Phillies' 2, and 5 titles to the Phils' none. But the Phils had money, and the A's didn't, and since both teams couldn't survive in the city, the one without the money went.
He then managed the Mets in their first 4 years, 1962-65, prompting Warren Spahn, running out the string with the Mets after 22 years with the Braves, to say, "I'm the only man who played for Casey both before and after he was a genius."
Yogi Berra, by then one of Casey's coaches, came out of retirement and played a few games, including behind the plate. Someone asked him if he and Spahn were the oldest "battery" -- pitcher-catcher combination -- in baseball history. Yogi told him, "I don't know if we're the oldest, but we're certainly the ugliest."
Casey is still the most successful manager in baseball history. He was fast-tracked to election to the Hall of Fame after his retirement, the Yankees dedicated a Plaque in Monument Park to his memory, and he lived to see both the Yankees and the Mets retire his Number 37. The parking lot at Shea, and now at Citi Field, is named Casey Stengel Plaza, and the Long Island Rail Road yard across Roosevelt Avenue is named the Casey Stengel Depot.
Also on this day, John Tice Dolbin Jr. is born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. A receiver, Jack Dolbin was a member of the Denver Broncos team that won the 1977 AFC Championships, instituting "Broncomania" throughout the Rocky Mountains. He died in 2019, at 70.
*
October 12, 1954: The American League owners approve the shift of the Philadelphia Athletics franchise to Kansas City. Roy and Earle Mack, sons of the now-senile 92-year-old Connie Mack, sell the A's to Arnold Johnson, a Chicago-based trucking magnate, 25 years to the day after the team’s magnificent 10-run inning in the '29 World Series.
Johnson's bid is $3‚375‚000 -- about $32.6 million in today's money -- for the team and the stadium‚ Shibe Park, recently renamed Connie Mack Stadium. He says he will sell the stadium to the Phillies for $1‚675‚000, although Phils owner Bob Carpenter, a very wealthy man as a member of both the Carpenter and the duPont families, says, "I need Shibe Park like I need a hole in the head."
One of the offers for the team is from a wealthy Texas group that proposes to move the A's to Los Angeles, but Kansas City, long a hotbed of minor league and Negro League baseball, gets major league status for the first time since the Kansas City Packers of the Federal League in 1915 – or, if you don't count that, since the Kansas City Cowboys of the old American Association in 1889.
The A's had won AL Pennants in 1902, 1905, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1929, 1930 and 1931. They had won the World Series in 1910, 1911, 1913, 1929 and 1930. Connie Mack had built 2 dynasties, then broke them up because he needed money.
Unlike in Boston, where the Red Sox stayed and the Braves left, and St. Louis, where the Cardinals stayed and the Browns left, in Philadelphia, the more historically successful team was the one that moved. The A's then had 9 Pennants to the Phillies' 2, and 5 titles to the Phils' none. But the Phils had money, and the A's didn't, and since both teams couldn't survive in the city, the one without the money went.
Also on this day, Garth Ray Iorg (pronounced "orj") is born in Arcata, in northwestern California. An infielder, he played for the Toronto Blue Jays, and only for them, from 1978 to 1987. In 1985, he played in the American League Chamionship Series against the Kansas City Royls, who included his older brother, Dane Iorg.
He has since coached for the Blue Jays and the Milwaukee Brewers, and managed in the Jays' farm system, including in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he founded a baseball school. He is now the manager of the Texas AirHogs, who play in an independent minor-league in the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie. He has 3 sons who played minor-league baseball, and a daughter who played college softball.
October 12, 1955: The St. Louis Cardinals fire manager Harry "the Hat" Walker, and replace him with former big-league pitcher Fred Hutchinson. Walker, like his brother, former Dodger slugger Fred "Dixie" Walker, was a really good hitter in his day. But he was not such a good manager. He would return to the Cards as a coach, and later manage the Pittsburgh Pirates, and would also take the Houston Astros into their 1st Pennant race in 1969. But his day as a player was done.
He had used himself as a pinch-hitter in the '55 season, but his firing means that, for the first time in the history of baseball, there are no current player-managers.
There have been only 5 player-managers since: Solly Hemus of the 1959 Cardinals, Frank Robinson of the 1975-76 Indians, Joe Torre of the 1977 Mets, Don Kessinger of the 1979 White Sox, and Pete Rose of the 1985-86 Reds. But, from 1955 onward, player-managers would be frowned upon. The last player-manager to get his team into a Pennant race was Lou Boudreau with the '51 Red Sox. The last to win a Pennant, much less a World Series, was Boudreau, with the '48 Indians.
October 12, 1956: Allan James Evans is born in Dunfermline, Scotland. A centreback, he played for hometown soccer team Dunfermline Athletic, but is best remembered for playing for Birmingham club Aston Villa, helping them win the 1981 League title and the 1982 European Cup. He later managed West Bromwich Albion in England and Greenock Morton in Scotland. He now coaches at Truro and Penwith College.
October 12, 1957: North Carolina State beats Florida State 7-0 at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee. The N.C. State touchdown is scored when a receiver beats his cover man, who was playing both offense (wide receiver) and defense that day.
That Seminole player had previously hurt one knee in a game, and would go on to hurt his other knee and los his spleen as the result of a car accident. He realizes that, for all his promise in football at Palm Beach High School, he is never going to play pro football, so he quits. It may have been premature: He had no way of knowing that the AFL would begin play in 1960.
He transfers to Palm Beach Junior College, and, taking the advice of his policeman father, studies to become a parole officer. But one of his professors had written a play, and encouraged him to audition for it. It led to him winning an award, which included a scholarship to a summer stock theater in New York's Hudson Valley. The rest is history. The gridder-turned-actor's name was Burt Reynolds.
He would return to football in 1974, filming The Longest Yard, and was later a part-owner of the USFL's Tampa Bay Bandits, named after his 1977 classic Smokey and the Bandit, although the logo was of a Wild West bandit, not Reynolds' car-racing, bootlegging Bo Darville. For the record, the $80,000 the Bandit was offered at the time of the film's release on May 27, 1977 -- 2 days after Star Wars, so that must have been some weekend at theaters -- is worth about $343,000 today. Burt Reynolds died in 2018, at age 82.
October 12, 1958: For the 1st time since the Giants moved to San Francisco a year earlier, Willie Mays plays baseball in New York City. At Yankee Stadium, 3 days after the conclusion of the World Series, the Say Hey Kid leads a team of National League All-Stars that also includes former Brooklyn Dodgers Gil Hodges and Johnny Podres, plus future Hall-of-Famers Ernie Banks, Frank Robinson, Richie Ashburn and Bill Mazeroski -- but not, oddly, Hank Aaron. I guess Hank, just beaten by the Yankees in Milwaukee, didn't want to go back to Yankee Stadium so soon.
They play a team of American League All-Stars captained by Mickey Mantle, including his Yankee teammates Whitey Ford and Elston Howard, and former teammate Billy Martin, plus Hall-of-Famer Nellie Fox and All-Stars Rocky Colavito (a Bronx native) and Harvey Kuenn. All of them, including Mays and Mantle, had Frank Scott as their agent.
The game was not broadcast, on either television or radio, and 21,129 fans came out -- which doesn't sound like much, especially in the 1st year with the Dodgers and Giants gone, but it was more than any of the 3 teams that had been in New York the year before had averaged that year.
And most of those fans were cheering for the NL team -- whether it was because they missed the Giants and Dodgers in general, or Willie in particular, or they simply hated the Yankees, or whether Yankee fans couldn't be bothered to show up for a game that didn't count for anything but filling the players' pockets, I don't know. (And that was the reason the game was played: Both Mantle and Mays were having money problems at the time. Maybe Scott wasn't such a good agent.)
The NL team won, 6-2. Mays went 4-for-5. Mantle went 1-for-2 before taking himself out.
*
October 12, 1960, 60 years ago: Game 6 of the World Series. Whitey Ford pitches a 7-hit shutout, and singles home the 1st run of a 12-0 Yankee rout of the Pirates at Forbes Field. There will be a Game 7 tomorrow, also in Pittsburgh.
The Yankees had won their 3 games 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0. The Pirates wins had been by scores of 6-4, 3-2 and 5-2. It seems as though a high-scoring game favors the Yankees. And the Yankees will score 9 runs in Game 7, while the Pirates hadn't yet scored more than 5. Sounds like a Yankee title. Except...
Back in New York, the United Nations General Assembly is meeting at the UN Building on the East River at 42nd Street. The Philippines' Ambassador, Lorenzo Sumulong, claims that the Soviet Union is conducting "colonial policy" in Eastern Europe. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, visiting America, represents his own country, calls Sumulong names, which, when translated into English, come out as a "jerk," a "stooge," a "lackey," and a "toady of American imperialism."
Sumulong resumes his speech, and Khrushchev starts pounding his fist on the table. This is captured on film. Supposedly, he removes his shoe, and starts banging that on the table as well. That was not
captured on film, and a photograph supposedly showing it was found to be doctored, and from an earlier incident.
In his own memoirs, Khrushchev claimed he'd done it to protest something done by the fascist Franco regime in Spain. But that speech was in Moscow on October 1, and his shoes were not mentioned in the Soviet media at the time. His son Sergei wrote a biography of him, and said he couldn't find any visual evidence of the shoe-banging. Both NBC and Canada's CBC broadcast the speech live, but their representatives now say they have no footage of Khrushchev banging his shoe on any table, while Italy's RAI say they do, but they haven't produced it.
Like Josef Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev wasn't much of a sports fan. Unlike Stalin, Khrushchev did accept that how sports could be used as propaganda. This incident was a few weeks after the Olympics in Rome, one of those occasional East vs. West sports encounters; 5 months after Khrushchev embarrassed President Dwight D. Eisenhower over the shot-down U-2 spy plane piloted by Gary Powers; and during the debates to succeed Ike, between his Vice President, Richard Nixon, and Senator John F. Kennedy, one of which was to be held the following night.
A year earlier, Khrushchev visited America, and was cheered in San Francisco. "This is the damnedest city," said Frank Conniff of the arch-conservative Hearst newspaper chain, including their flagship, the San Francisco Examiner, and the New York Journal-American. "They cheer Khrushchev and boo Willie Mays."
Also on this day, the film The Magnificent Seven premieres. It is a Western, directed by John Sturges, based on the Japanese film The Seven Samurai, directed by Akira Kurosawa. The title characters are gunfighters, hired by a small Mexican town to protect them from a gang of bandits, whose leader is played not by a Latino actor, but by the Brooklyn-born Austrian Jew Eli Wallach. (Wallach would also play a Mexican villain opposite Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name" in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; and had already played a Japanese interpreter for the U.S. Army in Teahouse of the August Moon.)
The Seven are played by Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz. I won't spoil the movie by telling you which ones survive. But Vaughn, later to star as Agent Napoleon Solo on the TV series The Man From U.N.C.L.E., turned out to be the last survivor of the actors, living until 2016, and was the only one of the good guys to outlive Wallach.
Despite being the leader of the good guys, Brynner's Chris Adams wears all black, much like Zorro does, and like Richard Boone does as Paladin on the current TV hit Have Gun -- Will Travel. Brynner would pay homage to this role, playing a robot in Westworld, which spawned a sequel, Futureworld, and a TV series reboot.
Brynner would play Adams again in the 1966 sequel Return of the Seven, but would be replaced in the role by George Kennedy in Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969) and by Lee Van Cleef in The Magnificent Seven Ride (1972).
A Magnificent Seven TV series aired on CBS from 1998 to 2000, with Michael Biehn playing the leader, there named Chris Larabee. Vaughn played the man who hired the Seven in the pilot. In the 2016 remake, Denzel Washington played the leader, Sam Chisolm.
In 1980, the film Battle Beyond the Stars took the concept to space, with George Peppard playing "Space Cowboy," and Vaughn playing a variation on his character in M7. The planet they're hired to protect is named Akira, in honor of Kurosawa. Peppard would also star as John "Hannibal" Smith in The A-Team, after M7 veteran Coburn turned the part down. That show was devised as a combination of The Magnificent Seven and The Dirty Dozen.
October 12, 1961: Miguel Porlán Noguera is born in Totana, Murcia, Spain. Known as Chendo, he was the right back on 7 of Real Madrid's La Liga titles from 1986 to 1997, and the 1998 Champions League title.
October 12, 1962: Charles Sidney Fernandez is born in Honolulu. Usually called Sid, he wore Number 50 because Hawaii is the 50th State -- which would be repeated by a later Mets postseason hero from Hawaii, Benny Agbayani.
A 2-time All-Star, the 1st Hawaiian native ever to appear in the All-Star Game, "El Sid" was 114-96 in a career that included the Mets' 1986 World Series win and 1988 Division title, and closed his career with another division title on the 1997 Houston Astros. He was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the 1986 World Series. John Franco and Noah Syndergaard are the only Mets to be winning pitchers in a World Series game since.
He later worked in Hawaii State government, and went into coaching. A "portly portsider" and a "hefty lefty" during his career, subsequent '86 Mets reunions have shown that, while his ex-teammates Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling have put on a lot of weight since then, Sid has noticeably lost weight.
The NL team won, 6-2. Mays went 4-for-5. Mantle went 1-for-2 before taking himself out.
*
October 12, 1960, 60 years ago: Game 6 of the World Series. Whitey Ford pitches a 7-hit shutout, and singles home the 1st run of a 12-0 Yankee rout of the Pirates at Forbes Field. There will be a Game 7 tomorrow, also in Pittsburgh.
The Yankees had won their 3 games 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0. The Pirates wins had been by scores of 6-4, 3-2 and 5-2. It seems as though a high-scoring game favors the Yankees. And the Yankees will score 9 runs in Game 7, while the Pirates hadn't yet scored more than 5. Sounds like a Yankee title. Except...
Back in New York, the United Nations General Assembly is meeting at the UN Building on the East River at 42nd Street. The Philippines' Ambassador, Lorenzo Sumulong, claims that the Soviet Union is conducting "colonial policy" in Eastern Europe. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, visiting America, represents his own country, calls Sumulong names, which, when translated into English, come out as a "jerk," a "stooge," a "lackey," and a "toady of American imperialism."
Sumulong resumes his speech, and Khrushchev starts pounding his fist on the table. This is captured on film. Supposedly, he removes his shoe, and starts banging that on the table as well. That was not
captured on film, and a photograph supposedly showing it was found to be doctored, and from an earlier incident.
In his own memoirs, Khrushchev claimed he'd done it to protest something done by the fascist Franco regime in Spain. But that speech was in Moscow on October 1, and his shoes were not mentioned in the Soviet media at the time. His son Sergei wrote a biography of him, and said he couldn't find any visual evidence of the shoe-banging. Both NBC and Canada's CBC broadcast the speech live, but their representatives now say they have no footage of Khrushchev banging his shoe on any table, while Italy's RAI say they do, but they haven't produced it.
Like Josef Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev wasn't much of a sports fan. Unlike Stalin, Khrushchev did accept that how sports could be used as propaganda. This incident was a few weeks after the Olympics in Rome, one of those occasional East vs. West sports encounters; 5 months after Khrushchev embarrassed President Dwight D. Eisenhower over the shot-down U-2 spy plane piloted by Gary Powers; and during the debates to succeed Ike, between his Vice President, Richard Nixon, and Senator John F. Kennedy, one of which was to be held the following night.
A year earlier, Khrushchev visited America, and was cheered in San Francisco. "This is the damnedest city," said Frank Conniff of the arch-conservative Hearst newspaper chain, including their flagship, the San Francisco Examiner, and the New York Journal-American. "They cheer Khrushchev and boo Willie Mays."
Also on this day, the film The Magnificent Seven premieres. It is a Western, directed by John Sturges, based on the Japanese film The Seven Samurai, directed by Akira Kurosawa. The title characters are gunfighters, hired by a small Mexican town to protect them from a gang of bandits, whose leader is played not by a Latino actor, but by the Brooklyn-born Austrian Jew Eli Wallach. (Wallach would also play a Mexican villain opposite Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name" in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; and had already played a Japanese interpreter for the U.S. Army in Teahouse of the August Moon.)
The Seven are played by Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz. I won't spoil the movie by telling you which ones survive. But Vaughn, later to star as Agent Napoleon Solo on the TV series The Man From U.N.C.L.E., turned out to be the last survivor of the actors, living until 2016, and was the only one of the good guys to outlive Wallach.
Despite being the leader of the good guys, Brynner's Chris Adams wears all black, much like Zorro does, and like Richard Boone does as Paladin on the current TV hit Have Gun -- Will Travel. Brynner would pay homage to this role, playing a robot in Westworld, which spawned a sequel, Futureworld, and a TV series reboot.
Brynner would play Adams again in the 1966 sequel Return of the Seven, but would be replaced in the role by George Kennedy in Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969) and by Lee Van Cleef in The Magnificent Seven Ride (1972).
A Magnificent Seven TV series aired on CBS from 1998 to 2000, with Michael Biehn playing the leader, there named Chris Larabee. Vaughn played the man who hired the Seven in the pilot. In the 2016 remake, Denzel Washington played the leader, Sam Chisolm.
In 1980, the film Battle Beyond the Stars took the concept to space, with George Peppard playing "Space Cowboy," and Vaughn playing a variation on his character in M7. The planet they're hired to protect is named Akira, in honor of Kurosawa. Peppard would also star as John "Hannibal" Smith in The A-Team, after M7 veteran Coburn turned the part down. That show was devised as a combination of The Magnificent Seven and The Dirty Dozen.
October 12, 1961: Miguel Porlán Noguera is born in Totana, Murcia, Spain. Known as Chendo, he was the right back on 7 of Real Madrid's La Liga titles from 1986 to 1997, and the 1998 Champions League title.
October 12, 1962: Charles Sidney Fernandez is born in Honolulu. Usually called Sid, he wore Number 50 because Hawaii is the 50th State -- which would be repeated by a later Mets postseason hero from Hawaii, Benny Agbayani.
A 2-time All-Star, the 1st Hawaiian native ever to appear in the All-Star Game, "El Sid" was 114-96 in a career that included the Mets' 1986 World Series win and 1988 Division title, and closed his career with another division title on the 1997 Houston Astros. He was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the 1986 World Series. John Franco and Noah Syndergaard are the only Mets to be winning pitchers in a World Series game since.
He later worked in Hawaii State government, and went into coaching. A "portly portsider" and a "hefty lefty" during his career, subsequent '86 Mets reunions have shown that, while his ex-teammates Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling have put on a lot of weight since then, Sid has noticeably lost weight.
Also on this day, President John F. Kennedy visits Newark, New Jersey, and gives a speech at the golden-domed City Hall. He had previously done so as a candidate in 1960.
October 12, 1963: At the last baseball game played at the historic Polo Grounds, the Latin stars from the NL beat their AL peers, 5-2, in the 1st and only "Hispanic Major League All-Star Game."
The postseason exhibition, in which Twins 1st baseman Vic Power, a native of Puerto Rico, is honored as the top Latin American player during a pregame ceremony, includes future Hall of Famers Luis Aparicio, Orlando Cepeda, Roberto Clemente, and Juan Marichal.
Also on this day, Number 2-ranked Texas defeats Number 1 Oklahoma 28-7 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. This sparks the Texas Longhorns to a National Championship season, and another Number 1 vs. Number 2 matchup at the Cotton Bowl stadium, beating Number 2 Navy, led by Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach, 28-6 in the 1964 Cotton Bowl Classic
Also on this day, Luis Andrew Polonia Almonte is born in Santiago, Dominican Republic. The left fielder won a Pennant with the Oakland Athletics in 1988, before coming to the Yankees in the trade that sent Rickey Henderson back to the A's. He was traded to the California Angels in 1990, but was sent back to the Yankees in 1994, and then to the Atlanta Braves, where he won the 1995 World Series.
The Braves sent him to the Baltimore Orioles in 1996, but they sent him right back, and he won another Pennant, but lost the World Series to the Yankees. He played in Mexico for 2 seasons, went to the Tigers, and in 2000 finished his career with another title in his 3rd run with the Yankees. A career .293 hitter, he has been elected to the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame, and now runs a baseball school in the Dominican Republic.
October 12, 1963: At the last baseball game played at the historic Polo Grounds, the Latin stars from the NL beat their AL peers, 5-2, in the 1st and only "Hispanic Major League All-Star Game."
The postseason exhibition, in which Twins 1st baseman Vic Power, a native of Puerto Rico, is honored as the top Latin American player during a pregame ceremony, includes future Hall of Famers Luis Aparicio, Orlando Cepeda, Roberto Clemente, and Juan Marichal.
Also on this day, Number 2-ranked Texas defeats Number 1 Oklahoma 28-7 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. This sparks the Texas Longhorns to a National Championship season, and another Number 1 vs. Number 2 matchup at the Cotton Bowl stadium, beating Number 2 Navy, led by Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach, 28-6 in the 1964 Cotton Bowl Classic
Also on this day, Luis Andrew Polonia Almonte is born in Santiago, Dominican Republic. The left fielder won a Pennant with the Oakland Athletics in 1988, before coming to the Yankees in the trade that sent Rickey Henderson back to the A's. He was traded to the California Angels in 1990, but was sent back to the Yankees in 1994, and then to the Atlanta Braves, where he won the 1995 World Series.
The Braves sent him to the Baltimore Orioles in 1996, but they sent him right back, and he won another Pennant, but lost the World Series to the Yankees. He played in Mexico for 2 seasons, went to the Tigers, and in 2000 finished his career with another title in his 3rd run with the Yankees. A career .293 hitter, he has been elected to the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame, and now runs a baseball school in the Dominican Republic.
Also on this day, Randolph B. Wood is born in Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey, but grows up outside Boston in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. (I can find no reference as to what the B stands for.) A left wing, Randy Wood was an All-American on the Yale hockey team, and layed in the NHL from 1987 to 1997, mostly with the New York Islanders. His son Miles Wood now plays for the New Jersey Devils.
Also on this day, Robert Andrew Mimms is born in York, Yorkshire, England. A goalkeeper, Bobby Mimms played for several English soccer teams, including filling in for an injured goalkeeper Neville Southall in the 1986 FA Cup Final, the 1st All-Merseyside Final, where his Everton lost to Liverpool.
In 1994, he was with Blackburn Rovers, and they finished 2nd in the Premier League. In 1995, despite losing on the last day of the season, they won the League, for his only major trophy. He has since gone into coaching.
Also on this day, Alan McDonald is born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A centreback, he played 16 season with Queens Park Rangers, and played for Northern Ireland at the 1986 World Cup. He managed Belfast-based Glentoran to Northern Ireland's league title in 2009. He died of a heart attack while playing golf in 2012. He was only 48.
Also on this day, Raimond Aumann (no middle name) is born in Augsburg, Germany. A goalkeeper, he won 6 Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich, a Turkish league title with Beşiktaş in 1995, and the World Cup with West Germany in 1990. He is now Bayern's fan club coordinator.
October 12, 1964: Game 5 of the World Series. The game goes to extra innings, but in the top of the 10th, Pete Mikkelsen wastes a nice Mel Stottlemyre effort, by allowing a home run... to Tim McCarver. Yes, that Tim McCarver. Bob Gibson goes all 10 innings, and the Cardinals beat the Yankees, 5-2. The Cardinals now need to win only 1 of the 2 possible games in St. Louis.
Also on this day, Odessa Turner (no middle name) is born in Monroe, Louisiana. A receiver, he was with the Giants when they won Super Bowl XXV.
October 12, 1965: Following the departure of the Braves for Atlanta, a Milwaukee-based used-car salesman founds Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club, Inc., named for the former minor-league team from the city, in the hopes of attracting an expansion team or buying an existing team and moving it to the Beer City.
The salesman's name is Allan Huber Selig. Yes, Bud Selig. He bought the Seattle Pilots on the eve of the 1970 season, moved them, and renamed them the Milwaukee Brewers, and was Commissioner of Baseball from 1992 to 2014.
This, after starting out as a used-car salesman. He had become rich and famous by selling cars to the Braves players, including selling rookie catcher Joe Torre his first car in 1960. Now, he is out of power, but in the Baseball Hall of Fame, having taken baseball to new heights, but also having damaged the sport more than any other Commissioner.
Also on this day, Arsenal play the national team of Israel in a friendly. The result is a 2-2 draw. The Arsenal goals are scored by Joe Baker, a good forward in decline; and Peter Simpson, a younger defender on the rise.
This is in the early stage of an awful season for Arsenal, one which will see them finish 14th out of 22 teams in the Football League Division One. Billy Wright, once one of England's greatest players but a terrible manager, will be relieved of his duties at the conclusion of the season. Bertie Mee will be hired, and the rest is history.
Also on this day, Jean-Jacques Daingeault is born in Montreal. Usually listed as "J.J. Daigneault," the defenseman reached the NHL with the Vancouver Canucks in 1984, got to the Stanley Cup Finals with the Philadelphia Flyers in 1987, won the Cup with the Montreal Canadiens in 1993, played for the Islanders in 1997-98, became an original Nashville Predator the next season, and closed his career with the Minnesota Wild in 2001. He is now the head coach of the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (although they are in Nova Scotia, not Quebec).
Also on this day, Scott Francis O'Grady is born in Brooklyn, but grows up in Spokane, Washington. On June 2, 1995, Captain Scott O'Grady, U.S. Air Force, was shot down in his F-16 over Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was forced to eject into hostile territory. He was rescued by U.S. forces 6 days later. He was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.
After his discharge, he moved to the northern suburbs of Dallas, one of the most right-wing parts of the country, and spoke ill of several Democxratic politicians, including accusing Senator John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee, of "treason" during the Vietnam War. In 2012, he ran for the Texas State Senate, but dropped out of the Republican Primary after failing to get an endorsement he was counting on.
October 12, 1966: Wilhelmus Maria Jonk is born in Volendam, Netherlands. A midfielder, while with Ajax Amsterdam, Wim Jonk won the Dutch League in 1990, the UEFA Cup in 1992 and the KNVB Cup (equivalent to the FA Cup) in 1993. With PSV Eindhoven, he won the KNVB CUp in 1996 and the League in 1997.
With the death of Johan Cruyff in 2016, he now runs the Cruyff Football organization with Johan's son Jordi.
Also on this day, ABC's Batman TV series airs the episode "The Clock King's Crazy Crimes." Austrian actor Walter Slezak plays a supervillain obsessed with time, and thus with clocks. He disguises himself as a pop artist so that he can steal a painting reminiscent of Salvador Dalí's The Persistence of
Memory, which has 4 timepieces in it.
Eating hamburgers for lunch and watching TV in the Batmobile, Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) see TV coverage of the art gallery where (Atrocious Pun Alert) Clock King is striking. They use a radio (presumably, not yet satellite-aided) hookup between the Batmobile and the Batcomputer in the Batcave to produce a photograph of an undisguised Clock King.
Eating hamburgers for lunch and watching TV in the Batmobile, Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) see TV coverage of the art gallery where (Atrocious Pun Alert) Clock King is striking. They use a radio (presumably, not yet satellite-aided) hookup between the Batmobile and the Batcomputer in the Batcave to produce a photograph of an undisguised Clock King.
Batman then uses a magic marker to match the disguise to the photo, to confirm the thief's identity. In other words, Batman had what we would now call "facial recognition software" in 1966 -- and it was portable, too!
And he had a TV in the Batmobile. Telephones in cars were in existence then, but few cars, even limousines, yet had TV sets. A later episode would show that Commissioner James Gordon (Neil Hamilton) had a flat-screen TV in his office, and that Batman had one in the Batcave -- but not upstairs at Wayne Manor. Apparently, it didn't occur to "millionaire Bruce Wayne" that he could have a flat-screen TV in each of his identities' bases of operations.
The episode, and its conclusion which aired the next night, "The Clock King Gets Crowned," were written by Bill Finger, the artist who first drew Batman and co-created the character with writer Bob Kane in 1939, and Charles Sinclair.
There had been a villain named the Clock King who had debuted in comic books in 1960, but was a nemesis of a different superhero, Green Arrow, and while his modus operandi was the same, his appearance was very different from Slezak's.
The character has been adapted for The CW Network's "Arrowverse" superhero shows, played by Robert Knepper (no relation to baseball pitcher Bob Knepper), with the civilian name William Tockman borrowed from the comics. In episodes both airing in 2014, he fights first Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) on Arrow, and then the title character (Grant Gustin) on The Flash.
October 12, 1967: Baseball and the Summer of Love converge on Fenway Park in Boston for Game 7 of the World Series, as a fan holds up a sign saying, "THE RED SOX ARE VERY BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE."
But the prediction made the day before, after a Game 6 win, by Sox manager Dick Williams, of "Lonborg and champagne," does not happen: On only 2 days' rest, Gentleman Jim has nothing, and gets shelled. Even opposing pitcher Bob Gibson, himself on only 3 days rest (and having won Game 7 in '64 on just 2) hits a home run off him. The Cardinals win, 7-2, for Gibson's 3rd win of the Series, the team's 2nd title in 4 seasons, and their 7th World Championship.
For the Red Sox, "the Impossible Dream" came to an end a game too soon, but the season did revitalize the franchise, restoring its profitability and its place of veneration among the people of New England. They lost the World Series, but they cannot be called a failure. Without this season, the Red Sox might have ended up leaving Fenway Park, sharing a stadium out in Foxboro with the NFL's Patriots. Or owner Tom Yawkey, who really wanted out of Fenway, might have moved them out of Boston entirely.
So, even more than 2004, this is the most important season in Red Sox history. Years later, after the Red Sox failures of 1975, 1978 and 1986, but before the tainted triumphs of 2004, 2007 and 2013, Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy would write that, of all Red Sox teams, this one is absolved from criticism by "Red Sox Nation" -- which, he says, essentially began that summer.
By the same -- pardon my choice of words here -- token, this was an incredibly important season in St. Louis. The holdovers from the 1964 season proved it was no fluke, and, much more so than the '64 team, the '67 team, with its mixture of white stars (Tim McCarver, Dal Maxvill and an aging but still power-hitting Roger Maris), black stars (Gibson, Lou Brock and Curt Flood) and Hispanic stars (Orlando Cepeda and Julián Javier) showed St. Louis, still thinking of itself as a Southern city, what integration could really do. Fans in Brooklyn had learned that 20 years earlier.
Yet, somehow, the 1964-68 Cards, as good as they were, have not been celebrated by Baby Boomers as much as have the 1950s and ’60s Yankees, the 1950s Dodgers, the '60 and '71 Pirates, the 1962-66 Dodgers, the 1962-66 Giants, the 1966-71 Orioles, the '67 Red Sox, the '68 Tigers and the '69 Mets. Hopefully, that's mainly because St. Louis was, and is, one of baseball's smallest markets. Still, the Cardinals were then, and are now, one of baseball's most profitable and most admired franchises.
This was also the last game for Elston Howard, who had been traded by the Yankees to the Red Sox in midseason. In his last at-bat, against Gibson, he flied to left field in the 5th inning, being removed for a pinch-hitter.
With the deaths this year of Gibson and Brock, there are 12 surviving players from the '67 Cards, 53 years later: Cepeda, McCarver, Maxvill, Javier, Steve Carlton, Mike Shannon, Ray Washburn, Eddie Bressoud, Bobby Tolan, Ed Spiezio, Dick Hughes and Larry Jaster.
October 12, 1968: Leon Lett Jr. (no middle name) is born in Mobile, Alabama. He appeared in 2 Pro Bowls and won 3 Super Bowls as a defensive tackle with the Dallas Cowboys. But that's not how he is remembered.
In Super Bowl XXVII, he picked up a fumble, and tried to return it for a touchdown, and was waving the ball in the air, when the Buffalo Bills' Don Beebe ran up behind him and knocked it out of his hand at the 1-yard line. It was embarrassing, but it didn't matter, because the Cowboys won, 52-17.
Just 10 months later, on Thanksgiving Day 1993, a rare snowstorm blanketed the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, and the hole in the Texas Stadium roof protected the fans, but not the players. Pete Stoyanovich of the visiting Miami Dolphins attempted a game-winning field goal. The Cowboys blocked it, but while his teammates were celebrating, Lett wisely realized that the ball was still live.
He tried to recover it, but slipped on the slick artificial turf, and accidentally kicked the ball, and the Dolphins recovered it at the 1-yard line with 3 seconds left. Stoyanovich tries again, and the Dolphins win.
The Cowboys went on to win the Super Bowl anyway. All was forgiven, as the Lett is now the Cowboys' defensive line coach.
Also on this day, Hugh Michael Jackman is born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He's played King Arthur, Gaston of Beauty and the Beast, Blackbeard, Jean Valjean, P.T. Barnum, Billy Bigelow,
Dr. Gabriel Van Helsing, Curly McLain, Peter Allen, Senator Gary Hart, and Wolverine.
October 12, 1969: The Mets win a World Series game for the 1st time, taking Game 2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Al Weis' 9th-inning single breaks up a pitchers' duel between the Mets' Jerry Koosman (who is relieved in the bottom of the 9th by Ron Taylor) and the Orioles' Dave McNally.
The film Frequency tells the fictional tale of an atmospheric phenomenon that allows a 1999 NYPD Detective and Met fan, John Sullivan, played by Jim Caviezel, to use his father's old ham-radio set to talk to his father, Frank, a 1969 fireman, played by Dennis Quaid.
October 12, 1969 was the day Frank died in a fire, when "Johnny" (or "Little Chief," as Frank then called him) was just 6, and the grown John is able to warn him from the future. The result is that Frank tries a different path out of the burning building, so that he and the teenage girl he would have failed to rescue from the fire get out alive.
But the interference with time means that, because she wasn't preparing for her husband's funeral, the cop's mother, Julia Sullivan, a nurse, played by Elizabeth Mitchell (who, unlike Quaid, is actually younger than Caviezel), goes to work, and saves the life of a serial killer who would otherwise have died, and several more women end up dying – including Julia herself.
October 12, 1969: The Mets win a World Series game for the 1st time, taking Game 2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Al Weis' 9th-inning single breaks up a pitchers' duel between the Mets' Jerry Koosman (who is relieved in the bottom of the 9th by Ron Taylor) and the Orioles' Dave McNally.
The film Frequency tells the fictional tale of an atmospheric phenomenon that allows a 1999 NYPD Detective and Met fan, John Sullivan, played by Jim Caviezel, to use his father's old ham-radio set to talk to his father, Frank, a 1969 fireman, played by Dennis Quaid.
October 12, 1969 was the day Frank died in a fire, when "Johnny" (or "Little Chief," as Frank then called him) was just 6, and the grown John is able to warn him from the future. The result is that Frank tries a different path out of the burning building, so that he and the teenage girl he would have failed to rescue from the fire get out alive.
But the interference with time means that, because she wasn't preparing for her husband's funeral, the cop's mother, Julia Sullivan, a nurse, played by Elizabeth Mitchell (who, unlike Quaid, is actually younger than Caviezel), goes to work, and saves the life of a serial killer who would otherwise have died, and several more women end up dying – including Julia herself.
Now, instead of having his mother but not his father from 1969 to 1999, John now has his father but not his mother from 1969 to 1989 – Frank living long enough to see the John graduate from the police academy, but dying from smoking before John makes Detective.
Using the ham radio, father and son, roughly the same age as each other, track down the killer, played by Shaun Doyle, a Canadian actor who appeared on the series Lost, Big Love and Lost Girl. He was so creepy in Frequency that he really should have played the Joker in The Dark Knight, and not just to save Heath Ledger's life. Seriously: Look at his face and his hair (in the 1969 sequence) at the end of the film, and tell me he wouldn't have made a good Joker.
The kicker is that, as a result of his 1969 confrontation with the killer, Frank begins to be suspected for the killings (which do not yet include his wife) by a young cop, Sergeant Satch DeLeon (nicknamed after baseball legend Satchel Paige), who will be John's mentor and boss in 1999. He is played by Andre Braugher.
The way that Frank gets out of this, and back on the killer's trail, is that Game 5 of the Series is being shown on a TV behind them. Having been told what's going to happen by John from 30 years in the future, he tells Satch about the Cleon Jones shoe-polish incident and the subsequent Donn Clendenon home run.
When Satch sees that sequence happen on TV, he realizes that Frank really is telling the truth about these messages from his son from the future, releases him, and… well, you'll just have to see the movie. It’s a fantastic thriller, and I highly recommend it -- even though the Mets are glorified in it.
Also on this day, Sonja Henie dies of leukemia at age 57. The 1928, 1932 and 1936 women's Olympic Gold Medalist in figure skating, the Norwegian turned to acting and, while she wasn't much of an actress, she skated in most of her films, which were all profitable, making her one of the highest paid performers in Hollywood. (Making her a skating precursor of Elvis Presley, whose fans would go to the movies to hear him sing regardless of how good the rest of the movie was.)
Although she had met Adolf Hitler before World War II and been on friendly terms with him (as well as with several other world leaders), she was not a Nazi or a fascist, and supported the Allied effort. She had affairs with Joe Louis and Tyrone Power, was linked with Liberace (probably to deflect questions about him being gay), and was married 3 times, including to Yankee co-owner Dan Topping. She had no children.
Also on this day, with a connection to the Mets, José Antonio Valentín is born in Manati, Puerto Rico. The infielder last played in the majors for the Mets in 2007, and his only trip to the postseason was with the AL Central Champion White Sox in 2000.
He has since been a coach for the San Diego Padres. His brother Javier also played in the majors, and his son Jesmuel plays in the Baltimore Orioles' system, after having played for the Phillies in 2018.
Also on this day, Albert Dwayne Roloson is born in Simcoe, Ontario. He goes by Dwayne, while others call him Roli. The goalie debuted with the Calgary Flames in 1997, was Dominik Hasek's backup on the Buffalo Sabres team that reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1999, was Manny Fernandez's backup on the Minnesota Wild team that reached the Western Conference Finals in 2003, and was the Edmonton Oilers' starting goalie in the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals.
He later played for the Islanders, and last played in the NHL in 2012 with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He was the last active NHL player who was older than I was, and has served as a coach in the Anaheim Ducks' minor-league system.
Also on this day, Judit Mascó i Palau is born in Barcelona, Spain. She was the cover model for the 1990 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, and continued to appear in the "SI-Squared" for the next 5 years.
"The Dreaded SI Cover Jinx" doesn't seem to apply to the Swimsuit Issue: As far as I can tell, every single model, dating back to Babette March in 1964, 56 years ago, is still alive, and most of them went on to good careers in various fields, even if they didn't stay famous. Some, of course, did, especially Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley and Tyra Banks.
Also on this day, Martha Elenor Irwin is born in York, Pennsylvania, and grows up in the Dallas suburb of Addison, Texas. We know her as Martie Maguire of The Chics, formerly The Dixie Chicks. With their recent single "Gaslighter," a thinly-veiled attack on the Trump Administration, she and her bandmates Natalie Maines and Emily Robison are far from ready to make nice.
*
October 12, 1970, 50 years ago: Tanyon James Sturtze is born. Not a Yankee pitcher I care to say anything else about. He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts -- was he a "Manchurian Candidate" for the nearby Red Sox?
Charlie Ward Jr. (his full birth name) is also born on this day, in Thomasville, Georgia. The 1993 Heisman Trophy winner led Florida State to that season's National Championship, but no NFL team would draft him, so he played for the NBA's Knicks, not for the Giants or the Jets. Which is too bad, because, for a time, when the Giants had Dave Brown and Kent Graham, and the Jets had Neil O’Donnell and Bubby Brister, Ward was the best quarterback in New York. He did, however, play in the 1999 NBA Finals for the Knicks.
He is now a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, and the Georgia and Florida Sports Halls of Fame. He served as the head football coach at Booker T. Washington High School in Pensacola, Florida, where his son Caleb played for him. He is now the head basketball coach at Florida State University's Developmental Research School in Tallassee.
When Satch sees that sequence happen on TV, he realizes that Frank really is telling the truth about these messages from his son from the future, releases him, and… well, you'll just have to see the movie. It’s a fantastic thriller, and I highly recommend it -- even though the Mets are glorified in it.
Also on this day, Sonja Henie dies of leukemia at age 57. The 1928, 1932 and 1936 women's Olympic Gold Medalist in figure skating, the Norwegian turned to acting and, while she wasn't much of an actress, she skated in most of her films, which were all profitable, making her one of the highest paid performers in Hollywood. (Making her a skating precursor of Elvis Presley, whose fans would go to the movies to hear him sing regardless of how good the rest of the movie was.)
Although she had met Adolf Hitler before World War II and been on friendly terms with him (as well as with several other world leaders), she was not a Nazi or a fascist, and supported the Allied effort. She had affairs with Joe Louis and Tyrone Power, was linked with Liberace (probably to deflect questions about him being gay), and was married 3 times, including to Yankee co-owner Dan Topping. She had no children.
Also on this day, with a connection to the Mets, José Antonio Valentín is born in Manati, Puerto Rico. The infielder last played in the majors for the Mets in 2007, and his only trip to the postseason was with the AL Central Champion White Sox in 2000.
He has since been a coach for the San Diego Padres. His brother Javier also played in the majors, and his son Jesmuel plays in the Baltimore Orioles' system, after having played for the Phillies in 2018.
Also on this day, Albert Dwayne Roloson is born in Simcoe, Ontario. He goes by Dwayne, while others call him Roli. The goalie debuted with the Calgary Flames in 1997, was Dominik Hasek's backup on the Buffalo Sabres team that reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1999, was Manny Fernandez's backup on the Minnesota Wild team that reached the Western Conference Finals in 2003, and was the Edmonton Oilers' starting goalie in the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals.
He later played for the Islanders, and last played in the NHL in 2012 with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He was the last active NHL player who was older than I was, and has served as a coach in the Anaheim Ducks' minor-league system.
Also on this day, Judit Mascó i Palau is born in Barcelona, Spain. She was the cover model for the 1990 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, and continued to appear in the "SI-Squared" for the next 5 years.
"The Dreaded SI Cover Jinx" doesn't seem to apply to the Swimsuit Issue: As far as I can tell, every single model, dating back to Babette March in 1964, 56 years ago, is still alive, and most of them went on to good careers in various fields, even if they didn't stay famous. Some, of course, did, especially Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley and Tyra Banks.
Also on this day, Martha Elenor Irwin is born in York, Pennsylvania, and grows up in the Dallas suburb of Addison, Texas. We know her as Martie Maguire of The Chics, formerly The Dixie Chicks. With their recent single "Gaslighter," a thinly-veiled attack on the Trump Administration, she and her bandmates Natalie Maines and Emily Robison are far from ready to make nice.
*
October 12, 1970, 50 years ago: Tanyon James Sturtze is born. Not a Yankee pitcher I care to say anything else about. He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts -- was he a "Manchurian Candidate" for the nearby Red Sox?
Charlie Ward Jr. (his full birth name) is also born on this day, in Thomasville, Georgia. The 1993 Heisman Trophy winner led Florida State to that season's National Championship, but no NFL team would draft him, so he played for the NBA's Knicks, not for the Giants or the Jets. Which is too bad, because, for a time, when the Giants had Dave Brown and Kent Graham, and the Jets had Neil O’Donnell and Bubby Brister, Ward was the best quarterback in New York. He did, however, play in the 1999 NBA Finals for the Knicks.
He is now a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, and the Georgia and Florida Sports Halls of Fame. He served as the head football coach at Booker T. Washington High School in Pensacola, Florida, where his son Caleb played for him. He is now the head basketball coach at Florida State University's Developmental Research School in Tallassee.
Kirk Thomas Cameron is also born on this day, in Los Angeles. He has spent most his time since
Growing Pains went off the air making Christian Fundamentalist-themed films, including the movie versions of the Left Behind fables.
His sister Candace Cameron, one of the stars of Full House and its sequel series Fuller House, is also a fundamentalist, and married hockey star Valeri Bure (who also has a famous brother, hockey legend Pavel Bure).
October 12, 1971: Anthony James Fiore is born in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. Tony Fiore didn't last long as a major league pitcher, but he did reach the Playoffs with the 2002 Minnesota Twins.
At least he's still alive. That is not the case with Bronzell La James Miller, born on this day in the Seattle suburb of Federal Way, Washington. The defensive end was an original 1995 Jacksonville Jaguar, a 1998 Grey Cup winner with the Calgary Stampeders, and an actor before dying of cancer in 2013.
Also on this day, Dean Acheson dies of a stroke at his farmhouse in Sandy Spring, Maryland, outside Washington. He was 78. He began serving in the U.S. Department of State during World War II, and was Secretary of State in President Harry Truman's 2nd term, helping Truman to rally the United Nations coalition that intervened in the Korean War.
Although the next President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, ignored him, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon all included him as an advisor. That Nixon did so was surprising, not just because Nixon was a Republican, but because Nixon was Eisenhower's Vice President, and 1950s Republicans hated Acheson because of his support for the State Department officials, the vast majority of whom turned out to be innocent, that Republicans were accusing of Communist influence.
Also on this day, Gene Vincent dies of a stomach ulcer, the result of years of heavy drinking, in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita, California. The 1st singer to be signed to a record company specifically because they thought he sounded like Elvis Presley can could be "our label's Elvis," the native of Norfolk, Virginia had a few hits, most notably "Be-Bop-a-Lula" in 1956. By that point, though, he had already badly hurt his leg in a motorcycle crash, and was drinking heavily to ease the pain.
In 1960, things got worse: He was touring Britain with fellow "rockabilly" star Eddie Cochran, and as a result both men became more popular there than at home. On April 17, 1960, they and Eddie's girlfriend, songwriter Sharon Sheely, were in a car crash. Eddie was killed at 21, and Gene was badly hurt. He got onto the nascent oldies circuit in the late 1960s, but was just 36 when he died.
October 12, 1972: The Oakland Athletics defeat the Detroit Tigers, 2-1, and take the American League Pennant. The winning run is scored by Reggie Jackson on the front end of a double-steal, but Reggie tears his hamstring, and is unable to play in the World Series. He will make up for that many times, as he is the only man to win World Series MVPs with two different teams: The A's in '73 and the Yankees in '77.
After the game, in spite of the joy of the Pennant, Johnny "Blue Moon" Odom and Vida Blue give new meaning to the team's nickname, "the Swingin' A's," when the starting pitcher and the game's closer begin to brawl in the clubhouse. Odom, who left after 5 innings having allowed a run on 2 hits, takes exception to the universal choke sign made by Vida Blue, when the reliever used the gesture to answer his own question, "How come you starters can't finish what you begin?"
Also on this day, the New England Whalers made their debut, in the World Hockey Association. They defeated the Philadelphia Blazers 2-0 at the Boston Garden. They would win the 1st WHA title in 1973. Tired of being mistreated by their landlords, the NHL's Bruins, they would move to Hartford in 1974.
In 1979, following the WHA's collapse, they were allowed into the NHL, and changed their name to the Hartford Whalers. In 1997, they moved to become the Carolina Hurricanes, winning the Stanley Cup in 2006.
Also on this day, the Winnipeg Jets, the team that came to define the WHA in so many ways, debuted. So did the obligatory New York Tri-State Area franchise in the league, the New York Raiders. Christian Bordeleau scored 4 goals, including the club's 1st, and the Jets won, 6-4. Only 6,273 fans come out, mainly because the legal maneuvering that would allow Bobby Hull to play for the Jets had not yet been settled, and he wasn't available.
The Raiders wanted the new Nassau Coliseum, but got pushed around by the expansion Islanders. The Garden was willing to take them in, but they were low priority. Marvin Milkes, the Seattle Pilots general manager made infamous by Jim Bouton's book Ball Four, was their GM -- that should tell you what kind of organization they were. Their main radio announcer was a young John Sterling.
By midseason, their ownership had bailed, the league took them over, they spent the 1973-74 season in the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill as the Jersey Knights -- the only South Jersey team ever to be remotely considered "major league," and folded.
The Jets would be considerably luckier, settling the situation with Hull (the Golden Jet, for whom the team was named), reaching the 1st WHA Finals (where they lost to the Whalers), and winning the title in 1976, '78 and '79.
Taken into the NHL, and stripped of their big stars (Hull played out the string in Hartford, while Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson were sold to the Rangers), they collapsed immediately, set an NHL record for longest winless streak, and became known as Lose-ipeg. They would recover somewhat, but never got close to a Stanley Cup, and became the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996 and the Arizona Coyotes in 2014. The Atlanta Thrashers became the new Winnipeg Jets in 2011.
October 12, 1973: Shannon Lynn Clavelle is born in Lafayette, Louisiana. A defensive end, he was with the Green Bay Packers when they won Super Bowl XXXI.
Also on this day, Lesli Guillermo Brea is born in Berkeley, California. He briefly pitched for the Orioles in 2000 and '01.
Also on this day, Martin Edward Corry is born in Birmingham, West Midlands, England. He played club rugby union for Bristol and Leicester Tigers. He won the Six Nations tournament with England in 2000, 2001 and 2003, and captained them in 2005 and 2007. He is now involved in a youth rugby program.
October 12, 1974: For the first time, teams from California oppose each other in the World Series. The Oakland A's beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 at Dodger Stadium. Reggie Jackson homers, and so does Ken Holtzman, becoming the last pitcher to hit a home run in a World Series game for 34 years.
Rollie Fingers relieves Holtzman in the 5th, and pitches all the way to the 9th, when he gives up a home run to Jimmy Wynn to get the Dodgers to within 3-2. A's manager Alvin Dark brings in starter Jim "Catfish" Hunter to get the last out.
October 12, 1975: Game 2 of the World Series. Bill Lee takes a 2-1 lead into the 9th inning. The dream feels very close for Red Sox fans. But the Cincinnati Reds come from behind and beat Boston 3-2, and tie up the Series.
Also on this day, Miller Brewing Company debuts a TV commercial for their Lite beer. It features Yankee Legends Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford, then about to turn 44 and 47 years old:
Number 7: "Whitey, if we'd had a great-tasting beer that was less filling in the old days, can you imagine where we'd be now?"
Number 16: "Yeah: The Beer Drinkers Hall of Fame."
Lite would also do commercials with Billy Martin, including their most famous one, in 1978, which also had George Steinbrenner. They also did one with Yogi Berra in 1987, with "Yogi-isms" written for him, confusing the heck out of the barflies, including a young, not-quite-bald-yet Jason Alexander.
But Anheuser-Busch eventually offered Mickey more money to switch to their Natural Light, and do a commercial with malaprop-prone comedian Norm Crosby. They also did one with Crosby and, as he put it, "Catfood Hunter."
Considering how Mickey killed himself with drinking -- and so did Billy -- these ads are a lot less funny now. On the other hand, Whitey also drank a lot, if not as much, and he lived to be almost 92.
Also on this day, having been kept out of Yankee Stadium by its renovation, and out of City-owned Shea Stadium by Mayor John Lindsay due to their intention to leave for New Jersey's Meadowlands, and forced to play in the Yale Bowl in New Haven for 2 seasons, the Giants play their 1st game at Shea, having been allowed by a new Mayor, Abe Beame. They lose 13-7 to the Dallas Cowboys.
Also on this day, Marion Lois Jones is born in Los Angeles. She was supposed to be one of the heroines of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, and she won 3 Gold Medals in sprinting. But she was stripped of her medals after it was revealed she cheated, and lied about it under oath during the BALCO investigation, and was also guilty of check fraud. She served 6 months in prison.
She married shot-putter C.J. Hunter, split from him, and began seeing sprinter Tim Montgomery. When their son, Tim Jr., was born, I joked that he'd become the world's fastest baby. (He's now 13.) But she and Tim Sr. never got married. She later married Barbadian sprinter Obadele Thompson, and they have 2 children.
Having played on a National Championship women's basketball team at the University of North Carolina, after she got out of the joint, she signed for the WNBA's Tulsa Shock, and played for them in the 2010 and '11 seasons.
October 12, 1976: The Cincinnati Reds need to win Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, at home at Riverfront Stadium, to complete their sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies and repeat as Pennant winners. The Phils don't make it easy, leading 3-0 going to the bottom of the 7th inning.
The game does not end benignly, as Phils starter Jim Kaat tires in the bottom of the 7th, allowing 4 runs, including a 2-run triple by Cesar Geronimo. The Reds led 4-3, but the Phils came back, and led 6-4 going to the bottom of the 9th.
But the Big Red Machine are not done. George Foster and Johnny Bench hit back-to-back home runs off Ron Reed. Manager Danny Ozark brings in Gene Garber, who walks Dave Concepcion. Ozark brings in Tom Underwood, who walks Geronimo, and gives up a sacrifice bunt to Ed Armbrister and an intentional walk to Pete Rose. Griffey hits a bouncer that Bobby Tolan at 1st base can't handle, and Concepcion scores the Pennant-winning run.
For the 2nd straight year, and for the 4th time in the last 7 seasons, the Reds are in the World Series. The Phils' best season in 26 years ends ignominiously, but this is only the 1st time, of what turns out to be 3 straight seasons, that they will blow a key NLCS game due to a fielding miscue.
The American League Championship Series moves to New York for Game 3, the 1st LCS game at Yankee Stadium. With the series tied 1-1, the Kansas City Royals score 3 runs off Dock Ellis before the Yankees can even come to bat.
But a Chris Chambliss home run cuts the deficit to 3-2 in the 4th inning, and Royals manager Whitey Herzog goes through 4 pitchers as the Yankees score 3 runs in the 6th. The Yankees win, 5-3, and need just 1 more win for their 1st Pennant in 12 years. As it turned out, Chambliss was just warming up.
Larry Bird has a quieter debut, scoring 14 points, but the Boston Celtics have an easier game, overcoming 31 points from Moses Malone and defeating the Houston Rockets 114-106 at the Boston Garden. This is also the day the 3-point field goal finally enters regular-season NBA play, after having previously been used in the American Basketball League (1961-63) and the American Basketball Association (1967-76). The Celtics' Chris Ford is the 1st player to attempt one, and the 1st player to make one.
Coach Frank Layden will eventually right the ship in Salt Lake City, and make them a consistent Playoff team and a model franchise, though they've never won a title.
He would also remark that the team, and the Minneapolis Lakers, had names that made sense in their original cities, but not anymore. He suggested that they switch names, as "Los Angeles Jazz" and "Utah Lakers" both made much more sense.
Also on this day, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is published, beginning Douglas Adams' literary and film franchise. Nothing like the planet Earth getting blown up to start a comedy. Before said destruction, Ford Prefect takes Arthur Dent into a pub, which is showing a football match on the TV, and orders a drink for each, and adds, "And quickly, please, the world's about to end." The bartender says, "Lucky for Arsenal, then."
Also on this day, Rene Gagnon suffers a heart attack in the boiler room of the apartment building he managed in Manchester, New Hampshire. One of the Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima, he was only 54 years old.
Also on this day, Ryan Terry Clark is born in Marrero, Louisiana. A safety, he was with the Pittsburgh Steelers when they won Super Bowl XLIII, and played in the 2012 Pro Bowl. Since the 2012 Batman film The Dark Knight Rises did some filming in Pittsburgh, including at the Steelers' Heinz Field, he played one of the Gotham Rogues, who were given black and gold uniforms like the Steelers. He is now an analyst for ESPN.
Also on this day, Adrian Lemar Wilson is born in High Point, North Carolina. The strong safety made 5 Pro Bowls for the Arizona Cardinals, and was named to their Ring of Honor. He is now eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and is a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Stephen William Borthwick is born in Carlisle, Cumbria, in northernmost England. Steve Borthwick starred for Bath Rugby and London club Saracens. Like the aforementioned Martin Corry, he won the Six Nations with England in 2001 and 2003, and he succeeded Corry as Captain. He is now an assistant coach with the national side.
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October 12, 1980, 40 years ago: The Phillies win the Pennant with a 10-inning 8-7 win over the Houston Astros in the deciding Game 5 at the Astrodome. Each of the last 4 games of this epic series was decided in extra innings. Down by 3 runs to Nolan Ryan in the 8th‚ the Phils rally to tie, and center fielder Garry Maddox makes up for his Playoff goof of 2 years earlier by doubling home the winning run and catching the final out.
Although Tug McGraw had been on the mound when the Phils clinched the Division in Montreal, and would be on the mound when they clinched the World Series at home 9 days later, he was already out of the Pennant-clincher before it ended. Dick Ruthven, the Phils' Number 2 starter behind Steve Carlton, turned out to be the pitcher on the mound at the end. This was the Phils' 1st Pennant in 30 years, and only the 2nd by a Philadelphia team in the last 49.
Also on this day, Ledley Brenton King is born in the Bow section of East London. For 13 seasons, he played centreback for Arsenal's North London arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, winning just 1 trophy, the 2008 League Cup.
"Spurs" fans called Ledley, for the last few years also their Captain, "The King" and a "legend." I guess he's what passes for a legend in London N17. Arsenal fans, noting his lack of speed, called him "Leadfoot Queen." He did get selected for England at the 2010 World Cup, for all the good that did them, or him. He now works as a Spurs club "ambassador."
October 12, 1981: Thomas John Guiry is born in Trenton, New Jersey. He grew up in the Trenton suburb of Hamilton, and, through his acting proceeds, his parents were able to send him to the prestigious, preppy Lawrenceville School.
Best known for playing Scotty Smalls, the protagonist of The Sandlot, he still acts. All together now: "Yer killin' me, Smalls."
Also on this day, Marcel Hossa (no middle name) is born in Ilava, Slovakia. A left wing, he played 7 seasons in the NHL, including 3 with the New York Rangers. He represented Slovakia in the 2006, 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics. He has since played in the national leagues of Slovakia, Czechia, Russia, Latvia and Sweden.
He is the younger brother of Marián Hossa, and both played for their father, František Hossa, an assistant coach with the Slovakia national team and the current head coach of the hockey program at Spartak Moscow, better known for its soccer team. Marián scored 525 NHL goals, Marcel only 31.
Also on this day, Foluwashola Ameobi is born in Zaira, Nigeria. The longtime forward for soccer club Newcastle United helped them win their most recent title of any kind, the 2006 Intertoto Cup, and remains a beloved figure in the North-East of England. "Shola" played for Nigeria in the 2014 World Cup. He is currently a free agent, but has not announced his retirement.
Also on this day, Conrad Gerard Smith is born in Hawera, New Zealand. Long a star for Wellington Rugby Union, he helped New Zealand win the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cups.
Also on this day, Art Passarella dies outside Los Angeles in Hemet, California at age 71. He was an American League umpire from 1941 to 1953. He umpired in the 1945, 1949 and 1952 World Series, and in the 1947 and 1951 All-Star Game.
He became an actor, and played an umpire in the baseball scene in the 1963 film That Touch of Mink, throwing Mickey Mantle, then Roger Maris, then Yogi Berra out of a game. He also served as the umpire for the 1960 TV game show Home Run Derby.
October 12, 1982: The Milwaukee Brewers win the 1st World Series game the franchise has ever played, clobbering the Cardinals, 10-0 at Busch Memorial Stadium. Paul Molitor sets a Series record, becoming the 1st player to collect 5 hits in a game. Robin Yount gets 4 hits.
Shea Stadium was active on this day, and the next, but it wasn't for postseason baseball, as the Mets stunk at the time. And, despite being Autumn, Jets season, it wasn't for pro football, either, as it was a Wednesday and a Thursday. The Clash played, and their performance of "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" at Shea was filmed for the song's official video.
Called "The Only Band That Matters" by their fans, The Clash were actually the opening act on this night. It takes balls to ask The Clash to be your opening act. Who was the headliner? As Bud Abbott would say, "Yes." No, not the band Yes: The Who. It was their farewell tour. You know, their 1st one.
October 12, 1983: Carlton Michael George Cole Okirie is born in Croydon, South London. Known professionally as Carlton Cole, the striker helped West London club Chelsea win the Premier League in 2006, but is best known for playing for East London club West Ham United. He now coaches in West Ham's academy.
Also on this day, Alex Brosque (no middle name) is born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. A son of Uruguayan immigrants, the striker was a member of Australia's OFC Nations Cup win in 2004, and led Australia's A-League in scoring with the Brisbane Roar in 2006. He played with hometown club Sydney FC from 2006 to 2011, winning the League's Championship (regular-season title) and Premiership (playoff title) in 2010.
After a season in Japan and 2 in the United Arab Emirates, he returned to Sydney FC in 2014, and became their Captain, leading them to the Championship, the Premiership and the FFA Cup in 2017, and another Championship in 2018, after which he retired, as the team's all-time leading scorer. Oddly, while he represented Australia in the 2004 Olympics, he was never picked for their World Cup team.
October 12, 1984: President Ronald Reagan signs the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 into law. It includes sentencing reform, itself including the re-institution of the federal death penalty, and the creation of the United States Sentencing Commission.
It also increases federal penalties for the cultivation, possession or transfer of marijuana, thus making it a landmark in the federal government's "War On Drugs." It also extends the jurisdiction of the U.S. Secret Service over credit card fraud and computer fraud; defines when civil forfeiture can seize assets of organized crime operations; and enters a new section for hostage taking in the criminal code.
October 12, 1985: Michael David Green is born in Calgary. Despite being a defenseman, Mike is known as "Game Over Green" for scoring overtime goals for the Washington Capitals. In the 2008-09 season, he scored in 8 straight games, an NHL record for defensemen. A 2-time All-Star, he later played for the Detroit Red Wings and the Edmonton Oilers, and retired this year.
October 12, 1990, 30 years ago: Mr. Destiny premieres. Along with Taking Care of Business, it is 1 of 2 films released this year starring Jim Belushi in which baseball is not the main subject, but is an important plot point.
In Taking Care of Business, released on August 17, Belushi -- like his legendary late brother John, a Chicago Cubs fan in real life -- plays Jimmy Dworski, a convicted car thief, mere days away from completing a prison sentence. But he uses a prison phone to win tickets to Game 6 of the World Series, between the Cubs and the team then known as the California Angels, in Anaheim, and escapes so he can attend.
At Los Angeles International Airport, he gets mixed up with advertising executive Spencer Barnes, played by Charles Grodin, and ends up with Spencer's Filofax, a personal organizer that couldn't do 1/10th of what a smartphone can do now. Spencer yells, "My whole life is in there!" Sure enough, Jimmy is able to use it to get all the perks that Spencer was meant to get on his business trip.
One thing leads to another, and Jimmy gives Spencer his extra ticket to the game. The Cubs win, as Mark Grace hits a home run off Bert Blyleven. They play themselves, and Joe Torre plays one of the broadcasters. Star Trek: The Next Generation actors Gates McFadden and John de Lancie also appear. Spencer helps Jimmy sneak back into prison to complete his sentence, and then, after his release, starts him on a new life.
In Mr. Destiny, Belushi plays Larry Burrows, and he's not as happy as Jimmy Dworski, even though Jimmy was in prison. Larry has a lousy job, and a beautiful but boring wife, played by Linda Hamilton, fresh off her success in Terminator 2. In what has to be a nod to another sci-fi monster fighter, Sigourney Weaver in the Alien films, her character's maiden name is Ellen Ripley.
Larry blames all his problems on striking out in a high school baseball game 20 years earlier. Michael Caine plays an angel who does a "reverse It's a Wonderful Life" on him, showing him his life if he had hit a home run that day. That teenage sports success got him some breaks, and as a result, he's more successful and more respected. He's even married to the woman he knew as his boss' wife, played by Rene Russo.
But that's just on the surface: Things are actually much worse. Due to the moves his counterpart in this world made, his real-life best friend, played by Jon Lovitz, has lost his job, and is threatening to jump off the building because Larry ruined his life, and Larry has to convince him that he hasn't betrayed him -- which, in this world, is a lie. And shenanigans are going on at the company that he, not being in high management before, didn't know about.
Also, in spite of being married to a woman who looks like Rene Russo, his counterpart has a mistress, played by a pre-Friends Courteney Cox. And he still wants to get back together with his real-life wife, who has the same job she had before, but a different husband. Now, his counterpart's wife, mistress and underlings all want to kill him. He survives long enough to get his old life back, and thwarts the shenanigans, saves the company, and is rewarded for it.
Also on this day, Henri George Lansbury is born in Enfield, North London. The midfielder was part of the youth movement at North London's Arsenal, helping them win the FA Youth Cup in 2009. But in 5 seasons, 2007 to 2012, he only made 3 senior appearances for the Gunners, and was loaned to Scunthorpe United in 2009, Watford in 2009-10, Norwich City in 2010-11, and West Ham United in 2011-12.
Finally, Arsenal gave up on him, and sold him to Nottingham Forest. He's now with Birmingham club Aston Villa, having helped them get back up into the Premier League. He's now scored 50 goals in 315 career appearances. But he's never played a senior game for England.
October 12, 1991: Saturday Night Live debuts the sketch "Coffee Talk." Mike Myers plays the host, Linda Richman, based on, at the time, his own mother-in-law.
On the February 22, 1992 installment, Roseanne Barr plays a friend of Linda's, and Madonna -- not announced as appearing on the show that night -- plays the friend's daughter. The subject of Madonna comes up, and the daughter tells the truth, saying Madonna is a tramp.
The subject of the talk show -- when Linda isn't getting verklempt, and asking the audience to "Talk amongst yourselves" -- was Barbra Streisand. Executive producer Lorne Michaels surprises everyone by sending the real Streisand onto the stage. As surprised as they are, all 3 performers stay in character, and Myers says, "I can die now!" (For the record, everyone involved in the sketch is still alive, as is the real Richman, who was in the audience that night. She didn't know Streisand was going to be on, either.)
October 12, 1992: Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas, the Democratic Party's nominee for President, visits Philadelphia on the heels of his victory in the previous night's debate with President George H.W. Bush in St. Louis.
I was there. Perched on the back of a flatbed truck at 9th Street and Passyunk Avenue, between famed cheesesteak stands Pat's and Geno's, he panders to the crowd in the Italian Market neighborhood and says, "Every day that goes by, I feel more and more like Rocky Balboa." Big cheer.
When the speech was over, he shook as many hands as he could as the truck moved forward at about 2 miles an hour. One was mine. I held up my right hand. He was grabbing hands with both of his, and reached with his left. I yelled, "Bill, New Jersey loves you!" He had a huge smile on his face. I have no idea if he heard me, or if his smile was for the vote of confidence from a State he needed, or if he was just smiling over a very successful speech. It didn't matter: For the 1st time, I had touched someone who could have been President -- and, as it turned out, became one.
I was not the first in my family: On September 15, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy spoke at City Hall in Newark, and later made his way up Broad Street, past Military Park. One of the hands he shook there belonged to my father, John Pacholek, then a 17-year-old freshman at the Newark College of Engineering (now the New Jersey Institute of Technology). After JFK was assassinated, at about the spot where he and my Dad met, a column was raised, with a bust of him on top. JFK, that is, not my father.
Also on this day, Star Trek: The Next Generation aired the episode "Relics." I got home from Philadelphia (the rally was at 11:30 AM) in plenty of time to watch it with my father, because it had been advertised that original Trek actor James Doohan would return to play engineering wizard Montgomery Scott. It was one of the best episodes of the series.
October 12, 1993: The Florida Panthers, representing Miami-Fort Lauderdale, make their NHL debut. Scott Mellanby scores their 1st goal, but they lose 2-1 to the Pittsbugh Penguins at Miami Arena.
October 12, 1994: Tony Adams captains the England national soccer team for the 1st time. It is the 1st time in 55 years – since George Male led the national side out, just prior to the breakout of World War II – that a current Arsenal player has been England Captain. (David Platt had skippered England the year before, but wouldn't be purchased by Arsenal until the 1995 off-season.) England play Romania to a 1-1 draw at Wembley Stadium in London.
Also on this day, Sean Monahan (no middle name) is born in the Toronto suburb of Brampton, Ontario. The center plays for the Calgary Flames.
October 12, 1995, 25 years ago: The Rose Garden opens in Portland, Oregon, the "Rose City," next-door to the Portland Memorial Coliseum. The NBA's Portland Trail Blazers move in within days. In 2013, it was renamed the Moda Center.
Also on this day, Friends airs the episode "The One With Phoebe's Husband." A few years earlier, Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) had married Duncan (Steve Zahn), a gay Canadian ice dancer, so he wouldn't get deported. It turns out he's back, he's not gay, and he wants a divorce so he can marry a woman.
This is also the episode where we find out that Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) has a 3rd nipple, and that Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) was in a porno movie -- but didn't do one of the sex scenes in it.
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October 12, 1996: For the 1st time, North London's Arsenal Football Club take the field with Arsène Wenger as their manager. He had been hired on September 30, as he was running out his contract with Japanese club Nagoya Grampus Eight, and an international break fell in between. Arsenal visit Lancashire club Blackburn Rovers, and win 2-0 at Ewood Park, with Ian Wright scoring both goals.
To that point, The Arsenal had won 10 League titles, including fairly recently, in 1989 and 1991. They had won 6 FA Cups, most recently in 1993. They had won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1994. But their League form had slipped, dropping to 12th place in 1995. They finished 5th in 1996, and a change was needed.
No non-British manager had ever won England's top division, under either the name Football League Division One or, since 1992, the Premier League. But Wenger revolutionized the team's training, its training ground, its exercise, its diet, and its acquisitions.
Working with established players Wright, David Seaman, Tony Adams, Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn and Dennis Bergkamp, he led them to 3rd place in his 1st season, then added Patrick Vieira, Marc Overmars and Emmanuel Petit, and won both the League and the FA Cup in 1998, known as "doing The Double."
As the older players left, "Le Boss" brought in new ones. He made stars of Robert Pires, Ashley Cole, Kolo Toure, and the man who would replace Wright as Arsenal's all-time leading scorer, Thierry Henry. He signed Sol Campbell, the captain of Arsenal's North London arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, whom Campbell felt had treated him badly, so he ran out his contract and crossed the divide.
He won The Double again in 2002, won another FA Cup in 2003, and managed the entire Premier League season without a loss in 2003-04, leading to the team being called "The Invincibles." This included clinching the title at Tottenham's stadium, White Hart Lane. (Arsenal had done that in 1971 as well -- and had now won the League at The Lane as many times as "Spurs" had, 2.) The unbeaten streak eventually reached 49, and he led them to another FA Cup in 2005 and the UEFA Champions League Final in 2006.
All this winning led to enough revenue to replace Highbury, their stadium, which only seated about 38,000, first hosted them in 1913 and whose East Stand and West Stand had been built in the 1930s, with the 60,000-seat Emirates Stadium 500 yards away.
Wenger believed that, in the long run, a huge modern stadium would provide enough revenue to keep the club financially secure for the rest of the 21st Century. But in the short term, he had to sell off several great players to pay off the stadium debut, and, infamously, didn't win another trophy for 9 years.
Finally, in 2014, Arsenal beat Hull City in extra time at the new Wembley Stadium in London, to win the FA Cup. In 2015, they repeated as Cup winners, defeating Aston Villa of Birmingham in the Final. In 2016, after years of "settling" for 4th place or better since it kept Arsenal qualifying for the Champions League, Arsenal finished 2nd.
In 2017, injuries led to the team falling to 5th, out of Champions League qualification, and finished lower than local rivals Tottenham Hotspur -- all 1st-time occurrences under Wenger. They still won the FA Cup again, beating the League Champions, West London's Chelsea, in the Final. In 2018, they fell to 6th, and Wenger resigned.
A small but very loud minority of Arsenal fans wanted Wenger out. They said that the game had passed him by, that he wasn't willing to spend enough money to bring in "world-class" players -- with most of their suggestions turning out to be flashes in the pan, and most of their suggestions as his replacement ending up flopping. These charges were ridiculous.
They said that trophies matter, until he started winning trophies again. Suddenly, to borrow a phrase from American football, they moved the goalposts: Now, winning the League is all that matters to them. By that definition, every year, 19 teams should fire their managers. These people are idiots, and in a game late in the 2015-16 season, they unfurled a "WENGER OUT" banner, and got drowned out by 50,000 people singing, "One Arsène Wenger, there's only one Arsène Wenger!"
Also on this day, Marion Lois Jones is born in Los Angeles. She was supposed to be one of the heroines of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, and she won 3 Gold Medals in sprinting. But she was stripped of her medals after it was revealed she cheated, and lied about it under oath during the BALCO investigation, and was also guilty of check fraud. She served 6 months in prison.
She married shot-putter C.J. Hunter, split from him, and began seeing sprinter Tim Montgomery. When their son, Tim Jr., was born, I joked that he'd become the world's fastest baby. (He's now 13.) But she and Tim Sr. never got married. She later married Barbadian sprinter Obadele Thompson, and they have 2 children.
Having played on a National Championship women's basketball team at the University of North Carolina, after she got out of the joint, she signed for the WNBA's Tulsa Shock, and played for them in the 2010 and '11 seasons.
October 12, 1976: The Cincinnati Reds need to win Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, at home at Riverfront Stadium, to complete their sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies and repeat as Pennant winners. The Phils don't make it easy, leading 3-0 going to the bottom of the 7th inning.
The game does not end benignly, as Phils starter Jim Kaat tires in the bottom of the 7th, allowing 4 runs, including a 2-run triple by Cesar Geronimo. The Reds led 4-3, but the Phils came back, and led 6-4 going to the bottom of the 9th.
But the Big Red Machine are not done. George Foster and Johnny Bench hit back-to-back home runs off Ron Reed. Manager Danny Ozark brings in Gene Garber, who walks Dave Concepcion. Ozark brings in Tom Underwood, who walks Geronimo, and gives up a sacrifice bunt to Ed Armbrister and an intentional walk to Pete Rose. Griffey hits a bouncer that Bobby Tolan at 1st base can't handle, and Concepcion scores the Pennant-winning run.
For the 2nd straight year, and for the 4th time in the last 7 seasons, the Reds are in the World Series. The Phils' best season in 26 years ends ignominiously, but this is only the 1st time, of what turns out to be 3 straight seasons, that they will blow a key NLCS game due to a fielding miscue.
The American League Championship Series moves to New York for Game 3, the 1st LCS game at Yankee Stadium. With the series tied 1-1, the Kansas City Royals score 3 runs off Dock Ellis before the Yankees can even come to bat.
But a Chris Chambliss home run cuts the deficit to 3-2 in the 4th inning, and Royals manager Whitey Herzog goes through 4 pitchers as the Yankees score 3 runs in the 6th. The Yankees win, 5-3, and need just 1 more win for their 1st Pennant in 12 years. As it turned out, Chambliss was just warming up.
October 12, 1977: The Dodgers pounce on aching Yankee starter Catfish Hunter, and win Game 2, 6-1, and tie up the Series. Billy Martin is criticized for putting Catfish on the mound when he'd been injured and hadn't pitched in a month, but it allowed Billy to start Mike Torrez in Game 3, rookie sensation Ron Guidry in Game 4, and Don Gullett in Game 5, all on full rest.
During the ABC broadcast, the camera on the Goodyear blimp caught the image of an abandoned school on fire, just a few blocks east of Yankee Stadium. Legend has it that ABC's Howard Cosell said, on the air, "There it is, ladies and gentlemen: The Bronx is burning." This became the title of Jonathan Mahler's book about life in New York City in 1977, and of the ESPN miniseries about it. Except the broadcast survives, and it proves that he didn't say it.
Also on this day, Samuel Bode Miller is born in Easton, New Hampshire. Like a typical pre-2001 New England athlete, the skier was much-hyped in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, but choked.
Unlike a typical post-2001 New England athlete, Bode didn't subsequently cheat (as far as we know), and did win a Gold Medal in the "super combined" in 2010 in Vancouver. His total of 6 Olympic medals (in 2006, 2010, and 2014 in Sochi, Russia) is a record for an American skier.
October 12, 1979: The much-hyped opponents from the previous March's collegiate National Championship game make their NBA debuts. Earvin "Magic" Johnson scores 26 points, and veteran Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scores 29, and the Los Angeles Lakers need them all to defeat the San Diego Clippers, 103-102 at the San Diego Sports Arena.
During the ABC broadcast, the camera on the Goodyear blimp caught the image of an abandoned school on fire, just a few blocks east of Yankee Stadium. Legend has it that ABC's Howard Cosell said, on the air, "There it is, ladies and gentlemen: The Bronx is burning." This became the title of Jonathan Mahler's book about life in New York City in 1977, and of the ESPN miniseries about it. Except the broadcast survives, and it proves that he didn't say it.
Also on this day, Samuel Bode Miller is born in Easton, New Hampshire. Like a typical pre-2001 New England athlete, the skier was much-hyped in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, but choked.
Unlike a typical post-2001 New England athlete, Bode didn't subsequently cheat (as far as we know), and did win a Gold Medal in the "super combined" in 2010 in Vancouver. His total of 6 Olympic medals (in 2006, 2010, and 2014 in Sochi, Russia) is a record for an American skier.
October 12, 1979: The much-hyped opponents from the previous March's collegiate National Championship game make their NBA debuts. Earvin "Magic" Johnson scores 26 points, and veteran Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scores 29, and the Los Angeles Lakers need them all to defeat the San Diego Clippers, 103-102 at the San Diego Sports Arena.
Larry Bird has a quieter debut, scoring 14 points, but the Boston Celtics have an easier game, overcoming 31 points from Moses Malone and defeating the Houston Rockets 114-106 at the Boston Garden. This is also the day the 3-point field goal finally enters regular-season NBA play, after having previously been used in the American Basketball League (1961-63) and the American Basketball Association (1967-76). The Celtics' Chris Ford is the 1st player to attempt one, and the 1st player to make one.
The arrivals of Magic and Larry are said to have "saved the NBA." This is nonsense. The league already had Kareem, and Julius "Dr. J" Erving, and Bill Walton, and plenty of other great players.
Also on this day, the Utah Jazz make their debut, after 5 seasons without making the Playoffs as the far more sensibly-named New Orleans Jazz. It doesn't go much better, getting pounded 101-85 by the Portland Trail Blazers at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.
Coach Frank Layden will eventually right the ship in Salt Lake City, and make them a consistent Playoff team and a model franchise, though they've never won a title.
He would also remark that the team, and the Minneapolis Lakers, had names that made sense in their original cities, but not anymore. He suggested that they switch names, as "Los Angeles Jazz" and "Utah Lakers" both made much more sense.
Also on this day, Game 3 of the World Series is played at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. The Baltimore Orioles score 2 runs in the 3rd inning and 5 in the 4th, including a home run by Benny Ayala, to overcome a 3-0 deficit, and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-4. The O's take a 2-1 lead in the Series.
Also on this day, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is published, beginning Douglas Adams' literary and film franchise. Nothing like the planet Earth getting blown up to start a comedy. Before said destruction, Ford Prefect takes Arthur Dent into a pub, which is showing a football match on the TV, and orders a drink for each, and adds, "And quickly, please, the world's about to end." The bartender says, "Lucky for Arsenal, then."
Also on this day, Rene Gagnon suffers a heart attack in the boiler room of the apartment building he managed in Manchester, New Hampshire. One of the Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima, he was only 54 years old.
Also on this day, Ryan Terry Clark is born in Marrero, Louisiana. A safety, he was with the Pittsburgh Steelers when they won Super Bowl XLIII, and played in the 2012 Pro Bowl. Since the 2012 Batman film The Dark Knight Rises did some filming in Pittsburgh, including at the Steelers' Heinz Field, he played one of the Gotham Rogues, who were given black and gold uniforms like the Steelers. He is now an analyst for ESPN.
Also on this day, Adrian Lemar Wilson is born in High Point, North Carolina. The strong safety made 5 Pro Bowls for the Arizona Cardinals, and was named to their Ring of Honor. He is now eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and is a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Stephen William Borthwick is born in Carlisle, Cumbria, in northernmost England. Steve Borthwick starred for Bath Rugby and London club Saracens. Like the aforementioned Martin Corry, he won the Six Nations with England in 2001 and 2003, and he succeeded Corry as Captain. He is now an assistant coach with the national side.
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October 12, 1980, 40 years ago: The Phillies win the Pennant with a 10-inning 8-7 win over the Houston Astros in the deciding Game 5 at the Astrodome. Each of the last 4 games of this epic series was decided in extra innings. Down by 3 runs to Nolan Ryan in the 8th‚ the Phils rally to tie, and center fielder Garry Maddox makes up for his Playoff goof of 2 years earlier by doubling home the winning run and catching the final out.
Although Tug McGraw had been on the mound when the Phils clinched the Division in Montreal, and would be on the mound when they clinched the World Series at home 9 days later, he was already out of the Pennant-clincher before it ended. Dick Ruthven, the Phils' Number 2 starter behind Steve Carlton, turned out to be the pitcher on the mound at the end. This was the Phils' 1st Pennant in 30 years, and only the 2nd by a Philadelphia team in the last 49.
Also on this day, Ledley Brenton King is born in the Bow section of East London. For 13 seasons, he played centreback for Arsenal's North London arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, winning just 1 trophy, the 2008 League Cup.
"Spurs" fans called Ledley, for the last few years also their Captain, "The King" and a "legend." I guess he's what passes for a legend in London N17. Arsenal fans, noting his lack of speed, called him "Leadfoot Queen." He did get selected for England at the 2010 World Cup, for all the good that did them, or him. He now works as a Spurs club "ambassador."
October 12, 1981: Thomas John Guiry is born in Trenton, New Jersey. He grew up in the Trenton suburb of Hamilton, and, through his acting proceeds, his parents were able to send him to the prestigious, preppy Lawrenceville School.
Best known for playing Scotty Smalls, the protagonist of The Sandlot, he still acts. All together now: "Yer killin' me, Smalls."
Also on this day, Marcel Hossa (no middle name) is born in Ilava, Slovakia. A left wing, he played 7 seasons in the NHL, including 3 with the New York Rangers. He represented Slovakia in the 2006, 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics. He has since played in the national leagues of Slovakia, Czechia, Russia, Latvia and Sweden.
He is the younger brother of Marián Hossa, and both played for their father, František Hossa, an assistant coach with the Slovakia national team and the current head coach of the hockey program at Spartak Moscow, better known for its soccer team. Marián scored 525 NHL goals, Marcel only 31.
Also on this day, Foluwashola Ameobi is born in Zaira, Nigeria. The longtime forward for soccer club Newcastle United helped them win their most recent title of any kind, the 2006 Intertoto Cup, and remains a beloved figure in the North-East of England. "Shola" played for Nigeria in the 2014 World Cup. He is currently a free agent, but has not announced his retirement.
Also on this day, Conrad Gerard Smith is born in Hawera, New Zealand. Long a star for Wellington Rugby Union, he helped New Zealand win the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cups.
Also on this day, Art Passarella dies outside Los Angeles in Hemet, California at age 71. He was an American League umpire from 1941 to 1953. He umpired in the 1945, 1949 and 1952 World Series, and in the 1947 and 1951 All-Star Game.
He became an actor, and played an umpire in the baseball scene in the 1963 film That Touch of Mink, throwing Mickey Mantle, then Roger Maris, then Yogi Berra out of a game. He also served as the umpire for the 1960 TV game show Home Run Derby.
October 12, 1982: The Milwaukee Brewers win the 1st World Series game the franchise has ever played, clobbering the Cardinals, 10-0 at Busch Memorial Stadium. Paul Molitor sets a Series record, becoming the 1st player to collect 5 hits in a game. Robin Yount gets 4 hits.
Shea Stadium was active on this day, and the next, but it wasn't for postseason baseball, as the Mets stunk at the time. And, despite being Autumn, Jets season, it wasn't for pro football, either, as it was a Wednesday and a Thursday. The Clash played, and their performance of "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" at Shea was filmed for the song's official video.
Called "The Only Band That Matters" by their fans, The Clash were actually the opening act on this night. It takes balls to ask The Clash to be your opening act. Who was the headliner? As Bud Abbott would say, "Yes." No, not the band Yes: The Who. It was their farewell tour. You know, their 1st one.
October 12, 1983: Carlton Michael George Cole Okirie is born in Croydon, South London. Known professionally as Carlton Cole, the striker helped West London club Chelsea win the Premier League in 2006, but is best known for playing for East London club West Ham United. He now coaches in West Ham's academy.
Also on this day, Alex Brosque (no middle name) is born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. A son of Uruguayan immigrants, the striker was a member of Australia's OFC Nations Cup win in 2004, and led Australia's A-League in scoring with the Brisbane Roar in 2006. He played with hometown club Sydney FC from 2006 to 2011, winning the League's Championship (regular-season title) and Premiership (playoff title) in 2010.
After a season in Japan and 2 in the United Arab Emirates, he returned to Sydney FC in 2014, and became their Captain, leading them to the Championship, the Premiership and the FFA Cup in 2017, and another Championship in 2018, after which he retired, as the team's all-time leading scorer. Oddly, while he represented Australia in the 2004 Olympics, he was never picked for their World Cup team.
October 12, 1984: President Ronald Reagan signs the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 into law. It includes sentencing reform, itself including the re-institution of the federal death penalty, and the creation of the United States Sentencing Commission.
It also increases federal penalties for the cultivation, possession or transfer of marijuana, thus making it a landmark in the federal government's "War On Drugs." It also extends the jurisdiction of the U.S. Secret Service over credit card fraud and computer fraud; defines when civil forfeiture can seize assets of organized crime operations; and enters a new section for hostage taking in the criminal code.
October 12, 1985: Michael David Green is born in Calgary. Despite being a defenseman, Mike is known as "Game Over Green" for scoring overtime goals for the Washington Capitals. In the 2008-09 season, he scored in 8 straight games, an NHL record for defensemen. A 2-time All-Star, he later played for the Detroit Red Wings and the Edmonton Oilers, and retired this year.
Also on this day, Lardarius Webb (no middle name) is born in Opelika, Alabama. A safety, he was with the Baltimore Ravens when they won Super Bowl XLVII. He is now retired.
October 12, 1986: Game 5 of the ALCS. One loss away from elimination, and trailing 5-2 entering the 9th‚ the Red Sox stage one of the most improbable comebacks in postseason history.
After Don Baylor's 9th-inning home run reduces the deficit to 5-4‚ reserve outfielder Dave Henderson slugs a 2-out‚ 2-run homer off Donnie Moore to give Boston a 6-5 lead. California ties the score with a run in the bottom of the 9th but Henderson‚ who had appeared to be the goat when he dropped Bobby Grich's long fly ball over the fence for a home run in the 7th inning‚ delivers a sacrifice fly in the 11th for the winning run. Red Sox 7, Angels 6.
The Sox would win the Pennant 3 days later. Three years later, still despondent over having given up the home run that blew the Pennant for the Angels, Moore shot his wife, then himself. She lived, he didn't. A loss in a baseball game may be a terrible disappointment, but there is a difference between disappointment, however great, and tragedy.
Henderson would also hit the home run that appeared to give the Sox Game 6 of the World Series, and their 1st title in 68 years. That they did not finish the job, and how they failed, has become legend. If they had, Henderson would have become a god in New England, as David Ortiz eventually did. That he is not is no fault of his.
Hendu would later help Oakland with 3 straight Pennants, and he was invited to throw out the ceremonial first ball before Game 3 of the 2009 ALDS between the Red Sox and Angels. Unfortunately for the Sox, it didn't work any more than the Yankees bringing out Bucky Dent to do the honors before Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS between the Yanks and the Sox. He died of a heart attack in 2015, only 57 years old.
On the same day, the Houston Astros shake off yesterday's walkoff loss to the Mets, and win 3-1, to tie up the NLCS at 2 apiece. Alan Ashby hits a home run. So does Dickie Thon, the once-promising 2nd baseman whose career nearly ended early in 1984, when he was beaned by Mike Torrez, then wih the Mets.
Also on this day, Ioannis Maniatis is born in Livadeia, Greece. Usually listed as Giannis Maniatis, the right back won the Superleague Greece with Athens-based Olympiacos 6 straight seasons, 2011 to 2016. He also helped them win the Greek Cup in 2012, 2013 and 2015, and Standard Liege to win the Belgian Cup in 2016. He also played for Greece at the 2014 World Cup.
He later played for Alanyaspor, a Greek player loved by fans of a Turkish team, a rare thing indeed. He is currently a free agent.
After Don Baylor's 9th-inning home run reduces the deficit to 5-4‚ reserve outfielder Dave Henderson slugs a 2-out‚ 2-run homer off Donnie Moore to give Boston a 6-5 lead. California ties the score with a run in the bottom of the 9th but Henderson‚ who had appeared to be the goat when he dropped Bobby Grich's long fly ball over the fence for a home run in the 7th inning‚ delivers a sacrifice fly in the 11th for the winning run. Red Sox 7, Angels 6.
The Sox would win the Pennant 3 days later. Three years later, still despondent over having given up the home run that blew the Pennant for the Angels, Moore shot his wife, then himself. She lived, he didn't. A loss in a baseball game may be a terrible disappointment, but there is a difference between disappointment, however great, and tragedy.
Henderson would also hit the home run that appeared to give the Sox Game 6 of the World Series, and their 1st title in 68 years. That they did not finish the job, and how they failed, has become legend. If they had, Henderson would have become a god in New England, as David Ortiz eventually did. That he is not is no fault of his.
Hendu would later help Oakland with 3 straight Pennants, and he was invited to throw out the ceremonial first ball before Game 3 of the 2009 ALDS between the Red Sox and Angels. Unfortunately for the Sox, it didn't work any more than the Yankees bringing out Bucky Dent to do the honors before Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS between the Yanks and the Sox. He died of a heart attack in 2015, only 57 years old.
On the same day, the Houston Astros shake off yesterday's walkoff loss to the Mets, and win 3-1, to tie up the NLCS at 2 apiece. Alan Ashby hits a home run. So does Dickie Thon, the once-promising 2nd baseman whose career nearly ended early in 1984, when he was beaned by Mike Torrez, then wih the Mets.
Also on this day, Ioannis Maniatis is born in Livadeia, Greece. Usually listed as Giannis Maniatis, the right back won the Superleague Greece with Athens-based Olympiacos 6 straight seasons, 2011 to 2016. He also helped them win the Greek Cup in 2012, 2013 and 2015, and Standard Liege to win the Belgian Cup in 2016. He also played for Greece at the 2014 World Cup.
He later played for Alanyaspor, a Greek player loved by fans of a Turkish team, a rare thing indeed. He is currently a free agent.
October 12, 1987: The Minnesota Twins defeat the Detroit Tigers, 9-5, and win their 1st Pennant in 22 years. This was a major upset, as the Twins had won just 85 games in the regular season, while the Tigers had won an MLB-leading 98, and many people (including myself) were picking them to win it all. We did not reckon with the power of the Metrodome. Fortunately, it has since been demolished, and no one will ever have to reckon with it again.
This is the 1st Pennant ever won by a team playing its home games indoors. The Twins' 1965 Pennant was won while they still played outdoors, in the suburb of Bloomington, at Metropolitan Stadium.
October 12, 1988: Orel Hershiser shuts out the Mets, and the Dodgers win Game 7 and the Pennant, 6-0. New York -- the National League "half" of it, anyway, the half that should have cared about this -- finally had a chance to stick it to the evil O’Malley family, and they blew it.
The Mets, whose fans did not realize that their "dynasty" had ended without really becoming one, would not return to the NLCS for 11 years – but that’s sooner than did the Dodgers, who waited 20 years.
Also on this date, Samuel Lawrence Whitelock is born in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Like Conrad Smith, he helped New Zealand win the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cups. He currently plays his club rugby for Panasonic Wild Knights of Ōta, Japan.
This is the 1st Pennant ever won by a team playing its home games indoors. The Twins' 1965 Pennant was won while they still played outdoors, in the suburb of Bloomington, at Metropolitan Stadium.
October 12, 1988: Orel Hershiser shuts out the Mets, and the Dodgers win Game 7 and the Pennant, 6-0. New York -- the National League "half" of it, anyway, the half that should have cared about this -- finally had a chance to stick it to the evil O’Malley family, and they blew it.
The Mets, whose fans did not realize that their "dynasty" had ended without really becoming one, would not return to the NLCS for 11 years – but that’s sooner than did the Dodgers, who waited 20 years.
Also on this date, Samuel Lawrence Whitelock is born in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Like Conrad Smith, he helped New Zealand win the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cups. He currently plays his club rugby for Panasonic Wild Knights of Ōta, Japan.
October 12, 1989: The most stunning trade in NFL history is made. The Dallas Cowboys, having just been bought by Jerry Jones, who hired Jimmy Johnson as head coach, are going nowhere. The Minnesota Vikings think they can go to the Super Bowl if they can just get an elite running back.
So the Cowboys send the Vikings the 1 real asset they have, superstar running back Herschel Walker, along with their 3rd and 10th round picks in the 1990 NFL Draft, and their 3rd round pick in the 1991 Draft. The Vikings send the Cowboys running back Darrin Nelson, defensive end Alex Stewart, linebackers Jesse Solomon and David Howard, cornerback Issiac Holt; and a whopping 8 draft picks: the Vikings' 1st, 2nd and 6th round picks in 1990; their 1st and 2nd round picks in 1991; and their 1st, 2nd and 3rd round picks in 1992.
Nelson refuses to report to Dallas, so the Vikings send him to the San Diego Chargers, in exchange for the Bolts' 5th round pick in 1990. But everyone thinks that the Cowboys just doomed themselves to a decade of mediocrity, and that the Vikings have just traded for a Super Bowl win.
It worked the other way around, and then some. Viking management had no idea of what to do with Herschel, and wouldn't change their offensive scheme to one that utilized his talents. He was cut after the 1991 season, helped the Philadelphia Eagles make the 1992 Playoffs, and even returned to the Cowboys in 1996 -- having missed the team's entire renaissance.
That renaissance came in large part because they began trading those draft picks among other teams, enabling them to acquire running backs Emmitt Smith and Alonzo Highsmith, defensive tackle Russell Maryland, and cornerbacks Darren Woodson, Kevin Smith and Clayton Holmes. This haul, along with the picks they already had, which helped net them quarterback Troy Aikman and receiver Michael Irvin, resulted in 3 Super Bowl wins in 4 years. Herschel's lousy luck: By the time he got back, it was over.
Also on this day, Matthew Paradis (no middle name) is born in Council, Idaho. A center, Matt Paradis as with the Denver Broncos when they won Super Bowl 50. He now plays for the team the Broncos beat in that Super Bowl,the Carolina Panthers.
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So the Cowboys send the Vikings the 1 real asset they have, superstar running back Herschel Walker, along with their 3rd and 10th round picks in the 1990 NFL Draft, and their 3rd round pick in the 1991 Draft. The Vikings send the Cowboys running back Darrin Nelson, defensive end Alex Stewart, linebackers Jesse Solomon and David Howard, cornerback Issiac Holt; and a whopping 8 draft picks: the Vikings' 1st, 2nd and 6th round picks in 1990; their 1st and 2nd round picks in 1991; and their 1st, 2nd and 3rd round picks in 1992.
Nelson refuses to report to Dallas, so the Vikings send him to the San Diego Chargers, in exchange for the Bolts' 5th round pick in 1990. But everyone thinks that the Cowboys just doomed themselves to a decade of mediocrity, and that the Vikings have just traded for a Super Bowl win.
It worked the other way around, and then some. Viking management had no idea of what to do with Herschel, and wouldn't change their offensive scheme to one that utilized his talents. He was cut after the 1991 season, helped the Philadelphia Eagles make the 1992 Playoffs, and even returned to the Cowboys in 1996 -- having missed the team's entire renaissance.
That renaissance came in large part because they began trading those draft picks among other teams, enabling them to acquire running backs Emmitt Smith and Alonzo Highsmith, defensive tackle Russell Maryland, and cornerbacks Darren Woodson, Kevin Smith and Clayton Holmes. This haul, along with the picks they already had, which helped net them quarterback Troy Aikman and receiver Michael Irvin, resulted in 3 Super Bowl wins in 4 years. Herschel's lousy luck: By the time he got back, it was over.
Also on this day, Matthew Paradis (no middle name) is born in Council, Idaho. A center, Matt Paradis as with the Denver Broncos when they won Super Bowl 50. He now plays for the team the Broncos beat in that Super Bowl,the Carolina Panthers.
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October 12, 1990, 30 years ago: Mr. Destiny premieres. Along with Taking Care of Business, it is 1 of 2 films released this year starring Jim Belushi in which baseball is not the main subject, but is an important plot point.
In Taking Care of Business, released on August 17, Belushi -- like his legendary late brother John, a Chicago Cubs fan in real life -- plays Jimmy Dworski, a convicted car thief, mere days away from completing a prison sentence. But he uses a prison phone to win tickets to Game 6 of the World Series, between the Cubs and the team then known as the California Angels, in Anaheim, and escapes so he can attend.
At Los Angeles International Airport, he gets mixed up with advertising executive Spencer Barnes, played by Charles Grodin, and ends up with Spencer's Filofax, a personal organizer that couldn't do 1/10th of what a smartphone can do now. Spencer yells, "My whole life is in there!" Sure enough, Jimmy is able to use it to get all the perks that Spencer was meant to get on his business trip.
One thing leads to another, and Jimmy gives Spencer his extra ticket to the game. The Cubs win, as Mark Grace hits a home run off Bert Blyleven. They play themselves, and Joe Torre plays one of the broadcasters. Star Trek: The Next Generation actors Gates McFadden and John de Lancie also appear. Spencer helps Jimmy sneak back into prison to complete his sentence, and then, after his release, starts him on a new life.
In Mr. Destiny, Belushi plays Larry Burrows, and he's not as happy as Jimmy Dworski, even though Jimmy was in prison. Larry has a lousy job, and a beautiful but boring wife, played by Linda Hamilton, fresh off her success in Terminator 2. In what has to be a nod to another sci-fi monster fighter, Sigourney Weaver in the Alien films, her character's maiden name is Ellen Ripley.
Larry blames all his problems on striking out in a high school baseball game 20 years earlier. Michael Caine plays an angel who does a "reverse It's a Wonderful Life" on him, showing him his life if he had hit a home run that day. That teenage sports success got him some breaks, and as a result, he's more successful and more respected. He's even married to the woman he knew as his boss' wife, played by Rene Russo.
But that's just on the surface: Things are actually much worse. Due to the moves his counterpart in this world made, his real-life best friend, played by Jon Lovitz, has lost his job, and is threatening to jump off the building because Larry ruined his life, and Larry has to convince him that he hasn't betrayed him -- which, in this world, is a lie. And shenanigans are going on at the company that he, not being in high management before, didn't know about.
Also, in spite of being married to a woman who looks like Rene Russo, his counterpart has a mistress, played by a pre-Friends Courteney Cox. And he still wants to get back together with his real-life wife, who has the same job she had before, but a different husband. Now, his counterpart's wife, mistress and underlings all want to kill him. He survives long enough to get his old life back, and thwarts the shenanigans, saves the company, and is rewarded for it.
Also on this day, Henri George Lansbury is born in Enfield, North London. The midfielder was part of the youth movement at North London's Arsenal, helping them win the FA Youth Cup in 2009. But in 5 seasons, 2007 to 2012, he only made 3 senior appearances for the Gunners, and was loaned to Scunthorpe United in 2009, Watford in 2009-10, Norwich City in 2010-11, and West Ham United in 2011-12.
Finally, Arsenal gave up on him, and sold him to Nottingham Forest. He's now with Birmingham club Aston Villa, having helped them get back up into the Premier League. He's now scored 50 goals in 315 career appearances. But he's never played a senior game for England.
October 12, 1991: Saturday Night Live debuts the sketch "Coffee Talk." Mike Myers plays the host, Linda Richman, based on, at the time, his own mother-in-law.
On the February 22, 1992 installment, Roseanne Barr plays a friend of Linda's, and Madonna -- not announced as appearing on the show that night -- plays the friend's daughter. The subject of Madonna comes up, and the daughter tells the truth, saying Madonna is a tramp.
The subject of the talk show -- when Linda isn't getting verklempt, and asking the audience to "Talk amongst yourselves" -- was Barbra Streisand. Executive producer Lorne Michaels surprises everyone by sending the real Streisand onto the stage. As surprised as they are, all 3 performers stay in character, and Myers says, "I can die now!" (For the record, everyone involved in the sketch is still alive, as is the real Richman, who was in the audience that night. She didn't know Streisand was going to be on, either.)
October 12, 1992: Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas, the Democratic Party's nominee for President, visits Philadelphia on the heels of his victory in the previous night's debate with President George H.W. Bush in St. Louis.
I was there. Perched on the back of a flatbed truck at 9th Street and Passyunk Avenue, between famed cheesesteak stands Pat's and Geno's, he panders to the crowd in the Italian Market neighborhood and says, "Every day that goes by, I feel more and more like Rocky Balboa." Big cheer.
When the speech was over, he shook as many hands as he could as the truck moved forward at about 2 miles an hour. One was mine. I held up my right hand. He was grabbing hands with both of his, and reached with his left. I yelled, "Bill, New Jersey loves you!" He had a huge smile on his face. I have no idea if he heard me, or if his smile was for the vote of confidence from a State he needed, or if he was just smiling over a very successful speech. It didn't matter: For the 1st time, I had touched someone who could have been President -- and, as it turned out, became one.
I was not the first in my family: On September 15, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy spoke at City Hall in Newark, and later made his way up Broad Street, past Military Park. One of the hands he shook there belonged to my father, John Pacholek, then a 17-year-old freshman at the Newark College of Engineering (now the New Jersey Institute of Technology). After JFK was assassinated, at about the spot where he and my Dad met, a column was raised, with a bust of him on top. JFK, that is, not my father.
Also on this day, Star Trek: The Next Generation aired the episode "Relics." I got home from Philadelphia (the rally was at 11:30 AM) in plenty of time to watch it with my father, because it had been advertised that original Trek actor James Doohan would return to play engineering wizard Montgomery Scott. It was one of the best episodes of the series.
October 12, 1993: The Florida Panthers, representing Miami-Fort Lauderdale, make their NHL debut. Scott Mellanby scores their 1st goal, but they lose 2-1 to the Pittsbugh Penguins at Miami Arena.
October 12, 1994: Tony Adams captains the England national soccer team for the 1st time. It is the 1st time in 55 years – since George Male led the national side out, just prior to the breakout of World War II – that a current Arsenal player has been England Captain. (David Platt had skippered England the year before, but wouldn't be purchased by Arsenal until the 1995 off-season.) England play Romania to a 1-1 draw at Wembley Stadium in London.
Also on this day, Sean Monahan (no middle name) is born in the Toronto suburb of Brampton, Ontario. The center plays for the Calgary Flames.
October 12, 1995, 25 years ago: The Rose Garden opens in Portland, Oregon, the "Rose City," next-door to the Portland Memorial Coliseum. The NBA's Portland Trail Blazers move in within days. In 2013, it was renamed the Moda Center.
Also on this day, Friends airs the episode "The One With Phoebe's Husband." A few years earlier, Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) had married Duncan (Steve Zahn), a gay Canadian ice dancer, so he wouldn't get deported. It turns out he's back, he's not gay, and he wants a divorce so he can marry a woman.
This is also the episode where we find out that Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) has a 3rd nipple, and that Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) was in a porno movie -- but didn't do one of the sex scenes in it.
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October 12, 1996: For the 1st time, North London's Arsenal Football Club take the field with Arsène Wenger as their manager. He had been hired on September 30, as he was running out his contract with Japanese club Nagoya Grampus Eight, and an international break fell in between. Arsenal visit Lancashire club Blackburn Rovers, and win 2-0 at Ewood Park, with Ian Wright scoring both goals.
To that point, The Arsenal had won 10 League titles, including fairly recently, in 1989 and 1991. They had won 6 FA Cups, most recently in 1993. They had won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1994. But their League form had slipped, dropping to 12th place in 1995. They finished 5th in 1996, and a change was needed.
No non-British manager had ever won England's top division, under either the name Football League Division One or, since 1992, the Premier League. But Wenger revolutionized the team's training, its training ground, its exercise, its diet, and its acquisitions.
Working with established players Wright, David Seaman, Tony Adams, Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn and Dennis Bergkamp, he led them to 3rd place in his 1st season, then added Patrick Vieira, Marc Overmars and Emmanuel Petit, and won both the League and the FA Cup in 1998, known as "doing The Double."
As the older players left, "Le Boss" brought in new ones. He made stars of Robert Pires, Ashley Cole, Kolo Toure, and the man who would replace Wright as Arsenal's all-time leading scorer, Thierry Henry. He signed Sol Campbell, the captain of Arsenal's North London arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, whom Campbell felt had treated him badly, so he ran out his contract and crossed the divide.
He won The Double again in 2002, won another FA Cup in 2003, and managed the entire Premier League season without a loss in 2003-04, leading to the team being called "The Invincibles." This included clinching the title at Tottenham's stadium, White Hart Lane. (Arsenal had done that in 1971 as well -- and had now won the League at The Lane as many times as "Spurs" had, 2.) The unbeaten streak eventually reached 49, and he led them to another FA Cup in 2005 and the UEFA Champions League Final in 2006.
All this winning led to enough revenue to replace Highbury, their stadium, which only seated about 38,000, first hosted them in 1913 and whose East Stand and West Stand had been built in the 1930s, with the 60,000-seat Emirates Stadium 500 yards away.
Wenger believed that, in the long run, a huge modern stadium would provide enough revenue to keep the club financially secure for the rest of the 21st Century. But in the short term, he had to sell off several great players to pay off the stadium debut, and, infamously, didn't win another trophy for 9 years.
Finally, in 2014, Arsenal beat Hull City in extra time at the new Wembley Stadium in London, to win the FA Cup. In 2015, they repeated as Cup winners, defeating Aston Villa of Birmingham in the Final. In 2016, after years of "settling" for 4th place or better since it kept Arsenal qualifying for the Champions League, Arsenal finished 2nd.
In 2017, injuries led to the team falling to 5th, out of Champions League qualification, and finished lower than local rivals Tottenham Hotspur -- all 1st-time occurrences under Wenger. They still won the FA Cup again, beating the League Champions, West London's Chelsea, in the Final. In 2018, they fell to 6th, and Wenger resigned.
A small but very loud minority of Arsenal fans wanted Wenger out. They said that the game had passed him by, that he wasn't willing to spend enough money to bring in "world-class" players -- with most of their suggestions turning out to be flashes in the pan, and most of their suggestions as his replacement ending up flopping. These charges were ridiculous.
They said that trophies matter, until he started winning trophies again. Suddenly, to borrow a phrase from American football, they moved the goalposts: Now, winning the League is all that matters to them. By that definition, every year, 19 teams should fire their managers. These people are idiots, and in a game late in the 2015-16 season, they unfurled a "WENGER OUT" banner, and got drowned out by 50,000 people singing, "One Arsène Wenger, there's only one Arsène Wenger!"
And, with the stadium debt close to being paid off, he had spent big on world-class talent, no longer riddled with cheap players who, as he would say in his clear but off-grammared English, "lack a little bit the confidence."
The players he assembled, still including forwards Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, centreback Skhodran Mustafi, fullback Héctor Bellerín, and midfielders Mesut Özil and Granit Xhaka have, as Le Boss puts it, "the quality" and "the mental strength."
The players he assembled, still including forwards Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, centreback Skhodran Mustafi, fullback Héctor Bellerín, and midfielders Mesut Özil and Granit Xhaka have, as Le Boss puts it, "the quality" and "the mental strength."
New manager Unai Emery did not reap the benefits, and was fired, replaced by Mikel Arteta, a player Wenger had brought to Arsenal. He took Emery's 8th place team, and won the 2020 FA Cup.
Also on this day, Willie Shoemaker dies at age 72. Once the winningest jockey in thoroughbred history with 8,833 wins, including 4 Kentucky Derbies (including 1986 aboard Ferdinand, when he was almost 55 years old), 2 Preakness Stakes, 5 Belmont Stakes and the 1987 Breeders' Cup Classic (he was 56), he had been a quadriplegic since a 1991 crash in which he drove drunk.
"Shoe" died 4 years to the day after "The Big Dipper." A few years before Shoe's car crash, Wilt Chamberlain (7-foot-1) and Bill Shoemaker (as he preferred to be called, 4-foot-11) posed together for a print ad for American Express. My mother remarked that the height (and racial) difference meant that, despite wearing nearly identical white suits and both being perhaps the greatest performers ever in their respective sports, they didn't even look like the same species.
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October 12, 2004: Game 1 of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium. Mike Mussina takes a perfect game into the 7th inning, but falls apart. Lucky for him, the Yankees had jumped out to an 8-0 lead on the Red Sox, and hold on to win, 10-7.
This would not be the most eventful game in the series. It would only be the 6th-most eventful.
October 12, 2005: In Boston, it's Larry Barnett (1975 World Series Game 3). In St. Louis, it's Don Denkinger (1985 World Series Game 6). In Baltimore, it's Rich Garcia (1996 ALCS Game 1). In Atlanta, it's Eric Gregg (1997 NLCS Game 5). In Orange County, California, the most hated of all umpires is Doug Eddings.
Game 2 of the ALCS at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago. The Angels are up 1 game to 0 in the ALCS. Game 2 is tied 1-1 with the White Sox batting in the bottom of the 9th and 2 out. White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski faces Angels relief pitcher Kelvim Escobar, who quickly gets 2 strikes. Pierzynski swings at Escobar's 3rd pitch, a split-fingered fastball that comes in very low. Angels catcher Josh Paul says after the game, "I caught the ball, so I thought the inning was over."
Eddings later said the ball had not been legally caught, but he made no audible call that the ball hit the ground. Pierzynski, already having had a reputation as a rough player, takes a couple of steps toward the dugout, but then, noticing that he had not heard himself called out, turns and runs to 1st base while most of the Angels are walking off the field. He makes it to 1st safely. A pinch-runner, Pablo Ozuna, replaces Pierzynski and steals 2nd base, and scores on a base hit by 3rd baseman Joe Crede for the winning run.
The controversy surrounding the play concerns both whether Eddings' ruling (that the ball hit the ground) was correct, and the unclear mechanic for signaling the ruling. Eddings did not indicate no-catch signals during the game. In fact, in the 2nd inning of the same game, Eddings had ruled "no catch" on a 3rd strike to Garret Anderson of the Angels, but the White Sox were not aware of the ruling until Eddings called Anderson out as he entered the dugout.
At the time, professional umpiring mechanics did not dictate a specific no-catch signal or a "no catch" verbalization after an uncaught third strike. A mechanic has subsequently been added.
After the game, Eddings explained his actions: "My interpretation is that was my 'strike three' mechanic, when it's a swinging strike. If you watch, that’s what I do the whole entire game… I did not say, 'No catch.' If you watch the play, you do watch me -- as I'm making the mechanic, I'm watching Josh Paul, and so I’m seeing what he's going to do. I'm looking directly at him while I'm watching Josh Paul. That's when Pierzynski ran to first base."
Angels fans remain convinced that Eddings screwed them over and cost them a Pennant – and, since the ChiSox went on to sweep the Houston Astros in 4 straight, that Eddings also cost them the World Series. They are wrong: The video clearly shows the ball touching the ground, and Angels catcher Benjie Molina should have tried to throw Pierzynski out at 1st. He didn't try, and therefore Pierzynski was entitled to the base. Eddings was right, and Pierzynski acted within the rules of the game.
And here's the key: The series was still tied. While the next 3 games were going to be in Chicago, theoretically the Angels still had as much chance to win the Pennant as the Pale Hose did. They could have shut their traps, gotten their acts together, and gone out and won Game 3 in Chicago, taken a 2-1 lead in the series, and it would have been a very different story.
Instead, like the '96 Orioles on the Jeffrey Maier play, like the '85 Cards on the Denkinger/Jorge Orta play, and like the '78 Dodgers on the Reggie Jackson "Sacrifice Thigh," they let the incident get into their heads. They lost 3 straight and the Pennant. They did not deserve to win that one. The White Sox, thinking clearly, did.
The Rangers, who will take on the Yankees for the AL flag, lost their 3 previous playoff appearances, with 1st-round losses to the Bronx Bombers in 1996 and 1998-99.
October 12, 2012: The biggest game in Washington baseball in 79 years is Game 5 of the NLDS at Nationals Park. The Nationals lead the Cardinals, 7-5 going into the 9th inning. But Nats reliever Drew Storen implodes, allowing a double to Carlos Beltran, a walk to Yadier Molina, another walk to David Freese, a single to Daniel Descalso, a stolen base by Descalso, and a single to Pete Kozma.
The Nats go down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 9th, and the Cards win, 9-7, and advance to the NLCS. The Nats went from having, according to Baseball-Reference.com, a 93 percent chance of winning the game to losing it.
Concerned about putting too much stress on his arm after coming back from Tommy John surgery at the start of the season, the Nats had shut down ace pitcher Stephen Strasburg for the season after September 7, at which point he had pitched 159 innings. I wonder what Nats management would have given to have Strasburg pitch to just 1 batter: Descalso, when there were 2 outs and the score was still 7-5.
Keeping Strasburg off the postseason roster was a major blunder. It took the Nats another 7 years to get their 1st postseason series win since they were the 1981 Montreal Expos.
Earlier in the day, CC Sabathia shows he's the biggest man in baseball, and that's got nothing to do with his physical size. He goes the distance for the Yankees, allowing just 1 run on 4 hits with 9 strikeouts, and getting out of a bases-loaded, 1-out jam in the 6th inning. A Curtis Granderson home run is the offensive highlight of the Yankees' 3-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium II, giving the Pinstripes the deciding Game 5 of the ALDS.
October 12, 2013: The University of Maryland defeats the University of Virginia 27-26, at Byrd Stadium in the Washington suburb of College Park, Maryland. Because Maryland moved from the Atlantic Coast Conference to the Big Ten for the next schoolyear, their biggest rivalry comes to an end, at least for football. Maryland leads the rivalrly 44-32-2.
October 12, 2014: Game 2 of the NLCS. Kolten Wong sounds like the name of a movie monster, and, at least for 2 days, San Francisco Giants fans will see him in their nightmares. The Hawaiian-born 2nd baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals hits a walkoff home run against Sergio Romo, and the Cards win 5-4 at Busch Stadium. The series goes to San Francisco tied.
Also on this day, the Cleveland Browns beat their arch-rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, 31-10 at FirstEnergy Stadium. This remains the Browns' last win over the Steelers.
October 12, 2015: Game 3 of the NL Division Series, the 1st postseason game at Citi Field, and the 1st postseason game hosted by the Mets in 9 years, since the night of Endy Chavez' catch, Yadier Molina's home run, and Carlos Beltran not taking the bat off his shoulder. Matt Harvey isn't exactly sharp on the mound, but Travis d'Arnaud and Yoenis Cespedes hit home runs, and the Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 13-7. The Mets can clinch the series tomorrow night.
October 12, 2018: Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam announces that he is forming a group to buy MLS' Columbus Crew, from the group that was planning on moving the team to Austin, Texas for the 2019 season. The #SaveTheCrew movement succeeded, one of the few save-the-team movements ever to do so. MLS announced that the Austin group will get an expansion team for the 2021 season.
Wenger turns 71 in a few days, and he looks like a former President: A lot older, but a lot happier and more relaxed.
Also on this day, another French sports legend dies, René Lacoste, at Saint-Jean-de-Luz, on the west coast of France in the Pyrenees. He was 92. In his era, tennis players who weren't from Australia usually didn't make the long boat trip to play in the Australian Open. This may have cost him a Grand Slam, as he won the French Open and Wimbledon in 1925, the U.S. Open in 1926, the French and U.S. in 1927, Wimbledon in 1928, and the French in 1929.
Known as "The Crocodile" for his tenacity on he court, in 1929 he designed the Lacoste tennis shirt, with its crocodile logo. I don't know if this made him the 1st athlete to have a clothing line, but he predated Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods... and actual athletes like Michael Jordan by decades.
Also on this day, the Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-4 at Camden Yards, to take a 3-1 lead in the ALCS. Darryl Strawberry hits 2 home runs, and homers are added by Bernie Williams and Paul O'Neill. They can take the Pennant tomorrow night.
Also on this day, another French sports legend dies, René Lacoste, at Saint-Jean-de-Luz, on the west coast of France in the Pyrenees. He was 92. In his era, tennis players who weren't from Australia usually didn't make the long boat trip to play in the Australian Open. This may have cost him a Grand Slam, as he won the French Open and Wimbledon in 1925, the U.S. Open in 1926, the French and U.S. in 1927, Wimbledon in 1928, and the French in 1929.
Known as "The Crocodile" for his tenacity on he court, in 1929 he designed the Lacoste tennis shirt, with its crocodile logo. I don't know if this made him the 1st athlete to have a clothing line, but he predated Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods... and actual athletes like Michael Jordan by decades.
Also on this day, the Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-4 at Camden Yards, to take a 3-1 lead in the ALCS. Darryl Strawberry hits 2 home runs, and homers are added by Bernie Williams and Paul O'Neill. They can take the Pennant tomorrow night.
October 12, 1997: The Tennessee Oilers beat the Cincinnati Bengals 30-7 at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. Only 17,071 fans come out to the 59,000-seat stadium. Aside from the "Scab Bowl" games that were played during the 1987 strike, this is the smallest crowd for a National Football League game since the 1950s.
After the season, Oilers owner Bud Adams, who had a bad lease and bad attendance at the Astrodome in Houston, decides to cut his losses, and play the 1998 season at Vanderbilt University's 41,000-seat stadium in Nashville, while the city finishes its new 68,000-seat stadium, to open in 1999 for the team that will be renamed the Tennessee Titans. That facility is now named Nissan Stadium.
Also on this day, the Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-21 at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium (now TIAA Bank Field). James Stewart rushes for 5 touchdowns, tying the NFL record, previously achieved only by Jim Brown in 1959 and Ricky Watters in 1994, and, if you count the AFL, Cookie Gilchrist in 1963. Clinton Portis would match it in 2003.
This James Stewart should not be confused with the legendary actor of the same name, or with a running back of the same name who was also born in December 1971.
Also on this day, singer John Denver dies in a plane crash in Monterey Bay, off the coast of California. The star singer of the 1970s was 53 years old.
October 12, 1998: Matthew Shepard, an openly gay student at the University of Wyoming, dies 5 days after being beaten and tied to a wooden fence post -- a filthy twist on the Crucifixion -- in the University's town of Laramie. He was a few weeks short of his 22nd birthday. His killers were convicted, and sentenced to life in prison, where they remain.
As it happened, after he was found, he was taken to a hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. Fort Collins is the home of Colorado State University -- which the University of Wyoming considers their arch-rival in sports. (And likewise. The University of Colorado is each's secondary rival, but considers its own biggest rival to be the University of Nebraska.)
His murder helped to create a new generation of gay rights activists, one not old enough to remember the depth of the AIDS epidemic, much less the Stonewall Riot or the assassination of Harvey Milk. It also inspired hate-crime legislation. In 2014, when basketball player Jason Collins became the 1st major league athlete to come out while still active, he switched his uniform number to 98 in Matthew's memory.
October 12, 1999: Wilt Chamberlain dies of heart disease at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. He was only 63, but had lived the lives of 10 men. If you haven't already, I recommend that you read his 1991 memoir Wilt: A View From Above. And I mean the entire book, not just the chapter about his encounters with women. Wilt was a fascinating guy with a lot to say, and knew how to say it.
At the 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, the NBA celebrated its 50th Anniversary by introducing its 50 Greatest Players. Well, 47 of them: Pete Maravich had already died, Jerry West was in the hospital, and the still-active Shaquille O'Neal was injured, and chose not to come. The still-active Patrick Ewing was injured, but did care enough to show up and take his ovation, which may have been exaggerated in order to send Shaq a message, as was the booing Shaq's name got.
In the locker room before the ceremony, Michael Jordan was telling anyone who would listen that he was the greatest basketball player of all time. Wilt had heard that before, and he walked over, and told Jordan the truth: "Michael, my man, when you played, they changed the rules to make it easier for you. When I played, they changed the rules to make it harder for me. And it didn't work." And Wilt walked off. Talk about "dropping the Mike."
Wilton Norman Chamberlain was the greatest basketball player who ever lived. Anybody who says it's Jordan, or LeBron James, or anyone else, doesn't know what the hell they're talking about.
*
October 12, 2003: Joan Kroc, former owner of the San Diego Padres (inheriting them from her husband, McDonald’s tycoon Ray Kroc) dies at age 85. She had recently been the formerly "anonymous angel" who donated a huge sum to disaster relief when floods hit the Upper Midwest.
On this same day, the best possible thing that could happen in the Yanks-Red Sox ALCS does happen: Rain. An extra 24 hours gives everyone a chance to cool off a little.
With his team having lost 3 consecutive playoff games and on the brink of elimination in the NLCS, Marlins starter Florida Josh Beckett sends the series back to Chicago when he strikes out 11 Chicago batters and gives up just 2 hits, en route to tossing a 4-0 shutout at Pro Player Stadium.
Still, the series goes back to Chicago, and the Cubs will only have to win 1 out of 2 at Wrigley Field to win their 1st Pennant since 1945. Shouldn't be too hard, right? Right?
After the season, Oilers owner Bud Adams, who had a bad lease and bad attendance at the Astrodome in Houston, decides to cut his losses, and play the 1998 season at Vanderbilt University's 41,000-seat stadium in Nashville, while the city finishes its new 68,000-seat stadium, to open in 1999 for the team that will be renamed the Tennessee Titans. That facility is now named Nissan Stadium.
Also on this day, the Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-21 at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium (now TIAA Bank Field). James Stewart rushes for 5 touchdowns, tying the NFL record, previously achieved only by Jim Brown in 1959 and Ricky Watters in 1994, and, if you count the AFL, Cookie Gilchrist in 1963. Clinton Portis would match it in 2003.
This James Stewart should not be confused with the legendary actor of the same name, or with a running back of the same name who was also born in December 1971.
Also on this day, singer John Denver dies in a plane crash in Monterey Bay, off the coast of California. The star singer of the 1970s was 53 years old.
October 12, 1998: Matthew Shepard, an openly gay student at the University of Wyoming, dies 5 days after being beaten and tied to a wooden fence post -- a filthy twist on the Crucifixion -- in the University's town of Laramie. He was a few weeks short of his 22nd birthday. His killers were convicted, and sentenced to life in prison, where they remain.
As it happened, after he was found, he was taken to a hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. Fort Collins is the home of Colorado State University -- which the University of Wyoming considers their arch-rival in sports. (And likewise. The University of Colorado is each's secondary rival, but considers its own biggest rival to be the University of Nebraska.)
His murder helped to create a new generation of gay rights activists, one not old enough to remember the depth of the AIDS epidemic, much less the Stonewall Riot or the assassination of Harvey Milk. It also inspired hate-crime legislation. In 2014, when basketball player Jason Collins became the 1st major league athlete to come out while still active, he switched his uniform number to 98 in Matthew's memory.
October 12, 1999: Wilt Chamberlain dies of heart disease at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. He was only 63, but had lived the lives of 10 men. If you haven't already, I recommend that you read his 1991 memoir Wilt: A View From Above. And I mean the entire book, not just the chapter about his encounters with women. Wilt was a fascinating guy with a lot to say, and knew how to say it.
At the 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, the NBA celebrated its 50th Anniversary by introducing its 50 Greatest Players. Well, 47 of them: Pete Maravich had already died, Jerry West was in the hospital, and the still-active Shaquille O'Neal was injured, and chose not to come. The still-active Patrick Ewing was injured, but did care enough to show up and take his ovation, which may have been exaggerated in order to send Shaq a message, as was the booing Shaq's name got.
In the locker room before the ceremony, Michael Jordan was telling anyone who would listen that he was the greatest basketball player of all time. Wilt had heard that before, and he walked over, and told Jordan the truth: "Michael, my man, when you played, they changed the rules to make it easier for you. When I played, they changed the rules to make it harder for me. And it didn't work." And Wilt walked off. Talk about "dropping the Mike."
Wilton Norman Chamberlain was the greatest basketball player who ever lived. Anybody who says it's Jordan, or LeBron James, or anyone else, doesn't know what the hell they're talking about.
*
October 12, 2003: Joan Kroc, former owner of the San Diego Padres (inheriting them from her husband, McDonald’s tycoon Ray Kroc) dies at age 85. She had recently been the formerly "anonymous angel" who donated a huge sum to disaster relief when floods hit the Upper Midwest.
On this same day, the best possible thing that could happen in the Yanks-Red Sox ALCS does happen: Rain. An extra 24 hours gives everyone a chance to cool off a little.
With his team having lost 3 consecutive playoff games and on the brink of elimination in the NLCS, Marlins starter Florida Josh Beckett sends the series back to Chicago when he strikes out 11 Chicago batters and gives up just 2 hits, en route to tossing a 4-0 shutout at Pro Player Stadium.
Still, the series goes back to Chicago, and the Cubs will only have to win 1 out of 2 at Wrigley Field to win their 1st Pennant since 1945. Shouldn't be too hard, right? Right?
Also on this day, Willie Shoemaker dies at age 72. Once the winningest jockey in thoroughbred history with 8,833 wins, including 4 Kentucky Derbies (including 1986 aboard Ferdinand, when he was almost 55 years old), 2 Preakness Stakes, 5 Belmont Stakes and the 1987 Breeders' Cup Classic (he was 56), he had been a quadriplegic since a 1991 crash in which he drove drunk.
"Shoe" died 4 years to the day after "The Big Dipper." A few years before Shoe's car crash, Wilt Chamberlain (7-foot-1) and Bill Shoemaker (as he preferred to be called, 4-foot-11) posed together for a print ad for American Express. My mother remarked that the height (and racial) difference meant that, despite wearing nearly identical white suits and both being perhaps the greatest performers ever in their respective sports, they didn't even look like the same species.
This would not be the most eventful game in the series. It would only be the 6th-most eventful.
October 12, 2005: In Boston, it's Larry Barnett (1975 World Series Game 3). In St. Louis, it's Don Denkinger (1985 World Series Game 6). In Baltimore, it's Rich Garcia (1996 ALCS Game 1). In Atlanta, it's Eric Gregg (1997 NLCS Game 5). In Orange County, California, the most hated of all umpires is Doug Eddings.
Game 2 of the ALCS at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago. The Angels are up 1 game to 0 in the ALCS. Game 2 is tied 1-1 with the White Sox batting in the bottom of the 9th and 2 out. White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski faces Angels relief pitcher Kelvim Escobar, who quickly gets 2 strikes. Pierzynski swings at Escobar's 3rd pitch, a split-fingered fastball that comes in very low. Angels catcher Josh Paul says after the game, "I caught the ball, so I thought the inning was over."
Eddings later said the ball had not been legally caught, but he made no audible call that the ball hit the ground. Pierzynski, already having had a reputation as a rough player, takes a couple of steps toward the dugout, but then, noticing that he had not heard himself called out, turns and runs to 1st base while most of the Angels are walking off the field. He makes it to 1st safely. A pinch-runner, Pablo Ozuna, replaces Pierzynski and steals 2nd base, and scores on a base hit by 3rd baseman Joe Crede for the winning run.
The controversy surrounding the play concerns both whether Eddings' ruling (that the ball hit the ground) was correct, and the unclear mechanic for signaling the ruling. Eddings did not indicate no-catch signals during the game. In fact, in the 2nd inning of the same game, Eddings had ruled "no catch" on a 3rd strike to Garret Anderson of the Angels, but the White Sox were not aware of the ruling until Eddings called Anderson out as he entered the dugout.
At the time, professional umpiring mechanics did not dictate a specific no-catch signal or a "no catch" verbalization after an uncaught third strike. A mechanic has subsequently been added.
After the game, Eddings explained his actions: "My interpretation is that was my 'strike three' mechanic, when it's a swinging strike. If you watch, that’s what I do the whole entire game… I did not say, 'No catch.' If you watch the play, you do watch me -- as I'm making the mechanic, I'm watching Josh Paul, and so I’m seeing what he's going to do. I'm looking directly at him while I'm watching Josh Paul. That's when Pierzynski ran to first base."
Angels fans remain convinced that Eddings screwed them over and cost them a Pennant – and, since the ChiSox went on to sweep the Houston Astros in 4 straight, that Eddings also cost them the World Series. They are wrong: The video clearly shows the ball touching the ground, and Angels catcher Benjie Molina should have tried to throw Pierzynski out at 1st. He didn't try, and therefore Pierzynski was entitled to the base. Eddings was right, and Pierzynski acted within the rules of the game.
And here's the key: The series was still tied. While the next 3 games were going to be in Chicago, theoretically the Angels still had as much chance to win the Pennant as the Pale Hose did. They could have shut their traps, gotten their acts together, and gone out and won Game 3 in Chicago, taken a 2-1 lead in the series, and it would have been a very different story.
Instead, like the '96 Orioles on the Jeffrey Maier play, like the '85 Cards on the Denkinger/Jorge Orta play, and like the '78 Dodgers on the Reggie Jackson "Sacrifice Thigh," they let the incident get into their heads. They lost 3 straight and the Pennant. They did not deserve to win that one. The White Sox, thinking clearly, did.
This remains the only LCS that Eddings has umpired. He had previously umpired in Division Series in 2000 and 2002, and in the 2004 All-Star Game. Since then, he has umpired in the 2017 All-Star Game; 2014 and '20 Wild Card Games; the 2018, '19 and '20 Division Series; and the 2019 World Series. So, clearly, MLB hasn't held the 2005 ALCS incident against him.
October 12, 2006: Game 2 of the NLCS. Carlos Delgado hits 2 home runs, but Billy Wagner implodes in he 9th inning, and the Mets fall to the Cardinals 9-6 at Shea Stadium. The series is now tied 1-1.
Met fans talk about how their starting pitching was an injury-riddled question mark going into this series, and they talk about Game 7. Funny, but they never mention what a lousy late-season and postseason reliever Wagner was. He may have cost the Astros at least the Division Series in 1997, '98, '99 and 2001, the Phillies at least a Playoff berth in 2004 and '05, and the Mets this Pennant.
Also on this day, the Galen Center opens, across the street from Exposition Park and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. After 80 years of sharing other venues -- the Shrine Auditorium from 1926 to 1949, the Pan-Pacific Auditorium until 1959, and then the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena -- the basketball teams at the University of Southern California finally have their own home court. The 1st event, however, is women's volleyball, with USC defeating Stanford.
The court is named for Jim Sterkel, who played basketball for USC from 1955 to 1957 and died in 1997. B. Wayne Hughes, a high school classmate and USC roommate of Sterkel, donated to the arena's building, asking to the name to court of Sterkel, saying, "Some people don't deserve to be forgotten."
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October 12, 2010, 10 years ago: Behind the complete-game effort by Cliff Lee, the Texas Rangers beat Tampa Bay, 5-1, in the decisive Game 5 of the ALDS at Tropicana Field, for the 1st Playoff series victory in franchise history.
They are the last major league club to accomplish the task -- unless you count the fact that the Montreal Expos, who did it in the strike-forced split-season format of 1981, didn't do it until 2019, as the Washington Nationals.
Met fans talk about how their starting pitching was an injury-riddled question mark going into this series, and they talk about Game 7. Funny, but they never mention what a lousy late-season and postseason reliever Wagner was. He may have cost the Astros at least the Division Series in 1997, '98, '99 and 2001, the Phillies at least a Playoff berth in 2004 and '05, and the Mets this Pennant.
Also on this day, the Galen Center opens, across the street from Exposition Park and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. After 80 years of sharing other venues -- the Shrine Auditorium from 1926 to 1949, the Pan-Pacific Auditorium until 1959, and then the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena -- the basketball teams at the University of Southern California finally have their own home court. The 1st event, however, is women's volleyball, with USC defeating Stanford.
The court is named for Jim Sterkel, who played basketball for USC from 1955 to 1957 and died in 1997. B. Wayne Hughes, a high school classmate and USC roommate of Sterkel, donated to the arena's building, asking to the name to court of Sterkel, saying, "Some people don't deserve to be forgotten."
*
October 12, 2010, 10 years ago: Behind the complete-game effort by Cliff Lee, the Texas Rangers beat Tampa Bay, 5-1, in the decisive Game 5 of the ALDS at Tropicana Field, for the 1st Playoff series victory in franchise history.
They are the last major league club to accomplish the task -- unless you count the fact that the Montreal Expos, who did it in the strike-forced split-season format of 1981, didn't do it until 2019, as the Washington Nationals.
The Rangers, who will take on the Yankees for the AL flag, lost their 3 previous playoff appearances, with 1st-round losses to the Bronx Bombers in 1996 and 1998-99.
October 12, 2012: The biggest game in Washington baseball in 79 years is Game 5 of the NLDS at Nationals Park. The Nationals lead the Cardinals, 7-5 going into the 9th inning. But Nats reliever Drew Storen implodes, allowing a double to Carlos Beltran, a walk to Yadier Molina, another walk to David Freese, a single to Daniel Descalso, a stolen base by Descalso, and a single to Pete Kozma.
The Nats go down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 9th, and the Cards win, 9-7, and advance to the NLCS. The Nats went from having, according to Baseball-Reference.com, a 93 percent chance of winning the game to losing it.
Concerned about putting too much stress on his arm after coming back from Tommy John surgery at the start of the season, the Nats had shut down ace pitcher Stephen Strasburg for the season after September 7, at which point he had pitched 159 innings. I wonder what Nats management would have given to have Strasburg pitch to just 1 batter: Descalso, when there were 2 outs and the score was still 7-5.
Keeping Strasburg off the postseason roster was a major blunder. It took the Nats another 7 years to get their 1st postseason series win since they were the 1981 Montreal Expos.
Earlier in the day, CC Sabathia shows he's the biggest man in baseball, and that's got nothing to do with his physical size. He goes the distance for the Yankees, allowing just 1 run on 4 hits with 9 strikeouts, and getting out of a bases-loaded, 1-out jam in the 6th inning. A Curtis Granderson home run is the offensive highlight of the Yankees' 3-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium II, giving the Pinstripes the deciding Game 5 of the ALDS.
October 12, 2013: The University of Maryland defeats the University of Virginia 27-26, at Byrd Stadium in the Washington suburb of College Park, Maryland. Because Maryland moved from the Atlantic Coast Conference to the Big Ten for the next schoolyear, their biggest rivalry comes to an end, at least for football. Maryland leads the rivalrly 44-32-2.
October 12, 2014: Game 2 of the NLCS. Kolten Wong sounds like the name of a movie monster, and, at least for 2 days, San Francisco Giants fans will see him in their nightmares. The Hawaiian-born 2nd baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals hits a walkoff home run against Sergio Romo, and the Cards win 5-4 at Busch Stadium. The series goes to San Francisco tied.
Also on this day, the Cleveland Browns beat their arch-rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, 31-10 at FirstEnergy Stadium. This remains the Browns' last win over the Steelers.
October 12, 2015: Game 3 of the NL Division Series, the 1st postseason game at Citi Field, and the 1st postseason game hosted by the Mets in 9 years, since the night of Endy Chavez' catch, Yadier Molina's home run, and Carlos Beltran not taking the bat off his shoulder. Matt Harvey isn't exactly sharp on the mound, but Travis d'Arnaud and Yoenis Cespedes hit home runs, and the Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 13-7. The Mets can clinch the series tomorrow night.
October 12, 2018: Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam announces that he is forming a group to buy MLS' Columbus Crew, from the group that was planning on moving the team to Austin, Texas for the 2019 season. The #SaveTheCrew movement succeeded, one of the few save-the-team movements ever to do so. MLS announced that the Austin group will get an expansion team for the 2021 season.
October 12, 2019: Game 1 of the ALCS is played at Minute Maid Park in Houston. Gleyber Torres and Giancarlo Stanton provide some justification for Yankee general manager Brian Cashman's scquisitions of them, hitting home runs of Zack Greinke. Masahiro Tanaka allows just 1 hit in 6 innings, and the Yankees beat the Houston Astros 7-0.
To have taken 1 of the series' 1st 2 games in Houston, was big. Yankee Fans' confidence is very high right now. It hasn't been so high since.
October 12, 2365: If we accept the Star Trek convention that the last 3 digits of a "stardate" refer to the time of the year, then Stardate 42779.1 would have been on this date. This was the occurrence of the
Next Generation episode "Samaritan Snare." The Enterprise-D crew meets a previously unknown alien species. They are Pakleds. They look for things. Things that make them go. Things that make them strong!
October 12, 802,701: According to H.G. Wells' novel The Time Machine, this is the date -- possibly chosen to coincide with Columbus' arrival in "the New World" -- on which "Time Traveler" arrives in the future. That's the only name he has in the novel.
In the 1960 film The Time Machine, he is called George by his friends -- possibly a reference to the author, Herbert George Wells. In other versions, such as the 1979 film Time After Time and on 3 episodes of the 1990s TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Wells himself is the Time Traveler.
October 12, 802,701: According to H.G. Wells' novel The Time Machine, this is the date -- possibly chosen to coincide with Columbus' arrival in "the New World" -- on which "Time Traveler" arrives in the future. That's the only name he has in the novel.
In the 1960 film The Time Machine, he is called George by his friends -- possibly a reference to the author, Herbert George Wells. In other versions, such as the 1979 film Time After Time and on 3 episodes of the 1990s TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Wells himself is the Time Traveler.
Sports is not mentioned in the novel. Given the future that Wells described, it looks like sports is as dead as Earth's civilization is.