October 9, 1961, 60 years ago: Led by a pair of 5-run innings at Crosley Field, the Yankees win the World Series, beating the Reds in Game 5, 13-5. Johnny Blanchard, a reserve player who will collect 10 hits in 29 at-bats in 5 Fall Classics, hits 2 home runs and bats .400, en route to the Bronx Bombers' 19th World Championship.
Mickey Mantle barely played in this Series, but Roger Maris hit an unofficial 62nd home run of the season, while Whitey Ford broke the record for most consecutive scoreless innings pitched in the World Series, running his total to 30. The previous record? It was 29 2/3rds, set by a Boston Red Sox lefthander named… Babe Ruth.
Whitey would raise the record to 33 in 1962. Mariano Rivera would slightly break this record, pitching 33 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings in postseason play, but not all of it in World Series play.
Mickey Mantle barely played in this Series, but Roger Maris hit an unofficial 62nd home run of the season, while Whitey Ford broke the record for most consecutive scoreless innings pitched in the World Series, running his total to 30. The previous record? It was 29 2/3rds, set by a Boston Red Sox lefthander named… Babe Ruth.
Whitey would raise the record to 33 in 1962. Mariano Rivera would slightly break this record, pitching 33 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings in postseason play, but not all of it in World Series play.
The 1961 Yankees were, like the 2021 Yankees, a bit streaky. They lost their season opener, then won 5 straight games. They followed this by losing 3 straight. At this point, April 26, Ralph Houk, a rookie manager having been handed the job after the firing of Casey Stengel, then made a switch, putting Maris 3rd in the batting order and Mantle 4th. This gave Maris the protection he needed to be a better hitter, and launched the Yankees on an 8-1 run.
Then came another mediocre stretch, 3-9. But they straightened it out: From June 4 to 15, the Yankees went 13-2; from June 20 to 26, 6-1; from June 30 to July 27, 20-6; from August 2 to 11, 11-1; and from August 16 to 27, 9-3.
The Yankees would go on to hit 240 home runs, a major league record that stood until 1996, and a team record that stood until 2009. Mantle and Maris both seemed like they could break Babe Ruth's single-season record of 60, set in 1927. Mantle got sick near the end of the season, and finished with a career-high 54. Maris hit his 59th of the season on September 20, which turned out to be the Pennant-clincher; his 60th on September 26; and his 61st on the last day of the regular season, October 1, off Tracy Stallard of the Boston Red Sox, for the only run in a 1-0 Yankee win.
Bill "Moose" Skowron led the team's righthanded hitters with 28 home runs. The 1960 season was the 1st in which usual catcher Lawrence "Yogi" Berra and left fielder Elston Howard had switched positions. In 1961, the Yankees got 22 homers from Berra, 21 from Howard, and another 21 from Johnny Blanchard, who was also a catcher, and played the outfield, including filling in at right field after Maris moved over to center at the end, in place of the ailing Mantle. So the Yankees got 64 home runs from their catchers.
The defense was exceptional, with an infield of Skowron at 1st base, Bobby Richardson at 2nd, Tony Kubek and shortstop, and Clete Boyer at 3rd base. Before Brooks Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles in 1970 and Graig Nettles of the Yankees in 1978, Boyer would be the 1st man to put on a spectacular fielding display at 3rd base in a World Series.
Berra had been a great catcher, Howard was now one as well. Berra was all right in left field, Mantle was really good in center (if not quite the equal of his predecessor Joe DiMaggio or his contemporary Willie Mays), and Maris might have been the best defensive right fielder the Yankees ever had.
The pitching was strong. Under Stengel, Edward "Whitey" Ford, the team's ace, would be moved up or back in the rotation, to bypass lesser teams and face tougher ones. Houk let him pitch every 4th day, no matter what, and Whitey responded not just with his 1st 20-win season, but with a 25-4 season that earned him the Cy Young Award -- from its establishment in 1956 until 1966, given to the top pitcher in both Leagues.
Ralph Terry went 16-3, and would go 23-12 the next year, winning the Cy Young. Bill Stafford went 14-9, Rollie Sheldon 11-5, and Luis Arroyo 15-5 with 29 saves, then a major league record. Bob Turley, the 1958 Cy Young Award winner, battled injury much of the year, and was only 3-5.
Still, this would not be a typical Yankee season, where they ran away with the Pennant, and the American League once again became "The New York Yankees and the Seven Dwarfs" -- especially since expansion meant the birth of the Los Angeles Angels and the "new" Washington Senators, who replaced the old team, which had moved to become the Minnesota Twins.
Because the Detroit Tigers hung tough, with future Hall-of-Famers Al Kaline and Jim Bunning, and All-Stars Rocky Colavito, Norm Cash, Bill Bruton, Dick McAuliffe, Don Mossi, and a pitcher whose wins over the Yankees the last few years had gotten him nicknamed "The Yankee Killer," Frank Lary.
On Friday, September 1, with the Yankees leading them by a game and a half, the Tigers came into The Bronx for a showdown. The game was won by 3 straight singles with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, by Howard, Berra and Skowron: 1-0 Yankees. The Yankees won the Saturday game, 7-2, thanks to 2 Maris homers, 1 off Lary.
The Sunday game was a back-and-forth affair that the Yankees led 4-1 after 5 innings, then trailed 5-4 going to the bottom of the 9th. But Mantle led off the inning with a home run, and, following a Berra single, an Arroyo sacrifice bunt, an intentional walk of Skowron, and a flyout by Boyer, Howard won it with a home run, 8-5.
The Yankees now led by 4 1/2 games, and it was the start of a 13-game winning streak that would put them 11 1/2 ahead. A last-gasp 4-game series at Tiger Stadium wasn't enough, as the Tigers could only manage a split. When it was over, the Yankees had 109 wins, the Tigers 101.
Mantle only played 1 game in the World Series, but it wasn't necessary. The Reds won Game 2, but the Yankees won the rest.
Pitcher Duane "Duke" Maas, who made 1 relief appearance in April, was the 1st '61 Yankee to die, in 1976. Howard died in 1980, Maris in 1985, reserve 1st baseman Earl Torgeson in 1990, Mantle in 1995, Stafford in 2001, reliever Hal Reniff and reserve catcher Jesse Gonder in 2004, Boyer in 2007, reserve outfielder Tom Tresh (who would be the AL Rookie of the Year in 1962) in 2008, Blanchard in 2009, reliever Danny McDevitt (also the Dodger who won the last game at Ebbets Field in 1957) in 2010, Skowron in 2012, reserve 1st baseman Bob Hale in 2012, Turley in 2013, Berra in 2015, Arroyo and reserve infielder Joe DeMaestri in 2016, reserve outfielder Bob Cerv in 2017, relievers Tex Clevenger and Jim Coates in 2019, Ford in 2020, and reliever Art Ditmar in 2021.
There are still 7 living members of the 1961 World Champion New York Yankees: Richardson, Kubek, Terry, Daley, reserve outfielder Hector Lopez, reserve infielder Billy Gardner, and reserve outfielder Jack Reed. Reserve outfielders Johnny James and Lee Thomas, who appeared in 1 and 2 games, respectively, before being traded to the Angels to get Cerv back, are also still alive. So is Al Downing, who made only 5 appearances and did not make the World Series roster, but became a key starter by 1963.
Mantle called the 1961 Yankees, "the best team I ever saw." The 1927, 1936 and 1998 Yankees have also been listed among the greatest teams ever. The 1961 Yankees were the first such team in the television era, aided by the Maris & Mantle "M&M Boys" home run record chase, and thus have stuck in fans' minds ever since.
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Elihu Yale was born in 1649 in Boston, but his father soon moved the Welsh family back to London for business. Yale rose through the East India Company, trading with India and the East Indies, and was named president of their office in Madras (now named Chennai). But he was dismissed when the company learned he had made his fortune through dishonest means. He was also involved in the slave trade of the era.
Perhaps his donations to the Collegiate School that would bear his name was a way of making up for that. He died in 1721. The school was renamed Yale University in 1887, and had already begun to be vital in the development of American education and American sports.
Also in honor of Eli Yale, the University is sometimes known as "Old Eli," and its students and alumni "Yalies" or "Elis." The school newspaper is The Yale Daily News, nicknamed The Daily Yalie.
October 9, 1779: Count Casimir Pulaski, "the Father of the American Cavalry," is wounded during the Siege of Savannah, which is now doomed to failure. He dies on October 11, at age 34, and the siege is called off on October 18. The Georgia seaport city remains under British control until the Treaty of Paris of 1783 gives it back to America.
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October 9, 1891, 130 years ago: Lyman L. Frimodig is born in Laurium, Michigan. He is the only athlete in the history of Michigan State University (then still named Michigan State College) to earn 10 varsity letters: 4 in baseball, 4 in basketball, and 2 in football.
October 9, 1891, 130 years ago: Lyman L. Frimodig is born in Laurium, Michigan. He is the only athlete in the history of Michigan State University (then still named Michigan State College) to earn 10 varsity letters: 4 in baseball, 4 in basketball, and 2 in football.
From 1920 to 1922, he was their basketball coach. From then until 1960, he taught at the school. From 1933 to 1937, he was Mayor of East Lansing, where the school is located. He was elected to the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, and lived until 1972.
Also on this day, Otto Young Schnering is born in Chicago. In 1916, he founded the Curtiss Candy Company. He named it after his mother's family, since World War I was going on and naming it after himself, with a German name, was a bad idea.
In 1920, he named a candy bar the Baby Ruth, after the biggest star in baseball. When Ruth sued for the use of his name without his permission, Schnering told the court that the bar was named after Ruth Cleveland, daughter of Grover Cleveland. Ruth had died at age 13, and the country went into mourning, so he named the bar in tribute to her. Nobody bought it: The country not only hadn't gone into mourning, and had already forgotten Grover, let alone Ruth Cleveland. Well, 12 people bought it: The jury. He won.
The Great Depression almost knocked Curtiss out, until he launched the Butterfinger bar, and it saved him. He died in 1953. By 1977, Curtiss was owned by Standard Brands, and in honor of Reggie Jackson, who followed Babe Ruth by becoming the 2nd player to hit 3 home runs in a World Series game, they launched the Reggie! Bar. It was basically a round version of the Baby Ruth. By the 21st Century, the Baby Ruth was the official candy bar of Major League Baseball, putting an end to the pretense.
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October 9, 1919: The Cincinnati Reds defeat the Chicago White Sox, 10-5, taking Game 8 and the best-5-out-of-9 World Series. It is the 1st World Championship for Cincinnati – or, at least, the 1st since the unofficial one for the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first openly professional baseball team, in 1869, half a century earlier.
Sox pitcher Claude "Lefty" Williams gets one man out in the 1st before departing, having allowed 4 runs. The Reds go on to give Hod Eller plenty of offense. White Sox left fielder "Shoeless" Joe Jackson hits the only home run of the Series. Eddie Collins’ 3 hits give him a total of 42 in Series play‚ a record broken in 1930 by Frank Frisch‚ and bettered by Lou Gehrig in 1938. A stolen base by Collins is his 14th in Series competition‚ a record tied by Lou Brock in 1968.
How could the White Sox have lost? "Everybody" said they were the superior team. Actually, while the ChiSox were more experienced – they had won the Series 2 years earlier – they had won 88 games that season, but the Reds had won more, 95. And the Reds had Hall-of-Famer Edd Roush, and several players who would have been multiple All-Stars had there been an All-Star Game at the time.
Still, everybody seemed to think the Sox were better. And yet, the betting shifted to make the Reds the favorites. What had happened?
On September 28, 1920, 8 White Sox players were indicted for conspiracy to throw the Series: Jackson, Williams, pitcher Eddie Cicotte, right fielder Oscar "Happy" Felsch, 1st baseman Arnold "Chick" Gandil, shortstop Charles "Swede" Risberg, reserve infielder Fred McMullin (only in on the fix because he overheard Felsch and Gandil talking about it), and 3rd baseman George "Buck" Weaver (who refused to take part, but was indicted because he knew about it and refused to report it).
Although all were acquitted, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned them all permanently.
For the rest of their lives, Roush, the last survivor (he lived until 1988), and the other '19 Reds insisted that, if the Series had been on the up-and-up, they would have won anyway.
Really? Here's something else to consider: Down 4 games to 1 in that best-5-out-of-9, the Sox won Games 6 and 7, playing to win because the gamblers hadn't come through with their payments, and Williams only caved in for Game 8 because his wife and children had been threatened if he did not comply. Williams was 0-3 for the Series, a record not "achieved" honestly until 1981 and George Frazier of the Yankees.
Trust me on this one: If you want to get closer to the facts of the case, see the film Eight Men Out; but if you want to see a movie that makes you feel good, see the factually-challenged but beautiful
Field of Dreams.
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October 9, 1921, 100 years ago: Game 4 of the 1st all-New York World Series. After a rainout, a Sunday crowd of 36,371 watches Carl Mays of the Yankees and Phil Douglas of the Giants square off. Among them are a group of Prohibition agents, who cause a near-riot by trying to barge their way into the game by saying they were there on "official business." When ticket takers refuse to let them in, the police are called to forcibly remove the agents from the line as angry fans look on.
Tomorrow, federal Prohibition Commissioner Roy Haynes will issue orders barring agents from using their badges to gain admission to places of amusement. This may not be the most bizarre moment in the history of the movement and execution of Prohibition, but it may be the dumbest, and was typical of the men enforcing it being every bit as corrupt as those who broke the most-broken law in American history.
Mays works 5 hitless innings, while a run-scoring triple by Wally Schang gives the not-yet-Bronx Bombers a 1–0 lead. Mays then apparently tires, and the Giants club 7 hits in the last 2 innings for 4 runs. Babe Ruth's 1st World Series homer comes in the 9th, but the Giants win 4–2.
We can say, "apparently," because, just 2 years after the Black Sox threw a Series, there would soon be accusations that Mays threw the game. Mays, the son of a Kentucky minister, was known to refuse to pitch on Sundays, and, though it was his turn in the rotation, losing on purpose, and screwing over his teammates, may have been his way of objecting.
Is that, rather than having thrown the pitch that killed Ray Chapman of the Indians the year before, the real reason he's never been elected to the Hall of Fame? He had a 209-126 record for his career, for a winning percentage of .622. He was also a member of 6 Pennant-winning teams, taking 4 World Championships (1915, '16 and '18 with the Reds Sox, 1923 with the Yankees).
Here's a neat little piece of baseball trivia: Mays is the only Red Sox pitcher to pitch 2 complete-game victories on the same day. It was on August 30, 1918. That same day, the greatest player in Red Sox history, Ted Williams, was born.
Former Minnesota Twins closer Joe Mays is a distant cousin, but, being born 4 years after Carl's death in 1971, they never met. Until the day he died, over half a century after the incident, Carl still insisted that he did not hit Chapman intentionally. The best piece of evidence in his favor is that the ball rebounded back to him, and he fielded it and threw it to 1st, suggesting that, at that point, he thought Chapman had hit it.
Also on this day, Dorothy Elsie Wilkinson is born in Phoenix. A softball and bowling star from the 1930s to the '60s, Dot Wilkinson turns 100 today, and a member of both sports' halls of fame, and the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame.
October 9, 1928: At Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, the Yankees beat the Cardinals, 7-3, completing their 2nd consecutive sweep of the World Series. The Bronx Bombers, who win the 3rd World Championship in franchise history, live up to their name as they slug 5 homers in the game, a feat which will not be matched until 1989, when Oakland does it against San Francisco. Three of the homers are hit by Babe Ruth, who had done it at the same park 2 years earlier. This time, though, the Yankees win the Series.
In 2009, seeing Hideki Matsui collect 6 RBIs, including a home run, in Game 6, Yankee broadcaster John Sterling cited the man who was, at the time, the only other player to hit 3 homers in a Series game, and asked his listeners, "Has anybody, outside of Reggie Jackson, ever had a better Series-clinching game?" Yes, one man has. But only one. The Great Bambino. Ruth, Jackson, Matsui. The Sultan of Swat, Mr. October, and Godzilla. Pretty good company.
Shortstop Mark Koenig was the last survivor of the 1928 Yankees, living until 1993.
Also on this day, Clare James Drake is born in Yorkton, Saskatchewan. He is the most successful coach in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) men's hockey history. He coached the University of Alberta to 6 University Cup titles, and also coached Team Canada at the 1980 Winter Olympics. He has also worked in the front offices of some NHL teams, and was an assistant coach for the Winnipeg Jets. He died in 2018, having lived just long enough to see his election to the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was also a member of the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame.
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October 9, 1931, 90 years ago: Homer Austin Smith is born in Omaha, Nebraska. A teammate of Kazmaier at Princeton, he was All-Ivy League as a fullback. But he became better known as a coach. In 1969, he led Davidson College of North Carolina to the Southern Conference title.
He served as the head coach at the University of the Pacific in 1970 and 1971, and from 1974 to 1978 was the head coach at Army. His only pro coaching job was as offensive coordinator with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1987, and his last job was the same one at the University of Arizona in 1996. He died in 2011.
Also on this day, Canada's 1st television station begins broadcasting. It is VE9EC in Montreal, owned by radio station CKAC and newspaper La Presse. Many early radio stations were owned by newspapers, and many early TV stations were owned by one or the other, or both.
VE9EC doesn't last. Canada's 1st permanent TV station would also be in Montreal, and it would be CBFT, Channel 2, part of the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC). Two days later, Toronto's 1st TV station would follow, CBLT, also a CBC station, on Channel 9 until 1956, then 6 until 1972, then 5.
October 9, 1938: The Yankees beat the Cubs, 8-3, and complete a 4-game World Series sweep at Yankee Stadium. It is the Yankees' 7th World Championship, and their 3rd in a row. To this day, the only franchises that have as many as 7 are the Cardinals with 11, the A's with 9 (and even then you have to combine the 5 from Philadelphia with the 4 from Oakland), and the Red Sox with 9 (with the last 4 of those tainted). And, to this day, the only franchises to have won 3 in a row are the Yankees and the 1972-74 A's.
This would be the last game as owner of the Yankees for Jacob Ruppert, who bought the team in 1915, signed manager Miller Huggins, purchased or traded for the players who made the 1st Yankee Dynasty, and provided the money that built Yankee Stadium. He oversaw the Yankees' 1st 10 Pennants and their 1st 7 World Series wins. He died on January 13, 1939.
As with the 1937, 1939 and 1941 World Champion Yankees, the last survivor of the 1938 team was Ol' Reliable himself, Tommy Henrich.
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October 9, 1940: Joseph Anthony Pepitone is born in Brooklyn. He was a backup to Bill "Moose" Skowron at 1st base in 1962, and received a World Series ring. The Yankees thought so highly of Pepitone that they traded Moose before the 1963 season.
Pepitone helped the Yankees win the 1963 and '64 AL Pennants, and hit a grand slam in Game 6 of the '64 World Series. He made 3 All-Star Teams and won 3 Gold Gloves. He had 182 career home runs before he turned 30. Joe was a New York kid playing for the local team, and he was very good. This made him enormously popular in New York at the time.
He had a bit of a nose, and was actually balding, but you couldn't tell that while he was wearing a cap or a batting helmet. (He had 2 toupees: A small one for during games, and a bigger "Guido" hairpiece for being out on the town.) Women wanted him, men wanted to be him. He was a matinee idol, and a hero to many, not just to his fellow Italian-Americans.
But, he would later admit, his father's death left him depressed, and he looked for comfort in New York's nightlife, in drinking and women -- "wine, women and song," as the old saying goes. He still hit a few home runs, and he still, as Yankee broadcaster Frank Messer put it, "played first base like he owned it," although he switched to center field in 1967 and '68 so that Mickey Mantle, with no DH in those days, could ease the strain on his legs by playing 1st base.
But if you're going to carouse like Mantle, you'd better be able to play like Mantle. Like all but maybe 20 men who have ever played the game, Pepitone was not at that level.
It didn't help that he came into his own just as the old Yankee Dynasty was collapsing. By 1970, he would no longer be a Yankee -- and, as it turned out, he and Mel Stottlemyre were the last remaining Yankees who had played on a Pennant winner. By 1973, he would be out of the major leagues, and playing in Japan, not hitting well, and begging off games with injuries, then getting caught dancing in Tokyo's discos. In Japan, "Pepitone" became a slang term for a person who goofed off.
He would do time on Rikers Island on gun charges in 1988, although drug charges against him were dropped. And he would have continued alcohol and marriage problems, getting arrested again in 1995, when he drunkenly crashed his car inside the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.
He has stayed out of trouble since then, and now lives on Long Island, getting by and then some at memorabilia shows. Still, he knows he could have been so much more, and he knows he blew it: He titled his 1975 autobiography Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud. Jim Bouton had portrayed him poorly in his own 1970 book, Ball Four, and Joe has never forgiven Jim; but Joe followed Jim by writing his own tell-all, and it is considerably more lurid, and less funny.
But the bad things Joe has done are no excuse for what Cosmo Kramer did in that episode of Seinfeld. He had no right to hit Joe with a pitch at that fantasy camp. For crying out loud, Joe was 52 years old! You don't plunk a 52-year-old man! (Seinfeld co-creator Larry David would write his name into 2 more episodes, and into 2 episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm. He's also been mentioned on The Golden Girls, The Sopranos, The West Wing and Rescue Me.)
Tony Conigliaro was a very similar player in Boston, but his career was curtailed by injury as much as by wasting his talent. New England fans have often suggested that, had he stayed healthy, Tony C would have been their Mantle. But now that Tony C is dead, and the Boston press no longer has to protect the popular, handsome, ethnic local boy, some less-than-savory details about his life have come out. Perhaps Sox fans should consider that Conigliaro, rather than their Mantle, could have become their Pepitone.
There was also a famous musician born on this day, in Liverpool, England, named John Winston Lennon. He would end up living in New York as well. I could swear that I once saw a picture of him wearing a Yankee cap, but I can't find it online.
Apparently, Pepitone didn't listen to Lennon, who seemed to believe that "All You Need Is Love." What Pepitone could have been, we can only "Imagine." (And, yes, I know there's a Christian rock song titled "I Can Only Imagine." I am aware of the irony of using a Christian song in connection with John Lennon.)
None of the Beatles appeared to have been much of a sports fan, except for Paul McCartney, who has expressed support for Everton. Pete Best, the drummer dumped in favor of Ringo Starr before the band hit it big, has been much more vocal in his support for Everton.
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October 9, 1941, 80 years ago: Chester Trent Lott is born in Grenada, Mississippi, and grows up in nearby Pascagoula. He was born the same year as Emmett Till. Yet, in 1955, Till was murdered in Mississippi because he was a black boy whistling at a white woman (and it wasn't even true), while Trent Lott (he dropped his first name) went on to become one of the most powerful men in America.
He was a senior at the University of Mississippi when President John F. Kennedy federalized the State's National Guard to allow James Meredith to become the University's 1st black student. He also led his fraternity to maintain a whites-only policy.
In 1968, he became administrative assistant to his district's Congressman, William Colmer, a segregationist Democrat who was then chairing the House Rules Committee. When Colmer retired in 1972, Lott ran for his set -- as a Republican. He won, because the white voters of that district knew where he stood on race.
He was the House Minority Whip from 1981 until 1989, when he ran for the seat of retiring Senator John Stennis, and held it until 2007. He became Senate Majority Whip with the Republicans' takeover in 1995, and Majority Leader with Bob Dole's resignation in 1996.
On December 5, 2002, at a dinner honoring the 100th birthday of Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who had run for President in 1948 on a segregationist platform, launched a filibuster to stop the Civil Rights Act of 1957 (he failed), and switched to the Republican Party following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Lott said of his home State of Mississippi, "When Strom Thurmond ran for President, we voted for him. We're proud of it! And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years, either!" He was forced to resign.
Trent Lott is still alive, and still respected in the Republican Party. Emmett Till has been dead for 66 years.
October 9, 1944: The only all-St. Louis World Series ever ends as Emil Verban drives in 3 runs, and the Cardinals defeat the Browns 3-1, and win in 6 games. Within 10 years, the Browns will realize that the Cardinals will always be the Number 1 team in St. Louis, and move and take up the name of several previous teams in their new home town, the Baltimore Orioles.
The 1944 Orioles won the Pennant of the International League, despite Oriole Park having burned down on the 4th of July, necessitating a move to Municipal Stadium, a football stadium a few blocks away. At the exact same time that the Cards were dusting off the Browns, a crowd of 52,833, then a record for a minor league game, sees the Orioles fall to the Louisville Colonels, 5-4 in Game 4 of the "Junior World Series." But the Orioles would win the series in 6 games.
This team, and how well it drew (it's not the fault of the teams involved, but Sportsman's Park seated only 30,804 people, so the Junior World Series brought in more fans than the senior version), raised Baltimore's profile, and made its return to the majors for the first time since 1902 possible.
The last survivor of the 1944 Cardinals was Stan "the Man" Musial, living until 2013. The last survivor of the only Browns Pennant winner was Don Gutteridge, who lived until 2008.
The 1944 Orioles won the Pennant of the International League, despite Oriole Park having burned down on the 4th of July, necessitating a move to Municipal Stadium, a football stadium a few blocks away. At the exact same time that the Cards were dusting off the Browns, a crowd of 52,833, then a record for a minor league game, sees the Orioles fall to the Louisville Colonels, 5-4 in Game 4 of the "Junior World Series." But the Orioles would win the series in 6 games.
This team, and how well it drew (it's not the fault of the teams involved, but Sportsman's Park seated only 30,804 people, so the Junior World Series brought in more fans than the senior version), raised Baltimore's profile, and made its return to the majors for the first time since 1902 possible.
The last survivor of the 1944 Cardinals was Stan "the Man" Musial, living until 2013. The last survivor of the only Browns Pennant winner was Don Gutteridge, who lived until 2008.
October 9, 1946, 75 years ago: James Robert Qualls is born in Exeter, in the Central Valley of California. An outfielder, Jim Qualls played 4 seasons in the major leagues, debuting with the ill-fated 1969 Chicago Cubs, finishing with a weak batting average of .223.
But he will be forever remembered for his clean single to left-center that broke up Tom Seaver's perfect game and no-hitter with 2 outs to go on July 9, 1969. The Mets won the game anyway, 4-0 at Shea Stadium. Qualls is still alive.
October 9, 1949: The Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 10-6 at Ebbets Field, and win the World Series in 5 games. The 2 teams had combined to win Pennants in the only season in the history of the single-division Leagues, 1901 to 1968, that both Leagues' Pennants remained undecided on the last day of the regular season.
With Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider and Carl Furillo, rookies from 1947, and older players Pee Wee Reese and Gil Hodges, bolstered by the 1948 arrivals of Roy Campanella, Billy Cox, Preacher Roe and Carl Erskine, and 1949 arrival Don Newcombe, "the Boys of Summer" had arrived. But they were not ready to beat the Yankees. Once again, the Dodgers had to "Wait Till Next Year." The Yankees, now winners of 12 World Championships, would enjoy many "next years" to come.
Bobby Brown died this year, the last surviving member of the '49 Yankees, one of the iconic teams in Pinstripe history due to Joe DiMaggio's midseason comeback from injury and their regular-season finale against the Red Sox.
Also on this day, Shep Norman Messing is born in The Bronx, and grows up in Roslyn, Long Island. A goalkeeper, he played at both New York University and Harvard, before making the North American Soccer League with the New York Cosmos in 1973. He had 3 tenures with the team, including their 1977 NASL Championship season.
He later managed the Oakland Stompers, and was a player-manager with the New York Arrows, who played in the Major Indoor Soccer League at the Nassau Coliseum. He is now a broadcaster for the New York Red Bulls.
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October 9, 1951, 70 years ago: Game 5 of the World Series. The Giants score 1st, but a Gil McDougald grand slam in the 3rd and a Joe DiMaggio double in the 7th are the keys to a 13-1 demolition by the Yankees. Eddie Lopat goes the distance for the win.
This was the last World Series game the Giants would lose at the Polo Grounds. The Yankees clinched the next day at Yankee Stadium.
Also on this day, Robert Wuhl (no middle name) is born in Union Township, Union County, New Jersey. The actor has many sports connections: Pitching coach Larry Hockett in Bull Durham, Marty in Blue Chips, sportswriter Al Stump in Cobb, and sports superagent Arliss Michaels in Arli$$. But he's probably best known as Alexander Knox, reporter for The Gotham Gazette, in the 1989 film version of Batman.
October 9, 1958: The Yankees complete a 3-games-to-1 comeback – only the 2nd in World Series history, after the 1925 Pirates – by gaining revenge on the Braves, 6-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium, and take their 18th World Championship.
After being defeated by former Yankee farmhand Lew Burdette 3 times in the '57 Series, including getting shut out in Game 7, this time, the Yanks knock Burdette out of the box in Game 7. Bill "Moose" Skowron's 3-run 8th-inning homer off last year's Series nemesis puts the game on ice. Eddie Mathews strikes out for the 11th time‚ a record that will stand until 1980 when broken by Willie Wilson of the Kansas City Royals (and then again in 2009 by Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies). The Braves' 53 strikeouts are also a new Series record.
Bob Turley, about to become the Yankees' 1st Cy Young Award winner, had lost Game 2, but won Game 5 and saved Game 6, and now wins Game 7 on no rest. Mickey Mantle catches the final out in center field, the only time he was ever involved in a World Series' final play (hitting or fielding).
This is Casey Stengel's 7th World Championship‚ tying him with Joe McCarthy for the most Series won. No one would have believed it at the time, but it will be his last. It's also the 1st time that the official World Series highlight film, which had been produced since 1943, is in color.
There are 4 surviving players from the 1958 Yankees, 63 years later: Bobby Shantz, Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek and Zach Monroe.
The Yankees would miss the World Series in 1959, but would be back in each of the next 5 years. The Braves, on the other hand, would not return to the Fall Classic for another 33 years, and, by then, they would be in Atlanta. The City of Milwaukee would not get back for another 24 years, and then with the Brewers, and only that once since.
At the time, Dwight D. Eisenhower, a member of the Republican Party, was the President of the United States. In the 63 years since, the Yankees have won 9 World Series, all when the President was a member of the Democratic Party: John F. Kennedy in 1961 and 1962; Jimmy Carter in 1977 and 1978; Bill Clinton in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000; and Barack Obama in 2009. They also lost the World Series under Democratic Presidents JFK in 1963 and Lyndon Johnson in 1964.
Under Republican Presidents, the Yankees have lost World Series in 1960 (Eisenhower), 1976 (Gerald Ford), 1981 (Ronald Reagan), 2001 (George W. Bush) and 2003 (Dubya again). Under Richard Nixon, their best performance was 2nd place in the AL East in 1970. Under the elder George Bush, they never even had a winning season. Under Donald Trump, they made the Playoffs all 4 years, but didn't win a Pennant. Now, in the 1st year of Democratic President Joe Biden, they have failed again.
Since 1958, the Yankees have had 29 seasons under a Democratic President, winning 11 Pennants and 9 World Series; and 34 full seasons under a Republican President, winning just 5 Pennants, and losing the World Series each time. The Curse of Ike Lives.
October 9, 1966: For the 2nd consecutive day, the Orioles win a World Series game, 1-0, at home at Memorial Stadium, in a contest decided by a home run, when Frank Robinson takes a Don Drysdale pitch deep over the left field fence in the 4th inning. The lone run being scored on a homer for only the 5th time in the history of the Fall Classic, and the complete-game shutout thrown by Dave McNally, Baltimore completes a 4-game sweep over the Dodgers.
It is the 1st World Championship won by a Baltimore baseball team in 70 years, since the original version of the Orioles won the 1896 National League Pennant. For the Dodgers, 33 consecutive innings without scoring a run is a Series record for futility. Their streak would run to 38 innings before they scored in the 5th inning of Game 1 of the 1974 World Series, and remains a record.
There are 7 players still alive from the '66 O's World Series roster, 55 years later: Hall of Fame 3rd baseman Brooks Robinson, Hall of Fame shortstop Luis Aparicio (the only ring the White Sox legend ever won), Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer (the only man on all 3 Oriole World Champions: '66, '70 & '83), 1st baseman John "Boog" Powell, 2nd baseman Davey Johnson (later the manager of the '86 Mets), outfielder Russ Snyder and pitcher Wally Bunker.
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October 9, 1971, 50 years ago: The defending Stanley Cup Champion Montreal Canadiens open a new season by retiring the Number 4 of their recently retired Captain, Jean Béliveau. They play the New York Rangers to a 4-4 tie at the Montreal Forum.
October 9, 1971, 50 years ago: The defending Stanley Cup Champion Montreal Canadiens open a new season by retiring the Number 4 of their recently retired Captain, Jean Béliveau. They play the New York Rangers to a 4-4 tie at the Montreal Forum.
Also on this day, the film The French Connection premieres. It is a dramatization of the New York Police Department's 1961 breaking of the drug-trafficking scheme that ran from Istanbul, Turkey across the Mediterranean Sea to Marseille, France, and finally to New York.
The breakers were Detectives Sonny Grosso and Eddie Egan. Robin Moore turned it into a book, and William Friedkin turned it into the film. The lead character of Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, based on Egan, was played by Gene Hackman. Egan himself became an actor, and died of cancer in 1995. Grosso was fictionalized as Buddy Russo, played by Roy Scheider. Grosso died in 2020, at age 89.
The iconic car chase happens in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, where Hackman's Doyle drives a 1971 Pontiac LeMans (ironically, a car with a French name) under the BMT West End Line, now the D Train, from 86th Street to 62nd Street.
In 1972, the Buffalo Sabres acquired right wing René Robert, and put him on a forward line with center Gilbert Perreault and left wing Rick Martin, also French-Canadians. The line became known as The French Connection, and would remain together through 1979, including a berth in the 1975 Stanley Cup Finals and a defeat of the Soviet Red Army team on their 1976 tour of North America.
October 9, 1973: The Capital Bullets debut, having been the Baltimore Bullets for the preceding 10 years. They don't quite move into the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., instead opening the new saddle-roofed Capital Centre in the suburb of Landover, Maryland, just 33 miles from the Baltimore Civic Center.
To put that in perspective: The San Francisco 49ers' Levi's Stadium is 46 miles from downtown San Francisco, and only 9 miles from downtown San Jose, but they have kept the "San Francisco" name.
The Bullets play their 1st game on the road, against the Atlanta Hawks at the Omni, and lose 128-114. Mike Riordan leads the Bullets with 26 points, but Super Lou Hudson scores for 41 for the hosts.
They will reach the NBA Finals 3 times before the decade is out, winning the NBA title in 1978. They will change their name to the Washington Bullets the next season, and in 1997 to the Washington Wizards, to help offset the District of Columbia's image as "the murder capital of America." That same year, they will leave the suburbs for the District, opening the arena now known as the Verizon Center. The Cap Centre was demolished in 2002, and was replaced with a mall.
Amazingly, the Baltimore Civic Center still stands, under the name Royal Farms Arena. The city is finally working on a plan to replace it with a more modern arena, in the hopes of attracting an NBA or NHL team.
October 9, 1974: The NHL's 2 new expansion teams both make their debut on this day. The Washington Capitals, like the Bullets making their home at the suburban Cap Centre, get pounded by the New York Rangers 6-3. Jim Hryculk scored the Caps' 1st goal.
In 1972, the Buffalo Sabres acquired right wing René Robert, and put him on a forward line with center Gilbert Perreault and left wing Rick Martin, also French-Canadians. The line became known as The French Connection, and would remain together through 1979, including a berth in the 1975 Stanley Cup Finals and a defeat of the Soviet Red Army team on their 1976 tour of North America.
October 9, 1973: The Capital Bullets debut, having been the Baltimore Bullets for the preceding 10 years. They don't quite move into the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., instead opening the new saddle-roofed Capital Centre in the suburb of Landover, Maryland, just 33 miles from the Baltimore Civic Center.
To put that in perspective: The San Francisco 49ers' Levi's Stadium is 46 miles from downtown San Francisco, and only 9 miles from downtown San Jose, but they have kept the "San Francisco" name.
The Bullets play their 1st game on the road, against the Atlanta Hawks at the Omni, and lose 128-114. Mike Riordan leads the Bullets with 26 points, but Super Lou Hudson scores for 41 for the hosts.
They will reach the NBA Finals 3 times before the decade is out, winning the NBA title in 1978. They will change their name to the Washington Bullets the next season, and in 1997 to the Washington Wizards, to help offset the District of Columbia's image as "the murder capital of America." That same year, they will leave the suburbs for the District, opening the arena now known as the Verizon Center. The Cap Centre was demolished in 2002, and was replaced with a mall.
Amazingly, the Baltimore Civic Center still stands, under the name Royal Farms Arena. The city is finally working on a plan to replace it with a more modern arena, in the hopes of attracting an NBA or NHL team.
October 9, 1974: The NHL's 2 new expansion teams both make their debut on this day. The Washington Capitals, like the Bullets making their home at the suburban Cap Centre, get pounded by the New York Rangers 6-3. Jim Hryculk scored the Caps' 1st goal.
The Caps' 1st season was historically bad, including not winning a single game on the road until their last, after which they skated around the ice with a garbage can as if it were the Stanley Cup. They would seem snakebit, losing Playoff series they should have, including the 4-overtime "Easter Epic" Game 7 against the New York Islanders in 1987.
Moving to the MCI Center in downtown D.C. in 1997 seemed to help, as they went on to make their 1st Stanley Cup Finals in their 1st season there. But they got swept in 4 straight, and continued to fall short, as the name of the arena was changed to the Verizon Center. But with the name changed again to the Capital One Arena, they finally got back to the Finals in 2018, and won their 1st Cup.
Also on this day, the Kansas City Scouts are no luckier than were the Caps. They lose their debut 6-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens. After 2 bankrupt years at Kansas City's Kemper Arena, they move to Denver in 1976, becoming the Colorado Rockies. They are not appreciably better, making the Playoffs only in 1978, and in 1982 they move again... becoming the New Jersey Devils.
The Devils now hang Scouts and Rockies jerseys in a display case at their current home, the Prudential Center in Newark. These are pretty much the only nods they make to their pre-Jersey history. While the NHL would return to Denver in 1995, and both the Islanders and the Pittsburgh Penguins would threaten to move to Kansas City's new Sprint Center arena as bargaining chips to get their own new arenas, the NHL has never gone back to K.C.
October 9, 1976: For the 1st time, the New York Yankees play an American League Championship Series game. For the 1st time, a Kansas City team plays a postseason game in Major League Baseball. The experience is far better for New York, as 2 1st-inning errors by the Royals’ best player, 3rd baseman George Brett, helps Catfish Hunter go the distance in a 4-1 Yankee win at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium).
Philadelphia plays its 1st postseason game in 26 years, but in spite of ace Steve Carlton being on the mound -- usually described by the Phillies as "Win Day" -- Don Gullett retires 21 of his last 22 batters to outduel the legendary Lefty, and the Cincinnati Reds defeat the Phillies, 6-3.
But the Royals and Phillies still have a better day than Bob Moose. The Pirates pitcher was driving to a golf course owned by former teammate Bill Mazeroski in Martin's Ferry, Ohio -- also the home town of the Niekro brothers -- when his car crashes, killing him. To make matters worse, it's his birthday. He was 36.
Also on this day, the Rutgers football team beats the University of Connecticut 38-0, at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey. The undefeated season continues.
October 9, 1977: The Yankees come back from deficits of 1-game-to-none, 2-games-to-1, and 3-0 down in the 8th inning of Game 5, to defeat the Kansas City Royals, 5-3 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium), to win their 31st American League Pennant.
The Royals had won 102 games, still a record for any Kansas City team (the A's never got close to a Pennant race in their K.C. years), and with the home-field advantage in Games 3, 4 and 5, and with lefthanded pitching from Paul Splittorff and Larry Gura that they could use to neutralize Yankee sluggers like Reggie Jackson, Graig Nettles and Chris Chambliss, they were sure they were the better team. They were wrong. The Yankees go on to face the Dodgers in the World Series for the 9th time.
Indeed, this series was the source of the long-since-debunked, but still popular, idea of "The Yankees can't hit lefthanded pitching, especially in the postseason." Reggie just couldn't hit Splittorff or Gura, and Billy Martin benched him for the deciding Game 5 -- sending Reggie's best friend on the team, backup catcher Fran Healy, to tell him, because Billy was too much of a coward to do it himself.
But when Splittorff tired, and was replaced by righthander Doug Bird, Billy sent Reggie up to pinch-hit for righthanded DH Cliff Johnson. It was a most un-Reggie-like hit, but it got the job done: A looper, nearly but not quite caught by center fielder Amos Otis, got home a run to cut the deficit to 3-2, before the Yankees won it in the 9th.
The game ended when Freddie Patek, on his 33rd birthday, grounded into a double play. It was Patek's 33rd birthday. Veteran 2nd baseman Cookie Rojas, who had also been a member of the collapsing 1964 Phillies, had announced his retirement, and Patek, with whom Rojas had jumped into the Royals Stadium fountains after they clinched the Division last year, was shown by the NBC camera crying in the dugout, because Rojas would never play in a World Series. Cookie didn't crumble, but Freddie did. Yeah, sometimes, there is crying in baseball.
Patek's rotten luck would continue. He would lose the ALCS to the Yankees with the Royals again i 1978, then miss the Playoffs in 1979 when the California Angels won the AL West. After the season, he was traded to the Angels. But the next 2 seasons, the Angels didn't make the Playoffs with him, while the Royals made the Playoffs without him, including winning their 1st Pennant in 1980, beating the Yankees. He retired after the 1981 season... and the Angels won the AL West in 1982.
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October 9, 1980: This is one October 9 that did not work out well for the Yankees. In Game 2 of the ALCS, with the Yankees trailing the Royals 3-2 with 2 outs in the top of the 8th inning, George Steinbrenner is caught on live national television jumping out of his seat and shouting what appears to be profanities when Willie Randolph is tagged out at home on a relay throw by George Brett.
The Boss wants 3rd base coach Mike Ferraro fired on the spot, but manager Dick Howser refuses, and the skipper will lose his job when the team is swept in 3 games by the Royals, despite a 1st place finish in the American League East, compiling a 103-59 record, best in the majors that season.
Also on this day, the Calgary Flames make their debut, at home at the Stampede Corral. Having spent the previous 8 seasons as the Atlanta Flames, they play the Quebec Nordiques to a 5-5 tie. Calgary had previously had teams in the old West Coast Hockey League of the 1920s, and the World Hockey Association of the 1970s, but this was the city's 1st NHL game.
In 1983, they moved from the Corral, at 6,450 seats the smallest arena in NHL history, to the Saddledome, built for the 1988 Winter Olympics. They reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1986, won the Cup in 1989, and reached the Finals again in 2004. Their "Battle of Alberta" rivalry with the Edmonton Oilers is as intense as any in the sport.
Now the NHL's 2nd-oldest arena, behind Madison Square Garden, a plan is in place for the Saddledome's replacement, to the north in the Victoria Park area. Construction is currently scheduled to begin in early 2022, in time to open for the 2024-25 season, and for the dome's subsequent demolition.
Also on this day, Henrik Zetterberg (no middle name) is born in Njurunda, Sweden. The left wing starred for the Detroit Red Wings, having made 2 All-Star Teams, and won the 2008 Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe Trophy as Playoff MVP. He also won a Gold Medal with Sweden at the 2006 Winter Olympics.
In 2015, he was awarded the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, named for the 1920s Ottawa Senator and 1930s Toronto Maple Leaf defense legend, and awarded to the player "who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a significant humanitarian contribution to his community." Having been the Wings' Captain since 2013, he retired in 2018 due to a back injury. He will be eligible for the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2021.
October 9, 1981, 40 years ago: The Oakland Athletics beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-1 at the Oakland Coliseum, and complete a 3-game sweep of the strike-forced Division Series for the AL West title. Dave McKay, later to coach on 3 Pennant winners each with the A's and the St. Louis Cardinals under Tony La Russa, hits a home run.
Either the A's or the Royals had won the AL West in every season since 1971, except for 1979 when it was the California Angels. But that included the A's' 1977 crash and their 1980 rebuild.
October 9, 1984: For the 1st time, a World Series game is played in San Diego. It doesn't go so well for the host Padres: Larry Herndon hits a 2-run homer, and Jack Morris goes the distances, as the Tigers win Game 1 3-2 at Jack Murphy Stadium.
October 9, 1988: Game 4 of the National League Championship Series at Shea Stadium. The Mets lead the Los Angeles Dodgers 2 games to 1. This is the 1st time the Mets have entered postseason play against either of the former National League teams from New York, either the former Brooklyn Dodgers or the New York-turned-San Francisco Giants, whose move to California after the 1957 season made the Mets' creation desirable for so many (if not really necessary.)
Dwight Gooden is one out away from giving the Mets a win in Game 4 of the NLCS. If Gooden had simply gotten through the inning allowing less than 2 runs, the Mets would have won, and been up 3 games to 1. They could have won the Pennant without having to go back to Los Angeles. And if the weak-hitting Dodgers could beat the Oakland Athletics in the World Series, surely the Mets could have. (The A's completed a 4-game sweep over the Boston Red Sox the same day, winning the American League Pennant.)
It would have been the Mets' 2nd World Championship in 3 years, and deepened their status as New York's Number 1 team. Keep in mind, the Yankees hadn't won a Pennant in 7 years and a World Series in 10 years -- by their standards, an eternity.
Maybe that hypothetical glorious Mets team would have been kept together. Maybe Gooden and Strawberry don't fall back into drug problems. (Humor me here.) Maybe the Mets find suitable replacements for Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter, both 34 years old, the glue of their 1986 World Champions. Maybe things change so much that the Mets never give the hearts and minds of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans back to the Yankees, and the Yankees never get into position to take them back.
But here's what actually happened. Gooden fulfilled the cliche that walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. He walked John Shelby to lead off the top of the 9th. The next batter was Mike Scioscia, a very good catcher, but not known for his hitting. He hit a home run to tie the game.
The game went to extra innings. Roger McDowell spit the bit (I'm sorry, but the joke was too good to not use), giving up a home run to Kirk Gibson in the 12th inning. Gibson was 1-for-16 in the postseason up until that moment.
Jesse Orosco, who got the clinching outs for the 1986 Pennant and World Series for the Mets, had been traded to the Dodgers, but nearly blew it in the 12th. Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda called Hershiser, who'd won Game 1 and then, given an extra day because of a rainout, pitched 7 innings in Game 3 the day before this, out of the bullpen, to get the last out. He did.
Dodgers 4, Mets 2. Series tied. The Dodgers won the series in Game 7 in Los Angeles.
This was the hinge day in Met history, when it all started to go wrong. It was the 1st major instance of what I've come to call "The Curse of Kevin Mitchell." Maybe, maybe, maybe? Since Scioscia's homer 32 years ago, "maybes" are pretty much all the Mets have had.
The Mets have frequently used the slogan "The Magic Is Back." October 9, 1988 was the day the magic died.
Also on this day, Jackie Milburn dies of lung cancer in his hometown of Ashington, Nothumberland, England. He was 64. The forward remains the most beloved player in the history of English soccer team Newcastle United, having helped them win the FA Cup in 1951, 1952 and 1955 -- and they haven't won it since.
He also served as player-manager for Belfast club Linfield, winning Northern Ireland's league in 1959, and both the Irish League and the Irish Cup in 1960.
October 9, 1989: Televising Game 5 of the NLCS, a 3-2 Giants victory over the Cubs from Candlestick Park, NBC broadcasts its final edition of The Game of the Week. This is the 1st Pennant for the Giants in 27 years.
The next season, CBS's sporadic and less frequent coverage of a regular season weekly game led many to believe the network was really only interested in airing the All-Star Game and post-season contests.
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October 9, 1993: The expansion Florida Panthers, representing the Miami region, play their cross-State rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning, for the 1st time. The Panthers win 2-0 at the ThunderDome (now Tropicana Field) in Tampa.
The attendance is 27,227, then a record for an NHL game. It would stand for 10 years, before the rise of "Heritage Classics,""Stadium Series" and "Winter Classics," but it remains the record for an indoor game. Currently, the record for any NHL game is 105,491, at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, for the 2014 NHL Winter Classic, a 3-2 win for the Toronto Maple Leafs over the host Detroit Red Wings.
October 9, 1996, 25 years ago: Game 1 of the American League Championship Series was scheduled for a 4:00 start, so it wouldn't go on in prime time against the Vice Presidential debate, in St. Petersburg, Florida, between the Democratic incumbent, Vice President Al Gore, and the Republican nominee, Jack Kemp, a former Congressman representing Buffalo, and President George H.W. Bush's Secretary of Housing & Urban Development. Gore was running with President Bill Clinton, Kemp with former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole.
Jack French Kemp -- sometimes called "The Republican JFK," and a darling of the anti-tax wing of the conservative movement -- had also been a quarterback, leading the Buffalo Bills to their only titles, the 1964 and 1965 American Football League Championships. He would often say, "I got 11 concussions in my football career. Nothing left to do, but go into politics!" It was considered funny then. It's not so funny now.
Gore begins the debate by offering Kemp a deal: "If you won't use any football stories, I won't tell any of my warm and humorous stories about chlorofluorocarbon abatement." Kemp: "It's a deal. I can't even pronounce it!"
Kemp had a great sense of humor, based on his reputation as a know-it-all who talked too much. Later in the debate, told he had 90 seconds to answer, he said, "Ninety seconds? I can't even clear my throat in ninety seconds!" He also liked to say (but didn't on this occasion), "People say I'm arrogant, but I know better!"
Most observers felt that Kemp did all right, but that Gore "won," simply by not losing. Clinton and Gore won the election, and Kemp, whom many people were sure would become President one day -- he did run in 1988, but finished 3rd in Republican delegates -- never tried again, and died of cancer in 2009. Although he was 12 years younger, Kemp has now been survived by Dole by 12 years.
Pepperdine University in Malibu, California has established the Jack F. Kemp Institute of Political Economy -- not quite a Presidential Library, but a legacy of which he would probably approve. Oddly, while he did come from Los Angeles, and did go to an L.A.-area school, it wasn't Pepperdine. It was Occidental College, which did produce a President -- Barack Obama, before he transferred to Columbia, graduated from there, and then from Harvard Law. Kemp was on both the football and track teams at "Oxy," and, like a later quarterback, Terry Bradshaw, was an excellent javelin thrower.
Also on this day, Isabella Khair Hadid is born in Washington, D.C., and grows up in Los Angeles. Like her mother Yolanda and her older sister Gigi, Bella Hadid is a major fashion model.
October 9, 1998: The Cleveland Indians beat the Yankees, 6-1, in Game 3 of the ALCS at Jacobs Field. Jim Thome homers twice, Manny Ramirez and Mark Whiten once each. The Indians lead 2 games to 1.
Suddenly, after 114 wins -- 118 wins if the postseason thus far is counted -- the 1998 New York Yankees, already being hailed as one of the greatest teams in history, are in serious, serious trouble of not even making it to the World Series.
The Yankees will not lose a game that counts again until April 5, 1999.
October 9, 1999: The Mets win a postseason series. Stop laughing. They defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks‚ 4-3‚ on backup catcher Todd Pratt's 10th inning homer. Pratt is in the game for starter Mike Piazza‚ who is unable to play because of a thumb injury. John Franco gets the victory in relief for the Mets.
On the same day, the Yankees defeat the Texas Rangers‚ 3-0‚ to sweep the ALDS. Roger Clemens hurls 7 shutout innings for the win‚ as Darryl Strawberry’s 3-run homer in the 1st provides all the runs in the game. This is the 1st time the Yankees and the Mets have both clinched anything on the same day, so it's kind of appropriate that one of the heroes is Darryl, who played for both teams.
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October 9, 2004: The Yankees finish off the Twins with a come-from-behind 6-5 win in 11 innings at the Metrodome, and win their Division Series. Ruben Sierra's 3-run homer ties the game in the 8th inning, and Alex Rodriguez scores the winning run on a wild pitch.
And yet, it will take the Yankees 5 years to win another postseason series. When they do, that one, too, will be against the Twins.
October 9, 2005: At Minute Maid Park, Chris Burke's 18th-inning homer ends the longest postseason game in baseball history to that point, as the Astros defeat the Braves, 7-6, to advance to the NLCS. Atlanta's 5-run lead late in the game is erased with an 8th inning grand slam by Lance Berkman and a 2-out 9th inning solo shot by Brad Ausmus, which barely clears Gold Glove center fielder Andruw Jones' outstretched hand.
When this game ended, I called my grandmother. Sure enough, she likened it to that 16-inning game in Houston in the 1986 NLCS, the Mets winning the Pennant over the Astros in the Astrodome, her favorite game of all time. She would watch the 2005 LCS and World Series and enjoy them. They would be the last baseball games she would ever see.
October 9, 2009: Game 2 of the ALDS. The Yankees trail the Twins 3-1 in the bottom of the 9th, when Alex Rodriguez hits an opposite-field home run to send the game to extra innings -- easily the biggest hit he's ever gotten for the Yankees, or anyone else, to this point.
In the bottom of the 11th, Mark Teixeira, who had never hit a postseason home run before, sends a line drive down the left-field line. It is just barely fair, and just barely over the fence. Yankee broadcaster John Sterling doesn't even have time to go into his usual, "It is high! It is far! It is... " before, as surprised as anyone else, he realizes it's... "Gone! Gone!" Yankees 4, Twins 3. The Yankees take a 2-games-to-none lead in the series as it heads to the Metrodome.
Also on this day, the film The Damned United premieres, based on the novel by David Peace. It is a dramatization of the rivalry between soccer managers Brian Clough, played by Michael Sheen, and Don Revie, played by Star Trek actor Colm Meaney.
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October 9, 2011, 10 years ago: The new Winnipeg Jets, previously the Atlanta Thrashers, end the Manitoba capital's 15-year exile from the NHL, playing their inaugural game at the new MTS Centre (now named Bell MTS Place). Nik Antropov scores their 1st goal, but that's all they get, and the Montreal Canadiens beat them, 5-1.
October 9, 2011, 10 years ago: The new Winnipeg Jets, previously the Atlanta Thrashers, end the Manitoba capital's 15-year exile from the NHL, playing their inaugural game at the new MTS Centre (now named Bell MTS Place). Nik Antropov scores their 1st goal, but that's all they get, and the Montreal Canadiens beat them, 5-1.
October 9, 2018: For the 1st time, in any sport, I attended a major league postseason game. My sister's company has "behind the moat" seats at the new Yankee Stadium, and when the guy who was going to use them for Game 4 of the ALDS against the hated Red Sox had to back out, her boss, who knew she was a nominal Yankee Fan and her brother was a sick, twisted, demented Yankee Fan, offered them to her.
She couldn't go, so she offered them both to me. I mentioned it on Facebook, and took the first yes I got, from a London native turned Brooklyn resident that I met through watching Arsenal games. My sister and mother thought this could have been something, as it was a woman around my age, but no, she's been married before, and says she's "one and done."
The Yankees had to win to force a Game 5 at Fenway Park. Bucky Dent, the against-the-Sox hero of 40 years before, threw out the ceremonial first ball. But that was a bad sign, because he'd also done so before Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, and it didn't work, and it was the end of the Curse of the Bambino.
CC Sabathia gave up 3 runs in the top of the 3rd. The Sox scored another run in the 4th. The Yankees got a run back in the 5th, but it was still 4-1 Boston going to the bottom of the 9th. Aaron Judge led off with a walk against Craig Kimbrel, and Didi Gregorius singled. The good news: The tying run was at the plate. The bad news: It was Giancarlo Stanton. He had 16 runners on base in this series, and he moved a grand total of 3 of them over -- 2 of them on groundouts. He completed his failed series by striking out.
Kimbrel walked Luke Voit to load the bases, and then forced in a run by hitting Neil Walker with a pitch -- probably uninentionally, but with the Red Sox, you never know. Gary Sanchez made it 4-3 with a sacrifice fly. The batter was rookie sensation Gleyber Torres. He grounded to 3rd, but the play at 1st base was close enough for a video review. He was, correctly, ruled out, and the Sox had eliminated the Yankees.
It was a great experience and a great game, with a lousy ending. The Yankees had won 100 games, but walked away with nothing, and were eliminated on their home field by their arch-rivals, who went on to win the World Series. A disgrace.
Manager Aaron Boone was allowed to keep his job, because it was only his 1st season, and by that standard, he had done well. General manager Brian Cashman, who had now failed for the 17th time in 18 seasons, was also allowed to keep his job, because he had sold a lot of tickets and kept the Yankees under the luxury tax threshold. I'm beginning to wonder if the only thing that would get him fired would be, to borrow a saying from politics, getting caught with a dead girl or a live boy.
She couldn't go, so she offered them both to me. I mentioned it on Facebook, and took the first yes I got, from a London native turned Brooklyn resident that I met through watching Arsenal games. My sister and mother thought this could have been something, as it was a woman around my age, but no, she's been married before, and says she's "one and done."
The Yankees had to win to force a Game 5 at Fenway Park. Bucky Dent, the against-the-Sox hero of 40 years before, threw out the ceremonial first ball. But that was a bad sign, because he'd also done so before Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, and it didn't work, and it was the end of the Curse of the Bambino.
CC Sabathia gave up 3 runs in the top of the 3rd. The Sox scored another run in the 4th. The Yankees got a run back in the 5th, but it was still 4-1 Boston going to the bottom of the 9th. Aaron Judge led off with a walk against Craig Kimbrel, and Didi Gregorius singled. The good news: The tying run was at the plate. The bad news: It was Giancarlo Stanton. He had 16 runners on base in this series, and he moved a grand total of 3 of them over -- 2 of them on groundouts. He completed his failed series by striking out.
Kimbrel walked Luke Voit to load the bases, and then forced in a run by hitting Neil Walker with a pitch -- probably uninentionally, but with the Red Sox, you never know. Gary Sanchez made it 4-3 with a sacrifice fly. The batter was rookie sensation Gleyber Torres. He grounded to 3rd, but the play at 1st base was close enough for a video review. He was, correctly, ruled out, and the Sox had eliminated the Yankees.
It was a great experience and a great game, with a lousy ending. The Yankees had won 100 games, but walked away with nothing, and were eliminated on their home field by their arch-rivals, who went on to win the World Series. A disgrace.
Manager Aaron Boone was allowed to keep his job, because it was only his 1st season, and by that standard, he had done well. General manager Brian Cashman, who had now failed for the 17th time in 18 seasons, was also allowed to keep his job, because he had sold a lot of tickets and kept the Yankees under the luxury tax threshold. I'm beginning to wonder if the only thing that would get him fired would be, to borrow a saying from politics, getting caught with a dead girl or a live boy.
October 9, 2042: As he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, this is the earliest date on which disgraced former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky can be released. He would be 98 years old.