October 11, 1946, 75 years ago: Game 5 of the World Series. Leon Culberson hits a home run to back up Joe Dobson, and the Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-3 at Fenway Park. They need 1 more win to take their 1st World Championship in 28 years.
But Indeed, they won't win another World Series game until October 5, 1967, nearly 21 years later, and it will be another 58 years before they get that 4th win.
Also on this day, in one of the rare trades that works out well for both teams, the Yankees trade Joe Gordon, Allie Clark and Ed Bockman to the Cleveland Indians for Allie Reynolds. Gordon, a future Hall-of-Famer, and Clark, a native of South Amboy, New Jersey, would help the Indians win the 1948 World Series.
Dan Daniel, the legendary sports columnist of the New York World-Telegram, will later report that Yankee GM Larry MacPhail and newly-hired manager Bucky Harris originally wanted another Cleveland pitcher, Red Embree. But, Daniel said, Joe DiMaggio advised them to take Reynolds, a part-Cherokee pitcher from Oklahoma, whose record with (perhaps appropriately) the Indians had not been good, but DiMaggio had never been able to hit him well.
The Yankee Clipper guessed well, as "the Superchief" (Yankee broadcaster Mel Allen nicknamed him that not just for his heritage but because his fastball reminded Allen of the Santa Fe Railroad’s fast Chicago-to-Los Angeles train, the Super Chief) began a portion of his career that put him in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park. Had he come along 30 years later, with his fastball and his attitude, he might have been a Hall of Fame closer.
It is around this time that, allegedly, MacPhail and Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey had been drinking (as both men liked to do -- a lot), and wrote out on a cocktail napkin an agreement to trade their biggest stars for each other, Joe DiMaggio for Ted Williams.
At first glance, it looked like a great idea: DiMaggio, a righthanded hitter, hated hitting into Yankee Stadium's left- and center-field "Death Valley," while, at Fenway Park, he would have the nice close left-field wall -- whose advertisements would come down in this off-season, debuting nice and clean and green for 1947, giving rise to the nickname "the Green Monster." In contrast, Williams, hitting to a right field that was 380 feet straightaway at Fenway, would flourish with Yankee Stadium's right field "short porch."
But it wouldn't have been a good trade. DiMaggio wouldn't have been happy in the smaller city of Boston, and he would have forced his brother Dom to move out of center field. He also would have had every bit the trouble with the Boston media that Williams had. And Williams would have been scorched by the press of much bigger New York.
Neither man would have closed his career as well as he actually did: DiMaggio might have outright retired after his 1948 heel spur (at age 34), and Williams might have said the hell with it at the end of his Korean War service in 1953 and retired (at 35).
Why did the trade not happen? Supposedly, in the morning, a sobered-up Yawkey decided that Williams was more valuable than DiMaggio. (Yeah, surrre! Ted was a great hitter, but Joe was nearly as great a hitter and a great fielder.) So he called up MacPhail and demanded a throw-in. A rookie left fielder who could also catch a little. MacPhail refused, and the deal collapsed. The rookie's name was Larry Berra. Yes, Yogi, although the nickname he already had was not yet widely known.
Cliché Alert: The best trades are the trades you don't make.
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October 11, 1535: French explorer Jacques Cartier is the 1st European to sight the bluff overlooking the St. Lawrence River that will one day become the City of Quebec. It became the capital of New France, and eventually the capital of the Province of Quebec, which it remains to this day.
The city was home to the Quebec Bulldogs, Champions of the National Hockey Association and winners of the Stanley Cup in 1912 and 1913; and the Quebec Nordiques, Champions of the World Hockey Association and winners of the Avco Cup in 1977. The Nordiques played in the WHA from 1972 to 1979, and the NHL from 1979 to 1995.
October 11, 1779: Kazimierz Michał Władysław Wiktor Pułaski -- Polish count, American general, friend of Benjamin Franklin, savior of George Washington's life at the Battle of Brandywine, survivor of Valley Forge, Edgar Allan Poe lookalike and all-around badasski -- is killed at the Battle of Savannah in Georgia, during the War of the American Revolution. He was 34, and has been hailed as "The Father of the American Cavalry."
Along with Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko, he is the top hero of Polish-Americans, and Pulaski Day is a holiday in many places with high concentrations of Poles, on the 1st Monday in March (near his birthday, March 6, 1745). Built in 1954, the Pulaski Bridge connects the highly-Polish Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn with Long Island City in Queens, and serves as, roughly, the halfway point in the New York City Marathon, thus giving Casimir Pulaski (as his name is usually listed in America) the thinnest of connections to American sports.
Unfortunately, the better-known bridge is the Pulaski Skyway, the "Black Beast," a 3.5-mile-long steel deck truss cantilever bridge built in 1932, a monstrosity that connects the downtowns of Newark in Essex County and Jersey City in Hudson County, over the New Jersey Turnpike, the Passaic River and the Hackensack River, and recently underwent a major renovation that required half its lanes to be closed, then the other half. At least it's safer to ride on it now -- and to cross under it on the Turnpike.
October 11, 1821, 200 years ago: George Williams (no middle name) is born in Dulverton, Somerset, England. On June 6, 1844 -- exactly 100 years before D-Day -- he founded the Young Men's Christian Association, or YMCA, in London, in the hope that he could provide a place for good young men to visit, so they wouldn't go to the kind of places where they could face temptation. The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) would be added in 1855.
The YMCA and YWCA promoted "Muscular Christianity," combining faith and athleticism. In 1891, Dr. James Naismith, an instructor at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, produced the greatest success of this movement, inventing basketball.
Williams was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1894, and lived until 1905. In 1926, Sir George Williams University was founded in Montreal. In 1974, this Protestant school was merged with the Catholic Loyola University to form the non-sectarian Concordia University.
Of course, Sir George couldn't have foreseen that, in 1978, a music group called The Village People would record a song titled "Y.M.C.A.," and make it a song about gay cruising. Or that, in 1996, a baseball team called the New York Yankees would play that song while the grounds crew tended to the infield, and would then drop their implements and form the letters along with the crowd.
October 11, 1896, 125 years ago: George Preston Marshall is born in Grafton, West Virginia, not far from Washington, D.C. He inherited the Palace Laundry chain from his father, and used its employees -- or, rather, found ringers to work at the laundromats -- to found his 1st professional sports team, the Washington Palace Five, an early pro basketball team. It only lasted until 1928, but it wet his whistle for competitive sports.
In 1932, he was awarded the rights to an NFL team in Boston. Like a lot of early pro football teams, he named it after the baseball team with whom he shared a home field: The Boston Braves. In 1933, he bought his partners out, and moved the team to Fenway Park.
The Red Sox wouldn't let him have a team called the Braves playing in their park. He decided it would cost less to change the name, and thus his stationery, than to change the Indian logos on the uniforms -- as a laundryman, he would have known this -- and made them the Redskins, sounding a bit like Red Sox. Unfortunately, choosing one Native American name, then another, would not be the most racist thing he ever did.
In 1936, the Redskins won the NFL Eastern Division for the 1st time, but the crowds they were getting were pitiful. Since it was an even-numbered year, and thus, under the rules of the time, it was the Eastern Division titlists' turn to host the NFL Championship Game, Marshall asked for, and received, permission to move the game to the Polo Grounds in New York. The Redskins lost to the Green Bay Packers, but the game got 29,545 fans -- barely half-filling the old Harlem Horseshoe, but about twice what Marshall was getting at Fenway.
With that in mind, Marshall asked for, and received, permission to move the team to his hometown for the 1937 season. The Washington Redskins were an immediate hit in the Nation's Capital, and, led by Sammy Baugh, they beat the Chicago Bears for the NFL Championship. To this day, Baugh is the only rookie quarterback to lead his team to an NFL Championship, counting Super Bowls. The Redskins would reach the title game again in 1940 (losing to the Bears), 1942 (beating them), 1943 (losing to them) and 1945 (losing to the Cleveland Rams).
Like Clark Griffith, owner of the Washington Senators and thus his landlord at Griffith Stadium, he enjoyed the annual picture-posing with the President -- in his case, a picture showing him and the Commissioner handing the commander-in-chief his annual pass to all NFL home games, rather than posing with the opposing manager as the Prez threw out the ceremonial first ball on Opening Day.
He was married to Academy Award-nominated actress Louise Griffith -- no relation to Clark, but she did introduce Commissioner Bert Bell and Packers owner-coach Curly Lambeau to their wives, who were actress friends of hers. But the Marshalls' marriage broke up: Louise called George "the Marshall without a plan." Indeed, after World War II, the Redskins stunk for a generation.
A big reason why was their refusal to racially integrate. Indeed, within the 3 major U.S.-based sports leagues, the last team to bring in black players was the Redskins. Whether this was because he was personally racist, or because he was trying to protect his financial interests -- as the Southernmost team in the NFL, he built a radio and TV network to broadcast Redskin games in the South -- only he knew for sure. But he was bad enough to pander to said interests, frequently publicly saying, "We'll start signing Negroes when the Harlem Globetrotters start signing whites."
This was an untenable situation as Washington, D.C. became a majority-black city after World War II. When Clark Griffith died in 1955, his son Calvin moved the Senators to Minnesota, choosing it because he'd heard it had so few black people. Washington Post sportswriting titan Shirley Povich liked to write that, upon scoring a touchdown, Jim Brown "integrated the end zone," and that a black player who scored a go-ahead touchdown made the score "separate but unequal."
Griffith Stadium held only 27,000 for baseball, 35,000 with added bleachers for football. In 1961, the new District of Columbia Stadium opened, built and operated on D.C. Armory land by the federal government, specifically the U.S. Department of the Interior. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Interior Secretary Stewart Udall told Marshall that unless he signed a black player, the Redskins would not be allowed to use the new stadium. President John F. Kennedy refused to contradict his Cabinet members, one of them, of course, being his brother.
Marshall needed those 56,000 seats. Showing that he loved greenbacks more than he hated blacks, he decided that he couldn't take the chance that the Kennedy brothers and Udall were bluffing. He caved, and drafted Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis. Thinking them a racist organization, Davis refused to play for the Redskins, so Marshall traded his rights to the Cleveland Browns for flanker Bobby Mitchell, and he became the 1st black Redskin in 1962.
A year later, Marshall was a charter inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame -- probably due to the influence of his friends, Lambeau and Chicago Bears owner-coach George Halas. Later that year, he suffered a stroke, and his influence over the Redskins was over. General manager Bill McPeak built the team up, and by 1969 -- the year Marshall died and the stadium was renamed for RFK -- they were contenders again. They would make the Super Bowl in 1972 and then 4 times from 1982 to 1991.
The Redskins have mostly been terrible since 1997, when team owner Jack Kent Cooke died, his son sold the team to Daniel Snyder, and the team moved out to the suburbs of Landover, Maryland. Both competitively and morally, they have been an embarrassment. In 2020, Snyder finally bowed to pressure, and dropped the Redskins name. They are operating as "The Washington Football Team," and will select a new name for the 2022 season.
By that point, RFK Stadium will be demolished, with a new stadium for the team to be built on the site. The former home of the Redskins, the "new Washington Senators," and soccer's Washington Diplomats and D.C. United has, barely, outlived the Redskin name.
October 11, 1897: The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Beaneaters 9-3, to win the Temple Cup. However, the Beaneaters had already won the National League Pennant, ending the Orioles' streak of 3 straight. With the Pennant meaning more to most fans than the Cup, the crowd is so small that the Baltimore front office refuses to give the exact number to the newspapers. The Temple Cup is never competed for again, for it is seen as virtually meaningless.
Also on this day, Rolland Franklin Williams is born in Edgerton, Wisconsin, outside Madison. Rollie Williams played baseball, football and basketball at the University of Wisconsin, and stayed in his home State to play for the NFL's Racine Legion in 1923.
He later coached basketball for 16 seasons at the University of Iowa, and was elected to the Wisconsin Sports Hall of Fame. He died in 1968.
October 11, 1898: The Boston Beaneaters beat the Washington Nationals 8-2 in Washington, and win their 2nd straight National League Pennant -- their 5th in the last 8 years, their 8th overall, and their 12th if you count their days as the Boston Red Stockings of the National Association.
Future Hall-of-Famers on the 1898 Beaneaters include outfielders Hugh Duffy and Billy Hamilton, 3rd baseman Jimmy Collins, pitchers Kid Nichols and Vic Willis, and manager Frank Selee.
For the team that will, by 1912, be known as the Boston Braves, this is the end of a golden age. They had finished 1st in their League 12 times in their 1st 28 seasons, effectively dominating professional baseball the way no team would again until the Yankees started winning Pennants in 1921. But in their last 54 seasons, they would win just 2 more Pennants.
But at least they would still exist, and still do, if not in the same city (they're in the suburbs of Atlanta now). The Nationals would be contracted out of existence after the 1899 season, opening the door to a new team called the Washington Senators in the American League in 1901. Today's Washington team in the NL has no connection to the earlier one except for the name "Washington Nationals."
The last survivor of the Beaneaters' 1890s dynasty was Duffy, who played all 3 outfield positions, and who lived on until 1954, spending the last few years of his life still involved in Boston baseball, as an executive with the Red Sox.
October 11, 1899: The South African Republic declares war on the United Kingdom, which had refused to withdraw its troops from the nation, beginning the Second Boer War. "Boer" is the Dutch word for "farmer," and South Africans used it to describe the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape Frontier. They developed a local variant of the Dutch language, calling it Afrikaans, and used "Boer" for "farmer" as well. (It was similar to the later term "Habitantes" for farmers in Quebec, which got the Montreal Canadiens nicknamed "Les Habitantes" or "The Habs.")
It was a nasty war, with the Boers using guerrilla tactics, but, within 2 1/2 years, the British had won. By 1910, South Africa had been consolidated as a commonwealth within the British Empire. People of Dutch descent are still much more common in South Africa than they are in America, where the British also took territory from the Dutch.
Britain's influence on South Africa can be seen in that nation's success in the sports of cricket and rugby, at both of which it remains a world power. It has been less successful in soccer, mainly because, until the all-races government was established in 1994, soccer was seen as a black man's sport, while cricket and rugby were seen as white men's sports. As long as apartheid was in place, countries that played South Africa's cricket or rugby teams (the latter known as the Springboks) were also considered pariahs in world sport.
The President of South Africa at the time was Paul Kruger, who remained a popular figure in the country. In 1967, the country's mint began producing gold coins of their currency, the rand, with his picture on it. The "Krugerrand" became the most popular gold coin in the world.
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October 11, 1897: The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Beaneaters 9-3, to win the Temple Cup. However, the Beaneaters had already won the National League Pennant, ending the Orioles' streak of 3 straight. With the Pennant meaning more to most fans than the Cup, the crowd is so small that the Baltimore front office refuses to give the exact number to the newspapers. The Temple Cup is never competed for again, for it is seen as virtually meaningless.
Also on this day, Rolland Franklin Williams is born in Edgerton, Wisconsin, outside Madison. Rollie Williams played baseball, football and basketball at the University of Wisconsin, and stayed in his home State to play for the NFL's Racine Legion in 1923.
He later coached basketball for 16 seasons at the University of Iowa, and was elected to the Wisconsin Sports Hall of Fame. He died in 1968.
October 11, 1898: The Boston Beaneaters beat the Washington Nationals 8-2 in Washington, and win their 2nd straight National League Pennant -- their 5th in the last 8 years, their 8th overall, and their 12th if you count their days as the Boston Red Stockings of the National Association.
Future Hall-of-Famers on the 1898 Beaneaters include outfielders Hugh Duffy and Billy Hamilton, 3rd baseman Jimmy Collins, pitchers Kid Nichols and Vic Willis, and manager Frank Selee.
For the team that will, by 1912, be known as the Boston Braves, this is the end of a golden age. They had finished 1st in their League 12 times in their 1st 28 seasons, effectively dominating professional baseball the way no team would again until the Yankees started winning Pennants in 1921. But in their last 54 seasons, they would win just 2 more Pennants.
But at least they would still exist, and still do, if not in the same city (they're in the suburbs of Atlanta now). The Nationals would be contracted out of existence after the 1899 season, opening the door to a new team called the Washington Senators in the American League in 1901. Today's Washington team in the NL has no connection to the earlier one except for the name "Washington Nationals."
The last survivor of the Beaneaters' 1890s dynasty was Duffy, who played all 3 outfield positions, and who lived on until 1954, spending the last few years of his life still involved in Boston baseball, as an executive with the Red Sox.
October 11, 1899: The South African Republic declares war on the United Kingdom, which had refused to withdraw its troops from the nation, beginning the Second Boer War. "Boer" is the Dutch word for "farmer," and South Africans used it to describe the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape Frontier. They developed a local variant of the Dutch language, calling it Afrikaans, and used "Boer" for "farmer" as well. (It was similar to the later term "Habitantes" for farmers in Quebec, which got the Montreal Canadiens nicknamed "Les Habitantes" or "The Habs.")
It was a nasty war, with the Boers using guerrilla tactics, but, within 2 1/2 years, the British had won. By 1910, South Africa had been consolidated as a commonwealth within the British Empire. People of Dutch descent are still much more common in South Africa than they are in America, where the British also took territory from the Dutch.
Britain's influence on South Africa can be seen in that nation's success in the sports of cricket and rugby, at both of which it remains a world power. It has been less successful in soccer, mainly because, until the all-races government was established in 1994, soccer was seen as a black man's sport, while cricket and rugby were seen as white men's sports. As long as apartheid was in place, countries that played South Africa's cricket or rugby teams (the latter known as the Springboks) were also considered pariahs in world sport.
The President of South Africa at the time was Paul Kruger, who remained a popular figure in the country. In 1967, the country's mint began producing gold coins of their currency, the rand, with his picture on it. The "Krugerrand" became the most popular gold coin in the world.
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October 11, 1905: Frederick Christ Trump is born in The Bronx. And that middle name is pronounced "Krisst," not "Krighst," like Jesus.
On May 30, 1927, the Ku Klux Klan held a Memorial Day march in Queens, to protest "Protestant American citizens being assaulted by Roman Catholic police of New York City." At the time, especially in the North, the KKK was more concerned with hating Catholics than with hating black people. Among the 7 "berobed marchers" mentioned in the Long Island Daily Press as having been arrested was Fred Trump, then a 21-year-old house-builder living in the Queens neighborhood of Woodhaven.
In 1936, he married Mary Anne MacLeod -- herself an immigrant, from Scotland, just as Trump's father had been an immigrant from Germany, although both were Protestant. They ended up having 5 children, including a son named Donald John Trump in 1946.
In 1950, among the apartment buildings he'd built and run was one in Brooklyn, where one of his tenants was folksinging legend Woody Guthrie. Woody wrote and recorded a song titled "Old Man Trump" -- Fred was 44, Woody was 37:
I suppose that Old Man Trump knows just how much racial hate
He stirred up in that bloodpot of human hearts
When he drawed that color line
Here at his Beach Haven family project.
Beach Haven ain't my home!
No, I just can't pay this rent!
My money's down the drain,
And my soul is badly bent!
Beach Haven is Trump’s Tower
Where no black folks come to roam,
No, no, Old Man Trump!
Old Beach Haven ain't my home!
Donald Trump learned many things from his father. In 1973, Fred and Donald, then 68 and 27, respectively, were investigated by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice for racist renting practices in the apartment buildings they'd built and run. In other words, they were officially too bigoted for Richard Nixon.
The case was settled 2 years later, with the Trumps caving in, but not publicly admitting to having done so. So there's another lesson Donald learned from his daddy: Even if you get caught doing something bad, never admit that you did something bad.
One thing Donald learned from a source other than his father was to think big. He was actually ashamed that his father had never "graduated" from building in Brooklyn and Queens to doing so in Manhattan. So Donald did. Fred still gave Donald loans totaling $413 million, which Donald later claimed was "only" $1 million.
Fred died of Alzheimer's disease on June 25, 1999. In 2015, having begun a campaign for President, Donald was asked about his father's KKK arrest in 1927. Donald lied, saying his father was not arrested. There's another thing Fred never taught his son: If you're going to tell a lie, make it one that's not so easy to prove.
I suppose that Old Man Trump knows just how much racial hate
He stirred up in that bloodpot of human hearts
When he drawed that color line
Here at his Beach Haven family project.
Beach Haven ain't my home!
No, I just can't pay this rent!
My money's down the drain,
And my soul is badly bent!
Beach Haven is Trump’s Tower
Where no black folks come to roam,
No, no, Old Man Trump!
Old Beach Haven ain't my home!
Donald Trump learned many things from his father. In 1973, Fred and Donald, then 68 and 27, respectively, were investigated by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice for racist renting practices in the apartment buildings they'd built and run. In other words, they were officially too bigoted for Richard Nixon.
The case was settled 2 years later, with the Trumps caving in, but not publicly admitting to having done so. So there's another lesson Donald learned from his daddy: Even if you get caught doing something bad, never admit that you did something bad.
One thing Donald learned from a source other than his father was to think big. He was actually ashamed that his father had never "graduated" from building in Brooklyn and Queens to doing so in Manhattan. So Donald did. Fred still gave Donald loans totaling $413 million, which Donald later claimed was "only" $1 million.
Fred died of Alzheimer's disease on June 25, 1999. In 2015, having begun a campaign for President, Donald was asked about his father's KKK arrest in 1927. Donald lied, saying his father was not arrested. There's another thing Fred never taught his son: If you're going to tell a lie, make it one that's not so easy to prove.
Or, to put it another way: The Trumps lived in Jamaica, one neighborhood over from South Jamaica, where the Cuomo family lived -- and also the Darton family, which produced my grandmother, known as an adult as Grace Golden. Mario Cuomo taught his children that it is a good thing to serve the public. Fred Trump taught his children that it is a good thing to make the public serve you. Both sets of children listened.
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October 11, 1911, 110 years ago: Bernard Hickman is born in Central City, Kentucky. He was the head baketball coach at the University of Louisville from 1944 to 1967, guiding them to their 1st NCAA Final Four in 1959. His coaching record was 443-183. He also sserved as athletic director from 1944 to 1973. He was elected to the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame, and died in 2000.
October 11, 1913: New York Giants manager John McGraw loses his 3rd straight World Series – something that, over a century later, no other team, let alone manager, has done since, although his former Orioles teammate, Hughie Jennings, did it with the 1907-08-09 Detroit Tigers.
In Game 5‚ Christy Mathewson is good‚ but his fellow future Hall-of-Famer Eddie Plank is better: His 2-hitter wins the 3-1 finale. Plank retires the 1st 13 batters‚ bettering the mark of 12 set by the Cubs' Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown on October 9‚ 1906. It is the A's' 3rd title, all in the last 4 years.
This turns out to be the last postseason appearance for Mathewson, who, at this point, is identified with the World Series as much as anyone, even though his team is only 1-for-4 in them.
The last survivor of the 1913 A's was Amos Strunk, who lived until 1979. He was also the last survivor of the A's' 1910 and 1911 World Champions, and of the 1st game played at their Shibe Park, on April 12, 1909. When the Phillies were closing the park, renamed Connie Mack Stadium, in 1970, they discovered that he was the last survivor of the 1st game, 61 years earlier, and invited him. Despite living just 8 miles away in Haverford, he sent back a letter angrily saying he wanted nothing to do with the place. Apparently, he still held a grudge against Mack for some reason. He was also a member of the 1918 World Champion Boston Red Sox.
In Game 5‚ Christy Mathewson is good‚ but his fellow future Hall-of-Famer Eddie Plank is better: His 2-hitter wins the 3-1 finale. Plank retires the 1st 13 batters‚ bettering the mark of 12 set by the Cubs' Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown on October 9‚ 1906. It is the A's' 3rd title, all in the last 4 years.
This turns out to be the last postseason appearance for Mathewson, who, at this point, is identified with the World Series as much as anyone, even though his team is only 1-for-4 in them.
The last survivor of the 1913 A's was Amos Strunk, who lived until 1979. He was also the last survivor of the A's' 1910 and 1911 World Champions, and of the 1st game played at their Shibe Park, on April 12, 1909. When the Phillies were closing the park, renamed Connie Mack Stadium, in 1970, they discovered that he was the last survivor of the 1st game, 61 years earlier, and invited him. Despite living just 8 miles away in Haverford, he sent back a letter angrily saying he wanted nothing to do with the place. Apparently, he still held a grudge against Mack for some reason. He was also a member of the 1918 World Champion Boston Red Sox.
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October 11, 1921, 100 years ago: Game 6 of the World Series. Emil Meusel, brother of the Yankees' Bob and known as "Irish" even though the family is German, hits a home run for the Giants. So does Frank Synder, and the Giants beat the Yankees 8-5, and tie the Series at 3 wins apiece.
Since this is the last best-5-out-of-9 World Series, Game 7 will not decide it. But it will go a long way toward deciding it.
Also on this day, Grant David Warwick is born in Regina, Saskatchewan. A right wing, he won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year in 1942, with the New York Rangers. In 1947, he was selected to play in the NHL's 1st official All-Star Game. He later played for the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens, and lived until 1999.
His brothers Bill and Dick also played pro hockey, although Bill only played 14 NHL games, and Dick didn't make it to the majors at all. But Bill was good enough in minor-league hockey to join his brother Grant in the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, John Anderson (no middle name) is born in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. A winger, he helped hometown club Manchester United win the 1948 FA Cup. He died in 2006.
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October 11, 1931, 90 years ago: Gary Nelson Blaylock is born in Clarkton, in the "Bootheel" of Missouri. A pitcher, he was only in the major leagues in the 1959 season, starting with the St. Louis Cardinals, and ending with the Yankees, finishing 4-6 with a 4.80 ERA.
In 1963, he became a pitching instructor in the Yankees' farm system, and then in the Kansas City Royals' organization in 1971. He was the Royals' pitching coach from 1984 to 1987, earning a World Series ring in 1985. He is still alive.
October 11, 1936: The Cleveland Rams play their 1st game, defeating the Syracuse Braves 26-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. They played that season in the 2nd league to be named the American Football League. It folded after the next season, and the Rams joined the NFL.
They won the NFL Championship in 1945, but got so few fans that they moved to Los Angeles the next year. They were replaced by the Browns, who became much more successful. The Rams moved to St. Louis in 1995, and back to Los Angeles in 2016.
October 11, 1937: Robert Charlton (no middle name) is born in Ashington, Northumberland, England. A cousin of Newcastle United legend Jackie Milburn, it was Manchester United that took an interest in the young forward.
He became one of manager Matt Busby's "Busby Babes" that won the English Football League in 1957. (They also won the League in 1956, but Charlton did not make his senior debut until the 1956-57 season. We just passed the 60th Anniversary of that game, in which he scored 2 goals in a 4-2 United over, ironically, the South London team known as Charlton Athletic.) They nearly became the 1st team in the 20th Century to "do The Double," but they lost the 1957 FA Cup Final in controversial fashion to Birmingham club Aston Villa.
In 1958, they advanced to the Semifinal of the European Cup, beating Red Star Belgrade in the Quarterfinal. But on their way back, their plane crashed after takeoff following a refueling stop in Munich, Germany, ending the would-be dynasty. Of the 44 people on board, 23 died. There were 17 people connected with the club on board, and 8 players died, while 2 others were so badly hurt that they never played again.
Busby himself was badly hurt, and would not return to the team until the next season started. Bobby survived with minor injuries, and recovered in time to play in the FA Cup Final, which a weakened United lost to Bolton Wanderers.
Busby himself was badly hurt, and would not return to the team until the next season started. Bobby survived with minor injuries, and recovered in time to play in the FA Cup Final, which a weakened United lost to Bolton Wanderers.
By 1963, United were still not doing well in he League, but they won the FA Cup, beating Leicester City in the Final. In 1965, Bobby, Scotsman Denis Law and Northern Irishman George Best had become "United's Holy Trinity," and they won the League title. They won it again in 1967, and became the 1st English team to win the European Cup, defeating Benfica of Lisbon, Portugal in the Final. (Celtic, of Glasgow, Scotland, were the 1st British team to win it, the year before.)
He was selected for England in the 1958 World Cup, but didn't play. Many Englishmen believe that the Munich Air Disaster prevented England from winning the World Cup in 1958 and 1962, forgetting that Brazil would have wrecked them as they wrecked everybody else. Bobby did play in 1962, and in 1966 was joined by his brother Jack, who starred for Leeds United (and later famously managed the Republic of Ireland national team), and his Man United teammate Nobby Stiles. England won on home soil, with Bobby scoring twice in the Semifinal against Portugal, and then winning the Final over West Germany.
Bobby won 2 Golden Balls in 1966: As outstanding player of the World Cup, and the Ballon d'Or as world player of the year. He continued to play for Man United through 1973, scoring 249 goals. His receding hairline earned him the nickname "Captain Combover," before he finally accepted reality and went fully bald. He played for England again in the 1970 World Cup, and became the national side's all-time leading scorer, a record recently broken by later Man United player (and fellow victim of hair loss) Wayne Rooney.
He was knighted for his service to sport and country, and remains one of the most beloved figures in the history of soccer, possibly England's greatest player ever -- or, at least, one of the top two, alongside his 1966 Captain, West Ham United defender Bobby Moore. For fans not old enough to have seen Milburn, or 1930s Everton star Dixie Dean, he remains England's definitive Number 9. And, unlike many other attacking players for Man U, he was never once accused of diving to win a penalty.
October 11, 1939: President Franklin D. Roosevelt is presented with the Einstein-Szilárd Letter. Written by Hungarian physicist Leó Szilárd, and co-signed by German physicist Albert Einstein, both Jews opposed to Nazi Germany, it set out to warn the President about the possibility of a bomb using nuclear energy, and the dangers of the Nazis building one before America could.
FDR took it seriously: He responded by setting up the Manhattan Project, with the idea of beating the Nazis to it. He did, although he didn't live to see it. It would be his successor, Harry Truman, who would use the 1st 2 atomic bombs of warfare -- and not on Germany, which had already surrendered by that point, but on Japan.
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October 11, 1941, 80 years ago: Joseph Auer (no middle name) is born in Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey. a running back, he helped the Buffalo Bills win the American Football League Championship in 1964 and 1965, still the only times the Bills have gone as far as the rules have allowed them to go. (These would be the last 2 AFL Championships before the AFL-NFL merger began, allowing the AFL Champion to face the NFL Champion in what became known as the Super Bowl.)
In 1966, he was taken in the expansion draft by the Miami Dolphins. He scored the 1st touchdown in franchise history, and was named the team's Most Valuable Player that season. He only played 1 season in the NFL, with the 1968 Atlanta Falcons. He later became a race car designer. He died on March 9, 2019.
October 11, 1942: Inquilaab Srivastava is born in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. The world knows him as Amitabh Bachchan -- or just by his first name. I had never heard of him until around 2005 or so, when I started seeing his picture on ads for India-based satellite TV networks, at the train stations in Edison, Metuchen and Woodbridge (Metropark) – all towns with large Indian communities.
"The Big B" became known as Bollywood's "Angry Young Man," and by the early 1980s, no less a director than France's Francois Truffaut called him "a one-man industry." He also served 3 years in India's parliament, before resigning in disgust at politics. He was also the 1st host of the Indian version of the TV game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
His father Harivansh Rai Bachchan was a famous Hindi-language poet. Amitabh is married to Jaya Badhuri, also an esteemed film star. Their son is Abishek Bachchan, ditto. Abishek's wife is Aishwarya Rai, a beloved actress who has been called the most beautiful woman in the world. In other words, it is as if Marlon Brando, Robert Redford and Regis Philbin were all the same man, and his father was Robert Frost, and he was married to Diane Keaton, and their son was George Clooney, and he was married to Julia Roberts (in real life, not just onscreen).
It was not until 2013 that Amitabh made his 1st appearance in an American film, as gambler Meyer Wolfsheim, the stand-in for World Series fixer Arnold Rothstein, in the Leonardo DiCaprio version of The Great Gatsby.
October 11, 1943: The Yankees defeat the Cardinals, 2-0 at Sportsman's Park, to take Game 5 and the World Series. It is the Yankees' 10th World Championship. It will be 2006, and the Cardinals themselves, before another team wins a 10th World Series.
Bloomfield, New Jersey native Hank Borowy was the last surviving player from the Yankees' 1943 World Champions, living until 2004.
October 11, 1946, 75 years ago: Kenneth Scott Cooper is born in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. A goalkeeper, he reached his hometown team, Blackpool FC, in the 1969-70 season, but didn't get into a League game. He spent the entire decade of the 1970s in America, playing for the Dallas Tornado, winning the 1971 North American Soccer League Championship, and also reaching the NASL Final (they didn't yet call it the "Soccer Bowl") in 1973.
He later coached in the Major Indoor Soccer League, leading the Baltimore Blast to the 1984 title, and winning MISL Coach of the Year in 1984 and 1988. His last coaching job was in 1996 with the Tampa Bay Terror. He now runs a wine import business.
His son, Kenny Cooper Jr., mirrored his father's career, having signed for Manchester United but never getting into a game for them, and then starring in America, including for the successor team to his father's, FC Dallas. He also played for the New York Red Bulls in the 2012 season, but retired after the 2015 season due to injury.
Also on this day, Daryl Franklin Hohl is born outside Philadelphia in Pottstown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and grows up in nearby Bucktown, Chester County. At Temple University in Philadelphia, he worked with rising songwriters and producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, and met singer John Oates. Changing his name to Daryl Hall, they became Hall & Oates. They are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
October 11, 1947: Thomas M. Boswell (I don't have a record of what the M. stands for) is born in Washington, D.C. The longtime columnist for the Washington Post helped keep alive the flame of baseball fandom in the Nation's Capital, never ceasing in his belief that the city needed to get Major League Baseball back after Bob Short moved the Senators to Texas in 1971.
He spoke nobly in Ken Burns' Baseball miniseries about Senators legend Walter Johnson: "We live in a disposable society, but we don't dispose of Babe Ruth, we don't dispose of Walter Johnson, and we treat these men as family, and as contemporaries though they are dead." He also spoke poignantly in it about the fall of Pete Rose: "We want our heroes to be good at life... (Pete) fooled me completely."
However, his job also led him to cover the team then closest to D.C., and that was the Baltimore Orioles (which led Burns to ask him about O’s manager Earl Weaver). Covering the Orioles allowed Boswell to become part of the propaganda machine for Cal Ripken.
His books include Why Time Begins On Opening Day, and How Life Imitates the World Series. The former book is sunny and optimistic, like Opening Day itself; the latter is more serious, suggesting the pressure that comes with October play.
Also on this day, Daryl Franklin Hohl is born outside Philadelphia in Pottstown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and grows up in nearby Bucktown, Chester County. At Temple University in Philadelphia, he worked with rising songwriters and producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, and met singer John Oates. Changing his name to Daryl Hall, they became Hall & Oates. They are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
October 11, 1947: Thomas M. Boswell (I don't have a record of what the M. stands for) is born in Washington, D.C. The longtime columnist for the Washington Post helped keep alive the flame of baseball fandom in the Nation's Capital, never ceasing in his belief that the city needed to get Major League Baseball back after Bob Short moved the Senators to Texas in 1971.
He spoke nobly in Ken Burns' Baseball miniseries about Senators legend Walter Johnson: "We live in a disposable society, but we don't dispose of Babe Ruth, we don't dispose of Walter Johnson, and we treat these men as family, and as contemporaries though they are dead." He also spoke poignantly in it about the fall of Pete Rose: "We want our heroes to be good at life... (Pete) fooled me completely."
However, his job also led him to cover the team then closest to D.C., and that was the Baltimore Orioles (which led Burns to ask him about O’s manager Earl Weaver). Covering the Orioles allowed Boswell to become part of the propaganda machine for Cal Ripken.
His books include Why Time Begins On Opening Day, and How Life Imitates the World Series. The former book is sunny and optimistic, like Opening Day itself; the latter is more serious, suggesting the pressure that comes with October play.
October 11, 1948: The Cleveland Indians defeat the Boston Braves behind "rookie" 30-year-old knuckleballer Gene Bearden, 4-3 at Braves Field, and take Game 6 and win the World Series. It is their 2nd title, the 1st coming in 1920.
Larry Doby and Satchel Paige thus become the 1st black players to play on a World Series winner. And Lou Boudreau, age 31, both shortstop and manager, becomes the last player-manager to win a World Series, or even a Pennant.
The Indians have never won another World Series. They have had some close calls, some of them truly agonizing. But at least they're still in Cleveland, despite a number of fears of having to move in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. In contrast, despite all their success in the 19th Century and winning Pennants in 1914 and 1948, that 1948 World Series Game 6 was the last late-season meaningful game the Boston franchise of the National League would ever play. The Braves would be in Milwaukee by the next time they reached the Series, in 1957.
The Indians' Eddie Robinson, who died a week ago at age 100, was the last surviving player from the 1948 World Series. Clint Conatser was the last survivor of the '48 Braves, dying in 2019, at 98.
October 11, 1949: Channel 9 goes on the air in New York. It was then owned by R.H. Macy & Co., the department store chain, and had the call letters WOR. From 1950 to 1957, they broadcast Brooklyn Dodgers games. From the Mets' debut in 1962 until 1998, they, too would be on Channel 9.
They would also broadcast the New York Knicks from 1964 to 1989, the New York Rangers from 1965 to 1989, the New York Islanders from their 1972 inception until 1985, and the New York/New Jersey Nets from 1973 to 1992 -- frequently on tape delay at 11:30 PM.
The station would broadcast reruns of old sitcoms, and lots and lots of movies. For a long time, they broadcast The Million Dollar Movie, opening with grainy scenes of New York at night and the theme from Gone with the Wind.
On April 29, 1987, the formerly independent station was bought by MCA, who slightly changed the call letters to WWOR. On January 16, 1995, it became the flagship station of the United Paramount Network (UPN), and its 1st show was Star Trek: Voyager. On September 15, 2006, UPN and the Warner Brothers Network (The WB) merged, and WWOR became part of MyNetwork, known as "My-9."
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They would also broadcast the New York Knicks from 1964 to 1989, the New York Rangers from 1965 to 1989, the New York Islanders from their 1972 inception until 1985, and the New York/New Jersey Nets from 1973 to 1992 -- frequently on tape delay at 11:30 PM.
The station would broadcast reruns of old sitcoms, and lots and lots of movies. For a long time, they broadcast The Million Dollar Movie, opening with grainy scenes of New York at night and the theme from Gone with the Wind.
On April 29, 1987, the formerly independent station was bought by MCA, who slightly changed the call letters to WWOR. On January 16, 1995, it became the flagship station of the United Paramount Network (UPN), and its 1st show was Star Trek: Voyager. On September 15, 2006, UPN and the Warner Brothers Network (The WB) merged, and WWOR became part of MyNetwork, known as "My-9."
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October 11, 1951, 70 years ago: Jon Wesley Miller is born in Novato, California, and grows up in nearby Hayward, as a fan of the San Francisco Giants. In 1974, he got his 1st professional broadcasting job, with the World Champions on the other side of San Francisco Bay, the Oakland Athletics.
He would join the broadcast teams of the Texas Rangers in 1978, the Boston Red Sox in 1980, and the Baltimore Orioles in 1983. It was with the Orioles -- who, conveniently for him, share the Giants' colors of black and orange -- that he attracted the attention of federal government workers, and journalists who cover them, in the Washington, D.C. area, who had to go up to Baltimore if they wanted to see Major League Baseball during their city's 1972-2004 interregnum.
He became known for his clear voice, his attention to detail over the radio, and his impressions of other broadcasters. He also tended to wear Hawaiian shirts, cargo shorts and flip-flops, and, had he worn bifocals, would have been a dead ringer for Ben Franklin wearing that stuff. Thank God he was on radio, not TV!
But he was so good, ESPN hired him to anchor Sunday Night Baseball in 1990. His hometown Giants lured him back in 1997, and he's still there, having given up the ESPN gig after the 2010 season, when the Giants finally won their 1st World Series in San Francisco.
That same year, the Baseball Hall of Fame gave him their Ford Frick Award, tantamount to election for broadcasters. Good thing you don't need to be retired to get it, unlike players or managers, and fans can still hear him. He is the best in the business -- even better than Vin Scully, of whom he does a near-flawless impression. (His Phil Rizzuto needs work, though.) He is also a member of the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.
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October 11, 1961, 60 years ago: Jon Steven Young is born in Salt Lake City, Utah, but grows up in the New York Tri-State Area, in Greenwich, Connecticut. A great-great-great-grandson of Mormon leader Brigham Young, Steve Young quarterbacked the university named for his ancestor, before being signed by the Los Angeles Express of the United States Football League to one of the most ridiculous contracts ever negotiated. As punishment, he had to play for the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers after the Express folded, and was stuck as Joe Montana's backup on the San Francisco 49ers after that.
He would join the broadcast teams of the Texas Rangers in 1978, the Boston Red Sox in 1980, and the Baltimore Orioles in 1983. It was with the Orioles -- who, conveniently for him, share the Giants' colors of black and orange -- that he attracted the attention of federal government workers, and journalists who cover them, in the Washington, D.C. area, who had to go up to Baltimore if they wanted to see Major League Baseball during their city's 1972-2004 interregnum.
He became known for his clear voice, his attention to detail over the radio, and his impressions of other broadcasters. He also tended to wear Hawaiian shirts, cargo shorts and flip-flops, and, had he worn bifocals, would have been a dead ringer for Ben Franklin wearing that stuff. Thank God he was on radio, not TV!
But he was so good, ESPN hired him to anchor Sunday Night Baseball in 1990. His hometown Giants lured him back in 1997, and he's still there, having given up the ESPN gig after the 2010 season, when the Giants finally won their 1st World Series in San Francisco.
That same year, the Baseball Hall of Fame gave him their Ford Frick Award, tantamount to election for broadcasters. Good thing you don't need to be retired to get it, unlike players or managers, and fans can still hear him. He is the best in the business -- even better than Vin Scully, of whom he does a near-flawless impression. (His Phil Rizzuto needs work, though.) He is also a member of the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.
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October 11, 1961, 60 years ago: Jon Steven Young is born in Salt Lake City, Utah, but grows up in the New York Tri-State Area, in Greenwich, Connecticut. A great-great-great-grandson of Mormon leader Brigham Young, Steve Young quarterbacked the university named for his ancestor, before being signed by the Los Angeles Express of the United States Football League to one of the most ridiculous contracts ever negotiated. As punishment, he had to play for the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers after the Express folded, and was stuck as Joe Montana's backup on the San Francisco 49ers after that.
But once Montana got hurt, he became a 2-time NFL MVP, and the MVP of Super Bowl XXIX, throwing 6 touchdown passes, a Super Bowl record even Montana couldn't touch. In all, he has 3 Super Bowl rings, though he only played in the 1. He made 7 Pro Bowls, becoming the best lefthanded quarterback ever.
The 49ers retired his Number 8, and he's in the College and Pro Football and Bay Area Sports Halls of Fame. In 2010, the NFL Network ranked him 81st on their list of the 100 Greatest Players. He now has a media career, as a studio analyst for ESPN and a talk-show host at San Francisco's KNBR radio.
Also on this day, Leonard "Chico" Marx, the oldest of the Marx Brothers to survive infancy, is the 1st to die, of arteriosclerosis, at his house in Los Angeles. He was 74. In the Brothers' films, he usually played a con man, often Italian or at least with an Italian accent, in spite of the Marx family's ancestry as Jews from Alsace, which France and Germany had been fighting over until World War II permanently put it in France.
Arthur "Harpo" Marx lived until 1964, at 75. Milton "Gummo" Marx, who dropped out of the act before they began making movies, died in 1977, at 83. Julius "Groucho" Marx, the biggest star of them, and the only one who really made the transition to television, was already very ill when Gummo died, and was never told about it. Groucho died 4 months later, at 86, the longest-lived of the Brothers. That left Herbert "Zeppo" Marx, the youngest, who was only in the early films, who lived until November 30, 1979, at 78.
October 11, 1965: On this day -- we think, although, for years, he said it was in 1969 -- Orlando Hernández Pedroso is born in Villa Clara, Cuba. "El Duque" (The Duke), brother of fellow pitcher and fellow Cuban escapee Livan Hernández, pitched for the 2 most demanding bosses in the Western Hemisphere: Fidel Castro and George Steinbrenner.
El Duque starred for the Cuban national team in the 1980s and '90s, including winning an Olympic Gold Medal in 1992, before defecting. In 1998, the Yankees signed him, and he became a "rookie" sensation with his high leg kick, bubbly personality and astonishing array of pitches. These factors, and the mystery surrounding his true age, led to comparisons with Negro League legend Satchel Paige.
Not until 2002 did he not pitch for a Pennant winner, helping the Yankees win the World Series in 1998 (he saved them with a dazzling performance vs. the Indians in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, then winning Game 2 of the World Series), 1999 (MVP of the ALCS and winner of Game 1 of the World Series) and 2000 (his streak of 8 straight postseason wins coming to an end in Game 3 of the World Series, still the only Series game the Mets have won since 1986), and the Pennant in 2001.
He won another World Series with the 2005 Chicago White Sox, and finished his career with the Mets in 2006 and '07. He returned to Yankee Stadium for Old-Timers' Day in 2013 and '14, but not this year.
Oh yes: El Duque had a dance. David Cone won 5 World Series to El Duque's 4, but, as Luis Sojo pointed out in this 1998 Adidas commercial, he doesn't have a dance.
October 11, 1967: Carl Yastrzemski, Reggie Smith and Rico Petrocelli hit the only back-to-back-to-back home runs in World Series history. Petrocelli adds another, and the Red Sox defeat the Cardinals, 8-4 at Fenway Park, and send the World Series to a deciding Game 7.
Cardinal manager Red Schoendienst, himself a World Series winner as a player with the Cardinals of 1946 and the Milwaukee Braves of 1957, announces his choice to pitch Game 7: Bob Gibson, on 3 days rest. Sox manager Dick Williams, knowing that his ace, Jim Lonborg, would have only 2 days rest, announces his starter to the Boston media: "Lonborg and champagne."
Those words are put on the front page of the Boston Globe the next day, and it ticks the Cards off. And the last thing anyone wants to see in a World Series game is a ticked-off Bob Gibson.
Also on this day, former Dodger star Gil Hodges, who married a Brooklyn woman, Joan Lombardi, and stayed in the Borough after the Dodgers moved, leaves the managerial post of the Washington Senators, to become the manager of the Queens-based Mets. The Mets do compensate the Senators. Hodges will only manage the Mets for 4 seasons before a heart attack claims his life, but one of those seasons will be the Miracle of '69.
This is also a huge day in the history of the National Hockey League, as five of its "Second Six" expansion teams play their 1st regular season games. (The Los Angeles Kings will debut on October 14.) At the Oakland Coliseum Arena (now named the Oracle Arena), the Oakland Seals defeat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-1. Bill Sutherland scores the 1st Flyer goal, while Kent Douglas scores the 1st for the Seals.
This is a false dawn for the Seals: The team later known as the California Golden Seals will make the Playoffs just once before moving to become the Cleveland Browns in 1976, and in 1978 becoming the last major league sports team to date to actually fold; while the Flyers will finish 1st in the NHL Western Division, be mostly competitive until the late 1980s, and win the 1974 and '75 Stanley Cups.
At the St. Louis Arena, the St. Louis Blues and the Minnesota North Stars play to a 2-2 tie. Larry Keenan scored the 1st goal for St. Louis. Bill Masterton, a longtime minor-league star finally getting his chance with expansion, scores the 1st for Minnesota. But, with no helmet and a shaved head offering no protection, later in the season, he will hit his head on the ice, and become the only player in the League's 104-year history (so far) to die as the direct result of an in-game injury. The NHL will dedicate an annual trophy for perseverance and courage in his memory.
At Pittsburgh's Civic Arena, former Ranger star Andy Bathgate scores the 1st goal in Pittsburgh Penguins history, but the Pens lose 2-1 to the Montreal Canadiens, as Jean Beliveau scores his 400th career NHL goal.
October 11, 1968: Billy Martin, age 40, gets his 1st managing job, with the Minnesota Twins. Over a 20-year career, he will manage the Twins, the Detroit Tigers, the Yankees and the Oakland Athletics into the postseason, and the Texas Rangers to their highest finish until the 1996 season -- but only the Yankees will he get into the World Series, and, for all his "genius," he wins just 1 World Series.
October 11, 1969: As expected, the New York Mets lose the 1st World Series game in franchise history, as Don Buford hits a leadoff home run off Met ace Tom Seaver, and the Orioles win, 4-1. Most people expected the O's to win this game, and to win the Series. But, as it turns out, they will not win another game that counts until April 7, 1970.
In the 3rd inning, Oriole manager Earl Weaver, a master baiter of umpires, is thrown out of the game by plate umire Shag Crawford, for arguing a call.
Fast facts with which you can amaze your friends: The Mets have been in 5 World Series, and have never won Game 1 -- including in the Series they have ended up winning. They are 0-5 in Game 1s, 2-3 in Game 2s, 4-1 in Game 3s, 3-2 in Game 4s, 2-3 in Game 5s, 1-1 in Game 6s, and 1-1 in Game 7s. Total: 13-16.
Fast facts with which you can amaze your friends: The Mets have been in 5 World Series, and have never won Game 1 -- including in the Series they have ended up winning. They are 0-5 in Game 1s, 2-3 in Game 2s, 4-1 in Game 3s, 3-2 in Game 4s, 2-3 in Game 5s, 1-1 in Game 6s, and 1-1 in Game 7s. Total: 13-16.
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October 11, 1971, 50 years ago: This day, the Giants lose to the Dallas Cowboys, 20-13. It is the Cowboys' last game at the Cotton Bowl, and their last regular-season game on Dallas soil. They will open Texas Stadium in Irving 2 weeks later, and move to AT&T Stadium in Arlington in 2009.
October 11, 1971, 50 years ago: This day, the Giants lose to the Dallas Cowboys, 20-13. It is the Cowboys' last game at the Cotton Bowl, and their last regular-season game on Dallas soil. They will open Texas Stadium in Irving 2 weeks later, and move to AT&T Stadium in Arlington in 2009.
October 11, 1972: This was the opening night of the World Hockey Association. The 1st game is played at the Edmonton Gardens, and the Alberta Oilers -- they would switch from the Province's name to the City's the next season -- beat the Ottawa Nationals 7-4. Ron Anderson scores the team's 1st goal.
The Quebec Nordiques, trying to get good publicity, named Montreal Canadiens legend Maurice "the Rocket" Richard as head coach, but they lose their 1st game, 2-0 to the Cleveland Crusaders at the Cleveland Arena. Richard immediately quits, saying he wasn't meant to be a coach. Nords management asks him to stay on long enough to hire a replacement. They win their 2nd game, but the Rocket has had enough, and Maurice Filion is hired.
Also on this day, the Pittsburgh Pirates, defending World Champions, lead the Cincinnati Reds 3-2 in the bottom of the 9th inning of the deciding Game 5 of the National League Championship Series at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. But Johnny Bench hits a home run off Dave Guisti, over the left-field fence to tie the game‚ over the head of the Pirates' legendary right fielder, Roberto Clemente, who had joined the 3,000 Hit Club just 2 weeks earlier.
The Reds collect 2 more singles, and Bob Moose, who had come in to relieve Guisti, throws a wild pitch, and the Reds win, 4-3. Not since Jack Chesbro in 1904 had a wild pitch decided a Pennant. Not since Johnny Miljus in the 1927 World Series had a wild pitch ended a postseason series. By a weird coincidence, Miljus threw his wild pitch as a Pirate, and Chesbro had also pitched for the Pirates before signing with the Highlanders/Yankees.
The Reds, taking their 2nd Pennant in 3 years, would go on to lose the World Series to the Oakland A's. The Pirates, having won their 3rd straight NL East title but having only 1 Pennant to show for it, would lose something far greater: A plane crash on New Year's Eve would make this game the last one that Clemente would ever play.
The Reds, taking their 2nd Pennant in 3 years, would go on to lose the World Series to the Oakland A's. The Pirates, having won their 3rd straight NL East title but having only 1 Pennant to show for it, would lose something far greater: A plane crash on New Year's Eve would make this game the last one that Clemente would ever play.
There would be more tragedy. Robert Ralph Moose Jr., a native of the Pittsburgh suburb of Export, Pennsylvania, a key figure on the Pirates' 1971 World Series winners, would be killed in a car crash in Ohio while still with the team, on October 9, 1976 -- his 29th birthday.
October 11, 1974: Billy Joel releases his album Streetlife Serenade. It's far from being his best work, but it does have 3 gems: "Streetlife Serenader," his tribute to his fellow suburban Long Island Baby Boomers; "The Entertainer," showing his disillusionment with stardom even though he's only 25 years old; and "Los Angelenos," a very nasty take on the city that made him both miserable and famous.
No wonder that, 15 years later, he included a reference to "California baseball" in "We Didn't Start the Fire," and began flipping the bird at the words in concert, inevitably getting cheers at all his concerts in New York. And Philadelphia. And Boston. (I'm presuming he didn't do that in San Francisco or San Diego, no matter how much they might hate the Dodgers, or Los Angeles in general.)
Also on this day, Jason William Arnott is born in Wasaga Beach, Ontario, on Georgian Bay, part of Lake Huron. He scored 417 goals in a 19-season NHL career, plus 32 more in the Playoffs, none bigger than his double-overtime winner in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals, to give the New Jersey Devils the trophy.
He is now a scout for his last NHL team, the St. Louis Blues, and the arena in his hometown of Wasaga Beach is named for him.
October 11, 1975: The Rutgers football team loses 34-20 to Lehigh, at Taylor Stadium in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. They will not lose again for nearly 2 years, until September 2, 1977, when Penn State beats them at the Meadowlands.
Earlier that day, Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton are married in their living room in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Despite all odds – including "self-inflicted wounds," and rooting for rivals, as Hillary grew up in the Chicago suburbs as a Cubs fan, Bill in Arkansas as a Cardinals fan – they are still together, dividing their time between Washington, D.C. and Westchester County, New York, and are the now grandparents of 3.
Later that night, Saturday Night premieres on NBC. After this 1st season, it will be renamed Saturday Night Live. The original cast, known as "the Not Ready for Prime Time Players," includes John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin and Garrett Morris -- but not, as is commonly believed, Bill Murray, who replaced Chase after 1 season.
The 1st guest host is George Carlin, who begins his monologue with a whacked-out version of the Lord's Prayer, and goes on to do "Baseball and Football," a routine he will expand on a few times. (This version is from 1990, from the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey.)
Not long before Carlin died, someone took a poll to determine the greatest standup comedians of all time. Carlin came in 2nd. Coming in 1st was Richard Pryor, who, like Carlin, was at the peak of his powers in the mid-Seventies.
A month into SNL's run, Pryor was asked to host the show. But, nervous that he would issue some four-letter words — they didn't seem as nervous about such language coming from Carlin, creator of the 1972 bit "Seven Words You Can Never Use On Television," none of which he used when he hosted -- the show was not quite "Live, from New York." They used a 7-second delay, in case they had to bleep anything out. They did. Ever since, even SNL hasn't been totally live.
October 11, 1977: The Yankees win Game 1 of the World Series in 12 innings, beating the Dodgers 4-3, as Paul Blair singles home Willie Randolph.
And, apparently, the scene shown taking place before that game in the miniseries The Bronx Is Burning actually happened: George Steinbrenner really did leave 20 tickets to be given to Joe DiMaggio and his entourage at the Yankee Stadium will-call window for this game, but the tickets weren't at the window, and there really was a brouhaha about it, before Joe and George smoothed things out, allowing Joe to throw out the first ball before Game 6.
October 11, 1978: The Dodgers go 2 games up with a 4-3 win in Game 2 at Dodger Stadium. Ron Cey drives in all the Dodger runs, and Reggie Jackson does the same for the Yankees. But Bob Welch saves Burt Hooton's win in dramatic fashion by striking Reggie out with the bases loaded and 2 out in the 9th inning.
Thus far, the only teams that have ever come back from 2 games to 0 to win the Series have been the ’55 Dodgers and the '56 and '58 Yankees. The Bronx Bombers are in deep trouble, and the people who said the Dodgers would overturn the result of last year's Series are looking very smart.
They're not. That will be proven in dramatic fashion in Game 4.
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October 11, 1980: The Dallas Mavericks make their NBA debut. They win, beating their fellow Texans, the San Antonio Spurs, 103-92 at Reunion Arena.
October 11, 1981, 40 years ago: The Yankees won the 1st 2 games of their strike-forced Playoff series for the AL East title in Milwaukee. But the Brewers, playing in their 1st postseason series (and the 1st by any Milwaukee baseball team since the '59 Braves), won the next 2 at Yankee Stadium, forcing a deciding Game 5.
This led to a postgame locker room tirade by George Steinbrenner, lambasting the players, telling them how they had let him down, and how they had let New York down. Trying to play peacemaker, Bobby Murcer said, "Now is not the time, George, now is not the time." George insisted that it was the time,
and continued to rant, until catcher Rick Cerone stood up and told The Boss to his face, "Fuck you, George." Stunned, George left the room.
Apparently, Cerone fired the Yankees up more than Steinbrenner did: Back-to-back home runs by Reggie Jackson and Oscar Gamble, and a later homer by, yes, Cerone give the Yanks a 7-3 victory over the Brewers, and the series. The Yanks will move on to face the Oakland Athletics in the ALCS. The Brewers, however, will be back.
On this same day, the Playoff for the NL East is won by Steve Rogers. No, not Captain America:
This one doesn't even work in America. Steve Rogers of the Montreal Expos drives in 2 runs and shuts out the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Expos win, 3-0, in Game 5 of the series. Until 2019, this was the only postseason series ever won by the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals franchise.
And the Los Angeles Dodgers win the other NLDS, beating the Houston Astros 4-0 at Dodger Stadium in the decisive Game 5. Jerry Reuss pitches a 5-hit shutout to defeat Nolan Ryan.
Apparently, Cerone fired the Yankees up more than Steinbrenner did: Back-to-back home runs by Reggie Jackson and Oscar Gamble, and a later homer by, yes, Cerone give the Yanks a 7-3 victory over the Brewers, and the series. The Yanks will move on to face the Oakland Athletics in the ALCS. The Brewers, however, will be back.
On this same day, the Playoff for the NL East is won by Steve Rogers. No, not Captain America:
This one doesn't even work in America. Steve Rogers of the Montreal Expos drives in 2 runs and shuts out the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Expos win, 3-0, in Game 5 of the series. Until 2019, this was the only postseason series ever won by the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals franchise.
And the Los Angeles Dodgers win the other NLDS, beating the Houston Astros 4-0 at Dodger Stadium in the decisive Game 5. Jerry Reuss pitches a 5-hit shutout to defeat Nolan Ryan.
October 11, 1985: Hurricane Gloria hits the New York Tri-State Area. This was a Friday afternoon. It was supposed to hit the next morning, threatening a football game at East Brunswick High School, against highly-regarded Edison. Instead, it soaks the Friday boys' soccer game against Sayreville, who, at that point, had never beaten us in that sport in 25 years of trying -- and the game was played anyway, and they took a 1-0 lead! That woke us up, though, and we won, 4-1. I stayed through the whole thing, and got drenched.
October 11, 1986: Former Detroit Tigers star Norm Cash dies when he slips off his boat on Lake Michigan near Beaver Island, Michigan, hits his head, and falls into the lake and drowns. One of the most beloved players in Tiger history, the 1961 AL batting champion, a member of their 1968 World Champions, and slugger of 377 career home runs, he was only 51.
On the same day, Game 3 of the NLCS is played at Shea Stadium. Lenny Dykstra tees off on Dave Smith of the Astros, and becomes the 1st Met to hit a postseason walkoff home run. Mets 6, Astros 5. The Mets lead 2 games to 1.
October 11, 1987: The Dallas Cowboys break the NFL strike, while the Philadelphia Eagles remain committed to the players they've used since the regulars walked off. The Cowboys win 41-22, and Eagles coach Buddy Ryan tells the media that the Cowboys were taking cheap shots against his under-experienced side. This, Buddy would remember.
Also on this day, the Miami Dolphins play their 1st regular-season game at Joe Robbie Stadium, after 21 seasons at the Orange Bowl. They were supposed to host the New York Giants on September 27, but the strike canceled that game. The Miami scabs beat the Kansas City Chiefs' scabs 42-0. The stadium has gone through several name changes, and is now Hard Rock Stadium.
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October 11, 1991, 30 years ago: Giovanny Urshela (no middle name) is born in Cartagena, Colombia. A 3rd baseman, Gio was a big reason why the Yankees won the AL East in 2019 and made the Playoffs again in 2020 and 2021.
The next day was a beautiful Autumn Saturday, just right for football. But the grass at Jay Doyle Field was still soaked, so the game had to be postponed until the next day, the 1st time in our 25-year football history that EBHS ever played on a Sunday. We beat Edison, 22-14, to advance to 3-0. The grass field was replaced by artificial turf in 2005.
This is also the date on which the events in the alternate-history 2009 film version of the comic book series Watchmen begin, before the flashbacks to earlier times. The fact that Hurricane Gloria was fading out to sea that night means that it really was raining in New York when Ozymandias killed The Comedian.
This is also the date on which the events in the alternate-history 2009 film version of the comic book series Watchmen begin, before the flashbacks to earlier times. The fact that Hurricane Gloria was fading out to sea that night means that it really was raining in New York when Ozymandias killed The Comedian.
October 11, 1986: Former Detroit Tigers star Norm Cash dies when he slips off his boat on Lake Michigan near Beaver Island, Michigan, hits his head, and falls into the lake and drowns. One of the most beloved players in Tiger history, the 1961 AL batting champion, a member of their 1968 World Champions, and slugger of 377 career home runs, he was only 51.
On the same day, Game 3 of the NLCS is played at Shea Stadium. Lenny Dykstra tees off on Dave Smith of the Astros, and becomes the 1st Met to hit a postseason walkoff home run. Mets 6, Astros 5. The Mets lead 2 games to 1.
October 11, 1987: The Dallas Cowboys break the NFL strike, while the Philadelphia Eagles remain committed to the players they've used since the regulars walked off. The Cowboys win 41-22, and Eagles coach Buddy Ryan tells the media that the Cowboys were taking cheap shots against his under-experienced side. This, Buddy would remember.
Also on this day, the Miami Dolphins play their 1st regular-season game at Joe Robbie Stadium, after 21 seasons at the Orange Bowl. They were supposed to host the New York Giants on September 27, but the strike canceled that game. The Miami scabs beat the Kansas City Chiefs' scabs 42-0. The stadium has gone through several name changes, and is now Hard Rock Stadium.
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October 11, 1991, 30 years ago: Giovanny Urshela (no middle name) is born in Cartagena, Colombia. A 3rd baseman, Gio was a big reason why the Yankees won the AL East in 2019 and made the Playoffs again in 2020 and 2021.
Also on this day, Redd Foxx dies of a heart attack at age 72. It happens on the set of his CBS sitcom, The Royal Family. At first, no one realized that anything was wrong, because, in his previous sitcom, NBC's Sanford and Son, the legendary comedian had frequently had it written into the script that, upon hearing something shocking, he would grab his chest, look up to Heaven where his character Fred Sanford's wife would be, and say, "This is the big one! I'm comin', Elizabeth!" By the time they realized it wasn't an act this time, it was too late.
October 11, 1996, 25 years ago: Game 3 of the ALCS at Camden Yards. The Orioles won Game 2 after the controversial Yankee win in Game 1, and lead 2-1 in the top of the 8th. But Derek Jeter doubles, and is singled home by Bernie Williams to tie it.
October 11, 1996, 25 years ago: Game 3 of the ALCS at Camden Yards. The Orioles won Game 2 after the controversial Yankee win in Game 1, and lead 2-1 in the top of the 8th. But Derek Jeter doubles, and is singled home by Bernie Williams to tie it.
Then it gets bizarre: Tino Martinez doubles to left, sending Bernie to 3rd base. Todd Zeile -- a good hitter who had homered earlier in the game, but would go on to make more errors than any other player in the 1990s -- takes the relay throw from left field, and fakes throwing to 2nd... and, in the process, drops the ball, rolling toward Cal Ripken. Bernie sees this, takes off and scores, giving the Yankees a 3-2 lead.
This may have rattled Mike Mussina, who'd been dueling pretty well with Jimmy Key until now. He hangs a curveball to Cecil Fielder, who hangs it into the left field stands. That makes it 5-2 Yankees, and that turns out to be the final score.
If, in 2021, Oriole fans are still bitter about the Jeffrey Maier incident in Game 1, they need to think again, and look at the Zeile play. That's where they lost this series. It also may have convinced the Oriole brass to move Ripken from shortstop to 3rd base, and get rid of Zeile.
To his credit, Zeile did play another 8 years in the majors, including for both New York teams (in 2003 with the Yankees, and finishing his career in 2004 with the Mets). He finished with 2,044 hits, including 253 home runs. He played for 11 different teams, and hit at least 1 home run for all of them. No one else has done it for 10. Among the teams he played for was the Dodgers, which is somewhat appropriate, because he was born on September 9, 1965, the day of Sandy Koufax' perfect game.
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October 11, 2000: The Yankees, who slouched into the postseason, losing 16 of their last 19 games, snap out of a 21-inning scoreless streak, scoring 7 runs in the bottom of the 8th, including a home run by Jorge Posada, and beat the Seattle Mariners 7-1, tying the ALCS at 1 game apiece. On his 31st (or 35th, as it turns out) birthday, Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez improves his postseason record to 7-0.
Also on this night, the expansion Minnesota Wild play their 1st home game, at the Xcel Energy Center, built on the site of the old St. Paul Civic Center. They retire the team's uniform Number 1 for their fans. They get goals from Marian Gaborik, Darby Hendrickson and Wes Walz, but that's not enough, as the Philadelphia Flyers play them to a 3-3 tie.
October 11, 2003: Pedro Martinez commits 3 felonies: Assault with a deadly weapon on Karim Garcia (by hitting him with a pitch, and it would have hit him in the head had he not ducked), conspiracy to commit murder against Jorge Posada (pointing to his head, as if to ay, "You're next"), and assault (and possibly attempted murder) on Don Zimmer (by grabbing a 72-year-old man by the head and throwing him to the ground).
In spite of this, he is not arrested. The felonies, after all, occurred at Fenway Park, not Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees beat the Red Sox, 3-2, with Roger Clemens outpitching Martinez, and take a 2-games-to-1 lead in the ALCS.
The New York Post, in one of the rare instances in which I agree with it, labeled Pedro the Fenway Punk. Ever since, he has been the opposing athlete I have loathed the most. Which is why my favorite home run of all time is no longer the one that Aaron Boone hit 5 days later, but the one Hideki Matsui hit off Pedro to clinch the 2009 World Series -- which turned out to be Pedro's last game in the major leagues.
On the same day, the Cubs beat the Florida Marlins 8-3 at Pro Player (now Hard Rock) Stadium, and take a 3-games-to-1 lead in the NLCS. Just 1 more win, and the Cubs will have their 1st Pennant in 58 years.
They needed another 13 years to get that 1 more NLCS win.
October 11, 2006: Cory Lidle, newly acquired by the Yankees as pitching help for the stretch drive and the postseason, dies when his single-engine plane crashes into an Upper East Side apartment high-rise. He was 34. Killed with him is his pilot instructor, Tyler Stanger.
That night, the Mets are scheduled to open the NLCS against the Cardinals at Shea Stadium, but the rain that falls shortly after Lidle's crash gets the game postponed. It's just as well. This, of course, was the only season between 1988 and 2015 in which the Mets were still playing after the Yankees were eliminated.
October 11, 2009: In the final baseball game to be played at the Metrodome, and good riddance, the Yankees advance to the the ALCS by defeating the host Twins, 4-1. A costly 8th inning baserunning blunder by Nick Punto ends Minnesota's hopes of a comeback. Alex Rodriguez went 5-for-11 with 2 homers and six RBIs in the 3-game Division Series sweep. The Twins move into Target Field the following Spring.
Also on this day, Jonathan Papelbon, who had never given up a run in any of his previous 26 postseason innings, allows 2 inherited runners to score in the 8th, and yields another 3 runs in the 9th, giving the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, who trailed 5-1 going into the 6th inning, a 7-6 victory over the Red Sox.
The Halos' comeback victory -- or, if you prefer, the Red Sox' characteristic choke -- at Fenway completes a 3-game sweep of ALDS over a team which historically had been their nemeses, having been eliminated from the Playoffs in their past 4 post-season encounters with Boston. The Angels will now face the Yankees for the Pennant.
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October 11, 2011, 10 years ago: Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, in its 2nd year of operation, hosts a U.S. national team match for the 1st time. It doesn't go so well: The USMNT loses 1-0 to Ecuador.
October 11, 2017: Didi Gregorius hits 2 home runs, and the Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians 5-2, and take the deciding Game 5 of the ALDS at Yankee Stadium. It is the Bronx Bombers' 1st win in a postseason series (as opposed to a postseason round) in 5 years.
October 11, 2161, 140 years from now: According to the TV series Star Trek: Enterprise, this was the day the United Federation of Planets was founded.
Of course, to get that far, we not only had to get through a World War III in 2053, but also the end of baseball in 2042.
Not worth it.
Of course, to get that far, we not only had to get through a World War III in 2053, but also the end of baseball in 2042.
Not worth it.