The shadow makes it look like a COVID mask is hanging from his face.
He would have turned 93 today, had he lived, and I wish I could know
how he would have handled Trump and COVID.
Honorable Mention: January 15, 1891: Ray Chapman. He reached the major leagues in 1912, as a shortstop for the team that would become known as the Cleveland Indians. Had his career reached a natural conclusion, he might not be remembered today. But he is, for the worst of reasons: He is the only player to die as the result of an in-game injury.
He was hit in the head by a pitch from the Yankees' Carl Mays on August 16, 1920, and died the next day. Mays always insisted that he hadn't done it on purpose. Witnesses backed this claim up: They said that Chapman's crouched batting stance had nearly put his head over the plate, and that the ball had gone straight back to Mays, who threw to 1st base, suggesting that he thought Chapman had swung and hit the ball to him.
The Indians dedicated a monument to Chapman, and it now rests in Heritage Park, the Guardians' team hall of fame beyond the center field fence at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
Dishonorable Mention: January 15, 1875: Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud. Founder of the modern state of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, he reigned from 1932 to his death in 1953, and set the pattern for that country's corrupt royals and their affect on the world through the control of oil prices and the sponsoring of anti-Israel terrorism.
Dishonorable Mention: January 15, 1902: Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Son of the preceding, he took his father's work and made it worse. He was overthrown by his brother Faisal in 1964, but lived on until 1989.
Dishonorable Mention: January 15, 1918: Gamal Abdel Nasser. Dictator of Egypt from 1952 until his death in 1970, he ran a brutal, oppressive military regime, temporarily closing the Suez Canal in 1956, and going to war with Israel in 1967 (and losing in 6 days).
He set the standard for later Middle East dictators: Alternating between sharp business suits and military uniforms, depending on the occasion; a thick mustache; a cult of personality that put his image up all over the country; keeping that image looking as young and vigorous as possible, regardless of his health; and tolerating no dissent at all.
Somewhat Honorable Mention: January 15, 1920: John O'Connor. Archbishop of New York from 1983 until his death in 2000, he stood with Catholic Church dogma against gay rights and reproductive freedom. But he crusaded against poverty, and opened the Church's 1st hospice for AIDS patients. He never forgot that he was a human being first, a priest second, and a Church official third. More importantly, he never forgot that every person is a human being first.
10. January 15, 1622: Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière. (Pronounced "MOH-lee-AIR.") Not only is he France's equivalent to William Shakespeare -- they weren't quite contemporaries, as Shakespeare died in 1616 -- but the popularity and spread of his plays became such that French was often said to be "the language of Molière."
Honorable Mention: January 15, 1927: Phyllis Coates. She played Lois Lane in Superman and the Mole Men, the 1951 film that launched the TV series The Adventures of Superman. She played Lois in that series' 1st season, before leaving the role due to being offered movie roles with conflicting schedules. Noel Neill, who had played Lois in a 1948 Superman film serial, took over the role. Phyllis is now the last survivor of the show's main cast.
She frequently appeared in Westerns, including the 1952 pilot of the TV anthology Death Valley Days. She left acting in 1966 to raise a family, but has made a few appearances since, including in 1994, playing Lois' mother on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.
Honorable Mention: January 15, 1947: Andrea Martin. A member of the cast of SCTV, she has won 2 Tony Awards for her Broadway work.
Honorable Mention: January 15, 1957: Mario Van Peebles. He followed his father, Melvin, into the family business, adding writing and directing to his acting. Best known for New Jack City, he guest-starred with his father on a 1996 episode of Living Single, in which Regine (Kim Fields) dated both a TV weatherman (Mario) and his retired father (Melvin). When they found out, Mario delivered one of the greatest burns in sitcom history: "Regine, we'd like to speak with both your faces."
Honorable Mention: January 15, 1971: Regina King. She's come a long way from playing teenage Brenda Jenkins on the sitcom 227. She showed her grownup acting chops in Boyz n the Hood, Poetic Justice, Higher Learning, Friday, A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Jerry Maguire and How Stella Got Her Groove Back, all before turning 28.
She should have won an Academy Award for playing Margie Hendrix, Ray Charles' backup singer and mistress, in Ray in 2004. She did win one for playing Sharon Rivers in If Beale Street Could Talk in 2018. And she played a cop-turned-superhero in the TV update of Watchmen.
9. January 15, 1948: Ronnie Van Zant. The lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd was the voice of 2 of the most memorable songs of the 1970s: "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Free Bird." Let the record show, though, that Watergate bothered a hell of a lot more people than it didn't bother, and that, if Neil Young were flying his plane, he probably wouldn't have made the mistake of jettisoning the fuel.
Honorable Mention: January 15, 1909: Gene Krupa. I'm a little biased, as I'm also Polish. But, along with Chick Webb and Buddy Rich, his work behind Benny Goodman's big band made him 1 of the top 3 drummers in jazz history.
Honorable Mention: January 15, 1967: Lisa Lisa. Born Lisa Velez, she came out of Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood and became one of the hottest singing stars of the late 1980s.
8. January 15, 1953: Randy White. Possibly the best athlete ever to come from the State of Delaware, he starred as a defensive tackle at the University of Maryland, where he was nicknamed "Manster": Half-man, half-monster.
The Dallas Cowboys dropped him back to linebacker, and he made the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the NFL's 100th Anniversary Team, and the Cowboys' Ring of Honor. He and Harvey Martin were named co-Most Valuable Players of Super Bowl XII in 1978.
Honorable Mention: January 15, 1957: Marty Lyons. The defensive end was the leader of the defense that helped the University of Alabama win the 1978 National Championship. He then played 11 years with the New York Jets, leading a defense that became known as the New York Sack Exchange.
And yet, neither Marty nor the Manster is the best football player to have a January 15 birthday.
Honorable Mention: January 15, 1943: Mike Marshall. He appeared with the 1969 Seattle Pilots, the team immortalized in fellow pitcher Jim Bouton's book Ball Four. That he was not the most unusual player on that team, or even on that pitching staff, shows just how weird that team was.
Marshall earned a doctorate in kinesiology from Michigan State, and believed something that Tony La Russa and Brian Cashman would consider blasphemy: Pitchers should throw more, not less. As a result, he holds each major league's record for most appearances in a season by a pitcher.
In 1973, with the Montreal Expos, he appeared in 92. In 1974, with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he topped that with 106, going 15-12 with 21 saves, becoming the 1st reliever to win either League's Cy Young Award, and also helping the Dodgers win the National League Pennant.
In 1979, with the Minnesota Twins, he set the American League record with 90 appearances, finishing 84 games for a new major league record, surpassing the 83 he finished in 1974. He finished his career with the Mets in 1981, with a 97-112 record, a 3.14 ERA, a 1.294 WHIP, and 188 saves. He was not related to the later 1st baseman also named Mike Marshall, who also played for the Dodgers.
7. January 15, 1841: Frederick Stanley. In 1888, The Lord Stanley of Preston was appointed Governor-General of Canada. His children discovered the game of ice hockey, and he donated a trophy to be given to the best team in the country. It became known as the Stanley Cup.
He never saw a game in competition for his Cup: In 1893, shortly after the Montreal Hockey Club was awarded the trophy's 1st edition, his father, the 15th Earl of Derby, died, and he had to resign as Governor-General, and assume his duties as the 16th Earl of Derby. He was a charter inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame, despite never having played the sport. To this day, the Cup (now far bigger than the simple bowl he had donated) is nicknamed "Lord Stanley's Mug."
6. January 15, 1965: Bernard Hopkins. His hometown is known to boxing fans as "The Fighting City of Philadelphia," and he might be the best fighter it has ever produced. He got a late start, because he was in prison between the ages of 18 and 23. And he didn't win his 1st title of any kind until he was nearly 28.
He made up for lost time. "The Executioner" won his 1st World Championship in 1995, the IBF version of the Middleweight Championship. He last held a title in 2014, the WBA version of the Light Heavyweight Championship -- mere weeks before his 50th birthday.
5. January 15, 1908: Edward Teller. He worked on the Manhattan Project, which designed and built the 1st atomic bomb. He moved on from there, and invented the hydrogen bomb. He hated being called the H-bomb's "father," and, late in life, gave an interview in which he said the world had more than enough nuclear weapons.
4. January 15, 1913: Lloyd Bridges. He became a star in 1958 with the underwater-based TV drama Sea Hunt. Today, he's best remembered for his last role, as elderly gym rat Izzy Mandelbaum on Seinfeld. Or maybe as the father of actors Beau Bridges and Jeff Bridges. In between, he parodied his tough guy image in the 1980 spoof film Airplane! Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit blogging.
3. January 15, 1716: Philip Livingston. A member of the Continental Congress, he was one of the oldest signers of the Declaration of Independence, and he did not live to see the War of the American Revolution won.
2. January 15, 1979: Drew Brees. What's bigger: Getting Purdue University into the Rose Bowl, or getting the New Orleans Saints to victory in the Super Bowl? One other man has done the former: Bob Griese. No one else has done the latter. He uplifted a community after Hurricane Katrina, and brought its team higher than it has ever been.
He holds the NFL records for highest completion percentage in a game and in a career, and most consecutive games with a touchdown pass. He will be eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2026.
1. January 15, 1929: Martin Luther King Jr."The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Maybe, but, sometimes, the arc needs people to bend it. Dr. King did that better than most will ever do.
Still alive at this writing: Coates, Martin, Van Peebles, Regina King (but not Martin, to whom she was not related), Lisa Lisa, White, Lyons, Hopkins and Brees.