Happy 80th Birthday, Dr. Dick Barnett!

October 2, 1936, 80 years ago: Richard Barnett (no middle name) is born in Gary, Indiana, outside Chicago. A guard on the Tennessee State University basketball team at the same time that Wilma Rudolph was leading their "Tigerbelles" women's track team, he was then known as "Dick the Skull." He won a championship in the short-lived American Basketball League in 1962. They were the 1st sports team owned by George Steinbrenner, then just 31 years old.

When the ABL folded a few months later, he joined the Los Angeles Lakers, and helped them reach the NBA Finals in 1963 and 1965. His fallaway jump shot led Laker announcer Chick Hearn to nickname him "Fall Back Baby Barnett." The nickname followed him to the Knicks, where he became an All-Star in 1968, and an NBA Champion in 1970 and 1973.

He retired after the 1973 title, got a Ph.D. in education from Fordham University in The Bronx, and taught sports management at St. John's University in Queens until retiring in 2007. Due to his doctorate, he is nearly always referred to as "Dr. Dick."

The Knicks retired his Number 12 on March 12, 1990. He is a member of the College Basketball and Tennessee Sports Halls of Fame, along with his Tennessee State coach, John McLendon.
He is still alive, still attends Knicks home games, and turns 80 today. Happy Birthday, Dr. Dick.


He was a teammate of Oscar Robertson in Cincinnati, both on the UC Bearcats and on the NBA's Cincinnati Royals. He remained in the NBA until 1971, and died in 2013. His daughter Cammy Dierking is a news anchor at WKRC-Channel 12 in Cincinnati.

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October 2, 1452: Richard Plantagenet is born at Fotheringhay Castle in Fotheringhay, Northamptonshire, England. This is also where Mary, Queen of Scots would be imprisoned and executed in 1587. It was demolished a few decades after that. The subject of this entry wouldn't fare much better than Mary and the castle.

Richard, Duke of Gloucester, of the House of York, was a great horseman (thus tangentially connecting this entry to sports), a great soldier, and, as his supporters would tell us over 500 years later, a great administrator.

Unfortunately, he was also quite evil. He may have been behind the 1471 assassination of the deposed King Henry VI. He may have been behind the charges that led to the 1478 execution of his older brother, George, Duke of Clarence. And then, when his eldest brother, King Edward IV of England, died in 1483, Richard was named Lord Protector of Edward's sons, 13-year-old King Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. Instead of watching over them and the country until young Edward turned 18 and could rule in his own right, he had them imprisoned, declared illegitimate, and murdered. Thus did Gloucester become King Richard III.

This, of course, was told in William Shakespeare's play Richard III, containing the legendary opening soliloquy that begins, "Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this sun of York!" and continues into a woe-is-me tirade for the man then 4th in line for the throne.

Richard was not a hunchback, as Shakespeare suggested, but when his remains were discovered Leicester in 2012, it was found that he had scoliosis, which could have provided a similar effect. Yet a body double of similar age was found, and given a contemporary-style suit of armor, for a documentary, Resurrecting Richard III, proving that his form of scoliosis would have been no impediment to riding a horse, jousting, or even horseborne combat.

But on horseback in battle did Richard ride, because, after just 2 years, the people of England had had enough of him, and support surged to Henry Tudor, a Welsh-born descendant of Edward III, and Richard fell at the Battle of Bosworth Field in Leicestershire on August 22, 1485. He was 32 years old.

Tudor became King Henry VII, and he married Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, thus uniting the Houses of Lancaster (through himself) and York (through her), absorbing the House of Plantagenet into the House of Tudor, and ending the Wars of the Roses after 30 years. Despite this monumental achievement, Henry VII is best known today, over 500 years after his death, as the father of King Henry VIII.

Oh well, it could be worse: Today, over 200 years after he fell from power for the last time, Napoleon Bonaparte is remembered for his hat, being short (but not as short as we think he was, and not particularly short for his time), and as the namesake of a pastry.

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October 2, 1535: French explorer Jacques Cartier -- "Jimmy Carter" in English, if you will -- discovers what will become the Island of Montreal in New France (Quebec). Thus does he make possible 52 Stanley Cup wins (24 by the Montreal Canadiens), 9 Grey Cup wins (7 by the Montreal Alouettes), the integrated baseball debut of Jackie Robinson in 1946, the 1976 Olympic Games, and the tragedy of the Montreal Expos.

October 2, 1803: Samuel Adams dies in Boston, probably as a result of Parkinson's disease. He was 81. One of the leading figures of the American Revolution, he was the man who started the Boston Tea Party (thus giving the name Boston Tie Party to the 1978 Playoff) -- not just because it was good patriotism, but also because it was good business: He was the leading brewer in Massachusetts, and his best friend was John Hancock, the leading distiller and transporter of hard liquor in the Colony. He was an early Governor once Massachusetts became a State. And, of course, he was a cousin of President John Adams.

Today, when he is remembered, it is for starting the Boston Tea Party, and as the namesake of a Boston-produced beer, loved by Red Sox fans. It's good beer -- but because of its connection with the team, I won't touch the stuff. Like Samuel Adams, I am a principled man.

October 2, 1869: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is born in Porbandar, Gujarat, India. Despite his nickname "The Mahatma" (meaning "Great Soul") also being given to the great baseball executive Branch Rickey (and I have no idea what he, a devout Methodist, thought of that), as far as I know, he had nothing to do with sports.

But in 1983, an article titled "Gandhi at the Bat" was printed in The New Yorker, taking place in 1933, 50 years earlier, a completely fictional story that featured him meeting Babe Ruth and "playing for the Yankees."

He and his friend Jawaharlal Nehru are the founding fathers of the modern Indian nation, which, despite its oppression by the British, came to love the British sports of cricket and field hockey, and now finally seems to be absorbing soccer as well.


October 2, 1897: William Alexander Abbott is born in Asbury Park, Monmouth County, New Jersey. With fellow New Jersey native Lou Costello of Paterson, Passaic County, Bud Abbott formed one of the great comedy teams of the 1st half of the 20th Century, best known for their "Who's On First?" routine. Legend has it that Abbott was watching that very routine on TV in 1959 when he got a phone call telling him that Lou had died. Bud lived on until 1974.

October 2, 1898: Unlike the 1891 Milwaukee Brewers, the Brooklyn Superbas (forerunners of the Dodgers) did escape New York City's blue laws so that they could play on a Sunday. They play the Washington Nationals (not to be confused with the current team of that name) across the Hudson River in Weehawken, New Jersey. Candy LaChance hits a home run, and Brooklyn wins, 4-3.

October 2, 1899: Rube Waddell of the Louisville Colonels sets a major league record with 14 strikeouts, beating the Chicago Orphans 6-1. (This team was not yet the Cubs: They got the Orphans named because they "missed their Pop," the now-retired Adrian C. "Cap" or "Pop" Anson), 6-1. Oh yeah: Waddell's 14 Ks came in only 8 innings, because the game was called due to darkness.

Clark Griffith took the loss. He would become the 1st manager of the Chicago White Sox in 1901, and, with himself as staff ace, win the 1st AL Pennant. He would then become the 1st manager of the New York Highlanders (forerunners of the Yankees) in 1903, and nearly manage and pitch them to a Pennant in 1904.

Waddell, already the best lefthanded pitcher in the game, starred for the Philadelphia Athletics, before Connie Mack finally got tired of his drinking and his wandering mind. He died of tuberculosis in 1914, only 37 years old.

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October 2, 1903: The 1st World Series is tied at 1 game apiece, as the Boston Americans beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-0. Bill Dinneen pitches a shutout for the proto-Red Sox, and Patsy Dougherty hits the 1st and 2nd World Series home runs, off Pirate pitcher Sam Leever.

October 2, 1908:  In a wild 3-team American League race, every bit as tight as the 3-team race going on in the National League at the same time, the AL has perhaps its greatest pitching duel ever, between 2 future Hall-of-Famers, at League Park in Cleveland.

Big Ed Walsh of the White Sox strikes on 15 batters, breaking Waddell's record, and setting what will be an AL record for 30 years. But it's not enough, as Addie Joss, a.k.a. the Human Hairpin for his slender build and his tight pitching motion, pitches a perfect game for the Cleveland Indians, and the Indians win, 1-0.

And yet, neither team wins the Pennant. The Detroit Tigers do, the Indians finishing half a game behind, the White Sox 1 1/2 behind: Detroit 90-63, Cleveland 90-64, Chicago 88-64. Why wasn't the Tigers' missing 154th game made up? I don’t know: Neither The Unforgettable Season by G.H. Fleming nor Crazy '08 by Cait Murphy explains why.

It's the 2nd of 3 straight Pennants for the Tigers. The ChiSox had won in 1901 and 1906. The Indians will not get this close to a Pennant again until they win it all in 1920. I'll get to that in a moment.

October 2, 1914: The Yankees make 5 errors, and lose to the Boston Red Sox, 11-5 at Fenway Park. The Boston pitcher, a 19-year-old rookie, also gets his 1st major league hit, a double off Yankee pitcher Leonard Leslie "King" Cole.

Cole will not be long for this world: He soon develops tuberculosis, and dies in 1916, only 29 years old. But the Sox rookie will be heard from again. His name is George Herman Ruth Jr. That's right, the Babe. There would be 2,872 other hits in his career, 714 of them home runs, 659 of those for the Yankees.

October 2, 1916, 100 years ago: The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Boston Braves, 2-0 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, as Grover Cleveland Alexander notches his 33rd win of the season, and his 16th shutout, a record. He got those 16 whitewashes, and 12 the season before, as a righthanded pitcher playing home games in Baker Bowl, whose right-field fence was only 280 feet from home plate.

October 2, 1917: Alexander wins his 30th of this season, defeating the New York Giants 8-2, also at Baker Bowl. He also hits 2 doubles. But this will be his last game in a Philadelphia uniform: Fearing that he might get drafted into World War I, and killed or incapacitated in combat, the Phils sell him to the Chicago Cubs.

He was indeed drafted. Although he was not wounded in combat, the shelling damaged his hearing, and shell-shock -- which became "battle fatigue" in World War II, and today we would call it "post-traumatic stress disorder" -- caused him to develop epilepsy. It also intensified his drinking problem. In spite of his mound success, both before and after "The War to End All Wars," Alexander was a tragic figure.

October 2, 1919: Game 2 of the World Series. The Cincinnati Reds beat the White Sox 4-2, to go up 2 games to none. Sox pitcher Lefty Williams holds the Reds scoreless for 3 innings, but in the 4th, he walks 3 batters, gives up a single to Edd Roush, and then a triple to Larry Kopf.

Sox manager Kid Gleason tells owner Charlie Comiskey that he's suspicious of his players. But Comiskey has been feuding with his old friend Ban Johnson, President of the American League, with the 2 men having founded the League. So Comiskey goes to National League President John Heydler. Heydler tells Johnson about Gleason's suspicions. But Johnson does nothing about it, thinking people will see it as a vengeful act against Comiskey.

Gleason is not the only one who is suspicious: Hugh Fullerton of the Chicago Herald-Examiner, and his protégé, Ring Lardner of the Chicago Tribune, make note of some questionable plays. So does former Giants pitcher Christy Mathewson, covering the Series for a national newspaper syndicate.

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October 2, 1920: The only tripleheader ever played in the 20th Century, forced by rainouts, is played at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The Cincinnati Reds win the 1st 2 games, 13-4 and 7-3, with the Pittsburgh Pirates avoiding the sweep in the finale, 6-0. Peter Harrison is the home plate umpire for all three games.

October 2, 1925: Wren Alvin Blair is born in Lindsay, Ontario. He wasn't much of a hockey player, but as a scout for the Boston Bruins, he convinced them to sign Bobby Orr. That alone would be enough reason to remember him.

When the NHL expanded for the 1967-68 season, he became the 1st head coach and the 1st general manager of the Minnesota North Stars. He later served as GM of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and died in 2013.

October 2, 1926, 90 years ago: Game 1 of the World Series, the 1st ever played by the St. Louis Cardinals. Bill Sherdel allowed only 6 hits for them, but Herb Pennock allowed only 3, and the Yankees won, 2-1.

October 2, 1927: A benefit game is played at Shibe Park between Philadelphia's teams, to build a gymnasium at Gettysburg College, alma mater of Athletics pitcher Eddie Plank, a 300-game winner who died the year before. The Phillies score in the 2nd inning, and lead 1-0 after 6, when the umpires call the game due to rain.

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October 2, 1932: The Yankees win their 12th consecutive World Series game and sweep the Fall Classic for the 3rd time, for their 4th World Championship overall. At Wrigley Field, the Bronx Bombers (the nickname has now replaced "Murderers' Row") bang out 19 hits as they club the Chicago Cubs, 13-6.

The last survivor of the 1932 Yankees was pitcher Charlie Devens, who lived until 2003 -- insisting to the end that, in Game 3, Babe Ruth did so call his shot.

Also on this day, Maurice Morning Wills is born in Washington, District of Columbia. Maury was a switch-hitting shortstop, mostly for the Los Angeles Dodgers, a 7-time All-Star who, along with his White Sox contemporaries Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio, brought the stolen base back as a major baseball weapon.

In 1962, he stole 104 bases, earning himself the National League Most Valuable Player award, and breaking the established major league record of 96 set by Ty Cobb in 1915. That record would stand for 12 years. Maury helped the Dodgers win the World Series in 1959, 1963 and 1965. He also won 2 Gold Gloves, and finished his career with a .281 batting average and 586 stolen bases.

After broadcasting, and managing in Mexico, he wrote a book titled How to Steal a Pennant, claiming he could take a last-place club and turn it into champions (world, league or division, he didn't specify) in 4 years. Supposedly, the San Francisco Giants offered him their managing job, but he turned it down. (Ill feelings toward them as a result of their rivalry with the Dodgers, perhaps?)

Late in the 1980 season, by which point his son Elliott "Bump" Wills was a 2nd baseman for the Texas Rangers, the Seattle Mariners hired Maury. On May 6, 1981, they fired him, after a series of inexplicable gaffes led to a record of 26-56, a percentage of .317, a pace for 111 losses. He later said he should have taken a minor-league job in organized baseball first, something many players who'd like to manage in the majors have been reluctant to do.

As it turned out, there was an explanation for his behavior: He was an alcoholic and a cocaine addict. He eventually got treatment thanks to the woman who became his 2nd wife. He soon returned to the Dodger organization, played their 3rd base coach in the "present" sequence of the film The Sandlot, and has been a member of the Dodgers Legends Bureau (what some sports teams call a "club ambassador") and a broadcaster for a minor-league team he once managed in Fargo, North Dakota.

Like Roger Maris, who grew up in Fargo, he has a museum there in his honor, even though he's far more associated with D.C. and L.A.

October 2, 1934: Earl Lawrence Wilson is born in Ponchatoula, Louisiana. On July 28, 1959, he became the 2nd black player for the Red Sox, after Elijah "Pumpsie" Green. On June 26, 1962, pitching against the Los Angeles Angels, he became the 1st black pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the American League. (Sam Jones of the Cubs had done it in the National League, in 1955.) In this game, he also hit a home run off Bo Belinsky, who had pitched a no-hitter earlier in the season.

Wilson is 1 of only 5 pitchers to toss a no-hitter and hit a home run in the same game. The others are Frank Mountain in 1884, Wes Farrell in 1931, Jim Tobin in 1944 and Rick Wise in 1971 (and he hit 2 homers).

Wilson would be traded to the Detroit Tigers, and was part of a rotation that included Denny McLain and Mickey Lolich, and won the 1968 World Series. He went 121-109 over his career, founded an automotive parts company, taught phys ed and coached basketball at a Florida high school, and died in 2005, at age 70.

October 2, 1936, 80 years ago: Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees score more runs than any team has ever scored in a Series game, and win by the largest margin in Series history, both records still standing through 2015: 18-4 over the Giants. Tony Lazzeri (only the 2nd grand slam in Series play) and Bill Dickey hit home runs, to make an easy winner out of Lefty Gomez.

Twice, Hank Greenberg is a strikeout victim of Feller's. Greenberg finishes the season with 58 home runs, the 3rd time someone has come close to Babe Ruth's record of 60 set in 1927. (Jimmie Foxx, who hit 50 this year, had hit 58 in 1932. Hack Wilson had hit 56 in 1930.)

Some people argue that, due to Greenberg being Jewish, he was frequently walked (intentionally or "not") so that he wouldn't break the Babe's record. Hank would go to his grave maintaining his belief that pitchers had pitched to him fairly.

I've seen film from this game: Feller, then wearing Number 14 rather than the 19 for which he would later become better associated, was certainly challenging the original Hammerin' Hank, throwing hard, choosing to, as they would say in Jim Bouton's Ball Four, smoke him inside.

October 2, 1939: This was the day after the regular season ended, so, if the film The Natural had been a true story, this would have been the day of the National League Playoff game between the New York Knights and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In real life, the Cincinnati Reds won the NL Pennant. The New York Giants, whose place the Knights had taken in the film's world, finished 5th, 18 1/2 games back. And the Pirates finished 6th, 28 1/2 games back.

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Steve won 35 Emmy Awards, and was admired by everyone. Without his contributions to NFL Films, there would almost certainly be no Major League Baseball Productions, and thus no This Week In Baseball or anything else MLB Productions did. Nor would the NBA or the NHL have their own versions. Sadly, he died of cancer in 2012, predeceasing his father by 3 years.

October 2, 1947: Game 3 of the World Series. Yogi Berra hits the 1st pinch-hit home run in Series history. The historic homer comes off Ralph Branca in the 7th inning at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. But the Dodgers win the game anyway, 9-8, and close to within 2 games to 1.

October 2, 1948: Avery Franklin Brooks is born in Evansville, Indiana, and, like Dick Barnett, grows up across the State in Gary. He got a master's degree from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1976, and has lived in New Jersey ever since.

Paul Robeson, who was, among other things, a Rutgers football player in the 1910s, died in 1976, and inspired Brooks to write and star in the play Paul Robeson, which had its premiere at the State Theatre in New Brunswick. Brooks starred as "Hawk" -- I can find no other name for the character -- on the ABC series Spenser: For Hire and A Man Called Hawk, based on the mystery novels by Boston-based writer and baseball fan Robert B. Parker.

But because of the reach of Star Trek, he'll be best remembered as Captain Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. One of the big problems I have with Star Trek is the canon "future history" that says baseball stopped in 2042, due to a lack of popularity. Sisko almost singlehandedly revives the sport throughout the United Federation of Planets in the 2370s.
In the episode "Take Me Out to the Holosuite," he tells his crewmates/teammates, "There is more to baseball than physical strength. It's, uh... (thinks for a moment) it's about courage. And it's also about faith. And it is also about heart." 

Also on this day, Trevor David Brooking is born in Barking, East London. A midfielder, he led East London soccer team West Ham United to the 1975 FA Cup, to the Final of the 1976 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, and to the 1980 FA Cup Final, where he scored the only goal of the game against North London's Arsenal. It remains the last time a team from outside the 1st division has won the Cup. He also played for England in the 1982 World Cup.

He has spent his post-playing career as a pundit for the BBC. In 2004, he was knighted. In 2009, the North Bank at West Ham's stadium, the Boleyn Ground, a.k.a. Upton Park, was renamed the Sir Trevor Brooking Stand. When they moved into the Olympic Stadium this Summer, the north stand there was renamed the Sir Trevor Brooking Stand.

October 2, 1949: October 2 is not a good day in Boston Red Sox history. Especially where the New York Yankees are concerned. But it's a good day in Yankee history. Especially when they play the Red Sox.

They play each other in the last game of the season, and the winner was going to win the AL Pennant (in the pre-Divisional play era). The Yankees lead 1-0 going into the top of the 8th, when Joe McCarthy, who’d led the Yankees to 7 World Championships but was now managing the Red Sox, sends up Tom Wright to pinch-hit for pitcher Ellis Kinder (in the pre-Designated Hitter era).

This proves to be a mistake, as Mel Parnell and Tex Hughson -- pretty good starting pitchers for Boston -- let in 4 more runs in the bottom of the 8th. The Sox pull 3 back in the top of the 9th, but the Yankees hold on to win, 5-3.

Among the Yankees who played in that game, 67 years ago, there are no more surviving players, as Yogi Berra was the last one. Bobby Brown is still alive, but he did not get into the game. From the Red Sox, only Wright and Hall of Fame 2nd baseman Bobby Doerr survive.

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October 2, 1950: The comic strip Peanuts, by Charles Schulz, is first published. The follies of Charlie Brown and his baseball team became well-known over the 50 years that the strip appeared. So did Charlie Brown (his first and last names always used, except when Peppermint Patty called him "Chuck" and Marcie called him "Charles") falling flat on his back ("WHUMP"!) when Lucy Van Pelt pulled away the football he was trying to kick, and she would come up with a new ridiculous excuse every time.

Charlie Brown's beagle, Snoopy, was his shortstop, and frequently imagined himself playing hockey and tennis, surfing ("There's only one thing that's embarrassing: Whenever I have a 'wipe out,' I have to 'dog paddle.'") and ice skating (intending to go to the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France by walking there, and coming back because, "Well, there was this ocean, see... ")

October 2, 1951: Game 2 of the National League Playoff. The Dodgers bounce back in a big way, with home runs from Jackie Robinson, Gil Dodges, Andy Pafko and Rube Walker. (Home runs on the season: Hodges 40, Pafko 30, Robinson 19, Walker... 4.) Clem Labine pitches a 6-hit shutout, and the Dodgers beat the Giants 10-0 at the Polo Grounds.

The Dodgers and their fans will regret manager Charley Dressen having stuck with Labine the whole way, making it next to impossible for him to pitch in the deciding game tomorrow, also at the Polo Grounds. Instead, when Dressen needs to relieve Don Newcombe, he'll have a choice of Carl Erskine and Ralph Branca. The choice he makes turns out to be one still second-guessed today, 65 years later.

October 2, 1952: Game 2 of the World Series. Billy Martin loved playing the Dodgers. He hits a home run off Billy Loes, to back the pitching of Vic Raschi, and the Yankees tie the Series, 7-1.

October 2, 1953: Carl Erskine, owner of perhaps the best curveball of his generation, strikes out 14 Yankees in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium, to establish a new World Series mark. The Dodger hurler's performance bests the record of Howard Ehmke, who struck out 13 Cubs for the Philadelphia Athletics in Game 1 of 1929 Fall Classic. Roy Campanella homers in the 8th inning to win it, as "Oisk" outpitches Vic Raschi, and the Dodgers beat the Yankees 3-2. They trail the Series, 2 games to 1.

Only 1 player is still alive from this game, 63 years later: Erskine himself.

October 2, 1954: The Giants complete the World Series sweep of the Indians, when Don Liddle beats Bob Lemon, 7-4. The Tribe won an AL record 111 games, not losing 4 straight all season. Now they have.

As for the Giants, it is their 5th World Series win. They would not win another for 46 years. No one would have believed that at the time. Nor would they have believed that the Giants would leave New York just 3 years later. Nor would they have believed that center fielder Willie Mays would never win another World Series.

There are 2 Giants are still alive from their '54 World Series roster, 61 years later: Mays and pitcher Johnny Antonelli.


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October 2, 1990: The A's beat the Angels 6-4, giving Oakland pitcher Bob Welch his 27th win of the season. No pitcher since has even won 24.

October 2, 1991, 25 years ago: The Blue Jays clinch the AL East title, beating the Angels 6-5, in their last home game of the season. The sellout crowd of 50,324 allows them to become the first sports franchise in history to draw 4 million fans in one season: 4,001,527.

Also on this day, Roberto Firmino Barbosa de Oliveira is born in Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil. A forward, he played for Brazilian club Figueirense and German club Hoffenheim, before moving to his current side, Liverpool.

Also on this day, Gideon Baah (no middle name) is born in Accra, Ghana. He is a defender for the New York Red Bulls, and scored a goal in their 7-0 demolition of New York City F.C. at Yankee Stadium earlier this year.

October 2, 1992: Mr. Baseball premieres, starring Tom Selleck as Jack Elliot, a former All-Star 1st baseman for the Yankees, who seems washed up, and the only team that will take him is in Japan. He runs afoul of the entire country, and in particular his manager -- and that's before he discovers that his new girlfriend is his manager's daughter.

Frank Thomas, the Big Hurt, has a cameo as the player whose rise leads the Yankees to release Jack, and Dennis Haysbert, who previously played Cuban slugger/voodoo priest Pedro Cerrano in Major League (and would again in a sequel), plays the only other American on the team, who helps straighten Jack out. Former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Brad "The Animal" Lesley, who had pitched in Japan, also plays an expat American player. He would also pitch in the film Little Big League 2 years later.

Also on this day, The Mighty Ducks premieres, starring Emilio Estevez as a lawyer busted for DUI, whose community service requires him to coach a youth hockey team. Unfortunately, this Disney movie is so successful, it inspires Disney to name they expansion team they'd gotten the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. It was a stupid name, and before the 2006-07 season, they changed it to just the Anaheim Ducks -- and won the Stanley Cup.

October 2, 1995: In a 1-game playoff for the AL West title, Seattle Mariners southpaw Randy Johnson throws a 3-hitter and beats the Angels, 9-1. The Big Unit finishes the season with an 18-2 record to establish a new AL mark for winning percentage by a lefthander, of .900, surpassing the record set of .893 by Ron Guidry in 1978. (Guidry still has the mark for lefty AL pitchers winning at least 20 games.)

The Angels led the Division by 11 games on August 9, and 6 games on September 12. But a 9-game losing streak, and a 7-game winning streak by the Mariners, doomed the Halos to one of the worst collapses in major league history.

October 2, 1996, 20 years ago: After losing badly to the Rangers in Game 1 of the AL Division Series, it looks like the Yankees are going to fall behind 2-0 -- at home. Juan Gonzalez hits his 3rd homer of the series -- a drive down the left-field line that is pulled into foul territory by a fan reaching across the foul pole. In other words, he does the exact opposite of what Jeffrey Maier does a week later.

This yutz is soon caught a by Fox Sports camera, yammering on his mobile phone, about what he did and how he's on TV. I'm surprised he didn't get the crap beaten out of him, right there in the stands.

But the Yankees bounce back, tie it up, and send it to extra innings. In the bottom of the 12th, Charlie Hayes attempts to bunt Derek Jeter over to 3rd base (and Tim Raines to 2nd), when Ranger 3rd baseman Dean Palmer, who had homered in Game 1, throws the ball away, allowing Jeter to score the winning run. Yankees 5, Rangers 4.

The Rangers would not win another game that counted until April 1, 1997, and would not win another postseason game until October 6, 2010.

October 2, 1997: DeWitt "Tex" Coulter dies in Austin, Texas at age 83. A center, he was a member of Army's 1944 and 1945 National Championship teams. He reached the NFL Championship Game as a rookie with the 1946 Giants. He moved to Canada, and played in the Grey Cup, their Super Bowl, for the Montreal Alouettes in 1954, '55 and '56, but they lost all 3.

October 2, 1998: Gene Autry dies at age 91. The Singing Cowboy, one of the most beloved entertainers who ever lived, was also the founding owner of the team then known as the Anaheim Angels. They retired their uniform Number 26 for him, as "the 26th Man."

October 2, 1999: The Atlanta Thrashers play their 1st game. They host the New Jersey Devils at Philips Arena. The 1st goal in Thrasher history is scored by Kelly Buchberger, their 1st Captain and a former Stanley Cup winner with the Edmonton Oilers. But the Devils spoil the lid-lifter, 4-1. Bobby Holik (later to be the Thrashers' Captain) scores 2 goals, and tallies are added by very unlikely sources, Sergei Brylin and Polish enforcer Krzystof Oliwa.

A "thrasher" is a bird native to Georgia, not a tough guy who "thrashes" people, or beats them up -- although, in hockey, such confusion would be understandable. The Thrashers would win just 14 games in their 1st season.

Despite a Southeast Division title in 2007, they never won a Playoff game, getting swept that season by the New York Rangers in the 1st round. That was their only trip to the Playoffs, and in 2011, beset by declining attendance, were moved to become the new Winnipeg Jets. Atlanta's 2nd venture into the NHL lasted 12 seasons, a little longer than its 1st, with the Atlanta Flames (1972-80) moving to Calgary.

Also on this day, the Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 3-2 at Tropicana Field. Mariano Rivera finishes the regular season by recording his 45th save. He had allowed only 43 hits all season.

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October 2, 2004: Jeff Kent of the Houston Astros hits 2 home runs, reaching 302 for his career, and 278 as a 2nd baseman, breaking the career record set by Ryne Sandberg.

October 2, 2005: In a recorded message shown at the start of the last regular-season game at the 1966 edition of Busch Stadium (they won the NL Central, so there will be Playoff games played there), Joe Buck, unable to be in attendance due to calling a NFL game on national television, asks the crowd to honor his late father by singing the "Star-Spangled Banner"a cappella. A stirring rendition fills the ballpark when 50,000 voices join in unison to sing the National Anthem, a fitting tribute to the late and beloved Cardinal broadcaster.

In the top of the 6th inning, Ozzie Smith emerges from the gate in right field wall in an open convertible. After touring warning track, the former Cardinal shortstop removes the digit "1," his old uniform number, which is affixed to the outfield wall, revealing a "0," to indicate the number regular-season games left to be played in the stadium. The Cards beat the Reds, 7-5.

Also on this day, Mike Piazza plays his last game for the Mets. It is already rumored that the team will not offer him a new contract, so while it is not yet official, the fans have a pretty good idea that this is it. A pregame video montage of his Flushing highlights all but confirms that, and he gets a standing ovation from the Shea Stadium crowd of 47,718 (about 8,000 short of a sellout). He goes 0-for-3 before being lifted for a defensive replacement, and the Mets lose to the Colorado Rockies, 11-3.

October 2, 2008: In the franchise's 1st postseason game, the Tampa Bay Rays (the "Devil" had been dropped before the season) defeat the visiting White Sox at Tropicana Field, 6-4. Tampa Bay's rookie 3rd baseman, Evan Longoria, joins Gary Gaetti of the 1987 Twins in becoming only the 2nd player to homer in his 1st 2 postseason at-bats.

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October 2, 2010: With 70 former players and coaches sitting on the infield clad in white Braves jerseys in front of a sell-out crowd, Atlanta honors Bobby Cox with a pregame ceremony. The longtime manager, who will remain with the team as a consultant, is given a 2010 Lexus LS460 from the team, and an 11-night cruise from his current players during the moving tribute at Turner Field. The Braves lose to the Phillies, 7-0.

Cox will be elected to the Hall of Fame, and the Braves will retire his Number 6. Counting his 1985 AL East title with the Blue Jays, he reached the postseason 15 times, winning 5 Pennants (just missing 3 others), but only 1 World Series, in 1995.

October 2, 2013: The Pittsburgh Pirates beat their Ohio River arch-rivals, the Cincinnati Reds, 6-2 at PNC Park, to win the NL Wild Card Play-in game, and advance to the Playoffs proper. Russell Martin — whom Yankee GM Brian Cashman let get away, resulting in the Pinstripes struggling at the catcher position all season long — hits 2 home runs.

This is the 1st time the Pirates have won a postseason game in 21 years, since George Bush was President. The father, not the son. And it’s the 1st time they've advanced in the postseason since they were "Family" in 1979. The Seventies. The Carter years. The dreaded Disco Period.

October 2, 2016: Vin Scully ends his 67-season MLB broadcasting career by calling his last game for the Los Angeles Dodgers, against their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, at AT&T Park.

Scully had been with the Dodgers for 17 postseason appearances, 13 trips to the World Series, and all 5 of their World Championships. He had called games for 11 Hall-of-Famers. He had seen 9 National League Most Valuable Player awards, 12 Cy Young Awards, 14 Rookies of the Year, 43 Gold Gloves, and 15 no-hitters by his team and 13 against it. He had called games during the Administrations of 12 Presidents (nearly 13), 2 British monarchs, and 9 Commissioners of baseball.

He had been there for Carl Erskine's 14 strikeouts and Sandy Koufax's 15. He had been there for Koufax's perfect game for the Dodgers and Don Larsen's, Tom Browning's and Dennis' Martinez's against them. He had been there for legendary home runs by Bobby Thomson, Reggie Jackson, Rick Monday, Ozzie Smith, Jack Clark, Kirk Gibson and David Justice -- all but Monday's and Gibson's against the Dodgers. He saw Black Friday against the Philadelphia Phillies and Blue Monday against the Montreal Expos. He saw Fernandomania, Nomomania and Mannywood.

He watched Jackie Robinson and Maury Wills redefine baserunning, and Sandy Koufax, Mike Marshall and Tommy John, each in their own way, redefine pitching. He saw Edwin Snider, whose hair turning white early got him nicknamed Duke; Don Sutton, with his 1970s perm; Steve Garvey, with his 1970s helmet hair; and Manny Ramirez, with his greasy dreadlocks.

He broadcast for the Dodgers in Brooklyn and Los Angeles; against the Giants in New York and San Francisco; against the Braves in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta; against the Expos in Montreal and after their move as the Nationals in Washington. He broadcast World Series games in Brooklyn, The Bronx, the South Side of Chicago, the suburbs of Minneapolis, Baltimore, Oakland, and, of course, Los Angeles, first in South Central at the Coliseum and then downtown at Dodger Stadium.

He broadcast games at Shibe Park and Forbes Field, which opened in 1909, and at Marlins Park, which opened in 2012 and is one of several ballparks that could, conceivably, still be used in 2109. He broadcast at a time when Connie Mack, who was born in 1862 and first played in the major leagues in 1884, was still managing; and he broadcast games pitched by Julio Urías, who was born in 1996 and, if he becomes a star, could still be pitching in the late 2030s.

And while he won't be broadcasting any postseason games, the Dodgers will be in them. Who knows what could happen? He might even be invited to throw out a ceremonial first ball.