December 12, 2000: Bush v. Gore

December 12, 2000, 25 years ago: The Supreme Court of the United States overrules the Supreme Court of the State of Florida. It is the case of Bush v. Gore.

In the Presidential election of November 7, the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, the then Vice President of the United States, Albert Arnold Gore Jr., got more popular votes than the Republican nominee, the Governor of Texas, George Walker Bush: Gore 50,999,897, Bush 50,456,002, a margin of 543,895 votes. Ralph Nader, famous as a consumer advocate since the 1960s, ran as the nominee of the Green Party. He got 2,882,955 votes. Gore got 48.4 percent of the popular vote; Bush, 47.9 percent, Nader, 2.7 percent.

Bush's brother, Governor John Ellis "Jeb" Bush of Florida, saw how close the vote was in his State, and tampered with the voting process, and that one State held everything up for 5 weeks. The best attempt at a recount, in downtown Miami, was interrupted on November 22 by what became known as the Brooks Brothers Riot. As a result, there were votes that were never counted. I don't mean they weren't recounted, I mean they were never counted, not even once.

On December 8, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that all 61,000 "undervotes" had to be counted. Had that happened, Gore surely would have won. The Bush campaign immediately appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. SCOTUS ruled on December 12:

* Four Justices ruled that the recount had to go forward: John Paul Stevens, appointed by Republican President Gerald Ford; David Souter, appointed by Republican President George H.W. Bush, the current Republican nominee's father; Ruth Bader Ginsburg, appointed by the current President, Democrat Bill Clinton; and Stephen Breyer, also appointed by Clinton.

* Five Justices ruled that the recount had to stop immediately, all of them appointed by Republican Presidents: William Rehnquist, appointed by Richard Nixon, and promoted to Chief Justice by Ronald Reagan; Sandra Day O'Connor, appointed by Reagan; Antonin Scalia, appointed by Reagan; Anthony Kennedy, appointed by Reagan; and Clarence Thomas, appointed by the elder George Bush.

It was pretty easily guessed that all 4 Justices who voted to keep the recount going would do so; and that 3 Justices known for being archconservatives -- Rehnquist, Scalia and Thomas -- would vote to stop it.

The question marks were 2 moderates, both known as "swing votes": O'Connor and Kennedy. If either of them had voted to keep the recount going, it would have been kept going, and Gore would have won. Instead, both voted to stop it.

And so, in an election where over 104 million votes had been accepted as counted, only two votes ended up mattering: Those of O'Connor and Kennedy.

It may have been the ghastliest decision in the Court's history, aside from the 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, that said that black people weren't citizens (a decision remedied by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution). It also marked perhaps the 1st time in the nation's history that political conservatives overruled a case based in part on a State's rights.

It may have been surpassed as the ghastliest decision in the Court's history by Trump v. United States in 2024, when the Court ruled that Presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution.

Gore conceded the election the next day, forever doomed to be "the 42nd 1/2 President of the United States" -- a President-elect, but never a President. On January 6, 2001, in his role as the outgoing Vice President, Gore properly read the Electoral Votes, including the 25 of the State of Florida. Whether those votes were properly arrived at is another matter. Congress then certified the Electoral Votes.

On that January 6, no Democrats stormed the U.S. Capitol Building in an attempt to stop that process.

Twenty years later, of course, when it was Republicans who didn't like the result, they did storm the Capitol, and attempt to stop the process. They only delayed the inevitable.

Rehnquist died in office in 2005. O'Connor retired right before that. Souter retired in 2009. Stevens retired in 2010, and died in 2019. Scalia died in office in 2016. Kennedy retired in 2018. Ginsburg died in office in 2020. Breyer retired in 2022. O'Connor died in 2023. Souter died in 2025. As of December 12, 2025, Kennedy, Thomas and Breyer are still alive; while Thomas is the only 1 of the 9 who is still on the Court.

Bush's 2 terms in office were an unmitigated disaster, both domestically (especially economically) and internationally. Had Gore been allowed to accept his victory, he would have governed completely differently, and most Americans, including the conservatives, would have been better off.

December 12, 1965: The Gale Sayers Game

December 12, 1965, 60 years ago: The most amazing one-man, one-game performance in NFL history occurs.

On November 28, 1929, the Chicago Cardinals beat the Chicago Bears, 40-6 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Nevers of the Cardinals set a single-game record by scoring all 40 points: 6 rushing touchdowns and 4 kicked extra points.

On November 25, 1951, the Cleveland Browns beat the Bears, 42-21 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. William "Dub" Jones scored 6 touchdowns, 4 rushing and 2 receiving. His son would also become an NFL star, 1970s Baltimore Colt quarterback Bert Jones.

On December 25, 2020, Christmas Day, the New Orleans Saints beat the Minnesota Vikings, 52-33 at the Superdome in New Orleans. Alvin Kamara rushed for 6 touchdowns.

But what Gale Sayers did on December 12, 1965 was even more amazing. Not just because, unlike the others, he was a rookie, but because the weather was miserable.

*

Sayers scored 22 touchdowns in 1965, setting an NFL record that stood for 10 years. Think about that: 22 NFL touchdowns at age 22: 14 rushing, 6 receiving, a punt return and a kickoff return. On October 17, against the Minnesota Vikings, he had a rushing touchdown, a receiving touchdown, and a kickoff return for a touchdown in the same game. That would not happen in the NFL again until 2016, when Tyreek Hill did it for the Kansas City Chiefs.

After that October 17, 1965 game, Bears founder-owner-general manager-head coach George "Papa Bear" Halas compared Sayers favorably to old-time Bears Red Grange and George McAfee. As it turned out, the Kansas Comet was just getting warmed up.

This was also the rookie season for Dick Butkus, who would revolutionize the position of middle linebacker, becoming the most ferocious player of his generation.

The Bears had opened the season, and thus Sayers' and Butkus' careers, on September 19 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco, and lost 52-24. On December 12, the 49ers came to Wrigley Field, and the Bears wanted revenge. I don't think anybody expected it to take this form, though.

Wrigley Field, with football bleachers added

It rained all day, and the field on which Grange and McAfee -- and Bronko Nagurski, and Bill Osmanski, and Willie Galimore -- had run was practically a swamp. How anybody could get any speed on it was a mystery.

On that field, Gale Sayers had 113 rushing yards, 89 receiving yards, and 134 punt return yards. He scored 4 touchdowns rushing, 1 receiving, and 1 on a punt return. He had 326 total yards. He scored 6 touchdowns. Talk about "announcing your presence with authority."

The Bears pounded the 49ers, 61-20. One of the 49ers' receivers that day was Bernie Casey, who went on to become one of the top black actors of the 1970s.

The Bears finished the season at 9-5. With 2,272 all-purpose yards, 1,371 of them rushing, Sayers was an easy choice for NFL Rookie of the Year.

Sadly, injuries would cut Sayers' career short. He retired after the 1971 season, having played only 68 regular-season games -- enough to add up to a shade over 4 full seasons -- and, like Butkus, who hung on for 2 years longer despite his own ravaged knees, never appeared in a Playoff game, because the players from the Bears' 1963 NFL Champions had gotten old, and, except for the all-time greats Sayers and Butkus, there weren't any good players coming up to replace them.

In 1969, the year immortalized in Sayers' book I Am Third, and in the movie based on it, Brian's Song, starring Billy Dee Williams as Sayers and James Caan as ailing running back Brian Piccolo, the Bears went 1-13.

Halas, in his 70s and set in his ways, gave up coaching after the 1967 season, but it would take another decade or so before he turned operational control of the team over to his son, George Halas Jr., known as "Mugs," and Jim Finks. But Mugs died in 1979, of a heart attack, only 54 years old. Since Papa Bear wasn't willing to give control to his daughter, Virginia, he gave it to her husband, "Big Ed" McCaskey, who handed some to their son, Mike McCaskey. This would result in short-term glory, but not enough, and long-term problems. 

Sayers was elected to both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame in 1977. He was 34 years old, the youngest player ever elected to the Pro Football Hall. He became a successful businessman and a college sports administrator. Butkus was elected to the Pro Football Hall in 1979, and the College Football Hall in 1983. He became an actor, especially known for his commercials for Miller Lite Beer, playing on his tough-guy image.

It took until 1994, in a nationally-televised halftime ceremony during a Monday Night Football game on a miserably rainy and cold Halloween Night, for the Bears to formally retire the Number 40 of Gale Sayers and the Number 51 of Dick Butkus. As the Bears were losing to the Green Bay Packers, their arch-rivals, most of the fans stayed long enough to cheer the honorees and boo Mike McCaskey, and then left without watching the 2nd half.

Sayers died in 2020, Butkus in 2023.

December 12, 1925: The Cardinal-Maroon Controversy

December 12, 1925, 100 years ago: The most controversial championship in the National Football League's history is awarded.

The Chicago Cardinals traced their founding to that of the Morgan Athletic Club, on the South Side of Chicago, in 1898. In 1920, they became charter members of the league that became the NFL. By 1925, head coach Norman Barry could call on some great talent: Backs John "Paddy" Driscoll (also one of the best placekickers of the era), Joseph "Red" Dunn, Bobby Koehler and Hal Erickson.

Paddy Driscoll, from his later tenure

with the Chicago Bears

They lost their opening game to the Hammond Pros, then rattled off 8 straight wins before a scoreless tie with the Chicago Bears, in the 1st NFL game played by Harold "Red" Grange. The Cardinals bounced back just 3 days later, beating the Rock Island Independents. But the following week, they lost 21-7 to the Pottsville Maroons.

Pottsville is about 100 miles northwest of Philadelphia, and around 50 miles northeast of Harrisburg. The Maroons were founded in 1920, and joined the NFL in 1925. At the time, their best player was end Charlie Berry, who also played 13 seasons in Major League Baseball, mostly as a catcher with the "nearby" Philadelphia Athletics.

They opened that season with a win over the Buffalo Bisons, lost 6-0 to the Providence Steam Roller, won 4 straight including a reversal of Providence, lost 20-0 to the Philadelphia-based Frankford Yellow Jackets, and then won 4 straight including a reversal of Frankford, before going to Comiskey Park and beating the Cardinals.

At that point, the Maroons were 10-2, the Cardinals 9-2-1. It was presumed that the NFL season was over, and that the Maroons' win over the Cardinals had clinched the Championship.

But scheduling was not fixed before the season -- one of the reasons why the early NFL was not exactly a "major league" operation. Teams could arrange additional games between them, and get them approved by the NFL office. Cardinals back Art Folz arranged a game with Ambrose McGuirk, owner the Milwaukee Badgers, who had finished 0-5, including an earlier 34-0 loss to the Cardinals. NFL President Joseph Carr approved the game for December 10, and the Cardinals won it, 58-0, lifting them to 10-2-1.

Then it got out that high school players had played for the Badgers under assumed names. McGuirk was ordered to sell the franchise, and it only lasted 1 more season. Folz was banned from the NFL for life. This ban was lifted after 1 year, but he chose not to return. Cardinals owner Chris O'Brien was fined $1,000. However, the game was allowed to remain in the official record. That was the wrong thing to do, but it was done.

Carr ordered both the Cardinals and the Maroons to play 1 more game. Just 2 days later, on December 12, the Cardinals played the only other team that had beaten them, the Hammond Pros -- Hammond is an industrial city in Indiana, just over the State Line from Chicago -- and beat them, 13-0 at Comiskey Park. Cardinals, 11-2-1.

On the same day, the Maroons played the Notre Dame All-Stars, a team of Notre Dame alumni (but not including any of the 1924 season's "Four Horsemen") at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. It was a sellout, and it made the Maroons, by the standards of the time, a lot of money. And they won, 9-7. Maroons, 11-2.

But Carr ruled that, since the All-Stars were not an NFL team, the game couldn't be counted in the NFL standings. Nor could their hastily-arranged game a week later, against the Atlantic City Roses at Bader Field, a field adjacent to the airport of the same name in Atlantic City. The Maroons won, 6-0, but it didn't count. So the final standings were:

1. Chicago Cardinals, 11-2-1

2. Pottsville Maroons, 10-2

3. Detroit Panthers, 8-2-2

4. New York Giants, 8-4 (Their 1st season in the league.)

Two other teams then in existence still are: The Bears finished 9-5-3, surprisingly only 3-3-1 after signing Grange; and the Green Bay Packers finished 8-5.

O'Brien never claimed the 1925 NFL Championship for the Cardinals. But in 1933, desperate for cash in the Great Depression, he sold the team to Charles Bidwill, who did claim it. 

For decades thereafter, the City of Pottsville sent representatives to NFL meetings to plead their case for being awarded the 1925 NFL Championship. They usually got the owners of the later Pennsylvania teams on their side: Art Rooney, and later his son Dan, owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers; and the owners of the Philadelphia Eagles. As recently as 2003, an appeal was made to NFL officials, and rejected.

Did the Cardinals win the title fairly? Yes: Like the Chicago Bears over the Buffalo All-Americans in "the Staley Swindle" of 1921, they didn't break the rules, they used the rules, as they stood at the time. The Maroons tried to use the rules, but it didn't work. Bob Carroll, a football historian, has summed it up properly: "The Cardinals didn't defy the league. Pottsville did. It was a great team, but the owner made a mistake."

The City of Pottsville, a coal-mining community, had a piece of anthracite coal carved into the shape of a football, turning it into a trophy, and labeled it, "POTTSVILLE MAROONS N.F.L. AND WORLD CHAMPIONS 1925." The Maroons folded after the 1929 season, victims of the Depression, and the trophy rested in City Hall until 1964. At that time, surviving members of the '25 Maroons donated it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, where it remains on display.

The Cardinals never got close to the title again until 1947, when owner Charles Bidwill died. With his widow, Violet, becoming the NFL's 1st female owner, they faced the Eagles in back-to-back NFL Championships Games, winning in 1947 and losing in 1948.

In 1949, Violet married Walter Wolfner, a St. Louis-based businessman. In 1960, recognizing that they couldn't compete in Chicago with the Bears, they moved the Cardinals to St. Louis, even though there was already a baseball team named the St. Louis Cardinals.

Violet died in 1962, and her sons, Charles Jr. and Bill, cut their stepfather out of the operation of the team, resulting in Walter filing a lawsuit that turned nasty: He tried to have his adoption of them invalidated, which would turn control of Violet's team over to her husband, him. Except the court ruled that it didn't work that way: They were still her sons, and she left the team to them.

In 1972, Bill Bidwill bought his brother out. In 1974, 1975 and 1982, the Cardinals made the Playoffs, but didn't go far. In 1988, Bill moved them to the Phoenix area, renaming them the Phoenix Cardinals, and then the Arizona Cardinals in 1993. In 1998, they won a Playoff game for the 1st time in 51 years. In the 2008 season, they reached Super Bowl XLIII, but lost it to the Steelers. Bill died in 2019, and passed the team to his son Michael Bidwill. He still claims the 1925 NFL Championship for his team, 100 years after it was awarded, and 65 years after the team left the city where it was won.

Times change: As the Maroons, and the Chicago version of the Cardinals, faded from memory, and the Super Bowl took precedence, the fact that the Cardinals' titles came before the advent of the Super Bowl means that they get discounted: Even before the distance of time became what it is now, NFL fans have come to regard any title won before the Super Bowl -- in the NFL from 1920 to 1969, the AFL from 1960 to 1969, or the AAFC from 1946 to 1949 -- as not a "real" championship.

The Cardinals could have been named the Maroons. When the Morgan Athletic Club started its football team, they ordered used uniforms from the nearby University of Chicago, whose teams were named the Maroons. But when the uniforms arrived, they'd faded, and someone said the shade wasn't maroon, it was cardinal red. So the Cardinals they have been ever since.

Also on December 12, 1925, Theodore Samuel Kennedy was born in Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada. Despite having the same first and middle name as Ted Williams, he was not elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. "Teeder" was, however, elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, as a star for, and eventually Captain of, the Toronto Maple Leafs. And this Ted Kennedy's name really was Theodore, unlike Senator Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy.

Why Don Mattingly and Keith Hernandez Do Not Belong In the Baseball Hall of Fame

Keith Hernandez has 2,182 career hits. Don Mattingly has 2,153. 

Do those look like Hall of Fame-worthy stats to you? Because they sure don't sound like Hallworthy stats to me.

The following 1st basemen with fewer than 2,200 hits are in the Baseball Hall of Fame, having played all or most of their careers from 1900 onward:

Bill Terry 2,193

Harmon Killebrew 2,086

Johnny Mize 2,011

Gil Hodges 1,921

Dick Allen 1,848

George "High Pockets" Kelly 1,778

Hank Greenberg 1,628

Career home runs: Killebrew 573, Hodges 370, Mize 358, Allen 351, Greenberg 331, Mattingly 222, Hernandez 162, Terry 154, Kelly 148. Think about that: Mattingly and Hernandez combined would barely be 2nd on this list.

Career RBIs: Killebrew 1,584, Mize 1,337, Greenberg 1,274, Hodges also 1,274, Allen 1,119, Mattingly 1,099, Terry 1,078, Hernandez 1,071, Kelly 1,020.

Career OPS+: Greenberg 159, Mize 158, Allen 156, Killebrew 143, Terry 136, Hernandez 128, Mattingly 127, Hodges 120, Kelly 109.

.300 batting average seasons: Terry 11 (including the National League's last .400 season, in 1930), Greenberg 9, Mize 9, Kelly 7, Allen 7, Mattingly 7, Hernandez 6 (and just missed 2 others), Hodges 2, Killebrew none (topping out at .288).

30+ home run seasons: Killebrew 10, Greenberg 6, Hodges 6, Allen 6, Mize 3 (plus once leading the NL with 28, but also with 51), Mattingly 3, Kelly and Terry none (despite each playing home games in the Polo Grounds, although Kelly did once lead the NL with 23), Hernandez none (peaked at 18).

100+ RBI seasons: Killebrew 9, Mize 8, Hodges 7 (just missing an 8th), Greenberg 7, Terry 6, Kelly 5 (just missed a 6th, and once led the NL with 94), Mattingly 5, Allen 3, Hernandez 1 (but just missed a 2nd). And Greenberg missed nearly 4 seasons due to war, Mize 3.

World Series appearances: Hodges 6, Mize 5, Greenberg 4, Kelly 4, Terry 4, Hernandez 2, Killebrew 1, Allen 0, Mattingly 0.

Yes, I know, "World Series appearances" is a team stat. Well, these guys contributed to that many of them.

You say Hernandez and Mattingly had back injuries that shortened their careers? So did Greenberg, who retired at age 36. Hodges had a knee injury that ended his status as a productive player at 35.

Kelly is often cited as one of the "Frisch Five," players the Veterans Committee elected due to the advocacy of former teammate and legitimate Hall-of-Famer Frankie Frisch. For this reason, he is on a lot of people's lists of "If you had to drop 5 players from the Hall of Fame, who would be on it?" So barely exceeding him, statistically, doesn't help a case. Not exceeding him at all hurts it.

Along with Hernandez and Mattingly, the only one of these considered to be a good-fielding 1st baseman, let alone a great one, is Hodges. In his time, he was as highly regarded with the glove as Hernandez and Mattingly were in theirs. But, in all 3 cases, that may have been due to the New York media pushing them into the public imagination as such.

Baseball-Reference.com has a "Hall of Fame Monitor," on which a "Likely HOFer" is at 100. Mattingly is at 134, suggesting that he's an easy choice. Hernandez is at 86, suggesting that he falls well short.

B-R also has "Hall of Fame Standards," which is weighted more toward career achievement, and on which the "Average HOFer" is at 50. Mattingly is at 34, and Hernandez is at 32, suggesting that neither comes close.

B-R also has "Similarity Scores," which, weighted toward players of the same position but not completely tied to them (except for pitchers), which shows the 10 players who are most statistically similar to that player.

For Hernandez, those players are, in order from most statistically similar and descending: Wally Joyner, Mark Grace, Hal McRae, Joe Kuhel, Ken Griffey Sr., Chris Chambliss, Cecil Cooper, José Cruz Sr., Joe Judge and Bob Elliott. None of those players is in the Hall of Fame, and the only one who ever seems to get any consideration for it is Grace.

For Mattingly, those players are Cooper, Joyner, McRae, Kirby Puckett, Will Clark, Adrián González, Magglio Ordóñez, Jeff Conine, Tony Oliva and... Hernandez. Puckett and Oliva are in the Hall of Fame, but Puckett, despite being elected in his 1st year of eligibility, is a borderline case; and Oliva had an injury-shortened career, and had to wait until the Veterans' Committee elected him when he was 84 years old. Hernandez and Clark also get consideration, but neither is likely to ever get in.

Based on career offensive statistics, neither Don Mattingly nor Keith Hernandez belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

What about defense? Hernandez was awarded 11 Gold Gloves, Mattingly 9. If a player is the best ever, defensively, at his position, that should be enough to get him into the Hall of Fame, even if he's a flat-out bad hitter.

Ozzie Smith is often called the best-fielding shortstop ever. He is in, and he couldn't hit sand if he fell off a boardwalk. Bill Mazeroski is often called the best-fielding 2nd baseman ever. He is in, and he was an ordinary hitter, who happens to be the only man ever to win a World Series Game 7 with a home run.

Brooks Robinson is, without much doubt, the best-fielding 3rd baseman ever. He is in, and he was a good hitter: While he played 23 seasons, he played them in a pitcher's park, and still managed to collect 2,848 hits, including 268 home runs. He was named American League Most Valuable Player in 1964, in a season in which he hit his career peaks of batting average, home runs and RBIs, leading the League in RBIs.

Is Keith Hernandez the best-fielding 1st baseman of all time? Is Don Mattingly the best-fielding 1st baseman of all time? The fact that their careers largely coincided shows that neither one is, definitively, the best-fielding 1st baseman even of his own time, or even in his own city at that time.

So the best argument for either one gets canceled out by not just the presence, but the proximity, of the other. This wasn't like the 1950s arguments in New York, over center fielders Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Duke Snider; or over catchers Yogi Berra and Roy Campanella. It's more like over shortstops Phil Rizzuto and Pee Wee Reese, who were sparkplugs rather than sluggers.

Were they great defensive 1st basemen? Yes. Was either good enough at it to put them over the top if they are, offensively, borderline cases? Yes. The problem is, their advocates are suggesting that, offensively, they are not merely borderline cases, but good cases. And they're not. Not even when compared to other borderline cases like Hodges and Allen.

(Allen, like Killebrew, started as a 3rd baseman, but was awful, and, in those pre-DH days, his bat had to be kept in the lineup, so they moved him to 1st base, where it was thought he would do the last damage. That worked for Allen and Killebrew. It did not work for former outfielder Dick Stuart, a.k.a. "Dr. Strangeglove," who became Allen's backup on the 1965 Philadelphia Phillies.)

Admit it: If you want either Mattingly or Hernandez in the Hall of Fame, it's because you grew up in New York City, or somewhere near it, in the 1980s, and you love him. It's not because he deserves election. Because he doesn't. Neither one of them does.

And that has nothing to do with character, in either case. It's based solely on performance. Neither one was quite good enough.

December 11 & 12, 1975: Big Trades In New York Baseball

Mickey Rivers

December 11, 1975, 50 years ago: The New York Yankees trade right fielder Bobby Bonds to the California Angels for center fielder Mickey Rivers and pitcher Ed Figueroa.

The Yankees also trade George "Doc" Medich to the Pittsburgh Pirates for 2nd baseman Willie Randolph and pitchers Ken Brett and Dock Ellis. (Unlike Medich, "Dock" was his actual birth name.)

Early in the 1977 season, the Yankees traded Ellis, outfielder Larry Murray and infielder Marty Perez to the Oakland Athletics for pitcher Mike Torrez. Right before that season, they sent outfielder Oscar Gamble, pitcher LaMarr Hoyt, pitcher Bob Polinsky and $250,000 to the Chicago White Sox for shortstop Russell "Bucky" Dent.

Just before George Steinbrenner bought the team, but after he had begun negotiations, so he probably gave his okay to it, the Yankees sent catcher John Ellis, 3rd baseman Jerry Kenney, and outfielders Charlie Spikes and Rusty Torres to Cleveland for 3rd baseman Graig Nettles and catcher Jerry Moses. A year after that, the Yankees sent pitcher Lindy McDaniel to the Kansas City Royals for outfielder Lou Piniella.

While the White Sox got a Cy Young season out of Hoyt, and McDaniel helped make the Royal pitching staff one of the best in baseball (more due to his teaching than to his pitching, as he was near the end of his career), each and every one of these trades was genius for Yankee GM Gabe Paul (especially since he was the Indian GM for the Nettles trade, knowing he was going to the Yankees, in what was clearly a conflict of interest).

Specifically about the Rivers & Figueroa for Bonds trade: With the San Francisco Giants, the team for whom his son Barry would later become a legend, Bobby Bonds was one of the best players in the game, a rare combination of good power and great speed. Steinbrenner couldn't resist, and sent the beloved Bobby Murcer to Candlestick Park to get him. (Murcer would be reacquired in 1979.)

Bonds was a classic Brian Cashman player: Batted righthanded, had a lot of power, struck out too much (at the time, he had seasons of 189 and 187 strikeouts, then MLB records), took risky chances on the bases that hurt often enough to make people think the times it paid off weren't worth it, and had his season curtailed by injury. He had good stats for the Yankees in 1975, but didn't really fit in. It wasn't a question of should he be traded, but for what.

Figueroa joined a rotation that already had the 1st big free agent signing, Jim "Catfish" Hunter, and Ellis. It would soon have prospect Ron Guidry. Figgy was key for the 1976 Pennant and the 1977 World Series. In 1978, he became the 1st Puerto Rican-born pitcher to win 20 games in a season. He remains the only one.

Ed Figueroa

At the time of the trade, the Yankees were managed by Billy Martin. Rivers was Billy's kind of player: A contact hitter with a little power, great speed, smarter on the bases than Bonds, and a good fielder. He was a little flaky, but he was the ideal leadoff hitter for the late 1970s Yankees.

Randolph was a Martin-type player, too: A 2nd baseman like Martin had been, got on base, ran well, good defense. He would remain their starting 2nd baseman for 13 years, and would receive a Plaque in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park.

Willie Randolph

The Yankees would need a June 15 deadline day trade to secure the American League Pennant in 1976, but lost the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. A few more deals were made, and they won the World Series in 1977 and 1978.

*

December 12, 1975: The day after the Rivers/Figueroa and Randolph trades, the New York Mets trade right fielder Rusty Staub and pitcher Bill Laxton to the Detroit Tigers for pitcher Mickey Lolich and outfielder Billy Baldwin.

Staub wore Number 4 in his first tenure with the Mets.

I decided this photo, from his second tenure with them,

was the best picture I had of him.

Laxton and Baldwin (no relation to the Long Island acting family that includes a Billy Baldwin) are footnotes in baseball history. The Mets needed pitching, and thought that Lolich, a hero of 2 postseason runs for the Tigers, had something left, so they were willing to give up Le Grand Orange in his prime.

Lolich went 8-13 for a decent (82-80) Mets team in 1976, but feuded with team management, and retired after the season. After sitting out the entire 1977 season, he was granted free agency, and pitched 2 more seasons as a reliever for the San Diego Padres. He finished with a career record of 217-191, and more strikeouts than any lefthanded pitcher in history, 2,832. (A few lefties have since surpassed that total.)

As for Staub, maybe he wouldn't have hit as well in Shea's dimensions and wind as he did toward Tiger Stadium's short right field porch. But the Mets missed his bat: He averaged 19 home runs and 106 RBIs over the next 3 seasons. This was one of the trades that made the Tom Seaver trade of 1977 a confirmation of the already-present collapse, not the start of one.

By the time the Mets got Staub back, he was fat and slow, and little more than an occasionally-good pinch hitter. He finished in 1985 with a .279 lifetime batting average, and 2,716 hits including 292 home runs. He is the only player to collect at least 500 hits with 4 different teams: The Houston Astros, then the Montreal Expos, then the Mets, then the Tigers. Along with Ty Cobb, Gary Sheffield and Alex Rodriguez, he is 1 of 4 players in the major leagues to hit a home run before his 20th birthday and hit one after his 40th birthday.

And yet, both Lolich and Staub have, thus far, fallen a little short of consideration for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

December 10, 1995: The Eagles Stop Emmitt Smith On 4th & 1 -- Twice

December 10, 1995, 30 years ago: A cold night at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Eagles host the Dallas Cowboys. This is a rivalry that defies geography, due to the oddity of a Dallas team being in the NFC Eastern Division, along with Philadelphia, the New York Giants, and the team then known as the Washington Redskins. (From 1970 to 2001, the Division would also, strangely, including the team that began the period as the St. Louis Cardinals, and ended it as the Arizona Cardinals.)

The Cowboys had won Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII, and lost the 1994 NFC Championship Game. The Eagles had been in contention throughout, and both were in Playoff contention again: The Cowboys were 10-3; the Eagles, 8-5.

Late in the 2nd quarter, the Cowboys led, 17-3, and blew it. With about 9 minutes left in the 4th quarter, the score was tied, 17-17. The Cowboys had a 4th & 1 on their own 26-yard line. The Eagle defense, including William Fuller, Danny Stubbs, Mike Mamula, William Thomas, and the man then ripped as the dirtiest player in the game, Bill Romanowski, knew they had one job: Stop the man the Cowboys were obviously going to give the ball, Emmitt Smith, then the best running back in the game, from gaining one yard.

If Smith got that yard, the Cowboys would have a new set of downs, and plenty of time to get within range of a game-winning field goal. If he didn't, the ball would be turned over on downs, and the Eagles would have the ball inside Cowboys territory.

Sure enough, Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman gave the ball to Smith, and the Eagles stopped him. The Vet erupted in cheers.

Except... Ed Hochuli, not one of the NFL's most-respected referees, ruled that time-out had been called before the snap. It was the kind of thing that had led many NFL fans over the last 25 years to believe that the officials fixed games for the Cowboys. Regardless of whether that was true, the Cowboys got another chance. So the Eagles had to do it again.

Eagles radio announcer Merrill Reese had the call: "They give it to Smith, and they stop him again! They stop him again! And this time, they can't take it away from the Eagles!"

It became known as "The Groundhog Day Game," after the "time loop" movie starring Bill Murray, 2 years earlier.

The Eagles tried to run down the clock as best they could. Three running plays by Rickey Watters gained a total of 4 yards. With 3 minutes left, Gary Anderson kicked a 42-yard field goal, putting the Eagles up, 20-17.

Out of timeouts, with only the 2-minute warning to help them, the Cowboys got no closer than the Eagles' 47-yard line, and the 20-17 lead held. The Eagles had won, and 66,198 fans went wild.

The Eagles finished 10-6, made the Playoffs, and won in the 1st round, beating the Detroit Lions, 58-37. Alas, the Cowboys finished 12-4, won the NFC Eastern Division, and got their revenge in the Playoffs, beating the Eagles, 30-11 at Texas Stadium, before winning Super Bowl XXX.

December 10, 1935: The 1st Heisman Trophy Is Awarded

Jay Berwanger

December 10, 1935, 90 years ago: The Heisman Trophy is awarded for the 1st time, to Jay Berwanger.

John Jacob Berwanger was born on March 19, 1914 in Dubuque, Iowa. Like every other football star of the era, he played both offense and defense, in the backfield in his case. Like baseball legend Honus Wagner, he was of German descent, but nicknamed "The Flying Dutchman."

In a 1934 game for the University of Chicago against Michigan, he collided with their center, and left him a permanent scar near his eye. That Michigan center was Gerald Ford, who later became the President of the United States. Both men ended up in the College Football Hall of Fame. In his senior year, 1935, he rushed for 577 yards, passed for 405, returned kickoffs for 359, scored 6 touchdowns, and kicked 5 points-after-touchdown. 

And yet, both seasons, the Chicago Maroons went only 4-4. This was part of a decline of a once-great program: In 1939, they went 2-6, closing on November 25 with a 46-0 home loss to Illinois. On December 22, the University of Chicago dropped its football program. It reinstated its program in 1969, on an NCAA Division III level, where they remain. The Big Ten Conference dropped to a Big Nine, until 1953, when they admitted Michigan State.

As a pre-television football star at a school that no longer plays at the top level, Berwanger probably would have been forgotten, if not for a vote made by the Downtown Athletic Club in New York. They decided to recognize "the most valuable college football player east of the Mississippi." The following year, the Club's athletic director, coaching legend John Heisman, died, and the award was renamed for him: The Heisman Memorial Trophy. It was also expanded to allow for the best player in the entire country.

The trophy, designed by sculptor Frank Eliscu, is modeled after Ed Smith, a leading player in 1934 for New York University (NYU). The two men were classmates at Manhattan's George Washington High School, and so, commissioned by the Downtown Athletic Club for a commissioned sculpture of a football player, he asked Smith to pose in his uniform.

Smith did not realize until 1982, when Sports Illustrated decided to have the model tracked down, that the sculpture for which he had posed had become the Heisman Trophy. The DAC presented Smith with a Heisman Trophy of his own in 1985, on its 50th Anniversary.

The trophy is made out of cast bronze, 13.5 inches tall, 14 inches long, 16 inches wide, and weighs 45 pounds. From its inception in 1935, the statue was cast by Dieges & Clust in New York, and later Providence, Rhode Island, until 1980, when Dieges and Clust was sold to Herff Jones. Since 2005, the trophy has been made by MTM Recognition in Del City, Oklahoma.

The 1st vote went to Berwanger, who received 43 percent of the votes. For as long as the Trophy is awarded, he will be remembered as its 1st winner. It was awarded at the Downtown Athletic Club in Lower Manhattan from 1936 to 2000. The DAC's facilities were ruined as a result of the 9/11 attacks, and so the Yale Club took over hosting duties in 2001.

The DAC went out of business, and the Heisman Trust was created to award the Trophy and to do the other things that the DAC had done. The Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square hosted in 2002, '03 and '04. From 2005 to 2019, the ceremony was held across the street at the PlayStation Theater in Times Square. The COVID-19 epidemic prevented a full ceremony for 2020, and so the award was presented at the ESPN Studios in Bristol, Connecticut.  Since 2021, it has been held at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

As the player of the year, Berwanger was an easy choice to be the 1st pick in the 1st-ever NFL Draft, the following February. He was chosen by the team with the previous season's worst record: The Philadelphia Eagles.

But the Eagles also made the 1st-ever puzzling Draft Day move: Team owners Bert Bell (later to be the Commissioner of the NFL) and Lud Wray had heard that Berwanger was going to demand $1,000 per game (NFL contracts were per game back then, not per season), and they didn't think they could afford that, so they traded Berwanger's rights to the Chicago Bears, in exchange for tackle Art Buss. Buss played 2 seasons for the Eagles, having already played 2 for the Bears, and this is the most interesting thing about him.

But at least the Eagles got something for Berwanger's rights. The Bears got nothing. At first, Berwanger chose not to sign for the Bears, or any team for that matter, because he wanted to maintain his amateur status, so that he could compete in the decathlon at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Certainly, a worthy goal, and one that Bears owner, general manager and head coach George Halas could respect. The Olympics would be in early August, and the Bears' 1st game wouldn't be until September 20. Halas could afford to bide his time.

But Berwanger didn't make the Olympic team, and the Gold Medal in the decathlon went to another American, Glenn Morris, who had also played football, at Colorado A&M University (which became Colorado State in 1958). So Berwanger went to Halas, and asked for $15,000 for the season -- which worked out to $1,250 a game, more than the Eagles thought he would demand.

Halas was known for his cheapness, but was willing to go as high as $13,500. Berwanger declined, and got a job with a Chicago-based rubber company, and also coached at the University of Chicago until it dropped its football program in 1940. He never played a down of professional football, and told an interviewer that he regretted not having accepted Halas' offer.

Ed Smith was chosen in the 3rd round of that 1st draft, by the Washington Redskins. He played for them in 1936, and for the Green Bay Packers in 1937. He later worked for the Otis Elevator Company, and lived until 1998. Trophy sculptor Frank Eliscu lived until 1996. Berwanger died after a lengthy battle with lung cancer, at his home in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, Illinois, on June 26, 2002, at the age of 88.