September 29, 1946: The Rams Debut & Desegregate the NFL

Kenny Washington

September 29, 1946, 75 years ago: The Rams, who played in Cleveland from 1936 to 1945, play their 1st home game in Los Angeles, making them the city's 1st real major league sports team. (Previous pro football teams had "Los Angeles" as their name, but their leagues could hardly be called "major.") The defending NFL Champions lose to the Philadelphia Eagles, 25-14.

This game is even more significant than the city's debut on the major league stage, because it is the NFL debut for halfback Kenny Washington and end Woody Strode, both of whom had played for UCLA at the Rams' new home, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. They became the 1st black players in the NFL in 13 years, ending the color bar.

Woody Strode

Marion Motley and Bill Willis of the Cleveland Browns were doing the same in the All-America Football Conference that Autumn, so pro football had "four Jackie Robinsons," a few months before baseball had one. (Robinson had also played football at UCLA, and ran in the same backfield as Washington in 1939 and '40. In between UCLA and the Rams, Washington had played for the Hollywood Bears of the Pacific Coast Professional Football League.)

Washington played 3 seasons in the NFL before knee injuries forced him to retire at age 30. He worked for the Los Angeles Police Department, and when the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958, he became a scout for them. His son Kenny Jr. played in their farm system. But Kenny Sr. battled ill health, and died in 1971, only 52 years old. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, UCLA retired his Number 13, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission inducted him into the stadium's Court of Honor.

Strode only played the one season with the Rams, then went to Canada, helping the Calgary Stampeders win their 1st Grey Cup in 1948. He became a professional wrestler and an actor, notable for his role as the Ethiopian gladiator Draba in the 1960 film Spartacus. He seemed to specialize in Westerns, and his last role, filmed just prior to his death in 1994, showed him as an old man watching Sharon Stone walk into town in The Quick and the Dead.

Motley and Willis, both Ohio natives, helped the Browns dominate the AAFC winning its title all 4 years, before coming into the NFL and winning their title in 1950, beating the Rams in a classic NFL Championship Game. (By that point, both Washington and Strode were out of football.) Motley, who had played at the University of Nevada, where his Number 41 was retired, remained with the Browns until 1953, and last played with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1955. With the Browns, he wore 76 and then 36. He was frustrated by his attempts to gain a coaching job, and worked in various capacities.

Marion Motley

Willis had his Number 99 retired by Ohio State, whom he'd helped win the 1942 National Championship. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. He also remained with the Browns through 1953, usually wearing Number 30. He worked with the City of Cleveland Department of Recreation.

Bill Willis

He and Motley were both elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Paul Zimmerman, the Sports Illustrated pro football expert known as Dr. Z, called Motley the greatest player he'd ever seen. Motley died in 1999. Willis, the last survivor of the 4, lived until 2007.

Also on this day, the Yankees close out a lackluster regular season with the sweep of a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Athletics, 6-0 and 2-1 at Shibe Park. Joe DiMaggio goes 1-for-7 across the 2 games.

These are the last games for Ed Barrow as general manager: Every bit as unhappy as recently resigned manager Joe McCarthy was with the new ownership of Del Webb, Dan Topping and Larry MacPhail, he resigns as GM on December 31.

Other MLB scores on this day:

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lose to the Boston Braves, 4-0 at Ebbets Field. Mort Cooper pitches a 4-hit shutout.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-3 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. This Cardinal loss, combined with the Dodgers' loss, forces the 1st-ever official Playoff for either major league's Pennant. The Cardinals will sweep the best-2-out-of-3 series.

* The New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-1 at the Polo Grounds.

* The Washington Senators beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ray Scarborough allowed 7 hits, including a single by Ted Williams, but kept the shutout. Nevertheless, the Sox had run away with the American League Pennant, and faced the Cardinals in the World Series.

* The Cincinnati Reds swept a doubleheader from the Pittsburgh Pirates, at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Reds won the opener 1-0, as Johnny Vander Meer pitches a shutout, but, unlike those famed back-to-back games in 1938, it is not also a no-hitter: He allows 6 hits. The Reds won the nightcap 3-2.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-1 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (It was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.)

* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-7 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

In the NFL, in addition to the Rams losing to the Eagles:

* The Washington Redskins and the Pittsburgh Steelers played to a tie, 14-14 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers, 30-7 at Green Bay City Stadium, the predecessor to Lambeau Field.

(The following day, the Chicago Cardinals beat the Detroit Lions, 34-14 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The day after that, the New York Giants beat a team named, believe it or not, the Boston Yanks, 17-0 at Braves Field in Boston.)

*

September 29, 1621, 400 years ago: What we now call "The First Thanksgiving" is held at Plymouth, Massachusetts, about 40 miles southeast of present-day Boston. Attending the feast were 53 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans of the Wampanoag tribe.

The foods served that day included items we would now recognize as traditional in Thanksgiving dinners: Turkey, berries, fruit, and various squashes, including pumpkins. Also served at that meal were some items which would not become traditional to Thanksgiving, but would become traditional to what would become known as New England. These included fish, lobster and clams.

Since no game that would later be called "football" was brought over by the Pilgrims, it's unlikely that such a game was played at Plymouth Plantation that day. There may have been games of some kind, but not football.

September 29, 1891, 130 years ago: A statue of Diana, the Roman goddess of the Moon and hunting, equivalent in Greek mythology to Artemis, is placed atop the 485-foot tower at Madison Square Garden, at 26th Street and Madison Avenue, overlooking Madison Square itself.

The building, the 2nd to bear the name after the 1879 version, was designed by renowned architect Stanford White, who put his penthouse apartment atop the tower, and commissioned the statue on top of that. The 18-foot-high statue, topping a complex that also includes an 8,000-seat arena, a 1,500-seat concert hall, and a 1,200-seat theater, was sculpted by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and shows Diana pulling back her bowstring, ready to fire an arrow. It also acts as a weather vane.

The tower of the 2nd Garden, topped by the Diana statue

White and Saint-Gaudens decide that it's too big, and Saint-Gaudens replaces it in 1893 with a 13-foot version. The original was given to the World's Columbia Exposition in Chicago, the World's Fair designed to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World (in 1492, so it was a year late). That statue was lost in a fire the next year.

Both statues are nudes, and the era's critics and self-appointed moral arbiters hated them. In particular, a critic from Philadelphia ripped the original in a newspaper. Ironically, when the 2nd Garden was torn down in 1925 to make way for the New York Life Building, the 2nd Diana was donated to... the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Yes, the building whose steps Sylvester Stallone ran up in the Rocky movies. It's still there.

Neither White nor Saint-Gaudens lived to see the demolition of their work. White was murdered in 1906, in the rooftop theater he'd built, by Harry Thaw, who found out that White had seduced his wife, actress Evelyn Nesbit -- before she and Thaw had ever even met. White was 52 years old, would probably have died soon anyway (an autopsy showed liver and kidney disease), and one of the worst-kept secrets in New York was that he was a molester, at least of teenage girls and possibly of boys as well. After 2 mistrials, Thaw was found not guilty by reason of insanity. And Saint-Gaudens died of cancer a year after Thaw, just 59.

Boxing promoter George "Tex" Rickard built the 3rd Madison Square Garden at 50th Street and 8th Avenue in 1925. It became what the Madison Square Garden Corporation now claims the current building is, "The World's Most Famous Arena," but, unlike its 1891-1925 predecessor, it was not an architectural marvel. The current Garden, at 32nd Street and 7th Avenue, opened on February 11, 1968, so it's now past its 50th Anniversary.

September 29, 1901, 120 years ago: Verne Clark Lewellen is born in Lincoln, Nebraska. The 2-way back won 3 straight NFL Championships for the Green Bay Packers, in 1929, 1930 and 1931.

Green Bay is in Brown County, Wisconsin. He and teammate LaVern "Lavvie" Dilweg were both practicing attorneys. In 1928, they ran against each other for Brown County District Attorney, and Lewellen won. He was re-elected in 1930, but defeated in 1932. Dilweg would later be elected to Congress in 1942, but was defeated in 1944. After their defeats, neither ever ran for public office again.
Dilweg died in 1968, Lewellen in 1980. Both are in the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, but neither is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Both should be, but the Hall voters have given short shrift to the League's pioneer players.

Also on this day, Enrico Fermi (no middle name) is born in Rome. In 1939, already Italy's greatest physicist, he came to America to work on the Manhattan Project, to build the atomic bomb before Nazi Germany could. On December 2, 1942, in a laboratory underneath Stagg Field, the football stadium at the University of Chicago, he conducted the 1st self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

He died of cancer in 1954, having lived to see his work turned into a usable bomb, World War II ended because of it, the Cold War started because of it, the development of the hydrogen bomb, and the Soviet Union obtaining both the uranium and the hydrogen version.

September 29, 1921, 100 years ago: The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-1 at Forbes Field. Making his major league debut for the Pirates is Hazen Shirley Cuyler. With a name like that, the 23-year-old Michigan native needs a nickname, so they play off his surname and call him "Kiki" Cuyler. Batting 4th and playing right field, he goes 0-for-4.

He got better. He batted .321 for his career, and led the National League in stolen bases 4 times. He helped the Pirates win the 1925 World Series and the 1927 NL Pennant; then helped the Chicago Cubs win the Pennant in 1932. In 1934, he was named to the All-Star Game. He died of a heart attack in 1950, only 51 years old, and was later elected to the Hall of Fame.

September 29, 1931, 90 years ago: Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg is born in Malmö, Sweden. After appearing in silly science fiction films, such as Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, Anita Ekberg moved to Italy, and starred in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita, each making the other a legend. She died in 2015.

September 29, 1941, 80 years ago: Joe Louis defends the Heavyweight Championship of the World at the Polo Grounds in New York. He knocks Lou Nova out in the 6th round.

Also on this day, Richard Benjamin Reese is born outside Toledo in Leipsic, Ohio. A 1st baseman, he was with the Minnesota Twins when they won the 1965 American League Pennant, and the 1969 and '70 AL Western Division titles. He played for them when the Twins lost the 1967 Pennant-deciding finale to the Boston Red Sox, and in Catfish Hunter's perfect game for the Oakland Athletics in 1968. He is still alive.

Also on this day, Nazi troops kill 33,771 Jews in a ravine outside Kiev, Ukraine. It becomes known as the Babi Yar Massacre. Over the course of World War II, up to 150,000 people -- Jews and others -- would be killed by the Nazis at Babi Yar.

September 29, 1951, 70 years ago: Duke University defeats the University of Pittsburgh, 19-14 at Pitt Stadium. NBC broadcasts the game. It is the 1st nationwide television broadcast of a live sporting event. No broadcast survives.  Four days later, NBC will do the same of the deciding game of the Dodger-Giant playoff.

Also on this day, Thomas W. Cahill dies in South Orange, Essex County, New Jersey at age 86. He founded the United States Soccer Federation, the governing body of American soccer, in 1913, and became the national team's 1st head coach in 1986.

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September 29, 1954: Willie Mays makes the most famous defensive play in the history of sports, remembered as simply The Catch -- Capital T, Capital C.

It was Game 1 of the World Series. The New York Giants had won the National League Pennant, beating out their crosstown rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Cleveland Indians had won the American League Pennant, winning League record 111 games to beat out the Yankees, who had won the last 5 World Series. Indeed, the last 8 AL Pennants had been won by the Indians (1948 & '54) and the Yankees (1947, '49, '50, '51, '52 & '53).

Game 1 was played at the Polo Grounds in New York. The game was tied 2-2 in the top of the 8th, but the Indians got Larry Doby on 2nd base and Al Rosen on 1st with nobody out. Giant manager Leo Durocher pulled starting pitcher Sal Maglie, and brought in Don Liddle, a lefthander, to face the lefty slugger Vic Wertz, and only Wertz.

Liddle pitched, and Wertz swung, and drove the ball out to center field. The Polo Grounds was shaped more like a football stadium, so its foul poles were incredibly close: 279 feet to left field and 257 to right. In addition, the upper deck overhung the field a little, so the distances were actually even closer. But if you didn't pull the ball, it was going to stay in play. Most of the center field fence was 425 feet from home plate. A recess in center field, leading to a blockhouse that served as both teams' clubhouses -- why they were in center field, instead of under the stands, connected to the dugouts, is a mystery a long-dead architect will have to answer -- was 483 feet away.

Mays ran back to try to catch the ball. In mid-stride, he thumped his fist into his mitt. His teammates, who had seen this gesture before, knew that this meant that he thought he would catch it. But most fans, who didn't watch him every day, didn't know this. Watching on television (NBC, Channel 4 in New York), they figured the ball would go over his head, scoring Doby and Rosen, and that Wertz, not exactly fleet of foot, had a chance at a triple, or even an inside-the-park home run.

Willie has said many times that he was already thinking of the throw back to the infield, hoping to hold Doby to only 3rd base. With his back to the ball all the way, he caught the ball over his head, stopped, pivoted, and threw the ball back to the infield. Doby did get only to 3rd.

It has been argued by many, including Bob Feller, the pitching legend sitting on the Indians' bench that day, that the reason so much is made of this catch is that it was in New York, it was in the World Series, and it was on television. "It was far from the best catch I've ever seen," Feller said. Mays himself would say he'd made better catches. But none more consequential.

Durocher yanked Liddle, and brought in Marv Grissom. Upon reaching the Giant dugout, Liddle told his teammates, "Well, I got my man." Yeah, Don. You got him. As Jim Bouton, then a 15-year-old Giant fan who'd recently moved from Rochelle Park, Bergen County, New Jersey to the Chicago suburb of Chicago Heights, Illinois, would later say, "Yeah, surrrre!"

Grissom walked Dale Mitchell to load the bases with only 1 out. But he struck out Dave Pope, and got Jim Hegan to fly out, to end the threat. When the Giants got back to the dugout, they told Willie what a hard catch it was. He said, "You kiddin'? I had that one all the way."

The game went to extra innings. Future Hall-of-Famer Bob Lemon went the distance for the Tribe, but in the bottom of the 10th, he walked Mays, who stole 2nd. Then he intentionally walked Hank Thompson to set up an inning-ending double play. It didn't happen: Durocher sent Dusty Rhodes up to pinch-hit for left fielder Monte Irvin, and Rhodes hit the ball down the right-field line. It just sort of squeaked into the stands.

The game was over: Giants 5, Indians 2. The Indians, heavily favored to win the Series, never recovered, and the Giants swept. The Series ended on October 2, tied with 1932 for the 2nd-earliest end to a World Series. (In 1918, the season was shortened due to World War I, and ended on September 11.)

Willie is 90 years old. He is the last living player from this game, 67 years later.

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September 29, 1957: The Giants play their last game at the Polo Grounds, their owner Horace Stoneham having already announced that they're moving to San Francisco. Unlike the Brooklyn Dodgers, who played their last home game at Ebbets Field 5 days earlier, they have a farewell ceremony, including Blanche McGraw, widow of longtime manager John, who said that the move would have broken his heart.

There are 6 men still alive who played in this game. For the Giants, Mays and Ray Crone. For the Pirates, Bill Mazeroski, Dick Groat, Bob Skinner and Frank Thomas. (That's the Big Donkey, not the later Big Hurt.)

As for the Dodgers: Their last game as a Brooklyn team is also on this day, and it is a 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium. Ed Bouchee homers for the Phils, and Seth Morehead outpitches Roger Craig.

Since moving to the site in 1890, including replacing the original stadium that burned down in 1911, the Giants had won 15 National League Pennants, and won the World Series 5 times: In 1905, 1921, 1922, 1933 and 1954.

The Pittsburgh Pirates, unable to even score off the Dodgers on Tuesday night, beat the Giants on Sunday afternoon, 9-1. The crowd is a pathetically small 11,606, and storms the field after the game. At one point, they gather at the center field blockhouse that included both teams' locker rooms, chanting for Mays, "We want Willie!" And, to the tune of "Good Night, Ladies," they sing, "We want Stoneham! We want Stoneham! We want Stoneham, with a rope around his neck!"

Stoneham had already said that the fans had no one to blame but themselves, as they hadn't shown up in sufficient numbers, borne out by the small crowd at the finale: "I feel bad for the kids, but I haven't seen too many of their fathers lately."

The last pitch by a Brooklyn Dodger is thrown by an erratic (so far) reliever from Brooklyn, Sandy Koufax. The last Brooklyn play is left fielder Bob Kennedy flying to center fielder Richie Ashburn. Koufax, Roger Craig and Joe Pignatano, all Dodgers, are the last surviving players from this game.

It is also, though no one foresees the Winter's tragedy, the last game for Roy Campanella, and his last at-bat is also a fly to Ashburn. With both teams well out of the race, only 9,886 attend the Brooklyn Dodgers' semi-official funeral.

That is not the case at the 1st game at the new City Stadium in Green Bay, Wisconsin, as the Packers move out of the old one, which was too small, and 32,132 see them beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Bears, 21-17.

The stadium was renamed Lambeau Field after team founder Earl "Curly" Lambeau died in 1965. By that point, capacity was be 50,861. That's how many people attended the 1967 NFL Championship Game on New Year's Eve, known as the Ice Bowl: Despite a gametime temperature of -15 degrees Fahrenheit, without the wind chill factor, there wasn't an empty seat in the house. The capacity became 55,000 by 1970, 58,000 by 1990, 60,000 by 1995, 70,000 by 2005, and is now 81,411.

Since moving to Lambeau Field in 1957, the Packers have made the Playoffs 27 times, won 14 Division titles, reached the NFL (1957-69) or NFC (1970-2016) Championship Game 13 times (including last season), won 8, reached 5 Super Bowls, and won 4 of them: I, II, XXXI and XLV -- meaning they have been World Champions for the seasons of 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1996 and 2010.

Lambeau Field is the oldest active stadium in the NFL. The Chicago Bears' Soldier Field went up in 2002, replacing the same of the same name on the same site that went up in 1924, although the Bears have only played on the site since 1970.

Also on this day, Mark L. Attanasio is born in The Bronx, and grows up just across the Hudson River, in Tenafly, Bergen County, New Jersey. (I can find no record of what the L stands for.) Since 2005, he has been the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers. They have now made the Playoffs more times in 15 seasons as they did under their previous owners, the Selig family, in 35 seasons: 4-2.

September 29, 1961, 60 years ago: Julia Eileen Gillard is born in Barry, Wales. As a child, she suffered from bronchial pneumonia, making the United Kingdom not an ideal climate for her. Her parents were advised to take her someplace drier. In 1966, they settled in Adelaide, in the State of South Australia.

In 1998, she was elected to Australia's Parliament. From June 24, 2010 to June 27, 2013, she was her country's Prime Minister -- its 1st woman to hold the post. For reasons beyond her control, she had to lead a minority government, and couldn't hold it together, and retired from politics before the 2013 election, which her party lost.

She is now a visiting professor at the University of Adelaide, and a nonresident senior fellow at America's Brookings Institution. She is a supporter of the Australian rules football team, the Western Bulldogs; and the rugby league team, the Melbourne Storm.

September 29, 1963: The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds 3-2 at Sportsman's Park, in the regular season finale. Dal Maxvill doubles home the winning run in the bottom of the 14th inning.

It is the last game for retiring Cardinal legend Stan Musial, and his Number 6 is retired. In the bottom of the 6th, the 42-year-old Stan the Man singles Curt Flood home. It is the 3,630th hit of his career, a National League record. In one of the neatest coincidences in sports history, he got exactly 1,815 hits in home games, and 1,815 hits in away games.

The single goes between 1st and 2nd base, past the Reds' diving 2nd baseman, soon to be named NL Rookie of the Year, and just 5 months old when Stan made his major league debut on September 17, 1941, 22 years and 12 days earlier. His name is Pete Rose. In 1981, Pete will surpass Stan as the NL's all-time hit leader. In 1985, he will surpass Ty Cobb as the major leagues' all-time hit leader. In 1989... um, let's move on.

Also on this day, David John Andreychuk is born in Hamilton, Ontario. A left wing, he starred for the Buffalo Sabres and the Toronto Maple Leafs, before 3 disappointing seasons (1996-99) with the Devils. In 2004, at age 40, he finally reached his 1st Stanley Cup Finals, and captained the Tampa Bay Lightning to their 1st Cup win.

He retired with 640 goals, including 274 on power plays, a record that not even Wayne Gretky can match. He now works in the Lightning's front office, and is a member of the Sabres' team hall of fame and the overall Hockey Hall of Fame.

September 29, 1975: Casey Stengel dies of cancer in his adopted hometown of Glendale, California, in the Los Angeles suburbs. "The Ol' Perfesser" was 85. He first wore a major league uniform in 1912, and last in 1965. In between, in those 54 seasons, as a player and a manager, he had been a part of 14 Pennant winners and 9 World Championships. He had last appeared in a major league ballpark on June 28, for the Mets' Old-Timers Day. Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Well, God is certainly getting an earful tonight."

September 29, 1981, 40 years ago: Bill Shankly dies of a heart attack in Liverpool at age 68. As a player, the Scotsman was a good defender, helping Lancashire club Preston North End win the 1938 FA Cup. But, like contemporaries Matt Busby and Stan Cullis, also good players at the time, he truly made his mark as a manager.

He became manager of Liverpool Football Club in 1959, and got them promoted to the Football League Division One in 1962, and they have never left. He led them to League titles in 1964, 1966 and 1973; the 1965 and 1974 FA Cups; and the 1973 UEFA Cup. His last match before retiring was the 1974 Charity Shield, England's annual season-opening match between the previous season's winners of the League and the Cup. Liverpool beat Leeds United, but the match was marred by a fight between Liverpool's Kevin Keegan and Leeds' Billy Bremner.

Although his assistant-turned-successor Bob Paisley led Liverpool to more glories, "Shanks" is still the most beloved figure in the club's history. A statue of him now stands outside the stadium, Anfield, which also has an entrance known as the Shankly Gates. The biggest LFC supporters' group is known as Spirit of Shankly.

September 29, 1991, 30 years ago: The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-1 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre). But the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium. This clinches the AL West for the Twins, making the last-place team of 1990 the 1st "worst-to-first" team in baseball history

If the Jays felt good about beating the Twins tonight, that went away quickly, as the Twins beat them in the AL Championship Series. 

September 29, 1994: Seinfeld airs the episode "The Big Salad." It parodies the O.J. Simpson case, then ongoing. The writers substituted a baseball star (Steve Gendason, played by Dean Hello) for the football legend, a caddy for the ex-wife, a golf tee for the bloody glove, Kramer (Michael Richards) for Al Cowlings, and the Palisades Interstate Parkway for the San Diego Freeway.

Also on this day, Ashley Nicolette Frangipane is born in Washington, Warren County, New Jersey. She took the stage name Halsey, after seeing it on a street sign in Brooklyn, and realizing that it's an anagram of "Ashley." Since releasing her 1st album, Badlands, in 2015, she has gotten bigger and bigger.

September 29, 1996, 25 years ago: At the Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles 4-1. The lone O's run comes on a home run by center fielder Brady Anderson, his 50th of the season.

In 14 other major league seasons, he never topped 24, and only twice topped 18. He hit 210 home runs in those 15 seasons, so 23.8 percent of his homers were hit in this season alone. He finished the season with 110 RBIs. His next-highest seasonal total was 81.

He was never caught using steroids. He was, however, a 3-time All-Star, so it's not like he was a bad player. And Oriole Park at Camden Yards has a close right-field fence. But this season, a Playoff season for the O's, was very suspicious. 

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September 29, 2000: The Yankees lose to the Orioles 13-2 at Camden Yards, but the Red Sox lose to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 8-6, so the Yanks back into the AL East title. This was in a stretch where the Yankees lost 13 out of 16, including Game 1 of the ALDS, and many of us, myself included, were afraid they would blow the Division title.

Also on this day, the Xcel Energy Center opens in St. Paul, Minnesota, on the site of the old St. Paul Civic Center. It is home to the NHL's Minnesota Wild, and the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx used it as their home court while the Target Center underwent Summer renovations in 2017, much as the New York Liberty had to play at the Prudential Center while Madison Square Garden did the same.

Also on this day, the film Remember the Titans premieres. Denzel Washington plays Herman Boone, football coach at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, across the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. (Thomas Chambliss Williams had been superintendent of the city's public schools.)

In 1971, Alexandria consolidated its 3 high schools: The centrally-located Williams became the only high school, and George Washington and Francis C. Hammond (the latter named for a local Korean War hero) were converted into middle schools. Contrary to the film, though, all 3 were integrated when Williams opened in 1965 -- as were all of their opponents. A new, larger building for Williams opened in 2007, and the school seen in the film was demolished.

The film correctly shows that Williams went 13-0 and won the State Championship, but it suggests that several of Williams' 1971 games were close. Most games were blowout wins. And the car accident that paralyzed linebacker Gerry Bertier occurred after the season, not between the Semifinal and the Final. So the film didn't even remember the Titans with full accuracy.

September 29, 2001, 20 years ago: Saturday Night Live premieres its 27th season, on time, despite the 9/11 attacks having taken place just 18 days before. The show begins with Mayor Rudy Giuliani introducing Paul Simon, born in Newark but raised in Queens, and a longtime friend of SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels, singing his 1969 hit "The Boxer" with New York policemen and firemen on the stage.

Then Giuliani tells Michaels it's okay to begin the show. Michaels, not wanting to seem insensitive, asks, "Can we be funny?" The audience laughs lightly. Giuliani: "Why start now?" The audience cracks up, followed by Rudy yelling the tagline, "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!" (In the 1st season, 1975-76, the title was just Saturday Night, now Saturday Night Live, and they never changed the line.)

The host is Reese Witherspoon, and the musical guest is Alicia Keys, who sings "Fallin'" -- the Number 1 song in the country when the World Trade Center fell. If anyone connected with the show made the connection between the title and the attack, they didn't think it worth dropping the song.

September 29, 2003: The new Soldier Field opens in Chicago, on the site of the old one. Only the south gate and the columns on each side remain from the original 1924 structure. The Chicago Bears lose to their arch-rivals, the Green Bay Packers, 38-23.