If Brian Cashman Managed Don Larsen

October 8, 1956: Don Larsen pitches a perfect game for the New York Yankees over the heavy-hitting Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series, at the original Yankee Stadium.

Starting for the Dodgers was Sal Maglie, the former ace of the New York Giants and one of the most hated opponents in Brooklyn history, but who had come to the Dodgers in midseason and pitched a no-hitter of his own -- something he hadn't done for the Giants. It is still the last no-hitter pitched by a player for a National League team in New York -- unless you believe that Carlos Beltran's line drive really was foul, thus giving Johan Santana a no-hitter for the Mets in 2012.

Larsen got to 3 balls on Pee Wee Reese in the 1st inning, but struck him out. The closest call came in the 2nd inning, when Jackie Robinson hit a sharp grounder off Andy Carey's glove. Gil McDougald, who moved from 3rd to short in the Yankee lineup after Phil Rizzuto was released a few weeks earlier, took it, and just barely threw Robinson out.

Maglie, whom Dodger fans despised when he was the headhunting ace of their arch-rivals, actually had a perfect game going himself, until the 4th inning, when Mickey Mantle hit a home run into the right field seats.

In the 5th, Mickey made a running, onehanded, backhanded catch of a Gil Hodges drive. It was about 420 feet from home plate, and was nearly as remarkable as the 440-foot catch Willie Mays had made 2 World Series earlier. Perhaps even more so, since, unlike Willie, Mickey wasn’t known as a spectacular fielder (though that may have been because so much fuss was made about his hitting).

The last out was Dale Mitchell, pinch-hitting for Maglie. As a Cleveland Indian, Mitchell had been in the opposing dugout for Mays' catch, but had always hit well against the Yankees. But Larsen struck him out, and catcher Yogi Berra leaped into Larsen's arms.

Bob Wolff broadcast this game on NBC. Two years later, he would be behind the mike at the Stadium again, calling the 1958 NFL Championship Game, in which the Baltimore Colts beat the football version of the New York Giants in overtime, the so-called "Greatest Game Ever Played." Wolff died in 2017.

Don died on January 1, 2020, at age 90, as the last surviving player from this game, on either side. Considering how much he drank in those days, that is a bit surprising. Still living and on the rosters, but not playing in the game, are: Yankee Whitey Ford, and Dodgers Carl Erskine, Roger Craig and Sandy Koufax (required to be on the roster as a "bonus baby," but not yet the pitcher he would become).

Larsen's gem is no longer the only no-hitter in postseason history -- Roy Halladay turned the trick for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2010 -- but it's still the only perfect game in postseason history, and still the only no-hitter in a game later than the Division Series.

Larsen threw 97 pitches in the game, the last 12 in the 9th inning. What if Brian Cashman were the Yankees' general manager at the time?

Well, for one thing, Casey Stengel would ignore him, and handle his pitchers however he damn well pleased. But what if Aaron Boone were managing that game, under Cashman's orders?

Larsen would have been removed after 8 innings, and a reliever brought in, probably Bob Grim. And he probably would have given up a hit to Carl Furillo, walked Roy Campanella, and given up another hit to Dale Mitchell, to make it 2-1 Yankees. Then Grim would've walked Jim Gilliam to load the bases. Then he would have walked Pee Wee Reese, to force in a run, and now it's 2-2.

Now, Duke Snider is up with the bases loaded, and he's a lefthanded hitter, with the right field pole just 296 feet away. Mickey McDermott, a lefty, is brought in. Boom. Grand slam. 6-2 Dodgers.

The bottom of the 9th? Oh, you know how this will go. Walter Alston brings Clem Labine in, and he strikes Mickey Mantle out. But Yogi Berra doubles. And Enos Slaughter singles him home. 6-3. Billy Martin singles Slaughter over to 2nd. Suddenly, the tying run is at the plate, and it's a decent hitter, Gil McDougald.

But Alston shows confidence in Labine, and he gets McDougald to ground into a double play. The next day, at Ebbets Field, the Dodgers take Game 6 and win the Series.

Cashman fires Stengel, and hires Charlie Dressen to manage the Yankees. Without Stengel to speak up for Mantle, Cashman carries out George Weiss' real-life threat, and trades Mantle to Cleveland for pitchers, including Herb Score. Except, Score always insisted that an injury he suffered in Spring Training in 1958 was the real reason his career went downhill, not the line drive McDougald sent crashing into his face in 1957. So Score gets hurt, and Mantle leads the Indians to Pennants in 1957, '58 and '59.

There will not be another Pennant in The Bronx until George Steinbrenner buys the team.

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October 8, 1871, 150 years ago: The Great Chicago Fire breaks out at 10:00 in the evening, and burns down about 2/3rds of the city, including the Union Base-Ball Grounds, home of the Chicago White Stockings of the National Association. It is estimated that 300 people died.

The White Stockings are forced to play the rest of the season on the road, in borrowed uniforms and equipment. This likely costs them the 1st Pennant of a baseball league that could be (but, in retrospect, is not always) called "major league."

Up Lake Michigan, 260 miles to the north, a forest fire breaks out in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. It becomes the deadliest wildfire in American history, killing 2,500 people. It burns so many trees that it's been credited with forcing Wisconsans to leave the timber industry and start dairy farms, making Wisconsin the Dairy State.

That day, there were also fires in Port Huron, Holland and Manistee, all in Michigan. There is a theory that, rather than Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern -- or, much more likely, Mr. O'Leary or one of his poker-playing buddies dropping cigar ash -- onto straw in the family barn, the fires all over the Great Lakes were caused by the breakup of a meteorite.

Most likely of all, though, the forest fires in Wisconsin and Michigan were the result of a very dry Summer, and it was simply a coincidence that they all happened on the same day.

I considered doing a "Scores On This Historic Day" post for the event, but I checked: There were no National Association games that day. Probably because it was a Sunday, and professional sports was still illegal in a lot of places on Sunday, and the NA, and its successor the National League, prohibited it, anyway.

 
October 8, 1887: The New York Metropolitans' franchise and player contracts are sold to American Association rival Brooklyn for $15‚000. Purchaser Charles Byrne has the Mets play today's game in Brooklyn's Washington Park‚ where the hapless team loses lose to the Baltimore Orioles 10-0.

Thus endeth "the original New York Mets." The original Orioles would join the NL in 1892.

October 8, 1891, 130 years ago: Dana Xenophon Bible is born in Jefferson City, Tennessee. With a name like Bible, it won't surprise you to learn that his 1st head coaching job was at a Christian school, Mississippi College, in 1913.

He coached football at Louisiana State in 1916, Texas A&M from 1917 to 1928, Nebraska from 1929 to 1936, and Texas from 1937 to 1946. He was also Texas A&M's basketball coach from 1920 to 1927, and its baseball coach in 1920 and 1921.

He led A&M to the Southwest Conference Championship in 1917, 1919, 1921, 1925 and 1927; Nebraska to the Big Six (now Big 12) title in 1929, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1935 and 1936; and Texas to the SWC title in 1942, 1943 and 1945 -- 14 league titles. He won the 1922 Dixie Classic, and its successor game, the Cotton Bowl, in 1943 and 1946. His 1919 and 1927 Texas A&M teams, and his 1941 Texas team, were voted National Champions -- making him one of the few figures to be revered by both Longhorn fans and Aggie fans.

He was also one of the earliest coaches to use the T formation, along with Clark Shaughnessy of Stanford. Together, they ran a clinic to teach it to other coaches. He later served on the National Collegiate Football Rules Committee and as President of the American Football Coaches Association. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, and died in 1980.

October 8, 1892: The Boston Beaneaters clinch the National League Pennant, sweeping a doubleheader from the New York Giants, 4-3 and 3-1 at the South End Grounds. It is the 2nd of 3 straight Pennants they will win, and 5 in 8 years.

Hall of Fame outfielder Hugh Duffy was the last survivor of this team, living until 1954.

October 8, 1896, 125 years ago: The Orioles complete a 4-game sweep of the Spiders to win the Temple Cup. They have won the last 3 National League Pennants. It will be 70 years before another Baltimore team wins a major league Pennant.

Catcher-1st baseman William Jones "Boileryard" Clarke lived on until 1959, age 90, making him the last survivor of "The Old Orioles."

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October 8, 1908: In a make-up game necessitated by 19-year-old 1st baseman Fred Merkle's baserunning "boner" on September 23, Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown outduels Christy Mathewson, 4-2, as the Cubs win the NL Pennant by one game over the Giants in one of the most dramatic Pennant races of all time.

Officially, the Polo Grounds was full to about 40,000 people. Unofficially, reports have suggested anywhere from 80,000 to 250,000 outside. This could very well have been the most people that ever showed up for a baseball game, regardless of whether they got in or not.

Merkle, as it turned out, outlived every Cub who played in the game, slightly surviving Cub right fielder Jimmy Slagle, both dying in 1956. The last survivor from either the September 23 or the October 8 game was Giant shortstop Al Bridwell, who lasted until 1969.

As the last survivor, Bridwell was interviewed about it by Giant fan Lawrence S. Ritter for his 1966 book of baseball interviews The Glory of Their Times. He got the hit that would have scored the run in the September 23 game, had Merkle actually touched 2nd base, and, for all the grief it brought Merkle, told Ritter he wished he'd never gotten that hit.

October 8, 1911, 110 years ago: Irvine Eugene Warburton is born in San Diego. From 1931 to 1933, Cotton Warburton quarterbacked the USC football team to a 27-game winning streak. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

But he didn't play pro football. Instead, he stayed in Los Angeles, and went into the film industry. Working first at MGM, then at Disney, he edited The Absent-Minded Professor, Mary Poppins, the Herbie the Love Bug movies, and The Cat from Outer Space, all requiring extensive (for the time) special effects. He died in 1982.

October 8, 1921, 100 years ago: For the 1st time, a football game is broadcast on radio. KDKA in Pittsburgh, who had debuted by broadcasting the previous year's Presidential election results, and earlier this year had become the 1st station to broadcast a baseball game, heads for the gridiron.

Harold Arlin, a foreman at KDKA's parent company Westinghouse, was the announcer, as he had been for the election broadcast a year earlier, and for the 1st baseball game on radio 2 months earlier. The game is the University of Pittsburgh vs. West Virginia University, a rivalry later nicknamed The Backyard Brawl, at Forbes Field, home of baseball's Pirates. Pitt wins, 21-13.

October 8, 1922: Behind Art Nehf's complete game 5-hitter, the New York Giants repeat as World Champions, sweeping the Yankees in 5 games, including one tie. The comeback 5-3 victory is fueled by George "Highpockets" Kelly's RBI single during the 3-run 8th inning at the Polo Grounds.

Kelly, one of the more dubiously-chosen members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, turned out to be the last survivor of the Giants' 1921 and 1922 World Champions, living until 1984.

October 8, 1927: The 1927 Yankees, considered one of the best teams in baseball history, live up to their reputation as they beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3, to sweep the World Series in 4 straight.

But this Game 4 concludes in an unusual fashion: In the bottom of the 9th, with the score tied, Pirate pitcher Johnny Miljus loads the bases with no out. He begins to work out of it, striking out Lou Gehrig swinging and Bob Meusel looking. Facing Tony Lazzeri with 2 outs and an 0-and-1 count, Miljus uncorks a wild pitch, and Earle Combs races home with the winning run, to give the Bronx Bombers the sweep and their 2nd World Championship.

This is the only time the winning run of a World Series has scored on a wild pitch. Flip the last 2 digits, and in 1972 the Pirates became the 1st (and still only) team to lose a League Championship Series on a wild pitch, by Bob Moose against the Cincinnati Reds.

Shortstop Mark Koenig was the last living member of the Yankees' 1927 and 1928 World Champions, living until 1993.

October 8, 1928: Robert Neil Harvey is born in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia. Neil Harvey starred for the Australian national cricket team from 1948 to 1963. In that 1948 season, he was with the Australian team, with the retiring Don Bradman, "The Babe Ruth of Cricket," that had an undefeated tour of England, becoming known as "The Invincibles." He is the last surviving player from that team.

Each of Australia's States has its own cricket team, and he played for Victoria (the State that includes Melbourne) from 1946 to 1957, and New South Wales (the State that includes Sydney) from 1958 to 1963. 

October 8, 1929: In front of 50,000 fans at Wrigley Field -- which now holds only about 41,000, and was around 38,000 from the reconstruction of its famed bleachers in 1938 until its recent renovation -- Philadelphia Athletics owner-manager Connie Mack fools everyone before Game 1 of the World Series, starting neither of his big fireballers, lefthander Robert "Lefty" Grove or righthander George Earnshaw.

He gambles that the sidearm slow stuff of former Red Sox star Howard Ehmke (the visiting starter for the Red Sox in the 1st game at the original Yankee Stadium) might frustrate the Cubs' big sluggers such as Rogers Hornsby, Hack Wilson and Riggs Stephenson.

Mack's gamble pays off, as Ehmke establishes a new World Series record, striking out 13 Cubs, en route to a 3-1 A's victory in Game 1 of the Fall Classic. The mark will last for 34 years until Dodger hurler Carl Erskine fans 14 Yankees in 1953. The Cubs never recover, and the A's win the Series in 5.

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October 8, 1930: The Philadelphia Athletics beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-1 in Game 6 of the World Series, at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. George Earnshaw outpitches Bill Hallahan thanks to home runs by Al Simmons and Jimmy Dykes.

The A's take their 2nd straight World Series. They have now won 5, all in a span of 21 years. It will be 42 years, and 2 franchise moves, before they win another.

The last living player from the Athletics' last Philly title team was Jimmy Moore, Simmons' backup in left field, who lived until 1986.

October 8, 1931, 90 years ago: Franklin Cullen Rodgers is born in Atlanta. A quarterback, "Pepper" Rodgers led Georgia Tech to victory in the 1953 and 1954 Sugar Bowls. He was not drafted by the NFL, and the AFL was a few years away, so he went into coaching. In 1967, he got his 1st head job, at the University of Kansas. In 1968, he took them to the Big 8 Conference Championship, still the only league title the Jayhawks have won since 1947.

He moved on to UCLA, back to his alma mater Georgia Tech, and in 1984 and 1985, he coached the Memphis Showboats of the USFL. His only other pro jobs have been with the Memphis Mad Dogs (for legal reasons, their 1st choice of "Hound Dogs" wasn't allowed), in the Canadian Football League's 1995 U.S. experiment; and as the Washington Redskins' "director of football" from 2001 to 2004.

His college coaching record was 73-65-3; his pro record, 28-28. Coaches who served under him include John Cooper, his defensive coordinator at Kansas who later coached Tulsa, Arizona State and Ohio State; Terry Donahue, who served under him at Kansas and UCLA and was later head coach at UCLA and general manager of the San Francisco 49ers; and Steve Spurrier, the Heisman Trophy-winning Florida quarterback, who was his quarterbacks coach at Georgia Tech before becoming one of the great college head coaches, including at his alma mater.

A member of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, Pepper died in 2020, at age 88.

October 8, 1939: Game 4 of the World Series. In the top of the 10th, Yankee outfielder Joe DiMaggio scores all the way from 1st base when Reds' catcher Ernie Lombardi lays in a daze at home plate after Charlie "King Kong" Keller crashes into him. The prudish press of the day says that Lombardi "swooned" or "snoozed" at the plate, but, in reality, Keller had inadvertently kneed him in the groin.

The Yankees win, 7-4, to complete the World Series sweep and become the first club to win 4 consecutive Fall Classics. It is their 8th World Championship overall.

The last surviving player from the Yankees' 1939 World Champions -- and their 1937, 1938 and 1941 titlists as well -- was right fielder Tommy Henrich, a.k.a. Ol' Reliable, who lived until 2009.
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October 8, 1940: Game 7 of the World Series at Crosley Field. Paul Derringer of the Reds and Bob Newsom of the Tigers get into a pitchers' duel, and the Tigers lead 1-0 in the bottom of the 7th. But leadoff doubles by Frank McCormick and Jimmy Ripple tie the score, followed by a sacrifice bunt and Billy Myers' sacrifice fly, for the run that wins the game and the Series, 2-1 to Cincinnati.

The Reds' Bill McKechnie becomes the 1st manager to win a World Series with 2 different teams. "The Deacon" also piloted the Pirates to the 1925 World Championship.

With NL batting champion Ernie Lombardi injured down the stretch, and backup catcher Willard Hershberger becoming (as far as can be proven) the only big-leaguer ever to commit suicide during the season (slashing his throat on in a Boston hotel room during a roadtrip on August 3), 40-year-old coach Jimmie Wilson was signed to a playing contract, and was one of the factors in this World Series. So was an injury to Tiger star Hank Greenberg.

The Tigers would win the Series again 5 years later. The Reds would need another 35 years, going 0-for-3 in World Series play, 5-12 in games, before triumphing in 1975.

The last surviving player of the 1940 Reds was shortstop Eddie Joost, better remembered with the Philadelphia Athletics, including serving as their last manager before they moved to Kansas City after the 1954 season.

October 8, 1941, 80 years ago: Jesse Louis Burns is born in Greenville, South Carolina. In a bit of foreshadowing, he was the result of an affair between a teenager and a married man. When his mother married someone else, the stepfather adopted him, and he was renamed Jesse Louis Jackson.

He was student class president at his racially segregated high school, and earned varsity letters in baseball, football (as a quarterback) and basketball. A minor-league baseball team offered him a contract, but he chose to go to the University of Illinois on a football scholarship. But the pull of the nascent civil rights movement led him to transfer to the historically black school North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, where, in 1960, he participated in the now-legendary sit-ins at the Woolworth lunch counter, and was again elected student body president.

He was at Martin Luther King's side at the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965, and again when King was assassinated in Memphis in 1968. He was ordained as a minister that same year, and officiated at Jackie Robinson's funeral in Brooklyn in 1972. In 1977, he counseled Reggie Jackson (no relation) after his shouting match with Billy Martin in the Yankee dugout at Fenway Park.

He founded Operation PUSH -- originally "People United to Save Humanity," later "People United to Serve Humanity" -- and the Rainbow Coalition. In 1984, he ran for President in the Democratic Primaries, finishing 3rd in delegates. In 1988, he ran again, finishing 2nd.

Reverend Jackson has worked to bring together people who ordinarily wouldn't be, to alleviate poverty regardless of color, and to free people held hostage by terrorists. He's got his flaws, sure. But he's done more for more people than most of us will ever do. And he was, apparently, once a pretty good athlete. However, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2017, and with COVID-19 in 2020, but he still does what he can.

October 8, 1946, 75 years ago: Paul William Splittorff Jr. is born in Evansville, Indiana, and grows up in the Chicago suburbs. He pitched for the Kansas City Royals from 1970 to 1984, going 166-143, and reaching the postseason in 1976, '77, '78, '80 and '81 -- but they didn't win the World Series until 1985, after he retired.

The high-kicking lefthander's success against the Yankees in the '76 and '77 American League Championship Series gave rise to a myth: "The Yankees can't hit lefthanded pitchers, especially in the postseason." This, of course, is baloney.

He later broadcast for the Royals, and was elected to their team Hall of Fame. He died in 2011.

Also on this day, Colin MacDonald Jackson is born in London, but grows up in Aberdeen, Scotland. A centreback, he played for Glasgow team Rangers, and was a member of some of their most successful teams. He won the League in 1964, 1975, 1976 and 1978; the Scottish Cup in 1964, 1966, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1979 and 1981, taking both in the same year, "The Double," in 1964, 1976 and 1978; and the Scottish League Cup in 1964, 1965, 1971, 1976, 1978 and 1982, making for a domestic "Treble" in 1964, 1976 and 1978; and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1972.

But he was also there for Rangers' darkest day, an "Old Firm" match at Ibrox Stadium with crosstown arch-rivals Celtic on January 2, 1971, a game that ended with the score 1-1 and the deaths of 66 fans when a stairway collapsed. At the time, it was the deadliest sporting disaster in British history.

He later started a printing company, and lived until 2015.

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October 8, 1951, 70 years ago: Game 4 of the World Series. Joe DiMaggio hits what turns out to be his last home run, off Sal Maglie, and the Yankees beat the Giants 6-2, to tie up the Series.

October 8, 1957: The Brooklyn Dodgers make the official announcement: They are moving to Los Angeles. The New York Giants had already announced that they were moving to San Francisco. In the blink of an eye, New York City goes from 3 Major League Baseball teams to 1.

October 8, 1959: In Game 6, the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the "Go-Go White Sox," 9-3 at Comiskey Park, to win the World Series. This is despite Dodger coach, and former manager, Charlie Dressen being thrown out of the game by the umpires for arguing.

Chicago's speed and quickness weren't enough to overcome Los Angeles' hitting and pitching. This was the 1st World Championship won by any team playing their home games west of St. Louis. It would also be the last World Series game played in Chicago for 46 years.

Dodger players still alive from this World Series, 62 years later: Sandy Koufax, Maury Wills, Roger Craig, Chuck Essegian, Joe Pignatano and Don Demeter. White Sox still alive are: Luis Aparicio, Joe Hicks, Ken McBride, Gary Peters, Claude Raymond, Lou Skizas, and J.C. Martin, who would be a "Miracle Met" 10 years later.

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October 8, 1961, 60 years ago: In Game 4 at Crosley Field, Whitey Ford blanks the Reds for 5 innings to extend his World Series consecutive scoreless inning streak to 32, breaking Red Sox hurler (and future Yankee slugger) Babe Ruth's previous record of 29 2/3rds innings. Hector Lopez and Clete Boyer provide the offense, driving in 2 runs each in the Yankees' 6-0 victory.

Before the game, Ford was asked if he was excited about breaking the record. He said, "What record?" Not only did he later say that he didn't know he was approaching a record, he said he didn't know Babe Ruth had ever been a pitcher.

At least the New York native Ford knew Ruth was a real person: Don Mattingly, who was born in 1961, once admitted that, growing up in Indiana, he thought Babe Ruth was a cartoon character. In all fairness, some of the Babe's activities do seem a bit fanciful, even cartoonish.

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October 8, 1971, 50 years ago: Monty Eli Williams is born in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The basketball forward did not have good luck as a player. He was a rookie for the Knicks in 1994-95, the season after they reached the Finals. He was traded away from the San Antonio Spurs in 1998, right before they won their 1st title. And he came to the Philadelphia 76ers in 2002, a year after they went to the Finals.

From 2010 to 2015, he was the head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans. In 2016, he assisted Mike Krzyzewski on the U.S. team that won the Gold Medal at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He is now the head coach of the Phoenix Suns, and won the 2021 NBA Western Conference Championship.

Also on this day, Mark Christopher Gwynne Ellis is born in Wellington, New Zealand. He was one o the top rugby players of the 1990s. During the 1995 Rugby World Cup, he scored 6 tries (equivalent to a touchdown) in the All-Blacks' game against Japan, a record for the most tries by an individual in a Rugby World Cup match. However, New Zealand lost the Final to Pienaar's host South Africa.

Ellis -- apparently, no relation to William Webb Ellis, who allegedly invented the sport at the Rugby School in England in 1823 -- is now a TV presenter, and one of New Zealand's most successful businessmen.

October 8, 1973: Game 3 of the National League Championship Series at Shea Stadium. The Mets beat the Reds 9-2 in Game 3, in a game that should have been remembered for Rusty Staub hitting home runs in the 1st and 2nd innings. Instead, it is remembered for 5-foot-11, 200-pound Pete Rose breaking up a double play by crashing into 5-foot-11, 140-pound Bud Harrelson, and then starting a fight with the much thinner man.

With the fight broken up, Rose returns to his position in left field, where Met fans (understandably, but they were hardly justified) start throwing things at him. Reds manager Sparky Anderson takes his team off the field, fearing for their safety.

The umpires get a message to the Loren Matthews, the Shea public address announcer, who announces that if the throwing doesn't stop, the game will be forfeited. Remember, the series is tied 1-1 and the Mets, barring a total (or even, dare I say it, Metlike) collapse, have this game won and need only 1 more win for the Pennant. Lose it, even by forfeit, and it will be the Reds who are just 1 game from the Pennant.

Desperate, Met manager Yogi Berra takes Tom Seaver and Willie Mays out there, and the 3 of them plead for peace. Listening to the 3 New York baseball legends, the fans stop, and the Mets finish off the win.

The next day, with a banner hanging from Shea's upper deck reading, "A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME STILL STINKS" -- I guess they weren't willing to say "Sucks" in 1973 -- Rose will make his point by winning the game and tying up the series with an extra-inning home run. But the Mets will win Game 5 and the Pennant.

October 8, 1981, 40 years ago: Anthony David Madison is born in Thomasville, Alabama. A cornerback, he was with the Pittsburgh Steelers when they won Super Bowl XLIII, and lost Super Bowl XLV. He is now retired.

Also on this day, Raphael Torres (no middle name) is born in Toronto. A rookie with the Islanders in 2002, Raffi Torres reached the Stanley Cup Finals with the 2006 Edmonton Oilers.

On October 3, 2015, in a preseason game against the Anaheim Ducks, he was assessed a match penalty for a late, illegal check to the head of Jakob Silfverberg. Torres was suspended a record-shattering 41 games by the league, half of the regular season. He forfeited $440,860.29 in salary, which was deposited into the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund.

While the record for longest suspension is held by Billy Coutu, who was suspended for life in 1927, Torres holds the distinction of the longest non-lifetime ban. Torres did not appeal the suspension, and apologized to Silfverberg. Sharks general manager Doug Wilson supported the suspension, saying Torres' hit was "unacceptable and has no place in our game."

The left wing was sent down to the minors upon his return, then traded to his hometown Maple Leafs, then released. Knowing that he was tainted for the time being, he retired.

October 8, 1982: The New Jersey Devils get their 1st win, a 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers. It will be a while, though, before the Devils can legitimately claim to again be better than the Rangers.

October 8, 1983: In front of 64,494 fans at Veterans Stadium, the Philadelphia Phillies do something they had only done 3 times before in their 1st 100 years of play: Win a Pennant. They win the NLCS behind the pitching of Steve Carlton and Gary Matthews' 3-run homer, beating the Dodgers 7-2.

This win gives them some measure of revenge, having lost to the Dodgers in 1977 (this is the anniversary of that loss, with "Black Friday" happening the day before) and 1978. They will also beat the Dodgers in the NLCS in 2008 and 2009.

October 8, 1992: For the 1st time since March 17, 1934, an NHL team representing Ottawa, Canada's, national capital, takes the ice. For the 1st time since March 15, 1934, it's at home. As the old team was from 1907 onward, the expansion team is named the Ottawa Senators.

Frank Finnigan Jr., who with his father, the last living member of the Senators' last Stanley Cup winner in 1927, had lobbied the NHL to bring the League back to Ottawa, drops the ceremonial first puck, in place of his father, who lived long enough to see Ottawa awarded the franchise, but not long enough to see them take the ice. The Number 8 of Frank Sr. was retired.

Honoring the old Senators, banners honoring their 9 Stanley Cups were raised to the rafters at the Ottawa Civic Centre. Russell Williams, who had attended the 1927 Cup-clinching as a boy, is introduced as a special guest. Alanis Morissette, an Ottawa native already famous in Canada but not yet in America, sings the National Anthem ("O, Canada," of course, not "The Star-Spangled Banner," since the opponents were also Canadian.)

And, for the 1st time since March 8, 1934, the Senators win. They beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-3. Neil Brady scores the 1st goal. But this is an outlier: The Canadiens will go on to win the Stanley Cup, while the Sens will set a league record for losses in a season, going 10-70-4. They would make the Playoffs for the 1st time in 1996, reach the Eastern Conference Finals in 2003, and the Stanley Cup Finals in 2007. Russell Williams lived long enough to attend, 80 years after they last did. But the new Senators have not yet won the Cup.

October 8, 1993: The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim play their 1st game. Sean Hill scores their 1st goal, but they lose to the Detroit Red Wings, 7-2, at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim. The arena would be renamed the Honda Center, and the team became simply the Anaheim Ducks for the 2006-07 season -- and won their 1st Stanley Cup.

Also on this day, Molly Caitlyn Quinn is born in Texarkana, Texas. The actress who played Alexis Castle on Castle from 2009 to 2016 is not, as far as I know, involved in sports. But -- perhaps with the help of a stunt double -- she has done some moves on the show that can certainly be described as athletic, including her laser-tag games against her father Richard, played by Nathan Fillion. She now voices Princess Bloom in the American version of the Italian cartoon Winx Club.

October 8, 1994: The Kiel Center opens in St. Louis, on the site of the Kiel Auditorium, former home of the NBA's St. Louis Hawks. The NHL's St. Louis Blues were supposed to play their season opener there on this night, but couldn't, due to the team owners' lockout of the players. The Blues have played there since the lockout ended in January 1995.

The arena was renamed the Savvis Center in 2000, but when Savvis went bankrupt in 2006, naming rights were bought by Scottrade. That company has recently been bought by TD Ameritrade,and the naming rights have been bought by Enterprise Rent-a-Car. So when the Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019, they took it back to the Enterprise Center.

October 8, 1996, 25 years ago: Devontae Calvin Cacok is born in Chicago. A forward, he helped the Los Angeles Lakers win the NBA Championship last season, his rookie year. However, they let him go, and now he plays for the Brooklyn Nets.

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October 8, 2000, 20 years ago: The Mets win a postseason series. Stop laughing. They blank the Giants, 4-0 at Shea Stadium, to win the NLDS in 4 games. Bobby Jones, who was sent to the minors earlier in the season to work on his mechanics, retires the side in order in 8 of the 9 innings, allowing only a 5th-inning double to Jeff Kent. It is only the 6th complete-game 1-hitter in postseason history.

New York vs. the San Francisco Bay Area is also the matchup in another Division Series, in the AL. The Yankees take a 6-0 lead at the Oakland Coliseum before the Athletics even get to bat, but Andy Pettitte is shaky. David Justice hits a home run in the 4th inning, and the Yankees hold on to win 7-5, to take the deciding Game 5 and advance to the ALCS.

This is the 2nd time, after October 9, 1999, that Yankees and the Mets have had clinchers of any kind on the same day. It remains the last.

October 8, 2002: The Minnesota Twins defeat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 2-1, in Game 1 of the ALCS. Joe Mays' pitching and Corey Koskie's 5th inning double make the difference.

From October 9, 2002 to October 8, 2021, the Twins have been just 2-22 in postseason play.

October 8, 2006: The Philadelphia Eagles host the Dallas Cowboys at Lincoln Financial Field. This was former Eagle receiver Terrell Owens' 1st game back in Philadelphia after one of the messiest "divorces" in sports history, the year before.

It had been 12 days since "T.O." was hospitalized following an overdose -- apparently intentional -- of the painkiller hydrocodone. He was cleared to play for the Cowboys against the Eagles.

I went to The Linc, thinking I had enough money to buy a ticket, even at a markup from a scalper. No chance: Nobody was selling. Every Eagle fan from Scranton to Rehoboth, from Atlantic City to Harrisburg, wanted to tell T.O. -- or "O.D.," as some of them were chanting in the parking lot -- what they thought of him. One particularly nasty chant, funny and tragic at the same time: "Dallas sucks! T.O. swallows -- pills!"

I watched the game on TV at the Field House bar at Jefferson Station in Center City. The sellout crowd of 69,268 that did manage to get in saw the Eagles trail 21-17 at halftime. But in the 4th quarter, Lito Sheppard intercepted former New England Patriot quarterback Drew Bledsoe for the 2nd time in the game. This time, it was in the end zone, and he returned it 102 yards for a touchdown. It becomes known as the Lito Shuffle, after the 1976 Boz Scaggs song "Lido Shuffle." The Eagles won, 38-24, and went on to win the NFC East, before losing in the Divisional Playoffs.

October 8, 2007: And so it came to pass that, 12 years to the day after the Buck Showalter era ended, so did the Joe Torre era. A 6-4 defeat to the Cleveland Indians in Game 4 of the ALDS at Yankee Stadium proves to be Torre's final game with the Yankees.

The veteran skipper, who during his 12-year tenure with the Bronx Bombers saw the team win 1,173 games and make the postseason every year, will soon reject a $5 million, 1-year contract to return as manager, a deal many believe to be structured to oust the popular pilot without upsetting the fans.

This was also the final postseason game at the original Yankee Stadium, ending not with a bang, or with a whimper, but a few grumbles. With some regret, it was time for Torre to go. And he knew it. And he has been much happier since.

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October 8, 2011, 10 years ago: Al Davis dies of heart disease at age 82. He was smart, but not always wise. He was sneaky, he was underhanded, he was conniving, and from 1966 to 1984, with brief revivals in 1990 and 2001-03, he usually got the job done. For most football fans, he was the Raiders, first in Oakland, then in Los Angeles, then in Oakland again.

The team is now owned by his son, Mark Davis -- and he's moved them again, as they are now the Las Vegas Raiders. Al had talked the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority into altering the Coliseum for the Raiders' benefit, ruining its baseball atmosphere, to get them to move back in 1995. But Mark didn't like their arrangement, and got out.

October 8, 2018: The Yankees' current ace, Luis Severino, gets clobbered. A pitcher that Brian Cashman let get away, Nathan Eovaldi, ends up as the winning pitcher. The Red Sox beat the Yankees 16-1, the worst postseason loss in Yankee history, and at Yankee Stadium, no less. It gives the Red Sox a 2-1 lead in the ALDS.

Home plate umpire Angel Hernandez, regarded as one of the worst umpires in baseball, had 3 calls overturned by video replay in the game's 1st 4 innings, not that it did the Yankees much good.