Mickey Mantle: A 90th Birthday Appreciation

October 20, 1931, 90 years ago: Mickey Charles Mantle is born in Spavinaw, Oklahoma, and grows up in nearby Commerce. His father, Elvin "Mutt" Mantle, named him after his favorite baseball player, Philadelphia Athletics catcher Gordon "Mickey" Cochrane.

Mickey would later say he was glad his father didn't name him Gordon. But he could have been "Gordie Mantle." The nickname "Gordie" certainly didn't hurt hockey player Gordon Howe.

In northeastern Oklahoma in the 1930s and '40s, there wasn't anything to do but work in the mines, and, until you were old enough to do that, play football and baseball. Mickey played baseball, and the rest is history.

On April 17, 1953, Mantle hit a home run at Griffith Stadium in Washington, that clipped the scoreboard at the back of the bleachers, 460 feet from home plate. That's the difference that always should have been quoted: From home plate to the first thing the ball hit. The ball continued onward into the back yard of a house a block away.

Yankee public relations director Arthur "Red" Patterson found out where the ball landed, and paced the distance to the stadium wall. Added onto the distance from plate to scoreboard, it came out to 565 feet, and "the longest home run ever hit" was born.

So was "the tape measure home run," although Patterson only began using a tape measure after this. Over the next few days, Mantle also hit drives out of Shibe Park (later renamed Connie Mack Stadium) in Philadelphia and Sportsman's Park (later renamed the 1st Busch Stadium) in St. Louis that ranked among the longest ever hit there. He hit one of the few drives over the left field roof of Comiskey Park in Chicago. He hit one over the right field roof at Tiger Stadium that one author suggested went 643 feet. (It was definitely over 500 feet, but not 600.)

Of course, the long home runs wouldn't have meant much if they didn't help the Yankees win. After a difficult rookie season that saw him sent down to the minor leagues for a time, Mantle, still only 19 years old, helped the Yankees win the American League Pennant in 1951. But a knee injury in Game 2 of the World Series would plague him for the rest of his career.

He helped the Yankees win 12 Pennants: In 1951, '52, '53, '55, '56, '57, '58, '60, '61, '62, '63 and '64. On 7 of those occasions, he helped them win the World Series. His contribution in 1951 was limited because of his injury, but he hit a home run in Game 7 in 1952, a grand slam in Game 4 in 1953, a home run (and a great catch) that saved Don Larsen's perfect game in Game 5 in 1956, leading a 3-games-to-1 comeback in 1958, and limited appearances due to injuries in the Yankees' 1961 and 1962 titles.

All these World Series appearances made Mantle baseball's 1st "television superstar," and, more so than his contemporaries Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, who had better career statistics, what his Monument Park plaque called him: "The most popular player of his era."

He was named the American League's Most Valuable Player in 1956, after leading it in batting average with .353, home runs with 52, and RBIs with 130. In fact, he remains the last player to lead both Leagues in all 3 categories in the same season. In 1957, he had his highest batting average, .365, although Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, at age 39, batted .388. Mantle was named MVP again.

In 1961, he hit 54 home runs, a career high, while teammate Roger Maris, batting ahead of him, hit a record 61. In 1962, despite missing a quarter of the season due to another in a seemingly endless series of injuries, he was named the MVP for a 3rd time. In 1964, he hit 3 home runs in the World Series, to give him a record of 18. In Game 3, his 16th, surpassing Babe Ruth, was a walkoff home run. But despite hitting them in Games 6 and 7, the Yankees lost the World Series.

After that, the entire Yankee team seemed to get old, hurt, or both at once, and there wasn't enough left in the farm system to replace them, or to trade to other teams for players to replace them. The last 4 seasons of Mantle's career would be a competitive struggle. He retired after the 1968 season with 536 home runs, 3rd all-time at that point.

That last season included his 20th and last appearance in the All-Star Game. It was also the only time that he faced rising New York Mets starter Tom Seaver. Mantle fouled a pitch off, and swung and missed at 3 other pitches, for a strikeout.

Mantle retired at the start of Spring Training 1969, realizing that the desire to keep playing wasn't worth the physical effort. "Baseball has been very good to me," he said on Mickey Mantle Day, June 8, 1969, with his Number 7 being retired and a Plaque in his honor dedicated, "and playing 18 years in Yankee Stadium for you folks is the greatest thing that could ever happen to a ballplayer."

Those 18 years in a Yankee uniform would stand as a club record until 2013, when both Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera suited up for a 19th season. Mariano would retire after that, but Derek would play for a 20th season. Derek would also break Mantle's club record for games played, 2,401, extending it to 2,747.

Mickey's 270 home runs at Yankee Stadium, 4 more than Babe Ruth, remain a record. Overall, he hit 536 home runs, 3rd-most in history at the time of his retirement. He hit 18 in World Series play, still a record. He helped the Yankees win 12 Pennants and 7 World Series.

He was honored in Monument Park (with a Plaque at his retirement in 1969, and a Monument in 1996 after his death the year before), with election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his 1st year of eligibility in 1974, and in 1999 with being named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Players (ranking 17th) and the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. A statue of him stands outside the Triple-A ballpark in Oklahoma City, on a street renamed for him.

Remembering how outgoing star Joe DiMaggio was less than friendly to him when he came up, Mantle was welcoming to incoming Yankee stars, including Reggie Jackson, who has cited Mantle's kindness to him many times.

But heavy drinking, to deal with the injuries and other struggles of his life, doomed Mantle to an early death, on August 13, 1995, at the age of 63. If the death of Elvis Presley, 18 years to the week earlier, was the first sign to the Baby Boom generation that they were no longer young, the death of Mickey Mantle was the first sign that they were now growing old.

But as Art LaFleur, playing the ghost of Babe Ruth in the film The Sandlot, pointed out, "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die." Mickey Mantle will always be with us.

Or, as Bob Costas put it, delivering Mantle's eulogy, "In the last year of his life, Mickey Mantle, always so hard on himself, finally came to accept and appreciate the distinction between a role model and a hero. The first, he often was not. The second, he always will be. And, in the end, people got it."

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Mantle was born on the 21st birthday of Bob Sheppard. On October 20, 1910, Robert Leo Sheppard is born in Richmond Hill, Queens, the same neighborhood that would produce Rizzuto. He played quarterback for St. John's University in Queens, and later taught public speaking there.

In between, he taught public speaking at John Adams High School in the Ozone Park section of Queens. This means he could, arguably, have had, as one of his students, my grandmother. Sadly, family concerns forced her to drop out, so she never did graduate.  And I didn't find out about the possibility until after both of them had died, so I couldn't ask either if Grandma had been taught by Sheppard.

When the NFL had a team called the Brooklyn Dodgers, speech professor Sheppard did the public-address announcements for their games. Football Dodgers owner, and Yankees co-owner, Dan Topping heard him, and asked Sheppard to do the Yankees' games. He accepted, and from 1951 until 2007, he hardly ever missed a game. Ill health forced him to miss the 2008 and 2009 seasons, but… 57 years! On top of that, from 1956 to 2005, 50 years, he did the football Giants' games.

Sheppard was a generous gentleman and a complete professional, from sounding like an announcer, not a shameless shill (unlike such braying animals as Bob Casey of the Minnesota Twins, may he rest in peace, and Ray Clay of the Chicago Bulls); to accepting with humility the appellation that Reggie Jackson gave him: "The Voice of God."

Such was the appeal of Sheppard, and such is the pull of Derek Jeter, that Jeter asked that a recording of Sheppard introduce him before every at-bat, for the rest of his career, even after Sheppard died, which happened in 2010, just short of his 100th birthday. (A recording of Sheppard was also used to introduce Mariano Rivera when he came out for his final big-league appearance in 2013.)

He said he liked the Hispanic and Japanese names due to all the vowels, saying that they were "euphonious." But he said his favorite name to introduce was Mickey Mantle, with whom he shared his birthday. Mantle told Sheppard, "I got goose bumps when he introduced me." Sheppard said, "So did I."

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October 20, 1803: The U.S. Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase, making possible the major-league cities of St. Louis, Kansas City, Minneapolis and Denver. If you count cities that have major-league teams in other sports but not baseball, add to the list New Orleans and Oklahoma City.

October 20, 1816: James Wilson Grimes is born in Deering, New Hampshire. He moved west to practice law in the Wisconsin Territory, settling in what became Burlington, Iowa. He was elected Governor in 1854 and to the Senate in 1859.

In 1868, he was one of the Senators who broke from the Republican Party and voted to acquit President Andrew Johnson in his impeachment trial. Like Johnson, he believed that the law that Johnson violated, the Tenure of Office Act, was unconstitutional, and said, "I cannot agree to destroy the harmonious working of the Constitution for the sake of getting rid of an Unacceptable President."

He died in 1872, 2 years after saying this of the Republican Party, which he had helped to found in 1854: "I believe it is the most debauched political party that ever existed." If only he could see it now.

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October 20, 1904: Thomas Clement Douglas is born in Camelon, Falkirk, Scotland. No, Camelon was not the basis for the legend of Camelot. That is usually alleged to be based on Camlann, somewhere in England's West Country or Wales; or Camulodunum, now Colchester, in Essex, in London's northern suburbs. But don't let it be forgot:

At the age of 6, Tommy Douglas hurt his leg, and it was only through a pioneering orthopedist that it wasn't amputated. That inspired him to fight for health care later in life. Shortly after his hospitalization, he and his family moved to Canada, to Winnipeg, where he became an amateur boxing champion.

In 1935, he was elected to Canada's House of Commons, as a member of a left-wing party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). In 1944, he was elected Premier of Saskatchewan, equivalent to the Governor of a State, and thus became the 1st democratically-elected Socialist head of government in North America. He held the office for 17 years, and instituted the 1st single-payer universal health care program on the continent.

He returned to Parliament in 1961, turning the CCF into the New Democratic Party, which remains the strongest Socialist party in North America. He remained its leader until 1971, and in Parliament until 1979. He died in 1986. In 2004, CBC polled its viewers, and he was named the winner of their TV special The Greatest Canadian.

Oh yes: His daughter, actress Shirley Douglas, married Canadian actor Donald Sutherland. So actor Kiefer Sutherland is his grandson.

October 20, 1910: The Philadelphia Athletics dispose of Chicago Cub starter Ed Reulbach in 2 innings‚ then pin the loss on reliever Harry McIntire‚ who lasts 1/3rd of a inning. A's pitcher Jack Coombs coasts on 1 day's rest‚ 12-5‚ and helps himself with 3 hits.

Cub manager/1st baseman Frank Chance becomes the 1st player ejected from a World Series game when umpire Tom Connolly chases him for protesting a Danny Murphy home run drive against a sign over the right field bleachers. Chance opines too loudly that it should be a ground-rule double.

October 20, 1915: Hieronym Anthony Jacunski is born in the Hartford suburb of New Britain, Connecticut. An end, both offensive and defensive, he was a member of the Fordham University line known as the Seven Blocks of Granite, as were future Hall of Fame center Alex Wojciechowicz and guard, and future Hall of Fame coach, Vince Lombardi. They went 18-2-5 in his 3 years on the varsity, ranked 8th, 3rd and 18th in the nation.

Harry Jacunski became a Green Bay Packers legend well before Lombardi did: He was an All-Pro as a rookie in 1939, helping the Packers win the NFL Championship that year, and again in 1944. He was named to the Packers Hall of Fame. He later coached at Notre Dame, and at both Harvard and Yale, serving 33 years as a Bulldogs assistant.

When I was born, my parents lived in Bloomfield, New Jersey, next-door to Harry's son Dick, his wife Lynn, and their 3 daughters, Johanna, Elizabeth and Barbara. The families have been friends for over 50 years now. Although the wear and tear of early pro football left him in constant pain, Harry's mind was still clear when died on February 20, 2003, at age 87.

October 20, 1921, 100 years ago: Manuel Leaonedas Ayulo is born in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank, California. He began racing Formula 1 cars in the late 1940s, and was one of the earliest F1 drivers to move into "Indy car" racing. But he never won a race, and was killed in a crash at the 1955 Indianapolis 500. He was only 33.

October 20, 1933: Barrie Chase (apparently, her full name) is born in Kings Point, Long Island, New York. She became the last in a line of dancing partners of Fred Astaire, appearing with him on 4 TV specials in the 1960s. In 1963, she appeared in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and is 1 of the last 2 surviving castmembers of that film. She retired from performing to raise a family in 1972.

October 20, 1934: Ted Drake, who had nearly signed for Tottenham as a teenager but was now in his 1st full season with their North London arch-rivals, Arsenal, scores 3 goals in a 5-1 win over Tottenham at White Hart Lane. He is the 1st Arsenal player ever to score a hat trick in a competitive match against Spurs. There has been only one other since, Alan Sunderland in 1978, and he also did it at The Lane.

Drake was just getting warmed up: A year later, on December 14, 1935, he would tie a league record for most goals in a Division One match, tallying 7 against Aston Villa. No player has matched or beaten that since.

In 1955, Drake would become the 1st man to win the League as both a non-managing player and a non-playing manager, taking Chelsea to the title. It was the only title in their 1st 99 seasons, and the only manager ever to take Chelsea to the League title without Roman Abrmovich's ill-gotten Russian energy billions is an Arsenal man.

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October 20, 1941, 80 years ago: Lieutenant Ken Farnes of the Royal Air Force is killed in a training flight near Chipping Warden, Oxfordshire. He was only 30 years old. Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack, a.k.a. The Bible of Cricket, had named him Cricketer of the Year in 1939.

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October 20, 1951, 70 years ago: Alex Groza, Ralph Beard and Dale Barnstable of the Indianapolis Olympians are arrested for taking bribes from gamblers to "shave points" while they were at the University of Kentucky. When the dust settled in 1952, they were banned from the NBA for life. UK got its 1952-53 season canceled, and was banned from competing in the NCAA Tournament and the NIT in 1954.

UK went 25-0 in 1954, and the Helms Foundation declared them -- not NCAA Champion LaSalle or NIT Champion Holy Cross -- the National Champions. Groza -- brother of Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Lou Groza -- would later coach in college and in the ABA. Barnstable later became a golfer, winning senior tournaments. But neither he nor Beard were ever involved in the NBA again, as their bans were never listed.

The Olympians, who played at Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler University (still standing, the filming location of the final game in the film Hoosiers, and the site of the real-life game it was based on), never recovered. They went out of business in 1953, and the NBA didn't return to Indianapolis until the Indiana Pacers were among the ABA teams taken in for 1976.

Also on this day, Claudio Ranieri (no middle name) is born in Rome. A centreback, he briefly appeared with hometown soccer club AS Roma, before helping Calabria club Catanzaro and Sicilian clubs Catania and Palermo win promotion to Serie A, Italy's top league.

He has managed 16 different clubs, including Roma, and Spanish club Valencia twice, and the national team of Greece. He got Sardinia club Cagliari promoted from Serie C1 to Serie A in the minimum 2 years, got Florence club Fiorentina promoted and won them the 1996 Coppa Italia, won Valencia the 1999 Copa del Rey, and got Monaco promoted back to France's Ligue 1 in 2013.

He's best known for his time at West London club Chelsea, managing them into the 2002 FA Cup Final and the 2004 Champions League Semifinal, but winning no trophies. He became known as the Tinkerman for his frequent rotation of his players. After the 2003-04 season, Roman Abramovich's 1st as club owner, "the Mad Russian" fired the Tinkerman, hiring Jose Mourinho.

In the 2015-16 season, he pulled off the 5,000-to-1 feat of managing Leicester City, who'd barely escaped relegation the season before, to the Premier League title. They succeeded Chelsea, who had brought Mourinho back, but had fired him again after dropping to 16th place in December. They eventually got back up to 10th. He now manages Hertfordshire team Watford.

Also on this day, CBS debuts its "Eye" logo.

October 20, 1953: Keith Barlow Hernandez is born in San Francisco. Who does this guy think he is? "I'm Keith Hernandez!"

He also thinks he's the 1979 NL batting champion and co-MVP (a unique tied vote, shared with Willie Stargell), a member of World Series winners with the 1982 St. Louis Cardinals and the 1986 New York Mets, and one of the best-fielding 1st basemen ever.

These days, he thinks he's a broadcaster with the Mets. He also thinks he's really smart, which he is, but he's not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. Although his acquisition made the Mets a contender and then a champion again after some very dark years, they have strangely not retired his Number 17. Nor has he been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

He famously appeared on a 2-part episode of Seinfeld in 1992, playing himself and dating Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). She dumped him because he smoked. He has since quit.

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October 20, 1961, 60 years ago: Ian James Rush is born in St. Asaph, Wales. He was a superstar in the English soccer league, leading Liverpool to 6 League titles. He scored more goals in FA Cup play than any player in the 20th Century, shares with 1966 World Cup hero Geoff Hurst the record for most goals scored in League Cup play, and is the all-time leading goalscorer in Merseyside derbies (Liverpool vs. Everton).

There was a daunting statistic that Liverpool had never lost a game in which Rush scored. That stat held until the 1987 League Cup Final at the old Wembley Stadium, when he scored, and then North London-based Arsenal came back with 2 goals by Charlie Nicholas to win, 2-1.

Rush had a difficult 2-year spell with Juventus in the Italian league, before returning to Liverpool. Not the 1st British player to be a bust in Italy, nor the last, he was asked if the language barrier would be a problem. He denied it: "I don't even speak English that well." (The Welsh do have their own separate language, but Rush can be understood in English, unlike later Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher, whose Scouse accent is so thick he needs a translator.)

After a brief spell managing Chester City, which had been his 1st pro club as a player, he became a pundit for Sky Sports. He is now a club ambassador for Liverpool. With 346 goals, he is their all-time leading scorer.

October 20, 1964: Kamala Devi Harris is born in Oakland, California. The daughter of a Jamaican father and a Tamil (India) mother, she was elected District Attorney of San Francisco in 2003 and 2007, Attorney General of California in 2010 and 2014, U.S. Senator from California in 2016, and Vice President of the United States in 2020. So far, she has never lost an election.

October 20, 1967: The expansion Seattle SuperSonics make their home debut, at the Seattle Center Coliseum. They face the other expansion team, the San Diego Rockets, and lose 121-114. John Block scores 32 and Johnny Green 30 for the Rockets, who will move to Houston in 1971. Walt Hazzard scores 32 for the Sonics, who will win the 1979 NBA Championship and become the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008.

Also on this day, Star Trek airs the episode "The Doomsday Machine." James Doohan, who played Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott, Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise, called this his favorite episode. It's easy to see why: Not only does it give "Scotty" more to do than just about any episode, it's superbly well-written by star science-fiction writer Norman Spinrad, and shows the

Enterprise's Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the USS Constellation's Commodore Matt Decker (William Windom) dealing with the risks of commanding a ship.

The recent remastering of the Original Series episodes helps this episode more than any other. The "planet killer" looked pretty ridiculous in the Sixties. Now, it looks like a real threat. Also, the damage it did to the Constellation is shown to be much more stark, and the way the ships had to move in order to do what needed to be done to stop the machine was much better rendered.

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October 20, 1971, 50 years ago: Laura Mendez is born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She is a lawyer, a fitness advocate, Mrs. Jorge Posada, and, through the experience of her son Jorge IV, a fundraiser for childhood facial and cranial difficulties. 

I met her once, at a YES Network function. As in, YES, she looks just as good in person. And, YES, she's as nice as you would hope someone who looks that good is. And, YES, he ended up with her.  So here's hope for all of us.

Also on this day, Calvin Corodzar Broadus Jr. is born outside Los Angeles in Long Beach, California. The king of West Coast rap, Snoop Dogg -- he's also used "Snoop Doggy Dogg," "Tha Doggfather" and "Snoop Lion" -- is part of a family that includes P-Funk bass master Bootsy Collins, the late rapper Nate Dogg, WWE performer Sasha Banks, and brother-and-sister singers Brandy Norwood and Ray J. (Not to be confused with Bill Saluga, a.k.a. Raymond J. Johnson Jr., a.k.a. Mr. "You can call me Ray, or... ")

Mariah Carey, often called a diva, once did a duet with him, and said, "Snoop is a much bigger diva than I am." He also likes his herb: As Arsenio Hall said when Snoop and his mentor Dr. Dre appeared on his show in 1993, "They gave a whole new meaning to the term 'green room.'" He dropped references to his usage when he played Moses against Nice Peter's Santa Claus in an episode of Epic Rap Battles of History.

Like a lot of the 1980s and '90s L.A. rappers, he became a big fan of the Raiders, staying one even after they moved back to Oakland. He's also a Dodger, Laker and USC fan. He took classes to become a certified football coach, and coached his son Cordell Broadus, a receiver and defensive back, at John A. Rowland High School in the L.A. suburb of Rowland Heights. Ironically, Cordell went to USC's arch-rivals, UCLA, but has since left the football program, though not the school. He switched to UCLA's famous film school, and is now making movies.

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October 20, 1973: The Sydney Opera House, Australia's most famous structure, opens. The Rolling Stones hit Number 1 on the U.S. singles charts with "Angie." The Six Million Dollar Man premieres on ABC, starring Lee Majors as astronaut-turned-bionic-federal-agent Steve Austin. (Definitely not to be confused with the Stone Cold "professional wrestler" using the same name.)

And Game 6 of the World Series is played at the Oakland Coliseum. The Mets just need to win 1 of the last 2 games against the Athletics in Oakland, and they will have their 2nd World Championship in 5 seasons -- it has been 11 years since the Yankees went all the way. And Tom Seaver, "The Franchise," is on the mound. What can go wrong?

This can go wrong: Met manager Yogi Berra has sent Seaver out on just 3 days' rest, hoping that "Tom Terrific" can close out the defending World Champions on their own patch, so that no Game 7 will be necessary.

But Reggie Jackson, not yet a New York baseball legend, hits 2 doubles, scores 1 run and knocks in 2. Jim "Catfish" Hunter, also a future Hall-of-Famer and a future New York baseball legend, pitches brilliantly. The A's beat the Mets 3-1. So there will be a Game 7 tomorrow.

To this day, many Met fans are angry at Yogi for starting Seaver on short rest. I'm sure some of them thought of Yogi as a Yankee and hated him for that reason alone. They shouldn't: There are only 5 human beings who have managed the Mets to a Pennant: Yogi, Gil Hodges, Davey Johnson, Bobby Valentine and Terry Collins. And only Johnson, Valentine and Collins are still alive.

Also on this day, the Capital Bullets -- who will change their name again to the Washington Bullets next season -- play their 1st home game after 10 years in Baltimore, at the Capital Centre in suburban Landover, Maryland. At this point, the Bullets are one of the better teams in the NBA, and they prove it, beating the Boston Celtics 96-87. Phil Chenier leads all scorers with 26 points.

But the big story of October 20, 1973 is, unlike that game, actually in Washington, and it has nothing to do with sports, unless you consider politics to be a "contact sport." The day before, in an effort to get away with whatever he did that was recorded on his Oval Office tapes, President Richard Nixon offered a compromise: He would allow Senator John Stennis to review the tapes, and present Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox with summaries.

On this day, Cox publicly refuses to accept this compromise. He knows that Stennis is not only a conservative from Mississippi and a supporter of Nixon's -- he's a conservative Southern Democrat, a.k.a. a "Dixiecrat," and no friend of mainstream Democrats -- but also hard of hearing. If those tapes reveal that Nixon committed an impeachable offense, Stennis might not hear it properly. And even if he does, he might refuse to admit it to Cox, and claim his poor hearing caused him to miss it. Cox isn't buying it, and has enough guts to press onward.

Nixon decides that, in order to survive as President, he has to fire Cox -- whom he had never fully trusted, as Cox had been Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy and an old friend of JFK's, and thus a partisan Democrat.

So he instructs his Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, the man with the power to fire Cox, to do it.  Richardson refuses, because he thinks it will spark a Constitutional crisis. Nixon says do it or you're

fired. Richardson does the honorable thing, and resigns his post.

So Nixon goes to the next man in line, Richardson's Deputy Attorney General, William Ruckelshaus.  He tells Ruckelshaus to fire Cox. He refuses. Nixon says do it or you're fired. Ruckelshaus still refuses, but does not resign. Nixon fires him.

So with the top 2 men in the U.S. Department of Justice now gone, Nixon goes to the Number 3 man, the Solicitor General, and tells him to fire Cox. He does, because he values Nixon more than he values the Constitution.

Word quickly gets out, and the Washington press corps quickly dubs these events "The Saturday Night Massacre." People wake up the next morning to bold headlines in their Sunday papers. The Sunday morning news shows, NBC's Meet the Press, CBS' Face the Nation, and ABC's Issues and Answers (the predecessor program to This Week), can talk about nothing else.

The pressure on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Nixon vastly increases. And, with the Vice Presidency vacant, as Spiro Agnew has resigned and Gerald Ford has not yet been confirmed by either house of Congress as the new VP, the next man in line is the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Carl Albert -- a Democrat, and, while from a Southern State, Oklahoma, considerably more liberal than Stennis. This would have been a political earthquake, much bigger than the end of Nixon's Presidency actually turned out to be.

Within days, Nixon realizes what a blunder he has committed, and tells the Acting Attorney General to appoint a new Special Prosecutor. That man would be Leon Jaworski. By December 6, Ford would be confirmed by both houses and sworn in as Vice President, and the danger of Nixon being impeached and removed, and replaced by a President of the other party, was gone, and things calmed down in Watergate -- for a while.

There would be ramifications, of course -- some lasting much longer than the Nixon Administration itself. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan appointed that same former Acting Attorney General to the U.S. Supreme Court, as his judicial views fit the archconservative vision that Reagan had for the country. But his role in the Saturday Night Massacre was held against him -- although it's possible that he might have been rejected by the Senate anyway. His name was Robert Bork.

On April 26, 1974, the Yankees traded 4 pitchers to the Cleveland Indians: Fritz Peterson, Fred Beene, Steve Kline and Tom Buskey. Essentially sending away half their pitching staff, this became known as the Friday Night Massacre.

But the trade was necessary: It got rid of 4 pitchers who didn't take the game as seriously as they did their social lives, and it brought in 2 players who would be essential in the Yankees' late 1970s Pennants: 1st baseman Chris Chambliss and pitcher Dick Tidrow. (They also got pitcher Cecil Upshaw, but he was injured, turned out to be a nonfactor, and was traded after the season.)

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October 20, 1976: The Long Island-based New York Nets are in trouble. Having to pay the NBA $3 million as an entry fee from the ABA, and having to pay the Knicks a $4.8 million "territorial indemnification fee," the Nets owe $7.8 million -- about $35.6 million in today's money.

The Nets offered their biggest star, Julius "Dr. J" Erving, to the Knicks in exchange for the Knicks waiving the territorial indemnification fee. This would have dropped the Nets' fees to $3 million. But the Knicks refused: They wanted the money more than the superstar. This was a tremendous mistake, as they had already fallen far from their 1970 and '73 NBA titles with the retirements of Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere and Jerry Lucas, while Walt Frazier and Bill Bradley were clearly in decline, although Earl Monroe was still good. The Knicks went on to crash and burn.

But so did the Nets: On this day, they sell Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers for $3 million, leaving them with only the territorial indemnification fee of $4.8 million. Despite having picked up future Hall-of-Famer Nate "Tiny" Archibald, the Nets instantly went from the ABA Championship to the worst record in the NBA. It would take until 1981-82 to recover, by which point the Knicks had also begun to do so.

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October 20, 1981, 40 years ago: Game 1 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. A banner is hung from the upper deck:

DON'T THE

DODGERS

EVER LEARN

Not yet, they don't, as Bob Watson's 1st-inning homer and the pitching of Ron Guidry and Goose Gossage shut the Bums down, 5-3.

October 20, 1982: Game 7 of the World Series at Busch Memorial Stadium. The Cardinals, including birthday boy Keith Hernandez, rally for 3 runs in the 6th to defeat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-3. As far as I know, Hernandez is the only player ever to appear in a World Series-winning game on his birthday.

The Cardinals win their 9th World Series, a total surpassed only by the Yankees. (Since then, if you combine their Philadelphia and Oakland titles, it has been matched by the A’s, although the Cards have now made it 11.)

The Cardinals will win 2 more Pennants in the decade, and have remained more or less competitive ever since. The Brewers have never played another World Series game, and did not even play another postseason game for 26 years.

But this is a dark day in the history of sports on planet Earth, for reasons that have nothing to do with the World Series. A UEFA Cup match was scheduled for the Grand Sports Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium, now named the Luzhniki Stadium. Spartak Moscow, the most popular sports team in the Soviet Union, hosted Dutch club HFC Haarlem.

Unlike some other soccer disasters, including the Hillsborough Disaster in Sheffield, England in 1989, the problem this time wasn't too many tickets being sold. Even by Russian standards, this was a cold day for October: 14 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit. As a result, a stadium that could then hold as many as 102,000 sold only 16,643 tickets.

Contrast that with the 1967 NFL Championship Game, known as "the Ice Bowl": It was 13 below at kickoff, but Lambeau Field in Green Bay was still filled to its capacity at the time, 50,861. An NFL Films voiceover covering it for the 1986 video The NFL's Greatest Games said, "It is called 'Russian Winter,' the kind of cold that made Napoleon and Hitler flee in terror from the doorstop of Moscow. But in Green Bay, it is known as 'Packer Weather.'" Are Wisconsans tougher than Russians?

It is believed that only 100 fans had come from the Netherlands to support Haarlem, despite their having a young Ruud Gullit in their ranks. They won the Dutch league, the Eredivisie, in 1946 and had won promotion back into it in 1981 and qualified for the UEFA Cup in 1982. But they were relegated in 1990, and went bankrupt in 2010, and have had to start all over; the new club, named Haarlem Kennemerland, now plays in the Netherlands' 9th division.

Edgar Gess, a Tajik midfielder, scored in the 16th minute. The score remained 1-0 to Spartak nearly the rest of the way, and, not anticipating the poorly-supported visitors to get a late equalizer, hundreds of fans in the East Stand left their seats to leave the stadium and get to the Metro (Moscow's subway).

But in stoppage time, Georgian defender Sergei Shvetsov scored to make it 2-0. The fans leaving heard the remaining fans cheer, and, in the same setup as the Ibrox Disaster in Glasgow, Scotland in 1971, many of them turned around to head back and see what happened. This led to fans bumping into each other on the stairwell and falling like dominoes.

There is an alternate theory that the reaction to Shvetsov's goal had nothing to do with it: Rather, it was a young woman losing a shoe, going back to pick it up, getting trampled, and a few fans stopping to help her, thus, in trying to make a bad situation better, instead making it far worse: Good Samaritanism gone horribly wrong.

Initially, the Soviet government announced that the number of fatalities was a mere 3. Some had speculated that it was as high as 340. It wasn't until the fall of the Soviet Union, and the declassification of many documents, that the true number of deaths was revealed: 66 -- oddly, the exact same number as the similar Ibrox Disaster. It remains the greatest sporting disaster ever to happen on the European continent.

Four stadium officials, including the stadium's director and its top police officer, were charged. Two of them were never tried due to illness. The other two were imprisoned for 3 years.

On November 3, the 2nd leg of the UEFA Cup tie was played in Haarlem. Despite Haarlem taking a 1-0 lead, Spartak won the game 3-1, including another goal by Shvetsov, won the tie 5-1, and advanced. On October 20, 2007, the 25th Anniversary, the players gathered at Luzhniki Stadium again, playing a memorial match for charity.

October 20, 1988: The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Oakland Athletics 5-2 in Game 5 of the World Series at the Oakland Coliseum. This gives the Dodgers the World Championship in a tremendous upset, sparked by Kirk Gibson's home run that won Game 1.

The win gives the Dodgers a tremendous upset, and their 5th World Championship since moving to Los Angeles 30 years earlier, their 6th overall. It also caps a decade in which they had made the Playoffs 5 times, also winning the World Series in 1981.

Orel Hershiser, who grew up in Cherry Hill, Camden County, New Jersey, had already won Game 2, following a regular season that he concluded with a record that still stands, of 59 consecutive scoreless innings pitched. He allows just 4 hits in this game, and is named the Most Valuable Player of the Series. Mickey Hatcher starts the Dodger scoring with a 2-run homer in the 1st off Storm Davis‚ his 2nd homer of the Series.

But it would take them 29 years, until 2017, to win another Pennant. It couldn't have all been due to the Curse of Donnie Baseball: Don Mattingly was only there from 2008 (2011 as manager) until 2015.

Since buying the Dodgers in 2012, billionaire businessman and former basketball superstar Earvin "Magic" Johnson has done what the late Yankee owner George Steinbrenner did: He has spared no expense in his desire to build a World Series winner. It took George 5 seasons, 1973 to 1977. This is Magic's 9th season as owner, and he has gotten them 2 Pennants, but not a World Championship.

*

October 20, 1990: The talk of an Oakland dynasty is proven premature‚ as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Athletics 2-1, to complete one of the most stunning sweeps in World Series history. Series MVP Jose Rijo (2-0‚ 0.59 ERA) retires the last 20 batters he faces to give the Reds their 1st World Championship since 1976, their 5th overall.

That teammate was Paul O'Neill. The Reds' manager was former Yankee great Lou Piniella. An intense right fielder who came up big in big moments, O'Neill reminded me even then of a lefthanded version of Sweet Lou, and I was thrilled when the Yankees traded for him. He would go on to win 4 more World Series with the Yankees, for a total of 5.

However, the Reds have not won a Pennant since – in fact, they haven't even won an NLCS game in the 3 decades since. Come to think of it, the A's haven't won an ALCS game since, either. Between them, these franchises won 24 Pennants from 1902 to 1990, and 11 Pennants from 1970 to 1990. But none since.

Not joining the celebration at the end is Eric Davis‚ who ruptures his kidney diving for a ball during the game, and is taken to the hospital. This is the 1st of several injuries that ended up derailing what could have been a great career, although he did play on until 2001 and hit 282 home runs.

He and Rickey Henderson are the only players to hit 25 home runs and steal 80 bases in a season, and he and Barry Bonds (before the steroids) are the only players to hit 30 homers and steal 50 bases in a season. He's now a roving instructor for the Reds, and they have elected him to their Hall of Fame. One of his teammates called him "the best hitter, best runner, best outfielder, best everything I've ever seen."

Also on this day, Saturday Night Live is hosted by George Steinbrenner, recently suspended by Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent over the Howard Spira scandal. He announces that he's bought the Reds. He also plays the manager of a store, who is told by his division manager to fire an employee who's been goofing off, and, contrary to his real life, he says he can't bring himself to do it, that a man would have to be really rotten to be constantly firing people.

Also on this day, an antiwar protest was held in New York. Fearful that the Persian Gulf War would be another "Vietnam," including draft, 25,000 people, myself included, marched from Columbus Circle down Broadway through Times Square to Herald Square. Our fears were unfounded. But that didn't make a war for oil moral.

October 20, 1991, 30 years ago: Game 2 of the World Series. The Minnesota Twins don't lose at home in the postseason. Chili Davis and Scott Leius hit home runs, and the Twins beat the Atlanta Braves 3-2, to take a 2-0 lead in the Series.

October 20, 1992: For the 1st time, a World Series game is played outside the United States of America, as Game 3 is played at the SkyDome (now known as the Rogers Centre) in Toronto. The Blue Jays take a 3-2 win over the Atlanta Braves on Candy Maldonado's bases-loaded single in the 9th inning. Duane Ward gets credit for the victory in relief of Juan Guzman‚ and Joe Carter and Kelly Gruber homer for Toronto.

By starting in right field‚ Toronto's Joe Carter becomes the 1st player to start the 1st 3 games of a World Series at 3 different positions. He started Game 1 at 1st base and Game 2 in left field. Little did he know that a bigger distinction was yet to come: Catching the last out of the Series. And an even bigger one the following season.

In the 4th inning‚ Jays center fielder Devon White's sensational catch nearly results in a triple play. Deion Sanders was ruled safe on the play‚ but replays show he should have been the 3rd out. It would have been only the 2nd triple play in Series history, after Bill Wambsganss' unassisted feat in 1920.

Braves manager Bobby Cox is ejected from the game in the 9th, for arguing a check-swing call. He would also be thrown out of a Series game in 1996, and he remains the only manager facing this punishment twice, but no longer the last manager thrown out of a Series game..

By a weird turn of events, the last player thrown out of a Series game was the unrelated Danny Cox, of the 1987 Cardinals. Only 2 men from New York teams have ever been thrown out of a World Series game, both in games where their opponents clinched: Ralph Branca of the Dodgers, for bench-jockeying against the Yankees in Game 7 in 1952; and Yankee manager Billy Martin, for throwing a ball from the dugout onto the field in Game 4 in 1976.

October 20, 1993: Game 4 of the World Series at a rainy Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Charlie Williams becomes the 1st black man to serve as a home plate umpire in a World Series game.

The Phillies blow a 14-9 lead over the Blue Jays in the 8th inning, capped by a Devon White triple (he seems to like playing on October 20), and lose 15-14, the highest-scoring game in Series history, breaking the record of Game 2 of the 1936 Series, the Yankees beating the Giants 18-4.

If you're a Phillies fan, you should accept that this is when the Series was lost, not when Mitch Williams came in to relieve in Game 6. But then, if you're a Phillies fan, the 2007-11 quasi-dynasty may have helped you get over it.

October 20, 1996, 25 years ago: The 1st MLS Cup Final is played. This is not a spectacular miscalculation on Major League Soccer's part: This was supposed to be the day of Game 2 of the World Series, but rain pushed things back a day.

At the time, the MLS Cup had a "golden goal" rule: First team to score in overtime wins. But it wasn't their Kearny, New Jersey-born midfielder and Captain John Harkes who scored the winning goal for DCU. Nor was it either of their Bolivian stars, Marco Etcheverry or Jamie Moreno. Instead, in the 94th minute, it is Pope who proves infallible.

Unfortunately for MLS, the weather was still bad, as Hurricane Lili drenched the proceedings at Foxboro Stadium in the Boston suburbs, the neutral site chosen for the 1st Final. Washington-based D.C. United fall behind the Los Angeles Galaxy 2-0, thanks to a 4th minute goal by Ecuadorean forward Eduardo Hurtado and a 56th minute goal by American midfielder Chris Armas (now the manager of the New York Red Bulls). It looks like Cobi Jones and company will cruise to victory.

But, as they sing in England, "Two-nil, and you fucked it up!" Manager Bruce Arena makes a pair of substitutions that prove brilliant: Tony Sanneh in the 59th, and Shawn Medved in the 70th. Sanneh scores in the 72nd, and Medved does so in the 81st, and, with defenders Eddie Pope and Jeff Agoos and goalkeeper Mark Simpson holding the Gals off, the game goes to extra time.

DCU would win the League's 1st 2 titles, 3 of the 1st 4, and 4 of the 1st 9 (1996, 1997, 1999 and 2004). It has been argued that the 1st decade of MLS was the DC Era, and the 2nd decade was the LA Era, as the Gals would end up winning 5 Cups (2002, 2005, 2011, 2012 and 2014).

Also on this day, the Ice Palace opens in downtown Tampa, with a performance by the Royal Hanneford Circus. The NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning soon moved in, and remain there. The building's name was changed to the St. Pete Times Forum in 2002, the Tampa Bay Times Forum when the newspaper's name changed in 2012, and the Amalie Arena in 2014.

October 20, 1998: Game 3 of the World Series, in front of 64,667 at Jack Murphy – excuse me, Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Having hosted Super Bowl XXXII in January, this becomes the 1st time the Super Bowl and the World Series have been played in the same stadium -- or even in the same metropolitan area -- in the same calendar year.

The Metrodome in Minneapolis hosted the World Series in October 1991, Super Bowl XXVI in January 1992, and the NCAA Final Four in April 1992. But no stadium has hosted a Super Bowl and a World Series in the same calendar year since. Detroit in 2006, Dallas in 2011 and Houston in 2017 have hosted both in the same metro area in the same calendar year, but not in the same stadium.

In the pre-Super Bowl era, World Series and NFL Championship Games had been played in the same city in the same calendar year as follows: New York in 1936, 1938, 1956 and 1962; Detroit in 1935; and Cleveland in 1954.

The San Diego Padres take a 3-0 lead on the Yankees, but 3rd baseman Scott Brosius, having the season of his life, hits a home run to make it 3-2. In the top of the 8th, with the Yankees threatening with 2 men on, the Padres bring in their closer, Trevor Hoffman.

The Padre fans, believing him to be the world's greatest relief pitcher, wave their white towels and cheer wildly. The words, "IT'S TREVOR TIME" appear on the scoreboard. The public-address system blasts the song "Hell's Bells" by AC/DC.

Steinbrenner, not familiar with the hard rock music of the Seventies and Eighties -- and also not familiar with the legally-forced change of name to the WWE -- tells the New York beat writers, "When they played that death march, it sounded like the WWF, when The Undertaker comes in. That's who I thought they were bringing in!"

Certainly, for NL batters that season, Hoffman might as well have been an undertaker. The whole production had become one of the most intimidating scenes in baseball.

But these are not NL batters, these are the New York Yankees, and they fear nobody. Brosius takes him over the center field wall for a 5-3 Yankee lead, soon to be a 5-4 Yankee victory. The actual best closer in the game, Mariano Rivera, finishes it off, and the Yankees can wrap up the Series with a sweep tomorrow.

October 20, 1999: The West Wing airs the episode "The Crackpots and These Women." It starts with a basketball game, the President's staff against him and some Secret Service agents. Losing, the President decides to bring in a ringer: Rodney Grant, whom he calls "an associate director of the President's Council on Physical Fitness."

White House Press Secretary Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) thinks he recognizes the name, and asks Grant if he'd ever played. Yes, he had, at Duke University. Toby, knowing his side has been cheated, yells: "This guy was in the Final Four!"

Ironically, Grant is played by Juwan Howard, then playing for the Washington Wizards, and thus available for the location shot. Howard was a member of the University of Michigan "Fab Five," so (despite it having been stricken from the record, for reasons that had nothing to do with him) he did play in the NCAA Final Four -- losing the 1992 Final to Duke, and the 1993 Final to North Carolina.

The episode also introduces "Big Block of Cheese Day," invented by White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer), in honor of President Andrew Jackson opening up the White House to the people following his 1829 Inauguration, including the eponymous cheddar (which is a true story), telling them to interact with people they wouldn't ordinarily interact with, just because it's good public relations -- the "crackpots" of the title.

And Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) finds out that he gets to survive World War III, and most of the cast does not. And he is not okay with that.

*

October 20, 2001, 20 years ago: The New York Islanders retire the Number 19 of Hall-of-Fame center Bryan Trottier. This was a bit late: He'd played his last NHL game 7 years earlier, and his last game for the team 11 years earlier. The team had already retired 5 for Denis Potvin, 9 for Clark Gillies, 22 for Mike Bossy, 23 for Bobby Nystrom and 31 for Billy Smith.

Their game that night, at the Nassau Coliseum, against the San Jose Sharks, ends in a 2-2 tie. (No shootouts yet.)

But a much more important event is being held at Madison Square Garden: The Concert for New York City. Played just 6 weeks after the 9/11 attacks, emotions were still running deep. Most of the audience was cops, firemen, rescue workers, and people who had lost family members in the attacks, many of them holding up photos of the victims. Billy Crystal was the master of ceremonies.

David Bowie opened the show with Simon & Garfunkel's "America," then did his own "Heroes" with a full band. Also on hand: Bon Jovi, Jay-Z, Goo Goo Dolls, Destiny's Child (including Beyoncé), Eric

Clapton & Buddy Guy, the Backstreet Boys, Macy Gray, James Taylor, John Mellencamp & Kid Rock, Five For Fighting, and Janet Jackson.

Billy Joel showed up drunk, and went into rehab not long thereafter. Of course, he played "New York State of Mind." But first, he played "Miami 2017." On September 10, 2001, it looked like the apocalypse he'd predicted for The City in 1976 had been prevented. But on the 11th, it came far too close to reality: "I watched the mighty skyline fall" -- although it was the World Trade Center, not the Empire State Building, that he saw "laid low." He later joined Elton John, who had played his New Yorker-themed "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters," for a performance of Elton's "Your Song."

Melissa Etheridge's microphone went out during her acoustic performance of "Come to My Window," but everybody was singing along anyway, and none of those hard-edged, blue-collar cops and firemen gave a damn that she was openly gay. Her mike went out again as she did an acoustic version of Springsteen's "Born to Run" -- and nobody flinched as she sang lines of love and passion to a woman named Wendy.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones sang "Salt of the Earth" and "Miss You" (with its reference to walking through Central Park in the '70s). When they were done, Mick said, "If there's one thing we've learned from all this, it's that you don't fuck with New York!" True.

The Who came out, with Ringo Starr's son Zak Starkey filling in on drums for the late Keith Moon, and it turned out to be bass player John Entwistle's last performance. They did a nasty "Who Are You," an intense "Baba O'Riley," a melancholy "Behind Blue Eyes," and a roaring "Won't Get Fooled Again." Crystal said, "I'd never seen The Who live before. It was great to see these middle-aged men get out on stage and kick ass."

With Elvis dead and unavailable, it was appropriate that the show closed with a surviving Beatle, Paul McCartney, who played, among others, "Yesterday," his new song "Freedom," and "Let It Be." 

October 20, 2002: The Los Angeles Galaxy win their 1st MLS Cup, defeating the New England Revolution 1-0, at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, 6 years to the day after the Galaxy lost the 1st MLS Cup Final at the old stadium that had been next-door.

Another match for that 1st Final was that the Gals won on a "golden goal," in the 113th minute, not by a superstar such as Cobi Jones or Alexi Lalas, but by Guatemalan striker Carlos Ruíz, known as Pescado (The Fish).

The Gals would also beat the Revs in the Final in 2014. The Revs are no longer the Buffalo Bills or the Minnesota Vikings of MLS: They have surpassed both of them, playing in 5 MLS Cup Finals, and losing them all.

*

October 20, 2004: The Red Sox ruin the anniversary of Mickey Mantle's birth. Unlike the 2003-18 Red Sox, Mickey didn't need no steroids to win baseball games. The chemicals he ingested were, most definitely, not performance-enhancing.

Having dropped 3 straight to the Sox to force a Game 7 at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees had nothing left, at least not emotionally. The Red Sox led 6-0 after 2 innings. It was 8-1 after 4. The final was 10-3.
This was not the kind of loss that crushes you because you had it won at the end, and blew it. We got beat early. From the 1st inning onward, we knew the Red Sox were going to win the game. We knew it, and their fans knew it. There was nothing that could be done. And we had to stick it out, all 9 innings, and hear those Red Sox fans give us the business in our house for, as it turned out, 3 hours and 31 minutes. Never mind what the clock said: This was the longest game in Yankee history.

It was 12:01 AM, October 21, when Ruben Sierra grounded to 2nd for the final out. So not only had the Sox ended the Curse of the Bambino, they had ruined the birthdays of both Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford.

Finally, after losing the Pennant to the Yankees on the final day in 1949, blowing the Division title to the Yankees in 1977 and 1978, losing the ALCS to the Yankees in 1999, and the shock of 2003, the Red Sox and their fans had their revenge over the Yankees.

On July 30, 2009, it was revealed that David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, the 2 biggest reasons the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 and again in 2007, had failed steroid tests. They hadn't earned a fucking thing. They'd cheated. Ortiz was still there when they won it all again in 2013. Those 3 titles are fake, and they goddamned well know it. 1918 * Forever.

The baseball media, of course, will never give the Yankees the same benefit of the doubt that they give the Red Sox. Well, to hell with them. The world knows the truth, whether they accept it or not. They would say the Yankees "cheated" to win their titles. Really? The evidence against the 1996-2003 Yankees is incredibly flimsy. The evidence against the 2003-2013 Red Sox is overwhelming.

Lost in the excitement of the Red Sox' revenge over the Yankees, Jim Edmonds hits a home run in the bottom of the 12th inning, to give the Cardinals a 6-4 win over the Astros, and send the NLCS to a decisive Game 7.

October 20, 2007: The Prudential Center in Newark, about to become the home of the NHL's New Jersey Devils and the basketball team at South Orange's Seton Hall University, has what's known as a "soft opening." Essentially, it's a dress rehearsal: A concert by the Newark Boys Chorus.

October 20, 2009: Game 4 of the ALCS in Anaheim. The Yankees not only are not affected by last night's 11th-inning loss to the Los Angeles Angels, but bounce back from it in a big way. Alex Rodriguez hits his 3rd home run of the series, tying a postseason record with RBIs in 8 straight games. Johnny Damon homers. Melky Cabrera has 4 RBIs.

Aside from a Kendry Morales homer in the 5th inning, CC Sabathia was nearly untouchable, going 8 innings on 3 days' rest, putting up a performance which, along with his win in Game 1, earned him the ALCS MVP. The Yankees win 10-1, and can wrap up the Pennant in Game 5 in 2 days.

October 20, 2011, 10 years ago: Muammar Gaddafi is killed by Libyan rebels during the Battle of Sirte. Having been deposed 3 months earlier from his brutal, weird rule of the country that had begun in 1969, the ex-dictator was believed to be 69 years old. (Because his family kept no birth records, his age was not known for certain.)

October 20, 2017: Game 6 of the American League Championship Series, at Minute Maid Park in Houston. The Yankees could have clinched the Pennant on Mickey's Mantle's birthday. Before the game, on Twitter, somebody asked, given the Yankees' "rebuilding" project, did we, in our wildest dreams, imagine that we would be 1 win from a Pennant this season?

I told him, yes. I always dream of the Yankees winning the Pennant. And the World Series. And I do not consider the dream to be particularly wild. Even with Joe Girardi running the games and Brian Cashman running the transactions.

But the Yankees couldn't finish messing with Texas, as the Astros won 7-1. Unlike Cashman, Astro general manager Jeff Luhnow was willing to trade prospects to the Detroit Tigers for pitching ace Justin Verlander, and he pitched 7 shutout innings. In this series, in games started by Verlander, the Yankees were 0-2. In games started by other Houston pitchers, the Yankees were 3-2. Verlander made all the difference in the World (Series).

At the time, we did not know about the Astros' cheating.