October 21, 1981: The Sykes-McGee Trade

Yes, that's Willie McGee in a Yankee uniform,

probably during Spring Training 1981.

October 21, 1981, 40 years ago: The Yankees take a 2-0 lead in the World Series, as Tommy John and Goose Gossage combine on a 3-0 shutout of the Dodgers at Yankee Stadium. Bob Watson has 2 hits and an RBI.

The Yankees are 2 wins away from their 23rd World Championship. No one can imagine it now, but the team will not win another competitive game until April 12, 1982, and it will take them 15 more years to get that 23rd title.

The Yankees also make a trade today, sending 22-year-old outfielder Willie McGee to the St. Louis Cardinals for pitcher Bob Sykes. It will be one of the worst trades in Yankee history, as Sykes, a native of nearby Neptune, New Jersey, is already damaged goods, and never appears in another big-league game, finished at 27.

McGee helps the Cards win the next year’s World Series and 3 of the next 6 NL Pennants. By the time his career begins to slow down in the mid-1990s, Bernie Williams will have been ready. But, in the interim, the Yankees tried the following players in center field:

* 1982 Jerry Mumphrey. Good, but McGee was already better.

* 1983 Mumphrey. He slipped a bit.

* 1984 Omar Moreno. Had slipped a bit from his peak years in Pittsburgh.

* 1985 Rickey Henderson. Had a really good season, but was playing out of position: He was normally a left fielder.

* 1986 Henderson. Another really good season.

* 1987 Claudell Washington. Injuries to Henderson meant that Claudell had to play the most games that season in center field, and Gary Ward in left field, although Henderson had more plate appearances overall than Washington. Both Washington and Ward were still good players, but both were also past their best.

* 1988 Washington. Had a good season, as Henderson became the full-time left fielder. Certainly, it wasn't either man's fault that the Yankees failed to win the American League Eastern Division title that season.

* 1989 Roberto Kelly. Had a good season.

* 1990 Kelly. Had another good season.

* 1991 Kelly, with Bernie Williams coming up. 

* 1992 Kelly, with Williams still coming up.

* 1993 Williams, from then until 2006, a Yankee Legend.

So maybe this isn't as bad a trade as we might think. But it was still a bad one. Like trading Fred McGriff, Mike Morgan and Dave Collins for Dale Murray was a year later, the problem is not what we gave up (McGriff played 1st base, and Don Mattingly was coming), but what we got. The Yankees should have gotten a serviceable starting pitcher each time, and only got a broken one.

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October 21, 1805: In Champions League action, Arsenal defeat Paris Saint-German and their Spanish striker. Actually, no: A British fleet under Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet under Admiral

Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve, off Cape Trafalgar, Spain.

Although Nelson himself was killed in the battle, the British didn't lose a single ship. Their opponents lost 22. It ended Napoleon Bonaparte's attempts to invade Britain by sea. Villeneuve was captured, and committed suicide in prison the following April.

October 21, 1845: According to John Thorn, author of a bunch of books about baseball and now Major League Baseball's official historian, the first real baseball game may have been played on this date. It also begins the baseball rivalry between New York and Brooklyn, which will still be separate cities until 1898.

October 21, 1861, 160 years ago: At the Elysian Fields in Hoboken‚ the greatest event of the baseball season‚ the Grand Match for the Silver Ball‚ takes place between all-star teams from Brooklyn and New York. The Silver Ball Trophy is the same size as a regular baseball, and will be kept by the club whose members score the most runs during the match.

October 21, 1879: Thomas Edison announces his creation of a practical incandescent light bulb at his laboratory in the Menlo Park section of Raritan Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey. This is one of the things that made the modern world possible, including the survival of professional sports.

In 1954, to avoid confusion with Raritan Borough in Somerset County, and Raritan Township in Hunterdon County, the name of the Township is changed to Edison.

October 21, 1887: The National League Champion Detroit Wolverines clinch the World Championship with their 8th victory in Game 11 of the series this afternoon, over the American Association Champions, the St. Louis Browns, 13-3 on neutral ground in Baltimore.

With a rainout yesterday in Washington‚ this morning's rescheduled Game 10 sees the Browns pull off a triple play and win‚ 11-4‚ to delay elimination. But the Wolverines take Game 11 later in the day to clinch.

But they will end up losing money, and fold at the end of the next season. Detroit will not return to major league ball until the American League and the Tigers arrive in 1901, and will not win another World Championship for 48 years.

The Browns will win their 4th straight AA title the next season, but will go 38 years before winning another Pennant. In 1892 they join the NL; by 1901, they will be named the Cardinals.

October 21, 1891, 130 years ago: Ed Daily of the American Association's Washington Statesmen dies at age 29. I can't find a record of how he died, but he last played on July 14, which suggests a lingering illness, possibly tuberculosis, or any number of other ailments in those pre-antibiotic days.

He reached the major leagues as a pitcher with the 1885 Philadelphia Quakers (Phillies), winning 26 games (a common, but still impressive, feat at the time). The next year, despite going 16-9, he began to lay more as an outfielder. He won the 1890 AA Pennant with the Louisville Colonels, but was traded to Washington, where he died.
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October 21, 1901, 120 years ago: Joseph Sill Clark Jr. is born in Philadelphia. He was elected Mayor of Philadelphia in 1951, but his tenure included the Athletics leaving for Kansas City. Nevertheless, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1956 and 1962, but was defeated in 1968 because of his opposition to the Vietnam War and guns. He died in 1990, at age 88.

October 21, 1918: Harry Chapman dies of the Spanish Flu epidemic at a U.S. Army base in Nevada, Missouri. He was 30 years old, and 1 of 8 Major League Baseball players to die in the service during World War I -- in his case, in Nevada, Missouri, having been returned to the U.S. to treat combat injuries, unsuccessfully as it turns out.

A native of Severance, Kansas, Chapman was a catcher, who played for the Chicago Cubs in 1912, the Cincinnati Reds in 1913, the St. Louis Terriers of the Federal League in 1914 and 1915, and the St. Louis Browns in 1916.

Eugene Mayer also dies while serving in World War I on this day. The former halfback, sprinter, long jumper, shot putter and law school graduate at the University of Virginia never gets to play in the nascent NFL, because he dies at a Florida Army base, a casualty of the Spanish Flu Epidemic. "Buck" Mayer was 26, and was posthumously elected to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

Also on this day, Christopher Duffy (no middle name) is born in Methil, Fife, Scotland. A left winger, he scored the only goal of the 1947 FA Cup Final, in extra time in the 114th minute, to give Charlton Athletic of South London its only major trophy to date. Chris Duffy later managed Bangor F.C. in Northern Ireland, and died in 1978.

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October 21, 1921, 100 years ago: The Sheik premieres, starring Rudolph Valentino. It makes him the movies' 1st true "matinee idol." He starred in a sequel, The Son of the Sheik, in 1926, becoming an even bigger star, but died a few weeks after the premiere, only 31 years old, from a bleeding ulcer. Had antibiotics been available at the time, he could have lived and acted well into the 2nd half of the 20th Century.

October 21, 1925: For the 1st time, a professional athlete dies as the result of an airplane crash. Marv Goodwin went 21-25 pitching for the Washington Senators, St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds from 1916 to 1925. He was 1 of the 17 pitchers permitted to continue throwing any of the banned pitches that fell under the category of "spitball" in 1920.

He missed the 1918 season, serving in World War I as a pilot, becoming an aviation instructor for the U.S. Army, but hadn't yet been sent overseas when the Armistice was signed. He remained in the Army Reserve, and on October 18, 1925, he was conducting a training exercise at Ellington Field in Houston, when he went into a tailspin and crashed. He died 3 days later, only 34 years old.

He had been a player-manager with the Texas League's Houston Buffaloes in 1924, hence his reserve stationing in Houston. Given that fact, his age, and the fact that he made only 4 major league appearances in 1925, he may have played his last major league game anyway. That doesn't mean, however, that his baseball career was over: He could still have become a major league manager or pitching coach.

October 21, 1928: Edward Charles Ford is born in Manhattan, and grows up in the adjoining Queens neighborhoods of Long Island City and Astoria. Known as Whitey for his hair, now white but even as a kid it was very light blond, and as the Chairman of the Board because he was such a commanding figure on the mound (and he loved the nickname, as he was a big Frank Sinatra fan and Sinatra also had the nickname), his 236 wins are the most by any Yankee.

He reached the major leagues in the 1950 season, and won the clinching Game 4 of the World Series. He missed the next 2 seasons in the U.S. Army, serving in the Korean War. He returned in 1953, and helped the Yankees win 11 Pennants and 6 World Series: Winning in 1950, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1961 and 1962; and losing in 1955, 1957, 1960, 1963 and 1964.

Among all retired pitchers with at least 200 decisions, his .690 career winning percentage is the highest: 236-106, 342 decisions. The current active leader is Clayton Kershaw, at .697, but that's at 175-76, just 251 decisions.

Whitey's career WHIP (Walks and Hits, divided by Innings Pitched) is 1.215. His 2.75 career earned-run average is the best among retired starting pitchers in the post-1920 Lively Ball Era. The leader among all post-1920 pitchers, at 2.21, is Mariano Rivera. The only other pitcher ahead of Whitey is also a reliever, Hoyt Wilhelm. Among Lively Ball Era starters, Sandy Koufax is 2nd, at 2.76. 

Manager Casey Stengel would sometimes move him up or back in the rotation, to face a tougher team. This makes his .690 winning percentage and his 2.75 ERA even more amazing. In 1950, and from 1953 to his last game on May 21, 1967, the Yankees went 1,486-1,027, and 1,250-921 in games that he didn't pitch, for a percentage of .576.

This made Whitey 11.4 percent more likely to win than his team -- which, don't forget, had Hall-of-Famers Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra on it, as well as Phil Rizzuto early on, not to mention All-Stars such as Moose Skowron, Elston Howard, Roger Maris and Joe Pepitone, and fellow pitchers Allie Reynolds, Bob Turley and Ralph Terry.

When Ralph Houk succeeded Casey in 1961, he asked Whitey how he'd like to pitch every 4 days (or every 4 games), no matter what. Whitey said, "I'd love to!" And over the next 3 seasons, he went 66-19. He made 10 American League All-Star Teams. He led the AL in wins in 1955, 1961 and 1963, and in ERA in 1956 and 1958.

In 1961, he won the Cy Young Award -- from 1956 to 1967, an award for the best pitcher in both Leagues -- and the Babe Ruth Award as World Series Most Valuable Player, as he broke Ruth's record of 29 2/3rds consecutive scoreless innings in Series play. Before his Game 4 start, Whitey was asked by the press about the record. He said, "What record?" They told him. He said he didn't even know Ruth had been a pitcher.

Whitey's 10 wins in World Series play has never been approached. Bob Gibson won 7, and as great as he was in his wins, Koufax won "only" 4. And Whitey still holds the record for consecutive scoreless innings in Series play, 33. 

His Number 16 was retired by the Yankees in 1974, when he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, making him the 1st Yankee pitcher thus honored. He was also 1 of the 1st 2 Yankee pitchers awarded a Plaque in Monument Park, honored along with Lefty Gomez in 1987.

It says something about this great competitor that my Grandma, a dedicated Brooklyn Dodger fan who hated the Yankees (especially Casey Stengel and Yogi Berra, for some reason), loved 2 Yankees: Phil Rizzuto and Whitey Ford.

That both were from her home Borough of Queens had something to do with it, but she also loved that Whitey was smart and didn't rely on overwhelming force, mixing up his pitches like her favorite Dodger pitchers, Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine and especially Preacher Roe. (And also like her favorite Met pitchers, Tom Seaver, Ron Darling, David Cone and Al Leiter.) She had no patience for pitchers who were fastball-reliant, like Ralph Branca of the Dodgers. She also hated hotheads like Billy Martin, Eddie Stanky and Roger Clemens. She loved that Whitey kept his cool.

Years later, Erik Schrody, a white rapper from Long Island using the nom de rap of Everlast, would also nickname himself "Whitey Ford," and title an album Whitey Ford Sings the Blues, with the follow-up titled Eat at Whitey's and another Love, War and the Ghost of Whitey Ford.

Whitey Ford died on October 8, 2020. The legendary New York Times sports columnist George Vecsey, also a Queens native, had called him the greatest living Yankee since Yogi Berra died in 2015.

It's between him, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. The greatest pitcher in Yankee history? It's down to Whitey and Mo. Those of you who only knew Mo, it shouldn't just tell you how great Whitey was to be fairly compared with Mo, it should tell you how great Mo was to be fairly compared with Whitey.

Also on this day, Arild Verner Agerskov Mikkelsen is born in the Fresno suburb of Parlier, California, and grows up in Askov, Minnesota. Minnesota was heavily settled by Scandinavians, hence the State's football team was named the Vikings. But Vern Mikkelsen's sport was basketball, and the forward was a 6-time All-Star, and helped the Minneapolis Lakers win the 1950, '52, '53 and '54 NBA Championships.

He later coached the Minnesota Pipers of the ABA. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, and, in 2002, he and the other Minneapolis players in the Hall were honored at halftime of a Los Angeles Lakers game, with a banner honoring their achievements (even though they had nothing to do with L.A.), and with the championship rings they never got. He died in 2013.

Also on this day, Fotbal Club Ripensia UVT Timișoara is founded in Timișoara, Romania. They became the 1st sports team in their country to turn professional. They won Romania's Liga I in 1933, '35, '36 and '38, and finished 2nd in 1934 and '39. And they won the Cupa României, Romania's version of the FA Cup, in 1934 and '36, losing the Final in '35 and '37.

The Communist takeover of the country in 1945 doomed them, and they folded in 1948. A new team with the name was established in 2012. The modern "Ripi" currently competes in Romania's Liga II, the 2nd division.

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October 21, 1931, 90 years ago: James Michael Parks is born in Haywards Heath, Sussex, England. Like his father, James Horace Parks -- so he wasn't actually "Jim Parks Junior," but that's what he was called -- he played cricket for Sussex, played in 46 Tests for England between 1954 and 1968, and was considered England's best wicket-keeper (equivalent to a catcher in baseball).

He went into management, and is still alive. His son Bobby played county cricket for both Hampshire and Kent.

October 21, 1933: Francisco Gento López is born in El Astillero, Cantabria, Spain. A left winger by position, he starred for a very right-wing soccer team, Real Madrid, winning 12 La Liga titles from 1954 to 1969, the last 6 (1963 to 1969) as Captain.

"Paco" Gento was with Los Blancos as they won the 1st 5 European Cups: 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1960. He was their Captain when they won it again in 1966, making him the 1st man to play on 6 European Cup winners. The tournament became known as the UEFA Champions League in 1992, but he's still the only player to win it 6 times.

He was selected for Spain for the 1962 and 1966 World Cups, but not for the 1964 European Nations' Cup (Euro 64), which Spain won on home soil. He later managed lower-league teams, and became a club ambassador for Real Madrid. At 84, he is the last surviving member of the 1st European Cup winners, of 1956; and, with the 2017 death of Raymond Kopa, he is also the last survivor of the 1957 European Cup winners.

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October 21, 1941, 80 years ago: Ronald Everette Davis is born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. An outfielder, Ron Davis was an original member of the Houston Colt .45s in 1962, but after that season, he didn't return to the major leagues until 1966, by which point the team had changed its name to the Astros. In 1968, he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals, and appeared in the World Series.

He died in 1992. He was no relation to the Ron Davis who pitched for the Yankees in the 1978 and 1981 World Series, and thus is no relation to that Ron's son, former Met and Yankee Ike Davis.

Also on this day, The Nazis execute nearly 2,800 men in the Serbian city of Kragujevac, in reprisal for a resistance attack that killed 10 German soldiers.

Also on this day, Steven Lee Cropper is born in Dora, Missouri, and grows up in Memphis. "The Colonel" is one of the greatest guitarists of the 1960s, starting out with The Mar-Keys (best known for their big hit instrumental of 1961, "Last Night"), and then with Booker T. & the M.G.'s (Memphis Group, who had a huge hit instrumental in 1962, "Green Onions").

The M.G.'s became the house band at Memphis' Stax Records, backing Rufus Thomas, his daughter Carla Thomas, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Eddie Floyd, and Sam & Dave. Since Sam & Dave had recorded "Soul Man," Steve and the surviving members of the M.G.'s were invited to be the backing band for The Blues Brothers sketches on Saturday Night Live, including a cover of "Soul Man" that was a hit in 1978, with John Belushi copying Sam Moore by yelling, "Play it, Steve!" in the 2nd chorus.

The M.G.'s backed Belushi and Dan Aykroyd again for the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, backed a pairing of Moore and Aykroyd -- Belushi and Dave Prater already being dead -- at the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in 1988, and served as the house band at the 1992 Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary concert at The Garden in 1992.

That year, the M.G.'s -- Steve, bass guitarist Lewie Steinberg, his replacement Donald "Duck" Dunn, keyboard player Booker T. Jones and the late drummer Al Jackson Jr. -- were elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Cropper turns 80 today, Jones is about to turn 77, Jackson was killed in 1975, Dunn died in 2012, and Steinberg died in 2016.

October 21, 1942: Louis P. Lamoriello (I can't find a record of what the P stands for) is born in the Providence suburb of Johnston, Rhode Island. He coached the hockey team at Providence College into the NCAA Final Four, a.k.a. the Frozen Four, and from 1987 to 2015 was the general manager of the New Jersey Devils.

The team made the Playoffs every year but one from 1990 to 2010, including 10 Atlantic Division titles, 4 Eastern Conference championships and 3 Stanley Cups. It added a 5th Conference Championship in 2012.

But El Baldo also made some puzzling trades, and was so cheap (How cheap was he?) that he let some terrific players go without lifting a finger, including Scott Niedermayer (who helped the Anaheim Ducks win the Cup in his first season away from the Devils, 2007), Brian Rafalski (who helped the Detroit Red Wings win the Cup the very next season, 2008), John Madden, Brian Gionta and Zach Parise. The Devils have missed the Playoffs in 7 of the last 8 seasons.

He finally stepped down as team president and general manager in 2015, perhaps 2 or 3 years too late. But now, the team has started over, with GM Tom Fitzgerald as new blood, and Lindy Ruff as an experienced head coach. Turning 79 today, Lou is now the GM of the Islanders, and has gotten them to the NHL Eastern Conference Finals 2 years in a row, after they hadn't gotten that far in 27 years.

I have never figured Lamoriello out, and I doubt that I ever will.

October 21, 1946, 75 years ago: James Webster Hill is born in San Antonio. A defensive back, he played 2 seasons in the AFL and 6 in the NFL. In 1976, he became the sports anchor at Los Angeles station KCBS-Channel 2, switched to KABC-Channel 7 in 1987, helped ABC cover the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, and went back to KCBS in 1992, and has been there ever since.

Though he's not from Southern California and never played a home game there at any level, Jim Hill is a sports icon there. He's even got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He should not be confused with Jimmy Hill the late English soccer player, coach and TV personality.

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October 21, 1956: The New York Giants football team plays its 1st home game at Yankee Stadium. They beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 38-10. They had previously been there as the visiting team playing teams named the New York Yankees, none of whom lasted very long.

Also on this day, Carrie Frances Fisher is born in Beverly Hills, California. She was no relation to Frances Fisher, a redheaded actress of similar age. But she was the daughter of actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher, and the half-sister of actress Joely Fisher (daughter of Eddie and actress-singer Connie Stevens).

She will forever be known as Princess/General Leia Organa in the Star Wars saga, but she was also an accomplished writer and director, having written the novel Postcards On the Edge about her relationship with her mother and her struggle with drug addiction, later writing the screenplay for the film version. She co-wrote the TV-movie These Old Broads, which starred her mother, and Shirley MacLaine (who played the Reynolds character in the film version of Postcards), and Elizabeth Taylor, the woman her father left her mother for (before leaving her for Stevens).

We lost her right after Christmas in 2016, and her mother died the very next day. Debbie Reynolds may have died of a broken heart over losing her daughter. Carrie Fisher may have died of a broken heart over the nation getting Donald Trump as President.

Carrie would not seem to have a sports connection, but country singer Carrie Underwood is married to hockey player Mike Fisher, so her married name is Carrie Fisher.

Also on this day, Paul Levitz (no middle name) is born in Brooklyn. A comic book writer, he worked for DC Comics on Batman and the futuristic Legion of Super-Heroes. He created the crimefighting character of the Huntress. He also hired writers Marv Wolfman and Alan Moore for DC, as well as artists John Byrne and George Pérez, and later served as President of DC. He is still alive and writing.

October 21, 1967: The Minnesota North Stars play their 1st home game, at the Metropolitan Sports Center, across Cedar Road from Metropolitan Stadium, home of MLB's Twins and the NFL's Vikings, in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington. They beat the Oakland Seals 3-1, getting their 1st win after 2 losses and 2 ties. This was the 1st event at the arena.

The Stars played at the Met Center until 1993, when owner Norm Green moved them to become the Dallas Stars. It should have been "Dallas Lone Stars." The Met Center was demolished in 1994, an IKEA was built on the site as part of the Mall of America complex, and the Minnesota Wild were added to the NHL in 2000, playing at the new Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

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October 21, 1971, 50 years ago: Jade Sheena Jezebel Jagger is born in Paris, where her parents, Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger, and Nicaraguan model Bianca Jagger, were living to escape Britain's high taxes. She went into the family business -- not her father's, but her mother's: Fashion. She is a designer, for clothes, jewelry and furniture.

October 21, 1972: The expansion New York Islanders play the established New York Rangers for the 1st time. The Rangers win, 2-1, at the Nassau Coliseum. On December 10, the teams played at Madison Square Garden for the 1st time, and the Rangers won 4-1. They played each other 6 times in the Isles' inaugural 1972-73 season, and the Rangers won them all. The Isles didn't get their 1st win over the Rangers until October 27, 1973.

October 21, 1973: Game 7 of the World Series at the Oakland Coliseum. Bert Campaneris and Reggie Jackson hit home runs off Jon Matlack, and the A's beat the Mets, 5-2, for their 2nd straight World Championship.

Reggie is named Series MVP. After having missed the previous year's Series with an injury sustained while scoring the winning run in the NLCS, he has begun to build his reputation as a big-time postseason performer.

A's reliever Darold Knowles -- who once said of Reggie, "There isn't enough mustard in the world to cover that hot dog" -- becomes the 1st pitcher, and through 2019 remains the only one, to appear in all 7 games of a Series.

The Mets had a 3-games-to-2 lead, but considering what that A's team was capable of, and that the A's had the home-field advantage for Games 6 and 7, it’s hard to say that the Mets "choked." They just got beat.

They had a great run, coming from last place and 12 1/2 games back on July 8, 11 1/2 back on August 5, and 5 1/2 back on September 5, to win a Division that no one seemed to want to win, doing it with just 82 wins, and fighting off Cincinnati's Big Red Machine in the NLCS and taking the defending World Champion A's to the limit.

And, considering how good the A's were, it might not be fair to blame Yogi Berra, then the Met manager, for losing the Series by pitching Tom Seaver on 3 days' rest in Game 6. A, Yogi was hoping he could prevent a Game 7 entirely.  B, Seaver didn't pitch all that badly on short rest.

Reliever Frank "Tug" McGraw had given the Mets their late-season rallying cry, "Ya gotta believe!" But what you should believe is that this Series was not lost by the Mets nearly so much as it was won by the A's, the better team. This time, unlike in 1969 (and 1986), the Mets simply ran out of miracles.

There are 22 surviving players from the 1973 A's: Reggie, Campaneris, Knowles, Rollie Fingers, Vida Blue, Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Gene Tenace, Dick Green, John "Blue Moon" Odom, Ted Kubiak, Dave Hamilton, Jesus Alou, Dave Duncan, Allan Lewis, Vic Davalillo, Mike Andrews, Horacio Pina, Pat Bourque and Billy Conigliaro, who thus won the World Series ring that his brother Tony never won.

October 21, 1975: Mere hours before Game 6 of the World Series, the World Football League folds in the middle of its 2nd season. Unlike the 1946-49 AAFC and the 1960-69 AFL, it didn't get to merge or even partly merge with the NFL. Unlike the 1983-85 USFL, it didn't go out with a bang (in the USFL's case, the bang of a judge's gavel). It went out with a whimper. Indeed, if you weren't a fan of a WFL team, most likely, in the wake of Games 6 and 7 of the World Series, you might not have even heard about the league's folding for days.

On this same day, football legend Alex Karras, now a correspondent for ABC's Monday Night Football, begins a 5-game stint on CBS's Match Game 75. (It was taped the previous month, but aired on October 21, 22, 23, 24 and 27, 1975.)

He was one of 3 pro athletes who appeared as panelists on the classic Match Game. The others were football star Rosey Grier on April 19 and 22 to 25, 1974; and baseball star Don Sutton, who appeared 5 times: November 1976, May 1977, May and December 1978, and December 1980.

On this same day, Toby Jason Hall is born in Tacoma, Washington, outside Seattle. A catcher, he was with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays from 2000 to 2006, closing his career with the White Sox in 2008.

Also on this day, Henrique Hilário Meireles Sampaio is born in the Porto suburb of São Pedro da Cova, Portugal. Known professionally as simply Hilário, the goalkeeper won the Primeira Liga with FC Porto in 1997 and '98, and the Taça de Portugal (Portuguese Cup) in 1998, 2000 and '01. With West London's Chelsea, he was a backup to Petr Cech on teams that won the 2010 Premier League title, 4 FA Cups (including a Double in 2010), the 2012 UEFA Champions League, and the 2013 UEFA Europa League. He is now an assistant coach at Chelsea.

October 21, 1976: The Cincinnati Reds beat the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, and complete a 4-game sweep of the World Series. Johnny Bench hits 2 home runs and is named Series MVP. The 9th inning featured Bench’s homer, which helped the Reds go from a 3-2 to a 7-2 lead, which holds until the end.

A frustrated Billy Martin, with nothing left to lose (except maybe a fine from the Commissioner), angrily throws a ball from the dugout onto the field, and gets thrown out of the game, the only uniformed person in Yankee history ever to be tossed from a World Series game.

Thurman Munson excels in defeat, tying a Series record with 6 straight hits. On the official Series highlight film, Reds manager Sparky Anderson is heard telling Bench and Pete Rose, "That fella can flat-out hit, now. Ooh, is he a good hitter. He just stays with the ball." Rose responds by comparing Munson to Bill Madlock, then with the Chicago Cubs, who had just won the 2nd of what turned out to be 4 NL batting titles.

But in a postgame press conference, Anderson is asked to compare Munson to Bench, and he says, "Don't ever embarrass someone by comparing him to Johnny Bench." In all fairness, even at his best, and 1976 was his MVP year, Munson was not as good as Bench. Bench was the greatest catcher in NL history, and in all of baseball history the only catchers that could be greater are the 2 Yankee legends, Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra. Bench and Berra were voted by fans to the All-Century Team in 1999. But Munson did have the right to be offended: Comparing him to Bench did not embarrass him, nor did it embarrass Bench.

The Reds have their 4th World Championship, and become the 1st (and still only) NL team to win back-to-back World Series since the 1921-22 New York Giants. (The 1995-96 Atlanta Braves came within 2 games of doing it, but we all know how that ended.) The Reds had also swept the Phillies in the NLCS, and they remain the only team ever to make it through both the LCS and the World Series undefeated. Their 7-0 postseason record has never been matched, although the Yankees went through the '99 postseason, with an extra round, 11-1.

There are 23 surviving players from the '76 Reds: Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Tony Pérez, Dave Concepcion, George Foster, César Gerónimo, Ken Griffey Sr., Dan Driessen, Doug Flynn, Fred Norman, Don Gullett, Will McEnaney, Gary Nolan, Pat Zachry, Jack Billingham, Rawly Eastwick, Bill Plummer, Mike Lum, Joel Youngblood, Santo Alcala & Manny Sarmiento. 

As for the '76 Yankees, they were in their 1st Series in 12 years, most of them were in postseason play for the 1st time, and they were physically and emotionally exhausted after their ALCS battle with the Royals that ended with Chris Chambliss' Pennant-winning home run. Against the rested and more experienced Reds, they had little reason for confidence. But they will be back, while the Reds will win only 1 Pennant in the next 44 years.

Also on this day, the New York Knicks retire a uniform number for the 1st time, the Number 19 of their 1970 and 1973 title-winning Captain, Willis Reed. The Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers 102-97 at Madison Square Garden -- not quite the 113-99 score by which they beat the Lakers in Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals on that court, but they did hold the Lakers to under 100 points.

Also on this day, The Who complete a North American tour at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. It turns out to be their last concert with Keith Moon as drummer. Moon died on September 7, 1978, having overdosed on the drug designed to combat his alcoholism. He was only 32, and he died in the same London apartment where "Mama" Cass Elliot died of a heart attack in 1974.

October 21, 1977: After 9 seasons on Long Island, the New Jersey Nets return to the State where they were born as the New Jersey Americans, playing there only their 1st season, 1967-68, before moving and becoming the New York Nets.

It doesn't go so well: Despite 28 points from Al Skinner, Pistol Pete Maravich torches them for 41 points, and the Nets lose 111-103 to the New Orleans Jazz at the brand-new Rutgers Athletic Center, on RU's Livingston Campus in Piscataway.

Dave Wohl, like me a graduate of East Brunswick High School, 9 miles away from the RAC, plays for the Nets, but scores no points. Perth Amboy native and Princeton graduate Brian Taylor had won 2 ABA titles with the Nets, was, by this point, with the Denver Nuggets.

Also on this day, singer Meat Loaf and songwriter Jim Steinman release their album Bat Out of Hell. It includes the huge hit "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad," and the cult hit "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." The latter song is a duet with singer-actress Ellen Foley, who would later play the public defender on the 1st season of the NBC sitcom Night Court, before being replaced by Markie Post.

It also includes a voice-over by Yankee broadcaster Phil Rizzuto, then 60 years old. When he came in to record his part, which included 2 utterances of "Holy cow," he innocently asked, "Do I have to be high to understand this song?" No, you just have to remember what it was like to be a teenager.

In 1994, after Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell was released, making Meat bigger than ever, he was invited to sing the National Anthem at the All-Star Game, at which Rizzuto, newly-elected to the Hall of Fame, was named the American League's honorary captain. For the National League, it was Negro League legend Buck Leonard, who had played in the host city, Pittsburgh.

In 2006, Meat made Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose -- without Steinman. This became a bone of contention between them, as Steinman registered the "Bat Out of Hell" trademark. Steinman died on April 19, 2021, at the age of 73. Meat is still alive, age 74.

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October 21, 1980: Iranian negotiators, previously offered military equipment by the Carter Administration as part of the exchange for the 52 remaining American hostages from the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran the preceding November 4, turn this offer down.

This followed a meeting with former Republican government officials, including former Deputy Secretary of State William Casey, who told the Iranians that, no matter what, they shouldn't release the hostages before November 4, Election Day.

This assured the election of the Republican nominee, former Governor Ronald Reagan of California, over the incumbent President, Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. Although this was not the 1st use of the phrase "October Surprise," it is the best-known example. Still, it's not clear that getting the hostages out between October 21 and November 3 would have saved Carter: There were other issues.

Oh yeah: Reagan rewarded Casey by naming him Director of the CIA, and he became a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Also on this day, Kimberly Noel Kardashian is born in Los Angeles. Unlike her former friend Paris Hilton, another L.A.-based heiress with an embarrassingly released sex tape, Kim is not an "heirhead." She actually works for a living, and not just as a model: She worked for the music-marketing company that was run by her late father, Robert Kardashian, who had given up being a high-powered L.A. lawyer to do it, returning for one last case in 1994-95 (the murder defense "Dream Team" of O.J. Simpson).

She and her sisters Kourtney and Khloe also run high-end women's clothing stores, one in their hometown near L.A., one in Miami's South Beach, and one in New York's SoHo. She was been the main focus of the E! reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

What does Kim have to do with sports? Well, after her parents Robert and Kris divorced, Kris married Olympic decathlon Gold Medalist Bruce Jenner, though they have split up, and Bruce has "transitioned" into what he, now she, has always considered his, now her, true identity of Caitlin Jenner.

Kim married then-Nets player Kris Humphries, following sister Khloe's marriage to Los Angeles Lakers player Lamar Odom. However, the Kardashian-Humphries marriage collapsed after 72 days, and Kim is now married to Kanye West, and they now have 4 children. Khloe and Lamar split, and after an attempted reconciliation after Lamar was hospitalized a year ago, they've called it quits again. Khloe had a child with Tristan Thompson, then of the Cleveland Cavaliers, but they have also now split.

Previously, Kim dated, among others, running back Reggie Bush, in a relationship the gossip pages liked to call "Kush." And if "Bush" and "Kush" rhyme with a prominent part of Kim's anatomy, that's not my fault!

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October 21, 1981, 40 years ago: Willis Andrew McGahee III is born in Miami. The former University of Miami star has been plagued by injuries, but made 2 Pro Bowls while with the Baltimore Ravens. He rushed for 8,474 career yards in the NFL, and is now retired.

Also on this day, Antonio DeShonta Smith is born in Oklahoma City. A defensive end, he played in 2 Super Bowls, losing XLIII with the Arizona Cardinals, and winning 50 with the Denver Broncos. He last played in 2016, with the Houston Texans, having previously reached the 2011 Pro Bowl with them.

Also on this day, Nemanja Vidić is born in Uzice, Serbia. He was a dirty soccer player, and was the Captain of Manchester United. I don’t think we need a 3rd reason to loathe him. He won a League title and 2 national cups with Red Star Belgrade. With Man U, he won 5 League titles and the 2008 UEFA Champions League. Now retired, he is married to a woman named Ana Ivanović, although it's not the tennis star of the same name.

October 21, 1985: The Chicago Bears defeat the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football, 23-7. William Perry, the rookie defensive tackle so full of food his nickname is The Refrigerator, is put in the lineup as a running back for the 2nd time, and scores a touchdown on a 1-yard run.

October 21, 1991, 30 years ago: Apple releases the PowerBook, the 1st laptop computer. List price: $2,500, or about $5,000 in 2021 money.

October 21, 1996, 25 years ago: Kyle John Solomon Alexander is born in Toronto. A forward, he won the NBA Championship as a rookie with the 2020 Miami Heat.

October 21, 1997: Game 3 of the World Series, at Jacobs Field in Cleveland, is the coldest World Series game of all time -- for the moment. The Cleveland Indians lead the Florida Marlins 2-1 after the 1st inning. Going to the bottom of the 4th, it's 3-2 Marlins. Going to the top of the 6th, it's 7-3 Indians. At the 7th inning stretch, it's a 7-7 tie.

Pardon the pun on such a cold night, but both teams are just getting warmed up. The Marlins score 7 runs in the top of the 9th. The Indians try to come back in the bottom of the 9th, but only score 4, and lose, 14-11. Gary Sheffield, and 1993 Phillies "Macho Row" veterans Darren Daulton and Jim Eisenreich hit home runs for Florida. Jim Thome does so for Cleveland.

October 21, 1998: The Yankees beat the San Diego Padres, 3-1 at Jack Murphy (Qualcomm) Stadium, and complete the sweep for their 24th World Championship. Scott Brosius, who hit 2 homers last night, takes a grounder at 3rd base for the final out, and is named Series MVP.

The Padres had maybe their best team ever. Arguably, so did the Cleveland Indians that the Yankees beat in the ALCS. Maybe, so did the Texas Rangers that the Yankees beat in the ALDS. All of them had the bad luck to run into what may have been anybody's best team ever.

Also on this day, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine airs the episode "Take Me Out to the Holosuite." I love Star Trek, but one thing that I don't like about it is that DS9 made it clear that, in their fictional history, baseball died out, its last World Series being played in 2042 (just 22 years from now), and only 300 people showing up for Game 7. Of course, in their fictional history, World War III was going on. (Probably not to be confused with the war you'll see in the 2013 entry.)

In contrast, the 1994-95 series Space Precinct featured Ted Shackleford, better known as Gary Ewing on Knots Landing, as an interstellar cop attending Game 1 of the 2040 World Series, between the Yankees and the Yomiuri Giants, and the Tokyo Dome was packed!

Anyway, DS9's Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) is responsible for restarting the game in the United Federation of Planets in the 2370s. He keeps a baseball on his desk, and had taken various crewmembers into the station's holosuite to watch recreations of historic games. So when an old rival of his, the Captain of an all-Vulcan ship, challenged him to a baseball game, he had to accept.

Sisko on baseball: "It's about courage. And it's also about faith. And it is also about heart. And if there's one thing our Vulcan friends lack, it's heart!" Maybe so, but the Vulcans win, 10-1 -- but Sisko gets a measure of satisfaction from the game.

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October 21, 2000: Game 1 of the 1st Subway Series since 1956 – it doesn't matter what Met fans call those Interleague series in the regular season, it's not a true Subway Series unless it happens in October – is played at the original Yankee Stadium. It turns out to be, quite possibly, the greatest game I've ever seen. At the least, it was the most nerve-wracking game I've ever seen.

After 39 years of hoping, wishing, praying for a chance to beat the Yankees in a World Series, Met fans finally have that chance. And they were sure they were going to win it.

After all, Al Leiter was going to start Games 1 and 5, and Mike Hampton was going to start Games 2 and 6. And, as everybody knows, "The Yankees can't hit lefthanded pitching. Especially in the postseason." I guess Met fans, the Flushing Heathen, hadn't noticed how the Yankees beat all pitchers, left and right alike, in winning the Series in 1996, '98 and '99, and winning another Pennant to put them in this Series.

Still, Met fans always wanted this chance. In the immortal words of Leonard Nimoy -- who, being a Bostonian, probably knew just how illogical baseball can be -- "You may find that having is not so fine a thing as wanting."

Leiter outpitches Andy Pettitte, but 4 baserunning blunders by the Mets leave the score 3-2 in the Mets' favor entering the bottom of the 9th. Still, to be able to take Game 1 at Yankee Stadium would be a huge boost to the Mets.

Manager Bobby Valentine brings in his closer. Unfortunately for him, it's Armando Benitez. Paul O’Neill fouls off pitch after pitch, and finally draws the most clutch walk in baseball history. The Yankees bring him around to score on DH Chuck Knoblauch's sacrifice fly, and the game goes into extra innings.

It goes to the bottom of the 12th, and a Met castoff, Jose Vizcaino, playing 2nd base because Knoblauch is not fielding well, singles home the winning run.

Yankees 4, Mets 3. Essentially, the World Series that Met fans had waited their whole lives for has been decided in Game 1. Had the Mets won this game, the Series would have been very, very different.

Maybe the Yankees would have been shaken by the events of Game 1, and instead of just holding the Mets off in Game 2, 6-5, they would have fully blown that lead. The Mets won Game 3, and their idiot fans would have been thinking sweep.

Would the Yankees still have won Game 4? It was pretty shaky in the 5th inning. Would they still have won Game 5? It was tied in the 9th. Would they have won a Game 6? Would they have completed the ultimate comeback in Game 7, 4 years before the Red Sox did it to them?

No matter how bad the 2004 ALCS was, losing the 2000 World Series to the Mets would have been 10 times worse.

As we saw in 2015, we don't have to live around very many Red Sox fans with their cheated-for arrogance, but we do have to live around Met fans with their unearned arrogance.

For the moment, the count remains 27 to 2, and 5 to 0 since 1986.

As we've seen, the Yankees are (depending on your point of view: again, or still) the better team now. And let us not pretend that any Met World Series win -- be it 1969, 1986, or any future win -- is better than all of the Yankees' World Series wins.

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October 21, 2001, 20 years ago: The Arizona Diamondbacks defeat the Atlanta Braves‚ 3-2‚ to win the NLCS and reach the World Series for the 1st time in their history. They get to the Series faster than any expansion team in history‚ doing so in the 4th year of their existence. Randy Johnson gets the win for Arizona. Erubiel Durazo's pinch-hit 2-run homer is the key blow. Craig Counsell is named the NLCS MVP.

The Yankees take a 3-1 lead in their ALCS matchup with Seattle‚ defeating the Mariners by a score of 3-1 at Yankee Stadium. Bret Boone's 8th inning homer breaks a scoreless tie‚ but Bernie Williams homers in the bottom half of the inning to tie the score. The Yankees win on Alfonso Soriano's 2-run walkoff dinger in the 9th. Mariano Rivera gets the victory in relief.

In spite of this defeat, Mariner manager Lou Piniella makes a bold prediction: His team will win Game 5. "We're going back for Game 6," he tells the media, meaning back to Seattle. Sweet Lou should have known better than to test the Yankees' Ghosts of October. After all, he was one of them.

Also on this day, the MLS Cup Final is played at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. It is a "California Classico," perhaps the league's best rivalry, and the San Jose Earthquakes beat the Los Angeles Galaxy 2-1.

The Gals, led by Cobi Jones and Paul Caligiuri, take a 1-0 lead in the 21st minute on a goal by Luis Hernandez. But the Quakes tie it up in the 43rd when Landon Donovan tallies. The game goes to extra time, and, with the "golden goal" rule still in effect, Dwyane De Rosario, a Canadian son of Guyanese immigrants, wins it in the 96th minute.

October 21, 2002: The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Indianapolis Colts, 28-10 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, in a game broadcast on ABC Monday Night Football. At halftime, the Steelers honored Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw.

Due to issues with his former head coach, Chuck Noll, Bradshaw hadn't been back to Pittsburgh since his retirement as a player after the 1983 season. His daughters, Rachel and Erin, then teenagers, had never even been to Pittsburgh. And when Art Rooney, the Steelers' founding owner, died in 1988, Bradshaw didn't go back for the funeral, something he felt terribly guilty over.

After that, he was afraid that if he did go back for a Steeler game, he would get booed. Since 1994, he had been part of the studio team for Fox NFL Sunday. When the last game was played at Three Rivers Stadium in 2000, instead of being there for the game and the closing ceremony, Bradshaw was with the rest of the Fox team, spending Christmas with U.S. Navy personnel, doing their live show on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman.

Finally, Art's son and successor as owner, Dan Rooney, assured Terry that he wouldn't be booed. He was right: Terry got a massive ovation from 62,800 Terrible Towel-waving fans, and saw just how much he was loved in Western Pennsylvania. He said, "Ladies and gentlemen, It's good to be home." A few weeks later, he made peace with Noll.

October 21, 2003: The Yankees beat the Marlins‚ 6-1‚ behind the pitching of Mike Mussina and the hitting of Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams. Jeter gets 3 hits off losing starter Josh Beckett (the only hits Beckett allows)‚ while Williams and Aaron Boone hit home runs.

Williams' homer is his record 19th in postseason play, breaking the record shared by fellow Yankee Legends Mickey Mantle (all in World Series play) and Reggie Jackson (who never had a Division Series available to him except in strike-forced 1981). His 65 RBI are also a new postseason record.

The Yankees lead this World Series 2 games to 1. Things are looking good for them. No one can yet imagine that it will take them 6 years to win another World Series game -- and that, when they do, it will be in a new Yankee Stadium.

October 21, 2005: The Charlotte Bobcats Arena opens in downtown Charlotte, with an exhibition game by the eponymous team. They have played there ever since.

Neither has the same name now: The arena became the Time Warner Cable Arena in 2008, and the Spectrum Center in 2016 when Spectrum Sports bought Time Warner Cable from Time Warner; and Charlotte got the rights to the name "Charlotte Hornets" back when the former Charlotte team, now in New Orleans, became the Pelicans. The arena also hosted the 2012 Democratic Convention. It was supposed to host the 2020 Republican Convention, but the COVID-19 epidemic changed that plan.

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October 21, 2011, 10 years ago: Apocalyptic cult leader Harold Camping had said on his nationally syndicated radio show that The Rapture would take place on May 21 of this year, and that the end of the world would come on this date. Neither happened. Which was lucky for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers, who were in the travel day for the World Series. The Series was tied 1-1.

Camping had previously predicted that The Rapture would come in 1994. In March 2012, he announced that he was no longer going to predict the end times. On December 15, 2013, the end came -- for him. He was 92 years old.

October 21, 2014: During Game 1 of the World Series at Kauffman Stadium, Laurence Leavy, better known as Marlins Man, is approached by a Kansas City Royals representative, who informs him that team owner David Glass is upset with his bright orange Miami jersey that is diverting attention from the home team on national television.

Although he is offered a variety of inducements, including autographed memorabilia and an opportunity to sit in the luxury boxes, the workers compensation attorney refuses to remove his colorful garb, choosing to remain in his $8,000 seat behind home plate.

This must have particularly infuriated Glass, as he married into the Walton family of Walmart infamy, noted for their poor treatment of employees and distaste for workers comp. Laurence Leavy is a hero, for both workers and freedom of expression.

As for the game, the 1st World Series game in Kansas City in 29 years, the Royals are beaten by the San Francisco Giants 7-1, behind a home run by Hunter Pence and the pitching of Madison Bumgarner, who allows just 4 hits, 1 a home run by Salvador Perez.

October 21, 2015: Game 4 of the NLCS at Wrigley Field. Home runs by Lucas Duda, Travis d'Arnaud and Daniel Murphy back Bartolo Colon, and the Mets complete the sweep of the Chicago Cubs, 8-3.

This is the Mets' 1st Pennant in 15 years. As of now, it is the only Pennant won by a New York baseball team in the last 10 years.

It did not, however, mean that the Mets had "taken back New York." That would require a World Series win over the Yankees. In the immortal words of Yankee Fan Paul Reiser, "Never gonna happen, my friend!"

Of course, in the film Back to the Future Part II, this was the day on which the Cubs won the World Series, against... Miami? Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) decided to buy a sports almanac, and take it back to 1985 with him, to place bets on sporting events whose results he would know in advance. Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) told him to get rid of it, to avoid contaminating the timeline.

He did -- with disastrous results: It was found by elderly Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson), who stole the book and the DeLorean time machine, took them back to 1955, and gave the book to his teenage self. 

Result: When Marty and Doc got back to 1985, Hill Valley was a hellhole, Richard Nixon was in his 5th term as President, the Vietnam War was still going on, and middle-aged Biff was a combination of Fat Elvis and Donald Trump -- except, in real life, most of the country didn't know about Trump yet. And Biff's casino made money, unlike Trump's. Marty and Doc had to go back to 1955 to set things right.

October 21, 2017: Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. It was an ugly ending to the Yankees' season. How ugly was it? If it were any uglier, Muhammad Ali would have had to come back from the dead and fight it. The Yankees didn't go out with a bang, they went out with a whimper.

CC Sabathia was fine for 3 innings, and we dared to hope he would come through in the clutch one more time. But Evan Gattis hit a home run in the 4th, and our hearts sank. Being 1-0 down at that point felt like being down 8-0. Joe Girardi brought Tommy Kahnle in, and he got out of it. But he allowed 3 runs in the 5th, and that was it: Astros 4, Yankees 0.

In the 3 games of this series in New York, the Yankees outscored the Astros 19-5. In the 4 games in Houston, they were outscored 15-3. On the average: In New York, won 6-2; in Houston, lost 4-1.

For the Astros: Their 2nd Pennant in their 56-season history. For the Yankees: Another failure, and, finally, it cost Joe Girardi his job. Brian Cashman kept his.