Yankees Bring Drama to Proper End, Clinch Playoff Berth

For the New York Yankees, the simplest solution was the best one: Win, and you're in. A win would have guaranteed them a place in the American League Wild Card Game.

If the Boston Red Sox lost to the Washington Nationals, then the Yankees would have hosted that game. If the Sox won, then they would host the Yankees in it. But if the Yankees lost, it was possible that they would have had to play "a playoff to get into the playoffs," if the Toronto Blue Jays had beaten the Baltimore Orioles, and/or if the Seattle Mariners had beaten the Los Angeles Angels.

And as the game went along, the Angels cooperated, beating the Mariners. It looked like the Nationals are cooperated, as they jumped out to a 5-1 lead over the Red Sox.  But the Orioles didn't cooperate, letting the Jays beat them 12-4, crashing to their 110th loss of the season, tying the Arizona Diamondbacks for the worst record in baseball. (Also losing 100 this season: The Texas Rangers, 102; and the Pittsburgh Pirates, 101.) And the Red Sox came from behind to beat the Nats, 7-5, clinching home-field advantage for the Wild Card Game.

So the Yankees really needed to win, to avoid a play-in game with those pesky Blue Jays. And they were playing the Tampa Bay Rays, who have been a pain in the ass for the Yankees since 2008, and had already beaten them the last 2 days, giving them 100 wins on the season, the most in the AL. (The San Francisco Giants had the best record in MLB, winning 107, edging their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, with 106, for the National League Western Division title.)

The starting pitcher was Jameson Taillon, who had gotten hurt in his last start. Essentially, he was an "opener." Aaron Boone was willing to use "Johnny Wholestaff" on the day, pretty much everybody but Gerrit Cole, the ace, who would have been on 3 days' rest.

Taillon did his job, getting into the 4th inning without allowing a run. Having put him on a pitch limit, Boone brought in Wandy Peralta. He allowed a double and a walk, but worked out of it, and then struck out the side in the 5th. 

But they just couldn't hit -- and when they did, the Rays usually made great defensive plays. In the 1st inning, Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch, but Aaron Judge grounded into a double play. Gleyber Torres, who needed a redemption story after his latest edition of non-hustling the day before, singled to lead off the bottom of the 4th, but the Yankees couldn't bring him around. Joey Gallo led off the 5th with a walk, but Gio Urshela grounded into a double play.

Clay Holmes finished the 6th. Torres drew a walk with 2 outs, but they couldn't bring him around. In the 7th, Holmes allowed a double and a walk, and Jonathan Loaisiga was brought in to put out the fire. And the batter was Brandon Lowe, who had hit 3 home runs the day before, so he was a gasoline can for that fire.

Loaisiga got Lowe to pop up in foul territory behind 3rd base. Urshela went for it, caught it, and his momentum carried him into the Rays' dugout. None of them tried to break his fall. Classless organization. It was reminiscent of Derek Jeter's "flies into the stands" play against the Red Sox on July 1, 2004, and, for a while, it was unclear whether Urshela was all right. He was, and finished the game.

Many times, these last 5 seasons, I have called the Yankees -- collectively, and in a few cases individually -- "gutless wonders." That cannot be said of Urshela. He played as if every at-bat mattered. Which it did, because the score was still 0-0, and the Yankees had stopped getting help from the Nats, and weren't getting any from the O's.

They weren't helping themselves, either, going down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 7th. Loaisiga allowed a leadoff single in the 8th, but got the next 3 batters out. But, against former Yankee reliever David Robertson, again, the Yankees went down 1-2-3.

Aroldis Chapman was sent in for the 9th, and Yankee Fans from Albany to Atlantic City, from Montauk to Buffalo, were begging him not to Aroldis it up. He got the 1st 2 men out. Then he walked Joey Wendle. Then Wendle stole 2nd. But he struck Manuel Margot out. He did the job, and it was 0-0 going to the bottom of the 9th.

I had an awful feeling of how it was going to go from there. The Yankees wouldn't score. It would go to extra innings, and the stupid "ghost runner" rule. And the game would go on and on, and the Yankees would run out of pitchers. It would go to, say, the 14th inning, and the Rays would score 3. Then, in the bottom of the inning, the Yankees would give everybody hope by scoring 2, with the tying run on 3rd with less than 2 outs, and would get strikeouts to end it.

Rougned Odor led off. He singled to center. Tyler Wade was sent in to pinch-run, and to take his place at 3rd base if it went to a 10th inning. Torres flew to center, and Wade tagged up and took 2nd. Rizzo singled, but Wade couldn't score, due to a strong throw. But the throw went off-lined, and Rizzo took 2nd.

The batter was Aaron Judge. The Yankees' marquee player. The man who should be named the AL's Most Valuable Player this season. He'd had 11 plate appearances from the 7th inning onward that either tied a game or gave his team the lead, tied for the most in the major leagues. In spite of that, and his great power hitting, he had never had a walkoff hit before. In spite of that power, and 1st base being open, Rays manager Kevin Cash chose not to have pitcher Andrew Kittredge walk him intentionally.

With a 2-2 count, Judge hit a comebacker. It bounced off the mound, sailing up the middle. Had Cash not put the shift on to counter Judge's pull hitting -- and had he remembered that Judge does a lot of opposite-field hitting -- Lowe might have been in better position to field it, and might have thrown Wade out at the plate. He wasn't, and he couldn't. Wade slid head-first, and avoided the tag of Rays catcher Mike Zunino.

It was the shortest hit of Aaron Judge's career. And, so far, it's been the most important. Ballgame over. Drama over -- for now. Yankees 1, Rays 0. WP: Chapman (6-4). No save. LP: Who cares, and who cares what his record is.

After the craziest 162-game stretch in Yankee history, they are in the Playoffs proper. There is more to do, but now, they are in a position to do it.

Force once, I hope the postseason has less drama.

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October 4, 1582: The Gregorian Calendar, ordered by Pope Gregory XIII to account for the differences in the seasons, so that religious holidays like Easter could be properly set, goes into effect in the Catholic world. In other words, tomorrow will not be October 5, but October 15, 1582.

The difference between the outgoing Julian Calendar, set by Julius Caesar in Roman times, and the Gregorian Calendar, is that years divisible by 100 will not be leap years, with a February 29, unless they are also divisible by 400. Example: 1600 and 2000 would be leap years; but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 would not.

The countries led by the Protestant and Eastern Orthodox churches would not adopt it immediately. Prussia would not adopt the Gregorian Calendar until 1610; the rest of Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium, would do so in 1700; the British Empire, including what would be the 1st 13 American States, 1752; Sweden and Finland, 1753; Japan, 1873; Egypt, until then using the Muslim calendar, 1875; Korea, 1876; China and Albania, 1912; Latvia and Lithuania, 1915; Bulgaria, 1916; the Soviet Union, 1918; Romania and Yugoslavia, 1919; Greece, 1923; and Turkey, the last holdout, 1926.

Modern international sport, including such events as the Olympic Games, the various World Cups, and so on would be very difficult to stage without a single unifying calendar.

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October 4, 1777: The Battle of Germantown is fought in what is now Northwest Philadelphia. Sir William Howe, the British General already known as the man who conquered New York (both Manhattan and Long Island), now conquers the American capital of Philadelphia, routing General George Washington.

All seems lost for the new country and its Continental Army, until later in the month, at Saratoga, far Upstate in New York. Meanwhile, Washington will take his men to nearby Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where a legend will be born.

This is the greatest defeat anyone calling Philadelphia home has ever suffered. And it has nothing to do with sports. Although the Phillies will have disasters of their own, including in October 1977, 200 years later.

October 4, 1822: Rutherford Birchard Hayes is born in Delaware, Ohio, outside Columbus. In 1876, as Governor of Ohio, a former Congressman and a Union General in the American Civil War, he was elected the 19th President of the United States, under dubious circumstances.

But his actual time in office was blameless, and many people credit him with restoring the credibility of the Presidency after the scandals of Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant (who was personally honest, but made poor choices in friends and/or appointees).

As far as I know, Hayes had nothing to do with baseball, although his time in office, including the 1877, 1878, 1879 and 1880 seasons, was a time of big growth for the game.

October 4, 1888: The New York Giants win their 1st National League Pennant, defeating the Chicago White Stockings (forerunners of the Cubs) 1-0 at the original Polo Grounds, at 111th Street & 5th Avenue.

There were 6 players on this team who would end up in the Baseball Hall of Fame: Slugging 1st baseman Roger Connor, shortstop John Montgomery "Monte" Ward, outfielder Jim "Orator" O'Rourke, catcher William "Buck" Ewing, and pitchers Tim Keefe and Michael "Smilin' Mickey" Welch.

Not in the Hall of Fame is manager Jim Mutrie. He managed the 1st team known as the New York Metropolitans -- and, yes, they were called the Mets for short -- to New York City's 1st professional Pennant, in the American Association in 1884. He was then hired away by the New York Gothams, but, in 1886, proud of his player, he publicly called them "my big boys, my giants." And Giants they have been, in New York (from 1886 to 1957) and San Francisco (since 1958), ever since.

October 4, 1891, 130 years ago: On the final day of the American Association season, Ted Breitenstein of the St. Louis Browns (the team soon to be known as the Cardinals) throws a no-hitter against the Louisville Colonels in an 8–0 win. It is Breitenstein's 1st major league start. He faced the minimum amount of batters, 27, allowing just one base on balls.

It was also the last no-hitter thrown in the AA, as the league folded following the season.

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October 4, 1910: Frank Peter Joseph Crosetti is born in San Francisco. "The Crow" played for the Yankees from 1932 to 1948, and coached for them from 1949 to 1968. No other uniformed man has been a part of as much baseball title-winning as he has: 23 Pennants and 17 World Championships. (That's 8 Pennants and 7 World Championships as a player, 15 Pennants and 10 World Championships as Yankee 3rd base coach.) He was also a 2-time All-Star

The shortstop was a good fielder, but not much of a hitter, batting .245 lifetime. He did hit a home run off Dizzy Dean, who was running out the string with the Cubs, in Game 2 of the 1938 World Series. He was also the last survivor of the Yankees' 1936 World Series win.

In 1969, wanting to be closer to home on the Pacific Coast -- he'd moved to Stockton, California -- he accepted the 3rd base coach's job with the expansion Seattle Pilots, who included former Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton. Frankie didn't think much of Jim, and the feeling was mutual. A segment in Bouton's book Ball Four suggests that Crosetti holds the record for "slaps on the ass" given by 3rd base coaches to home run hitters rounding the bases. It's estimated that he waved 16,000 runners home.

When the Pilots moved to Milwaukee to become the Brewers in 1970, Crosetti didn't go with them, coaching with the Minnesota Twins in 1970 and '71, before finally calling it quits. He and the Yankees had a bit of a strained relationship: He never returned to Old-Timers' Day, usually saying he didn't want to fly across the country; and he was the only member of the 1932 Yankees to publicly say that he thought Babe Ruth did not "call his shot" in that year's World Series. He was not the last survivor of the '32 Yanks, though: He died in 2002, and pitcher Charlie Devens outlived him by a year.

October 4, 1918: At 7:36 PM, the T.A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant, making munitions for the U.S. effort in World War I, explodes on Cheesequake Creek in the Morgan section of Sayreville, Middlesex County, New Jersey.

One explosion led to another, and they went on all night. The fires started by the explosions could be seen for miles, including across the Arthur Kill in Staten Island, New York. Over 300 buildings were destroyed, including the one containing the company's records. For this reason, it's not known for sure how many people died, but the number is believed to be over 100.

I've lived my whole life in Middlesex County, and this is the greatest tragedy ever to befall Central Jersey. Today, the Morgan Marina and a housing development called the Highland House Apartments are on the site. It's a gated community, so it might be difficult to visit. As you might guess, it was pounded again by Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012.

A cemetery, where some of the victims -- just pieces, so they don't even know how many, but they think it's between 14 and 18 -- are buried under a large monument, is on Ernston Road, on the municipal border between Sayreville and Old Bridge. I used to pass it on the way to a job at a building on Ernston, next to U.S. Route 9.

It was particularly poignant on April 15, 2009, the 20th Anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster in England, at an FA Cup Semifinal at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, Yorkshire, at which a similar number of people died, 97. Having to walk up Ernston from my bus stop in order to be on time for work at 10:30 AM, I passed the cemetery at 10:06 -- 3:06 PM British time, the time the match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest was stopped due to the referee realizing what was happening in the stands.

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October 4, 1931, 90 years ago: Walter Thane Baker is born in Elkhart, Kansas. Dropping his first name, Thane Baker was a track star at Kansas State University. He won the Silver Medal in the 200 meters at 1952 Olympics at Helsinki, Finland.

At the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, he won a full set of Medals: A Bronze in th 200, a Silver in the 100 meters, and a Gold as part of the U.S. team that won the 4-by-100-meter relay. He continued to set age-group records in sprint events into his 50s, while also serving as a meet official (not in the same meets, of course), mainly as a starter (the man firing the pistol to start the evetns). He is still alive, and a member of the Kansas Sports and Texas Track and Field Coaches Halls of Fame.

Also on this day, Basil Lewis D'Oliveira is born in Cape Town, South Africa. He became one of his country's greatest cricket players. But, being a member of his homeland's "Cape Coloured" community, he was ineligible to play for its renowned national team.

So he moved to England in 1960, and played "county cricket" for Central Lancashire and Worcestershire. In 1966, having become a British citizen 2 years earlier, "Dolly" was selected for England for the 1st time.

The England team was supposed to tour South Africa in 1968. Prime Minister B.J. Vorster announced that D'Oliveira playing in the series was unacceptable under the country's apartheid laws. As a result of "The D'Oliveira Affair," the tour was canceled, South Africa was excluded from Test cricket for 22 years (until Nelson Mandela was released from prison), and it made the nation a pariah on the world stage, and not just in sports.

He continued to play until 1980, at age 48. In 2000, despite never having played for his homeland, the now-democratic country named him one of 10 South African Cricketers of the Century. In 2004, the Basil D'Oliveira Trophy was dedicated, and is given to the winner of each Test series between England and South Africa. In 2005, a stand at Worcester's New Road stadium was named for him.

He developed Parkinson's disease, and died in 2011, the year his grandson Brett D'Oliveira made his debut for Worcestershire. His son Damian D'Oliveira had also played for Worcestershire.

Also on this day, the comic strip Dick Tracy, drawn by Chester Gould, debuts in newspapers. With his plainclothes policing, his gadgets, and his exaggerated villains, Tracy preceded Ian Fleming's James Bond in print by over 20 years. Unlike Bond, however, Tracy has yet to receive a good movie treatment.

October 4, 1934: Robert Lee Huff is born in Edna Gas, West Virginia -- a company town, I'm presuming, and it's now named Farmington. I can find no record of why he was called Sam. He starred at linebacker for West Virginia University, and, along with basketball star Jerry West, he still ranks as 1 of their home State's 2 greatest athletes. He was an All-American and an Academic All-American.

He was a 5-time All-Pro with the New York Giants, the cornerstone of the 1st great NFL defense of the 2-platoon era. He helped the Giants reach 6 NFL Championship Games, although they only won the 1st, in 1956.

In 1960, CBS News' The Twentieth Century did a feature on him, "The Violent World of Sam Huff," a precursor to NFL Films in that, for the 1st time, non-players got to hear what playing football really sounds like. To put it another way: He was Lawrence Taylor (without the sex and drug scandals) before Lawrence Taylor was even born.

In 1964, he was traded to the Washington Redskins, and has been with them ever since, first as a linebacker, then an assistant coach, and then as a broadcaster, teaming with ex-teammate Sonny Jurgensen until Sam retired in 2012. He was named to the NFL 1950s All-Decade Team, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the New York Giants Ring of Honor and the Washington Redskins' Ring of Fame.

He, Rosey Grier and Henry Moore are the last 3 surviving players from the 1956 NFL Champion New York Giants.

October 4, 1936: Game 4 of the World Series. Carl Hubbell was in the middle of a 24-game regular season winning streak, and Time magazine called this Series "a personal struggle between Hubbell and Gehrig."

Well, Hubbell had won Game 1, but Lou Gehrig homers off him in this Game 4, and the Yankees win, 5-2. Monte Pearson is the winning pitcher, and now the Yankees are 1 win away from taking the Series.

Also on this day, London's police and anti-fascist demonstrators clash with members of the British Union of Fascists in the East End. It was known as the Battle of Cable Street, and it was Britain's 1st message that it would not put up with far-right tyranny. Sadly, in 1938, its government did. Thankfully, in 1939, that stopped.

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October 4, 1941, 80 years ago: Game 3 of the World Series. In the 7th inning of a scoreless tie‚ Yankees pitcher Marius Russo bats against Dodger pitcher Fred Fitzsimmons, and launches a line drive off Fat Freddie's kneecap. The ball caroms to shortstop Pee Wee Reese, who throws Russo out to end the inning. The Yankees score 2 in the 8th off reliever Hugh Casey to win 2-1.

On the official World Series highlight film, it's not clear how bad the injury is. Fitzsimmons is shown limping off the field under his own power -- probably a good thing, since he would have been pretty hard to carry off with all that weight. But the film is misleading: It turns out that the kneecap is broken.

Once an All-Star for the Giants, who seemed to specialize in beating the Dodgers, he had crossed town to be welcomed by the Flatbush Faithful, and they wouldn't have won the 1941 Pennant without him. But, at age 41, he will pitch in just 1 game in 1942, before accepting his injury and retiring to the coaching ranks and running a Brooklyn bowling alley that was popular with Dodger fans for many years.

Also on this day, Jerrel Douglas Wilson is born in New Orleans. A punter, he helped the Kansas City Chiefs win the 1966 and 1969 AFL Championships and Super Bowl IV. He made 3 Pro Bowls, and closed his career helping the New England Patriots win the 1978 AFC Eastern Division title. He was named to the AFL All-Time Team, the NFL's 1970s All-Decade Team and the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame. He died in 2005.

Also on this day, 2 very different American writers are born. Roy Alton Blount Jr. is born in Indianapolis, and grows up in Decatur, Georgia. Essentially a humorist, he is tied to sports as a result of his first book, a look at the 1973 Pittsburgh Steelers, a team on the verge of a dynasty, but not quite there: About Three Bricks Shy of a Load.

On the same day, Howard Allen Frances O'Brien is born in New Orleans. Her mother named her Howard after her husband. After she got married, she began using the name Anne Rice, and her books have been published under that name.

She is known for her Vampire Chronicles, featuring the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt. She is a New Orleans Saints fan, and gave an interview to NFL Films in which she discusses the legend that the Saints are cursed because the Superdome was built over a cemetery.

She has said, "Give me a man or woman who has read a thousand books, and you give me an interesting companion. Give me a man or woman who has read perhaps three, and you give me a very dangerous enemy indeed."

Also on this day, Elizabeth Ann Eckford is born in Little Rock, Arkansas. One of the Little Rock Nine, who racially integrated that city's Central High School in September 1957, she is the most familiar of them, because she was shown in the famous photograph of a white female classmate, Hazel Massery, screaming at her.

Here are the Nine, the careers they went on to have, and their current ages:

* Eckford, a probation officer, is 80 today.

* Thelma Mothershed-Wair, a teacher, is 80.

* Minnijean Brown-Tricky, a social worker, is 80.

* Ernest Green, an architect, is 80.

* Melba Pattillo Beals, a journalism professor, is 79.

* Gloria Ray Karlmark, a patent attorney,  is 79.

* Terrence Roberts, a professor, is 79.

* Carlotta Walls LaNier, a real estate broker, is 78.

* And Jefferson Thomas, an engineer, was the 1st to die, in 2010, at 67.

All of them married at least once. Between them, they had 20 children, all but Roberts becoming parents.

October 4, 1944: The 1st all-St. Louis World Series (and the only one, as it turned out) opens, dubbed the Streetcar Series (as opposed to a Subway Series), and is played with no days off. The Browns‚ as the official visiting team (both teams play at Sportsman's Park)‚ beat the Cardinals 2-1 on George McQuinn's homer. Denny Galehouse is the winning pitcher, while Mort Cooper loses despite allowing just 2 hits.

It is the 1st Series in which all the games are played west of the Mississippi River. There will not be another until 1965, and it has happened again in 1974, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 2002, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2017 and, due to COVID-19-related travel restrictions, 2020.

On the same day, Anthony La Russa Jr. is born in Tampa. Tony was an inconsequential infielder in the major leagues from 1963 to 1973, but became a very consequential manager. From 1979 to 2011, he won 2,728 games, 15 Division titles (1983 with the Chicago White Sox; 1988, '89, '90 and '92 with the Oakland Athletics, all in the AL West; 1996, 2000, '01, '02, '04, '05, '06, '09, '13 and '14 with the St. Louis Cardinals, all in the NL Central), 6 Pennants (3 in each League), and 3 World Series (1989 with the A's, 2006 and 2011 with the Cards, making him only the 2nd manager after Sparky Anderson to win them in both Leagues.

Unfortunately, his legacy may be a negative one. Not only did he pioneer the use of computers to study baseball statistics, thus leading to constant pitching changes, but he also pioneered, through Dennis Eckersley, using your closer for just the 9th inning.

He is in the Hall of Fame, and the Cardinals have retired his Number 10 and elected him to their team Hall of Fame. This year, he returned to managing, and has won the American League Central Division title with the White Sox.

October 4, 1946, 75 years ago: Barney Oldfield dies of a heart attack in Beverly Hills, California. He was 68. He was the 1st great auto racer, and the 1st man recorded as having driven 60 miles per hour -- a mile a minute. He was 1 of the 10 charter inductees in the Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

Also on this day, Susan Abigail Tomalin is born in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, and grows up in nearby Edison, Middlesex County, New Jersey. We know her as Susan Sarandon. Her ex-husband Chris Sarandon, ex-partner Louis Malle, ex-partner Franco Amurri, ex-partner Tim Robbins (with whom she hooked up on the set of the baseball-themed film Bull Durham), daughter Eva Amurri and son Jack Henry Robbins are all either actors or directors (or both). Another son, Miles Robbins, has yet to enter the family business.

I used to love Susan Sarandon. She was, like me, a baseball fan from Central Jersey. And she was a redhead, which I liked. And she was a bombshell -- at 73, she still looks great. But she's a Mets and Rangers fan. That's 2 strikes right there. And while I didn't mind her support for Bernie Sanders during the 2016 Democratic Primaries, her refusal to support Hillary Clinton -- there has never been a Presidential nominee more like Susan, ever -- is strike 3.

But, like Annie Savoy, her character in Bull Durham, she still believes in the Church of Baseball. Then again... "Makin' love is like hittin' a baseball: You just gotta relax and concentrate." Relax and
concentrate? That's contradictory!

She won an Oscar for playing Sister Helen Prejean, the real-life nun and anti-death penalty activist, in Dead Man Walking. Susan Sarandon winning an Oscar is not a shock. Susan Sarandon playing a nun? That is a shock! That's like casting Harvey Fierstein to play JFK!

October 4, 1947: Game 5 of the World Series. It was said of Dodger pitcher Rex Barney that he would be the best pitcher in the world if the plate were high and outside. On this day, he walks 9 Yankees in less than 5 innings -- 1 more than Bill Bevens in 9 innings the day before -- and a Joe DiMaggio homer in the 5th makes the difference, as the Yankees win, 2-1. They can wrap it up tomorrow.

October 4, 1948: A Playoff for the American League Pennant is played at Fenway Park in Boston. The Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians had both finished 1 game ahead of the Yankees in the AL race.

The Red Sox were managed by Joe McCarthy, who left the Yankees after the 1946 season, not liking the new owners. Although he'd never played in the major leagues, he had led the Chicago Cubs to the 1929 National League Pennant. Fired after not repeating in 1930, the Yankees immediately hired him. He won the 1932 World Series, then missed 3 straight years, then won the American League Pennant in 7 of the next 8: 1936, '37, '38, '39, '41, '42 and '43, winning the World Series on each of those occasions but '42. 

The Indians were managed by Lou Boudreau. A former pro basketball player, he had been their regular shortstop since 1940. After the 1941 season, they needed a new manager. Having been Captain of the basketball team at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, he suggested himself. But he was only 24 years old, and remains the youngest non-interim manager in baseball history.

He was named manager by team owner Alva Bradley. Bill Veeck bought the team from Bradley in 1946, and believed Boudreau was the best shortstop in baseball, but didn't care for him as a manager. Boudreau fought to keep his job, and won. At 31, he had gotten the Indians closer to a Pennant than they'd ever been, except for their 1920 World Series win.

McCarthy picked Denny Galehouse as his starting pitcher. He got the 1st 2 outs in the top of the 1st inning. But Boudreau was the next hitter, and he hit a home run. 1-0 Cleveland. Boudreau picked Gene Bearden as his starting pitcher. He allowed a tying run. The score remained 1-1 through the end of the 3rd inning.

In the top of the 4th, Boudreau and former Yankee 2nd baseman Joe Gordon singled, and 3rd baseman Ken Keltner hit a home run, making the score 4-1, and chasing Galehouse. McCarthy brought in Ellis Kinder, who allowed another run. Boudreau hit another homer in the 5th to make it 6-1.

The Red Sox closed to 6-3 on a 6th inning home run by Bobby Doerr, but a dropped fly ball by the great Ted Williams in left field led to an 8-3 Indians lead. That was the final score, as Bearden went the difference.

Who is still alive from this game, 74 years later? Only Eddie Robinson, who pinch-hit, and then took over at 1st base, for Allie Clark, the next-to-last survivor of the '48 Indians, who died in 2012. Clark was a South Amboy, New Jersey native whom the Yankees had traded with Joe Gordon to get Allie Reynolds. For the Red Sox, Bobby Doerr was the last survivor, living until 2017.

The Boston Braves, playing just 1 mile to the west at Braves Field, had won the National League Pennant. This was the closest baseball ever got to an All-Boston World Series. Instead, the Indians stayed in Boston to play Games 1 and 2 of the World Series, and came back to clinch at Braves Field in Game 6.

Despite Pennants in 1954, 1995, 1997 and 2016, the Indians have never won another World Series. Their drought of 72 years is not only the current longest in Major League Baseball, it is now longer than the Red Sox' was when they blew the Series in 1986, and longer than the Cubs' was when they blew the National League Championship Series in 1984.

Which makes the Indians' heroes of 1948 all the larger: Bearden, Gordon, Keltner, and Hall-of-Famers Boudreau, Bob Feller, Larry Doby and Satchel Paige, the latter 2 having started in the Negro Leagues.

The Red Sox recovered, and took the Yankees down to the wire in 1949. Again, McCarthy made a fateful pitching change: With the last game of the regular season deciding the Pennant, the Yankees led 1-0 in the bottom of the 8th, and McCarthy took Kinder out for a pinch-hitter. It didn't work, and the bullpen was awful, and the Yankees won the game 5-1. Ever since, he has been ripped for both decisions: Starting Galehouse in '48, and relieving Kinder in '49.

He managed the 1950 season, fell short, and retired. Ironically, his successor as Red Sox manager was Lou Boudreau: Veeck had sold the Indians after the 1949 season, and new owner Ellis Ryan had fired Boudreau. He didn't do much with the Red Sox, and moved on to become a broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs.

The way Red Sox fans talked about McCarthy, you'd never know he had won 9 Pennants. Until his death in 1978, they never forgave him. Did they give him a bum rap? It's true that Galehouse was 36 years old, and left the game with an 8-8 record, an ERA of an even 4.00, and a WHIP of 1.445, and only pitched 2 more games in the major leagues. But his ERA+ was 110, so, that season, he was 10 percent better at preventing earned runs than the average American League pitcher in 1948, even after the game in question.

Galehouse was not a bad pitcher. He was 109-118 lifetime, but most of that was for weak Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Browns teams. And while he was only 9-10 for the Browns in 1944, his ERA of 3.12, and his ERA+ of 117, helped them win the Pennant that year, the only one they ever won. Furthermore, he had pitched for the Indians, so he knew the tendencies of some of their players. Sometimes, a mental edge can make all the difference. This time, it didn't.

McCarthy didn't have a lot of options. At Fenway Park, the Green Monster, the left field wall, was listed as being 315 feet from home plate. Most people thought it was closer. It was eventually relabeled 310. Then as now, it was a tempting target for righthanded hitters. And Mel Parnell, the Sox' ace, was a lefthanded pitcher. Add the fact that he would have been pitching on 3 days' rest, and he wasn't that much better a choice to start the Playoff than Galehouse. Kinder was on 4 days' rest, but, as it turned out, when he did pitch in the Playoff game, he was not appreciably more effective than Galehouse.

If anything, Boudreau gambled more than McCarthy did. Bearden was already 19-7 that season, but, arm-easier knuckler or no, he was pitching on just 1 day's rest, having pitched a complete game victory just 2 days earlier. He should already have been exhausted. Instead, he went the distance, for his 20th win of the season. The Green Monster? Bearden allowed just 1 home run, to Bobby Doerr, a good hitter but not known for his power. Ted Williams, "The Greatest Hitter That Ever Lived"? He went 1-for-4. So did the Sox' other big slugging threat, Vern Stephens -- the shortstop Indians owner Bill Veeck had wanted to get from the Sox in a trade for Boudreau, but the Sox turned it down.

Not only did Boudreau's his roll of the dice come up seven, but he was the game's hitting star, too. He went 4-for-4, hitting a solo home run off Galehouse in the 1st inning, and another off Kinder in the 5th. He also fielded 8 chances without an error: 3 putouts, 5 assists. At 31, the former "boy manager" had led his team to a Pennant. He remains the last player-manager to do so. And, in so doing, he outmanaged Joe McCarthy, the man then considered the best manager in baseball.

*

October 4, 1950: With his ace Robin Roberts exhausted, and his Number 2 starter Curt Simmons having been drafted into the Korean War, Philadelphia Phillies manager Eddie Sawyer rolls the dice and starts Jim Konstanty in Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees at Shibe Park.

Sawyer tells the press that it's not quite the gamble that it seems, because Konstanty had pitched long relief during the season, including one game where he went 9 innings. He was about to become the 1st relief pitcher ever to be named either League's Most Valuable Player. Had there been a Cy Young Award at the time, he probably would have won that, too.

The gamble nearly pays off: Konstanty is fantastic, pitching 8 innings, allowing only 1 run, on a double by Bobby Brown and 2 sacrifice flies, on 4 hits and 4 walks. But Vic Raschi of the Yankees is even better, tossing a shutout with 2 hits and 1 walk, and the Yankees win, 1-0.

The next day, Sawyer starts Roberts on 3 days' rest, and he, too, is magnificent in defeat. The Phils lose the 1st 3 games of the Series, all by 1 run.

October 4, 1951, 70 years ago: The Giants have no time to really celebrate their amazing Pennant won the day before, as the World Series gets underway. But momentum is on their side. Monte Irvin steals home in the 1st inning (and, unlike Jackie Robinson 4 years later, the film definitively shows that he was safe) and collects 4 hits. The Giants defeat Allie Reynolds and the Yankees 5-1, with Dave Koslo going all the way at Yankee Stadium.

With Don Mueller missing the World Series due to the ankle he sprained in the climactic inning the day before‚ home run hero Bobby Thomson switches to 3rd base, and the Giants field the 1st all-black outfield in a World Series: Irvin in left, soon-to-be Rookie of the Year Willie Mays in center, and Hank Thompson in right. Thompson and Irvin had been the 1st black players for the Giants, both debuting on July 8, 1949: Thompson as a starter, Irvin as a pinch-hitter.

October 4, 1953: Game 5 of the World Series at Ebbets Field. Mickey Mantle hits a 3rd inning grand slam off Russ Meyer in the 3rd inning‚ and the Yanks hold on to win 11-7 in a game that features 25 hits and 47 total bases.

*

October 4, 1955: For the 1st time, the Brooklyn Dodgers win a World Series. They had been 0-7 in the competition, 0-5 of that against the Yankees. This time, Dem Bums dooed it, and against the Yanks, at Yankee Stadium, to boot.

After losing the World Series to Boston in 1916, to Cleveland in 1920, and to the Yankees in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953; blowing Playoffs for the National League Pennant to St. Louis in 1946 and to the New York Giants in 1951; and blowing Pennants on the last weekend of the season to St. Louis in 1942 and Philadelphia in 1950, the Dodgers had finally won their 1st undisputed World Championship in 55 years, since they finished the 1900 season as National League Champions, with no postseason series available.

But in 1955, it all seemed to come together. True, the Dodgers had traded away 2 of the beloved players who would later be known, in the title of the book that Roger Kahn wrote in remembrance of his days covering them for the New York Herald Tribune, as "The Boys of Summer": Pitcher Elwyn "Preacher" Roe and 3rd baseman Billy Cox.

The team was in transition: Jackie Robinson was still a factor, but his replacements had arrived in Jim "Junior" Gilliam and Don Zimmer. Ralph Branca, the goat of the 1951 Playoff, had retired, but the Dodgers still had Don Newcombe and Carl Erskine, and they were joined by a hotshot lefty named Johnny Podres. The Dodgers won their first 13 games of the '55 season, and finished 13 games ahead of the preseason favorites, the Milwaukee Braves.

But the Yankees took the first 2 games of the World Series, despite Robinson's steal of home plate in Game 1. But the Dodgers took the next 3 at Ebbets Field. Then the Yankees tied it up. In fact, the home team won each of the first 6 home games. Bad news for the Dodgers, since Game 7 would be at Yankee Stadium. A team with the kind of luck they'd had didn't need no bad omens.

The Boys of Summer were getting old. The younger Dodgers didn’t quite seem ready. The team was in transition, and it did seem like it had been a seamless one; but for veterans like shortstop Pee Wee Reese, 1st baseman Gil Hodges, center fielder Duke Snider and catcher Roy Campanella — along with Robinson, all but Hodges are in the Hall of Fame, and he damn well should be — it seemed like it was now or never.

Podres was the choice of manager Walter Alston, having won Game 3. Yankee manager Casey Stengel, with ace Whitey Ford having pitched brilliantly in Game 6, had to go with Tommy Byrne, a lefty who was occasionally wild, but had come up big for Stengel in several big games.

The Dodgers scored a run in the 4th and another in the 6th, to take a 2-0 lead. But the Yankees got 2 men on in the bottom of the 6th. And Yogi Berra, as much a "Mr. October" as the Yankees have ever had, was coming up. Yogi had delighted in hitting Series homers off the Dodgers, and would again. To hell with the lefty-on-lefty matchup: Yogi had no fear. And, despite usually being a pull hitter, Yogi hooked the ball down the left-field line, into the corner.

Left field had long been a troublesome position for the Dodgers. Gene Hermanski. Cal Abrams. George "Shotgun" Shuba and Andy Pafko had played it well, but, for whatever reasons, none of them seemed to stick, although Shuba was still on the roster. Now Zimmer was the usual left fielder, though he was a natural infielder.

But Alston had pinch-hit Gilliam for Zimmer, and put Gilliam in at 2nd, replacing the righty-throwing Zimmer in left with lefty-throwing Sandy Amoros, a Cuban whose English was halting but whose play, on this day, changed baseball history.

A righthanded fielder, like Zimmer, never could have caught this ball, no matter how fast he was. But Amoros was fast and lefthanded, and he stuck out his right hand and caught the ball. Then he wheeled it back to the infield. Reese relayed it to Hodges, and Gil McDougald was unable to get back to 1st base in time. Double play end of threat. Just 9 outs to go.

At the time, Doris Kearns was a 12-year-old girl living in Rockville Centre, Long Island, 18 miles east of Ebbets Field. Nearly 40 years later, interviewed for Ken Burns' Baseball miniseries, award-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin would cite Amoros' robbery of Berra and the ensuing rally-killing double play as a sign that the Dodgers would win. "There's always these omens in baseball," she said. Translation: If the Dodgers could get Yogi out in a key situation, then that was it: The Yankees' luck had run out, and they would not threaten again.

Bottom of the 9th. Two out. Podres has pitched a stomach-churning game: Eight hits, but no runs. The last batter is Elston Howard. Six months earlier, Howard had become the 1st black man to play in a regular-season game for the Yankees, and was now the left fielder and Yogi's backup at catcher. In 1959, they would switch positions, and Ellie would become one of the game's best catchers. In 1955, he was a 26-year-old "rookie," having played in the Negro Leagues for a while.

Howard grounded to short. It was so appropriate that it went to Harold Henry Reese, the Dodgers' Captain and senior player. Pee Wee threw it to Gil Hodges, and Hodges, perhaps the best-fielding 1st baseman of his era, had to trap it on the ground to keep it from being an error and bringing the tying run to the plate. But he got it.

Ballgame over. World Series over. With Red Barber having been chased out of Brooklyn by team owner Walter O'Malley after the 1953 season, it was Vin Scully who got to make the announcement over the airwaves: "Ladies and gentlemen, the Brooklyn Dodgers are the World Champions of baseball."

Simple, and correct, with no embellishments or histrionics. Not exactly how Mel Allen, Phil Rizzuto or John Sterling would have described it.

It had been 55 years — or 52 years if you count only from the 1st World Series forward. All the near-misses, all the heartbreak, all the taunts from fans of the Giants and the Yankees? Those things no longer mattered.

"Please don't interrupt," Shirley Povich wrote for the next day's Washington Post, "because you haven't heard this one before: The Brooklyn Dodgers are World Champions of baseball." (Povich wrote for the Post from 1924, when Walter Johnson finally pitched them to the World Series, until his death in 1998. His son is the TV journalist Maury Povich.)

And they did it at Yankee Stadium, no less. They never clinched a World Championship at Ebbets Field -- although the Yankees had, in 1941, 1949 and 1952, and would again in 1956. Not until 1963 would the Dodger franchise clinch a World Series win on their home field.

The party in Brooklyn was the biggest since V-J Day ended World War II 10 years earlier, and hasn't been matched since. Scully told the story for Ken Burns' Baseball: "When we were riding through Manhattan, it was fall. Football was in the air. We came out the other end of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, and it was New Orleans chaos!"

No more "Wait 'Til Next Year," as the Brooklyn Eagle -- which had, sadly, gone out of business a few months too soon to report on the Dodgers' title -- had first blared in a headline after the 1941 Series. This was Next Year. So said the back page of the next day's New York Daily News: "THIS IS NEXT YEAR!". The front page of the next day's Daily News was even more demonstrative: "WHO'S A BUM!" Willard Mullin, who had drawn the original version of the "Dodger Bum" cartoon character, drew him again, a big nearly-toothless smile, for that front page, consisting only of that headline and that drawing.

It would remain the most famous New York headline ever, for 20 years, until the Daily News did "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD" on October 30, 1975. The New York Post tried to top that with "HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR" on on April 15, 1983, but who's kidding who?

Two personnel notes should be made. One is that Mickey Mantle was injured and unable to play in Game 7 for the Yankees. Does that mean the one and only World Series won by the Brooklyn Dodgers should have an asterisk on it? No: There's no guarantee that Mickey would have made the difference, even though he had hit the Dodgers hard in the '52 and '53 Series, and would again in '56. Although he was one of the true Mr. Octobers, he didn't always have a good Series, and in fact went only 2-for-10 in the 3 Series games he did get into in '55, although one of those hits was a homer off Podres in Game 3.

The other personnel note is that Jackie Robinson was not put into the lineup in Game 7. The noblest character in the history of baseball was deemed unworthy of this moment by his manager. Alston was not a Jackie Robinson fan. Neither was owner O'Malley. But on the highlight film, you can see Number 42 running onto the field. After all he'd been through, at 36 he still had enough energy to be one of the first men into the celebratory pile, if not enough energy to persuade his manager to put him into the lineup. But can we really argue with the decision? After all, it worked.

There are still 3 living members of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers, all pitchers: Carl Erskine, Roger Craig, and a rookie named Sandy Koufax. The last living member of the 1955 New York Yankees was Tom Carroll, who died on September 22, 2021. Bob Cerv, who died in 2017, was the last man alive who played in Game 7, on either side. Shuba was the last living Dodger who did, living until 2014.

October 4, 1955, 3:43 PM Brooklyn Standard Time. Dem Bums had finally dooed it. Two years later, it would all be over. And only one man had imagined such a blasphemy. Unfortunately, the blasphemer was the caretaker of the faith, Walter Francis O'Malley.

*

October 4, 1957: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the world's 1st artificial satellite. This terrifies Americans into thinking, not so much that the Communists are ahead of us in any prestigious "space race," but that, soon, they will be able to attack us from space. Well, it's been 63 years, and they've never attacked us from anywhere. (Spy-on-spy crime excepted, of course.)

The Space Age has begun. Particularly related to this is satellite technology that allows us to see sporting events from anywhere in the world. Today, if you so chose, you could have watched UEFA Champions League soccer, and the American League Wild Card game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays.

October 4, 1959: Game 3 of the World Series is played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, in front of 92,394 fans, a record crowd for a baseball game anywhere. It is the 1st World Series game played in Los Angeles, in the State of California, indeed anywhere west of St. Louis. The Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-1.

October 4, 1961, 60 years ago: Game 1 of the World Series. Whitey Ford continues his shutout streak, Elston Howard and Bill "Moose" Skowron hit home runs, and the Yankees beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-0 at Yankee Stadium.

October 4, 1962: Game 1 of the World Series is played at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, the 1st World Series game played in Northern California. The Yankees beat the Giants, 6-2. Whitey Ford is the winning pitcher for a record 10th time in Series play, but it will be for the last time, and his record streak of 33 2/3 scoreless World Series innings is stopped.

Also on this day, Issiac Holt III (no middle name, and that's how his first name is spelled, not "Isaac") is born in Birmingham, Alabama. A cornerback, he was with the Dallas Cowboys when they won Super Bowl XXVII. But in the following off-season, he told head coach Jimmy Johnson he shouldn't have so many "voluntary" workouts, and Johnson cut him. He never played in the NFL again.

October 4, 1963: The Twilight Zone airs the episode "Steel," based on a 1956 short story by Richard Matheson. Airing 7 months after former Featherweight Champion Davey Moore died as a result of a fight with Sugar Ramos, and a year and a half after Emile Griffith reclaimed the Welterweight Championship and killed Benny "the Kid" Paret in the process, it takes place in 1974, and posits that robots replaced human boxers after the sport was banned for safety reasons in 1968.

Lee Marvin plays Steel Kelly, a former boxer who manages a robot named Battling Maxo, who breaks down right before a fight. Since he and his trainer can't afford to fix Maxo, Kelly takes his place in the ring, and gets pounded by the robotic opponent.

October 4, 1964: One of the most tumultuous seasons in Major League Baseball history comes to a close. The Yankees finish 1 game ahead of the Chicago White Sox, and 2 ahead of the Baltimore Orioles, winning their 29th Pennant, all in the last 44 seasons. As it turns out, it is the last in their Dynasty.

It is also the last game as a Yankee broadcaster for Mel Allen, who was fired after 26 years. No reason was given. Rumors abounded: He was an alcoholic, he was a prescription drug addict, he was gay. Apparently, though, in this era when sponsors still had an iron grip on broadcasting, the real reason was that Ballantine beer, the Yankees' sponsor and beneficiary of Mel's calling home runs "Ballantine blasts," saw their sales dropping, and they blamed Mel, the greatest salesman they ever had.

The National League race remains undecided going into this last day, thanks to the Philadelphia Phillies' nosedive, and the surges of the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Phillies bomb the Reds 10-0. In those pre-Internet, pre-satellite TV days, the 2 teams then join forces, and sit in the visitors' clubhouse at Crosley Field, listening to a radio (which was appropriate, since longtime Reds owner Powel Crosley made his fortune selling radios), hoping that the Cardinals lose to the Mets at Sportsman's Park (since renamed Busch Stadium, the 1st of 3 ballparks to have now had that name), which would keep both teams alive, and force a 3-way tie for the Pennant.

The Mets take a 3-2 lead into the 5th inning‚ but the Cards score 3 runs to regain the lead. The Mets score once more, but the Cardinals complete their scoring with 3 in the 8th, to win 11-5. Bob Gibson wins in relief.

For St. Louis‚ it is their 1st Pennant since 1946, 18 years. For Cincinnati, it is a crushing defeat, as, even though they had won the Pennant just 3 years earlier, they wanted to win for their manager, Fred Hutchinson, who was dying of cancer.

For Philadelphia, which hasn't won a Pennant in 14 years, it is even more devastating: The Phils had led by 6 1/2 games with 12 to play, but went on a 10-game losing streak to blow it. The Phillie Phlop would define the franchise for a generation, and even fans who lived long enough to see the titles of 1980 and 2008 remain scarred by it.

In the end, it was the closest race in NL history: 3 teams within 1 game, 4 within 3, 5 within 5. The Cards won over the Reds and Phils by 1 game each, the Jints by 3, the Braves by 5, the Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates by 13, the Chicago Cubs by 17, the Houston Colt .45's (they became the Astros the next year) by 27, and the Mets by 40.

In 1964, the Phillies won 92 games, and lost the Pennant, and are regarded as a failure. In 1980, the Phillies won 91 games, 1 fewer in than in 1964, but it was enough to win the NL East, and they went on to win the Pennant and the franchise's 1st World Series, and they're regarded as the greatest Phillies team ever.

Or, to put it another way: The 1967 Red Sox also won 92 games, but it was enough to win the Pennant by 1 game, and they're an iconic baseball team for good reasons. The '64 Phils remain iconic for bad reasons.

October 4, 1965: For the 1st time, a Pope delivers a Mass in the Western Hemisphere. Pope Paul VI does so at Yankee Stadium in New York. A crowd of 90,000 attends. It is the only sellout at Yankee Stadium all year long.

I looked it up: No, the Yankees couldn't sell The Stadium out that season. Not on Opening Day, not on Old-Timers' Day, not even in the preceding month on the 1st Mickey Mantle Day. They held their 1st promotion that season, Bat Day, and couldn't sell it out then, either. Nor could the NFL's Giants sell The Stadium out in 1965.

On the same trip, the Pope addresses the United Nations. The theme of both of his speeches is peace: "No more war. Never again, war. Peace. It is peace that must guide the destinies of people and of all mankind."

The New York branch of the Catholic advocacy group the Knights of Columbus dedicates a plaque in honor of the event, which is hung on the center field wall at The Stadium. It is moved to Monument Park in 1976, and to the new Yankee Stadium in 2009, along with plaques for later Masses delivered by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. While Pope Francis came to New York last October, and delivered Mass at Madison Square Garden (as John Paul II did in 1979, and also at both ballparks), the Yankees still playing home games made a Mass at the new Yankee Stadium logistically impossible.

In 1972, Paul Owens was hired as Phillies general manager. The man who built the Phils' quasi-dynasty of 1976-1983, including their 1980 World Championship and their 1983 Pennant (the latter of which he managed) was nicknamed "The Pope," not just because his name was Paul, but because he looked a bit like Pope Paul VI.

October 4, 1969: The 1st League Championship Series games are played, in Atlanta and Baltimore. In the National League, at Atlanta (later Atlanta-Fulton county) Stadium, the Mets survive homers by Hank Aaron and Tony Gonzalez off Tom Seaver, and score 5 runs off Phil Niekro in the 8th to coast home, 9-5.

In the American League, at memorial Stadium, Paul Blair's 12th-inning squeeze bunt gives the Orioles a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Twins.

*

October 4, 1972: Ted Williams wears a Major League Baseball uniform in an official competitive capacity for the last time. He manages the Texas Rangers, who lose to the Kansas City Royals 4-0. Although he will be a spring training instructor for the Red Sox until age and infirmity makes this impossible, the Splendid Splinter will never be involved in regular-season baseball again.

It is also the last game as Royals manager for Bob Lemon, and the last game played at K.C.'s Municipal Stadium. Previously known as Muehlebach Field, Ruppert Stadium and Blues Stadium, it opened as a minor league park in 1923, and hosted several minor-league and Negro League Pennants, and the Kansas City Chiefs, who won the 1966 and '69 AFL Championships and Super Bowl IV while playing there.

But, seating just 35,000 for baseball and 47,000 for football, it is too small. Arrowhead Stadium had already opened and the Chiefs had moved in. Royals Stadium, now Kauffman Stadium, opened the following spring. Municipal Stadium was demolished in 1976. 

Lemon, who will join Williams in the Baseball Hall of Fame by being elected in 1976 (for his pitching with the Indians), will be replaced by Jack McKeon. Williams will be replaced by Whitey Herzog. In 1975, McKeon will be replaced as Royals manager by Herzog, who will lose 3 straight ALCS to the Yankees, managed by the man who replaced McKeon as Rangers manager, Billy Martin. Herzog would finally win 3 Pennants and a World Series with the Cardinals in the 1980s.

October 4, 1975: Joan Whitney Payson, founding owner of the Mets, dies in New York, at the age of 72. This was the worst thing that could happen to the team, as her daughter, Lorinda de Roulet, inherited the team, and let team president M. Donald Grant run it into the ground.

Mrs. Payson, a member of the old-money Whitney family (you may have visited the museum they founded), and also of the old-money Hay family, and a breeder of champion racehorses, was a member of the New York Giants' board of directors. With Grant acting as her proxy, she was the only boardmember to vote against them moving to San Francisco in 1957.

This made her the ideal person for the group trying to establish a new National League team in New York, led by high-profile lawyer William A. Shea, to approach to be the majority owner -- the 1st woman in such a role in baseball history who did not inherit the team from someone else.

It was her idea to hire former Yankee manager Casey Stengel as the Mets' 1st manager. It was also her idea to trade for Willie Mays in 1972, bringing the Giants' legend back to New York. These were great moves in terms of public relations. In terms of on-the-field success, not so much. It was also her idea that no Met should ever again wear Mays' Number 24; with a few brief exceptions, including currently with Robinson Cano, this edict has held, although it hasn't been officially retired.

Grant was already doing pretty much as he pleased as Mrs. Payson became old and ill, breaking up the team that won the 1969 World Series and the 1973 Pennant. He had already traded away Bud Harrelson, Cleon Jones and Tug McGraw. Within weeks of her death, he would trade away Rusty Staub, and would also trade away Jerry Koosman, and, most infamously, Tom Seaver. Shea Stadium's attendance dwindled so much, the Flushing Meadow amphitheatre became known as Grant's Tomb.

Mrs. de Roulet wasn't nearly as quick on the uptake as her mother, but, finally, she had enough, and fired Grant. In 1980, she sold the team to Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon, who rebuilt the team in to the one that won the 1986 World Series. In 1981, they established the New York Mets Hall of Fame. Mrs. Payson and Stengel were the 1st inductees.

In 2003, Bob Murphy, original Met broadcaster, retired. A ceremony was held at the last home game of the season. Mrs. Payson's name was cheered, and huge ovations went up for Seaver and members of the '86 Mets. Only 2 of the guests were booed: Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and Mrs. de Roulet (who is still alive today, at age 85). I was at this game, and sat close enough to see the look on her face. She looked bewildered: She still didn't understand why Met fans hated her. It was because she cared so little about the team. Her mother, the original "Lady Met," was loved because she cared so much.

October 4, 1978: The Yankees lose to the Kansas City Royals 10-4, in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium). This turns out to be the only game the Royals win in the series.

Sparky Lyle pitches the last inning and a 3rd of this game, allowing 2 runs, doesn't pitch in the rest of the ALCS, does not appear in the World Series, and is traded to the Texas Rangers after the season. As Graig Nettles said, "Sparky went from Cy Young to Sayonara."

*

October 4, 1980: Mike Schmidt's 2-run home run in the top of the 11th inning gives the Phillies a 6-4 win over the Montreal Expos‚ clinching the NL East title.

The home run is Schmidt’s 48th of the season‚ breaking Eddie Mathews' single-season record for 3rd basemen set in 1953. Alex Rodriguez would break that record, and Ryan Howard would break Schmidt's franchise record for homers in a season.

On the same day, the Yankees clinch their 4th AL East title in 5 seasons‚ beating the Detroit Tigers 5-2 in the 1st game of a doubleheader. Reggie Jackson hits his 41st home run of the season, and will share the AL home run crown with Ben Oglivie of the Milwaukee Brewers.

In a 17-1 rout of the Minnesota Twins‚ Willie Wilson of the Kansas City Royals becomes the 1st major league player ever to be credited with 700 at-bats in a season. He goes on to post 705 at-bats‚ which remained the highest in the 20th Century. He also sets the AL record for singles in a season with 184‚ eclipsing the mark Sam Rice set in 1925.

Wilson also becomes only the 2nd player in history to collect 100 hits from each side of the plate‚ matching the feat accomplished by Garry Templeton of the St. Louis Cardinals the year before. The loss ends Minnesota's club-record 12-game winning streak.

The Los Angeles Dodgers break a 1-1 tie on a 4th inning home run from Steve Garvey to beat the Houston Astros 2-1. Jerry Reuss outpitches Nolan Ryan. Houston now leads by 1 game with 1 to play.

LaMarr Hoyt pitches the Chicago White Sox to a win over the California Angels‚ 4-2 at Comiskey Park. But the big attraction is designated hitter Minnie Miñoso‚ about to turn 57 (a later source incorrectly suggested 54). Facing Frank Tanana for the 2nd time in 5 years‚ Minnie goes 0-for-2. His appearance‚ the last major promotion of team owner Bill Veeck‚ puts him in with Nick Altrock as a 5-decade man in the major leagues. His next appearance will be for the 1993 St. Paul Saints, run by Bill's son, Mike Veeck.

Also on this day, Tomáš Rosický (no middle name) is born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Known as "the Little Mozart," the attacking midfielder starred for hometown club Sparta Prague, helping them win the Czech First League title in 1999 and 2000.

He moved on to German club Borussia Dortmund, leading them to the Bundesliga title in 2002. Playing for the Czech Republic, he scored 2 goals in a game against the U.S. at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, and served as Captain toward the end of his career.

He was then sold to North London club Arsenal, upholding the tradition of great players wearing Number 7 for the "Gunners" as Joe Hulme, Freddie Cox, George Armstrong, Liam Brady, David Rocastle, David Platt, Robert Pires, and now Bukayo Saka.

For years, he struggled with injury, including missing big chunks of the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons. He scored a goal to give Arsenal a 1-0 win over North London arch-rivals Tottenham in a 2013 game, and helped them win the 2014 and 2015 FA Cups. He has since retired, and recently had a testimonial match in Prague. He is now sport director for Sparta Prague. 

October 4, 1981, 40 years ago: The Mets fire manager Joe Torre and his entire coaching staff. You can't win without the horses, and, at the time, the Mets did not have the horses.

Also on this day, Freddie Lindstrom dies in Chicago, shortly before his 76th birthday. As a Giants rookie in 1924, a grounder by Earl McNeely hit a pebble and soared over his head, making him an unfair goat in the Washington Senators' 4-3 12th inning victory in Game 7 of the World Series.

Lindstrom made up for it, though, batting .311 in a 13-season career that would see him elected to the Hall of Fame. He won another Pennant with the 1935 Chicago Cubs. Ironically, the Chicago native grew up a White Sox fan. He later managed in the minor leagues, coached the baseball team at Northwestern University in Evanston, and became the postmaster in that town just north of Chicago.

October 4, 1985: The Yankees begin their biggest regular-season series in 5 years, at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. If they can sweep this 3-game series against the Blue Jays, they will win the American League East. If they lose any of them, it's over.

Jimmy Key, later a Yankee star that many fans have forgotten, starts for the Jays. Ed Whitson, a pitcher many Yankee Fans would like to forget, starts for the Yanks. Neither figures in the decision, and the Jays lead 3-2 going into the 9th inning.

But Butch Wynegar ties it with a 9th inning home run off Toronto closer Tom Henke, a.k.a. "The Exterminator." It sails over the right field fence and bounces on the artificial turf of the football field past the pathetic little high school-style scoreboard the Big X had. Watching on WPIX-Channel 11, I let out a scream that can be heard all the way in Toronto.

A Bobby Meacham single, a Rickey Henderson walk, and an error on a Don Mattingly grounder gives the Yankees a 4-3 win. Rod Scurry is the winning pitcher for the Yankees.

"The Butch Wynegar Game" is set up to be one of my favorite games ever -- if, that is, the Yankees can win the next 2.

October 4, 1986: On the next-to-last day of the season‚ Dave Righetti saves both ends of the Yankees' doubleheader sweep of the Red Sox, 5-3 and 3-1, to give him a major league record 46 saves. Bruce Sutter and Dan Quisenberry had shared the record with 45.

The record is now 62 by Francisco Rodriguez in 2008. For a lefthander, it's 53 by Randy Myers in 1993, and for a Yankee it's 53 by Mariano Rivera in 2004.

October 4, 1987: Reggie Jackson plays his last major league game, for the Oakland Athletics against the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park in Chicago. He had already announced that this would be his last season.

He doubles home Jose Canseco off Floyd Bannister in the 1st inning, draws a walk against Bannister in the 4th, flies out to center field against Bill Long in the 6th, and then, with 2 out in the top of the 8th, he takes his last at-bat, against Bobby Thigpen. It is not the kind of result you would expect from Reggie Jackson, but it worked: He strokes a single up the middle, breaking his bat in the process.

He finishes the day 1-for-3 with an RBI, and closes his career with 2,584 hits, including 563 home runs, making him the leading home-run hitter of his generation. But the White Sox win this game, 5-2, thanks to home runs by Ron Hassey and Carlton Fisk.

Also on this last day of the regular season‚ the Detroit Tigers beat the 2nd-place Blue Jays 1-0 at Tiger Stadium, to win the AL East title. The Tigers were one game behind the Jays entering their 3-game season-ending showdown‚ and won each game by a single run: 4-3‚ 3-2‚ and 1-0. Frank Tanana outduels Jimmy Key in the finale‚ and Larry Herndon's 2nd-inning home run provides the game's only run.

The Jays had been up by 4 with 7 to go, and blew it. This collapse, on top of their choke in the 1985 ALCS, gives them the nickname "Blow Jays," and they will take until 1992 to get rid of it.

Also on this day, Charlie Hough of the Texas Rangers makes his 40th start of the season. No pitcher has been allowed to accomplish this since, not even a knuckleballer like Hough. The Rangers lose to the Seattle Mariners, 7-4 at Arlington Stadium.

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October 4, 1991, 30 years ago: The expansion San Jose Sharks play their 1st regular-season game, the 1st by a NHL team from the San Francisco Bay Area since April 4, 1976 (a 5-2 win by the Oakland-based California Golden Seals over the Los Angeles Kings). California native Craig Cox scores the franchise's 1st regulation goal, but they lose to the Vancouver Canucks, 4-3 at the Pacific Coliseum.

Also on this day, the Delta Center opens in downtown Salt Lake City. After the airline's naming rights expired, it would be renamed the EnergySolutions Arena in 2006, and the Vivint Arena in 2015. It became, and remains, the home of the NBA's Utah Jazz. It has also been, but is no longer, the home of minor-league hockey teams the Salt Lake Golden Eagles and the Utah Grizzlies, the WNBA's Utah Starzz, and Arena Football's Utah Blaze.

October 4, 1995: Game 2 of the American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium. It begins at 8:06 PM with Phil Rizzuto throwing out a ceremonial first ball. It includes the 1st of 44 postseason starts by Andy Pettitte, and home runs by Ken Griffey Jr. and Vince Coleman for the Seattle Mariners, and, for the Yankees, Ruben Sierra, Don Mattingly (ABC announcer Gary Thorne: "Aw, hang onto the roof! Goodbye, home run!"), Paul O'Neill and, at 1:22 AM, in the bottom of the 15th inning, through the rain, Jim Leyritz. Yankees 7, Mariners 5.

It is the 1st postseason walkoff at Yankee Stadium since Chris Chambliss won the Pennant 19 years earlier. The Yankees lead the M's 2 games to 0, and need just 1 win in Seattle to take the series. But they won't get it.

Also on this day, The Drew Carey Show airs the episode "Nature Abhors a Vacuum." In it, Drew (playing a fictionalized, less successful version of himself) remarks on the Cleveland Indians' reaching their 1st postseason in 41 years, "Finally, it's everyone else's team that sucks!"

Also on this day, Jabrill Ahmad Peppers is born in East Orange, Essex County, New Jersey. A graduate of the prestigious Don Bosco Preparatory High School in Ramsey, Bergen County, the safety played college football at Michigan, and was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, a rarity for defensive players, in 2016.

He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft, and played 2 seasons for them, before being sent to his "hometown" Giants in the Odell Beckham Jr. trade. Although very talented, he appears not to be related to 9-time Pro Bowl defensive end Julius Peppers.

October 4, 1996, 25 years ago: Game 3 of the ALDS is the 1st home postseason game in Texas Rangers history. The Yankees, as usual showing no respect for baseball history other than their own, spoil the occasion at what is then known as The Ballpark in Arlington. Juan Gonzalez hits his 4th home run of the series, but Bernie Williams hits the 1st homer of what will become an epic postseason for him, and the Yankees win, 3-2, to take a 2-1 lead.

October 4, 1999: The Mets whitewash the Reds‚ 5-0 at Riverfront Stadium (by this point, renamed Cinergy Field)‚ to become the NL's Wild Card team. Al Leiter hurls a complete game 2-hitter for the win. Rey Ordonez plays his 100th consecutive errorless game, a record for shortstops.

Also on this day, the Sydney Super Dome opens in Australia, in preparation for the 2000 Olympics. At 18,200 seats, with floor seating making it a possible 21,032, it is the largest indoor sports venue in the country.

In 2006, the naming rights were sold, and it was Acer Arena until 2011, Allphones Arena until 2016, and now Qudos Bank Arena. It's the home of the Sydney Kings of Australia's National Basketball League. Wearing purple and gold like the Los Angeles Lakers, they won NBL titles in 2003, '04 and '05.

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October 4, 2001, 20 years ago: Rickey Henderson hits a home run for the San Diego Padres, allowing him to score his 2,246th career run, passing Ty Cobb as baseball's all-time leader. The Padres beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-3 at Jack Murphy Stadium.

On the same day, Tim Raines plays left field, and his son Tim Raines Jr. plays center field, in the Baltimore Orioles’ 5–4 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Camden Yards. They become the second father-son duo to play in the same game, matching the feat turned by Ken Griffey Sr. and Jr. for the 1990 Seattle Mariners. No other such combination has occurred since. Tim Sr. goes 0-for-4, but still has an RBI on a groundout. Tim Jr. goes 1-for-4, with a single off Hideo Nomo. 

Tim Sr. played one more season and retired, making him the last player to appear in an MLB game with no earflap on his batting helmet. He is now a coach in the Toronto Blue Jays’ organization, and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Tim Jr. only lasted in the majors until 2004, and plays professionally until 2011, including under his father as manager with the Newark Bears of the independent Atlantic League. He is back in the Orioles’ organization, as a coach.

Also on this day, the Boston Bruins open the new NHL season at the FleetCenter (now known as the TD Garden) with the retirement of the Number 77 of the recently retired Ray Bourque. They beat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim 4-2.

October 4, 2002: The Yankees blow a 6-1 lead as the Angels bounce back for a 9-6 victory, and a 2-games-to-1 lead in their ALDS. Tim Salmon and Adam Kennedy homer for Anaheim, and Francisco Rodriguez again gets the win in relief.

October 4, 2003: For the 1st time in 95 years, the Chicago Cubs win a postseason series. They beat the Atlanta Braves 5-1 at Turner Field, and win their NL Division Series in 5 games.

On the same day, at Pro Player (now Hard Rock) Stadium in the Miami suburbs, Jeff Conine fields Jeffrey Hammonds' single, and throws to Ivan Rodriguez, who survives a collision with J.T. Snow, for the final out of the Florida Marlins' 7-6 win over the San Francisco Giants, winning their NLDS in 4 games.

The Red Sox beat the A's 3-1 on Trot Nixon's walkoff homer in the 11th inning at Fenway Park. This forces a 5th game in their ALCS.

October 4, 2011, 10 years ago: Game 3 of the NLDS at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Ben Francisco hits a home run to give the Phillies a 3-0 lead in the top of the 7th. But in the bottom of the 7th, a squirrel appears in the outfield, causing a delay in play. The Cardinals score a run in the inning, and another in the 9th, but get no closer, and lose 3-2. The Phillies lead the series 2-1, but the squirrel isn't done.