August 15, 1926: The Dodgers Have Three Men On Base

Babe Herman

August 15, 1926, 100 years ago: Legend has it that Babe Herman of the Brooklyn Dodgers tripled into a triple play.

The legend isn't quite true. Ring Lardner, the top baseball writer of the era, wrote, "Babe Herman did not triple into a triple play, but he doubled into a double play, which is the next best thing."

Also, the Dodgers weren't even officially called the Dodgers at this point. I'll get to that at the moment.

Floyd Caves Herman was born in 1903 in Buffalo, and grew up outside Los Angeles in Glendale, California. After starring in the Southern Association for the Atlanta Crackers, the Memphis Chicks and the Little Rock Travelers; in the Texas League for the San Antonio Missions, and the Pacific Coast League for the Seattle Rainiers, he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers.

In 1914, the Dodgers hired former star catcher Wilbert Robinson as their manager, and they changed their name to the Brooklyn Robins, in his honor. They won the National League Pennant in 1916 and 1920, and finished 2nd in 1924.

But by the time "Babe" Herman -- nicknamed for a boxer who was from Edmonton, where Herman played early in his career, not for Babe Ruth -- reached the major leagues in 1926, the Dodgers weren't so good anymore. They became known as "The Daffiness Boys." Around this time, a fan known as Abie the Truck Driver was heard to yell, over and over, "Come on, you bums!" and was thus credited with creating the nickname that would stick with the team, first in agreement, and later, as they became good, as a term of endearment: "Dem Bums." And this was despite having Charles Arthur "Dazzy" Vance, the fastest pitcher in baseball at the time, and a future member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Dazzy Vance

Like Grover Cleveland Alexander, Vance was a righthander from Nebraska with a great fastball. Unlike Alexander, he was not known to have had a drinking problem. Like Alexander, he debuted in the major leagues at age 24. Unlike Alexander, who was an immediate success, Vance had precious little control, and did not gain his 1st major league win until he was 31 years old.

That was in 1922. Starting that year, over the next 9 seasons, through 1930, he went 18-12, 18-15, 28-6, 22-9, 9-10, 16-15, 22-10, 14-13 and 17-15, mostly for weak Dodger/Robin teams. He led the NL in wins twice, earned run average 3 times, shutouts 4 times, strikeouts 7 times (all in a row, which remains an NL record), and, not that anybody knew what WHIP (Walks plus hits, divided by innings pitch) was at the time, that stat 3 times.

His 28 wins in 1924, when the Robins finished 2nd, remains the most for the Dodger franchise since the pitching distance became 60 feet, 6 inches in 1893. Don Newcombe won 27 in Brooklyn in 1956, and Sandy Koufax won 27 in Los Angeles in 1966. His 262 strikeouts in 1924 were the most in the NL between the 267 of Christy Mathewson in 1903 and the 269 of Koufax in 1961.

In a way, Vance was like Koufax, in that, once he found his control, he became the best pitcher in baseball. But, whereas Koufax was shaky in the 1st 1/3rd of his career, one of the best ever in the 2nd third, and didn't have the last 3rd, retiring just before he turned 31, Vance had half a career, starting at 31, and lasting until he was 44.

If the late 1920s and early 1930s Dodgers sound like a precursor to the 1960s expansion Mets, the last team that Casey Stengel managed, there are other parallels, including the fact that, in 1934, the Dodgers became the 1st team that Stengel managed. Come to think of it, in the off-season, Casey lived in Herman's hometown, Glendale. Certainly, the Daffiness Boys could, like the early Mets, have been called "lovable losers."

It would be unfair to compare Babe Herman to "Marvelous" Marv Throneberry. It true that Babe was known as a terrible fielder. While Marv's travails at 1st base were often seen on television, Babe's poor play in right field had to be seen at the ballpark. He always insisted that he was never hit on the head by a fly ball. A writer asked him if he'd ever been hit on the shoulder, and he said, "That doesn't count." With no TV to record his travails and tribulations, his poor fielding remains a legend.

But he was a heck of a hitter. He batted .324 for his career, including .381 in 1929 and .393 in 1930. Twice, he had at least 113 RBIs in a season; 5 times, he had at least 91. Phil Rizzuto, the eventual shortstop and broadcaster for the New York Yankees, grew up in Queens as a Dodger fan, and, even after getting into the Hall of Fame himself after a long wait, believed Herman should also have been elected.

But in his rookie year, no one would have suggested it. On August 15, 1926, the Robins hosted a Sunday doubleheader at Ebbets Field, against the Boston Braves. Vance started the 1st game, and before the 1st inning was over, there was already an unusual occurrence. Prior to striking out, Eddie Brown fouled off a Vance pitch, which hit umpire Eddie Quigley, and he had to leave the game with an injury. Since major league games then had only 3 umpires, this game was now down to 2.

(Quigley shook it off, and umpired behind the plate for the 2nd game. He umpired in the major leagues from 1913 to 1938, including 6 World Series. He was also a respected referee in college football and basketball, elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. He served as athletic director for the University of Kansas, and the school's baseball complex is named for him.)

The game was scoreless until the top of the 6th, when the Braves scored. Then came the bottom of the 7th. Bear with me: This was complicated. Johnny Butler led off by singling to left. Hank DeBerry doubled to left, scoring Butler and tying the game.

With a runner on 2nd and nobody out, it was an easy choice for Robinson: He allowed Vance to bat for himself, and bunt DeBerry over. Except it turned out not to be a sacrifice: He beat it out. And starting pitcher Johnny Werts hit Chick Fewster with a pitch. The bases were loaded, and there was nobody out. Braves manager Dave Bancroft, a Hall of Fame shortstop, took Werts out, and replaced him with veteran hurler George Mogridge. He got Merwin Jacobson to pop up to him.

That brought Herman up. He hit a drive off the screen in right field. Under the ground rules at Ebbets Field, that meant that the ball was still in play. DeBerry scored easily, making it 2-1 Robins. Vance held up right after 2nd base, to see if the ball would be caught by right fielder Jimmy Welsh. It wasn't. Vance took off for 3rd base, and thought he could score. He probably would have.

But the Dodgers' 3rd base coach was Otto Miller, who had previously managed Herman in Atlanta. He saw Fewster coming in hard for 3rd base, and yelled, "Go back! Go back!" But, being a pitcher, Vance was not used to running the bases, and thought that Miller was telling him to go back to 3rd. So he did. Fewster apparently didn't hear Miller, and kept going, and ended up on 3rd. And so did Herman, who neither heard nor saw Miller. All three men were standing on third base.

Chick Fewster, earlier in his career,

with the Cleveland Indians

The Braves' 3rd baseman, Eddie Taylor, received the ball when it came in from the outfield, and, faced with an unprecedented situation in baseball, did the only thing he could think of: He tagged all 3 runners with the ball, even though each of them had a foot on the base, and thought of himself as safe.

The 2 remaining umpires, John "Beans" Reardon (so nicknamed because he was from Boston, a.k.a. "Beantown") and Charlie Moran, discussed the situation, and applied the correct ruling: Since Vance was the lead runner, he was the only one entitled to the base, so he was safe, and Fewster and Herman had been legitimately tagged out.

Thus, the 7th inning was over, and the Robins were leading, 2-1. Herman was credited with a double and an RBI -- the game-winning RBI, as it turned out. But it entered the public memory as "Babe Herman tripled into a triple play." (It couldn't have been, as there was already 1 out.)

The Robins scored 2 more runs in the top of the 8th, and won, 4-1. They also won the nightcap, 11-3. That success tends to get forgotten, due to the "daffiness." Over the 2 games, Herman went 4-for-8 with 4 RBIs.

But the play took on a life of its own. In those days, prior to regular radio broadcasting of baseball games in New York, the legend grew of a taxi driver who pulled up to the right field corner, at Bedford Avenue and Sullivan Place, and yelled up to a fan in the last row, "Hey, how are the Dodgers doing?"

"Great!" the fan yelled down. "They have three men on base!"

"Yeah?" the cabbie asked. "Which base?"

After the 1931 season, Robinson was fired, and, with the Robins name having never really caught on, the Dodger name, still used by most Brooklynites, was officially restored.

Herman was traded to the Cincinnati Reds, and he bounced around. He had rotten luck: The Chicago Cubs won the Pennant in 1932 and 1935, but he was only with them in 1933 and 1934. The Reds brought him back, but got rid of him in 1936, winning the Pennant 3 years later. The Detroit Tigers won Pennants in 1934 and 1935, and would win another in 1940, but Herman was only with them in 1937.

The Tigers released him in the middle of that season, shortly before his 34th birthday, even though he had batted .300 in 17 games for them. He spent the 1938 season with the Jersey City Giants of the International League, and then went back home to the Pacific Coast League, playing 6 seasons for the Hollywood Stars, batting at least .307 every year.

In 1945, desperate for players due to the manpower drain of World War II, the Dodgers brought him back, at age 42. Appearing in 37 games, mainly as a pinch-hitter, he batted .265, and that was it for him. Having previously played for the Dodgers before uniform numbers were worn, in that season, he wore the Number 4 that would later be retired for Duke Snider, and the Number 32 that would later be retired for Sandy Koufax.

Lawrence Ritter interviewed him for his book The Glory of Their Times, published in 1966. Of the play, Herman said, "If there was any justice, Vance would have been the one declared out because he's the one caused the traffic jam in the first place. But down through history, for some strange reason, it's all been blamed on me."

Who knows, maybe that one play is why Babe Herman is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He died in 1987. He outlived Robinson, who died in 1934, while Herman was still playing; Fewster, who died in 1945, during Herman's comeback; Moran, one of the remaining umpires, who died in 1949; Quigley, the umpire who was hurt and couldn't participate in the call, who died in 1960; Vance, who died in 1961; Miller, who died in 1962; and Reardon, the umpire who made the correct ruling, who died in 1984. Taylor, the 3rd baseman who tried to tag everybody out, lived until 1992. And, of course, Herman long outlived the Brooklyn Dodgers themselves, who were moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season; and Ebbets Field, which was torn down in 1960.

My grandmother, growing up in Queens, was a Dodger fan, but while she told me this story when I was a boy, she wasn't quite old enough to remember it herself. Her favorite poet was Ogden Nash, even though he was a fan of the Dodgers' arch-rivals, the New York Giants. In 1949, Nash, wrote "Line-Up for Yesterday" for Sport magazine, an alphabetical list of star players. For the letter V, he wrote:

V is for Vance

The Dodgers' very own Dazzy.

None of his rivals

Could throw as fast as he.

October 1, 1950: The Dick Sisler Game & Connie Mack's Farewell

October 1, 1950, 75 years ago: Dick Sisler hits a home run off Don Newcombe in the top of the 10th inning at Ebbets Field, and the Phillies beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 4-1, to clinch the National League Pennant. It is the only Pennant the Phils would win in a 65-year stretch from 1915 to 1980.

This was the 2nd of 3 straight seasons in which the National League race came down to the last day of the regular season with the Dodgers involved. The year before, they had to win to clinch and eliminate the St. Louis Cardinals, and they did. The year after, they had to win to force a Playoff with their arch-rivals, the New York Giants, and they did -- for all the good that ended up doing them.

Dodger pinch-hitter Tommy "Buckshot" Brown is the last living player from this game, 72 years later. For the Phillies, the last survivor, backup infielder Ralph "Putsy" Caballero, died in 2017. Bob Miller and Curt Simmons, neither of whom appeared in this game, are the last 2 living 1950 Whiz Kids.

Richard Alan Sisler was born on November 2, 1920 in St. Louis. His father was George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns, one of the best all-around players of his generation: A .340 lifetime hitter whose 1920 total of 257 hits stood as a major league record for 84 years, a 4-time American League leader in stolen bases, and, according to contemporary observers, the best-fieldling 1st baseman of his time.

His brother Dave Sisler would be a major league pitcher, and his brother George Sisler Jr. became a longtie baseball executive. Oddly, George Sr. was a scout for the Dodgers at the time, and was in the ballpark when Dick hit the home run. A reporter asked George how he felt, and he said, "I felt awful and terrific at the same time."

A 1st baseman and left fielder, Dick debuted with the Cardinals in 1946, contributing to a World Series-winning team a a rookie. He was traded to the Phillies in 1948. That 1950 season was his only selection to the All-Star Game. He was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in 1952, and back to the Cardinals later that year, last playing in the majors with them in 1953. He finished his career with a .276 batting average, and just 55 home runs, but 1 of them won a Pennant.

Dick went into coaching, and won another Pennant in 1961, on the staff of Fred Hutchinson of the Cincinnati Reds. When Hutchison left the team late in the 1964 season due to cancer, Dick stepped in as interim manager. Ironically, his Reds were a big reason why his former team, the Phillies, did not win the Pennant that season. But it was his other former team, the Cardinals, who did.

When Hutch died, Dick was named the official manager, and won 89 games in 1965, but was fired after the season, anyway. The Cardinals brought him onto the coaching staff of his former teammate Red Schoendienst, and, together, they won the 1967 World Series, and lost the 1968 World Series. He later coached for the San Diego Padres and, in 1979 and '80, under Joe Torre on the Mets.

He spent most of the 1980s working in the Cardinal farm system, helping to build a team that won 3 Pennants and the 1982 World Series. He died on November 20, 1998, at the age of 78.

The Dick Sisler Game was is also the last major league game as a manager for Burt Shotton, who'd managed the Dodgers to Pennants in 1947 and 1949, and eased the path of Jackie Robinson as he and general manager ranch Rickey reintegrated baseball.

An outfielder, Shotton had played in the major leagues from 1909 to 1923, including 1915 to 1917 with the St. Louis Browns, where he was a teammate of George Sisler -- hence, George's scouting for the Dodgers. Shotton had previously managed the Phillies from 1928 to 1933, and the Reds in 1934, and had also coached for the Cardinals and the Cleveland Indians.

He left the Indians after the 1945 season. When Rickey needed a manager for 1947 after Leo Durocher's yearlong suspension, he asked for Shatoon, who told Rickey, "I romised my wife I would never put on another uniform." So Rickey talked him into managing in a suit, like Connie Mack.

Speaking of whom...

Also on this day, the Philadelphia Athletics complete a massively disappointing 102-loss season by beating the Washington Senators, 5-3 at Shibe Park. It is the last game for A's manager Connie Mack: Approaching his 88th birthday, his sons Earle, Roy and Connie Jr., agreeing on little else, agree to gang up on him and force him to finally retire as manager -- something he, as also the owner, did not want to do.

Before the A's move to Kansas City, the Phillies, new owners of the ballpark, will rename it Connie Mack Stadium, and will erect a statue of him outside.

Having first played in what we would now call Major League Baseball in 1886, the 1st term of Grover Cleveland, and made it to 1950, the 2nd term of Harry Truman, Connie Mack was involved in 4,490 regular-season games, far and away a major league record. (Vin Scully was on hand for 10,766 games over 67 seasons, but that was as a broadcaster.)

Shotton and Mack were the last managers to wear street clothes during a game. Although no rule specifically mandates that a manager must wear a uniform, there is now a rule that states that, aside from medical and security personnel, no one is allowed on the field of play during a game unless they are wearing some form of baseball uniform.

Pitcher Bobby Shantz is the last living man to have been managed by Connie Mack, and the last player to have played for the Philadelphia Athletics, 75 years after Mack's last game, and 71 years after the A's moved to Kansas City.

November 7, 1944: President Franklin Roosevelt Is Elected to a 4th Term

November 7, 1944, 80 years ago: President Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected to an unprecedented 4th term, defeating Thomas E. Dewey, who held FDR's former post of Governor of New York. FDR won 432 Electoral Votes to Dewey's 99, and 53 percent of the popular vote to Dewey's 46.

FDR was not well, struggling with heart disease and high blood pressure, brought on by the pressure of fighting, essentially, 2 major wars at once: Against Nazi Germany in Europe, and against the Japanese Empire in the Pacific. And he was also trying to set up the postwar country, with his G.I. Bill of Rights and other postwar economic measures; and the postwar world, with the United Nations.

His smoking and drinking didn't help. He was 62 years old, and looked at least 72. The Republicans began a "whispering campaign," saying that the Democratic titan was too old and tired to handle the Presidency, and possibly dying.

To counter this, FDR held a parade down Broadway in Lower Manhattan. In the rain. Not good for his health. I wonder if anyone warned him about William Henry Harrison, who was inaugurated as President on March 4, 1841, and then proceeded, without a hat, overcoat or gloves, in freezing rain, to give the longest Inaugural Address ever, 1 hour and 45 minutes. He died 1 month later.

FDR's parade was attended by millions, cheering and chanting, "We want Roosevelt!" Prior to the parade, he held a rally at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. "I've got a confession to make," he told the crowd. "I come from the State of New York, and I've practiced law in New York City. But I have never been in Ebbets Field before." He was not booed.

He did say, "I've rooted for the Dodgers" -- even though he had, on numerous occasions, been to Yankee Stadium to cheer on the Yankees, to the Polo Grounds to cheer on the Giants, and saw them both at the Polo Grounds in Game 2 of the 1936 World Series. "And I hope to come back someday and watch 'em play." That got a huge roar.

FDR would be unable to go back. He had not been to a major league game since before Pearl Harbor, thinking it inappropriate for the President to do so. (There was Presidential precedent: Woodrow Wilson loved baseball, and threw out the first ball at every Opening Day of his first term, but not in 1917 and '18 due to World War I, not in '19 due to his trip to the postwar peace conference, and not in '20 due to his health.) FDR died at the dawn of the next season, of a stroke brought on by working himself to death to save civilization from fascism.

In 2016, there was no "whispering campaign": The Republicans came right out and said that the year's Democratic nominee, also (officially) from the State of New York, Hillary Clinton, was "dying" and "doesn't have the stamina to be President." She did 3 90-minute debates, and kicked Donald Trump's ass in each of them.

In 2020, when it became clear that Trump was becoming more and more unhealthy and unhinged, they said it was Joe Biden who had "dementia." He did 2 debates that, because of Trump's interruptions, lasted more than 90 minutes, and mopped the floor with him both times.

This past July 21, after a disastrous debate with Trump, Biden, 81, accepted the appeals of major Democratic officials, and dropped out of the race, and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who turned 60 late in the campaign. Trump, 78, now looked like a very old man indeed.

August 16, 1954: "Sports Illustrated" Debuts

August 16, 1954, 70 years ago: Sports Illustrated debuts, produced by Time, Inc. The 1st cover of the weekly magazine shows a scene from a baseball game at Milwaukee County Stadium: Eddie Matthews of the host Milwaukee Braves is swinging his bat, in front of New York Giants catcher Wes Westrum. Behind Westrum is umpire Augie Donatelli.

It wasn't the 1st magazine with the name. In 1936, Stuart Scheffel created Sports Illustrated as a monthly magazine, with golf, tennis and skiing as its main focus. It failed after 2 years, and Scheffel sold the rights to the name to Dell Publications. (Aside from the name, that company has no connection to electronics company Dell Technologies.) 

In 1949, Dell released a monthly magazine with the name, and that lasted just 6 issues, despite expanding its coverage to boxing and the major team sports. But it couldn't compete against Sport, the monthly that was the biggest sports magazine since its founding in 1946.

At the time, there were 2 problems with producing a sports magazine. It would cost too much to do so more regularly than monthly. This led to the 2nd problem: Timeliness. For example: Suppose you were running a publishing house in the Summer of 1951, and you wanted to launch a sports magazine. You decide that your 1st issue will be a preview of that year's World Series. You see the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers leading their respective Leagues. So you conclude that the Series will be between those 2 teams.

And your premiere issue comes out at the end of September. By that point, the Dodgers have blown their big lead, to the New York Giants. On October 3, "The Giants win the Pennant!" And you look like a fool. No one wants to buy your magazine. And you're out of business before you can publish an issue previewing the 1951 NFL Championship Game and the New Year's Day 1952 college football bowl games.

For this reason, the biggest sports-themed magazines of the era were the baseball preview issues published by Baseball Digest and Street & Smith. They would make predictions for the season to come, but it was a lot easier to overcome ridicule for making a bad prediction for October in March than it would be in September.

By this time, the post-World War II economic boom was in full swing, so more people were in a position to buy magazines. And to buy the television sets on which to watch sporting events. And to buy tickets to watch the events live. The market for a weekly sports magazine, which could keep up with events as they were happening, was there -- for a publishing house that could afford to produce it.

Henry Robinson Luce could afford it: He ran Time, Inc., and had already succeeded with the newsmagazine Time (a weekly founded in 1923), the photo-based newsmagazine Life (a weekly founded in 1936), and the business-themed magazine Fortune (a monthly founded in 1929). And in 1953, he thought the time was right to try a weekly that would be, essentially, Time, but focused on sports. When the owners of Sport weren't willing to sell their magazine, or the rights to their magazine's name, at any price, Luce bought the rights to the name Sports Illustrated.

But Luce's background worked against the magazine: A graduate of Yale University, his friends were mainly the very rich, like himself. Their pastimes included golf, tennis, sailing, hunting, fishing, and the card game of contract bridge. Now, I am of the firm belief that golf is not a sport. Tennis is. Competitive sailing, I suppose, qualifies. But fishing is not a sport. Nor is hunting: As has been pointed out many times, including by Rick Reilly in SI in the 1980s, it's not a "sport" if "the other team" doesn't even know there's a competition.

Bridge? That's not a sport. It's a game -- one I have never played, and I don't know the rules -- and not athletic in the slightest. And yet, Luce published articles about the game in Sports Illustrated. Twice, he put Charles Goren, both the leading bridge player and the leading writer about the game in his generation, on the SI cover, and frequently printed Goren's articles. I have frequently lamented ESPN's televising of competitive poker, because it's a card game and not a sport. Well, Luce publishing Goren's bridge articles was the 1950s' equivalent.

(For those of you who do enjoy playing bridge: I'm not saying it's a bad game, or that it's not worth your time. And I'm certainly not casting aspersions on Goren. I'm saying that the game shouldn't be discussed in a magazine about sports, except maybe as an aside in an article about a real athlete. For example: If Heavyweight Champion Rocky Marciano enjoyed playing bridge -- and I don't know if he enjoyed any card games -- that might be worth mentioning in an SI article about him, along with his preferences in food, music and TV shows.)

Just as Time had been producing a Man of the Year issue since 1927, SI issued an end-of-the-year Sportsman of the Year issue. The 1st honoree was Roger Bannister, the British medical student who, a few weeks before the 1st issue, had become the 1st person to run a mile race in less than 4 minutes; then, a few weeks later, having his record beaten by the Australian runner John Landy, beat Landy in a much-publicized race at the British Empire Games in Vancouver.

Now known as "Sportsperson of the Year," the title has occasionally been awarded to multiple individuals, and sometimes even to entire teams. It's gone to performers in the various sports this many times: Baseball 18, basketball 18, football 17, track and field 8, golf 7, tennis 5, hockey 4, boxing 3; 2 each in soccer, cycling and speed skating; and 1 each in auto racing, horse racing (to a jockey, not a horse), gymnastics and swimming.

The 1st black recipient was decathlete Rafer Johnson in 1958, while Kip Keino, awarded in 1987 for his charitable efforts even though his Olympic running achievements were in 1968 and 1972, was the 1st African native to receive the award. The 1st Hispanic recipient was golfer Lee Trevino in 1971, while Sammy Sosa receiving a co-award with Mark McGwire in 1998 made him the 1st Latin American native to get it.

The 1st female recipient was Billie Jean King in 1972, sharing it (the first time it was split) with UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. The 1st female sole recipient was also a tennis player, Chris Evert in 1976. Billie Jean was still in the closet at the time, so the 1st openly gay recipient was Megan Rapinoe in 2019. Tiger Woods, whose mother was from Thailand, was the 1st recipient of Asian descent, in 1996. South Korean native Byun-Hyun Kim, as part of the collective award to the 2004 Boston Red Sox, was the 1st recipient from an Asian country.

It's been awarded to 5 Canadians (hockey players Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky and Bob Bourne; football player Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, and basketball player Chris Boucher as part of the collective award to the 2018 Golden State Warriors), an Englishman (Bannister), a Scotsman (auto racer Jackie Stewart), a Swede (boxer Ingemar Johansson), a Kenyan (Keino), a Norwegian (speed skater Johan Olav Koss), a Dominican (baseball players Sosa, and 2004 Red Sox David Ortiz, Manny Ramírez, Pedro Martínez, Sandy Martínez, Anastacio Martínez and Pedro Astacio -- none of those Martínezes is related to any of the others), a Puerto Rican (César Crespo with the 2004 Red Sox), a Colombian (Orlando Cabrera with the 2004 Red Sox), a Panamanian (Ramiro Mendoza with the 2004 Red Sox), a Korean (Kim), a Venezuelan (baseball player José Altuve), a Georgian (Zaza Pachulia of the 2018 Warriors) and a Japanese (tennis player Naomi Osaka).

Until Woods in 2000, no one had received the award more than once. Basketball player LeBron James has gotten it 3 times, while Woods and football player Tom Brady have gotten it twice. Of course, Brady, Sosa, Altuve, and, collectively, the 2004 Red Sox have since been exposed as blatant and unrepentant cheaters.

It's been given to field bosses (managers in baseball, head coaches in other sports): Bill Russell (player-coach) in 1968, John Wooden in 1972, Joe Paterno in 1986, Don Shula in 1993, Dean Smith in 1997, Mike Krzyzewski and Pat Summitt in 2011; and Deion Sanders in 2023.

And it's been given to 1 Commissioner: The NFL's Pete Rozelle in 1963. Oddly, in 1984, when Time gave Olympic Games organizer and newly-hired MLB Commissioner Peter Ueberroth its Man of the Year, SI didn't give him Sportsperson of the Year: They split it between Olympians Edwin Moses and Mary Lou Retton.

Sometimes, the award is controversial, and more of a "lifetime achievement award" than an award for that specific year. Such examples include baseball player Stan Musial in 1957, basketball coaches John Wooden in 1972 and Dean Smith in 1997, golfer Jack Nicklaus in 1978, football coaches Joe Paterno in 1986 and Don Shula in 1993, tennis player Arthur Ashe in 1992, and football player Brett Favre in 2007. While Ashe was dying of AIDS after a lifetime of activism, each of these honorees could legitimately have been said to have had better years than the ones in which they were honored (although Wooden did win a National Championship in the year in question, and Paterno was about to finish off such a season).

In 1960, André Laguerre became managing editor of SI. The magazine had never turned a profit, but Luce could afford to not care about that. Laguerre made it turn a profit by 1964, with the maxim, "It doesn't matter what you write about. All that matters is how well you write."

It was under Laugerre that SI began to resemble the magazine we know today. He phased out the rich man's "sportsman" articles, and focused on the sports that middle-class Americans were interested in: Boxing, horse racing, and the major team sports. The magazine became known for its season preview issues and its Olympic coverage.

And, starting in 1964, for Laugerre's creation, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. It usually comes out in February, possibly a reference to Paul Gallico, who, when asked in 1937 why he gave up sportswriting, said, "February." In other words, when it was too cold in most of the country for outdoor sports like baseball, football, track and field, golf, tennis and horse racing. Indoor sports like basketball and hockey had yet to become big business; while Americans couldn't have cared less about soccer, played around the world in the Winter, no matter how cold it got.

Aside from the Swimsuit Issue, if there's one thing people know about the magazine, it's "The Dreaded SI Cover Jinx." It began almost immediately: Matthews soon suffered a broken hand, although he only missed 7 games. But on January 30, 1955, skier Jill Kinmont suffered a crash that left her paralyzed. The SI issue with her on the cover, already in stores and mailed to subscribers, was dated the very next day. 

On February 13, 1961, 16-year-old Laurence Owen was on the cover, for a preview of the World Figure Skating Championships. Two days later, along with the entire U.S. team, she was killed in a plane crash on the way to the event. Other cover subjects included skiers and auto racers who ended up killed in competitions; and race horse breeder Prince Aly Khan, and golfer Tony Lema, all by 1966.

The most memorable non-fatal example came in the issue dated November 18, 1957. It featured the University of Oklahoma football team, riding a 47-game winning streak, still a college football record. The cover headline was, "Why Oklahoma is Unbeatable." The 2-time defending National Champions were upset by Notre Dame on November 16.

For the 1987 Baseball Preview Issue, SI put Cleveland Indians sluggers Joe Carter and Cory Snyder on the cover, under the headline "INDIAN UPRISING," adding, "Believe it! Cleveland is the best team in the American League." This soon turned out to be, spectacularly, not the case, and manager Pat Corrales answered a question about the Jinx, saying, "Sports Illustrated isn't getting my hitters out. Sports Illustrated isn't hitting my pitchers." He was soon fired.

But the jinx doesn't affect most honorees. For many years, boxer Muhammad Ali held the record for most appearances on the cover, and he is generally regarded as what he called himself: "The Greatest of All Time!" He has now appeared 40 times. But Michael Jordan, usually (if inaccurately) called the greatest basketball player ever, now holds the record, with 50 SI covers. Among active athletes, LeBron leads with 25. Most appearances by team? The Los Angeles Lakers have had 67, just ahead of the New York Yankees with 65.

In 2018, Time Inc. sold SI to Authentic Brands Group. The Arena Group (formerly theMaven, Inc.) was subsequently awarded a 10-year license to operate the SI–branded editorial operations, while ABG licenses the brand for other non-editorial ventures and products.

On January 19, 2024, The Arena Group missed a quarterly licensing payment, leading ABG to terminate the company's license. Arena, in turn, laid off the publication's editorial staff. Some longtime fans of the magazine called this "The Death of Sports Illustrated."

In March 2024, ABG licensed the publishing rights to Minute Media in a 10-year deal, jointly announcing that the print and digital editions would be revived by rehiring some of the editorial staff. In May, Sports Illustrated failed to deliver a print copy of the publication for the month to its subscribers for the first time in the magazine's 70-year history. Apparently, SI is not out of the woods yet.

October 5, 1953: Five Straight World Series Wins

Left to right: Hank Bauer, Yogi Berra,

Billy Martin and Joe Collins

October 5, 1953, 70 years ago: The New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4-3 at Yankee Stadium, to win Game 6 of the World Series, clinching it, 4 games to 2. This was the 5th straight World Championship for the Yankees. No other baseball team has ever done that.

The Yankees hired Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel as their manager for the 1949 season, and he led them to the American League Pennant in each of the next 5 years. In 1949, they beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series in 5 games. In 1950, they swept the Philadelphia Phillies in 4 straight. In 1951, they beat the New York Giants in 6 games. That was Joe DiMaggio's last season, and Mickey Mantle's 1st season.

In 1952, it took them 7 games to finish the Dodgers off. That gave them 4 straight World Series wins, matching the Joe McCarthy-managed Yankees of 1936 to 1939.

In 1953, they faced the Dodgers again. It's important to note that, due to his U.S. Army commitments -- the Korean War was over by this point, but not everybody serving in it had been discharged yet -- the Dodgers did not have their best pitcher, Don Newcombe, for either the 1952 or the '53 Series. However, the Yankees had lost Whitey Ford to the war for the Series in '51 and '52. And the Giants had lost their best player, Willie Mays, for the '52 and '53 seasons, so if he was available, maybe they would have won those Pennants instead of the Dodgers.

The Yankees won Game 1 of the 1953 World Series, 9-5 at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx. They won Game 2 at home, 4-2. The Series moved to Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, and the Dodgers won Game 3, 3-2, and Game 4, 7-3. In Game 4, Carl Erskine struck out 14 batters, setting a new Series record that would last for 10 years. But in Game 5, Mickey Mantle, approaching his 22nd birthday and already in his 3rd World Series, hit a grand slam to give the Yankees an 11-7 win, and a 3-2 lead in the Series.

Game 6 was played at Yankee Stadium, in front of 62,730 fans, about the twice the seating capacity of Ebbets Field. Ford started for the Yankees, Erskine for the Dodgers. With one of the best curveballs in the game at the time, "Oisk," as the Dodger fans called him in their Brooklyn accent, gave the Flatbush Faithful -- also known as the Flastbush Flock -- hope that "Dem Bums" could push the Series to a Game 7.

But the Yankees struck quickly. Gene Woodling led off with a walk. Joe Collins struck out, but Hank Bauer singled, and Yogi Berra hit a ground-rule double to get Woodling home. Mantle was walked intentionally. Billy Martin grounded to 2nd, and Jim Gilliam bobbled the ball, allowing Bauer to score. For whatever reason, Dodger manager Chuck Dressen had put his usual 2nd baseman, Jackie Robinson, in left field.

The Yankees scored again in the 2nd, on a sacrifice fly by Woodling. The game remained 3-0 until the top of the 6th. With 1 out, Robinson doubled to left, and stole 3rd base. Roy Campanella got him home on a groundout, to make it 3-1.

Stengel brought Allie Reynolds in for the 8th inning, thinking he had the right mentality to close the game out. Perhaps the best starting pitcher on his 5 Pennant winners, Reynolds had a blazing fastball, and was willing to throw inside. He once plunked a batter on a 3-0 count, telling a reporter after the game, "If I'm going to put you on, I might as well hurt you." Partly because of his Cherokee heritage, and partly because his fastball seemed to bring up memories of a speeding train of that name, he was known as the Superchief.

Reynolds got through the 8th, giving up only a single to Robinson. But with 1 out in the 9th, he walked Duke Snider, and then gave up a home run to Carl Furillo, who had won the National League's batting championship that season. The game tied, Reynolds then struck out Billy Cox and the opposing pitcher, Clem Labine.

This was the last game played by Hall-of-Famer Johnny Mize: The Big Cat pinch-hit for Joe Collins in the 8th, and grounded out to 1st. He was 40 years old and fat, so, despite also being a 1st baseman, he did not take the position in the 9th, Stengel instead sending Don Bollweg in to do so.

Labine walked Bauer to start the bottom of the 9th. He got Berra to fly to right. But Mantle beat out a single to 3rd. The batter was Billy Martin. An ordinary player from April through September, he always seemed to turn it on for the World Series.

At this point, 4 players had collected 12 hits in a single World Series: Charles "Buck" Herzog of the 1912 New York Giants, Shoeless Joe Jackson of the 1919 Chicago White Sox (in spite of the accusation that he helped "throw" the Series), Sam Rice of the 1925 Washington Senators, and Johnny "Pepper" Martin of the 1931 St. Louis Cardinals. Oddly, all but Pepper Martin -- no relation to Billy -- were on the losing side.

Billy Martin singled up the middle, for his 12th hit of the Series, and Bauer came around 3rd to score the winning run: Yankees 4, Dodgers 3. The Yankees had won their 5th straight World Series.

There were 11 players who played on all 5 of those Yankee World Champions: Phil Rizzuto, Yogi Berra, Johnny Mize, Gene Woodling, Hank Bauer, Jerry Coleman, Joe Collins, Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi, Eddie Lopat, and, though he played just 156 games in those 5 seasons, and just 1 ever in the World Series, backup catcher Charlie Silvera. Coleman, however, was serving in the Korean War for most of the '52 and '53 seasons, and, though he returned for the end of the '53 season, was not placed on the Series roster. Collins was a rookie in '49, and was not on the Series roster.

Since then, 3 in a row has been done, but not 4, and certainly not 5. The Montréal Canadiens would soon start a streak of 5 straight Stanley Cups, but they were unable to make it 6. The Boston Celtics would later win 8 straight NBA Titles, but basketball didn't exactly get the best athletes then.

This was the last World Series, and the last Pennant in either League, won by an all-white team. The next season, the Yanks lost the American League Pennant to the well-integrated Cleveland Indians, and the argument of, "Why integrate? We're winning with what we've got" was no longer valid. Elston Howard became the 1st black man to play for the Yankees the following April, and the team went on to win 9 Pennants and 4 World Series in the next 10 years.

Art Schallock is the last surviving member of the 1953 World Champion New York Yankees. He is also the last surviving former teammate of Joe DiMaggio, although he was not on the World Series roster in either 1951 or 1952. As of October 5, 2022, he is the oldest living former player, age 98.

There have now been 3 players with 13 hits in a single World Series: Bobby Richardson of the 1964 Yankees, Lou Brock of the 1968 Cardinals, and Marty Barrett of the 1986 Boston Red Sox -- all 3 ending up on the losing side.

In 1972-74, the Oakland Athletics won 3 straight World Series. They remain the only team other than the Yankees ever to win more than 2 straight. The Yankees won 3 straight in 1996-98.

Vin Scully, 1927-2022

As far back as a 1974 book titled Wait 'Til Next Year, about New York City's 3 Major League Baseball teams of 1947 to 1957, author Christopher Jennison wrote, "The best broadcaster in the business today is Vince Scully."

I don't know when "Vince" became "Vin," but he never became the best broadcaster in the business. That was just the Los Angeles hype machine talking. Jon Miller, the longtime broadcaster first for the Baltimore Orioles and now for the San Francisco Giants, sounded better imitating Scully than Scully sounded as himself.

Vin Scully wasn't the greatest broadcaster in baseball history. But he had the longest broadcasting career in baseball history.

Vincent Edward Scully was born on November 29, 1927 in The Bronx, New York City, and grew up across the Harlem River in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. This was the neighborhood of the New York Giants, and it might shock Dodger fans, young and old alike, to realize that Vin Scully grew up as, as he put it, "a very big Giants fan."

His father died when Vin was only 4 years old, and his mother remarried, to a man well-off enough to put his stepson through Fordham Preparatory School and Fordham University, both in The Bronx. In between, though, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. At the University, he was one of the founders of its esteemed radio station, WFUV, 90.7 FM, in 1947. He also played center field for Fordham, and broadcast for their football and basketball teams.

After graduation, he sent out letters to 150 radio stations. Only one responded: WTOP, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., which would later launch the career of another New York broadcasting legend, Warner Wolf. On November 12, 1949, the University of Maryland traveled to Fenway Park to play Boston University. Scully called this game for WTOP, and Maryland won, 14-13.

That got the attention of the sports director of the CBS Radio Network, who happened to be Walter Lanier "Red" Barber, who was also the main announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers. And a spot in on the Dodgers' announcing staff had opened up, because Ernie Harwell had gone to the arch-rival Giants. (Harwell, of course, would become best known as the longtime voice of the Detroit Tigers.)

So Scully joined the Dodger team of Red Barber and Connie Desmond on WMGM, 1050 AM (now WEPN). His 1st game was on April 18, 1950, as the Dodgers were playing the Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park (later renamed Connie Mack Stadium) in Philadelphia. The Phillies won the game, 9-1, and would end up beating the Dodgers on the last day of the season to win the National League Pennant. Robin Roberts went the distance for the Phils, while Don Newcombe pitched only the 1st for the Dodgers. Jackie Robinson went 2-for-4.

A young Scully, ice-skating with Jackie Robinson

Fed up with the meddling of Dodger owner Walter O'Malley, Barber left after the 1953 season. Fed up with Desmond's alcoholism, O'Malley fired Desmond after the 1956 season. In 1957, Scully was joined by Jerry Doggett, who remained with the team until 1987.

On October 4, 1955, the Dodgers bear the Yankees, 2-0 at Yankee Stadium, to win the World Series for the 1st time. Scully said simply, "Ladies and gentlemen, the Brooklyn Dodgers are the World Champions of baseball." Interviewed for Ken Burns' 1994 Baseball miniseries, he recalled that, as he left The Stadium and went back through Manhattan, "It was Fall. Football was in the air. We came out of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, and it was New Orleans chaos!" Brooklyn had its biggest celebration since V-J Day, 10 years earlier.

Just 2 years later came the greatest heartbreak. O'Malley, who hadn't talked the City of New York into giving him land on which to build a replacement for Ebbets Field -- not that the "visionary" had tried all that hard -- moved the Dodgers to Los Angeles.

Scully went with them, and remained with them until the end of the 2016 season. That's 67 seasons of Major League Baseball.

To put that in perspective: Phil Rizzuto broadcast for the Yankees for 40 seasons, 1957 to 1996, and was on the club's payroll since signing with them as a prospective player in 1937: 60 seasons. Connie Mack, baseball's touchstone for longevity, was involved with the Athletics for their entire run in Philadelphia, 1901 to 1954: 54 seasons. Mack's 1st season in the major leagues in any capacity was as a player in 1886, making his total 69 seasons, but he was removed as manager and operating owner by his sons after 1950, so his real total is 65 seasons, 2 fewer than Scully's.

Casey Stengel, like Mack known as "The Grand Old Man of Baseball," first put on a big-league baseball uniform in 1912, and was last actively involved in the game in 1965, 54 seasons. Don Zimmer, in the last few years of his life, famously wore as his uniform number the number of seasons he'd been involved in professional baseball, his last being 66. Scully topped even that.

Scully was with the Dodgers for 17 postseason appearances, 13 trips to the World Series, and their 1st 5 World Championships. He had called games for 11 men who are already in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He had seen various Dodger players win 9 National League Most Valuable Player awards, 12 Cy Young Awards, 14 Rookie of the Year awards, 43 Gold Gloves, and 15 no-hitters by his team and 13 against it. He had called games during the Administrations of 12 Presidents (nearly 13), 2 British monarchs, 7 Popes, and 9 Commissioners of Baseball.

He was there for Carl Erskine's 14 strikeouts against the Yankees in the 1953 World Series, and Sandy Koufax's 15 against them 10 years later. He had been there for Koufax's perfect game for the Dodgers, and for Don Larsen's, Tom Browning's and Dennis' Martinez's against them.

He witnessed legendary home runs for the Dodgers by Rick Monday and Kirk Gibson, and against the Dodgers by Dick Sisler, Bobby Thomson, Hank Aaron (Number 715), Reggie Jackson, Ozzie Smith, Jack Clark and David Justice. He saw Black Friday against the Philadelphia Phillies, and Blue Monday against the Montreal Expos. He saw Fernandomania, Nomomania and Mannywood.

He watched Jackie Robinson and Maury Wills redefine baserunning; and Sandy Koufax, Mike Marshall and Tommy John, each in their own way, redefine pitching. He saw Edwin Snider, whose hair turning white early got him nicknamed Duke; Don Sutton, with his 1970s perm; Mike Marshall and Jerry Reuss, with their epic mustaches; Steve Garvey, with his 1970s helmet hair; Manny Ramirez, with his greasy dreadlocks; and Clayton Kershaw, with his massive beard.

He broadcast for the Dodgers in Brooklyn and Los Angeles; against the Giants in New York and San Francisco; against the Braves in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta; against the Expos in Montreal and after their move as the Nationals in Washington. He broadcast World Series games in Brooklyn, The Bronx, the South Side of Chicago, the suburbs of Minneapolis, Baltimore, Oakland, and, of course, Los Angeles, first in South Central at the Coliseum, and then downtown at Dodger Stadium.

He broadcast games at Shibe Park and Forbes Field, which opened in 1909, and at Marlins Park, which opened in 2012 and is one of several ballparks that could, conceivably, still be used in 2112. He broadcast at a time when Connie Mack, who was born in 1862 and first played in the major leagues in 1884, was still managing; and he broadcast games pitched by Julio Urías, who was born in 1996 and, if he becomes a star, could still be pitching in the late 2030s.

From 1975 to 1982, he also broadcast football and golf for CBS. From 1983 to 1989, he was NBC's lead announcer, starting the Saturday Game of the Week with, "Well, hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good afternoon to you."

His last game was against the arch-rivals, the now-San Francisco Giants, at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco, on October 2, 2016. Like his first game, but unlike so many in between, it didn't go so well for the Dodgers: They lost, 7-1, getting only 4 hits. He left fans with this message:

You and I have been friends for a long time. But I know in my heart that I've always needed you more than you've ever needed me, and I'll miss our time together more than I can say. But you know what? There will be a new day, and eventually a new year. And when the upcoming Winter gives way to Spring, rest assured, once again it will be "time for Dodger baseball." So this is Vin Scully, wishing you a very pleasant good afternoon, wherever you may be.

His personal life was tinged with tragedy. In 1957, he married Joan Crawford -- not the actress. In 1972, Joan, just 35, died of an accidental medical overdose. Their son Michael was inspecting oil pipelines for leaks following the 1994 Northridge earthquake when his helicopter crash, killing him at just 33.

But in 1973, just as year after Joan died, Vin married Sandra Hunt, already with 2 children, and they had another together. Overall, he raised 6 children, and lived to see 16 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren. Unfortunately, Sandra suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a.k.a. Lou Gehrig's disease, and being able to care for her, as much as anything else, was why Vin retired after the 2016 season. Of course, he was approaching his 89th birthday, which didn't help, but he did what he could for her until her death on January 3, 2021.

Among his honors:

* 4 National Sportscaster of the Year awards.

* A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in 1982.

* The Ford Frick Award, the broadcasting honor of the Baseball Hall of Fame, also in 1982.

* The National Radio Hall of Fame, in 1995.

* Invited to introduce the fan-chosen MLB All-Century Team at Game 2 of the 1999 World Series.

* The Dodger Stadium press box named for him, in 2001.

* The California Sports Hall of Fame, in 2008.

* The Grand Marshal for the Tournament of Roses Parade, in 2014, after having broadcast it in 1967.

* The Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2016.

* The renaming of Elysian Park Avenue, the street on which Dodger Stadium sits, as Vin Scully Avenue by the City of Los Angeles, also in 2016.

* The Dodgers invited him to throw out the ceremonial first ball before Game 2 of the 2017 World Series. Ironically, he told the crowd that he couldn't do it, as he'd picked up an infamous injury for pitchers: He'd torn his rotator cuff. He handed the ball to Fernando Valenzuela, who threw it to his fellow 1981 World Series hero, Steve Yeager.

* And, having lived long enough to see the Dodgers win one more World Series, in 2020, he was asked to narrate the official World Series highlight film.

Left to right: Yeager, Valenzuela, Scully

On November 5, 2017, he gave a speech at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in which he responded to the NFL "take a knee" protest by saying, "I will never watch another NFL game again." He was one of millions of people who just didn't get it: It was about racism and police brutality, and had nothing to do with the song or the armed forces. It was a shameful moment in a mostly decent life.

Vin Scully died yesterday, August 2, 2022, at his home in Hidden Hills, Los Angeles County, California. He was 94 years old. No cause has been released.

I'll let Jeff Passan of ESPN have the last word: "Vin Scully was a storyteller, and nobody ever told the story of baseball better. He called games with such elegance and grace. He spoke only when necessary, allowing the broadcast to breathe when it demanded. He made baseball a more beautiful game."

October 29, 1921: The Impossible Formula

October 29, 1921, 100 years ago: The Harvard University football team loses to Centre College of Danville, Kentucky, 6-0 at Harvard Stadium in Boston, ending a 25-game winning streak. This is considered one of the biggest upsets in college football, as the "Praying Colonels" (no, I'm not making that mascot name up), from a school of just 300 students at the time, were the 1st team from outside the old Northeast (Jim Thorpe's Pennsylvania-based Carlisle counts) to beat one of the old "Big Three" of Harvard, Yale and Princeton.

All over Danville, graffiti appeared with the score: "C6H0." This could be read as a scientific formula: Six parts carbon, zero parts hydrogen. Since that can't be done, it become known as "The Impossible Formula."

Today, Harvard, like all the Ivy League teams, is in the FCS, the Football Championship Subdivision, what used to be known as Division I-AA. Since the official founding of the Ivy League as a sports conference in 1955, Harvard has won its football championship 15 times, most recently in 2015.

Centre would prove that their 1921 win over Harvard was no fluke. They finished their regular season undefeated, 10-0, having also beaten Clemson, Virginia Tech, Kentucky, Auburn, Tulane and Arizona. They were invited to play Texas A&M in the Dixie Classic, a precursor game to the Cotton Bowl. A&M won, 22-14, in a game that became known for the origin story of their "12th Man" tradition. Their biggest star of 1921, Bo McMillin, was a rough Texan who was one of the 1st good NFL quarterbacks, and would coach Indiana to its 1st football title in the Big Ten in 1945.

They had also beaten Kentucky and Virginia Tech the year before. In 1922, they beat Clemson away, Mississippi, Virginia Tech away, Louisville, Kentucky away and South Carolina. However, they lost a rematch away to Harvard on October 21, 24-10. They also lost to Auburn at Rickwood Field, the Birmingham ballpark.

In 1923, they went 7-1-1, their conquests including Clemson, Kentucky, and Auburn at Rickwood again. They tied Georgia, and their only loss was the Penn at the original Franklin Field in Philadelphia. On 4 consecutive Saturdays in 1924, the Colonels defeated Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. 

Today, however, Centre are in Division III, but have won their league 15 times, including 6 times from 1980 to 1990. Their last title was in 2014. Their current enrollment: 1,430, to Harvard's 27,000.

Nor would Harvard's loss be a fluke: A week later, they went down to Princeton, and lost again.

In 1950, the Associated Press named C6H0 the greatest upset of the 1st half of the 20th Century, in any sport. In 2005, The New York Times called it "arguably the upset of the century in college football." (They did not use capital letters.) In 2006, ESPN named it the 3rd-biggest upset in college football history.

In anticipation of the game's 75th Anniversary, in 1996, Centre challenged Harvard to a rematch. Harvard declined. Harvard went 4-6 that season. I can't find a record of how Centre did that year, but they won their league the year before. Who knows, maybe history could have repeated itself.

This year? Harvard won its 1st 5 games before losing to Princeton last week. They host Dartmouth tomorrow. Centre take a 5-2 record into tomorrow's game, home to Rhodes College of Memphis.

*

October 29, 1859: Charles Hercules Ebbets is born in Manhattan. In 1883, he got a job with a new baseball team, then known as the Brooklyn Grays. By 1890, he had become the majority owner. In 1912, knowing that Washington Park was insufficient for a major league team in the wake of new stadiums like Shibe Park and Forbes Field, he began building a new ballpark for his team, by then known as the Dodgers. He was told that since it was his idea, it should be called Ebbets Field. And so the Dodgers played at Ebbets Field from 1913 until 1957.

Under his guidance, the team, under various names, won Pennants in 1889 (in the American Association, thereafter in the National League), 1890, 1899, 1900, 1916 and 1920. He invented Ladies Day, with women admitted at half-price, in 1899. His experience as a bookkeeper led him to the concept that the best schedule for baseball was for the 8 NL teams to play each other 22 times a season: 22 times 7 = 154, so he created the 154-game schedule that was in place from 1904 to 1960 (and until 1961 in the NL).

In 1906, he installed a visiting team clubhouse, complete with showers, at Washington Park, eliminating the need for teams to change at their hotels and arrive in open vehicles (horse-drawn carriages, and by this point early taxis) in their uniforms, where home fans could throw things at them. He invented the rain check in 1911. As early as 1922, he suggested that players wear uniform numbers -- although his suggestion was on the cap or the sleeve, not on the back as would happen starting in 1929. He also served in the New York State Assembly and on the New York City Council, as a Democrat.

Unfortunately, his messy personal life would have consequences for baseball, and, indirectly, the entire world. He had lived with his eventual 2nd wife for 12 years before his divorce from his 1st wife became final. And, unlike later team owners Branch Rickey and Walter O'Malley, he was not a lawyer who would have known a way around this: To guarantee his alimony payments, he deposited his shares of the Dodgers with the Mechanics Bank, which was later bought by the Brooklyn Trust Company.

He died in 1925, with the team in dire financial straits. To make matters worse, it rained at his funeral, and one of his co-owners, Ed McKeever, caught a cold, which developed into the flu, and, in those pre-antibotic days, he outlived Ebbets by only 11 days.

That left Ebbets' widow Grace, his son-in-law Joseph Gilleaudeau, and Brooklyn Trust as half-owners of the Dodgers, and Ed's brother Steve McKeever as owner of the other half. When Steve died in 1938, his half-share passed to his daughter Elizabeth "Dearie" Mulvey and her husband James. But the team was still, financially, in bad shape.

So Brooklyn Trust appointed Cincinnati Reds general manager Larry MacPhail as team president. He straightened things out, until leaving to re-enter the U.S. Army in World War II. He was replaced by Rickey. In 1944, Rickey and John L. Smith bought out Mrs. Ebbets and Gilleaudeau. Rickey and Smith were now each 1/4 owners.

O'Malley was the lawyer who handled the Dodgers for Brooklyn Trust, and eventually bought the bank's shares. In 1950, he bought Rickey and Smith out, and the Mulveys pretty much did what he wanted, including approving the move of the team to Los Angeles after the 1957 season, before O'Malley bought them out in 1975.

The move not only betrayed Ebbets' vision and the Dodger fans in the New York Tri-State Area, but made Los Angeles a "major league city" in a way that even the NFL's Rams hadn't, elevating it to the status of the loftiest city in the American West.

O'Malley died in 1979. His son Peter owned the team until selling to Rupert Murdoch in 1998. Frank McCourt bought them in 2004, but, learning nothing from the example of Charlie Ebbets, had to sell them in 2012 to pay off his divorce settlement. For $2 billion, basketball legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson became their owner, and remains so today.

*

October 29, 1881, 140 years ago: John Riegel DeWitt is born in Phillipsburg, Warren County, New Jersey, and grows up nearby in Riegelsville, Pennsylvania, which an ancestor of his had founded. A guard and kicker at Princeton University at the dawn of the 20th Century, he is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

In 1920 Walter Camp named "The Princeton Strong Boy" to his all-time All-America team. A 1919 article for a Princeton magazine called him the school's best player ever. A 2009 article by Football Foundation, choosing retroactive Heisman Trophies for 1935 and earlier, chose him for 1903.

John DeWitt was also a track & field star, specializing in throwing events, and won the Silver Medal in the hammer throw at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis. He became a prominent businessman in New York, commuted into The City from a home in Connecticut, and died unexpectedly of a heart attack on his commute in 1930, only 48 years old.

October 29, 1889: The National League Champion New York Giants win their 2nd consecutive World Championship by taking this year's best-of-11 matchup in 9 games.

After spotting the American Association Champion Brooklyn Bridegrooms (the once-and-future Dodgers were so named because 3 of their players had gotten married in the 1887-88 off-season) 2 runs in the 1st‚ the Giants rally to win 3-2 behind Hank O'Day's pitching -- the same Hank O'Day who would be the umpire who ruled against them in the Fred Merkle Game 19 years later. Slattery scores the winning run in the 7th inning‚ coming in from second as catcher Doc Bushing misses a two-out 3rd strike.

The next season, the 'Grooms would join the NL, and win the Pennant. They would win 2 more Pennants before the Giants won another, in 1899 and 1900. But over the next 40 years, the Superbas/Robins/Dodgers would win just 2 Pennants, while the Giants would win 13. And the Yankees, not even formed yet, would win 11. Ah, but over the last 17 years of New York's 3-team availability, it would be a different story: The Yankees would win 12 Pennants, the Dodgers 7, the Giants only 2.

The last survivor of the 1889 Giants was 3rd baseman Art Whitney, who lived on until 1943.

October 29, 1891, 130 years ago: Fania Borach is born in Manhattan. Like her fellow Lower East Siders the Marx Brothers, she was a child of a Jewish immigrant from Alsace, France. By 1910, under the name Fanny Brice, she was starring on Broadway in the Ziegfeld Follies. In 1912, she created the character of Baby Snooks, a mischievous little girl. 

In 1944, she began the CBS radio program The Baby Snooks Show, even though she was already 52 years old. The show helped give comedy legend Danny Thomas his start. In 1949, she was filmed in character, clowning with the Chicago White Sox at their Spring Training complex. She died on May 29, 1951, of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 59, and the show was canceled.

In 1921, she had a hit song, "Second Hand Rose." In 1964, Barbra Streisand began appearing on Broadway as Brice in the musical Funny Girl, and the song became more identified with Streisand than it ever was with Brice. The musical was filmed in 1968, and a sequel, Funny Lady, was filmed in 1975. Today, if anybody knows Fanny, they know her through Barbra Joan.

*

October 29, 1901, 120 years ago: Leon Czolgosz is executed in the electric chair at Auburn Prison (now Auburn Correctional Facility) in Auburn, in the Finger Lakes Region of Central New York. The assassin of President William McKinley was 28, and had outlived his victim by 45 days.

His last words were, "I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people, the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime. I am sorry I could not see my father."

October 29, 1911, 110 years ago: Bernard Joy (no middle name) is born in Fulham, West London. On May 9, 1936, the centreback played for England in a 3-2 loss to Belgium. To this day, he is the last amateur to play for the England senior team. Later that year, he was the Captain of the Great Britain soccer team at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. They did not win a medal.

He was soon signed by Arsenal, and helped them win the League in 1938. But World War II came right in the middle of his prime: He served in the Royal Air Force, and he never won another trophy. He retired in 1947, just before Arsenal began another title-winning season.

He became a sportswriter, writing for The Star, The Evening Standard and the Sunday Express, covering soccer and tennis. In 1952, he wrote Forward, Arsenal! It was the 1st comprehensive history of the team, but it contained many inaccuracies (presumably unintentional), including some which wouldn't be cleared up until the gentlemen at Untold Arsenal did some legwork over half a century later. Joy wrote several more soccer books, and lived until 1984.

*

October 29, 1920: The Yankees sign Red Sox manager Ed Barrow as business manager – the job that will, in a few years, begin to be called "general manager" – completing the front office team that will build the game's most successful record. Hugh Duffy, the Boston Braves star who batted a record .438 in 1894, replaces Barrow at Fenway Park.

Barrow had managed the Red Sox to the 1918 World Series, and, regarding the hitting and pitching talents of Babe Ruth, said, "I'd be a fool to turn the best lefthanded pitcher in the game into an outfielder."

The choice had already been made for him, but he would help the Yankees win 14 Pennants and 10 World Series in his 26 seasons as Yankee GM. Shortly before his death in 1953, he was elected to the Hall of Fame. At the Yankees' next home opener, a plaque was dedicated in his memory and hung on the outfield wall near the Monuments, and would later be moved to Monument Park.

He is buried in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, Westchester County, New York, along with several other baseball-connected personalities: The Yankee owner who hired him, Jacob Ruppert; a Yankee slugger he signed, Lou Gehrig; the Boston owner and Broadway promoter who previously hired him, Harry Frazee; the Governor of New York who sometimes threw out the first ball at big Yankee games, Herbert Lehman; the opera singer who often sang the National Anthem at Yankee games, Robert Merrill; and the Brooklyn-born comedian who remained a Dodger fan after they moved West to his own new home of Hollywood, and was a member of the first ownership group of the Seattle Mariners, Danny Kaye.

Also on this day, William Juzda (no middle name) is born in Winnipeg. A defenseman, Bill Juzda briefly played for the New York Rangers before going into World War II, and later made 2 NHL All-Star Games and helped the Toronto Maple Leafs win the 1949 and 1951 Stanley Cups. He was named to the Manitoba Sports and Manitoba Hockey Halls of Fame, and played in old-timers' games into his 70s. He lived until 2008.

October 29, 1929: Black Tuesday. The stock market completes the crash that began the preceding Thursday. The Roaring Twenties are over. The Dirty Thirties, and the Great Depression, have begun.

The incumbent Republican President, Herbert Hoover, gets blamed for it, when it was his Republican predecessors, Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, who set the table for it. Hoover shouldn't be blamed for the Depression. And he shouldn't be blamed for doing nothing: He tried a few things.

What he should be blamed for is giving up. Some of the things he tried worked a little, but not enough, and he abandoned his efforts. And in 1932, he lost in a landslide, to the Democratic Governor of New York, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

At the height of the stock boom in early September 1929, America's unemployment rate was 3.2 percent. By the end of 1930, it was 8.7. 1931, 15.9. At the 1932 election, 23.6. At the depth, on March 4, 1933, when FDR was inaugurated and the banking crisis was critical, the rate was 24.9 percent. Fully 1 out of 4 Americans who wanted to work couldn't get work. Some people have suggested the rate was considerably higher than that, as much as 31 percent, or nearly 1 in 3.

The Great Depression left scars on people that never went away. My grandmother grew up in Queens in that era, and knew how important it was to save money. She grew up in the Depression, so, due to her pinching pennies as an adult, my mother also "grew up in the Depression." And because of that, I "grew up in the Depression." Am I saying that I'm cheap? Yes, I am cheap, but not by choice.

The people who grew up in the Depression are now dead or very old. We cannot allow their memories to fade. Remember our forgotten men and women.

I was going to do a "Scores On This Historic Day" for the date, but it was after the MLB season ended, before the NHL season started, before the NBA was founded, and in the middle of the week of the NFL season. So there's no games to report.

*

October 29, 1931, 90 years ago: For the 1st time under the current format, as voted by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, the Most Valuable Player awards are given. In the American League, the choice is an easy one, and is unanimous: Robert "Lefty" Grove of the Philadelphia Athletics, who had, statistically speaking, maybe the best season any pitcher has ever had, going 31-4 with a 2.08 ERA, and helping the A's win their 3rd straight Pennant. They did lose the World Series, so I can't call it "the best season any pitcher has ever had."

The 1st official NL MVP is Frankie Frisch, 2nd baseman for the Pennant-winning Cardinals. The Fordham Flash batted .311 and led the NL in stolen bases, before leading them to victory over the A's in the World Series, avenging the previous season's defeat. He will become player-manager in 1934, and lead "the Gashouse Gang" to another World Championship, his 4th as a player, also including 1921 and 1922 with the Giants. He and Grove, who'd won the Series with the A's in 1929 and 1930, will both become easy choices for the Hall of Fame.

October 29, 1939: The Babe Siebert Memorial Game is played at the Montreal Forum. It raised $15,000 for his family -- about $281,000 in today's money.

Charles Albert Siebert was a left wing who won Stanley Cups with the 1926 Montreal Maroons and the 1933 New York Rangers. With Nels Stewart and Hooley Smith, he formed one of the first named forward lines in hockey, the S-Line. In 1934, playing for the Boston Bruins, he played in the 1st All-Star benefit game for an NHL player, Ace Bailey of the Toronto Maple Leafs, whose career was ended by a vicious check by Bruin defenseman Eddie Shore.

But Siebert and Shore couldn't get along, and, in 1936, the Bruins traded him to the Montreal Canadiens. He was immediately named Captain, and won the 1937 Hart Trophy as NHL MVP. The following fall, he played in another All-Star benefit game, this time for Canadiens superstar Howie Morenz, who had died in March from complications from leg surgery.

In 1939, 35 years old and plagued with injuries, he retired.  He was immediately offered the Canadiens' head coaching position, and accepted. But he never got the chance to coach a game. On August 25, 1939, while vacationing with his family and swimming with his daughters Judy and Joan, then just 11 and 10 years old, at a family cottage on the shore of Lake Huron, he drowned attempting to retrieve an inflatable tire they were playing with.

The league organized an all-star benefit game to aid Siebert's widow (who was paralyzed and had mounting medical bills) and daughters. The Canadiens faced an all-star team composed of the best players from the remaining teams. The All-Stars won, 5-2. Though only about 6,000 fans showed up, the organizers met their target of $15,000.

*

October 29, 1941, 80 years ago: Harvey Hendrick shoots and kills himself at his farm in Covington, Tennessee. He was only 43. A star football player at Vanderbilt University, he was a rookie 1st baseman and outfielder on the Yankees' 1st World Championship team in 1923, and, after Lou Gehrig, was the 2nd man to have played on that team to die. His baseball career ended in 1934, with a .308 lifetime batting average (though as mainly a reserve player), and I guess his farm wasn't working out well.

Judging by the reaction when active Yankee Cory Lidle was killed in a plane crash just after the 2006 regular season, I can imagine that, today, if a former Yankee player committed suicide, the story would soak the news (in blood) for days.

But Hendrick has been just about forgotten. The Yankees did not wear black armbands or any kind of memorial patch during the 1942 season -- just the red, white & blue "HEALTH" shield that all teams wore in that 1st full year of World War II for the U.S. And there is no mention of him in Monument Park, or anywhere else in Yankee Stadium.

Also on this day, Charles Andrew Russell is born in Detroit, and grows up in the St. Louis suburb of Ladue, Missouri. A star linebacker at the University of Missouri, Andy Russell was a rookie with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1963, then missed 2 years in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

He was with the Steelers when they bottomed out in the late 1960s, but was still there when they rose to the top. A 7-time Pro Bowler, he and center Ray Mansfield were the senior Steelers when they finally won Super Bowl IX on January 12, 1975. Each was still with them for Super Bowl X, and each lasted 1 more year before retiring. Russell is still alive, and a member of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and the Pittsburgh Steelers All-Time Team and Hall of Honor.

Also on this day, Ernest William Accorsi Jr. is born in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The man from the Chocolate City (sorry, George Clinton) has had a long and sweet career. After reporting on sports for The Charlotte News, The Baltimore Sun and The Philadelphia Inquirer, he served in the athletic departments at Philadelphia's St. Joseph's University (when Dr. Jack Ramsay was the head basketball coach) and Pennsylvania State University (in the early tenure of head football coach Joe Paterno).

In 1970, he was named public relations director of the Baltimore Colts. In his 1st season there, they won Super Bowl V. He later served as their last general manager, resigning rather than make the move to Indianapolis in 1984. He was named GM of the Cleveland Browns, building a team that made 3 AFC Championship Games, but lost all 3.

In 1994, he was named assistant GM of the New York Giants. In 1998, he became full general manager, staying until 2006, building the teams that lost Super Bowl XXXV and won Super Bowl XLII (with many of his players still being there to win Super Bowl XLVI). He has since served as a consultant in the front offices of the Carolina Panthers, the Chicago Bears, the Giants again, the Arizona Cardinals, and, currently, the Detroit Lions.

Also on this day, the Kaunas Massacre takes place in Lithuania. The Nazis' SS shot and killed 9,200 Jews. It was the largest single-day execution in Nazi history.

October 29, 1942: Robert Norman Ross is born in Daytona Beach, Florida. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at age 18, serving among the mountains in Alaska, which would later inspire his painting. He also decided that, having had to be mean as a First Sergeant, once he was discharged, he would never scream again. The persona of Bob Ross was born.

From 1983 to 1994, his program The Joy of Painting appeared on PBS. Like Julia Child, Fred (Mr.) Rogers, Bob Vila and Carl Sagan, he used his appearances on that network to show himself as a kindly person who not only knew his stuff, but wanted you to know it, too, and explained it in ways that would be understood, but never insulting your intelligence.

His show stopped only because he developed lymphoma, and died in 1995. His legacy goes on, with his portrayal by "Nice Peter" Shukoff against "Epic Lloyd" Ahlquist as Pablo Picasso on a 2013 episode Epic Rap Battles of History, and Target Stores having released the board game "Bob Ross: The Art of Chill." It should sell well: After all, as the man himself said, "I don't believe in mistakes."

October 29, 1946, 75 years ago: Frank Watts Baker is born in Meridian, Mississippi. A shortstop, he played 146 games for the Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles from 1970 to 1974, batting .191. He is still alive.

*

October 29, 1951, 70 years ago: New York City gives a ticker-tape parade to servicemen from all United Nations wounded in the Korean War.

October 29, 1953: Denis Charles Potvin is born in Hull, Quebec, across the Ottawa river from the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Ontario. One of the greatest defensemen in hockey history, he was the Captain of the New York Islanders' 4 straight Stanley Cups of 1980 to 1983.

Arguably the team's greatest player ever, and certainly its most important, his Number 5 has been retired, and he was the first Isles player elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. His brother Jean Potvin also played for the Isles for a time, and his cousin Marc Potvin also played in the NHL.

However, his name is best remembered for an incident in the Ranger-Islander rivalry. On February 25, 1979, the teams played at Madison Square Garden, and Potvin checked Ranger All-Star Ulf Nilsson into the boards, breaking Nilsson's ankle.

In spite of the fact that no penalty was called, and the fact that Nilsson himself has always maintained that it was a clean hit, and that fact that then-Ranger coach Fred Shero also said it was a clean hit, the moron Ranger fans have spent almost 40 years chanting, "Potvin sucks!" – against all opponents, not just the Islanders. This led to some confusion, years later, when Felix Potvin (no relation) would tend goal for various teams, including the Islanders for a time.

In retaliation, Islander fans have done a "Rangers suck!" chant for every home game, regardless of opponent, and New Jersey Devils fans do the same. Ranger fans also had a chant of "Beat your wife, Potvin, beat your wife!" Denis Potvin, who has never been charged with beating his wife, usually beat the Rangers instead.

Part of Ranger mythology is that Potvin's hit knocked Nilsson out for the season, and that's why they lost the Stanley Cup Finals to the Montreal Canadiens. In fact, Nilsson returned in time for those Finals, in which the Rangers won Game 1 at the Montreal Forum, but then dropped the next 4, including all 3 at the Garden.

October 29, 1959: The Greensboro Coliseum opens in Greensboro, North Carolina, as a memorial to the city's fallen from World Wars I and II and the Korean War. The opening event is Holiday On Ice.

The complex includes an arena, an amphitheater, an aquatic center, a banquet hall, a convention center, a museum, a theater, and an indoor pavilion. The arena, which is what people usually mean when they say "the Greensboro Coliseum," opened with 7,100 seats, was expanded to 15,000 in 1972, and had a 3rd tier added in 1993 to push capacity to 23,000.

It has hosted 27 of the last 54 Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball tournaments, and 21 of the last 22 ACC women's tournaments. In 1974, it hosted the NCAA Final Four, featuring David Thompson and North Carolina State ending UCLA's dynasty in the Semifinal before beating Marquette in the Final. On March 23, 1976, Rutgers University had the greatest moment in its sports history at the Coliseum, defeating Virginia Military Institute (VMI) 91-75, to advance to the NCAA Final Four with an undefeated record. (Indiana beat them in the Semifinal.)

Since 2009, it has been home court for the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. From 1959 to 1989, it hosted some home games for Wake Forest University for which the Winston-Salem Memorial Coliseum would have been too small, prior to the building of the on-campus Joel Coliseum. The Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association played there from 1969 to 1974. In minor-league basketball, it has hosted the Greensboro City Gators (1991-92) and the Greensboro Swarm (since 2016).

When the Hartford Whalers moved to become the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997, they played 2 seasons at the Greensboro Coliseum, until their new arena is Raleigh was ready. Since the locals knew this was a temporary setup, the 'Canes' attendance was even worse in Greensboro. In minor-league hockey, the Coliseum hosted the Greensboro Generals (1959-77, and again 1999-2004), and the Greensboro Monarchs (1989-97). In arena football, it hosted the Greensboro Prowlers (2000-03), the Greensboro Revolution (2006-07) and the Carolina Cobras (debuting this year).

Elvis Presley sang at the Greensboro Coliseum on April 14, 1972, and again on April 21, 1977, on what turned out to be his final tour.

Also on this day, Jesse Lee Barfield is born in Joliet, Illinois, outside Chicago. Possessor of one of the best right field arms ever, he also hit 241 home runs in the major leagues. He was an All-Star in 1986, leading the American League in home runs, and a Gold Glove winner in 1986 and 1987.

But his luck was bad in terms of postseason play. He was a member of the Toronto Blue Jays' 1st AL Eastern Division Champions in 1985, but was traded to the Yankees for Al Leiter in 1989, missing the Jays' 1989 and '91 Division titles and their 1992 and '93 World Championships.

And his arrival with the Yankees coincided with their collapse from a near-miss run from 1985 to 1988, when they really could have used someone like him -- especially in the 2nd half of 1987, when Dave Winfield, also with one of the great outfield arms of the era, got hurt. Had Barfield played on the Yankees when he was with the Jays, and vice versa, he could have gone from All-Star to true baseball legend.

Injuries led him to retire at age 34, with 241 home runs. He is now a Blue Jays broadcaster. His sons Josh and Jeremy also played pro baseball, with Josh playing a season for the Baltimore Orioles and 3 for the Cleveland Indians.

Also on this day, Michael Alfred Gartner is born in Ottawa. Mike Gartner was a right wing who starred for several hockey teams, including the Washington Capitals, who retired his Number 11. But he never appeared in the Stanley Cup Finals, being traded by the Rangers at the trading deadline in 1994, in a trade that helped them win the Cup, to the Toronto Maple Leafs, who made it to the Western Conference Finals before losing.

Among players who have never won a Cup, he is 2nd to Phil Housley in games played, and 2nd to Marcel Dionne in goals, with 708. He is a member of the Hockey and Ontario Sports Halls of Fame. In 2017, he was named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players. He and former Caps teammate Wes Jarvis run a string of ice rinks in the Toronto area.

Also on this day, Finola Hughes (no middle name) is born in London. She started out as a dancer, then became a soap opera legend by playing Anna Devane on General Hospital. She's been a character in productions of  both Marvel Comics (as Emma Frost of the X-Men in Generation X) and DC Comics (the voices of Superman's mother Lara Lor-Van in Superman: The Animated Series, and supervillain Lady Shiva in Beware the Batman).

Not being a soap opera fan, I first saw her on Jack's Place, a 1992-93 ABC drama starring Hal Linden, which was essentially The Love Boat in a restaurant that also served as a ja club, where she played the head waitress. She became part of the long line of British brunettes to capture my fancy.

*

October 29, 1961, 60 years ago: Joel Stuart Otto is born in Elk River, Minnesota. The center won a Stanley Cup with the Calgary Flames in 1989. He scored 195 goals in a career that lasted from 1985 to 1998. He has returned to Calgary, as an assistant coach for the minor-league Calgary Hitmen.

October 29, 1964: Ground is broken for the current Madison Square Garden, on top of Penn Station at 32nd Street & 7th Avenue.

October 29, 1966: Detective Comics #359 is published, with a date of January 1967. The title of the story is "The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!" Batgirl is Barbara Gordon, a librarian, and the daughter of Jim Gordon, the Police Commissioner of Gotham City. In the following TV season, she is written into the Batman TV series on ABC, played by Yvonne Craig. In comics, October 29 is retconned in as her birthday.

On TV, Batman's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, discovers her dual identity, but keeps it a secret even from Batman and Robin -- and he keeps theirs, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, respectively, from her. In the comics, though, Bruce and Dick find out, and eventually her father does as well. (Whether the Commissioner knows the identities of Batman and the various Robins has been debated, but not established in canon.)

In the 1988 graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke, an uncostumed Barbara was shot and paralyzed by the Joker. Though confined to a wheelchair, she adopted a new nom de guerre, Oracle, and became a computer hacker and information broker for crimefighters. In the 2011 "New 52" reboot, the paralysis was retconned as not having happened, and she was once again Batgirl.

In the 1997 film Batman and Robin, Batgirl was rewritten as Barbara Wilson, Alfred's niece, played by Alicia Silverstone. In the 2002 Fox TV series Birds of Prey, Dina Meyer played Barbara Gordon, as Oracle, with flashbacks showing her in the Batgirl costume. In 2019, a young Barbara was played by Jeté Laurence on the Fox TV series Gotham. This year, Hispanic actress Leslie Grace was cast in a DC Extended Universe Batgirl film.

While she has been apparently referenced on The CW's Arrow, and is played by Savannah Welch on the DC Universe network's Titans (having been paralyzed, yet been awarded her late father's job as Police Commissioner), she has not yet been shown  in "The Arrowverse." Instead, since 2019, they have focused on the separate character of Batwoman, Bruce Wayne's gay Jewish cousin Kate Kane, played by Ruby Rose on the show's 1st season. After Rose was fired, she was replaced by a new character created for the show, Ryan Wilder (Javicia Leslie), who is gay and black, but grew up poor and with no connection to the Wayne or Kane families.

October 29, 1969: The 1st-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, thus making this a possible birthdate for the Internet.

*

October 29, 1971, 50 years ago: Winona Laura Horowitz is born in Winona, Minnesota. Her hippie parents named her for her birthplace. Sometimes, that works, as with Italian-born Florence Nightingale. Sometimes it doesn't, as with David and Victoria Beckham's son Brooklyn.

She renamed herself Winona Ryder, after 1960s rocker Mitch Ryder. She is best known for playing Veronica Sawyer in Heathers. You don't like that? "Lick it up, baby, lick it up!" She recently played Evelyn Finkel, eventually Evelyn Bengelsdorf, in the HBO miniseries based on Philip Roth's alternate-history story The Plot Against America.

What does she have to do with sports? As far as I know, nothing, although the climactic bomb in Heathers was in the high school gym.

Also on this day, Matthew Lawrence Hayden is born in Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia. A longtime star for the Queensland state cricket team, he was a member of the Australia teams that won the 2003 and 2007 Cricket World Cups. He was named in a poll as the best opener in the national team's history. He now works for the Queensland state tourist board.

Also on this day, Duane Allman is killed in a motorcycle accident in his native Georgia. He was only 24 years old, and, in spite of his hard-living image, was not under the influence of alcohol or any other drug. A truck had to make a sudden stop, and he couldn't avoid it.

He had already made himself a legend, recording "Whipping Post" (with his brother Gregg singing lead and playing keyboards) for The Allman Brothers Band, and doing a dueling guitar solo with Eric Clapton on "Layla" by Derek & the Dominoes. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine named him 2nd on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, behind Jimi Hendrix.

A little more than a year after Duane's crash, just 3 blocks away from the site, Allman Brothers bass guitarist Berry Oakley was killed in a motorcycle crash, slamming into a stopped bus. They are buried next to each other in Macon.

October 29, 1973: Robert Emmanuel Pirès is born in Reims, France, the son of a Portuguese father and a Spanish mother. A midfielder, "Super Rob" was a member of France's World Cup winners in 1998, and the Arsenal champions of 1998 (League and FA Cup "Double"), 2002 (another Double) and 2004 (undefeated League season). He is now on the Arsenal coaching staff.

Also on this day, Vonetta Jeffery (no middle name) is born in Birmingham, Alabama. Under her married name of Vonetta Flowers, she and Jill Bakken won Gold Medals in the two-woman bobsled at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Bakken was the driver, Flowers the brakewoman. This made the former University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) sprinter the 1st black person, of any country, of either gender, to win a Gold Medal in the Winter Olympics.

Also on this day, and this has nothing to do with sports, Match Game 73 aired this exchange on CBS:

Gene Rayburn, host, reading a card with a clue: "Bertha was so fat!"

Bert Convy, host of other game shows, and one of the panelists, interrupts: "How fat was she, Gene?"

Gene: "I'll tell you how fat Bertha was: They had to use (blank) to get her through the revolving door. That's how fat Bertha was."

Richard Voelsing, contestant: "Grease."

Bert: "I'm in the family. I said, 'Lard.'" Ironically, given how fat she apparently was. The show's judges counted it as a match.

Brett Somers, actress and Match Game regular: "I didn't say, 'Lard," I didn't say, 'Grease,' I said, 'Pushers!'"

Jack Carter, comedian: "You should see what pushers are selling nowadays! Well, I know Bertha's sister. She's so fat, she needs a bookmark to find her chins! She used, 'Suction!'"

Fannie Flagg, actress and writer, previously known for her work on Candid Camera, making her 1st appearance on the show before becoming a regular panelist: "This man and I are thinking alike: I said, 'Axle grease.'" It was counted as a match. Only, due to her dyslexia, she unleashed the 1st of her many Match Game misspellings: "Axil grease." Spelling didn't count on that show, much to the relief of Fannie and, later on, Hungarian-born actress Eva Gabor, who said on a 1977 installment, "Darling, I speak 4 languages, but I can't spell in any of them!"

Richard Dawson, actor, and later host of the game show Family Feud: "'Grease!'"

Ann Elder, comedy-show writer, who had been on Laugh-In with Dawson a couple of years earlier: "Well, I wrote a word that was near and dear to my heart as I tried to think of an answer. I wrote, 'Pressure.'" So, 3 matches.

A little later, Gene read, rolling his eyes, "The Vanderwinkles' guest bathtub is soooo huge... " And Convy took the hint and went along with it, asking, "How huge is it, Gene?" And Gene said, "They put up a sign saying, 'No (blank)ing!'" The answer was, "No swimming."

Johnny Carson released a record album, Here's Johnny.... Magic Moments From The Tonight Show, in 1974, and there's a "How hot was it?" line on it. I can find no reference to when that show was broadcast. It could have been before October 29, 1973, but I can't prove it. So this Match Game
episode is the earliest example I have yet found of the old "How (adjective) is/was (pronoun)?" bit on TV.

But on a 1975 Match Game episode, somebody yelled out a response from the audience, and Brett asked, "What is he, Ed McMahon?" This suggests that McMahon, Carson's announcer and sidekick, was the 1st to do the routine -- or, at least, that Brett thought he was.

In October 1974, DC Comics released Action Comics #442, a story titled "The Midnight Murder Show!" Their analogue to Johnny Carson was Johnny Nevada, since the capital of Nevada is Carson City. Like Carson, Nevada had a habit of going on vacation and needing a guest host. This time, it was Steve Lombard, quarterback-turned-sportscaster, who said, "It was so hot in Metropolis today!" The audience yelled, "How hot was it?" Steve said, "It was so hot, I saw the Flash chasing the Mirror Master, and they were both walking!" So, at least by then, the routine was familiar enough with the general public that even kids who bought comic books, who might be in school when Match Game aired and in bed when The Tonight Show did, would know it.

I have no way of knowing about the contestants on that Match Game installment, but Convy died in 1991, Rayburn in 1999, Somers in 2007 (shortly before fellow regular panelist Charles Nelson Reilly did), Dawson in 2012, Carter in 2015, and Flagg and Elder are still alive.

*

October 29, 1981, 40 years ago: Bill Giles‚ the Philadelphia Phillies' vice president for the past 11 years‚ heads a group of investors which purchases the club for just over $30 million‚ the highest price paid to date for an MLB club.

Giles is the son of longtime National League President Warren Giles. He turned over day-to-day operation of the club to David Montgomery in 1997, and since 2000 has been NL President himself, although this is a powerless, purely ceremonial role, pretty much limited to awarding the trophy named for his father to the NL's Pennant winner.

Also on this day, Amanda Ray Beard is born in Newport Beach, California. The swimmer won Gold Medals at the 1996 and 2004 Olympics.

Also on this day, Jonathan Brown (no middle name) is born in Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia. Now retired from Australian Rules Football, he was the Captain of the Brisbane Lions. He was a 3-time league player of the year, and won 3 league titles with the Lions.

October 29, 1994: Had the 1994 baseball season been allowed to reach a conclusion, this would have been the day Game 6 of the World Series was played, at the National League Champions' home park.

But there was a baseball championship on this day, and it was in a Game 6, of the Japan Series. The Tokyo-based Yomiuri Giants beat the Tokorozawa-based Seibu Lions, 3-1 at Seibu Lions Stadium, now the MetLife Dome. Henry Cotto, an outfielder who had reached the Playoffs with the 1984 Chicago Cubs, played for the Yankees from 1985 to 1987, and was an original 1993 Florida Marlin, hits a home run in what turns out to be his last professional game.

Despite being named for the old New York Giants, and having their colors of black and orange, Yomiuri are the Yankees of Japan: This was their 18th win in the Japan Series, and they now have 22, most recently in 2012. They have won 37 Central League Pennants, most recently in 2019.

But this is the only season in which they could legitimately have claimed to be "the World Champions of Baseball." They do not claim this, but they could. It's not like the Pacific Coast League Champion Albuquerque Dukes, or the Governor's Cup-winning Richmond Braves could.

October 29, 1996, 25 years ago: The NBA announces its 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players:

* 18 Guards, in alphabetical order: Nate "Tiny" Archibald, Dave Bing, Bob Cousy, Clyde "the Glide" Drexler, Walt "Clyde" Frazier, George "Iceman" Gervin, Hal Greer, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Sam Jones, Michael "Air" Jordan, "Pistol" Pete Maravich, Earl "the Pearl" Monroe, Oscar "the Big O" Robertson, Bill Sharman, John Stockton, Isiah Thomas, Jerry "Mr. Clutch" West and Lenny Wilkens.

* 16 Forwards: "Pitchin'" Paul Arizin, "Sir" Charles Barkley, Rick Barry, Elgin Baylor, Larry Bird, Billy Cunningham, Dave DeBusschere, Julius "Dr. J" Erving, John "Hondo" Havlicek, Elvin "Big E" Hayes, Jerry Lucas, Karl "the Mailman" Malone, Kevin McHale, Bob Pettit, Scottie Pippen, Dolph Schayes, and "Big Game" James Worthy.

* 15 Centers: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt "the Stilt" Chamberlain, Dave Cowens, Patrick Ewing, George Mikan, Moses Malone, Hakeem "the Dream" Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Robert Parish, Willis Reed, David "the Admiral" Robinson, Bill Russell, Nate Thurmond, Wes Unseld and "the Roaring Redhead" Bill Walton.

Only Maravich was already dead, in 1988. He has been followed into the Great Gym In the Sky by Chamberlain in 1999, DeBusschere in 2003, Mikan in 2005, Arizin in 2006, Sharman in 2013, Moses Malone and Schayes in 2015, Thurmond in 2016, Greer in 2018, Havlicek in 2019 and Wes Unseld in 2020. So, 38 of the 50 are still alive. Shaq, in 2011, was the last one still active.

In 2021, the NBA named a 75th Anniversary 75 Greatest Players. All of the 50 Greatest were included, plus 2 who were eligible then but denied: Bob McAdoo and Dominique Wilkins. 

*

October 29, 2003: LeBron James, the most-hyped high school basketball player ever, makes his professional debut, 2 months before his 19th birthday. At the ARCO (now Sleep Train) Arena in Sacramento, he plays 42 minutes, scores 25 points, and doesn't make a difference, as his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers lose to the Sacramento Kings, 106-92.

October 29, 2008: After a 2-day delay for rain, Game 5 of the World Series is resumed at Citizens Bank Park. It begins in the bottom of the 6th, with the game tied 2-2. Geoff Jenkins doubles, is bunted to 3rd by Jimmy Rollins, and is driven in by a Jayson Werth single. Rocco Baldelli ties the game with a home run in the 7th. Later in the inning, Utley takes a grounder, fakes a throw to 1st, then throws Jason Bartlett out at home for the 3rd out in a play later described as having saved the Series for the Phillies.

In the bottom of the 7th, Pat Burrell leads off with a double. Eric Bruntlett, pinch-running for Burrell, scores on a single by Pedro Feliz to put the Phillies up by a run again, 4–3.

In the top of the 9th, Brad Lidge gives up a single and a stolen base, but faces Eric Hinske with the chance to give the city its 1st World Series win since 1980, and its 1st World Championship in any sport since the 1983 76ers. Harry Kalas, the Hall of Fame voice of the Phils, had the call:

One strike away, nothing-and-two to Hinske. Fans on their feet. Brad Lidge stretches. The 0–2 pitch! Swing and a miss! Struck him out! The Philadelphia Phillies are 2008 World Champions of baseball!

Brad Lidge does it again, and stays perfect for the 2008 season, 48-for-48 in save opportunities! And let the city celebrate! Don't let the 48-hour wait diminish the euphoria of this moment and celebration! Twenty-five years in this city that a team has enjoyed a World Championship, and the fans are ready to celebrate. What a night! Phils winning, 4–3, Brad Lidge gets the job done once again!

Harry would die early the next season. He deserved that title.

Also on this day, the Oklahoma City Thunder, who for the previous 41 years had been the Seattle SuperSonics, make their debut. Kevin Durant is not yet the superstar he would become, and scores only 12 points. Richard Jefferson, Charlie Villanueva and Michael Redd each score 20 points, and the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Thunder, 98-87 at the Ford Center (now the Chesapeake Energy Arena).

Also on this day, a North London Derby is played at the Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal. Their arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, take an early 1-0 lead. David Bentley, a member of Arsenal's 2003-04 "Invincibles" who never quite panned out, scores against them for Tottenham. But Arsenal come back, and, on goals by Mikael Silvestre, William Gallas, Emmanuel Adebayor and Robin van Persie (the first 2 considerably more surprising as scorers than the second 2), lead 4-2 in the 88th minute. Darren Bent, always a problem for Arsenal, scored the other goal for "Spurs," but Arsenal are in command.

And they blow it. Jermaine Jenas scores in the 89th, and, with more stoppage time given than necessary, Aaron Lennon scores in the 94th. It's a 4-4 draw.

Within 12 hours, before the last chorus of "Four-two, and you fucked it up!" can stop ringing around North London, Tottenham release a DVD of this match. That's right, they released a video of a draw. True, Arsenal celebrated a draw at White Hart Lane in 2004, but that draw gave them the 1 point they needed to clinch the League title away to their arch-rivals. What did "Spurs" get out of this draw? Not bragging rights: They still hadn't won a League game against Arsenal in 9 years. (That streak would end in 2010.)

Because they're both young black Englishmen who play on the right wing, Lennon (from Leeds in West Yorkshire) and Arsenal's Theo Walcott (from the Stanmore section of Northwest London) often got compared to each other. Tottenham fans call Walcott "a shit Aaron Lennon." No, Aaron Lennon is a shit Aaron Lennon. (That refers only to his performance. He is regarded by all as a man of fine character.)

October 29, 2009: Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees' finest season in 6 years is in trouble after losing Game 1, the 1st Series game played at the new Yankee Stadium. While the Phillies -- wearing "HK" memorial patches for Kalas -- are the defending champs, that shouldn't matter: The Yankees have to step it up. Especially considering that the starting pitcher for the Phillies is, perhaps, the most despised pitcher in the history of Yankee opponents, Pedro Martinez.

With a pregame ceremony that includes native New Yorkers Jay-Z and Alicia Keys singing their current duet hit "Empire State of Mind," the Yankees do, indeed, step it up. Mark Teixeira takes Pedro over the wall in the 4th inning, and Hideki Matsui does the same in the 6th, reminding him that the Yankees are his "daddy." A.J. Burnett allowed a run in the 2nd inning, but cruises after that. With tomorrow being a travel day, using Mariano Rivera for 2 innings is no problem, and he shuts the Phils down. Yankees 3, Phils 1. The Series goes to Philadelphia tied.

*

October 29, 2011, 10 years ago: A rare October snowstorm hits the New York Tri-State Area. Eric LeGrand, paralyzed from the neck down during a Rutgers football game the year before, returns to High Point Solutions Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey, and, in his wheelchair, leads the Rutgers team onto the field. The photo of him doing so while large snowflakes fell around him was voted "Sports Moment of the Year" by Sports Illustrated readers on the magazine's website.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case for Rutgers when something nice happens, they actually had to play a game. The opponent was West Virginia, then ranked Number 24 in the country. Rutgers lost, 41-31.

Also on this day, Arsenal cross London to play away to Chelsea, whose Stamford Bridge has been a difficult place to play for nearly 2 decades. But 3 goals from van Persie, and goals from Walcott and the much-maligned left back Andre Santos, give Arsenal a stunning 5-3 win. It was the 3rd straight win for the Gunners in a streak that would eventually reach 8.

October 29, 2012: Hurricane Sandy hits the New York Tri-State Area, causing devastation all over the Jersey Shore, Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island, and causing flooding in Lower Manhattan. In some places, power was out for a week. It was a Monday, and power wasn't restored to my residence until the following Monday.

In terms of damage, it was the 2nd-worst hurricane in American history, behind Katrina, which nearly destroyed New Orleans in 2005. In terms of lives lost, there are 286 that were blamed either directly or indirectly on the "superstorm."

In sports terms, the main effect around here was that the Nets' 1st game as a Brooklyn team, scheduled for November 1 against the Knicks at the Barclays Center, was postponed, and was instead played on November 3, the regularly-scheduled 2nd game against the Toronto Raptors. The Nets won, 107-100. The New York City Marathon was also canceled, for what remains the only time in its history.

Today, some parts of the Shore, Queens and Long Island have still not recovered, due to Republican members of Congress not authorizing funds for States that vote Democratic, as New York and New Jersey tend to do.

Even Republican officials like Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York (until he left office at the end of 2013) and Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey (until he left office near early in 2018) were unable to sway those lawmakers, some of whom come from Republican-voting States since devastated by hurricanes: North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

Late in 2017, Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, and Texas lawmakers demanded relief from the federal government. But when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico -- which, though not a State, is part of the United States of America, and its people citizens thereof -- they did nothing.

Donald Trump ignored his duty as President, and refused to help. The death toll? It depends on who you ask. The federal government said it was 66. Funeral directors on the island have gotten together, and said that they have processed the remains of over 3,000 people -- about as many as were killed on September 11, 2001.

Donald Trump loves Russian dictators so much, he even covers up the effects of disasters like one. Look up how casualties were reported in World War II, the 1982 Luzhniki Stadium disaster, and the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant meltdown.

Previous Presidents have handled hurricanes fairly well: Franklin Roosevelt got aid to the Northeast after the Hurricane of 1938 (they began to be named for women in 1955, and for men in 1975), Richard Nixon to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Camille in 1969 and the Northeast after Hurricane Agnes in 1972, Jimmy Carter to Florida and the Northeast after Hurricane David in 1979, George H.W. Bush to the Carolinas after Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and Florida after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and, of course, President Barack Obama after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

In contrast, George W. Bush screwed up after Hurricane Katrina wrecked New Orleans in 2005, and Trump, rather than screwing up (making mistakes), willfully ignored the suffering after Hurricane Maria. What does he care? The people of Puerto Rico legally could not vote for him even if they liked him. They sure don't now.

*

October 29, 2014: For only the 2nd time since Bud Selig -- now, thankfully, overseeing his final game as Commissioner -- declared in 2003 that the League that wins the All-Star Game would have home-field advantage for the World Series, a Series goes to a Game 7. That means that the Kansas City Royals will host it at Kauffman Stadium.

And the 1st time was in 2011, and the St. Louis Cardinals won Games 6 and 7 to beat the Texas Rangers. And the last time the road team has won a Game 7 in the World Series was the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates, 35 years earlier. And that means that, despite most of the San Francisco Giants having at least 1 ring (2012) and many of them 2 rings (2010 and 2012), and the Royals are in their 1st World Series in 29 years, the Giants have no chance, right?

Wrong. The teams trade blocks of 2 runs in the 2nd inning, and in the top of the 4th, Pablo Sandoval reaches on an infield single, and advances to 3rd on a single by Hunter Pence. Michael Morse singles him home to give the Giants the lead.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy gambles, sending Madison Bumgarner out to pitch the 5th on 2 days' rest. "MadBum" gave up a hit, but, in a display that wouldn't have seemed so courageous as recently as the 1970s, didn't allow another baserunner until the 9th, retiring 14 batters in a row.

With 1 out to go, Alex Gordon hits a liner that rolls to the wall, and he gets to 3rd. Salvador Perez had already gotten the game-winning hit in the AL Wild Card game. But Bumgarner induces a foul popup that is caught by Sandoval, completing the longest save in World Series history: 5 full innings.

The Giants win, 3-2, and take their 3rd World Championship in the last 5 years -- their 8th World Series win, counting their New York period. The Royals would have to wait at least 1 more year. Gordon would have to wait 1 more World Series game to become a baseball legend.

Also on this day, the Charlotte Hornets name is officially revived. The original Hornets, who played from 1988 to 2002, moved to New Orleans, but were enticed to give the name up in 2013, and take the name of a former minor-league baseball team, the New Orleans Pelicans. The Charlotte Bobcats, created as an expansion team in 2004, are officially allowed to take the Charlotte Hornets name.

Like the Oklahoma City Thunder, the new Hornets play their 1st game at home against the Milwaukee Bucks. Unlike the Thunder, the Hornets win, 108-106 at Time Warner Cable Arena (now the Spectrum Center). Kemba Walker leads all scorers with 26 points.

And Arsenal lost to Huddersfield Town, 3-1 at Highbury in North London.