October 15, 1899: The End of the Line

October 15, 1899, 125 years ago: The Cincinnati Reds close out the season with 16-1 and 19-3 victories at League Park in Cincinnati, over the hapless Cleveland Spiders. John "Bid" McPhee‚ usually considered the best 2nd baseman of the 19th Century‚ plays in both games‚ the last of his career, with all 18 being spent with the Reds.

Cleveland finished with 20 wins and 134 losses‚ 84 games behind the Pennant-winning Brooklyn Superbas, and in the cellar, 12th place, by 35 games behind the next-worst team, the Washington Senators. They have a "winning percentage" of .149. And on their last day, they lost by an aggregate score of 35-4. They couldn't even die with dignity.

They also conclude a 36-game road trip (1-35) after setting a mark earlier this year with a 50-game road trip. They lost 24 straight at one point (the 2nd-worst ever, behind the 26 of the 1889 Louisville Colonels, the worst since being the 1961 Phillies with 23), and 40 out of their last 41. 

The reason for the Spiders' futility is that they were bought by the owners of the St. Louis team that would soon be renamed the Cardinals. This system, known as "syndicate baseball," was legal at the time. And, as St. Louis natives, the owners brought all of the good Cleveland players, including pitcher Cy Young – but not Louis Sockalexis, the once-powerful but now injured and alcoholic Penobscot tribesman who has been called "the original Cleveland Indian" – to St. Louis.

The result is a Cleveland team that may not even have been, by today's standards, Triple-A quality. True, the 2024 Chicago White Sox may have finished 41-121, with the most losses since the 1899 Spiders, and a winning percentage of .253, the lowest since the 1962 New York Mets finished 40-120 for .250. But they were not as bad as the Spiders.

*

On the same day, The Louisville Colonels beat the Chicago Orphans, 9-5 at the West Side Grounds in Chicago. The former Chicago White Stockings got this name because their longtime 1st baseman and manager, Adrian Anson, known as "Cap" (for "Captain") when he was younger and "Pop" as he got older, had retired, and "they missed their Pop."

The Orphans actually played 2 games against 2 different teams on this day. They also beat the St. Louis Perfectos, 7-0 at the West Side Grounds in Chicago. The Perfectos became the Cardinals in 1900, and the Orphans became the Cubs in 1903.

The Colonels' win over Chicago would be the last game they ever played, as they were absorbed by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Led by manager and left fielder Fred Clarke, and shortstop John "Honus" Wagner, they ended the season on this day in 9th place, at 75-77.

As part of the deal, Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss negotiated the transfer of the best Louisville players, namely Wagner (himself a Pittsburgh native), Clarke, center fielder Tommy Leach, and pitchers Charles "Deacon" Phillippe and George "Rube" Waddell, to the Pirates.

Honus Wagner

The Colonels, the Spiders, the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals were contracted out of the National League within weeks, though this made the American League, and its franchises in Cleveland, Washington and, at least for two years, Baltimore, possible.

In their 13-season history, the Spiders were 827-938, a percentage of .4685. Minus that last season, they were 807-804, .5003. They deserved a better fate: They had on their roster, at one time or another, Hall-of-Famers Cy Young, John Clarkson, Buck Ewing, Bobby Wallace, George Davis and Jesse Burkett, plus Cupid Childs, Chief Zimmer, Patsy Tebeau, Lave Cross, Louis Sockalexis, Lou Criger, Kid Carsey and Jack O'Connor, any one of whom would have been an All-Star had there been an All-Star Game in the 1880s or 1890s.

They never won a Pennant, but finished 2nd in the NL in 1892, 1895 and 1896, and were 81-68 (5th out of 12) in 1898 before the syndicate broke them up. They were not a failed franchise: They got sabotaged.

The last surviving 1899 Cleveland Spider appears to have been right fielder Lewis "Sport" McAllister, who lived until 1962. I say, "appears to have been," because no date of death is known for pitcher Frank Bates, who went 3-19 that season, losing his last 14 decisions. The last record anyone has of him is his World War I draft registration form from 1918, showing him living in Cincinnati. He would have been 85 years old when McAllister died, so it is possible that he was the last survivor. But he does not appear in the 1920 Census. Since he is not listed among those killed in action in the war, he was likely a victim of the 1918-19 Spanish Flu epidemic.

No major league team, in any sport, has been called the Spiders since. The highest-ranking teams with the name, that I can think of, are those of the University of Richmond in Virginia. I don't even know of any soccer (football) teams in other countries with the nickname. With the Washington Football Team having dropped the name "Redskins," the Cleveland Indians announced that they would follow for the 2022 season. The hope was that they would call themselves the Cleveland Spiders. Instead, they chose to become the Cleveland Guardians.

As a result of the Pittsburgh-Louisville deal, the Pirates won 4 of the next 10 NL Pennants, and were at least in the race for most of the rest. With Wagner becoming the best player in baseball, the Pirates reached but lost the 1st World Series in 1903, and won the World Series in 1909.

The Colonels began in the American Association in 1882, won the Pennant in 1890, and transferred to the NL with the AA's demise after the 1891 season. But most ballparks at the time were made of wood, and their home field, Eclipse Park, burned down on September 27, 1892. It was rebuilt, but burned down again on August 12, 1899, while the team was on the road, and they finished the season on the road.

Given the team's struggles on the field since entering the NL, and the fact that the NL was determined to contract -- the Baltimore Orioles, the Cleveland Spiders and the Washington Senators were also eliminated -- it made more sense for the Colonels to be one of the teams that gave up.

Louisville has since been one of the top minor-league cities of the last 120 years, in terms of both competitiveness and attendance. But it has never returned to the major leagues, nor is it likely to, since the Louisville metropolitan area is home to only 1.4 million people, and the city is just 82 miles from Cincinnati, itself one of MLB's smallest markets. Louisville has been denied a team in every MLB expansion: 1961-62, 1969, 1977, 1993 and 1998.

In a new, Class AAA league called the American Association, the Louisville Colonels won Pennants in 1909, 1916, 1921, 1925, 1926, 1930, 1939, 1940, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1954, 1960, 1961 and 1962. That team was moved, due to stadium issues. A new Louisville Colonels played in the Class AAA International League from 1967 to 1972, winning no Pennants.

On January 6, 1964, Charlie Finley signed a 2-year pact to move the Athletics from Kansas City to Louisville, pending American League approval. He is later denied that approval, and the A's stay put in Kansas City until after the 1967 season, when they moved to Oakland. 

In 1982, the Louisville Redbirds began play in the IL, and won Pennants in 1984, 1985 and 1995. They were renamed the Louisville RiverBats in 1999, and won the Pennant in 2001. The name was shortened to the Louisville Bats in 2002, and, through the 2022 season, they have not won another Pennant, although they have won their Division as recently as 2010.

The name "Kentucky Colonels" was used by the Louisville-based team in the American Basketball Association. They were the only team to make the Playoffs in all 9 seasons of the ABA, losing the Finals in 1971 and 1973, before winning the title in 1975. They were not one of the teams absorbed into the NBA in 1976.

Charlie Emig, a lefthanded pitcher from Cincinnati, who started 1 game for the Colonels in 1896, was not only the club's last surviving player, but also the last surviving man who had played a Major League Baseball (as we would now call it) game in the 19th Century. He died on October 2, 1975, age 100.

October 15, 1964: The Last Day of the Old Yankee Dynasty

Bob Gibson pitching to Mickey Mantle, Sportsman's Park

October 15, 1964, 60 years ago: Game 7 of the World Series is played at Sportsman's Park – or, as Cardinals owner and Anheuser-Busch beer baron August Anheuser Busch Jr., a.k.a. "Gussie" Busch, has renamed it, Busch Stadium. The Cardinals start Bob Gibson, loser of Game 2 but winner of Game 5, on 2 days' rest. The Yankees start rookie Mel Stottlemyre, who had defeated Gibson in Game 2.

Lou Brock's 5th-inning home run triggers a 3-run frame and a 6-0 lead for Gibson. Mickey Mantle‚ Clete Boyer‚ and Phil Linz homer for New York – for Mantle, the record 18th and final Series homer of his career – and the Yanks close to within 7-5 in the 9th. But it's not enough, as an exhausted Gibson finds enough gas in his tank to finish the job, and the Cards are the World Champions.

Both Boyers‚ Ken for the Cards and Clete for the Yankees‚ homer in their last Series appearance. While they had homered in back-to-back games, Clete in Game 3 and Ken a grand slam in Game 4, this remains the only time in Series history that 2 brothers have both homered in the same game.

Although the Yankees (27) and the Cardinals (11) have each won more World Series than any other team in their respective Leagues, they have never met in another, despite both making the Playoffs in 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2012 and 2015. (Both teams came close to making the Playoffs in 1974, the Cards just missed in 1981, and the Yanks just missed in 1985.)

For each manager, it is his last game at the helm. Johnny Keane had nearly been fired by Cardinal management in mid-season, and their come-from-behind run to top the Philadelphia Phillies had saved his job. But he had had enough, and he resigns.

Yogi Berra, after helping the Yankees to 14 World Series as a player and now 1 as their manager, also coming from behind, to top the Chicago White Sox, thinks he's done a good job, and expects to be offered a new contract. Instead, he gets fired, and Yankee management hires… Johnny Keane.

This will turn out to be a massive mistake. While the Cardinals will hire their former star 2nd baseman Red Schoendienst, who will lead them to the 1967 World Championship and the 1968 Pennant, Keane, already in ill health, will be a terrible fit for the Yankees, getting fired early in 1966, and he dies in 1967.

Del Webb and Dan Topping, who had owned the Yankees since 1945, had just sold the Yankees to CBS – yes, the broadcast network – and had cared little for keeping the farm system stocked. As a result, there was very little talent left to call up to the majors when the Yanks' current stars got hurt or old, and it seemed like they all got hurt or old at once.

In the 44 seasons from 1921 to 1964, the Yanks won 29 Pennants and 20 World Series, but fell to 6th place in 1965, 10th and last in '66. Despite a 2nd-place finish in '70, they were well behind the World Series-winning Orioles. They didn't get into a race where they were still in it in August until '72, to the last weekend still in the race until '74 (by which time George Steinbrenner had bought the team from CBS), to the postseason until '76 and the World Championship until '77.

In 2008, Buster Olney published The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty, about the one that began in 1996, and ended at what's now called Chase Field in Phoenix on November 4, 2001. But no baseball dynasty, indeed no sports dynasty, was as, well, dynastic as the 1949-64 Yankees. Peter Golenbock's Dynasty: The New York Yankees 1949-64 tells of how it was built, and how it began to fall apart; David Halberstam's October 1964 tells of how both the Yankees and the Cardinals got to this Game 7, and what happened thereafter; both books put the teams in the context of their times, at home and abroad.

There are 11 surviving players from the 1964 Cardinals, 56 years later: Catcher and future Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Uecker, shortstop Dal Maxvill, 2nd baseman Julián Javier, 1st baseman (and future Yankee broadcaster and NL President) Bill White; outfielders Carl Warwick, Bob Skinner and Charlie James; and pitchers Bob Humphreys, Gordie Richardson, Ray Washburn and Ron Taylor. Taylor was thus the only 1969 Met who had previously won a World Series.

There are 5 surviving players from the 1964 Yankees: Pitchers Rollie Sheldon, Al Downing and Pedro Ramos; shortstop and future broadcaster Tony Kubek, and 2nd baseman Bobby Richardson. (In each case, this only counts players who were on the World Series rosters.) 

None of the players on either side, those now living or those now dead, had any inkling that this was anything other than the last day of a great season, that it was The Last Day of the Yankee Dynasty.

October 14, 1964: The Fall of Walter Jenkins -- and of Nikita Khrushchev

October 14, 1964, 60 years ago: Walter Jenkins, unofficially the White House Chief of Staff (officially, the office was vacant) to President Lyndon B. Johnson, resigns his post under pressure, following an arrest on what would once have been quaintly called a "morals charge."

He began working for Johnson, then a Congressman from Texas, in 1939, and remained with him through serving in the House of Representatives, the Senate (including LBJ's tenures as Minority Leader and Majority Leader), the Vice Presidency, and finally the Presidency.

He became a close friend to both Johnson and his wife, Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson. Another LBJ aide, Bill Moyers, later a journalist, said, "If Lyndon Johnson owed everything to one human being other than Lady Bird, he owed it to Walter Jenkins."

But on October 7, Jenkins and another man are arrested in the men's room of a YMCA in Washington, for what was officially labeled "disorderly conduct." In spite of Jenkins being a married Catholic with 6 children, this was code for saying that he had been caught in a homosexual act.

It was difficult to keep the story quiet, especially when reporters found out he had previously been arrested on such a charge in 1959. That made it much harder to explain away as the result of overwork or, as one journalist wrote, "combat fatigue."

On October 14, The Washington Star called the White House for comment. His hand forced, LBJ told White House Press Secretary George Reedy to make a statement that the Administration was coming clean about the story -- 20 days before the Presidential election.

Jenkins had to resign, and the Republican Party wanted to make hay out of this. They knew LBJ was soundly beating their nominee for President, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, at the polls. Goldwater refused to go along with it, and told them to back off. In his memoir, he said, "It was a sad time for Jenkins' wife and children, and I was not about to add to their private sorrow."

Jenkins had bad luck. But Johnson had good luck: The same day that Jenkins' resignation was announced, Nikita Khrushchev was ousted as Soviet leader. Apparently, he had become too liberalizing for the Supreme Soviet. They allowed him to live at his dacha, and he was able to get his memoir smuggled out of the country. But he died in 1971, officially disgraced by the country that, 10 years earlier, he had raised to its greatest height.

He once said, "If you feed the people with slogans, they will be with you today, and they will be with you tomorrow, and they may be with you the day after tomorrow. But the next day, they will say, 'To Hell with you.'"

The day after the Jenkins resignation and the Khrushchev ouster, Britain had a previously-scheduled national election. It changed the party of government: The Labour Party beat the Conservative Party, so Alec Douglas-Home was out as Prime Minister, and Harold Wilson was in. That same day, Game 7 of the World Series was played.

The next day, October 16, China announced it had The Bomb. Two days after that, Johnson gave a televised Oval Office speech, addressing the world situation; and comedian Jackie Mason appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, bombed, and was banned from the show by Sullivan, who accused Mason of giving him the middle finger onstage. That became a big story. And two days after that, on October 20, former President Herbert Hoover died, and both Johnson and Goldwater suspended their campaigns until after his funeral.

Between the media's reluctance to divulge details of a sex scandal, particularly what would later be called a gay sex scandal, and the preponderance of other news over the next few days, the Jenkins story couldn't gain any traction. On November 3, LBJ won 44 States.

Jenkins returned to his hometown of Austin, Texas, and worked as an accountant until his death in 1985. Moyers got Jenkins' job, but proved to be less skillful at it, and some historians believe that not having Jenkins to talk to may have hurt LBJ in his full term in office. Like many other former White House officials, Moyers later became a prominent journalist.

*

October 14, 1964 was a Wednesday. Game 6 of the World Series was played at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle hit home runs on back-to-back pitches from Curt Simmons‚ and Joe Pepitone belted Gordie Richardson for a grand slam. The Yankees won, 8-3, and sent the World Series to a deciding Game 7. With all the home runs that Mickey and Roger hit, this is the only time they hit back-to-back homers in a postseason game.

That same day, a future Yankee catcher, manager and broadcaster, Joe Girardi, was born.

The Cardinals won that Game 7, 7-5, with Bob Gibson, on 2 days' rest, hanging on for the win, despite Mantle hitting another home run, his 18th in World Series play, which is still, far and away, a record.

October 10, 1924: The Washington Senators Win the World Series

October 10, 1924, 100 years ago: With the score tied at 3-3 and one out in the bottom of the 12th in Game 7 of the World Series at Griffith Stadium in Washington, Muddy Ruel, catcher for the Washington Senators, lifts a high catchable foul pop-up, which New York Giants catcher Hank Gowdy misses when he stumbles over his own mask.

Given a second chance, Ruel doubles. Earl McNeely then hits a grounder that strikes a pebble, and soars over the head of rookie Giant 3rd baseman Freddie Lindstrom, and drives home Ruel with the winning run making the Senators World Champions.

Walter Johnson, who had brilliantly toiled 18 seasons for a team known as "Washington: First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League," and had lost Games 1 and 4, pitched the 9th through 12th innings in relief, and not only had finally won a World Series game, but had won a World Series.

President Calvin Coolidge, running for a term in office in his own right after succeeding the late Warren Harding the year before, and his wife Grace were in attendance. He didn't like baseball, but Grace did.

The Senators had their 1st World Championship in 24 years of trying. Outfielder George "Showboat" Fisher was the last survivor of the 1924 Senators, living until 1994, age 95. It took 95 years for another Washington baseball team has won another postseason series, but Nationals, having squandered National League Eastern Division titles in 2012, '14, '16 and '17, won the 2019 World Series.

In 1981, baseball historian John Thorn published Baseball's 10 Greatest Games. He included this game as one of them.

Luis Tiant, 1940-2024

You know the old saying: "When they made that guy, they broke the mold." Well, when they made Luis Tiant, they didn't break the mold. The mold just faded away.

Luis Clemente Tiant Vega was born in Marianao, Cuba on November 23, 1940. Like an earlier great pitcher who would pitch in Cuba, Satchel Paige, he liked to joke that he was older. Unlike a later great Cuban pitcher, Orlando "El Duque" Hernández, he wasn't older than he said he was.

His father, Luis Eleuterio Tiant Bravo, later known as Luis Tiant Sr., pitched in America's Negro Leagues from 1928 to 1947. In his last season, he helped the New York Cubans, win the Negro World Series. Early in the 20th Century, "Cuban" was often code for "black," but they did have some Cuban players, including the elder Tiant, a lefthander.

American baseball was integrated in 1947, too late for the elder Tiant. The younger Tiant was "discovered" by former Cleveland Indians star Bobby Ávila, and in 1959, Tiant was pitching for the Mexico City Tigers in the Mexican League. In 1961, the Indians purchased his contract. But that meant he was stuck in America: He could never return home, as travel restrictions between the U.S. and a Cuba now ruled by Fidel Castro made it impossible.

He made his major league debut on July 19, 1964. Against the defending American League Champion New York Yankees. At Yankee Stadium. Opposing the Yankees' ace, Whitey Ford. Wearing Number 33, Tiant went the distance. He allowed 4 hits: All singles, to Roger Maris, Bobby Richardson, Phil Linz, and Tom Tresh (who was playing center field in place of Mickey Mantle). He struck out 11. Backed by a home run from Leon Wagner, Tiant won, 3-0.

Despite going 10-4 with a 2.83 ERA (and even 1 save), Tiant was not the American League's Rookie of the Year in 1964. But the winner was another Cuba, Tony Oliva of the Minnesota Twins, who led the AL in batting average. Afterward, it looked like AL batters had caught up with Tiant, as he went 11-11, 12-11 and 12-9 over the next 3 seasons.

But in 1968, he went 21-9, and had an earned run average (ERA) of 1.60. He pitched 9 shutouts. To put that in perspective: In the National League, Bob Gibson set a modern-era record with a 1.12 ERA, and also had 9 shutouts. Tiant's ERA+ was 186, so he wasn't just benefiting from "the Year of the Pitcher": He was having a great season on top of that. He also made the 1st of 3 All-Star Games.

To counteract that season, the pitcher's mound was lowered from 15 to 10 inches for 1969, and while it didn't affect all pitchers, it affected Tiant, as he dropped to 9-20. But he also battled injury, including a fractured shoulder blade. Just before the start of the 1971 regular season, the Twins released him. They had won the last 2 AL Western Division titles. They would not win another for 17 seasons.

*

The Atlanta Braves signed him, but after 5 games at Class AAA Richmond, they decided he was done, and released him. The Boston Red Sox took a chance, and he went 1-7 for them in 1971. But they stuck with him, and, over the next 5 seasons, he went 15-6 (with a League-leading 1.91 ERA), 20-13, 22-13, 18-14, and 21-12.

That 18-14 record in 1975 was actually his least effective over that stretch. But it was the one time between 1967 and 1986 that the Red Sox won the American League Pennant. As they outpaced the Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles for the Eastern Division title, and dethroned the Oakland Athletics in the AL Championship Series, Tiant became a bigger star than ever.

How big a star? Big enough that, in August, Castro gave Tiant's parents a special visa so that they could see their son pitch. Knowing that Luis Sr. had been a Negro League pitcher, and knowing the good publicity that would result from having an anti-Castro Cuban do so -- especially in a heavily-Catholic, and thus anti-Communist, city like Boston -- Sox management even had Luis Sr. throw out a ceremonial first ball.

How big a star? In 1971, in trying to come back from injury, Tiant developed a new windup, twisting and turning, looking back at 2nd base before delivering the ball. Every kid in America, even kids like me who hated the Red Sox, imitated this windup.

His parents were in the stands at Fenway Park for Game 1 of the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds hadn't won the World Series in 35 years; the Red Sox, 57. Something had to give. Due to their postseason experience -- although they were 0-2 in World Series play -- "The Big Red Machine" were favored to win the Series. Not only did Tiant pitch a 5-hit shutout, but, with the designated hitter meaning he had come to bat only once all season (but getting a hit), he led off the bottom of the 7th win a single, leading to a 6-run Boston inning, and a 6-0 victory.

He also went the distance in Game 4, winning, 5-4. Had the Sox won the Series, Tiant would have been an easy choice for Series MVP. Even the rain that delayed Game 6 for 3 days seemed to work in his favor, He was now rested enough to make a 3rd Series start, and held the Reds scoreless for the 1st 4 innings.

But they scored 3 in the 5th, and in the top of the 7th, Tiant gave up a home run to César Gerónimo. He was relieved, and the Reds took a 6-3 lead, before the Red Sox tied in it in the 8th, and won the game, 7-6, on Carlton Fisk's home run in the 12th inning. It's been called the greatest game ever played. But the Reds won Game 7, and won the Series.

Tiant was 35, not really a late bloomer in terms of talent, but definitely in terms of attention. He gained attention the next season as his two father figures, Luis Sr. and Sox owner Tom Yawkey, both died. He gained attention for his unusual windup. He gained attention for his status as a Cuban exile.

And he gained attention for his personality. While he understood English, he spoke it with a very heavy accent that made him hard to understand. He loved cigars, something Cuba is known for. He would even smoke a cigar in the shower. How he kept it lit, only he knew. He glued a mirror to the shower wall. With his receding hairline, his biker-style mustache, and his pudgy frame, he sure didn't look like an athlete. But he was once caught lathering up, looking at that mirror, and saying, to no one in particular, in his accent, "Damn! I am a gooooooood-looooooooking son of a beeeeeeeech!"

Pictured: One goofy-looking Boston cop,

and one good-looking son of a bitch.

(His words, not mine.)

And yet, he never threw another postseason pitch. The Sox finished a distant 3rd place in 1976. They led the AL East most of the way in 1977, but the Yankees came back to win. Then came 1978, a year which lives in infamy in New England. At age 37, Tiant went 13-8 with a 3.31 ERA.

But the Boston tailspin and accompanying New York surge became legendary. Tiant shut the Orioles out on September 6. The next day began the 4-game series known as the Boston Massacre. Allegedly, team Captain Carl Yastrzemski urged manager Don Zimmer to start Tiant on 3 days' rest in the series finale, to avoid the sweep, and Zimmer refused. Tiant pitched the next day, and beat the Orioles again. Zimmer did pitch him on 3rd days' rest for the regular-season finale against the Toronto Blue Jays, and he pitched a shutout, to force a Playoff. But that meant he was unavailable for the Playoff, and, well, Bucky Blessed Dent.

That regular-season finale also turned out to be Tiant's last game for the Red Sox, as his contract ran out. Having just turned 38, they didn't re-sign him. The Yankees did. Seeing him in a Yankee uniform was blasphemy to Sox fans, and weird to Yankee Fans. But he had something left: Over 2 seasons, he went 13-8 and 9-9. He pitched 2 more seasons, 1981 for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and 1982 for the California Angels. 

Does Luis Tiant belong in the Baseball Hall of Fame? He retired with a record of 229-172, an ERA of 3.30, 2,416 strikeouts, and a WHIP of 1.199. In the post-1920 Lively Ball Era, only 8 pitchers are ahead of him in all 4 categories: Warren Spahn, Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Don Sutton, Gaylord Perry, Tom Seaver, Randy Johnson and Bob Gibson.

Throw in Tiant's .571 winning percentage, and the number of those ahead of him in all categories drops to 6: Spahn, Maddux, Clemens, Seaver, Johnson and Gibson. Throw in Tiant's 2.18 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and the number drops to 5, eliminating only Spahn. Is that enough?

Baseball-Reference.com has a Hall of Fame Monitor, on which a "Likely HOFer" is at 100. Tiant is at 97, suggesting that he just misses. They also have a Hall of Fame Standards, on which the "Average HOFer" is at 50. Tiant is at 41, suggesting that he's a bit short. 

They also have Similarity Scores, showing the 10 most statistically similar players, weighted toward players of the same position. Of Tiant's 10 most similar, Catfish Hunter, Jim Bunning (the top 2) and Don Drysdale are in the Hall of Fame; George "Hooks" Dauss once missed election through the Veterans Committee by one vote; and the rest are Billy Pierce, Vida Blue, Mickey Lolich, Jim Perry, Kevin Brown and Orel Hershiser. Aside from Perry, whose brother Gaylord is in, each of those pitchers has some support for the Hall, but none is ever likely to get in.

If winning matters, then Tiant doesn't get much help: He reached the postseason 4 times, but only won 1 Pennant, and no World Series. If character counts, then he is helped, as he was beloved by his teammates, and was never involved in any kind of scandal. Overall, I can see why some people believe he should be in, but the case is far from tight.

*

Although Tiant's Yankee teammates liked him, and he has occasionally returned to New York for Old-Timers' Day, and had some of his best years in Cleveland, it's easy to forget now that he played for anyone other than the Red Sox. He remains, one of the most popular players in Sox history. He is their "barbecue stand guy," the way Boog Powell is in Baltimore, Greg Luzinski is in Philadelphia, Gorman Thomas is in Milwaukee and Randy Jones is in San Diego. One notable difference is that El Tiante's Cuban Barbecue is on the outside of Fenway Park, open on Jersey Street for pregame, as that street is blocked off, with a game ticket required for entry.

He served as a pitching coach in the farm systems of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago White Sox, and for Nicaragua in the 1996 Olympics. He was head coach for the Savannah College of Art and Design, an NCAA Division III program in Georgia, from 1998 to 2001, without success. He served as a "special assignment instructor" for the Red Sox, including helping out at Spring Training in Fort Myers, Florida.

He and his wife Maria had 3 children: Luis, Isabel and Daniel. They had homes in Southborough, Massachusetts and Wells, Maine. It was at this latter home that Luis Tiant died yesterday, October 8, 2024, at the age of 83. It was the end of one of baseball's grandest and most entertaining stories. 

October 9, 1934: The Joe Medwick Game

The offending play. Number 25 is Cardinal coach Mike González,

one of the earliest Cuban players in the major leagues.

October 9, 1934, 90 years ago: Before the proceedings began, Cardinal pitcher Jay "Dizzy" Dean said of himself and his brother and teammate, Paul "Daffy" Dean, "Me an' Paul are gonna win this here World Series." Diz was right: All 4 St. Louis wins had one of the Dean brothers as the winning pitcher. Today, the Cards pound the Detroit Tigers in Game 7, 11-0 at Navin Field, the ballpark that would be enclosed and renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938, and renamed again as Tiger Stadium in 1961.

That would have been stunning enough to make this game legend. But it's a legend for a darker reason. In the bottom of the 6th, Cardinal slugger Joe Medwick slides hard into 3rd base, and is tagged hard by the Tigers' Marv Owen. Medwick then kicks Owen, and the newsreel clearly shows it. A fight results, and when Medwick goes out to left field for the bottom of the 6th, Tiger fans start throwing things at him. Wadded-up programs. Hot dogs. Pieces of fruit. This goes on for minute after minute.

Finally, the Commissioner of Baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, as always in attendance at World Series games, asks the umpires to call Medwick over, as well as the opposing managers, both player-managers wearing Number 3: Cardinal shortstop Frankie Frisch and Tiger catcher Mickey Cochrane. Landis, a former federal Judge, asks Medwick if he kicked Owen. Medwick confesses. Landis removes him from the game, not for disciplinary reasons, he says, but "for his own safety." It was probably a good idea, if not the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Afterward, Medwick, no dummy, says, "I understood why they threw all that food at me. What I don't understand is why they brought it to the ballpark in the first place." It was the left-field bleacher section at Navin Field, later replaced by the double-decked stands that formed the Tiger Stadium we knew. Those seats were the last to be sold, and fans had lined up all morning, and had brought their breakfast and lunch to eat while they were waiting. Clearly, some of them hadn't yet eaten their lunches. (I guess they didn't sell food in that bleacher section.)

In the ensuing off-season, Cardinal general manager Branch Rickey refused to give Medwick, his best hitter, a raise. Medwick tells the press, "Mr. Rickey thinks I can live for a year on the food that the Detroit fans threw at me."

Joe Medwick was a graduate of Carteret High School, Class of 1929, a 3-sport star. In 1937, he won the Triple Crown, leading the National League in batting average, home runs and runs batted in. He remains the last NL player to do so. He was probably on his way to both 3,000 hits and 500 home runs before a beaning in 1940 curtailed his career. He was nicknamed "Ducky" for the way he walked, and "Muscles" because he was so strong (How strong was he?), nobody dared to call him "Ducky" to his face.

A Middlesex County Park, stretching through Carteret and the Avenel section of Woodbridge, is named in his honor. He is 1 of 6 people who grew up in New Jersey who have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, 1 of 4 born in the State, and the only one from Central Jersey, let alone from Middlesex County.

The others are Newark native Billy Hamilton, Salem native Goose Goslin, raised-in-East Orange Monte Irvin, and raised-in-Paterson Larry Doby, and born-in-Pequannock but grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan Derek Jeter. Millville native Mike Trout has a legitimate shot at joining them.

The familiar nickname "The Gashouse Gang" would not be applied to the Cardinals until the next season. It's not clear who coined the phrase, but someone said that, with their filthy uniforms due to their roughhouse style of play, they looked like "a gang from the Gas House District." In New York, that area was on the East River, between the Lower East Side and the Gramercy Park area. In 1945, it was all demolished to make way for the housing projects Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.

Pitcher Clarence Heise was the last survivor of the Gashouse Gang, living until 1999.

October 9, 1924: Soldier Field Opens

October 9, 1924, 100 years ago: Municipal Grant Park Stadium opens on Chicago's lakefront. It would be renamed Soldier Field the next year. It would host many big college football games, including the annual Chicago College All-Star Game between a team of recently graduated players and the defending NFL Champions (who nearly always won) from 1934 to 1976.

And the name is "Soldier" Field. Never "Soldiers" or "Soldiers' Field." There is a Soldiers Field in Boston, part of Harvard University's sports complex.

Its best-known event was the 2nd fight between Heavyweight Champion Gene Tunney and the man from whom he took the title, Jack Dempsey, on September 22, 1927. In the 7th round, Dempsey knocked Tunney down, but he forgot to obey a new rule (which he, himself, had demanded): The referee would not start the count until the standing fighter retreated to a neutral corner. This gave Tunney an extra 5 seconds to regain his bearings, and he got up at the count of 9 (14), and went on to beat Dempsey in a decision.

It became known as the Long Count Fight, and, to this day, some people think Dempsey was robbed. He wasn't: The film clearly shows Tunney watching the referee's count. He could have gotten up at the count of 4, which should have been 9. Dempsey wasn't robbed. He didn't even blow it. He got beat, fair and square. may have had what remains the greatest attendance ever for a U.S. sporting event, with figures ranging from 104,000 to 130,000, depending on who you believe.

It definitely was the site of the largest football crowd ever, 123,000, to see Notre Dame play USC a few weeks after the Long Count. That record stood until a 2016 Tennessee-Virginia game was staged at Bristol Motor Speedway in front of 156,990. The 1926 Army-Navy Game was played there, in front of over 100,000.

The original south side gate. Along with the columns,

it was the only thing saved from the original stadium.

The Chicago Rockets of the All-America Football Conference played at Soldier Field in 1946, '47 and '48, changing their name to the Chicago Hornets in '49. They were not admitted into the NFL with their AAFC brethren in Cleveland, San Francisco and Baltimore. The Chicago Cardinals played their last season there, in 1959, before moving to St. Louis. The Chicago Fire of the World Football League played there in 1974. And the Chicago Blitz of the United States Football League played there in 1983 and 1984.

Amazingly, the Chicago Bears played at Wrigley Field from 1921 to 1970, with the occasional single-game exception. The story I heard is that Bears founder-owner-coach George Halas was a good friend of both the Wrigley and Veeck families, and felt loyalty to them, and that's why he stayed at Wrigley even though it had just 47,000 seats for football.

But I heard another story that Halas was a Republican, and didn't like Chicago's Democratic Mayor, Richard J. Daley (whose son Richard M. later broke his father's record for longest-serving Mayor), and didn't want to pay the city Parks Department a lot of rent. This is believable, because Halas was known to be cheap. The real reason the Bears moved to Soldier Field in 1971 was Monday Night Football: Halas wanted the revenue, and Wrigley didn't have lights until 1988.

Games of the 1994 World Cup and the 1999 Women's World Cup were also held at the old Soldier Field. MLS' Chicago Fire made it their 1st home ground, playing at the old version from 1998 to 2001, and the new version from 2003 to 2005, and returning there starting in 2020.

Soldier Field during the 1994 World Cup

A 2002-03 renovation, during which the Bears played "home" games at the University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium in Champaign, demolished all but the south gate, and the iconic (if not Ionic, they're in the Doric style) Greek-style columns that used to hang over the stadium, and are now visible only from the outside. It doesn't look like "Soldier Field" anymore: One critic called it The Eyesore on the Lake Shore.

Capacity is now roughly what it was in the last few years prior to the renovation, 61,500. And while the Bears won 8 Championships while playing at Wrigley (it took the Cubs until 2016 to win even 1 title there), they've only won one more at Soldier Field, the 1985 title capped by Super Bowl XX. The Monsters of the Midway have been tremendous underachievers since leaving Wrigley, having been to only 1 of the last 38 Super Bowls, and losing it.

The reduced atmosphere, and thus the reduced home-field advantage, may be a part of that, much as similar reductions in atmosphere, passion and on-field performance has been blamed by Washington Redskins/Commanders fans on the 1997 move from the in-the-District Robert F. Kennedy Stadium to the suburban FedEx Field, Yankee Fans on the 2009 move from the old Yankee Stadium to the new one, and Arsenal fans on the 2006 move from Arsenal Stadium (a.k.a. "Highbury") to the Emirates Stadium.

In 2023, the Bears announced a plan to tear down the Arlington Park horse-racing track, 27 miles northwest of the Loop in Arlington Heights -- nearly twice as far from downtown as O'Hare International Airport -- and build a dome there, possibly groundsharing with baseball's White Sox. Nearly every Bears fan was against this.

So an alternative plan was drawn up, to build a stadium on the parkland just south of the current one, keeping the only parts that remained from the original stadium: The columns on each sideline, and the southern gate with its dedication to the military personnel.