May 17, 1875: The 1st Kentucky Derby

May 17, 1875, 150 years ago: The 1st Kentucky Derby is run, at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. It was a mile and a half, with 15 horses, 13 of whom were ridden by black men. The winning horse, by 2 lengths, was named Aristides, in 2 minutes, 37.75 seconds. His jockey, Oliver Lewis, then 19, was black. (Lewis lived until 1924, not quite to the 50th Anniversary of the event.)

The Derby has been run every year since, usually on the 1st Saturday in May. (The 1875 race was on a Monday.) In 1896, the length of the race was shortened to a mile and a quarter, which it has remained ever since. It became the 1st leg of the "Triple Crown" of American thoroughbred racing, along with the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, held on the 3rd Saturday in May; and the Belmont Stakes, just outside New York City, held on the 1st Saturday in June.

Churchill Downs was built in 1875, by Colonel Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., grandson of explorer William Clark. It was built on land leased to them by his uncles, John and Henry Churchill. The famous twin spires were built in 1895. In 2005, luxury boxes were built. This "Millionaire's Row" now dwarfs the spires, and ruins the perspective of one of the most historic sports venues in America. The grandstand seats about 50,000 people. Only on Derby Day is the infield opened, giving it a seating capacity of 170,000.

The Kentucky Derby -- and, in America, if someone says simply "The Derby," this is what they mean -- is billed as "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports." Two horses have won it in less than 2 minutes: Secretariat in 1973, in 1:59 and 2/5ths (traditionally, the Triple Crown races were measured in fifths of a second); and Monarchos, in 2001, just under, in 1:59.97.

Every horse in the race was born 3 calendar years before. Every horse carries exactly 126 pounds, including the jockey. If the jockey weighs more than 126 pounds, he is disqualified from the race. If he weighs less than 126, weights are added to the horse, so that every horse, at least in theory, is equal.

Every year since 1932 -- when the Derby became the 1st sporting event ever broadcast live on radio around the world, and Burgoo King, named for a local stew, won it -- The Governor of Kentucky and the Chairman of Churchill Downs, Inc. present the winning horse with a blanket of 554 red roses. Hence, the race is nicknamed "The Run for the Roses."

1997 Winners Silver Charm and Gary Stevens, with the garland

The Preakness is "The Run for the Black-Eyed Susans." The Belmont is "The Run for the Carnations." Los Angeles Times sports columnist Jim Murray had lost some friends to fatal crashes at the Indianapolis 500, and called America's most famous auto race "The Run for the Lilies," as in the flowers often seen at funerals. He also turned the traditional introduction, "Gentlemen, start your engines!" into, "Gentlemen, start your coffins!"

Among the traditions of the Derby are dressing up, including women wearing the fanciest hats this side of a British royal wedding; the drinking of mint juleps, an iced drink of bourbon, mint and sugar syrup, introduced at the 1938 Derby; and the singing of "My Old Kentucky Home," the State Song, written in 1852 by Stephen Foster.

(According to the International Bartenders' Association, this is the official recipe for a mint julep: 2 fluid ounces of bourbon whiskey, 4 mint sprigs, 1 teaspoon of powdered sugar, and 2 teaspoons of water, served over crushed ice.)

Eddie Arcaro won 5 Kentucky Derbies as a jockey: 1938 aboard Lawrin, 1941 aboard Whirlaway, 1945 aboard Hoop Jr., 1948 aboard Citation, and 1952 about Hill Gail. That record was tied by Bill Hartack: 1957 aboard Iron Liege, 1960 aboard Venetian Way, 1962 aboard Decidedly, 1964 aboard Northern Dancer, and 1969 aboard Majestic Prince. But it has never been broken.

Ben A. Jones trained 6 winners, between 1938 and 1952. That record hasn't been broken, but it has been tied by Bob Baffert, between 1997 and 2020. Calumet Farm is the leading owner, with 8 wins, from 1941 to 1968.

The longest shot to win the race has been Donerail, 91-1 in 1913. Since then, the longest has been Rich Strike, 80-1 in 2022. Three fillies have won: Regret in 1915, Genuine Risk in 1980, Winning Colors in 1988.

The Kentucky Derby is the oldest continuously-run professional sporting event in America. It was not suspended for World War I. It was not suspended for the Great Depression. It was not suspended for World War II. The Indianapolis 500 can be delayed by rain, but if it rains on Derby Day, the race is run on the sloppy track, anyway. Even in 2020, when COVID restrictions meant that it couldn't be run on May 2, it was postponed to the 1st Saturday of another month, September 5. The winner was named Authentic.

Top 10 Reasons the Mets Are a Joke -- 2025 Edition

Tonight, the Yankees and the Mets begin an Interleague series at Yankee Stadium II. Tonight's game and tomorrow afternoon's game are on YES -- and on the Mets' network, SNY. Sunday night's game is on ESPN.

Given how things usually work out, the likeliest scenario is that the Yankees take the 1st 2, and the Mets the last. If the Saturday game were on Fox, then the Mets would be likelier to win that one.

Met fans are riding high. Their team is in 1st place in the National League Eastern Division, just as the Yankees are in 1st place in the American League Eastern Division. They have the supposed richest team owner in North American sports, Steve Cohen, who was able to sign Juan Soto away from the Yankees, and re-sign their best hitter, Pete Alonso.

They think their team is the best in baseball, and certainly the best in New York.

Bitch, please. Well, it doesn't. The Mets are still a joke, and nothing is going to change that anytime soon.

Note: This is an update of a post I wrote in 2015.

Top 10 Reasons the Mets Are a Joke

These are in chronological order. Not in order of lameness. Trying to put them in that order could take about 18 innings.

1. The National League. The main reason the Mets even exist is because fans of the stolen New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers could have a National League team in New York, alongside the American League's Yankees. They specifically wanted a National League team.

What the hell is so special about the National League?

"Well, Uncle Mike," you might say, "up until 2022, the NL didn't use the designated hitter. It was real baseball, although that's gone now." I understand that opinion. I don't agree with it, but I understand it.

But even if you agree with it, there's a serious flaw in it. The Giants and Dodgers moved after the 1957 season. The DH didn't come in until 1973. It wasn't even seriously considered until it became a Spring Training experiment in 1969. So that wasn't one of the reasons at the time.

The NL is older. It was established in 1876, to the AL's 1901. Is that really important? Not by 1957, it wasn't. It certainly doesn't have any relevance in 2025, with the AL, the "Junior Circuit," being 16 years older than the NHL, 19 years older than the NFL, and 45 years younger than the NBA.

The NL integrated first, beating the AL to it by a few weeks, April 15 to July 5, 1947. The NL got lights first, beating the AL to it by 4 years, 1935 to 1939. The NL had teams on radio first, although, with television, the Leagues were was about even.

Somehow, I don't think any of that was what part of erstwhile Giant and Dodger fans meant from October 1957 to April 1962, when they had to get by in the New York Tri-State Area with just the Yankees.

Then there was the Continental League, which was announced in 1958 as debuting in 1960. In the end, it was a bluff, designed to get the established leagues to expand, which they did. If the CL had happened, and a "New York Mets" had debuted in it at the Polo Grounds in 1960, I don't think the former fans of the Giants and Dodgers would have given a damn that it didn't have official NL identification, or even the NL's blessing.

I think the real reason is that these people just hated the Yankees. Why? Because the Yankees (nearly) always beat them? From 1923 to 1956, the Yankees played the Giants and Dodgers in a combined 11 World Series, and won 10 of them.

Getting the Mets didn't help: They've now played each other exactly once in the World Series in 62 completed seasons, and the Yankees beat the Mets in 5 games. (Those 62 completed seasons do not count the current one, or 1994, as that season did not reach its intended conclusion).

So it wasn't all about the National League for those baseball fans. That was just a convenient excuse. They were just too chicken to admit, "We hate the Yankees."

Also, look at the other teams that lost teams in the 1950s:

* In 1953's Spring Training, the Braves left Boston, leaving the city to the AL's Red Sox. Did New Englanders demand a new team in the NL? No.

* In the 1953-54 off-season, the Browns left St. Louis, leaving the city to the NL's Cardinals. Did people in the Mississippi Valley demand a new team in the AL? No.

* In the 1954-55 off-season, the Athletics left Philadelphia, leaving the city to the NL's Phillies. Did people in the Delaware Valley demand a new team in the AL? No.

These places just accepted that turning a "city" into a "metropolitan area," as inner-city white people moved into the suburbs -- some because they could afford to go to a nicer place, some because their neighborhoods were turning black and they didn't want to get called out on their racism by their neighbors -- meant that these places could no longer afford to support 2 teams each.

New York could afford to support 2 teams. Indeed, there's been times, even since 1957, when it looked like it could afford to support 3 teams. (That may have been the case as recently as before the Crash of 2008, but I don't think it's the case now, judging by home attendance at both Yankee Stadium II and Citi Field.)

But there was nothing special about the National League. Not then, and not now. Nor was there anything unacceptable about the American League, then or now. And if you think the DH made the AL unacceptable, then you're an idiot who needs to enter the latter part of the 20th Century, because, apparently, getting you into the 21st Century is too much to ask. (I've mused on the stupidity of the Hate-the-DH argument before.)

So the fans who would be Met fans weren't devoted to the National League. They were just hating on the Yankees. I'm fine with that -- as long as you freely admit it, like the American League teams do. (Hell, on September 5, 1977, desperate for attendance as they'd fallen far out of the AL East race, the Cleveland Indians, now the Cleveland Guardians, held "Hate the Yankees Hanky Night." It worked, sort-of: They got 28,184 fans waving hankies at the Yankees, and they swept a twi-night doubleheader.)

Or maybe these ex-Giant fans and ex-Dodger fans just wanted a team in the NL so that their old heroes could come back and see them. The problem with that is, by the time the Mets arrived in 1962, most of their old heroes were retired -- or, as they saw when Gil Hodges and Duke Snider actually became Mets, should have been retired.

By the time Shea Stadium opened in 1964, there were no more Brooklyn Dodger heroes still playing (Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale pitched for the Dodgers before the move, but didn't become stars until after it), and the only New York Giant hero left was Willie Mays. And he had already returned to New York to play the Yankees in the 1962 World Series.

2. Blue and Orange. The colors themselves, while a hideous combination, aren't really the problem. It's the reason for them. The Mets' founders said that they were combining the blue of the Dodgers and the orange of the Giants.

That made sense. When the Islanders were founded 10 years later, they also used blue and orange, and, like the Mets, they still use them today. (They even kept the color scheme while wearing those ridiculous "Gorton's Fisherman" jerseys in the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons.)

Except... When the Knicks were founded, they used blue and orange. That was in 1946, 16 years before the Mets first took the field, and 11 years before the Giants and Dodgers played their last home games in New York. Were the Knicks trying to invoke nostalgia -- for teams that still existed -- by combining the blue of the Dodgers and the orange of the Giants? No. The colors worn by the baseball teams were completely irrelevant.

New York City was founded by the Netherlands, as New Amsterdam, in 1624. The Dutch flag of the time was blue, white and orange. The City's flag used the same colors. It still does, unlike the current Dutch flag, which is a tricolor of 3 horizontal stripes: Red, white and blue from top to bottom. The Dutch royal family remains the House of Orange, and the Netherlands national soccer team wears orange shirts at home.

And the Knicks were named after the title character in Washington Irving's 1809 satirical novel A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker. From that point onward, "Knickerbocker" became a slang term for Manhattanites, and the caricature of "Uncle Diedrich" was modified for the Knicks' 1st logo. So it made sense that the Dutch colors became the Knicks' colors.

(A previous New York-based pro basketball team, the Original Celtics -- aside from the name, there was no connection to the later Boston franchise -- even had a star player named Henry "Dutch" Dehnert, although he was German, "Deutsch," rather than descended from the Netherlands, "Dutch.")

That the combination of the Dodger and Giant colors could be used for the Mets was nice, but let's not pretend that they weren't already being used by a New York team that had reached its sport's finals 3 times -- although they wouldn't win their 1st World Championship until after the Mets, and even the Jets, had won their 1st.

3. Shea Stadium. Beyond the delays that meant that "the William A. Shea Municipal Stadium" wouldn't open on Opening Day 1963, or in mid-season 1963, and was mere hours away from not being ready on Opening Day 1964...

It was billed as "the greatest baseball stadium ever built." It wasn't. Not by a long shot. Not by a center-field-at-the-Polo-Grounds-long shot.

Oh, sure, it wasn't nearly as cramped as the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field were. And it didn't have ridiculous dimensions like those 2 parks. And, unlike both of them and Yankee Stadium, it wasn't in a ghetto, and it had plenty of parking, and it didn't have support poles blocking your view.

What it did have was seats that were properly angled for football instead of baseball, upper-deck seats that might as well have been in another Borough, back rows of decks that had overhangs from decks above them that cut off your view of fly balls (a worse obstruction than Yankee Stadium's support poles), nasty wind that made a Met game in May as cold as a Jet game in December, and those planes taking off from nearby LaGuardia International Airport. (The ones taking off would go right overhead. The ones landing went on a different flight path, behind center field.)

Also, it was a lot harder to get an express train from Manhattan to Flushing Meadow-Corona Park. The D Train's express from 59th Street/Columbus Circle to 125th Street (bypassing 7 local stops) made getting from Port Authority Bus Terminal to Yankee Stadium 5 stops, and about 25 minutes, even with the switch from the A to the D at 59th.

But to get from Port Authority to Shea, you had to first go through that dank tunnel with the nasty incline connecting the Port Authority and Times Square subway stations, then get the 7 Train, and 9 times out of 10 it wouldn't be an express, so you had to make 19 stops! And it takes 35 to 40 minutes, considerably longer. Even the express makes 9 stops.

Shea, and now Citi Field, always had better parking and better food than Yankee Stadium, old and new. That's it. The stadium itself was never better than Yankee Stadium, even in 1973, when Yankee Stadium was a 50-year-old uneasy relic with thick support poles in the ever-nastier South Bronx, and Shea was a multicolored suburban palace. The original Yankee Stadium was a baseball park that hosted football; Shea Stadium was a football stadium that hosted baseball.

4. The Reaction to Losing Tom Seaver. Yes, it was awful the way he was pushed out by M. Donald Grant and his grinning lackey in the press, Dick Young of the New York Daily News.

To be fair, Young was a strong advocate for black players, and for a new team in New York, either through the Continental League or MLB expansion. That was before he, like Frank Sinatra, got grumpy and conservative in his old age.

Yes, Seaver deserved better. Yes, you, the Flushing Heathen, whatever else I can say about you, you deserved better than to have "The Franchise" taken away from you in that fashion.

But... come on. Babe Ruth left the Yankees in 1935. Joe DiMaggio retired in 1951. Mickey Mantle retired in 1969. Reggie Jackson was not re-signed in 1981. Mariano Rivera retired in 2013, and Derek Jeter retired in 2014. On none of those occasions did Yankee Fans react like a child who had been told his dog was "taken to a farm upstate."

There were 2 times when Yankee Fans did react like that. The 1st was for Lou Gehrig in 1939. Except he actually was going to die. The 2nd was for Thurman Munson in 1979. And he actually did die.

Great players leave. Great players come to take their places. Grow up.

Besides, it's not like having Seaver would have appreciably helped the Mets from June 1977 to September 1982 anyway. He would have made the difference between the Mets being horrible (which they were) and the Mets being merely mediocre and not as good as the Yankees (which they already were from April 1974 to June 1977). He would have given Shea a few thousand extra fans every 4th home game. That's it.

5. Retired Numbers. Yes, the Yankees have too many. I get that. We should give guys like Roger Maris, Don Mattingly, Tino Martinez and Jorge Posada plaques for Monument Park, but don't retire their numbers. Fine, Met fans, go ahead and make that argument. Especially now that you have your own team Hall of Fame in a room off the Citi Field rotunda.

(Actually, the Mets have had a team hall of fame since 1981, but it's only since 2010 and the opening of that room that it's been on public display.)

But the Mets' retired-number policy isn't much better than the Yankees'. Retiring 37 for Casey Stengel made sense for the Yankees: He managed us to 10 Pennants and 7 World Championships. It made no sense for the Mets to do it: He did nothing for you. He made you laugh? Then why haven't numbers been retired for Jerry Seinfeld, Ray Romano, Chris Rock and Jon Stewart? Or, for that matter, for Marv Throneberry, Frank Taveras, Oliver Perez? Or even Steve Somers, Joe Benigno and Doris From Rego Park?

(Yes, I am aware, they never wore numbers for the Mets. They can share Number 66, in honor of WFAN.)

Retiring 14 for Hodges made sense, as he was the manager who won your 1st title. Retiring 41 for Seaver made sense, as he was your greatest player ever.

But retiring 24 for Mays -- or, keeping it unofficially retired from 1973 to 2022, a decision made by founding owner and former Giants part-owner Joan Payson -- is ludicrous: He did next to nothing for the Mets. Yes, he was on the team's 1973 Pennant-winner, but he played in only 66 regular-season games, batting .211, and looked terrible in the World Series.

For the 1986 World Champions, retiring 16 for Dwight Gooden, 17 for Keith Hernandez and 18 for Darryl Strawberry makes sense. Not retiring 8 for Gary Carter, especially once you knew he was dying, was really crummy. (To be fair, Bobby Murcer died of the exact same thing, and the Yankees also had lead time on that, and didn't give him a Monument Park Plaque while he was still able to attend the ceremony, and still haven't, 7 years after his death.)

Additionally retired are 36 for 1969 & 1973 pitcher Jerry Koosman, and 31 for 2000 Pennant-winner catcher Mike Piazza. Piazza is a Hall-of-Famer, and while I question his Hallworthiness, I have no problem with a team honoring a HOFer who played his prime years with them with the retirement of his number.

But Koosman, though he was the 2nd-best pitcher in team history, after Seaver, up until Gooden came along, was only 140-137 in a Met uniform. Is that worth of a number retirement? Contrast that with the Yankee starting pitchers who've had their numbers retired: Whitey Ford, 16, was 130 games over .500; Andy Pettitte, 46, was 103 over; Ron Guidry, 49, was 79. If HOFer-elect CC Sabathia gets his 52 retired, he was 46 games over .500 as a Yankee. For further context: David Cone, not in the Hall, and with his number not retired by either New York team, was 30 over as a Met, and 24 over as a Yankee.

6. The Dynasty That Never Was. Under the current 3-divisions-plus-wild-card setup, putting the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central Division, the Mets would at least have won the NL Eastern Division every season from 1984 to 1990.

Instead, under the setup we had then, with only 2 Divisions, and only the Division Champions made the Playoffs, they won just 2 Division titles, riding a lot of postseason luck to winning the World Championship in 1986, and blowing the NL Championship Series to the Dodgers in 1988. That's it. Like the Chicago Bears, who won 6 NFC Central Division titles in 7 years from 1984 to 1990, but only won 1 Super Bowl, also in calendar year 1986, the 1980s Mets were a "Dynasty That Never Was," or a "Dynasty of One."

Face it: The 1986 Mets were not that good. Yes, they won 108 games in the regular season, the most won by a New York team between 1961 and 1998, and still the most ever by an NL team in New York in 139 seasons. But, statistically, they didn't match up well with any of the great Yankee teams, or the title-winning Giant and Dodger teams. Even the '69 Mets were better, statistically speaking.

Granted, it wasn't just drugs and booze. A lot of those guys (including the substance abusers) got hurt, and missed time for reasons that had nothing to do with drugs, performance-enhancing and not. But if the 1980s Mets were as good as you think they were, why only the 1 Pennant?

The competition was good? Yes, it was. So was the competition for the 1996-2003 Yankees, and in 8 seasons they won 6 Pennants and 4 World Series. In just 8 seasons, they won more Pennants, and twice as many World Series, as the Mets have ever won in 63 seasons. And the 1990s Yankees had to survive 1 more postseason round than the 1980s Mets. If the Mets had to win a Division Series just to get to the '86 Houston Astros, would they have won it, or gotten derailed? Look at all that talent the Atlanta Braves had in the 1990s, and the NLDS and NLCS that the statistics say they should have won, but didn't.

If the 1986 Mets had to play the 1998 Yankees in a World Series, it wouldn't have gone the full 7. It's not like the '86 Mets could, like the '98 Yankees, call on David Cone, who didn't arrive in Flushing until '87.

But Met fans still hold up the '86 team as exemplars of "Baseball Like It Oughta Be." That's because it remains their last title. But the way they went through the season, acting like Animal House in polyester? Maybe it was effective, but it wasn't anything "like it oughta be." And, starting the next season, it wasn't nearly as effective as it should have been, either.

The 1993 Philadelphia Phillies (who, like the '86 Mets, featured drunken bum Lenny Dykstra) are hailed as beloved, successful slobs. But ask a Phillies fan what meant more: The 1993 "Macho Row" Pennant, or the 2008 World Series title. He'll tell you 2008. If the 1999-2000 Mets had been good enough to go all the way, they would have been far better as role models than the 1980s version. Though Piazza and Armando Benitez would have fit in well in '86.

7. Bernie Madoff. Say what you want about George Steinbrenner, and he did some rotten things and made some boneheaded decisions, but he never would have been fooled by Bernie Madoff.

What's that, you say? George got fooled by Howie Spira? That's because Spira had something George was a sucker for: A hard-luck story. Something Madoff didn't have. And getting fooled by Spira didn't cause George to lose millions, forcing his team into 6 years of mediocrity. (True, there were 4 such years, but it wasn't due to a drop in George's finances.)

8. Sportsnet New York. SNY could have been a great sports network. And, I'll admit, while it's not as good as YES, it's a pretty good sports network. But comparing it with YES, it falls well short.

Showing classic games? Most of those wouldn't register as "Yankees Classics" if the Yankees had done the exact same thing. And when was the last time they showed a game from the Shea era?

Focusing on Johan Santana's no-hitter? All that does is allow people to see that Carlos Beltran's line drive was a clean, fair base hit, and that the "no-hitter" was bogus.

Showing regular-season wins by the Mets over the Yankees? You don't see too many Yankee regular-season wins over the Mets on YES' Yankees Classics -- although you do see replays of the 2000 World Series' Game 1 (a 12-inning classic) and Game 5 (the clincher, which wasn't decided until the last swing of the bat).

Also, where's the Met equivalent of Yankeeography? Then again, they did do a 50 Greatest Mets, whereas we don't yet have a 50 (or 100) Greatest Yankees program.

Then there was that "broadcasters' challenge," the radio guys against the TV guys, in 2014. It was shocking to see how little the Met broadcasters -- including former players like Hernandez and Ron Darling -- knew about the team for whom they broadcast. Even Gary Cohen (no relation to Steve), who grew up as a Met fan and should have known better, came up well short. That was embarrassing.

9. Citi Field. You guys had many years to plan this. Years to figure out how to get it right. And, I have to admit, nearly everything about it is an improvement over the Flushing Toilet. Except the planes: I think the noise from the planes might actually be worse.

But it really isn't all that different from some of the other 1990s and 2000s ballparks. It's basically a copy, with team-specific differences, of Camden Yards in Baltimore, Globe Life Park in the Dallas area, Turner Field in Atlanta, Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Petco Park in San Diego, Nationals Park in Washington, and the Texas Rangers' former home in the Dallas area, now named Choctaw Stadium and replaced with a Phoenix-style airplane hangar. Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Progressive Field in Cleveland, Coors Field in Denver, and Target Field in Minneapolis, with their 3 decks in right field and a bleacher section in left, are mirror images.

And it doesn't have any spectacular features. It doesn't have a warehouse like Camden Yards and Petco Park, the river view like Great American Ball Park, the bay view like AT&T Park in San Francisco, a monument like the Gateway Arch like the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis, or the view of the downtown skyscrapers like PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

Even the minor-league parks in town can top it on that score: Maimonides Park in Brooklyn has a view of Coney Island's landmarks, and SIHU Community Park in Staten Island has a few of Lower Manhattan. As someone put it when it opened in 2001, it looks like the Statue of Liberty is playing a very deep center field.

But the most annoying part of Citi Field is your beloved Shake Shack: It has lines that cause fans to miss an inning or two. That sort of thing was supposed to be left in the 20th Century! The 1st time I went there, the game went to extra innings at 1-1, and I missed both runs while on line for Shake Shack!

(The shakes are pretty good, but not good enough to make anybody echo John Travolta's line from Pulp Fiction about whether a milkshake is worth $5.00 or more.)

The most embarrassing thing about Citi Field is the name. And I'm not even talking about naming it after a hated bank. It was understandable: Citi bought out Chemical Bank, which bought out Manufacturer's Hanover, which was a big sponsor for the Mets (and, for a time, the Yankees, too). It's a part of your heritage, just like Kahn's hot dogs and RC Cola. (Although you seem to have abandoned those.)

But "Citi" can be rhymed. Some fans, reflecting the "Flushing Toilet" nickname for Shea Stadium, call the new park "Shitty Field." I prefer to call it Pity Field, because the Mets have mostly been pitiful since it opened. But the name was just too easy to parody. The Met organization should have known better.

But then, if they knew better, they would not be the Mets. There's always going to be a little bit of 1962, a little Marvelous Marv Throneberry and Clarence "Choo-Choo" Coleman, in them.

10. "Take Back New York." Tell ya what: Beat the Yankees in a World Series. Then you can say that you've taken back New York.

Until you do, nothing you do will mean you've taken it back. Even if you pull off another "miracle" and win the whole thing this season, it'll still be 27 to 3.

You talked about taking back New York in 1999, and you couldn't set up the real "Subway Series." You talked about taking back New York in 2000, and you lost the real Subway Series.

You talked about taking back New York in 2006, the one season since 1988 that you've actually gone further than we have, and you choked. You talked about taking back New York in 2007 and 2008, and we know how those seasons ended. Don't we?

You talked about taking back New York in 2015 and 2016, with your supposedly great pitchers Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard. It didn't happen.

Now, you're talking about "taking back New York" again. Based on what , exactly? Soto? Alonso? Francisco Lindor? Edwin Díaz and his stupid trumpet entrance? Steve Cohen's money? So far, that money has gotten you an NL Championship Series defeat in 2024, a humiliating NL Wild Card Series loss in 2022, and sub-.500 seasons in 2021 and 2023. In the words of the great New York sportscaster Warner Wolf, "Come on, give me a break!"

No, "Take Back New York" is a joke. The Mets are a joke. Have been for most of their history. Have been continuously since 1992. Still are. Will remain so for the foreseeable future.

And I haven't even mentioned Chico Escuela. Or Spider-Man. Or Sidd Finch. Or Bobby Bonilla. Or Steve Phillips. Or the marijuana situation of a few years ago. Or Warm Bodies, the film suggesting that zombies inhabit Citi Field -- at least zombies are looking for brains. Or Sharknado 2. Or Jeff Wilpon firing a woman for being unmarried and pregnant.

Or how Jack Klugman would have been better off visiting Shea Stadium in character as Dr. Quincy, to perform an autopsy on the team, that he would have if he'd visited in character as Oscar Madison of The Odd Couple.

The Mets are a joke.

Taking 2 of 3 In Seattle a Good Warmup for Citi Series

Ordinarily, winning 2 out of 3 on the road, especially against the 1st place team in one of the other Divisions, is a good thing.

But the American League Eastern Division-leading Yankees had the chance to sweep the AL Western Division-leading Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park (formerly Safeco Field) in Seattle this week, and couldn't close the deal.

Clarke Schmidt gave the Yankees 6 solid innings on Monday night, and they gave him a 6-run 5th inning. Trent Grisham hit 2 home runs, and Anthony Volpe hit 1. The Yankees won, 11-5.

But on Tuesday night, Max Fried, the new ace in place of the out-for-the-season Gerrit Cole, got matched by Bryan Woo. Cody Bellinger doubled with 2 out in the 1st inning, and he was the last Yankee baserunner until the 6th. With 2 out, Grisham and Aaron Judge singled, but were stranded. 

It looked like the Yankees might break through in the 7th. With 1 out, Austin Wells doubled. Woo was replaced by Gabe Speier, who walked Volpe. But Speier struck out Jasson Domínguez and Oswald Peraza to end the threat. Grisham singled with 1 out in the 8th, but was stranded.

The Yankees entered the 9th inning trailing, 1-0. But Paul Goldschmidt was hit with a pitch. He stole 2nd -- and was then pinch-run for, with the newly-acquired Pablo Reyes. Austin Wells grounded him over to 3rd, and Volpe got him home with another grounder. But the winning run did not come. Nor did it come in the 10th, even with the "ghost runner" rule.

Despite his early struggles this season, Devin Williams pitched a 1-2-3 10th. Reyes' grounder got Bellinger to 3rd with 1 out in the top of the 11th, but Wells popped up. Volpe walked, but Domínguez could only ground to 2nd, and the inning was over. In the bottom of the 11th, Tim Hill gave up back-to-back singles to Ben Williamson and J.P. Crawford, and the Mariners had won, 2-1.

Will Warren started on Wednesday afternoon, and he went 5 innings, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and 1 walk, striking out 9. But he would not be the winning pitcher, because, again, the Yankees found runs hard to come by.

Back-to-back doubles by Volpe and Domínguez brought the Yankees to within 2-1 in the 6th. Goldschmidt tied it with a home run in the 7th. Judge won it with a home run in the 8th. The Yankees won, 3-2, with Ian Hamilton as the winning pitcher.

*

We're a little past a quarter of the way through the regular season. Judge is batting .412. He's on a pace to hit 57 home runs and have 154 RBIs. As Phil Rizzuto would have said, "I tell ya, this Judge is unbelievable. Holy cow."

The Yankees are 25-18. The are the only team in the AL East that is .500 or over. They lead it by 4 games each over the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays, 5 over the Tampa Bay Rays, and 9 1/2 over the Baltimore Orioles.

Today, they begin a Citi Series against the Mets at Yankee Stadium II. Remember: It's not a Subway Series. That term is proper only for a World Series between the teams. Here are the pitching matchups, as currently set:

* Tonight, 7:05, on YES: Carlos Rodón vs. Tylor Megill. ("Tyler" would be bad enough, but who names their kid "Tylor"?)

* Tomorrow, 1:05, on YES: Clarke Schmidt vs. Griffin Canning.

* Sunday, 7:10, on ESPN: Max Fried vs. David Peterson. 

May 12, 1985: The Fixed NBA Draft Lottery for Patrick Ewing

Left to right: David Stern, Patrick Ewing, Dave DeBusschere

May 12, 1985, 40 years ago: The NBA holds its 1st-ever Draft Lottery, at the Felt Forum, a sub-arena of Madison Square Garden in New York. It was designed to stop teams having a bad season from "going into the tank" or "tanking": Losing games on purpose so that they could finish with the league's worst record, thus guaranteeing them the 1st pick in the NBA Draft.

David Stern, in his 1st full season as Commissioner, drew envelopes containing the logos of the 7 teams, out of the 23 then in the NBA, that didn't make the Playoffs. The theory was that each non-Playoff team had an equal chance to obtain the first pick. The rest of the first-round picks were determined in reverse order of their won–loss record.

It was no secret that the player most likely to be taken with the 1st overall pick would be Patrick Ewing, a center who had led Georgetown University to the previous year's National Championship, and the NCAA Tournament Final in 3 of his 4 years. Some observers were calling the lottery the Ewing Bowl, as if it were a football contest.

The general managers of the 7 teams patiently waited for Stern to draw the envelopes. The 1st one drawn, and thus the team that got the 7th pick, was the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors and the Indiana Pacers had tied for the worst record in the NBA, 22-60. Under the old system, those two teams would face a coin flip: The winner would get the 1st pick, the loser the 2nd pick. The Warriors were thus the 1st team who looked like a loser in the lottery.

The 6th pick went to the Sacramento Kings, the 5th to the Atlanta Hawks, the 4th to the Seattle SuperSonics, and the 3rd to the Los Angeles Clippers. It came down to the Pacers, represented by GM Robert Salyers; and the New York Knicks, represented by their GM, one of their all-time greatest players, Dave DeBusschere.

When Stern opened the next envelope, and pulled out the card, it contained the Pacers' logo. That meant they would pick 2nd, and the Knicks 1st. DeBusschere pumped his fist, and the New Yorkers inside the Felt Forum roared with delight. They knew exactly who DeBusschere, who had been a defensive and rebounding specialist as a player, would pick when the actual draft was held on June 18: The similarly-controlling Ewing.

When DeBusschere got up to shake hands with Stern, he reached into the pocket of his sportscoat, and pulled out a Knicks jersey with Number 33 on it. It wasn't in honor of his teammate on the 1970 NBA Champion Knicks, University of Michigan Hall-of-Famer Cazzie Russell. DeBusschere turned the jersey around, and revealed the name on the back: "EWING."

Ever since, people outside the New York Tri-State Area -- and some inside it, who had no problem with the idea -- have suggested that the fix was in: Stern wanted the best collegiate player of his generation to play for the New York team, because the New York team winning titles would be good for the league, TV-wise, therefore money-wise.

The question became not if Ewing would lead the Knicks to a World Championship, but how many. Of course, that same question would be asked for Eric Lindros and the Philadelphia Flyers in 1992. And if you had suggested at the times of their acquisitions that, in each case, the number would turn out to be zero, you would have been laughed out of the room.

But no one foresaw that the Boston Celtics would still dominate the Eastern Conference through 1987; that the Detroit Pistons would then do so through 1990; and that the Chicago Bulls, led by Michael Jordan, would then do so through 1998. With Ewing, the Knicks would reach the NBA Finals in 1994. Without him -- he was injured earlier in the Playoffs -- they reached the Finals in 1999.

It got to the point where, like Joe Namath of the 1969 New York Jets and Mark Messier of the 1994 New York Rangers, Ewing began predicting that the Knicks would win the Championship. He did become the franchise's all-time leading scorer. But the franchise still hasn't won a title since 1973, with DeBusschere, Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley, Earl Monroe and Jerry Lucas, Hall-of-Famers all.

So if there was a fix, it didn't work. Even so, Jordan and the Bulls did everything for the league that Stern had hoped that Ewing and the Knicks would do.

The Pacers chose Wayman Tisdale, who turned out to be a good player, but not a great one. The Clippers chose Benoit Benjamin, also a good one. The Sonics chose Xavier McDaniel, a very good player. The Hawks chose Jon Koncak, and the Kings Joe Kleine, who both turned out to be decent players.

The 7th pick that the Warriors got stuck with? They chose Chris Mullin, who, like Ewing and Jordan, would make the Hall of Fame and play on the 1992 Olympic "Dream Team." He would later play for the Pacers, and they got more out of him than they got out of Tisdale. So while the Warriors got robbed, they got more out of their pick than anybody but the Knicks got out of theirs.

There were other interesting picks. The Dallas Mavericks got Detlef Schrempf, a German star who did well for them, and later for the Pacers; Uwe Blab, also German, but not as good as Schrempf, and neither was as good for them as later German player Dirk Nowitzki; and Bill Wennington, who did little for them, but became a reserve for the Bulls' dynasty.

The Cleveland Cavaliers drafted Charles Oakley. He didn't do much for them, but he was later traded to the Knicks, and teamed with Ewing to produce the 2nd-best team in the East in the 1990s. They also drafted John "Hot Rod" Williams, who did well for them.

The Utah Jazz drafted Karl Malone, who would pair with John Stockton to form one of the greatest NBA duos. The Pistons drafted Joe Dumars, who became the defensive leader of the "Motor City Bad Boys," and later served as the general manager who built their next great team. The Pistons have reached the NBA Finals 5 times: 3 with Dumars as a player, winning 2; and 2 with Dumars as GM, winning 1.

The Los Angeles Lakers took A.C. Green, who helped them win 3 titles and set the NBA's consecutive games played record. The Portland Trail Blazers drafted Terry Porter, who helped them reach 2 NBA Finals. The Washington Bullets drafted 7-foot-6 shot-blocking specialist Manute Bol.

So the team that did the best in this draft was Detroit -- and they weren't in the Lottery. So much for the old slogan of the New York State Lottery: "You gotta be in it to win it."

Under the current rules, only the top four picks are decided by the lottery, and are chosen from the 14 teams (out of 30) that do not make the playoffs. The team with the worst record, or the team that holds the draft rights of the team with the worst record, has the best chance to obtain a higher draft pick. After the top four positions are selected (from the lottery slotting system), the remainder of the first-round draft order is in inverse order of the win–loss record for the remaining teams, or the teams who originally held the rights if they were traded. The lottery does not determine the draft order in the subsequent rounds of the draft.

Since the 2019 draft, the NBA changed the lottery odds (the bottom three teams will all have an equal 14 percent chance of winning the top pick), and increased the number of teams selected in the lottery from three to four.

Not Quite the Sack of Sacramento

The pink gloves are for Mother's Day,

to raise money for breast cancer research.

With the formerly Philadelphia, Kansas City and Oakland Athletics waiting for their Las Vegas stadium to open, the Yankees made their 1st visit to the A's stopgap home, Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California.

In 3 games, the Yankees scored 29 runs. That should have meant a sweep. It wasn't.

On Friday night, Will Warren pitched his best game as a Yankee so far: 7 1/3rd innings, 1 run, 4 hits, 1 walk, 7 strikeouts. He did his job. The hitters did theirs, especially Jasson Domínguez, who became the youngest Yankee ever to hit 3 home runs in a game. He had 7 RBIs on the night. Paul Goldschmidt also hit a home run, and the Yankees won, 10-2.

Carlos Rodón did his part on Saturday afternoon, going, 6 innings, allowing 4 runs on 8 hits, but no walks, striking out 10. Aaron Judge hit 2 home runs, and Oswald Peraza hit one. The Yankees led 6-4 going into the 7th inning stretch. That should have been enough.

It wasn't. Fernando Cruz had nothing, allowing 3 runs in the 7th. Between them, Ian Hamilton and Tyler Matzek allowed 4 in the 8th. The A's won, 11-7.

With Sunday being another "hole in the rotation" day, the Yankees needed Ryan Yarbrough to fill that hole. He did, going 5 innings, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits and a walk. Judge went 4-for-5 with 2 RBIs. We're almost one-quarter of the way through the season, and he's batting .409. Goldschmidt went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs. And Ben Rice hit a grand slam. This time, the bullpen held the A's off, and the Yankees won, 12-2.

It wasn't quite a Sack of Sacramento, but 2 out of 3 on the road is always worth taking.

*

The Yankees are 23-17, on a pace for a record of 93-69. They lead the American League Eastern Division by 2 games over the Boston Red Sox, 3 over the Toronto Blue Jays, 5 over the Tampa Bay Rans, and 7 1/2 over the Baltimore Orioles.

It's way too soon to list the Magic Number to clinch the Division.

Tonight, the Yankees continue their Pacific Coast roadtrip, against the Seattle Mariners.

May 12, 1965: The Rolling Stones Record "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"

Left to right: Bill Wyman, Brian Jones,

Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards

May 12, 1965, 60 years ago: The Rolling Stones, already the next-biggest British rock and roll band behind The Beatles, record "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." It becomes their signature song, and one of the most popular songs in rock and roll history.

The Stones consisted of lead singer Mick Jagger, lead guitarist Keith Richards, rhythm guitarist Brian Jones, bass guitarist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts. Also on the recording were pianists Ian Stewart and Jack Nitzsche, although Jones could also play the piano -- and, as it later turned out, the sitar (on "Paint It, Black") and the recorder (on "Ruby Tuesday"). Andrew Loog Oldham produced the record.

Richards claimed he wrote the opening riff for the song at his apartment in St. John's Wood, North-West London. Then he recorded it on a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Then he fell asleep. When he played the tape in the morning, he found it contained 2 minutes of acoustic guitar, "and then me snoring for the next 40 minutes." It became one of the most famous opening riffs in rock and roll history. He said Jagger wrote the lyrics by the pool in Clearwater, Florida, in the Tampa Bay area.

They recorded the song on May 12, 1965, at the studio of Chess Records on the South Side of Chicago, home to Richards' hero Chuck Berry, and to blues musicians such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Willie Dixon. The studio's address became the title of an instrumental the Stones later recorded, "2120 South Michigan Avenue."

The song was released on June 5, and was so damn catchy that, despite the bad grammar of the title, Billboard magazine listed it as the Number 1 song in America in their July 10 issue. It remains the Stones' most familiar song. As Jagger put it: 

It was the song that really made The Rolling Stones, changed us from just another band into a huge, monster band... It has a very catchy title. It has a very catchy guitar riff. It has a great guitar sound, which was original at that time. And it captures a spirit of the times, which is very important in those kinds of songs... Which was alienation.

There are 3 surviving musicians from the recording session on "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction": Jagger, Richards and Wyman. Oldham is also still alive. Jones died in 1969, Stewart in 1985, Nitzsche in 2000, and Watts in 2021.

May 12, 1955: The 1st Black Pitcher to Throw a Major League No-Hitter

May 12, 1955, 70 years ago: The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Sam Jones of the Cubs pitched a no-hitter. This made him the 1st black pitcher to do so in the previously all-white major leagues.

It was far from a perfect game: He walked 7 batters. But he was also lucky. He walked Dale Long in the 2nd inning, but he was thrown out trying to steal 2nd base. He walked Toby Atwell to lead off the 3rd, but stranded him. He walked Long again to lead off the 5th, but got George Freese to ground into a double play.

The opposing pitcher, Vernon Law, nearly hit a home run to straightaway center field, but Eddie Miksis, who went 2-for-4 with an RBI on the day, caught it. He walked Long a 3rd time, leading off the 8th, and gave up another long fly to center, to Freese, by Miksis caught this one, too. Then Jones got Toby Atwell to ground into a double play.

In addition to Miksis' heroics, shortstop Ernie Banks went 3-for-5 with an RBI, and right fielder Ted Tappe went 2-for-5, with a home run and 2 RBIs. Despite being a Cub and having an unusual surname, Ted was no relation to Elvin "El" Tappe, a teammate, and later part of the Cubbies' dumb "College of Coaches" experiment. El did have a brother, Melvin -- El and Mel -- who pitched professionally.

Then came the 9th. Jones walked Freese, and threw a wild pitch that got him to 2nd base. That ended up not mattering, because he walked Preston Ward. Then he walked Tom Saffell. Bases loaded, nobody out, and the next 3 batters were Dick Groat, a rookie named Roberto Clemente, and Frank Thomas. (Not the later Chicago White Sox "Big Hurt," but a powerful slugger in his own right.) Suddenly, not just the no-hitter, but the game was in doubt: Thomas represented the tying run.

Jones buckled down, struck Groat out looking, struck Clemente out swinging, and struck Thomas out looking. It was a brilliant comeback, and he had his no-hitter.

Jones was born in 1925 in Stewartsville, Ohio, near Steubenville, and also near Wheeling, West Virginia. Because of the earlier star Yankee pitcher with the same name, he, too, was nicknamed "Sad Sam." He was also known as "Toothpick Sam": Like 1970s stars Dusty Baker and U L Washington, he was frequently seen chewing on a toothpick.

Having gotten his start in the Negro Leagues, in 1952, he pitched for the Cleveland Indians, and his catcher was a former Cleveland Buckeyes teammate, Quincy Trouppe. This made them the 1st all-black "battery" in the American League, 3 years after Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella had been the 1st in the modern major leagues, and 75 years after George Stovey had pitched to Moses "Fleet" Walker.

Jones was named to the All-Star Game in 1955 and 1959. He led the National League in strikeouts in 1955 and 1956. In 1959, with the San Francisco Giants, he led it in strikeouts, wins and earned-run average, the Triple Crown of Pitching. Had the Cy Young Award then been given out to the best pitcher in each League, he would have won it for the NL. But it was given to the best pitcher in both Leagues from its 1956 inception until 1966, and in 1959, he finished 2nd in the voting to Early Wynn of the Chicago White Sox.

He pitched for mostly struggling teams, resulting in a career record of 103-104. And his timing was bad. He pitched for the Indians in 1951 and 1952, missing their 1948 and 1954 Pennants. He pitched for the Giants from 1959 to 1961, missing their 1962 Pennant. He pitched for the Detroit Tigers in 1962, a year after their best performance since 1945, although it's hard to imagine him making an 8-game difference. He pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1963, missing their 1964 World Series win. And his last major league season was 1964, finishing just 2 games behind the Yankees for the Baltimore Orioles, 2 years before their 1966 World Series win.

He pitched beyond 1962 despite having been diagnosed with cancer in his neck. He fought it bravely until it took his life in 1971, when he was only 45 years old.

In 2007, pitcher-turned-broadcaster Jim "Mudcat" Grant included Jones in his book Black Aces, about the 13 black pitchers, including himself, who had won 20 or more games in a major league season. Newcombe was the only one to accomplish the feat before Jones. Since the book was published, 2 more have done it: CC Sabathia, the only Yankee on the list, in 2010; and David Price, with the 2012 Tigers.