October 9, 1996: The Jeffrey Maier Game

October 9, 1996, 30 years ago: Game 1 of the American League Championship Series is held at the original Yankee Stadium. The Yankees trail the Baltimore Orioles 4-3 in the bottom of the 8th. The big, scowling, fearsome Armando Benitez is on the mound for the Orioles. He does not yet have a reputation as a pitcher who chokes in the clutch. He is about to get one.

He pitches to Derek Jeter, the Yankees' rookie shortstop. Jeter, as later fans might guess, uses an inside-out swing to send the ball to right-center field. Oriole right fielder Tony Tarasco goes back, stands at the fence, and holds up his glove.

Tarasco is a fool. Take a look at the tape: His glove wasn't lined up right. He played it totally wrong. Instead of falling into his glove, it would have hit the fence above him and to his right -- or from the view of the TV fan, "back and to the left." It's baseball's "Zapruder Film." The ball would have gone for at least a double, possibly a triple, putting the tying run in scoring position.

See? Back, and to the left.

Except that’s not what happened. Jeffrey Maier, a 12-year-old fan from Old Tappan, Bergen County, New Jersey, ran over, and reached out with his glove. The ball hit his glove, and as he tried to pull it into the stands, he lost control of it. That's right: He didn't even get the ball.

Umpire Rich Garcia ruled it a home run, tying the game. Tarasco was furious. Oriole manager Davey Johnson -- at that moment, still the last man to manage a New York team to a Pennant, the 1986 Mets -- runs out to protest. To no avail.

In the bottom of the 11th inning, Randy Myers, who had pitched for Johnson on the '86 Mets and had won a World Series under Lou Piniella for the 1990 Cincinnati Reds, pitched to Bernie Williams, the star of the Yanks' AL Division Series win over the Texas Rangers. On radio station WABC, John Sterling said this:

Theeee pitch, swung, and it's driven to deep left! It is high! It is far! Iiiiiiiit… is gone! Yankees win! Theeeeeeeeeeee Yankees win!

It wasn't the first time Sterling had used the line, but it was the first time I'd heard him drag it out that much. Final score: Yankees 5, Orioles 4.

After the game, the media asked Yankee manager Joe Torre about the fan-assisted Jeter home run. Without missing a beat, or changing his expression, The Man of One Face said, "Did anybody see Bernie's home run? That wasn't bad." Laughter in the press room.

The Orioles won Game 2. The series went to Baltimore, and the Yankees won 3 straight, and won the Pennant. Torre was in the World Series for the 1st time, having been a player from 1960 to 1977, and a manager since then. They lost the 1st 2 games of the World Series to the Atlanta Braves, then took the next 4 to dethrone them as the World Champions. The Yankees had won for the 1st time in 18 years.

The Orioles have since made the Playoffs in 1997, 2012, 2014 and 2016. But they still haven't won the World Series, or even a Pennant, since 1983.

Their fans still say they were robbed of a Pennant: If Garcia had made the correct call, interference, then Jeter would have been out, and the Orioles would have won Game 1, they still would have won Game 2, and would have been unstoppable in winning the Pennant, and would have beaten the clearly vulnerable Braves in the World Series.

But they didn't. It was all because of that kid.

The Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Blame Jeffrey Maier for the Baltimore Orioles losing the 1996 American League Pennant

5. Tony Tarasco. He blew the play. If he had tracked the ball properly, he would have gotten under it and jumped for it. Jeffrey Maier probably saved him from being the biggest goat in the history of Baltimore sports. Tarasco still owes Maier a steak dinner, in my opinion. At the very least, now that Maier is about to turn 39, he could buy him a beer.

4. Bernie Williams. He not only hit the Game 1 winner, but torched the O's in Games 3 and 4 in Baltimore as well.

3. The Bullpens. The Yankees had Graeme Lloyd, Jeff Nelson and a rookie named Mariano Rivera setting up John Wetteland. The Orioles had Benitez setting up Myers.

2. The Managers. Joe Torre kept his cool. Davey Johnson lost his cool. He got so upset over the call that his anger spread to his team. He could have calmed them down afterward and said, "Aw, forget it. We got screwed, but it's just one game. If we win Game 2 here tomorrow, we can come home with a tie, and we'll be in great shape to take this thing. Put it out of your minds and win tomorrow." He didn't.

This wasn't the first such example in postseason history, and it hasn't been the last. Frankly, I think the Mets won that 1986 in spite of Johnson, not because of any leadership he provided. A better manager, and the Mets might have won the Pennant in 1988, too, and at least won the National League East in 1985, 1987 and 1990.

1. The Yankees Were Better. Yes, they were. They did win the Division (the Orioles had won the Wild Card), they didn't need steroids (the Orioles had Rafael Palmeiro, who was caught, and Brady Anderson, who has never been publicly outed but whose season and career fit the profile), and they won all 3 games at Camden Yards.

The next season, the Cleveland Indians would win 2 of the 3 ALCS games in Baltimore. The Orioles have a record of 1-5 in ALCS games played at Camden Yards.

From their 1st postseason home game, Game 3 of the 1966 World Series, to Game 6 of the 1971 World Series, they were 13-2 in home postseason games. From Game 7 of the 1971 World Series to today, the Orioles' home record in postseason play is 13-18. That's at home.

Or, to put it another way, they have won just 1 home game in ALCS play in the last 38 years. And you can't say, "Curse of Camden Yards," because they were playing at Memorial Stadium for some of that. If you can't defend your home field in the Playoffs, you have no right to blame a kid in the stands at an away game.

The Yankees proved they were better going on to win that Pennant, a stretch of 6 Pennants and 4 World Championships in 8 years. The O's? Still looking for their 1st Pennant since Ronald Reagan's 1st term.

Jeffrey Maier went on to play baseball at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where he became the school's all-time hits leader. He served as an extra and assisted with baseball skills training for the actors in ESPN’s miniseries about the 1977 Yankees, The Bronx is Burning.

He now works with Internet company LeagueApps in Manchester, New Hampshire. Yes, Jeffrey Maier (who now prefers to be called Jeff) lives and works in "Red Sox Nation." Beyond that, his wife Andrea is a Sox fan.  He says, "I've been able to look past that flaw in her character." They have 3 children, all boys. Recent photos of him have been hard to come by.

Come to think of it, the Orioles' last World Series win came on October 16, 1983. Maier was born on November 15, 1983, just 1 month later.

The Curse of Jeffrey Maier? Or the Curse of Tony Tarasco?

 

October 9, 1986: The Fox Network Premieres

October 9, 1986, 40 years ago: The Fox television network premieres. The sitcom Married... with Children becomes its signature program, full of stereotyping and gross-out humor.

This would be followed by many animated shows that upped that ante, although it's hard to say that Homer Simpson of The Simpsons and Peter Griffin of Family Guy were less cartoonish than MWC's Al Bundy. Certainly, when it came to height of hair, the red har of MWC's Peg Bundy gave the blue hair of Marge Simpson of The Simpsons a run for its money.

In 1994, Fox Sports was developed. Although its Fox NFL Sunday pregame, halftime and postgame shows will be a lot of fun, their baseball broadcasting has always been terrible, and their hockey experiment flopped, in part due to a special effect called the "glow-puck." It was supposed to make the puck easier to find on the TV screen, but it backfired: Grownups found it distracting, and kids would wonder why the puck wasn't glowing when they were taken to live games.

In 1996, Fox News began, with a Sunday-morning program to compete with those of the big three (ABC, CBS and NBC) and CNN, a 24-hours news channel to compete with CNN, and the perennial dual lie that it was "fair and balanced."

The network claimed to stand for conservative values and traditional morality. And yet, it broadcast shows like Married... with Children and Temptation Island; and had news personalities like Bill O'Reilly and Tucker Carlson.

October 9, 1966: A World Series Sweep for Baltimore

Left to right: Brooks Robinson, Andy Etchebarren, Dave McNally

October 9, 1966, 60 years ago: Game 4 of the World Series is played at Memorial Stadium. This could be the clincher for the home team.

From 1902 to 1953, the St. Louis Browns were one of the least successful teams in what would become known as Major League Baseball. They won just 1 American League Pennant, in 1944. In only 3 other seasons -- 1902, 1922 and 1945 -- did they even come within 10 games of 1st place at the end of the season.

For the 1954 season, they were sold and moved, becoming the Baltimore Orioles. In 1960, they got into their 1st Pennant race. In 1964, with Hank Bauer managing them, and 3rd baseman Brooks Robinson winning the AL's Most Valuable Player award, they came within 2 games of the Pennant, behind the New York Yankees, with whom Bauer had won 9 Pennants as a right fielder.

In 1966, they obtained right fielder Frank Robinson. Having won the National League's MVP with the Cincinnati Reds in 1961, he was immediately named team Captain, and he led the O's to win the Pennant by 9 games over the defending Champion Minnesota Twins. The clincher came on September 22, a 6-1 win over the Kansas City Athletics, at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

Frank won the Triple Crown, and became the 1st player ever to win the MVP in both Leagues. In 2024, Shohei Ohtani became the 2nd.

To win the World Series, they would have to beat the defending Champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and their lefty-righty combination of ace pitchers, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. In Game 1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Polish-born reliever Moe Drabowsky had to bail out Dave McNally, and set a Series record for relief pitchers that still stands, with 11 strikeouts. Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson both hit 1st-inning home runs, and the Orioles beat the Dodgers, 5-2.

In Game 2, Dodger center fielder Willie Davis, having trouble seeing a white baseball against the smog-gray L.A. sky, committed 3 errors in 1 inning, enabling the Orioles to win 6-0, and head back to Baltimore with a 2-0 lead. Jim Palmer, 9 days short of his 21st birthday, outdueled Koufax, who struggled with the Oriole bats, Davis' fielding, and the pain in his elbow. Koufax hadn't told very many people yet, but he had already decided that this would be his last major league season, so this was his last game. He was not yet 31. This could be called a "generational hinge" game.

Game 3 was the 1st World Series game played in the State of Maryland. The host Orioles continued their shocking upset, beating the Dodgers, 1-0. Wally Bunker pitched a shutout.

Memorial Stadium, in its 1954-69 configuration

Game 4 was decided by a home run, when Frank Robinson took a Drysdale pitch deep over the left field fence in the 4th inning. The lone run being scored on a homer for only the 5th time in the history of the Fall Classic, and the complete-game shutout thrown by McNally, Baltimore completed the 4-game sweep.

It was the 1st World Championship won by a Baltimore baseball team in 70 years, since the original version of the Orioles won the 1896 National League Pennant. For the Dodgers, 33 consecutive innings without scoring a run is a Series record for futility. Their streak would run to 38 innings before they scored in the 5th inning of Game 1 of the 1974 World Series, and remains a record.

The Orioles went on to win 4 Pennants and the 1970 World Series under manager Earl Weaver, and the 1983 World Series under manager Joe Altobelli. The Dodgers, however, went into rebuilding mode, winning the Pennant again in 1974.

There are 5 players still alive from the 1966 World Champion Baltimore Orioles: Luis Aparicio, Jim Palmer, John "Boog" Powell, Russ Snyder and Wally Bunker.

October 8, 1956: Don Larsen's Perfect Game

October 8, 1956, 70 years ago: Game 5 of the World Series is played at the original Yankee Stadium in The Bronx. The previous year, the Brooklyn Dodgers had beaten the New York Yankees in the Series. They had previously been 0-7 in World Series, including 0-5 against the Yankees.

This time, the Dodgers had won Games 1 and 2 at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. This included the Game 2 start of the Yankees' Don Larsen, who didn't get out of the 2nd inning, but also didn't end up as the losing pitcher, since the Yankees came back to retake the lead, and then lost it again. The Yankees took Games 3 and 4 at Yankee Stadium.

For Game 5, Yankee manager Casey Stengel took a chance on Larsen, who'd had only 3 days rest (in those days, when it was an All-New York "Subway Series," there were no travel days), but had pitched less than 2 full innings. He also had a "no-windup delivery," which was easier on his arm.

A 27-year-old righthanded pitcher born in Michigan City, Indiana, who grew up in San Diego, Donald James Larsen was unremarkable for most of his career. Indeed, like the only man ever to pitch back-to-back no-hitters, Johnny Vander Meer of the 1938 Cincinnati Reds, he had a losing won-lost record for his career: 81-91. Much of that was due to his 3-21 performance for the 1954 Baltimore Orioles, although he did go 11-5 for the Yankees in the 1956 regular season.

Starting for the Dodgers was Sal Maglie, the former ace of the New York Giants and one of the most hated opponents in Brooklyn history, but who had come to the Dodgers in midseason and pitched a no-hitter of his own -- something he hadn't done for the Giants. It is still the last no-hitter pitched by a player for a National League team in New York -- unless you believe that Carlos Beltran’s line drive really was foul, thus giving Johan Santana a no-hitter for the Mets in 2012.

Maglie was a proven veteran, Larsen a journeyman. And Game 6 would be at Ebbets Field. If necessary, so would Game 7.

It wasn't looking good for the Bronx Bombers.

Here was the Dodgers' starting lineup:

2B 19 Jim "Junior" Gilliam
SS 1 Harold "Pee Wee" Reese
CF 4 Edwin "Duke" Snider
3B 42 Jackie Robinson
1B 14 Gil Hodges
LF 15 Edmundo "Sandy" Amoros
RF 6 Carl "The Reading Rifle" Furillo
C 39 Roy Campanella
P 35 Sal "The Barber" Maglie

Granted, Walter Alston was the manager of the defending World Champions, but what was he thinking? Robinson, an ideal leadoff man but not with much home run power, batting 4th? Furillo, a former batting champion, 7th? Campy, a terrific power hitter, 8th?!?

And for the Yankees:

RF 9 Hank Bauer
1B 15 Joe Collins
CF 7 Mickey Mantle
C 8 Lawrence "Yogi" Berra
LF 17 Enos Slaughter
2B 1 Billy Martin
SS 12 Gil McDougald
3B 6 Andy Carey
P 18 Don Larsen

The umpires were:

* At home plate, Ralph "Babe" Pinelli, a former 3rd baseman for the Cincinnati Reds, who was calling his last games before retiring after 22 seasons as a National League umpire.

* At 1st base, Hank Soar, an American League ump who had been a two-way back for the football New York Giants, appearing in 5 NFL Championship Games, winning in 1938.

* At 2nd base, Lynton "Dusty" Boggess, an NL ump and a former St. Louis Cardinal farmhand.

* At 3rd base, Larry Napp, an AL ump, a Brooklyn native, and a former minor league catcher, who would be the 1st base umpire for Catfish Hunter's perfect game in 1968.

* In left field, Tom Gorman, a Manhattan native who pitched 4 games for the Giants in 1939 before becoming an NL ump.

* And, in right field, Ed Runge, an AL ump whose son Paul and grandson Brian also became major league umps. 

At 1:02 PM, Eastern Time, Pinelli yelled, "Play ball!" and a crowd of 64,519 was ready to go. Larsen began the game by striking Gilliam out. He got to 3 balls on Reese, but struck him out. He would not get to 3 balls on another batter that day. He got Snider to line out to right. In the Yankee half of the 1st, Bauer popped to short, Collins was unable to beat out a bunt to 3rd, and Mantle flew to left.

The closest call came leading off the top of the 2nd inning, when Robinson hit a sharp grounder off Carey's glove. McDougald, who moved from 3rd to short in the Yankee lineup after Phil Rizzuto was released a few weeks earlier, took it, and just barely threw Robinson out. Larsen then struck Hodges out, and got Amoros to pop to 2nd. For the Yankees, Berra popped to short, Slaughter flew to left, and Martin struck out.

In the 3rd, Larsen got Furillo to fly to right, struck Campanella out, and got Maglie to line out to Mantle. McDougald grounded to 3rd, Carey popped up behind the plate where the ball was caught by Campanella, and Larsen did the same.

In the top of the 4th, Larsen got Gilliam to ground to 2nd, got Reese to do the same, and struck Snider out. Maglie, whom Dodger fans despised when he was the headhunting ace of their arch-rivals, actually had a perfect game going himself going into the bottom of the 4th. He got Bauer to ground to 2nd, and struck Collins out. But Mickey Mantle broke it up with a home run into the right field seats. It wasn't one of Mantle's famed towering drives, but it wasn't a "short porch" home run, either: It would have been a home run in just about any ballpark. Maglie then got Berra to line to center, but it was 1-0 Yankees.

In the 5th, Robinson hit a long fly to right, but Bauer caught it. Hodges came up, and drove the ball to Yankee Stadium's famed left-center "Death Valley." Mantle made a running, onehanded, backhanded catch. It was about 420 feet from home plate, and was nearly as remarkable as the 440-foot catch Willie Mays had made 2 World Series earlier. Perhaps even more so, since, unlike Willie, Mickey wasn't known as a spectacular fielder (though that may have been because so much fuss was made about his hitting). Larsen got Amoros to ground to 2nd.

Slaughter led off the bottom of the 5th with a walk. Martin tried to bunt him over, but the Dodgers got Slaughter as the lead runner. And then McDougald hit a line shot at Reese, who caught it, and threw over to Hodges to double Martin off. End of 5, Yankees 1, Dodgers 0.

Larsen got Furillo to pop up to 2nd, then got Campanella to do the same, and struck Maglie out. With 6 innings gone, people began to talk about the fact that a no-hitter was in progress. But old superstitions die hard. No one wanted to say the word "no-hitter" for fear of jinxing it.

After all, none had ever been pitched in the World Series before. The Yankees' Herb Pennock came within 4 outs of a perfect game in 1927. In 1947, the Yankees' Bill Bevens needed 1 more out against the Dodgers, but he had walked 10 batters, and Cookie Lavagetto cost him the game with a 2-RBI double. That was only 9 years earlier, and 1 Yankee from that game was in this one: Berra.

When Larsen sat down in the dugout, everybody near him got up and moved to the other end of the dugout. After the 7th, he purposely sat down next to Mantle, and said, "Hey, Mickey, can you believe I got a no-hitter going?" Mickey jumped up, and said, "Get away from me!"

Equally nervous was Berra, who said, many years later, "I think I woulda thought more about it if we had a 9-0 lead: 'Ooh, he's got a no-hitter goin'.' But, at 2-0, I was just worried about winning the game."

Yogi was right to worry. Snider was that season's NL home run leader and the previous season's RBI leader, and would end up with 407 career home runs. At the time, comparing him to Mantle and Willie Mays among New York's center fielders was no joke. Hodges would end his career with 370 home runs. Campanella had won 3 NL Most Valuable Player awards, and had been the NL RBI leader in 1953. That same year, Furillo had been batting champion. Robinson was batting champion and MVP in 1949. These were dangerous hitters, as Larsen had found out firsthand in Game 2.

Carey led off the bottom of the 6th with a single. Larsen sacrificed him to 2nd. Bauer singled him home. Collins singled, but Mantle grounded into a double play. End of 6: Yankees 2, Dodgers 0.

Top of the 7th: Larsen got Gilliam to ground to short, Reese to fly to center, and Snider to fly to left. Bottom of the 7th: Berra popped to 3rd, Slaughter flew to left, Martin singled to left, McDougald walked, and Carey grounded to short for a force play.

Top of the 8th: Robinson grounded back to Larsen. Hodges lined out to Carey. Amoros flew to center. Bottom of the 8th: Maglie was still pitching strong, and struck out the side: Larsen, Bauer and Collins.

Top of the 9th. A huge audience was watching Mel Allen call the game on NBC-TV, and listening to Bob Wolff on CBS radio. There had never been a no-hitter pitched in 53 years of World Series play. And the term "perfect game" wasn't widely known, either: It had been done by such luminaries as John Montgomery Ward, Cy Young and Addie Joss, but hadn't been done by anyone since another journeyman, Charlie Robertson, did it for the Chicago White Sox in 1922.

Furillo led off, and hit a long drive to right, which went barely foul. He flew to right again, but, this time, it was a comparatively easy catch for Bauer. Campanella grounded to 2nd. Just 1 out to go.

Alston sent Dale Mitchell up to pinch-hit for Maglie. As a Cleveland Indian, Mitchell had been in the opposing dugout for Mays' catch, but had always hit well against the Yankees. He was a .312 lifetime hitter, a 2-time All-Star, and a member of the Indians' 1948 World Champions. This would, however, turn out to be the last career at-bat for the 35-year-old lefty-hitting left fielder from Colony, Oklahoma.

Larsen threw a pitch that Pinelli called a ball. Then he threw a pitch that Pinelli called a strike.

At this point, Wolff told his audience, "I guarantee you that nobody, but nobody, has left this ballpark. And if somebody did, by chance, manage to leave early, man, he is missing the greatest! Here comes the pitch: A swing and a miss, strike 2!"

It was 3:08 PM. The count was 1-and-2. Larsen threw his 97th pitch of the afternoon. It snuck over the outside corner. Mitchell took the pitch. He died in 1987, still insisting that the pitch was a ball. Well, even if Pinelli had called it as such, the count would have been 2-and-2, and not to Mitchell's advantage.

But Pinelli called, "Strike three!" Ballgame over. Shutout over. No-hitter over. Perfect game over. Yankees win.

Wolff's call: "Two strikes, ball one, here's the pitch: Strike three! A no-hitter, a perfect game for Don Larsen! Yogi Berra leaps on Larsen!"

Two years later, Wolff would be behind the mike at Yankee Stadium again, calling the 1958 NFL Championship Game, in which the Baltimore Colts beat the football version of the New York Giants in overtime, the so-called "Greatest Game Ever Played."

It remains the greatest pitching performance in baseball history, and it was by an ordinary pitcher who was usually so unserious, his teammates called him Gooney Bird. But he had done what no other pitcher -- not Christy Mathewson, not Walter or Randy Johnson, not Lefty Grove, not Bob Feller, not Whitey Ford, not Sandy Koufax, not Bob Gibson, not Tom Seaver, not Steve Carlton, not Roger Clemens, not Greg Maddux -- has ever done: Pitch a no-hitter in the World Series. And he made it a perfect game. And he did it against the defending World Champions, with only a 2-0 lead, in what was really a must-win game.

The series shifted back to Ebbets Field. Bob Turley of the Yankees and Clem Labine of the Dodgers both went all 10 innings of Game 6, before a walkoff single by Jackie Robinson ensured a Game 7 for the Dodgers.

That Game 7 would prove calamitous for the Brooks, as Don Newcombe got shelled. Yogi hit 2 homers, Elston Howard added one, and Moose added another, a grand slam. Johnny Kucks pitched a 3-hit shutout, and the Yankees won, 9-0, avenging the previous year's defeat.

The last out was Jackie Robinson. Kucks struck him out, but Berra couldn't handle it. Perhaps remembering Game 4 of the 1941 World Series, where a similar play cost the Dodgers against the Yankees, Robinson ran to 1st. Unlike the ill-fated Mickey Owen in 1941, however, Yogi was able to get the ball, and throw Jackie out.

No one knew it at the time, but that was Jackie's last at-bat. He retired in the off-season. Also not known at the time: That Game 7 was the last World Series game the Brooklyn Dodgers ever played. After 1 more season, they moved to Los Angeles. At the same time, the Giants moved to San Francisco. There would not be another "Subway Series" until 2000, Yankees vs. Mets.

On May 17, 1998, David Wells pitched a perfect game for the Yankees. He went to the same high school as Larsen, Point Loma in San Diego. On July 18, 1999, the Yankees honored Yogi, and had him catch a ceremonial first ball from Larsen. Wells had been traded, so he wasn't there. David Cone pitched a perfect game as Larsen and Berra watched.

Yogi and Don, on an Old-Timers' Day

On September 21, 2008, the last game was played at the old Yankee Stadium. As part of pregame ceremonies, the 3 men who pitched perfect games there, and their catchers, assembled on the mound: Larsen and Berra, Wells and Jorge Posada, and Cone and Joe Girardi.

Left ot right: Girardi, Cone, Larsen, Berra, Wells, Posada

Larsen's gem is no longer the only no-hitter in postseason history. Roy Halladay turned the trick for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2010. Five Houston Astros pitchers combined to pitch a no-hitter against the Phillies in Game 4 of the 2022 World Series. But Larsen's perfecto is still the only perfect game in postseason history, and still the only no-hitter by a single pitcher in a game later than the Division Series.

In spite of having been a heavy drinker in his youth, which turned him prematurely gray, Don Larsen turned out to be the last surviving player from his perfect game, living until January 1, 2020, at the age of 90.

2026 Yankee Autopsy

The great comedian George Carlin was a Yankee Fan, and he would have had a few words for the Yankees' performance in the American League Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays.

At least seven words.

And I don't think his words would have included this line, from his next-most famous routine: "Baseball begins in the Spring, the season of new life. Football begins in the Fall, when everything is dying!"

But the Yankees' season did die last night. Cause of death: Apathy. The players seemed like they just didn't give a damn. The whole series seemed like that:

* Game 1: Gertit Cole pitched pretty well, but he allowed 1 home run, and the Yankees got one hit. 1-0.

* Game 2: Cam Schlittler was undone by his defense, and Aaron Boone panicked and took him out too early. 5-2. And in both games, Tropicana Field was sold out. I guarantee you: The vast majority of those people were not Tampa Bay Rays fans. They were people living in Florida who root for other teams, people who couldn't give much of a damn about the Rays, but hate the Yankees.

* Game 3: This was one of those "Let's see who wants to be here next season" games. Seemed like very few do. Max Fried was really good for 5 innings, but, still coming back from injury, he hasn't been able to go 6, and gave up a home run. 4-3. Sweep.

It wasn't much of an effort. It was unacceptable.

*

So, who needs to stay, and who needs to go? In descending order of how much they need to stay, here are the position players:

* Aaron Judge: Stay. But he must be kept healthy.

* Giancarlo Stanton: Stay. But he must be kept healthy.

* Ben Rice: Stay. He was the American League's most valuable player, in lower-case letters and possibly upcoming in Capital letters, this season. He carried the team most of the season, when Judge and Stanton were injured.

* Cody Bellinger: Stay. He hits, he fields, he wins.

* Spencer Jones: Stay. He could be the center fielder of the future.

* Paul Goldschmidt: Stay. Yes, he's 39. He can still hit. There was a stretch this season where he practically carried the team. Whether he should still be the starting 1st baseman is another matter, but he can still be a DH or a valuable pinch-hitter.

* George Lombard Jr.: Stay. He'll be 21 until next June. He needs a little seasoning, but he's going to be our shortstop of the future.

* Jasson Domínguez: Stay. He'll be 24 when Spring Training starts, presuming it starts on schedule. It's way too soon to give up on "The Martian."

* Anthony Volpe: Stay. Yes, I know, his fielding is questionable. But moving him to 2nd base is looking like it might solve 2 problems: Where to put him, and who to put there.

* Luis García Jr.: Stay. There was not enough of a sample size to dump him, and what we saw of him looked worth keeping.

* Heliot Ramos: Tough call, but I'm going to say Stay. He didn't hit enough, but he's younger than the next 2 entries, and we only need him to improve his contact hitting a little, to regain the power he showed with the San Francisco Giants. And we only need him as a reserve outfielder.

* Ali Sánchez: Tough call, but I'm gong to say Stay -- mainly because, right now, he's the best-hitting catcher we've got.

* Jazz Chisholm Jr.: Tough call, but I'm going to say Go. Good guy, some power, but we need an upgrade at 2nd base. We may already have won in Volpe.

* Trent Grisham: Tough call, but I'm going to say Go. Good guy, some power, but we need an upgrade in center field. We may already have one in Jones.

* José Caballero: Go. His defensive versatility doesn't make him a great defensive player, and it gets canceled out by is inability to hit.

* Amed Rosario: Go. Same details as Caballero. We don't need one guy like that, let alone two.

* Max Schuemann: Go. The outfield equivalent of the last 2 guys.

* Randal Grichuk: Go. Same as Schuemann.

* Ryan McMahon: Go. He batted .213. Good guy, good fielder, can't hit, and switching him to another position would not help.

* Oswaldo Cabrera: Go. One of Brian Cashman's precious "prospects" that didn't pan out. He's injury-prone. And, as Yogi Berra might have said if he'd lived, "Even when he can play, he can't play."

* Austin Wells: Go. I don't care how good a guy is, how good a teammate a guy is, or how good a fielder a player is: A .186 batting average is a hole in the lineup, and he has to go.

* J.C. Escarra: Go: Same category, and his .188 average is only slightly higher.

The starting rotation should be Cam Schlittler, Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodón, and either Will Warren or Ryan Weathers. That's in order of current worthiness, not necessarily in the order in which they should pitch. All should stay, but all of them must be kept healthy.

In the cases of Warren and Weathers, one will be in the rotation, while the other is the first man out of the bullpen, unless one of the other 4 starters gets hurt, in which case the one in the bullpen once again becomes a rotation slot-filler. In other words, starter-wise, we're set: For the first time in ages, the Yankees do not need to go out of their way to get a good starting pitcher.

Here are the relief pitchers:

* David Bednar: Stay. Ideally, we would have a better closer, and he'd be the 8th-inning man.

* Paul Blackburn: Stay. Like Bednar, he looks good to be the guy to get to The Guy, if somebody better than Bednar were The Guy.

* Brent Headrick: Stay. His WHIP is a little too high for a reliever, and if he became trade bait for something we need, I wouldn't get upset.

* Clarke Schmidt: Stay. He deserves another shot if for no other reason than that he's been hurt. He turns 31 during Spring Training. He could have several more years left. And I don't want Cashman to turn him into the next Nathan Eovaldi, starting for some other team and beating the Yankees, maybe a few times. But if he is going to stay with us, he'll be a reliever and maybe a spot starter.

* Luis Gil: Stay. He had a bad year, but he was coming back from injury, and -- if you're an Arsenal fan, you'll get the joke -- he's 28 until he's 29. (Next June.) He's still got a chance.

* Yerry de los Santos: Stay. Despite his injury, he pitched well when he could pitch at all.

* Elmer Rodríguez: Stay. He had a rough rookie season, but he's only 23. He can get better.

* Angel Chivilli and...

* Yovanny Cruz: Stay. Both were good when they weresn't hurt.

* Alexander Cornielle: Stay. He's only pitched in 1 major league game, on September 25, and he got hit hard. But he's 25, and pitched well in Class AAA. He deserves another shot.

* John Schreiber: Stay. He only pitched in 11 games, but was decent.

* Kervin Castro: Stay. He'll be 28 at Spring Training, so he's no longer a prospect, but he showed something in his 5 major league games this season.

* Justin Topa: Stay. He'll turn 36 during Spring Training, and only faced 16 batters this season, but might be worth it.

* Ryan Yarbrough: Go. A 3.69 ERA is too high for a reliever.

* Fernando Cruz: Go. No reason to keep him.

* Tim Hill: Go. A WHIP of 1.142 is good, but a 4.60 ERA is unacceptable for a reliever. If we need a lefty reliever, that's Headrick for now.

* Camilo Doval, Jake Bird, Michael Fulmer, Brendan Beck, Bradley Hanner: Go. Absolute dregs, all of them. None of these men even deserves to be on a major league roster, especially that of the Yankees.

So: 2027 Yankee needs -- assuming there is a 2027 MLB season -- in descending order: Catcher, closer, 3rd base, 2nd base.

*

After last night's game, Ben Rice said, "As far as I'm concerned, it's a failure, since we weren't able to get the job done." He was right.

Jazz Chisholm said, "It sucks to not finish it off." This is true. He also said, "This is where I want to be." He didn't play like it this season."

Aaron Judge said, "That's not good enough here in New York. We're the Yankees. You got to go out there and expect championships and go all in every year."

And Aaron Boone said, "The ending is terrible. It's the worst."

They're all saying the right things.

Brian Cashman said nothing. This is on him. 17 years, 1 Pennant, no World Series wins. 26 years, 4 Pennants, 1 World Series win.

Hal Steinbrenner also said nothing. This is on him, too. He needs to say something. He needs to say it to Boone, and he needs to say it to Cashman: "Goodbye."

After all, as I've said before: Firing Boone does nothing. Cashman will just hire another errand boy to do his bidding. Hal has to fire both of them, the way his father George would have, years ago.

One more time: If you fire the doll, but you keep the ventriloquist, then you are the dummy.

UPDATE: This afternoon, on Pardon the Interruption, Tony Kornheiser said Boone shouldn't be fired, because he was hampered by the Judge injury. But he also pointed out that, in postseason series, Boone is 7-0 against teams with a lesser record than the Yankees, and 1-8 against teams with the same or better record.

Answer me this: Why have the Yankees played nine postseason series in Boone's nine seasons as manager where the opposing team has an equal or better record? Follow-up question: Why have they only been able to pull the upset once? Follow-up to the follow-up: Wouldn't a better manager be able to pull the upset more than once?

One last question. It's the classic Vince Lombardi question: What the hell's goin' on out here?

October 7, 2016: The Trump "Access Hollywood" Tape Is Released

Left to right: Billy Bush, Donald Trump and Arianne Zucker

October 7, 2016, 10 yeares ago: It is 32 days until the Presidential election, between the Democratic Party's nominee, Hillary Clinton, former First Lady, Senator from New York, and Secretary of State; and the Republican Party's nominee, Donald Trump, a man with no political experience, and whose experience as a billionaire businessman was built on lies -- for example, the lie that he was a billionaire, rather than a billion dollars in debt.

The Washington Post releases a videotape from a never-aired interview on the NBC show Access Hollywood that correspondent Billy Bush -- a cousin of then-President George W. Bush -- did of The Apprentice star Donald Trump on September 16, 2005. On the tape, Trump and Bush are on a tour bus, outside the Hollywood studio where NBC taped the soap opera Days of Our Lives. Arianne Zucker, one of the show's stars, was waiting to greet them.

While waiting for the signal to get off the bus, Trump started talking about Bush's co-host on Access Hollywood, Nancy O'Dell:

I moved on her, and I failed. I'll admit it. I did try and fuck her. She was married. And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, "I'll show you where they have some nice furniture." I took her out furniture -- I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn't get there. And she was married. Then, all of a sudden, I see her, she's now got the big phony tits and everything. She's totally changed her look.

That was bad enough. But there's a difference between sounding like a sexist pig who cheats on his wife, which Trump was already known to be; and sounding like a violent criminal. As they got ready to get off the bus, Trump started talking about Zucker, and then confessed to committing sexual assault on multiple occasions:

I better use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful -- I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything.

Zucker was also married at the time, to her co-star, Kyle Lowder. They have since divorced.

NBC kept the tape hidden, because Trump's reality show, The Apprentice, meant big ratings, and thus big money, for them. At the time, the tape would have destroyed Trump, and ruined the show.

But by the time the tape was released, Trump was the Republican nominee for President, running against a woman. It should have destroyed him.

Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Republicans' 2012 nominee for Vice President, canceled a campaign appearance with him set for the next day, saying in a released statement, "I am sickened by what I heard today. Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified."

In a televised interview, Senator Mike Lee of Utah directed these words at Trump: "Step down. Allow someone else to carry the banner of these principles, rather than weighing down the very principles that will help us win in November." And Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus told Trump, "You need to step aside, or you are going to suffer a historic landslide of a defeat."

Trump released this statement: "This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course -- not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended."

Of course: The classic "if anyone was offended" apology, when he knew damn well that millions of people, including millions in his own Party, were offended. Equally "of course": "Whataboutism," bringing the opposition, and in particular his opponent's husband, the former President, into it.

Trump was lying, of course. There is no way in hell that Bill Clinton would say something worse than what Trump said. You gotta be an actual Ku Klux Klansman to say something worse than that.

Trump doubled down. In a televised interview that night, he said, "Bill Clinton has actually abused women. And Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims."

Up to that point, Bill Clinton was the most-investigated President in American history, much more so than Trump was during his 1st term in office. There is no proof that Clinton has ever abused a woman.

Trump did not give a damn what the truth was. He knew that there were millions of people in America who would believe every word he said, because he had given them permission to be bigoted in public again, and they were grateful to him for this, to the point of near-worship.

He also knew that there were millions of people in America who wanted tax cuts for the rich, deregulation of business, an end to civil rights progress, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade; and that they wanted these things so much, that they would vote for the Devil himself if he were the Republican nominee for President.

Campaigning in the Iowa Caucuses on January 23, 2016, Trump said, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" He didn't say he wouldn't be arrested. He said he wouldn't lose any voters. And he was probably right about that.

The one thing Trump believed could stop him is if he stopped himself. He saw dropping out of the race as a sign of weakness. And the appearance of weakness was the one thing he hated more than nonwhite people. So he made himself look defiant, bullish, strong, standing up to his enemies.

The RNC could have removed him from the ticket. They gambled that they had a better chance of winning with him than without him.

Trump's wife Melania said, "The words my husband used are unacceptable and offensive to me. This does not represent the man that I know." She added that she hoped "people will accept his apology, as I have." Only she knew for sure whether she was telling the truth at that moment.

Things actually got worse for Trump that day: U.S. intelligence agencies publicly accused the Russian government of using computer hacking to interfere with the U.S. election process. Trump had previously invited them to do it: At a news conference the preceding July 27, he said, "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."

And, also on October 7, WikiLeaks -- run by convicted rapist Julian Assange, who had ties to Russia -- released thousands of private emails from inside the Clinton campaign. And that may have, literally, made all the difference in the world: It gave a little more life to Trump's claims of his opponent as "Crooked Hillary," even though there was nothing in the emails that suggested any criminal activity on her part.

Two nights later, there was a Presidential debate, at Washington University in St. Louis, which had hosted such debates before. Trump not only invited, but held a press conference with, and seated in the front row of the debate, 3 women who had previously accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct: Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Juanita Broaddrick, all of whose accusations had been proven false. Interestingly, he did not invite Monica Lewinsky, whose story, which did not include any form of abuse on the President's part, was proven true. Or, if he did invite her, she turned him down.

The idea of putting those women in the front row was that Hillary would have seen them, been reminded of Bill's cheating on her, and been thrown off her game. She wasn't: As she did in the other 2 debates, she kicked his ass.

Nevertheless, Trump again reiterated his lies about Bill, and his lies about Hillary, and his lies about the Democrats, and his lies about himself. And the rubes bought it. As the historian Will Durant put it, "You can't fool all of the people all of the time, but you can fool enough of them to be elected the leader of a country."

As a result of the tape being released, the only person who had to step down from any role was Billy Bush, who did nothing wrong -- except, I suppose, remain silent about the tape for 11 years. By 2016, he was a correspondent on NBC's The Today Show, and he had to resign that post. In 2019, he was back on the air, on another show-business-themed show, Extra! -- which had been on NBC, but had since moved to, of course, Fox.

October 7, 2001: A Day of Records In Baseball

Rickey Henderson (left) and Tony Gwynn

October 7, 2001, 25 years ago: On the last day of the regular season -- delayed a week, due to the 9/11 attacks -- the Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres, 14-5 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego (formerly named San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium). Rickey Henderson, now with the Padres, bloops a double down the right-field line off John Thomson of the Colorado Rockies. It is the 3,000th hit of his career.

Tony Gwynn, who is playing in his last game, meets him at home plate, 2 members of the 3,000 Hit Club together. Gwynn retires with a .338 lifetime batting average, which remains the highest of any player who debuted after the 1939 season. (That was Ted Williams' rookie year, and he finished his career at .344.) It is also the highest of any black man, whether American or Hispanic.

Also on this day, Barry Bonds extends his major league record for home runs in season to 73*, as he drives a 3-and-2 1st-inning knuckleball off Los Angeles Dodger Dennis Springer over the right field fence at Pacific Bell Park (now named Oracle Park) in San Francisco.

The blast also secures two more major league records * for the San Francisco Giants' left fielder, as he surpasses Babe Ruth (1920, .847) with an .863* season slugging percentage, and bests Mark McGwire (1998, one homer every 7.27 AB *) by homering in every 6.52 at-bats *. The Giants beat the Dodgers, their arch-rivals, 2-1. Nevertheless, the Dodgers have made the Playoffs, and the Giants have not.

Indeed, it is a day of records. The Chicago Cubs lose to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4–3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Nevertheless, they become the 1st team in major league history to not allow an opposing pitcher to throw a complete game against them all season. Sammy Sosa closes out 2001 with his 64th * home run in his final at-bat of the game, and sets a new franchise record with 98 * extra base hits, one more than Hack Wilson had in 1930.

Sosa also finishes with another franchise record of 425 total bases (the 7th-best all-time total), 2 ahead of Wilson. His 160 RBI are the highest total in the NL since Wilson set the MLB record with 191 in 1930. Chuck Klein had 170 that same year. Sosa's RBI total for the past 4 years also breaks Klein's 4-year mark set in 1929-32. To finish out the record day, 5 Cubs pitchers combine for 12 strikeouts as the staff sets a major league record with 1,246 strikeouts. The Yankees do the same, setting an AL mark with 1,266 strikeouts.

As for the guy with whom Sosa battled for the single-season home run record in 1998, Mark McGwire plays his last game. He pinch-hits for Jim Edmonds in the bottom of the 9th, and flies to center, as the St. Louis Cardinals lose 9-2 to the Houston Astros at Busch Stadium. He finishes with 583 home runs.

It hadn't been all that long since people were thinking he had a shot at breaking Hank Aaron's record of 755. But it would be Bonds that broke it. At 38, McGwire should have had something left. But he battled injury and batted just .187 that season. The steroids caught up to him.

For the record, Bonds would finish his career with 762 home runs; Sosa, 609; McGwire, 583; Henderson; 297; and Gwynn, 135. They would finish with these totals of hits: Henderson, Gwynn, 3,141; 3,055; Bonds, 2,935; Sosa, 2,408; McGwire, 1,626. Batting average: Gwynn, .338; Bonds, .298; Henderson, .279. McGwire, .263; Sosa, .273. OPS+, keeping in mind the higher the better, and 100 is exactly average: Bonds, 182, 3rd all-time behind Babe Ruth and Ted Williams; McGwire, 163; Gwynn, 132; Sosa, 128; Henderson, 127.

Also on October 7, 2001, the Pittsburgh Steelers played their 1st game at Heinz Field, it having been postponed after the 9/11 attacks. They beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 16-7. In 2022, the stadium was renamed Acrisure Stadium.