The King and the Sultan

Recently, on Facebook, I saw somebody compare Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll, the greatest of all popular singers; to George Herman "Babe" Ruth, the Sultan of Swat, the greatest of all baseball players.

Actually, the Babe and Elvis are very comparable:

* Both were both very poor, yet got very rich.

* Both totally changed their respective professions for the better.

* Both were ridiculed by their predecessors as the best in the business; but, in each case, those predecessors swallowed their pride, acknowledged, the men's greatness, and became friends with them: The Babe with Ty Cobb, and Elvis with Frank Sinatra.

* Both had royal nicknames. The Babe had several.

* Both became better known for their workplaces than for their hometowns: Babe, Baltimore to New York; Elvis, Memphis to Las Vegas.

* The Babe played some preseason and postseason "barnstorming" games in Elvis' hometown of Memphis.

* Both made some bad movies. Both were better off playing, essentially, themselves: Ruth in the Harold Lloyd silent comedy Safety Last! and the Lou Gehrig movie The Pride of the Yankees; Elvis as singers Deke Rivers, Vince Everett and Danny Fisher in, repsectively Loving You, Jailhouse Rock and King Creole.

* Both were renowned for their comebacks: Elvis in 1923, 1926 and 1932; Elvis in 1960 and 1968.

This photo, taken at a war bond drive game

at Yankee Stadium in 1942, is colorized, but otherwise real.

* Babe had 2 daughters, Elvis 1. Neither had any sons -- which may have been for the best: Being Babe Ruth Jr. or Elvis Presley Jr. might have been too much pressure. After all, Mickey Mantle Jr. never got out of the low minors, and he and Joe DiMaggio Jr. both became alcoholics.

* Both struggled with their weight, gaining it, losing it, and regaining it.

* Both died too young, due to substance abuse, and on an August 16: Babe from nicotine at 53 in 1948, Elvis from abuse of diet pills at 42 in 1977.

* Both were essentially "managed" by their wives after their deaths, making more money than they did while they were alive: Babe by Claire, Elvis by Priscilla.

* And Babe's birthplace, a rowhouse in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, and Elvis' home, the Graceland mansion south of Memphis (actually closer to the Mississippi State Line than to downtown), have been museums and major tourist attractions.

There were, of course, some significant differences. Perhaps the biggest is that the Babe is seen as a figure of his time, the Roaring Twenties, 100 or so years ago, an era whose films are in black & white, and silent; while Elvis is a product of post-World War II America, whose career was based in sound, and lived as part of the transition of popular culture from black & white to color. We've seen him on clear color videotape. He feels recent, even though it's been almost half a century since his death; while the Babe seems like a long-ago figure. He seems like a guy our grandparents rooted for. Elvis seems like a current friend.

From the "Comeback Special," 1968

And yet, kids today know who Babe Ruth is, just as they know who Elvis Presley is. "Is," not "was." Though they are long dead, they still live within us. Because they were the best there's ever been at what they did.

To both of them, I give Elvis' words: "Thank you very much."

August 15, 1966: The New York Herald Tribune Folds

The July 15, 1953 edition

August 15, 1966, 60 years ago: The New York Herald Tribune publishes its last edition, ending a great tradition of journalism.

New York had been a newspaper city for over 100 years. Even the growth of radio hadn't stopped that. Nor had the 1924 merger of the Herald, once the paper of James Gordon Bennett Sr. and Jr., with the Tribune, once the paper of Horace Greeley and the leading voice of the drive to abolish slavery in America prior to the Civil War.

Nor had the merger of the morning American and the afternoon Journal, both owned by William Randolph Hearst's company, in 1937. Nor had the merger of the World, once the paper of Joseph Pulitzer and the publisher of The World Almanac, with the Telegram in 1931, or the 1950 merger of the combined "World-Telly" with The Sun, the paper that declared in an 1897 editorial, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."

Nor had radio really hurt the newspaper business. Quite the contrary: Many of the early radio stations were founded by newspapers, and provided a great new source of revenue for them. Indeed, Chicago's best-known radio station, WGN, was founded by The Chicago Tribune, which named the station for the nickname it had chosen for itself: "The World's Greatest Newspaper."

But what radio didn't do, or even try to do, television, however inadvertently, did: It killed the institutions of the afternoon newspaper and the evening newspaper. It was bad enough for papers that there was a 6:00 news broadcast on local TV stations every night. But with the addition of an 11:00 news for when people were going to bed, and the promos throughout prime-time programming of a story they could watch on the news, with the tagline, "Film at 11," the need for an afternoon or an evening paper was gone.

Then came the newspaper strike of late 1962 and early 1963. New York has had newspaper strikes since, but no strike in the history of the American labor movement has hurt an industry more than this one. Several of the papers never recovered. The Mirror published its last edition on October 16, 1963.

The remaining papers did whatever they could to survive, from cutting costs by laying off famous columnists to appealing to the rising Baby Boom generation. The Journal-American, in particular, had gambled on gaining younger readers with heavy coverage of The Beatles' visits in 1964 and 1965, something you wouldn't expect a conservative broadsheet to do.

They even hired the famed "pop psychologist," Dr. Joyce Brothers, to analyze the Beatles from a distance. And they had the top entertainment columnist in New York, Dorothy Kilgallen, "The Voice of Broadway" and one of the panelists on CBS' What's My Line?, write about rock and roll for the first time.

But they lost their biggest asset on November 8, 1965, when Kilgallen died, apparently from an accidental overdose of pills, at the age of 52. The next year, a long-running power struggle between Hearst company CEO Richard Berlin and the Hearst family did the paper in. The paper's last edition was published on April 24, 1966.

The E.W. Scripps Company gave up on the World-Telegram & Sun the day before, April 23, 1966. The Daily News bought the rights to The World Almanac, and its parent company still publishes it today, although it's really a waste of money, given how easy it is to look things up on the Internet.

The Herald Tribune, long the beacon of America's "liberal Republicans," with one of the finest sports sections in the country, hung on a little longer, until August 15, 1966. It was the most direct competitor to The New York Times, which eulogized:

The death of The New York Herald Tribune stills a voice that for a century and a quarter exerted a powerful influence in the affairs of nation, state and city. It was a competitor of ours, but a competitor that sought survival on the basis of quality, originality and integrity, rather than sensationalism or doctrinaire partisanship.

For a while, the 3 papers that failed that year tried to band together: The World Journal Tribune began publishing on September 12, 1966. But instead of combining the best aspects of all 3 papers, it seemed to combine the worst ones, and the money problems of all 3. The WJT, or "Widget," never caught on, and Scripps (W-T&S) and Hearst (J-A) pulled the plug on May 5, 1967.

And so, New York City, which had 10 daily newspapers as recently as 1924, and 7 as recently as the Summer of 1963, was down to 3: The Times, the Daily News and the Post. The Daily News and the Post have each survived 2 existential crises since then, as well as their ideological flip-flop of 1976: Rupert Murdoch bought the Post, turning it from a paper for liberal intellectuals, especially Jewish ones, to a populist conservative paper, as the Daily News had been; and the News then became a liberal paper, though still taking conservative positions on crime in New York (helping Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani get elected Mayor), the Israeli-Arab conflict, and Cuba.

I like to say that the Times is the face that New York City likes to show the rest of the world, the Daily News is the face it likes to show to itself, and the Post is a face only a mother could love. But not my mother, nor hers. Grandma, a Queens native, had nothing good to say about any New York paper except the Times. In particular, she said the Mirror was "lousy."

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

Babe Herman

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dazzy Vance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chick Fewster, earlier in his career,

with the Cleveland Indians

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

V is for Vance

The Dodgers' very own Dazzy.

None of his rivals

Could throw as fast as he.

Yanks Got to Get Them Healthy

The Yankees had a home midweek series with the Seattle Mariners. In 3 games, they allowed 7 runs. Sounds like a sweep, right?

Sadly, that was not the case.

Tuesday night went well. Ryan Weathers went 5 2/3rds innings, allowing 1 run on 2 hits and 3 walks. Tim Hill got the last out in the 6th and pitched the 7th, Brent Headrick pitched the 8th, and David Bednar the 9th; and a 1-out single from Bednar was the only baserunner the bullpen allowed.

But it was 1-0 Mariners at the 7th inning stretch. Then... It's too bad there's no player named Daniel on the roster, because this team could be called "Danny & the Juniors." Luis García Jr. led off with a double, Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled, and George Lombard Jr. struck out. Spencer Jones walked to load the bases, and Ryan McMahon singled García and Chisholm home. Austin Wells singled, and Trent Grisham singled Jones and McMahon home. That was the ballgame: Yankees 4, Mariners 1. Hill was the winning pitcher.

Wednesday night got off to a rough start, as Will Warren allowed 3 runs in the 1st inning, and 1 each in the 3rd and the 5th. But 5 relievers went 5 innings, allowing no runs on 3 hits and 3 walks. The Yankees got a run in the 2nd, and 2 in the 3rd, and tied it up in the 5th, on a home run by Grisham, followed by back-to-back doubles by Ben Rice and Jones.

With 1 out in the 7th, and the game still 5-5, Lombard singled. Grisham doubled him home. Rice singled Grisham home. Jones was hit by a pitch. García struck out. Heliot Ramos, in spite of hitting poorly since the Yankees acquired him, was intentionally walked, so that the M's could face the struggling Chisholm. But he drew his own walk to force Rice home. It was 8-5.

In the 8th, Lombard singled, and Grisham hit one out. That made the final score 10-5. Paul Blackburn, having allowed just 1 walk in an inning and 2/3rds, was the winning pitcher.

Then came the dreaded day game after a night game. Max Fried, still working his way back from injury, was strong for 5 innings, making 1 mistake, a 2nd inning home run to Weston Wilson. Between them, Fried and 3 relievers allowed just the 1 run on 5 hits and 3 walks, striking out 10.

But Logan Gilbert made sure the Yankees got nowhere. They wasted a leadoff double by García in the 2nd, 1-out singles by Ali Sánchez and Grisham in the 3rd, a 1-out single by García in the 4th, and a 1-out walk by Rice in the 6th. José Caballero and McMahon walked in the 7th, but couldn't be brought home, and the Yankees went down meekly in the 8th and the 9th. Great pitching, wasted: Mariners 1, Yankees 0.

*

We have reached the point where one of my annual tropes comes in: If the number of games behind is less than the number of weeks left in the regular season, there's still hope. If you can gain an average of one game a week, you can win the Division.

There are 7 weekends and 6 full weeks left. And the Yankees trail the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Eastern Division by... six and a half games. 6 1/2. And, Cliché Alert: It's 7 in the All-Important Loss Column. The Boston Red Sox trail by 9 1/2 (10), the Toronto Blue Jays by 16 1/2 (15), and the Baltimore Orioles by 16 1/2 (17). The Yanks still hold the 4th spot the AL Playoff seedings. The Yanks, Sox and O's have 41 games left; the Rays, 42; the Jays, 39.

Here's those remaining 41 games:

* Starting tonight, and running through Sunday: At Toronto.

* August 18 to 20: At Baltimore.

* August 21-23: Home to Toronto.

* August 25-27: Home to Houston.

* August 28-30 (4 games, including a doubleheader on the 29th): Home to Boston.

* August 31-September 2: Away to the Los Angeles Angels.

* September 4-6: Away to San Diego.

* September 8-10: Home to Colorado.

* September 11-13: Home to the Mets.

* September 14-16: Away to Minnesota.

* September 18-20: Away to Arizona.

* September 22-24 (4 games, including a doubleheader on the 22nd): Home to Tampa Bay.

* September 25-27: Home to Baltimore.

But, since the All-Star Break, the Yankees have a team ERA of 2.93, best in the AL; but a team batting average of .210, worst in the AL. That's what happens when you have Judge, Stanton and Bellinger, and all of them are injured at the same time.

Injury updates, in current presumed order of return:

* Carlos Rodón: Had what may be his last minor-league rehab start last night. His next start may be in the series in Baltimore.

* Cody Bellinger: Has been taking batting, running and fielding practice. Three days ago, Aaron Boone said he was at "90 percent of his top speed." He might also be back for the Baltimore series.

* Luis Gil: Began minor-league rehab relief appearances 3 days ago. He probably won't return until at least the next homestand, on August 21. If he pitches at all in the regular season, he could be key to straightening out the bullpen.

* Giancarlo Stanton: Has begun running, as well as hitting and fielding. Could return before September 1.

* Clarke Schmidt: Had cramping in his right forearm during a "live batting practice" session on August 4. Has resumed playing catch, but hasn't yet thrown off a mound again. I wouldn't expect him back before September 1.

* Aaron Judge: Has been "cleared for light exercises," which is vague as hell. Who knows? Maybe they should just shut him down until the last week, and then unleash him in time for the postseason.

Got to get them healthy, especially those hitters.

August 12, 1936: The Biggest Baseball Crowd -- In Berlin?

Bill Sayles. The "B" stands for "Brooklyn," not "Berlin."

August 12, 1936, 90 years ago: What was definitely the biggest crowd in baseball history to that point, and may still be, sees a game in... Nazi Germany?

After having been a "demonstration sport," rather than an actual competition, at the Olympic Games in Paris in 1900, and again in Stockholm, Sweden in 1912, baseball returned to Olympic display, though still not yet joining official Olympic competition, in 1936.

There was a single exhibition game, played at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. Since Olympic competitors had to be amateurs until 1992, all of the players in the game were Americans who had not yet played in the minor leagues, let alone in the major leagues. The umpire was Leslie Mann, whose 16-year major league career included playing as an outfielder for the 1914 World Series-winning "Miracle" Boston Braves. He had been among the leading advocates for putting baseball in the Olympics.

The "visiting team," the one batting 1st, was called the "U.S. Olympics." The "home team" was called the "World Champions." The game was set for 7 innings. The game was set for 8:00 PM, and for most of the players, this would be their 1st experience in a night game. (The 1st night game in MLB had been played the season before, at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, but that was still the only major league park with lights.)

Although the Olympiastadion was built for soccer and for track & field events, and didn't have room for a standard baseball field, I can find no reference to whether any accommodation was made for any "short fences."

The Berlin Olympiastadion

A crowd then estimated at 90,000 came out. Officially, the biggest crowd that had ever attended a single Major League Baseball game (rather than a doubleheader) was the 74,217 who were said to have attended the opening game of the original Yankee Stadium in 1923. (And that was almost certainly a lie, exaggerated by around 12,000 or so.)

But the Associated Press reported the crowd as being over 100,000, without getting any more specific than that. If so, then this remained a record for any baseball game until 2008, when 115,300 packed into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for an exhibition game. Regardless of the actual total, neither the Chancellor of Germany at the time, Adolf Hitler, nor any official of the Nazi Party, was said to have attended.

For the U.S. Olympics, 1st baseman Bill Shaw hit a 2-run home run in the 1st inning. At the end of 6 innings, the World Champions led, 5–4. The Olympics scored in the top of the 7th to tie the game, before Les McNeece hit a solo home run, what would now be called a walkoff home run, in the bottom of the 7th, to win the game for the World Champions, 6-5.

Bill Sayles was the starting pitcher for the World Champions. He was the only player in this game who would go on to play in the major leagues: He pitched in 5 games for the Boston Red Sox in 1939, 18 for the New York Giants in 1943, and 5 for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943, with a record of 1-3, and an ERA of 5.61. Most likely, he made those 1943 appearances solely because of the manpower drain caused by the war the Nazis started. He lived on until 1996.

Baseball would once again be a demonstration sport at the Olympics in Helsinki, Finland in 1952, and then occasionally, until finally becoming an official competition sport in Barcelona, Spain in 1992. After 2008 in Beijing, it was dropped. It was restored for Tokyo in 2020 (2021), but dropped again for Paris in 2024. It will be restored for Los Angeles in 2028, with a 6-team tournament to be played entirely at Dodger Stadium, during a planned 11-day break in the Major League Baseball season.

August 12, 1676: The Death of Metacomet Ends King Philip's War

August 12, 1676, 350 years ago: Metacomet, the Sachem of the Wampanoag tribe, is killed in battle. This ends what the English colonists in America called "King Philip's War." Which was nasty.

He was believed to have been born in 1638, in Massachusetts. His father Massasoit and his older brother Wamsutta were Sachem before him. But they died in quick succession in 1661 and 1662 and Metacomet believed they were poisoned by the English. Wamsutta's widow, Weetamoo, became a key ally, and let him marry her sister, Wootonekanuske.

In 1660, Wamsutta and Metacomet went to the court of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and requested English names. Wamsutta was named Alexander, and Metacomet was named Philip. This may have been foreshadowing of later trouble, although Alexander the Great was the son of King Philip II of Macedonia; in this case, a Philip followed a relative named Alexander as king.

"King Philip," as the English now knew him, used tribal alliances to coordinate efforts to push European colonists out of New England. Many of the native tribes in the region wanted to push out the colonists following conflicts over land use, diminished game as a consequence of expanding European settlement, and other tensions.

To the west, the Iroquois Confederation of New York was also fighting against neighboring tribes in the Beaver Wars, pushing them from the west and encroaching on Metacom's territory. Finally, in 1671, the colonial leaders of the Plymouth Colony forced major concessions from Metacomet. He surrendered much of his tribe's armament and ammunition, and agreed that they were subject to English law.

The encroachment continued until hostilities broke out on June 20, 1675, when a band of Pokanokets attacked several isolated homesteads in the small Plymouth colony settlement of Swansea, burning several homes, likely against Phillip's approval. 

As the colonists brought their growing numbers to bear, King Philip and some of his followers took refuge in the great Assowampset Swamp in southern Massachusetts, in the area now occupied by New Bedford and Fall River. He held out for a time, with his family and remaining followers.

On August 12, 1676, hunted by a group of rangers led by Captain Benjamin Church, Metacomet was fatally shot at Mount Hope, now part of Bristol, Rhode Island, by John Alderman, a "praying Indian" (a Native American who had converted to Christianity), whose brother had been killed by Metacomet's men. The Sachem was probably 38 years old.

Metacomet's head was severed, and mounted on a pike at the entrance to Plymouth, where it stayed for over 20 years. Alderman was given Philip's right hand as a trophy. Remaining Native Americans that weren't killed during the war relocated to join other tribes or reservations, while many Native American leaders were sold into slavery, including Wootonekanuske and the one son that Metacomet was known to have had, taken to the English colony of Bermuda. The Mitchell family of Middleboro, Massachusetts claimed to be descended from that son.

King Philip's War is considered by many to be the deadliest war in Colonial American history. In the space of little more than a year, 12 of the region's towns were destroyed, and many more were damaged. The economy of the Plymouth and Rhode Island Colonies was ruined, and they lost 1/10th of all men available for military service -- literally, decimated. And they were still better off in the end than their opponents: Hundreds of Wampanoags and their allies were publicly executed or enslaved, and the Wampanoags were left effectively landless.

It was the last-ditch effort by Native tribes to expel the colonists from New England. Instead, it turned out to be the beginning of the development of an independent American identity. The New England colonists faced their enemies without support from any European government or military, and this began to give them a group identity separate and distinct from England.

Disclaimer: Much of this post is taken from Wikipedia's entries on Metacomet and the war.

Yankees Pitching Great But Need Their Injured Hitters Back

In their home Interleague series with the Atlanta Braves this weekend, the Yankees' 3 starting pitchers combined to go 20 1/3rd innings, allowing 3 runs on 11 hits and 2 walks, striking out 27.

Unfortunately, in the 1st 6 innings of each game, the Yankees themselves only got 3 runs on 12 hits and 6 walks. That's not enough.

Max Fried was terrific on Friday night: 6 1/3 innings, no runs, 3 hits, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts. But the Braves' Tyler Mahle pitched 6 shutout innings. And because Fernando Cruz and Tim Hill each allowed a run, the Yankees went into the bottom of the 9th trailing, 2-0.

But with 1 out, rookie shortstop George Lombard Jr. hit an infield single. After Ryan McMahon struck out, Austin Wells, who needed a big hit as much as any Yankee has in recent memory, doubled him home. Amed Rosario worked a walk, and Ben Rice singled Wells home. Heliot Ramos was hit by a pitch, and Luis García Jr. grounded out. The game went to extra innings.

David Bednar got the Braves out 1-2-3 in the top of the 10th. With 1 out in the bottom of the 10th, rookie center fielder Spencer Jones was walked intentionally, to set up the inning-ending double play. But Tyler Kinley then walked Lombard unintentionally to load the bases with 1 out. McMahon flew out to right field, a position at which the Braves' Ronald Acuña Jr. probably has the best arm since prime Ichiro Suzuki. But even he couldn't throw Jones out, and the Yankees won, 3-2.

*

Saturday afternoon was Old-Timers Day. From my childhood, Reggie Jackson, Ron Guidry, Mickey Rivers, Willie Randolph and Bucky Dent appeared. From the 1996-2003 dynasty, Joe Torre, Mariano Rivera, Paul O'Neill, Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez, Jorge Posada, Joe Girardi and David Cone were on hand -- but not Derek Jeter. It's depressing to think of the 2009 Yankees as "old-timers," but there were Hideki Matsui and Nick Swisher.

New Hall-of-Famer CC Sabathia didn't come, but he lives in California, and will be back for his Monument Park dedication in September. Alex Rodriguez also did not come, although, as a broadcaster, he may have been working. Same with Don Mattingly, now managing the Philadelphia Phillies.

Also introduced were Diana Munson, widow of Thurman; Kay Murcer, widow of Bobby; and Jill Martin, widow of Billy. Helen Hunter, widow of Catfish, did not attend this time.

It now appears to be too far back for even the last survivors of the 1950s and 1960s Yankees to come, as there was no sign of Bobby Richardson or Al Downing, and Tony Kubek has only come once, and that was when he had a book to promote. And Tommy John, who has been battling cancer, sent a message that suggests that, next year, he'll be among those names read off at the end, as "members of the Yankee family who have passed away within the last year."

When it's Old-Timers Day, or the day of a dedication for Monument Park, I'm concerned that the current Yankees won't live up to the standard that the legends set. Thankfully, my fears were not realized this time.

It was supposed to be a duel of aces, of potential future Hall-of-Famers. Gerrit Cole went 7 innings, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits and no walks, striking out 9. For his career, he is now 159-85, with a 3.18 ERA, a 1.088 WHIP, and 2,338 strikeouts. In contrast, Chris Sale, now 157-95, 2.96, 1.044 and 2,730, was nearly as good, but not quite.

(Justin Verlander, with 266, is the active leader in wins. Max Scherzer is 2nd, with 222. Cole is 3rd, and Sale is 4th. No other active pitcher even has 140 wins. Let that sink in. In strikeouts, Verlander has 3,554, Scherzer has 3,516, Sale is 3rd, Cole is 4th, and only 4 other guys have 2,000, although Jacob deGrom is now 5 short of that milestone.)

Ben Rice hit his 32nd home run of the season. Lombardi hit his 2nd, the 2nd of his career. He hit it to the opposite field, to right field, over the head of Mike Yastrzemski, grandson of Carl. Broadcaster Michael Kay invoked Bill White in the Bucky Dent Game in 1978: "Hit deep to right field, Yastrzemski will not get it, it's a home run!" The Yankees won, 5-4.

*

But Sunday afternoon would be frustrating. Cam Schlittler was brilliant: Over the 1st 6 innings, he allowed just 1 hit, and no walks, striking out 9. But in the top of the 7th, it was still 0-0, and he gave up a home run to Mat Olson. He finished the inning, having allowed 1 run on 3 hits, no walks, and 11 K's. Most days, that would have been enough to win.

But the Yankees couldn't do much against Grant Holmes. They went down 1-2-3 in the 1st, the 4th, 

They wasted a 1-out single by Jazz Chisholm in the 2nd, wasted a leadoff walk by McMahon in the 3rd, wasted a 1-out walk by Jones in the 5th, had Wells on 3rd and Trent Grisham on 2nd with 1 out in the 6th and blew it, and wasted a 1-out walk by Chisholm in the 7th.

With 2 out in the 8th, Grisham hit a home run to take Cam off the hook. But the Yankees went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 9th. Extra innings again. The damn ghost runner again. Paul Blackburn gave up a run in the top of the 10th, and the Yankees went down quietly in the bottom half. Braves 2, Yankees 1. The Yankees took the series against the Braves, who lead the National League Eastern Division. But the series ended up being rather unsatisfying.

*

The Yankees come into today at 66-52, a winning percentage of .559, and thus a pace to go 90-72. That's usually good enough to make the Playoffs, but not to win the American League Eastern Division.

The Yankees trail the Tampa Bay Rays by 6 games. The Boston Red Sox trail them by 8, the Baltimore Orioles by 15 1/2, and the Toronto Blue Jays by 16. The Yankees have 44 games to play, roughly the last one-quarter of the regular season.

Cliché Alert: Connie Mack, who managed and owned the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 years, is credited with the saying, "Pitching is 75 percent of baseball." Billy Martin definitely said, "Connie Mack lied."

Well, in spite of all the injuries, the Yankees have, for the most part, gotten superb starting pitching this season. And closer David Bednar has been very good. But the rest of the bullpen has been shaky. (That's almost worth a Cliché Alert right there.) And, except for Ben Rice, the big hitters have gotten hurt, and nobody has really stepped up in a noticeable way.

As to the injuries:

* Carlos Rodón is pitching in minor-league rehab assignments, and the results have been encouraging. He is expected to make one more minors start, and then rejoin the team for the roadtrip starting this weekend.

* Cody Bellinger started taking on-field batting practice last Tuesday. He might also be back this weekend, which would be a big boost.

* Giancarlo Stanton is also taking live batting practice and doing his outfield running. He could be back sometime before August runs out.

* Clarke Schmidt "is expected to resume throwing from a mound in the next several days." It sounds like he might be back by the start of September.

* Aaron Judge has been "cleared for light exercises, including outdoor running and upper-body resistance training." We can be hopeful for a September return for the man who was on pace to be the AL's Most Valuable Player again.

The Yankees close this homestand with 3 games against the Seattle Mariners: Tonight and tomorrow night at 7:05, and Thursday afternoon at 1:35. Come on you Pinstripes!