August 17, 1876: Richard Wagner Completes His "Ring Cycle"

August 17, 1876, 150 years ago: Götterdämmerung premieres, as part of the opening festival of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, Bavaria, Germany. It is the 1st performance in the final part of Richard Wagner's operas, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung).

Born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig, Saxony, Richard Wagner (pronounced "REE-kard VOG-ner"), 61 years old at the time of the opening, had the concert hall designed to his specifications, and, in a 5-day stretch, it produced all 4 parts of the "Ring Cycle":

* August 13: Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold). Premiering in Munich in 1869, it tells the story from Norse mythology of Alberich, from the race of dwarves known as the titular Nibelung, stealing gold from the Rhine River in Germany, and making an all-powerful ring from it. Wotan (usually written as "Odin"), king of the Norse gods, steals the ring, and Alberich puts a curse on the ring and its possessors. (J.R.R. Tolkien wouldn't publish The Hobbit until 1937.) 

* August 14: Die Walküre (The Valkyrie). Premiering in Munich in 1870, it tells of the valkyrie Brünnhilde, who saves the lives of the unwittingly incestuous couple Sieglinde and Siegmund, and of the retribution of the gods that each of them must face.

* August 15: A night off.

* August 16: Siegfried. As with Götterdämmerung the next evening, this was the 1st performance of this opera.

* August 17: Götterdämmerung (The Twilight of the Gods -- in Norse, Ragnarök). A final battle occurs, and the world as the Norse gods knew it is destroyed, and humanity must start over without them.

Wagner Festspielhaus

The Cycle was one of the greatest successes in the history of classical music, and, despite its length (about 18 hours if played straight through) and its elaborate costuming, remains popular today. This is in spite of the familiar jab, "Wagner's music is better than it sounds." This is one of many quotes attributed to Mark Twain. Of course, many quotes attributed to Twain actually came from other people, and he properly credited another humorist of that time, Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye. (He was not related to the later Bill Nye the Science Guy.)

It is also in spite of the fact that it has led to the association of horned helmets with the Norse gods and Viking warriors. Such headgear would be ridiculous, because it would give an opponent something to grab onto, and hold a fighter in place. Still, football teams named the Vikings, including the NFL team in Minnesota, with its large population of people of Scandinavian descent, have renderings of horns as their helmet logo.

It's also given rise to the image of Brünnhilde as a fat woman wearing armor and a horned helmet, and the stereotyping of female opera singers in general as fat. As Brünnhilde is the last character to sing in the Cycle, it led to the expression, "The opera ain't over 'til the fat lady sings."

The Cycle's continued popularity is also in spite of the fact of Wagner's recorded anti-Semitism, and thus his music's embrace by the Nazis over half a century later, particularly by Adolf Hitler himself. Since the story ties ancient Germany to the Norse mythology (however dubiously), Hitler once gave a speech saying that Wagner's works "glorified the heroic Teutonic nature." He ordered that Wagner's music be played at many Nazi events.

(Not all Nazis liked it, though: Hanns Johst, a poet approved by the Nazis, said, "When I hear the word 'culture,' I reach for my gun." That line is usually misattributed to Hitler's second-in-command, Hermann Göring.)

Act 3 of Die Walküre begins with an orchestral piece titled Ritt der Walküren, or Ride of the Valkyries. Lasting only 3 minutes, it is Wagner's best-remembered composition, and has been used in many films and TV shows, sometimes in parody.

D.W. Griffith used it for his silent film epic Birth of a Nation in 1915 (as if Wagner hadn't been connected to bigotry enough). Francis Ford Coppola used it for a helicopter scene in his 1979 Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now -- although, in the Ring Cycle, it's Götterdämmerung that is the apocalypse.

In 1957, Warner Brothers made the Bugs Bunny cartoon What's Opera, Doc? in which Elmer Fudd, wearing a Viking "magic helmet," claims, singing to the tune, that he wants to "Kill de wabbit, kill de wabbit, kill de wabbit!" And he does, and yet is remorseful over it. The movie ends with Bugs coming back to life, breaking the fourth wall, and saying, "Well, what did you expect in an opera, a happy ending?"

Because the field of play for boxing is known as a ring, even though it is square in modern times, the Rocky films have also been nicknamed "The Ring Cycle."

Wagner died on February 13, 1883, at age 68, still a big musical star by the standards of the era, but before any of this legacy was cemented.

Katharina Wagner, great-granddaughter of Richard, a great-great-granddaughter of Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt, and a noted opera singer and director in her own right, is the current director of the annual Bayreuth Festival. She had previously co-run it with her much-older half-sister, Eva Wagner-Pasquier, who retired in 2010.

Katharina Wagner

In 2010, she announced that she was going to visit Israel, to invite the Israel Chamber Orchestra to come to the 2011 Bayreuth Festival, in the hopes of reconciliation between her ancestor's music and the people it indirectly harmed. The angry response of Holocaust survivors led her to cancel the visit, and Wagner's works are still banned in Israel. In 2015, she had the concert hall, now named the Richard-Wagner-Festpielhaus, renovated to modern standards of safety and comfort.

August 16, 1996: Major League Baseball In Mexico

August 16, 1996, 30 years ago: For the 1st time, a regular-season Major League Baseball game is played in a country other than the United States of America and Canada.

It was the 1st game in a 3-game series between the New York Mets and the San Diego Padres at the Estadio de Béisbol de Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. The reason was that the Republican Party was holding its National Convention at the San Diego Civic Center, and they wanted to use Jack Murphy Stadium, the 61,000-seat home field of the Padres and the NFL's Chargers, for the acceptance speeches for their nominations for President and Vice President, to get a bigger cheer than usual.

This had been done before: In 1960, the Democrats moved from the Los Angeles Sports Arena to the next-door 100,000-seat Los Angeles Coliseum to hear John F. Kennedy accept the nomination for President. And it has been done since: In 2008, the Democrats moved Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Denver to the 75,000-seat new Mile High Stadium, and considered moving his 2012 speech in Charlotte to the 75,000-seat Bank of America Stadium, but kept it indoors at what's now the Spectrum Center due to rain.

As it turned out, they didn't use "The Murph": It would have been available for the Padres, anyway. But the arrangements for Monterrey had already been made.

Why Mexico? Because Mexico is one of the few Latin American countries that loves baseball; and because the Padres' location, just 20 miles from the U.S.-Mexican border (reduced to 15 miles since their move to the downtown Petco Park), made them popular in Mexico. Why Monterrey? Because their stadium, built specifically for baseball, was deemed more suitable than Mexico City's multipurpose Foro Sol. Opened in 1990, it seats 21,803, and is home to the Sultanes de Monterrey (the Sultans).

Note: This stadium should not be confused with Estadio BBVA, a soccer facility in nearby Guadalupe, which was temporarily renamed Estadio Monterrey for the 2026 World Cup.

For the 1st MLB game in Mexico, the starting pitcher for the Padres was Fernando Valenzuela, whose tenure with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1980 to 1990 made the Dodgers even more popular in Mexico than the Padres. The sellout (and then some) crowd of 23,699 gave him a massive ovation as he took the mound.

Robert Person started for the Mets, and the Padres got to him early, with Steve Finley hitting a 2-run home run in the 1st inning. The Padres made it 5-0 in the bottom of the 3rd. Home runs in the 5th by Ken Caminiti and John Flaherty made it 9-0. In the 6th, a Greg Vaughn grand slam was part of a 6-run inning that put the Padres up 15-0, and seemed to put the game away.

Tony Gwynn went 2-for-3 with a walk, before being replaced by his brother, Chris Gwynn. Rickey Henderson appeared as a pinch-hitter for the Padres, and drew a walk.

Valenzuela faltered, and lost the shutout in the 7th. He got another prolonged ovation. It was still 15-3 going into the 9th, when the Mets launched a comeback attempt. A walk, an error, a passed ball, 2 doubles, and a home run by Andy Tomberlin almost put the Mets back in the game.

Almost. It took the Padres 3 pitchers to finally put the inning and the game away. They won, 15-10. It was Valenzuela's 10th win of the season, and the 166th of his career. But he would win only 7 more: A nobody at age 19, a phenomenon at 20, and still a productive pitcher at 35, injuries caught up with him, and he threw his last major league pitch shortly before turning 37.

On August 17, 1996, the Mets won the 2nd game of the series, 7-3. The following night, the Padres won the finale, 8-0.

The series was such a success that MLB has returned to Monterrey. On April 4, 1999, the Padres lost 8-2 to the Colorado Rockies. It took until 2018 to return. On May 4, the Padres lost to the Dodgers, 4-0, as 3 Dodger pitchers threw a no-hitter. The Padres won the next 2, 7-4 and 3-0.

On April 13, 2019, the Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals in Monterrey, 5-2. The next day, the Cardinals beat the Reds, 9-5. Later that year, on May 4 and 5, the Houston Astros swept the Los Angeles Angels, 14-2 and 10-4.

Since then, all MLB  games in Mexico have been played at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú in Mexico City. Built in 2019, it seats 20,000, is home to the Diablos Rojos del México (Red Devils), and is nicknamed El Diamante de Fuego: The Diamond of Fire. 

On April 29 and 30, 2023, the Padres swept 2 games from the San Francisco Giants, 16-11 and 6-4. On April 27 and 28, 2024, the Houston Astros swept 2 games from the Colorado Rockies, 12-4 and 8-2. On April 25, 2026, the Padres beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 6-4; the next day, the D-backs won, 12-7.

Also, Estadio de Béisbol de Monterrey has been renamed Walmart Park.

Tommy John, 1943-2026

Before the surgery, for 31 years, there was the man. After the surgery debuted, for 52 years, there was the man. And, as rough as the condition that requires the surgery, and the return from it, can be, you'd much rather have the surgery named for Tommy John than the disease named for an earlier Yankee star, Lou Gehrig.

Thomas Edward John Jr. was born on May 22, 1943 in Terre Haute, Indiana. He starred in baseball and basketball at that city's Gerstmeyer High School, and was the valedictorian of its Class of 1961. But he had a stutter, so the school wouldn't let him give the valedictory speech.

In 1971, Gerstmeyer was consolidated with Garfield High School, which produced basketball stars Clyde Lovellette and Terry Dischinger. The combined school, Terre Haute North Vigo High School, has produced Major League Baseball players Brian Dorsett and Josh Phegley, and football stars Anthony Thompson and Steve Weatherford.

John was signed out of high school by the Cleveland Indians. He made his major league debut on September 6, 1963, wearing Number 37, pitching the 7th inning and allowing an unearned run on 2 hits, in a 7-2 loss to the Washington Senators at District of Columbia Stadium (later renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium) in Washington.

The Indians split him between starting and relieving the rest of 1963, and all of 1964. On January 20, 1965, the Indians made an epic mistake. It was the 2nd time they had done so with a trade involving slugging right fielder Rocky Colavito. They had traded Colavito, then 26 years old, to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn, and it worked out considerably better for the Tigers. Now, Colavito was 31, and struggling with injuries, was not the same player, and ended up playing his last major league game at 35..

It was a 3-way trade. The Indians got Colavito and Cam Carreon, basically a throw-in. The Kansas City Athletics got Jim Landis, Mike Hershberger and Fred Talbot, none of whom did much for them. And the Chicago White Sox got Tommy John, Tommie Agee and John Romano.

Romano, a catcher, gave the White Sox 2 good seasons before injuries cut his career short. Agee became the American League Rookie of the Year in 1966, and also hit well in 1967, before the White Sox made the mistake of trading him to the Mets.

But this trade still worked out well for the White Sox, as they put John into the starting rotation. Switching to the Number 25 that he wore for the rest of his career, he won 14 games in both 1965 and '66. In '66, he led the AL with 5 shutouts. In 1967, he went 10-13, but had a 2.47 ERA, and again led the AL in shutouts, with 6. The White Sox were in the AL Pennant race until the final weekend.

After the 1971 season, they traded John and utility infielder Steve Huntz to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Dick Allen. This trade worked out very well for both teams. Allen led the AL in home runs in 1972, winning the AL Most Valuable Player award, and it's been suggested that the attendance he brought in saved the South Siders from being moved.

John went 11-5 for the Dodgers in 1972, 16-7 for a National League-leading .696 winning percentage in 1973, and was 13-3 for a League-leading .813 percentage in 1974, helping the Dodgers win the Pennant, before an injury cut his season short on July 17.

Would the Dodgers have won the 1974 World Series, against the Oakland Athletics, if John had been available? He likely would have started Game 3 instead of Al Downing, which the Dodgers lost, 3-2. (All 5 games, including Game 2, which the Dodgers won, ended with a 3-2 score.) Even if he had outpitched Catfish Hunter that day, he still would have had to start Game 6 and win again.

*

On September 25, 1974, John underwent surgery on his left elbow, his pitching elbow. The procedure was performed at Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles, by Dr. Frank Jobe. This procedure is one where the ulnar collateral ligament in the medial elbow is replaced with either a tendon from elsewhere in the patient's body, or with one from a deceased donor. It became known as "Tommy John Surgery" or "TJS."

Dr. Frank Jobe

Jobe gave the operation 100-1 odds of being successful, but John had it anyway, as his other option was to start working at a friend's car dealership back in Terre Haute.

Traditionally, a pitcher misses an entire season in rehabilitation from the surgery. Some come back from it well, some don't. Some end up needing a 2nd TJS. The fact that John, the 1st pitcher to undergo the procedure, came back so well from it gave other pitchers hope.

A year and a half later, on April 16, 1976, John returned to the mound. He didn’t pitch well, losing to the Atlanta Braves, 3-1 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. But he pitched without pain. Switching from his former blazing fastball and hard curveball to a sinker, in 22 games, all starts, he went 10-10 with a 3.09 ERA.

In 1977, he went 20-7, his 1st 20-win season, and had a 2.78 ERA. The Dodgers won the Pennant, and he started Game 3 of the World Series, but lost it to the Yankees and Mike Torrez. In 1978, he went 17-10 with a 3.30 ERA. The Dodgers won the Pennant again, and he started and won Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees. He also started Game 4, and pitched well, but was not involved in the decision, as the Yankees won in 10 innings.

Yankee owner George Steinbrenner must have liked what he saw: His contract with the Dodgers having run out, on November 21, 1978, the Yankees signed John to a 3-year contract worth $1.4 million. He was never better than when he was a 36- and a 37-year-old Yankee: He went 21-9 with a 2.96 ERA in 1979, and 22-9, including winning his 1st 7 decisions, and a 3.43 ERA in 1980. That year, he finished 2nd int he AL Cy Young Award voting to Steve Stone, who won 25 games for the Baltimore Orioles.

In the strike-shortened 1981 season, he went 9-8, 2.63. The Yankees won the Pennant, and he pitched 7 innings of 3-hit shutout ball against the Dodgers to win Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees were 2 wins away from getting him his World Series ring.

But the Dodgers won the next 3 games. After 4 innings of Game 6, and the score 1-1, Yankee manager Bob Lemon screwed up, sending Bobby Murcer, another man who was closer than ever to a ring than at any time in a long career, up to pinch-hit for John. He flew out. Lemon then sent George Frazier in to relieve for John, and he allowed 3 runs in the 5th. The Yankees lost, 9-2, and John had now been in 3 World Series, all of them Yankees vs. Dodgers, and on the losing side of all 3.

Steinbrenner began to break up the dynasty. This included a trade on August 31, 1982: He sent John to the California Angels for pitcher Dennis Rasmussen. He did well for the Yankees, but they got rid of him too soon, so this wasn't a bad trade for them.

Like Steinbrenner, Gene Autry, the legendary entertainer known as "The Singing Cowboy" and the owner of the Angels, was willing to spend big money if he thought it would get him big results. The 1982 Angels' pitching staff included such veteran stars as John, Luis Tiant, Stan Bahnsen (all former Yankees), Bruce Kison, Steve Renko, Andy Hassler, Ken Forsch, Dave Goltz and John Curtis. Their veteran hitters included former Yankee Reggie Jackson, perennial AL batting Champion Rod Carew, Fred Lynn, Don Baylor (all former AL MVPs), Bob Boone (Aaron' father), Rick Burleson, Doug DeCinces, Juan Beníquez and Brian Downing.

It almost worked: The Angels won the AL Western Division title, and led the AL Championship Series 2 games to none. But the Milwaukee Brewers won the next 3 games to take the Pennant.

John never came so close to a Pennant again. The Angels released him in midseason in 1985, and he signed with the Oakland Athletics. They released him after the season. He was 42 years old, and that year off was 10 years back. It looked like he was done.

But injuries to their starting pitchers led the Yankees to bring John back on May 2, 1986. He made 13 appearances, including 10 starts, and went 5-3 with a 2.93 ERA. In 1987, he made 33 starts, and went 13-6, although his ERA rose to 4.03. In 1988, he turned 45, and was the oldest player in baseball, though that elbow ligament was only 14 years old. He 35 appearances, including 32 starts, and went 9-8 with a 4.49 ERA.

In 1989, he made 10 appearances, all starts, and went 2-7 with a 5.80 ERA. On May 30, 5 days after his last appearance, and 8 days after his 46th birthday, the Yankees released Tommy John.

*

When he began his career, John F. Kennedy was President, and had just spoken at the two-year-old Berlin Wall. There were 20 teams in Major League Baseball, 9 of them playing in ballparks that opened in 1912 or earlier, and none of them playing on artificial turf or under a dome. Stan Musial was still playing, and Casey Stengel was still managing. Tom Seaver was in college, Reggie Jackson and Mike Schmidt were in high school, and Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire were about to be born.

When he ended his career, George H.W. Bush was President, and the Berlin Wall was 5 months away from coming down. There were 26 teams in Major League Baseball, 3 of them playing in ballparks that opened in 1912 or earlier, 10 of them playing on artificial turf, and 4 of them playing under a dome. Ken Griffey Jr., Sammy Sosa, Larry Walker and Jim Abbott were rookies. Derek Jeter was in high school, David Ortiz was in junior high; and Giancarlo Stanton, George Springer and Freddie Freeman were born.

Does Tommy John belong in the Baseball Hall of Fame? He won 288 games, and lost 231, for a winning percentage of .555. Indeed, he won more games after his surgery, 164, than he did before it, 124. Or, as John himself has put it, he won just 1 fewer game after his surgery than Sandy Koufax did in his entire injury-shortened career. (Given the nature of his condition, John's surgery, had it been available in Koufax's time, would have done him no good.) He also made more All-Star Games after, 3, than before, 1. His career ERA was 3.34, his ERA+ was 111, he pitched 46 shutouts, he had 2,245 strikeouts, and his WHIP was 1.283.

Here is a list of all the pitchers who match or surpass him in wins, winning percentage, shutouts and strikeouts, in chronological order: Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Eddie Plank, Walter Johnson, Warren Spahn, Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver and Roger Clemens. That's it, that's the list: 8 guys. And only 4 of them pitched all or most of their careers in the post-1920 Lively Ball Era: Spahn, Carlton, Seaver and Clemens.

Baseball-Reference.com, a website that makes writing this blog far easier, has a Hall of Fame Monitor, on which a "Likely HOFer" is at 100, John is at 112, suggesting that he should be in. It also has a Hall of Fame Standards, on which the "Average HOFer" is at 50; John is at 44, suggesting that he falls short.

It also has Similarity Scores, usually comparing players of similar positions. John's Top 10 most statistically similar pitchers are Jim Kaat, Robin Roberts, Bert Blyleven, Fergie Jenkins, Early Wynn, Tom Glavine, Burleigh Grimes, Tony Mullane, Don Sutton and Eppa Rixey. Mullane is the only one of these who is not in the Hall of Fame.

While he was eligible for election by the Baseball Writers Assocation of America, which votes on recently retired players, from 1995 to 2009, T.J. never received as much as 32 percent of the vote. He has been eligible for the Veterans Committee's Modern Era Subcommittee in 2020, and its Classic Era Subcommittee in 2025, but fell short both times.

In my opinion, he should be in the Hall of Fame, not just for the historical significance of the surgery that bears his name and has saved many other careers after his, but on merit. Essentially, he had two good careers that added up to one great career.

*

In 2012, Lindsey Berra, Yogi's granddaughter, who works for ESPN, pointed out that 1 out of every 7 pitchers then in the major leagues had undergone Tommy John surgery at some point in their careers.

Like basketball star Bill Walton, John overcame his stutter and became a broadcaster in his sport, calling games for the Minnesota Twins from 1994 to 1996, the International League's Charlotte Knights in 1997, and the Yankees in 1998.

That year, he participated in the Yankees' Old-Timers Day festivities at Yankee Stadium. I was at that game, as they celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the 1977 and 1978 World Series, inviting several former Yankees and former Dodgers. In the Old-Timers Game between the former Yankees and the former Dodgers, John pitched for the Dodgers, and gave up a walkoff home run to Willie Randolph. At the age of 55, he still wasn't ending up on the winning side of Yankee-Dodger festivities.

He was hired as the pitching coach at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. In the 2002 and 2003 seasons, he coached in the Montreal Expos' organization. In 2004 and 2005, he returned to the Pinstripe organization, as the manager of the Class A Staten Island Yankees. He managed the Connecticut-based Bridgeport Bluefish of the independent Atlantic League from the start of the 2007 season to mid-2009, resigning to go into business, including advertising a joint cream. He had no connection to the Tommy John underwear company.

Tommy John and Mariano Rivera,

a few Old-Timers Days ago

John married twice, and had 4 children, all of them with names beginning with T, and 2 of them touched by tragedy. In 1981, his 2-year-old son Travis fell nearly 40 feet from a 3rd-story window of the family's rented house in New Jersey, and lapsed into a coma for nearly 3 weeks. He underwent successful treatment, and returned home to walk and play normally. Steinbrenner invited him to throw out the ceremonial first ball before Game 2 of the 1981 World Series.

Taylor John wasn't son lucky: He dealt with depression, and in 2010, he took his prescription drugs in the wrong combination, and died from an overdose. He was 28 years old. "He was the greatest kid in the world, but he would get into these panic spells and deep abysses," his father said. "He was wired different than the rest of us."

Daughter Tamara went to Duke University, where she met her husband, Patrick Mannelly, who went on to play for the Chicago Bears. Son Tommy John III pitched for his father at Furman, named All-Southern Conference. It shouldn't surprise anyone to know that one of Tommy John's children went into medicine: Tommy III became a chiropractor, and wrote Minimize Injury, Maximize Performance: A Sports Parent's Survival Guide, which discusses the injury risk associated with young athletes specializing in one specific sport and suggests ways to prevent youth from ever having to undergo major sports-related surgery, such as Tommy John surgery.

Tommy John and his 3rd wife, Cheryl Zeldin, settled in Bradenton, Florida, in the Tampa Bay area. He fell victim to bladder cancer, and died yesterday, on August 15, 2026, at the age of 83.

In 1987, in his 2nd tenure with the Bronx Bombers, he was one of the people interviewed for the documentary New York Yankees: The Movie. So were Yankee legends Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto and Whitey Ford. Clips of interviews of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and the then-still-living Joe DiMaggio and the still-living-now Reggie Jackson were included.

With John's death, there are only 8 survivors among the interviewees: Bobby Richardson, and John's former teammates Roy White, Lou Piniella, Ron Guidry, Willie Randolph, Dave Righetti, Dave Winfield and Don Mattingly.

August 16, 1951: The Delaware Memorial Bridge Opens

August 16, 1951, 75 years ago: The Delaware Memorial Bridge opens, connecting New Castle, New Castle County, Delaware and Pennsville, Salem County, New Jersey, over the Delaware River. It is operated by the Delaware River and Bay Authority.

It is 5 miles southeast of Rodney Square in Wilmington; 34 miles southwest of Center City, Philadelphia; 50 miles north of Legislative Hall (Delaware's State Capitol building) in Dover, 118 miles southwest of Midtown Manhattan; 70 miles northwest of Atlantic City; 73 miles northeast of downtown Baltimore; 91 miles northwest of Rehoboth Beach; and 108 miles northeast of downtown Washington, D.C.

Until 1926, the year what's now known as the Ben Franklin Bridge opened between Philadelphia and Camden, there was no way to get from Delaware's largest city, Wilmington in New Castle County, to New Jersey, except by train. But if, say, you only needed to go 20 miles to Salem, New Jersey, it made no sense to make the 30-mile train trip to Philadelphia, and then another 40 miles to Salem. The aforementioned Bridge only made things a little easier.

A ferry was established as a stopgap measure. Some stopgap: After debating whether a bridge or a tunnel should be built, Congress approved construction of a bridge in 1946. It finally opened 5 years later, bannered as U.S. Route 40 (which had been using the ferry). Soon, it became the southern end of the New Jersey Turnpike. In 1956, the Delaware Turnpike opened, connecting each State's most important highway.

The opening of the Turnpikes put too many cars on the span, and a 2nd bridge was ordered. On September 12, 1968, what's now the westbound span (toward Delaware) was opened, with the original span carrying eastbound traffic (toward New Jersey). In addition to Route 40, the "Twin Span" now carried Interstate 295. Its 174-foot-high towers are arguably the most famous structures in Delaware.

Even though the Bridges were 84 miles from the house in Central Jersey where I grew up, if a trip takes me in that direction, getting over the eastbound span meant I was back in New Jersey, so it felt like I was close to home, just as it did when I would come through the Lincoln Tunnel getting back from New York, 36 miles from home.

The King and the Sultan

August 16, 1948: George Herman "Babe" Ruth dies of throat cancer in New York. He was 53 years old.

August 16, 1977: Elvis Presley dies of a drug-aided heart attack in Memphis. He was 42.

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

Actually, the Babe and Elvis are very comparable:

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

* Both totally changed their respective professions, and both did so 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: Ty Cobb with the Babe, and Frank Sinatra with Elvis.

* Both had royalty-themed 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, albeit before Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1935. The Presley family didn't even move to Memphis, the closest large city, until 1948, when he was 13, the year Ruth died.

* 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: The Babe 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.

Ruth's last year with the Yankees was 1934,

and the interlocking NY logo was adopted in 1936.

* 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.

When genuine color photographs of Ruth, or film with the sound of him speaking or playing ball, is found, it's a big deal. But for those of us who grew up while Elvis was still alive, Ruth was somebody our grandparents rooted for. For those who've come after us, he seems even more mythical than he did in the days before we had the Internet and other means of proving the myths false -- or, in some cases, true.

But we've seen Elvis on clear color videotape, in his 1968 NBC "Comeback Special," and in his 1973 Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite concert. Even though it's been almost half a century since his death, he seems like a recent figure. For those of us who still love his music, he feels 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." As Thomas Boswell, the great baseball columnist for The Washington Post, put it, adding the name of a contemporary of Ruth's, who pitched in his newspaper's city, We live in a disposable society. But we don't dispose of Babe Ruth. We don't dispose of Walter Johnson. We view these men as living, and contemporaries though they are dead."

Though Elvis Presley is long dead, and Babe Ruth even longer so, they still live within us. Because they are, still, 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.