May 29, 1966: Estadio Azteca Opens

May 29, 1966, 60 years ago: Estadio Azteca opens in Mexico City, about 9 miles south of downtown. Club América takes a 2-0 lead over Italian team Torino F.C., but Torino plays back to a 2-2 draw. President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz of Mexico made the ceremonial first kick, and FIFA President Sir Stanley Rous attended.

The Azteca is the most famous building not just in Mexico, but in all of Central America. Named for the ancient empire that ruled Mexico, it remains the home of the national team and of Club de Fútbol América S.A. de C.V., or simply Club América, the most-loved -- and, like the New York Yankees, the most-hated -- sports team in the country. 

It is older than every Major League Soccer stadium except Providence Park in Portland; every NFL stadium except Lambeau Field in Green Bay; every MLB stadium except Fenway Park in Boston, Wrigley Field in Chicago, and the 2 Los Angeles area ballparks, Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium; every NBA arena; and every NHL arena.

From a peak of 119,853 fans at a 1968 game, renovations have reduced the soccer seating capacity to an official 87,523, which still makes it larger than all but a few stadiums in the world, including most of those in the U.S. The field is a hybrid of natural grass and artificial fibers, and runs north-to-south.

Known as "El Coloso de Santa Úrsula," the Colossus of Saint Ursula (for the neighborhood it's in), along with the Maracanã in Brazil, it is 1 of 2 stadiums to have hosted 2 World Cup Finals: 1970, in which Brazil beat Italy; and 1986, in which Argentina beat West Germany.

It also hosted the 1970 Semifinal between Italy and Germany that became known as "The Game of the Century"; and the 1986 Quarterfinal between Argentina and England in which Diego Maradona scored what became known as "The Goal of the Century," only 4 minutes after his handball goal that he called "The Hand of God," the most famous cheat in the history of sports on planet Earth.

In addtion to Club América, the Azteca has been the home field for Club Necaxa, who played there from 1966 to 1970, and again from 1982 to 2003 before going to the city of Aguascalientes; Atlante, who played there off and on from 1966 to 2007, before returning permanently to their home base in Cancún; Club de Fútbol Universidad Nacional A.C., a.k.a. Pumas de la UNAM, Pumas or UNAM from 1967 to 1969; Atlético Español from 1970 until they went out of business in 1982; and Cruz Azul (Blue Cross) from 1971 to 1996.

It's also hosted soccer for the 1968 Olympics, the 1975 Pan American Games, the 1993 and 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cups, the 1999 Confederations Cup, and the 2011 Under-17 World Cup. It will host 5 matches of the 2026 World Cup, including 2 Mexico matches, and matches in the Rounds of 32 and 16. (Estadio Olímpico Universitario was the main stadium for the 1968 Olympics, and preceded the Azteca as the national team's stadium.)

It's hosted our football 10 times. The 1st was on August 15, 1994, in a preseason game in which the Houston Oilers beat the Dallas Cowboys 6-0, in front of the largest crowd in NFL history, 112,376. It's hosted 6 regular-season games, with a 1 each planned for the seasons of 2026, 2027 and 2028.

On February 20, 1993, the stadium's all-time attendance record was set, as 132,247 people saw Mexico's greatest-ever boxer, Julio César Chávez, knock Greg Haugen out to retain the Light Welterweight Championship of the World. The stadium has also hosted concerts, including by Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson and U2; and religious convocations, including the funeral of Chesperito, a legendary Mexican comedian who was a Club América fan.

Mexico City's combination of desert and mountains -- its elevation is higher than that of Denver, "the Mile High City" -- makes for a climate difficult for visiting teams, especially from outside Mexico. It took the U.S. national team 12 tries, until 2012, to get their 1st win over Mexico at the Azteca, and that was in a friendly: As of May 29, 2022, they're still looking for their 1st competitive win there.

Claude Lemieux, 1965-2026

For the first time, a member of one of the New Jersey Devils' Stanley Cup-winning teams has died. And he was my favorite hockey player of all time.

Claude Percy Lemieux -- sure doesn't sound like the name of a tough guy, but he was one -- was born on July 16, 1965 in Buckingham, Quebec, a city that has since been amalgamated into the larger city of Gatineau, across the Ottawa River from Ottawa, Ontario, the capital of Canada. He grew up in Mont-Laurier, Quebec, about 110 miles north of Ottawa, and 140 miles northeast of Montreal.

A right wing, he was drafted by his home-Province Montreal Canadiens in 1983, and made his NHL debut on October 13 of that year, wearing uniform Number 32 in a 4-2 loss to the Boston Bruins at the Boston Garden. In the 1985-86 season, he played only 10 regular-season games for the Canadiens, but starred in their run to the Stanley Cup, scoring 10 goals with 6 assists.

That convinced the organization to give him a better chance, and he scored 27, 31 and 29 goals in the next 3 seasons, helping Les Habitantes reach the Stanley Cup Finals again in 1989. He was also a member of the victorious Team Canada at the 1987 Canada Cup.

He tailed off a bit in 1989-90, and the Habs traded him to the Devils for Sylvain Turgeon. This turned out to be a bad trade for Montreal, as Turgeon did nothing for them, and they left him unprotected in the 1992 expansion draft. He was chosen by the Ottawa Senators, and the Canadiens won the Cup again in 1993, without him.

The Devils were a team on the rise, and soon had a strong Canadiens connection. In addition to Lemieux, they had another 1986 Cup-winner, scoring right wing Stéphane Richer; a tough left wing, Tom Chorske; goaltender Martin Brodeur, son of Denis Brodeur, team photographer for the Canadiens and the Montreal Expos; head coach Jacques Lemaire, who'd won 8 Cups as a Canadiens center; and assistant coach Larry Robinson, who'd won 6 Cups as a Canadiens defenseman.

Having switched to Number 22, Claude scored 30 goals in 1990-91, 41 in 1991-92, and 30 plus 51 assists in 1992-93. He slumped again in 1993-94, but helped the Devils reach the Eastern Conference Finals. In 1992 and 1994, they lost to their geographic rivals, the New York Rangers.

Lemieux was a fighter. He was never afraid to face an opponent, and earned the nickname "Le Pest." But he wasn't exactly the most courageous of men. The one and only time an event was held at the Boston Garden with me as a paying customer came on March 2, 1995. Bruin star Cam Neely had recently returned from an awful knee injury, and Claudie crashed him into the boards. The home crowd lost their minds, and booed vociferously. Neely started throwing punches, and Lemieux "turtled": He dropped to his knees and covered his head. The booing got worse. The referee threw Neely out of the game, and gave Claudie no penalty. The Bruin fans went from angry to frothing-at-the-mouth rage. The game was a disaster: The Bruins won, 7-2.

But Lemieux always seemed to play better against the Rangers, and against the Devils' other rivals-by-geography, the Philadelphia Flyers. Indicative of this was the strike shortened 1994-95 season. In 45 regular-season games, he scored only 6 goals. But something happened once the Playoffs began.

In the Conference Quarterfinals against the Bruins, Lemieux scored 2 goals in Game 1, and the Devils won in 5 games. In the Conference Semifinals against the Pittsburgh Penguins, he scored a goal in Game 1, but the Devils lost; but they won the next 4 games, with Lemieux scoring twice in Game 2, once in Game 3, and 2 in the clinching Game 5. It was 8 goals in 10 games.

In the Conference Finals against the Flyers, he scored in Game 3, which the Devils lost. But in Game 5 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, with 44 seconds left and the game tied, he fired a wobbly 65-foot shot that got past Flyer goaltender Ron Hextall, and the Devils won, 3-2. He scored again in Game 6, and the Devils clinched, and reached the Stanley Cup Finals for the 1st time. It was 11 goals in 16 games.

In Game 1 of the Finals, against the Detroit Red Wings at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, he scored the go-ahead goal, what turned out to be the winning goal, early in the 3rd period. He scored again in Game 3, and the Devils swept the Wings in 4 straight. It was 13 goals in 20 games, and he was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the Playoffs.

The Devils were only a 13-year-old franchise, but they had won their 1st title, and had begun to develop their own legends. And Claude Lemieux was one of them.

And yet, just before the start of the 1995-96 season, he was traded -- twice. The Devils traded him to the New York Islanders for Steve Thomas. This was a bad trade for the Devils, as Thomas did little for them. And then, before the ink was dry on the deal, the Isles traded him to the Colorado Avalanche for Wendel Clark. This was 2 bad trades for the Isles, as Lemieux literally did nothing for them, and Clark didn't do much more.

Lemieux did something for the Avs, who had been the Quebec Nordiques since 1972, but couldn't get a state-of-the-art arena, something Denver promised their owners, and got for them in 1999. He scored 39 goals with 32 assists in 1995-96, helping them to reach the Western Conference Finals against the Wings.

In Game 6, Lemieux checked Kris Draper into the boards. Draper suffered a concussion, and his nose, cheekbone and jaw were broken, leading to him having reconstructive surgery on his face and his jaw wired shut for several weeks. This incident sparked a bitter rivalry between the two teams. The NHL suspended Lemieux for 2 games, and most observers thought it wasn't enough.

The Avs won, to clinch a place in the Finals, and there was a postgame handshake. Dino Ciccarelli, a future Hall-of-Famer who was making what turned out to be his last serious run at the Cup, said, "I can't believe I shook this guy's friggin' hand after the game. That pisses me right off."

The Avs won the Cup. This made Lemieux only the 8th player to win the Cup with at least 3 different teams, following Jack Marshall, Hap Holmes, Frank Foyston, Jack Walker, Gord Pettinger, Al Arbour (yes, the Islander coach) and Larry Hillman. He has since been followed by Mike Keane, Joe Nieuwendyk and Mark Recchi, making 11. Holmes is the only player to have done it with 4 different teams.

So if you're a Red Wings fan reading this, and you still hate Claudie for what he did to Draper, I understand, and I won't tell you to get over it. But I still love the guy. Interestingly, when Budd Lynch introduced Claudie before Game 1 of the 1995 Finals, nearly a year before the unwarranted hit on Draper, Claudie still got the hell booed out of him, since he was already known as a dirty player.

Early in the 1999-2000 season, the Avs traded him, along with 2 draft picks, to the Devils for Brian Rolston and a draft pick. He played another 70 games for the Devils, scoring 17 goals, played in all 23 Playoff games, and scored 4 goals with 6 assists, to help them win another Cup.

This made him only the 5th player to win Cups in 3 different decades, following Dit Clapper, Maurice and Henri Richard, and Jean Béliveau. He has been followed by Patrick Roy, Nieuwendyk and Recchi, making 8.

For the next season, he signed with the team then known as the Phoenix Coyotes. He remained with them until the middle of the 2003 season, when he was traded to the Dallas Stars. He was released after that season, and it looked like his career was over. But he signed with Zug of Switzerland's league, and finished the season with them.

In 2005, he was named president of the minor-league Phoenix RoadRunners. In 2007, he left, and played on the Spike TV show Pros vs. Joes. His competitiveness was re-sparked, and he signed with the China Sharks of Asia League Ice Hockey. After 2 games, the Worcester Sharks of the American Hockey League signed him. After 23 games, he was promoted to the San Jose Sharks, and 6 years after his last previous NHL game, he played 18 more, at age 43, and hung up his skates.

He scored 379 goals with 407 assists, for 786 points. After his retirement, he became an NHLPA-certified player agent. He was not related to Penguins legend Mario Lemieux, but he was the brother of Jocelyn Lemieux, briefly a teammate in Montreal, who played 12 seasons in the NHL. He was married twice, with 3 sons and a daughter. One of his sons, Brendan Lemieux, played 7 seasons in the NHL, with the Rangers, the Flyers, the Winnipeg Jets, the Los Angeles Kings and the Carolina Hurricanes.

Since he was still an active player in March 1996, when the Montreal Forum closed and the Bell Centre opened, he was not among the former Canadiens stars who participated in the ceremonies. But 3 nights ago, he participated in a ceremony that has become one of the Canadiens' traditions: Before a home Playoff game, a former star will carry a lit torch to center ice. Wearing his former Number 32 jersey, Lemieux carried the torch before Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals at the Bell Centre. But they lost, 3-2 in overtime to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Today, May 28, 2026, Claude Lemieux was found dead by one of his sons, in the rear warehouse of a furniture store he owned in the Miami suburb of Lake Park, Florida. He was 60 years old. Local authorities determined that he died by suicide, though they have not released the method.

Given his aggressiveness, it is possible that he had been to suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Like the NFL, and soccer with its many headings of the ball, hockey has begun to face serious allegations of repeated head trauma leading players to experience memory loss, other loss of cognitive function, or other physical difficulty, including from one of Lemieux's 1995 Devils teammates, Mike Peluso.

The families of Chicago Blackhawks Hall-of-Famers Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita have also alleged that they suffered from CTE. It's also been alleged for Canadiens legend Henri Richard.

Claude Lemieux was a hero to some, a villain to others. He is now a tragedy to all.

May 28, 1951: Willie Mays Says Hello

May 28, 1951, 75 years ago: Willie Mays makes his real major league debut.

Not his actual major league debut. Depending on how you measure it, that was either sometime in 1948, or on May 25, 1951. It was 3 days after that latter date that he began to show the wider world what he could do.

Willie Howard Mays Jr. was born on May 6, 1951 in Westfield, Alabama, and grew up in nearby Fairfield, both outside Birmingham. His father, Willie Sr., nicknamed Kitty-Kat, had played semi-pro baseball, though not officially in what became known as the Negro Leagues. Willie Jr. was signed to play in those, in 1948, by the Birmingham Black Barons. He was just 17, but was good enough to help them win the Pennant, before losing the Negro World Series to the Pittsburgh-based Homestead Grays.

While playing with the Black Barons in 1949, he was pursued by several teams. He could have ended up with the Brooklyn Dodgers, on the same team with Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella. He would have played center field, and the Dodgers would have solved their left field problem by moving Duke Snider over.

But the Dodgers didn't make the deal, because an official in their front office, Wid Matthews, had seen him play, and told team president Branch Rickey that he could not hit a curveball. Matthews was a former outfielder, who had played all of 192 games in the major leagues in the 1920s. Who couldn't hit a curveball? Well, maybe we shouldn't be too hard on Wid: It was he who told Branch Rickey, president of the Dodgers, in 1945 that Robinson had a good ability to "protect the strike zone."

Mays could have ended up with the Boston Red Sox, because they had offered him a tryout, because they had offered his manager in Birmingham, Piper Davis, a contract. But a Sox scout told team owner Tom Yawkey the same thing that Matthews had told Rickey: That Mays "couldn't hit a curveball."

He was 18 years old, and had never yet attempted to hit a white man's curveball. And Davis was too old to keep, and was released. And that's why the Red Sox became the last major league team to integrate, in 1959. And that's also how the Red Sox could have ended up with Ted Williams in left field and Willie Mays in center field, but didn't.

The Boston Braves were also interested in Mays. But they had a quota on the number of black players in their system, and they'd already hit it. So they could have had Willie Mays in center field and Hank Aaron in right field -- perhaps not soon enough to save them from moving to Milwaukee in 1953, but the Braves could have dominated the National League for years to come.

Or, the New York Giants could have. Because their scout, Ed Montague, signed Willie, and they were also interested in Hank. "I had the Giants' contract in my hand," Aaron would later say, "but the Braves offered $50 a month more. That's the only thing that kept Willie Mays and me from being teammates: Fifty dollars." $50 in 1952, with inflation, is about $700 in 2026 money. So, to us, $700 a year, $8,400 a year. Doesn't sound like much, does it? On such hinge moments does the history of a sport sometimes hang in the balance.

For 1950, the Giants assigned Mays to their Class A team, the Trenton Giants. This was the end of the line for minor-league baseball in New Jersey: The Giants moved both their Trenton and their Jersey City farm teams after the season, while the New York Yankees moved their Newark Bears farm team a year earlier. The Negro Leagues' Newark Eagles folded after 1951.

Negro League stars being picked up by the white majors hurt them, but what really killed the Negro Leagues and many of the minor-league teams, and in some cases entire minor leagues, was television: Why should a fan get in his car and drive 20 miles, and then pay to get in, to watch a minor-league team when he could stay home, and watch the closest major league team for free, on a TV set he'd already paid for, with food and drinks he'd already paid for and didn't have to stand on line for?

Mays did well enough with Trenton that he was promoted to the Giants' top farm team for 1951, the Class AAA Minneapolis Millers. He was batting .477, and had just turned 20. Clearly, he could hit a major league white man's curveball. So, on May 25, 1951, he made his debut with the Giants. Wearing Number 14, playing center field and batting 3rd, he went 0-for-5 against the Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The Giants won, anyway, 8-5.

The next day, against Phils ace Robin Roberts, he went 0-for-3 with 2 walks. The Giants won, anyway, 2-0. The next day, he went 0-for-4. The Giants won, anyway, again 2-0. He had played flawlessly in center field. But at the plate, he was 0-for-12. His batting average was .000. His slugging percentage was .000. Counting the 2 walks, his on-base percentage was .143.

He told Giant manager Leo Durocher that he didn't think he was ready. Leo showed confidence in him, saying, "I don't care if you go 0-for-50. I'm the manager, and you're my center fielder."

The next night, May 28, was Mays' 1st home game, at the Polo Grounds at 157th Street and 8th Avenue in Upper Manhattan, with Harlem to the south, Washington Heights to the west, and the Harlem River and The Bronx to the north and east -- including Yankee Stadium, one mile due east. The Giants were starting a series with the Boston Braves. For this game, Mays was given a new uniform number, 24.

In the 1st inning, the Braves -- who did not yet have Aaron, or their other Hall of Fame hitter of the era, Eddie Mathews -- tagged Sheldon Jones for 3 runs in the top of the 1st inning. In the bottom of the 1st, batting 3rd for the 4th game in a row, was Mays. The Braves' starting pitcher was Warren Spahn, also a future Hall-of-Famer.

The distance from the middle of the pitching rubber to the middle of home plate is 60 feet 6 inches. Spahn threw Mays a fastball, and, after the game, told the press, "For the 1st 60 feet, that was a hell of a pitch." Mays hit it over the left field roof. It was the 1st of 3,283 career hits, the 1st of 660 home runs, and the 1st of 1,903 runs batted in. But it was the only run Spahn allowed, as the Braves won, 4-1.

Mays finished the game 1-for-4. He was now batting .063, on-base .261, slugging .250. Many years later, years in which Mays had terrorized the National League with his hitting, running and fielding, at an All-Star Game, with Mays within earshot, Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals jokingly told Spahn, "If you'd just struck him out, we might have been rid of him forever!"

Mays' performance in the field had led to the moving of Bobby Thomson from center field to 3rd base. When Thomson hit "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" to give the Giants the Pennant, a little more than 4 months later, Mays was on deck. He had finished a season in which he batted .274 with 20 home runs, 61 runs batted in, and some sensational catches, which led to him telling his teammates, "Say, hey, didn't you see that play?" Which led to him being nicknamed "The Say Hey Kid." He was named the NL's Rookie of the Year.

Willie Mays had said hello to America. When he announced his retirement 22 years later, he told the crowd that he had realized that the time had come to tell himself, "Willie, say goodbye to America."

May 26, 1956: The Garden State Parkway Opens

May 26, 1956, 70 years ago: The Great Egg Harbor Bridge opens, over Great Egg Harbor Bay in southern New Jersey, connecting Somers Point in Atlantic County with Upper Township in Cape May County. With this opening, the Garden State Parkway is fully open.

A 2nd bridge, taking northbound traffic, was added in 1972. The original, southbound bridge was replaced in 2016; the northbound one, in 2019.

Like the New Jersey Turnpike, which opened in 1951, the Parkway was the brainchild of Alfred E. Driscoll, Governor of New Jersey from 1947 to 1954. Just as the Turnpike was designed to ease the traffic flow of U.S. Route 1 in North and Central Jersey, and U.S. Route 130 in South Jersey, the Parkway was meant to do the same thing for U.S. Route 9.

Of course, it didn't work out that way. The huge growth of New Jersey's suburbs meant that the traffic on both 1 and 9 -- which merge in Woodbridge, Middlesex County, near the interchange that is Turnpike Exit 11 and Parkway Exit 129, and then go up together to the George Washington Bridge -- filled up anyway. But it's still better to have the 2 big superhighways than not. Similarly, the Atlantic City Expressway opened in 1964, but has never really eased Shorebound traffic on U.S. Route 30.

The Parkway runs the spine of New Jersey, paralleling Route 9, at times running concurrent with 9. It starts in Lower Township, Cape May County, with an interchange labeled "Exit 0," 2 1/2 miles north of the beach in Cape May City. The exits, more or less, match the mileposts. Exits 9, 10 and 11 were at-grade interchanges, complete with traffic lights, until grade-separated interchanges replaced them in 2014. (Bumper stickers for Cape May contain the legend "EXIT 0," much as those for Montauk, at the eastern end of New York's Long Island, read "THE END."

It goes from Cape May County to Atlantic County at the aforementioned Great Egg Harbor Bridge, near Exit 29. Atlantic City can be accessed via Exits 37 (U.S. Routes 40 and 322), 38 (the Atlantic City Expressway, that road's Exit 7) and 40 (U.S. Route 30).

Exits 50 and 52 are the only ones in Burlington County. In Ocean County, Exit 63 accesses New Jersey Route 72 and Long Beach Island; and Exit 82, N.J. Route 37 and Seaside Heights. In Monmouth County, Exit 100 is for N.J. Route 33 and Asbury Park; Exit 105 is for N.J. Route 36, the Monmouth Mall in Eatontown, and the Monmouth Park horse racing track in Oceanport; and Exit 116 is the only access point for the PNC Bank Arts Center (formerly the Garden State Arts Center) in Holmdel. You can't access this concert facility any way except through the Parkway.

At Exit 120, the Parkway enters Middlesex County. After Exit 125, it crosses the Raritan River, via a bridge named for Driscoll. Exit 127 is an interchange with Interstate 287, U.S. Route 9, and N.J. Route 440, with ramps so tangled, it is known as "Spaghetti Junction." At Exit 129, it connects with the New Jersey Turnpike/Interstate 95 and its Exit 11. It intersects with U.S. Route 1 at Exit 130. At Exit 131 in Woodbridge, it passes under Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, formerly the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Heading southbound, approaching Exit 129

Exits 135 to 142 are in Union County, including Exit 142, an interchange with Interstate 78, which connects the Parkway with Newark Liberty International Airport. Exits 143 to 151 are in Essex County, including 145, in my parents' hometown of Newark, an interchange with Interstate 280; and 148, 149, 150 and 151, in my original hometown of Bloomfield.

Passaic County includes Exits 153, 154, 155 and 156. Exit 153 intersects with N.J. Route 3, providing access to the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Exits 157 to 172 are in Bergen County. Exit 159 is an interchange with Interstate 80. Exit 161 provides access to the Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus. Exit 172 is in Montvale. From here, the Parkway continues north, over the State Line, as the Garden State Parkway Connector to the New York State Thruway.

Unlike the Turnpike, which only has toll booths at the exits, the Parkway has 11 toll barriers, leaving drivers "nickel-and-dimed" from Cape May County to Bergen County.

Also unlike the Turnpike, which is bannered as Interstate 95 from Exit 6 northward, the Parkway has never been part of the Interstate Highway System, created the same year that the Parkway opened. As part of the Interstate System, the federal government did not absorb existing state toll roads, as federal funding is typically meant for toll-free, interconnected national routes.

Rather, it is part of the National Highway System, and while there are absolutely no signs along it mentioning it as such, it is officially New Jersey Route 444. This allows New Jersey to collect tolls on the road, but also to ban trucks from any part of its length, and they are banned from Exit 105 northward. By law, an Interstate Highway must allow commercial traffic. And that's why the Parkway is not bannered as part of Interstate 91, 93, 95, 97 or 99.

Yankees Gain Soggy Split vs. Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays, in 1st place in the American League Eastern Division, came into Yankee Stadium II for a Memorial Day Weekend series. Depending on how it went, the Yankees could have recovered nicely, and resumed a legitimate challenge for Title 28; or fallen out of the race for the Division title, and be left to seek a Wild Card berth.

In the end, little was settled.

Gerrit Cole made his long-awaited 2026 major league debut on Friday night. He went 6 innings, was allowed to throw 72 pitches, and 50 of them were strikes. He allowed 2 hits and 3 walks, and no runs. We couldn't have asked for a better return for the man who might be the best pitcher in baseball, and I don't what to hear about no Paul Skenes or no Tarik Skubal, and certainly about no Shohei Ohtani.

And, between them, relievers Brent Headrick, Fernando Cruz, Camilo Doval and David Bendar pitched 3 innings, and allowed no runs on 3 hits and no walks. Trent Grisham got 3 hits; while Cody Bellinger, Jazz Chisholm and José Caballero each had 2.

That's the good news. The bad news is, Caballero began the top of the 8th with an error, and Tim Hill then gave up single, RBI double, intentional walk, and 2-RBI single. Doval gave up a sacrifice fly that let in another run, but it was charged to Hill.

The Yankees got a home run from Austin Wells, leading off the 5th, and a double by Bellinger and a triple by Chisholm in the 8th. Otherwise, they had runners on 1st & 2nd with nobody out in the 1st, a leadoff single in the 2nd, a double and a single before the 2nd out in the 3rd, a single in the 4th, 2 singles in the 5th, a single with 1 out in the 6th, a runner on 3rd in the 8th (Chisholm), and a runner on 1st with 1 out in the 9th. Of all those runners mentioned after the word "otherwise," none scored.

Rays 4, Yankees 2. Cole was great, but came away with a no-decision.

On Saturday, it rained all day. Rather than collect a full night's worth of revenue from parking, food and souvenirs, the Yankees called it off quickly. The game will be made up later in the season. Yesterday would not feature a doubleheader.

Yesterday's game was a good one for purists. Ryan Weathers allowed 4 hits and 3 walks to the Rays, Drew Rasmussen allowed 5 hits and 1 walk to the Yankees, and both starting pitchers threw 7 shutout innings. For the Yankees, Fernando Cruz got into and out of trouble in the 8th, and Hill did so in the 9th, an an apparent attempt to redeem himself for his Friday night debacle.

Still, it was 0-0 going to the bottom of the 9th. The Yankees wasted a 1-out single by Aaron Judge in the 1st, and single and a steal by Chisholm in the 2nd, a 2-out single by Grisham in the 3rd, a single by Bellinger and a walk by Paul Goldschmidt in the 4th, a leadoff single by Grisham in the 6th, and a 1-out single by Ryan McMahon in the 8th.

Then came the bottom of the 9th. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Although the Yankees had been killing nothing but their chances for most of the 1st 17 innings of this series -- 26, if you count the Saturday game not played at all. But Grisham led off the bottom of the 9th with a walk. Max Schuemann was sent in to pinch-run for him. It didn't matter, because he wouldn't have to run. Aaron Judge hit an opposite-field walkoff home run. Yankees 2, Rays 0.

For Judge, it broke a career-long 11-game streak without an RBI. It was his 17th home run of the season -- before Memorial Day. It was the 385th of his career, surpassing Harold Baines on the all-time list, and tying Dwight Evans. Next up: Aramis Ramírez at 386.

The Yankees go into Memorial Day at 31-22, a .585 winning percentage, a pace to go 95-67. That's usually good enough to finish 1st in the AL East. But they're still 4 1/2 games behind the Rays, 6 games in, Cliché Alert, the All-Important Loss Column.

I suppose it could be worse: On this Memorial Day, the Mets are in last place in the National League Eastern Division, 13 1/2 games out of 1st, 7 games out of the last NL Wild Card berth. Cliché Alert: Well, tonight, thank God it's them, instead of you.

While Memorial Day doubleheaders have gone the way of tailfins and the Brooklyn Dodgers, there are still Memorial Day matinées. This afternoon, at 3:40 Eastern Time (2:40 Central, and thus local), the Yankees begin a series away to the Kansas City Royals. The Royals are 22-31, the same record as the Mets. The Yankees need to win these games.

May 24, 1936: Tony Lazzeri "Pooshes 'em Up"

Manager Joe McCarthy and Tony Lazzeri

May 24, 1936, 90 years ago: The New York Yankees trounce the Philadelphia Athletics, 25-2 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The strange part is, the A's scored their 2 before the Yankees scored any of their 25.

The Yankees scored 5 runs in the 2nd inning, 5 in the 4th, 6 in the 5th, 1 in the 6th, 2 in the 7th, and 6 in the 8th.

Ben Chapman ses a major league record for a 9-inning game by reaching base safely 7 times, on 2 doubles and 5 walks. But Chapman was already making a name for himself as a bigoted piece of trash. Let's talk about Tony Lazzeri.

Anthony Michael Lazzeri was born on December 6, 1903 in San Francisco. Like a lot of kids in San Francisco, especially Italians, like the DiMaggio brothers, he had both the love of baseball and the talent at it to play professionally. And he did play in the Pacific Coast League. But not for his hometown's teams, the San Francisco Seals or the Mission Reds. And not for the Oakland Oaks across the Bay.

Rather, another San Francisco native, former Boston Red Sox star left fielder Duffy Lewis, was managing the PCL's Sale Lake Bees, and Lazzeri convinced Lewis to sign him. Due to the Western weather, the PCL was able to schedule a lot more games than the majors, or, as the PCL's fans called them, "the Eastern leagues." In 1925, Lazzeri played 197 games, batted .355, hit 60 home runs, and had 222 RBIs. It made him the 1st player in any professional league to hit 60 or more in a season, and the RBIs remain a professional record.

But Lazzeri had epilepsy. And so, the Chicago Cubs, with whom the Bees had an early farm-system-style agreement, refused to call him up. Bill Essick, a scout for the New York Yankees, who were among the earliest Eastern teams to mine the PCL for talent, signed him.

The Rookie of the Year awards were not started until 1947, but Lazzeri would surely have won the American League's award for 1926: .275, 18 homers, 117 RBIs. He helped the Yankees win the Pennant. Unfortunately, in Game 7 of the World Series, in the bottom of the 7th inning, with the bases loaded and 2 out, facing Grover Cleveland Alexander of the St. Louis Cardinals, Lazzeri became the most famous strikeout victim in baseball history. (Unless you want to count Casey at the Bat.) The Yankees lost that Series.

Lazzeri didn't let it affect him: He was a big part of the Yankees' "Murderers' Row" offense, helping them win the 1927 and 1928 World Series, becoming the best 2nd baseman in the American League. In 1929, though the Yankees did not win the Pennant, he batted a career-high .354. Italian-American fans, noting his ability to drive runners home, leading to 7 seasons of 100 or more RBIs, shouted, "Push them up, Tony!" In their accent, it became "Poosh 'em up, Tony!" And so, he became known as Poosh-em-Up Tony.

The Cubs realized their mistake when the Yankees swept them in 4 straight games in the 1932 World Series. Tony had 2 home runs and 5 RBIs in the 4 games. In 1933, he was the starting 2nd baseman for the AL in the 1st MLB All-Star Game.

Here is what Lazzeri did against the A's on May 24, 1936:

* Top of the 2nd inning: Hit a grand slam home run.

* Top of the 3rd: Struck out.

* Top of the 4th: Walked.

* Top of the 5th: Hit another grand slam. This made him the 1st player ever to hit 2 grand slams in 1 game. (Through the 2021 season, it's happened 13 times. But no other Yankee has done it.)

* Top of the 7th: Led off the inning with a home run, his 3rd of the game.

* Top of the 8th: Tripled, driving in 2 runs.

So: 6 plate appearances, 5 at-bats, reached base (hitting home runs counts) 5 times, 4 hits, all of them for extra bases, 3 home runs, 16 total bases, 11 runs batted in.

For some players, that's a month's work. Tony Lazzeri did it in the space of 7 innings. (The 2nd through the 8th.) And 11 RBIs still remains the AL record for 1 game.

Rookie center fielder Joe DiMaggio and shortstop Frank Crosetti, Lazzeri's fellow San Francisco Italians, also hit home runs. Lou Gehrig went 2-for-4 with 2 walks and an RBI. The only Yankee starter who didn't get a hit was 3rd baseman Red Rolfe, although he did draw 3 walks.

Indeed, every Yankee starter reached base at least 3 times, including Monte Pearson, the pitcher, who not only went the distance, allowing 2 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks, striking out 3, but went 3-for-5 with a walk and 2 RBIs.

This was just short of 4 years since Gehrig had hit 4 home runs in a game for the Yankees at Shibe Park. In that same June 3, 1932 game, Lazzeri hit a single, then a double, then a triple, and then a home run. Not just all 4 in 1 game, a.k.a. "hitting for the cycle," but doing them in order, a "natural cycle." He was the 4th player to do it. As of the 2021 season, it's been done 15 times, but Lazzeri remains the only Yankee to do it.

The other New York City baseball teams unloaded the lumber on this day, too. The New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 13-5 at the Polo Grounds. Bill Terry, the Giants' manager, in his last season as a player, did not put himself into the game. Mel Ott went 0-for-4 with 2 walks. Sam Leslie went 5-for-5 with a walk and 2 RBIs, Hank Lieber went 4-for-5 with 2 RBIs, and Burgess Whitehead, Gus Mancuso and Travis Jackson each had 3 hits, with Jackson having 3 RBIs. Hal Schumacher was the pitching beneficiary of all of this.

And the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Boston Bees, 11-2 at Ebbets Field. Having lost 115 games the year before, the Boston Braves "rebranded" as we would say today, but the fans never accepted it, and they reverted to the previous name in 1940. For the Dodgers, Danny Taylor went 3-for-4 with a home run and 5 RBIs.

So, on this day, between them, the New York teams won 49-9 on aggregate, or an average of 16-3.

The Yankees won the World Series in 1936, and in 1937. After that 1937 World Series, in which Lazzeri hit .400, the Yankees released him. He was only 34 years old. But it's not what it sounds like: Phil Wrigley, owner of the Cubs, wanted to do what his father William didn't, and bring Lazzeri to the Cubs. Since the Cubs didn't have anyone the Yankees wanted, but Tony had batted only .244 during the regular season, and 2nd baseman Joe Gordon had a great season helping the Newark Bears win the International League Pennant, general manager Ed Barrow told Tony that the Cubs wanted him, and gave him his release, so he could sign with the Cubs as a player-coach.

As it turned out, the Yankees and the Cubs each won their Leagues' Pennants, and faced each other in the World Series. Again, the Yankees swept in 4 straight. Lazzeri briefly played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, then the New York Giants, in 1939. The Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League, whose name was adopted by the city's hockey team, signed him as player-manager for the rest of 1939 and all of 1940. He went back home, and finally played for the San Francisco Seals in 1941.

He settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, in Millbrae, California. In an interview for Chicago sportswriter John P. Carmichael's 1945 book My Greatest Day In Baseball, Grover Cleveland Alexander mentioned that he'd recently seen Lazzeri on the street in San Francisco. Alexander, like Lazzeri, had epilepsy. Unlike Lazzeri, it was a factor in Alexander becoming an alcoholic. He would trade his story of striking Lazzeri out for a free drink. Alexander told the interviewer that he told Lazzeri, "Tony, I'm getting tired of fanning you!" And he said Tony said back, "Maybe you think I'm not."

On August 6, 1946, at his home in Millbrae, Tony Lazzeri had a heart attack, causing him to fall down the stairs. He broke his neck, making surviving the heart attack academic. It wasn't an epileptic seizure that caused it, as has been so often told. He was only 42 years old. Alexander died 4 years later, at 63, from the effects of his alcoholism.

Lazzeri played so long ago that, when Yankee Fans are asked to name the team's greatest 2nd baseman ever, his name doesn't come up very often. He does not have a Plaque in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. The Number 6 that was his most frequent number has been retired, but for Joe Torre. And the YES Network, founded in 2002, has never done a Yankeeography for him, since there is so little film footage of him, and, by 2002, hardly any of his former teammates were still alive to be interviewed about him.

But in 1991, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He has also been elected to the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, along with fellow former Yankees Joe DiMaggio, Lefty Gomez, Lefty O'Doul, Jackie Jensen, Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Billy Martin, Reggie Jackson, Jerry Coleman, Gaylord Perry, Dave Righetti and Rickey Henderson. However, Catfish, Reggie and Rickey were elected for what they did with the Oakland Athletics; and O'Doul, Jensen and Perry were elected for what they did with other teams.

Lazzeri has also been elected to the Italian American Sports Hall of Fame, along with former Yankees DiMaggio, Crosetti, Martin, Righetti, Torre, Yogi Berra, Ping Bodie, Phil Rizzuto, Vic Raschi, Joe Pepitone, Ralph Branca (yes, he was briefly a Yankee), Sal Maglie (him, too) and Rocky Colavito (him, too). 

May 24, 1626: Peter Minuit Buys Manhattan

May 24, 1626, 400 years ago: Peter Minuit buys Manhattan Island from the native Indians for $24. Or so the legend says.

The truth is a bit more complicated.

Henry Hudson, an English explorer, had sailed up the Hudson River on September 2, 1609, claiming a large swath of land for the Dutch Republic. The Hudson Valley, up to present-day Albany and Schenectady, in what became the State of New York; Long Island, including what is now the Boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, and Nassau County, named for the ruling house of the Netherlands; what is now the western half of Connecticut; the entirety of New Jersey; much of southeastern Pennsylvania, including what became Philadelphia; northernmost Delaware; and the northeastern corner of Maryland. This colony became known as New Netherland. Its capital, occupying the southern tip of Manhattan Island, was named New Amsterdam, after the mother country's capital.

"Manhattan" was a word from the language of the Native Americans living there, the Lenape tribe, meaning "the place where we get bows" -- in other words, the wood to make bows for arrows. One of the many legends of early New York that has proven to not be true is that it was originally "Manahatta," meaning "place of many hills," although the island does have many hills.

Peter Minuit was born in Wesel, Germany between 1580 and 1585 into a Calvinist family that had moved from the city of Tournai, presently part of Wallonia in Belgium, then controlled by Spain, in order to avoid Spanish Catholic authorities, who were not favorably disposed toward Protestants. Minuit married Gertrude Raedts in 1613. She was from a wealthy family, and she probably helped him establish himself as a broker.

Minuit joined the Dutch West India Company, and was sent with his family to New Netherland in 1625 to search for tradable goods other than the animal pelts that then were the major product coming from New Netherland. He returned in the same year, and in 1626 was appointed the new director of New Netherland. He sailed to North America and arrived in the colony on May 4, 1626.

He is credited with purchasing the island of Manhattan, from Native Americans in exchange for traded goods valued at 60 guilders. That figure came from a letter by a representative of the Dutch States-General and member of the board of the Dutch West India Company, Pieter Janszoon Schagen, to the States-General in November 1626. In 1844, New York historian John Romeyn Brodhead converted the figure of Fl 60 (or 60 guilders) to US$24. By 2006, 60 guilders in 1626 was worth approximately $1,000 in current dollars, according to the Institute for Social History of Amsterdam.

The original inhabitants of the area were unfamiliar with the European notions and definitions of ownership rights. For the Indians, water, air and land could not be traded; therefore, it is likely that both parties probably went home with totally different interpretations of the sales agreement. The Lenape probably thought they were the ones who got the great deal.

A contemporary purchase of rights in nearby Staten Island, to which Minuit also was party, involved duffel cloth, iron kettles, axe heads, hoes (garden tools -- the prostitutes came later), wampum, drilling awls, "Jew's harps" and "diverse other wares."

In 1632, the Dutch West India Company recalled Governor Minuit, essentially firing him for corruption. So political corruption in New York City goes back that far. He left the Netherlands, and in 1637, having made a deal with Sweden, he sailed up the Delaware River, and established the colony of New Sweden.

The following year, he was at sea, and his ship was lost in a hurricane. Without his guidance, New Sweden never had a chance, as the mother country was losing what became known as the Thirty Years War, ending its status as a European power. In 1655, the Dutch reclaimed New Sweden as part of New Netherland.

In 1664, as part of the Anglo-Dutch War, England conquered New Amsterdam without firing a shot. Although the Netherlands ended up winning the war, England got to keep New Netherland. It renamed both the colony and its capital city New York, after the Duke of York, brother of King Charles II. He later became King James II.