Jerry Koosman, 1942-2026

The situation comedy Growing Pains, which aired on ABC from 1985 to 1992, was produced by Met fans. It must have been: The show focused on a family named Seaver, and the family next door was named Koosman. The families were named for the pitching aces of the Mets in the late 1960s and into the mid-1970s: Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman.

Jerome Martin Koosman was born on December 23, 1942 in Appleton, Minnesota, about 150 miles west of Minneapolis -- closer to Fargo, North Dakota and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He graduated from the West Central School of Agriculture, now part of the University of Minnesota Morris. While serving in the U.S. Army at Fort Bliss, outside El Paso, Texas, he played on a team whose catcher, John Lucchese, was the son of an usher at Shea Stadium, home of the Mets. They signed him after his discharge.

On April 14, 1967, he made his major league debut, wearing Number 47. After Jack Fisher had been knocked out of the box, he finished the 3rd inning, and pitched the next 2. He allowed no hits or runs, though he walked 2, and struck out 2. But the game was already lost, as Chris Short pitched well, and the Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

Switching to Number 36, Koosman only made 9 appearances, going 0-2 with a 6.04 ERA, and was sent back down to the Jacksonville Suns, where he led the Class AAA International League in strikeouts. He made the starting rotation in 1968, and, at age 25, he was reading, going 19-12 with a 2.08 ERA. He made his 1st All-Star Game, and finished 2nd to Johnny Bench of the Cincinnati Reds in the National League's Rookie of the Year voting.

In 1969, he made the All-Star Game for the 2nd time -- and, as it turned out, the last. He went 17-9 with a 2.28 ERA. The Mets were in their "Miracle" season, winning the NL Eastern Division title. He started Game 2 of the NL Championship Series, and while the Mets win it, he was not the winning pitcher.

But he was the winning pitcher in Games 2 and 5 of the 1969 World Series, over the Baltimore Orioles. To close out Game 5, and the Series, on October 16, 1969, he pitched a complete game, winning 5-2, and getting Oriole 2nd baseman Dave Johnson -- later to be known as "Davey Johnson," and as the manager of the Mets' other World Championship team. Although Tom Seaver was the team's ace, and Donn Clendenon was named the Series' Most Valuable Player, the award could have gone to Koosman.

He went 12-7 in 1970, but then had losing records: 6-11 in 1971, 11-12 in 1972, and 14-15 in 1973, despite a 5-0 start and a team record 31 2/3rds consecutive scoreless innings late. But in that 1973 season, the Mets won another Pennant. He pitched a complete-game victory against the Reds in Game 3 of the NLCS, the game where Pete Rose picked a fight with the much smaller Met shortstop Bud Harrelson. The Mets won the series in 5 games. Koosman started Games 2 and 5, for a no-decision and a win against the Oakland Athletics, but they lost in Game 7.

He went 15-11 in 1974 and 14-13 in 1975. In 1976, he went 21-10, becoming only the 2nd Met pitcher after Seaver, and the 1st Met lefthander, to win 20 games in a season. He finished 2nd to Randy Jones of the San Diego Padres (a future Met) in the voting for the NL Cy Young Award.

He also co-starred with teammate Ed Kranepool in a commercial for Sports Phone, a sort of proto-Internet service run by New York Telephone, that let people know up-to-the-minute sports news, for a 50-cent charge on your phone bill. (The Yankees' Lou Piniella also did an ad for them.) Interviewed by the Long Island newspaper Newsday in 2015, New York Rangers broadcaster John Giannone said, "Everyone 45 and over can recite the number." As I was then 45, I can back this up: 999-1313, later changed to 976-1313. The arrival of SportsRadio WFAN in 1987 pretty much killed it, but it was fun while it lasted.

But the team that had won 2 Pennants in 5 years was being broken up, and as the team fell, it took "Koos" with them. They crashed to last place in 1977, and he went 8-20. He remains the last pitcher to win 20 one seasons and then lose 20 the next. In 1978, they finished last again, and he went 3-15. His age was about to match his uniform number, and so, on December 8, he was traded, to his home-State team, the Minnesota Twins.

The Twins, having just let their best player, Rod Carew, go, were going nowhere. But getting out of Flushing Meadow seemed to revive Koosman, as he went 20-13 in 1979, and 16-13 in 1980. It wasn't a typical boneheaded Met trade, though: They got Jesse Orosco, who went on to become the best relief pitcher in team history. It also led to a weird turn of events: They traded the pitcher who got the last out in their 1st World Series win for the pitcher who got the last out in their 2nd World Series win. And the player who made that last out in 1969 managed them to that title in 1986.

There was one moment in Minnesota that Koosman might have regretted, though: On May 4, 1980, against the Yankees at Metropolitan Stadium, he threw a brushback pitch that knocked Reggie Jackson down, and Reggie took his next pitch over the center field fence for a home run. It was the start of a battering that Koosman took, as the Yankees won, 10-1.

In 1981, at 38, it appeared that Koosman could no longer keep age at bay: He went 3-9 in the strike-shortened season, and the Twins traded him to the Chicago White Sox. He finished the season 4-13, to become, to date, the last pitcher to lead each League in losses.

But he bounced back again. He went 11-7 for the White Sox in 1982, and had the same record in 1983, as he helped them win the AL West title. He appeared in 1 game in the AL Championship Series, and was hit hard.

In 1984, at 41, he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies, and went 14-15 with a good 3.25 ERA for an underachieving team. He went 6-4 the next season, and retired, with a career record of 222-209, a 3.36 ERA, a 1.259 WHIP, and 2,556 strikeouts. Not quite Hall of Fame numbers, but a good career. His 140 wins with the Mets rank him 3rd in team history behind Seaver's 198 and Dwight Gooden's 157.

In 1989, the Mets inducted him into their team Hall of Fame. He attended reunions of the 1969 team on their 20th, 25th, 30th, 40th and 50th Anniversaries, the last game at Shea Stadium in 2008, and the 1st game at Citi Field in 2009.

However, he was under a cloud during that opening, as he was under indictment for income tax evasion. He admitted to being "suckered" by anti-tax rhetoric, and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to 6 months in prison, and served at the Federal Prison Camp, Duluth in his home State from September 3, 2009 to June 30, 2010.

He married LaVonne Sorum in 1967. They had daughter Danielle and sons Shawn and Michael, and were divorced in 2003.

On August 28, 2021, the Mets retired his uniform Number 36, making him only the 3rd player they'd honored, after Seaver's 41 and Mike Piazza' 31. By this point, his health was beginning to fail. He died yesterday, November 1, 2026, at his home in Osceola, Wisconsin, about 50 miles northeast of Minneapolis, at the age of 83.

With his death, there are now 17 surviving players from the 1969 World Champion New York Mets: J.C. Martin (89 years old), Al Weis (88), Art Shamsky (85), Cleon Jones (84), Jim Gosger (83), Bobby Pfeil (83), Bob Johnson (83), Ron Swoboda (82), Ken Boswell (80), Duffy Dyer (81), Rod Gaspar (80), Gary Gentry (80), Nolan Ryan (79), Amos Otis (79), Bob Heise (79), Wayne Garrett (78) and Jesse Hudson (78).

Danny Frisella, a pitcher who appeared in only 3 games that season, was the 1st '69 Met to die, in a dune buggy accident in Arizona on New Year's Day 1977. He was only 30 years old. Tommie Agee died in 2001, Cal Koonce in 2003, Tug McGraw in 2004, Donn Clendenon in 2005, Don Cardwell in 2008, Kevin Collins in 2016, Ed Charles in 2018, Tom Seaver and Les Rohr in 2020; Bud Harrelson, Jim McAndrew, Jerry Grote, Ed Kranepool and Jack DiLauro in 2024; Ron Taylor in 2025. Al Jackson, an original 1962 Met, was on the 1969 Mets, but was traded away in midseason, and died in 2019.

November 2, 1976: Jimmy Carter Is Elected President

Note the 2nd line of the headline:
Gotta get that local angle in.

November 2, 1976, 50 years ago: Former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia edges incumbent President Gerald Ford, to reclaim the White House for the Democratic Party.

Ford had been Vice President when President Richard Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. He was left with a recession he struggled to get under control, and the aftermath of the Watergate scandal that brought Nixon down. A month later, Ford pardoned Nixon for all crimes he committed, or may have committed, as President. That infuriated people who wanted to believe that Ford would be the honest man that Nixon wasn't.

Carter capitalized on that, telling voters, "I will never lie to you." It seemed to work: That statement, and the fact that he wasn't a "Washington insider" like so many other candidates for the Democratic nomination, made Carter stand out from the pack. At the Democratic Convention at Madison Square Garden, he took one of those insiders, Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota, as his Vice Presidential nominee. The Carter-Mondale ticket left New York with a 33-point lead in the polls.

It didn't help Ford that he had waffled on a federal bailout for New York City's government, which was close to bankruptcy. At first, he refused, leading to the famous Daily News headline: "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD." That scared New York State officials, so they stepped in and helped the City get its house a little closer to being in order. That convinced Ford that a smaller bailout was okay.

So now, Ford had ticked off people in the City who thought he didn't care, and he'd ticked off conservatives in the Republican Party who didn't want any bailout for the city they hated the most. (Yes, conservatives hate New York more than they hate Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago or Boston.) To try to win the conservatives back, Ford announced that his original choice for Vice President, Nelson Rockefeller, himself a former Governor of New York, would not be the Party's nominee for the office in 1976.

That wasn't good enough. Ronald Reagan, who had been an actor and then Governor of California, was the darling of the conservative movement, and he challenged Ford in the Republican Primaries, and got almost enough Delegates to dethrone him at the Republican Convention at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City. (The building is now named the Hy-Vee Arena.) Ford chose Senator Bob Dole of Kansas as his new running mate.

Twenty years later, himself nominated for President, Dole would seem too moderate for current Republicans. But in 1976, he was considered acceptable by the Reagan wing of the Party. Which shows just how far to the right the Party had shifted, even by 1996.

Before the Republican Convention, Carter led Ford in the polls by a whopping 33 points. But things began to turn Ford's way. He went on a railroad "whistle-stop tour" like Harry Truman in 1948, because his "Rose Garden strategy" of staying in the White House and "acting Presidential" wasn't working.

He shored up support in the South, the Midwest and the West, leading conservative New York Times columnist William Safire, who had been a speechwriter for Nixon, to coin the phrase "The Winning West," saying that it had become more important than "The Solid South." Dole brought some supporters back. The economy finally began to improve, after the 1st-ever combination of unemployment and inflation, a.k.a. "stagflation," in American history in 1973, '74 and '75.

And the Carter campaign made enough minor mis-steps that Carter's drop in the polls mirrored what might have happened if he'd had one major mis-step. Indeed, it could be argued that, despite winning the Presidency, Carter's political stock was never higher than during the 1976 Democratic Convention.

And while he was pro-civil rights, there was still a stigma: No Southerner had been elected President without first being the Vice President since Zachary Taylor in 1848. (Woodrow Wilson had been born in Virginia, but was a New Jersey-based politician. And he was the only Southern-born politician even nominated between 1848 and 1976.)

There were some zingers, but nothing really nasty. Ford questioned Carter's experience, and Carter responded by saying that, if experience were the deciding factor, "we would have kept Richard Nixon." There was a brief question about Ford's taxes, and the special counsel investigating decided there was not enough evidence to recommend charges. But before that decision, Carter addressed it very deftly: "I don't know what the facts are about Mr. Ford and his income tax. He does!" The implication being, "What's he hiding? Haven't we had enough of that?"

Ford attacked what he perceived to be Carter's weakness and indecisiveness: "He wanders, he wavers, he waffles, and he wiggles!" He also said, "There was a great, great President, many years ago, named Teddy Roosevelt, who said, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick.' Jimmy Carter speaks loudly, and carries a fly swatter!" One day, he delivered his stump speech 10 times. By the 9th time, he was so tired, it came out "fly swapper"; on the 10th try, "fly spotter." Still, each man seemed to be enjoying himself on the campaign trail.

But the debates doomed Ford. In one, he was asked about Soviet influence in Eastern Europe, and said, "There is no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford Administration." This statement was meant to suggest that he wouldn't let it happen. But most people knew that it had already happened, long before he took office, and it fed into the idea that Ford -- a graduate of the University of Michigan and Yale Law School, 2 of America's finest institutions of higher learning -- was dumb.

And in the Vice Presidential debate, Dole attacked the Democrats by saying that World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War were "all Democrat wars." This was completely stupid: The Vietnam War started under Dole's idol, fellow Kansan Dwight D. Eisenhower; and the others, once Democratic Presidents got America involved, Republicans in Congress wholeheartedly supported the war efforts. Indeed, with World War I, Republicans wanted it more than Democrats; and in World War II, Republicans didn't want to get involved at first, because they supported the fascist Axis against the Soviet Union.

On Election Day, November 2, the race was a virtual dead heat in the final poll. When the votes were tallied, it was definitive, but just barely. Carter got 40.8 million votes, Ford 39.1 million; Carter got 50.1 percent of the popular vote, Ford 48.0; Carter won only 23 States, to Ford's 27; but Carter's States added up to 297 Electoral Votes, Ford's to 240.

How close was it? Carter won Mississippi's 7 EVs by 15,000 votes, Wisconsin's 11 by 36,000, and Missouri's 12 by 61,000. Shift those 122,000 votes to Ford, and the EV count would have been Ford 271, Carter 267.

Carter won Pennsylvania by 123,000 votes. But shifting that 1 State, with 27 EVs, wouldn't have been enough to swing the election to Ford. Shifting New York would have been: Carter won it by 288,767 votes. Shift its 41 EVs, and it would have been Ford 281, Carter 256.

Ford's supporters were left to wonder. If only:

* Nixon had resigned a little sooner, giving Ford more time to turn things around.

* Ford hadn't pardoned Nixon, killing off some of the massive goodwill with which he began his Administration.

* Ford had given New York City the bailout at first, he could have won New York -- but he might not have won close States like Oregon, Maine, Virginia, and, most notably, Reagan's home State of California with its 45 EVs.

* Reagan had dropped out of the Primaries after losing Illinois, where he was born and raised, to Ford, allowing Ford to consolidate his intraparty support sooner.

* The economy had begun to improve, even a little bit sooner.

* Ford had come up with a better debate answer on Eastern Europe.

* Dole had come up with a better debate answer on foreign policy.

Had any one of those things happened, instead of what did happen, Ford could well have won, and continued as President all the way until January 20, 1981.

Already having big majorities in both houses of Congress, there wasn't much for the Democratic Party to gain there: They added just 1 seat in the House, giving them 292 seats; and 1 in the Senate, giving them 61. Neither major party has had that many since.

Among the new Senators elected were Democrats Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio (who beat Bob Taft Jr., son of a Senate Majority Leader and grandson of a President), Daniel Patrick "Pat" Moynihan of New York; and Republicans Richard Lugar of Indiana, Orrin Hatch of Utah, John Heinz of Pennsylvania (of the Pittsburgh condiment-making family), and Harrison Schmitt of New Mexico (who walked on the Moon on the Apollo 17 mission).

Maybe Ford was better off for having lost: Carter was left with the energy crisis, a hard situation in Iran, and a new round of recession and inflation. If Ford had what amounted to a 2nd term, he might have struggled just as much (if not with exactly the same attempted solutions), and he might now be considered one of the country's worst Presidents, if a well-meaning one.

Time magazine named Carter their Man of the Yar for 1976. He started his Inaugural Address by thanking "my predecessor, for all he has done to heal our land." That healed some of the bitterness that had come up between them during the campaign, and the two men remained on friendly terms for the rest of Ford's life, which came to a close in 2006, at the age of 93. At the time, Ford was the longest-lived President in American history.

The 1976 campaign remains the last one to date that was relatively civil. In 1980, Reagan and the Republicans ran a campaign that terribly mocked Carter, and it worked. As time has gone by, Presidential elections gotten nastier and nastier. The zingers that Ford and Carter traded in the Bicentennial Year now seem rather quaint by comparison.

Also on Election Day 1976, New Jersey voters approved casino gambling in Atlantic City. This would one day have repercussions in another Presidential race, as Donald Trump ran in 2016 despite building 3 casino-hotels in A.C., and having them all go bankrupt. Some businessman he turned out to be.

There's a Jimmy Carter Presidential Parkway and a Jimmy Carter Boulevard in his home State of Georgia. A statue of him stands outside the State Capitol in Atlanta. The city is also home to his Presidential Library, and the Carter Center, an institute dedicated to peaceful change all over the world. They opened on October 1, 1986, his 62nd birthday. Given his U.S. Navy experience, it was appropriate that a nuclear-powered submarine was named the USS Jimmy Carter, SSN-23, in service since 2004.

While he was born and raised in Los Angeles, actor Richard Paul had become known for his impressions, and his impression of Carter led to him being cast as Mayor Teddy Burnside in the sitcom Carter Country, which aired on ABC in the 1977-78 and 1978-79 TV seasons. In a retroactive irony -- Bill Clinton was first elected Governor of Arkansas in 1978 -- the name of the fictional Georgia town on the show was Clinton Corners. The TV show The Dukes of Hazzard, based in a fictional Georgia County, also debuted during Carter's Presidency. While it was filmed in 1976, the Georgia-based movie Smokey & the Bandit premiered in 1977.

Statue, State House, Atlanta, Georgia

Carter remains the only President born in, or representing, Georgia.

Carter has been played by Dan Aykroyd on Saturday Night Live, Ed Beheler in Sextette in 1978 and Hot Shots! Part Deux in 1993, and Brad Maynard in the pilot of the 1st live-action TV version of the superhero comedy The Tick in 2001. (A Soviet robot had been programmed specifically to kill Carter, not whoever was currently President, and was revived in what was then the present day.)

His work with Habitat for Humanity brings up a comparison with Trump. When Jimmy Carter built a wall, he built four of them. And a roof. And when he built a residence, he did it for comfort, not for luxury, and let it be open to anyone, regardless of race or religion. And then he did it again. And again. And again.

And the only thing that stopped him wasn't old age, but very old age. Carter became the 1st President to live to be 100 years old, on October 1, 2024. He had said he wanted to live long enough to vote for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the election on November 5. He did. He died on December 29.

November 1, 1946: The 1st NBA Game

The 1946-47 New York Knicks

November 1, 1946, 80 years ago: The the 1st NBA game is played, at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. (Until 1949, the National Basketball Association was known as the Basketball Association of America, or the BAA.) A crowd of 7,090 -- about half of capacity -- attends, and the New York Knickerbockers beat the Toronto Huskies, 68-66.

For the Knicks, coached by Neil Cohalan, 41, and formerly head coach at Manhattan College:

* Number 6, guard Ossie Schectman, 27, from Kew Gardens, Queens, and Long Island University in Brooklyn, where he was coached by Hall-of-Famer Clair Bee, scored the 1st NBA basket, and ended up with 11 points on the night.

* Number 9, guard Leo Gottlieb, about to turn 26, from The Bronx, never went to college, led all scorers with 14.

* Number 7, forward Stan Stutz, 26, from Worcester, Massachusetts, and the University of Rhode Island, scored 9.

* Number 5, forward Ralph Kaplowitz, 27, from The Bronx, where he was a teammate of Gottlieb at DeWitt Clinton High School, and also played for Hall-of-Famer Howard Cann at New York University, scored 7.

* Number 11, center Jake Weber, 28, from Rushville, Indiana, and Purdue University, scored 6. At 6-foot-6, he was the tallest player on the team.

* Number 12, Hank Rosenstein, 26, from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and played for Hall-of-Famer Nat Holman at City College of New York, scored 5.

* Number 15, guard Dick Murphy, 25, from College Point, Queens, and played for Cohalan at Manhattan College, scored 5.

* Number 4, forward Nat Militzok, 23, from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and Cornell University, scored 5.

* Number 14, forward Tommy Byrnes (not to be confused with Yankee pitcher Tommy Byrne), 23, from The Bronx, another Clinton High graduate but too young to have played with Gottlieb and Kaplowitz, scored 4.

* Number 8, guard Sidney "Sonny" Hertzberg, 24, from Flatbush, Brooklyn, and a CCNY teammate of Rosenstein, scored 2.

* And Number 10, guard Bob Mullens, on his 24th birthday, from Staten Island, and Fordham University, played, but scored none. In a weird twist of fate, before the season was out, Mullens would be traded to the Huskies. So would Militzok.

So that's 11 players, only 2 of them from outside New York City, 3 of them Irish and the rest Jewish. This would not have been odd for a college team from New York at that time, so it's not odd for the 1st real major league team from The City.

For the Huskies: Ed Sadowski scored 18, George Nostrand 16, Charlie Hoefer 8, Mike McCarron (from Elmhurst, Queens, and Seton Hall) 6, Ray Wertis 6, Dick Fitzgerald 6, his brother Bob Fitzgerald (both from Elmhurst, and Fordham) 4, Harry Miller (from West Orange, New Jersey, and Seton Hall) 1, Frank Fucarino (from Astoria, Queens, and an LIU player) 1, Roy Hurley none, and Hank Biasatti none. (I wonder if anyone attended the game thinking they were actually getting a recent college star, Stanford's Hank Luisetti.)

Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, site of the 1st NBA game

This film purports to be from that first game. Is it? It could be: The teams are the Knicks and the Huskies, and the Huskies are wearing white as home teams tend to do in basketball. However, the Knicks did make 2 more visits that season, winning both, on December 20, 1946 and March 28, 1947, so this film could be from any of those 3 games.

The Knicks are 1 of only 2 charter NBA teams still playing in their current city. The other is the Boston Celtics. These 2 teams have just started their 81st season. The Celtics started their 1st on November 2, 1946, losing to the Providence Steamrollers, 59-53 at the Rhode Island Auditorium in Providence.

Neither, however, is pro basketball's oldest franchise. The Philadelphia SPHAs were founded in 1917, as the team of the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association. They, too, were a charter BAA/NBA team, as the Philadelphia Warriors. They are still playing today, as the Golden State Warriors, having moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1962. On November 7, the Warriors made their debut, beating the Pittsburgh Ironmen, 81-75 at the Philadelphia Arena.

The Knicks went 33-27, good enough to make the Playoffs. The Huskies went 22-38, going through 4 head coaches, the last being former New York Yankees 3rd baseman Red Rolfe, who lasted the longest, going 17-27. They missed the Playoffs, and went out of business after just 1 season. The NBA did not return to Toronto until 1995 with the Raptors.

Maple Leaf Gardens, built for the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs in 1931, closed in 1999, the last of the NHL's "Original Six" arenas in use. It has been converted into retail space, like its great rival, the Montreal Forum.

Also missing the Playoffs: The Celtics, who took a few years to get going; the Providence Steamrollers, named for a 1920s football team, and went out of business after the 1948-49 season; the Detroit Falcons, who folded after that 1st season; and the Pittsburgh Ironmen, whose 15-45 record was the worst in the league, and also folded after the 1st season.

The NBA has never returned to Pittsburgh, although the Pipers won the 1st ABA Championship, in 1967-68. The Ironmen's most notable attribute is that their players included Petar Maravich, known as "Press" because he had delivered The Pittsburgh Press newspaper as a boy. If his name sounds familiar, it's because, 20 years later, at Louisiana State, he was the head coach, and his players included his son, Peter Press Maravich, a.k.a. Pistol Pete.

In the 1st Round of the Playoffs, the Knicks defeated the Cleveland Rebels, who folded after that 1st season. The Warriors eliminated the St. Louis Bombers, who lasted through the 1949-50 season.

In the Semifinals, the Warriors eliminated the Knicks. And the Chicago Stags beat the Washington Capitols, whose 49-11 record had been the best in the league. They lasted through the 1950-51 season.

In the Finals, the Warriors beat the Stags, 4 games to 1, clinching the title on April 22, 1947, at the Philadelphia Arena: Warriors 83, Stags 80. Joe Fulks of the Warriors was the league's 1st scoring champion.

As I mentioned, Ossie Schectman of the Knicks scored the 1st NBA basket. He died on July 30, 2013, at the age of 94. He was the last surviving player from the original Knicks. Jerry Rullo, a Philadelphia native who played for the Warriors, was the last surviving player from the NBA's 1st season, living until the 70th Anniversary, October 21, 2016, age 93.

October 31, 2001: Derek Jeter Becomes Mr. November

October 31, 2001, 25 years ago: Game 4 of the World Series. It's not just Halloween -- the 1st time a Major League Baseball game has been played on the day, due to the postponement of a week of games following the 9/11 attacks -- it's also a night of a Full Moon.

During batting practice at Yankee Stadium, Arizona Diamondbacks 1st baseman Mark Grace, who so long played for the Chicago Cubs without winning a Pennant and is enjoying his 1st World Series, could be seen on the official Series highlight film looking up, and saying, "Full Moon! You know what that means: Strange things happen!"

The Yankees trailed the Diamondbacks 3-1 in the bottom of the 9th, and were about to fall behind in the World Series by the same margin of games. This was due in large part to the fine pitching of Curt Schilling, who was asked about the "mystique" of Yankee Stadium. He said, "Mystique, Aura, those are dancers in a nightclub." Schilling had outpitched the Yankees' Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez. Grace had homered for the Snakes, Shane Spencer for the Yankees.

(Three years later, pitching for Boston, he would prove he was still not intimidated by Yankee Stadium, saying, "I can't think of anything better than making 55,000 Yankee fans shut up.") 

Byung-Hyun Kim, a "submarine" style pitcher from Korea, tried to close the Yankees out. But Paul O'Neill singled, and, after Bernie Williams struck out, Tino Martinez came to the plate as the Yankees' final hope. Tino electrified the crowd by slamming a drive toward the right-center-field Bleachers. The home run tied the game, and sent it into extra innings.

On the video, a fan in the front row of the Bleachers tried to catch the ball, but it bounced off his hand. Now, imagine you are that fan: Are you excited that the Yankees have come back in this World Series game, or are you mad that you were unable to catch this historic homer (and probably hurt your hand in the process)?

As the clock struck midnight, for the 1st time ever, a Major League Baseball game was played in the month of November. It was the bottom of the 10th, and Derek Jeter stepped to the plate against Kim. A fan held up a sign saying, "Mr. November."

Michael Kay, broadcasting this game for the Yankees on radio station WABC, later asked, "How did he know to hold up that sign for Jeter?" The answer is easy: He didn't hold it up specifically for Jeter. Jeter was just the batter when the clock struck 12, making him the first batter for whom it could be held up.

At 12:03 came a typical Jeter hit, an inside-out swing to right-center, and it just... barely... got over the fence for a game-winning home run. Kay yells out, "See ya! See ya! See ya!" Yankees 4, Diamondbacks 3. The Series was tied. The old ballyard was shaking. The "Yankee Mystique" had struck again. It was hits like this that got Jeter the nickname "Captain Clutch."

The next night, the 1st game to officially be played in the month of November, a fan made up a sign that said, "BASEBALL HISTORY MADE HERE" on what looked like an ancient scroll. Another fan made up a sign that said, "MYSTIQUE AND AURA APPEARING NIGHTLY." (Two years later, in what became known as the Aaron Boone Game, that same fan made up one that said, "MYSTIQUE DON’T FAIL ME NOW." It didn't.)

In 2022, Major League Baseball ranked its Top 20 Games of all time -- and by "all time," they meant games for which they had a complete record, so they could broadcast it in full. In other words, from about 1975 onward. This game ranked 12th.

The Yankees needed to win just 1 game in Arizona. They didn't. 

October 31, 1986: The East Brunswick-Stevens Halloween Bowl

Flynn's game-ending sack

October 31, 1986, 40 years ago: For the 5th time in 3 seasons, East Brunswick High School and John P. Stevens High School play each other in football, at John E. McGowan Memorial Stadium, on Stevens' campus on the north side of Edison, Middlesex County, New Jersey.

J.P. Stevens (or just "Stevens" for shorter) opened in 1964, and first played EB in 1969, and had usually beaten them. The Hawks' wins over the Bears in 1977 and 1978 were not only key to them winning the Middlesex County Athletic Conference and Central Jersey Group IV Championships, but also made the difference in keeping E.B. out of the Central Jersey Group IV Playoffs. Another loss to Stevens kept EB out in 1981. EB were only 3-6 in 1982, but Stevens' team that year won it all, going 11-0, and is regarded as one of the best teams in Middlesex County football history.

In 1983, Stevens beat EB and made the Playoffs. In 1984, EB went to Stevens and beat them in the regular season, going on to win the MCAC title, finish the regular season undefeated, and reach and host the Central Jersey Group IV Final. But running back George Boothe, a key player, injured for the regular-season game, was healthy again, and he scored 3 touchdowns as Stevens beat EB, 27-26. A failed 2-point conversion became a "cursed team" moment for EB. It was our "Black Saturday."

In 1985, Stevens again went undefeated, beating EB by 1 point, 18-17, and then beating us again in the Central Jersey title game, 19-7. That game was moved to Stevens' crosstown rivals, Edison High, due to snow rendering their field unplayable, but Edison's was okay -- not that we could run or pass on it.

So going into the 1986 season, both teams had heavy losses due to graduation, but had enough talent to go for Conference and Sectional honors again. The regular-season matchup was set for Stevens, on October 31, Halloween Night. Stevens came in with a 22-game winning streak, not having lost since the '84 defeat by EB, and not just the Number 1 ranking in the County according to The Home News, but the Number 4 ranking in the State according to The Star-Ledger, the Newark-based Statewide newspaper. It was also their Homecoming, a crowd of over 5,000 came in.

EB were 3-2-1, having had both our Playoff chances and our GMC Red Division chances taken away the previous Saturday, in a 20-17 loss at Perth Amboy, where the officiating was, to put it politely, highly questionable. I was there, and I'm still questioning it, 40 years later. So we had a lot of frustrations and who better to take them out on than the team that had ruined our State Championship hopes 2 years in a row.

Both The Home News and radio station WCTC named it their Game of the Week. Bruce Johnson broadcast the game for WCTC; John Meggiolaro, Jimmy Allinder and Phil Hill did so for local cable station EBTV. But because of CTC's setup and Edison Township's own cable coverage, EBTV couldn't get space in the press box above the home stands. They had to set up over the visitor's side, at the south end's 30-yard-line, making for an awkward angle. It also exposed them to the weather, and it was unusually cold for Halloween. Then again, that made them feel like regular fans.

Stevens, coached by Tony Simonelli, wore their plain white helmets, with their home dark green jerseys and gold pants; while EB, coached by Marcus Borden, and like Simonelli he had taken his job for the 1983 season, wore their white helmets with a green center stripe, a script "Bears" on each side, and paw-print stickers for big plays, to go with all-white uniforms with green trim. Stevens kicked off at 7:00 PM sharp.

Neither team could score on its opening possession. On their 2nd, EB got a 34-yard field goal from left-footed kicker Josh Miller, who went on to become an NFL punter. On the Hawks' next possession, the Bears forced a fumble and recovered it in Stevens' territory, but could not capitalize, and I thought we would end up paying for that. Sure enough, Ray Patricco threw a 63-yard touchdown pass to Curtis Sharp. But the extra point by Leon Theodorou, whose field goal won the regular-season game the season before, was wide right, and the 1st quarter ended 6-3 to Stevens.

Early in the 2nd quarter, Bryan Fortay, a sophomore but already one of the most heralded quarterbacks in the State, found a wide-open Bill Breunig in the west corner of the south end zone, capping a long drive with an 8-yard touchdown pass. Miller's extra point put EB up, 10-6. Stevens were driving as the clock ran out in the 1st half, but Ken Prus intercepted Patricco to end the threat and the half, with the score still 10-6.

In the middle of the 3rd quarter, Stevens had a 4th & 4 on EB's 33, and Patricco found Tony Mayers wide open. Had he caught the ball, he would have been unopposed for a touchdown, but he dropped the pass. But on their next possession, he didn't drop a pass, and took it 28 yards for a go-ahead touchdown. But when Stevens went for the two-point conversion, Mayers tripped in the end zone, leaving the score at Hawks 12, Bears 10.

Miller missed a 43-yard field goal attempt. A pass interference call wiped out an interception by Prus and gave Stevens a 1st down. But a strong defensive stand, led by linebacker Robb Schaffer, forced Stevens to punt. Breunig took Mayers' punt on his own 40, then handed it to Prus, who headed for the east sideline, and took off, untouched, and took it to the house. It was the kind of end-around play that Stevens, with the now-graduated George Boothe, had used so effectively against EB the preceding 2 years. Miller added the extra point, and the 3rd quarter ended Bears 17, Hawks 12.

In the 4th quarter, the Bears held the Hawks on one series, then another, holding them on 4th down by maybe 8 inches according to the officials' measurement, with 4:09 to go. A Fortay-to-Prus pass on 3rd & 10 gained a 1st down with 3:06 to go.

Stevens' defense held, but on Fortay's punt, Stevens went for the block, but, instead, were called for roughing the kicker, giving the Bears a new 1st down with 2:14 to go. It was the kind of penalty that usually happened against East Brunswick -- called correctly, or otherwise -- rather than in their favor.

With 1:03 to go, Fortay threw 31 yards to Prus for what could have been a touchdown, but the Bears were flagged for holding. Stevens got the ball back on their own 27 with 55 seconds to go, but a dropped pass, a completed pass for a 1st down, an incomplete pass to stop the clock, and a sack of Patricco by John Flynn, and the clock ran out: East Brunswick had won, 17-12, ending J.P. Stevens' winning streak; throwing E.B.'s fans, myself included, into ecstasy; and throwing both the Greater Middlesex Conference Red Division and the Central Jersey Group IV power point totals into chaos.

On EBTV, Phil Hill said, "J.P. Stevens has been tricked, and East Brunswick has been treated." And so it was true. That was a great night. Along with winning the Middlesex County baseball title the preceding June, and the County basketball title (also beating Stevens) the following February, one of the greatest nights I had as an EBHS student. We knew our chances of making the Playoffs or getting even a share of the Division title were slim, so this win made our season.

The game is on YouTube. I recently watched it for the first time since it happened. It felt great. Maybe not as great as it did that night, but still great after four decades.

The following Friday night, we beat Cedar Ridge of Old Bridge, 28-0. That was our 8th game, and thus the last one for which any "power points" we gained would count. (It's complicated, and I won't explain it here.) The Friday night after that, we beat Sayreville, 33-14, to finish with a record of 6-2-1.

A weird thing: In my father's senior year at Barringer High School in Newark, in my mother's senior year at Belleville High School, and in my senior year at East Brunswick High School, the football teams at each school ended up winning 6, losing 2, and tying 1. And none made the State Playoffs. Of course, Dad and Mom didn't have the State Playoffs to make, as the NJSIAA didn't start them until 1974. Even more unfortunately, when my sister was a senior at EBHS, the team didn't do nearly as well, breaking the pattern.

Under most circumstances, 6-2-1 would have been considered a really good season. But losing our 1st-ever home night game, 22-0 to Madison Central, and then getting hosed by the officials away to Perth Amboy left us feeling a bit under-satisfied.

Then came Thanksgiving Day, where, without our even playing, a combination of results left us with a share of the Division title. It was a weird occurrence in a season of weird occurrences, but it gave us a championship.

Another oddity: It was Josh Miller, our kicker, who became the only player in the 1st 60 years of EBHS football to play in the NFL -- and as a punter. He was an All-Pro with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and won a Super Bowl XXXIX ring with the New England Patriots. He is now a successful radio show host.

Fortay wasn't so lucky. Although he led us to another Conference Championship in 1987, we got wrecked by Madison Central in the Playoffs, and they did it to us again the next year, both in the regular season and in the Playoffs. He did, however, also help our basketball team win the Middlesex County Championship in 1987, and reach the Tournament Final again in 1989.

He was still recruited to play at the University of Miami, already a program producing a string of good quarterbacks (and receivers, and linebackers, and defensive backs), by head coach Jimmy Johnson. But Johnson got an offer he couldn't refuse: The head coaching job of the Dallas Cowboys.

Miami brought in Dennis Erickson, who had coached Timm Rosenbach at Washington State. But he was committed to other quarterbacks Miami already had: First, the unrelated Dennis Erickson, who led them to the National Championship in 1989; then, Gino Torretta. who led them to the National Championship in 1991, and nearly another in 1992, when he won the Heisman Trophy. Based on those results, it can hardly be said that he made the wrong decision.

Fortay transferred to Rutgers, leading them to a 6-5 season in 1991 and 7-4 in 1992, including another Halloween thriller, tossing a touchdown pass on the last play of the game to give RU a 50-49 Homecoming win over Virginia Tech. But a 26-24 loss to the University of Cincinnati the next week ended RU's bowl hopes.

Fortay went undrafted. His only pro football experience would be in 1995: First, in the World League of American Football, an NFL-sponsored league that played in the Spring, with the Frankfurt Galaxy in Germany; then, in the Fall, with the Miami Hooters of the Arena Football League. He had just turned 24, but his football career was over. He joined his father's business, training racehorses; and then went to law school, and has practiced law for insurance companies. He turns 55 in 2 days, and appears to have done well for himself.

I'm reminded of something the late British TV show host Clive James once said: "Achievement without fame can be a very rewarding life, while fame without achievement is no life at all."

As it turned out, though, the most famous member of the EBHS football teams of 1985, '86 and '87 was a linebacker, who had come to America from Türkiye with his family. He was a good player by high school standards. He went to the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University School of Law, became a radio talk show host, and created politically-themed program The Young Turks. His name is Cenk Uygur.

I knew Miller and Fortay, and spoke with them many times. I did not know Uygur well, and the only times we did talk, it was about the team, never about politics.

October 31, 1926: The Death of Harry Houdini

October 31, 1926, 100 years ago: Harry Houdini could escape from anything. Except death, the one thing from which no person escapes.

Erik Weisz was born on March 24, 1874 in Budapest, Hungary, then part of the Austrian Empire. When he was 4 years old, his family took him to America, to Appleton, Wisconsin. To fit in with the largely German population, his name was re-spelled Erich Weiss, although pronounced the same way.

The family moved to New York, where little Erich became a trapeze artist and a competitive cross-country runner. In 1890, he read The Memoirs of Robert-Houdin, by the Frenchman regarded as the master of modern magic, Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin.

Incorrectly thinking that adding a letter I to the end of a French name meant "like," he wanted people to think he was "like Robert-Houdin." He also admired an American magician named Harry Kellar, and so he took the stage name "Harry Houdini."

By 1908, his own reputation solid, Harry had lost his respect for his forebear, believing him to have taken credit for others' innovations. Much like later magician James "The Amazing" Randi, he took to debunking famous people he considered frauds, especially in magic, and published The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin.

Although he mastered many magic tricks, he became best known as an escape artist. All over the world, over the 1st 2 decades of the 20th Century, he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon, he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets, being locked in trunks, and having to escape from and hold his breath inside a sealed milk can with water in it.

In 1894, he married Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner, a Brooklyn-born daughter of German immigrants. She became known as Bess Houdini, and assisted him in his act. They never had children, and Bess' niece, Marie Blood, believed that Bess had a medical condition that prevented it.

On October 22, 1926, before a show at the Princess Theatre in Montreal, Houdini was in his dressing room, with some students at nearby McGill University. One, Jocelyn Gordon Whitehead, asked Houdini if it was true that punches in the stomach did not hurt him. He said they didn't. However, this was only true if he was properly braced for them. He had recently broken an ankle, and was sitting down, and getting up would have been painful. Whitehead began punching Houdini, and did so several times before Houdini told him to stop.

The show went on as scheduled, but Houdini was in pain throughout. For the next 2 days, the pain was bad enough that he couldn't sleep. Finally, in Detroit for a show at the Garrick Theater, he saw a doctor, who diagnosed him with appendicitis and a fever, and told him to have immediate surgery. (With a fever, this would have been a bad idea.) He went onstage that night, anyway, and his fever reached 104, and he passed out. He was taken to Grace Hospital, and died there from peritonitis on October 31, at the age of 52.

Did he already have appendicitis before the punches? It's been suggested that he didn't take the pain as seriously as he should have, since he thought it was from the punches. But after taking statements from the other McGill students, his insurance company concluded that the death was due to the dressing-room incident, and paid Bess a double indemnity.

And so, the Master of Magic was dead -- perhaps appropriately, on Halloween. Bess operated a tea house until her own death, in 1943. Whitehead was not charged with any crime in connection with Houdini's death, and lived in obscurity and poverty until 1954.

To this day, when asked to perform a seemingly impossible task, some people ask, "What do you think I am, a magician?" Some take it a step further, and ask, "What am I, Houdini?" And any seemingly miraculous escape is called "pulling a Houdini" or "a Houdini act."

In a 2015 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist played Houdini, while his wife Josie Ahlquist played Bess Houdini. His opponent, as played by "Nice" Peter Shukoff, was more recent magician David Copperfield.

October 31, 1926 was a Sunday. British entertainer Jimmy Savile was born. Meaning this day stunk in two ways: We lost the greatest magician of all time, and gained a cruel sex fiend.

World Series Legitimacy Tiers

World Series Legitimacy Tiers

Tier 4: Completely Illegitimate, because the winning team was exposed as a cheater

1997 Florida Marlins (Steroids: Gary Sheffield)

2001 Arizona Diamondbacks (Steroids: Luiz Gonzalez, Matt Williams)

2003 Florida Marlins (Steroids: Iván Rodríguez)

2004 Boston Red Sox (Steroids: David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez)

2007 Boston Red Sox (Steroids: David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez)

2013 Boston Red Sox (Steroids: David Ortiz)

2017 Houston Astros (Mechanics: Buzzers)

2018 Boston Red Sox (Mechanics: Apple Watches)

2022 Houston Astros (Mechanics: Buzzers)

Tier 3: Partly Legitimate, due to a shortened season (Less than 154 games)

1903 Boston Americans (Red Sox -- 138 games, seasons were 154 from 1904-61/62)

1918 Boston Red Sox (126 games, shortened at the end by World War I restrictions)

1919 Cincinnati Reds (140 games, shortened at the beginning by World War I restrictions)

1981 Los Angeles Dodgers 110 games, shortened in the middle by the Strike of '81)

1995 Atlanta Braves (144 games, shortened at the beginning by the Strike of '94)

2020 Los Angeles Dodgers (60 games, shortened by COVID restrictions)

Tier 2: Mostly Legitimate, but the opposing team had at least one significant injury

1904 Boston Americans (Red Sox)

1921 New York Giants (Yankees' Babe Ruth was injured in Game 2)

1925 Pittsburgh Pirates (Senators' Bucky Harris and Ossie Bluege both got hurt in the Series)

1941 New York Yankees (Dodgers' Freddie Fitzsimmons was injured in Game 3)

1942 St. Louis Cardinals (Yankees lost players due to the war effort)

1943 New York Yankees (Cardinals lost players due to the war effort)

1944 St. Louis Cardinals (Browns lost players due to the war effort)

1945 Detroit Tigers (Cubs lost players due to the war effort)

1946 St. Louis Cardinals (Red Sox' Dom DiMaggio was injured in Game 7)

1950 New York Yankees (Phillies lost Curt Simmons to Korean War)

1952 New York Yankees (Dodgers lost Don Newcombe to Korean War)

1953 New York Yankees (Dodgers lost Don Newcombe to Korean War)

1955 Brooklyn Dodgers (Yankees' Mickey Mantle was injured)

1964 St. Louis Cardinals (Yankees' Mel Stottlemyre was injured in Game 1)

1967 St. Louis Cardinals (Red Sox' Tony Conigliaro was injured)

1975 Cincinnati Reds (Red Sox' Jim Rice was injured)

1985 Kansas City Royals (Cardinals' Vince Coleman was injured)

1986 New York Mets (Red Sox' Bill Buckner was playing through injury)

1989 Oakland Athletics (Series disrupted by earthquake)

1996 New York Yankees (Braves' David Justice was injured)

Note: I'm counting 1904 in the "injury" category because the New York Giants basically forfeited. While no Giants were injured in the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, it's much easier to imagine them bouncing back without it happening than with it.

World War II did not affect the Yankees or the Cardinals much in either 1942 or 1943, the Cardinals or the Browns much in 1944, or the Tigers or the Cubs much in 1945. But it did affect their respective regular-season opponents, and thus their paths into the World Series, significantly. The Yankees were missing Tommy Henrich in '42; and missing him, Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Keller and Phil Rizzuto in '43.

It should be noted that the Yankees lost Whitey Ford to the Korean War in the 1951 and '52 seasons, but not '53. So both '52 teams lost a key pitcher, so that makes the Yankees' '52 title more legitimate than those they won in '50 and '53. But the Giants lost Willie Mays for '52 and '53 as well, so, given that they won the Pennant with Mays in '51 and '54, that also casts the Dodgers' Pennants for those seasons in doubt.

Tier 1: Completely Legitimate, as far as we know

1905 New York Giants

1906 Chicago White Sox

1907 Chicago Cubs

1908 Chicago Cubs

1909 Pittsburgh Pirates

1910 Philadelphia Athletics

1911 Philadelphia Athletics

1912 Boston Red Sox

1913 Philadelphia Athletics

1914 Boston Braves

1915 Boston Red Sox

1916 Boston Red Sox

1917 Chicago White Sox

1920 Cleveland Indians (Guardians)

1922 New York Giants

1923 New York Yankees

1924 Washington Senators

1926 St. Louis Cardinals

1927 New York Yankees

1928 New York Yankees

1929 Philadelphia Athletics

1930 Philadelphia Athletics

1931 St. Louis Cardinals

1932 New York Yankees

1933 New York Giants

1934 St. Louis Cardinals

1935 Detroit Tigers

1936 New York Yankees

1937 New York Yankees

1938 New York Yankees

1939 New York Yankees

1940 Cincinnati Reds

1942 St. Louis Cardinals

1947 New York Yankees

1948 Cleveland Indians (Guardians)

1949 New York Yankees

1954 New York Giants

1956 New York Yankees

1957 Milwaukee Braves

1958 New York Yankees

1959 Los Angeles Dodgers

1960 Pittsburgh Pirates

1961 New York Yankees

1962 New York Yankees

1963 Los Angeles Dodgers

1965 Los Angeles Dodgers

1966 Baltimore Orioles

1968 Detroit Tigers

1969 New York Mets

1970 Baltimore Orioles

1971 Pittsburgh Pirates

1972 Oakland Athletics

1973 Oakland Athletics

1974 Oakland Athletics

1976 Cincinnati Reds

1977 New York Yankees

1978 New York Yankees

1979 Pittsburgh Pirates

1980 Philadelphia Phillies

1982 St. Louis Cardinals

1983 Baltimore Orioles

1984 Detroit Tigers

1987 Minnesota Twins

1988 Los Angeles Dodgers

1990 Cincinnati Reds

1991 Minnesota Twins

1992 Toronto Blue Jays

1993 Toronto Blue Jays

1998 New York Yankees

1999 New York Yankees

2000 New York Yankees

2002 Anaheim Angels

2005 Chicago White Sox

2006 St. Louis Cardinals

2008 Philadelphia Phillies

2009 New York Yankees

2010 San Francisco Giants

2011 St. Louis Cardinals

2012 San Francisco Giants

2014 San Francisco Giants

2015 Kansas City Royals

2016 Chicago Cubs

2019 Washington Nationals

2021 Atlanta Braves

2023 Texas Rangers

2024 Los Angeles Dodgers

2025 Los Angeles Dodgers

2026 Milwaukee Brewers

Therefore, counting Completely Legitimate as 1.00, Mostly Legitimate as 0.75, Partly Legitimate as 0.50, and Completely Illegitimate as 0.00,  then, by this measure: New York Yankees, 24.50; St. Louis Cardinals, 10.75; Los Angeles Dodgers, 7.00; Philadelphia Athletics, 5.00; Boston Red Sox, 4.75; Pittsburgh Pirates, 4.75; Cincinnati Reds, 4.75; New York Giants, 4.75; Detroit Tigers, 3.75; Oakland Athletics, 3.75; Baltimore Orioles, 3.75; Chicago White Sox, 3.00; San Francisco Giants, 3.00; Chicago Cubs, 3.00; Cleveland Indians, 2.00; Minnesota Twins, 2.00; Toronto Blue Jays, 2.00; Philadelphia Phillies, 2.00; Kansas City Royals, 1.75; New York Mets, 1.75; Atlanta Braves, 1.50; Boston Braves, 1.00; Washington Senators, 1.00, Los Angeles Angels, 1.00; Washington Nationals, 1.00; Texas Rangers, 1.00; Milwaukee Brewers, 1.00; Brooklyn Dodgers, 0.75; all other teams, 0.00.

If you count moved teams as combined totals: New York Yankees, 24.50; St. Louis Cardinals, 10.75; New York/San Francisco Giants, 7.75; Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, 7.75; Philadelphia/Oakland Athletics, 8.75; Boston Red Sox, 4.75; Pittsburgh Pirates, 4.75; Cincinnati Reds, 4.75; Detroit Tigers, 3.75; Baltimore Orioles, 3.75; Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins, 3.00; Chicago White Sox, 3.00; Chicago Cubs, 3.00; Cleveland Indians, 2.00; Toronto Blue Jays, 2.00; Philadelphia Phillies, 2.00; Kansas City Royals, 1.75; New York Mets, 1.75; Atlanta Braves, 1.50; Boston Braves, 1.00; Los Angeles Angels, 1.00; Washington Nationals, 1.00; Texas Rangers, 1.00; Milwaukee Brewers, 1.00; all other teams, 0.00.