March 1, 1526: The Tyndale Bible

March 1, 1526, 500 years ago: William Tyndale publishes a complete edition of the New Testament, a translation from the German edition published by Martin Luther into English.

Tyndale, born around 1494 in Gloucestershire in the West Country of England, had previously published an Old Testament in 1522. This meant he now had a complete Bible, the 1st one in the English language.

At this point, the most common Bible was the Vulgate, in Latin, the language of the Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church, published in 1382 by John Wycliffe. Before reaching Rome, most Bibles were published in Greek; before that, in Aramaic, the native language of Jesus; with Old Testaments having been in Hebrew.

A surviving Tyndale New Testament,

in the British Library in London

Given England's expansionism around the world, in the 16th Century, and the Protestant Reformation around Europe, this was a major step forward in the Bible, a.k.a. "The Word of God," becoming accessible to people on their own terms, as was the Gutenberg Bible published in Germany in 1455, at the dawn of the printing press.

This allowed people to read the Bible for themselves, without simply being told what it said by their priests. The priests didn't like that. The Church hierarchy really didn't like that.

In 1528, Tyndale wrote The Obedience of a Christian Man, arguing that a country's monarch should be the head of its church. This gave him an ally in King Henry VIII of England, who used this book was part of his reason to break away from the Catholic Church, and form the Church of England, with himself as its head.

But the main reason he wanted to do that was because he wanted to divorce his 1st wife, Katherine of Aragon, and marry his mistress, Anne Boleyn. The Catholic Church wouldn't let him do that, so he broke away.

And Tyndale sided with the Catholics on this, writing The Practice of the Prelates in 1530. That pissed Henry off, and Tyndale fled to the Duchy of Brabant. Big mistake: While now part of the Kingdom of Belgium, Brabant was then part of the Holy Roman Empire, which was Catholic. In 1535, Emperor Charles V ordered Tyndale's arrest; in 1536, Charles ordered Tyndale's execution. Tyndale was about 42 years old.

In 1539, Henry VIII, by then between his 3rd and 4th marriages, published The Great Bible, the 1st royally-authorized Bible in English. It was mostly the Tyndale Bible. In 1611, King James I published a new version, which has become known, naturally, as the King James Version. It has been estimated that 76 percent of its Old Testament is Tyndale's text, and 83 percent of its New Testament is.

The Tyndale Bible introduced into the English language such words as "Passover," "scapegoat" and "atonement"; the phrases "it came to pass," "the powers that be," "the signs of the times," "mercy seat" and "filthy lucre";

Phrases which had previously appeared in other Bibles, especially the Wycliffe Vulgate, but were made accessible in English due to Tyndale, include: "my brother's keeper," "a moment in time," "in the twinkling of an eye," "the salt of the earth," "judge not that ye be not judged," "knock and it shall be opened unto you," "seek and ye shall find," "ask and it shall be given you," "a law unto themselves," and "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

February 27, 1951: The 22nd Amendment Is Ratified

February 27, 1951, 75 years ago: The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is ratified, when the Minnesota legislature approves it, becoming the 36th State to do so. That made it 36 out of 48, the three-quarters of the States necessary. The Amendment limits the President of the United States to two terms.

Congress passed the Amendment on March 21, 1947. It was a Republican-controlled Congress, the first since the 1929-30 session. They passed it as a slap at the memory of the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democrat who had won 4 elections, all by landslide wins over Republican candidates: Incumbent President Herbert Hoover in 1932, Governor Alfred M. Landon of Kansas in 1936, corporate lawyer with no political experience Wendell Willkie in 1940, and Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York in 1944.

Except... the Republicans put in a grandfather clause, allowing the President at the time the Amendment was ratified to run for, and serve out, a 3rd term, if he so chose. It was a cynical move: They figured the Amendment wouldn't be ratified by the necessary 36 States until after January 20, 1949, the next Inauguration Day. And they were sure that the new President, Harry Truman, who took office after FDR's death on April 12, 1945, would be so unpopular that he would lose the 1948 election, and the Republican President who succeeded him would keep getting re-elected, and eventually surpass FDR's record of 12 years, 1 month and 8 days in office.

And when they held their 1948 Convention, they nominated Dewey again. He was only 46 years old. At the conclusion of 3 terms, in 1960, he would have been only 58, 4 years younger than FDR. (As it turned out, he lived until 1971, which, in the Republicans' dream scenario, would have been more than halfway through his 6th term.)

The Republicans had the timing right: The Amendment didn't pass until what would have been early in the 3rd year of Dewey's 1st term. But Truman won the 1948 election. So, had he so chosen, he could have run again in 1952, for what would have amounted to a 3rd term.

He decided not to. He was tired of the job, and his wife was tired of being First Lady. He said that if he had run again, "Bess would have impeached me."

Finally, in 1952, the Republicans got their next President. Ironically, the 1st 2 Presidents limited by the Amendment, and 3 of the 1st 4, were Republicans.

This begs the question: Which 2-term Presidents could have won a 3rd term, had they been eligible for it, and had they wanted it?

* Dwight D. Eisenhower, elected in 1952 and 1956. In 1960, "Ike" was 70 years old, the oldest President ever to that point. And he wanted to retire. But he was still popular. And, given that his considerably less popular Vice President, Richard Nixon, came close to beating Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, it's likely that Ike would have beaten him. Unless, of course, JFK figured that Ike probably couldn't be beaten in 1960, and had waited until 1964.

As we know, JFK was assassinated before he could start running for a 2nd term, let alone a 3rd. And his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, had started to run for a 2nd full term in 1968, but backed out. The 22nd Amendment allowed a President who had served less than 2 years of his predecessor's term to still serve 2 full terms.

Richard Nixon, one step ahead of impeachment, resigned nearly halfway through his 2nd term. Gerald Ford lost his bid for a term of his own in 1976. He would not have been eligible to run again in 1980. Jimmy Carter was, but lost. But since he only served one term, he could have run for another. Given that he is still alive at this writing, he could, theoretically, run again in 2024, when he would be 100 years old, and, if successful, be allowed to serve.

* Ronald Reagan, elected in 1980 and 1984. In 1988, he was 77, breaking Ike's record for oldest President. He might have wanted to serve a 3rd term, had he been allowed to. But, given that his mental capacity was already clearly in decline (for those willing to admit it), he probably would have been talked out of it. If he had run again in 1988, he was popular enough to win again. But by 1992, he, rather than his Vice President and successor, George H.W. Bush, would have been blamed for the recession, and his historical reputation would have been shattered.

* Bill Clinton, elected in 1992 and 1996. In 2000, he was 56, and still popular. Given that his Vice President, Al Gore, a man with a serious charisma deficit, actually beat Governor George W. Bush of Texas in the popular vote, Clinton would have destroyed Bush. Given Clinton's heart trouble in 2004, he might not have run for a 4th term. But, had that been taken care of, we could, theoretically, now be in Bill Clinton's 9th term as President. Ninth.

* George W. Bush, elected in 2000 and 2004. In 2008, he was 62, and very unpopular, due to a very rough recession and the Iraq War. He wouldn't have had a chance.

* Barack Obama, elected in 2008 and 2012. In 2016, he was 55, and still popular. And he had as much skill as Hillary Clinton, and none of her baggage. And we know from the birth certificate story of 2011 that he wouldn't have been timid about going after Donald Trump. He would have won.

When Obama left office, I joked: "The Republicans were determined to do anything to stop President Obama. Anything. So, after failing at everything else, they went back in time to 1947, and got a Constitutional Amendment passed, limiting the President to 2 terms. It worked."

It never occurred to Donald Trump's supporters that, if, as they so stupidly believed, he really did win again in 2020, then he wasn't eligible to be elected again in 2024.

Bruce Froemming, Worst Umpire Who Ever Lived, 1939-2026

The worst umpire in baseball history has died.

And if you're thinking Joe West or Ángel Hernández, I can tell you, not only are those two schmucks still alive, but there was one who was even worse.

Bruce Neal Froemming was born on September 28, 1939 in Milwaukee. The Braves moving to Atlanta in 1965 was the worst thing that has ever happened to baseball in Milwaukee, but Froemming being born in Milwaukee was the worst thing there that ever happened to baseball.

After a brief semi-pro playing career, Froemming became the youngest umpire in professional baseball in 1958 at age 18, working his way up through the minor leagues to the Pacific Coast League, before joining the National League staff in April 1971.

On September 2, 1972, Milt Pappas of the Chicago Cubs pitched a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres, winning, 8-0. It should have been a perfect game. He had a 3-and-2 count on the last batter, pinch-hitter Larry Stahl. Then he threw what should have been called strike 3 on the outside corner. But Froemming, in his 2nd season, called ball 4, and ruined it.

Pappas freaked out, and yelled at Froemming, including a few Greek profanities. He got the next batter, Garry Jestadt, to keep the no-hitter, but it could have been so much more. After the game, he tried to be rational, approaching Froemming and saying, "Do you know how few umpires have called a perfect game? You could have been one of them."

Froemming said, "Milt, if I had called that last pitch a strike, I never would've been able to live with myself." Pappas lost it again, and said, "How the hell do you live with yourself with all the other lousy calls you make?" So, already, Froemming had a reputation of not being a good umpire.

The next day, at Wrigley Field, Froemming says he was "besieged" by the media. Years later, he justified his call, saying, "I'm an umpire, not a fan. I called what I saw."

Froemming never called a perfect game, but he was the 1st base umpire for Dennis Martínez's perfect game for the Montreal Expos against the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 28, 1991; and he did call more no-hitters than any umpire in MLB history: 11.

On October 7, 1977, Game 3 of the National League Championship Series was played at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Phillies led the Dodgers, 5-3 in the top of the 9th inning. They were 1 more out from winning, and needed just 1 more win for their 1st Pennant in 27 years, since the 1950 Whiz Kids.

The Dodgers benefited from what Philadelphia fans would consider a sickening turn of events. Pinch hitter Vic Davalillo, a 41-year-old Venezuelan outfielder who has already retired from baseball once, showed enough guts to lay down a drag bunt, at his age, with 2 strikes, and he beat it out. Another pinch-hitter, 39-year-old Dominican Manny Mota, hit a long drive to left field.

Ordinarily, Phils manager Danny Ozark would have sent Jerry Martin out to left for defensive purposes, in place of the powerful but defensively suspect Greg Luzinski. This time, he didn't, and the Bull could only trap the ball against the fence. (In fairness, I’ve seen the play several times, and I don’t think Martin would have caught it, either, especially since he was a bit shorter than the Bull.) Luzinski threw back to the infield, but Phils 2nd baseman Ted Sizemore mishandled it, Mota went to 3rd, and Davalillo scored. It was 5-4 Phils, with 2 out.

Then came one of the most brutal umpiring screwups ever. Remember, the Dodgers were still down to their last out. Davey Lopes' grounder hit a seam in the artificial turf, and caromed off Mike Schmidt's knee to Larry Bowa‚ and Froemming incorrectly ruled the shortstop's throw late. Instead of the game being over in Philly's favor, Mota scored the tying run. The Dodgers went on to win, 6-5, and won the Pennant the next day.

In Philadelphia, the game is known as Black Friday. Froemming's name is still mud there.

Froemming worked in the All-Star Games of 1975, 1986 and 2007, behind home plate for the last 2; behind home plate for the NL Wild-Card play-in games of 1998 and 1999; a record 9 Division Series; 10 League Championship Series, formerly a record; and 5 World Series: 1976, 1984, 1988, 1990 and 1995.

In Game 4 in 1976, he ejected Yankee manager Billy Martin, who was miked-up for the official World Series highlight film, and was caught repeatedly saying, "Don't you be intimidating me!" On July 24, 2004, Froemming was the home plate umpire who let Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo get away with hitting Yankee Alex Rodriguez on purpose, and then, when A-Rod dared to curse Arroyo out, Sox catcher Jason Varitek get away with smashing his mitt into A-Rod's face. Froemming threw Varitek and A-Rod out, but let Arroyo continue, when he should have thrown both Sox players out and let A-Rod continue.

In 1986, he appeared in a commercial for McDonald's new burger, the McDLT. The burger flopped, not because of Froemming's endorsement, but because the environmental movement forced McDonald's to stop using styrofoam containers, and there was no other way to "keep the hot side hot, and the cool side cool."

Froemming was named as 1 of the NL's 6 crew chiefs in 1988, and remained a crew chief when the Leagues' umpiring crews were combined in 2000. In 2001, when Miller Park (now American Family Field) opened in his hometown of Milwaukee, he was the home plate umpire. He umpired in 5,163 regular-season games, 2nd all-time at the time he retired after the 2007 season; and a record 111 postseason games.

Unfortunately, his last series was the 2007 American League Division Series between the Yankees and the Cleveland Indians, for which he was the crew chief. This included Game 2, when a swarm of midges came in from Lake Erie, rendering conditions unplayable, but he ordered that play continue, costing the Yankees the lead and the game. He should have stopped the game, as if it was raining, or (as has happened in Cleveland) there was snow, or fog. But he couldn't resist screwing one more team over.

Bruce Froemming married Rosemarie Loch in 1957, and they had two sons, Steven and Kevin. He had 2 grandchildren.

He died this past Wednesday, February 25, 2026, at the age of 86, at a hospital in Milwaukee. He had fallen in his home in suburban Mequon, Wisconsin the previous day, and doctors determined that he had a brain bleed that they were unable to stop, because he was taking blood thinners.

In the end, he died due to his thin blood. But his thin skin made him a terrible umpire.

Yankee Honors Levels

The Yankees have announced that they will honor Hall of Fame pitcher CC Sabathia on September 26, a Saturday night, prior to their game with the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium II. They will retire his uniform Number 52, and give him a Plaque in Monument Park.

He absolutely should have a Plaque. But the retired number? It's the 23rd separate number retired by the team -- Number 8 having been retired for 2 players -- and, so far, the highest. This has messed with the roster, to the point where the current best player on the team, Aaron Judge, wears Number 99, and that will almost certainly be retired someday.

Even Whitey Ford, who received both honors, once said, "There's only four numbers that should be retired, and mine's not one of them." He meant Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle: 3, 4, 5 and 7. The Mount Rushmore of the Yankees.

Here's the list of Retired Numbers:

1 Billy Martin, 2nd base, 1950-57; manager, on and off from 1975 to 1988.

2 Derek Jeter, shortstop, 1995-2014.

3 Babe Ruth, right field, 1920-34.

4 Lou Gehrig, 1st base, 1923-39.

5 Joe DiMaggio, center field, 1936-51.

6 Joe Torre, manager, 1996-2007.

7 Mickey Mantle, center field, 1951-68.

8 Bill Dickey, catcher, 1928-46; manager, 1946; coach, 1949-60.

8 Lawrence "Yogi" Berra, catcher-left field, 1946-63; manager, 1964 and 1984-85; coach, 1975-83.

9 Roger Maris, right field, 1960-66.

10 Phil Rizzuto, shortstop, 1941-56; broadcaster, 1957-96.

15 Thurman Munson, catcher, 1969-79.

16 Whitey Ford, pitcher, 1950-67.

20 Jorge Posada, catcher, 1995-2001.

21 Paul O'Neill, right field, 1993-2001; broadcaster, 2002-present.

23 Don Mattingly, 1st base, 1982-95; coach, 2004-07.

32 Elston Howard, catcher-left field, 1955-67; coach, 1969-80.

37 Charles "Casey" Stengel, manager, 1949-60.

42 Mariano Rivera, pitcher, 1995-2013.

44 Reggie Jackson, right field, 1977-81.

46 Andy Pettitte, pitcher, 1995-2003, 2007-13.

49 Ron Guidry, pitcher, 1975-88.

51 Bernie Williams, center field, 1991-2006.

52 CC Sabathia, pitcher, 2009-19.

Jeter, Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Torre, Mantle, Dickey, Berra, Rizzuto, Ford, Stengel, Rivera, Jackson and Sabathia are in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

But if you consider retiring the number to be a higher category, then even Hall induction isn't necessarily enough. Along with Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle: Jackson and the pair of Jeter and Rivera defined a generation of Yankees; Yogi was the greatest catcher ever, and a pop culture figure on top of that; Rizzuto was part of the Yankee family longer than anybody; Munson died while still the team Captain; Ford was the greatest Yankee starting pitcher; Howard was the 1st black Yankee; and Stengel and Torre should be honored as the greatest managers.

So, instead of:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 20, 21, 23, 32, 37, 42, 44, 46, 49, 51, 52.

It should be:

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 15, 16, 32, 37, 42, 44.

14 retired numbers. That's enough. It frees 8 (now 9) numbers up.

Honored in Monument Park, but number not retired:

11 Vernon "Lefty" Gomez, pitcher, 1930-42.

15 Charles "Red" Ruffing, pitcher, 1930-46.

22 Allie Reynolds, pitcher, 1947-54.

24 Tino Martinez, 1st base, 1996-2001, 2005.

30 Mel Stottlemyre, pitcher, 1964-74; coach, 1996-2004.

30 Willie Randolph, 2nd base, 1976-88; coach, 1994-2004.

54 Rich "Goose" Gossage, pitcher, 1978-83, 1989.

Hall-of-Famers: Gomez, Ruffing, Gossage.

So that's 21 players honored. Well, 20: Billy Martin is there for his managing.

Honored in Monument Park, but never wore a number:

Jacob Ruppert, team owner, 1915-39.

Miller Huggins, manager, 1918-29.

Ed Barrow, general manager, 1921-45.

Joe McCarthy, manager, 1931-46.

Mel Allen, broadcaster, 1939-64, 1976-90.

Bob Sheppard, public address announcer, 1951-2007.

George Steinbrenner, team owner, 1973-2010.

You read that right: Joe McCarthy never wore a number, even though he managed in the major leagues as late as the end of the 1950 season. Huggins died in office in 1929, the 1st year that the Yankees wore numbers, but he didn't wear one, either.

Ruppert, Huggins, Barrow and McCarthy are in the Hall of Fame. Allen and Red Barber (with the Yankees, 1954-66, after broadcasting for the Brooklyn Dodgers) were the 1st recipients of the Hall's Ford Frick Award for broadcasters.

Receiving "Monuments," rather than "Plaques": Huggins in 1932, Gehrig in 1941, Ruth in 1949, Mantle in 1996, DiMaggio in 1999, Steinbrenner in 2010. DiMaggio and Mantle had gotten their Plaques together in 1969, and copies were placed on the outfield wall in 1970, before being replaced by Monuments after their respective deaths.

The original DiMaggio and Mantle Plaques are now on display at the Yogi Berra Museum on the campus of Montclair State University, in Little Falls, New Jersey.

Apparently, a Monument is only for the highest of the high, and only after the figure has died. And if Stengel didn't get one, after managing 10 Pennants and 7 World Series wins in 12 years, Jeter and Rivera aren't getting them when they reach that great ballpark in the sky.

Steinbrenner's Monument is the biggest of them all, bigger than the Plaques of Ruppert and Barrow that hung on the outfield wall, along with the Plaque honoring the Papal Mass of Pope Paul VI in 1965. All of these Plaques, and the 3 existing Monuments, were moved to the original Monument Park when the old Stadium was reopened in 1976, after the renovation.

Anyway, that's 28 Yankee figures honored. There are also Plaques honoring non-Yankee Jackie Robinson as modern baseball's 1st black player; Nelson Mandela, for his 1990 rally at Yankee Stadium; the 9/11 victims and rescue workers; the Stonewall Uprising, as a "baseball is for everyone" message; and Plaques donated by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic advocacy organization, honoring the Papal Masses delivered at the old Stadium by Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. So, counting Sabathia, there will be 35 notations.

Members of the Baseball Hall of Fame who played for the Yankees for at least 5 years, or played less than that but helped them win at least 1 Pennant, but are not honored with a retired number or a Plaque in Monument Park:

Clark Griffith, pitcher, 1903-07; manager, 1903-08.

Jack Chesbro, pitcher, 1903-09.

Willie Keeler, right field, 1903-09.

Frank "Home Run" Baker, 3rd base, 1916-22.

1 Earle Combs, center field, 1924-35.

6 Tony Lazzeri, 2nd base, 1926-37.

6 Joe Gordon, 2nd base, 1938-46.

11 Waite Hoyt, pitcher, 1921-30.

12 Herb Pennock, pitcher, 1923-33.

12 Wade Boggs, 3rd base, 1993-97.

17 Enos Slaughter, left field, 1954-59.

21 Joe Sewell, 3rd base, 1931-33.

24 Rickey Henderson, left field, 1985-89.

29 Jim "Catfish" Hunter, pitcher, 1975-79.

31 Dave Winfield, outfield, 1981-90.

31 Tim Raines, left field, 1996-98.

35 Mike Mussina, pitcher, 2001-08.

36 Johnny Mize, 1st base, 1949-53.

In addition, Bucky Harris managed the Yankees to the 1947 World Championship, and Bob Lemon led them to the 1978 World Championship; and Larry MacPhail was the general manager who built the '47 title. But these men are in the Hall of Fame for other reasons. George Weiss was the farm system director from 1932 to 1947, and the general manager from 1948 to 1960. He's in the Hall of Fame, but if the Yankees ever give him a Plaque, they'll have to work around his known racism.

And then there's these guys, who haven't received any of these honors, but should at least be in Monument Park:

Frank Messer, broadcaster, 1968-84.

Bill White, broadcaster, 1971-88.

John Sterling, broadcaster, 1989-2024.

1 Bobby Murcer, center field, 1965-74, (switched to 2) 1979-83; broadcaster, 1983-2008.

2 Herbert "Red" Rolfe, 3rd base, 1934-42.

6 Roy White, left field, 1965-79.

9 Charlie Keller, left field, 1939-49.

9 Graig Nettles, 3rd base, 1973-83.

14 Lou Piniella, outfield, 1974-84; coach, 1984-85; manager, 1986-87, 1988.

15 Tommy Henrich, right field, 1937-50.

22 Jimmy Key, pitcher, 1993-96.

24 Mark Teixeira, 1st base, 2009-16.

25 Joe Girardi, catcher, 1996-99; (switched to 27) manager, 2008-17.

28 Sparky Lyle, pitcher, 1972-78.

33 David Wells, pitcher, 1997-98, 2002-03.

36 David Cone, pitcher, 1995-2000; broadcaster, 2011-present.

55 Hideki Matsui, left field, 2003-09.

You'll notice I did not include:

20 Russell "Bucky" Dent, shortstop, 1977-82.

As much as he contributed to 3 Pennant-winning teams, I didn't want to dilute it that much.

I also did not include:

13 Alex Rodriguez, 3rd base, 2004-16.

22 Roger Clemens, pitcher, 1999-2003, 2007.

25 Jason Giambi, 1st base, 2002-08.

I don't care what the stats say: Nobody in the history of professional sports has embarrassed his team, while playing for them, as much as A-Rod embarrassed the Yankees. And the steroids were only part of it. Giambi is also out, due to steroid reasons. Let the record show, though, that Clemens is not known to have failed a steroid test.

Of this last category, Murcer, Piniella, Lyle, Wells, Cone and Matsui at least received a Yankeeography from the YES Network. Probably the best player not to receive a Yankeeography, due to the passage of time leading to insufficient film footage and insufficient surviving teammates, was Bill Dickey.

So, based on their achievements, what they meant in Yankee culture, and my personal opinion, here's what the levels should be -- keeping in mind, I've listed them in chronological order, not by number; I've demoted Huggins, Steinbrenner, and the Pennant-less Wonder, Donnie Regular Season Baseball; and I haven't included any active players, not even Aaron Judge:

Monuments and Retired Numbers: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle.

Plaques and Retired Numbers: Phil Rizzuto, Yogi Berra, Casey Stengel, Whitey Ford, Elston Howard, Thurman Munson, Reggie Jackson, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Joe Torre.

Plaques, but not Retired Numbers: Waite Hoyt, Herb Pennock, Earle Combs, Tony Lazzeri, Bill Dickey, Lefty Gomez, Red Ruffing, Tommy Henrich, Charlie Keller, Allie Reynolds, Billy Martin, Roger Maris, Mel Stottlemyre, Bobby Murcer, Roy White, Sparky Lyle, Graig Nettles, Lou Piniella, Catfish Hunter, Ron Guidry, Willie Randolph, Goose Gossage, Dave Winfield, Bernie Williams, Wade Boggs, Paul O'Neill, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, David Cone, Tino Martinez, Joe Girardi, Mike Mussina, Hideki Matsui, CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira.

Plaques, with no number to retire: Jacob Ruppert, Miller Huggins, Ed Barrow, Joe McCarthy, Mel Allen, Bob Sheppard, Frank Messer, Bill White, George Steinbrenner, John Sterling, and the 3 Popes.

Would deserve Plaques if they had won even one Pennant: Clark Griffith, Jack Chesbro, Willie Keeler, Don Mattingly.

Falling just short of Plaque status: Frank Baker, Joe Sewell, Red Rolfe, Joe Gordon, Johnny Mize, Enos Slaughter, Rickey Henderson, Jimmy Key, Tim Raines, Sparky Lyle, David Wells.

Of course, while the Mets have elected Ed Kranepool and Bud Harrelson to their team hall of fame, along with Gary Carter, they haven't retired Carter's Number 8. Even though he won them a World Series, while Mike Piazza, 31, and David Wright, 5, did not.

February 26, 1926: Louis Armstrong Gets the Heebie Jeebies

Left to right: Johnny Dodds, Louis Armstrong,

Johnny St. Cyr, Kid Ory and Lil Hardin Armstrong.

February 26, 1926, 100 years ago: Louis Armstrong gets the heebie jeebies.

His band was billed as "Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five." His wife, Lil Hardin Armstrong, played piano. It was she who "took the country out of him" and convinced him to assert himself, both on the bandstand and with money. This would end up working against her: Within a few years, he divorced her for spending too much of his money.

The others were musicians he'd previously worked with in his hometown of New Orleans: Edward "Kid" Ory on trombone, Johnny Dodds on clarinet, and Johnny St. Cyr on guitar, and sometimes banjo.

Although all of the Hot Five got their professional starts in New Orleans, their initial recording, on November 12, 1925, was in Chicago, at the studio of Okeh Records. He had previously recorded as the trumpet player in the jazz band of Joe "King" Oliver, but this was his 1st time recording a band he led. They recorded Louis' compositions "Yes! I'm in the Barrel" and "Gut Bucket Blues," and Lil's composition "My Heart."

Their next session was on February 26, 1926. Among the songs they recorded was "Heebie Jeebies," written by saxophone player Boyd Atkins. The term "heebie jeebies" was coined by Billy DeBeck, the cartoonist who wrote the Barney Google strip. It means a feeling of anxiety or apprehension.

In 1922, writer F. Scott Fitzgerald coined the phrase "The Jazz Age." The phrase "The Roaring Twenties" came much later.

In addition to playing trumpet like nobody's business, Louis, known as "Satchelmouth" for his big mouth, eventually shortened to "Satchmo" or "Satch," tried scat singing, and this made the record his first real hit.

Armstrong, Ory and St. Cyr would all later admit that the reason Armstrong was scatting -- something already well-known in jazz circles, but not on record -- is that he didn't know the words, and was reading them off a sheet of paper, and he dropped it, and had to improvise. His scatting was the defining "roar" of the Roaring Twenties.

(There's an old joke: "Why does a hummingbird hum? Because he doesn't know the words." And another: Musicians are playing in an apartment, and a woman in the apartment building next door opens her window and yells across the alley, "Don't you know people are trying to sleep?" And the bandleader, acting as if "People Are Trying to Sleep" is a song title, says, "No, but if you hum a few bars of it, we'll catch on!")

In 1928, Armstrong formed a new Hot Five, replacing everyone but himself with members of the Carroll Dickerson Orchestra: Fred Robinson on trombone, Jimmy Strong on clarinet and tenor saxophone, Earl Hines (later nicknamed "Fatha," short for "Father") on piano, Mancy Carr on banjo, and Arthur "Zutty" Singleton on drums. So now it really was Louis Armstrong and a Hot Five. It was this group that recorded the landmark instrumental "West End Blues" in 1928.

Louis Armstrong died on July 6, 1971, of heart trouble, in New York, a few days short of his 70th birthday. Lil Hardin Armstrong died a few weeks after that. Johnny Dodds, the greatest jazz clarinetist of the 1920s, was an alcoholic, and it gave him a fatal heart attack in 1940. Mancy Carr followed in 1946, Johnny St. Cyr in 1966, Kid Ory in 1973, Zutty Singleton in 1975, Jimmy Strong in 1977, Earl Hines in 1983, and Fred Robinson in 1984.

In 1956, rock and roll pioneer Little Richard recorded a different song titled "Heebie Jeebies." It was not a hit.

February 25, 1986: Ferdinand Marcos Is Deposed

February 25, 1986, 40 years ago: The "People Power Revolution" comes to the Philippines, ending the 20-year dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos.

Born in 1917, Marcos was one of the Filipinos taken prisoner by the Japanese during World War II, but was released after 4 months. The reason is not clear. He later claimed to be "the most decorated war hero in the Philippines," but most of those decorations were found to have been granted many years thereafter -- by himself, once in power. (Similarly, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was awarded his country's highest honor, "Hero of the Soviet Union," for his 60th birthday, and he awarded himself the honor 3 more times, even though his military service was not especially noteworthy.)

He became a lawyer, and served in each house of the national legislature, before getting elected President in 1965. He managed to grow the economy for much of the Pacific island nation, but also left great poverty and great repression.

In 1972, a series of bombings added to the difficulties he would have in getting elected to a 3rd term. They may have been "false flags," his own "Reichstag Fire": He imposed martial law, and revised the Constitution to make it easier for him to do what he wanted. Freedom of the press came to an end under his rule.

At this time, he had Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, the leader of the opposition, arrested. He released Aquino in 1980, so he could travel to America for medical treatment. On August 21, 1983, knowing he could be arrested, or even killed, upon his arrival, Aquino flew back to his homeland. Sure enough, as soon as he set foot on the tarmac at Manila International Airport, he was shot and killed by soldiers, a brazen assassination. Even President Ronald Reagan, who supported Marcos because he was a strong anti-Communist, began to back away from supporting him.

In 1985, the national Assembly attempted to impeach Marcos -- not for the assassination of Senator Aquino, but for corruption. The impeachment drive failed. Also failing was Marcos' health: He had lupus, underwent a kidney transplant that failed, and underwent a second transplant that worked. His wife Imelda Marcos began to be seen as his public spokesperson. People who hated him now hated her, too.

So, in spite of having another year left in his term, he called a snap election for February 7, 1986. The opposition nominated Corazon Aquino, Ninoy's widow, for President. The Commission On Elections (COMELEC) ruled that Marcos had won, with 53.7 percent of the vote. However, the National Movement for Free Elections said that Aquino had won, with 52.5 percent. Fraud was alleged -- by both sides.

Who was right? The answer came when 35 COMELEC computer technicians issued a statement, saying that the official results were manipulated to favor Marcos. Some Marcos allies defected to the opposition, including one man who said an assassination attempt against him was a fake, an attempt to generate sympathy for the ruling regime.

Demonstrations were held all over the country. On February 25, Mrs. Aquino participated in a non-binding inauguration ceremony. It was clear that, even if Marcos had rightly won the election, he couldn't win one now: The country wanted him gone.

Marcos telephoned Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada, a close friend and ally of President Reagan, who advised him, "Cut, and cut cleanly." With the U.S. military still having a presence in the country, over 40 years after World War II, Marcos made a deal, and the U.S. Air Force took him to Guam, and then to Hawaii.

Mrs. Aquino was officially sworn in as President, and at the end of the year, Time magazine would name her its Person of the Year. She would eventually face counter-coups that would fail. After she left office in 1992 -- constitutionally and willingly -- the airport where her husband was assassinated was renamed for him: She died in 2009. Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Their son, Benigno Aquino III, a.k.a. Noynoy, served as President from 2010 to 2016.

Stories of the Marcoses' luxurious habits leaked out of both Manila and their home-in-exile in Hawaii. Particularly grabbing people's attention, on both sides of the Pacific, were Imelda's collection of thousands of shoes. They began to look like an Asian version of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. In fact, the Bakkers were amateurs compared to the Marcoses: Jim convinced his followers to give to him, while Marcos looted an entire country.

He died in 1989. Imelda was allowed to return to the Philippines, and reinter her husband's remains there. As of February 25, 2026, she is still alive, 96 years old.

Currently, the country's Constitution limits the President to one term, so Rodrigo Duterte, who was an even more oppressive leader than Marcos was, had to leave office. So the Marcoses' son, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., a.k.a. Bongbong Marcos, ran in the 2022 election, and won, with Sara Duterte, the outgoing President's daughter, as Vice President. A Marcos daughter, Imee Marcos, now serves in the Senate.

February 25, 1956: Khrushchev's "De-Stalinization" Speech

February 25, 1956, 70 years ago: Nikita Khrushchev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, addresses the 20th Party Congress in Moscow. It had been less than 3 years since the death of Joseph Stalin, who had ruled the country with an iron fist for 30 years.

Khrushchev gives what became known as the "Secret Speech," laying out some of Stalin's crimes, and the "conditions of insecurity, fear, and even desperation" created by Stalin. He shocked his listeners by denouncing Stalin's dictatorial rule and his cult of personality, as inconsistent with Communism and with Party ideology. Among other points, he condemned the treatment of the Old Bolsheviks, people who had supported Communism before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, many of whom Stalin had executed as traitors.

The speech was shocking. There were reports that some of those present suffered heart attacks, and others later took their own lives, due to shock at the revelations of Stalin's use of terror. The ensuing confusion among many Soviet citizens, raised on permanent praise of the "genius" of Stalin, was especially apparent in Georgia, Stalin's homeland, where days of protests and rioting ended with a Soviet army crackdown on March 9.

In the West, the speech politically devastated organized Communists. The Communist Party USA lost more than 30,000 members within weeks of the speech's revelation to the West. The speech was also later cited as a cause of the Sino-Soviet split, as China's dictator Mao Zedong had been a committed supporter of Stalin.

Khrushchev did stay popular among the Soviet people, and without using cult-of-personality tactics. It could be argued that the country peaked in 1961, with the start of the space program, the building of the Berlin Wall, and their success in international sports. But by 1964, enough Politburo members had had enough of Khrushchev that he was removed from power. He lived in exile until 1971.