November 4, 2001: The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty

November 4, 2001, 25 years ago: Game 7 of the World Series, at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix. This was the latest date that a Major League Baseball game that counts has ever been played, a record surpassed on November 5, 2022.

Arizona had never won a World Championship in any sport. But then, being such a hot place, it took them a while to get untracked. While the 48th State had been a Spring Training site since the 1920s, it wasn't until the NBA expanded in 1968, with the birth of the Phoenix Suns, that they reached the major leagues. They had usually been good, and had reached the NBA Finals in 1976 and 1993, but had never won the title.

The climate -- the old joke is "but it's a dry heat" -- made Arizona an unlikely place to be home to a hockey team. There had been minor-league teams, and then, in 1974, the Phoenix Roadrunners were created for the World Hockey Association. They lasted only 3 years.

In 1988, the NFL version of the St. Louis Cardinals moved, becoming the Phoenix Cardinals, with the name changed to the Arizona Cardinals in 1993. That opened Phoenix up as a market, and in 1996, the Winnipeg Jets moved to become the Phoenix Coyotes, with the name changed to the Arizona Coyotes in 2014. It wasn't hard to notice that, in that city, the Roadrunners had been replaced by the Coyotes.

In 1995, Major League Baseball expanded, with the Arizona Diamondbacks to begin play in 1998. They won the National League Western Division in only their 2nd season. In 2001, their 4th season, they won the Pennant.

In contrast, New York was a city of championships, and the New York Yankees had won the World Series 26 times, including the last 3 seasons and 4 of the last 5. And while Arizona needed a title because they'd never had one, New York needed it to help it heal after the terrorist attack on September 11. The Yankees won their Division, then needed a stirring comeback to defeat the Oakland Athletics in the American League Division series, before dispatching the 116-win Seattle Mariners for the Pennant, setting up the 2001 World Series.

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Game 1 in Phoenix was bad for the Yankees. They struck first, but Curt Schilling settled down. The D-backs scored a run in the 1st, 4 in the 3rd and 4 in the 4th, to knock Mike Mussina out of the box. Arizona 9, New York 1.

Game 2 was less embarrassing for the Yankees, but no better. Randy Johnson limited them to 3 hits. Andy Pettitte gave up a home run to Matt Williams, making him the 1st player to hit home runs in World Series play for 3 different teams. (He had done so for San Francisco in 1989 and Cleveland in 1997.) Arizona 4, New York 0.

Game 3, in The Bronx. It was October 30. Never before had a game that counted started this late in the year. This Series was the 3rd time one had gone to October 28. The Yankees needed to turn it around. They did. Jorge Posada hit a home run to back Roger Clemens, who allowed only 3 hits. New York 2, Arizona 1.

Game 4. It was the 1st time a Major League Baseball game that counted was played on Halloween. And, just perfect for the occasion, the Moon was in its full phase. Mark Grace, long the 1st baseman for the Chicago Cubs, who had fallen short with them in the postseason in 1989 and 1998, was now with the Diamondbacks, and was caught on TV saying, "Full Moon! You know what that means: Strange things happen!" Grace went on to collect 2,445 hits in his career, including 1,754 in the 1990s, the most of any player in that decade.

Schilling went back out for the Diamondbacks. Orlando "El Duque" Hernández started for the Yankees. Both had their good stuff. But it was 3-1 Diamondbacks going to the bottom of the 9th. Arizona manager Bob Brenly sent his closer, Korean submarine righthanded Byung-Hyun Kim, to get the last 3 outs.

But with the Yankees down to their last out, albeit with Paul O'Neill on base, Tino Martinez hit a drive toward the bleachers. The ball bounced off the outstretched hand of a fan, but still well over the fence. (This was not another "Jeffrey Maier incident.") Tie game. I've often wondered about that fan: On the one hand, you were there for a great moment in Yankee history. On the other hand -- or off it -- you had a chance to catch the ball, and not only didn't you, but you probably hurt said hand in the process!

Derek Jeter came to bat in the bottom of the 10th, with Kim still on the mound. The clock struck midnight. The scoreboard read, "WELCOME TO NOVEMBER BASEBALL." At 12:03 AM, Jeter cranked a screaming line drive to right-center. It JUST got over the fence. New York 4, Arizona 3. The old ballyard, in its 77th season of play (over 79 years, as it was renovated in 1974 and '75), was shaking.

A fan, knowing that the game could go to extra innings, and thus last beyond midnight, and knowing that somebody would be the hero, pulled out a sign he had made, reading, "MR. NOVEMBER," and held it up as Jeter rounded the bases.

Game 5. The 1st official MLB game with a date of November. Neither starting pitcher showed any ill effects: Not Mussina from his Game 1 pounding, not Miguel Batista from not having pitched in 12 days. But the game went to the bottom of the 9th, with the Diamondbacks leading 2-0.

Brenly sent Kim back out. He gave up a leadoff double to Posada, then got the next 2 outs, to bring the Yankees to their last out. The batter was Scott Brosius. The Yankees traded for him because of his glove, but he got a lot of key hits for them. He played 4 seasons for the Yankees. In all 4 seasons, the Yankees won the Pennant. In all 4 seasons, he hit at least 1 home run in the World Series. He did it again, sending the ball deep to left field. Tie ballgame. Again, the old Yankee Stadium shook, leaving some to wonder if it could survive the passion of Yankee Fans.

Kim had now given up 3 home runs, that were crushing in emotion if not quite in distance. Even Yankee Fans felt for him. Brenly took him out, and brought in Albie Lopez. The game went to the 12th inning, and Alfonso Soriano singled home Chuck Knoblauch. New York 3, Arizona 2, also the difference in games.

In the entire history of the World Series, from 1903 to 2000, only twice had a team down to its last out in the bottom of the 9th, trailing by 2 runs, come from behind to win: The 1911 New York Giants, who ended up losing the Series to the Philadelphia Athletics, anyway; and the 1929 A's, who did it to the Chicago Cubs in the clincher. Now, the Yankees had done it on back-to-back days.

The Yankees had more momentum than any team could dare ask for. All they had to do was win 1 out of 2 in Phoenix, and they would have Title 27.

They couldn't win Game 6. The Diamondbacks crushed Pettitte, and "Big Unit" Johnson slapped the Yankees down. Arizona 15, New York 2. It was the worst loss in the Yankees' postseason history.

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November 4, 2001. Sunday night. Game 7. Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix. It started as a duel between 2 of the greatest pitchers of the era -- and, in hindsight, the era's 2 most controversial pitchers: Roger Clemens for the New York Yankees, and Curt Schilling for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Unlike other sports, especially college football, baseball has never had a media establishment that previews games as "The Game of the Century." After all, if a Series goes to 7 games, then, theoretically, the aces could face each other 3 times. But this game did have that kind of feel to it -- even if, depending on how you measure it, this was only the 1st or 2nd calendar year of the 21st Century.

Both starters lived up to the occasion and the matchup, and pitched very well: Schilling held the Yankees to 1 run on 4 hits over the 1st 7 innings, while Clemens held the Diamondbacks to 1 run on 7 hits before Yankee manager Joe Torre called on Mike Stanton to get the last 2 outs in the top of the 7th.

Diamondback manager Bob Brenly stuck with Schilling for the top of the 8th, with the game tied 1-1 It looked like a mistake, as Soriano hit a home run. It was 2-1 Yankees, and it looked like Soriano had become one of the biggest World Series heroes ever: He was now the man who had hit the 2nd-latest home run in World Series history, behind only Bill Mazeroski's bottom-of-the-9th homer to beat the Yankees for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960. (Remember: This was Game 7, and Joe Carter's Series-clinching homer of 1993 was in Game 6.)

Brenly brought Johnson, who'd already beaten the Yankees in Games 2 and 6, in to relieve. Less than one day's rest? It's Game 7: Win or lose, there's no tomorrow, and you've got until late February to rest.

Torre relieved Stanton by sending supercloser Mariano Rivera out for a 2-inning save. He'd gotten away with that 5 times in this postseason. This was the 6th time he'd tried it. It was still 2-1 Yankees in the bottom of the 9th, and Mariano needed to get just 3 more outs to give the Yankees their 4th straight World Championship, their 5th in the last 6 years, their 27th overall.

Mark Grace led off with a single to center. Brenly sent David Dellucci in to pinch-run for him. Damian Miller grounded back to Mariano, who threw to 2nd to start a double play -- and threw the ball away. Tying run on 2nd. World Series-winning run on 1st.

At this point, I already knew the game was lost. As Doris Kearns Goodwin, who grew up on Long Island as a Brooklyn Dodger fan, and then became a Boston Red Sox fan while in graduate school at Harvard University, put it, "There's always these omens in baseball." Mariano had gotten the job done so many times. He would get it done many more times to come. This time, I could see that it was not meant to be.

Brenly rolled the dice, and went for the win in this inning, sending Jay Bell up to pinch-hit for the Big Unit. Bell bunted, and Mariano threw to 3rd to get Dellucci on a force. The tying run was still on 2nd, the World Series-winning run was on 1st, but now there was 1 out. The Yankees just needed to get 2 more.

Mariano wouldn't get his next 2 outs until April 3, 2002 -- 5 months later, or 148 days.

Brenly sendt Midre Cummings in to pinch-run for Miller at 2nd. Tony Womack doubled down the right field line. Cummings scored the tying run. Bell reached 3rd with the run that could win the Series, and could score on as little as a sacrifice fly, or an error.

Craig Counsell, who had been the man who drove in the tying run and scored the winning run for the Florida Marlins in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series -- at this point, the only World Series won since 1995 by a team other than the Yankees -- came up with the chance to be the hero again. Mariano hit him with a pitch. Not known as a purpose pitcher, Mariano was, for one of the very few times in his career, rattled.

Up stepped Luis Gonzalez. A man whose seasonal home run totals had been 13 at age 23, 10 at 24, 15 at 25 (okay, he was playing his home games in the Houston Astrodome), 8 at 26 (1994, strike-shortened season), 13 at 27, 15 at 28 (the last 2 as a Chicago Cub, and remember that the wind blows in at Wrigley Field half the time), 10 at 29 (back in Houston, still in the Astrodome), and then...

He hit 23 home runs at age 30. Yes, he was now playing for the Detroit Tigers at Tiger Stadium, but this was also 1998. The year of whatever it was that Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were using to hit 70 and 66 home runs, respectively. Gonzalez hit 26 at 31, and 31 at 32. Very good, but no big deal -- until you realize that those last 2 years were with the Diamondbacks, playing their home games at "The BOB," which, like the Astrodome but unlike most other indoor stadiums, is a bad ballpark for hitters.

At age 34, Gonzalez hit 28 homers. At 35, 26. At 36, 17. At 37, 24. At 38 and 39, 15 both times. He closed his career with 8 homers at age 40 in 2006. Respectable numbers -- if they were achieved honestly.

In 2001, at age 33, the year of Barry Bonds hitting 73 home runs, Luis Gonzalez hit 57 home runs. That's 26 more than he had ever hit before, and 29 more than he would ever hit again. People talk about Brady Anderson hitting 50 in 1996, when he'd only topped 16 once before, had never topped 21, and would never top 24 again nor 19 but once, and they suspected steroids.

What Luis Gonzalez did on the night of November 4, 2001 did not suggest steroids. Just as Bobby Thomson said that, 50 years earlier, he didn't need help to know that Ralph Branca was going to throw a meaty fastball. Doesn't mean Thomson didn't take advantage of the help that the Giants had been offering for the last few weeks. And it doesn't mean that Gonzalez hadn't been using steroids since 1998.

Gonzalez hit a looper into center field for a base hit. Bell scored the run that won the World Series for the Diamondbacks, in only their 4th season. Arizona 3, New York 2.

Schilling and Johnson were named Co-Most Valuable Players for the World Series. Sports Illustrated named them Sportsmen of the Year. In Schilling's case, that turned out to be retroactively problematic.

In 2010, the MLB Network listed this game at 9th on their list of MLB's 20 Greatest Games -- limited in scope, due to the availability of surviving videotape, to 1975 onward.

For the Yankees, Paul O'Neill and Scott Brosius retired, and Tino Martinez and Chuck Knoblauch were allowed to leave via free agency. In this game, O'Neill went 2-for-3, including a single in his last at-bat, in the 7th inning; Knoblauch flew out while pinch-hitting for O'Neill in the 8th; Brosius went 0-for-3; and Tino went 1-for-4. (Tino and Gonzalez, born 3 months apart in 1967 in Tampa, were teammates at that city's Thomas Jefferson High School. Tony La Russa and Fred McGriff were also Jefferson graduates.)

So 4 starters, nearly half the Yankee lineup, had to be replaced. While the Yankees did win the next 5 American League Eastern Division titles, including a glorious Pennant win in 2003, this game had a true "end of an era" feel, emphasized by Buster Olney, then of The New York Times, when he titled his book about the 1996-2001 Yankees, and especially this game, The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty.

Some Yankee Fans were heartbroken. Not me. I was drained, and terribly disappointed. But not crushed. The Yankees had given me countless memories to treasure since the start of the 1996 season, including in Games 4 and 5 of this World Series. And there were a lot of really good players on that Diamondback team who had played for a long time, some with awful teams, and had struggled to get to this point, and (I thought) really deserved it. Grace with the Cubs. Johnson with the Mariners. Schilling with the Philadelphia Phillies. Gonzalez with the Astros. Bell and Womack with the Pirates. Matt Williams with the San Francisco Giants and the Cleveland Indians.

I was over it fairly quickly, and by Opening Day 2002, I was really optimistic again.

Over the next few years, things would change, and make this defeat something to get really angry about. Williams would be revealed as a caught steroid user. Gonzalez would call a press conference and angrily deny that he had used them, after a newspaper article danced around the question of whether he did. Although never publicly revealed to have been caught, people have often wondered about Johnson and Schilling.

And, of course, accusations have also been leveled at some of the Yankees from this Series, including Clemens (the proof has still never been publicly revealed), Knoblauch (who admitted taking human-growth hormone, or HGH, but also said that it hurt more than it helped, which doesn't take him completely off the hook, but hardly makes him a cheater on the level of, say, David Ortiz), and Andy Pettitte (the one thing that can be proven was a brief moment the next season, which didn't help the Yankees win a Pennant).

But no one suggests the D-backs' win was "tainted." Indeed, until the non-steroid cheating scandals of the 2017 Houston Astros and the 2018 Boston Red Sox (linked by the presence of Alex Cora), the only team whose World Series wins or Pennants are usually said to not be fairly won are the Yankees.

Take out all suspected cheaters, and declare their World Series wins vacant, and, between 1996 and 2013, you've got the '02 Angels, the '05 White Sox, the '06 and '11 Cardinals, the '08 Phillies, and the '10 and '12 Giants. That's it: 7 out of 18. Extend it to 2018, and there go the '18 Red Sox, so it becomes 10 out of 23.

Unless you're prepared to vacate the titles won by the Diamondbacks in 2001; the Marlins in 1997 (Gary Sheffield) and 2003 (Ivan Rodriguez); and the Red Sox in 2004, 2007 and 2013 (David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez for the 1st 2), then don't tell me the Yankees cheated.

Luis Gonzalez now broadcasts, and runs a social-networking site for Arizona State University, outside Phoenix. In a small bit of irony, Jay Bell later worked in the Yankees' organization. He managed the Tampa Yankees of the Class A Florida State League in 2017, the Trenton Thunder of the Class AA Eastern League in 2018, and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees of the Class AAA International League in 2019. He now manages in Baseball United, a league that began play in 2023, featuring teams in India, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates.

November 4, 1956: The Hungarian Revolution Is Crushed

Time with a collective "Man of the Year" for 1956.

Note the Communist seal cut out of the flag.

November 4, 1956, 70 years ago: Soviet troops enter Hungary to end the Hungarian Revolution that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter of a million people leave the country. (Today, the population of Hungary is about 10 million.)

Cardinal József Mindszenty, the leader of the Catholic Church in Hungary, having previously been imprisoned by the Nazis, was arrested in 1949, and imprisoned and tortured for his anti-Communist activities. He was freed during the Revolution, and given asylum in the U.S. Embassy in Budapest. He became a hero of the movement, remained there until 1971, and died in 1975.

József Mindszenty

The city of New Brunswick, New Jersey once had a large Hungarian community, and their St. Ladislaus Roman Catholic Church has a memorial to the Revolution and a statue of Mindszenty out front.

Imre Nagy, Chairman of the Council of Ministers (effectively, the Prime Minister) from July 4, 1953 to April 18, 1955, wasn't so lucky. He was forced out of office by hardliner András Hegedüs, who was himself forced out by the Revolution on October 24, fleeing to the Soviet Union. Nagy was reappointed, dissolved the secret police (ÁVH), and withdrew Hungary from the Warsaw Pact on November 1.

Imre Nagy

When the Soviet tanks rolled in, he fled to the Yugoslavian Embassy, hoping that country's leader, Josip Broz Tito, a fellow anti-Moscow Communist, could protect him. He was lured out of the embassy under false promises on November 22, was arrested, and was deported to Romania. On June 16, 1958, Nagy was tried and executed for treason alongside his closest allies, and his body was buried in an unmarked grave. His remains would be repatriated to Hungary after the 1989 revolution. (Hegedüs returned to Hungary thereafter, but taught at a university rather than return to governing, and lived until 1999.)

Soccer team Budapest Honvéd FC was out of the country at the time of the Revolution, playing Athletic Bilbao, of the Basque Country in Spain, in the European Cup. Eliminated, the Honvéd players managed to get their families out of the country. Their stars, the bulk of the "Magnificent Magyars" team that won the 1952 Olympics, embarrassed England at Wembley Stadium in 1953, and reached the 1954 World Cup Final, went elsewhere, including some staying in Spain: Ferenc Puskás to Real Madrid, and Sándor Kocsis and Zoltán Czibor to FC Barcelona. 

Since that year's Summer Olympics were given to Melbourne, Australia, in the Southern Hemisphere, they began on November 22, so the weather would be warm. Throughout the Olympics, Hungarian athletes were cheered by fans from the host nation and other countries. Many of them gathered in the boxing arena when László Papp won a Gold Medal.

A few days later, the crowd was with the highly successful Hungarian water polo team in its match against the Soviet Union, which became known as "the Blood In the Water Match." The game became rough and, when a Hungarian player, Ervin Zádor, was forced to leave the pool with blood streaming from a cut over his eye, a riot almost broke out. But police restored order, and the game was called early, with Hungary leading 4–0. The Hungarians went on to win the Gold Medal.

At the end of the calendar year, Time magazine named the Hungarian Freedom Fighters their Men of the Year. This was before they made the distinction "Person (or People) of the Year," although women had been recognized as such before.

At the same time as the Hungarian Revolution, the "Polish October" was taking place. President

Bolesław Bierut, a Stalinist dictator, had died on March 12. On June 28, a demonstration by workers in Poznań was crushed, leading to at least 57 and possibly more than 100 deaths. In October, a reform faction took over, led by Władysław Gomułka. However, Gomulka's administration ended up getting more and more repressive until his removal in 1970. As Hungary, Poland, and the rest of Eastern Europe found out, post-Stalin Communism was only a slight improvement over Stalinist Communism.

November 3, 1996: Jerry Rice's 1,000th Catch

November 3, 1996, 30 years ago: The San Francisco 49ers beat the New Orleans Saints, 24-14 at the Superdome in New Orleans. In the 2nd quarter, Steve Young threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to Jerry Rice. And with about 12 minutes left in regulation, Rice catches a pass from Young for 9 yards. These are the 999th and 1,000th receptions of Rice's NFL career. He becomes the 1st NFL player to catch 1,000 passes.

At age 34, at which most players relying on speed -- especially receivers, running back, and defensive backs -- tend to slow down, Rice caught just 3 passes on the day, but 108 for the season, leading the NFL. The previous 2 seasons, he had caught 112 and 122 passes, but neither total led the League. It was a golden age for receivers, but he was ahead of all of them.

Jerry Rice played for the 49ers from 1985 to 2000, then for the Oakland Raiders until 2004, and closed his career with 11 games for the Seattle Seahawks in the 2004 season. He finished his career with 1,549 receptions, 22,895 receiving yards, 23,546 all-purpose yards, 197 receiving touchdowns, and 208 overall touchdowns, all still records.

It must be pointed out that Montana and Young both made Rice better. It must also be pointed out that he did the same for them. Montana and Rice won Super Bowls XXIII and XXIV together. Young and Rice won Super Bowl XXIX together.

In 1999, while Rice was still with the 49ers, The Sporting News ranked him Number 2 on their list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. Jim Brown was Number 1. At Number 3 was the 49ers quarterback who helped launch Rice's career, Joe Montana. The next-highest-ranked receiver was Don Hutson, Green Bay Packers star of the 1930s and '40s, at 6, who set most of the NFL receiving records before Rice's generation. At Number 63 was Young.

In 2010, the year Rice was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the NFL Network ranked the 100 Greatest Players. Rice was ranked Number 1, Brown Number 2, 1980s New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor Number 3, Montana Number 4, 1960s San Diego Chargers star Lance Alworth the next-highest receiver at Number 38, Minnesota Vikings star Randy Moss as the best receiver since Rice at Number 65, and Young at Number 81.

A case can be made that Jerry Rice is the greatest player in the history of American football.

November 3, 1951: The 1st "Crossover" Hit Song

November 3, 1951, 75 years ago: Tony Bennett succeeds himself at Number 1 on Billboard magazine's popular music singles chart, the leading survey of the era, as his recording of "Because of You" gives way to his recording of "Cold, Cold Heart."

It was the first exposure outside the South for the latter song's writer, Hank Williams. Hank called Tony and asked, "Tony, why did you ruin my song?" Hank had to assure him he was only joking: He loved it.

Born in Queens on August 3, 1926, Anthony Benedetto served in the U.S. Army, and saw combat near the end of World War II. "Because of You" was his 1st big hit. It was written in 1940 by Arthur Hammerstein (son of composer Oscar Hammerstein I and nephew of composer Oscar Hammerstein II) and Dudley Wilkinson. It was not a hit then, but it became one in 1951 because of its use in the film I Was an American Spy.

After "Cold, Cold Heart," Bennett hit Number 1 again in 1953 with "Rags to Riches," and kept singing standards in the "Big Band" style, even as rock and roll took over, becoming a regular on The Ed Sullivan Show.

In 1962, he recorded George Cory and Douglass Cross' song "I Left My Heart In San Francisco," and while it only reached Number 19 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart (which replaced its former chart in 1958), it became one of the most beloved songs of the 1960s, and his signature song.

In 1970, upon the advice of Columbia Records' Clive Davis, he recorded Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today! It flopped. He spent the 1970s going around record companies, and developed a cocaine addiction. His son Danny realized that they had opposite problems: Tony could sing, but couldn't handle the business side of things; while Danny had a head for business, but had no luck performing with his rock band. So Danny became Tony's manager, and got him clean. By 1986, Tony was back with Columbia and recording successful albums.

Tony began the trend of older singers recording standards in "Great American Songbook" albums, including one of songs associated with Frank Sinatra in 1992, titled Perfectly Frank. Sinatra returned the compliment by calling Tony his favorite singer. In 2008, Billy Joel invited him to the stage at the last concert at Queens' Shea Stadium, and he sang "New York State of Mind."

Tony began recording with up-to-date performers like Flavor Flav of Public Enemy, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and, in his final records, Lady Gaga. He and Gaga, both New Yorkers of Italian descent, born 60 years apart, adored each other.

He never intended to retire, but had to in 2021, at the age of 95, as he had become frail and had begun decline into dementia, having trouble remembering lyrics as he was recording them. He died on July 21, 2023, shortly before what would have been his 97th birthday.

November 3, 1936: President Franklin D. Roosevelt Is Re-Elected

November 3, 1936, 90 years ago: President Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats his Republican opponent, Governor Alfred M. Landon of Kansas, winning 46 out of 48 States, all but Vermont and Maine. He wins 523 Electoral Votes; Landon, just 8. FDR wins 60.8 percent of the popular vote, to Landon's 36.5 percent.

Landon's next-best States? He won almost 48 percent in New Hampshire, almost 46 percent in his native Kansas, almost 45 percent in Delaware. If he had won those States, the Electoral Vote would have been 507-24 Roosevelt.

There were 8 other States where he got at least 40 percent. But even if he had won all of those, it would still have been 406-125 Roosevelt.

FDR increased his 1932 totals in part because black voters, still sticking with Herbert Hoover because he represented "the Party of Lincoln," saw that, while the Great Depression hit them harder than white people, as all economic slowdowns do, the New Deal helped them tremendously. (Though not fully: There was sharp criticism over a refusal to hire black people, including officials, in the various "Alphabet Soup" agencies.) Black voters gave Hoover a majority of their vote in 1932, but gave Roosevelt 71 percent of it in 1936.

In addition, Roosevelt broke the back of the Socialist movement in America. Norman Thomas, the Presbyterian minister who was the Socialist Party's nominee for President in every election from 1928 to 1948, was asked in 1936 if he thought Roosevelt had "carried out the Socialist platform." He said, "No, unless you mean he carried it out on a stretcher."

With Socialist labor leaders like Sidney Hillman, who ran the left-leaning Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), leading the way, people who had been voting Socialist voted Democratic. Thomas got 2.2 percent of the vote in 1932, but just 0.41 percent in 1936.

He actually finished 4th, behind the 1.9 percent of William Lemke, a former Republican Congressman from North Dakota. His Union Party was supported by such agitators as Father Charles Coughlin, the Detroit-based "radio priest" who turned on FDR for his seeming ingratitude in making the difference for him in 1932 (a delusion, as Coughlin's support made absolutely no difference); Gerald L.K. Smith, a Disciples of Christ minister from Wisconsin, who started out as a leftist populist like Senator Huey Long of Louisiana, whose Presidential ambitions died with his assassination in 1935, but turned far-right, and who was one of the few public figures in America willing to be as publicly anti-Semitic as Coughlin; and Francis Townsend, a California physician known for a pension plan that presaged the Social Security Act that FDR signed in 1935.

In other words, the Union Party couldn't decide whether it wanted to be far-left (like Townsend or Long) or far-right (like Coughlin and Smith), an early example of what would come to be known as "Horseshoe Theory": That each extreme began to resemble the other.

Aside from his home State of North Dakota, where he got 13 percent, Lemke's best performance was 6.6 percent in neighboring Minnesota. Thomas topped out at 1.5 percent in New York.

Seeing the array of would-be candidates for 1936 in 1935, including the still-living Long, who was bold enough to say, "I can take him," FDR said, "Gosh, everyone seems to be against me. Everyone but the people."

Because Maine had previously held its Presidential election a few weeks earlier, and it usually matched the vote in the country overall, there was a saying: "As Maine goes, so goes the nation." In November 1936, that became, "As Maine goes, so goes Vermont." Indeed, those would be the only 2 States that FDR never won. (Times have changed: Neither of those States have voted for the Republican Presidential nominee since 1988.)

A prankster put up a sign on the Badger's Island Bridge, over the Piscataqua River, connecting Portsmouth, New Hampshire with Kittery, Maine. Intended to be seen by people going to Maine, it read, "You are now leaving the United States."

Let the record show that Thomas did not swing a single State from Landon to Roosevelt. Nor did Lemke, with the possible exception of the other northern New England State, New Hampshire, where FDR got 49.7 percent, Landon got 48.0 percent, Lemke got 2.2 percent, and Thomas wasn't even on the ballot.

This election is notable for the poll in The Literary Digest, which was based on questionnaires mailed to readers and potential readers; 2.3 million were returned. The magazine had correctly predicted the winner of the last 5 elections, and announced in its October 31 issue that Landon would win 370 electoral votes.

The cause of this mistake has often been attributed to improper sampling: More Republicans subscribed to the magazine than Democrats. The version I heard in school was that it was a phone poll, and that more Republicans than Democrats were likely to own phones.

However, a 1976 magazine article showed that the 2.3 million "respondents who returned their questionnaires represented only that subset of the population with a relatively intense interest in the subject at hand... The minority of anti-Roosevelt voters felt more strongly about the election than did the pro-Roosevelt majority." This mistake proved to be devastating to the magazine's credibility, and, founded in 1890 the magazine went out of existence in 1938, just a year and a half after the election.

Also in 1936, George Gallup, an advertising executive who had begun a scientific poll, predicted that FDR would win, based on a quota sample of 50,000 people. He also predicted that the Literary Digest would mis-predict the results. His correct predictions made public opinion polling a critical element of elections for journalists and indeed for politicians. The Gallup Poll would become a staple of future presidential elections, and remains one of the most prominent election polling organizations.

The Great Depression wasn't nearly as bad as it was in 1932, but by no means was it over. FDR winning was understandable -- but why by that much?

Well, the American people still did not trust the Republican Party. It had been just 4 years since the depth of the Depression. Plus, there were crazy people on the right wing back then, as there are now; and they made the GOP look not like the bunch of moderates their big names claimed to be, and Landon actually was, but like a bunch who couldn't be trusted with power.

Then there was the media. The major newspaper chains were all Republican-owned, and behind Landon. And in an era when they were the entirety of the media, Landon might have been a great candidate. He was smart, honest, and understood that he served the public, not the other way around. But this was now the era of radio and newsreels. He wasn't well-suited to it. FDR was.

The GOP didn't have anyone else who could beat FDR, either. Most of their big guns who had been elected in the Congressional elections of 1918, '20, '24 and '28 had been beaten in the elections of 1922, '26, '30, '32 and '34.

Finally, credit must be given to FDR: He was the master politician of his era, and his New Deal worked. Not perfectly, of course, but for the people for whom it did work, it was the difference between destitution and a living.

A story FDR liked to tell as he ran for a 2nd term in 1936 was this:

A wealthy man in a fine suit and top hat fell into deep water. He didn't know how to swim, and was on the verge of drowning. Hearing his cries, another man dove into the water, and saved him, as his top hat floated away. The man who had almost drowned regained his breath, and, for a moment, seemed grateful.

Three years later, though, he returned, and denounced his rescuer for not saving his hat, too!

The very rich, and their hired spokesmen, said FDR was trying to "destroy capitalism." Sound familiar? Their successors have said it about every Democratic President since.

Presidential candidates have frequently held rallies close to the election, sometimes in New York, sometimes in their hometowns. FDR, from Hyde Park, in Dutchess County, actually closer to Albany than to Midtown Manhattan, did have a home in Manhattan, so New York, for practical purposes, could be called his hometown. And so he had his close-to-Election Day rally at Madison Square Garden, arguably already, even though it did not use the slogan until well after its 1968 replacement was built, the world's most famous arena. Among other things, he said:

We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace -- business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me -- and I welcome their hatred.

I should like to have it said of my first Administration that, in it, the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that, in it, these forces met their master!

And so they did. To turn Archie Bunker's theme song on its head: Mister, we could use a man like FDR today.

FDR would be elected to a 3rd term in 1940, and a 4th in 1944, dying in office in 1945. Landon would serve out his term as Governor, return to the oil industry where he had made his money, and never ran for office again. He lived to be 100 years old, dying in 1987. His daughter, Nancy Landon Kassebaum, served Kansas in the U.S. Senate from 1978 to 1997.

November 2, 2016: The Chicago Cubs Win the World Series

November 2, 2016, 10 years ago: To paraphrase Shirley Povich of The Washington Post, when the Brooklyn Dodgers finally did it 61 years earlier...

Please don't interrupt, because, unless you are over the age of 110, you have not heard this one before: The Chicago Cubs are the World Champions of baseball.

In the 1989 film Back to the Future Part II, the Cubs were shown winning the 2015 World Series, against a team from Miami with an alligator logo, obviously in the American League. It was meant as a joke, a very easy and cheap joke, because the Cubs never won the World Series. They never even won the Pennant. It seemed like a wild guess about the future, played for laughs.

It became less funny in 1991, when Miami was awarded an expansion team, to begin play in 1993, and to originally be known as the Florida Marlins, for the National League, making Cubs vs. Miami in the World Series impossible. It became considerably less funny in 2003, when a Cub collapse gave the Marlins the Pennant. And it became less funny still in the actual 2015, when the Cubs did make it to the NLCS, but lost to the New York Mets.

Somehow, in 2016, they bounced back, winning 103 game to take the NL Central Division, then beating the San Francisco Giants in the NLDS, and then beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS, to win their 1st Pennant since 1945. Or, as songwriter Steve Goodman, a Cubs fan who died during their ill-fated run to the 1984 Playoffs, put it...

You know the law of averages says

anything will happen that can.

But the last time the Cubs won a National League Pennant

was the year we dropped the bomb on Japan.

Their opponents in the World Series were the Cleveland Indians, who had the longest World Series drought in the AL: They hadn't won since 1948. This was their 4th Pennant in 68 years. Both teams were said to be "cursed." Only one could win. Something had to give.

In Cleveland, the Indians won Game 1, 6-0; but the Cubs won Game 2, 5-1. In Chicago, the Indians won Game 3, 1-0, and Game 4, 7-2. They only needed to win 1 more to end their curse, and extend the Cubs'. But the Cubs won Game 5, 3-2. Back in Cleveland, the Cubs won Game 6, 9-3, to tie the Series.

Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, played at Progressive Field in Cleveland. One team, looking to end a title drought of 108 years; the other, 68 years. Both having made too mainly painful memories for their fans in the interim. It was time for one of them to make one more, and for the other to finally put an end to such misery.

Dexter Fowler, Javier Baez and David Ross hit home runs for the Cubs, and Rajai Davis hit one for the Cleveland Indians. But the Cubs made 3 errors, the Indians 1. The Cubs blew leads of 1-0 in the 3rd inning, and 6-3 in the 8th, and their fans must have thought that it was never going to happen, even though they had already come back from being 3 games to 1 down in this Series.

The game went to extra innings, and then it rained. And home-field advantage hadn't meant much: The Indians had taken 2 of 3 in Wrigley, and the Cubs had, so far, taken 2 of 3 in Cleveland. So each of these seemingly cursed teams had, at least in theory, an equal chance.

Kyle Schwarber led off the top of the 10th with a single, and was replaced by pinch-runner Albert Almora. Kris Bryant flew out to center, but Almora got gutsy, and tagged up and got to 2nd. Anthony Rizzo was walked intentionally to set up the double play, but the strategy didn't work: Ben Zobrist hit an RBI double into the left field corner, the biggest hit in the Cubs' 142-season history. Addison Russell was walked intentionally, and Miguel Montero singled him home to make it 8-6. Cub fans could feel it finally happening after 108 years.

But the Indians weren't going down without a fight. In the bottom of the 10th, after Carl Edwards Jr. pitched the Cubs to within 1 out of glory, he walked Brandon Guyer, who took 2nd on defensive indifference.

Davis singled him home to make it 8-7, and Cub fans were staring at the choke to end all chokes, the Billy Goatiest Curse of the Billy Goat ever. But manager Joe Maddon brought Mike Montgomery on to relieve, and he got Michael Martinez to ground to 3rd, and Bryant threw him out to end it.

Going in, I had no preference as to which team won. Both sets of fans had waited long enough, and had endured too much. I just wanted the story of the game to be a hero, not a goat (a terrible mistake) or a villain (an umpire making a bad call).

Zobrist and Montgomery were the heroes for the Cubs. This was not one of the greatest games of all time. Indeed, it was sloppy, as if neither team really wanted to win, when both teams really had to win.

But it was great theater. And providing such theater on a regular basis is why baseball is the greatest game of them all.

Thankfully, Cub fans did not follow up the end to their drought by acting like bastards, the way Red Sox fans did after 2004 and New York Ranger fans did after 1994.

It was 6 days before the Presidential election. Barack Obama was still President. There was a terrible possibility that Donald Trump would defeat Hillary Clinton, and plunge America into 4 years of nightmare, but if the Cubs -- of whom Hillary once claimed to be a fan -- could win the World Series, then we could avoid a Trump Presidency, right?

We didn't. The Cubs' World Series win was the last good moment of a good age. Before the dark times.

One more note: Ever since the WGN-nationally-televised Ryne Sandberg and Rick Sutcliffe Division title season of 1984, even when the crosstown Chicago White Sox are doing well on the field, and the Cubs aren't, the Cubs aren't, the Cubs have had a higher attendance. The White Sox last won the American League Pennant in 1959, more recently than the Cubs' most recent NL Pennant; broke the Playoff drought before the Cubs did, in 1983; and won the Pennant and the World Series before the Cubs did, in 2005. But the White Sox have always gotten short shrift from the Chicago media and fans. Even in 2005, and in 2006, when there should have been some spillover effect, the Cubs did better in attendance.

So it should have been clear that the following move was a really, really dumb one on the White Sox' part: During the 2016 World Series, they announced that the naming rights to their ballpark had been bought from telecommunications company U.S. Cellular, by insurance company Guaranteed Rate. What had opened in 1991 as the new Comiskey Park would now be named Guaranteed Rate Field. Doing this while the Cubs were in the World Series was a major public relations blunder, and reminded everyone of why the South Siders will always be the second team in the "Second City." (In 2025, it was changed to simply "Rate Field.")

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.