August 19, 1976: Regrets at the Republican Convention

Ford welcomes Reagan to the rostrum,

as Nancy Reagan (left) and Nelson Rockefeller (right) look on

August 19, 1976, 50 years ago: The Republican National Convention wraps up, at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri. Hearing the speakers talk of upcoming victory, in the Presidential election and in the Congressional elections, you'd never know they were 2 years out from a President of their Party having to resign in disgrace, a year and a half out from badly losing in the Congressional races, and looking at a country still in a recession. They were not only confident, they were arrogant.

The Kemper Arena, now the Hy-Vee Arena

Gerald Ford, who became President when Richard Nixon resigned, had been President for a shade over 2 years, with a hell of a mess dumped into his lap. The results had been mixed: Certainly, the country was better off than when he took office, but it was hardly in great shape. The month before, he had ridden the celebrations of the country's Bicentennial, which had helped him. But little else had gone his way.

His pardon of Nixon, just 1 month into his Presidency, had angered millions of Americans. His refusal to support a federal bailout of a bankrupt New York City had infuriated millions, and his reversal on that issue had angered millions of others, without winning many of the first group back.

Conservatives in the Republican Party hated that he had chosen former Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York as his Vice President, and refused to support him for a term of his own if he ran with Rockefeller on the ticket. He could have reminded him that he was now the leader of the Party, and that he wouldn't be bullied. Instead, he was, telling Rockefeller that he would be dropped. He chose Senator Bob Dole of Kansas.

None of it was enough. Ronald Reagan, who had recently wrapped up 2 terms as Governor of California, was the darling of the conservative movement. He challenged Ford in the Primaries, and the final Delegate total was very close. This remains the last major-party convention at which the nominee was not absolutely certain. Ford got 1,187 Delegates, Reagan 1,070.

Ford's acceptance speech was too dull to quote here. And he kept making the mistake of pointing out the differences in the last 2 years, reminding everyone that he had succeeded Richard Nixon, a fellow Republican. He could have compared the current situation to 1968, the last full year under a Democratic Administration, with war abroad and riots at home, but he didn't.

And then, as the balloons were falling, and everybody was reacting with tepid applause, he made a gracious gesture. Reagan had not had the chance to make a speech on his own behalf. So Ford asked Reagan to come down and make a speech.

Standing behind the podium, with the Presidential seal still affixed, Reagan looked more like a President than Ford ever had. He sounded more like one, too: Whatever else could be said about either man, Reagan, who had been an actor, was a better public speaker than Ford, who had been a lawyer, but not a trial lawyer, used to addressing crowds. Ford had become a good politician, but until he actually got the office, he had never intended to run for President, and he was not made for moments like these.

Reagan was. He spoke of being asked to write a letter for a time capsule, to be opened in Los Angeles in 2076, America's Tricentennial. He spoke of the world in 1976 being a battle between freedom and tyranny, with nuclear missiles as the potential deciding factor:

Those who would read this letter a hundred years from now will know whether those missiles were fired. They will know whether we met our challenge. Whether they will have the freedom that we have known up until now will depend on what we do here. Will they look back with appreciation and say, "Thank God for those people in 1976 who headed off that loss of freedom? Who kept us now a hundred years later free? Who kept our world from nuclear destruction?"

And if we fail, they probably wont get to read the letter at all, because it spoke of individual freedom, and they wont be allowed to talk of that or read of it.

This is our challenge, and this is why were here in this hall tonight. Better than we've ever done before, we've got to quit talking to each other and about each other, and go out and communicate to the world that we may be fewer in numbers than we've ever been, but we carry the message they're waiting for. We must go forth from here united, determined and what a great general said a few years ago is true: There is no substitute for victory. Mr. President.

Reagan's speech got a standing ovation. But a lot of people left the Arena thinking, "We've nominated the wrong guy."

Ford began the Convention far behind the Democratic nominee, former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia. The Convention helped. He eventually closed the gap to a virtual dead heat on Election Day. Carter won a very close race.

Would Reagan have won? This time, the Republicans were still tainted with scandal and recession. Reagan's message of tax cuts and Cold War aggressiveness would not have flown in 1976.

Four years later, it was a different world. And while Reagan looked finished after 1976, in 1980, America was ready for him. All 3 men had their moment where they were the man of the moment. For Ford, it was 1974, but not 1976. For Carter, it was 1976, but not 1980. For Reagan, it was 1980, but not 1976.

The Kemper Arena still stands, right on the State Line with Kansas City, Kansas. Originally named for local banker and philanthropist Rufus Kemper, it is now named the Hy-Vee Arena, after a supermarket chain. 

August 19, 1951: The Eddie Gaedel Game

August 19, 1951, 75 years ago: Eddie Gaedel makes his major league debut. He reaches base in his 1st plate appearance. He never makes a 2nd.

Born on February 9, 1914 in Chicago, William Louis Veeck Jr. was the son of a Chicago Cubs executive, and, in 1937, was responsible for putting the ivy on the brick outfield wall at Wrigley Field, and supervised the building of the hand-operated scoreboard atop the bleachers. He later bought the minor-league version of the Milwaukee Brewers, who won 3 American Association Pennants. After serving in World War II, he bought the Cleveland Indians, and built the team that won the 1948 World Series.

He got divorced the next year, and, needing cash, he sold the Indians. In 1951, he bought the St. Louis Browns, the most embarrassing team in the American League. Although they owned Sportsman's Park, leasing it to the National League's St. Louis Cardinals, they were pathetic, and had hardly any attendance at all. Veeck thought he could save the Browns, and drive the Cardinals, despite their 4 Pennants and 2 other near-misses in the 1940s, out of town.

Veeck held all kinds of promotions, including races between players and track stars, cow-milking contests, things like that. He once said, "There is nothing in the world more beautiful than a baseball stadium full of people having fun." But, despite a seating capacity of just 30,804, Sportsman's Park wouldn't fill, even for these promotions, leading Veeck to say, "You can draw more people with a losing team plus bread and circuses than with a losing team and a long, still silence."

In 1951, the American League celebrated its 50th Anniversary. All 8 teams wore anniversary sleeve patches. Veeck decided to celebrate the anniversary on August 19, with a large cake, which had wheeled onto the field between games of a Sunday doubleheader, against the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers won the 1st game, 5-2.

Out of the cake popped Eddie Gaedel, a 3-foot-7-inch, 65-pound dwarf. The term "dwarf" comes from German folklore, and referred to supernatural beings with a human appearance. Scientifically speaking, a "dwarf," or a "person with dwarfism," is defined as an adult with a height of less than 4 feet, 10 inches. The average adult height among people with dwarfism is about 4 feet even.

The term "midget" comes from "midge," a tiny biting insect, and has historically been used for any person considered short; but, unlike "dwarf," it does not have a scientific definition. Various other small things have had the tag applied: Small cars are used in "midget racing," a kids' hockey team is sometimes called "midget hockey," and so on." But people with dwarfism consider "midget" to be a slur, and it is not used as often anymore. On TV nostalgia networks' rebroadcasts of old shows, when the word "midget" was originally used, it is sometimes bleeped out.

While Eddie Gaedel was, medically speaking, a dwarf, he has gone down in history as "the midget who played baseball." Born on June 8, 1925, and also a Chicagoan, he had worked as a riveter during World War II, as he was small enough to climb into spaces fully-grown men couldn't. After the war, he became a professional entertainer, and was the model for the "Mercury Man" logo of Mercury Records.

Gaedel popped out of the cake wearing a Browns uniform with the Number 1/8 (one-eighth) on it. The uniform belonged to Bill DeWitt Jr., the Browns' batboy, and the son of Bill DeWitt Sr., the Browns' general manager. The fans got a kick out of it.

Bill DeWitt Jr. wearing the unusual number

But that wasn't the end of it. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Gaedel walked to the plate, to pinch-hit for the alleged leadoff hitter, right fielder Frank Saucier. He was announced by the public-address announcer. The fans went wild -- although there were just 18,369 of them, so the stunt didn't get a big crowd.

The home plate umpire, Ed Hurley, wasn't having it. He called time-out, and looked over to Browns manager Zack Taylor. But Taylor was ready: He walked out, and took a rolled-up piece of paper from his pocket. It was Gaedel's contract, signed not only by him and by Veeck, but by the President of the American League, Will Harridge. Clearly, Harridge signed it with no idea that the player involved was 3-foot-7. The subject of signing a midget to a contract had never come up before. So the contract was real and official. Hurley had no choice: He had to allow the at-bat.

Note the height of the ball in the mitt, compared to Gaedel's.

Note also Gaedel's crouching stance.

With his height, and a crouching batting stance, Gaedel had the smallest strike zone in baseball history, not much larger than the ball itself. The idea was that the pitcher, Bob Cain, wouldn't come close to a strike, and that Gaedel would walk on 4 straight pitches.

Veeck told Gaedel that there was a sniper on the roof of Sportsman's Park, ready to shoot him if he swung at any pitch. Veeck never said whether there actually was a sniper. If there really was one, he never came forward and admitted it. And whether Gaedel took this threat seriously, only he knew.

What everyone else knew is that catcher Bob Swift got onto his knees, and told Cain, "Keep it low." Cain threw 4 pitches. The 1st 2 were serious attempts at strikes, and did get over the plate, but were too high. Realizing it was hopeless, Cain threw the last 2 at half-speed, still getting them over the plate, but at about the level of Gaedel's head.

After ball 4, Hurley told Gaedel, "Take your base," and Gaedel trotted to 1st base. Jim Delsing then ran out to pinch-run for him. Like a real major-league ballplayer, which he now was, Gaedel slapped Delsing on the rear and, and trotted off the field -- to a standing ovation.

Delsing remained in the game, played center field as former Yankee Cliff Mapes moved from center to right, and went 1-for-3. It was no use: The Tigers got a fine pitching performance from Cain, a home run from Jerry Priddy, and 3 hits each from George Kell and Pat Mullin, and completed the sweep, 6-2.

The next day, AL President Harridge publicly said that Veeck was making a mockery of the game, and voided Gaedel's contract. In response, Veeck, who always hated the New York Yankees, told the Chicago press that he was going to request an official ruling on whether Phil Rizzuto, the Yankees' shortstop and the previous season's AL Most Valuable Player, was "a short ballplayer or a tall dwarf." 

Rizzuto was listed at 5-foot-6, and that may have been generous by an inch. Nevertheless, he was also the best shortstop in baseball at that point, and had batted .324 the season before, getting 200 hits. And, while his 92 walks that season were a career high, that was hardly an extraordinary total, probably was not much aided by his lack of height. Rizzuto's reaction to Veeck's request is unrecorded, but it would probably have been something like, "Veeck, you huckleberry. Holy cow."

Nevertheless, Gaedel got paid for his appearance: $100, his standard fee at the time. (In 2026 money, it works out to about $1,290.) Some time later, he was a guest on the radio show of Chicago-based talk show host Louis "Studs" Terkel. He complained that "Mr. Veeck" wouldn't let him swing the bat, and that he wanted to do that, just once. Terkel, then 39 years old and not looking much like a man who had ever been any kind of athlete, consoled him by saying, "You are exactly what I wish I was: An ex-big-league ballplayer!"

(Terkel would later play Chicago sportswriter Hugh Fullerton in Eight Men Out, the film about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, and be interviewed by Ken Burns, including on the subject of Gaedel, for his miniseries Baseball.)

Veeck had hoped to run the financially troubled Cardinals out of St. Louis. But, early in 1953, they were bought by Anheuser-Busch chairman Gussie Busch. With Busch's beer fortune behind them, Veeck knew the Browns could not afford to compete for St. Louis' baseball fans.

He didn't particularly care about St. Louis: He just wanted to eliminate the competition and be Number 1 in whatever city he was in, as he had been in Milwaukee and Cleveland. With that option no longer available in St. Louis, he tried to get the Browns moved to Baltimore. The other AL owners, seeing a chance to get rid of him, voted to approve the move, on the condition that Veeck sell the team. He did. But in 1959, he bought the Chicago White Sox.

On May 26, 1959, as Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates was pitching his perfect-but-then-not game, 90 miles to the north in Milwaukee, Eddie Gaedel worked for Bill Veeck again. A helicopter carrying Gaedel and 3 other dwarves dressed in spacesuits landed on the infield at Comiskey Park. They came bearing gifts: Ray guns. They gave these to White Sox stars Luis Aparicio (who was 5-foot-9) and Nellie Fox (5-foot-10). In a parody of the alien visitors' trope, "Take me to your leader," Gaedel told them, "I don't want to be taken to your leader. I've already met him." The White Sox won the Pennant that season.

On June 18, 1961, Gaedel was found dead in his bed by his mother, with bruises all over his body. He was just 36 years old. His killer has never been identified.

By this point, Veeck had sold the White Sox, to pay for his medical expenses, as he had been told he was dying. This turned out to be a misdiagnosis, as he recovered, and he later owned the White Sox again, from 1975 to 1980. He lived until 1986.

But as a result of his 1961 illness, he was unable to attend Eddie Gaedel's funeral. Indeed, only one person with any connection with baseball did: Bob Cain, the pitcher who faced him. They had never even formally met.

Catcher Bob Swift died in 1966. Umpire Ed Hurley lived until 1969. Will Harridge served as AL President from 1931 to 1959, and died in 1971. Browns manager Zack Taylor lived until 1974. Bob Cain lived until 1997. Pinch-runner Jim Delsing lived until 2006. Frank Saucier, for whom Gaedel pinch-hit, was 1 of the last 3 surviving former St. Louis Browns, along with Ed Mickelson and Billy Hunter. All 3 of those men died in 2025, Hunter turning out to be the last survivor of them.

Bill DeWitt Jr. donated his uniform, Gaedel's uniform, to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He later became the principal owner of the St. Louis Cardinals, and got the uniform back, where it is on display at the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum, across Clark Avenue from the current Busch Stadium, which also features artifacts from the Browns and St. Louis-area natives who played for other teams, such as Yogi Berra. 

Officially, the shortest players in MLB history have been Edmund "Stubby" Magner, who played 13 games for the New York Highlanders (forerunners of the Yankees) in 1911; and Pompeyo "Yo-Yo" Davalillo, who played 19 games for the Washington Senators in 1953. Both were listed at 5-foot-3.

In 1978, in his 2nd go-round as White Sox owner, Veeck promoted Harry Chappas to the majors, telling the media that he was, after Gaedel, the shortest player in MLB history, at 5-foot-3. This was a lie, but, fittingly, a small one: He was really 5-foot-5, the same height as the man then considered the shortest in the majors, Freddie Patek of the Kansas City Royals. Magner, Davalillo, Chappas and Patek were all, by a quirk of fate, shortstops.

Jon Rauch appeared in the major leagues from 2002 to 2013, including for the Montreal Expos when they moved to become the Washington Nationals in 2004-05, and for the Minnesota Twins in 2009 and 2010, enabling him to appear in postseason play. Sean Hjelle made his big-league debut with the San Francisco Giants in 2022. Both are 6-foot-11, and thus the tallest players in MLB history. Loek van Mil, a 7-foot-1 native of the Netherlands, appeared in professional baseball from 2006 to 2018, but only got as high, if you'll pardon the choice of words, as Class AAA. All 3 of these men are relief pitchers.

August 19, 1936: The Assassination of Federico García Lorca

August 19, 1936, 90 years ago: Federico García Lorca, the Spanish poet, playwright and theater director, is assassinated near Alfacar, Granada, in the southern region of Spain, known as Andalusia. He was 38 years old.

Born on on June 5, 1898 in Fuente Vaqueros, outside Granada, García Lorca gained fame as a member of "The Generation of '27," a group of Spanish poets that tapped into the European literary movements of symbolism, futurism and surrealism. In 1928, he published Romancero Gitano (which was translated into English with what would now be considered a slur, Gypsy Ballads). He published the plays Blood Wedding in 1932, Yerma in 1934, and The House of Bernarda Alba in 1936.

But success did not fulfill him. He was gay, and suffered from depression after the end of a relationship with a sculptor. The coming of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 weighed heavily on him. He was a Socialist, like the prevailing government, the Second Republic that first won election in 1931. But the Nationalists, fascists, led by Generalissimo Francisco Franco, were unfavorable to socialism due to its criticism of religion, and, with its strong Catholic base, unfavorable to homosexuals.

His hometown of Granada had gone without a Mayor for several months, because all possible candidates feared for their lives. García Lorca's brother-in-law, Manuel Fernández-Montesinos, agreed to accept the position, but he was assassinated within a week. On the same day he was shot, August 18, García Lorca was arrested.

The circumstances of his death are in dispute, partly because his remains have never been found. In his book The Assassination of García Lorca, author Ian Gibson wrote that he was shot -- with 3 others: Joaquín Arcollas Cabezas, Francisco Galadí Melgar and Dióscoro Galindo González -- by Nationalist militia at the Fuente Grande (the Great Spring), on the road between Viznar and Alfacar.

Police reports released by radio station Cadena SER in April 2015, concluded that he was executed by fascist forces. A Franco-era report, dated July 9, 1965, describes the writer as a "socialist" and "freemason belonging to the Alhambra lodge," who engaged in "homosexual and abnormal practices."

Most biographers seem to agree that his death had political overtones. But Leslie Stainton, who wrote the 1999 biography Lorca: A Dream of Life, suggested that he was killed specifically because he was gay -- a murder, and a hate crime, but not an assassination.

He has been honored with statues in his hometown of Granada, and the national capital of Madrid; with a garden on the River Seine in Paris; in a hotel room where he once stayed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kept as a museum; and on the Rainbow Honor Walk, in the gay-friendly Castro District of San Francisco.

He once said, "I will always be on the side of those who have nothing, and who are not even allowed to enjoy the nothing they have in peace." Sounds like my kind of guy. 

Yanks Struggle to Score Over the Border

Over the weekend, the Yankees' injury-induced difficulty in scoring runs continued, over the border in Toronto. And those pesky Blue Jays took advantage, nearly sweeping the series.

When it should have been the other way around.

On Friday night, Gerrit Cole pitched 6 innings, allowing 2 runs, 1 of them earned, 5 hits and 2 walks, striking out 5. On Saturday afternoon, Cam Schlittler went 5 1/3rd innings, allowing 1 run on 4 hits and 3 walks, striking out 7. And on Sunday afternoon, Ryan Weathers went 7 1/3rd innings, allowing 1 run on 6 hits and 1 walk, striking out 7.

I'll do that math for you: For the Yankee starters, that's 3 earned runs, times 9, is 27; divided by 18 2/3rds innings, for an ERA of 1.45. If that's what your starters give you in 3 games, your hitters should hit enough for you to win 3 games.

On Friday, Trent Grisham led off the top of the 6th inning with a home run. Other than that, the Yankees got 4 hits and a walk, and lost, 3-1.

On Saturday, Spencer Jones led off the top of the 2nd with a single, stole 2nd, and was singled home by George Lombard Jr. Other than that, the Yankees got 2 singles and 2 walks. Brent Headrick allowed a run in the 7th, and Tim Hill allowed 2 in the 8th, and the Yankees lost, 4-1.

Over the 1st 9 innings on Sunday, the Yankees got 2 runs on 4 hits and 5 walks. David Bednar blew the save in the 9th, and sent the game to extra innings.

In the top of the 10th, José Caballero bunted "ghost runner" Ali Sánchez over to 3rd base. Although the right thing to do, it proved unnecessary, because Ben Rice hit a home run. This made it 4-2 Yankees, and put Bednar in position to be the winning pitcher. Personally, I believe that a pitcher who blows a save should be disqualified from being the winning pitcher, and the credit should go to someone else, at the discretion of the official scorer.

Hill relieved in the bottom of the 10th. He got a groundout, then allowed an RBI single that made it 4-3. I got a sinking feeling. But he got the next 2 men out, and the Yankees had salvaged the series finale.

*

There are 38 games left in the regular season, to be played over 6 weeks. The Tampa Bay Rays lead the American League Eastern Division by 5 1/2 games over the Yankees, 8 1/2 over the Boston Red Sox, 13 1/2 over the Baltimore Orioles, and 14 1/2 over the Toronto Blue Jays. Cliché Alert: In the All-Important Loss Column, the Rays lead the Yanks by 6, the Sox by 9, the O's by 14 and the Jays by 16.

One of my guidelines is that if there are fewer games behind than weeks remaining, you can still win the Division, because making up 1 game per week shouldn't be too much to ask. So the Yankees can still win the Division.

If they get healthy. They cannot go on with Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Clay Bellinger all injured. Manager Aaron Boone said that Bellinger will play minor-league games this week, as part of his rehab, and could be activated for the weekend. Starting pitcher Carlos Rodón and reliever Luis Gil are pitching well in rehab games, and while their return aren't a must, either would be a boost.

Judge has begun playing catch as part of rehab, but he still hasn't swung a bat since May 31. Stanton has been running bases, but that's it. I still don't expect either of them back before September 1. Starter Clarke Schmidt also won't be back before September 1, and if he does come back, there might not be a place in the rotation for him, so Boone is considering putting him in the bullpen.

Today was a travel day for the Yankees. Tomorrow night, they begin a 3-game series in Baltimore.

August 17, 1986: Baseball's Last Player-Manager; or, Pete Rose's Last Game

August 17, 1986, 40 years ago: The San Diego Padres beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-5 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. John Kruk hits a home run for the Padres, and Tony Gwynn goes 3-for-5 with an RBI.

For the Reds, Buddy Bell and Barry Larkin hit home runs. In the bottom of the 8th inning, Reds manager Pete Rose, 45 years old, sent himself up to bat, to pinch-hit for pitcher Ron Robinson. Against Padres reliever Goose Gossage, he struck out.

For Rose, in his major league career, it was his 3,562nd game played, his 15,890th plate appearance, his 14,053rd official at-bat, and his 9.797th out. Three days earlier, he had collected his 4,256th hit. Each of those statistics remains a major league record. And each of those would be his last.

Of those 4,256 hits: 3,215 were singles (ranking him 1st all-time), 746 were doubles (2nd, behind Tris Speaker with 792), 135 were triples (75th, but 9th among players who played all or mostly after World War II), and 160 were home runs (a total that should have been a lot higher, given the number of seasons he played and the era in which he did).

But his lifetime averages don't look nearly so gaudy: Batting average, .303; on-base percentage, .375; slugging percentage, .409; and OPS+, 118. RBIs: 1,314. Granted, he was usually a leadoff hitter, and then batting again after the pitcher's spot in the order in the pre-2022 National League, so that held his career RBI total down. But, in almost 16,000 plate appearances, he still should have had a lot more than 1,300 RBIs.

Among the 33 players with at least 3,000 hits, Rose's batting average ranks him 19th, his home runs rank him 21st (and of the 12 behind him, only 6 played all or mostly in the Lively Ball Era), and his RBIs rank him 21st. Given these stats, Rose might be the most overrated offensive player of all time.

This is not a post about condemning, or absolving, Rose for some of the things he's done. Nor is it a post suggesting that he should be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, or that his denial of eligibility for it should continue. In fact, Rose himself is almost incidental to the post.

Rather, it is a notation of an often overlooked milestone in baseball history. Not only did this turn out to be Rose's last game as a player, but it was also the last game ever for a player-manager in the sport.

*

Player-managers were still fairly common up until the 1950s. As late as 1948, Lou Boudreau was the manager of the Cleveland Indians, and still their starting shortstop. He led them to win the World Series, and had a season worthy of being named the Most Valuable Player of the American League. He was 31.

Harry Walker was fired as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals after the 1955 season, around his 37th birthday. When the Cards opened the 1956 season without him, it marked the 1st time ever that there were no player-managers in Major League Baseball.

And there were very few between Walker and Rose. Before Rose, the last one in the National League was Joe Torre, who retired as a player in 1977, 18 days after being named manager of the New York Mets, at 37. Frank Robinson, the 1st black manager in MLB, was a player-manger in the 1975 and '76 seasons. In 1978, at 36, Jim Fregosi of the Pittsburgh Pirates was offered the job of managing his former team, the California Angels, with the condition that he retire as a player. He did, and took them to the American League Western Division title in 1979.

That year, the Chicago White Sox named Don Kessinger as their manager. The former All-Star shortstop for the Chicago Cubs was still playing shortstop, until July 31, shortly after turning 37. On August 2, right after managing the White Sox to a sweep over the Yankees -- and mere hours before Yankee catcher Thurman Munson was killed in a plane crash -- he resigned as manager and retired as a player, making him the last player-manager in the AL.

Games in which the managers put themselves into the game as a player: Robinson, 49 in '75, and 36 in '76; Torre, only 2 in '77; Kessinger, 56 in '79; Rose, 26 in '84, 119 in '85, and 72 in '86.

When Torre managed the Yankees from 1996 to 2007, the Yankees sometimes had the AL Eastern Division title locked up before the last home game of the regular season. On such occasions, he let a player manage the last home game. Recipients of this honor included Paul O'Neill, Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, and Andy Pettitte. Under his successor, Joe Girardi, it was bestowed on Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Alex Rodriguez. I was at the 2006 finale, when Bernie sent himself up to pinch-hit in the bottom of the 9th, for his last regular-season at-bat, and he got a huge ovation. What he didn't get was a hit.

I don't think there will ever be another official player-manager in MLB. If there's an emergency -- say, if the incumbent manager dies, or is hospitalized, or has to step aside due to his health -- the interim manager is going to be one of his coaches, at least until an experienced manager can be brought in.

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

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

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

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

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

* August 15: A night off.

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

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

Wagner Festspielhaus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Katharina Wagner

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

August 16, 1996: Major League Baseball In Mexico

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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