Nick was a wise but weird cop that nobody could figure out. But he was proud of being both Japanese and American, occasionally reminding people that he fought in the U.S. Army during World War II. (Playing a Korean black market boss on the 2nd episode of M*A*S*H in 1972 didn't help.)
Nick also had a gambling problem. In the 1977 episode "Thanksgiving Story," he desperately wanted to find out the result of a game played by Alcorn State, a historically black school in Mississippi, because he'd bet on them. But a week later, in the episode "Tunnel," he bet on a longshot horse because it was named "Pick Me Nick," and it won, gaining him about $900 -- about $3,600 in today's money.
If he had a mustache and sideburns,
he would have been the most Seventies cop ever.
Nick was also known for making horrendously bad coffee. After Nick died, retired Detective Sergeant Phil Fish (Abe Vigoda) made a visit, and Detective Stanley Wojciechowicz (Max Gail) offered him some coffee: "It's not as bad as Nick's, but I'm working on it." Fish agreed that it was bad.
When the U.S. version of Life On Mars aired on ABC in 2008 and '09, it was set in 1973, at the 125th Precinct, which, like the 12th, the 15th on NYPD Blue, and the 2nd on The Mysteries of Laura, doesn't exist in real life. (Cagney & Lacey used the 14th, which does exist.) I was hoping that the show would have Lieutenant Gene Hunt (Harvey Keitel) take a sip of coffee, and ask, "Who made this crap?" and that guys resembling the cast of Barney Miller would come out, with an Asian detective saying, "I did."
I am convinced that the references to coffee on Castle were a tip to Barney Miller, because Castle was also set at the 12th Precinct (although, clearly, not in the same "bad building"), and in the 2009 pilot, when Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) was brought in for questioning as a person of interest in a murder case, he was given the squad's coffee, and he hated it. In the 3rd episode, he bought them an espresso machine.
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October 28, 1492: Christopher Columbus, still on his 1st voyage to the New World, becomes the 1st European to sight Cuba -- and the 1st white man to treat it poorly. He will not be the last. Because Cuba would be one of the Spanish possessions the U.S. took in the Spanish-American War in 1898, before Spain became obsessed with soccer, Cuba took to baseball far more easily.
October 28, 1636: New College is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, across the Charles River from Boston. In 1639, it would be renamed for its benefactor, John Harvard. The school would be instrumental in the spread of sports in America, particularly American football.
October 28, 1800: Artemas Ward dies in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts at age 72. An esteemed General in the Continental Army during the War of the American Revolution, he later served in the U.S. House of Representatives. A great-grandson of the same name became a famous author.
October 28, 1818: Abigail Adams dies of typhoid fever in Quincy, Massachusetts at age 73. As the wife of John Adams a prodigious writer of supporting correspondence around the young nation, she was the closest thing to a "Founding Mother" among the Founding Fathers.
In 1800, she became the 1st First Lady to live in the White House. Unlike her husband, she did not live to see their son John Quincy Adams become President.
October 28, 1840: Joseph Wilson Fifer is born in Staunton, Virginia. He moved to Illinois at age 16, was wounded fighting for the Union Army at the Battle of Vicksburg, and was elected Governor of Illinois in 1888. His term was scandalous, and he was defeated for re-election in 1892. He died in 1938.
October 28, 1865: Arthur Wharton is born in Jamestown, Gold Coast – now the African nation of Ghana. He moved to England to train as a missionary, but abandoned it for sports. He starred in sprinting, cycling and cricket, but is best remembered for soccer.
A goalkeeper, he was the 1st black professional player in the sport, though England did have black amateurs before him. He played from 1885 to 1902, including for the mighty Preston North End team of the late 1880s, just before the Football League was formed. He had stepped away from soccer to focus on running in the 1888-89 season, and thus was not a member of the team that won the 1st League title and the FA Cup, the 1st "Double," going through the League's 22 games unbeaten, earning them the original version of the nickname "The Invincibles."
In 1894, his appearances for Sheffield United made him the 1st black player in the League's top division. He continued to play until 1902, and then became a haulage worker at a coal mine in Yorkshire. He died in 1930, at age 65, after decades of hard drinking, and is now honored with a statue at St. George's Park, the Staffordshire training ground for the England national team, though he never played for the national team.
In 1894, his appearances for Sheffield United made him the 1st black player in the League's top division. He continued to play until 1902, and then became a haulage worker at a coal mine in Yorkshire. He died in 1930, at age 65, after decades of hard drinking, and is now honored with a statue at St. George's Park, the Staffordshire training ground for the England national team, though he never played for the national team.
October 28, 1868: James Brendan Connolly is born in Boston. He overcame his background as a son of poor immigrants, served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and got himself accepted to Harvard University.
He joined the Suffolk Athletic Club in Boston, and became a member of the U.S. track & field team at the 1st modern Olympic Games, in Athens, Greece. On its 1st day, April 6, 1896, he competed in the final of the hop, skip and jump -- what is today called the triple jump. He won, and received a laurel wreath. The medals as we now know them weren't issued until 1908. Nevertheless, he was the 1st Olympic champion since Aurelios Zopyrus, a boxer from Athens, in AD 385 -- 1,511 years.
Connolly also finished 2nd in the high jump. In the next Games, in Paris in 1900, he finished 2nd in the triple jump and 3rd in the long jump. Under today's format, that would have given him 4 medals: 1 Gold, 2 Silvers, 1 Bronze.
In between, he returned to the Army, and served in the Spanish-American War, and his reminiscences of it began his career as a journalist, in which capacity he attended the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis. He died in Boston 1957, at the age of 88.
October 28, 1877, 140 years ago: Joseph Edward Adams is born in Cowden, Illinois. A pitcher, he pitched 4 innings for the St. Louis Cardinals on April 26, 1902, allowing 6 runs (4 earned) on 9 hits, 2 walks and a hit batsman. Joe "Wagon Tongue" Adams was 24, and never appeared in another major league game, although he managed in the minors for a while, living until 1952.
October 28, 1879: Jimmy Hallinan, a former National Association and National League shortstop born in Ireland and grown up in Chicago, dies at age 30. The official cause of death was "inflammation of the bowels." Sounds painful, but it also sounds like something that could have been treated with modern antibiotics. It's been suggested that his actual death was due to alcoholism.
In 1877, split between the Cincinnati Red Stockings (not to be confused with the current Reds franchise) and the Chicago White Stockings (forerunners of the Cubs, not the White Sox), he batted .321. His career OPS+ was 122, meaning he was 22 percent better than the average player of his time at producing runs. But, even by the standards of the time (no gloves, and a much heavier ball than in the 20th Century), he was an atrocious fielder, equally inept at shortstop, 2nd base and the outfield.
Whatever his illness was, it forced him to quit baseball in 1878, and it killed him in 1879.
October 28, 1882: The Philadelphia Athletics reveal that, in the 1st season of the American Association, they reaped a $22‚000 profit‚ more than any National League team earned. This helps convince the NL that the AA is a viable league.
However, within 10 years, both the league and this version of the Philadelphia Athletics will be gone anyway. But within 12 years of that, the AA name and the A’s name will be revived (but not in the same league).
October 28, 1886: The Statue of Liberty is dedicated in New York Harbor, on Bedloe's Island, soon to be renamed Liberty Island. As the men who officially dedicated it dock at The Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan afterward, and walk back up to City Hall, men working in the buildings overlooking Broadway throw tape from stock tickers out the window, thus spontaneously inventing the ticker-tape parade.
Ticker-tape parades would be given many times over the next 129 years, mainly for heroes, such as Atlantic Ocean flier Charles Lindbergh (1927), other pioneer pilots, returning war heroes, and the Apollo 8 and 11 astronauts (both in 1969).
They would also be given for visiting dignitaries, such as Presidents (including South Africa's Nelson Mandela), Prime Ministers, monarchs (including Queen Elizabeth II and her father, King George VI) and Popes. By the late 1960s, ticker-tape became obsolete, and shredded paper and confetti has been used instead.
Oddly, New York did not give its championship teams ticker-tape parades for decades. But Brooklyn did it for the Dodgers for each of their Pennants. Finally, Mayor Robert Wagner Jr., who had been a fan of the baseball Giants, decided to give the brand-new Mets a parade on April 12, 1962, the day before their 1st home opener.
Somebody must've pointed out that the Yankees had won the World Series the year before, while the Mets had literally done nothing to deserve a parade (although they did play 1 regular-season game, in St. Louis, and lost it, before coming home). So the Yankees got a parade on April 9, before their home opener. The Mets got a lot more people at theirs, so maybe Wagner had a point. But then, the Mets were getting 2 teams' worth of fans, even though they'd done nothing to earn them.
The Mets would get parades for winning the World Series on October 20, 1969 and October 28, 1986; the Yankees on October 19, 1977, October 19, 1978, October 29, 1996, October 29, 1998, October 29, 1999, October 30, 2000, and November 6, 2009; the Rangers for winning the Stanley Cup on June 17, 1994; and the Giants for winning the Super Bowl on February 5, 2008 and February 7, 2012.
When the Giants got into Super Bowl XXI in 1987, Mayor Ed Koch refused to give them a parade if they won, calling them "this foreign team" for having moved to New Jersey in 1976, also citing the fact that they had an "ny" monogram: "They took it off!" He was right, and the Giants simply had their Super Bowl XXI and XXV celebrations inside Giants Stadium. They took the "GIANTS" logo off their helmets and put the old "ny" back on in 2000, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave them their parades after Super Bowls XLII and XLVI.
Likewise, when the New Jersey Devils won their 3 Stanley Cups, they had a "parade" around the Brendan Byrne Arena. When they win their next one, they'll be able to have a parade down Broad Street in Newark. What the New York Islanders did when they won their 4 Stanley Cups from 1980 to 1983, I don't know.
In 2000, Mayor Rudy Giuliani offered to have a parade for both the Yankees and the Mets before their Subway Series, but both clubs turned it down: It was a victory parade or nothing. The Yankees, fittingly, got the parade; the Mets, fittingly, got nothing.
Mayor John Lindsay gave the Mets a parade in 1969, and some people think his glomming onto the "Miracle" team saved his bid for re-election a few days later. But he only gave the Jets a City Hall celebration on January 22, 1969, for their Super Bowl win 10 days earlier. Giants owner Wellington Mara told Lindsay that if he gave the Jets a parade, the Giants would move to New Jersey.
Lindsay backed down -- and, in 1972, Mara signed a deal to move the Giants to New Jersey anyway, leading to Koch's refusal to give them a parade in 1987, and Mayor David Dinkins' backing that up with his own refusal when presented with the chance in 1991. The Knicks didn't get a parade when they won the NBA title in 1970 or 1973, either.
Female athletes had been honored, including Althea Gibson for becoming the 1st black person of either to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and as part of celebrations for Olympic athletes in general. But until July 5, 2015, when the U.S. national team that had just won the Women's World Cup, no individual team from women's sports had been honored, not even the celebrated team that won the same tournament in 1999. This is also the most recent New York ticker-tape parade for anyone.
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October 28, 1890: The American Association's Louisville Colonels beat the National League's Brooklyn Bridegrooms, 6-2 at Washington Park in Brooklyn. This ties their postseason series at 3 games apiece, with Game 3 having ended in a tie.
The weather had gotten progressively colder and wetter as the series went on, and the teams agreed that this would be the last game, and, if Louisville won to tie it, a "championship game" would be played the following spring.
The championship game was never held. Disputes arose between the NL and the AA during the winter about the redistribution of players following the dissolution of the Players' League. The AA ended its relationship with the NL before the spring of 1891, so the anticipated championship game was canceled, and no postseason series was held in 1891.
This makes the 1890 Colonels the most successful team in the history of Kentucky sports -- keeping in mind that all those National Championships won by the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville basketball teams don't matter as much as any professional championship.
Since the Colonels, who were brought into the NL in 1892, were contracted after the 1899 season, the only Kentucky-based team that has been remotely "major league" was the American Basketball Association's Kentucky Colonels, who played at Freedom Hall in Louisville and won the 1975 ABA title, coached by Hubie Brown, with players like Dan Issel, Louis Dampier and Playoff MVP Artis Gilmore. They were not, however, invited to join the NBA after the following season.
And as for the Bridegrooms, named for an offseason in which 4 of their players got married, who later became the Dodgers? They would win "World Championships" that they would not have to share in 1899 and 1900, before going 0-6 in World Series play until finally winning in 1955.
The last survivor of the 1890 Colonels was 1st baseman Harry Taylor, who lived until 1955, at the age of 89. The last survivor of the 1890 Bridegrooms was New Jersey native Harry Howell, a pitcher who was also the last survivor of the original 1903 New York Highlanders (Yankees). He lived on into 1956, age 79.
October 28, 1893: Mayor Carter Harrison of Chicago is assassinated in his home. He was 68. A distant relative of Presidents William Henry Harrison, and Benjamin Harrison, he had been elected to Congress in 1874 and 1876, and to the Mayoralty in 1879, 1883 and 1893.
His 1st 2 terms as Mayor saw the Chicago White Stockings, forerunners of the Cubs, win National League Pennants in 1880, 1881, 1882, 1885 and 1886. His 3rd term saw the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 -- somewhat belatedly celebrating the 400th Anniversary of Christopher Columbus "discovering America."
The assassin was Patrick E. Prendergast, a 25-year-old Irish immigrant newspaper distributor. He supported Harrison's return to office, and expected to be rewarded with an appointment to municipal office. He knocked on the door of Harrison's house, asked the maid to wake him so that he could see him, and shot him. Harrison lived long enough to ask who he was, and there appears to be no evidence that Harrison had ever even heard of him. Prendergast turned himself in, and was executed the following July.
Harrison's son, Carter Henry Harrison IV, better known as Carter Harrison Jr., would match his father by being elected Mayor 3 times: 1897, 1901 and 1911.
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October 28, 1900: John Henry Neun is born in Baltimore. Johnny Neun was a backup 1st baseman who nonetheless had that rare achievement, an unassisted triple play, for the Detroit Tigers on May 31, 1927.
He won 3 Pennants managing Yankee farm teams, the 1938 and 1941 Newark Bears and the 1942 Kansas City Blues, and was interim Yankee manager at the end of the 1946 season, going 8-6. He then managed the Cincinnati Reds the next 2 seasons, and was still active in the game as a scout with the Milwaukee brewers when he died in 1990.
October 28, 1901: Mississippi A&M defeats the University of Mississippi 17-0 in Starkville. It is the 1st time that the school now named Mississippi State and the one known as "Ole Miss" play each other in football.
In 1927, a trophy is introduced, topped by a brass football of that era's design, less streamlined than today's version, and resembling an egg. The game has been known as the Battle for the Golden Egg, or the Egg Bowl, ever since. Ole Miss leads 63-44-6.
October 28, 1904: After a 4th-place finish‚ the Cleveland Blues fire Bill Armour, and name Nap Lajoie to be their manager. Armour takes over the Tigers, and Detroit falls to 7th.
But with their star 2nd baseman, one of the game's best hitters, as manager, the Cleveland team – now nicknamed the Naps for him – becomes a contender. After he leaves in 1914, they will jump on a bandwagon, seeing the team called the Braves as World Champions, and rename themselves the Cleveland Indians.
October 28, 1908: Albert Maltz (no middle name) is born in Brooklyn. He was one of the Hollywood Ten, screenwriters blacklisted in 1947 because he refused to testify about Communist affiliations, his or his friends'. He wouldn't be restored until 1970, but at least he was still alive: Not all of them were so lucky. He lived until 1985.
October 28, 1913: In the only time the 2 greatest pitchers of their time face each other‚ Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson square off at South Main Park in Tulsa‚ Oklahoma. Johnson‚ the Washington Senators pitcher backed, in this case, by the Chicago White Sox‚ wins the battle‚ 6-0 over the New York Giants‚ pitching the distance‚ while Matty exits after 4 innings.
Johnson strikes out 8. Tris Speaker of the Boston Red Sox and White Sox regular Buck Weaver do the hitting for the Pale Hose‚ while Oklahoma native, Sac and Fox Indian, and fan favorite Jim Thorpe has 2 hits for the Giants off Johnson.
The game is delayed for nearly 2 hours when the stands collapse‚ injuring 52 people and killing a soldier. Governor R.L. Williams of Oklahoma narrowly escapes injury in the tragedy.
October 28, 1914: John Dungan Rigney is born outside Chicago in Oak Park, Illinois. Johnny Rigney pitched for the Chicago White Sox from 1937 to 1947, with a record of 63-64. He later served as the team's general manager, and died in 1984.
Also on this day, Jonas Edward Salk is born in Manhattan. In 1952, 58,000 cases of polio were reported in America; 21,000 people were left with some paralysis, and 3,145 people died -- more than at Pearl Harbor, and more than would die on 9/11. One of the people stricken with polio in 1952 was New York Rangers defenseman Bill Gadsby, but he recovered, and resumed a Hall of Fame career.
In 1955, Salk announced that his polio vaccine worked. Two years later, Albert Sabin's oral vaccine hit the market, making prevention even easier. In 1994, a year before Salk's death and a year after Sabin's, the World Health Organization declared that North and South America were polio-free.
Salk could have made billions of dollars by patenting his vaccine. He decided that it belonged to the world, not to him.
October 28, 1917, 100 years ago: Joseph Francis Page is born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Cherry Valley, Pennsylvania. A 3-time All-Star, he became one of the earliest relief specialists, helping the Yankees win the World Series in 1947 and 1949.
When Joe DiMaggio married Marilyn Monroe in 1954, he was asked what he thought it would be like, and he said, "It's got to be better than rooming with Joe Page." Page died in 1980.
October 28, 1919: Walter Edwin Hansgen is born in Westfield, Union County, New Jersey. He was a professional "road racer" who graduated to Grand Prix races, but he never won one. On April 7, 1966, he was killed in a crash while testing his car in Orleans, France for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He was 46. He was making this test run in the rain, so his I.Q. may have matched his age.
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October 28, 1920: Arthur Lee Wilson is born in Springville, Alabama. A shortstop, Artie Wilson played for the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League. In 1948, he batted .402, which, by some people's definition, makes him the last "major league" player to bat .400 for an entire season. He had a 17-year-old teammate who would go on to do just about everything but that in the major leagues: Willie Mays.
He won 4 batting titles in the Pacific Coast League, including in 1950, when he helped the Oakland Oaks win the Pennant. In 1951, he was signed by the New York Giants. At age 30, he should have had a good major league career ahead of him. But he batted only .182, and he was sent back down. Ironically, his place on the Giants' roster was taken by Mays.
He continued playing in the PCL until 1957, with the Portland Beavers, then became a car salesman in Portland, and was still using his baseball stories to sell cars at age 88, until Alzheimer's disease overtook him. He died in 2010. He should have been one of the "overlooked" Negro Leaguers who were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006, while he was still able to appreciate it, but he wasn't.
October 28, 1922: Willem Hendrik van Breda Kolff is born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, and grows up in neighboring Montclair. "Butch" was an original member of the New York Knicks, playing from 1946 to 1950. He coached Princeton University to the 1st Final Four appearance of any New Jersey school, in 1965 with future Knick star and Senator Bill Bradley.
But, like a lot of good college coaches in basketball and football, he wasn't so good in the pros. He's best remembered as the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1969, who saw Wilt Chamberlain come out for an injury with 5 minutes left in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, then ask to go back in with 2 minutes left. VBK refused to let the greatest player who ever lived, still only 32 years old, back into the game, and the Lakers lost Game 7 and the World Championship to the Boston Celtics by 2 points.
He was fired soon thereafter by Laker owner Jack Kent Cooke (who also owned the L.A. Kings and the Washington Redskins), and spent the rest of his career in the college ranks before dying in 2007. His son Jan van Breda Kolff was Southeastern Conference Player of the Year with Vanderbilt in 1974, played for the Nets in both New York and New Jersey, and was also a college coach, including at his alma mater.
October 28, 1924: Aleksandar Nikolić is born in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, now in Bosnia. He was so admired as a basketball player in his homeland, he played for and coached both of the major sport clubs in the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade, Partizan and Crvena Zvezda (Red Star), and became loved by fans of both and hated by neither. That is an astounding achievement.
Known as The Professor for having been one, and The Iron Sergeant for his World War II service, he coached the Yugoslav national team from 1951 to 1965, and again in 1977 and 1978. After finishing runner-up in the 1961 and 1965 European Championships and the 1963 World Championship, he finally won the European Championship in 1977 and the World Championship in 1978. (His highest finish at the Olympics was 6th place in 1960.)
While Yugoslavia broke up and descended into civil war in the 1990s, the strong Serbian, Bosnian and especially Croatian teams since have been a result of his leadership, as "the Father of Yugoslav Basketball." He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998, and died in 2000, at age 75. In 2016, the sports arena in Belgrade was renamed Aleksandar Nikolić Hall in his memory.
October 28, 1926: Bowie Kent Kuhn is born in Takoma Park, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C. He was Commissioner of Baseball from 1969 to 1984 – though he often seemed like a puppet to Dodger owners Walter and later Peter O’Malley.
He frequently acted, in his own words, "to preserve the integrity of the game," but all too often he seemed more like the lawyer he was than the fan he should have been. He was prudish, moralistic, unimaginative, and a tool of the owners. That he, and not the leader of the players' union, Marvin Miller, is now in the Hall of Fame is deeply disturbing – but not all that surprising. Like Butch van Breda Kolff, he died in 2007.
Although he was a native of the suburbs of Washington, during his stewardship Major League Baseball left Washington for a third of a century.
October 28, 1928: Lawrance Reilly (no middle name) is born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Lawrie Reilly was one of the "Famous Five," the forward line for Edinburgh club Hibernian, along with Bobby Johnstone, Gordon Smith, Eddie Turnbull and Willie Ormond. Together, they won the Scottish League in 1948, 1951 and 1952, and were runners-up in 1950 and 1953. (Unfortunately for "Hibs," they haven't won the League since 1952.) Reilly was the last survivor of the Famous Five, living until 2013.
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October 28, 1930: Mary Harrison McKee dies in Indianapolis at age 72. She was the daughter of President Benjamin Harrison and his 1st wife, Caroline. From Caroline's death on October 25, 1892 until her father left the Presidency on March 4, 1893, she was the nation's acting First Lady.
October 28, 1933: Manuel Francisco dos Santos is born in Mane, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Known as Garrincha, while not the 1st great Brazilian soccer player, he was the 1st to be widely known outside South America.
He starred for Rio club Botafogo from 1953 to 1965, and led Brazil to victory in the 1958 and 1962 World Cups, mentoring a young Pelé along the way. Sadly, his drinking curtailed his health, and he died in 1983.
Also on this day, The Kennel Murder Case premieres. William Powell, in what could be seen as a warmup to playing Nick Charles in the Thin Man movies, plays S.S. Van Dine's private detective Philo Vance. Mary Astor also stars, perhaps as a warmup for playing Brigid O'Shaughnessy in the 1941 version of The Maltese Falcon opposite Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade. Both Vance and Spade were created by author Dashiell Hammett.
French actor Etienne Girardot plays the coroner, Dr. Doremus. In this film, he says, "I'm a doctor, not a detective." A moment later, he says, "I'm a doctor, not a magician." This predates DeForest Kelley using, "I'm a doctor, not a... " on Star Trek by 33 years, although there's no hint that any Trek writer ever saw this movie.
October 28, 1934: James Tully Beatty is born in Manhattan. Although he never won an Olympic medal, the runner made history on February 10, 1962 at the Los Angeles Invitation meet at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Running for the Los Angeles Track Club, he ran a mile race in 3 minutes, 58.9 seconds, making himself the 1st person ever to break the 4-minute barrier indoors. That year, the 1st full year of its production, ABC Wide World of Sports named him its 1st-ever Athlete of the Year. He is still alive.
October 28, 1935: Robert Andrew Veale is born in Birmingham, Alabama. A 2-time All-Star, Bob Veale went 120-95 as a major league pitcher, mostly for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He led the National League in strikeouts in 1964 -- the one time between 1962 and 1966 that Sandy Koufax didn't, as he missed a lot of games due to injury that season -- and was a member of the Pirates' 1971 World Champions. He is still alive, and a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.
October 28, 1937, 80 years ago: Leonard Randolph Wilkens is born in Brooklyn. One of New York City's greatest basketball players, Lenny Wilkens starred for Brooklyn's Boys High, where he was a basketball teammate of future baseball star Tommy Davis, before moving up to New England (Seriously, Lenny?) to play for Providence College.
"I learned my basketball on the playgrounds of Brooklyn," he once said. "Today, being a 'playground player' is an insult. It means all you want to do is go one-on-one. It means your fundamentals stink, and you don't understand the game. But the playgrounds I knew were tremendous training grounds."
He played for the St. Louis Hawks in the now-Atlanta franchise's last NBA Finals appearance in 1961, and starred for the early Seattle SuperSonics before coaching the franchise to its only NBA Title in 1979. He was a 9-time All-Star, and at his retirement had more career assists than any player except Oscar Robertson.
He also coached the Hawks, his hometown Knicks, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors, first coaching while still a player with the Sonics in 1969 and last (for now?) with the Knicks in 2005. He was the 1st NBA coach to win 1,000 games – and the 1st to lose 1,000. He has been surpassed by Don Nelson as the NBA's winningest coach. His final (?) coaching record is 1,332-1155, a .536 winning percentage. He coached the U.S. team to the 1996 Olympic Gold Medal.
One of the oddities of his career is that the Hawks traded him immediately before moving to Atlanta, and he resigned his executive's position with the Sonics as they moved to become the Oklahoma City Thunder. Providence retired his Number 14, and the Sonics retired his Number 19, and in each case he was the 1st on the team to be so honored.
Along with John Wooden and Bill Sharman, he is one of just 3 people elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as player and elected again a coach. But he tops them both, and everyone else, by having been elected a 3rd time, as an assistant coach on the 1992 U.S. Olympic "Dream Team," which in 2010 was elected to the Hall in its entirety.
He was also named, as part of the NBA's 50th Anniversary celebrations, as one of its 50 Greatest Players and one of its 10 Greatest Coaches, the only man to receive both honors. He is now a basketball analyst for Fox Sports.
October 28, 1938: David L. Budd (I don't have a record of what the L stands for) is born in Woodbury, Gloucester County, New Jersey. A forward, Dave Budd played for Wake Forest, and then for the Knicks from 1960 to 1965. It was not one of their better periods, the "highlight" being the night of March 2, 1962 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, when Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points against them. The last Knick to wear Number 10 before Walt Frazier, he is still alive.
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October 28, 1942, 75 years ago: Esteban Baglietto dies in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was 55 years old. He was a founder, and the 1st president, of one of the most honored soccer teams in the world, Club Atlético Boca Juniors.
Born in 1887 in La Boca, a neighborhood in Buenos Aires mainly populated by Italian immigrants, his parents came from Genoa, the first city of Italian soccer (due to British sailors having introduced the game to Italy there).
Those of you who are even slightly familiar with soccer in Latin America, but not familiar with that story, will not be surprised to learn this: The meeting to found Boca Juniors was held at his parents' house on April 2, 1905, and club legend has it that the founding members were so loud, Esteban's mother threw them all out.
Just 18 years old, he played in the club's 1st 5 matches in that Spring of 1905, as a defender, then quit to stick to the administrative side of things.
Also on this day, the Alaska Highway is completed, running 1,387 miles from Delta Junction, Alaska to Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada. That's Dawson Creek, not Dawson's Creek. It is used for military purposes until being opened to the public in 1948.
October 28, 1944: Dennis Franz Schlachta is born in Maywood, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He served in the 82nd Airborne in Vietnam, and became an actor upon his discharge from the Army, dropping his last name.
Best known as Detective Andy Sipowicz on NYPD Blue, Dennis Franz previously starred in the original Chicago production of Bleacher Bums, a play about Cub fans, of which he is one. You wanna make somethin' of it?
October 28, 1946: Two European soccer legends are born on this day. Wim Jansen is born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The midfielder played most of his soccer career with his hometown club, Feyenoord, helping them to win 4 Eredivisie (Dutch 1st division) titles, and the KNVB Beker (national cup) in 1969, having also won the League that year, therefore having done The Double.
In 1970, he helped them to become the 1st Dutch team to win the European Cup, immediately preceding the 3 straight wins by their arch-rivals, Ajax Amsterdam. He also helped them win the UEFA Cup in 1974, defeating that other North London team, Tottenham Hotspur, despite the "Spurs" fans rioting in the stadium and in the streets of Rotterdam, resulting in them getting banned from European play for 2 years.
He played on the Netherlands teams that reached the Finals of the 1974 and 1978 World Cups, each time losing the Final to the host nation (Germany in 1974, Argentina in 1978). He also played in America, for the Washington Diplomats, alongside the superstar formerly of Ajax, Johan Cruijff. He returned to the Netherlands, and joined Cruijff at Ajax, winning the 1982 Eredivisie title.
He managed Feyenoord to KNVB Cups in 1991 and 1992, and, ironically, the team Feyenoord beat to win the European Cup, Glasgow club Celtic, to the Scottish title and the Scottish League Cup in 1998. He is now back at Feyenoord as an assistant coach.
On the same day, Jan Andrzej Domarski is born in Rzeszów, Poland. Also a midfielder, he starred for Stal Rzeszów and Stal Mielec. His 57th-minute goal for the Polish national team against England at London's Wembley Stadium on October 17, 1973 led to a 1-1 draw in the final group qualifying match for the 1974 World Cup. This allowed the Polish team to win the group and qualify, and prevented England for qualifying -- their 1st-ever failure to qualify. (They refused to participate in 1930, '34 and '38, but had qualified for each since it resumed in '50 and won it in '66.) Poland finished 3rd in the World Cup, and won many plaudits for their fine play.
In the 1984-85 season, Jan Domarski was allowed to play in America, for SAC Wisła Chicago. He later managed Stal Rzeszów, and is still alive.
October 28, 1949 (I previously, incorrectly, had this as October 27): A Lockheed Constellation crashes in the Azores islands off the coast of Portugal, a refueling stop on the regular route from Paris to New York. All 48 people on board are killed, including Marcel Cerdan, former Middleweight Champion of the World. The man known as the Moroccan Bomber and the Casablanca Clouter was only 33 years old.
The French boxer, once the welterweight champion of Europe, won the Middleweight Championship of the World by knocking out Tony Zale at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, but lost it in his 1st defense, against Jake LaMotta at Briggs Stadium (later renamed Tiger Stadium) in Detroit, as he had to drop out of the fight due to a dislocated shoulder.
He was flying from Paris to New York to prepare for his rematch with "the Raging Bull" when his plane crashed in the Azores. He was only 33. His career record was an amazing 113-4, although it should be noted that nearly all his fights were against Europeans, not exactly the best of competition.
Louis Raftis played him in Martin Scorcese's 1980 film about LaMotta, Raging Bull. In 1983, Marcel Cerdan Jr. played his father in the French film Edith et Marcel, which told of the affair Cerdan Sr. had with the legendary French singer Edith Piaf, played by Evelyn Bouix. In 2007, Jean-Pierre Martins played him opposite Marion Cotillard in her Oscar-winning role as Piaf in La Vie en Rose.
Also on this day, William Bruce Jenner is born in Tarrytown, Westchester County, New York. Bruce won the decathlon at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, becoming an international hero and the man on the Wheaties cereal box.
But he became better-known as the weird, desperately trying to hang onto his youth husband of Kris Jenner; and the stepfather of Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian; and the father of Burton and Cassandra Jenner with 1st wife Chrystie Crownover; Brandon and Brody Jenner with 2nd wife Linda Thompson; and Kendall and Kylie Jenner with Kris.
In 2014, he and Kris split up. In 2015, he decided to accept the reality of his identity, and made the transition to a woman. She now calls herself Caitlyn Marie Jenner, or "Cait," and has faced both praise for her courage and anger from people who are too bigoted to understand. Unfortunately, she has also supported Donald Trump, who probably loved Bruce, but hates people like Cait.
Also on this day, John Prescott McGovern is born in Montrose, Scotland. A midfielder, he played for manager Brian Clough at Hartlepools United, Derby County, Leeds United and Nottingham Forest. Buying him from Derby was Clough's last-ditch attempt to hang onto the Leeds job, which he lost after only 44 days.
Otherwise, McGovern was one of Clough's golden boys, helping him get the other 3 clubs promoted to the Football League Division One. Together, they won the League at both Derby in 1972 and their East Midlands arch-rivals Forest in 1978. Forest also won the Anglo-Scottish Cup in 1977, the League Cup in 1978 and 1979, and, with McGovern as Captain, the European Cup in 1979 and 1980. They are the only English team to win the European Cup, now called the UEFA Champions League, more than they've won the English top flight.
Despite his success as a Captain, he was unsuccessful as a manager, starting in the 1982-83 and 1983-84 seasons as a player-manager with Lancashire club Bolton Wanderers. His most recent job was with Ilkeston Town in Derbyshire in 2001.
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October 28, 1952: Billy Hughes dies in Sydney at age 90. He was Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923, including most of World War I, a defining event for his country.
October 28, 1953: Fed up with the meddling of Brooklyn Dodger owner Walter O'Malley, Red Barber leaves the Dodgers' broadcast booth, and signs with the crosstown Yankees. During his time in Brooklyn, O'Malley chased off Branch Rickey in 1950, Red Barber in 1953, and Jackie Robinson in 1956. And he shortchanged his players in contract negotiations.
In other words, O'Malley was already a dirty bastard, and would have remained one even if he had kept the Dodgers in Brooklyn as God intended it.
October 28, 1954: Samuel Lee Stewart is born in Asheville, North Carolina. Sammy pitched for the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series in 1979 and 1983, winning the latter. He led the American League in earned run average in 1981. He appeared in another World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 1986.
He finished his career with a 59-48 record, but his life since has been tragic. He became addicted to cocaine, he committed acts of domestic violence against his wife, he became homeless, served time in prison for drug possession, and 2 daughters died from the effects of cystic fibrosis. He appears to have gotten clean since his release, and has gotten a school coaching job.
UPDATE: Sammy Stewart died on March 2, 2018, only 63 years old. This is what drugs can do to you: They can compromise your health to the point that even quitting may not be enough to give you a full life.
October 28, 1955: William Henry Gates III is born in Seattle. On any given day, Bill Gates could be the richest man in the world. The most recent estimate of his net worth is $89.7 billion. That's enough to build 150 new arenas for his hometown, to bring the SuperSonics back. I can't knock him, though, as he does donate a lot of money to charity.
October 28, 1957, 60 years ago: Singer Bing Crosby sells his shares of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Even he couldn't stand all the losing anymore. In the 1951 film Road to Bali, Dorothy Lamour asked him, "Do they still have pirates in America?" He said, "Yes, but they're in the basement."
Strangely, the Pirates start to get a lot better after Der Bingle sells them. But the Cleveland Indians didn't get any better after his pal Bob Hope sold his shares in them.
October 28, 1958: Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli is elected Pope, 19 days after the death of his predecessor, Pius XII. He takes the name Pope John XXIII. A native of Bergamo, Italy, he was already almost 77 years old, but his activism for peace got him named Time magazine's Man of the Year for 1962. He died the next year, and has been canonized: "Pope Saint John XXIII."
October 28, 1959: The Buffalo Bills are founded, the last of the new American Football League's original 8 teams. AFL founder Lamar Hunt's 1st choice to own a Buffalo team turned him down. New York Titans (Jets) owner Harry Wismer had been a minority partner with the Washington Redskins, and knew Detroit insurance salesman Ralph Wilson, a minority partner with the Lions, and Wilson said, "Count me in: I'll take a franchise anywhere you suggest."
Hunt gave him 6 choices: Buffalo, Miami, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Atlanta or Louisville. As it turned out, all but Louisville would get a team by 1968, but Louisville still doesn't have one. Wilson wanted Miami, but city officials had seen the Miami Seahawks fail in the All-America Football Conference in 1946, and wouldn't let him use the city-owned Orange Bowl.
Wilson had served in the Navy during World War II, and his former commanding officer had gotten rich as a contractor in Buffalo, and told Wilson that, since the original Buffalo Bills had done well in the AAFC but were not admitted to the NFL, the people there were ready to support a new team that would challenge the NFL. Wilson sent Hunt a telegram saying, "Count me in with Buffalo."
Also on this day, Randy Scott Wittman is born in Indianapolis. A guard, he was a member of Bob Knight's Indiana team that won the 1981 National Championship. In the NBA, he played for the Atlanta Hawks, the Sacramento Kings, and his hometown Indiana Pacers. He has also been head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota Timberwolves and Washington Wizards. His son Ryan Wittman was an All-Ivy League player at Cornell.
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October 28, 1961: Ground is broken for Flushing Meadow Park, the stadium that will later bear the name of the attorney, activist and baseball fan who made it possible, William A. Shea.
Also on this day, Bruce Stuart dies in Ottawa at age 79. His last public appearance was a few weeks earlier, at his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. A forward in the amateur era, he won the Stanley Cup with the Montreal Wanderers in 1908, and captained the Ottawa Senators to the Cup in 1909, 1910 and 1911.
By that point, his brother William "Hod" Stuart had already been killed in a diving accident at age 28, shortly after helping the Wanderers win the Cup in 1907. Hod was a charter inductee in the Hall of Fame in 1945.
October 28, 1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis is resolved as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev
announces that he has ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba. In a secret deal between Khrushchev and President John F. Kennedy, JFK agrees to the withdrawal of U.S. missiles from Turkey. The fact that the Turkey part of the deal is not made public makes it look like the Soviets have backed down, rather than that the deal was a true compromise.
Much of the world thought that this was it, that World War III was assured, that the NFL and AFL games of this day might be the last sporting events that they'd ever see, or even that they would be prevented. They weren't, and the world moved on.
One event the world moved on to was the NFL contest at Yankee Stadium. Y.A. Tittle ties an NFL record with 7 touchdown passes, and the New York Giants beat the Washington Redskins 49-34. The Giants go on to the NFL Championship Game.
Tittle is 1 of 8 NFL quarterbacks to have thrown 7 touchdown passes in a single game. Sid Luckman of the Chicago Bears did it against the Giants in 1943. Adrian Burk of the Philadelphia Eagles did it against the Redskins in 1954. Although it was in the AFL, the NFL counts George Blanda of the Houston Oilers doing it against the New York Titans (the Jets) in 1961. Joe Kapp of the Minnesota Vikings did it against the Baltimore Colts in 1969.
It was done twice in 2013, by Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos against the Baltimore Ravens, and by Nick Foles of the Philadelphia Eagles against the Oakland Raiders. In 2015, the Giants were victimized again, by Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints.
October 28, 1963: James Jarrett Miller is born in Havre de Grace, Maryland, hometown of baseball's Ripken family. He was a parachutist and paraglider pilot from Henderson, Nevada, outside Las Vegas, known for his outrageous appearances at various sporting events.
announces that he has ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba. In a secret deal between Khrushchev and President John F. Kennedy, JFK agrees to the withdrawal of U.S. missiles from Turkey. The fact that the Turkey part of the deal is not made public makes it look like the Soviets have backed down, rather than that the deal was a true compromise.
Much of the world thought that this was it, that World War III was assured, that the NFL and AFL games of this day might be the last sporting events that they'd ever see, or even that they would be prevented. They weren't, and the world moved on.
One event the world moved on to was the NFL contest at Yankee Stadium. Y.A. Tittle ties an NFL record with 7 touchdown passes, and the New York Giants beat the Washington Redskins 49-34. The Giants go on to the NFL Championship Game.
Tittle is 1 of 8 NFL quarterbacks to have thrown 7 touchdown passes in a single game. Sid Luckman of the Chicago Bears did it against the Giants in 1943. Adrian Burk of the Philadelphia Eagles did it against the Redskins in 1954. Although it was in the AFL, the NFL counts George Blanda of the Houston Oilers doing it against the New York Titans (the Jets) in 1961. Joe Kapp of the Minnesota Vikings did it against the Baltimore Colts in 1969.
It was done twice in 2013, by Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos against the Baltimore Ravens, and by Nick Foles of the Philadelphia Eagles against the Oakland Raiders. In 2015, the Giants were victimized again, by Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints.
October 28, 1963: James Jarrett Miller is born in Havre de Grace, Maryland, hometown of baseball's Ripken family. He was a parachutist and paraglider pilot from Henderson, Nevada, outside Las Vegas, known for his outrageous appearances at various sporting events.
His most famous appearance was the November 6, 1993 boxing match between Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. He used his powered paraglider to fly into the arena, eventually crashing into the ring. The fan on the device got him nicknamed Fan Man. "It was a heavyweight fight," Miller would joke later, "and I was the only guy who got knocked out."
Heart disease and mounting medical bills led him to commit suicide in 2002, and the age of 29.
October 28, 1964: Harold Burton dies. The Republican was elected Mayor of Cleveland in 1935, '37 and '39, and to the U.S. Senate in 1941. For his fight against organized crime, he was known as "The Boy Scout Mayor." In 1945, President Harry Truman crossed party lines, and appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he served until 1958, including the unanimous Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision in 1954.
October 28, 1965: Franck Sauzée is born in Aubenas, Auvergne, France. A midfielder, he helped Olympique de Marseille win the French league in 1989, 1990 and 1992; the Coupe de France in 1989; and the UEFA Champions League in 1993.
In between, he played for Arsène Wenger at AS Monaco, and helped them win the Coupe de France in 1991. He helped Edinburgh club Hibernian regain promotion to Scotland's top flight in 1999, and reach the Final of the 2001 Scottish Cup. So he is more popular in Scotland than he is in his own country.
Which isn't helped by his timing: He was too young to play for the France team that reached the Semifinals of the 1982 World Cup and win Euro 1984, and too old to play for the France team that won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000. He is now a commentator for the sport on French network Canal+.
October 28, 1966: Stephen Dennis Atwater is born in Chicago. The safety bridged the eras of Denver Bronco glory, playing for them in Super Bowl XXIV before appearing on the winning side in Super Bowls XXXII and XXXIII, retiring after the latter. Known as the Smiling Assassin, his 1990 tackle of Christian Okoye, the Kansas City Chiefs' huge fullback known as the Nigerian Nightmare, is regarded as one of the greatest hits in NFL history.
Steve is a member of the Broncos' Ring of Honor, and the NFL's 1990s All-Decade Team. But he has not yet received his rightful induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Paul Andrew Richter is born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was the sidekick for Conan O'Brien when he took over as host of NBC's Late Night, and is back with Conan as the announcer for TBS' Conan. In between, he starred in the Fox sitcoms Andy Richter Controls the Universe (in which he, well, didn't) and Quintuplets (in which he was the father of the eponymous 5 teenagers).
October 28, 1967, 50 years ago: Julia Fiona Roberts is born in the Atlanta suburb of Smyrna, Georgia. Time magazine once called her "America's favorite movie star." Not "actress," "movie star." There is a difference, although she did win an Oscar as Best Actress for Erin Brockovich in 2001. Her brother Eric Roberts and his daughter Emma Roberts are also renowned actors.
What does she have to do with sports? Well, one of the scenes for her 1997 film My Best Friend's Wedding was filmed at the new Comiskey Park in Chicago (now U.S. Cellular Field).
October 28, 1968: Billy Gimsie dies in Calgary at age 88. A center, he helped the Kenora Thistles win the 1907 Stanley Cup, beating the Stuart brothers' Montreal Wanderers, making the town of 15,000 in far western Ontario the smallest city ever to win a "world championship."
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October 28, 1970: After playing their 1st 7 games on the road, and losing them all, the expansion Cleveland Cavaliers finally make their home debut, the 1st NBA game played in Cleveland since the Rebels failed at the end of the league's 1st season, 1946-47.
The Cavs lose, 110-99 to the San Diego Rockets at the Cleveland Arena. In fact, they will start their history 0-15, the worst of any team in the history of North American major league sports to that point, since topped only by the 1976 and '77 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who went 0-26 before finally winning an NFL game.
The "Cadavers" (a.k.a. the Cavalosers) will finally win for the 1st time on November 12, 1970, 125-110, away to the Portland Trail Blazers. They will be 1-18 when they finally win at home for the 1st time, beating fellow expansion team the Buffalo Braves 108-106 on December 6. They finish 15-67.
October 28, 1972: Terrell Lamar Davis is born in San Diego. One in a long line of star running backs at the University of Georgia, in Super Bowl XXXII he fought a literally blinding headache to become the only player (through SB XLIX) to score 3 touchdowns in a Super Bowl, leading the Broncos to victory. He also starred in the Broncos' victory the next year in Super Bowl XXXIII.
A knee injury cut his career short, and, like Atwater, he is in the Broncos' Ring of Honor, and the San Diego Sports Hall of Fame, but not yet the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
One of my favorite sports oddities is that, in calendar year 1998, the football season ended with the Broncos winning the Super Bowl, and the baseball season ended with the Yankees winning the World Series, and since the Super Bowl is always held at a neutral site, and the Yankees beat the Padres, both contests ended at Jack Murphy/Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, and each had a San Diego native who was key to the victory: The Broncos had Davis, and the Yankees had David Wells. (However, Wells' lone appearance in the Series was in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium. The Yanks swept, and had it gone to a Game 5, Wells was scheduled to start in San Diego). "The Murph"/"The Q" is the only stadium ever to host a Super Bowl and the clinching game of a World Series in the same calendar year. The Los Angeles Coliseum, Hard Rock Stadium in the Miami suburbs, and the now-demolished Metrodome have hosted both, but not in the same calendar year.
Also on this day, Brad Douglas Paisley is born in Glen Dale, West Virginia. The country singer, married to actress Kimberly Williams, had one of those songs that you figure has to got to be a parody, but it was all real: "Alcohol."
October 28, 1974: Braden LaVerne Looper is born in Weatherford, Oklahoma. Now retired, the reliever won World Series with the Florida Marlins in 2003 and the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006. In between those titles, he pitched for the Mets. He was considerably less successful with them.
Also on this day, Joaquin Rafael Bottom is born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Formerly acting under the name Leaf Phoenix and now Joaquin Phoenix, he is a member of the Phoenix acting family. He is best known for having played Emperor Commodus in Gladiator and Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. Or he was, before growing a beard and becoming a rapper, leading to him becoming an object of ridicule.
Also on this day, also in San Juan, Dayanara Torres Delgado is born. She was Miss Universe in 1993, but is best known for her marriage to singer Marc Anthony, who cheated on her interminably, and, while she was pregnant, left her for Jennifer Lopez. Look, I love J-Lo, too, but I wouldn’t leave a woman who looks like Dayanara for anyone. Not even if Catherine Zeta-Jones came up to me wearing a Hillary campaign button on a Yankee cap, and nothing else.
Also on this day, Dejan Stanković is born in Belgrade, Serbia. A midfielder, "Deki" began his career with Red Star Belgrade, winning the Yugoslav First League in 1995, and the Yugoslav Cup in 1995 (a Double), 1996 and 1997.
He moved on to Rome club Lazio, winning the last European Cup Winners' Cup in 1999 (the tournament was folded into the UEFA Cup, now called the Europa League), and a rare Double of Serie A and the Coppa Italia in 2000. The league title was only the 2nd in Lazio's history. He was sold to Internazionale Milano, and won 5 straight Serie A titles from 2006 to 2010, also winning the Coppa Italia in 2005, 2006 (a Double), 2010 (a Double) and 2011. And in 2010, Inter also won the UEFA Champions League, giving them, and Stanković, Italy's 1st and still only "European Treble."
He represented his country at 3 World Cups: As "Yugoslavia" in 1998, as "Serbia and Montenegro" in 2006, and as "Serbia" in 2010. He is now retired.
Also on this day, Everaldo Marques da Silva dies in a car crash in Santa Cruz do Sul, Brazil. He was only 30, and was the 1st member of the Brazil team that won the 1970 World Cup to die.
October 28, 1975: I underwent surgery at the Hospital for Joint Diseases, then located at 123rd Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan's Spanish Harlem, to correct a problem in my legs that made walking difficult. The surgery was successful, to an extent, although I still limp, and I still have pain in my legs that sometimes makes walking a chore.
My 2 weeks in that hospital are a blur, as I was almost 6. What I do remember from the experience, I wouldn't wish on anyone. I've been a hospital patient on Halloween Night at age 5, and I've been a hospital patient on Thanksgiving Day at 17. Halloween at 5 in a hospital is worse.
Those 2 weeks included the Daily News' "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD" headline and the Rangers' trade of Eddie Giacomin and his well-received return to The Garden, but I don't remember those things happening at the time. Nor do I remember, the week before, the 1975 World Series, including Carlton Fisk's "Fenway Twist."
Also on this day, Georges Carpentier dies of a heart attack in Paris at age 81. A hero who helped to save France from the invading Imperial Germans in World War I, he was Light Heavyweight Champion of the World from 1920 to 1922, beating Battling Levinsky to take the title.
But he's better known for the fights he lost. In 1921, he challenged Jack Dempsey for the heavyweight title, at a huge, 90,000-seat temporary stadium in Jersey City called "Boyle's Thirty Acres." Dempsey knocked him out. He lost his title to Battling Siki, a Senegalese (and thus, then, legally a fellow Frenchman) and the 1st black African to win any boxing title. He then lost to Tommy Gibbons (whom Dempsey had defended his title against), Tommy Loughran (a later light heavyweight champion) and Gene Tunney (who took the heavyweight title from Dempsey).
Also on this day, Happy Days airs the episode "Howard's 45th Fiasco." It was established that the show took place 19 years in the past, as it ran from 1974 to 1984, and took place from 1955 to 1965. It is said in this episode that Howard shares his birthday with Confucius. Therefore, this episode takes place on September 28, 1956, therefore Howard was born on September 28, 1911.
October 28, 1976: On Jack Soo's 59th birthday -- although Nick Yemana once claimed to be 46, which meant he couldn't have served in World War II like he claimed, unless he really lied about his age -- Barney Miller airs the episode "Werewolf." It's 3 days before Halloween, but the holiday isn't mentioned in the episode, just a guy who claims to be a werewolf.
The suspect, Stefan Kopecknie, would return a couple of years later, claiming to be possessed by a demon. Both times, he was played by Kenneth Tigar. You may know him as the old German who refuses to kneel before Loki in The Avengers -- or, at the other end of the spectrum, Heinrich Himmler in the alternate-history series The Man in the High Castle.
October 28, 1977, 40 years ago: The Sex Pistols release what turns out to be their one and only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. It may have been the most influential album released that day, but it wasn't the best, or even the best by a British group: On the same day, Queen release News of the World.
It contains perhaps the last true double-sided hit record: "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions." Lead guitarist Brian May wrote the former, wanting it to sound like a stadium chant, which, of course, it became. Lead singer Freddie Mercury wrote the latter, and when he sang about paying his dues, and about thanking the audience for "fame, and fortune, and everything that goes with it," he was completely sincere both times.
Neither song was written about the newly-crowned World Champion New York Yankees, although the confusion was understandable.
October 28, 1978: The University of Washington beats Arizona State, 41-7. Although the game is played at Husky Stadium in Seattle, it is considered an upset, as ASU, in its 1st season in its new league -- along with the University of Arizona, making the Pac-8 a Pac-10 for the 1st time -- is ranked Number 12 in the nation.
But this game is remembered for another reason. ASU coach Frank Kush was accused of punching one of his players on the sideline. This did not become public until the next year, after Woody Hayes of Ohio State punched a Clemson player in the 1978 Gator Bowl. Hayes was fired the next day, but it took until the middle of the next season, when this and other accusations began flying, that Kush was fired.
Kush was famously tough on his players, but only that 1 player ever accused him of assault. Still, the reputation followed him, and when he became the head coach of the NFL's Baltimore Colts, they chose Stanford quarterback John Elway with the top pick in the 1983 NFL Draft, and Elway's father, San Jose State coach Jack Elway, told his son to refuse to play for Kush. He did, and the Colts ended up with neither John Elway, who was traded to the Denver Broncos for a large package of players, or Frank Kush, who was fired during their 1st season in Indianapolis in 1984.
October 28, 1979: George Steinbrenner officially fires Billy Martin for the 2nd time, following his barroom brawl with a man described as a "marshmallow salesman." (It always sounded ridiculous. Was this a guy walking around yelling, like a ballpark vendor? "Marshmallows! Get yer marshmallows here!" He was probably a businessman who simply negotiated contracts to sell something in bulk, and it just happened to be marshmallows.)
Also on this day, the Québec Nordiques, having just entered the NHL from the WHA, retire the Number 3 of the recently retired defenseman Jean-Claude Tremblay at the Colisée de Québec. They beat the Montréal Canadiens, Tremblay's original team, 5-4.
Tremblay had played from 1960 to 1972 with the Canadiens, and from 1972 to 1979 with the Nords. He was a 7-time All-Star in the NHL, 3 times in the WHA. He had won the Stanley Cup with the Habs in 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969 and 1971; and the Avco Cup, the WHA title, with the Nords in 1977.
Also on this day, Martin Škoula (no middle name) is born in Litoměřice, in what is now the Czech Republic. The defenseman won a Stanley Cup with the 2001 Colorado Avalanche, and closed his career in 2015 by playing in his homeland's Extraliga.
October 28, 1980: The only debate between the 2 major-party nominees in this election is held at Public Hall in Cleveland. The Democratic incumbent, President Jimmy Carter, was struggling with the Iran Hostage Crisis, the Cold War, and inflation and interest rates running out of control -- but not, yet, high unemployment.
The Republican challenger, former Governor Ronald Reagan of California, had been hammering Carter on the stump, using his skills honed as an actor and, before that, as a remote announcer (using telegraphed-in plays) for the Chicago Cubs at a radio station in Des Moines, Iowa.
Carter said that, if elected, Reagan and the Republicans in Congress would cut spending on Medicare. Reagan laughed, and said, "There you go again." Translation: "Oh, no we won't. You Democrats are always saying that, and it's never true." As it turned out, it absolutely did become true.
Reagan used his closing argument to ask, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" More Americans could truthfully answer that question "No" than "Yes," and Reagan won in a landslide a week later, taking 44 States. Four years later, Reagan asked the question again. This time, enough Americans could say "Yes" that Reagan won 49 out of 50.
Also on this day, Alan Smith is born in Rothwell, West Yorkshire, England. He is not to be confused with Alan "Smudger" Smith, the former striker for Arsenal and now TV soccer pundit, who was an Arsenal teammate of David O'Leary, who was this Alan Smith's 1st manager, at Leeds United.
In between Leeds and Newcastle, each of which was relegated while he played for them, this Alan Smith played for Manchester United in their Premier League Championship season of 2007 -- earning the eternal hatred of Leeds fans, who despise Man U more than any other team. He now plays for Nottingham club Notts County.
October 28, 1981: A dark day in my life, even darker for me than the same day in 1975. One might even say a blue day... Dodger Blue.
The L.A. Bums finally beat the Yankees in the World Series, after 2 failed attempts in 1977 and '78. Pedro Guerrero drives in 5 runs, and Burt Hooton and the Dodgers beat the Yankees 9-2 to win the World Series in 6 games. In a remarkable postseason‚ the Dodgers came from behind to win 3 series (down 2-0 to Houston and 2-1 to Montreal in the best-of-5 NL Division Series and League Championship Series).
Guerrero‚ Ron Cey‚ and Steve Yeager (2 home runs) are named co-MVPs‚ while Dave Winfield and relief pitcher George Frazier are the goats for New York. Winfield was just 1-for-21‚ while Frazier tied a Series record by losing 3 games. The record was set by the White Sox Lefty Williams in 1919‚ but Williams‚ one of the 8 "Black Sox‚" was losing on purpose. Frazier was trying to win, and didn't.
The long-term effects on the Yankees were as follows:
* This was the last game that Reggie Jackson ever played for the Yankees, and George Steinbrenner refused to exercise the option for a 6th year on his contract, and Reggie happily accepted an offer from Gene Autry to return to the West Coast and play for the Angels.
* Winfield's performance contrasted so much with Reggie's Mr. October persona that George eventually nicknamed him Mr. May, never gave him the respect he deserved, and ended up chasing Dave out of town – coincidentally, also to the Angels, although Reggie was retired by that point – and getting himself in trouble with how he did it. While George gave Dave a "Day" after he was elected to the Hall of Fame, to this day, Dave's Number 31 has not been retired, along with those of his Yankee teammates Jackson (44), Ron Guidry (49) and Don Mattingly (23) and his occasional manager Billy Martin (1). Nor has he gotten a Plaque in Monument Park like those 4, and also like teammates Willie Randolph and Goose Gossage.
* George went through various experiments in managers and styles of play (booming bats one year, speed the next, and so on) to get the Yankees back on top, but they wouldn't reach the World Series again for 15 years, giving the new ownership of the Mets the chance to become from 1984 to 1992 what they have not been since '92, New York's first team. (Despite their 2015 Pennant, they still aren't.)
Blowing that lead, to the evil O'Malley Bums and their fat hypocritical slob of a manager, Tommy Lasorda, losing the Series at home, and when I was just 11 going on 12...
More than any other Yankee defeat, this one sticks in my craw. As bad as the 2001 and 2003 World Series losses were (I don't really remember the 1976 sweep loss); or the 1980 and 2012 ALCS sweeps or the 2010 ALCS fold; or the ALDS losses of 1995, 1997, 2006 and 2011; or the 1985 and 1988 regular-season near-misses; or last year's complete bottle-job in the Wild Card game. Even the 2004 ALCS collapse doesn't bother me as much as the 1981 World Series.
And, unlike with the 2004 Red Sox, I can't even rationalize it away by saying the Dodgers cheated! That I know of. There are some people who have alleged that the mound at Dodger Stadium was actually less than 60 feet 6 inches from home plate, but I don't think this was ever seriously challenged.
Also on this day, Nathan Richard McLouth is born in Muskegon, Michigan. In 2008, the center fielder for the Atlanta Braves was named to the All-Star Team and won a Gold Glove. In 2012, he drove the Yankees crazy for the Baltimore Orioles. He helped the Washington Nationals win the NL East in 2014, then retired due to nagging injuries.
Also on this day, Milan Baroš is born in Valašské Meziříčí, in what is now the Czech Republic. A member of the Liverpool team that (as their fans never cease to remind us) won the UEFA Champions League in that remarkable Final comeback against AC Milan in 2005, he also helped Olympique Lyonnais win France's Ligue 1 in 2007, Portsmouth the FA Cup in 2008, and Istanbul's Galatasaray with the Turkish Super Lig in 2012.
Playing for the Czech national team, top scorer at Euro 2004, and was part of the squad that knocked the U.S. out of the 2006 World Cup. He is now playing in the Czech league once again.
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But while Maroth dealt with injury issues that kept him off the 2006 postseason roster (he's now a coach in the Atlanta Braves' minor league system), Bonderman bounced back, helping the Tigers win the Pennant. But he was injured for nearly all of the 2008 and 2009 seasons, and all of the 2011 and 2012 seasons. After being released by the Tigers, he started 2013 with the Mariners, and the Tigers were impressed enough to reacquire him. But he didn't pitch for them in the postseason, and was released again. He retired at age 31, with a record of 69-81, and has returned to the Seattle suburbs with his wife and children.
Also on this day, Anthony Allen Lerew is born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, outside Harrisburgh. A pitcher, he was with the Braves from 2005 to 2007, and the Royals in 2009 and 2010. He last pitched for the York Revolution in the independent Atlantic League in 2015.
Also on this day, Matthew Robert Smith is born in Northampton, England. From 2009 to 2013, he played the Eleventh Doctor on Doctor Who.
October 28, 1983: Jarrett Matthew Jack is born in Fort Washington, Maryland. The guard helped get Georgia Tech into the 2004 National Championship game, but has been a journeyman in the NBA, and now plays for the Knicks.
October 28, 1984: Obafemi Akinwumi Martins is born in Lagos, Nigeria. The striker played for Internazionale Milano in their 2006 "Double" season, and starred for Newcastle United, helping them win what remains their most recent trophy, the 2006 Intertoto Cup. He also helped Rubin Kazan win the 2012 Russian Cup.
Twice, he bedeviled North London club Arsenal: In the fall of 2003, with a Champions League goal for Inter when he was not quite 19, followed by celebrating by doing handsprings; and with the winning goal for Birmingham City following a defensive miscue in the 2011 League Cup Final.
He later helped the Seattle Sounders win the 2014 U.S. Open Cup (American version of the FA Cup) and Supporters' Shield (regular-season champions), and now plays in China.
October 28, 1985: Ken Burns' documentary The Statue of Liberty premieres on PBS, with the Statue still covered by scaffolding as it is renovated in time for its 100th Anniversary the next year.
October 28, 1988: The Number 1 and Number 2 teams in the Central New Jersey Home News high school football poll meet in Old Bridge. A crowd of 5,000 people (huge by non-Thanksgiving New Jersey standards) turns out to watch Number 1 Madison Central host Number 2 East Brunswick, my alma mater.
Although EB would go on to make the Playoffs, the game is no contest: Madison overwhelms EB, and runs up the score. The final was 55-3. Madison would complete an undefeated State Championship season. It remains the worst defeat in EB's 57-season football history.
October 28, 1989: The Oakland Athletics take an 8-0 lead, and beat the San Francisco Giants 9-6 at Candlestick Park, to complete a 4-game sweep of the Bay Bridge World Series‚ the first Series sweep since 1976. Oakland native Dave Stewart‚ who won Games 1 and 3‚ is named MVP. However, with the Loma Prieta Earthquake only 11 days prior, it may be the most subdued World Series celebration ever.
Also on this day, the University of Mississippi (a.k.a. Ole Miss) beats Vanderbilt University, 24-16 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi. But there is bad news for the Rebels: Cornerback Lee Roy "Chucky" Mullins breaks his neck making a tackle. His paralysis compromised his health, and he died in 1991.
Every year, At the conclusion of spring football, Ole Miss hosts the intrasquad Grove Bowl, and the head coach decides which player most embodies Mullins' spirit, and gives him the Chucky Mullins Memorial Courage Award, and Mullins' Number 38. A bust of Mullins now stands outside the stadium.
Also on this day, Camille Muffat is born in Nice, France. She won a Gold Medal in swimming at the 2012 Olympics in London. On March 9, 2015, she in Argentina, was participating in an all-athletes version of the French reality TV show Dropped, when the helicopter in which she was riding collided with another. She was 1 of 10 people killed. She was only 25.
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October 28, 1993: Bob Seeds dies in Erick, Oklahoma at the age of 86. An outfielder, he played in the major leagues from 1930 to 1940. He changed teams so much, he was nicknamed "Suitcase," as was a later player, Harry Simpson. Another theory was that his feet were as big as suitcases, which explained the nickname of Leroy "Satchel" Paige.
Seeds played for the Yankees in 1936, and won a World Series ring. But he spent the entire 1937 season with their top farm team, the Newark Bears. This was one of the greatest teams in minor league history, and Seeds batted .303 with 20 home runs and 112 RBIs. Had he come along in the expansion era, he might have gotten a lot more major league game time.
Also on this day, Seinfeld airs the episode "The Lip Reader." Marlee Matlin guest-stars as a deaf lineswoman at tennis' U.S. Open, whom Jerry dates. A side plot features Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards) serving as a middle-aged ballboy, and he accidentally ruins Monica Seles' comeback.
October 28, 1995: In a pitcher's duel‚ the Braves win Game 6 of the Series‚ 1-0‚ on a combined 1-hitter by Tom Glavine and Mark Wohlers. David Justice's 6th-inning homer accounts for the game's only run.
In winning‚ the Braves become the 1st team to win World Championships representing three different cities: Boston in 1914‚ Milwaukee in 1957‚ and Atlanta in 1995. Catcher Tony Pena's leadoff single in the 6th is Cleveland's only hit. The Indians, who led the majors in homers and runs scored‚ bat just .179‚ the lowest average for a 6-games series since 1911.
The game is aired on NBC, setting their programming back, including an episode of Saturday Night Live. This included Molly Shannon debuting the character of Catholic high school drama student Mary Katherine Gallagher.
The cold open shows the Presidential candidates going trick-or-treating in New Hampshire, in preparation for the State's Primary 3 months later. Norm McDonald plays Senate Majority Bob Dole of Kansas, David Koechner plays Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, and Darrell Hammond plays President Bill Clinton, who, in line with the kind of joke told about Clinton before 1998, takes a lot of candy.
Two politicians play themselves: Governor (now Senator) Lamar Alexander of Tennessee shows up in his trademark plaid flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, to tell the unseen homeowner that Dole and Gramm are having a fight on her lawn; and Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, the former New York Knicks star (who probably gets cheered by the crowd more for that), says, "I'm not running for anything, but I heard you had Reese's peanut butter cups. I love Reese's peanut butter cups!" Bradley had long been celebrated as a very serious man, so it was nice to see him loosen up a little.
October 28, 1996: John Robert Eichel is born in the Boston suburb of Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Last year, with Boston University, Jack Eichel won the Hobey Baker Award, the hockey equivalent of the Heisman Trophy for collegiate player of the year. He was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres, and became their youngest goalscorer ever. He was injured a few days ago, and will miss up to 2 months.
October 28, 1998: Nolan Gould (no middle name) is born in Manhattan, and grows up in the Los Angeles area. He plays Luke Dunphy on Modern Family. Contrary to his character, he is actually brilliant, enough to be admitted to Mensa, and enough to get a high school diploma by passing a GED course at age 13.
As far as I know, he has nothing to do with sports. If he ever does, he could find a way to leave his opponents in serious trouble.
October 28, 2000: Andújar Cedeño dies in a car crash in his native Dominican Republic. The shortstop was 31, and had been playing in the Dominican league. Previously, he had played in the majors, including for the Houston Astros, who previously had pitcher Joaquín Andújar and center fielder César Cedeño – both with nasty tempers, unlike Andújar Cedeño, but also considerably more talented.
October 28, 2001: The Arizona Diamondbacks jump out to a 2-0 World Series lead on the Yankees, as Randy Johnson hurls a 3-hit shutout. Matt Williams hits a 3-run homer for the Diamondbacks. Andy Pettitte takes the loss for New York. This makes Williams the 1st player to hit Series home runs for 3 different teams, having also done so for the 1989 Giants and the 1997 Indians. (He would later confess to having used steroids.)
Also on this day, Commissioner Bud Selig says it is possible that 2 major league teams could be eliminated by the start of next season. The Montreal Expos‚ the Minnesota Twins‚ and the 2 still-new Florida teams, the Florida Marlins and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, are the teams mentioned as most likely to be eliminated.
The ensuing furor results in a 2002 collective bargaining agreement that leaves all 30 current teams in place, although the Expos will be moved to Washington after the 2004 season. Since then, the Marlins have won the 2003 World Series, the Rays have made the Playoffs 4 times including winning the 2008 AL Pennant, the Twins have won 6 AL Central titles, and the Nationals have won 3 NL East titles. Looks like Bud was looking at the wrong teams.
October 28, 2002: The Mets name former Houston Astros 2nd baseman, and former Oakland Athletics manager, Art Howe as their new skipper. Howe had just led the A's to their 3rd straight Playoff berth. His tenure in Flushing will be significantly less successful.
October 28, 2003: The Colorado Avalanche -- formerly the Québec Nordiques -- retire the Number 33 of recently retired goalkeeper Patrick Roy. They beat the Calgary Flames 4-2.
By a weird twist of fate, both the Nordiques' old arena and their current one as the Avs have the same company holding the naming rights: Le Colisée de Québec, now awaiting demolition, is Le Colisée Pepsi; while the arena that is home to the Avs and the NBA's Denver Nuggets is the Pepsi Center. Also, the indoor shopping mall that was the longtime home of the Canadiens is now the Pepsi Forum.
October 28, 2004: Jimmy McLarnin dies in Richland, Washington at age 96. The Irish-born Canadian boxer was Welterweight Champion of the World from May 29, 1933 to May 28, 1934, dethroning Young Corbett III at Los Angeles' Wrigley Field and losing the title to Barney Ross at the Madison Square Garden Bowl in Long Island City.
He returned to the MSG Bowl on September 17, 1934, and beat Ross in a rematch to regain the title. Both of those fights were split decisions. On May 28, 1935, they fought a 3rd time, at the Polo Grounds, and Ross won a unanimous decision.
McLarnin fought only 3 more times, all at the old Madison Square Garden, losing to Tony Canzoneri, then beating Canzoneri, and beating Lou Ambers on November 20, 1936. He retired at age 29, with a record of 52-11-3, and, unlike many boxers, kept his retirement vow the 1st time. He didn't have to get back in the ring: Again, unlike many boxers, he was careful with his money, and had enough to open an electrical goods store. He also appeared in several movies that required fight scenes -- in the ring and on the street.
October 28, 2005: Bob Broeg dies at age 87. The longtime baseball writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was elected to the sportswriters' wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and later sat on its board of directors and on its Veterans' Committee.
Hearing Brooklyn Dodger fans, with their 1940s rivalry with the Cardinals, say of Stan Musial, noted for hitting the Dodgers hard, "Uh-oh, dat man is back in town," he started calling him "Stan the Man" in his columns, and the name stuck. I'd like to know who gave 1970s Baltimore Oriole pitcher Don Stanhouse the oh-so-appropriate nickname "Stan the Man Unusual."
October 28, 2006: Arnold Jacob Auerbach dies at age 89, and finds out that, in Heaven, you can eat all the Chinese food you want, and not have to worry about calories, cholesterol, or monosodium glutamate. As the leading figure in the history of professional basketball (more so than David Stern, Michael Jordan and LeBron James are in their wildest dreams), he rarely had to worry about the other MSG, Madison Square Garden.
A native of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, "Red" Auerbach starred in basketball at Eastern District High School, before moving on to George Washington University in Washington, D.C., later coaching in that city at the high school, college and professional levels, taking the Washington Capitols to the NBA Finals in 1949.
When they didn't reach the Finals the next season, owner Mike Uline fired him. Within another year, the Caps folded, and the NBA would not return to the D.C. area until 1973. Still, Red would live in Washington for the rest of his life.
He would, of course, go on to become the head coach, general manager, and eventually president of the Boston Celtics, leading them to 9 NBA Championships as coach and 16 while he was involved with them.
While still running the team, in 1985, a statue of him, on a bench, with a basketball by his side and a trademark "victory cigar" in his hand, was dedicated at Boston's Quincy Market. The accompanying plaque says he won 15 Championships. The 16th came a year later. Rubbing the statue's bald head is said to be good luck. I have a picture of the statue wearing one of my Yankee caps. I’m a wiseass, but then, so was Red.
When Celtics founder Walter Brown died, leaving Red in charge of the franchise, Red ordered the Number 1 retired for Brown. At the time of the statue's dedication, the Celtics held an old-timers' game, with Red coaching a team in green Celtic road jerseys, and his star pupil and successor as head coach, Bill Russell, coaching a team in white Celtic home jerseys – Red's team won of course – and the Number 2 was retired for Red, even though, like Brown, he never played for the team.
Also on this day, Trevor Berbick is killed. The Jamaican boxer, the last man to fight Muhammad Ali, knocked out Pinklon Thomas to win the WBC version of the heavyweight title in 1986, but lost it later that year when Mike Tyson knocked him out. Brain damage from boxing left him impaired, and though he became a minister, he was murdered inside his church in Kingston, Jamaica, by his own nephew and an accomplice. He was just 51.
October 28, 2007, 10 years ago: The Boston Red Sox hold off a late comeback by the Colorado Rockies, and win Game 4, 4-3, to sweep the World Series. After 86 years of never winning a Series, the Sox now have 2 in the last 4 years, 7 total. When Boston Globe columnist, now WEEI radio show host, Michael Holley writes a book about this group of Red Sox, and titles it Red Sox Rule, many people fume over the the wording, but, for now, few can put up much of a complaint about its essential truth.
Also on this day, sports agent Scott Boras announces that his client, Alex Rodriguez, has exercised the opt-out clause in his contract with the Yankees, and will become a free agent. Both A-Rod and Bore-Ass are criticized as classless for making the announcement during a World Series game -- the deadline was not for another few days -- and for looking like a couple of greedy bastards who didn't give a damn about the player's team.
The Yankees would, essentially, tell A-Rod, "You don't want to sign with us? Good luck getting anybody else to pay you what you want." Essentially, he came back groveling -- and the Yankees paid him more anyway!
They would not have won the 2009 World Series without him, but he flopped again in the postseason in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015. So was it really worth it? Could the Yankees have spent the money they spent on him better, and won, if not in 2009, then in 2 or more seasons between 2010 and 2015? I think so.
Also on this day, Porter Wagoner dies. The country singer known as "Mr. Grand Ole Opry," who discovered and did many fine duets with Dolly Parton, was 80. He had the 1st hit version of "The Green, Green Grass of Home." Clearly, the inventor of artificial turf wasn't listening.
October 28, 2009: For the 1st time, a World Series game is played at the new Yankee Stadium. However, as with the 1st at the old Stadium in 1923, and the 1st after that Stadium's reopening following the renovation in 1976, the home team loses. Chase Utley hits 2 homers off CC Sabathia, and Cliff Lee pitches lights-out, and the Phillies beat the Yankees 6-1.
Also on this day, the Miami Heat retire a former player's uniform number for the 1st time, the Number 10 of Tim Hardaway Sr. They beat the Knicks 115-93 at the American Airlines Arena.
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October 28, 2010: Game 2 of the World Series. Matt Cain pitches a 4-hit shutout, Edgar Renteria hits a home run, and the San Francisco Giants beat the Texas Rangers 9-0. The Series heads for Texas with the Giants up 2 games to none.
October 28, 2011: Game 7 of the World Series. After being down by 10 1/2 games on August 25 for the NL Central Division lead, the Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers at Busch Stadium 6-2, to win their 11th World Championship, easily the most of any NL team. (Next best is the Giants with 8, although only 3 of those were in San Francisco; if we're talking about the most in 1 city, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds are next with 5.)
David Freese, the 9th and 11th inning hero of the night before, gets his 21st RBI of the postseason, setting a new record. (Keeping in mind there was no Division Series before 1995, and no League Championship Series before 1969.) He is named Series MVP.
The Rangers were 1 strike away from winning the World Series in both the 9th and 10th innings of Game 6. They had already clowned their way to a World Series defeat in 2010, and have since choked away an AL West title and the Wild Card play-in game in 2012, and lost in the AL Division Series in 2015 and 2016. It doesn't look like they're going to win the 1st World Series in franchise history anytime soon.
At this point, the Cardinals had won 11 World Series. All other National League teams combined had won 34.
October 28, 2012: Game 4 of the World Series. The Giants complete a sweep of the Detroit Tigers, with Marco Scutaro's 10th inning single scoring Ryan Theriot to give San Francisco a 4-3 win at Comerica Park.
Through the 2017 season, the Giants have won 8 World Series in New York and San Francisco combined -- but they haven't clinched a Series at home since 1922. They clinched in Washington in 1933, in Cleveland in 1954, in Dallas (well, Arlington) in 2010, in Detroit in 2012, and in Kansas City in 2014.
October 28, 2013: Game 5 of the World Series. David Ortiz ties Billy Hatcher's 1990 World Series record, reaching base in his 9th consecutive plate appearance, with a 4th-inning single to extend the streak that began in Game 3. Of course, Hatcher didn't need to use steroids to set his record. The Red Sox win, 3-1, behind a strong pitching effort from Jon Lester, and need just 1 more win to take the Series.
Also on this day, Tetsuhara Kawakami dies in Tokyo at age 93. A 1st baseman for the Tokyo-based Yomiyuri Giants in the 1940s and 1950s, he was a 5-time batting champion, a 2-time home run leader, a 3-time RBI leader, and a 3-time Most Valuable Player. He was the 1st player to college at least 2,000 hits in Japanese play.
He was called "The God of Batting." With the Giants, he won 14 Pennants and 4 Japan Series titles in 21 years between 1938 and 1958. (The Japan Series was first held in 1950.) He was even greater as a manager, leading the Giants to 11 Pennants, winning the Japan Series every time, including 9 straight from 1965 to 1973.
October 28, 2014: Game 6 of the World Series. Needing to win at home to stay alive, the Kansas City Royals do just that, getting a 6-hit shutout starting with Yordano Ventura, and a 10-0 win highlighted by a home run from Mike Moustakas.
October 28, 2015: Game 2 of the World Series. The Mets take a 1-0 lead on the Kansas City Royals in the top of the 4th. But Jacob deGrom melts down in the bottom of the 5th, and so the Mets blow a lead in a World Series game for the 2nd day in a row. Johnny Cueto becomes the 1st American League pitcher with a complete-game World Series win since Jack Morris in 1991, and the Royals win, 7-1. The Series goes to New York with the Royals up 2-0.
October 28, 2016: Game 3 of the World Series, the 1st Series game played at Wrigley Field since October 10, 1945. For practical purposes, this one goes no better for the Chicago Cubs, who are held to 5 hits. Coco Crisp's RBI single in the 7th inning makes the difference, and the Cleveland Indians win 1-0, to take a 2-1 lead in the Series.
Also on this day, Greg Oden gives up. In 2007, the 7-foot-even, 273-pound center, born in Buffalo and grown up in Indianapolis, led Ohio State to the NCAA Final, losing to the University of Florida, and was the 1st pick in the NBA Draft.
The Portland Trail Blazers were still searching for the big man they briefly got with Bill Walton in the 1970s and thought they were getting with Sam Bowie in the 1980s. But Oden was struck by injuries, worse than Walton and Bowie were. Even before the 2007-08 NBA preseason, he had to have surgery on his knee, and missed the entire season.
In his NBA debut the following season, he played 13 minutes, didn't score a point, and left early with a foot injury, missing 2 weeks. Later in the season, he missed 3 weeks with another knee injury. Early the next season, he hurt his knee again, and missed the rest of the season. Early the next season, he needed surgery on the knee again. Early the next season, before he could return, he was scheduled for surgery on both knees, and missed that season.
He decided to sit out an additional season to heal, and the Blazers waived him. He didn't play a single regular-season game from December 5, 2009 to January 15, 2014. The 2-time defending NBA Champion Miami Heat picked him up, and won the title. Oden played just 3 minutes of the NBA Finals, and the Heat lost.
He missed the 2014-15 season, then signed with the Jiangsu Dragons of the Chinese Basketball Association, but didn't do well. Finally, on October 28, 2016, having played 105 NBA games -- amounting to a full season and a half -- and averaging just 8 points a game when he could play, Oden retired at age 28.
He has gone back to Ohio State as an assistant coach. Maybe his sad story can have a happy second act.
UPDATE: October 28, 2017: Game 4 of the World Series is scoreless until the bottom of the 6th inning, when George Springer hits a home run for the Houston Astros off Alex Wood of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
But the Dodgers tie the game against Charlie Morton in the 7th. In the 9th, they explode for 5 runs, including a home run by Joc Pederson. (That's his real name, not a nickname: Joc Russell Pederson. His father, Stu Pederson, had also played for the Dodgers.) The Astros' bottom of the 9th comeback bid falls well short, and the Dodgers tie Series by winning 6-2. Pederson would go on to become the 1st player to get a hit and score a run in each of his 1st 6 World Series games.
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