"Everybody" said that the White Sox were the superior team. Actually, while the ChiSox were more experienced – they had won the Series 2 years earlier, beating the New York Giants – they had won 88 games in the 1919 season, but the Reds had won more, 95. And the Reds had Hall-of-Famer Edd Roush, and a few players who would have been All-Stars at least once in their careers, had there been an All-Star Game at the time.
Still, everybody seemed to think the Sox were better. And yet, just before the Series began, the betting shifted to make the Reds the favorites. What had happened?
The Game 1 starter for the White Sox is knuckleballer Eddie Cicotte. The 1st batter for the Reds is 2nd baseman Morrie Rath. Cicotte, not known as a dirty pitcher, but who had taken $10,000 (about $141,000 in today's money) from gamblers the night before, throws a strike with his 1st pitch, but hits Rath with his 2nd. This is the signal to the gamblers that the fix to which they'd agreed is still on. (Ironically, Rath was a former White Sock.)
In the bottom of the 4th, the game is tied 1-1. So far, nothing has happened to suggest to the unaware spectator that anything is amiss. But then Cicotte melts down, and allows 5 runs. The Reds win, 9-1, and the "upset" is on, as is what became known as the Black Sox Scandal.
*
This is what the world was like in the Autumn of 1919:
There were 16 teams in what we would now call Major League Baseball. The American League had teams in Philadelphia, Washington and St. Louis. The National League had a team in Boston. No team played further south than Washington, Cincinnati and St. Louis, and no team played further west than St. Louis. No team played in a stadium with lights, or with artificial turf, or with a roof, or with more than 40,000 seats.
The only stadiums in use now that were in use then were Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field on the North Side of Chicago. And the idea that either of those stadiums would later be beloved classics was not even considered.
There were no Black players in the majors. There were all-Black professional teams, but the 1st Negro Lague wouldn't be founded until the next year. There had been Hispanic players, but they were white Cubans.
George Wright of the 1st professional team, the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings (no connection to the current Reds franchise), was still alive. Dizzy Dean was 9 years old, Hank Greenberg was 8, Joe DiMaggio was about to turn 5, Ted Williams was 13 months old, Bob Feller was 11 months old, Jackie Robinson was 8 months old; and Stan Musial, Warren Spahn, Ralph Kiner, Yogi Berra, Duke Snider, Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, and Frank and Brooks Robinson hadn't been born yet.
The previous year's World Series was won by the Boston Red Sox. There was no National Football League, and no National Basketball Association. The year's Stanley Cup Finals had been called off due to the Spanish Flu epidemic, so the Cupholders were still the 1918 winners, the Toronto Arenas, the team that would become known as the Maple Leafs.
Aside from the Olympic Games, there was no tournament that could be called a world championship for soccer. The Olympics had yet to debut their Winter format. The Games have since been held in America 7 times; in France 4 times; 3 times each in Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada; twice each in Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Australia, Britain, Russia and Korea; and once each in Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Mexico, Bosnia, Spain, Greece, China and Brazil.
There were 48 States, 3 of whom -- Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona -- had only gained Statehood within the preceding 13 years. There were 18 Amendments to the Constitution, the newest allowing for the Prohibition of the production, transportation, sale, purchase and consumption of alcoholic beverages.
Women had the right to vote in only 4 States. There was no banking insurance, no Securities & Exchange Commission, no Medicare, no Medicaid, no Environmental Protection Agency, no OSHA, no Title IX. There had not been a Civil Rights Act since 1875. Margaret Sanger had recently served 30 days in jail for distributing publications on women's sexuality and birth control. The ideas that abortion and same-sex marriage would ever be legalized weren't even being considered.
The President of the United States was Woodrow Wilson, and he was about to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But on the day of Game 2 of the World Series, he suffered a stroke that left him half-paralyzed physically, and almost completely paralyzed politically, ruining his hope that America would enter the League of Nations, founded to keep the pieace after World War I. William Howard Taft was still alive, and Theodore Roosevelt had died 9 months earlier.
Warren Harding was a Senator from Ohio. Calvin Coolidge was Governor of Massachusetts, and had recently broken up a strike by the Boston Police. Herbert Hoover, no longer doing so as an official of the federal government, was privately raising money for food relief in war-torn Europe. Franklin Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
Captain Harry Truman had recently been discharged and married, and he had bought an interest in a lead and zinc mine in Commerce, Oklahoma, which would employ members of the Mantle family. Major Dwight D. Eisenhower had been assigned to a transcontinental Army convoy to test vehicles and dramatize the need for improved roads in the nation. Indeed, the convoy averaged only 5 miles per hour from Washington to San Francisco. The improvement of highways became a signature issue for Eisenhower as President.
Lyndon Johnson was 11 years old, Ronald Reagan was 8, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford were 6, John F. Kennedy was 2. Jimmy Carter, both George Bushes, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden had not been born yet.
The Governor of New York was Alfred E. Smith; of New Jersey, William N. Runyon; of Illinois, home of the White Sox, Frank Lowden; and of Ohio, home of the Reds, James M. Cox, who would oppose Harding for the Presidency in 1920. The Mayor of New York City was John F. Hylan; of Chicago, the massively corrupt "Big" Bill Thompson; and of Cincinnati, John Galvin.
There were still living veterans of the Mexican-Amercan War, the European Revolutions of 1848, and the Crimean War. Telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell was still alive. So was phonograph and light bulb inventor Thomas Edison. So were Wild West figures Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and Annie Oakley.
The Pope was Benedict XV. The Prime Minister of Canada was Robert Borden, and of Britain David Lloyd George. The Monarch of both nations was King George V. There have since been 18 Presidents of the United States, 4 British monarchs, and 9 Popes.
The Football Association had just resumed regular soccer competitions, after suspending them for the duration of The Great War. So the trophyholders were still those from the 1914-15 season: Liverpool-based Everton for the Football League, and Yorkshire-based Sheffield United for the FA Cup.
Major novels of 1919 included Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, The Pastoral Symphony by André Gide, The Sheik by E.M. Hull, All Roads Lead to Calvary by Jerome K. Jerome, The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham, the 2nd volume of In Search of Lost Time (or, as it was incorrectly titled in English, Remembrance of Things Past) by Marcel Proust, and Night and Day by Virginia Woolf.
It was also the year that saw the publication of P.G. Wodehouse's short story collection My Man Jeeves, The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon, John Maynard Keynes' The Economic Consequences of the Peace, H.L. Mencken's The American Language, John Reed's Ten Days That Shook the World, and the 1st installment of H.G. Wells' The Outline of History.
Superheroes and comic books as we would come to know them did not yet exist. Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Batman creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Flash creator Gardner Fox and James Bond creator Ian Fleming were children. Wonder Woman creator William Marston was a young psychologist. But 1919 saw the publication of The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emma Orczy, Jungle Tales of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the introuction of Zorro in Johnston McCulley's The Curse of Capistrano. Zorro would be a major influence on Batman.
J.R.R. Tolkien was still in the British Army. C.S. Lewis had recently been discharged, and had resumed his studies at Oxford University. Like so many others, they had survived World War I only to be emotionally compromised for life. Lewis had published 1 book of poetry, Tolkien 15 of them; but, as yet, neither of them had published a novel, fantasy or otherwise. Gene Roddenberry was born 21 months later, Stan Lee a year after that, Rod Serling 2 years after that.
There was no television. Radio broadcasting was still a year away. Films were still black & white and silent. D.W. Griffith premiered the 1st film he'd directed, Broken Blossoms. He, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford founded United Artists. A year later, Fairbanks and Pickford would marry. Lon Chaney becomes a master of makeup and a star with his film The Miracle Man. And Oscar Micheaux premiered the 1st feature-length film made by, with and for black Americans, The Homesteader.
Rudolph Valentino had recently debuted in films. James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart had recently debuted on Broadway. Clark Gable was working for Firestone Tire and Rubber. Henry Fonda and Greta Garbo were 14 years old. Jimmy Stewart was 11. Lorne Greene was 4. Jack Webb was born the following year.
Popular songs of 1919 included "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles," "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody," "Swanee," "Take Your Girlie to the Movies (If You Can't Make Love at Home)," "Who Played Poker With Pocahontas When John smith Went Away?" (forgetting that Pocahontas' husband was John Rolfe), the post-World War I song "How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down On the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)," and the Prohibition-is-coming songs "Alcoholic Blues," "Prohibition Blues" and "What'll We Do On a Saturday Night When the Town Goes Dry?"
Jazz was a new phenomenon. So was country music. George M. Cohan, Florenz Ziegfeld and Irving Berlin still ruled Broadway. Edward "Duke" Ellington had recently formed his 1st music group. Louis Armstrong was playing on ferryboats on the Mississipi River. Richard Rodgers, Harry "Bing" Crosby and Roy Acuff were in high school. So was William "Count" Basie, who had begun playing gigs on Jersey Shore boardwalks. McKinley Morganfield, a.k.a. Muddy Waters, was 6 years old. Frank Sinatra was 3. Ella Fitzgerald was 2. Hank Williams wasn't born yet.
Inflation was such that what $1.00 bought then, $14.96 would
buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 2 cents, and a New York Subway ride a nickel. The average price of a gallon of gas was 25 cents, a cup of coffee 15 cents, a movie ticket 15 cents, a new car $525, and a
new house $6,296. The hamburger had been invented, but wasn't yet as widely known as the hot dog, which usually cost a nickel. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed that day at 111.19.
The tallest building in the world was the Woolworth Building in Lower Manhattan. Most Americans didn't have telephones or air conditioning in their homes. There were no photocopiers, credit cards or automatic teller machines. Computers were still just a concept. Alan Turing was 7 years old. In spite of the fiction of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, no one had yet launched a rocket toward space.
Artificial organs were not yet possible. Transplantation of organs was not
possible. The distribution of antibiotics was not possible: If you got any kind
of infection, you could easily die. There was no polio vaccine. Insulin was not
yet used to treat diabetes. There was no birth control pill, but there was no
Viagra, either.
In the Autumn of 1919, the Bolshevik government in Russia was fighting both a civil war against the former Carist forces and a war with Poland. The Weimar Constitution went into effect in Germany. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was officially dissolved, ceding land to Italy, Poland and Romania, and making possible the modern nations of Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The airline KLM was founded in the Netherlands. Jan Smuts became Prime Minister of South Africa.
In America, the Communist Party of the United States was established. A steelworkers' strike began, collapsing after 4 months. Following race riots all over the country in the Summer, over 200 black people were massacred in Elaine, Arkansas. The Volstead Act was passed, providing for the enforcement of Prohibition. The New York Daily News was 3 months old.
Andrew Carnegie, and William Waldorf Astor, and Cy Seymour died. Pierre Trudeau, and Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and Johnny Pesky were born.
That's what the world was like during the 1919 World Series, an event that has lived in infamy.
*
October 2, 1919: Game 2 in Cincinnati. The Reds beat the White Sox 4-2, to go up 2 games to none. Sox pitcher Claude "Lefty" Williams, just as suddenly as had Cicotte the day before, goes from very effective to a meltdown. He holds the Reds scoreless for the 1st 3 innings, but in the 4th, he walks 3 batters, gives up a single to Roush, and then a triple to Larry Kopf.
After the game, Sox manager William "Kid" Gleason tells team owner Charlie Comiskey that he's suspicious of his players. But Comiskey has been feuding with his old friend Ban Johnson, President of the American League, with the 2 men having founded the League. So Comiskey goes to National League President John Heydler. Heydler tells Johnson about Gleason's suspicions. But Johnson does nothing about it, thinking people will see it as a vengeful act against Comiskey.
Gleason is not the only one who is suspicious: Hugh Fullerton of the Chicago Herald-Examiner, and his protégé, Ring Lardner of the Chicago Tribune, make note of some questionable plays. So does former Giants pitcher Christy Mathewson, covering the Series for a national newspaper syndicate.
October 3, 1919: Game 3, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. It's 289 miles between the ballparks, but there is no day off for travel, and the teams traveled by train, not plane. Rookie lefthander Dickie Kerr seems to show no effects of either the traveling, the lack of rest, or his teammates' treachery. He pitches a 3-hit shutout, left fielder Joe Jackson gets 2 hits, and 1st baseman Arnold "Chick" Gandil gets 2 RBIs.
The White Sox win, 3-0, and close the Reds' lead to 2 games to 1. Jackson and Gandil were in on the fix, but Kerr was not.
Adolfo "Dolf" Luque, the Reds' Cuban pitcher, pitches in relief, and thus becomes the 1st Latin American player to appear in a World Series game. He pitches a scoreless 8th inning.
Joseph Jefferson Jackson had become known as "Shoeless Joe" because of an incident in a minor league game. The shoes he'd been given were too tight, so he took them off in the outfield. He was a farmboy from the Appalachian western region of South Carolina, and had never learned how to read. He knew he had to learn how to sign his name, to give kids autographs, but he got around his illiteracy by having his wife order for him in restaurants.
He could "read" pitchers, though. Babe Ruth supposedly modeled his lefthanded swing after Jackson's. At the close of the 1920 season, just 33 years old, he had a .356 lifetime batting average (still the 3rd-highest ever), a whopping 170 OPS+, and 1,772 hits, including 307 doubles, 168 triples and 54 home runs. What would later be known as the 3,000 Hit Club was within reach for him.
He was also a good baserunner, having stolen 202 bases. How good a fielder was he? Ty Cobb called him the greatest left fielder he'd ever seen, and his glove "the place where triples go to die."
There was no Baseball Hall of Fame yet, but Shoeless Joe seemed to be on his way. None of the other players implicated in the scandal were likely to make it, though.
October 4, 1919: Game 4 in Chicago. Cicotte, in on the fix, didn't want to look as bad as he had in Game 1, so he could throw off suspicion. He and Jimmy Ring trade goose eggs for 4 innings. But in the 5th, Cicotte makes a bad throw of a comebacker. Jackson makes a run-allowing error on the next play. The Reds beat the White Sox 3-1, and take a 3-1 lead in the Series.
After the game, Joseph J. "Sport" Sullivan, the Boston bookmaker who helped put the fix together, gives $20,000 to Gandil, who splits it equally among the 2 men who'd led the fix from the players' side, shortstop Charles "Swede" Risberg, center fielder Oscar "Happy" Felsch, and the next day's starter, Williams.
Allegedly, Cicotte had a good reason for getting in on the fix. Comiskey had promised him a $10,000 bonus if he won 30 games in the 1919 season. He got to 29, and then the ever-cheap Comiskey ordered Gleason to not pitch Cicotte again.
This wasn't true. Cicotte did win 29 games, but Gleason did start him again, and he was unable to win the 30th. Yet the story persists, because it's emblematic of Comiskey's cheapness. It got into the 1988 movie version of Eliot Asinof's 1963 book about the scandal, Eight Men Out.
There is a story about Comiskey's cheapness that is absolutely true. In 1917, the White Sox won the World Series, but throughout the year, their uniforms seemed to get dirtier and dirtier, because Comiskey wouldn't pay to have them washed on the road. Hence, the term "Black Sox" referred not to the scandal that would later be attached to them, but to their dirty uniforms.
My grandmother, who grew up in Queens in the 1930s, knew that (with help from her and my Bronx native Yankee Fan grandfather) my knowledge of baseball history was encyclopedic, and asked me where the Black Sox name came from.
She was a Brooklyn Dodger fan, so she knew the National League cold, and knew that her team's name came from Brooklynites being called "trolley dodgers." But she did not know the lore of the American League. Until she asked me,she literally thought the team was officially called the Black Sox, and then changed to "White Sox" to clean their image up after the scandal.
I had to tell her it was totally the opposite: Chicago teams had been called the "White Stockings" going back to the dawn of professional baseball in the 1870s, as a contrast to the Cincinnati and Boston teams being known as the Red Stockings, and that the AL team took the White Stockings name after the NL team became the Cubs in 1900, and that the Black Sox name was a nickname, and then came the scandal.
October 6, 1919: Game 5 in Chicago, following a Sunday rainout. Reds pitcher Horace "Hod" Eller pitches a 3-hit shutout. In the 2nd and 3rd innings, he strikes out 6 players in a row: Gandil, Risberg, Ray Schalk, opposing pitcher Williams, Harry "Nemo" Leibold and Eddie Collins.
In addition, the Reds score 4 runs in the 6th on, among other things, bad throws by Jackson and Felsch. Schalk is not in on the fix, but he does the kind of thing that could have gotten him suspected: He gets thrown out of the game for arguing a safe call on a slide into the plate by the Reds' Heinie Groh.
The Reds win, 5-0, and go up 4 games to 1 in this best-5-out-of-9 Series. One more win, and the Reds take the title.
So of the 7 players in on the fix, 5 appeared in this game, and all had something to do with the defeat.
So of the 7 players in on the fix, 5 appeared in this game, and all had something to do with the defeat.
Collins, formerly a star with the Philadelphia Athletics, was not in on the fix. He remains one of the greatest 2nd basemen who ever lived, and is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Schalk is in the Hall as well, because he is considered one of the best-fielding catchers who ever lived. But his .253 lifetime batting average is the lowest for any player in the Hall not generally considered a pitcher. It is suspected that he was elected because he refused to go in on the fix. Did he actively refuse? There's no known record of him being asked.
One player who was asked, but refused, was 3rd baseman George "Buck" Weaver. He didn't think the gamblers who were setting the fix up could be trusted. But he also didn't report what he knew. And this would be his downfall.
Fred McMullin, a utility infielder, had overheard Gandil and Felsch discussing the fix, and he wanted in. Since the White Sox clinched the Pennant with a few games to spare, he could be sent to Cincinnati to scout the Reds, and so, even though he wouldn't get much playing time in the Series, he could tell the players on the take how best to take advantage of the Reds' tendencies.
On the train to Cincinnati, Lardner vents his spleen at the White Sox. To the tune of one of the biggest hits of the year, "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" -- later to become the unofficial theme song of London soccer team West Ham United -- he sings:
I'm forever blowing ballgames
Pretty ballgames in the air
I come from Chi
I hardly try
Just go to bat
and fade and die
Fortune's coming my way
that's why I don't care
I'm forever blowing ballgames
and the gamblers treat us fair.
The scene would be recreated in the film version of Eight Men Out, with John Sayles directing, and also playing Lardner.
October 7, 1919: Game 6 in Cincinnati. The White Sox must win 4 straight to win. Risberg makes 2 errors, and Felsch makes 1, holding up their end of their corrupt bargain. But Jackson and Weaver combine for 7 hits. Kerr, who had won Game 3, wins again, as the White Sox top the Reds 4-0.
Years later, Gandil said, "The eight of us did our best to lose it, but little Dickie Kerr did his best to win it."
October 8, 1919: Game 7 in Cincinnati. The White Sox are playing like they mean it. The supposedly tainted Jackson and Felsch each drive in 2 runs, and the supposedly tainted Cicotte pitches well. Meanwhile, uncharacteristically, the Reds make 4 errors. The White Sox win, 4-1, and close to within 4 games to 3.
All the White Sox need to do now is win the next 2, both at Comiskey Park. Is this thing on the level after all? Or have the guilty Sox players abandoned the fix? Or... are the Reds now on the take, too?
After the game -- all day games, as the Reds will be the 1st team to introduce night games in the major leagues, but not until 1935 -- the teams take trains to Chicago. At his home, Williams receives a visitor, telling him he had better lose Game 8, or else his family will be harmed. The gamblers are taking no chances. They've got too much money invested in a Cincinnati victory.
October 9, 1919: Game 8 at Comiskey Park. The Reds defeat the White Sox, 10-5, taking the best-5-out-of-9 World Series. It is the 1st World Championship for Cincinnati – or, at least, the 1st since the unofficial one for the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the 1st openly professional baseball team, in 1869, half a century earlier. (If that anniversary had been observed in Cincinnati, it wasn't mentioned in most of the books about the 1919 season.)
October 9, 1919: Game 8 at Comiskey Park. The Reds defeat the White Sox, 10-5, taking the best-5-out-of-9 World Series. It is the 1st World Championship for Cincinnati – or, at least, the 1st since the unofficial one for the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the 1st openly professional baseball team, in 1869, half a century earlier. (If that anniversary had been observed in Cincinnati, it wasn't mentioned in most of the books about the 1919 season.)
Williams gets just 1 man out in the 1st before departing, having allowed 4 runs. The Reds go on to give Hod Eller plenty of offense. Jackson hits the only home run of the Series. Collins' 3 hits give him a total of 42 in Series play‚ a record broken in 1930 by Frank Frisch‚ and bettered by Lou Gehrig in 1938. A stolen base by Collins is his 14th in Series competition‚ a record tied by Lou Brock in 1968, but still not broken to this day.
*
On September 28, 1920, with the White Sox, the Cleveland Indians, and the New York Yankees in a 3-way dogfight for the Pennant, the 7 Chicago players who were in on the fix were indicted for conspiracy to throw the Series. So was Weaver, who refused to take part, but was indicted because he knew about it and refused to report it.
On July 28, 1921, a Chicago jury acquitted the 8 players of conspiracy to defraud, because there wasn't enough evidence for a conviction. But on August 2, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a Chicago-based former federal Judge who had been appointed Commissioner of Baseball by the team owners to help re-establish the sport's credibility, banned them all permanently.
For the rest of their lives, Roush, the last survivor (he lived until 1988), and the other '19 Reds insisted that, if the Series had been on the up-and-up, they would have won anyway.
Really? Here's something else to consider: Down 4 games to 1 in that best-5-out-of-9, the Sox won Games 6 and 7, playing to win because the gamblers hadn't come through with their payments, and Williams only caved in for Game 8 because his family had been threatened if he did not comply. Williams was 0-3 for the Series, a record not "achieved" honestly until 1981 and George Frazier of the Yankees.
It's been said that Babe Ruth and his home runs "saved baseball after the Black Sox Scandal." This is ridiculous. Ruth was hitting home runs like crazy all season long in 1920, and attendance remained higher throughout the "Roaring Twenties" than it was in the years before America entered World War I. Babe's homers didn't save baseball after the scandal, but they may have helped cover it up.
What happened to the 8 banned players?
He was played by D.B. Sweeney in the 1988 film version of Eight Men Out, and Ray Liotta in the 1989 film Field of Dreams, based on W.P. Kinsella's 1982 novel Shoeless Joe.
* Fred McMullin, ironically, went into law enforcement, being named a Deputy Marshal in Los Angeles County in California in 1940. But high blood pressure led to a fatal stroke in 1952, at age 61. He was played by Perry Lang in EMO, but the actor playing him in FOD was not credited.
* Buck Weaver remained in Chicago, and continued to press his case for reinstatement, not because he felt the need to play again, but because he wanted his name officially cleared, not just by the court (as it had already been), but by baseball itself. He died of a heart attack in 1956, at 65. His family continues to appeal on his behalf, so far without success. He was played by John Cusack in EMO, and Michael Milhoan in FOD.
* Lefty Williams played in outlaw leagues, outside Landis' jurisdiction, then operated a garden nursery business outside Los Angeles. He died from the effects of years of heavy drinking, at 66, in 1959, 40 years after the Series in question, and the year the White Sox finally won their next Pennant. He was played by James Read in EMO, but the actor playing him in FOD was not credited.
* Happy Felsch played semi-pro ball in the west of America and Canada for another 15 years, before returning to his native Milwaukee, opening a grocery store and a series of bars. Apparently, he sampled his own product more than he should, because it died of liver failure, in 1964, shortly before turning 73. He was played by Charlie Sheen (perhaps appropriately) in EMO, but the actor playing him in FOD was not credited.
* Eddie Cicotte returned to Michigan, managed a service station, served as a game warden, worked for Ford Motor Company, and ran a farm outside Detroit. He died in 1969, at 84. He was played by David Strathairn in EMO and Steve Eastin in FOD.
* Chick Gandil had little to lose: He had already decided to leave organized ball, and returned to California, where he played semi-pro ball on a team with Jackson, Risberg, McMullin, and another player banned due to his connection to the scandal, Joe Gedeon of the St. Louis Browns. In 1925, he played in Arizona with some banned players, including Hal Chase, a former Yankee 1st baseman known for great fielding but also for throwing games.
Gandil gave an interview to Sports Illustrated in 1956, admitting to being the scandal's ringleader, expressing regret for it, but agreeing that he and the others deserved to be banned. He died of heart trouble in 1970, at 82. He was played by Michael Rookier in EMO and Art LaFleur in FOD. (LaFleur would later play the ghost of Babe Ruth in The Sandlot).
* Swede Risberg also played semi-pro baseball, including in 1922 in Minnesota on a team with Felsch and Williams. He returned to his native Northern California, worked on a dairy farm, and later ran a tavern and a lumber business. He was the last survivor, dying on his 81st birthday, October 13, 1975. He was played by Don Harvey in EMO, and Charles Hoyes in FOD.
It is arguable that the 2 most famous World Series of them all have been those of 1919, in which Risberg was heavily involved in the fix, and 1975, during which Risberg died -- and the Cincinnati Reds won them both, in each case under controversial circumstances. (At your own peril, ask a Red Sox fan about 1975 Game 3.)
Trust me on this one: If you want to get closer to the facts of the case, see the film Eight Men Out; but if you want to see a movie that makes you feel good, see the factually-challenged but beautiful
Field of Dreams.
*
October 1, 331 BC: The Battle of Gaugamela is fought, near what is now Dohuk, in northern Iraq, part of what some call Kurdistan. Ancient sources put the size of the Persian Empire army of Darius III at anywhere from 250,000 to a million, but modern estimates suggest it was more like 100,000. Which means the army of the Hellenic League, led by King Alexander III of Macedonia, was still outnumbered 2-1.
With particularly deft use of light infantry, Alexander won anyway, utterly wrecked the Persian army, and tried to chase Darius all the way back to Babylon, once the largest city in the world (believed to be the first to have over 200,000 people, about 50 miles south of present-day Baghdad).
But by the time Alexander got there, Darius had been killed by a cousin, who escaped. When Alexander found this out, he was outraged, and gave an enemy he admired a proper royal burial. As usual, he allowed anyone willing to be loyal to him to maintain their ranks, privileges, fortunes and ways of life. He was what we would now call "an enlightened despot."
The Persian Empire thus ended, and Alexander became known as Alexander the Great. A historian once called him "a two-thousand-year man," and we are still dealing with the consequences of his actions, 2,350 years later. He spread Greek culture to the south, to Egypt; and far to the east, to present-day Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, although not quite to the current borders of India. (It would take the British of the 19th Century to do that.)
In Baghdad and in the Egyptian city of Alexandria -- which he founded and named for himself -- the stories and wisdom of ancient Greece that preceded him, and ancient Rome that followed him, were preserved through the Middle Ages or "The Dark Ages" of 410 (the Sack of Rome) to 1401 (a date sometimes given by historians as the dawn of the Renaissance).
By spreading Greek culture, Alexander also spread the athletic ideal that was exemplified by the ancient Olympic Games. Today, while we don't have an entire world ruled by one enlightened despot, we do have a world linked by ideas, including the idea of sport.
October 1, 1207: Prince Henry of Winchester is born in Winchester Castle in Hampshire, in southern England. He is the youngest son of King John of England, who also ruled the western half of France at this time. When John dies in 1216, his son had just turned 9, but was now King Henry III.
He reigned for 56 years, a record for English monarchs until Queen Victoria, 600 years later. He was popular early in his reign, but then, he was just a kid, and not ruling without regents. He would eventually become hated, and was even imprisoned as a result of losing the Battle of Lewes, in Sussex, during the Second Barons War in 1264, before his son, the future King Edward I, won a battle and broke him out the next year. He was quite repressive, particularly toward Jews, and died in 1272.
If you've seen Braveheart, you might think his son Edward was a really nasty guy. Actually, he was more enlightened than his father (if not as enlightened as Alexander the Great). And that wasn't the only thing that movie got wrong.
October 1, 1643: In retaliation for the Pavonia Massacre, which killed 120 members of the Raritan tribe in present-day Jersey City on the preceding February 25, a band made up of several nearby tribes attacked the Dutch settlement, which ends up having to be evacuated.
The conflict becomes known as Kieft's War, for Willem Kieft, governor of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. Kieft is recalled to the Netherlands, but dies in a shipwreck before he can defend himself before his superiors. Peter Stuyvesant is sent to straighten out the colony, which included much of the eventual States of New York and New Jersey. He succeeds, but the English take the colony in 1664.
*
October 1, 1730: Richard Stockton is born in Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey, at Morven, the home of his father, John Stockton. John was one of the founders of Princeton University, and Richard became a trustee in it, as well as perhaps the foremost lawyer in the Colony of New Jersey. He married poet Annis Boudinot, and their children included future Congressman Richard Stockton, and Julia Stockton, who married the father of American medicine, Dr. Benjamin Rush.
However, Richard Stockton Sr. may also have been the first cynic about New Jersey politics, writing, "The public is generally unthankful, and I will never become a Servant of it, till I am convinced that by neglecting my own affairs I am doing more acceptable Service to God and Man."
He had little choice: Because of his influence, he was appointed to the Provincial Council and then the Provincial Supreme Court, all before his 44th birthday. He was elected to the Continental Congress, as was his son-in-law Rush, and both signed the Declaration of Independence. He lost the subsequent election to be the 1st Governor of the State of New Jersey to William Livingston by a single vote. As a consolation prize, he was unanimously elected Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court.
But on November 30, 1776, he was captured by the British Army. He was offered a pardon if he would "remain in peaceful obedience to the King." He turned it down. He was imprisoned for 5 months and intentionally starved. His health never recovered. Morven was stripped of its belongings, and all the books of its renowned library removed and burned. He resigned from the Continental Congress, returned to the practice of law, developed cancer due to smoking, and died on February 28, 1781, at Morven.
Morven still stands, and from 1956 to 1981 was the official Governor's Mansion of the State of New Jersey. It is now a museum. It is on U.S. Route 206, which is named Stockton Street. Further south on Stockton Street is a much larger house, Drumthwacket, which became the Governor's Mansion. Stockton University in Galloway, Atlantic County, New Jersey is named for him.
October 1, 1741: Thomas Fitzsimons is born in Balkilty, County Wexford, Ireland. He fought alongside George Washington at the Battles of Trenton and Princeton in 1776-77, served in the Continental Congress, and signed the Constitution of the United States in 1787. He served Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives from 1789 to 1795, and died in 1811.
October 1, 1746: John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg is born outside Philadelphia in Trappe, Pennsylvania. Under the name Peter Muhlenberg, he was ordained as a priest of the Anglican Church, and was personally asked by Washington to command a regiment. He served with Washington at the Battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Valley Forge, Monmouth and Yorktown, and retired with the rank of Major General.
He was later elected by Pennsylvania to the House of Representatives, and served as the House's 1st Speaker. He later served in the Senate, and died in 1807, on his 61st birthday.
October 1, 1754: Pavel Petrovich Romanov is born in St. Petersburg, Russia. His father, Peter, was heir to the throne, and became Czar in 1762. But Peter was assassinated, and his wife, Paul's mother, became Empress Catherine II -- Catherine the Great. Despite rumors that Catherine had cheated on him (certainly, Peter was not the father of her next 2 children), Paul resembled his father completely.
Paul never got along with his mother, and it is believed that she tried to bypass him in the line of succession, and pass the crown to his son, Alexander. When she died in 1796, he took all the steps necessary to assert his legitimacy, including burning his mother's will (in case she had bypassed him), giving his father a new state funeral, and dedicating a new statue of his great-grandfather Peter the Great (from whom he, but not his mother, was descended).
Another step away from his German-born mother was his rejection of the nation she admired most, France. French had been spoken at court for 42 years, but it would be all Russian from then on. He sided with Britain against France, both before and after the rise of Napoleon.
He pissed a lot of people in the Russian government off, and he was assassinated in one of his own castles on March 23, 1801, after less than 5 years on the throne. His 23-year-old son, as Catherine had wished, became Czar Alexander I.
October 1, 1781: James Lawrence (no middle name) is born in Burlington, Burlington County, New Jersey, and grows up in nearby Woodbury, Gloucester County. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and in 1803 served aboard an early ship named the USS Enterprise, a schooner.
In the War of 1812, he commanded the USS Chesapeake in a battle with the HMS Shannon off the coast of Boston on June 4, 1813. Mortally wounded, he told his men, "Don't give up the ship!" It was useless: He was dead at age 31, and the battle was lost.
Three months later, on September 10, his friend Oliver Hazard Perry commanded a ship named USS Lawrence for him, and flew a flag with the motto "DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP." In the Battle of Lake Erie, the Lawrence was doomed, but Perry was rowed to the USS Niagara, and won the battle from there. He reported to his superiors, "We have met the enemy and they are ours."
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October 1, 1832: Caroline Lavinia Scott is born in Oxford, Ohio. Her father was a minister and a college professor. In 1853, she married one of his students, Benjamin Harrison, and when he was elected President in 1888, she became the First Lady. They had 2 children.
She renovated the White House, including hiring an exterminator, and installing new plumbing and the building's first electricity. She also raised the 1st White House Christmas tree. She led a campaign to raise money for Johns Hopkins University Medical School, on the condition that it admit women. She was the 1st President General of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
But she was stricken with tuberculosis, and died on October 25, 1892, near the end of her husband's campaign for re-election. Only 1 First Lady has died in office since: Ellen Wilson in 1914. The Harrisons' daughter, Mary McKee, upheld the duties of First Lady for the last 4 months of the Harrison Administration.
And in a very creepy epilogue, in 1896, Ben married Mary Scott Dimmick, Caroline's niece and secretary. Apparently, while he is not known to have cheated on Caroline, he had been in love with Mary for quite some time.
October 1, 1841: Two friars from St. Augustine's Church in Philadelphia buy the 200-acre Belle Air estate in Radnor, Pennsylvania, 11 miles northwest of Philadelphia. A year later, on the farm, they open "the Augustinian College of Vilanova."
In 1844, the Philadelphia Nativist Riots burned St. Augustine's, and with the church's financial backing required for its own rebuilding, the college was closed. It reopened, and graduated its 1st class in 1847. It closed again as a result of the Panic of 1857, and was unable to reopen until after the Civil War, in September 1865.
Villanova University, as it is now known, became one of basketball's "Philadelphia Big Five," along with the University of Pennsylvania, La Salle University, Temple University and St. Joseph's University. although it is not in Philadelphia proper.
This was emphasized during a game a few years ago, when, about to beat St. Joe's and go undefeated against the other Big 5 schools, 'Nova fans started to chant, "We own Philly!" and the St. Joe's fans answered, "You ain't Philly!" They were on shaky ground, as the SJU campus straddles the City Line.
Villanova won college basketball's National Championship in 1985, 2016 and 2018. Those are the only titles won by a Philadelphia school since La Salle did it in 1954. Villanova's basketball legends include Paul Arizin, Wally (later Wali) Jones, Bill Melchionni, Chris Ford, Rory Sparrow, Ed Pinckney, Kerry Kittles and Tim Thomas.
They also have a legendary track & field program, led in the 1950s and '60s by head coach James "Jumbo" Elliott, who coached 5 Olympic Gold Medalists: Ron Delany (1956 1500 meters), Charles Jenkins (1956 400 meters), Don Bragg (1960 pole vault), Paul Drayton (1964 4x100 meter relay) and Larry James (1968 4x400 meter relay). The program has also produced Marty Liquori, Eamonn Coghlan,
While Villanova suspended its football program from 1981 to 1984, and now competes in the NCAA's FCS (formerly Division I-AA), it has produced Jets Super Bowl winner Al Aktinson, Miami Dolphins Super Bowl winner Kevin Reilly, Philadelphia Eagles GM Jim Murray and running back Brian Westbrook and Raiders Hall-of-Famer Howie Long.
Other notable Villanova graduates include actors Victor Buono, Maria Bello and Bradley Cooper; singer Jim Croce; the late New York archbishop, John Cardinal O'Connor; former Philadelphia Mayor and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and his wife, federal Judge Marjorie Rendell; disgraced former Connecticut Governor John Rowland; former Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire; and former Second Lady Jill Biden.
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October 1, 1865: The Trenton Business College is founded, at Temperance Hall in downtown Trenton. The 1st President is Andrew J. Rider. In 1897, shortly before Rider retired as President, the school was renamed for him: The Rider Business College.
It became Rider College in 1921, and moved to the nearby suburb of Lawrence in 1959, becoming Rider University in 1994. Its teams, the Broncs (not "Broncos"), compete in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), making them a "mid-major" in basketball, and their most famous alumnus is ESPN analyst and former Notre Dame coach Richard "Digger" Phelps. They ran out of money to fund their football team in 1951, and yet they claim they are "undefeated since 1951."
Northeastern University's Cabot Gym is now on the site, and a statue of Young stands at the approximate location of the pitcher’s mound.
Also on this day, the Pennsylvania Railroad opens its new station at New Brunswick, New Jersey, replacing a former station on the site. Following a major renovation in time for its 100th Anniversary, the station is still in operation, a major one on New Jersey Transit's Northeast Corridor Line between New York City and Trenton, and also carries Amtrak traffic, although Amtrak no longer uses it as a stop on their own Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington.
October 1, 1905: The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-4 at The Palace of the Fans, and clinch the National League Pennant.
October 1, 1908: The Ford Motor Company begins producing the Model T, a.k.a. "The Tin Lizzie." By 1913, Henry Ford would use the assembly line to crank out a near-continuous stream of them, doing so until 1927 when he replaced the Model T with the Model A.
He offered his workers, $5.00 a day -- $131 in 2019 money. He believed that a man should be able to buy the very thing his labor built. Ford was unusual in that he gave his black workers the same pay rate as his white workers.
But he wasn't as enlightened as this would suggest: He was a notorious anti-Semite. He was also a micromanager who tried to run his workers' lives. And when they tried to unionize, he hired a security firm to beat up striking workers. He eventually caved in.
Also on this day, Douglas Gordon Young is born in Medicine Hat, Alberta. A defenseman, he captained the Detroit Red Wings to their 1st 2 Stanley Cups, in 1936 and 1937. He played in the Babe Siebert Memorial Game in Montreal in 1939, and later became an NHL referee. He died in 1990, and is a member of the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.
October 1, 1909: Samuel William Yorty is born in Lincoln, Nebraska, and went to UCLA, the University of California at Los Angeles -- or, as he always pronounced the city's name in his Midwestern accent, "Los ANG-ga-leez."
Sam Yorty served in California's Assembly, then in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, and won election back to the Assembly afterward. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1950, 1952 and 1954. In 1961, he was elected Mayor of Los Angeles.
His mayoralty included astonishing growth in the city, including the 1963 and 1965 World Series won by the Dodgers. But it also included several racist incidents involving the police. He was lucky that the Watts riot of 1965 took place right after he was elected to a 2nd term, defeating Congressman James Roosevelt, son of FDR. L.A.'s Mayoral elections are officially non-partisan.
He angered fellow Democrats by not endorsing Vice President Hubert Humphrey for President in 1968, and some people think that may have helped former Vice President Richard Nixon win California, and thus the election as a whole.
When City Councilman Tom Bradley ran against him, trying to become the 1st black Mayor, in 1969, Yorty ran a racist campaign against him, and won. Things didn't get better, and in 1973, the racist tactics didn't work, and Bradley beat him. He ran a failed campaign for Governor -- his 4th -- and then retired to legal practice, dying in 1998, a few months before Bradley.
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October 1, 1910: Bonnie Elizabeth Parker is born in Rowena, Texas. She grew up in Dallas, got married right before her 16th birthday, and last saw her husband when she was 19, but never actually divorced him.
In 1930, she met Clyde Barrow, and a legend was born, as the Barrow Gang committed several armed robberies, although it was mainly small, out-of-the-way stores, not higher-profile targets like banks. The Gang as a whole appears to have been responsible for the deaths of 13 people, but Bonnie herself is not known to have ever shot anyone. She and Clyde were ambushed by lawmen on May 23, 1934 in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, near Shreveport. She was 23, he was 25.
Also on this day, a less famous, but more successful, criminal was born, Carmine Tramunti, in Manhattan. When Tommy Lucchese died in 1967, Tramunti became the boss of the Lucchese crime family, one of the New York Mob's "Five Families." Not the obvious choice, he was apparently a compromise choice, as he was the one guy to whom no one objected.
He had done 6 years in prison in the 1930s, for assault. In 1971, he beat a stock swindle charge. But in 1973, he was convicted of criminal contempt. The following year, he was convicted in the "French Connection" heroin smuggling case that had already been made into a movie. (A French Connection II was then being filmed, with Gene Hackman reprising his role, but was not based on the actual case.)
He died of a heart attack in federal prison in 1978, insisting to the end that he was innocent of the French Connection charges, having told New York Post reporter Jack Newfield, "I may be a mobster, and may have done bad things, but I am not a drug dealer." No, but he was the boss of drug dealers, which made him even more guilty.
October 1, 1911: William Calvin Lam is born in Glenrock, Wyoming. A halfback, "Kayo" Lam led the nation in rushing for the University of Colorado in 1934 and 1935. He later worked for the University's athletic department, was named to the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, and died in 1993.
Also on this day, Herman Michael Hickman is born in Johnson City, Tennessee. A guard, he starred at the University of Tennessee from 1929 to 1931. His coach, Bob Neyland, for whom the University's stadium would later be named, said, "Herman Hickman is the greatest guard football has ever known."
He didn't exactly prove that in the NFL, playing 3 seasons for the football version of the Brooklyn Dodgers, although he was named an All-Pro in 1933. He went into coaching, on the staffs of Wake Forest, North Carolina State, and the National Championship teams at West Point, before serving as head coach at Yale from 1948 to 1951.
He was also a professional wrestler, known as The Tennessee Terror. But he was a Renaissance man, a writer who became known as "The Poet Laureate of the Little Smokies," and was on the original staff of Sports Illustrated from its founding in 1954 until his untimely death in 1958. He was posthumously elected to the College Football and Tennessee Sports Halls of Fame.
October 1, 1915: Hemingway Stadium opens on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford. It is named for Judge William Hemingway, a law school professor at "Ole Miss." The Rebels lose to Arkansas State, 10-0.
In 1982, longtime head coach Johnny Vaught's name was added. In 1998, a booster, Dr. Jerry Hollingsworth, was honored by having the field named for him. So the current name of the 66,000-seat stadium is Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at Hollingsworth Field. Attached is a practice facility, named for 2 of the school's legendary quarterbacks, Archie and son Eli: The Manning Center. (Peyton went to the University of Tennessee.)
Also on this day, Ralph English Bishop is born in Brooklyn, but grows up across the country in Yakima, Washington. A forward, he played basketball at the University of Washington, and was a member of the U.S. team that won the 1st Olympic basketball tournament, at Berlin in 1936.
He later played semi-pro basketball, and then for the original version of the Denver Nuggets, in the National Basketball League in the 1948-49 season. He died on October 1, 1974, his 59th birthday.
Also on this day, "Die Werlandung" – alternately translated as "The Transformation" and "The Metamorphosis" – by Franz Kafka is published in the German magazine The White Pages: A Monthly. The magazine would go out of business in 1920, in the post-World War I chaos of Germany, but not before it had also published works by novelist Herman Hesse and Jewish theologian Martin Buber.
October 1, 1919, 100 years ago: Robert Richard Boyd is born in Potts Camp, Mississippi. A 1st baseman, Bob Boyd wasn't very big and didn't hit many home runs, but was nicknamed "Rope" for the line drives he hit. He became a Negro League star, and played in the major leagues from 1951 to 1961, with the Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles, and in his last season with the Kansas City Athletics and the Milwaukee Braves.
He batted .293 in the major leagues, rarely struck out, and had a career fielding average of .991. He died in 2004, at age 84.
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This White Sox victory, or rather this Indians loss, is significant, because it allows the Yankees to clinch their 1st Pennant, if they can beat the Philadelphia Athletics in either of the games of today's doubleheader, at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan. They win the opener, 5-3, and, for the 1st time in their 19-season history, are American League Champions.
Hail the Champions, in their batting order: Elmer Miller, center field; Roger Peckinpaugh, shortstop; Babe Ruth, right field; Bob Meusel, left field; Wally Pipp, 1st base; Aaron Ward, 2nd base; Mike McNally, 3rd base; Wally Schang, catcher; and Carl Mays, pitcher. Meusel, who lived until 1977, was the last survivor, outliving Peckinpaugh by 11 days.
A triple by Miller made the difference. The Yankees would also win the 2nd game, 7-6 in 11 innings. But they would lose their 1st appearance in the World Series to their Polo Grounds landlords, the New York Giants. They would also lose to the Giants in the 1922 Series. But in 1923, in their 1st Series in the original Yankee Stadium, they would beat the Giants.
Also on this day, James Allen Whitmore Jr. is born in White Plains, Westchester County, New York, and grows up outside Buffalo in Snyder, New York. A fine actor with a strong resemblance to Spencer Tracy, he was a Marine Lieutenant in World War II. He married twice, the 2nd time to Audra Lindley, while she was playing Helen Roper on Three's Company.
My generation knows him for his commercials for Miracle-Gro plant food. He died in 2009. His son James III, as "James Whitmore Jr.," has directed many episodes of NCIS.
What does he have to do with sports? Well, in 1963, he appeared in "On Thursday We Leave for Home," an episode of The Twilight Zone. He played the Captain of a space colony ship that was lost in 1963, and rescued 30 years later. (Of course, such a ship isn't possible now, let alone in 1963.) It had been only 6 years since the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, and one of the stranded people asked one of the rescuers, "Where do the Dodgers play now?" The prediction came true: "Los Angeles."
October 1, 1922: The baseball regular season ends, and Rogers Hornsby of the St. Louis Cardinals has won the National League Triple Crown, with a .401 batting average, 42 home runs and 152 RBIs.
Someone once said that if not for Babe Ruth, the 1920s would have been remembered as the Age of Hornsby. He had a point: While the Rajah didn't have the long-term excellence of other contenders for the title of Greatest Hitter In National League History -- Mel Ott, Stan Musial, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron (and, if you ignore the cheating, Barry Bonds) -- the way he hit from 1920 to 1929 was as good as anybody aside from Ruth ever did over any 10 years.
Also on this day, the NFL's flagship franchise, having been the Decatur Staleys in the 1st season of 1920 and the Chicago Staleys in 1921, plays their 1st game under the name they have used ever since, the Chicago Bears -- named for the team from whom they now lease their home field, the Chicago Cubs. (Cubs Park would be renamed Wrigley Field in 1926.)
But this game would not be played in the as-yet-un-ivied North Side ballyard. Instead, it was an away game, against the Racine Legion, a hard-fought 6-0 victory for George Halas' ursine warriors. The Bears would win 8 of their 1st 9 games, but drop 2 of their last 3, costing them the NFL title. The Legion, who'd been playing since 1915, went out of business after the 1926 season.
October 1, 1923: Trevor Ford (no middle name) is born in Swansea, Wales. A forward, he starred for both of Wales' major professional soccer teams, hometown team Swansea Town (they became Swansea City in 1969) and Cardiff City (helping them win the 1956 Welsh Cup).
He also starred for Birmingham team Aston Villa, North-East England team Sunderland, and Dutch team PSV Eindhoven. He was named to the Football League 100 Legends in 1998, and died in 2003.
October 1, 1924: Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis bans New York Giants outfielder Jimmy O'Connell from playing in the World Series, after O'Connell confesses that he tried to bribe Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Heinie Sand to "go easy" in the season-ending series between the teams.
As far as I know, Donny Hathaway had nothing to do with sports. Although she wasn't born for another few months, singer Alecia "Pink" Moore has called him her favorite singer of all time. So did Amy Winehouse, who mentioned him in her song "Rehab." Justin Timberlake has called him "the best singer of all time." And, during Donny's lifetime, no less than Stevie Wonder said, "When Donny sings any song, he owns it."
It sounds like October 1, 1945 was a bad-luck day, but Rod Carew is still alive.
October 1, 1946: For the 1st time in major league history, a playoff series to determine a League's Pennant is played, between the St. Louis Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers. The Cardinals take the 1st game, 4-2, at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, as Howie Pollet holds the Dodgers to 2 hits, a homer and an RBI-single by Howie Schultz.
Also on this day, Mensa International is founded at Oxford University by Dr. Lancelot Ware, a British scientist and lawyer; and Roland Berrill, an Australian lawyer. The minimum IQ required for membership is 132.
Also on this day, Jonathan Edgar Warden is born in Columbus, Ohio. A pitcher, Jon Warden made 28 appearances in the major leagues, all with the 1968 Detroit Tigers, winning the World Series. His career record was 4-1. He is 1 of 15 surviving players from that iconic team.
Also on this day, Clifford Eugene Koroll is born in Conora, Saskatchewan. A right wing, he played 11 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, helping them reach the Stanley Cup Finals in 1971 and 1973. He is the current president of the Chicago Blakckhawks Alumni Association, and a member of the Chicago Sports and Saskatchewan Sports Halls of Fame.
October 1, 1947: Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees score 4 runs in the 7th inning, thanks in part to typical wildness from Rex Barney (2 walks and 2 wild pitches), and beat the Dodgers 10-3. Tommy Henrich added a home run. The Yankees lead the Series 2 games to 0.
It was said of Barney, "If home plate were high and outside, he'd be in the Hall of Fame." My grandmother, a Dodger fan from Queens, said that Barney was a good guy, but hopeless. He did, however, pitch a no-hitter in 1948. He later became the public address announcer for the Baltimore Orioles. Grandma and I attended one of the last games at Memorial Stadium in 1991, and she was thrilled to know that Barney was still in baseball. He died in 1997.
Also on this day, Lee William Capra is born in Chicago. "Buzz" Capra debuted as a pitcher with the Mets in 1971, and was a member of their 1973 Pennant winners. In typical dumb Met fashion, they then sold him, 5-10 thus far in his career, to the Braves, where he went 16-8 in 1974, leading the NL with a 2.28 ERA and making the All-Star Team.
Alas, he went just 10-19 over the rest of his career, finishing 31-37 in 1977, pitching his last game just before his 30th birthday. Later serving as a pitching coach with both teams and the Philadelphia Phillies, he now runs an instructional school in the Chicago suburbs.
You might not know Mariska's name, but you might remember her face, and you definitely know her voice: She was the lead singer of the Dutch band Shocking Blue, who hit Number 1 with "Venus" in 1970. She was still performing when cancer overtook her in 2006, and she died at age 69.
Also on this day, the Chicago Transit Authority is founded, to run Chicago's subway and elevated rail lines. In 1969, a band naming itself Chicago Transit Authority released a self-titled debut album. Mayor Richard J. Daley threatened to sue over the use of the name. The band changed their name to simply "Chicago." In 1976, shortly before his death, Daley praised them for drawing positive publicity to the city.
With the death of Newcombe earlier this year, Dodger pinch-hitter Tommy "Buckshot" Brown is the last living player from this game, 69 years later: For the Phillies, the last survivor, backup infielder Ralph "Putsy" Caballero, died in 2017. Bob Miller and Curt Simmons are the last 2 living 1950 Whiz Kids.
Also today, the Philadelphia Athletics complete a massively disappointing 102-loss season by beating the Washington Senators, 5-3 at Shibe Park. It is the last game for A's manager Connie Mack: Approaching his 88th birthday, his sons Earle, Roy and Connie Jr., agreeing on little else, agree to gang up on him and force him to finally retire as manager -- something he, as also the owner, did not want to do. Before the A's move to Kansas City, the Phillies, new owners of the ballpark, will rename it Connie Mack Stadium, and will erect a statue of him outside.
Shotton and Mack were the last managers to wear street clothes during a game. Although no rule specifically mandates that a manager must wear a uniform, there is now a rule that states that, aside from medical and security personnel, no one is allowed on the field of play during a game unless they are wearing some form of baseball uniform.
Catcher George Yankowski and shortstop Billy DeMars are the last 2 living men to have been managed by Connie Mack.
Also on this day, Conrad Francis Dobler is born in Chicago. A guard, he played 10 seasons in the NFL, making 3 Pro Bowls, reaching the Playoffs with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1974 and 1975, and the Buffalo Bills in 1980. As a graduate of the University of Wyoming, he is a member of the Wyoming Sports Hall of Fame.
He was regarded as one of the meanest players in NFL history. He kicked Merlin Olsen in the head, punched Mean Joe Greene, and, seeing Bill Bergey injured, spit on him. Olsen, normally an even-tempered man, got a small measure of revenge: On his 1980s NBC Western-themed drama Father Murphy, he put Dobler's name on a headstone.
He has had 9 knee surgeries, and lives in great pain. To make matters worse, his wife Joy was paralyzed as the result of a household accident. Their medical bills were such that they couldn't afford to pay for college for their 2 children, and wealthy friends stepped in to do so.
October 1, 1951: Game 1 of the National League Playoff at Ebbets Field. Jim Hearn outpitches Ralph Branca, who gives up a home run to Bobby Thomson in the 4th inning, a foreshadowing. Monte Irvin also homers for the Giants, who win, 3-1.
Also on this day, Peter McWilliam dies at age 72. A left back, he played for Scottish soccer team Inverness Caledonian Thistle, and for English team Newcastle United, before managing Middlesex's (now North London's) Tottenham Hotspur and North Yorkshire's Middlesbrough.
October 1, 1952: Game 1 of the World Series. Joe Black, a "rookie" at age 28 (the Plainfield, New Jersey native had already helped the Baltimore Elite Giants win 2 Negro League Pennants), becomes the 1st black pitcher to win a World Series game, backed by home runs from Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider and Pee Wee Reese. The Dodgers beat the Yankees, 4-2.
The Yankees and Dodgers played each other in 7 "Subway Series." Only in 1952 and 1956 did the Dodgers win Game 1. And yet, the Yankees still won both of those Series.
Also on this day, Jacques Martin (no middle name) is born in Saint-Pascal Baylon, Ontario. He was the head coach of the NHL's St. Louis Blues from 1986 to 1988, of the Ottawa Senators from 1995 to 2004 (getting them to their 1st Playoff berth in 1996 and to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2003), the Florida Panthers from 2005 to 2008, and the Montreal Canadiens from 2009 to 2012. He is now an assistant with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and finally won his 1st Stanley Cup this past June.
Also on this day, Robert Howard Myrick is born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He was a pitcher who went 3-6 for the Mets in 1976, '77 and '78. He died in 2012.
Also on this day, John Langenus dies in his native Antwerp, Belgium at age 60. He was the referee in the 1st World Cup Final, at Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, Uruguay on July 30, 1930. Uruguay beat Argentina 4-2. He also officiated at 2 other games at that 1st World Cup, and 1 more game each in the 1934 and 1938 World Cups. He wrote 3 books about soccer, including his memoir, Whistling in the World.
Also on this day, Peter Frank Falcone is born in Brooklyn. His alma mater, Lafayette High School, has produced more major league players than any other high school, including Hall-of-Famer Sandy Koufax. It also produced Joe Pignatano, the last Dodger to bat at Ebbets Field, the man whose triple-play groundout ended the Mets' atrocious 1st season in 1962, a longtime Met coach, and Falcone's cousin.
Pete Falcone was a lefthanded pitcher who pitched for one of the New York City teams, but he was no Koufax. Debuting with the San Francisco Giants in 1975, he pitched for the Mets from 1979 to 1982, and, saying he was "just tired of baseball... tired of the lifestyle," retired as a Brave in 1984. He was 70-90 for his career, including 26-37 for the Mets.
It was hardly all his fault, as the Mets were dreadful then. This was the years when M. Donald Grant's demolition of the team that had won Pennants in 1969 and 1973 led to attendances so small, Shea Stadium was known as Grant's Tomb. But Falcone didn't help himself much, despite a 1980 game where he tied a major league record by striking out the 1st 6 batters he faced
There was a game, I can't remember what year it was, but my father and I were watching the Mets on WOR-Channel 9, and Falcone walked home 2 runs with the bases loaded. With every pitch Falcone threw that missed the plate, my father laughed harder. Ever since, walking home a run has been known in my family as "pulling a Falcone."
Also on this day, Grete Andersen is born in Oslo, Norway. As Grete Waitz, no person, male or female, has won the New York City Marathon more times: 9. She died of cancer in 2011, just 57 years old.
October 1, 1955: Game 4 of the World Series at Ebbets Field. Gil McDougald hits a home run for the Yankees, but Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, and, making up for previous Series slumps, Gil Hodges knock 'em out for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Clem Labine pitches just well enough to win, and Dem Bums tie up the Series, 8-5.
Also on this day, a new show premieres on CBS. Well, sort of: The Honeymooners had been a sketch on The Jackie Gleason Show, but now it becomes a standalone half-hour situation comedy, perhaps the greatest sitcom in history.
The 1st episode, appropriately enough, discusses television itself: It is titled "TV Or Not TV," and shows what happens when Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden (Gleason) and sewer worker, upstairs neighbor and best friend Ed Norton (Art Carney) go halfsies on a television set, because neither one can afford their own. (Ralph has never had one, because he's cheap. Ed's 1st one just broke down.)
Ralph's wife, Alice Kramden (Audrey Meadows), doesn't think it will work, but she wants a TV set. Interestingly, unless you count Alice's groan over a tricky sink, Ed's wife, Thelma "Trixie" Norton (Joyce Randolph), has the 1st line in the show's history: "Hiya, Alice!"
There will be the occasional sports reference on the show. In "The Golfer," Ralph tries to learn how to play golf to impress a bus company official. In "Here Comes the Bride," Ralph notes that Alice's sister, finally getting married, has been a bridesmaid so often, she caught her own bouquet. Alice said her foot slipped, and Ralph says, "If my food could slip like that, I'd be playing center field for the New York Giants!"
In "Young At Heart," Ralph wears a varsity football letter sweater. The letter is V, although the name of his school is never revealed. (There is a Martin Van Buren High School in New York, but it's in Queens, and is unlikely to have been Ralphie Boy's alma mater.) And in the last episode, "A Man's Pride," Ralph runs into a high school nemesis at a boxing card at the old Madison Square Garden.
Also on this day, Jeffrey James Reardon is born in the Boston suburb of Dalton, Massachusetts. He debuted with the Mets in 1979. In a typical dumb Mets deal, in 1981 they traded him to the Montreal Expos for Ellis Valentine, a former All-Star who had been plagued by injuries, and did little for the Mets.
Reardon became the all-time saves leader for a while, with 367. He was a 4-time All-Star, reached the NL Championship Series with the Expos in 1981, won the World Series with the Twins in 1987, reached the AL Championship Series with his hometown Red Sox in 1990, and won a Pennant with the Braves in 1992. With his fearsome look and fastball, he became known as The Terminator. He closed his career with the Yankees in 1994.
Since his retirement, Reardon has struggled with injuries, prescription drug addiction, and the resulting mental illness. He also had a son who struggled with drugs, and died at age 20.
Still alive from this game, 52 years later: From the Sox: Left fielder Carl Yastrzemski (who was named the MVP), pitcher Jim Lonborg (who was named Cy Young Award winner), 2nd baseman Mike Andrews, shortstop Rico Petrocelli, 3rd baseman Dalton Jones, center fielder Reggie Smith, right fielder Ken Harrelson, and right fielder Jose Tartabull; from the Twins, 2nd baseman (later a 1st baseman) Rod Carew, right fielder Tony Oliva, replacement shortstop Jackie Hernandez, replacement left fielder and usual starting 3rd baseman Rich Rollins, pinch-hitter Frank Kostro (usually an infielder), and pitchers Al Worthington and Jim "Mudcat" Grant.
In addition to Yaz, Lonborg, Andrews, Petro, Jones, Smith, Hawk and Tartabull, members of the '67 Red Sox who are still alive include catcher Mike Ryan, 1st baseman Tony Horton, outfielder George Thomas; and pitchers José Santiago, Billy Rohr, Gary Bell, Dave Morehead, Darrell "Bucky" Brandon, Bill Landis, Gary Waslewski, Hank Fischer, Galen Cisco and Sparky Lyle. So, 21 players.
Horton would leave baseball 3 years later, due to the effects of clinical depression. Rohr nearly pitched a no-hitter against the Yankees in his major league debut at the beginning of the season, but only won 2 more major league games. Bell is famous for his role as Jim Bouton's 1969 Seattle Pilots roommate in Ball Four, and Brandon was also a Pilot. Lyle, of course, was later the Yankees' Cy Young Award-winning closer.
On the same day that the Red Sox win their "Impossible Dream" Pennant, the Yankees beat the Kansas City Athletics 4-3 at Yankee Stadium. Frank Fernandez and Joe Pepitone hit home runs for the Bronx Bombers, who finish an uncharacteristic 9th. The A's, who finish a very characteristic 10th, get a home run from Dave Duncan, who will later enjoy better times with the franchise. Mel Stottlemyre gets the win over Jim "Catfish" Hunter.
This is the last game the A's will play representing Kansas City. In the off-season, they will move to Oakland, where they will dominate the American League from 1971 to 1975. Members of that championship team that played in that game include Hunter, Rick Monday, Joe Rudi, Dick Green, Bert Campaneris, Sal Bando and Ted Kubiak (a native of nearby Highland Park, Middlesex County, New Jersey) -- but the 21-year-old rookie outfielder from the Philadelphia suburbs, Reggie Jackson, does not get into this game. The A's had played their last game in Kansas City on September 27, losing 4-0 to the Chicago White Sox at Municipal Stadium.
Also on this day, Michael A. Pringle is born in Los Angeles. He might be the greatest football player you've never heard of. I know what you're thinking, but, no, this time, when I say "football," I mean the gridiron game, not soccer.
Mike Pringle was a running back at Washington State, but washed out, and transferred to Cal State-Fullerton. He was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in 1990, but they were scared by his 5-foot-9, 200-pound size, and he was never sent on to play so much as a down for them. This was a year before the Falcons drafted Brett Favre, and didn't know what to do with him, either. The Falcons were good on the field at the time; in the boardroom, not so much.
Pringle was signed by the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League, and later moved to the CFL's Baltimore Stallions (the league experimented with U.S. teams for a brief time), who became the new Montreal Alouettes in 1996 (the old Als had folded in 1986). He was named a 7-time CFL All-Star, the CFL Most Outstanding Player in 1995 and 1998 (in the latter year becoming the 1st man to rush for 2,000 yards in a CFL season, still a unique achievement), and won the Grey Cup (Canada's Super Bowl) with the Stals/Als 3 times, in 1995, 2002 and 2003.
The Denver Broncos took notice of him in 1996, and invited him to their training camp, but cut him. So he went back to the Als, and kept on running and kept on winning. He rushed for 16,425 yards, and 137 touchdowns. He's in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, and the Alouettes have retired his Number 27. In 2006, TSN, the Canadian version of ESPN, voted him the Number 4 CFL player of the last 50 years.
Also on this day, Scott Allen Young is born in Clinton, Massachusetts. The right wing won the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and the Colorado Avalanche in 1996. The Boston University graduate returned to the Boston area as the coach of a team at a Catholic high school, and is now director of player development for the Penguins.
Also on this day, Geraldine Heaney (no middle name) is born in Lurgan, Northern Ireland, and grows up in Toronto. One of the greatest female hockey players ever, her skill as a defensewoman got her compared to Bobby Orr. At age 34, she led Canada to the Gold Medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
She has since gone into coaching, and was the 3rd woman, after Angela James and Cammi Granato, to be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
October 1, 1969, 50 years ago: The Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Yankee Stadium. The Bronx Bombers, finishing up their 1st season in the post-Mickey Mantle era, hit no home runs, but 1st baseman Joe Pepitone and rookie catcher Thurman Munson each get 2 hits in support of starting pitcher Mike Kekich and reliever Jack Aker. This is the last game the Yankees will play before I am born.
Also on this day, Igor Sergeevich Ulanov is born in Krasnokamsk, Russia. The defenseman played for several NHL teams from 1995 to 2006, including the Rangers.
Also on this day, Zachary Knight Galifianakis is born in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The actor, producer and screenwriter has nothing to do with sports, unless you want to count casting Mike Tyson in his Hangover trilogy.
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They do get the Wild Card, however, and shock the Yankees in the Division Series, while the Twins get surprised by the A's, and then the Tigers sweep the A's to win the Pennant anyway. Never has a team looked so bad down the stretch and still managed to reach the World Series -- not even the 1949 or 2000 Yankees, or the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers.
The 2006 season is also the first one ever, except for the strike-shortened seasons of 1981, '94 and '95, in which there were no 20-game-winning pitchers in either League. Chien-Ming Wang of the Yankees and Johan Santana of the Twins each win 19, while no National League hurler wins more than 16 -- 6 of them win that many.
The Twins have another honor (that does them little good after their ALDS loss), as Twin Cities native Joe Mauer becomes the 1st catcher to win an AL batting title, and the 1st catcher to lead both leagues in batting average, with .347, ahead of NL batting champion Freddie Sanchez of the Pittsburgh Pirates with .344.
Also on this day, the Yankees hold one of their more recent traditions. Joe Torre allows one of his veteran players to manage the last game of the season. The player Torre chose was the presumably retiring Bernie Williams.
The game, which is meaningless as the Yankees have already clinched the AL East title, does not go well. Jaret Wright, whom Bernie started because it was his turn in the rotation, does not have good stuff. Jorge Posada hits a home run, and the game is tied 5-5 going to the 9th inning, despite Bernie having used Scott Proctor, who, incredibly, pitched a scoreless 8th.
But Bernie pushes his luck, and sends Kyle Farnsworth out to pitch the 9th. Kerosene Kyle gets the 1st 2 outs, then gives up a single to Alex Rios and a home run to Adam Lind. In the bottom of the 9th, Scott Downs strikes out Kevin Thompson and Wil Nieves, to put the Yankees down to their last out.
Knowing that DH Miguel Cairo was up next, and that, at age 38, he wouldn't take the field if the game went to extra innings, Bernie sends himself up to pinch-hit, and gets a huge standing ovation from the Yankee Stadium crowd of 54,886, which includes yours truly, knowing that this is it, as he has not been selected for the postseason roster. Bernie, a switch-hitter, bats righthanded against the lefthanded Downs, and smacks an opposite-field double. And doesn't remove himself for a pinch-runner. But Andy Phillips ruins the moment by striking out to end the game. Pesky Blue Jays 7, Yankees 5.
October 1, 2007: Needing a Playoff for the Playoffs, the Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres in the bottom of the 13th inning, 9-8. Jamey Carroll hits a sacrifice fly, and Matt Holliday scores on a disputed play at the plate.
The Padres have not reached the Playoffs since, and this play burns their fans up. The Rockies closed the regular season (and this game counts as such, as it's officially not a postseason game) winning 14 of their last 15.
Also on this day, Al Oerter dies of heart trouble in Fort Myers, Florida. He was 71. A native of Astoria, Queens, he grew up in New Hyde Park, Long Island, and was the 1st man to win an event at 4 straight Olympics: Winning the discus throw in 1956 in Melbourne, 1960 in Rome, 1964 in Tokyo and 1968 in Mexico City.
October 1, 2009, 10 years ago: The Colorado Avalanche retire the Number 19 of Joe Sakic, who'd just retired after being with the team since 1988, and Captain since 1990, including the 1995 move from being the Quebec Nordiques, and their 1996 and 2001 Stanley Cups.
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October 1, 2010: The Amway Center opens in downtown Orlando, with a public walk-through as the inaugural event. The NBA's Orlando Magic move in, and it remains their home.
October 1, 2013: The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat their traditional rivals, the Cincinnati Reds, 6-2 in the NL Wild Card game at PNC Park. Ex-Yankee Russell Martin hits 2 home runs, Marlon Byrd adds 1, and Francisco Liriano gets the win.
Also on this day, Tom Clancy dies of heart trouble in Baltimore. He was 66, one of the biggest-selling authors of the late 20th Century, and owned a small share of the Baltimore Orioles.
October 1, 2014: The Pirates go for 3 straight wins in NL Wild Card games, but come up short, losing at home to the Giants, 8-0. Brandon Crawford becomes the 1st shortstop ever to hit a grand slam in a postseason game, and Madison Bumgarner pitches a 4-hit shutout, presaging his postseason pitching heroics to come.
October 1, 2015: The Yankees defeat the Boston Red Sox, 4-1 at Yankee Stadium II, thanks to home runs by veteran Carlos Beltran and rookies Greg Bird and Rob Refsnyder, and the fine pitching of CC Sabathia, Adam Warren and Dellin Betances.
The Yankees, who led the AL East by 7 games on July 28, thus finally, with 3 games to spare, clinch a berth in the AL Wild Card play-in game. It is the 52nd time in franchise history, going back to 1903, that they have reached the postseason. It is also the 10,000th win in franchise history. And the cherry on the sundae is that it comes against the Auld Enemy, a.k.a. The Scum.
Also on this day, Hadi Norouzi dies of a heart attack in Tehran, Iran. He was only 30 years old. The striker had starred for Persepolis, a Tehran soccer team, and helped them win the Hazfi Cup, Iran's version of the FA Cup, in 2010 and 2011. Persepolis retired his Number 24.
Also on this day, Chris Harper-Mercer, a student at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, shoots 17 people in a classroom, killing 9: A professor and 8 students. Police responded, and a shootout ensued. Harper-Mercer was wounded, and finished himself off.
October 1, 2016: The Mets beat the Phillies 5-3 at Citizens Bank Park, and clinch the NL Wild Card. Paired with last season's Pennant, this is only their 2nd back-to-back Playoff seasons ever, following 1999 and 2000.
Also on this day, the Rutgers football team goes to Columbus, and, in front of 105,000 people, loses 58-0 to Number 3 Ohio State. As the great New York sportscaster Warner Wolf (who is still alive, nearly 82) would say, "If you had Rutgers and 57 points, you lost!" (The spread was 38 points.) Warner also would have said, "Come on, give me a break!" No, let's not go to the videotape!
Also on this day, Mosaic Stadium opens in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. In a rivalry game, the University of Regina defeats the University of Saskatchewan, 37-29. The Canadian Football League's Saskatchewan Roughriders will move in next season.
Also on this day, Alec Baldwin makes his 1st appearance as Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live. If his portrayal helps remove Trump from office, Baldwin may just redeem himself for lots of ham acting and the way he's treated various family members.
October 1, 2017: Dave Strader dies of cancer at his home in Glens Falls, New York. He was 62. A few months earlier, perhaps anticipating this, the Hockey Hall of Fame gave him its Foster Hewitt Memorial Award, tantamount to election to the Hall for broadcasters.
The Glens Falls native started out with his hometown team, the Adirondack Red Wings of the American Hockey League, in 1979. In 1985, their parent club, the Detroit Red Wings, called him up. He later broadcast for the Florida Panthers, the Phoenix Coyotes and the Dallas Stars.
Also on this day, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Los Angeles Chargers 26-24. Thousands of Eagles fans cheered wildly the whole game.
No surprise there, right? Here's the surprise: The Chargers, having just moved back to their original city after 56 seasons in San Diego, weren't allowed to play at the 93,067-seat Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum or the 90,888-seat Rose Bowl, so they moved into the StubHub Center (since renamed Dignity Health Sports Park) in suburban Carson, groundsharing with the LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer.
Attendance at this game: 25,374 -- and that was a sellout. And with the Rams having gotten a season's head-start on the Chargers for the hearts and minds of Los Angeles-area football fans, plus already having the legacy of having played there from 1946 to 1994, the Chargers never really had a home-field advantage. The majority of fans at the StubHub Center were rooting for the Eagles.
The Chargers lost their 1st 4 games of the 2017 season, including home games against the Miami Dolphins, the Kansas City Chiefs, and now the Eagles. Somehow, they managed to go 9-3 the rest of the way, and almost made the Playoffs. But they were also outnumbered in "their own house" by fans of the Denver Broncos, the Washington Redskins and the Oakland Raiders.
Just a few hours after this game, the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival on the Las Vegas Strip became the scene of the biggest mass shooting in American history. Stephen Paddock went to a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel & casino, took out several weapons including an AR-15 assault rifle, and shot over 900 people, 58 of whom died. That was nearly as many as the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado and the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando combined: 49 + 13 = 62.
Paddock finally shot and killed himself, proving that the death penalty is no deterrent to a man who is planning on becoming his own final victim anyway. What would have stopped him from getting his guns? A background check.
Five days later, the Vegas Golden Knights played their 1st game, at home at the T-Mobile Arena, just a mile north of the shooting site. They paid tribute to the victims, wore a jersey patch honoring them all season long, beat the Dallas Stars 2-1, and got all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals.
October 1, 1832: Caroline Lavinia Scott is born in Oxford, Ohio. Her father was a minister and a college professor. In 1853, she married one of his students, Benjamin Harrison, and when he was elected President in 1888, she became the First Lady. They had 2 children.
She renovated the White House, including hiring an exterminator, and installing new plumbing and the building's first electricity. She also raised the 1st White House Christmas tree. She led a campaign to raise money for Johns Hopkins University Medical School, on the condition that it admit women. She was the 1st President General of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
But she was stricken with tuberculosis, and died on October 25, 1892, near the end of her husband's campaign for re-election. Only 1 First Lady has died in office since: Ellen Wilson in 1914. The Harrisons' daughter, Mary McKee, upheld the duties of First Lady for the last 4 months of the Harrison Administration.
And in a very creepy epilogue, in 1896, Ben married Mary Scott Dimmick, Caroline's niece and secretary. Apparently, while he is not known to have cheated on Caroline, he had been in love with Mary for quite some time.
October 1, 1841: Two friars from St. Augustine's Church in Philadelphia buy the 200-acre Belle Air estate in Radnor, Pennsylvania, 11 miles northwest of Philadelphia. A year later, on the farm, they open "the Augustinian College of Vilanova."
In 1844, the Philadelphia Nativist Riots burned St. Augustine's, and with the church's financial backing required for its own rebuilding, the college was closed. It reopened, and graduated its 1st class in 1847. It closed again as a result of the Panic of 1857, and was unable to reopen until after the Civil War, in September 1865.
Villanova University, as it is now known, became one of basketball's "Philadelphia Big Five," along with the University of Pennsylvania, La Salle University, Temple University and St. Joseph's University. although it is not in Philadelphia proper.
This was emphasized during a game a few years ago, when, about to beat St. Joe's and go undefeated against the other Big 5 schools, 'Nova fans started to chant, "We own Philly!" and the St. Joe's fans answered, "You ain't Philly!" They were on shaky ground, as the SJU campus straddles the City Line.
Villanova won college basketball's National Championship in 1985, 2016 and 2018. Those are the only titles won by a Philadelphia school since La Salle did it in 1954. Villanova's basketball legends include Paul Arizin, Wally (later Wali) Jones, Bill Melchionni, Chris Ford, Rory Sparrow, Ed Pinckney, Kerry Kittles and Tim Thomas.
They also have a legendary track & field program, led in the 1950s and '60s by head coach James "Jumbo" Elliott, who coached 5 Olympic Gold Medalists: Ron Delany (1956 1500 meters), Charles Jenkins (1956 400 meters), Don Bragg (1960 pole vault), Paul Drayton (1964 4x100 meter relay) and Larry James (1968 4x400 meter relay). The program has also produced Marty Liquori, Eamonn Coghlan,
While Villanova suspended its football program from 1981 to 1984, and now competes in the NCAA's FCS (formerly Division I-AA), it has produced Jets Super Bowl winner Al Aktinson, Miami Dolphins Super Bowl winner Kevin Reilly, Philadelphia Eagles GM Jim Murray and running back Brian Westbrook and Raiders Hall-of-Famer Howie Long.
Other notable Villanova graduates include actors Victor Buono, Maria Bello and Bradley Cooper; singer Jim Croce; the late New York archbishop, John Cardinal O'Connor; former Philadelphia Mayor and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and his wife, federal Judge Marjorie Rendell; disgraced former Connecticut Governor John Rowland; former Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire; and former Second Lady Jill Biden.
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October 1, 1865: The Trenton Business College is founded, at Temperance Hall in downtown Trenton. The 1st President is Andrew J. Rider. In 1897, shortly before Rider retired as President, the school was renamed for him: The Rider Business College.
It became Rider College in 1921, and moved to the nearby suburb of Lawrence in 1959, becoming Rider University in 1994. Its teams, the Broncs (not "Broncos"), compete in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), making them a "mid-major" in basketball, and their most famous alumnus is ESPN analyst and former Notre Dame coach Richard "Digger" Phelps. They ran out of money to fund their football team in 1951, and yet they claim they are "undefeated since 1951."
October 1, 1866: A crowd of 30,000 people, believed to be the largest in baseball history to that point, watches a game in Philadelphia between the host Athletics (no connection besides name to the American League team founded in 1901) and the Atlantics of Brooklyn. As would be the case after World Wars I and II, the hunger for normal, everyday things like sports was insatiable after the Civil War.
The Atlantics were considered the best team in the country at the time, having gone through the 1865 season undefeated, albeit a short season by our standards: They were 18-0. The A's score 2 runs in the 1st inning, but the crowd rushes the field, and the game is called when they won’t get off. It is never rescheduled.
Those original Athletics, who played from 1860 to 1876, included Lipman "Lip" Pike, possibly the 1st Jewish baseball player, possibly also the 1st man paid (under the table) to play baseball. The Atlantics, who played from 1855 to 1882, included early greats George Zettlein, Joe Start and Bob Ferguson, so good a defender he became known as "Death to Flying Things." Pike would later play for them as well.
October 1, 1867: Hugh McQueen (no middle name) is born in Harthill, Lanarkshire, Scotland. A winger, he played for Scottish club Leith Athletic, and was part of the original Liverpool Football Club team in the 1892-93 season, in which they went unbeaten, allowing them to be admitted to the Football League. He later played for Derby County, and helped them reach the 1898 FA Cup Final. He died in 1944.
October 1, 1878: Duquesne University is founded in Pittsburgh. Pronounced "Doo-KANE," it is a Catholic school whose teams, the Dukes, compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference, except for their football team, which competes in the Northeast Conference (FBS, formerly Division I-AA).
Their basketball team won the NIT in 1955, when that was still considered a big deal. Their annual "City Game" against the University of Pittsburgh is a big deal in the Steel City, especially since Pittsburgh hasn't had an NBA team since the league's dawn in 1946-47, or any pro team since the Condors dropped out of the ABA in 1972.
Pittsburgh Steeler owners Art and Dan Rooney, Negro League player and executive Cumberland Posey, 1930s football and soccer start Aldo "Buff" Donelli, 1st drafted black NBA player Chuck Cooper, 1969 World Series Most Valuable Player Donn Clendenon were Duquesne graduates. So are Steeler Super Bowl winner turned judge Dwayne Woodruff, former Los Angeles Lakers star Norm Nixon, ESPN football analyst John Clayton, former Congressman Bud Shuster, former CIA Director Michael Hayden, and singer Bobby Vinton.
October 1, 1885: The Dallas Morning News is founded. Since 1991, when the Dallas Times-Herald folded, it has been the only major newspaper in the Dallas-Fort Worth "Metroplex," the largest-circulating newspaper in the American Southwest, and one of the most conservative newspapers in America. Noted sports columnists for the paper have included the late Blackie Sherrod, and Tim Cowlishaw and Kevin Blackistone, both regulars on ESPN's Around the Horn.
Also on this day, Bertram Clewley Freeman is born in Birmingham, West Midlands, England. A forward, he led England's Football League Division One in scoring in the 1908-09 season, playing for Liverpool-based Everton. In 1914, he helped Lancashire team Burnley win the FA Cup. He lived until 1955.
October 1, 1889, 130 years ago: Haarlemsche Football Club Haarlem is founded in Haarlem, the Netherlands, the city from which the New York neighborhood of Harlem got its name. HFC Haarlem won the Eredivisie, the Dutch national league, in 1946, and won the KNVB Beker (the Dutch equivalent of England's FA Cup) in 1902 and 1912.
On October 20, 1982, they played Spartak Moscow at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, in the 2nd round of the UEFA Cup, the tournament now known as the Europa League. They lost 2-0, and a stampede following Spartak's 2nd goal killed 66 Spartak fans, in one of the worst sporting disasters in history.
HFC Haarlem went out of business due to bankruptcy on January 25, 2010. A new club, Haarlem Kennemerland, has taken its place. They are currently at the 9th level of Dutch soccer, so it will take them a while to get up to where their predecessor club was.
October 1, 1891: James Karl Luck is born in Johnson City, Tennessee. A football star at the University of Tennessee, he coached football and basketball at East Tennessee State University in the 1920s. He died in 1971, and was named to the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, the 1st classes are held at Leland Stanford Junior University in Palo Alto, California. Among the 1st students are a future President and First Lady, Herbert Hoover and his future wife, Lou Henry.
The Stanford football team, long known as the Indians but later the Cardinals and now just the Cardinal (for the color), has won 15 titles in the league now known as the Pacific-12. It has produced early NFL star Ernie Nevers, and later a long line of fine quarterbacks including Frankie Albert, John Brodie, Jim Plunkett, John Elway, and current NFL stars Alex Smith and Andrew Luck. Star cornerback Richard Sherman is also a Stanford man.
However, its most famous games have been defeats: Losing 49-0 to Fielding Yost's "Point-a-Minute" Michigan in the 1st Rose Bowl in 1902; losing to Notre Dame's "Four Horsemen" backfield in the 1925 Rose Bowl; and the 1982 edition of their annual "Big Game" with their cross-Bay rivals, the University of California, which ended on a lateral-filled touchdown that became known as "The Play."
While its basketball team hasn't been as successful, it did win the National Championship in 1941, reached the Final Four again in 1998, and usually makes the NCAA Tournament. Golfer Tiger Woods is also a Stanford graduate. So was Bob Mathias, the 1st man to win the Olympic decathlon twice, and later a Republican Congressman from California.
Current Stanford professors include Internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Norman Abramson. Graduates include (in alphabetical order within each category):
* From show business: Richard Boone, Andre Braugher, Jennifer Connelly, Roger Corman, Ted Danson, Edith Head, Jack Palance, Fred and Ben Savage, Sigourney Weaver, Adam West and Reese Witherspoon.
* Journalism: Ted Koppel, Rachel Maddow and Daniel Pearl.
* Literature: Ram Dass, Allen Drury, George V. Higgins, Ken Kesey, Richard Rodriguez, Joel Stein and Scott Turow.
* Astronauts, as it's a major science and engineering school: Eileen Collins, Mae Jemison, Bruce McCandless and Sally Ride.
* Business, with Stanford's location between San Francisco and the Silicon Valley jumpstarting the computer revolution: Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, Ray Dolby of Dolby Labs, David Filo, Marissa Mayer and Jerry Yang of Yahoo!; stock trader and adventurer Steve Fossett, Andrew Grove of Intel, William Hewlett and David Packard of Hewlett-Packard, Phil Knight of Nike, Robert Mondavi of the winery that bears his name, Charles Schwab of the brokerage system that bears his name, and Peter Thiel of PayPal.
* U.S. Cabinet officials: Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Secretary of Defense William Perry, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice.
* U.S. Supreme Court Justices William Rehnquist, Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer -- meaning that, from 1994 to 2005, the Court nearly had a Stanford majority.
* U.S. Senators: Thomas Storke, Alan Cranston and Dianne Feinstein of California; Carl Hayden, Ernest McFarland and Paul Fannin of Arizona; Charles McNary, Mark Hatfield, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon; Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington, Frank Church of Idaho, Lee Metcalf and Max Baucus of Montana, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, and Cory Booker of New Jersey.
* U.S. Representatives: Pete McCloskey, Don Edwards, Xavier Becerra and Zoe Lofgren of California; Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin; Joaquin Castro of Texas (Julian's brother); and Joe Kennedy III of Masschusetts, RFK's grandson and JFK's grandnephew. Also a Stanford graduate: JFK & RFK's sister, the founder of the Special Olympics, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
* Governors: Goodwin Knight and Gray Davis of California (but not Pete Wilson), Dixy Lee Ray of Washington and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.
* Chelsea Clinton, and Hillary Clinton advisers Cheryl Mills and Ann O'Leary.
* National leaders (besides President Hoover): Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel, King Philippe of Belgium, Prime Ministers Taro Aso and Yukio Hatoyama of Japan; and people who have served as Presidents of Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Maldives and Peru.
Also on October 1, 1891, David Alexander Ritchie is born in Montreal. A defenseman, he played professional hockey from 1914 to 1926. On December 19, 1917, in the 1st National Hockey League game, he scored the 1st goal in NHL history, for the Montreal Wanderers, against the Toronto Arenas, at the Montreal Arena. It made the difference, as the Wanderers won 10-9.
Alas, within days, the Montreal Arena burned down, and the Wanderers, with 4 Stanley Cups to their credit, were forced to go out of business. The Arenas went on to win the 1st NHL Championship, and then the Stanley Cup. They became the Toronto St. Patricks in 1919, and the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1927. Ritchie lived on until 1973.
October 1, 1895: The London School of Economics and Political Science is founded. The name usually gets shortened to "the London School of Economics" or "LSE." It is a constituent college of the federally-operated University of London.
It is located in Central London, in an area west of Westminster known as Clare Market. Its current Chancellor is a former competitive equestrienne who represented Great Britain at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal: Anne, the Princess Royal, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II.
Notable students have included Prime Ministers Clement Attlee of Britain, Pierre Trudeau and Kim Campbell of Canada, Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Romano Prodi of Italy, Kamises Mara of Fiji; Presidents Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica, and Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia (the latter 2 being winners of the Nobel Peace Prize); and Queen Elizabeth's cousin, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.
On the British TV show Yes, Minister, the British Cabinet official Jim Hacker was an LSE graduate, and was often mocked for it by Members of Parliament who'd graduated from Oxford or Cambridge. In the show's 2nd season, he got an honorary degree from Oxford. He gained an even more upper hand by rising to head of government, hence the title of the sequel series: Yes, Prime Minister. On the American TV show The West Wing, President Josiah Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen) got his doctorate from LSE.
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October 1, 1900: John Martin Vesser is born in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. A 2-way end, he played football at the University of Idaho, and in the NFL for the Chicago Cardinals. He went into coaching, and coached both football and basketball at Idaho State University, later serving as its athletic director. He died in 1996, and was named to the Idaho Sports Hall of Fame.
October 1, 1901: James Herman Solomon is born in Manhattan, but grows up in Los Angeles, moving from New York City to L.A. long before the Brooklyn Dodgers did. Knowing of the anti-Semitism that existed in baseball at the time, he gave himself a more English-sounding name: Jimmie Reese.
He first worked in baseball in 1919, as a batboy for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. A 2nd baseman, he helped the Oakland Oaks win the 1924 PCL Pennant. He played for the Yankees in 1930 and '31, rooming with Babe Ruth -- or, as pretty much any roommate of Ruth actually did, roomed with Ruth's suitcases.
He spent the 1932 season with the St. Louis Cardinals, and returned to the PCL Angels in 1933. In 1937, he played for the PCL's San Diego Padres, where he was a teammate of Ted Williams, and helped them win the Governor's Cup.
After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he was a scout for the Boston Braves, and a coach for the Padres from 1948 to 1962, briefly managing the team in 1961. "I'm best suited as a liaison man, as a coach," he said. "I just am not suited to give a guy hell." He continued to coach in the PCL, and then scouted for the Montreal Expos.
In 1972, with the American League having granted a team to Los Angeles, and the team having taken the old Angels name, but having since modified it to the California Angels, became a coach with them, and remained one until his death in 1994. At 93, he was believed to be the oldest uniformed employee of any MLB team ever, a record later broken by Red Schoendienst.
He was so admired in this role that Nolan Ryan named one of his sons Reese, and he was selected to throw out the ceremonial first ball at the 1989 All-Star Game, which the Angels hosted. After his death, the team retired his Number 50, and elected him to their team Hall of Fame.
October 1, 1903: The 1st World Series game is played, at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. Deacon Phillippe of the Pittsburgh Pirates outpitches Cy Young of the Boston Pilgrims. Jimmy Sebring of the proto-Red Sox hits the 1st World Series home run, but the Pirates win, 7-3.
The Atlantics were considered the best team in the country at the time, having gone through the 1865 season undefeated, albeit a short season by our standards: They were 18-0. The A's score 2 runs in the 1st inning, but the crowd rushes the field, and the game is called when they won’t get off. It is never rescheduled.
Those original Athletics, who played from 1860 to 1876, included Lipman "Lip" Pike, possibly the 1st Jewish baseball player, possibly also the 1st man paid (under the table) to play baseball. The Atlantics, who played from 1855 to 1882, included early greats George Zettlein, Joe Start and Bob Ferguson, so good a defender he became known as "Death to Flying Things." Pike would later play for them as well.
October 1, 1867: Hugh McQueen (no middle name) is born in Harthill, Lanarkshire, Scotland. A winger, he played for Scottish club Leith Athletic, and was part of the original Liverpool Football Club team in the 1892-93 season, in which they went unbeaten, allowing them to be admitted to the Football League. He later played for Derby County, and helped them reach the 1898 FA Cup Final. He died in 1944.
October 1, 1878: Duquesne University is founded in Pittsburgh. Pronounced "Doo-KANE," it is a Catholic school whose teams, the Dukes, compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference, except for their football team, which competes in the Northeast Conference (FBS, formerly Division I-AA).
Their basketball team won the NIT in 1955, when that was still considered a big deal. Their annual "City Game" against the University of Pittsburgh is a big deal in the Steel City, especially since Pittsburgh hasn't had an NBA team since the league's dawn in 1946-47, or any pro team since the Condors dropped out of the ABA in 1972.
Pittsburgh Steeler owners Art and Dan Rooney, Negro League player and executive Cumberland Posey, 1930s football and soccer start Aldo "Buff" Donelli, 1st drafted black NBA player Chuck Cooper, 1969 World Series Most Valuable Player Donn Clendenon were Duquesne graduates. So are Steeler Super Bowl winner turned judge Dwayne Woodruff, former Los Angeles Lakers star Norm Nixon, ESPN football analyst John Clayton, former Congressman Bud Shuster, former CIA Director Michael Hayden, and singer Bobby Vinton.
October 1, 1885: The Dallas Morning News is founded. Since 1991, when the Dallas Times-Herald folded, it has been the only major newspaper in the Dallas-Fort Worth "Metroplex," the largest-circulating newspaper in the American Southwest, and one of the most conservative newspapers in America. Noted sports columnists for the paper have included the late Blackie Sherrod, and Tim Cowlishaw and Kevin Blackistone, both regulars on ESPN's Around the Horn.
Also on this day, Bertram Clewley Freeman is born in Birmingham, West Midlands, England. A forward, he led England's Football League Division One in scoring in the 1908-09 season, playing for Liverpool-based Everton. In 1914, he helped Lancashire team Burnley win the FA Cup. He lived until 1955.
October 1, 1889, 130 years ago: Haarlemsche Football Club Haarlem is founded in Haarlem, the Netherlands, the city from which the New York neighborhood of Harlem got its name. HFC Haarlem won the Eredivisie, the Dutch national league, in 1946, and won the KNVB Beker (the Dutch equivalent of England's FA Cup) in 1902 and 1912.
On October 20, 1982, they played Spartak Moscow at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, in the 2nd round of the UEFA Cup, the tournament now known as the Europa League. They lost 2-0, and a stampede following Spartak's 2nd goal killed 66 Spartak fans, in one of the worst sporting disasters in history.
HFC Haarlem went out of business due to bankruptcy on January 25, 2010. A new club, Haarlem Kennemerland, has taken its place. They are currently at the 9th level of Dutch soccer, so it will take them a while to get up to where their predecessor club was.
October 1, 1891: James Karl Luck is born in Johnson City, Tennessee. A football star at the University of Tennessee, he coached football and basketball at East Tennessee State University in the 1920s. He died in 1971, and was named to the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, the 1st classes are held at Leland Stanford Junior University in Palo Alto, California. Among the 1st students are a future President and First Lady, Herbert Hoover and his future wife, Lou Henry.
The Stanford football team, long known as the Indians but later the Cardinals and now just the Cardinal (for the color), has won 15 titles in the league now known as the Pacific-12. It has produced early NFL star Ernie Nevers, and later a long line of fine quarterbacks including Frankie Albert, John Brodie, Jim Plunkett, John Elway, and current NFL stars Alex Smith and Andrew Luck. Star cornerback Richard Sherman is also a Stanford man.
However, its most famous games have been defeats: Losing 49-0 to Fielding Yost's "Point-a-Minute" Michigan in the 1st Rose Bowl in 1902; losing to Notre Dame's "Four Horsemen" backfield in the 1925 Rose Bowl; and the 1982 edition of their annual "Big Game" with their cross-Bay rivals, the University of California, which ended on a lateral-filled touchdown that became known as "The Play."
While its basketball team hasn't been as successful, it did win the National Championship in 1941, reached the Final Four again in 1998, and usually makes the NCAA Tournament. Golfer Tiger Woods is also a Stanford graduate. So was Bob Mathias, the 1st man to win the Olympic decathlon twice, and later a Republican Congressman from California.
Current Stanford professors include Internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Norman Abramson. Graduates include (in alphabetical order within each category):
* From show business: Richard Boone, Andre Braugher, Jennifer Connelly, Roger Corman, Ted Danson, Edith Head, Jack Palance, Fred and Ben Savage, Sigourney Weaver, Adam West and Reese Witherspoon.
* Journalism: Ted Koppel, Rachel Maddow and Daniel Pearl.
* Literature: Ram Dass, Allen Drury, George V. Higgins, Ken Kesey, Richard Rodriguez, Joel Stein and Scott Turow.
* Astronauts, as it's a major science and engineering school: Eileen Collins, Mae Jemison, Bruce McCandless and Sally Ride.
* Business, with Stanford's location between San Francisco and the Silicon Valley jumpstarting the computer revolution: Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, Ray Dolby of Dolby Labs, David Filo, Marissa Mayer and Jerry Yang of Yahoo!; stock trader and adventurer Steve Fossett, Andrew Grove of Intel, William Hewlett and David Packard of Hewlett-Packard, Phil Knight of Nike, Robert Mondavi of the winery that bears his name, Charles Schwab of the brokerage system that bears his name, and Peter Thiel of PayPal.
* U.S. Cabinet officials: Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Secretary of Defense William Perry, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice.
* U.S. Supreme Court Justices William Rehnquist, Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer -- meaning that, from 1994 to 2005, the Court nearly had a Stanford majority.
* U.S. Senators: Thomas Storke, Alan Cranston and Dianne Feinstein of California; Carl Hayden, Ernest McFarland and Paul Fannin of Arizona; Charles McNary, Mark Hatfield, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon; Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington, Frank Church of Idaho, Lee Metcalf and Max Baucus of Montana, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, and Cory Booker of New Jersey.
* U.S. Representatives: Pete McCloskey, Don Edwards, Xavier Becerra and Zoe Lofgren of California; Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin; Joaquin Castro of Texas (Julian's brother); and Joe Kennedy III of Masschusetts, RFK's grandson and JFK's grandnephew. Also a Stanford graduate: JFK & RFK's sister, the founder of the Special Olympics, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
* Governors: Goodwin Knight and Gray Davis of California (but not Pete Wilson), Dixy Lee Ray of Washington and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.
* Chelsea Clinton, and Hillary Clinton advisers Cheryl Mills and Ann O'Leary.
* National leaders (besides President Hoover): Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel, King Philippe of Belgium, Prime Ministers Taro Aso and Yukio Hatoyama of Japan; and people who have served as Presidents of Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Maldives and Peru.
Also on October 1, 1891, David Alexander Ritchie is born in Montreal. A defenseman, he played professional hockey from 1914 to 1926. On December 19, 1917, in the 1st National Hockey League game, he scored the 1st goal in NHL history, for the Montreal Wanderers, against the Toronto Arenas, at the Montreal Arena. It made the difference, as the Wanderers won 10-9.
Alas, within days, the Montreal Arena burned down, and the Wanderers, with 4 Stanley Cups to their credit, were forced to go out of business. The Arenas went on to win the 1st NHL Championship, and then the Stanley Cup. They became the Toronto St. Patricks in 1919, and the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1927. Ritchie lived on until 1973.
October 1, 1895: The London School of Economics and Political Science is founded. The name usually gets shortened to "the London School of Economics" or "LSE." It is a constituent college of the federally-operated University of London.
It is located in Central London, in an area west of Westminster known as Clare Market. Its current Chancellor is a former competitive equestrienne who represented Great Britain at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal: Anne, the Princess Royal, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II.
Notable students have included Prime Ministers Clement Attlee of Britain, Pierre Trudeau and Kim Campbell of Canada, Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Romano Prodi of Italy, Kamises Mara of Fiji; Presidents Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica, and Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia (the latter 2 being winners of the Nobel Peace Prize); and Queen Elizabeth's cousin, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.
On the British TV show Yes, Minister, the British Cabinet official Jim Hacker was an LSE graduate, and was often mocked for it by Members of Parliament who'd graduated from Oxford or Cambridge. In the show's 2nd season, he got an honorary degree from Oxford. He gained an even more upper hand by rising to head of government, hence the title of the sequel series: Yes, Prime Minister. On the American TV show The West Wing, President Josiah Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen) got his doctorate from LSE.
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October 1, 1900: John Martin Vesser is born in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. A 2-way end, he played football at the University of Idaho, and in the NFL for the Chicago Cardinals. He went into coaching, and coached both football and basketball at Idaho State University, later serving as its athletic director. He died in 1996, and was named to the Idaho Sports Hall of Fame.
October 1, 1901: James Herman Solomon is born in Manhattan, but grows up in Los Angeles, moving from New York City to L.A. long before the Brooklyn Dodgers did. Knowing of the anti-Semitism that existed in baseball at the time, he gave himself a more English-sounding name: Jimmie Reese.
He first worked in baseball in 1919, as a batboy for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. A 2nd baseman, he helped the Oakland Oaks win the 1924 PCL Pennant. He played for the Yankees in 1930 and '31, rooming with Babe Ruth -- or, as pretty much any roommate of Ruth actually did, roomed with Ruth's suitcases.
He spent the 1932 season with the St. Louis Cardinals, and returned to the PCL Angels in 1933. In 1937, he played for the PCL's San Diego Padres, where he was a teammate of Ted Williams, and helped them win the Governor's Cup.
After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he was a scout for the Boston Braves, and a coach for the Padres from 1948 to 1962, briefly managing the team in 1961. "I'm best suited as a liaison man, as a coach," he said. "I just am not suited to give a guy hell." He continued to coach in the PCL, and then scouted for the Montreal Expos.
In 1972, with the American League having granted a team to Los Angeles, and the team having taken the old Angels name, but having since modified it to the California Angels, became a coach with them, and remained one until his death in 1994. At 93, he was believed to be the oldest uniformed employee of any MLB team ever, a record later broken by Red Schoendienst.
He was so admired in this role that Nolan Ryan named one of his sons Reese, and he was selected to throw out the ceremonial first ball at the 1989 All-Star Game, which the Angels hosted. After his death, the team retired his Number 50, and elected him to their team Hall of Fame.
October 1, 1903: The 1st World Series game is played, at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. Deacon Phillippe of the Pittsburgh Pirates outpitches Cy Young of the Boston Pilgrims. Jimmy Sebring of the proto-Red Sox hits the 1st World Series home run, but the Pirates win, 7-3.
Northeastern University's Cabot Gym is now on the site, and a statue of Young stands at the approximate location of the pitcher’s mound.
Also on this day, the Pennsylvania Railroad opens its new station at New Brunswick, New Jersey, replacing a former station on the site. Following a major renovation in time for its 100th Anniversary, the station is still in operation, a major one on New Jersey Transit's Northeast Corridor Line between New York City and Trenton, and also carries Amtrak traffic, although Amtrak no longer uses it as a stop on their own Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington.
October 1, 1905: The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-4 at The Palace of the Fans, and clinch the National League Pennant.
October 1, 1908: The Ford Motor Company begins producing the Model T, a.k.a. "The Tin Lizzie." By 1913, Henry Ford would use the assembly line to crank out a near-continuous stream of them, doing so until 1927 when he replaced the Model T with the Model A.
He offered his workers, $5.00 a day -- $131 in 2019 money. He believed that a man should be able to buy the very thing his labor built. Ford was unusual in that he gave his black workers the same pay rate as his white workers.
But he wasn't as enlightened as this would suggest: He was a notorious anti-Semite. He was also a micromanager who tried to run his workers' lives. And when they tried to unionize, he hired a security firm to beat up striking workers. He eventually caved in.
Also on this day, Douglas Gordon Young is born in Medicine Hat, Alberta. A defenseman, he captained the Detroit Red Wings to their 1st 2 Stanley Cups, in 1936 and 1937. He played in the Babe Siebert Memorial Game in Montreal in 1939, and later became an NHL referee. He died in 1990, and is a member of the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.
October 1, 1909: Samuel William Yorty is born in Lincoln, Nebraska, and went to UCLA, the University of California at Los Angeles -- or, as he always pronounced the city's name in his Midwestern accent, "Los ANG-ga-leez."
Sam Yorty served in California's Assembly, then in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, and won election back to the Assembly afterward. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1950, 1952 and 1954. In 1961, he was elected Mayor of Los Angeles.
His mayoralty included astonishing growth in the city, including the 1963 and 1965 World Series won by the Dodgers. But it also included several racist incidents involving the police. He was lucky that the Watts riot of 1965 took place right after he was elected to a 2nd term, defeating Congressman James Roosevelt, son of FDR. L.A.'s Mayoral elections are officially non-partisan.
He angered fellow Democrats by not endorsing Vice President Hubert Humphrey for President in 1968, and some people think that may have helped former Vice President Richard Nixon win California, and thus the election as a whole.
When City Councilman Tom Bradley ran against him, trying to become the 1st black Mayor, in 1969, Yorty ran a racist campaign against him, and won. Things didn't get better, and in 1973, the racist tactics didn't work, and Bradley beat him. He ran a failed campaign for Governor -- his 4th -- and then retired to legal practice, dying in 1998, a few months before Bradley.
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October 1, 1910: Bonnie Elizabeth Parker is born in Rowena, Texas. She grew up in Dallas, got married right before her 16th birthday, and last saw her husband when she was 19, but never actually divorced him.
In 1930, she met Clyde Barrow, and a legend was born, as the Barrow Gang committed several armed robberies, although it was mainly small, out-of-the-way stores, not higher-profile targets like banks. The Gang as a whole appears to have been responsible for the deaths of 13 people, but Bonnie herself is not known to have ever shot anyone. She and Clyde were ambushed by lawmen on May 23, 1934 in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, near Shreveport. She was 23, he was 25.
Also on this day, a less famous, but more successful, criminal was born, Carmine Tramunti, in Manhattan. When Tommy Lucchese died in 1967, Tramunti became the boss of the Lucchese crime family, one of the New York Mob's "Five Families." Not the obvious choice, he was apparently a compromise choice, as he was the one guy to whom no one objected.
He had done 6 years in prison in the 1930s, for assault. In 1971, he beat a stock swindle charge. But in 1973, he was convicted of criminal contempt. The following year, he was convicted in the "French Connection" heroin smuggling case that had already been made into a movie. (A French Connection II was then being filmed, with Gene Hackman reprising his role, but was not based on the actual case.)
He died of a heart attack in federal prison in 1978, insisting to the end that he was innocent of the French Connection charges, having told New York Post reporter Jack Newfield, "I may be a mobster, and may have done bad things, but I am not a drug dealer." No, but he was the boss of drug dealers, which made him even more guilty.
October 1, 1911: William Calvin Lam is born in Glenrock, Wyoming. A halfback, "Kayo" Lam led the nation in rushing for the University of Colorado in 1934 and 1935. He later worked for the University's athletic department, was named to the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, and died in 1993.
Also on this day, Herman Michael Hickman is born in Johnson City, Tennessee. A guard, he starred at the University of Tennessee from 1929 to 1931. His coach, Bob Neyland, for whom the University's stadium would later be named, said, "Herman Hickman is the greatest guard football has ever known."
He didn't exactly prove that in the NFL, playing 3 seasons for the football version of the Brooklyn Dodgers, although he was named an All-Pro in 1933. He went into coaching, on the staffs of Wake Forest, North Carolina State, and the National Championship teams at West Point, before serving as head coach at Yale from 1948 to 1951.
He was also a professional wrestler, known as The Tennessee Terror. But he was a Renaissance man, a writer who became known as "The Poet Laureate of the Little Smokies," and was on the original staff of Sports Illustrated from its founding in 1954 until his untimely death in 1958. He was posthumously elected to the College Football and Tennessee Sports Halls of Fame.
October 1, 1915: Hemingway Stadium opens on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford. It is named for Judge William Hemingway, a law school professor at "Ole Miss." The Rebels lose to Arkansas State, 10-0.
In 1982, longtime head coach Johnny Vaught's name was added. In 1998, a booster, Dr. Jerry Hollingsworth, was honored by having the field named for him. So the current name of the 66,000-seat stadium is Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at Hollingsworth Field. Attached is a practice facility, named for 2 of the school's legendary quarterbacks, Archie and son Eli: The Manning Center. (Peyton went to the University of Tennessee.)
Also on this day, Ralph English Bishop is born in Brooklyn, but grows up across the country in Yakima, Washington. A forward, he played basketball at the University of Washington, and was a member of the U.S. team that won the 1st Olympic basketball tournament, at Berlin in 1936.
He later played semi-pro basketball, and then for the original version of the Denver Nuggets, in the National Basketball League in the 1948-49 season. He died on October 1, 1974, his 59th birthday.
Also on this day, "Die Werlandung" – alternately translated as "The Transformation" and "The Metamorphosis" – by Franz Kafka is published in the German magazine The White Pages: A Monthly. The magazine would go out of business in 1920, in the post-World War I chaos of Germany, but not before it had also published works by novelist Herman Hesse and Jewish theologian Martin Buber.
What does this have to do with sports? Well, certain sports teams have undergone some ugly transformations. The Yankees since July 26 of this year, for example. And some teams -- the Mets, the Chicago Cubs, the Boston Red Sox before 2004, the Philadelphia Phillies before 2007 with the exception of 1980, the NFL's Buffalo Bills, and a few others -- have had bad and strange things happen to them that have been called "Kafkaesque," as Kafka had written other stories that focused on the absurdities in human life.
October 1, 1918: James William Russell is born outside Pittsburgh in Fayette City, Pennsylvania. An outfielder, he batted .267 in a 10-season career. He won the Pennant with the Boston Braves in 1948, and had close calls with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1950 and '51. He later scouted for the Dodgers and the Washington Senators, and died in 1987.
October 1, 1918: James William Russell is born outside Pittsburgh in Fayette City, Pennsylvania. An outfielder, he batted .267 in a 10-season career. He won the Pennant with the Boston Braves in 1948, and had close calls with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1950 and '51. He later scouted for the Dodgers and the Washington Senators, and died in 1987.
October 1, 1919, 100 years ago: Robert Richard Boyd is born in Potts Camp, Mississippi. A 1st baseman, Bob Boyd wasn't very big and didn't hit many home runs, but was nicknamed "Rope" for the line drives he hit. He became a Negro League star, and played in the major leagues from 1951 to 1961, with the Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles, and in his last season with the Kansas City Athletics and the Milwaukee Braves.
He batted .293 in the major leagues, rarely struck out, and had a career fielding average of .991. He died in 2004, at age 84.
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October 1, 1920: Roy Haynes Gafford Jr. is born in Fort Deposit, Alabama. An All-American running back at Auburn in 1942, "Monk" Gafford served in World War II, then played for the 1st sports team in the South that could have been called "major league," the 1946 Miami Seahawks of the All-American Football Conference.
He then played for the football version of the Brooklyn Dodgers, ran a steel plant in Tulsa, and retired to Alabama. He was elected to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, and died in 1987.
Also on this day, Walter John Matthow is born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Under the name Walter Matthau, he would star in many legendary films, most notably as the uncouth, sloppy sportswriter Oscar Madison in the 1968 film version of The Odd Couple, with Jack Lemmon as the cultured, fussy TV news writer Felix Ungar.
That was the spelling of Felix's name, and his profession, on stage and on screen. On TV, Tony Randall would play Felix Unger, and he'd be made a commercial photographer. Another difference in the TV version is that Oscar, played by Jack Klugman, had no children, whereas he did in the play and the movie.
That film included a scene shot in the press box of Shea Stadium, where Felix interrupts Oscar by calling him on the phone, and making him miss a triple play. It was filmed before a game between the Mets and the Pirates on June 27, 1967. Director Gene Saks wanted to stage the scene with the Mets' Jack Fisher pitching to the Pirates' Roberto Clemente, but Clemente refused to be a part of such a dubious achievement -- on purpose, anyway. So Saks asked Bill Mazeroski, who agreed. Maz said:
I knew I had to hit a liner to the third baseman. It only took two takes. The first pitch, I hit a line drive that went just foul. The second one, I hit a one-hopper right to third. He caught it, stepped on third, threw to second, threw to first, a triple play. Now, that took talent!
Matthau had other prominent sports-themed roles. In 1966, he appeared in The Fortune Cookie, playing a lawyer representing a man injured at a football game at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also played Little League coach Morris Buttermaker in the 1976 classic The Bad News Bears. (Jack Warden took the role in the subsequent TV version.)
In 1994, Matthau came to New Jersey, to play Albert Einstein in Einstein's adopted hometown of Princeton, to film I.Q. I was very skeptical about this casting, but, what can I say: It turned out to be genius. He died in 2000, at 79.
October 1, 1921: Ray Schalk, one of the White Sox players who had no role in the Scandal, does something no catcher had ever done before, nor has since: He makes a putout at every base at least once in a game. The White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-5 at Comiskey Park.
He then played for the football version of the Brooklyn Dodgers, ran a steel plant in Tulsa, and retired to Alabama. He was elected to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, and died in 1987.
Also on this day, Walter John Matthow is born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Under the name Walter Matthau, he would star in many legendary films, most notably as the uncouth, sloppy sportswriter Oscar Madison in the 1968 film version of The Odd Couple, with Jack Lemmon as the cultured, fussy TV news writer Felix Ungar.
That was the spelling of Felix's name, and his profession, on stage and on screen. On TV, Tony Randall would play Felix Unger, and he'd be made a commercial photographer. Another difference in the TV version is that Oscar, played by Jack Klugman, had no children, whereas he did in the play and the movie.
That film included a scene shot in the press box of Shea Stadium, where Felix interrupts Oscar by calling him on the phone, and making him miss a triple play. It was filmed before a game between the Mets and the Pirates on June 27, 1967. Director Gene Saks wanted to stage the scene with the Mets' Jack Fisher pitching to the Pirates' Roberto Clemente, but Clemente refused to be a part of such a dubious achievement -- on purpose, anyway. So Saks asked Bill Mazeroski, who agreed. Maz said:
I knew I had to hit a liner to the third baseman. It only took two takes. The first pitch, I hit a line drive that went just foul. The second one, I hit a one-hopper right to third. He caught it, stepped on third, threw to second, threw to first, a triple play. Now, that took talent!
Matthau had other prominent sports-themed roles. In 1966, he appeared in The Fortune Cookie, playing a lawyer representing a man injured at a football game at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also played Little League coach Morris Buttermaker in the 1976 classic The Bad News Bears. (Jack Warden took the role in the subsequent TV version.)
In 1994, Matthau came to New Jersey, to play Albert Einstein in Einstein's adopted hometown of Princeton, to film I.Q. I was very skeptical about this casting, but, what can I say: It turned out to be genius. He died in 2000, at 79.
October 1, 1921: Ray Schalk, one of the White Sox players who had no role in the Scandal, does something no catcher had ever done before, nor has since: He makes a putout at every base at least once in a game. The White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-5 at Comiskey Park.
This White Sox victory, or rather this Indians loss, is significant, because it allows the Yankees to clinch their 1st Pennant, if they can beat the Philadelphia Athletics in either of the games of today's doubleheader, at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan. They win the opener, 5-3, and, for the 1st time in their 19-season history, are American League Champions.
Hail the Champions, in their batting order: Elmer Miller, center field; Roger Peckinpaugh, shortstop; Babe Ruth, right field; Bob Meusel, left field; Wally Pipp, 1st base; Aaron Ward, 2nd base; Mike McNally, 3rd base; Wally Schang, catcher; and Carl Mays, pitcher. Meusel, who lived until 1977, was the last survivor, outliving Peckinpaugh by 11 days.
Also on this day, James Allen Whitmore Jr. is born in White Plains, Westchester County, New York, and grows up outside Buffalo in Snyder, New York. A fine actor with a strong resemblance to Spencer Tracy, he was a Marine Lieutenant in World War II. He married twice, the 2nd time to Audra Lindley, while she was playing Helen Roper on Three's Company.
My generation knows him for his commercials for Miracle-Gro plant food. He died in 2009. His son James III, as "James Whitmore Jr.," has directed many episodes of NCIS.
What does he have to do with sports? Well, in 1963, he appeared in "On Thursday We Leave for Home," an episode of The Twilight Zone. He played the Captain of a space colony ship that was lost in 1963, and rescued 30 years later. (Of course, such a ship isn't possible now, let alone in 1963.) It had been only 6 years since the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, and one of the stranded people asked one of the rescuers, "Where do the Dodgers play now?" The prediction came true: "Los Angeles."
October 1, 1922: The baseball regular season ends, and Rogers Hornsby of the St. Louis Cardinals has won the National League Triple Crown, with a .401 batting average, 42 home runs and 152 RBIs.
Someone once said that if not for Babe Ruth, the 1920s would have been remembered as the Age of Hornsby. He had a point: While the Rajah didn't have the long-term excellence of other contenders for the title of Greatest Hitter In National League History -- Mel Ott, Stan Musial, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron (and, if you ignore the cheating, Barry Bonds) -- the way he hit from 1920 to 1929 was as good as anybody aside from Ruth ever did over any 10 years.
Also on this day, the NFL's flagship franchise, having been the Decatur Staleys in the 1st season of 1920 and the Chicago Staleys in 1921, plays their 1st game under the name they have used ever since, the Chicago Bears -- named for the team from whom they now lease their home field, the Chicago Cubs. (Cubs Park would be renamed Wrigley Field in 1926.)
But this game would not be played in the as-yet-un-ivied North Side ballyard. Instead, it was an away game, against the Racine Legion, a hard-fought 6-0 victory for George Halas' ursine warriors. The Bears would win 8 of their 1st 9 games, but drop 2 of their last 3, costing them the NFL title. The Legion, who'd been playing since 1915, went out of business after the 1926 season.
October 1, 1923: Trevor Ford (no middle name) is born in Swansea, Wales. A forward, he starred for both of Wales' major professional soccer teams, hometown team Swansea Town (they became Swansea City in 1969) and Cardiff City (helping them win the 1956 Welsh Cup).
He also starred for Birmingham team Aston Villa, North-East England team Sunderland, and Dutch team PSV Eindhoven. He was named to the Football League 100 Legends in 1998, and died in 2003.
October 1, 1924: Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis bans New York Giants outfielder Jimmy O'Connell from playing in the World Series, after O'Connell confesses that he tried to bribe Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Heinie Sand to "go easy" in the season-ending series between the teams.
O'Connell also implicates 3 future Hall-of-Famers on his own team: Frankie Frisch, George "Highpockets" Kelly and Ross Youngs. Landis finds no evidence against them, and they are cleared to play. O'Connell, just 23 and with only 2 years of major league play under his belt, never plays professional ball again, and dies in 1976.
Also on this day, James Earle Carter Jr. is born in Plains, Georgia. As Governor of his home State in 1974, he watched Henry Louis Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th career home run, breaking Babe Ruth's record, and presented him with a personalized Georgia license plate: HLA 715.
In 1976, Carter was elected President. He didn't seem to like baseball, attending only 1 major league game during his Administration. It was a big one, though: Game 7 of the 1979 World Series in Baltimore, then the closest major league city to Washington. While Richard Nixon began the tradition of Presidents calling from the White House to congratulate winners of sports' World Championships, Carter remains the only one to do so in person, complimenting the Pittsburgh Pirates on their "Family."
After leaving the White House, and continuing the work that eventually earned him a Nobel Peace Prize, Carter rediscovered baseball, attending Braves games at Fulton County Stadium and now Turner Field, with his wife Rosalynn, as guests of then-owner Ted Turner and his then-wife Jane Fonda. In 2014, Jimmy and Rosalynn were shown on the ballpark's "kiss cam," and they obliged.
Despite a cancer diagnosis, he has been in good health for most of his life. At 95, he is now the oldest former President, and has had the longest ex-Presidency ever, nearly 39 years.
On the same day, William Donald Rehnquist is born in Milwaukee. He later changed his middle name to Hubbs. As stated earlier, he went to Stanford University, graduating in the same class as Sandra Day O'Connor. Both became prominent lawyers in Arizona.
In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan, having already made O'Connor the Court's 1st female Justice, promoted Rehnquist to Chief Justice. One of the most conservative Justices in the Court's history, he was responsible for the decision in Bush v. Gore that made George W. Bush President. He died in 2005.
Also on this day, Louis Jacob Weertz is born in Omaha, Nebraska, and grows up in Des Moines, Iowa. He became a famous pianist under the name Roger Williams, best known for his recording of the instrumental "Autumn Leaves," which hit Number 1 in 1955. He died in 2011, just after his 87th birthday.
October 1, 1927: Michigan Stadium opens in Ann Arbor. The University of Michigan defeats Ohio Wesleyan (not Ohio State), 33-0. At the time, it seated 72,000. By 1956, it would top 100,000. Today, officially, capacity is 107,601.
Fielding Yost, Michigan's coach at the time, had it set up so that the foundations for expansion well beyond 72,000 -- he imagined as much as 150,000, since Soldier Field in Chicago could supposedly hold that many -- were in place. A later Michigan coach, Herbert "Fritz" Crisler, resumed the Wolverines' winning tradition that Yost began. In 1969, athletic director Don Canham laid down the Big Ten Conference's 1st artificial turf field.
This led the school's radio broadcaster, Bob Ufer, to call the Stadium "The hole that Yost dug! Crisler paid for! And Canham carpeted!" It was switched back to real grass in 1991, and then to FieldTurf in 2003.
"The Big House" holds the following all-time single-game attendance records: College football, in any on-campus stadium, 115,109 (September 7, 2013, Michigan 41, Notre Dame 30); hockey, anywhere in the world, 105,491 (January 1, 2014, Toronto Maple Leafs 3, Detroit Red Wings 2 in the NHL Winter Classic); and soccer, anywhere in the United States, 109,318 (August 2, 2014, Manchester United 3, Real Madrid 1 in the International Champions Cup).
Also on this day, Thomas Edward Bosley is born in Chicago. He won a Tony Award playing New York's Mayor LaGuardia in the 1960 musical Fiorello! But he became a legend as Howard Cunningham, the genial dad trying to understand the changes in the 1950s and '60s in the Milwaukee-based 1974-85 sitcom Happy Days. He was the 1st member of the main cast to die, in 2010.
Howard was once shown taking his son Richie, played by Ron Howard, to a Braves game at Milwaukee County Stadium, where he caught a home run ball hit by Hank Aaron. He also mentions having run away from home at age 15, and going to New York, and seeing Babe Ruth play.
On another episode, when Arthur Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler) bemoaned his difficulty in teaching high school kids his automotive skills, Howard reminded him of Rogers Hornsby, the great hitter who couldn't win as a manager, because he had no patience with players who weren't as good as he was. Howard reminded The Fonz that the reason he's there to teach is that these kids aren't as good as he is, but they want to learn. The Fonz went on to become one of the most popular teachers as Jefferson High School.
(Milwaukee doesn't actually have a Jefferson High, but it has a Washington High, where exterior scenes were filmed.)
October 1, 1928: Harold Richard Naragon is born in Zanesville, Ohio. A catcher, he was a member of the 1954 American League Pennant-winning Cleveland Indians, and was with the original Washington Senators when they moved to become the Minnesota Twins in 1960-61.
He coached for the Twins when they won the Pennant in 1965, and for the Detroit Tigers when they won the 1969 World Series. In each case, he was a secondary pitching coach to former Braves and Yankees pitcher Johnny Sain. He died on August 31, 2019.
Also on this day, Newark Metropolitan Airport opens, on the south side of Newark. In the 1950s, it advertised itself as "The Airport of the 1970s." In 1973, it was renamed Newark International Airport. In 2001, it was renamed "Newark Liberty International Airport" after the 9/11 attacks. In the 2010s, it could still advertise itself as such, not that it would want to.
On May 2, 1978, Match Game aired an episode with this clue: "When the airline pilot died, he ended up in Heaven, but his luggage ended up in (blank)." The contestant, and panelists Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Arlene Francis and Richard Dawson all said "Hell" or some variation thereof. Panelist Patti Deutsch said, "Newark." I can only surmise that she'd been to Newark Airport often enough to make that answer make sense.
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October 1, 1930: Richard St. John Harris is born in Limerick, Ireland. A renowned rugby player as a schoolboy, he had to quit when he contracted tuberculosis. He went into acting, and in 1963 played a rugby player in the film This Sporting Life.
He played King Arthur in the 1967 film version of the musical Camelot, and Albus Dumbledore in the 1st 2 films of the Harry Potter franchise, before dying in 2002. (Michael Gambon played the role thereafter.) But he may be best known for singing Jimmy Webb's magnum opus "MacArthur Park" -- in all 3 verses, incorrectly giving the name of the real-life park in downtown Los Angeles as "MacArthur's Park."
October 1, 1931: The George Washington Bridge opens, connecting Upper Manhattan with Fort Lee, New Jersey. It is a major entrance and exit in New York City for fans going to Yankee games. Many is the time that Yankee broadcaster Phil Rizzuto wanted to leave a game early, saying, "I gotta get over that bridge!"
Of course, these days, it's best known for the scandal that sank the 2016 Presidential campaign of New Jersey's current Governor, Chris Christie, and may yet lead to a criminal investigation and an early end to his Governorship.
Also on this day, Fred Leo Kipp is born in Piqua, Kansas. A pitcher, he debuted with the Dodgers in their last season in Brooklyn, 1957, and was still with them in Los Angeles in their World Championship season of 1959, although he did not appear in the World Series, and did not get a World Series ring. He was with the Yankees in 1960, but that was it. His career record was 6-7. He founded a successful construction company in the suburbs of Kansas City, and is still alive, at 88.
October 1, 1932: Did he or didn't he? Surely, Babe Ruth did not point to center field in Game 3 of the World Series against the Chicago Cubs and say, "I’m gonna hit the ball there." But a home movie discovered in 1992 certainly shows him pointing at pitcher Charlie Root. It looks like he's sending some sort of message. On the next pitch, boom. Message received. So, by my definition, yeah, Babe Ruth "called his shot."
Also on this day, Joe DiMaggio makes his professional debut. Like Mickey Mantle, who would succeed him as the Yankees’ center fielder, it was as a shortstop. Also like Mantle, his time at shortstop doesn't last long. A few weeks short of his 18th birthday, DiMag has been put into the lineup for the last game of the season for his hometown club, the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. A year later, he will become the best pro ballplayer west of St. Louis. Maybe the best one east of it, too.
The Babe goes the distance against his former team, the Red Sox. He gives up 5 runs on 12 hits and 3 walks, with no strikeouts. But the Yankees win, 6-5. Ruth also hits his 34th home run of the season, the 686th of his career, and retires with a career won-lost record of 94-46.
Also on this day, the American League Champion Washington Senators close out their regular season with a 3-0 loss to the Philadelphia Athletics at Griffith Stadium. Rube Walberg of the A's and Ray Prim of the Senators both threw goose eggs for 10 innings, but singles by Doc Cramer and Jimmie Foxx in the top of the 11th give Connie Mack's club the win.
The game ended with a pinch-hitting appearance by Nick Altrock, who does not reach base. The Senators coach is 57 years old, the oldest player in MLB history to that point. (Only Satchel Paige, who pitched an inning at 59 in 1965, has been older.)
His last previous appearance had been in 1924, when, at 47, he became the oldest player ever to hit a triple. He had debuted as a pitcher in 1898, so this makes him the last remaining player from the 19th Century, and the 1st man to play in MLB in 5 different decades. (Minnie Minoso of the Chicago White Sox would match that in 1980.)
He won 23 games in 1905 and 20 in 1906, so he was a good pitcher for a while. He helped the Boston Red Sox win the World Series in 1903 and the Chicago White Sox do it in 1906. He was a coach for the Senators from 1912 to 1953, 42 straight seasons, a record for a single franchise. He died in 1965, age 88.
Also on this day, both Leagues' seasons end with a Triple Crown winner -- and both in Philadelphia. In the AL, Foxx batted .356 with 48 home runs and 163 RBIs. In the National League, Chuck Klein of the Phillies batted .368 with 28 homers and 120 RBIs.
October 1, 1934: Charles Joseph Hiller is born outside Chicago in Johnsburg, Illinois. A 2nd baseman, Chuck Hiller helped the San Francisco Giants win the 1962 National League Pennant. In Game 4 of the World Series, he hit a grand slam to help the Giants win the game, although the Yankees won the Series.
He played for the Mets from 1965 to 1967, where he met Whitey Herzog, then the team's director of player development. He was on Herzog's coaching staff with the St. Louis Cardinals, when they won the 1982 World Series. He died in 2004.
October 1, 1935: Julia Elizabeth Wells is born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England. We know her as Julie Andrews. What does she have to do with sports? Not much: Even her flying as Mary Poppins was done with special effects rather than athleticism.
Also on this day, Roger Alvin LeClerc is born in Springfield, Massachusetts. A defensive tackle and placekicker, he is 1 of 11 surviving members of the 1963 NFL Champion Chicago Bears.
October 1, 1937: The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 -- that's how the drug usually spelled "marijuana" was spelled in this case -- goes into effect. It placed a tax on the sale of cannabis, designed to make the drug harder to obtain. It may have been a response to the 1936 film Reefer Madness, an early exploitation film.
This law was overturned in the 1969 Supreme Court case Leary v. United States. In 1970, as part of President Richard Nixon beginning "The War On Drugs," Congress repealed it, but replaced it with what they hoped would be more effective legislation.
Also on this day, Dick Gould (the only name I have for him) is born outside Los Angeles in Ventura, California. A tennis star at Stanford University, he went on to coach them to a record 17 NCAA Championships. His players included John McEnroe, Roscoe Tanner and Tim Mayotte. He is still alive.
October 1, 1938: Estelle Eggleston is born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, and grows up in Memphis. With a name like that, an actress needs a stage name. Alliteration helps. So she became Stella Stevens.
A 1960 Playboy Playmate, she co-starred with fellow Memphian Elvis Presley in Girls! Girls! Girls! and Jerry Lewis in the original version of The Nutty Professor. Through the 1960s, '70s and '80s, she became a "character actor," or "one of those actors who's on every show." She is still alive, but in a long-term care facility, suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
October 1, 1939, 80 years ago: The St. Louis Browns beat the Chicago White Sox 4-3 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Jimmy Dykes, of the 1929-31 Philadelphia Athletics dynasty, now 42 and the White Sox' manager, finishes the game at 3rd base, coming to bat once and failing to reach base. This makes Dykes the last remaining player who had played in the 1910s.
Also on this day, Ervin Wilfred Bishop is born in Winner, South Dakota. With a name like that, it's a good thing he became a football player. An offensive lineman, Sonny Bishop reached 2 AFL Championship Games, winning with the 1962 Dallas Texans and losing with the 1967 Houston Oilers. He was an AFL All-Star in 1968, and is still alive.
October 1939 is also the month -- with no specified date -- of Marvel Mystery Comics #1, produced by Timely Comics. By 1950, the company would take the name Marvel Comics. The issue now usually referred to as just "Marvel #1" featured Prince Namor of Atlantis, the Sub-Mariner; the original version of the Human Torch, an android; a gun-toting crimefighter called the Angel; and Ka-Zar the Great, a Tarzan ripoff.
In Fantastic Four #4, May 1962, as part of Marvel's attempt to re-establish itself as DC Comics' main rival and perhaps even its superior, the new Human Torch, Johnny Storm of the titular hero team, finds the long-lost, amnesiac Sub-Mariner, and restores his memory, but with terrible results. Namor is often referred to as comic books' 1st "anti-hero": A man who helps when he feels like it, but also causes great harm.
In X-Men #1, September 1963, a new superhero named the Angel would be introduced, a man with wings who could fly. Aside from the name, and large wealth, this new Angel, Warren Worthington III, has nothing in common with his predecessor, a private detective named Thomas Halloway.
Marvel #1 sold for 10 cents, equivalent to about $1.83 today. If you can find a copy in good condition today, it will set you back about $350,000.
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October 1, 1940: The 1st section of America's 1st true superhighway, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, opens between Irwin and Carlisle. It was extended to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in 1950, to the New Jersey and Ohio Turnpikes in 1954, and the Northeast Extension to Scranton opened in 1957.
Today, it runs 360 miles, using what is now Interstates 70, 76 and 276 (going west to east). It costs $50.40 to drive its entire length using cash, $36.20 using E-Z Pass. Since the 1950s, it has been used by travelers to get to the games of the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh sports teams, although the main Penn State campus is considerably north of it.
Also on this day, John Schuerholz Jr. (no middle name) is born in Baltimore. The son of a minor-league ballplayer, he served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, and graduated from Towson University outside his hometown, to which he later made a big donation, and its baseball complex is named for him.
From 1966 to 1968, he worked in the front office of his hometown Baltimore Orioles. In 1969, his immediate boss, Lou Gorman, was hired by the expansion Kansas City Royals, and he took Schuerholz with him. In 1981, having just turned 41, he was named the Royals' general manager, the youngest GM in MLB at the time. He adjusted the team that lost the World Series in 1980, and made it the team that won it in 1985.
In 1990, tired of losing, Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner hired him as GM. Over the next 15 seasons, the Braves won 14 Division titles, 5 National League Pennants and the 1995 World Series. Schuerholz was brought upstairs as club President in 2007, and retired from that role in 2016. Having thus become eligible due to his retirement from an active role, he was elected to the Hall of Fame, through the Veterans' Committee; to the Braves' team Hall of Fame, and to the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.
October 1, 1941: Game 1 of the World Series. Brooklyn Dodger manager Leo Durocher surprises everyone by starting Curt Davis, and later admits he messed up the Dodgers' rotation for the Series, one of the few times Leo the Lip admits a mistake, rather than blaming someone else.
In hindsight, while the rotation was all out of whack, Davis pitched fairly well. But a home run by Joe Gordon and the pitching of Red Ruffing gave the Yankees a 3-2 win.
October 1, 1942: Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees score 3 runs in the top of the 8th to tie the game, but the St. Louis Cardinals score in the bottom of the 8th to win, 4-3, and tie up the Series.
October 1, 1943: U.S. troops enter Naples, the largest city in mainland southern Italy, and begin to liberate it from fascism in World War II. This is greatly symbolic, as the vast majority of Americans of Italian descent are from Naples on south, including the already-liberated Sicily.
Also on this day, Richard S. Nemelka (I can find no reference to what the S stands for) is born in Salt Lake City. A guard, Dick Nemelka helped his hometown Utah Stars win the 1971 ABA Championship. He is still alive, and a member of the Utah Sports Hall of Fame.
October 1, 1944, 75 years ago: The St. Louis Browns clinch the American League Pennant. It is their 1st. They are the last of Major League Baseball's "Original 16" teams (a term not used back then) to do so. They will not win another until 1966, by which point they are the Baltimore Orioles.
There will not be another team winning their 1st Pennant until September 23, 1957, when the Milwaukee Braves do it -- or, if you don't count moved teams, until October 6, 1969, when the Mets pull off their "Miracle."
The last survivor of the 1944 St. Louis Browns was 2nd baseman Don Gutteridge -- who, ironically, started his career with the Cardinals. He lived until 2008, age 96.
Also on this day, Daniel Douglas Johnson is born in Winnipegosis, Manitoba -- not to be confused with the Provincial capital of Winnipeg. A center, Danny Johnson looked set to be a career minor leaguer until the NHL expansion of 1970 made him an original Vancouver Canuck. He later played for the Winnipeg Jets, including reaching the WHA Final in 1973. He fell victim to Lou Gehrig's disease, and died in 1993, only 48. He was posthumously elected to the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame.
October 1, 1945: The U.S. War Production Board ends its wartime ban of the manufacture of radio and television equipment for consumer use. This puts America back on course to begin the TV Era, which will turn out to be incredibly important for many things, including the development of sports.
Also on this day, a baby is born on a train in Gatun, Panama Canal Zone. The doctor attending the new mother was named Rodney Cline. In gratitude, she named her son for him: Rodney Cline Carew.
Rod Carew grew up in Panama, but at age 14 moved to Washington Heights, Manhattan with his family, and attended George Washington High School. He served 6 years as a combat engineer in the U.S. Marine Corps, while playing Major League Baseball, although he was never called to serve in the Vietnam War.
In 1967, the Minnesota Twins 2nd baseman was named AL Rookie of the Year. In 1977, having moved to 1st base, he flirted with a .400 batting average for most of the season, finishing with a .388 average, a Gold Glove, 14 homers (tying a career peak), his only 100-RBI season, and the AL Most Valuable Player award.
An 18-time All-Star and a 7-time batting champion, he demanded a trade from the Twins' racist, cheapskate owner Calvin Griffith. A rumor got around that he would be traded to the Yankees in exchange for their own 1st baseman, Chris Chambliss, plus washed-up outfielder Juan Beniquez, and prospects Damaso Garcia (2nd base) and Dave Righetti (pitcher). Instead, he was sent to the California Angels. After winning the AL Western Division title with the Twins in 1969 and '70, he won 2 more with the Angels in 1979 and '82, but never won a Pennant. In 1985, he joined the 3,000 Hit Club, and retired.
The Twins (following a change in management) and the Angels have both retired his Number 29. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his 1st year of eligibility. In 1999, The Sporting News
listed him at Number 61 on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.
Although his 1st wife was Jewish, and they raised 3 children as Jewish, Rod himself, contrary to popular belief (including Adam Sandler's "Hannukah Song"), has never converted.
On the same day that Carew was born, so was a different kind of baseball legend, Mark Holtz (no middle name), outside Chicago in Elmhurst, Illinois. He was the original voice of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, but is better known for broadcasting for that area's baseball team, the Texas Rangers.
He began each broadcast with, "It's baseball time in Texas!" and a recording of that is still used at Rangers home games. If the Rangers won, he would yell, "Hello, win column!" He was able to broadcast for the Rangers in the 1996 Playoffs against the Yankees, but died of leukemia the next year.
While he was still active, an artificial lake was built as part of the Rangers' 1994-2019 ballpark complex, and was named Mark Holtz Lake for him. When the Rangers won their 1st postseason series win on October 12, 2010, his former broadcast partner, Eric Nadel, used "Hello, win column!" on the air. He has only used it the once, but the words are now put on the scoreboard after every Ranger win, much as Harry Kalas singing "High Hopes" are after every Philadelphia Phillies win.
Also on this day, Vladimir Peter Sabich Jr. is born in Sacramento. A competitive skier, "Spider" Sabich was nicknamed by his father for his skinny arms and legs. They didn't stay skinny, as he worked himself into good enough shape to compete for the U.S. in the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, although he didn't win a medal.
On March 21, 1976, he was shot and killed -- accidentally, she said -- by his live-in girlfriend, French singer Claudine Longet, in Aspen, Colorado. He was just 31. Longet was convicted of misdemeanor criminal negligence, and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Formerly married to singer Andy Williams -- who testified as to her character -- she later married her defense attorney, Ron Austin, and still lives in Aspen, at age 78.
Also on this day, Donny Edward Hathaway is born in Chicago, and grows up in St. Louis. One of the top soul singers of the 1970s, he became known for his duets with Roberta Flack, and for singing the theme song to the CBS sitcom Maude. But he suffered from schizophrenia and depression, and jumped out he window of his hotel suite at the Essex House on New York's Central Park South on January 13, 1979. He was only 33.
Also on this day, James Earle Carter Jr. is born in Plains, Georgia. As Governor of his home State in 1974, he watched Henry Louis Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th career home run, breaking Babe Ruth's record, and presented him with a personalized Georgia license plate: HLA 715.
In 1976, Carter was elected President. He didn't seem to like baseball, attending only 1 major league game during his Administration. It was a big one, though: Game 7 of the 1979 World Series in Baltimore, then the closest major league city to Washington. While Richard Nixon began the tradition of Presidents calling from the White House to congratulate winners of sports' World Championships, Carter remains the only one to do so in person, complimenting the Pittsburgh Pirates on their "Family."
After leaving the White House, and continuing the work that eventually earned him a Nobel Peace Prize, Carter rediscovered baseball, attending Braves games at Fulton County Stadium and now Turner Field, with his wife Rosalynn, as guests of then-owner Ted Turner and his then-wife Jane Fonda. In 2014, Jimmy and Rosalynn were shown on the ballpark's "kiss cam," and they obliged.
Despite a cancer diagnosis, he has been in good health for most of his life. At 95, he is now the oldest former President, and has had the longest ex-Presidency ever, nearly 39 years.
On the same day, William Donald Rehnquist is born in Milwaukee. He later changed his middle name to Hubbs. As stated earlier, he went to Stanford University, graduating in the same class as Sandra Day O'Connor. Both became prominent lawyers in Arizona.
In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed Rehnquist to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan, having already made O'Connor the Court's 1st female Justice, promoted Rehnquist to Chief Justice. One of the most conservative Justices in the Court's history, he was responsible for the decision in Bush v. Gore that made George W. Bush President. He died in 2005.
Also on this day, Louis Jacob Weertz is born in Omaha, Nebraska, and grows up in Des Moines, Iowa. He became a famous pianist under the name Roger Williams, best known for his recording of the instrumental "Autumn Leaves," which hit Number 1 in 1955. He died in 2011, just after his 87th birthday.
October 1, 1927: Michigan Stadium opens in Ann Arbor. The University of Michigan defeats Ohio Wesleyan (not Ohio State), 33-0. At the time, it seated 72,000. By 1956, it would top 100,000. Today, officially, capacity is 107,601.
Fielding Yost, Michigan's coach at the time, had it set up so that the foundations for expansion well beyond 72,000 -- he imagined as much as 150,000, since Soldier Field in Chicago could supposedly hold that many -- were in place. A later Michigan coach, Herbert "Fritz" Crisler, resumed the Wolverines' winning tradition that Yost began. In 1969, athletic director Don Canham laid down the Big Ten Conference's 1st artificial turf field.
This led the school's radio broadcaster, Bob Ufer, to call the Stadium "The hole that Yost dug! Crisler paid for! And Canham carpeted!" It was switched back to real grass in 1991, and then to FieldTurf in 2003.
"The Big House" holds the following all-time single-game attendance records: College football, in any on-campus stadium, 115,109 (September 7, 2013, Michigan 41, Notre Dame 30); hockey, anywhere in the world, 105,491 (January 1, 2014, Toronto Maple Leafs 3, Detroit Red Wings 2 in the NHL Winter Classic); and soccer, anywhere in the United States, 109,318 (August 2, 2014, Manchester United 3, Real Madrid 1 in the International Champions Cup).
Also on this day, Thomas Edward Bosley is born in Chicago. He won a Tony Award playing New York's Mayor LaGuardia in the 1960 musical Fiorello! But he became a legend as Howard Cunningham, the genial dad trying to understand the changes in the 1950s and '60s in the Milwaukee-based 1974-85 sitcom Happy Days. He was the 1st member of the main cast to die, in 2010.
Howard was once shown taking his son Richie, played by Ron Howard, to a Braves game at Milwaukee County Stadium, where he caught a home run ball hit by Hank Aaron. He also mentions having run away from home at age 15, and going to New York, and seeing Babe Ruth play.
On another episode, when Arthur Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler) bemoaned his difficulty in teaching high school kids his automotive skills, Howard reminded him of Rogers Hornsby, the great hitter who couldn't win as a manager, because he had no patience with players who weren't as good as he was. Howard reminded The Fonz that the reason he's there to teach is that these kids aren't as good as he is, but they want to learn. The Fonz went on to become one of the most popular teachers as Jefferson High School.
(Milwaukee doesn't actually have a Jefferson High, but it has a Washington High, where exterior scenes were filmed.)
October 1, 1928: Harold Richard Naragon is born in Zanesville, Ohio. A catcher, he was a member of the 1954 American League Pennant-winning Cleveland Indians, and was with the original Washington Senators when they moved to become the Minnesota Twins in 1960-61.
He coached for the Twins when they won the Pennant in 1965, and for the Detroit Tigers when they won the 1969 World Series. In each case, he was a secondary pitching coach to former Braves and Yankees pitcher Johnny Sain. He died on August 31, 2019.
Also on this day, Newark Metropolitan Airport opens, on the south side of Newark. In the 1950s, it advertised itself as "The Airport of the 1970s." In 1973, it was renamed Newark International Airport. In 2001, it was renamed "Newark Liberty International Airport" after the 9/11 attacks. In the 2010s, it could still advertise itself as such, not that it would want to.
On May 2, 1978, Match Game aired an episode with this clue: "When the airline pilot died, he ended up in Heaven, but his luggage ended up in (blank)." The contestant, and panelists Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Arlene Francis and Richard Dawson all said "Hell" or some variation thereof. Panelist Patti Deutsch said, "Newark." I can only surmise that she'd been to Newark Airport often enough to make that answer make sense.
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October 1, 1930: Richard St. John Harris is born in Limerick, Ireland. A renowned rugby player as a schoolboy, he had to quit when he contracted tuberculosis. He went into acting, and in 1963 played a rugby player in the film This Sporting Life.
He played King Arthur in the 1967 film version of the musical Camelot, and Albus Dumbledore in the 1st 2 films of the Harry Potter franchise, before dying in 2002. (Michael Gambon played the role thereafter.) But he may be best known for singing Jimmy Webb's magnum opus "MacArthur Park" -- in all 3 verses, incorrectly giving the name of the real-life park in downtown Los Angeles as "MacArthur's Park."
October 1, 1931: The George Washington Bridge opens, connecting Upper Manhattan with Fort Lee, New Jersey. It is a major entrance and exit in New York City for fans going to Yankee games. Many is the time that Yankee broadcaster Phil Rizzuto wanted to leave a game early, saying, "I gotta get over that bridge!"
Of course, these days, it's best known for the scandal that sank the 2016 Presidential campaign of New Jersey's current Governor, Chris Christie, and may yet lead to a criminal investigation and an early end to his Governorship.
Also on this day, Fred Leo Kipp is born in Piqua, Kansas. A pitcher, he debuted with the Dodgers in their last season in Brooklyn, 1957, and was still with them in Los Angeles in their World Championship season of 1959, although he did not appear in the World Series, and did not get a World Series ring. He was with the Yankees in 1960, but that was it. His career record was 6-7. He founded a successful construction company in the suburbs of Kansas City, and is still alive, at 88.
October 1, 1932: Did he or didn't he? Surely, Babe Ruth did not point to center field in Game 3 of the World Series against the Chicago Cubs and say, "I’m gonna hit the ball there." But a home movie discovered in 1992 certainly shows him pointing at pitcher Charlie Root. It looks like he's sending some sort of message. On the next pitch, boom. Message received. So, by my definition, yeah, Babe Ruth "called his shot."
The last living player from either team was Charlie Devens, Yankee pitcher 1932-34, died August 13, 2003, at age 93. The last to have actually played in the game was Frank Crosetti, Yankee shortstop 1932-48, and coach 1949-68, died February 11, 2002, at age 91.
Also on this day, Joe DiMaggio makes his professional debut. Like Mickey Mantle, who would succeed him as the Yankees’ center fielder, it was as a shortstop. Also like Mantle, his time at shortstop doesn't last long. A few weeks short of his 18th birthday, DiMag has been put into the lineup for the last game of the season for his hometown club, the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. A year later, he will become the best pro ballplayer west of St. Louis. Maybe the best one east of it, too.
October 1, 1933: The baseball regular season ends, and, with the day's games meaning nothing in either League's standings, Babe Ruth pitches for the last time, in order to draw a big crowd in the finale of a season in which the Yankees did not win. It doesn't work: Only 25,000 fans come out.
The Babe goes the distance against his former team, the Red Sox. He gives up 5 runs on 12 hits and 3 walks, with no strikeouts. But the Yankees win, 6-5. Ruth also hits his 34th home run of the season, the 686th of his career, and retires with a career won-lost record of 94-46.
Also on this day, the American League Champion Washington Senators close out their regular season with a 3-0 loss to the Philadelphia Athletics at Griffith Stadium. Rube Walberg of the A's and Ray Prim of the Senators both threw goose eggs for 10 innings, but singles by Doc Cramer and Jimmie Foxx in the top of the 11th give Connie Mack's club the win.
The game ended with a pinch-hitting appearance by Nick Altrock, who does not reach base. The Senators coach is 57 years old, the oldest player in MLB history to that point. (Only Satchel Paige, who pitched an inning at 59 in 1965, has been older.)
His last previous appearance had been in 1924, when, at 47, he became the oldest player ever to hit a triple. He had debuted as a pitcher in 1898, so this makes him the last remaining player from the 19th Century, and the 1st man to play in MLB in 5 different decades. (Minnie Minoso of the Chicago White Sox would match that in 1980.)
He won 23 games in 1905 and 20 in 1906, so he was a good pitcher for a while. He helped the Boston Red Sox win the World Series in 1903 and the Chicago White Sox do it in 1906. He was a coach for the Senators from 1912 to 1953, 42 straight seasons, a record for a single franchise. He died in 1965, age 88.
Also on this day, both Leagues' seasons end with a Triple Crown winner -- and both in Philadelphia. In the AL, Foxx batted .356 with 48 home runs and 163 RBIs. In the National League, Chuck Klein of the Phillies batted .368 with 28 homers and 120 RBIs.
October 1, 1934: Charles Joseph Hiller is born outside Chicago in Johnsburg, Illinois. A 2nd baseman, Chuck Hiller helped the San Francisco Giants win the 1962 National League Pennant. In Game 4 of the World Series, he hit a grand slam to help the Giants win the game, although the Yankees won the Series.
He played for the Mets from 1965 to 1967, where he met Whitey Herzog, then the team's director of player development. He was on Herzog's coaching staff with the St. Louis Cardinals, when they won the 1982 World Series. He died in 2004.
October 1, 1935: Julia Elizabeth Wells is born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England. We know her as Julie Andrews. What does she have to do with sports? Not much: Even her flying as Mary Poppins was done with special effects rather than athleticism.
October 1, 1936: Duncan Edwards (no middle name) is born in Dudley, Worcestershire, England. The left wing half -- today, he'd be a "defensive midfielder" -- was perhaps the best of the "Busby Babes" playing for manager Matt Busby on the Manchester United team that won the Football League title in 1956 and 1957, and had advanced to the Semifinal of the 1958 European Cup.
But on February 6, 1958, on the way back from the Quarterfinal, having advanced by beating Red Star Belgrade of what was then Yugoslavia, United's plane had to be refueled in Munich, West Germany. Attempting to take off in snowfall, it crashed. Edwards survived until February 21, dead at 23.
He was 1 of 8 United players killed, 23 people overall. Two other players were so badly hurt that they never played again. Busby was also injured, and unable to return to managing the team until the next season. Amazingly, they avoided relegation, and reached a 2nd straight FA Cup Final, but, as in 1957, lost.
To this day, there are people who think that, with Edwards and the other United players available, England would have won the 1958 and 1962 World Cups. There's just 2 problems with this theory: Brazil, and England themselves. Even when they won in 1966 (Edwards could have made that team, as he would have been only 29), they needed home soil and a very questionable goal to win it.
But on February 6, 1958, on the way back from the Quarterfinal, having advanced by beating Red Star Belgrade of what was then Yugoslavia, United's plane had to be refueled in Munich, West Germany. Attempting to take off in snowfall, it crashed. Edwards survived until February 21, dead at 23.
He was 1 of 8 United players killed, 23 people overall. Two other players were so badly hurt that they never played again. Busby was also injured, and unable to return to managing the team until the next season. Amazingly, they avoided relegation, and reached a 2nd straight FA Cup Final, but, as in 1957, lost.
To this day, there are people who think that, with Edwards and the other United players available, England would have won the 1958 and 1962 World Cups. There's just 2 problems with this theory: Brazil, and England themselves. Even when they won in 1966 (Edwards could have made that team, as he would have been only 29), they needed home soil and a very questionable goal to win it.
Also on this day, Roger Alvin LeClerc is born in Springfield, Massachusetts. A defensive tackle and placekicker, he is 1 of 11 surviving members of the 1963 NFL Champion Chicago Bears.
October 1, 1937: The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 -- that's how the drug usually spelled "marijuana" was spelled in this case -- goes into effect. It placed a tax on the sale of cannabis, designed to make the drug harder to obtain. It may have been a response to the 1936 film Reefer Madness, an early exploitation film.
This law was overturned in the 1969 Supreme Court case Leary v. United States. In 1970, as part of President Richard Nixon beginning "The War On Drugs," Congress repealed it, but replaced it with what they hoped would be more effective legislation.
Also on this day, Dick Gould (the only name I have for him) is born outside Los Angeles in Ventura, California. A tennis star at Stanford University, he went on to coach them to a record 17 NCAA Championships. His players included John McEnroe, Roscoe Tanner and Tim Mayotte. He is still alive.
October 1, 1938: Estelle Eggleston is born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, and grows up in Memphis. With a name like that, an actress needs a stage name. Alliteration helps. So she became Stella Stevens.
A 1960 Playboy Playmate, she co-starred with fellow Memphian Elvis Presley in Girls! Girls! Girls! and Jerry Lewis in the original version of The Nutty Professor. Through the 1960s, '70s and '80s, she became a "character actor," or "one of those actors who's on every show." She is still alive, but in a long-term care facility, suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
October 1, 1939, 80 years ago: The St. Louis Browns beat the Chicago White Sox 4-3 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Jimmy Dykes, of the 1929-31 Philadelphia Athletics dynasty, now 42 and the White Sox' manager, finishes the game at 3rd base, coming to bat once and failing to reach base. This makes Dykes the last remaining player who had played in the 1910s.
Also on this day, Ervin Wilfred Bishop is born in Winner, South Dakota. With a name like that, it's a good thing he became a football player. An offensive lineman, Sonny Bishop reached 2 AFL Championship Games, winning with the 1962 Dallas Texans and losing with the 1967 Houston Oilers. He was an AFL All-Star in 1968, and is still alive.
October 1939 is also the month -- with no specified date -- of Marvel Mystery Comics #1, produced by Timely Comics. By 1950, the company would take the name Marvel Comics. The issue now usually referred to as just "Marvel #1" featured Prince Namor of Atlantis, the Sub-Mariner; the original version of the Human Torch, an android; a gun-toting crimefighter called the Angel; and Ka-Zar the Great, a Tarzan ripoff.
In Fantastic Four #4, May 1962, as part of Marvel's attempt to re-establish itself as DC Comics' main rival and perhaps even its superior, the new Human Torch, Johnny Storm of the titular hero team, finds the long-lost, amnesiac Sub-Mariner, and restores his memory, but with terrible results. Namor is often referred to as comic books' 1st "anti-hero": A man who helps when he feels like it, but also causes great harm.
In X-Men #1, September 1963, a new superhero named the Angel would be introduced, a man with wings who could fly. Aside from the name, and large wealth, this new Angel, Warren Worthington III, has nothing in common with his predecessor, a private detective named Thomas Halloway.
Marvel #1 sold for 10 cents, equivalent to about $1.83 today. If you can find a copy in good condition today, it will set you back about $350,000.
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October 1, 1940: The 1st section of America's 1st true superhighway, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, opens between Irwin and Carlisle. It was extended to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in 1950, to the New Jersey and Ohio Turnpikes in 1954, and the Northeast Extension to Scranton opened in 1957.
Today, it runs 360 miles, using what is now Interstates 70, 76 and 276 (going west to east). It costs $50.40 to drive its entire length using cash, $36.20 using E-Z Pass. Since the 1950s, it has been used by travelers to get to the games of the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh sports teams, although the main Penn State campus is considerably north of it.
Also on this day, John Schuerholz Jr. (no middle name) is born in Baltimore. The son of a minor-league ballplayer, he served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, and graduated from Towson University outside his hometown, to which he later made a big donation, and its baseball complex is named for him.
From 1966 to 1968, he worked in the front office of his hometown Baltimore Orioles. In 1969, his immediate boss, Lou Gorman, was hired by the expansion Kansas City Royals, and he took Schuerholz with him. In 1981, having just turned 41, he was named the Royals' general manager, the youngest GM in MLB at the time. He adjusted the team that lost the World Series in 1980, and made it the team that won it in 1985.
In 1990, tired of losing, Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner hired him as GM. Over the next 15 seasons, the Braves won 14 Division titles, 5 National League Pennants and the 1995 World Series. Schuerholz was brought upstairs as club President in 2007, and retired from that role in 2016. Having thus become eligible due to his retirement from an active role, he was elected to the Hall of Fame, through the Veterans' Committee; to the Braves' team Hall of Fame, and to the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.
October 1, 1941: Game 1 of the World Series. Brooklyn Dodger manager Leo Durocher surprises everyone by starting Curt Davis, and later admits he messed up the Dodgers' rotation for the Series, one of the few times Leo the Lip admits a mistake, rather than blaming someone else.
In hindsight, while the rotation was all out of whack, Davis pitched fairly well. But a home run by Joe Gordon and the pitching of Red Ruffing gave the Yankees a 3-2 win.
October 1, 1942: Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees score 3 runs in the top of the 8th to tie the game, but the St. Louis Cardinals score in the bottom of the 8th to win, 4-3, and tie up the Series.
October 1, 1943: U.S. troops enter Naples, the largest city in mainland southern Italy, and begin to liberate it from fascism in World War II. This is greatly symbolic, as the vast majority of Americans of Italian descent are from Naples on south, including the already-liberated Sicily.
Also on this day, Richard S. Nemelka (I can find no reference to what the S stands for) is born in Salt Lake City. A guard, Dick Nemelka helped his hometown Utah Stars win the 1971 ABA Championship. He is still alive, and a member of the Utah Sports Hall of Fame.
October 1, 1944, 75 years ago: The St. Louis Browns clinch the American League Pennant. It is their 1st. They are the last of Major League Baseball's "Original 16" teams (a term not used back then) to do so. They will not win another until 1966, by which point they are the Baltimore Orioles.
There will not be another team winning their 1st Pennant until September 23, 1957, when the Milwaukee Braves do it -- or, if you don't count moved teams, until October 6, 1969, when the Mets pull off their "Miracle."
The last survivor of the 1944 St. Louis Browns was 2nd baseman Don Gutteridge -- who, ironically, started his career with the Cardinals. He lived until 2008, age 96.
Also on this day, Daniel Douglas Johnson is born in Winnipegosis, Manitoba -- not to be confused with the Provincial capital of Winnipeg. A center, Danny Johnson looked set to be a career minor leaguer until the NHL expansion of 1970 made him an original Vancouver Canuck. He later played for the Winnipeg Jets, including reaching the WHA Final in 1973. He fell victim to Lou Gehrig's disease, and died in 1993, only 48. He was posthumously elected to the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame.
October 1, 1945: The U.S. War Production Board ends its wartime ban of the manufacture of radio and television equipment for consumer use. This puts America back on course to begin the TV Era, which will turn out to be incredibly important for many things, including the development of sports.
Also on this day, a baby is born on a train in Gatun, Panama Canal Zone. The doctor attending the new mother was named Rodney Cline. In gratitude, she named her son for him: Rodney Cline Carew.
Rod Carew grew up in Panama, but at age 14 moved to Washington Heights, Manhattan with his family, and attended George Washington High School. He served 6 years as a combat engineer in the U.S. Marine Corps, while playing Major League Baseball, although he was never called to serve in the Vietnam War.
In 1967, the Minnesota Twins 2nd baseman was named AL Rookie of the Year. In 1977, having moved to 1st base, he flirted with a .400 batting average for most of the season, finishing with a .388 average, a Gold Glove, 14 homers (tying a career peak), his only 100-RBI season, and the AL Most Valuable Player award.
An 18-time All-Star and a 7-time batting champion, he demanded a trade from the Twins' racist, cheapskate owner Calvin Griffith. A rumor got around that he would be traded to the Yankees in exchange for their own 1st baseman, Chris Chambliss, plus washed-up outfielder Juan Beniquez, and prospects Damaso Garcia (2nd base) and Dave Righetti (pitcher). Instead, he was sent to the California Angels. After winning the AL Western Division title with the Twins in 1969 and '70, he won 2 more with the Angels in 1979 and '82, but never won a Pennant. In 1985, he joined the 3,000 Hit Club, and retired.
The Twins (following a change in management) and the Angels have both retired his Number 29. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his 1st year of eligibility. In 1999, The Sporting News
listed him at Number 61 on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.
Although his 1st wife was Jewish, and they raised 3 children as Jewish, Rod himself, contrary to popular belief (including Adam Sandler's "Hannukah Song"), has never converted.
On the same day that Carew was born, so was a different kind of baseball legend, Mark Holtz (no middle name), outside Chicago in Elmhurst, Illinois. He was the original voice of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, but is better known for broadcasting for that area's baseball team, the Texas Rangers.
He began each broadcast with, "It's baseball time in Texas!" and a recording of that is still used at Rangers home games. If the Rangers won, he would yell, "Hello, win column!" He was able to broadcast for the Rangers in the 1996 Playoffs against the Yankees, but died of leukemia the next year.
While he was still active, an artificial lake was built as part of the Rangers' 1994-2019 ballpark complex, and was named Mark Holtz Lake for him. When the Rangers won their 1st postseason series win on October 12, 2010, his former broadcast partner, Eric Nadel, used "Hello, win column!" on the air. He has only used it the once, but the words are now put on the scoreboard after every Ranger win, much as Harry Kalas singing "High Hopes" are after every Philadelphia Phillies win.
Also on this day, Vladimir Peter Sabich Jr. is born in Sacramento. A competitive skier, "Spider" Sabich was nicknamed by his father for his skinny arms and legs. They didn't stay skinny, as he worked himself into good enough shape to compete for the U.S. in the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, although he didn't win a medal.
On March 21, 1976, he was shot and killed -- accidentally, she said -- by his live-in girlfriend, French singer Claudine Longet, in Aspen, Colorado. He was just 31. Longet was convicted of misdemeanor criminal negligence, and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Formerly married to singer Andy Williams -- who testified as to her character -- she later married her defense attorney, Ron Austin, and still lives in Aspen, at age 78.
Also on this day, Donny Edward Hathaway is born in Chicago, and grows up in St. Louis. One of the top soul singers of the 1970s, he became known for his duets with Roberta Flack, and for singing the theme song to the CBS sitcom Maude. But he suffered from schizophrenia and depression, and jumped out he window of his hotel suite at the Essex House on New York's Central Park South on January 13, 1979. He was only 33.
As far as I know, Donny Hathaway had nothing to do with sports. Although she wasn't born for another few months, singer Alecia "Pink" Moore has called him her favorite singer of all time. So did Amy Winehouse, who mentioned him in her song "Rehab." Justin Timberlake has called him "the best singer of all time." And, during Donny's lifetime, no less than Stevie Wonder said, "When Donny sings any song, he owns it."
It sounds like October 1, 1945 was a bad-luck day, but Rod Carew is still alive.
October 1, 1946: For the 1st time in major league history, a playoff series to determine a League's Pennant is played, between the St. Louis Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers. The Cardinals take the 1st game, 4-2, at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, as Howie Pollet holds the Dodgers to 2 hits, a homer and an RBI-single by Howie Schultz.
Also on this day, Mensa International is founded at Oxford University by Dr. Lancelot Ware, a British scientist and lawyer; and Roland Berrill, an Australian lawyer. The minimum IQ required for membership is 132.
Also on this day, Jonathan Edgar Warden is born in Columbus, Ohio. A pitcher, Jon Warden made 28 appearances in the major leagues, all with the 1968 Detroit Tigers, winning the World Series. His career record was 4-1. He is 1 of 15 surviving players from that iconic team.
Also on this day, Clifford Eugene Koroll is born in Conora, Saskatchewan. A right wing, he played 11 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, helping them reach the Stanley Cup Finals in 1971 and 1973. He is the current president of the Chicago Blakckhawks Alumni Association, and a member of the Chicago Sports and Saskatchewan Sports Halls of Fame.
October 1, 1947: Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees score 4 runs in the 7th inning, thanks in part to typical wildness from Rex Barney (2 walks and 2 wild pitches), and beat the Dodgers 10-3. Tommy Henrich added a home run. The Yankees lead the Series 2 games to 0.
It was said of Barney, "If home plate were high and outside, he'd be in the Hall of Fame." My grandmother, a Dodger fan from Queens, said that Barney was a good guy, but hopeless. He did, however, pitch a no-hitter in 1948. He later became the public address announcer for the Baltimore Orioles. Grandma and I attended one of the last games at Memorial Stadium in 1991, and she was thrilled to know that Barney was still in baseball. He died in 1997.
Also on this day, Lee William Capra is born in Chicago. "Buzz" Capra debuted as a pitcher with the Mets in 1971, and was a member of their 1973 Pennant winners. In typical dumb Met fashion, they then sold him, 5-10 thus far in his career, to the Braves, where he went 16-8 in 1974, leading the NL with a 2.28 ERA and making the All-Star Team.
Alas, he went just 10-19 over the rest of his career, finishing 31-37 in 1977, pitching his last game just before his 30th birthday. Later serving as a pitching coach with both teams and the Philadelphia Phillies, he now runs an instructional school in the Chicago suburbs.
Also on this day, Ángel Remigio Hermoso is born in Puerto Caballo, Venezuela. A middle infielder, Remy Hermoso was a ourneyman, and an original Montreal Expo in 1969. But he was elected to the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame. He is still alive. (UPDATE: He died on August 21, 2020.)
Also on this day, Maria Elisabeth Ender is born in The Hague, The Netherlands. Her father was a Hungarian Romani violinist, and her mother was born in Germany but was half-French and half-Russian. She was known professionally as Mariska Veres
You might not know Mariska's name, but you might remember her face, and you definitely know her voice: She was the lead singer of the Dutch band Shocking Blue, who hit Number 1 with "Venus" in 1970. She was still performing when cancer overtook her in 2006, and she died at age 69.
Also on this day, the Chicago Transit Authority is founded, to run Chicago's subway and elevated rail lines. In 1969, a band naming itself Chicago Transit Authority released a self-titled debut album. Mayor Richard J. Daley threatened to sue over the use of the name. The band changed their name to simply "Chicago." In 1976, shortly before his death, Daley praised them for drawing positive publicity to the city.
October 1, 1949, 70 years ago: Joe DiMaggio Day is held at Yankee Stadium. The Yankee Clipper wasn't retiring, but he'd had an inspirational season, and, with Joe's family in the stands because the Red Sox were in town, including Joe's brother, Boston center fielder Dominic, they chose this day to honor him. "I'd like to thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee," Joe says.
The Yankees need to win this game to make the next day, the last game of the season, the title decider. The Red Sox take a 4-0 lead, but the Yankees come back, and Johnny Lindell hits a home run in the 8th inning, to give the Yankees the 5-4
Also on this day, the People's Republic of China is proclaimed by Mao Zedong whose name would usually be written in English as "Mao Tse-tung" until the late 1970s. His Communists had overthrown the government of "Nationalist China" after a long civil war, which was put on hold while they joined forces against invading Japan. Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government flees to the island of Formosa, which becomes Taiwan.
China's rise to sports prominence would take a bit longer, as Mao was not one of those dictators who used sports as propaganda for his government and his country. Indeed, he seems not to have cared about it. He died in 1976, apparently of several ailments. One theory is that he may have been in the early, but noticeable, stages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a.k.a. Lou Gehrig's disease.
The People's Republic, a.k.a. the PRC or "Red China," began competing in the Olympics in 1984, and the International Olympics Committee began refusing to allow Taiwan to compete under that name, or under the name "Nationalist China," or even to compete under the old flag of Nationalist China. Instead, they must compete under a special, Olympic-themed flag, and under the name of "Chinese Taipei." China hosted the Olympics in Beijing in 2008, and have become particularly successful in swimming and diving, gymnastics, and weightlifting.
Also on this day, Frank Hughes (the only name I have for him) is born in Fernie, British Columbia. A left wing, he played only 5 games in the NHL, all for the woeful Oakland-based California Golden Seals in 1972. But he went to the World Hockey Association, and won titles in 1974 and 1975 with the Houston Aeros, as a teammate of Gordie, Mark and Marty Howe. He is still alive.
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October 1, 1950: Dick Sisler hits a home run off Don Newcombe in the top of the 10th inning at Ebbets Field, and the Phillies beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 4-1, to clinch the National League Pennant. It is the only Pennant the Phils would win in a 65-year stretch from 1915 to 1980. This is also the last major league game as a manager for Burt Shotton, who'd managed the Dodgers to Pennants in 1947 and 1949, and eased the path of Jackie Robinson.
The Yankees need to win this game to make the next day, the last game of the season, the title decider. The Red Sox take a 4-0 lead, but the Yankees come back, and Johnny Lindell hits a home run in the 8th inning, to give the Yankees the 5-4
Also on this day, the People's Republic of China is proclaimed by Mao Zedong whose name would usually be written in English as "Mao Tse-tung" until the late 1970s. His Communists had overthrown the government of "Nationalist China" after a long civil war, which was put on hold while they joined forces against invading Japan. Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government flees to the island of Formosa, which becomes Taiwan.
China's rise to sports prominence would take a bit longer, as Mao was not one of those dictators who used sports as propaganda for his government and his country. Indeed, he seems not to have cared about it. He died in 1976, apparently of several ailments. One theory is that he may have been in the early, but noticeable, stages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a.k.a. Lou Gehrig's disease.
The People's Republic, a.k.a. the PRC or "Red China," began competing in the Olympics in 1984, and the International Olympics Committee began refusing to allow Taiwan to compete under that name, or under the name "Nationalist China," or even to compete under the old flag of Nationalist China. Instead, they must compete under a special, Olympic-themed flag, and under the name of "Chinese Taipei." China hosted the Olympics in Beijing in 2008, and have become particularly successful in swimming and diving, gymnastics, and weightlifting.
Also on this day, Frank Hughes (the only name I have for him) is born in Fernie, British Columbia. A left wing, he played only 5 games in the NHL, all for the woeful Oakland-based California Golden Seals in 1972. But he went to the World Hockey Association, and won titles in 1974 and 1975 with the Houston Aeros, as a teammate of Gordie, Mark and Marty Howe. He is still alive.
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October 1, 1950: Dick Sisler hits a home run off Don Newcombe in the top of the 10th inning at Ebbets Field, and the Phillies beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 4-1, to clinch the National League Pennant. It is the only Pennant the Phils would win in a 65-year stretch from 1915 to 1980. This is also the last major league game as a manager for Burt Shotton, who'd managed the Dodgers to Pennants in 1947 and 1949, and eased the path of Jackie Robinson.
With the death of Newcombe earlier this year, Dodger pinch-hitter Tommy "Buckshot" Brown is the last living player from this game, 69 years later: For the Phillies, the last survivor, backup infielder Ralph "Putsy" Caballero, died in 2017. Bob Miller and Curt Simmons are the last 2 living 1950 Whiz Kids.
Also today, the Philadelphia Athletics complete a massively disappointing 102-loss season by beating the Washington Senators, 5-3 at Shibe Park. It is the last game for A's manager Connie Mack: Approaching his 88th birthday, his sons Earle, Roy and Connie Jr., agreeing on little else, agree to gang up on him and force him to finally retire as manager -- something he, as also the owner, did not want to do. Before the A's move to Kansas City, the Phillies, new owners of the ballpark, will rename it Connie Mack Stadium, and will erect a statue of him outside.
Shotton and Mack were the last managers to wear street clothes during a game. Although no rule specifically mandates that a manager must wear a uniform, there is now a rule that states that, aside from medical and security personnel, no one is allowed on the field of play during a game unless they are wearing some form of baseball uniform.
Catcher George Yankowski and shortstop Billy DeMars are the last 2 living men to have been managed by Connie Mack.
Also on this day, Conrad Francis Dobler is born in Chicago. A guard, he played 10 seasons in the NFL, making 3 Pro Bowls, reaching the Playoffs with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1974 and 1975, and the Buffalo Bills in 1980. As a graduate of the University of Wyoming, he is a member of the Wyoming Sports Hall of Fame.
He was regarded as one of the meanest players in NFL history. He kicked Merlin Olsen in the head, punched Mean Joe Greene, and, seeing Bill Bergey injured, spit on him. Olsen, normally an even-tempered man, got a small measure of revenge: On his 1980s NBC Western-themed drama Father Murphy, he put Dobler's name on a headstone.
He has had 9 knee surgeries, and lives in great pain. To make matters worse, his wife Joy was paralyzed as the result of a household accident. Their medical bills were such that they couldn't afford to pay for college for their 2 children, and wealthy friends stepped in to do so.
October 1, 1951: Game 1 of the National League Playoff at Ebbets Field. Jim Hearn outpitches Ralph Branca, who gives up a home run to Bobby Thomson in the 4th inning, a foreshadowing. Monte Irvin also homers for the Giants, who win, 3-1.
Also on this day, Peter McWilliam dies at age 72. A left back, he played for Scottish soccer team Inverness Caledonian Thistle, and for English team Newcastle United, before managing Middlesex's (now North London's) Tottenham Hotspur and North Yorkshire's Middlesbrough.
October 1, 1952: Game 1 of the World Series. Joe Black, a "rookie" at age 28 (the Plainfield, New Jersey native had already helped the Baltimore Elite Giants win 2 Negro League Pennants), becomes the 1st black pitcher to win a World Series game, backed by home runs from Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider and Pee Wee Reese. The Dodgers beat the Yankees, 4-2.
The Yankees and Dodgers played each other in 7 "Subway Series." Only in 1952 and 1956 did the Dodgers win Game 1. And yet, the Yankees still won both of those Series.
Also on this day, Jacques Martin (no middle name) is born in Saint-Pascal Baylon, Ontario. He was the head coach of the NHL's St. Louis Blues from 1986 to 1988, of the Ottawa Senators from 1995 to 2004 (getting them to their 1st Playoff berth in 1996 and to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2003), the Florida Panthers from 2005 to 2008, and the Montreal Canadiens from 2009 to 2012. He is now an assistant with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and finally won his 1st Stanley Cup this past June.
Also on this day, Robert Howard Myrick is born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He was a pitcher who went 3-6 for the Mets in 1976, '77 and '78. He died in 2012.
Also on this day, John Langenus dies in his native Antwerp, Belgium at age 60. He was the referee in the 1st World Cup Final, at Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, Uruguay on July 30, 1930. Uruguay beat Argentina 4-2. He also officiated at 2 other games at that 1st World Cup, and 1 more game each in the 1934 and 1938 World Cups. He wrote 3 books about soccer, including his memoir, Whistling in the World.
October 1, 1953: Game 2 of the World Series. Mickey Mantle hitting a home run, especially in a World Series game, is already not a surprise. Billy Martin doing it is one. Both do it, powering the Yankees to a 4-2 victory over the Dodgers, as Eddie Lopat outpitches Preacher Roe. The Yankees now lead the Series 2 games to 0.
Also on this day, President Jose Antonio Remon of Panama, visiting America, receives a ticker-tape parade in New York.
Also on this day, President Jose Antonio Remon of Panama, visiting America, receives a ticker-tape parade in New York.
Also on this day, Peter Frank Falcone is born in Brooklyn. His alma mater, Lafayette High School, has produced more major league players than any other high school, including Hall-of-Famer Sandy Koufax. It also produced Joe Pignatano, the last Dodger to bat at Ebbets Field, the man whose triple-play groundout ended the Mets' atrocious 1st season in 1962, a longtime Met coach, and Falcone's cousin.
Pete Falcone was a lefthanded pitcher who pitched for one of the New York City teams, but he was no Koufax. Debuting with the San Francisco Giants in 1975, he pitched for the Mets from 1979 to 1982, and, saying he was "just tired of baseball... tired of the lifestyle," retired as a Brave in 1984. He was 70-90 for his career, including 26-37 for the Mets.
It was hardly all his fault, as the Mets were dreadful then. This was the years when M. Donald Grant's demolition of the team that had won Pennants in 1969 and 1973 led to attendances so small, Shea Stadium was known as Grant's Tomb. But Falcone didn't help himself much, despite a 1980 game where he tied a major league record by striking out the 1st 6 batters he faced
There was a game, I can't remember what year it was, but my father and I were watching the Mets on WOR-Channel 9, and Falcone walked home 2 runs with the bases loaded. With every pitch Falcone threw that missed the plate, my father laughed harder. Ever since, walking home a run has been known in my family as "pulling a Falcone."
Also on this day, Grete Andersen is born in Oslo, Norway. As Grete Waitz, no person, male or female, has won the New York City Marathon more times: 9. She died of cancer in 2011, just 57 years old.
October 1, 1955: Game 4 of the World Series at Ebbets Field. Gil McDougald hits a home run for the Yankees, but Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, and, making up for previous Series slumps, Gil Hodges knock 'em out for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Clem Labine pitches just well enough to win, and Dem Bums tie up the Series, 8-5.
Also on this day, a new show premieres on CBS. Well, sort of: The Honeymooners had been a sketch on The Jackie Gleason Show, but now it becomes a standalone half-hour situation comedy, perhaps the greatest sitcom in history.
The 1st episode, appropriately enough, discusses television itself: It is titled "TV Or Not TV," and shows what happens when Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden (Gleason) and sewer worker, upstairs neighbor and best friend Ed Norton (Art Carney) go halfsies on a television set, because neither one can afford their own. (Ralph has never had one, because he's cheap. Ed's 1st one just broke down.)
Ralph's wife, Alice Kramden (Audrey Meadows), doesn't think it will work, but she wants a TV set. Interestingly, unless you count Alice's groan over a tricky sink, Ed's wife, Thelma "Trixie" Norton (Joyce Randolph), has the 1st line in the show's history: "Hiya, Alice!"
There will be the occasional sports reference on the show. In "The Golfer," Ralph tries to learn how to play golf to impress a bus company official. In "Here Comes the Bride," Ralph notes that Alice's sister, finally getting married, has been a bridesmaid so often, she caught her own bouquet. Alice said her foot slipped, and Ralph says, "If my food could slip like that, I'd be playing center field for the New York Giants!"
In "Young At Heart," Ralph wears a varsity football letter sweater. The letter is V, although the name of his school is never revealed. (There is a Martin Van Buren High School in New York, but it's in Queens, and is unlikely to have been Ralphie Boy's alma mater.) And in the last episode, "A Man's Pride," Ralph runs into a high school nemesis at a boxing card at the old Madison Square Garden.
Also on this day, Jeffrey James Reardon is born in the Boston suburb of Dalton, Massachusetts. He debuted with the Mets in 1979. In a typical dumb Mets deal, in 1981 they traded him to the Montreal Expos for Ellis Valentine, a former All-Star who had been plagued by injuries, and did little for the Mets.
Reardon became the all-time saves leader for a while, with 367. He was a 4-time All-Star, reached the NL Championship Series with the Expos in 1981, won the World Series with the Twins in 1987, reached the AL Championship Series with his hometown Red Sox in 1990, and won a Pennant with the Braves in 1992. With his fearsome look and fastball, he became known as The Terminator. He closed his career with the Yankees in 1994.
Since his retirement, Reardon has struggled with injuries, prescription drug addiction, and the resulting mental illness. He also had a son who struggled with drugs, and died at age 20.
October 1, 1956: Albert Von Tilzer dies in Los Angeles. He was 78. You may not know his name, his face, or his voice, but you know his tune, to which Jack Norworth wrote words: "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Aside from that, his most famous composition is "(I'll Be With You In) Apple Blossom Time."
His brother Harry Von Tilzer, also a Tin Pan Alley songwriter, wrote, "A Bird in a Gilded Cage," "Wait 'Til the Sun Shines, Nellie," "And the Green Grass Grew All Around," and "I Want a Girl (Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad)." (Blues for Sigmund Freud, anyone?)
Also on this day, Vance Aaron Law is born in Boise, Idaho. A 3rd baseman, he reached the major leagues in 1980, with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team for which his father Vern Law won the 1960 Cy Young Award and World Series. He was an All-Star in 1988, with the Chicago Cubs. He remained in the major leagues through 1991, and pitched 7 times with a 3.38 ERA.
Like his father, Vance is a Mormon, and a member of the Utah Sports Hall of Fame. He was the head baseball coach at Brigham Young University from 2000 to 2012. Since then, he has been a scout for the Chicago White Sox.
Also on this day, Theresa Mary Brasier is born in Eastbourne, Sussex, England. We know her under her married name, Theresa May. A member of Britain's House of Commons since 1997, she became Prime Minister in 2016, on the basis of guiding the British departure from the European Union, a.k.a. "Brexit." She was unsuccessful, and stepped down earlier this year, handing the office to Boris Johnson.
As far as I know, she has nothing to do with sports, although her constituency, Maidenhead in Berkshire, is the hometown of Nick Hornby, the writer who became famous for writing Fever Pitch, a memoir of his fandom for North London soccer team Arsenal.
Speaking of which...
October 1, 1957: Ian James Robert Allinson is born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England. A winger, he made his Arsenal debut in the 1983-84 League Cup upset by Walsall. But he came on as a late substitute and scored the late equalizer that preceded David Rocastle's stoppage-time winner in the 1986-87 League Cup Semifinal against arch-rival Tottenham Hotspur. Arsenal went on to beat Liverpool in the Final.
Arsenal then sold him to Luton Town of Bedfordshire, which beat Arsenal in the 1987-88 League Cup Final. As far as I know, he's the only player to win back-to-back League Cups for 2 different teams. He played professionally from 1975 to 1992, and went into management. He now manages St. Albans City of Hertfordshire.
October 1, 1958: Game 1 of the World Series. Casey Stengel makes a big mistake, and lets reliever Ryne Duren bat for himself in the top of the 10th inning. He makes contact, but grounds back to Warren Spahn, still pitching in this game despite being 37 years old.
A rare miscue by Yogi Berra evokes memories of Mickey Owen 17 years earlier: He drops a 3rd strike on Hank Aaron, but throws him out at 1st. Maybe that rattles Duren, because he allows a single to Joe Adcock. He gets Wes Covington out, but allows a single to Del Crandall and another to Bill Bruton, bringing Adcock home to win the game, 4-3.
Also on this day, the Miami Beach Convention Center opens. It is still open, and seats 15,000 people. The American Basketball Association's Miami Floridians played here from 1968 to 1972. The 1968 Republican Convention, and both major parties' Conventions in 1972, were held here. Why? Simple: They wanted to be away from downtown, putting water between themselves and wherever the hippies and another antiwar demonstrators were staying.
This building hosted the heavyweight title fights of 1961 (Floyd Patterson-Ingemar Johansson III, Floyd won) and 1964 (Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston I, Clay winning and then changing his name to Muhammad Ali). Just 9 days before Ali forced his "total eclipse of the Sonny," on February 16, 1964, the Beatles played their 2nd full-length U.S. concert here. Elvis Presley gave a pair of concerts here on September 12, 1970.
Also on this day, the American Express Card is introduced. AmEx had already been in the traveler's check business since 1850, and followers Diners Club introducing the credit card in 1950 with their own in 1958.
From 1975 and all through the 1980s, actor Karl Malden did a series of commercials for the card and the checks, wearing a gray suit and a fedora, and delivering the famous, oft-parodied lines, "What will you do?" and "Don't leave home without them!" Many other celebrities, whose names but not necessarily faces would be recognized, did American Express Card "Do you know me?" commercials.
October 1, 1959, 60 years ago: Game 1 of the World Series, the 1st Series game played in Chicago in 14 years, and the 1st by the Chicago White Sox in 40 years. It is also the 1st Series game played by a team west of St. Louis, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Ted Kluszewski, who never won a Pennant as the big slugger for the Cincinnati Reds, makes the most of his chance with the South Siders, hitting 2 home runs. Early Wynn pitches a shutout, and the Pale Hose beat Dem Bums 11-0 at Comiskey Park.
The White Sox are 3 wins away from a World Championship. This is as good as it will get for the franchise for another 46 years.
*
October 1, 1960: Nigeria is granted independence by Britain. Today, at 200 million people, it is the most populous nation in Africa. But its politics have been wracked with corruption.
Its green-clad national soccer team, known as the Super Eagles, has won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980, 1994 and 2013; has reached the Round of 16 at the World Cup in 1994, 1998 and 2014; and produced legendary players like Jay-Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu, Peter Odemwingie, John Obi Mikel and Ahmed Musa.
October 1, 1961: Roger Maris makes it 61 in '61. He hits the record-breaking home run off Tracy Stallard. It is the only run of the game, as the Yankees beat the Red Sox, 1-0.
Also on this day, District of Columbia Stadium opens in Washington, D.C. The Washington Redskins lose to the New York Giants, 24-21. D.C. Stadium will become home of the Washington Senators the following April, and host the 1962 and 1969 Major League Baseball All-Star Games. President John F. Kennedy will throw out the ceremonial first ball at both Opening Day and the All-Star Game in 1962. In 1969, the stadium will be renamed for his brother and Attorney General: Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium.
The Senators left after the 1971 season, and baseball did not return until 2005. The Nationals arrived, and remained through the 2007 season, then moved into Nationals Park. The Redskins played there until 1996, building the NFL's most intimidating home-field advantage, reaching 4 Super Bowls, winning 3.
After hosting the Washington Wolves and the Washington Diplomats of the old North American Soccer League, in 1996 RFK Stadium became the home of D.C. United, a charter team in Major League Soccer. It continued to be DCU's home through the 2017 season, and they've now moved into Audi Field.
It has been announced that RFK Stadium will be demolished in 2021. The 1st of the multi-purpose oval stadiums built in America in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, it is one of the last to still be standing. The only one still in use is the Oakland Coliseum, although the Astrodome is still standing.
In the 2014 film X-Men: Days of Future Past, Erik Lensherr, a.k.a. Magneto (played in the flashback sequences by Michael Fassbender, and as an old man by Ian McKellen), rips the circular stadium off its foundation, levitates it, and moves it across town, surrounding the White House, with the intention of killing President Richard Nixon. He fails. Computer-generated imagery is used to simulate the stadium's appearance in 1973.
Also on this day, Tom Melvin -- I don't have his full name -- is born outside San Francisco in Redwood City, California. An offensive lineman at San Francisco State University, he was not drafted by an NFL team or a USFL team. he went into coaching.
In 1999, he joined Andy Reid's staff on the Philadelphia Eagles, and has been with him, mostly as tight ends coach, ever since: Until 2012 in Philadelphia, and since 2013 with the Kansas City Chiefs. Together, so far, they have gone to 6 Conference Championship Games (5 in the NFC, 1 in the AFC), but only 1 Super Bowl (XXXIX, and the Eagles lost).
His first cousin, born later in October 1961, is Bob Melvin, the current manager of the Oakland Athletics and a former major league catcher.
Also on this day, Gary Robert Ablett is born in Drouin, Victoria, Australia. One of the greatest players in the history of Australian Rules football, he starred for Geelong in the late 1980s and early 1990s, becoming their all-time leading scorer with 1,030 goals. He is a member of the Australian Football League Hall of Fame.
His sons Gary Jr. and Nathan have also played for Geelong, and, unlike their father, have led them to a league title. His nephew Luke won a title with Sydney Swans. His brothers Kevin and Geoff, and his nephews Shane Tuck and Travis Tuck, have also played in the AFL.
Also on this day, Jaime Kaplan (no middle name) is born in Macon, Georgia. A tennis player, she never got past the 2nd round of any of the sport's majors, but was a big enough star at the University of Georgia that she was elected to the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. She is still alive.
Also on this day, The CTV Television Network begins operation. It was then, and still is now, Canada's 2nd-largest TV network. They wanted to call themselves "Canadian Television," but the top network, the CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, claimed exclusive rights to the term "Canadian" in television.
Their stations include CFCF-Channel 12 in Montreal, CJOH-Channel 13 in Ottawa, CFTO-Channel 9 in Toronto, CKY-Channel 7 in Winnipeg, CKCK-Channel 2 in Regina, CFCN-Channel 4 in Calgary, CFRN-Channel 3 in Edmonton, and CIVT-Channel 32 in Vancouver.
October 1, 1962: Game 1 of the National League Playoff, 11 years after the Giants and Dodgers did it in New York. Now, they do it in California, and Billy Pierce pitches a 3-hit shutout. He hardly needs to, as 2 homers by Willie Mays, and 1 each by Orlando Cepeda and Jim Davenport, give the Giants an 8-0 win at Candlestick Park.
Also on this day, Paul Anthony Walsh is born in Plumstead, South London, England. A forward, he won England's Football League with Liverpool in 1986 (but did not get an FA Cup winner's medal despite Liverpool also winning it that year, their only League and Cup "Double"), and the FA Cup with North London's Tottenham Hotspur in 1991 (their last major trophy).
He is now a pundit on the British TV show Soccer Saturday. His son Mason Walsh played for Bournemouth.
Also on this day, James Meredith registers as a full-time student at the University of Mississippi. This is a very big deal, since he is the 1st black student at "Ole Miss." Governor Ross Barnett had ordered the Mississippi National Guard to prevent this, and pro-segregation demonstrators were ready to beat or even kill Meredith if he tried.
Two days earlier, Ole Miss played the University of Kentucky at Memorial Stadium in Jackson, and won 14-0. Confederate flags were everywhere in the stands. At halftime, a gigantic Confederate flag was unveiled on the field. Fans chanted, "We want Ross!" Barnett went down to the field, took a microphone, and said, "I love Mississippi! I love her people! Our customs! I love and respect our heritage!" And he got a standing ovation.
President John F. Kennedy, on the insistence of his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, federalized the Guard, and ordered them instead to protect Meredith and allow him to enroll. The racists rioted, and threw things at the Guardsmen, who fired back. Two men were killed. But the law prohibiting racial discrimination in enrollment at State-sponsored schools was upheld. Meredith, whose college credits from all-black Jackson State University in Mississippi were carried over, received his degree from Ole Miss 10 months later.
The following Spring, the basketball team at Mississippi State University, who had won the Southeastern Conference Championship, was placed in the NCAA Tournament, to play Loyola University of Chicago, an integrated team. Barnett called the State Police, and told them to set up roadblocks to prevent the MSU Bulldogs from leaving the State to play that integrated team. It didn't work: They snuck out. And lost. Loyola became the 1st team with more black than white starters to win the National Championship.
The law then prohibited Mississippi's Governors from succeeding themselves, so Barnett had to sit out the 1963 election. He ran again in 1967, and finished a distant 4th in the Democratic Primary, the 1st gubernatorial election in the State following the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He never won another office, and died in 1987 -- absolutely unrepentant, unlike such other civil rights opponents as George Wallace of Alabama, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Albert Gore Sr. of Tennessee.
Today, Meredith is 86, and has spent most of the 57 years since as a Republican. Ole Miss has honored him with a statue, and, like its rival Mississippi State, goes out of its way to recognize its role in civil rights, first as an opponent, then as a supporter. Ole Miss still calls its teams the Rebels, but Confederate paraphernalia is no longer allowed on campus, and the "Colonel Reb" mascot has been retired.
Also on this day, Johnny Carson, not quite 38 years old, debuts as host of The Tonight Show on NBC. The guests on his 1st show: Rudy Vallee, Groucho Marx, Joan Crawford, Mel Brooks and Tony Bennett. Today, 57 years later, Brooks and Bennett are still alive.
And then, March 17, 2005: The St. Patrick's Day Massacre. Despite his protestations before Congress, we were there to talk about the past. In 2010, Big Mac finally admitted what most of us had suspected since 1998, but many of us didn't want to admit: He cheated.
Although he has been welcomed back into baseball, as hitting instructor first for the Cardinals and then for the Dodgers, and then as the bench coach for the San Diego Padres, he has never been elected to the Hall of Fame, and the section of Interstate 70 outside St. Louis that had been named the Mark McGwire Highway has been renamed the Mark Twain Highway. (What Twain would have thought of McGwire, who knows, but he was a baseball fan.)
October 1, 1964: The Red Sox beat the Indians, 4-2, in front of only 306 fans, the smallest in Fenway Park history.
October 1, 1965: The Cincinnati Reds clobber the San Francisco Giants 17-2 at Candlestick Park. The Reds get home runs from Frank Robinson, Gordy Coleman, Deron Johnson, and (surprisingly, because he would never be known for hitting them) Pete Rose. No one knows it yet, but it is the last home run that Robinson will hit for the Reds, as he is traded in the off-season.
The Giants use 8 pitchers. One is Masanori Murakami, the 1st Japanese and 1st Asian player in MLB history. He had arrived with the Giants the season before, but this is his last MLB appearance, as his family demanded that he return to Japan.
Another is Gaylord Perry, a future Hall-of-Famer, who has nothing. Another is another future Hall-of-Famer, longtime Braves pitcher Warren Spahn. Age has finally caught up to the durable Spahnnie, now 44 and the winningest lefthander ever with 363 victories. He relieves Perry in the 7th inning, walks Johnny Edwards, allows a grounder to Leo Cardenas that results in an error and a run, but an out at the plate, and then an RBI single to Sammy Ellis. Mercifully, manager Herman Franks removes him for Bill Hands, and Spahn's major league career, which began in 1942, is over.
Also on this day, Clifford John Ronning is born in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, British Columbia. A center, he played for several teams in a hockey career from 1986 to 2004, closing with the Islanders. He is a member of the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame. His son Ty Ronning is now in the Rangers' minor-league system.
His brother Harry Von Tilzer, also a Tin Pan Alley songwriter, wrote, "A Bird in a Gilded Cage," "Wait 'Til the Sun Shines, Nellie," "And the Green Grass Grew All Around," and "I Want a Girl (Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad)." (Blues for Sigmund Freud, anyone?)
Also on this day, Vance Aaron Law is born in Boise, Idaho. A 3rd baseman, he reached the major leagues in 1980, with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team for which his father Vern Law won the 1960 Cy Young Award and World Series. He was an All-Star in 1988, with the Chicago Cubs. He remained in the major leagues through 1991, and pitched 7 times with a 3.38 ERA.
Like his father, Vance is a Mormon, and a member of the Utah Sports Hall of Fame. He was the head baseball coach at Brigham Young University from 2000 to 2012. Since then, he has been a scout for the Chicago White Sox.
Also on this day, Theresa Mary Brasier is born in Eastbourne, Sussex, England. We know her under her married name, Theresa May. A member of Britain's House of Commons since 1997, she became Prime Minister in 2016, on the basis of guiding the British departure from the European Union, a.k.a. "Brexit." She was unsuccessful, and stepped down earlier this year, handing the office to Boris Johnson.
As far as I know, she has nothing to do with sports, although her constituency, Maidenhead in Berkshire, is the hometown of Nick Hornby, the writer who became famous for writing Fever Pitch, a memoir of his fandom for North London soccer team Arsenal.
Speaking of which...
October 1, 1957: Ian James Robert Allinson is born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England. A winger, he made his Arsenal debut in the 1983-84 League Cup upset by Walsall. But he came on as a late substitute and scored the late equalizer that preceded David Rocastle's stoppage-time winner in the 1986-87 League Cup Semifinal against arch-rival Tottenham Hotspur. Arsenal went on to beat Liverpool in the Final.
Arsenal then sold him to Luton Town of Bedfordshire, which beat Arsenal in the 1987-88 League Cup Final. As far as I know, he's the only player to win back-to-back League Cups for 2 different teams. He played professionally from 1975 to 1992, and went into management. He now manages St. Albans City of Hertfordshire.
October 1, 1958: Game 1 of the World Series. Casey Stengel makes a big mistake, and lets reliever Ryne Duren bat for himself in the top of the 10th inning. He makes contact, but grounds back to Warren Spahn, still pitching in this game despite being 37 years old.
A rare miscue by Yogi Berra evokes memories of Mickey Owen 17 years earlier: He drops a 3rd strike on Hank Aaron, but throws him out at 1st. Maybe that rattles Duren, because he allows a single to Joe Adcock. He gets Wes Covington out, but allows a single to Del Crandall and another to Bill Bruton, bringing Adcock home to win the game, 4-3.
Also on this day, the Miami Beach Convention Center opens. It is still open, and seats 15,000 people. The American Basketball Association's Miami Floridians played here from 1968 to 1972. The 1968 Republican Convention, and both major parties' Conventions in 1972, were held here. Why? Simple: They wanted to be away from downtown, putting water between themselves and wherever the hippies and another antiwar demonstrators were staying.
This building hosted the heavyweight title fights of 1961 (Floyd Patterson-Ingemar Johansson III, Floyd won) and 1964 (Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston I, Clay winning and then changing his name to Muhammad Ali). Just 9 days before Ali forced his "total eclipse of the Sonny," on February 16, 1964, the Beatles played their 2nd full-length U.S. concert here. Elvis Presley gave a pair of concerts here on September 12, 1970.
Also on this day, the American Express Card is introduced. AmEx had already been in the traveler's check business since 1850, and followers Diners Club introducing the credit card in 1950 with their own in 1958.
From 1975 and all through the 1980s, actor Karl Malden did a series of commercials for the card and the checks, wearing a gray suit and a fedora, and delivering the famous, oft-parodied lines, "What will you do?" and "Don't leave home without them!" Many other celebrities, whose names but not necessarily faces would be recognized, did American Express Card "Do you know me?" commercials.
October 1, 1959, 60 years ago: Game 1 of the World Series, the 1st Series game played in Chicago in 14 years, and the 1st by the Chicago White Sox in 40 years. It is also the 1st Series game played by a team west of St. Louis, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Ted Kluszewski, who never won a Pennant as the big slugger for the Cincinnati Reds, makes the most of his chance with the South Siders, hitting 2 home runs. Early Wynn pitches a shutout, and the Pale Hose beat Dem Bums 11-0 at Comiskey Park.
The White Sox are 3 wins away from a World Championship. This is as good as it will get for the franchise for another 46 years.
*
October 1, 1960: Nigeria is granted independence by Britain. Today, at 200 million people, it is the most populous nation in Africa. But its politics have been wracked with corruption.
Its green-clad national soccer team, known as the Super Eagles, has won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980, 1994 and 2013; has reached the Round of 16 at the World Cup in 1994, 1998 and 2014; and produced legendary players like Jay-Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu, Peter Odemwingie, John Obi Mikel and Ahmed Musa.
October 1, 1961: Roger Maris makes it 61 in '61. He hits the record-breaking home run off Tracy Stallard. It is the only run of the game, as the Yankees beat the Red Sox, 1-0.
Still alive from this game, 58 years later: For the Yankees, Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Hector Lopez and Jack Reed. Whitey Ford and and Ralph Terry are still alive, but did not play in this game. For the Red Sox: Chuck Schilling (no relation to Curt), Don Gile, and rookie left fielder Carl Yastrzemski.
Also on this day, after providing a venue for the Pacific Coast League's Los Angeles Angels from 1925 through 1957 and the major league expansion team with the same name this season, the West Coast version of Wrigley Field hosts its last professional baseball game. The Halos are defeated by the Tribe 8-5 in front of 9,868 fans. Wrigley West will be torn down in 5 years, to make room for an eventual public playground and senior center.
This is
also the last day that Major League Baseball games have been scheduled with
less than 2 teams calling New York home. When baseball resumes on April 11,
1962, the Mets will play their 1st game.
Also on this day, after providing a venue for the Pacific Coast League's Los Angeles Angels from 1925 through 1957 and the major league expansion team with the same name this season, the West Coast version of Wrigley Field hosts its last professional baseball game. The Halos are defeated by the Tribe 8-5 in front of 9,868 fans. Wrigley West will be torn down in 5 years, to make room for an eventual public playground and senior center.
Also on this day, District of Columbia Stadium opens in Washington, D.C. The Washington Redskins lose to the New York Giants, 24-21. D.C. Stadium will become home of the Washington Senators the following April, and host the 1962 and 1969 Major League Baseball All-Star Games. President John F. Kennedy will throw out the ceremonial first ball at both Opening Day and the All-Star Game in 1962. In 1969, the stadium will be renamed for his brother and Attorney General: Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium.
The Senators left after the 1971 season, and baseball did not return until 2005. The Nationals arrived, and remained through the 2007 season, then moved into Nationals Park. The Redskins played there until 1996, building the NFL's most intimidating home-field advantage, reaching 4 Super Bowls, winning 3.
After hosting the Washington Wolves and the Washington Diplomats of the old North American Soccer League, in 1996 RFK Stadium became the home of D.C. United, a charter team in Major League Soccer. It continued to be DCU's home through the 2017 season, and they've now moved into Audi Field.
It has been announced that RFK Stadium will be demolished in 2021. The 1st of the multi-purpose oval stadiums built in America in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, it is one of the last to still be standing. The only one still in use is the Oakland Coliseum, although the Astrodome is still standing.
In the 2014 film X-Men: Days of Future Past, Erik Lensherr, a.k.a. Magneto (played in the flashback sequences by Michael Fassbender, and as an old man by Ian McKellen), rips the circular stadium off its foundation, levitates it, and moves it across town, surrounding the White House, with the intention of killing President Richard Nixon. He fails. Computer-generated imagery is used to simulate the stadium's appearance in 1973.
Also on this day, Tom Melvin -- I don't have his full name -- is born outside San Francisco in Redwood City, California. An offensive lineman at San Francisco State University, he was not drafted by an NFL team or a USFL team. he went into coaching.
In 1999, he joined Andy Reid's staff on the Philadelphia Eagles, and has been with him, mostly as tight ends coach, ever since: Until 2012 in Philadelphia, and since 2013 with the Kansas City Chiefs. Together, so far, they have gone to 6 Conference Championship Games (5 in the NFC, 1 in the AFC), but only 1 Super Bowl (XXXIX, and the Eagles lost).
His first cousin, born later in October 1961, is Bob Melvin, the current manager of the Oakland Athletics and a former major league catcher.
Also on this day, Gary Robert Ablett is born in Drouin, Victoria, Australia. One of the greatest players in the history of Australian Rules football, he starred for Geelong in the late 1980s and early 1990s, becoming their all-time leading scorer with 1,030 goals. He is a member of the Australian Football League Hall of Fame.
His sons Gary Jr. and Nathan have also played for Geelong, and, unlike their father, have led them to a league title. His nephew Luke won a title with Sydney Swans. His brothers Kevin and Geoff, and his nephews Shane Tuck and Travis Tuck, have also played in the AFL.
Also on this day, Jaime Kaplan (no middle name) is born in Macon, Georgia. A tennis player, she never got past the 2nd round of any of the sport's majors, but was a big enough star at the University of Georgia that she was elected to the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. She is still alive.
Also on this day, The CTV Television Network begins operation. It was then, and still is now, Canada's 2nd-largest TV network. They wanted to call themselves "Canadian Television," but the top network, the CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, claimed exclusive rights to the term "Canadian" in television.
Their stations include CFCF-Channel 12 in Montreal, CJOH-Channel 13 in Ottawa, CFTO-Channel 9 in Toronto, CKY-Channel 7 in Winnipeg, CKCK-Channel 2 in Regina, CFCN-Channel 4 in Calgary, CFRN-Channel 3 in Edmonton, and CIVT-Channel 32 in Vancouver.
October 1, 1962: Game 1 of the National League Playoff, 11 years after the Giants and Dodgers did it in New York. Now, they do it in California, and Billy Pierce pitches a 3-hit shutout. He hardly needs to, as 2 homers by Willie Mays, and 1 each by Orlando Cepeda and Jim Davenport, give the Giants an 8-0 win at Candlestick Park.
Also on this day, Paul Anthony Walsh is born in Plumstead, South London, England. A forward, he won England's Football League with Liverpool in 1986 (but did not get an FA Cup winner's medal despite Liverpool also winning it that year, their only League and Cup "Double"), and the FA Cup with North London's Tottenham Hotspur in 1991 (their last major trophy).
He is now a pundit on the British TV show Soccer Saturday. His son Mason Walsh played for Bournemouth.
Also on this day, James Meredith registers as a full-time student at the University of Mississippi. This is a very big deal, since he is the 1st black student at "Ole Miss." Governor Ross Barnett had ordered the Mississippi National Guard to prevent this, and pro-segregation demonstrators were ready to beat or even kill Meredith if he tried.
Two days earlier, Ole Miss played the University of Kentucky at Memorial Stadium in Jackson, and won 14-0. Confederate flags were everywhere in the stands. At halftime, a gigantic Confederate flag was unveiled on the field. Fans chanted, "We want Ross!" Barnett went down to the field, took a microphone, and said, "I love Mississippi! I love her people! Our customs! I love and respect our heritage!" And he got a standing ovation.
President John F. Kennedy, on the insistence of his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, federalized the Guard, and ordered them instead to protect Meredith and allow him to enroll. The racists rioted, and threw things at the Guardsmen, who fired back. Two men were killed. But the law prohibiting racial discrimination in enrollment at State-sponsored schools was upheld. Meredith, whose college credits from all-black Jackson State University in Mississippi were carried over, received his degree from Ole Miss 10 months later.
The following Spring, the basketball team at Mississippi State University, who had won the Southeastern Conference Championship, was placed in the NCAA Tournament, to play Loyola University of Chicago, an integrated team. Barnett called the State Police, and told them to set up roadblocks to prevent the MSU Bulldogs from leaving the State to play that integrated team. It didn't work: They snuck out. And lost. Loyola became the 1st team with more black than white starters to win the National Championship.
The law then prohibited Mississippi's Governors from succeeding themselves, so Barnett had to sit out the 1963 election. He ran again in 1967, and finished a distant 4th in the Democratic Primary, the 1st gubernatorial election in the State following the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He never won another office, and died in 1987 -- absolutely unrepentant, unlike such other civil rights opponents as George Wallace of Alabama, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Albert Gore Sr. of Tennessee.
Today, Meredith is 86, and has spent most of the 57 years since as a Republican. Ole Miss has honored him with a statue, and, like its rival Mississippi State, goes out of its way to recognize its role in civil rights, first as an opponent, then as a supporter. Ole Miss still calls its teams the Rebels, but Confederate paraphernalia is no longer allowed on campus, and the "Colonel Reb" mascot has been retired.
Also on this day, Johnny Carson, not quite 38 years old, debuts as host of The Tonight Show on NBC. The guests on his 1st show: Rudy Vallee, Groucho Marx, Joan Crawford, Mel Brooks and Tony Bennett. Today, 57 years later, Brooks and Bennett are still alive.
October 1, 1963: Mark David McGwire is born in the Los Angeles suburb of Pomona, California, and grows up in nearby La Verne. You know the story: 1987 AL Rookie of the Year, 12-time All-Star, 3 Pennants and the 1989 World Championship with the Oakland Athletics, 1990 Gold Glove winner, 70 home runs with the Cardinals in 1998, 583 home runs for his career, voted onto the MLB All-Century Team in 1999, named Number 91 on The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Baseball Players the same year.
And then, March 17, 2005: The St. Patrick's Day Massacre. Despite his protestations before Congress, we were there to talk about the past. In 2010, Big Mac finally admitted what most of us had suspected since 1998, but many of us didn't want to admit: He cheated.
Although he has been welcomed back into baseball, as hitting instructor first for the Cardinals and then for the Dodgers, and then as the bench coach for the San Diego Padres, he has never been elected to the Hall of Fame, and the section of Interstate 70 outside St. Louis that had been named the Mark McGwire Highway has been renamed the Mark Twain Highway. (What Twain would have thought of McGwire, who knows, but he was a baseball fan.)
October 1, 1964: The Red Sox beat the Indians, 4-2, in front of only 306 fans, the smallest in Fenway Park history.
October 1, 1965: The Cincinnati Reds clobber the San Francisco Giants 17-2 at Candlestick Park. The Reds get home runs from Frank Robinson, Gordy Coleman, Deron Johnson, and (surprisingly, because he would never be known for hitting them) Pete Rose. No one knows it yet, but it is the last home run that Robinson will hit for the Reds, as he is traded in the off-season.
The Giants use 8 pitchers. One is Masanori Murakami, the 1st Japanese and 1st Asian player in MLB history. He had arrived with the Giants the season before, but this is his last MLB appearance, as his family demanded that he return to Japan.
Another is Gaylord Perry, a future Hall-of-Famer, who has nothing. Another is another future Hall-of-Famer, longtime Braves pitcher Warren Spahn. Age has finally caught up to the durable Spahnnie, now 44 and the winningest lefthander ever with 363 victories. He relieves Perry in the 7th inning, walks Johnny Edwards, allows a grounder to Leo Cardenas that results in an error and a run, but an out at the plate, and then an RBI single to Sammy Ellis. Mercifully, manager Herman Franks removes him for Bill Hands, and Spahn's major league career, which began in 1942, is over.
Also on this day, Clifford John Ronning is born in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, British Columbia. A center, he played for several teams in a hockey career from 1986 to 2004, closing with the Islanders. He is a member of the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame. His son Ty Ronning is now in the Rangers' minor-league system.
October 1, 1966: The University of Colorado beats Kansas State 10-0 at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado. This game featured the debut of Ralphie the Buffalo, Colorado's live mascot. The current version, Ralphie V, debuted in 2007. The Ralphies are always females, because a male would be too difficult for the "Ralphie Handlers" to control.
Also on this day, Arsenal sign Bob McNab from Yorkshire club Huddersfield Town. He became the left back on the Arsenal team that won the 1970 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, and both the Football League and the FA Cup (a.k.a. "The Double") in 1971.
Also on this day, George Graham made his debut for Arsenal, after having been purchased from West London team Chelsea, and he scores against Leicester City at their old Filbert Street ground. But Leicester wins the game 4-2.
The mixed emotions this produced would follow Graham throughout his career. As a player, after being switched from forward to midfield, he was key in winning the Fairs Cup and "The Double." But his carousing -- he would freely admit, "The player I was couldn't have played for the manager I am" -- meant he never achieved his full potential, and the acquisition of Alan Ball early in the 1971-72 season meant that Graham was soon out as Arsenal's Number 8.
He was sold to Manchester United, and was their Captain when they were relegated in 1974. He went into management, and got South London team Millwall promoted, but was also their manager (not that he was at all to blame) during the Kenilworth Road Riot, when their fans tore up Luton Town's stadium in the 1985 FA Cup Quarterfinal.
Still, he'd gotten Arsenal's attention back, and was hired as manager in 1986. He phased out the players who had failed to win a trophy in the 1980s, and built the hard-drinking but also hard-playing team that won the 1987 League Cup, the 1989 and 1991 League titles, both the FA Cup and the League Cup in 1993 (the 1st time it had ever been done), and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1994.
But financial shenanigans meant that he had to be fired in 1995. And the League form had slipped: 10th place in 1993, and 14th when he was fired, eventually finishing 12th, in 1995. He briefly managed Yorkshire team Leeds United, and then further enraged some Arsenal fans by managing North London arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur, and getting them the 1999 League Cup. But Tottenham fans always hated him, and he was fired in 2001. That was a mistake: They've only won 1 League Cup since, and no major trophies.
George is still alive, about to turn 75, and remains beloved by Arsenal fans, including those who know that he had to go when he did. Too many, though, still hold him up as the ideal manager, even after Arsène Wenger not only surpassed his achievements, but regularly beat him when Graham was at Spurs.
Also on this day, George Tawlon Manneh Oppong Ousman Weah is born in Monrovia, Liberia. Easily the greatest soccer player ever to come from his country, he is 2nd only to the Mozambique-born Portugal star Eusebio as the greatest ever to come from the African continent.
Like many African players, due to France holding several lands as colonies and spreading their language, George Weah headed to France to begin his European career. He won the Coupe de France with AS Monaco, managed by future Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, in 1991. With Paris Saint-Germain, he won Ligue 1 in 1994 and the Coupe in 1993 and '95. Moving on to Italy, he won their Serie A with AC Milan in 1996 and 1999. He finally played in England with West London club Chelsea, and at age 33 (old for a forward) helped them with the FA Cup.
In 1995, he won the FIFA Ballon d'Or (Golden Ball) as world player of the year. He was elected to homeland's Senate in 2014, and on October 10, 2017, he was elected the 25th President of Liberia. He was inaugurated on January 22, 2018.
October 1, 1967: The American League's tightest Pennant race ever goes down to the final day. Just 2 days earlier, in this next-to-last season of single-division leagues, 4 teams were still in it. Then, the Chicago White Sox were eliminated. Now, it was down to 3 teams. The Boston Red Sox and the Minnesota Twins were playing each other, at Fenway Park in Boston. They are tied for the lead. The winner will clinch at least a tie for the Pennant.
The Detroit Tigers are half a game back, with a doubleheader against the team then known as the California Angels, at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. If they can sweep it, they will forge a tie with the Red Sox-Twins winner, and there will be a 1-game Playoff the next day.
The White Sox had finished a close 2nd 3 years earlier, and had won a Pennant just 8 years earlier, but hadn't won a World Series in 50 years. The Tigers had come close 6 years earlier, but hadn't won a Pennant or a World Series in 22 years. In addition, their city suffered the worst race riot in the nation's history, one of several to hit American cities that Summer. The Twins had won the Pennant just 2 years earlier, but hadn't won the World Series since moving to the Minneapolis area. Which was also among those hit by a race riot. Their last title was as the Washington Senators, 43 years earlier, and nobody in Minnesota cared about that.
And the Red Sox were in their 1st Pennant race in 16 years, hadn't won a Pennant in 21 years, and hadn't won a World Series in 49 years. And their city, too, had been among those hit by race riots. It wasn't as bad as Detroit's, or Newark's, or those in Chicago and Cleveland the year before, or Los Angeles the year before that, or New York and Philadelphia the year before that, but, in this year of living dangerously, it was worse than any but those in Detroit and Newark.
Just 3 years to the day earlier, Fenway Park hosted the smallest crowd in its history, 306 fans. This time, 35,770 people shoehorned their way into the little green pinball machine in the Back Bay. The starting pitchers are Jim Lonborg for Boston, and Dean Chance for Minnesota. Lonborg was going for his 22nd win of the season. Chance was going for his 21st. Pitching for the Angels, he had won the Cy Young Award 3 years earlier, and had come back strong, including pitching a no-hitter, after 2 down years.
Tony Oliva hit an RBI double in the 1st inning. Harmon Killebrew, who shared the AL home run lead with the Sox' Carl Yastrzemski, each having hit his 44th of the season in the previous day's Boston victory, had an RBI single in the 3rd. That gave the Twins a 2-0 lead. Chance had allowed a double by Yastrzemski and 3 singles, but no walks, and no Boston runner had reached 3rd base. He was cruising.
Then came the bottom of the 6th inning. Lonborg, in those pre-designated hitter days, led off. I can imagine Joe Girardi in this situation: He would have pinch-hit for Lonborg, who, himself, had allowed only 2 runs on 4 walks (1 of them intentional), and then used 5 pitchers over the last 3 innings, allowing the Twins to win the game 7-0.
But the Sox manager was Dick Williams -- no relation to Sox legend Ted. Indeed, Dick made the very bold move of kicking Ted out of the Spring Training complex at Winter Haven, Florida, when he saw Ted contradicting Dick's instructions to hitters. That let everyone know who was in charge: Dick Williams.
It was the ex-reserve infielder's 1st season as a big-league manager, but he'd led their top farm team, the Toronto Maple Leafs (the hockey team was named for them), to the last 2 International League Pennants. Before the season, he predicted, "I think we'll win more than we'll lose." This was a very bold prediction, because the Sox hadn't done that in 9 years.
But his no-nonsense attitude, and his willingness to play black players -- the Sox had none until 1959, and had hardly used the ones they'd had since -- turned them around. Despite losing local hero Tony Conigliaro to a beaning that ruined his career, in just 1 year, they had completely reversed. They went 72-90 in 1966, but went into the regular season finale 91-70.
In 1965, a musical had premiered on Broadway, Man of La Mancha, based on Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Alonso Quixano is a middle-aged minor nobleman in Spain, who has fallen under the delusion that he is a medieval knight who must live up to the chivalric ideal. It was titled "The Impossible Dream." The music was written by Mitch Leigh, whose next-best-known song is the commercial jingle, "Nobody Doesn't Like Sara Lee." The lyrics were written by Joe Darion, and this is the only song of his that anybody remembers.
But people remember it. Richard Kiley had sung it as Quixote in the original Broadway production. Jim Nabors had sung it on an episode of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Frank Sinatra had recorded it on his album That's Life. In 1967 alone, Jack Jones had a hit with it, and The Temptations and Shirley Bassey had also released versions of it, proving that it didn't have to be an exclusively white, or even (in Shirley's case) an exclusively American or an exclusively masculine song. (It would take until 1972 for the musical to be filmed, starring Peter O'Toole.)
Jones' version only reached Number 35 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 (a.k.a. "the pop chart"), but was Number 1 on its Adult Contemporary chart, as grownups treated it as an inspirational song, rather than the fluff, or the hippie-incited songs, that kids were listening to in the "Summer of Love."
The song got associated with the Red Sox. They came into the 1967 season with their odds of winning the Pennant at 100-1. But they contended for the 1st time in a generation, and people began calling their Pennant race "The Impossible Dream." Boston was electing a Mayor that Fall (Kevin White would win the 1st of 4 terms), and "YAZ FOR MAYOR" signs appeared. The nation was electing a President the next year, and "YAZ FOR PRESIDENT" signs appeared.
Dick Williams had gotten the Sox to the last game of the season with a 50-50 shot at the Pennant. But they were losing 2-0, and didn't look like they would be able to come back.
Then came the bottom of the 6th inning. As Dan Shaughnessy of The Boston Globe put it in his 1990 book The Curse of the Bambino, published well before the 2004 postseason rewrote the rules of what constitutes a Red Sox success, "Red Sox fans can recite this inning faster than their own telephone numbers."
Lonborg led off with a bunt. A pitcher bunting with a man on 1st is common. Any player bunting to lead off an inning is not. Twins 3rd baseman Cesar Tovar mishandled it, and Lonborg was aboard. He was credited with a hit -- not that this mattered.
Jerry Adair singled, moving Lonborg to 2nd. Dalton Jones singled to left -- but the Green Monster, the 37-foot-high left field wall, was just 315 feet (they said at the time, later admitting it was closer) from home plate, and Lonborg did not want to make the 1st out of the inning at the plate. The bases were loaded, with nobody out.
The batter was Yastrzemski. Yaz shared the AL home run lead with Killebrew. He led the League in RBIs. He led in batting average. At the time, the Triple Crown wasn't all that unusual. But it wouldn't be done again until Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers in 2012.
Yaz had been on an absolute tear. He had batted over .500 in the last 2 weeks. Teammate George Scott said, "As I recall, out of those 44 home runs, 42 of them meant something: Either they won the game, or tied the game, or got us back into the game." And there was a banner held up in the center field bleachers, with a bullseye painted on it, saying, "YAZ HIT #45."
Chance delivered, and Yaz lined a shot up the middle, a clean base hit, if not the grand slam the bannerholders were looking for. Lonborg scored easily. Adair came around to score. Adair reached 3rd. It was 2-2.
That brought Ken Harrelson to the plate. Today, people know Harrelson as the incredibly annoying broadcaster for the White Sox. At the time, the Hawk was a controversial player. Kansas City Athletics owner Charlie Finley had fired manager Alvin Dark, upsetting Harrelson to the point where he said Finley was "a menace to baseball." Finley released him, despite his hitting ability. He could have punished him by trading him to a worse team, but there wasn't any team noticeably worse. So he flat-out let him go, making him a very rare thing at the time: A free agent. Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey, desperate to replace the injured Conigliaro in right field, snapped him up.
Despite being known for his power, Harrelson hit a weak grounder to short. Zoilo Versalles, 2 years earlier the AL's Most Valuable Player, threw home to try to get Jones out. He must have forgotten that 2nd base was open, meaning that the play on Jones wouldn't have been a force play. Twins catcher Earl Battey couldn't just take the ball and step on the plate: He had to tag Jones out. He couldn't. 3-2 Boston. There's still nobody out.
Twins manager Cal Ermer took Chance out, and brought in Al Worthington. Williams sent Jose Tartabull (Danny's father) in to pinch-run for Harrelson. Worthingto threw a wild pitch, and that advanced Yaz to 3rd and Tartabull to 2nd. Then he threw another, scoring Yaz and putting Tartabull on 3rd. 4-2 Boston.
Worthington finally got the 1st out of the inning, by striking Scott out. But he walked Rico Petrocelli. Reggie Smith came up, and hit a grounder to 1st. As I said, there was no DH at the time. Killebrew, like Dick Allen of the Phillies, was an atrocious 3rd baseman whose booming bat had to be kept in the lineup, so they moved him to the position where he could do the least damage. Not this time: He bobbled the grounder, and Tartabull scored. Worthington got former Yankee Norm Siebern to ground to 2nd, and Lonborg came up again, and popped to 2nd. The inning ended with Boston leading 5-2.
Lonborg cruised through the 7th inning, but ran into trouble in the 8th, as 3 straight singles by Killebrew, Oliva and Bob Allison resulted in a run, but Allison was thrown out trying to stretch his single to a double, ending the threat.
Williams sent Lonborg out for the 9th. He allowed a leadoff single to Ted Uhlaender, bringing the man who will win the AL Rookie of the Year award, Rod Carew, to the plate with the tying run. But Carew grounded to 2nd, and Mike Andrews, who had replaced Jones, turned the double play. Rich Rollins popped up to short. Petrocelli caught it for the last out. This time, as opposed to the Johnny Pesky incident in the 1946 World Series, nobody minded that the Red Sox shortstop had held onto the ball.
Red Sox 5, Twins 3. The fans poured onto the field, and picked Lonborg up, and carried him off. It is the greatest victory at Fenway Park since the 1912 World Series. (The Sox had played the 1915, '16 and '18 Series at Braves Field, because it had a larger capacity, but played the '46 Series at home, and lost.)
But the Pennant was not yet clinched. The Tigers had already won the 1st game over their doubleheader with the Angels, 6-4. If they had won the 2nd game, there would have been a Playoff at Fenway the next day. And, while the Sox won a coin flip to decide home field advantage, Williams would be in a bind, as he didn't have another pitcher as good as Lonborg to start.
In those pre-Internet days, CBS managed to link up their Detroit station, WWJ, and their Boston station, WHDH (850, once again the Sox station but with call letters WEEI), so that people in the Boston area could listen the the nightcap in Detroit. The TV version of WHDH, Channel 5 (it became the ABC affiliate, WCVB, in 1972), filmed them as they watched, as they were putting together a highlight reel to turn into a TV special after it was all over -- if the Sox won.
The Angels won, 8-5, and the Sox had their 1st Pennant in 21 years, only their 2nd in 49 years. The Sox players erupted in the locker room. Instead of a Playoff tomorrow, they would begin the World Series at home against the National League Champions, the St. Louis Cardinals, in 3 days.
That they ended up losing did little to dim the memories. They had not only won the Pennant, but they had excited the locals for the 1st time in a generation. The Red Sox were cool again. Fenway Park, at the time just one of several pre-World War I ballparks still in use and not considered particularly special, and one which team owner Tom Yawkey really wanted to get out of (either to a new stadium, or to another city entirely), became the place to be, the most famous building in New England, even more than the Old North Church.
As Shaughnessy put it, it was "the birth of Red Sox Nation." Despite everything that has been won by other teams, the Red Sox remain New England's defining sports team. As former Red Sox broadcaster Curt Gowdy put it on Fenway Park's official 75th Anniversary video in 1987, "There are 3 special things about Summer in New England: The Red Sox, Cape Cod, and I forget the 3rd."
Shaughnessy says that, while 2004 is "the greatest story of them all" for Sox fans, 1967 is the most important year in Red Sox history. He has a point: If that Pennant hadn't happened, the likeliest scenario is that Yawkey would have gotten together with Patriots owner Billy Sullivan, and moved with the Pats to suburban Foxboro. Those of you who watch English soccer: You've seen what happened when West Ham United left Upton Park in East London for the 2012 Olympic Stadium just 3 miles away.
Instead, Fenway still stands, having celebrated its 100th Anniversary, 5 more Sox Pennants, 3 World Series wins, and now, the 50th Anniversary of the Impossible Dream. Which ended with everyone waking up 1 game too early. But that didn't bother them as much as the defeats in the World Series of 1975 and 1986, or the AL Championship Series losses to the Yankees in 1999 and 2003, or the collapses of 1978 and 2011.
The Impossible Dream season remains special. People bought the Impossible Dream album. People still have 52-year-old loaves of "Big Yaz" Bread in their freezers. People still keep a copy of the famous front page of the now-defunct Boston Record American, with the Red Sox logo (in red ink, rare for a newspaper in those days) and the headline, "CHAMPS!" (Unlike the 1955 New York Daily News "WHO'S A BUM!" headline for the Brooklyn Dodgers, I can't seem to find a photo of it online.)
Also on this day, Arsenal sign Bob McNab from Yorkshire club Huddersfield Town. He became the left back on the Arsenal team that won the 1970 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, and both the Football League and the FA Cup (a.k.a. "The Double") in 1971.
Also on this day, George Graham made his debut for Arsenal, after having been purchased from West London team Chelsea, and he scores against Leicester City at their old Filbert Street ground. But Leicester wins the game 4-2.
The mixed emotions this produced would follow Graham throughout his career. As a player, after being switched from forward to midfield, he was key in winning the Fairs Cup and "The Double." But his carousing -- he would freely admit, "The player I was couldn't have played for the manager I am" -- meant he never achieved his full potential, and the acquisition of Alan Ball early in the 1971-72 season meant that Graham was soon out as Arsenal's Number 8.
He was sold to Manchester United, and was their Captain when they were relegated in 1974. He went into management, and got South London team Millwall promoted, but was also their manager (not that he was at all to blame) during the Kenilworth Road Riot, when their fans tore up Luton Town's stadium in the 1985 FA Cup Quarterfinal.
Still, he'd gotten Arsenal's attention back, and was hired as manager in 1986. He phased out the players who had failed to win a trophy in the 1980s, and built the hard-drinking but also hard-playing team that won the 1987 League Cup, the 1989 and 1991 League titles, both the FA Cup and the League Cup in 1993 (the 1st time it had ever been done), and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1994.
But financial shenanigans meant that he had to be fired in 1995. And the League form had slipped: 10th place in 1993, and 14th when he was fired, eventually finishing 12th, in 1995. He briefly managed Yorkshire team Leeds United, and then further enraged some Arsenal fans by managing North London arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur, and getting them the 1999 League Cup. But Tottenham fans always hated him, and he was fired in 2001. That was a mistake: They've only won 1 League Cup since, and no major trophies.
George is still alive, about to turn 75, and remains beloved by Arsenal fans, including those who know that he had to go when he did. Too many, though, still hold him up as the ideal manager, even after Arsène Wenger not only surpassed his achievements, but regularly beat him when Graham was at Spurs.
Also on this day, George Tawlon Manneh Oppong Ousman Weah is born in Monrovia, Liberia. Easily the greatest soccer player ever to come from his country, he is 2nd only to the Mozambique-born Portugal star Eusebio as the greatest ever to come from the African continent.
Like many African players, due to France holding several lands as colonies and spreading their language, George Weah headed to France to begin his European career. He won the Coupe de France with AS Monaco, managed by future Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, in 1991. With Paris Saint-Germain, he won Ligue 1 in 1994 and the Coupe in 1993 and '95. Moving on to Italy, he won their Serie A with AC Milan in 1996 and 1999. He finally played in England with West London club Chelsea, and at age 33 (old for a forward) helped them with the FA Cup.
In 1995, he won the FIFA Ballon d'Or (Golden Ball) as world player of the year. He was elected to homeland's Senate in 2014, and on October 10, 2017, he was elected the 25th President of Liberia. He was inaugurated on January 22, 2018.
*
October 1, 1967: The American League's tightest Pennant race ever goes down to the final day. Just 2 days earlier, in this next-to-last season of single-division leagues, 4 teams were still in it. Then, the Chicago White Sox were eliminated. Now, it was down to 3 teams. The Boston Red Sox and the Minnesota Twins were playing each other, at Fenway Park in Boston. They are tied for the lead. The winner will clinch at least a tie for the Pennant.
The Detroit Tigers are half a game back, with a doubleheader against the team then known as the California Angels, at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. If they can sweep it, they will forge a tie with the Red Sox-Twins winner, and there will be a 1-game Playoff the next day.
The White Sox had finished a close 2nd 3 years earlier, and had won a Pennant just 8 years earlier, but hadn't won a World Series in 50 years. The Tigers had come close 6 years earlier, but hadn't won a Pennant or a World Series in 22 years. In addition, their city suffered the worst race riot in the nation's history, one of several to hit American cities that Summer. The Twins had won the Pennant just 2 years earlier, but hadn't won the World Series since moving to the Minneapolis area. Which was also among those hit by a race riot. Their last title was as the Washington Senators, 43 years earlier, and nobody in Minnesota cared about that.
And the Red Sox were in their 1st Pennant race in 16 years, hadn't won a Pennant in 21 years, and hadn't won a World Series in 49 years. And their city, too, had been among those hit by race riots. It wasn't as bad as Detroit's, or Newark's, or those in Chicago and Cleveland the year before, or Los Angeles the year before that, or New York and Philadelphia the year before that, but, in this year of living dangerously, it was worse than any but those in Detroit and Newark.
Just 3 years to the day earlier, Fenway Park hosted the smallest crowd in its history, 306 fans. This time, 35,770 people shoehorned their way into the little green pinball machine in the Back Bay. The starting pitchers are Jim Lonborg for Boston, and Dean Chance for Minnesota. Lonborg was going for his 22nd win of the season. Chance was going for his 21st. Pitching for the Angels, he had won the Cy Young Award 3 years earlier, and had come back strong, including pitching a no-hitter, after 2 down years.
Then came the bottom of the 6th inning. Lonborg, in those pre-designated hitter days, led off. I can imagine Joe Girardi in this situation: He would have pinch-hit for Lonborg, who, himself, had allowed only 2 runs on 4 walks (1 of them intentional), and then used 5 pitchers over the last 3 innings, allowing the Twins to win the game 7-0.
But the Sox manager was Dick Williams -- no relation to Sox legend Ted. Indeed, Dick made the very bold move of kicking Ted out of the Spring Training complex at Winter Haven, Florida, when he saw Ted contradicting Dick's instructions to hitters. That let everyone know who was in charge: Dick Williams.
It was the ex-reserve infielder's 1st season as a big-league manager, but he'd led their top farm team, the Toronto Maple Leafs (the hockey team was named for them), to the last 2 International League Pennants. Before the season, he predicted, "I think we'll win more than we'll lose." This was a very bold prediction, because the Sox hadn't done that in 9 years.
But his no-nonsense attitude, and his willingness to play black players -- the Sox had none until 1959, and had hardly used the ones they'd had since -- turned them around. Despite losing local hero Tony Conigliaro to a beaning that ruined his career, in just 1 year, they had completely reversed. They went 72-90 in 1966, but went into the regular season finale 91-70.
In 1965, a musical had premiered on Broadway, Man of La Mancha, based on Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Alonso Quixano is a middle-aged minor nobleman in Spain, who has fallen under the delusion that he is a medieval knight who must live up to the chivalric ideal. It was titled "The Impossible Dream." The music was written by Mitch Leigh, whose next-best-known song is the commercial jingle, "Nobody Doesn't Like Sara Lee." The lyrics were written by Joe Darion, and this is the only song of his that anybody remembers.
But people remember it. Richard Kiley had sung it as Quixote in the original Broadway production. Jim Nabors had sung it on an episode of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Frank Sinatra had recorded it on his album That's Life. In 1967 alone, Jack Jones had a hit with it, and The Temptations and Shirley Bassey had also released versions of it, proving that it didn't have to be an exclusively white, or even (in Shirley's case) an exclusively American or an exclusively masculine song. (It would take until 1972 for the musical to be filmed, starring Peter O'Toole.)
Jones' version only reached Number 35 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 (a.k.a. "the pop chart"), but was Number 1 on its Adult Contemporary chart, as grownups treated it as an inspirational song, rather than the fluff, or the hippie-incited songs, that kids were listening to in the "Summer of Love."
The song got associated with the Red Sox. They came into the 1967 season with their odds of winning the Pennant at 100-1. But they contended for the 1st time in a generation, and people began calling their Pennant race "The Impossible Dream." Boston was electing a Mayor that Fall (Kevin White would win the 1st of 4 terms), and "YAZ FOR MAYOR" signs appeared. The nation was electing a President the next year, and "YAZ FOR PRESIDENT" signs appeared.
Dick Williams had gotten the Sox to the last game of the season with a 50-50 shot at the Pennant. But they were losing 2-0, and didn't look like they would be able to come back.
Then came the bottom of the 6th inning. As Dan Shaughnessy of The Boston Globe put it in his 1990 book The Curse of the Bambino, published well before the 2004 postseason rewrote the rules of what constitutes a Red Sox success, "Red Sox fans can recite this inning faster than their own telephone numbers."
Lonborg led off with a bunt. A pitcher bunting with a man on 1st is common. Any player bunting to lead off an inning is not. Twins 3rd baseman Cesar Tovar mishandled it, and Lonborg was aboard. He was credited with a hit -- not that this mattered.
Jerry Adair singled, moving Lonborg to 2nd. Dalton Jones singled to left -- but the Green Monster, the 37-foot-high left field wall, was just 315 feet (they said at the time, later admitting it was closer) from home plate, and Lonborg did not want to make the 1st out of the inning at the plate. The bases were loaded, with nobody out.
The batter was Yastrzemski. Yaz shared the AL home run lead with Killebrew. He led the League in RBIs. He led in batting average. At the time, the Triple Crown wasn't all that unusual. But it wouldn't be done again until Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers in 2012.
Yaz had been on an absolute tear. He had batted over .500 in the last 2 weeks. Teammate George Scott said, "As I recall, out of those 44 home runs, 42 of them meant something: Either they won the game, or tied the game, or got us back into the game." And there was a banner held up in the center field bleachers, with a bullseye painted on it, saying, "YAZ HIT #45."
Chance delivered, and Yaz lined a shot up the middle, a clean base hit, if not the grand slam the bannerholders were looking for. Lonborg scored easily. Adair came around to score. Adair reached 3rd. It was 2-2.
That brought Ken Harrelson to the plate. Today, people know Harrelson as the incredibly annoying broadcaster for the White Sox. At the time, the Hawk was a controversial player. Kansas City Athletics owner Charlie Finley had fired manager Alvin Dark, upsetting Harrelson to the point where he said Finley was "a menace to baseball." Finley released him, despite his hitting ability. He could have punished him by trading him to a worse team, but there wasn't any team noticeably worse. So he flat-out let him go, making him a very rare thing at the time: A free agent. Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey, desperate to replace the injured Conigliaro in right field, snapped him up.
Despite being known for his power, Harrelson hit a weak grounder to short. Zoilo Versalles, 2 years earlier the AL's Most Valuable Player, threw home to try to get Jones out. He must have forgotten that 2nd base was open, meaning that the play on Jones wouldn't have been a force play. Twins catcher Earl Battey couldn't just take the ball and step on the plate: He had to tag Jones out. He couldn't. 3-2 Boston. There's still nobody out.
Twins manager Cal Ermer took Chance out, and brought in Al Worthington. Williams sent Jose Tartabull (Danny's father) in to pinch-run for Harrelson. Worthingto threw a wild pitch, and that advanced Yaz to 3rd and Tartabull to 2nd. Then he threw another, scoring Yaz and putting Tartabull on 3rd. 4-2 Boston.
Worthington finally got the 1st out of the inning, by striking Scott out. But he walked Rico Petrocelli. Reggie Smith came up, and hit a grounder to 1st. As I said, there was no DH at the time. Killebrew, like Dick Allen of the Phillies, was an atrocious 3rd baseman whose booming bat had to be kept in the lineup, so they moved him to the position where he could do the least damage. Not this time: He bobbled the grounder, and Tartabull scored. Worthington got former Yankee Norm Siebern to ground to 2nd, and Lonborg came up again, and popped to 2nd. The inning ended with Boston leading 5-2.
Lonborg cruised through the 7th inning, but ran into trouble in the 8th, as 3 straight singles by Killebrew, Oliva and Bob Allison resulted in a run, but Allison was thrown out trying to stretch his single to a double, ending the threat.
Williams sent Lonborg out for the 9th. He allowed a leadoff single to Ted Uhlaender, bringing the man who will win the AL Rookie of the Year award, Rod Carew, to the plate with the tying run. But Carew grounded to 2nd, and Mike Andrews, who had replaced Jones, turned the double play. Rich Rollins popped up to short. Petrocelli caught it for the last out. This time, as opposed to the Johnny Pesky incident in the 1946 World Series, nobody minded that the Red Sox shortstop had held onto the ball.
Red Sox 5, Twins 3. The fans poured onto the field, and picked Lonborg up, and carried him off. It is the greatest victory at Fenway Park since the 1912 World Series. (The Sox had played the 1915, '16 and '18 Series at Braves Field, because it had a larger capacity, but played the '46 Series at home, and lost.)
But the Pennant was not yet clinched. The Tigers had already won the 1st game over their doubleheader with the Angels, 6-4. If they had won the 2nd game, there would have been a Playoff at Fenway the next day. And, while the Sox won a coin flip to decide home field advantage, Williams would be in a bind, as he didn't have another pitcher as good as Lonborg to start.
In those pre-Internet days, CBS managed to link up their Detroit station, WWJ, and their Boston station, WHDH (850, once again the Sox station but with call letters WEEI), so that people in the Boston area could listen the the nightcap in Detroit. The TV version of WHDH, Channel 5 (it became the ABC affiliate, WCVB, in 1972), filmed them as they watched, as they were putting together a highlight reel to turn into a TV special after it was all over -- if the Sox won.
The Angels won, 8-5, and the Sox had their 1st Pennant in 21 years, only their 2nd in 49 years. The Sox players erupted in the locker room. Instead of a Playoff tomorrow, they would begin the World Series at home against the National League Champions, the St. Louis Cardinals, in 3 days.
That they ended up losing did little to dim the memories. They had not only won the Pennant, but they had excited the locals for the 1st time in a generation. The Red Sox were cool again. Fenway Park, at the time just one of several pre-World War I ballparks still in use and not considered particularly special, and one which team owner Tom Yawkey really wanted to get out of (either to a new stadium, or to another city entirely), became the place to be, the most famous building in New England, even more than the Old North Church.
As Shaughnessy put it, it was "the birth of Red Sox Nation." Despite everything that has been won by other teams, the Red Sox remain New England's defining sports team. As former Red Sox broadcaster Curt Gowdy put it on Fenway Park's official 75th Anniversary video in 1987, "There are 3 special things about Summer in New England: The Red Sox, Cape Cod, and I forget the 3rd."
Shaughnessy says that, while 2004 is "the greatest story of them all" for Sox fans, 1967 is the most important year in Red Sox history. He has a point: If that Pennant hadn't happened, the likeliest scenario is that Yawkey would have gotten together with Patriots owner Billy Sullivan, and moved with the Pats to suburban Foxboro. Those of you who watch English soccer: You've seen what happened when West Ham United left Upton Park in East London for the 2012 Olympic Stadium just 3 miles away.
Instead, Fenway still stands, having celebrated its 100th Anniversary, 5 more Sox Pennants, 3 World Series wins, and now, the 50th Anniversary of the Impossible Dream. Which ended with everyone waking up 1 game too early. But that didn't bother them as much as the defeats in the World Series of 1975 and 1986, or the AL Championship Series losses to the Yankees in 1999 and 2003, or the collapses of 1978 and 2011.
The Impossible Dream season remains special. People bought the Impossible Dream album. People still have 52-year-old loaves of "Big Yaz" Bread in their freezers. People still keep a copy of the famous front page of the now-defunct Boston Record American, with the Red Sox logo (in red ink, rare for a newspaper in those days) and the headline, "CHAMPS!" (Unlike the 1955 New York Daily News "WHO'S A BUM!" headline for the Brooklyn Dodgers, I can't seem to find a photo of it online.)
Still alive from this game, 52 years later: From the Sox: Left fielder Carl Yastrzemski (who was named the MVP), pitcher Jim Lonborg (who was named Cy Young Award winner), 2nd baseman Mike Andrews, shortstop Rico Petrocelli, 3rd baseman Dalton Jones, center fielder Reggie Smith, right fielder Ken Harrelson, and right fielder Jose Tartabull; from the Twins, 2nd baseman (later a 1st baseman) Rod Carew, right fielder Tony Oliva, replacement shortstop Jackie Hernandez, replacement left fielder and usual starting 3rd baseman Rich Rollins, pinch-hitter Frank Kostro (usually an infielder), and pitchers Al Worthington and Jim "Mudcat" Grant.
In addition to Yaz, Lonborg, Andrews, Petro, Jones, Smith, Hawk and Tartabull, members of the '67 Red Sox who are still alive include catcher Mike Ryan, 1st baseman Tony Horton, outfielder George Thomas; and pitchers José Santiago, Billy Rohr, Gary Bell, Dave Morehead, Darrell "Bucky" Brandon, Bill Landis, Gary Waslewski, Hank Fischer, Galen Cisco and Sparky Lyle. So, 21 players.
From a 50th Anniversary reunion at Fenway Park in 2017. Left to right:
Ken Harrelson, Rico Petrocelli, Jim Lonborg and Carl Yastrzemski.
Horton would leave baseball 3 years later, due to the effects of clinical depression. Rohr nearly pitched a no-hitter against the Yankees in his major league debut at the beginning of the season, but only won 2 more major league games. Bell is famous for his role as Jim Bouton's 1969 Seattle Pilots roommate in Ball Four, and Brandon was also a Pilot. Lyle, of course, was later the Yankees' Cy Young Award-winning closer.
This is the last game the A's will play representing Kansas City. In the off-season, they will move to Oakland, where they will dominate the American League from 1971 to 1975. Members of that championship team that played in that game include Hunter, Rick Monday, Joe Rudi, Dick Green, Bert Campaneris, Sal Bando and Ted Kubiak (a native of nearby Highland Park, Middlesex County, New Jersey) -- but the 21-year-old rookie outfielder from the Philadelphia suburbs, Reggie Jackson, does not get into this game. The A's had played their last game in Kansas City on September 27, losing 4-0 to the Chicago White Sox at Municipal Stadium.
Also on this day, Michael A. Pringle is born in Los Angeles. He might be the greatest football player you've never heard of. I know what you're thinking, but, no, this time, when I say "football," I mean the gridiron game, not soccer.
Mike Pringle was a running back at Washington State, but washed out, and transferred to Cal State-Fullerton. He was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in 1990, but they were scared by his 5-foot-9, 200-pound size, and he was never sent on to play so much as a down for them. This was a year before the Falcons drafted Brett Favre, and didn't know what to do with him, either. The Falcons were good on the field at the time; in the boardroom, not so much.
Pringle was signed by the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League, and later moved to the CFL's Baltimore Stallions (the league experimented with U.S. teams for a brief time), who became the new Montreal Alouettes in 1996 (the old Als had folded in 1986). He was named a 7-time CFL All-Star, the CFL Most Outstanding Player in 1995 and 1998 (in the latter year becoming the 1st man to rush for 2,000 yards in a CFL season, still a unique achievement), and won the Grey Cup (Canada's Super Bowl) with the Stals/Als 3 times, in 1995, 2002 and 2003.
The Denver Broncos took notice of him in 1996, and invited him to their training camp, but cut him. So he went back to the Als, and kept on running and kept on winning. He rushed for 16,425 yards, and 137 touchdowns. He's in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, and the Alouettes have retired his Number 27. In 2006, TSN, the Canadian version of ESPN, voted him the Number 4 CFL player of the last 50 years.
Also on this day, Scott Allen Young is born in Clinton, Massachusetts. The right wing won the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and the Colorado Avalanche in 1996. The Boston University graduate returned to the Boston area as the coach of a team at a Catholic high school, and is now director of player development for the Penguins.
Also on this day, Geraldine Heaney (no middle name) is born in Lurgan, Northern Ireland, and grows up in Toronto. One of the greatest female hockey players ever, her skill as a defensewoman got her compared to Bobby Orr. At age 34, she led Canada to the Gold Medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
She has since gone into coaching, and was the 3rd woman, after Angela James and Cammi Granato, to be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
October 1, 1969, 50 years ago: The Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Yankee Stadium. The Bronx Bombers, finishing up their 1st season in the post-Mickey Mantle era, hit no home runs, but 1st baseman Joe Pepitone and rookie catcher Thurman Munson each get 2 hits in support of starting pitcher Mike Kekich and reliever Jack Aker. This is the last game the Yankees will play before I am born.
Also on this day, Igor Sergeevich Ulanov is born in Krasnokamsk, Russia. The defenseman played for several NHL teams from 1995 to 2006, including the Rangers.
Also on this day, Zachary Knight Galifianakis is born in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The actor, producer and screenwriter has nothing to do with sports, unless you want to count casting Mike Tyson in his Hangover trilogy.
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October 1, 1970: Twenty years to the day after the greatest day in Phillies history thus far (and it would remain such for another 10 years), perhaps the darkest day in Phillies history takes place -- and this was in a win.
The Phils play the final game at Connie Mack Stadium, formerly Shibe Park, and the irony of playing the Montreal Expos, a team that only began in 1969, at a stadium that opened in 1909 is felt. The game goes to 10 innings, and Oscar Gamble singles home Tim McCarver with the winning run, as the Phils win, 2-1.
Before McCarver can cross the plate, fans are already storming the field, and they tear the stadium apart. The grass is torn up. The scoreboard and the advertising signs are ripped out. Seats are unscrewed. According to a story I read, a man described as "one muscular miscreant" went into the men's room, ripped out a toilet bowl, carried it out of the park, and toted it down Lehigh Avenue and into the Broad Street subway.
Before McCarver can cross the plate, fans are already storming the field, and they tear the stadium apart. The grass is torn up. The scoreboard and the advertising signs are ripped out. Seats are unscrewed. According to a story I read, a man described as "one muscular miscreant" went into the men's room, ripped out a toilet bowl, carried it out of the park, and toted it down Lehigh Avenue and into the Broad Street subway.
The next year, Veterans Stadium opened, and a fire gutted what remained of the old park. In 1976, knowing that the place was a danger to area residents, Mayor Frank Rizzo gave the order: "Tear the fucking thing down!"
When I first visited the site in 1987, it was an empty lot, and the only evidence that baseball had been played there for 62 seasons was a strip mall across 21st Street with a store called The Phillies Pharmacy. In 1991, a church was built on the site. A historical marker now stands on Lehigh Avenue, telling of the glory days of the A's and the Phils.
Also on this day, the ABC sitcom The Odd Couple, having debuted the week before, airs the episode "The Fight of the Felix," the title a takeoff on the film The Flight of the Phoenix. Sportswriter Oscar Madison (Jack Klugman) gets punched out by a goonish hockey player he'd called out in his column, and his roommate Felix Unger (Tony Randall) wants to avenge his friend in the ring. This was not a good idea, as, while in very good shape for a man in his late 40s, Felix last boxed in the Army, 25 years earlier.
But, in a cliche that had already been used on The Honeymooners (in the episode "The Bensonhurst Bomber"), and would be used again on many other shows, the apparently overmatched boxer emerges victorious -- although Oscar ends up getting his other eye blackened. This leads to a famous scene in which Felix the gourmet serves Beef Wellington, and Oscar takes the pieces of meat and, like frozen steaks (a common treatment for black eyes), slaps them on his eyes.
Also on this day, Alexei Yuryevich Zhamnov is born in Moscow. The center won an Olympic Gold Medal with the no-longer-Soviet, not-yet-Russian "Unified Team" at the 1992 Winter Olympics. He starred for the hockey team of the legendary sports club Dynamo Moscow (originally sponsored by the KGB), and played for the Winnipeg Jets in their last 4 seasons, 1992 to 1996.
He played 8 years with the Chicago Blackhawks, and 1 each with the Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins, plus the 2004-05 lockout season back in Russia, before retiring in 2006. He is now the general manager of the hockey team of legendary Russian sports club Spartak Moscow.
Also on this day, Simon Davey (no middle name) is born in Swansea, Wales. The midfielder won the Welsh Cup with hometown club Swansea City in 1991, and now teaches at Southern Soccer Academy in Georgia.
October 1, 1971: Walt Disney World opens at Lake Buena Vista, southwest of Orlando, Florida. It is almost solely responsible for the development of tourism in Central Florida, having led to the building of Sea World, Universal Studios Orlando, and the venues that have become home to the NBA's Orlando Magic and professional soccer teams Orlando City (men's) and the Orlando Pride (women's).
In 1997, Disney World became home to Cracker Jack Stadium, now Champion Stadium, the Spring Training home of the Atlanta Braves.
Also on this day, Gillette introduced the Trac II razor, which became the best-selling shaving razor in history.
Also on this day, Anthonea Wayne Lee is born in Chipley, Florida, about halfway between Tallahassee and Pensacola. A running back, "Amp" Lee starred for Florida State, and was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers. As a rookie in 1992, he caught Joe Montana's last touchdown pass for the Niners. He was a member of the St. Louis Rams when they won Super Bowl XXXIV. He has since gone into coaching.
Also on this day, Guylaine Cloutier (no middle name) is born in Lévis, across the St. Lawrence River from Québec City. She swam for Canada in the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympics, but never won a medal. She was inducted into the Québec Sports Hall of Fame.
October 1, 1972: Jean Paulo Fernandes is born in Guarujá, São Paulo state, Brazil. Known professionally as simply Jean, the goalkeeper helped Belo Horizonte club Cruzeiro win the 1997 Copa Libertadores, South America's version of the UEFA Champions League. His son, known as Jeanzinho, is a goalkeeper for Brazilian club São Paulo FC.
Back in New York, the day after the last game at the pre-renovation original Yankee Stadium -- an 8-5 loss to the Detroit Tigers, with Yankee manager Ralph Houk resigning -- the renovation of The Stadium begins, when Mayor John Lindsay, who had brokered the deal to get it done and keep the Yankees in The City, gets into a bulldozer, and ceremonially scoops out a piece of right field.
Claire Ruth was given home plate. Eleanor Gehrig was given 1st base. Some time later, Joe DiMaggio, in town to film commercials for the Bowery Savings Bank, would pose for a few pictures amid the renovation work. They should have given him a small section of center field sod. Mickey Mantle? The whirpool, since his injuries caused him to spend so much time in it.
Also on this day, John Carl Thomson is born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and grows up in Sulphur, Louisiana. He pitched in the major leagues from 1997 to 2007, including 2002 with the Mets. He reached the postseason with the Atlanta Braves in 2004 and '05, but his career was cut short by injury. His career record was 63-85. In 2016, he won a local golf tournament in Denver.
The Yankees got a strong pitching performance by George "Doc" Medich, and 2 hits each by Roy White, Thurman Munson, Chris Chambliss and Sandy Alomar Sr. But Medich, still pitching in the bottom of the 10th, allows a leadoff double to Jack Lind. John Vuckovich sacrifices him over to 3rd. Don Money is walked intentionally to set up the double play, and then Medich unintentionally walks Sixto Lezcano. George "Boomer" Scott, in between tours of duty with the Red Sox, singles Lind home, and the Brewers win, 3-2.
The Orioles beat the Tigers 7-6 in Detroit, and wrap up the AL East title with a game to spare. This was the 1st time the Yankees had gotten close to the postseason in 10 years, but it was not to be.
On this same day, at the Astrodome, Mike Marshall establishes the major league mark for the most appearances by a pitcher when he throws 2innings in the Dodgers' 8-5 victory over Houston. With
Also on this day, Mats Anders Lindgren is born in Skellefteå, Sweden. A center, he played in the NHL from 1993 to 2003, including for the Islanders. He has since gone into coaching.
Also on this day, DC Comics releases Action Comics #442, with a list date of December 1974. In the DC Universe at the time, the analogue to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was The Midnight Show Starring Johnny Nevada. (The capital of Nevada is Carson City.)
Like the real Carson, Johnny Nevada was notorious for taking vacations and having guest hosts. In this issue, the guest host is Steve Lombard, former quarterback for the Metropolis Meteors, whose career ended when he momentarily put aside his self-centered nature and injured his knee saving a baby's life.
"Steve the Slinger," based physically on Joe Namath and personality-wise on Ted Knight's character Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, becomes the lead sportscaster for WGBS, the Metropolis-based flagship of the Galaxy Broadcasting System, which broadcasts The Midnight Show. Galaxy boss Morgan Edge had recently bought the Daily Planet, and moved its reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane onto the nightly news as co-anchors.
On this night, Lombard opens his monologue with a "How hot was it?" joke. His guests include Hank Aaron, wearing the Atlanta Braves uniform he wore when he set the new career home run record. (See? Sports connection.) They also include Clark, who knows the real reason Steve is guest-hosting: Johnny has been kidnapped.
Clark figures out the only way to save Johnny is to come onstage as "a surprise guest," Superman, who then takes off a mask to reveal himself as Johnny Nevada, saying that he and Superman had switched places for a day. This leads the kidnappers to think they've really got Superman. Listening for the sound of the gunshot with his super-hearing, Clark/Superman speeds out of the studio, so fast that his Johnny Nevada mask melts, and traces the sound of the gunshot, proving that he is, indeed, "faster than a speeding bullet."
Because he's wrapping things up with the police, he can't be back at the studio as Clark Kent, and Steve Lombard, whose only talents were throwing a football, charming women, and being a jerk, has to wing it for 8 minutes of airtime. In a "thought bubble," he laments that he was going to once again try to make a fool out of Clark, but now Clark has made a fool out of him.
*
October 1, 1975: Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali fights former Heavyweight Champion Joe Frazier for the 3rd time, at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, the capital of the Philippines. Quezon City is the national capital, and the arena is located about 5 miles east of the country's largest city, Manila.
When they met for "The Fight of the Century" at Madison Square Garden in 1971, it was the 1st time 2 undefeated Heavyweight Champions had ever met in the ring. It was a hard, even fight until the 15th and final round, when a classic Philly left hook floored the Louisvillian, and Ali received his first-ever knockdown, from which he got up to finish the fight, and his first-ever professional loss. Ali got revenge in 1974, also at The Garden although neither man was champion at the time. Frazier had lost the title in 1973 to Foreman, whom Ali subsequently beat to regain the title in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), the fight known as "The Rumble In the Jungle."
Ali mocked Frazier for his fighting ability and his looks, saying, "It'll be a thrilla and a chilla and a killa, when I get the Gorilla in Manila!" So it became known as "The Thrilla In Manila." Frazier clobbered Ali in the 9th round, leading him to go back to his corner and tell his trainer, Angelo Dundee, "Man, this is the closest I've ever been to dying." But Ali had landed so many punches that Frazier's face was swelling, and he was having trouble seeing. Early in the 13th round, Ali hit Frazier in the jaw with a thunderous right hook, sending Frazier's mouthpiece flying out of his mouth and out of the ring. Ali dominated the 14th as well, because Frazier was too tired and having too much difficulty seeing. Ali was hitting Frazier with the same kind of punches that knocked out Foreman a year earlier.
But Frazier had more courage and endurance than sense, and refused to go down, and refused to quit. As the 15th and final round approached, Frazier wanted to continue. His trainer, Eddie Futch, told him that he was going to stop the fight. Frazier said no: "I want him, boss." He was unable to talk Futch out of it: "The fight's over, Joe. No one will forget what you did here today." And he told the referee, Carlos Padilla, to stop the fight. Padilla did so.
Ali retained the crown, the belt, the title, whatever you want to call it. He got up off his stool, raised his right arm in victory... and collapsed. He had nothing left to give. If Futch had let Frazier fight the 15th round, he would have knocked Ali out.
It's been called the greatest prizefight in history. Today, 40 years after the fight, most people know the name Manila for 3 things: The brown office folders that bear its name, its role in the Pacific Theater of World War II, and Ali-Frazier III.
Howard Cosell, who covered the fight for ABC Wide World of Sports, later said, "A big piece of Ali remained in that ring." Indeed, at age 33, with nothing left to prove, Ali probably should have retired right there. Instead, he kept fighting for 6 more years. So did Frazier. Both men would have their moments, but neither was ever so good again.
"The Greatest of All Time" is still alive, at age 73, but has had Parkinson's disease as a result of his taking so many blows to the head. The big mouth that got him the early nickname "The Louisville Lip" is now mostly silent. He's had other health difficulties, was hospitalized last December, and rumors of his impending death circulated earlier this year. What the true state of his health is, only his doctors know for sure.
"Smokin' Joe" would continue to alternately feud with Ali and reconcile with him, restart the feud, and reconcile again. Joe died of liver cancer in 2011, at age 67, after 30 years of training fighters at his gym in North Philadelphia. Ali died earlier this year, a result of multiple illnesses, at 74.
Opened in 1960, the Araneta Coliseum is still used for sporting events and concerts. A shopping center 2 blocks away is named Ali Mall.
Also on this day, Larry MacPhail dies in Miami. How he drank so much and lived to be 85, I don't know. As general manager of the Cincinnati Reds, he brought permanent lights to baseball in 1935. As GM of the Dodgers, he brought lights and radio to New York baseball. As GM and part-owner of the Yankees, he brought lights to Yankee Stadium.
He won a Pennant with the Dodgers in 1941, setting them up for their 1947-56 glory days. And he won the World Series with the Yankees in 1947. But at the postgame victory celebration, already roaring drunk, he berates his partners, Dan Topping and Del Webb, humiliating them, and himself, in public. They buy him out the next day, and he never works in baseball again, although his son Lee will one day join him in the Hall of Fame, Cooperstown's only father-son pair.
Also on this day, Al Jackson Jr., drummer for Booker T. & the M.G.'s, the great backing band of 1960s soul music, is shot and killed by a robber at his house in Memphis. The man known as The Human Timekeeper, who had just returned from a screening of Ali-Frazier III at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, was only 39 years old. The man believed to be the murderer was shot and killed by Memphis police the following year.
Also on this day, Cindy Daws (no middle name) is born in Los Angeles. A midfielder, she won both the women's edition of the 1996 Hermann Trophy for collegiate soccer player of the year (the sport's version of the Heisman Trophy) and the Honda-Broderick Cup as female collegiate athlete of the 1996-97 schoolyear.
Now known by her married name, Cindy Mosley, her pro career took her to Japan, but was ended early by injury.
*
October 1, 1976: Perhaps the strangest baseball game ever is played on this day. In a comic dated October 1976 -- which is why I'm assigning it this date -- a game is played between DC Comics' superheroes and its villains.
It seems a husband & wife duo of villains disagrees on whether the villains can beat the heroes, given equal chances -- that is, without the villains cheating, and without either side using their powers. To coerce the heroes into doing it, the villainous couple take enough hostages to fill a stadium.
Result? I don't want to spoil it for you, but here's a link to the story. And the stakes are tossed aside. The villains do cheat -- and one hero does, sort of, use his powers. The villain husband, Sportsmaster, who uses sporting goods to commit crimes, is the Villains' pitcher, and he decides to hit Superman with a pitch, rather than let him use his strength to turn into "Super-Mantle." But Superman can't turn off his invulnerability, and the pitch bounces off him and nearly hits Sportsmaster.
Also on this day, The Kansas City Royals lose 4-3 at home to the Minnesota Twins, but the Oakland Athletics lose 2-0 to the California Angels in 12 innings in Anaheim. So, despite losing 7 of their last 8 games, the Royals clinch the AL West, ending the A's' 5-run run at the top.
Also on this day, Denis Gauthier Jr. is born in Montréal. A defenseman, he played in the NHL from 1997 to 2009. In 2004, he reached the Stanley Cup Finals with the Calgary Flames.
When it's over, he stands at midfield with a microphone, and asks the crowd, "Please, say with me, three times: Love! Love! Love!" They do.
President Jimmy Carter attended. So did Muhammad Ali, the Heavyweight Champion of the World, who frequently called himself "the Greatest of All Time." This time, he says, "Now, I understand: He is greater than me."
October 1, 1978: A Yankee win or a Red Sox loss would give the Yankees the AL East title for the 3rd straight season. But the Yankees get beat 9-2 at home by the Cleveland Indians. The winning pitcher is Rick Waits, feeding into a myth that grew out of the fits the Kansas City Royals gave the Yankees in the 1976 and '77 ALCS: "The Yankees can't beat lefthanded pitchers."
At Fenway, the auxiliary scoreboard over the center-field bleacher triangle shows the score, and adds, "THANK YOU RICK WAITS." The Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-0 on a Luis Tiant shutout, and, as Red Sox broadcaster Dick Stockton says, "We go to tomorrow! We got to tomorrow!"
It didn't seem possible in June, July and August that the Yankees would still be eligible to play a 163rd game. It didn't seem possible for the last 3 weeks that the Red Sox would still be. Now, after the Sox blew a 14-game gap over the Yankees on July 20, and the Yankees blew a 3 1/2-game gap over the Sox on September 16, they will play a 163rd game against each other at Fenway.
Also on this day, pitching for the San Diego Padres, Gaylord Perry strikes out Joe Simpson of the Dodgers for his 3,000th career strikeout. He is the 3rd pitcher to reach the milestone, following Walter Johnson and Bob Gibson. He wins the NL Cy Young Award. Having won it with the Indians in 1972, he becomes the 1st pitcher to win it in each League.
October 1, 1979, 40 years ago: The Green Bay Packers beat the New England Patriots, 27-14 at Lambeau Field, on ABC's Monday Night Football. During the broadcast, Coca-Cola first airs a commercial with Joe Greene, the All-Pro defensive tackle for the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers.
Some people say the commercial revealed Greene as a nice guy, thus ruining his image as "Mean Joe Greene." The Steelers went on to win a 4th Super Bowl in 6 years anyway.
The boy's name was Tommy Okon. Today, he is 48 years old, lives in Yonkers, New York, and runs a landscaping business.
Other countries borrowed the idea, usually with soccer players: Argentina with Diego Maradona, Brazil with Zico, France with Michel Platini, Italy with Dino Zoff, and Germany with Harald Schumacher. Oddly, when Britain did it with David Beckham, it was for Coke's great rival, Pepsi. This is equivalent to Beckham's team, Manchester United, singing Liverpool's anthem, "You'll Never Walk Alone." But I prefer Pepsi to Coke, so maybe it isn't like that.
Also on this day, Burudi Ali Johnson is born Petersburg, Virginia, outside Norfolk. "Burudi" is Swahili for "cool," and his parents were big fans of Muhammad Ali. Known as Rudi Johnson for short, he grows up in the Richmond suburb of Chester, and becomes a Pro Bowl running back for the Cincinnati Bengals. He now runs the Rudi Johnson Foundation, raising money for medical research, including bone-marrow donation.
Also on this day, Ryan David Pontbriand is born in Houston. He was a 2-time Pro Bowl center for the Cleveland Browns.
Also on this day, Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) starts running. We know it's on this day, because the TV in the background shows President Carter collapsing due to heat exhaustion. Except this can't be, for several reasons.
One is that he supposedly runs for over 2 years, but stops before President Ronald Reagan is shot on March 30, 1981 (footage of it is shown in the movie), and that's less than a year and a half later. Another is his inadvertent invention of the Smiley Face logo, which has been around in one form or another since 1700 BC. A modern version appeared as the logo of New York radio station WMCA's "Good Guys" in 1962. Harvey Ross Ball must have seen that, because he registered the classic Smiley as a trademark the following year.
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October 1, 1981: David Johnny Oduya is born in Stockholm, Sweden, the son of a Swedish mother and a Kenyan father. Black people in Sweden are rare, and this was also true of the NHL when the defenseman arrived with the New Jersey Devils in 2006.
Johnny gave the Devils 3 solid seasons, including the move from the Meadowlands in East Rutherford to the Prudential Center in Newark in 2007. I still don't know whether I liked him, or simply liked saying his name, because it sounds like, "Oh, do ya?"
He was with the Atlanta Thrashers when they moved to become the new Winnipeg Jets in 2011, before moving on to the Chicago Blackhawks, with whom he won the 2013 and '15 Stanley Cups. He played with Ottawa and Philadelphia in 2017-18, but no one signed him for 2018-19. At 38, he has not yet announced his retirement.
Also on this day, Júlio César Clemente Baptista is born in São Paulo, Brazil. Known as Júlio Baptista, he starred for hometown club São Paulo F.C., before starring in Spain with Sevilla and Real Madrid.
In the 2006-07 season, Real loaned "The Beast" to English club Arsenal. In the Quarterfinal of the League Cup, he scored 4 goals against Liverpool. In the 1st leg of the Semifinal against Tottenham, he tried to head away a corner, but ended up scoring an own goal to make it 2-0 to "Spurs." He made up for it by scoring 2 proper goals and leveling the tie. Arsenal won the home leg, but lost the Final to Chelsea. He only scored 3 goals for the Gunners in League play, and missed 3 penalties.
Arsenal were happy to not ask Real Madrid for another loan, but he rewarded Real's faith by helping them win La Liga in 2008. He returned to Brazil, winning the Campeonato Brasileiro with Belo Horizonte club Cruzeiro in 2013 and '14. He also helped his country win the Copa America (continental championship) in 2004 and '07, and the Confederations Cup (the warmup for the World Cup, always held in the preceding year in the host country) in 2005 and '09. He played in America for Orlando City in 2016, and retired this year, after playing for CFR Cluj of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Also on this day, Red Dragon by Thomas Harris is published, the debut of psychiatrist and cannibal serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
Harris has published 2 books without Lecter as a character. One was his 1st novel, in 1975: Black Sunday, which has a sports theme. It involves a terrorist attack on the Super Bowl. In the novel, the game is played at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, which closed that year, its last game being Super Bowl IX, between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Minnesota Vikings; and the game's opponents being those of Super Bowl VII, the Miami Dolphins and the Washington Redskins.
For the movie, the NFL permitted director John Frankenheimer to film Super Bowl X at the Orange Bowl, between the Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys. The film was released in 1977.
October 1, 1982: Fred Stanley, a good-field-no-hit shortstop with the nickname Chicken -- but whose name was also that of the Earl of Derby who, as Lord Stanley, founded the Stanley Cup -- plays his last major league game, making him the last active player who'd played for the ill-fated 1969 Seattle Pilots of Ball Four fame/infamy.
Following a career that included 3 Yankee Pennants and 2 World Series wins backing up Bucky Dent at shortstop and finishing the Bucky Dent Game as the Yankee 2nd baseman, he goes 1-for-3 for the Oakland Athletics. Dwayne Murphy hits a home run for the A's, but they lose to the Kansas City Royals, 12-7 at Royals (now Kauffman) Stadium in Kansas City. The Royals get home runs from Hal McRae, Jamie Quirk, Jerry Martin and Willie Aikens
October 1, 1983: A team from Oklahoma won a World Championship? In 1983? Not exactly. But one did win a North American Championship.
Soccer Bowl '83, the championship game of the original North American Soccer League, is played at the new BC Place in Vancouver, British Columbia. Being all the way across their country appears to negate any home-field advantage for the Toronto Blizzard, as the Tulsa Roughnecks beat them 2-0 on the artificial surface.
The game is scoreless at the half. Njego Pesa, a forward born in Croatia but raised in Queens, scores in the 56th minute. Former Luton Town striker Ron Futcher doubles the lead in the 62nd, and the game is effectively killed off. Pesa is named Man of the Match.
This is the closest any Oklahoma team has come to a major title in America. The Oklahoma City Thunder lost the 2012 NBA Finals in 5 games, and even if the Oklahoma Outlaws had won the USFL title in their only season, 1984, it wouldn't have been as big as the Roughnecks winning Soccer Bowl '83, as the NASL still had some credibility.
Also on this day, Mirko Vučinić is born in Nikšić, Montenegro. The forward is easily the greatest player ever to come from that small country, previously a part of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Austrian Empire, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.
He left his homeland to play in neighboring Italy, first for Lecce. With capital club AS Roma, he won the Coppa Italia in 2007 and '08. He helped Turin giants Juventus win the League in 2012, '13 and '14. He was injured while playing for Al Jazira Club in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and has since retired from soccer and switched to golf.
Also on this day, Mohamd Abdelwahab is born in Faiyum, Egypt. A left back, he helped Egypt's greatest soccer team, Cairo club Al Ahly, win the 2005 and 2006 Egyptian Premier League titles, and helped Egypt win the 2006 African Cup of Nations. But on August 31, 2006, he collapsed during training (what we would call "practice") with Al Ahly, and died. He was only 22, and an autopsy discovered a previously unknown heart defect. The club retired his Number 3.
October 1, 1984: Bowie Kuhn, the biggest knucklehead ever to be Commissioner of Baseball, officially hands the job over to Peter Ueberroth, famed for his production of the recent Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Kuhn may have been a lawyer, but he sure didn't seem smart enough to get into law school. In contrast, while I didn't always agree with Ueberroth, he was far more sensible. One of the 1st big things he does is reinstate Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, whom Kuhn had suspended from official activities indefinitely because they were working for casinos in Atlantic City -- even though they were specifically kept off the gambling floors by management.
Also on this day, Hall of Fame manager Walter Alston dies from heart trouble in Oxford, Ohio. He was 72. He had managed the Dodgers to 7 Pennants and 3 World Championships, including their only Brooklyn title in 1955. The Dodgers retired his Number 24.
Also on this day, Matthew Thomas Cain is born in Dothan, Alabama. A 3-time All-Star, Matt Cain has won 3 World Series with the Giants, and pitched a perfect game against the Astros on June 13, 2012, the 1st one ever pitched in the long, bicoastal history of the Giant franchise. "Big Daddy" (nicknamed after rapper Big Daddy Kane) retired at the end of the 2017 season, only 33 years old, with a record of 104-118. The Giants have elected him to their Wall of Fame.
October 1, 1985: The Mets arrive in St. Louis, and essentially need to sweep the Cardinals in 3 straight at Busch Memorial Stadium to win the NL East. They get off to a good start, as a dual shutout by Ron Darling and John Tudor is won in the 11th inning by a home run by Darryl Strawberry off Ken Dayley. Jesse Orosco is the winning pitcher.
October 1, 1986: Perfect Strangers airs the episode "The Unnatural." Larry (Mark Linn-Baker) tries to teach Balki (Bronson Pinchot) how to play baseball. They don't play baseball in Mypos, or any other fictional country based on the culture of Greece, where a baseball federation wasn't founded until 1997. So, hilarity ensues.
The show's opening sequence, of course, includes a scene in which Larry and Balki, Chicago residents, go to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.
October 1, 1987: Cheers airs the episode "I On Sports." Former Red Sox pitcher Sam Malone (played by Ted Danson) meets an old pal (played by former Los Angeles Rams defensive end Fred Dryer, by this point starring on another NBC show, the police drama Hunter), who tells him that he's going on vacation, and offers Sam the temporary slot as his Boston news broadcast's sports announcer. Sam proves woefully inadequate to the task.
October 1, 1988: For the 1st time, I attend a football game at Bloomfield High School, the Essex County, North Jersey school I would have attended had my parents not moved in 1972 to East Brunswick in Middlesex County, Central Jersey.
When I first visited the site in 1987, it was an empty lot, and the only evidence that baseball had been played there for 62 seasons was a strip mall across 21st Street with a store called The Phillies Pharmacy. In 1991, a church was built on the site. A historical marker now stands on Lehigh Avenue, telling of the glory days of the A's and the Phils.
Also on this day, the ABC sitcom The Odd Couple, having debuted the week before, airs the episode "The Fight of the Felix," the title a takeoff on the film The Flight of the Phoenix. Sportswriter Oscar Madison (Jack Klugman) gets punched out by a goonish hockey player he'd called out in his column, and his roommate Felix Unger (Tony Randall) wants to avenge his friend in the ring. This was not a good idea, as, while in very good shape for a man in his late 40s, Felix last boxed in the Army, 25 years earlier.
But, in a cliche that had already been used on The Honeymooners (in the episode "The Bensonhurst Bomber"), and would be used again on many other shows, the apparently overmatched boxer emerges victorious -- although Oscar ends up getting his other eye blackened. This leads to a famous scene in which Felix the gourmet serves Beef Wellington, and Oscar takes the pieces of meat and, like frozen steaks (a common treatment for black eyes), slaps them on his eyes.
Also on this day, Alexei Yuryevich Zhamnov is born in Moscow. The center won an Olympic Gold Medal with the no-longer-Soviet, not-yet-Russian "Unified Team" at the 1992 Winter Olympics. He starred for the hockey team of the legendary sports club Dynamo Moscow (originally sponsored by the KGB), and played for the Winnipeg Jets in their last 4 seasons, 1992 to 1996.
He played 8 years with the Chicago Blackhawks, and 1 each with the Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins, plus the 2004-05 lockout season back in Russia, before retiring in 2006. He is now the general manager of the hockey team of legendary Russian sports club Spartak Moscow.
Also on this day, Simon Davey (no middle name) is born in Swansea, Wales. The midfielder won the Welsh Cup with hometown club Swansea City in 1991, and now teaches at Southern Soccer Academy in Georgia.
October 1, 1971: Walt Disney World opens at Lake Buena Vista, southwest of Orlando, Florida. It is almost solely responsible for the development of tourism in Central Florida, having led to the building of Sea World, Universal Studios Orlando, and the venues that have become home to the NBA's Orlando Magic and professional soccer teams Orlando City (men's) and the Orlando Pride (women's).
In 1997, Disney World became home to Cracker Jack Stadium, now Champion Stadium, the Spring Training home of the Atlanta Braves.
Also on this day, Gillette introduced the Trac II razor, which became the best-selling shaving razor in history.
Also on this day, Anthonea Wayne Lee is born in Chipley, Florida, about halfway between Tallahassee and Pensacola. A running back, "Amp" Lee starred for Florida State, and was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers. As a rookie in 1992, he caught Joe Montana's last touchdown pass for the Niners. He was a member of the St. Louis Rams when they won Super Bowl XXXIV. He has since gone into coaching.
Also on this day, Guylaine Cloutier (no middle name) is born in Lévis, across the St. Lawrence River from Québec City. She swam for Canada in the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympics, but never won a medal. She was inducted into the Québec Sports Hall of Fame.
October 1, 1972: Jean Paulo Fernandes is born in Guarujá, São Paulo state, Brazil. Known professionally as simply Jean, the goalkeeper helped Belo Horizonte club Cruzeiro win the 1997 Copa Libertadores, South America's version of the UEFA Champions League. His son, known as Jeanzinho, is a goalkeeper for Brazilian club São Paulo FC.
October 1, 1973: Only 1,913 fans come out to Wrigley Field, under threat of rain, with the Cubs far out of the race, to see a doubleheader that had to be made up due to an earlier rainout. The Mets beat the Cubs in the opener, 6-4, and win the National League East, their 2nd 1st-place finish.
The Division Title that no one seemed to want to win has been won with an 82-79 record, which is still the worst 1st place finish ever in a season of at least 115 games. When the rain comes after the opener, the umpires call off the now completely meaningless 2nd game. The Mets were 52-63 on August 14, but won 30 out of 44 down the stretch, including 18 of their last 22.
Back in New York, the day after the last game at the pre-renovation original Yankee Stadium -- an 8-5 loss to the Detroit Tigers, with Yankee manager Ralph Houk resigning -- the renovation of The Stadium begins, when Mayor John Lindsay, who had brokered the deal to get it done and keep the Yankees in The City, gets into a bulldozer, and ceremonially scoops out a piece of right field.
Claire Ruth was given home plate. Eleanor Gehrig was given 1st base. Some time later, Joe DiMaggio, in town to film commercials for the Bowery Savings Bank, would pose for a few pictures amid the renovation work. They should have given him a small section of center field sod. Mickey Mantle? The whirpool, since his injuries caused him to spend so much time in it.
Also on this day, John Carl Thomson is born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and grows up in Sulphur, Louisiana. He pitched in the major leagues from 1997 to 2007, including 2002 with the Mets. He reached the postseason with the Atlanta Braves in 2004 and '05, but his career was cut short by injury. His career record was 63-85. In 2016, he won a local golf tournament in Denver.
October 1, 1974: Needing to win both of their last 2 games of the regular season against the Milwaukee Brewers, and for the Orioles to lose at least 1 of their last 2 games against the Tigers -- or to split their own and hope the O's lose both -- the Yankees go into County Stadium without their marquee player, Bobby Murcer, who had injured his hand breaking up a fight between Rick Dempsey and Bill Sudakis.
The Yankees got a strong pitching performance by George "Doc" Medich, and 2 hits each by Roy White, Thurman Munson, Chris Chambliss and Sandy Alomar Sr. But Medich, still pitching in the bottom of the 10th, allows a leadoff double to Jack Lind. John Vuckovich sacrifices him over to 3rd. Don Money is walked intentionally to set up the double play, and then Medich unintentionally walks Sixto Lezcano. George "Boomer" Scott, in between tours of duty with the Red Sox, singles Lind home, and the Brewers win, 3-2.
The Orioles beat the Tigers 7-6 in Detroit, and wrap up the AL East title with a game to spare. This was the 1st time the Yankees had gotten close to the postseason in 10 years, but it was not to be.
On this same day, at the Astrodome, Mike Marshall establishes the major league mark for the most appearances by a pitcher when he throws 2innings in the Dodgers' 8-5 victory over Houston. With
his 106 appearances, the right-handed reliever appears in 65 percent of the games that his team played this season. He goes 15-12, with a 2.42 ERA and 21 saves (actually 10 less than he had the year before), and becomes the 1st reliever in either League to receive the Cy Young Award.
In 1979, pitching for the Twins, Marshall would appear in 90 games, giving him the record for most games pitched in a season in each League.Also on this day, Mats Anders Lindgren is born in Skellefteå, Sweden. A center, he played in the NHL from 1993 to 2003, including for the Islanders. He has since gone into coaching.
Also on this day, DC Comics releases Action Comics #442, with a list date of December 1974. In the DC Universe at the time, the analogue to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was The Midnight Show Starring Johnny Nevada. (The capital of Nevada is Carson City.)
Like the real Carson, Johnny Nevada was notorious for taking vacations and having guest hosts. In this issue, the guest host is Steve Lombard, former quarterback for the Metropolis Meteors, whose career ended when he momentarily put aside his self-centered nature and injured his knee saving a baby's life.
"Steve the Slinger," based physically on Joe Namath and personality-wise on Ted Knight's character Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, becomes the lead sportscaster for WGBS, the Metropolis-based flagship of the Galaxy Broadcasting System, which broadcasts The Midnight Show. Galaxy boss Morgan Edge had recently bought the Daily Planet, and moved its reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane onto the nightly news as co-anchors.
On this night, Lombard opens his monologue with a "How hot was it?" joke. His guests include Hank Aaron, wearing the Atlanta Braves uniform he wore when he set the new career home run record. (See? Sports connection.) They also include Clark, who knows the real reason Steve is guest-hosting: Johnny has been kidnapped.
Clark figures out the only way to save Johnny is to come onstage as "a surprise guest," Superman, who then takes off a mask to reveal himself as Johnny Nevada, saying that he and Superman had switched places for a day. This leads the kidnappers to think they've really got Superman. Listening for the sound of the gunshot with his super-hearing, Clark/Superman speeds out of the studio, so fast that his Johnny Nevada mask melts, and traces the sound of the gunshot, proving that he is, indeed, "faster than a speeding bullet."
Because he's wrapping things up with the police, he can't be back at the studio as Clark Kent, and Steve Lombard, whose only talents were throwing a football, charming women, and being a jerk, has to wing it for 8 minutes of airtime. In a "thought bubble," he laments that he was going to once again try to make a fool out of Clark, but now Clark has made a fool out of him.
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October 1, 1975: Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali fights former Heavyweight Champion Joe Frazier for the 3rd time, at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, the capital of the Philippines. Quezon City is the national capital, and the arena is located about 5 miles east of the country's largest city, Manila.
When they met for "The Fight of the Century" at Madison Square Garden in 1971, it was the 1st time 2 undefeated Heavyweight Champions had ever met in the ring. It was a hard, even fight until the 15th and final round, when a classic Philly left hook floored the Louisvillian, and Ali received his first-ever knockdown, from which he got up to finish the fight, and his first-ever professional loss. Ali got revenge in 1974, also at The Garden although neither man was champion at the time. Frazier had lost the title in 1973 to Foreman, whom Ali subsequently beat to regain the title in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), the fight known as "The Rumble In the Jungle."
Ali mocked Frazier for his fighting ability and his looks, saying, "It'll be a thrilla and a chilla and a killa, when I get the Gorilla in Manila!" So it became known as "The Thrilla In Manila." Frazier clobbered Ali in the 9th round, leading him to go back to his corner and tell his trainer, Angelo Dundee, "Man, this is the closest I've ever been to dying." But Ali had landed so many punches that Frazier's face was swelling, and he was having trouble seeing. Early in the 13th round, Ali hit Frazier in the jaw with a thunderous right hook, sending Frazier's mouthpiece flying out of his mouth and out of the ring. Ali dominated the 14th as well, because Frazier was too tired and having too much difficulty seeing. Ali was hitting Frazier with the same kind of punches that knocked out Foreman a year earlier.
But Frazier had more courage and endurance than sense, and refused to go down, and refused to quit. As the 15th and final round approached, Frazier wanted to continue. His trainer, Eddie Futch, told him that he was going to stop the fight. Frazier said no: "I want him, boss." He was unable to talk Futch out of it: "The fight's over, Joe. No one will forget what you did here today." And he told the referee, Carlos Padilla, to stop the fight. Padilla did so.
Ali retained the crown, the belt, the title, whatever you want to call it. He got up off his stool, raised his right arm in victory... and collapsed. He had nothing left to give. If Futch had let Frazier fight the 15th round, he would have knocked Ali out.
It's been called the greatest prizefight in history. Today, 40 years after the fight, most people know the name Manila for 3 things: The brown office folders that bear its name, its role in the Pacific Theater of World War II, and Ali-Frazier III.
Howard Cosell, who covered the fight for ABC Wide World of Sports, later said, "A big piece of Ali remained in that ring." Indeed, at age 33, with nothing left to prove, Ali probably should have retired right there. Instead, he kept fighting for 6 more years. So did Frazier. Both men would have their moments, but neither was ever so good again.
"Smokin' Joe" would continue to alternately feud with Ali and reconcile with him, restart the feud, and reconcile again. Joe died of liver cancer in 2011, at age 67, after 30 years of training fighters at his gym in North Philadelphia. Ali died earlier this year, a result of multiple illnesses, at 74.
Opened in 1960, the Araneta Coliseum is still used for sporting events and concerts. A shopping center 2 blocks away is named Ali Mall.
Also on this day, Larry MacPhail dies in Miami. How he drank so much and lived to be 85, I don't know. As general manager of the Cincinnati Reds, he brought permanent lights to baseball in 1935. As GM of the Dodgers, he brought lights and radio to New York baseball. As GM and part-owner of the Yankees, he brought lights to Yankee Stadium.
He won a Pennant with the Dodgers in 1941, setting them up for their 1947-56 glory days. And he won the World Series with the Yankees in 1947. But at the postgame victory celebration, already roaring drunk, he berates his partners, Dan Topping and Del Webb, humiliating them, and himself, in public. They buy him out the next day, and he never works in baseball again, although his son Lee will one day join him in the Hall of Fame, Cooperstown's only father-son pair.
Also on this day, Al Jackson Jr., drummer for Booker T. & the M.G.'s, the great backing band of 1960s soul music, is shot and killed by a robber at his house in Memphis. The man known as The Human Timekeeper, who had just returned from a screening of Ali-Frazier III at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, was only 39 years old. The man believed to be the murderer was shot and killed by Memphis police the following year.
Also on this day, Cindy Daws (no middle name) is born in Los Angeles. A midfielder, she won both the women's edition of the 1996 Hermann Trophy for collegiate soccer player of the year (the sport's version of the Heisman Trophy) and the Honda-Broderick Cup as female collegiate athlete of the 1996-97 schoolyear.
Now known by her married name, Cindy Mosley, her pro career took her to Japan, but was ended early by injury.
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October 1, 1976: Perhaps the strangest baseball game ever is played on this day. In a comic dated October 1976 -- which is why I'm assigning it this date -- a game is played between DC Comics' superheroes and its villains.
It seems a husband & wife duo of villains disagrees on whether the villains can beat the heroes, given equal chances -- that is, without the villains cheating, and without either side using their powers. To coerce the heroes into doing it, the villainous couple take enough hostages to fill a stadium.
Result? I don't want to spoil it for you, but here's a link to the story. And the stakes are tossed aside. The villains do cheat -- and one hero does, sort of, use his powers. The villain husband, Sportsmaster, who uses sporting goods to commit crimes, is the Villains' pitcher, and he decides to hit Superman with a pitch, rather than let him use his strength to turn into "Super-Mantle." But Superman can't turn off his invulnerability, and the pitch bounces off him and nearly hits Sportsmaster.
Also on this day, The Kansas City Royals lose 4-3 at home to the Minnesota Twins, but the Oakland Athletics lose 2-0 to the California Angels in 12 innings in Anaheim. So, despite losing 7 of their last 8 games, the Royals clinch the AL West, ending the A's' 5-run run at the top.
Also on this day, Denis Gauthier Jr. is born in Montréal. A defenseman, he played in the NHL from 1997 to 2009. In 2004, he reached the Stanley Cup Finals with the Calgary Flames.
October 1, 1977: Edson Arantes do Nascimento, a.k.a. Pelé, the greatest soccer player who ever lived, plays his last game at a sold-out Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It is his testimonial, and he plays the 1st half for the New York Cosmos, with whom he recently won the North American Soccer League Championship, and scores a goal; and the 2nd half for Santos, for whom he starred so long in Brazil's São Paulo State. The Cosmos win, 2-1.
When it's over, he stands at midfield with a microphone, and asks the crowd, "Please, say with me, three times: Love! Love! Love!" They do.
President Jimmy Carter attended. So did Muhammad Ali, the Heavyweight Champion of the World, who frequently called himself "the Greatest of All Time." This time, he says, "Now, I understand: He is greater than me."
The rain that fell on Pelé's testimonial at the Meadowlands comes down much harder on The Bronx, as the Yankees sit through a 2-hour, 42-minute rain delay in a game against the Detroit Tigers. But the Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, and that gives the Yankees the American League Eastern Division title for the 2nd straight season. When their game is finally finished, the Yankees lose, 10-7.
Also on this day, the University of Texas annihilates Rice University, 72-15 at Memorial Stadium in Austin. While the Longhorns have running back Earl Campbell, who will go on to win the Heisman Trophy, the big story is placekicker and punter Russell Erxleben, who sets a record with a 67-yard field goal. The record would be tied twice within the next year and change, but never broken, partly because kicking tees have been banned.
Erxleben remains the only punter to be a 3-time All-American, and played 5 seasons for the New Orleans Saints, plus 1 as a "scab" for the Detroit Lions during the 1987 strike. He went into the securities business, and is currently in prison for fraud -- for the 2nd time. His son, Ryan Erxleben, went into the family business -- punting, that is, not securities (fraudulent or otherwise), at Texas Tech, although he didn't make it to the NFL.
Also on this day, the St. Louis Blues retire the Number 3 of Bob Gassoff, a defenseman who'd been with them since 1973. The preceding May 27, he was killed in a motorcycle accident in Gray Summit, Missouri. He'd been racing motorcycles with friends at a barbecue at the home of teammate Garry Unger, but had driven off the property, wasn't wearing a helmet, and was hit by a car. The native of Quesnel, British Columbia was only 26.Also on this day, the University of Texas annihilates Rice University, 72-15 at Memorial Stadium in Austin. While the Longhorns have running back Earl Campbell, who will go on to win the Heisman Trophy, the big story is placekicker and punter Russell Erxleben, who sets a record with a 67-yard field goal. The record would be tied twice within the next year and change, but never broken, partly because kicking tees have been banned.
Erxleben remains the only punter to be a 3-time All-American, and played 5 seasons for the New Orleans Saints, plus 1 as a "scab" for the Detroit Lions during the 1987 strike. He went into the securities business, and is currently in prison for fraud -- for the 2nd time. His son, Ryan Erxleben, went into the family business -- punting, that is, not securities (fraudulent or otherwise), at Texas Tech, although he didn't make it to the NFL.
October 1, 1978: A Yankee win or a Red Sox loss would give the Yankees the AL East title for the 3rd straight season. But the Yankees get beat 9-2 at home by the Cleveland Indians. The winning pitcher is Rick Waits, feeding into a myth that grew out of the fits the Kansas City Royals gave the Yankees in the 1976 and '77 ALCS: "The Yankees can't beat lefthanded pitchers."
At Fenway, the auxiliary scoreboard over the center-field bleacher triangle shows the score, and adds, "THANK YOU RICK WAITS." The Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-0 on a Luis Tiant shutout, and, as Red Sox broadcaster Dick Stockton says, "We go to tomorrow! We got to tomorrow!"
It didn't seem possible in June, July and August that the Yankees would still be eligible to play a 163rd game. It didn't seem possible for the last 3 weeks that the Red Sox would still be. Now, after the Sox blew a 14-game gap over the Yankees on July 20, and the Yankees blew a 3 1/2-game gap over the Sox on September 16, they will play a 163rd game against each other at Fenway.
Also on this day, pitching for the San Diego Padres, Gaylord Perry strikes out Joe Simpson of the Dodgers for his 3,000th career strikeout. He is the 3rd pitcher to reach the milestone, following Walter Johnson and Bob Gibson. He wins the NL Cy Young Award. Having won it with the Indians in 1972, he becomes the 1st pitcher to win it in each League.
October 1, 1979, 40 years ago: The Green Bay Packers beat the New England Patriots, 27-14 at Lambeau Field, on ABC's Monday Night Football. During the broadcast, Coca-Cola first airs a commercial with Joe Greene, the All-Pro defensive tackle for the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers.
Some people say the commercial revealed Greene as a nice guy, thus ruining his image as "Mean Joe Greene." The Steelers went on to win a 4th Super Bowl in 6 years anyway.
The boy's name was Tommy Okon. Today, he is 48 years old, lives in Yonkers, New York, and runs a landscaping business.
Also on this day, Burudi Ali Johnson is born Petersburg, Virginia, outside Norfolk. "Burudi" is Swahili for "cool," and his parents were big fans of Muhammad Ali. Known as Rudi Johnson for short, he grows up in the Richmond suburb of Chester, and becomes a Pro Bowl running back for the Cincinnati Bengals. He now runs the Rudi Johnson Foundation, raising money for medical research, including bone-marrow donation.
Also on this day, Ryan David Pontbriand is born in Houston. He was a 2-time Pro Bowl center for the Cleveland Browns.
Also on this day, Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) starts running. We know it's on this day, because the TV in the background shows President Carter collapsing due to heat exhaustion. Except this can't be, for several reasons.
One is that he supposedly runs for over 2 years, but stops before President Ronald Reagan is shot on March 30, 1981 (footage of it is shown in the movie), and that's less than a year and a half later. Another is his inadvertent invention of the Smiley Face logo, which has been around in one form or another since 1700 BC. A modern version appeared as the logo of New York radio station WMCA's "Good Guys" in 1962. Harvey Ross Ball must have seen that, because he registered the classic Smiley as a trademark the following year.
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October 1, 1981: David Johnny Oduya is born in Stockholm, Sweden, the son of a Swedish mother and a Kenyan father. Black people in Sweden are rare, and this was also true of the NHL when the defenseman arrived with the New Jersey Devils in 2006.
Johnny gave the Devils 3 solid seasons, including the move from the Meadowlands in East Rutherford to the Prudential Center in Newark in 2007. I still don't know whether I liked him, or simply liked saying his name, because it sounds like, "Oh, do ya?"
He was with the Atlanta Thrashers when they moved to become the new Winnipeg Jets in 2011, before moving on to the Chicago Blackhawks, with whom he won the 2013 and '15 Stanley Cups. He played with Ottawa and Philadelphia in 2017-18, but no one signed him for 2018-19. At 38, he has not yet announced his retirement.
Also on this day, Júlio César Clemente Baptista is born in São Paulo, Brazil. Known as Júlio Baptista, he starred for hometown club São Paulo F.C., before starring in Spain with Sevilla and Real Madrid.
In the 2006-07 season, Real loaned "The Beast" to English club Arsenal. In the Quarterfinal of the League Cup, he scored 4 goals against Liverpool. In the 1st leg of the Semifinal against Tottenham, he tried to head away a corner, but ended up scoring an own goal to make it 2-0 to "Spurs." He made up for it by scoring 2 proper goals and leveling the tie. Arsenal won the home leg, but lost the Final to Chelsea. He only scored 3 goals for the Gunners in League play, and missed 3 penalties.
Arsenal were happy to not ask Real Madrid for another loan, but he rewarded Real's faith by helping them win La Liga in 2008. He returned to Brazil, winning the Campeonato Brasileiro with Belo Horizonte club Cruzeiro in 2013 and '14. He also helped his country win the Copa America (continental championship) in 2004 and '07, and the Confederations Cup (the warmup for the World Cup, always held in the preceding year in the host country) in 2005 and '09. He played in America for Orlando City in 2016, and retired this year, after playing for CFR Cluj of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Also on this day, Red Dragon by Thomas Harris is published, the debut of psychiatrist and cannibal serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
Harris has published 2 books without Lecter as a character. One was his 1st novel, in 1975: Black Sunday, which has a sports theme. It involves a terrorist attack on the Super Bowl. In the novel, the game is played at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, which closed that year, its last game being Super Bowl IX, between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Minnesota Vikings; and the game's opponents being those of Super Bowl VII, the Miami Dolphins and the Washington Redskins.
For the movie, the NFL permitted director John Frankenheimer to film Super Bowl X at the Orange Bowl, between the Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys. The film was released in 1977.
October 1, 1982: Fred Stanley, a good-field-no-hit shortstop with the nickname Chicken -- but whose name was also that of the Earl of Derby who, as Lord Stanley, founded the Stanley Cup -- plays his last major league game, making him the last active player who'd played for the ill-fated 1969 Seattle Pilots of Ball Four fame/infamy.
Following a career that included 3 Yankee Pennants and 2 World Series wins backing up Bucky Dent at shortstop and finishing the Bucky Dent Game as the Yankee 2nd baseman, he goes 1-for-3 for the Oakland Athletics. Dwayne Murphy hits a home run for the A's, but they lose to the Kansas City Royals, 12-7 at Royals (now Kauffman) Stadium in Kansas City. The Royals get home runs from Hal McRae, Jamie Quirk, Jerry Martin and Willie Aikens
October 1, 1983: A team from Oklahoma won a World Championship? In 1983? Not exactly. But one did win a North American Championship.
Soccer Bowl '83, the championship game of the original North American Soccer League, is played at the new BC Place in Vancouver, British Columbia. Being all the way across their country appears to negate any home-field advantage for the Toronto Blizzard, as the Tulsa Roughnecks beat them 2-0 on the artificial surface.
The game is scoreless at the half. Njego Pesa, a forward born in Croatia but raised in Queens, scores in the 56th minute. Former Luton Town striker Ron Futcher doubles the lead in the 62nd, and the game is effectively killed off. Pesa is named Man of the Match.
This is the closest any Oklahoma team has come to a major title in America. The Oklahoma City Thunder lost the 2012 NBA Finals in 5 games, and even if the Oklahoma Outlaws had won the USFL title in their only season, 1984, it wouldn't have been as big as the Roughnecks winning Soccer Bowl '83, as the NASL still had some credibility.
Also on this day, Mirko Vučinić is born in Nikšić, Montenegro. The forward is easily the greatest player ever to come from that small country, previously a part of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Austrian Empire, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.
Also on this day, Mohamd Abdelwahab is born in Faiyum, Egypt. A left back, he helped Egypt's greatest soccer team, Cairo club Al Ahly, win the 2005 and 2006 Egyptian Premier League titles, and helped Egypt win the 2006 African Cup of Nations. But on August 31, 2006, he collapsed during training (what we would call "practice") with Al Ahly, and died. He was only 22, and an autopsy discovered a previously unknown heart defect. The club retired his Number 3.
October 1, 1984: Bowie Kuhn, the biggest knucklehead ever to be Commissioner of Baseball, officially hands the job over to Peter Ueberroth, famed for his production of the recent Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Kuhn may have been a lawyer, but he sure didn't seem smart enough to get into law school. In contrast, while I didn't always agree with Ueberroth, he was far more sensible. One of the 1st big things he does is reinstate Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, whom Kuhn had suspended from official activities indefinitely because they were working for casinos in Atlantic City -- even though they were specifically kept off the gambling floors by management.
Also on this day, Hall of Fame manager Walter Alston dies from heart trouble in Oxford, Ohio. He was 72. He had managed the Dodgers to 7 Pennants and 3 World Championships, including their only Brooklyn title in 1955. The Dodgers retired his Number 24.
Also on this day, Matthew Thomas Cain is born in Dothan, Alabama. A 3-time All-Star, Matt Cain has won 3 World Series with the Giants, and pitched a perfect game against the Astros on June 13, 2012, the 1st one ever pitched in the long, bicoastal history of the Giant franchise. "Big Daddy" (nicknamed after rapper Big Daddy Kane) retired at the end of the 2017 season, only 33 years old, with a record of 104-118. The Giants have elected him to their Wall of Fame.
October 1, 1985: The Mets arrive in St. Louis, and essentially need to sweep the Cardinals in 3 straight at Busch Memorial Stadium to win the NL East. They get off to a good start, as a dual shutout by Ron Darling and John Tudor is won in the 11th inning by a home run by Darryl Strawberry off Ken Dayley. Jesse Orosco is the winning pitcher.
October 1, 1986: Perfect Strangers airs the episode "The Unnatural." Larry (Mark Linn-Baker) tries to teach Balki (Bronson Pinchot) how to play baseball. They don't play baseball in Mypos, or any other fictional country based on the culture of Greece, where a baseball federation wasn't founded until 1997. So, hilarity ensues.
The show's opening sequence, of course, includes a scene in which Larry and Balki, Chicago residents, go to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.
October 1, 1987: Cheers airs the episode "I On Sports." Former Red Sox pitcher Sam Malone (played by Ted Danson) meets an old pal (played by former Los Angeles Rams defensive end Fred Dryer, by this point starring on another NBC show, the police drama Hunter), who tells him that he's going on vacation, and offers Sam the temporary slot as his Boston news broadcast's sports announcer. Sam proves woefully inadequate to the task.
October 1, 1988: For the 1st time, I attend a football game at Bloomfield High School, the Essex County, North Jersey school I would have attended had my parents not moved in 1972 to East Brunswick in Middlesex County, Central Jersey.
The move paid off for me, for several reasons, one of which is that, while I attended East Brunswick High School, in the 1984, '85 and '86 seasons, their football record was 24-6-1, with Conference Championships in 1984 and '86, and trips to the Central Jersey Group IV Finals in '84 and '85; while Bloomfield went 0-26-1 over those seasons.
My visit was well-timed: Under new head coach Chet Parlavecchio, a former linebacker for Penn State, the Green Bay Packers and the St. Louis Cardinals, Bloomfield scored in the 4th quarter, and beat Paramus Catholic 7-0. It was the Bengals' 1st win in nearly 5 years, since October 29, 1983.
They would go on to win 3 games that season. In 1989, they went 8-2, won a Division title, and made the North Jersey, Section 2, Group IV Playoffs for the 1st time in 12 years. Parlavecchio would coach at some other North Jersey high schools, and was briefly the linebackers coach for the Tennessee Titans.
The 1935 all-concrete version of Foley Field, named for Bloomfield's legendary football coach, where I watched that game, was demolished, and rebuilt with a more modern structure in 2011, in time for the 100th Anniversary of the BHS building at Broad Street and Belleville Avenue, a mile south of the Foley Field complex. Bloomfield College, an NCAA Division III school, also uses it.
Also on this day, the Bradley Center opens in Milwaukee, with a preseason NHL game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Edmonton Oilers. The NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and minor-league hockey's Milwaukee Admirals moved in, but left it in 2018, after only 30 years, for a new arena, the Fiserv Forum.
The arena's construction was led by the Admirals' owners, former Blackhawks broadcaster Lloyd Pettit and his wife, Jane Bradley Pettit, who named it after her Milwaukee philanthropist parents.
Also on this day, Murray H. Goodman Stadium opens on the campus of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The 16,000-seat facility replaces Taylor Field, where they had played since 1914. Lehigh beats Cornell 27-14.
October 1, 1989, 30 years ago: Denmark passes the world's 1st "civil union" law, allowing domestic partners, regardless of gender, to have the same benefits they would have with a legal marriage.
Also on this day, Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers is born in Sacramento, California. We know her as Brie Larson. In 1998, only 10 years old, she appeared in a comedy sketch on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the 2015 film Room.
She plays Carol Danvers, a.k.a. the Marvel Comics superhero named Captain Marvel, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Because Marvel Comics owns the rights to the name "Captain Marvel," anything done with the DC Comics character of the same name must be titled something else. So they can call the character "Captain Marvel," but the comic book based on him, and their own recent film about him, starring Zachary Levi, are titled Shazam!
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October 1, 1990: Alex Chiasson (no middle name) is born in Montreal. A right wing, he attended the Northwood School, a private school with a renowned hockey team, in Lake Placid, New York. Despite Montreal's status as a bilingual city, he then spoke only French. The only English words he knew were "Yes," "No," and "toast." As a result, "Toast" became his nickname.
But he went on to star at Boston University (and the Boston accent probably did his English lessons no favors), and reached the NHL in 2013, with the Dallas Stars. Last season, he won the Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals. He now plays for the Edmonton Oilers.
Also on this day, Jan Tilman Kirchhoff is born in Frankfurt, Germany. A centreback, he helped Bayern Munich win the German Cup (DFB-Pokal) in 2014 and the national league (Bundesliga) in 2015 and 2016. He now plays for KFC Uerdigen 05 in Krefeld, Germany.
October 1, 1991: Gideon Baah (no middle name) is born in Accra, Ghana. He is a defender for FC Honka of Espoo, Finland. In 2016, he opened the scoring in the New York Red Bulls' 7-0 demolition of New York City F.C. at Yankee Stadium.
Also on this day, ABC airs 2 sitcoms with episodes with a football theme. On the recently-debuted Home Improvement, Tim and Jill Taylor (Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson, respectively) try to have a romantic dinner, but the restaurant is showing the game of the hometown team, the Detroit Lions -- given the time period, this would have to have been on a Monday night, because they wouldn't have a romantic dinner on a Sunday afternoon -- and Tim is hopelessly distracted.
Don't laugh: The Lions were a very good team at the time: That season, they went all the way to the NFC Championship Game. As you can see, both from that and from the fact that Tim Allen was then considered funny, this was a long time ago.
The other, Coach, is about someone professionally involved in football, although not, at the time, professional football. In the episode "The Kick-Off and the Kiss-Off," Sports Illustrated has put Minnesota State University head coach Hayden Fox (Craig T. Nelson) on its cover, calling him "The Best Coach You've Never Heard Of." His Screaming Eagles are predicted to have a great season.
But his defensive coordinator, Luther Van Dam (Jerry Van Dyke), believes in "The Dreaded SI Cover Jinx," and is sure that something horrible is going to happen, either to Hayden or to the team. The Cover Jinx is a myth, but it has happened often enough to get noticed. Usually, it just means defeat for the cover subject. But athletes have gotten exposed in scandal, or badly injured, and in a few cases killed right after appearing on the cover.
Hayden dismisses all this, as he doesn't believe in supernatural stuff. Seemingly backing him up, Minnesota State wins its opening game, with no trouble. But afterward, Hayden's daughter, Kelly (Clare Carey), is dumped by her husband, Stuart Rosebrock (Kris Kamm), an actor who's having an affair with a woman who gets him a job on a Los Angeles TV show. Hayden wasn't jinxed, but the Fox family was.
October 1, 1992: Xander Jan Bogaerts is born in Oranjestad, Aruba, a Caribbean island that is a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. If you had never heard of him, then, with that information, you might presume that he is a Dutch soccer player. Indeed, he has played for the Netherlands -- but in the World Baseball Classic.
A shortstop, he has played for the Red Sox since 2013, winning the World Series in his rookie year, again in 2018, and made his 1st All-Star Game in 2016. He speaks 4 languages: English, Spanish, Dutch, and Aruba's native language, Papiamento.
October 1, 1993: Lennox Lewis retains the WBC's version of the Heavyweight Championship of the World, as he defeats Frank Bruno by TKO in the 7th round at Cardiff Arms Park in Cardiff, Wales.
Also on this day, the Detroit Pistons trade Dennis Rodman, the talented but troubled forward who had helped them win the 1989 and 1990 NBA Championships, along with Isaiah Morris and their 2nd round pick in the 1994 NBA Draft (which turned out to be Antonio Lang) and their 1st round pick in the 1996 Draft (which turned out to be John Wallace), to the San Antonio Spurs, for Sean Elliott, David Wood, and the Spurs' 1st round pick in the 1996 Draft (which turned out to be Jerome Williams).
The trade didn't help either team much, but it helped Rodman a lot, getting him out of a bad situation in Auburn Hills, and allowing him to reinvent himself as the character he wanted to become, with his piercings and his ever-changing hair and his (to put it politely) unusual personality. But it would take a trade to the Chicago Bulls 2 years later for him to become a Hall-of-Famer.
October 1, 1995: The expansion Jacksonville Jaguars win for the 1st time. After starting their 1st NFL season 0-5, they beat the Houston Oilers, 17-16 at the Astrodome.
Ironically, Jacksonville almost got the Oilers: In 1987, unhappy with his lease at the Astrodome, Oilers founder-owner Bud Adams threatened to move them to the Gator Bowl. Instead, he got some of the stadium improvements he wanted, and J-ville renovated the Bowl to become what's now named TIAA Bank Field, and in 1993 were granted the expansion franchise. But after the 1996 season, Adams moved the Oilers anyway, and they became the Tennessee Titans.
Also on this day, for the 1st time under its establishment, the Yankees win the American League Wild Card. They beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-1 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre). It is their 1st postseason berth since 1981, and the 1st ever for their Captain, Don Mattingly.
Also on this day, Dave Winfield plays his last major league game, for the Cleveland Indians against the Royals. He pinch-hits for Paul Sorrento in the bottom of the 7th inning, and grounds to 2nd against Rusty Meacham.
Sorrento had homered earlier, as had Billy Ripken, temporarily swiping the spotlight from his brother, who will join Winfield in the Hall of Fame. The Indians pound the Royals 17-7 at Jacobs Field. Dave is not included on the Indians' postseason roster, and does not play in their unsuccessful World Series against the Atlanta Braves.
Also on this day, Lauren Hill (no middle name) is born in Greendale, Indiana, and grows up in nearby Lawrenceburg. Not to be confused with Fugees singer Lauryn Hill, Lauren was a high school basketball star, who moved on to Cincinnati's Mount St. Joseph University, when she was stricken with cancer.
It became clear that she would not have the strength to play once her treatment began, so their season opener was moved up. The attention the story got led to the game being moved from Mount St. Joseph's 2,000-seat gym to the 10,250-seat Cintas Center, home court of of a much larger Catholic school in Cincinnati, Xavier University.
She played in 4 games and made 5 layups, raised $1.5 million for cancer research, and received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from her school, before dying on April 10, 2015, only 19 years old. Her funeral was private, but a public memorial service was held at the Cintas Center. She was posthumously inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Margaret Gorman dies in Bowie, Maryland at age 90. In 1921, she won a beauty contest, Miss District of Columbia. She and the pageant winners of the 48 States then in the Union were invited to a national competition, at the Million Dollar Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She won, thus becoming the 1st Miss America.
She lived another 74 years, but later said, "I never cared to be Miss America. It wasn't my idea. I am so bored by it all. I really want to forget the whole thing."
October 1, 1996: The Texas Rangers play the 1st postseason game in their 25-year history – a 36-year history, if you count their previous incarnation as the "new" Washington Senators. They are not intimidated by the power of the current Yankee team, or by the legacy of Yankee Stadium. A 5-run 4th inning includes home runs by Juan Gonzalez and Dean Palmer off David Cone, and the Rangers win, 6-2.
Suddenly, what had been a magical season for the Yankees is in serious jeopardy. The Rangers look like they're in control, especially after they take a 4-1 lead in he 3rd inning of Game 2 -- with Games 3 and, if necessary, 4 and 5 in Arlington. They will not win another postseason game for 14 years.
October 1, 1997: The Carolina Hurricanes, who had been the New England/Hartford Whalers from 1972 to 1997, play their 1st game. They visit the Tampa Bay Lightning at what's now named the Amalie Arena in Tampa, and lose 4-2. They will play their home games at the Greensboro Coliseum for 2 years, before their arena can open in Raleigh. It is now known as the PNC Arena.
October 1, 1999, 20 years ago: As part of the league-wide celebration of the retirement of his Number 99, the Edmonton Oilers, his 1st NHL team, specifically honor Wayne Gretzky by retiring the number.
Also on this day, the Pepsi Center opens in Denver, with a concert by Celine Dion. The NBA's Denver Nuggets and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche move in, and it remains their home.
Also on this day, the film Mystery, Alaska premieres, starring Russell Crowe and Mary McCormack. A local hockey team challenges the New York Rangers to a game. Canadian-born Mike Myers plays a broadcaster with a Yogi Berra-esque vocabulary: "This is hockey. It's not rocket surgery."
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October 1, 2000: The Pittsburgh Pirates play their last game at Three Rivers Stadium. They lose to the Chicago Cubs 10-9. Adrian Brown and John Wehner hit the last 2 home runs at Three Rivers, but it's not enough, as Scott Sauerbeck melts down and allows 3 runs in the 8th inning. Turnabout is fair play: The Pirates had swept a doubleheader from the Cubs on the last day at Forbes Field, June 28, 1970.
Hall-of-Famer Willie Stargell, the greatest living Pirate since the death of Roberto Clemente, throws out a ceremonial last ball at the closing ceremony. He would receive a statue to be dedicated outside PNC Park on Opening Day 2001, along with those of Clemente and Honus Wagner, which were moved there. He was also invited to throw out the first ball at the new park, but he was already ill, and died that very morning.
The Steelers will play out the 2000 season at Three Rivers, which will be demolished on February 11, 2001, and then move into Heinz Field.
Also on this day, Shane Halter, normally an infielder for the Detroit Tigers, becomes the 4th player to play all 9 positions in a single game. The Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 12-11 at the Metrodome.
Also on this day, Arsenal beat Manchester United 1-0 at home at Highbury in North London. Thierry Henry scores one of the most amazing goals you will ever see. And he does it against United's goalie Fabien Barthez, his teammate on the France squad that won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000.
October 1, 2003: The West Wing airs the episode "The Dogs of War," in which the storyline involving the kidnapping of Presidential daughter Zoey Bartlet (Elisabeth Moss) is successfully resolved.
October 1, 2004: Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners grounds a single up the middle, and collects his 258th hit of the season. This breaks the record that had belonged to George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns since 1920 -- 84 years. Ichiro would raise the record to 262.
My visit was well-timed: Under new head coach Chet Parlavecchio, a former linebacker for Penn State, the Green Bay Packers and the St. Louis Cardinals, Bloomfield scored in the 4th quarter, and beat Paramus Catholic 7-0. It was the Bengals' 1st win in nearly 5 years, since October 29, 1983.
They would go on to win 3 games that season. In 1989, they went 8-2, won a Division title, and made the North Jersey, Section 2, Group IV Playoffs for the 1st time in 12 years. Parlavecchio would coach at some other North Jersey high schools, and was briefly the linebackers coach for the Tennessee Titans.
The 1935 all-concrete version of Foley Field, named for Bloomfield's legendary football coach, where I watched that game, was demolished, and rebuilt with a more modern structure in 2011, in time for the 100th Anniversary of the BHS building at Broad Street and Belleville Avenue, a mile south of the Foley Field complex. Bloomfield College, an NCAA Division III school, also uses it.
Also on this day, the Bradley Center opens in Milwaukee, with a preseason NHL game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Edmonton Oilers. The NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and minor-league hockey's Milwaukee Admirals moved in, but left it in 2018, after only 30 years, for a new arena, the Fiserv Forum.
The arena's construction was led by the Admirals' owners, former Blackhawks broadcaster Lloyd Pettit and his wife, Jane Bradley Pettit, who named it after her Milwaukee philanthropist parents.
Also on this day, Murray H. Goodman Stadium opens on the campus of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The 16,000-seat facility replaces Taylor Field, where they had played since 1914. Lehigh beats Cornell 27-14.
October 1, 1989, 30 years ago: Denmark passes the world's 1st "civil union" law, allowing domestic partners, regardless of gender, to have the same benefits they would have with a legal marriage.
Also on this day, Brianne Sidonie Desaulniers is born in Sacramento, California. We know her as Brie Larson. In 1998, only 10 years old, she appeared in a comedy sketch on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the 2015 film Room.
She plays Carol Danvers, a.k.a. the Marvel Comics superhero named Captain Marvel, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Because Marvel Comics owns the rights to the name "Captain Marvel," anything done with the DC Comics character of the same name must be titled something else. So they can call the character "Captain Marvel," but the comic book based on him, and their own recent film about him, starring Zachary Levi, are titled Shazam!
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October 1, 1990: Alex Chiasson (no middle name) is born in Montreal. A right wing, he attended the Northwood School, a private school with a renowned hockey team, in Lake Placid, New York. Despite Montreal's status as a bilingual city, he then spoke only French. The only English words he knew were "Yes," "No," and "toast." As a result, "Toast" became his nickname.
But he went on to star at Boston University (and the Boston accent probably did his English lessons no favors), and reached the NHL in 2013, with the Dallas Stars. Last season, he won the Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals. He now plays for the Edmonton Oilers.
Also on this day, Jan Tilman Kirchhoff is born in Frankfurt, Germany. A centreback, he helped Bayern Munich win the German Cup (DFB-Pokal) in 2014 and the national league (Bundesliga) in 2015 and 2016. He now plays for KFC Uerdigen 05 in Krefeld, Germany.
October 1, 1991: Gideon Baah (no middle name) is born in Accra, Ghana. He is a defender for FC Honka of Espoo, Finland. In 2016, he opened the scoring in the New York Red Bulls' 7-0 demolition of New York City F.C. at Yankee Stadium.
Also on this day, ABC airs 2 sitcoms with episodes with a football theme. On the recently-debuted Home Improvement, Tim and Jill Taylor (Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson, respectively) try to have a romantic dinner, but the restaurant is showing the game of the hometown team, the Detroit Lions -- given the time period, this would have to have been on a Monday night, because they wouldn't have a romantic dinner on a Sunday afternoon -- and Tim is hopelessly distracted.
Don't laugh: The Lions were a very good team at the time: That season, they went all the way to the NFC Championship Game. As you can see, both from that and from the fact that Tim Allen was then considered funny, this was a long time ago.
The other, Coach, is about someone professionally involved in football, although not, at the time, professional football. In the episode "The Kick-Off and the Kiss-Off," Sports Illustrated has put Minnesota State University head coach Hayden Fox (Craig T. Nelson) on its cover, calling him "The Best Coach You've Never Heard Of." His Screaming Eagles are predicted to have a great season.
But his defensive coordinator, Luther Van Dam (Jerry Van Dyke), believes in "The Dreaded SI Cover Jinx," and is sure that something horrible is going to happen, either to Hayden or to the team. The Cover Jinx is a myth, but it has happened often enough to get noticed. Usually, it just means defeat for the cover subject. But athletes have gotten exposed in scandal, or badly injured, and in a few cases killed right after appearing on the cover.
Hayden dismisses all this, as he doesn't believe in supernatural stuff. Seemingly backing him up, Minnesota State wins its opening game, with no trouble. But afterward, Hayden's daughter, Kelly (Clare Carey), is dumped by her husband, Stuart Rosebrock (Kris Kamm), an actor who's having an affair with a woman who gets him a job on a Los Angeles TV show. Hayden wasn't jinxed, but the Fox family was.
October 1, 1992: Xander Jan Bogaerts is born in Oranjestad, Aruba, a Caribbean island that is a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. If you had never heard of him, then, with that information, you might presume that he is a Dutch soccer player. Indeed, he has played for the Netherlands -- but in the World Baseball Classic.
A shortstop, he has played for the Red Sox since 2013, winning the World Series in his rookie year, again in 2018, and made his 1st All-Star Game in 2016. He speaks 4 languages: English, Spanish, Dutch, and Aruba's native language, Papiamento.
October 1, 1993: Lennox Lewis retains the WBC's version of the Heavyweight Championship of the World, as he defeats Frank Bruno by TKO in the 7th round at Cardiff Arms Park in Cardiff, Wales.
Also on this day, the Detroit Pistons trade Dennis Rodman, the talented but troubled forward who had helped them win the 1989 and 1990 NBA Championships, along with Isaiah Morris and their 2nd round pick in the 1994 NBA Draft (which turned out to be Antonio Lang) and their 1st round pick in the 1996 Draft (which turned out to be John Wallace), to the San Antonio Spurs, for Sean Elliott, David Wood, and the Spurs' 1st round pick in the 1996 Draft (which turned out to be Jerome Williams).
The trade didn't help either team much, but it helped Rodman a lot, getting him out of a bad situation in Auburn Hills, and allowing him to reinvent himself as the character he wanted to become, with his piercings and his ever-changing hair and his (to put it politely) unusual personality. But it would take a trade to the Chicago Bulls 2 years later for him to become a Hall-of-Famer.
October 1, 1995: The expansion Jacksonville Jaguars win for the 1st time. After starting their 1st NFL season 0-5, they beat the Houston Oilers, 17-16 at the Astrodome.
Ironically, Jacksonville almost got the Oilers: In 1987, unhappy with his lease at the Astrodome, Oilers founder-owner Bud Adams threatened to move them to the Gator Bowl. Instead, he got some of the stadium improvements he wanted, and J-ville renovated the Bowl to become what's now named TIAA Bank Field, and in 1993 were granted the expansion franchise. But after the 1996 season, Adams moved the Oilers anyway, and they became the Tennessee Titans.
Also on this day, for the 1st time under its establishment, the Yankees win the American League Wild Card. They beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-1 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre). It is their 1st postseason berth since 1981, and the 1st ever for their Captain, Don Mattingly.
Also on this day, Dave Winfield plays his last major league game, for the Cleveland Indians against the Royals. He pinch-hits for Paul Sorrento in the bottom of the 7th inning, and grounds to 2nd against Rusty Meacham.
Sorrento had homered earlier, as had Billy Ripken, temporarily swiping the spotlight from his brother, who will join Winfield in the Hall of Fame. The Indians pound the Royals 17-7 at Jacobs Field. Dave is not included on the Indians' postseason roster, and does not play in their unsuccessful World Series against the Atlanta Braves.
Also on this day, Lauren Hill (no middle name) is born in Greendale, Indiana, and grows up in nearby Lawrenceburg. Not to be confused with Fugees singer Lauryn Hill, Lauren was a high school basketball star, who moved on to Cincinnati's Mount St. Joseph University, when she was stricken with cancer.
It became clear that she would not have the strength to play once her treatment began, so their season opener was moved up. The attention the story got led to the game being moved from Mount St. Joseph's 2,000-seat gym to the 10,250-seat Cintas Center, home court of of a much larger Catholic school in Cincinnati, Xavier University.
She played in 4 games and made 5 layups, raised $1.5 million for cancer research, and received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from her school, before dying on April 10, 2015, only 19 years old. Her funeral was private, but a public memorial service was held at the Cintas Center. She was posthumously inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Margaret Gorman dies in Bowie, Maryland at age 90. In 1921, she won a beauty contest, Miss District of Columbia. She and the pageant winners of the 48 States then in the Union were invited to a national competition, at the Million Dollar Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She won, thus becoming the 1st Miss America.
She lived another 74 years, but later said, "I never cared to be Miss America. It wasn't my idea. I am so bored by it all. I really want to forget the whole thing."
October 1, 1996: The Texas Rangers play the 1st postseason game in their 25-year history – a 36-year history, if you count their previous incarnation as the "new" Washington Senators. They are not intimidated by the power of the current Yankee team, or by the legacy of Yankee Stadium. A 5-run 4th inning includes home runs by Juan Gonzalez and Dean Palmer off David Cone, and the Rangers win, 6-2.
Suddenly, what had been a magical season for the Yankees is in serious jeopardy. The Rangers look like they're in control, especially after they take a 4-1 lead in he 3rd inning of Game 2 -- with Games 3 and, if necessary, 4 and 5 in Arlington. They will not win another postseason game for 14 years.
October 1, 1999, 20 years ago: As part of the league-wide celebration of the retirement of his Number 99, the Edmonton Oilers, his 1st NHL team, specifically honor Wayne Gretzky by retiring the number.
Also on this day, the Pepsi Center opens in Denver, with a concert by Celine Dion. The NBA's Denver Nuggets and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche move in, and it remains their home.
Also on this day, the film Mystery, Alaska premieres, starring Russell Crowe and Mary McCormack. A local hockey team challenges the New York Rangers to a game. Canadian-born Mike Myers plays a broadcaster with a Yogi Berra-esque vocabulary: "This is hockey. It's not rocket surgery."
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October 1, 2000: The Pittsburgh Pirates play their last game at Three Rivers Stadium. They lose to the Chicago Cubs 10-9. Adrian Brown and John Wehner hit the last 2 home runs at Three Rivers, but it's not enough, as Scott Sauerbeck melts down and allows 3 runs in the 8th inning. Turnabout is fair play: The Pirates had swept a doubleheader from the Cubs on the last day at Forbes Field, June 28, 1970.
Hall-of-Famer Willie Stargell, the greatest living Pirate since the death of Roberto Clemente, throws out a ceremonial last ball at the closing ceremony. He would receive a statue to be dedicated outside PNC Park on Opening Day 2001, along with those of Clemente and Honus Wagner, which were moved there. He was also invited to throw out the first ball at the new park, but he was already ill, and died that very morning.
The Steelers will play out the 2000 season at Three Rivers, which will be demolished on February 11, 2001, and then move into Heinz Field.
Also on this day, Shane Halter, normally an infielder for the Detroit Tigers, becomes the 4th player to play all 9 positions in a single game. The Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 12-11 at the Metrodome.
Also on this day, Arsenal beat Manchester United 1-0 at home at Highbury in North London. Thierry Henry scores one of the most amazing goals you will ever see. And he does it against United's goalie Fabien Barthez, his teammate on the France squad that won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000.
October 1, 2003: The West Wing airs the episode "The Dogs of War," in which the storyline involving the kidnapping of Presidential daughter Zoey Bartlet (Elisabeth Moss) is successfully resolved.
October 1, 2004: Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners grounds a single up the middle, and collects his 258th hit of the season. This breaks the record that had belonged to George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns since 1920 -- 84 years. Ichiro would raise the record to 262.
If there was anyone left who still doubted whether Ichiro was a bona fide Hall-of-Famer in the making (and I was a doubter), they now believe it.
October 1, 2005: Needing to win only 1 of the last 3 games of the season, against the Red Sox at Fenway Park, to win the AL East, and having lost the night before, the Yankees get the job done, beating the Sox 8-4. Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui and Alex Rodriguez all send Tim Wakefield knuckleballs out of the yard, making a winning pitcher out of Randy Johnson.
The Sox turned the tables the next day, to clinch the Wild Card. Everyone was looking forward to a 3rd straight ALCS between them, but both teams lost their ALDS. They have still not faced each other in the postseason since 2004.
Also on this day, Saturday Night Live premieres its 31st season. It is the debut of castmembers Bill Hader and Andy Samberg.
October 1, 2005: Needing to win only 1 of the last 3 games of the season, against the Red Sox at Fenway Park, to win the AL East, and having lost the night before, the Yankees get the job done, beating the Sox 8-4. Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui and Alex Rodriguez all send Tim Wakefield knuckleballs out of the yard, making a winning pitcher out of Randy Johnson.
The Sox turned the tables the next day, to clinch the Wild Card. Everyone was looking forward to a 3rd straight ALCS between them, but both teams lost their ALDS. They have still not faced each other in the postseason since 2004.
Also on this day, Saturday Night Live premieres its 31st season. It is the debut of castmembers Bill Hader and Andy Samberg.
October 1, 2006: After leading the AL Central by 10 games on August 7, the Detroit Tigers lose 31 of their last 50, including their last 5 in a row, the last being the blowing of a 6-0 lead over a terrible Kansas City Royals team to lose 10-8 in 12 innings. The Tigers thus blow the Division Title to the Twins, one of the great choke jobs of recent times.
They do get the Wild Card, however, and shock the Yankees in the Division Series, while the Twins get surprised by the A's, and then the Tigers sweep the A's to win the Pennant anyway. Never has a team looked so bad down the stretch and still managed to reach the World Series -- not even the 1949 or 2000 Yankees, or the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers.
The 2006 season is also the first one ever, except for the strike-shortened seasons of 1981, '94 and '95, in which there were no 20-game-winning pitchers in either League. Chien-Ming Wang of the Yankees and Johan Santana of the Twins each win 19, while no National League hurler wins more than 16 -- 6 of them win that many.
The Twins have another honor (that does them little good after their ALDS loss), as Twin Cities native Joe Mauer becomes the 1st catcher to win an AL batting title, and the 1st catcher to lead both leagues in batting average, with .347, ahead of NL batting champion Freddie Sanchez of the Pittsburgh Pirates with .344.
Also on this day, the Yankees hold one of their more recent traditions. Joe Torre allows one of his veteran players to manage the last game of the season. The player Torre chose was the presumably retiring Bernie Williams.
The game, which is meaningless as the Yankees have already clinched the AL East title, does not go well. Jaret Wright, whom Bernie started because it was his turn in the rotation, does not have good stuff. Jorge Posada hits a home run, and the game is tied 5-5 going to the 9th inning, despite Bernie having used Scott Proctor, who, incredibly, pitched a scoreless 8th.
But Bernie pushes his luck, and sends Kyle Farnsworth out to pitch the 9th. Kerosene Kyle gets the 1st 2 outs, then gives up a single to Alex Rios and a home run to Adam Lind. In the bottom of the 9th, Scott Downs strikes out Kevin Thompson and Wil Nieves, to put the Yankees down to their last out.
Knowing that DH Miguel Cairo was up next, and that, at age 38, he wouldn't take the field if the game went to extra innings, Bernie sends himself up to pinch-hit, and gets a huge standing ovation from the Yankee Stadium crowd of 54,886, which includes yours truly, knowing that this is it, as he has not been selected for the postseason roster. Bernie, a switch-hitter, bats righthanded against the lefthanded Downs, and smacks an opposite-field double. And doesn't remove himself for a pinch-runner. But Andy Phillips ruins the moment by striking out to end the game. Pesky Blue Jays 7, Yankees 5.
October 1, 2007: Needing a Playoff for the Playoffs, the Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres in the bottom of the 13th inning, 9-8. Jamey Carroll hits a sacrifice fly, and Matt Holliday scores on a disputed play at the plate.
The Padres have not reached the Playoffs since, and this play burns their fans up. The Rockies closed the regular season (and this game counts as such, as it's officially not a postseason game) winning 14 of their last 15.
Also on this day, Al Oerter dies of heart trouble in Fort Myers, Florida. He was 71. A native of Astoria, Queens, he grew up in New Hyde Park, Long Island, and was the 1st man to win an event at 4 straight Olympics: Winning the discus throw in 1956 in Melbourne, 1960 in Rome, 1964 in Tokyo and 1968 in Mexico City.
October 1, 2009, 10 years ago: The Colorado Avalanche retire the Number 19 of Joe Sakic, who'd just retired after being with the team since 1988, and Captain since 1990, including the 1995 move from being the Quebec Nordiques, and their 1996 and 2001 Stanley Cups.
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October 1, 2010: The Amway Center opens in downtown Orlando, with a public walk-through as the inaugural event. The NBA's Orlando Magic move in, and it remains their home.
October 1, 2013: The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat their traditional rivals, the Cincinnati Reds, 6-2 in the NL Wild Card game at PNC Park. Ex-Yankee Russell Martin hits 2 home runs, Marlon Byrd adds 1, and Francisco Liriano gets the win.
Also on this day, Tom Clancy dies of heart trouble in Baltimore. He was 66, one of the biggest-selling authors of the late 20th Century, and owned a small share of the Baltimore Orioles.
October 1, 2014: The Pirates go for 3 straight wins in NL Wild Card games, but come up short, losing at home to the Giants, 8-0. Brandon Crawford becomes the 1st shortstop ever to hit a grand slam in a postseason game, and Madison Bumgarner pitches a 4-hit shutout, presaging his postseason pitching heroics to come.
October 1, 2015: The Yankees defeat the Boston Red Sox, 4-1 at Yankee Stadium II, thanks to home runs by veteran Carlos Beltran and rookies Greg Bird and Rob Refsnyder, and the fine pitching of CC Sabathia, Adam Warren and Dellin Betances.
The Yankees, who led the AL East by 7 games on July 28, thus finally, with 3 games to spare, clinch a berth in the AL Wild Card play-in game. It is the 52nd time in franchise history, going back to 1903, that they have reached the postseason. It is also the 10,000th win in franchise history. And the cherry on the sundae is that it comes against the Auld Enemy, a.k.a. The Scum.
Also on this day, Hadi Norouzi dies of a heart attack in Tehran, Iran. He was only 30 years old. The striker had starred for Persepolis, a Tehran soccer team, and helped them win the Hazfi Cup, Iran's version of the FA Cup, in 2010 and 2011. Persepolis retired his Number 24.
Also on this day, Chris Harper-Mercer, a student at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, shoots 17 people in a classroom, killing 9: A professor and 8 students. Police responded, and a shootout ensued. Harper-Mercer was wounded, and finished himself off.
October 1, 2016: The Mets beat the Phillies 5-3 at Citizens Bank Park, and clinch the NL Wild Card. Paired with last season's Pennant, this is only their 2nd back-to-back Playoff seasons ever, following 1999 and 2000.
Also on this day, the Rutgers football team goes to Columbus, and, in front of 105,000 people, loses 58-0 to Number 3 Ohio State. As the great New York sportscaster Warner Wolf (who is still alive, nearly 82) would say, "If you had Rutgers and 57 points, you lost!" (The spread was 38 points.) Warner also would have said, "Come on, give me a break!" No, let's not go to the videotape!
Also on this day, Mosaic Stadium opens in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. In a rivalry game, the University of Regina defeats the University of Saskatchewan, 37-29. The Canadian Football League's Saskatchewan Roughriders will move in next season.
Also on this day, Alec Baldwin makes his 1st appearance as Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live. If his portrayal helps remove Trump from office, Baldwin may just redeem himself for lots of ham acting and the way he's treated various family members.
October 1, 2017: Dave Strader dies of cancer at his home in Glens Falls, New York. He was 62. A few months earlier, perhaps anticipating this, the Hockey Hall of Fame gave him its Foster Hewitt Memorial Award, tantamount to election to the Hall for broadcasters.
The Glens Falls native started out with his hometown team, the Adirondack Red Wings of the American Hockey League, in 1979. In 1985, their parent club, the Detroit Red Wings, called him up. He later broadcast for the Florida Panthers, the Phoenix Coyotes and the Dallas Stars.
Also on this day, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Los Angeles Chargers 26-24. Thousands of Eagles fans cheered wildly the whole game.
No surprise there, right? Here's the surprise: The Chargers, having just moved back to their original city after 56 seasons in San Diego, weren't allowed to play at the 93,067-seat Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum or the 90,888-seat Rose Bowl, so they moved into the StubHub Center (since renamed Dignity Health Sports Park) in suburban Carson, groundsharing with the LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer.
Attendance at this game: 25,374 -- and that was a sellout. And with the Rams having gotten a season's head-start on the Chargers for the hearts and minds of Los Angeles-area football fans, plus already having the legacy of having played there from 1946 to 1994, the Chargers never really had a home-field advantage. The majority of fans at the StubHub Center were rooting for the Eagles.
The Chargers lost their 1st 4 games of the 2017 season, including home games against the Miami Dolphins, the Kansas City Chiefs, and now the Eagles. Somehow, they managed to go 9-3 the rest of the way, and almost made the Playoffs. But they were also outnumbered in "their own house" by fans of the Denver Broncos, the Washington Redskins and the Oakland Raiders.
Just a few hours after this game, the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival on the Las Vegas Strip became the scene of the biggest mass shooting in American history. Stephen Paddock went to a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel & casino, took out several weapons including an AR-15 assault rifle, and shot over 900 people, 58 of whom died. That was nearly as many as the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado and the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando combined: 49 + 13 = 62.
Paddock finally shot and killed himself, proving that the death penalty is no deterrent to a man who is planning on becoming his own final victim anyway. What would have stopped him from getting his guns? A background check.
Five days later, the Vegas Golden Knights played their 1st game, at home at the T-Mobile Arena, just a mile north of the shooting site. They paid tribute to the victims, wore a jersey patch honoring them all season long, beat the Dallas Stars 2-1, and got all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals.
October
1, 2023: The "five years later" events of the film Avengers: Endgame take place during
this month, though not necessarily on this particular day.
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