Top row: Rollie Fingers, Joe Rudi, Vida Blue.
Middle: Reggie Jackson, Charlie Finley, Gene Tenace.
Bottom: Sal Bando, Catfish Hunter, Bert Campaneris.
October 17, 1974: Game 5 of the World Series, at the Oakland Coliseum. Vida Blue of the Oakland Athletics and Don Sutton of the Los Angeles Dodgers are tied 2-2 going into the bottom of the 6th inning, when Mike Marshall relieves Sutton and retires the side.
In the 7th‚ a shower of debris from the fans halts the game for 15 minutes. When play is resumed‚ Joe Rudi hits Marshall's 1st pitch for a home run to give the A's a 3rd 3-2 win‚ clinching a 3rd straight World Championship for the team.
The A's thus become only the 2nd major league franchise to win 3 straight World Series, and remain the only one other than the Yankees to have done it. This was also the 1st all-California World Series, or even the 1st with both teams playing more than a few blocks west of the Mississippi River (take note, fans of St. Louis and Minnesota).
Jim "Catfish" Hunter died in 1999, Paul Lindblad in 2006, Jim Holt in 2019, and Claudell Washington earlier this year. The other 22 men on the 1974 A's World Series roster are still alive: Blue, Rudi, Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, Sal Bando, Bert Campaneris, Gene Tenace, Dick Green, John "Blue Moon" Odom, Darold Knowles, Angel Mangual, Ted Kubiak, Dave Hamilton, Jesús Alou, Ray Fosse, Dal Maxvill, Herb Washington (no relation to Claudell), Billy North, Ken Holtzman, Manny Trillo, Larry Haney and John Donaldson. (UPDATE: Mangual died on February 16, 2021; Fosse on October 13, 2021; Bando on January 20, 2023; Alou on March 10, 2023; Vida Blue on May 6, 2023.)
The A's thus become only the 2nd major league franchise to win 3 straight World Series, and remain the only one other than the Yankees to have done it. This was also the 1st all-California World Series, or even the 1st with both teams playing more than a few blocks west of the Mississippi River (take note, fans of St. Louis and Minnesota).
Jim "Catfish" Hunter died in 1999, Paul Lindblad in 2006, Jim Holt in 2019, and Claudell Washington earlier this year. The other 22 men on the 1974 A's World Series roster are still alive: Blue, Rudi, Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, Sal Bando, Bert Campaneris, Gene Tenace, Dick Green, John "Blue Moon" Odom, Darold Knowles, Angel Mangual, Ted Kubiak, Dave Hamilton, Jesús Alou, Ray Fosse, Dal Maxvill, Herb Washington (no relation to Claudell), Billy North, Ken Holtzman, Manny Trillo, Larry Haney and John Donaldson. (UPDATE: Mangual died on February 16, 2021; Fosse on October 13, 2021; Bando on January 20, 2023; Alou on March 10, 2023; Vida Blue on May 6, 2023.)
After the 1974 season, A's owner Charles Oscar Finley reneged on a clause in his contract with ace pitcher Hunter, who was then declared a free agent, and signed with the Yankees. The A's still won the American League Western Division in 1975, but lost the AL Championship Series to the Boston Red Sox.
Then the reserve clause was struck down. Free agency, and thus much higher salaries, were coming, and Finley didn't want to pay them. First, he traded Reggie to the Baltimore Orioles, where he played out his contract. Then he sold Blue to the Yankees for $1.5 million, and Fingers and Rudi to the Red Sox for $1 million each. He figured, better to get as much money for them now, than to lose them to free agency and get nothing for them.
Commissioner Bowie Kuhn voided those sales. This benefited the Yankees, as they didn't have to deal with Blue's worsening drug problem, and the Red Sox did not get the improvement that Fingers and Rudi would have given them. But was it really, as Kuhn put it, in "the best interests of baseball"?
When the 1976 season came to an end, with the A's finishing 2nd, a mere 2 1/2 games behind the Kansas City Royals, Finley didn't lift a finger to sign any of the players who went for the big money. He didn't try to bring Reggie back, and Reggie signed with the Yankees. Fingers and Tenace were signed by the San Diego Padres. Rudi was signed by the team then known as the California Angels. Campaneris was signed by the Texas Rangers, and would join Rudi on the Angels 2 years later. Team Captain Bando was signed by the Milwaukee Brewers.
Finally, after an attempt to trade Blue to the Cincinnati Reds after the 1977 season fell through, Finley traded him across the Bay to the San Francisco Giants. The A's crashed to last place in 1977, losing 98 games, behind even the expansion Seattle Mariners. They lost 93 games in 1978, and bottomed out at 108 losses and just 306,763 fans for the entire season.
Finley sold the team in 1980, and they instantly got better. He died in 1996. He is still not in the Baseball Hall of Fame, while Reggie, Catfish and Fingers are.
Pretty much everybody who's studied 1970s baseball -- and several books have been written about the period, all of them examining the A's, the Team of the Decade -- agree that if Charlie O. hadn't been so cheap, and otherwise so vindictive, and had paid his players what they were worth, and had otherwise treated them well enough to make them want to stay in Oakland, the dynasty could have continued, getting in the way of the Big Red Machine, George Steinbrenner's Yankees and Whitey Herzog's Royals.
But Finley broke up his dynasty.
Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Charlie Finley for Breaking Up the Oakland A's Dynasty
5. The Curse of Connie Mack. Finley's breakup of his dynasty may be the most famous salary dump in sports history, but it wasn't even the second-most damaging one in the history of his own franchise.
After winning 4 Pennants in 5 years, including winning the World Series in 1910, 1911 and 1913, the Philadelphia Athletics lost the World Series in 1914. After that, Connie Mack, then the team's manager, treasurer, and owner of 1/4 of the franchise, broke up his dynasty, rather than pay his players enough to refuse the higher salaries being offered by the new Federal League.
He sold Hall of Fame 2nd baseman Eddie Collins to the Chicago White Sox, let Hall of Fame 3rd baseman Frank "Home Run" Baker sit out the entire season in a holdout, and let Hall of Fame pitchers Eddie Plank and Chief Bender sign with the Feds. The A's went from first to worst, finishing in 8th place, going from 99-53 to 43-109, a 56-game dropoff that has never been matched in major league history.
He then let pretty much everybody else get away, including trading Baker to the Yankees, who helped them build their 1st dynasty in the early 1920s. In 1916, the A's went 36-117, for a .236 winning percentage. Those 117 losses are no longer an American League record, but the .235 winning percentage remains the lowest in the major leagues since 1899.
Mack rebuilt the A's into a 2nd-place team by 1927. In 1929 and 1930, the A's won the World Series. In 1931, they won 107 games, but lost the World Series. But Mack had lost all of his non-baseball assets in the stock market crash in the days following the 1929 triumph. So he had to sell off his great players again.
In 1932, the A's went 94-60, to finish 2nd. They had catcher Mickey Cochrane, 1st baseman Jimmie Foxx, left fielder Al Simmons, and pitcher Lefty Grove, all of whom would be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. By the time the 1934 season dawned, all of them had been sold, and the A's finished 78-82.
Over the next 3 years, Tom and Jack, the Shibe brothers, died, leaving Mack in virtual full control of the franchise. He refused to replace himself as manager, and the team deteriorated as he fell into senility. In 1950, agreeing on little else, his sons ganged up on him, and took control of the franchise. They were no better, and after the 1954 season, they sold the team to Arnold Johnson, who moved them to Kansas City.
Johnson was no better, either, and when he died in 1960, Finley bought the team, moving it to Oakland in 1968, reaching a Division title in 1971, and in 1972, winning the team's 1st Pennant in 41 years. Finley knew the history of the team, and he knew that Mack had broken up the team in the name of money before. He figured he could get away with it himself. He didn't.
4. The Oakland Fans. He wasn't making money off of them, because they simply didn't show up. The A's only drew 914,993 fans during their Division title season of 1971, 921,323 for the 1st World Championship season of 1972, just barely cleared a million at 1,000,763 in 1973, fell to 845,693 in 1974, and peaked at 1,075,518 in 1975.
What's more, that 1,000,763 figure for 1973? Finley lied about that. He bumped the team's home finale attendance up by at least 5,000 to make it.
After low attendance at the team's 1974 parade, Finley was overheard saying, "This fucking city can't do anything right." He tried to sell the A's to Denver oil baron Marvin Davis so they could be moved in time for the 1978 season, to a New Orleans group for 1979, and tried with Davis again in 1980, before selling them to Walter Haas, who kept them in Oakland.
Not once from their 1968 arrival until 1981, the 1st full season under Haas and the 2nd season of Billy Martin's "Billy Ball," did the A's have a higher average attendance than the American League as a whole. The last time they did was 1958, when the novelty of being in Kansas City was still in place.
Throw in the fact that Oakland would be abandoned by the NHL's California Golden Seals (another team that Finley had owned) in 1976; the NFL's Oakland Raiders twice, in 1981 and again in 2019; and the NBA's Golden State Warriors in 2019, if only to go across the Bay to San Francisco, and it seems clear that Oakland, itself, is part of the problem.
3. Finley's Health. He had a heart attack on August 7, 1973. He survived it, but it gave him the impression that he needed as much money as possible to cover his health costs, and to have something to leave for his children, since the chance that he could die soon went way up. (The fact that he got rich by selling health insurance made this ironic.) Given that thought, it was only natural that his hobby, his baseball team, became something of secondary importance.
2. Shirley Finley. She left Charlie, and he knew he was going to take a bath in the divorce. So he needed as much money as he could get.
1. Free Agency. Finley decided he didn't want to pay big bucks for big players. This was why he tried to sell the players before he would have lost them for nothing. He figured, he built the dynasty, so he should reap the rewards; and that, since he built one dynasty, he could build another. Given that Connie Mack had done both things, both concepts were far from unreasonable.
VERDICT: Guilty. Very guilty. Let's look at the 5 reasons again:
5. Mack had been out of power with the A's since 1950, and dead since 1956. He was not responsible for Finley's decisions, and cast no curse on later team owners. Furthermore, the circumstances were very different: Mack needed his 1933 and '34 selloffs to keep the franchise afloat. He was not a rich man. Finley was. He had a choice.
4. Whose idea was it to move to Oakland? Finley's. He should have known that the San Francisco Giants were going to dominate the San Francisco Bay Area market, having had a 10-year head start on him.
It's also worth noting that the A's actually had higher attendance than the Giants in the 1970 season, and then every season from 1972 to 1976. After Finley sold the team, the A's would again have higher attendance than the Giants every year from 1981 to 1995, except for 1986, 1987 and 1993.
The Giants have had higher per-game attendance every season since 1996, but, for most of those seasons, despite playing in an increasingly unsuitable Oakland Coliseum, the A's have had higher per-game attendance than either team -- and, in some years, more than both teams combined -- had during Finley's heyday.
So why the low attendance during said heyday? It wasn't because the fans were bad, or the stadium (then) was bad, or the city was bad. It was because Finley's approach was bad.
People who have studied him have said that he tried to sell the A's they same way he sold insurance, which was how he got rich. And the same approach didn't work: He was operating as a print guy in a broadcast world. For most of his tenure, the A's didn't have a local TV contract. For some of it, they didn't even have a local radio contract. One year, the biggest radio station broadcasting A's games was the campus station at the University of California at Berkeley.
As Barack Obama would say, the problem wasn't that Finley was a bad man, the problem was that he just didn't get it.
Okay, he was a bad man. Which leads us to...
3. Instead of making him rethink his life, what kind of person he was, and what kind of person he should be, the heart attack only made Finley meaner. As Sal Bando put it, "Most players, prior to the 1973 season, anyhow, would consider Mr. Finley a father figure. With his heart attack, things started to change. He became more vindictive."
What's more, Finley didn't die soon. Although he was plagued by heart disease thereafter, he lived another 22 years, dying on February 19, 1996, just short of his 78th birthday.
2. The divorce was no excuse. He still would have had enough money to fund the team.
1. Other team owners spent big in free agency. Finley could have done so as well. He had the money. The players had earned those big salaries, by winning for Finley's team. Look at the 3 team owners who bid the most on Finley's players. George Steinbrenner of the Yankees got Reggie and Catfish. Ray Kroc of the Padres signed Fingers and Tenace, and made the next best effort after George to get Reggie. Gene Autry of the Angels got Rudi, and also tok Don Baylor, whom Finley had gotten from the Orioles for Reggie in early '76, but refused to re-sign.
Autry also signed Reggie when his Yankee contract ran out. He also got Campaneris in a trade with the Rangers. He also took Rod Carew off the Minnesota Twins' hands in a trade, when their owner, Clark Griffith, proved to be every bit as cheap as Finley, and also an unrepentant racist. He also signed Fred Lynn when the Boston Red Sox refused to keep him. He also signed Bobby Grich and Doug DeCinces when the Orioles wouldn't keep them. He also got Tommy John in a trade with the Yankees.
Autry was willing to spend money if he thought it would bring results. It didn't: The Angels won the AL West in 1979, '82 and '86, but never won a Pennant until after he died, by which point all of those players had retired
These were rich men, but they did not mind spending big bucks in the hopes of getting big results. It only worked for Steinbrenner, but you can't fault Kroc or Autry for trying. You can fault Finley for refusing to try.
The breakup of the 1971-75 Oakland A's was Charlie Finley's fault. Not Bowie Kuhn's, not AL Presidents Joe Cronin's or Lee MacPhail's, not players association head Marvin Miller's, not reserve clause-killing arbitrator Peter Seitz's, not any of the players', not the City of Oakland's, not the Oakland fans'.
Yes, you can blame Charlie Finley. And you should.
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October 17, 1752: Jacob Broom is born. A signer of the Constitution of the United States in 1787, he lived until 1810.
October 17, 1814: The London Beer Flood occurs. No, I’m not making that up. If Boston could have a molasses flood in 1918, why couldn't London have a beer flood?
It happened in the London parish of St. Giles. At the Meux and Company Brewery on Tottenham Court Road, a huge vat containing over 135,000 "imperial gallons" of beer ruptured, causing other vats in the same building to succumb in a domino effect. As a result, more than 323,000 imperial gallons of beer burst out and gushed into the streets.
The wave of beer destroyed 2 homes and crumbled the wall of the Tavistock Arms Pub, trapping the Eleanor Cooper, a barmaid whose age has been variously given as 14, 15 and 16 years old, under the rubble. The brewery was located among the poor houses and tenements of the St Giles Rookery, where whole families lived in basement rooms that quickly filled with beer. The wave left 9 people dead: 8 due to drowning (including the barmaid) and 1 from alcohol poisoning.
October 17, 1849: Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin -- or Frédéric François Chopin -- dies in Paris, probably of tuberculosis. The half-Polish, half-French, all-genius pianist and composer was only 39 years old, and had been seriously ill for 7 years.
This means that, within a span of 23 days, the world lost composers Chopin and Johann Strauss, and writer Edgar Allan Poe. Former President James K. Polk and former First Lady Dolley Madison, and the Kings of the Netherlands and Sardinia also died in 1849.
October 17, 1851: Reginald Courtenay Welch is born in Kensington, West London. A goalkeeper and defender, on March 16, 1872 he played for London-based amateur side Wanderers against Royal Engineers in the 1st FA Cup Final, at the Kennington Oval in South London, a 1-0 win; and then for England against Scotland in the 1st international soccer game, on November 30 at the West of Scotland Cricket Ground on the West Side of Glasgow, drawing 0-0.
He later served as a tutor for the British Army, and became principal of the Army College at Farnham, Surrey. He still held that post when he died in 1939, at age 87.
October 17, 1859: William Ewing (no middle name) is born outside Cincinnati in Hoagland, Ohio. "Buck" Ewing played pretty much any position, but was best known as a catcher. He was an original New York Giant in 1883, and helped them win National League Pennants in 1888 and 1889.
He was considered, along with Cap Anson and King Kelly, the best player of his era, and was one of the earliest inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame, in 1939. He did not live to see this, as he died in 1906, from diabetes, at age 47. The Reds elected him to their team Hall of Fame as well.
October 17, 1860, 160 years ago: For the 1st time, The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open) is held, at Prestwick Golf Club, in Ayrshire, Scotland. The winner is Scotsman Willie Park.
Wait, why am I mentioning this? Golf is not a sport!
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October 17, 1864: Robert Lansing (no middle name) is born in Watertown, New York. An attorney specializing in international law, he was general counsel for the U.S. Department of State, and then served as Secretary of State from June 9, 1915 to February 13, 1920, includin the entirety of Amerca's involvement in World War I.
When President Woodrow Wilson suffered his stroke, Lansing saw that he was bot physically and politically paralyzed. He recommended that Vice President Thomas Marshall assume the duties of the Presidency. Hearing this, First Lady Edith Wilson, whom historians have often called "the first female President," comes closer to being that than at any other time, demanding Lansing's resignation. She got it. He returned to the private practice of law, and died in 1928.
October 17, 1877: Edward Benninghaus Kenna is born in Charleston, West Virginia. A pitcher, he appeared in 2 games for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1902, winning one and losing the other, and not being much of a factor in their winning the American League Pennant.
Ed Kenna, who had also played football at Georgetown University, and served as head coach at the University of Richmond and West Virginia Wesleyan College, was known as the Pitching Poet. He later edited the Charleston Gazette, and died in 1912.
October 17, 1879: Sunderland and District Teachers Association Football Club is founded in Sunderland, in the North-East of England, by James Allan, a Scottish schoolmaster who played soccer as a forward. They joined the Football League in 1890, eventually becoming simply "Sunderland A.F.C."
Like the people of their hometown, they are known as "The Mackems" The name comes from the city's past as a shipbuilding center: In what became known as "the Mackem dialect," they would say of the ships, to everyone else in Britain, "We make them, and you take them." This became "We mack 'em and you tack 'em." Stereotypically, the people there pronounce "Whose keys are these?" as "Wheeze keys are these?"
Sunderland A.F.C. are also known as the Black Cats, for the black lions on their club badge. They won the League in 1892, 1893 and 1895, and became known as known as "The Team of All Talents." They won it again in 1902, 1913 and 1936. They haven't won it since, but that's still 4 more titles than have been won by Tottenham Hotspur, 2 more than by Manchester City, and it was only this year that Chelsea matched their total.
They won the FA Cup in 1937 and 1973, the latter as a Division Two team that upset North London's Arsenal in the Semifinal and Yorkshire's Leeds United in the Final. It remains their last major trophy, and they've struggled since. From 1958-59 to the 2017-18 season just begun, they've played 60 seasons, and only 29 of those, less than half, have been in the 1st division; 1, 1987-88, was in the 3rd.
In 2003, they were relegated from the Premier League, having gained just 19 points all season long (4 wins for 3 points each, and 7 draws for 1 point each), a new record low for the English 1st division. They got promoted back up in 2005, but in 2006, they broke their own record with just 15 points (3 wins and 6 draws, a record broken in 2007-08 by East Midlands side Derby County with 11).
They won the 2nd division in 2007, and remained in the Premier League until finishing dead last in 2017, with 24 points -- a pathetic total, but genius compared to '03 and '06. They made it back-to-back relegations in 2018, and now play in the 3rd division, known as League One.
They are known for their red and white striped shirts, their rivalry with nearby Newcastle United (known as the Tyne-Wear Derby), and the noise made by their fans, known as the Roker Roar, from their home field from 1898 to 1997, Roker Park. They now play at the 49,000-seat Stadium of Light.
October 17, 1883: With professional boxing still illegal in most parts of America, fights are technically held underground, and not in major cities. Therefore, today's fight, for the unofficial Heavyweight Championship of the World, is held not in Pittsburgh, but in nearby McKeesport, Pennsylvania.
It is no contest: The Champion, John L. Sullivan, knocks challenger James McCoy out in the 1st round. "The Boston Strong Boy" won the title by knocking out Paddy Ryan a year earlier, and would hold the title for 10 years.
October 17, 1889: John F. Hartranft dies in Norristown, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, at age 58. A General of the Union Army in the American Civil War, he fought at the Battles of Bull Run (both of them), Antietam, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Knoxville, Spotsylvania, Petersburg and Fort Stedman. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
He served as Governor of Pennsylvania from 1873 to 1879, and an equestrian statue of him stands on the grounds of the State House in Harrisburg.
October 17, 1892: The Universities of Michigan and Minnesota play each other in football for the 1st time. Minnesota wins 14-6 in Minneapolis. In 1903, the rivalry began to be played for a trophy known as the Little Brown Jug. Michigan leads the series 75-25-3. The schools play each other on October 24.
Also on this day, Joseph Leland Heath Joannes is born in Green Bay, Wisconsin. A grocery store owner, he was one of The Hungry Five, who kept his hometown football team, the Green Bay Packers, afloat during the Great Depression. He was the team's President from 1930 to 1947, a period that included 6 NFL Championships. He was elected to the team's Hall of Fame in 1981, and died the next year.
Also on this day, Otto Klum (no middle name) is born in Ashland, Oregon. He is the winningest coach in the history of the University of Hawaii's football program, going 84-51-7 from 1921 to 1939. He died of a heart attack in 1944. The school named Klum Gym for him, and he is a member of the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame.
October 17, 1894: A mob gathers at Washington Court House in the town of the same name in Ohio, to prevent Ohio National Guardsmen from moving a black defendant named William Dolby to the State Penitentiary at Columbus. The mob would not disperse, and the militia's commanding officer, Colonel Alonzo Colt, ordered them to fire. The result was 20 rioters wounded, 5 of them dead.
Colt was charged with manslaughter, but was acquitted. Dolby served 20 years for assault -- the punishment going well beyond the crime. But the,m this was 1894, and he was black.
October 17, 1896: Florence Dent Archibald McSkimming is born in St. Louis. He -- yes, he -- was the son of George Francis McSkimming, who worked at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and George named his son after 2 male colleagues, Florence D. White and Dent H. Robert.
He went by the name Dent McSkimming, and would also write for the Post-Dispatch. Since several members of the U.S. team at the 1950 World Cup were from St. Louis, he went to Brazil to cover it, paying his own way because the Post-Dispatch wouldn't. he saw the U.S. team beat England 1-0, and wrote, "It was as if Oxford University sent a baseball team over here and it beat the Yankees."
He died in 1976, and, because of his journalistic connection to the sport, was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame. In the 2005 film The Game of Their Lives, he was played in 1950 by Terry Kinney, and as an older man by, ironically, an Englishman, Patrick Stewart, in real life a big fan of Yorkshire club Huddersfield Town. Since he only lived for 26 years after the game in question, the age difference shouldn't have been necessary to have an older actor, no matter how good.
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October 17, 1901: George Godfrey dies of tuberculosis in Revere, Massachusetts, outside Boston, at age 48. One of the earliest great black boxers, he was "World Colored Heavyweight Champion" from 1883 to 1888. Known as "Old Chocolate," he was a native of the Canadian Province of Prince Edward Island, and was named to its Sports Hall of Fame.
October 17, 1906: Samuel Paul Derringer is born in Springfield, Kentucky. Paul Derringer was a rookie pitcher with the 1931 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, and won the 1939 National League Pennant and the 1940 World Series with the Cincinnati Reds. He started the 1st major league night game, at Cincinnati's Crosley Field in 1935, and won 223 games in his career. Of those, 161 came in a Reds uniform, 2nd in club history only to Eppa Rixey's 179. He lived until 1987, and was named to the Reds' team Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Joseph Albert Albertson is born in Yukon, Oklahoma, and grows up in Caldwell, Idaho. Founder of the Albertsons grocery store chain, he was a major donor to Boise State University, whose stadium is named for him. He died in 1993.
October 17, 1908: Robert Abial Rolfe is born in Penacook, New Hampshire. The starting 3rd baseman in 4 All-Star Games, Red Rolfe helped the Yankees win the 1932, '36, '37, '38, '39 and '41 World Series. He is the greatest player ever born in New Hampshire, although Bellows Falls, Vermont-born Carlton Fisk grew up in Charlestown.
Retiring as a player at only 34, he was immediately hired, due to the wartime manpower shortage, as both baseball and basketball coach at Yale University. He later served as athletic director at his alma mater, Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Until Graig Nettles, and later Alex Rodriguez, he was probably the best all-around player ever to play 3rd base for the Yankees. Yankee broadcaster Mel Allen selected him as the 3rd baseman on his all-time team, although Mel did also see plenty of Eddie Mathews and Brooks Robinson, and wasn't that far past the era of Pie Traynor.
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October 17, 1910, 110 years ago: Game 1 of the World Series is played, the 1st of 20 that was played at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Albert Bender, a member of the Chippewa tribe in his native Minnesota, goes the distance, and is aided by 3 hits and 2 RBIs by third baseman Frank Baker -- not yet nicknamed "Home Run." The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-1.
At a time when immigration to America was at its all-time peak, Bender would hear fans making "Indian war whoops," and would get eqully personal: He would turn to them, and yell, "You lousy foreigners! Why don't you go back where you came from!" Of course, to him, all white men were immigrants.
The 1st pitcher to regularly use the slider, he went 212-127 for his career, with a 2.46 ERA. He remained in the Philadelphia area after retiring, running a sporting goods store in the city and a fruit and vegetable farm in suburban Haddon Heights, Camden County, New Jersey.
He returned to the A's as pitching coach, and helped Bobby Shantz go 24-7 and win the AL Most Valuable Player award in 1952. He was elected to the Hall of Fame the next year, but was dying of cancer, and was too ill to attend the induction ceremony. He died on May 22, 1954, 4 months before the A's played their last game in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City.
Also on this day, Julia Ward Howe dies in Portsmouth, Rhode Island at age 91. In 1861, already an established writer and abolitionist, and sister of the esteemed abolitionist minister Henry Ward Beecher, she met with Abraham Lincoln at the White House. Hearing him speak of the Civil War crusade to save the Union, she rewrote the song "John Brown's Body" and made it "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."
This great sacred song has been twisted into a soccer chant, often profanely telling of what happened when a representative of a team the singer doesn't like "went to Rome to see the Pope."
October 17, 1911: After criticizing his teammate Rube Marquard's pitching to Philadelphia Athletics 3rd baseman Frank Baker in his newspaper column‚ Christy Mathewson takes the mound for the New York Giants in Game 3 against 29-game winner Jack Coombs. Matty takes a 1-0 lead into the 9th. With 1 out‚ Baker lines another drive over the right field fence to tie it.
With that blow‚ he receives the nickname "Home Run" Baker. Based on 2 home runs? Well, it was
1911, the Dead Ball Era: He only hit 96 home runs in his entire 13-season career, although he did have a .307 lifetime batting average and a very strong 135 OPS+, is regarded as one of the best 3rd basemen of the 1st half of the 20th Century, and is in the Hall of Fame.
However, Baker's homer only ties the game, and it goes to extra innings. Errors by Giant 3rd baseman Buck Herzog and shortstop Art Fletcher give the A's 2 unearned runs in the top of the 11th. New York scores once‚ but the A's win 3-2 behind Jack Coombs's 3-hitter.
October 17, 1912: Albino Luciani (no middle name, very odd for an Italian) is born in Canale d'Agordo, Veneto, Italy. He was Patriarch of Venice when, on August 26, 1978, he was named Pope, to succeed the late Paul VI. When Paul VI died, it was mentioned on a Yankee broadcast, and the very Italian, very Catholic Phil Rizzuto said, "Well, that puts a damper on even a Yankee win."
Cardinal Luciani took the name John Paul I, combining the names of the last 2 Popes, both of them truly beloved around the world: John XXIII and Paul VI. But just 33 days later, on September 28, 1978, he also died, apparently of a heart attack. The shortest-reigning Pope of the modern era, he was only 65. With a Yanks-Sox Pennant race coming down to the wire, Charles Laquidara of Boston radio station WBCN began his broadcast, "Pope dies, Sox still alive."
The late Pope's successor, Karol Wojtyla, Archbishop of Krakow in Poland, took the name John Paul II, and said of his predecessor, "What warmth of charity, nay, what an abundant outpouring of love, which came forth from him in the few days of his ministry."
October 17, 1913: Robert Lowery Hanks is born in Kansas City, Missouri. Dropping his last name, Robert Lowery played Batman in the 1949 serial Batman and Robin. In 1956, he appeared on an episode of The Adventures of Superman, having previously appeared with series star George Reeves in... a World War II propaganda film, designed to teach soldiers and sailors of the dangers of venereal disease. He died of a heart attack in 1971, only 58.
October 17, 1914: Jerome Siegel (no middle name) is born in Cleveland. His father was killed when his store was robbed. Sounds like a superhero's origin story, doesn't it?
It was. With Joe Shuster, a friend who came to Cleveland from Toronto, doing the illustrations, Jerry Siegel created Superman. Siegel died in 1996. Shuster, also born in 1914, died in 1992.
What does Superman have to do with sports? Occasionally, he was drawn playing baseball. One time, in 1976, there was a superheroes vs. supervillains baseball game. The villains' team captain and pitcher, Sportsmaster, insisted that the heroes not use their powers (but cheated anyway). This almost worked, except for when Sportsmaster beaned Superman. Since his invulnerability isn't a power that Superman can turn off, the ball hit him and rebounded right back, leading Sportsmaster to say, "Almost got beaned by my own pitch!" The heroes won the game, of course, but it was close: 11-10.
Then there was this cover, from 1970, drawn by the other man best known for drawing Superman, Curt Swan. On other occasions, he's been in races with the Flash.
Sandlock didn't play a single game with the 1947 Dodgers, but was with them for spring training in Cuba, and was one of the players who was handed the petition to keep Jackie Robinson off the big club. He refused to sign the damned thing.
Former Dodger president Branch Rickey, by 1951 running the Pittsburgh Pirates, must have seen something he liked, because he bought Sandlock from the Stars after that season, and brought him back up for one more run in the majors, for 64 games in 1953. After playing 1954 with the Pacific Coast League version of the San Diego Padres, he retired at age 39.
With his mechanical skills, he continued working as a freelance electrician, plumber and all-around handyman, living in Cos Cob, Connecticut, just 3 miles from his childhood home. He played golf at a Connecticut club until advancing age put him in a wheelchair. He was active with the Baseball Assistance Team (BAT), providing aid to indigent retired ballplayers.
At age 97, still able to get around with a cane, he was honored at Citi Field before a Met game as the oldest living Brooklyn Dodger. With the death of Connie Marrero on April 23, 2014, he became the oldest living former MLB player. He is believed to be the 17th major leaguer to reach a 100th birthday. He died on April 4, 2016.
Also on this day, Arthur Asher Miller is born in Harlem -- at the time, becoming the nation's foremost black neighborhood, but still retaining much of its former German and Jewish character. (Lou Gehrig was born there in 1903, the son of Protestant German immigrants.)
In Miller's play Death of a Salesman, he quoted his lead character, Willy Loman, as exulting in the fact that, "We're playing football at Ebbets Field!" Football? At Ebbets Field? Yes, it happened in real life, as the NFL had a Brooklyn Dodgers from 1930 to 1944, although the play refers to high school football.
October 17, 1917: Richard Young (as far as I know, he had no middle name) is born in The Bronx, and grows up in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. From 1937 until 1982, Dick Young wrote sports for the New York Daily News, mostly covering baseball. In 1982, during a dispute with management, he switched to the arch-rival New York Post -- indicative of his own changing attitudes, left to right.
Bob Rosen of the Elias Sports Bureau went deeper: "What set Dick Young apart from the other baseball writers was the way he wrote. He wrote what I saw. He didn't use a lot of fancy words. He wrote to us. Like he was a common fan, just like us. He was anti-owner." (Those italics are mine, not Rosen's.)
Indeed, Young saw himself as a fan who wrote. He enjoyed that he got to travel with the players on the trains and later the planes, and stay in the same hotels, and eat at the same restaurants. He said, "I don't want to be a millionaire, I just want to live like one. Millionaires would pay to have my job."
He was anti-owner. That changed. It's not clear when. As to why, I can only make a slightly educated guess: He began to get (at least, in his mind) better information from ownership than from players. In 1947, when Jackie Robinson reached the Brooklyn Dodgers, Young championed the cause of racial integration in print. By 1954, when Jackie and the other black players on the Dodgers were demanding to be housed in the same hotel as their white teammates in then-segregated St. Louis, Young thought they were going too far.
Within a few years, he wasn't even trying to hide the fact that he was on the side of the establishment, slamming the many black activists at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. It didn't mesh with what he termed "My America."
Citing the hapless successor to Weeb Ewbank as Jets head coach, Ross Wetzsteon of The Village Voice
Bob Rosen of the Elias Sports Bureau went deeper: "What set Dick Young apart from the other baseball writers was the way he wrote. He wrote what I saw. He didn't use a lot of fancy words. He wrote to us. Like he was a common fan, just like us. He was anti-owner." (Those italics are mine, not Rosen's.)
Indeed, Young saw himself as a fan who wrote. He enjoyed that he got to travel with the players on the trains and later the planes, and stay in the same hotels, and eat at the same restaurants. He said, "I don't want to be a millionaire, I just want to live like one. Millionaires would pay to have my job."
He was anti-owner. That changed. It's not clear when. As to why, I can only make a slightly educated guess: He began to get (at least, in his mind) better information from ownership than from players. In 1947, when Jackie Robinson reached the Brooklyn Dodgers, Young championed the cause of racial integration in print. By 1954, when Jackie and the other black players on the Dodgers were demanding to be housed in the same hotel as their white teammates in then-segregated St. Louis, Young thought they were going too far.
Within a few years, he wasn't even trying to hide the fact that he was on the side of the establishment, slamming the many black activists at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. It didn't mesh with what he termed "My America."
Citing the hapless successor to Weeb Ewbank as Jets head coach, Ross Wetzsteon of The Village Voice
wrote, "Young Ideas, the title of his column, is the greatest misnomer since Charley Winner... He used to hang out with the players, but now all he does is suck up to the millionaire owners."
In 1975, as the fight against baseball's reserve clause case was nearing its resolution, he took the side of Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, and the owners overall, including Kuhn's puppetmaster Walter O'Malley of the now-Los Angeles Dodgers, against the players and their representative, Marvin Miller -- or the "ingrates" and "this man Miller," as Young put it.
It got worse: In June 1977, as Tom Seaver was feuding with Mets team president M. Donald Grant, Grant asked Young to write a column slamming Seaver. Grant was cheap, and wouldn't have paid Young for it. Clearly, Young didn't have to take money for it: He was happy to do it for free, and cited not just Seaver's jealousy over how well his friend and ex-teammate Nolan Ryan was being paid, but Mrs. Seaver's jealousy of Mrs. Ryan. That was the last straw: Seaver was furious that his wife (and Ryan's) were brought into it, and blamed Grant for Young's writing, and demanded to be traded.
Dick Young died on August 30, 1987, shortly before what would have been his 70th birthday. One of his last columns ripped Dwight Gooden after his return to the Mets from drug rehab. It was titled "Stand Up and Boo." I guess it never occurred to Young that his own alcohol intake, while legal, was also an unhealthy form of substance abuse.
What would Young say about sports today? He'd probably be on the side of the owners, unless they conflicted with Donald Trump, in which case he'd cave in on the side of superficial patriotism, and say that the owners better make their players stand for the National Anthem.
In 1975, as the fight against baseball's reserve clause case was nearing its resolution, he took the side of Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, and the owners overall, including Kuhn's puppetmaster Walter O'Malley of the now-Los Angeles Dodgers, against the players and their representative, Marvin Miller -- or the "ingrates" and "this man Miller," as Young put it.
It got worse: In June 1977, as Tom Seaver was feuding with Mets team president M. Donald Grant, Grant asked Young to write a column slamming Seaver. Grant was cheap, and wouldn't have paid Young for it. Clearly, Young didn't have to take money for it: He was happy to do it for free, and cited not just Seaver's jealousy over how well his friend and ex-teammate Nolan Ryan was being paid, but Mrs. Seaver's jealousy of Mrs. Ryan. That was the last straw: Seaver was furious that his wife (and Ryan's) were brought into it, and blamed Grant for Young's writing, and demanded to be traded.
Dick Young died on August 30, 1987, shortly before what would have been his 70th birthday. One of his last columns ripped Dwight Gooden after his return to the Mets from drug rehab. It was titled "Stand Up and Boo." I guess it never occurred to Young that his own alcohol intake, while legal, was also an unhealthy form of substance abuse.
What would Young say about sports today? He'd probably be on the side of the owners, unless they conflicted with Donald Trump, in which case he'd cave in on the side of superficial patriotism, and say that the owners better make their players stand for the National Anthem.
Also on this day, Martin Paterson Donnelly is born in Ngāruawāhia, New Zealand. He became a cricket and rugby star in high school, and, still a teenager, was selected for the New Zealand national cricket team on their 1937 tour of England. He would star in both sports, mostly in England, until 1949, and lived until 1999, age 82.
Also on this day, Marcia Virginia Hunt is born in Chicago. A model and actress, Marsha Hunt played Mary Bennet, sister to Greer Garson's Elizabeth, in the 1940 film version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and Diana Steed in the 1943 film version of William Saroyan's The Human Comedy. In 1944, with World War II still ongoing, she starred in None Shall Escape, sometimes regarded as the 1st film about the Nazi Holocaust.
Also on this day, Marcia Virginia Hunt is born in Chicago. A model and actress, Marsha Hunt played Mary Bennet, sister to Greer Garson's Elizabeth, in the 1940 film version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and Diana Steed in the 1943 film version of William Saroyan's The Human Comedy. In 1944, with World War II still ongoing, she starred in None Shall Escape, sometimes regarded as the 1st film about the Nazi Holocaust.
Angry at the investigations of the film industry by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947, she and her husband, screenwriter Robert Presnell Jr., joined the Committee for the First Amendment, and participated in a radio program titled Hollywood Fights Back.
That got them blacklisted: In 1950, their names appeared in the lie-filled pamphlet Red Channels. Robert managed to sell a few screenplays, but only to television, not to films. He was still working into the 1970s, and they were still married when he died in 1986.
Marsha was also kept out of films, and kept her career going in the new medium of TV. In 1971, the blacklist long over, she teamed with Hollywood Ten member Dalton Trumbo, appearing his his film Johnny Got His Gun. In 1988, she played Anne Jameson, wife of a Starfleet Admiral, on Star Trek: The Next Generation. At age 103, she is the last surviving blacklisted actor, and has lived to see all her accusers discredited while they were still alive.
October 17, 1918: Ralph Cookerly Wilson Jr. is born in Columbus, Ohio. Growing up in Detroit, he ran an industrial firm, and was a minority owner of the NFL's Detroit Lions during their glory years in the 1950s, when he had the chance buy a franchise in the fledgling American Football League. His first choice for a city in which to play was Miami, but he was turned down. He got his 2nd choice, and the Buffalo Bills were born. (Clearly, he didn't make Buffalo his 2nd choice after Miami due to the weather!)
Of the original 8 AFL owners, a.k.a. "The Foolish Club," he was the last survivor, dying in 2014. At 54 years, he was the 2nd-longest-lasting owner in NFL history, trailing only league and Chicago Bears founder George Halas at 63 years. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009.
When the naming rights to the Bills' Rich Stadium ran out, the board of directors renamed it Ralph Wilson Stadium. After they ran out again, it was renamed New Era Field. But New Era has backed out, and now, instead of reverting to Ralph's name, it's just "Bills Stadium." Under Ralph, the Bills won 2 AFL Championships, 1964 and '65, and 4 AFC Championships, 1990, '91, '92 and '93. But not a Super Bowl.
Natural gas tycoon Terry Pegula, already the owner of the Buffalo Sabres, the lacrosse team the Buffalo Bandits, and minor-league hockey's Rochester Americans, bought the Bills from the Wilson family (splitting ownership between himself and his wife Kim, to get around the NFL's rule against majority ownership of a team in another sport), and is keeping the team in Buffalo, even ending the team's commitment to play a "home game" in Toronto every season. Ralph Wilson began the Bills in Buffalo, kept them there in life, and, in death, his family ensured they will stay.
Also on this day, Margarita Carmen Cansino is born in Brooklyn. Better known as Rita Hayworth. Although she was a huge star, for a lot more than 2 reasons, her personal life was a mess, including stormy marriages to Orson Welles and the manipulative, skirt-chasing Muslim prince Aly Khan. She said, "Basically, I am a good, gentle person, but I am attracted to mean personalities." She also said, citing her best-known film role, "Men fall in love with Gilda, but they wake up with me."
What does she have to do with sports? Nothing, as far as I know, although Aly Khan was a noted breeder of racehorses. She’s just one of the most magnificent women who ever lived. After so many years of martial abuse, alcoholism and Alzheimer’s disease, she finally found peace in 1987. Her daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, is a major fundraiser for Alzheimer’s research.
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October 17, 1920, 100 years ago: The Chicago Cardinals, who'd been playing football since 1898 (when it was still mostly amateur), play their 1st home game in what was then named the American Professional Football Association. It would become the National Football League in 1922.
They play it at St. Rita's Field, behind a church in Chicago, against a team from the Illinois/Iowa "Quad Cities," the Moline Universal Tractors, a "company team." The Cardinals win, 33-0.
They would play the rest of their home games at Cubs Park (renamed Wrigley Field in 1926) on the North Side and Normal Field on the South Side, before switching to Comiskey Park on the South Side for all home games in 1922, to St. Louis in 1960, and to Arizona in 1988.
October 17, 1920, 100 years ago: The Chicago Cardinals, who'd been playing football since 1898 (when it was still mostly amateur), play their 1st home game in what was then named the American Professional Football Association. It would become the National Football League in 1922.
They play it at St. Rita's Field, behind a church in Chicago, against a team from the Illinois/Iowa "Quad Cities," the Moline Universal Tractors, a "company team." The Cardinals win, 33-0.
They would play the rest of their home games at Cubs Park (renamed Wrigley Field in 1926) on the North Side and Normal Field on the South Side, before switching to Comiskey Park on the South Side for all home games in 1922, to St. Louis in 1960, and to Arizona in 1988.
Also on this day, Edward Montgomery Clift is born
in Omaha, Nebraska. One of the original "method actors," Monty starred in Red
River, A Place in the Sun, I Confess, From Here to Eternity, The Young Lions,
Judgment at Nuremberg, and The Misfits. The Misfits was Clark Gable's last
film, and Marilyn Monroe's last completed film.
He never recovered, physically or emotionally, from a 1956 car
crash that scarred his face. He died in 1966, officially of heart disease, but
years of substance abuse, including painkillers, didn't help. His last words were to his nurse, who told him that The Misfits was on television, and asked him if he wanted to watch it: "Absolutely not!"
October 17, 1923: Charles Yeomans McClendon is born in Lewisville, Arkansas. He played football for fellow Arkansas native Bear Bryant at the University of Kentucky, and coached at Louisiana State University, starting in 1953 as an assistant, then in 1962 as head coach.
He got the LSU Fighting Tigers to the 1963 and 1966 Cotton Bowls, the 1965 and 1968 Sugar Bowls, and the 1971 and 1974 Orange Bowls. In 1970, he guided them to the Southeastern Conference Championship, and was named national Coach of the Year. This was his only SEC title, mainly because it was the only time he beat Mississippi and Bryant's Alabama in the same season.
He was fired after the 1979 season, and never coached again, completing his record at 137-59-7. He died in 2001, and is a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, James J. Kekeris (I have no reference as to what the J stands for) is born in St. Louis. An All-American fullback, he was named to the University of Missouri's All-Century Team. He didn't last long in the pros, playing for the Philadelhpia Eagles in 1947, losing the NFL Championship Game, and the Green Bay Packers in 1948. He was named to the Missouri SPorts Hall of Fame, and died in 1997.
October 17, 1924: Donald David Coryell is born in Seattle. A paratrooper in World War II, he played football and earned a bachelor's and master's degree at his hometown school, the University of Washington. He won small-college titles coaching at Whittier College, spent a season as an assistant to John McKay at the University of Southern California, and in 1961 was named head coach at San Diego State.
He went 104-19-2 at SDSU, including 3 undefeated seasons, bringing them from Division II to Division I-A. Since USC and UCLA seemed to be recruiting all the good running backs in Southern California, he went to a pass-happy offense. He coached All-Pro quarterback Brian Sipe, and All-Pro receivers Isaac Curtis, Gary Garrison and Haven Moses. He also coached football players turned actors Fred Dryer (Hunter) and Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed in the Rocky films).
The NFL's St. Louis Cardinals noticed him, and hired him as head coach, He brought his passing ideas to Busch Memorial Stadium, and in 1974 and 1975, he led the "Cardiac Cardinals" to NFC East titles, the only 1st-place finishes the former Chicago and future Arizona franchise would have between 1948 and 2008.
In 1978, he returned to San Diego, taking the head job with the Chargers, and guided them to their 1st winning season in 9 years. His "Air Coryell" offense led the NFL in passing yards in 7 of the next 8 seasons, with quarterback Dan Fouts, tight end Kellen Winslow, receivers Charlie Joiner and John Jefferson, and pass-catching running backs James Brooks and Lionel James. The Chargers had a good defense, too, known as the Bruise Brothers: Mean Fred Dean, Gary "Big Hands" Johnson and Louie Kelcher.
In 1979, Fouts passed for an NFL record 4,082 yards, the 1st NFL passer to reach the 4,000 mark (Joe Namath had done it in the AFL in 1967), and convinced the great Johnny Unitas to say, in an interview for CBS' The NFL Today, to say Fouts was the current NFL quarterback he liked the best.
That 1979 season was the Chargers' 1st trip to the Playoffs in 14 years. They won 3 straight AFC Western Division titles. But they couldn't get over the hump. In back-to-back weeks in January 1982, they played perhaps the hottest game in NFL history, beating the Miami Dolphins in an overtime thriller at the Orange Bowl, remembered as the Kellen Winslow Game; and then faced the Cincinnati Bengals at Riverfront Stadium in perhaps the coldest game in NFL history, getting completely shut down in what became known as the Freezer Game. (San Diego playing well in Miami heat was understandable, but in Ohio cold was not. Actually, Cincinnati is not generally known for cold weather, but it sure was cold that day.)
Coryell left the Chargers after the 1986 seasons, and never coached again. His regular season records were superb: 127-24-3 in college, 114-89-1 in the NFL. But his Playoff record was a mere 3-6, and only once did he get to the AFC Championship Game. So while he is in the College Football Hall of Fame, and the San Diego Hall of Champions, that is probably why he's not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and, having died in 2010, he won't live to see it happen.
But Fouts, Winslow, Joiner, Dean, and 2 of his assistant coaches, John Madden and Joe Gibbs, are in the Hall of Fame. When Madden was elected, he mentioned that he, Gibbs and Fouts were taught by Coryell, and said, "Something's missing." John Madden may know more about football than any man alive, so he knows what he's talking about. Many observers consider the "West Coast offense" employed by the 5-time Super Bowl-winning San Francisco 49ers and the Super Bowl XXXIV-winning St. Louis Rams to be a progression from Air Coryell. If innovation is a qualification for the Hall, then Don Coryell should be in.
October 17, 1924: Donald David Coryell is born in Seattle. A paratrooper in World War II, he played football and earned a bachelor's and master's degree at his hometown school, the University of Washington. He won small-college titles coaching at Whittier College, spent a season as an assistant to John McKay at the University of Southern California, and in 1961 was named head coach at San Diego State.
He went 104-19-2 at SDSU, including 3 undefeated seasons, bringing them from Division II to Division I-A. Since USC and UCLA seemed to be recruiting all the good running backs in Southern California, he went to a pass-happy offense. He coached All-Pro quarterback Brian Sipe, and All-Pro receivers Isaac Curtis, Gary Garrison and Haven Moses. He also coached football players turned actors Fred Dryer (Hunter) and Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed in the Rocky films).
The NFL's St. Louis Cardinals noticed him, and hired him as head coach, He brought his passing ideas to Busch Memorial Stadium, and in 1974 and 1975, he led the "Cardiac Cardinals" to NFC East titles, the only 1st-place finishes the former Chicago and future Arizona franchise would have between 1948 and 2008.
In 1978, he returned to San Diego, taking the head job with the Chargers, and guided them to their 1st winning season in 9 years. His "Air Coryell" offense led the NFL in passing yards in 7 of the next 8 seasons, with quarterback Dan Fouts, tight end Kellen Winslow, receivers Charlie Joiner and John Jefferson, and pass-catching running backs James Brooks and Lionel James. The Chargers had a good defense, too, known as the Bruise Brothers: Mean Fred Dean, Gary "Big Hands" Johnson and Louie Kelcher.
In 1979, Fouts passed for an NFL record 4,082 yards, the 1st NFL passer to reach the 4,000 mark (Joe Namath had done it in the AFL in 1967), and convinced the great Johnny Unitas to say, in an interview for CBS' The NFL Today, to say Fouts was the current NFL quarterback he liked the best.
That 1979 season was the Chargers' 1st trip to the Playoffs in 14 years. They won 3 straight AFC Western Division titles. But they couldn't get over the hump. In back-to-back weeks in January 1982, they played perhaps the hottest game in NFL history, beating the Miami Dolphins in an overtime thriller at the Orange Bowl, remembered as the Kellen Winslow Game; and then faced the Cincinnati Bengals at Riverfront Stadium in perhaps the coldest game in NFL history, getting completely shut down in what became known as the Freezer Game. (San Diego playing well in Miami heat was understandable, but in Ohio cold was not. Actually, Cincinnati is not generally known for cold weather, but it sure was cold that day.)
Coryell left the Chargers after the 1986 seasons, and never coached again. His regular season records were superb: 127-24-3 in college, 114-89-1 in the NFL. But his Playoff record was a mere 3-6, and only once did he get to the AFC Championship Game. So while he is in the College Football Hall of Fame, and the San Diego Hall of Champions, that is probably why he's not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and, having died in 2010, he won't live to see it happen.
But Fouts, Winslow, Joiner, Dean, and 2 of his assistant coaches, John Madden and Joe Gibbs, are in the Hall of Fame. When Madden was elected, he mentioned that he, Gibbs and Fouts were taught by Coryell, and said, "Something's missing." John Madden may know more about football than any man alive, so he knows what he's talking about. Many observers consider the "West Coast offense" employed by the 5-time Super Bowl-winning San Francisco 49ers and the Super Bowl XXXIV-winning St. Louis Rams to be a progression from Air Coryell. If innovation is a qualification for the Hall, then Don Coryell should be in.
Also on this day, Demosthenes Konstandies Andrecopoulos is born in Oklahoma City. He anglicized his name to Dee Andros. A Marine who was awarded the Brone Star at the Battle of Iwo Jima, he played guard for Bud Wilkinson at the University of Oklahoma, and then was an assistant coach on his early title teams.
He later served as head coach at Idaho and Oregon State, with a record of 62-80-2. He led Oregon State's "Giant Killers" to 2nd place finishes in the Pacific-8 in 1966 and '67, a rare thing for them in the post-World War II era. He then served as Oregon State's athletic director. He was elected to the Missouri Sorts Hall of Fame, and died in 2003.
Also on this day, Hilliard Saltzman (no middle name) is born in Bridgeton, Cumberland County, New Jersey. Buddy Saltzman is on the short list for the title of the greatest drummer in rock and roll history. He drummed on 5 Number 1 hits: Little Eva's 1962 "The Loco-Motion," the Four Seasons' 1964 "Rag Doll," Lou Christie's 1966 "Lightnin' Strikes," the Monkees' 1966 "I'm a Believer," and Melanie Safka's 1971 "Brand New Key."
He drummed on most of the Seasons' Philips Records hits, from 1964 to 1967, starting with "Dawn (Go Away)." Rock historian Dave Marsh, in his 1995 book The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made, included that song (as well as "Rag Doll"), and referenced "drums that sound like they're being played by God (though Buddy Saltzman is a better guess)."
When the Seasons needed to appear on a TV show where, unlike American Bandstand, lip-synching was not allowed, such as The Ed Sullivan Show, Buddy joined them onstage as the drummer, making the billing "Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons" make a bit more sense. He died in 2012.
October 17 and 18, 1925: Believe it or not, the expansion New York Giants football team plays on back-to-back days. A lot of teams did that in the 1920s, and it will end up becoming an issue that clouds the awarding of this season's title. Neither the Giants nor the Frankford Yellow Jackets have to worry about that, as neither is a contender this season.
On Saturday the 17th, since Pennsylvania law then prohibited playing sporting events on Sundays, they played at Frankford Stadium in Northeast Philadelphia, and the Jackets won 5-3. (The Jackets must have scored a safety.) On Sunday the 18th, since New York State law did allow Sunday sports, they played each other again at the Polo Grounds, officially the 1st home game in franchise history, despite their 1st actual game having been played in Newark. But the home-field advantage didn't help the Giants, as Frankford completed the sweep, 14-0.
The Jackets won the NFL Championship in 1926, but went out of business in 1931, due to the Great Depression. The NFL sold the rights to the Philadelphia territory to Bert Bell and Lud Wray, who founded the Philadelphia Eagles in 1933, but the Eagles signed no Yellow Jackets players, and Eagles management has never counted the Yellow Jackets' records, including their 1926 title, as their own.
Nevertheless, the weekend of October 17-18, 1925, is the beginning of the pro football rivalry between New York and Philadelphia, which remains tense and strange to this day, with all kinds of weird things having happened.
October 17, 1926: Stadio Filadelfia opens in Turin, Italy. The 1st event is a soccer game between hosts Torino and Fortituda Roma, with Torino winning 4-0.
Torino won their 1st 6 Serie A (Italian league) titles there: 1928, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1949, the last 5 of these being the "Grande Torino" side that was the greatest Italian soccer team that had yet been assembled. But the Superga Air Disaster, a plane crash, killed 31 people, including nearly the entire team (an injured defender and the backup goalkeeper didn't make the trip), ended this dynasty on May 4, 1949.
In 1963, Torino left the 15,000-seat Stadio Filadelfia for the Stadio Comunale, sharing it with crosstown rivals Juventus, and the old stadium fell into ruin. A new 4,000-seat stadium was built on the site, and opened in 2017.
Both Torino and Juventus played at the Comunale until 1990, when both moved to the Stadio delle Alpi, built for the 1990 World Cup. The Comunale was demolished, and reopened in 2006 as Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, for the 2006 Winter Olympics. Both clubs moved in. Torino remain at the 27,958-seat Olimpico -- meaning they've played there from 1963 to 1990 and since 2006 -- while Juventus waited for the delle Alpi to be demolished, and what's now the 41,507-seat Allianz Stadium opened in 2011, with Juve moving in.
October 17, 1927: Ban Johnson‚ in failing health‚ retires as President of the American League, after heading the League he started for its 1st 28 years. His endless battles with Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and the team owners had eroded his power. Detroit Tigers president Frank Navin, is named acting AL President, until Ernest Barnard, longtime general manager of the Cleveland Indians, is named President. Johnson dies in 1931.
Also on this day, John Calvin Klippstein is born in Washington, D.C. A pitcher, and the son-in-law of former big league pitcher Dutch Leonard, Johnny Klippstein had a 101-118 record, mostly for the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds. He quickly went from the penthouse, a member of the 1959 World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers, to the basement, a member of the expansion 1961 Washington Senators, the team that would become the Texas Rangers. In between, with the 1960 Cleveland Indians, he shared the American League lead in saves.The Jackets won the NFL Championship in 1926, but went out of business in 1931, due to the Great Depression. The NFL sold the rights to the Philadelphia territory to Bert Bell and Lud Wray, who founded the Philadelphia Eagles in 1933, but the Eagles signed no Yellow Jackets players, and Eagles management has never counted the Yellow Jackets' records, including their 1926 title, as their own.
Nevertheless, the weekend of October 17-18, 1925, is the beginning of the pro football rivalry between New York and Philadelphia, which remains tense and strange to this day, with all kinds of weird things having happened.
October 17, 1926: Stadio Filadelfia opens in Turin, Italy. The 1st event is a soccer game between hosts Torino and Fortituda Roma, with Torino winning 4-0.
Torino won their 1st 6 Serie A (Italian league) titles there: 1928, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1949, the last 5 of these being the "Grande Torino" side that was the greatest Italian soccer team that had yet been assembled. But the Superga Air Disaster, a plane crash, killed 31 people, including nearly the entire team (an injured defender and the backup goalkeeper didn't make the trip), ended this dynasty on May 4, 1949.
In 1963, Torino left the 15,000-seat Stadio Filadelfia for the Stadio Comunale, sharing it with crosstown rivals Juventus, and the old stadium fell into ruin. A new 4,000-seat stadium was built on the site, and opened in 2017.
Both Torino and Juventus played at the Comunale until 1990, when both moved to the Stadio delle Alpi, built for the 1990 World Cup. The Comunale was demolished, and reopened in 2006 as Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, for the 2006 Winter Olympics. Both clubs moved in. Torino remain at the 27,958-seat Olimpico -- meaning they've played there from 1963 to 1990 and since 2006 -- while Juventus waited for the delle Alpi to be demolished, and what's now the 41,507-seat Allianz Stadium opened in 2011, with Juve moving in.
October 17, 1927: Ban Johnson‚ in failing health‚ retires as President of the American League, after heading the League he started for its 1st 28 years. His endless battles with Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and the team owners had eroded his power. Detroit Tigers president Frank Navin, is named acting AL President, until Ernest Barnard, longtime general manager of the Cleveland Indians, is named President. Johnson dies in 1931.
He later went in the other direction: The Philadelphia Phillies traded him before he could be a part of, and possibly help prevent, their 1964 collapse, to the Minnesota Twins, whom he helped win the 1965 Pennant. He died in 2003, listening on the radio to Game 3 of the National League Championship Series between the Cubs and the Florida Marlins.
October 17, 1928: James Earle Breslin is born in Jamaica, Queens. As much as anyone – sorry, fans of the late Regis Philbin; not a word, fans of the late Ed Koch; shut up, Rudy Giuliani; put a sock in it, Donald Trump – Jimmy Breslin was the voice of New York City.
He wrote for the New York Journal-American in the Fifties, and moved on to the New York Herald-Tribune in 1962, writing a book about the horrendous 1st year of the Mets, borrowing for his title a line from manager Casey Stengel: Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?
When the Trib folded in 1966, he became one of the cornerstones of "New York's Hometown Paper," the Daily News. He remains best known for receiving letters from David Berkowitz, the serial killer known as the Son of Sam, after the 6th of the 8 shootings in 1977, publishing them, and writing an editorial whose title was blasted on the front page: "Breslin to .44-Caliber Killer: GIVE UP! IT’S THE ONLY WAY OUT." After Berkowitz was caught, Breslin and his former Trib teammate Dick Schaap collaborated on a novel based on the case, titled .44.
Unfortunately, like his Daily News stablemate Dick Young, and his Chicago counterpart Mike Royko, he got crochety and conservative in his later years, taking his image as the voice of his city's common man too seriously. He moved on to the Long Island paper Newsday, and received a Polk Award and the last of his 4 Pulitzer Prizes. He later returned to the Daily News, and his recent columns suggest that he has remembered that it's liberals, not conservatives, that are for the little guy.
Through all the drinking, smoking, inhalation of New York smog, rides in cabs with crazy drivers, health problems, and a particularly nasty beating from the Mob in 1970, he still lives. In addition to the preceding, his books include the Mob novel The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, the Watergate-themed book How the Good Guys Finally Won, an expose of the priestly-abuse scandal titled The Church That Forgot Christ, and biographies of racehorse trainer Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, sportswriter Damon Runyon, and, most recently, baseball executive Branch Rickey.
He introduced and closed Spike Lee's film Summer of Sam. In another film based on life in New York in 1977, The Bronx Is Burning, he was very convincingly played by Michael Rispoli.
Also on this day, James William Gilliam is born in Nashville. Although he was nicknamed "Junior," it was due to his youth, not because he was named after his father. (He wasn't.) A 2nd baseman, Jim Gilliam played for the Baltimore Elite Giants of the Negro Leagues, and then for the Brooklyn Dodgers, and was a teammate of Hall-of-Famer Roy Campanella on both.
He reached the Dodgers in 1953, and was named National League Rookie of the Year. He moved to Los Angeles with them in 1958. He was an All-Star in 1956 and 1959; won Pennants in 1953, '55, '56, '59, '63, '65 and '66; and the World Series in 1955, '59, '63 and '65.
In 1964, while still playing, the Dodgers named him to their coaching staff, making him MLB's 2nd black coach, after Buck O'Neil with the 1962 Chicago Cubs. He retired as a player after the 1966 season, with a .265 batting average and 1,889 hits.
He remained on the Dodger coaching staff, and they won the Pennant again in 1974, '77 and '78. But he suffered a brain hemorrhage late in the '78 season, and died the day after they clinched the Pennant. They retired his Number 19, wore patches with the number on their sleeves, and dedicated the World Series to his memory. The Yankees won, anyway.
Also on this day, Bob Schnelker is born in Galion, Ohio. A 2-time Pro Bowler, the tight end helped the New York Giants win the 1956 NFL Championship.
Vince Lombardi was the offensive coordinator on those Giants, and he later hired Schnelker as an assistant coach on the Green Bay Packers, giving him rings from the 1st 2 Super Bowls. He coached in the NFL from 1963 to 1989, but was never a head coach. He died in 2016.
Also on this day, Robert Harold Walston is born in Columbus, Ohio. An end, before that position became known as "tight end," and a placekicker, Bobby Walston played his entire 12-year career with the Philadelphia Eagles. He made 2 Pro Bowls, and was a member of the Eagles' 1960 NFL Champions. At the time he retired in 1962, he was the team's all-time leader in points scored.
When the Miami Dolphins were founded in 1966, he was named their receivers and kicking coach. He later served as director of player personnel for the Chicago Bears, and a scout for the Edmonton Eskimos while they were winning 5 straight Grey Cups in the late 1970s and early '80s. He closed his career as a scout for the United States Football League of the early '80s.
He was named to the NFL's 1950s All-Decade Team, the Eagles' team Hall of Fame, and the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame -- but not, as yet, the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He died in 1987.
October 17, 1929: In the wake of the death of manager Miller Huggins, and interim manager Art Fletcher's desire to remain as 3rd base coach (a post he held from Huggins' arrival in 1918 until Joe McCarthy's resignation in 1946), Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert hires former pitcher Bob Shawkey as manager.
In 1917, Ruppert had made Shawkey his 1st big acquisition. This would be paralleled 67 years later as George Steinbrenner made another A's pitcher, Catfish Hunter, his first big free-agent signing. But Shawkey will only manage the 1930 season, and with the Cubs having fired McCarthy, Ruppert snaps him up, and the Yanks get back on track.
Also on this day, Harding William Peterson is born in Perth Amboy, Middlesex County, New Jersey. Known as Hardy or Pete for short, the catcher helped Rutgers reach the 1950 College World Series, and then played for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1955 to 1959, not quite making it to their 1960 World Champions.
He did get 2 rings with the Pirates, though, as he became their farm system director, helping to build their 1971 World Champions, and then their general manager, building their 1979 World Champions. He later became the Yankees' GM, but George Steinbrenner fired him in 1990, his last act before being suspended.
Pete Peterson later scouted for the San Diego Padres and the Toronto Blue Jays, and has been retired from active baseball service since 1995.
Also on this day, Mário Wilson is born in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), Mozambique, then a colony of Portugal. He is one of the few men to be admired by both Lisbon soccer giants. For Sporting Clube de Portugal (Sportinguistas don't like it when you call them "Sporting Lisbon"), he was a centreback on their team that won the Primeira Liga title in 1951. For Benfica, he managed them to the Liga title in 1976, and the Taça de Portugal (Portuguese Cup) in 1980 and 1996. He died in 2017, just short of his 87th birthday.
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October 17, 1930, 90 years ago: Robert Coleman Atkins is born -- like Ralph Wilson, in Columbus, Ohio. The nutritionist was the creator of the Atkins Diet, which emphasized lowering your carbohydrates and eating more protein, especially in vegetables.
Contrary to urban legend, he did not die an ironic (or hypocritical) death, from a heart attack from being too fat. On April 8, 2003, following a rare April snowstorm in New York, he slipped on some ice, fell, and hit his head. He was on his way to work, at age 72, so that's to be admired. But I like my carbs. Pasta! Mangia!
October 17, 1931: Al Capone is convicted in federal court in Chicago -- not of murder, or of any of the crimes connected to his violation of the Prohibition laws regarding alcohol, on which he had built his criminal empire and fortune, but of income tax evasion. A week later, he was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison.
The most famous gangster in American history, Capone had been head of "The Chicago Outfit" for less than 7 years, and was only 32 years old when he was finally busted. But his receding hairline and his expanding waistline made him look a lot older.
On May 3, 1932, he was escorted from the Cook County Jail to Dearborn Station by federal agents, including Eliot Ness, leader of the team that had pursued him on Prohibition charges, known as "The Untouchables." In spite of later TV shows and movies showing otherwise, this was the only time the two men ever actually met. The agents put him on a train to the Atlanta, where he was first put into a Federal Penitentiary. When Alcatraz opened in San Francisco in 1934, Capone was sent there.
He ended up serving only 7 years, because the advance of syphilis had left him with brain damage. Not long before his death in 1947, a doctor judged him to have the mental function of a 12-year-old boy.
October 17, 1932: Richard Peter Rodenhiser is born outside Boston in Malden, Massachusetts. An All-American hockey player at Boston University in 1953, Dick Rodenhiser helped the U.S. team win the Silver Medal at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy; and the Gold Medal in 1960, on home soil in Squaw Valley, California. He is 1 of 9 surviving members of that team.
Also on this day, Paul Edward Anderson is born in Toccoa, Georgia. After playing football at Furman University in nearby Greenville, South Carlina, he turned to weightlifting, and won a Gold Medal at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, despite having a fever of 104 degrees.
He then turned professional, performing strength stunts for money that funded a home for troubled youth in his native Georgia. Among these were hammering a nail with his bare fist, raising a table loaded with 8 men onto his back, and a back lift of 6,270 pounds, listed by The Guinness Book of World Records as "the greatest weight ever raised by a human being." (For reasons known only to them, Guinness no longer lists this as the record.)
Anderson was known as "The Strongest Man In the World," despite battling kidney disease for his entire life. He died in 1994.
October 17, 1933: William Alison Anders is born in Hong Kong, where his father, a U.S. Navy Lieutenant, was then stationed. He grew up in Annapolis, Maryland, where his father then taught at the U.S. Naval Academy. After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he became an early astronaut.
He, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell were the crew of Apollo 8, the 1st humans to orbit the Moon. Together, they were named Men of the Year for 1968 by Time magazine. They are all still alive, and are the earliest surviving recipients of the award. (And yet, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins of Apollo 11 were not so awarded the next year.) Anders later served as U.S. Ambassador to Norway.
October 17, 1934: John Norman Haynes is born in Kentish Town, North London. A forward, he starred for West London soccer team Fulham in the 1950s and 1960s. He was one of the 1st mass-media footballers, starring in television and magazine ads, and captained the England national team 22 times. In 1958, he scored 3 goals against the Soviet Union at Wembley Stadium, in a 5-0 England win.
A 1962 car crash limited his ability, but he still managed to play for England in his 3rd straight World Cup that summer. But, despite being only 33 years old, age and injury had left him declining by the time of the 1966 World Cup, on home soil, and he was not selected for the national side.
In 1971, he moved to South Africa, and helped Durban City win the national league title, and this turned out to be his only trophy. He later managed Fulham, and moved to Edinburgh, Scotland. On October 17, 2005, his 71st birthday, he suffered a brain hemorrhage while driving, and crashed. There was no recovering from this crash, as he died the next day.
Today, the old Stevenage Road Stand at Fulham's ancient stadium, Craven Cottage, is named for him, and a statue of him stands outside.
Also on this day, Frank Blunstone (no middle name) is born in Crewe, Cheshire, in the North-West of England. After playing for his hometown club Crewe Alexandra, he played 11 seasons for West London club Chelsea. He is the last surviving starter for Chelsea's 1st League Championship team in 1955.
October 17, 1935: Constance Enola Morgan is born in Philadelphia. She was 1 of 3 women to play in baseball's Negro Leagues. All 3 played for the Indianapolis Clowns: Toni Stone (2nd base, 1953, then 1954 with the Kansas City Monarchs), Connie Morgan (2nd base, 1954-55) and Mamie Belton (pitcher, 1953-55).
Morgan and Stone both lived until 1996. Belton, born in South Carolina but raised in Long Branch, Monmouth County, New Jersey, was later known by her married name, Mamie Johnson. She became a nurse, and lived until 2017, having spent her final years being invited to ceremonies honoring the Negro Leagues and women in baseball by several major and minor league teams.
Morgan and Stone both lived until 1996. Belton, born in South Carolina but raised in Long Branch, Monmouth County, New Jersey, was later known by her married name, Mamie Johnson. She became a nurse, and lived until 2017, having spent her final years being invited to ceremonies honoring the Negro Leagues and women in baseball by several major and minor league teams.
October 17, 1937: Gilbert Francis Lani Damian Kauhi is born in Hilo, on the "Big Island" of Hawaii. He became a singer and comedian, calling himself Giblert Francis Kauhi. He was also an accomplished surfer, nicknamed the Waikiki Beach Boy.
But he is best known by his stage name, the mononym Zulu, playing Detective Kono Kalakaua, on the original version of Hawaii Five-O. The opening sequence shows him charging a man while holding a rifle, freezes him, and identifies him as "Zulu as Kono."
Like his successor on the new version, Grace Park -- as with Starbuck on the reboot of Battlestar Galactica, on the new H50, Kono is a woman -- he left the show while it was still running, but not for money like she did. He was frustrated over his character having a "big dumb native" image, and returned to singing and comedy. He died of diabetes in 2004, only 66.
October 17, 1938: Harry Mackey dies in a car crash in Philadelphia at age 69. He was Captain of both the baseball and the football teams at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania in the 1889-90 schoolyear. He attended Law School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and, under the rules of the time, was allowed to play for them as well, serving as Captain in 1893.
He served as head coach of what's now Widener University outside Philadelphia in 1894, and the University of Virginia in 1895. From 1928 to 1931, he was Mayor of Philadelphia, including the Athletics' 1929 and 1930 World Series wins, and the 1931 opening of the Philadelphia Civic Center, but also including the worst single season any NHL team has ever had, the Quakers going 4-40-4 in 1930-31, and then going out of business.
Also on this day, Robert Craig Knievel is born in Butte, Montana. Like Elvis Presley, Evel Knievel was a Seventies spectacle who wore white jumpsuits, big collars, big belts with big buckles, and made a fool of himself in Las Vegas. Unlike Evel, however, Elvis also had some great shows in Vegas.
Evel Knievel may have been on ABC Wide World of Sports many times, but what he did was not a sport. He died in 2007 -- not due to the effects of any or all of his crashes, but due to lung disease.
October 17, 1939: Mengálvio Pedro Figueiró is born in Laguna, Brazil. A midfielder, he starred for Santos, alongside Pelé, winning 6 league titles and the 1962 and 1963 Copa Libertadores. He was also selected for the Brazil team that won the 1962 World Cup, but did not get into a game. He later managed Santos briefly in 1978, and is still alive.
Also on this day, the film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington premieres, directed by Frank Capra, and starring James Stewart as a young man appointed to a vacancy in the U.S. Senate by a Governor who thinks he can control him, and finding out otherwise.
The phrase "Mr. Smith goes to Washington" is still used as a metaphor for a "citizen legislator" fighting corruption in the nation's capital, but most politicians who are described that way turn out to be more like the Governor and his string-pulling "political boss."
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October 17, 1940, 80 years ago: George Davis dies of tertiary syphilis in Philadelphia, at age 70. It was a grim end to the life of one of baseball's finest shortstops, who starred for the New York Giants in the 1890s and the Chicago White Sox in the 1900s. A member of the 1906 White Sox team that won the World Series, he was posthumously elected to the Hall of Fame in 1998.
October 17, 1942: Peter William Cimino is born in Philadelphia, and grows up in nearby Bristol. On January 22, 1960, he scored 114 points for Bristol High School against nearby Bucks County school Palisades, including all 69 of his team's 2nd half points, as they won 134-86. This was 2 years before Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 in an NBA game. He said, "All I wanted to do was break the league mark of 62. But the guys on the team kept getting the rebounds and I was able to score a lot on the fast break." It remains a State record.
But it would be in baseball that Pete Cimino would make the major leagues. He debuted with the Minnesota Twins in 1965, and helped them win the American League Pennant. But he only lasted 4 years, finishing with the California Angels, with a 5-8 career record. He is still alive.
Also on this day, Steven Howard Jones is born in Alexandria, Louisiana, and grows up in Portland, Oregon, playing his college basketball for that city's Portland State University. Steve Jones was very nearly a unique player, playing in all 9 seasons of the ABA, but never in the NBA. He ruined this distinction, or perhaps achieved his dream, by playing the ABA's last season, 1975-76, with the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers, his hometown team (although they weren't there while he grew up).
He actually had rotten luck: The New Orleans Buccaneers reached the ABA Finals in 1968, but he didn't get there until the next season, 1969. The Oakland Oaks won the ABA title that season, but he was with them the year before. And his season with the Blazers, after which he was let go, was the season before they won the NBA title.
But "Snapper" did broadcast for the Blazers, and called their 1977 Game 6 clincher over the Philadelphia 76ers for CBS. In his long broadcasting career, he was often paired up with his Blazers teammate Bill Walton. Well before tennis star John McEnroe made the phrase famous, Snapper would frequently say, "Bill, you can't be serious." They ended up on separate networks: Walton on ESPN, and Jones on NBA TV. Jones died in 2017, at age 75.
October 17, 1943: The Liga Mayor (Major League) is founded, beginning the modern era of Mexican soccer. It is now known as Liga MX.
Also on this day, Jeffrey D. Congdon (I can find no reference to what the D stands for) is born outside Los Angeles in Garden Grove, California. A guard, Jeff Congdon starred at Brigham Young University. He never played in the NBA, but played for 5 ABA teams, including the New York Nets. On October 13, 1967, he played for the Anaheim Amigos in the 1st ABA game, a 134-129 loss to the Oakland Oaks in Oakland. He is still alive.
Also on this day, Sandra Mae Trentman is born in Delphos, Ohio, outside Toledo. We know her as Sabrina Scharf. A former Playboy Bunny, she became one of those "actors who's on every show" in the 1960s and '70s, appearing on Gidget, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Wild Wild West, Gunsmoke, Mannix, Hogan's Heroes, Hawaii Five-O and The Streets of San Francisco. She was also in the film Easy Rider.
But she is best known for playing Miramanee, the native princess who marries an amnesiac Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) on the Star Trek episode "The Paradise Syndrome." In the entire Trek canon, she is the only woman ever shown marrying Kirk. She quit acting in 1975, and became a lawyer and an environmental activist. She is still alive.
October 17, 1944: Having successfully put down an uprising in the Polish capital of Warsaw for the 2nd year in a row, Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler gives an order: "The city must completely disappear from the surface of the earth and serve only as a transport station for the Wehrmacht. No stone can remain standing. Every building must be razed to its foundation."
Himmler's boss, Adolf Hitler, had been considering this since 1939: He wanted to tear the city down, and replace it with a modern city in the German style. He specifically said to get rid of historical monuments and the Polish national archives. Hitler didn't just want genocide, he wanted to completely wipe Poland from public memory.
By January 1945, 85 percent of the buildings that had stood in Warsaw before the initial German invasion of September 1, 1939 had been destroyed. In 2005, an estimate was made that the value of the damage was, in current U.S. dollars, $54.6 billion.
With Poland a client state after World War II -- the Eastern European version of the West's NATO was founded in 1955 as "The Warsaw Pact" -- the Soviet Union funded the rebuilding of the city, but in the Communist style. As a result, it is not considered an architectural marvel. No, if you want to see a classical Polish city, the only one left is Krakow, which was always the country's home of culture.
The Palace of Culture and Science was erected in 1955, a copy of the Moscow State University Building. It has nicknames of both genders: Since the State University Building is one of Moscow's "Seven Sisters," the Palace is called "The Eighth Sister"; but it's also known as "Stalin's Dick." (Also, "Stalin's Syringe."
You've heard of Polish jokes? Here is an actual Polish joke, from Poland: Where is the best view of the city of Warsaw? From the Palace of Culture and Science. Why? Because, from there, you can't see the Palace of Culture and Science.
October 17, 1945, 75 years ago: Robert Charles Christian is born in Chicago. A left fielder, he played 3 games with the 1968 Detroit Tigers, but didn't make their World Series roster. He played 39 games for the Chicago White Sox in 1969, and 12 for them in 1970. But Bob Christian suffered from leukemia, and it ended his career. He died in 1974, only 28 years old.
October 17, 1946: Robert Seagren (no middle name) is born in Pomona, California, outside Los Angeles. He won the Gold Medal in the pole vault at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, the Silver Medal in it at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, and the 1st ABC Superstars competition in 1973.
In 1977, he played Dennis Phillips, a gay football player in a relationship with Jodie Dallas, the 1st regular gay character in an American sitcom, played by Billy Crystal. In 1979, he played himself in an episode of Wonder Woman. He now runs an organization promoting road racing and fitness events.
Also on this day, Richard Nevin Folkers is born in Waterloo, Iowa. A lefthanded pitcher, Rich Folkers made his major league debut with the Mets in 1970. He last appeared in 1977 with the Milwaukee Brewers.
He went 19-23, and would probably be forgotten today, if not for his tenure with the San Diego Padres. Jerry Coleman, the malaprop-prone broadcaster, saw him warming up, and said, "Rich Folkers is throwing up in the bullpen." He later served as a college and minor-league pitching coach. He is still alive.
October 17, 1947: Ronald Adolphis Johnson is born in Detroit. He was the younger brother of Alex Johnson, a rookie with the ill-fated 1964 Philadelphia Phillies, a member of the 1967 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, an All-Star and an American League batting champion with the 1970 California Angels, a Yankee in the Shea Stadium exile years of 1974 and '75, and closed his career with his hometown Tigers in 1976, the year of Mark Fidrych and Rusty Staub in Detroit. Alex died in 2015, at age 72.
Alex Johnson's sport was baseball. Ron Johnson's sport was football. Both brothers starred in both sports at Northwestern High School in Detroit. In 1968, Ron became the 1st black Captain of a Michigan football team, and set an NCAA record with 347 yards rushing, and a Big Ten record with 5 rushing touchdowns, in a win over Wisconsin, 34-9. He set school records with 2,524 rushing yards in a career, and 139.1 rushing yards per game and 19 rushing touchdowns in a season.
In 1970, not only did Alex win the batting title, but Ron married Karen, and they would go on to have 2 children: A son, Christopher; and a daughter, Allison. Ron and Karen would remain together for the rest of his life. That season, he gained 1,027 yards for the Giants, not enough to lead the NFL -- Larry Brown of the Washington Redskins was the leader -- but enough to become the 1st player for a New York team, in any professional football league that could be considered "major," to rush for 1,000 yards in a season. He caught 48 passes for 487 yards.
Given his pass-catching ability, he may have come along too soon. Had he debuted in the 1990s or later, a head coach and an offensive coordinator might have had him thrown to more, or maybe even converted him to an All-Pro tight end. As it was, he was an easy choice for the 1970 All-Pro team.
He was plagued by injury in 1971, but was an All-Pro again in 1972, gaining 1,182 yards. He caught 45 passes for 451 yards. His 2 All-Pro seasons were the only winning seasons the Giants had between 1963 and 1981. That was not a coincidence.
He had 902 rushing yards and 377 receiving yards in 1973, but injuries resumed their course, and he last played in the NFL in 1975. The Giants cut him. In 1976, he signed with the Dallas Cowboys, but did not get into any games, and retired. He finished with 4,308 rushing yards for 40 touchdowns, and 213 catches for 1,977 yards and 15 touchdowns.
After his playing career ended, he put his business degree to work, founding Rackson, a food service company, which eventually ran 13 Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises in his native Michigan and in North Jersey, to which the Giants moved in 1976. In 1992, Ron Johnson was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, which is overseen by the National Football Foundation.
In 2006, he was named the Foundation's chairman, but he had to leave that position in 2008, as he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Given what we now know about what football does to the human brain, it's almost certain that it caused his case. He died on November 10, 2018. He was 71 years old.
Ron Johnson could have been the right man, in the right position, in the right sport, in the right place, but it was at the wrong time. The wrong time -- 15 years too late, or 15 years too early -- to be a New York Football Giant. And the wrong time to have insufficient protection for his head. He could have been a legend. Maybe he should be considered one, anyway.
Also on this day, James Neamon Hutto is born in Norfolk, Virginia. A left fielder, Jim Hutto played 57 games with the 1970 Philadephia Phillies, and 4 games with the 1975 Baltimore Orioles. He batted .157. He is still alive.
Also on this day, Michael John McKean is born in Manhattan, and grows up in nearby Sea Cliff, Long Island, New York. In 1967, he was briefly a member of the band The Left Banke, after they recorded their best-known song, "Walk Away Renee."
He went to Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he met David Lander. There, they created the characters of Lenny & Squiggy -- Leonard Kosnowski and Andrew Squiggman -- and played those characters with the Los Angeles-based comedy group The Credibility Gap, where they met Harry Shearer.
They were cast as Lenny & Squiggy on Laverne & Shirley, remaining on the show for its entire run, 1976 to 1983. In 1979, they recorded an album, in character, as Lenny & the Squigtones. The guitarist was Christopher Guest, who used the name Nigel Tufnel. In 1984, McKean played David St. Hubbins, Guest again used the Tufnel name, and Shearer played Derek Smalls, and together, they starred in This Is Spinal Tap. They still reunite as The Tap on occasion.
In 1987, he played an Illinois State Trooper in Planes, Trains and Automobiles -- although the scene was filmed in Wisconsin, and both his uniform and his car reflected this. He joined the cast of
Saturday Night Live for the 1994-95 season, becoming, at age 46, the oldest 1st-time castmember (a record later broken by Leslie Jones), and, in my opinion, he did a better impersonation of President Bill Clinton than either Phil Hartman of Darrell Hammond did. He remains the only person to be both a host and (through Spinal Tap) a musical guest on SNL before becoming a castmember.
He is still acting, and has been married to Annette O'Toole since 1999. On the Superman-themed TV series Smallville, Annette played Martha Kent, and Michael played Perry White.
October 17, 1948: Margaret Ruth Kidder is born in Yellowknife, the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories. Better known as Margot Kidder, she is almost certainly the most famous person ever to come from the NWT -- though huge in area, it has just 441,000 people.
She played Lois Lane in Christopher Reeve's Superman movies. "Don't worry, Miss," Superman says when meeting Lois in-costume for the first time. "I've got you." Her classic response: "You've got me? Who's got you?" A street in Yellowknife has been named Lois Lane in her honor. She died earlier this year.
Also on this day, George Robert Wendt III is born in Chicago. Who? "Good afternoon, everybody." NORM! What’s goin' on, Norm? "My birthday, Sammy. Gimme a beer, put a candle in it, and I'll blow out my liver." That's an actual exchange from a 1991 episode of Cheers, in which Wendt played beerhound and occasionally-employed accountant Norm Peterson.
"Bars can be sad places," he once said. "Some people spend their whole lives in a bar. Yesterday, some guy came in, and sat down next to me for 11 hours."
Wendt got his big break on a 1982 episode of M*A*S*H, playing a Marine (a guy that out of shape, playing an active-duty Marine, especially during wartime? No way) who tried to stick an entire pool ball in his mouth, and, unfortunately for him, he succeeded. Having to treat him, Major Charles Emerson Winchester III, played by David Ogden Stiers, got to do something he rarely did: Have some fun.
That episode was written by Ken Levine and David Isaacs, who would go on to co-create and write for Cheers, and remembered Wendt. They also remembered Shelley Long from a M*A*S*H episode they'd written. Come to think of it, there are some similarities between Winchester and Dr. Frasier Crane, although we later found out that, unlike Charles, Frasier was not actually from Boston.
Norm is a Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins fan. In real life, though, Wendt is Chicago through and through, and roots for the Cubs, the Blackhawks, and, as reflected in his character Bob Swerski on the Saturday Night Live sketch "The Super Fans," he also loves "a certain team which is known as... Da Bears!" And another "certain team which is known as... Da Bulls!"
October 17, 1949: Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India, visiting America, receives a ticker-tape parade in New York.
Also on this day, William Joseph Hudson is born in Portland, Oregon. With his brothers Brett and Mark, he formed a band named The Hudson Brothers. He was married to Goldie Hawn, and is the father of her acting children Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson; and to Cindy Williams, who played Shirley Feeney on Laverne & Shirley.
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October 17, 1954: Adrian Burk of the Philadelphia Eagles throws a record-tying 7 touchdown passes against the Washington Redskins, and the Eagles beat the Redskins, 49-21 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.
Also on this day, the Pittsburgh Steelers clobber the Cleveland Browns, 55-27 at Forbes Field. This game helps build the geographic rivalry between the teams. It drops the Browns to 1-2 on the season, but it may have also woken them up, as they won their next 8 games, and went on to win the NFL Championship. As for the Steelers, they started the season 4-1, but dropped 6 of their last 7 to fall out of contention.
October 17, 1955: Richard Derek Blight is born in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. A right wing, Rick Blight played for the Vancuover Canucks and the Los Angeles Kings. He was elected to the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame, but committed suicide in Portage La Prairie in 2005, only 49.
October 17, 1956: Kenneth Arlington Morrow is born in Flint, Michigan. When the U.S. hockey team won the Gold Medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, Sports Illustrated named the entire team "Sportsmen of the Year," calling them "Nineteen fuzzy-cheeked college kids and a tall guy with a beard." Ken Morrow, a 6-foot-4 defenseman from Bowling Green State University in northwestern Ohio, was the tall guy with the beard.
He was drafted by the New York Islanders, and in just 3 months went from an Olympic Gold Medal to the Stanley Cup, helping them win their 4 straight Cups. Knee trouble ended his career in 1989, and in 1993 he became the Isles' director of pro scouting, a job he still holds. He is a member of their team Hall of Fame, and the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Mae Carol Jemison is born in Decatur, Alabama, and grows up in Chicago. On September 12, 1992, aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, Dr. Jemison, a dancer-turned-physician, became the 1st black woman in space.
Naturally, one of her inspirations was Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, the Communications Officer played by Nichelle Nichols, on the original Star Trek series. Offered a part on Star Trek: The Next Generation by another black actor, LeVar Burton, who played the Chief Engineer of the Enterprise-D, Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge, Jemison was cast as Lieutenant Palmer, a transporter operator. When the episode, "Second Chances," aired on May 24, 1993, she became the 1st real-life astronaut to appear on any science fiction show -- not just in the Star Trek franchise.
October 17, 1957: Stephen Douglas McMichael is born in Houston. Speaking of Da Bears, Steve McMichael was a defensive tackle on their 1985-86 Super Bowl Shuffle team, and made 2 Pro Bowls.
Nicknamed "Mongo" after the Blazing Saddles character played by another legendary DT, Alex Karras, he later became a pro wrestler, and has twice been married to WWE "Divas." He hosts a talk show on Chicago radio station ESPN 1000 (the former WLUP and WMVP), and coaches an indoor football team, the Chicago Slaughter. As part of their 100th Season celebrations, the Bears named him to their 100 Greatest Players.
October 17, 1956: Kenneth Arlington Morrow is born in Flint, Michigan. When the U.S. hockey team won the Gold Medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, Sports Illustrated named the entire team "Sportsmen of the Year," calling them "Nineteen fuzzy-cheeked college kids and a tall guy with a beard." Ken Morrow, a 6-foot-4 defenseman from Bowling Green State University in northwestern Ohio, was the tall guy with the beard.
He was drafted by the New York Islanders, and in just 3 months went from an Olympic Gold Medal to the Stanley Cup, helping them win their 4 straight Cups. Knee trouble ended his career in 1989, and in 1993 he became the Isles' director of pro scouting, a job he still holds. He is a member of their team Hall of Fame, and the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Mae Carol Jemison is born in Decatur, Alabama, and grows up in Chicago. On September 12, 1992, aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, Dr. Jemison, a dancer-turned-physician, became the 1st black woman in space.
Naturally, one of her inspirations was Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, the Communications Officer played by Nichelle Nichols, on the original Star Trek series. Offered a part on Star Trek: The Next Generation by another black actor, LeVar Burton, who played the Chief Engineer of the Enterprise-D, Lieutenant Commander Geordi LaForge, Jemison was cast as Lieutenant Palmer, a transporter operator. When the episode, "Second Chances," aired on May 24, 1993, she became the 1st real-life astronaut to appear on any science fiction show -- not just in the Star Trek franchise.
October 17, 1957: Stephen Douglas McMichael is born in Houston. Speaking of Da Bears, Steve McMichael was a defensive tackle on their 1985-86 Super Bowl Shuffle team, and made 2 Pro Bowls.
Nicknamed "Mongo" after the Blazing Saddles character played by another legendary DT, Alex Karras, he later became a pro wrestler, and has twice been married to WWE "Divas." He hosts a talk show on Chicago radio station ESPN 1000 (the former WLUP and WMVP), and coaches an indoor football team, the Chicago Slaughter. As part of their 100th Season celebrations, the Bears named him to their 100 Greatest Players.
October 17, 1958: France Saint-Louis is born -- not in France, or in St. Louis, but outside Montreal in Laval, Quebec. A forward, she was a member of 5 World Championship-winning women's hockey teams for Canada, but only won 1 Olympic Medal, a Silver in 1998. She is a member of the Quebec Sports Hall of Fame.
October 17, 1959: Kevin Bruce Blackistone is born in Washington, D.C., and grows up in the nearby suburb of Hyattsville, Maryland. One of several sportscasters to come out of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, he wrote for The Boston Clobe and The Dallas Morning News.
He is a frequent commentator on ESPN, including its "game show" Around the Horn, which he has won 322 times, 4th among active panelists. He trails Woody Paige at 618, Tim Cowlishaw at 483, and Bill Plaschke at 391. In the past year, he surpassed fellow Medill grad J.A. Adande, who has 316. On the show, his nickname is "The Professor," reflecting his current job, teaching sports journalism at the University of Maryland.
Also on this day, Norman Gene Macdonald is born in Quebec City. A castmember on Saturday Night Live from 1993 to 1998, he anchored the Weekend Update sketch, played Burt Reynolds on the
Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch, and played Senator Bob Dole during the 1996 Presidential campaign. He now provides the voice of Yaphit, a gelatinous lifeform that serves as an engineer on the titular starship, on the science fiction series The Orville. (UPDATE: He died on September 14, 2021, from cancer. Despite also having cancer and being 98 years old, Dole has outlived him.)
*
October 17, 1960, 60 years ago: The National League grants franchises to New York and Houston. So, in a way, this is the Mets' birthday. And the Astros'. Their 60th birthday. And yet, so often, the Mets still act like an expansion team.
He is a frequent commentator on ESPN, including its "game show" Around the Horn, which he has won 322 times, 4th among active panelists. He trails Woody Paige at 618, Tim Cowlishaw at 483, and Bill Plaschke at 391. In the past year, he surpassed fellow Medill grad J.A. Adande, who has 316. On the show, his nickname is "The Professor," reflecting his current job, teaching sports journalism at the University of Maryland.
Also on this day, Norman Gene Macdonald is born in Quebec City. A castmember on Saturday Night Live from 1993 to 1998, he anchored the Weekend Update sketch, played Burt Reynolds on the
Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch, and played Senator Bob Dole during the 1996 Presidential campaign. He now provides the voice of Yaphit, a gelatinous lifeform that serves as an engineer on the titular starship, on the science fiction series The Orville. (UPDATE: He died on September 14, 2021, from cancer. Despite also having cancer and being 98 years old, Dole has outlived him.)
*
October 17, 1960, 60 years ago: The National League grants franchises to New York and Houston. So, in a way, this is the Mets' birthday. And the Astros'. Their 60th birthday. And yet, so often, the Mets still act like an expansion team.
The team that will become known as the Mets is awarded to a group led by Joan Whitney Payson, a former member of the New York Giants board of directors, the only member to vote against moving to San Francisco (through her proxy, M. Donald Grant -- probably the last time Grant tried to do something good for baseball in New York).
The Colt .45's, who become the Astros in 1965, are awarded to a group led by Roy Hofheinz, a federal judge and a former Mayor of Houston.
Also on this day, Cobo Hall opens in downtown Detroit. Now named the Cobo Center, it was built on the site where Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac set foot on the land in 1701 and claimed the area for France. The 1st event is the Auto Industry Dinner, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives a speech. Every President since has attended some kind of event there, except the current occupant of the office.
The centerpiece is a 12,000-seat arena that was home to the Detroit Pistons from 1961 to 1978, but they never got close to an NBA title there. In 1979, the Joe Louis Arena was built next-door. In 1994, the Joe Louis Arena was the site of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, and Cobo Hall was used as a practice facility. It was there that Nancy Kerrigan was attacked.
With the Red Wings and the Pistons moving to the Little Caesars Arena for the 2017-18 season, Joe Louis Arena was demolished. The City of Detroit is considering renaming the Cobo complex for Louis, as Albert Cobo, the Mayor who got it built, is pretty much forgotten today, despite the Wings winning 4 Stanley Cups and the Lions 2 NFL Championships during his tenure.
October 17, 1961: Daniel Anthony Pasqua is born in Yonkers, Westchester County, New York, and grows up in another New York suburb, Harrington Park, Bergen County, New Jersey. An outfielder, he seemed to be a "local boy makes good," hitting some long home runs on his 1985 arrival with the Yankees.
In 1986, he batted .293 with 16 home runs and 45 RBIs in what was essentially half a season. His lefty swing seemed perfect for Yankee Stadium, and some of us (including a 16-year-old yours truly) thought he could become a Yankee Legend.
But he was a one-dimensional player. His batting average dropped to .233 in 1987, and he couldn't play any position at which he was tried. He was traded to the Chicago White Sox before the 1988 season, and it was a horrible trade: The key was pitcher Richard Dotson, who got hurt, and made only 43 appearances for the Yankees; while Pasqua hit a career-high 20 homers in 1988, and gave the ChiSox seasons of 66, 58, 50 and 47 RBIs. He got hurt in 1994, and never played again, done before turning 33.
As a Yankee, he shared the outfield with Hall-of-Famers Rickey Henderson and Dave Winfield. As a minor-leaguer in the Yankee system, he was a teammate of Pro Football Hall-of-Famer John Elway. On a rehab assignment with the White Sox in 1994, he was a teammate of Basketball Hall-of-Famer Michael Jordan. He now works in the White Sox' front office.
October 17, 1963: Sergio Javier Goycochea is born in Zárate, Buenos Aires province, Argentina. A goalkeeper, he backstopped Buenos Aires club River Plate to league titles in 1986 and 1993, and the Copa Libertadores (South America's version of the Champions League) in 1986. He led Bogotá club Millonarios to Colombia's league title in 1988.
He wasn't on the Argentina team that won the 1986 World Cup, but he helped them get to the 1990 World Cup Final, and win the Copa América in 1991 and 1993 and the Confederations Cup in 1992. He is now a pundit on an Argentine network.
October 17, 1964: The Yankees fire manager Yogi Berra, even though he got an aging and flawed Yankee team to Game 7 of the World Series. Meanwhile, Johnny Keane, the manager of the team that beat the Yankees, the St. Louis Cardinals, having had enough of their management, resigns. Within days, Keane will be given the Yankee manager's job.
It's hard to say that all 3 moves were mistakes. After all, the Cardinals promoted coach and former star 2nd baseman Red Schoendienst to the manager's job, and he won 2 Pennants, including the 1967 World Series. And, let's face it, with what happened to the Yankees, Yogi wouldn't have managed much beyond 1965 even if they'd kept him. But Keane turns out to be a total mismatch for the Yankees, his health falls apart, he's fired early in the 1966 season, and he dies in 1967.
Also on this day, the University of Arkansas football team, ranked Number 9 in the nation, goes to Memorial Stadium in Austin to take on Number 1 and defending National Champions Texas, their arch-rivals. The Razorbacks pull the upset, 14-13, a win that gives them the confidence they need to go on to win the Southwest Conference Championship. They beat Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl, and when Texas beats Number 1 Alabama in the Orange Bowl, Arkansas is awarded the National Championship.
One of the Razorbacks' guards is Jerry Jones. One of their defensive tackles is Jimmy Johnson. In 1989, they will team up again, with Jones as team owner and Johnson as head coach, on the Dallas Cowboys.
October 17, 1965: José Carlos Montoyo Díaz is born in Florida, Puerto Rico. A 2nd baseman, Charlie Montoyo was a September callup for the Montreal Expos in 1993, and that was the extent of his major league playing career.
Also on this day, Cobo Hall opens in downtown Detroit. Now named the Cobo Center, it was built on the site where Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac set foot on the land in 1701 and claimed the area for France. The 1st event is the Auto Industry Dinner, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives a speech. Every President since has attended some kind of event there, except the current occupant of the office.
The centerpiece is a 12,000-seat arena that was home to the Detroit Pistons from 1961 to 1978, but they never got close to an NBA title there. In 1979, the Joe Louis Arena was built next-door. In 1994, the Joe Louis Arena was the site of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, and Cobo Hall was used as a practice facility. It was there that Nancy Kerrigan was attacked.
With the Red Wings and the Pistons moving to the Little Caesars Arena for the 2017-18 season, Joe Louis Arena was demolished. The City of Detroit is considering renaming the Cobo complex for Louis, as Albert Cobo, the Mayor who got it built, is pretty much forgotten today, despite the Wings winning 4 Stanley Cups and the Lions 2 NFL Championships during his tenure.
October 17, 1961: Daniel Anthony Pasqua is born in Yonkers, Westchester County, New York, and grows up in another New York suburb, Harrington Park, Bergen County, New Jersey. An outfielder, he seemed to be a "local boy makes good," hitting some long home runs on his 1985 arrival with the Yankees.
In 1986, he batted .293 with 16 home runs and 45 RBIs in what was essentially half a season. His lefty swing seemed perfect for Yankee Stadium, and some of us (including a 16-year-old yours truly) thought he could become a Yankee Legend.
But he was a one-dimensional player. His batting average dropped to .233 in 1987, and he couldn't play any position at which he was tried. He was traded to the Chicago White Sox before the 1988 season, and it was a horrible trade: The key was pitcher Richard Dotson, who got hurt, and made only 43 appearances for the Yankees; while Pasqua hit a career-high 20 homers in 1988, and gave the ChiSox seasons of 66, 58, 50 and 47 RBIs. He got hurt in 1994, and never played again, done before turning 33.
As a Yankee, he shared the outfield with Hall-of-Famers Rickey Henderson and Dave Winfield. As a minor-leaguer in the Yankee system, he was a teammate of Pro Football Hall-of-Famer John Elway. On a rehab assignment with the White Sox in 1994, he was a teammate of Basketball Hall-of-Famer Michael Jordan. He now works in the White Sox' front office.
October 17, 1963: Sergio Javier Goycochea is born in Zárate, Buenos Aires province, Argentina. A goalkeeper, he backstopped Buenos Aires club River Plate to league titles in 1986 and 1993, and the Copa Libertadores (South America's version of the Champions League) in 1986. He led Bogotá club Millonarios to Colombia's league title in 1988.
He wasn't on the Argentina team that won the 1986 World Cup, but he helped them get to the 1990 World Cup Final, and win the Copa América in 1991 and 1993 and the Confederations Cup in 1992. He is now a pundit on an Argentine network.
October 17, 1964: The Yankees fire manager Yogi Berra, even though he got an aging and flawed Yankee team to Game 7 of the World Series. Meanwhile, Johnny Keane, the manager of the team that beat the Yankees, the St. Louis Cardinals, having had enough of their management, resigns. Within days, Keane will be given the Yankee manager's job.
It's hard to say that all 3 moves were mistakes. After all, the Cardinals promoted coach and former star 2nd baseman Red Schoendienst to the manager's job, and he won 2 Pennants, including the 1967 World Series. And, let's face it, with what happened to the Yankees, Yogi wouldn't have managed much beyond 1965 even if they'd kept him. But Keane turns out to be a total mismatch for the Yankees, his health falls apart, he's fired early in the 1966 season, and he dies in 1967.
Also on this day, the University of Arkansas football team, ranked Number 9 in the nation, goes to Memorial Stadium in Austin to take on Number 1 and defending National Champions Texas, their arch-rivals. The Razorbacks pull the upset, 14-13, a win that gives them the confidence they need to go on to win the Southwest Conference Championship. They beat Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl, and when Texas beats Number 1 Alabama in the Orange Bowl, Arkansas is awarded the National Championship.
One of the Razorbacks' guards is Jerry Jones. One of their defensive tackles is Jimmy Johnson. In 1989, they will team up again, with Jones as team owner and Johnson as head coach, on the Dallas Cowboys.
October 17, 1965: José Carlos Montoyo Díaz is born in Florida, Puerto Rico. A 2nd baseman, Charlie Montoyo was a September callup for the Montreal Expos in 1993, and that was the extent of his major league playing career.
In 1997, he was a charter employee of the Tampa Bay Rays organization, reaching the major league level by coaching with them from 2015 to 2018. In 2019, he was named the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, a post he still holds.
Also on this day, Pinnaduwage Aravinda de Silva is born in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is the only player to make a hundred and take 3 or more wickets in a Cricket World Cup Final, doing so in 1996. Aravinda (he drops his first name professionally) played from 1984 to 2003, and is credited with bringing Sri Lanka up to the level of neighbors India and Pakistan in cricket. He is now the head of the selection committee for the national team.
October 17, 1966: Bob Swift, manager of the Detroit Tigers, dies in office of lung cancer. He was 51. He had replaced Charlie Dressen earlier the year, after Dressen had died in office. As far as I know, no other MLB team has ever had 2 managers die on them in a single year.
Also on this day, Daniel John Willard Ferry is born in the Washington suburb of Hyattsville, Maryland. The son of former NBA star and executive Bob Ferry, Danny Ferry went to the famed DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, and helped Mike Krzyzewski reach his 1st 3 Finals Fours at Duke University. He was a 2-time Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year.
The forward played 10 season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and closed his career by winning the 2003 NBA title with the San Antonio Spurs. Like his father, he moved into management, first with the Spurs, then with the Cavs, helping them reach the NBA Finals for the 1st time in 2007. He served as general manager of the Atlanta Hawks, and now works in the front office of the New Orleans Pelicans. He is a member of the Washington, D.C. Sports Hall of Fame.
October 17, 1967: The New York Knicks open their season, their last at the old Madison Square Garden, and their 1st at the current one. They beat the San Francisco Warriors 124-122. In his 1st professional game, Walt Frazier -- not yet nicknamed "Clyde" -- does not play. Walt Bellamy leads the Knicks with 16 points, but will be traded for Dave DeBusschere, in what turns out to be a title-making trade.
Their last game at the 49th-50th Street and 8th-9th Avenue Garden was on February 10, 1968, and they beat the Philadelphia 76ers 115-97. Their 1st game at the 31st-33rd Street and 7th-8th Avenue Garden was on February 14, and they beat the San Diego Rockets 114-102.
Also on this day, Major Don Holleder, U.S. Army, is shot and killed by a Viet Cong sniper while attempting to rescue a wounded soldier and bring him aboard a helicopter, in the Battle of Ong Thanh. He was 33.
The Buffalo native was a star athlete at Aquinas Institute in Rochester, and was recruited to the football team at the U.S. Military Academy by Vince Lombardi, then an assistant to their head coach, Colonel Earl "Red" Blaik. He was an All-American end in 1954, but was moved to quarterback in 1955, and led the team to a 6-3 record, including an upset of Navy that made him the 1st athlete from any of the service academies to be shown on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He graduated the following Spring, and one of his classmates was Norman Schwarzkopf, later field commander of all allied troops in the Persian Gulf War.
Although drafted by the New York Giants, he would have had to sit out his military commitment. (Which might have worked out, because Charlie Conerly would have retired as quarterback by then, but the Giants got Y.A. Tittle instead.) He stayed in the Army until his death, including a tenure as an assistant coach at West Point, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1974, his high school's football stadium, Aquinas Memorial Stadium, was renamed Holleder Memorial Stadium. Professional soccer's Rochester Lancers, 1970 NASL Champions, played there. It was torn down in 1985, and Holleder Technology Park is now on the site, on Holleder Parkway. That same year, he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, and West Point's arena was named the Donald W. Holleder Center.
October 17, 1968: David Robertson (no middle name) is born in Aberdeen, Scotland. No, not the relief pitcher who, for 1 year, succeeded Mariano Rivera as the Yankees' closer. This one is a soccer player, a left back who starred for hometown club Aberdeen, winning the Scottish League Cup in 1989 and the Scottish Cup in 1990.
He moved on to Glasgow giants Rangers, winning 6 straight League titles fro 1992 to 1997. He also won the Scottish Cup in 1992, 1993 and 1996, for "The Double." He also won the Scottish League Cup in 1992 and 1993, for "The Treble." He has now gone into management, and now manages Indian club Real Kashmir.
Although also Scottish, he is not related to Jimmy Robertson, the winger who was the 1st player to pull off the double feat of scoring for Tottenham against their North London arch-rivals Arsenal and scoring for Arsenal against Tottenham (in 1967 and 1970, respectively).
He's not the only British soccer star born on this day, or even the only big-name British left back: Graeme Pierre Le Saux is born in St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands. Despite their proximity to France and his being ethnically French, he is a British citizen, and played 36 times for England, including at the 1998 World Cup.
Club-wise, he played for West London club Chelsea, when they were a small club, easily laughed-about -- and it wasn't all that long ago. He helped them get promoted back to the English top flight in 1989. He was sold to Blackburn Rovers, and helped them win the League in 1995. Chelsea bought him back, and he won the League Cup and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1998, and the FA Cup in 2000.
He went into announcing, mainly for the BBC, and can be heard on NBC's U.S. broadcasts of Premier League games. Usually, however, his commentary is dire, and he clearly does not like Arsenal.
October 17, 1966: Bob Swift, manager of the Detroit Tigers, dies in office of lung cancer. He was 51. He had replaced Charlie Dressen earlier the year, after Dressen had died in office. As far as I know, no other MLB team has ever had 2 managers die on them in a single year.
Also on this day, Daniel John Willard Ferry is born in the Washington suburb of Hyattsville, Maryland. The son of former NBA star and executive Bob Ferry, Danny Ferry went to the famed DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, and helped Mike Krzyzewski reach his 1st 3 Finals Fours at Duke University. He was a 2-time Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year.
The forward played 10 season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and closed his career by winning the 2003 NBA title with the San Antonio Spurs. Like his father, he moved into management, first with the Spurs, then with the Cavs, helping them reach the NBA Finals for the 1st time in 2007. He served as general manager of the Atlanta Hawks, and now works in the front office of the New Orleans Pelicans. He is a member of the Washington, D.C. Sports Hall of Fame.
October 17, 1967: The New York Knicks open their season, their last at the old Madison Square Garden, and their 1st at the current one. They beat the San Francisco Warriors 124-122. In his 1st professional game, Walt Frazier -- not yet nicknamed "Clyde" -- does not play. Walt Bellamy leads the Knicks with 16 points, but will be traded for Dave DeBusschere, in what turns out to be a title-making trade.
Their last game at the 49th-50th Street and 8th-9th Avenue Garden was on February 10, 1968, and they beat the Philadelphia 76ers 115-97. Their 1st game at the 31st-33rd Street and 7th-8th Avenue Garden was on February 14, and they beat the San Diego Rockets 114-102.
Also on this day, Major Don Holleder, U.S. Army, is shot and killed by a Viet Cong sniper while attempting to rescue a wounded soldier and bring him aboard a helicopter, in the Battle of Ong Thanh. He was 33.
The Buffalo native was a star athlete at Aquinas Institute in Rochester, and was recruited to the football team at the U.S. Military Academy by Vince Lombardi, then an assistant to their head coach, Colonel Earl "Red" Blaik. He was an All-American end in 1954, but was moved to quarterback in 1955, and led the team to a 6-3 record, including an upset of Navy that made him the 1st athlete from any of the service academies to be shown on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He graduated the following Spring, and one of his classmates was Norman Schwarzkopf, later field commander of all allied troops in the Persian Gulf War.
Although drafted by the New York Giants, he would have had to sit out his military commitment. (Which might have worked out, because Charlie Conerly would have retired as quarterback by then, but the Giants got Y.A. Tittle instead.) He stayed in the Army until his death, including a tenure as an assistant coach at West Point, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1974, his high school's football stadium, Aquinas Memorial Stadium, was renamed Holleder Memorial Stadium. Professional soccer's Rochester Lancers, 1970 NASL Champions, played there. It was torn down in 1985, and Holleder Technology Park is now on the site, on Holleder Parkway. That same year, he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, and West Point's arena was named the Donald W. Holleder Center.
October 17, 1968: David Robertson (no middle name) is born in Aberdeen, Scotland. No, not the relief pitcher who, for 1 year, succeeded Mariano Rivera as the Yankees' closer. This one is a soccer player, a left back who starred for hometown club Aberdeen, winning the Scottish League Cup in 1989 and the Scottish Cup in 1990.
He moved on to Glasgow giants Rangers, winning 6 straight League titles fro 1992 to 1997. He also won the Scottish Cup in 1992, 1993 and 1996, for "The Double." He also won the Scottish League Cup in 1992 and 1993, for "The Treble." He has now gone into management, and now manages Indian club Real Kashmir.
Although also Scottish, he is not related to Jimmy Robertson, the winger who was the 1st player to pull off the double feat of scoring for Tottenham against their North London arch-rivals Arsenal and scoring for Arsenal against Tottenham (in 1967 and 1970, respectively).
He's not the only British soccer star born on this day, or even the only big-name British left back: Graeme Pierre Le Saux is born in St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands. Despite their proximity to France and his being ethnically French, he is a British citizen, and played 36 times for England, including at the 1998 World Cup.
Club-wise, he played for West London club Chelsea, when they were a small club, easily laughed-about -- and it wasn't all that long ago. He helped them get promoted back to the English top flight in 1989. He was sold to Blackburn Rovers, and helped them win the League in 1995. Chelsea bought him back, and he won the League Cup and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1998, and the FA Cup in 2000.
He went into announcing, mainly for the BBC, and can be heard on NBC's U.S. broadcasts of Premier League games. Usually, however, his commentary is dire, and he clearly does not like Arsenal.
October 17, 1969: Lloyd Eaton, head football coach at the University of Wyoming, kicks 14 black players off the team, for their plan to wear black armbands during tomorrow's game against Brigham Young University at War Memorial Stadium in Laramie, Wyoming.
The players, who became known as The Black 14, were Co-Captain Joe Williams, Earl Lee, John Griffin, Willie Hysaw, Don Meadows, Ivie Moore, Tony Gibson, Jerry Berry, Mel Hamilton, Jim Isaac, Tony McGee, Lionel Grimes, Ron Hill, and a man with a name that was already legend in sports, if not through his own efforts: Ted Williams. (No relation to the baseball legend, or to the aforementioned Joe.)
The year before, during the Cowboys' win over the BYU Cougars in Provo, Utah, the BYU players had used racial epithets. It got worse when the Black 14 were told by the head of UW's black student advocacy group that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, usually known as the Mormons and the operator of BYU, excluded black men from their priesthood. Like Epicsopalians but unlike Roman Catholics, they allow married men to serve as priests. But, at the time, they did not allow black men.
This was the end of the 1960s, and men in positions of power were tired of being told that they had to loosen their standards. It's not clear that Eaton acted out of racial prejudice. But there can be no question that he did not like having his authority challenged, and he took it personally. He later testified under oath that he had listened to them for 10 minutes.
All 14 players testified that he had lied. According to Joe Williams, "He came in, sneered at us, and yelled that we were off the squad. He said our very presence defied him. He said he has had some 'good Neeegro boys. Just like that." (That's how it was spelled when it was published, with 3 E's.)
Tony McGee said that Eaton cited historically black schools, and "said we could go to Grambling State or Morgan State... We could go back to 'colored relief.' If anyone said anything, he told us to shut up. We were really protesting policies we thought were racist. Maybe we should've been protesting there."
At the time of the incident, Wyoming was undefeated, 4-0, ranked 12th in the nation, and 3-time defending WAC Champions. Even though the Cowboys beat BYU 40-7 and San Jose State (the next game) without the Black 14, it lost its last 4 games of 1969, and went 1-9 the next year.
Apparently, being definitely authoritarian, and possibly racist, was okay for white Wyomingans. It is, after all, the home State of later Vice President Dick Cheney. But losing wasn't: Eaton was fired after the 1970 season.
Black players began to stay away from Wyoming. Following the San Jose State win, the Cowboys lost 26 of their next 38 games. Fred Akers came in and rebuilt the program, getting them to the WAC title in 1976, leading to his being hired by one of the great college football programs, the University of Texas. The Wyoming football team has usually been respectable since -- coach Craig Bohl has them off to a 4-1 start this season -- and has had no further racial incidents.
Eaton died in 2007, and in the last 37 years of his life, he never got another coaching job, and gave only 1 interview -- and was unrepentant. On September 13, 2019, 7 of the surviving 11 were on hand at the Wildcatter Club inside War Memorial Stadium, and received a formal apology, read to them by athletic director Tom Burman, and signed by him and by former University President Laurie Nichols. A plaque honoring them was unveiled outside the stadium's southeast entrance. The next day, they were honored at halftime of their 21-16 win over the University of Idaho.
The players, who became known as The Black 14, were Co-Captain Joe Williams, Earl Lee, John Griffin, Willie Hysaw, Don Meadows, Ivie Moore, Tony Gibson, Jerry Berry, Mel Hamilton, Jim Isaac, Tony McGee, Lionel Grimes, Ron Hill, and a man with a name that was already legend in sports, if not through his own efforts: Ted Williams. (No relation to the baseball legend, or to the aforementioned Joe.)
The year before, during the Cowboys' win over the BYU Cougars in Provo, Utah, the BYU players had used racial epithets. It got worse when the Black 14 were told by the head of UW's black student advocacy group that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, usually known as the Mormons and the operator of BYU, excluded black men from their priesthood. Like Epicsopalians but unlike Roman Catholics, they allow married men to serve as priests. But, at the time, they did not allow black men.
This was the end of the 1960s, and men in positions of power were tired of being told that they had to loosen their standards. It's not clear that Eaton acted out of racial prejudice. But there can be no question that he did not like having his authority challenged, and he took it personally. He later testified under oath that he had listened to them for 10 minutes.
All 14 players testified that he had lied. According to Joe Williams, "He came in, sneered at us, and yelled that we were off the squad. He said our very presence defied him. He said he has had some 'good Neeegro boys. Just like that." (That's how it was spelled when it was published, with 3 E's.)
Tony McGee said that Eaton cited historically black schools, and "said we could go to Grambling State or Morgan State... We could go back to 'colored relief.' If anyone said anything, he told us to shut up. We were really protesting policies we thought were racist. Maybe we should've been protesting there."
At the time of the incident, Wyoming was undefeated, 4-0, ranked 12th in the nation, and 3-time defending WAC Champions. Even though the Cowboys beat BYU 40-7 and San Jose State (the next game) without the Black 14, it lost its last 4 games of 1969, and went 1-9 the next year.
Apparently, being definitely authoritarian, and possibly racist, was okay for white Wyomingans. It is, after all, the home State of later Vice President Dick Cheney. But losing wasn't: Eaton was fired after the 1970 season.
Black players began to stay away from Wyoming. Following the San Jose State win, the Cowboys lost 26 of their next 38 games. Fred Akers came in and rebuilt the program, getting them to the WAC title in 1976, leading to his being hired by one of the great college football programs, the University of Texas. The Wyoming football team has usually been respectable since -- coach Craig Bohl has them off to a 4-1 start this season -- and has had no further racial incidents.
Eaton died in 2007, and in the last 37 years of his life, he never got another coaching job, and gave only 1 interview -- and was unrepentant. On September 13, 2019, 7 of the surviving 11 were on hand at the Wildcatter Club inside War Memorial Stadium, and received a formal apology, read to them by athletic director Tom Burman, and signed by him and by former University President Laurie Nichols. A plaque honoring them was unveiled outside the stadium's southeast entrance. The next day, they were honored at halftime of their 21-16 win over the University of Idaho.
Also on this day, Theodore Ernest Els is born in Johannesburg, South Africa. Ernie Els won golf's U.S. Open in 1994 and 1997, and the British Open in 2002 and 2012. Winning 4 majors is good, but not especially noteworthy. What is noteworthy, although not unheard-of, is the 18-year span between his 1st and his last (so far).
Also on this day, Nel Ust Wyclef Jean is born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti. Wyclef is the lead singer of the Fugees. With the Mexican-American guitarist Carlos Santana, the Swedish DJ Tim "Avicii" Bergling, and Alexandre Pires, a Brazilian singer of French descent, he recorded the official song of the 2014 World Cup, "Dar um Jeito (We Will Find a Way)."
In 2010, Shakira, a Colombian singer of Lebanese descent, recorded that year's official World Cup song, "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)." In 2006, Wyclef backed Shakira up on her Number 1 hit "Hips Don't Lie."
*
October 17, 1970, 50 years ago: Arsenal face Liverpool-based Everton, the defending Football League Champions, at home at Highbury, and beat them 4-0. Ray Kennedy scores 2 goals, Eddie Kelly scores, and Peter Storey converts a penalty.
Also on this day, Nel Ust Wyclef Jean is born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti. Wyclef is the lead singer of the Fugees. With the Mexican-American guitarist Carlos Santana, the Swedish DJ Tim "Avicii" Bergling, and Alexandre Pires, a Brazilian singer of French descent, he recorded the official song of the 2014 World Cup, "Dar um Jeito (We Will Find a Way)."
In 2010, Shakira, a Colombian singer of Lebanese descent, recorded that year's official World Cup song, "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)." In 2006, Wyclef backed Shakira up on her Number 1 hit "Hips Don't Lie."
*
October 17, 1970, 50 years ago: Arsenal face Liverpool-based Everton, the defending Football League Champions, at home at Highbury, and beat them 4-0. Ray Kennedy scores 2 goals, Eddie Kelly scores, and Peter Storey converts a penalty.
Arsenal hadn't won the League title, or even come close to it, since 1953. Even the previous season, when they won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (the tournament now known as the UEFA Europa League), they only finished 12th. But now, they have sent the message that they are going for it. They will win it, and the FA Cup, for "The Double."
Also on this day, John Steven Mabry is born in Wilmington, Delaware. He played 1st base, 3rd base, left field and right field, and even pitched twice in the major leagues. His 96 home runs ties him with Randy Bush and Dave May as the all-time leader... for players born in the State of Delaware, although he grew up 25 miles away in Chesapeake City, Maryland. (Bush was born in Dover but grew up in New Orleans. May was born and raised in New Castle.)
Mabry reached the postseason with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1998, the Oakland Athletics in 2002, and the Cardinals again in 2004, this time reaching the World Series. He last played with the Colorado Rockies in 2007, although he was released before they won the Pennant that year.
Also on this day, Anil Radhakrishna Kumble is born in Bengaluri, India. He played for India in the Cricket World Cups of 1996, 1999, 2003 and 2007, and was twice named his country's cricketer of the year. He later served as the national team's head coach.
October 17, 1971: Steve Blass hurls a 4-hitter and Roberto Clemente homers, as the Pittsburgh Pirates win Game 7 of the World Series, 2-1 over the Baltimore Orioles at Memorial Stadium‚ becoming World Champions for the 4th time, the 1st time since 1960.
Clemente played in all 7 games in '60 and in all 7 games in '71, and got hits in all 14 World Series games in which he played. In fact, all 5 of the Pirates' World Series wins -- 1909, '25, '60, '71 and '79 -- have been in 7 games.
Clemente and Bill Mazeroski are the only men to have played for the Pirates in both the 1960 and the 1971 World Series, although Danny Murtaugh managed them in both, and 1960 player Bill Virdon was one of Murtaugh's 1971 coaches.
After the game‚ 40‚000 people riot in downtown Pittsburgh. At least 100 are injured‚ some seriously, although no deaths are reported.
Immediately after the Game 7 victory, rookie hurler Bruce Kison and his champagne-soaked best man Bob Moose are whisked away from Memorial Stadium by helicopter to a waiting Lear Jet to attend the 21 year-old Kison's 6:30 PM wedding in Pittsburgh, in which the groom will arrive 33 minutes late.
Earlier in the season, the Pirates had become the 1st team ever to field an all-black-and/or-Hispanic starting lineup, leading author Bruce Markusen to title his book about the '71 Bucs The Team That Changed Baseball.
He's also written biographies of Clemente, Ted Williams, Orlando Cepeda, and a book about the 1970s Oakland A's team, published in 1998, just before the Yankees began a streak of 3 straight World Series, thus making a retroactive error out of the title of Markusen's book: Baseball's Last Dynasty: Charlie Finley's Oakland A's.
There are 15 players from the '71 Pirates still alive: Blass, Mazeroski, Manny Sanguillén, Al Oliver, Bob Veale, Bob Robertson, Gene Clines, Gene Alley, Vic Davalillo, Richie Hebner, Luke Walker, Bob Johnson, Milt May, Dave Cash and Dave Giusti.
Also on this day, the San Francisco 49ers beat the Chicago Bears, 13-0. It turns out to be the last game for inured Bears star Gale Sayers. So, like the Beatles, Sayers' last paid performance was at Candlestick Park.
Injuries limited Sayers to only enough games that it amounted to 4 full seasons. But he was still great enough to be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Byron Daniel Chamberlain is born in Honolulu, and grows up in San Diego and in Fort Worth, Texas. A tight end, he was with the Denver Broncos when they won Super Bowls XXXII (in his hometown) and XXXIII. With the Minnesota Vikings, he made the 2002 Pro Bowl. He now runs a foundation for underprivileged kids.
Also on this day, DC Comics debuts their 1st black superhero, John Stewart, an architect from Detroit who had served in the U.S. Marine Corps, who becomes a member of the Green Lantern Corps. He debuted in Green Lantern #87, with a date of December 1971, but published on this date. October 17 is later retconned as Stewart's birthday.
He was voiced in the animated Justice League TV series by Phil LaMarr. The character was intended to be shown in the live-action film Justice League: Mortal, to be played by rapper-actor Lonnie "Common" Lynn, but it was scrapped in 2007.
Also on this day, Byron Daniel Chamberlain is born in Honolulu, and grows up in San Diego and in Fort Worth, Texas. A tight end, he was with the Denver Broncos when they won Super Bowls XXXII (in his hometown) and XXXIII. With the Minnesota Vikings, he made the 2002 Pro Bowl. He now runs a foundation for underprivileged kids.
Also on this day, DC Comics debuts their 1st black superhero, John Stewart, an architect from Detroit who had served in the U.S. Marine Corps, who becomes a member of the Green Lantern Corps. He debuted in Green Lantern #87, with a date of December 1971, but published on this date. October 17 is later retconned as Stewart's birthday.
He was voiced in the animated Justice League TV series by Phil LaMarr. The character was intended to be shown in the live-action film Justice League: Mortal, to be played by rapper-actor Lonnie "Common" Lynn, but it was scrapped in 2007.
In the final episode of Arrow, airing in 2020, John Diggle, a.k.a. Spartan, a black character played by David Ramsey, is hinted at becoming a Green Lantern, thus possibly taking Stewart's place in "The Arrowverse."
October 17, 1972: Quite a day to be born. Marshall Bruce Mathers III is born in St. Joseph, Missouri, although the man better known as Eminem and Slim Shady has spent most of his life in the Detroit area.
As far as I know, he has nothing to do with sports, but he does often wear a cap of his hometown Detroit Tigers, and he did rip Donald Trump a new one over his obsession with NFL players' protesting during the National Anthem.
Say what you want about Em, and I don't like him much, but at least he's funny every once in a while, and he's still got more class than those other white Detroiters who want us to think they've got street cred, Rob "Kid Rock" Ritchie and Ted "Motor City Madman" Nugent.
Sharon Ann Leal is born in Tucson, Arizona. She's best known for playing a teacher on on the Fox TV drama Boston Public. She's also been in the film version of Dreamgirls and 2 Tyler Perry films. I don't think she's involved with sports either, but she's so beautiful that I don't care. She now appears in the CW Arrowverse as superheroine Miss Martian.
And Joseph Earl McEwing is born in Bristol, Pennsylvania, about halfway between Philadelphia and Trenton. He played for the Mets, so he doesn't have anything to do with sports, either. (Ba-dump-bump-tshhhh!) He did help the Mets win the 2000 National League Pennant, though, and is now the 3rd base coach for the Chicago White Sox.
Also on this day, Walter "Turk" Broda dies of a heart attack in Toronto. He was 58, and was well overweight, even in his playing days. Idiot Ranger fans who called the Devils' Martin Brodeur "Fatty" never saw Broda (or their own 1950s star Lorne "Gump" Worsley).
But, as the martial artist and actor Sammo Hung would say, Broda wasn't out of shape, he was just fat. He won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goaltender in 1941 and 1948, and was the goalie on 5 Stanley Cup winners for the Toronto Maple Leafs: 1942, 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1951. (The Leafs won the Cup in 1945 as well, but he was serving in World War II.)
In 1955 and 1956, he coached the Toronto Marlboros, a team owned by the Maple Leafs, to back-to-back wins in the Memorial Cup, the championship of Canadian junior hockey. He had previously won it as a player with the 1933 Toronto St. Michael's Majors.
He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame. The Leafs retired Number 1 for him and Johnny Bower in 2016, after previously having it for them as an "Honoured Number." In 1998, The Hockey News listed him at Number 60 on their list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. In 2017, he was honored as one of the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players.
October 17, 1973: On the day the Arab oil embargo is announced, driving gas prices way up (and they had already gone up a lot this year, as a general inflation jacked up the prices of everything), and Motorola engineer Marty Cooper is granted the patent for the handheld mobile telephone, the Mets even the World Series at 2 games apiece with a 6-1 win over the Oakland A's at Shea Stadium.
Rusty Staub goes 4-for-4 with a homer and 5 RBI. The New Orleans chef was really cooking that night.
Also on this day, England can only manage a 1-1 draw against Poland in a qualifying match for the 1974 World Cup. It means that England won't even qualify, and manager Sir Alf Ramsey, who guided them to the 1966 World Cup, is fired. Poland will go on to reach the Semifinals, their best performance ever.
Also on this day, Keith Derrick McKenzie is born in Detroit. A defensive end, he was a rookie with the Green Bay Packers when they won Super Bowl XXXI. A nephew of former Buffalo Bills star Reggie McKenzie, he is now on the coaching staff at Ball State University, his alma mater.
October 17, 1972: Quite a day to be born. Marshall Bruce Mathers III is born in St. Joseph, Missouri, although the man better known as Eminem and Slim Shady has spent most of his life in the Detroit area.
As far as I know, he has nothing to do with sports, but he does often wear a cap of his hometown Detroit Tigers, and he did rip Donald Trump a new one over his obsession with NFL players' protesting during the National Anthem.
Say what you want about Em, and I don't like him much, but at least he's funny every once in a while, and he's still got more class than those other white Detroiters who want us to think they've got street cred, Rob "Kid Rock" Ritchie and Ted "Motor City Madman" Nugent.
Sharon Ann Leal is born in Tucson, Arizona. She's best known for playing a teacher on on the Fox TV drama Boston Public. She's also been in the film version of Dreamgirls and 2 Tyler Perry films. I don't think she's involved with sports either, but she's so beautiful that I don't care. She now appears in the CW Arrowverse as superheroine Miss Martian.
And Joseph Earl McEwing is born in Bristol, Pennsylvania, about halfway between Philadelphia and Trenton. He played for the Mets, so he doesn't have anything to do with sports, either. (Ba-dump-bump-tshhhh!) He did help the Mets win the 2000 National League Pennant, though, and is now the 3rd base coach for the Chicago White Sox.
Also on this day, Walter "Turk" Broda dies of a heart attack in Toronto. He was 58, and was well overweight, even in his playing days. Idiot Ranger fans who called the Devils' Martin Brodeur "Fatty" never saw Broda (or their own 1950s star Lorne "Gump" Worsley).
But, as the martial artist and actor Sammo Hung would say, Broda wasn't out of shape, he was just fat. He won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goaltender in 1941 and 1948, and was the goalie on 5 Stanley Cup winners for the Toronto Maple Leafs: 1942, 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1951. (The Leafs won the Cup in 1945 as well, but he was serving in World War II.)
In 1955 and 1956, he coached the Toronto Marlboros, a team owned by the Maple Leafs, to back-to-back wins in the Memorial Cup, the championship of Canadian junior hockey. He had previously won it as a player with the 1933 Toronto St. Michael's Majors.
He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame. The Leafs retired Number 1 for him and Johnny Bower in 2016, after previously having it for them as an "Honoured Number." In 1998, The Hockey News listed him at Number 60 on their list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. In 2017, he was honored as one of the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players.
October 17, 1973: On the day the Arab oil embargo is announced, driving gas prices way up (and they had already gone up a lot this year, as a general inflation jacked up the prices of everything), and Motorola engineer Marty Cooper is granted the patent for the handheld mobile telephone, the Mets even the World Series at 2 games apiece with a 6-1 win over the Oakland A's at Shea Stadium.
Rusty Staub goes 4-for-4 with a homer and 5 RBI. The New Orleans chef was really cooking that night.
Also on this day, England can only manage a 1-1 draw against Poland in a qualifying match for the 1974 World Cup. It means that England won't even qualify, and manager Sir Alf Ramsey, who guided them to the 1966 World Cup, is fired. Poland will go on to reach the Semifinals, their best performance ever.
Also on this day, Keith Derrick McKenzie is born in Detroit. A defensive end, he was a rookie with the Green Bay Packers when they won Super Bowl XXXI. A nephew of former Buffalo Bills star Reggie McKenzie, he is now on the coaching staff at Ball State University, his alma mater.
October 17, 1974: The expansion New Orleans Jazz make their NBA debut, at Madison Square Garden. It doesn't go so well: Despite 15 points from Louisiana's own Pistol Pete Maravich, the Knicks get 20 points from Earl "The Pearl" Monroe, and beat the Jazz, 89-74.
The Jazz will go on to lose their 1st 11 games, playing home games at the New Orleans Municipal Auditorium, before the Superdome opens the next year. They will play 5 seasons in the Crescent City, never making the Playoffs, before moving to Salt Lake City and becoming the Utah Jazz, whiere they will be considerably more successful.
This was actually a watershed day in NBA history. Over the off-season, several titans of the game announced their retirements: Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, and, from the Knicks alone, Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere and Jerry Lucas. The era of those guys, and of the Celtic team that dominated with Bill Russell, is over.
The rest of the Seventies would see the assertion of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Elvin Hayes, and, after the semi-merger with the ABA in 1976, Julius "Dr. J" Erving and Moses Malone. Anyone who tells you that the NBA was "saved" by the 1979 arrival of Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Larry Bird simply doesn't know his history -- or is lying.
It was, however, with the arrival of Magic and Larry that the NBA management figured out that they'd better market what was already a great game much better. Airing Game 6 of the 1980 NBA Finals, in which Magic, subbing at center for Kareem, led the Lakers to defeat Dr. J's 76ers on tape delay at 11:30 PM was inexcusable.
Also on this day, John Loy Rocker is hatched from his pod in Macon, Georgia. He rose quickly to become a power pitcher, then fell apart, both competitively and physically. At first, we thought it was because, following all his insulting, ignorant, bigoted comments about the Mets and Met fans, that the furious reaction from the Flushing Faithful had gotten into his head. Certainly, there was room in there. (Not entirely a joke: The dope's head is huge.) But, eventually, it was revealed that he was a steroid user. Which explains a lot of things.
He did pitch for the Atlanta Braves in the 1999 World Series, after pitching against the Mets in the NLCS. But here's the difference: The Mets and their fans talked about how they wanted to beat him (justifiably so), while the Yankees actually did it.
He last pitched in the majors for the 2003 Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and recently published -- I won't say "wrote" -- a memoir, Scars and Strikes. He also produces (again, I won't say "writes") a column for
WorldNetDaily, the right-wing loon website also known as World Nut Daily. He has publicly supported Donald Trump. On the plus side, he does work as director of public affairs for an organization called Save Homeless Veterans.
October 17, 1976: Game 2 of the World Series. The Cincinnati Reds score 3 runs off Catfish Hunter in the 2nd inning, and that decides it. Jack Billingham pitches well, and the Reds beat the Yankees 4-3.
This was the 1st Series game to start at night on a weekend. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn did it so the game would have better ratings on NBC. It was cold, and he decided to prove to people that cold Cincinnati weather in mid-October didn't bother him by not wearing an overcoat. I hope the bastard froze his ass off.
Also on this day, the NFL's 2 expansion teams play each other at Tampa Stadium. Both teams are 0-5, so everybody is praying that the game ends in anything but a tie. The Seattle Seahawks get the 1st win in franchise history, beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 13-10.
The 'Hawks will also beat the Atlanta Falcons on November 7, but that's it: They finish 2-12. The Bucs should have been so lucky. Just 1 week later, they will again come within 3 points of their 1st win, this time against the powerful Miami Dolphins, but will lose 23-20. That will be the closest they come to a win until December 11, 1977.
Unlike most managers of soccer teams, he never played the game professionally. But in 1994, he discovered that Bobby Robson, the legendary English manager then running FC Porto, was living in the same apartment complex. They became friends, and Robson helped him get into position to earn his coaching license. When AVB was ready, he was hired as an assistant at Porto by one of Robson's former assistants, Jose Mourinho. AVB followed Jose to Chelsea in London and Internazionale in Milan.
In 2009, AVB was hired for his 1st managerial job, at Portuguese club Académica de Coimbra. He was then hired at Porto, and won the League and Cup Double, and the Europa League, in 2011. He was hired to manage Chelsea, but flopped. He was hired to manage Tottenham, but flopped. It is now generally believed that he can't handle the English game.
He managed Zenit St. Petersburg to the Russian Premier League title in 2015 and the Russian Cup in 2016. He now manages French team Olympique de Marseille.
October 17, 1976: Game 2 of the World Series. The Cincinnati Reds score 3 runs off Catfish Hunter in the 2nd inning, and that decides it. Jack Billingham pitches well, and the Reds beat the Yankees 4-3.
This was the 1st Series game to start at night on a weekend. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn did it so the game would have better ratings on NBC. It was cold, and he decided to prove to people that cold Cincinnati weather in mid-October didn't bother him by not wearing an overcoat. I hope the bastard froze his ass off.
Also on this day, the NFL's 2 expansion teams play each other at Tampa Stadium. Both teams are 0-5, so everybody is praying that the game ends in anything but a tie. The Seattle Seahawks get the 1st win in franchise history, beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 13-10.
The 'Hawks will also beat the Atlanta Falcons on November 7, but that's it: They finish 2-12. The Bucs should have been so lucky. Just 1 week later, they will again come within 3 points of their 1st win, this time against the powerful Miami Dolphins, but will lose 23-20. That will be the closest they come to a win until December 11, 1977.
Also on this day, Washington Sebastián Abreu Gallo is born in Minas, Uruguay. Known professionally as Sebastián Abreu, the striker won Argentina's League with San Loreno in 2001 and with River Plate in 2008. He won Uruguay's league with Nacional in 2003, 2004 and 2005. He won the Copa América with Argentina in 2011. He is still playing, with Montevideo team Boston River, and also manages the team.
October 17, 1977: Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas is born in Porto, Portugal. Known professionally as André Villas-Boas, and nicknamed AVB, he is, in a manner of speaking, a Portuguese nobleman, the great-grandson of the 1st Viscount of Guilhomil. But he also has English ancestry, as a grandmother came from Stockport, outside Manchester, and he has always spoken fluent English.
October 17, 1977: Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas is born in Porto, Portugal. Known professionally as André Villas-Boas, and nicknamed AVB, he is, in a manner of speaking, a Portuguese nobleman, the great-grandson of the 1st Viscount of Guilhomil. But he also has English ancestry, as a grandmother came from Stockport, outside Manchester, and he has always spoken fluent English.
Unlike most managers of soccer teams, he never played the game professionally. But in 1994, he discovered that Bobby Robson, the legendary English manager then running FC Porto, was living in the same apartment complex. They became friends, and Robson helped him get into position to earn his coaching license. When AVB was ready, he was hired as an assistant at Porto by one of Robson's former assistants, Jose Mourinho. AVB followed Jose to Chelsea in London and Internazionale in Milan.
In 2009, AVB was hired for his 1st managerial job, at Portuguese club Académica de Coimbra. He was then hired at Porto, and won the League and Cup Double, and the Europa League, in 2011. He was hired to manage Chelsea, but flopped. He was hired to manage Tottenham, but flopped. It is now generally believed that he can't handle the English game.
He managed Zenit St. Petersburg to the Russian Premier League title in 2015 and the Russian Cup in 2016. He now manages French team Olympique de Marseille.
October 17, 1978: The Yankees complete their last of many comebacks in this amazing season, taking Game 6, 7-2 at Dodger Stadium, and winning their 22nd World Championship, their 2nd in a row, having taken the last 4 games after dropping the 1st 2.
Reggie Jackson has his chance for revenge over Dodger rookie Bob Welch for striking him out with the bases loaded to end Game 2, and his revenge goes to right field, halfway to the San Gabriel Mountains.
Both halves of the Yankee double-play combination, Bucky Dent and Brian Doyle (subbing for the injured Willie Randolph) collect 3 hits. Dent batted .417 for the Series and is named MVP, capping a month that began with his Playoff homer over Boston. Doyle bats .438, and, along with 3rd base wizard Graig Nettles and reliever Goose Gossage, also makes a pretty good case for Series MVP.
Jim "Catfish" Hunter, hurting and apparently finished earlier in the season, completes his late-season renaissance, starting and winning. The final out is Gossage popping up Ron Cey behind home plate, where Thurman Munson catches it. The Goose thus becomes the 1st pitcher to nail down the final out of a Division clincher, a Pennant clincher, and a World Series clincher in the same season.
This remains my favorite single-season sports team of all time, as it was the first baseball season I was really old enough to "get" what was happening. I was aware of the 1977 title, but I didn't really comprehend what the Yankees had to overcome to win it.
Unfortunately, as with the year before, my parents waited until the Yankees were winning, and then sent me to bed, so I didn't see it. Despite being a fan of the greatest franchise in the history of sports, I was almost 27 years old before I saw my favorite team win a World Series while it was actually happening. And I don't think it was until that 1996 Series that I got over that fact.
The next season, 1979, Munson was killed in a plane crash. As stated with the 1974 entry, Catfish died of Lou Gehrig's Disease in 1999. Jim Spencer died of a heart attack in 2002. Paul Lindblad (as previously mentioned, a teammate of Reggie's and Catfish's on the 1970s A's) died of early-onset Alzhheimer's disease in 2006. Paul Blair died of a heart attack in 2013. And Jay Johnstone died earlier this year, from the effects of both dementia and COVID-19.
October 17, 1979: As in 1971, the Pittsburgh Pirates win the World Series by beating the Baltimore Orioles in Game 7 at Memorial Stadium, winning 4-1 to complete a comeback from 3 games to 1 down.
Willie Stargell, the 1st baseman known as "Pops" not just for his age (39) but because of his playing of Sister Sledge's hit disco song "We Are Family," hits his 3rd home run of the Series, and is named Series MVP, after having also been named MVP of the NLCS.
After the season, it will be announced that there is a tie vote for the regular-season MVP, between Stargell and the NL's batting champion, St. Louis Cardinal 1st baseman Keith Hernandez. Stargell becomes the 1st man, and remains the only one, ever to sweep the regular season, LCS and World Series MVPs in a single season.
It is the worst-looking World Series ever. I don't mean the baseball was poorly-played, far from it. But between both teams' horrible uniforms, the awful carpet at Three Rivers Stadium, and the torn-up grass and poor lighting at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, this Series was really hard on the eyes.
It is the worst-looking World Series ever. I don't mean the baseball was poorly-played, far from it. But between both teams' horrible uniforms, the awful carpet at Three Rivers Stadium, and the torn-up grass and poor lighting at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, this Series was really hard on the eyes.
Stargell, pitcher Bruce Kison and catcher Manny Sanguillen were the only players to have played for the Pirates in both the '71 and the '79 Series, although Sanguillen had left and since returned.
For the only time in his Presidency, Jimmy Carter attends a Major League Baseball game, and he picks a good one. He throws out the ceremonial first ball, and is among those congratulating the Pirates in the locker room afterward.
But in the 41 years since -- 2 full generations -- the Pirates have never won another Pennant, though they reached Game 7 of the NLCS in 1991 and '92, losing to the Atlanta Braves both times. The Steelers have since won 3 Super Bowls and appeared in 2 others; the Penguins have reached the Stanley Cup Finals 5 times, winning 4; and the University of Pittsburgh football team has won some bowl games and has usually a contender for their conference title (formerly the Big East, now the Atlantic Coast Conference).
The Pirates? After 21 years out of the postseason, they made it for 3 straight seasons, 2011 to '13, but, so far, they can't get beyond the NLDS. So they're still waiting for the next generation of the Family to make good.
There are 24 members of the '79 Pirates still alive: Sanguillen, Bert Blyleven, Dave Parker, John Candelaria, Bill Madlock, Rennie Stennett, Kent Tekulve, Joe Coleman, Mike Easler, Phil Garner, Tim Foli, Ed Ott, Enrique Romo, Steve Nicosia, Lee Lacy, Omar Moreno, Jim Rooker, Grant Jackson, Rick Rhoden, Matt Alexander, Don Robinson, Doe Boyland, Gary Hargis, and Yogi's son Dale Berra.
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October 17, 1980, 40 years ago: Game 3 of the World Series, the 1st Series game ever played in Kansas City. Down 2-0 in games, the Royals are desperate. They get home runs from George Brett and Amos Otis, but blow leads of 1-0 in the 2nd, 2-1 in the 5th, and 3-2 in the 8th. But Willie Aikens singles home Willie Wilson in the 10th, and they beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-3.
There are 24 members of the '79 Pirates still alive: Sanguillen, Bert Blyleven, Dave Parker, John Candelaria, Bill Madlock, Rennie Stennett, Kent Tekulve, Joe Coleman, Mike Easler, Phil Garner, Tim Foli, Ed Ott, Enrique Romo, Steve Nicosia, Lee Lacy, Omar Moreno, Jim Rooker, Grant Jackson, Rick Rhoden, Matt Alexander, Don Robinson, Doe Boyland, Gary Hargis, and Yogi's son Dale Berra.
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October 17, 1980, 40 years ago: Game 3 of the World Series, the 1st Series game ever played in Kansas City. Down 2-0 in games, the Royals are desperate. They get home runs from George Brett and Amos Otis, but blow leads of 1-0 in the 2nd, 2-1 in the 5th, and 3-2 in the 8th. But Willie Aikens singles home Willie Wilson in the 10th, and they beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-3.
Also on this day, Bruce Springsteen releases his double album The River. It includes his
biggest hit yet, "Hungry Heart," plus the title track, "The Ties That Bind," "Independence Day," "Wreck
On the Highway," and "Cadillac Ranch," which uses the title, an art piece of 10 1950s Cadillacs with
their hoods buried in the ground off Route 66 in Amarillo, Texas, as a metaphor
for death.
Also on this day, Mohammad Hafeez is born in Sargodha, Pakistan. "The Professor" is a former captain of his country's national cricket team.
October 17, 1981: Eddie Murphy first plays the character of Velvet Jones on Saturday Night Live. Jones is a pimp... and a romance novelist.
October 17, 1982: Robin Yount records his 2nd 4-hit game of the World Series to lead the Brewers to a 6-4 win in Game 5 at County Stadium, and give Milwaukee a 3-2 lead overall. Yount is the first player ever to have two 4-hit games in one World Series.
This night is the high-water mark of the Brewers franchise: Not only is this the closest they have ever gotten to winning a World Series, but they have never won a World Series game since.
October 17, 1983: The Green Bay Packers beat the Washington 48-47 at Lambeau Field. It remained the highest-scoring game in Monday Night Football history until 2018. It was the most points the Redskins scored all season. They went 14-2, and both losses were by 1 point, the other being their season-opening 31-30 loss at home to Dallas. Not until Super Bowl XVIII will they score less than 23 points in a game, and not until then will they lose another.
Also on this day, Mitchell Russell Talbot is born in Cedar City, Utah. Mitch Talbot pitched for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008, but was called up too late to be included on their postseason roster. He appeared for the Cleveland Indians in 2010 and '11, and has since played in the leagues of Mexico, Japan and China.
October 17, 1985: George Steinbrenner fires Billy Martin as Yankee manager for the 4th time. He replaces him with Lou Piniella. He'll fire Lou after the 1987 season, and replace him with Billy Martin. He'll fire Billy for a 5th time in the middle of the next season, and replace him with Lou. Feel free to do a facepalm, or even a headdesk.
Also on this day, Carlos Eduardo González is born in Maracaibo, Venezeula. "CarGo" is a 3-time All-Star, a 3-time Gold Glove winner, and the 2010 National League batting champion, all of that with the Colorado Rockies. He is now a free agent.
October 17, 1986: It is Homecoming at East Brunswick High School, in my senior year. The E.B. Bears beat Woodbridge 16-0.
It looks like the Big Green will continue their challenge for the 1st-ever Greater Middlesex Conference Red Division title, and for a berth in the Central Jersey Group IV Playoffs. But those dreams will take a big hit the following weekend.
October 17, 1987: In the 1st indoor World Series game ever, at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis‚ Dan Gladden's grand slam caps a 7-run 4th inning and leads the Twins to a 10-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1. It is the 1st World Series grand slam since 1970.
Also on this day, Saturday Night Live introduces the sketch "Pumping Up With Hans and Franz." Dressed in gray sweatsuits over fake muscles, Dana Carvey says, "I am Hans!" and Kevin Nealon says, "And I am Franz!" Together, they say, "And we want to pump" (clap) "you up!"
They are a parody of Austrian bodybuilder-turned-actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose photos are all over the set of their "gym." Carvey/Hans introduces the phrase "girlie-man" to the lexicon, and Nealon/Franz adds, "Ja, hear me now and believe me later!"
It looks like the Big Green will continue their challenge for the 1st-ever Greater Middlesex Conference Red Division title, and for a berth in the Central Jersey Group IV Playoffs. But those dreams will take a big hit the following weekend.
October 17, 1987: In the 1st indoor World Series game ever, at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis‚ Dan Gladden's grand slam caps a 7-run 4th inning and leads the Twins to a 10-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1. It is the 1st World Series grand slam since 1970.
Also on this day, Saturday Night Live introduces the sketch "Pumping Up With Hans and Franz." Dressed in gray sweatsuits over fake muscles, Dana Carvey says, "I am Hans!" and Kevin Nealon says, "And I am Franz!" Together, they say, "And we want to pump" (clap) "you up!"
They are a parody of Austrian bodybuilder-turned-actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose photos are all over the set of their "gym." Carvey/Hans introduces the phrase "girlie-man" to the lexicon, and Nealon/Franz adds, "Ja, hear me now and believe me later!"
October 17, 1989: Billy Joel releases his album Storm Front. It includes his soon-to-be Number 1 hit, the history lesson "We Didn't Start the Fire." It mentions baseball figures Joe DiMaggio, Roy Campanella, the 1955 Dodgers in their entirety (Campanella was still with them), Mickey Mantle, and the Dodgers' and Giants' 1957 move to California. But it mentions no other sports, and no later sports moments, not even the Mets' 1969 "Miracle" or Joe Namath's Super Bowl guarantee the same year.
People specifically mentioned in the song who are still alive: Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, singer Chubby Checker, singer Bob Dylan, and 1984 New York Subway vigilante Bernhard "Bernie" Goetz. Joel mentioned "British Beatlemania," but didn't name the individual Beatles; nonetheless, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are still alive. So if you count them, that's 6 people. There may be several "children of Thalidomide" still alive, but Joel did not mention them by name.
Although it mentions the Dodgers as a whole twice, it does not mention Jackie Robinson by name: While 1949, the year Joel was born, was Robinson's best year, he is much more identified with his rookie season, 1947.
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine a few weeks later, after the Berlin Wall fell and Nicolae Ceausescu had been overthrown and executed in Romania, Billy said he had the song all ready to be recorded in June, and he had to change it at the last minute: "That whole Alar thing was happening, so I had 'Poison apples in the store.' Then the whole Tienanmen Square thing happened, and it became 'China's under martial law.' Think of everything I'd have to write about Eastern Europe now."
One thing he couldn't have foreseen was an earthquake at the World Series, which also happened on this day. It was the pregame ceremonies of Game 3 of the World Series, the 1st ever between the 2 teams of the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics. The A's have a 2 games to none lead.
At 5:04 PM Pacific Time -- 8:04 Eastern Time -- ABC is showing highlights of Game 2 when the screen flickers. The ground starts shaking. In ABC's broadcast booth at Candlestick Park are Al Michaels, Jim Palmer and Tim McCarver. Michaels, who had lived in California, figured out what was happening, and said, "I'll tell you what, we're having an earth-- "
And that's when the screen goes black. ABC puts a "Please Stand By" card up. A few minutes later, audio is restored, although video takes a little longer, and Michaels explains that there was, indeed, an earthquake.
The official World Series highlight film shows fans at Candlestick reacting with a sense of fun, since nobody inside the ballpark got hurt. One fan, who'd brought white cardboard panels and magic markers to make up signs on the spot, had on one side, "That was nothing, wait till the Giants bat," and on the other, a jagged line, supposed to be a quake-caused crack, and, "Welcome to Candlestick."
Back in the Giants clubhouse, Giant legend Willie Mays, who had been introduced as part of the pregame ceremony, said, "That's the first time I've ever been scared in Candlestick. I've been knocked down a lot, but that's the first time I was scared." Asked why, he said, "The ground was shaking, man!"
The camera then shifts to a man in a Giants cap with headphones on, and he develops a look that shows he's just found out how serious the situation really is. There are fires all over the city. Many houses in the Marina District are burning. A section of the upper level of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge has collapsed onto the lower level, killing 3 people. Worst of all, a section of the double-decked Nimitz Freeway, Interstate 880, has collapsed in Oakland, killing several.
The quake registered a magnitude of 7.1 on the Richter scale. At first‚ it's believed that over 200 people were killed. When everyone is accounted for, it is determined that the quake killed 67 people, and did $7 billion in damage -- about $14.3 billion in today's money.
Commissioner Fay Vincent has Candlestick evacuated, and the remainder of the Series postponed. Everyone was lucky: The stadium then had a baseball seating capacity of 62,000, and if it had collapsed, or even if a part of the stadium had collapsed, the death toll could have exceeded the nearly 3,000 in the World Trade Center attacks of 12 years later. Certainly, it would have exceeded the 96 deaths at the FA Cup Semifinal in Sheffield, England, the Hillsborough Disaster, 6 months earlier.
But Candlestick Park, the most maligned venue in the history of North American sports, held firm, with only a few small concrete chunks dislodged. In the San Francisco Bay Area's darkest hour since the 1906 earthquake and fire, The 'Stick did its duty, and saved lives.
It would be 10 days before the Series was resumed, and 12 rescue workers -- 6 from San Francisco, 6 from Oakland -- were chosen to throw out ceremonial first pitches.
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October 17, 1990, 30 years ago: Game 2 of the World Series at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. First Lady Barbara Bush pays tribute to the troops getting ready to go to war in the Persian Gulf, and throws out the ceremonial first ball.
A big reason why the Oakland Athletics did not live up to their billing as the favorites in this Series was that superstar slugger José Canseco went just 1-for-14. His only hit was a home run in the 3rd inning. The A's blew leads of 1-0 in the 1st, 4-2 in the 4th and 4-3 in the 8th. A Joe Oliver single wins the game for the Cincinnati Reds in the 10th, 4-3. The Reds lead the Series 2-0 as it heads out to Oakland.
Also on this day, Saki Kumagai is born in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. A centreback, she plays for the women's team at French soccer club Olympique Lyonnais. She was a member of the Japan team that won the Women's World Cup in 2011, and lost the Final to the U.S. in 2015.
October 17, 1991: The Braves advance to the World Series for the 1st time since their move to Atlanta – for the 1st time since they were in Milwaukee in 1958 – with John Smoltz leading the way with a 6-hit‚ 4-0 shutout.
The Pirates fail to score in the last 22 innings of the series. Steve Avery is named the MVP of the NLCS. Worst of all, for this Pennant-deciding game, only 46,932 fans come out to the 58,729-seat Three Rivers Stadium. That's a disgrace for such a good sports city as Pittsburgh.
Also on this day, the Buffalo Sabres retire the Number 11 of Gilbert Perreault, their 1st-ever signing in 1970, and, even now, their greatest player ever and their all-time leading scorer. But they lose 4-3 to the Montreal Canadiens.
Also on this day, Dillon Anthony Day is born in West Monroe, Louisiana. A center, he was a rookie with the Denver Broncos when they won Super Bowl 50. After playing for the Seattle Dragons of the reborn XFL this year, he is currently a free agent.
Also on this day, Dillon Anthony Day is born in West Monroe, Louisiana. A center, he was a rookie with the Denver Broncos when they won Super Bowl 50. After playing for the Seattle Dragons of the reborn XFL this year, he is currently a free agent.
October 17, 1992: In the 1st-ever World Series game involving a team from outside the U.S., the Atlanta Braves defeat the Toronto Blue Jays, 3-1. Catcher Damon Berryhill hits a 3-run homer in the 6th inning.
The pitching matchup of Tom Glavine and Jack Morris is the 1st time that a pair of 20-game winners starts the opening game of a World Series since 1969. Glavine goes all the way for the win‚ while Joe Carter homers for the only Toronto run.
This is a big moment in Toronto sports for another reason. It took 41 years after the plane crash that killed him, following his goal that won them the 1951 Stanley Cup, but the Toronto Maple Leafs finally retire the Number 5 of Bill Barilko. They beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3.
Also on this day, Jari Kurri becomes the 1st hockey player from Finland to score 500 goals in NHL play. He scores for the Los Angeles Kings, who beat the Boston Bruins, 8-6 at the Forum in Inglewood, California.
Also on this day, Jari Kurri becomes the 1st hockey player from Finland to score 500 goals in NHL play. He scores for the Los Angeles Kings, who beat the Boston Bruins, 8-6 at the Forum in Inglewood, California.
October 17, 1993: Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, having debuted on September 12, airs the episode "Requiem for a Superhero." Metropolis Daily Planet reporters Lois Lane (Teri Hatcher) and Clark Kent (Dean Cain) investigate corruption in boxing.
The episode is a dual tribute to Rod Serling: The title is a takeoff on his 1955 TV play Requiem for a Heavyweight (filmed in 1962), and the story of cyborg boxers is a tip of the hat to his 1963 Twilight Zone episode "Steel" -- tying in with one of Superman's nicknames, "The Man of Steel."
October 17, 1994: The Gund Arena opens in downtown Cleveland, adjacent to the new Jacobs Field. The 1st event is a concert by Billy Joel. The NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers move in a few days later. In 2005, the arena was renamed the Quicken Loans Arena, or "The Q," and the ballpark was renamed Progressive Field in 2008.
In 2016, the Cavs won the NBA title, and The Q thus became the home of Cleveland's 1st World Championship since the 1964 Browns. In 2018, it was renamed the Rocket Mortgage Arena, for a subsidiary of Quicken Loans.
Also on this day, the Minnesota Twins and the Cleveland Indians complete a trade involving future Hall-of-Famer Dave Winfield. Dave had been traded at the waiver deadline of August 31, for a player to be named later. But the Strike of '94 was on. The rest of the season was canceled on September 14, and no player had yet been named.
So executives from the teams went to dinner, and the Indians' executives picked up the tab -- and that was the trade. Officially, Winfield is listed as a purchase by the Indians. Unofficially, he is the only player ever traded for dinner. He was hurt for most of the '95 season, did not play in the Indians' postseason games, and retired.
Also on this day, the Minnesota Twins and the Cleveland Indians complete a trade involving future Hall-of-Famer Dave Winfield. Dave had been traded at the waiver deadline of August 31, for a player to be named later. But the Strike of '94 was on. The rest of the season was canceled on September 14, and no player had yet been named.
So executives from the teams went to dinner, and the Indians' executives picked up the tab -- and that was the trade. Officially, Winfield is listed as a purchase by the Indians. Unofficially, he is the only player ever traded for dinner. He was hurt for most of the '95 season, did not play in the Indians' postseason games, and retired.
Also on this day, Shayan Alexander Sobhian is born in the Boston suburb of Stoneham, Massachusetts. He plays Behrad Tarazi on The CW's superhero series DC's Legends of Tomorrow.
October 17, 1995, 25 years ago: The Cleveland Indians shut out the Seattle Mariners‚ 4-0 in Game 6 of the ALCS at the Kingdome in Seattle‚ behind the pitching of Dennis Martínez‚ Julián Tavárez‚ and José Mesa. Carlos Baerga hits a home run off Randy Johnson to ice it, and the Indians win their 1st Pennant in 41 years.
October 17, 1995, 25 years ago: The Cleveland Indians shut out the Seattle Mariners‚ 4-0 in Game 6 of the ALCS at the Kingdome in Seattle‚ behind the pitching of Dennis Martínez‚ Julián Tavárez‚ and José Mesa. Carlos Baerga hits a home run off Randy Johnson to ice it, and the Indians win their 1st Pennant in 41 years.
Also on this day, Jamal Lee Adams is born outside Dallas in Lewisville, Texas, and grows up in nearby Carrollton. A safety, he made 2 Pro Bowls with the Jets. But, being the Jets, they messed things up with him, and traded him to the Seattle Seahawks.
October 17, 1996: The Yankees finally find out who they’ll be playing in their 1st World Series in 15 years. The Braves complete their comeback from being 3 games to 1 down in the NLCS‚ winning their 3rd in a row‚ 15-0‚ to defeat the Cardinals and win the NL Pennant. Homers by Fred McGriff‚ Javy Lopez‚ and Andruw Jones support the shutout pitching of Tom Glavine.
October 17, 1998: Game 1 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium, the way God intended it. Down 5-2 in the bottom of the 7th, the Yankees explode for 7 runs to blow away the Padres‚ 9-6.
Chuck Knoblauch completes his redemption from his ALCS Game 2 "brainlauch" with a 3-run homer in the inning to tie it‚ off Padre starter Kevin Brown, who had a reputation as a "Yankee Killer" while pitching for the Texas Rangers. (Yankee Killer? Kevin Brown? We hadn't seen nothin' yet.)
Then, after reliever Mark Langston (himself rather successful against the Yankees while pitching for the Mariners and Angels) loads the bases, Tino Martinez, who's also been struggling lately, comes up. With a 2-2 count, Langston throws a pitch that’s juuuust low. To this day, Padre fans will say that it was strike 3, and Tino should have been called out, and that this "fixed" the Series for the Yankees.
Now, we Yankee Fans don't have much reason to get upset with Padres fans, but if you blow a 3-run lead in the 7th inning of a World Series game, you don't deserve to win the Series. Tino takes the full-count pitch, and cranks it into the upper deck in right field for a grand slam. San Diego native David Wells notches the win against his hometown team.
Earlier in the day, in recognition of his 66-home run season, and his humanitarian efforts in his native Dominican Republic, Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs receives a ticker-tape parade in New York, which has a large Dominican community.
Oddly, Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals, who had hit 70 home runs and was also deeply involved with charity, did not get a ticker-tape parade. If the City was concerned about the cost of them, especially since the Yankees had a good chance at qualifying for one (and did), why not have a parade for both of them?
Also on this day, Judge Judy Scheindlin interrupts a Saturday Night Live sketch in which Cheri Oteri is playing her. It's usually a good thing when an SNL actor is faced with the real version of the character that he or she is playing, and this time is no exception.
October 17, 1999: The Mets edge the Braves in a 15-inning thriller at Shea‚ 4-3‚ to move within 1 game of Atlanta in their NLCS. Robin Ventura's grand slam in the bottom half of the 15th wins it‚ but his Met teammates mob him before he can reach 2nd base. He never completes his round of the bases, and so he gets credit for a single instead of a home run. It becomes known as the Grand Slam Single.
The Braves leave a postseason-record 19 players on base in the contest. The Mets use 9 pitchers in the game‚ with rookie Octavio Dotel getting the win. No "Heartbreak Dotel" in this game.
No, if it's heartbreak you're looking for, head up to Fenway Park. The Yankees defeat the Red Sox‚ 9-2‚ to take a 3-games-to-1 lead in the ALCS. Andy Pettitte gets the victory for New York‚ with home run support from Darryl Strawberry and Ricky Ledee.
It was only 3-2 Yankees going into the top of the 8th, but the Boston bullpen (Ledee hits a grand slam off Rod Beck) and defense collapse – some would say aided by some poor umpiring. The Sox fans, angry about the calls, throw garbage onto the field in the 9th, for about five minutes until the umpires get the public-address announcer to ask the fans to stop or else the game will be forfeited.
But with all the errors the Sox have been making, and with all the bullpen failure, Sox fans have no one to blame but their own players. For years, I’d heard Boston described as "the Athens of America," and Red Sox fans described as the most knowledgeable in baseball. This proved both a lie. Even Tony Massarotti, then writing for the Boston Herald, ripped the Fenway faithful, saying that this was not the Curse of the Bambino, but "the Torment of the Drunks."
On this same day, the Philadelphia Eagles defeat the Chicago Bears, 20-16 at Soldier Field. It is the 1st time a Philadelphia-based NFL team has gone to Chicago and beaten the Bears since October 26, 1931, when the Frankford Yellow Jackets did it, 13-12 at Wrigley Field. Due to the Great Depression, that turned out to be the last game the Jackets ever played. The next day, the team's owner, the Frankford Athletic Association of Northeast Philadelphia, returned the franchise to the NFL, and the Frankford Yellow Jackets were out of business. The Eagles replaced them as Philly's NFL team in 1933.
Also on this day, the Staples Center opens in Los Angeles. The home ever since of the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers and Kings, the 1st event is a concert by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band.
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October 17, 2000, 20 years ago: The Yankees defeat the Mariners‚ 9-7 at Yankee Stadium‚ to win the ALCS and their 37th AL Pennant. David Justice's 3-run homer in the 7th inning gives New York a lead it never relinquishes. Justice wins the ALCS MVP award.
Since the Mets have already wrapped up the NL Pennant, New York will have its 1st Subway Series in 44 years.
One positive note for the Mariners: With an opposite-field single, catcher Dan Wilson snaps his 0-for-42 skid, the longest hitless streak in postseason history. Marv Owen had gone 0-for-31 in the 1934 and 1935 World Series playing for the Tigers.
One negative note for everybody: After 53 years, this is the last Major League Baseball game televised by NBC. It's been Fox, ESPN and TBS ever since. In the words of Melvin Franklin of the immortal Temptations, "And that ain't right!"
Also on this day, Leo Nomellini dies at the age of 76. A Hall of Fame defensive end, the San Francisco 49ers had retired his Number 73, He was named to the NFL's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team and its All-Decade Team for the 1950s. He had also been a champion professional wrestler.
Also on this day, the 3rd and final debate of the Presidential election is held, at Washington University in St. Louis. After the 1st debate, the media criticized Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic nominee, for sighing at the lies and previously-failed proposed policies of Governor George W. Bush of Texas, the Republican nominee. After the 2nd debate, Gore was criticized for being too soft. It's like he couldn't win with the media.
This time, with the town hall format, he seems to be more aggressive. At one point, it looks like he's going to walk over to Bush and smack him. But all he does is ask, "What about the Dingell-Norwood Bill?"
John Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, served in Congress from December 13, 1955 to January 3, 2015, a record 59 years, and specialized in labor rights and health care. Charlie Norwood, Republican of Georgia, was a dentist, first elected to Congress in 1994, and served until his death in 2007. Together, they sponsored a bill, a "Patients' Bill of Rights." Gore supported it. Despite it being sponsored by the rather conservative Norwood, Bush refused to support it. It never became law.
So even though Gore arguably beat Bush in all 3 debates, the media made it look like he didn't win any of them. They conceded this last one might have been a draw. They let Bush get away with everything, and held Gore responsible for things he didn't even do. They seemed to want Bush to win, probably because he would give them more interesting stories than Gore. Well, they got interesting stories, all right.
October 17, 2003: It was 12:16 AM when Aaron Boone became the newest in a long list of unlikely postseason heroes for the Yankees. But aside from another homer that turned out to be meaningless, he barely hit in the World Series against the Florida Marlins, and in the offseason he injured his knee so badly he'd be out for the 2004 season. So the Yankees got Alex Rodriguez. How did that turn out? One title in 13 years.
Early editions of the October 17 New York Post include an editorial claiming the Yankees lost to Boston and couldn't get the job done in Game 7 of the ALCS. Way to go, Murdoch Post, showing your usual quality control and/or honesty.
Also on this day, Charlie "Choo-Choo" Justice dies in Cherryville, North Carolina at age 79. The North Carolina running back twice finished 2nd in the Heisman Trophy voting, and played for the Washington Redskins. He was named to the College Football Hall of Fame and the Redskins Ring of Honor.
In 1981, sportswriter Frank Deford published the novel Everybody's All-American, about a college football star at North Carolina in the 1950s, who falls from grace. People thought it was based on Justice. When it was made into a movie in 1988, it was filmed at Louisiana State, and Dennis Quaid's Gavin Grey sure looked like a stand-in for LSU star Billy Cannon.
Deford denied that Grey had been based on either one, saying he'd never met them and didn't know much about them. While Cannon served time for counterfeiting before restoring his reputation (after the film came out), Justice never had anything as bad as what happened to Grey happen to him.
October 17, 2004: The Red Sox stay alive in the ALCS with a 6-4‚ 12-inning win over the Yankees. David Ortiz's 2-run walkoff homer wins it in the 12th after the Sox tied the score off Mariano Rivera in the 9th, with a walk by Kevin Millar, pinch-runner Dave Roberts' steal of 2nd, and Bill Mueller singling him home with the tying run.
Ortiz drives home 4 runs for Boston‚ while Alex Rodriguez homers for New York – his last positive contribution to a Yankee postseason effort for 5 years. (Millahhhh? Mueller? Ortiz? Cough-steroids-cough.)
The Sox jumped on Ortiz as if they'd just won not just 1 ALCS game, but the World Series. They had good reason to call themselves "Idiots." Aw, what the heck, it's only 1 game, right? The Yankees will wrap up the Pennant tomorrow, right?
It took the Yankees 5 more years to wrap up their next Pennant.
On this same day, in Game 4 of the NLCS at Minute Maid Park, Carlos Beltran goes deep in the 7th inning, giving the Astros an eventual 6-5 victory over the Cardinals. With the round-tripper, the Houston center fielder sets a new postseason record, hitting a homer in 5 consecutive postseason games, and ties Barry Bonds' 2002 mark with a total of 8 postseason homers.
This gives Beltran a reputation as a postseason star. That reputation will be shattered in 2006. It has now been restored.
Also on this day, the Cleveland Browns win the Battle of Ohio, defeating the Cincinnati Bengals 34-17 at Cleveland Browns (now FirstEnergy) Stadium. Jeff Garcia ties the NFL record with a 99-yard touchdown pass to André N. Davis. It is a rare bright spot in a 4-12 season for the Brownies.
Also on this day, Ray Boone dies at age 81 in his hometown of San Diego. A descendant of American pioneer Daniel Boone, the infielder was a rookie on the Cleveland Indians when he won the 1948 World Series, but was not on the Series roster. He was a 2-time All-Star for the Detroit Tigers, and led the American League in RBIs in 1955.
But he had bad luck: The Chicago White Sox traded him a few weeks before winning the 1959 American League Pennant, and he ended up on the Milwaukee Braves right after they stopped winning Pennants.
He became the patriarch of Major League Baseball's 1st 3-generation family. His son Bob Boone was the catcher for the 1980 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies. His son Bret Boone was a 3-time All-Star won won the 1999 National League Pennant with the Atlanta Braves, and his son Aaron Boone... well, I just told you what he did. Ray lived 1 year after Aaron became a legend.
In 2017, Bret's son Jake was drafted by the Washington Nationals, putting the Boones in position to become the 1st 4-generation MLB family. Jake chose to attend Princeton University instead, and plays for their baseball team.
October 17, 2005: Albert Pujols' 3-run homer off Brad Lidge, practically smashing through the outer wall beyond left field at Minute Maid Park, with 2 outs in the 9th inning gives the Cardinals a 5-4 comeback win over the Astros, and keeps their Pennant hopes alive. Lance Berkman's 3-run homer in the 7th had given Houston a 4-2 lead. The Astros still lead the Series‚ 3 games to 2. Jason Isringhausen gets the win in relief for St. Louis.
Legend had it that Lidge was never the same after giving up this mammoth home run, but his performance for the Phillies in 2008 proved that not to be true.
October 17, 2009: Game 2 of the ALCS at the new Yankee Stadium. The Yankees fall behind the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the top of the 11th inning. But, through raindrops, Alex Rodriguez continues the one postseason hot streak of his career, hitting a home run and extending the game.
In the bottom of the 13th, Cesar Izturis commits an error that allows Melky Cabrera to reach base and Jerry Hairston Jr. to score, and the Yankees win 4-3, and take a 2 games to none lead in the series.
Also on this day, actor, pro wrestler, and former college football player Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson makes his 2nd appearance as "The Rock Obama," President Barack Obama's Hulk-like "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry" personality, on Saturday Night Live.
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October 17, 2011: Carl Lindner dies at age 92. He turned his family's dairy farm into the United Dairy Farms convenience store chain, and later bought the American Financial Group. From 1999 to 2006, he was the owner of the Cincinnati Reds, saving them from the stigma of Marge Schott, and overseeing the building of their new stadium, Great American Ball Park.
October 17, 2012: Milija Aleksic dies in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was working for a country club. He was 61. An Englishman of Serbian descent, He was the starting goalkeeper for North London's other club, Tottenham Hotspur, in the 1981 FA Cup Final, which they won. However, he was replaced by former Liverpool goalie Ray Clemence, and was only the backup for their successful defense of the Cup in 1982.
October 17, 2015: Howard Kendall dies in Southport, Merseyside, England at the age of 69. He was the greatest figure in the history of Liverpool, Merseyside-based Everton Football Club.
A midfielder from County Durham (so he was a "Geordie"), he played for Lancashire club Preston North End in their most recent FA Cup Final, which they lost to East London's West Ham United in 1964. He was sold to Everton, and played in the Toffees' 1968 FA Cup Final defeat to Birmingham-area club West Bromwich Albion. But he helped them win the Football League title in 1970.
After managing Lancashire's Blackburn Rovers to promotion from the 3rd to the 2nd division in 1980, Everton hired him, and he finally won the FA Cup as a manager in 1984, beating Hertfordshire club Watford. In 1985 and 1987, he led Everton to the League title, their most recent titles. In other words, the Blues haven't won the League without him being involved since 1963. He was named England's Manager of the Year both times.
He also managed them to the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1985, but the Heysel ban on English clubs playing in Europe, following Liverpool fans' role in the stadium disaster at that season's European Cup Final, kicked in, and Everton were not able to play in Europe for 5 years, including in the 1985-86 and 1987-88 European Cups (the tournament now known as the UEFA Champions League). Because of this, what had been a comparatively friendly rivalry between the Merseyside clubs degraded into a nasty one, with Everton fans coming to despise Liverpool, for more than just their usual success.
Frustrated, and ambitious to win in Europe, he left Everton for Spanish club Athletic Bilbao in 1987, but the closest he would come to European success was the 1995 Anglo-Italian Cup, won with Nottingham club Notts County. He would manage Everton twice more, without success, and in 1997 got Yorkshire club Sheffield United promoted to the Premier League.
He remains the last English-born manager to lead an English club to a European trophy. And the only English-born manager since Kendall to lead an English team to a League title is Howard Wilkinson of Leeds United in 1992.
October 17, 2019: Game 4 of the ALCS is played, after a rainout the previous night. After being brilliant in Game 1, the Yankees' Masahiro Tanaka has nothing. Despite a home run from Gary Sánchez, the Yankees lose 8-3, and now trail the Houston Astros 3-1.
October 17, 2023: In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this was the date of the climactic events of the film Avengers: Endgame, including the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) reversing "The Snap" of May 31, 2018, and the final battle between the Avengers and their allies on one side, and Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his forces on the other.
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Finley wasn't a good sports owner. Not only did he own the A's, but he owned the Golden Seals as well. It's too bad that Jerry Seltzer didn't get the Seals in 1970 instead of Finley. Jerry had a plan to turn the team around. Bill Torrey (the man who built the Islander dynasty) was going to be his GM. When Finley got the team, Torrey quit not long after, and the rest is history.
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