Twelve Years a Failure

How Cole is it?

The New York Yankees' 2021 season came down to one question: Could Gerrit Cole, the team's $324 million pitching ace hold the hated Boston Red Sox to as few runs as the Yankee bats needed to win the American League Wild Card Game at Fenway Park last night?

The answer, of course, was, "No." Cole has been working through an injury, and just barely got into the 3rd inning.

Now, players get hurt. That's part of the game why. But why is it that the most expensive pitcher the Yankees have ever had got hurt at the worst possible part of the season?

At the postgame press conference, Bryan Hoch of MLB.com asked Cole how he was feeling. He said, "Sick to my stomach. This is the worst feeling in the world, and it happens to 29 teams each year, going home early."

Compare that to what Don Mattingly said after the Yankees blew the 1995 AL Division Series to the Seattle Mariners: "I have a hard time feeling bad about it." Compare it to what Tom Glavine said after he had the worst game of his career in the Mets' 2007 season finale against the Florida Marlins, taking them from potential Division Champions to missing the Playoffs completely in the space of 1 inning: "I'm not devastated."

The Yankees swung at stupid pictures, and when they did make contact, they hit it right at Boston fielders.

The key moment in the game came in the top of the 6th inning. The Sox led 3-0. With 1 out, Anthony Rizzo hit a home run. Aaron Judge beat out a grounder to short.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora, explicit in cheating against the Yankees for both the Red Sox and the Houston Astros, decided he'd seen enough from starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi, who had once pitched wonderfully for the Yankees, but was released by general manager Brian Cashman due to injury, and has bedeviled the Yankees ever since.

Imagine:

* 2018: Eovaldi was the difference for the Red Sox against the Yankees in the ALDS.

* 2019: Imagine Eovaldi starting Game 6 of the ALCS instead of a "bullpen game" beginning with Chad Green. Even if he allows only 1 run in the 1st inning, instead of the 3 that Green allowed, we're looking at a Game 7 with Luis Severino starting for the Yankees, and for the Astros... Gerrit Cole. But at least we would have had a chance.

* 2020: Imagine Eovaldi starting Game 2 of the ALDS instead of J.A. Happ. Instead of losing in 5 games, we win in 4.

* 2021: Imagine having Eovaldi all season long. At the very least, the Yankees would have had the Wild Card Game at home, and it wouldn't have been against the Red Sox, because they wouldn't have made the Playoffs without him.

Sure, none of it would guarantee that he would even get the job done for us, the way he has for Boston. And even if all of what I just suggested had happened, it means the addition of 1 more ALDS, 2 more ALCS'es, and 1 more Pennant -- and no guarantee of anything further.

Anyway, Cora brought in Ryan Brasier. The batter was Giancarlo Stanton, whose home runs were the key to the Yankees' sweep of the Red Sox at Fenway the previous weekend. He was read for them again, ripping a drive to center field that dropped in for a hit.

Judge approached 3rd base at full speed, and looked at 3rd base coach Phil Nevin. Nevin should have told him to stop at 3rd. He didn't. Judge took this to mean, "Try to score." The Sox executed a perfect relay, and Judge was easily thrown out at home plate.

It was only 3-1 Boston at that point, and the Yankees were back in it. Had Judge stopped at 3rd, it would have been him there, and Stanton on 2nd with the tying run, and Joey Gallo up, with 1 out. But Gallo popped up, ending the inning, and the Yankees never got any closer than that, losing 6-2.

This game, and this season, were thrown away, by incompetent management, incompetent coaching, incompetent playing, and lackadaisical playing. It was a rollercoaster of a season, and, last night, the rollercoaster finally derailed.

It's official. The Yankees are Arsenal. Winning no longer matters, and we can see the results. A old stadium full of history and spirt, replaced by a new stadium with neither, geared toward corporate accounts, with ticket prices too high for the average fan to afford. Gutless wonders who will not fight for the team and its legacy. And the few who do are always injured. The arch-rivals have surpassed us. And when we do beat them, it's a fluke. Meanwhile, we're still supposed to trust the process.

There is one tremendous difference between the Yankees and Arsenal now. It's that, with Arsenal, I make fun of "Lee Gunner," the doomsaying idiot who makes cheapo videos in his car about how bad the team is. But the Yankees, I am "a Lee Gunner."

Tyler Kepner said it in today's New York Times:

Unsaid, but unmistakable, is that the Yankees are becoming exactly what they fear: ordinary.
They still have superstars to drive their brand, especially Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. But they scored only 711 runs this season — the Red Sox, the Blue Jays, the Rays, the Astros and the World Series champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, all outscored them by more than 100.

The Yankees have only one starter, Cole, who can reliably work deep in games. Cole stands a chance at winning the A.L. Cy Young Award, but he faded down the stretch and pitched so poorly Tuesday that he agreed with Boone’s decision to lift him with no outs in the third.

Twelve years a failure. Twelve years without the Yankees winning a single American League Pennant. And yet, Boone (whose contract is running out, but will probably be signed to an extension) and Cashman will keep their jobs. Most likely, Nevin, or hitting instructor Marcus Thames, will be fired, offered as a "piece of meat" to keep the angry dogs satisfied for the moment.

This time, the dogs might not be satisfied with anything less than the firing of Boone. But Cashman needs to go, too. Why fire the doll and keep the ventriloquist? Which one's the dummy?

*

October 6, 1836: John Taylor is born in Hamilton, Mercer County, New Jersey. At the age of 17, he became a clerk in a grocery store in neighboring Trenton. By the 1860s, he was the biggest grocer in the State Capital. He was elected to the City Council and the State Senate, but refused to run for a 2nd term there.

In 1888, he put all of his businesses together into the Taylor Provision Company. He had invented a sliced pork product that he called "Taylor's Prepared Ham." In 1906, the passage of the Pure Food & Drug Act set legal definitions of various meat products, and Taylor's product no longer fit the legal definition of "ham." Therefore, he changed it to "Taylor's Pork Roll." Taylor Provision is still in business, and still sells the product in supermarkets with that name. John Taylor died in 1909, at the age of 72.

A sandwich of pork roll, egg and cheese -- say it with me, in a Jersey accent, as one proper word: "Pawkrolleggncheese" -- especially on a Kaiser roll with ketchup, salt and pepper, is also known as the Jersey Breakfast.

I've checked out menus from various towns, and have come to this conclusion: It's "pork roll" in all of South Jersey; in Central Jersey -- Hunterdon, Mercer, Somerset, Middlesex and Monmouth Counties -- and in Rahway in Union County. In the rest of Union County, and in every other County that could be called "North Jersey," it's called "Taylor ham."

Let's end the debate right now: If the people who invented it and produce more of it than anybody else call it "pork roll," then it's "pork roll."

What does this have to do with sports? Well, you know the Milwaukee Brewers Sausage Race? Many teams, major-league and minor-league alike, have variations based on food products. The Lakewood BlueClaws, the Class A farm team of the Philadelphia Phillies, representing the Jersey Shore, have such a race, featuring the items in the Jersey Breakfast: Pork roll, egg and cheese race. I swear, I am not making that up.

October 6, 1845: The 1st recorded baseball game using Alexander Cartwright's rules, the basis for the game we have today, is played between members of the Knickerbocker Club, of which he is a member, at Madison Square Park in what would now be considered Midtown Manhattan. It was, as we would say today, an intrasquad game. In a way, this could mean that October 6 is baseball's birthday.

Only 14 players participate as Duncan Curry's team defeats Cartwright's team 11-8, in a shortened game of only 3 innings. The Knickerbocker Club will play at least 14 recorded games during the fall of 1845.

October 6, 1846, 175 years ago: George Westinghouse Jr. (no middle name) is born outside Albany in Schoharie, New York. He got his 1st patent at age 19, invented the railway air brake in 1869, and battled Thomas Edison in "The War of the Currents" starting in 1886. By 1893, Westinghouse's alternating current (AC) had defeated Edison's direct current (DC). Westinghouse died in 1914.

October 6, 1882: In the 1st postseason matchup between AA and NL Champions -- nobody is calling it "the World Series" or even "the World's Series" -- the AA Champion Cincinnati Red Stockings shut out the NL Champion Chicago White Stockings (forerunners of the Cubs) 4-0 behind Will White.

The next day, Chicago returns the favor by blanking Cincinnati 2-0. At this point Cincinnati‚ under pressure from the AA‚ reluctantly cancels the exhibition series to avoid expulsion from the league. So, with the NL still the unquestioned superior league, the White Stockings are the unofficial World Champions, for the 3rd year in a row.

October 6, 1894: The American League of Professional Football, the 1st soccer pro soccer league in the United States, begins play. The 1st game is played in Philadelphia, at the home of the Phillies, what would later be known as Baker Bowl. The New York World, Joseph Pulitzer's splashy, sometimes trashy, newspaper, prints this story: 

Philadelphia, Oct. 6 -- The championship season of American League Professional Football opened here this afternoon on the Philadelphia baseball grounds, with a game between Philadelphia and New York's clubs.

The visitors won by a score of 5 to 0. Two halves of 45 minutes were played.

After 40 minutes of play in the first half, Connolly of New York kicked the first goal.

In the second half, the home players did not back each other up properly, and New York had little trouble in making four more. Gavin scored two and Lupton scored two.

There was a good crowd present, and the liveliest interest was maintained. The New York XI showed excellent teamwork, and the coaching of their captain Trainor had a good effect.

The sporting public in this vicinity are not going to die of heart disease caused from over-enthusiasm for professional football.

Still, it seems to be gaining in popularity. It is an open question whether football can succeed baseball.

There were 6 teams in the ALPF, all named after the baseball teams in town. In alphabetical order: The Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Beaneaters, the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, the New York Giants, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Washington Senators. Baltimore won their 1st 4 games by a combined margin of 24-3, but couldn't afford to stay in business, and had to fold. Since the standings were decided by points, 2 for a win and 1 for a tie, the standings were as follows: Brooklyn 10, Baltimore 8, Boston 8, New York 4, Philadelphia 4 and Washington 2. A dispute with a competing soccer authority and the depression of the 1890s combined to prevent a 2nd season in the Autumn of 1895.

New York and Philadelphia would become important cities in American professional soccer, and both would have teams in the American Soccer League, the original North American Soccer League, and, with the 2010 establishment of the Philadelphia Union, Major League Soccer. But Americans simply have never cared enough about soccer to put in on the same level as baseball. That would not be the case with the game we call "football."

*

October 6, 1905: Helen Newington Wills is born in Fremont, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was the most dominant female tennis player of the 1920s and '30s. In those days, not many tennis players (male or female) made the long trip to Australia to play their Open. If she had, she might have won the Grand Slam, because she won the other 3 in 1928 and 1929.

Between 1923 and 1938, she won Wimbledon 8 times (a record until Martina Navratilova surpassed it in 1990), the U.S. Open 7 times, and the French Open 4 times -- but never entered the Australian Open. When tennis was an Olympic sport in Paris in 1924, she won the women's Gold Medal. On 7 occasions, a Grand Slam Final came down to "The Two Helens," with Helen Wills Moody (she used her married name from 1930 onward) beating Helen Hull Jacobs in 6 of them.

She wrote an instruction manual in 1928 (titled simply Tennis), a memoir in 1937 (also with an irdoinary title, Fifteen-Thirty: The Story of a Tennis Player), a mystery novel in 1939 (with more imagination, titled Death Serves an Ace), and articles for The Saturday Evening Post, and painted up until her death in 1998.

Both Jack Kramer and Don Budge -- contemporaries who lived long enough to see Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles -- called her the best female tennis player ever. She was elected to the International Tennis and Bay Area Sports Halls of Fame.

October 6, 1906: Not one of the best-known games between the teams now known as the Yankees and the Red Sox, due to the passage of over a century, but it deserves to be mentioned. The New York Highlanders beat the Boston Americans 5-4 at Hilltop Park, behind the pitching of Long Tom Hughes.

But Charles Sylvester "Chick" Stahl, the 33-year-old center fielder and manager for Boston, hits a 2-run homer off Hughes in the top of the 8th. It's not enough, but it does turn out to be the last at-bat of his career. He remains the most notable player to hit a home run in his last major league at-bat, until another Red Sox star does it in 1960: Ted Williams.

The 1907 season will be the 1st one for the club under the Red Sox name. But Stahl will not be there. Not as a player (he had already announced his retirement), and not as manager. Back in his native Indiana, where he was conducting spring training, he committed suicide by drinking carbolic acid on March 28.

A star of the Boston club's 1903 and '04 Pennant winners, he was despondent about something, and told his teammates, "Boys, I just couldn't help it. It drove me to it." No one has been able to determine what he was talking about, although it was known that he had cheated on his wife Julia, and it has been retroactively suggested that he was dealing with mental illness. It has also been suggested that he was depressed about having to dismiss his predecessor and ex-teammate, future Hall-of-Famer Jimmy Collins.

A year and a half later, on November 15, 1908, Julia died, too, under circumstances that have never been explained. Although Jake Stahl was also a prominent Red Sock of the pre-Curse of the Bambino years, he and Chick were not related.

Also on this day, Ferry Field opens on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Coach Fielding Yost had a 44-0 record at the previous facility, Regents Field, but it seated only 15,000 people, and he wanted a bigger stadium. Ferry Field would seat 46,000. It was named for Dexter Ferry, a Detroit businessman, who donated the land. Michigan beat Case Western Reserve, of Cleveland, 28-0.

The Wolverines outgrew Ferry Field, too, and in 1927, Michigan Stadium -- "The hole that Yost dug," later Michigan broadcaster Bob Ufer would call it -- would open, seating 72,000. It now officially seats 107,601. Ferry Field remained in use, as the home of Michigan's track & field program, and is still used as such.

Also on this day, Woolwich Arsenal defeat Liverpool 2-1 at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, Southeast London. This is The Arsenal's 14th season in the Football League, their 3rd in Division One, and this match marks the 1st time they have gone into 1st place.

They finish 7th, and and reach their 2nd straight Semifinal in the FA Cup. They will finish 6th in 1909, but will not top that performance until 1931, when they win their 1st League title.

October 6, 1911, 110 years ago: The New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-5 at the Polo Grounds, and clinch the Pennant. They will play the other Philadelphia team, the Athletics, in the World Series.

Also on this day, Cy Young appears in his last major league game, starting for the Boston Rustlers (forerunners of the Braves, then named for their owner, William H. Russell). It doesn't go so well. The Brooklyn Superbas win, 13-3. The old Cyclone, age 44, goes 6 1/3rd innings, giving up 11 hits. Here are the results of his last 8 at-bats: Triple, 4 straight singles, 3 straight doubles.

Young then retired, with all-time records for wins (511), losses (316), appearances by a pitcher (906), innings pitched (7,356), batters faced (29,565), starts (815), complete games (749), hits allowed (7,092), runs allowed (3,167), earned runs allowed (2,147 -- meaning, in those days of inadequate gloves, he allowed 1,020 unearned runs), and strikeouts (2,803). His records for appearances, runs (but not earned runs) and strikeouts have been broken. The rest still stand, 105 years later.

His ERA+ was 138, and his WHIP was 1.130, so he wasn't just lasting a long time amassing some big stats, as has been leveled against more recent pitchers like Nolan Ryan, Gaylord Perry and Don Sutton: He was great even by the standards of his own time.

Five hundred and eleven wins. The next-closest pitcher is Walter Johnson, with 417 -- 94 less. The winningest living pitcher is Greg Maddux with 355. The winningest active pitcher is Justin Verlander with 226. So unless there's a change in baseball as radical as that of the Dead Ball Era to the Lively Ball Era in 1920, Young's 511 wins, and his other still-standing records, are as safe as records can be.

Young, who lived until 1955, age 87, was interviewed in 1945 by Chicago Daily News sports editor John P. Carmichael for his anthology My Greatest Day In Baseball. Young's choice was his 1904 perfect game for the Boston Americans (Red Sox). He added, "In my last game, I was beaten 1-0 by a kid named Grover Cleveland Alexander." He was a little off: On September 7, 1911, he did lose 1-0 to Alexander, then a 24-year-old rookie, but he made 6 more appearances.

Also on this day, Wilfrid Laurier leaves the Prime Minister's office in Canada, after 15 years, his Liberal Party having lost an election to Robert Borden and his Conservative Party. The 1st French-Canadian to serve as Prime Minister, and considered one of the country's greatest, he is on the Canadian $5.00 bill.

*

October 6, 1921, 100 years ago: Game 2 of the World Series. Waite Hoyt pitches a 2-hit shutout, and the Yankees beat the New York Giants 3-0, taking a 2 games to 0 lead. The talk is that the style of Babe Ruth (power, power and more power hitting) has supplanted that of Giant manager John McGraw (strategy, strategy and more strategy), especially since McGraw had ordered starting pitcher Art Nehf to "unintentionally-intentionally walk" Ruth, and he did so, 3 times.

But Ruth tried to foil this strategy by stealing 2nd and 3rd base after one of the walks. When he slid into 3rd, he scraped his elbow, and it got infected. It didn't end up killing him (though, in those pre-antibiotic days, it sure could have), but he had to leave Game 3 early, and the wound was lanced, rendering him unable to swing a bat for the rest of the Series. It was the 1st time a baserunning miscalculation by the Babe had cost the Yankees a World Series. It would not be the last.

Also on this day, Joseph Echols Lowery is born in Huntsville, Alabama. One of the last surviving leaders of the original Civil Rights Movement, he and Martin Luther King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. He served as its President from 1977 to 1997. In 2009, he gave the benediction at President Barack Obama's Inauguration, and Obama granted him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He died on March 27, 2020.

October 6, 1926: Game 4 of the World Series, at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Someone got a message to Babe Ruth, asking him to hit a home run for a sick kid in a hospital.

He hit one. And another. And another. It was the 1st time a player had hit 3 home runs in a World Series game. The Yankees win, 10-5, and tie up the Series with the Cardinals.

The boy's name was Johnny Sylvester. He got well, later met the Babe, and lived to be 74. In legend, the boy was dying, and the Babe visited him in the hospital, and promised him he'd hit a home run for him, and ended up hitting 3, and, hearing the game on the radio, little Johnny instantly began to get well. The truth is great enough, is Ruthian enough.

October 6, 1927: Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees score 3 runs in the 2nd inning and 3 more in the 8th, and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-2. They lead the Series 2 games to 0 as it heads to New York.

Also on this day, The Jazz Singer premieres, starring the biggest stage star of the Roaring Twenties, Al Jolson. At 17 minutes and 25 seconds into the film, silent thus far, even in its apparent musical sequences, Jolson, as Jakie Rabinowitz, singing under the name Jack Robin, speaks words that Jolson (born Asa Yoelson) tended to say in his stage act: "Wait a minute, wait a minute: You ain't heard nothin' yet, folks!"

It is often called "the first sound film" or "the first talking picture." It isn't, but it is the 1st feature-length motion picture with a synchronized recorded music score, and the 1st feature-length motion picture with lip-synchronous singing and speech.

Bobby Gordon, who plays Jakie as a boy, went on to become a renowned director under the name Robert Gordon, and died in 1990, as the last surviving castmember.

The film's scenes of Jolson, singing Southern songs in blackface, have been parodied and, retroactively, critically assailed. Remakes have been done in 1952 with Danny Thomas, 1959 with Jerry Lewis, and 1980 with Neil Diamond.

*

October 6, 1935: Bruno Leopoldo Francesco Sammartino is born in Pizzoferrato, Abruzzo, Italy. He was malnourished as a result of living in Italy under Benito Mussolini's fascist regime and the conditions of World War II. When the family moved to Pittsburgh in 1950, his new classmates teased him for it. He built himself up and learned to fight and wrestle, became a local strongman, and then a professional wrestler.

Bruno Sammartino is the greatest professional wrestler of all time. If there were an all-time battle royal, with each of them in their prime getting into the ring, he could have kicked the asses of all the serious challengers who came after him: Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, John Cena and C.M. Punk. And the ones who came before him, like Frank Gotch, Ed "Strangler" Lewis and Bronko Nagurski. (Yes, the football legend: Wrestling paid better back then.) He certainly beat the best of his own time, like Nature Boy Buddy Rogers, Gorilla Monsoon, Killer Kowalski, Ernie Ladd (who, like Nagurski, became famous as a football player first) and Rocky Johnson (The Rock's father).

Bruno also became a promoter, making sure everybody -- good guys and bad guys, big names like himself and smaller names -- got paid on the cards on which he fought. He in 2018, at age 82.

October 6, 1936: The New York Yankees defeat the New York Giants in Game 6 of the World Series, 13-5 at the Polo Grounds, and clinch their 5th World Championship. It remains the most runs scored by a team in a Series-clinching game.

At this point, the following teams have won 5 World Series: The Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, and the Philadelphia Athletics. (The A’s wouldn’t win another until 1972, by which point they were in Oakland. The Red Sox have never won another. Not without cheating, anyway.)

By beating the Giants, who have 4, the Yankees move ahead of the Giants into 1st place in New York, and they have never relinquished it. Now, they are tied with the Sox and A’s for 1st among all teams. They have never been 2nd again. Nor will they be.

Frank Crosetti was the last survivor of the '36 Yanks, living until 2002.

*

October 6, 1941, 80 years ago: The Yankees beat the Dodgers, 4-1, and win their 9th World Series, clinching in 5 games at Ebbets Field. Ol' Reliable himself, Tommy Henrich, the previous day's hero, hits a home run. He also turns out to be the last survivor of the 1941 Yankees living until 2009.

The Brooklyn Eagle's headline reads, "WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR." A catchphrase is coined. It will take another 14 years, and several agonizing close calls, including 4 more World Series losses, all to the Yankees, before "Next Year" finally arrives for Brooklyn. In an unfortunate twist, the Brooklyn Eagle went out of business, publishing its last edition on January 29, 1955 -- just 9 months and change before Dem Bums finally dooed it.

This is the last Major League Baseball game before America enters World War II, although some players, including Detroit Tiger Hall-of-Famer Hank Greenberg, are already in the U.S. armed forces. Not until April 16, 1946 will baseball again be played without players missing due to military service.

This is also the 1st World Series between the Yankees and the Dodgers. There would be 11 over a stretch of 41 seasons, 1941 to 1981: 7 all-New York "Subway Series," 4 Coast-to-Coast N.Y./L.A. series. There hasn't been one in 35 years, though, despite both teams having made the Playoffs in 1995, 1996, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2015, 2020 and 2021.

October 6, 1942: Gerald Wayne Grote is born in San Antonio, Texas. When the Mets and the Houston Colts .45s (they became the Astros in 1965) began play in the National League in 1962, they went in opposite directions. The Mets wanted high attendance, and stocked their team with veterans, including as many ex-Yankees, ex-New York Giants, and ex-Brooklyn Dodgers as they could find. The Colts wanted to build a team that would contend within a few years, and trusted the kids. Jerry Grote was one of them.

A catcher, he debuted with them in 1963, before turning 19. Ironically, they traded him to the Mets in 1966, and he was their starting catcher during their best era, including the 1969 World Championship and the 1973 Pennant. They traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1977, and he played against the Yankees in the 1977, 1978 and 1981 World Series, winning the last one. He made 2 All-Star teams.

The Mets elected him to their team Hall of Fame. He was also named to the Texas Baseball and San Antonio Sports Halls of Fame. After managing in the minor leagues for a few years, he retired to a ranch outside Austin, where he still lives. To this day, he and Gary Carter are the only starting catchers on a World Champion Mets team. 

October 6, 1944: Game 3 of the World Series. Five singles and a wild pitch by the Cardinals' Fred Schmidt give the Browns 4 runs in the 3rd inning. With Jack Kramer (no relation to the tennis great of the same name) striking out 10 Redbirds, the Browns win 6-2, and take a 2-games-to-1 lead.

This is the all-time high-water mark for the St. Louis Browns: Not until 1966, as the Baltimore Orioles, would they ever win 3 games in a World Series, much less 4.

*

October 6, 1945: Game 4 of the World Series is held at Wrigley Field. William "Billy Goat" Sianis is the owner of the Billy Goat Tavern. He has a goat as his bar's mascot, and he buys 2 tickets to this game, one for himself and one for the goat.

At the time, there is no rule against this. But fans around him complain to the ushers that the goat smells bad, and Sianis and his goat are kicked out of the ballpark.

A Greek immigrant and a superstitious man, Sianis puts a curse on the Cubs. The Tigers win the game, 4-1, all their runs coming in the 4th inning, after Sianis and the goat are kicked out. The Tigers win the Series in 7, and afterward, Sianis sends a telegram to Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley, asking, "Who stinks now?"

Billy died in 1970, about a year after the Cubs' 1969 September Swoon. His nephew Sam Sianis has run the place ever since. Royko asked him if he would lift the curse on the Cubs. No, he said, not as long as the Wrigley family still owned the team. When William Wrigley Jr. sold the Cubs to the Tribune Company in 1981, Sam offered to lift the Curse of the Billy Goat. A number of times, Cub management allowed Sam to take his bar's current mascot onto the field in an attempt to lift the Curse. It didn't work: Apparently, Billy's curse was stronger even than his own flesh and blood.

The Cubs had postseason defeats in 1984 (a disaster), 1989, 1998, 2003 (an even more notorious disaster, and at home, no less), 2007, 2008 and 2015. So whatever was standing in the way of a Cub Pennant, it wasn't the Sianis family or their goats.

The Cubs didn't get back to the World Series for 71 years -- nearly 3/4 of a century without a Pennant, by far MLB's record. The next-longest drought: The crosstown Chicago White Sox going 46 years without one, 1959 to 2005.

Is the goat the reason? Well, let's put it this way: In 1945, the Cubs had already not been World Champions for 37 years, and had already had a number of weird things happen to them in Series play, including a 10-run inning by the A's in 1929, Babe Ruth's alleged "called shot" in 1932, and Stan Hack leading off the 9th with a triple with what would be the tying run and then getting stranded there to lose Game 6 and the Series to the Tigers in 1935. The goat curse doesn't explain any of that.

So what's the real reason the Cubs didn't win the World Series between 1908 and 2016? If you're not willing to say, "Bad management," then your guess is as good as mine.

Shortstop Lennie Merullo died on May 30, 2015, at 98 years old. He was the last living man to have played for the Chicago Cubs in a World Series -- until October 25, 2016. Finally, on November 3, 2016, the Cubs won the World Series.

*

October 6, 1946, 75 years ago: Gary Edward Gentry is born in Phoenix. In 1969, as a rookie on his 23rd birthday, he would start Game 3 of the 1st-ever National League Championship Series, a game that could have won the Mets the Pennant. He didn't pitch well in the 1st 2 innings, and manager Gil Hodges removed him, but the Mets won, anyway, with Nolan Ryan winning in relief.

Gentry also started Game 3 of the World Series, but got into trouble, again Hodges brought Ryan in to relieve him, and the Mets won again. But this time, Gentry was the winning pitcher, and would get a World Series ring.

He developed arm trouble, and last pitched in 1975, for the Atlanta Braves, ending his career 46-49, shortly before his 29th birthday. He is still alive.

October 6, 1947: Game 7 of the World Series, the Bronx Bombers and Dem Bums at Yankee Stadium. The Dodgers threaten in the top of the 9th, but catcher Bruce Edwards grounds into a double play -- shortstop Phil "the Scooter" Rizzuto to 2nd baseman George "Snuffy" Stirnweiss to 1st baseman George McQuinn (no nickname that I can find) -- which clinches the 5-2 win for the Yankees in Game 7 of the World Series.

It is the Yankees' 11th World Championship. The next-closest team is the just-dethroned Cardinals with 6.

This was the 1st World Series to be broadcast on television, on NBC, although it wasn't the 1st set of baseball games on coast-to-coast TV. That wouldn't happen until the 1951 Giants-Dodgers Playoff. President Harry Truman had received the 1st TV set to be installed in the White House the previous day (and had delivered the 1st televised State of the Union Address the preceding January 6). Though a big baseball fan (he never missed a Washington Senators Opening Day as President, and threw out the first ball at the 1st major league game in Kansas City in 1955), he admitted he skipped the last innings.

This was also the 1st integrated World Series, with Jackie Robinson playing for the Dodgers. However, it was Italians who were the major figures in the Series: Yogi Berra for hitting the 1st pinch-hit home run in Series history in Game 3, Cookie Lavagetto for breaking up Bill Bevens' no-hitter with 1 out to go in Game 4, Joe DiMaggio for coming through for the Yankees again with a homer in Game 5, Al Gionfriddo for robbing DiMaggio with a spectacular catch in Game 6, and Rizzuto for starting the game-ending twin killing in Game 7.

An interesting note is that, while Bevens, Lavagetto and Gionfriddo were the biggest heroes of in this Series, and all played in Game 7, none of them would ever play another major league game. Bobby Brown was the last surviving player from the rosters of this World Series, having died this past March 25.

*

October 6, 1951, 70 years ago: The World Series returns to the Polo Grounds for the 1st time in 14 years. In the bottom of the 5th of Game 3, Rizzuto tries to turn a double play, but Eddie Stanky, the former Dodger and Brave playing his last games before retiring, kicks the ball out of the Scooter's glove. This opens the door to a 5-run inning, highlighted by Whitey Lockman's 2-run homer.

The Giants win 6-2, and take a 2-games-to-1 lead in the Series. The Miracle of Coogan's Bluff continues... but it stops the next day.

October 6, 1959: A crowd of 92,706, still the largest ever for a baseball game that counts, plows into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for Game 5 of the World Series. Dick Donovan shuts out the Dodgers, and Sherm Lollar grounds into a double play that forces home a run, and the White Sox win, 1-0, with Bob Shaw outdueling Sandy Koufax (not yet a star). This will remain the last World Series game won by a Chicago team for 46 years.

Players from this game who are still alive, 62 years later: From the Dodgers, Koufax, Maury Wills, Joe Pignatano, Don Demeter and Chuck Essegian; from the White Sox, only Luis Aparicio. 

*

October 6, 1963: Game 4 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium. Mickey Mantle hits a home run off Sandy Koufax, his 15th in Series play, tying Babe Ruth's record. It ties the game in the top of the 7th inning.

But in the bottom of the inning, Jim Gilliam hits a high hopper to 3rd baseman Clete Boyer. He leaps to make the grab, and fires to 1st base. But Joe Pepitone can't see the white ball against the white-shirted background. The ball hits him in the arm and rolls down the right field line, allowing Gilliam to get to 3rd. He scores on Willie Davis' sacrifice fly, and the Dodgers win, 2-1, and take the Series in 4 straight. Koufax had also won Game 1, with 15 strikeouts.

This is the 1st time the Dodgers have ever won a World Series at home -- in Brooklyn or Los Angeles. The Dodgers used just 4 pitchers: Koufax, 1955 Series hero Johnny Podres, Don Drysdale and Ron Perranoski, and they gave up just 4 runs in the 4 games.

The Yankees had come into this 1st West Coast version of Yankees vs. Dodgers having won 104 games, but would not win another until next April. It is also the 1st time the Yankees have ever been swept in a Series, having done it to St. Louis in 1928, the Cubs in 1932 and 1938, Cincinnati in 1939 and Philadelphia in 1950. The Reds would get revenge for 1939 by sweeping the Yankees in 1976.

This was also the 1st-ever Finals meeting, in any sport, between New York and Los Angeles. The Yankees would beat the Dodgers in 1977 and 1978, but the Dodgers would win in 1981. (The Mets and Angels have never met in a World Series, though 1986 was a very close call.) The Knicks beat the Lakers in the 1970 and 1973 NBA Finals, and the Lakers beat the Knicks in 1972. The Los Angeles Kings beat the Devils in the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals and the Rangers in 2014, but the Devils beat the Anaheim Ducks (if you want to count that as "New York" vs. "Los Angeles") in 2003. Neither the Giants nor the Jets have ever played a Los Angeles team in an NFL (under the Super Bowl name or before) or AFL Championship Game.

The baseball gods -- if such beings exist -- were kind to Willie Davis on this day, allowing him to drive in the winning run of the World Series under weird conditions. They will turn on him 3 years later, in the same stadium, also under weird conditions.

Still alive from the '63 Dodgers, 58 years later: Koufax, Perranoski, Maury Wills, Tommy Davis, Frank Howard, Ken McMullen, Al Ferrara, Dick Calmus, Pete Richert (who would also win the Series with the '66 Orioles), Dick Tracewski (who would also win the Series as a player with the '68 Tigers, and as a coach with the '75 & '76 Reds and the '84 Tigers), and Doug Camilli (son of Brooklyn Dodger great Dolph Camilli).

Also on this day, after 3 seasons as the Dallas Texans, the Kansas City Chiefs play their 1st regular-season game in their new hometown. They beat the Houston Oilers 28-7 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

October 6, 1965: Game 1 of the World Series at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota, the 1st World Series game ever played in that State. The Minnesota Twins are hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers, whose ace is still Sandy Koufax. Koufax, being Jewish, does not pitch today, because it is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. So he is pushed back to Game 2, and Don Drysdale is started today. No problem, right? Big D is also a future Hall-of-Famer, right?

Not today: Don Mincher and soon-to-be AL MVP Zoilo Versalles (who hit only 2 homers in the regular season, and got the MVP for his contact hitting, speed and defense) hit home runs off Drysdale, and when manager Walter Alston comes to take him out in the 3rd inning, Drysdale says to him, "I bet you wish I was Jewish, too!"

Jim "Mudcat" Grant allows only 1 hit, a home run by Ron Fairly, and the Twins, in the 1st World Series game in their history (unless you count their Washington Senators days, in which case it's their 1st in 32 years), win 8-2.

To make matters worse for the Dodgers, Koufax loses Game 2 as well. The Dodgers will come back, 

though, and win the Series in 7 games. The Twins will not get this close to a World Championship again for another 22 years.

October 6, 1966: Game 2 of the World Series. Dodger outfielder Willie Davis, having trouble seeing a white baseball against the smog-gray L.A. sky, commits 3 errors in 1 inning, enabling the Baltimore Orioles to win 6-0, and take both World Series games at Dodger Stadium, and head back to Memorial Stadium with a 2-0 lead. Jim Palmer, days short of his 21st birthday, outduels Koufax, who struggles with the Oriole bats, Davis' fielding, and the pain in his elbow.

Koufax hasn't told very many people yet, but he's already decided that this is his last major league game. He is not yet 31. This could be called a "generational hinge" game.

October 6, 1969: Tommie Agee, Ken Boswell and Wayne Garrett all hit home runs, leading the Mets to defeat the Atlanta Braves, 7-4 at Shea Stadium, and sweep the 1st-ever National League Championship Series. As they did after the NL Eastern Division clincher on September 24, the Met fans storm the field.

The Mets trailed 2-0 after the 1st inning, and Gary Gentry, on his 23rd birthday, is pulled after 2 innings, with Nolan Ryan pitching the rest of the way for the win.

It is the 1st Pennant won by a New York team in 5 years. A long time by New York standards. But for Met fans, the children of a "shotgun wedding" between 2 groups of fans who once hated each other, to use the late scientist and former Giant fan Stephen Jay Gould's phrase, "with that love that only hate can understand," it is the 1st Pennant in either 13 years (Dodgers) or 15 years (Giants).

After 7 bad years, 5 of them absolutely horrible, in Year 8 the Mets have won the Pennant. It is the fastest any team has reached the World Series since the early days of the competition. It will be 1980 – or 1973, if you count the Mets' 2nd Pennant – before a team other than one of the "Original 16" reaches the World Series again.

The 1st-ever American League Championship Series also ends in a sweep today. Paul Blair gets 5 hits and Don Buford 4, as the Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins 11-2 at Metropolitan Stadium. The Series is set: The heavily-favored 109-win Orioles will face the surprising 100-win "Miracle Mets."

*

October 6, 1971, 50 years ago: The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Francisco Giants, 9-5 at Three Rivers Stadium, and win the National League Pennant, taking the NLCS in 4 games. Richie Hebner and Al Oliver hit home runs in support of Bruce Kison. Willie McCovey (no surprise) and Chris Speier (big surprise) homer in a losing effort for the Giants.

October 6, 1975: The Detroit Lions play their 1st game at the Silverdome in suburban Pontiac, Michigan, after 37 seasons at Tiger Stadium. They lose to the Dallas Cowboys 36-10.

October 6, 1977: Game 2 of the ALCS. After being embarrassed by Paul Splittorff yesterday, the Yankees need a big-game pitcher. For the 1st time, Ron Guidry proves to be one, scattering 3 hits as the Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 6-2. The series is even as it heads to Kansas City.

October 6, 1978: Game 3 of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium. The winner will take a 2-1 lead in the series. George Brett of the Royals hits 3 home runs off Catfish Hunter, still the only 3-homer performance in LCS play in either league.

But in the bottom of the 8th, with the Yankees trailing 5-4, Thurman Munson steps up against Royals reliever Doug Bird, and crushes a pitch 470 feet to left-center field. On ABC, Howard Cosell, who admired Munson a lot, laughs: "Ho-ho! The damaged man!"

Goose Gossage finishes it off for Catfish, and the Yankees win, 6-5. Reggie Jackson had also homered, his 2nd of this series, after taking K.C. closer Al "the Mad Hungarian" Hrabosky deep in Game 1 at Royals Stadium.

This is what I love most about Munson: At the moment when the Yankees most needed him to hit a home run, the banged-up Captain hit the longest home run of his career. Appropriately, it went into Monument Park. At this point, the only players honored there were the big 4: Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle – along with owner Jacob Ruppert, general manager Ed Barrow, managers Miller Huggins, Joe McCarthy and Casey Stengel, and the plaque honoring the Mass delivered by Pope Paul VI.

The next Plaque to be dedicated would be the one for the Mass delivered by Pope John Paul II, but the next one for a Yankee would be, sadly, for Munson himself.

*

October 6, 1980: Having lost 3 straight to the Dodgers, the Houston Astros must now play them in a one-game Playoff to decide the NL West title, and at Dodger Stadium, no less.

No problem: Art Howe drives in 4 runs (which is more than the Astro 2nd baseman ever did for the Mets as their manager), and Joe Niekro knuckleballs his way to his 20th win of the season, and the Astros win, 7-1. In what is unofficially the 1st postseason game in their 19-year history, they officially advance to the Playoffs for the first time. And they didn't even have to cheat.

October 6, 1981, 40 years ago: Game 1 of the AL Division Series, forced by the strike season's split-season format. Billy Martin, now managing the Oakland Athletics, becomes the 1st manager to take 4 different franchises into the postseason: 1969 Twins, 1972 Tigers, 1976 & '77 Yankees, 1981 A's.

The A's are facing the Royals, in Kansas City, and due to his exile there from the Yankees in 1957 and his 1976 and '77 Playoff battles against them, he hates Kansas City, and, more than usual, wants to win there.

No problem: Mike Norris tosses a 6-hit shutout, and the A's win 4-0, their 1st win in a postseason game in 7 years.

On the same day, Game 1 of the NL Division Series is played. Alan Ashby, a light-hitting catcher, hits a walkoff home run to give the Astros another big win over the Dodgers, 3-1.

The pitcher who gave up the home run was Dave Stewart. Both he and the Dodgers would have more luck as the postseason went on, first together, then apart.

Also on this day, Anwar Sadat is assassinated while reviewing a military parade in the Egyptian capital of Cairo. President of Egypt since 1970, and negotiator of the Camp David Peace Accords with President Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978, he was 63.

The assassin, Army Lieutenant Khalid Islambouli, claimed he did it because of the peace with Israel. He was tried, convicted, and executed the following April.

October 6, 1984: A dark day in the long, gray history of the Chicago Cubs, 39 years to the day after the Day of the Goat. Leading the NLCS 2 games to 1, needing only 1 more win to take their first Pennant since 1945, they are tied with the San Diego Padres in the bottom of the 9th at Jack Murphy Stadium. But closer Lee Smith gives up an opposite-field homer to former Dodger "hero" Steve Garvey, and the Padres win, 7-5, to tie up the series.

Fans of lots of teams hated Garvey, due to his smugness and, as it turned out, his hypocrisy. But I think Cub fans hate him even more than Philadelphia and Cincinnati fans do. Certainly, they hate him more than Yankee Fans do – and that's a lot.

October 6, 1985: With the Yankees having been eliminated from the AL East race the day before, manager Billy Martin sends 46-year-old knuckleballer Phil Niekro (Joe's brother) out to pitch an otherwise meaningless game at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. He allows only 4 hits, becoming the oldest pitcher ever to pitch a complete-game shutout – top that, Nolan Ryan!

Mike Pagliarulo, Henry Cotto and Don Mattingly hit home runs, and the Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-0 at Exhibition Stadium. Niekro has his 300th career win.

The Yankees will release him after the season, despite his having won 16 games for them at age 45 and again at 46. He will pitch 2 more seasons, with his home-State Cleveland Indians, the Blue Jays, and 1 more game with his original team, the Braves – he is the last active player who had played for the Braves in Milwaukee – reaching 318 wins for his Hall of Fame career.

That makes him 16th on the all-time list, but among pitchers who’d spent most of their careers in the post-1920 Lively Ball Era, only his ex-Brave teammate Warren Spahn, and the still-active Ryan, Steve Carlton and Don Sutton had more wins before him. He has since also been passed by Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux.

With Joe having won 221, the Niekro brothers are the winningest brother combination in MLB history, with 539 wins between them. Phil also struck out 3,342 batters, then 8th all-time and now 11th. In 1973, he pitched the 1st no-hitter in Atlanta history. It took 5 tries before he was finally elected to the Hall of Fame.

The Yankees finish 2 games behind the Jays in the American League Eastern Division, their closest finish to 1st place between 1981 and 1996 (not counting strike-shortened 1994). They win 97 games, the most they won in any season from 1980 to 1998. Yet, with the MLB setup of the time, they do not reach the postseason. 

*

October 6, 1991, 30 years ago: The final Orioles game is played at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Orioles lose to the Tigers, 7-3. Afterward, while the music from Field of Dreams plays, Brooks Robinson, wearing a replica of his 1966 World Series-winning uniform, trots back out to his old position of 3rd base, followed by Frank Robinson into right field, Jim Palmer to the pitcher's mound, and so on. 

Every former Oriole who takes the field does so wearing the uniform of his era, until Cal Ripken goes to shortstop as the last player, and Earl Weaver gives one last lineup card (no doubt with little room on it) to an umpire.

Only one Oriole takes the field wearing the awful orange jersey with the black script from the late 1970s and early 1980s: Don Stanhouse, living up to the nickname he earned as a stereotypically weird relief pitcher: "Stan the Man Unusual."

This ceremony paves the way for many ballpark closing ceremonies since, including the farewell to the old Yankee Stadium (which, neatly, was against the Orioles). 

The Orioles moved into Oriole Park at Camden Yards the following April, and the NFL's Ravens played their 1st 2 seasons (1996-97) at Memorial before moving into their own stadium at Camden Yards. The minor-league Bowie Baysox, normally playing in Bowie, Maryland, halfway between Baltimore and Washington, played a few games at Memorial Stadium.

Built in 1954, it was demolished in 2002, 80 years after the 1st event was played at the original facility at the site, Municipal Stadium, in 1922. Senior citizen housing was built on the site.

The same day that Memorial Stadium hosted its last Major League Baseball game, Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia hosts an interesting and troubled one. With a policeman watching his every move from the Met dugout, and the fear of being arrested at any moment due to rape allegations (which were later proven false), David Cone ties a National League mark for strikeouts as he fans 19 Phillies, en route to a 7-0 victory in the season's finale.

In spite of the charges against him having come to nothing, the Mets let him get away in the off-season, and, except for a brief comeback in 2003, he never pitched for them again. He did, however pitch for another New York team, and far more successfully than he ever did for the Mets.

That 1991 season remains the last one in which the Mets finished with a better attendance than the Yankees.

This was also the last game the Phillies played in their 1970-introduced "P" jerseys, except for later "throwback" games.

October 6, 1993: The Florida Panthers make their NHL debut, at Chicago Stadium. They get goals from their 1st Captain, Brian Skrudland, and also from Andrei Lomakin, Scott Mellanby and Gord Murphy. It's not enough, as they finish in a 4-4 tie with the Chicago Blackhawks.

Also on this day, something happens of greater concern to the usual denizens of Chicago Stadium: Michael Jordan retires from basketball for the 1st time, after 3 straight NBA Championships, at the age of 30. He says he has "lost his desire" for basketball.

The speculation at the time was that he was distraught over the death of his father, James, murdered in North Carolina the previous summer. Jordan would later confirm this. The speculation now is that his gambling debts put him in trouble with organized crime, and NBA Commissioner David Stern, having to punish him but not willing to throw away the greatest meal ticket his league will ever have, asked Jordan to compromise: Step away from the game for a while, in such a way that it looks like your decision, and settle things.

Whatever the truth was, on March 18, 1995, he announced, "I'm back."

October 6, 1995: Game 3 of the ALDS, the 1st postseason game ever played in Seattle. Bernie Williams becomes the 1st player to hit a home run from each side of the plate in a postseason game. But Randy Johnson shuts the Yankees down, and the Seattle Mariners win 7-4, for their 1st-ever postseason victory.

Also played today is Game 3 of the other ALDS. The Cleveland Indians complete a 3-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox, 8-2 at Fenway Park. In the NLDS, the Cincinnati Reds complete a 3-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers, 10-1 at Riverfront Stadium. And the Colorado Rockies win a postseason game for the 1st time, defeating the Braves 7-5 in 10 innings at Coors Field, to stave off elimination.

Also on this day, Braxton Berrios (no middle name) is born in Raleigh, North Carolina. A receiver, he spent his entire rookie season, 2018, on the injured list for the New England Patriots, but still got a Super Bowl LIII ring. The Patriots waived him, and he has been picked up by the Jets.

October 6, 1996, 25 years ago: Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, having twice before teased a wedding between Lois Lane (Teri Hatcher) and Clark Kent, a.k.a. Superman (Dean Cain), airs an episode titled, "Swear to God, This Time, We're Not Kidding." And they keep their promise. The producers said they wouldn't show a live-action wedding between the characters until it happened in the comics, and it finally had, 58 years into the characters' existence.

October 6, 1997: The Yankees lose 4-3 to the Indians at Jacobs Field, in the deciding Game 5 of the AL Division Series. It is a hard end to the Yanks' World Championship defense.

In the top of the 6th, Wade Boggs pinch-hits for Joe Girardi (Jorge Posada also pinch-hits in the inning, and replaces Girardi as catcher), and singles home a run. Boggs then replaces Charlie Hayes at 3rd base (Hayes replaces Rey Sanchez at 2nd base), and singles again in the 8th. But it's too late, as Andy Pettitte had a bad start. This turns out to be Boggs' last appearance with the Yankees.

Also on this day, Johnny Vander Meer dies of an abdominal aneurysm at his home in Tampa. He was a few days short of turning 83. The native of Midland Park, Bergen County, New Jersey was a 4-time All-Star, a member of the 1940 World Champion Cincinnati Reds, and, on June 11 and 15, 1938, the only man ever to pitch back-to-back no-hitters.

October 6, 1999: The Sovereign Bank Arena opens in Trenton, New Jersey. It is later known as the Sun National Bank Center, and is now the CURE Insurance Arena. The 8,600-seat arena was home to minor league hockey's Trenton Titans from 1999 to 2013, and has hosted high school and college basketball, professional "wrestling" and concerts.

In 2016, along with my mother and my 8-year-old twin nieces, I saw the Harlem Globetrotters there. Mom and I had previously seen the Globies at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands in 1985 and 1986. Contrary to my previous belief, she says she did not see them with her parents at the old Madison Square Garden in the 1950s.

*

October 6, 2000: The Minnesota Wild make their NHL debut, at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Marian Gaborik scores their 1st goal, but they lose 3-1 to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

October 6, 2001, 20 years ago: Another farewell in Baltimore. At Camden Yards, in front of a full house including Orioles notables both Robinsons, Palmer and Weaver, as well as Commissioner Bud Selig and former President Bill Clinton, Cal Ripken plays his 3,001st and final game. The Orioles retire his Number 8. After a hitless night for the 41-year-old, the final out of the 5-1 loss to Red Sox is made as Cal watches from the on deck circle.

In Seattle, with their 116th win, the Mariners tie the 1906 Cubs as the winningest team in major league history. Bret Boone's 37th home run of the season and the shutout pitching of 5 Seattle pitchers prove to be the difference in the 1-0 historic win over the Texas Rangers. Appropriately enough, the last out is the player who spurned the M's to sign the biggest contract in sports history to that point: Alex Rodriguez.

All season long, M's fans were sure they were going to win the 1st World Series in franchise history. But the Yankees will prove to the M's that 116 don’t mean a thing if you ain't got that ring. Twenty years later, they have never even made the Playoffs again.

At Shea Stadium, with his 151st career pinch hit, Lenny Harris breaks the major league mark established by Manny Mota. Coming off the Met bench to bat for Rey Ordonez, he lines a 1-2 pitch off Expo starter Carl Pavano for a single to become the career leader in pinch hits.

At San Diego, I mean Jack Murphy, I mean Qualcomm Stadium, the San Diego Padres beat the Colorado Rockies 10-4. The Padres' Tony Gwynn doubles off Gabe White. It is the 3,141st and last hit of his career. His career batting average of .338 is the 2nd-highest of any player to play since 1950, behind Ted Williams' .344.

October 6, 2003: Game 5 of the ALDS. The Red Sox beat the A's 5-4, and complete the overcoming of a 2-games-to-none deficit to win. They will face the Yankees in the ALCS.

Also on this day, the Toyota Center opens in downtown Houston. The 1st event is a concert by Fleetwood Mac. The NBA's Houston Rockets have played there ever since. It would also be home to the WNBA's Houston Comets until 2007, and the American Hockey League's Houston Aeros until 2013, until those teams folded.

October 6, 2006: The Yankees lose to the Tigers, 6-0 at Comerica Park, and fall behind 2 games to 1 in the ALDS. This was one of the most ghastly postseason displays in Yankee history: After winning Game 1, they not only lost 3 straight, but had a run of 22 consecutive scoreless innings. Bernie Williams went 0-for-3 in this game, was benched by Joe Torre for Game 4, and never appeared in another major league game.

Also on this day, after failing to advance past the 1st round of the AL Playoffs in their previous 5 postseason appearances, the Oakland Athletics beat the much-favored Minnesota Twins, 8-3, to complete a 3-game ALDS sweep. The victory, which was the team's 10th opportunity to win a clinching game, puts Oakland in ALCS for the 1st time since 1992.

This remains the only postseason series ever won by a team with Billy Beane as its general manager. He's been the A's GM for 20 seasons, and has never won a Pennant -- indeed, has never won an ALCS game. Explain to me again how Beane is a "genius"?

Also on this day, Negro Leagues legend John "Buck" O'Neil dies at age 94. A few weeks earlier, the star 1st baseman and manager of the old Kansas City Monarchs had suited up for an "independent" minor-league game in Kansas City, Kansas, becoming the oldest pro baseball player ever. (His former Monarch teammate, Satchel Paige, remains the oldest major league player, at 59.) He drew a walk, made it to 1st base, and was removed for a pinch-runner.

By appearing in Ken Burns' 1994 Baseball miniseries, and by founding the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, Buck had essentially been the voice of the Negro Leagues since then, and was among the most beloved men in the game. Yet he still hasn't been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

October 6, 2007: Game 3 of the NLDS. With their 17th win in 18 games, the Rockies beat the Phillies at Coors Field, 2-1, completing a 3-game sweep to advance to their 1st-ever NLCS. The Wild Card team will have to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, the NL Western Division Champions, to win the Pennant and earn a trip to the World Series.

Among all the disappointments in Phillies history, this one is usually given a pass. The Phils had come from 7 games back with 17 to go, and even entered the last day of the regular season not even assured of a Wild Card berth, but won the NL East. It was a thrilling season that marked the beginning of the greatest period in club history.

October 6, 2009: With 1 out in the bottom of the 12th inning in the AL Central tiebreaker, the Twins beat the Tigers, 6-5, when Alexi Casilla's single plates Carlos Gomez from 2nd base with the winning run.

The Metrodome victory finishes an amazing comeback by Minnesota, going 17-4 in the final month to close a 7-game deficit, and completes a colossal collapse for the Tigers, who become the 1st team in big league history to surrender a 3-game lead with only 4 contests to play. This, just 3 years after the Tigers blew a 15 1/2-game AL Central lead over the Twins, the biggest Division (or pre-1969 League) choke ever.

Of course, the Tigers won the Wild Card and ended up beating the A's, who'd beaten the Twins, for the Pennant. And, while they won the Pennant in 2006 and 2012, they've won just 1 World Series game in 30 years. They've made the Playoffs 4 straight seasons (2011-14), but have won just 1 World Series game sinc

Some people have taken to calling the post-2000 Yankees "the Atlanta Braves of the American League." Maybe they should take a closer look at the Tigers.

The result of this game -- which, for statistical purposes, is still counted as part of the regular season -- also mean that Twins catcher Joe Mauer wins his 3rd batting title, becoming the 1st player to accomplish the feat in consecutive seasons since Nomar Garciaparra lead the AL in 1999-2000. His .365 mark establishes a major league record for the highest batting average by a backstop.

*

October 6, 2010: At Citizens Bank Park, Phillies right-hander Roy Halladay throws the 2nd no-hitter in postseason history, and becomes the 1st NL hurler to do it, when he beats the Reds, 4-0, in Game 1 of the NLDS. He had also thrown a no-hitter in this year's regular season.

October 6, 2011, 10 years ago: Game 5 of the American League Division Series. The winner takes the series. The paid attendance of 50,960 fans remains the highest in the history of the new Yankee Stadium. They go home disappointed.

In the top of the 1st inning, before the Yankees can even come to bat, Detroit Tigers Don Kelly and Delmon Young hit home runs off Ivan Nova. Nova should never have been started, due to tightness in his arm, and left after the 2nd inning, trailing 2-0. I remember being furious with Girardi for taking him out so soon, not knowing of his injury.

What I should have been mad at Girardi for was his typical musical chairs with the bullpen. He brought in Phil Hughes, who had pitched the 8th inning in Game 4, 2 days earlier. He was okay, but Girardi took him out in the 4th, and brought in Boone Logan. As risky as this was, Logan ended the threat. Then Girardi brought CC Sabathia in for the 5th, and he didn't have it, and allowed another run.

Despite Robinson Cano hitting a home run in the bottom of the 5th, and Rafael Soriano, David Robertson and Mariano Rivera pitching 3 2/3rds perfect innings, the Yankees lose, 3-2, and their season is over.

Jorge Posada went 2-for-4 as the designated hitter, including a single off Doug Fister in the 4th, a single off Max Scherzer in the 6th, and a groundout against Joaquin Benoit in the 8th. This turned out to be his last game. No one could have guessed it at the time, but it was also the final postseason appearance for Rivera.

October 6, 2012: The 1st-ever win-or-go-home Wild Card Games are played in each League. In the AL, the Orioles eliminate the 2-time defending League Champion Texas Rangers, 5-1. The victory sends the surprising Baltimore team into the Playoffs for the 1st time in 15 years, to a best-3-out-of-5 ALDS against the Yankees.

But the NL play-in game is a riot -- almost literally. The visiting Cardinals beat the Braves 6-3, in a game that will be best remembered for a disputed infield fly rule call in the 8th inning. The irate Turner Field fans show their displeasure with the umpires' decision on what appears to be a key Redbird error on a dropped pop fly in the outfield by littering the playing field with debris, causing a 19-minute delay while the ground crew cleans up the assorted trash.

It is the 1st such reaction by baseball fans since Red Sox fans hurled garbage onto the field during Game 4 of the 1999 ALCS, when the Yankees, aided by some umpiring mistakes, turned a 3-2 9th inning lead into a 9-2 win.

October 6, 2015: The American League Wild-Card Game is played at the new Yankee Stadium. The Yankees had home-field advantage, and they had Masahiro Tanaka on the mound. Unfortunately, they didn't have any offense at all.

You can credit Dallas Keuchel, who rightly won the AL's Cy Young Award, and a good case could have been made for him as the Most Valuable Player, for pitching very well. But with what general manager Brian Cashman spent on the Yankees, they should have gotten more than 5 baserunners: Singles by Carlos Beltran, Greg Bird and Didi Gregorius, and walks by Chris Young and Chase Headley.

The Houston Astros, in their 1st AL Playoff game after 53 as an NL team (57 if you count their only World Series), won 3-0. Colby Rasmus hit a home run in the 2nd inning, and Carlos Gomez hit one in the 4th. After that, the Yankees never looked like winning.

This was unacceptable. And yet, the Steinbrenner Brothers did not hold either Cashman or manager Joe Girardi accountable. It took them 2 more years to hold Girardi accountable. Cashman is still there.

October 6, 2017: The Vegas Golden Knights play their 1st regular-season game, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. They defeat the Dallas Stars 2-1.

October 6, 2018: The New York Yankees, New Jersey Devils and New York Red Bulls all won on the same day. That hadn't happened since April 20, 2013. Nearly 5 1/2 years.

Then: The Yankees went to Toronto, and beat the Blue Jays 5-3 in 11 innings; the Red Bulls beat the New England Revolution 4-1 at home; and the Devils host the San Jose Sharks and beat them 6-2. 

Now: The Yankees go to Boston and beat the Red Sox 6-2, in Game 2 of the ALDS at Fenway Park the Red Bulls go to the San Francisco Bay Area, and beat the San Jose Earthquakes 3-1; and the Devils open their season in Gothenburg, Sweden and beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-2.

The Yankees tie up their ALDS with the Sox largely because Gary Sanchez hits 2 home runs. The Yankees need 2 more wins to eliminate the Sox. But they will not win another game that counts until March 28, 2019.