Corporate Competition

I hate corporate names on sports venues. The only one I've ever liked was the one that was on the ballpark of the minor-league Trenton Thunder from 2012 to 2021: Arm & Hammer Park. If you're going to have a company's name on a ballpark, it should be one that suggests strong pitching and heavy hitting.

It led me to ask: Has there ever been a finals in any of the "Big Four" major league sports in North America whose venues' naming rights were owned by companies in direct competition with each other?

It's never happened in the World Series. It came close this time: The Arizona Diamondbacks play at Chase Field, named for a bank; while the Texas Rangers play at Globe Life Field, named for an insurance company. It's never happened in the Super Bowl. And it's never happened in the Stanley Cup Finals.

But in the NBA, it has. In 1997, and again in 1998, the Chicago Bulls, of the United Center, beat the Utah Jazz, of the Delta Center -- both arenas named for airlines. And I had completely forgotten about this: In 2006, and again in 2011, the Finals was between the Miami Heat, whose arena was then named the American Airlines Arena; and the Dallas Mavericks, whose arena was then, and still is, named the American Airlines Center. The Heat's arena is now named the Kaseya Center: Kaseya is a software company.

If only corporations competed with each other for customers, and their customers' rights, as well as sports teams do.

Matthew Perry, 1969-2023

Friends premiered on September 22, 1994, when I was 24 years old, approaching 25. It was the 1st TV show that treated my generation as adults, however immature. So to know that the 1st of the main cast to die has gone is a shocking thing... this weekend.

The characters were all roughly the same age, around my age: Monica, who claimed to be 26 late in the show's 1st season and 27 early in the 2nd, and Rachel were best friends growing up on Long Island, making them 2 years older than I was; Ross, Monica's brother, was 2 years older; Ross and Chandler were college roommates; and Joey and Phoebe were around that age, too.

In actual order of age, the 6 main actors were:

* Lisa Kudrow, born July 30, 1963 in Los Angeles. She played Phoebe Buffay, whose unconventional childhood ended at age 14, when the woman she believed was her mother killed herself, and she lived on the street for a while, until she met Monica, and they became friends, and Phoebe became a licensed massage therapist.

* Courteney Cox, born June 15, 1964 in Birmingham, Alabama. She played Monica Geller, a highly competitive chef and neat freak from Long Island, who lived in her grandmother's old (and thus rent-controlled, explaining how she could afford it) apartment in New York City's Greenwich Village.

* David Schwimmer, born November 2, 1966 in Flushing, Queens, the only one who ever actually lived in New York while growing up, but the family moved to the Los Angeles suburb of Beverly Hills, California when he was a boy. He played Ross Geller, Monica's older brother, a nerdy anthropologist. In the pilot episode, we find out that his wife has left him, having fallen in love with a woman. In the 2nd episode, we find out that his wife is pregnant, and their son Ben is born near the end of Season 1.

* Matt LeBlanc, born July 25, 1967 in the Boston suburb of Newton, Massachusetts. He played Joey Tribbiani, a womanizer and an aspiring actor. Joey wasn't always dumb: He seems surprisingly insightful in the series' pilot. Unfortunately, as with the other characters, he went on to become more and more of a parody of himself: By Season 5 -- and it went 10 seasons, probably more through inertia than anything else -- the show seemed like a 7-minute Saturday Night Live sketch that now ran 22 minutes (30 minus commercials).

* Jennifer Aniston, born February 11, 1969 in Los Angeles, daughter of actors John Aniston and Nancy Dow. She played Rachel Green, a spoiled Jewish-American Princess (JAP) who left her would-be husband at the altar, and was cut off by her father when she decided to forge her own life, rooming with once-and-again best friend Monica. She became a waitress at the gang's favorite hangout, a coffee bar named Central Perk, and eventually achieved her dream of becoming an executive in the fashion industry.

* Matthew Langford Perry, born August 19, 1969 in Williamstown, in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts, but grew up in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Ontario. He played Chandler Bing, a neurotic child of divorced parents, who used humor as a defense mechanism, and had an office job that was hard to define. He also had an odd way of speaking: "Could that report be any later?" "The hills are alive with the sound... of music!"

Left to right: Perry, Aniston, Schwimmer, Cox, LeBlanc, Kudrow

Yesterday, Perry was found dead in the hot tub of his home in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles. He was 54 years old -- 4 months older than me.

One of the six had to be the first to go. Accidents and sudden illnesses happen, so it wouldn't have been out of the ordinary for that to have happened sooner. And, given his admission of past substance abuse, I'm not surprised that he's the first. But it's still a shock, especially how.

Richard Moll, who played the enormous bailiff Bull Shannon on Night Court, died earlier in the day. He was 80. Now, most of the actors of that show are gone. Someone online pointed out how 1980s sitcom stars are dying. I told him to compare it to the beloved sitcoms of earlier generations, and he'd see that, at roughly the same point in their histories, those shows lost people at around the same rate.

Now, 54 is not a kid. It's not like there was some tragic accident while the show was still on the air. But it's not 80, either. At least he got to publish his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing; and to open Perry House, a rehab center in his former mansion in Malibu, California.

He got to write his life's next chapter. Sadly, it turned out to be its final chapter.

October 28, 1963: The Demolition of the Old Penn Station

October 28, 1963, 60 years ago: Demolition begins on the original Pennsylvania Station, built in 1910 between 31st and 33rd Streets, and 7th and 8th Avenues in Midtown Manhattan. Since most of the station's operations were underground, there wasn't much disruption of service.

By this point, the most beloved train station in America didn't look so good. That photo above is not colorized: The marble had been stained by over half a century of pollution. And with the decline in train travel compared to the rise of driving and flying, a train station this grand was no longer necessary. The successor station would be utilitarian at best -- and a commuter's nightmare at worse.

When the Pennsylvania Plaza complex opened in 1968, including the new Madison Square Garden above it, Penn Station had become completely subterranean, and it went from being one of the most beloved transit centers in America to one of the most hated.

But the original station's destruction spurred the landmark preservation movement in New York City, which helped to save Grand Central Terminal in the 1970s, Carnegie Hall in the 1980s, and so many other great buildings. Still, not every great building was saved: Once Lincoln Center opened, the original Metropolitan Opera House was demolished in 1967, and a boxy skyscraper was put up in its place.

The Curse of Kevin Mitchell: Now 37 Years

No, I won't stop posting this every year on the anniversary. Why should I? 

October 27, 1986: The New York Mets win the World Series. I was not happy about this.

They have not done so since. I am very happy about that.

After Game 7 was pushed back a day by rain, the Boston Red Sox actually seem to be shaking off the historical, hysterical Game 6 loss. They lead the Mets, 3-0 in the bottom of the 6th inning. Bruce Hurst, with an extra day's rest, is doing just fine. The Sox have chased Ron Darling. Sid Fernandez has relieved him. The Sox are just 12 outs away from their 1st World Championship in 68 years after all.

Can they hold it? These are the pre-steroid Boston Red Sox, what do you think? The Mets tie it up in the 6th. The idiot manager John McNamara brings in Calvin Schiraldi, who choked in the 10th the night before, to pitch the 7th, and Ray Knight leads off with a home run.  he Mets make it 6-3 by the inning's end.

The Sox make it 6-5 in the top of the 8th, so there's still hope, but then Al Nipper serves one up to Darryl Strawberry, and he hits one out, and takes a leisurely stroll around the bases, allowing NBC to run about a dozen commercials.

The Mets let reliever Jesse Orosco bat for himself, and he drives in another run, and he gets the last out by striking out Marty Barrett. Mets 8, Red Sox 5. Orosco hurls his glove high into the Flushing air.

The Mets won their 1st World Championship on October 16, 1969. It took them 17 years and 11 days, but they had now won their 2nd World Championship.

Anyone then thinking that they wouldn't win their 3rd World Championship for at least another 37 years would have been asked what he was smoking.

*

But, tonight, exactly 37 years later, more than one-third of a century, the Mets are still looking for that 3rd World Championship. They've won just 2 more Pennants and just 2 more World Series games since that night -- 1 in 2000, and 1 in 2015. To make matters worse, following the 1st of those Pennants, they went on to lose to the Yankees in the World Series, 1 of 5 the Yankees have won since 1986.

Indeed, since October 27, 1986, the Mets have reached the Playoffs 7 times, not a bad total at all. But the Yankees have done it 22 times, including 7 Pennants and 5 World Championships. As late as 1992, before the Yankees started contending again, it could be argued that the Mets were the top baseball team in New York. It has never been true again -- it wasn't even true in 2015.

World Series wins since 1986? The Yankees 5, the Boston Red Sox 4, the San Francisco Giants 3; 2 each for the Minnesota Twins, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Florida (now Miami) Marlins, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros; and 1 each for the Oakland Athletics, the Cincinnati Reds, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Anaheim (now named Los Angeles, through they're still in Anaheim) Angels, the Chicago White Sox, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Kansas City Royals, the Chicago Cubs and the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals.

This gets even more embarrassing when you look at some of the droughts that ended: The Cubs 108 years without a World Championship, the White Sox 88, the Red Sox 86, the Twins 63 (they had never won since moving from being the Washington Senators), the Giants 56 (they had never won since moving from New York to San Francisco), the Astros 56 (their 1st ever), the Expos/Nats 51 (their 1st ever), the Angels 42 (their 1st ever), the Dodgers 32, the Royals 30, the Braves 28 (they had never won since moving from Milwaukee to Atlanta), the Phillies 28.

Also, the last time the Mets won a World Series, these teams did not yet exist: The Marlins, the Rays, the Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies. The Marlins and Rays have matched the Mets with 2 Pennants, the D-backs and Rox 1 each.

And I'll bring up the Yankees again: They've won as many World Series since the Mets' last title as the Mets have won Pennants in their entire history. So the old "How many were you alive for?" argument doesn't work.

On the other hand, if a Mets fan followed my path (aside from choosing the Yankees, of course), and watched his 1st game on television at age 7, and that was in 1987, that would mean we now have Met fans in their mid-40s who cannot remember their team winning the World Series. It would be like me with the pre-renovation Yankee Stadium, the Yankees playing at Shea, the Chris Chambliss home run, and the Mets' Pennant of 1973: They would know it happened within their lifetime, but not within their memory.

Or, to put it another way: The youngest player on the '86 Mets was John Mitchell, a pitcher who appeared in 4 games that season, and he's 58 years old, a year younger than Dwight Gooden, who turns 59 next month. The oldest? George Foster, now 74. (He was gone by the time the reached the postseason. The oldest player on the postseason roster was Ray Knight, who is about to turn 71.)

Gary Carter is dead. That's as much of a shock as the fact that Gooden, Darryl Strawberry and Lenny Dykstra are still alive, after all they've done to themselves (and others). Darryl and Doc, at least, seem to be repentant. "Nails" -- or "Dude," as he's known to his teammates on another bunch of ne'er-do-wells, the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies -- is not.

Looking at the clips from 1986, they're in color, and they look like they could have happened yesterday. The world has changed so much since. We've had retrospectives like Jeff Pearlman's book The Bad Guys Won! ESPN has done 2 30 for 30 documentaries on the 1980s Mets: Doc & Darryl in 2016, and Once Upon a Time in Queens in 2021.

What the hell happened? Well, when something goes wrong, people like to look for scapegoats. Someone frustrated with the Red Sox' inability to win a World Series since 1918 thought he found a reason: They hadn't won since they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919, and the phrase "The Curse of the Bambino" was born. The phrase was popularized by Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy, and became the title of his 1990 book about the history of that franchise.

*

December 11, 1986, a date which lives in Flushing infamy: The Mets sent Kevin Mitchell, Shawn Abner, Stan Jefferson, Kevin Armstrong and Kevin Brown (no, not that Kevin Brown, though he did also pitch for the Padres later) to Mitchell's hometown, San Diego, for Kevin McReynolds, Gene Walter and Adam Ging. Forget everyone else, if you hadn't already: The keys to this trade were Mitchell and McReynolds.

McReynolds was a good player, but he was not a member of the glorious '86 team that went all the way. When the Mets didn't go all the way again, he became a scapegoat, and got the hell booed out of him. Fair? Of course not.

But it wouldn't have mattered so much if Mitchell hadn't panned out. And, as far as his hometown Padres were concerned, he didn't: On July 5, 1987, not even at the All-Star Break of his 1st season with them, he was batting just .245 in 62 games, so they sent him, and pitchers Dave Dravecky and Craig Lefferts, up the coast to the San Francisco Giants, getting back 3rd baseman Chris Brown, reliever Mark Davis (both of whom became All-Stars but never helped the team into the Playoffs) and 2 guys you don't need to remember. So Mitchell-for-McReynolds didn't help the Mets or the Padres.

These two Mitchell trades, however, helped the Giants tremendously. Before the trade, they had been in San Francisco for 29 years and had reached the postseason exactly twice, the last time, 16 years earlier. In 1987, the Giants won the NL West, as Mitchell responded to the change of scenery by hitting .306 with 15 homers and 44 RBIs in just 69 games for them.

In 1988, Mitchell tailed off a little, and the Giants tailed off a lot. But in 1989, he hit 47 home runs, had 125 RBIs, put up a sick OPS+ of 192, and made one of the great catches of all time, a running barehanded catch in St. Louis -- off the bat of defensive "Wizard" Ozzie Smith, no less -- that almost sent him barreling into the stands. Not since the salad days of Willie Mays had the Giants seen that kind of outfield defense.

He won the NL's Most Valuable Player award, and helped the Giants win only their 2nd Pennant in 35 years, while the Mets finished 2nd in the NL East for the 5th of 6 times in a span of 8 years – the others being the '86 crown and the '88 Division title. (Funny, but nobody ever talks about how bad trading Mitchell away was for the Padres.)

Problems with his weight and other disciplinary issues led to Mitchell being traded several times. But he did help the Cincinnati Reds into 1st place in the NL Central Division when the Strike of '94 hit, and still had an OPS+ of 138 as late as 1996.

But he played his last big-league game in 1998 at age 36, and after bouncing around the independent minors, including stints in New Jersey with the Newark Bears and the Atlantic City Surf, he called it a career. Sort of: He went back to his native San Diego, playing in an "adult baseball league" (no, no porn stars involved – that I know of), and won a title with his team in 2009.

At 61, he is now an instructor for youth baseball teams, and recently recovered from a nasty neck injury that put him in the hospital for a month. By the time he returned to Shea for the celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the title in the Summer of 2016, he was walking on his own again, and hoping to go back to his passion for motorcycles. He belongs to a motorcycle club (not a "biker gang" -- he calls it "Just a bunch of old guys having fun") called the Hood Beasts. 

Mitchell in 2016, at the title team's

30th Anniversary reunion at Citi Field

Mitchell had an adolescence connected to gangs in San Diego. He has been arrested for assault twice since his last major league game, although on neither occasion did the case go to trial. He was once listed as a tax delinquent to the tune of over $5 million. And then there's the shocking story that Dwight Gooden told, in his first memoir, of an act of animal cruelty -- a story which Doc, in a later memoir, admitted that he made up, and Mitchell has called "wildly untrue."

It seems silly to suggest that he was angry about being traded by the Mets so soon after winning the Series, certainly not so angry that he would place a "curse" on them. After all, he went to his hometown, the team he grew up rooting for. They soon traded him, but that worked out really well for him. Perhaps not in terms of team success, but, in terms of fame and fortune, getting away from the Mets was the best thing that could have happened to him.

Still, the fact remains that the Mets won a World Series, and were expected to win more; then, just 45 days after they won said Series, they traded Mitchell away, and they haven't won one since.

Are the Mets cursed? Or have they just been hit with a 3-decade-long combination of good competition and their own incompetence -- on the field, in the dugout, and in the boardroom?

Other teams have waited longer. Some, a lot longer. Some of those teams have had bizarre moments and crashes-and-burns that suggest being cursed. Some haven't, and have just... not... gotten it done.

The Mets?

* Post-season chokes in 1988, 1999, 2006, 2015, 2016 and 2022.

* Regular-season chokes in 1998, 2007 and 2008. 2021 should also count: They were in 1st place for over 100 days, and ended the season with a losing record.

* Near-misses for the Playoffs, that can't really be called "chokes," in 1987, 1989, 1990, 2001, 2019, and, in this COVID-19-forced expanded-playoffs season, 2020.

* Injury-riddled seasons, aside from those, in 1995, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2017. (Certainly, 2016 and 2020 qualify.)

* The Madoffization of the Wilpons' finances in 2008.

* And losses to teams they considered rivals in 1987 (Cardinals), 1989 (Cubs), 1998 and 1999 (Braves), 2000 (Yankees), 2006 (Cardinals again), and 2007 and 2008 (Phillies both times). Depending on how you want to definie it, that's at least 15, and possibly as many as 25, out of 37 seasons with possible "Curse Material."

And they can't even blame the Wilpons and their insufficient spending anymore: Steve Cohen has spent more than the Steinbrenners ever have, and it hasn't worked.

The Curse of Kevin Mitchell? Do you believe?

Met fans like to use the old line of 1965-74 relief pitcher Tug McGraw: YA GOTTA BELIEVE!

I'd rather believe in the curse on the Mets than believe in the Mets themselves.

Postscript: After the Mets' disaster in Game 2 of the 2015 World Series, I wrote on Facebook, "On October 27, 2036, when (God willing, I'll still be around for it) I do my 50th Anniversary blog post for the Curse of Kevin Mitchell, you can bet a World Series share that this game will be mentioned."

Just 13 years to go.

Waiting for Pennant 41

The New York Yankees have won the American League Pennant 40 times. This season was not one of them. In fact, none of the last 14 seasons has been one of them.

Some observations about Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, in which the Texas Rangers pounded their cross-State rivals, the Houston Astros, 11-4 at Minute Maid Park in Houston:

Glad to see the Chicken Fried Cheats get their keisters handed to them at home.

Anybody who calls the new Yankee Stadium "a little league ballpark" had better watch a game at Minute Maid Park, where, as John Sterling once put it, "the balls are juiced." (Charley Steiner responded, "That's pulp fiction.")

I didn't recognize Aroldis Chapman with a beard. But he's about to pitch in the World Series for a 2nd different team -- neither of which has been the Yankees.

The Yankees had Nathan Eovaldi and Jordan Montgomery, and Cashman let both of them go, and they're both helping the Rangers win the Pennant. Then again, the Mets had Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, and let both of them go, and each was on one of the teams in this series.

Finally, the point was made by the Fox Sports announcers that 2024 will be the last year of Jose Altuve's contract with the Astros. Can you imagine Hal Steinbrenner opening the vault, telling Cashman, "Here's the money, give him whatever he wants?" How would Yankee Fans react to seeing that cheater in Pinstripes? And would all the people now excusing his cheating rip him for it -- even though he hadn't done any for the Yankees (yet)?

At any rate, the Rangers have Pennant 3, while the Arizona Diamondbacks have Pennant 2. As for the Yankees, Pennant 41 still has to wait. 

Major League Baseball Pennants, 1871 to 2023

The 2023 World Series will be played between the Texas Rangers, the team from the Dallas metropolitan area, who have won their 3rd American League Pennant, and are still seeking their 1st World Series win, in their 52nd season of play; and the Arizona Diamondbacks, of Phoenix, who have won their 2nd National League Pennant, and are seeking to win the World Series again, as they did in 2001.

Ties broken by most recent. Pennants won by the franchise in another city/metropolitan area are not counted. Former teams in italics, and listed where they would rank if they still existed in that form.

1. New York Yankees, 40: 1921, 1922, 1923, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2009.

2. St. Louis Cardinals, 23: 1885, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1926, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1934, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1982, 1985, 1987, 2004, 2006, 2011, 2013.

3. Chicago Cubs, 17: 1876, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1885, 1886, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1910, 1918, 1929, 1932, 1935, 1938, 1945, 2016.

--. New York Giants, 17: 1888, 1889, 1904, 1905, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1917, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1933, 1936, 1937, 1951, 1954.

4. Boston Red Sox, 14: 1903, 1904, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1946, 1967, 1975, 1986, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2018.

--. Boston Braves, 14: 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1877, 1878, 1883, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1897, 1898, 1914, 1948.

--. Brooklyn Dodgers, 13: 1889, 1890, 1899, 1900, 1916, 1920, 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956.

5. Los Angeles Dodgers, 12: 1959, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1988, 2017, 2018, 2020. (Dodgers total: 25.)

6. Detroit Tigers, 11: 1907, 1908, 1909, 1934, 1935, 1940, 1945, 1968, 1984, 2006, 2012.

7. Cincinnati Reds, 10: 1882, 1919, 1939, 1940, 1961, 1970, 1972, 1975, 1976, 1990.

8. Pittsburgh Pirates, 9: 1901, 1902, 1903, 1909, 1925, 1927, 1960, 1971, 1979.

--. Philadelphia Athletics (1901 version), 9: 1902, 1905, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1929, 1930, 1931.

9. Philadelphia Phillies, 8: 1915, 1950, 1980, 1983, 1993, 2008, 2009, 2022.

10. Atlanta Braves, 6: 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2021. (Braves total: 22.)

11. Cleveland Guardians, 6: 1920, 1948, 1954, 1995, 1997, 2016.

12. San Francisco Giants, 6: 1962, 1989, 2002, 2010, 2012, 2014. (Giants total: 23.)

13. Chicago White Sox, 6: 1901, 1906, 1917, 1919, 1959, 2005. 

14. Oakland Athletics, 6: 1972, 1973, 1974, 1988, 1989, 1990.  (A's total: 15.)

15. Baltimore Orioles (1954 version), 6: 1966, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1979, 1983. (Browns/O's total: 7.)

16. Houston Astros, 5: 2005, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022.

17. New York Mets, 5: 1969, 1973, 1986, 2000, 2015.

18. Kansas City Royals, 4: 1980, 1985, 2014, 2015.

19. Texas Rangers, 3: 2010, 2011, 2023.

20. Minnesota Twins, 3: 1965, 1987, 1991. (Senators/Twins total: 6.)

--. Washington Senators, 3: 1924, 1925, 1933.

--. Baltimore Orioles (1882 version), 3: 1894, 1895, 1896.

21. Arizona Diamondbacks, 2: 2001, 2023.

22. Tampa Bay Rays, 2: 2008, 2020.

23. Miami Marlins, 2: 1997, 2003.

24. San Diego Padres, 2: 1984, 1998.

25. Toronto Blue Jays, 2: 1992, 1993.

--. Milwaukee Braves, 2: 1957, 1958.

--. Boston Reds, 2: 1890, 1891.

--. Providence Grays, 2: 1879, 1884.

26. Washington Nationals, 1: 2019.

27. Colorado Rockies, 1: 2007.

28. Los Angeles Angels, 1: 2002.

29. Milwaukee Brewers, 1: 1982.

--. St. Louis Browns, 1: 1944.

--. Chicago Whales, 1: 1915.

--. Indianapolis Hoosiers, 1: 1914.

--. Louisville Colonels, 1: 1890.

--. Detroit Wolverines, 1: 1887.

--. New York Metropolitans (1882 version), 1: 1884.

--. St. Louis Maroons, 1: 1884.

--. Philadelphia Athletics (1882 version), 1: 1883.

--. Philadelphia Athletics (1871 version), 1: 1871.

30. Seattle Mariners, none.

*

By City/Metropolitan Area:

1. New York, 76.

2. Boston, 30.

3. St. Louis, 25.

4. Chicago, 24.

5. Philadelphia, 19.

6. Los Angeles, 13.

7. San Francisco Bay Area, 12.

8. Detroit, 12.

9. Cincinnati, 10.

10. Baltimore, 9.

11. Pittsburgh, 9.

12. Atlanta, 6.

13. Cleveland, 6.

14. Houston, 5.

15. Washington, 4.

16. Kansas City, 4.

17. Dallas, 3.

18. Minneapolis, 3.

19. Phoenix, 2.

20. Tampa Bay, 2.

21. Miami, 2.

22. San Diego, 2.

23. Toronto, 2.

24. Milwaukee, 3.

25. Providence, 2.

26. Denver, 1.

27. Indianapolis, 1.

28. Louisville, 1.

29. Seattle, none.

*

By State:

1. New York, 76.

2. Massachusetts, 30.

3. Missouri, 29.

4. Pennsylvania, 28.

5. California, 27.

6. Illinois, 24.

7. Ohio, 16.

8. Michigan, 12.

9. Maryland, 9.

10. Texas, 8.

11. Georgia, 6.

12. Florida, 4.

13. District of Columbia, 4.

14. Minnesota, 3.

15. Wisconsin, 3.

16. Arizona, 2.

--. Ontario, 2.

17. Rhode Island, 2.

18. Colorado, 1.

19. Indiana, 1.

20. Kentucky, 1.

21. Washington, none.

LeBron James Needs to Quit... As Coach and GM

The NBA begins its 78th season tonight. It will be the 21st season for LeBron James. He will open the season with its 1st regular-season game, as his Los Angeles Lakers travel to play the defending Champions, the team that knocked the Lakers out of last season's Playoffs, the Denver Nuggets.

In the game in which the Lakers bowed out of the 2023 Playoffs, James, age 38, played 47 minutes and 56 seconds out of the available 48 minutes. That sounds like another piece of evidence of the greatness of LeBron James the player.

It is not. There are other things that can do that. It is an indictment of LeBron James the head coach and the general manager.

And let's not kid ourselves: Regardless of Darvin Ham and Rob Pelinka holding the actual positions, LeBron James is the head coach and the general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers. He led this team, and he put it together.

He is no more qualified to do either job than was Michael Jordan, than was Magic Johnson, than was Larry Bird, than was Willie Reed, than was Bill Russell, than was Bob Cousy. Those men won nothing without themselves on the court. (Cousy, the first of these, infamously made his team even worse in his brief comeback with the 1969-70 Cincinnati Royals.) Yes, I put Jordan in the past tense, because the Charlotte Hornets ain't never gonna do nothin' with him in charge. These men couldn't coach, and they couldn't build teams.

You might think that Jerry West is the exception. As a GM, he was, the 2nd-greatest in the history of the sport behind Red Auerbach. But not as a head coach, where he did a lousy job. Among coaches, the exception is Bill Sharman, one of Auerbach's early Celtic stars, who coached West to his only title as a player in 1972.

But even that was more than half a century ago. Both the job of an NBA head coach and the job of an NBA GM have changed tremendously since then. Magic's brief tenure as coach of the Lakers was in 1994. Bird was last coach in 2000, and last a GM in 2017, in both cases not with the team for whom he played, the Boston Celtics, but with his home-State team, the Indiana Pacers. And he may have left the front office because he realized how much the game had changed, and rendered the business of basketball that he once understood obsolete.

Note my choice of words: The way the game is played hasn't changed that much, but the business of it has, a lot.

Let this be a lesson to Steph Curry, in case he's thinking about trying it. Before Curry, Sharman and West were the 2 greatest shooters in NBA history. I'm not including Wilt Chamberlain in this discussion: He had just 1 season as a coach, and it was in the ABA, and he did get them into the Playoffs. Then he lost interest in coaching, and quit. So we don't have a reliable sample on him.

The best head coaches have included mediocre players, like Auerbach, Jack Ramsay, Pat Riley, Chuck Daly, Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich and Larry Brown; and even some very good ones, like Red Holzman, Tom Heinsohn, Lenny Wilkens, K.C. Jones, Rudy Tomjanovich and Steve Kerr. But not great players.

LeBron has proven, thus far, to not be an exception. And he is smart enough to figure that out. But his stubbornness, which has served him so well as a player, may be blinding him to this essential truth.

LeBron has changed the sport in many ways. He has made the NBA the ultimate players' league: The players there have much more power than in MLB, and exponentially more than in the NFL and the NHL, where the players' unions have been tamed by the team owners.

But, like Magic and Jordan before him, LeBron wants to be the team owner. That isn't going to happen as long as Jeanie Buss and her family own the Lakers. LeBron can be said to be, as West and Magic were before him, the operator of the Lakers, which might be better: It's not his own money he has to put up.

But he's not the right choice. He knows basketball. What he doesn't seem to know -- it was Dwyane Wade who put together the 2010-14 Miami Heat superteam -- is chemistry. Or, more accurately, the chemistry between people, which is part of psychology.

And this is one way in which going straight from high school to the NBA, skipping college and the coursework it offers, has served him very poorly. In many ways, it's worked out for him. But not in this way.

October 23, 1993: Jays vs. Phils and the Joe Carter Game

October 23, 1993, 30 years ago: Joe Carter steps up to bat against Mitch Williams... But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The Toronto Blue Jays began play in 1977, and were terrible until 1983. Then they became good, but not good enough: They won the American League Eastern Division title in 1985, 1989 and 1991, but lost the AL Championship Series each time; and blew Division titles that they should have won in 1987 (losing their last 7 games), 1988 and 1990. It earned them the nickname "The Blow Jays."

But general manager Pat Gillick tinkered away, and in 1992, they won the East, they beat the Oakland Athletics for the 1st major league Pennant won by a team from outside the United States of America, and then they beat the favored Atlanta Braves to win the World Series in 6 games. Canada had a World Championship in baseball. They were managed by Clarence "Cito" Gaston, who became the 1st black man to manage a team into, and the 1st to manage a team to win, a World Series. 

Gillick did not rest on his laurels: He lost his 3 best starting pitchers, David Cone, Jimmy Key and David Wells; but signed Dave Stewart as a free agent, adding to a rotation that retained Jack Morris, Al Leiter, Pat Hentgen and Juan Guzmán. The bullpen included Tom Henke, Mike Timlin and Duane Ward. To a lineup that already had Roberto Alomar, Joe Carter, John Olerud, Devon White and Derek Bell, he added future Hall-of-Famers Rickey Henderson and Paul Molitor, and brought back former Jays shortstop Tony Fernández.

The Philadelphia Phillies had made the Playoffs 6 times in 8 years between 1976 to 1983, including winning the 1980 World Series. But after winning the National League Pennant in 1983, they got old. By the end of the 1980s, they got boring.

That would not be the case in 1993: With a team known as "Macho Row," they were exciting and fun. They were scrappy, they were sloppy, they were crude. But with guys like Lenny Dykstra, John Kruk, Darren Daulton, ace starter Curt Schilling and reliever Mitch Williams, they won. They won the NL Eastern Division title, and then stunned the Braves in the NL Championship Series.

October 16, 1993: Game 1 of the World Series, at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto. White and Olerud hit home runs, and the Jays beat the Phillies, 8-5.

October 17, 1993: Game 2. Carter hit a home run, but Dykstra and Jim Eisenreich hit them for the Phillies, and they tied up the Series, 6-4. They had taken a game in Toronto, against the more talented and more experienced team. This team that their lead broadcaster Harry Kalas called "this wild, wacky, wonderful bunch of throwbacks" would be coming home to Philadelphia with a great deal of confidence.

October 19, 1993: Game 3. Playing at Veterans Stadium didsn't help the Phillies, as the Jays pounded them, 10-3. Molitor hit a home run.

October 20, 1993: Game 4 at a rainy Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Charlie Williams became the 1st black man to serve as a home plate umpire in a World Series game. This was not a game for the starters: Neither Toronto's Todd Stottlemyre nor Philadelphia's Tommy Greene got out of the 3rd inning. In fact, there were 11 different pitchers used in this game, and none of them lasted 3 innings.

The Phillies led 14-9 after 7 innings. Here's what happened in the top of the 8th: Larry Andersen got Alomar to ground out, but he allowed a single to Carter, he walked Olerud, and Molitor reached on an error by 3rd baseman Dave Hollins, scoring Carter.

Phils manager Jim Fregosi brought Mitch Williams in to relieve. He allowed a single to Fernández, scoring Olerud. He walked Pat Borders. He struck Ed Sprague out, but he gave up a single to Henderson, scoring Molitor and Fernández, making it 14-13. Then White hit a drive between Dykstra in center field and Eisenreich in right, and it went for a triple. Blue Jays 15, Phillies 14. It was the highest-scoring game in Series history, breaking the record of Game 2 of the 1936 Series, the Yankees beating the Giants 18-4.

If you're a Phillies fan, you should accept that this is when the Series was lost, not when Mitch Williams came in to relieve in Game 6. But then, if you're a Phillies fan, the 2007-11 quasi-dynasty may have helped you get over it.

October 21, 1993: Game 5. Schilling's stellar pitching and Kevin Stocker's 2nd-inning RBI double kept the Phillies alive, beating the Jays, 5-0. This was the kind of pitching that later led Phillies general manager Ed Wade to say of Schilling, "One day out of every five, he's a horse; the other four, he's a horse's ass." But Schilling will not reach his greatest fame with the Phillies. Neither will most of the baseball world realize what a horse's ass he is during his tenure with the Fightin' Phils.

This turns out to be the last postseason baseball game ever played in Veterans Stadium, and the last postseason game the Phillies will win for 15 years.

October 23, 1993: Game 6, back in Toronto. The Phils led, 6-5 in the bottom of the 9th. Mitch Williams came in to close it out for the Phils, and to send the Series to a Game 7. But he walked Henderson. He got White to fly out to left, but allowed a single to Molitor. Joe Carter came to bat.

Carter would go on to hit 396 home runs in regular season play, including 33 that season. He also tied his career high with 121 RBIs, 1 of 10 seasons in which he had at least 100. So he was no Al Weis, Bucky Dent, Bernie Carbo, Geoff Blum, or Travis Ishikawa. He hit more home runs than such big-moment home-run hitters as Tommy Henrich, Bobby Thomson, Johnny Bench, Chris Chambliss, Carlton Fisk, Jack Clark, Kirk Gibson and (so far) Max Muncy.

Unlike Bill Mazeroski, Bucky Dent and Ozzie Smith, he was not a defensive specialist who happened to hit a memorable home run. And, unlike David Ortiz, Magglio Ordóñez and José Altuve, he has never been credibly accused of cheating.

So there was no shame in giving up a home run to Joe Carter. But you don't want to lose the World Series on any pitch to any player.

Carter sent a screaming liner down the left-field line, just clearing the fence, and just fair. Home run. Toronto 8, Philadelphia 6. The Blue Jays had won back-to-back World Championships.

Only Bill Mazeroski, who ended a World Series Game 7 with a home run in 1960, has ever hit a bigger home run than this.

That night, on Saturday Night Live, Chris Farley played Kruk during "Weekend Update," and was asked by anchorman Kevin Nealon why he wasn't in Toronto with his team. He said he'd forgotten, and asked what happened. When Nealon told him Toronto won 8-6, Farley-as-Kruk got up, looked deflated, and said, "I shoulda been there." In reality, Kruk went 0-for-3, although he did draw 2 walks.

Williams, a.k.a. the Wild Thing, has often been blamed for losing the Series. But it was Game 6, so if the Phils had won, they still would have had to play Game 7, on the road, against the defending World Champions. The rest of the Philly bullpen hadn't been much better in this Series. Where the Phils really lost the Series was in Game 4, when they blew a 14-9 lead at Veterans Stadium and lost 15-14. The Jays were very experienced, already accomplished, at home, and the better team. Besides, the Phils wouldn't have gotten into the World Series without Williams.

When the Vet closed in 2003, Williams was one of the in-uniform attendees, and was cheered, rather than subjected to the well-known venom of "the Philadelphia Boo-Birds." All was forgiven.

And in the 21 years from 1994 to 2014, the Phillies played 46 postseason games. The Jays, none. It took the Jays until 2015 to get back into the Playoffs; until they did, they'd gone longer without making the Playoffs than any other team. They still haven't won a Pennant since 1993 -- 30 years.

The Phillies won 5 straight NL East titles, 2007 to 2011, including winning the World Series in 2008 and the Pennant in 2009. They got old in a hurry after 2011, rebuilt, and won the Pennant last year. They can win another tonight; failing that, tomorrow night.

October 23, 1963: England v. The Rest of the World

October 23, 1963, 60 years ago: To celebrate its 100th Anniversary -- the actual Centennial was October 26, 3 days later -- the Football Association hosts a match at the old Wembley Stadium in London: "England vs. The Rest of the World." This was the 1st time a team of worldwide all-stars had played a single team, anywhere. (The FA had celebrated its 75th Anniversary in 1938 with an "England vs. The Rest of Europe" match at Wembley.)

Here are the lineups, with the player's club at the time. For England, managed by Alf Ramsey:

1, goalkeeper, Gordon Banks, Leicester City

2, right back, Jimmy Armfield, Blackpool, serving as Captain

3, left back, Ray Wilson, Huddersfield Town

4, right half, Gordon Milne, Liverpool

5, centre half, Maurice Norman of Tottenham Hotspur

6, centre half, Bobby Moore, West Ham United

7, outside right, Terry Paine, Southampton

8, inside right, Jimmy Greaves, Tottenham Hotspur

9, centre forward, Bobby Smith, Tottenham Hotspur

10, inside left, George Eastham, Arsenal

11, outside left, Bobby Charlton, of Manchester United.

Substitutes: 12, goalkeeper Tony Waiters of Blackpool; 13, fullback Ken Shellito of Chelsea; 14, midfielder Ron Flowers of Wolverhampton Wanderers; 15, left half Tony Kay of Everton; and 16, centre half Joe Baker of Arsenal, who was born in England, and thus had to play for England under the rules of the time, even though his parents were Scottish, and he'd lived most of his life in Scotland.

For "The Rest of the World," managed by Fernando Riera of Benfica, of Lisbon, Portugal:

1, goalkeeper, Lev Yashin, Soviet Union and Dynamo Moscow

2, right back, Djalma Santos, Brazil and Palmeiras

3, left back, Karl-Heinz Schnellinger, West Germany and Italian team Mantova

4, right half, Svatopluk Pluskal, Czechoslovakia and Dukla Prague

5, centre half, Ján Popluhár, Czechoslovakia and Rudá Hvezda Brno (Red Star Bruno)

6, left half, Josef Masopust, Czechoslovakia and Dukla Prague

7, outside right, Raymond Kopa, France and Stade de Reims

8, inside right, Denis Law, Scotland and Manchester United

9, centre forward, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Argentina and Real Madrid, who served as Captain

10, inside left, Eusébio, Portugal and Benfica

11, outside left, Francisco Gento, Spain and Real Madrid.

Substitutes: 1, goalkeeper Milutin Šoškić of Yugoslavia and Partizan Belgrade; 2, right back Luis Eyzaguirre of Chile and Universidad de Chile; 6, left back Jim Baxter of Scotland and Glasgow Rangers; 9, centre forward Uwe Seeler of West Germany and Hamburger SV; and 10, midfielder Ferenc Puskás of Hungary and Real Madrid.

So, 3 from South America, 1 from Africa (Eusébio was from Mozambique, still a colony of Portugal until 1975), none from Asia, none from North America (certainly, no Americans), 6 from Eastern Europe, 5 from Western Europe, and 2 from the British Isles but not England (Law and Baxter, both Scots).

Riera had managed his homeland of Chile, including Eyzaguirre, to 3rd place on home soil in the 1962 World Cup. Yashin had helped the Soviet Union win the 1st-ever European Championship in 1960. Santos was the only member of the Brazil team that won the 1958 and 1962 World Cups to participate: For whatever reason, Pelé of Santos, who turned 23 that day, did not. Pluskal, Popluhár and Masopust were members of the Czech team that reached the Final of the 1962 World Cup, losing to Brazil. That was the closest any Warsaw Pact nation ever came to winning the World Cup.

The Captains before the match: Armfield (left) and Di Stéfano

The England attack, led by Greaves, had several good chances to score, but Yashin kept denying them. In the 2nd half, Riera replaced Yashin with Šoškić. Big mistake: Greaves assisted Paine, who scored in the 66th minute. Law, already terrorizing England for Man U in a forward pairing with Charlton (they were the holders of the FA Cup), equalized in the 82nd minute. It looked like a draw (as a friendly, there was no plan for extra time), but in the 90th and last minute, Greaves scored to make it 2-1 England.

Greaves, who had helped Tottenham win the 1962 FA Cup and the 1963 European Cup Winners' Cup (but had been with Chelsea when "Spurs" won the 1961 League title and FA Cup, "The Double"), was hailed as the best attacker in the world. Yashin was hailed as the best goalkeeper, and was soon honored with the Ballon d'Or (Golden Ball) as World Player of the Year. He remains the only goalkeeper ever to receive it.

This win gave Alf Ramsey and his players the realization that they could actually win the 1966 World Cup, which would be played on home soil. Banks, Wilson, Moore and Charlton would start for England in the Final. Armfield, Greaves, Eastham and Flowers would also be selected for that winning England team. Kay would not be a member of that team, banned from the game for his participation in the 1964 British football betting scandal.

Still alive from this game, 60 years later: For England, 5 players: Milne, Norman, Paine, Eastham and Kay (Charlton just died); For The Rest of the World, 4 players: Schnellinger, Law, Šoškić and Eyzaguirre.

October 23 & 25, 1983: Beirut and Grenada

October 23, 1983, 40 years ago: Two truck-borne suicide bombs strike buildings in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese Civil War.

One attack, on an American barracks, kills 241: 220 U.S. Marines, 18 U.S. Navy personnel, and 3 U.S. Army personnel. This remains the deadliest single-day death toll for the Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945, and the deadliest for America's armed forces overall since the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, in 1968. Another attack, on a French base, killed 58 French military personnel and 6 civilians.

The Lebanese Civil War had begun in 1975, and tore apart a nation that had once been a jewel among France's colonies, before independence in 1946, albeit with an intervention by the U.S. and France in 1958. The war continued until 1990, and Lebanon has recovered somewhat. Today, with Israeli, Syrian, American and French troops withdrawn, it is a democratic nation of 5.3 million people, 58 percent Muslim, 36 percent Christian.

*

October 25, 1983, 2 days later: American troops and a coalition of 6 Caribbean nations invade the island nation of Grenada.

That country had gained independence from Britain in 1974, but the New Jewel Movement, a Communist group led by Maurice Bishop, seized power in 1979. By October 1983, there was a power struggle that could have led to a civil war. And there were over 600 American citizens on the island, mostly medical students. President Ronald Reagan was afraid of another hostage crisis, less than 3 years after the end of the one in Iran.

To make matters worse, if he acted at this point, people would say he was only trying to cover up his mistakes in Beirut that led to the bombing there. In fact, his plan to invade Grenada had already been discussed while he was vacationing at his ranch outside Santa Barbara, California. It was deemed necessary, even if it ended up appearing that it was a distraction from the Beirut debacle.

Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury, the American portion included the Army's famed 82nd Airborne Division, its 75th Ranger Regiment, and its Delta Force; Navy SEALs, and Marine units. Vice Admiral Joseph Metcalf III was the operation's commanding officer. Among his subcommanders was Major General Norman Schwarzkopf, later to rise to 4 stars and command American ground troops during the Persian Gulf War.

The operation was an overwhelming success: Within 4 days, the island was secured. But not a complete success: 19 American servicemen were killed, and another 152 wounded or injured. Still, it was seen as "a win for America," which Reagan needed, as he was up for re-election in a little over a year.

The following year, democratic elections were held in both America and Grenada. Today, Grenada is a free country, home to 112,000 people, 96 percent of them black, and 96 percent of them Christian. And it celebrates October 25 as its annual Thanksgiving Day.

Bobby Charlton, 1937-2023

One of sport's greatest living legends lives no more. And most Americans have never heard of him.

Robert Charlton (no middle name) was born on October 11, 1937 in Ashington, Northumberland, in the North-East of England. A cousin of Newcastle United legend Jackie Milburn, it was Manchester United that took an interest in the young forward.

He became one of manager Matt Busby's "Busby Babes" that won the English Football League in 1957. They also won the League in 1956, but Charlton did not make his senior debut until the 1956-57 season, specifically on October 6, 1956. In that game, he scored 2 goals in a 4-2 United win over, ironically, the South London team known as Charlton Athletic. United nearly became the 1st team in the 20th Century to "do The Double," but they lost the 1957 FA Cup Final in controversial fashion to Birmingham club Aston Villa.

In 1958, they advanced to the Semifinal of the European Cup, beating Red Star Belgrade in the Quarterfinal. But on their way back, their plane crashed after takeoff following a refueling stop in Munich, Germany, ending the would-be dynasty. Of the 44 people on board, 23 died. There were 17 people connected with the club on board, and 8 players died, while 2 others were so badly hurt that they never played again.

Busby himself was badly hurt, and would not return to the team until the next season started. Bobby survived with minor injuries, and recovered in time to play in the FA Cup Final, which a weakened United lost to Bolton Wanderers.

By 1963, United were still not doing well in he League, but they won the FA Cup, beating Leicester City in the Final. In 1965, Bobby, Scotsman Denis Law and Northern Irishman George Best had become "United's Holy Trinity," and they won the League title. They won it again in 1967, and became the 1st English team to win the European Cup, defeating Benfica of Lisbon, Portugal in the Final, 4-1. (Celtic, of Glasgow, Scotland, were the 1st British team to win it, the year before.)

Left to right: Charlton, Best, Busby, Law

He was selected for England in the 1958 World Cup, but didn't play. Many Englishmen believe that the Munich Air Disaster prevented England from winning the World Cup in 1958 and 1962, forgetting that Brazil would have wrecked them as they wrecked everybody else. Bobby did play in 1962, and in 1966 was joined by his brother Jack, who starred for Leeds United (and later famously managed the Republic of Ireland national team), and his Man United teammate Nobby Stiles. England won on home soil, with Bobby scoring twice in the Semifinal against Portugal, and then winning the Final over West Germany.

Bobby won 2 Golden Balls in 1966: As outstanding player of the World Cup, and the Ballon d'Or as world player of the year. He continued to play for Man United through 1973, scoring 249 goals. His receding hairline earned him the nickname "Captain Combover," before he finally accepted reality and went fully bald. He played for England again in the 1970 World Cup, and became the national side's all-time leading scorer, a record recently broken by later Man United player (and fellow victim of hair loss) Wayne Rooney, and recently surpassed again by Tottenham Hotspur player Harry Kane (now with Bayern Munich, and still with all his hair).

Bobby was knighted for his service to sport and country, and was one of the most beloved figures in the history of soccer, possibly England's greatest player ever -- or, at least, one of the top two, alongside his 1966 Captain, West Ham United defender Bobby Moore. For fans not old enough to have seen Milburn, or 1930s Everton star Dixie Dean, he remains England's definitive Number 9. And, unlike many other attacking players for Man U, he was never once accused of diving to win a penalty.

He met his wife, Norma Ball (no relation to England teammate Alan Ball) at an ice rink in Manchester in 1959, and they married in 1961. They had two daughters, Suzanne and Andrea. Suzanne was a weather forecaster for the BBC. They went on to have grandchildren, including Suzanne's son Robert, who was named in honor of his grandfather.

A statue of Charlton, Law and Best, United's "Trinity," was unveiled outside their stadium, Old Trafford, in 2008, on the 40th Anniversary of their European Cup triumph. In 2016, Old Trafford's south stand was renamed the Sir Bobby Charlton Stand. (The north stand is the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand, the west stand is the Stretford End, and the east stand is the Scoreboard End.)

Unfortunately, the heavy balls of his era meant that, like several of his contemporaries, Sir Bobby Charlton was diagnosed with dementia as he got older. He died today, October 21, 2023, at the age of 86.

With his death:

* There are no more survivors from the Manchester United players in the Munich Air Disaster, and only 4 surviving passengers: Stewardess Rosemary Cheverton; Eleanor Miklos, wife of travel agent Bela Miklos, who was killed; Vera Lukić, the wife of a Yugoslav diplomat; and her daughter, Vesna Lukić.

* There are 4 surviving players from Manchester United's 1963 FA Cup winners: Dennis Law, Pat Crerand, Johnn Giles and David Gaskell.

* There are 4 surviving players from United's 1965 Football League Champions: Law, Crerand, John Aston and Willie Anderson.

* There are 5 surviving players from United's 1967 Football League Champions: Those preceding 4, and Alex Stepney.

* There are 5 surviving players from United's 1968 European Cup winners: Crerand, Aston, Stepney, Brian Kidd and David Sadler. Law was injured and did not play.

* Sir Geoff Hurst is the last player from the 1966 England World Cup squad to have played in the Final. Terry Paine, Ian Callaghan and George Eastham are also still alive from the roster, making 4. (Bobby's brother Jack had died in 2020.)

* And there are 5 English players left from the end-of-the-20th Century selections for the 100 Greatest Players of All Time: Kevin Keegan, Gary Lineker, Michael Owen and David Beckham.