Ballgame Over for Democrats? Not Yet

In 1988, Michael Dukakis got about 40 percent of the white vote, and 111 Electoral Votes. In 2008, Barack Obama got about 43 percent of the white vote, yet won 365 Electoral Votes. The difference was the rise in the Hispanic vote, especially in the Western States, like Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona.

In 1988, all 4 of those States went Republican, as they had in most elections from 1968 onward. In 1992, Bill Clinton won all of them but Arizona. In 1996, Clinton won all of them except Colorado, becoming the 1st Democratic nominee to win Arizona since Harry Truman in 1948. (As Barry Goldwater's home State, it was the only State outside the South that didn't go for Lyndon Johnson in 1964.)

In 2000, out of those 4 States, Al Gore won only New Mexico. In 2004, John Kerry lost them all. But in 2008, Obama won all of them except Arizona, and probably would have won that if it hadn't been the home State of his opponent, John McCain. In 2012, again, Obama won all but Arizona. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won all but Arizona. In 2020, Joe Biden won all 4.

Obama turning those States in 2008 led to the thought that, by 2020, the Democrats could take Florida and Texas. If so, it would have been ballgame over for the Republicans -- and also for the Electoral Vote, because the only things saving them from total wipeout were Florida and Texas, so they would have supported scrapping it.

Now we see that Florida and Texas are lost causes. And if the Republicans can hold the Hispanic male vote in 2028, that means the Democrats can no longer count on the cities to save certain States for them, and it's ballgame over for them.

What can Democrats do between now and November 7, 2028? First, watch as Trump's policies hurt everybody. Second, show the Hispanic men that those policies have particularly hurt them and their families. And nominate someone who can, both literally and figuratively, speak their language. Then, the Democrats can get back to where they were from 2008 tl 2020.

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Kamala Harris for Losing the 2024 Presidential Election

It should have been RoboCop's line: "Your move, creep!"

These are pretty close to what will be the final numbers:

Popular Vote: Donald Trump, Republican, 76.9 million; Kamala Harris, Democratic, 74.4 million; Jill Stein, Green Party, 777,000; Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Independent, 754,000; Chase Oliver, Libertarian, 640,000; others, 388,000.

Percentages of Popular Vote: Trump, 49.97; Harris, 48.36; Stein, 0.50; Kennedy, 0.49; Oliver, 0.42; others, 0.25.

Electoral Votes: Trump, 312; Harris, 226.

States Won: Trump, 31; Harris, 19 plus the District of Columbia.

Harris is honest, while Trump is the biggest liar in the history of American politics.

Harris is a former prosecutor, while Trump is a convicted felon.

Harris prosecuted sex crimes, while Trump is an adjudicated rapist.

Harris is a classic American story, while Trump sold America out to Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Harris accepted the results of the election within 24 hours of the first polls closing, while Trump not only still has not admitted he lost the 2020 election, but he sent 8,000 native-born, home-grown terrorists to attack the U.S. Capitol Building in an attempt to stop the certification of that election.

Harris represented the Administration that cleaned up the economic and foreign-policy messes left... by Trump.

And yet, slightly less than half the voters -- not a majority, but a plurality -- chose Trump.

They believed his lies about immigrants and crime being a problem -- instead himself and his supporters being criminals -- and got scared.

They believed his lies about the economy, and got scared.

We have heard people say Harris was a bad candidate. Bad? Worse than what? A traitor? A convicted felon? A rapist? A sore loser? All of whom are Trump?

What the hell happened?

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Kamala Harris for Losing the 2024 Presidential Election

First, a couple of reasons that didn't make the cut: The Best of the Rest.

Joe Biden. Yes, he did a fantastic job, especially given the mess he was left. But he insisted upon running for re-election, despite the fact that he would celebrate his 82nd birthday between the election and the Inauguration.

Had he announced at the beginning of Year 3 that he wasn't running for re-election, Harris could have spent Year 3 and Year 4 not just making her case, but building her case. Joe gave her an opportunity, but he denied her the full extent of the opportunity. She ran for President for 107 days. That used to be enough. It is no longer enough.

Donald Trump. In addition to everything else, he is an idiot. He is a 14-year-old boy, with a 14-year-old's desires and interests, trapped in the body of a 78-year-old fat man. He sees things on television, and thus acts as though everything has to be a TV show. And, as 14-year-old boys often do, he acts like a "professional wrestler."

But he has one great talent. It's not for governing, obviously. It's not for business, as we have seen. It's for appealing to people with the same mindset as he has: Grown men who act like teenage boys, who see people not like themselves getting further, and presume that means they're getting left behind. And he promises them that he will be their President, their hero, their retribution. And they ignore the truth of his previous spectacularly failed term in office, and eat his bullshit up.

Robert Mueller. And...

Merrick Garland. Mueller was the Special Prosecutor that was going to save us from Trump. There was a memo, written in 1973, during Watergate, by an official of the U.S. Department of Justice, which said that an incumbent President could not be indicted for any crime. But that memo did not, and still does not, have any force of law.

In his report, Mueller said, "If we had confidence that the President did not clearly commit a crime, we would have said so," and, "While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."

A Marine hero of the Vietnam War, Mueller could have been a good soldier, and defended his country from a grave threat. Instead, he chose to be a "good lawyer," and he let Trump get away with his crimes. If Mueller had indicted Trump in 2019, he could have been convicted during the 2020 campaign. Certainly, in 2021, after leaving office. And the Republicans, who crowed so much about "the rule of law" during Bill Clinton's Presidency, would have been forced to choose whether or not to nominate a man in prison for President. Instead, Bob Mueller let us down.

Garland was even worse: The Attorney General acted as if he was terrified of appearing partisan, and acted with all the speed of a snail. He could have indicted Trump the day he took office. He had all the evidence he needed. He never issued an indictment.

The reason Garland was available as Biden's Attorney General is that he was appointed to the Supreme Court by Barack Obama in 2016, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to do his constitutional duty, and refused to even hold a hearing on Garland. In hindsight, maybe it's good that Garland isn't on the Court: He could have been so timid that the conservative Justices might have bullied him into their opinions, turning him into what conservatives call a Justice appointed by a Republican who nevertheless is not conservative enough for them: A "Judas Justice."

Now, the Top 5:

5. Elon Musk. The son of apartheid, the apparent richest man in the world, he spent $44 billion for Twitter, which he renamed X, for the purpose of using it to spread propaganda to get Trump elected. In the process, he lost a lot of money, and essentially destroyed the great site that Twitter had been.

But he got the result he wanted: He is now, essentially, the Co-President, even though not one damn person voted for him. He has the power, but not the responsibility. You know, what Trump really wanted. But he had the responsibility, and it crushed him. He said, "No, I don't take responsibility at all."

4. Benedict Joe Hills. Joe Hill was a union organizer and a writer of folk songs in the Rocky Mountain States, who was executed in 1915 for a murder he did not commit. A song was written about him, and "Joe Hill" has become an anthem of the American labor movement.

Joe Biden was the 1st President ever to walk a picket line, while Trump is a known hirer of strikebreakers and scabs. So the Rust Belt States, especially Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin -- the 3 States that made the difference for Trump in 2016, and went a long way toward making the difference for Biden in 2020 -- should have gone for Harris, as Biden's stand-in.

But a bunch of white men in labor unions didn't go for Harris. They didn't see her as Biden's stand-in. They didn't see her as Biden's 2nd term. They saw her as a black woman who had nothing to do with labor unions. And so they went with the white man who promised them lower prices, forgetting that he already has a record of crashing the economy and killing their jobs.

They betrayed America. They betrayed Biden. They betrayed themselves and their families. They weren't Joe Hills, they were Benedict Arnolds. And they will suffer the consequences in 2025 to 2028, just as they did from 2017 to 2020.

3. College Kids for Hamas. A bunch of young people saw "the Palestinians" as victims, and couldn't bring themselves to vote for Harris, who supported Israel. On this issue, these voters did see Harris as Biden's stand-in.

They bought the propaganda that the Palestinians were the victims, not the bloodthirsty thug terrorists that they actually are. The Palestinians are ruled by Hamas, who don't give a damn about democracy, or their own people. "Genocide"? Hamas' very reason for existence is the attempted genocide of the Jewish people. The Nazis tried to keep it a secret, but Hamas are completely open about it.

Few things disgust me more than liberals who support underdogs, yet see the Palestinians as the underdogs, when the Palestinians are the ones who start the wars against Israel. Every goddamned time. So when, on October 7, 2023, Hamas gave Israel an event that, proportionally, was worse than Pearl Harbor and 9/11 combined, and Israel retaliated, these young voters sided with the equivalent to Imperial Japan and al-Qaeda, against Israel, America's ally, which did what it had every right to do: Attempt to eliminate the enemy permanently.

You want "Palestine" to be free? Hamas doesn't. They want a dictatorship, with themselves as the dictators, from the river to the sea. Fuck them. And I do not have sympathy for the Palestinians. They gave us Hamas. To Hell with them.

2. Benedict Swifties. What happened to all those women who supposedly registered to vote at Taylor Swift's concerts? They were supposed to make the difference for Harris. Did they simply not show up? Or did they decide that being white was more important than being female, and vote against their own economic interests, and their own reproductive freedom?

Time magazine's selection of Swift as Person of the Year for 2023 now looks very dubious, indeed.

1. The American Media. Hey, when conservatives lose, they blame the media, so why can't liberals?

Let's tell the truth: There is no more "liberal media." The New York Times has not been liberal since 1992, when Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., a.k.a. "Pinch," took over as publisher from his father, Arthur Sr., a.k.a. "Punch." He has let his editorial columnists, especially Maureen Dowd, run roughshod over the Democratic Party. He let Thomas L. Friedman shill for the Iraq War until even he had to admit it was a failure.

Today, in the Times, Maggie Haberman rails against Trump; but if she had told the truth in 2016, about both Trump and Hillary Clinton, Hillary would have won, and Haberman wouldn't have to do it now. Unfortunately, her model for what a New York Times columnist should be turned out to be Dowd, not Anna Quindlen -- who left the Times in 1995.

The Washington Post has not been liberal for about the same time, as Ben Bradlee decided that letting his 3rd wife, Sally Quinn, who despises both Bill and Hillary Clinton, run the paper for him was a good thing. CBS is no longer liberal: The Tiffany Network showed its true colors when it fired Dan Rather for telling the truth about George W. Bush's military service late in the 2004 Presidential campaign. Even MSNBC has current and former Republicans as half their hosts.

Conservatives like to call CNN "the Communist News Network." But founder Ted Turner hasn't been involved since 2009 -- and, in 2018, he announced an incapacitating illness that took him out of public life. If he had still been in charge of CNN in 2015, then, once it looked like Trump was going to run for President, he would have sent journalists to investigate Trump properly, and Trump would have been arrested by the FBI when he got to the bottom of the damn escalator.

Instead, CNN's new corporate overlords gave Trump what amounted to free advertising. They chose him, they chose ratings, they chose money over country. Without CNN, Trump never would have gotten past the New Hampshire Primary.

Trump has, essentially, been running for President for almost 10 years straight. And the media has given him all that free advertising the whole time. In contrast, nothing Harris has ever done is good enough for them. Even though it should have been good enough for everyone: Even without Trump being the most unacceptable candidate for President, ever, Harris should have been good enough, on merit, to be considered a great candidate.

But the media treated Trump like a star, and they treated Harris like a party-pooper. Instead of what they should have done, which is tell the truth: Harris is a star, and Trump is a pants-pooper.

VERDICT: Not Guilty.

December 2, 1964: Mario Savio's "Bodies Upon the Gears" Speech

Mario Savio, arrested shortly after his speech

December 2, 1964, 60 years ago: The "Free Speech Movement" at the main campus of the University of California, in Berkeley, across the Bay from San Francisco, is galvanized by a speech by graduate student Mario Savio.

This Movement was the first mass act of civil disobedience on an American college campus in the 1960s. Students insisted that the university administration lift the ban of on-campus political activities and acknowledge the students' right to free speech and academic freedom. The Free Speech Movement was influenced by the New Left, and was also related to the Civil Rights Movement and the opposition to the Vietnam War.

Savio, from Queens in New York City, was approaching his 22nd birthday, and had already graduated from Queens College, and worked in the Civil Rights Movement in California and in the Mississippi Freedom Summer, and for anti-poverty program in Mexico.

When he returned to Berkeley after his time in Mississippi, he intended to raise money for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), but found that the university had banned all political activity and fundraising. He told an interviewer that it was a question as to whose side one was on: "Are we on the side of the civil rights movement? Or have we gotten back to the comfort and security of Berkeley, California, and can we forget the sharecroppers whom we worked with just a few weeks back? Well, we couldn't forget."

Savio sounded pretty radical. Even today, he sounds radical. But he sure didn't look radical: Like most of the activist students of the time, his hair wasn't especially long, and tended to wear a jacket, a dress shirt and a tie. He was an activist, but he was no hippie.

Until 1966 or so, when people heard the word "hippie," they thought it meant "jazz musician," like in the 1963 hit by the Philadelphia girl group The Orlons: "Where do all the hippies meet? South Street, South Street." South Street, then as now, was Philly's "Greenwich Village."

The rhetoric between the students and University President Clark Kerr went back and forth. On December 2, Savio took to the steps of Sproul Hall, a new student activity center, where folksinger Joan Baez had recently sung, and, in front of 4,000 people, delivered what became known as the "Operation of the Machine" speech or the "Bodies Upon the Gears" speech:

There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears, and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!

Savio and 800 others were arrested that day. It took until 1967 for the case to be concluded, and he was sentenced to 120 days in jail. At the time, he told reporters that he "would do it again."

But just a few months after his speech, he quit the FSM because "he was disappointed with the growing gap between the leadership of the FSM and the students themselves." As has so often been the case, a revolution was divided even before achieving its goals, and it fell apart.

But Berkeley became not just a center for political activity among leftward (if not necessarily "leftist") college students, but a byword for it. Ronald Reagan won the Governorship of California in 1966 in large part by campaigning against it, promising to reform the University of California System so that the students had less influence. (Some "reform." Unfortunately, he kept his word.) There would be a riot at the student-setup People's Park in Berkeley in 1969.

Appearing on a 1968 episode of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, actor Peter Lawford said, "I hear the Governor Reagan is increasingly concerned about earthquakes in California. He's afraid that Berkeley may shift even further to the left."

And in the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the Enterprise crew members had to travel back in time to the present day, and Admiral James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner) had to explain why Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy, wearing a headband so Spock's pointed ears would be hidden and so he wouldn't have to wear the often painful prosthetics) was so weird. His history almost as good as it should have been, Kirk said, "Back in the Sixties, he was a part of the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley. I think he did a little too much LDS." (He meant the drug LSD, not the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a.k.a. the Mormons.)

The University's flagship campus is usually called "Cal" for sports purposes, and "Berkeley" for everything else.  Their arch-rivals are Stanford University, across the Bay in Palo Alto, and Stanford has the opposite political reputation, very conservative, in part due to the Hoover Institution, an economic "think tank" named after one of the school's first graduates, the eventual President Herbert Hoover. Naming an economic organization after him was not a good idea.

Savio later became a professor (though not at the college where he protested, unlike a few of the Columbia University protestors later in the decade), married twice, had a son with each wife, and developed heart trouble, which killed him in 1996, only 53 years old.

"You've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" Words that "hit differently" with Donald Trump coming back into the White House with full control of Congress and legal immunity granted to him by a 6-3 Republican majority on the Supreme Court. 

December 1, 1984: East Brunswick's Black Saturday

The main entrance to East Brunswick High School

-- after renovations made in 2000.

It would have appeared differently in 1984.

December 1, 1984: New Jersey completes its high school football State Playoffs. Among the games played is the Central Jersey Group IV Final, at Jay Doyle Field in East Brunswick, New Jersey.

I was there. I saw this game. I have been trying to forget it ever since.

East Brunswick High School, in Middlesex County, opened in 1958, and had been playing football since 1961. In 1966 and 1972, it won the Central Jersey Group IV Championship. But that was under the old system, based on total wins. In 1974, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) instituted a Playoff system, based on "power points": A team got 2 points for every win, and 1 point for every game won by a team it beat.

Under this system, John P. Stevens High School of Edison, also in Middlesex County and a Middlesex County Athletic Conference (MCAC) opponent of E.B., won the Central Jersey Group IV Championship in 1977, 1978 and 1982, also making the Playoffs in 1983. East Brunswick had made it only once, in 1980, losing in the Semifinal.

John P. Stevens was the President of the Board of Education in Edison. He oversaw the building of Edison High School in 1955, but died soon thereafter. When a 2nd high school opened, on the north side of town, it was named for him. As a result, his name is on the dedication plaques of both schools.

But in 1984, the year I entered EBHS as a sophomore, E.B. won its 1st 6 games. In just his 2nd season as head coach, Marcus Borden had built a team based on strong line play and quick-strike capability. The 7th game was at Stevens' John E. McGowan Stadium, on October 27. E.B. beat J.P., 26-6. It was a dominating performance, and it went a long way toward the Bears earning the MCAC Championship. I was there: It was Stevens' Homecoming, and 5,000 of their fans went home angry.

They would get their revenge. Their big running back, George Boothe, was unavailable for this game due to injury. He returned, and helped them make the Playoffs. E.B. won their Semifinal over Hunterdon Central of Flemington, and then beat Colonia of Woodbridge on Thanksgiving Day to clinch the MCAC title and our 1st undefeated regular season. Stevens won their Semifinal, over Middletown North of Monmouth County, but lost their Thanksgiving game against crosstown Edison.

The local newspaper, then named The Central New Jersey Home News, ranked E.B. Number 1 in Middlesex County. So did another nearby paper, The News Tribune. These 2 papers would merge in 1995, forming The Home News Tribune. The Statewide newspaper, the Newark-based The Star-Ledger, ranked E.B. Number 2 in the entire State, behind Union of Union County. We were 10-0, and Stevens as 7-3. And we had the home-field advantage for the Final. We were heavily favored to win our 1st real "State Championship" in the sport.

Jay Doyle Field -- also noticeably altered,

well after 1984

But we couldn't stop Boothe. He scored 3 of their 4 touchdowns, the 1st on an end-around on which he wasn't even touched, putting the Hawks up, 27-20 in the 4th quarter. But the Bears had come from 27-13 down to beat Colonia, 33-27, just 9 days earlier, so the thought was there that we could do it again.

The Bears did come back, and scored a touchdown to make it 27-26 with a minute and a half to go. Remembering the Orange Bowl at the beginning of the year, when Nebraska's Tom Osborne went for the 2-point conversion and the National Championship against the University of Miami, and not getting it, and losing 31-30 -- but forgetting that, unlike college football at the time, New Jersey's State Playoffs did have a provision for overtime -- Borden went for the 2-point conversion.

Steve Hughes, who would be named Middlesex County Offensive Player of the Year by The Home News, found running back Deric Rowe wide open in the end zone. It was 3:37 PM. Don't bet me on the time. Rowe later said he lost the ball in the Sun. It hit him in the chest, slipped through his fingers, and fell to the grass. It was still 27-26.

We got the ball back one last time, but it was no use: Stevens 27, East Brunswick 26. Our undefeated State Championship season was gone. And, yes, 40 years later, it still hurts. Every time that score comes up, in any sport, I cringe.

Twice, I walked out of Jay Doyle Field in tears. The 2nd time was after graduation. The 1st time was this one, a game that became known as Black Saturday. I was spoiled over the 1st 10 games. I waited a long time for that 1 more win.

Deric played basketball for us, too, and we still cheered him every time he got the ball. But this was E.B.'s "Bill Buckner moment" -- 2 years before Buckner had his own. There would be other close calls, including another 1-point loss to Stevens in next year's regular season, costing us the Conference Championship; and another loss to them in the 1985 State Final. But E.B. football hadn't won a "State Championship" (officially, Central Jersey Group IV Championship) since 1972, and not at all under the current system.

Finally, we did it again on December 5, 2004, against Shore Conference power Jackson Memorial, at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway. Borden was still the head coach. I was there. We did it again in 2009, beating Brick Memorial, another Shore Conference school, in a snowstorm at The College of New Jersey (formerly Trenton State College) in Ewing. I was at that one, too.

There is a tragic postscript to that 1984 Final: Both Deric Rowe and George Boothe ended up in legal trouble. Rowe played football at Kansas State University, but dropped out, and served time in prison for armed robbery, carjacking and kidnapping. Last I heard, he was free, and living in the San Diego suburbs.

Boothe played at the University of Connecticut, but fell into drug use there, and became Central Jersey's "O.J. Simpson" -- the difference being that he was convicted for killing his girlfriend, in Atlanta in 1994. He was eventually released, and, at last check, was living in Connecticut.

December 1, 1954: The Biggest Trade In Baseball History

Don Larsen

December 1, 1954, 70 years ago: The biggest trade in baseball history is completed: 17 players.

The Baltimore Orioles get: Outfielders Gene Woodling and Theodore Del Guercio; infielders Willy Miranda, Kal Segrist and Don Leppert; catchers Hal Smith and Gus Triandos; 1st baseman Dick Kryhoski; outfielder Jim Fridley; and pitchers Harry Byrd, Jim McDonald and Bill Miller.

The New York Yankees get: Pitchers Bob Turley, Don Larsen, Mike Blyzka; catcher Darrell Johnson; and infielder Billy Hunter.

Most of the players involved never amounted to much. Woodling helped the Yankees win 5 straight World Series from 1949 to 1953, but was in decline. Triandos became an All-Star. Smith would come back to haunt the Yankees, hitting a home run for the Pittsburgh Pirates in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, setting up the bigger homer by Bill Mazeroski.

But Larsen would pitch the only perfect game in World Series history in 1956, and Turley would become the 1st Yankee to win the Cy Young Award, in 1958, winning 3 games in that year’s World Series. So this trade was a net win for the Yankees.

Johnson would manage the Boston Red Sox to the 1975 American League Pennant, and was named the 1st manager of the Seattle Mariners. Hunter, who went on to become the 3rd base coach in the Orioles’ 1966-74 dynasty, and later the manager of the Texas Rangers, is the only one of these players still alive.

Lou Carnesecca, 1925-2024

It always seems a bit unfair when someone dies close to their 100th Birthday, most recently with Betty White on New Year's Eve in 2021. It's as if, If whoever decides these things is going to let them get that far, why not grant them the milestone?

Luigi P. Carnesecca was born on January 5, 1925 in Manhattan, a son of Italian imimgrants. He went to St. Ann's Academy, and served in the U.S. Coast Guard in World War II. He went to St. John's University in Jamaica, Queens on the G.I. Bill. He then coached at St. Ann's, leading them to the City's Catholic High School Athletic Association (CHSAA) title in 1952 and 1958.

Archbishop Thomas Molloy, the Ordinary of the Diocese of Brooklyn, offered St. Ann's a new site on land he owned in the Briarwood section of Queens. They built their new school there in 1957. In return, the school was renamed Archbishop Molloy High School in his honor. In addition to Carnesecca, its basketball legends include Tommy Kearns, Brian Winters, Kevin Joyce, Kenny Smith and Kenny Anderson. It is also the Alma Mater of sportswriter Peter Vecsey, tennis star Vitas Gerulaitis, actor David Caruso, Governor Andrew Cuomo, and comedian Ray Romano.

In 1965, he succeeded Joe Lapchick as head coach at St. John's, getting them into the NCAA Tournament in 3 out of 5 seasons. In 1970, he was named head coach and general manager of the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association. He got them into the 1972 ABA Finals, where they lost to the Indiana Pacers.

In 1973, his successor at St. John's, Frank Mulzoff, resigned after 3 seasons, so Lou returned. His $22,000 salary at St. John's meant that he took a financial loss in the transition. He explained, "I've had my whack at pro ball, and I'm very happy with it. But when the opportunity arose to return to St. John's, I wanted to go back."

It's hard to argue with the results. With St. John's -- their mascot then the "Redmen," a Native American name, changed to "Red Storm" in 1994 -- giving the new Big East Conference the New York market, he won regular-season titles in 1980, 1983, 1985, 1986 and 1992; and the Big East Tournament in 1983 and 1986. This was aided by playing "home games" at Madison Square Garden, where the entire Tournament was held over a span of 4 days.

His rivalry with Georgetown University of Washington, D.C., and its head coach, John Thompson, became legend. New York and D.C. have rarely been serious sports rivals -- thought fans of Major League Soccer's Red Bulls and D.C. United might disagree -- but the symbolism was undeniable.

Lou was old school: Although he had black players on his team, including Walter Berry and Mark Jackson, his biggest stars were white: Chris Mullin and Bill Wennington. In contrast, Georgetown, though nearly an all-white school (and also Catholic), had Thompson, who in 1984 became the 1st black head coach to lead a team to the National Championship, and nearly all of his players were black, led by Patrick Ewing, and later Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo.

Thompson became known for draping a white towel over his shoulder, while Carnesecca became known for his wild sweaters. When Christmas season ended, Lou's penchant for "ugly sweaters" didn't. His gravelly voice became familiar far west of the Hudson River.

St. John's and Georgetown played each other 4 times in the 1984-85 season. On January 26, with Georgetown ranked Number 1 in the country and St. John's ranked Number 2, they played before a full house of 19,035 at the Capital Centre in suburban Landover, Maryland, and a nationwide audience on CBS, and St. John's won, 66-65.

On February 27, with St. John's at Number 1 and Georgetown at Number 2, they met again at The Garden, on ESPN. This one did not live up to the hype, as the Hoyas rolled to an 85-69 win. On March 9, with Georgetown at Number 1 and St. John's at Number 2, they met in the Final of the Big East Tournament at The Garden, and, against, Georgetown won definitively, 92-80.

When the NCAA Tournament reached its Final Four, to be held at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky, 3 of the 4 were from the Big East, all but Louisiana State University (LSU) from the Southeastern Conference (SEC). In the Semifinal on March 30, Number 1 Georgetown again handily beat then-Number 3 St. John's, 77-59. But in the Final, Georgetown were upset by another Catholic school in the Big East, Philadelphia-area school Villanova.

Having won Coach of the Year awards in 1983 and 1985, Lou retired after the 1992 season. His record at St. John's was 526–200, for a winning percentage of .725. He was quickly elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Louie the Sweater became an elder statesman of college basketball, and still went to as many St. John's games as he could. In 2004, St. John's renamed their 5,602-seat Alumni Hall "Carnesecca Arena." He remains the last coach to get a new York City school into the Final Four, with his 1985 St. John's team. (In the New York Tri-State Area, P.J. Carlesimo got Seton Hall, of South Orange, New Jersey, there in 1989.)

He died yesterday, November 30, 2004, just 36 days short of his 100th Birthday. His death leaves Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, who just turned 80, as the last of the old Big East titans. Rollie Massimino of Villanova in 2017, John Thompson of Georgetown in 2020.

Well, there might be one more, if you want to count him as such: Rick Pitino, who led Providence College of Rhode Island to the Final Four in 1987, is now the head coach at St. John's. He's also led Kentucky to the National Championship in 1996, and Louisville to the National Championship in 2013.