April 30, 1986: The Steve Smith Own Goal

April 30, 1986, 40 years ago: Steve Smith turns 23, and has the worst birthday in hockey history.

In 1985, he made his NHL debut with the Edmonton Oilers. He played 2 regular season games, and was not put on their Playoff roster, as they won their 2nd straight Stanley Cup. But in 1985-86, he was one of the League's top defensive rookies. He looked like he had a good career ahead of him. On April 30, he took the ice with the Oilers against their Provincial rivals, the Calgary Flames, in Game 7 of the NHL Smythe Division Final, at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

The Flames stunned their Alberta rivals by taking a 2-0 lead, early in the 2nd period. But before that period ended, the Oilers tied the game.

At the 5:14 mark of the 3rd period, Smith took the puck near the side of his own net, and tried to pass it up the ice. But he made a mistake, and the puck went off the leg of Oiler goaltender Grant Fuhr, and into the goal.

Perry Berezan was the last Flames player to touch the puck, so he got credit for the goal. In soccer, the rule is different: Smith would have been "credited" with an "own goal."

The Flames' 3-2 lead held, and they won, eliminating the Oilers from the Playoffs. The Flames had lost to the Oilers in the Playoffs in 1983 and 1984, and would again in 1988 and 1991. This remains the only "Battle of Alberta" Playoff series that the Flames have won.

It is the most famous own goal in hockey history, and it produced the most devastating loss in the history of Edmonton sports. Oiler fans were outraged. But, led by Captain and superstar Wayne Gretzky, Smith's teammates stood up for him. The next year, the Oilers rebounded to win the Cup. When taking it from NHL President John Ziegler, Gretzky let Smith be the 2nd Oiler player to lift it, and the crowd at the Coliseum gave him a standing ovation. All was forgiven.

Smith would help the Oilers win the Cup again in 1988 and 1990, remaining with them for 1 more season. He joined the Chicago Blackhawks for the 1991-92 season, and helped them reach the Stanley Cup Finals, where they were swept by the Pittsburgh Penguins. He stayed with the Hawks through 1997, then closed his career with, oddly enough, the Flames, playing for them until 2000.

In 804 regular-season NHL games, he had 72 goals and 303 assists. And he reached 4 Stanley Cup Finals, winning 3. A decent playing career, with one awful moment. He has since worked as an assistant coach with the Flames, the Oilers and the Buffalo Sabres, and a scout with the Blackhawks.

But that one awful moment tends to stand out. Is that fair? Did he really cost the Oilers the 1986 Stanley Cup, and prevent them from matching the 1956-60 Montreal Canadiens' run of 5 straight? Probably not. The Flames went on to reach the 1986 Stanley Cup Finals, where the Canadiens beat them in 5 games. They might have beaten the Oilers, too.

The Oilers had Grant Fuhr in goal; and on defense, Paul Coffey and Kevin Lowe. All 3 were elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. And they had other good defensemen: Lee Fogolin, Charlie Huddy -- and Steve Smith. That defense allowed 25 goals, including 4 in Game 1, 5 in Game 2 (which the Oilers won anyway), 4 in Game 4 (which the Oilers won anyway), and 4 in Game 5 before allowing the calamitous own goal.

And what about the Oilers' offense? This was a team with Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri and Glenn Anderson, all of whom are now in the Hockey Hall of Fame. And yet, they scored only 1 goal at home in Game 1, 2 in Game 3, 1 at home in Game 5, and 2 at home in Game 7. The most potent offense in NHL history, and they didn't get the job done.

And, in a situation like this, it's tempting to say that the side that won was actually better. Certainly, the Flames weren't as talent-laden as the Oilers. But they did sweep their previous Playoff series, against the Winnipeg Jets. They won Games 1 and 5 in Edmonton, before winning this shocking Game 7 in Edmonton. And they won the Conference Final over the St. Louis Blues.

They had Hall-of-Famers Lanny McDonald, Brett Hull, Al MacInnis and Joe Mullen; plus All-Stars Mike Vernon, Joel Otto and Gary Suter; Doug Risebrough, who had won 4 Cups with the Canadiens in the late 1970s; John Tonelli, who had won 4 Cups with the New York Islanders in the early 1980s; and Nick Fotiu, who had reached the Finals with the 1979 New York Rangers.

They did lose the Stanley Cup Finals to the Montreal Canadiens, although 2 of their losses were by 1 goal. And a slightly revamped Flames team beat the Canadiens in the Finals just 3 years later. So it's not like the Oilers lost to an undeserving team.

April 30, 1956: The Boston Celtics Trade for Bill Russell

April 30, 1956, 70 years ago: The NBA Draft is held in New York. With the 1st pick, the Boston Celtics -- having just completed their 1st 10 seasons, and not yet having appeared in an NBA Finals -- selected Tommy Heinsohn, forward from the nearby College of the Holy Cross.

With the 2nd pick, the Rochester Royals selected Sihugo Green, a guard from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. "Si" Green was a decent player, but hardly the kind of star you would expect to go as the 2nd pick overall.

With the 3rd pick, the St. Louis Hawks drafted Bill Russell, a center who had led the University of San Francisco to back-to-back National Championships. It looked like the Hawks had gotten the best player.

But later that day, the Hawks traded the rights to the as-yet-unsigned Russell to the Celtics, for center Ed Macauley and forward Cliff Hagan.

Result: Over the next 13 seasons, Russell would lead the Celtics to 12 NBA Finals, and 11 NBA Championships. The Celtics became the most dominant team in North American sports history -- not winning as many World Championships as Major League Baseball's New York Yankees or the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens, but winning more titles in a shorter period of time. 

Meanwhile, the Hawks won just 1 title, and were forced to move out of St. Louis, to Atlanta, where they have been a perennial letdown.

It is the biggest transactional blunder in the NBA's history. How could the Hawks have been so dumb? Well, maybe, they were not as dumb as we've been led to believe. As the biggest star coming out of college basketball, Russell was already believed to be ready to demand big money, which most NBA team owners didn't have. Hawks owner Ben Kerner didn't have it. Celtics owner Walter Brown did, because he also owned his arena, the Boston Garden, and the other team that played there, the NHL's Boston Bruins.

What's more, Brown owned the Ice Capades. At the time, it was a bigger moneymaker than the NBA or the NHL. So was the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. It came to New York every April, and so the Madison Square Garden Corporation gave them choicer dates. This forced the Rangers in 1950, and the Knicks in 1951, to play Finals games on the road, possibly costing them titles.

The Royals had a chance to select Russell, but passed on him. Why? Because Brown made a deal with Royals owner Les Harrison: Select somebody other than Russell, and I'll add Rochester to the Ice Capades' tour. It was an offer Harrison couldn't refuse. (And no heads -- human, horse, or otherwise -- were hurt in the process.)

It was a short-term fix for the Royals. But that's the way the NBA had to operate at the time. A year later, Harrison moved the Royals to Cincinnati. They won the NBA Championship in 1951. Through the 2025-26 season, 75 years later, this franchise, now known as the Sacramento Kings, has never been back to the NBA Finals. But Harrison did what he had to do to stay in business, and that meant giving up a chance at a man who could have become one of the NBA's greatest players ever, and did.

But he might not have. Until Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to 6 NBA Championships -- 3 with Bill Cartwright at center, and 3 with Luc Longley -- it was generally believed that you had to have a really good center, a big man in the middle, to win an NBA Championship.

But until Russell, Mikan was the only big man who was able to lead a team to an NBA title. Until Russell, the NBA's best players had been smaller guys who were good outside shooters, guys like Joe Fulks (1947 Philadelphia Warriors), Buddy Jeannette (1948 Baltimore Bullets), Bob Davies (1951 Rochester Royals), Dolph Schayes (1955 Syracuse Nationals) and Paul Arizin and Tom Gola (1956 Philadelphia Warriors).

Before Russell, there were 3 truly great "big men" in college basketball. Mikan, from DePaul University in Chicago, was one. Another was Bob Kurland of Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State). He never played pro ball, instead taking a job with Phillips Petroleum, with a great benefits package, including playing for their "semipro" team.

And the other was Clyde Lovellette of the University of Kansas. He had a good pro career, winning titles as Mikan's backup on the Lakers, and later as Russell's backup on the Celtics. But he was never a pro star: He's in the Basketball Hall of Fame, but mainly for what he did in college.

But there was, as yet, no model for what kind of college stars would become pro stars. Like I said, the NBA was only 10 years old at this point. In hindsight, Mikan was the model. Russell admitted that Mikan was his idol. Mikan enjoyed being thought of the progenitor of the NBA's big men.

But at the time, he was seen as a freak of nature, a happy accident that the Lakers had gotten their hands on. Big men were considered to be slow. Mikan was a good shooter and a strong rebounder, but he wasn't fast. Bill Mazer, the great New York sportscaster, compared him to a stampeding elephant. Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe, in a 1996 ESPN appearance celebrating the NBA's 50th Anniversary, said that, in the modern game, he would be "a good backup center. Deserved every accolade he got at the time, but he's Greg Kite with a hook shot." 

In 2021, at the NBA's 75th Anniversary; in 1996, at the 50th; in 1971, at the 25th... Russell seemed like the obvious player to both select and hang onto. In 1956, he wasn't the obvious pick to do that. Maybe he should have been, but he wasn't.

Then there's St. Louis to consider. It's not just that the Hawks were far behind baseball's Cardinals in terms of popularity in the city. It's that St. Louis was a racially segregated city, in Missouri, a racially segregated State. Cardinal stars like Bob Gibson and Curt Flood would chafe under the policies that segregation forced, until federal law broke it.

Russell -- who would eventually, very accurately, title his autobiography Memoirs of an Opinionated Man -- might not have adjusted so well, having been a boy in segregated Louisiana, and grown up in noticeably (but not completely) more racially liberal Oakland. He eventually had problems with race relations in Boston. In St. Louis, it might have been worse. As a result, he might not have won all those titles with the Hawks.

Anyway, it's not as if the Hawks blew it completely. In 1957, the Celtics and Hawks each made the NBA Finals for the 1st time. It went to double overtime of Game 7 before the Celtics won it. In 1958, both teams made it back, and Russell hurt his ankle in Game 3, and was out the rest of the way. The Hawks, led by the men traded for the rights to Russell, Hagan and St. Louis native Macauley, as well as Hall-of-Fame forward Bob Pettit, won the title in 6 games.

The 1958 NBA Champions.

Hagan is Number 16, Pettit 9, and Macauley 20.

In 1959, the Minneapolis Lakers won the Western Conference, and lost to the Celtics in the Finals. In 1960 and '61, the Hawks returned to the Finals, and lost to the Celtics both times. Still, at that point, the players the Hawks got for Russell had gotten them into 4 Finals, winning 1. It could have been better, but it was still better than anybody else except the Celtics were doing.

Still, it was a dumb trade. 

April 29, 1996: Kevin Keegan Would Love It If Newcastle Beat Manchester United

April 29, 1996, 30 years ago: Newcastle United defeat Leeds United, 1-0 at Elland Road in Leeds, Yorkshire, to remain in the race for the Premier League title. Newcastle had a huge lead in the table (or, as we would say, the standings) over Manchester United, but had blown it.

In January, "The Toon" -- that's "The Town" in the "Geordie" dialect of the North-East of England -- got knocked out of both the FA Cup and the League Cup. But, as of February 10, they had lost only 3 League games all season, all away: To Southampton, Chelsea, and Manchester United. They were 9 points ahead of Man U, and had a game in hand.

Then came an 8-game stretch where they won 2 (beating West Ham United and Queens Park Rangers at home), drew 1 (away to Manchester city), and lost 5 (away to West Ham, Arsenal, Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers, and, at home on March 4, 1-0 to Man United). They had now bounced back, winning 3 straight, home to Aston Villa and Southampton, and away to Leeds. Man U now led them by 3 points, although Newcastle still had a game in hand: 2 games remaining, to Man U's 1.

Interviewed on Sky Sports after the Leeds game, Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan, once one of the club's greatest players, went on an epic rant about Man U's manager, the master of mind games, Alex Ferguson. Ferguson stoked tensions when he cast doubt on the commitment of the likes of Leeds and Nottingham Forest to try as hard against Newcastle as they did against his Manchester United team, suggesting that Forest, who were due to play the Magpies for Stuart Pearce's testimonial, might even "let Newcastle win."

Keegan was incensed, and, when the opportunity arose after his side's hard-fought win over Leeds, he could not contain his fury:

When you do that with footballers, like he said about Leeds, and when you do things like that about a man like Stuart Pearce, I've kept really quiet, but I'll tell you something, he went down in my estimation when he said that.

We have not resorted to that, but I'll tell you, you can tell him now if you're watching it, we're still fighting for this title, and he's got to go to Middlesbrough and get something, and -- and -- I'll tell you, honestly, I will love it if we beat them, love it!

Pretty much everybody who didn't love Man United loved hearing him say it. But pretty much everybody, regardless of how they felt about Man United, thought that King Kev had fallen victim to Fergie's mind games -- that he had, as they say in England, "lost the plot."

On May 2, Newcastle went to the City Ground in Nottingham, and could only manage a 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest, handing the League title to the idle Man United. On May 5, at home at St. James' Park, they closed the season by drawing 1-1 with Tottenham Hotspur, while Man United beat Middlesbrough, 3-0 at the Riverside Stadium.

United won the title by 4 points, and went on to win "The Double" by winning the FA Cup Final on May 11, beating Liverpool, 1-0 at Wembley Stadium in West London. But it wouldn't have mattered if Newcastle had won those last 2 games, giving them 82 points, the same number as United: United would have won the title on the 1st tiebreaker, goal difference, +38 to +29 -- or, more accurately, +31, had Newcastle won those last 2 games by 1 goal each.

They would have needed a net improvement of 10 goals over those last 2 games to win the title, unless United had dropped points at Middlesbrough, who were in 12th place. Barring a tremendous upset by Boro, the title had already been lost in that February 21 to April 8 run.

Keegan was one of the great British soccer players of his generation, but he never reached the same heights as a manager. For many fans, this postgame rant symbolized his time as a field boss. And this was before the American football coaches Jim Mora, Herman Edwards and Dennis Green did their famous press conference rants. (Respectively: "Playoffs?" "You play to win the game!" and "They are who we thought they were!") 

All Right, You Primitive Screwheads...

In the words of the immortal Bruce Campbell, playing Ash Williams in the 1993 film Army of Darkness...

All right, you primitive screwheads, listen up!

An innocent man does whatever it takes to prove his innocence. He does not do whatever it takes to gain immunity from prosecution.

A President who has just faced an assassination attempt does not worry about his shoes, pump his fist, yell, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" or promote a ballroom project. A President who staged an assassination attempt does that.

When people tell you, "The Supreme Court is on the ballot," believe them.

Bernie Sanders was not robbed by the Democratic National Committee. Quite the opposite: Just by letting him into their Primaries, they bent over backwards to accommodate him. He wasn't robbed by the DNC. He was rejected by Democratic voters, who knew that he had been talking trash about their Party for half a century.

What Israel is doing is Gaza is bad, but it is not genocide. It is in response to an act of genocide.

What Russia is attempting in Ukraine is an attempt to not only conquer the country, but to wipe out its culture and impose its own. That is genocide.

The new Yankee Stadium is not a "little league park." The proof of this is that the Yankees can hit anywhere.

Derek Jeter was an excellent defensive shortstop. Your "defensive metrics" are meaningless.

Large amounts of money were never going to be enough to save the Mets.

"Wins Above Replacement" has no value. Actual winning has value.

No one has ever proven that Roger Clemens used steroids, and David Ortiz and Barry Bonds did each fail a steroid test.

The two biggest wastes of time that ESPN covers happen practically back-to-back: The Masters and the NFL Draft.

Aaron Rodgers may still be talented, but in the ways that matter, he is a bum.

The Liberty Mutual commercials -- both the ones at the Statue of Liberty and the LiMu Emu & Doug ads -- have run their course, and it's time to retire them.

Speaking of TV commercials: If it takes longer to mention the side effects of a drug than its benefits, and you need people to dance in your commercial, it's time to pull the drug. And the commercial. And do more testing on both.

That said, Zepbound has worked for me. I've lost 20 pounds. That said, I don't know if it, or any other drug, is right for you. Talk to your doctor.

Charles Barkley has lost over 100 pounds on a different GLP-1 drug, but just because a celebrity uses a product doesn't mean it's good. Shaquille O'Neal endorses Icy Hot, but it did nothing for me.

East Brunswick needs a Wegmans. I'll settle for New Brunswick, North Brunswick, Sayreville or Old Bridge. Manalapan, Woodbridge, Bridgewater and West Windsor are just too far.

It's "I couldn't care less," not "I could care less."

 
The past tense of "slay" is "slew," not "slayed."
 
Some of you literally don't know what "literally" means.
 
I'll relax when I'm ready. Telling me to relax makes me less relaxed.
 
And Dunkin tastes better than Starbucks. And it's cheaper, too.

As you were!

April 28, 1966: Eight Straight NBA Championships

Russell is already smelling Auerbach's victory cigar.

April 28, 1966, 60 years ago: Game 7 of the NBA Finals is played at the Boston Garden. The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 95-93. It was their 9th NBA Championship, and their 8th in a row. This is easily a record for North American major league sports.

Bill Russell scored 25 points, and had 32 rebounds. Sam Jones scored 22, and John Havlicek 16. For the Lakers, Jerry West scored 36, but nobody else scored more than Elgin Baylor's 18.

The '66 Celtics included 7 eventual members of the Basketball Hall of Fame: Russell, Havlicek, Sam Jones, K.C. Jones (no relation), Tom "Satch" Sanders, and 2 men whose main contributions would come later, as coaches: Don Nelson and John Thompson. Head coach and general manager Arnold "Red" Auerbach would also be elected.

This would be Auerbach's last title as head coach: He resigned to concentrate on the front office, and named Russell as the NBA's 1st black head coach. If you don't count the early NFL as being truly "major league," a legitimate argument, thus eliminating Fritz Pollard of the 1921 Akron Pros, then Russell was the 1st black head coach in North American major league sports.

The New York Yankees won 5 straight World Series from 1949 to 1953, but no team has won 6. The Montreal Canadiens won 5 straight Stanley Cups from 1956 to 1960, but no team has won 6. The Green Bay Packers won 3 straight NFL Championships, from 1929 to 1931, and again from 1965 to 1967, but no team has won 4.

Does this make the 1959-66 Celtics the greatest dynasty in North American sports? Not really: While some of the greatest basketball players ever were then active -- including Russell, Havlicek, West, Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson -- the NBA wasn't getting as big a share of great athletes as it could have.

The era's top 2 pitchers, Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson, had both gone to college on basketball scholarships. And it's not hard to imagine baseball stars Willie Mays and Lou Brock as point guards, or fearsome defensive ends Gino Marchetti and Willie Davis as power forwards. Indeed, the Celtic team that won 3 out of 6 titles in the 1980s was probably better, top-to-bottom, than the team that won 8 straight titles.

The Celtics have won 18 NBA Championships, more than any other team. The Los Angeles Lakers have won 17, but 5 of those camewhile they were in Minneapolis, from 1947 to 1960.

Auerbach was general manager for the 1st 15 of those Championships, giving up that title in 1984; and team president for the 1st 16 Championships, giving up that title in 1997. He died in 2006.

The Celtics have won the Finals over the Lakers in 1959, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1984 and 2008; the St. Louis Hawks (now the Atlanta Hawks) in 1957, 1960 and 1961; the San Francisco Warriors (now the Golden State Warriors) in 1964; the Milwaukee Bucks in 1974; the Phoenix Suns in 1976; the Houston Rockets in 1981 and 1986; and the Dallas Mavericks in 2024.

They've also lost the Finals to the Hawks in 1958; the Lakers in 1985, 1987, and 2010; and the Warriors in 2022.

Yanks Beat Cheats, North and South

Six games, three at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox, the old enemy, the cheating bastards; and three at Daikin Park (formerly Minute Maid Park, formerly Enron Field) against the Houston Astros, the new enemy, the Chicken Fried Cheats.

A Yankee Fan having watched the team from 2004 onward, and especially from 2015 onward, could be forgiven for expecting a bad run, even if the Yankees did go into this trip with a 3-game winning streak.

Giancarlo Stanton was the star on Tuesday night, leading off the top of the 2nd inning with a tremendous drive over the Green Monster, and across Lansdowne Street. It was his 456th career home run.

Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Amed Rosario and Aaron Judge walked to start the top of the 6th, and after Ben Rice struck out, Stanton doubled off the wall to get them home. A Randal Grichuk double in the 8th made it 4-0.

Luis Gil started for the Yankees, and put together a good start after coming off the Injured List with 2 bad ones. He went 6 1/3rd shutout innings, allowing 2 hits and 3 walks. Brent Headrick, Tim Hill and David Bednar completed the 4-hit shutout.

I enjoyed that game.

*

The Wednesday night game began with Paul Goldschmidt grounding out. After Judge walked, Cody Bellinger struck out. But Stanton hit another double off the wall. This being the Green Monster, it was too close for Judge to score all the way from 1st base. No matter: Rosario hit one over the Monster for a home run, and it was 3-0 Bronx Bombers. Rosario made it 4-0 with a sacrifice fly in the 3rd.

That was plenty for Max Fried, who pitched 8 shutout innings, allowing 3 hits and 2 walks, striking out 9. Headrick allowed a run in the 9th, but it ended Yankees 4, Red Sox 1.

I enjoyed that game, too.

*

On Thursday night, the Sox actually took a lead, 1-0 in the bottom of the 2nd. But in the top of the 5th, the seriously struggling Jazz Chisholm finally hit his 1st home run of the season. The Sox took the lead back in the bottom of the 5th, 2-1, and it was beginning to look like a nice performance by Cam Schlittler was going to go to waste.

But with 1 out in the top of the 7th, Trent Grisham, Chisholm and José Caballero all singled, loading the bases. Austin Wells struck out. Then, Red Sox manager Alex Cora brought in former Yankee reliever Greg Weissert. There's a reason Weissert isn't with the Yankees anymore: He can't pitch at the major league level. Bellinger singled home Gresham and Chisholm, and Judge singled home Caballero. It was 4-2 Yankees.

And it stayed 4-2 Yankees, because Schlitt was it. Schlitt was too legit to quit. He went 8 innings, allowing 2 runs, 1 earned, 4 hits and 1 walk, striking out 5. Bednar pitched a perfect 9th.

I enjoyed this game. I enjoyed this entire series. The Yankees didn't turn Fenway into a little green pinball machine, which is not that hard to do. But they held the Red Sox 3 runs in their own house, and swept them, extending their winning streak to 6 games.

The Sox fired Cora, and his entire coaching staff -- except for Jason Varitek, who had been the captain of, and the catcher on, their World Championship teams of 2004* and 2007*. Him, they reassigned to another role in the organization. Couldn't fire him.

*

On to Houston, and the Asterisks' copycat of Fenway, with the retractable roof and the train atop the left field wall.

On Friday night, the Yankees got 3 runs from "small ball" in the 1st inning, a home run from Ryan McMahon to lead off the top of the 2nd, and another Chisholm homer in the 4th. More small ball produced 3 more runs in the 6th. In the 7th, they used small ball and the long ball, getting home runs from Rice and Caballero.

Will Warren sure didn't pitch like he was merely filling an injury-caused hole in the Yankee rotation: He went 6 innings, allowing 2 runs on 7 hits, but only 1 walk, striking out 6. Fernando Cruz ran into trouble in the 7th, but Ryan Yarbrough pitched the 8th and the 9th. Yankees 12, Astros 4.

Given the recent histories with both teams, I enjoyed this game more than I did the sweep of the Sox.

*

The Astros struck first on Saturday, leading 1-0 after the 1st and 2nd innings. Grisham homered in the 3rd to tie the game. Caballero homered in the 5th to give the Yankees the lead. The Astros tied it in the 6th, meaning that Ryan Weathers, who had pitched well until then, wouldn't be the winning pitcher.

Fernando Cruz would: He finished the 6th, while Jake Bird pitched a perfect 7th, Camilo Doval pitched a hitless 8th, and Tim Hill allowed a run in the 9th. Austin Wells homered in the 7th, and, again, as Hall of Fame Giant 2nd baseman and later broadcaster Frankie Frisch would have said, "Oh, those bases on balls!" With 1 out, Caballero singled, Grisham walked, Rice singled, and then 3 straight walks, to Judge, Bellinger and Chisholm, the last 2 each forcing in a run.

Rice added a sac fly in the 8th. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Bellinger led off the 9th with a walk. After Chisholm flew out, Rosario, Wells and McMahon all singled, producing 2 more runs. Yankees 8, Astros 3. An 8-game winning streak: 3 at home to Kansas City, 3 away to Boston, and 2 away to Houston. All teams that have pissed me off over the years.

I enjoyed that game. A lot.

*

I did not enjoy yesterday's game. Gil did not have it, allowing 6 runs in the 1st 4 innings. Having had 3 of his 4 starts be bad ones, he was sent down to Scranton after the game. Paul Blackburn allowed only 1 run over the next 3 innings, and Yarbrough pitched a perfect 9th.

But the Yankees couldn't get going until it was too late. Judge hit a home run, on his 34th birthday. It was the 378th of his career, surpassing Norm Cash and Jeff Kent, and tying Matt Williams. Next up, at 379: Orlando Cepeda and Tony Pérez.

The Yanks scored 3 in the top of the 9th, but it was nowhere near enough: Astros 7, Yankees 4. End of streak.

*

We are 17 percent of the way through the season, 1/6th. The Yankees are 18-10. They have the best record in the American League. They lead the Eastern Division by a game and a half over the Tampa Bay Rays, 5 over the Baltimore Orioles, 5 1/2 over the Toronto Blue Jays, and 7 over the Red Sox. In the all-important loss column: 1 over the Rays, 5 over the O's and the Jays, and 7 over The Scum.

They have achieved this without Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón or Clarke Schmidt being available. They have achieved this despite 4 regulars -- Wells, Chisholm, Grisham and McMahon -- having OPS+'s of 85 or lower. They have done this despite Judge batting just .230, although he has 10 home runs and 18 RBIs.

I'll take those problems, if I can also take those results.

As for the Mets and their fans, well, in the immortal words of Bono, "Well, tonight, thank God it's them, instead of you!"

The Yankees are still in Texas, albeit in the Dallas area. Tonight, they start a 3-game series away to the Texas Rangers. Then, after a travel day on Thursday, they start a 3-game home weekend series against the Baltimore Orioles.

April 26, 1986: The Chernobyl Disaster

April 26, 1986, 40 years ago: The Number 4 reactor explodes at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukraine. It is the biggest nuclear accident in human history.

The accident occurred during a test of the steam turbine's ability to power the emergency feedwater pumps in the event of a simultaneous loss of external power and coolant pipe rupture. Following an accidental drop in reactor power to near-zero, the operators restarted the reactor in preparation for the turbine test with a prohibited control rod configuration.

Upon successful completion of the test, the reactor was then shut down for maintenance. Due to a variety of factors, this action resulted in a power surge at the base of the reactor which brought about the rupture of reactor components and the loss of coolant. This process led to steam explosions and a meltdown, which destroyed the containment building.

This was followed by a reactor core fire which lasted until May 4, during which airborne radioactive contaminants were spread throughout the Soviet Union and Europe.

In response to the initial accident, a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) radius exclusion zone was created 36 hours after the accident, from which approximately 49,000 people were evacuated, primarily from Pripyat. The exclusion zone was later increased to a radius of 30 kilometers (19 miles), from which an additional 68,000 people were evacuated.

Following the reactor explosion, which killed two engineers and severely burned two more, an emergency operation to put out the fires and stabilize the surviving reactor began, during which 237 workers were hospitalized, of whom 134 exhibited symptoms of acute radiation syndrome (ARS).

A United Nations committee found that to date fewer than 100 deaths have resulted from the fallout. Model predictions of the eventual total death toll in the coming decades vary. The most widely cited study conducted by the World Health Organization in 2006 predicted 9,000 cancer-related fatalities in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

North America was lucky with Three Mile Island in 1979. Eastern Europe was not so lucky with Chernobyl in 1986.

April 26, 1726: Lord Stirling Is Born

April 26, 1726, 300 years ago: William Alexander is born in Manhattan. He held a claim to be the male heir to the Scottish title of Earl of Stirling, through Scottish lineage, being the senior male descendant of the paternal grandfather of an earlier William Alexander, the 1st Earl of Stirling, who had died in 1640, and he sought the title sometime after 1756. The goal was vast land holdings in America that the holder of the title was to enjoy.

His claim was initially granted by a Scottish court in 1759. But in 1762, Britain's House of Lords overruled the court, and denied him the title. He continued to refer to himself "Lord Stirling" regardless. Officially, the British government considers the title of Earl of Stirling to have tied out with Henry Alexander, the 5th Earl, in 1739.

He inherited a large fortune from his father, dabbled in mining and agriculture, and lived a life filled with the trappings befitting a Scottish lord. This was an expensive lifestyle, and he eventually went into debt to finance it.

In 1747, he married Sarah Livingston (1725–1805), daughter of Philip Livingston and sister of Governor William Livingston. They had a son, William; and 2 daughters, Mary and Catherine.

The elder William began building a grand estate in the Basking Ridge section of Bernards Township, Somerset County, New Jersey. Upon its completion, sold his house in New York and moved there. George Washington was a guest there on several occasions during the War of the American Revolution, and gave away Catherine at her wedding to Continental Congressman William Duer.

He was commissioned a Major General in the Continental Army, and commanded a brigade at the Battle of Long Island in Brooklyn, where his rearguard action resulted in his capture, but allowed the main body of the army to escape. He was later returned by prisoner exchange, received a promotion, and continued to serve with distinction throughout the war. Trusted by Washington, in 1778 he commanded troops at the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse in Manalapan, New Jersey, and exposed the Conway Cabal. He was with Washington when he accepted the British surrender at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.

By that point, he was suffering from gout and rheumatism, and his heavy drinking didn't help. He died on January 15, 1783 in Albany, New York, and did not live to see the official end of the war, with the Treaty of Paris.

His grandson, William Alexander Duer, served as President of Columbia University, which was built on land owned by the Livingston family. He was also an ancestor of General Philip Kearny Sr. and General Philip Kearny Jr.

Stirling Township in Somerset County, near his home in Basking Ridge, and Sterling, Massachusetts were named for him. So were a middle school built on land once occupied by the Long Island battlefield, in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn; and an elementary school in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he had once been stationed.

April 25, 1976: Rick Monday Saves an American Flag from Being Burned

April 25, 1976, 50 years ago: Rick Monday, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps in the Vietnam War era, is playing center field for the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. He notices two people in left-centerfield, preparing to burn the American flag. He ran over and grabbed the flag from them.

"I was angry when I saw them start to do something like that to the flag," he said.

Later in 1976, Dodgers executive Al Campanis gave the flag to Monday. He still has it. "I know the people were very pleased to see Monday take the flag away from those guys," Manny Mota, who played with Monday, said. "I know Rick has done a lot of good things as a player and as a person. But what he did for his country, he will be remembered for the rest of his life as an American hero."

The actual flag has faded. The story has not.

Rick Monday didn't do a damn thing for his country by saving that flag. If anything, he interfered with two people who, however misguided and offensive, were exercising their constitutional rights. It was, literally, the least American thing he could have done.

This was 20 days after the event that became known as "the Soiling of Old Glory," in which a racist taunted a black man with a flag at City Hall in Boston. Has anybody ever asked Monday about that?

As for the game: The Dodgers beat the Cubs, 5-4. Ron Cey singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

The Dodgers acquired Monday before the next season, fitting in with their heavily-promoted All-American image. Actually, the Los Angeles Dodgers are the quintessential American sports team: They abandoned the people from whence they came, not for a better life but for more money, and stole land from the people who were already at their destination.

Then they issued lies and platitudes about themselves, all the while hiding some great evils. Sure, their Brooklyn forebears had ended baseball's segregation, but Campanis himself exposed his own racial bigotry, and manager Tommy Lasorda was exposed as homophobic. And then there was their paragon of virtue, Steve Garvey... 

A 2-time All-Star, Monday reached the postseason with the Oakland Athletics before being traded to the Cubs, and won the 1981 World Series with the Dodgers, having hit a Pennant-clinching home run in the National League Championship Series against the Montreal Expos. He retired after the 1984 season, with a .264 lifetime batting average and 241 home runs.

He became a broadcaster for the Dodgers, and still has the flag. He claims he has been offered $1 million for it, but won't sell it. 

A Fenway Sweep, Yankees On a 6-Game Streak

The fear: The Yankees would go into their 1st Fenway Park series of the season having scored too many runs in the series right before it that they wouldn't score enough in the little green pinball machine in the Back Bay, and the Red Sox would capitalize on this.

The reality: The Yankees' pitching dominated The Scum, and we got just enough runs.

On Tuesday night, Luis Gil shook off his 1st 2 poor starts of the season coming off the Injured List, and took a 2-hit shutout into the 7th inning. Brent Hendrick finished the 7th, Tim Hill pitched the 8th, and David Bednar pitched the 9th. It shouldn't take 4 men to pitch a 4-hit shutout, not even in Boston. But I'll take it.

I'll also take a 4-0 win, with Giancarlo Stanton hitting a tremendous solo home run in the 2nd inning, and a double off the wall for 2 more in the 6th.

On Wednesday night, Amed Rosario hit a home run to get the Yankees out to a 3-0 lead before the Sox could even come to bat. He drove in another run with a sacrifice fly in the 3rd inning. Max Fried pitched 8 innings of 3-hit shutout ball. Hendrick allowed a run in the 9th. Yankees 4, Red Sox 1.

Of course, the New York media wasn't talking about the Yankees shutting their arch-rivals down in their little Back Bay bandbox. They were talking first about the Mets having a 12-game losing streak, their worst in 24 years; then, on this night, breaking it by beating the Minnesota Twins at Citi Field.

Last night, Sox starter Payton Tolle struck out the 1st 5 Yankee batters. Not a good sign. And the Sox took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 2nd. It turned out to be a sign of nothing: Jazz Chisholm led off the top of the 5th with his 1st home run of the season. The Sox took the lead back in the bottom of the 5th, but in the 7th, the Yankees got singles from Trent Grisham, Chisholm, José Caballero, Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge -- his only RBI of the series, surprisingly -- to tak a 4-2 lead.

Cam Schlittler, a native of Weymouth, Massachusetts and a graduate of Boston University, showed where his loyalties lie by pitching 8 innings, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and 1 walk, striking out 5. Bednar pitched a perfect 9th. Yankees 4, Red Sox 2.

A sweep of The Scum at Fenway, and a 6-game winning streak. The Yankees lead the American League Eastern Division by 2 1/2 games over the Tampa Bay Rays, 4 over the Baltimore Orioles, 5 1/2 over the Toronto Blue Jays, and 7 over the Sox.

On to Houston, to play the Astros, the Chicken Fried Cheats, the Red Sox South. Bring 'em on. We'll muss 'em up. We'll show those idiot Met fans what "a little league park" really looks like.

Well, maybe not. We only scored 12 runs in 3 games at Fenway. But it was enough.

April 24, 25 and 26, 1901: The American League's 1st Games

April 24, 1901, 125 years ago: The American League plays its 1st games. The National League had been playing this season's regular-season games since April 18, but the AL was now making its debut.

The AL had offered the NL a deal: Accept us as a full major league, and we will respect your contracts, and not take any of your players. The NL refused to accept them, and so, the AL "declared war." On January 27, Hugh Duffy "jumped" from the Boston Beaneaters to the Milwaukee Brewers. On February 8, Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, Charles "Chick" Fraser and Bill Bernhard jumped from the Philadelphia Phillies to the Philadelphia Athletics.

On March 2, Jimmy Collins jumped from the Beaneaters to the Boston Americans. Sometime before March 11, John McGraw signed to manage, and play 3rd base, for an AL team with the same name as his now-defunct former NL team, the Baltimore Orioles. On March 19, Cy Young jumped from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Americans.

(Baseball-Reference.com says McGraw signed with the AL Orioles "Before 1901 Season." Nor does Wikipedia provide a definitive date. The reason we know it was before March 11, 1901 is that it has been established that, on that date, he signed Charlie Grant, a black player, and attempted to pass him off as a Cherokee Indian named Charlie Tokohoma. But, that day, the Orioles played a Spring Training game against the Chicago White Sox, whose owner, Charlie Comiskey, the AL's co-founder with League President Ban Johnson, and a former star 1st baseman for the team that became the Cardinals, recognized Grant, and told McGraw that he'd blow the whistle on him if he didn't dump Grant. McGraw guessed that Comiskey wasn't bluffing, which was probably true, and released Grant.)

The 1st AL game was played at South Side Park, at 38th Street and Princeton Avenue, in Chicago, about 4 blocks south of where the home team from that game would play for most of the 20th Century, and about 3 blocks south of where it plays now. The Chicago White Sox defeated the Cleveland Blues, 8-2. Attendance was listed as 9,000, at a ballpark that seated about 15,000.

The White Sox were managed by Clark Griffith, who was still an active pitcher. He had been an ace for the previous team known as the Chicago White Stockings, in the NL.

According to the account written many years later, in the visiting team's hometown newspaper, The Plain Dealer: 

The date was April 24, in Chicago's White Sox park, when Ollie Pickering stepped to the plate for the Cleveland Blues. Pickering, an outfielder, hit the second pitch from Chicago White Sox right-hander Roy Patterson to center field. William Hoy, a deaf-mute who was cruelly nicknamed Dummy, caught the routine fly, and with that the American League was officially underway.

Hoy, whose batting, baserunning and fielding skills have led later observers to suggest that he should be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, was long erroneously credited with being the source for umpires using their left hands to call balls and their right hands to call strikes, because he couldn't hear their verbal calls. Pickering is correctly credited with coining the term "Texas leaguer," a looping hit that falls between the infielders and the outfielders.

The White Sox scored 2 runs in the 1st inning, and 5 in the 2nd, and coasted the rest of the way, and won the game on this Wednesday, 8-2.

The next day, the White Sox beat the Blues again, 7-3. Erve Beck of the Blues hit the AL's 1st home run. In 1902, the Blues acquired star 2nd baseman Napoleon Lajoie, and named him their manager. For the 1903 season, they changed their name to honor him: The Cleveland Naps.

He left after the 1914 season, when the World Series was won by the Boston Braves. They'd used the Native American nickname for only 3 seasons. So the Naps then changed their name to the Cleveland Indians, and used that name until 2021, then becoming the Cleveland Guardians. The stories that they'd been named the Indians after tribesmen living on the shore of Lake Erie, and that they'd been named after the 1st Native American player in the majors, former Cleveland Spiders star Louis Sockalexis, have been proven incorrect.

One other game was played on Thursday, April 25: The Detroit Tigers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 14-13 at Bennett Park in Detroit. The Brewers led 7-0 after just 3 innings, and 13-4 going into the bottom of the 9th. But the Tigers scored 10 runs to win it. And they did it without the benefit of a home run. (This was the Dead Ball Era.)

In 1912, a new ballpark would open on the site of Bennett Park, named Navin Field. It would be expanded and renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938, and renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.

The Brewers would move after just 1 season, becoming the St. Louis Browns in 1902, and later the new major league version of the Baltimore Orioles in 1954. A new minor-league team would take up the Brewers name, before making way for the Boston Braves to become the Milwaukee Braves in 1953. They moved to Atlanta in 1966, making possible a new AL Milwaukee Brewers in 1970.

On Friday, April 26:

* The Washington Senators beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 5-1 at Columbia Park in Philadelphia. The Senators became the Minnesota Twins in 1961. They were replaced by an expansion team with the Senators name that year, but that team also moved, becoming the Texas Rangers in 1972. The Athletics moved to Kansas City in 1955, to Oakland in 1968, and to Sacramento in 2025, and hope to move to Las Vegas in 2028.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Americans, 10-6 at Oriole Park in Baltimore. The Americans would change their name to the Boston Red Sox in 1908. The Orioles would break up in 1902, and a new franchise was created in its place for the 1903 season: The New York Highlanders, who, in 1913, officially changed their name to what people had been calling them for a few years already: The New York Yankees. (Research by Yankee historian Marty Appel has proven that the New York franchise of 1903 onward is not the Baltimore franchise of 1901 and '02.) A new minor-league team would take up the Orioles name.

* The Tigers beat the Brewers, 6-5 at Bennett Park.

And there were 3 games played in the National League that day: The New York Giants beat the Brooklyn Superbas, 5-3 at the Polo Grounds in New York; the Boston Beaneaters beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia; and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Orphans, 8-7 in 12 innings at West Side Park in Chicago.

The Superbas became the Dodgers in 1911, changed their name to the Robins in honor of new manager Wilbert Robinson in 1914, and became the Dodgers again in 1932 after he was fired. They moved to Los Angeles in 1958. At the same time, the Giants moved to San Francisco.

The Beaneaters became the Braves in 1912, and, as I said, moved to Milwaukee in 1953, and to Atlanta in 1966. The former Chicago White Stockings had long been led by Adrian Constantine Anson, known as "Cap" for "captain," and "Pop" as he got older, and after his 1897 retirement, were known as "the Orphans, because they missed their Pop." They became the Cubs in 1903.

Yankees vs. Red Sox: The Defining Moments, Part VI: 2005-2026

April 5, 2005, Yankee Stadium. After he hit the home run that won Game 4 of the 2001 World Series, Derek Jeter said he'd never hit a walkoff homer before, not even in Little League. He does it again in this game, off Keith Foulke. Yankees 4, Red Sox 3. The Yankees could have used one of these homers on October 17 or 18, 2004.

April 8, 2005, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The film Fever Pitch premieres, starring Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore. It tells the story about a man in love with a woman and a baseball team, and what happens when the 2 loves come into conflict.

It was based on the 1992 memoir of the same title by Nick Hornby, then an English teacher in London, and a fan of North London soccer team Arsenal. He told of following the team from the fall of 1968, when he was 11 years old, until just before publication, including the 1971 "Double" season (meaning that they won the Football League Division One and the Football Association Cup in the same season) and the next League title, which wasn't until 1989 -- 18 years.

It had previously been made into a film in the United Kingdom, premiering in 1997, starring Colin Firth and Ruth Gemmell. This version, with Hornby writing the screenplay, followed a fictionalized version of Hornby during the epic 1988-89 season, with flashbacks to his youth in 1968 and 1972.

The United States version was adapted by Providence, Rhode Island-based filmmakers Peter & Bobby Farrelly, fans of New England's sports teams, including the Red Sox. They cast Fallon, then a former star of NBC's Saturday Night Live, and not yet the host of a late-night talk show, now hosting The Tonight Show. Ironically, in real life, Fallon is a Yankee Fan, so this film proves that he really can act.

This version of the film follows the Red Sox in their own epic season, of 2004. Unlike the makers of the U.K. version, the Farrelly Brothers did not know how the season was going to turn out. So, having already got permission from the MLB officers to film at Fenway and use game footage, they asked one more favor, and got the right to set up cameras at Busch Memorial Stadium when the Sox finished the job on October 27, 2004, and put Jimmy and Drew on the field, in character, celebrating.

Most Yankee Fans hate the film, for obvious reasons: It glorifies the Sox, and shows the Yankees losing and the alleged curse ending. Most Sox fans hate it, too, because, as Jimmy said of his group's trip to Spring Training, captured on ESPN and seen by Drew's character and her parents, "We looked like morons!"

Me? I think it's a good movie, but the ending makes it a horror movie.

April 14, 2005, Fenway Park. Yankee right fielder Gary Sheffield's cap is knocked off by a Red Sox fan while trying to pick up a fair ball in right field. In response, Sheffield pushes the fan. The conflict is quickly stopped by security guards. The fan is ejected from the game for interfering with play, and is eventually stripped of his season tickets. Red Sox 8, Yankees 5. Still, the Sox fans once again prove that they, not the Yankees or their fans, are the evil ones.

January 3, 2006, Yankee Stadium. Center fielder Johnny Damon, one of the heroes of the Sox' revival, the man who named them "The Idiots," signs as a free agent with the Yankees. Gone are the long hair and the beard. Yankee Fans welcome him. Sox fans call him a traitor.

August 18, 19, 20 & 21, 2006, Fenway Park. The Yankees complete a 5-game sweep at the little green pinball machine off Kenmore Square. The scores are 12-4, 14-11, 13-5, 8-5 and 2-1. The Yankees won a tight pitching duel, a pair of slugfests, and 2 blowouts. They have moved from 1 1/2 games ahead of the Sox to 6 1/2 games ahead, effectively killing the Division race with 6 weeks to go.

I was in Boston on the 20th, for the 4th game, although my chances of getting into Fenway were slim and none, and I had to watch from elsewhere in Scum Town. Then again, I'd rather have watched from outside Fenway and won than watched from inside and lost.

You should have heard Sox fans, not to mention the WEEI radio hosts, talk: They were in a daze, acting as though what happened in October 2004 had never happened. (And, based on what we now know, it really didn't.)

April 22, 2007, Fenway Park. Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek hit 4 consecutive home runs off Yankee pitcher Chase Wright, powering a comeback from a 3-run deficit and completing a 3-game sweep of the Yankees at Fenway Park for the first time since 1990. Red Sox 7, Yankees 6.

While the Yankees do get the Wild Card in this season, they never recover enough from this beating to take the Division title. The Sox win the World Series again, although this can also been deemed illegitimate. Of the players who hit the 4 straight homers, Manny is later proven a steroid user, and the other 3 have also been suspected.

Joe Torre is lowballed on a new contract offer, and leaves the Yankees. Former catcher Joe Girardi is named manager. Meanwhile, the Sox go on to win the World Series again.

December 13, 2007, Office of DLA Piper, Washington, D.C.: The Mitchell Report is issued. Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, Democrat of Maine, was charged with finding out just how far baseball players had gone with the use of performance-enhancing drugs, including those that fall under the term "steroids."

Issuing his report from the office of the law firm for whom he consulted, he based it mainly on the testimony of 2 men whose credibility was highly questionable: Brian McNamee, a personal trainer who had worked for Yankees Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch, and who had previously worked with Clemens as the strength & conditioning coach with the Toronto Blue Jays; and Kirk Radomski, a former clubhouse employee of the Mets.

Among the players Mitchell said had used PEDs were Clemens, Pettitte and Knoblauch. And it was already known that Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield were steroid users, although neither of those two ever managed to help the Yankees win a World Series.

Interestingly, no players from the 2004 Red Sox were named, and only 2 players from the 2007 Red Sox were, and they were hardly crucial to the World Series win: Éric Gagné, the reliever whose streak of 84 consecutive saves with the Los Angeles Dodgers electrified fans from 2002 to 2004; and Brendan Donnelly, also a reliever, who had been a rookie on the 2002 World Champion Anaheim Angels. 

The Report did not name either David Ortiz or Manny Ramirez, who would later be revealed to have failed steroid tests. Nor Bronson Arroyo, who would later confess to PED use. Nor Curt Schilling, nor Trot Nixon, nor Kevin Millar, nor Bill Mueller, nor Mark Bellhorn, nor Kevin Youkilis, all of whom have been suspected.

Mitchell is a lifelong Red Sox fan, and was, at that time, a member of the team's board of directors. Until that point, only crazy conservative pundits had ever questioned his integrity. But this was a massive conflict of interest: Yes, the research should have been done; yes, a report should have been issued; no, he should not have been the one to do it.

At any rate, the Yankees became the face of "cheating" in baseball, while the Red Sox got off scot free. The Red Sox were "America's Team," and the Yankees were the "Evil Empire."

The truth would come out.

February 29, 2008, Legends Field, Tampa, Florida. At the spring-training complex soon to be renamed for his father, Yankee senior vice president Henry George Steinbrenner III, a.k.a. Hank Steinbrenner, responds to the popularity of the Sox in The New York Times newspaper's Play magazine:

"Red Sox Nation?" What a bunch of bullshit that is. That was a creation of the Red Sox and ESPN, which is filled with Red Sox fans. Go anywhere in America, and you won't see Red Sox hats and jackets, you'll see Yankee hats and jackets. This is a Yankee country. We're going to put the Yankees back on top and restore the universe to order.

Not "restore order to the universe." "Restore the universe to order." It will take 2 more seasons.

Hank's health would begin to fail, and brother Harold "Hal" Steinbrenner, 12 years younger, would end up winning the power struggle for control of the team. Hank was willing to spend big to get big results, like George Steinbrenner and Tom Yawkey; Hal Steinbrenner is more interested in making a profit, like Jean Yawkey.

July 15, 2008, Yankee Stadium. The House That Ruth Built hosts the All-Star Game in its last season. Jeter and A-Rod are elected starters, and get huge ovations. Manny, David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia are also elected starters, and get the hell booed out of them. (Ortiz was injured and could not play.)

Sox reliever Jonathan Papelbon, having closed out the previous year's World Series against the Colorado Rockies, tells the media that he should close out the game, not Mariano Rivera of the Yankees. In Rivera's ballpark.

Despite having his own manager, Terry Francona, managing the AL team (the managers of the previous season's Pennant winners are always the opposing managers), Papelbon is inserted in the game in the 8th inning, and he blows a 2-2 tie to give the National League the lead. And the Yankee Fans let him hear it.

But the AL ties it in the bottom of the 8th. Rivera is called on to get the last out in the top of the 9th, and gets the biggest ovation of his career so far. He gets the last out, and pitches the 10th as well, getting into trouble, but getting out of it. The AL wins the game in the 15th, tying it with the 1967 edition in Anaheim for the longest All-Star Game ever, and the only one on the AL team who doesn't feel like celebrating is Papelbon.

August 28, 2008, Yankee Stadium. The teams meet at the old Bronx ballyard for the last time. Jason Giambi hits a bases-loaded single off Papelbon in the bottom of the 9th to win it for the Yankees, 3-2.

On September 21, the Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 7-3 in the final scheduled game at the old Yankee Stadium, thus keeping them mathematically alive in the Playoff race. The next day, the Sox clinched the Division, and the Yankees ended up not winning the Wild Card, either. It was the 1st time they had missed the postseason since 1993. (There was no postseason to miss in 1994.)

September 28, 2008, Fenway Park. The teams close the regular season with a rain-forced doubleheader against each other. The Yankees win the 1st game, 6-2. The Red Sox win the 2nd game, 4-3, on a walkoff single by Jonathan Van Every off José Veras. The Sox get as far as Game 7 of the ALCS, before losing to the Tampa Bay Rays.

May 4, 2009, Yankee Stadium II, Bronx. The teams meet at the new Yankee Stadium for the 1st time. Boston wins, 6-4.

July 30, 2009, Fenway Park. Exactly 10 years to the day after the 13-3 demolition I saw at Fenway, it is revealed that both David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez failed steroid tests in the 2003 season. With Papi and Manny the 2 biggest reasons the Sox won the 2004 and 2007 World Series, those titles are now revealed to be completely illegitimate.

August 7, 2009, Yankee Stadium II. A-Rod ends a 0-0 standoff after 15 innings with a 2-run home run off Junichi Tazawa, who is making his major league debut. Two days later, Damon and Mark Teixeira hit back-to-back homers to give the Yanks a come-from-behind 3-2 win and a sweep.

A-Rod had also tested positive in 2003. In 2009, he was the most-tested athlete in sports history, and he kept coming up clean. He also kept coming up big when the Yankees needed him, instead of his usual tendency to boost his stats by homering when the Yankees were already winning, or losing, big.

September 27, 2009, Yankee Stadium II. Yankees 4, Red Sox 2. The Yankees complete a 3-game sweep of the Red Sox with a 4-2 victory, clinching their 1st AL East title since 2006. The Yankees came back to tie the season series against the Red Sox 9-9, after starting with an 0-8 record against them, and go on to win their 27th World Championship -- slaying their own dragons (real, imagined, or steroid-induced), and in Hank's words, restoring the universe to order.

May 17, 2010, Yankee Stadium II. Marcus Thames breaks a bottom-of-the-9th slugfest deadlock with a walkoff homer off Papelbon. Yankees 11, Red Sox 9.

September 28, 2011, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, Maryland. As late as September 1, a date on which they completed a 2-out-of-3 series win over the Yankees, the Sox were in 1st place in the AL East. But they went into a tailspin, the Yankees took advantage, and, on this date, the Sox lose to the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3, while the Yankees lose to the Rays. As a result, with the Yankees having already clinched the AL East, the Sox blow the Wild Card to the Rays.

Manager Terry Francona and general manager Theo Epstein will soon be fired. Once again, it is the Yankees who are regarded as champions, and the Red Sox who are regarded as chokers. As God intended it.

April 20, 2012, Fenway Park. The Sox celebrate the ballpark's 100th Anniversary -- the 1st Major League Baseball stadium to reach a Centennial -- by playing on the exact anniversary, and playing the exact same opponent. But they don't get the same result, as the Yankees hit 5 home runs: 2 by Eric Chavez, and 1 each by Nick Swisher, Russell Martin, and 1 by Alex Rodriguez. Yankees 6, Red Sox 2.

Every time A-Rod comes to the plate, the Sox fans chant, "Steroids!" -- while cheering for known steroid cheat David Ortiz.

April 21, 2012, Fenway Park. The Yankees come from 9-0 down to beat the Sox 15-9, including 7 runs in the 7th inning and 7 more in the 8th. Swisher homers again, and Teixeira hits home runs from each side of the plate. The next day, the series finale was rained out, and postponed until July, but the Yankees ended up winning it then anyway.

June 28, 2012, E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse, Washington, District of Columbia: Roger Clemens is found not guilty on 6 counts of lying to Congress, when he testified that he had never taken performance-enhancing drugs.

Few people believe he was actually innocent, but the federal government was unable to prove its case based on the evidence at hand. For the record: Roger Clemens has never failed a test for steroids. But David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez all did. Of those four men, only Ortiz has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

July 7, 2012, Fenway Park. The Sox lead 5-3. Boone Logan comes in to relieve Phil Hughes with 1 out in the 6th, man on 2nd. Flyout, back-to-back walks, strikeout. End of that threat. But Girardi should have realized that, having already walked 2 batters, Logan shouldn't be kept in the game.

He leaves Logan in to start the 7th, and he allows a double. Girardi brings in Cory Wade, who turns that leadoff double (totally Logan's fault) into 4 runs (all of them partly Logan's fault). The Sox lead 9-4 instead of 5-4. The Yanks manage to make it 9-5, meaning if Logan doesn't allow that double, it's no worse than 5-5.

And this is against The Scum. Granted, the Sox were awful in 2012, but you still want to beat them, and the Yanks were still in a Division title race. This was Game 21 in Logan's Litany of Losing.

However, having Bobby Valentine as manager turns out to be a disaster for the Sox, as they go 69-93, their worst season since 1965. The Yankees win the Division, but the postseason turns out to be a disaster.

May 31, 2013, Yankee Stadium II. The teams play each other for the 1st time since the bombing at the Boston Marathon on April 15. "Boston Strong" signs are everywhere, and, for once, the fans of the 2 legendary rivals are united. (Despite the banner of solidarity at Fenway, there were no games between them in 2001 after September 11.) Behind the pitching of CC Sabathia and an RBI double by Vernon Wells, the Yankees win, 4-1.

August 5, 2013, Commissioner's Office, Rockefeller Center, New York. Alex Rodriguez is suspended for the rest of the 2013 season, and all of the 2014 season, for steroid use. They don't have a failed test on him -- not since 2003, before the current policy, anyway.

David Ortiz, who also failed a test in 2003, but not since, is permitted to continue playing.

September 6, 2013, Yankee Stadium II. The Yankees host the Sox, and lead 8-3. Andy Pettitte has pitched 6 strong innings. But Girardi brings the struggling Phil Hughes in to pitch the 7th. He gets 1 out, but allows 3 singles and a walk, making it 8-4. Girardi brings Logan in to face Ortiz with the bases loaded and 1 out. Cringe time... Logan strikes Ortiz out! All right, now get him out of there!

No, Girardi leaves him in to face Mike Napoli with the bases loaded and 1 out. Logan feeds the gopher, and Napoli hits a game-tying grand slam. Girardi still leaves him in, to face Daniel Nava. Nava singles, and, finally, Girardi takes him out, and Preston Claiborne gets Stephen Drew out to end the inning. Claiborne and Joba Chamberlain finish the disaster in the 8th, and the Sox win, 12-8.

By this point, even Girardi had learned that Logan could not be trusted with pitching in the major leagues. Only once more did he put Logan in a game, and that was on September 24, in a game that an exhausted Hiroki Kuroda had already let get away. It was in a 7-0 loss to the Rays, and Logan faced 1 batter, Sam Fuld, and struck him out. But the September 6, 2013 game was the 34th game that Logan blew, or helped to blow, in his 4 seasons in Pinstripes. Exit permanently, stage lefty.

The Yankees went 85-77, a decent season by most teams' standards, but missing the Playoffs, finishing tied for 3rd in the AL East, 12 games behind the Division-winning Red Sox, and 7 games behind the 2nd Wild Card team, the Rays.

The Sox went on to win another World Series, beating the St. Louis Cardinals in 6 games. David Ortiz, who shouldn't even be allowed to play professional baseball after being outed as a steroid cheat and a liar, and still lying about it, was named Series MVP.

September 4, 2014, Yankee Stadium II. Chase Headley hits a home run off Koji Uehara in the bottom of the 9th, giving the Yankees a 5-4 win.

September 28, 2014, Fenway Park. At the same ballpark where Mickey Mantle played his last game, 46 years earlier to the day, Derek Jeter plays his last game. The Red Sox present him with gifts.

Jim Rice, Mookie Betts, David Ortiz, Derek Jeter and Carl Yastrzemski

In the top of the 3rd inning, he singles home Ichiro Suzuki against Clay Buchholz, part of a 4-run inning. Brian McCann -- a slow catcher, so this Girardi move makes no sense -- is sent in to pinch-run for him, and the New England fans give him a standing ovation. The Yankees go on to win, 9-5.

September 28, 2016, Yankee Stadium II. Teixeira hits a walkoff grand slam, the 409th and last home run of his career, off Joe Kelly to give the Yankees a 5-3 win over the Red Sox.

As of Jasson Domínguez's drive against the Texas Rangers on May 21, 2025, the Yankees have hit 242 walkoff home runs in their history, counting the postseason. 30 of these, including the postseason walkoffs by Bernie Williams in 1999 and Aaron Boone in 2003, have been against the Red Sox.

September 29, 2016, Yankee Stadium II. For the final time, David Ortiz, the biggest Yankee Killer ever, plays against the Yankees. CC Sabathia strikes him out in the 2nd inning, then walks him in the 4th. As with Jeter in his farewell, he is removed for a pinch-runner, in his case Brock Holt. The Yankee Fans give him a standing ovation.

Thanks in part to an RBI double by Jacoby Ellsbury, one of the heroes of the Sox' 2013 title who then signed with the Yankees, the Yankees win 9-5. This will be a rare good moment in Pinstripes for Ellsbury, whose injuries made him one of the most-mocked acquisitions in Yankee history.

April 26, 2017, Fenway Park. On his 25th birthday, Aaron Judge hits a home run against the Red Sox. He becomes the 6th Yankee to hit a homer against the Sox on his birthday. The Yankees win, 3-1.

August 13, 2017, Yankee Stadium II. This game was the Yankees' 2017 season in a nutshell. They got good pitching from Jordan Montgomery, David Robertson and Dellin Betances, and led 2-1 going into the top of the 9th inning.

But Aroldis Chapman gave up a game-tying home run to Rafael Devers, and was left in for the 10th inning, hitting Jackie Bradley with a pitch, and giving up a walk to former Yankee error machine Eduardo Núñez. Girardi brought Tommy Kahnle in, and he walked Mookie Betts to load the bases, and gave up a single to Andrew Benintendi to lose it.

The Red Sox won, 3-2, and ended up winning the AL East by 2 games. Oddly, the Yankees not only snuck into the Wild Card Game, but won it, and won their ALDS, while the Sox lost theirs to the Houston Astros, only for the Yankees to stop hitting in Games 6 and 7 of the ALCS, and lose the Pennant to the Astros by 1 game. Who knows if winning the Division would have made a difference?

Girardi's contract ran out, and the Yankees did not seek a new one. The new manager was rivalry hero Aaron Boone.

October 8, 2018, Yankee Stadium II. Game 3 of the ALDS is the worst loss in Yankee postseason history, 16-1, including 7 Boston runs in the 4th inning, shelling Luis Severino. Nathan Eovaldi, whom general manager Brian Cashman released due to long-term injury, getting nothing for him, was the winning pitcher for the Red Sox.

October 9, 2018, Yankee Stadium II. Through a stroke of luck, this became the 1st live postseason sporting event I ever saw. I would have been better off missing it.

As with another win-or-go-home game, Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, Bucky Dent was invited to throw out the ceremonial first ball. As on that earlier occasion, it provided no effect. The Sox tagged Sabathia for 3 runs in the 3rd inning, and a Christian Vázquez home run in the 4th made the difference. The last out was much-hyped rookie Gleyber Torres, Cashman's golden prospect, grounding out on a play that had to be reviewed, but the replay showed that he was out. Red Sox 4, Yankees 3.

They had already clinched the Division at our place, and now they clinched this series at our place as well. They went on to win a World Series without David Ortiz for the 1st time in 100 years. They also won it, apparently, without steroids. There was, however, an accusation of the use of Apple Watches to "spy" on opponents.

Since 2000, the count is now Red Sox 4* (asterisks on all of them), Yankees 1. That is unacceptable.

June 29, 2019, London Stadium, London, England, Great Britain. The rivalry goes international. London Stadium, centerpiece of the 2012 Olympics, and now the home of East London soccer team West Ham United, is converted for baseball use. For the 1st 2 MLB games in Europe -- despite "Brexit," Britain still counts -- baseball's biggest rivalry provides the opponents.

The 1st inning of the 1st game was insane: Each team scored 6 runs. On social media, Americans were explaining to their British online correspondents, "No, this does not happen regularly. It's rare." The Yankees scored another 6 runs in the 4th inning, and the Sox scored another 6 runs in the 7th. The Yankees got home runs from Judge, Aaron Hicks and Brett Gardner; the Sox got 2 from Benjamin Chavis and 1 from Jackie Bradley Jr. The Yankees won, 17-13.

June 30, 2019, London Stadium. In the 2nd and last game of the London Series, the Sox scored 4 in the 1st inning, but the Yankees scored 9 in the 7th. The Yankees hit only 1 home run, from Didi Gregorius, but won, 12-8.

October 5, 2021, Fenway Park. Both teams finished the regular season 92-70, 8 games behind the AL East-winning Tampa Bay Rays. Since the Sox won the series series, they hosted the AL Wild Card Game against the Yankees. Xander Bogaerts hit a 2-run home run off Gerrit Cole in the 1st inning, and that was pretty much it: The Sox won, 6-2. Again, the winning pitcher was Nathan Eovaldi.

April 8, 2022, Yankee Stadium II: Opening Day. The season couldn't have started much better for the Yankees: With the "ghost runner" rule in effect, Josh Donaldson leads off the bottom of the 11th inning by singling Isiah Kiner-Falefa home, and the Yankees beat the Red Sox, 6-5.

This time, Eovaldi wouldn't be the winning pitcher, as he gave up home runs to Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton. DJ LeMahieu hit one off Garrett Whitlock. Michael King was the winning pitcher, in relief of Gerrit Cole.

Over the course of the regular season, in Boston, the Yankees would lose 2 games to the Sox on walkoffs, and win another in 10 innings.

September 12, 2024, Yankee Stadium II: Again with the ghost runner, Juan Soto leads off the bottom of the 10th by singling Jon Berti home, and the Yankees beat the Red Sox, 2-1. Clay Holmes is the winner, in relief of Nestor Cortés. The Yankees went on to win their 1st Pennant in 15 years, an interregnum in which the Sox had won 2.

August 23, 2025, Yankee Stadium II: After losing the 2 previous games, 6-3 and 1-0, the Yankees lose to the Red Sox, 12-1. Although they salvage the last game of the series, 7-2, these losses help to cost them the Division title and a better postseason position.

October 2, 2025: It is 76 years to the day after The Jerry Coleman Game, and 47 years to the day after The Bucky Dent Game. This is The Cam Schlittler Game: The rookie, who was promoted from the minor leagues on July 9 as an injury-replacement emergency starter, continued his fine run in Game 3 of the AL Wild Card Series, going 8 innings, allowing 5 hits and no walks, striking out 12. David Bednar walked a batter in the 9th, but finished the 5-hit shutout. The Yankees won, 4-0, winning a postseason series against the Red Sox for the 1st time in 22 years. But they lost in the next round.

April 21, 2026, Fenway Park: The rivalry resumes. Let's go, Yankees! BEAT THE SCUM!