February 14, 1934: The Ace Bailey Benefit Game

A colorized photo of Ace Bailey, included in a composite photo

of a Maple Leafs' Centennial Team, 2016

February 14, 1934, 90 years ago: One of the greatest moments in National Hockey League history occurs. But it was brought on by perhaps its ugliest game.

On December 12, 1933, the Boston Bruins were hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Boston Garden. The Bruins still had most of the players who had led them to the 1929 Stanley Cup, including 2 of the greatest defensemen the game has ever known, Eddie Shore and Aubrey "Dit" Clapper. The Leafs, winners of the Cup in 1932, had another, Francis "King" Clancy.

This game, which the Leafs would win 4-1, was in the 2nd period. The Leafs had taken 2 quick penalties, and sent Clancy, defenseman George "Red" Horner, and right wing Irvine Wallace "Ace" Bailey out to defend the 5-on-3 Bruin power play.

Shore, who helped the Bruins win the Stanley Cup in 1929, rushed up the ice. Clancy, charitably listed at 5-foot-7 and 155 pounds, and a winner of the Cup with the Ottawa Senators in 1922, '23 and '27, and with the Leafs in '32, followed him, and checked him into the boards.

Shore got up, and, in his daze, he figured the closest Leaf player to him must have been the one who did it. He guessed wrong: The closest Leaf player to him was Bailey. Shore hit him from the side, and he landed head-first on the ice.

Horner skated over, knowing full well that it wasn't Bailey who had checked Shore, and yelled, "What did you do that for, Eddie?" Shore, not realizing the enormity of what he had done, gave Horner a big grin. What happened next is in dispute: The first source I saw on the story said that Horner hit Shore over the head with the blade of his stick. Another source said that Horner punched Shore, knocking him out in an instant.

Whatever the truth was, Shore was also out cold. The Boston crowd booed the hell out of Horner, who was already known as one of the dirtiest players in the game. But so was Shore, who, with his attitude, his receding hairline, and the fact that he was admired but not especially liked, was practically the Ty Cobb of hockey.

But it quickly became apparent that Bailey was hurt worse. Both men regained consciousness, and were carried off the ice together. Shore apologized. Bailey seemed to forgive him, saying, "It's all part of the game," and then passed out again.

Bailey was taken to Boston City Hospital. He was diagnosed with a fractured skull and an extradural clot on the brain. His father, listening to the game on the radio in Toronto, packed a gun, and immediately boarded a train for Boston, intending to kill Shore.

Leafs owner Conn Smythe found out about this, and talked to his general manager, Frank Selke. Selke had a friend working with the Boston Police, who met Bailey's father at the hotel, and talked him out of the murder plot.

Nevertheless, the BPD said they would charge Shore with manslaughter if Bailey died. Within 24 hours, he underwent 2 spinal taps to relieve intracranial pressure. There was at least one news report that Bailey had died. But, through several procedures, he came out of his coma after 10 days. He hung on, through Christmas and New Year's. In mid-January 1934, he was released from the hospital.

NHL President Frank Calder suspended Horner for 6 games, and Shore indefinitely. Once he was confident that Bailey was going to live, Calder set Shore's suspension at 16 games, or 1/3rd of the season at the time (48 games). Bailey never played again.

Walter Gilhooly, sports editor of the Ottawa Journal, recommended that a benefit game be played, to offset Bailey's loss of income. Calder agreed. The Leafs would host the game, and put their team out against a team made up of players from the rest of the League, 2 from each of the other 8 teams then in it.

The game was played at Maple Leaf Gardens on February 14, 1934. Here were the lineups:

* From the Toronto Maple Leafs, coached by Dick Irvin, once a great player, and the father of eventual Hall of Fame broadcaster Dick Irvin Jr.: Number 1, goaltender George Hainsworth, formerly a star with the Montreal Canadiens; 2, defenseman Red Horner; 3, defenseman Alex Levinsky; 4, defenseman Clarence "Hap" Day; 5, center Andy Blair; 7, defenseman King Clancy; 8, left wing Harold "Baldy" Cotton; 9, right wing Charlie "the Bomber" Conacher; 10, center Joe Primeau; 11, left wing Harvey "Busher" Jackson; 12, left wing Hector "Hec" Kilrea; 14, center Bill Thoms; 15, right wing Ken Doraty; 16, right wing Charlie Sands; 17, left wing Frank "Buzz" Boll.

NHL All-Stars, coached by Lester Patrick of the New York Rangers, also once a great player:

* From the Chicago Black Hawks: 1, goaltender Charlie Gardiner; and 7, defenseman Lionel Conacher, brother of Charlie.

* From the Boston Bruins: 2, defenseman Eddie Shore; and 9, center Nelson "Nels" Stewart, better known as a Montreal Maroon.

* From the Ottawa Senators: 3, right wing Frank Finnigan; and 17, defenseman Al Shields.

* From the Montreal Canadiens: 4, left wing Aurele Joliat; and 16, center Howie Morenz. Morenz, known as "the Babe Ruth of Hockey" -- like Ruth, he had several nicknames -- normally wore 7, but Lionel Conacher was considered the greatest all-around athlete in Canada, and had priority.

* From the Detroit Red Wings: 5, left wing Herbie Lewis; and 14, right wing Larry Aurie.

* From the New York Rangers: 6, defenseman Ivan "Ching" Johnson; and 15, right wing Bill Cook. Somebody decided that the Irish-Canadian Johnson looked Chinese, and nicknamed him Ching. He had seniority over Aurie, who also wore 6; but Lewis had seniority over Cook, who wore 5 with the Rangers.

* From the Montreal Maroons: 10, center Reginald "Hooley" Smith; and 18, right wing Jimmy Ward.

* From the New York Americans: 11, center Norman Himes; and 12, defenseman Norman "Red" Dutton.

Before the game, the other teams' players posed at center ice in their regular sweaters. Then they were given white jerseys with "NHL" on them. And the Leafs had special jerseys, too, with "ACE" on them.

The selection of Shore was controversial. When he skated up to receive his Number 2 jersey, the crowd of 14,074 was silent. Then he skated over to the Leafs bench, where Bailey was sitting in a suit, long coat and fedora. Shore offered his hand, and Bailey shook it. The crowd roared, and the players tapped their sticks on the ice, in what was already a long-established hockey salute.

The ceremony concluded with Smythe giving Bailey his Number 6 jersey, and announced that it would be retired.

Bailey dropped a puck for a ceremonial faceoff, and the game began. Charlie Conacher already had an injured knee, and left the game early. Other than that, there wasn't much hitting, and no penalties were called. Cotton and Jackson scored to put the Leafs up 2-0, before Stewart scored to make it 2-1 Leafs at the end of the 1st period.

Jackson scored again early in the 2nd period. Morenz and Finnigan scored to tie it up. But it was all Leafs the rest of the way: Day scored halfway through the 2nd, and Kilrea, Doraty and Blair scored in the 3rd. The Leafs won, beating the entire rest of the NHL, 7-3.

The game raised $20,909 for Bailey's family, about $494,000 in 2024. Bailey applied to the NHL to be a referee, but was turned down. Smythe hired him to work in the team's front office. He worked there in one capacity or another until a later owner, Harold Ballard, already perhaps the most hated man in the history of Canadian sports, fired him in 1986. Bailey lived until 1992, ironically becoming one of the game's last surviving players.

A later player, Garnet Bailey, no relation, played in the NHL from 1969 to 1978, and was known as Ace Bailey. (An athlete receiving the same nickname as an earlier player with the same surname has happened a few times.) He was working as a scout for the Los Angeles Kings when he died in the destruction of United Airlines Flight 175 at the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Shore continued to play with the Bruins through their 1939 Stanley Cup win. In 1940, he bought the minor-league Springfield Indians of Massachusetts, and remained their owner until his death in 1986. Both he and Bailey were elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Bailey wanted the benefit game to become an annual event, for injured players. That didn't happen. But additional benefit games were held for the families of Morenz, who died of heart trouble in 1937, and the Canadiens' Albert "Babe" Siebert, who drowned in 1939. Both of those games were played at the Montreal Forum: The former was a combined Montreal team, Canadiens and Maroons, against the rest of the NHL. The Maroons folded in 1938, so it was just the Canadiens against the rest of the NHL in Siebert's benefit. Both times, the NHL All-Stars won. In 1947, the NHL finally established an annual All-Star Game.

Charlie Gardiner and Lionel Conacher led the Black Hawks to win the Stanley Cup, 2 months later. But, just 2 months after that, with antibiotics not yet available, Gardiner died of a tonsil infection. Conacher also died young, suffering a heart attack while playing in a charity softball game on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in 1954.

Howie Morenz of the Canadiens broke his leg in a 1937 game, and never left the hospital, suffering a pulmonary embolism. George Hainsworth was killed in a car crash in 1950. Larry Aurie of the Red Wings suffered a stroke while driving in 1952. And Charlie Sands died in 1953.

Nels Stewart in 1957; Normie Himes in 1958; Hooley Smith in 1963; Bill Thomas in 1964; Busher Jackson in 1966; Charlie Conacher in 1967; Hec Kilrea in 1969; Al Shields in 1975; Andy Blair in 1977; Ching Johnson in 1979; Ken Doraty in 1981; Baldy Cotton in 1984; Eddie Shore in 1985; Bill Cook, Aurèle Joliat and King Clancy in 1986; Red Dutton in 1987; Joe Primeau in 1989; Buzz Boll, Hap Day, Jimmy Ward and Alex Levinsky in 1990; Herbie Lewis and Frank Finnigan in 1991; and Red Horner was the last survivor from this game, living until April 27, 2005.

December 12, 1933: A Dark Day In Sports

A colorized photo of Ace Bailey, included in a composite photo

of a Maple Leafs' Centennial Team, 2016

December 12, 1933, 90 years ago: A dark day in sports history. First, Connie Mack breaks up his team. Then, one of the best players in hockey almost dies on the ice.

The 1st time that Mack had broken up the Philadelphia Athletics, in 1914-15, it was because he couldn't keep up with the salaries being offered by the Federal League teams. This time, it was personal.

In 1925, the A's went 88-64, and were only 8 1/2 games behind the 1st-place Washington Senators. But the rise of the "Murderers' Row" Yankees delayed Philadelphia's return to greatness. In 1929, they began a run of 3 seasons in which they won 313 games, and game within a Game 7 loss in 1931 of winning 3 straight World Series.

But Mack lost all of his non-baseball holdings in the stock market Crash of 1929. He couldn't fund the A's with any other income. So, after the 1932 season, despite a strong 94-60 record (but 13 games behind the Pennant-winning Yankees), he began to sell of his 2nd generation of stars.

On September 28, 1932, he sent left fielder Al Simmons, 3rd baseman Jimmy Dykes, and center fielder Mule Haas are all sold to the Chicago White Sox, for $100,000. Simmons would be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and Dykes and Haas would have been perennial All-Stars had the All-Star Game been founded before 1933.

But the big day was December 12, 1933, when Mack made 3 separate moves:

* Pitchers Lefty Grove and Rube Walberg, and 2nd baseman Max Bishop, are traded to the Boston Red Sox for Bob Kline and Rabbit Warstler and $125,000. Along with Carl Hubbell, Grove was 1 of the 2 best lefthanded pitchers in the game, and would go to the Hall of Fame. Walberg was the 3rd starter on the A's, behind Grove and George Earnshaw, but would have been the ace on many teams.

Key to this deal was the fact that Tom Yawkey had recently turned 30 and come into his inheritance, and had bought the Red Sox, and could afford to spend whatever he wanted to build a championship team. He did try, but the Yankees' dynasty that was restarted in 1936 thwarted his early efforts.

* Catcher Mickey Cochrane was traded to the Detroit Tigers for Johnny Pasek and $100,000. The Tigers subsequently named Cochrane player-manager, and won the next 2 American League Pennants.

* Finally, before the ink was dry on the previous 2 trades, Mack traded Pasek and Earnshaw to the White Sox for Charlie Berry and $100,000. So, in 1 day, Mack sold off his 3 best pitchers.

Jimmie Foxx (left) and Connie Mack

The A's went from 94-60 in 1932 to 79-72 in 1933, to 68-82 in 1934, to 58-91 in 1935. On December 10, 1935: 1st baseman Jimmie Foxx and pitcher Johnny Marcum were traded to the Red Sox for Gordon Rhodes, George Savino and $150,000. Foxx was the best righthanded slugger in the game, and would go to the Hall of Fame. Marcum was the Mackmen's best pitcher following the '33 fire sale, and Mack dumped him, anyway.

The A's never recovered, and the Mack family ended up selling the A's in 1954, to a buyer who moved them to Kansas City. They failed there as well, and Charlie Finley bought them in 1960, moving them to Oakland in 1968. After 5 straight AL Western Division titles, 1971-75, including 3 straight World Series wins, 1972-74, he broke them up, and the team crashed. New owner Walter Haas rebuilt them in the early 1980s, but the pitching collapsed, preventing a new dynasty. The A's rebuilt again, and won 3 straight Pennants, 1988-90, but after another Division title in 1992, were broken up again.

The pattern held: By 2000, the "Moneyball" regime built a team that reached the Playoffs 5 times in 7 years, but won no Pennants. They sold off, rebuilt, and made 3 straight Playoffs, 2012-14. They couldn't afford to keep it going, sold off, rebuilt, and made 3 straight Playoffs, 2018-20. They couldn't afford to keep it going, and sold off. In 2022, the A's lost 102 games, their most since the Finley fire sale bottomed out at 108 in 1979.

Now, it appears that the A's are moving to Las Vegas, probably for the 2025 season. If they do move, how long will it be before they win again? And, if so, how long before they have a 9th fire sale?

One thing is for sure: The A's are not moving back to Philadelphia, where the Phillies, having won the 2022 NL Pennant, are overwhelmingly popular. The city can certainly support one winning team, but not two teams. But, wherever they go, or if they stay, at some point, the A's will go back to their Philadelphia roots, and break it all down and start all over again.

*

Also on December 12, 1933, perhaps the ugliest game in National Hockey League history was played. But it led to one of the game's greatest moments.

The Boston Bruins were hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Boston Garden. The Bruins still had most of the players who had led them to the 1929 Stanley Cup, including 2 of the greatest defensemen the game has ever known, Eddie Shore and Aubrey "Dit" Clapper. The Leafs, winners of the Cup in 1932, had another, Francis "King" Clancy.

This game, which the Leafs would win 4-1, was in the 2nd period. The Leafs had taken 2 quick penalties, and sent Clancy, defenseman George "Red" Horner, and right wing Irvine Wallace "Ace" Bailey out to defend the 5-on-3 Bruin power play.

Shore, who helped the Bruins win the Stanley Cup in 1929, rushed up the ice. Clancy, charitably listed at 5-foot-7 and 155 pounds, and a winner of the Cup with the Ottawa Senators in 1922, '23 and '27, and with the Leafs in '32, followed him, and checked him into the boards.

Shore got up, and, in his daze, he figured the closest Leaf player to him must have been the one who did it. He guessed wrong: The closest Leaf player to him was Bailey. Shore hit him from the side, and he landed head-first on the ice.

Horner skated over, knowing full well that it wasn't Bailey who had checked Shore, and yelled, "What did you do that for, Eddie?" Shore, not realizing the enormity of what he had done, gave Horner a big grin. What happened next is in dispute: The first source I saw on the story said that Horner hit Shore over the head with the blade of his stick. Another source said that Horner punched Shore, knocking him out in an instant.

Whatever the truth was, Shore was also out cold. The Boston crowd booed the hell out of Horner, who was already known as one of the dirtiest players in the game. But so was Shore, who, with his attitude, his receding hairline, and the fact that he was admired but not especially liked, was practically the Ty Cobb of hockey.

But it quickly became apparent that Bailey was hurt worse. Both men regained consciousness, and were carried off the ice together. Shore apologized. Bailey seemed to forgive him, saying, "It's all part of the game," and then passed out again.

Bailey was taken to Boston City Hospital. He was diagnosed with a fractured skull and an extradural clot on the brain. His father, listening to the game on the radio in Toronto, packed a gun, and immediately boarded a train for Boston, intending to kill Shore.

Leafs owner Conn Smythe found out about this, and talked to his general manager, Frank Selke. Selke had a friend working with the Boston Police, who met Bailey's father at the hotel, and talked him out of the murder plot.

Nevertheless, the BPD said they would charge Shore with manslaughter if Bailey died. Within 24 hours, he underwent 2 spinal taps to relieve intracranial pressure. There was at least one news report that Bailey had died. But, through several procedures, he came out of his coma after 10 days. He hung on, through Christmas and New Year's. In mid-January 1934, he was released from the hospital.

NHL President Frank Calder suspended Horner for 6 games, and Shore indefinitely. Once he was confident that Bailey was going to live, Calder set Shore's suspension at 16 games, or 1/3rd of the season at the time (48 games). Bailey never played again.

Walter Gilhooly, sports editor of the Ottawa Journal, recommended that a benefit game be played, to offset Bailey's loss of income. Calder agreed. The Leafs would host the game, and put their team out against a team made up of players from the rest of the League, 2 from each of the other 8 teams then in it.

The game was played at Maple Leaf Gardens on February 14, 1934. Here were the lineups:

* From the Toronto Maple Leafs, coached by Dick Irvin, once a great player, and the father of eventual Hall of Fame broadcaster Dick Irvin Jr.: Number 1, goaltender George Hainsworth, formerly a star with the Montreal Canadiens; 2, defenseman Red Horner; 3, defenseman Alex Levinsky; 4, defenseman Clarence "Hap" Day; 5, center Andy Blair; 7, defenseman King Clancy; 8, left wing Harold "Baldy" Cotton; 9, right wing Charlie "the Bomber" Conacher; 10, center Joe Primeau; 11, left wing Harvey "Busher" Jackson; 12, left wing Hector "Hec" Kilrea; 14, center Bill Thoms; 15, right wing Ken Doraty; 16, right wing Charlie Sands; 17, left wing Frank "Buzz" Boll.

NHL All-Stars, coached by Lester Patrick of the New York Rangers, also once a great player:

* From the Chicago Black Hawks: 1, goaltender Charlie Gardiner; and 7, defenseman Lionel Conacher, brother of Charlie.

* From the Boston Bruins: 2, defenseman Eddie Shore; and 9, center Nelson "Nels" Stewart, better known as a Montreal Maroon.

* From the Ottawa Senators: 3, right wing Frank Finnigan; and 17, defenseman Al Shields.

* From the Montreal Canadiens: 4, left wing Aurele Joliat; and 16, center Howie Morenz. Morenz, known as "the Babe Ruth of Hockey" -- like Ruth, he had several nicknames -- normally wore 7, but Lionel Conacher was considered the greatest all-around athlete in Canada, and had priority.

* From the Detroit Red Wings: 5, left wing Herbie Lewis; and 14, right wing Larry Aurie.

* From the New York Rangers: 6, defenseman Ivan "Ching" Johnson; and 15, right wing Bill Cook. Somebody decided that the Irish-Canadian Johnson looked Chinese, and nicknamed him Ching. He had seniority over Aurie, who also wore 6; but Lewis had seniority over Cook, who wore 5 with the Rangers.

* From the Montreal Maroons: 10, center Reginald "Hooley" Smith; and 18, right wing Jimmy Ward.

* From the New York Americans: 11, center Norman Himes; and 12, defenseman Norman "Red" Dutton.

Before the game, the other teams' players posed at center ice in their regular sweaters. Then they were given white jerseys with "NHL" on them. And the Leafs had special jerseys, too, with "ACE" on them.

The selection of Shore was controversial. When he skated up to receive his Number 2 jersey, the crowd of 14,074 was silent. Then he skated over to the Leafs bench, where Bailey was sitting in a suit, long coat and fedora. Shore offered his hand, and Bailey shook it. The crowd roared, and the players tapped their sticks on the ice, in what was already a long-established hockey salute.

The ceremony concluded with Smythe giving Bailey his Number 6 jersey, and announced that it would be retired.

Bailey dropped a puck for a ceremonial faceoff, and the game began. Charlie Conacher already had an injured knee, and left the game early. Other than that, there wasn't much hitting, and no penalties were called. Cotton and Jackson scored to put the Leafs up 2-0, before Stewart scored to make it 2-1 Leafs at the end of the 1st period.

Jackson scored again early in the 2nd period. Morenz and Finnigan scored to tie it up. But it was all Leafs the rest of the way: Day scored halfway through the 2nd, and Kilrea, Doraty and Blair scored in the 3rd. The Leafs won, beating the entire rest of the NHL, 7-3.

The game raised $20,909 for Bailey's family, about $426,000 in 2022 money. Bailey applied to the NHL to be a referee, but was turned down. Smythe hired him to work in the team's front office. He worked there, in one capacity or another, until a later owner, Harold Ballard, already perhaps the most hated man in the history of Canadian sports, fired him in 1986. Bailey lived until 1992.

A later player, Garnet Bailey, no relation, played in the NHL from 1969 to 1978, and was known as Ace Bailey. He was working as a scout for the Los Angeles Kings when he died in the destruction of United Airlines Flight 175 at the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Shore continued to play with the Bruins through their 1939 Stanley Cup win. In 1940, he bought the minor-league Springfield Indians of Massachusetts, and remained their owner until his death in 1986. Both he and Bailey were elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Bailey wanted the benefit game to become an annual event, for injured players. That didn't happen. But additional benefit games were held for the families of Morenz, who died of heart trouble in 1937, and the Canadiens' Albert "Babe" Siebert, who drowned in 1939. Both of those games were played at the Montreal Forum: The former was a combined Montreal team, Canadiens and Maroons, against the rest of the NHL. The Maroons folded in 1938, so it was just the Canadiens against the rest of the NHL in Siebert's benefit. Both times, the NHL All-Stars won. In 1947, the NHL finally established an annual All-Star Game.

Top 10 Sports Atonements

Sundown today marks the beginning of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Jews are not to do any work from sundown today to sundown tomorrow, nor are they to spend any of that time in the pursuit of happiness. Rather, they are to spend the day in prayer and reflection, and to seek forgiveness for whatever harm they have done in the past year, as all of us have done some harm.

Yankee broadcaster Suzyn Waldman, being Jewish, has not made the trip to Baltimore to broadcast this 3-game series with John Sterling. I was previously under the impression that Sterling was Jewish as well, and that "John Sterling" was a nom de broadcast, but this is not the case.

Baseball Hall-of-Famers Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax had to face the decision of whether to play on Yom Kippur, Greenberg during a tight Pennant race in 1934 and Koufax on the day of Game 1 of the 1965 World Series. Both chose not to play, and became bigger heroes than ever, to Jews and Gentiles alike. Here's a link to an ESPN story on the history of Jewish players and how they handled the issue.

That story mentions Al Rosen. But it doesn't mention this: In 1978, Rosen was the general manager of the Yankees, and flew to Boston to attend the Playoff for the American League Eastern Division title. It was played on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The Yankees, of course, won, 5-4, largely thanks to a home run by that mensch Bucky Dent.

The next day, back in New York, Rosen got a phone call from a woman saying that Rosen had disappointed her and many other Jews by being at the game.

"Ma'am," Rosen asked, "how did you know I was at the game?"

"I saw it on television," he said.

"Why were you watching television on Rosh Hashanah?"

How do you say, "Gotcha!" in Yiddish?

Top 10 Sports Atonements

Before I begin this list -- which, oddly enough, has no fully Jewish people on it -- let me say that one name that will not be on it is Kobe Bryant. I don't care what he's won since, or how he's kept his nose clean since: He should have gone to prison for taking advantage of that girl in Colorado, and he hasn't atoned for squat.

10. Alex Rodriguez. As the 2009 season began, he had much to atone for, both personally and professionally. While I am in no position to say that his personal life is settled, in baseball terms he answered every question, becoming a major force in the Yankees going through the regular season and eventually winning the World Series.

Granted, I'm a bit miffed at the way he ended the Yankees' last game on Wednesday night, but he's proven that he can atone for such things, and I wouldn't put it past him to, uh, repeat.

9. Earnest Byner. To be fair, his fumble late in the 1987 AFC Championship Game did not, by itself, cost the Cleveland Browns a trip to Super Bowl XXII. After all, they were losing, and a touchdown and extra point only have tied the game.

He did later star for the Washington Redskins in winning Super Bowl XXVI, including scoring a touchdown in the game. For all the good that does people in Northern Ohio: They still have to deal with memories of "The Fumble." Byner does not: He atoned.

8. Maurice Richard. "The Rocket" had led the Montreal Canadiens to Stanley Cup wins in 1944, 1946 and 1953. On March 13, 1955, he got into a fight, and when linesman Cliff Thompson (himself a former Bruins player) tried to break it up, Richard hit him, too.

NHL President Clarence Campbell suspended him for the rest of the season: One regular-season game, at the Montreal Forum against the Detroit Red Wings on March 17, that would determine the top seed for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the entirety of the Playoffs themselves.

Campbell made the mistake of going to that game, and was harassed for his apparent anti-French bias. Someone threw a smoke bomb onto the ice, the game was called off, and the Forum was cleared. Angry Canadiens fans rioted in the streets of Montreal.

 The next day, Richard went on radio and TV, and, in French and English, asked the fans to stop. He said they shouldn't be doing this on his account, that he would take his punishment, and that he hoped the Canadiens could win the Cup without him.

They didn't, as the Wings, having clinched home-ice advantage due to the March 17 forfeit, won in 7 games. But Richard came back the next season, and they won the next 5 straight Stanley Cups. Richard then retired as an 8-time World Champion.

 In 2000, the two most popular people in the history of the Province of Quebec died, Maurice Richard in May and former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in October. Richard had more people lining the streets for his funeral procession than the greatest political leader Canada has ever had.

7. Eddie Shore. What Richard did on March 13, 1955 was bad, and he was lucky there was no ESPN (TSN in Canada) in those days to show the clip over and over again. But what Shore did on December 12, 1933 was far worse.

The Boston Bruins defenseman, who had already helped them win the 1929 Stanley Cup, was hit from behind by Toronto Maple Leafs' defenseman Frank "King" Clancy and crashed into the boards.

A little woozy, he went after Clancy, but his still-blurry vision led him to the wrong man, left wing Irvine Wallace "Ace" Bailey. Shore high-sticked Bailey to the ground, and Bailey hit his head and was knocked out. He nearly died, and although he recovered, it became clear he would never play again, after being part of a team that re-established the Leafs as a hockey power, winning the 1932 Stanley Cup.

Bailey accepted Shore's apology, and Shore was suspended for 16 games -- at the time, 1/3rd of a regular season.

On February 14, 1934, a benefit game for the Bailey family was held at Maple Leaf Gardens. Although not officially counted as such, this is generally treated as the first NHL All-Star Game, with the Leafs taking on a team made up of players from every other team in the League at that time, including New York Rangers Bill Cook and Ivan "Ching" Johnson, and New York Americans Red Dutton and Normie Himes. (Rangers coach-general manager Lester Patrick was their head coach.)

Before the puck was dropped, Shore skated over to Bailey, who was dressed in a suit and sitting on the Leafs' bench. They smiled and shook hands, and a tremendous ovation went up. The Leafs beat the NHL All-Stars, 7-3.

Shore helped the Bruins win another Cup in 1939, before buying the nearby Springfield Indians and beginning a long career as a minor-league executive and coach, with the Bruins eventually retiring his Number 2. Bailey remained in the Leafs' organization until his death in 1992, and his Number 6 was the first number they retired.

Despite Shore's actions and the comparative brevity of Bailey's career, both men are in the Hall of Fame.

6. Tony Adams. The centreback was named Captain of London soccer club Arsenal when he was just 21 years old, and led them to the championship of England's Football League in 1989 at 22.

 On May 6, 1990, he crashed his car and pled guilty to drunken driving. Contrary to what I had previously believed, this wasn't why he was not included on the England roster for the 1990 World Cup. It might have, but he had already been excluded from selection by manager Bobby Robson, who had previously selected him for Euro 88.

Adams spent December 19, 1990 to February 15, 1991 in prison, and was released in time to lead Arsenal to another League title. It took until 1996 for him to finally quit drinking, and he published a harrowing memoir titled Addicted.

In 1997-98, his first full season completely sober, he led Arsenal to win the Premier League (successor to the Football League) and the FA Cup -- "winning The Double." Arsenal accomplished this again in 2002, his final season.

The man known as "Mr. Arsenal" went on to manage Wycombe Wanderers and Portsmouth, and now manages Gabala FC in Azerbaijan, and runs Sporting Chance Clincic, an alcohol and drug rehabilitation clinic in his native London.

5. Ralph Terry. In Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, Terry, pitching for the New York Yankees, gave up a game-winning, World Championship-winning, home run to Bill Mazeroski of the Pittsburgh Pirates. This remains the only home run ever to win a World Series Game 7.

Two years later, Terry pitched a 3-hit shutout in Game 7 of the 1962 World Series against the San Francisco Giants. He'd also started and won Game 5.

 No, he didn't pitch Game 7 on 2 days' rest, although this would later be done by Bob Gibson in 1964 (he won), the aforementioned Sandy Koufax in 1965 (he won), Jim Lonborg in 1967 (he lost) and Mickey Lolich in 1968 (he won). A rain delay allowed a rejiggering of the rotations and for Terry, who'd also pitched for the Yanks' in the 1961 World Series victory, to get full redemption.

4. Roberto Durán. He might have been the greatest lightweight boxing champion ever, and was a hero in Latin America, in particular treated nearly as a god in his native Panama. In 1980, in front of 60,000 people at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, he defeated Sugar Ray Leonard to win the welterweight championship.

But a few months later, a rematch was held in front of 70,000 people in the Superdome in New Orleans. This time, Leonard fought better, and was taunting Durán. At the end of the 8th round, Durán, trailing on all cards, turned to the referee, also a Latin American, Octavio Meyran of Mexico, and said to him in Spanish, "I don't want to fight with this clown," and he went back to his corner and quit.

Broadcasting the fight for ABC, Howard Cosell said -- erroneously, as it turned out -- that what Durán had told the ref was, "No más" -- "No more." Leonard was declared the winner by technical knockout, and regained the title. To make matters worse, the official excuse for Durán quitting was "stomach cramps." If he had them before the fight, it should have been postponed.

The man known as Hands of Stone was viewed to have feet of clay. Back in Panama, both his house and his mother's were vandalized. Graffiti appeared in Panama City calling him a coward, a traitor, and even "maricón" -- roughly, the Caribbean Spanish word for the anti-gay slur "faggot." 

(This was the word Benny "the Kid" Paret had used at Emile Griffith during the weigh-in for their 1962 Welterweight Championship and trilogy-decider fight, that led Griffith to pound away at him so hard during the fight that Paret died.)

In 1983, Durán fought Super Welterweight Champion Davey Moore in front of a mostly-Latino crowd at Madison Square Garden, hoping to see the return of a former hero to heroic status. 

It was no contest: Durán crushed Moore, whose cornermen threw in the towel -- appropriately enough, in the 8th round, the same round that did Durán in 3 years earlier. Durán regained not only a title (if not the same one), but also his strong, masculine image, his pride, his reputation, and his fans.

Interesting that SI correctly put an accent mark on the A in "No más,"

but, incorrectly, not on the one in "Durán."

3. George Steinbrenner. From bullying his shipbuilding company's employees into helping him make illegal contributions to President Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign to hiring a compulsive gambler to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield, to all those firings and otherwise unfairly treating employees, "The Boss" became the most hated man in baseball since Walter O'Malley moved the Dodgers out of Brooklyn.

Forced in 1990 to step aside and let "my baseball people" run the show, they did, and rebuilt the Yankee Dynasty. And, from 1996 until his death earlier this year, at ballparks and ticker-tape parades, Yankee Fans chanted, "Thank you, George!" And, to his credit, he understood and appreciated how far he had come to receive that.

2. Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. I make this a dual entry because the two men are forever linked, and Ali's atonement made Foreman's necessary.

Ali was stripped of the heavyweight boxing title in 1967, when he refused to accept being drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. In 1968, Foreman won an Olympic Gold Medal (as Ali, then still named Cassius Clay, had done in 1960 and their later opponent Joe Frazier had done in 1964). Foreman, saying he did it as a gesture of pride rather than to position himself as an "anti-Ali," celebrated by holding up a small American flag in the ring.

 Foreman became a hero to those who hated Ali, and not since Jack Johnson, the first black champion (1908 to 1915), had an American athlete been so widely hated.

In 1974, with Foreman now champion and as yet undefeated as a professional, he and Ali stepped into the ring in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and Ali pulled off a stunning victory.

In just 7 years -- 7 years that showed just how wrong both the Vietnam hawks and the Ali-haters, usually one and the same, were -- Ali went from being nearly universally reviled by whites and frequently so by many blacks, to being the biggest sports hero on the planet for his amazing comeback.

But Foreman was never the same fighter, and he struggled for 3 years until retiring. He became an ordained minister, and in 1987 returned to fighting after 10 years to raise money for his Houston church.

 In 1991, 42 years old, he fought then-champion Evander Holyfield to a near-standstill. Holyfield won by decision, but everyone seemed to think that Big George, who had turned himself from a near-monster to a big, cuddly man of God, had proven his point.

Everyone, that is, except George. He continued to fight, and in 1994, age 45, wearing the exact same trunks he wore against Ali 20 years earlier, knocked out then-champion Michael Moorer, to become the oldest man ever to hold the title. It lasted only a year (I won't get into that story here), but what a story.

1. Ralph Branca. The one exception on this list: He is Italian and Catholic on his father's side, and is a practicing Catholic, but is Jewish on his mother's side.

Of course, we all know that Branca gave up the home run to the late Bobby Thomson that sent the 1951 National League Pennant from Branca's Brooklyn Dodgers to Thomson's New York Giants, the Dodgers' arch-rivals.

What some of you may not know is that Branca is one of the founders and directors of the Baseball Assistance Team (BAT). The assistance provided takes many forms. Health care, financial grants, rehabilitative counseling or whatever form is required to attain some type of comfort and dignity for former players and their families with demonstrated needs.

Gives a whole new meaning to the words "relief pitcher."