Uncle Mike's Musings: A Yankees Blog and More: napoli

Note: When I wrote this post, I knew that Maradona was in poor health, but I did not know that he was going to die on November 25, 2020.

October 30, 1960, 60 years ago: Diego Armando Maradona Franco is born in Lanus, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. He is regarded as one of the greatest soccer players of all time. But if he really was, he wouldn't have had to cheat.

El Pibe de Oro (The Golden Boy) played for Buenos Aires (city) team Argentinos Juniors from 1976 to 1981; Buenos Aires giants Boca Juniors from the middle of the 1980-81 season, winning the league title with them, until the end of 1981-82; F.C. Barcelona in Spain until 1984, winning the 1983 Copa del Rey; S.S.C. Napoli of Naples, Italy until 1991; Sevilla F.C.in Spain in 1992-93; back in Argentina with Rosario team Newell's Old Boys in 1993-94 and back to Boca Juniors from 1995 to 1997.

He played for Argentina in the 1982 World Cup, but it would be the 1986 World Cup for which he would be most remembered. He practically singlehandedly dragged La Albiceleste (The Sky Blues) to the title, with the key moment being his 2-goal game against England in the Quarterfinal.

The 2nd goal has been regarded as one of the greatest goals ever scored. But the 1st goal was scored when he punched it into the net, an obvious handball -- or, as he called it, "The Hand of God."

This came just 4 years after Britain had clobbered Argentina in the Falkland Islands War, so it was a huge boost for Argentina, but it made the English really mad, and it infuriated everybody else who hates Argentina (which includes most of South America).

He won league titles with Napoli in 1987 and 1990, the only 2 Serie A titles that team has ever won. They also won the Coppa Italia in 1987, for a Double; and the 1989 UEFA Cup (now known as the UEFA Europa League).

However, Napoli narrowly missed winning Serie A in 1989, and for over 30 years, rumors have been floated that Maradona, already addicted to cocaine, was, shall we say, enticed to throw some matches. A photograph taken of Maradona in a hot tub with 2 men later identified as being with the Naples Mafia, the Camorro, didn't help.

The 1990 World Cup was played in Italy, and the Semifinal between Argentina and Italy was set for Naples. Maradona publicly asked the people of Naples to cheer for Argentina, so they would be cheering for him.

Instead, a banner was hung in the Stadio San Paolo, reading, "MARADONA WE LOVE YOU BUT ITALY IS OUR HOME." The game ended 1-1, and Maradona took the last penalty, to send Argentina to the Final. In a reverse of the 1986 Final, Argentina were beaten by West Germany.

It was his last hurrah as a player. He was suspended for the 1991-92 season for a positive drug test, ending his tenure in Italy. After Argentina's 1st 2 games of the 1994 World Cup, he was suspended for a year for another positive drug test, ending Argentina's chances for that tournament. He never played for the national side again.

After years of dealing with drug addiction, his weight, and debt from unpaid taxes during the Italian phase of his playing career, Maradona managed of the Argentina team in the 2010 World Cup, just barely qualifying. He got them to the Quarterfinals before losing, and was fired. He has managed in Argentina, the United Arab Emirates and Mexico, and now manages Gimnasia in La Plata, Argentina.

He has been married once, and is divorced. He has 2 sons, one of whom, who goes by Diego Sinagra, plays in Italy for A.S.D. San Giorgio. He also has 2 daughters, Dalma and Giannina. Giannina married Sergio Agüero, the Argentine striker whose last-minute-of-the-season goal won the 2012 Premier League title for Manchester City. They have a 11-year-old son, Benjamin. However, they have separated.

Maradona is a political leftist. He became friends with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez, and has tattoos of both Castro and his former partner in revolution, Maradona's fellow Argentine Che Guevara.

And, in 2014, Maradona was caught on tape hitting his girlfriend and latest baby-mama, who has since left him. "El Diez" has been treated like a god for nearly 40 years. Gods do not like to not get their way.

Nevertheless, like fellow soccer legend, and fellow Number 10 of South America, Brazil's Pelé, he used his combination of a poor upbringing and athletic skill to produce a man-of-the-people image, and become the most popular person his country has ever produced.

In the leadup to the 2010 World Cup, Ken Bensinger wrote in the Houston Chronicle:

To understand the gargantuan shadow Maradona casts over his football-mad homeland, one has to conjure up the athleticism of Michael Jordan, the power of Babe Ruth – and the human fallibility of Mike Tyson. Lump them together in a single barrel-chested man with shaggy black hair and you have El Diego, idol to the millions who call him D10S, a mashup of his playing number and the Spanish word for God.

But God does not have to cheat. Diego Maradona will forever go down as the most famous cheater in the history of sports.

October 30, 1735: John Adams (no middle name) is born in a part of Braintree, Massachusetts that has since been separated and renamed Quincy. His son, John Quincy Adams, would be born in a house next-door in 1767.

"The Atlas of Independence" would have been one of the most important figures in early American history even if he hadn't been the 2nd President of the United States, from 1797 to 1801. And he probably would have been a lot happier.

Although he lived his entire life -- like his friend and rival, Thomas Jefferson, he died on the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1826 -- before the rise of sports as big business, he would have understood sports in Boston. He was pompous and fatalistic at the same time, yet an intellectual like the pre-1999 image of the typical Red Sox fan. And he was as fat as David Ortiz. But he never would have cheated.

October 30, 1748: Martha Wayles is born in Charles City, Virginia. She was a widow who had inherited her husband's slaves when she married Thomas Jefferson in 1772. She had 7 children, 6 with Thomas, but only 2 of the 7 (both daughters) lived to adulthood, and she died in 1782, probably from diabetes, at age 33, having been the First Lady of Virginia, as Thomas had served as Governor, but not the First Lady of the United States.

She made Thomas promise that he would never remarry, and he never did. But one of the slaves that Martha inherited was Betty Hemings, who had a daughter named Sally, who may have been Martha's half-sister. By the time she grew up, Jefferson may have noticed a resemblance between Sally and his wife. Although the science hasn't made it definitive, it has become socio-historically accepted that Sally's 6 children were all fathered by Thomas Jefferson.

October 30, 1789: Hiram Bingham is born in Bennington, Vermont. He was the 1st American missionary to set up shop in Hawaii, in 1820, which, in a way, made him the founding father of the State. Hawaiian natives see that very differently. He died in 1869.

October 30, 1812: Despite the War of 1812 being on, the American Presidential election is held as scheduled. President James Madison is re-elected, defeating the Federalist Party nominee, DeWitt Clinton, a former Mayor of New York and U.S. Senator, who would later be elected Governor and build the Erie Canal.

Not all of the 18 States then in the Union posted their popular votes. Based on the information we have, the election was close, with Madison scraping a bare majority. It's Electoral Votes that count, and Madison, though the war wasn't going well and he wasn't especially popular, won 128, to Clinton's 89.

DeWitt Clinton would never get close to the Presidency again. His uncle, George Clinton was the outgoing Vice President. Madison replaced him with an ally, Congressional leader Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, in the hopes of breaking the Federalist stranglehold on New England. (It didn't work: Of the 6 States in that region, Madison-Gerry won only Vermont.) Gerry then went on to become the 1st Vice President to die in office.

The war would continue to go badly, with the British burning Washington, including the White House, on August 24, 1814. Madison and his wife Dolley escaped. Oddly, this greatest humiliation in American history made the people rally around Madison, and, with the war 2 years over and pride restored with the Battles of Fort McHenry (Baltimore) and New Orleans, he left the Presidency beloved.

October 30, 1817: The independent government of Venezuela is established by Simón Bolívar, the man known throughout South America as "The Liberator." Venezuela is one of the few countries in Latin America that likes baseball more than soccer, having produced Hall of Fame shortstop Luis Aparicio of the Chicago White Sox.

Indeed, they seem to specialize in shortstops, including 2 other White Sox legends: Chico Carrasquel, who came before Aparicio and then became an esteemed broadcaster for the club; and Ozzie Guillén, a decent player long after Aparicio, but a legend as the crazy manager who took them to the 2005 World Championship.

Other notable Venezuelan shortstops among the 372 players from the country that have reached the major leagues include César Tovar, César Gutiérrez, Dave Concepción, Omar Vizquel, former Yankee Álvaro Espinoza, Miguel Cairo, Álex González, Carlos Guillén, César Izturis, Marco Scutaro, Omar Infante, Alcides Escobar, Elvis Andrus, and the Mets' Wilmer Flores.

Non-shortstops from the country include Vic Davalillo, Manny Trillo, Tony Armas, Andrés
Galarraga, Wilson Álvarez, Yankee World Series hero Luis Sojo, Carlos García, Met 2nd base hero Edgardo Alfonzo, Ugeth Urbina, Roger Cedeno, Bobby Abreu, Magglio Ordóñez, Freddy García, Melvin Mora, Ramon Hernández, Met "no-hitter" pitcher Johan Santana, Met Playoff hero Endy Chávez, Carlos Zambrano, Victor Martínez, Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez, Miguel Cabrera, José
López, Dioner Navarro, "King" Félix Hernández, Martín Prado, Edward Mujica, Anibal Sanchez, Miguel Montero, current Met Asdrúbal Cabrera, Carlos González, Pablo Sandoval, former Yankee catcher Francisco Cervelli, José Lobatón, Wilson Ramos, Félix Doubront, José Altuve, Henderson Álvarez, Salvador Pérez and Roughned Odor.

October 30, 1825: Randolph McCoy is born in Tug River Valley, Kentucky. He married his 1st cousin -- not an unusual thing for that time and place -- and from 1864 to 1890 would lead his family in a feud with the Hatfield family of nearby Matewan, West Virginia, in which 5 of Randolph's children would be killed. Unlike a lot of people in the feud, he died of old age, in 1914.

October 30, 1829: Roscoe Conkling is born in Albany, New York, the son of Congressman Alfred Conkling. He was elected Mayor of Utica in 1858, to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1858, and to the U.S. Senate in 1866.

The Republican Party boss of New York State, he became an ally of President Ulysses S. Grant, and after Grant left office in 1877, tried (against Grant's wishes, and with only the patronage that would flow back into the pockets of certain Republicans in mind) to engineer Grant's nomination for a 3rd term in 1880.

It didn't work, as Congressman James Garfield of Ohio was nominated for President. Conkling got an Albany crony, Chester Arthur, nominated for Vice President. Garfield won a very close election, but he and Conkling butted heads, and Conkling had to resign from the Senate. He died in 1888.

October 30, 1840, 180 years ago: William Henry Harrison is elected the 9th President of the United States, defeating the incumbent, Martin Van Buren. Harrison won 234 Electoral Votes to Van Buren's 60, and 53 percent of the popular vote to Van Buren's 47.

It has been called the 1st modern Presidential campaign, with newspapers affiliated with the Whig Party making Harrison the 1st mass media candidate, printing editorials and songs in his favor. It was said that Harrison was "sung into the White House." Songs told of his heroism at the Battle of Tippecanoe in Indiana Territory in 1811.

His running mate was John Tyler, and they became known in song as "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too." This started the tradition of rhyming campaign slogans, which worked better with some tickets than others. Thomas Hendricks may have been a good politician, but, in 1884, he probably didn't like being called Grover Cleveland's "appendix."

The songs compared Van Buren's great wealth to Harrison's homespun image, leading to the term "the Log Cabin and Hard Cider Campaign," as opposed to Van Buren's mansion and champagne.

It was pure baloney: Van Buren was a self-made rich man, and Harrison was born on the Virginia plantation of a fabulously wealthy signer of the Declaration of Independence, and had mansions in both Ohio and Indiana. But, as with Donald Trump 180 years later, people didn't want to know the truth.

On March 4, 1841, Harrison gave an Inaugural Address that lasted an hour and 45 minutes, in a freezing rain, without a coat, a hat, or gloves. On April 4, 1841, just 31 days later, he died. It's not clear if the longest Inaugural Address caused the shortest Presidency, but it's generally accepted that it did.

October 30, 1867: Edward James Delahanty is born in Cleveland. He was 1 of a record 5 brothers to play Major League Baseball. Tom got 16 career hits. Joe had 222. Frank had 223. Jim had 1,159. Between them, they had 1,620. But Big Ed had 2,596 all by himself. A left fielder for most of his career, Ed batted .346 lifetime, peaking at .410 in 1899, and put together an astonishing 152 OPS+. He had 7 100+ RBI seasons, which was stunning for the time. On July 3, 1896, he hit 4 home runs in a game, only the 2nd player to do it.

He played most of his career with the Philadelphia Phillies. In 1902, he jumped to the American League, playing for the Washington Senators. He won the batting title, to go with the one he won in the National League in 1899. He remains the only player to win them in both Leagues.

He died while still an active player, on July 2, 1903, only 35 years old. The incident is shrouded in mystery: He jumped the Senators while they were in Detroit to play the Tigers, and boarded a train for New York, a train that cut across Ontario before crossing back into the U.S. at Buffalo. He got drunk on the train, and the conductor kicked him off. He tried to walk across the International Railway Bridge between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, got into a fight with the bridge's night watchman, and went over the bridge into the Niagara River. His body was found at the bottom of Niagara Falls a month later.

Did he jump? Did he fall? Was he pushed? We will never know. The watchman was not charged. Delahanty was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945, his career legendary, but incomplete due to his own misbehavior -- and, perhaps, someone else's.

Also on this day, John Albion Andrew dies of a stroke at his home in Boston. He was only 49. A founding father of the Republican Party, he was Governor of Massachusetts from 1861 to 1866, including the entirety of the American Civil War.

October 30, 1871: The final championship match of the season takes place on the Union Grounds in Brooklyn, between the Philadelphia Athletics and the Chicago White Stockings. Note that the former went out of business a few years later, and has no connection besides name to the team now known as the Oakland Athletics; while the latter would evolve into the Chicago Cubs, having no connection to the Chicago White Sox besides the name.

The Championship Committee decrees that today's game will decide the winner of the pennant. Chicago‚ having played all of its games on the road since the Great Chicago Fire on October 8‚ appears in an assorted array of uniforms. Their originals were all lost during the fire.

The 4-1 victory by the Athletics gives them the championship for 1871. It will be 41 years before another Philadelphia team wins a major league Pennant. The last survivor of this team was Alfred J. Reach, later (like his Chicago competitor, Albert G. Spalding) a sporting-goods magnate. He lived until 1928.

Also on this day, John Frank Freeman is born in Catasauqua, in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. The right fielder, better known as Buck Freeman, was the 1st man to lead both Leagues in home runs: The National in 1899 with 25 for the Washington Nationals (who were about to be contracted out of the NL and are not to be confused with the current team with the name), and the American in 1903 with 13 for the Boston Americans, forerunners of the Red Sox. That season, he and the Americans won the 1st World Series.

He was in the Dead Ball Era, so his career home run total, while impressive for the time, was just 82. He batted .293 lifetime, with a 132 OPS+. He was a very good player in his time, but he wasn't great for long enough. So, he doesn't quite belong in the Baseball Hall of Fame. But he is in the Red Sox' team Hall of Fame. He died in 1949, age 77.

October 30, 1875: The Boston Red Stockings beat the visiting Blue Stockings of Hartford‚ 7-4‚ to finish the season without a home defeat. Boston finishes the year at 48-7, to win their 4th straight National Association Pennant.

Only 7 NA teams finish the season, with a total of 185 games played between them. The success of the Red Stockings has led to several forfeits, and this domination and erratic scheduling is one of the reasons the NA is abandoned and the National League established for 1876. The Red Stockings will join, eventually becoming the Beaneaters, the Rustlers, the Doves and finally the Braves, before moving to Milwaukee and later Atlanta.

The last survivor of the 1875 Red Stockings, and the last survivor of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the 1st openly professional team, was shortstop George Wright, who lived on until 1937.

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October 30, 1882: John L. Sullivan, who won the unofficial Heavyweight Championship of the World earlier in the year, defends it by knocking Charlie O'Donnell out in the 1st round in Chicago. This being the bare-knuckle era, professional boxing was still illegal in most of America, so it had to be kept underground.

October 30, 1885: Ezra Weston Loomis Pound is born in Hailey, Idaho Territory, and grows up outside Philadelphia in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. Published between 1917 and 1969, The Cantos marked him as a giant of American poetry.

But much of that poetry was written in Italy, where he had gone into exile as a Fascist sympathizer and, during World War II, broadcast anti-American and anti-Semitic propaganda over radio. He was arrested by U.S. troops, and was held in a Washington psychiatric hospital until 1958. He went back to Italy, and remained there until his death in 1972.

Despite his right-wing extremism, noted leftist writers still praised him. Ernest Hemingway wrote, "The best of Pound's writing, and it is in The Cantos, will last as long as there is any literature." And Norman Mailer said, "I would rather read Pound than anything by the Hollywood Ten, because he was a better writer."

October 30, 1888: Konstantinos "Kostas" Tsiklitiras is born in Pylos, Greece. He won the Gold Medal in the standing long jump (no running start) at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. A year later, he enlisted in the Greek Army and served in the Second Balkan War against the Ottoman Empire, contracted meningitis, and, in those pre-antibiotic days, died at age 24.

October 30, 1892: Angelo Siciliano is born in Acri, Cosenza, Italy. A self-described "97-pound weakling," he built himself up, and became Charles Atlas, the most famous bodybuilder until Arnold Schwarzenegger came along. He died in 1973.

October 30, 1893: John Abbott dies of cancer in Montreal at age 72. He had served as Prime Minister of Canada from June 16, 1891 to November 24, 1892, but had to retire due to his illness.

October 30, 1896: Ruth Gordon Jones is born in Quincy, Massachusetts, outside Boston. (Founding Father John Adams was also born in Quincy on an October 30, in 1735.) Dropping her last name, she starred on Broadway and in silent films before becoming a major star in the "talkies" of the 1930s. She also collaborated on screenplays with her husband, Garson Kanin.

But she's best known for her role in the 1968 film Rosemary's Baby. At age 72, she got an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and said, "I can't tell you how encouraging a thing like this is." She was still acting up to the end of her life in 1985.

What does she have to do with sports? Well, in 1993, on an episode of Mad About You, Paul Reiser's character, a documentary filmmaker named Paul Buchman, told his wife Jamie, played by Helen Hunt, that he was making a movie about Yankee Stadium, using the common nickname "The House That Ruth Built." Jamie: "Ruth who?" Paul, sarcastically: "Gordon, honey. Ruth Gordon built Yankee Stadium."

October 30, 1898: William Harold Terry is born in Atlanta, but lives most of his life in Memphis, giving him the nickname "Memphis Bill." The New York Giants 1st baseman helped them win Pennants in 1923 and '24, and after succeeding John McGraw as manager, he led them to win the 1933 World Series and the '36 and '37 Pennants. In 1930, he batted .401, making him the last National Leaguer to date to bat .400 or higher for a season.

He is a member of the Hall of Fame, and the Giants retired his Number 3 (in 1984, albeit well after they had moved to San Francisco, but at least he lived long enough to see it, dying in 1989).

In his 1949 poem Lineup for Yesterday, poet and Giant fan Ogden Nash wrote:

T is for Terry
the Giant from Memphis
whose .400 average
you can't overemphis.

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October 30, 1905: Galatasaray Spor Kulübü is founded in Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey. It is the most successful sports club in the country, particularly its soccer team. It is the only Turkish soccer team to have won a European trophy, the 2000 UEFA Cup, defeating North London's Arsenal on penalties in the Final, although the tournament was marred by Gala fans killing 2 fans of Leeds United on the streets of Istanbul during their leg of the Semifinal. More about this team when we get to 1973.

Also on this day, Ellsworth Raymond Johnson is born in Charleston, South Carolina. By 1952, "Bumpy" Johnson had become the king of organized crime in Harlem, New York City's foremost black neighborhood. He served time in Alcatraz, and died in 1968, apparently of a heart attack. (He could have been poisoned, but that's not a common method for a gangster to rub another out.) He is currently being played by Forest Whitaker on the Epix series Godfather of Harlem.

October 30, 1908: Thomas Peter Bromley Smith is born in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. I don't know what makes a cricket player great, but Peter Smith played county cricket for Essex in the 1930s and '40s. While playing against Derbyshire at Chesterfield, he batted at number eleven, and came to the wicket with Essex 199 for 9 wickets -- in other words, 1 more wicket, and Derbyshire would win. He kept batting for 2 1/2 hours, hitting 163 runs, still the world record score for a number eleven batsman. He died in 1967, after a fall while on vacation.

October 30, 1909: Manchester United defeat Woolwich Arsenal 1-0, at Bank Street Ground in Manchester. The ground was next to a chemical factory, and pollution drifted over it. The pitch was also, perennially, a mess. Newspapers savaged United in their write-ups. Writing a century later, the Arsenal History Society called it "a toxic waste dump," and, while not literally true, it wasn't much of an exaggeration.

United soon began construction on a facility, outside of town, in Salford, near the Old Trafford Cricket Ground, which had stood since 1857, and most of the current structure dates only to 2013. The new United stadium, too, would become known as Old Trafford.

Of course, that stadium, while hardly an environmental hazard, has been nicknamed "Old Trashdump." Also, "Old Tramsheds." Man U legend Bobby Charlton called it "The Theatre of Dreams," but someone, noting Man U fans' reputation as "prawn sandwich eaters," called it "The Theatre of Prawns."

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October 30, 1911: James A. Coleman (I can find no record of what the A stands for) is born in Winnipeg. Syndicated across Canada for Southam Newspapers (now CanWest News Service), he was awarded the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award, the Hockey Hall of Fame's award that is tantamount to election for sportswriters. He died in 2001.

Also on this day, Eileen Whelan is born in Highbury, North London. She played test cricket from 1937 to 1949, and is arguably the greatest female bowler in the history of the sport. She also worked for MI6 during and after World War II.

In 2011, under her married name of Eileen Ash, she became the 1st female former test cricketer to live to be 100 years old. In July 2017, she rang the bell at Lord's Cricket Ground, "the home of cricket," to signal the start of play at the Women's World Cup Final, which England won. She also passed a renewal of her driver's test. On her 106th birthday, she was taken for a flight in a de Havilland Tiger Moth biplane, as she had done before over 80 years earlier.

At 109, she is believed to be the world's oldest living former cricketer of either gender, and one of the oldest living former performers in any sport.

October 30, 1914: Union Station opens in Kansas City, uniting 12 railroads, including the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (or just "The Santa Fe"); and the Union Pacific.

On June 17, 1933, what became known as the Kansas City Massacre took place, as 4 policemen were killed by gangsters trying to free captured fugitive Frank Nash. It didn't work: Nash was also killed. On December 15, 1943, the Santa Fe's Super Chief -- for which Yankee pitcher Allie Reynolds would be nicknamed -- pulled in, and jazz pianist Fats Waller was found dead aboard it.

In 1985, with rail travel having seriously declined for over 30 years, Amtrak moved to a smaller facility, and Union Station was closed. A badly-needed restoration was completed in 1999, with a shopping mall and a museum included. Amtrak restored service to Union Station in 2002.

October 30, 1915: Alumni Field opens on the campus of Boston College, just outside Boston in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. BC loses to arch-rival Holy Cross 9-0. This stadium will be replaced in 1957 by Alumni Stadium.

Also on this day, Bernard Louis Carnevale is born in Raritan, Somerset County, New Jersey. A star basketball player at Somerville High School, he played hoops at New York University in the 1930s, when that still meant something special, including the 1934 debut of the college basketball doubleheaders at the old Madison Square Garden that boosted the sport like nothing ever had before.

Ben Carnevale coached the University of North Carolina to their 1st NCAA Tournament Final Four, and their 1st Final, in 1946, losing to Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State). From 1947 to 1967, he wa sthe head coach at the U.S. Naval Academy, going 257-160 despite the Academy having a height restriction of 6-foot-5. (That had been done away with by the time David Robinson arrived in 1983.) He was elected to the College Basketball Hall of Fame, and died in 2008.

Also on this day, Charles Tupper dies in London at age 94. He was a member of Britain's Privy Council. He was the last survivor among Canada's 1867 "Fathers of Confederation," serving as Premier of Nova Scotia. While he remains the longest-lived Prime Minister, he had the shortest time in office: 69 days, from May 1 to June 23, 1896. He had been appointed after a dissolution of Parliament, but lost the subsequent election, and never actually got to sit as Prime Minister.

October 30, 1916: Leon Day (no middle name) is born in Alexandria, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. He pitched for the Newark Eagles and the Baltimore Elite Giants in the Negro Leagues, and was also an excellent hitter. He landed on Utah Beach on D-Day.

Although just 30 years old when Jackie Robinson debuted, he only played two seasons, 1952 and 1953, in the formerly all-white minor leagues, and was never approached by a major league team to sign. He retired in 1955.

In 1995, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, based on his Negro League service. Just 6 days later, he died, making him the only person ever to be a living Hall-of-Famer-elect, but not a living Hall-of-Famer. He is also in the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

October 30, 1917: Robert Randall Bragan is born in Birmingham, Alabama. Bobby Bragan was a backup catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, but when team president Branch Rickey announced he would promote Jackie Robinson to the majors, Bragan was one of the Southern players who signed a petition opposing it, and even asked Rickey to trade him rather than make him play on a desegregated team. Rickey refused, and Bragan soon realized that he was wrong.

In 1948, Rickey wanted to promote Roy Campanella to the Dodgers, putting Bragan out of a job. To make up for this, he offered Bragan, then just 30, the post of manager of a Dodger farm team, the Fort Worth Cats of the Texas League. In 1955, Rickey, now president of the Pittsburgh Pirates, gave Bragan his 1st big-league managing job, which also made him Roberto Clemente's 1st big-league manager. When Rickey died in 1965, Bragan attended his funeral. He said, "I had to go, because Branch Rickey made me a better man."

In 1958, he was fired as manager of the Cleveland Indians, and legend has it that he walked out to the field at Cleveland Municipal Stadium and declared that the Indians would never win another Pennant. He denied this story many times, but the Indians didn’t win a Pennant from 1954 to 1995 -- by which point they had moved out of Municipal Stadium and into Jacobs (now Progressive) Field.

He was named the manager of the Braves in 1963, meaning he managed 4 Hall-of-Famers: Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn, Eddie Mathews and a young Joe Torre. He was still their manager when they moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta in 1966, but was fired in that 1st season in Atlanta. Despite being only 49, he was finished as a big-league manager.

But it was in the minors that Bragan truly made his mark, gaining a reputation for winning, and for fairness to nonwhite players that he could not have imagined prior to 1947. He led the Fort Worth Cats to Texas League Pennants in 1948 and 1949, and the Hollywood Stars to the Pacific Coast League Pennant in 1953. As manager of the PCL's Spokane Indians, he taught Maury Wills (a black player) to switch-hit, enabling him to become a big-leaguer and to revolutionize baserunning even more than Robinson had. He was named President of the Texas League in 1969 and of the National Association, the governing body for minor league baseball, in 1975.

On August 16, 2005, Bragan came out of retirement to manage the current version of the Fort Worth Cats, of the independent Central League, for 1 game. (The original Cats, along with their arch-rivals, the Dallas Eagles, had been replaced in 1965 by the Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs, whose new Turnpike Stadium was expanded into Arlington Stadium for the arrival of the Texas Rangers in 1972.) At age 87 years, 9 months, and 16 days, Bragan broke by one week the record of Connie Mack to become the oldest manager in professional baseball annals. Always known as an innovator with a sense of humor, and an umpire-baiter, Bragan was ejected in the 3rd inning of his "comeback", thus also becoming the oldest person in any capacity to be ejected from a professional sporting event. Bragan enjoyed the rest of the Cats' 11-10 victory from a more comfortable vantage point.

He is a member of the Sports Halls of Fames of both Alabama and Texas. He died in 2010, age 92.

Also on this day, Private Alexander Decoteau of the Canadian Expeditionary Force is killed by a German sniper at the Passchendaele Salient in Belgium. He was 29 years old.

Alex Decoteau was a member of the Red Pheasant First Nation, and in 1911 he became the 1st Indigenous police officer in Canada, joining the Edmoton Police. He set national distance-running records, and ran in the 5,000 meters at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm.

While in the Army, he competed in servicemen's track meets. At a meet in Salisbury, England, he won a 5-mile race, and King George V, in attendance, personally gave him his gold pocket watch.

October 30, 1922: Howard Edmonds Ayers is born in Toccoa, Georgia. Like trumpeter Carl Severinsen, he was nicknamed Doc because his father was a physician with the nickname. An injury ended his football playing career at the University of Georgia, but he became one of the top high school football coaches in the Peach State, at Cedartown High.

Doc Ayers served Vince Dooley as an assitant coach at Georgia from 1964 to 1981, icluding the 1980 National Championship. He is still alive, age 98, and a member of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.

October 30, 1923: Andrew Bonar Law dies of cancer in London at age 65. He had served in Britain's House of Commons since 1900, and was briefly Prime Minister, from October 23, 1922 until May 22, 1923, when he resigned due to his health.

Also on this day, William Campbell (no middle name) is born in Newark, New Jersey. He played 2 different characters on the original Star Trek series. He played General Trelane, the title character in "The Squire of Gothos" (1966), and Klingon Captain Koloth in "The Trouble With Tribbles" (1967).

He reprised his role as Koloth in the 1994 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Blood Oath," with full up-to-date (and elderly) Klingon makeup. He died in 2011.

October 30, 1924: Calvin Pearly Gardner is born in Transcona, Manitoba. A center known as Ginger, Red or Torchy (I'm presuming it was because of his hair), Cal Gardner won the Stanley Cup with the toronto Maple Leafs in 1949 and 1951, and made 2 NHL All-Star Games. He was elected to the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame, and died in 2001.

October 30, 1925: Thomas Herman Ridgley is born in New Orleans. A pioneer of rhythm & blues, his 1954 instrumenal "Jam Up" was used by Ken Burns for the Mickey Mantle segment in his 1994 miniseries Baseball. Ridgley died in 1999.

October 30, 1926: The University of Illinois debuts its mascot, Chief Illiniwek, whose name means "Chief of Men." (In other words, like "Los Angeles Angels," it's redundant.) Ray Dvorak, then assistant director of the band, dresses in Native American garb, and dances during the halftime show. Since the opponent was the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school, this story went back East, was reported in the Eastern papers, and made the Chief famous. The Fighting Illini beat Penn 3-0.

Fans would see the portrayer at games and other events, and chant, "Chief! Chief! Chief!" As the years went by, various tribes were split on whether the mascot was appropriate, although the costume was reportedly made by actual Natives. Finally, in 2007, the University decided not to use the Chief anymore. There were 82 separate portrayers. Only 1 was a woman, Idelle Brooks, who served as "Princess Illiniwek" in 1943, due to the World War II manpower shortage.

October 30, 1927: Joseph Wilbur Adcock is born in Coushatta, Louisiana. The 1st baseman was an All-Star slugger for the Milwaukee Braves, hitting 4 home runs in a 1954 game, and was a member of their 1957 World Champions and 1958 Pennant winners. He also briefly managed the California Angels. He died in 1999.

Also on this day, Roland Hall Dale Jr. is born in Magee, Mississippi. An end, he starred at the University of Mississippi, played the 1950 season with the Washington Redskins, then went into coaching.

His only head coaching job was at the University of Southeastern Louisiana in 1972 and '73. He then served as athletic director at the University of Southern Mississippi untiln 1986. He was named to the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, and died in 2012.

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October 30, 1930, 90 years ago: Don Meineke is born in Dayton, Ohio. The forward led the University of Dayton to the Final of the 1951 and '52 NITs, and was NBA Rookie of the Year with the 1953 Fort Wayne Pistons. He moved with the Rochester Royals to Cincinnati in 1957. He died in 2013.

Also on this day, Clifford Benjamin Brown is born in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1949, he began recording jazz songs on trumpet, and was soon hailed as one of the next great hopes of jazz. Saxophone star Sonny Rollins credited the intensely antidrug Brown with helping him kick his own drug habit.

But on June 26, 1956, Clifford's wife Nancy was driving him and pianist Richie Powell (brother of the better-known pianist Bud Powell) west on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, near Bedford, to get them from New York to a gig the next day in Chicago. She lost control of the car, killing all 3 of them.

Also on this day, Richard Gautier (no middle name) is born in the Los Angeles suburb of Culver City, California. Dick Gautier played Hymie the Robot on the 1960s sitcom Get Smart, and Robin Hood on the 1970s sitcom When Things Were Rotten. He later did voices for several cartoons, including the Transformers franchise.

He married 3 times. He and his 2nd wife, actress Barbara Stuart, both appeared as panelists on Match Game, including 1 week together. He died in 2017.

October 30, 1935: James Evan Perry Jr. is born in Williamston, North Carolina. Jim Perry was an All-Star pitcher for the Minnesota Twins, helping them win the 1965 Pennant. He won 215 games in the major leagues, and took the 1970 AL Cy Young Award.

Older but lesser-known than his Hall of Fame brother Gaylord Perry, they still combined for more wins and more strikeouts than any brother combination before them, and have since been surpassed in each category only by Phil and Joe Niekro. But the Perrys are still the only brothers ever to both win Cy Young Awards, and both are still alive.

Also on this day, Victor Benítez Morales is born in Lima, Peru. A defensive midfielder, he may have been the greatest soccer player Peru has ever produced. He won league titles in Peru with Alianza Lima in 1954 and 1955, and in Argentina with Boca Juniors in 1962.

He was snapped up by AC Milan, and helped them win the European Cup in 1963. He later helped AS Roma win the 1969 Coppa Italia, and returned to Peru and helped Sporting Cristal win the 1972 league title. He is still alive.

Also on this day, Robert Allan Caro is born in Manhattan. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography for The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, in which he details both the benefits and the harm the legendary bureaucrat, builder and destroyer brought the City from the 1920s to the 1960s, including standing in the way of Walter O'Malley getting a new stadium for the Brooklyn Dodgers. This led to O'Malley moving the team to Los Angeles, and to Moses building the Flushing Meadow facility that became Shea Stadium.

Incredibly, the book was published in 1974, while Moses was still alive. I can only guess the old bastard was no longer vigorous enough to mount any kind of attempt to stop it. Caro has also published 4 of a planned 5 volumes of a biography of President Lyndon Johnson.

October 30, 1936: Richard Albert Vermeil is born in Calistoga, California, in the Napa Valley. It's hard to imagine Dick Vermeil as a quarterback, but he played the position at San Jose State University. He coached in high school and junior college, and in 1975 he led UCLA to the championship of the league then known as the Pacific-8. On New Year's Day 1976, he led them to beat then-Number 1-ranked Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.

That got the attention of Leonard Tose, the trucking magnate who owned the Philadelphia Eagles. It took 3 seasons, but Vermeil got the Eagles into the Playoffs in 1978, in part because of a stunning last-minute comeback against the New York Giants known as "The Miracle of the Meadowlands." In 1979, he got them to the NFC East title. In both seasons, he was named NFL Coach of the Year.

Before he set the Eagles on a mission of winning the Super Bowl, he set them on the mission of knocking the Cowboys off their NFC Eastern Division perch. Every time they would be the Eagles' next opponent, he would begin practice by asking, "What's it going to take to beat the Dallas Cowboys?" On November 11, 1979, the day before his 8th try, before a Monday night game, he gathered his players in their hotel, and asked the question again. Before they could answer it, he did: "24 more hours." They roared their approval, and proved him right.

The next season, on January 11, 1981, he got them to beat the Cowboys at Veterans Stadium to win the NFC Championship, which remains the Eagles' most celebrated victory since their 1960 NFL Championship.

But the Eagles lost the subsequent Super Bowl XV, and Vermeil became more obsessed than ever, spending pretty much all day at the Eagles' training facility, including sleeping there, sometimes falling asleep while watching film. After the 1982 season, he resigned, saying he was "burned out." Frequently seen crying tears of joy in the locker room after wins, his tearful farewell is as well-remembered in Philadelphia as that of Mike Schmidt when he retired from playing baseball.

Dick went into broadcasting, gaining a lot of respect as a color commentator on CBS' college football broadcasts, teaming with Brent Musburger. When Musburger's contract ran out in 1986, and he moved to ABC, he convinced them to take Vermeil with him.

In 1997, he felt ready to return to coaching, and was hired by the St. Louis Rams. As with the Eagles, it took 3 seasons, but he got them to the Playoffs. This time, he got them all the way to the Super Bowl in Year 3, and, with well-wishes from just about all of his old Eagles players, the Rams beat the Tennessee Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV. He was named NFL Coach of the Year again.

And then he resigned. It looked like he was satisfied, having finally gotten his ring. But he was quickly snapped up by the team across Missouri, the Kansas City Chiefs. Again, it took 3 years, but he turned a losing team into a Playoff team, winning the AFC West in 2003. He resigned after a difficult 2005 season, and hasn't coached since.

He has a farm outside Philadelphia, and a winery in his native Napa Valley. He has been elected to both the Eagles' and the Rams' team halls of fame, but not yet to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In 2006, he was played by Greg Kinnear in the film Invincible, about Eagles walk-on Vince Papale. In a league where enemies are easily made, pretty much everybody likes Dick Vermeil.

October 30, 1937: Arsenal lose 2-1 to Yorkshire club Middlesbrough at home at Highbury. This marks the final appearances for the club for 3 players: Herbie Roberts, who breaks his leg during the game, having helped the club win the Football League in 1931, 1933, 1934 and 1935, and the FA Cup in 1930 and 1936; Ray Bowden, already nursing an ankle injury, having also played on those 1930s trophy wins; and Bobby Davidson, whose Highbury high point had been scoring 4 goals in a 1936 win over Portsmouth. Star forward Alex James had retired the previous off-season.

Manager George Allison brings up some younger players, alongside such stalwarts as Eddie Hapgood, George Male, Wilf Copping, Cliff Bastin and Ted Drake, and it works, as Arsenal win the League again in 1938. It could have been the beginning of a 2nd Islington dynasty.

But World War II cut the 1939-40 season off shortly after its beginning. By the time League soccer started again in August 1946, most of the 1930s players had gotten old and stale, and most of the new players responsible for the 1937-38 title had lost their touch. Arsenal had to start over again, and did, with a short but successful run from 1947 to 1953.

Also on this day, Sir Barton dies of colic on a ranch outside Douglas, Wyoming. The 1st horse to win U.S. thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown, in 1919, was 21.

October 30, 1938: The CBS radio show The Mercury Theater of the Air airs an adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. Wells' story first appeared in London-based Pearson's Magazine in 1897. That same year, in America, Cosmopolitan serialized it. (It was a literary magazine until 1965, when Helen Gurley Brown was named editor, and turned it into a women's magazine.) It appeared in hardcover in 1898.

To make a long story short, with a spoiler: Creatures from the planet Mars invade Earth by attacking the greatest city of the age, late-Victorian London, and terrorize humanity, but soon die due to having no immunity to Earth germs.

It's been filmed in 1953 by George Pal, starring Gene Barry and moving the location to Southern California -- in other words, Hollywood itself -- and in 2005 by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Cruise and set in New York. In each case, the film was set in what was then the present day.

The 1938 radio version was also set in its present. Howard E. Koch adapted the story for the broadcast, and lead actor Orson Welles (not related to H.G. Wells, note the different spelling), just 23 years old, tells of creatures from Mars landing in Grover's Mill, in the Township of West Windsor, Mercer County, New Jersey. The site is about a mile east of where the Princeton Junction train station now stands.

The story is told as if it were a live news broadcast. While it ends with the Martians dying and the world saved by its own smallest and simplest lifeforms, it is too late: New York is in ruins, and "Martian cylinders" have also been reported in other major cities. (I have listened to the broadcast on YouTube. It clocks in at a little under an hour.)

Legend has it that people heard that the alien invaders were killing people and advancing toward New York, panicked, grabbed their shotguns and pitchforks, and evacuated. However, Welles said at the end of every commercial break that it was just a show, not actually happening, and repeated this at the end.

Furthermore, it would have been very easy for people to turn to another radio station -- say, their local NBC affiliate -- and hear regularly-scheduled programming, and not any "special report" of an invasion and attack, and know that everything was as it was before. Welles publicly apologized the next day -- Halloween. But it made him a legend.

In 1941, Welles co-wrote, produced, directed, and starred in Citizen Kane, one of the greatest movies ever made. But because Charles Foster Kane was, despite all denials, an obvious sendup of newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst, the thin-skinned Hearst told his media empire, now including film newsreels and radio stations, to blast the film.

Welles never fully recovered from this, despite making some more good films (The Magnificent Ambersons, The Third Man, Touch of Evil), reduced to a punchline due to his fall from grace, his "slumming" with things like commercials for Paul Masson wine, his wasted genius, and his, uh, geniused waist. He died in 1985, having been mostly irrelevant from ages 26 to 70.

I find it interesting that, in picking a location close enough to New York to be a threat, but far enough away to build momentum, Welles picked a location in Central Jersey, about halfway between Midtown Manhattan and Center City Philadelphia, and 17 miles from where I grew up.

And you'll notice that, while many sports teams, professional and collegiate alike, have given themselves nicknames of various kinds of warriors, none has ever named itself "The Martians" or "The Aliens." Although the Pacific Coast League's Las Vegas team, now the Las Vegas Aviators, called themselves Las Vegas 51s from 2001 to 2018, named for the nearby U.S. Air Force base nicknamed "Area 51," and used "the Roswell Alien" as their logo.

October 30, 1939: Bobby Lee Lane is born in Wagoner, Oklahoma, and grows up outside Los Angeles in Bellflower, California. Not to be confused with College and Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Bobby Layne, this Bobby Lane was a member of the 1963 AFL Champion San Diego Chargers, still the only time the team, now back in Los Angeles, has ever won a League title. He is still alive.

Also on this day, 2 legends of 1960s music are born. Edward Holland Jr. is born in Detroit. With his younger brother Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier, the Holland-Dozier-Holland team wrote an insane amount of hit songs for Motown Records from 1963 to 1970.

For The Supremes: "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love," "Come See About Me," "Stop! In the Name of Love," "Back In My Arms Again," "I Hear a Symphony," "My World Is Empty Without You," "Love Is Like an Itching In My Heart," "You Can't Hurry Love," "You Keep Me Hangin' On," "Love Is Here and Now You're Gone," "The Happening" and "Reflections."

For The Four Tops: "Baby I Need Your Loving," "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," "It's the Same Old Song," "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)," "Reach Out I'll Be There," "Standing In the Shadows of Love" and "Bernadette."

For Martha & The Vandellas: "Come and Get These Memories," "Heat Wave," "Quicksand," "Live Wire," "Nowhere to Run" and "Jimmy Mack."

For The Miracles, who had Smokey Robinson, so it's not like they needed the help: "Mickey's Monkey" and "I Gotta Dance to Keep from Crying." For Marvin Gaye: "Can I Get a Witness," "You're a Wonderful One" and "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)." For The Isley Brothers "This Old Heart of Mine." For Junior Walker & The All-Stars: "(I'm a) Road Runner." For The Chairmen of the Board: "Give Me Just a Little More Time." For Freda Payne: "Band of Gold."

With Norman Whitfield, Eddie Holland also wrote The Temptations' hits "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" and "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep," and The Marvelettes' hit "Too Many Fish In the Sea." With several others, Brian Holland also wrote The Marvelettes' hits "Please Mr. Postman" and "Playboy."

Eddie Holland is now 81, while Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier are 79.

Also on this day, Grace Barnett Wing is born in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois. Under her name from her 1st marriage, Grace Slick, she became the lead singer of the San Francisco-based psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, and its successors bands, Jefferson Starship, and just Starship.

With the Airplane, she performed at Monterey Pop, Woodstock and Altamont. She is one of several performers who said that Woodstock was the worst performance of her career. In spite of the tragedy and the other things that went wrong, she has said that the music was better at Altamont. She is still alive, but retired from performing.

In 1985, with Starship, she had her 1st Number 1 hit, "We Built This City." In 2003, VH1 called it "the most awesomely bad song ever." It's not a bad song. It's a great song, with a ridiculous video.

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October 30, 1941: Robert Primrose Wilson is born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Bob first kept goal for North London club Arsenal in 1963, became the starter in 1968, and remained so until retiring in 1974. In between, he helped Arsenal win the 1970 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, and "the Double" of the Football League Division One and the FA Cup in 1971.

Although born in England, his parents were from Scotland, and he has always identified as Scottish. Yet he was only selected to play for Scotland twice. Despite all their talent from England and from Scotland, Arsenal players saw precious few international "caps" in that era.

Bob later became Arsenal's goalkeeping coach, with Pat Rice as defensive coach, under manager George Graham, the 3 members of the 1971 Double team taking them to the 1989 and 1991 League titles. Arsene Wenger kept Bob and Pat on, and they remained with the team through the 1998 and 2002 Doubles. Bob then retired, although Pat remained as assistant coach through 2012.

He and his wife Megs have been married for 56 years. They had 3 children, including daughter Anna, who died from cancer, leading Bob to found the Willow Foundation (the name taken from a nickname of his). In 2011, at age 70, he made a charity bicycle ride to all 20 of England's Premier League (successor to the old Division One) stadiums, and on to Hampden Park, Scotland's national stadium in Glasgow. He has since survived cancer himself, and is doing well.

Also on this day, James Ray Hart is born in Hookerton, North Carolina. Known as Jim Ray Hart, he was a 3rd baseman and left fielder for the San Francisco Giants, making the 1966 All-Star Game. The Giants named him to their Wall of Fame. He finished his career with the Yankees in 1973 and '74, and died in 2016.

Also on this day, Otis Miles Jr. is born in Texarkana, Texas, and grows up in Detroit as Otis Williams. In 1959, he and a friend named Melvin Franklin formed a doo-wop group called The Distants. In 1961, Otis and Melvin left The Distants to form a new group with former members of The Primes, Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams, calling themselves The Temptations. David Ruffin joined in 1964, and the rest is history.

Complicated history. Ruffin's ego and drug use led to his firing in 1968, and he was replaced with Dennis Edwards, leading to a shift in the group's sound, from light soul to what became known as "psychedelic soul." With the death of Melvin in 1995, Otis was, and still is, the last remaining original member of the group.

October 30, 1944: Appalachian Spring premieres at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. It is generally regarded as the greatest ballet ever written in America. Aaron Copland composed the music, and was awarded the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Music for it. Martha Graham wrote the choreography, and danced the lead role at the premiere.

October 30, 1945, 75 years ago: Henry Franklin Winkler is born in Manhattan. Ayyyyyyyy! He's had many fine roles since Happy Days went off the air, but he will always be that show's Arthur Fonzarelli. And that is so cool. Cooler than any typecasting could ever be. You don't think that's cool? As the Fonz would say, "Sit on it!"

When Robin Williams debuted his Mork from Ork character on an episode of Happy Days, he told Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) that he wanted to take an Earth person back to Ork. He meant Richie, and the Fonz had to fight him for Richie. Before Richie realized what Mork meant, he asked Mork if he meant Milwaukee Braves star Hank Aaron. Mork said, "No, we'd have to trade the whole planet for him!"

Although Henry wouldn't seem to have much to do with sports, he recently joined legendary quarterback Terry Bradshaw, former Heavyweight Champion George Foreman, and Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner, on Better Late Than Never, a 4-hour NBC reality miniseries in which these men -- 69, 67, 66 and 84, respectively, at the time -- took a tour of Asia, visiting Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand, and experienced cultures that they found very, very foreign. I had no idea that the 4 of them even knew each other, much less that they were such good friends.

They did a 2nd season, going to Europe, including Berlin, where they learned the fate of Henry's uncle, who died in the Holocaust. It was an incredibly emotional moment for Henry. Shatner is also Jewish, and they found his roots in Lithuania.

Also on this day, Robert Roe Skidmore is born in Decatur, Illinois. Dropping his first name, Roe Skidmore played 10 seasons in the minor leagues as an outfielder and 1st baseman. However, he made only 1 major league appearance.

He made it count: On September 17, 1970, Chicago Cubs manager Leo Durocher sent him up to pinch-hit for Joe Decker against Jerry Reuss of the St. Louis Cardinals, and he got a hit. The Cubs lost anyway, 9-2, but he "retired" with a "lifetime" batting average of 1.000. He is still alive.

October 30, 1946: Glen Courtney Combs is born in Hazard Kentucky. A guard, he became known as the Kentucky Rifle for his long-range shooting at Virginia Tech. He was elected to their sports Hall of Fame. He never played in the NBA, but he made 3 ABA All-Star Games, and helped the Utah Stars win the 1971 ABA Championship. He is still alive.

Also on this day, Andrea Mitchell (no middle name) is born in New Rochelle, Westchester County, New York. In 1981, she became White House correspondent for NBC News. She was moved to being their Congressional correspondent in 1988. She went back to the White House as NBC's chief correspondent in 1993, and has been their foreign affairs correspondent since 1994. Since 2008, she has hosted Andrea Mitchell Reports on MSNBC.

She is known for her antipathy to all things Clinton, showing that not all MSNBC hosts and correspondents are liberal. Since 1997, she has been married to Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board from 1987 to 2006. She married him for his money. He married her so that, for the first time in his life, he could be in a relationship where he was considered "the interesting one."

October 30, 1947: George Tirebiter, the mutt recently adopted as a mascot by the University of Southern California (USC), is kidnapped by students at their arch-rivals, the University of California at Los Angeles. They shave the letters "UCLA" into the fur on his back, and have a photographer from the Los Angeles Times take the picture, before returning him.

Also on this day, Daniel Michael Lawson is born in Toronto. A right wing, Danny Lawson struggled with the NHL's Detroit Red Wings, Minnesota North Stars and Buffalo Sabres, but led the World Hockey Association in scoring in its 1st season, 1972-73, scoring 61 goals for the Philadelphia Blazers.

The Blazers moved to Vancouver before the next season, in which he scored another 50 goals. He only scored 28 goals in the NHL, but 218 in the WHA. He later played and coached in Germany's hockey league, was named to the WHA Hall of Fame, and died in 2008.

Also on this day, Timothy Bruce Schmit is born in Oakland, California. In 1969, he replaced Randy Meisner as the bass guitarist in the band Poco. In 1977, he replaced Meisner again, in The Eagles. While he was only with them on the last of their initial-run albums, The Long Run, Timothy B. Schmit was the only member of that "California rock" band who was actually from the Golden State. Meisner is from Nebraska, Don Henley is from northeast Texas, Joe Walsh is from Wichita, Don Felder is from central Florida, and Glenn Frey was from Detroit.

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October 30, 1950, 70 years ago: Philip Chenier (no middle name) is born in Berkeley, California. The guard starred for the Baltimore and Washington Bullets, and was a member of their 1978 NBA Championship team. He recently retired after 30 years as a broadcaster for the team, now known as the Washington Wizards, and they have retired his Number 45 this season. His son, Phil Chenier Jr., is head coach of a high school team in D.C.'s Maryland suburbs.

Also on this day, James Michael LeClair is born in St. Paul, Minnesota. A linebacker, Jim LeClair starred at the University of North Dakota. He played 12 seasons for the Cincinnati Bengals, helping them win the 1981 AFC Championship, although they lost Super Bowl XVI. He also played 2 seasons with the USFL's New Jersey Generals. He made the 1976 Pro Bowl, and was a USFL All-Star in 1984. He is a member of the College Football and North Dakota Sports Halls of Fame.

After he retired, he lived in Mayville, North Dakota, running an insurance agency, serving as the head coach at Mayville State University, and later being elected the town's Mayor. He died in 2019.

October 30, 1951: Thomas Arthur Poquette is born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. An outfielder, Tom Poquette was a reserve on the Kansas City Royals teams that won the American League Western Division in 1976, '77 and '78, but lost the AL Championship Series to the Yankees each time. By the time they finally beat the Yankees in the 1980 ALCS, he was in the Boston Red Sox' minor-league system. He later managed in the Royals' system, and is still alive.

Also on this day, Kathleen Rollo is born in Warroad, Minnesota, but grows up across the border, 10 miles away, in Middlebro, Manitoba. A diver, she competed for Canada in the 1972 Olympics in Munich. She is still alive, and a member of he Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame.

Also on this day, Frank Joseph Pallone Jr. is born in Long Branch, Monmouth County, New Jersey. In 1983, he was elected to the State Senate. In 1988, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from what is now the 6th District.

Every 2 years, the Republicans target him for defeat, because he is the environment's best friend in Congress. But in spite of Monmouth and Ocean Counties trending Republican the last few years, they haven't come close since 1990: Only once since 1998 has a Republican nominee even gotten 40 percent against him.

Also on this day, Harry Robinson Hamlin is born in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California. He played Perseus in the original 1981 version of Clash of the Titans, and attorney Michael "Mickey" Kuzak on L.A. Law.

Ursula Andress played the goddess Aphrodite in Clash of the Titans, and she and Harry had a long-term relationship that resulted in the birth of a son, Dmitri Hamlin. He has been married 3 times, each time to a an actress specializing in soap operas: Laura Johnson, Nicollette Sheridan, and, since 1997, Lisa Rinna. He and Lisa have 2 daughters, Delilah and Amelia.

October 30, 1953: Paul Power (no middle name) is born in Manchester, England. A left back, he helped hometown club Manchester City win the 1976 League Cup and reach the 1981 FA Cup Final.

But he was sold to Everton of Liverpool. In the 1986-87 season, en route to winning the League title, he scored against Man City at their old ground, Maine Road, and notably refused to celebrate the goal out of respect to his childhood club. He has returned to them, and is a coach in their youth system.

October 30, 1954: Mahmoud El Khatib is born in El Dakhalia, Egypt. In a career that ran with Cairo club El Ahly -- voted in a newspaper poll as African soccer's "Club of the Century" -- from 1972 until injuries led him to hang up his boots in 1988, "Bibo" won the Egyptian League title 10 times, the Egyptian Cup 6 times, the African Cup Winners' Cup 3 times, and the African Champions League twice.

He led Egypt to win the 1986 African Cup of Nations, and was voted "Arab Sportsman of the Century" in 1999. He is now the president of his former club.

October 30, 1956: Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley sells Ebbets Field to a real estate group. He agrees to stay until 1959‚ with an option to stay until 1961. Then again, as one of the most unscrupulous lawyers in New York, what the hell is a legally binding agreement to Lord Waltermort?

October 30, 1958: Joe Alton Delaney is born in Henderson, Texas, and grows up outside Shreveport, Louisiana. He was a sensational running back for the Kansas City Chiefs in 1981 and '82, but his career was cut short when he attempted to save 2 drowning boys in a lake near his Louisiana home, and ended up drowning as well. He was just 24.

The Chiefs have removed his Number 37 from circulation, although they have not officially retired it. They have also elected him to their team Hall of Fame, and placed him on their Ring of Honor at Arrowhead Stadium.

October 30, 1959: Charles K. Monfort (I can find no record of what the K stands for) is born in Greeley, Colorado. Charlie and his brother Dick are the owners of baseball's Colorado Rockies.

Also on this day, Glenn Ingvar Hysén is born in Göteborg (Gothenburg), Sweden. A centreback, he led hometown team IFK Göteborg to the Swedish league title in 1982, 1983 and 1987; the Swedish Cup in 1982 and 1983 (making for a League and Cup "Double" both seasons); and the UEFA Cup (the tournament now known as the UEFA Europa League) in 1982 (making for an odd "Treble") and 1987.

In 1990, he helped Liverpool win England's Football League, still their last title, and played for Sweden at the World Cup. He has since gone into management, and has 4 sons who have followed him into the sport.

Also on this day, The Twilight Zone airs the episode "Walking Distance." Gig Young plays a man who, while waiting to get his car fixed, notes that he's just a mile and a half from his hometown. But when he gets there, it looks like it did during his childhood. He meets himself as a boy, and his parents, but no one believes him when he says who he is.

Later, trying to get his younger self's attention, the boy falls off a carousel and injures his leg, and the grown version screams in pain. After the boy is taken to the hospital, the father -- the same age as the grown son -- returns the grown son's wallet, now believing him. The father, who apparently died years earlier from the grown son's perspective, gives him one last bit of advice: Let go of the past. The son walks back to the garage where his car is -- with a limp.

Also on this day, War Admiral dies at Hamburg Place, a horse farm outside Lexington, Kentucky. He was 25. A son of Man o' War, he won the Triple Crown in 1937, but the next year, famously lost a match race to his nephew, a grandson of Man o' War, but nonetheless a year older, Seabiscuit.

War Admiral's descendants include 1950s star Swaps, 1960s stars Buckpasser and Dr. Fager, 1980s star Alysheba, 1990s star Cigar, 2000s star Zenyatta, and 3 Triple Crown winners: Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1978) and American Pharoah (2015). These horses are also thus descendants of Man o' War.

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October 30, 1960, 60 years ago: The Dallas Texans defeat the Denver Broncos 17-14 at Bears Stadium in Denver. The Broncos had begun the 1st American Football League season 4-2. But this loss wrecked their season, as they went 0-7-1 the rest of the way, losing 4 games by 10 points or less. With the Texans, it was the other way around: They came in 2-4, but went 6-2 the rest of the way, just missing the Western Division title and the 1st AFL Championship Game.

This is the 1st meeting between the Broncos and the team that, in 1963, became the Kansas City Chiefs. In 1968, the Broncos' home, named for its owners, minor-league baseball's Denver Bears, was renamed Mile High Stadium.

October 30, 1961: Scott William Garrelts is born in Urbana, Illinois. The All-Star pitcher led the National League in ERA in 1989 and helped lead the San Francisco Giants to the Pennant. The following year, he took a no-hitter into the 9th inning against the Cincinnati Reds, but it was broken up with one out to go by future Yankee Legend Paul O’Neill. His career record was 69-53, and the Giants have named him to their Wall of Fame.

Also on this day, the Soviet Union detonates a hydrogen bomb they call Vanya (the Russian version of "Johnny"), on Severny Island in the Arctic Ocean. At 50 megatons (50 million tons), it is the largest explosion in human history. For comparison's sake: The largest nuclear bomb America ever tested was 15 megatons, and the 1st one, dropped on Hiroshima, Japan at the end of World War II, was 15 kilotons (15,000 tons).

The Soviets thought they could keep it a secret for as long as they wanted to. They were wrong: An American spy-plane detected it, and it was reported in the media, with the West calling it "Tsar Bomba" (Czar Bomb). The Cuban Missile Crisis, a year later, led to the following year's Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and there have been no new Tsar Bombas since.

October 30, 1962: Courtney Andrew Walsh is born in Kingston, Jamaica. He starred for the world-famous West Indies cricket team from 1984 to 2001, captaining them in 22 Test matches from 1996 onward. He is now a coach for the national team of Bangladesh.

October 30, 1963: Michael Robert John Veletta is born in Perth, Western Australia. A longtime star for the Western Australia cricket team, he was a member of the Australia team that won the 1987 Cricket World Cup.

October 30, 1964: Buffalo Wings are invented. Frank and Teresa Bellissimo opened a bar on Main Street in Buffalo, New York in 1939. Because it was near the Buffalo River, they named it the Anchor Bar. Because it was just 5 blocks from War Memorial Stadium, then home of the 1964 season's eventual American Football League Champions, the Buffalo Bills, it became a hangout for Bills fans.

Legend has it that, on a Friday night, Dominic Bellissimo, son of the owners, came by with some friends, looking for a late-night snack. Teresa was there, preparing to make chicken stock with a bunch of wings. Improvising, she stuck them under the broiler (later they switched to deep frying), sprinkled them with a hot sauce she concocted from a commercially available base (Frank's Hot Sauce), took some celery sticks off the antipasto dishes, put some blue cheese dressing (the house dressing) in a small bowl, and served them to the boys. They loved it, and the word of this new concoction spread.

Dom Bellissimo took over the bar after his parents died, and, still alive, he tells a different story. In 1980, he was interviewed for The New Yorker by Calvin Trillin. It wasn't until 1966 that the Catholic Church allowed its members to eat meat on Fridays, since the Crucifixion happened on a Friday. On this Friday night, since people were buying a lot of drinks, he wanted to do something nice for them at midnight, when the mostly Catholic patrons would be able to eat meat again. It was still Teresa who came up with the idea, Dom said, but the friends in question weren't there.

Of course, buffaloes don't have wings. Chickens have wings... but they don't have fingers. (This sounds like a George Carlin bit.) Nevertheless, "Buffalo wings" and "chicken fingers" have become standard pub grub in America.

In 2004, I visited Buffalo, and had to stop by the Anchor Bar. I can't stand spicy food, so I didn't order the original Buffalo wings. But they make a fantastic Monte Cristo sandwich.

Also on this day, William Mark Peduto is born in Pittsburgh. He was elected that city's Mayor in 2013, and has presided over the Penguins' 2016 and '17 Stanley Cup wins.

October 30, 1967: Arthur Allyn, owner of the White Sox, announces that they will play 9 "home" games 97 miles to the north at Milwaukee County Stadium in 1968 -- 1 against every other team in the League, just as the National League's Brooklyn Dodgers did at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City in 1956 and '57.

The ChiSox will become the 1st AL team to play regular season games outside its own city since 1905. This was occasionally done in that era, to get around "blue laws" prohibiting sporting events on Sundays in some cities.

What Allyn really wants is to scare the City of Chicago into thinking he wants to move the team to Milwaukee full-time, thus building him a new ballpark, to replace Comiskey Park, at the edge of the South Side ghetto. Mayor Richard J. Daley was a hard man to scare -- especially since he'd just gotten re-elected in the Spring. However, Daley was a White Sox fan, who'd lived most of his life in the Bridgeport neighborhood, within walking distance of Comiskey. Allyn thought he could roll Daley.

Daley called Allyn's bluff. He was bluffing, and didn't move. The "Milwaukee White Sox" ploy did more to bring Major League Baseball back to Milwaukee (in 1970, with the Brewers) than it did for Allyn or the White Sox. Once the Milwaukee hole in MLB was filled, Allyn was left with a choice: Find another way to bluff Daley, or actually move. In 1972, he nearly moved the team to Seattle, but the deal fell through. In 1975, he prepared to move them to Denver.

Then Bill Veeck, owner from 1959 to 1961, came back and bought the Sox, and canceled the intended move to Denver. But he couldn't afford to keep them, and sold them in 1980 to Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn.

"The Reinhorn Twins," knowing the City of Chicago didn't have the money to help them, instead blackmailed the State of Illinois into building them a new ballpark, or else they would move to Tampa Bay for 1989. Governor James Thompson, a White Sox fan, lobbied for the new Comiskey Park, now named Guaranteed Rate Field, and the Sox stayed.

Allyn died in 1985, Veeck in 1986, Einhorn in 2016. Reinsdorf is now sole owner of the White Sox and the Bulls.

Also on this day, Ty Hubert Detmer is born in San Marcos, Texas. His father, Hubert "Sonny" Detmer, was a high school football coach. As a result, the family moved around South Texas, until he went to Southwest High School in San Antonio, playing for his father. In 1990, one in a long line of great quarterbacks at Brigham Young University, he won the Heisman Trophy.

His pro career was a bust, however, as he became a career backup, as did his brother Koy Detmer, who played at the University of Colorado, and hung on for 11 years in the NFL due to his skill at being a holder for placekicks. Both brothers played for the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1997 season. (Yes, that's his name, not a nickname: Koy Dennis Detmer.)

Ty served as the offensive coordinator at BYU, coaching, among others, his nephew, Koy Detmer Jr., but was fired after the 2017 season. Koy Sr. became an assistant to his father at Somerset High School in Texas, where Koy Detmer Jr. had been a quarterback. Koy Sr. is now coaching at Mission High School, where he played under his father.

Also on this day, Fernando Muñoz García is born in Seville, Spain. Known as Nando, the centreback is a very cheeky player. (Those of you from Britain will get that joke.) After playing for hometown club Sevilla, he helped Barcelona win La Liga in 1991 and 1992, and their 1st European Cup in 1992.

He then crossed the Barca/Madrid divide, and helped Real Madrid win the Copa del Rey (King's Cup, Spain's version of the FA Cup) in 1993 and La Liga in 1995. He went to Español, the "other club" in Barcelona, and won the Copa del Rey in 2000.

October 30, 1969: Tony Sbarbaro dies in New York at age 72. A drummer, he was the last surviving member of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, the 1st music group to record jazz songs, having recorded the 1st known jazz record, "Livery Stable Blues," in New York on February 26, 1917.

October 30, 1970, 50 years ago: Nia Talita Long is born in Brooklyn, and grows up in Los Angeles. After a recurring role on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, she played L.A. Police Officer Sasha Monroe on Third Watch, and stars in the upcoming film Life in a Year.

October 30, 1971: East Brunswick High School, later to be my high school, goes up to Elizabeth in Union County, New Jersey, and defeats Thomas Jefferson High School 22-18. This is considered a tremendous upset. The following year, Jefferson comes to East Brunswick in Middlesex County, and E.B. wins again.

In 1977, the all-boys Jefferson High (opened 1927) and Battin High School (1889 and coed until 1927), then the only all-girls public high school in New Jersey, were merged into a single Elizabeth High School. With a peak of 5,279 students, it was the largest high school in the entire country, until the school board decided it was too much for any single school.

In 2010, the school was split up into "houses," each concentrating on a different specialized curriculum. The Main Complex includes the administration building, and much of the 1977 version of the high school. It serves as the school's hub, and includes the Dunn Sports Center. (More about that shortly.)

The old Thomas Jefferson High School building was converted into the Thomas Jefferson House, and houses the visual and performing arts and creative writing sections -- which Jefferson himself would have appreciated. The old Thomas A. Edison High School (1935-77) became the Thomas A. Edison Academy for Career & Technical Education, which Edison would have appreciated.

The J. Christian Bollwage Academy of Finance, named for the man who's been the City's Mayor since 1992, handles math. The Frank J. Cicarell Academy, named for a former EHS principal, hosts advanced placement-level courses. The Alexander Hamilton Preparatory Academy is designed for the city's most at-risk children, and requires school uniforms and at least a 2.0 grade point average.

In 1981, Elizabeth High opened the Thomas G. Dunn Sports Center, named for Bollwage's predecessor as Mayor. It is a 3,000-seat gym that hosts the Union County basketball tournament Finals, and some State Group Finals. In 1999, East Brunswick's girls basketball team won its 1st State Group IV Championship there.

Also on this day, Fredi Bobič (his full name) is born in Maribor, Slovenia, and grows up in Stuttgart, Germany. A forward, he won Euro 1996 with the German national team, the DFB-Pokal (German Cup) with VfB Stuttgart in 1997, the Bundesliga (German national league) with Borussia Dortmund in 2002, and the Croatian Cup with NK Rijeka in 2006. He later worked in VfB Stuttgart's front office, and is now the sporting director for Eintracht Frankfurt.

October 30, 1972: Canada holds a federal election. Pierre Trudeau's Liberal Party loses 38 seats, and Robert Stanfield's Progressive Conservative Party gains 34, resulting in a 109-107 edge for the Prime Minister, a minority government.

He made some concessions to the socialist New Democratic Party, enabling him to stay in power for nearly 2 more years, before the coalition fell apart. He had to call for a new election in 1974, and won a majority.

October 30, 1973: The Bosphorus Bridge opens in Istanbul, Turkey, connecting the city's European and Asian sections by road, where, previously, the connections had only been by ferry. It is now 1 of 3 bridges over the Bosphourus Strait, but, at the time, it was the 1st bridge to ever connect one continent with another. Every year, on its anniversary, its operating authority hosts a "fun run." It also happens to have opened on the anniversary of Galatasaray S.K.

Part of the nasty rivalry between Turkey's 2 biggest sports clubs, especially its soccer teams, comes from the fact that they are on opposite sides of these 3 bridges: Fenerbahçe is in the Kadıköy district on the Asian side, while Galatasaray is in the Galata Palace area on the European side.

In the 2020-21 season, there are 5 Istanbul clubs in the Turkish Süper Lig, but Fener is the only one on the Asian side. Joining Gala on the European side are Beşiktaş, İstanbul Başakşehir and Kasımpaşa.

Gala have won the Süper Lig 22 times, and the Türkiye Kupası (Turkish Cup) 18 times. Each total is a record. Fener have won the League 19 times -- but a record 28 times if you count the League's predecessors -- and the Cup 6 times.

October 30, 1974: Former Heavyweight Champion of the World Muhammad Ali defeats the undefeated current Champion, George Foreman, in "The Rumble in the Jungle" in Kinshasa, in the former colony of Belgian Congo, at this point called Zaire, and since 1997 called the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Foreman was heavily favored to defeat Ali. Ali was talking his usual trash, but most people thought Ali would lose. Indeed, there were some who feared that Ali would be killed in the ring.

Ali fooled them all. Even after his death, he's still fooling them: There are people who say he just leaned against the ropes in his "rope-a-dope" strategy, and let Foreman tire himself out with punches. I've seen the tape of the fight: Ali got in a lot of punches, enough to win every round except for the 2nd and the 6th. Foreman would later say that, at the end of the 6th, Ali yelled at him, "Is that all you got, George?" Years later, Foreman told an interviewer he had to admit, "Yup, that's about it."

Through a months-long psychological campaign, including managing to get practically the entire black population of the continent of Africa in his favor and against the equally black Foreman – he had done something similar to Joe Frazier, who was puzzled by it: "I'm darker than he is!" – Ali had gotten into Foreman's head, just as he had done to Sonny Liston, Floyd Patterson, and just about everybody else he'd ever fought.

In the 8th round, backed up against the ropes, Ali managed to turn an exhausted Foreman around, toss a few jabs, and knock him on his can. Foreman tried to get up, but he ran out of time, and Ali was the winner by a knockout.

When David Frost went to interview him for the BBC after the fight, he pointed at the camera and said, "Is this thing on? I told you all that I was the greatest of all time when I beat Sonny Liston! I am still the greatest of all time! Never again doubt me! Never again make me an underdog until I'm about 50 years old!"

He was off a bit, as he probably should have quit at 36, after losing the title to Leon Spinks and then regaining it from him. Or maybe even at 33, when he beat Frazier in their 3rd fight, "The Thrilla In Manila." But, by far more than his boxing prowess, but also by the force of his personality, and by the example he set as a man of (at least, in America) a minority race and a minority religion, making him, in a phrase that sounds contradictory, the champion of the underdog, he proved that he really was The Greatest... Of All Tiiiiiiiime! Though he died in 2016 at age 74, he still is.

October 30, 1975: The New York Daily News, responding to President Gerald Ford's statement that he wouldn't allow the federal government to bail out New York City's desperate finances, prints the most famous newspaper headline ever.

Ford didn't actually say that, but that was the message he sent, intentionally or otherwise. With this bad publicity dogging him immediately and harshly, Ford knew a compromise had to be found. It was, as the City did a few more things to try to get its financial house in order, and this satisfied Ford to the point where he changed his mind and signed a bailout bill.

But Ford was damned when he did, and damned when he didn't. The bailout he actually did sign infuriated many conservatives, who already had a few problems with the mildly conservative Ford, and they voted for former Governor Ronald Reagan of California in the Republican primaries, and Reagan very nearly won the GOP nomination. When Ford won the nomination anyway, many of those conservatives stayed home on Election Day, November 2, 1976.

This may have made the difference in throwing some States, including New York, to the Democratic nominee, former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia. White conservatives in Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Long Island and Westchester abandoned him. Not that they voted for Carter (Southern or not, conservative by Democratic standards or not, they still stupidly viewed all Democrats as "socialists"). Rather, like "leftists" screwing the Democrats over in 1968, 2000 and 2016, they didn't vote at all, or wasted their votes on 3rd-party candidates.

It also upset undecided voters and disaffected Democrats. A lot of people remembered only the headline, and forgot that Ford changed his mind about the bailout, and held it against him, and a lot of people in the City who might not have been comfortable with Carter either voted for Carter or stayed home, enough to throw the State of New York to Carter. It may have made, literally, all the difference in the world. Had Ford simply won the State, he would have won a full term.

True, the Nixon pardon, lingering feelings over Watergate, the shaky economy, his debate gaffe about Eastern Europe, and conservatives issues with him over things like foreign policy and federal spending also hurt him.

But the day after the '76 election, a little more than a year after the headline, Mayor Abe Beame posed in front of City Hall with the headline, as if to say, "City to Ford: You told us to drop dead. Instead, we just made your Presidency drop dead."

Beame outside Gracie Mansion on November 3,

a year and 4 days after the headline,

and the day after the election.

A year later, with the City's finances still not fully straightened out, and crime seemingly out of control, the City's voters told Beame to "drop dead," and elected Congressman Ed Koch as its Mayor.

The City's finances made a lot of people angry that it was spending so much money on renovating the old Yankee Stadium. But within a year of the headline, which came at a dark time for sports, as well as most other things, in The City, the Yankees had started a new dynasty, and the Rangers had begun to build a team that would reach the Stanley Cup Finals. It would take some time for other teams to rebuild, including the football teams that ended up leaving The City.

Also on this day, the Boston Bruins beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-2 at the Boston Garden. Johnny Bucyk, the longtime Bruins captain known as the Chief, scores the 500th goal of his career.

Also on this day, Marcos Scutaro (no middle name, very odd for a Latino) is born in San Felipe, Venezuela. Going by "Marco," the infielder debuted with the Mets in 2002, reached the American League Championship Series with the Oakland Athletics in 2006, and won the World Series with the San Francisco Giants in 2012 (when he was National League Championship Series MVP) and 2014 (reaching the All-Star Game in between, in 2013).

He missed the entire 2015 season due to injury, and never played in the majors again. He stayed under contract with the Giants, to use their fitness facilities and keep himself in shape, something that never would have been allowed before Scutaro's birth in 1975, with the reserve clause in effect and the players having very little power.

Also on this day, Keith Howard Brooking is born outside Atlanta in Senoia, Georgia. A linebacker, he starred at Georgia Tech, and made 5 Pro Bowls with the Atlanta Falcons, helping them win the 1998 NFC Championship, their 1st, and reach Super Bowl XXXIII in his rookie year. He is a member of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, and now runs a children's foundation.

October 30, 1976: Stern Christopher James John is born in Trincity, Trinidad and Tobago. He is known as Stern John, which sounds like a great nickname, but is, in fact, his real name. In 1998, the forward helped the Columbus Crew reach the Final of the U.S. Open Cup, and was the Major League Soccer scoring leader.

In 1999, he was signed by Nottingham Forest, and he remained in England through the 2010 season, playing for Forest, Birmingham City, Coventry City, Derby County, Sunderland, Southampton, Bristol City, Crystal Palace and Ipswich Town. In 2002, he helped Forest get promoted. In 2007, he did the same for Sunderland. He represented his country at the 2006 World Cup. He now manages Central F.C. in his homeland's league, and occasionally still plays for them.

Also on this day, Chevy Chase leaves the cast of Saturday Night Live.

October 30, 1978: WKRP in Cincinnati airs the episode "Turkeys Away." Why they aired a Thanksgiving-themed episode on the night before Halloween, I don't know.

As station operator Arthur "Big Guy" Carlson (Gordon Jump) said when their big Thanksgiving promotion failed, "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!" Actually, wild turkeys can fly. But domesticated turkeys, the kind bred, hatched and fattened up on farms for human consumption? No, they can't.

Also on this day, Matthew James Morrison is born at Fort Ord, where his soldier father is stationed, outside Monterey, California, and grows up in Chico, California. He played teacher and glee club leader Will Schuester on Glee. He later starred as Trevor Kirchner in American Horror Story: 1984.

October 30, 1979: Jason Alan Bartlett is born in Mountain View, California, in the Bay Area. A shortstop, he reached the Playoffs with the Minnesota Twins in 2004 and '06, the World Series with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008, and the All-Star Game with the Rays in 2009. He retired due to injury early in 2014.

Also on this day, the events of Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film version of Stephen King's 1977 novel The Shining begin, as the Overlook Hotel closes for the Winter.

King had based the Overlook on his 1974 visit to the Stanley Hotel, in Estes Park, Colorado, near Rocky Mountain National Park. It stood in for the Overlook in the 1997 NBC miniseries version, which King supported. The Stanley also stood in for the Hotel Danbury in the 1994 film Dumb and Dumber.

King hated Kubrick's film version, which used the Timberline Lodge, at the foot of Mount Hood in Oregon. The Timberline has also been used as a location for several films. Its owners were concerned that peole wouldn't want to rent Room 217, due to a scene in the book. So, for the Kubrick film, the scene was done in a fictional Room 237.

October 30, 1981: The Portland Trail Blazers open a new NBA season at the Portland Memorial Coliseum, beating the Phoenix Suns, 103-95. They also retire uniform numbers for the 1st time: 45, for 1970-76 guard Geoff Petrie; 15, for 1971-80 guard Larry Steele; and 13, for 1976-80 guard Dave Twardzik.

Also on this day, the Detroit Pistons beat the Milwaukee Bucks 118-113 at the Pontiac Silverdome. It is the NBA debut for Kelly Tripucka, from my original hometown of Bloomfield, New Jersey. The son of NFL quarterback Frank Tripucka, also a Notre Dame graduate, he plays 25 minutes and scores 15 points.

He played 5 seasons for the Pistons, 2 for the Utah Jazz, and 3 for the Charlotte Hornets, including in their inaugural 1988-89 season, retiring after playing the 1991-92 season in France, with a career average of 17.2 points per game in NBA play. He was named to the NBA All-Star Game in 1982 and 1984. He later broadcast for the Pistons, the New Jersey Nets and the New York Knicks. He has been named to the National Polish-American Hall of Fame (as has his father), and he was named to the 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Pistons.

His brother Todd Tripucka played basketball at Lafayette College, but never made the NBA. His son Travis starred in football and lacrosse at Mountain Lakes High School in Morris County, New Jersey, and played football at the University of Massachusetts, before washing out of training camp with the St. Louis Rams in 2012 and the New York Jets in 2013.

Also on this day, Ian Dante Snell is born in Dover, Delaware. A pitcher, he had a 38-59 record for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Seattle Mariners from 2004 to 2010. He last played in 2013 for the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League.

Also on this day, Christopher Clemons (no middle name) is born outside Atlanta in Griffin, Georgia. A defensive end, Chris Clemons nearly got to a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2009 season, then won Super Bowl XLVIII with the Seattle Seahawks 5 years later. He is now retired.

Also on this day, Ivanka Marie Trump is born in Manhattan, the daughter of Donald and his 1st wife, the former Czech model Ivana Zelníčková. She is executive vice president of The Trump Organization, and may be the smartest one in the family. Then again, that's not setting the bar very high.

She was 4 years old when her father, then the owner of the New Jersey Generals, killed the United States Football League. I suspect she could run a team, a casino, a Presidential campaign, a White House staff, or anything better than her father. Then again, with Special Counsel Robert Mueller having already gotten some convictions and guilty pleas, she may be looking over her shoulder.

October 30, 1982: Andrew Greene (no middle name) is born in the Detroit suburb of Trenton, Michigan. Since 2006, Andy Greene has been a defenseman for the New Jersey Devils. From the start of the 2015-16 season until midway through 2019-20, he was team Captain.

He was then traded to the New York Islanders, whose general manager is former Devils GM Lou Lamoriello. This left Travis Zajac as the last player to have been with the Devils in the Meadowlands Era (1982-2007).

Also on this day, Manuel Alex Parra is born in the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael, California. In 2007, Manny Parra pitched a perfect game for the Nashville Sounds, earning him a callup to the Milwaukee Brewers. He was 10-8 for the Brewer team that beat the Mets out for the 2008 National League Wild Card, and 11-11 in 2009.

But he fell apart in 2010, got moved to the bullpen, and finished 3-10. He did not play on their 2011 postseason team, spending the entire season in the minors. He was promoted back up in 2012, but traded to the Cincinnati Reds in 2013, helping them win the NL Central Division. They released him after the 2015 season, and he now pitches in the Mexican League.

October 30, 1983: On the 33rd birthday of its most famous player, Diego Maradona, Argentina holds a national election that ends its 8-year military dictatorship, which cast a pall over the 1978 World Cup.

The 2nd-largest and 2nd-most-populous country in South America behind Brazil, and the 3rd-largest Spanish-speaking country behind Mexico and Spain, has been free ever since, although not free of corruption. When they won the World Cup again, led by Maradona, in 1986, and reached the Final in 1990 and 2014 (both times losing to Germany), it was as a free country.

October 30, 1985: Ragnar Klavan is born in Viljandi, Estonia. The centreback may be the best soccer player his country has ever produced, and he now captains its national team. He helped AZ Alkmaar with the Dutch league (the Eredivisie) in 2009. Having also played in England for Liverpool, he now plays for Cagliari, on the Italian island of Sardinia.

October 30, 1986: The St. Louis Globe-Democrat publishes its last edition. Founded in 1852 as an anti-slavery newspaper, it was doomed by an antitrust collusion agreement.

October 30, 1987: Ashley Graham (no middle name) is born in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 2016, she became the 1st plus-size model to appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. With her husband, Justin Ervin, she recently had her 1st child, a son named Isaac.

October 30, 1988: The Houston Oilers defeat the Washington Redskins 41-17 at the Astrodome. Actually, it would be more accurate to say the 'Skins beat themselves, with turnovers. This includes 3 fumbles recovered by Oiler defensive tackle Ray Childress, a single-game NFL record that has yet to be matched. The Oilers went on to win the AFC Central Division, while the 'Skins fell from defending Super Bowl Champions to a losing record.

Also on this day, Joe Vellano -- apparently, his entire name -- is born in Rexford, Saratoga County, New York. A defensive tackle, he was with the New England Patriots when they won Super Bowl XLIX. He now plays for the Parma Panthers in Italy's American football league.

Also on this day, Janel Melani Parrish is born in Honolulu. She played Mona Vanderwaal on Pretty Little Liars.

October 30, 1989: Anastasia Valeryevna Liukin is born in Moscow, the daughter of champion Soviet gymnasts, an Olympic Gold Medalist father and a World Championship-winning mother. They left after the USSR's breakup, and she grew up in Texas. Known as Nastia Liukin, but not nasty at all, she won the Gold Medal in the all-around gymnastics competition at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, also winning 3 Silver Medals and a Bronze.

She graduated from New York University in 2016. In 2010, she founded the Nastia Liukin Cup for young gymnasts.

*

October 30, 1991: Artemi Sergeyevich Panarin is born in Korkino, Russia. The left wing won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year in 2017. Despite this, the Chicago Blackhawks then traded him to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a package that included Anton Forsberg. I guess they thought they needed a new goalie.

On December 8, 2017, he tied a record with 5 assists to help the Jackets beat the Devils 5-3, on his way to breaking the Jackets' single-season points record. He now plays for the New York Rangers, which means he sucks.

Also on this day, Seinfeld airs the episode "The Parking Garage." This is often cited as the episode that started the Seinfeld phenomenon. The last scene is something of an-lib: The car was expected to start, but didn't, and the castmembers can be seen laughing inside.

This episode would last 5 minutes today, since Jerry Seinfeld could have put the parking spot's location into the notepad of his smartphone. Also, most North Jersey malls have bus service, some of them back to New York. I would've said, "Let's take the bus back. Kramer screwed us, so screw him." Then again, it could have been, as George would put it, "This, just talking" for 20 minutes on the ride back to the City.

October 30, 1993: The University of Wisconsin football team beats the University of Michigan, 13-10 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, for their 1st win over the Wolverines in 12 years. At the final gun, students charge the field, but guardrails stop them. The fans behind them don't know this, and keep coming forward, until some people are crushed against the rails. The rails give way, and some people get trampled.

It became known as the Camp Randall Crush, and remains the closest any North American sports facility has come to an incident like England's 1989 Hillsborough Disaster since the 1920s. No one died, but 73 people were hurt. Changes were made, and when Wisconsin beat then-Number 1-ranked Ohio State in 2010, a similar rush occurred, but only 1 person sustained a minor injury.

Also on this day, Marcus Ardel Tafuna Taulauniu Mariota is born in Honolulu. He quarterbacked the University of Oregon to a 36-5 record, reaching the National Championship Game and winning the Heisman Trophy for the 2014 season. He was the 1st Oregon player, the 1st Hawaii native, and the 1st player of Samoan ancestry to win the Heisman. In his honor, UO named its new training facility the Marcus Mariota Sports Performance Center.

He got the Tennessee Titans to 3 straight 9-7 seasons, including a Playoff berth in 2017, but struggled thereafter. He now backs up Derek Carr on the Los Angeles Raiders.

October 30, 1994: Had the baseball season been allowed to reach a conclusion, and had the World Series gotten this far with no postponements, this would have been the day that Game 7 was played, in the home park of the National League Champions.

October 30, 1995, 25 years ago: The Quebec sovereignty referendum fails by a razor-thin margin, with 50.58 percent voting "Non" and 49.42 percent voting "Oui." The number of "spoiled ballots," unusable for whatever reason, is said to be greater than the margin of victory.

Despite the anger of the separatists, angry over their perception of victimization at the hands of the federal government in Ottawa and the English-speaking establishment – an absolutely ridiculous notion, since the Provincial government has been dominated by the ethnic and linguistic French for most of the last 100 years – the Province will remain a part of Canada, but there is still bitterness on both sides.

The Parti Québécois, dedicated to the Province's independence, held the Provincial government from 1976 to 1985, and lost a referendum in 1980, 60 percent to 40. They held the government again from 1994 to 2003, launching the nearly successful 2nd referendum. They held a minority government from 2012 to 2014, and knew they couldn't get a 3rd referendum to pass, so they didn't launch one.

Splits in the party, including defections to new parties on both the left and the right, have dropped the PQ, or "Péquistes," to a mere 9 seats in the 125-seat National Assembly. The current government is led by the conservative Coalition Avenir Québec, and its Leader, Premier François Legault, has said that there will never be a sovereignty referendum launched by his party.

It's just as well: Would you be the one who has to tell the Montreal Canadiens, the greatest cultural institution in Quebec, that they had to change their name?

October 30, 1996: Devin Armani Booker is born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A guard, he got the University of Kentucky into the Final Four in 2015, and has played for the Phoenix Suns ever since. He made his 1st NBA All-Star Game in 2020.

October 30, 1998: The Chicago Fire complete the greatest debut season in the history of North American major league sports. Just 5 days after winning the MLS Cup, they defeat the Columbus Crew, 2-1 at Soldier Field. They have "done the Double."

Polish striker Jerzy Podbrożny converts a penalty just before the half. Columbus' wonderfully-named Trinidadian midfielder Stern John equalizes in the 53rd. As with the MLS Cup, the U.S. Open Cup -- America's answer to England's FA Cup -- has a "golden goal" rule, meaning whoever scores 1st in the extra period wins the game. Frank Klopas, a Greek-born, Chicago-raised midfielder, wins the game in the 99th minute.

Also on this day, Clyde "Bulldog" Turner dies of cancer at his ranch in Gatesville, Texas. He was 79. A center and linebacker, he was an 8-tie All-Pro, and a member of the Chicago Bears' 1940, 1941, 1943 and 1946 NFL Champions. The Bears retired his Number 66, and he was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the NFL's 1940s All-Decade Team.

October 30, 1999: Max Patkin dies of an aneurysm in the Philadelphia suburb of Paoli, Pennsylvania. He was 79. A sore-armed minor-league pitcher, he joined the U.S. Navy in World War II, and in a game between service teams in Hawaii in 1944, he gave up a home run to an Army Air Force player named Joe DiMaggio. He threw his glove on the ground, and the audience laughed. "The Clown Prince of Baseball" was born.

Bill Veeck, ever the showman, hired him as a coach for the Cleveland Indians, and they won the World Series in 1948 -- meaning that Max Patkin got a World Series ring, and Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, Ernie Banks and Don Mattingly didn't. After that, Max barnstormed the country, mostly the minor leagues, until old age caught up with him, retiring in 1995.

In 1988, he played himself in the film Bull Durham, admitting, "I love the game," and saying of Kevin Costner's hard-hitting but much-traveled catcher, Crash Davis, "This guy's been in more ballparks than I have."

*

October 30, 2000, 20 years ago: Having finished off the Mets in the World Series 3 1/2 days earlier, the Yankees have their ticker-tape parade up the Canyon of Heroes, their 4th parade in the last 5 years.

October 30, 2001: Game 3 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. The flag found at the World Trade Center on September 11, with some of the stripes having come apart, is flown at the flagpole in Monument Park. This is an honor.

George W. Bush throws out the ceremonial first ball. This is not an honor, it is a desecration: By ignoring the August 6 national-security briefing that told of Osama bin Laden's plan to hijack American airliners, Bush allowed New York City to be attacked. Stand on the mound to throw out the first pitch? He shouldn't have even been allowed inside the hallowed House That Ruth Built, no matter how much he was willing to pay for a ticket. (Not that the son of a bitch would have been willing to pay. Has he ever done anything in his life, without somebody doing it for him?)

Roger Clemens -- also calling himself a Texan even though he was born somewhere else, but somewhat more honest and less egotistical than Bush -- does some of his best postseason work, and the Yankees ride a Jorge Posada homer and a Scott Brosius single to take a 2-1 win over the Arizona Diamondback, and close to within 2 games to 1.

October 30, 2002: New York Jets coach Herman Edwards holds his usual midweek press conference after a 2-5 start. Judy Battista of The New York Times asks him, "Do you have to talk to your team about not giving up on the season?"

Herm's answer became legend. He says, "This is what's great about sports. This is what the greatest thing about sports is." And he leans into the microphone, and says, "You play to win the game!" He pulls himself upright, pauses, waves his hands, and says, "Hello? You play to win the game! You don't play it just to play it! That's the great thing about sports: You play to win! And I don't care if you don't have any wins. You go play to win. When you start telling me it doesn't matter, then retire. Get out! 'Cause it matters!"

At this point, he seems to be on the verge of tears. And if the season had continued the way it had been going, with a final total that is frequently familiar to Jet fans, then Herm, once a very good cornerback who helped the Philadelphia Eagles reach Super Bowl XV, and whose fumble recovery beat the Giants in a 1978 game that became known as "The Miracle of the Meadowlands," would have gone down in history as a coach who melted down and couldn't handle the pressure of New York.

But a funny thing happened on the way to a nervous breakdown: Herm's rant worked. In their next game, the Jets clobbered the San Diego Chargers, starting a 4-game winning streak, and allowing them to finish 9-7. Then they beat the Indianapolis Colts in the Wild Card round of the Playoffs, before going to Oakland and losing to the Raiders.

So instead of being a guy who couldn't handle coaching in New York, Herm became known as a coaching genius and a master motivator. It didn't last long, but he'll always be remembered for this success, not for his failures. He later served as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs and an NFL studio pundit, and is now the head coach at Arizona State.

Also on this day, the New Orleans Hornets make their debut, after 14 seasons as the original Charlotte Hornets. Ironically, it's against the last team to represent New Orleans in the NBA, the Utah Jazz, who left in 1979.

The Hornets win, 100-75 at the New Orleans Arena (now named the Smoothie King Center). Karl Malone scores 20 points for the visitors, and John Stockton 14. But Baron Davis of the Hornets leads all scorers with 21 points, while Courtney Alexander scores 19 off the bench.

Also on this day, Jason Mizell, a.k.a. Jam Master Jay of Run-D.M.C., is murdered, shot at his recording studio in Jamaica, Queens. He is 37 years old. Although suspects have been questioned, the case remains unsolved.

Also on this day, The West Wing airs the episode "Game On." President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen), a Democrat running for re-election, debates the Republican nominee, Governor Robert Ritchie of Florida (James Brolin, like Sheen a liberal in real life), and keeps a promise he made to Ritchie in the previous season's finale: "I decided to kick your ass." Hal Holbrook, who's played Presidents, and Mark Twain, makes his 2nd and last appearance as quirky old foreign policy hand Albie Duncan. John Aniston, father of Jennifer, plays the debate's moderator, Alexander Thompson.

Meanwhile, unable to attend the debate, White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer) has to get Ali Nassir (Tony Amendola), the Ambassador to the United Nations from the fictional nation of Qumar, to get his government to stop accusing Israel of having the nation's Minister of Defense, the brother of the ruling Sultan, assassinated. Leo knows Israel didn't do it, because he was the one who told Bartlet to have his own people do it.

Leo gives a line that would come back to haunt 3 Presidents, 5 counting Bartlet himself and, a year later, his temporary successor under Article 3 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, Glen Walken (John Goodman): "You think if the President admitted complicity in Shareef's death, he would lose votes? To sweep all 50 States, the President would have to do 2 things: Blow the Sultan's brains out in Times Square, and then walk across the street to Nathan's and buy a hot dog!" The implication being that he wouldn't actually have to buy the hot dog.

Well, George W. Bush failed to find and kill Osama bin Laden, and so he went into Iraq 5 months after this, which got him re-elected, but made his 2nd term such a failure that the under-experienced Barack Obama was elected in 2008 over war hero John McCain. Obama got us out of Iraq, and, having made finding and killing bin Laden a priority, was able to get it done in his 1st term, but didn't come close to sweeping all 50 States, although he did win solidly.

Later still, Donald Trump said, "I could shoot somebody in the middle of 5th Avenue, and I wouldn't lose votes." He may be right about that.

October 30, 2003: The Toyota Center opens in Houston. The Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets 102-85.

October 30, 2005: Alfonso Ramón "Al" López, not only the oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but, to that point, the oldest Hall-of-Famer ever, dies at age 97. He had been an All-Star catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and he caught more games in the major leagues than anyone until Bob Boone surpassed him 1987, and more than anyone in the NL until Gary Carter surpassed him in 1990.

(Boone's achievement was spread over both leagues; Boone's record was surpassed in 1993 by Carlton Fisk, and Fisk's last season by Ivan Rodriguez, if you cant count anything that steroid user does as legitimate.)

From 1949 to 1964, Al López was the only manager to take a team other than the Yankees to an American League Pennant, in 1954 with the Cleveland Indians and in 1959 with the Chicago White Sox. He dies just 4 days after the White Sox won their 1st Pennant since '59.

Like another catcher who became famous in another sphere of baseball, Tim McCarver, he had outlived a minor-league ballpark that had been built in his home town. Al López Field opened in Tampa in 1954 and was demolished in 1989. It stood in what is now the south end zone at the Buccaneers' Raymond James Stadium. Just north of the stadium, Horizon Park was renamed Al López Park, and a statue of him stands there.

Also on this day, with the Superdome still being restored after Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Saints play at the actual largest stadium in Louisiana, Tiger Stadium, on the campus of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. It is the 1st pro game played at LSU. They lose 21-6 to the Miami Dolphins.

October 30, 2007: The Yankees sign Joe Girardi to a 3-year deal worth a reported $7.5 million to replace popular manager Joe Torre, who left earlier in the month, rejecting a 29 percent pay cut after guiding his club to their 12th postseason appearance in 12 years.

The 43-year old former catcher and broadcaster, the NL manager of the year with the 2006 Marlins, beat out coaches Don Mattingly and Tony Pena to become the team's 32nd skipper.

October 30, 2009: Howie Schultz dies of cancer in Chaska, Minnesota at age 87. A 1st baseman, he was a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers' 1947 NL Pennant winners, a teammate of Jackie Robinson in his rookie season. He also played for the Philadelphia Phillies and the Cincinnati Reds.

He also played pro basketball, as player-coach of the Anderson Packers (who played in the Indiana hometown of his Dodger teammate Carl Erskine), and winning an NBA Championship with the Minneapolis Lakers in 1952.

Also on this day, Forest Evashevski dies of cancer in Petosky, Michigan. He was 91. A quarterback at the University of Michigan, he led the University of Iowa to 3 Big Ten Championships and the 1958 National Championship.

Also on this day, with a North London Derby between soccer teams Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur scheduled for the next day, British newspaper The Guardian, becomes the 1st modern newspaper to print a story that Arsenal had bribed their way into the old Football League Division One in 1919, at Tottenham's expense.

The Guardian provides no evidence, saying only that it was a longtime rumor. The Arsenal History Society decides the time has come to investigate. They looked up newspaper and magazine articles from 1919, and whatever official documents they could find.

They found no evidence to support the claim: Although it was highly unusual for a team that had finished 5th in Division Two to be promoted to Division One, there was nothing to indicate that Arsenal had managed it by any means other than verbal persuasion and an election. (Since 1987, the top 2 teams in the 2nd division have been automatically promoted. Before then, that's what was usually done, but it was not automatic.) No publication or private document showed that any money changed hands. Nor was any favor for any of the voting parties mentioned at the time.

The AHS has offered a donation of £1,000 pounds, to the charity of the prover's choice, to anyone who can provide documentary proof that Arsenal's 1919 promotion was achieved through bribery. We have now passed the 100th Anniversary of the promotion, and the 10th Anniversary of the prize. It remains unclaimed.

*

October 30, 2010, 10 years ago: For the 1st time, a team based in Texas wins a World Series game. The Texas Rangers, hosting a Series game for the 1st time in their 39 years in the Dallas area, beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-2, at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington (now named Globe Life Park), and close the gap to 2 games to 1. Previously, the Rangers (in this Series) and the Houston Astros (in their only appearance, in 2005) had been 0-6.

October 30, 2012: Perhaps the wildest match in the history of Arsenal F.C. is played at the Emirates Stadium, in the 4th Round of the League Cup. Berkshire club Reading takes a 4-0 lead at the half, but Arsenal storm back, and at the end of regulation, the score is 5-5. After extra time, Arsenal are 7-5 winners.

The goalscorers were Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud, Laurent Koscielny (a defender), Walcott again, Marouane Chamakh, Walcott with his 3rd, and Chamakh with his 2nd. Just 7 years later, Koscielny, the last one still at Arsenal, was sold.

October 30, 2013: The Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1, to take Game 6 of the World Series, and capture a World Championship at Fenway Park for the 1st time since 1918. After not winning a Series for 86 years, they have now won 3 in 10 seasons.

Of course, the Most Valuable Player of the World Series was given to David Ortiz, the only man on all 3 title teams. Which means that all 3 titles are bogus, and the Red Sox still didn't win the World Series honestly from 1918 to 2018.

Also on this day, 11 years to the day after their 1st game in their new city, the former New Orleans Hornets debut under their new name, the name of the Crescent City's long-ago minor-league baseball team: The New Orleans Pelicans.

They aren't so lucky this time, losing to the Indiana Pacers, 95-90. Paul George scores 32 points for the Hoosier State club, while Eric Gordon leads the Pels with 25.

To make matters worse, their new mascot, Pierre the Pelican, ends up scaring several children. The costume is redesigned.

October 30, 2014: Los Angeles Football Club is founded. Why Major League Soccer thought that Southern California deserved a new team, in the same market as the successful Los Angeles Galaxy, when the previous entry, Chivas USA, had failed so badly, I don't know.

Among the investors are Vincent Tan, who has messed things up as owner of Cardiff City FC; motivational speaker Tony Robbins; Lakers legend and Dodgers owner Earvin "Magic" Johnson; husband & wife athletes Nomar Garciaparra and Mia Hamm; and, in a case of life imitating art, Will Ferrell, who played a cheesy 1970s singer who bought and played for an ABA team in the film Semi-Pro. He will not be playing for LAFC.

Banc of California Stadium opened in 2018, on the site of the Los Angeles Sports Arena. In its 1st season, LAFC qualified for the MLS Cup Playoffs, and their El Tráfico rivalry with the L.A. Galaxy has already become a much-anticipated event in Southern California.

Also on this day, Thomas Menino dies of cancer in Boston. He was 71. He was President of the City Council when Mayor Ray Flynn resigned to accept the post of U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican on July 12, 1993. He was then elected Mayor in his own right in 1993, 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2009, the only man ever to win the office 5 times. Knowing he had cancer, he did not run again in 2013, and left office on January 6, 2014 as the longest-serving Mayor in the city's history.

While he was in office, the Red Sox won 3 World Series, the Patriots 3 Super Bowls, the Celtics an NBA Championship and the Bruins a Stanley Cup. But "Mumbles" was also known for his malaprops, such as, "I have did my duty," and "youths conjugating on Boston Common."

October 30, 2015: Game 3 of the World Series, the 1st World Series game ever played at Citi Field, the new home of the Mets. It includes one of the great oddities in baseball history. In the top of the 5th inning, Raúl A. Mondesí, a 20-year-old 2nd baseman, pinch-hits for Danny Duffy. He was the 1st player to make his major league debut in the World Series: Although he had not played in the major leagues during the regular season, the NLDS or the NLCS, Royals manager Ned Yost included him on the World Series roster. That's very odd, but it is legal. Noah Syndergaard strikes him out.

Now calling himself Adalberto Mondesí, to avoid confusion, he is the son of Raúl R. Mondesí, a former All-Star outfielder, who was elected to a 6-year term as the Mayor of San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic, in 2010; and is now serving an 8-year term in prison, for corruption while in office.

The Royals score a run in the top of the 1st. David Wright hits his 1st World Series home run in the bottom of the 1st, but the Royals take a 3-2 lead in the top of the 2nd -- meaning the Mets have now blown leads in all 3 games of the Series so far, and in their last 4 Series games (dating to 2000).

But the Mets take the lead back in the 3rd, as Curtis Granderson hits a home run. They add a run in the 4th, and 4 more in the 6th, and win 9-3. The Mets close the Series gap to 2-1 -- just like they did in 2000. But, just as they did in 2000, they will lose in 5.

Syndergaard is the winning pitcher. Since the Mets won by 6 runs, there was no save. Here is every winning pitcher for the Mets in World Series games:

* Jerry Koosman, 1969, Games 2 and 5; 1973 Game 5
* Gary Gentry, 1969 Game 3
* Tom Seaver, 1969 Game 4
* Tug McGraw, 1973 Game 2
* Jon Matlack, 1973 Game 4
* Bob Ojeda, 1986 Game 3
* Ron Darling, 1986 Game 4
* Rick Aguilera, 1986 Game 6 (despite nearly being the goat)
* Roger McDowell, 1986 Game 7
* John Franco, 2000 Game 3
* Noah Syndergaard, 2015 Game 3

There have been fewer saves, since the Mets have won some of these games by more than 3 runs: Ron Taylor saved 1969 Game 2, Nolan Ryan 1969 Game 3, George Stone 1973 Game 2, Ray Sadecki 1973 Game 4, McGraw 1973 Game 5, Jesse Orosco 1986 Games 4 and 7, and Armando Benitez 2000 Game 3.

So McGraw is the only pitcher ever to win and save a game in a Mets uniform. Yankees who have done it: Herb Pennock did both in 1923; Wilcy Moore had a save in 1927 and a win in 1932; Johnny Murphy had 2 wins and 4 saves between 1936 and 1943, and became the general manager of the Mets' 1969 title; Spud Chandler had a save in 1942 and 2 wins in 1943; Joe Page did both in 1947; Allie Reynolds did both 4 times, in 1949, 1950, 1952 and 1953; Bob Turley did both in 1958; Goose Gossage had a win but not a save in 1978, but had 2 saves in 1981; and Rivera did both in 1999, and again in 2001.

Also on this day, Mel Daniels dies of complications from heart surgery in the Indianapolis suburb of Sheridan, Indiana. He was 71. The center, a Detroit native, never played in the NBA, but he was one of the best players in the ABA, winning 3 titles with the Indiana Pacers , in 1969, 1972 and 1973. He was named ABA Most Valuable Player in 1969 and 1971, was a 7-time ABA All-Star (including All-Star Game MVP in 1969), and was the league's all-time leading rebounder.

His only NBA playing experience was in the Nets' disastrous 1st season in the league, 1976-77. Afterward, he joined Bob King, who had been his coach at the University of New Mexico, on the staff of Indiana State, where they coached Larry Bird into the 1979 NCAA Final. In 1986, he joined the Pacers' front office, where he stayed until 2009, through the entire career of Reggie Miller, including a stint as interim head coach in 1988 and the team's only NBA Finals berth so far, in 2000.

The Pacers retired his Number 34, he was named to the ABA All-Time Team, and he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012, so he did live to see it.

Also on this day, it was alleged, Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman choked his girlfriend and fired 8 shots from a gun at his home in the Miami suburb of Davie, Florida. Due to inconsistency in the girlfriend's reports, and no physical evidence, no charges were filed.

However, after the incident's revelation to the public on December 7, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had been trying to trade for him, pulled out of the trade. The Reds traded him to the Yankees instead. In spite of the refusal to prosecute him, Major League Baseball suspended him for 30 games, under its new domestic violence guidelines.

Through his 2016 trade to, and subsequent World Series run with the Chicago Cubs, and his return to the Yankees, Chapman has denied the charge. But people who hate the Yankees (or the Cubs) still bring it up.

October 30, 2016: Game 5 of the World Series. Kris Bryant hits a home run to highlight a 3-run 4th inning, to give the Chicago Cubs a 3-2 win over the Cleveland Indians.

It is the Cubbies' 1st World Series game victory at home since October 8, 1945. The Series goes back to Cleveland, with the Indians leading 3 games to 2, and needing only 1 home win to take the title.

October 30, 2018: After 81 years as a tiny station that served as a major bottleneck, the new Harrison station opens on the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) system in Hudson County, New Jersey. It's too late to be used by fans of Major League Soccer's New York Red Bulls in their current season, but it will help tremendously next season.

October 30, 2019: Minute Maid Park in Houston is the site of the 1st Game 7 of the World Series in which both starting pitchers had previously won the Cy Young Award: Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals and Zack Greinke of the Houston Astros.

Yuli Gurriel's home run in the bottom of the 2nd and Carlos Correa's single in the bottom of the 5th gave the Astros a 2-0 lead. Greinke cruised into the 7th, but then gave up a home run to Anthony Rendon. He then walked Juan Soto, and was replaced by Will Harris, who gave up a home run to Howie Kendrick.

The Nationals ended up winning 6-2, marking the 1st World Championship for the franchise that had once been the Montreal Expos, in 51 seasons; the 1st World Series win for a Washington baseball team in 95 years, since the 1924 Senators; the 6th straight year that the World Series was clinched by the visiting team, including 4 Game 7s (2014, '16, '17 and '19); and the 1st time in the history of major league sports that the visiting team won all 7 games of a postseason series.

Stephen Strasburg, the injury-prone pitcher whom the Nationals infamously benched for the 2012 postseason to save his arm, resulting in an embarrassing NLDS loss, was named the Series' MVP.

The Nats' win got more amazing when it was revealed that the Astros were cheating, especially at home, and yet the Nats won all 4 games in Houston. They will always have my thanks for that. Their fans will always have my respect for booing Donald Trump in Game 5 at Nationals Park.

Uncle Mike's Musings: A Yankees Blog and More

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Diego Maradona, 1960-2020

Friday, October 30, 2020

October 30, 1960: Birth of a Cheater

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