It's the end of an era. The New York Yankees did not exercise their option on Brett Gardner. This makes him a free agent.
Whether he is still capable of contributing in 2022, a season in which he will turn 39, remains to be seen. Or perhaps not: He might retire.
But he's had a good career. In 14 major league seasons, all with the Yankees, he's batted .256, with 1,470 hits, 139 of them home runs -- not bad for a player not known as a power hitter. He stole 274 bases. He led the American League in stolen bases in 2011, and in triples in 2013. He was an All-Star in 2015, and was awarded a Gold Glove in 2016.
More than this, his rookie season was 2008. And so, he ended up becoming the last Yankee who played home games at the old Yankee Stadium. (If Gardner does retire, it will leave David Robertson, no longer with the Yankees, as the last active player to have played home games at the old Stadium.)
What's more, he was with the Yankees when they won the 2009 World Series. He was the last remaining Yankee who had played for them in a World Series.
And so, unless the Yankees sign him again in this off-season, they will go into the 2022 season without a single player who has ever worn Pinstripes in a World Series. This has not happened since 1996, 26 years earlier.
It's the end of an era, and this is not a good thing.
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November 8, 1519: Moctezuma II, Emperor of Tenochtitlan, meets Hernán Cortés
de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, captain of a Spanish expedition to the Aztec Empire. History remembers them as Montezuma and Hernando Cortes. On June 29, 1520, Cortes' men killed Montezuma, and the Spanish conquest of the Western Hemisphere was on.
November 8, 1572: The States General of the Netherlands (Staaten-Generaal) openly rebels against the Empire of Spain. In 1581, it will proclaim the Dutch Republic. In 1648, the Peace of Westphalia guaranteed, among other things, that Spain would accept the sovereignty of the Dutch Republic.
The Republic was replaced in 1795 by the Batavian Republic, in 1806 by the Kingdom of Holland (as a client state of Napoleon Bonaparte's Empire of France), and in 1815 by the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. In 1830, Belgium broke away. In 1839, so did Luxembourg.
But the Netherlands became a great nation, renowned for art, culture and tolerance. And, in the 1970s, soccer, though it would lose 2 World Cup Finals -- in each case, to the host nation: West Germany in 1974 and Argentina in 1978. In 2010, in South Africa, a nation with a heavy Dutch influence, Spain would gain a small measure of revenge for losing the Dutch, by beating the Netherlands team in a nasty World Cup Final.
November 8, 1861, 160 years ago: The USS San Jacinto intercepts the British ship RMS Trent, and captures 2 Confederate diplomats who were sailing to Europe to try to enlist Britain and France into allying with the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War.
The British government demanded an apology over what became known as The Trent Affair. President Abraham Lincoln walked a fine line, releasing the diplomats, and disavowing the San Jacinto's actions, but not apologizing. The diplomats did reach Britain and France, but failed.
Had they succeeded, the entry of Britain and France into the conflict would have led to the Union's defeat, and slavery might have survived in North America for years to come.
November 8, 1864: After looking like he would lose just 2 months earlier, President Abraham Lincoln is re-elected. General William Tecumseh Sherman won the Battle of Atlanta, and after that, Lincoln's challenger, his former General-in-Chief, George McClellan, didn't have a chance. Lincoln won 55 percent of the popular vote to McClellan's 45, and took 22 States to McClellan's 3 -- New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky -- for a 212-21 Electoral Vote win.
McClellan had run as a "peace candidate," willing to give the Confederacy its independence in exchange for an end to the war. Now, victory was in sight, and Lincoln was a far easier winner than anyone had anticipated.
November 8, 1887: Doc Holliday dies of tuberculosis at a sanitarium in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, becoming one of many TB patients to go to Colorado thinking that the mountain air would help his afflicted lungs. He was just 36. He was seen to utter his last words, looking at his bare feet, and dying in bed, and say, "This is funny."
It was funny to him because he was one of the Wild West's best-known gunmen, and he fully expected to "die with his boots on" in a gunfight. The nickname was not just a nickname: John Henry Holliday was a dentist, but he was also highly skilled with both pistol and shotgun. It was a shotgun that he took with him to the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona on October 26, 1881, with the Earp brothers. He appears to have been the man who killed the outlaw Johnny Ringo the next year.
The late baseball pitcher Roy Halladay was nicknamed "Doc" in his honor. He's been played in films by, among others, Cesar Romero, Walter Huston, Victor Mature, Kirk Douglas, Arthur Kennedy, Jason Robards, Stacy Keach, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, both Dennis and Randy Quaid, and, in an upcoming film bio, Jeremy Renner.
He's been played on TV by Adam West (the future Batman played him 3 times), Myron Healey (on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp), Martin Landau (on Tales of Wells Fargo), Christopher Dark (on
Bonanza) and Sam Gilman (on the Star Trek episode "Spectre of the Gun"). The fantasy Western
Wynonna Earp imagines him to have survived to the present day, and he joined forces with Wyatt's great-great-granddaughter to battle supernatural creatures -- and also to produce a child. He's played by Tim Rozon.
November 8, 1889: Montana enters the Union as the 41st State.
November 8, 1892: For the 1st time, a former President is returned to the office. Grover Cleveland, the 22nd President of the United States, becomes the 24th President (a ruling by the State Department has decided that he is designated as the 22nd and the 24th), defeating the man who, under dubious circumstances, defeated him 4 years earlier, the 23rd President, Benjamin Harrison.
It was a 3-way race, and, as a result, for the 3rd time, Cleveland finished 1st in the popular vote without getting a majority: He had 46 percent, Harrison 43 percent, and James P. Weaver of the Populist Party 8.5 percent. Cleveland won 277 Electoral Votes, Harrison 145, and Weaver 22.
November 8, 1894: Michael Joseph Kelly, sometimes (erroneously) called baseball's 1st true superstar, dies in Boston, where he had been scheduled to appear in vaudeville. "King" Kelly had taken a ferry up from New York, and caught pneumonia. Had today's medicine been available then, he would have been fine. Instead, the pneumonia, and the toll of years of alcoholism, killed him at age 36.
The catcher for the Chicago White Stockings (Cubs), the 1st player sold for $10,000 (after the 1886 season, to the Boston Beaneaters, forerunners of the Braves), definitely the subject of the song "Slide, Kelly, Slide," and possibly the inspiration for the poem "Casey at the Bat," Kelly had played his last major league game only 14 months earlier, and his last professional game 3 months previously.
He might not have been finished, and if he'd taken care of himself, he certainly wouldn't have been. As great a player as he was, he wasn't very smart when it came to handling himself. He was thus a precursor to many players, including Mickey Mantle and Manny Ramirez.
He was married, but his only child had died shortly after birth, earlier in 1894. The Baseball Hall of Fame was not established until 1936. When it elected him in 1945, there was no one available to accept his plaque. Had he taken better care of himself, he would then have been 87.
Also on this day, poet Robert Frost has his work published for the 1st time. His poem "My Butterfly" is published in a newspaper, The New York Independent. They pay him $15, about $400 in today's money.
November 8, 1896, 125 years ago: The College of the Holy Cross hosts Boston College in Worcester, Massachusetts, and wins 6-2. This is the 1st game of a local football rivalry that lasted until 1986, when changing conference affiliations made it difficult.
In 2018, they played each other in football for the 1st time in 22 years. Holy Cross may regret it, because BC beat them 62-14. BC leads the rivalry 49-31-3.
Also on this day, Stanley Raymond Harris is born in Port Jervis, Rockland County, New York, and grows up in nearby Pittston, Pennsylvania. In 1919, Bucky Harris debuted as the 2nd baseman for the Washington Senators. In a 1920 game, there was an incident on the field, and he stood up to Ty Cobb. His status as a respected player, including by Cobb himself, was immediate.
Ind in 1924, only 27 years old, he was named the Senators' permanent manager -- the youngest in baseball history to that point. (Roger Peckinpaugh had been 23 when he finished out the 1914 season as interim manager of the Yankees.) It worked: While still excelling as a player, Harris led the Senators to back-to-back Pennants, and to their only World Championship in 1924.
He was fired after the 1928 season, and bounced around, managing the Senators a total of 3 times. He managed the Yankees to a World Championship in 1947, but after a 3rd place finish in 1948, he was fired for Casey Stengel.
He last managed with the Detroit Tigers in 1956, still ranks 7th on the all-time list of managerial wins (although he lost more games, managing mostly weak teams), was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975, and died on his 81st birthday, November 8, 1977.
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November 8, 1900: József Eisenhoffer is born in Budapest, Hungary. A left half (today, we'd say he played on the left wing), he starred for soccer teams in his homeland, Austria, France, and America, including Brooklyn Wanderers and the Jewish team New York Hakoah. He played for Hungary in the 1924 Olympics in Paris.
He helped Olympique de Marseille win the Coupe de France in 1935, and became player-manager and led them to the 1937 league title. But in 1944, he was injured in an air raid on Budapest, and never recovered, dying on November 13, 1945, just past his 45th birthday.
Also on this day, Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell is born in Atlanta. The granddaughter of a Confederate soldier who made a fortune in lumber used to rebuild Atlanta after Union forces burned it down in 1864, she became a writer for the Atlanta Journal, and read voraciously. At one point, her 2nd husband, John Robert Marsh, finally yelled, "For God's sake, Peggy! Can't you write a book, instead of reading thousands of them?"
So she wrote a novel, about plantation life in Georgia, published in 1936: Gone With the Wind. Both it and the movie made of it in 1939 are shameless pandering to the antebellum South and the postwar South's devotion to its "Lost Cause."
Although she had several articles published in the Journal, and also wrote a novella, GWTW was her only novel published in her lifetime. She served as a Red Cross volunteer in World War II, and died on August 16, 1949, 5 days after being hit by a car as she was walking across Peachtree Street. She was 48, and was survived by her husband. They had no children. The driver served 11 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter, and lived until 1994.
Unlike William Faulkner, the other preeminent Southern writer of the 20th Century, Margaret Mitchell, a.k.a. Peggy Marsh, who was only 3 years younger, did not live to see Brown v. Board, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Little Rock Nine, the Greensboro sit-ins, or the integration of Ole Miss. Neither lived to see the integration of the University of Alabama, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We can only guess how it would have affected their writing.
November 8, 1904: Theodore Roosevelt, who became President when William McKinley was assassinated 3 years earlier, is elected in his own right, the 1st "accidental President" to achieve the honor. John Tyler in 1844, Millard Fillmore in 1852, and Andrew Johnson in 1868 were so unpopular that they knew they wouldn't be nominated. Chester Arthur decided in 1884 that he was too ill to try.
It was an easy choice: The massively charismatic and widely-experienced TR was opposed by the incredibly boring Alton B. Parker, whose highest office was as a federal judge. That's how strapped for talent the Democratic Party was at the time.
TR got 56 percent of the popular vote, Parker not even 38 percent. TR got 336 Electoral Votes, Parker only 140, all in the "Solid South," which wouldn't have voted for Jesus if he were nominated by the Party of Lincoln. (It was only 40 years since the Civil War, after all.) TR did get 47 percent in Kentucky and 43 percent in Tennessee.
That night, TR makes a big mistake: He tells the press he won't run for what would amount to a 3rd term in 1908. He keeps his promise, but he tries again in 1912, and it splits the Republican Party. In a way, that split between well-meaning progressives and selfish conservatives has never been healed.
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November 8, 1913: Frank Joseph McGuire is born in Manhattan. Although he played basketball at St. John's University in Queens, and also in an early pro league, he is better known as a coach. He was St. John's head coach from 1947 to 1952, reaching the 1952 NCAA Final, losing to the University of Kansas.
Among his players were the brothers Al and Dick McGuire, no relation to him. Dick became a great player for the Knicks. While Al was a marginal player for the Knicks, he became the head coach at Marquette University in Milwaukee, leading them to the 1977 National Championship, and becoming a great sportscaster.
After the 1952 NCAA Tournament, Frank McGuire was hired by the University of North Carolina. He brought down New Yorkers, Irish Catholics like Tommy Kearns and Jews like Lennie Rosenbluth. It became known as the Underground Railroad -- almost the opposite of the original version, although his players were hardly slaves. In 1957, he led the Tar Heels to an undefeated season, beating Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain in the Final.
In 1961, a point-shaving scandal forced him to leave Chapel Hill, and hand the reins to his assistant -- ironically, given his 2 Final appearances, a Kansas man, Dean Smith. McGuire became the head coach of the Philadelphia Warriors, with Chamberlain, who had the greatest individual season any basketball player has ever had, averaging 50.4 points per game, including a 100-point game against the Knicks on March 2, 1962.
But when the Warriors were sold to Frank Mieuli, he moved them to San Francisco, and McGuire didn't want to go west. He spent 2 years working in public relations in New York, and then from 1964 to 1980 coached the University of South Carolina, leading them to the 1971 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship. He went 549-237 in his career, was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame and the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, and lived until 1994.
November 8, 1919: Herbert Henry Carnegie is born in Toronto. A center of Jamaican descent, he could have been the 1st black player in the NHL, since the New York Rangers offered him a minor-league contract in 1948. But he was already making more money playing alongside future Montreal Canadiens legends Jean Béliveau and Jacques Plante on the Quebec Aces in the Quebec Senior League, so he turned it down.
Herb Carnegie later founded Future Aces, a hockey school, training hundreds of players. He was elected to the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame, and lived until 2012.
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November 8, 1922: Thomas Luttgen Walker is born in Milwaukee. This Tommy Walker is not the character from The Who's rock opera
Tommy. But this one also has a musical legacy, connected to sports.
Both a placekicker on the University of Southern California football team and a trumpeter in the school's marching band, he wrote a fanfare that he said was a combination of cavalry charge calls and "The Call to the Post" at horse races. After playing it, "Da da da DAT da DAH!" he would yell, "Trojan warriors, charge!" Eventually, the "Trojan warriors" part was dropped, and it is now universally known as "Charge!" Walker later became the director of events at nearby Disneyland, and died in 1986.
A Yankee legend said that Yankee Stadium organist Eddie Layton invented "Charge!" in 1967. He didn't, and never claimed he did. But, at that time, he did invent the rhythm that gets played there before "
Charge!": "DUN dun dun dun DUN dun dun dun... " Mike Burke, then president of the Yankees, heard the fans clapping along with it, and told him to make it a regular thing. He did, and began following it with "Charge!"
Sports Illustrated cleared the matter up in a 1990 article.
Also on this day, Ademir Marques de Menezes is born in Recife, Brazil. Better known by just his first name, Ademir was one of the leading figures in Brazilian football, starring for hometown club Sport Recife and Rio de Janeiro club Vasco da Gama.
He led the Brazilian national team to the Final of the 1950 World Cup on home soil, but spectacularly lost. He did, however, take them to victory in the 1952 Panamerican Championship. He died in 1996.
Also on this day, Christiaan Neethling Barnard is born in Beaufort West, South Africa. In 1967, he performed the 1st human-to-human heart transplant. The patient, Louis Washkansky, lived 18 days, but his immune system had been weakened by the drugs he was given to prevent rejection of the donor heart, and he died of pneumonia.
Barnard would continue to perform heart transplants, one of his patients living 32 years thereafter. He eventually retired from surgery due to arthritis. An Afrikaner (South Africa native of Dutch ancestry), he opposed his homeland's governmental policy of apartheid, and lived long enough to see it overturned, dying in 2001.
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November 8, 1939: According to DC Comics, 12-year-old Fawcett City orphan Billy Batson first says, "Shazam!", and "magic lightning" strikes him and turns him into Captain Marvel, a super-powered adult, on a November 8. The characters debuted in Whiz Comics #2, dated February 1940. So, November 8, 1939.
"Shazam" was the name of the ancient wizard who gave Billy his powers, his name spelled out by the initials of the gods and heroes who contributed those powers: S for the wisdom of Solomon, H for the strength of Hercules, A for the stamina of Atlas, Z for the power of Zeus, A for the courage of Achilles, and M for the speed of Mercury. (Some of these traits overlap: Clearly, Atlas had to have significant strength, and
The Iliad calls Achilles "swift-footed.") To change back into Billy, Captain Marvel says, "Shazam!" again.
Originally, Billy was said to live in New York. When DC bought the rights to the characters from Fawcett Comics, it definitively wrote that Billy/Cap lived in Fawcett City. As with most DC cities, it is a fictional city whose exact location is left ambiguous. Most of the time, it's said to be in the Midwest, but this has varied from Indiana to Wisconsin to Minnesota.
The 1986 post-
Crisis On Infinite Earths reboot moved Cap's adventures to San Francisco -- forcing a change in the radio station for which Billy becomes a teenage reporter from WHIZ to KWHZ, or "K-Whiz." This did not last, and by 1991, it was Fawcett City again.
Due to copyright issues, Marvel Comics holds the trademark on the name "Captain Marvel," and has used it for a succession of superheroes. So, for legal reasons, DC can use the name Captain Marvel for its character, but can't use that name as the title of any publication or video production based on him.
As a result, their comics, cartoons, and a 1974-77 live-action Saturday-morning CBS show have had to use the title
Shazam! This has led to confusion, with some people thinking that the caped hero in the red costume with the yellow lightning bolt on his chest is, in fact, named Shazam. In 2012, DC just gave up, and made "Shazam" his official name.
This was not the case in 1941, when
The Adventures of Captain Marvel made him the 1st superhero ever to appear in a movie. (Superman appeared in a cartoon later in the year, but not in a live-action film until 1948, with Batman debuting on screen in 1943.) Frank Coughlan Jr. (1916-2009), a former child actor already too old to play the part, played Billy Batson, and Tom Tyler (1903-1954) played Captain Marvel.
In 2019, Warner Brothers released the film,
Shazam! Asher Angel, 16 and the time of filming, played a 14-year-old Billy living in the real city of Philadelphia; while Zachary Levi, then 38, played Cap, having already played a Marvel Comics character, the Asgardian warrior Fandral, in the
Thor films. The joke was that the character was more mature as Billy than he was as Cap.
Speaking of superhero origins...
November 8, 1940: The Mark of Zorro premieres, starring Tyrone Power as Don Diego Vega (whose name translates to "Lord James Star"), a nobleman in Spanish-controlled California in the early 19th Century. Like medieval England's Robin Hood, he is angry at the way those in power treat the people, and becomes an outlaw to help them, taking the name El Zorro (The Fox). The story had previously been filmed, silent, in 1920, with Douglas Fairbanks Sr.
Batman creator Bob Kane freely admitted that Zorro was an influence: A man appearing to be an effete, wealthy playboy dresses in black, has an often-comical assistant (Don Diego's servant Bernardo became Bruce Wayne's Alfred Pennyworth), has a hideout in a cave under his home, and has a black ride (Zorro's "Batmobile" being his horse, Tornado).
In some versions of Batman's origin, the Power version of The Mark of Zorro is the film that young Bruce was taken to by his parents, Thomas and Martha, after which the parents were shot and killed, and Bruce swore to take revenge on crime, in the tradition of Zorro. It's worth noting, though, that in most versions of the Zorro story, including the Disney-produced 1957-59 ABC TV series starring Guy Williams, the character's father, while wronged by the Spanish authorities, is still alive during the course of the story.
November 8, 1942: Operation Torch is launched, the Allied invasion of Nazi-held North Africa in World War II. Landing points include several points in Morocco, including Casablanca; and the Algerian cities of Algiers and Oran. At the time, Morocco and Algeria were French colonies, but were heavily influenced by Nazi-controlled "Vichy France."
The invasion is planned by Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who would learn from both the successes and mistakes of Operation Torch, a year and a half later when planning the Allied invasion of Western Europe, Operation Overlord, a.k.a. "D-Day."
By Thanksgiving Day, November 26, the Allies were in control of Morocco. On that day, the film
Casablanca premiered, set in early December 1941, right before America entered The War due to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Among the American soldiers stationed in Casablanca at the time was Sergeant George Goldberg, later to rename himself George Golden, my future grandfather. A Yankee Fan from The Bronx, he was nominally Jewish, but hated organized religion, believing it to be the cause of all human strife. But, as they were determined to wipe the Jews off the face of the Earth, he hated the Nazis more than he hated religion, and enlisted.
Grandpa was a photographer in civilian life, and my mother once showed me some pictures he'd taken in the service. One showed a very tall French general, conferring with 2 of his officers. Grandpa may not have known who the general was, but, clearly, he was a man of some importance. It turned out to be Charles de Gaulle. If a soldier tried to take a picture of an army's commanding officer like that today, he'd be in big trouble.
Grandpa also served with the invading U.S. Army in Italy. In both cases, his ultimate commanding officer --- aside, of course, from his Commander-in-Chief, President Franklin D. Roosevelt -- was Major General, later Lieutenant General, George S. Patton, "Old Blood and Guts."
Also on this day, Ángel Tomás Cordero Jr. is born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, the same hometown as Roberto Clemente. The 1st Puerto Rican elected to the United States Racing Hall of Fame, the son of renowned jockey and horse trainer Angel Cordero Sr. won 7,057 races, including the Kentucky Derby in 1974, 1976 and 1985; the Preakness Stakes in 1980 and 1984; the Belmont Stakes in 1976; 4 Breeders' Cup races, 3 Jockey Club Gold Cups, and an Arlington Million. He is still alive.
He came into controversy at the 1980 Preakness. He was riding Codex, and came upon Genuine Risk, who, 2 weeks earlier, had become the 1st filly in 65 years to win the Kentucky Derby. Jacinto Vásquez, Genuine Risk's Panamanian jockey and, as a fellow Hispanic, something of a rival to Cordero, got a little too close. Cordero nudged Codex over and bumped Genuine Risk, affecting the outcome of the race. Don't judge Cordero too harshly: Vásquez later got involved in some shady things, while this remained the only blot on Cordero's career.Also on this day, Alessandro Mazzola is born in Turin, Italy, where his father, Valentino Mazzola, was a star with soccer team Torino, but died with most of his teammates in a plane crash in 1949, known as the Superga Disaster.
Sandro and his brother, Ferruccio Mazzola, overcame the loss of their father, and both played top-flight calcio (what the Italians call soccer). Ferruccio (1945-2013) was a midfielder for several teams, helping Rome club Lazio win its 1st Serie A (national league) title in 1974, alongside future New York Cosmos star Giorgio Chinaglia.
Sandro Mazzola was an attacking midfielder who played 17 seasons for Internazionale Milano, leading
La Grande Inter to league titles in 1963, 1965, 1966 and 1971, and the European Cup in 1964 and 1965. He and Ferruccio were briefly teammates in 1967, when Inter again reached the European Cup Final, losing to Celtic. Between them, the father and 2 sons won 10 league titles.
Sandro helped Italy win Euro 1968, but they lost the Final of the 1970 World Cup, because the manager, Ferruccio Valcareggi, could never find a way to put the 2 great Milan-based stars of the era, Sandro Mazzola of Inter and Gianni Rivera of AC Milan, together in the same lineup. Sandro also played in the 1966 and 1974 World Cups. Sandro became a commentator for Italian network RAI, including for Italy's wins in the 1982 and 2006 World Cups, and is still active in that role.
November 8, 1943: Martin Stanford Peters is born in Plaistow, East London. The midfielder starred for his local club, West Ham United, and while he wasn't yet a regular when they won the 1964 FA Cup, he blossomed for them as they won the 1965 European Cup Winners' Cup.
That got him noticed by Alf Ramsey, manager of the England national team, and Peters was selected for the 1966 World Cup, which England won on home soil, with Peters starting in the Final. He later played in the 1970 World Cup, and for North London's Tottenham Hotspur, and won the League Cup in 1971 and 1973 and the UEFA Cup in 1972.
He later managed Sheffield United. Although he lived to see the 50th Anniversary of the World Cup win, 2016 was also the year he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, along with several other members of that England team. He died on December 21, 2019.
November 8, 1944: Edward Emil Kranepool is born in Manhattan, and grows up in The Bronx. A star at James Monroe High School, the school's biggest since Hank Greenberg, and no MLB Draft then being in place, Ed Kranepool was fair game. The Bronx-based Yankees decided they didn't need him, so the Mets snapped him up.
He made his major league debut, still 17 years old, on September 22, 1962. He became my mother's favorite player, as he was the 1st man of her generation to make the majors, and with a local team, no less. He played mostly right field, and some 1st base, in 1963, but he'd been brought up too soon. He was sent down to Triple-A. He still couldn't hit, and was sent all the way back down to Class D (what we would now call the Rookie League.) A banner appeared at the Polo Grounds, mocking the not-yet-19-year-old: "IS KRANEPOOL OVER THE HILL?"
On May 30, 1964, he played all 18 innings of a doubleheader with the Buffalo Bisons, when the Mets called him back up. At brand-new Shea Stadium, they played a doubleheader against the San Francisco Giants, and the nightcap went 23 innings. Ed Kranepool played 50 innings in 2 days. But he was up for good: He made the National League All-Star Team in 1965 (only 20 years old), and was a member of the Mets' 1969 "Miracle" World Championship, and their 1973 National League Pennant.
Later in his career, he did commercials for Gillette Foamy shaving cream. One ad began with him repeatedly striking out on black-and-white film, and the announcer, possibly Met broadcaster Bob Murphy (the ad isn't on YouTube, and I'm working on memory here), said, "From 1962 to 1970, Ed Kranepool batted .227."
The ad then shows him lathering up with Foamy, then, with some symbolism, switches the film to color, and shows him slicing a line drive down the right field line for a double: "Since 1971, Ed's batted .283! What do you think of that, Ed?"
The ad plays on ballplayers' tendency toward superstition, and shows Ed, in the dugout, in full uniform but lathered up, holding a can of Foamy, saying, "I don't know, but now, I shave every other inning." (God only knows why he
really started hitting better at age 26, but the stats were correct.)
He played his last game on September 30, 1979, shortly before turning 35, with a .261 lifetime batting average, and 1,418 career hits, a club record until surpassed by David Wright. He was elected to the Mets Hall of Fame, became a stockbroker, making enough money to live in tony Old Westbury, Long Island. But he developed diabetes, and had a toe amputated. At age 77, he has recently recovered from a kidney transplant.
November 8, 1946, 75 years ago: The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, which had debuted on radio in 1942, makes its television debut on NBC. For all intents and purposes, it is America's 1st sports TV show, and runs until 1960.
Also on this day, the Buffalo Bisons of the National Basketball League play their 1st game, at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. They include William "Pop" Gates and William "Dolly" King, who thus become the 1st black players in a formerly all-white professional basketball league, after the debuts of Kenny Washington and Woody Strode with the Los Angeles Rams in the NFL, and after the debuts of Marion Motley and Bill Willis with the Cleveland Browns in the AAFC, but 5 months before Jackie Robinson in baseball. The Bisons beat their geographic rivals, the Syracuse Nationals, 50-39.
But this would be the high point of the Bisons. On Christmas Day, noting that they needed 3,600 fans per game to break even. and weren't even getting 1,000, general manager Leo Ferris announced that they were moving to Moline, Illinois. That region has been called the Tri-Cities, along with Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa; and the Quad Cities, with Bettendorf, Iowa added. The team became the Tri-Cities Blackhawks.
They didn't make it there, either, and kept moving. In 1951, they became the Milwaukee Hawks. In 1955, they became the St. Louis Hawks. In 1968, despite on-court success (including the NBA title in 1958 and a Division title in 1968), they weren't drawing well, and they moved again. The 2021-22 season is their 54th as the Atlanta Hawks.
Also on this day, Guus Hiddink is born in Varsseveld, the Netherlands. An ordinary player as a soccer midfielder, he became a great manager. With PSV Eindhoven, he won the Eredivisie (national league) in 1987, 1988, 1989, 2003, 2005 and 2006; the KNVB-Beker (Dutch Cup) in 1988 (a Double), 1989 (a Double), 1990 and 2005 (a Double); and the 1988 European Cup (a European Treble, and the 1972 Ajax Amsterdam team is the only other Dutch squad to achieve this).
With Chelsea, he won the 2009 FA Cup. In the World Cup, he managed the Netherlands to 4th place in 1998, host South Korea to 4th in 2002, and Australia to the Round of 16 in 2006. He managed Russia to the Semifinal of Euro 2008. He made a brief return to Chelsea in 2016, possibly saving them from relegation and setting them up for their 2017 Premier League title.
November 8, 1949: William O'Dwyer, the 100th Mayor of New York City, is elected to a 2nd term. But the Democrat is soon caught up in a police corruption scandal. He resigned as Mayor on August 31, 1950. President Harry S Truman appointed him U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, and he served 2 years in that post. He lived until 1964.
Also on this day, Alfred E. Driscoll is elected to a 2nd term as Governor of New Jersey. His 1st term was the last 3-year term for that office, as, in 1947, he conducted the convention that wrote the current Constitution of the State of New Jersey. As such, his 2nd term was the 1st 4-year term for Governor.
The Republican had already established the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which would build the superhighway of that name; and would soon establish the New Jersey Highway Authority, creating the Garden State Parkway.
Also on this day, Wayne Robert LaPierre Jr. is born in Schenectady, New York, and grows up in Roanoke, Virginia. In 1977, after working as a legislative aide to a member of the Virginia House of Delegates -- ironically, a Democrat -- he joined the National Rifle Association. In 1991, he joined its executive board. Although he has never been its official leader, he has been its most prominent spokesman.
He once supported background checks for people who want to buy guns. That is no longer the case: He believes that anyone should be able to buy any kind of firearm, whenever they want, regardless of their criminal and/or mental history. He doesn't care who has to die in the process, including children, having made despicable comments after school shooting after school shooting.
Even the
New York Post, America's most prominent right-wing newspaper, realized he'd gone too far: On December 22, 2012, 8 days after a school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, and the day after a tone-deaf press conference at the Willard Hotel in Washington, the paper put his picture on its front page, with the giant headline "GUN NUT!" The competing
Daily News went further, calling him "THE CRAZIEST MAN IN AMERICA."
Also on this day, the man who would become known as the King of Country Music, Hank Williams, releases what becomes his signature song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry."
Also in music on this day, Bonnie Lynn Raitt is born outside Los Angeles in Burbank, California, where her father, John Raitt, was an actor. She released her self-titled debut album in 1971, was part of the MUSE Festival (a.k.a. the No Nukes Concerts) at Madison Square Garden in 1979, and, after giving up booze, had a career renaissance in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
November 8, 1961, 60 years ago: Eric Wayne Martin is born outside Houston in Van Vleck, Texas. A receiver, he made the 1988 Pro Bowl, and was named to the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame. He is 2nd on the Saints' all-time lists in receptions and receiving yards, in each case behind Marques Colston.
November 8, 1965: Michael David Peluso is born in Pengilly, Minnesota. A left wing, Mike Peluso was one of the hardest fighters in hockey, starting with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1990. In the 1991-92 season, he was assessed 408 penalty minutes, the 4th NHL player to receive 400 or more in a season. There has never been a 5th.
He came to the New Jersey Devils in 1993, and in 1995, formed the Crash Line with center Bobby Holík and right wing Randy McKay. They shut down each Playoff team's leading scorer: Cam Neely of the Boston Bruins, Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins (Mario Lemieux sat the year out for health reasons), Eric Lindros of the Philadelphia Flyers and Sergei Fedorov of the Detroit Red Wings.
As the final second ticked down of Game 4 of the Devils' upset sweep of the Wings, the Fox Sports cameras caught Peluso sitting on the bench, crying so hard his face had gotten puffy. He had achieved the dream.
He played 2 more seasons for the Devils, and 1 each for the St. Louis Blues and the Calgary Flames. After that, his tears would not be of joy: He has suffered seizures and memory loss, and been diagnosed with dementia, anxiety and clinical depression. He has sued all the teams he played for, suggesting that they knew about his concussions and didn't tell him about the danger of continuing to play. He has been offered a settlement of $325,000, but has rejected it: He wants the verdict more than he wants the money. The case has not yet gone to trial.
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November 8, 1970: The New Orleans Saints are playing the Detroit Lions at Tulane Stadium, and trail 17-16 with time for one more play. The early Saints were terrible: They had debuted in 1967, and were 13-34-2 in their brief history, including 1-5-1 that season. Tom Fears, the Hall of Fame receiver for the Los Angeles Rams who had been named their 1st head coach, had just been fired, and this was their 1st game under J.D. Roberts, who finished out that season and lasted just 2 more.
At this point, the NFL had the goalposts on the goal line. And the record for the longest field goal was 56 yards, by Bert Rechichar of the Baltimore Colts in 1953. In the 17 years since, no one had even attempted a field goal longer than that. It was the kind of stunt that could only be done at the end of the 1st half or the end of the game, for fear of giving the opposition great field position.
The Saints were on their own 44-yard line. Their quarterback was Billy Kilmer. Two years later, Kilmer would take the Washington Redskins to the NFC Championship and Super Bowl VII. But, at this point, he was best remembered as a single-wing quarterback at UCLA, and not a great passer. The idea of Kilmer flinging the ball 56 yards for a touchdown did not fill Roberts with confidence.
But they had a placekicker named Tom Dempsey. Despite being born with no right hand and half of a right foot, requiring him to wear a special shoe, he had kicked a 55-yarder the year before. He thought he could make it from 62 yards, and convinced Roberts to let him try a field goal from a distance far beyond that from which anyone had yet had the guts to try. Not even in the freewheeling, recently wrapped-up AFL.
This was in New Orleans, a city below sea level. It was on real grass, not artificial turf, and this was the middle of the season, so the field was in bad shape. (Tulane Stadium would get artificial turf the next season.) There was no kicking tee: In the NFL, that's only legal for kickoffs. There was game-winning pressure. Years later, a scientist hired by ESPN determined that the flat front of Dempsey's half-shoe may actually have made the kick less likely to be good. His only advantage was a slight wind behind him.
What's more, he decided he'd actually have a better chance if the placement were an additional yard back, 8 yards instead of the legally-mandated 7, making the kick 63 yards.
Dempsey faced the enclosed north end of Tulane Stadium's semicircle. Jackie Burkett snapped the ball, and it was low. Holder Joe Scarpati had trouble with it, but set it down properly. Dempsey sent the ball straight on, and it flew, and flew, and flew... and it perfectly split the uprights, good by a full 3 yards. Final score: Saints 19, Lions 17. The stunning kick was the highlight of not just the Saints' season -- they wouldn't win another game, finishing 2-11-1 -- but, arguably, their entire history until their Super Bowl season of 2009-10.
The next season, 1971, Dempsey was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles, and he led the NFL in field goal percentage, 70.4 percent, kicking a 54-yarder. He spent 4 seasons with them, the 1st 3 with those awful white helmets with green wings, before they went back to the traditional white (or silver) wings with green helmets for 1974. He spent the 1975 and 1976 seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, 1977 with the Houston Oilers, and 1978 and 1979 with the Buffalo Bills, before retiring.
In 1974, the NFL moved the goal posts from the goal line to the end line, at the back of the end zone. From that point onward, a 63-yard field goal would be made not at your own 37, but your own 47. In 1977, the NFL added the "Tom Dempsey Rule": "Any shoe that is worn by a player with an artificial limb on his kicking leg must have a kicking surface that conforms to that of a normal kicking shoe." Dempsey was still active, so he was "grandfathered in," and allowed to continue using his flat-fronted shoe.
He finished his career making 252 out of 282 extra points, or 89.4 percent; and 159 of 258 field goals, or 61.6 percent. (Maybe 63 would have been appropriate, but he wasn't quite that good.) He tried 39 field goals from 50 yards or longer, and made 12 of them, an astounding percentage for the time.
He was elected to the Saints' team Hall of Fame. He has never been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio -- only 2 pure kickers, as opposed to pre-1970 kickers who also played other positions, have been: Jan Stenerud, and another Saint, Morten Andersen -- but the shoe he wore for the record-setting kick is on display there.
Following his career, Dempsey returned to New Orleans, worked as a salesman for an oil company, and then Saints owner Tom Benson, who owned a string of car dealerships, hired him to run one. In 2013, he revealed he was suffering from dementia. He was eventually taken to a senior residence in New Orleans, and he was 1 of 15 residents who tested positive for the coronavirus. He died on April 4, 2020, at the age of 73.
Dempsey's record stood alone until 1998, when Jason Elam of the Denver Broncos tied it. It was tied again in 2011, by Sebastian Janikowski of the Oakland Raiders. Both of these kicks came in the mile-high air of Denver. In 2012, David Akers, then with the San Francisco 49ers, hit a 63-yarder against the Green Bay Packers, in a city that's 581 feet above sea level.
On December 8, 2013, 43 years after Dempsey set the record, Matt Prater of the Broncos broke it, kicking a 64-yard field goal to end a half against the Lions, the same team against whom Dempsey's kick was made. This, too, was in Denver. I remind you that Dempsey kicked his 63-yarder below sea level.
On October 7, 2018, in Charlotte, North Carolina, 761 feet above sea level, Graham Gano did something no kicker had done since Dempsey: Kick a game-winning field goal 63 yards or more. He did so to give the Carolina Panthers a 33-31 win against the New York Giants. Afterward, he told the media that he always wanted to kick one that far to win a game, just like Dempsey had. Dempsey heard about it, and sent him an autographed kicking tee.
On September 26, 2021, Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens set a new record, 66 yards -- in a 19-17 win over the Detroit Lions, in Detroit, 656 feet above sea level.
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November 8, 1971, 50 years ago: With the Nassau Coliseum in Hempstead -- mailing address, Uniondale -- nearing completion, the National Hockey League grants a franchise to Long Island, and the New York Islanders are born.
Also on this day, Led Zeppelin release their 4th album. After
Led Zeppelin III received mixed reviews, they decided to not give this album a title, or to put the band's name on the cover. Instead, the cover shows a painting by Barrington Colby titled
The Hermit. Each member of the band chose a symbol that appeared on the cover. So the album is nicknamed
Led Zeppelin IV, Four Symbols, and
The One With the Old Guy On the Cover.
It's also known as
Stairway to Heaven, after the most familiar track on it, and the band's signature song, although lead singer Robert Plant has insisted that the ultimate Zep song is "Kashmir," off their 1975 album
Physical Graffiti.
Side one consists of "Black Dog," "Rock and Roll," "The Battle of Evermore" and "Stairway to Heaven." Side two consists of "Misty Mountain Hop" (like "Evermore," part of Plant's obsession with J.R.R. Tolkien's
The Lord of the Rings), "Four Sticks," "Going to California," and the one song on the album that isn't an original, a cover of Memphis Minnie's "When the Levee Breaks."
It remains Zep's most popular album, having sold over 37 million copies, and is regarded by many -- oddly, not including the surviving band members -- as one of the greatest albums in rock and roll history. In a 2002 issue of
Spin magazine, Chuck Klosterman called it "the most famous hard-rock album ever recorded" and "the origin of everything that sounds, feels, or even tastes vaguely metallic." The former plaudit is justifiable, as he said, "most famous," not necessarily "best" or "greatest"; the latter might be disputed by fans of Black Sabbath.
Also on this day, the PBS children's show
Sesame Street debuts the character of Aloysius Snuffleupagus -- or, as his best friend Big Bird calls him, Mr. Snuffleupagus or Snuffy. He was portrayed by Jerry Nelson until 1978, then Michael Earl until 1981, and by Martin P. Robinson ever since.
Snuffy was meant to represent kids' "imaginary friends." As a result, only Big Bird and the kids ever saw him, and the grownups thought he didn't exist, and they said, "Big Bird, you sure have some imagination."
I was born a few weeks after
Sesame Street's debut in 1969, and grew up with it and watching it. At the start of every episode, a graphic of a number appeared on the screen. It took me years to figure out what this number meant: It was the number of episodes that had aired.
I had hoped that they would celebrate the 2,000th episode of the show by finally letting the grownups see Snuffy, and realize that Big Bird had been telling the truth all along. No such luck.
The show's writers realized that, by seeing that the grownups didn't believe Big Bird, kids might start thinking that grownups might not believe them about more important things. So they wrote an episode in which the grownups saw Snuffy. It aired on November 18, 1985, as the premiere of their 17th season, and Episode Number 2,096. (Ah, ah, ah, ah.) This was also the debut appearance of Elmo, who turns out to be instrumental in Snuffy's revelation.
That was what I call the "hinge episode" of Sesame Street. Before it, it was just the Street, with occasional ventures outside, and the original (or sort-of original) cast. After that, there were adjacent streets, new characters, old ones were phased out (due to the actors' retirements or, in a couple of cases, deaths), and cute little red-furred Elmo became, metaphorically, the 800-pound gorilla that dominated the show.
Also on this day, Hannie Caulder premieres. It is a Western starring Raquel Welch as a wronged woman, who seeks revenge, and is trained by a gunfighter in his skill. She is told, "You're a hard woman, Hannie Caulder." She says, "There are no hard women. Only soft men." Yes, that line, and the screenplay, were written by men: Burt Kennedy and David Haft.
The film is produced by Welch and her husband at the time, Patrick Curtis, through their company, Curtwel Productions. Curtis was cast as the baby version of Beau Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, and, 82 years later, is that film's last surviving castmember.
Robert Culp plays Hannie's trainer, Christopher Lee plays the gunsmith who designs and builds her gun, and Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam and Strother Martin play the men who wronged her.
November 8, 1972: Home Box Office (HBO) begins broadcasting. In sports, it became renowned for boxing broadcasts and Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.Also on this day, Gretchen Mol (no middle name) is born in Deep River, Middlesex County, on the Boston side of Connecticut. She played Officer Annie Norris on
Life On Mars, and Gillian Darmody on
Boardwalk Empire. She now has a recurring role on the period-piece HBO reboot of
Perry Mason.
November 8, 1975: Notre Dame beats Georgia Tech 24-3 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. By the Fighting Irish's standards, it was an unremarkable game in an unremarkable season, going 8-3 with no invitation to a bowl game, and with the 2 guys who would become their biggest stars, quarterback Joe Montana and linebacker Bob Golic, both being freshmen and backups.
But in this last home game for several seniors, head coach Dan Devine, who took over this season from the retiring Ara Parseghian, decided -- on his own, not persuaded to do so like the movie said -- to have defensive end Daniel Eugene "Rudy" Ruettiger, who hadn't played a down in 4 years and wouldn't get another chance, dress in his Number 45 uniform for the game.
Devine sends Ruettiger in for Notre Dame's final defensive series, and he is in for 3 plays: A kickoff, an incomplete pass by Tech quarterback Rudy Allen (whose name actually was Rudolph), and a sack of Allen by Ruettiger. And thus did the story of the film Rudy, starring Sean Astin, end. At least they got that part right. It's not the most ridiculous movie ever made about Notre Dame football, but it is about the school's most ridiculous player.
Also on this day, The Summit opens in Houston. The arena becomes the home of the Houston Rockets, who win their 1st game there on this night, 116-112 over the Cleveland Cavaliers. It will be their home until the Toyota Center opens in 2003, including back-to-back NBA Championships in 1994 and 1995.
It was also the home of the World Hockey Association's Houston Aeros from 1975 to 1978. It is now the Lakewood Church Central Campus, the seat of Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch." It probably pisses him off to no end that the cheers he gets there are less than those gotten there by Hakeem Olajuwon, a black Muslim.
It didn't help that, during Hurricane Harvey in August 2017, he refused to open it as a shelter for those fleeing the floods until shamed into doing so on social media. People like him are why people believe the quote that is often incorrectly attributed to Gandhi: "Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
November 8, 1977: Congressman Ed Koch, having already gone through a bruising Democratic Primary, and a runoff against Mario Cuomo, then the Secretary of State for the State of New York, is finally elected Mayor. He would win 3 terms, and help bring the City back from economic ruin. But, despite his bold promises, crime would continue to be out of control -- including, as it turned out, in the City government, which ended up dooming his chances for a 4th term in 1989.
Governor Brendan Byrne of New Jersey is re-elected. He had won his 1st term with 66 percent of the vote, but his signing of the State's 1st sales tax infuriated people, dropping him to 17 percent in the polls, and earning him the nickname "One-Term Byrne." The anger faded, and he won 56 percent of the vote against State Senator Ray Bateman.
In his 2nd term, he got the Meadowlands Arena built in 1981, just before he was term-limited out of office, and his name was placed on it. In 1996, the naming rights expired, and, still angry over his tax hike, a vengeful Republican legislators sold the name to Continental Airlines. "I was immortal for 15 years," Byrne said.
In San Francisco, where the city council is known as the Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk is elected to a seat that includes the Castro district, along with New York's Greenwich Village then the most famous "gay neighborhood" in America. The 47-year-old Long Island native and camera store owner becomes the 1st openly gay public official to win elective office anywhere in America.
Milk thus becomes a gay icon, and many people hope he'll become their "Martin Luther Queen." Unfortunately, within a year, he will face the same end as Martin Luther King: Assassination and martyrdom.
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November 8, 1981, 40 years ago: Bradley Joseph Davis is born in the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles, Missouri. A left wing, he made his Major League Soccer debut with the New York/New Jersey MetroStars (forerunners of the New York Red Bulls) in 2002. In 2006 and 2007, he won MLS Cups with the Houston Dynamo.
A 6-time MLS All-Star, he concluded his playing career in 2016, with Sporting Kansas City. For the U.S. national team, he helped them with the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup, but only appeared in 1 World Cup, in 2014. He retired after the 2016 season.
Also on this day, Joseph John Cole is born in Paddington, West London. The left winger won the Intertoto Cup with East London's West Ham United in 1999. With West London's Chelsea, he won the Premier League in 2005, 2006 and 2010; the FA Cup in 2007, 2009 and 2010 (a Double); and the League Cup in 2005 and 2007 (a Cup Double). He later played for the new version of the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the United Soccer League, North American soccer's 2nd division, and is now back at Chelsea as a coach.
In 2010, Goal.com announced 2 "done deals": Joe Cole was being signed by North London's Arsenal, and Marouane Chamakh of French club Girondins de Bordeaux was being signed by Liverpool. It turned out to be the other way around: Cole to Liverpool, and Chamakh to Arsenal. "Reporting" things like this are why that website is called Fail.com. To be fair, though, both Arsenal and Liverpool might have been better off had Goal.com been right.
Also on this day, The Brooklyn Bridge premieres on PBS. It is the 1st documentary film produced by Florentine Films and its head, Ken Burns. Burns and PBS have worked together ever since.
November 8, 1989: The NBA's expansion Minnesota Timberwolves play their 1st home game, at the Target Center in Minneapolis. It was the 1st home game for a Minnesota NBA team since the Minneapolis Lakers got knocked out of the Eastern Division Finals by the St. Louis Hawks on March 24, 1960, and then moved to Los Angeles.
But the T-Wolves really chose the wrong opponent: The Chicago Bulls, who win, 96-84. Michael Jordan blitzes his way to 45 points, while Tony Campbell nets 31 for the shellshocked hosts. At least the inaugural fans got their money's worth from Jordan.
Also on this day, Giancarlo Cruz Michael Stanton is born in Los Angeles. Growing up, most people called him "Mike Stanton," but, not wanting to be confused with the relief pitcher for several teams, including the Yankee Dynasty, he began going by "Giancarlo Stanton."
The right fielder reached the major leagues with the Miami Marlins in 2010, and became a Yankee in 2018. He has hit 312 career home runs, including some of the longest in the major leagues since his debut. He is a 4-time All-Star, led the National League in homers in 2014, and led it in home runs and RBIs in 2017, and was awarded the NL's Most Valuable Player.
In 2018, he became "the new A-Rod." Like Alex Rodriguez, the last huge-priced free agent the Yankees went after, he hits home runs, but not when they're most needed, and he evaporated in his 1st postseason. Injuries limited him to 18 games in 2019. He hardly played in the 2020 regular season, but, to his credit, was one of the few Yankees to step up in the postseason, hitting 6 home runs before the Yankees were knocked out.
Stanton played the 2021 season as if he wants to be known as "a real Yankee." He batted .273, with 35 home runs and 97 RBIs. It certainly wasn't his fault that the Yankees failed this year. But to be a Yankee Legend, he has to win the World Series. A-Rod got his 2009. Maybe 2022 will be Stanton's year.
November 8, 1991, 30 years ago: Hardy Brown dies in a nursing home in Stockton, California at age 67. He was one of the earliest documented cases of football-contact-induced dementia. In addition, his right shoulder was so wracked with arthritis that he couldn't lift his arm to scratch his head or brush his hair.
He was 1 of only 2 players, along with Ben Agajanian, to play in the All-America Football Conference (1948 Brooklyn Dodgers, 1949 Chicago Hornets), the NFL (1950 Baltimore Colts, 1950 Washington Redskins, 1951-55 San Francisco 49ers and 1956 Chicago Cardinals), and the 1960s version of the AFL (1960 Denver Broncos).
The aforementioned shoulder was his trademark, using it to flatten ballcarriers. The Los Angeles Rams, arch-rivals of the 49ers, offered a $500 bounty to any player who could knock Brown out of the game. That's about $5,000 in today's money, and NFL owners were notorious for underpaying their players for such hazardous duty, so this was considered a lot of money. No player was able to collect it. Years later, Bob Waterfield, the Rams' Hall of Fame quarterback, was hit by a car, and his first response was, "I didn't know that Hardy Brown was in town."
In spite of all of this, he was only named to 1 Pro Bowl, in 1952, and he has been forgotten when people have named their various all-time teams. With hardly any TV coverage, and not much surviving film of him, Hardy Brown is something of a legend.
