It's always the same: When the people demand changes, it's never the guy at the top. That guy -- or the guy perceived to be that guy -- fires somebody lower, offering the people some fresh pieces of meat, to tide them over until something else goes wrong.
Presidents do it. On April 30, 1973, with pressure increasing in what was then called "the Watergate matter," Richard Nixon fired his Attorney General, Richard Kleindienst, and his White House Counsel, John Dean (one of the few Watergate figures still alive, today is his 83rd birthday); and announced the "resignations" of his White House Chief of Staff, H.R. "Bob" Haldeman and his Chief Domestic Policy Adviser, John Erhlichman.
He figured that would be enough to satisfy people. For a while, it was. But it was not enough to satisfy Congress, and they investigated further, until people began to demand the highest "piece of meat" of all, Nixon himself. He resigned on August 9, 1974.
In November 1986, with pressure increasing in the Iran-Contra affair, Ronald Reagan fired his Chief of Staff, an old friend from his tenure as Governor of California, Donald Regan. He probably did it on the advice of his wife, Nancy Reagan, who never liked Regan.
The President replaced him with former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker, and he helped straighten the White House out. Reagan was able to serve out his term without facing an impeachment inquiry, and the public decided to pretend that he had done nothing wrong, knowing all the while that what he did was, arguably, worse than what Nixon did in Watergate.
On July 17, 1994, with problems piling up, and an investigation into his role in the Whitewater real estate deal in his native Arkansas underway, Bill Clinton fired his Chief of Staff, an old friend from high school, Thomas "Mack" McLarty. As Reagan did, he replaced him with a Washington insider, Leon Panetta, then his Budget Director and previously a powerful Congressman from California. Panetta served the rest of Clinton's 1st term.
Clinton probably should have kept him for the 2nd term, because he did face an impeachment inquiry, and the Republicans would have seen it through, no matter who he fired. No "piece of meat" other than himself would have been good enough. But the law was on his side, and he was acquitted by the Senate, and he served out his 2nd term.
On November 7, 2006, the Democrats made big gains in the Congressional elections, enough to take both houses of Congress. The major reason was anger over the continuation of the Iraq War. President George W. Bush was not about to resign over it. Nor was Vice President Dick Cheney. So Bush accepted the resignation of his Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. The new Secretary, Robert Gates, began the process of ending the war, and was so effective, the next President, Barack Obama, a Democrat, asked him to stay on, and he did, into mid-2011.
Sports teams do it, too, including the Yankees. George Steinbrenner was never going to sell the team, no matter how bad things got. But he would fire managers, pitching coaches, base coaches, general managers, whoever he thought would be the kind of "meat" the fans would accept. And, as he once said, he never really fired anybody: When he removed somebody from one position in the organization, he offered him another, and the man usually took the new position. But not always: Some walked away for life, like Dick Howser; or for years, like Yogi Berra.
Today, Yankee general manager Brian Cashman, knowing that he has the backing of operating owner Hal Steinbrenner, George's son, and knowing that manager Aaron Boone's contract doesn't officially run out until the end of the month, so he doesn't have to make a decision yet, announced the firings of hitting instructor Marcus Thames, whose instruction was clearly not working; and 3rd base coach Phil Nevin, whose blunder in the Wild Card Game against the Red Sox killed a rally, the last of the Yankees' 23 times being thrown out at the plate this season.
Last year, the "piece of meat" who paid the prices for the Yankees' failure to win the Pennant was pitching coach Larry Rothschild. This year, under Matt Blake, the pitching improved tremendously. But the team didn't hit well enough; hence, Thames had to go; and the team didn't run well enough; hence, Nevin had to go.
Few Yankee Fans will be upset over the firings of Thames and Nevin. But it's not enough. Would firing Boone be enough? No. Frankly, I'd like to see how he would manage without the GM calling the shots for him, on things like pitch limits and benching hot hitters.
Firing Boone and keeping Cashman would mean that Cashman would simply hire another yes-man. Why fire the doll, and keep the ventriloquist? Which one's the dummy?
But after the firings of Rothschild a year ago, and Thames and Nevin now, Boone has got to know that he is the next piece of meat. And since Cashman literally wouldn't have to lift a finger to let him go -- letting his contract run out without signing him to an extension is not, in an official sense, firing him for cause -- it would be easy.
Most likely, Cashman will keep Boone.
But it's been 12 years without a Pennant, and 18 years with only 1 of them. How many more years of failure will it take before Hal puts Cashman on the grill?
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October 14, 1066: On Senlac Hill, 7 miles from Hastings, England, the forces of William, Duke of Normandy, defeat the Saxon army of King Harold II of England.
According to legend, the battle was hours long (unusual for that era), was approaching sundown, and was fairly even, until Harold was struck in the eye by a Norman arrow. Once their King and commander fell, the Saxons lost hope.
However, Lord Baltimore and his followers, still loyal to Harold, insist that a young squire named Geoffrey of Mighor interfered with the arrow's path. (Just a joke.)
The Duke, previously known as "William the Bastard" for his illegitimate birth, becomes known as "William the Conqueror." The old joke about King William I is that you should never go into battle against someone called "the Bastard," because he's probably got a chip on his shoulder already; and you should never go into battle against someone called "the Conqueror," because he's probably done something to earn that nickname.
October 14, 1322: This one doesn't go so well for the English either. The Battle of Old Byland is fought at Scawton Moor in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, and Scottish troops under King Robert I, a.k.a. Robert the Bruce, defeat English troops under John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond.
Unlike his father, King Edward I of England, a.k.a. The Hammer of the Scots, King Edward II was not much of a military leader. He was forced to make peace with the Scots, and to accept Scotland's independence. By 1327, he was deposed and assassinated in favor of his son, who became King Edward III -- one of England's least effective monarchs being replaced by one of its most effective.
The Scots tend to make big deals about their victories over the English, such as the Battles of Stirling Bridge (September 11, 1297), Bannockburn (June 24, 1314) and Old Byland, and their soccer wins at the old Wembley Stadium in London in 1928 and 1967. But as the English never cease to remind them, there was Flodden Field (September 9, 1513), Culloden (April 16, 1746), and Euro 96.
October 14, 1633: James Stuart is born at St. James's Palace in London. The son of King Charles I of England, he was created Duke of York. In 1649, his father was overthrown and executed as a result of the English Civil War, and James and his brother Charles had to flee to France. In 1660, the monarchy was restored, and his brother became King Charles II.
In 1664, England took the colony of New Netherland, including its capital, New Amsterdam, from the Netherlands. Both the colony and the city were renamed for James: "New York."
Charles had many illegitimate children (he claimed at least 6, and some historians believe there were at least 20), but no legitimate ones, so when he died on February 6, 1685, James became King James II of England, and also King James VII of Scotland.
But unlike his Protestant brother, James was Catholic, and this terrified the English establishment, who knew their history, including the threats posted by Queen Mary I in the 1550s, her widower King Philip II of Spain in the 1580s, and the Guy Fawkes Gunpowder Plot in 1605 -- the last of these, within the lifetimes of men then living.
The nobles invited James' Protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William, Stadtholder of Orange, to come, and in 1688 the Glorious Revolution overthrew James. The couple ruled together as King William III and Queen Mary II, while James died in exile at a chateau outside Paris on September 16, 1701.
James' Catholic forces fought William's Protestant army at the Battle of the Boyne in Oldbridge, County Meath, Ireland on July 1, 1690, and the Protestants won. Despite one more attempt by James' grandson, a.k.a. Bonnie Prince Charlie, to retake the throne, a.k.a. "The 45" (in which Charlie's forces lost the aforementioned Battle of Culloden, outside Inverness, Scotland), the monarchs of Britain have been Protestant ever since.
But the religious divide has hung over Britain, including in Glasgow, Scotland, in the soccer rivalry between Celtic Football Club, founded as an advocacy group for the Irish Catholic minority in town, and still the favorite club of many Catholics throughout the English-speaking world (kind of a proto-Notre Dame); and Rangers Football Club, an all-Protestant team until 1989 and still the favorite club of anti-Catholic bigots in Britain, including in Northern Ireland.
After Mary II died, William III ruled alone until his death in 1702. James' other daughter, a Protestant, became Queen Anne. When she died on August 1, 1714, that was the end of the House of Stuart, and the House of Hanover began.
October 14, 1644: William Penn is born. He would go on to found the colony of Pennsylvania. In 1901, the city he founded, Philadelphia, would place a statue of him, sculpted by Alexander Calder, atop their new City Hall. It was 585 feet high, counting the statue, and until the completion of the Singer Building in New York in 1908, it was the tallest building in the world. It was also the first secular (non-religious) building to be the tallest building in the world; Penn, a Quaker who deeply believed in religious freedom, would have loved that.
For decades, an "unwritten law" (sometimes called a "gentleman's agreement") stated that no structure in the city could be taller than the hat on the Penn statue. In 1987, One Liberty Place opened. At 948 feet, it was the first structure in the city taller than City Hall – in fact, for a few years, it was the tallest building between New York and Chicago.
From that point forward, no Philadelphia team won a World Championship in any sport. Between them, the Phillies, the Eagles, the 76ers and the Flyers would make 5 trips to their sports' finals, but none would win. No college basketball team from the Philadelphia area even reached the NCAA Final Four, as, between them, Temple, St. Joseph's and Villanova would make 5 trips to the Elite Eight, but none could get into the Final Four. And Smarty Jones, a horse born and trained in the Philly suburbs, won the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, and was leading in the Belmont Stakes, before falling behind and finishing a close 2nd, so Philly even choked in the thoroughbred Triple Crown.
Some people, believing in forces larger than life, suspected that the building of what were now several structures taller than City Hall's Penn statue began calling the city’s inability to win a major sports championship "the Curse of Billy Penn."
On June 18, 2007, the Comcast Center was "topped off," at 975 feet the tallest in the city and the tallest between New York and Chicago. A miniature version of the City Hall statue of William Penn was placed on top, so that "Billy Penn" could once again look out over his city without having his view obstructed by taller buildings.
Within 16 months, the Phillies won the World Series. Five months after that, Villanova reached the Final Four. The Curse of Billy Penn was broken. However, in between, the Eagles lost an NFC Championship Game, the Flyers lost a Stanley Cup Finals, and the 76ers have still stunk, so maybe there's more to Philly's struggles than the Penn statue. Then again, Villanova went on to win 2 out of 3 National Championships. So, who knows.
The Comcast Innovation and Technology Center opened at 1800 Arch Street in 2018. It is 1,121 feet tall, taller than its namesake a block away at 1700 John F. Kennedy Blvd. And the Eagles have now won a Super Bowl. So the 76ers and the Flyers are now on the clock.
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October 14, 1842: Joseph Start (no middle name) is born in New York. He was one of the first baseball stars, playing for the Brooklyn Atlantics from 1862 to 1870, the New York Mutuals from 1871 to 1876, the Hartford Dark Blues in 1877, the Chicago White Stockings (forerunners of the Cubs) in 1878, the Providence Grays from 1879 to 1885, and the Washington Nationals in 1886.
He led the Atlantics to undefeated seasons in 1864 and 1865 (although there was no league whose "Pennant" could be won then), helped the Atlantics beat the Cincinnati Red Stockings for the closest thing there was to a "world championship" of baseball in 1870, and the Grays to National League Pennants in 1879 and 1884. He is said to have been the first 1st baseman to play away from the bag, although like everyone else in the game at the time, he didn't use a glove. He lived on until 1927.
October 14, 1861, 160 years ago: Paul Revere Radford is born in Roxbury, now a part of Boston. An outfielder, he won National League Pennants with the 1883 Boston Beaneaters (forerunners of the Braves) and the 1884 Providence Grays.
In 1887, with the New York Metropolitans (nicknamed the Mets but with no connection to the current team), he set a new major league record, long since broken, with 106 walks. He helped the Boston Red Stockings win the last American Association Pennant, in 1891. He closed his career in 1894, and lived until 1945.
October 14, 1890: Dwight David Eisenhower is born in Denison, Texas. He grew up in Abeline, Kansas, and played football and baseball at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. He played on the losing side in the legendary upset of Army by the Carlisle Indian School in 1912.
Legend has it that the future Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in World War II and 34th President of the United States tried to tackle the man behind Carlisle's rise, Jim Thorpe, and that Thorpe crashed into Eisenhower and broke the future President's leg.
The truth is less romantic: "Ike" played in Army's next game, and got hurt in that one. So if he did try to tackle Thorpe, it was not injurious. But it probably wasn't all that successful, either, as Thorpe was the greatest football player of the 1910s, and the greatest track star of that time, and played Major League Baseball as well, and remains one of the greatest all-around athletes of all time.
In 1953, his 1st year as President, Ike was invited, as all Presidents had been since 1910, to throw out the first ball on Opening Day at Washington's Griffith Stadium. He declined, saying he had a golf date that day. But it rained, postponing the ballgame, and that enabled him to throw out the first ball. He also threw out the first ball before Game 1 of the 1956 World Series at Ebbets Field. The next day, his election opponent, Adlai Stevenson, threw out the first ball.
When Eisenhower became President on January 20, 1953, there were 16 MLB teams in 10 cities, none further south than Washington, nor further west than St. Louis; there were 12 NFL teams, Coast to Coast, but none in the South; and there were 10 NBA teams, none further south than Baltimore nor further west than St. Louis, and in cities as small as Syracuse, Rochester and Fort Wayne.
When he left office on January 20, 1961, there were 20 teams (at least on paper), from Coast to Coast, and (again, at least on paper) from North to South; there were 22 teams combined in the NFL and AFL, North to South; and there were still only 10 NBA teams, but not the same 10, and the league was now Coast to Coast.
October 14, 1891, 130 years ago: Former Chicago White Stockings (forerunners of the Cubs) pitcher Larry Corcoran, the 1st man to pitch 3 no-hitters, dies in Newark at the age of 32 of the kidney disorder Bright's Disease, exacerbated by alcoholism. Corcoran's best year was 1884, when he went 27-12.
October 14, 1892: The scheduled game between the Boston Beaneaters (forerunners of the Braves) and the Washington Nationals (who fold in 1899 and are not to be confused with any later D.C. team) is postponed because the Senators' field has already been reserved by the Columbia Athletic Club for a football game against Princeton University.
As far as I know, this is the 1st time football has ever asserted its authority, whatever that might be, over baseball.
October 14, 1890: Dwight David Eisenhower is born in Denison, Texas. He grew up in Abeline, Kansas, and played football and baseball at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. He played on the losing side in the legendary upset of Army by the Carlisle Indian School in 1912.
Legend has it that the future Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in World War II and 34th President of the United States tried to tackle the man behind Carlisle's rise, Jim Thorpe, and that Thorpe crashed into Eisenhower and broke the future President's leg.
The truth is less romantic: "Ike" played in Army's next game, and got hurt in that one. So if he did try to tackle Thorpe, it was not injurious. But it probably wasn't all that successful, either, as Thorpe was the greatest football player of the 1910s, and the greatest track star of that time, and played Major League Baseball as well, and remains one of the greatest all-around athletes of all time.
In 1953, his 1st year as President, Ike was invited, as all Presidents had been since 1910, to throw out the first ball on Opening Day at Washington's Griffith Stadium. He declined, saying he had a golf date that day. But it rained, postponing the ballgame, and that enabled him to throw out the first ball. He also threw out the first ball before Game 1 of the 1956 World Series at Ebbets Field. The next day, his election opponent, Adlai Stevenson, threw out the first ball.
When Eisenhower became President on January 20, 1953, there were 16 MLB teams in 10 cities, none further south than Washington, nor further west than St. Louis; there were 12 NFL teams, Coast to Coast, but none in the South; and there were 10 NBA teams, none further south than Baltimore nor further west than St. Louis, and in cities as small as Syracuse, Rochester and Fort Wayne.
When he left office on January 20, 1961, there were 20 teams (at least on paper), from Coast to Coast, and (again, at least on paper) from North to South; there were 22 teams combined in the NFL and AFL, North to South; and there were still only 10 NBA teams, but not the same 10, and the league was now Coast to Coast.
October 14, 1891, 130 years ago: Former Chicago White Stockings (forerunners of the Cubs) pitcher Larry Corcoran, the 1st man to pitch 3 no-hitters, dies in Newark at the age of 32 of the kidney disorder Bright's Disease, exacerbated by alcoholism. Corcoran's best year was 1884, when he went 27-12.
October 14, 1892: The scheduled game between the Boston Beaneaters (forerunners of the Braves) and the Washington Nationals (who fold in 1899 and are not to be confused with any later D.C. team) is postponed because the Senators' field has already been reserved by the Columbia Athletic Club for a football game against Princeton University.
As far as I know, this is the 1st time football has ever asserted its authority, whatever that might be, over baseball.
October 14, 1896, 125 years ago: Oscar McKinley Charleston is born in Indianapolis. A center fielder, he played black baseball at its highest professional level from 1915 to 1941, for such storied teams as the Indianapolis ABCs, the Chicago American Giants, the Hilldale Club of Philadelphia, the Homestead Grays of Washington, and, as player-manager, the Pittsburgh Crawfords. He died on October 5, 1954, shortly before he would have turned 58.
In 2001, Bill James published The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. In it, he ranked Charleston as the 4th-best player of all time. This was a very foolish thing to do, because, as a statistician and a historian, he should have known that the statistics available on Charleston are, as they are with all the Negro League stars, A, woefully incomplete; and, B, based on a standard of competition that, let's be honest, was not at the major league level.
The best Negro League players would have been among the best major league players; the average players would have struggled, at best, in the white majors. To put it another way: Josh Gibson, whom Charleston played with and managed in Pittsburgh, might have hit 500 career home runs in the white majors, but he would not have hit the 800 that Negro League fans claimed he hit there.
That said, in 1976, Charleston was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1999, The Sporting News listed their 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and ranked him Number 67. There's little doubt that he would have excelled in the white majors in the 1920s and '30s. But we'll never know for sure just how much he would have done.
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October 14, 1901, 120 years ago: The Houston Chronicle is founded. Since buying out its rival, the Houston Post, in 1995, it has been the only major paper in Texas' largest city, the 4th-largest city and 8th-largest metropolitan area in America. It is now owned by the Hearst Corporation.
MLB.com columnist Richard Justice, a frequent contributor to ESPN, is a former sports columnist for the Chronicle.
October 14, 1905: Christy Mathewson pitches his 3rd shutout in 6 days‚ giving up 6 hits to Chief Bender's 5. The Giants win, 2-0, and clinch the World Series in 5 games, thus proving their point from last year, when they refused to play the Boston Americans (forerunners of the Red Sox), that they were already the best team in baseball.
The 3 goose eggs make Mathewson, already the most popular player in the game, bigger than any U.S. athlete has ever been. The A's' .161 team BA remains the lowest ever for a Series, and the teams' combined .185 is also the lowest.
The last survivor from the 1905 Giants was shortstop Bill Dahlen, who lived until 1950.
October 14, 1906: The Chicago White Sox jump on Three-Finger Brown for 7 runs in the 1st 2 innings‚ and coast behind Guy "Doc" White to a 7-1 Series-ending victory in what is still the only all-Chicago World Series. Despite winning 116 games in the regular season, the Cubs lose to the "Hitless Wonders." But the Cubs will be back. No, that is not a joke.
White, a dentist from Washington, D.C. (so "Doc" wasn't just a nickname), had pitched 45 consecutive scoreless innings that year. That record would be surpassed by Walter Johnson and eventually Don Drysdale. White would live to see both occurrences, dying in 1969, making him the last survivor from the 1906 White Sox.
Also on this day, Johanna Cohn Arendt is born in Hannover, Germany. Better known as Hannah Arendt, she escaped from the Nazis and came to America in 1941, Her books include The Origins of Totalitarianism, published in 1951. Having observed both fascists and Communists, she wrote, "The most ardent revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution." She lived until 1975.
October 14, 1908: Before the smallest crowd in World Series history, just 6‚210 at Bennett Park in Detroit, the Tigers are tamed on 3 hits by Orval Overall‚ who fans 10 in a 2-0 win. The Chicago Cubs win the series in 5 games. In the 108 years since, they have never won another, despite 15 trips to the postseason. They're in the National League Championship Series again this year, so we'll see.
Upset over seating arrangements at the Series‚ sports reporters form a professional group that will become the Baseball Writers Association of America.
The last survivor of the 1907 and 1908 World Champion Cubs is infielder Henry "Heinie" Zimmerman, not yet ready in 1907 or 1908 to displace 3rd baseman Harry Steinfeldt, shortstop Joe Tinker or 2nd baseman Johnny Evers, but who ends up playing all 3 positions and becomes one of the top 3rd basemen of the 1910s. He lives until 1969.
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October 14, 1911, 110 years ago: John Marshall Harlan dies in Washington, D.C. at age 78. He had been on the U.S. Supreme Court for nearly 34 years, still the 6th-longest tenure. Despite being from a Southern State, Kentucky, he was the only Justice to vote against "separate but equal accommodations" in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896.
His grandson, John Marshall Harlan II, was 18 at the time of his death. He would also serve on the Supreme Court, from 1955 until his death in 1971. He arrived a year too late to vote on Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, which struck down "separate but equal" as inherently unequal, but joined his grandfather as a great voice for civil liberties.
October 14, 1912: Running to regain the White House, as the nominee of the Progressive Party -- a.k.a. the Bull Moose Party, in honor of his argument that he felt as fit as a bull moose -- after his Republican Party essentially rejected him for being too liberal, Theodore Roosevelt is shot coming out of the Gilpatrick Hotel at 333 W. Kilbourn Avenue in Milwaukee.
The shooter is John Schrank, a 36-year-old German immigrant, who claimed that William McKinley, Roosevelt's predecessor, had come to him in a dream and told him to do it. Doctors examined him and ruled him insane. He was committed to a State hospital, and died there in 1943.
Roosevelt was on his way to the Milwaukee Auditorium, at 500 W. Kilbourn. His life was saved because he had his long speech tucked in his pocket, and it slowed the bullet down. He gave the speech anyway, telling the crowd, "It takes more than a bullet to stop a Bull Moose!" He talked for an hour and a half before he was finally persuaded to go to the hospital.
The doctors, possibly remembering how the doctors attending McKinley after his shooting in 1901, and James Garfield after his in 1881, had made things much worse in trying to remove the bullets, left Roosevelt's bullet in. He recovered, finished 2nd in the election, and lived another 6 years. When he died on January 6, 1919, his assassination attempt had little to do with it.
The 4,086-seat Milwaukee Auditorium, built in 1909, still stands, under the name of the Miller High Life Theatre. The Milwaukee Arena, a.k.a. the MECCA, was built next-door in 1951, the Bradley Center across State Street from the MECCA in 1988, and the new Fiserv Forum across Highland Street from that. The Bradley Center has now been demolished, while the MECCA has been renamed the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena, after the University of Wisconsin's Milwaukee campus and its teams.
Both William Howard Taft, the President he suggested as his successor and then opposed for deviating from his principles, and Woodrow Wilson, who beat both of them 3 weeks after the assassination attempt, gave speeches at the Auditorium.
So did West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in 1956, Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in 1960, Martin Luther King in 1964, Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988, Presidential candidates George W. Bush and Ralph Nader in 2000, and Presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016 -- which, along with Russian hacking and leftists abandoning Hillary Clinton, may have helped him win Wisconsin.
The Gilpatrick, opened in 1907, was torn down in 1970. A new hotel, the Hyatt Regency, was built on the site.
October 14, 1916: Sophomore tackle and guard Paul Robeson is excluded from the Rutgers football team when the players of Washington and Lee University of Virginia refuse to play against a black person. The game, played at Neilson Field in New Brunswick, New Jersey, ends in a 13-13 tie. A friend of Robeson's called it "a wound that never healed."
A month later, West Virginia University sent its team to play Rutgers, and insisted that Robeson not play. This time, Rutgers coach George Foster Sanford stood up for Robeson, saying that if the Mountaineers didn't want to play against a black man, they could go home. They didn't want to forfeit either the game or the money their school would make by playing, so they played, and Robeson made a game-saving tackle near the goal line to preserve a scoreless tie. Afterward, the WVU players lined up to shake his hand.
In 1917 and 1918, Robeson was considered by many observers to be the best player in the country. In 1920, making his all-time All-American team, Walter Camp, the legendary Yale player and coach who invented the "All-American team" concept, named Robeson the best defensive end he'd ever seen.
His pro career was brief, but he did play for the 1st champions of the league that became the NFL, the Akron Pros, led by black coach and back Fritz Pollard. Robeson went on to bigger things in the law, music, acting and social activism.
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October 14, 1927: Walter Johnson, regarded by many as the greatest pitcher of all time, announces his retirement as a player. In 2 weeks‚ the Big Train will sign a 2-year contract to manage the Newark Bears of the International League.
Also on this day, Roger George Moore is born in Stockwell, South London. You might know him by another name: That name is Bond. James Bond. We lost him in 2017, but he will always be Mr. Bond to me.
What does that have to do with sports? Well, in Live and Let Die, he raced a boat. In The Man With the Golden Gun and The Spy Who Loved Me, he raced cars. Not good enough? In The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only, he not only skied, but unlike competitive skiers, he actually had to "play defense." Not to mention he got into fights in all his Bond movies. As Mr. Bond, Mr. Moore was definitely athletic.
October 14, 1929: After a day off, because sports on Sunday are illegal in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (and will remain so until 1934), a special train from Washington brings President Hebert Hoover and his wife Lou to Shibe Park, to see if Howard Ehmke of the Philadelphia Athletics can wind up the Series against Pat Malone and the Chicago Cubs in Game 5.
Ehmke and Malone match zeroes for 3‚ but with 2 outs in the 4th‚ a walk and 3 hits give the Cubs a 2-0 lead. Malone stifles the A's with 2 hits, and the 2-0 lead holds up into the 9th. The A's rally and come up with 3 runs‚ the winning run scoring on a Bing Miller double‚ and take the series 4 games to 1. There won't be another winning rally by a team down 2 runs in the 9th of a Series game in this century. The next team to do it will be the 2001 Yankees.
NL MVP Rogers Hornsby‚ hobbled with a heel spur‚ manages just 5 hits in the Series. This is the last Major League Baseball game played before the stock market begins to crash 10 days later, beginning the Great Depression. As a result, when Hoover attends the 1930 Series in Philadelphia, instead of getting cheered like he was the year before, he will be booed.
The last survivor of the '29 A's, considered by some people to be the greatest team of all time, was right fielder Walt French, who lives until 1984.
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October 14, 1931, 90 years ago: David L. Diles (I can find no record of what the L stands for) is born in Middleport, Ohio. He worked for the Associated Press in Columbus and Detroit, before becoming sports director at WXYZ-Channel 7, the ABC affiliate in Detroit. He hosted programs such as Race for No. 1 and The Big Ten Today. On WXYZ radio, he hosted Dial Dave Diles, Detroit's 1st radio sports-talk show.
He also broadcast for the Detroit Lions, the Detroit Pistons, and the Ohio State basketball team, and was Terry Bradshaw's "as told to" writer for his 1979 autobiography Terry Bradshaw, Man of Steel. He was honored by the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame, and inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame. He lived until 2009.
Also on this day, the comic strip Dick Tracy, written and drawn by Chester Gould, debuts in the Detroit Mirror. So, like the Lone Ranger and the Green Hornet, Dick Tracy was "born" in Detroit. The Chicago Tribune's national syndicate made the strip nationally known, and made Tracy an icon of American law enforcement, a police detective who became known for his yellow hat and raincoat, and then-futuristic gadgets such as a two-way wrist radio.
He also became one of the earliest fictional characters to be known for a rogues' gallery of villains, including Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice (obviously based on real-life crime lord Al Capone), Stud Bronzen (kind of an evil version of Doc Savage), Bob Oscar "B.O." Plenty (a smelly hillbilly who was a moonshine runner) Pruneface Boche (a disfigured scientist who sells out to the Nazis), Flattop Jones (a machine-gunning hitman patterned after the real-life hitman Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd) and Alfred "The Brow" Brau (another Nazi agent).
Gould drew the strip until 1977, and died in 1985. The strip still runs today. There were movie serials based on the character in the 1930s and the 1940s, but, since then, the only film version has been the splashy, star-studded, but artistically and commercially disastrous film starring Warren Beatty in 1990.
He also became one of the earliest fictional characters to be known for a rogues' gallery of villains, including Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice (obviously based on real-life crime lord Al Capone), Stud Bronzen (kind of an evil version of Doc Savage), Bob Oscar "B.O." Plenty (a smelly hillbilly who was a moonshine runner) Pruneface Boche (a disfigured scientist who sells out to the Nazis), Flattop Jones (a machine-gunning hitman patterned after the real-life hitman Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd) and Alfred "The Brow" Brau (another Nazi agent).
Gould drew the strip until 1977, and died in 1985. The strip still runs today. There were movie serials based on the character in the 1930s and the 1940s, but, since then, the only film version has been the splashy, star-studded, but artistically and commercially disastrous film starring Warren Beatty in 1990.
October 14, 1933: Stanley Woodward, sports editor of the New York Tribune, writes in that paper, "A proportion of our eastern ivy colleges are meeting little fellows another Saturday before plunging into the strife and the turmoil."
Woodward referred to schools we now associate with the official Ivy League playing nearby schools that never joined it. That day, Harvard beat the University of New Hampshire 34-0, Yale beat Washington & Lee of Virginia 14-0, Princeton beat Williams College of Western Massachusetts 45-0, Columbia beat Virginia 14-6, Dartmouth beat Bates College of Maine 14-0, Brown beat Springfield College 14-6, and the University of Pennsylvania beat Franklin & Marshall College of nearby Lancaster 9-0.
Of the 8 schools that would later officially form the Ivy League in 1954, only Cornell lost, having made the mistake of playing away, and to the University of Michigan, no less, getting walloped 40-0. Rutgers, not an Ivy League school then or now, lost 25-2 away to Colgate. In New York City, in addition to Columbia's win, Fordham hosted West Virginia and won 20-0, while NYU edged Lafayette of Easton, Pennsylvania, 13-12.
As Woodward said, the following week, the schools in question began their schedule against each other: Princeton 20, Columbia 0; Yale 14, Brown 6; and Dartmouth 14, Penn 7. The exceptions were Harvard, who lost 10-7 to Holy Cross of nearby Worcester; and Cornell, who lost 14-7 to nearby Syracuse.
Woodward is thus not the creator of the term "the Ivy League," but we wouldn't have that phrase without him. He had played football at Amherst College in Amherst, western Massachusetts. That school isn't in the Ivy League, officially founded in 1954, but is rather Ivy-ish.
October 14, 1936: Dorothy Ann Seib is born in Park Ridge, Bergen County, New Jersey. She acted under the name Dyanne Thorne. Her blonde, busty form got her acting roles in bit parts on TV shows, including one of the most popular Star Trek episodes: Early in "A Piece of the Action," she (listed in the closing credits only as "First Girl") complains to gangster Kalo (Lee Delano) that the street lights need to be fixed by "boss" Bela Okmyx (Anthony Caruso) because "a girl ain't safe."
By this point, she'd also been a singer, and appeared on comedy albums with Vaughn Meader, Allen & Rossi, and Loman & Barkley. And her film credits included such exploitation films as Sin in the Suburbs, and Encounter, where hear character was identified only as "Wicked Lady." Her Trek
appearance would be followed by appearances in films like Point of Terror, The Erotic Adventures of Pinocchio, Blood Sabbath and Snatched Women.
Then came marriage to producer Howard Maurer, who booked her in a Las Vegas stage show, and in the title role of the 1974 film Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, in which she played a sadistic, nymphomaniac Nazi concentration camp commandant.
This was followed by Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks. And Greta, the Mad Butcher, an obvious takeoff on the preceding, which was redubbed in America so that her character was named Ilsa, and it was retitled Ilsa, the Wicked Warden. And Ilsa, the Tigress of Siberia, with the character's loyalty switching from far right to far left, but behaving the same.
Then came marriage to producer Howard Maurer, who booked her in a Las Vegas stage show, and in the title role of the 1974 film Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, in which she played a sadistic, nymphomaniac Nazi concentration camp commandant.
This was followed by Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks. And Greta, the Mad Butcher, an obvious takeoff on the preceding, which was redubbed in America so that her character was named Ilsa, and it was retitled Ilsa, the Wicked Warden. And Ilsa, the Tigress of Siberia, with the character's loyalty switching from far right to far left, but behaving the same.
Although the time period and location of each film was different, and her character was killed at the end of each, they are considered a series. And unlike in the original, where she remains a loyal Nazi to the end, she turns against her bosses in the others.
In real life, she was nothing like Ilsa. She was kind to the adoring fans who showed up to welcome her to movie-fan conventions, and she and her husband both became ordained ministers, so they could marry couples at a chapel they opened in Las Vegas. Dyanne Thorne died on January 28, 2020, in Las Vegas, from pancreatic cancer.
In real life, she was nothing like Ilsa. She was kind to the adoring fans who showed up to welcome her to movie-fan conventions, and she and her husband both became ordained ministers, so they could marry couples at a chapel they opened in Las Vegas. Dyanne Thorne died on January 28, 2020, in Las Vegas, from pancreatic cancer.
October 14, 1939: Ralph Lifshitz (no middle name) is born in The Bronx. We know him as Ralph Lauren. Drawing on his love of sports, he launched his 1st full line of menswear in 1968, calling it Polo.
On a personal note: On 4 occasions before my 7th birthday, because of problems with my legs, I was a patient at the Hospital for Joint Diseases at 123rd Street & Madison Avenue in Spanish Harlem. HJD has since moved to the Union Square area, and their old hospital is now the Ralph Lauren Cancer Center, founded by Ralph after he had a benign brain tumor removed in 1987.
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October 14, 1940: The Buffalo Memorial Auditorium opens. The 1st event is a campaign rally for Republican Presidential nominee Wendell Willkie. He lost -- even in Buffalo, which is normally a Republican city, but Franklin D. Roosevelt was Governor of New York before he was President, and was still beloved in the western part of the State.
The Buffalo Bisons of the American Hockey League -- named for the city's minor-league baseball team -- played there from 1940 until 1970, at which point the NHL gave the city an expansion franchise, the Sabres. In 1946, it hosted a basketball team named the Bisons, but it went bust; the NBA gave it an expansion team in 1970, called the Braves. Necessary for these new teams was an expansion from 10,449 seats to 15,858.
The Braves moved after the 1978 season, and the Sabres built the arena now named the KeyBank Center in 1996. "The Aud" was demolished in 2009, and the Canalside park project has been extended onto the site.
October 14, 1941, 80 years ago: Arthur Louis Shamsky is born in St. Louis. On his 28th birthday, the right fielder (though not starting in front of Ron Swoboda – lucky for the Mets in Game 4) nicknamed "Smasher" would help the Mets win Game 3 of the World Series. He was also the last Met to wear Number 24 before Willie Mays.
Of course, he's best known for being the hero of NYPD Detective Robert Barone, played by Brad Garrett on Everybody Loves Raymond. Robert loved Shamsky so much as a kid, he named his dog "Shamsky."
In 1999, on the 30th Anniversary of the Mets' "Miracle," Robert and his brother Ray, a sportswriter for Newsday, played by Ray Romano, drove up to Cooperstown, where some of the '69 Mets were signing autographs at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Ray wanted to use his press credentials to skip to the head of the line. But Tug McGraw recognized Ray, and remembered a critical column that Ray had written. Shamsky wasn't impressed, either, and the brothers got thrown out of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Later, at a diner, Robert said they should have waited in line like everybody else. Ray: "But we're not
like everybody else!" Robert: "Obviously, we're not like everybody else. Because everybody else got to meet the Mets!"
Also on this day, Jerry Michael Glanville (not "Gerard" or "Jerome") is born in the Toledo suburb of Perrysburg, Ohio. He was a linebacker at Northern Michigan University, before becoming a graduate student and assistant coach at Western Kentucky. He got his 1st NFL job as special teams coach with the Detroit Lions in 1974, and also served on the staffs of the Atlanta Falcons (developing the "Gritz Blitz" defense that won NFC West titles in 1977 and '78), Buffalo Bills and Houston Oilers.
In 1986, he was named head coach of the Oilers, and get them into the Playoffs 3 times in 4 years. He then got the Falcons into the 1991 Playoffs. His career head coaching record in the NFL -- as he put it to a rookie referee, "which stands for 'Not For Long' when you make them fuckin' calls" -- was 69-73, and he's probably best known for that comment, famed for NFL Films' use of it, and for criticizing the Falcons' drafting of Brett Favre due to his party-animal lifestyle, and then for making them see his point and get rid of Favre. (It should be noted, though, that Favre got the Green Bay Packers to only 2 Super Bowls, just 1 more than the Falcons were in over the same stretch.)
He was a studio analyst for CBS' The NFL Today, and once said of a big running back, "You run him until his tongue looks like a necktie!" In other words, is hanging very low. He coached Portland State University's team from 2007 to 2009. He now runs a truck racing team.
Also on this day, Jerry Michael Glanville (not "Gerard" or "Jerome") is born in the Toledo suburb of Perrysburg, Ohio. He was a linebacker at Northern Michigan University, before becoming a graduate student and assistant coach at Western Kentucky. He got his 1st NFL job as special teams coach with the Detroit Lions in 1974, and also served on the staffs of the Atlanta Falcons (developing the "Gritz Blitz" defense that won NFC West titles in 1977 and '78), Buffalo Bills and Houston Oilers.
In 1986, he was named head coach of the Oilers, and get them into the Playoffs 3 times in 4 years. He then got the Falcons into the 1991 Playoffs. His career head coaching record in the NFL -- as he put it to a rookie referee, "which stands for 'Not For Long' when you make them fuckin' calls" -- was 69-73, and he's probably best known for that comment, famed for NFL Films' use of it, and for criticizing the Falcons' drafting of Brett Favre due to his party-animal lifestyle, and then for making them see his point and get rid of Favre. (It should be noted, though, that Favre got the Green Bay Packers to only 2 Super Bowls, just 1 more than the Falcons were in over the same stretch.)
He was a studio analyst for CBS' The NFL Today, and once said of a big running back, "You run him until his tongue looks like a necktie!" In other words, is hanging very low. He coached Portland State University's team from 2007 to 2009. He now runs a truck racing team.
October 14, 1945: This may have been the birthdate of Spider-Man. The character debuted in Amazing Fantasy #15, with a cover date of August 1962. Peter Parker is generally agreed to have been 16 years old at the time of his debut. And October 14 has been given as his canonical birthday by Marvel Comics. So, October 14, 1945, in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City.
October 14, 1946, 75 years ago: Albert Oliver Jr. (no middle name) is born in Portsmouth, Ohio. A 7-time All-Star, the center fielder (later 1st baseman) was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 1971 World Champions. In 1970, Al hit the last home run at Forbes Field and drove in the first run at Three Rivers Stadium. In 1978, he was traded to the Texas Rangers, and switched from Number 16 to Number 0 – not a zero, but an O for Oliver.
His 2,743 career hits make him 4th among players currently eligible for the Hall of Fame but not in, trailing Rafael Palmeiro (who is not banned but will never get in due to steroids), Barry Bonds (ditto) and Vada Pinson. The fact that Harold Baines was ahead of him, and has now gotten in, may help his candidacy. His son Aaron Oliver played for Texas A&M’s football team in their 1998 Big 12 Conference Championship season, and now teaches at a Texas high school.
Also on this day, Justin David Hayward is born in Swindon, Wiltshire, in England's West Country. He sang lead for The Moody Blues on most of their hits, helping them reach the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is still alive.
October 14, 1947: Captain Charles E. Yeager, U.S. Air Force, pilots a Bell X-1 plane he named
Glamorous Glennis, after his wife, to a speed of 700 miles per hour, over the Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert of California. At his altitude, 45,000 feet (about 8 1/2 miles above sea level), that was faster than the speed of sound, making Chuck Yeager the 1st human to travel faster than sound.
Yeager retired from the USAF with the rank of Brigadier General (1 star), and is now 97 years old, having lived long enough to see the start of the Space Age, the 1st Moon landing, and the speed of sound surpassed by a land vehicle -- by a pair of British Royal Air Force pilots in Utah, the day after the 50th Anniversary of Yeager's flight. He died on December 7, 2020. The Glamorous Glennis is now at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
October 14, 1948: Eduardo Figueroa Padilla is born in Ciales, Puerto Rico. He signed by the Mets, and is one of the few major league players who actually served in combat in Vietnam. He got out all right, but hurt his arm in the Mets' farm system, and they released him. Yet another boneheaded Met transaction.
He signed with the San Francisco Giants, who traded him to the California Angels in 1973, and he made his debut with them in 1974. The Yankees picked him up on December 11, 1975, along with center fielder Mickey Rivers, in exchange for Bobby Bonds, who hadn't really fit in with them in his 1 season in Pinstripes.
It was a great trade, as Figgy and Mick the Quick helped the Yankees win the next 3 AL Pennants. Figgy led the 1976 Pennant winners with 19 wins, won 16 for the 1977 World Champions, and in 1978 he went 13-2 down the stretch to become the 1st, and still the only, Puerto Rican-born pitcher to win 20 games in a season.
He started and lost Game 4 of the 1976 World Series, and an injured finger kept him out of the 1977 Fall Classic, and in the 1978 Series, he lost Game 1 and did not figure in the decision after starting Game 4. Nonetheless, he won 2 World Series rings.
He got hurt in 1979, and ended up pitching for Texas and Oakland, and retired in 1982. He now runs Mexican-themed restaurants in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan.
Yeager retired from the USAF with the rank of Brigadier General (1 star), and is now 97 years old, having lived long enough to see the start of the Space Age, the 1st Moon landing, and the speed of sound surpassed by a land vehicle -- by a pair of British Royal Air Force pilots in Utah, the day after the 50th Anniversary of Yeager's flight. He died on December 7, 2020. The Glamorous Glennis is now at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
October 14, 1948: Eduardo Figueroa Padilla is born in Ciales, Puerto Rico. He signed by the Mets, and is one of the few major league players who actually served in combat in Vietnam. He got out all right, but hurt his arm in the Mets' farm system, and they released him. Yet another boneheaded Met transaction.
He signed with the San Francisco Giants, who traded him to the California Angels in 1973, and he made his debut with them in 1974. The Yankees picked him up on December 11, 1975, along with center fielder Mickey Rivers, in exchange for Bobby Bonds, who hadn't really fit in with them in his 1 season in Pinstripes.
It was a great trade, as Figgy and Mick the Quick helped the Yankees win the next 3 AL Pennants. Figgy led the 1976 Pennant winners with 19 wins, won 16 for the 1977 World Champions, and in 1978 he went 13-2 down the stretch to become the 1st, and still the only, Puerto Rican-born pitcher to win 20 games in a season.
He started and lost Game 4 of the 1976 World Series, and an injured finger kept him out of the 1977 Fall Classic, and in the 1978 Series, he lost Game 1 and did not figure in the decision after starting Game 4. Nonetheless, he won 2 World Series rings.
He got hurt in 1979, and ended up pitching for Texas and Oakland, and retired in 1982. He now runs Mexican-themed restaurants in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan.
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October 14, 1951, 70 years ago: John Mitchell Jr. (no middle name) is born in Mobile, Alabama. In 1971, the defensive end transferred from Eastern Arizona Junior College to become the 1st black football player at the University of Alabama, and was named an All-American in 1972.
Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant knew Mitchell was undersized for a professional defensive lineman, so he made Mitchell his 1st black assistant coach. He also served on the staffs of Arkansas, Temple, Louisiana State (becoming the Southeastern Conference's 1st black defensive coordinator), the USFL's Birmingham Stallions, and the Cleveland Browns.
Since 1994, he has been on the staff of the Pittsburgh Steelers, serving as defensive line coach until 2017, and as assistant head coach since then. He is a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, and has 1 National Championship and 2 Super Bowl rings.
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October 14, 1961, 60 years ago: The expansion Mets, preparing for their 1st season, are loading up on as many ex-Yankees, ex-New York Giants and ex-Brooklyn Dodgers as they can get their hands on. They purchase Johnny Antonelli, one of the heroes of the Giants' 1954 World Championship. Rather than play for such a lousy team, Antonelli retires. He is only 31 years old.
October 14, 1961, 60 years ago: The expansion Mets, preparing for their 1st season, are loading up on as many ex-Yankees, ex-New York Giants and ex-Brooklyn Dodgers as they can get their hands on. They purchase Johnny Antonelli, one of the heroes of the Giants' 1954 World Championship. Rather than play for such a lousy team, Antonelli retires. He is only 31 years old.
This is a policy that won't work any better for the New Jersey Devils when they start in 1982, as the ex-Rangers and ex-Islanders they could sign were also mostly washed-up stars and backups.
October 14, 1964: Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle hit home runs on back-to-back pitches from Curt Simmons‚ and Joe Pepitone belts Gordie Richardson for a grand slam. The Yankees win, 8-3 at St. Louis, and send the World Series to a deciding Game 7. With all the home runs that Mickey and Roger hit, this is the only time they hit back-to-back homers in a postseason game.
Also on this day in Yankee history, Joseph Elliott Girardi is born in Peoria, Illinois, and grows up in neighboring East Peoria. On the plus side, Joe Girardi was a good catcher, who reached the postseason with the 1989 Cubs and the 1995 Colorado Rockies, and 4 times with the Yankees.
In 1996, he caught Dwight Gooden's no-hitter, and his triple off Greg Maddux got the Yankees on the scoreboard in Game 6 of the World Series. He mentored Jorge Posada, and while Posada caught David Wells' perfect game in 1998, Girardi caught David Cone's perfect game in 1999.
Joe was named National League Manager of the Year with the 2006 Florida Marlins, but was fired after just 1 year anyway. After a year in the YES Network broadcast studio, the Yankees named him manager. As a Yankee player, he wore Number 25; as manager, he switched to 27, a sign that he was determined to win the Yankees their 27th World Championship. In 2009, he did, joining Billy Martin and Ralph Houk as the only men to win World Series with the Yankees as both player and manager.
He then switched to 28, but he wasn't able to get that 28th World Championship. And now we get to the minus side: While injuries, and bad transactions by general manager Brian Cashman, have hampered the Yankees, Girardi had this nasty habit of trusting his "binder" rather than his eyes. He was in thrall to pitch counts, and instead of saying, "You know what, this guy is cruising, showing no sign of tiring, I'm going to leave him in for another inning," he'll take him out.
And, all too often, he made one of the same mistakes as his predecessor, Joe Torre: Bring in a pitcher to pitch to 1 batter because they're of the same hand. This is a bad idea, especially when you need to get a lefthanded batter out and your lefty reliever is Boone Logan. Girardi didn't know how to properly manage a bullpen; the 2009 title was won mainly because the Yankees got the key hits when they needed to. He was fired after the Yankees lost Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS.
That said, having won 3 Series as a player and 1 as a manager is enough to make Girardi a Yankee Legend. I would not be surprised to see him receive a Plaque in Monument Park one day. He is now the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies.
October 14, 1965: Game 7 of the World Series, at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington. So far, every game in this Series has been won by the home team.
The Minnesota Twins stunned Los Angeles Dodger pitchers Don Drysdale in Game 1 and Sandy Koufax in Game 2 in Minnesota. But the Dodgers came back in Los Angeles, winning Game 3 behind Claude Osteen, Game 4 behind Drysdale, and Game 5 behind Koufax. Back in Minnesota, the Twins took Game 6 thanks to a shutout and a home run by Jim "Mudcat" Grant.
Now, working on 2 days rest‚ and throwing only fastballs so that his great curveball doesn’t hurt his aching elbow as much as it hurts the Minnesota batters, Koufax fights both the pain and the home-team trend, pitches a 3-hitter, and blanks the Twins, 2-0. In other words, the Twins, led by Hall-of-Fame 3rd baseman Harmon Killebrew and should-be Hall-of-Fame right fielder Tony Oliva, knew exactly what was coming, but it was so good that they still couldn’t hit it.
This is the Dodgers' 4th World Championship, their 3rd since moving to Los Angeles, and their 2nd in 3 years. In each of the last 2, Koufax was named Series MVP.
There are 9 members of the 1965 Dodgers who are still alive, 56 years later. Koufax, shortstop Maury Wills, 1st baseman Wes Parker, and 2nd baseman Dick Tracewski played in the game. On the roster, but not appearing in this game, were outfielders Tommy Davis and Al Ferrara; 2nd baseman Jim Lefebvre, catcher Jeff Torborg, and pitcher Claude Osteen.
Playing for the Twins in this game, and still alive: Oliva, center fielder Joe Nossek, pinch-hitters Rich Rollins and Sandy Valdespino, and pitchers Jim Kaat, Jim Merritt and Jim Perry.
October 14, 1967: The San Diego Rockets make their NBA debut. The St. Louis Hawks beat them 99-98 at the San Diego Sports Arena, as Zelmo Beaty lights them up for 39 points. They will make the Playoffs in 1969, and move in 1971, becoming the Houston Rockets.
Also on this day, the Indiana Pacers of the American Basketball Association play their 1st game. They beat the Kentucky Colonels 117-95 at the Fairgrounds Coliseum. They will win 3 ABA titles, the only team to do so, before entering the NBA in 1976. They have only reached 1 NBA Finals, though, and lost it.
Also on this day, the Los Angeles Kings make their NHL debut. They beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2, at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, their temporary home until the Forum in suburban Inglewood is ready later in the season. Brian Kilrea scores their 1st goal, and later serves as longtime coach of the Ontario Hockey League's Ottawa 67's, and it is in that capacity that he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Patrick Franklin Kelly is born in Philadelphia. He played 2nd base for the Yankees from 1991 to 1997. In 1995, his home run brought the Yanks back from behind to win a key game against those pesky Blue Jays in Toronto, and enabled them to clinch the 1st-ever AL Wild Card. He was a member of the Yankees' 1996 World Championship team, although he was not on the active roster for the postseason.
He should not to be confused with 2 other Pat Kellys who have played Major League Baseball, an outfielder for the Baltimore Orioles on their 1979 Pennant team, and a catcher who had a cup of coffee with the Blue Jays in 1980.
Also on this day, Stephen Anthony Smith is born in Manhattan. Stephen A. is one of the titanic talking heads of ESPN, and I loved reading his column in the Philadelphia Inquirer in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He's the black Howard Cosell: A brilliant writer who fell in love with the sound of his own voice, and now people either adore him or despise him. At least he has better hair.
October 14, 1968: American sprinter Jim Hines becomes the 1st man ever to break the 10-second barrier in a 100-meter race without the aid of wind, at the Olympic final at Estadio Universitario in Mexico City. (Not Estadio Azteca.)
His time is 9.95 seconds. This will stand as a world record for 15 years. Hines also anchors the U.S. 4×100-meter relay team, the 1st all-black team of any kind, in any sport, from any country, to win an Olympic Gold Medal. This night became known as "The Night of Speed."
Like baseball legend Frank Robinson and basketball legend Bill Russell, Hines is a graduate of McClymonds High School in Oakland, California. Unfortunately, he is not as well remembered as some other Gold Medalists from the ’68 Olympics, such as George Foreman, Dick Fosbury and Tommie Smith.
Like a few great sprinters, he got a pro football tryout, and he played 10 games with the Miami Dolphins in 1969 and 1 with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1970, but dropped so many passes he got the nickname "Oops." (No, I'm not making that up.) He later worked on oil rigs in Houston, and now, at age 74, runs an inner-city youth advocacy program.
October 14, 1969: For the 1st time, Shea Stadium hosts a World Series game -- the 1st Series game played in a National League Park in New York since October 10, 1956.
The Mets continue their "Miracle," winning Game 3 of the World Series, 5-0 over the Baltimore Orioles. Ed Kranepool, the last remaining Met from their original, pathetic 1962 squad, justifies his place on this team by hitting a home run. So does Tommie Agee, who makes 2 sensational running catches in center field.
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October 14, 1970: No team has ever come from 3 games to none down to win a World Series, but the Cincinnati Reds take the 1st step toward doing so. A Lee May home run in the 8th inning gives them a 6-5 win over the Baltimore Orioles in Game 4, and keeps them alive.
It also ends a 17-game winning streak for the O's: They had won their last 11 games of the regular season, swept the Minnesota Twins in 3 straight in the American League Championship Series, and taken the 1st 3 games against the Reds.
Also on this day, the NBA's 2 new expansion teams debut against each other. The Buffalo Braves defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 107-92, at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, on the 30th Anniversary of The Aud's opening.
Both teams will struggle that 1st season, the Cavs especially so. But both would become Playoff teams by the mid-1970s. The Cavs took until 2016 to get an NBA title, are now 1-3 in NBA Finals, and are 7-15 in NBA Finals games.
But that beats what happened to the Braves: They were moved in 1978 to become the San Diego Clippers, and in 1984 to become the Los Angeles Clippers, and they've never even played in a Conference Finals.
October 14, 1971, 50 years ago: Just 4 years after their 1st NBA game, in San Diego, the Houston Rockets play their 1st game under their new name. It doesn't go any better: They lose to the Philadelphia 76ers, 105-94 at Hofheinz Pavilion. They will get good in the late 1970s, thanks to Rudy Tomjanovich, Calvin Murphy and Moses Malone. They will reach the Finals in 1981 and 1986, and Rudy T will then coach them to titles in 1994 and 1995 with Hakeem Olaujwon.
October 14, 1972: Oakland Athletics catcher Gene Tenace becomes the 1st player ever to hit home runs in each of his 1st 2 World Series at bats‚ leading the A's to a 3-2 opening-game win over the Cincinnati Reds at Riverfront Stadium.
This is the 1st postseason victory for the A's franchise since Game 7 of the 1931 World Series, when the A's were still in Philadelphia (though that game was played in St. Louis).
Also on this day, the expansion Atlanta Flames play their 1st home game, at The Omni in Atlanta. This is the 1st event at the arena. After losing their 1st games, this time, they don't lose. The manage a tie, 1-1 with the Buffalo Sabres.
They manage a decent 1st season, and become a Playoff team comparatively quickly, but never catch on at the box office, and in 1980 they moved to Calgary.
October 14, 1973: The Mets win Game 2 of the World Series‚ 10-7‚ scoring 4 runs in an 11th inning featuring what turns out to be the last major league hit by Willie Mays, and 2 errors by A's 2nd baseman Mike Andrews.
Andrews, who'd previously played for the Red Sox in their 1967 "Impossible Dream" Pennant season, is subsequently put on the "disabled list" by an enraged A's owner Charlie Finley, triggering the baseball equivalent of a constitutional crisis, just as the one started by the Watergate scandal is reaching a new peak.
Andrews, who'd previously played for the Red Sox in their 1967 "Impossible Dream" Pennant season, is subsequently put on the "disabled list" by an enraged A's owner Charlie Finley, triggering the baseball equivalent of a constitutional crisis, just as the one started by the Watergate scandal is reaching a new peak.
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October 14, 1976: For the 1st time in 12 years, the Yankees are in Major League Baseball's postseason. For the 1st time ever, a Kansas City team is. The Yankees lead the Royals in the deciding Game 5, 6-3, in the top of the 8th inning. But George Brett slams a long home run off Grant Jackson to tie it. The game goes to the bottom of the 9th, and a few fans had thrown garbage onto the field, delaying action. Mark Littell, the Royals' closer at the time, had to restart his warmup pitches, and it may have unsettled him just a little bit.
Leading off the inning was Yankee 1st baseman Chris Chambliss. Good player. Very good with the glove. Had a little power. But not a big-time slugger like Graig Nettles, who led the American League in homers that year with 32; or Reggie Jackson, the newly-minted free agent who was moonlighting in the ABC booth with Keith Jackson and Howard Cosell.
The time was 11:43 PM. Littell threw one pitch. Just one pitch. Phil Rizzuto, who once wore the Number 10 now worn by Chambliss, had the call on WPIX, Channel 11:
He hits one deep to right-center! That ball is… outta here! The Yankees win the Pennant! Holy cow, Chris Chambliss on one swing!
And the Yankees win the American League Pennant. Unbelievable, what a finish, as dramatic a finish as you'd ever wanna see! With all that delay, we told you, Littell had to be a little upset. And, holy cow, Chambliss hits one over the fence, he is being mobbed by the fans, and this field will never be the same, but the Yankees have won it in the bottom of the 9th, 7-6!
And on the scoreboard, they're placing, "We're Number 1!" And I wanna tell you, the safest place to be is up here in the booth!
The fans jumped over the fences and come pouring onto the field by the thousands. This had happened in many a ballpark celebration, and I'm sure some of them had seen their fathers or older brothers do it in 1969 when the Mets did all 3 of their clinchings (Division, Pennant and World Series) at home at Shea Stadium. The Mets had also clinched the Pennant at home in 1973.
I'm sure there were a few "Yankee fans" running onto the field that night in '76 who had been "Met fans" in '69 and '73. Maybe some were now running onto their 2nd New York ballfield. Maybe it was the 3rd, 4th, 5th or… 3 in '69, 2 in '73… 6th time.
Chambliss threw his arms into the air before reaching 1st base. As soon as he turned for 2nd, a fan ran over and pulled the base out. Who says you can't steal 1st base? The New York Police Department and Yankee Stadium's orange-capped, orange-blazered ushers, that's who. But there was little they could do at this point, as they were hopelessly outnumbered.
So was Chambliss. He touched 2nd, but was then tripped up. He later said his big fear was falling and being trampled by fans. By the time he got to the 3rd base area, the base was gone. He did the best he could, ran by home plate, and, remembering his training as a high school football player, threw a couple of blocks and got into the dugout.
On Channel 7, doing the game for ABC, this is what happened: Reggie noticed that, as cold as it was, Chambliss had the top button of his jersey undone, something that would likely have gotten him fined today. Of course, Reggie did that a lot, too, once he came to the Yankees and was no longer wearing a pullover jersey, like he had in Oakland and in his one, just-concluded season in Baltimore.
Reggie: Chambliss is so hot right now, he's got his top button undone. He’s in heat!
Keith: Mark Littell delivers, there’s a high drive, deep to right-center field…
Howard, interrupting: That’s gone!
Keith: It could be, it is… gone!
Howard: Chris Chambliss has won the American League Pennant for the New York Yankees! A thrilling, dramatic game with overtones of that great sixth game in the World Series last year, and the seventh game, too! (Etc., etc., etc., in that oft-imitated Cosellian way.)
The scoreboard – ignoring for the moment that there was still a World Series to play – flashed, "WE'RE #1" for a minute, and then, "N Y YANKEES 1976 AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONS."
Fortunately, Lee MacPhail, President of the AL and a former general manager of the Yankees (and son of former Yankee part-owner Larry MacPhail), was at the game, and the ruling was easy: Since the ball left the field of play, and no one was on base for Chambliss to pass, which would have nullified one or more bases, the home run stood, and the Yankees remained 7-6 victors.
Just to be sure, Chambliss, the umpires, and a couple of cops cleared a path through the fans, walked him over to the locations of 3rd base and home plate, and he stepped on the spots where they were supposed to be, and all was official.
The Yankees were set on a course to greatness that made the Yankee Mystique, and the Yankee Stadium Mystique, grow volumes. So I'd like to wish a Happy Chris Chambliss Day to everyone.
October 14, 1977: The Yankees win Game 3 of the World Series, defeating the Dodgers 5-3 at Dodger Stadium. Mike Torrez goes the distance for the win, and Mickey Rivers collects 3 hits, 2 of them doubles.
October 14, 1978: It's Game 4 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium, and there's another allegation of interference, 3 yeasr to the day after the Ed Armbrister Game.
Just to be sure, Chambliss, the umpires, and a couple of cops cleared a path through the fans, walked him over to the locations of 3rd base and home plate, and he stepped on the spots where they were supposed to be, and all was official.
The Yankees were set on a course to greatness that made the Yankee Mystique, and the Yankee Stadium Mystique, grow volumes. So I'd like to wish a Happy Chris Chambliss Day to everyone.
Of the 1976 Yankees: Munson was killed in a plane crash in 1979, utilityman Cesar Tovar died in 1994, pitcher Jim "Catfish" Hunter died of complications from Lou Gehrig's disease in 1999, pitcher Ken Brett died in 2003, catcher Elrod Hendricks died in 2005, pitcher Dock Ellis died in 2008, outfielder Kerry Dineen died in 2015, outfielder Oscar Gamble died in 2018, and pitchers Grant Jackson and Dick Tidrow died in 2021.
Still alive, 45 years later, are 26 players: Pitchers Doyle Alexander, Ed Figueroa, Ron Guidry, Ken Holtzman, Albert "Sparky" Lyle and Jim York; catcher Fran Healy; 1st basemen Chambliss and Ron Blomberg, 2nd basemen Willie Randolph and Sandy Alomar Sr., shortstops Fred Stanley and Jim Mason, 3rd basemen Graig Nettles and Gene "Mickey" Klutts; and outfielders Juan Bernhardt, Rich Coggins, Gene Locklear, Elliott Maddox, Carlos May, Larry Murray, Lou Piniella, John "Mickey" Rivers, Otto Velez, Roy White and Terry Whitfield.
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October 14, 1977: The Yankees win Game 3 of the World Series, defeating the Dodgers 5-3 at Dodger Stadium. Mike Torrez goes the distance for the win, and Mickey Rivers collects 3 hits, 2 of them doubles.
October 14, 1978: It's Game 4 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium, and there's another allegation of interference, 3 yeasr to the day after the Ed Armbrister Game.
The Yankees trail the Dodgers, 3-1 with 1 out in the bottom of the 6th. The Dodgers are 11 outs away from taking a 3-games-to-1 lead in the Series. But Reggie Jackson singles home a run, and Thurman Munson takes 2nd base on the play. Then Lou Piniella comes to bat. Sweet Lou hits a low line drive toward shortstop Bill Russell.
The ball was very low. If it had been any higher, the umpires would probably have invoked the infield-fly rule, which would automatically have declared the batter, Piniella, out for the 2nd out of the inning, and forced Munson to stay at 2nd and Jackson at 1st. But there is no time for the IFR to be called, and Russell… drops the ball. Thurman sees this and heads for 3rd. Russell recovers the ball, and steps on 2nd to force out Reggie, who's stuck just off of 1st, seemingly frozen. Russell throws to 1st, and…
And the ball hits Reggie on the leg and caroms away into foul territory. Lou gets to 1st safely. Thurman rounds 3rd and scores. The Yanks now trail 3-2, with Lou on 1st and 2 outs.
Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda storms out of the dugout, and furiously argues with the umpires' crew chief, AL ump Marty Springstead, that Lou should be called out due to Reggie's "intentional interference."
Springstead decides that he cannot determine Reggie's intent, and he lets the result of the play stand. Lasorda would later say he was impressed with Reggie's presence of mind to attempt the "tactic," which becomes known as "the Sacrifice Thigh," but he still thought it was an illegal play.
The Yankees tie the game in the 8th when Munson doubles home Paul Blair. The score remains tied until the bottom of the 10th, when Piniella singles home Roy White with the winning run, tying the Series at 2 games apiece.
This game still ticks off Dodger fans, but since when do I give a damn what they think? They're rooting for a team that belongs in Brooklyn.
Dodger fans claim they can see Reggie sticking his hip out to deflect the ball on the replay. They need to get their vision checked. Umpires from both Leagues determined that there was no intentional interference. So we can also rule out AL bias.
Russell dropped the ball. If he'd caught it, he could have stepped on 2nd and thrown Piniella out at 1st, and the inning would have been over before anybody had realized what happened.
The Dodgers were still winning. After the run scored, it was Dodgers 3, Yankees 2. What's more, the Dodgers were up 2 games to 1. The Dodger bullpen could have held that lead, and they would then have had 3 chances to get 1 win. Even after losing the game, the Series was still tied. They had 3 chances to get 2 wins, with Game 6 and, if necessary, Game 7 at Dodger Stadium. Instead, they blew a 2-0 lead in games. The Dodgers flat-out choked, and the Yankees happily took advantage of this.
You could also blame Lasorda for losing the Series, for losing his cool. I don't blame him for arguing the call, because a manager needs to stand up for his team when he believes they're being wronged. But, as they say in English soccer, he lost the plot, and his team followed his lead.
He wasn't the 1st manager to do this in a postseason game, and he certainly hasn't been the last: Witness Whitey Herzog of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1985 World Series, Davey Johnson of the Baltimore Orioles in the 1996 AL Championship Series (also against the Yankees), and Mike Scioscia (a Lasorda disciple) of the Los Angeles Angels in the 2005 ALCS. And those are just examples from baseball in the last 40 years.
On top of everything else, the Yankees were simply better. They were the defending World Champions, having beaten the Dodgers the year before. They had won 100 games to the Dodgers' 97, and in a tougher Division, too. They had a better lineup, a better defense, a better starting rotation, a better bullpen, and a calmer manager in Bob Lemon.
Even if Reggie had been called out, and the inning ended, there's no guarantee that the Yankees still wouldn't have come from behind to win. This was a team that did what it had to do to win. The Dodgers wouldn't do that until 1981.
October 14, 1981, 40 years ago: Game 2 of the ALCS. Graig Nettles singles twice in a 7-run 4th inning to become the 1st player ever to collect 2 hits in 1 inning in LCS play. The Yankees set LCS records for runs and hits (19) in a 13-3 rout of the Oakland Athletics.
As he had before Game 1, A's manager Billy Martin got a huge ovation from the Yankee Stadium crowd. George Steinbrenner's reaction to these ovations has not been recorded. Martin, from West Berkeley, California, is managing what is essentially his hometown team, has the A's playing an aggressive style that's become known as "Billy Ball," and has gotten back a lot of the respect he lost from his 2 crashed-and-burned tenures as Yankee manager. He seems to be happy, although losing this series certainly didn't help.
Also on this day, John Paul Bonser is born in St. Petersburg, Florida. The pitcher eventually changed his legal name to his childhood nickname: Boof Bonser. He spent most of his career with the Twins, but injuries cut it short, finishing 19-25, retiring after the 2014 season.
He was the losing pitcher against the Yankees on July 2, 2007, the day my nieces Ashley and Rachel were born. I managed to make them Yankee Fans, but I also had to explain to them that, the day they were born, the Yankees beat a team called the Twins, and about Minnesota's "Twin Cities."
October 14, 1984: The Detroit Tigers beat the San Diego Padres, 8-4, and win their 4th World Series, their first in 16 years, in 5 games. Series MVP Kirk Gibson blasts 2 upper-deck home runs at Tiger Stadium, including a 3-run shot off Goose Gossage in the 8th inning. Tiger fans riot all over the city‚ another black eye for their beleaguered hometown.
The Tigers have not won another Series in the 37 years since. The Red Wings have since won 4 Stanley Cups, and the Pistons 3 NBA titles, but the Tigers are without another ring. They've since lost 2 World Series, 2 ALCS, and an ALDS, and blown 3 Division titles that they should have won. Strangely, no one calls them underachievers. I'm starting to wonder.
October 14, 1986: Breaking out of a 1-for-21 slump‚ Mets catcher Gary Carter drives in the winning run of the Mets' 2-1 win over the Houston Astros in the bottom of the 12th inning‚ rendering meaningless Nolan Ryan's 9 innings of 2-hit‚ 12-strikeout pitching. Jesse Orosco earns the win by hurling 2 perfect innings.
With no score in the top of the 2nd, Dwight Gooden surrendered consecutive singles to Kevin Bass and José Cruz, putting runners on the corners with nobody out. He then caught Alan Ashby looking on a full count, and induced Craig Reynolds to ground into a double play to escape the jam.
Keith Hernandez would reveal in 2011 that he had stepped off the bag as the 1st baseman. Hernandez would say, "(Reynolds) clearly beat it, but I cheated, and we got the call." Had Reynolds correctly been called safe, Kevin Bass would have scored from 3rd, and the Astros would have taken an early 1–0 lead. So the Mets cheated. They still have to win 1 of the last 2 games in Houston.
October 14, 1991, 30 years ago: The Washington Capitals beat the New York Rangers, 5-3 at Madison Square Garden. But Mike Gartner, the former Capital now with the Rangers, scores the 500th goal of his career.
October 14, 1992: For the 1st time ever, a team from outside the United States of America wins a Major League Baseball Pennant. The Toronto Blue Jays win the ALCS in 5 games with a 9-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics. Joe Carter and Candy Maldonado both homer, while Juan Guzman gets the win.
The NL Pennant is also won today, in Game 7. With the Atlanta Braves down 2-0 to Doug Drabek of the Pittsburgh Pirates entering the 9th‚ the decisive blow comes with 2 outs‚ as seldom-used 3rd-string catcher Francisco Cabrera drives in the tying and winning runs with a pinch-hit single.
The scene of ex-Pirate Sid Bream, often ridiculed as the slowest man in baseball, somehow reaching home plate before the tag of Pirate catcher Mike LaValliere, is one of the signature plays in the Braves' postseason years of 1991 to 2005. John Smoltz‚ who works 6 strong innings without a decision‚ is named the series MVP.
It took 21 years, until 2013, for the Pirates to even have another winning season, let alone make the postseason. An entire generation of Western Pennsylvanians was born and reached adulthood without ever having had a real Pennant race in their lifetime.
October 14, 1997: The Florida Marlins win their 1st Pennant by defeating the Braves‚ 7-4‚ and winning the NLCS‚ 4 games to 2. Kevin Brown goes the distance for the clincher‚ while Bobby Bonilla gets 3 RBIs to lead Florida.
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Al Martin's double off the glove of Tino Martinez in the 7th inning is the Mariners' only hit. Had Tino gotten his glove just 2 inches higher, Clemens would have had the 2nd no-hitter in postseason history. Alas, a no-hitter is an accomplishment that will elude Clemens.
It will be 12 years before another Yankee pitcher throws a complete game in the postseason: CC Sabathia in Game 5 of the 2012 ALDS against Baltimore.
October 14, 2001, 20 years ago: The Yankee bats finally come alive as they defeat the A's, 9-2 at the Oakland Coliseum‚ to even their ALDS at 2 games apiece. Orlando Hernandez gets the victory as he improves his postseason mark to 9-1. Bernie Williams has 5 RBIs to lead the Yankees. A's outfielder Jermaine Dye breaks his leg when he fouls a ball off his left shin. He will miss the rest of the postseason and the start of spring training next year.
Also on this day, Rowan Blanchard (no middle name) is born in Los Angeles. From 2014 to 2017, she played Riley Matthews on Girl Meets World, the sequel series to the 1990s sitcom Boy Meets World. Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel reprised their roles as Cory Matthews and Topanga Lawrence-Matthews, now parents to Riley and her brother Auggie, played by August Maturo.
Rowan later played Jackie Geary on The Goldbergs, which, like Boy Meets World, is an ABC sitcom set in a suburban part of Philadelphia -- albeit in the 1980s, not the 1990s. She now plays Alexandra Cavill on the TV series version of Snowpiercer.
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October 14, 2003: David Wells hurls the Yankees to a 4-2 win over the Red Sox and a 3-games-to-2 lead in the ALCS. Karim Garcia, victim of a Pedro Martinez fastball off his back in Game 3, delivers the key hit with a 2-run single in the 3rd.
But despite the implications of a Yankees-Red Sox postseason game, and everything that happened in Game 3 of that series, today's action at Fenway Park pales in comparison to what happens at MLB's other surviving pre-World War I ballpark, Wrigley Field in Chicago.
By advancing to the NLCS, the Cubs had already won a postseason series for the 1st time in 95 years. Now, leading 3-0 with 1 out in the 8th inning, and with ace Mark Prior on the mound, the Cubs are just 5 outs away from their 1st Pennant in 58 years. Wrigley and the surrounding streets are jammed with people anticipating the Cubs' 1st trip to the World Series since 1945, shortly after World War II ended.
But Marlins' 2nd baseman Luis Castillo – Met fans will recognize that name from his 2009 miscue against the Yankees – hits a fly ball down the left-field line. Cub left fielder Moises Alou – another name Met fans will go on to remember with regret – reaches for the ball at the fence, but he can’t get it. A Cub fan named Steve Bartman reaches for it, and knocks it away.
Despite appeals from the Cubs, umpire Mike Everitt rules there was no interference, that Bartman had not reached out into the field of play, and thus was entitled to try to catch the ball every bit as much as Alou was.
Castillo, with his at-bat extended, draws a walk. Iván Rodríguez singles, to make it 3-1 Cubs. Miguel Cabrera hits a ground ball to to Cub shortstop Alex Gonzalez – the Marlins had a shortstop of the same name – and he bobbles the ball. He could have turned a double play to end the inning and preserve the Cubs' lead. Instead, all runners are safe, and the bases are loaded. Derrek Lee doubles, tying the score and chasing Prior from the game.
Cub manager Dusty Baker brings in a new pitcher… Kyle Farnsworth! Oh no! Foreshadowing his later Yankee screwups, he delivers an intentional walk to load the bases and set up a force play. But he gives up a sacrifice fly that scores Cabrera with the go-ahead run. He repeats the set-up-the-DP intentional walk, and then gives up a double to Mike Mordecai that clears the bases and makes it 7-3. The Marlins score another run for the final score of 8-3, and tie up the series.
Bartman had to be led away from the park under security escort for his own safety, as Cubs fans shouted profanities towards him, and others threw debris onto the field and towards the exit tunnel from the field. News footage of the game showed him surrounded by security as passersby pelted him with drinks and other debris. Bartman's name, as well as personal information about him, appeared on Major League Baseball’s online message boards minutes after the game ended. As many as 6 police cars gathered outside of his home to protect Bartman and his family following the incident.
Afterwards, then-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich suggested that Bartman join a witness protection program (look who's talking), while then-Florida Governor Jeb Bush offered Bartman asylum. For once, Jeb Bush was a better man than a Democrat; but, of course, living on Fisher Island, 15 miles from Joe Robbie Stadium, his gesture could be seen as a rather snarky one.
Shortly after the incident, Bartman released a statement, saying he was "truly sorry." He added, "I had my eyes glued on the approaching ball the entire time and was so caught up in the moment that I did not even see Moisés Alou much less that he may have had a play." His family changed their phone number to avoid harassing phone calls. He requested that any gifts sent to him by Marlins fans be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (a Cub cause celebre due to its association with former star-turned-broadcaster Ron Santo).
Prior and former Cubs pitcher-turned-broadcaster Rick Sutcliffe spoke out in defense of Bartman. Even Jay Mariotti, then a Chicago Sun-Times columnist and a panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn, who seems to revel in the miseries of his favorite team, defended Bartman. But Michael Wilbon, columnist for the Washington Post and co-host of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, a Chicago native and a huge Cub fan, has repeatedly said that he refuses to forgive Bartman.
The Cubs have finally won a Pennant and a World Series. But, to this day, Bartman refuses to make public appearances to talk about it, despite huge offers. I'm waiting for someone to do a Chris Crocker-style video and say, "Leave Bartman alone!"
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October 14, 2006: Magglio Ordóñez hits a walkoff 3-run homer with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, to give the Tigers a 6-3 win over the Athletics at Comerica Park, a sweep of the ALCS, and their 1st Pennant in 22 years.
The only season to date in which Oakland has won a postseason series with Billy Beane as general manager comes to an ignominious end. In 23 seasons, they have never won an ALCS game. Someone tell me again that Beane is a "genius."
Despite having had such heavy hitters as Ty Cobb, Sam Crawford, Harry Heilmann, Goose Goslin, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg, Rudy York, Al Kaline, Norm Cash, Rocky Colavito, Willie Horton, Kirk Gibson, Lance Parrish and Cecil Fielder, this is the first postseason walkoff homer in the Tigers' 106-year history. It remains the only one in their now 121-year history.
October 14, 2011, 10 years ago: Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. When you make the postseason as often as the St. Louis Cardinals do, you take advantage of mistakes. So when you make the postseason as rarely as the Milwaukee Brewers do, you should avoid mistakes.
Instead, the Brewers make 4 errors, and the Cardinals win 7-1 at Busch Stadium, taking a 3-2 lead. The winning pitcher is Octavio Dotel -- the same Dotel that Bobby Valentine kept in the bullpen, instead bringing on Kenny Rogers to pitch to Andruw Jones in the 1999 NLCS.
October 14, 2012: Game 2 of the American League Championship Series. Aníbal Sánchez retires the 1st 15 Yankees and pitches a 4-hit shutout, with help from Phil Coke (who stunk as a Yankee). The Detroit Tigers beat the Yankees 3-0. It would be another 5 years before Yankee Stadium hosted an ALCS game.
The ball was very low. If it had been any higher, the umpires would probably have invoked the infield-fly rule, which would automatically have declared the batter, Piniella, out for the 2nd out of the inning, and forced Munson to stay at 2nd and Jackson at 1st. But there is no time for the IFR to be called, and Russell… drops the ball. Thurman sees this and heads for 3rd. Russell recovers the ball, and steps on 2nd to force out Reggie, who's stuck just off of 1st, seemingly frozen. Russell throws to 1st, and…
And the ball hits Reggie on the leg and caroms away into foul territory. Lou gets to 1st safely. Thurman rounds 3rd and scores. The Yanks now trail 3-2, with Lou on 1st and 2 outs.
Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda storms out of the dugout, and furiously argues with the umpires' crew chief, AL ump Marty Springstead, that Lou should be called out due to Reggie's "intentional interference."
Springstead decides that he cannot determine Reggie's intent, and he lets the result of the play stand. Lasorda would later say he was impressed with Reggie's presence of mind to attempt the "tactic," which becomes known as "the Sacrifice Thigh," but he still thought it was an illegal play.
The Yankees tie the game in the 8th when Munson doubles home Paul Blair. The score remains tied until the bottom of the 10th, when Piniella singles home Roy White with the winning run, tying the Series at 2 games apiece.
This game still ticks off Dodger fans, but since when do I give a damn what they think? They're rooting for a team that belongs in Brooklyn.
Dodger fans claim they can see Reggie sticking his hip out to deflect the ball on the replay. They need to get their vision checked. Umpires from both Leagues determined that there was no intentional interference. So we can also rule out AL bias.
Russell dropped the ball. If he'd caught it, he could have stepped on 2nd and thrown Piniella out at 1st, and the inning would have been over before anybody had realized what happened.
The Dodgers were still winning. After the run scored, it was Dodgers 3, Yankees 2. What's more, the Dodgers were up 2 games to 1. The Dodger bullpen could have held that lead, and they would then have had 3 chances to get 1 win. Even after losing the game, the Series was still tied. They had 3 chances to get 2 wins, with Game 6 and, if necessary, Game 7 at Dodger Stadium. Instead, they blew a 2-0 lead in games. The Dodgers flat-out choked, and the Yankees happily took advantage of this.
You could also blame Lasorda for losing the Series, for losing his cool. I don't blame him for arguing the call, because a manager needs to stand up for his team when he believes they're being wronged. But, as they say in English soccer, he lost the plot, and his team followed his lead.
He wasn't the 1st manager to do this in a postseason game, and he certainly hasn't been the last: Witness Whitey Herzog of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1985 World Series, Davey Johnson of the Baltimore Orioles in the 1996 AL Championship Series (also against the Yankees), and Mike Scioscia (a Lasorda disciple) of the Los Angeles Angels in the 2005 ALCS. And those are just examples from baseball in the last 40 years.
On top of everything else, the Yankees were simply better. They were the defending World Champions, having beaten the Dodgers the year before. They had won 100 games to the Dodgers' 97, and in a tougher Division, too. They had a better lineup, a better defense, a better starting rotation, a better bullpen, and a calmer manager in Bob Lemon.
Even if Reggie had been called out, and the inning ended, there's no guarantee that the Yankees still wouldn't have come from behind to win. This was a team that did what it had to do to win. The Dodgers wouldn't do that until 1981.
October 14, 1979: Fresh off their trip to the Stanley Cup Finals the previous season, the New York Rangers open a new season at Madison Square Garden. For the 1st time in their 53-year history, they retire a uniform number, the 7 of their all-time leading scorer, Rod Gilbert. They beat the Washington Capitals 5-3.
This will prove to be the highlight of their season. They may the Playoffs, but struggled most of the way. In response to the ridiculous commercial shot for Sasson designer jeans by Phil Esposito, Ron Duguay, Dave Maloney and Anders Hedberg, frustrated fans would sing, "Ooh, la la, you suck!"
This will prove to be the highlight of their season. They may the Playoffs, but struggled most of the way. In response to the ridiculous commercial shot for Sasson designer jeans by Phil Esposito, Ron Duguay, Dave Maloney and Anders Hedberg, frustrated fans would sing, "Ooh, la la, you suck!"
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October 14, 1980: Game 1 of the World Series is played at Veterans Stadium, the 1st Series game played in Philadelphia in 30 years. Given that Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City also has artificial turf, this will be the 1st World Series played entirely on the plastic stuff.
October 14, 1980: Game 1 of the World Series is played at Veterans Stadium, the 1st Series game played in Philadelphia in 30 years. Given that Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City also has artificial turf, this will be the 1st World Series played entirely on the plastic stuff.
Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Bob Walk becomes the 1st rookie to start a World Series opener since Joe Black of the 1952 Dodgers, and the Phillies rally from a 4-0 deficit to beat the Royals 7-6.
Kansas City's Willie Aikens hits a pair of homers‚ becoming only the 3rd player to do so in his 1st Series game. Bake McBride homers for the Phils. It's also only the 2nd Series game won by the Phillies, the 1st being Game 1 in 1915.
October 14, 1981, 40 years ago: Game 2 of the ALCS. Graig Nettles singles twice in a 7-run 4th inning to become the 1st player ever to collect 2 hits in 1 inning in LCS play. The Yankees set LCS records for runs and hits (19) in a 13-3 rout of the Oakland Athletics.
As he had before Game 1, A's manager Billy Martin got a huge ovation from the Yankee Stadium crowd. George Steinbrenner's reaction to these ovations has not been recorded. Martin, from West Berkeley, California, is managing what is essentially his hometown team, has the A's playing an aggressive style that's become known as "Billy Ball," and has gotten back a lot of the respect he lost from his 2 crashed-and-burned tenures as Yankee manager. He seems to be happy, although losing this series certainly didn't help.
Also on this day, John Paul Bonser is born in St. Petersburg, Florida. The pitcher eventually changed his legal name to his childhood nickname: Boof Bonser. He spent most of his career with the Twins, but injuries cut it short, finishing 19-25, retiring after the 2014 season.
He was the losing pitcher against the Yankees on July 2, 2007, the day my nieces Ashley and Rachel were born. I managed to make them Yankee Fans, but I also had to explain to them that, the day they were born, the Yankees beat a team called the Twins, and about Minnesota's "Twin Cities."
October 14, 1984: The Detroit Tigers beat the San Diego Padres, 8-4, and win their 4th World Series, their first in 16 years, in 5 games. Series MVP Kirk Gibson blasts 2 upper-deck home runs at Tiger Stadium, including a 3-run shot off Goose Gossage in the 8th inning. Tiger fans riot all over the city‚ another black eye for their beleaguered hometown.
The Tigers have not won another Series in the 37 years since. The Red Wings have since won 4 Stanley Cups, and the Pistons 3 NBA titles, but the Tigers are without another ring. They've since lost 2 World Series, 2 ALCS, and an ALDS, and blown 3 Division titles that they should have won. Strangely, no one calls them underachievers. I'm starting to wonder.
October 14, 1986: Breaking out of a 1-for-21 slump‚ Mets catcher Gary Carter drives in the winning run of the Mets' 2-1 win over the Houston Astros in the bottom of the 12th inning‚ rendering meaningless Nolan Ryan's 9 innings of 2-hit‚ 12-strikeout pitching. Jesse Orosco earns the win by hurling 2 perfect innings.
With no score in the top of the 2nd, Dwight Gooden surrendered consecutive singles to Kevin Bass and José Cruz, putting runners on the corners with nobody out. He then caught Alan Ashby looking on a full count, and induced Craig Reynolds to ground into a double play to escape the jam.
Keith Hernandez would reveal in 2011 that he had stepped off the bag as the 1st baseman. Hernandez would say, "(Reynolds) clearly beat it, but I cheated, and we got the call." Had Reynolds correctly been called safe, Kevin Bass would have scored from 3rd, and the Astros would have taken an early 1–0 lead. So the Mets cheated. They still have to win 1 of the last 2 games in Houston.
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October 14, 1991, 30 years ago: The Washington Capitals beat the New York Rangers, 5-3 at Madison Square Garden. But Mike Gartner, the former Capital now with the Rangers, scores the 500th goal of his career.
October 14, 1992: For the 1st time ever, a team from outside the United States of America wins a Major League Baseball Pennant. The Toronto Blue Jays win the ALCS in 5 games with a 9-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics. Joe Carter and Candy Maldonado both homer, while Juan Guzman gets the win.
The NL Pennant is also won today, in Game 7. With the Atlanta Braves down 2-0 to Doug Drabek of the Pittsburgh Pirates entering the 9th‚ the decisive blow comes with 2 outs‚ as seldom-used 3rd-string catcher Francisco Cabrera drives in the tying and winning runs with a pinch-hit single.
The scene of ex-Pirate Sid Bream, often ridiculed as the slowest man in baseball, somehow reaching home plate before the tag of Pirate catcher Mike LaValliere, is one of the signature plays in the Braves' postseason years of 1991 to 2005. John Smoltz‚ who works 6 strong innings without a decision‚ is named the series MVP.
It took 21 years, until 2013, for the Pirates to even have another winning season, let alone make the postseason. An entire generation of Western Pennsylvanians was born and reached adulthood without ever having had a real Pennant race in their lifetime.
October 14, 1997: The Florida Marlins win their 1st Pennant by defeating the Braves‚ 7-4‚ and winning the NLCS‚ 4 games to 2. Kevin Brown goes the distance for the clincher‚ while Bobby Bonilla gets 3 RBIs to lead Florida.
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October 14, 2000: The Yankees whitewash the Seattle Mariners‚ 5-0‚ behind Roger Clemens' 1-hit shutout. Clemens fans 15 Mariners as the Yanks take a commanding 3-games-to-1 lead over Seattle. The Yankees score their runs on a 3-run homer by Derek Jeter and a 2-run blast by David Justice.
Al Martin's double off the glove of Tino Martinez in the 7th inning is the Mariners' only hit. Had Tino gotten his glove just 2 inches higher, Clemens would have had the 2nd no-hitter in postseason history. Alas, a no-hitter is an accomplishment that will elude Clemens.
It will be 12 years before another Yankee pitcher throws a complete game in the postseason: CC Sabathia in Game 5 of the 2012 ALDS against Baltimore.
October 14, 2001, 20 years ago: The Yankee bats finally come alive as they defeat the A's, 9-2 at the Oakland Coliseum‚ to even their ALDS at 2 games apiece. Orlando Hernandez gets the victory as he improves his postseason mark to 9-1. Bernie Williams has 5 RBIs to lead the Yankees. A's outfielder Jermaine Dye breaks his leg when he fouls a ball off his left shin. He will miss the rest of the postseason and the start of spring training next year.
Also on this day, Rowan Blanchard (no middle name) is born in Los Angeles. From 2014 to 2017, she played Riley Matthews on Girl Meets World, the sequel series to the 1990s sitcom Boy Meets World. Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel reprised their roles as Cory Matthews and Topanga Lawrence-Matthews, now parents to Riley and her brother Auggie, played by August Maturo.
Rowan later played Jackie Geary on The Goldbergs, which, like Boy Meets World, is an ABC sitcom set in a suburban part of Philadelphia -- albeit in the 1980s, not the 1990s. She now plays Alexandra Cavill on the TV series version of Snowpiercer.
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October 14, 2003: David Wells hurls the Yankees to a 4-2 win over the Red Sox and a 3-games-to-2 lead in the ALCS. Karim Garcia, victim of a Pedro Martinez fastball off his back in Game 3, delivers the key hit with a 2-run single in the 3rd.
But despite the implications of a Yankees-Red Sox postseason game, and everything that happened in Game 3 of that series, today's action at Fenway Park pales in comparison to what happens at MLB's other surviving pre-World War I ballpark, Wrigley Field in Chicago.
By advancing to the NLCS, the Cubs had already won a postseason series for the 1st time in 95 years. Now, leading 3-0 with 1 out in the 8th inning, and with ace Mark Prior on the mound, the Cubs are just 5 outs away from their 1st Pennant in 58 years. Wrigley and the surrounding streets are jammed with people anticipating the Cubs' 1st trip to the World Series since 1945, shortly after World War II ended.
But Marlins' 2nd baseman Luis Castillo – Met fans will recognize that name from his 2009 miscue against the Yankees – hits a fly ball down the left-field line. Cub left fielder Moises Alou – another name Met fans will go on to remember with regret – reaches for the ball at the fence, but he can’t get it. A Cub fan named Steve Bartman reaches for it, and knocks it away.
Despite appeals from the Cubs, umpire Mike Everitt rules there was no interference, that Bartman had not reached out into the field of play, and thus was entitled to try to catch the ball every bit as much as Alou was.
Castillo, with his at-bat extended, draws a walk. Iván Rodríguez singles, to make it 3-1 Cubs. Miguel Cabrera hits a ground ball to to Cub shortstop Alex Gonzalez – the Marlins had a shortstop of the same name – and he bobbles the ball. He could have turned a double play to end the inning and preserve the Cubs' lead. Instead, all runners are safe, and the bases are loaded. Derrek Lee doubles, tying the score and chasing Prior from the game.
Cub manager Dusty Baker brings in a new pitcher… Kyle Farnsworth! Oh no! Foreshadowing his later Yankee screwups, he delivers an intentional walk to load the bases and set up a force play. But he gives up a sacrifice fly that scores Cabrera with the go-ahead run. He repeats the set-up-the-DP intentional walk, and then gives up a double to Mike Mordecai that clears the bases and makes it 7-3. The Marlins score another run for the final score of 8-3, and tie up the series.
Bartman had to be led away from the park under security escort for his own safety, as Cubs fans shouted profanities towards him, and others threw debris onto the field and towards the exit tunnel from the field. News footage of the game showed him surrounded by security as passersby pelted him with drinks and other debris. Bartman's name, as well as personal information about him, appeared on Major League Baseball’s online message boards minutes after the game ended. As many as 6 police cars gathered outside of his home to protect Bartman and his family following the incident.
Afterwards, then-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich suggested that Bartman join a witness protection program (look who's talking), while then-Florida Governor Jeb Bush offered Bartman asylum. For once, Jeb Bush was a better man than a Democrat; but, of course, living on Fisher Island, 15 miles from Joe Robbie Stadium, his gesture could be seen as a rather snarky one.
Shortly after the incident, Bartman released a statement, saying he was "truly sorry." He added, "I had my eyes glued on the approaching ball the entire time and was so caught up in the moment that I did not even see Moisés Alou much less that he may have had a play." His family changed their phone number to avoid harassing phone calls. He requested that any gifts sent to him by Marlins fans be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (a Cub cause celebre due to its association with former star-turned-broadcaster Ron Santo).
Prior and former Cubs pitcher-turned-broadcaster Rick Sutcliffe spoke out in defense of Bartman. Even Jay Mariotti, then a Chicago Sun-Times columnist and a panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn, who seems to revel in the miseries of his favorite team, defended Bartman. But Michael Wilbon, columnist for the Washington Post and co-host of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, a Chicago native and a huge Cub fan, has repeatedly said that he refuses to forgive Bartman.
The Cubs have finally won a Pennant and a World Series. But, to this day, Bartman refuses to make public appearances to talk about it, despite huge offers. I'm waiting for someone to do a Chris Crocker-style video and say, "Leave Bartman alone!"
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October 14, 2006: Magglio Ordóñez hits a walkoff 3-run homer with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, to give the Tigers a 6-3 win over the Athletics at Comerica Park, a sweep of the ALCS, and their 1st Pennant in 22 years.
The only season to date in which Oakland has won a postseason series with Billy Beane as general manager comes to an ignominious end. In 23 seasons, they have never won an ALCS game. Someone tell me again that Beane is a "genius."
Despite having had such heavy hitters as Ty Cobb, Sam Crawford, Harry Heilmann, Goose Goslin, Charlie Gehringer, Hank Greenberg, Rudy York, Al Kaline, Norm Cash, Rocky Colavito, Willie Horton, Kirk Gibson, Lance Parrish and Cecil Fielder, this is the first postseason walkoff homer in the Tigers' 106-year history. It remains the only one in their now 121-year history.
October 14, 2011, 10 years ago: Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. When you make the postseason as often as the St. Louis Cardinals do, you take advantage of mistakes. So when you make the postseason as rarely as the Milwaukee Brewers do, you should avoid mistakes.
Instead, the Brewers make 4 errors, and the Cardinals win 7-1 at Busch Stadium, taking a 3-2 lead. The winning pitcher is Octavio Dotel -- the same Dotel that Bobby Valentine kept in the bullpen, instead bringing on Kenny Rogers to pitch to Andruw Jones in the 1999 NLCS.
October 14, 2012: Game 2 of the American League Championship Series. Aníbal Sánchez retires the 1st 15 Yankees and pitches a 4-hit shutout, with help from Phil Coke (who stunk as a Yankee). The Detroit Tigers beat the Yankees 3-0. It would be another 5 years before Yankee Stadium hosted an ALCS game.
