How to Be a Devils Fan In Tampa Bay -- 2021-22 Edition

This Saturday at 4:00 PM, the New Jersey Devils travel to Tampa to play the Tampa Bay Lightning. The "Bolts" have won the same number of Stanley Cups, 3 -- but they've won all of them since the Devils won their last. And all 3 have been "asterisk-worthy": The 2004 Cup was based on bad refereeing calls, and they won the last 2 Cups under COVID-altered conditions.

In 2014, I saw a blog post (I don't remember who wrote it) by someone who called San Diego "the Tampa of California." I think he owes San Diego an apology.

Before You Go. It's Florida. If you're still worried about COVID, don't go. If you do go, keep your mask on all the while you're either outdoors or in the arena. If anybody complains, just remember: They weren't tough enough to handle New Jersey and New York, and you are. Nevertheless, you should just say you're leaving the mask on. If they still give you a hard time, call security.

It's Central Florida, so it will be warmer than it is here. The Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times) and the Tampa Tribune are both predicting temperatures in the high 70s in the afternoon, and the low 60s at night. Florida must be where the cliche, "It's not the heat that's so bad, it's the humidity" began. Rain is being predicted for Friday, the day before the game, but not Saturday. Still, be prepared to sweat when you're outside the arena.

The Tampa Bay region is in the Eastern Time Zone, so you don't have to change your watch, or the clock on your smartphone. And while Florida was a Confederate State, you don't need to bring a passport or change your money.

Tickets. The Lightning were averaging 18,878 fans per game, nearly a sellout, in 2019-20, before COVID shut everything down. They were doing about that well since 2015, when they lost the Stanley Cup Finals to the Chicago Blackhawks. This means that, proportionally, they're doing better at the box office than any other Florida team, including the Miami Heat and the Orlando Magic. It also means that, if only 1 team is likely to still be in Tampa Bay in 10 years, surprise, it's the hockey team.

In the Lower Level (100 sections), seats between the goals will run you $155, behind the goals $125. In the Upper Level (300s), they're $52 and $37.

Getting There. It is 1,136 road miles from Times Square in Manhattan to downtown Tampa, and 1,126 miles from the Prudential Center in Newark to the Amalie Arena. Sounds like you're gonna be flying.

This may be your lucky trip: You can get a round-trip nonstop ticket for as little as $336 -- cheaper than the train and the bus. Tampa International Airport was originally named Drew Field, after John H. Drew, a land developer who gave the land to the Army, before the Air Force was spun off from the Army.

If you want to take a side-trip to Disney World, you could fly to Orlando (which is 92 miles from Tampa) and rent a car, but I suspect that hotels will be cheaper in the Tampa Bay area, and get more expensive the closer you get to Disney.

Amtrak's Silver Star train leaves Newark Penn Station at 11:22 every afternoon, and arrives in Orlando at 10:06 the following morning. Perhaps due to COVID-related adjustments, on this occasion, you'll then have to change trains, and board a connecting bus at 10:30, arriving at Tampa at 12:55 PM. Round-trip fare is $414.

You can get a Greyhound bus out of New York's Port Authority at 11:00 Tuesday morning and be in St. Petersburg by 3:20 Wednesday afternoon. That's a little over 28 hours. Round-trip fare can be as high as $695, but advanced purchase can bring it down to as little as $449.

The catch is that you'd have to change buses twice, in Richmond and Orlando. And the layover in Richmond is 3 hours and 15 minutes. And I don't like the Richmond Greyhound station, and I doubt that you will, either. There's also hourlong layovers in Fayetteville, North Carolina and Jacksonville. The Tampa Greyhound station is at 610 E. Polk Street, 4 blocks from the Amtrak station.

If you do prefer to drive, see if you can get someone to split the duties with you. Essentially, you'll be taking Interstate 95 almost all the way down, turning onto Interstate 10 West at Jacksonville and then, after a few minutes, onto Interstate 75 South. Just outside of Tampa, you'll switch to Interstate 4, and take that to the end, before its merge with Interstate 275, onto Nebraska Avenue South, riding that into downtown Tampa.

It should take about 2 hours to get through New Jersey, 20 minutes in Delaware, an hour and a half in Maryland, 3 hours in Virginia, 3 hours in North Carolina, 3 hours in South Carolina, 2 hours in Georgia, and a little over 5 hours between crossing into Florida and reaching downtown Tampa.

Given proper 45-minute rest stops – I recommend doing one in Delaware, and then, once you're through the Washington, D.C. area, doing one when you enter each new State, and then another around Orlando, for a total of 7 – and taking into account city traffic at each end, your entire trip should take about 26 hours. Maybe you can do it in 24 if you speed and limit your rest stops to half an hour each, especially if one of you drives while the other sleeps, but I wouldn't recommend this.

Once In the City. "Tampa" is believed to be a Native American name meaning "sticks of fire," while St. Petersburg, like the city of the same name in Russia that was known as Leningrad in the Soviet era, is named after the first Pope, the Apostle Peter.

Tampa, founded in 1849, is home to 408,000 people; St. Petersburg, founded in 1888, is home to 265,000; and the metro area as a whole 3.1 million, so while neither city is big, it's a decent-sized market, and thus should be drawing a lot more people for baseball and football games.

One of the reasons it's not is that, much like the Miami area, Tampa Bay has a justly-deserved reputation for having a lot of retirees, people who either are too old, and thus possibly too frail or at least too tired, to leave their houses and drive into St. Petersburg; or have just had it with the inconveniences of life, and are satisfied to get their baseball on television. Nearly 1 in 5 residents of the Tampa Bay area, 19.4 percent, is age 65 and over.

Ethnically, the region is 76 percent white, 11 percent black, 11 percent Hispanic (considerably lower than Miami), and 2 percent Asian. Another difference is within the Hispanic community: Unlike the Cuban-dominated Miami, Tampa Bay's is 30 percent Mexican, 28 percent Puerto Rican, 13 percent Cuban, and 29 percent all others (Central and South American). Separately, the cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg both report being about 58 percent white, 23 percent Hispanic, 16 percent black and 3 percent Asian.

It's easy to forget that Central Florida is still The South. Tampa was among the cities that had a race riot in the Summer of 1967, from June 11 to 15, and, like most of the others, was caused by an act of police brutality by a white cop on an unarmed black citizen. Tampa was luckier than most of those cities, with only 1 death attributable to the rioting. Under similar circumstances, there was a riot in St. Petersburg in October 1996.

In Tampa, Whiting Street divides the city's streets into North and South, and the Hillsborough River into East and West. In St. Petersburg, Central Avenue divides the city into North and South, and while there appears to be no East-West divider, 1st Street seems to set off a section with Northeast addresses. Although Interstate 75 must be crossed to enter either Tampa or St. Petersburg, the region does not have a "beltway."

HART, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit, runs buses, $2.00 Local and $3.00 Express. PSTA runs $2.00 buses around St. Petersburg. There is no subway or commuter rail. So, if you want to go into St. Pete, taking the 100X bus from downtown Tampa ($3.00) and transferring to a bus in St. Pete ($2.00) will be $5.00 each way.

The sales tax in Florida is 6 percent. ZIP Codes in Tampa begin with the digits 335, 336 and 346; in St. Petersburg, 337; in nearby Lakeland, 338. The Area Code for Tampa is 813, 727 for the St. Petersburg side of the Bay, and 941 south of Tampa Bay.

Going In. The Lightning's arena opened in 1996 as the Ice Palace. It became the St. Pete Times Forum in 2002. In 2012, the St. Petersburg Times renamed itself the Tampa Bay Times, and, since it still owned the arena's naming rights, it became the Tampa Bay Times Forum. In 2016, it became the Amalie Arena, is named for Amalie Oil Company, founded in Pennsylvania but now based in Tampa.

The arena is downtown, has an official address of 401 Channelside Drive, and is also bounded by Morgan Street and Old Water Street. Depending on which lot you enter, parking will be either $15 or $20. Since the arena is on the waterfront, bounded by the Ybor Channel on the south, you'll probably be entering on the north side. There is an elevated walkway connecting the arena area with the adjacent Embassy Suites hotel complex.

The Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena Football League played at the arena from 1997 until the league folded in 2017. The arena hosted the NCAA Frozen Four in 2012 and 2016, and will do so again in 2023. Due to COVID restrictions in Canada, the NBA's Toronto Raptors played their home games there in the 2020-21 season. It hosted the 2012 Republican Convention, at which Mitt Romney was nominated for President. The rink runs north-to-south. The Lightning attack twice toward the north end of the arena.

Food. The Tampa Bay region is known for its Spanish and Hispanic heritage. Cuban sandwiches, featuring freshly sliced ham, pork, and Genoa salami on toasted Cuban bread with Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard, are sold throughout the stadium.

Local chain PDQ, a fast, casual dining restaurant that specializes in fresh hand-battered chicken tenders, sells chicken tenders, sandwiches, fresh salads, fries and other favorites off their restaurant menu, outside Section 102. Mr. Empanada, Tacos Trueno, Anthony's Italian Sandwich, Deli and Stir Fry and a carving station will be new offerings around the arena. Additionally, a new portable concession stand on the 100 Level will feature fresh, hand-rolled sushi for fans attending Lightning games and Amalie Arena events. A gourmet grilled cheese portable concession stand will also be available on the 100 Level concourse.

Holy Hog has a location on the 100 level. The local BBQ restaurant opened their first location on the Bud Light Party Deck at the beginning of the 2014-15. Items available at Holy Hog include award winning barbeque, mac n' cheese, beef brisket sandwiches and other favorites from their restaurant menu.

The Lightning will be offering fans the option to purchase value meal items at select locations around Amalie Arena. Value items at Lightning home games will include $4 Kayem hot dog, $4 garden salad, $4 chicken nuggets, $5 Lynchburg nuggets and fries and $8.75 super slice of pizza and a 12 oz. soda.

The premium menus at Amalie Arena have also been updated for the upcoming season. Firestick Grill will now offer fresh rolled sushi, grilled veal rack chop, hydroponic green salads and fresh stone crab claws. Fans enjoying events and Lightning games from the suite level will now have the option to order World of Beer pretzels with beer cheese dipping sauces and the famous Columbia Restaurants 1905 salad.

Team History Displays. The Lightning hang their 2004, 2020 and 2021 Stanley Cup banners; their Eastern Conference title banners from those seasons and 2015; and their 2003, 2004, 2018 and 2019 Division title banners from the rafters. (They won the Cup in 2020 and 2021, without having won their Division.)

True, the Devils also have banners for Division and Conference title seasons in which we also won the Cup, but with as many banners as we have, and with the 3 Cup banners at the opposite end of the arena, it doesn't look like we have a brief history of success all clumped together. Even the Islanders and Flyers, who had dynasties and haven't won the Cup since, have enough banners to make it look worth their while. The Bolts, as yet, don't.

I couldn't find a good enough photo

from after the 2020 Cup, much less the 2021 Cup.

There are 5 Lightning players who have been elected to the Hall of Fame. Dino Ciccarelli and Denis Savard each played only 2 seasons for them, Mark Recchi only 1, and each is better known for playing elsewhere. Dave Andreychuk played the last 4 seasons of a 640-goal career for the Lightning, and Martin St. Louis is newly-elected. Vincent Lecavalier is now eligible, but is not yet in.

Phil Esposito, elected for what he did with as a player with the Boston Bruins and then the Rangers, was the Lightning's 1st general manager. He's also been given the Lester Patrick Trophy for contributions to hockey in America. No Lightning players were named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players in 2017, although Esposito was, for his play in Boston. A statue of Esposito now stands outside Amalie Arena.

The Lightning have retired Lecavalier's Number 4 and St. Louis' Number 26. Andreychuk's 25 is not currently being worn, suggesting a future retirement for his number as well. The Lightning do not yet have a team Hall of Fame. Nor did they name a 25th Anniversary All-Time Team when they had the chance. Maybe they'll name one for their 30th Anniversary, next year.

One of those banners is really going to

confuse some St. Louis Blues fans.

The Florida Sports Hall of Fame is located at Lake Myrtle Sports Park in Auburndale, 48 miles northeast of Amalie Arena. Andreychuk and Esposito are the only Lightning figures yet elected.

Understandably, their main rivalry is intrastate, with the Florida Panthers. It was sparked before the Panthers had ever played a game, with legendary player Phil Esposito, the Lightning's 1st general manager, calling them "the stinking Panthers," and their 1st head coach, Terry Crisp, calling them "the Pussycats." The Panthers' 1st general manager, Crisp's former Philadelphia Flyers Captain, Bobby Clarke, didn't like that. Crisp ended up laughing it off, saying it was just entertainment, but Espo kept calling them "the stinking Panthers" for as long as he had the job.

In spite of the Bolts being the more successful franchise, the Panthers have won more games, 74-70-10. It took until 2021 for them to meet each other in the Playoffs, and the Lightning won in 6 games on their way to winning the Stanley Cup. In spite of the rivalry being called the Governor's Cup, there is no actual trophy. The Panthers have won it 14 times, the Lightning 12, with a split in 1996, and no award in 2005 due to the NHL lockout.

Stuff. The Tampa Bay Sports store is located to the right of the main staircase, inside the McDonald's Ticket Office on the west side of the arena.

Whether the Store sells team books and DVDs, I don't know. Most likely, the only DVD they would sell would be the official 2004 Stanley Cup highlight video. Steve Yerrid published Tampa Bay Lightning Winning Ways: The Making of a Championship Heart, but that was back in 2005, during the yearlong lockout, and is now well out of date, with no mention of current star Steven Stamkos. And the Tampa Bay Times sports staff published Lightning Strikes and Striking Twice, about the 2020 and 2021 Stanley Cup wins, respectively.

During the Game. A November 19, 2014 article on The Hockey News' website ranked the NHL teams' fan bases, and listed the Lightning's fans at 24th -- not good, but 1 above their arch-rivals, the Panthers. The article says, "A good team at a bargain price? Why don't more people support the Lightning?"

In fact, they're averaging a sellout. They're a National Hockey League team averaging more fans per game than their metropolitan area's Major League Baseball team. There is no other metro area where the NHL team outdraws the MLB team. Whatever the Lightning's issues are, attendance is not one of them.

Although the locals -- the ones who are not transplanted New Yorkers or New Jerseyans, anyway -- really, really hate the Yankees and Yankee Fans for repeatedly "taking over their ballpark" (as if it were much of a task, or much of a prize), their hockey fans don't have the same kind of rivalry with any of the New York Tri-State Area hockey teams -- not even the Rangers, whom they beat in last year's Eastern Conference Finals.

They will not fight you. Aside from the occasional brawl between football players in the "hate triangle" between the University of Florida, Florida State University and the University of Miami, there is rarely violence at sporting events in Florida.

Sonya Bryson-Kirksey, a retired Air Force sergeant, is the Lightning's regular National Anthem singer. She recently returned to action after nearly dying from COVID, and her voice is as strong as before. Their goal song is "Fluxland," by the group of the same name. The big chant is, "Let's go, Bolts!"

Sonya Bryson

The team's mascot is ThunderBug -- actually, a lightning bug. (Get it?) He wears a Lightning jersey with Number 00 on it. The team also has the Lightning Girls dancers.

On occasion, the Lightning will wear a 3rd jersey with "BOLTS" in diagonal script, a la the Rangers. Since the team did not exist before 1992, this is not a "throwback," jersey, it's a "fauxback."

After the Game. Despite some crime issues -- Tampa natives Dwight Gooden and his nephew Gary Sheffield both dealt with gang violence growing up in the 1970s and '80s -- Downtown Tampa is not an especially high-crime area. And, as I said, Bolts fans do not get violent. You might get a little bit of verbal if you're wearing opposing team gear, but it won't get any worse than that.

If you're looking for a place to relax with a postgame snack and drink, a mall named Channelside Bay Plaza is across Beneficial Driver from the arena. Malio's, in downtown Tampa at 400 N. Ashley Drive at Kennedy Blvd., is a locally famous restaurant, known around there as George Steinbrenner's favorite. He had a private room there, as does the still-living Tampa native and Yankee Legend Lou Piniella.

If you're looking to spend time with others from the Tri-State Area, Bobalouie's Grille & Sports Garden is the home of the New York Giants Fan Club of Tampa Bay. But it's at 1913 E. Bearss Avenue, on the north side of Tampa, about 10 miles due north of the arena. The home of the New York Jets Fan Club of Tampa Bay, Peabody's Bar & Grill, is similarly far away, at 15333 Amberly Drive on the north side of Tampa, 14 miles northeast.

If  you visit during the European soccer season (as we are now in), and want to see your favorite club play on TV, the best soccer bar in the Tampa Bay area is MacDinton's, in Hyde Park, about 2 miles over the Hillsborough River and west of downtown. 405 S. Howard Avenue at Azeele St. Bus 30 to Kennedy Blvd. & Howard Avenue, then 3 blocks south on Howard. 

Sidelights. The Yankees' spring training home, George M. Steinbrenner Field (formerly Legends Field), is at Dale Mabry Highway and Tampa Bay Blvd., across from the home of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Raymond James Stadium. (Raymond James is a financial holding company, not a person native to Tampa who deserved the naming rights.)

The University of South Florida (USF) also plays football at Raymond James. The U.S. national men's soccer team has played there, and has won a friendly with Ecuador, 3-1 on March 25, 2007; won a friendly with El Salvador, 2-1 on February 24, 2010; lost a CONCACAF Gold Cup match to Panama, 2-1 on June 11, 2011; won a World Cup Qualifier with Antigua & Barbuda, 3-1 on June 8, 2012; and won a CONCACAF Gold Cup match over Martinique, 3-2 on July 12, 2017. It hosted 2 games each in the Gold Cup in 2011 and 2017.

Playing there, the women's team has won a friendly with South Korea, 1-0 on November 8, 2008; won a friendly with France, 1-0 on June 14, 2014; a SheBelieves Cup match with England, 1-0 on March 3, 2016; and another SheBelieves Cup match there on March 5, 2019, a 1-0 win over Brazil.

North of Raymond James was Al Lopez Field. (Lopez, a Hall of Fame catcher and manager, was a person native to Tampa who deserved the naming rights.) North of that was the Buccaneers' first home, Tampa Stadium, known as The Big Sombrero because of its weird shape. It was built in 1967 with 46,000 seats, and expanded to 74,000 when the Bucs were expanded into existence in 1976. The United States Football League's Tampa Bay Bandits also played there.

The Giants won Super Bowl XXV there. It also hosted Super Bowl XVIII, in which the Los Angeles Raiders beat the Washington Redskins; the 1984 USFL Championship Game, in which the Philadelphia Stars beat the Arizona Wranglers; and 3 games of the U.S. soccer team. It was demolished in 1999.

Raymond James Stadium hosted Super Bowl XXXV, with the Giants losing to the Baltimore Ravens, and Super Bowl XLIII, with the Pittsburgh Steelers beating the Arizona Cardinals. It is scheduled to host Super Bowl LV on February 7, 2021. It also hosted the 2016-17 College Football National Championship Game, in which Clemson beat Alabama.

The entire group of current and former stadium sites is north of downtown Tampa, near the airport. Take the Number 30 bus from downtown to the Number 36 bus to the complex.

One of the legendary homes of spring training baseball, Al Lang Field (now Progress Energy Park), named for the Mayor who promoted St. Pete as a spring training site, is at 1st Street SE & 2nd Avenue S., 2 miles east of the Trop, in downtown St. Pete on the shore of Tampa Bay.

The spring home of the Yankees from 1947 to 1961, the Mets from 1962 to 1987, and the St. Louis Cardinals from 1947 to 1997, it is no longer used as a major league spring training or Florida State League regular season facility. In fact, the new Rays ballpark was supposed to be built on the site, but they haven't been able to get the funding, so Al Lang Field remains standing. It is the home of the new version the Tampa Bay Rowdies, in the new version of the North American Soccer League, the second division of North American soccer. Bus 100X to Bus 4.

Tampa-based teams have won Florida State League Pennants in 1920, '25 (Tampa Smokers), '57, '61 (Tampa Tarpons), '94, 2001, '04, '09 and '10 (Tampa Yankees). St. Petersburg teams have done it in 1975, '86 (St. Petersburg Cardinals) and '97 (St. Petersburg Devil Rays, who won a Pennant before their parent club had even played a game). The Clearwater Phillies won a Pennant in the same year as their parent club in Philadelphia, 1993, and won another under their current name, the Clearwater Threshers, in 2007, presaging their parent club's success. In 2021, the FSL was folded, and replaced by the Low-A Southeast League, whose 1st title was won by the Bradenton Marauders.

To get to Tropicana Field, home of the Rays since their inception in 1998, you'll have to go onto Interstate 275, and cross the Howard Frankland Bridge – a bridge named for the local businessman who proposed it, built in 2 spans, 1960 and 1990, and so traffic-ridden it's known locally as "the Howard Frankenstein Bridge" and "the Car-Strangled Spanner" – over Tampa Bay itself and into St. Pete.

The Car-Strangled Spanner

Opened in 1990 as the Florida Suncoast Dome, and nicknamed the White Elephant because of its exterior color and lack of a tenant for the sport for which it was intended, the name was changed in 1993 when the NHL's Lightning came in, making the stadium the ThunderDome. But they were only there for 3 seasons, until the building now known as the Tampa Bay Times Forum opened.

In their home opener, October 10, 1993, the Bolts set what was then an NHL record of 27,227 fans in the quirky seating configuration the place had at the time. So an expansion hockey team -- in Florida, mind you -- in the era before you could buy game tickets online, managed to outdraw a winning, Internet-era baseball team.

Anyway, when the Devil Rays (as they were known from 1998 to 2007) arrived, the stadium's name was changed to Tropicana Field -- but, make no mistake, this blasted thing (or thing that should be blasted) is a dome. In 1999, it became the only building in Florida (so far) to host an NCAA Final Four; Connecticut beat Duke in the Final.

The official current seating capacity is 31,042, but that's with several sections of seats tarped over. The actual number of seats is 42,735, but that doesn't give the Trop an "intimate setting." Like the hardly-mourned Kingdome in Seattle, the high, gray roof gives the stadium the look of a bad mall. Those "catwalks" around the rim don't help. And that awful field -- one of the few ever, and the only one now, to have a dirt infield with the rest of the field being artificial turf, instead of just dirt cutouts around the bases -- may make you nostalgic for Giants Stadium's awful experiments with real grass.

But the seating design itself may look familiar to you, in shape if not in color: It was copied from Kauffman Stadium (formerly Royals Stadium) in Kansas City. Don't look for fountains in the outfield, though: That would be too classy for this joint.

The Lightning played their 1st season, 1992-93, at Expo Hall, part of the Florida State Fairgrounds. It seats only 10,425 people, so it was never going to be more than a temporary home, but they outgrew it immediately, because, unlike the new Ottawa Senators, who came into the NHL at the same time, they weren't horrible; indeed, they were rather respectable from the off. 4800 U.S. Route 301, about 8 miles northeast of downtown. It would take 3 buses to get there.

Tampa Bay does not have a permanent NBA team, nor is it likely to try for one in the near future, even though it would rank 22nd in NBA markets. The Toronto Raptors played the 2020-21 season at the Amalie Arena, due to Canada's COVID protocols. The Orlando Magic play 93 miles from downtown Tampa, while the Miami Heat are 279 miles away. Yet, mainly due to LeBron James (but also due to Shaquille O'Neal being much more recently in Miami than in Orlando), the Heat are more popular in the Tampa Bay region than the Magic are -- and the Los Angeles Lakers are nearly as popular as the Magic, probably because of Shaq and Kobe.

The Tampa Bay History Center is across from the arena at 801 Old Water Street. The Florida Aquarium is at 701 Channelside Drive, east of the mall. And Busch Gardens, with its African theme (for political correctness reasons, they can't call it "The Dark Continent" anymore), is at 10165 N. Malcolm McKinley Drive, 10 miles northeast of downtown. Take the Number 8 bus to 7th Avenue & 15th Street, then walk up 15th Street to 11th Avenue and catch the Number 18 bus, and take that to Busch Blvd.

The Beatles never played a concert in the Tampa Bay region. Elvis Presley did: In Tampa, at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory on May 8 and July 31, 1955, and on February 19 and August 5, 1956; and at Curtis Hixon Hall on September 13, 1970, April 26, 1975 and September 2, 1976; in St. Petersburg, at the Floridian Theater on August 7, 1956, and the Bay Front Center on September 3, 1976 and February 14, 1977; in Sarasota at the Florida Theater on February 21, 1956; and in Lakeland, at the Polk Theater on August 6, 1956, and at the Lakeland Civic Center on April 27 and 28, 1975 and September 4, 1976.

This should provide you with some non-sports things to do in the Tampa Bay region. And, if you want to go there, Walt Disney World is 70 miles up Interstate 4, an hour and 15 minutes by car from downtown Tampa.

No President has ever come from Florida. Two men who served as Governor ran for the Democratic Party's nomination for the office, but neither came particularly close to the nomination: Reubin Askew dropped out after the 1984 New Hampshire Primary, and Bob Graham didn't even make it to calendar year 2004, much less to the Iowa Caucuses.

The Tampa Bay region doesn't have a lot of tall buildings. The tallest, at 579 feet, is 100 North Tampa, named for its address at Whiting Street downtown, formerly named the Regions Building.

Oh, and, get this: As New York is known as the Big Apple, Tampa likes to call itself the Big Guava. In the words of the immortal Jack Paar, I kid you not.

As far as I know, the only major-network TV show set in the Tampa Bay region  has been Second Noah, ABC's 1996-97 series starring Daniel Hugh Kelly as a veterinarian at Busch Gardens. Cougar Town was set in fictional Gulf Haven, supposedly in Sarasota County, which would put it about 60 miles from Tampa. Quite a few films have been set there, though, including Cocoon, Edward Scissorhands and A Time to Kill.

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So, if you can afford it, go on down and join your fellow Devils fans in a little Florida hockey. You'd probably have more fun in Tampa than in the Panthers' out-of-the-way arena. Winning, well, that's another matter. 

Is This the Year of the Asterisk?

Is this the Year of the Asterisk in sports? Can any title be considered legitimate?

The Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl a few weeks before the COVID-19 epidemic forced everything to be temporarily shut down, so that's legit. But everything since has been disrupted.

The NCAA canceled its basketball tournaments outright. There will be no National Champions in men's and women's basketball in this calendar year. MLB delayed its regular season, and shortened it to 60 games. The NBA and NHL cut off their regular seasons at the point of shutdown. All 3 leagues expanded their Playoffs as a partial compensation.

Major League Soccer's season had just started, and was put back together haphazardly. The Canadian Football League canceled its season entirely. 

The basketball seasons have reached a conclusion. The Los Angeles Lakers are the NBA Champions, and the Seattle Storm are the WNBA Champions. And the NHL was able to award the Stanley Cup to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The way these seasons were conducted may have been the most fair thing those leagues could do in a very unfair year.

Last night, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 6-2 in Game 3 of the World Series. The Dodgers are now 2 wins away from their 1st World Championship since 1988. If they win, it would give Los Angeles 2 of the current titles in the big 4 North American sports.

But if the Rays come from behind and win, they would have 2 of the 4. And with Tom Brady now playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (and probably cheating there, too), people in the Tampa Bay area are talking about "City of Champions." Bitch, please.

New York has done it 10 times, twice including New Jersey but never, as yet, Long Island: The Yankees and football Giants in 1927, then the Rangers making it 3 in 1928; the Rangers and the baseball Giants in 1933; the Yankees and the football Giants in 1938; the Yankees in 1939 and then the Rangers in 1940; the Yankees and the football Giants again in 1956; the Jets and Mets in 1969, then the Knicks won in 1970 while the Mets (but not the Jets) were still titleholders; the Mets in 1986, then the Giants in the 1986-87 season; and the Devils in 2000, in between back-to-back(-to-back) titles for the Yankees.

Boston has done it 5 times: The Bruins won their 1st Stanley Cup in 1929, when the nearby Providence Steam Roller (for some reason, it was never the plural "Rollers") were the holders of the NFL title; the Red Sox in 2004, between back-to-back titles for the New England Patriots; the Red Sox in 2007, followed by the Celtics in 2008; and the Red Sox in 2018, followed by the Patriots in 2019. Talk about your asterisks: The 1st of these is a bit of a geographic stretch, and the others are all tainted.

Los Angeles has done it 4 times: The Dodgers in 1981 and the Lakers in 1982; the Dodgers in 1988, in between back-to-back titles for the Lakers; and the Lakers and the Angels (Anaheim counts if East Rutherford, Providence and Oakland do) in 2002. If the Dodgers win, it will be a 5th time.

Detroit has done it 4 times: The Tigers and Lions in 1935, then the Red Wings making it 3 in 1936; the Red Wings and Lions in 1952; and the Lions in 1954, in between back-to-back titles for the Red Wings.

The San Francisco Bay Area has done it 3 times: Oakland all by itself with the Athletics in 1974 and then the Golden State Warriors in 1975; the A's in 1989, in between back-to-back titles for the 49ers; and the Giants in 2014 followed by the Warriors in 2015.

Pittsburgh has done it 3 times: The Pirates in 1979, betwen back-to-back titles for the Steelers; and the Steelers and Penguins in 2009.

Cleveland has done it: The Indians and the Akron Pros in 1920, the 1st year of what became the NFL.

Chicago has done it: The Bears in 1933, then the Blackhawks in 1934.

Baltimore has done it: The Orioles in 1970, then the Colts in the 1970-71 season.

New York (5 times), Boston (twice), Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit and the San Francisco Bay Area are the only metro areas to hold the MLB and NFL titles at the same time. 

Los Angeles (3 times, and they're going for a 4th), San Francisco (twice now, through Oakland), New York and Boston are the only metro areas to hold the MLB and NBA titles at the same time.

New York (4 times) and Detroit are the only cities to hold the MLB and NHL titles at the same time.

No city has ever held the NFL and NBA titles at the same time. The closest calls: The Eagles let Philadelphia down in 1947, losing the NFL Championship Game within months of the Warriors winning the 1st-ever NBA Championship; and the Lakers let Los Angeles down in 1984 (losing the NBA Title within months of the Raiders winning the Super Bowl. 

Detroit (3 times), New York, Boston (counting Providence), Chicago and Pittsburgh are the only metro areas to hold the NFL and NHL titles at the same time.

No city has ever held the NBA and NHL titles at the same time. The closest calls: Boston won the NBA Finals but lost the Stanley Cup Finals in 1957 and 1974, Chicago did the same in 1992, and New York (entirely the New Jersey Meadowlands) reversed it by winning the Cup but losing the NBA Finals in 2003.

New York and Detroit are the only cities to hold 3 titles at once. No city has held 3 titles since the debut of the NBA in 1946.

No city has ever held all 4 titles at once. Only 8 metro areas have won all 4 titles at all: New York (achieving it with the 1970 Knicks), Philadelphia (1974 Flyers), Detroit (1989 Pistons), Chicago (1991 Bulls), Boston (2001-02 Patriots), Los Angeles (2012 Kings if not 2007 Anaheim Ducks) and Washington (2018 Capitals).

But you rarely have a chamionship worthy of an asterisk. Sometimes, cheating is exposed, but that's it.

Decide for yourself.

*

October 24, 1632: Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek is born in Delft, in what was then the Dutch Republic. Known as the Father of Mircobiology, his observations through his microscope moved the study of life forward as much as any human being ever has. He died in 1723.

October 24, 1648: The Peace of Westphalia ends the religious wars of Europe. (Westphalia is in present-day northwestern Germany.) This includes the Thirty Years War between the Holy Roman Empire and its Protestant opponents: Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, and, though it was also Catholic, France.

It also includes the Eighty Years War between the Netherlands and Catholic Spain, which finally recognizes the Netherlands' independence after holding them as a colony for so long, and then refusing to accept their independence, declared in 1581.

Europe has had wars since, of course, but they haven't been over religion. Modern Europe, including national teams and tournaments, is impossible to imagine without the Peace of Westphalia.

The English Civil War had also just ended, with Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians, a.k.a. the Roundheads, defeating King Charles I and the Royalists, a.k.a. the Cavaliers. Charles would be convicted of treason, and executed on January 30, 1649.

Cromwell would rule as dictator, as king in all but name, until his death in 1658. Parliament would invite the last King's son back from exile to take the throne, and he became King Charles II. But no English or British monarch would ever rule with so much power as before.

October 24, 1721: Anthony Morris dies in Philadelphia, where he had made a fortune as a brewer, and had served as Mayor in 1703 and 1704. His son, also named Anthony Morris, would serve as Mayor in 1738 and 1739.

October 24, 1749: Jared Ingersoll is born in New Haven, Connecticut. A Signer of the Constitution of the United States in 1787, he twice served as Attorney General of Pennsylvania, and was the Federalist Party's nominee for Vice President in 1812. He died in 1822, at age 73.

October 24, 1778: "Carleton's Raid" begins when Major Christopher Carleton leads British Army troops across the border from Quebec into New York State. When it ended on November 14, he reported to his superiors that his raid had destroyed enough supplies for 12,000 men for a 4-month campaign.

This did not prevent an American victory in the war, and his various raids through the cold in what was then the north of the United States wrecked his health. He died in 1787, 4 years after the Treaty of Paris forced Britain to recognize America's independence.

October 24, 1795, 225 years ago: The Third Partition of Poland takes place. Prussia, Austria and Russia each take part of the country, in each case with over 1 million people. This was a response to the nationalistic fervor stirred up in the Polish people by the Second Partition, in 1793. (The First was in 1772.)

This ended the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. There would not be an independent Polish state again for 123 years. These partitions, as well as their actions against the Jewish people in the lands they controlled, are why I can be impressed with the achievements of King Frederick II of Prussia and Empress Catherine II of Russia -- a.k.a. Frederick the Great and Catherine the Great -- but cannot admire them.

*

October 24, 1809: William Larimer Jr. is born outside Pittsburgh in Circleville, Pennsylvania. A General in the Pennsylvania Militia, he became a land speculator in the Kansas Territory. On November 22, 1858, he stood on a hill in the western part of that territory, overlooking the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River. He staked a claim on the land. He named his new town after the Territorial Governor, James W. Denver.

Just as San Francisco had its 49ers, Denver had its 59ers, people who came in 1859 with the promise of gold. It became a boomtown, and eventually the capital of the Territory, and then the State, of Colorado. It remains the cultural capital of the Rocky Mountain region, its city home to MLB's Colorado Rockies, the NFL's Denver Broncos, the NBA's Denver Nuggets and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche; and its suburbs, the home of MLS' Colorado Rapids and the University of Colorado.

Larimer was named Colonel of the 3rd Regiment of Colorado Volunteers in the American Civil War, served as a Kansas State Senator, and died in 1875. Larimer Street and Larimer Square in Denver, and Larimer County elsewhere in Colorado, are named for him.

October 24, 1830, 190 years ago: Belva Ann Bennett is born in Royalton, Niagara County, New York. A teacher, she became active in the women's rights and temperance movements, and went back to school and became a lawyer at age 43.

In 1879, she became the 1st woman to practice to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1884 and 1888, she was nominated for President by the National Equal Rights Party. She died in 1917, just a little short of seeing the 18th and 19th Amendments ratified.

October 24, 1852: Daniel Webster dies in Marshfield, Massachusetts at age 70. One of the few men to serve in Congress for 2 different States, he served for New Hampshire from 1813 to 1817, and for Massachusetts from 1823 to 1827. Massachusetts elected him to the U.S. Senate in 1827, and he gained a reputation as the finest public speaker (or "orator," as would have been said at the time) in America.

No relation to lexicographer Noah Webster, he opposed President Andrew Jackson on many issues, as part of the Whig Party's "Great Triumverate" in the Senate, along with Henry Clay of Kentucky and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, a former Democrat who had been Vice President in Jackson's 1st term, but had split with him.

But he stood with Jackson on the most important issue of the time: Keeping the country together. In a January 26, 1830 floor debate with South Carolina's other Senator, Robert Y. Hayne, he gave a speech known as "The Second Reply to Hayne," and it was regarded by some as the greatest speech in the Senate's history.

He described the U.S. government as "made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people" -- a saying rearranged in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln for his Gettysburg Address. Webster also proclaimed in that speech, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable" -- words that now adorn a monument to him in New York's Central Park.

President William Henry Harrison named him U.S. Secretary of State in 1841, but quickly died, and he found that he could not dominate new President John Tyler -- in other words, "be the real President" -- the way he could with Harrison, and resigned in 1843. Massachusetts returned him to the Senate in 1844, and in 1850 another new Whig President, Millard Fillmore, made him Secretary of State again, and he died in office.

October 24, 1854: The Gotham Club defeats the Eagle Club 21-14‚ at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey. The 1st attempt at publishing a play-by-play scorecard will be presented in the New York

Clipper (the closest thing America had to an all-sports publication in those pre-Civil War days), and will show outs by inning and total runs scored by each player.

October 24, 1857: Sheffield Football Club, the world's first football club (soccer team), is founded in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Today, they are still in business, but are based in Dronfield, about 6 miles south of downtown Sheffield -- not even in Yorkshire, but in Derbyshire.

They are currently stuck in the Northern Premier League Division One East, which is the 8th level of English soccer, 7 levels below the Premier League. Sheffield United, founded in 1889, is in the Premier League. Sheffield Wednesday, founded in 1867, are in the 2nd division, "The Championship."

Sheffield F.C., a.k.a. simply "The Club," have not had much success: Promotion seasons in 1952, 1955, 1966, 1976, 1977, 1989, 1991 and 2007, but also frequent relegations; the FA Amateur Cup in 1904; the Yorkshire League Cup in 1978; the Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup in 1993, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010; and the Northern Counties East League Cup in 2001 and 2005.

But they have never been in the Football League proper (the top 4 divisions), meaning they have never been entered into the League Cup; and their best performance in the FA Cup was reaching the 4th Round, all the way back in 1878 and 1880.

In a weird quirk, Sheffield FC wear red jerseys at home and blue on the road; United wear red and white stripes as their basic uniform, while Wednesday wear blue and white stripes.

Also on this day, Edward Nagle Williamson is born in Philadelphia. Ned Williamson was a 3rd baseman for the Chicago White Stockings, forerunners of the Cubs. In 1884, he set a major league record with 27 home runs – mainly because the White Stockings' home ground, Lakeshore Park, had the shortest right-field fence in the history of the game: 184 feet. The White Stockings had long led the National League in doubles, because any drive over that short fence was ruled a double instead of a home run.

But in 1884, the rule was changed and it was a home run. Williamson hit 25 homers at home, only 2 on the road. Apparently, somebody had enough, because the City of Chicago took over the ground, and the White Stockings had to move. In 1885 they built West Side Park, built another with that name nearby in 1893, and moved to what’s now called Wrigley Field in 1916.

A knee injury hampered Williamson's career in 1889, and he died of tuberculosis in 1894, aged only 36. His single-season home run record lasted until 1919, when Babe Ruth hit 29.

*

October 24, 1861: At the Wheeling Convention, 41 Counties of the Commonwealth of Virginia, which had seceded from the Union and joined the Confederate States of America, vote to secede from the State and the Confederacy.

They soon apply to the federal government in Washington for readmission to the Union, as a separate State. It would take until June 20, 1863 for West Virginia to be admitted as the 35th State, making them the only State to secede from the Confederacy. (Although, since 2000 or so, it seems as though they cling to Southernness.) Once Virginia was readmitted to the Union after the American Civil War, in 1870, West Virginia remained separate.

Also on this day, the transcontinental telegraph begins operation. This renders the Pony Express, which had run from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California, since April 3, 1860, obsolete. That's right, the legendary Pony Express only operated for a year and a half. But it was vital in helping establish California (which had only gained Statehood in 1850) as a destination for people seeking a place to live and/or do business.

October 24, 1871: Louis Francis Sockalexis is born in Old Town, Maine. A member of the Penobscot tribe, the outfielder starred with the Cleveland Spiders of the National League as a rookie in 1897, batting .338 with 16 stolen bases.

But his drinking problem, all too common among Native Americans, had already gotten him expelled from Notre Dame. And on July 4, when the brothel he was visiting was raided by the police, he jumped out of a 2nd-story window and wrecked his ankle. He was never the same player.

The circumstances surrounding the 1899 Cleveland Spiders are too convoluted to briefly summarize, but they were the worst team in Major League Baseball history, and they were his last major league team. (They released him on May 7. If they'd kept him, despite all his trouble -- he was hitting .273 in spite of his carousing and his injury -- maybe they wouldn't have finished 20-134.) He died of tuberculosis in 1913, only 42 years old.

It was long presumed that the Spiders' American League replacements, originally called the Blues, then the Broncos, and then the Naps in honor of 2nd baseman and manager Napoleon Lajoie, were renamed the Indians in 1915 in honor of either "Sock," the 1st Native American to play in the major leagues; or the tribes that once lined the shore of Lake Erie.

Neither story is true: Baseball is a monkey-see-monkey-do game, like most sports; and, the year before, the World Series had been won by the Boston Braves.

Also on this day, as it frequently did in the 19th Century, especially in California, the occasional specter of anti-Asian bigotry rears its head. After hearing (it remains unknown if it was true) that Chinese men had killed a rancher and shot a policeman, a mob of around 500 people walked into Chinatown in Los Angeles, attacking, robbing and killing Chinese immigrants. They were shot, and, regardless of whether they were already dead, hanged. The number varies, between 17 and 20.

Eight men were convicted of manslaughter, but these convictions were overturned on appeal, due to what Wikipedia calls "technicalities," but does not elaborate.

October 24, 1874: The Boston Red Stockings, forerunners of the team now known as the Atlanta Braves, clinch their 3rd straight championship of the 1st professional baseball league, the National Association. They beat the Hartford Blues, 11-8 at the South End Grounds in the Roxbury section of Boston. They finish the season 52-18. They won their 1st 12 games, from May 2 to 22, and had 3 other streaks of 6 wins.

The last survivor of the 1874 Red Stockings was shortstop George Wright, who was also the last survivor of the 1st openly professional team, for whom this team was named, the 1869-70 Cincinnati Red Stockings. He lived until 1937.

October 24, 1875: In the wake of the National Association Pennant having been taken by the Boston Red Stockings (forerunners of the Atlanta Braves) for the 4th straight season, and by a wider margin (in terms of winning percentage, anyway) than any major league that would come after it ever has, causing several teams to drop out of the NA, the Chicago Tribune calls for the formation of an organization of major professional teams: Chicago‚ Cincinnati‚ Louisville‚ Philadelphia‚ New York‚ Boston‚ and Hartford: "Unless the present Professional Association leadership adopts rules to limit the number of teams allowed to participate in the Championship season‚ all clubs will go broke."

Most likely, this editorial was written by William Hulbert, president of the Chicago White Stockings. Also on this day, he meets in Chicago with Boston Red Stockings pitcher, and Illinois native, Al Spalding. Hulbert stresses to Spalding that his roots are in Illinois, and that he should play for the Chicago club. He also stresses to Spalding that the current National Association is going to result in all teams going broke without tighter control, that teams must stick to their schedules and not leave opponents in the lurch, and that gambling must be driven out of the game. Spalding agrees on all counts, and signs with the White Stockings for the 1876 season.

The following winter, on February 2, 1876, he gathers some other team owners in New York, and founds the National League, and remains its guiding force until his death in 1882, by which point professional baseball had been stabilized. The White Stockings, rather than the American League's Chicago White Sox, are the forerunners of the Chicago Cubs.

While the New York meeting on February 2, 1876 is, essentially, the birthdate of the National League, October 24, 1875 is its conception. Whether that makes Spalding or Hulbert "the mother," I don't know.

October 24, 1877: Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore hosts a 2½-mile match race -- a mile longer than the modern Belmont Stakes, and twice the length of the modern Kentucky Derby -- run by a trio of champions. A crowd of 20,000 people attends, a huge number for any sporting event in those days. Congress had been adjourned so that members could take the 45-mile train trip up the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to attend.

The horses are Ten Broeck, considered the champion of Kentucky, already known as the greatest of thoroughbred horse-producing States; Tom Ochiltree (that's the name of the horse, not the jockey), considered the Eastern champion, and winner of the 1875 Preakness Stakes on the same track; and Parole, a gelding considered the champion of New York State, and a brother of Aristides, the 1st horse to win the Kentucky Derby (in 1875), and later to be a brother of Iroquois, who in 1881 became the 1st American-bred horse to win England's Epsom Derby (in 1881). Parole makes a late run, and wins, 3 lengths ahead of Ten Broeck and 6 ahead of Tom Ochiltree.

The event is depicted in a four-ton stone bas relief, copied from a Currier & Ives print and sculpted in stone by Bernard Zuckerman, hanging over the clubhouse entrance at Pimlico. It is 30 feet long and 10 feet high, and is gilded in 24-karat gold leaf.

Also on this day, John Bower Hutton is born in Ottawa. Known as Bouse Hutton, he won Canadian titles in football, hockey and lacrosse at the turn of the 20th Century. Winning Stanley Cups with the Ottawa Silver Seven (later renamed the original Ottawa Senators) in 1903, 1904 and 1909, he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. He died in 1962.

Although also a Hall of Fame goaltender, Johnny Bower of the 1960s Toronto Maple Leafs dynasty was not related: His birth name was John William Kiszkan.

October 24, 1878: John S. Carlile dies in Clarksburg, West Virginia. Having served Virginia in both houses of Congress, he defied his home State's secession from the Union, and led breakaway Counties to secede from the Confederacy, and to form a new State of West Virginia, loyal to the Union, admitted in 1863.

October 24, 1883: George Frederick Allison is born in Darlington, County Durham, England. He played for a local amateur soccer team in nearby Stockton-on-Tees, and wrote about his team's exploits, earning him a reporter's position at a newspaper. He also served as assistant manager of nearby team Middlesbrough FC, which would be a conflict of interest today.

He moved to London in 1906, covered soccer and greyhound racing, and in 1911 became the London correspondent for the New York Post. He served in the Royal Flying Corps (forerunner of the Royal Air Force) in World War I, then joined the nascent BBC. He was the 1st radio commentator for the English Derby (thoroughbred horse racing), the Grand National (steeplechase horse racing), and, in 1927, the FA Cup Final, in which Cardiff City of Wales defeated North London's Arsenal, becoming, to this day, the only non-English club ever to win the Cup.

He had already been the editor of Arsenal's matchday programme (we'd call it a "game program" in the U.S.) since 1906. He became club secretary, and after Herbert Chapman died in 1934 and Joe Shaw finished the season as caretaker manager, he was named the full-time manager. He led the club to League titles in 1935 and 1938, and the 1936 FA Cup.

In 1939, The Arsenal Stadium Mystery was filmed, and while the Arsenal players appeared, none of them had any lines. Allison did. After Alf Kirchen scored the only goal of the game filmed for the movie -- an actual Football League Division One match, on May 6, 1939, an Arsenal win over West London club Brentford -- he said, "One-nil to The Arsenal. That's the way we like it." The phrase "One-nil to The Arsenal" became a catchphrase, and eventually a song.

He continued to manage the team through World War II, and resigned after the 1947 season, handing the reins over to Tom Whittaker, his assistant, and a former player and physiotherapist (we would say "trainer") for the team. Ironically, he outlived Whittaker, who died in office in 1956. Allison followed him a year later.

October 24, 1884: The New York Mets lose the World Series. Well, not exactly.

The Providence Grays, Champions of the National League, defeat the New York Metropolitans -- and, yes, this early franchise was called the Mets for short -- 3-1, behind the pitching of future Hall-of-Famer Charlie "Old Hoss" Radbourn, at the Polo Grounds in New York. This gives the Grays the first-ever postseason series between champions of 2 major professional baseball leagues, a series that was officially called the "World's Series."

A Game 3 was played, for charity, and the Grays won that, too. The Grays had won the NL Pennant in 1879, too, but would go out of business after the 1885 season. The last surviving Providence Gray was right fielder Paul Radford, who lived on until 1945.

Aside from teams known as the the Providence Steam Rollers in the NFL (1920-1931, 1928 Champions) and the NBA (only the inaugural 1946-47 season), the State of Rhode Island has never had another major league sports team -- the New England Patriots, who play 25 miles from downtown Providence in Foxboro, Massachusetts, don't count.

The last survivor of the 1884 Providence Grays was outfielder Paul Radford, who lived until 1945 -- 61 years, 10 States and 11 Presidents later.

Also on this day, the Calhoun Street Bridge opens, connecting Trenton, New Jersey and Morrisville, Pennsylvania over the Delaware River. From 1913 to 1928, it was an original part of the Lincoln Highway, until that road's realignment over the new Lower Trenton Bridge (the one with the big letters reading "TRENTON MAKES THE WORLD TAKES"). It is now part of the East Coast Greenway. 

October 24, 1885: The St. Louis Browns, Champions of the American Association, defeat the Chicago White Stockings, Champions of the National League, 13-4 in the 7th and last game in their series. The Browns claim the Game 2 forfeit didn't count, and therefore claim the championship. Each club receives $500.

These 2 teams would meet again the next season, forging the NL rivalry that still exists between the teams, by 1901 known as the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs.

This was the 1st of 4 straight AA Pennants for the Browns. The last surviving member of the 1885-88 AA Champions was 3rd baseman Walter Arlington "Arlie" Latham, who lived until 1952.

October 24, 1891: Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina is born in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic. He was his homeland's dictator from 1930 until he was assassinated in a coup in 1961, at the age of 69. During his rule, the capital of Santo Domingo was renamed Ciudad Trujillo (Trujillo City), reverting to the name of Santo Domingo under the replacement government.

Unlike most Dominicans, and unlike later Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, he didn't like baseball. Like many dictators, however, he understood how to manipulate sports for his own purposes. He invited many black American and Caribbean players to play professionally in his country, for good pay and without segregation.

Satchel Paige was one, and remembered a 1937 game in which he saw soldiers with rifles around the field, an "encouragement" to pitch well. Fulfilling his contract at the end of the season, Satch left, later writing in his memoir, "I never did see Trujillo again, and I ain't sorry."

October 24, 1892: The Boston Beaneaters, winners of the National League Pennant, defeat the 2nd-place Cleveland Spiders, 5 games to none with 1 tie, and win the Championship Series (it wasn't called the World Series), making themselves, as they were last season, the unofficial World Champions of Baseball.

The Beaneaters would become the Braves in 1912, move to Milwaukee in 1953, and move again to Atlanta in 1966. Hall of Fame outfielder Hugh Duffy would be the last survivor of the 1892 Beaneaters, living until 1954. The Spiders would fold after the 1899 season, and the 1892 Championship Series would be the closest a Cleveland team would come to winning a World Championship until the 1920 Indians.

Also on this day, Goodison Park, the world's 1st stadium built specifically for association football (whose abbreviation "assoc." is the source of the word "soccer") is opened in Liverpool. Home to Everton Football Club, it is across Stanley Park from Anfield, home ground of Liverpool Football Club, which was built in 1884 as Everton's home before they moved across the park, and Liverpool FC was founded to take their place at Anfield. This makes the 2 Merseyside teams in the Premiership the closest major rivals of any major sport on the planet. 

Imagine that, instead of being in their actual locations, the Yankees' home field was where the Metropolitan Museum of Art is, at 82nd Street and 5th Avenue on one side of Central Park, and the Mets played where the American Museum of Natural History is, on the other side of the Park at 79th Street and Central Park West. Now imagine that the Yankees and the Mets play each other as often as the Yankees and the Red Sox (or the Mets and the Phillies) do. Finally, imagine that the Yankees were only half as successful as they've actually been, and you've got Liverpool; and the Mets were twice as much as you know them to have been, and you've got Everton; and that the Mets (Everton) were actually the older team. Now, you've got an idea of the intensity of "the Merseyside Derby."

Goodison Park hosted some of the 1966 World Cup matches, and even hosted a post-World War I tour by two U.S. baseball teams, the New York Giants and the Chicago White Sox. It seats 39,572. Everton would like to expand the stadium, but there's no room, so, like Liverpool, they are looking to build a new stadium; but, also like their Red rivals, the Blues haven’t gotten it past the planning stage.

*

October 24, 1900, 120 years ago: Oswald Louis Bluege is born in Chicago. A 3rd baseman, Ossie Bluege played his entire his entire 18-year career with the Washington Senators. He was the only man to play on all 3 of their Pennant winners: 1924 (the Senators only World Series win), 1925 and 1933. Not until 2019 did a Washington baseball team win a Pennant without him playing for it.

He was an All-Star in 1935, and later managed the Senators. He continued to work in the franchise's front office, including after it moved to become the Minnesota Twins, and helped build the team that won the 1965 American League Pennant and the 1969 and '70 AL Western Division Chamions. He died in 1985, a few days after being honored on the Washington Hall of Stars at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium.

October 24, 1904: Moss Hart (no middle name) is born in Manhattan. He grew up first in The Bronx and then in Brooklyn. He wrote several hit Broadway plays with George S. Kaufman, mostly comedies, including You Can't Take It With You in 1936 and The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1939, which were turned into hit movies in 1938 and 1942, respectively.

He later wrote the screenplays for the films Gentleman's Agreement, Hans Christian Andersen and the 1954 version of A Star Is Born. He also directed the Broadway versions of My Fair Lady and Camelot. He was married to actress Kitty Carlisle from 1946 until his death in 1961.

October 24, 1905: Jack Erwin Russell is born outside Dallas in Parris, Texas. A pitcher, he helped the Washington Senators win the 1933 AL Pennant, made the All-Star Game with the Senators in 1934, and helped the Chicago Cubs win the 1938 NL Pennant. He finished his career with a record of 85-141.

He settled in Clearwater, Florida, and worked with the city to built a baseball stadium, to attract a major league team for Spring Training. It opened in 1955, and was named Jack Russell Stadium for him. He died in 1990, and the 7,000-seat ballpark was renamed Jack Russell Memorial Stadium. The Philadelphia Philies used it as their Spring Training home from 1955 to 2003, and their Florida State League farm team, the Clearwater Phillies, used it from 1985 to 2003. It now hosts high school and college games.

October 24, 1907: Matthew Young Middleton is born in Boldon Colliery, Tyne and Wear, England. A goalkeeper, Matt Middleton helped "hometown" team Sunderland win the 1936 FA Cup. He lived until 1979. His brother Ray Middleton was also a top-flight goalkeeper.

October 24, 1908: Baseball's anthem, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," is introduced by singer Bill Murray -- no relation to the later actor who got his start on Saturday Night Live. At the time the song was written by composer Albert Von Tilzer and lyricist Jack Norworth (words), neither had ever seen a game. But Norworth had seen an advertising sign on the new (opened 1904) New York Subway:

BASE BALL

TO-DAY

POLO GROUNDS

And he was inspired to write a song about an Irish girl -- apparently his favorite subject, as so many of his songs had an Irish theme, not surprising for New York City at that time:

Katie Casey was baseball mad.
Had the fever and had it bad.
Just to root for her hometown crew
every sou, Katie blew.

On a Saturday, her young beau
called to see if she'd like to go
to see a show
but Miss Kate said no,
I'll tell you what you can do:

Take me out to the ballgame.
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack.
I don't care if I never get back.
Let me root, root, root for the home team.
If they don't win, it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out
at the old ballgame.

Katie Casey saw all the games.
Knew all the players by their first names.
Told the umpire he was wrong,
all along, good and strong.

When the score was just two to two,
Katie Casey, she had the clue.
Just to cheer up the boys she knew,
She made the gang sing this song.

Take me out to the ballgame.
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack.
I don't care if I never get back.
Let me root, root, root for the home team.
If they don't win, it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out
at the old ballgame.

A "sou" is a penny. Sometimes that archaic lyric is changed to "Every cent, Katie spent." In 1927, Norworth rewrote the song, and the girl subject became Nellie Kelly -- a better rhyme, and still Irish. But most people don't even know there are verses: They only sing the chorus.

Edward Meeker made the first recording, but Murray appears to have been the first to sing it live. Murray had also recorded "Tessie," which became a ballpark chant for Boston Red Sox fans in 1903. Ironically, Murray was a fan of the New York Highlanders, the team that would become the Yankees. In an even greater irony, Von Tilzer didn't see a live major league game until 1928, Norworth until 1940.

It apparently took until 1934 for the song to be played at a major league game. In 1976, Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck noticed that, while organist Nancy Faust was playing it during the 7th Inning Stretch, broadcaster Harry Caray was leaning out of the press box, and inviting fans to sing the song with him. So Veeck piped Harry and the fans into the public-address system at Comiskey Park, and a tradition was born.

Harry took it with him across town to Wrigley Field, and, with the Cubs' partnership with cable-TV "superstation" WGN, made the singing of that song at that stage of the game a national phenomenon. (And probably saved Wrigley for at least 2 more generations.)

Unfortunately, Harry always got the words wrong, and, to this day, the celebrities the Cubs have brought on to sing it in Harry's place since his death in 1998 -- including that other Bill Murray, a noted Cub fan -- have repeated his mistakes: They sing, "Take me out to the crowd," and, "I don't care if I ever get back."

In 1994, I heard it played at Mercer County Waterfront Park (now Arm & Hammer Park), home of the Trenton Thunder of the Class AA Eastern League. The Thunder didn't do too well in that 1st season of professional baseball in New Jersey in the modern era, and it inspired me to sing, "I don't think this team's gonna come back, for it's root, root, root for the home team, if they don't win, it's the same."

*

October 24, 1909: William Arthur Carr is born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. In the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, Bill Carr won Gold Medals in the 400 meters and as part of the U.S. team in the 4x400 meter relay. A car accident the next year ended his career at age 23, and he lived until 1966.

October 24, 1911: A 6-day postponement due to rain is over, and the field at Shibe Park is ready to play Game 4 of the World Series. With Albert "Chief" Bender pitching, the Athletics beat Christy Mathewson and the Giants 4-2, giving the A's a 3-games-to-1 lead.

Bender, a member of the Chippewa tribe from Minnesota, frequently had to hear fans taunt him with Indian war whoops. Knowing that this was a period of great immigration from Europe, he would sometimes yell at the fans taunting him, "You lousy bunch of foreigners! Why don't you go back where you came from?" Since a lot of them were immigrants, this had the desired effect. He was elected to the Hall of Fame.

Those 6 days are still a Series record for postponement due to inclement weather. But the 1989 San Francisco earthquake resulted in a 10-day postponement.

October 24, 1912: Murray Golden (no middle name) is born in Manhattan. He directed "Requiem for Methuselah," an episode of the original Star Trek series. He also directed 12 episodes of Death Valley Days, 10 of Wanted: Dead or Alive, 10 of the original Twilight Zone, 6 of Bonanza, 6 of Batman, 3 of Get Smart, 1 of The Green Hornet, 1 of The Time Tunnel, 1 of The Fugitive, 5 of Mannix, 6 of The Flying Nun, 5 of the original Mission: Impossible, 2 of the original Hawaii Five-O, 10 of Medical Center, and 3 of Trapper John, M.D. He died in 1991.

October 24, 1914: Palmer Stadium opens in Princeton, Mercer County, New Jersey. Princeton defeats Dartmouth 16-12. The 42,000-seat horseshoe will remain the Princeton Tigers' home until 1996, when, finally bowing to the reality that age has rendered it unsafe, it is demolished. Princeton played all their 1997 games on the road while Powers Field at Princeton University Stadium was built on the site, and the new 27,773-seat stadium opened on September 19, 1998.

October 24, 1915: The all-black Indianapolis ABCs host a team of white major and minor leaguers. Elwood "Bingo" DeMoss argues with umpire James Scanlon, and the ABCs' rookie center fielder runs in and punches the ump, starting a riot. DeMoss and the center fielder were arrested, but posted bail, and fled the country, playing Winter ball in Cuba.

The center fielder was Oscar Charleston. His reputation was not damaged, and he became one of the greatest players of the Negro Leagues, and eventually a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Also on this day, Chester Frank Adams is born in Cleveland. A 2-way tackle, Chet Adams played for 2 teams in his hometown, making All-Star Teams with the Cleveland Rams and the Cleveland Browns. With the Browns, he won All-America Football Conference titles in 1946, 1947 and 1948. He died in 1990, and was elected to the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame.

Also on this day, Robert Kahn (no middle name) is born in Manhattan. Under the pen name of Bob Kane, in 1939, he and artist Bill Finger created the comic book character Batman. He lived until 1998.

October 24, 1921: Edwin George Ditchburn is born in Gillingham, Kent, England. Ted Ditchburn was the goalkeeper on the 1951 Tottenham Hotspur team that won the Football League title, the 1st for the other North London club, known that season as "the Push and Run Spurs."

On June 15, 1952, he played for Tottenham in a 7-1 victory over Manchester United (the winners of the last 2 League titles playing each other) at Yankee Stadium. On June 18, 1953, he played for England as they beat the U.S. 6-3 at the Polo Grounds. He lived until 2005.

October 24, 1925: Brown Stadium opens on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown still uses the 20,000-set stadium. The Brown Bears have won just 4 Ivy League titles, in 1976, 1999, 2005 and 2008. Their most famous player ever was their late 1940s quarterback, who is better known for having coached elsewhere: Joe Paterno.

Also on this day, Kenneth Donald Mackay is born in Windsor, Queensland, Australia. A star batsman and bowler (hitter and pitcher) for the Australia cricket team in the 1950s and early 1960s, Ken Mackay only lived until 1982. In Australian Cricket, the Game and the Players, Jack Pollard wrote, "While cricket is played in Australia, he will be fondly remembered."

October 24, 1926: Yelberton Abraham Tittle is born in Marshall, Texas. Y.A. Tittle was a sensational quarterback at Louisiana State University, where one of his receivers was future big-league baseball player and manager Alvin Dark.

He starred for the San Francisco 49ers, joining with running backs Hugh McElhenny, Joe "the Jet" Perry and John Henry Johnson to form "the Million Dollar Backfield" in 1954 – the only season in which one team had an entire backfield that went on to reach the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Tittle has joked about the nickname, though: "They should have called us the Hundred Dollar Backfield, because that's about what they paid us." ($1 million in 1954 would be about $9.7 million in today's money.)

Despite all that talent, which also included Hall-of-Famers Bob St. Clair at offensive tackle and defensive end Leo Nomellini, the 49ers only reached the Playoffs once during Tittle's tenure, tying with the Detroit Lions for the 1957 Western Division title, and losing a Playoff for the right to face the Cleveland Browns for the NFL Championship. (The Lions won that one, too – and haven't won an NFL Championship since.) The 49ers would not reach an NFL Championship Game until Super Bowl XVI, in the 1981-82 season.

In 1961, the New York Giants traded for Tittle, despite his being 35 years old. He helped them win 3 straight Eastern Division titles, but they lost all 3 NFL Championship Games, all in miserably cold weather: 1961 to the Green Bay Packers on a snowy New Year's Eve at Lambeau Field, 1962 to the Packers on a frozen field at Yankee Stadium, and 1963 to the Chicago Bears on an equally-rock-hard gridiron at Wrigley Field, with the Bears winning 14-10 with the clock winding down, but an already-injured Tittle leading the Giants on a desperate drive that ended with an interception.

In 1964, hit hard in a game in Pittsburgh, his helmet knocked off, his bald head dripping blood as he knelt on the field, a photograph of this scene won a Pulitzer Prize. Tittle retired after the season. Despite never winning a title, he is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the Giants have retired his Number 14. He died in 2017, shortly before his 91st birthday, after being stricken with Alzheimer's disease.

October 24, 1928: George Donald Bullard is born in the Boston suburb of Lynn, Massachusetts. A shortstop, he played 4 games for the Detroit Tigers at the end of the 1954 season. He died in 2002.

October 24, 1929: The New York Stock Exchange is hit with "Black Thursday," a crash that will last until the following "Black Tuesday." Calendars aside, Black Thursday is the effective end of the Roaring Twenties, and Black Tuesday is the beginning of the Great Depression and the Dirty Thirties. It will be 25 years, until 1954, before the Dow Jones Industrial Average tops its September 3, 1929 peak.

Also on this day, James Patrick Brosnan is born in Cincinnati. A pitcher, he debuted with the Chicago Cubs in 1954. In 1959, he was traded from the St. Louis Cardinals to his hometown Cincinnati Reds, and chronicled the season in a diary, published as The Long Season. It was the first autobiographical baseball book to not be excessively sanitized, and he was criticized not so much for specific passages but for "violating the sanctity of the clubhouse." It was, however, tame in comparison to Ball Four, the diary another pitcher, Jim Bouton, kept 10 years later.

In 1961, as Brosnan kept another diary, he had his best season in the major leagues, and the Reds won their only Pennant between 1940 and 1970. This book was titled Pennant Race, and was better received. The Reds traded Brosnan to the White Sox in 1963, and he retired after the season. He later became sportscaster, continued writing, and lived until 2014.

Also on this day, Lim Kwong Yew is born in Calgary. He was known in adult life as Norman Kwong, or Normie Kwong. A running back, he played for both of Alberta's teams in the Canadian Football League.

Like the 1st Asian player in the NHL, Larry Kwong (no relation), he was nicknamed the China Clipper. Unlike Larry, Normie got a fair shot in his league, and made 4 CFL All-Star Teams. Despite being just 5-foot-7 and 170 pounds, he helped the Calgary Stampeders win the Grey Cup, the CFL Championship, in his rookie season of 1948. Then he helped the Edmonton Eskimos win it in 1954, 1955 and 1956. In 1956, he rushed for 1,437 yards, which stood as a record for a Canadian until 2012.

He was elected to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, the Stampeders' Wall of Fame, the Eskimos' Wall of Honour, and the CFL's 50th Anniversary Top 50 Players.

In 1971, he was elected to the Alberta legislature. He later became a part-owner of the Calgary Flames and general manager of the Stampeders. When the Flames won the 1989 Stanley Cup, Norman Kwong became 1 of 3 men with his name on both the Grey Cup and the Stanley Cup. The other 2, the only actual players to have won both, are Lionel Conacher and Carl Voss (who won his Stanley Cup with the 1933 New York Rangers.)

Kwong was named Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, making him the stand-in for Canada's monarch, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, in the Province. He served from 2005 to 2010, and died in 2016, at age 86.

Also on this day, John Stokeley Fulton is born in Brosville, Virginia. Dropping his first name, Stokeley Fulton played center on the football team at Hampden-Sydney College, an NCAA Division III school in Hampden Sydney, Virginia, and later served as its head coach in football, baseball, tennis and wrestling, and as its athletic director.

He won 10 Conference Championships in football, 4 in baseball, and 2 in tennis. He was still officially the school's head baseball and football coach when he died of cancer in 1985. He was elected to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

*

October 24, 1930, 90 years ago: The Revolution of 1930 takes place in Brazil, preventing the inauguration of the rightly-elected President-elect Julio Prestes, installing the dictatorial President Getulio Vargas, and ending Brazil's Old Republic. For most of the next half-century and more, Brazil would be led by militaristic dictatorships, who nonetheless promoted the country's highly-successful soccer team.

Also on this day, Jiles Perry Richardson Jr. is born in Port Arthur, Texas, 13 years before Jimmy Johnson and Janis Joplin were born there. A disc jockey who called himself The Big Bopper, J.P. Richardson was one of the many deejays who thought he could record a song as good as the ones he was playing, and one of the few who turned out to be right: His song "Chantilly Lace" was a Top 10 hit in 1958.

Early in 1959, "Jape" wrote "Running Bear," a "teenage lament" song about a boy and a girl from opposing Native American tribes, and gave it to Johnny Preston. Then he went on The Winter Dance Party Tour, headlined by Buddy Holly. But their tour bus' heater broke down, and he caught a nasty cold. When Buddy suggested renting an airplane to fly them from Clear Lake, Iowa to Fargo, North Dakota, the Bopper jumped at the chance. Ritchie Valens also rented a seat. The plane crashed in the early morning hours of February 3, 1959. Richardson was 28, Holly 22, Valens just short of turning 18.

October 24, 1931: The George Washington Bridge opens to traffic, connecting the Washington Heights section of Manhattan with Fort Lee, Bergen County, New Jersey. Today, it carries U.S. Routes 1 and 9 and Interstate 95 over the Hudson River. Until the Golden Gate Bridge opened in San Francisco 6 years later, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world.

The GWB is the gateway for Yankee Fans driving from New Jersey into Yankee Stadium, as it was for the old Stadium, and for baseball Giants fans going to the Polo Grounds. Many was the time that Phil Rizzuto, living in Hillside, Union County, New Jersey during his time as a Yankee broadcaster, would talk about leaving a game early by saying, "I gotta get over that bridge!"

October 24, 1933: William Samuel Bell is born in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Like a later pitcher with the surname, Gary, Bill Bell was nicknamed "Ding-Dong." He pitched in the minor leagues from 1951 to 1959, but made only 5 major league appearances, all for the Pittsburgh Pirates: 4 in 1952, and 1 more in 1955. He was killed in a car accident in Durham in 1962, just before his 29th birthday.

Also on this day, Ronald Kray and Reginald Kray (neither had a middle name) are born in Hoxton, East London. In the 1950s and '60s, the Kray Twins straddled the divide between respectability and treachery, using their West End nightclubs as fronts for their East End gangster activities, making themselves the most famous crime bosses in British history.

They were finally arrested for murder in 1968 and convicted in 1969, and sentenced to life in prison. Ronnie died in prison in 1995. Reggie, deathly ill, was released in 2000, and died 2 months later.

In 1990, with both brothers still alive, Gary and Martin Kemp, the twin brothers who led the British band Spandau Ballet, played them in the film The Krays. In 2015, Tom Hardy played both brothers in the film Legend.

October 24, 1935: Charles Comer Alexander is born in Linden, Texas. A history professor, in 1984 he published Ty Cobb, the 1st biography of the Hall-of-Famer that looked past the nasty 1961 bio written by Al Stump, and tried to find the truth.

He has since written biographies of Hall-of-Famers John McGraw, Tris Speaker and Rogers Hornsby, the latter 2 fellow Texans. He's also written Turbulent Seasons: Baseball in 1890-1891 about the Players' League challenge to the baseball establishment; The Miracle Braves, 1914-1916; and Breaking the Slump: Baseball in the Depression Era. He is still alive.

October 24, 1936: The East Stand opens at the Arsenal Stadium, nicknamed Highbury for its North London neighborhood. It becomes the stadium's main entrance, on the street named Highbury Hill. It is a companion to the West Stand that opened in 1932. Arsenal play Grimsby Town, then in the Football League Division One, to a 0-0 draw.

Its lobby included a bust of Herbert Chapman, who had managed Arsenal from 1925 until his death in 1934, winning the League title in 1931 and 1933, and the FA Cup in 1930. He had previously managed Huddersfield Town to the League title in 1924 and 1925. What he left in place added a 1926 League title for Huddersfield, and the 1934 and 1935 League titles and the 1936 FA Cup for Arsenal. Arsenal would add a League title in 1938 before World War II closed down League and Cup play for the duration.

The bust was commissioned by The Pals of Herbert Chapman, 12 men, some of whom had known him since he was player-manager at Northampton Town in 1907, and had dinner with him in December 1933 just before he fell victim to pneumonia which, in those days before antibiotics, could easily be fatal -- in Chapman's case, at age 55. They were all wealthy men by the standards of the time, and raised a great deal of money (including their own) for local charities in Chapman's name.

Their names were: Harry Bryant, John Hope, William McLean Johnston, Harry Joyner, W. Kendrick, Joe Levi, Mark Mintz, Hugh Stewart, Mark Swears, William Valentine, William Webster and John Whitehall.

The state of medicine to which I referred meant that, at their 1949 ceremony honoring Chapman at his lobby bust, just 15 years after his death, only 4 of them were able to appear. The last survivor was Stewart, who only lived until 1971, 37 years -- but he did live long enough to see the League and Cup "Double" won by The Arsenal, a Bertie Mee-managed team which thus surpassed the 1930s Chapman side in the public memory as the club's defining team.

When The Arsenal moved a few blocks away to the Emirates Stadium in 2006, the bust of Chapman was moved there as well. In 2011, a full-body live-size statue of Chapman was dedicated.

Also on this day, David Oswald Nelson is born in Manhattan, and grows up in Los Angeles. The son of Big Band leader Ozzie Nelson and singer Harriet Nelson, and the older brother of singer Ricky Nelson, he starred with his family on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. After the show was cancelled, he stuck mainly to the production side of Hollywood. Married twice, with 5 children, he was the last survivor of the main cast of his show, living until 2011.

Also on this day, William George Perks Jr. is born in Lewisham, South London. We know him as Bill Wyman. From 1963 until 1993, he was the bass guitarist for The Rolling Stones. Since 1997, he has run his own band, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings.

October 24, 1937: John Hardy Goetz is born in Raber Township, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, in a section named Goetzville for his family. A pitcher, he appeared in 4 games for the 1960 Cubs. He died in 2008.

Also on this day, Jeanine Ann Roose is born in Los Angeles. She spent much of her childhood playing "Little Alice" Harris, daughter of actress Alice Faye and her husband, bandleader Phil Harris, on various radio shows, including The Jack Benny Program, for which Phil was the musical director. The real Alice Harris did not want to appear.

Jeanine has appeared in only 1 film, but it was It's a Wonderful Life, as the child version of Violet Bick in the film's "past" sequences of the 1946 holiday-season classic. She is 1 of 7 surviving castmembers. She left acting to attend UCLA, and became a practicing psychoanalyst.

Also on this day, Barry George Davies is born in London. Like all British people with the surname, he pronounces it like "Davis." While serving in the British Army, he got into radio, and upon his discharge in 1963, he began working for the BBC and as a sports journalist for The Times of London.

He was hired by ITV, the BBC's rival, to cover the 1966 World Cup on home soil. In 1969, the BBC hired him back, and he was a fixture on their soccer programme (as it's "spelt" over there) Match of the Day. and became known for his broadcasting of European Cup/UEFA Champions League Finals, until his semiretirement began in 2004. He is still occasionally called upon to offer his expertise on live BBC sports shows.

October 24, 1939: James Wickersham dies in Juneau, capital of the Alaska Territory, at age 82. The Territory's non-voting Delegate in Congress, the Illinois native sponsored the 1st Alaska Statehood bill (though the Territory did not gain Statehood until 1959), and founded the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, which became the University of Alaska.

*

October 24, 1941: Ulis C. Williams -- I can find no record of what the C stands for -- is born in Hollandale, Mississippi, and grows up outside Los Angeles: Like Duke Snider and the tennis-playing Williams sisters, he was straight outta Compton. He was a member of the U.S. team that won the Gold Medal in the 4x400-meter relay at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo. He later served as President of Compton Community College outside Los Angeles, and is still alive.

October 24, 1942: Corporal Henry Race of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders is killed in action at the Battle of El Alamein in Egypt, which still ends up being a British victory over the Nazis. He was 36 years old. From 1928 to 1930, he was a forward for Liverpool FC.

October 24, 1944: John Jeter (no middle name) is born in Shreveport, Louisiana. The outfielder played in the majors from 1969 to 1974. The highlight of his career was probably playing for the San Diego Padres in the doublehader of August 1, 1972, when Nate Colbert hit 5 home runs.

Johnny Jeter is no relation to Derek, but his son Shawn Jeter played 13 games in the major leagues, all with the 1992 Chicago White Sox. Both are still alive.

October 24, 1945, 75 years ago: The National Hockey League plays its 1st peacetime game since April 16, 1939, with World War II beginning for Canada, as part of the British Empire, the following September 3. Although it had continued to operate for the duration, Canada's membership in the Empire had led to a serious manpower drain in the League.

Some teams were affected more than others. The New York Americans had to suspend operations after the 1941-42 season, and never started up again. The New York Rangers had won the Stanley Cup in 1940 and finished 1st overall in 1942, but went into a tailspin, and only reached the Stanley Cup Finals once in the next 30 years.

The Boston Bruins' entire "Kraut Line" -- Milt Schmidt centering Bobby Bauer and Woody Dumart -- all Canadians of German descent, helped them win the Cup in 1939 and 1941, and losing the Finals in 1943, dropped off after that, not winning another Cup until 1970, going 0-5 in Finals from 1941 to 1970.

The Bruins were the hosts in this peacetime puck-dropper, but lost to the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-4 at the Boston Garden. They would make the Finals in 1945-46, but lose to the Montreal Canadiens.

Also on this day, the Charter of the United Nations is ratified by the original 5 permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: America, Britain, France, China and the Soviet Union, and by a majority of the other signatories. 

The Charter established the purposes, governing structure and overall framework of the UN system, including its 6 principal organs: The Secretariat, the General Asembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, and the Trusteeship Council.

In commemoration of the event, the General Assembly celebrates United Nations Day every October 24, and schedules its annual gathering for the days leading up to the date.

Also on this day, Vidkun Quisling is executed by firing squad in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. He was 58 years old. The only man ever to be leader of the National Union Party, in 1931 he was named Norway's Minister of Defense, serving until 1933. On February 1, 1942, after the Nazis conquered Norway, he was appointed Minister President.

He held the office until May 9, 1945, a day after V-E Day, when, knowing the game was up, he turned himself in. On V-E Day, he had written:

I know that the Norwegian people have sentenced me to death, and that the easiest course for me would be to take my own life. But I want to let history reach its own verdict. Believe me, in ten years' time I will have become another Saint Olav. 

He was wrong. Even while still in power, "quisling" became a word synonymous with "traitor." He is remembered as a traitor, and a willing sender of Norwegian Jews to die in the Holocaust.

Also on this day, Gene Monahan (as far as I know, his full name) is born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 1962, during his senior year in high school, the Yankees began their Spring Training tenure in Fort Lauderdale. Gene ("Geno" to some friends) became a bat boy and clubhouse attendant. After graduating from Indiana University, he was rehired by the Yankees. From 1973 to 2011, he was the team's head trainer, 1 of only 3 people to be a Yankee employee through the entire ownership of George Steinbrenner.

He survived throat cancer in 2009-10, and passed the trainer's job on to his assistant, Steve Donohue, in 2011. While the Yankees had their issues with injuries during his tenure, they have greatly increased since his retirement. He is now a consultant for Hendrick Motorsports in North Carolina, and has returned for every Old-Timers' Day at Yankee Stadium. 

October 24, 1946: The Bihar Riots take place in Bihar, West Bengal, India. They are in response to the Calcutta Killings the previous August 16, and the Noakhali Riots on October 10, both actions by Muslims against Hindus.

Between both sides, up to 10,000 people are killed, as India heads toward independence, which takes place on August 15, 1947, but Muslims get their separate nation of Pakistan. Even this does not stop the violence, and, to this day, with religion being the key, the two nations still hate each other's guts.

October 24, 1947: Derek Smethurst (no middle name) is born in Durban, South Africa. A forward, he played soccer in his homeland until 1968, when he was signed by West London team Chelsea. He did not make enough appearances in their successful 1970 FA Cup run to earn a winner's medal, but he did for their 1971 European Cup Winners' Cup.

In 1975, he came to America, and helped the Tampa Bay Rowdies win the North American Soccer League title, Tampa Bay's 1st "World Championship." (To put this in perspective: The Buccaneers were a year away from debuting, and the Lightning and the Rays were a generation away from doing so.) He continued to play in the U.S. until 1987. He still lives in Florida, and runs a soccer academy there.

Also on this day, Kevin Delaney Kline is born in St. Louis. He's a Broadway legend, and played a President and his unwilling lookalike substitute in the 1993 film Dave. He is married to actress Phoebe Cates. Their son Owne Kline is an actor, and their daughter Greta Kline is a singer, using the name Frankie Cosmos.

October 24, 1948: Phillip Bennett (no middle name) is born in Felinfoel, Wales. A legend of Welsh rugby, Phil Bennett helped his country-within-a-country win the Five Nations Championship (the Six Nations Championship with the addition of Italy in 2000) in 1969, 1970 (shared with France), 1973 (a 5-way tie), 1975, 1976 and 1978, after which he retired.

As Captain of the Wales side, he told his teammates before a 1977 Five Nations match, "Look what these bastards have done to Wales. They've taken our coal, our water, our steel. They buy our homes and live in them for a fortnight every year. What have they given us? Absolutely nothing. We've been exploited, raped, controlled and punished by the English – and that's who you are playing this afternoon." Wales won, 14-9.

He now commentates on the game for Welsh television.

October 24, 1949: Czesław Bolesław Marcol is born in Opole, Poland. He was a soccer player until age 14, when a tragedy forced the family to move to the Detroit suburb of Imlay City, Michigan. There, he was taught how to kick an American-style football.

It paid off. The Green Bay Packers drafted him in 1972, and as a rookie, now using the anglicized name Chester Marcol, he helped them win the NFC Central Division, setting team records that still stand for most field goals attempted (48) and made (33) in a season.

In the opening game of the 1980 season, the Packers played their arch-rivals, the Chicago Bears. Marcol attempted a game-winning field goal in overtime, but it was blocked, and the ball came right back to him, and he took it and ran for a 25-yard touchdown, giving the Pack a 12-6 win.

He later overcame alcohol and cocaine addictions, and is now an addiction recovery counselor in Dollar Bay, Michigan, across the Upper Peninsula from the aforementioned Goetzville. He was elected to the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.

*

October 24, 1950, 70 years ago: Rawlins Jackson Eastwick is born in Camden, New Jersey, across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, and grows up in neighboring Haddonfield, Camden County. "Rawly" was a relief pitcher who helped the Cincinnati Reds win the 1975 and 1976 World Series, but after being acquired by the Yankees in 1978, he was injured, and only played 8 games for them before they traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies in midseason for Jay Johnstone. Eastwick hardly played again after that, retiring after being cut by the Cubs in spring training in 1982.

He now runs office buildings in Boston, and was scheduled to be at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon, but was delayed, and avoided injury in the explosions.

Also on this day, Thomas Patck Myers is born outside Albany in Cohoes, New York. A safety, he started for the New Orleans Saints for 10 years, making the Pro Bowl in 1979. He is still alive, and a member of their team Hall of Fame.

Also on this day, Richard Asa Hartford is born in Clydebank Scotland. A midfielder, Asa Hartford starred for West Bromwich Albion, Manchester City, Everton, Norwich City and Bolton Wanderers. He helped Man City win the 1976 League Cup, and he scored the only goal in the 1985 League Cup Final, to give Norwich their most recent major trophy.

He played for Scotland in the 1978 and 1982 World Cups, and is a member of the Scottish FA International Roll of Honor. He later went into management, and is still alive.

October 24, 1952: Omar Renán Moreno Quintero is born in Puerto Armuelles, Panama. A center fielder, he led the National League in stolen bases in 1978 and 1979, and helped the Pittsburgh Pirates win the 1979 World Series. In 1980, he stole 96 bases, a team record -- but didn't lead the NL, because Ron LeFlore stole 97.

He played for the Yankees from 1983 to 1985, and he and his wife Sandra now run a youth baseball charity in Panama.

Also on this day, Reginald Sherard Walton is born in Kansas City, Missouri. An outfielder, he appeared in 43 games for the Seattle Mariners and 13 for the Pirates in the early 1980s, making him a teammate of Moreno.

Also on this day, Ángel Rafael Torres Ruiz is born in La Ciénaga, Dominican Republic. He pitched in 5 games for the Cincinnati Reds at the end of the 1977 season.

Also on this day, Former General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican nominee for President, who was already almost certain to win the election, calls a press conference. He says, "Where will a new Administration begin? It will begin with its President taking a simple, firm resolution. The resolution will be: To forego the diversions of politics and to concentrate on the job of ending the Korean War until that job is honorably done.

"That job requires a personal trip to Korea. I shall make that trip. Only in that way could I learn how best to serve the American people in the cause of peace. I shall go to Korea."

On November 4, the inevitable became reality: Eisenhower was elected, defeating the Democrtic nominee, Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, in a landslide. On November 29, President-elect Eisenhower kept his promise, and went to Korea to take note of the situation in the field.

On January 20, 1953, he was sworn in as the 34th President of the United States. On July 27, the Truce of Panmunjom was signed, ending the war after 3 years.

October 24, 1953: Christoph Paul Daum is born in Olesnitz, East Germany. A midfielder, he was signed by 1. FC Köln (usually listed as FC Cologne in English), and thus defected to the West.

But he is better known as a manager, having taken Stuttgart to the 1992 Bundesliga title, winning the Austrian Bundesliga with Austria Wien in 2003, and winning the Turkish Süper Lig with Istanbul clubs Beşiktaş in 1995 (also winning the Turkish Cup in 1994) and Fenerbahçe in 2004 and 2005. He recently managed the national team of Romania.

October 24, 1954: President Dwight D. Eisenhower pledges U.S. support to South Vietnam. This is the beginning of a 20-year mistake.

Also on this day, Harold John Snepsts is born in Edmonton. A defenseman, the son of Latvian immigrants played 17 seasons in the NHL, mostly for the Vancouver Canucks, helping them reach their 1st Stanley Cup Finals in 1982. The Canucks have hired him as a scout, and inducted him into their Ring of Honour.

Also on this day, Malcolm Bligh Turnbull is born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. On September 15, 2015, following a no-confidence vote in his party's previous leader, Tony Abbott, the former Rhodes scholar, journalist and merchant banker became his homeland's Prime Minister.

He led the Liberal Party to victory by the slimmest of margins in 2016. (Among the many weird things about Australia: Their conservative party is called the Liberal Party, while their liberal party, like Britain's and Israel's, is called the Labour Party.) But another leadership challenge led him to resign on August 24, 2018, and soon thereafter resign from Parliament altogether.

Unlike Donald Trump, he actually is a self-made tycoon. As far as I know, aside from watching Australia compete at the highest levels in cricket and rugby, he has nothing to do with sports. Through his Scottish mother, he is a cousin of actress Angela Lansbury.

October 24, 1955: Elaine Elliott (no middle name) is born in Lakewood, Washington. She played basketball at Boise State University, and got her master's degree from the University of Utah. She was hired as an assistant coach for Utah's women's team basketball team in 1979, and as head coach in 1983.

From then until 2011, she won 582 games, 7 Conference Coach of the Year awards, and the 2001 National Coach of the Year award. She is still alive, and a member of the Utah Sports Hall of Fame.

Also on this day, Amy Ruley (no middle name) is born in Lowell, Indiana. After playing at Purdue University, she coached at North Dakota State University from 1979 to 2008, , and won even more games than Elliott: 671, leading them to 5 NCAA Division II Championships. She is still alive, and a member of the North Dakota Sorts Hall of Fame.

October 24, 1956: Tom Whittaker dies of a heart attack in London, only 58 years old. He is 1 of only 2 men to die in office as manager of North London's Arsenal Football Club, the 1st being his former boss, Herbert Chapman, in 1934.

Born in Aldershot, Hampshire on July 21, 1898, where his father was stationed in the British Army, Tom grew up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and thus was a "Geordie." He served first in the Army, then in the Royal Navy, during World War I. He played as a "wing half," a position that became obsolete as fullbacks became more defensive, from 1919 to 1925, all for Arsenal. In 1925, on a tour of Australia as part of a Football Association all-star team, he broke his kneecap, and his playing career was over.

But his service to Arsenal was far from over. Chapman, who had led Huddersfield Town to the League title, became manager, and, when Tom's attempt to come back from injury led him to want to study to become a physiotherapist, thinking he could do it better, Chapman encouraged this. He was the club's head trainer from 1927 until 1947, first under Chapman, then under George Allison, taking time off in World War II to be an air raid warden.

When Allison retired in 1947, Tom was named manager. In his 1st season, 1947-48, he took them to the League title. He led them to the FA Cup in 1950 (beating Liverpool in the Final), to the FA Cup Final but lost in 1952 (ironically, to his hometown side, Newcastle United), and winning the closest League title race ever, beating Burnley by goal difference on the last day of the 1953 season. In total, he was a part of the club's 1st 7 League titles, their 1st 6 FA Cup Finals, and their 1st 3 FA Cup wins. (There were no European club tournaments until the 1955-56 season.)

The club's last game with Tom in charge was on October 20, a 3-1 home win over arch-rival Tottenham. It should surprise no one that they lost their next game badly, on October 27, 4-0 to Everton at Goodison Park.

October 24, 1957: Ronald Clyde Gardenhire is born at a U.S. Army base in Butzbach, Hessen, Germany, and grows up in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. A good-field-no-hit shortstop for the early 1980s Mets, he managed the Minnesota Twins to 6 American League Central Division titles between 2002 and 2010, and was named AL Manager of the Year in 2010. He recently resigned as manager of the Detroit Tigers, to concentrate on his health.

His son Toby was drafted by the Twins, but never made the big club, and is now managing in the Twins' farm system.

October 24, 1959: The greatest player in the history of basketball makes his NBA debut. If you're paying attention to the date, you will notice that Michael Jordan hasn't been born yet, and neither have LeBron James' parents.

The place is the old Madison Square Garden. The home team is the New York Knicks. The visiting team is the Philadelphia Warriors. Unfortunately for the Knicks, it is the Warriors who have the player in question: West Philadelphia native Wilton Norman Chamberlain.

Wilt, at this point a 23-year-old 7-foot-1-inch center, scores 43 points. Kenny Sears scores 35 for the Knicks, but it's nowhere near enough, as the Warriors beat the Knicks, 118-109. Basketball will never be the same again.

A little more than 2 years later, on March 2, 1962, these teams will play at the Hershey Arena outside Harrisburg, and Wilt will score 100 points in a 169-147 Warriors victory.

Also on this day, Michael Quinn Brewer is born in Shreveport, Louisiana. A right fielder, he played 12 games for the Kansas City Royals in 1986.

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October 24, 1960, 60 years ago: Tyrone Keys (no middle name) is born in Jackson, Mississippi. A defensive end, he played for the Chicago Bears in their Super Bowl XX season, and was in their "Super Bowl Shuffle" video.

Also on this day, Ian Michael Baker-Finch is born in Nambour, Queensland, Australia. He won 18 PGA Tour events, including the 1991 British Open. Now living in Florida, he is a golf commentator for CBS.

October 24, 1962: Eugene Thomas Larkin is born in Flushing, Queens. A 1st baseman, he went to Columbia, where he broke several school records set by an earlier 1st baseman from New York, named Lou Gehrig.

He was 1 of 7 players to be a part of both of the Minnesota Twins' World Series titles, in 1987 and 1991. In Game 7 in 1991, he hit the bases-loaded single in the bottom of the 10th inning that clinched the title, 1-0 over the Atlanta Braves. He still lives in the Minneapolis suburbs, and runs a baseball school.

Also on this day, Jay McKinley Novacek is born in Martin, South Dakota. The All-Pro tight end from the University of Wyoming (whose teams are also called the Cowboys) helped the Dallas Cowboys win 3 Super Bowls. The 5-time Pro Bowler was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012, but, as yet, has not been elected to the Pro Football Hall. He and his wife Amy star on the reality-TV series Saddle Up With Jay Novacek.

Also on this day, Biggie Mbasela (his real, full name) is born in Kitwe, Northern Rhodesia, the British colony that became the independent nation of Zambia. Better known as Gibby Mbasela, he was a forward who won 2 league titles in his country, and was named Zambian Footballer of the Year in 1990.

He was not among the 18 members of the Zambia national team killed in a plane crash off the coast of Gabon on April 27, 1993. He was, however, among those who took Zambia to the Final of the 1994 African Cup of Nations, losing to Nigeria. Shortly after retiring as an active player, he fell ill, and died on May 1, 2000, only 37 years old.

Also on this day, the film The Manchurian Candidate premieres, based on Richard Condon's 1959 novel. The fact that the Cold War-themed film's scheduled premiere turned out to be during the Cuban Missile Crisis probably brought it more hype than expected.

The film starts with the Red Chinese capturing a platoon of U.S. soldiers during the Korean War, and brainwashing them. Most of them are brainwashed only into believing that one of them, a shy, not particularly combative type played by Laurence Harvey, saved their lives. Another, played by Frank Sinatra, recommends him for the Congressional Medal of Honor, based on this incorrect belief.

The trick is that this "war hero" is being set up for a political rise, as his conniving mother (Angela Lansbury), already a Communist agent, is married to his stepfather (James Gregory, later Barney Miller's Inspector Luger), a U.S. Senator (ironically, a Red-baiter like the late Senator Joseph McCarthy), who is being set up to be nominated for Vice President, and the "hero" will then assassinate the Presidential nominee, setting the stepfather up to be President and the mother as the power behind the throne, aiding the Red cause.

One of the brainwashers is played by Khigh Dhiegh, later to be better known for playing Wo Fat, the villain of the original Hawaii Five-O series. Janet Leigh, then the wife of Tony Curtis, and the mother of Jamie Lee Curtis, also appears.

Sinatra had creative control over the film, and originally wanted Lucille Ball to play the mother -- which would have been as big a shock to 1960s viewers as it was to see Henry Fonda as the villain in the 1969 film Once Upon a Time in the West.

But Sinatra's choice as director, John Frankenheimer, had worked with Lansbury on the film All Fall Down, and insisted that Frank watch that film with him. That convinced Frank to cast Lansbury instead, even though she was only 3 years older than the actor playing her son, Harvey. In a further irony, Harvey died young, while Lansbury, at this writing, is still alive and acting at age 95. (The year before, she had played the mother of Elvis Presley's character in Blue Hawaii, and was only 9 years older than Elvis.)

October 24, 1963: Mark Andrew Grant is born in the Chicago suburb of Aurora, Illinois. He was Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year in 1985, but his big-league career never really worked out. He was one of the players the San Francisco Giants traded to the San Diego Padres to get Kevin Mitchell, leading him to miss out on the 1987 and 1989 postseasons. Bad luck befell him again when the Braves traded him before their 1991 Pennant run. He is now a broadcaster for the Padres.

Also on this day, a day after recording "When the Ship Comes In," Bob Dylan records "The Times They Are A-Changin'." That will also be the title of his album that these songs go on, which will be released on January 13, 1964. This is also the dawn of Beatlemania in America. The times were, indeed, changing.

It's been remarked that the best part of Zack Snyder's 2009 film adaptation of the superhero-themed graphic novel Watchmen was the opening credits, with the song backing a summary of the events from the 1940 founding of the Minutemen to the "present" in 1985.

October 24, 1966: Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich is born in Saratov, Russia. He turned an investment into the Russian black market into oil and aluminum empires, and developed a close relationship with then-President Boris Yeltsin, and has worked with Yeltsin's successors, Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev.

He has been indicted on numerous corruption charges, but has never been convicted. It's good to have friends in high places. His fortune has gone up and down, but is now believed by Forbes magazine to be about $12.8 billion. Two divorce settlements and his sports investments have not helped in this regard, as you'll see below.

In 2003, he bought Chelsea Football Club of West London, leading to its new nickname of "Chelski," or "Chavski," as the club's popularity with London's tracksuit-wearing, baggy-pantsed, jewelry-flashing, cap-turned-sideways, foul-mouthed juvenile delinquents (we don't really have a single name for such in the U.S.) has led to them being called "The Chavs."

In 2004, he hired manager Jose Mourinho away from the Portuguese club F.C. Porto, and together they built a team that won the Premier League title in 2005 and again in 2006 – this after winning just 1 title in the team's 1st 99 seasons, in 1955 (and that with a former Arsenal player as their manager, Ted Drake).

Early in the 2007-08 season, Mourinho decided he'd had enough of Abramovich's meddling and left for Internazionale in Milan, Italy, and that for Real Madrid in Spain, returned to Chelsea in 2014-15 and won another League title, but crashed and burned the next season. He has since failed as manager of Manchester United.

Despite winning 5 League titles, 5 FA Cups, both the League and the Cup (The Double) in 2010, 3 League Cups, the UEFA Champions League in 2012 and the UEFA Europa League in 2013 and 2019, Chelsea is believed to be heavily in debt under Abramovich's ownership, due to the high sums paid in wages, transfer fees, and upkeep of the aging home ground, Stamford Bridge. He is believed to have sunk over 2 billion pounds – over $2.6 billion – into the club in his 17 years of ownership.

In 1999, he was elected to the Russian Parliament, the Duma, from the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, the oil-rich easternmost oblast (what they call a "state" of Russia, and from 2000 to 2008 served as its Governor, making him a "neighbor" of 2007-09 Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, as this is the part of Russia that she claimed could be seen from her home State. (But she never actually said, "I can see Russia from my house" – that was Tina Fey doing the impersonation.)

The 54-year-old "Mad Russian" has been married and divorced 3 times, most recently in 2017 from his 3rd wife, Darya "Dasha" Zhukova, 15 years younger, a fashion designer known on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption as "Marat Safin's Girlfriend." While she was dating the Russian tennis star, the show's co-host Tony Kornheiser slobbered over her so much it made my feelings for Catherine Zeta-Jones look mature by comparison. Abramovich and Zhukova are parents of 2 children, and Abramovich has 5 others with his 1st 2 wives.

October 24, 1967: Frank-Paul Santangelo is born in the Detroit suburb of Livonia, Michigan, and grows up in the Sacramento suburb of El Dorado Hills, California. An outfielder, he played for the Montreal Expos from 1995 to 1998, the San Francisco Giants in 1999, the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2000, and the Oakland Athletics in 2001, the only time he made the Playoffs.

For his career, he batted .245 and hit just 21 home runs in 7 seasons. Nevertheless, he was named as a steroid user in in the Mitchell Report. He confirmed it, sort of, confessing to using human growth hormone on 2 occasions, to help with injury rehab, but denying the other allegations against him.

After hosting a radio talk show in Sacramento, and another in San Francisco, he joined the Washington Nationals' broadcast team in 2011, and is still with them. His best-known schtick is to say, "Well, there goes the no-hitter" when the Nats get their 1st hit of the game. But when a Nats pitcher finishes one, as Jordan Zimmerman did in 2014 and Max Scherzer did twice in 2015, he says, "And there is the no-hitter!"

Also on this day, Ian Raphael Bishop is born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. A star bowler for the West Indies cricket team from 1989 until succumbing to injuries in 1998, he is now a TV commentator for the sport, frequently waxing poetic about the decline of his former "national team."

October 24, 1969: Ten years to the day after Wilt Chamberlain made his NBA debut, he and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then still using his birth name of Lew Alcindor), the man who would eventually surpass him as the NBA's all-time leading scorer, oppose each other for the 1st time, at The Forum in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood.

Kareem scores 23 points, but the Milwaukee Bucks are led by Flynn Robinson with 33. Wilt scores 25, but the Los Angeles Lakers were led by Elgin Baylor with 26. The Lakers won, 123-112.

Also on this day, the film Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid premieres, with Paul Newman as Robert Leroy Parker, Robert Redford as Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, and Katharine Ross as Etta Place. Lessons to be learned from this movie:

1. Nothing lasts forever, not even the Wild West.
2. Use enough dynamite, no more.
3. There are no rules in a knife fight.
4. The man who is the best at something might not be the best man at it for you.

5. Life, especially a life of crime, is harder in a foreign country, especially when the dominant language is not your first language.

6. If you got a woman who looks like a young Katharine Ross, and she says we should go home because it's too dangerous to stay where we are, go home.
7. Western movies rarely tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

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October 24, 1970, 50 years ago: Lamont Bertrell Hollinquest is born in Los Angeles. A linebacker, he was with the Green Bay Packers when they won Super Bowl XXXI.

Also on this day, Graham Charles Stuart is born in Tooting, South London. A midfielder, he helped Everton win the 1995 FA Cup. He is now a commentator for Sky Sports.

October 24, 1971: After playing their 1st home game of the season at their original home, the Cotton Bowl, the Dallas Cowboys open Texas Stadium in the suburb of Irving, Texas. They beat the New England Patriots 44-21. They will go on to win Super Bowl VI at the end of the season. It will remain their home through the 2008 season, including 7 Super Bowl berths, winning 5.

Also on this day, Don McLean releases his album American Pie. The title track is one of the most analyzed songs ever written, including references to the death of Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan replacing Elvis Presley as America's most important rock and roll performer, the rise of the Beatles, the Woodstock and Altamont rock festivals, and the disillusionment faced as the 1960s gave way to the 1970s. The 4th verse uses a football game as a metaphor.

Also on this day, Caprice Bourret (no middle name) is born in the Hacienda Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. In the mid-1990s, she moved to London to further her modeling career, and became a star there, using just her first name. In America, she is best known for appearing on VH1's The Surreal Life in 2005. In England, she is best known for being a former girlfriend of Arsenal Captain Tony Adams.

October 24, 1972: Jackie Robinson dies. The 1st black player in modern baseball had been suffering from diabetes, which had robbed him of most his eyesight, caused such poor circulation in his legs that amputation was being considered, and damaged his heart to the point where it killed him at age 53.

Just 10 days earlier, he had flown from his home in Stamford, Connecticut (his wife Rachel, now 93, now lives near their old house), and was a special guest at Game 2 of the World Series between the A's and Reds in Cincinnati. It had been 25 years since the great experiment that he and Brooklyn Dodger president Branch Rickey (who died in 1965) had reached its successful conclusion with the Dodgers winning the Pennant and Jackie making it through the season, not just surviving but excelling. His former teammate, Pee Wee Reese, was on hand, and former Dodger broadcaster Red Barber introduced him. Jackie said, "I'm extremely pleased to be here, but I must confess, I'm going to be even more pleased when I see a black face managing in baseball."

Jackie's eulogy was delivered by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and his funeral was attended by most of his surviving teammates. Roy Campanella was there in his wheelchair. Among his pallbearers were former Dodger pitcher Don Newcombe and basketball legend Bill Russell.

Earlier in the year, on June 4, in Los Angeles, Jackie's hometown (if not the team's), the Dodgers retired uniform numbers for the first time, packing away Jackie's Number 42, Campy's Number 39 and Sandy Koufax' Number 32. Jackie was the 1st black player in the Hall of Fame, Campy the 2nd, and Koufax had been newly elected at the time of the ceremony.

It would be 2 more years, on October 3, 1974, before Frank Robinson, no relation, was hired as Major League Baseball's 1st black manager, with the Cleveland Indians, the team that had been the first in the American League to add black players with Larry Doby and Satchel Paige.

Oddly, Frank beat Jackie to being the 1st black player to get his number retired: The Orioles let him go before the 1972 season, and, though he was still active, announced the retirement of his number on March 10 of that year.

Ironically, while black Hispanics are now the leading presence in the game, very few black Americans are in the major leagues. Jackie would probably be disturbed by that, but not puzzled, as he would surely factor in the rise of pro football and basketball as sports preferred by African-Americans, especially since he played those, in addition to baseball, at UCLA.

Of the 30 current MLB franchises, 4 have never had a manager who was either black or Hispanic: The Yankees, the Minnesota Twins, the Oakland Athletics, and the Philadelphia Phillies -- by an unfortunate coincidence, also the last National League team to have had a black player.

(I previously had the Los Angeles Angels listed as one of those teams. But while they still have never had a black manager, they have had a white Hispanic: Octavio "Cookie" Rojas, from Cuba, who managed them in 1988. The Yankees have had black coaches, such as Elston Howard, Willie Randolph and Tony Peña, but no black or Hispanic managers, unless you count Peña on those occasions when Joe Torre or Joe Girardi was thrown out of a game, or took a personal day.)

It took until 2016, with former Red Sox star Dave Roberts, for the Dodgers to have their 1st black manager. Currently, of the 24 MLB teams that don't have vacancies, 5 have a black or Hispanic manager. That's right: More teams have their manager's jobs vacant than have them filled with a nonwhite man.

In 1997, on the 50th Anniversary of Jackie's arrival, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announced that Jackie's Number 42 would be retired for all of baseball, as yet a unique honor. All players then wearing it would be allowed to continue to do so for the remainder of their careers, but no new players could wear it, and no current players could switch to it.

The last remaining Number 42 in baseball was Mariano Rivera of the Yankees; the Yankees appeared to have been waiting for Mariano to retire before retiring the number for both him and Jackie, but in 2007, on the 60th Anniversary of Jackie's arrival, they retired it for Jackie, and did so again for Mariano when he hung 'em up in 2013, just as they retired Number 8 for both Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra.

Also on October 24, 1972, Patrick Williams (no middle name) is born in Monroe, Louisiana. He was a 3-time Pro Bowler at defensive tackle for the Minnesota Vikings. He is now an assistant coach at a high school in his home State.

October 24, 1973: Jackie McNamara is born in Glasgow, Scotland. He won 4 Scottish Premier League titles and 3 Scottish Cups with Glasgow's Celtic Football Club, serving as their Captain in 2005. He recently served as manager, and then as chief executive, of York City F.C., a Yorkshire club in England's 5th division, and is now back in Scotland, in the front office of Dunfermline Athletic.

Also on this day, Jeffrey William Wilson is born in Invercargill, New Zealand. Jeff Wilson starred in rugby union, cricket (playing for his country in both sports, making him a rare "Double All-Black," although the cricket team is better known as the "Black Caps") and basketball. He was a member of the New Zealand team that lost to host South Africa in the 1995 Rugby World Cup immortalized in the film Invictus. He now commentates on rugby for Sky Sports.

Also on this day, Kojak premieres on CBS. Telly Savalas plays Lieutenant Theo Kojak of the New York Police. He sucked a lollipop to soothe his oral fixation after quitting smoking. The show lasts 5 years. "Who loves ya, baby?"

October 24, 1974: The expansion New Orleans Jazz play their 1st home game, the 1st NBA game played in New Orleans. It doesn't go so well: Pete Maravich is held to just 11 points, while Freddie Boyd drops 35, and the Jazz hit a sour note, losing to the Philadelphia 76ers 102-89.

The game is played at the Municipal Auditorium, where they played their 1st season, until the Superdome opened, going from a building that opened in 1930 with 7,853 seats to one brand-new with a basketball capacity of 47,000. The Auditorium was damaged in Hurricane Katrina and, 12 years later, its future remains in doubt.

Also on this day, Corey James Dillon is born in Seattle. He set single-season rushing yardage records for the University of Washington, the Cincinnati Bengals and the New England Patriots. On October 23, 2000, he rushed for 278 yards against the Denver Broncos, breaking Walter Payton's 1977 record of 275. Dillon's record has been surpassed by Jamal Lewis and Adrian Peterson.

In the 2004 season, he was a member of the Patriot team that won Super Bowl XXXIX. (By cheating?) He rushed for 11,241 yards, but, as yet, has not been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Also on this day, Wilton Alvaro Guerrero is born in Don Gregorio, Dominican Republic. The older brother and former Montreal Expo teammate of Vladimir Guerrero, he is best known for a 1997 incident with the Dodgers, where he was found to have a corked bat. He is now a scout with the Dodgers.

Also on this day, Jamal David Mayers is born in Toronto. One of the few black players in the NHL, the right wing was an Alternate Captain for his hometown Maple Leafs, and retired after winning the 2013 Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks. He is now an analyst for the NHL Network.

October 24, 1975: Juan Pablo Ángel Arango is born in Medellín, Colombia. He began his soccer career in his hometown, at Atlético Nacional . He later played for River Plate in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Aston Villa in Birmingham, England, before starring for the New York Red Bulls. He retired in 2014.

October 24, 1979: Diff'rent Strokes airs the episode "Arnold's Hero." Willis Jackson (Todd Bridges) and adoptive sister Kimberly Drummond (Dana Plato) convince Muhammad Ali (who plays himself) to visit brother Arnold (Gary Coleman), by telling The Greatest that Arnold is dying. Arnold goes along with it, but the ruse lasts less time than one of Ali's fights.

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October 24, 1980, 40 years ago: Monica Denise Arnold is born in Atlanta. The singer, who uses only her first name, is known for the Number 1 hits "The Boy Is Mine" (a duet with fellow mononymous singer Brandy) and "Angel." She was married to former Knick Shannon Brown from 2010 to 2019.

Also on this day, Cathryn Rose Wilson is born in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia. A graduate of T.C Williams High School there (the school in the film Remember the Titans), Casey Wilson was a castmember of Saturday Night Live in 2008 and 2009. She later played Penny Hartz on the sitcom Happy Endings, and now plays Tiff Georgina on Black Mondays.

October 24, 1981: The Dodgers tie the World Series up at 2 games apiece, 8-7, thanks to some poor Yankee fielding. Reggie Jackson and Willie Randolph hit home runs for the Bronx Bombers -- Reggie's last in a Yankee uniform, as it turned out -- but Jay Johnstone, who'd helped the Yankees beat the Dodgers in the 1978 World Series, returns the favor.

Johnstone would later write, in his memoir Temporary Insanity (a title based on his quirky personality), that George Steinbrenner stormed into the locker room and demanded that Ron Davis (Yankee reliever and Ike's father) tell him why he threw Johnstone a fastball.

October 24, 1982: Joseph Macay McBride is born in Augusta, Georgia. Dropping his first name, Macay McBride pitched for the Atlanta Braves in 2005, '06 and '07, and for the Detroit Tigers in '07, with a 6-2 career record, his career ending due to nagging injuries.

October 24, 1983: Christopher Adrian Colabello is born in the Boston suburb of Framingham, Massachusetts. A 1st baseman, he reached the ALCS with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2015 and 2016, and now plays in independent leagues.

October 24, 1985: Richie Evans is killed in a crash while practicing for the Winn-Dixie 500 Modified Feature, at Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia. He was 41, and had won 17 professional races.

Also on this day, Wayne Mark Rooney is born in Liverpool, England. Because England needs to believe that its soccer players are the best in the world, "Wazza" was their great hope in the 2000s, starring at hometown club Everton for 2 seasons, and saying, "I'll always be a Blue."

Then Manchester United shoveled a lot of money at him, and he jumped ship. His name is mud on Merseyside now, not just among the Everton fans whom he betrayed, but also among the Liverpool F.C. fans, who never liked him in the first place because he was an Evertonian, but now despised him for going to the team they really hate the most, Man U. With Rooney, Man U have won the Premier League in 2007, '08, '09, '11 and '13, and the UEFA Champions League in 2008. 

But after a good showing for England in Euro 2004, he's been a total bust for the national side. He lashed out against Portugal in the 2006 World Cup Quarterfinal and got himself sent off, leading to England's defeat on penalties (where his talents really could have been used).

He was a big reason why England didn't even qualify for Euro 2008. England washed out in the Round of 16 at the 2010 World Cup, and Rooney was caught on camera cursing out his own country's fans. England lost in the Quarterfinal to Italy on penalties, and while Rooney made his, he didn't score in regular time or in extra time. England was actually knocked out of the 2014 World Cup after just 2 games of the Group Stage, their 3rd game meaningless. And they got knocked out of Euro 2016 in the Quarterfinal -- by Iceland. He then retired from "international football."

Why has Rooney done so well for club, and so badly for country? Because Man United cheat. Dives, dirty tackles, goals given when they are clearly offside, opposing goals rules offside when they are clearly not. Between them, Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool have made up the bulk of the England side for over 10 years, and -- Liverpool less so than the other 2, but hardly innocent -- they are known cheaters, but their players almost never do well in international tournaments.

Rooney has become England's all-time leading scorer, breaking the record of 1960s Man U legend Bobby Charlton, but that's been built up in friendlies and tournament qualifiers against small countries like San Marino and Montenegro.

Rooney is a dirty player. (He doesn't just cheat on the field: He was caught cheating on his wife, TV personality Colleen Rooney. While she was pregnant.) And his most infamous dirty play, at least for club (if not country), also took place on an October 24, as you'll see shortly.

Point-blank: If the rules were applied correctly, Manchester United would not have won a single trophy in the last 35 years, and the people of England would see Wayne Rooney for what he truly is: Incredibly average. Come to think of it, Rooney is an Irish name, and he was born in Liverpool, across the Irish Sea from Dublin. If he'd been born there -- perhaps while his mother was visiting relatives? -- and was playing for the Republic of Ireland, the people of England wouldn't think he was so great.

His Man U contract ran out in 2017, and he returned to Everton. Essentially, the fans welcomed him back as an England hero, putting aside everything he did at Old Trafford. The problem is, he's not an England hero. Or any other kind of hero. He recently moved to Washington to play in MLS for D.C. United, but he's not an American hero, either. He has gone back to England, as a player-coach for 2nd division East Midlands team Derby County.

October 24, 1986: John Thomas Gordon Ruddy is born in St. Ives, Cambridgeshire, England. A national side teammate of Rooney's, he is the starting goalkeeper for West Midlands side Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Also on this day, Aubrey Drake Graham is born in Toronto. Like Robyn Rihanna Fenty, whom he dated and with whom he's collaborated on songs, the rapper uses his middle name. There seemed to be a "Curse of Drake," that any team whose gear he wore would lose, but that ended when his hometown Toronto Raptors won the 2019 NBA Championship with him sitting courtside.

October 24, 1987: Game 6 of the World Series. Don Baylor and Kent Hrbek back Dan Schatzeder with home runs, and the Minnesota Twins beat the St. Louis Cardinals 11-5, tying up the Series, and setting up a Game 7 tomorrow.

Also on this day, Anthony Henri Vanden Borre is born in Likasi, Zaire, once the Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The right back won Belgium's League with RSC Anderlecht in 2013 and '14, and was a member of the Belgium team that knocked the U.S. out of the 2014 World Cup. He is now retired.

October 24, 1988: The Silvio O. Conte Forum opens, attached to the west stand of Alumni Stadium at Boston College, just to the west of Boston in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. It was named for a Congressman from Western Massachusetts, who had graduated from BC as both an undergraduate and a law student. First elected in 1958, he lived long enough to see it, dying in office 3 years later.

For hockey games, the arena is known as Kelley Rink, in memory of John "Snooks" Kelley, the school's hockey coach from 1933 to 1972 (except for the World War II years).

Also on this day, Christopher James Hogan is born in Wyckoff, Bergen County, New Jersey. A receiver for the New York Jets, he was with the New England Patriots when they won Super Bowl LI. He is not related to the Chris Hogan who was part of the casts of MADtv and 3rd Rock from the Sun.

October 24, 1989: Eric John Hosmer is born in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Cooper City, Florida. The 1st baseman won 2 Pennants, including the 2015 World Series, has 3 Gold Gloves, for the Kansas City Royals. He was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2016 All-Star Game. He now plays for the San Diego Padres, and helped them make the Playoffs this season.

Also on this day, Bruce Edward Daniels Jr. is born in Tallahassee. A quarterback at the University of South Florida, B.J. Daniels was converted to a receiver of the Seattle Seahawks, and was with them when they won Super Bowl XLVIII. After playing for the Seattle Dragons of the new version of the XFL, the Seahwks have brought him back for their practice squad.

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October 24, 1990, 30 years ago: The Boston Red Sox announce they will not renew the contract of former All-Star Dwight Evans, a.k.a. Dewey. Evans signs a 1-year contract with the Baltimore Orioles, plays the 1991 season for them, and retires with 385 home runs and a reputation as one of the best-fielding right fielders ever.

In that 1991 season, I visited Boston for the first time, and watched the Red Sox without Evans beat the Orioles with him at Fenway Park. Coming out of South Station, one of the city's two major rail terminals, I saw that the street area around it was called Dewey Square. Forgetting about Admiral George Dewey, the naval hero of the Spanish-American War, I thought, "Wow, this city is so crazy about its Red Sox, they named a square after Dwight Evans!"

Also on this day, İlkay Gündoğan is born in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. A German of Turkish descent, the midfielder started out in the youth system of Gelsenkirchen club Schalke 04, but would star for their arch-rivals, Borussia Dortmund. He helped them win the German version of the Double, the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal, in 2012, and reach the 2013 Champions League Final.

He was selected to play for Germany in Euro 2012, but injuries kept him out of the the 2014 World Cup (which Germany won) and Euro 2016. He now plays for Manchester City, and helped them win the Premier League and the League Cup in 2018, and the 1st-ever "Domestic Treble" -- the Premier League, the FA Cup and the League Cup -- in 2019, and another League Cup in 2020.

October 24, 1991: David Justice, Lonnie Smith and Brian Hunter hit home runs to back Tom Glavine, and the Atlanta Braves beat the Minnesota Twins 14-5. The Braves need 1 more win to clinch their 1st title in Atlanta -- but Game 6 and, if necessary, Game 7 will be at the Metrodome.

This was the only game of the Series that was not close.

Also on this day, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry dies of a heart attack in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, California. He was 70, and had been dealing with the effects of diabetes and a series of strokes. His use of cocaine and prescription drugs hadn't helped.

October 24, 1992: For the 1st time, a World Series is won by a team from outside the United States of America. The Toronto Blue Jays clinch their 1st World Championship with a 4-3 win over the Atlanta Braves in Game 6.

Dave Winfield's 2-out‚ 2-run double in the top of the 11th gives Toronto a 4-2 lead. The Braves score 1 run in the bottom half of the inning, and have the tying run on 3rd when the final out is made. Jimmy Key wins the game in relief‚ and Candy Maldonado homers for the Blue Jays.

Toronto catcher Pat Borders‚ with a .450 BA‚ is named Series MVP. Winfield, derided as "Mister May" by Yankee owner George Steinbrenner for his poor performances in the 1981 World Series and subsequent Pennant races, finally has his ring, in his 20th season in the majors.

Also on this day, Tommylee Lewis -- no middle name, and "Tommylee" is listed as just 1 word -- is born in Palm Beach, Florida. A receiver, the only NCAA FBS (formerly Division I-A) school to offer him a football scholarship was Northern Illinois. And he was not selected in the NFL Draft.

But a recommendation of a friend of his high school coach, a friend named Bill Parcells, convinced the New Orleans Saints to sign him. He has become one of the rising receivers of the NFL. Lewis was the receiver clobbered by Nickell Robey-Coleman of the Los Angeles Rams in the 2018 NFC Championship Game, without pass interference correctly being called.

Lewis was then cut by the Saints, and then signed but quickly cut by the Detroit Lions. He has since signed to the practice squad of the Saints.

October 24, 1993: Cloyce Box dies in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas. He was 70. A 2-time Pro Bowl end, he helped the Detroit Lions win the NFL Championship in 1952 and 1953. He later opened a ranch, which was the stand-in for the Southfork Ranch on the 1st 5 episodes of Dallas in 1978.

Also on this day, Heinz Kubsch dies at age 63. A goalkeeper for FK Pirmasens, he was the backup goalie on the West German team that won the 1954 World Cup.

October 24, 1994: Jalen Lattrel Ramsey is born outside Nashville in Smyrna, Tennessee. A cornerback, he helped Florida State win the 2013 National Championship, and made 2 Pro Bowls for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He now plays for the Los Angeles Rams, and has made a Pro Bowl for them as well.

October 24, 1995, 25 years ago: Game 3 of the World Series at Jacobs (now Progressive) Field is the 1st World Series game played in Cleveland in 41 years, since Game 4 of 1954 was played at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

In 8 career World Series starts, this would prove to be the only early exit for John Smoltz of the Atlanta Braves. Nevertheless, after leading 4-1 after 3 innings, and 5-3 after 7, the Cleveland Indians blow it, and trail 6-5 in the bottom of the 8th. But Sandy Alomar Jr. ties the game with an RBI double.

In the bottom of the 11th, the Indians get a double by Carlos Baerga and a single by future Hall-of-Famer Eddie Murray, and win 7-6. It is the Indians' 1st win in a World Series game since Game 6 in 1948 in Boston -- against the team then known as the Boston Braves. The 2 teams used a total of 18 pitchers, a new Series record.

October 24, 1996: Game 5 of the World Series. Andy Pettitte, in just his 2nd season in the majors, opposes seasoned veteran John Smoltz, who is pitching in his 4th World Series. The Yankees take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 4th, thanks to an error by Marquis Grissom and a double by Cecil Fielder.

In the bottom of the 6th, the Braves put 2 runners on with nobody out. A bunt is attempted by Mark Lemke, but Pettitte snares it, and throws lefthanded to Charlie Hayes at 3rd base, nailing the lead runner. The next batter, Chipper Jones, hits a comebacker to Pettitte, who throws to Derek Jeter covering 2nd base for one, over to Fielder on 1st, and it's an inning-ending double play.

That's the Braves' last threat until the last out, when John Wetteland comes on to face once and future Yankee Luis Polonia, who lines a shot into the gap, which an injured Paul O'Neill somehow catches, to save the 5-hit shutout.

The Yankees have taken all 3 games in Atlanta, and take a 3 games to 2 lead back to Yankee Stadium,

just as former Brave player and manager, now Yankee manager, Joe Torre predicted to owner George Steinbrenner.

This is the last game ever played at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, after 30 major league seasons (plus 1 preceding season in the minors), as the Braves move into Turner Field for the next season. By a weird coincidence, Torre had also hit the 1st home run in the stadium's 1st major league game, on April 12, 1966.

Also on this day, Kyla Briana Ross is born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and grows up in the Los Angeles suburb of Aliso Viejo, California. She was one of the "Fierce Five" U.S. Olympic team that won the women's gymnastics Gold Medal at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Also on this day, Jaylen Marselles Brown is born outside Atlanta in Marietta, Georgia. Named Georgia's Mr. Basketball in 2015, he played 1 season at the University of California, then turned pro with the Boston Celtics, and is still with them.

October 24, 1998: In the wake of their World Series win 3 days earlier, Yankees David Cone, Tino Martinez, David Wells, Chili Davis and Graeme Lloyd appear on Saturday Night Live.

October 24, 1999: The Yankees beat the Braves, 7-2 at Turner Field, behind the pitching of David Cone and 3 hits from Bernie Williams, and take a 2 games to 0 lead in the World Series.

Before the game, the winners in the fan balloting for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team are introduced. With some older players overlooked by young fans, some "wild cards" were added by a "select panel."

* Pitchers: Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Left Grove, Warren Spahn, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens.

* Catchers: Yogi Berra and Johnny Bench.

* 1st Basemen: Lou Gehrig and Mark McGwire.

* 2nd Basemen: Rogers Hornsby and Jackie Robinson.

* Shortstops: Honus Wagner, Erie Banks and Cal Rikpken Jr.

* 3rd Basemen: Brooks Robinson and Mike Schmidt.

* Outfielders: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Pete Rose and Ken Griffey Jr.

October 24, 2000, 20 years ago: Game 3 of the World Series at Shea Stadium. The Mets defeat the Yankees‚ 4-2‚ behind the pitching of Rick Reed and their bullpen. Benny Agbayani's 8th inning double is the key hit for the Mets as they cut the Yankees Series lead to 2-games-to-1. Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez strikes out 12, a Series record for a Yankee pitcher, but loses a postseason game for the 1st time after 8 wins.

The loss ends the Yankees' record streak of 14 consecutive wins in World Series action. This would be the last World Series game won by the Mets until Game 3 in 2015.

October 24, 2002: Game 5 of the World Series at Pacific Bell Park (now AT&T Park) in San Francisco. Jeff Kent hits 2 home runs, and the Giants pound the Anaheim Angels 16-4. (Only once, the 1936 Yankees against the New York edition of the Giants, has a team scored more than 16 runs in a Series game.)

The Giants now need to win just 1 of the possible 2 games in Anaheim to take their 1st World Championship in 45 seasons in San Francisco. They, and their long-suffering fans, will have to agonize through the next 2 games, and then wait 8 more years.

Also on this day, the Boston Bruins retire the Number 24 of 1970s star and former Captain Terry O'Reilly, before their home opener at the Fleet Center (now the TD Garden). The game, against the Ottawa Seantors, ends in a 2-2 tie.

Also on this day, Hermán Gaviria and Giovanni Córdoba are struck by lightning in training with Deportivo Cali in Cali, Colombia. Gavriria, a midfielder who had played for Brazil in the 1994 World Cup, dies instantly, at the age of 32. Córdoba dies 3 days later, at 24.

To make matters worse. Córdoba's brother, Hernan Córdoba, a striker for Atlético Huila, was killed in a car crash 7 years later. He was only 19.

October 24, 2003: British Airways retires its supersonic Concorde jet after 27 years of service. Air France had already done so. The service was doomed by the combination of its high cost, the 2000 crash of Air France Flight 4590, and the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

*

October 24, 2004: The Boston Red Sox take a 2-games-to-0 lead in the World Series with a 6-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Fenway Park. Curt Schilling, again wearing the Bloody Sock, gets the win. Orlando Cabrera‚ Mark Bellhorn‚ and Jason Varitek each drive in a pair of runs.

But, as disgusting as the Red Sox cheating their way to another World Series is, that wasn't the most disgusting sporting event that happened on this day. Not by a long shot.

Arsenal had gone 49 straight Premier League games without a loss, a record streak for top-flight English "football" dating back to the founding of The Football League in 1888. Arsenal hadn't lost since Leeds United beat them on May 7, 2003 -- 536 days.

Making it 50 straight games without a loss would have been great semantically, but more important was who they are playing in Game 50: They went into Old Trafford, home of the other dominant team of the era, Manchester United. Either Arsenal or Man U had won the last 9 League titles, and 13 of the last 16.

The game is scoreless going into the 72nd minute (out of 90, so, 80 percent done), mainly because

United's players, particularly the Neville brothers -- right back Gary and midfielder Phil, not the singing Neville brothers of New Orleans -- were kicking Gunners forward José Antonio Reyes into oblivion, rendering him too timid to shoot -- he is, literally, intimidated.

In addition, United's Dutch striker, Ruud van Nistelrooy -- nicknamed Van Horseface due to an uncanny facial resemblance to Seattle Slew -- has a challenge on Arsenal defender Ashley Cole that is clearly worthy of a straight red card. So the Red Devils should be down to no more than 10 men, possibly as few as 8.

But the referee is Mike Riley, and he hates Arsenal. He gives only 2 cards to United throughout the match, a yellow each to the Neville brothers. Indeed, van Nistelrooy was retroactively given the punishment he would have gotten if, in fact, he had received a straight red during the game: 3 domestic games. (2 yellows, which equal 1 red, would have been a mere 1-game suspension.)

In that 72nd minute, United's young striker, Wayne Rooney, on his 19th birthday, executes a blatant dive in the 18-yard box. Instead of properly giving him a straight red card and sending him off, Riley calls a foul on Arsenal defender Sol Campbell, who never even touched Rooney. It is a completely bogus call, and Riley awards a penalty, which van Nistelrooy converts. Rooney adds another goal that he didn't deserve to even be on the pitch for in the 90th minute, and United had unfairly won, 2-0.

In contrast to the 2 yellow cards on United, Riley had actually given Arsenal 3 yellow cards -- and the alleged penalty foul by Campbell wasn't one of them.

The fireworks for this most dubious of games in the long and dubious history of Arsenal-Manchester United matches are hardly over at the final whistle. Despite being teammates on the national side, Campbell refuses to shake Rooney's hand, a deserved mark of disrespect. Entering the tunnel to head to the locker rooms, United manager Alex Ferguson is hit in the face by a slice of pizza from the postgame spread in Arsenal's locker room.

The game becomes known as "The Battle of the Buffet" -- a 1990 game between the teams, which featured a fight, had already been called "The Battle of Old Trafford" -- and, as it turned out, the Arsenal player who threw the slice was 17-year-old Spanish midfield wizard Cesc Fàbregas. As it also turned out, this, not anything he did on the field from 2003 to 2011, was the best thing Fàbregas did in an Arsenal uniform, the traitorous bastard.

*

October 24, 2005: Rosa Parks dies from the effects of old age, in her adopted hometown of Detroit, at the age of 92, 50 years after her refusal to stand and move began the Montgoery Buss Boycott.

On October 31, she became the 1st woman, the 2nd black person, and the 1st American not a U.S. government official to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda.

October 24, 2006: Game 3 of the World Series, at the brand-new 3rd ballpark to be named Busch Stadium. The St. Louis Cardinals follow the 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates, the 1911 New York Giants, the 1923 Yankees, and the 1970 Cincinnati Reds in hosting a World Series in their 1st year in a new ballpark. (They have since been followed by the 2009 Yankees.)

Chris Carpenter pitches brilliantly, and Braden Looper closes out the 3-hit shutout in the 9th, as the Cardinals defeat the Detroit Tigers 5-0, and take a 2-1 Series lead. This was Carpenter's World Series debut, as he had been injured for the 2004 Fall Classic, in which the Cards were swept by the Boston Red Sox. Would he have made a difference, thus extending the Curse of the Bambino to at least 2007? We'll never know, but he made a difference in 2006.

Also on this day, Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, sells the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics to Clay Bennett. He'd bought them in 2001, but he didn't run the team like a sports team, he ran it like a business, and, in so doing, alienated a lot of people, including their best player, Gary Payton, driving him away.

Whatever persuasive techniques he used to build Starbucks were ineffective in convincing the local governments to help him build a new arena or expand the old one. Since he was worth about $3 billion, and a new arena would have cost about $500 million, he could have afforded to build 6 new arenas for the team. But ask a billionaire to pay out of his own pocket for something that would help the community? "That's socialism!"

He sold the Sonics to Bennett, taking him at his word (Schultz said) that he wouldn't move the team, when everybody in Washington State and his dog knew that the team would be moved to Bennett's hometown of Oklahoma City.

Schultz might be a genius when it comes to running and marketing Starbucks, but all his business sense seemed to desert him when it came to running a major league sports team. He, not Clay Bennett, is the reason the Seattle SuperSonics are, officially, in limbo. And most former (and future?) Sonics fans get that: Some hate Bennett, but most blame Schultz.

And if there is ever a new Sonics -- an expansion team or a moved team -- Schultz won't be asked to be a part of the ownership group. I doubt they'll even negotiate to put a Starbucks stand in KeyArena or its replacement.

October 24, 2007: Game 1 of the World Series, the 1st Series game for the Colorado Rockies. They had won 21 of their last 22, counting both the regular season and the postseason. But Dustin Pedroia puts an end to that early, leading off the game with a home run. This is only the 2nd time this has been done in a Series game, after Don Buford of the Baltimore Orioles off Tom Seaver of the Mets in Game 1 in 1969.

The Sox run away with this game, 13-1, and, after doing spectacularly well for the last month, the Rockies will not win another game that counts until April 1, 2008.

*

October 24, 2011: Game 5 of the World Series. Mitch Moreland and Adrian Beltre back the veteran Darren Oliver with home runs, and the Texas Rangers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-2. The Rangers need 1 more win to take their 1st-ever World Championship.

They're still looking for that 1 more win.

October 24, 2012: Babe Ruth, Babe Ruth again, Reggie Jackson, Albert Pujols… Pablo Sandoval? Yes, Pablo Sandoval hits 3 home runs in a World Series game, helping the San Francisco Giants beat the Detroit Tigers 8-3 in Game 1. 

Also of note was Gerry Davis becoming the umpire with the most postseason games worked: He would finish the Series, which was swept by the Giants, with 115.

Also on this day, Jeff Blatnick dies -- not from Hodgkin's lymphoma, which he had battled in the early 1980s, but from complications from heart surgery. He was only 55.

After beating cancer, the Albany-area native won America's 1st-ever Olympic Gold Medal in Greco-Roman wrestling, in 1984 in Los Angeles. (Steve Fraser won the 2nd the same day.) Interviewed afterward, through tears of joy, he yelled, "I'm a happy dude!" His cancer returned, but he beat it again, and served as a commentator for NBC at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

From 1994 onward, he was involved in Ultimate Fighting, helping to standardize its rules and broadcasting the sport. When he died, it was for announcing UFC bouts, not his wrestling title, that he was best known.

Also on this day, Margaret Osborne duPont dies in El Paso, Texas. She was 94. The top female tennis player in the world in the late 1940s, she won the U.S. Open 3 times, the French Open twice, and Wimbledon in 1947.

October 24, 2013: Game 2 of the World Series. Despite another steroid-aided home run by David Ortiz, Michael Wacha outpitches John Lackey, and the Cardinals beat the Red Sox 4-2, to tie the Series up heading to St. Louis.

After their sweeps of 2004* and 2007*, this was the 1st World Series game lost by the Sox since... Game 7 in 1986.

October 24, 2014: Game 3 of the World Series. After 11 seasons in the major leagues, Jeremy Guthrie of the Kansas City Royals makes his 1st World Series start. After 16 seasons, so does Tim Hudson of the San Francisco Giants. Guthrie gets the key hits he needs, Hudson doesn't, and the Royals beat the Giants 3-2, and take a 2-1 lead in the Series.

Also on this day, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi dies in a car crash in Witbank, South Africa. He was 34 years old. He won a Silver Medal in the 800 meters at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, and Gold Medals at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and the 2009 World Championships of Track & Field.

October 24, 2017: Game 1 of the World Series, the 1st to be held at Dodger Stadium since Game 2 of 1988, is the hottest Series game ever: The temperature at first pitch was 103 degrees. Clayton Kershaw, until now an underachiever in postseason play, outpitches Dallas Keuchel, and gets home runs from Chris Taylor and Justin Turner. The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros 3-1.

In their respective histories to this point, in World Series games, the Los Angeles edition of the Dodgers is 25-24. The Astros? 0-5. That would change the next night.

October 24, 2018: Game 2 of the World Series at Fenway Park. The Dodgers load the bases in the top of the 4th, but get only 1 run home, taking a 2-1 lead. They will come to regret this.

Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you. In the bottom of the 5th, Hyun-Jin Ryu allows singles to Christian Vazquez and Mookie Betts, and walks Andrew Benintendi to load the bases. Dave Roberts -- one of the Sox heroes of 2004, but now managing the Dodgers -- brings in Ryan Madson, a Series winner with the 2008 Phillies and the 2015 Royals, but he walks Steve Pearce home with the tying run, and allows a 2-run single to J.D. Martinez.

David Price, with a postseason record that had made Kershaw look like Bob Gibson, cruises, and the 4-2 Sox lead of the 5th turns out to be the final score. The Series heads for Los Angeles with the Sox up 2-0.

October 24, 2028: According to the 2014 remake of RoboCop, this is the date on which Detroit Police Officer Alex Murphy (played by Joel Kinnaman) is killed in the line of duty and turned into the title character. The 1987 original (where he's played by Peter Weller) does not give a specific date, saying only that the film takes place "in the near future." If the gap was also 14 years in that one, then it would have been in 2001.