May 10, 1876: The Centennial Exhibition

Memorial Hall

May 10, 1876, 150 years ago: The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, opens in Philadelphia, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in the city, on July 4, 1776.

Officially named the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, it was held in Fairmount Park, along the Schuylkill (SKOOL-kill) River, northwest of what's now known as Center City, on fairgrounds designed by Herman J. Schwarzmann. Nearly 10 million visitors attended the exposition, and 37 countries participated in it. It ran until November 10, when colder weather made keeping it going impractical.

A 1,000-foot Centennial Tower was proposed, but never built. (World's Fairs that did build towers have included the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris with the Eiffel Tower, the 1939 New York World's Fair with the Trylon, and the 1962 Century 21 Exposition in Seattle with the Space Needle.) But the right arm and torch of the still-incomplete Statue of Liberty were on display, and fees collected to stand in the torch and view the fair helped raise money for the Statue's completion.

There was an Agricultural Hall, a Horticultural Hall, a Machinery Hall, a Women's Pavilion, and a few other themed exhibition areas. Among the new products shown for the first time at this fair were Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, the Remington No. 1 typewriter, Heinz ketchup and Hires root beer.

The Exhibition was intended not only to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of American independence, but to show that America was coming out of the economic depression that had been caused by the stock market's Panic of 1873. The celebrations were meant to peak on Centennial Day, July 4, 1876. Unfortunately, that was the day that word reached Philadelphia by telegraph of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where Native American tribes routed the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in the Montana Territory, putting a damper on the big day.

The fair was a mixture of the Gilded Age and the pain of the depression brought about by the Panic of 1873, and the strain that the Wild West was putting on the nation.

One of the few remaining buildings from the Exhibition is Memorial Hall. Since 2005, it has housed the Please Touch Museum, an interactive museum for children.

March 10, 1876: Alexander Graham Bell Invents the Telephone

March 10, 1876, 150 years ago: Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone. Or, some would say, "invents" it.

A Scotsman who had lived much of his life in Canada, he had established a laboratory in Boston, and his assistant, an electrical designer named Thomas A. Watson, had accidentally discovered that sound could be conducted through telegraph wires.

Bell began working on a device for sending listenable voices over long distances, a "tele-phone." But he was in a race. Another scientist named Elisha Gray was working on it. Bell's patent was approved by the U.S. Patent Office on March 7, before Gray's could be, and that's why Bell gets the credit.

Another contender for the title of "inventor of the telephone" was Antonio Meucci, an Italian immigrant living in Staten Island. He submitted a patent caveat for his device in 1871, but there was no mention of electromagnetic transmission of vocal sound, so he doesn't get the credit any more than Gray does.

(I remember a news reporter covering a story of Italian-Americans on Staten Island trying to get official recognition for Meucci. The reporter said, instead of "Ma Bell," we should use the name "Papa Meucci.")

On March 10, Bell was on the ground floor of his lab, with one side of the experimental device. Watson was upstairs, with the other side. Bell accidentally spilled a beaker, and got acid on his leg. He screamed in pain, and yelled, "Mr. Watson, come here! I want to see you!" (An AT&T commercial from the 1980s showed an actor playing Bell spilling it on his sleeve, and yelling a shorter, "Watson! Come here! I want you!")

When Watson got downstairs, he told Bell he'd heard him. Bell said he'd yelled loud enough for Watson to hear. Watson had to explain that he had heard Bell through the device. The telephone worked.

Thomas A. Watson

Bell's device was put on display at the Centennial Exposition, a World's Fair in Philadelphia celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. On October 9, Bell was in Boston, and Watson 2 miles away, across the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and that device worked. 

A model of the device

The following year, the Bell Telephone Company was founded. In 1879, Bell bought some patents from Thomas Edison, who was in the process of inventing, though not the electric light bulb, the 1st practical one. In 1885, the company's name was changed to American Telephone & Telegraph, or "AT&T." Until the U.S. Supreme Court broke it up in 1982, it was still called "The Bell System," it was nicknamed "Ma Bell," and a bell was its symbol.

Antonio Meucci died in 1889, and Elisha Gray died in 1901, hampering their efforts, and those of their supporters, to get them recognition. Alexander Graham Bell died in 1922, having lived long enough not only better make his case, but to be in New York and make the 1st transcontinental phone call, to San Francisco, in 1915.

Thomas A. Watson died in 1934, having lived long enough to participate in a sound film in which he told of the process of inventing the telephone, thus helping to solidify his role and Bell's in the public mind. He was not related to the Thomas J. Watsons, Sr. and Jr., who built IBM into another of the world's business superpowers, one that wouldn't have been possible without Thomas A. Watson and Alexander Graham Bell.

March 5, 1875: The Brief Return of Andrew Johnson

March 5, 1875, 150 years ago: Andrew Johnson is sworn in as a member of the U.S. Senate. Just 7 years earlier, the Senate had tried to ensure that he never held public office in America again.

Andrew Johnson (no middle name) was born on December 29, 1808 in Raleigh, North Carolina. His father died when he was 3 years old, casting the family into dire poverty. He apprenticed as a tailor, moved to Greenville, Tennessee, and, at age 18, married 16-year-old Eliza McCardle, in a ceremony performed by Justice of the Peace Mordecai Lincoln -- a 1st cousin of Abraham Lincoln. They had 5 children, none of whom ever ran for public office. All 3 sons died young, from alcoholism, and 2 of them predeceased Andrew.

He had as many as 10 slaves, but freed them shortly after the Emancipation Proclamation, keeping them as paid servants. He was elected an Alderman in Greenville in 1829, and became a delegate to a convention writing a new Constitution for Tennessee. He was elected Mayor in 1834, to the State House of Representatives in 1835, to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1843, Governor in 1853, and U.S. Senator in 1857.

Johnson was the only Senator from a State that seceded from the Union in 1860-61 who did not resign his seat. He remained loyal to the Union. President Lincoln rewarded him for this by appointing him Military Governor of Tennessee in 1862. In 1864, seeking to widen his support, the Republican Lincoln asked his Vice President, former Maine Senator Hannibal Hamlin, to step aside from the ticket, and he formed a "National Union" ticket with the Democratic Johnson.

Lincoln and Johnson won, and were inaugurated on March 4, 1865. But while Lincoln's Inaugural Address was one of the greatest ever -- with its request, "With malice toward none, with charity for all" -- Johnson was hungover from celebrating the night before, was given more drinks, and was drunk when he delivered his Inaugural Address. He was still so out of it when Lincoln spoke that, knowing there were photographers, Hamlin blocked Johnson's face with his top hat.

Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, and died the next morning, April 15, at 7:22 AM. At 11:00 AM, Johnson was sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States, Salmon P. Chase, a former Senator from Ohio. The ceremony was held at the Kirkwood House, a boarding house, at 1111 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, 4 blocks east of the White House. (It was demolished in 1874. The site is now occupied by an office building, with ground-floor retail, including The West Wing Cafe.)

Johnson continued Lincoln's lenient "Reconstruction" policy toward the South, which was considered too lenient by the "Radical Republicans" who then controlled Congress. It's important to note that, at this point in the nation's history, the Republicans were liberal, including being pro-civil rights, and, while they were based in what's now considered the Midwest, they also dominated the Northeast; while the Democrats were conservative, with a base in the "Solid South," and stood up for white supremacy.

And so, the Republicans, led by such men as Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and Senator Benjamin Franklin Wade of Ohio, and Johnson fought like cats and dogs. Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, preventing the President from firing any member of the Cabinet without the consent of the Senate. After all, the Senate had to give consent to appoint someone to the Cabinet, so why shouldn't their consent be needed to remove someone from it?

But the consent of the Senate for Cabinet appointments was written into the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution did not prevent the President from firing a Cabinet member without the Senate's consent. Eventually, well after Johnson was dead, the U.S. Supreme Court would rule that Johnson was right, and struck the Act down.

Johnson fired the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, who had been appointed by Lincoln. On February 24, 1868, the House impeached Johnson, the 1st impeachment of a President. His trial began in the Senate on March 5, with a conflict of interest: Under the law in effect at the time, since the Vice Presidency was vacant following Johnson's rise to the Presidency, if he were to be convicted, the next President would be the President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate -- Ben Wade. He should have recused himself from the trial. He did not.

On May 16, the Senate voted on the 11th Article of Impeachment, accusing Johnson of firing Stanton in violation of the Tenure of Office of Act once the Senate had overturned his suspension. The vote was 35 Guilty, 19 Not Guilty. With a 2/3rds majority required to convict Johnson and remove him from the Presidency, he thus stayed in office by 1 vote. One vote. In the days to come, 2 other Articles of Impeachment also went down to 35-19 votes, and the others were dropped, with the presumption that the results would be roughly the same.

There were 10 Republicans who broke from their party to acquit him. One, James Grimes of Iowa, said, "I cannot agree to destroy the harmonious working of the Constitution for the sake of getting rid of an unacceptable president." Another, Edmund G. Ross of Kansas, would later be one of the Senators cited in John F. Kennedy's book Profiles in Courage.

It was just as well: Johnson was done as President within a year, anyway. The Republicans, no longer needing votes from the South, were never going to re-elect him. And the Democrats viewed him as having abandoned them. In the 1868 election, the Republican nominee, General Ulysses S. Grant, easily defeated the Democratic nominee, Governor Horatio Seymour of New York.

On March 4, 1869, Johnson did not attend Grant's Inauguration. They already did not get along, and Johnson refused the traditional carriage ride of the outgoing and the incoming Presidents from the White House to the Capitol. He stayed at his desk, literally working until the last minute of the last day of his Administration. While some of those carriage rides, which became an automobile ride in 1921, were tense, no outgoing President would refuse to attend the incoming President's Inauguration again until Donald Trump for Joe Biden in 2021.

Seeking vindication for himself, and revenge against his political enemies, he launched a Senate bid soon after returning home. At the time, Senators were still elected by State legislatures, and he lost his 1869 race. He lost a House race in 1872. On January 26, 1875, he won a Senate seat. He remains the only former President to be elected to the Senate, although John Quincy Adams was elected to the House after his failed bid for re-election.

When Andrew Johnson walked into the Senate chamber for his swearing-in on March 5, 1875, he was greeted with a standing ovation, and given a bouquet of flowers. John Sherman of Ohio, brother of General William Tecumseh Sherman, and one of the leaders of the move to convict him, shook his hand. With some irony, Johnson's predecessor as Vice President, Hannibal Hamlin, had also been returned to the Senate, and they were sworn in together by the current Vice President, Henry Wilson.

Johnson returned to Tennessee after the special session of Congress ended, and died of a stroke as his daughter Mary's farm near Elizabethton on July 30, 1875, at the age of 66, less than 5 months after his return to the Senate. When he was buried in Greenville, a copy of the Constitution was put in his coffin, in place of a pillow.

Because of his pro-South policies and racism, much more than for the circumstances that led to his impeachment, he has consistently been rated one of the worst Presidents. Nevertheless, he did produce one of the greatest comebacks in the history of American politics.

Only one film has been made about him: Tennessee Johnson, in 1942, starring Van Heflin -- not to be confused with Van Johnson (no relation to Andrew) or Van Williams. A Presidential Library was set up for him on the campus of Tusculum University in Greenville, Tennessee. U.S. Route 11E in northeastern Tennessee, including Greenville, is named the Andrew Johnson Highway. No U.S. Navy ship has been named for him.

A note about Chief Justice Chase, who swore Johnson in as President: In 1934, his portrait appeared on a one-time issue of a gold certificate with a face value of $10,000. The U.S. government has not issued a bill larger than $100 since.

September 18, 1873: The Panic of 1873

Drawing of a bank run during the Panic

September 18, 1873, 150 years ago: The American stock market begins a tailspin that becomes known as the Panic of 1873. It throws the country into its worst economic conditions to that point, known in hindsight as the Long Depression.

The American Civil War of the early 1860s was followed by a boom in railroad construction. 33,000 miles of new track were laid across the country between 1868 and 1873, with much of the craze in railroad investment being driven by government land grants and subsidies to the railroads. The railroad industry was the largest employer outside agriculture in the U.S., and a large infusion of cash from speculators caused spectacular growth in the industry and in the construction of docks, factories, and ancillary facilities. Most capital was involved in projects offering no immediate or early returns.

A period of economic overexpansion arose from the northern railroad boom before a series of economic setbacks. The Panic of 1869, a.k.a. Black Friday, did not cause a depression, the way the Panics of 1837 and 1857 had. But there were major fires in Chicago in 1871 and Boston in 1872. An outbreak of equine influenza in 1872 devastated American horses, and also pretty much every industry in America, which depended on horses.

The decision of the German Empire to cease minting silver thaler coins soon after its founding in 1871 caused a drop in demand and downward pressure on the value of silver, which, in turn, affected the U.S., since much of the supply of silver was mind there. This also caused a crash in the Vienna Stock Exchange on May 9, affecting the Austrian Empire, with a ripple effect across the continent. France hadn't yet recovered from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and Italy was also a newly unified nation, and struggling economically. Europe was a mess.

As a result of what was going on there, the U.S. Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1873, which changed the national silver policy. Before the Act, the U.S. had backed its currency with both gold and silver and minted both types of coins. The Act moved the country to a de facto gold standard, which meant it would no longer buy silver at a statutory price or convert silver from the public into silver coins, but it would still mint silver dollars for export in the form of trade dollars.

The Act had the immediate effect of depressing silver prices, hurting Western mining interests, who labeled the Act "The Crime of '73", but its effect was offset somewhat by the introduction of a silver trade dollar for use in Asia and the discovery of new silver deposits at Virginia City, Nevada, that resulted in new investment in mining activity. (Virginia City's role as a silver developer led to Nevada's Statehood in 1864, its nickname "The Silver State," and the 1959-73 TV show Bonanza, where the Cartwright family fortune was based on silver found near Virginia City, then invested in other interested like land, cattle and timber.)

The Act also reduced the domestic money supply, raising interest rates and hurting farmers and others who normally carried heavy debt loads. The perception of US instability in its monetary policy caused investors to shy away from long-term obligations, particularly long-term bonds. The problem was compounded by the railroad boom, which was then in its later stages.

Jay Cooke & Company, a major component of the country's banking establishment, found itself unable to market several million dollars in bonds it held in the Northern Pacific Railway, connecting St. Paul, Minnesota with Seattle, Washington.

Cooke, known as the Union's "Great Financier" during the Civil War, and his firm, like many others, had invested heavily in the railroads. Some investment banks were then anxious for more capital for their enterprises. President Ulysses S. Grant's monetary policy of contracting the money supply, and thus raising interest rates, made matters worse for those in debt. Businesses were expanding, but the money they needed to finance that growth was becoming scarcer.

Due to the financial crises in Europe, Cooke could not sell the securities abroad. Just as he was about to swing a $300 million government loan, reports circulated that his firm's credit had become nearly worthless. On September 18, the firm declared bankruptcy.

The New York Stock Exchange closed for 10 days, starting on September 20. (It was a Saturday, anyway, but it did not reopen on Monday, September 22.) Many insurance companies went out of business, as the deteriorating financial conditions created solvency problems for life insurers. By November, some 55 of the nation's railroads had failed, and another 60 had gone bankrupt by the first anniversary of the crisis. Construction of new rail lines, formerly one of the backbones of the economy, plummeted from 7,500 miles of track in 1872 to just 1,600 miles in 1875, and 18,000 businesses failed between 1873 and 1875.

Unemployment peaked in 1878, at 8.25 percent -- and that's just what was reported, so it was likely considerably higher. Building construction was halted, wages were cut, real estate values fell, and corporate profits vanished.

In 1874, Congress passed the Ferry Bill, proposed by Senator Thomas Ferry of Michigan, to allow for the printing of currency, increasing inflation and reducing the value of debts. Grant vetoed the bill. The poor economic conditions also caused voters to turn against Grant's Republican Party. In the 1874 Congressional elections, the Democratic Party won control of the House of Representatives for the first time since the Civil War.

The following year, Congress passed the Specie Resumption Act of 1875, which would back U.S. currency with gold. This helped curb inflation and stabilize the dollar. But public opinion made it difficult for the Grant Administration to develop a coherent policy on the Southern States, and the North began to steer away from Reconstruction.

With the depression, ambitious railroad building programs crashed across the South, leaving most states deep in debt and burdened with heavy taxes. Retrenchment was a common response of the South to State debts during the depression. One by one, each State fell to the Democrats in the South, and the Republicans lost power. So, as is usually the case, black people were hurt by a downturn in the American economy more than white people were.

What effect did the depression have on sports? Well, only one team sport was really organized in North America at the time, and that was baseball. According to historian Richard Hershberger:

The effects on the economy on the ground won't happen immediately. It will be the 1875 season that it really affects professional baseball, but it will hit hard. Professional baseball will go into decline, though there are some superficial changes that disguise this.

Early signs of recovery will appear late in the 1880 season. In 1881 baseball will be in full recovery mode, leading to the founding of the AA (the American Association) and a general expansion of the minors. In the meantime, the history of baseball, if you look past just the play on the field, doesn't make a lick of sense from 1875 through 1881 unless you take the depressed economy into account.

The end of the crisis didn't come with any measure of the government. Rather, it came with an influx of labor, with the beginning of the great wave of immigration to the U.S., spurred on by both economic hardship and religious persecution in Europe. This wave of immigration enriched the country and its businesses, if not (in most cases) the immigrants themselves, and lasted until the early 1920s.

By 1880, Jay Cooke had managed to pay off his debts, and his investment in a Nevada silver mine had restored his fortune. He died in 1905, considered not a hero or a villain, but mostly as a relic of an earlier age.

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September 18, 1873 was a Thursday. There were 2 games played in the biggest professional baseball league of the time, the National Association, which is now regarded by most, but not all, history-minded baseball fans as a "major league." Both included teams based in what would now be considered New York City, although Brooklyn did not become a part of the City until 1898; and both played a Philadelphia team.

The New York Mutuals beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-2 at the Union Grounds in Brooklyn. The Mutuals had played since 1857, and would become members of the National League in 1876, but folded after that season. The Athletics would also join the NL for 1876 and then drop out after 1 season, and bear no relation to the team of the same name that started in the American League in 1901, and is now located in Oakland.

In the other game, the Brooklyn Atlantics, another survivor of the amateur era, also dating to 1857, lost to the Philadelphia White Stockings, 9-4 at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia, which was also the home of the Athletics. Neither of these teams even got as far as the Mutuals or the original A's: They were not invited to join the NL, and the White Stockings then folded, while the Atlantics carried on as independents until 1882. 

November 5, 1946: Rifleman 1, Backboard 0

November 5, 1946, 75 years ago: The Boston Celtics play their 1st home game at the Boston Garden. Only 4,329 fans attend, and it's delayed for an hour, because a Celtic player damaged a wooden backboard with a dunk during warmups. A new backboard was brought in from the Boston Arena (now Matthews Arena, home court and ice of Northeastern University). The Celtics lose 57-55 to the Chicago Stags.

The Stags, and the original NBA teams of Washington, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and St. Louis, would quickly fail. The Celtics might have as well, had their owner, Walter Brown, not also owned the Garden, the NHL's Bruins, and the Ice Capades. He was able to keep the team going long enough to hire Red Auerbach as head coach, and the rest is history.

Oh, the player who became the 1st NBA player to break a backboard? A 6-foot-5 25-year-old Brooklynite who played at New Jersey's Seton Hall University. He went on to play 1 game for his hometown Dodgers in 1949, coming to bat once as a pinch-hitter, never playing the field for them. He then got traded to the Chicago Cubs, and played 66 games at 1st base for them in the 1951 season.

The Cubs' top farm team at the time was the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. While playing in L.A., this athlete found off-season work as a stuntman, and, like John Wayne, moved from stunts to acting, mostly in Westerns. His name was Chuck Connors, famed for his portrayal of Lucas McCain, the lead character of The Rifleman; and as Jason McCord, the lead in Branded.

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November 5, 1605: Guy Fawkes, a Catholic fanatic, is arrested beneath the House of Lords at Britain's Parliament, for plotting to blow it up, taking with it the Protestant King James I, his wife Queen Anne, and his sons Prince Henry and Prince Charles. The idea was to place James' daughter, Princess Elizabeth, on the throne. She was just 9 years old, and would, under their order, be raised as, and be married to, a Catholic.

In hindsight, the plot was doomed to failure. The gunpowder was too damp: Lighting it would have had little effect, and aside from whoever lit it, nobody would have died.

And if it had worked? Instead of the people of England rising up in celebration, the reaction would have been like America's after Pearl Harbor and 9/11, or Britain's after the Brighton bombing of 1985 failed to kill Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: A moment of fear, followed by righteous rage. The conspirators would not have lived to see Christmas, no matter what they did.

Although all the conspirators were caught and hanged, Fawkes is generally the only one remembered. Today, Britain chooses to "Remember, remember, the 5th of November, the gunpowder treason and plot," and it's known as Guy Fawkes Night, commemorated with fireworks and bonfires -- leading to its other name, Bonfire Night.

There are those, of course, who commemorate the plot, rather than its failure, but these are less Fawkes' fellow Catholic fanatics, and more people who don't like the government, whoever currently holds it: Fawkes is often called "the only man ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions."

The 1982 graphic novel V for Vendetta features an antihero wearing a mask designed to look like Fawkes, and his attempt to take down a tyrannical government in a dystopian future: 1997 in the book, 2038 in the film -- meaning that Norsefire took over in 2018.

The film based on it (with some considerable differences) was supposed to be released on November 5, 2005, the 400th Anniversary, but after the London bombings of July 7 of that year, it was considered to be too soon, and it was pushed back to March 17, 2006 -- St. Patrick's Day.

Except, in both book and film, "V" got one big thing very wrong: The government Fawkes was trying to bring down was actually more tolerant toward his faith than the one that came before (under Queen Elizabeth I), while the one he wanted to impose would have been a faith-based dictatorship that would have brooked no dissent -- much like the one "V" was trying to bring down. Not the only inconsistency in the character.

What does Guy Fawkes or his Night have to do with sports? Not much, I just like the story, and the story that uses it.

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November 5, 1869: The Cincinnati Red Stockings complete their 1st season as the 1st openly professional baseball team, going 65-0, and playing from coast (Boston) to coast (San Francisco), doing as much to spread the growth of the game than any other team had ever done.

Hail the Champions:

* Pitcher, Asa Brainard, from whose name we supposedly get the word "ace," a native of Albany, New York, 1841-1888.
* Center fielder and manager, Harry Wright, born in Sheffield, England, and grew up in New York, 1835-1895.
* 3rd baseman, Fred Waterman, Manhattan, 1845-1899.
* Left fielder, Andy Leonard, born in Ireland and grew up in Newark, 1846-1903
* 2nd baseman, Charlie Sweasy, Newark, 1847-1908
* Catcher, Doug Allison, Philadelphia, 1846-1916.
* Substitute, but mainly an outfielder, Dick Hurley, Honesdale, Pennsylvania, born in 1847, and history has lost track of him, the last record of him being in 1916.
* 1st baseman, Charlie Gould, the only one actually from Cincinnati, 1847-1917.
* Right fielder, Cal McVey, born in Montrose, Iowa and grew up in Indianapolis, 1849-1926,
* Shortstop, George Wright, Yonkers, brother of Harry, the last survivor, 1847-1937.

So it was a pair of Wright Brothers in southern Ohio who, essentially, invented professional baseball, just as another such air invented the airplane. Harry and George are in the Baseball Hall of Fame, 1 of only 2 pairs of brothers both in. The other is Paul and Lloyd Waner.

November 5, 1872: President Ulysses S. Grant is re-elected, defeating Horace Greeley, with 55 percent of the vote to 43, and 286 Electoral Votes to 66.

This was a weird election. The Republican Party was split over the corruption in the Grant Administration (though Grant himself has never been accused of wrongdoing). A group of "Liberal Republicans" nominated Horace Greeley, publisher of the New York Tribune, formerly one of the nation's leading voices against slavery, briefly a Congressman in 1848-49, and one of the Party's founders in 1854.

Greeley favored Western expansionism, popularizing the slogan, "Go west, young man, and grow up with the country!" But he didn't come up with the words himself: John Babson Lane Soule first used it in the Terre Haute Express in Indiana in 1851.

Greeley had long lambasted the Democratic Party as the party of slavery, but, not wanting to divide the opposition to the Republicans, the Democrats swallowed their pride, and also nominated Greeley. As a result, pretty much every attack that Greeley had hurled at the Democrats for a quarter of a century was hurled back at him, including that he supported racist policies, even the nascent Ku Klux Klan.

In addition, his wife Mary got sick, and on October 12, he effectively stopped campaigning to be by her side. She died 5 days before the election, and he won only 6 States, all formerly slaveholding States: Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Missouri and Texas.

All this took a terrible toll on his own health, and he died at age 61 on November 29, before the Electoral Votes could be cast -- thus becoming the only person ever entitled to receive Electoral Votes for President, but unable to receive them.

Did I say the election was weird? Susan B. Anthony and Victoria Woodhull voted -- Anthony for Grant, Woodhull for herself, the 1st woman known to have gotten on any ballot as a candidate for President. Even if the million-to-one shot came in, and she won, she couldn't have served at first, anyway: She didn't reach the minimum age of 35 until September 23, 1873, over 6 months into the term.

Both were arrested on Election Day: Anthony for voting, and Woodhull for obscenity, for printing, in a magazine she and her sister Tennessee Claflin ran (the 1st women in America to do so -- and they were also the 1st women ever to run a Wall Street brokerage firm), the story of the infidelity of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, yet another former abolitionist and yet another founder of the Republican Party.

Ironically, Beecher had supported women's right to vote, but, though apparently a practitioner of free love, he denounced it in public, and denounced Woodhull in particular, from his pulpit. That's why Woodhull was charged with obscenity (the story was sexual in nature), not with libel (the story was true), and Beecher's reputation did not improve.

Woodhull was held in jail for a month, and released. She ran for President again in 1884 and 1892, with almost no notice. She moved to England with her 3rd husband, and died there in 1927, and was buried there. Beecher died in 1887. He and Greeley are both buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, along with several early baseball stars.

November 5, 1891, 130 years ago: Alfred Earle Neale is born in Parkersburg, West Virginia. An outfielder, he played 8 seasons, batting .259, and won the World Series with the 1919 Cincinnati Reds, but it is football for which "Greasy" Neale is remembered.

He played professional football before there was an NFL, including as a player-coach, for some of the teams that would go on to found the League: The Canton Bulldogs in 1917, the Dayton Triangles in 1918, and the Massillon Tigers in 1919. He coached at the University of Virginia and West Virginia University, and in 1941 was named the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, leading them to 3 straight NFL Championship Games, winning in 1948 and 1949.

He retired after a disappointing 1950 season, and never coached at any level again. He died in 1973, having lived long enough to see himself elected to the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame.

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November 5, 1900: Harvey J. Harman is born in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. (I can find no record of what the J stands for.) He served as the head football coach at Haverford College in Pennsylvania from 1922 to 1929, Sewanee University in Tennessee in 1930, the University of Pennsylvania from 1931 to 1937, and at Rutgers from 1938 to 1941. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he returned to the Rutgers job from 1946 to 1955.

His tenure at Rutgers included the opening of Rutgers Stadium in 1938. He went 14-2-2 in 1938 and '39, and 22-5 from 1946 to 1948. He died on December 17, 1969 -- the day before I was born -- and was posthumously elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. A plaque in his memory hangs at the new Rutgers Stadium, now named High Point Solutions Stadium.

November 5, 1911, 110 years ago: Berry Nieuwenhuis is born in Boksburg, South Africa. An outside right, he played for Liverpool from 1933 to 1947, winning the Football League title in his last season. He lived until 1984.

Also on this day, Leonard Franklin Slye is born in Cincinnati. We knew him as Roy Rogers. "The King of the Cowboys" was an entertainment legend from 1933 until his death in 1998, he was my mother's childhood hero due to The Roy Rogers Show, which ran on NBC from 1951 to 1957. Aside from lending his name, and doing some commercials, he had no involvement with Roy Rogers Restaurants.

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November 5, 1921, 100 years ago: Mike Mitchell Goliat (not "Michael") is born outside Pittsburgh in Yatesboro, Pennsylvania. He only played 4 seasons in the major leagues, but 1 of them was as the starting 2nd baseman on the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies, the "Whiz Kids" who won the National League Pennant. He died in 2004.

November 5, 1931, 90 years ago: Izear Luster Turner Jr. is born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. We knew him as Ike Turner. He was introduced to abuse as a boy by a vengeful alcoholic stepfather, and, instead of rejecting this, adopted it.

He became a disc jockey in Memphis, and a bandleader. In 1951, at Sun Records in Memphis, later to be home base for Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and other stars, he and his band, The Kings of Rhythm, recorded "Rocket 88," about an Oldsmobile car. It is often called the 1st rock and roll record.

In 1957, he met a teenager named Anna Mae Bullock, and she became his singer and girlfriend, eventually his wife. He renamed her Tina Turner, because Tina rhymed with a TV character he liked, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. In the 1960s, The Ike & Tina Turner Revue were big among black audiences. By 1970, white audiences had accepted them as well.

But he had been terribly abusive toward Tina, and on July 1, 1976, she left him, and began a solo career. She became bigger than ever in the 1980s, and his reputation was in ruins. In 1991, they were, as a unit, elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Tina showed up to claim her award. Ike couldn't: He was in prison following a drug conviction. Accepting for him, and keeping it until he could be released, was a man who had produced records for them... Phil Spector, another man whose artistic genius had long excused his monstrous treatment of women.

When Tina's memoir I, Tina was turned into the 1993 film What's Love Got to Do With It, with Angela Bassett as Tina and Laurence Fishburne as Ike, any reputation Ike still had was utterly destroyed. No one wanted to think of such a horrible person as one of the founding fathers of rock and roll, or as the discoverer and guide of a legend like Tina. He published his own memoir in 1999, but his confessions only dug his hole deeper. He died in 2007, from a cocaine overdose.

November 5, 1941, 80 years ago: Arthur Ira Garfunkel is born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York. In 1954, he was cast in a 6th grade play version of Alice In Wonderland. A classmate in the play was Paul Simon. In 1957, still in high school, they recorded "Hey Schoolgirl" together, under the name Tom & Jerry, after the cartoon cat and mouse. The song was not a hit.

Both men got their college degrees, and in 1964, they recorded their 1st album under the Simon & Garfunkel name, the all-acoustic Wednesday Morning, 3 AM. It went nowhere, and they split up.

But in late 1965, someone at Columbia Records took their recording of Simon's song "The Sound of Silence," and had electric backing tracks recorded over it. It hit Number 1 at the beginning of 1966, and they got back together. Their harmonies and Simon's lyrics produced 5 fantastic albums, but they split up again after Bridge Over Troubled Water in 1970.

Paul launched a very successful solo career. Art's was less successful, but he also got good reviews for some movie roles. The have occasionally reunited since: An early episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975, The Concert In Central Park in 1981 (500,000 people came), their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, tours in 2003 and 2009, and, most recently, a tribute to Mike Nichols in 2010.

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November 5, 1951, 70 years ago: The 1st section of the New Jersey Turnpike opens, from Exit 1 in Pennsville, Salem County, accessing the newly-opened Delaware Memorial Bridge, to Exit 5 in Westampton, Burlington County. On January 15, 1952, it will be fully open, all the way to Exit 16/18 in Secaucus, Hudson County, accessing the Lincoln Tunnel and the George Washington Bridge. This includes Exit 9 in what would become my hometown, East Brunswick, Middlesex County.

The year 1956 would see the opening of the Newark Bay Extension, including Exits 14A, 14B and 14C, and accessing the Holland Tunnel; and the Pearl Harbor Memorial Turnpike Extension, leaving at Exit 6 and connecting the main road with the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

In 1970, the Western Spur was opened, including Exits 15W, 16W and 18W, with 16W providing access to the Meadowlands Sports Complex that opened in 1976. This forced the renaming of Exits 15, 16 and 18 to 15E, 16E and 18E.

November 5, 1971, 50 years ago: The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Baltimore Bullets, 110-106 at The Forum. Gail Goodrich leads all scorers with 31 points. Jim McMillian, taking over at forward for the retired Elgin Baylor, has 22. Despite their reputations, Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain are limited to 19 and 12, respectively, although Wilt does grab 25 rebounds.

This begins a 33-game winning streak, which remains the longest in the history of major league sports in North America, and leads them to an NBA record (since broken) of 69 wins and the Championship the following May.

For perspective: The longest winning streak in Major League Baseball is 26, by the 1916 New York Giants (who nonetheless finished 4th); in the National Football League, 23 in regular season play, by the 2008 and '09 Indianapolis Colts, and 21 counting the postseason, by the 2003 and '04 New England Patriots; and in the National Hockey League, 17, by the 1993 Pittsburgh Penguins.

In the 1979-80 season, the Philadelphia Flyers had a 35-game unbeaten streak, but that included 6 ties. When Arsenal set a new record for longest unbeaten streak in English 1st division soccer in 2003 and '04, it was 49 games, but that included 13 draws. 

November 5, 1978: The newspaper strike in New York City, which began on August 10, ends. The fact that there were fewer reporters to bother them, and to complain to (although there were still TV and radio guys), is often credited as being one of the reasons the Yankees made their epic comeback and won the World Series.

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November 5, 1981, 40 years ago: Luke Hemsworth -- as far as I know, his full name -- is born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The older brother of actors Chris and Liam Hemsworth, he plays Ashley Stubbs on Westworld.

November 5, 1987: Kevin Paul Jonas II is born in Teaneck, Bergen County, New Jersey, and grows up in nearby Wyckoff. He is the oldest of the singing Jonas Brothers.

November 5, 1988: The expansion Miami Heat make their NBA debut, at the now-demolished Miami Arena. They probably thought that picking the Los Angeles Clippers as their 1st opponent would help.

Just as their arch-rivals, the Orlando Magic, will do a year later when they choose the Nets, the Heat chose wrong: The Clips win, 111-91. Dwayne "the Pearl" Washington comes off the bench to lead the Heat with 16 points, but the Clips get 22 from Ken Norman and 21 from Reggie Williams.

Also on this day, Gino Gradkowski (no middle name) is born in Pittsburgh. A center, he was with the Baltimore Ravens when they won Super Bowl XLVII. He is now retired.

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November 5, 1994: A 45-year-old overweight minister wins the Heavyweight Championship of the World. It doesn't sound possible. It is, when it's George Foreman.

Wearing the same trunks he wore 20 years minus a week earlier, when he lost the title to Muhammad Ali, Big George knocks Michael Moorer out in the 10th round at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas. He thus breaks Jersey Joe Walcott's record as oldest Heavyweight Champion (38).

He doesn't hold the title for long, as organizational shenanigans beyond his control forced him to give it up. But he had made his point. Today, who remembers the guys who made George Foreman give up the title (except for Ali)? Ah, but everybody remembers George, and everybody likes George. Which was not the case the first time around: After retiring from boxing for the 1st time in 1977, he totally changed his life, and became a different and better person. His last fight was a loss to Shannon Briggs in 1997. His final record was 76-5 -- 31-3 after his comeback.

November 5, 1995: The expansion Vancouver Grizzlies make their NBA debut, at the new General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena). They win their premiere, beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 100-98. Christian Laettner scores 26 for the T-Wolves to lead all scorers, but the Grizz get 18 off the bench from ex-Laker star and future Net head coach Byron Scott, 17 from ex-Knick Greg Anthony, and 16 from James "Blue" Edwards.

The Grizzlies never make the Playoffs in Vancouver, and they move to Memphis in 2001. The NBA has shown no indication that they will give Vancouver a 2nd team.

November 5, 2011, 10 years ago: Louisiana State, ranked Number 1, takes on Number 2 Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Complicating things is the fact that Alabama coach Nick Saban had previously led LSU to a National Championship. It is one of several college football games that, in its leadup, had gotten billed as "The Game of the Century," and it goes to overtime, where Alabama's Cade Foster misses a field goal, while Drew Alleman makes his to give LSU a 9-6 victory.

But, in one of the several scenarios that made people hate the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and demand a Playoff system (which we now have), 'Bama ended up Number 2 in the national rankings anyway, and got a rematch with LSU, and dominated it, 21-0, to win the National Championship. It made Saban the 1st coach ever to win National Championships at 2 different schools.

One Year Later

November 3, 2020, 1 year ago: I wrote, "This may turn out to be the most important day in American history. Vote like the whole world depends on it. Because it might."

Joe Biden was elected the 46th President of the United States, defeating Donald Trump. It wasn't called for 4 days, because several key States were close. It wasn't certified by Congress until January 6, 2021 -- which was supposed to happen, anyway, but this was one of the few times that it was ever in doubt. And there was an unprecedented attempt to prevent it. That attempt failed. It was finally made official on January 20, Inauguration Day, when Biden was sworn in as President.

Biden won 81,268,924 votes, to Trump's 74,216,154. Biden won 51.3 percent of the popular vote, to Trump's 46.9. Each candidate won 25 States, with Biden also winning the District of Columbia and 1 Electoral Vote in Nebraska; while Trump also won 1 Electoral Vote in Maine. (Maine and Nebraska allow their Congressional Districts to vote separately from the State as a whole.) Biden won 306 Electoral Votes, to Trump's 232.

Biden won nearly all the close States: Arizona by 10,457 votes, Georgia by 11,779, Wisconsin by 20,682, Nevada by 33,596,New Hampshire by 59,277, and Pennsylvania by 80,555. However, if Trump had won all of those States except Pennsylvania, with its 20 Electoral Votes, Biden still would have won.

Kamala Harris became the 1st female, the 1st African-American, and the 1st Asian-American Vice President of the United States. The Democrats kept control of the U.S. House of Representatives, and gained a 50-50 split in the U.S. Senate, which becomes a 51-50 majority in the Democrats' favor -- except 2 Democratic Senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kirsten Sinema of Arizona, have often stood in President Biden's way when it came to his agenda.

In the end, Biden didn't win because 250,000 Americans had died from COVID-19 -- a total since tripled, and it will increase further, though Biden's efforts will hold it down to less than it would have been if Trump had stayed in office. He won due to the get-out-the-vote effort in the key States, whose apparatus was already in place before COVID.

Biden won because he was the opposite of Trump. Because, while Trump appealed to bigotry and anger, Biden appealed to what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature." Because he wanted to bring America healing, which is what America wanted. Because he spoke to "the soul of America." As he, a Catholic and a student of St. Francis of Assisi, is believed to have said:

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is discord, union.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

And where there is sadness, joy.

Conservatism, still led by Trump, is a darkness. Liberalism, currently led by Biden, is a light. And, for now, America wants light.

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November 3, 1836: Vice President Martin Van Buren is elected the 8th President of the United States. He essentially rode the coattails of his friend and boss, President Andrew Jackson, to victory. It also helped that the Whig Party was regionally split: Van Buren won 170 Electoral Votes, William Henry Harrison 73, Hugh White 26, Daniel Webster 14, and Willie P. Mangum 11. So it was MVB 170, Whigs United 122.

Mangum won only South Carolina, Webster only his native Massachusetts, and White only Georgia and his native Tennessee -- which probably ticked fellow Tennesseean Jackson off.

In the popular vote, Van Buren won almost 51 percent, Harrison 36, White a little under 10, Webster less than 3, and Mangum wasn't actually on the ballot anywhere, but won South Carolina's Electoral Votes anyway.

November 3, 1868: Ulysses Simpson Grant, U.S. Secretary of War and the leading General of the Union during the American Civil War, is elected the 18th President of the United States. He defeats Horatio Seymour, a former Governor of New York. Grant won nearly 53 percent of the vote, Seymour 47. The Electoral Vote was not nearly as close, 214 to 80 in Grant's favor.

November 3, 1869: The Hamilton Football Club is founded in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. This is the forerunner of the Hamilton Tigers, who in 1950 merged with the Hamilton Wildcats to become the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. This could, if you choose to define it this way, make the "Ticats" the oldest continuously operating professional sports team in North America.

Before the merger, the Tigers won 5 Grey Cups, the championship of Canadian football: 1913, 1915, 1928, 1929 and 1932. Since the merger, they've won 8: 1953, 1957, 1963, 1965, the Canadian Centennial Cup in 1967, 1972, 1986 and 1999. This is a total of 13. (The 1943 Grey Cup won by the Hamilton Flying Wildcats, as they were known during World War II since they were sponsored by the Royal Canadian Air Force, is generally not counted in the total.)

November 3, 1896, 125 years ago: Governor William McKinley of Ohio is elected the 25th President of the United States, defeating Congressman William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska. McKinley won 51 percent of the popular vote, and Bryan nearly 47. McKinley won 23 States to Bryan's 22. Those figures make the election sound close. But McKinley won bigger States than Bryan did, so he won the Electoral Vote 271-176.

The Panic of 1893, and the resulting depression, the nastiest the nation had yet suffered, doomed President Grover Cleveland's hopes of winning a 3rd term. But Bryan, at 36 the youngest major-party nominee ever, favored the free coinage of silver, as a means of ending the depression, rather than sticking to the gold standard.

At the Democratic Convention at the Chicago Coliseum, he said, "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." Effectively, he was the Bernie Sanders of his time.

But that scared a lot of people, including a lot of Democrats. Cleveland refused to use whatever political capital he had left to endorse him, and a lot of "Gold Democrats" supported McKinley, who promised "a return to the full dinner pail." (The expression "a chicken in every pot" had been in existence for about 300 years.)

In addition, in the inner cities, and in smaller mill and mining towns, where lots of Catholics, many of them the sons of immigrants, worked in factories, many of them were told by their bosses, "If Bryan wins on Tuesday, don't come in on Wednesday" -- not that they would be fired, but that the factory would have to close.

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November 3, 1901, 120 years ago: Frederick Lionel Hitchman is born in Toronto. After winning the 1923 Stanley Cup with the Ottawa Senators, Lionel Hitchman joined the Boston Bruins, and formed a great defensive pairing with Eddie Shore, captaining the team that won the 1929 Stanley Cup.

He served with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the off-season, and did so full-time after his 1934 retirement from hockey. Like a later Boston sports legend, Ted Williams, he became an accomplished fisherman, setting a record for largest salmon caught. He died in 1969. Although the Bruins retired his Number 3, and he was elected to the Ontario Sports hall of Fame, he has never been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

November 3, 1908: William Howard Taft, Secretary of War, is elected the 27th President of the United States, defeating Bryan. Taft gets 51.6 percent of the popular vote, and wins the Electoral Vote 321 to 162.

Theodore Roosevelt chose not to run for what would have been a 3rd term, and chose Taft, who would really have preferred to have been named Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. TR warned Taft to not let the press take his picture on the golf course. Despite this warning, and his weight, which made him look ridiculous on the golf course, it happened, and TR called him onto the carpet.

Taft was a physical heavyweight, over 330 pounds, our heaviest President. He was no lightweight intellectually, either: A graduate of Yale, including of its law school. He stood up for himself, and said, "Mr. President, you play tennis. That's a more elitist sport than golf!" TR said, "Yes, but I don't let the press take my picture while I do it!"

Taft won anyway, mainly because Bryan was running for the 3rd time, and the issue that had first vaulted him to prominence, the free coinage of silver, was no longer as effective when there wasn't a depression on, as there was when he first ran in 1896. One of the Taft slogans was, "Vote for Taft this time. You can vote for Bryan anytime."

Taft would run his Presidency far from what TR had intended, and TR tried to regain it in 1912. But, as the incumbent, Taft controlled the party machinery. TR ran as a 3rd party candidate, and finished 2nd. They split the Republican vote, and Democrat Woodrow Wilson got elected as a plurality candidate. Wilson appointed Bryan his Secretary of State, but Bryan resigned in 1915, because he was a pacifist, Wilson seemed to be inching too closely to going to war.

Roosevelt and Taft patched things up, and Wilson's successor, Warren Harding, appointed Taft to be Chief Justice -- the only President to also have served on the Supreme Court. Today, "Teddy 26" and "Bill 27" are part of the Washington Nationals' "Racing Presidents."

Also on this day, Bronislau Nagurski is born in Rainy River, Ontario, and grows up in International Falls, Minnesota. "Bronko" wasn't big by today's standards, but, at 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds, he was enormous for his era. He could do it all: Block, run, catch, tackle, even throw every once in a while. He helped the Chicago Bears win the NFL Championship in 1932 and 1933, and, during the manpower shortage of World War II, came out of retirement to help them do it again in 1943.

He was a charter inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963. The University of Minnesota retired his Number 72, the Bears his Number 3. He was named to the NFL's 1930s All-Decade Team and its 75th Anniversary Team. As part of their 100th Season celebrations, the Bears named him to their 100 Greatest Players.

When John Madden named his "All-Madden All-Millennium Team" in 1999, the 1st 3 names he chose were Jim Thorpe, and the 1932 and '33 Chicago running tandem of Red Grange and Nagurski -- the prototypes, respectively, of the modern speedy halfback and the big, bruising fullback.

He was also heavyweight wrestling champion in the 1930s. Think of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson sticking with football, and wrestling in the off-season. Although Bronko never became an actor, unless you count "professional wrestling" as acting, but Bronko was dead serious about it: He made more money at that than he did at football.

In a 1984 interview with Sports Illustrated writer Paul "Dr. Z" Zimmerman, when asked what position he would play if he were coming up in the present day, he said, "I would probably be a linebacker today. I wouldn't be carrying the ball 20 or 25 times a game."

The definitive Nagurski story tells of a touchdown he scored against the Washington Redskins at Wrigley Field. The Redskins didn't move to Washington until 1937, Nagurski's last season (not counting his war-induced 1943 comeback), and the teams didn't play at Wrigley in the regular season, only in the NFL Championship Game, and this story is not mentioned in connection with the title game, which leads me to think it's apocryphal: He brushed off 2 linebackers and practically ran through a cornerback and a safety, then bounced off a goalpost and, head still down, ran right through the end zone, headfirst into the brick wall of Wrigley's outfield. He got back to the huddle for the extra point, and said, "That last guy gave me a pretty good lick."

After his retirement from wrestling, he returned home to International Falls, and opened a service station. A local legend claims that Nagurski had the best repeat business in town because he would screw customers' gas caps down so tight after filling their tanks that no one else in town could unscrew them.

In spite of the roughness of his era, and how much he contributed to it (although he was never accused of playing dirty), he lived until 1990, age 81. His son, Bronko Nagurski Jr., played at Notre Dame, and won the 1963 and 1965 Grey Cups with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Also on this day, soccer team Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys -- having an English name to attract some of the British sailors who had docked in Argentina, found the climate to their liking, and stayed there -- is founded in Rosario, in the province of Sante Fe. They have won 6 national league titles: In 1974, 1988, 1991, 1992, 2004 and 2003.

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November 3, 1911, 110 years ago: John Joseph Keane is born in St. Louis. A shortstop, he was beaned in the minor leagues, and never reached the majors. Offered a chance to manage in the St. Louis Cardinals' farm system in 1938, he retired as a player. By 1959, he was a major league coach for them, and was named their manager in 1961. He led them to the World Championship in 1964.

But he feuded with management, and he came to believe that they were going to fire him after the season, no matter what. That is exactly what happened to the manager of the team he beat, Yogi Berra of the Yankees: Even if the Yankees had won, he was going to be fired. And they offered the job to Keane, who accepted and quit the Cardinals.

Keane was not well-suited to running the Yankees. The fall of the Dynasty was hardly his fault, as former general manager George Weiss had executed many trades sending multiple players to teams for a single player who could help the team win the Pennant that season. As a result, the farm system was nearly dry: Essentially, it was Bobby Murcer, Roy White, Mel Stottlemyre, and 100 guys named Steve Whitaker.

But Keane played his lousy hand badly, alienating veterans like Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford and Roger Maris, but also upsetting younger players like Joe Pepitone and Jim Bouton. The Yankees finished 6th in 1965, and started the 1966 season just 4-16. He became the 1st Yankee manager fired in midseason in 56 years. He accepting a scouting post with the California Angels, but died at the start of 1967, before he could start the job. He was only 55, and the stress of his last 3 seasons as a manager, in St. Louis and New York, was what killed him.

Also on this day, the Chevrolet Motor Company is founded in Detroit. One founder, Louis Chevrolet, was a Swiss auto racing pioneer. The other, William C. Durant, had founded General Motors in 1908, but had been cast out of its management in 1910.

The two men had creative differences, and Chevrolet sold out to Durant in 1914, the year the company's familiar "bowtie" logo was introduced. Durant kept Chevrolet's name on the company, by 1917 had made so much money that he could also buy GM out and regain control. "Chevy" has been a GM brand ever since.

November 3, 1918: Robert William Andrew Feller is born in Van Meter, Iowa. "Rapid Robert" debuted with the Cleveland Indians in 1936, right after high school graduation. He soon struck out 17 batters in a game, tying the major league record. He struck out 17 at age 17. In 1938, just before turning 20, he struck out 18, which would remain a major league record for a 9-inning game until 1969.

He stayed through 1956, except for spending the entire 1942, '43 and '44 seasons, and most of '45, in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was a "gun captain," and rose to the rank of Chief Petty Officer. Although he was in the Navy, the Army later named him an honorary Green Beret. As he put it, "Anybody who says sports is war has never been in a war."

Like Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, Bob Feller may have lost his best seasons in The War. These were the seasons when he was 23, 24, 25 and 26. In his last 3 seasons before, 1939 to '41, he went 76-33. In 9 games in his '45 return plus '46 and '47, he went 51-29. Even missing prime seasons, he won 266 games, losing just 162, and struck out 2,581 batters. He said he had no regrets about missing bigger numbers. The War was more important.

He pitched 3 no-hitters, in 1940, 1946 (against the Yankees) and 1951. In 1946, he struck out 348 batters, which was believed to be a major league record until someone discovered that Rube Waddell's 1904 count of 343 was wrong, and it was actually 349. He helped the Indians win the 1948 World Series, and another Pennant in 1954. The Indians also fell just short in 1940 and 1952 while he was there.

Williams, noted hater of pitchers (he liked to say, "All pitchers are dumb"), said Feller was "the fastest and best pitcher I saw during my career." Stan Musial said he was "probably the greatest pitcher of our era." He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.

In 1999, The Sporting News ranked him 36th on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, 11th among pitchers, trailing Christy Mathewson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Cy Young, Satchel Paige, Warren Spahn, Lefty Grove, Sandy Koufax, Steve Carlton, Bob Gibson and Tom Seaver. Only Spahn and Paige, the Negro League sensation who was his opponent on that 1945 tour and his teammate on the 1948 Indians, were in his generation. His Number 19 was the 1st one retired in all of Cleveland sports. A statue of him stands outside Progressive Field. He lived until 2010, 92 years old.

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November 3, 1921, 100 years ago: Charles Dennis Buchinsky is born in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, a tiny town east of Pittsburgh. We knew him as Charles Bronson. A Purple Heart recipient as a B-29 gunner in World War II, he had enough of being a tough guy, and spent the rest of his life only playing them. When his name came up in a question on the July 6, 1978 episode of Match Game, panelist Richard Dawson called him "one of the most gentle men I have ever met. And he plays such an animal. And he's a darling man."

"Animal"? He played the title 1930s gangster in Machine-Gun Kelly, Wild West gunman Bernardo O'Reilly in The Magnificent Seven, Lieutenant Danny Velinski in The Great Escape, Private Joseph Wladislaw in The Dirty Dozen, "Harmonica" in Once Upon a Time In the West, beans-spilling mobster Joseph Valachi in The Valachi Papers, Wild West gambler and gunman Wild Bill Hickok in The White Buffalo, and, most notably, urban vigilante Paul Kersey in the Death Wish films.

But he also played Francis Church, editor of the New York Sun, who in 1897 answered a child's letter with an editorial, in the 1991 film Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus. Maybe Dawson was right. Long married to actress Jill Ireland, and an activist against cancer during her illness and after her death, Bronson died in 2003.

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November 3, 1933: Michael Stanley Dukakis is born in Brookline, Massachusetts. He played baseball, basketball and tennis, and ran cross-country, at Brookline High School. He was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1974, lost his bid for re-election in 1978, regained the office in 1982, and won again in 1986.

In 1988, the Democratic Party nominated him for President. It looked like he was going to win. At their Convention at the Omni arena in Atlanta, he said, "This election is not about ideology. This election is about competence!"

And then he ran one of the most incompetent general election campaigns ever, and Vice President George H.W. Bush made it about ideology, and Dukakis got just 45.6 percent of the popular vote, and 111 Electoral Votes -- no Democratic nominee has done nearly so poorly since. (Four years later, Bill Clinton would get 43 percent of the vote in a 3-way race, but every Democratic nominee since has gotten at least 227 EVs.)

"The Duke" did not run for Governor again in 1990. Now 88 years old, he has since been a college professor and an advocate for improved public transportation. He was the 1st person I ever cast a vote for President for, and I remain proud of that vote.

November 3, 1945: Kenneth Dale Holtzman is born in St. Louis. Debuting with the Chicago Cubs in 1965, this Jewish lefthander was called "the new Sandy Koufax." In Koufax's 3rd-from-last regular-season appearance, on September 25, 1966, Ken Holtzman's Cubs beat Koufax's Dodgers, 2-1.

He didn't become the new Koufax, but he did go 174-150 in his career -- more wins than Koufax, although Koufax's career ended early due to elbow trouble. Included were 2 no-hitters (half as many as Koufax), in 1969 and 1971. He still holds the record for most games won by a Jewish pitcher.

He was a 2-time All-Star. With the Oakland Athletics, he won the World Series in 1972, '73 and '74. In the 1974 Series, he hit a home run, something only 1 pitcher has done in Series play since (Joe Blanton of the 2008 Phillies). He also won a Pennant with the Yankees in 1976 and another World Series with them in 1977. He later became an insurance salesman, and is still alive.

November 3, 1946, 75 years ago: Thomas Kenneth Heintzelman is born outside St. Louis in St. Charles, Missouri. The son of pitcher Ken Heintzelman, one of the oldest players on the 1950 Phillies "Whiz Kids," he was an infielder who layed for the Cardinals and the Giants from 1973 to 1978. His major league career had been delayed due to serving in the Vietnam War. He is still alive.

Also on this day, Garry Alton Hill is born in Rutherfordton, North Carolina, and grows up in nearby Charlotte. He itched in the minor leagues from 1967 to 1973, but  only appeared in 1 major league game. On June 12, 1969, he started for the Atlanta Braves gainst the Chicago Cubs, didn't get out of the 3rd inning, and left with a 15.43 earned run average. He died in 2017.

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November 3, 1951, 70 years ago: Dwight Michael Evans is born in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, California. No, he's no relation to the preceding Michael Evans. The right fielder won 8 Gold Gloves for the Boston Red Sox, tied for the American League home run lead in the strike-shortened season of 1981, was a 3-time All-Star, and was a key member of the Sox' 1975 and 1986 Pennant winners.

Unfortunately for them, a beaning in 1978 left him with post-concussion syndrome, and he tried to come back too soon, and was practically useless down the stretch, to the point where the question of who would play left field, Carl Yastrzemski or Jim Rice, and who would play 1st base, Yaz or George Scott, was settled when Rice was moved over to right. In the Playoff game against the Yankees, "Dewey" only appeared as a pinch-hitter for Frank Duffy, flying to left for the 1st out in the 9th inning. (Jim Evans, no relation, was the 1st base umpire in that game.)

He hit 385 home runs in his career -- 3 more than Rice, who's in the Hall of Fame, and was not known as a good fielder. So why isn't Evans in the Hall of Fame?

You want to hear something even dumber than that? When I first visited Boston, I came out of South Station, and saw a sign for "Dewey Square." Not realizing it was named for George Dewey, the naval hero of the Spanish-American War, my first thought was, "Wow, this city is so crazy about its baseball team, they named a square after Dwight Evans."

November 3, 1953: Baseball's rules committee restores the pre-1939 rule which says that a sacrifice fly is not charged as a time at bat.

Also‚ the committee votes for the "no gloves on the field rule." Hank Greenberg‚ the Hall of Fame-to-be slugger who is now general manager of the Cleveland Indians, had proposed the change‚ saying, "Aside from the possibility of hindering the play‚ gloves on the field look sloppy." It also made it easy for opposing players to sneak creepy-crawly or otherwise disgusting things into the glove of an easily scared player, such as the Yankees' Phil Rizzuto.

The committee also makes a rule that any runner will be called out for deliberately running the bases backwards or even taking a lead off the base in the wrong direction.

A new balk rule is instituted which gives the batter an option: If he gets a hit after a balk is called‚ he has the option of accepting the outcome of the pitch‚ instead of being limited to the advance of the runner(s). This is the baseball equivalent of a football team that is the beneficiary of a penalty having the option to decline it, if the outcome of such is more advantageous to them than the outcome of the penalty.

Rule suggestions that are rejected include the re-legalization of the spitball‚ 2 bases for an intentional walk‚ and the option of declining ball 4.

November 3, 1954: The Yankees tour Japan, and draw a record crowd of 64‚000 when they play the 1st game against the All-Japan Stars at Nippon Life Stadium in Osaka. Andy Carey slugs 13 home runs‚ and catching prospect Elston Howard bats .468 on the 25-game tour. Each has thoroughly impressed the Yankee brass, and both get promoted to the Yankees for 1955 -- in Howard's case, making him the 1st black player for the Yankees in a regular-season game.

November 3, 1955: Phillip Martin Simms is born in Springfield, Kentucky, and grows up in nearby Louisville. His first few years as the Giants' quarterback were as rough -- with results and the fans' reactions -- as Terry Bradshaw's with the Pittsburgh Steelers. But, like that earlier "Blond Bomber," he led his team to a Super Bowl. In Super Bowl XXI, he threw 25 passes and completed 22 of them, an 88 percent completion percentage that remains a record for the NFL championship game under any name.

He got the Giants to the 1990 NFC Championship Game, but was injured in it, and it was Jeff Hostetler who led them to victory there and in Super Bowl XXV -- an injury that did not cost him a 2nd ring, but may well have cost him, thus far, election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He is now a color commentator of CBS' NFL broadcasts. His son Chris Simms went into both family businesses, quarterbacking for the University of Texas and the Denver Broncos, and analyzing for CBS; and his son Matt Simms was a quarterback at the University of Tennessee and played last season for the Atlanta Falcons.

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November 3, 1961, 60 years ago: The Blue Horizon opens, at 1314 North Broad Street, where Center City begins to turn into the North Philadelphia ghetto. The Ring magazine chose the 1,346-seat gym as the greatest boxing venue in the world. Philly boxers like Matthew Saad Muhammad, Tim Witherspoon and Bernard Hopkins trained there on the way to becoming champions. It was closed in 2010, but still stands.

Also on this day, The Twilight Zone airs the episode "It's a Good Life," adapted from a 1953 novel of the same title by Jerome Bixby. Charles William Mumy Jr., then billed as Billy Mumy, plays Anthony Fremont, a 6-year-old monster. Cloris Leachman, later a legend on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, plays his mother.

Bill Mumy, as he's been billed as an adult, is now best known for playing Will Robinson on Lost In Space. He also played Lennier, a Minbari Ambassador, on a later science fiction series, Babylon 5. In the 1983 film version of The Twilight Zone, "It's a Good Life" was 1 of the 4 segments produced, with Jeremy Licht as Anthony and Kathleen Quinlan as a teacher who helps to provide a considerably lighter, though not really "happy," ending.

In 2002, a revival of the show featured "It's Still a Good Life." Mumy and Leachman reprised their roles. Anthony is now middle-aged, having banished his father and his wife to the cornfield, and has a daughter named Audrey, played by Bill's daughter, Liliana Mumy, then 8. And not only has she inherited his powers, but she brings things he has banished back from the cornfield.

Jerome Bixby co-wrote the script for the 1966 science fiction film Fantastic Voyage, and 4 episodes of the original Star Trek series: "Mirror, Mirror," "By Any Other Name," "Day of the Dove" and "Requiem for Methuselah." He died in 1998, at age 74.

November 3, 1963: Ian Edward Wright is born in Woolwich, Southeast London. A son of Jamaican immigrants, he got off to a late start in his soccer career, not debuting in the Football League until 1985 with local club Crystal Palace. But he became one of the best strikers in England, and led them into the 1990 FA Cup Final, where they lost to Manchester United.

That got the attention of George Graham, the manager of Arsenal -- which also got their start in Woolwich, in 1886, before moving to Islington in North London in 1913. Wrighty helped Arsenal win the FA Cup and the League Cup in 1993 (England's 1st-ever "Cup Double"), the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1994 (although he missed the Final due to yellow card accumulation), and the Double of the Premier League and the FA Cup in 1998 (again missing the Final, though he was in decline by this point).

He was one of the first English footballers to dance in celebration of his goals. He scored 185 of them for Arsenal, breaking the club record set by 1930s star Cliff Bastin, and has since been surpassed only by Thierry Henry.

He is now a pundit on BBC soccer broadcasts, but takes every opportunity to talk trash about the current Arsenal team. His sons Bradley Wright-Phillips and Shaun Wright-Phillips both played for the New York Red Bulls, and Bradley has become one of the biggest stars in Major League Soccer.

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November 3, 1971, 50 years ago: Dwight Eversley Yorke is born in Canaan, Tobago. He helped Trinidad & Tobago win the 1989 Caribbean Cup at age 17, and played for his country in the 2006 World Cup at age 34. He won the League Cup with Birmingham-based Aston Villa in 1994 and 1996.

With Manchester United, he won the Premier League in 1999, 2000 and 2001, also winning the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League in 1999, England's only "European Treble." With Sydney FC, he won the 2006 A-League title.

His brother Clint Yorke was a renowned cricket player in the West Indies. Dwight famously had a contentious relationship with model Katie Price, a.k.a. Jordan, and they have a son, Harvey, a special-needs child.

Also on this day, Unai Emery Extegoien is born in Hondarribia, in northeastern Spain's Basque Country, near the border with France. The son, nephew and grandson of pro soccer players, his own playing career didn't amount to much more than theirs. But as a manager, he won 3 straight UEFA Europa League titles with Sevilla.

This led to his being hired by Paris Saint-Germain, where he won the Coupe de France in 2017, and both the Coupe and Ligue 1 (the French league) for "The Double" in 2018. But PSG, desperate to win the UEFA Champions League, didn't get it, and when the manager's job at Arsenal opened up, they didn't lift a finger to try to keep him.

A small and stupid minority of Arsenal fans were glad to finally be rid of Arsène Wenger after 22 mostly successful years, and talked about the wonderful change at the club. In fact, things got worse: Emery alienated 2 of the key figures at Arsenal in recent years, centreback Laurent Koscielny and midfielder Aaron Ramsey, and both left after the 2019 season. He bought midfielders Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi, and proved he didn't have a clue as to how to use either one.

And he frequently refused to play Mesut Özil, Arsenal's best player, because "He doesn't fit the system." He never figured it out: If Mesut Özil doesn't fit your system, you need to change your system.

Emery had 5 chances to get Arsenal into the 2019-20 Champions League: The last 4 Premier League games of the 2019 season and the Europa League Final. Winning any one of those games would have done it. He won none of them. When Özil was substituted off in that Final, an embarrassing loss to Chelsea, he yelled at Emery, according to lip-readers, "Wallahi, you are no coach!" (A German-born Muslim of Turkish descent, Özil was using an Arabic word, essentially meaning, "I swear to God!")

Emery got Arsenal off to a horrendous start the next season. On November 29, 2019, following a run of 7 games without a win in all competitions, including a home loss to Eintracht Frankfurt in his beloved Europa League, he was fired.

Emery took Wenger's team, and built a side that finished 8th in 2020. Mikel Arteta, also Spanish but one of Wenger's players, took Emery's team, and won the 2020 FA Cup. Emery has gone back to Spain, hired as the manager of Villareal -- and, once again, won the Europa League.

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November 3, 1981, 40 years ago: Jermaine Junior Jones is born in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. The son of a German mother and a U.S. Army soldier stationed in Frankfurt, he grew up in his father's hometown of Chicago, before his parents divorced, and his mother took him back to Frankfurt.

A midfielder, he played in Germany for hometown club Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayer Leverkusen and Schalke; in England for Blackburn Rovers; and in America for the New England Revolution and the Colorado Rapids. He retired this year.

In 2009, having not yet chosen to play for Germany or America, he was eligible to play for either. He chose the U.S., and FIFA cleared him, opening the door for him to play for us in the 2010 World Cup. But an injury ruled him out, and he didn't make his senior U.S. debut until October 2010. He eventually played for the U.S. in the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup, the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Copa América.

November 3, 1989: The NBA's expansion Minnesota Timberwolves play their 1st game. They lose 104-96 to the Seattle SuperSonics at Seattle Center Coliseum. Tyrone Corbin leads the T-Wolves with 20 points, while Dale Ellis of the Sonics leads all scorers with 33.

Also on this day, the Portland Trail Blazers retire the Number 32 of 1974-79 center Bill Walton. They beat the Sacramento Kings, 114-96 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

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November 3, 1991, 30 years ago: The Vancouver Canucks retire the Number 12 of Stan Smyl, a.k.a. the Stanley Steamer. They beat the Edmonton Oilers 7-2 at the Pacific Coliseum.

November 3, 1992: The Yankees trade center fielder Roberto Kelly and 1st baseman Joe DeBerry to the Cincinnati Reds, in exchange for right fielder Paul O'Neill.

At the time, I thought this was a great trade for both teams. O'Neill was a good hitter and a good fielder, who had done well in Cincinnati, playing for an equally fiery right fielder, his manager, Yankee Legend Lou Piniella. (Sweet Lou doesn't have his Number 14 retired or a Plaque in Monument Park, but he helped the Yankees win 4 Pennants and the YES Network gave him a Yankeeography, so I'm calling him a Yankee Legend -- capital Y, capital L.) Playing in Yankee Stadium, with the short porch in right field, I figured O'Neill would hit more home runs than in the more neutral confines of Riverfront Stadium, and that Yankee Fans would love his intense personality.

I was right on both counts, as Paulie was our right fielder for the next 9 years, effectively taking the spot that many fans thought that Jay Buhner should have still had. In those 9 years, the Yankees made the Playoffs 7 times, winning 5 Pennants and 4 World Series. (He also won the Series with the Reds in 1990.) Although his Number 21 hasn't been officially retired, it's hardly been given out since. Last season, he got his Monument Park Plaque.

Jay Buhner for Ken Phelps has been mocked as a lousy trade. Think of it, instead, as Jay Buhner for Paul O'Neill: 5 Pennants for New York, none for Seattle.

I also figured that Kelly, a native of Panama and an All-Star in 1992, would find the Reds a better fit. He'd been held back by being a righthanded hitter in Yankee Stadium, where left-center and center fields, while not as pronounced as in the pre-renovation era, was known as Death Valley. Riverfront was not only friendlier to righthanders, but had artificial turf, accommodating his speed. I thought the Reds were getting a great player.

As it turned out, I was wrong on this count. Although he made another All-Star Team with the Reds in 1993, injuries plagued him, and while he was on postseason teams with the 1995 Los Angeles Dodgers, the 1997 Seattle Mariners, and the 1998 and 1999 Texas Rangers, he never played on a Pennant winner. In 2000, the Yankees brought him back, but released him in April, and he never played in the majors again.

A sad story? Not so fast. He managed in the minor leagues, and from 2008 to 2016 he was the 1st base coach and hitting instructor for the San Francisco Giants. With them, he won 3 World Series rings, only 2 fewer than O'Neill. Also on manager Bruce Bochy's staff were former Yankees Dave Righetti Hensley "Bam Bam" Meulens and Joe Lefebvre. How about that? Kelly now manages in the Mexican League.

Not that this gives the Reds any comfort: They still haven't won a Pennant, or even a National League Championship Series game, since 1990. "Curse of Paul O'Neill," Ohio Valley?

November 3, 1995: The NBA's expansion Toronto Raptors play their 1st game. Unlike the Timberwolves, their debut is at home, at the SkyDome (now named the Rogers Centre), and a win. They beat the New Jersey Nets, 94-79. Alvin Robertson scores 30 for the Raps, the only major league sports team ever named for a dinosaur.

Also on this day, after 48 seasons at the Boston Garden -- and a few games, early in their history, at what's now named the Matthews Arena -- the Boston Celtics play their 1st game at the FleetCenter, now named the TD Garden. They lose to the Milwaukee Bucks 101-100.

Also on this day, Kendall Nicole Jenner is born in Los Angeles, the daughter of former Olympic decathlon champion Bruce (now Caitlyn) Jenner and his wife Kris, and sister of Kourtney, Kim and Khloé Kardashian. She will be joined by sister Kylie Jenner 2 years later.

She is currently the world's highest-paid model. She is also the only one of the 5 Kardashian-Jenner sisters who has not yet had a child. She is also the only one who tends to keep her lovelife out of the spotlight. It would be unfair to say that the last 2 of these facts are connected, but it is interesting.

November 3, 1996, 25 years ago: Kobe Bryant makes his NBA debut at The Forum in Inglewood, California. He is just 18 years old, and the 2nd-youngest player in NBA history to that point. The son of former Philadelphia 76er Joe "Jellybean" Bryant plays just 6 minutes and does not score, nor does he record any assists, and grabs just 1 rebound.

He does, however, play on the winning side: Shaquille O'Neal, the former Orlando Magic star also playing his 1st game for the Lakers, drops 35 points on the Timberwolves, and the Lakers win 91-85.

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November 3, 2001, 20 years ago: The Arizona Diamondbacks even the World Series at 3 games apiece with a 15-2 win over the Yankees in Game 6. Randy Johnson gets the win for Arizona, while Danny Bautista drives in 5 runs. Arizona knocks out a Series-record 22 hits‚ and scores 8 runs in the 3rd inning, knocking Andy Pettitte out of the box.

November 3, 2007: Having coached 1,499 NHL games, including 4 straight Stanley Cups with the New York Islanders from 1980 to 1983, Al Arbour returns to coach his 1,500th game, at the request of Islanders coach Ted Nolan, At age 75, he became the oldest man ever to coach an NHL game. The Islanders beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3–2, giving Arbour his 740th win.

The 739-win banner honoring him was brought down from the Nassau Coliseum rafters, and was replaced with one with the number 1500.

Also on this day, a thriller of a football game is played in South Bend, Indiana. Navy beats host Notre Dame 46-44. It is the Midshipmen's 1st win over the Fighting Irish in 44 years. In the ensuing 43 games, only 7 times did Navy come within 8 points of winning.

November 3, 2009: Chris Christie, former U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, is elected Governor of New Jersey as a Republican, defeating the Democratic incumbent, Jon Corzine. I had hoped that he would be defeated in 2013, rendering my nickname for him, "The Four-Year Blimp," accurate. He wasn't.

Also on this day, having changed the law to allow him to run for one, Michael Bloomberg is elected to a 3rd term as Mayor of New York. I don't remember the troubled tenures of John Lindsay and Abe Beame, but I remember the Administrations of Ed Koch, David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani, and now observe that of Bill de Blasio. I can say with full confidence that Mike Bloomberg is the worst Mayor of New York that I can remember.

Indeed, Bloomberg stands as the Republican proof that businessmen don't know anything about governing. Unfortunately for New Jersey, Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs executive who was a decent Senator before becoming a surprisingly weak Governor, stands as the Democratic proof.

November 3, 2012: The Nets make their Brooklyn debut, a little delayed due to Hurricane Sandy. The opponents are the Toronto Raptors, who played their 1st game at home to the Nets, 17 years to the day before.

This time, the Nets announce their freakin' presence with authority. Despite 28 points from the Raps' Kyle Lowry, the Nets win 107-100, led by 27 points from Brook Lopez. Attendance at the Barclays Center: 17,732.