Willie Davis, 1934-2020

As I said yesterday, in a post mentioning some sports legends we've recently lost, we can hide ourselves away to avoid the coronavirus, but there is no escape from the progress of life, which always, for each of us, though we may not know when, where, or how, ends in death.

So it is for another of the stars of the team that dominated the NFL in the 1960s. Many of them lived to see the 50th Anniversary of their wins in Super Bowl I and the Ice Bowl, but in the 3 and 2 years, respectively, since, have passed away.

William Delford Davis was born on July 24, 1934 in Lisbon, Louisiana, in the northern part of the State, near the Arkansas line. He grew up in nearby Texarkana, Arkansas (there is an adjoining city of the same name across the State Line in Texas), and became a 2-way lineman at nearby Grambling State University.

In many places in the South, there were colleges and universities set up to be black people's equivalent to nearby white ones. Florida A&M was established in Tallahassee, near Florida State; Tennessee State in Nashville, near Vanderbilt; and, in Louisiana, Southern University in Baton Rouge near LSU, and Grambling State in Grambling, near Louisiana Tech in Ruston.

Along with running back Paul "Tank" Younger and lineman Buck Buchanan, Davis was among the early stars produced by Grambling head coach Eddie Robinson, who went on to win more games than any college football coach, regardless of race or level, before him, and raised the profile of black colleges' football programs in general.

Cleveland Browns head coach and general manager Paul Brown had been a pioneer in re-integrating pro football, so he knew what the top black-college football players were capable of. He selected Davis in the 1956 NFL Draft. But another draft claimed Davis, that of the U.S. Army, and he missed the 1956 and 1957 seasons. In 1958 and 1959, Brown played Davis all over the offensive and defensive lines, to see where he would most help the team.

Davis may not have convinced Brown that he was particularly well-suited for any position. Or, he may have done a better job of convincing Vince Lombardi, head coach and GM of the Green Bay Packers. He traded for Davis, and put him at defensive end, and he became one of the greatest players that position has ever known.

The Packers won the NFL Western Division in 1960, their 1st such title in 16 years. They lost the NFL Championship Game to the Philadelphia Eagles. With a little more tinkering, Lombardi got them to the 1961 Championship Game, and a defense led by Davis and linebacker Ray Nitschke wrecked the high-powered offense of the New York Giants. The offense, quarterbacked by Bart Starr, protected by an offensive line with Jerry Kramer and Forrest Gregg, and with star runners Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor, ran riot through the snow of what would become Lambeau Field on New Year's Eve, and the Packers won 37-0.

The sack was not an official NFL statistic during Davis' time. David "Deacon" Jones of the Los Angeles Rams, Davis' chief competitor for the title of the NFL's best defensive end, created the term for tackling the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage. Football historian John Turney determined that Davis had "possibly more than 120." Davis believed he was the franchise's all-time leader, and when you consider that he was a teammate of Nitschke, and that they later had Reggie White at defensive end (albeit having spent the 1st half of his career with the Eagles), that says something.

Definitely still a team career record is the 21 fumbles that Davis recovered. He would make 5 Pro Bowls, all in a row from 1963 to 1967. He would help the Packers make it back-to-back NFL Championships in 1962, with a 13-1 record, their only loss a nationally-televised Thanksgiving Day shocker to the Detroit Lions.

And he helped them win 3 straight NFL Championships from 1965 to 1967, the last 2 setting up wins in Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II. The last of these NFL Championship Games was the game known as the Ice Bowl. On another New Year's Eve, the game-time temperature was 13 degrees... below zero. That's without the wind-chill factor.

NFL Films footage of the day shows Davis walking into Lambeau Field, in a heavy coat and a fur-lined hat, with a big smile on his face, as if he's sure that his team, used to cold Wisconsin weather (if not quite this cold), would be far more ready to play than their opponents, the Dallas Cowboys, used to the warm South. The Cowboys put up one hell of a fight, but the Packers won, 21-17.

Earlier in the year, on June 4, 1967, what was then called the Cleveland Summit was called by Davis' former Browns teammate Jim Brown, to bring prominent black athletes together in support of Muhammad Ali, who had been stripped of the Heavyweight Championship of the World by the governing bodies for boxing, following his April 28 refusal to be drafted into the Army, and his subsequent indictment for draft evasion.

Davis attended what's now usually called "The Ali Summit," and supported Ali, even though he himself had been drafted and served his 2-year hitch. Also attending was Washington Redskins flanker Bobby Mitchell, who died earlier this month.

Here's who's in the picture. Back row:

* Carl Stokes, Ohio State Representative, running for Mayor of Cleveland. He would be elected, becoming the 1st black Mayor of a major American city.

* Walter Beach, recently retired Browns player, previously an original member of the Boston (later New England) Patriots in 1960.

* Bobby Mitchell, the 1st black player for the Washington Redskins, flanker, later elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

* Sid Williams, Browns linebacker, later U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, husband of Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California.

* Curtis McClinton, running back for the Kansas City Chiefs, who had lost to Davis and the Packers in Super Bowl I, 5 months earlier. He would help the Chiefs win Super Bowl IV.

* Willie Davis.

* Jim Shorter, defensive back for the Redskins, formerly for the Browns.

* John Wooten, guard for the Browns. Front row: Bill Russell, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Front row: 

* Bill Russell, who had just completed his 1st season as head coach of the Boston Celtics, while still playing for them. This made him the 1st black head coach in modern major league sports. He would lead the Celtics to 11 NBA Championships as a player, the last 2 as player-coach.

* Muhammad Ali. He would be permitted to return to boxing in 1970, having his conviction for draft evasion overturned in a unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971, and regain the title in 1974.

* Jim Brown, who retired in 1966 as the NFL's all-time leading rusher, and is still often considered the greatest player in NFL history.

* Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then still using his birth name of Lew Alcindor, and finishing his sophomore year at UCLA, which he had just led to a 30-0 record and the National Championship.

Beach Williams, Wooten, and of course Jim Brown had all played for the Browns on their 1964 NFL Championship team, which got back to the NFL Championship Game in 1965, but lost to Davis and the Packers.

*

Willie Davis retired from football after the 1969 season, having gotten an MBA from the University of Chicago. He ran a distributorship for Schlitz Beer, making a fortune. He later served on its board of directors, and also did so for Dow Chemical, Johnson Controls, K-Mart, MGM Studios, Sara Lee, and other companies. He was hired by NBC as a color commentator on NFL telecasts, one of the earliest black men so hired, and this inspired him to establish All-Pro Broadcasting which operated several radio stations.

He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1981, and later to the NFL's 1960s All-Decade Team, the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, and the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame. In 1999, The Sporting News listed its 100 Greatest Football Players, and he was ranked 69th. In 2010, the NFL Network ranked its 100 Greatest Players, and he came in 86th.

According to Pro-Football-Reference.com, Willie Davis had the 4th-highest "Approximate Value" of any NFL player in the 1960s. The 3 ahead of him? Johnny Unitas, Jim Brown and Fran Tarkenton.

He and his wife Ann had a son, Duane, and a daughter, Lori. Duane Davis played football at the University of Missouri, but hurt his knee, and turned to acting. He played college football players in the films Necessary Roughness (in which his character "catches" a ball with his face mask) and The Program, but was injured filming both.

He played basketball player Bo Kimble in Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story, Joe Louis in the TV-movie Rocky Marciano, James "Buster" Douglas in the HBO film Tyson, a fictional right fielder in Little Big League, and a fictional boxer in Diggstown.

His own son, Wyatt Davis, is finishing up his sophomore year at Ohio State, and was named an All-American and All-Conference guard last season.

Wyatt Davis of Ohio State, exercising a Big Ten tradition:

When your team clinches a berth in the Rose Bowl,

clench a rose in your teeth.

Willie Davis lived out his life in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, California, and died there today, April 15, 2020, after being hospitalized with kidney failure about a month ago. He was 85.

In a weird coincidence, he died on what would have been the 80th birthday of another Willie Davis, the Gold Glove center fielder who helped the Los Angeles Dodgers win the 1963 and 1965 World Series.

Jerry Kramer, Hall of Fame guard on the 1960s Packers: “A principled human being. A beautiful guy. A consistent guy, the same guy at 70 that he was at 42, 35 or whatever. A very special human being.”

Dave Robinson, who was the other defensive end on the 1st 2 Super Bowl winners, and also in the Hall of Fame: "There's only one Willie Davis. I just feel sorry for the people who never got a chance to really meet, sit down & talk to the man... he would've changed your life."

David Maraniss, who interviewed Davis for his biography When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi: We've lost another legend. Willie Davis, great player out of Eddie Robinson's Grambling, defensive captain, better person, Hall of Fame in every respect, one of many Lombardi era Packers as successful off the field as on it, Dr. Feelgood could light up the field, & any room.

Donald Driver, receiver on the Packers' Super Bowl XXXI winners: ’ve had the pleasure of spending time over my 20yrs with some phenomenal icon and legends. Today, we loss one of them. My friend Willie Davis. Our prayers go out to Willie family and friends. #RIPWillieDavis #REST87

Just since October 13, 2018, of last year, the Packers have lost 5 Hall-of-Famers: Bart Starr, Jim Taylor, Forrest Gregg, Willie Wood and Willie Davis. With Davis' death:

* There are 10 surviving players from the 1961 NFL Champion Green Bay Packers: Paul Hornung, Herb Adderley, Jerry Kramer, John Roach, Tom Moore, Dale Hackbart, Nelson Toburen, Lee Folkins, Gary Knafelc and Boyd Dowler.

* There are 12 surviving players from the 1962 NFL Champion Packers: Hornung, Adderley, Kramer, Roach, Moore, Toburen, Knafelc, Dowler, Howie Williams, Ed Blaine, Ron Gassert and Gary Barnes.

* There are 14 surviving players from the 1965 NFL Champion Packers: Hornung, Adderley, Kramer, Moore, Dowler, Tom Brown, Junior Coffey, Bill Curry, Ken Bowman, Steve Wright, Bob Long, Marv Fleming, Carroll Dale and Dave Robinson.

* There 18 surviving players from the Packer team that won Super Bowl I: Hornung, Adderley, Kramer, Dowler, Tom Brown, Curry, Bowman, Wright, Long, Fleming, Dale, Robinson, Red Mack, Jim Grabowski, Phil Vandersea, Donny Anderson, Dave Hathcock and Jim Weatherwax.

* There are 20 surviving players from the Packer team that won Super Bowl II: Adderley, Kramer, Dowler, Tom Brown, Bowman, Wright, Long, Fleming, Dale, Robinson, Grabowski, Anderson, Weatherwax, Don Horn, Chuck Mercein, Ben Wilson, John Rowser, Bob Hyland, Jim Flanigan and Dick Capp.

* And there are 7 living participants in the 1967 Cleveland (Ali) Summit: Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Curtis McClinton, Jim Shorter, John Wooten and Walter Beach.

Top 10 Athletes From Arkansas

June 15, 1836: Arkansas is admitted to the Union as the 25th State.

The 3 most famous people from Arkansas are probably more identified with other places. Paul W. "Bear" Bryant of Fordyce is remembered as the head football coach at the University of Alabama. Johnny Cash of Dyess is remembered for his connections to Tennessee, both Memphis where he began his recording career and Nashville where he had his greatest fame. And Bill Clinton of Hope and Hot Springs became President, and now lives in New York.

Speaking of Presidents, in 1983, Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded Bryant the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Top 10 Athletes From Arkansas

Honorable Mention to Allan James Burnett of North Little Rock. A.J. helped the Yankees win the World Series in 2009.

Honorable Mention to Bill Carr of Pine Bluff. At the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, he won 2 Gold Medals, including in the 400 meters, setting a world record. A car crash a year later ended his career, and may have prevented him from repeating in Berlin in 1936, and thus rising much higher on this list.

10. Sidney Moncrief of Little Rock. He led the University of Arkansas to the Southwest Conference basketball title and the NCAA Final Four in 1978, and was named SWC Player of the Year in 1979. He became a 5-time NBA All-Star with the Milwaukee Bucks, who retired his Number 4.

How good was he? So far, the voters for the Basketball Hall of Fame haven't considered him good enough for election. But he's in the Wisconsin Sports Hall of Fame. And he was good enough for Michael Jordan to say this about him: "When you play against Moncrief, you're in for a night of all-around basketball. He'll hound you everywhere you go, both ends of the court. You just expect it."

9. George Kell of Swifton. A .306 lifetime hitter, the 3rd baseman for the Detroit Tigers was a 10-time All-Star. In 1949, he won the American League batting title, denying Ted the Triple Crown by the slimmest of margins. He then starred for the Baltimore Orioles, before age led them to turn to someone else on this list. He went back to the Tigers as a broadcaster, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. His brother Everett "Skeeter" Kell also played in the major leagues.

8. Bobby Mitchell of Hot Springs. He starred in both football and track at the University of Illinois. He thought he could make the 1960 Olympics in Rome, but Cleveland Browns head coach Paul Brown offered him a $6,000 bonus to play pro football, and he made the easy decision.

A 4-time Pro Bowler, he starred for the Browns before becoming the 1st black player for the Washington Redskins in 1962, returning a kickoff for 92 yards and a touchdown in his 1st game. He led the NFL in receiving yards that year and in 1963 (including catching a record-tying 99-yard touchdown pass from Sonny Jurgensen), and in receiving touchdowns in 1964.

A key figure in the long-terrible Redskins' return to respectability, he caught 521 passes, a huge number for his era. He was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the 70 Greatest Redskins (for the team's 70th Anniversary, and then the 80 Greatest for their 80th), and the Washington Redskins Ring of Fame. The Redskins don't retire numbers (except for Sammy Baugh's 33), but his 49 has rarely been given back out.

7. Charles "Sonny" Liston of Sand Slough. Because there was no birth certificate, we don't know exactly when he was born. Because he was found dead shortly after a New Year, we don't know exactly when he died. In each case, we don't even know the year for sure. He may be the most recent famous person for whom both of these facts are true. The best guesses are that he was born on July 22, 1930 and died on December 30, 1970.

I won't get into his past, other than to say that, when Muhammad Ali called him "too ugly to be the world's champ," he meant Liston's face, but could also have been talking about Liston's character. He was Heavyweight Champion of the World for 17 months, from September 25, 1962, when he destroyed Floyd Patterson at Comiskey Park in Chicago, until February 25, 1964, when Ali wrecked him at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Few people cheered when he won the title, and many did so when he lost it. Nevertheless, he was the champ, and that's something no other Arkansas-born or Arkansas-raised heavyweight can say.

6. Dizzy Dean of Lucas. Ol' Diz liked to tell different stories to different people. He told people his name was Jay Hanna Dean (which was true), Jerome Herman Dean, and Jerome Hanna Dean. He told people he was from Arkansas (which was true), Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. He told people he was born in 1910 (which was true), 1911 and 1912. He also told people he was the greatest pitcher who ever lived.

With a mouth like that, he had better have been great. He was: A 4-time All-Star, he led the St. Louis Cardinals' "Gashouse Gang" to the 1934 World Championship, going 30-7, making him, to this day, the last National League pitcher to win 30 games in a season. His brother Paul Dean, who didn't like being called "Daffy," was also a pretty good pitcher on that Cardinal team.

His career was cut short by a line drive hit by Earl Averill of the Cleveland Indians at the 1937 All-Star Game in Washington, smacking him on the toe. Supposedly, the doctor told him the toe was fractured, and Diz said, "Fractured, hell, the damn thing's broken!" To favor the toe, he altered his pitching motion, and he wrecked his elbow. The Cards traded him to the Chicago Cubs in 1938, and he had enough left to help them win the Pennant. But by 1941, age 31 (we think), he was done, except for a brief 1-game comeback in 1947.

That injury limited him to 150 wins. Nevertheless, he was dominant enough in his brief time, and enough of a cultural icon (in each case, like the much quieter Sandy Koufax 30 years later), that he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Cardinals elected him to their team Hall of Fame, and retired his Number 17. Second to Bobby Orr (the Boston Bruins' Number 4), he is probably the greatest athlete whose name rhymes with his uniform number.

5. Scottie Pippen of Hamburg. Say what you want about Michael Jordan, but he won nothing until Pippen arrived at the Chicago Bulls. Together, they won 6 NBA Championships in 8 years: 1991, '92, '93, '96, '97 and '98. Pip nearly led them to another title in 1994, coming a whole lot closer to a title without Jordan than Jordan ever did without him.

He was a 7-time All-Star, an 8-time All-Defensive First Temaer, and led the league in steals in 1995. He won Olympic Gold Medals in 1992 (the Dream Team, another title Jordan won with him) and '96. His Number 33 was retired by both the University of Central Arkansas and the Bulls. He was named to the Basketball Hall of Fame and the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players.

He is now a senior advisor to the Bulls. In 2011, at age 45, he led the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game in scoring. Even more importantly, he blocked a shot by Justin Bieber: "He played pretty well, but he has an ugly shot." Pippen thus proved not only that he could still play a little, but that his eyes still worked.

4. Willie Davis of Texarkana. A 5-time Pro Bowler, he stands with Reggie White as the 2 greatest defensive ends (and, indeed, defensive linemen) in the long, proud history of the Green Bay Packers. He helped them win 5 NFL Championships, including the 1st 2 Super Bowls in 1967 and '68. He was named to the NFL's 1960s All-Decade Team, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Football Players.

3. Brooks Robinson of Little Rock. In 1955, he arrived with the Baltimore Orioles. In 1960, he won his 1st Gold Glove at 3rd base, and made his 1st All-Star Team. In 1964, he was the 1st Oriole named American League Most Valuable Player. In 1966, he helped the Orioles win their 1st Pennant and their 1st World Series. In 1970, he won another World Series, redefining the way people viewed the playing of 3rd base, and winning the Series MVP. In 1974, he played in his last All-Star Game, his 18th, and made his 6th postseason appearance. In 1975, he won his last Gold Glove, his 16th.

In 1977, he retired, had his Number 5 retired, and, with Frank Robinson (no relation), became the 1st 2 inductees into the Orioles' Hall of Fame. In 1983, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1991, he was invited to throw out the ceremonial first ball before the last Orioles game at Memorial Stadium (along with Johnny Unitas of the Colts, who threw a football). In 1999, he was named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Baseball Players and the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

2. Bill Dickey of Searcy. Though born in Bastrop, Louisiana, Arkansas is where he called home most of his life. He is on the short list for the title of "Greatest Catcher Who Ever Lived": A .313 lifetime batting average, 4 20-plus home run seasons (a big number for a catcher at that time), 4 100+ RBI seasons, and 11 All-Star Game appearances, including the 1st 2 and 10 of the 1st 11. He probably would have had 3 or 4 more had the ASG been established earlier.

He helped the Yankees win 8 Pennants (1932, '36, '37, '38, '39, '41, '42 and '43) and 7 World Series (all but '42). He briefly managed the Yankees in 1946, then returned in 1949 as a coach, turning Yogi Berra from a very shaky catcher into one who might have been even better: "Bill Dickey is learning me all his experiences."

The Yankees retired Number 8 for both Dickey and Berra. (Dickey wore 33 as a coach while Berra played and wore 8.) He is in the Yankees' Monument Park, the Baseball Hall of Fame, and The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Baseball Players.

1. Don Hutson of Pine Bluff. Raymond Berry may have put it into question in the late 1950s, but until Jerry Rice came along in the mid-1980s, Hutson was the greatest receiver in football history. (In 1989, Hutson graciously, and perhaps not prematurely, said that Rice had surpassed him.)

He led the University of Alabama to the 1934 National Championship, when "the other end" was a kid named Paul Bryant. The Bear had seen him star in high school: "He was something to see even then. We'd hitchhike to Pine Bluff just to watch him play."

It's unlikely anyone from Arkansas or Alabama hitchhiked all the way to Green Bay, Wisconsin to watch "The Alabama Antelope" play. But for the Green Bay Packers, he won 3 NFL Championships: 1936, 1939 and 1944. He was NFL Most Valuable Player in 1941 and 1942. He was an 8-time All-Pro. In 1940, he led the NFL in receptions and interceptions, so he was great on both sides of the ball. He caught 488 passes for 7,991 yards and 99 touchdowns, all of which stood as records long after he retired. He also had 30 career interceptions.

Don Hutson, playing for the Packers against

the Chicago Bears at Wrigley Field,

pioneering the use of eyeblack.

The photo is colorized, but accurate.

The Packers retired his Number 14, and elected him to their team Hall of Fame. He was elected to the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame (with the latter, a charter inductee in 1963), the NFL's 1930s All-Decade Team, the 50th and 75th Anniversary All-Time Teams, The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Football Players, and, in 2010, 65 years after his last game and 13 years after his death, Number 9 on the NFL Network's 100 Greatest Players, 2nd only to Rice among receivers.

October 6 Baseball Anniversaries

Sandy Koufax and Jim Palmer, before Game 2 of the World Series,

Dodger Stadium, October 6, 1966.

October 6, 1923: In a regular-season game, Ernie Padgett of the Boston Braves, in only his 2nd major-league appearance, pulls off an unassisted triple play in a doubleheader sweep of the Phillies.

Born in Philadelphia in 1899, the infielder would only last 5 seasons in the majors, and died in 1957 in East Orange, New Jersey.

October 6, 1926: Game 4 of the World Series, at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Someone got a message to Babe Ruth, asking him to hit a home run for a sick kid in a hospital.

He hit one. And another. And another. It was the first time a player had hit 3 home runs in a World Series game. The Yankees win, 10-5, and tie up the Series with the Cardinals.

The boy's name was Johnny Sylvester. He got well, later met the Babe, and lived to be 74.

In legend, the boy was dying, and the Babe visited him in the hospital, and promised him he'd hit a home run for him, and ended up hitting 3, and, hearing the game on the radio, instantly began to get well. The truth is great enough, is Ruthian enough.

October 6, 1934: The Tigers defeat the Cardinals, 10-4 at Navin Field in Detroit (later renamed Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium), in Game 4 of the World Series.

Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean – or Jerome Herman "Dizzy" Dean, depending on which story Ol' Diz liked to tell on any given day – inexplicably runs onto the field when player-manager Frankie Frisch calls for a pinch-runner, and is hit in the head by a throw. He is taken to a hospital, examined, and released.

He tells the press, apparently without realizing what he's saying, "They examined my head, and they didn't find anything." A newspaper says the next day, "X-rays of Dean's head show nothing." Dean will have the last laugh, though.

October 6, 1936: The New York Yankees defeat the New York Giants in Game 6 of the World Series, 13-5 at the Polo Grounds, and clinch their 5th World Championship.

At this point, the following teams have won 5 World Series: The Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, and the Philadelphia Athletics. (The A's wouldn't win another until 1972, by which point they were in Oakland. The Red Sox have never won another. Not without cheating, anyway.) By beating the Giants, who have 4, the Yankees move ahead of the Giants into first place in New York, and they have never relinquished it. Now, they are tied with the Sox and A’s for first among all teams.  They have never been second again. Nor will they be.

October 6, 1938: The Yankees defeat the Chicago Cubs, 6-3 at Wrigley Field, and take a 2-games-to-0 lead in the World Series. Dean, now with the Cubs following an arm injury that will ultimately end his meteoric career at age 31, takes a 3-2 lead into the 8th inning, but Frank Crosetti’s homer gives the Yanks a lead they will not relinquish.

The winning pitcher is Lefty Gomez, making him 6-0 in World Series play. Although Whitey Ford with 10 and Bob Gibson with 7 will win more Series games, Gomez has the best winning percentage in Series history to this day.

October 6, 1941: The Yankees beat the Dodgers, 4-1, and win their 9th World Series, clinching in 5 games at Ebbets Field. The Brooklyn Eagle's headline reads, "WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR." A catchphrase is coined. It will take another 14 years, and several agonizing close calls including 4 more World Series losses, all to the Yankees, before “Next Year” finally arrives for Brooklyn.

This is the last Major League Baseball game before World War II, although some players, including Detroit Tiger Hall-of-Famer Hank Greenberg, are already in the U.S. armed forces. Not until April 1946 will baseball again be played without players missing due to military service.

This is also the first Yankees-Dodgers World Series. There have now been 11: Seven all-New York "Subway Series," four Coast-to-Coast N.Y./L.A. series. There hasn’t been one in 30 years, and as long as Don Mattingly -- a.k.a. Donnie Regular Season Baseball -- is managing the Dodgers, there will never be a 12th.

October 6, 1943: Robert Cooper, father of Cardinal pitcher Mort Cooper and their catcher Walker Cooper, dies during the World Series. But the brothers play on, and in Game 2, Mort goes 1-for-3 at the bat and pitches the Cards to a 4-3 win over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. He leaves for home, Independence, Missouri, after the game. The Yankees win the next three games to take the Series, at which point Walker goes home, too.

October 6, 1945: Game 4 of the World Series is held at Wrigley Field. William "Billy Goat" Sianis is the owner of the Billy Goat Tavern, across from Chicago Stadium, home of the NHL's Blackhawks and the Midwest's premier boxing venue. He has a goat as his bar’s mascot, and he buys two tickets to this game, one for himself and one for the goat.

There is no rule against this. But fans around him complain to the ushers that the goat smells bad, and Sianis and his goat are kicked out of the ballpark. A Greek immigrant and a superstitious man, Sianis puts a curse on the Cubs. The Tigers win the game, 4-1, all their runs coming in the 4th inning, after Sianis and the goat are kicked out. The Tigers win the Series in 7, and afterward, Sianis sends a telegram to Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley, asking, "Who stinks now?"

In 1963, Sianis would move his bar, a precursor to today’s sports bars, to its current location on Michigan Avenue, just north of the Loop, near the Tribune Tower and the Sun-Times Building, making it a popular watering hole for journalists. He died in 1970, about a year after the Cubs’ 1969 September Swoon.

His nephew Sam Sianis has run the place ever since, and when William Wrigley Jr. sold the Cubs to the Tribune Company in 1981, he offered to lift the Curse of the Billy Goat. A number of times, Cub management has allowed Sam to take his bar’s current mascot onto the field in an attempt to lift the Curse.

It hasn't worked: Apparently, Billy' curse is stronger even than his own flesh and blood. The Cubs haven’t been back to the World Series in 67 years -- two-thirds of a century without a Pennant, by far MLB's record.  (Next-longest drought: The crosstown Chicago White Sox going 46 years without one, 1959 to 2005.)

Is the goat the reason? Well, let's put it this way: In 1945, the Cubs had already not been World Champions for 37 years, and had already had a number of weird things happen to them in Series play, including a 10-run inning by the A's in 1929, Babe Ruth’s alleged "called shot" in 1932, and Stan Hack leading off the 9th with a triple with what would be the tying run and then getting stranded there to lose Game 6 and the Series to the Tigers in 1935. The goat curse doesn't explain any of that.

So what's the real reason the Cubs haven't won the World Series in 104 years now? Your guess is as good as mine.

Left fielder Andy Pafko, later one of the Dodgers' "Boys of Summer," now 91, and shortstop Lennie Merullo, 95, are the only living men to have played for the Chicago Cubs in a World Series.

October 6, 1947: The Dodgers threaten in the top of the 9th at Yankee Stadium, but a double play clinches the 5-2 win for the Yankees in Game 7 of the World Series. It is the Yankees' 11th World Championship. The next-closest team is the just-dethroned Cardinals with 6.

This was the first World Series on television, on NBC, although it wasn’t baseball on coast-to-coast TV, that wouldn’t happen until 1951. This was also the first integrated World Series, with Jackie Robinson playing for the Dodgers.

However, it was Italians who were the major figures in the Series: Yogi Berra for hitting the first pinch-hit home run in Series history in Game 3, Cookie Lavagetto for breaking up Floyd Bevens’ no-hitter with one out to go in Game 4, Joe DiMaggio for coming through for the Yankees again with a homer in Game 5, Al Gionfriddo for robbing DiMaggio with a spectacular catch in Game 6, and Phil Rizzuto for starting the game-ending twin killing in Game 7.

An interesting note is that, while Bevens, Lavagetto and Gionfriddo were the biggest names to be featured in this Series, none of them would ever play another major league game. Yogi, Jerry Coleman, and Dodger Ralph Branca are the only surviving players from the rosters in this game, 65 years later.

October 6, 1957: Eddie Matthews becomes the first National Leaguer to hit what we would now call a "walkoff" home run in a World Series game, and the first player in either League to do it in extra innings, hitting one out of Yankee pitcher Bob Grim in the bottom of the 10th, to give the Milwaukee Braves a 7-5 win and even the World Series at 2 games apiece.

This was the Shoe Polish Game, in which Braves pinch-hitter Vernal Leroy "Nippy" Jones claimed to have been hit on the foot by a Tommy Byrne pitch, and a smudge of polish on the ball revealed him to be telling the truth, leading to a Brave run.

This would happen again, in favor of the Mets in 1969, with Cleon Jones – although they are not related, as Nippy was white and Cleon is black.

Nippy, who had been sent up to pinch-hit for Warren Spahn, was replaced by pinch-runner Felix Mantilla, who was sacrificed to second by Red Schoendienst (who, like Jones, had also played on the 1946 World Champion Cardinals), and then came Mathews’ blast.

Players from this game who are still alive, 55 years later: From the Braves, Schoendienst, Hank Aaron, Del Crandall, Johnny Logan, Felix Mantilla (also an original 1962 Met) and Frank Torre (Joe's older brother); from the Yankees: Berra, Jerry Coleman, Tony Kubek, Jerry Lumpe, Bobby Shantz and Johnny Kucks.  Whitey Ford is still alive, but did not appear in this game.

October 6, 1959: A crowd of 92,706, the largest ever for a baseball game that counts, plows into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for Game 5 of the World Series. Dick Donovan shuts out the Dodgers, and Sherm Lollar grounds into a double play that forces home a run, and the White Sox win, 1-0, with Bob Shaw outdueling Sandy Koufax (not yet a star). This will remain the last World Series game won by a Chicago team for 46 years.

Players from this game who are still alive, 53 years later: From the Dodgers: Sandy Koufax, Don Zimmer, Maury Wills, Joe Pignatano, Wally Moon, Don Demeter, Ron Fairly, Chuck Essegian and Stan Williams; from the White Sox: Luis Aparicio, Jim Landis, Jim Rivera, Billy Pierce and Jim McAnany.

Also on this day, Dennis Boyd is born. The Red Sox pitcher will be nicknamed "Oil Can," because that’s what people in his native Meridian, Mississippi called a can of beer. Despite helping them to the 1986 World Series, Boyd will be remembered for his eccentricities more than his pitching.

*

October 6, 1963: The Dodgers complete a 4-game sweep over the Yankees at Dodger Stadium. Sandy Koufax, who won Game 1, wins Game 4 as well. The Yankees had come into this first West Coast version of Yankees vs. Dodgers having won 104 games, but would not win another until next April.

October 6, 1965: Game 1 of the World Series at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota -- the first World Series game ever played in that State. Koufax, being Jewish, does not pitch today, because it is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. So he is pushed back to Game 2, and Don Drysdale is started. No problem, right? Big D is also a future Hall-of-Famer, right?

Not today: Don Mincher and soon-to-be AL MVP Zoilo Versalles (who hit only 2 homers in the regular season, and got the MVP for his contact hitting, speed and defense) hit home runs off Drysdale, and when manager Walter Alston comes to take him out in the 3rd inning, Drysdale says to him, "I bet you wish I was Jewish, too!"

Jim “Mudcat” Grant allows only one hit, a home run by Ron Fairly, and the Twins, in the first World Series game in their history (unless you count their Washington Senators days, in which case it’s their first in 32 years), win 8-2.

To make matters worse for the Dodgers, Koufax loses Game 2 as well. The Dodgers will come back, though, and win the Series in 7 games. The Twins will not get this close to a World Championship again for another 22 years.

October 6, 1966: Dodger outfielder Willie Davis, having trouble seeing a white baseball against the smog-gray L.A. sky, commits three errors in one inning, enabling the Baltimore Orioles to win 6-0, and take both World Series games at Dodger Stadium, and head back to Memorial Stadium with a 2-0 lead. Jim Palmer outduels Koufax, who struggles with the Oriole bats, Davis’ fielding, and the pain in his elbow.

No one knows it yet, but this is the last major league game for Koufax. He is not yet 31, Palmer is just 20. This could be called a "generational hinge" game.

On this same day, LSD is declared illegal throughout the United States.

Also on this day, Niall Quinn was born. Most Americans don't know who he is. He is an Irish-born soccer player who was a reserve on Arsenal’s 1989 League Championship team.

He moved on to Manchester City, where he got in an altercation with teammate Steve McMahon, who had been on the other side when Arsenal beat Liverpool in the season finale that decided that League title; McMahon looked like a fool that night, signaling to his teammates that there would be just 1 minute of injury time, when there turned out to be 2, with Michael Thomas scoring the winning goal in said 92nd minute. But Quinn didn't even play in that game.

After their fight on a 1992 preseason tour in Italy, Quinn pulled off his T-shirt, stained with McMahon's blood, so he wouldn't be denied entry into a dance club, danced his arse off (as they’d say in the British Isles), and, seen wearing only a pair of cutoff jeans by a Man City fan, heard that fan sing, to the tune of "The Stars and Stripes Forever,"...

Niall Quinn’s disco pants are the best!

They go up from his arse to his chest!

They are better than Adam and the Ants!

Niall Quinn’s disco pants!

Quinn, who has called it "the song that will follow me to the end of my career," admits that he no longer has those pants. However, they can't possibly fail to be better than Adam and the Ants. They sucked.

Quinn finished his playing career for Sunderland, who adopted him and his unintentional anthem as their own. He then went into management, eventually buying a part-ownership of the team and being made its chairman. He has since sold his stake in the team, and has returned to color commentary on soccer games. (Or, should I say, "colour commentary on football matches.")

In 2006, Sunderland, then in English football's 2nd division, were playing away at Cardiff City, along with Swansea City one of two teams from Wales in the 92-team English Football League. Sunderland won, and Quinn got on the plane that was to take him, the players, and a few fans back to Sunderland. Already, there was a problem, as Cardiff’s airport wasn't willing to take them. They had to go 40 miles across a bay to Bristol, England. Recognized by some fans, who'd already had a few drinks that night, they started singing “Niall Quinn’s Disco Pants.” At the top of their lungs.

A few of the other passengers complained, and the pilot had 80 people thrown off the plane. The airline, EasyJet, told them they could have seats on the first plane out the next morning, but wouldn’t give them a place to spend the night. They were really in a bind.

Quinn pulled out the club checkbook – since it’s Britain, I should say "chequebook" – and hired taxis. He paid 8,000 pounds, about $15,000 at the time, to take them up Britain's M5 Motorway, from Bristol in the southwest of England to Sunderland in the northeast -- about 300 miles, or roughly the distance from New York to Portland, Maine. Or from Philadelphia to Boston.

This would have been chump change for a big club like Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester United. But for Sunderland, it was a pretty penny. Sunderland fans – a.k.a. "Mackems" – have never forgotten this act of generosity, and adapted the song, including taking a pot-shot at Freddy Shepherd, then owner of their arch-rivals, Newcastle United, a.k.a. the Magpies or Mags (and since replacing him with Mike Ashley, current Newcastle owner):

Niall Quinn's taxi cabs are the best!

So go shove it up your arse, EasyJet!

Fat Freddy/Fat Ashley wouldn't do it for the Mags!

Niall Quinn's taxi cabs!

I don't like Sunderland, but, using the U.K. vernacular, Niall Quinn is a top man.

*

October 6, 1969: The New York Mets defeat the Atlanta Braves, 7-4 at Shea Stadium, and sweep the first-ever National League Championship Series. As they did after the NL Eastern Division clincher on September 24, the Met fans storm the field.

It is the first Pennant won by a New York team in 5 years. A long time by New York standards. But for Met fans, the children of a “shotgun wedding” between two groups of fans who once hated each other, to use the late scientist and former Giant fan Stephen Jay Gould’s phrase, “with that love that only hate can understand,” it is the first Pennant in either 13 years (Dodgers) or 15 years (Giants).

After 7 bad years, 5 of them absolutely horrible, in Year 8 the Mets have won the Pennant. It is the fastest any team has reached the World Series since the early days of the competition. It will be 1980 – or 1973, if you count the Mets’ 2nd Pennant – before a team other than one of the “Original 16” reaches the World Series again.

October 6, 1978: Game 3 of the American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium. Winner takes a 2-1 lead in the series. George Brett of the Kansas City Royals hits three home runs off Catfish Hunter, the only three-homer performance in LCS play in either league – in fact, the only three-homer performance in any postseason game since Reggie Jackson in the previous season’s World Series.

But in the bottom of the 8th, with the Yankees trailing 5-4, Thurman Munson steps up against Royals reliever Doug Bird, and crushes a pitch 470 feet to left-center field. On ABC, Howard Cosell, who admired Munson a lot, laughs: "Ho-ho! The damaged man!"

Goose Gossage finishes it off for Catfish, and the Yankees win, 6-5. Reggie Jackson had also homered, his 2nd of this series, after taking KC closer Al "the Mad Hungarian" Hrabosky deep in Game 1 at Royals Stadium.

This is what I love most about Munson: At the moment when the Yankees most needed him to hit a home run, the banged-up Captain hit the longest home run of his career. Appropriately, it went into Monument Park. At this point, the only players honored there were the big four: Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle – along with owner Jacob Ruppert, general manager Ed Barrow, managers Miller Huggins, Joe McCarthy and Casey Stengel, and the plaque honoring the Mass delivered by Pope Paul VI.

The next plaque to be dedicated would be the one for the Mass delivered by Pope John Paul II, but the next one for a Yankee would be, sadly, for Munson himself.

October 6, 1980: Having lost 3 straight to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Houston Astros must now play them in a one-game Playoff to decide the NL West title, and at Dodger Stadium, no less. No problem: Art Howe drives in four runs (which is more than the Astro second baseman ever did for the Mets as their manager), and Joe Niekro knuckleballs his way to his 20th win of the season, and the Astros win, 7-1. In what is unofficially the first postseason game in their 19-year history, they officially advance to the Playoffs for the first time.

October 6, 1984: A dark day in the long, gray history of the Chicago Cubs. Leading the NLCS 2 games to 1, needing only 1 more win to take their first Pennant in 39 years, they are tied with the San Diego Padres in the bottom of the 9th at Jack Murphy Stadium. But closer Lee Smith gives up an opposite-field homer to former Dodger “hero” Steve Garvey, and the Padres win, 7-5, to tie up the series.

Fans of lots of teams hated Garvey, due to his smugness and, as it turned out, his hypocrisy. But I think Cub fans hate him even more than Philadelphia and Cincinnati fans do. Certainly, they hate him more than Yankee Fans do – and that’s a lot.

October 6, 1985: With the Yankees having been eliminated from the AL East race the day before, manager Billy Martin sends 46-year-old knuckleballer Phil Niekro out to pitch an otherwise meaningless game at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. He allows only 4 hits, becoming the oldest pitcher ever to pitch a complete-game shutout – top that, Nolan Ryan! The Yankees beat the Blue Jays, 8-0, and Niekro has his 300th career win. The Yankees will release him after the season, despite winning 16 games for them at age 45 and again at 46.

He will pitch two more seasons, with his home-State Cleveland Indians, the Blue Jays, and one more game with his original team, the Braves – he is the last active player who had played for the Braves in Milwaukee – reaching 318 wins for his Hall of Fame career. That makes him 16th on the all-time list, but among pitchers who’d spent most of their careers in the post-1920 Lively Ball Era, only his ex-Brave teammate Warren Spahn, and the still-active Ryan, Steve Carlton and Don Sutton had more wins before him. He has since also been passed by Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux.

With his brother Joe having won 223, the Niekro brothers are the winningest brother combination in MLB history, with 538 wins between them. Phil also struck out 3,342 batters, then 8th all-time and now 11th. In 1973, he pitched the first no-hitter in Atlanta history. It took 5 tries before he was finally elected to the Hall of Fame.

October 6, 1991: The final game is played at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Orioles lose to the Tigers, 7-3. Afterward, while the music from Field of Dreams plays, Brooks Robinson trots back out to his old position of 3rd base, followed by Frank Robinson into right field, Jim Palmer to the pitcher's mound, and so on, until Cal Ripken goes to shortstop as the last player, and Earl Weaver gives one last lineup card (no doubt with little room on it) to an umpire.

This ceremony paves the way for many ballpark closing ceremonies since, including the farewell to the old Yankee Stadium (which, neatly, was against the Orioles). The Orioles moved into Oriole Park at Camden Yards the following April, and the NFL's Ravens play their first 2 seasons (1996-97) at Memorial before moving into their own stadium at Camden Yards. Memorial Stadium, built in 1954, is demolished in 2002.

The same day it hosted its last baseball game, at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, with a policemen watching his every move from the Met dugout and the fear of being arrested at any moment due to false rape allegations, David Cone ties a National League mark for strikeouts as he fans 19 Phillies en route to a 7-0 victory in the season's finale. The Mets let him get away in the off-season, and, except for a brief comeback in 2003, never pitches for them again. He will, however pitch for another New York team, and far more successfully than he ever did for the Mets.

That 1991 season remains the last one in which the Mets finished with a better record than the Yankees.  It also remains the last one in which the Mets finished with better attendance than the Yankees.

October 6, 2001: Another farewell in Baltimore. At Camden Yards, in front of a full house including Orioles notables Frank Robinson, Palmer and Weaver, as well as Commissioner Bud Selig and former President Bill Clinton, Cal Ripken plays his 3,001st and final game. After a hitless night for the 41-year-old, the final out of the 5-1 loss to Red Sox is made as Cal watches from the on deck circle.

In Seattle, with their 116th win, the Mariners tie the 1906 Cubs as the winningest team in major league history. Bret Boone's 37th home run of the season, and the shut out pitching of five Seattle pitchers prove to be the difference in the 1-0 historic win over the Texas Rangers. But the Yankees will prove to the M's that 116 don't mean a thing if you ain't got that ring.

At Shea Stadium, with his 151st career pinch hit, Lenny Harris breaks the major league mark established by Manny Mota. Coming off the Met bench to bat for Rey Ordonez, he lines a 1-2 pitch off Expo starter Carl Pavano for a single to become the career leader in pinch hits.

October 6, 2006: After failing to advanced past the first round of the American League playoffs in their previous five postseason appearances, the Oakland Athletics beat the much-favored Minnesota Twins, 8-3, to complete a three-game ALDS sweep. The victory, which was the team's 10th opportunity to win a clinching game, puts Oakland in ALCS for the first time since 1992.

This remains the only postseason series ever won by a team with Billy Beane as its general manager. And Beane and the A's haven't won a postseason game since -- or even appeared in one in the last 5 seasons. Explain to me again how Beane is a "genius"?

October 6, 2007: The Bug Game! In Game 2 of the ALDS at Jacobs Field, the Indians score the tying run on a wild pitch thrown by a bug-covered Joba Chamberlain. A rare infestation of Lake Erie Midges, which appeared en masse in the 8th inning, impacts the rookie Yankees reliever who suffers his first blown save of the season.

We may never know why Joe Torre didn't tell the umpires, "Stop play until the bugs are gone, or I'm pulling my team off the field and taking my chances with the Commissioner's office!" Would John McGraw have put up with that? Would Leo Durocher? Would Casey Stengel? Would Earl Weaver? Would Billy Martin? Would they hell! But Torre did. The Yankees lost the game, 2-1, as several players -- not just Alex Rodriguez -- seemed to forget how to hit. So it wasn't just the bugs.

October 6, 2009: With one out in the bottom of the 12th inning in the AL Central tiebreaker, the Twins beat the Tigers, 6-5, when Alexi Casilla's single plates Carlos Gomez from second base with the winning run.

The Metrodome victory finishes an amazing comeback by Minnesota, going 17-4 in the final month to close a seven-game deficit and completes a colossal collapse for the Tigers, who become the first team in big league history to surrender a 3-game lead with only 4 contests to play. This, just 3 years after the Tigers blew a 15 1/2-game AL Central lead over the Twins, the biggest Division (or pre-1969 League) choke ever.  Of course, the Tigers won the Wild Card and ended up beating the A's, who'd beaten the Twins, for the Pennant...

Maybe this anniversary will stick in the mind of some of the Tigers who are still here, 2 years later.

October 6, 2010: At Citizens Bank Park, Phillies right-hander Roy Halladay throws the second no-hitter in postseason history when he beats the Reds, 4-0, in Game 1 of the NLDS. Don Larsen became the first hurler to accomplish the feat by throwing a perfect game in the Yankees' victory over Brooklyn in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series.