October 21, 1998: The Yankees Complete the Greatest Baseball Season Ever

October 21, 1998, 25 years ago: The New York Yankees complete the greatest season in the history of baseball.

They started the season 0-3, and 1-4, and fans began to fear that this would be a bad season. Instead, they roared through the regular season, going 114-48. The 114 wins broke the 1954 Cleveland Indians' record for most wins in a season by an American League team. That record would be broken by the 2001 Seattle Mariners, who won 116 games, tying the major league record set by the 1906 Chicago Cubs. Ah, but the 1906 Cubs and the 1954 Indians both lost the World Series, and the 2001 Mariners didn't even get there.

The regular-season highlights including a perfect game by David Wells, against the Minnesota Twins on May 17. They clinched the AL Eastern Division on September 9, against the Auld Enemy, the Boston Red Sox, 7-5 at Fenway Park in Boston.

Center fielder Bernie Williams won the AL batting title with a .339 average. Shortstop Derek Jeter batted .324, right fielder Paul O'Neill batting .317, and 3rd baseman Scott Brosius -- told by manager Joe Torre that he didn't care if he batted .200, he was acquired that season for his glove -- batted an even .300.

Unlike so many past and future "Bronx Bombers" teams, the '98 Yankees didn't bomb teams out of the yard. 1st baseman Tino Martinez led the team with 28 home runs. Williams hit 26, O'Neill and designated hitter Darryl Strawberry 24, Jeter and Brosius 19, and catcher and 2nd baseman Chuck Knoblauch 17. Williams had 123 RBIs, O'Neill 116, Brosius 98, Williams 97, Jeter 84, Knoblauch 64 and Posada 63.

Left field was unsettled, but everybody who was tried contributed, including Strawberry, Tim Raines and Chili Davis, who had been stars on previous teams; journeyman Chad Curtis, rookies Ricky Ledee and Shane Spencer, the last of these hitting 10 home runs in a September call-up.

The pitching was the best in baseball. David Cone went 20-7, Wells led the league in winning percentage at 18-4, Andy Pettitte went 16-11, and, after being signed in June, Cuban defector Orlando Hernández, known as "El Duque" (The Duke), went 12-4. Between starting and relieving, Ramiro Mendoza went 10-2, with 1 save. Mariano Rivera was 3-0 with 36 saves and a 1.91 ERA, leading a bullpen that also included Mike Stanton, Graeme Lloyd and Jeff Nelson.

The Yankees swept the AL Division Series in 3 straight, completing it over the Texas Rangers in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas on October 2. The AL Championship Series would be tougher. The Yankees won Game 1 over the Cleveland Indians.

In Game 2, on October 7, in the top of the 12th inning, Travis Fryman bunted. Tino fielded it, and threws to Knoblauch covering 1st. Except the ball hit Fryman in the back, and he reached base safely. That would have been bad enough. Except Knoblauch argued that Fryman ran out of the baseline -- which he had. But the ball was still loose and in play, and Enrique Wilson (later a Yankee) noticed this, and, even though he stumbled approaching the plate, scored the go-ahead run. The Indians scored 2 more runs in the inning, and won 4-1.

I was watching this game on NBC, as a Yankee Fan. I had gotten up to get a drink, and missed what became known as "the Blauch-head Play." Had I seen it as it happened, I would have gone straight to Newark Airport, where the Yankees would have been heading to fly to Cleveland for the next 3 games, and beaten Knoblauch to a pulp with my bare hands. (Most likely, somebody would have stopped me.)

Knoblauch had put the Yankees' magnificent season in jeopardy. The Indians won Game 3. So, for Game 4, it was El Duque to the rescue. Having pitched for the 2 most demanding bosses in the Western Hemisphere, George Steinbrenner and Fidel Castro, no way was a little bit of Cleveland cold going to stop him. He pitched a 4-hit shutout (with 1 inning of help each from Stanton and Rivera). Knoblauch started a key 4-6-3 double play in the 8th to eliminate the last Indian threat. The Yankees won, 4-0, and tied up the series at 2 games apiece.

In Game 5, the Yankees once again took the early lead, with a 3-run 1st inning, but the Indians responded. A leadoff homer by Kenny Lofton and a sacrifice fly by Manny Ramírez (not yet using steroids, as far as we know) made it a 1-run game. Paul O'Neill singled home a run in the 2nd to make it 4–2 Yankees. Chili Davis homerd in the 4th to put the Yankees ahead by 3, but Jim Thome, who always hit the Yankees well, hit his 3rd homer of the series in the bottom of the 6th to make it a 2-run game.

Knoblauch, still fighting for redemption, started another key 4-6-3 8th inning double play. David Wells, who claimed to have heard Indian fans insulting his dead mother all through the game, and the Yankee bullpen held off any further Indians scoring, and the Yankees won 5-3. The series went back to The Bronx, with the Bombers 1 win away from the Pennant.

For his 1st at-bat in Game 6, on October 13, the Yankee Fans gave Knoblauch a standing ovation, and NBC announcer Bob Costas said, "Apparently, all is forgiven." The Yankees overcame a 5-run Cleveland 5th, including another home run by Thome, and won, 9-5, clinching their 35th Pennant.

*

October 17, 1998: Game 1 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium, the way God intended it. The Yankees went into the top of the 7th trailing the San Diego Padres, 5-2. Knoblauch completed his redemption with a 3-run homer in the inning to tie it‚ off Padre starter Kevin Brown, who had a reputation as a "Yankee Killer" while pitching for the Texas Rangers. (Yankee Killer? Kevin Brown? We hadn't seen nothin' yet.)

Then, after reliever Mark Langston (himself rather successful against the Yankees while pitching for the Mariners and Angels) loaded the bases, Tino, who'd also been struggling lately, came up. With a 2-2 count, Langston threw a pitch that was just low. To this day, Padre fans say that it was strike 3, and Tino should have been called out, and that this "fixed" the Series for the Yankees.

Now, we Yankee Fans don't have much reason to get upset with Padres fans, but if you blow a 3-run lead in the 7th inning of a World Series game, you don't deserve to win the Series. Tino swung at the full-count pitch, and cranked it into the upper deck in right field for a grand slam. San Diego native Wells notched the win against his hometown team, and the Yankees triumphed, 9-6.

October 18, 1998: The Yankees struck early in Game 2‚ scoring 3 runs in each of the 1st 2 innings. They went on to cruise to a 9-3 win behind El Duque. Bernie and Jorge connected for homers.

October 20, 1998: Game 3, in front of 64,667 at Jack Murphy – excuse me, Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Having hosted Super Bowl XXXII in January, this becomes the 1st time the Super Bowl and the World Series have been played in the same stadium -- or even in the same metropolitan area -- in the same calendar year.

The Metrodome in Minneapolis hosted the World Series in October 1991, Super Bowl XXVI in January 1992, and the NCAA Final Four in April 1992. But no stadium has hosted a Super Bowl and a World Series in the same calendar year since. Detroit in 2006, Dallas in 2011 and Houston in 2017 have hosted both in the same metro area in the same calendar year (and, for the moment, Phoenix has a chance to do it this year), but not in the same stadium. In the pre-Super Bowl era, World Series and NFL Championship Games had been played in the same city in the same calendar year as follows: New York in 1936, 1938, 1956 and 1962; Detroit in 1935; and Cleveland in 1954.

The Padres tooke a 3-0 lead on the Yankees, but Brosius, having the season of his life, hit a home run to make it 3-2. In the top of the 8th, with the Yankees threatening with 2 men on, the Padres brought in their closer, Trevor Hoffman.

The Padre fans, believing him to be the world's greatest relief pitcher, wave their white towels and cheer wildly. The words, "IT'S TREVOR TIME" appear on the scoreboard. The public-address system blasts the song "Hell's Bells" by AC/DC.

George Steinbrenner, not familiar with the hard rock music of the Seventies and Eighties -- and also not familiar with the legally-forced change of name to the WWE -- tells the New York beat writers, "When they played that death march, it sounded like the WWF, when The Undertaker comes in. That's who I thought they were bringing in!"

Certainly, for National League batters that season, Hoffman might as well have been an undertaker. The whole production had become one of the most intimidating scenes in baseball.

But these were not NL batters, these were the New York Yankees, and they feared nobody. Brosius took Hoffman over the center field wall for a 5-3 Yankee lead, soon to be a 5-4 Yankee victory. The actual best closer in the game, Mariano Rivera, finished it off, and the Yankees can wrap up the Series with a sweep.

October 21, 1998, 25 years ago: The Padres had maybe their best team ever. Arguably, so did the Cleveland Indians that the Yankees beat in the ALCS. Maybe, so did the Texas Rangers that the Yankees beat in the ALDS. All of them had the bad luck to run into what may have been anybody's best team ever.

The setup seemed good: Just as it was San Diego native Terrell Davis who was the MVP of the Super Bowl that the Denver Broncos won on the same field, 9 months earlier, it seemed fitting that San Diego native Wells would win the clinching Game 5 of the World Series. But it wouldn't get that far. Pettitte and Brown traded goose eggs for 5 innings in Game 4, before Bernie got a run home on a groundout in the 6th. A Brosius single and a Ledee sacrifice fly got 2 more runs home in the 8th.

Brosius, already named the Series' MVP, took a grounder from Mark Sweeney for the final out, and the Yankees won, 3-0, for their 24th World Championship. Counting the postseason, they had won 125 games, losing just 50. It was the greatest season any team has ever had.

There is a weird postscript. After the 2003 season, Pettitte's contract had run out. He went to his hometown team, the Houston Astros. The Yankees signed Kevin Brown to replace him, and it was a disaster, culminating in one of the worst starts any Yankee pitcher has ever had, Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS against the Red Sox.

The Future Ain't What It Used to Be

October 20, 1988, 35 years ago: The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-2 in Game 5 of the World Series at the Oakland Coliseum. This gives the Dodgers the World Championship in a tremendous upset, sparked by Kirk Gibson's home run that won Game 1.

Now, imagine that you could go back to that night, and that you could tell someone that, eventually, the following things will have happened:

* Kirk Gibson will never appear in another World Series.

* Mark McGwire and José Canseco of the defeated A's will appear in the next two World Series, but that will be it for them.

* The next time Orel Hershiser, the pitching hero of this World Series and, indeed, of the entire season, appears in a World Series, it will be as a Cleveland Indian.

* The next time Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden of the Mets win a World Series, they will be playing for the Yankees.

* The next time the Yankees win a Pennant and a World Series, not only will they have Darryl and "Doc" on their roster, but they won't have Don Mattingly on it. But they will have Wade Boggs on it. And their manager will be Joe Torre. And George Steinbrenner will be cheered at the subsequent ticker-tape parade.

* Bo Jackson will never play football again after the 1990 Playoffs.

* Pete Rose will be banned from baseball.

* Boggs and Torre will get into the Baseball Hall of Fame. None of the other guys I mentioned will ever get in.

* Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Troy Aikman (then in his senior year at UCLA), Bill Walton, Charles Barkley and John Davidson will all become better known as broadcasters in their respective sports than they are as players. Same with Jimmy Johnson, Digger Phelps and Barry Melrose as coaches.

* Within 9 years, Major League Soccer and the Women's National Basketball Association will be founded, and New York will be among the founding teams in both, but, through the 2023 season, neither will have yet won a single league title. (UPDATE: The New York Liberty won the 2024 WNBA Championship).

* Rose, O.J. Simpson, Mike Tyson and Bill Cosby will all go to prison. (I could add Martha Stewart, but she wasn't all that famous yet.)

* Betty White, 48 years older than River Phoenix, will outlive him by 28 years. She is 36 years older than both Michael Jackson and Prince, and will outlive the former by 12 years and the latter by 5 years. She is 28 years older than Tom Petty, and will outlive him by 4 years. She is 25 years older than David Bowie, and will outlive him by 5 years. She is 20 years older than Muhammad Ali, and will outlive him by 5 years.

* Keith Richards, 13 days older than John Denver, who had a much cleaner image, will outlive Denver by at least 26 years.

* Gay people would get the right to serve in the military and get married. 

* A Governor of Arkansas would get elected President -- as a liberal Democrat. And get impeached over a sex scandal. And be acquitted.

* Not only would Vice President George Bush win the upcoming election, but he would lose the next election, to the aforementioned Governor, and then that next President would be succeeded by Bush's son, who didn't go to Vietnam, but would bring America its next "Vietnam," and would bring its worst economic conditions since the Great Depression.

* That President's replacement would be a black man with an Arabic name.

* Rudy Giuliani, who made his name prosecuting organized crime bosses under the RICO Act in federal court, would be indicted under the RICO Act in federal court.

* Al Sharpton would become a respected elder statesman of civil rights.

* New York City would elect a Mayor who was both black and a former cop.

* Arnold Schwarzenegger would get elected Governor of California. Twice. And would get the Delegates at the Republican Convention to do something they hadn't done since 1972: Cheer the mention of Richard Nixon.

* Great Britain would have a Prime Minister who was both Indian and Muslim.

* Prince Charles would both get divorced and remarried, and would still be allowed to become King.

* Israel would have a Prime Minister who could, in terms of governing style if not in terms of the number of people he killed, legitimately be compared to Adolf Hitler. And he had gone to the same high school, at the same time, as Reggie Jackson.

* Within 2 years, on back-to-back days, Yankee Stadium will be sold out -- by Nelson Mandela and then Billy Joel. Remember: Mandela was still in prison in 1988, and the Reagan Administration had been treating him as a Communist, a terrorist, and a pariah. Congress had passed sanctions against South Africa's apartheid government, Reagan had vetoed them, and his veto was overridden. And the Yankees, in 1988, were not in the habit of hosting standalone concerts at The Stadium. (Only the occasional postgame show.)

* Joel would release albums in 1989 and 1993, and would live at least another 30 years, but, in that time, never release another album of new music.

* Donald Trump will soon go bankrupt, and go on to recover; host a game show; become President without previously holding any public office, elective or appointive; crash the economy, let over one million people die because he threw away a contingency plan because it was written by the previous President, who was black, cave in to the Russian dictator, get impeached (but not removed) because of it; and lose his bid for re-election, send terrorists to invade the Capitol to try to overturn the result, fail, and still be allowed to run again.

* And he would lose that disputed election to Joe Biden, a guy who had to drop out of this year's race because of his health and a minor scandal -- and would now be President of the United States at the age of 80, and have at least a 50-50 chance of being re-elected.

* And, by the way, in 2023, we still don't have flying cars!

Your man on the street in 1988, especially if he's a New Yorker and a sports fan, won't believe any of that.

As Yogi Berra put it, "The future ain't what it used to be."

October 19, 1963: The Philadelphia 76ers Debut

1963-77 Logo

October 19, 1963, 60 years ago: After 14 seasons as the Syracuse Nationals, the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers make their home debut, taking the place of the Philadelphia Warriors, who moved to San Francisco the year before. It doesn't go so well: Despite 31 points from Lee Shaffer and 24 from Chet "the Jet" Walker, they lose to the Detroit Pistons, 124-121 at the Convention Hall of the Philadelphia Civic Center.

After bringing Wilt Chamberlain back from the Warriors in 1965, the 76ers built one of the greatest teams every in 1967, winning the NBA Championship. By 1973, they had collapsed, and finished with the worst record in NBA history, 9-73.

They rebuilt, and reached the NBA Finals in 1977, 1980 and 1982, before winning another title in 1983. But 2 disastrous trades in 1986 doomed them, and they've only reached the NBA Finals once since, in 2001. The last few years, they have asked their fans to "trust the process." Well, they're waiting.

They played at the Convention Hall of the Philadelphia Civic Center through the 1967 title, then moved to The Spectrum in South Philadelphia. In 1996, they moved next-door to the arena currently named the Wells Fargo Center.

The Philadelphia Civic Center's Convention Hall

From their beginnings, the have retired the Number 4 of forward Dolph Schayes, who had starred for them in Syracuse. From their 1967 title team, coached by Alex Hannum with Dr. Jack Ramsay as their general manager, they have retired the 13 of center Wilt Chamberlain, the 15 of guard Hal Greer, and the 32 of forward Billy Cunningham.

From the 1983 title team, coached by Cunningham, with Pat Williams as general manager, they have retired the 2 of center Moses Malone, the 6 of Julius "Dr. J" Erving, the 10 of guard Maurice Cheeks, and the 24 of forward Bobby Jones. From the late 1980s and early 1990s, they have retired the 34 of forward Charles Barkley. From the 2001 Finalists, they have retired the 3 of guard Allen Iverson.

And, in place of a retired number, they have hung a banner with a picture of a microphone, in memory of Dave Zinkoff, the public address announcer for the Warriors from their founding 1946 until their move in 1962, and for the 76ers from their 1963 arrival until his death in 1985.

How Long Has It Been: The Baltimore Orioles Won a World Series (Or Even a Pennant)

October 16, 1983, 40 years ago: Eddie Murray slams a pair of home runs and Scott McGregor pitches a 5-hitter, as the Baltimore Orioles beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-0 at Veterans Stadium, and win the World Series 4-1. Baltimore catcher Rick Dempsey‚ who hit .385 with 4 doubles and a home run‚ is the named the Series' Most Valuable Player.

The Orioles win their 3rd World Series, following 1966 and 1970. This one marks a unique double: Edward Bennett Williams, famed trial lawyer, majority owner of the Orioles, and minority owner and former majority owner of the Washington Redskins, becomes the only man ever to be an owner of the current World Series and Super Bowl champions at the same time.

NFL rules prohibit a majority owner from being a majority owner in another sport, so before buying the Orioles, Williams sold some of his stake in the Redskins to Jack Kent Cooke, former owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and Kings, builder of the Forum arena outside L.A., and the last owner of the minor-league baseball team that gave its name to an NHL powerhouse, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The 1983 World Series win caps a period where the Orioles have finished 1st 8 times in 18 years, and have at least been competitive almost continuously since 1960. But, due to their core players getting old and later mismanagement by owner Peter Angelos, they have not played a World Series game since.

The last out is a line shot to shortstop Cal Ripken Jr., son and namesake of the Orioles' longtime 3rd base coach. He will play another 18 seasons, but never appear in another World Series.

It's been 40 years. How long has that been?

*

There was only 1 holdover from their previous World Series win, in 1970. It was Jim Palmer, and he was a holdover from their 1966 win, too. In 1983 Game 3, he became the 1st pitcher to win a World Series game in 3 different decades. He remains the only one.

He, 1st baseman Eddie Murray, and shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. reached the Baseball Hall of Fame. Joe Altobelli had taken over as manager from Earl Weaver, who took them to the 1970 title, and also to Pennants in 1969, 1971 and 1979. Hank Bauer managed the 1966 title, so Weaver basically got into the Hall of Fame with 1 World Series win.

The Houston Astros, the Kansas City Royals, the franchise then known as the Montreal Expos, had never won a World Series. The Braves hadn't won in 26 years, including their entire tenure in Atlanta. The Giants hadn't won in 29 years, including their entire tenure in San Francisco. The Cleveland Indians hadn't won in 35 years. The Twins hadn't won in 59 years, including their entire tenure in Minnesota. The Boston Red Sox hadn't won in 65 years. The Chicago White Sox had just won the American League Western Division, but hadn't won the World Series in 66 years. The Chicago Cubs hadn't won in 75 years.

The Astros, the Expos franchise, and the San Diego Padres had never won a Pennant. The Padres, the Seattle Mariners, the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays had never even won a Division title. The Expos were still in Montreal, the Astros were still in the National League, the Milwaukee Brewers were still in the American League, and the Cleveland team was still known as the Indians.

All of those facts are no longer true.

Only 6 ballparks in use that season are still in use: Fenway Park in Boston, Wrigley Field in Chicago, the Oakland Coliseum, Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City, and both Los Angeles area stadiums, Dodger Stadium and Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

There was an NFL team in Baltimore (for 5 more months, anyway), but it was the Colts, not the Ravens. There was an NFL team in Houston, but it was the Oilers, not the Texans. There were NBA teams in Kansas City, San Diego and Seattle. There were NHL teams in Quebec City and Hartford. And the USFL and the original North American Soccer League were still operating.

Carl Hubbell, Hank Greenberg and Lefty Gomez were still alive. Of the defining players of my childhood, Carl Yastrzemski and Johnny Bench had just retired; Willie Stargell had done so a year earlier; Reggie Jackson and Rod Carew were pursuing milestones in Anaheim, the former, 500 home runs, the latter, 3,000 hits; Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan were now elder statesmen; and Mike Schmidt, Dave Winfield, Carlton Fisk, George Brett were roughly at their peaks.

Derek Jeter was 9 years old, Alex Rodriguez was 8, David Ortiz was 7, Jimmy Rollins was 4, Albert Pujols and CC Sabathia were 3, David Wright was 10 months, Justin Verlander was 8 months, Miguel Cabrera was 6 months; and Zack Greinke (born 5 days later), Max Scherzer, Buster Posey, Clayton Kershaw, Stephen Strasburg, Madison Bumgarner, Freddie Freeman, Giancarlo Stanton, Jose Altuve and Gerrit Cole, much less anyone younger than them, hadn't been born yet.

Current Orioles manager Brandon Hyde was 13 years old, while current Phillies manager Rob Thomson was at the University of Kansas. Tom Thibodeau of the Knicks was an assistant coach at Salem State College. Lane Lambert of the Islanders was playing for the Detroit Red Wings. Lindy Ruff of the Devils was playing for the Buffalo Sabres. Buck Showalter of the Mets was playing for the Columbus Clippers, the Yankees' Class AAA affiliate. Peter Laviolette of the Rangers and Sandy Brondello of the Liberty were in high school. Aaron Boone of the Yankees was 10, Jacque Vaughn of the Nets and Brian Dabol of the Giants were 8, Robert Saleh of the Jets was 4, Troy Lesesne of the Red Bulls was 11 days from being born, and Nick Cushing of NYCFC was born the next year.

The Orioles dethroned the St. Louis Cardinals as World Champions. The titleholders in the other sports were the Washington Redskins in football, the Philadelphia 76ers in basketball, and the New York Islanders in hockey. The Sixers and Isles have never won another title, either. The Heavyweight Champion of the World was Larry Holmes.

The Olympic Games have since been held in America 3 times; twice each in Canada, Korea, Japan and China; and once each in Bosnia, France, Spain, Norway, Australia, Greece, Italy, Britain, Russia and Brazil.

The World Cup has since been held in America, Mexico, Italy, France, Germany, South Africa, Brazil, Russia and Qatar.

There were 26 Amendments to the Constitution. The idea that two people of the same gender could be legally recognized as married was ridiculous -- but so was the idea that corporations were "people."

The President of the United States was Ronald Reagan. The Governor of the State of New York was Mario Cuomo. The Mayor of the City of New York was Ed Koch. The Governor of New Jersey was Tom Kean Sr. The Mayor of the Orioles' City of Baltimore was William Donald "Dud" Schaefer. The Governor of their home State of Maryland was Harry Hughes, who would be succeeded by Schaefer.

The current holders of those offices? Joe Biden was a U.S. Senator from Delaware, Kathy Hochul was in law school at The Catholic University of America in Washington, Eric Adams was at the New York Policy Academy, Phil Murphy was a rookie at Goldman Sachs, Governor Wes Moore of Maryland had just turned 5, and Mayor Brandon Scott was born the next year.

There were still living veterans of the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Campaign, the Boxer Rebellion, the Boer War, the Russo-Japanese War and the Potemkin Mutiny. Polish Cold War hero Lech Wałęsa was about to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Pope was John Paul II. The current Pope, Francis, was Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio, teaching in San Miguel, Argentina.

The Prime Minister of Canada was Pierre Trudeau, and of Britain, Margaret Thatcher. The monarch of both countries was Queen Elizabeth II. Liverpool F.C. were the holders of the Football League title, and Manchester United of the FA Cup.

 
There have since been 7 Presidents of the United States, 8 Prime Ministers of Britain, and 3 Popes.

Major novels of 1983 included Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins, On Wings of Eagles by Ken Follett, Ironweed by William Kennedy, The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carre, and Christine and Pet Sematary by Stephen King. George R.R. Martin published the murder mystery/fantasy The Armageddon Rag. J.K. Rowling had just started at the University of Exeter.

This was the year of the blockbuster film sequel, including Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Superman III with Christopher Reeve (playing "Evil Superman" and Clark Kent fighting each other thanks to Richard Pryor), Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (the working title had been Smokey IS the Bandit, which is essentially the plot, with Sheriff Justice taking up the Enoses' latest challenge, and Burt Reynolds only appears at the end), the Dirty Harry film Sudden Impact (introducing Clint Eastwood's line "Go ahead, make my day"), the Saturday Night Fever sequel Staying Alive, and battling James Bond films: The official Octopussy with Roger Moore, and the unofficial Never Say Never Again with a one-time-only return for Sean Connery, in what is essentially a remake of Thunderball. Peter Davison was playing The Doctor.

This was the year Tom Cruise became a star with All the Right Moves and Risky Business. Eddie and the Cruisers and The Big Chill helped to launch the 1960s nostalgia wave that didn't quite catch on in the late 1970s with film versions of Beatlemania and Hair. Brainstorm, Natalie Wood's last film, delayed because of her death 2 years earlier, finally premiered.

October 1983 also saw the premieres of film versions of Stephen King's The Dead Zone and Tom Wolfe's Mercury astronaut drama The Right Stuff. Steven Spielberg, John Landis, Joe Dante and George Miller had recently teamed up, each directing a segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie. And Leonard Nimoy was shooting, as director and (though not billed, as to avoid what we would now call spoilers) actor, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

Major TV shows that had just debuted included the M*A*S*H spinoff AfterMASH, Webster, Scarecrow & Mrs. King, the game show Love Connection, The Sally Jessy Raphael Show, the cartoon Inspector Gadget, a new cartoon version of Alvin and the Chipmunks, and a cartoon that took G.I. Joe into a far less wholesome direction.

NBC debuted a bunch of new series that turned out to be laughably bad. These included The Rousters, with Chad Everett as the leader of a family of carnival promoters that was descended from Wild West hero Wyatt Earp, including a crazy brother played by Jim Varney (basically doing his Ernest P. Worrell character) and a crazier mother played by Maxine Stuart that made Granny Clampett look like Jessica Fletcher. Hoyt Axton and Mimi Rogers also starred on this turkey, which NBC said was "going to sink The Love Boat." It sank in the harbor.

NBC also tried to copy Three's Company, only instead of a guy chef with 2 women, 1 of them a bouncy blonde, We Got It Made was a bouncy blonde maid with 2 guys. That was less ridiculous than Bay City Blues, a bad show about a bad minor-league baseball team. (The fact that the baseball season and the TV season don't match up well is a big reason why, unlike football and basketball, there's never really been a successful TV show about baseball.)

The following month, 2 shattering programs were broadcast: ABC's nuclear thriller The Day After, and Sesame Street's episode discussing the death of Mr. Hooper (whose portrayer, Will Lee, had died a year earlier).

More ridiculous still was Mr. Smith, about an orangutan in a science lab that got exposed to radiation and developed an I.Q. over 200, making him smarter than the scientists working on him. But that was still better than Manimal, with Simon MacCorkindale as a shapeshifter. Was that supposed to be NBC's attempt to copy CBS' The Incredible Hulk? If so, it didn't work, and it remains a pop-culture joke on the level of My Mother the Car from the '60s and Cop Rock from the '90s.

No one had yet heard of Forrest Gump, Jack Ryan, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Terminator, the Ghostbusters, Freddy Kreuger, Marty McFly, Bart Simpson, Robocop, Codename V, John McClane, Zack Morris, the Seinfeld Four, Deadpool, Buffy Summers, Fox Mulder, Ross Geller & Rachel Greene, Bridget Jones, Xena, Carrie Bardshaw, Jed Bartlet, Tony Soprano, Master Chief, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Rick Grimes, Lisbeth Salander, Bella Swan, Don Draper, Katniss Everdeen, Walter White or Richard Castle.

The Number 1 song in America was "Total Eclipse of the Heart," sung by Bonnie Tyler, written by Jim Steinman. R.E.M. made its TV debut on Late Night with David Letterman. Michael Jackson was riding the crest of Thriller, and was now the biggest pop-culture star in the world. The Clash fired guitarist Mick Jones. Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott had to apologize for his onstage remark that El Paso, Texas was "that place with all the greasy Mexicans."

Cyndi Lauper released She's So Unusual, featuring "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Time After Time." John Mellencamp released Uh-Huh, featuring "Pink Houses." KISS released Lick It Up, and appeared in public without their makeup for the 1st time. Motley Crue released Shout at the Devil. Quiet Riot's Metal Health was about to become the 1st metal album to top Billboard magazine's album charts. Billy Joel was riding the success of An Innocent Man, The Police of Synchronicity.

Inflation was such that what $1.00 bought then, $2.35 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 20 cents, and a New York Subway ride 75 cents. The average price of a gallon of gas was $1.22, a cup of coffee $1.13, a McDonald's meal (Big Mac, fries, shake) $2.55, a movie ticket $3.18, a new car $10,607, and a new house $97,800. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the preceding Friday at 1,263.52.

The tallest building in the world was the Sears Tower in Chicago. The birth control pill was long-established, but there was, as yet, no Viagra. The 1st analog cellular system widely deployed in North America was introduced in October 1983: The Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS). There were personal computers, but almost nobody had yet heard of the Internet. Even VCRs weren't in every home yet. Home video games were a battle between the Atari 5200 SuperSytem and ColecoVision -- Nintendo's systems were yet to come. Chrysler introduced the 1st minivan, the Dodge Caravan.

In October 1983, a U.S. Marine barracks was blown up by terrorists in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 305 people, including 241 Marines. Two days later, another group of Marines invaded Grenada, settling things down there after the overthrow and assassination of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. Argentina held a democratic election, ending 7 years of brutal military rule. And a pair of close calls both nearly led the Soviets to launch a nuclear first strike.

Knute Rockne, All-American star Pat O'Brien, and NFL founder George Halas, and Willie "Puddin' Head" Jones, 3rd baseman for the 1950 Phillies' "Whiz Kids," died. Jesse Eisenberg, and Joey Votto, and Zack Greinke were born.

October 16, 1983. The Baltimore Orioles won the World Series. They have not even won a Pennant since.

They would seem to have the talent to do so again. We shall see.

October 16, 2003: The Aaron Boone Game

The rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox has entered another comparatively dormant phase. It was tense from 1946 to 1951, really tense from 1973 to 1978, somewhat tense from 1986 to 1988, and, by 1999, had gotten not only tense again, but truly ugly.

In 2002, the Fenway Sports Group, led by John W. Henry, bought the Red Sox from the Yawkey Trust, and was determined to win the team's 1st World Series since 1918. The Yankees won the American League Eastern Division in 2003, but the Red Sox won the League's lone Wild Card berth. In the AL Division Series, the Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins, and the Sox beat the Oakland Athletics. The AL Championship Series would be another showdown.

October 8, 2003: Game 1 at Yankee Stadium. David Ortiz (later exposed as a steroid cheat), Manny Ramirez (ditto) and Todd Walker (clean, as far as I know) hit home runs, all off Mike Mussina, and the Red Sox beat the Yankees 5-2.

October 9, 2003: Game 2. The Yankees ride the pitching of Andy Pettitte and a home run by Nick Johnson to beat the Red Sox 6-2. The series goes to Fenway Park in Boston tied.

Games 1 and 2 were not particularly memorable. That will not be the case with Game 3, which remains the ugliest game in the 123-season history of this rivalry. 

October 11, 2003: Pedro Martinez commits 3 felonies, all witnessed by 34,209 people at Fenway, and by millions of people on live national television: Assault with a deadly weapon on Karim Garcia, by hitting him with a pitch, and it would have hit him in the head had he not ducked; conspiracy to commit murder against Yankee Jorge Posada, by pointing to his head, as if to say, "You're next"; and assault (and possibly attempted murder) on Yankee coach Don Zimmer, by grabbing a 72-year-old man by the head and throwing him to the ground.

The Pedro vs. Zim incident came after Roger Clemens threw a pitch at the level of Manny's head -- but over the plate. Obviously, not a strike. But neither was it a pitch meant to hit him. Manny, not right in the head even at the best of times, walked toward the mound, bat still in hand, and pointed at Clemens. 

The benches cleared, and Zimmer, who had nearly been killed by being hit in the head with a pitch as a minor-league player in 1953, ran up to Pedro to give him a piece of his mind. Red Sox fans, who still remember Zim as their manager from 1976 to 1978, and blame him for losing the 1978 Division title to the Yankees, say that Zim "attacked" Pedro, and that Pedro was justified in defending himself. They are lying: Zimmer didn't attack anybody. He was the one acting in defense, and never even raised a hand. Pedro was a thug: The New York State institution he belongs in isn't Cooperstown, it's Attica.

In spite of this, he is not arrested. The felonies, after all, occurred at Fenway Park, not Yankee Stadium.

The umpires restored order, Roger struck Manny out, and the Yankees won, 3-2, and took a 2-games-to-1 lead. The New York Post, in one of the rare instances in which I agree with it, labeled Pedro the Fenway Punk. Ever since, he has been the opposing athlete I have loathed the most. Which is why my favorite home run of all time is no longer the one that Aaron Boone hit 5 days later, but the one Hideki Matsui hit off Pedro to clinch the 2009 World Series -- which turned out to be Pedro's last game in the major leagues.

October 12, 2003: The best possible thing that could happen in the Yanks-Red Sox ALCS does happen: Rain. An extra 24 hours gives everyone a chance to cool off a little.

October 13, 2003: Game 4 is played at Fenway. Tim Wakefield knuckleballs his way to 3-2 win over the Yankees, and the Red Sox tie the series at 2 games apiece. Wakefield, who died a few days before I wrote this piece, had also won Game 1. If he had gotten Aaron Boone out in the bottom of the 11th of Game 7, chances are pretty good that the Sox would have won that game, and Wakefield would have been named the Most Valuable Player of that series.

October 14, 2003: Game 5. David Wells hurls the Yankees to a 4-2 win, and a 3-games-to-2 lead. Karim Garcia delivers the key hit with a 2-run single in the 3rd.

But despite the implications of a Yankees-Red Sox postseason game, and everything that happened in Game 3 of that series, today's action at Fenway Park pales in comparison to what happens at Major League Baseball's other surviving pre-World War I ballpark, Wrigley Field in Chicago.

October 15, 2003: Game 6 is played at Yankee Stadium, as the Hundred-Year War builds toward a crescendo. The Red Sox rally for 3 runs in the 7th inning to come from behind, and pull out a 9-6 victory over the Yankees to send it to a Game 7. Boston slugs 16 hits‚ including 4 by Nomar Garciaparra‚ and gets HRs from Jason Varitek and Trot Nixon.

*

October 16, 2003, 20 years ago: Game 7. Pedro Martinez vs. Roger Clemens. In his 1st game at Yankee Stadium since he tried to kill Don Zimmer, Pedro gets the hell booed out of him – and that's a lot of hell. But the Sox take a 4-0 lead over the Yankees in the 4th, before Joe Torre lifts Clemens and brings in Mike Mussina. Making the 1st relief appearance of his career, Mussina stops the bleeding.

Jason Giambi hits 2 home runs to make it 4-2 in the 7th, but David Ortiz – not for the first time, and certainly not for the last (cough-steroids-cough) – hurts the Yankees by blasting a home run, off David Wells. It's 5-2 Red Sox. On the replay, Wells can be seen yelling, "Fuuuuck!" He thought he had put the final nail in the coffin.''

Pedro gets the 1st out in the bottom of the 8th, but then… Derek Jeter doubles. Then Bernie Williams singles, scoring Jeter to make it 5-3. Pedro is over the 100-pitch mark. From pitches 1 through 99, he throws like Sandy Koufax; from pitch 100 onward, he throws like Sandy Duncan.

Lefthanded pitcher Alan Embree is warming up in the bullpen. Bringing him in would have put him up against the next 2 batters: Hideki Matsui, making a lefty-on-lefty matchup; and Jorge Posada, a switch-hitter but not as good from the right side.

Red Sox manager Grady Little goes to the mound, but Pedro talks him out of making a change. He decides to leave Pedro in.

Big mistake. And I knew it immediately, pumping my fist and yelling, "We got him! We got the son of a bitch!" Sure enough, Hideki Matsui hits a ground-rule double down the right-field line, moving Bernie to third. Still, Little does not pull Pedro. Jorge Posada hits a looper into short center, scoring the tying runs. Just 5 outs from the Pennant, and the greatest victory the Red Sox would have since, oh, 1918, and they have choked yet again.

Mariano Rivera pitches the 9th, 10th and 11th for the Yankees. He pitches the top of the 11th pretty much on courage alone. The Yankees need to win it in the bottom of the 11th, because the bullpen situation doesn't look good.

Tim Wakefield is on the mound. Leading off the inning is Aaron Boone, the Yankee 3rd baseman.

You know where I was at this moment? I was going from place to place watching the game, and I decided to get on the Subway and head up to The Stadium. Win or lose, I felt I had to be there. But the Subway was crawling, seeming to take forever. I forgot that it was after midnight. Frustrated, I
got off at the 50th Street station of the A train.

Next thing I know, I’m standing in front of 220 West 48th Street, the Longacre Theatre. Do you know who built (in 1912) and owned this theater? Harry Frazee. The very man who broke up the Red Sox and sold off so many of their players to the Yankees, including Babe Ruth. What a place to be standing in as the Yankees and Red Sox battled for the Pennant.

In 1935, Clifford Odets' play Waiting for Lefty debuted at the Longacre. Sox fans were still waiting for Alan Embree, the lefty that Little refused to bring in for Pedro.

It was 12:16 AM, actually October 17, 2003, but since the game started on the 16th, it goes down in history as October 16.

I had my headphones on, and on WCBS 880, I heard Charley Steiner say this:

There's a fly ball, deep to left! It’s on its way! There it goes! And the Yankees are going to the World Series! Aaron Boone has hit a home run! The Yankees go to the World Series for the 39th time in their remarkable history! Aaron Boone down the left field line, they are waiting for him at home plate, and now he dives into the scrum! The Yankees win it, 6-5!

Together, Steiner and John Sterling yelled Sterling's tagline: "Ballgame over! American League Championship Series over! Yankees win! Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Yankees win!" Steiner: "I've always wanted to say that!"

The Longacre is at the northern end of Times Square. It sounded like a million car horns went off at once. People poured out of the restaurants and bars in the Square. People were slapping each other on the back, giving high five after high five.

By the time I finally got home, at around 2 in the morning, my hair was soaked with sweat, my eyes were aching from being up too late, my voice was shot from screaming, my hands throbbed from shaking and high-fiving, and my legs and feet throbbed from all the walking.

I've never felt better in my life.

Boone joined Tommy Henrich (1949 World Series vs. Brooklyn Dodgers), Mickey Mantle (1964 WS vs. St. Louis Cardinals), Chris Chambliss (1976 ALCS vs. Kansas City Royals), Jim Leyritz (1995 AL Division Series vs. Seattle Mariners), Bernie Williams (Game 1 of ALCS in both 1996 and 1999), Chad Curtis (1999 WS), Alfonso Soriano (2001 ALCS) and Jeter (2001 WS) as Yankees who have hit walkoff home runs in postseason play. (It's since been done by Mark Teixeira, 2009 ALDS; and Raul Ibanez, 2012 ALDS.)

And he joined Enos Slaughter (1946 Cardinals), Lou Boudreau (1948 Cleveland Indians), Bob Gibson (1967 Cardinals), Joe Morgan (1975 Cincinnati Reds), and, collectively, the 1978 Yankees (especially Bucky Dent) and the 1986 Mets as Red Sox postseason tormentors.

Jeter said, "We've got some ghosts in this Stadium."

In 2009, it sure looked like they'd made the trip across the street. Now, I'm not so sure.

Clemens, Wells, and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre walk out to the Babe Ruth Monument, and offer the Big Fella some champagne. Clemens slaps the plaque on the tablet, and says, "He's smiling! He's smiling! He's smiling, Mel!"

Grady Little was not smiling. He was fired as Sox manager within days, replaced by Terry Francona. He managed the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2006 and '07 seasons, and since 2014 has worked in the front office of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The next day's Daily News headline read, "THE CURSE LIVES." For the Sox… once again, it was "Wait Till Next Year."

No, no. Really. They meant it this time.

In 2010, the MLB Network listed this game at 6th on their list of MLB's 20 Greatest Games -- limited in scope, due to the availability of surviving videotape, to 1975 onward.

But in the World Series, against the Florida Marlins, it would be the Yankees who choked. They led 2 games to 1, but Joe Torre brought Jeff Weaver in to pitch the 10th inning, and in the bottom of the 11th, he gave up a walkoff home run to Álex González. (Not the player whose error was a part of the Chicago Cubs' meltdown in the Steve Bartman Game, but also a shortstop.)

Josh Beckett pitched a 3-hit shutout in Game 6, ending the World Series, and ending what turned out to be the last World Series game played at the old Yankee Stadium. It was a complete anti-climax to what had been a great season and a magnificent Pennant, and is the reason I cannot hold the Aaron Boone home run in the same esteem as the Bucky Dent home run against the Red Sox, 25 years earlier.

Boone got hurt in the off-season, leading the Yankees to trade for Alex Rodriguez. Injuries and a heart ailment ended his career after the 2009 regular season, after which he was an analyst on Fox’ postseason broadcasts as the Yankees won their 1st Pennant since his walkoff.

A lot can change in 20 years. We have now seen Aaron Boone become the Yankees' manager, taking us to the Playoffs 4 straight years, but never getting us closer to a Pennant than Game 6 of the 2019 ALCS; and now, this season, barely keeping the team above .500. And, among the less pleasant things, we have seen the Red Sox win 4 World Series, breaking the Curse of the Bambino. And we have now seen them beat the Yankees in not one, not two, but three postseason rounds (if not "series").

But we have also seen them exposed as dirty rotten cheaters, multiple times, and continue to lie about it, meaning we can no longer chant, "NINE-teen-EIGHT-teen! (Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)."

But we can still write "1918*."

October 15, 1923: The 1st Yankee World Series Win

The 1923 World Champion New York Yankees.

Babe Ruth is in the top row, 2nd from the right.

October 15, 1923, 100 years ago today: The New York Yankees, managed by Miller Huggins, win Game 6 of the World Series, riding a 1st-inning home run by Babe Ruth and the pitching of "Sad" Sam Jones, to beat the New York Giants, 6-4 at the Polo Grounds, and clinch their 1st World Championship, in their 1st season of playing in Yankee Stadium in The Bronx.

This was not, however, the 1st title for many of the Yankee players. Some of them, including Ruth and Jones, had won titles with the Boston Red Sox in the 1910s. In fact, of the 25 men on the Yankee roster when they won their 1st World Championship, 12, nearly half, had been Red Sox sold off by Boston owner Harry Frazee.

This was also the beginning of the end for Giant manager John McGraw and his style of baseball: Finally, the Yankees had put together a team that did not have to simply rely on Ruth's home runs to beat McGraw's style of "inside baseball" – what would, today, be called "small ball." The Giants would win another Pennant the next season, but that would be their last under McGraw’s leadership.

Up until this moment, the Giants had won 11 Pennants and 3 World Championships, either through the World Series, pre-1900 postseason series, or the title of the only league then playing; the Brooklyn Dodgers, 6 and, by the means available to them to win a "world championship" at the time, 3, but none since 1900; the Yankees, 3 and none.

From the Yankees' 3rd Pennant in September 1923 until the end of the Giants' and Dodgers' last season in New York, September 1957, the count was: Yankees, 21 and 17; Giants, 7 and 2; and Dodgers, 7 and 1.

Lou Gehrig had made his major league debut on June 15, 1923, a 10-0 Yankee win over the St. Louis Browns at Yankee Stadium. But he only played 13 games at the major league level that 1st season, and was not included on the World Series roster.

The last surviving member of the 1923 Yankees was center fielder Ladislaw Waldemar Wittkowski, a.k.a. Lawton Walter Witt, a.k.a. Whitey Witt, who lived until 1988.

October 14, 2003: The Steve Bartman Game

October 14, 2003, 20 years ago: David Wells hurls the Yankees to a 4-2 win over the Red Sox and a 3-games-to-2 lead in the American League Championship Series. Karim Garcia, victim of a Pedro Martinez fastball off his back in Game 3, delivers the key hit with a 2-run single in the 3rd.

But despite the implications of a Yankees-Red Sox postseason game, and everything that happened in Game 3 of that series, today's action at Fenway Park pales in comparison to what happens at Major League Baseball's other surviving pre-World War I ballpark, Wrigley Field in Chicago.

By advancing to the National League Championship Series, the Chicago Cubs had already won a postseason series for the 1st time in 95 years. Now, leading the Florida Marlins 3-0 with 1 out in the 8th inning, and with ace Mark Prior on the mound, the Cubs are just 5 outs away from their 1st Pennant in 58 years. Wrigley and the surrounding streets are jammed with people anticipating the Cubs' 1st trip to the World Series since 1945, shortly after World War II ended.

But Marlins' 2nd baseman Luis Castillo – Met fans will recognize that name from his 2009 miscue against the Yankees – hits a fly ball down the left-field line. Cub left fielder Moisés Alou – another name Met fans will go on to remember with regret – reaches for the ball at the fence, but he can’t get it. A Cub fan named Steve Bartman reaches for it, and knocks it away.

Despite appeals from the Cubs, umpire Mike Everitt correctly rules there was no interference, that Bartman had not reached out into the field of play, and thus was entitled to try to catch the ball every bit as much as Alou was.

Castillo, with his at-bat extended, draws a walk. Iván Rodríguez singles, to make it 3-1 Cubs. Miguel Cabrera hits a ground ball to to Cub shortstop Alex Gonzalez – the Marlins had a shortstop of the same name – and he bobbles the ball. He could have turned a double play to end the inning and preserve the Cubs' lead. Instead, all runners are safe, and the bases are loaded. Derrek Lee doubles, tying the score and chasing Prior from the game.

Cub manager Dusty Baker brings in a new pitcher, Kyle Farnsworth. Foreshadowing his later Yankee screwups, he delivers an intentional walk to load the bases and set up a force play. But he gives up a sacrifice fly that scores Cabrera with the go-ahead run. He repeats the set-up-the-DP intentional walk, and then gives up a double to Mike Mordecai that clears the bases and makes it 7-3. The Marlins score another run for the final score of 8-3, and tie up the series.

In 2010, the MLB Network listed this game at 7th on their list of MLB's 20 Greatest Games -- limited in scope, due to the availability of surviving videotape, to 1975 onward.

Before the game ended, Bartman had to be led away from the park under security escort for his own safety, as Cubs fans shouted profanities towards him, and others threw debris onto the field and towards the exit tunnel from the field. News footage of the game showed him surrounded by security as passersby pelted him with drinks and other debris.

Bartman's name, as well as personal information about him, appeared on Major League Baseball’s online message boards minutes after the game ended. As many as 6 police cars gathered outside of his home to protect Bartman and his family following the incident.

Afterwards, Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois suggested that Bartman join a witness protection program. Governor Jeb Bush of Florida offered Bartman asylum. For once, Jeb Bush was a better man than a Democrat -- "Blago" was eventually impeached and removed by the State legislature, and went to prison for public corruption -- but, of course, living on Fisher Island, 15 miles from Joe Robbie Stadium, Jeb's gesture could be seen as a rather snarky one.

Shortly after the incident, Bartman released a statement, saying he was "truly sorry." He added, "I had my eyes glued on the approaching ball the entire time and was so caught up in the moment that I did not even see Moisés Alou much less that he may have had a play."

His family changed their phone number to avoid harassing phone calls. He requested that any gifts sent to him by Marlins fans be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, a Cub cause celebre due to its association with former star-turned-broadcaster Ron Santo.

Prior and former Cubs pitcher-turned-broadcaster Rick Sutcliffe spoke out in defense of Bartman. Even Jay Mariotti, then a Chicago Sun-Times columnist and a panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn, who seems to revel in the miseries of his favorite team, defended Bartman. But Michael Wilbon, columnist for the Washington Post and co-host of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, a Chicago native and a huge Cub fan, has repeatedly said that he refuses to forgive Bartman.

The Cubs have finally won a Pennant and a World Series. The team even sent Bartman a World Series ring. But, to this day, Bartman refuses to make public appearances to talk about it, despite huge offers. I'm waiting for someone to do a Chris Crocker-style video and say, "Leave Bartman alone!"