January 26, 1986: The Super Bowl Shuffle

January 26, 1986, 40 years ago: Super Bowl XX is played at the Superdome in New Orleans. It was meant to be a coronation for the Chicago Bears, who had put together one of the greatest seasons in NFL history. All they had to do was outscore the New England Patriots for 60 minutes.

Just 1 minute and 19 seconds into the game, the Patriots took the lead. That wasn't in the script.

*

Let's go back to early 1982. George Halas, the 86-year-old founding owner of the Bears, fired head coach Neill Armstrong, no relation to the similarly-named first man on the Moon. The Bears' defensive players all signed a letter to Halas, asking that he keep Armstrong's defensive coordinator, James "Buddy" Ryan.

So when Halas made his last hire -- "Papa Bear" died on October 31, 1983 -- Ryan was the only holdover on the coaching staff. And he and the man Halas hired as head coach never got along.

That man was Mike Ditka. One of the earliest great tight ends in football history, the native of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, a small steel-mill city outside Pittsburgh, had starred with the Bears, making 5 Pro Bowls and helping them win the 1963 NFL Championship -- or, if you prefer, "Super Bowl -III." He later played for the Dallas Cowboys, helping them win Super Bowl VI. Head coach Tom Landry made him assistant head coach, and the Cowboys, with both Landry and Ditka, won Super Bowl XII.

Ditka inherited a team with an already legendary running back, Walter Payton, but not much else. He and general manager Jerry Vainisi began to build a champion. In 1984, his 3rd season in charge, the Bears went 10-6, winning the NFC Central Division, their 1st 1st-place finish since 1963, and their 1st Playoff berth in 7 years.

They beat the Washington Redskins in the Divisional Playoff. But in the NFC Championship Game, not only did the San Francisco 49ers beat them 23-0, but they rubbed it in: Head coach Bill Walsh had guard Guy McIntyre play as a blocking running back. Ditka remembered that.

So the Bears began the 1985 season with this lineup:

* Offense. Quarterback: Jim McMahon. Running backs: Walter Payton and Matt Suhey. Receivers: Willie Gault and Dennis McKinnon. Line: Center Jay Hilgenberg, guards Mark Bortz and Tom Thayer, tackles Jim Covert and Keith Van Horne, and tight end Emery Moorehead.

* Defense. Line: Ends Dan Hampton and Richard Dent, and tackles Steve McMichael and William Perry. Linebackers: Mike Singletary, Otis Wilson and Wilber Marshall. Secondary: Cornerbacks Mike Richardson and Leslie Frazier, and safeties Gary Fencik and Dave Duerson.

* Special Teams: Placekicker Kevin Butler, punter Maury Buford, and whatever players had most impressed Ditka in practice. Ditka had been a great special teams player himself once, and had coached it in Dallas. He liked to say, "A man without fear belongs in an insane asylum. Or on special teams."

The Bears lost their 1st 3 preseason games, before winning the last. It didn't show during the regular season. The 1st 5 games were a home-and-home sweep of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a home win over the Patriots (20-7, which gave no indication as to how the season would end), a win away to the Minnesota Vikings, and a home win over the Redskins.

The next game was against the 49ers, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on October 13. The 49ers were 3-2, having already lost 1 more game than in all of the previous season. Joe Montana may have been the greatest quarterback who ever lived, but the Bears sacked him 7 times. The Bears won, 26-10. 

Late in the game, Ditka sent the rookie Perry in -- as a running back. With McIntyre the year before in mind, he even let Perry -- so fat and seemingly full of food, his nickname was "The Refrigerator" -- carry the ball twice, and he rushed for 4 yards. This had no real effect on the game, but Ditka had sent a message. (This would be the Bears' last win away to the 49ers for 29 years.)

The Perry experiment probably should have ended there: Ditka had made his point to Walsh. But Ditka wanted to make a point to Ryan as well: Contrary to what Ryan believed, Perry could play. And the next game, on October 21, on ABC's Monday Night Football, against the Green Bay Packers, the oldest arch-rivalry in the NFL, would have the entire country watching. (Theoretically, the oldest rivalry is between the Bears and the Arizona Cardinals, who played in Chicago from 1920 to 1959, but since the Cards left Chicago, the teams have cared little about each other.)

During what turned out to be a 23-7 victory, the Bears had a 1st and goal on the Packer 1-yard line. Ditka sent out a formation with Perry looking as though he was going to block for Payton, already the NFL's all-time leading rusher. Instead, McMahon handed the ball to Perry, and he broke through the Packer line to get into the end zone.

At 335 pounds, he became the heaviest player ever to score an offensive touchdown in the NFL. That is, there had been heavier defensive players who picked up a fumble and returned it, or recovered a fumble in the end zone. But Perry was the heaviest player who had been sent in for an offensive play to score a touchdown on said play.

The next week, the Bears beat the Vikings. Perry played, but did not appear on offense. The next week, on November 3, the Bears went to Lambeau Field for a rematch against the Packers. Perry was sent in for 1st and goal on the Packer 4, and moved out to become an eligible receiver. McMahon threw him the ball, and Perry took it in for a touchdown. It gave the Bears a 7-3 lead in a game they would win 16-10.

Now, the Bears were 9-0, and Perry had become a folk hero. He starred in a commercial for McDonald's, ordering 4 McDLTs, 2 large fries, and a Diet Coke. Yes, a Diet Coke, as if that would have made a difference. The tagline, over Perry's huge smile with one missing front tooth, was, "McDonald's: Where The Refrigerator stocks up."

The Bears beat the Detroit Lions at home, to go 10-0. The next week, with McMahon injured and Steve Fuller quarterbacking, the Bears went to Texas and beat the Dallas Cowboys 44-0. Perry rushed for 1 yard, but not a touchdown. The next week, they hosted the Atlanta Falcons, and Perry rushed for another 1-yard touchdown.

The 12-0 Bears' bid for an undefeated season was ruined the following week at the Orange Bowl, losing 38-24 to the Miami Dolphins, who in 1972 became the only undefeated Super Bowl Champions to this day. This remains the most-watched game in Monday Night Football history. Perry did not appear on offense.

Timing is everything: That game was played on December 2, the day before the scheduled release of a song and video the Bears, including Perry, Payton and McMahon, had recorded: "The Super Bowl Shuffle." It made the Bears, including "Fridge" (until the video, most people hadn't heard the shortened version of his nickname), bigger stars than any NFL team had ever been.

Their complacency shattered, the Bears went to work, winning their last 3 games to finish 15-1: Wins over the Indianapolis Colts at home, the New York Jets at the Meadowlands, and the Lions at the Pontiac Silverdome.

Perry was not sent in on offense again, but was proving to his critics, including Ryan, that he was a capable defensive lineman. He ended up starting 9 of the 16 regular-season games. He even recovered 2 fumbles and returned them for a total of 66 yards.

Having gone 15-1, the Bears had matched the previous year's 49ers for most wins in an NFL regular season. When the Dolphins went undefeated in 1972, it was a 14-game season. But there was still that 1 loss on their record. It wouldn't matter much, though, if they won the Super Bowl.

In the Divisional Round, their opponents were the NFC East Champions, the Giants. Bill Parcells' G-Men had their own devastating defense, led by Lawrence Taylor. But the game would be at Soldier Field, right on Lake Michigan, with a Winter wind blasting in. No problem for the Giants, right? Giants Stadium had a wind that swirled around, and they were used to cold and wind.

They were not used to the '85 Bears, or to their wind. Early in the game, Sean Landeta dropped the ball to punt, and the wind blew it so that it just sort of glanced off the side of his foot. It was a 5-yard punt, and Shaun Gayle was right there to pick it up and take it into the end zone. That touchdown, and Butler's point-after, were the only scoring in the 1st half, but the Giants were already dead. Two touchdown passes from McMahon to McKinnon made it 21-0, with the Giants having only 32 rushing yards. Phil Simms had been sacked 6 times for 60 yards.

Next was the NFC Championship Game, at home, against the NFC West Champions, the Los Angeles Rams. As a Southern California team (by this point, they were playing home games in Anaheim), the Rams were not used to cold weather. They had Eric Dickerson, who, the season before, had set a new NFL record for rushing yards in a season. The Bears limited him to 46 yards, and the Rams' offense as a whole to 130 yards. The Bears won, 24-0. For the 1st time since the NFL Championship Game became known as the Super Bowl, they were in it.

There was controversy. Ditka and Ryan were still feuding. At age 45 and 54, respectively, they should have been well past the need for the verbal equivalent of a dick-waving contest. Rumors were swirling that Ryan would get one of the inevitable head coaching vacancies in the NFL. McMahon was feuding with NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, over advertising on the headbands he wore under his helmet. And he was feuding with the media, over remarks he allegedly made over the personal lives of the women of New Orleans, site of the game.

But on Super Sunday, January 26, the Bears seemed to be set to be all business, against a Patriots team coached by Raymond Berry, the Hall of Fame receiver for the Baltimore Colts of the 1950s and '60s. The Pats had done something no other team had done in a single postseason: Win 3 Playoff games on the road. The Bears were favored by 10 points, an unusually high point spread, but the Pats looked like, at the least, they belonged on the same field as the franchise once, and again, known as "The Monsters of the Midway."

*

This game should have been the Bears' crowning achievement. It should have been Payton's crowning achievement, finally playing in the big game after 11 seasons. But he fumbled in the 1st minute of the game, and the Patriots shocked the football world by taking a 3-0 lead on a field goal by Tony Franklin. Remember: The Bears hadn't allowed so much as a point in their 1st 2 postseason games.

The Bears tied it on a Butler field goal. Figuring he was going to win the game anyway, Ditka went against his tough-guy "Iron Mike" image, and decided to get cute. At the Patriot 3-yard line, he sent Perry in. McMahon tossed the ball back to him, and Perry raised his arm for an option pass. NBC announcer Dick Enberg spoke for all of us when he said, with shock in his voice, "It's Perry, he's gonna throw the ball!"

But, never having done this in an actual game, the Fridge hesitated, couldn't find an open receiver, and had to run it himself, and was tackled for a 1-yard loss. The man who had become the biggest name on a defense that included future Hall-of-Famers Singletary, Hampton, Dent and McMichael, and All-Pros Marshall, Wilson, Duerson and Fencik, had become, for all intents and purposes, a sack victim. And the game was still tied, 3-3.

But, as with after the loss in Miami, the Bears woke up. They punished the Patriots. They humiliated them. (Keep in mind, Bill Belichick was then an assistant coach for the Giants, and Tom Brady was 8 years old. Neither of them could cheat to help the Pats.) Butler kicked a field goal, and, in the last minute of the 1st quarter, Suhey ran 11 yards for a touchdown. Chicago 13, New England 3.

Midway through the 2nd quarter, McMahon ran the ball himself, got flipped, and landed on his head. He was not immediately injured. A few plays later, with the ball on the Patriot 2-yard line, he lowered his head, got clobbered, and still took the ball in for a touchdown. On the last play of the 1st half, Butler kicked another field goal. Chicago 23, New England 3.

Midway through the 3rd quarter, McMahon got the ball to the Patriot 1. Instead of giving Payton the ball to give him his Super Bowl touchdown, McMahon took it in himself. A little over a minute later, with Berry having replaced starting quarterback Tony Eason -- who thus became the 1st starting quarterback in a Super Bowl to fail to complete a pass -- with the team's longtime former starter, Steve Grogan, Reggie Phillips intercepted a Grogan pass, returning it 28 yards for a touchdown.

It was 37-3 when Ditka sent Perry in again with the ball at the 1. Ditka could have had Perry block for Payton, to give "Sweetness" his Super Bowl touchdown. Instead, Ditka had McMahon hand the ball to Perry, who jumped over the line, and fell into the end zone. Touchdown. The Bears led, 44-3. With 3:48 left in the 3rd quarter.

With 13 minutes left, Grogan found some consolation, with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Irving Fryar. With 5:36 left, and the "46 Defense" replaced by their reserves, Henry Waechter sacked Grogan in the end zone, for a safety. The Patriots were limited to just 123 yards from scrimmage. 

The game ended 46-10, and, for the 1st time in 22 seasons, the Chicago Bears were NFL Champions. Dent was named the game's Most Valuable Player. They could have given it to McMahon. At least they didn't give it to Perry: For the most part, he did his job, but giving him the MVP would have been a terrible example of pandering.

*

At the end of the game, before the Patriots' body was even cold, the resentments in the team began to show. The offensive players picked Ditka up and carried him off the field. They did so quickly, because they saw that the defensive players were running over to do the same for Ryan. And some players were bitter that Ditka chose to give Perry, not Payton, the greatest player in the Bears' proud history, the chance to score the last touchdown, or any touchdown. Payton carried the ball 22 times for 61 yards, but didn't get his touchdown.

The next day, the Bears got a championship parade in Chicago. They were also set to go to the White House, to be honored by President Ronald Reagan. But the day after the parade, the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up shortly after launch, killing all 7 astronauts aboard. The Bears' White House celebration was canceled.

Between the message the defense sent by carrying Ryan off the field, the complaints about Perry and Payton, and the inability to be honored by the President, the 1985 Chicago Bears, one of the greatest teams in football history, foreshadowed a scene from the 1988 baseball-themed movie Bull Durham: A kid is pitching well, and his veteran catcher criticizes him anyway. The pitcher asks, "Can't you just let me enjoy the moment?" And the catcher says, "Moment's over."

Sure enough, just 3 days after the Super Bowl, Ryan quit, and accepted an offer to become the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, where he failed to understand that he had Randall Cunningham, a man known as "the Ultimate Weapon," as his quarterback. He never saw another Super Bowl except on television.

Not having to deal with Ryan should have been the best thing that could have happened to both Ditka and Perry. It wasn't: The Bears were still one of the best teams in the NFL, but never again were they the best team.

They lost in the Divisional Playoffs in the 1986 and 1987 seasons, after which Payton retired. They lost in the NFC Championship Game (at home, to the 49ers) in 1988, missed the Playoffs in 1989, lost in the Divisional Round in 1990, lost in the Wild Card Round in 1991, and missed the Playoffs in 1992, at which point Ditka was fired. He had won 106 regular-season games, 6 Division titles, and 6 postseason games, but only 1 NFC Championship Game and 1 Super Bowl.

The Bears became the NFL equivalent of the New York Mets: All that talent in the 1980s, all those memorable characters, and all that hype, from both local and national media machines; and they ended up only going to their sport's final once, winning just the once. The Mets won their World Series 9 months after the Bears won their Super Bowl, and didn't learn the right lessons.

Not only did both franchises fail to win another title and eventually get broken up, but neither one has ever won another title. The Bears have only been to 1 more Super Bowl, the Mets to only 2 more World Series, all lost.

Still, the '85 Bears became not just a historic team, but an iconic one. They were mentioned in the 1987 film Planes, Trains and Automobiles. From 1991 to 1997, "The Chicago Superfans" was a sketch on Saturday Night Live, with beefy men copying Ditka's look -- caps with the Bears' "Wishbone C" logo, aviator sunglasses, and big bushy mustaches -- and raising their mugs of beer to toast "Da Bearssss!" (Once Michael Jordan started winning titles, "Da Bullssss!" was added to the sketch.) And Chicago native Michael Wilbon frequently drops mentions of the team as co-host of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption.

Singletary later served as head coach of the 49ers, Frazier of the Vikings, backup safety Jeff Fisher took the Tennessee Titans to Super Bowl XXXIV, and backup linebacker Ron Rivera took the Carolina Panthers to Super Bowl 50.

In 2011, on the 25th Anniversary of their win, President Barack Obama, who's lived his adult life in Chicago (but was in the opposing metropolitan area, attending Harvard Law School, when that Super Bowl was played), decided to give the '85 Bears the White House visit they never got from Illinois native and former small-college football player Reagan.

But not all was well. Those Bears suffered for their profession, suffered for their art. Payton, who was both one of the most graceful, and one of the toughest, players of his generation, died of liver disease in 1999. Duerson killed himself in 2011, a few months before the White House visit. He wanted his brain donated to science, to see if his struggles in retirement were caused by brain damage, caused by football. It was determined that they were. McMahon has reported memory issues, and believes he also has CTE. Given some of Ditka's statements the last few years, people have wondered about him, too. And McMichael developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the paralytic condition known as Lou Gehrig's disease. (He lived just long enough to see himself elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.)

Yes, this Bears team was a lot of fun. But beneath the level of fun was trouble that we never saw coming. And, unlike a lot of troublesome football teams of that era and since, it had little to do with steroids, stickum, or (despite having Ryan as defensive coordinator) "bounties."

There's one other thing to note: The Bears' cheerleaders, the Honey Bears, had their contract run out after that Super Bowl. Team owner Virginia Halas McCaskey, who inherited the team from her father, chose not to negotiate a new one. She didn't like the idea of cheerleaders. The Bears haven't had them since. The Bears have been to just one Super Bowl since, and lost it.

In 2026, not having won the title in 40 years, just once in 64 years, the Bears are 1 of the last 8 teams standing. We shall see.

 

Analyzing the 2026 Baseball Hall of Fame Vote

I should have done this 2 days ago, right after it happened. But I'm still in the process of moving. The old condo has been cleared out. The new one is still being assembled.

At any rate:

Andruw Jones has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Well-deserved.

Carlos Beltrán has also been elected. Statistically, this was a justifiable choice. But he was a fully-cheating member of the 2017 Houston Astros, and because of that, he should not have been elected -- not now, and not ever.

Here is how the Baseball Writers Association of America voted, with 75 percent being necessary for election:

Carlos Beltrán: 358 votes, 84.2% (4th year on the ballot)

Andruw Jones: 333 votes 78.4% (9th)
Chase Utley: 251 votes, 59.1% (3rd)
Andy Pettitte: 206 votes, 48.5% (8th)
Félix Hernández: 196 votes, 46.1% (2nd)
Alex Rodriguez: 170 votes, 40% (5th)
Manny Ramírez: 165 votes, 38.8% (10th)
Bobby Abreu: 131 votes 30.8% (7th)
Jimmy Rollins: 108 votes, 25.4% (5th)
Cole Hamels: 101 votes, 23.8% (1st)
Dustin Pedroia: 88 votes, 20.7% (2nd)
Mark Buehrle: 85 votes, 20% (6th)
Omar Vizquel: 78 votes, 18.4% (9th)
David Wright: 63 votes, 14.8% (3rd)
Francisco Rodríguez: 50 votes, 11.8% (4th)
Torii Hunter: 37 votes, 8.7% (6th)
Ryan Braun: 15 votes, 3.5% (1st)
Edwin Encarnación: 6 votes, 1.4% (1st)
Shin-Soo Choo: 3 votes, 0.7% (1st)
Matt Kemp: 2 votes, 0.5% (1st)
Hunter Pence: 2 votes, 0.5% (1st)
Rick Porcello: 2 votes, 0.5% (1st)
Alex Gordon: 1 vote, 0.2% (1st)
Nick Markakis: 1 vote, 0.2% (1st)
Gio Gonzalez: 0 votes, 0% (1st)
Howie Kendrick: 0 votes, 0% (1st)

Daniel Murphy: 0 votes, 0% (1st)

Players receiving less than 5% are dropped from future BBWAA ballots. So are players who have missed for 10 years, like Manny.

Statistically, both Jones and Beltrán were justifiable selections. But Beltrán cheated.

Jones, a native of Curaçao, a country in the Caribbean Sea but part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, joins Bert Blyleven, born in Zeist but raised in Michigan, as the 2nd native of the Netherlands in the Hall of Fame.

Beltrán is the 5th native of Puerto Rico elected. He follows Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda, Roberto Alomar and Iván Rodríguez -- another cheater, although of a different kind.

Both Jones (2011-12) and Beltrán (2014-16) played for the Yankees near the ends of their careers. Beltrán also played for the Mets (2005-11), and, in 2012, was voted the center fielder voted onto their 50th Anniversary Team by their fans, ignoring Tommie Agee, Mookie Wilson and Lenny Dykstra -- and overlooking Beltrán leaving his bat on his shoulder to take a called strike 3 for the last out in Game 7 of the 2006 National League Championship Series.

That was embarrassing -- but not scandalous, like what he did with the Astros, including against the Yankees, 11 years later.

What about the players not selected? Which of them deserved election? Let's look at the hitters first:

If you had told me after the 2011 NLCS, by which point the Philadelphia Phillies had won 5 straight NL Eastern Division titles, back-to-back Pennants, and the 2008 World Series, that they would have none of their players elected to the Hall of Fame, I wouldn't have believed it. Yet neither 2nd baseman Chase Utley, nor shortstop Jimmy Rollins, nor 1st baseman Ryan Howard, nor pitcher Cole Hamels has been elected.

Howard failed to get 5 percent in his 1st time on the ballot, in 2022, and dropped off, and will have to wait for whatever they're calling the Veterans Committee now. Hamels got nearly 24 percent this time, his 1st time, but he really doesn't have the career stats. Rollins was in his 5th year, and got 25 percent, but he doesn't have them, either, even when we factor in the fact that he was a shortstop.

Alex Rodriguez was in his 5th year, getting 40 percent. Manny Ramirez was in his 10th and final season, getting 38 percent. Ryan Braun was in his 1st year, and got 3.5 percent, so he's off the ballot anyway. All 3 were caught using steroids, so they shouldn't be in anyway.

Though it must be said again: Either the use of performance-enhancing drugs matters to you, or it doesn't. If it does, then no player who did it should be in, and David Ortiz never should have gotten in. If it doesn't, then A-Rod and Manny absolutely should be in. Because Manny was a better hitter than "Big Papi," and A-Rod was better than either one of them, at every facet of baseball. It matters to me, and I believe none should ever get in, and Ortiz should be kicked out. In Manny's case, it's worse: He had the talent to excel without using steroids, but he used them, anyway. That makes it worse.

Utley was a 2nd baseman, which must be factored in. He got 59 percent this time, his 3rd year on the ballot. Given that there will be very few 1st-timers on the ballot next year who look likely to be elected, he may have a good chance. But, with 1,884 hits, 259 of them home runs, and 6 All-Star Game berths just isn't enough. Baserunning helps him, but not much. (Shut up, Met fans. That incident has nothing to do with it.) Same with fielding: He was a good fielder, but not a great one, and never got a Gold Glove. I wouldn't mind if he got in, but I wouldn't vote for him myself.

Bobby Abreu got 31 percent. 2,470 hits and 288 home runs is not enough for a right fielder. 400 stolen bases and 1 Gold Glove help, but not enough. I like him, but he shouldn't go in.

Dustin Pedroia got 2 percent. A .299 batting average, 1,805 hits and 140 home runs is not enough for anyone, not even a 2nd baseman. Baserunning doesn't help him. Fielding does, with 4 Gold Gloves, but not enough.

Omar Vizquel got 18 percent, in his 9th and next-to-last year on the ballot. He got 2,877 hits, stole 404 bases, and won 11 Gold Gloves. Based on that, he should be an easy Yes. But he has been accused of domestic abuse against his ex-wife and sexual harassment of a batboy. That cloud over him has kept BBWAA voters from electing him. He may have to wait for the charges to drift into the background, and for the Veterans Committee to elect him.

David Wright is the Mets' all-time leader in hits, with 1,777. He hit 242 home runs, not a bad total for a 3rd baseman. He made 7 All-Star Games. He won 2 Gold Gloves. Nice career. Insufficient career stats. Injuries may have prevented him from being elected. This was his 3rd year on the ballot, and he didn't break 15 percent. He will never get in.

Torii Hunter got 8 percent. 2,452 hits, including 353 home runs. Not enough for a center fielder. 5 All-Star Games, 9 Gold Gloves. Nice career. This was his 6th year on the ballot. Maybe he'll eventually get in through the Veterans Committee, but I doubt it.

Edwin Encarnación drooped off the ballot with just 6 votes. He hit 424 home runs. He was a designated hitter, whose most common actual position was 1st base. I don't think the Veterans Committee will elect him.

Shin-Soo Choo got 3 votes, Matt Kemp and Hunter Pence 2 each, Alex Gordon and Nick Markakis 1 each; and Howie Kendrick and Daniel Murphy got none. None of these deserved much more than the votes they actually got.

Now, for the pitchers:

Andy Pettitte, Yankee hero, got 48 percent in his 8th year on the ballot. Statistically, he is an easy choice. But the cloud of his admission to a brief HGH use to come back from an injury in 2002 -- a season in which the Yankees didn't even win the Pennant -- hangs over him. With Ortiz in the Hall, keeping Pettitte out is, as George Carlin would say, just fuckin' stupid.

Félix Hernández got 46 percent in his 2nd year. 169-136? Not good enough. 2,524 strikeouts? Here's a list of all the pitchers with at least that many K's, eligible for the Hall, who are not in: Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, Mickey Lolich, Frank Tanana, David Cone, Chuck Finley, Cole Hamels, Jerry Koosman, Javier Vázquez and Bartolo Colón. Clemens is believed to have used steroids, though it's never been proven. Colón got caught. The rest? Only Schilling and Cone get much support. "King" Félix? Only Seattle Mariner fans take that title seriously. He does not deserve election to the Hall of Fame -- and that's on merit.

Mark Buehrle got 20 percent. 214-160? 1,870 strikeouts? No.

Francisco Rodríguez got 11 percent. 437 saves, including a single-season record of 62. Both of those figures stand out. The problem is, there are so fewer relievers in the Hall that we don't really know what it takes for a reliever to get in. But if Billy Wagner is in, which is rather dubious, then maybe K-Rod deserves a stronger look.

Rick Porcello got 2 votes, Gio Gonzalez none. Neither ever gets in.

At any rate, Jones and Beltrán will join Veterans Committee honoree Jeff Kent in the Hall this Summer.

January 22, 1901: Queen Victoria Dies

One of the last photos of Queen Victoria.

Her son, King Edward VII, is on the right.

His son, King George V, is on the left.

And his son, King Edward VIII, is the boy in the sailor suit.

January 22, 1901, 125 years ago: Victoria, By the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India, head of state for about one-quarter of all the people then living on planet Earth, does the unthinkable.

She dies.

She passes away at the age of 81, at Osborne House, her country estate on the Isle of Wight, 88 miles southwest of London. The last of a series of strokes brought her life to a close, 63 years after she took the throne, longer than any English or British monarch ever had, breaking the record of her grandfather, King George III, who lasted just under 60 years. Three entire generations of her subjects had known no other monarch of Britain except her.

She was born on May 24, 1819, the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, a son of King George III. Her uncle, King George IV, died without legitimate children. So did his brother, King William IV. And Edward died before either George or William. So Victoria became Queen when she was only 18, on William's death on June 20, 1837.

At the time, through the mental incapacity of George III, and the dissipation and profligacy of George IV and William IV, the British monarchy was at its lowest point since Oliver Cromwell chopped off the head of Charles I in 1649.

The Industrial Revolution was in its early stages. Railroads were a new thing. Photography was in its infancy. There were no telephones, no telegraphs, no railroads, no automobiles, no air vehicles except hot-air balloons, no recorded sound, no recorded images. Victoria had more in common with Alfred the Great, who unified England 1,000 years before her reign, than she did with King Charles III, born 48 years after her death.

She married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, ending the House of Hanover. They produced 9 children:

* Victoria, who married Crown Prince Friedrich of Germany, who became Kaiser Friedrich III, and they were the parents of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

* Albert Edward, who became King Edward VII of Britain. He married Alexandra, daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark. Their son became King George V of Britain, and their daughter Maud married King Haakon VII of Norway.

* Alice, who married Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse (in Germany). Their daughter, Alexandra, married Czar Nicholas II of Russia.

* Alfred, who became the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (in Germany). His daughter, Marie, married King Ferdinand I of Romania.

* Helena, who married Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (in Germany).

* Louise, who married John Campbell, the 9th Duke of Argyll (in Scotland).

* Arthur, who inherited his grandfather's titles of Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (Connaught is in Ireland, and Strathearn is in Scotland), and served as Governor-General of Canada. His daughter, Margaret, is an ancestor of the monarchs of Sweden and Denmark.

* Leopold, who became the Duke of Albany (in Scotland). And:

* Beatrice, who married Prince Henry of Battenberg (in Germany). Their daughter, Victoria Eugenie, married King Alfonso XIII of Spain.

And so, Victoria was "The Grandmother of Europe." Her son Albert Edward, or "Bertie," thus became "The Uncle of Europe." And Christian IX of Denmark became "The Father-in-Law of Europe."

Bertie was 59 years old when he finally became King, and, most of that time, because he was a disobedient child and then a compulsive womanizer, frequently cheating on Alexandra, Victoria never fully trusted him. As he put it, "I don't mind praying to an Eternal Father, but I seem to have been afflicted with an eternal mother."

Victoria lived long enough to be wildly cheered at her Golden Jubilee (50th Anniversary) in 1887 and her Diamond Jubilee (60th Anniversary) in 1897; to have her voice recorded in 1888; and to be filmed at a garden party at Buckingham Palace in 1898, and on a state visit to Dublin, Ireland in 1900.

But in her last years, she was beset by rheumatism, which combined with her passion for comfort food to make walking impossible; and she was nearly blind due to cataracts. Later in 1900, she began to suffer strokes. Her last diary entry was written from Osbourne House on Sunday, January 13, 1901, and referred to her daughters Helen, or "Lenchen," and Beatrice. It reads:

Had a fair night, but was a little wakeful. Got up earlier & had some milk. — Lenchen came & read some papers. — Out before 1, in the garden chair, Lenchen & Beatrice going with me. — Rested a little, had some food, & took a short drive with Lenchen & Beatrice. — Rested when I came in & at 5.30, went down to the Drawing room, where a short service was held, by Mr Clement Smith, who performed it so well, & it was a great comfort to me. — Rested again afterwards, then did some signing & dictated to Lenchen.

Nine days later, on January 22, at 6:30 PM, she died of another stroke at Osborne House. Bertie and Kaiser Wilhelm, her eldest grandson, were in the room. She was laid to rest in the Royal Mausoleum, on the grounds of Windsor Castle in Berkshire, about 25 miles west of Central London. She and her husband, Prince Albert, are the Mausoleum's only occupants.

Victoria was played by Blanche Forsythe in Sixty Years a Queen in 1913, Jenny Jugo in Victoria in Dover in 1936, Anna Neagle in Victoria the Great in 1937 and Sixty Glorious Years in 1938, Renée Asherson in Happy and Glorious in 1952, Romy Schneider in a remake of Victoria in Dover in 1954, Julie Harris in Hallmark Hall of Fame's Victoria Regina in 1961, Lola Brooks in The Young Victoria in 1963, Annette Crosbie in Edward the Seventh in 1975, Lurene Tuttle on an episode of Voyagers! in 1983, Judi Dench in Mrs. Brown in 1997 and its sequel Victoria & Abdul in 2017, Victoria Hamilton in Victoria & Albert in 2001, Emily Blunt in The Young Victoria in 2009, Amanda Root in The Black Prince in 2017, and Jenna Coleman in Victoria in 2019.

Her son, Edward VII, reigned until he died in 1910. His son, George V, reigned until he died in 1936. His son, Edward VIII, abdicated the throne later that year, in favor of his brother, George VI. He reigned until he died in 1952. His daughter became Queen Elizabeth II, and she broke all longevity records for English and British monarchs, celebrating a Platinum Jubilee (70th Anniversary) in 2022. She died later that year, and her son became King Charles III.

January 20, 1936: King George V Dies

January 20, 1936, 90 years ago: King George V -- in full, George V, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India -- dies at Sandringham House, the monarchy's country retreat in Norfolk, England. He was 70 years old.

Born George Frederick Ernest Albert of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on June 3, 1865, he was the 2nd son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and thus grandson of Queen Victoria. At the time, he was 3rd in line for the throne, behind his father and his older brother.

The Prince's 1st son was Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale. Nicknamed "Prince Eddy," he was engaged to Princess Mary, the daughter of Germany's Duke of Teck, but was a compulsive womanizer, and there were rumors of what would now be called a gay affair.

It has been rumored that Eddy's tendency toward London prostitutes made him Jack the Ripper, and a late 20th Century book about the case was titled Prince Jack. Records show that he was at Windsor Castle on the nights of all 5 "canonical Ripper murders," and, given modes of transportation in 1888, couldn't possibly have gotten out, gone to London, committed any of them, and gotten back without anyone noticing him.

Another rumor is that the royal physician, Dr. William Gull, killed those prostitutes to cover up Eddy's involvement, which (some said) involved an illegitimate child. But Gull was 71 years old at the time, and recovering from a stroke, making it unlikely that he could have overpowered even a woman.

On January 14, 1892, Eddy died, only 28 years old, officially of an influenza epidemic that was then raging through Britain. More salacious historians have suggested that his sex life caught up with him, and that he died of syphilis.

Regardless, it made his brother George 2nd in line to the throne. And, far be it for the British royal family to waste a good candidate for marriage: On July 6, 1893, George and Mary of Teck were married. They went on to have 5 children: Edward, known to the family as David, eventually named Prince of Wales; Albert, known to the family as Bertie, eventually named Duke of York; Mary, the Princess Royal, who married the Earl of Harewood; Henry, Duke of Gloucester; and John, who had epilepsy, and died of a severe seizure in 1919, only 13 years old.

Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, and George's father became King Edward VII. George became Prince of Wales. On May 6, 1910, Edward died, and, not quite 45 years old, his son became King George V.

George and Mary had 2 coronations: On June 22, 1911, as King and Queen of Great Britain and Ireland at Westminster Abbey in London; and on December 12, 1911, as Emperor and Empress of India at the Delhi Durbar. Victoria had been proclaimed Empress of India in 1877, and Edward VII proclaimed Emperor of India in 1903, but neither ever visited India, and were crowned in absentia. (Edward VIII and George VI held the title of Emperor of India, but never went there while on the throne.)

At first, George was popular. Then came World War I, and George found 2 of his 1st cousins on opposite sides: Czar Nicholas II of Russia on his, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany on the other. (The words "Czar" and "Kaiser" both come from the Latin title for Emperor, "Caesar.")

As Lord Mountbatten, the King's nephew, said in a documentary over half a century later, the people of Britain came to despise all things German: "They insulted German governesses. They wouldn't listen to German music. They even kicked dachshunds in the streets. And the press played this up, and made things much worse."

To make matters worse than that, the Germans had planes named Gotha bombers. And another 1st cousin, Charles Edward, was the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and commanded German troops. And George V was of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the family name of Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert. George V, Charles Edward, and Wilhelm II were all grandsons of Victoria and Albert, while Nicholas II married a granddaughter of Victoria and Albert.

H.G. Wells, one of the pioneers of science fiction, and a socialist opposed to all monarchies, wrote that George was "presiding over an alien and uninspiring court." Reading this, George blew his stack: "I may be uninspiring, but I'm damned if I'm an alien!"

So the decision was made to change the family name, taking it from the Castle in Berkshire that had been a country home to the family since William the Conqueror in 1070: The House of Windsor. This decision proved popular. (The Mountbatten name was also new: They formerly had the German name Battenberg.)

After the war, the monarchies of Germany, Austria, Russia and Turkey were abolished, and those of Italy and Belgium seriously diminished. The monarchy of Spain would also fall during George's reign, although that had nothing to do with World War I, in which Spain was neutral. Ireland was partitioned, and only the 6 Counties that made up Northern Ireland remained under George's reign.

George remained popular, but not healthy, smoking too much. He nearly died in 1928, while Edward, Prince of Wales, was on vacation (or "on holiday," as the British would say). He was guilted into coming home, just in case, but by the time he arrived, his father had taken a turn for the better.

In 1935, the 25th Anniversary of his reign, a Silver Jubilee was held for the King. By this point, he had become the 1st British monarch to make speeches over radio, including the institution of the annual monarch's Christmas Message, and publicly thanked the people for their devotion and their love.

But the end was near. His royal physician was Bertrand Dawson, 1st Viscount of Penn, and he was considered a poor doctor. Someone even wrote a short poem:

Lord Dawson of Penn

killed many men.

That's why we sing

"God save the King."

On the night of January 20, 1936, George seemed to be close to death, and Dawson sent a bulletin to the BBC: "The King's life is moving peacefully towards its close." But it wasn't moving fast enough for Dawson's tastes. As Kenneth Rose, columnist for the Daily Telegraph, and winner of an award for his 1983 biography of George, said of the text of the bulletin, for the 1994 documentary The Windsors: A Royal Family:

We now know that that wasn't true. Lord Dawson thought that the King ought to die at midnight, so that the death could be announced in the morning edition of The Times, rather than, as he put it, "less appropriate evening journals." 

Dawson wrote in his diary:

At about 11 o'clock it was evident that the last stage might endure for many hours, unknown to the Patient but little comporting with that dignity and serenity which he so richly merited and which demanded a brief final scene. Hours of waiting just for the mechanical end when all that is really life has departed only exhausts the onlookers & keeps them so strained that they cannot avail themselves of the solace of thought, communion or prayer. I therefore decided to determine the end.

In one syringe, he prepared a dose of cocaine, enough to be lethal all by itself. In another, he prepared a similarly fatal dose of morphine. He told his nurse, Catherine Black, to inject the morphine into the King's neck, and he would do the same with the cocaine. Miss Black refused to murder her King. Dawson did both of them himself. Seeing what was being done, King George V, head of state for of one-quarter of the planet, with his mental faculties intact until the end, spoke his last words, to his doctor: "God damn you!"

At 11:55 PM, he was pronounced dead. The next morning, The Times of London, having their deadline met, got their scoop, so that the trashy tabloids would not announce it first. Not until 1986 -- 50 years after the King's death, 41 years after Lord Dawson's, and 3 years after the publication of Rose's biography -- was the royal euthanasia/assassination revealed to the public.

George V remains the only monarch of England and/or Great Britain to have been murdered since the execution of King Charles I in 1649.

He was succeeded by his son, who became King Edward VIII. His private life was already so tawdry that George said Edward would ruin himself in 12 months. George gave his son 1 month's too much credit. On December 10, 1936, Edward abdicated, in favor of George's 2nd son, Albert, who became King George VI. He died in 1952, and his daughter, the granddaughter of George V, took the throne as Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Mary died on March 24, 1953, a few weeks before Elizabeth was crowned. Edward, Duke of Windsor, lived in exile until 1972.

Of the other 3 children of King George V and Queen Mary: Mary, the Princess Royal, married the heir to the Earldom of Harewood, and became Countess of Harewood, living until 1965; Henry became Duke of Gloucester, served as Governor-General of Australia from 1945 to 1947, and lived until 1974; and George became Duke of Kent and a Commodore in the Royal Air Force, dying in a plane crash in 1942.

King George V has been played by Michael Osborne in Edward the Seventh in 1975, Marius Goring in Edward & Wallis in 1978, John Warner in The Treaty in 1991, David Troughton in All the King's Men in 1999, Tom Hollander in The Lost Prince in 2003, Michael Gambon in The King's Speech in 2010, Simon Jones in the film of Downton Abbey in 2019, and Tom Hollander again (also playing his cousins, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Czar Nicholas II) in The King's Man in 2021.

Wilbur Wood, 1941-2026

A 2020s baseball team would not know what to do with Wilbur Wood.

I could say the same thing about a lot of his contemporaries. In his case, it has nothing to do with attitude, and everything to do with his specific ability to pitch a long time, anytime.

Wilbur Forrester Wood Jr. was born on October 22, 1941, across the Charles River from Boston, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and grew up in neighboring Belmont. With that combination of name and place, you might guess that he was a lawyer, a politician, or a college professor. No, he was a baseball pitcher.

He started with his hometown Boston Red Sox in 1961, but came into his own with the Chicago White Sox, throwing the knuckleball. An American League All-Star in 1971, 1972 and 1974, he went 164-156 for mostly bad teams. He nearly won the Cy Young Award in 1972, and might have if the White Sox had beaten the Oakland Athletics out for the AL Western Division title. They finished 5 1/2 games back, and 1st baseman Dick Allen was named the AL's Most Valuable Player.

Wood was durable. In 1968, he pitched in 88 games, a record since broken. In 1971, he was moved into the starting rotation. On July 20, 1973 -- the day that martial arts legend Bruce Lee died -- he started both games of a doubleheader, and remains the last pitcher to do so, against the Yankees, at Yankee Stadium. It's not as durable as it sounds: In the opener, he got knocked out of the box in the 1st inning, as the Yankees scored 8 runs, going on to win, 12-2; and he only lasted 4 1/3 innings of the nightcap, which ended in the 6th inning due to rain, with the Yankees up, 7-0.

But earlier in the season, on May 28, against the Cleveland Indians, he finished up a restarted game that went 21 innings, and then won his regular start, winning 2 games in 1 day. That season, he won 24 games, but also lost 20 -- making him the last pitcher in the AL to both win and lose 20 in the same season. (The last in the majors? Another knuckleballer, Phil Niekro, 21-20 with the 1979 Atlanta Braves.)

In 1976, a line drive off the bat of Ron LeFlore of the Detroit Tigers broke Wood's kneecap, and he was never the same. "I was a little gun-shy," he admitted. In the 1978 Yankees' home opener, Wood started for the White Sox, and gave up a home run to Reggie Jackson, leading to the stadium giveaway, the new Reggie bar candy, being thrown onto the field, its orange wrappers clashing with the green of the Yankee Stadium grass, the royal blue of the seats, the white of the Yankees' Pinstriped uniforms, and the navy blue of the uniforms the White Sox were wearing at the time.

That would be Wood's last season. He won 164 games, losing 156, with a 3.24 ERA, a 114 ERA+, 24 shutouts, and a 1.232 WHIP. He started 70 games on 2 days' rest, more than any pitcher in the post-1920 Lively Ball Era. But he mostly pitched for underachieving teams, his only close calls with the postseason coming with the '72 and '77 White Sox.

On November 6, 1963, Wood married Sandra Malcolm, in whom he had been interested since high school. They kept their home in the Boston area, and had 3 children: Wendy, Derron, and Christen. After retiring as a player, he ran a seafood market, then worked as a pharmaceutical salesman. He passed away this past Saturday, January 17, 2026, at the age of 84.

Ernie Banks, on the North Side of Chicago: "It's a beautiful day for baseball. Let's play two!"

Wilbur Wood, on the South Side: "You're on. I'm getting on the El. I'll see you in half an hour. I'll start both."

January 19, 1976: The Iowa Caucuses Matter for the 1st Time

January 19, 1976, 50 years ago: The Iowa Caucuses are held. They had been held for the 1st time in 1972, but had little bearing on the Presidential election. This time, they had a rather large bearing on the election.

They were first held on January 24, 1972. Incumbent President Richard Nixon was unopposed on the Republican side. On the Democratic side, Senator Edmund S. Muskie of Maine won 36 percent of the vote. Senator George McGovern won 23 percent, but since Iowa is right next-door to his home State of South Dakota, this was not seen as all that odd, or as a bad sign for Muskie, the 1968 Vice Presidential nominee and the front-runner in the polls coming into this vote.

In 1975, having served 1 term, 4 years, as Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter had announced his candidacy for President. Before he did, he told his mother, "Mama, I'm running for President." Known to the family as "Miss Lillian," she said, "President of what?"

He had released a campaign biography, titled Why Not the Best? And yet, his career to that point did not suggest that he was the best possible candidate:

* 1962: He made his 1st run for office, at age 37, for the State Senate in Georgia. He lost. He asked for a recount. He got it. As it turned out, the election had been stolen. With the recount, he won.

* 1966: He did not run for a 2nd term. Instead, ran for the Democratic nomination for Governor, as a pro-civil rights candidate against a member of the segregationist establishment, Lester Maddox. He lost.

* 1970: He ran for Governor again. He won. He was generally considered to be a good Governor. At the time, the Constitution of the State of Georgia did not allow a Governor to serve a 2nd consecutive term.

That was it. But he thought that, in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate, he could appeal to Americans as a decent and honest man with a record that, however brief, backed that up, despite having almost no name recognition. He was being called, "Jimmy Who?"

He entered the Iowa Caucuses, the earliest contest in the nominating schedule. Most of the candidates ignored them, preferring to concentrate on the New Hampshire Primary, to be held on February 24. New Hampshire had mattered in the nominating process since 1952.

Carter thought that "retail politics," which had helped him in his run for Governor of a mostly-farm State, would help him in Iowa. He met people in small towns throughout Iowa's 99 Counties, used his experience as a farmer (peanuts), but also as a "small businessman," to show the locals that he knew what he was talking about. He even went on a cooking show on a Des Moines TV station.

And, with the experiences of Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon in Vietnam, and Nixon in Watergate, he had a message which proved to be more powerful than anyone had imagined: "I will never lie to you."

Not running for President, although they would have had some support if they had: Senators Muskie, McGovern, Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota (former Vice President, 1968 Presidential nominee, and runner-up in 1972) and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.

In the race, but not even entering the Caucuses, were Governors George Wallace of Alabama, Terry Sanford of North Carolina, Milton Shapp of Pennsylvania and Jerry Brown of California; and Senators Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, and Frank Church of Idaho.

Those who did enter: Carter; Senators Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington, Fred Harris of Oklahoma and Birch Bayh of Indiana; Representative Morris "Mo" Udall of Arizona; and former Ambassador Sargent Shriver (brother-in-law of the Kennedys, and the 1972 Democratic nominee for Vice President). Going in, the favorites -- for these caucuses, if not for the nomination overall -- were Bayh and Harris, due to being from Midwestern farm States.

Who won the 1976 Iowa Democratic Caucuses? Officially, no one: "Unpledged" led all comers with 39 percent of the vote. That surprised very few people. But the actual candidate with the most votes, 27.5 percent, turned out to be Carter. He was followed by Bayh, 13.2; Harris, 9.9; Udall, 6.0; Shriver, 3.3; and Jackson, 1.1.

The result stunned people, who thought that Carter was banking on something virtually meaningless. He gave it meaning. This momentum carried him through New Hampshire, where he edged Udall, 27 percent to 22. Carter winning Florida, a Southern State, on March 9 didn't surprise many people; but winning Illinois, a big Midwestern State with a big city, a week later, did.

Jackson ended up winning New York, riding the fact that he was the most vocal Democrat in the Senate in support of Israel, giving him a hammerlock on New York City's Jewish vote. But it didn't help him much outside New York State, and Carter won pretty much every other State of consequence. He ended up getting 74 percent of the Delegates on the 1st ballot at the Democratic Convention in New York.

On January 20, 1977, 1 year and 1 day after showing people what the Iowa Caucuses could do for a Presidential candidate, James Earle Carter Jr. was inaugurated as the 39th President of the United States.

Most people outside Iowa don't pay attention to the State for most of 4 years -- unless they're big fans of college football or wrestling -- and then do so only because of the Caucuses. A candidate entering them has to hear an inordinate amount of information about farming, especially corn, and how it can be converted into ethanol to fuel cars. The politics-themed TV show The West Wing made a point of this in its 2005 episode "King Corn."

Democrats tend to win in Iowa by pointing out that they're better for farmers than the Republicans. Republicans tend to win in Iowa by appealing to the State's hardcore right-wing evangelicals.

As this chart shows, the Iowa Caucuses have a better record in predicting Democratic nominees than they do in predicting Republican nominees. But, as it also shows, for both parties come the general election, it's better to have won the nomination without winning in Iowa.

Note that, in 1992, Senator Tom Harkin won on the Democratic side, because he was from Iowa, and every other Democrat had accepted his overwhelming popularity there and given up on the State, and concentrated on the New Hampshire Primary.

January 15, 2001: Wikipedia Begins Operation

January 15, 2001, 25 years ago: Wikipedia begins operation. According to its own Wikipedia page (I've removed the footnotes):

Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001, by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger; Sanger coined its name as a blending of "wiki" and "encyclopedia". Wales was influenced by the "spontaneous order" ideas associated with Friedrich Hayek and Austrian School of economics, after being exposed to these ideas by Austrian economist and Mises Institute Senior Fellow Mark Thornton. Initially available only in English, versions in other languages were quickly developed. Its combined editions comprise more than 58 million articles, attracting around 2 billion unique device visits per month, and more than 17 million edits per month (1.9 edits per second). In 2006, Time magazine stated that the policy of allowing anyone to edit had made Wikipedia the "biggest (and perhaps best) encyclopedia in the world".

Wikipedia has received praise for its enablement of the democratization of knowledge, extent of coverage, unique structure, culture, and reduced amount of commercial bias, but criticism for exhibiting systemic bias, particularly gender bias against women and alleged ideological bias. Its reliability was frequently criticized in the 2000s, but has improved over time and has been generally praised in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Its coverage of controversial topics such as American politics and major events such as the COVID-19 pandemic has received substantial media attention. It has been censored by world governments, ranging from specific pages to the entire site. It has become an element of popular culture, with references in books, films and academic studies. In 2018, Facebook and YouTube announced that they would help users detect fake news by suggesting fact-checking links to related Wikipedia articles.

I could write this blog without using Wikipedia. But it would be a lot harder.