Scores On This Historic Day

December 31, 2011:  The last American combat troops leave Iraq. It had been 8 years, 9 months and 11 days since the first ones got there. And what did America get out of it? Well, we got rid of Saddam Hussein, and replaced him with... a government that we're still not sure is trustworthy. And we emboldened neighboring Iran, who were glad to see Saddam out. And we emboldened terrorists in the Middle East, ditto. Over 1 million Iraqis, the vast majority of them civilians, died as a result of this war. American combat deaths were, officially, 4,507; with another 32,292 wounded, another 47,541 listed under "Injured/diseases/other medical." How many have psychiatric issues as a result of being sent there, we may never know. In his 1988 book  1968 In America , Charles Kaiser reasoned that the only good thing about the Vietnam War was that America had apparently learned its lesson, and had never had another "Vietnam." That was before George W. Bush, who actively sought...

December 31, 1993: Brandon Teena is murdered by bigots in Humboldt, Nebraska. He was 21 years old, and unwittingly becomes perhaps the first famous pre-surgery transgender person – not post-surgery, what was then called a "transsexual." The subject of this essay was born on December 12, 1972, in Lincoln, Nebraska, with female characteristics, and the name Teena Brandon.  The child's father died before the birth, and was raised, along with an older sister, by a single mother. Both children were abused by an uncle. Teena was described by others as a "tomboy," and, in adolescence, began identifying as male. He was kicked out of a Catholic high school for dressing like a boy, and rejected by the U.S. Army by listing "male" on his enlistment form. In 1993, Teena began dating a woman named Lana Tisdel, who was 2 years younger. Teena was arrested for forging checks, and it was only upon going to bail him out and seeing "her" in the female section o...

December 31, 1988:  The Chicago Bears host the Philadelphia Eagles in an NFC Divisional Playoff at Soldier Field in Chicago. It was Mike Ditka coaching the team he'd led to a Super Bowl win 3 seasons before, against a team coached by Buddy Ryan, who'd been the defensive coordinator for those Bears, and with whom he'd never gotten along. Chicago is known for nasty Winter weather, and plenty of games at Soldier Field, both at its 1924 original (as this one was) and at its 2003 replacement, have had bitter cold, or snow, or rain, or wind blasting in off Lake Michigan, just 2 blocks away, or some combination thereof. But they'd never been hit by fog before. San Francisco is the American city best known for fog, and while Giants games at Candlestick Park had to be called due to fog, 49ers games there never have. Cleveland Municipal Stadium had seen some Indians games called due to fog, but not Browns games. Chicago? Fog was one weather condition they were not used to. At kic...

December 31, 1984: Rick Allen, the drummer for British hard-rock band Def Leppard, is badly injured in a car crash, outside the hometown of most of the band's members, Sheffield, South Yorkshire. Allen, himself from Dronfield, in Derbyshire, in the East Midlands, was thrown from his Chevrolet Corvette. He had a seat belt on. The belt did not restrain him. It did restrain his left arm, severing it. Until this moment, Allen seemed to be living a charmed life with one of the biggest bands in the world.  On his 15th  birthday, November 1, 1978, he was admitted to the band, after responding to their classified ad for a new drummer. On his 16th  birthday, they opened for one of the biggest rock bands in the world, AC/DC. But at 21, his career seemed to be over.  As lead singer Joe Elliott said, "If I lose my arm, I can still sing. If he loses his voice, he can still play drums." How can a drummer play drums with one arm? Allen had a specially-rigged drum kit made by Whirl...

Left to right: Peter Mahovlich, Vladislav Tretiak, Yvan Cournoyer December 31, 1975: A hockey game is played at the Montreal Forum. It not only ends up getting labeled "The Game of the Century," but it is often credited with "saving the sport." Super Series '76 was scheduled, with 2 Soviet club teams taking on NHL teams. One was the reigning Soviet Champions, CSKA Moscow. Translated into English, "CSKA" (pronounced "CHESS-kah") became "Central Sports Club of the Army." It was a team sponsored by the country's Red Army, and that's what they were called in the American media: "The Red Army." The other was Krylya Sovetov, translated as "Soviet Wings." This suggests they were sponsored by the country's Air Force. Not quite: They were sponsored by the country's aircraft builders. The Super Series began on December 28, 1975, at Madison Square Garden, and the Red Army pounded the New York Rangers, 7-3. ...

December 31, 1974:  The era of baseball free agency begins, as the Yankees "hook a Catfish." James Augustus Hunter was signed out of Perquimans High School in North Carolina by the Kansas City Athletics on June 8, 1964. Team owner Charles O. Finley thought "Jim Hunter" was too ordinary a name, and that he needed a nickname. Charlie asked "Jimmy" (as he was always known to his family) what he liked to do. Jim said he liked to hunt and fish, a common pair of passions for baseball players from rural areas in those days. So Finley made up a story about how, when he was a boy, Jimmy caught a whole bunch of catfish, and that he had been nicknamed "Catfish Hunter" -- or, sometimes, just "Cat" -- from then on. Of course, no one had ever called him "Catfish" -- or "Cat" -- until June 8, 1964. Hunter made his debut with the A's in 1965. In 1966, he made the 1st of what turned out to be 8 All-Star Games. The A's moved t...