June 1, 1889: The Orient Express

June 1, 1889: The most famous train route in human history, the Orient Express, begins full operations.

Well, not quite full. It opened on June 4, 1883, going from Paris, France to Vienna, Austria. Nobody would confuse Vienna with the Orient, not even if Mozart had written The Mikado 100 years before Gilbert & Sullivan had.

Gare de l'Est, Paris, opened in 1849

On October 3, 1883, the route was extended to Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. In 1923, the Ottoman Empire became the Turkish Republic, "Türkiye" in their native language, "Turkey" in English; and the capital was moved to Ankara. In 1929, the national government told the world to start calling Constantinople "Istanbul."

Still, it wasn't a single train. The original trip required passengers to disembark in Romania, to be ferried across the Danube to Bulgaria, where they would catch another train to the Bulgarian city of Varna, followed by a 150-mile ferry ride to Constantinople. The final leg of the train ride to Constantinople wasn't finished until 1885. Finally, on June 1, 1889, a single train left Gare de l'Est (Station of the East) in Paris for Sirkeci Railway Station in what became Istanbul.

Sirkeci Station, Istanbul, opened in 1872

Connections were made from Paris to London via Calais and a ferry across the English Channel to Dover. The main route went from Paris to Lausanne, Switzerland; to Milan and Venice, Italy; to Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now in Serbia); to Sofia, Bulgaria; to Istanbul -- and, on the way back, in reverse. An average Paris-to-Istanbul, or Istanbul-to-Paris, ride took nearly 3 days: 2 days, 20 hours of what the standards of the time considered exceptional luxury.

There were alternate routes, from Paris through Strasbourg (France), Munich, Vienna, Budapest (Hungary) and Bucharest (Romania) to Istanbul; and from Paris through Zurich (Switzerland), Innsbruck (Austria) to Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest and Istanbul. All routes were shut down during the World Wars.

The ride became popular among writers. Agatha Christie's most famous story remains the 1934 Murder On the Orient Express, in which the train, heading for Paris, gets stuck in the snow in Yugoslavia, and Hercule Poirot must solve a murder. Other fictional characters known to have ridden the famed luxury train include Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, and James Bond in the 1963 film From Russia with Love.

But, as in America, rail travel in Europe became superseded by air travel. The route stopped serving Istanbul in 1977, cut back to a through overnight service from Paris to Bucharest, which was cut back further in 1991 to Budapest, then in 2001 to Vienna, before departing for the last time from Paris on June 8, 2007. After this, the route, still called the Orient Express, was shortened to start from Strasbourg, leaving daily after the arrival of a TGV from Paris. On December 14, 2009, the Orient Express ceased to operate entirely, and the route disappeared from European railway timetables.

UPDATE: In late 2022, the hospitality company Accor announced plans to launch its own Orient Express from Paris to Istanbul, to start in mid-2026.

*

June 1, 1889 was a Saturday. There were 6 games that day in what would eventually be called Major League Baseball:

* In the National League, the New York Giants lost to the Washington Nationals, 9-5 at the Swampoodle Grounds in Washington. This version of the Nationals were dropped from the NL after the 1899 season, and the current team with the name has no connection to it.

* Also in the NL, the Boston Beaneaters beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-2 at the South End Grounds in Boston.

* In the American Association, the Philadelphia Athletics beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-4 at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia. These Athletics went out of business after the "Players' League War" of 1890. The Reds were admitted to the NL in 1892.

* Also in the AA, there was a doubleheader at Oriole Park in Baltimore. The Baltimore Orioles won the opener, 5-4. The Kansas City Cowboys won the nightcap, 10-8. The Orioles were admitted to the NL in 1892, but dropped after 1899, and the current team with the name has no connection to it.

* And, also in the AA, the Columbus Solons beat the Louisville Colonels, 8-3 at Recreation Park in Columbus, Ohio. The Colonels were admitted to the NL in 1890, but were dropped after the 1899 season. The Solons folded with the AA after the 1891 season.

May 31, 2002: The Sacramento Swindle

May 31, 2002: Game 6 of the NBA Western Conference Finals is played at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Sacramento Kings, 106-102. Shaquille O'Neal scored 41 points and had 17 rebounds. Kobe Bryant added 31 points in support.

Almost immediately, there were allegations that this game was fixed by the referees. In 2008, as part of the scandal that involved him betting on games he had officiated, fired NBA referee Tim Donaghy said that two of the referees in this game were told to fix it so the NBA and televising network NBC could make more money on a Game 7.

The officials for this game were Dick Bavetta, Ted Bernhardt and Bob Delaney. Bavetta holds the record for most NBA games officiated, with 2,635, having never missed a game from his 1975 hiring until his 2014 retirement. Early in his career, he was considered one of the worst refs in the game. He decided to do something about it, and practiced with Summer league games, such as in New York City's Rucker League. By 1986, when he was assigned to officiate a Playoff game for the first time, he had begun to be regarded as one of the best referees.

And yet, in a 2002 article for ESPN, Bill Simmons named the worst officiated games of the prior four years, alleging that the games involved either extending a series so it did not end quickly or advancing a large market team for the NBA's benefit. All seven games named had been officiated by Bavetta. It should be noted that Simmons is a Boston Celtics fan, and is usually full of... highly questionable opinions.

Bernhardt was best known for a 1996 game where he called a foul on Dennis Rodman, who then head-butted him and was suspended for it. Delaney seems an unlikely candidate for corruption: He was a New Jersey State Trooper who successfully infiltrated the Mob, and worked his way all the way from high school games to the NBA Playoffs.

In this Game 6, the awarding of fouls resulted in the Lakers shooting 40 free throws overall, a whopping 27 in the fourth quarter alone, and the Kings' big men were plagued with foul trouble: Between them, Vlade Divac, Chris Webber, Scot Pollard, and Lawrence Funderburke were called for 20 fouls, Divac and Pollard both fouling out.

Michael Wilbon of The Washington Post, already co-hosting Pardon the Interruption on ESPN with fellow Post columnist Tony Kornheiser, wrote, "I wrote down in my notebook six calls that were stunningly incorrect, all against Sacramento, all in the fourth quarter when the Lakers made five baskets and 21 foul shots to hold on to their championship." Wilbon pointed out that Kobe Bryant did not get a foul called on him after elbowing Mike Bibby in front of an official.

Two nights later, at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, the Lakers won Game 7, 112-106 in overtime.

Also on May 31, 2002, the NBA's Eastern Conference Championship was won. The New Jersey Nets defeated the Boston Celtics, 96-88, to win Game 6 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston, and win their first NBA Eastern Conference Championship. After 26 years of trying, they were in their first NBA Finals. They did this despite none of their players scoring more than Kenyon Martin’s 16 points, and former Net Kenny Anderson scoring 18 for Boston.

What guard Jason Kidd did with this team in 1 season, taking them from one of the worst teams in the league to a Finalist, is one of the greatest achievements any NBA player has ever had.

Given the Nets' history to this point -- they had won just 1 Playoff series between 1977 and 2001 -- this should have been the most remarkable NBA story of the night. But it wasn't, because of the perceived Sacramento Swindle.

Was the Lakers-Kings Game 6 fixed? Did NBA Commissioner David Stern, and NBC Sports President Dick Ebersol, want the Lakers in the Finals rather than the Kings? It would be easy to say, "You do the math": There are 13 million people in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and only 2.5 million in Sacramento's.

But that theory doesn't hold up for the East: There are 13.2 million in New England, and, while the Nets are part of the New York Tri-State Area, the New York Knicks have always held the vast majority of those fans. So if it was fixed for the Lakers, why not for the Celtics?

The Kings, previously the Rochester Seagrams (1923-43), the Rochester Pros (1943-45), the Rochester Royals (1945-57), the Cincinnati Royals (1957-72) and the Kansas City Kings (1972-85), still have not been to the NBA Finals since 1951. From 2002 to 2021, the Lakers made it 6 more times.

*

May 31, 2002 was a Friday. Football was out of season. In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Detroit Red Wings pretty much settled their "rivalry" with the Colorado Avalanche by winning Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, 7-0 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 5-2 at Yankee Stadium. Derek Lowe outpitched David Wells. Jorge Posada had 2 hits, including driving in both Yankee runs with a home run, but the rest of the team only had 4 hits.

* The New York Mets beat the Florida Marlins, 6-5 at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida. Rey Ordóñez, not known for his power, hit a home run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-7 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Seattle Mariners, 8-7 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Gerónimo Gil hit a sacrifice fly to score Brian Roberts with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 13-9 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-0 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland. Bartolo Colón allowed 8 hits, but kept the shutout.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-0 at Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium) in Cincinnati. How many Braves pitchers does it take to pitch a 4-hit shutout? Apparently, 4: Greg Maddux, 2 hits over 5 innings; Kevin Gryboski, none over an inning and 2/3rds; Kerry Lightenberg, 2 over an inning and 1/3rd; and Chris Hammond, striking out the side in a perfect 9th.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-2 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Houston Astros beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Anaheim Angels beat the Minnesota Twins, 11-3 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Texas Rangers, 10-7 at The Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. The Royals got 3 straight home runs in the top of the 11th inning, from Carlos Beltrán, Mike Sweeney and Joe Randa.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the San Diego Padres, 12-1 at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium).

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the Colorado Rockies beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-2 at Pacific Bell Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco.

May 31, 1989: The Fall of Speaker Jim Wright

May 31, 1989: The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Jim Wright of Texas, resigns his post, which he had held for the last 2 years. He also resigns the seat in Congress, representing Fort Worth, Texas, to which he was first elected in 1954. The reason? He used bulk purchases of his book, Reflections of a Public Man, to earn speaking fees in excess of the maximum amount allowed by a Congressional ethics resolution.

That's it. No actual crime. Nobody died. Nobody got hurt. Nobody's rights -- civil or human -- were violated. As he admitted in his resignation speech: "Have I made mistakes? Oh, yeah, I've made a lot of mistakes, mistakes in judgement." But, apparently, some people thought he had to resign over it.

Leading the charge against Wright and his ethics violations was a feisty young Republican Congressman, originally from Pennsylvania, but representing a district in Georgia. His name was Newt Gingrich, and he, too, would become Speaker... and have to resign, in part due to ethics violations, including (but hardly limited to) using his position to increase sales of a video class he was "teaching," an up-to-date version of the very thing he used to tar Wright as "the least ethical Speaker of the House in the nation's history." He wasn't, but Gingrich was.

Gingrich would be succeeded as Speaker in 1999 by Dennis Hastert, Republican of Illinois. He resigned after the Republicans lost the majority in the 2006 elections. He would later go to prison for what would once have been quaintly called morals charges.

He was succeeded as the Republicans' House Leader by John Boehner of Ohio. He became Speaker after the election of 2010. He resigned in 2015, not because he'd done anything illegal (that we knew of), but because he'd lost control of his own caucus.

He was succeeded as the Republicans' House Leader, and as Speaker, by Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who had been the Republican nominee for Vice President in 2012, under Presidential nominee Mitt Romney. He decided not to run for re-election in 2018, not because he'd done anything illegal (that we knew of), but because he thought his Party would lose control of Congress -- correctly, as it turned out. He was succeeded as the Republicans' House Leader by Kevin McCarthy of California.

UPDATE: When the Republicans regained the majority in 2022, it took 15 votes of their caucus to confirm McCarthy as Speaker, and he got forced out after only 9 months, in favor of Mike Johnson of Louisiana.

Wright doesn't sound so bad now, does he? He would go on to write more books, and teach at Texas Christian University in his native Fort Worth. In 2014, at the age of 91, he was denied the right to vote in a local election, because of the unconstitutional voter-ID law that the Tea Party-dominated Texas legislature had passed. He died the next year, one of the last surviving people to have been in the motorcade through Dallas when President Kennedy was killed half a century ago.

*

May 31, 1989 was a Wednesday. German soccer star Marco Reus was born.

Football was out of season. The NHL season had ended 5 days before, when the Calgary Flames won the Stanley Cup, beating the Montreal Canadiens in the Finals. The NBA Playoffs were in the Conference Finals. The Detroit Pistons beat the Chicago Bulls, 94-85 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. The Los Angeles Lakers had already completed a sweep of the Phoenix Suns. In the Finals, the Pistons swept the Lakers.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners, 9-5 at Yankee Stadium. Andy Hawkins, not yet a Yankee washout, outpitched Steve Trout, former Yankee washout. Both had previously been effective pitchers for other teams.

Don Mattingly went 4-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Rickey Henderson went 1-for-2 with 3 walks and 3 stolen bases. Dave Winfield missed the entire season due to a back injury. Rookie Ken Griffey Jr. went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants, 3-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Chris Speier not only went 0-for-5 for the Giants, but his mishandling of a Mookie Wilson grounder in the top of the 10th inning allowed Keith Miller and Kevin Elster to score the winning runs. This made Randy Myers, despite a blown save, the winning pitcher, in relief of Bob Ojeda.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Dave Parker hit a home run to put the A's ahead in the top of the 10th inning. But in the bottom of the 10th, the Sox tied it, and then former Yankee catcher Rick Cerone singled Ellis Burks home with the winning run.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Texas Rangers, 8-5 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Cal Ripken went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Barry Bonds went 3-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the California Angels, 4-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Robin Yount went 0-for-1 with 3 walks. Paul Molitor went 2-for-3.

* The Houston Astros beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Minnesota Twins were leading the Kansas City Royals, 7-1 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City, when the umpires stopped the game due to rain. The game was called, making the Twins the winners. George Brett did not play.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn went 1-for-3 with an RBI.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Montreal Expos, 9-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

May 31, 1983: Moses Malone Gets Julius Erving a Ring

Moses Malone (left) and Julius Erving. Big Mo and Dr. J.

May 31, 1983: The Philadelphia 76ers, and Julius Erving, finally win an NBA Championship, on the massive shoulders of the man who, for most of the early 1980s, was the best basketball player in the world.

Not Erving. Not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers, whom the Sixers beat in these Finals. Not Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics, whom the Sixers beat to get into the Finals.

His name was Moses Malone.

It was a story of 2 men, who couldn't have been more different in style, but who combined to get a precious result for one of basketball's greatest cities.

Both players started out in the American Basketball Association. Erving began with the Virginia Squires in 1971, and went to the New York Nets in 1973. Known as "Doctor J," his stunning moves led the Long Island team to the ABA Championship in 1974 and 1976. But when the Nets were invited into the NBA for the 1976-77 season, the territorial indemnification fee they had to pay to the New York Knicks forced them to dump Erving's salary. They traded him to the 76ers.

The 76ers, previously the Syracuse Nationals until 1963, and NBA Champions in 1967, reached the NBA Finals in 1977, but lost it to the Portland Trail Blazers. For 1978, the team adopted the slogan of "We owe you one," but they lost the Eastern Conference Finals to the Washington Bullets.

By 1980, Erving had cut back some on the superhuman moves (but not entirely: There was a basket in that year's NBA Finals against the Lakers that got the tag "The Move"), and became a better defensive player in the process. But the 76ers again lost the Finals. They blew a 3-games-to-1 lead in the Conference Finals in 1981, to the Celtics. They beat the Celtics to get into the NBA Finals in 1982, but, again, lost to the Lakers.

It was said at the time that Dr. J had 2 "red, white and blue rings," but, still, no "real ring." And even fans in New England, Celtic fans who'd hated Philadelphia basketball teams going back to Warriors, who debuted in 1946 and moved to San Francisco in 1962, began to feel bad for him.

Enter Moses Malone. In 1974, he became the 1st player to jump from high school directly to the pros, signing with the ABA's Utah Stars. In 1976, after brief stopovers with the ABA's Spirits of St. Louis and the NBA's Buffalo Braves, he was traded to the Houston Rockets, and was named NBA Most Valuable Player in 1979 and 1982. He got the Rockets to their 1st NBA Finals berth in 1981, where they lost to the Celtics.

After the 1981-82 season, he was a free agent. The Sixers knew that enough was enough: They had to go for it, and adopt a "The future is now" attitude, and so they opened the vault for Malone. Head coach Billy Cunningham and assistant coach Matt Guokas, both rookie forwards on the 76ers' 1967 title team, now had Malone at center, Erving and Bobby Jones as forwards, and Maurice Cheeks and Andrew Toney as guards. There was good scoring, and truly rugged defense. Toney was particularly good against the Celtics, and became known as the Boston Strangler.

The Sixers went 65-17, by 7 games over the Lakers the best record in the NBA. Malone, a native of the Norfolk, Virginia area, was asked how he thought the Playoffs would go. He said, "Fo', fo', fo'." In other words, he thought the Sixers would sweep all three series in four straight games. It had never been done.

In the Conference Semifinals, the Sixers did, indeed, sweep the New York Knicks in 4 straight. Malone led the team in scoring in all 4 games: 38 points, 30, 28 and 29. Knicks coach Hubie Brown, making a point about talent, if not one about proper pronunciation, said, "Moses Malone is a real man. They cannot pay him a-nough."

The Sixers won the 1st 3 games of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Milwaukee Bucks, although none of those 3 was easy. They were 7-0 in the Playoffs. The Bucks won Game 4, 100-94, ending the sweep dream. But the Sixers closed it out in Game 5, 115-103.

The Sixers went into the NBA Finals like a steamroller. The Lakers did not: Rookie sensation James Worthy broke his leg late in the regular season, and missed the entire Playoffs. Bob McAdoo -- like Worthy, Abdul-Jabbar and Johnson, on his way to the Basketball Hall of Fame -- was also hurt, though he was playing through it.

Indeed, in a 1996 ESPN discussion as to what was the greatest team in NBA history, the '83 76ers got nominated by Roy S. Johnson, then with Sports Illustrated. But Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe, who chose the '86 Celtics, said of the '83 76ers, "There's a team out there that could have beaten them," citing the injuries to Worthy and McAdoo.

How much difference could those 2 have made? Perhaps enough to deny those Sixers entry into the "greatest team ever" conversation, but not enough to deny them the NBA title. The Sixers won Game 1 at The Spectrum, 113-107, with Malone scoring 27. They won Game 2, 103-93, with Malone scoring 24. With all the focus on Malone, Erving could relax a little, and played some of the best basketball of his career.

The series moved out to Inglewood, California. Basketball pundits like to say that a series is never over until a home team loses at least once. But the Sixers mopped up the Forum floor with the Lakers in Game 3, 111-94. Malone had 28 points and 19 rebounds. A sweep was now a fait accompli, and Malone accomplished it with 24 points and 23 rebounds in Game 4. He had controlled the entire postseason, which ended with a 115-108 76ers victory. The joke was easy: Moses had led them to the Promised Land.

Moses Malone had carved his name into the marble of NBA history, winning the MVP of both the regular season and the Finals. And Julius Erving finally had an NBA Championship. Pretty much anybody who wasn't a hardcore Laker fan was happy for him.

This closed a very productive period for Philadelphia sports. Over the past 9 years, Philly teams had reached 11 Finals, winning 4 titles. After this, though, it would take 25 years for another Philly major league team to win a World Championship, going 0-for-7 in Finals. (The Phillies lost in 1983 and 1993; the Flyers lost in 1985, 1987 and 1997; the Sixers lost in 2001; and the Eagles lost in 2005.)

The 76ers remained a strong team for 3 more years. But on June 15, 1986, team owner Harold Katz traded Malone, and they traded the top pick the Draft. They've never been the same since, making only 1 NBA Finals, in 2001 with Allen Iverson. Otherwise, with Charles Barkley, Iverson, and Joel Embiid, and under 3 different ownership regimes, the Philadelphia 76ers have been one of the most underachieving teams in North American sports.

From the NBA Finals of 1984 to that of 2021, the count of NBA Championships is as follows: Los Angeles Lakers 9, Chicago Bulls 6, San Antonio Spurs 5, Detroit Pistons 3, Boston Celtics 3, Miami Heat 3, Golden State Warriors 3, Houston Rockets 2, Dallas Mavericks 1, Cleveland Cavaliers 1, Toronto Raptors 1, Milwaukee Bucks 1. The other 18 teams, including the Philadelphia 76ers, none. And of the teams that have won since the last Sixer title, the Mavs, the Heat and the Raps didn't even exist in 1983.

"Trust the process"? The 76ers acquired James Harden in 2022, but Harden is no Moses Malone. And Embiid is no Julius Erving.

The 76ers retired Malone's Number 2, Erving's Number 6, Cheeks' Number 10, Jones' Number 24, and Cunningham's Number 32. Those men, along with Tony, executive Sonny Hill, statistician Harvey Pollack and public address announcer Dave Zinkoff, have been elected to the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame. So has Doug Collins, who had played on the 76ers' 1977 and 1980 NBA Finalists, but not on this team.

It says a lot about how the 76ers have been run since that their only retired numbers since have been the 34 of Charles Barkley and the 3 of Allen Iverson; and that only those 2 and Pat Williams, the general manager of their 2001 NBA Finalists that included Iverson, have been elected to the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame.

*

May 31, 1983 was a Tuesday. Ordinarily, football would have been out of season. But this was the 1st year of the United States Football League. However, being a Tuesday, no games were played.

The hockey season had ended 2 weeks earlier, when the New York Islanders completed a 4-game Finals sweep over the Edmonton Oilers, to win their 4th straight Cup, making them the only team besides the Montreal Canadiens to achieve it. (The Canadiens won 5 straight, 1956-60; and 4 straight, 1976-79.) The Oiler dynasty began the next season, ending the Islander dynasty in the Finals.

These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the California Angels, 5-3 at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees got 4 runs in the bottom of the 8th to win it, capped by a 2-run single by Ken Griffey Sr. Uncharacteristically, Rod Carew went 0-for-3 for the Angels, although he did draw a walk. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-3 with a walk -- for the Angels, not the Yankees.

* The New York Mets lost to the San Francisco Giants, 2-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox, 2-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski, in his final season, did not play in this game.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 10-2 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Seattle Mariners, 5-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Houston Astros beat the Chicago Cubs, 12-10 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The wind must have been blowing out, because the Astros got home runs from Alan Ashby, Phil Garner and Tim Tolman, none of them known as sluggers. The Cubs got one from Ryne Sandberg, not yet a star.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Robin Yount went 1-for-2 with 2 RBIs. Paul Molitor went 1-for-4. Rickey Henderson went 1-for-4, with no stolen bases.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Baltimore Orioles, 10-3 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Eddie Murray hit a home run, but Cal Ripken Jr. went 0-for-4.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Texas Rangers, 6-5 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. George Brett went 1-for-3 with 2 walks.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Montreal Expos, 5-3 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-3 with a walk. Joe Morgan went 0-for-4. Pete Rose only appeared as a pinch-hitter, unsuccessfully.

May 31, 1976: The Bicentennial Cup

Left to right: Bobby Moore, Gerry Francis, Pelé

May 31, 1976: The Bicentennial Cup concludes. Set up as one of the celebrations of the 200th Anniversary of American independence, it was not a good showcase for American soccer.

England and Italy were invited after they failed to qualify for Euro 76. Also invited was Brazil. The 4th team would be "Team America," made up of players in the North American Soccer League. That meant American players, who simply were not up to the task; and foreign players, who were mostly too old to play at a world class level anymore, such as Brazil's Pelé of the New York Cosmos and England's Bobby Moore of the San Antonio Thunder.

On May 23, Team America played Italy at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. The crowd was decent: 33,445. The result was rather indecent: Italy won, 4-0. Fabio Capello scored in the 15th minute, and the U.S. was never really in it. A midfielder for Turin club Juventus, Capello would later win Serie A (Italian league) titles with A.C. Milan, A.S. Roma and Juventus; and La Liga titles with Real Madrid; total league titles, 9. He also led Milan to the UEFA Champions League title in 1994.

Also on May 23, Brazil beat England, 1-0 before 32,495 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Carlos Roberto de Oliveira, a forward for Rio de Janeiro club Vasco da Gama, known as "Roberto Dinamite," won the game with a goal in the 89th minute.

On May 28, England beat Italy, 3-2 at Yankee Stadium; and Team America lost to Brazil, 2-0 at the new Kingdome in Seattle. Only 20,245 paid to get into the big gray toadstool in Seattle's Lower Downtown. For England vs. Italy in The Bronx, the attendance was 40,650. I would have expected more, given how many Italians live in and around New York City. But the vast majority of Italian-Americans are descended from people who left Italy before the country embraced soccer. For Italian New Yorkers of the 1970s, their sports were baseball, football and boxing.

At any rate, Francesco Graziani of the other Turin club, Torino F.C., scored 2 goals within 5 minutes early in the 1st half. But Mick Channon of Hampshire team Southampton scored 2 within 7 minutes early in the 2nd half, and Phil Thompson of Liverpool scored between those Channon goals.

On May 31, England beat Team America, 3-1 before 16,239 at John F. Kennedy Stadium, leaving over 87,000 empty seats at the big South Philadelphia horseshoe. Kevin Keegan of Liverpool scored twice within 6 minutes in the 1st half, and Trevor Francis of Birmingham City scored early in the 2nd half. Stuart Scullion, a Scottish winger playing for the Tampa Bay Rowdies, got a consolation goal for Team America in the 87th minute.

Later, 36,096 went into the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut, to see a copy of the 1970 World Cup Final: Brazil beat Italy, 4-1. Capello scored in the 2nd minute, but Gil (Gilberto Alves) of Rio club Fluminense, who had scored 2 against Team America, did it again against Italy.

*

May 31, 1976 was a Monday. Actor Colin Farrell was born.

Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup was won by the Montreal Canadiens 15 days earlier. The NBA Finals was between Games 3 and 4, and the Boston Celtics beat the Phoenix Suns in 6 games. And these games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-3 at Fenway Park. Jim "Catfish" Hunter went the distance for the win, while Ferguson "Fergie" Jenkins didn't get out of the 4th inning. Thurman Munson hit a home run, and Chris Chambliss and Oscar Gamble each had 3 hits. Fred Lynn homered for the Sox, and Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4.

* The New York Mets split a doubleheader with the Pittsburgh Pirates at Shea Stadium. The Mets won the opener, 13-2. Jon Matlack went the distance for the win, and had an RBI single in his own cause, while Jerry Reuss didn't get out of the 4th inning.

Willie Stargell went 1-for-4, then sat out the night, which the Pirates won the nightcap, 2-1. Oddly, despite all their runs in the 1st game, the Mets' only home run on the day was in this game, a solo shot by Ron Hodges. Over the 2 games, Wayne Garrett went 3-for-6 with 2 walks and 3 RBIs.

* A doubleheader was split at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The Chicago Cubs won the 1st game, 7-5. Rick Reuschel outpitched Steve Carlton: But it was still "Win Day" for the Philadelphia Phillies, as they won the 2nd game, 4-1. Jim Kaat went the distance for the win, while Mike Garman couldn't get out of the 2nd inning. Over the 2 games, Bill Madlock went 4-for-8, and Mike Schmidt went 1-for-9. 

* The San Diego Padres beat the Atlanta Braves, 10-7 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Dave Winfield hit a home run. Earl Williams hit one for the Braves, while Ken Henderson and Jerry Royster each had 3 hits.

* The Cleveland Indians swept a doubleheader from the Baltimore Orioles, 4-1 and 4-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. In the opener, Jim Kern outpitched Ken Holtzman, Rick Manning went 3-for-5 with a solo home run, and Larvell Blanks went 4-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-3, the left the game with an injury, and did not play in the nightcap.

In that game, former Oriole Pat Dobson outpitched Mike Cuellar. Blanks hit a 2-run homer. Over the 2 games, Reggie Jackson, in his only season with the O's, went 2-for-7 with a walk and an RBI. Reggie and Brooks shared a birthday, May 18. As far as I know, the 1976 Orioles were the only team with 2 future Hall-of-Famers who shared a birthday.

Frank Robinson, the Indians' manager, in his last season as a player, did not insert himself into either game. It must have been the right choice, because the Tribe swept.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-4 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The Brewers scored a run in the top of the 11th inning. In the bottom of the 11th, the Tigers tied it, and then Tom Veryzer singled future manager Jerry Manuel home with the winning run. Hank Aaron, playing his final season, went 1-for-4 with a walk for the Brewers.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 9-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The California Angels beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Frank Tanana outpitched Bert Blyleven. Rod Carew went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 4-2 at the Astrodome in Houston. Pat Darcy, who gave up Carlton Fisk's winning home run in Game 6 of the previous season's World Series, started, and pitched just 5 innings, but got the win, over J.R. Richard. Pete Rose went 2-for-4 with a walk. Johnny Bench went 1-for-4 with a walk.

* The San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The game was 0-0 after 8, a fine pitching duel between Los Angeles' Doug Rau and San Francisco's Jim Barr. Each team scored a run in the 9th. But Dodger closer Mike Marshall melted down in the top of the 12th, allowing 5 singles, a double, and an intentional walk, with an error behind him, for 6 runs.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Kansas City Royals, 10-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Mike Torrez outpitched Paul Splittorff. George Brett went 0-for-3. Billy Williams, the former Chicago Cubs star playing out the string with the A's, went 3-for-5 with 5 RBIs, including the 421st home run of his career. He retired at the end of the season, with 426.

* And the Montreal Expos and the St. Louis Cardinals were rained out at Jarry Park in Montreal. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 6. The Cardinals won the 1st game, 3-1. The Expos won the 2nd game, 3-2. Earl Williams singled Mike Jorgensen home with the winning run in the bottom of the 9th inning.

May 31, 1972: Arsenal Play In America for the 1st Time

May 31, 1972: North London soccer team Arsenal play in America for the first time, at the Orange Bowl in Miami. Here's the starting lineup for "The Gunners":

1 Goalkeeper (GK) Geoff Barnett (in place of the injured Bob Wilson)
2 Right Back (RB) Pat Rice
3 Left Back (LB) Sammy Nelson (in place of Bob McNab)
4 Midfielder (MF) Peter Storey
5 Centreback (CB) Frank McLintock (sub: 14 John Roberts)
6 CB Peter Simpson
7 MF George Armstrong
8 MF Alan Ball (sub: 12 Eddie Kelly)
9 Forward (FW) John Radford
10 FW Ray Kennedy
11 FW Charlie George.

The Arsenal (the "The" is not official, but it is common) had won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970, both England's Football League Division One and its FA Cup ("The Double") in 1971, and had just finished a season in which they finished 5th in the League and lost in the FA Cup Final. The "club" had played all over the world from the 1930s onward, including the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and South America, but this was their 1st time on North American soil.

They played the Miami Gatos, a North American Soccer League franchise that played from 1972 to 1976, known after that 1st season as the Miami Toros -- the Cats becoming the Bulls.

Arsenal fell behind 2-0, but came back to win, 3-2, with goals by George, Radford and Kennedy. Apparently, things got a little rough on the pitch. Sadly, there seems to be no surviving footage of this match.

Attendance, at the 78,000-seat Orange Bowl: 4,725. I guess there just weren't that many people willing to watch a soccer game in Miami in late Spring, between a soccer team they'd never heard of and... The Arsenal.

Arsenal have since made the following return visits to North America:

* May 23, 1973, Varsity Stadium, Toronto, defeating a team called Toronto Select, 1-0. Charlie George had the goal. Attendance: I can't find a reference.

* May 27, 1973, Police Recreation Field, Devonshire, Bermuda: Arsenal beat Devonshire Colts, 4-0. Goals by George, 2 by Radford, and, in his last appearance for the team, Peter Marinello. Attendance: Not listed. It took them a long time to get back:

* August 6, 1989, Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium), Miami Gardens: Arsenal beat Independiente of Avellaneda, Argentina, 2-1. Each team had won its national league that year. This match was for the Zenith Data Systems Challenge Trophy, a phony "world championship." David "Rocky" Rocastle scored from open play in the 1st half, and from a penalty in the 2nd half.

For the 2nd time, Arsenal decided that the best place in America to visit during the Smmer was Miami. Attendance: 10,042, the vast majority of them Hispanics rooting for the South American team. Each team had someone sent off: Independiente, a player; Arsenal, oddly enough, physio Gary Lewin.

At the time, I was 19 years old, but I didn't even know Arsenal existed. Once again, it took Arsenal a long time to get back. When they did, I was ready, and I was there.

* July 26, 2014, Red Bull Arena, Harrison, New Jersey, outside New York: Arsenal lost to the host New York Red Bulls, 1-0. Attendance: A sellout of 25,219, including myself. If the game had been played at the 41,922-seat Citi Field in Flushing, Queens; at the 49,638-seat new Yankee Stadium in The Bronx; or even at the 82,566-seat MetLife Stadium, at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, it would still have sold out. That's how much of a following The Arsenal had achieved by this point in America, and particularly in the New York Tri-State Area.

Bradley Wright-Phillips, son of Arsenal legend Ian Wright, scored the only goal. Abou Diaby had a goal disallowed for offside -- incorrectly, I thought. (Some things never change: Even in meaningless games on other continents, The Arsenal get screwed over by the officials.) It is ironic that the Arsenal player most known for not playing due to injury has come the closest to scoring in an Arsenal uniform than any player I've ever seen. I have seen Thierry Henry score, and in that very stadium, but for the Red Bulls.

Several Arsenal players who featured in the 2014 World Cup did not make the trip: Germans Per Mertesacker and Mesut Özil; Frenchmen Laurent Koscielny and Olivier Giroud; Englishmen Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain; and Chilean Alexis Sánchez.

As a result, the club was short at certain positions. Tomáš Rosický, normally a midfielder, played the 1st 70 minutes up top. Nacho Monreal, normally a left back, was moved to centreback. Gedion Zelalem, only the 3rd American ever to play for Arsenal (after Frank Simek in 2003 and Danny Karbassiyoon in 2004), became the 1st player from a CONCACAF nation to play for Arsenal in a CONCACAF nation, let alone his own.

This game, and the 2012 Emirates Cup 1-1 draw between the clubs, may be as close as we come to Henry, who with only 9 seasons in an Arsenal shirt falls just short of qualifying, ever getting an official testimonial.

* July 28, 2016, Avaya Stadium (now named PayPal Park), San Jose, outside San Francisco: The MLS All-Star Game, and Arsenal beat the MLS All-Stars, 2-1. Joel Campbell and Chuba Akpom were the Arsenal scorers.

Özil, Koscielny and Giroud did not play, because they featured in Euro 2016. (Özil at least made the trip. Mertesacker was injured.) Sánchez did not make the trip, because he featured in the Copa America.

Attendance: Listed as exactly 18,000, which, if true, would be a sellout. Just 2 days later, Liverpool and AC Milan played just a few miles away at Levi's Stadium, the new home of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers, and sold out at 68,500. I have no doubt that Arsenal, never mind the MLS All-Stars, could have sold that out, too.

* July 31, 2016, StubHub Center (now named Dignity Health Sports Park), Carson, California, outside Los Angeles: Arsenal defeated Mexican team Club Deportivo Guadalajara, 3-1. Rob Holding, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Akpom were the Arsenal scorers against the team popularly known as Chivas.

Attendance: 24,000. This may have been the 1st time that a Mexican team has played in California and had their fans outnumbered. Three days earlier, Chelsea beat Liverpool nearby at the Rose Bowl in front of 53,117. Arsenal would have done at least that well.

Arsenal had intended to play in the Florida Cup in Orlando in the Summer of 2021: On July 25 against Internazionale Milano of Italy, and on July 28 against either Everton of Liverpool or Millonarios of Bogotá, Colombia. But they backed out, due to a COVID outbreak among team personnel (not just players).

So, in the Summer of 2022, Arsenal are making it up to their North American fans: They are playing not one, not two, but three matches on U.S. soil. On July 16, they will play Everton at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. On July 20, they will play Orlando City at Exploria Stadium in Orlando. And on July 23, they will play West London team Chelsea F.C. at the much larger Orlando stadium, Camping World Stadium, formerly known as the Tangerine Bowl and the Citrus Bowl.

*

May 31, 1972 was a Wednesday. Football, basketball and hockey were out of season. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Mel Stottlemyre got the win, with Sparky Lyle getting the last 8 outs for the save. Roy White hit a home run.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at Jarry Park in Montreal. Willie Stargell went 1-for-3 with a solo home run, but Roberto Clemente went 0-for-4.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Al Kaline only appeared as a pinch-hitter, unsuccessfully. Norm Cash and Mickey Stanley hit home runs. Ed Brinkman won it with a sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th inning.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 1-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Lou Brock went 1-for-5 with an RBI. Bob Gibson outpitched fellow Hall-of-Famer Fergie Jenkins.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew and Rod Carew each went 1-for-4.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Diego Padres, 5-4 at Atlanta Stadium. (It was renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1975.) Hank Aaron hit the 648th home run of his career, tying Willie Mays for 2nd on the all-time list. On June 10, he hit his 649th, and set his sights on Babe Ruth's career record of 714.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers, 5-1 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Catfish Hunter went the distance, and Reggie Jackson hit a home run.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 12-4 at the Astrodome in Houston. George Foster and Johnny Bench hit home runs, Joe Morgan went 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs, and Pete Rose went 2-for-4.

* The California Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-3 at Anaheim Stadium. (It was renamed Edison International Field in 1997, and Angel Stadium of Anaheim in 2004.)

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 5-4 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Manny Mota tripled home the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies were rained out at Shea Stadium. It was made up was part of a doubleheader on August 1. The Mets won the opener, 3-2, on an RBI single by Cleon Jones in the bottom of the 18th inning. That's right: They went 18 innings, and still had to play a nightcap. Jon Matlack went 8 2/3rds innings, Tug McGraw 6 1/3rd, and Ray Sadecki 3 for the win. Willie Mays only appeared as a pinch-hitter, unsuccessfully.

The Phillies won the nightcap, 4-1. They were a lousy team all season long, but Steve Carlton was pitching this game. He won 27 games that season. When Carlton started, he told his teammates, "It's Win Day." Mays went 1-for-4.

May 31, 1970: The Death of Terry Sawchuk

May 31, 1970: Terry Sawchuk, perhaps the greatest goaltender hockey had ever seen, dies from a pulmonary embolism at Long Beach Memorial Hospital in Long Beach, Long Island, New York. Still an active player with the New York Rangers, he was now 40 years old and backing up Eddie Giacomin, but had made no indication that he was about to retire.

He and Ron Stewart, his teammate and roommate, got into a fight over expenses for the house they were renting in Long Beach. He was hospitalized, and doctors found that his gallbladder had to be removed. They also discovered serious liver damage, from years of heavy drinking, bad enough that he might not have lived much longer anyway. He lived long enough to tell the police that he accepted full responsibility for what happened. A grand jury was convened, and Stewart was exonerated.

Sawchuk's 447 career wins and 103 shutouts remained NHL records long after his death. Both are now held by Martin Brodeur. He won the Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 1952, 1954 and 1955, and with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1967. He won the 1951 Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year and 4 Vezina Trophies as the NHL's top goaltender, and appeared in 11 All-Star Games.

Within a year of his death, he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and given the Lester Patrick Award for contributions to hockey in America. The Wings retired his Number 1. He was elected to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, and when the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum named its All-Century Team, the Winnipeg native was chosen as Player of the Century.

In 1998, The Hockey News ranked him 9th on their list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players, 1st among goalies. In 2017, he was part of the pioneer class chosen for the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players. In 2019, Mark O'Brien played him in the movie Goalie.

*

May 31, 1970 was a Sunday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Minnesota Twins, 7-6 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew hit a home run off Lindy McDaniel to win it in the bottom of the 10th inning. It was his 2nd homer of the game. Rod Carew went 2-for-5 with an RBI. Roy White and Pete Ward hit home runs for the Yankees.

* The New York Mets swept a doubleheader with the Houston Astros, 14-4 and 4-3 at Shea Stadium. The nightcap went 14 innings, before Duffy Dyer singled Ken Boswell home with the winning run. Over the 2 games, Ron Swoboda went 4-for-11 with 2 home runs, a walk and 5 RBIs.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Boston Red Sox, 22-13 at Fenway Park in Boston. Yes, that's a baseball game, not a football game. Amazingly, only 1 White Sox player hit a home run, Bill Melton. Luis Aparicio and Walt "No Neck" Williams each had 5 hits. Carl Yastrzemski and Mike Andrews hit home runs for the Red Sox.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Washington Senators, 6-5 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-1 at Atlanta Stadium (later renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Rico Carty went 4-for-4 with 3 home runs, a walk and 6 RBIs. Hank Aaron did not play.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Bob Moose outpitched Juan Marichal. Roberto Clemente did not play. Willie Stargell went 2-for-4. Willie Mays did not play.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Montreal Expos, 6-4 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 1-for-4. Johnny Bench went 0-for-4.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Diego Padres, 7-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Fergie Jenkins went the distance for the win. Ernie Banks did not play.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-6 at Milwaukee County Stadium. The Brewers scored 3 runs in the 8th and 2 in the 9th to win it, on a double by Ted Savage. Al Kaline did not play for the Tigers.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-6 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Billy Grabarkewitz hit a 2-run home run in the top of the 11th to win it. Lou Brock went 3-for-6.

* The California Angels beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Clyde Wright outpitched Dave McNally. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-4. Frank Robinson went 1-for-5. 

* And the Cleveland Indians beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Ted Uhlaender singled Graig Nettles home, off Nettles' future Yankee teammate Jim "Catfish" Hunter, in the top of the 9th inning to win it. Another future Yankee, Reggie Jackson, hit a home run.

May 31, 1964: The Mets' Longest Day

May 31, 1964: For the New York Mets, to borrow the title of a 1962 movie about the D-Day invasion, this was The Longest Day. For one of their players, to borrow the title of a 1945 movie about alcoholism, it was The Lost Weekend.

The day before, the Mets' top farm team, the Buffalo Bisons of the Class AAA International League, had played a doubleheader. This team had several players from the original Met team of 2 years earlier, which had gone 40-120, suggesting that these players weren't even ready for the major leagues at this point, and might never be: Craig Anderson, Larry Burright, Elio Chacon, Cliff Cook, Sammy Drake, and the man who became the unwilling symbol of Met ineptitude, Marv Throneberry.

But the '64 Bisons also had 3 players who turned out to be not only good enough to make the major leagues, but good enough to help the Mets find glory in 1969: Cleon Jones, Ron Swoboda, and one player who fell into both categories, '62 and '69: Ed Kranepool.

Kranepool had graduated from James Monroe High School in The Bronx, as had Hall-of-Famer Hank Greenberg. He debuted with the Mets while still only 17 years old. It was soon clear that he wasn't ready. He was sent down to Class A. Then he was sent down to Class D, equivalent to today's "Rookie Leagues." A banner appeared at the Polo Grounds, reading, "Is Kranepool over the hill?"

He then bounced up and down between Buffalo and the Polo Grounds over the next 2 years, before the Mets moved to the new Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, in Queens. After the 2nd game of his May 30 doubleheader in Buffalo, he got the call again, and flew to New York, to play in the Mets' Sunday doubleheader with the San Francisco Giants. Attendance was 57,037 -- not because it was Memorial Day weekend and the weather was nice, but because the Giants still had former New York baseball hero Willie Mays.

For the opener, manager Casey Stengel put Kranepool at 1st base, and batted him 6th. Al Jackson, probably the Mets' ace at this point, started against future Hall-of-Famer Juan Marichal. The Mets got a home run from Jim Hickman in the 2nd inning, and the Mets led 3-0 after 3. But Harvey Kuenn and Orlando Cepeda each got 3 hits, and the Giants won, 5-3. Kranepool went 1-for-4.

For the nightcap, a term that didn't seem to fit at the time, since the game started in daylight, the Giants started Bobby Bolin, and the Mets started Bill Wakefield. At first, it looked like a wipeout: The Giants led 6-1 after 3 innings, and held that lead going into the bottom of the 6th. But the Mets scored 2 in that inning, and 3 in the 7th, on a home run by Joe Christopher, to tie it.

What followed was one of the longest scoreless stretches in baseball history. The game went to extra innings. Many, many extra innings. In the top of the 10th, Tom Haller tripled with 2 out, but was stranded. In the bottom of the 10th, Charley Smith led off with a single, but was caught stealing 2nd. Larry Bearnarth walked Jim Davenport and Kuenn in the top of the 11th, but got out of it. Amando Samuel led off the bottom of the 11th with an infield single, but the Mets couldn't get him home.

Cepeda led off the top of the 12th with a double, but the Giants couldn't get him home. With 2 out in the bottom of the 13th, Samuel singled, and so did Roy McMillan, but Samuel was thrown out at 3rd. Jesús Alou led off the top of the 14th with a single, and Mays drew a walk. But Cepeda grounded to short. McMillan tagged Alou, stepped on 2nd to eliminate Mays, and threw Cepeda out at 1st. It was a triple play.

Haller led off the top of the 15th with a single. Chuck Hiller bunted him over to 2nd. Matty Alou grounded out, putting Haller on 3rd. Davenport drew a walk. But Cap Peterson struck out. Hickman led off the bottom of the 15th with a single. Smith bunted him over to 2nd. Chris Cannizzaro drew a walk. But, by this point, the Mets were out of pinch-hitters, and their pitchers had to bat, and Galen Cisco grounded into a double play.

Christopher led off the bottom of the 17th inning with a single, but Kranepool grounded into a double play. With 1 out in the bottom of the 18th, Cannizzaro reached on an error, and Cisco bunted him over to 2nd, but Samuel grounded out. Christopher singled with 2 out in the bottom of the 19th, but in right field, Jesús Alou made a great catch to rob Kranepool and end the inning.

With 1 out in the top of the 20th, Haller singled, but Hiller grounded into a double play. With 1 out in the bottom of the 20th, Smith singled, but Cannizzaro and Cisco struck out. Frank Thomas singled with 2 out in the bottom of the 21st, but Christopher popped up. Cisco's error at the start of the 22nd inning led to the opposing pitcher, Gaylord Perry, reaching 1st base. Cisco got Jesús Alou and Mays out, but hit Cepeda with a pitch to move Perry to 2nd. But he got Haller to fly out.

Cisco got the 1st 2 outs in the top of the 23rd inning. But Jim Davenport hit a triple to right field. Using his last pinch-hitter, Giants manager Alvin Dark sent former Milwaukee Braves catcher Del Crandall up to bat for Perry, and he doubled to right, and Davenport scored. Jesús Alou singled Crandall home. In the bottom of the 23rd, Bob Hendley came in to pitch for the Giants, and struck out Cannizzaro and John Stephenson, and finally ended the proceedings by getting Samuel to fly to right. Giants 8, Mets 6.

The 2nd game was 3 innings short of the longest in Major League Baseball history by innings, but it set a new record for the longest by time: 7 hours and 23 minutes. Combined, the 2 games lasted 9 hours and 52 minutes, and 32 innings. Over the 2 games, Mays went 2-for-13, but had 2 walks and 2 RBIs. Kuenn, Cepeda and Jesús Alou each got 6 hits. Haller didn't play in the 1st game, but got 4 hits in the 2nd. Matty Alou did not bat in the 1st game, and went 0-for-6 in the 2nd. The 3rd Alou brother, Felipe, had been traded to the Milwaukee Braves.

Ed Kranepool went 4-for-14 with an RBI. He had played 50 innings in 2 days. But he was up for good: He made the National League All-Star Team in 1965 (at only 20 years old), and was a member of the Mets' 1969 "Miracle" World Championship team, and their 1973 National League Pennant team.

On April 15, 1968, the Mets lost to the Houston Astros, 1-0 in 24 innings at the Astrodome. Kranepool went 2-for-8 with a walk. On September 11, 1974, the Mets lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3 in 25 innings at Shea Stadium. Kranepool only appeared as a pinch-hitter in that game, and did not reach base.

*

May 31, 1964 was a Sunday. These other games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Kansas City Athletics, 4-2 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. So, between them, the New York teams played 41 innings, and came away with a record of 0-3. Mickey Mantle singled in 2 runs as a pinch-hitter.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Colt .45s, 4-1 at Connie Mack Stadium (formerly Shibe Park) in Philadelphia. The Colts became the Astros the next season.

* The Cleveland Indians swept a doubleheader from the Washington Senators, 9-6 and 8-3 at District of Columbia Stadium (later Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium) in Washington.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-4 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Sandy Koufax was the winning pitcher, but Roberto Clemente hit a home run off him.

* The Chicago White Sox swept the Detroit Tigers, 5-3 and 8-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline went 3-for-8 with an RBI.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Milwaukee Braves, 4-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Billy Williams won the game with a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Ernie Banks went 1-for-4. Hank Aaron went 3-for-4 with an RBI, although those 3 hits did not include a home run.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-5. Hamon Killebrew went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* A doubleheader was split at the 1st Busch Stadium (formerly the last Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. The Cincinnati Reds won the 1st game, 6-0. Bob Purkey pitched a 6-hit shutout. The St. Louis Cardinals won the 2nd game, 2-1. Bob Gibson went the distance for the win. Over the 2 games, Frank Robinson went 2-for-5 with 3 walks and an RBI, and Pete Rose went 0-for-8 with a walk.

* And the Baltimore Orioles beat the Los Angeles Angels, 2-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Angels groundshared with the Dodgers until their stadium in suburban Anaheim could be built. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-3 with an RBI.