July 1, 1898: The Battle of San Juan Hill

July 1, 1898: The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought near Santiago, Cuba, as part of the Spanish-American War.

This battle has become part of the myth of American greatness, military and civilian. The truth is a bit more complicated.

In the 1890s, the people of Cuba rebelled against their colonial overlords from Spain. Many Americans wanted to go to war to free Cuba. Most of those, however, were business lords who wanted to exploit Cuba's natural resources, without Spain keeping them out. They had tried to make deals with Spain, and failed. So they needed to get Spain out of Cuba. All they needed was an excuse.

On February 15, 1898, they got their excuse. The battleship USS Maine was berthed in Havana Harbor, when there was an explosion, killing 261 sailors. An official U.S. Navy investigation ruled that an external mine caused the explosion. Witnesses among the American survivors denied this, and a much more likely cause for the explosion was a coal fire in the boiler.

No matter: Amid cries of "Remember the Maine!", on April 25, America declared war on Spain. President William McKinley had wanted to avoid it, but he no longer could.

This was America's 1st war with a European power since facing Britain in the War of 1812, which ended in 1815, 83 years earlier. Perhaps "power" was too strong a word for Spain, because the war was a mismatch: Spain was a nation of a crumbling bureaucracy, and the war only lasted until August 13, 1898. There were 2 signature battles, 1 on land, 1 on the sea. The naval battle was in Manila Bay, helping America to take the Philippines on May 1. The other was San Juan Hill.

One of the leading advocates for war with Spain was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt. He had written books on military power, so he knew his stuff -- at least, from afar. But his father, Theodore Roosevelt Sr., a wealthy New York importer, had bought a substitute for himself in the American Civil War -- which, under the law of the time, was legal, if not moral -- and the son felt that the man he most admired in the world had damaged the family honor.

So when the Spanish-American War came, Theodore Jr. resigned his post, and enlisted in the U.S. Army. He was commissioned a Lieutenant Colonel, and after Colonel Leonard Wood (later to be one of the leading American Generals of World War I) was reassigned, TR (he didn't mind the use of his initials, but he hated being called "Teddy") was given command of the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry. (Hence, the "U.S.V." pin on his collar.) 

The hat became iconic. Even after he became President,

editorial cartoonists drew him wearing it.

They were nicknamed the Rough Riders, after a term used in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show. Originally a group of men living up to the "rough" part of their name, TR used his contacts to bring in intelligent men of all kinds of expertise: Athletes, lawmen, actual cowboys he had known while running a ranch in South Dakota (men with "horse sense" if not formal education), and so on.

He wasn't the only one: A veteran of Buffalo Bill's show, the trick-shot artist Annie Oakley, wrote to McKinley, saying she could bring 50 female sharpshooters, who would bring their own weapons and ammunition, thus saving the government money on training and supplies. Although women had assumed masculine identities to serve in every American war effort from 1775 onward, this was the 1st time there was an official public effort by women to volunteer as anything other than a nurse, a cook, or, um, a provider of physical comfort. McKinley declined the offer.

When the Battle of San Juan Hill came, Roosevelt's men charged, with Gatling guns behind them, and the Spanish Army, which hadn't fought a major army since the Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars 84 years earlier, didn't have a chance. The Americans lost more men -- 144 to 114 -- but they vastly outnumbered the Spanish, so they only lost 8 percent of their force, as opposed to Spain's 22 percent.

Spain surrendered Cuba a few days later. The Treaty of Paris was signed on October 18, 1898, allowing America to officially take possession of Puerto Rico and Cuba from Spain. This was before Britain was able to spread soccer to Spain and its Western Hemisphere possessions. This is why Puerto Rico and Cuba, and also the Dominican Republic, love baseball, when most of the former Spanish colonies in the New World prefer soccer, and the former British colonies in the New World prefer cricket.

The victory made Roosevelt the most famous man in America, ahead of McKinley, ahead of Buffalo Bill, ahead of any actor, ahead of any athlete. That November, he was elected Governor of New York. In 1900, tired of his reform efforts, his own party, the Republican Party of the State of New York, talked the national Party into nominating him for Vice President, getting him out of their hair. The Vice Presidency was vacant due to the death of Garret Hobart the year before.

On September 6, 1901, President McKinley was assassinated. He died 8 days later, and his campaign manager and right-hand man, Ohio Republican boss Mark Hanna, said, "That damned cowboy is in the White House!" Hanna knew TR would be an activist President, and planned to oppose him for the Republican nomination in 1904. But Hanna died early that year, and TR won a term of his own easily -- becoming the 1st "accidental President" to do so.

He was that popular. Even Democrats who opposed him politically liked him personally. To this day, over 100 years after his death, he remains one of the most popular Presidents in American history, and a symbol of America's can-do optimism and toughness. 

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July 1, 1898 was a Friday. There was a full slate of 6 games in the National League, the only major league at the time:

* The New York Giants beat the Chicago Orphans, 8-4 at West Side Park in Chicago. Huh? "Orphans"? The year before, Adrian Constantine Anson, their 1st baseman since 1876 and their manager since 1879, retired as a player and left as their manager -- and was now managing the Giants. That only lasted one season. Anyway, he had long been known as "Cap," for "Captain." As he got older, people started calling him "Pop."

The team was founded in 1870 as the Chicago White Stockings. In 1890, because they had so many young players, they became the Chicago Colts. But after Anson left, a sportswriter called them the Orphans, because they "missed their Pop." Another youth movement, in 1903, led to them adopting the name everyone knows them by: The Chicago Cubs.

* The Brooklyn Bridegrooms beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-7 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. There was an off-season in which 4 players from the team then known as the Brooklyn Grays got married, so, "Bridegrooms." In 1899, Ned Hanlon became their manager, somebody remembered a circus troupe named Hanlon's Superbas, and they became the Brooklyn Superbas. They became the Dodgers, short for Trolly Dodgers, in 1911, were known as the Robins while Wilbert Robinson managed them from 1914 to 1931, and became the Dodgers again.

* The Cleveland Spiders beat the Boston Beaneaters, 12-6 at League Park in Cleveland. The Spiders lasted just 1 more season. In 1901, the team that would eventually become the Cleveland Indians began play at League Park. A new ballpark with that name was built on the same site in 1910. The Beaneaters became the Braves in 1912.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 14-2 at League Park in Cincinnati. What would eventually be named Crosley Field would be built on the site in 1912.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Louisville Colonels, 2-0 at Eclipse Park in Louisville.

* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Washington Senators, 4-2 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. These Browns would become the Cardinals. A new Browns would be started in the American League in 1902, and play at Sportsman's Park. A new ballpark with that name was built on the site in 1909.

The American League was possible because, after the 1899 season, the Spiders, the Orioles, the Colonels and the Senators would be contracted. However, the AL would take up several former NL names: The Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox, the St. Louis Browns, and the Washington Senators.

July 1, 1893: President Grover Cleveland's Secret Surgery

July 1, 1893: President Grover Cleveland undergoes surgery for oral cancer. It is kept a secret for the rest of his life, but at least he has a "rest of his life."

Cleveland had been elected President in 1884, then lost the Electoral Vote despite winning the popular vote in 1888, and regained the office in 1892. Through the election of 2020, he remains the only former President ever to regain the office. He, Andrew Jackson and Franklin Roosevelt are the only 3 men to win the popular vote for President at least 3 times. And yet, on none of those 3 occasions did Cleveland win a majority.

Just 2 months into his new term, the Panic of 1893 took place, with the stock market crashing. Cleveland took measures to stop the emergency, but the nation slipped into a depression anyway. And while this was going on, he had soreness on the roof of his mouth. Clinical samples were sent anonymously to the Army Medical Museum, and the diagnosis was oral cancer.

Like a previous President, Ulysses S. Grant, he loved cigars, and it caught up with him. Unlike Grant, the tumor was in his palette, not his throat, and was operable. But, concerned that publicizing his illness would cause people to lose confidence in their President, and thus lose whatever remaining confidence they had in the economy, he decided that he had to keep his surgery a secret.

On June 30, he took a train to New York, announced as a fishing vacation. On July 1, on a yacht in the East River, away from prying eyes, he was operated on.

The tumor was removed, but when he woke up, he found that he couldn't speak. A 2nd surgery had to be performed, to provide him with a rubber substitute for the upper jaw area that was removed. After that, he was fine. He was able to return to work quickly, but the economy fell further. By 1896, the depression was still ongoing, and he knew that running for another term would mean sure defeat.

He left office on March 4, 1897, and lived in Princeton, New Jersey until dying on June 24, 1908, of a heart attack, 15 years after the surgery. He had lived to be 71 years old, long enough to see his reputation as President recover somewhat. Not until 1917 was the story of his surgery published, in a first-person account by the surgeon.

*

July 1, 1893 was a Saturday. There was only 1 professional sports league in North America at the time, baseball's National League. These games were played:

* The New York Giants beat the Chicago Colts, 1-0 at West Side Park in Chicago.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, 13-2 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Spiders beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 13-6 at League Park in Cleveland.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Washington Senators, 5-4 at League Park in Cincinnati.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Louisville Colonels, 7-5 at Eclipse Park in Louisville, Kentucky.

* And the Boston Beaneaters beat the St. Louis Browns, 12-5 at an early version of Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

The Spiders, the Senators, the Orioles and the Colonels were all contracted out of the NL after the 1899 season. By 1900 the St. Louis team was the Cardinals. By 1903, the Chicago team was the Cubs. By 1911, the Brooklyn team was the Dodgers. By 1912, the Boston team was the Braves.

July 1, 1876: The Dewey Decimal System

July 1, 1876: The publication Library Journal publishes its 1st issue, in Boston. It is founded and largely written by Melvil Dewey, a 25-year-old librarian originally from Adams Center, New York, on Lake Ontario. In this issue, Dewey explained his new cataloguing system for library books, which has come to be known as the Dewey Decimal System.

Dewey was also a believer in the metric system, as it was also a base-ten system. But that's never caught on in America.

Dewey, identifying himself as "the author," explained his system as follows, with my editing:

The plan of the following Classification and Index was developed early in 1873. It was the result of several months' study of library economy as found in some hundreds of books and pamphlets, and in over fifty personal visits to various American libraries.

In this study, the author became convinced that the usefulness of these libraries might be greatly increased without additional expenditure. Three years practical use of the system here explained, leads him to believe that it will accomplish this result; for with its aid, the catalogues, shelf lists, indexes, and cross-references essential to this increased usefulness, can be made more economically than by any other method which he has been able to find. The system was devised for cataloguing and indexing purposes, but it was found on trial to be equally valuable for numbering and arranging books and pamphlets on the shelves.

The library is first divided into nine special libraries which are called Classes. These Classes are Philosophy, Theology, &c., and are numbered with the nine digits. Thus Class 9 is the Library of History; Class 7, the Library of Fine Art; Class 2, the Library of Theology.

These special libraries or Classes are then considered independently, and each one is separated again into nine special Divisions of the main subject. These Divisions are numbered from 1 to 9 as were the Classes. Thus 59 is the 9th Division (Zoology) of the 5th Class (Natural Science). A final division is then made by separating each of these Divisions into nine Sections which are numbered in the same way, with the nine digits. Thus 513 is the 3d Section (Geometry) of the 1st Division (Mathematics) of the 5th Class (Natural Science).

This number, giving Class, Division, and Section, is called the Classification or Class Number, and is applied to every book or pamphlet belonging to the library. All the Geometries are thus numbered 513, all the Mineralogies 549, and so throughout the library, all the books on any given subject bear the number of that subject in the scheme.

Where a 0 occurs in a class number, it has its normal zero power. Thus, a book numbered 510, is Class 5, Division 1, but no Section. This signifies that the book treats of the Division 51 (Mathematics) in general, and is not limited to any one Section, as is the Geometry, marked 513. If marked 500, it would indicate a treatise on Science in general, limited to no Division. A zero occurring in the first place would in the same way show that the book is limited to no Class.

The classification is mainly made by subjects or content regardless of form; but it is found practically useful to make an additional distinction in these general treatises, according to the form of treatment adopted. Thus, in Science we have a large number of books treating of Science in general, and so having a 0 for the Division number.

These books are then divided into Sections, as are those of the other Classes according to the form they have taken on. We have the Philosophy and History of Science, Scientific Compends, Dictionaries, Essays, Periodicals, Societies, Education, and Travels,--all having the common subject, NATURAL SCIENCE, but treating it in these varied forms. These form distinctions are introduced here because the number of general works is large, and the numerals allow of this division, without extra labor for the numbers from 501 to 509 would otherwise be unused. They apply only to the general treatises, which, without them, would have a class number ending with two zeros.

A Dictionary of Mathematics is 510, not 503, for every book is assigned to the most specific head that will contain it, so that 503 is limited to Dictionaries or Cyclopedias of Science in general. In the same way a General Cyclopedia or Periodical treats of no one class, and so is assigned to the Class 0. These books treating of no special class, but general in their character, are divided into Cyclopedias, Periodicals, etc. No difficulty is found in following the arithmetical law and omitting the initial zero, so these numbers are printed 31, 32, etc., instead of 031, 032, etc.

In other words:

* 000: Computer Science, Information and General Works

* 100: Philosophy and Psychology

* 200: Religion

* 300: Social Sciences

* 400: Language

* 500: Pure Science, not covered under any of these other categories

* 600: Technology

* 700: Arts and Recreation

* 800: Literature

* 900: History and Geography

Most entries on this blog would fall under 700, with Music coming in at the 780s, Movies and Television at 792, and Sports at 796; or 900, under History, with 920 being Biography, the 930s for the History of the Ancient World (not coverable here), the 940s for the History of Europe, the 950s for Asia, the 960s for Africa, the 970s for North America, the 980s for South America, and the 990s for "Other Areas," like Oceania (Australia, New Zealand and Pacific islands) or the polar regions.

A book with a Dewey number of 000 would be for computer science. A book with a Dewey number of 999 would be for "extraterrestrial worlds." If the sports entries in this blog were published in book form (unlikely to happen in my lifetime), the sticker on the spine would read 796 PAC, for sports and the 1st 3 letters of my surname. If I included only those entries relating to baseball, it would be 796.357 PAC.

In 1897, when the present Library of Congress building opened, it instituted its own system, the Library of Congress Classification. While some libraries have adopted it, the Dewey Decimal System remains considerably more popular. 

From 1883 to 1888, Melvil Dewey was the chief librarian at the Columbia College Libraries; then, through 1906, the director of the New York State Library. In 1895, at Lake Placid, New York, he and his wife Annie founded the Lake Placid Club, which, by 1924, helped to establish the Winter Olympics, which have been hosted in Lake Placid in 1932 and 1980. In 1926, he moved to Florida, and established a town named Lake Placid there. He died there in 1931.

In the years since his death, unsettling revelations about him have reached the public, including racism, anti-Semitism, and sexual harassment of women. His System has been of great help to anyone using a library, either employee or visitor; but he must be forever consigned to the realm of, "Yes, but... "

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July 1, 1876 was a Saturday. The only professional sports league in North America at the time was baseball's National League, and 2 games were played in it on this day. The Boston Red Stockings beat the Louisville Grays, 10-2 at the Louisville Baseball Park in Kentucky. And the Chicago White Stockings beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 18-10 at the State Street Grounds in Chicago.

This version of the Philadelphia Athletics dropped out of the NL after the season, while the Grays folded after the 1877 season. The Boston team eventually became the Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves; while the Chicago team became the Cubs, and both teams would see their original names adopted by teams that began play in the American League in 1901: The Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox.

June 30, 2002: Redemption for Ronaldo

The man was redeemed. His hairstylist was not.

June 30, 2002: The World Cup Final is held at the International Stadium in Yokohama, Japan, about 50 miles south of the national capital of Tokyo. As with the rest of the tournament, with help from ESPN for some games, ABC broadcasts the Final in the U.S.

Brazil, having lost the last Final in 1998, were going for redemption, and a record 5th title. Germany were going for a 4th – or a 1st, if you only count since the country was reunified. There was little doubt that these were the 2 best teams in the world.

But there was some doubt as to how they got to the Final.

For the 1st time, the World Cup's hosting duties were split between 2 countries: Japan and neighboring South Korea. Korea would host Groups A, with Denmark, France, Senegal and Uruguay; B, with Paraguay, Slovenia, South Africa and Spain; C, with Brazil, China, Costa Rica and Turkey; and D, with Poland, Portugal, co-hosts South Korea, and the United States. Japan would host Groups E, with Cameroon, Germany, Ireland and Saudi Arabia; F, with Argentina, England, Nigeria and Sweden; G, with Croatia, Ecuador, Italy and Mexico; and H, with Belgium, co-hosts Japan, Russia and Tunisia. (In each case, the countries are listed alphabetically.)

Denmark won Group A, mainly because Zinedine Zidane, who had led France to victory in the previous tournament, had been injured in qualifying, and could only play in the last Group Stage game, leaving the defending Champions with just a draw with Uruguay and losses to Denmark and to their own former African colony, Senegal.

Brazil easily won Group C, beating Turkey in Ulsan, China in Seogwipo, and Costa Rica in Suwon. Germany won Group E, walloping Saudi Arabia 8-0 in Sapporo, being held to a draw by Ireland in Ibaraki, and beating Cameroon in Shizuoka. Ireland finished 2nd to Germany, despite team Captain Roy Keane, a Manchester United star, leaving their camp before the 1st game, following a dispute with team manager Mick McCarthy. Teammate Niall Quinn, a star for Sunderland, said, "He punished himself more than any of us by not coming back."

Despite neither country having the color in their national flags, both Italy and Japan wear blue shirts in soccer/football. Blue is the color of the House of Savoy, the royal house of Italy at the time of Unification in 1871, and they've kept it despite abolishing the monarchy in 1946. Japan wear blue because of superstition: Their 1st tournament was the 1930 Far Eastern Championship, they wore blue, and won it, and have worn it when receiving first choice of uniform ever since.

In Group F, England drew with Sweden in Saitama; then resumed their rivalry with Argentina by beating them 1-0 in Sapporo, thanks to a rightly-awarded penalty in the 44th minute, taken by David Beckham of Manchester United; and then, having guaranteed advancement, played a meaningless finale against former colony Nigeria in Osaka, and played to a turgid 0-0 draw. (The word "turgid" seems like it was designed to describe a dull 0-0 soccer game.)

Group D provided problems for me. Most fans usually want the host nation to do well, as long as they don't beat the fan's own national side. And most fans usually want their ancestral homeland to do well, as long as they don't beat the country where the fan was born, or at least raised.

But the U.S. had to play both co-host South Korea and my ancestors' home of Poland, as well as Portugal. Had I known then that Portuguese fans from Newark would feed my fandom at the next World Cup, it would have been even more problematic for me. I would have wanted all 4 nations to do well, and that's just not possible. And, after an awful performance in France in 1998, the U.S. needed all the points it could get.

South Korea beat Poland, 2-0 in Busan. The U.S. beat Portugal, 3-2 at Suwon, going 3-0 up in the 36th minute, and almost blowing it. The U.S. drew with South Korea, 1-1 at Daegu, blowing a 1-0 lead in the 78th, but guaranteeing them no worse than 2nd place, and thus advancement. Portugal wiped Poland out, 4-0 at Jeonju, preventing them from advancing. South Korea beat Portugal, 1-0 at Incheon, clinching the Group lead. And, in a meaningless finale, Poland beat the U.S., 3-1 at Daejeon.

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The Round of 16 saw the U.S. beat arch-rival Mexico, 2-0 an Jeonju, in the famous "Dos a Cero" game; England beat Denmark, 3-0 at Niigata; Ireland fell to Spain, 3-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in Suwon; Germany beat Paraguay, 1-0 at Seogwipo; Senegal beat Sweden, 2-1 at Ōita, on a "golden goal" in the 104th minute by Henri Camara; Brazil beat Belgium, 2-0 at Kobe; and Turkey eliminated co-hosts Japan, 1-0 at Rifu.

But the other host nation, South Korea, beat Italy, 2-1 in extra time, to clinch advancement to the Quarterfinals and knock the Azzurri out. The Koreans trailed 1-0 for most of the game, but in the 88th minute, Seol Ki-Hyeon scored. In the 117th minute, Ahn Jung-Hwan scored. It is the greatest victory in the history of South Korean soccer. (Although the North will argue that the greatest victory in the history of Korean soccer is their 1966 win that knocked out… Italy.)

The Italians have argued ever since that the officials were trying to fix the game for the home team. I guess they'd seen too many games fixed in favor of Juventus to think that they could be beaten honestly.

The Quarterfinals saw the U.S. knocked out by Germany, 1-0 at Ulsan, on a 39th minute goal by Bayer Leverkusen (and later Bayern Munich and Chelsea) star Michael Ballack, ending the best American performance at a World Cup since the 1st one in 1930; Turkey beat Senegal, 1-0 in extra time in Osaka, on a golden goal in the 94th minute by İlhan Mansız; and South Korea further feeding Italians' conspiracy theories by playing Spain to a 0-0 drawin Guangju, and then beating them 5-3 on penalties.

At Fukuroi, England took a 1-0 lead over Brazil by a 23rd minute goal by Michael Owen of Liverpool. But Rivaldo scored on the stroke of halftime. And Ronaldinho scored a spectacular lob shot in the 50th minute, beating England and Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman. A joke developed: A man called his penis "Ronaldinho, because it can lob Seaman from 40 yards."

The Semifinals both ended 1-0: Germany curtailed the conspiracy theories, beating South Korea at Seoul, with Ballack scoring in the 75th minute; and Brazil beat Turkey, 1-0 at Saitama, when Ronaldo scored in the 49th. For both South Korea and Turkey, this remains their best performance.

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The Final was held in Yokohama, before a crowd of 69,029. It was 70 degrees, with 88 percent humidity, but there was no rain. Each team wore its usual first-choice kit: Brazil were in yellow shirts with blue shorts, Germany in white with black shorts. The referee was Pierluigi Collina, perhaps the best in the world, named world referee of the year 6 times, the one ref in Italy considered un-bribe-able.

This was the 1st time the tournament was ever held in Asia, after 8 times being held in Europe, 4 in South America, and 3 in North America.

Because of the Far East location of the tournament, starting times for the games were difficult for much of the world. For the Final, kickoff was at 8:00 PM Japan time, 12:00 Noon in Germany and most of Europe, 11:00 AM in Britain, 7:00 AM in Brazil, and 6:00 AM U.S. Eastern. "Breakfast at the World Cup."

(UPDATE: Through 2026, it's been 10 in Europe, 5 in South America, 3 in North America, 2 in Asia, 1 in Africa, and, unlike the World Cups of Cricket and Rugby, never yet in Oceania. By Hemisphere: 13 in the Eastern, 8 in the Western; 15 in the Northern, 6 in the Southern.)

From 1950 onward, every World Cup Final except 1978 had included either Brazil or Germany, but they had never previously played each other in any round of a World Cup. Oddly, the streak would end in the next World Cup, in 2006, hosted by Germany.

It was the ultimate clash of styles: The dour, defense-minded Die Mannschaft, with Captain and Bayern goalkeeper Oliver "King" Kahn," Liverpool midfielder Dietmar Hamman, and Kaiserslautern (later Bayern) forward Miroslav Klose; against the attacking Selecão, with Palmeiras goalie Marcos, Captain and AS Roma (and later AC Milan) right back Cafu, São Paulo FC (and later FC Barcelona) centerback Edmílson, Real Madrid left back Roberto Carlos, Arsenal "Double"-winning midfielder Gilberto Silva, Barcelona midfielder Rivaldo, Paris Saint-Germain forward Ronaldo de Assis Moreira (who had to be known as Ronaldinho, because they already had a "Ronaldo"), and, of course, Ronaldo.

Ballack was suspended for the Final, due to yellow card accumulation. Ronaldinho had been suspended for the Semifinal for the same reason, but was eligible to return for the Final. The big question was whether Ronaldo would come through, the way he hadn't in the 1998 Final, for reasons on which people still speculate.

Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, then 25, and a native of Itaguaí, outside Rio de Janeiro but no suburb, was then the biggest star in the game. He had starred for Cruzeiro in Belo Horizonte, Brazil; PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands; Barcelona in Spain; and Internazionale Milano.

Italy's Serie A, with its tradition of defense-first thinking, symbolized by the catenaccio of both Milan teams of the 1960s, was considered the most difficult European league in which to score, but Ronaldo had utterly conquered it. It was there that he received the nickname that would stick with him: Il Fenomeno (The Phenomenon, or, in his native Portuguese, O Fenômeno). AC Milan and Italy defender Paolo Maldini ranked him with Argentina's Diego Maradona as the 2 best attackers he had ever faced. Ronaldo had become beloved.

But while he'd gotten a winner's medal for the 1994 World Cup in the U.S., he hadn't played; and while he'd starred in 1998, his role in the Final was partly blamed for Brazil's defeat to host France.

He was injured early in the 1999-2000 season, and made it worse in his 1st game back toward the end of the season. Inter physiotherapist Nilton Petrone said, "His knee-cap actually exploded," and called it "the worst football injury I've ever seen." Ronaldo sat out the entire 2000-01 season. It was thought that the career of a genius of the sport might be prematurely over.

After 2 surgeries, he had still missed Brazil's entire World Cup qualifying campaign, which was beset with problems. He was selected for the final team, anyway. Tim Vickery, who covered South American soccer for BBC Sport, said, "Without Ronaldo, Brazil were a shambles, fortunate even to get to the tournament. With him, it was a different story." So every football fan and football journalist on the planet was focused on him.

He had a one-on-one with Kahn in the 18th minute, but missed. Kahn saved a shot from him at the half-hour. Ronaldo missed another shot in 1st half stoppage time. By the 67th minute, Kahn had gotten through 6 and 3/4 games allowing just 1 goal.

But in that 67th minute, Ronaldo won the ball from Hamann in the German half of the pitch. He passed to Rivaldo, who struck a low shot towards goal. Kahn attempted to catch the shot, but he was unable to take it cleanly, and it rebounded into play. Ronaldo, who had followed Rivaldo's shot, put the rebound in the net, ending Khan's clean sheet streak at 427 minutes.

Ronaldo scored again in the 79th, his 8th goal of the tournament, winning him the Golden Boot as its leading scorer. Oliver Bierhoff of AS Monaco and Christian Ziege of Tottenham Hotspur had come on as substitutes for Germany. Bierhoff had a shot in the 83rd minute, and Ziege one in the 93rd, but Marcos saved both, and Brazil were 2-0 winners.

For both Brazil as a team and Ronaldo in particular, the game was a sweet redemption. For Germany, it turned out to be their best performance in a World Cup between 1990 and 2014, but not good enough.

Real Madrid soon signed Ronaldo to join his Brazil teammate Roberto Carlos, and such stars as Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Iker Casillas, Raúl, Guti, Fernando Hierro, Fernando Morientes, Míchel Salgado and Claude Makélélé, and later English stars David Beckham and Steve McManaman, as part of their "Galácticos."

After 5 years with them, which included a disappointing performance by the entire Brazil team at the 2006 World Cup, he played the 2007-08 season with AC Milan. He had played for both Milan teams, and both "Spanish giants," Barcelona and Real Madrid. Somehow, despite having switched sides in 2 of the biggest rivalries in sports on planet Earth, he remains beloved by fans of all 4 teams. He returned to Brazil in 2009, spending 2 seasons with São Paulo team Corinthians, before admitting that his increasing weight had slowed him down too much, and retiring in 2011.

With the arrival of Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo, the Brazilian, whose hair has ranged from weirdly styled to completely shaved and several styles in between, became known as "Bald Ronaldo," "Fat Ronaldo," or simply, due to his usual uniform number, "R9," along with "O Fenômeno." He is a reminder to people calling Cristiano "The GOAT," meaning "The Greatest Of All Time," that he is not even the greatest Ronaldo to have played for Real Madrid in the 21st Century.

The 2002 World Cup would be the only one won by Ronaldo or Ronaldinho. Ronaldo won 5 league titles and 3 national cups, but never a continental title. Ronaldinho, never his club teammate (he arrived as AC Milan as Ronaldo left), won 6 league titles, a national cup, and the continental titles of both Europe (the Champions League with Barcelona in 2006) and South America (the Copa Lbertadores with Atlético Mineiro in 2013).

Brazil and Germany would face each other in the 2014 World Cup Semifinal, in Brazil. In one of the most shocking games in the sport's history, Germany won, 7-1. As basketball coach Rick Pitino would have said, Ronaldo wasn't walking through that door. Ronaldinho wasn't walking through that door. Pelé wasn't walking through that door. And if they had, it would have been as slow old men. (Ronaldinho was still playing, but he was 34 and far from his best.)

UPDATE: An article for ESPN.com, published after the 2026 World Cup, ranking all 23 tournaments, rated this one 13th.

*

June 30, 2002 was a Sunday. These Major League Baseball games were played, most of them Interleague:

* The New York Yankees beat the New York Mets, 8-0 at Yankee Stadium. I cared more about this game that I did about the World Cup Final. John Vander Wal and Alfonso Soriano hit home runs, while Derek Jeter went 2-for-4 with a walk. For the Mets, Mo Vaughn and Roberto Alomar, 2 of the franchise's many regrettable too-late acquisitions, both singled, and Vaughn added a double, but those would be the only 3 hits in an Andy Pettitte shutout, while Steve Trachsel didn't get out of the 4th inning.

* The Atlanta Braves, a former Boston team, beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Boston's bullpen and defense completely collapsed in the top of the 10th inning, with 5 hits, an error and a passed ball.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Baltimore Orioles, 8-5 at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

* The Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat Florida's original team, the Florida Marlins, 6-5 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. The game went to extra innings, and each team scored a run in the 11th. Brent Abernathy singled Steve Cox home with the winning run in the bottom of the 12th.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat Canada's original team, the Montreal Expos, 7-5 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-2 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-2 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Chicago White Sox, 9-2 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* In what had been an American League matchup from 1970 to 1997, the Minnesota Twins beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-3 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* In the one intraleague game, the Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 12-8 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Ken Griffey Jr. was injured, and did not play. Albert Pujols went 1-for-4 with 2 RBIs. Former Yankee Tino Martinez hit a home run for the Cards.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the San Diego Padres, 13-1 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Anaheim Angels beat their neighbors, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-1 at Edison International Field of Anaheim (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* The Oakland Athletics beat their cross-Bay rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 7-0 at the Network Associates Coliseum (as the Oakland Coliseum was then known). Tim Hudson pitched a 5-hit shutout. The A's hit no home runs, but Scott Hatteberg went 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs. Barry Bonds went 0-for-2 with 2 intentional walks.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Seattle Mariners, 4-3 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. Larry Walker went 4-for-5. Ichiro Suzuki went 1-for-3 with 2 walks and a stolen base.

* And the Texas Rangers and their cross-State rivals, the Houston Astros, were rained out at The Ballpark in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Labor Day, September 2, was an off-day for both teams, so that's when the game was made up. The Rangers won, 7-2.

June 30, 1988: A Stopped Clock Saves the Chicago White Sox

Governor Jim Thompson

June 30, 1988: This is the deadline for the Illinois legislature to approve a deal for a new stadium for the Chicago White Sox.

Team owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn, a.k.a. "The Reinhorn Twins," have said that, if it's not approved, they will move the White Sox to the Tampa Bay region for the 1989 season, as the Florida White Sox, even though the domed stadium that will become Tropicana Field won’t open until 1990. They'd rather spent the 1989 season at 7,500-seat Al Lang Stadium (built in 1947 and seriously renovated in 1976) than at their current home, Comiskey Park (built in 1910 and in bad shape).

The deadline is 12:00 Midnight, Central Daylight Time. Governor James R. Thompson, a White Sox fan, knows that the bill won't get enough support in time, and 88 years of White Sox baseball will come to an end.

So he orders the clocks to be shut off in the State Capitol in Springfield, so, like gamblers in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, no one will know what time it is. (Unless they look at their watches.) It works: The bill gets the last supporter it needs, and the vote is taken, and declared passed, and signed into law by Thompson… at 12:03 AM. For once, political chicanery had helped the people.

The White Sox played the 1989 and 1990 seasons at old Comiskey. When the new Comiskey Park, now named Rate Field, opened on April 18, 1991, across 35th Street from its predecessor, Jim Thompson, by now out of the Governor's office, was invited to throw out the ceremonial first ball. In 2005, the White Sox won the World Series, something no Chicago team had done since 1917.

A bust of Thompson now stands outside the ballpark he made possible. It mentions that he is the longest-serving Governor in Illinois history, and says, "He kept the White Sox in Chicago."

As for Tampa Bay, after some cruel near-misses like this one, the San Francisco Giants in 1992, and the Seattle Mariners in 1995, they finally got the Rays in 1998, and have won Pennants in 2008 and 2020 -- but, through the 2021 season, not a World Series.

*

June 30, 1988 was a Thursday. There were 4 Major League Baseball games were played that day, and 1 was a home game for the team in question:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Tommy John, 45 years old, outpitched future Yankee Dave LaPoint, for the 283rd win of his career. There would be 5 more.

Jack Clark hit a home run. Dave Winfield went 1-for-5. Don Mattingly went 1-for-4 with a walk. Gary Redus and Steve "Psycho" Lyons each had 3 hits for the South Siders.

* The New York Mets beat the Houston Astros, 12-6 at Shea Stadium. Bob Ojeda was the winning pitcher, and also went 1-for-3 with 2 RBIs. Darryl Strawberry went 3-for-4 with a home run, a walk and 2 RBIs. Kevin McReynolds went 2-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Howard Johnson went 3-for-4 with 4 RBIs. Dave Magadan went 3-for-4 with a walk.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Brian Holman pitched a 5-hit shutout, outpitching Tom Glavine, still only 22 years old and not yet a great pitcher. 

* And the Cincinnati Reds beat the San Diego Padres, 4-3 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you. Mark Davis got the 1st 2 outs in the bottom of the 10th inning, but he gave up a single to Barry Larkin, and then walked Kal Daniels, Chris Sabo and Tracy Jones, throwing just 2 strikes to those 4 batters.

June 30, 1970: Riverfront Stadium Opens In Cincinnati

June 30, 1970: Riverfront Stadium opens in downtown Cincinnati. It is the 1st outdoor Major League Baseball stadium with artificial turf. Within days, it will host the All-Star Game. At the end of the season, it will host the 1st World Series game on artificial turf.

It was built on the site of a tenement building, where eventual "Singing Cowboy" Roy Rogers was born. He said, "I was born somewhere between second base and center field."

The Cincinnati Reds move in, after 58 years at Crosley Field, and 86 years at that site. In their last game there, on June 24, Johnny Bench and Lee May hit back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the 8th inning, to help the Reds come from behind, and beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-4. A helicopter lands on the field after the game. The grounds crew pries up home plate, and ties it to a cable hanging from the helicopter. The copter then flies the plate from Crosley in the West End to Riverfront Stadium downtown.

An industrial park now stands on the site. A community activist bought up as many pieces of the old park as he could find, and built a replica in Blue Ash, Ohio, 16 miles northeast of downtown Cincinnati.

The Riverfront opener does not go as well for the "Big Red Machine," as they lose to the Atlanta Braves, 8-2. Hank Aaron went 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs, including the 1st home run in the new stadium, the 567th of his career. Rico Carty goes 2-for-4 with a home run and 4 RBIs. Orlando Cepeda has no RBIs, but goes 3-for-5.

For the Reds, Pete Rose goes 3-for-4 with an RBI. Bench goes 0-for-4. Pat Jarvis is the winning pitcher, while Jim McGlothlin is the losing pitcher.

Pregame ceremony before the 1st game

The defeat is an aberration: The Reds already led the National League Western Division by 9 1/2 games, and went on to win it by 14 1/2. They beat the Pittsburgh Pirates for the Pennant, before losing the World Series to the Baltimore Orioles. This begins a run of 10 season in which they won 6 Division titles, 4 Pennants, and the 1975 and 1976 World Series.

They won another World Series in 1990, giving the stadium 5 World Series. It also hosted the All-Star Game in 1988. The NFL's Cincinnati Bengals played their 1st game there on September 20, beating the Oakland Raiders, 30-21. They hosted 6 Playoff games at Riverfront, including the AFC Championship Games for the 1981 and 1988 seasons.

Three Rivers Stadium opened in Pittsburgh, 16 days later, and 289 miles up the Ohio River. Given the similarities between the 2 -- same basic design, both built to host baseball and football, both had artificial turf, the city beyond couldn't be seen from inside -- Bob Wood, in his book Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks, telling of his 1985 trip to all 26 stadiums then in use in MLB, joked that a fan could be put to sleep in Riverfront, driven to Three Rivers, awakened there, and he wouldn't know he was in a different stadium until he got out onto the streets.

That joke wasn't completely true, but they were a lot alike. And, unlike the next MLB stadium to open, the similarly-designed Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, in April 1971, the NFL teams that occupied the stadiums were in the same Division -- although the MLB teams that did so wouldn't be until the 1994 realignment put the Reds (NL West) and the Pirates (NL East) in the same Division (NL Central). Indeed, they played each other in the NL Championship Series in 1970, '72, '75 and '79, with the Reds winning all but the last.

Notable moments at Riverfront included the 1970 All-Star Game, when hometown hero Pete Rose crashed into catcher Ray Fosse to score the winning run for the National League, with President Richard Nixon in attendance; 1982, when the Bengals won the AFC Championship Game, beating the San Diego Chargers in the coldest game in NFL history, the "Freezer Bowl"; 1985, when Rose broke the all-time hits record, before being disgraced in a gambling scandal in 1989; and, tragically, the death on the field of umpire John McSherry on Opening Day 1996.

The University of Cincinnati played 25 games there, for games that were too big for their on-campus Nippert Stadium, which then seated only 28,000, and was home to the Bengals in their 1st 2 seasons, in the AFL, 1968 and 1969.

The 1st concert at Riverfront was by Jethro Tull on August 4, 1976. Among the other acts to play it were The Eagles in 1978, The Rolling Stones in 1989 and 1994, Paul McCartney in 1993, and 'N Sync with Sisqo and Pink as opening acts in 2000. The Kool Jazz Festival was an annual event.

The Reds' biggest crowd was 56,393, on October 16, 1975, for Game 5 of the World Series, a 6-2 win over the Boston Red Sox. The Bengals' biggest crowd was 60,284, on October 17, 1971, a 27-24 loss to their cross-State rivals, the Cleveland Browns. The Bengals' finale there would also be against the Browns, a 44-28 win before 59,972 on December 12, 1999.

In 1996, the stadium's name was changed to Cinergy Field, after the Cincinnati area's main energy company. After the 1999 season, portions of the left and center field seats were demolished, to make room for the Reds' new home, Great American Ball Park. This reduced the stadium's seating capacity to around 40,000, and, along with the replacement of the artificial turf with real grass, made the place look a bit like Shea Stadium in New York.

The last game that counted was played on September 22, 2002. The Reds lost, 4-3 to the Philadelphia Phillies. Despite a lineup that included Ken Griffey Jr. (630 career home runs), Adam Dunn (462 homers), José Guillén (214 homers) and Barry Larkin (2,340 hits including 198 homers), the last home run in the 33-year-old stadium was hit by Aaron Boone, now the manager of the Yankees (who hit only 126 homers in his career, not counting the postseason, as Yankee Fans know).

The next day, in an event over which the Commissioner's Office had no jurisdiction, the Reds hosted a celebrity softball game in which the banned Pete Rose played. The same home plate that had been moved from Crosley Field in 1970 was moved to Great American Ball Park. So the Reds may still be using the same home plate they've been using since 1912.

A history museum, The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, was built on the site.

*

June 30, 1970 was a Tuesday. Future baseball star Mark Grudzielanek was born.

These other games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Les Cain outpitched Fritz Peterson, and hit a home run in his own cause. Al Kaline went 1-for-4 with 2 home runs. For the Yankees, Ron Woods went 3-for-4 with a solo home run.

* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-6 at Shea Stadium. Jerry Koosman outpitched Bob Veale. Tommie Agee hit a home run for the Mets. For the Pirates, Roberto Clemente went 0-for-4, but Willie Stargell and Al Oliver hit home runs.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-1 at Jarry Park in Montreal.

* The Washington Senators beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Dave McNally outpitched Steve Dunning. Boog Powell went 3-for-4 with 2 home runs and 3 RBIs. Frank Robinson went 1-for-4. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-4.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Jim "Catfish" Hunter outpitched Tommy John. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-4.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the California Angels, 5-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Minnesota Twins, 8-5 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 2-for-4 with a solo home run. Rod Carew did not play.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 5-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium. Bob Gibson went the distance for the win, and hit a home run in his own cause. Lou Brock went 1-for-4. Billy Williams hit a home run for the Cubs, but Ernie Banks did not play.

* The Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants, 3-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Danny Coombs outpitched Gaylord Perry. Willie Mays went 0-for-3 with 2 walks.

June 30, 1960: The No-Longer Belgian Congo Leads the Year of Africa

President Patrice Lumumba stands at center

June 30, 1960: The Republic of the Congo declares its independence from the Kingdom of Belgium. No longer will it be "The Belgian Congo."

It had to be called that, because France also had a colony it called "Congo." That one gained its independence on August 15. It had been nicknamed, for its capital, "Congo-Brazzaville," as opposed to formerly Belgian "Congo-Kinshasa." The name "Congo" originally referred to the river in both of those nations in West Africa, or to the Basin thereof.

These nations gained their independence from France in 1960, unless otherwise mentioned: Cameroon kicked off "The Year of Africa" by declaring independence on January 1, Togo on April 27, Mali on June 20, Madagascar on June 26, and Somalia from Italy on July 1. In addition, on April 27, Ghana left the British Commonwealth, and became a Republic.

And then, in August, 9 more nations gained their independence from France: Dahomey on the 1st, Niger (not to be confused with Nigeria) on the 3rd, Upper Volta on the 5th, the Ivory Coast (they prefer their French name, Côte d'Ivoire) on the 7th, Chad on the 11th, the Central African Republic on the 13th, France's Congo on the 15th, and Gabon on the 17th. And on the 20th, Senegal separated from the Mali Federation, and became independent. Nigeria gained independence from Britain on October 1, and, closing it out, Mauritania from France on November 28.

Dahomey became Benin in 1975, and Upper Volta became Burkina Faso in 1984. The former Belgian Congo/Congo-Kinshasa became Zaire in 1971, and "The Democratic Republic of the Congo" in 1997.

*

June 30, 1960 was a Thursday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Athletics, 10-3 at Yankee Stadium. Ralph Terry, not yet the Yankee World Series hero of 1962, went the distance for the win; while Don Larsen, the Yankee World Series hero of 1956, didn't get out of the 3rd inning for the A's. Bill "Moose" Skowron hit 2 home runs, and the Yankees also got home runs from Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Tony Kubek. Yogi Berra did not play.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-7 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ted Williams hit his 505th career home run. Al Kaline went 1-for-4. Rocky Colavito went 2-for-4 with 2 home runs and 5 RBIs.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-6 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. The Brooklyn "Boys of Summer" were pretty much done: Duke Snider did not play, and Gil Hodges did so only as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 9-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 4-2 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Joe Ginsberg doubled home the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

* A doubleheader was split at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The San Francisco Giants won the opener, 11-0. Jack Sanford pitched a 3-hit shutout. The Pittsburgh Pirates won the nightcap, 11-6. Dick Stuart, already known as a bad fielder but not yet with the nicknames Dr. Strangeglove or Stonefingers, went 4-for-5 with 3 home runs and 7 RBIs.

Over the 2 games, Willie Mays went 6-for-9 with a home run in each game, a walk, and 5 RBIs; Willie McCovey went 3-for-5 with a walk (only appearing as a pinch-hitter in the nightcap, but getting a hit); and Roberto Clemente went 1-for-6 with 2 walks and an RBI.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Milwaukee Braves, 11-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks went 3-for-6 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Hank Aaron went 1-for-2 with 2 walks and an RBI.

* And the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals were not scheduled.

June 30, 1959: Two Balls In Play

Vic Delmore

June 30, 1959: The St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs, arch-rivals, play each other at Wrigley Field in Chicago. A strange thing happens, as they occasionally do when the Cubs are involved.

The Cardinals scored a run in the 1st inning, and another in the 2nd. The Cubs pulled one back in the 3rd, so that it was Cardinals 2, Cubs 1, with 1 out in the top of the 4th, when... this happened:

Stan Musial came to the plate. With a count of 3 balls and 1 strike, Cub pitcher Bob Anderson threw a bad pitch, which got past catcher Sammy Taylor, and rolled to the backstop. Musial had checked his swing. Home plate umpire Vic Delmore called ball 4, and awarded 1st base to Musial. That should have been the end of the play.

Anderson and Taylor argued with Delmore, saying that, in checking his swing, Musial had foul-tipped the ball, meaning it should be strike 2, and the at-bat should continue. Seeing this, and knowing that neither Delmore nor any other umpire had stopped play, Musial -- in his 18th season in the major leagues, so he'd seen it all, or thought he had -- broke for 2nd base, as he was entitled to do, since no umpire had declared a dead ball.

Alvin Dark, former New York Giants shortstop, was the Cubs' 3rd baseman on this day. In his 13th season, he'd seen his share of big situations, and realized that the play was still alive. He ran to the backstop, and got the ball, intending to throw Musial out at 2nd.

Delmore was still dealing with Anderson and Taylor, so he didn't see Dark. As the plate umpire, Delmore had the supply of baseballs, and gave a new one to Taylor -- without calling time out or saying that the previous play was dead.

Only then did Anderson notice Musial trying to reach 2nd base. He threw the ball to 2nd baseman Tony Taylor, and the ball went into the outfield for an error. Musial saw this, and decided to break for 3rd base. At the same time, the original ball was thrown by Dark to shortstop Ernie Banks, who tagged Musial out.

At this point, nobody seemed to know what was going on. After conferring with the other umpires, Delmore realized that he hadn't called the play dead, or called time out. Therefore, the ball with which Musial was tagged was live, and Musial was out. According to the rules, that was the correct call.

The rest of the game was comparatively uneventful. Hal Smith singled, meaning that if everything had gone like it was supposed to, the Cards would have had Musial on 2nd and Smith on 1st with 1 out. Instead, Smith was on 1st with 2 outs, and Anderson struck Dick Gray out to end the inning.

Both managers, Bob Scheffing of the Cubs and Solly Hemus of the Cards, told Delmore they were playing the game under protest. The Cards went on to win, 4-1, and dropped their protest. Larry Jackson went the distance to be the winning pitcher for the Cardinals. Musial went 1-for-2 with 2 walks, and was later removed for defensive purposes. Banks went 1-for-3 with a walk. The Cubs' protest was not upheld. Both teams finished under .500, and the game had no effect on the Pennant race. It was just one game, with one weird occurrence.

But Delmore became an object of ridicule, even though it was Anderson and Taylor distracting him with a phony argument that caused the confusion. The National League did not renew his contract for the 1960 season. On June 10, 1960, less than a year after the incident, Delmore died, apparently of heart disease, but perhaps depression over the event had a physical effect as well. He was only 44 years old.

In his memoir, When In Doubt, Fire the Manager, published in 1980, Dark said, "It was a mess and I really felt sorry for Vic Delmore... I don't remember everything about it but I do remember everyone laughed at Vic Delmore. That play ruined him, and he was a great fellow and a good umpire."

*

June 30, 1959 was a Tuesday. Actor Vincent D'Onofrio was born. And these other baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Duke Maas started, but didn't get through the 5th inning, not qualifying to be the winning pitcher. Art Ditmar was credited as such. Yogi Berra went 1-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Mickey Mantle and Brooks Robinson did not play.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Roberto Clemente did not play.

* The Washington Senators beat Boston Red Sox, 6-1 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Pedro Ramos went the distance for the win. Faye Throneberry, brother of "Marvelous Marv," hit a home run. Harmon Killebrew went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs. Ted Williams went 1-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Cincinnati Redlegs beat the Milwaukee Braves, 8-5 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Frank Robinson went 2-for-4 with an RBI, and the Reds got home runs from Gus Bell, Vada Pinson and Jerry Lynch. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4, while Eddie Mathews and Joe Adcock hit home runs.

* And the Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Athletics, 4-0 at Briggs Stadium (now Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Al Kaline did not play for the Tigers. Roger Maris went 0-for-4 for the A's.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Sam Jones took a no-hitter into the 8th inning, and gave up a single to Jim Gilliam. He kept the 1-hitter, outpitching Don Drysdale. Willie Mays hit a home run, while Duke Snider went 0-for-4.

June 30, 1951: “Strangers On a Train” Premieres

June 30, 1951: Strangers On a Train premieres, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, with a screenplay by noted mystery writer Raymond Chandler and screenwriter Czenzi Ormonde, and based on the previous year's novel by Patricia Highsmith.

Highsmith, a lesbian from Texas whom British novelist Graham Greene called "the poet of apprehension," also wrote The Talented Mr. Ripley and The Price of Salt, which is said to be the 1st novel with both a lesbian theme and a happy ending. (It became the movie Carol in 2015.)

Farley Granger -- no relation to the British actor Stewart Granger, who had to change his name when he came to America, because his real name was James Stewart, and Hollywood already had one of those -- plays Guy Haines, a tennis star. His wife, Miriam (Kasey Rogers, then credited as Laura Elliott), has been cheating on him, to the point where it's obvious that her pregnancy began while Guy was away at a tournament. He wants to divorce her, so he can marry Anne Morton (Ruth Roman), the daughter of a U.S. Senator (Leo G. Carroll).

Robert Walker plays Bruno Antony, a high-living young psychopath, eager to inherit the fortune of his father, who he says hates him, and vice versa. Bruno meets Guy on a train from Washington to New York. They get to talking, and Bruno suggests to Guy that they take care of each other's problem: Bruno would kill Miriam, and Guy would kill the elder Mr. Antony (Jonathan Hale). Each would have an alibi, since each would be in the other's city at the time of the murders; and each would seem to have no motive for the murders they actually committed, and so each would get away with it.

Guy humors Bruno by pretending to find his idea amusing but is so eager to get away from Bruno that he leaves behind his engraved cigarette lighter. As he gets off the train in his hometown of Metcalf, a man carrying a double bass fiddle in a case boards the train. This is Hitchcock's obligatory cameo appearance.

Miriam tells Guy she is no longer interested in a divorce, and threatens to claim that he is the father if he pursues it any further. That evening, Bruno follows Miriam to an amusement park in Metcalf, and strangles her while Guy is on the train back to Washington, D.C., leaving the lighter at the scene, incriminating Guy. When Guy arrives home, Bruno informs him Miriam is dead, and insists that he must now honor his half of their deal.

Guy goes to the Mortons' home, where Anne's father informs Guy that his wife has been murdered. Anne's sister, Barbara (Patricia Hitchcock, the director's only child, 22 years old at the time), says that the police will think that Guy is the murderer since he has a motive. The police question Guy but cannot confirm his alibi: a professor Guy met on the train was so drunk that he cannot remember their encounter. The police assign an escort to watch him.

Bruno follows Guy around Washington, introduces himself to Anne, and appears at a party at Senator Morton's house. To amuse another guest, Bruno playfully demonstrates how to strangle a woman. His gaze falls upon Barbara, whose appearance resembles Miriam's, triggering a flashback. Bruno compulsively squeezes the woman's neck, and other guests intervene to stop him from strangling her to death.

Barbara tells Anne that Bruno was looking at her while strangling the other woman, and Anne realizes Barbara's resemblance to Miriam. Her suspicions aroused, Anne confronts Guy, who tells her the truth about Bruno's scheme.

Bruno sends Guy a package containing a pistol, a house key, and a map showing the location of his father's bedroom. Guy creeps into Bruno's father's room to warn him of his son's murderous intentions but instead finds Bruno there waiting for him. Guy tells Bruno that he will not keep his part of the deal, and tries to persuade Bruno to seek psychiatric help, but Bruno threatens to punish him.

Anne visits Bruno's home, and tries to explain to his mother that her son is a murderer. Bruno overhears, and when his mother leaves, he mentions Guy's missing cigarette lighter to Anne, and claims that Guy asked him to search the murder site for it. Guy infers that Bruno intends to plant it at the scene of the murder and incriminate him. After winning a tennis match at Forest Hills, Guy evades the police escort, helped by Barbara, reaches Penn Station, boards a train back to Metcalf, and heads for the amusement park to stop Bruno.

When Bruno arrives, a carnival worker recognizes him from the night of the murder. He tells the police, who misunderstand, thinking he has recognized Guy. After Guy arrives, he and Bruno fight on the park's carousel. Believing that Guy is trying to escape, a police officer shoots at him but instead kills the carousel operator, causing the carousel to spin out of control.

A carnival worker crawls underneath it and applies the brakes too abruptly, causing the carousel to spin off its support, trapping Bruno underneath and mortally injuring him. The worker who called the police tells them that Bruno, not Guy, is the one he remembers seeing the night of the murder. As Bruno dies, he knows the police are there, and with his last words, he implicates guy. But his fingers unclench to reveal Guy's lighter in his hand. Realizing that Bruno is not the murderer, the police ask Guy to come to the station to tie up loose ends.

Some time later, another stranger on a train attempts to strike up conversation with Guy in the same way as Bruno did. Guy and Anne abruptly hurry away from him.

People familiar with both versions of Strangers On a Train have said that the movie had more of a gay subtext than the book did, an unusual thing for the Hays Code era, which Hitchcock sometimes managed to tease. Granger was bisexual in real life, and had previously appeared in Rope, another Hitchcock film with a gay subtext.

But in the book, the "hero" goes through with his half of the murder bargain. In the film, played by Farley Granger, he is willing to do anything to avoid it, and, as a result, puts himself in further jeopardy.

Robert Walker, cast against type as the film's villain, was, unknown to an adoring public, a raging alcoholic, and died just 2 months later from a combination of booze and a sedative. He was only 32. His son, also named Robert Walker, also became an actor, best known for playing the troublesome teenage title character in the Star Trek episode "Charlie X." Having since seen both, I can now say that not only did the son look like the father, but copied his acting style. He died in 2019.

John Brown (Professor Collins) died in 1957, Jonathan Hale (Mr. Antony) in 1966, Marion Lorne (Mrs. Antony) in 1968, Leo G. Carroll in 1972, Howard St. John (Police Captain Turley) in 1974, Alfred Hitchcock in 1980, Norma Varden (the choked by surviving Mrs. Cunningham) in 1989, Robert Gist (Detective Hennessey) in 1998, Ruth Roman in 1999, Kasey Rogers/Laura Elliott in 2006, Farley Granger in 2011, and Patricia Hitchcock in 2021.

In 1987, Danny DeVito directed his first film, Throw Momma From the Train. It is a tribute to Strangers On a Train, and includes a clip from it: DeVito's character, dominated by his mother as much as Bruno was by his father, takes a writing class taught by a frustrated novelist played by Billy Crystal. Crystal laments that his ex-wife stole his idea for a novel, and says, not fully seriously, that he wants to kill her. DeVito suggests the murder swap, but Crystal rejects it.

The twist is that DeVito thinks he's killed the ex-wife, but really hasn't, and tells Crystal he's now got to kill the mother. At first, he resists, then pretends to go along with it, then finally snaps, and tries it. But this shocks DeVito back into realizing how much he loves his mother, and he stops Crystal, saving her. She kicks Crystal off the train.

As it turns out, both Crystal and his ex-wife survived. She marries the man who rescued her, freeing Crystal of alimony payments. What had happened to Crystal becomes his next book. After a year, DeVito comes to see him, tells him his mother has since died of natural causes, and that he's written a book, too -- but it's a children's pop-up book based on their friendship, so it's not competition, and the movie ends with them still friends.

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June 30, 1951 was a Saturday. Jazz bass guitarist Stanley Clarke was born. And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 3-1 at Yankee Stadium. Chuck Stobbs outpitched Bob Kuzava. Ted Williams went 1-for-5. Joe DiMaggio, in his last season, when 1-for-4. Yogi Berra went 2-for-4 with a solo home run. Mickey Mantle, in his 1st season, appeared as a pinch-hitter, and didn't reach base.

* The New York Giants lost to the Boston Braves, 19-7 at Braves Field in Boston. The Giants led, 7-4 at the 7th inning stretch, but Sal Maglie ran out of gas. The Braves scored 8 runs in the 7th inning and 7 in the 8th. Earl Torgeson went 2-for-5 with 2 home runs and 7 RBIs. Roy Hartsfield, eventually to be the 1st manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, went 4-for-6 with 1 RBI. Rookie Willie Mays went 0-for-4.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 14-8 at Ebbets Field. Johnny Schmitz only lasted 3 innings for the Dodgers, but Carl Erskine went the rest of the way for the win. Duke Snider went 2-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Carl Furillo went 3-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Jackie Robinson went 0-for-2 with a walk.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Early Wynn outpitched Fred Hutchinson. Luke Easter and Al Rosen hit home runs. 

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Stan Musial went 1-for-3 with 2 walks. Ralph Kiner went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Philadelphia Athletics and the Washington Senators were rained out at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 5. The A's swept, 4-1 and 9-7.

* And the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds were rained out at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The game was made up on September 7, and ended up being a doubleheader's worth of play: The Reds won, 7-6 in 18 innings. Each team scored 3 runs in the 15th. In the 18th, Homer "Dixie" Howell hit a sacrifice fly to score Hank Edwards.