Scores On This Historic Day

October 1, 1927:  Michigan Stadium opens in Ann Arbor, 38 miles west of downtown Detroit. The University of Michigan defeats Ohio Wesleyan (not Ohio State), 33-0. At the time, it seated 72,000. By 1956, it would top 100,000. Today, officially, capacity is 107,601. The Michigan Wolverines had previously played at the Washtenaw County Fairgrounds from 1883 to 1892; Regents Field from 1893 to 1906, winning the National Championship in 1901, 1902, 1903 and 1904; and Ferry Field from 1907 to 1926, winning the National Championship in 1918 and 1923. Fielding Yost, Michigan's head coach from 1901 to 1926, and its athletic director from 1921 to 1940, had it set Michigan Stadium up so that the foundations could handle an expansion well beyond 72,000. He imagined as much as 150,000, since Soldier Field in Chicago could supposedly hold that many. A  later Michigan coach, Herbert "Fritz" Crisler, resumed the Wolverines' winning tradition that Yost began. In 1969, athletic directo

October 1, 1921:  The New York Yankees go into this date with 4 games left in the regular season, and were 2 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians in the race for the American League Pennant. The season before, the Yankees had finished in 3rd place, 3 games behind the Indians, with the Chicago White Sox 2 games behind. This season, with 7 White Sox players banned for life for their role in the fixing of the 1919 World Series (actually 8, but 1 had already retired), it's between the Indians, who went on to win the 1920 World Series, and the Yankees. The Yankees had begun play in 1903, with the name "New York Highlanders" until 1912. And had never won a Pennant. In 1904, their 2nd season, they lost the Pennant to the team that would become the Boston Red Sox (and, eventually, their arch-rivals) on the last day of the season. In 1906, they finished 2nd, 3 games behind the White Sox. In 1910, they finished 2nd, but 14 1/2 games behind the Philadelphia Athletics. They didn'

October 1, 1908:  The Ford Motor Company begins producing the Model T, a.k.a. "The Tin Lizzie." By 1913, Henry Ford would use the assembly line to crank out a near-continuous stream of them,  saying, "You can have any color car you want, as long as it's black."  He offered his workers $5.00 a day -- $159 in 2022 money. That works out to about $800 a week -- before taxes. He believed that a man should be able to buy the very thing his labor built. Ford was unusual in that he gave his black workers the same pay rate as his white workers. But he wasn't as enlightened as this would suggest: He was a notorious anti-Semite. He was also a micromanager who tried to run his workers' lives. And when they tried to unionize, he hired a security firm to beat up striking workers. He eventually caved in. He sold over 1 million Model Ts in 19 years, helping to make Detroit the automotive capital of the world. In 1927, he introduced a successor, a nicer car called the Mo

The Huntington Avenue Grounds, during the 1903 World Series October 1, 1903: The 1st World Series game is played, at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds in Boston. Denton True "Cy" Young, the man for whom the award for the best pitcher in each major league would one day be named, started for the home team, the American League Champions, the Boston Americans. Deacon Phillippe started for the visitors, the National League Champions, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Both teams were led by player-managers: Boston by 3rd baseman Jimmy Collins, Pittsburgh by left fielder Fred Clarke. This was the 1st Pennant for the Americans, and the 3rd overall and the 3rd straight for the Pirates. The AL had been founded in 1901, and offered the NL a deal: Accept us as a major league, separate but equal, and we will respect every contract you have, with any player. The NL refused, and the AL raided their rosters. After 2 years, an agreement was reached: The NL would accept the AL as an equal, the AL

October 1, 1902: The Fuller Building opens in Manhattan, at the intersection of 23rd Street, 5th Avenue and Broadway, across from Madison Square. Because of its triangular shape, it becomes known as the Flatiron Building. It was meant as the headquarters of the Fuller Company, a construction firm. They sold the building in 1925. The address is 175 Fifth Avenue. It is 285 feet tall, with 22 stories. Contrary to what some people have believed, it was never the tallest building in the world: At the time, that was City Hall in Philadelphia, 548 feet high. It wasn't even the tallest building in New York City: Three buildings in the City were then taller, topped by 309-foot World Building, named for the New York World newspaper. That building was demolished in 1955. Designed by skyscraper pioneers Daniel Burnham and Frederick P. Dinkelberg,  locals placed bets on how far the debris would spread when the wind knocked the building down.  Newspapers of the time also claimed that "eve

October 1, 1901: The Tale of Peter Rabbit is published. It becomes a classic of children's literature. Helen Beatrix Potter was born on July 28, 1866 in West Brompton, West London, and grew up isolated from other children, though her parents allowed her to have pets. With her family, she spent holidays (or, as Americans would say, "vacations") in Scotland, and in the Lake District of Cumbia, in England near the "border" with Scotland. Her observations of these places made her an expert on local plant life and animals (flora and fauna), and this inspired her writing. She wrote over 60 books, dropping her first name for her pen name, and many of them were scientific in nature. In her time, she may have been the world's leading author on the subject of fungi, including mushrooms. But it was her 23 Peter Rabbit books that gained her the most fame. She had 4 rabbits as a child, and named her main character after the nursery rhyme character Peter Piper, famous

His name was Seth Fleischauer. "Sad Mets Fan" was then 28 years old. He now lives in Los Angeles, runs an education company, and attended the Mets' 2015 Pennant clincher against the Dodgers. September 30, 2007:  One of the darkest days in Mets history. This is the game that got Tom Glavine branded "The Manchurian Brave" by Met fans. Having led the NL East by 7 games with 17 to go, the Mets have collapsed, but they go into the regular-season finale, against the Florida Marlins at Shea Stadium, needing a win or a Philadelphia Phillies loss to clinch their 2nd straight National League Eastern Division title, and a win or a Colorado Rockies loss to at least win the 1 Wild Card available at the time. Glavine starts. He walks Hanley Ramirez. He gets Dan Uggla to ground into a force play at 2nd base. So far, not terrible. But then, the roof caves in. He gives up a single to Jeremy Hermida. He gives up a single to Miguel Cabrera, scoring Ramirez. He gives up a double to

Left to right: Roy Orbison, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello September 30, 1987: A rock concert is held in the Coconut Grove nightclub at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. This was the same room where Robert F. Kennedy gave his last speech before being assassinated. Earlier in the year, Orbison had been among the 2nd class of inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Giving his induction speech was Bruce Springsteen. At that time, he said, "In '75, we got together to make Born to Run . I wanted lyrics like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector. But, most of all, I wanted to sing like Roy Orbison. Now, everybody knows that nobody sings like Roy Orbison." A celebration of him was held at the Ambassador. Having gotten his start at Sun Records, like Elvis Presley, he was backed on this night by members of Elvis' Las Vegas band: Guitarists James Burton and John Wilkinson, bass guitarist Jerry Scheff, drummer Ronnie Tutt, and pianist Glen Hardin. Among those al

September 30, 1973:  The last game is played at Yankee Stadium before its renovation. The Yankees lose 8-5 to the Detroit Tigers. The renovation was necessary, not because the Mets were talking about how much better Shea Stadium was, but because there were actual structural issues. The institution of Bat Day led to kids sitting in the upper deck, banging their bats on the floor, weakening the stadium structure. So Mayor John Lindsay negotiated a deal in which the Department of Parks of the City of New York, which already owned Shea, bought both Yankee Stadium and the land on which it sat -- previously owned by separate entities -- and would renovate it, to reopen in time for the 1976 season. The Yankees would play the 1974 and '75 seasons at Shea. This also forced the football Giants out of Yankee Stadium after 2 games, a 34-14 win over the Houston Oilers on September 16, and a 23-23 tie with the Philadelphia Eagles on September 23. The rest of their home schedule for 1973, and all

September 30, 1971:  The last Washington Senators game is played, against the New York Yankees at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington. Team owner Bob Short, having already moved the NBA's Minneapolis Lakers to Los Angeles in 1960, has announced he's moving the Senators to the Dallas area, to become the Texas Rangers. He complains about the low attendance, despite having the highest ticket prices in the American League, and no subway access to RFK Stadium. (Washington's Metro would not open until 1976.) Frank Howard, the Senators' most popular player in their 2nd go-around of 1961-71, hits the last home run. Dick Bosman starts, and stands to be the winning pitcher, as the Senators lead 7-5 with 1 out left in the 9th. All he has to do is get Bobby Murcer out. Frank Howard But he can't, through no fault of his own. Angry fans from the "crowd" of 14,461 people storm the field. The umpires cannot restore order, and they forfeit the game to the Yank

September 30, 1967:  The Spectrum, a new sports arena, opens in South Philadelphia, just to the north of John F. Kennedy Stadium. The new baseball and football facility, Veterans Stadium, had recently begun construction, just to the north.  The first event at the arena was the Quaker City Jazz Festival. Lou Scheinfeld, former President of the Spectrum, explained that the name "Spectrum" was selected to evoke the broad range of events to be held there: * SP: "SPorts" and "South Philadelphia" * E: "Entertainment" * C: "Circuses" * T: "Theatricals" * R: "Recreation" * UM: "Um, what a nice building!" That last one was a bit of a stretch.  Scheinfeld also said that a seat in the city's first superbox initially cost $1,000 a year: "For every Flyers game, Sixers game, circus, you name it, you got 250 events for $1,000." The first sporting event at the arena was a fight card on October 17, headlined b