October 1, 1927: Michigan Stadium Opens

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 director Don Canham laid down the Big Ten Conference's 1st artificial turf field.

This led the school's radio broadcaster, Bob Ufer, to call the Stadium "The hole that Yost dug! Crisler paid for! And Canham carpeted!" It was switched back to real grass in 1991, and then to FieldTurf in 2003.

Michigan Stadium was built across the railroad from Ferry Field. Yost Ice Arena (formerly Yost Field House) was built next to Ferry Field in 1924, and Crisler Center (formerly Crisler Arena) was built next to Michigan Stadium in 1967.

Since moving in, the Wolverines have won 32 Big Ten Conference Championships, and 5 National Championships: 1932 and 1933 under head coach Harry Kipke; 1947 under Crisler; 1948 under Bennie Oosterbaan; and 1997 under Lloyd Carr. (UPDATE: In the 2023 season, they added a 6th under Jim Harbaugh. And their Conference Championship haul rose to 34.)

Originally, it was not an architectural marvel, just a very, very big stadium. A 2010 expansion gave it an outer brick shell that made it resemble many other 1920s-built stadiums, including the ones built as World War I Memorials, including other Big Ten stadiums like Ohio State's Ohio Stadium, Iowa's Kinnick Stadium, Purdue's Ross-Ade Stadium, and the Memorial Stadiums in Illinois and the now-demolished one in Minnesota. The field was converted to artificial turf in 1969, back to natural grass in 1991, and to FieldTurf in 2003.

"The Big House" holds the following all-time single-game attendance records: College football, in any on-campus stadium, 115,109 (September 7, 2013, Michigan 41, Notre Dame 30); hockey, anywhere in the world, 105,491 (January 1, 2014, Toronto Maple Leafs 3, Detroit Red Wings 2 in the NHL Winter Classic); and soccer, anywhere in the United States, 109,318 (August 2, 2014, Manchester United 3, Real Madrid 1 in the International Champions Cup).

*

October 1, 1927 was a Saturday. These other notable college football games were played that day:

* Army beat the University of Detroit, 6-0 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.

* Navy beat Davis & Elkins University, 27-0 at Thompson Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.

* Columbia beat Union College, 28-0 at Baker Field (now Wien Stadium) in Upper Manhattan.

* New York University (NYU) beat West Virginia Wesleyan (WVW), 29-13 at Ohio Field in The Bronx.

* Rutgers beat Manhattan College, 24-6 at Nielson Field in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

* Princeton beat Amherst, 14-0 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey.

* Ohio State beat Wittenberg, 31-0 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.

* Notre Dame beat Coe College, 28-7 at Cartier Field in South Bend, Indiana.

* Indiana beat rivalry Kentucky, 21-0 at McLean Stadium in Lexington, Kentucky.

* Oklahoma upset the University of Chicago, 13-7 at Stagg Field in Chicago.

* The University of Texas and Texas Christian University (TCU) played to a 0-0 tie at Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas.

These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 4-3 at Yankee Stadium. The day before, Babe Ruth had hit his record-breaking 60th home run of the season, and the Senators' legendary pitcher Walter Johnson had made his last big-league appearance. In this game, Ruth went 0-for-3 with a walk, while Lou Gehrig hit his 47th home run. At the time, that was the most of any player other than Ruth.

* The New York Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers (or the Robins, as they were known during Wilbert Robinson's managerial tenure, 1914-1931), 6-1 at Ebbets Field. Travis Jackson hit a home run. Rogers Hornsby went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Bill Terry went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Boston Braves swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Phillies, 14-9 and 8-6 at Braves Field in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Athletics swept a doubleheader from the Boston Red Sox, 10-2 and 3-2 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-6 at Redland Field (later renamed Crosley Field) in Cincinnati. Paul Waner went 2-for-5, and Lloyd Waner went 3-for-5.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the St. Louis Browns, 8-5 at Comiskey Park in Chicago, in the 1st game of a doubleheader. The White Sox were leading the 2nd game, 5-3 after 5 innings, when it was stopped by rain.

* The Cleveland Indians and the Detroit Tigers were rained out at Navin Field (later renamed Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day, the last day of the regular season. The Tigers swept, 11-5 and 5-4. Jack Warner doubled Bob Fothergill home in the bottom of the 11th inning, to win the 2nd game.

* And the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals were rained out at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The game was never made up.

And in English soccer, London teams Arsenal (North) and West Ham United (East) played to a 2-2 draw at Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury.

Also on this day, Thomas Edward Bosley is born in Chicago. He won a Tony Award playing New York's Mayor LaGuardia in the 1960 musical Fiorello! But he became a legend as Howard Cunningham, the genial dad trying to understand the changes in the 1950s and '60s in the Milwaukee-based 1974-85 sitcom Happy Days. He was the 1st member of the main cast to die, in 2010.

Howard was once shown taking his son Richie, played by Ron Howard, to a Braves game at Milwaukee County Stadium, where he caught a home run ball hit by Hank Aaron. He also mentions having run away from home at age 15, and going to New York, and seeing Babe Ruth play.

On another episode, when Arthur Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler) bemoaned his difficulty in teaching high school kids his automotive skills, Howard reminded him of Rogers Hornsby, the great hitter who couldn't win as a manager, because he had no patience with players who weren't as good as he was. Howard reminded The Fonz that the reason he's there to teach is that these kids aren't as good as he is, but they want to learn. The Fonz went on to become one of the most popular teachers as Jefferson High School.

(Milwaukee doesn't actually have a Jefferson High, but it has a Washington High, where exterior scenes for Jefferson were filmed.)

October 1, 1921: The 1st Yankee Pennant

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't get close again under their original owners, Frank Farrell and Bill Devery. In 1915, Jacob Ruppert bought the team, and began rebuilding. By 1919, they were 3rd, 7 1/2 games behind the White Sox. Then Ruppert purchased Babe Ruth from the Yankees, and the course of baseball history was changed. But it didn't quite result in a Pennant.

More pitching was needed, and with the addition of Waite Hoyt, and the record-breaking 59 home runs of Ruth, the Yankees -- wearing white caps for the last time in their history -- were now in line for a Pennant. They could win the Pennant on October 1, with a doubleheader sweep of the Philadelphia Athletics, or an Indians loss to the White Sox.

Here was the Yankee lineup for the opening game of their doubleheader with the Philadelphia Athletics at the Polo Grounds, at 155th Street and 8th Avenue in Upper Manhattan:

CF Elmer Miller

SS Roger Peckinpaugh

RF Babe Ruth

LF Bob Meusel

1B Wally Pipp

2B Aaron Ward

3B Mike McNally

C Wally Schang

P Carl Mays

Remember: No uniform numbers back then.

Oddly, it would be the pitcher, Mays, that started the Yankees scoring, with a single in the bottom of the 3rd inning. Miller hit a triple to left field, to bring Mays around. But in the top of the 4th, Mays allowed a triple to Whitey Witt, an RBI double to Jimmy Dykes, an RBI single to Tillie Walker, a groundout by Cy Perkins, a triple by Frank Welch, and an RBI single by Chick Galloway. It was 3-1 A's.

With 2 outs in the bottom of the 6th, Pipp singled, and tried to steal 2nd. Perkins, the A's catcher, threw the ball away, and Pipp made it to 3rd. Welch, the center fielder, threw the ball back, and it was a bad throw. This allowed Pipp, then better known for being one of the few home-run hitters before Ruth, to score. That make it 3-2 A's. (Pipp would later be best remembered for being replaced by Lou Gehrig.)

Even in the 1920s, walks, especially the leadoff variety, could kill you. McNally led off the bottom of the 7th with a walk. Schang singled, and, again, Welch made an error, allowing McNally to score the tying run. Mays bunted Schang over to 3rd. Miller singled Schang home.

Meanwhile, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, the White Sox beat the Indians, 8-5. Ray Schalk, one of the White Sox players who had no role in the Black Sox Scandal, did something no catcher had ever done before, nor has since: He makes a putout at every base at least once in a game.

Mays sent the Tribe down 1-2-3 in the 9th. Yankees 5, Athletics 3. For the 1st time, the New York Yankees were Champions of the American League. The win advanced Mays to a 27-9 record on the season.

The Yankees would also win the 2nd game, 7-6 in 11 innings. Elmer Miller hit a home run, Johnny Mitchell singled home the winning run, and the Babe himself was the winning pitcher.

But they would lose their 1st appearance in the World Series to their Polo Grounds landlords, the New York Giants. They would also lose to the Giants in the 1922 Series. But in 1923, in their 1st Series in the original Yankee Stadium, they would beat the Giants.

Meusel and Peckinpaugh lived until 1977, with Meusel living 11 days longer, making him the last survivor of the 1921 Yankees.

Other games played on this Saturday:

* A doubleheader was split at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Phillies won the opener, 10-9. The New York Giants won the nightcap, 3-0. Red Causey and Claude Jonnard combined on an 8-hit shutout.

* The Brooklyn Robins beat the Boston Braves, 7-6 at Ebbets Field. The Dodgers were known as the Robins from 1914 to 1931, in honor of manager Wilbert Robinson.

* The Washington Senators swept a doubleheader from the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. The Senators won the 1st game 7-2, and the 2nd game 6-1, and they didn't even need Walter Johnson to pitch either game.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-3 at Redland Field in Cincinnati. It was renamed Crosley Field in 1934.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-6 at Navin Field in Detroit. The Browns scored 5 runs in the top of the 11th inning. The ballpark was renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938, and Tiger Stadium in 1961.

* And the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals were tied 4-4 after 9 innings at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, when the game was called due to darkness.

Also, actor James Whitmore was born on this day.

October 1, 1908: Ford Introduces the Model T

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.

In 1913, Ford started using an assembly line to build his cars. He was not the first executive to adopt the idea, nor even the first in the American automobile industry. But he was the popularizer of it, because it reduced the time to produce a single car from 12 hours and 30 minutes to 2 hours and 40 minutes.

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 Model A. The song he commissioned to introduce it said, "Henry's made a lady out of Lizzie."

*

October 1, 1908 was a Thursday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Highlanders beat the Washington Senators, 2-1 at Hilltop Park in Manhattan. It was a bad season for the team that officially became the Yankees in 1913, but, on this occasion, a battle of Hall-of-Famers was won by Jack Chesbro over Walter Johnson.

* The New York Giants, in a furious 3-way race for the National League Pennant, split a doubleheader with the Philadelphia Phillies at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. The Giants won the 1st game, 4-3, with Christy Mathewson going the distance. The Phillies won the 2nd game, 6-2.

* The Brooklyn Superbas beat the Boston Doves, 2-1 at Washington Park in Brooklyn. Superbas? They had been managed by Ned Hanlon, and there had been a famous circus troupe known as Hanlon's Superbas. They became the Dodgers in 1911. Doves? Their owner was John Dovey. They became the Braves in 1912.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-2 at Columbia Park in Philadelphia.

* The Chicago Cubs, in that 3-way fight with the Giants for the Pennant, beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-0 at the Palace of the Fans in Cincinnati. Ed Reulbach pitched a 2-hit shutout.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates, the 3rd team in that Pennant fight, and the St. Louis Cardinals were not scheduled to play that day.

* The the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Naps (who became the Indians in 1915), the Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Browns were also not scheduled. The White Sox, Naps and Tigers were in a tight 3-way race for the American League Pennant.

October 1, 1903: The 1st World Series Is Played

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 agreed to respect NL contracts and adopt the reserve clause, a National Commission would be set up to oversee both Leagues, and transactions between an NL team and an AL team would be allowed.

Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss, seeing his team run away with the NL Pennant, challenged Americans owner Henry Killilea to a best-6-out-of-11 postseason series. They settled on a best-5-out-of-9.

In Game 1, Cy Young did not pitch like a Cy Young Award winner: The Pirates tagged him for 4 runs in the top of the 1st inning. In the top of the 7th, already leading 6-0, right fielder Jimmy Sebring hit an inside-the-park home run, the 1st home run in World Series history. The Pirates won, 7-3.

Also on this day, the Pennsylvania Railroad opened its new station at New Brunswick, New Jersey, replacing a former station on the site. Following a major renovation in time for its 100th Anniversary, the station is still in operation, a major one on New Jersey Transit's Northeast Corridor Line between New York City and Trenton, and also carries Amtrak traffic, although Amtrak no longer uses it as a stop on their own Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington. 

In Game 2, it looked like the Pirates had used up all their offense in Game 1. Bill Dinneen allowed only 3 hits. Patrick "Patsy" Dougherty was the 1st Boston batter of the game, and led off with a home run. Not until 2015 would that happen again in a World Series game. Dougherty then became the 1st player to hit 2 home runs in a World Series game, and his 2nd homer was the 1st fair ball to actually go over the fence in a World Series game. The Red Sox won, 3-0.

Phillippe came back after just 1 day's rest, and pitched another complete-game victory, and the Pirates got the runs they needed, beating Boston, 4-2, to take a 2-1 lead in the series.

Deacon Phillippe

The action moved out to Exposition Park, in Allegheny City, on the north bank of the Ohio River. In 1907, it would be annexed by the City of Pittsburgh. That same year, the Boston Americans would change their name to the Boston Red Sox.

There were 2 days off, and Phillippe, winner of Games 1 and 3, was ready to go again. So was Dinneen, winner of Game 2. The Pirates scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 7th, to take a 5-1 lead. The Americans tried to come back in the top of the 9th, but Phillippe bore down and stopped them, and the Pirates were 5-4 winners. They now led 3 games to 1, although it took 5 games to win the series.

Game 5 would see the return of Cy Young. The Pirates started Bill "Brickyard" Kennedy, who had helped the Brooklyn Superbas, forerunners of the Dodgers, win the NL Pennant in 1899 and 1900. The game was scoreless for 5 innings, but the Americans broke out with 6 runs in the top of the 6th, and 4 more in the 7th. They won, 11-2.

Cy Young

Game 6 was a rematch between the Game 2 starters, Dinneen and Sam Leever. The score was different, but the result was the same: Boston 6, Pittsburgh 3. The Series was now tied, 3-3.

Regardless of result, Game 7 was going to be the last game in Pittsburgh, with the now-assured Game 8 taking place in Boston. This time, Young outpitched Phillippe, pitching a 4-hit shutout, as the Americans won, 3-0.

It was Boston's 3rd straight win, and the Pirates blamed the traveling Boston fans, the "Royal Rooters," who were singing a big hit song of the time, "Tessie," making up new lyrics to distract the Pirate hitters. Example: Instead of "Tessie, you make me feel so badly," they sang, "Honus, why do you hit so badly?"

John Peter "Honus" Wagner, the Pirates' shortstop, the man then regarded as the best player in the sport, and still, more than a century after his last game, as the greatest shortstop of all time, had a bad Series: 6-for-27, batting .222, although he did have 3 RBIs and 3 stolen bases.

Honus Wagner

"I was a joke in that Boston-Pittsburgh Series," he later said. "What does it profit a man to hammer along and make a few hits when they are not needed only to fall down when it comes to a pinch?" 

October 13, 1903: Game 8 of the 1st World Series, at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. For the Pirates, Phillippe made his 5th start of the Series. For the Americans, Dinneen made his 4th. In the bottom of the 4th, Albert "Hobe" Ferriss singled home 2 runs, and that would be all Dinneen needed, as he pitched a 4-hit shutout. The Americans won, 3-0, and won the Series, 5 games to 3. The last out was Dinneen striking out Wagner.

Bill Dinneen

The 1903 World Series was an agreement between 2 teams, not the 2 Leagues. In 1904, the Americans won the AL Pennant again, edging the New York Highlanders, the team that would become the Yankees. The New York Giants won the NL Pennant, but team owner John T. Brush refused to play the Champions of "an inferior league." In reality, he didn't want to face the embarrassment of losing, especially if it was to the other New York team.

The outcry was so intense that Brush met with the members of the National Commission, and they wrote the rules that would govern the World Series thereafter. Aside from from 1919, 1920 and 1921, when they temporarily went back to a best-5-out-of-9 format, every World Series from 1905 has been a best-4-out-of-7. And the Giants won the 1905 World Series, beating the Philadelphia Athletics. Not until 1912 would the Giants play the Red Sox in a World Series, with the Red Sox winning in 8 games, forced by Game 2 being called due to darkness while tied.

In 1908, the Americans sort-of adopted the former name of the National League team in town, becoming the Boston Red Sox.

The Pirates won another Pennant in 1909, and this time, Wagner was the Series' star, going 8-for-24, batting .333, with 6 RBIs and 6 stolen bases, outshining his new competitor for the title of baseball's best player, Ty Cobb, as Wagner's Pirates beat Cobb's Detroit Tigers in 7 games.

The last survivor of the 1st World Series was Boston shortstop Freddy Parent, who lived on until 1972. Right fielder Tommy Leach was the last surviving 1903 Pirate, living until 1969. Home run hero Sebring was the first to die: Bright's disease, a kidney disorder, took his life in 1909, at the age of 27.

Northeastern University's Cabot Gym is now on the site, and a statue of Cy Young stands at the approximate location of the pitcher’s mound.

*

October 1, 1903, the day the World Series opened, was a Thursday. Classical pianist Vladimir Horowitz was born on that day. There were no other games in any other sport on that day.

October 1, 1902: The Flatiron Building Opens

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 "every window in the building" would break in high winds, Pedestrians were initially reluctant to walk on the same side of the street as the Flatiron Building because of concerns over the wind gusts. The building became known as Burnham's Folly.

The concerns were unfounded: The American Architect and Building News observed that only a few windows broke during one such instance of high winds. Nevertheless, wind from the north would split around the building, downdrafts from above and updrafts from the vaulted area under the street would combine to make the wind unpredictable.

Films preserved by the Library of Congress confirm that the building's shape did contribute to high winds around the intersection. These winds raised women's skirts, and scattered paper bills from pedestrians' pocketbooks. According to some accounts, this gave rise to the phrase "23 skidoo":

Policemen would shout this phrase at men who tried to get glimpses of women's dresses being blown up by the winds swirling around the building due to the strong downdrafts.

However, the origin of the phrase "23 skidoo" itself is disputed: Even before the building was constructed, the number "twenty-three" and the word "skidoo" were independently used as expressions of dismissal.

The building was featured in the 1958 film Bell, Book and Candle; the 1981 film Reds, in a scene set in 1915; and stood in for the headquarters of the fictional Daily Bugle newspaper in the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies in 2002, 2004 and 2007.

By the time of the building's 100th Anniversary, the neighborhood around it had become known as the Flatiron District. This was a creation of real estate agents, always looking for an easy "hook." The neighborhood just to the north, across 23rd Street, previously considered to be the eastern part of the Chelsea neighborhood, became known as "NoMad": North of Madison Square.

The building closed in 2019 for a renovation. As of October 1, 2022, that renovation had not yet been completed.

*

October 1, 1902 was a Wednesday. Baseball season was over, and there was, as yet, no World Series. It was too soon for hockey, and basketball barely existed. But, despite being in midweek, there were several college football games played. Among them:

* Harvard beat Bowdoin, 17-6 at Soldiers' Field in Boston.

* Brown and Vermont played to a 0-0 at Andrews Field in Providence, Rhode Island.

* Yale beat Tufts, 34-6 at Yale Field in New Haven, Connecticut.

* Princeton beat Lehigh, 23-0 at University Field in Princeton, New Jersey.

* The University of Pennsylvania beat Franklin & Marshall, 16-0 at the original Franklin Field in Philadelphia. (It was replaced with the current stadium of that name in 1922.)

October 1, 1901: "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" Is Published

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 for picking a peck of pickled peppers. Peter Rabbit lives with his mother, and 3 sisters: Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-Tail. They are obedient. Peter is not: He tends to run off, and come into conflict with a farmer named Mr. McGregor.

With the royalties from her 1st book, Beatrix Potter bought a farm. She ended up buying many farms, to preserve their natural beauty from being bespoiled by developers. Much of it is not part of Lake District National Park. She did not get married until she was 47 years old, never had children of their own, and died on December 22, 1943. She was 77.

*

October 1, 1901 was a Tuesday. There were 3 baseball games played on this day:

* The Philadelphia Phillies swept a doubleheader from the Cincinnati Reds, 4-0 and 6-2 at League Park in Cincinnati. Bill Duggleby pitched a 5-hit shutout in the opener.

* And the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Boston Beaneaters, 9-0 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. Honus Wagner went 2-for-3 with a walk. Deacon Phillippe pitched a 4-hit shutout, outpitching Bill Dinneen. Two years later, to the month, they would face each other again, with Dinneen pitching for the Boston Americans, forerunners of the Red Sox, to victory over Phillippe's Pirates in the 1st-ever World Series.

September 30, 2007: The Mets' Greatest Choke

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 Cody Ross, and when the ball comes back to him in the infield, he tries to throw Ross out at 3rd, and makes a bad throw, and Ross becomes the 3rd run of the at-bat.

He allows a single to Mike Jacobs. He walks Matt Treanor. He gives up a single to future Met Alejandro de Aza, loading the bases. He faces the opposing starting pitcher, Dontrelle Willis, and hits him, forcing Jacobs in. Manager Willie Randolph has seen enough, and removes him with the score 5-0. He'd faced all 9 batters in the Marlin starting lineup, and had gotten exactly 1 of them out.

Jorge Sosa is the new pitcher, and he strikes Ramirez out. But he allows a double to Uggla, who drives in Treanor and de Aza, both of whose runs are charged to Glavine. When he finally gets Hermida to ground to 1st, it is Marlins 7, Mets 0.

By the time the game mercifully ends, the Mets have used 8 pitchers, and lost 8-1. The Phillies beat the Nationals, 6-1 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, and win a Playoff berth and the Division for the 1st time in 14 years. And the Rockies complete their own amazing surge, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-3 at Coors Field in Denver. It's not enough to win them the NL Western Division, but it's enough to get them a tie with the San Diego Padres for the Wild Card berth, instead of it going to the Mets.

"I'm not devastated," Glavine says after the game. "I'm disappointed, but devastation is for much greater things in life." Feeling pretty devastated themselves, Met fans never forgive him for this, and he never pitches for them again. He is released, and returns to Atlanta for a final season.

One of the pitchers the Mets used was former Yankee star Orlando Hernández, who pitches the 3rd inning, allowing 2 long fly outs, a triple to Willis, and then a foul pop to end the threat. It turns out to be the last MLB appearance of El Duque's career.

The Mets had blown a 3-games-to-2 lead over the Oakland Athletics in the 1973 World Series, a 2-games-to-1 lead and a 9th-inning lead in Game 4 over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1988 NL Championship Series, needed to win 1 of their last 5 to clinch the Wild Card berth but lost them all and missed the Playoffs in 1998, blew a lead and a Pennant in Game 6 of the 1999 NLCS, lost the 2000 World Series to the New York Yankees at Shea, and took a 1-1 tie into the 9th inning before losing Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS to the St. Louis Cardinals.

In 2008, history would repeat itself: They only led the NL East by half as much, 3 1/2 games, going into September, but, again, had to beat the Marlins at home on the last day of the regular season to make the Playoffs, and lost. They would win their next Pennant in 2015, but set a new record by blowing leads in 5 games in a single World Series, including the 1 game they ended up winning anyway. In 2016, they took a 0-0 tie at home into the 9th inning of the NL Wild Card Game, and lost to the San Francisco Giants.

But the September 2007 collapse remains the greatest choke in the history of New York baseball. And Met fans can't even blame the other teams cheating, the way the Yankees can for 2004.

*

September 30, 2007 was a Sunday. These other games were played on the last day of the Major League Baseball regular season:

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 10-4 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Derek Jeter goes 1-for-2 with a walk. Alex Rodriguez goes 2-for-2 with a walk and an RBI. Jose Molina goes 3-for-5. However, the Yankees only get the American League's Wild Card berth, ending a streak of 9 straight AL Eastern Division titles.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-2 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-5 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-4 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox, 13-3 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the San Diego Padres, 11-6 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Houston Astros beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-0 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston. It is the last game for future Hall-of-Famer Craig Biggio, who goes 1-for-4.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Los Angeles Angels, 3-2 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the McAfee Coliseum). It is the last game for former Met star Mike Piazza. He leads off the bottom of the 9th for the A's, singles, and is replaced by pinch-runner Shannon Stewart. Marco Scutaro bunts Stewart over to 2nd. Jack Hannahan singles to load the bases with nobody out. Kurt Suzuki singles to give the A's a 3-2 win. So Piazza is far luckier on this day than his old team is.

* The San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 11-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Barry Bonds, unpopular everywhere but San Francisco, but especially so in Los Angeles, does not play. He had played his last game 4 days earlier, in the Giants' home finale. His contract had run out, and not even the Giants were willing to sign him anymore. They had gotten what they needed out of him, and were not letting him go. He is forced to retire with 762 home runs, more than any player in history, but a tainted record.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers, 4-2 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle.

These NFL games were played that day:

* The New York Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles, 16-3 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New York Jets lost to the Buffalo Bills, 17-14 at Ralph Wilson Stadium (formerly Rich Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Carolina Panthers, 20-7 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Houston Texans, 26-16 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the Miami Dolphins, 35-17 at Dolphin Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the former Browns, the Baltimore Ravens, 27-13 at Cleveland Browns Stadium (now Huntington Bank Field).

* The Detroit Lions beat the Chicago Bears 37-27 at Ford Field in Detroit.

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the Denver Broncos, 38-20 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 23-16 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the St. Louis Rams, 35-7 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* The Arizona Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 21-14 at University of Phoenix Stadium (now State Farm Stadium) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Diego Chargers, 30-16 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the San Francisco 49ers, 23-3 at Candlestick Park (then named Monster Park) in San Francisco.

* The Jacksonville Jaguars, the New Orleans Saints, the Tennessee Titans and the Washington Redskins had a bye week.

* The next night, on Monday Night Football, the New England Patriots beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 34-13 at Paul Brown Stadium (now Paycor Stadium) in Cincinnati.

September 30, 1991: "The Jerry Springer Show" Premieres

September 30, 1991: The Jerry Springer Show premieres. There had been controversial talk shows on TV before, but this was the beginning of "trash TV.

Gerald Norman Springer was born on February 13, 1944 in Highgate, and lived in East Finchley, both in North London, before moving as a child with his family to Kew Gardens, Queens, New York City. He was raised Jewish, and it would be decades before he found out that both grandmothers had died in Nazi concentration camps.

He got a degree in political science from Tulane University in New Orleans, and a law degree from Northwestern University outside Chicago. In 1968, he worked on Robert F. Kennedy's Presidential campaign. In 1970, while working at a Cincinnati law firm, he ran for Congress, and lost. The next year, he was elected to the City Council.

In 1974, he made the mistake of going across the river to Kentucky (where he figured he wouldn't be as well-known), and became the customer of a prostitute. He compounded the mistake by writing a check. The mistake was further compounded when the check bounced, and it became publicly known. He came clean and resigned. In a city as conservative as Cincinnati, that would have appeared to mean the end of his political career.

But the next year, with the scandal having blown over, he won his seat back, and in 1977 was chosen by the Council to serve as Mayor for a year. He ran for Governor of Ohio in 1982, but failed to win the Democratic nomination, and never ran for office again.

And if that were the whole story, it would be pretty interesting. But WLWT-Channel 5 hired him as a news commentator. This led, in 1991, to the creation of The Jerry Springer Show, which began as a ripoff of Phil Donahue's talk show, and then, as Emeril Lagasse might say, kicked it up a notch. Or twelve. Although usually using NBC studios, the show aired in syndication throughout its run.

The topics were usually of an unsophisticated nature, such as infidelity and other relationship squabbles. From there, they might move into the bizarre: Sleeping with the wrong twin, liking sex in weird places, "My boyfriend is a Nazi," "My girlfriend is a witch," etc. Once all the guests had told their stories, there was usually a "question and answer" segment where audience members asked guests questions. In earlier seasons, the questions tended to be serious. However, these questions gave way to insults as the show progressed.

Sometimes, there would be fights between guests; sometimes, a guest would challenge an insulting studio viewer to say it to their face, and the viewer would oblige, and a fight would result. Like the referee at a hockey game, Jerry would let them fight for a moment, then send in the security officers. All the while, the studio audience would chant not the name of their favored combatant, but the host's name: "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!"

He would end the show with a "Final Thought," giving a formal lecture, sitting by himself on the stage, on the principles of refined values in regards to the featured guests. The segment ended with the concluding statement, "'Til next time, take care of yourselves and each other," which was his sign-off line during his days as a newscaster in Cincinnati.

Critics hated the lowbrow nature of the show, citing Jerry's tilting toward the lowest common denominator of human society. Which is what the show's fans loved about it. In a 2000 interview, Jerry himself admitted, "I would never watch my show. I'm not interested in it. It's not aimed towards me. This is just a silly show."

Taping was moved from Cincinnati to the NBC Tower at 454 North Columbus Drive on the Near North Side of Chicago in 1992; and to the Stamford Media Center, at 61 Atlantic Street, in the New York City suburb of Stamford, Connecticut, in 2009, after the State of Connecticut offered the producers a big tax break. The final episode aired on July 26, 2018, by Jerry's own choice: His contract was running out, he was 74 years old, he and ready to retire.

What about Jerry's own family? It was actually too inspirational for his own show. In 1973, he married Micki Velton. In 1976, their daughter Katie was born, without nasal passages. This required immediate surgery. She is blind, and deaf in one ear. Yet she said her parents raised her as normally as possible. In 2006, she was teaching at a school for disabilities, and her father donated $230,000 to build a high-tech facility there, now known as Katie's Corner.

Jerry and Micki separated in 1994, but never divorced. Katie married a man named Adam Yenkin, and they have a son. She remained close to her father, including talking him into accepting an invitation to appear on the ABC reality show Dancing with the Stars when he didn't want to do it. She says, "Anyone who judges him based strictly on his show, they shouldn't. It's not who he is."

UPDATE: Jerry died on April 27, 2023, at 79, from pancreatic cancer. British newspaper The Guardian said he "changed U.S. television for better and worse." Steve Wilkos, the former Chicago cop who was his show's security director from 1994 to 2007, and thus became famous as well, said, "Other than my father, Jerry was the most influential man in my life. Everything I have today, I owe to Jerry. He was the smartest, most generous, kindest person I've ever known. My wife and I are devastated. We will miss him terribly."

*

September 30, 1991 was a Monday. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Washington Redskins beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 23-0 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington.

The NBA and the NHL were out of season. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 3-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Scott Sanderson allowed 4 hits over 5 innings, John Habyan 1 over 2, and Greg Cadaret none over 2 to finish a 5-hit shutout. Don Mattingly went 1-for-4.

* The New York Mets lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Steve Bell and Steve Buchele hit home runs, for the Pirates. Barry Bonds went 2-for-3 with a walk.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-5 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The California Angels beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 2-1 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-0 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. John Smoltz allowed 2 hits over 8 innings, and Mike Bielecki finished a 3-hit shutout.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 8-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Cal Ripken went 2-for-4.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-3 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-8 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Jack Clark and Phil Plantier hit home runs for the Red Sox. For the Brewers, Robin Yount did not play, Paul Molitor went 1-for-4, former Yankee 2nd baseman Willie Randolph went 4-for-5, and Greg Vaughn went 2-for-5 with a home run and 5 RBIs.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Montreal Expos, 11-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics, 8-4 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 0-for-4 with a walk. Rickey Henderson went 0-for-3.

* A doubleheader was split at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. The Seattle Mariners won the opener, 3-2. Jay Buhner won it with a home run in the top of the 11th. The Texas Rangers won the nightcap, 2-0. Ken Griffey Jr. went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI in the 1st game, and grounded out as a pinch-hitter in the 2nd game.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 7-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Tony Gwynn did not play for the Padres.

* And the Houston Astros beat the San Francisco Giants, 2-0 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. For the Giants, Chris Gardner allowed 6 hits over 7 innings, and Rob Mallicoat and Xavier Hernandez finished the 6-hit shutout.

September 30, 1987: Roy Orbison's Black and White Night

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 also joining him, and singing backup, were Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Jackson Brown, k.d. lang, Jennifer Warnes and Bonnie Raitt. As Orbison sang songs like "Only the Lonely," "Running Scared," "In Dreams," "Crying" and "It's Over," Springsteen, sitting on the stage, and already pretty accomplished himself, could be seen looking up, with a look on his face that said, "Oh my God, I'm backing up Roy Orbison!"

The show was closed with an extended version of Roy's biggest hit, the 1964 Number 1 hit "Oh, Pretty Woman." It was a reminder that Roy wasn't just a truly great singer, he was also a really good songwriter and a really good guitarist. (On an earlier song, "Candy Man," he also showed that he was a really good harmonica player.)

Orbison died on December 6, 1988, a little over a year after the concert. It has since been regularly broadcast, as Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night, on PBS, during the networks' pledge drives.

*

September 30, 1987 was a Wednesday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to their arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox, 7-0 at Yankee Stadium. The Sox scored 6 runs in the top of the 4th, knocking Al Leiter out of the box. Roger Clemens went the distance for Boston, striking out 13. Wade Boggs did not play.

The Yankees were limping to a frustrating end of a season where they were in 1st place as late as August 8, going 23-28 the rest of the way and finishing 9 games behind Detroit in the American League Eastern Division. Injuries to Willie Randolph and Dave Winfield proved key.

* The Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The Mets got home runs from Darryl Strawberry and Tim Teufel, but Luis Aguayo hit a home run to win the game in the bottom of the 10th. Jesse Orosco gave it up, ruining a good 9-inning performance by Dwight Gooden. Mike Schmidt also homered for the Phils, the 530th of his career.

Despite the close margin, the Mets' loss was even worse than the Yankees', because they entered the game 3 1/2 games behind St. Louis in the National League Eastern Division, with 4 games to play, so they still had a chance. The defending World Champions hadn't been in 1st place since April 24, but had stayed close the whole way. Just 2 days earlier, they were only 2 games behind the Cards.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Eddie Murray went 0-for-4, but the O's got home runs from Cal Ripken Jr., Fred Lynn and Terry Kennedy.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-2 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Robin Yount went 2-for-4 with an RBI, and Paul Molitor went 0-for-2 with 3 walks.

* A doubleheader was split at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Pirates won the opener, 5-3. The Chicago Cubs won the nightcap, 10-8.

This was part of a 7-game losing streak, including the last 4 to the Tigers, that would give the Tigers the AL East title, earning Toronto the nickname "The Blow Jays." Despite Division titles in 1989 and 1991, it would take until 1992 to get rid of the nickname.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the California Angels, 5-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Montreal Expos beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium. Despite the Mets' loss, the Cards couldn't finish the job. The next game, they would, beating the Expos the next day to clinch the NL East.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Mariners, 7-3 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. (It was renamed Kauffman Stadium in 1993.) George Brett went 2-for-5 with 3 RBIs.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-1 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 3-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. The Braves scored 3 runs in the top of the 9th, as Dave Smith blew a save for Mike Scott, who had allowed just 3 hits in 8 innings.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Diego Padres, 3-1 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn went 2-for-4.

* The San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Mike Krukow (the future Giants broadcasting pitching 6 innings) and Joe Price combined on a 6hit shutout.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at the Oakland Coliseum.

September 30, 1982: "Cheers" Premieres

Left to right: Nick Colasanto, Ted Danson, Shelley Long,

John Ratzenberger, Rhea Perlman, George Wendt

September 30, 1982: The situation comedy Cheers premieres on NBC. It was about Sam Malone (played by Ted Danson), a former relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, who ruined his career by excessive drinking, and now ran a bar in Boston.

This would seem to have been a bad idea, given his affliction, but he was good at it. The show was also about the bar itself, and the characters who were regular visitors.

A photograph of a Sox pitcher hangs on a post at the bar, purported to be Sam. It's actually an earlier Sox pitcher, Jim Lonborg, the American League Cy Young Award winner when the Sox won their "Impossible Dream" Pennant in 1967. This establishes Sam's uniform number as being the same as Gentleman Jim's, 16. In reality, on the Pennant-winning Sox of 1975, 16 was worn by outfielder Rick Miller.

Cheers is the 1980s in a nutshell. Here are the Top 10 Reasons:

1. Sam represents the excesses of the time, managing to skate through everything -- until he can't anymore. He wasn't quite "Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll" personified, but he was a womanizer, a substance abuser (in his case, alcohol), and a lover of fast cars (to the end of the show, he drove a cherry-red 1964 Chrevolet Corvette).

After almost, but not quite, going through with his marriage ceremony to Diane Chambers (Shelley Long), he sees Diane accept a job across the country, and she says she'll be back in 6 months. Sam doesn't buy it, and he turns out to be right. He sells the bar, and buys a boat, which he handles badly, and it sinks on its maiden voyage. That was his "Crash of '87," although the story happened to him before it happened to Wall Street.

He goes back to work at the bar, but he's just a bartender, no longer the owner, and tries to scheme his way back into ownership. At first, it doesn't work. This represents the Eighties' "bill coming due" after the Wall Street Crash of '87, although, in real life, the economy didn't fall all at once. The Savings & Loan Scandal of 1989 had more to do with the recession of 1990-93 than the Crash did. Sam did get the bar back, but it took 3 years.

2. Diane represents mental illness, and President Ronald Reagan letting so many mentally ill people out on the street. She did annoy everyone, but she was clearly impaired. And she was not properly treated. The character of Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) was introduced at the start of Season 3 as her therapist, but before his introductory episode was out, we found out he was also sleeping with her, which was a massive violation of medical ethics. The relationship didn't last much longer, since she went back to Sam after he went back on the wagon.

3. Coach represents the old ways that have seemingly been lost. Emblematic of this is that, aside from the Red Sox, the only time we find out which team once employed Ernie Pantusso, a.k.a. "Coach" (Nicolas Colasanto), was when he said he played for the St. Louis Browns' organization. The Browns moved to become the Baltimore Orioles in 1954, after winning just 1 Pennant and no World Series in more than half a century. So, by this point, any mention of them was as a hopeless relic.

4. Cliff represents Reagan Era paranoia. Mail carrier Cliff Clavin was a dedicated employee of the U.S. Postal Service. He was also a self-styled know-it-all, whose bluster wouldn't have lasted two minutes in the Internet era, when his "little known facts" would have been quickly exposed.

He was also one of the most politically conservative characters on TV, saying after George H.W. Bush became President in 1989, "Ever since Reagan left office, this country's gone to heck in a handcart." He was played by John Ratzenberger, and, as Cliff, he wasn't acting: He's like that in real life.

5. Norm represents the working class, who were told they would have it better now, but they really don't. On September 23, 1982, 7 days before the show premiered, Billy Joel released his album The Nylon Curtain, including the working man's lament "Allentown." On September 30, hours before the show premiered, Bruce Springsteen released his album Nebraska, including "Atlantic City." The American Dream wasn't coming true anymore, and keeping a job -- and, if not, getting a new one -- proved hard, even for a white-collar man like accountant Norm Peterson (George Wendt).

"Bars can be sad places," Norm once said. "Some people spend their whole lives in a bar. Yesterday, some guy came in, and sat down next to me for 11 hours." Cheers was his refuge from an uncaring world. Cheers was where people still cared about him. Like the theme song, written and sung by Gary Portnoy, said: "Sometimes, you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came."

6. Frasier represents the ruling class, suddenly realizing that they don't rule as much as they thought they did. Like a similarly stuffy and bald medical man from Boston, Dr. Charles Emerson Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers on M*A*S*H), Frasier frequently reminded people that he graduated from Harvard University.

The fact that the spinoff series Frasier retconned him as actually being from Seattle doesn't change the perception that he fit in better in Boston. That show also changed his background: While his mother was a brilliant scientist, his father was a working-class cop. But viewers wouldn't know that until 1993, and watched Cheers thinking that Frasier was a Boston Brahmin like Charles.

7. Carla represents women, trying to have it every which way, and facing the consequences more than the men do. Carla Tortelli (Rhea Perlman) started the series with a nasty, cheating, no-good 1st husband and 5 kids. She ended it with one cheating ex-husband alive, another dead (not killed by her, although she was certainly capable of it), and 8 kids (1 with neither of them). No one on the show struggled more than Carla. Why? Was it because she was a woman?

Maybe not: Diane struggled less, and so did Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley), who managed the bar from Seasons 6 to 9, and then was assistant manager under Sam the rest of the way.) But Carla was the show's only married woman. (Despite a close call in the Season 5 finale, and another when she returned for the series finale, Diane and Sam never did marry each other.)

8. Woody represents the Rubes out in the Hinterlands, who just like having Reagan tell them all those nice stories about how wonderful things were, could be again, and eventually were again, except they were only words. Woody Boyd (Woody Harrelson) was brought in as a bartender after Colasanto died of cancer during Season 3. There he was in the big city, telling everybody how great life was on the farm in Indiana.

But this was no Radar O'Reilly on M*A*S*H: Unlike the Iowa-tied company clerk, Woody was even dumber than Coach. How dumb was he? Dumb enough to fall for a lot of Cliff's "little known facts." At least he meant well.

9. Rebecca represents all the good white people who bought into Reagan's myth, and were gradually betrayed by it. She went after one rich boss, played by Tom Skerritt; then another who bought him out, played by Roger Rees. Skerritt's character wouldn't even think about romancing her, while Rees' character did, but only when he could gain advantage from it.

She resisted all of Sam's smarmy advances... until after Sam bought the bar back (for 87 cents). Then, she went all in for the handsome, athletic guy with the great hair. (Of course, Reagan wasn't an alcoholic. His father and his brother were, though.)

10. The show ended in 1993, four months into Bill Clinton's first term, when we finally began to clean up the mess of the Reagan Years. The last scene shows Norm telling Sam he knew he wouldn't go off with Diane, because, "You always come back to your one true love." In Sam's case, for all his fooling around, his one true love wasn't a woman. It was the bar. Where he could be in charge, but he never lorded it over his friends. People like Carla, Norm, Cliff, Woody, even Frasier (at least until he moved back to Seattle).

In his Inaugural Address, Clinton said, "There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America." Sam figured out the bar was where he could balance freedom and responsibility, duty and friendship. He had found his calling. It wasn't baseball, or drinking, or fast cars, or women, and it certainly wasn't either Diane or Rebecca. It was being first among equals, in the place where everybody knew his name.

Despite the sign saying that Cheers was established in 1895, and the eventual revelation that it actually opened in 1889, the real-life bar it was based on, the Bull & Finch Pub, only opened in 1969, at 84 Beacon Street, across from Boston Common. On the show, the address was said to be 112 1/2 Beacon Street. The restaurant upstairs, Melville's, was based on the one upstairs at 84 Beacon, the Hampshire House.

In 2002, as part of a deal with NBC, the Bull & Finch's founding owner, Thomas Kershaw, renamed both the Bull & Finch and Hampshire House "Cheers Beacon Hill," allowing him to sell a lot more merchandise.

*

September 30, 1982 was a Thursday. Actors Lacey Chabert and Kieran Culkin were born. And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-5 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Yankees scored 4 runs in the top of the 9th to come from behind to win, making Mike Morgan a winning pitcher in relief of Shane Rawley. Dave Winfield went 0-for-2 with 3 walks.

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 3-1 at Shea Stadium. Gary Rajsich and future manager Bruce Bochy each got 3 hits for the Mets, but it wasn't enough.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski went 3-for-4. Robin Yount and Paul Molitor each went 2-for-5, and Molitor also had 2 RBIs.

On October 14, 1982, in only its 3rd episode, "The Tortelli Tort," Cheers aired an installment that started with the Yankees beating the Red Sox 5-0 at Fenway in a game watched at the bar. The last batter was the 43-year-old Yastrzemski, and Carla said, "Our prayers are answered!" But he popped up, and Carla yelled, "You old fossil!" She got up on top of the bar, and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, can I have your attention? I have an announcement to make: As of right now... " And the entire bar yells along with her, "Carla Tortelli is no longer a Red Sox fan! No, no, really, I mean it this time!" Because she had said that before.

The game shown on the TV at the bar was clearly at Fenway, with first Tommy John, then George Frazier pitching for the Yankees. John did pitch against the Red Sox at Fenway in 1982, and Frazier did relieve him in that game. But it was on June 9, the Sox won 3-2, and Frazier did not pitch to Yaz in the game, let alone get him to pop up for the final out. So the clips shown on the show had to be from different games.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Montreal Expos, 5-4 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Garry Maddox singled Manny Trillo home in the bottom of the 9th inning to win it. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-4. Pete Rose went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-4 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. The Twins finished 60-102 that season, and rookie 1st baseman and local hero Kent Hrbek had been put on the cover of Sports Illustrated, calling him "BEST OF THE WORST."

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-2 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Willie Stargell did not play. Three days later, he played his last game.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-5 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The Orioles trailed the Brewers in the American League Eastern Division by 4 games with 5 to play, with the last 3 being between them at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. They won 4 straight to make the finale the title decider, but the Brewers won it, for their 1st Division title.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics, 11-4 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 1-for-3 with 2 walks. Rickey Henderson went 1-for-4.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Diego Padres, 6-4 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Johnny Bench did not play. Rookie Tony Gwynn singled as a pinch-hitter.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 10-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 7-6 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* And the California Angels, the Chicago White Sox, the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers were not scheduled.