October 19, 2019: Game 6 of the American League Championship Series is played at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston. The New York Yankees need to beat the Houston Astros to force a Game 7. Both teams are doing the "bullpen game" or "opener" thing. Yankee general manager Brian Cashman picks Chad Green to start, and field manager Aaron Boone follows orders. Green allows 3 runs in the 1st inning. So Cashman and Boone have blown it again.
Brad Peacock starts for the Astros, and the Yankees score 1 run on him in the 2nd. Gio Urshela hits a home run in the 4th to make it 3-2 Houston. J.A. Happ pitches a scoreless 2nd and 3rd. Cashman selects Luis Cessa to pitch the 4th and the 5th, making every Yankee Fan cringe, but he gets the job done. Tommy Kahnle pitches the 6th, and allows a run, and this turns out to be critical.
Cashman selects Adam Ottavino to pitch the 7th, making every Yankee Fan cringe, but he gets the job done. Zack Britton pitches a scoreless 8th, but it's still 4-2 Houston.
In the top of the 9th, with the Yankees down to their last out of the season, DJ LeMahieu ties it with a 2-run homer. Aroldis Chapman gets the 1st 2 outs in the 9th, but the bullpen is depleted, and we don't know who would pitch in extra innings.
It doesn't get that far. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you. Chapman walks George Springer. And then he serves an absolute meatball up to José Altuve, and he crushes it deep to left field for a Pennant-winning home run, 6-4.
When he approaches his celebrating teammates at home plate, Altuve tells his teammates not to rip his jersey open. Was it because there was a hidden device to let him know what pitches were coming?
In the off-season, the Astros' cheating from the 2017 season was revealed. The team's punishment was minimal -- really, only slightly more than the absolute nothing that the Boston Red Sox had gotten for their 4 stolen World Series in this Century. Altuve himself was not punished at all.
There will always be a cloud over the Astros' achievements from 2015 onward. But that cloud is insufficient. If MLB did things the way the NCAA does, the Red Sox and Astros would have been stripped of their titles, banned from postseason play for a year or two, and even banned from appearing on national television for a time. Indeed, in relation to the Astros, that very punishment was given to the University of Houston football program in 1989.
And yet, it would have mattered considerably less had Cashman acquired the starting pitching that would have won the Pennant. He didn't. It also might have mattered less had Cashman allowed Boone to manage his own games. He didn't.
In the subsequent off-season, Cashman signed Gerrit Cole, who had pitched superbly for the Astros the last 2 seasons. Cole instantly became the Yankees' ace. Nevertheless, Cashman still doesn't allow Boone to manage his own games. And the Yankees are still looking for their 1st Pennant since 2009.
UPDATE: The Yankees lost the ALCS to the Astros again in 2022. They finally won another Pennant in 2024, but lost the World Series.
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October 19, 2019 was a Saturday. The National League Championship Series had been decided 4 days earlier, with the Washington Nationals sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals.
There were college football games played on this day, including the following:
* Number 1 Alabama beat Tennessee, 35-13 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
* Number 2 Louisiana State beat Mississippi State, 36-13 at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Mississippi. LSU later beat Alabama in a 1 vs. 2 game, won the Southeastern Conference title, and beat Clemson for the National Championship.
* Number 3 Clemson beat Louisville, 45-10 at Cardinal Stadium in Louisville. Clemson won the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, but lost the National Championship Game to LSU at the Superdome in New Orleans.
* The night before, Number 4 Ohio State beat Northwestern, 52-3 at Ryan Field in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois. Ohio State won the Big Ten Championship, but lost to Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl, which served as a National Championship Playoff Semifinal.
* Number 5 Oklahoma beat West Virginia, 52-14 at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman. Oklahoma won the Big Twelve title, but lost to LSU in the Peach Bowl, which served as the other National Championship Playoff Semifinal.
* Number 6 Wisconsin were upset by Illinois, 24-23 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois. Wisconsin finished 2nd in the Big Ten, and, since Ohio State made the Playoff, Wisconsin got the Big Ten's slot in the Rose Bowl.
* Number 7 Penn State beat Number 16 Michigan, 28-21 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania.
* Number 9 Florida beat South Carolina, 38-27 at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina.
* Number 10 Georgia beat Kentucky, 21-0 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia.
* Number 12 Oregon beat Number 25 Washington, 35-31 at Husky Stadium in Seattle. Oregon won the Pacific-Twelve title, but 2 losses denied them a slot in the Playoff. They beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.
* Number 13 Utah beat Number 17 Arizona State, 21-3 at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.
* Number 14 Boise State were upset by Brigham Young University (BYU), 28-25 at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah.
* Number 20 Minnesota beat Rutgers, 42-7 at SHI Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey.
* Among the service academies, Navy beat South Florida, 35-3 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland; and Air Force beat Hawaii, 56-26 at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu; and Army lost to Georgia State, 28-21 at Georgia State Stadium in Atlanta. (It had been Centennial Olympic Stadium and Turner Field, and is now Center Parc Stadium.)
The NBA season began 3 days later. There were 11 games in the NHL:
* The New Jersey Devils beat the Vancouver Canucks, 1-0 at the Prudential Center. Jack Hughes scored the only goal of the game at 14:08 of the 1st period.
* The New York Islanders beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-2 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus. Brock Nelson -- sounds like the name of an old-time superhero's secret identity -- scored the winning goal, 33 seconds into overtime.
* The Dallas Stars beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.
* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-2 at the Amalie Arena (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.
* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Boston Bruins, 4-3 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Morgan Reilly -- sounds like the name of a law firm -- scored his 2nd goal of the game with 1:06 left in overtime to win it.
* The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-0 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
* The Florida Panthers beat the Nashville Predators, 3-2 in a shootout at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
* The Montreal Canadiens beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-2 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.
* The Arizona Coyotes beat the Ottawa Senators, 5-2 at the Gila River Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.
* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Calgary Flames, 4-1 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.
* And the Buffalo Sabres beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-3 at the SAP Center in San Jose, California.
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