October 2, 1974: "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" Premieres

October 2, 1974: The original version of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three premieres, starring Walter Matthau. It's based on the novel of the same name, published the year before, by Morton Freedgood, under the pen name of John Godey.

Before I saw the movie, I had thought that the title referred to robbing a bank in Pelham -- which is the name of both a neighborhood in The Bronx and a town in neighboring Westchester County -- in 3 steps. No: "Pelham One Two Three" is New York's Number 6 subway/elevated train that leaves the Pelham Bay Park terminal in the northeast Bronx at 1:23 PM. (It's also the source for Jennifer Lopez's debut album, On the 6. And you thought "the 6" was a reference to a clock position, and thus to her legendary tush.)

This movie also, by 18 years, predated Reservoir Dogs' device of using color-coded names for the heisters: Robert Shaw played Mr. Blue, Martin Balsam played Mr. Green, Earl Hindman played Mr. Brown, and a young Héctor Elizondo played Mr. Grey. They hijack a subway train and demand that a ransom of $1 million (about $5.8 million in 2022 money) be delivered in 1 hour, or 1 of the 18 hostages on the train will be killed every minute that the delivery is late.

In 1998, the film was remade as a television film, with Edward James Olmos in Matthau's role and Vincent D'Onofrio in Shaw's. It was remade again in 2009, with Denzel Washington and John Travolta.

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October 2, 1974 was a Wednesday. It was the last day of Major League Baseball's regular season:

* The New York Yankees beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 2-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Pat Dobson outpitched Jim Colborn. Ron Blomberg hit a home run. The Yankees finished 2 games behind the Orioles in the American League Eastern Division, their closest call to the postseason in 10 years, but it wasn't enough.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-4 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Brooks Robinson went to 0-for-2, but drove in a run with a fielder's choice, and was then pinch-run for. Tiger legend and Baltimore native Al Kaline played his last game, going 0-for-2 as the designated hitter, striking out in the 1st inning and flying out to left in the 3rd, before Ben Oglivie was sent up to pinch-hit for him.

* The California Angels beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-2 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). The A's led 2-1 going into the bottom of the 9th, but a single by Bruce Bochte, a sacrifice bunt by John Balaz, an intentional walk to Leroy Stanton (who had homered in the 7th), an RBI single by Ellie Rodríguez, and an RBI double by Denny Doyle gave the Halos the win. Paul Lindblad thus blew the save for Vida Blue, while Chuck Dobson (no relation to Pat) went the distance for the win. For the A's, Joe Rudi homered, and Reggie Jackson went 0-for-2 with a walk before being taken out.

Despite this defeat, the A's won the AL Western Division by 5 games over the Texas Rangers, for their 4th straight Division title. They beat the Orioles for their 3rd straight AL Pennant.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-4 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Manny Sanguillén singled Al Oliver home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Willie Stargell went 0-for-3 with 2 walks. The Pirates won the NL Eastern Division by a game and a half over the Cardinals.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 5-4 at the Astrodome in Houston. Lee Lacy doubled John Hale home with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

The Dodgers finished with the best record in baseball, 102-60, but only won the NL Western Division by 4 games over the Reds. They beat the Pirates for the NL Pennant, and bragged about how they were a better team than the defending World Champion A's. The A's beat them in the World Series, clinching in Game 5. That should have shut the O'Malleys up, but they still said they were the better team. For all their talk between 1965 and 1981, they did not win a World Series between those seasons.

* The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. Bill Robinson hit a sacrifice fly to score Willie Montañez with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning. Montañez would later play for the Mets, and Robinson would be the 1st base coach on their 1986 World Champions.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-6 at Fenway Park in Boston. The Sox scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th to tie it, but in the top of the 9th, Rusty Torres hit a home run, Duane Kuiper singled, and Oscar Gamble, then with an Afro so big his batting helmet barely fit over it, doubled Kuiper home. Carl Yastrzemski did not play.

Gaylord Perry was the winning pitcher, finishing 21-13. The losing pitcher for Boston was the unfortunately named Dick Pole. Even more unfortunately, he was out of the major leagues before he had the chance to pitch to Rusty Kuntz.

Frank Robinson hit his 574th career home run for the Indians. The next day, team owner Ted Bonda fired manager Ken Aspromonte, and hired Robinson, making him MLB's 1st black manager. Bonda knew that other teams had already expressed interest in him, and that he already knew the players and the organization, so he was a good choice regardless of making history. He played 2 more seasons, retired, then kept managing, but the Indians did not contend. In 1977, Frank became the 1st black manager to be fired.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 13-0 at Atlanta Stadium. Phil Niekro pitched a 4-hit shutout, finishing 20-13. In spite of their offensive output, the Braves hit only 1 home run, by Mike Lum.

Hank Aaron went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. This was his last game for the Braves, having hit 733 home runs for them in Milwaukee and Atlanta. This was also the last game at the stadium under its original name: The next season, it became Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

For the Reds, Pete Rose went 1-for-3, and Johnny Bench only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. In the bottom of the 12th inning, Bruce Dal Canton threw a wild pitch, allowing Lee Richard to score the winning run. The batter was Bucky Dent. It would not be the biggest thing that would happen to him on a ballfield on an October 2. For the Royals, rookie George Brett went 0-for-6.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Rod Carew did not play for the Twins. Tom Grieve hit a home run. The Rangers finished 5 games behind the A's in the AL West. They would not do better than this in a full season, unaffected by a strike, until 1996.

* And the San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants, 9-5 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.