May 22, 1963: The Triumph of "Catenaccio"

May 22, 1963: The European Cup Final, the championship game of European soccer, is held at the old Wembley Stadium in London. This was the 1st year that Wembley had its familiar roof going all the way around the stadium.

Benfica, of Lisbon, Portugal, had won the last 2 titles, and were back for an attempt at a 3rd. They are known as Os Encarnados for their red shirts, As Águias for the eagle on their crest, and O Glorioso for their "glorious" success. Tapping into Portugal's African colonies, Benfica were led by Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, the Mozambique-born striker known as the Black Pearl. His quick-strike ability meant that, to put it in baseball terms, Benfica were always in scoring position.

Their opponents were Associazione Calcio Milan. (The Italian word for "soccer" is "calcio," rather than any variation on the word "football," like it is in most countries.) Known as the Rossoneri for their red-and-black-striped uniforms, A.C. Milan had lost the European Cup Final to Real Madrid in 1958. The year before, Fiorentina, of Florence, had lost to Real Madrid. So Milan were aiming to become the 1st Italian team to win the Cup.

Their manager, Nereo Rocco, had a tight defensive style. So did the team with whom they shared a stadium, the San Siro: Internazionale Milano, known as the Nerazzurri, for their shirts of blue and white stripes. Managed by Helenio Herrera, an Argentine of Italian descent, they were also one of the era's best defensive teams. The style became known as "catenaccio," meaning "padlock."

Each team had a sensational attacker: Milan with forward Gianni Rivera, and "Inter" with midfielder Sandro Mazzola. But it was the defense that defined each team, with Milan captained by centre-halfback Cesare Maldini (whose son, Paolo Maldini, would later star for them); and Il Grande Inter by fullbacks Tarcisio Brugnich and Giacinto Facchetti, and their sweeper and Captain, Armando Picchi.

The Milan clubs had come to dominate Italian soccer to the point that Gianni Brera, the Milan-based sportswriter who dominated Italian soccer coverage for the latter half of the 20th Century, liked to say that the ideal football match would end 0-0. (Brera, knowing that it would be professional suicide to say he supported either team, and not the other, claimed to be a Genoa fan.)

With Benfica wearing all red, Milan wore their "change strip" of all white. Eusébio scored in the 19th minute. Given the nature of Milan's play, this would seem to have locked Benfica in to victory. It didn't: José Altafini, a Brazilian of Italian descent, tied the game in the 58th, and gave Milan the lead in the 69th. Benfica never recovered from this dual assault, and Milan held the 2-1 lead until the final whistle.

Inter went on to win the next 2 European Cups, and lost the Final in 1967 and 1972. AC Milan won the European Cup again in 1969. Between them, they spread the word of catenaccio worldwide. It would take until the late 1980s, when AC Milan brought in Dutch players, before either team became known for attack rather than defense. The European Cup was renamed the UEFA Champions League in 1992. Milan have won it 7 times, Inter 3.

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May 22, 1963 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Athletics, 8-7 at Yankee Stadium. The Bronx Bombers scored 7 runs in the bottom of the 2nd inning, oddly without a home run. Bill Stafford took a shutout into the top of the 8th, then fell apart: Between them, Stafford, Marshall Bridges and Ralph Terry allowed 6 runs. Terry gave up a home run to future Met Ed Charles in the 9th.

Mickey Mantle led off the bottom of the 11th against Bill Fischer. He hit a rocket high into the night in right field. No player had ever hit a fair ball completely out of Yankee Stadium. Mantle had come close twice in 1956, both times to right field. He and Frank Howard had both come close to left field. Yogi Berra jumped out of his seat, and, thinking this one was going out, yelled, "My God, that's it!"

It wasn't it. The ball smashed into the frieze atop the roof, maybe 6 inches from the top, and rebounded all the way back to the infield. The spot it hit was 374 feet from home plate. Somebody suggested at the time that, had there been no obstruction, it would have gone 620 feet. Mantle later called it the hardest ball he ever hit, and it was the closest anybody ever came to hitting a fair ball out of Yankee Stadium. More importantly, it won the game, making a winning pitcher out of Steve Hamilton. I have a separate entry for this event.

* The New York Mets lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Duke Snider hit a home run for the Mets against his former team. But Tommy Davis and Frank Howard hit home runs in support of Don Drysdale.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-5. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, 2-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Steve Barber, proving that his arm was neither sore nor a little stiff (Ball Four reference), outpitched Jim Bunning. The Orioles' Brooks Robinson and the Tigers' Al Kaline, in his hometown, each went 1-for-3.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 9-3 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (D.C. Stadium would be renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.)

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-6 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Angels led 6-0 going into the bottom of the 4th inning, and blew it. But in the top of the 11th inning, Gary Bell loaded the bases, and forced in the winning run by hitting Lee Thomas with a pitch. (Bell would later to be Barber's teammate on the 1969 Seattle Pilots, and a featured figure in Ball Four, since he roomed with the book's author, Jim Bouton.)

* The Chicago Cubs beat their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-6 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Stan Musial, in his final season, went 3-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBI. Ernie Banks only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base. Lou Brock went 2-for-5 with a walk -- for the Cubs, as that epic trade had not yet been made. Ken Aspromonte singled Brock home with the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Houston Colt .45s, 4-3 at Colt Stadium in Houston. The Colts took a 3-0 lead into the top of the 9th, and blew it, capped by a pinch-hit 2-RBI single by Roberto Clemente. The Colts became the Houston Astros in 1965.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie Mays went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* And the Milwaukee Braves and the Cincinnati Reds were postponed at Milwaukee County Stadium -- according to Baseball-Reference.com, due to cold weather. In late May. Anyway, it was rescheduled for July 29. The Braves won, 8-2. Warren Spahn went the distance for the win. Hank Aaron went 3-for-5 with a home run and 4 RBIs -- just another day at the office. Home runs were also hit by the Braves' Lee Maye (not to be confused with future Reds and Orioles star Lee May), and by the Reds' Frank Robinson and Vada Pinson.