December 13, 1981: The Raiders Play Their Last Game In Oakland -- The 1st Time

December 13, 1981: The Chicago Bears beat the Oakland Raiders, 23-6 at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. The game didn't mean much to the Bears, who finished the season a week later, at 6-10. It didn't mean much to the Raiders, either, as they finished 7-9.

But it meant a lot to the people of the City of Oakland, Alameda County, and the East Bay region of Northern California. It was the Raiders' last game in Oakland. Or so everyone thought.

It was a rough way for the Raiders to go out. The defending NFL Champions, and known as the toughest team in the NFL, they gave up 2 touchdown passes from future Raider quarterback Vince Evans to Rickey Watts, another from Evans to Ken Margerum, and a safety when Marc Wilson, substituting at quarterback for the injured Jim Plunkett, was sacked in the end zone. The last Raider scoring play came in the 1st quarter, a 27-yard touchdown pass from Wilson to Bob Chandler.

The Raiders had made Oakland, always with an inferiority complex compared to the much more cosmopolitan city across the Bay, a major league city. They started with the Oakland name, but in San Francisco, at Kezar Stadium, in 1960, moved to Candlestick Park in 1961, then spent the next 4 seasons at the 18,000-seat Frank Youell Field, before the Coliseum opened in 1966.

The Raiders were followed by the Coliseum's Arena opening in 1967, becoming the home of the California Golden Seals, the Kansas City Athletics moving to the Coliseum in 1968, and the San Francisco Warriors moving to the Arena in 1971. The Seals moved out in 1976, but the A's won 3 straight World Series, the Warriors won an NBA title, and the Raiders won 2 Super Bowls. Oakland was a happening place in the 1970s.

But Raider boss Al Davis wanted improvements to the Coliseum, including luxury boxes. When he was told he wouldn't get them, he decided to move to Los Angeles, as the Rams had left the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to play in Anaheim. While it wasn't yet clear that this would be the last Raider game in Oakland, everyone pretty much knew it would be. Winning a court case in May 1982, Davis made the move official.

But he wasn't happy in L.A., either. He wanted improvements to the L.A. Coliseum. He didn't get them. He threatened to move the team to Irwindale, 20 miles east of downtown L.A., where the City Council was ready to build a stadium for him.

But Oakland decided to renovate their Coliseum, including building the bleacher section that would be nicknamed "Mount Davis," ruining the nice view of the foothills as seen from the infield seats. So, for the 1995 season, the Raiders moved back.

With the Rams also vacating the L.A. area for 1995, and other big cities without NFL teams jockeying for position, there was always the threat that Al Davis would move the Raiders out of Oakland again. He never did, dying in 2011. But his son Mark Davis moved the team to Las Vegas in 2020. With the Warriors having moved back to San Francisco in 2019, and the A's threatening to leave for Las Vegas themselves, Oakland's day in the Sun was coming to a close.

*

December 13, 1981 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played:

* The New York Giants beat the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 20-10 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the New England Patriots, 19-10 at Schaefer Stadium (later Sullivan Stadium and Foxboro Stadium) in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Washington Redskins, although they have no rivalry with them, beat their geographically closest opponents, the Baltimore Colts, 38-14 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 24-23 at Tampa Stadium.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 17-10 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 17-7 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the New Orleans Saints, 35-7 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 21-10 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Seattle Seahawks, 23-13 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Houston Oilers, 28-6 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* The day before, the New York Jets beat the Cleveland Browns, 14-13 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* And the Detroit Lions beat the Minnesota Vikings, 45-7 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* And the night after, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Los Angeles Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, 21-16 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

One college football game was played, and it was the last edition of the Garden State Bowl, at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands of East Rutherford, New Jersey. Tennessee beat Wisconsin, 28-21.

Baseball was out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 127-108 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors, 122-118 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 33 points.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Detroit Pistons, 105-99 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the San Diego Clippers, 98-74 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Edmonton Oilers , 4-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* The Quebec Nordiques and the Buffalo Sabres played to a tie, 4-4 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Hartford Whalers, 8-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Winnipeg Jets, 2-1 at the Winnipeg Arena. (By a weird coincidence, when the Jets played their last game before moving, in 1996, it was also a home loss to the Red Wings.)

* And the Calgary Flames beat the Vancouver Canucks, 7-6 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

November 29, 1981: The Death of Natalie Wood

November 29, 1981: Natalie Wood dies from drowning at age 43, on Santa Catalina Island, California.

She was born on July 20, 1938, in San Francisco, as Natalie Zacharenko. Not yet 8 years old, she starred as Susan Walker in the original 1947 version of Miracle on 34th Street. She played troubled teenagers in Rebel Without a Cause and The Searchers. She moved into musicals, starring in West Side Story in 1961 and Gypsy the next year. Being Russian, she didn't make a convincing Puerto Rican in West Side Story, and Marnie Nixon did her singing for the film. So, for Gypsy, she insisted on doing her own singing, and she was fine.

I'd still like to know how Gypsy, a film about strippers, got past the Hays Code. Not to mention her 1964 film Sex and the Single Girl, based on the memoir of Cosmopolitan magazine editor Helen Gurley Brown. By 1969, the Code was gone, and she was able to star as Carol alongside Robert Culp as Bob, Elliott Gould as Ted, and Dyan Cannon as Alice in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.

In 1957, only 19 years old, she married 27-year-old actor Robert Wagner. They divorced 5 years later. In 1969, she married British film producer Richard Gregson. Natalie then went into semi-retirement to raise their daughter, Natasha Gregson. Natalie and Richard split up in 1972, and she then remarried Robert Wagner. They had a daughter, Courtney Wagner, and Natalie's first daughter was renamed Natasha Gregson Wagner.

Natalie returned to acting in 1979, taking the Deborah Kerr role in an NBC remake of From Here to Eternity. Although she had been nominated for an Academy Award 3 times without winning, for this role, she won a Golden Globe Award. She became the first actress to be taken seriously as a child, a teenager, a young adult, and a middle-aged woman (she was 41). That same year, she appeared in the science fiction disaster film Meteor, playing a diplomat -- and, for the 1st time, playing a Russian, and speaking the Russian language, which she did in real life, fluently.

In 1981, she was making the science fiction film Brainstorm, which also starred Christopher Walken. For her next role, she had signed to star in a musical stage version of Anastasia, the story of the woman who claimed to be a princess who survived the massacre of the Russian imperial family in 1918. So she would have played a Russian again, and had the hope of adapting it into a film. (Ingrid Bergman had won an Oscar for the 1956 film Anastasia.)

On November 29, Natalie, Robert, known to his friends by his initials, "R.J.," and Walken were aboard the yacht Splendour while it was moored near the isthmus of Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of Southern California. Walken's wife Georgianne was not there.

According to R.J., Natalie was not there when he went to bed, and, according to his spokesman, he thought she had taken off on a small inflatable boat by herself, as she had done before. Her body was found about a mile away from the yacht, while the inflatable boat was found beached nearby. The autopsy report revealed that Wood had 39 fresh bruises on her body, including an abrasion on her left cheek.

Later, in his memoir Pieces of My Heart, R.J. acknowledged that he had an argument with Natalie before she disappeared, but had calmed down and gone to bed. The autopsy found that her blood alcohol content was 0.14 percent -- .04 above the legal prohibition for operating a motorized vehicle, including a boat -- and there were traces of two types of medication in her bloodstream: A motion-sickness pill and a painkiller, both of which increase the effects of alcohol. Two witnesses, who had been on another boat nearby, stated they had heard a woman scream for help during the night.

Following his investigation, Los Angeles County medical examiner Thomas Noguchi, the famed "coroner to the stars," ruled her death an accident by drowning and hypothermia.

She was 43 years old. She left her husband, 2 children, a sister, actress Lana Wood, and several great films. Lana has claimed that R.J. murdered Natalie. Others have made that claim as well. The evidence, as thus far released to the public, is flimsy. Both Natasha and Courtney have publicly defended R.J.

Life works out strangely sometimes: Aside from being Natalie's sister, Lana Wood is best known for appearing in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, as Plenty O'Toole. Also in that film, as the female lead, Tiffany Case, was Jill St. John. Briefly, before Britain's Eon Productions decided to go ahead with making Bond films, they had considered selling the film rights to the Bond novels to an American company, which was considering Wagner to play Bond. In 1990, Robert Wagner married Jill St. John.

In 2004, Peter Bodganovich directed the feature film The Mystery of Natalie Wood. Natalie was played by Justine Waddell. R.J. was played by Michael Weatherly. Shortly thereafter, R.J. began playing Anthony DiNozzo Sr., father of Weatherly's character, on NCIS. When my mother began watching NCIS, not yet knowing of R.J.'s connection, she noticed the resemblance immediately. I didn't.

As of November 29, 2022, R.J., Jill and Lana are still alive, and R.J. and Jill are still married. Natasha Gregson Wagner became an actress, and married 7th Heaven star Barry Watson. They have a daughter, Clover Watson. In 2020, Natasha released a documentary, Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind. It did not shed any new light on her mother's death, focusing instead on her life. Courtney Wagner is a jewelry designer, with no children. Katie Wagner, R.J.'s daughter with actress Marion Marshall, and therefore Natalie's (and Jill's) stepdaughter, is an entertainment reporter. She has a daughter, Riley John Wagner-Lewis.

In 1997, 20th Century Fox made a cartoon musical version of Anastasia. In 2017, a stage version of that film premiered on Broadway. It wasn't quite Natalie Wood's vision for the story, but she might have wanted to see it. She would have been 78 years old. She did not get the chance to be taken seriously as an old actress.

*

November 29, 1981 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. These games were played in the NFL:

* The New York Giants lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 17-10 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* The New York Jets beat the Baltimore Colts, 25-0 at Shea Stadium.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New England Patriots, 27-20 at Schaefer Stadium (later Sullivan Stadium and Foxboro Stadium) in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Washington Redskins, 21-14 at Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Los Angeles Rams, 24-0 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat their arch-rivals, the Cleveland Browns, 41-21 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 35-23 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the New Orleans Saints, 31-14 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Houston Oilers, 31-27 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Denver Broncos, 34-17 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the Seattle Seahawks, 32-31 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* The next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Miami Dolphins beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 13-10 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

* And 3 days before this day, it was Thanksgiving. The Detroit Lions beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 27-10 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

And the Dallas Cowboys beat the Chicago Bears, 10-3 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the San Antonio Spurs, 105-89 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Golden State Warriors, 104-100 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Houston Rockets, 122-104 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Chicago Bulls, 114-109 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

And there were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers and the Quebec Nordiques played to a tie, 4-4 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Hartford Whalers, 6-3 at the Montreal Forum.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-3 at the Joe Louis Arena.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 10-3 at the Winnipeg Arena. Paul Coffey -- a defenseman -- had 2 goals and 3 assists. Wayne Gretzky had a goal and 3 assists.

November 13, 1981: The Truth About Reaganomics Is Revealed

David Stockman

November 13, 1981: The Atlantic Monthly publishes an interview with David Stockman, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. It reveals the truth about the current Administration's economic priorities, or "Reaganomics."

Democrats say they told us so. Republicans are furious, that he gave the interview, and that the truth got out.

Let's take a step back. In 1943, with World War II far from being won, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted a "Victory Tax," putting the income tax rate for the wealthiest Americans -- including himself -- at a whopping 94 percent. Even after The War, it only dropped to around 90 percent.

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy asked Congress to lower the top bracket to 70 percent. They did, the next year, after his assassination. For this reason, and for his anti-Communism, many conservatives say that if JFK were alive today, he'd be a Republican. That's just stupid.

Ronald Reagan, formerly Governor of California, ran for President in 1980, promising, among other things, to cut income taxes, especially for the wealthiest Americans. The idea was called "trickle-down" economics": Give money to the rich, and it will trickle down to everybody else.

The media called it "Reaganomics." One of his opponents for the Republican nomination, former Congressman from Texas and United Nations Ambassador George H.W. Bush, called it "Voodoo economics." But Reagan won the nomination, and asked Bush to be his running mate, and Bush shut up about it. The Democrats used his line, but it didn't work: Reagan won.

On August 13, 1981, Reagan signed into law the Economic Recovery Tax Act, which lowered the top tax rate from 70 to 50 percent. The legislation was also known as the Kemp-Roth Bill, for its sponsors: In the House of Representatives, Jack Kemp of New York, former All-Pro quarterback; and, in the Senate, William Roth of Delaware.

From Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal onward, American economic operation was based on the idea of demand-side economics: Economic growth and full employment are most effectively created by high demand for products and services. Output is determined by effective demand, and high consumer spending leads to business expansion, resulting in greater employment opportunities. Higher levels of employment create a multiplier effect that further stimulates aggregate demand, leading to greater economic growth.

But "Reaganomics" was based on supply-side economics: Economic growth can be most effectively fostered by lowering taxes, decreasing regulation, and allowing free trade. According to supply-side economics, consumers will benefit from greater supplies of goods and services at lower prices, and employment will increase.

It's also based on what became known as the Laffer Curve. The term came from Jude Wanniski, a journalist who became a self-taught economist. (Aren't all economists self-taught?) On September 13, 1974, Wanniski had lunch at Two Continents, a restaurant at the Hotel Washington in D.C., with economist Arthur Laffer, White House Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld, and Rumsfeld's deputy, Dick Cheney.

At this lunch, on a napkin, Laffer sketched out an idea he'd gotten from 14th Century Arab philosopher Ibn Khaldun: It assumed that no tax revenue is raised at the extreme tax rates of 0 percent and 100 percent, meaning that there is a tax rate between them that maximizes government tax revenue. But according to The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, estimates of revenue-maximizing income tax rates have varied widely, with a mid-range of around 70 percent -- a lot higher than conservatives would like.

In spite of the inscription to Rumsefeld,

it was Wanniski who saved the napkin.

His widow, Patricia, donated it to the Smithsonian Institution.

Conservatives like to borrow one of those quotes that Benjamin Franklin didn't actually say: "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb." Well, conservatism is feeding steaks to two wolves and ten lambs, and telling the lambs that the wolves will leave crumbs behind, knowing full well that lambs are vegetarian.

Even Arthur Laffer, albeit around 30 years too late, admitted the truth with a similar analogy: "Trickle-down economics is if you feed the horse enough oats, the sparrow will survive on the highway."

The result was that, from outgoing President Jimmy Carter, Reagan inherited an unemployment rate of 7 percent, and, by the end of 1982, his 2nd year in office, it was 11 percent. Did he at least cut the record federal budget deficit he inherited? No, and conservatives can't blame Congress, either: The Republicans controlled the Senate for his 1st 6 years, and Reagan never even submitted a budget with a lower deficit than his 1st, which nearly doubled his 1st.

Late in his 2nd year, he compromised with Congressional Democrats, and raised taxes. That saved his bid for re-election, and, as was said at the time, prevented the former actor from starring in his last and greatest role, The Herbert Hoover Story.

In their December 1981 issue, Atlantic Monthly published an article titled "The Education of David Stockman." Stockman had been an aide to Representative John Anderson of Illinois, who later ran for President in 1980, as one of the Republican contenders who lost to Reagan, and then ran a 3rd-party campaign against Reagan. In 1976, Stockman was elected to Congress from his home State of Michigan. In 1981, Reagan appointed him Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and conservatives loved him for his combative performance in Congressional hearings.

In an interview with reporter William Grieder, Stockman was quoted as referring to Reagan's tax act in these terms: "I mean, Kemp-Roth was always a Trojan horse to bring down the top rate... It's kind of hard to sell 'trickle down.' So the supply-side formula was the only way to get a tax policy that was really 'trickle down.' Supply-side is 'trickle-down' theory... None of us really understands what's going on with all these numbers."

He later recalled "being taken to the woodshed by the President" -- for telling the truth. On August 1, 1985, he resigned from OMB, and later wrote a memoir of his experience in the Reagan Administration, titled The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed, in which he specifically criticized the failure of Congressional Republicans to endorse a reduction of government spending to offset large tax decreases to avoid the creation of large deficits and an increasing national debt.

The top marginal tax rate was lowered to 28 percent in 1988. It slowly increased, under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, to 39.6 percent in 2000. Under Bush's son, President George W. Bush, the top rate was reduced to 35 percent. Corporate tax rates were lowered from 48 percent to 46 in 1981, 34 in 1986, increased to 35 in 1993, and lowered in stage to 21 in 2018.

The middle class have never truly recovered from "Reaganomics": While things improved starting in 1983, 1993, 2009 and 2021, they always fell under Republicans, in 1990, 2001 and 2020.

Ronald Reagan died in 2004, Jude Wanniski in 2005, and Donald Rumsfeld in 2021. As of November 13, 2022, David Stockman and Arthur Laffer are still alive. Laffer advised Donald Trump's 2016 Presidential campaign. In 2019, Trump awarded Laffer the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

*

November 13, 1981 was a Friday -- a Friday the 13th. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Milwaukee Bucks, 95-85 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Boston Celtics, 111-97 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Kansas City Kings, 105-85 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Houston Rockets, 102-100 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.) Moses Malone scored 33 points and grabbed 15 rebounds.

* The Utah Jazz beat their arch-rivals, the Denver Nuggets, 131-124 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. Adrian Dantley scored 38.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 119-115 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Calvin Natt scored 34 points in defeat for the Blazers.

* And the San Antonio Spurs beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 119-112 at the Seattle Center Coliseum. George Gervin led all scorers on the day with 47.

And there were 2 games played in the NHL. The New York Rangers played the Buffalo Sabres at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. And the Detroit Red Wings played the Washington Capitals at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. Each game ended in a 3-3 tie.

November 3, 1981: New Jersey's Incredibly Close Election for Governor

Jim Florio (left) and Tom Kean

November 3, 1981: New Jersey elects a Governor. But it will be days before anyone in the State knows who it is. It is that close.

Oddly enough, both contenders were born in New York City.

On April 21, 1935, Thomas Howard Kean was born in Manhattan. His grandfather, Hamilton Fish Kean (1862-1941) and his great uncle, John Kean (1852-1914), were U.S. Senators. His father, Robert Kean (1893-1980) was a Congressman, and the namesake of Union County's Kean University.

Another relative was Hamilton Fish, a Senator, a Governor of New York, and Ulysses S. Grant's Secretary of State, and the progenitor of a line of politicians named Hamilton Fish. He was also descended from William Livingston, the 1st (post-Revolutionary) Governor of New Jersey.

For most of his life, Tom Kean has lived in the Essex County town named for Governor Livingston -- which also includes the hospital where I was born. He went to a prep school in Massachusetts, which is why he has an upper-class New England accent, notable in his ads for New Jersey tourism: "New Juhsey and you: Puhfect together." The word "patrician" came to mind.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Princeton University, and a master's degree from Columbia University. He was elected to the State Assembly in 1967, was elected its Speaker in 1971, and lost the Republican nomination for Governor in 1977 to State Senator Ray Bateman. In 1981, he tried again, and won the nomination, gaining 31 percent of the Republican Primary vote, with Mayor Pat Kramer of Paterson getting 21 percent.

On August 29, 1937, James Joseph Florio was born in Brooklyn. He dropped out of the Borough's famous Erasmus Hall High School, and earned his GED in the U.S. Navy. He earned a bachelor's degree from Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey), and a law degree from the Camden campus of Rutgers University.

He became an Assistant City Attorney in Camden, was elected to the Assembly in 1969, and was elected to serve the 1st District, Camden and its suburbs, of the U.S. House of Representatives in the "Watergate Babies" Class of 1974. He wrote the legislation that became the Superfund cleanup system, because he had seen many places in New Jersey that needed more cleaning up than local and State governments could pay for. Despite having grown up in New York Rangers territory, he accepted South Jersey's embrace of Philadelphia's hockey team, and some people nicknamed them "Florio's Flyers."

Florio also ran for Governor in 1977, thinking that the Democratic incumbent, Brendan Byrne, was so unpopular through his passage of the State's 1st income tax that he could be defeated in the Primary. After all, in 1973, Byrne was elected by defeating Representative Charles Sandman, who had beaten the incumbent Republican Governor, William Cahill, running on the idea that Cahill had simply suggested that tax. But Byrne proved hardier than anyone thought, and won the Primary and the general election.

The 1981 Democratic Primary was loaded with local talent, including State Senate President Joseph Merlino (meaning he had, on occasion, already served as Governor when Byrne had left the State); State Attorney General John Degnan; the Mayors of the State's 2 largest cities, Ken Gibson of Newark and Thomas Smith of Jersey City; and Representative Robert Roe, whose District included parts of Essex, Passaic and Bergen Counties. Florio won with 26 percent of the vote, with Roe and Gibson each getting 15 percent. Most likely, this was due to these 3 having the most name recognition.

Although Ronald Reagan had won 52 percent of the vote in New Jersey in the 1980 Presidential election -- he won 18 of the 21 Counties, all but Essex, Hudson and Mercer -- unemployment rose, and Reagan lost a great deal of popularity in the State. So running as Reagan's surrogate in New Jersey wuld not have worked for Kean.

Instead, Kean tied himself to the issue of change, offering a difference with the outgoing, term-limited Byrne. Kean tried to tie Florio to Byrne, while Florio tried to tie Kean to Reagan. Kean argued that the race should be about local issues, while Florio argued that national and international issues affected New Jersey, and that the reverse could also be true with the right Governor.

Going into the election, the polls showed Florio ahead, but within the margin of error, and a large number of undecided voters, from 12 to 19 percent. It was still anyone's ballgame going into November 3.

It was the closest election in the history of the office. On Election Night, 2 local TV stations' news coverage declared Florio the winner, then had to retract those projections. Kean went to his campaign headquarters in Livingston, with his concession speech ready, but his campaign manager told him not to deliver it. By the end of the night, Kean held a lead of 1,677 votes, and neither candidate would concede.

Florio filed a petition for a recount. Given the small margin of Kean's lead, it was understandable. Both candidates started transition teams, so that they would be ready when Byrne's term ended on January 19, 1982. (In New Jersey, the Governor is sworn in on the 3rd Tuesday in January, regardless of the actual date.)

The recount took longer than anyone expected. At one point, the State flag outside the McDonald's in East Brunswick was flying upside-down, and my mother suggested it was in confusion over the election.

But with the recount, Kean's lead grew, if only slightly. On November 30, Florio conceded. On December 2, the official announcement came in: Kean had won by 1,797 votes. One thousand, seven hundred and ninety-seven. Kean had won 1,145,999 votes, for 49.46 percent of the popular vote; Florio, 1,144,202, for 49.38 percent. Scattered 3rd-party and independent candidates won 1.22 percent.

As Governor, Kean became enormously popular by appealing to both sides: To conservatives by cutting taxes, and to liberals by promoting education and environmental protection. He won re-election in 1985, defeating Essex County Executive Peter Shapiro. Having previously won by the smallest margin in State history, Kean had won by nearly 800,000 votes, 69.6 to 29.3, the largest margin. Four years later, Florio tried again, and nearly broke that record, beating Representative Jim Courter, by 541,000 votes, or 61.2 to 37.2, or 24 points.

Florio addressed the budget mess that Kean left behind by raising taxes, angering many people. In 1993, he lost his bid for re-election to Somerset County Freeholder Christine Todd Whitman, by 25,093 votes, 49.33 to 48.29, 1.04 percent. Florio now had the 2nd-biggest win, and the 2 closest losses, in the history of elections for Governor of New Jersey. Four years after that, Whitman was re-elected, beating State Senator Jim McGreevey by 28,426 votes, or 1.05 percent, in each case a little more than 1993.

After his Governorship, Kean became President of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, and chaired the 9/11 Commission, making some current Republicans unhappy with what he found and released. As of November 3, 2022, he is still alive, at the age of 87. Florio died on September 25, 2022, at the age of 85.

Kean's son, Tom Kean Jr., was elected to Congress as a Republican in 2022. He is considerably to the right of his father: The son supports Donald Trump, while the father, Governor when Trump established his Atlantic City casinos, has never had any use for him. Florio had 3 children, none of whom entered politics.

Tom Kean Sr. was elected and re-elected after fellow Republican Ronald Reagan was elected President. Starting with Florio's election in 1989, New Jersey has nearly always elected a Governor of the party out of the White House:

* 1988-89: George H.W. Bush, Republican; Jim Florio, Democrat.

* 1992-93: Bill Clinton, Democrat; Christine Todd Whitman, Republican.

* 1996-97: Clinton and Whitman were both re-elected.

* 2000-01: George W. Bush, Republican; Jim McGreevey, Democrat.

* 2004-05: Bush; Jon Corzine, Democrat.

* 2008-09: Barack Obama, Democrat; Chris Christie, Republican.

* 2012-13: Obama and Christie were both re-elected.

* 2016-17: Donald Trump, Republican; Phil Murphy, Democrat.

* 2020-21: Joe Biden, Democrat; Murphy re-elected, breaking the streak. However, both elections were very close, though not as close as Kean vs. Florio in 1981 (or Bush vs. Gore in 2000).

*

November 3, 1981 was, like all modern American general Election Days, a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 6 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Houston Rockets, 101-98 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has been converted into the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.)

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Washington Bullets, 112-99 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Dallas Mavericks, 125-110 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Atlanta Hawks, 104-96 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the San Antonio Spurs, 111-88 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. George Gervin led all scorers on the night with 35 points.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 102-100 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

And there were 2 games in the NHL. The New York Islanders and the Calgary Flames played to a tie, 2-2 at the Nassau Coliseum. And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Colorado Rockies, 5-3 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. The following season, the Rockies moved to the Meadowlands, and became the New Jersey Devils.

October 28, 1981: The Last Night of My Yankee Dynasty

October 28, 1981: A dark day in my life. One might even say a blue day... Dodger Blue.

No two franchises have played each other in the World Series as often as the New York Yankees and the Dodgers. They played each other in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955 and 1956, when the Dodgers were in Brooklyn. The Dodgers won in 1955, but the Yankees won all the rest.

After the 1957 season, the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. They beat the Yankees in 1963. They didn't play each other again until 1977, and the Yankees won. The Yankees beat them again in 1978.

By this point, I was old enough to watch baseball on television, and these were the Yankees of Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, Catfish Hunter, Ron Guidry, Graig Nettles and Goose Gossage. And these were the Dodgers of Steve Garvey and Don Sutton, with a young Dusty Baker in left field. And while the Yankees had replaced their managers periodically -- Billy Martin managed the 1977 title, Bob Lemon the one in 1978 -- Tommy Lasorda had been their manager since late in 1976.

This Dodger team had also won the National League Pennant in 1974, while still managed by the man who'd led them since 1954, Walter Alston. They lost that World Series to the Oakland Athletics, then including Jackson, Hunter, and Ken Holtzman, who would also pitch for the Yankees in 1977, but was traded in 1978. The Yankees had also won the American League Pennant in 1976, losing the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.

Pretty much everybody outside each team's market hated both teams. The Yankees were seen as New York gangsters, rough and nasty, ready to run over your grandmother if she got in their way; the Dodgers as L.A. nice guys, All-American Boys, a little too clean, too good to be true (which turned out to be the case). No longer the beloved underdogs, a.k.a. "Dem Bums," as they were in Brooklyn, the Los Angeles Dodgers were popular from the Pacific Ocean to Las Vegas, but not east of there.

But when they played each other in the World Series, even people who hated the Dodgers rooted for them, because they hated the Yankees more.

In 1978, the Dodgers had won the 1st 2 games of the Series in Los Angeles. Then the Yankees took the next 4, 3 at Yankee Stadium and Game 6 at Dodger Stadium, to win the title.

Both teams had done a little retooling. In 1979, neither made the Playoffs, and Munson, the Yankees' catcher and Captain, was killed in a plane crash. Hunter retired due to a shoulder injury. Roy White also retired. Sparky Lyle (a season earlier), Ed Figueroa, Mickey Rivers and Chris Chambliss were traded. Lemon, Oscar Gamble and Rudy May had left, and returned. Bobby Murcer, the popular center fielder traded after the 1974 season, had also returned. The Yankees signed pitcher Tommy John away from the Dodgers, and brought in Bob Watson, Jerry Mumphrey and Rick Cerone.

In 1980, the Yankees won the AL Eastern Division again, but lost the AL Championship Series to the Kansas City Royals, whom they had beaten in the ALCS in 1976, '77 and '78. The Dodgers finished in a tie with the Houston Astros for the NL Western Division title, but lost a Playoff game to the Astros.

The Dodgers traded Sutton, but benefited from the arrival in 1981 of Fernando Valenzuela, a chubby Mexican lefthander with a sensational screwball that allowed him to win his 1st 8 decisions. Even people who didn't like the Dodgers were gripped by "Fernandomania," and, for the first time, the huge Mexican-American community in Southern California found a reason to root for the Dodgers instead of a team from Mexico. Valenzuela finished 13-7, and was named the NL's Rookie of the Year, just as their reliever Steve Howe had been in 1980, and their starting pitcher Rick Sutcliffe in 1979.

The Yankees signed San Diego Padres star Dave Winfield to their 1st contract worth more than $1 million a year. Remembering how he wasn't exactly welcomed as the big free agent signing 4 years earlier, Reggie showed Dave the courtesy he'd wanted.

The strike that interrupted the 1981 season meant that a team had to finish 1st in either half of the season to qualify for the Playoffs. The Yankees won the AL East in the 1st half; beat the 2nd-half winners, the Milwaukee Brewers; and finally the A's for the Pennant. The Dodgers won the NL West in the 1st half, beat the Astros, and then beat the Montreal Expos for the Pennant.

*

October 20, 1981: Game 1 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. A banner is hung from the upper deck: "DON'T THE DODGERS EVER LEARN"?

Not yet, they don't, as Watson's 1st-inning homer and the pitching of Guidry and Gossage shut the Bums down, 5-3.

October 21, 1981: The Yankees take a 2-0 lead, as John and Gossage combine on a 3-0 shutout. Watson has 2 hits and an RBI.

The Yankees are 2 wins away from their 23rd World Championship. No one can imagine it now, but the team will not win another competitive game until April 12, 1982 (the next season opened later than it should have, due to a late snowstorm postponing a week's worth of games), and it will take them 15 more years to get that 23rd title.

The Yankees also make a trade on this day, sending 22-year-old outfielder Willie McGee to the St. Louis Cardinals for pitcher Bob Sykes. It will be one of the worst trades in Yankee history, as Sykes, a native of nearby Neptune, New Jersey, is already damaged goods, and never appears in another big-league game, finished at 27. McGee helps the Cards win the next year’s World Series and 3 of the next 6 NL Pennants.

October 23, 1981: Despite an uncharacteristically poor performance (9 hits‚ 7 walks), Valenzuela goes the distance in the Dodgers' 5-4 come-from-behind win in Game 3. The deciding run scores on a double play.

Yankee starter Dave Righetti lasts just 2 innings‚ walking 2 and allowing 5 hits‚ but it is reliever George Frazier who takes the loss. Ron Cey hits a 3-run homer for the Dodgers. Starters Valenzuela and Righetti are the 1st 2 Rookies of the Year, of any position, to oppose each other in the World Series since Willie Mays and Gil McDougald in 1951.

October 24, 1981: The Dodgers tie the World Series up at 2 games apiece, 8-7, thanks to some poor Yankee fielding. Jackson and Willie Randolph hit home runs for the Bronx Bombers -- Reggie's last in a Yankee uniform, as it turned out -- but Jay Johnstone, who'd helped the Yankees beat the Dodgers in the 1978 World Series, returns the favor for the Dodgers.

Johnstone would later write, in his memoir Temporary Insanity (a title based on his quirky personality), that George Steinbrenner stormed into the locker room and demanded that Ron Davis (Yankee reliever and future Met player Ike's father) tell him why he threw Johnstone a fastball.

October 25, 1981: The Dodgers win Game 5, as back-to-back homers by Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager off Guidry give the Dodgers their 3rd consecutive win, 2-1. Winfield singled in the 5th, but that turned out to be his only hit in the Series. Even then, he didn't score, as he was eliminated when Reggie grounded into a double play.

After this game, George said he'd scuffled with 2 Dodger fans in a hotel elevator, and that explained his fat lip and his broken hand.

*

October 28, 1981: Game 6 of the World Series is played at Yankee Stadium, having been postponed a day due to rain. John started for the Yankees, Burt Hooton for the Dodgers, and both of them got through the 2nd inning without allowing a run.

The Yankees, needing to win to force a Game 7, got on the board first: With 2 out in the bottom of the 3rd, Randolph hit a home run. They got 2 more men on, and that brought up Mr. October. But Reggie flied to left. The Dodgers tied it in the top of the 4th, on singles by Baker, Rick Monday and Yeager.

With 1 out in the bottom of the 4th, Nettles doubled, and Cerone struck out. Lasorda ordered the weak-hitting shortstop, Larry Milbourne, walked intentionally, to bring the pitcher's spot in the order up. Lemon gambled, and sent Bobby Murcer up to pinch-hit for a pitcher who'd allowed only 1 run in 4 innings. Having made his major league debut 16 years earlier, this was the biggest plate appearance that Murcer would ever have. He nearly hit it out to right field, but not quite long enough.

Lemon, himself a Hall of Fame pitcher and a pitching coach before becoming a manager, might have been justified in pinch-hitting for John. But he couldn't get the pitching right afterward. He sent Frazier out for the 5th, and he had nothing, allowing an RBI single by Cey and an RBI triple by Guerrero, giving the Dodgers a 4-1 lead.

It got worse in the 6th, as Davis walked Hooton, walked Davey Lopes, and allowed an RBI single to Bill Russell. Lemon replaced him with Rick Reuschel. When Lopes and Russell advanced on a double steal, Lemon ordered Garvey walked to set up the double play. It didn't work: Derrel Thomas hit a grounder to 3rd that got Lopes home. Baker reached on an error, and Guerrero singled home 2 runs. It was 8-1 Los Angeles.

Lou Piniella singled home a run in the bottom of the 6th, but that would be it for the Bronx Bombers, no further bombing. In the top of the 8th, Guerrero hit a home run. In the bottom of the 9th, Howe walked Randolph, struck Mumphrey out, and got Winfield to fly to left.

Mr. October came to bat as a Yankee one more time, and grounded to Lopes at 2nd. Lopes had driven the Yankees crazy in all 3 World Series. This time, he bobbled the ball, and Reggie reached base in Pinstripes one last time. It made no difference, as Watson made the last out, flying to Lee Lacy in center.

Dodgers 9, Yankees 2. The L.A. Bums had finally beaten the Yankees in the World Series. For the 1st time, the Series' Most Valuable Player award was split, awarded to 3 players: Guerrero, Cey and Yeager.

Winfield was just 1-for-21‚ while Frazier tied a Series record by losing 3 games. The record was set by the White Sox' Lefty Williams in 1919‚ but Williams‚ one of the 8 "Black Sox‚" was losing on purpose. Frazier was trying to win, and didn't.

The long-term effects on the Yankees were as follows:

* This was the last time that Reggie Jackson suited up as a player for the Yankees, and George Steinbrenner refused to exercise the option for a 6th year on his contract. Reggie happily accepted an offer from Gene Autry to return to the West Coast and play for the California Angels.

* Winfield's performance contrasted so much with Reggie's Mr. October persona that George eventually nicknamed him Mr. May, never gave him the respect he deserved, and ended up chasing Dave out of town – coincidentally, also to the Angels, although Reggie was retired by that point – and getting himself in trouble with how he did it.

While George gave Dave a "Day" after he was elected to the Hall of Fame, to this day, Dave's Number 31 has not been retired, along with those of his Yankee teammates Jackson (44), Ron Guidry (49) and, later, Don Mattingly (23), and his occasional manager Billy Martin (1). Nor has he gotten a Plaque in Monument Park like those 4, and also like teammates Randolph and Gossage.

* George went through various experiments in managers and styles of play (booming bats one year, speed the next, and so on) to get the Yankees back on top, but they wouldn't reach the World Series again for 15 years, giving the new ownership of the Mets the chance to become from 1984 to 1992 what they have not been since '92, New York's first team. (Despite their 2015 Pennant, they still aren't.)

Blowing that lead, to the evil O'Malley Bums and their fat hypocritical slob of a manager, Tommy Lasorda, losing the Series at home, and when I was just 11 going on 12...

More than any other Yankee defeat, this one sticks in my craw. As bad as the 2001 and 2003 World Series losses were (I don't really remember the 1976 sweep loss); or the 1980 and 2012 ALCS sweeps; or the 2010, 2017, 2019 and 2022 ALCS folds; or the ALDS losses of 1995, 1997, 2006, 2011, 2018 and 2020; or the 1985 and 1988 regular-season near-misses; or the complete bottle-jobs in the Wild Card Games of 2015 and 2021. Even the 2004 ALCS collapse doesn't bother me as much as the 1981 World Series.

And, unlike with the 2004 Red Sox and the 2017, '19 and '22 Astros, I can't even rationalize it away by saying the Dodgers cheated! That I know of. There are some people who have alleged that the mound at Dodger Stadium was actually less than 60 feet 6 inches from home plate in the Lasorda era, but I don't think this was ever seriously challenged.

In 1998, the Yankees celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the '77 and '78 World Champions by inviting the Dodgers of that period to Old-Timers' Day. The Old-Timers' Game usually goes 3 innings, but since it was tied, it went to a 4th inning, and Willie Randolph hit a home run off Tommy John to win it for the Yankees. So not only did John pitch on the losing side in all 3 of these Yankee-Dodger World Series, but he lost this Old-Timers' Game as well.

Among the interviews done on WPIX-Channel 11, Bobby Murcer, by then a broadcaster, and wearing a special hookup on his belt so he could announce a game he was playing in, talked to Lasorda. The man who liked to say, "I bleed Dodger Blue," and referred to God as "the Big Dodger in the Sky," talked about the '77 and '78 Series, but brought up '81, Murcer's only World Series in 17 seasons in the major leagues, 13 of them with the Yankees, and said, "We brought that World Championship trophy back to Los Angeles where it belongs!"

The fat bigoted slob forgot: Los Angeles isn't even where the Dodgers belong. Brooklyn is.

Buster Olney titled his book about the 2001 Yankees, with a focus on their loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 7 of the World Series, The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty. Peter Golenbock, in Dynasty: The New York Yankees, 1949-1964; David Halberstam, in October 1964; and Philip Bashe, in Dog Days: The New York Yankees' Fall from Grace and Return to Glory, 1964-1976 have all written about how the Yankees' loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7 of the 1964 World Series was the last day of the old Yankee Dynasty.

October 28, 1981 was the last day of my Yankee Dynasty. That wasn't apparent at the time. But the team's collapse in 1982 made it clear.

The Yankees were now 8-3 in World Series against the Dodgers, 2-2 in their Los Angeles period. In the 41 years since, the teams have never played each other in another World Series. In Interleague Play, yes; in the World Series, no.

They've both made the Playoffs in 1995, 1996, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. They've both reached their respective League Championship Series in 2009, 2017 and 2019. But, since 1981, they've never again met in the World Series.

And at the rate Brian Cashman is going, it looks like it won't happen again for years to come, through no fault of the Dodgers and their management.

UPDATE: They did face each other in the 2024 World Series. The Dodgers won in 5 games.

*

October 28, 1981 was a Wednesday. The baseball season was over. It was midweek for football. The NBA season started 2 days later. There were 7 games played that night in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Edmonton Oilers, 5-3 at Madison Square Garden. The Broadway Blueshirts blew leads of 2-0 and 3-1, as Wayne Gretzky had 2 goals and 2 assists.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-3 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Winnipeg Jets, 7-6 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Calgary Flames, 6-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Colorado Rockies, 3-1 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. The Rockies became the New Jersey Devils the next season.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Washington Capitals, 3-0 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

Also, Milan Baroš, a Czech soccer player who helped Liverpool FC win the 2005 UEFA Champions League, was born on this day. 

October 21, 1981: The Sykes-McGee Trade

Yes, that's Willie McGee in a Yankee uniform,

probably during Spring Training 1981.

October 21, 1981: The New York Yankees take a 2-0 lead in the World Series, as Tommy John and Goose Gossage combine on a 3-0 shutout of the Los Angeles Dodgers at Yankee Stadium. Bob Watson has 2 hits and an RBI.

The Yankees were 2 wins away from their 23rd World Championship. No one could imagine it then, but the team would not win another competitive game until April 12, 1982, and it would take them 15 more years to get that 23rd title.

The Yankees also made a trade that day, sending 22-year-old outfielder Willie McGee to the St. Louis Cardinals for pitcher Bob Sykes. It became one of the worst trades in Yankee history, as Sykes, a native of nearby Neptune, New Jersey, was already damaged goods, and never appeared in another big-league game, finished at 27.

McGee helped the Cards win 3 of the next 6 National League Pennants, including the next year's World Series. By the time his career began to slow down in the mid-1990s, Bernie Williams would have been ready to become the Yankees' next great center fielder. But, in the interim, the Yankees tried the following players at that position:

* 1982: Jerry Mumphrey. Good, but McGee was already better.

* 1983: Mumphrey. He had slipped a bit.

* 1984: Omar Moreno. He had slipped a bit from his peak years with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

* 1985: Rickey Henderson. He had a really good season, but he was playing out of position: He was normally a left fielder.

* 1986: Henderson. Another really good season.

* 1987: Claudell Washington. Injuries to Henderson meant that Claudell had to play the most games for the Yankees in center field that season, and Gary Ward in left field, although Henderson had more plate appearances overall than Washington. Both Washington and Ward were still good players, but both were also past their best.

* 1988: Washington. He had a good season, as Henderson became the full-time left fielder. Certainly, it wasn't either man's fault that the Yankees failed to win the American League Eastern Division title that season.

* 1989: Roberto Kelly. He had a good season.

* 1990: Kelly. He had another good season.

* 1991: Kelly, with Bernie Williams coming up. 

* 1992: Kelly, with Williams still coming up.

* 1993: Williams, from then until 2006, a Yankee Legend.

So maybe this isn't as bad a trade as we might think. But it was still a bad one. Like trading Fred McGriff, Mike Morgan and Dave Collins for Dale Murray was a year later, the problem was not what the Yankees gave up (McGriff played 1st base, and Don Mattingly was coming), but what they got. They should have gotten a serviceable starting pitcher each time, and only got a broken one.

*

October 21, 1981 was a Wednesday. On this day, Willis Andrew McGahee III was born in Miami. The former University of Miami star was plagued by injuries, but made 2 Pro Bowls while with the Baltimore Ravens. He rushed for 8,474 career yards in the NFL.

Antonio DeShonta Smith was born in Oklahoma City. A defensive end, he played in 2 Super Bowls, losing XLIII with the Arizona Cardinals, and winning 50 with the Denver Broncos. He last played in 2016, with the Houston Texans, having previously reached the 2011 Pro Bowl with them.

And Nemanja Vidić was born in Uzice, Serbia. He was a dirty soccer player, and was the Captain of Manchester United. I don't think we need a 3rd reason to loathe him. He won a League title and 2 national cups with Red Star Belgrade. With Man U, he won 5 League titles and the 2008 UEFA Champions League. Now retired, he is married to a woman named Ana Ivanović, although it's not the tennis star of the same name.

Football was in midweek. The NBA season started 9 days later. There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Los Angeles Kings, 5-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Washington Capitals, 6-3 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Colorado Rockies played to a tie, 4-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Buffalo Sabres and the Winnipeg Jets played to a tie, 2-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Black Hawks played to a tie, 3-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Hartford Whalers, 5-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.