November 8, 2016: Donald Trump Is "Elected" President

November 8, 2016: A Presidential election is held. The Democratic Party's nominee for President was Hillary Clinton. She was, perhaps, the most qualified candidate the Presidency has ever had. The nation's First Lady for 8 years. A U.S. Senator for 8 years. The nation's Secretary of State for 4 years.

But some people could never forgive her for being a woman, for being a liberal, for being married to former President Bill Clinton, or for staying married to him through all his infidelities.

The Republican Party's nominee was Donald Trump. He was, beyond any question, the most underqualified candidate ever nominated for President by a major party. He had never held public office, either elective or appointive. He had never served in the armed forces, much less held a command in them, like some other men who were not previously politicians. This, alone, should have convinced people that he wasn't fit to be President.

As if that wasn't enough: He was a pathological liar, a known bigot, and a damn fool. Having grown up watching the New York local news, and having seen him on it for over 30 years, I could legitimately tell people that, in spite of being 70 years old, which would have made him the oldest first-time President ever to that point, he was not in mental decline: He was always an idiot.

Even the main argument in his favor, that he was a successful businessman, should have worked against him. For one thing, running a government -- national, state or local -- and running a business are two very different things. Businessmen don't know a damn thing about governing. In other words, even if Trump were a good person with good intentions, he would still have been a lousy President, because he wouldn't have known what the hell he was doing.

For another thing, he wasn't a successful businessman. He was a real estate mogul, and lost money on just about every building he built. He built and operated casinos, and lost money running them. How the hell do you lose money running a casino? And he bought a professional football team, the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League, and ended up destroying the entire league.

As they used to say on the TV show Match Game, Dumb Donald is so dumb!

But not completely dumb. He tapped into the anger that some people had at Hillary. And he let the nation's bigots -- whether they hated people because of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or any  other category -- know that he hated the same people, and would hurt those people at the benefit of those who hated them. It would be government by spite. Essentially, he was giving them permission to be openly bigoted again.

And there were enough people who ate that up that, when combined with those people who, whether they liked Trump personally or not, or whether they thought he was intelligent enough or mentally stable enough to be President or not, were going to vote for the Republican nominee no matter what, because they wanted tax cuts, deregulation and right-wing judges, that he had a chance.

In the election, Clinton won 65.8 million votes, to Trump's 62.9 million. She won 48.2 percent of the popular vote to Trump's 46.1 percent. Gary Johnson, a former Republican Governor of New Mexico, nominated by the Libertarian Party, won 4.5 million votes, or 3.3 percent. Jill Stein, a doctor and the nominee of the Green Party, openly appealed to the supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, who finished a distant 2nd to Clinton in the Democratic Primaries, and got 1.4 million votes, or 1.1 percent.

So, nearly 63 million people saw that he was unqualified, dishonest, stupid, and bigoted, and voted for him anyway. Or, as someone else put it, not everybody who voted for Trump considered themselves racist, but they knew that he was, even if they weren't willing to publicly admit that, and they did not consider that fact to be a dealbreaker.

But, fairly or not, it's the Electoral Vote that matters. Clinton won 20 States, plus the District of Columbia, for 232 Electoral Votes. Trump won 30 States, plus 1 Electoral Vote in Maine, for 306. In the end, there were "faithless electors" who voted for candidates other than those for whom he popular votes in their States said they should, so the final count was Trump 304, Clinton 227.

Two Electors in Texas refused to vote for Trump. One voted for a Republican former Congressman from that State, Ron Paul, who had run for President in 2008 and 2012, and whose son, Rand Paul, was now a Republican Senator from Kentucky, and had run for President in this election. Another voted for Governor John Kasich of Ohio, another of the Republicans that Trump had defeated in the 2016 Primaries. An Elector in Hawaii refused to vote for Clinton. Instead, he voted for Sanders.

And 4 Electors in the State of Washington refused to vote for Clinton. Three of them voted for former General and Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had considered running for President in 1996, and had endorsed Clinton in this election.

The other voted for Faith Spotted Eagle, at the time a 68-year-old member of the Yankton Sioux Nation in South Dakota, who had been among the leaders of the attempt to block oil pipelines being built through Native land in her State. She thus became the 1st Native American ever to receive an Electoral Vote, and along with Clinton 1 of the 1st 2 women to receive one. She had run for the State House of Representatives in 2006, coming in 3rd in a Democratic Primary, and went on to repeat this performance in 2018.

Trump won 6 States that the outgoing President, Democrat Barack Obama, won in 2012: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Florida. And some of those votes were close enough to be suspicious: Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes, Wisconsin by 22,748, and Pennsylvania by 44,292. 

Those 3 States were won by a total of 77,744 votes -- less than the seating capacity of MetLife Stadium. In Michigan, Johnson got 172,000 votes, Stein 51,000. In Wisconsin, Johnson 106,000, Stein 31,000. In Pennsylvania, Johnson 146,000, Stein 50,000.

Had Hillary gotten another 11,000 votes in Michigan, 23,000 in Wisconsin, and 45,000 in Pennsylvania, it would have swung the Electoral Vote in her favor, 278-260 (not counting faithless electors).

And as the votes climbed high into the night to light the sacrificial rite, I developed a headache. That's right: Donald Trump literally makes me sick.

Why did Hillary "lose"?

Say what you want about Trump, and I have. But, however despicable, his racist/populist campaign was very effective. It brought out people who had never voted before, because even the Republican nominees weren't bigoted enough for them. Had any other Republican been nominated, these people wouldn't have voted at all.

Trump also had outside help: Vladimir Putin and the Russian government, and Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks (pro-Russian, and therefore nicknamed "RusskiLeaks"), fabricated statements that spoke to the "Crooked Hillary" lie, and a bunch of gullible people believed it. Furthermore, Russians hacked America's voting machines. This is not, as Trump called it, a hoax: The U.S. Senate confirmed this. The Republican-controlled Senate, mind you.

Then there was James Comey. The Director of the FBI, in effect, turned the election with 2 weeks to go by revealing... nothing at all, but raising suspicions about Hillary. Comey went on to get fired by Trump anyway, for apparent disloyalty. He is the one guy who has gone through this who became hated by both sides.

Then there was the media. They were absolutely terrified of being called "liberal," and of the charge that the election was "rigged." So they weren't willing to call Trump out on his crimes and lies, as they had been against the many lies told by John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012.

Then there were those media outlets that actually promoted Trump, because they either had a financial interest in a close election, or actually wanted a conservative to be President, or wanted the "entertainment" of a Trump Presidency. For the ratings, therefore for the money. You know, like when the entertainer Ronald Reagan was in office. In each of these cases, you people know who you are. And we will not forget.

As usual, conservatives said CNN was against Trump. That's insane: They wanted Trump. But if Ted Turner -- who, I'd heard, was already not well -- were still running CNN, Trump would have been properly investigated well before he was going to make it official, and would have been arrested by the FBI when he got to the bottom of the damn escalator at his candidacy announcement at Trump Tower.

But the biggest culprits of all were the progressive purists. The people who wanted Sanders, but didn't go along with him when he endorsed Hillary. The people who voted for Stein instead. The people who voted for Johnson instead. The people who were stupid enough to actually consider Trump to be more progressive than Hillary. And the people who stayed home, and didn't vote at all. Stein's vote totals, let alone Johnson's, in what turned out to be the 3 key States -- Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin -- were greater than Trump's margin of victory.

"The left" -- a term conservatives throw around, as if they have a clue as to what it means -- does this at least once every generation:

* In 1948, they refused to vote for Harry Truman, and instead voted for Henry Wallace. That time, the Democratic nominee won anyway.

* In 1968, they didn't get Robert Kennedy or Gene McCarthy, so they refused to vote for Hubert Humphrey, a champion of liberalism for 25 years, and mostly stayed home. And we got Richard Nixon.

* In 1980, they didn't get Ted Kennedy or Jerry Brown, so they refused to vote for Jimmy Carter, and mostly stayed home. And we got Ronald Reagan.

* In 2000, they didn't get Ralph Nader, so they refused to vote for Al Gore, and either stayed home, or voted for Nader anyway. And we got George W. Bush.

* In 2016, they didn't get Bernie Sanders, so they refused to vote for Hillary Clinton, and either stayed home, or voted for Jill Stein. And we got Donald Trump.

In 1968, 1980, 2000 and 2016, each time, the left caused the election of the President who was the least like the one they wanted. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me four times, and I'm a progressive purist.

Hillary got more votes than any Presidential candidate had ever gotten, to that point, except for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. So don't tell me she was "unpopular." That is a lie. And don't tell me she was "a flawed candidate." They all are. And no candidate has ever been more flawed than Trump. Does the Democratic nominee have to be without flaws? It wouldn't matter: The Republicans would make flaws up. And Hillary proved to be more popular than he was. But the Constitution says Electoral Votes matter more, and those went for Trump -- suspiciously.

In spite of the vote for Trump, the Democrats actually gained 6 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and 2 seats in the U.S. Senate. Among the new Senators elected were Democrats Kamala Harris of California, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois; and Republican John Kennedy of Louisiana. He may have been a Senator named John Kennedy, but, to paraphrase the late Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, this Senator was no Jack Kennedy.

As they usually do with the winner of the Presidential election, Time magazine named Trump its Person of the Year for 2016.

On October 22, 2018, at a campaign rally, at the Toyota Center, home of the NBA's Houston Rockets, for the re-election of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas -- who, during the 2016 campaign, opposed Donald Trump, and Trump called his wife ugly and said that his father was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy -- Trump told the crowd, "You know what I am? I'm a nationalist. Okay? I'm a nationalist. Use that word. Use that word."

An idealist might say that he wanted to draw a contrast between himself and "globalists," people who want to bring the world together; that a "nationalist" was someone who was for his own country first. A cynic would say that "nationalist" was short for "white nationalist," and that "globalist" really means "Jew," and that both terms are bigoted.

The problem is that it doesn't really matter if Trump is bigoted: The bigots believe he is, and thus they believe that he's with them, and that's why they chose him. Therefore, either he is a bigot, which would be a terrible thing; or he isn't one, and he's just playing the bigots to gain and keep power, in the biggest confidence game in world history, which is a different, but still terrible, thing.

On May 31, 2017, I wrote the following:

It's almost June. Let's take a look at Donald Trump's report card, shall we?

Math: F. He doesn't know that tax cuts don't increase revenue.

English: F. His grammar and spelling are atrocious, and what's "covfefe," anyway? (He had just issued the tweet that contained that word. Although he was complaining about the "press," and could have meant "coverage," as of November 8, 2022, we still don't know for sure what it meant.)

Science: F. He denies that climate change is real.

History: F. He doesn't know that antagonizing allies is not a good thing. He doesn't know that allying with dictators is bad, too.

Civics: D. He seems to slightly grasp the fact that he needs Congress to pass his plans, but doesn't seem to understand that people, including journalists, are constitutionally entitled to question and criticize him.

Geography: F. He doesn't know that Israel is in the Middle East. He doesn't know that Palm Beach is not in D.C. He doesn't seem to know that Trump Tower is not in D.C., either, and, thus, neither is his wife. (This was before he used a Sharpie on a map to make a statement he made about a hurricane affecting Alabama as well as Florida "correct.")

Physical Education: F. We went from an athlete to... this.

Sex Education: F. He still hasn't learned that you don't grab a woman by any body part unless you have her consent.

Home Economics: F. Did he sew that toupee himself?

Arts: F. It's not that he has BAD taste, it's that he has NO taste. No wonder he once sold "Trump Vodka": Vodka has no taste, either! Also, it's Russian.

Recommendation: Expulsion. Granted, this won't teach him anything, either, but it will leave the country better off.

If you had told me on the night of November 8 into 9, 2016 that Trump's tenure in office would lead to the deaths of over 1 million Americans, I would have believed it. But I would have guessed it was due to some stupid war he got us into, not an epidemic that his supporters would have been too goddamned stupid to protect themselves from. I would have guessed they wouldn't have cared about protecting others, but not even themselves? They stockpile guns and food for self-preservation, but won't wear a mask for that reason? Dumb Donald is so dumb, but his fans are still dumber.

Now, Joe Biden is the President, and things are so much better, in every way. Some of the problems of the Trump Administration are still there. But at least now, we've got a government that's working on them.

More things in America have been named after Donald Trump than any President other than George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. However, he named most of them after himself, and before he went into active politics. There are no schools or roads in America named for him. And, after calling American servicemen who died in service to their country "losers" and "suckers," there will never be an American military base or ship named for him.

As of November 8, 2022, the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library only exists online. That is somewhat appropriate, since brick-and-mortar libraries, and museums, encourage learning, while Trump said, the day after his "win," "We won with the poorly educated. I love the poorly educated!"

(UPDATE: On September 30, 2025, it was announced that the library would be built at Miami Dade College's Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami.)

Trump followed Theodore Roosevelt as the 2nd President born in New York City, and Franklin Roosevelt as the most recent President born in, or representing, New York. But, infamously, he moved to Florida to take advantage of its lower taxes.

(UPDATE: Trump appointed Senator Marco Rubio, who ran against him in the 2016 Republican Presidential Primaries, to be Secretary of State in his 2nd term. This made Rubio Florida's highest-ranking politician ever.)

Trump played himself in movies and on TV shows before running for office. He was played by Alec Baldwin on Saturday Night Live from 2016 to 2020. Thereafter, on the show, James Austin Johnson played both Trump and Joe Biden.

In a Christmas 2013 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, Trump was played by "Nice" Peter Shukoff, in the Jacob Marley role. Ebenezer Scrooge was played by Zach Sherwin. The "three spirits" were played by "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist as J.P. Morgan, as "Christmas Past" (even though he would still have been in Scrooge's future); DeStorm Power as Kanye West, as "Christmas Present"; and Peter again as the Grim Reaper, as "Christmas Yet to Come."

But when Trump ran for President in 2016, it was Lloyd who played him, against Kimmy Gatewood as Hillary Clinton. In 2020, Lloyd played him again, against Peter as Joe Biden. (UPDATE: In 2024, Lloyd played Trump again, against Kimberly Michelle Vaughn as Kamala Harris.)

*

November 8, 2016, like all modern U.S. Election Days, was a Tuesday. The baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. These 6 games were played in the NBA that night:

* The Brooklyn Nets beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 119-110 at the Barclays Center. Andrew Wiggins scored 36 points for the T-Wolves, but Brook Lopez scored 26 to let the Nets to victory.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 110-106 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (It's now named the Rocket Arena.)

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Denver Nuggets, 108-107 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 109-97 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

* The Sacramento Kings beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 102-94 at the new Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. Anthony Davis scored 34 in defeat for the Pels.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Phoenix Suns, 124-121 at the Moda Center in Portland. Damian Lillard scored 38 to lead all NBA players on the night.

And there were 10 games played in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Carolina Panthers, 3-2 at the Prudential Center in Newark. The Devils won a game in a shootout. And yet, Trump's win made this only the 2nd-most-shocking event of the night. Certainly, I approved of this one a lot more.

* The New York Rangers lost to the Vancouver Canucks, 5-3 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2 in a shootout at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The San Jose Sharks beat the Washington Capitals, 3-0 at the Capital One Arena in Washington.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 3-2 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 7-0 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. (It's now named the Scotiabank Arena.)

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-3 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Ottawa Senators, 3-1 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Dallas Stars, 8-2 at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg. (It's now named the Canada Life Centre.)

* And the Arizona Coyotes beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-2 at the Pepsi Center in Denver. (It's now named the Ball Arena.)

November 2, 2016: The Chicago Cubs Win the World Series

November 2, 2016: To paraphrase Shirley Povich of The Washington Post, when the Brooklyn Dodgers finally did it 61 years earlier...

Please don't interrupt, because, unless you are over the age of 110, you have not heard this one before: The Chicago Cubs are the World Champions of baseball.

In the 1989 film Back to the Future Part II, the Cubs were shown winning the 2015 World Series, against a team from Miami with an alligator logo, obviously in the American League. It was meant as a joke, a very easy and cheap joke, because the Cubs never won the World Series. They never even won the Pennant. It seemed like a wild guess about the future, played for laughs.

It became less funny in 1991, when Miami was awarded an expansion team, to begin play in 1993, and to originally be known as the Florida Marlins, for the National League, making Cubs vs. Miami in the World Series impossible. It became considerably less funny in 2003, when a Cub collapse gave the Marlins the Pennant. And it became less funny still in the actual 2015, when the Cubs did make it to the NLCS, but lost to the New York Mets.

Somehow, in 2016, they bounced back, winning 103 game to take the NL Central Division, then beating the San Francisco Giants in the NLDS, and then beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS, to win their 1st Pennant since 1945. Or, as songwriter Steve Goodman, a Cubs fan who died during their ill-fated run to the 1984 Playoffs, put it...

You know the law of averages says

anything will happen that can.

But the last time the Cubs won a National League Pennant

was the year we dropped the bomb on Japan.

Their opponents in the World Series were the Cleveland Indians, who had the longest World Series drought in the AL: They hadn't won since 1948. This was their 4th Pennant in 68 years. Both teams were said to be "cursed." Only one could win. Something had to give.

In Cleveland, the Indians won Game 1, 6-0; but the Cubs won Game 2, 5-1. In Chicago, the Indians won Game 3, 1-0, and Game 4, 7-2. They only needed to win 1 more to end their curse, and extend the Cubs'. But the Cubs won Game 5, 3-2. Back in Cleveland, the Cubs won Game 6, 9-3, to tie the Series.

Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, played at Progressive Field in Cleveland. One team, looking to end a title drought of 108 years; the other, 68 years. Both having made too mainly painful memories for their fans in the interim. It was time for one of them to make one more, and for the other to finally put an end to such misery.

Dexter Fowler, Javier Baez and David Ross hit home runs for the Cubs, and Rajai Davis hit one for the Cleveland Indians. But the Cubs made 3 errors, the Indians 1. The Cubs blew leads of 1-0 in the 3rd inning, and 6-3 in the 8th, and their fans must have thought that it was never going to happen, even though they had already come back from being 3 games to 1 down in this Series.

The game went to extra innings, and then it rained. And home-field advantage hadn't meant much: The Indians had taken 2 of 3 in Wrigley, and the Cubs had, so far, taken 2 of 3 in Cleveland. So each of these seemingly cursed teams had, at least in theory, an equal chance.

Kyle Schwarber led off the top of the 10th with a single, and was replaced by pinch-runner Albert Almora. Kris Bryant flew out to center, but Almora got gutsy, and tagged up and got to 2nd. Anthony Rizzo was walked intentionally to set up the double play, but the strategy didn't work: Ben Zobrist hit an RBI double into the left field corner, the biggest hit in the Cubs' 142-season history. Addison Russell was walked intentionally, and Miguel Montero singled him home to make it 8-6. Cub fans could feel it finally happening after 108 years.

But the Indians weren't going down without a fight. In the bottom of the 10th, after Carl Edwards Jr. pitched the Cubs to within 1 out of glory, he walked Brandon Guyer, who took 2nd on defensive indifference.

Davis singled him home to make it 8-7, and Cub fans were staring at the choke to end all chokes, the Billy Goatiest Curse of the Billy Goat ever. But manager Joe Maddon brought Mike Montgomery on to relieve, and he got Michael Martinez to ground to 3rd, and Bryant threw him out to end it.

Going in, I had no preference as to which team won. Both sets of fans had waited long enough, and had endured too much. I just wanted the story of the game to be a hero, not a goat (a terrible mistake) or a villain (an umpire making a bad call).

Zobrist and Montgomery were the heroes for the Cubs. This was not one of the greatest games of all time. Indeed, it was sloppy, as if neither team really wanted to win, when both teams really had to win.

But it was great theater. And providing such theater on a regular basis is why baseball is the greatest game of them all.

Thankfully, Cub fans did not follow up the end to their drought by acting like bastards, the way Red Sox fans did after 2004 and New York Ranger fans did after 1994.

It was 6 days before the Presidential election. Barack Obama was still President. There was a terrible possibility that Donald Trump would defeat Hillary Clinton, and plunge America into 4 years of nightmare, but if the Cubs -- of whom Hillary once claimed to be a fan -- could win the World Series, then we could avoid a Trump Presidency, right?

We didn't. The Cubs' World Series win was the last good moment of a good age. Before the dark times.

One more note: Ever since the WGN-nationally-televised Ryne Sandberg and Rick Sutcliffe Division title season of 1984, even when the crosstown Chicago White Sox are doing well on the field, and the Cubs aren't, the Cubs aren't, the Cubs have had a higher attendance. The White Sox last won the American League Pennant in 1959, more recently than the Cubs' most recent NL Pennant; broke the Playoff drought before the Cubs did, in 1983; and won the Pennant and the World Series before the Cubs did, in 2005. But the White Sox have always gotten short shrift from the Chicago media and fans. Even in 2005, and in 2006, when there should have been some spillover effect, the Cubs did better in attendance.

So it should have been clear that the following move was a really, really dumb one on the White Sox' part: During the 2016 World Series, they announced that the naming rights to their ballpark had been bought from telecommunications company U.S. Cellular, by insurance company Guaranteed Rate. What had opened in 1991 as the new Comiskey Park would now be named Guaranteed Rate Field. (UPDATE: In 2025, it was changed to simply "Rate Field.") Doing this while the Cubs were in the World Series was a major public relations blunder, and reminded everyone of why the South Siders will always be the second team in the "Second City."

UPDATE: The Cubs have a team Hall of Fame. Through the 2025 season, the only figure Inducted from their 2016 team has been pitcher Jon Lester, unless you also want to count broadcaster Pat Hughes.

*

November 2, 2016 was a Wednesday. No more baseball that counted until the following April. No football. But there were 10 NBA games played:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Houston Rockets, 118-99 at Madison Square Garden. James Harden scored 30 points for the Rockets. Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks with 21.

* The Brooklyn Nets beat the Detroit Pistons, 109-101 at the Barclays Center. Brook Lopez scored 34 for the home team.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Chicago Bulls, 107-100 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Washington Wizards, 113-103 at the Capital One Arena in Washington. DeMar DeRozan scored 40 for the Raps, while John Wall got 33 for the Wiz. But, on this night, somebody beat the Wiz. 

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 109-93 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte -- not to be confused with the 76ers' former arena, which was known as The Spectrum.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 123-116 at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta. For the Hawks, Dwight Howard scored 31, and Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 26, but it wasn't enough.

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 89-83 in overtime, at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 118-115 in overtime, at the Talking Stick Resort (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Dallas Mavericks, 97-81 at the Vivint Arena (now again named the Delta Center) in Salt Lake City. 

 

* And the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 85-83 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles. Russell Westbrook scored 35 for the victorious visitors.

There were 3 games played in the NHL:

* The Montreal Canadiens broke a 3-game losing streak, beating the Vancouver Canucks, 3-0 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Jakob Vorasek scored the winning goal with 3:19 left in overtime.

* And the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Anaheim Ducks, 5-1 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

October 28, 2016: James Comey Kneecaps Hillary Clinton

October 28, 2016: James Comey, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, sends a letter to members of Congress, advising them that the FBI was reviewing more emails written by, and to, the Democratic Party's nominee for President, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Members of Congress revealed the information to the public within minutes.

It may have made all the difference in the election, throwing it to the nominee of the Republican Party: A spectacularly failed businessman with no political experience, of malignant narcissism, of disgusting racism, of unacceptable misogyny, and compromised in disastrous ways. His name was Donald Trump.

Trump won 306 Electoral Votes, Clinton 232 -- although, with "faithless electors" kicking in, it turned out to be 304-227 in Trump's favor. Trump won Michigan by less than 11,000 votes, Wisconsin by less than 23,000, and Pennsylvania by less than 45,000. Had those 3 States gone the other way, presuming no faithless electors, the Electoral Vote would have been 278-260 in Clinton's favor.

To borrow a term Trump would appreciate, given his love of the Mob: Comey kneecapped Clinton.

And how did Trump thank Comey for this? By firing him.

James Comey ended up as the one figure from the 2016 Presidential election who was hated by both sides -- although, in the Republicans' case, it was for what he did after it.

*

October 28, 2016 was a Friday. Game 3 of the World Series was played, the 1st World Series game played at Wrigley Field in 71 years. The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago Cubs, 1-0. Coco Crisp singled Michael Martínez home with the game's only run in the top of the 7th inning. Josh Tomlin, Andrew Miller (winning pitcher), Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen combined on a 5-hit shutout. But the Cubs won the World Series in Game 7.

There were 3 games in college football:

* Number 22 Navy were upset by the University of South Florida, 52-45 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

* San Diego State beat Utah State, 40-13 at Maverik Stadium in Logan, Utah.

* And the Air Force Academy beat Fresno State, 31-21 at Bulldog Stadium in Fresno, California.

There were 8 games in the NBA:

* The Brooklyn Nets beat the Indiana Pacers, 103-94 at the Barclays Center.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Miami Heat, 97-91 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 122-114 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. Anthony Davis scored 45 points in defeat.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Orlando Magic, 108-82 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Toronto Raptors, 94-91 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Phoenix Suns, 113-110 in overtime at the Chesapeake Energy Arena (now the Paycom Center) in Oklahoma City. Russell Westbrook scored 51 points.

* The Houston Rockets beat their arch-rivals, the Dallas Mavericks, 106-98 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* And the Utah Jazz beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 96-89 at the Vivint Smart Home Arena (as the Delta Center was then known) in Salt Lake City, Utah.

There were 6 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-2 at the PNC Arena (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2 at the Prudential Center. Artem Anisimov scored the winning goal, 3:45 into overtime.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Colorado Avalanche, 1-0 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Ottawa Senators, 5-2 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-0 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 2-0 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

And in New Jersey high school football, my Alma Mater, East Brunswick in Middlesex County, lost away to Freehold Township in Monmouth County, 36-21.

October 7, 2016: The Trump "Access Hollywood" Tape Is Released

Left to right: Billy Bush, Donald Trump and Arianne Zucker

October 7, 2016: It is 32 days until the Presidential election, between the Democratic Party's nominee, Hillary Clinton, former First Lady, Senator from New York, and Secretary of State; and the Republican Party's nominee, Donald Trump, a man with no political experience, and whose experience as a billionaire businessman was built on lies -- for example, the lie that he was a billionaire, rather than a billion dollars in debt.

The Washington Post releases a videotape from a never-aired interview on the NBC show Access Hollywood that correspondent Billy Bush -- a cousin of then-President George W. Bush -- did of The Apprentice star Donald Trump on September 16, 2005. On the tape, Trump and Bush are on a tour bus, outside the Hollywood studio where NBC taped the soap opera Days of Our Lives. Arianne Zucker, one of the show's stars, was waiting to greet them.

While waiting for the signal to get off the bus, Trump started talking about Bush's co-host on Access Hollywood, Nancy O'Dell:

I moved on her, and I failed. I'll admit it. I did try and fuck her. She was married. And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, "I'll show you where they have some nice furniture." I took her out furniture -- I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn't get there. And she was married. Then, all of a sudden, I see her, she's now got the big phony tits and everything. She's totally changed her look.

That was bad enough. But there's a difference between sounding like a sexist pig who cheats on his wife, which Trump was already known to be; and sounding like a violent criminal. As they got ready to get off the bus, Trump started talking about Zucker, and then confessed to committing sexual assault on multiple occasions:

I better use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful -- I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything.

Zucker was also married at the time, to her co-star, Kyle Lowder. They have since divorced.

NBC kept the tape hidden, because Trump's reality show, The Apprentice, meant big ratings, and thus big money, for them. At the time, the tape would have destroyed Trump, and ruined the show.

But by the time the tape was released, Trump was the Republican nominee for President, running against a woman. It should have destroyed him.

Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Republicans' 2012 nominee for Vice President, canceled a campaign appearance with him set for the next day, saying in a released statement, "I am sickened by what I heard today. Women are to be championed and revered, not objectified."

In a televised interview, Senator Mike Lee of Utah directed these words at Trump: "Step down. Allow someone else to carry the banner of these principles, rather than weighing down the very principles that will help us win in November." And Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus told Trump, "You need to step aside, or you are going to suffer a historic landslide of a defeat."

Trump released this statement: "This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course -- not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended."

Of course: The classic "if anyone was offended" apology, when he knew damn well that millions of people, including millions in his own Party, were offended. Equally "of course": "Whataboutism," bringing the opposition, and in particular his opponent's husband, the former President, into it.

Trump was lying, of course. There is no way in hell that Bill Clinton would say something worse than what Trump said. You gotta be an actual Ku Klux Klansman to say something worse than that.

Trump doubled down. In a televised interview that night, he said, "Bill Clinton has actually abused women. And Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims."

Bill Clinton is the most-investigated President in American history, much more so than Trump was while in office. There is no proof that Clinton has ever abused a woman.

Trump did not give a damn what the truth was. He knew that there were millions of people in America who would believe every word he said, because he had given them permission to be bigoted in public again, and they were grateful to him for this, to the point of near-worship.

He also knew that there were millions of people in America who wanted tax cuts for the rich, deregulation of business, an end to civil rights progress, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade; and that they wanted these things so much, that they would vote for the Devil himself if he were the Republican nominee for President.

Campaigning in the Iowa Caucuses on January 23, 2016, Trump said, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" He didn't say he wouldn't be arrested. He said he wouldn't lose any voters. And he was probably right about that.

The one thing Trump believed could stop him is if he stopped himself. He saw dropping out of the race as a sign of weakness. And the appearance of weakness was the one thing he hated more than nonwhite people. So he made himself look defiant, bullish, strong, standing up to his enemies.

The RNC could have removed him from the ticket. They gambled that they had a better chance of winning with him than without him.

Trump's wife Melania said, "The words my husband used are unacceptable and offensive to me. This does not represent the man that I know." She added that she hoped "people will accept his apology, as I have." Only she knew for sure whether she was telling the truth at that moment.

Things actually got worse for Trump that day: U.S. intelligence agencies publicly accused the Russian government of using computer hacking to interfere with the U.S. election process. Trump had previously invited them to do it: At a news conference the preceding July 27, he said, "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."

And, also on October 7, WikiLeaks -- run by convicted rapist Julian Assange, who had ties to Russia -- released thousands of private emails from inside the Clinton campaign. And that may have, literally, made all the difference in the world: It gave a little more life to Trump's claims of his opponent as "Crooked Hillary," even though there was nothing in the emails that suggested any criminal activity on her part.

Two nights later, there was a Presidential debate, at Washington University in St. Louis, which had hosted such debates before. Trump not only invited, but held a press conference with, and seated in the front row of the debate, 3 women who had previously accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct: Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Juanita Broaddrick, all of whose accusations had been proven false. Interestingly, he did not invite Monica Lewinsky, whose story, which did not include any form of abuse on the President's part, was proven true. Or, if he did invite her, she turned him down.

The idea of putting those women in the front row was that Hillary would have seen them, been reminded of Bill's cheating on her, and been thrown off her game. She wasn't: As she did in the other 2 debates, she kicked his ass.

Nevertheless, Trump again reiterated his lies about Bill, and his lies about Hillary, and his lies about the Democrats, and his lies about himself. And the rubes bought it. As the historian Will Durant put it, "You can't fool all of the people all of the time, but you can fool enough of them to be elected the leader of a country."

As a result of the tape being released, the only person who had to step down from any role was Billy Bush, who did nothing wrong -- except, I suppose, remain silent about the tape for 11 years. By 2016, he was a correspondent on NBC's The Today Show, and he had to resign that post. In 2019, he was back on the air, on another show-business-themed show, Extra! -- which had been on NBC, but had since moved to, of course, Fox.

*

October 7, 2016 was a Friday. The NBA and NHL seasons were about to start. There were 4 college football games:

* Number 3 Clemson beat Boston College, 56-10 at Alumni Stadium in the Boston suburb of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

* Number 19 Boise State beat New Mexico, 49-21 at University Stadium in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

* Old Dominion beat the University of Massachusetts, 36-16 at S.B. Ballard Stadium in Norfolk, Virginia.

* And the University of Tulsa beat Southern Methodist (SMU), 43-40 at Skelly Field in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

And Major League Baseball had begun its Division Series:

* Both American League series were in Game 2. The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers, 5-3 at Globe Life Park (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. The Jays completed the sweep 2 days later.

* And the Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-0 at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Corey Kluber (7 innings) and 2 relievers completed a 3-hit shutout. The Indians completed the sweep 3 days later, and beat the Jays for the Pennant.

* Both National League series were in Game 1. The Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 1-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Jon Lester pitched 8 innings of 5-hit shutout ball. The Cubs went on to win the series, 3 games to 1.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Washington Nationals, 4-3 at Nationals Park in Washington. Clayton Kershaw outpitched Max Scherzer. The series would go the full 5 games, before the Dodgers won it. The Cubs beat them for their 1st Pennant in 71 years, then beat the Indians for their 1st World Series win in 108 years.

October 5, 2016: The NHL's Youngest Captain

October 5, 2016: Connor McDavid, about to start his 2nd season in the NHL, is named Captain by the Edmonton Oilers. He is 19 years, 8 months and 23 days old. This makes him the youngest Captain in NHL history.

Steve Yzerman had been named Captain of the Detroit Red Wings in 1985, at 21. There wasn't much leadership available: The Detroit franchise had been bad for years, known as the Dead Things. He led them back to respectability in the early 1990s, winning 3 Stanley Cups, and putting in place a team that, after his retirement, won a 4th.

Sidney Crosby had been named Captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins at the start of the 2007-08 season, at just past 20. That seemed to be a pandering, as he was already being heavily promoted as the next great NHL star. But he got the Penguins to the Finals, losing to the Wings in their 4th Cup in their run. In 2009, Crosby got them over the hump, beating the Wings, and then won the Cup again in 2016 and 2017.

It remains to be seen whether McDavid can do something similar with the Oilers. Through the 2021-22 season, he has been one of the top players in the game, and has led them to the Playoffs in 4 out of his 6 seasons "wearing the C." In 2022, they got to the Western Conference Finals. He's 25. He has time.

*

October 5, 2016 was a Wednesday. There was only one score on this historic day: The National League Wild Card Game was played. The New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants were tied 0-0 after 8 innings at Citi Field, a scorching pitching duel between Noah Syndergaard and Madison Bumgarner.

But Met manager Terry Collins brought Jeurys Familia in to pitch the top of the 9th, and he blew it, allowing a leadoff double to Brandon Crawford, striking out Angel Paga, walking Joe Panik, and giving up a home run to Conor Gillaspie. Giant manager Bruce Bochy trusted "MadBum" to finish the shutout, which he did with ease. Giants 3, Mets 0.

October 2, 2016: Vin Scully Signs Off

October 2, 2016: Vin Scully ends his 67-season MLB broadcasting career by calling his last game for the Los Angeles Dodgers, against their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco. It ends in disappointment for L.A., as the Giants win, 7-1.

Scully had been with the Dodgers for 17 postseason appearances, 13 trips to the World Series, and all 5 of their World Championships to that point. He had called games for 12 Hall-of-Famers (as of the 2022 election). He had seen 9 National League Most Valuable Player awards, 12 Cy Young Awards, 14 Rookies of the Year, 43 Gold Gloves, and 15 no-hitters by his team and 13 against it.

He had called games during the Administrations of 12 Presidents (nearly 13), 2 British monarchs, 7 Popes, and 9 Commissioners of Baseball. He had called games through Brooklyn's urban decline, Los Angeles' massive growth, the Red Scare, the Korean War, the Civil Rights Movement, the dawn of the Space Age, the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, the Kennedy and King assassinations, race riots (including in Los Angeles in 1965 and 1992), the Moon landings, Watergate, inflation,  the Iran Hostage Crisis, the Space Shuttle era, Iran-Contra, the end of the Cold War, the Persian Gulf War, the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the Millennium, 9/11, the War On Terror and the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina.

He has seen Los Angeles through the constant building of new houses and freeways, smog, earthquakes, wildfires, droughts, landslides and mudslides. He had seen the Lakers and the Clippers move in, the debuts of the Kings and the Ducks, the Raiders move in and out, and the Rams move out and back in. He had broadcast through 8 Governors of California (9, if you count Jerry Brown twice), and 7 Mayors of Los Angeles.

He had called games when O.J. Simpson was a kid in San Francisco, a star college football player in Los Angeles, a star pro football player in Buffalo, a star actor in Los Angeles, a criminal defendant in Los Angeles, a pariah in Miami, and a State prisoner in Las Vegas.

He had called games through MLB's expansion from 16 teams in the Northeast and Midwest to 30 teams coast-to-coast, border-to-over-the-border, the rise of artificial turf and multipurpose stadiums, 5 work stoppages that interrupted regular-season play, the rise of the designated hitter, the end of the reserve clause and the start of free agency, and the addition not merely of black players but of Hispanic ones, Asians, Australians and Dutch-South Americans. (Watered-down talent pool? Ha!)

He had been there for Carl Erskine's 14 strikeouts in a World Series game against the Yankees, and Sandy Koufax's 15 strikeouts in a World Series game against the Yankees. He had been there for Koufax's perfect game for the Dodgers and Don Larsen's, Tom Browning's and Dennis Martinez's against them. He had been there for Don Drysdale's record scoreless innings streak of 58 2/3rds, and he had broadcast alongside Drysdale when Orel Hershiser broke that record with 59, 20 years later.

He had been there for legendary home runs by Bobby Thomson in 1951, Hank Aaron in 1974, Reggie Jackson in 1977, Rick Monday in 1981, Ozzie Smith and Jack Clark in 1985, Kirk Gibson in 1988, David Justice in 1991, and Barry Bonds in 2001 -- all but Monday's and Gibson's against the Dodgers. He saw the Dodgers win on "Black Friday" against the Philadelphia Phillies in 1977, and on "Blue Monday" against the Montreal Expos. in 1981.

He saw Fernandomania, Nomomania and Mannywood. He saw Glenn Burke and Dusty Baker invent the high five. He saw manager Tommy Lasorda, who so often spoke of the Dodgers as a "family," dump Burke, because he was baseball's 1st sort-of openly gay player. And he saw the Dodgers accept Southern California's huge gay community by celebrating Pride Days.

He watched Jackie Robinson and Maury Wills redefine baserunning; and he watched Sandy Koufax, Mike Marshall and Tommy John, each in their own way, redefine pitching. He saw Edwin Snider, whose hair turning white early got him nicknamed Duke; Don Sutton, with his 1970s perm; Steve Garvey, with his 1970s "helmet hair"; and Manny Ramirez, with his greasy dreadlocks.

He broadcast for the Dodgers in Brooklyn and Los Angeles; against the Giants in New York and San Francisco; against the Braves in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta; against the Expos in Montreal and after their move as the Nationals in Washington. He broadcast World Series games in Brooklyn, The Bronx, the South Side of Chicago, the suburbs of Minneapolis, Baltimore, Oakland, and, of course, Los Angeles, first in South Central at the Coliseum, and then sort-of downtown at Dodger Stadium.

He broadcast games at Shibe Park in Philadelphia and Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, which opened in 1909; and at LoanDepot Park in Miami, which opened in 2012 and is one of several ballparks that could, conceivably, still be used in the 22nd Century. He broadcast at a time when Connie Mack, who was born in 1862 and first played in the major leagues in 1884, was still managing; and he broadcast games pitched by Julio Urías, who was born in 1996 and, if he becomes a star, could still be pitching in the late 2030s. (UPDATE: That may turn out to be a bad example. Urías spent the 2023 season dealing with a domestic violence issue, and may never pitch again. A better example would be Yoán Moncada, who was born in 1995, debuted in the majors in 2016, and became something of a star.)

It is sometimes said that Scully broadcast a game managed by Mack. Since the Dodgers and the Philadelphia Athletics were in different leagues, and this was long before Interleague Play, and the A's won no Pennants between 1931 (in Philadelphia) and 1972 (in Oakland), it would only have been possible in Spring Training. Therefore, if it happened, it doesn't count.

He broadcast games played by David Russell "Gus" Bell, his son David Gus "Buddy" Bell, and Buddy's sons David Michael Bell and Michael John Bell. He broadcast games played by Ray Boone, his son Bob Boone, and Bob's sons Bret Boone and Aaron Boone. (The 3 Joe Colemans don't count, because Joe Sr. never played in the National League, though Joe Jr. and Joseph III, a.k.a. Casey Coleman, did.)

Vin Scully died on August 2, 2022. He was 94 years old.

*

October 2, 2016 was a Sunday. These other Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 5-2 at Yankee Stadium. Brian McCann hit a home run, but Matt Wieters took Luis Cessa deep, and Cessa didn't get out of the 6th inning.

It is the last major league game for Mark Teixeira, who had announced his retirement at age 36. He went 0-for-3, grounding to short in the 2nd inning, grounding to 2nd in the 4th, flying out to center in the 6th, and was replaced at 1st base by Tyler Austin in the 7th. Teix retired with a .268 lifetime batting average, 1,862 hits including 409 home runs, 3 All-Star berths, 5 Gold Gloves, and a World Series ring in 2009.

A native of the Baltimore suburb of Severna Park, Maryland, Oriole fans wanted him to sign with them when his contract with the Texas Rangers ran out after the 2008 season. Instead, he became a "rent-a-player" with the Atlanta Braves, and then accepted the Yankees' money. Oriole fans booed him on every visit thereafter, including this last one.

* The New York Mets lost to their arch-rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-2 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Maikel Franco went 4-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Boston Red Sox, 2-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. It was the last game for David Ortiz, and the Red Sox' DH went 0-for-4. I guess he'd used up the last of his steroids already.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Miami Marlins, 10-7 at Nationals Park in Washington.

* Despite being only 20 seasons old, Turner Field in Atlanta hosts its last game as the home of the Atlanta Braves. Fitting the Braves' historical reputation (since 1991, anyway), their pitching carries the day, as they beat the Detroit Tigers in an Interleague game, 1-0. Julio Teherán started, went 7 innings, and allowed no runs on 3 hits, 1 walk and 12 strikeouts. Freddie Freeman's sacrifice fly drove in Ender Inciarte with the only run.

The Braves moved into SunTrust Park, since renamed Truist Park, in Cumberland, Georgia, in Atlanta's northwestern suburbs. Turner Field was converted into CenterParc Stadium, home football field of Georgia State University, with an official seating capacity of 24,333, although the upper deck could be opened in the event that Georgia State becomes good enough to attract more fans than that.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-4 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-3 at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago. Later that month, the stadium was renamed Guaranteed Rate Field. In 2025, it was renamed simply Rate Field.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 10-4 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Texas Rangers, 6-4 at Globe Life Park (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. In the top of the 10th inning, Tanner Scheppers loaded the bases, threw a wild pitch, and gave up a double to Curt Casall for the winning runs.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Colorado Rockies, 6-4 at Coors Field in Denver. Andrew Susac hit a home run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the San Diego Padres, 3-2 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Houston Astros, 8-1 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Seattle Mariners, 3-2 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle.

This being a Sunday, there were also NFL games played:

* The New York Jets lost to the Seattle Seahawks, 27-17 at MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the New England Patriots, 16-0 at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts. It was a false dawn: The Bills finished 7-9, while the Patriots went on to win another Super Bowl *.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the Baltimore Ravens, 28-27 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Cleveland Browns, 31-20 at FedEx Field (now Northwest Stadium) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Carolina Panthers, 48-33 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Like the Braves, the Falcons were moving into a new stadium the next season, even though they hadn't shared a stadium with the Braves since 1991. They moved into Mercedes-Benz Stadium, right next-door, as opposed to the suburbs.

* The Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Indianapolis Colts, 30-27 at EverBank Field (now EverBank Stadium) in Jacksonville.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 27-7 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

* The Houston Texans beat the Tennessee Titans, 27-20 at NRG Stadium (as Reliant Stadium was then known) in Houston. The Titans were the Houston Oilers from 1960 to 1996.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 43-14 at Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium) in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Detroit Lions, 17-14 at the new Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Arizona Cardinals, 17-13 at University of Phoenix Stadium (now State Farm Stadium) in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the San Francisco 49ers, 24-17 at Levi's Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Santa Clara, California.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the San Diego Chargers, 35-34 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

* The preceding Thursday night, the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Miami Dolphins, 22-7 at Paul Brown Stadium (now Paycor Stadium) in Cincinnati.

* The next night, on ESPN Monday Night Football, the Minnesota Vikings beat the New York Giants, 24-10 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

* And the Green Bay Packers and the Philadelphia Eagles had a bye week.

And in English soccer, North London team Arsenal went into Lancashire, and beat Burnley, 1-0 at Turf Moor.

September 10, 2016: American Football's Biggest Crowd

September 10, 2016: The biggest crowd in the history of American football, at any level, is recorded. And not at a place known for hosting the sport.

The University of Tennessee is in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Virginia Polytechnic Institute, a.k.a. Virginia Tech, is in Blacksburg, Virginia. Their stadiums are 237 miles apart, separated by Interstates 81 and 40. However, they are not rivals, because they are in different leagues: Tennessee are in the Southeastern Conference (the SEC), Tech in the Atlantic Coast Conference (the ACC).

Perhaps the fact that they are not rivals made this neutral-site game easier to set up. Tech's Lane Stadium seats 65,632. Tennessee's Neyland Stadium seats 101,915. But they set up a game against each other at a racetrack, the Bristol Motor Speedway, in Bristol, Tennessee, 110 miles from Neyland Stadium, 138 miles from Lane Stadium, and 7 miles from the Virginia/Tennessee State Line that Bristol straddles. (Bristol, Virginia is home to 17,000 people; Bristol, Tennessee, to 26,000.)

The Speedway opened in 1961, is a regular on the NASCAR "short track" circuit, and is known as "The World's Fastest Half Mile." Officially, it seats 153,000. But when the Tennessee Volunteers and the Virginia Tech Hokies played each other there on September 10, 2016, the attendance was a new record for a game of the sport the rest of the world calls "American football": 156,990.

The current NFL record is 112,376, for an exhibition game at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City in 1994. The Houston Oilers beat the Dallas Cowboys, 6-0. The biggest crowd for a regular-season game was 105,121 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on September 20, 2009. The Cowboys lost this one, too, to the New York Giants, 33-31.

Here's what the 156,990 at "The Battle at Bristol" saw. Tech scored 2 touchdowns in the 1st quarter, for a 14-0 lead. The Volunteers took over from there, scoring 31 unanswered points: 4 touchdowns and a field goal, making it 31-14. The Hokies added a field goal to close it to within 31-17 at the end of 3 quarters.

The Vols scored 2 more touchdowns in the 4th quarter. The Hokies added a touchdown, but that would be it: Tennessee 45, Virginia Tech 24. Tech football is known for 2 things: Michael Vick and good defense. On this night, they had neither.

Tennessee went 9-4, staying at home for the postseason, winning the Music City Bowl in Nashville. Virginia Tech went 10-4, winning the Coastal Division of the ACC, losing the ACC Championship Game to Clemson, and winning the Belk Bowl (now the Duke's Mayo Bowl) in Charlotte.

*

September 10, 2016 was a Saturday. These other notable college football games were played that day:

* Number 1 Alabama beat Western Kentucky, 38-10 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

* Number 2 Clemson beat Troy, 30-24 at Clemson Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina.

* Number 3 Florida State beat Charleston Southern at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida.

* Number 4 Ohio State beat the University of Tulsa, 48-3 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.

* Number 5 Michigan beat Central Florida, 51-14 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

* Number 6 University of Houston beat Lamar University, 42-0 at TDECU Stadium in Houston.

* Number 8 University of Washington beat Idaho, 59-14 at Husky Stadium in Seattle.

* Number 9 Georgia beat Nicholls State, 26-24 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia.

* Number 10 Wisconsin beat the University of Akron, 54-1 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.

* Number 15 Texas Christian (TCU) were upset by Arkansas at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.

* Number 22 Oklahoma State were upset by Central Michigan, 30-27 at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

* In a major rivalry, the University of Pittsburgh beat Penn State, 42-39 at Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium) in Pittsburgh.

* Among the service academies, Army beat Rice, 31-14 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York; Navy beat the University of Connecticut, 28-24 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland; and Air Force beat Georgia State, 48-14 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

* And Rutgers beat Howard University, 52-14 at High Points Solutions Stadium (now SHI Stadium) in Piscataway, New Jersey.

It was a little early for the NBA and NHL seasons to start. But these baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 5-1 at Yankee Stadium. Masahiro Tanaka was the winning pitcher, and home runs were hit by two men who became pariahs among Yankee Fans, Jacoby Ellsbury and Gary Sánchez.

* The New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves, 4-3 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. Adonis Garcia singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-0 at Nationals Park in Washington. How many Nats pitchers does it take to pitch a 5-hit shutout? This time, 4: Max Scherzer, 6 2/3rds innings; Marc Rzepczynski, 1 inning; Shawn Kelley, 1/3rd of an inning, faced only one batter, but, because he was their pitcher when the Nats took the lead, on a 3-run home run by Bryce Harper in the bottom of the 8th, he was credited as the winning pitcher; and Mark Melancon, who got the save.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Miami Marlins, 5-0 at Marlins Park (now LoanDepot Park) in Miami. How many Dodger pitchers does it take to pitch a 2-hit shutout? Also 4. At least this time, the starter got the win: Rich Hill pitched 7 no-hit innings, before manager Dave Roberts replaced him with Joe Blanton, who allowed a hit in the 8th; Grant Dayton allowed a hit in the 9th, and Kenley Jansen got the last out.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-2 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat their arch-rivals, the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-7 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-3 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-5 at U.S. Cellular Field (soon to be renamed Guaranteed Rate Field, and now named just Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians, 2-1 at Target Field in Minneapolis. Joe Mauer singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 12th inning.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-1 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Houston Astros beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-1 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 11-3 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Colorado Rockies, 6-3 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Los Angeles Angels, 8-5 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics, 14-3 at the Oakland Coliseum.

And in English soccer, Arsenal beat Hampshire team Southampton, 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium in North London.

September 1, 2016: Colin Kaepernick Takes a Knee

September 1, 2016: The San Francisco 49ers beat the San Diego Chargers, 31-21 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, in their last preseason game. Like any preseason game, the result doesn't matter. This time, it mattered less than ever.

Instead of standing while the National Anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," was played before the game, 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick got down on one knee for the duration of the song.

He did this in protest of the many recent cases of police brutality. This earned him a bit of praise, and also a lot of nasty blowback from racists, who said he was "disgracing the Anthem" and "disgracing the American flag."

These people were not idiots: They were liars. It didn't have a damned thing to do with the flag. It has to do with white cops murdering unarmed black suspects who have been convicted of nothing, and knowing they will get away with it, because the men in power let them get away with it.

But they managed to redefine his protest, so that people didn't get the message that police brutality was a problem.

As a result, nothing changed. That was my only problem with the gesture: It didn't work. But he kept on doing it long after it became obvious that racist cops were still going to beat, and sometimes even murder, unarmed black people.

The people who attacked Kaepernick for his protest were not only disrespecting the 1st Amendment, one of the biggest things for which the flag stands. If they didn't respect his right, then the flag they claimed to love so much means nothing. By attacking Kaepernick for his protest, they were endorsing the cold-blooded murder of unarmed black people by white cops.

See? That's an extreme way to put it, but such a thing works both ways. If Kap is "un-American," then those people were racist. Or, they could have simply admitted that Kap has a point, and try to take that point away from him, by taking steps to solve the problem. That way, everybody would have won. Except the actual racists.

The 49ers went on to have a horrible season, 2-14. Statistically, Kaepernick wasn't much below what he had previously done, including taking the 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII in the 2012 season. In 2016, he completed 59.2 percent of his passes, for 2,241 yards, 16 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions. He also rushed for 468 yards. The position of quarterback was not the 49ers' problem.

Their defense was the problem: Following a 28-0 win over the Los Angeles Rams in their regular-season opener, they allowed the 6-10 Carolina Panthers to score 46, the 7-9 Buffalo Bills to score 45, the 7-9 New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons to each score 41, the Seattle Seahawks to score 37, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to score 34, the Arizona Cardinals to score 33, the Miami Dolphins to score 31, and the New England Patriots to score 30.

Their only other win came near the end of the season, also over the 4-12 Rams, on Christmas Eve. Of their 14 losses, only 5 were within 7 points, so even if they'd won all of those, they still would have been 7-9 and missed the Playoffs. Head coach Chip Kelly and general manager Trent Baalke were both fired.

On New Year's Day, January 1, 2017, with Donald Trump, who called Kapernick "that son of a bitch" in a public speech, having ridden a wave of bigotry -- and Russian meddling -- to become President-elect, the 49ers lost their season finale to the Seahawks, 25-23. Kaepernick completed 17 out of 22 passes, for 215 yards, throwing a touchdown pass, and no interceptions. He was 29 years old, hardly old for a quarterback.

He has never thrown another professional pass, in any league on Earth. You see, in the NFL, you can do anything you want, as long as you don't embarrass your team or the League. Once you do that, they are done with you. And Kaepernick had embarrassed the National Football League. Other leagues, such as the Canadian Football League, didn't want him to do the same to theirs, so they didn't sign him, either.

He wasn't banned, he was -- pardon the choice of word, which originally had nothing to do with race -- blackballed. As Mike Lupica insinuated in his column in the New York Daily News, every single team organization in the NFL, some of whom desperately needed improvement at the position of quarterback, was sending a message: "We would rather go 0-16 for what would have been the rest of Colin Kapernick's career than have him play for our team."

A corollary to that message could have been, "We would rather have bigots pay for tickets, parking, food, souvenirs, etc. than take the money of Kaepernick's supporters." But even that didn't really enter into it. Every bigot is an asshole, but not every asshole is a bigot. For the team owners, this wasn't about money. If there is one thing that a rich person values more than money, it is control. And the NFL team owners could not control Colin Kaepernick.

UPDATE: On February 2, 2020, with Jimmy Garappolo as quarterback, the 49ers played in Super Bowl LIV, losing to the Kansas City Chiefs, 31-20. On January 20, 2023, the 49ers were in the NFC Championship Game, playing the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. In the 2022 season opener, Trey Lance was their starting quarterback, but he got hurt on September 18. From then until December 4, it was Jimmy Garoppolo, but he was injured. From then onward, it was Brock Purdy, but he was injured early in that Championship Game. They had signed a previous quarterback, Josh Johnson, as an emergency backup after the December 4 game, and he stepped in for the NFC Championship, but left the game with a concussion in the 3rd quarter. Purdy was pressed back in for emergency duty, and threw 4 passes, completing them all, but for a total of 23 yards. The Niners lost, 31-7.

Colin Kaepernick was 35 years old. He should still have been their starter. If he had been, they might have won a 6th Super Bowl, and even a 7th.

*

September 1, 2016 was a Thursday. As I said, the NFL was still in preseason, so their scores on this historic day mean nothing. But there were 4 games played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Mets lost to the Miami Marlins, 6-4 at Citi Field. The winning pitcher was José Miguel Ureña. The losing pitcher was Jacob deGrom, who gave up 3 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks in only 5 innings. Jay Bruce and Asdrúbal Cabrera hit home runs for the Metropolitans, but Christian Yelich went 3-for-4 with a home run and 4 RBIs for the Fish.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Diego Padres, 9-6 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* And the Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-5 at Target Field in Minneapolis.