November 5, 2024: Donald Trump Is Returned to the Presidency

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

November 5, 2024: On his 3rd try, Donald Trump finally gets what he really wants: The Presidential election, winning the popular vote, an actual majority of it, and, thanks to a ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States, immunity from criminal prosecution for the next 4 years.

I had hoped that women would come through and save us. But, as is so often the case, "It's the economy, stupid." Too many women put the price of supermarket eggs over the price of their own "eggs." The Democrats did very little to point out that Trump has a record on the economy, and it was horrible.

The Hispanic men who decided they couldn't vote for a woman? Wait until they discover that the Republicans don't consider them "white."

The young, first-time-voting Arab-Americans who couldn't vote for Harris because she was a part of the Biden Administration that supported Israel over Gaza? Many of them were too young to have paid attention to the news in 2016 and 2017, and don't remember the Muslim ban, and haven't considered that Trump is a lot closer in policy to Netanyahu than Biden is. If they expected me to have sympathy for their people and their plight before, they can forget it now. Because of their votes, or non-votes as the case may be, more Americans will die than Gazans who have already died.

Trump and his Vice Presidential nominee, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, won 31 States for 312 Electoral Votes. The Democratic Party nominees, Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, won 19 States, plus the District of Columbia, for 229 Electoral Votes.

But that popular vote? Trump got 77.3 million votes, for 49.74 percent. It's his best performance, but, for the 3rd time, he did not get a majority of the popular vote. Harris had 75.0 million, for 48.27 percent. Harris' total was 6.2 million short of Joe Biden's total in 2020. Trump's total was 3.1 million more than 4 years earlier.

The Green Party candidate, Jill Stein, got 861,000, for 0.55 percent, a gain of 452,000 over her 2020 total. The Libertarian candidate, Chase Oliver, got 650,000, for 0.42 percent, a loss of 1.3 million for his party. (In 2016, Stein got 1,457,000, for 1.07 percent; and Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson got 4,489,000, for 3.3 percent. This was enough to cost Hillary Clinton some States.)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., still on the ballot despite dropping out and endorsing Trump, got 756,000, for 0.49 percent. Other candidates got 834,000, for 0.54 percent.

Put it all together, and about 155.1 million people voted, compared to about 158.4 million in the COVID-affected election of 2020. That's about 3.3 million people who voted last time, but not this time. Where did they go? Why haven't we heard from them?

Something isn't right here. Above and beyond the result. If anything, population growth, alone, should have given both Parties more votes than they got in 2020. It's happened many times before, including a few times where the nominee of the party finishing 2nd got more votes than any previous winning nominee.

Where was this "record turnout" we kept hearing about, all year long? Where are all these "newly registered voters" we kept hearing about? Where are all these "people who've never voted for a Democrat before"?

Where were all these millions of young women that Taylor Swift supposedly registered to vote at her concerts? Did they decide that their false perception that the economy was bad -- or their equally false perception of their white privilege being enough to overcome their status as women, and thus as second-class citizens in a Trump society -- was more important than any of the many reasons not to vote for Trump? Did they betray their beloved Tay-Tay, who was very open about her feelings about Trump, and her endorsement of Harris?

Maybe a lot of them went to Trump. If he did get them, it wasn't a big chunk of them, which might well have been too suspicious.

Did they register, or maintain their registration, and simply not vote, because they didn't like either candidate? If that was the case, they should have sucked it up and voted for Harris, anyway, because she's not a Fascist, a rapist, a felon, and an idiot, who sent terrorists to try to sabotage the last election, while Trump is all five of those.

Harris conceded at 4:22 PM the next day. In a speech lasting 12 minutes, outside Frederick Douglass Hall at her Alma Mater, Howard University in Washington, she told her supporters to accept the result, but to not give up the fight.

In the Congressional elections, the Democrats gained 2 seats in the House of Representatives, not quite enough to take control. The Republicans gained a net 3 seats in the Senate, to take control. Trump now controls all 3 branches of the federal government.

Three Democratic incumbents fell: Jon Tester lost to Tim Sheehy in Montana, Sherrod Brown lost to Bernie Moreno in Ohio, and Bob Casey Jr. lost to David McCormick in Pennsylvania. The Democrats got a little good news in the Senate, as promoted from the House were Adam Schiff of California, Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Andy Kim of New Jersey. Blunt Rochester and Angela Alsobrooks of adjoining Maryland, defeating former Governor Larry Hogan, gave the Senate 2 black women for the 1st time.

Small gains for the Democrats aside, Trump and his fans got what they wanted. They own it all now. Whatever happens over the next four years, it is all on them.

They have bet their lives, and they have bet everybody else's lives, on Trump having a successful second term. Even though his first term was, by any rational measure, a complete disaster. The day he left office the first time, the country's economy was in tatters, it was causing the inflation you blamed on Joe Biden. Over 1 million people died from COVID, when he could have saved the vast majority of those had he taken it seriously. The crime problem had gotten worse. And he hadn't come close to solving the border problem you care so damned much about.

They decided that his first term, his various failures, his various crimes including impeachable offenses, his various bigotries, and the other evidence of his low character don't matter. They also decided that, whatever virtues Harris has, they don't matter, either. Whatever I might think of such an attitude, it is their right.

But he is now 78 years old, older than Biden was when he was elected, and he is morbidly obese. And even though that they also know that, if, for whatever reason, he can't complete this term, the Presidency will fall to J.D. Vance. I'm sure that not one of them was undecided, heard that Vance was the choice, and chose Trump on that basis. They're so ignorant that, aside from those actually from Ohio, most of them had probably never even heard of Vance before that.

But it's all on him Trump, and it's all on his voters. Whatever happens over the next four years, it's because they chose this guy.

If it works out in their favor, they are well within their rights to gloat.

If it doesn't -- if Trump crashes the economy a second time, if crime gets worse, if the immigration problem is not fixed, if there is a foreign-policy disaster, if there is another pandemic -- I am well within my rights to tell you that I told them so.

Given history, we know that a President needs to avoid a "Depression," a "Vietnam," a "Watergate," an "Iran Hostage Crisis," and a "COVID." Trump already had a "Depression," a "Watergate," and introduced "a COVID" into the discussion, all in his first term. Now, he has to avoid all of them in his second term. He could, if he had learned things.

Donald Trump is not the kind of person who learns things. Did you choose him?

Whatever happens, as was said in the first Joker film, you get what you fucking deserve.

Right before the election, the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History featured "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist playing Trump, and actress Kimberly Michelle Vaughn playing Harris.

As they usually do with the winner of the Presidential election, Time magazine named Trump its Person of the Year for 2024, as they had for 2016. They had named Swift Person of the Year for 2023, largely for her voter registration efforts. If those efforts had been successful, she would have been a legitimate candidate for Person of the Year, although it still should have been Harris. But Trump's win makes her selection for 2023 look dubious.

*

November 5, 2024 was a Tuesday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. The NBA purposely scheduled no games for the day, to promote voting. There were 11 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-3 in a shootout at the UBS Arena in Elmont, Long Island, New York.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 in overtime at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Matthew Coronato scored the winning goal, just 7 seconds into overtime.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-4 at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 4-0 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Ottawa Senators, 5-1 at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Minnesota Wild, 5-1 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-2 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Utah Hockey Club, 3-0 at the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg.

* The Colorado Avalanche, 6-4 at the Ball Arena in Denver.

* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Anaheim Ducks, 5-1 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

* And the San Jose Sharks beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 2-1 in overtime a the SAP Center in San Jose. Alexander Wenberg scored the winning goal, 1:49 into overtime.

October 30, 2024: A Nightmare Inning for the Yankees, Glory for the Dodgers

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

October 30, 2024: Game 5 of the 2024 World Series at Yankee Stadium started out so well for the New York Yankees. It ended as one of the worst performances in the team's history, a set of 4 innings that were worse than the first 3 games combined, as bad as those were.

It started out so well. Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm hit back-to-back home runs in the 1st inning, giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead. Alex Verdugo singled Anthony Volpe home in the 2nd, to make it 4-0. Giancarlo Stanton hit one out in the 3rd, making it 5-0. And through the 1st 4 innings, Gerrit Cole had allowed no runs, no hits, just 2 walks. He wasn't overpowering, but he was getting the job done beautifully.

And then came the top of the 5th inning. Yankee Fans who saw this inning will see it in their nightmares until they die:

* Kike Hernández singled to right.

* Tommy Edman hit a fly ball to center field, and Judge dropped it.

* Will Smith grounded to short, but Volpe can't make the double play. Bases loaded, nobody out.

* Cole struck Gavin Lux out.

* Cole struck Shohei Ohtani out. He got to within 1 strike of getting out of it with no runs.

* Mookie Betts grounded to 1st. But 1st baseman Anthony Rizzo was too far from the base to make the play. And so was Cole, so Rizzo couldn't throw to him. It was like Bill Buckner and Bob Stanley in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, except that, this time, the 1st baseman did get the grounder. Stanley often gets blamed for not covering 1st, but Cole wouldn't have made it in time, either. This was not bad defense, it was just bad luck, and good hitting by Betts. Kike scored. 5-1.

* Freddie Freeman, who seemed to be out-hitting not just the Yankees but his own teammates, singled to center, scoring Edman and Smith. 5-3.

* Teoscar Hernández doubled to center, scoring Betts and Freeman. 5-5.

* Max Muncy drew a walk.

* And Kike batted again, grounding to short, and Volpe stepped on 2nd base to force Teoscar out, and finally end the inning. That's 5 runs on 4 hits (1 of them an infield hit), 1 walk and 2 errors.

It would have been understandable if the Yankees were shellshocked by this. But they loaded the bases in the bottom of the 5th -- but couldn't score. Somehow, Cole survived all this, and pitched a 1-2-3 6th inning. He went 6 innings, allowing no earned runs -- 5 unearned.

In the bottom of the 6th, Juan Soto and Judge walked, Chisholm grounded into a force play that eliminated Judge and moved Soto to 3rd, and Stanton flew to center to sacrifice Soto home. Rizzo drew a walk, but Volpe grounded out to end the rally.

It was 6-5 Yankees, and there was hope again. But the shadow of that 5th inning was too large: It didn't feel like all we had to do was get 9 more outs.

Cole and Clay Holmes got through the 7th. But manager Aaron Boone did not leave Holmes in to pitch the 8th, and Tommy Kahnle allowed singles to Kike and Erdman, and walked Smith. Again, bases loaded and nobody out. Boone brought the closer in, Luke Weaver. Lux hit a sac fly to center, scoring Kike. Ohtani was awarded 1st base on a very dubious catcher's interference call. And Betts flew to center, scoring, Edman. 7-6 Dodgers.

Dodger fans have ripped their manager, Dave Roberts, for the Dodgers' shortfalls over the last few years, with their only World Series win being in the "COVID Bubble" year of 2020. But with this "bullpen game," he outmanaged Boone -- or, rather, Boone let Roberts outmanage him.

The Yankees had men on 1st & 2nd with 1 out in the 8th, but didn't score. And they went very quietly in the 9th, with Walker Buehler striking Verdugo out swinging for the final out. The Dodgers had won the World Series in 5 games, despite Clayton Kershaw being injured and unavailable for the postseason. Freeman, of course, was named the Series Most Valuable Player.

For the Dodgers, a glorious moment, an 8th World Series win, 7 if you properly do not count the 1955 title in Brooklyn. For Roberts, total redemption, and putting himself in the conversation for election to the Hall of Fame once he retires. For Ohtani, a title that cements him as a baseball legend, though his own World Series performance was awful. For Freeman, who had previously won the Series with the 2021 Atlanta Braves, and Betts, who had previously won it with the 2018 Boston Red Sox *, possibly raised to the status of future Hall-of-Famer. (They might have gone on to make it, anyway.)

For the Yankees, a season of big moments, including the 1st American League Pennant in 15 years. And yet, it cannot be termed anything other than a failure. They scored just 7 runs in the 1st 3 games, won Game 4, took a big lead in Game 5 to forge some hope of the greatest comeback in baseball history... and then had the nightmare inning. Once again, the fundamentals were bad. The Yankees took out the fun, and left "da mentals."

*

October 30, 2024 was a Wednesday. Football was in midweek. There were 11 games in the NBA:

* New York had considerably more success in basketball on this night than in baseball, as both of their NBA teams won. The New York Knicks beat the Miami Heat, 116-107 at the Kaseya Center in Miami. Karl-Anthony Towns led all scorers on the night with 44 points.

* The Brooklyn Nets beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 119-106 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 105-95 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Wizards beat the Atlanta Hawks, 133-120 at the Capital One Arena in Washington.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Toronto Raptors, 138-133 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 134-110 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Boston Celtics, 135-132 in overtime at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Orlando Magic, 102-99 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the San Antonio Spurs, 105-93 at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 106-105 at the new Intuit Dome outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 104-89 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

And there were 6 games in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-0 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 2-0 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-2 at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Colorado Avalanche, 5-2 at the Ball Arena in Denver.

* The Utah Hockey Club beat the Calgary Flames, 5-1 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Vegas Golden Knights, 6-3 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

October 27, 2024: Donald Trump's Fascist Rally at Madison Square Garden

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

October 27, 2024: Donald Trump, running for President so he can carry out his vendetta against America -- and so he can stay out of prison -- held a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

New York City, where he was born, was given a fortune, and lost it. Where he built ugly buildings, and got fined by the federal government for racist hiring practices. Where he got 18 percent of the vote in 2016 (56 percent in majority-white Staten Island, 22 percent in his home Borough of Queens, 17 percent in Brooklyn, and 9 percent each in Manhattan and The Bronx), and where he got 22 percent in 2020 (57 in Staten Island, 27 in Queens, 22 in Brooklyn, 16 in The Bronx, and 12 in Manhattan). Where he got 36 percent of the Statewide vote in 2016, and 37 percent in 2020.

New York, the City that knows him the best, and hates him the most. That is not a coincidence.

Donald Trump, owned by Russia, turning Madison Square Garden into Red Square Garden. And bringing back memories of the pro-Nazi German-American Bund rally in 1939, 17 blocks uptown at the previous building with the Garden name.

He was supposed to take the stage at 5:00. He did so at 7:11. The bum was 2 hours and 11 minutes late. In between, he made his idiot fans watch Melania, Beavis and Butt-head (his sons, Eric and Donald Jr.), Speaker Mike Johnson, Rudy Giuliani, Stephen Miller, Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, Tony Hinchcliffe, Hulk Hogan, Vivek Ramaswamy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Dr. Phil McGraw, Dana White, and, for all I know, Mike "My Pillow" Lindell.

At the time, I wrote, "And now, he'll talk for who knows how long, slurring his words, lying with every sentence, to people too damned stupid to know it's lies. I hope James Dolan thoroughly fumigates the place tonight."

David Rothkopf summarized the rally in this article for The Daily Beast:

To all those Republicans who shed crocodile tears because their feelings were so hurt that people were calling Donald Trump a fascist: Stop.

To all the MAGA defenders who said it was over-the-top to compare Trump's Madison Square Garden rally to that held by the German-American Bund in an earlier incarnation of Madison Square Garden: Shush.

To all those who were falling once again for the bought and paid for narrative that Trump somehow had the momentum going into the final week of campaign 2024: Nope.

On Sunday at MSG, Donald Trump engineered what will be seen by political analysts and later by historians as the coup de grâce that killed forever his prospects of being President, and may well have set him on a post-election course on which he finally may be held accountable for his actions.

The interminable rally concluded by an interminable, disjointed, incoherent and yet clearly vile speech by the former president, might have been touted by Trump's son Don Jr., one of the former President's warm-up acts, as the "king of New York returning to reclaim his crown." But Trump was never the king of New York. (Sorry, Lara, your father-in-law did not "build" New York. Immigrants did. But we’ll get to that in a minute.)

Trump has always been loathed in New York City, especially in his former home borough of Manhattan where the vote against him was and will be dependably over 80 percent. But if he was hated before, rest assured, he will be more despised after tonight.

That was clear early on when Tony Hinchcliffe, a man invited by Trump to give one of the introductory speeches -- who, in true MAGA fashion, alleged without providing a shred of evidence that he was a comedian -- offered a KKK buffet of nauseating slurs. He called Puerto Rico "an island of floating garbage."

But this loser did not stop there. He offered unfunny commentary about his view that Latinos "love making babies," and a reference to how his Black friends liked carving watermelons. (Edit: He also made bigoted comments about Jews. What year did the man Rothkopf correctly called "this loser" think this was, 1924?)

You might think that a few super-racist comments from one speaker might not warrant comments that compared the Trump rally to the Nazi meeting 85 years ago. But his comments were hardly the worst. And the racism and the hate and incitement to violence and the promise of an increasingly authoritarian state continued from the very beginning of the event to the very end.

One speaker said that Harris was managed by "pimp handlers," and said of Democrats that "we need to slaughter these other people." (Edit: That speaker was Grant Cardone, a real estate investor.) Disgraced and destitute former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said, as did several others, that Democrats were behind attempts to kill Donald Trump. Another speaker called Harris "the devil" and "the antichrist." (Edit: That speaker was David Rem, an old friend of Trump's who ran against Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in The Bronx, and lost badly.)

Former Trump aide Stephen Miller as is his habit went directly for the Nazi playbook, saying, "America is for Americans, and Americans only." Tucker Carlson came out to offer more racist slurs about Harris. Hulk Hogan ripped his shirt off while declaring he saw no Nazis in the audience (thus proving that steroids abuse can not only shrivel up your junk but that it’s not really good for your eyesight either).

Elon Musk was there, acting strangely and promising to slash the size of the government (except presumably the parts that are subsidizing his businesses).

As an aside, it is worth noting the irony of Musk appearing at a rally condemning illegal immigration when recent revelations seem to confirm that he himself was an illegal immigrant. That's not just hypocrisy. If he lied about any aspect of his citizenship status or journey when filling out the forms required to get the Top Secret clearance that this phone pal of Vladimir Putin has, it's a felony, and could not only cause his clearances to be revoked it could be bad news for his businesses and frankly his ability to stay in the United States. No wonder he is all in for the only "politician" in America who would pardon his crimes in a heartbeat.

Trump attacked the media, and egged the crowd on to boo journalists in the crowd. He said migrants had taken over Times Square (which is 9 blocks uptown from where the rally was held). He called the U.S. an occupied country which, while bad, may be better than his reference to it as a garbage can the other day. He called Harris a "low IQ individual." He offered so many lies that cable networks tuned him out because it was impossible to keep up with fact-checking him. He returned to old themes like the bizarre notion that Harris would reinstate the draft and start World War III.

Most importantly from the perspective of confirming his fascism he reiterated at length his assertion that his opponents were "enemies of the people." (You know, the ones against whom he promised to unleash the U.S. military.) He called them "the most sinister and corrupt forces on earth."...

From a political perspective, the strategy is pure suicide. The rally will almost certainly alienate more voters who might have voted for Trump, and it is hard to imagine it has earned him one single new vote. (Unless there is a Franz Liebkind somewhere who has been too busy writing "Springtime for Hitler" to have paid attention to the campaign until now.) It was a play to the base when the biggest problem Trump has in this election is breaking through his rock solid ceiling of around 47 percent of the electorate...

Trump may be thinking the rally will help him mobilize thugs to violence when he contests his loss and we should be wary of that. But he has provided on the eve of the election the best case why he must be defeated that has ever been presented. In the end, because what unfolded was so foul and so offensive and threatening to so many of us, I believe that is why we will someday conclude that for all intents and purposes Trump's final political act occurred on the biggest stage in America’s biggest city, a couple of blocks from Broadway.

It later got out that one of Hinchcliffe's "jokes" was supposedly removed by somebody working for Trump. What that means is, this as-yet-unknown somebody decided that everything else in his speech was fit for public consumption.

Two nights later, Harris spoke before 75,000 people on the Ellipse, between the White House and the Washington Monument in Washington. Her podium was at the exact same spot as the one Trump used to launch his insurrection on January 6, 2021.

An exorcism? Maybe she should have done one at The Garden.

On November 5, enough people showed up at the polls, and enough others stayed home, to render the predictions made by me, by David Rothkopf, and by many others wrong. Trump got back in, and his policies became more Fascist than ever.

*

October 27, 2024 was a Sunday. It was an off-day in the World Series. These NFL games were played:

* The New York Jets lost to their arch-rivals, the New England Patriots, 25-22 at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts. Rhamondre Stevenson scored on a 1-yard run with 22 seconds left.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Chicago Bears, 18-15 at Northwest Stadium in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 30-27 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 31-26 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

* The Arizona Cardinals beat the Miami Dolphins, 28-27 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. Chad Ryland kicked a 34-yard field goal on the last play of the game.

* The Houston Texans beat the Indianapolis Colts, 23-20 at NRG Stadium (as Reliant Stadium was then known) in Houston.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Baltimore Ravens, the franchise that used to be the Browns, 29-24 at Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 37-17 at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Tennessee Titans, 52-14 at Ford Field in Detroit.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers, 28-14 at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat their arch-rivals, the Las Vegas Raiders, 27-20 at Allegiant Stadium in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada.

* The Los Angeles Chargers beat the New Orleans Saints, 26-8 at at SoFi Stadium outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Dallas Cowboys, 30-24 at Levi's Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Santa Clara, California.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Seattle Seahawks, 31-10 at Lumen Field in Seattle.

* The preceding Thursday night, the Los Angeles Rams beat the Minnesota Vikings, 30-20 at SoFi Stadium.

* And the next night, on ESPN Monday Night Football, the Pittsburg Steelers beat the New York Giants, 26-18 at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh.

There were 5 games in the NBA:

* The Brooklyn Nets beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 115-102 at the Barclays Center.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Atlanta Pacers, 118-114 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Tyrese Maxey scored 45 points.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Atlanta Hawks, 128-104 at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 35 points.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Golden State Warriors, 112-104 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 125-103 at the Moda Center in Portland.

And there were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Anaheim Ducks, 6-2 at the Prudential Center in Newark. Stefan Noesen scored 2 goals.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-3 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. Leon Draisaitl scored the winning goal, just 18 seconds into overtime.

* And the Colorado Avalanche beat the Ottawa Senators, 5-4 at the Ball Arena in Denver.

October 25, 2024: The Freddie Freeman Game

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

October 25, 2024: Game 1 of the World Series was played at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Dodgers were looking to win the World Series, as they had done in the "COVID Bubble" season of 2020, but not in a full season since 1988. The New York Yankees were looking to win the Series for the 1st time since 2009.

The Yankees needed baserunners, and didn't get enough of them. Juan Soto drew a walk in the 1st inning, and was stranded. Anthony Rizzo led off the 2nd with a single, got to 2nd base, but got no closer. Gleyber Torres singled to lead off the 3rd, but was erased on a double play. Alex Verdugo, who went on to make 2 great catches, singled in the 5th, but was stranded. 

With the Dodgers leading 1-0, Soto led off the top of the 6th with a single. Aaron Judge struck out -- his 3rd of the game, and his 2nd with Soto on 1st. Then Giancarlo Stanton hit a long drive down the left-field line, and out. 2-1 Yankees.

Jazz Chisholm singled. But Rizzo struck out. Anthony Volpe was intentionally walked, and Austin Wells singled. Bases loaded. This could have been where the Yankees broke the game wide open. But Verdugo struck out to end the inning.

At the age of 32, Judge finally got his 1st World Series hit, a single, with 2 out in the 7th. But Stanton, who has been doing in this season what we had hoped Judge would do, flipped the script, and stranded him by striking out.

The Dodgers tied the game in the 8th. With 2 out in the top of the 9th, Torres doubled, and Soto was intentionally walked to set up the force play. Walking somebody intentionally to pitch to Aaron Judge? In the postseason, it works: Judge popped up.

The game went to extra innings. The hated "ghost runner" rule, instituted in 2020, is not used in the postseason. Stanton struck out. But Chisholm stole 2nd. Rizzo was intentionally walked. Chisholm stole 3rd. Volpe grounded to short, and Tommy Edman, the Most Valuable Player of the National League Championship Series, couldn't make the throw to home plate, opting to go to 2nd base instead. Rizzo was out, but Chisholm scored, and Volpe was safe at 1st. Then Volpe stole 2nd. This could have been a big inning. Then Wells struck out.

If the top of the 10th felt like a return to the Joe Torre era, the bottom of the 10th was pure Brian Cashman "gutless wonder" baseball, with a bit of Aaron Boone "Baboone" managing thrown in. After Luke Weaver got out of a jam in the 8th with only 1 run, and pitched a scoreless 9th, Boone brought Jake Cousins in to pitch the 10th. He got Will Smith to fly out, but walked Gavin Lux. (Sounds like the real name of a comic book villain.) Edman grounded to 2nd, and Oswaldo Cabrera, having replaced Torres, couldn't make a throw.

A 1-run lead, but men on 1st and 2nd, 1 out, and the next 3 batters are Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. Career regular-season OPS+'s through the 2024 season, respectively: 157, 138 and 142. Career home runs? Ohtani 225 at age 30, Betts 271 at 32, and Freeman 343 at 35. Barring further injury, all 3 of them are likely to finish with at least 400, and Ohtani may well top 500.

Boone could have brought in Tim Hill, who has been very effective in this postseason. Instead, he (apparently) looked at stats only for Yankee pitchers against Ohtani, and brought in Nestor Cortés, who, due to injury, hadn't pitched since September 18. The Yankees have a history of unlikely postseason heroes, but this move looked really unlikely.

Ohtani sliced one into the left-field corner. It looked like a sure double, to tie or even win the game. Instead, Verdugo ran over and made a great catch, then managed to throw back and hold the runners. If Cortés had managed to get 1 more out, and the Yankees ended up winning the Series, it would have been a play that lived forever.

It lived just 2 more plate appearances. Boone made the mistake of ordering Betts walked to load the bases, and set up the out at any base. The next batter was Freeman, who has already won a World Series with the 2021 Atlanta Braves, and has been key for the Dodgers ever since.

He hit a no-doubt-about-it game-winning grand slam, landing in the right field pavilion, roughly where the ball that Kirk Gibson hit to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series landed, the 1st homer to be called a "walkoff." Dodgers 6, Yankees 3.

The Yankees were 1 out away from taking home-field advantage away from the Dodgers. But they lost this game because Boone made the wrong strategy choices, and because, in innings 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9 combined, they got only 5 singles and 2 walks, 1 of those intentional.

Indeed, as the Series went on, each team had only 1 player who really produced: Stanton for the Yankees, Freeman for the Dodgers. Freeman was a little bit better, and, like that aforementioned 1988 Fall Classic -- and a few others, including in 1954, 1966, 1970, 1972, 1990, 1998, 2000 and 2007 -- the 2024 World Series was basically won in Game 1. And Freeman was rightly named its Most Valuable Player.

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October 25, 2024 was a Friday. There were 3 college football games played:

* Also between teams from the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, the University of Southern California (USC) beat Rutgers, 42-20 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 5 miles south of Dodger Stadium.

* Number 17 Boise State beat the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV), 29-24 at Allegiant Stadium in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada.

* And the University of Louisville beat Boston College, 31-27 at Alumni Stadium in the Boston suburb of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Louisville scored 14 points in the 4th quarter to come from behind.

There were 10 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Indiana Pacers, 123-98 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Brooklyn Nets lost to the Orlando Magic, 116-101 at the Kia Center in Orlando.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Charlotte Hornets, 125-120 at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Trae Young scored 38 points.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 128-108 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 115-107 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Detroit Pistons, 113-101 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 133-122 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Utah Jazz, 127-86 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns, 123-116 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, 3 miles south of Dodger Stadium. Anthony Davis scored 35 points.

* And the New Orleans Pelicans beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 105-103 at the Moda Center in Portland.

There were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the New Jersey Devils, 4-3 at the Prudential Center in Newark. These teams are metropolitan rivals, but not arch-rivals: Each team's arch-rival is the New York Rangers. Bo Horvat scored the winning goal with 3:51 left in overtime.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-0 at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

* And the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Ottawa Senators, 6-4 at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.

And in New Jersey high school football, my Alma Mater, East Brunswick won away to South Brunswick, 24-14.

September 26, 2024: The End of the Oakland Athletics

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

September 26, 2024: The Oakland Athletics play their final home game. They beat the Texas Rangers, 3-2 at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.

Former A's pitcher Barry Zito sang the National Anthem, and Dave Stewart and Rickey Henderson, both Oakland natives and A's legends, threw out the cereominal first balls.

All game long, there were chants of "Sell the team!" and vulgar chants directed at team owner John Fisher. In the 9th inning, 2 fans ran onto the field, and were tackled by security. The game was delayed again by a smoke bomb thrown onto the field.

J.T. Ginn was the winning pitcher. The last play was Travis Jankowski, batting against Mason Miller, grounding out to 3rd baseman Max Scheumann.

The day before, Adolis García of the Rangers hit the Coliseum's last home run. The 1st game was on April 17, 1968, a 4-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles. Boog Powell hit the 1st home run, and Rick Monday hit the 1st for the A's.

Attendance at the finale was 46,889, pretty much every seat that was open to the public, without a tarp being put over a section. It was the largest crowd ever for a team moving away, although not the largest for a stadium finale: The Cleveland Indians got 72,390 for their last game at Municipal Stadium in 1993, before the now-Guardians moved to Jacobs Field, now Progressive Field.

Because the A's were a "lame duck" franchise, and had a 69-93 finish, attendance for the season was just 922,286, an average of just 11,386, worst in the major leagues.

Over 57 seasons, the A's played home games in Oakland. In that time, they reached the Playoffs 21 times, won the AL West 17 times, won the American League Pennant 6 times, and won 4 World Series: 3 straight, 1972, 1973 and 1974; and 1989.

They produced Hall of Fame players Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Rollie Fingers, Reggie Jackson, Rickey Henderson and Dennis Eckersley; and many other baseball legends, including Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Vida Blue, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Dave Stewart, Jason Giambi, Barry Zito, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder.

But cheap ownership broke up good or even great A's teams in 1976, 1982, 1993, 2007, 2015 and 2022. Deals to build a new stadium at the Oakland Coliseum complex, at Howard Terminal closer to downtown Oakland, near the campus of Laney College (where the Raiders played from 1962 to 1965, before the Coliseum opened in 1966), in suburban Fremont, and in San Jose all fell apart.

After previous owner Charlie Finley threatened to move them to Denver in 1978 and New Orleans in 1979, current owner Fisher, who had no respect for the City of Oakland or for baseball, decided to move the team to Sacramento for the next 3 or 4 seasons, while a new ballpark was built in Las Vegas.

The "Swingin' A's" were dead. Cause of death: Greed. Fisher released an open letter, saying to fans, "We tried." Former A's pitcher Trevor May called him on his lie: "You love owning stuff, just not your actions." 

Oakland has now lost teams in all 4 sports. The Oakland Seals, a.k.a. the California Golden Seals, only lasted from 1967 to 1976. Finley owned them for a while, too, dooming them. The Oakland Raiders played in Oakland from 1962 to 1981, moved to Los Angeles, moved back in 1995, and moved again, to Las Vegas, after the 2019 season. And the Golden State Warriors, who arrived in San Francisco in 1962, and moved to Oakland in 1971, moved back across the Bay in 2019.

The A's will spend the 2025, 2026 and 2027 seasons -- and possibly also 2028, depending on how the building of their Las Vegas stadium goes -- at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California, across the Sacramento River from downtown, before joining their fellow former Coliseum renters, the Raiders, in Vegas.

It took until 2018 for the A's to start a team Hall of Fame, and they continued to induct players until 2024, their last season in Oakland.

From their 1972, 1973 and 1974 World Champions, they've inducted right fielder Reggie Jackson, left fielder Joe Rudi, 1st baseman Gene Tenace, shortstop Bert Campaneris, 3rd baseman Sal Bando, catcher Ray Fosse; pitchers Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Vida Blue and Rollie Fingers; and manager Dick Williams.

From their 1989 World Champions, they've inducted left fielder Rickey Henderson (who remains the only player elected from their 1981 American League Western Division title), right fielder Jose Canseco, 1st baseman Mark McGwire, 3rd baseman Carney Lansford, catcher Terry Steinbach; pitchers Dave Stewart and Dennis Eckersley; and manager  Tony La Russa.

From their Playoff teams of the early 2000s, they've inducted 1st baseman Jason Giambi, shortstop Miguel Tejada and 3rd baseman Eric Chavez. Had they lasted longer in Oakland, I suspect they would have inducted each of that team's "Big Three" pitchers: Barry Zito, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder.

In addition, they've inducted Charlie Finley; Walter Haas, owner from 1980 to 1995; Roy Steele, public address announcer from 1968 to 2008; Steve Vucinich, the clubhouse manager for their entire tenure in Oakland; Keith Lieppman, director of player development from 1971 to 2024; and Bill King, broadcaster from 1981 to 2005. Fosse was also an A's broadcaster, from 1986 to 2021.

Jackson, Hunter, Blue, Fingers, Campaneris, Henderson, Stewart, Eckersley, La Russa and Haas have been inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame (BASHOF). So has Billy Martin, the Berkeley native who managed the "Billy Ball" A's from 1980 to 1982, including the 1981 Division title.

*

September 26, 2024 was a Thursday. These 8 other games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 10-1 at Yankee Stadium II. This game clinched the American League Eastern Division for the Bronx Bombers. It was a battle of aces: Gerrit Cole beat Corbin Burnes. Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Alex Verdugo each hit home runs -- their 58th, 27th and 13th, respectively, on the season.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Washington Nationals, 7-4 at Nationals Park in Washington.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-2 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 4-3 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels, 7-0 at Guaranteed Rate Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago. The South Siders scored all 7 runs in the 5th inning. Chris Flexen (5 hits over 6 1/3rd innings), Gus Varland (2/3rds without a baserunner) and Jairo Tirarte (1 hit over 2) combined on a 6-hit shutout.

It was the Pale Hose's 39th win of the season, against 120 losses. They had already broken the American League record for losses in a season, and would finish 41-121, setting a new standard for the most losses by a major league team since 1899.

* The Miami Marlins beat the Minnesota Twins, 8-6 at Target Field in Minneapolis. In the top of the 13th inning, a double by Otto Lopez and a 2-run single by Griffin Conine gave the Marlins the lead. The Twins could only get 1 run back in the bottom of the 13th.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-8 at Coors Field in Denver.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 7-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

There was 1 college football game: Army beat Temple University, 42-14 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, where Temple groundshares with the Philadelphia Eagles.

And there was 1 NFL game: The Dallas Cowboys beat the New York Giants, 20-15 at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands.

August 26, 2024: One Man, Two Teams, One MLB Game

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

August 26, 2024: The history of the Boston Red Sox is littered with bizarre moments -- some favorable to them, most not. This one might not only take the cake, but burn down the bakery. Hang on, because this one is complicated.

On June 26, 2024, the Red Sox hosted the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park in Boston. With 1 out in the top of the 2nd inning, Danny Jansen came to bat. He fouled off a pitch from Sox pitcher Kutter Crawford, and then the umpires stopped the game due to rain. The game was rescheduled for August 26, making it the 1st game of a day-night doubleheader to start the teams' next series in Boston.

But on July 27, the Jays traded Jansen to the Red Sox, for 3 players who have yet to reach the major leagues: Pitcher Gilberta Batista and infielders Cutter Coffey and Eddinson Paulino. Jansen wore Number 9 with the Blue Jays. For the Red Sox, that's retired for Ted Williams. So he was given Number 28.

Instead of restarting the June 26 game entirely, Major League Baseball ruled that it must be resumed from the point at which the rain came. Which means that the player who was at bat at that time can't go back up to bat, because he's now on the other team. What's more, Red Sox manager Alex Cora announced that Jansen will catch the game, in place of the now-injured Reese McGuire. Cora said, "He will not only become the first player to play for both teams in the same game in MLB history, but he will catch the at bat that he himself started and must be pinch-hit for."

So when the game was resumed Daulton Varsho stopped in against Nick Pivetta, who "relieved" original starter Crawford. Varsho was put in center field. Kevin Kiermaier, who had started in center field for the Jays in the original game, had been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Kiermaier's place in the batting order was given to Leo Jiménez, a shortstop. At that position, he replaced Bo Bichette, who is still with the Jays, but has been taken out of the game. Bichette's place in the batting order was taken by Jansen's replacement as Toronto catcher, Brian Serven.

Varsho struck out. In the bottom of the 2nd, Jansen popped up to 1st base. In the 5th, he singled to center, but was stranded. In the 7th, he flew out to center. The game remained scoreless until the top of the 7th, when Russ Springer hit a home run to put the Jays up, 1-0.

In the top of the 8th, a single, a fielder's choice, and back-to-back doubles by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Addison Barger put the Jays ahead, 4-0. In the bottom of the 8th, Jarren Duran, who had made the All-Star Game this season, but had also served a 2-game suspension for a homophobic slur, homered to get the Sox on the board.

The Jays won the game, 4-1, and the last out of the game was Jansen striking out. He went 1-for-4 in the game. The Jays also won the night's regularly-scheduled game, 7-3.

Danny Jansen -- no relation to 1994 Olympic speed-skating hero Dan Jansen -- is 29 years old, and grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin. He reached the major leagues with the Blue Jays, in 2018. His career was mostly unremarkable -- until this day. Now, he's the answer to a trivia question.

He shares that distinction with Eric Money. He played for the New Jersey Nets against the Philadelphia 76ers in Philadelphia on November 8, 1978. That game was protested, and resumed, but Money had been traded by the Nets to the Sixers, and ended up playing for the Sixers in the resumed game, on March 23, 1979, which the Sixers won.

*

August 26, 2024 was a Monday. These other MLB games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Nationals, 5-2 at Nationals Park in Washington. Nestor Cortés was the winning pitcher.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Astros, 3-2 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Bryce Harper singled Kyle Schwarber home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 18-8 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. 

* The Kansas City Royals swept a doubleheader from the Cleveland Guardians, 4-3 and 9-4 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-3 at Guaranteed Rate Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Minnesota Twins, 10-6 at Target Field in Minneapolis.

* The San Diego Padres beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-4 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Miami Marlins, 3-2 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 5-1 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.

* And the New York Mets, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Baltimore Orioles, the Cincinnati Reds, the Los Angeles Angels, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Oakland Athletics, the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers were not scheduled.