November 20, 1970: "Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser" Premieres

November 20, 1970: Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser premieres on PBS, broadcast from the studios of Maryland Public Television, led by WMPB-Channel 22, in the Baltimore suburb of Owings Mills.

Louis Richard Rukeyser was born on January 30, 1933 in Manhattan, and grew up in nearby New Rochelle, New York. His father, Merryle Rukeyser, was a financial journalist. At Princeton University, he wrote his senior thesis on Senator Joseph McCarthy, and his roommate was Wayne Rogers, who later starred on M*A*S*H. When Rogers became a high-powered investor after leaving acting, he was a frequent guest on Rukeyser's programs.

Rukeyser became a political and foreign correspondent for The Baltimore Sun, and became well-known enough in Baltimore for its PBS station to ask him to host a TV show about how international markets affected the American economy. The show, airing every Friday night at the close of a business week, was a hit, and became one nationally when PBS proper picked it up.

He took pride in creating the first television show which focused on the American stock markets, using a combination of erudition, plainspokenness, and panache to make the arcane workings of the stock market and the economy better known to the public. Like fellow PBS stars Fred Rogers and Julia Child, and later Carl Sagan, Bob Ross and Bob Vila, Rukeyser explained difficult things in a way that the average viewer could understand, without treating them like a child (or, in Mr. Rogers' case, he was talking to children, but treated them as though their feelings mattered.)

If he spoke well of a company on his Friday night broadcast, and it did well in trading the following Monday, it was said to benefit from "The Rukeyser Effect." Although an ardent capitalist, he was not a stereotypically stodgy old-time Wall Street conservative, reveling in humor. For example: In answering a letter on investing in a hairpiece manufacturer, he said, "If your money seems to be hair today and gone tomorrow, we'll try to make it grow back by giving the bald facts on how to get your investments toupee."

People magazine named him "the only sex symbol of the dismal science." (Historian Thomas Carlyle had labeled economics "the dismal science" in an 1849 essay.) In 1987, Jon Lovitz impersonated him on Saturday Night Live. In 1989, Wall Street Week was mentioned on an episode of the sitcom Family Ties; while Rukeyser himself was mentioned on a 1995 episode of Seinfeld.

By the 1990s, Wall Street Week faced increasing competition from rivals like CNBC. In 2002, acknowledging the fact that he was 69 years old -- but ignoring the fact that he was as popular as ever -- PBS executives wanted to replace him with a younger host to help boost ratings, offering him a 5-minute segment on a newly retooled version of the show, but he turned it down, with a rather pointed farewell on March 22, 2002.

Sensing a golden opportunity, CNBC offered him a new show, which was named Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street -- unless his PBS show, he now had top billing over Wall Street itself. But it didn't last long, as his health began to fail, and his absences and need for substitute hosts became more frequent. His last installment aired on December 31, 2004, and he died on May 2, 2006, at the age of 73.

His brother, William S. Rukeyser, was the founding managing editor of Money magazine in 1972, and the managing editor of Fortune, the financial magazine of Time, Inc.

PBS kept his old show going, under the name Wall Street Week with Fortune, going until June 24, 2005, hosted by Geoff Colvin and Karen Gibbs. It returned in 2015, on Fox Business Network, as simply Wall Street Week. Since 2020, it has been broadcast by Bloomberg Television, and hosted by David Westin.

*

November 20, 1970 was a Friday. Actress Sabrina Lloyd was born.

Baseball was out of season. There was 1 college football game played that night, and it was an upset: Number 14 San Diego State lost to Long Beach State, 27-11 at Anaheim Stadium. The school known then as "California State College, Long Beach," and renamed "California State University, Long Beach" in 1972, usually played its games at Veterans Memorial Stadium, but with Aztecs fans coming up from San Diego, they were able to sell 39,000 tickets at what's now named Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

There were 6 games in the NBA:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 116-112 at the Boston Garden.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 120-112 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Phoenix Suns, 121-110 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena).

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 117-100 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The San Diego Rockets beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 121-106 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).

* And the San Francisco Warriors beat the Buffalo Braves, 123-108 at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco in Daly City, California.

There were 4 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets lost to the Denver Rockets, 121-103 at the Denver Auditorium Arena.

* The Kentucky Colonels beat the Carolina Cougars, 100-98 at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina.

* The Virginia Squires beat the Pittsburgh Condors, 151-113 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. Charlie Scott of the Squires led all scorers on the night with 41 points.

* And the Texas Chaparrals beat the Indiana Pacers, 140-126 at the Moody Coliseum in the Dallas suburb of University Park, Texas.

There was 1 game in the NHL: The Vancouver Canucks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 7-1 at the Pacific Coliseum in Denver. The Canucks got 7 goals from 7 different players, the 1st from Pat Quinn, who went on to coach them to their 1st Stanley Cup Finals in 1982.

October 24, 1877: "The Great Race" at Pimlico

Pimlico's entrance, including the sculpture

October 24, 1877: Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore hosts a 2½-mile match race -- a mile longer than the modern Belmont Stakes, and twice the length of the modern Kentucky Derby -- run by a trio of champions. 

Pimlico, a.k.a. "Old Hilltop," had opened on October 25, 1870, with a race called the Dinner Party Stakes. It was won by a colt named Preakness. In that horse's honor, since 1873, the track has hosted the Preakness Stakes, which went on to become the 2nd leg of American thoroughbred horse racing's "Triple Crown." The current building, seating 98,983, dates to 1967, and another renovation is planned for the 2020s.

A crowd of 20,000 people attends, a huge number for any sporting event in those days. Congress had been adjourned so that members could leave Washington and take the 45-mile train trip up the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to attend. This was the Gilded Age.

The horses are:

* Ten Broeck, 5 years old, considered the champion of Kentucky, already known as the greatest of thoroughbred horse-producing States.

* Tom Ochiltree -- that's the name of the horse, not the jockey -- also 5, considered the Eastern champion, and winner of the 1875 Preakness Stakes on the same track. And...

* Parole, a 2-year-old gelding considered the champion of New York State, and a brother of Aristides, the 1st horse to win the Kentucky Derby (in 1875), and later to be a brother of Iroquois, who in 1881 became the 1st American-bred horse to win England's Epsom Derby (in 1881).

Parole makes a late run, and wins, 3 lengths ahead of Ten Broeck, and 6 ahead of Tom Ochiltree. The event is depicted in a four-ton stone bas relief, copied from a Currier & Ives print and sculpted in stone by Bernard Zuckerman, hanging over the clubhouse entrance at Pimlico. It is 30 feet long and 10 feet high, and is gilded in 24-karat gold leaf.

Ten Broeck was retired after this race, and lived until 1887. Tom Ochiltree was also retired after this race, and lived until 1897. Parole continued to race, in both America and Europe, until 1884, age 12, and lived until 1903. All 3 have been elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, just down the block from Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York.

*

October 24, 1877 was a Wednesday. The baseball season was already over. And while Saturday hadn't yet been standardized as the day of college football, none of the schools already established as playing it played a game on that day. So there were no scores.

October 21, 1887: Detroit Wins the World Championship -- For the National League

Charlie Bennett

October 21, 1887: The National League Champion Detroit Wolverines clinch the World Championship with their 8th victory in Game 11 of the series this afternoon, over the American Association Champions, the St. Louis Browns, 13-3 on neutral ground at Oriole Park in Baltimore.

With a rainout yesterday in Washington‚ this morning's rescheduled Game 10 sees the Browns pull off a triple play and win‚ 11-4‚ to delay elimination. But the Wolverines take Game 11 later in the day to clinch.

The Browns were managed by their 1st baseman, Charles Comiskey. Having become the 1st modern-style player at the position, he later became the founding owner of the American League's Chicago White Sox. Other Browns stars included 3rd baseman Walter Arlington "Arlie" Latham; outfielders Dave Foutz, Curt Welch and "Parisian" Bob Caruthers; and pitcher Charles "Silver" King.

But they were no match for the Wolverines, managed by Bill Watkins, a former 3rd baseman who was the greatest athlete ever to come from Brantford, Ontario, Canada -- until Wayne Gretzky came along. He had 4 players who would later be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame: Center fielder Ned Hanlon, right fielder Sam Thompson, 1st baseman Dan Brouthers and 3rd baseman James "Deacon" White. Pitcher Charlie Getzlen went 29-13.

For this win, the Wolverines became the 1st team to receive the Dauvray Cup, donated by Helen Dauvray, one of the top American stage actresses of the time, who had married New York Giants star John Montgomery Ward 9 days before this game. It would be awarded to the winner of the World's Championship Series until it stopped running after the 1890 season. It was then awarded to the NL Pennant winner through the 1893 season.

By that point, Dauvray and Ward had divorced. In an article in June 1894, a writer for Sporting Life magazine wondered where the Dauvray Cup was, indicating it had already been lost. Unlike its brief successors, the Temple Cup and the Chronicle-Telegraph Cup, both of which have survived and are on display in the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Dauvray Cup's whereabouts remain unknown. Helen Dauvray married a U.S. Navy Admiral, died in 1923, and was buried alongside him in Arlington National Cemetery.

As far as we know, this single photograph

is all that remains of the Dauvray Cup.

I've often wondered if having a named trophy, like the NFL's Vince Lombardi Trophy or the NHL's Stanley Cup, would have made the World Series more meaningful to baseball teams and fans. There would be no trophy for the World Series winner until 1967, and it would not be named until 1985: The Commissioner's Trophy. And who wants to celebrate the Commissioner of Baseball?

*

In spite of their success, the Wolverines ended up losing money for the 1887 season, and fold at the end of the next season. Detroit did not return to major league ball until the American League and the Tigers arrive in 1901, and will not win another World Championship for 48 years.

The Browns won win their 4th straight AA title the next season, but will go 38 years before winning another Pennant. In 1892 they join the NL; by 1901, they will be named the Cardinals.

One more player of note for Detroit: Charlie Bennett was their starting catcher. He helped the Boston Beaneaters, later the Braves, win the NL Pennant in 1891, '92 and '93. In 1894, at age 39, his playing career came to an end when he lost his legs in a train accident in Kansas.

In 1896, the Detroit team of the Western League, which became the Tigers in 1901, opened a new ballpark. It was named Bennett Park in his honor. Wearing prosthetic legs, he caught the ceremonial first ball on Opening Day. He did this every year until 1926, dying early in 1927. He did this through 1911-12, when Bennett Park was torn down and replaced with a new ballpark on the site, named Navin Field for the Tigers' owner. He lived long enough to see Ty Cobb and Harry Heilmann star for Detroit.

In 1938, the ballpark was renamed Briggs Stadium, for the current owner. In 1961, another new owner renamed it Tiger Stadium. The Tigers are a charter American League franchise, and have won its Pennant 11 times, so it's hard to imagine the city being in the National League. But, from 1881 to 1888, it was. And, in 1887, they were National League Champions, and World Champions of baseball.

Detroit is in Michigan, and Michigan is the Wolverine State. The University of Michigan has always called its sports teams the Wolverines. There would be one more professional sports team known as the Detroit Wolverines, playing in the NFL in the 1928 season. Despite going 7-2-1 and finishing 3rd, they never played again: Tim Mara, the founding owner of the New York Giants, bought the Wolverines, and transferred their best players to the Giants. Apparently, at the time, that was within NFL rules.

*

October 21, 1887 was a Friday. There were no other scores on this historic day. 

October 16, 1983: Edward Bennett Williams' Unique Double

October 16, 1983: Eddie Murray slams a pair of home runs and Scott McGregor pitches a 5-hitter, as the Baltimore Orioles beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-0 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, and win the World Series 4-1. Baltimore catcher Rick Dempsey‚ who hit .385 with 4 doubles and a home run‚ is named the Series' Most Valuable Player.

The Orioles win their 3rd World Series, marking a unique double: Edward Bennett Williams, famed trial lawyer, majority owner of the Orioles, and minority owner and former majority owner of the NFL's Washington Redskins, becomes the only man ever to be an owner of the current World Series winners and the current Super Bowl champions at the same time.

This caps a period where the Orioles have finished 1st 8 times in 18 years, and have at least been competitive almost continuously since 1960. But, due to their core players getting old and later mismanagement by owner Peter Angelos, they have not played a World Series game since.

The last out is a line shot to shortstop Cal Ripken Jr., son and namesake of the Orioles' longtime 3rd base coach. He becomes the only player ever to win either League's Rookie of the Year in his 1st full season, and then the League's MVP in his 2nd, defying what had come to be known as "the sophomore jinx." He will play another 18 seasons, but never appear in another World Series.

Edward Bennett Williams is born on May 31, 1920 in Hartford, Connecticut. Setting up practice in Washington, D.C., he became known as a "superlawyer," representing people on the left, the right, and those who switched. He represented singer-actor Frank Sinatra, Playboy magazine publisher Hugh Hefner, Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa, cult leader the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, and, at the end of his life, "junk bond" trader Michael Milken.

In 1965, he bought a controlling interest in the Redskins from the conservators of founding owner George Preston Marshall, who had been rendered incompetent for ownership by a stroke. Williams rebuilt the long-dormant team, seeing them reach 3 Super Bowls.

In 1980, he bought the Orioles. At the time, NFL rules prohibited a majority owner from being a majority owner in another sport, so, in preparation for buying the Orioles, Williams sold some of his stake in the Redskins to Jack Kent Cooke, former owner of the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers and the NHL's Los Angeles Kings, the builder of the Forum arena outside L.A., and the last owner of the minor-league baseball team that gave its name to an NHL powerhouse, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

On January 30, 1983, the Redskins won Super Bowl XVII. Eight and a half months later, the Orioles won the World Series. Williams remains the only person to be an owner of the holder of the MLB and NFL championships at the same time. In 1985, he sold the rest of his Redskins stock to Cooke. Not long before his death in 1988, he negotiated the deal to build a new ballpark for the Orioles, ending Baltimore's fears that he would move the team down the Parkway to his beloved Washington.

As of the 2022 NFL season, Williams' "double" has not be repeated, and cannot be, as no majority owner of an MLB team has a noticeable share of ownership of an NFL team, and vice versa.

One other note: The day before, October 15, 1983, Game 4 was played in daylight: Orioles 5, Phillies 4. Through the 2022 MLB season, it remains the last World Series game played under the Sun. Game 4 in 1984 was played in daylight, but under overcast skies. Game 6 in 1987 began in daylight, but was played in a dome.

Also on this day, Kelso died at age 26. A grandson of 1943 Triple Crown winner Count Fleet, he was eligible to run in the Triple Crown races in 1960, but did not do so. But from ages 3 to 8 (8 is not old for a horse, but it's old for a horse to be racing), he won many big races, including 5 straight Jockey Club Gold Cups from 1960 to 1964 and 3 straight Woodward Stakes from 1961 to 1963.

He won the Daily Racing Form Horse of the Year award 5 times. No other horse has even won it 4 times. He was retired in 1966, having won just under $2 million, a record that would stand until 1979. He died just 1 day after being paraded around the track at Belmont Park, prior to the running of the race that was his trademark, the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Perhaps it was too much for him.

Horse racing writer Joe Hirsch wrote, "Once upon a time there was a horse named Kelso. But only once."

*

October 16, 1983 was a Sunday. These games were played in the NFL:

* The New York Giants lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, 38-17 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The New York Jets lost to the Miami Dolphins, 32-14 at Shea Stadium.

* The New England Patriots beat the San Diego Chargers, 37-21 at Sullivan Stadium (formerly Schafer Stadium, later Foxboro Stadium) in the Boston suburb of Foxboro, Massachusetts.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Baltimore Colts, 30-7 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 34-27 at Tampa Stadium.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the New Orleans Saints, 32-13 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat their arch-rivals, the Cleveland Browns, 44-17 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Chicago Bears, 31-17 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Houston Oilers, 34-14 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 37-7 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 24-17 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, 27-21 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Los Angeles Raiders, 38-36 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* And the next night, the highest-scoring game in the history of ABC Monday Night Football was played: The Green Bay Packers beat the Washington Redskins, 48-47 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The NBA season hadn't started yet. There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-4 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New York Islanders beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-1 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Washington Capitals, 4-2 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat their "Battle of Alberta" arch-rivals, the Calgary Flames, 4-3 at the Flames' new home, the Olympic Saddledome, which opens on this night. The next night, the same teams played at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton, and the Oilers won again, 5-1.

September 29, 1894: A Baseball Revolution In Baltimore

September 29, 1894: The National League season ends, and the Baltimore Orioles have won their 1st Pennant, finishing 3 games ahead of the New York Giants, and 8 games over the 3-time defending Champions, the Boston Beaneaters (forerunners of the Atlanta Braves).

True, the Orioles have lost today, 5-4 to the Chicago Colts, the team that will one day be the Cubs, at West Side Park in Chicago. But their greatness was certified.

Every player in their starting lineup batted at least .300. They were masters of strategy, excellent bunters, base stealers and hit-and-run performers. On defense, they were pioneers by instituting the cutoff man and having the pitcher cover 1st base.

But they were also sneaky. Sometimes, if they thought the umpire wasn't looking, they would round 1st base, cut across the infield, and slide into 3rd base without even going near 2nd. It took a while for the umpires to catch on to this. But then, it took a while for them to catch on to the need for better umpiring at all: There wasn't even a 2nd umpire on the field until 1888. (It would take until 1926 for games to have 3 umps, and 1940 to have 4, with stadium organists teasing umpires by playing "Three Blind Mice.")

And they were dirty. They would slide spikes-high, and start fights over nothing, hoping the umpire would only see the retaliation, not the first punch, and throw the opponent out of the game.

These were the Boys of Baltimore, the Old Orioles:

1st Base: Dan Brouthers

2nd Base: Henry "Heinie" Reitz

Shortstop: Hugh Jennings

3rd Base: John McGraw

Left Field: Joe Kelley

Center Field: Steve Brodie

Right Field: Willie Keeler

Catcher: Wilbert Robinson

Their pitchers included John "Sadie" McMahon, Bill Hawke, Bill Hoffer, George Hemming, Arlie Pond and William "Kid" Gleason.

Union Park

September 29, 1894 was a Saturday. In addition to the Orioles' loss to the Colts, these games were played:

* The New York Giants lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 7-6 at League Park in Cincinnati.

* The Brooklyn Bridegrooms (forerunners of the Dodgers) beat the Louisville Colonels, 11-4 at Eclipse Park in Louisville.

* The Boston Beaneaters beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Spiders beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 11-3 at League Park in Cleveland.

* And the St. Louis Browns (forerunners of the Cardinals) beat the Washington Senators (not the future American League team), 6-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

The Boston Beaneaters were not be without laurels, though: Center fielder Hugh Duffy has one of the best seasons in baseball history, batting .440 (128 years later, this is still a single-season major league record), hitting 18 home runs, and 145 RBIs, leading the NL in all 3 categories, thus giving him the Triple Crown.

The Orioles won the Pennant again in 1895, and again in 1896. In 1897, they and the Beaneaters got into one of the best Pennant races the game had yet seen, and the Beaneaters won.

Then, the Orioles were broken up, and did not contend in 1898 or 1899. They were then 1 of the 4 teams contracted out of existence, along with Washington, Cleveland and Louisville. This made the American League possible.

Brouthers, Kelley and Keeler were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as players. Jennings, McGraw and Robinson could have been. Instead, they were elected as managers. Gleason was also a major league manager, and apparently more honest than some of his teammates: He was the manager of the 1919 American League Champion Chicago White Sox, and was not involved in the fix of that season's World Series.

Between them, Gleason, Jennings, McGraw and Robinson managed teams that won 16 Pennants. But of them, only McGraw won a World Series as a manager, 3 of them. He and Connie Mack would be the 1st 2 men elected to the Hall as managers.

There's one more field leader who should be mentioned. William Jones Clarke, known as "Boileryard" Clarke because he had a loud voice that could be heard all over the ballpark, was a reserve player, who later coached at Princeton University, whose baseball complex is now named Bill Clarke Field for him. He died on July 29, 1959, and was the last survivor of "the Old Orioles."

It would take until 1954 for Baltimore to return to the major leagues on more than an interim basis. In 1966, the American League's Orioles won their 1st Pennant, and their 1st World Championship. By then, the Old Orioles were so far back, they were a legend. There was no one left to even make them a memory.

In 1949, Ogden Nash, my grandmother's favorite poet, wrote "Line-Up for Yesterday" for Sport magazine, an alphabetical list of star players. For the letter K, he wrote: 

K is for Keeler,
As fresh as green paint,
The fastest and mostest
To hit where they ain't.

September 6, 1995: Cal Ripken Becomes Baseball's All-Time "Iron Man"

September 6, 1995: The Baltimore Orioles beat the California Angels, 4-2 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Cal Ripken Jr. batted 5th and played shortstop. As the game's 5th inning concluded, making the game official, the game was interrupted for a ceremony honoring Ripken, because it was his 2,131st consecutive game with the Orioles.

This broke the record of 2,130, set by Lou Gehrig with the New York Yankees, from June 1, 1925 to April 30, 1939.

Ripken's streak began on May 30, 1982, at the Orioles' previous home park, Memorial Stadium. Then 20 years old, and the son of Oriole 3rd base coach Cal Ripken Sr., he played shortstop, and batted 8th, going 0-for-2, but did draw a walk. The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Orioles, 6-0, getting a 1-hit shutout from Jim Gott (6 innings) and Roy Lee Jackson (3). The only Oriole hit was a single by Rick Dempsey in the 5th inning.

Although he had been featured on the Orioles' "Future Stars" card in the 1982 Topps baseball card set -- along with shortstop Bob Bonner and pitcher Jeff Schneider -- he had, to this point, appeared in a grand total of 65 major league games. And the Orioles' most recent one hadn't been one of them.

He must have impressed manager Earl Weaver, because Earl put Cal in the next game as well. And the next. And so on. In 1982, he was named the American League's Rookie of the Year. In 1983, defying the "sophomore jinx" that had hit many Rookies of the Year, he became the only one, in either League, to win his League's Most Valuable Player award the following season. The Orioles won the World Series, beating the Philadelphia Phillies in 5 games, with Ripken catching a line drive from Garry Maddox for the last out.

Ripken became a perennial All-Star, and in 1991 was named AL MVP again, and also the MVP of the All-Star Game. He surpassed the various men ahead of him on the list of most consecutive games played: Stan Musial with 895, Billy Williams with 1,117, Steve Garvey with the National League record of 1,207, and Everett Scott with the pre-Gehrig record of 1,307.

When the Strike of '94 hit on August 12, 1994, with Ripken having played in 2,009 straight games, there was some question as to whether the next Orioles game, should he play in it, would count as part of the streak. Major League Baseball ruled that it would.

The Strike was ended, and Ripken and the Orioles resumed. On September 5, the Orioles beat the Angels, 8-0, having hit 7 home runs, 2 by Brady Anderson, 1 by Ripken as he tied Gehrig's record at 2,130.

On Gehrig's Monument in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium, the inscription includes the words, "A man, a gentleman and a great ball player whose amazing record of 2130 consecutive games should stand for all time." Whether it should have stood for all time was a separate debate. But it took 56 years after Gehrig's retirement, forced by a fatal illness, to fall.

With the Washington Senators having moved to the Dallas area after the 1971 season, becoming the Texas Rangers, the Orioles became the closest MLB team to the nation's capital, and many Washington insiders made the 45-mile trip up the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, took up the Orioles as their second team, and entertained prominent guests, first at Memorial Stadium, then, starting in 1992, at Camden Yards.

And because Ripken was the biggest star on the capital, he became a national figure, celebrated not for being spectacular, but for simply showing up and doing his job every day -- even though he had just come off the longest work stoppage in his industry's history. (Of course, the players were right and the team owners were wrong. But it does make the celebration of Ripken showing up every day a bit hypocritical.)

So when it was calculated, after the Strike's end, that September 6 would (barring a postponement) be Game Number 2,131, everybody who was anybody wanted to be there. This included President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton, who watched the game with MLB Acting Commissioner Bud Selig. ESPN broadcast the game nationally.

The teams traded home runs in the 1st inning: Tim Salmon for the Angels, and Rafael Palmeiro for the Orioles. Bobby Bonilla led off the bottom of the 4th with a home run. Up next was Ripken, who was a few days past his 35th birthday, and he made it back-to-back home runs, causing Oriole broadcaster Jon Miller to shout, "Oh my goodness, he's done it again!" That made it 3-1 Orioles.

After the 5th inning, as the game began official, people turned to the warehouse beyond the right field wall, where 4 banners hung, reading 2, 1, 3 and 0. A 1 banner was unfurled over the 0 banner, making it 2,131. A standing ovation began, and would not stop. For the moment, he was not just a national treasure, a man widely seen as having restored baseball's popularity after the Strike: He was one of their own, a native of Aberdeen, Maryland, 34 miles to the northeast.

He took what English soccer fans would call a "lap of honour," shaking hands around the field. The ovation lasted 22 minutes, and ESPN did not break for commercial.

Palmeiro hit a home run in the 7th, and the Orioles won, 4-2. Future Hall-of-Famer Mike Mussina was the winning pitcher.

In recognition of his achievement, Sports Illustrated named Ripken their Sportsman of the Year for 1995.

Ripken had once been an excellent defensive shortstop, but, in 1996, was moved to 3rd base, where he remained for the rest of his career. In 1996 and '97, he helped the Orioles reach the Playoffs, but their 1983 remained his only Pennant win. It had been suggested that he was hurting the team by not taking the occasional day off, but he kept going until September 20, 1998, at home against the Yankees, Gehrig's team. His streak ended at 2,632 in a row. He had surpassed Gehrig's record by 23 percent.

In taking the occasional day off, he 1999, he batted .340, the highest average of his career -- but also equal to Gehrig's career batting average. After the season, he was voted by fans onto the MLB All-Century Team. Early the next season, he collected his 3,000th career hit. He retired after the 2001 season, the Orioles retired his Number 8, and he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Given what's now called "load management," the possibility of seriously approaching the streaks of Musial, Williams, Garvey, Scott and Gehrig, never mind Ripken's, is incredibly remote.

*

September 6, 1995 was a Wednesday. These other games were played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners, 4-3 at Yankee Stadium. Jack McDowell went the distance for the win. Don Mattingly, in his last month as an active player, went 1-for-4. Ken Griffey Jr. went 1-for-3 with a walk. Tino Martinez hit a home run -- for the Mariners. The next season, he would be hitting them for the Yankees.

* The New York Mets lost to the San Diego Padres, 6-5 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Todd Hundley hit a home run for the Mets, Ken Caminiti and Marc Newfield for the Padres. Tony Gwynn went 3-for-3 with a walk. Fernando Valenzuela started for the Padres, but only lasted 3 innings. Three straight singles in the bottom of the 9th, by Steve Finley, Scott Livingstone and Bip Roberts, won it for the Padres.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics, 8-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Rickey Henderson went 1-for-2.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-1 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1 at Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Chicago Cubs, 10-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 12-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-1 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 7-5 at The Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 7-3 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 1-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Mike Grace (no relation to Mark Grace) pitched 7 innings of 2-hit shutout ball, and 2 relievers completed the 3-hit shutout.

* And the Montreal Expos beat the San Francisco Giants, 8-2 at Candlestick Park (then named 3Com Park at Candlestick Point) in San Francisco. Barry Bonds went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

August 30, 1967: The 1st Black Justice On the U.S. Supreme Court

August 30, 1967: President Lyndon B. Johnson appoints Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court of the United States. This made him its 1st black Justice.

Most new Justices are not familiar to the general public before their appointments. Marshall was: He was a man whose story would have to be told even if he had never received this appointment.

He was born on July 2, 1908 in Baltimore. On my 1st visit to that city, in 1987, my hotel was across the street from the Federal Courthouse. Although it was named for the recently-deceased Congressman Edward Garmatz, there was a statue of Marshall outside. It was the 1st time I had ever seen a statue of someone still living. In his case, he was even still serving on the Supreme Court. (Although a check of the facts shows that Garmatz was also still alive when the Courthouse was named for him.)

He attended Lincoln University, the country's oldest school for black students, outside Philadelphia in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he was a classmate of writer Langston Hughes. With the University of Maryland School of Law segregated, he went to the one at Howard University in Washington, D.C., known as "The Black Harvard."

In 1935, working as assistant to his former Howard professor, Charles Hamilton Houston, who was now the director-counsel for the Legal Defense and Educational Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), he won the case of Donald Gaines Murray, which ordered the desegregation of... the University of Maryland School of Law.

Key to this decision was the fact that the State of Maryland did not provide funding for, to use the expression used by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case, "separate by equal" facilities: It was funding a law school for white residents of the State, but not black ones. In 1936, Marshall, again working under Houston, won a similar case with the University of Missouri.

Houston, a Washington native and a graduate of Harvard University School of Law, became known as "The Man Who Killed Jim Crow." This was a bit premature, but he had found a way around the segregation laws known as "Jim Crow": "If you want it 'separate but equal,' I will make it so expensive for it to be separate that you will have to abandon your separateness." He returned to Howard in 1938, with Marshall succeeding him as director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Fund. Houston died in 1950, before seeing Marshall's greatest success.

The full name of the case was Oliver Brown et al. v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The named plaintiff, Oliver Brown, was a welder working for a railroad, and an assistant pastor. His daughter, Linda Carol Brown, was in the 3rd grade, and had to walk 6 blocks to her school bus stop to ride to Monroe Elementary School in Topeka, an all-black school, 1 mile away. Sumner Elementary School, all-white, was just 7 blocks away -- 1 block longer than the walk to the bus.

Thurgood Marshall led the legal team for the Browns. The defense counsel was John W. Davis, a former Congressmen from West Virginia, a former Solicitor General of the U.S., a former U.S. Ambassador to Britain, the Democratic Party's nominee for President in 1924, and a staunch segregationist. Davis was 81 years old, and spoke in flowery prose to support segregation. (He would be dead within a year, and is largely forgotten today.)

Marshall was 45, at the height of his powers, and spoke plainly: "The only possible justification for segregation is an inherent determination that the people who were formerly in slavery, regardless of anything else, shall be kept as near that stage as possible. And now is the time, we submit, that this Court should make clear that that is not what our Constitution stands for."

In a unanimous 9-0 ruling, the Supreme Court overturned the case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which ruled that "separate but equal" facilities be provided in public places. In Brown v. Board, the Supreme Court ruled that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." In 58 years, SCOTUS had gone from 1-8 in favor of integration to 9-0.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to be a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, covering the States of New York, Connecticut and Vermont. In 4 years, he authored 98 majority opinions. Not one of them has ever been overturned.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Marshall to be the 1st black U.S. Solicitor General, whose job is to argue in favor of the federal government when it is a party in a case before the Supreme Court. 

Not only had his 1954 opponent Davis held that post, but so had William Howard Taft, later to become the only man to serve as President and as a Justice of the Supreme Court. So had former Justices Stanley Reed and Robert H. Jackson. This was a signal that LBJ was preparing to make Marshall the 1st black Justice on the Supreme Court.

For 2 years, SCOTUS had no vacancy. So LBJ decided to create one: He got Nicholas Katzenbach, his Attorney General, to take a post as an Under Secretary of State, and appointed Ramsey Clark to be the new Attorney General. In order to avoid a conflict of interest, LBJ convinced Clark's father, Justice Tom Clark, to retire.

On June 13, LBJ announced Marshall's appointment. On August 30, the U.S. Senate confirmed by by a vote of 69-11. Which means that 20 Senators didn't vote. These were all Southern Democrats, and Johnson personally asked them not to vote at all, and they agreed. Not that it would have mattered, but it certainly made them look better than the 11 who did vote against him.

Marshall became a reliable member of a liberal coalition on the Court, under Chief Justices Earl Warren (1967-69) and Warren Burger (1969-86). But when William Rehnquist was promoted from Associate Justice to Chief Justice by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, the Court took a much more conservative turn. The retirement of William J. Brennan, a fellow liberal, in 1990 left him feeling depressed about the Court's progress.

By 1991, Marshall had had enough, and retired. At the press conference where he announced it, a reporter, concerned about his health, asked, "What's wrong with you, sir?" Marshall said, "What's wrong with me? I'm old! I'm getting old, and coming apart." He died on January 25, 1993, at the age of 84.

He had been married twice, and had 2 sons: Thurgood Marshall Jr. worked in the Clinton Administration and chaired the Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service in the Obama Administration; and John W. Marshall served as Director of Public Safety for the Commonwealth of Virginia for 8 years, making him the longest-serving person in the history of the Cabinet of Virginia's Governors.

*

August 30, 1967 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 2-1 at Yankee Stadium. The American League Pennant race was incredibly tight: The Red Sox came into this game just half a game ahead of Minnesota and Detroit, and 2 1/2 ahead of Chicago. In contrast, the Yankees were 15 1/2 games back, and were struggling to avoid a repeat performance of the previous season's last-place finish. So every win was key for the Red Sox in what became known as their "Impossible Dream" season.

And the most key player was Carl Yastrzemski, on the way to winning the AL's Triple Crown. In the top of the 11th inning, he hit a home run off Al Downing, who had gone the distance for the Pinstripes. This made a winning pitcher of John Wyatt, who pitched 4 innings in relief of Jerry Stephenson. Mickey Mantle did not play in this game.

* The New York Mets lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-0 at Busch Memorial Stadium. Larry Jaster took a 4-hit shutout into the 9th inning, and Ron Willis finished it. Tim McCarver, who would later broadcast for the Mets (and the Yankees) hit a home run for the Cardinals.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 5-1 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.)

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Atlanta Braves, 11-9 at Atlanta Stadium (It was renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1975.) Roberto Clemente went 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs. Willie Stargell went 2-for-4 with a home run and 4 RBIs. Joe Torre went 3-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4, and did not hit a home run.

A year earlier, in the Braves' 1st game in Atlanta, Torre hit the 1st major league home run at the stadium, but Stargell hit one that won the game.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Johnny Bench, who made his major league debut 2 days earlier, got his 1st major league RBI, a sacrifice fly off Chris Short in the 2nd inning; and his 1st major league hit, a single off Short in 7th.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Houston Astros, 4-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks went 0-for-4 with an RBI groundout. Joe Morgan went 2-for-5 for the Astros.

* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-5 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. (Both teams played at facilities named Municipal Stadium.) Danny Cater singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 12th inning.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Brooks Robinson and Frank Robinson each went 1-for-4, and Frank's hit was a 2-run home run, off Dean Chance in the top of the 10th inning. Like Downing, Chance had pitched an entire extra-inning game but lost. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-3 with a walk, and eventual Rookie of the Year Rod Carew went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.  

* The California Angels beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Al Kaline went 1-for-4.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 9-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Ron Fairly hit a home run in support of Don Drysdale. Willie Mays went 1-for-4 with a walk.

July 30, 1952: The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Opens

July 30, 1952: The Chesapeake Bay Bridge opens, connecting mainland Maryland with the State's Eastern Shore. At the time, it was the world's longest continuous over-water steel structure.

This bridge should not be confused with the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which opened in Virginia in 1964. Both of these conveyances replaced ferry boat systems.

Stretching 4.3 miles, it carries U.S. Routes 50 and 301 from the State capital of Annapolis to Stevensville. It cuts down the travel time from the capital; Baltimore, the State's largest city; and Washington, D.C., the national capital, to the resort towns of Ocean City, Maryland and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

In 1967, a few months after his death, the bridge was officially renamed the Governor William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge. Lane served as Governor of Maryland from 1947 to 1951, and was instrumental in getting the bill for the bridge's construction passed. Nevertheless, as with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, most locals still refer to it as "The Bay Bridge."

In 1973, to relieve traffic congestion, a second span was added. The original span carries eastbound traffic, and the newer span carries westbound traffic. There has been consideration of a 3rd span at the bridge's location, or possibly a new bridge elsewhere over the Bay.

*

July 30, 1952 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Chicago White Sox, 7-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Lou Kretlow pitched a shutout, allowing only 2 hits: A double by Phil Rizzuto in the 3rd inning, and a single to Joe Collins in the 6th. For the South Siders, Jim Rivera hit a home run.

* A doubleheader was split at the Polo Grounds. The New York Giants won the opener, 10-6. They did this without Willie Mays, who was serving in the Korean War. Alvin Dark and Dusty Rhodes hit home runs, and rookie Hoyt Wilhelm was the winning pitcher, with 6 innings of relief of Jim Hearn. The Chicago Cubs won the nightcap, 6-2.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3 at Ebbets Field. Carl Furillo singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Joe Black was the winning pitcher, in relief of Carl Erskine. Roy Campanella hit a home run. Jackie Robinson pinch-hit for Rocky Bridges, stayed in the game, and went 0-for-2.

* The Boston Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1 at Braves Field in Boston. The Cardinals' run came on a home run by Stan Musial. This would be the Braves' last season in Boston. The next season, they moved to Milwaukee.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-3 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Dick Brodowski outpitched Bob Feller. The BoSox did this without Ted Williams, who was also serving in the Korean War.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-3 at Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium) in Detroit.

* And the Washington Senators beat the St. Louis Browns, 6-2 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. In 1954, the Browns became the Baltimore Orioles, and that would be the beginning of the end of the Senators. The Orioles would benefit from the Bay Bridge much more than did the Senators, although the Washington Nationals now do.

July 29, 1974: The Death of "Mama" Cass Elliot

July 29, 1974: Cass Elliot, formerly of the rock vocal group The Mamas & The Papas, dies in London.

Ellen Naomi Cohen was born on September 19, 1941 in Baltimore. She took "Cass" not from anyone named "Cassandra," but from actress Peggy Cass. "Elliot" was the name of a friend who had died. The song "Creeque Alley" tells how her group got together, but takes some liberties with the truth: She went to American University in Washington, D.C., not Swarthmore College in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

In 1963, she formed a folksinging group, the Big 3, with Tim Rose and John Brown. Brown soon left the group, and was replaced with Jim Hendricks -- not to be confused with Jimi Hendrix, who would become a friend of Cass'. Cass and Jim got married, in order to get him a deferment from being drafted and sent to Vietnam. They never consummated the marriage, and it was annulled once he became too old to be drafted.

Rose left them in 1964, and they picked up a pair of Canadian folkies working in New York, Zal Yanovsky and Denny Doherty. They formed a new group, The Mugwumps. After 8 months, Zal met a New York folksinger named John Sebastian, and, with Steve Boone and Joe Butler, they formed The Lovin' Spoonful. Denny joined the New Journeymen, with John Phillips and his wife Michelle.

In 1965, Denny convinced John to take on a now-solo Cass. Supposedly, they were working on a name, when they were watching a TV documentary about the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang, and saw that they called their girlfriends "mamas." Cass said, "I want to be a mama!" And so, the group was named The Mamas & the Papas. (Contrary to mistakes commonly made with the group's name, there was just the one capital T, and no apostrophes.)

Cass was 24, Denny 25, Michelle only 19, and John 30. (He had been married before.) Now based in Los Angeles, the group recorded the album If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, whose cover showed the four of them in a bathtub, with Michelle stretched out across the other three seated. It also showed a toilet next to the bathtub, and some of America's self-appointed moral arbiters objected. Subsequent pressings obscured the bowl with boxes listing the songs, and the original cover became a collector's item, as with the Beatles' Yesterday and Today "Butcher Sleeve," Hendrix' Electric Ladyland with the topless women, and the original version of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Street Survivors with the flames.

If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, as would be all their albums, was produced by Lou Adler. It was released on February 28, 1966, and included "California Dreamin'," which became the group's 1st hit, at Number 5; its B-side, "Go Where You Wanna Go," which reached Number 16; "Monday, Monday," which became their only Number 1 hit; and covers of Bobby Freeman's "Do You Wanna Dance," Ben E. King's "Spanish Harlem," The Beatles' "I Call Your Name," Ramsey Lewis' "The In Crowd," and The Turtles' "You Baby." P.F. "Phil" Sloan, who had written "You Baby" with Steve Barri -- they had also written "Eve of Destruction," by the group's friend, Barry McGuire -- played lead guitar on the album.

The group's harmonies, and John's lyrics and guitar playing, quickly made them icons of West Coast rock and roll. Months before San Francisco launched "The Summer of Love," at a time when "hippie" still meant "jazz musician" to most people, they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show -- with the original bathtub shipped east and used as part of their stage set -- and became the 1st act to mention "flower power" on TV, offering Ed a flower. Most acts played the show live, but, for whatever reason, The Mamas & the Papas lip-synched. Ed only had them on twice, but later welcomed similar-sounding groups Spanky & Our Gang and The Cowsills.

Most acts that have a self-titled album make that their 1st one. But their 2nd album was titled The Mamas & the Papas. It had their own hits "Words of Love" (not to be confused with the Buddy Holly song of that title) and "I Saw Her Again," plus a cover of Martha & the Vandellas' "Dancing in the Street."

The Mamas & The Papas Deliver was released early in 1967. Can you imagine The Mamas & the Papas singing The Isley Brothers' "Twist and Shout"? Well, with Denny on the lead, they sang it, in their own style. They also covered The 5 Royales' "Dedicated to the One I Love," as had The Shirelles before them. That version went to Number 3, but this one went to Number 2. They also covered "Sing for Your Supper," from the 1938 Rodgers & Hart musical The Boys from Syracuse; and The Temptations' "My Girl." The album included "Creeque Alley," written by John and Michelle, which tells of how the group got together, but, as I said, it contains some inaccuracies.

But, for such a talented group, they only released 5 albums. The Papas & The Mamas was released in Spring 1968. It included "Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon," and what is often erroneously considered Cass' 1st solo single, but it's definitely the definitive version of the song: Gus Kahn's 1931 standard "Dream a Little Dream of Me." And People Like Us was released in 1971, after the group split.

Touring became difficult, partly because of parenthood. Cass had a fling with Chuck Day, Johnny Rivers' guitarist, who, like Phil Sloan, played on their 1st album. Their daughter, Owen Elliot, was born on April 26, 1967. Since Cass was still officially married to Jim Hendricks, the affair, and even the pregnancy, was kept quiet. Since Cass was already well overweight, this wasn't as hard as could be expected. John & Michelle's daughter, Chynna Phillips, was born on February 12, 1968.

But there was also drug use. And infidelity on the part of both halves of the Phillips couple. John even accused Michelle and Denny of having betrayed him. There were also professional issues: Cass complained about John, a micromanager and a control freak, taking an entire month to record one song. The group split and reconciled twice before Dunhill Records released them from their contract in early 1969.

Like Bobby Darin, who preferred the earlier, Frank Sinatra style of popular music, Cass used rock as a springboard for what she really wanted to do, which was to sing folk music and popular standards. She had already released her 1st solo album, which had "Dream a Little Dream of Me" on it, along with songs by John Sebastian, Leonard Cohen, Richard Manuel of The Band, and Graham Nash of The Hollies. (He was about to form a new group with David Crosby and Stephen Stills.)

Her 1st solo stand in Las Vegas was a disaster, as her crash diet led to her getting sick and affecting her voice. She bounced back. In 1970, Ed Sullivan broadcast a tribute to Broadway songwriter Richard Rodgers, live from the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, and Cass and Johnny Mathis sang a duet of "My Favorite Things." In 1972, she appeared on The Julie Andrews Hour, and sang Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again, Naturally."

She was successful on the cabaret circuit, and became a fixture on talk shows, both daytime and nighttime. At the time, these shows were not geared toward a rock and roll audience, and her standards and "adult contemporary" style fit in well. She did a week's stand as a panelist on Match Game when it returned in 1973. That year, in spite of the fact that she was the one who led to her former group's name, she released an album titled Don't Call Me Mama Anymore, which was followed by CBS giving her a special with that title.

Unfortunately, she had something else in common with Bobby Darin: A bad heart. In Darin's case, it was publicly known, and he died on December 20, 1973, following a failed surgery. But with Cass, in spite of her weight issues, nobody saw a fatal heart attack coming.

In the Summer of 1974, she went to London, to play 2 weeks at the London Palladium. It was a smash, and she celebrated a little too hard. On July 27, she attended Rolling Stone Mick Jagger's birthday party. (His birthday was the 26th.) The next day, British singer Georgia Brown, who had performed on The Ed Sullivan Show the same night as The Beatles' debut, threw a brunch party in her honor. Witnesses saw her having trouble breathing. She then went to a cocktail party hosted by American entertainment journalist Jack Martin, and witnesses thought she looked exhausted. She left at 8:00 PM, saying she was tired.

She was staying at singer Harry Nilsson's apartment on London's Curzon Square. On July 29, she was found there, dead. According to the autopsy, it was a heart attack, with no drugs in her system. A half-eaten ham sandwich was found, and the rumor that she died from choking on it got around, but it wasn't true. If the sandwich had anything to do with her death, it would have been the ham's high salt content. Four years later, The Who's drummer, Keith Moon, would die in that same apartment, and at the same age, 32. But, in his case, drugs were involved.

The surviving Mamas & Papas reunited for a tour in 1987, with Spanky & Our Gang leader Elaine McFarlane -- nicknamed "Spanky" in honor of Our Gang member George McFarland -- taking Cass' place. John Phillips died in 2001, and Denny Doherty in 2007. Chynna Phillips formed Wilson Phillips with Carnie and Wendy Wilson, daughters of Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. Mackenzie Phillips, John's daughter from his 1st marriage, became an actress, starring on the sitcom One Day at a Time. Bijou Phillips, John's daughter from his 3rd marriage, also became an actress.

Cass' sister, Leah Kunkel, was also a singer, and raised Owen after Cass' death. Owen became a singer, and toured as a backup singer for The Beach Boys. Michelle Phillips later helped Owen find her biological father, and they connected, but it was only in 2008, after Chuck Day died, that he was revealed to the public as Owen's father. As of July 29, 2022, Owen Elliott, Michelle Phillips, Lou Adler and Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane are still alive.

*

July 29, 1974 was a Monday. How I Met Your Mother star Josh Radnor was born that day. And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 2-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Terry Hughes hit a sacrifice fly to score Bob Montgomery with the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning. This made Sparky Lyle a losing pitcher in relief of Sam McDowell. Roger Moret pitched all 11 innings for the Boston win. Dwight Evans hit a home run for the other Red Sox run. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-3 with 2 walks. The Yankee run came on a home run by Bill Sudakis.

* The New York Mets beat the Montreal Expos, 4-3 at Shea Stadium. John Milner hit a 2-run home run in the bottom of the 8th inning to win it.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 13-1 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Schmidt went 3-for-5 with 2 home runs, a walk, and 4 RBIs. Willie Stargell went 0-for-2 with a walk.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson did not play. Robin Yount went 0-for-3.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 10-2 at Atlanta Stadium. (It was renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium the next season.) Hank Aaron went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Tigers got home runs from Al Kaline, Bill Freehan, Mickey Stanley, Ed Brinkman and Jerry Moses.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 1-for-3. Johnny Bench went 1-for-4.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 11-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Lou Brock went 2-for-4, and stole a base, his 65th of the season. He went on to steal 118, then a major league record, and still a National League record.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Kansas City Royals, 10-1 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Rookie George Brett went 0-for-3.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 7-2 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 11-9 at the Oakland Coliseum. This was a wild one. The South Siders led 5-4, but the A's scored 4 runs in the 7th and 3 in the 8th, taking an 11-5 lead. The ChiSox mounted a comeback, but only scored 4 runs instead of the 6 they needed. In spite of all the scoring, none of it came on home runs. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-4. Bill North went 3-for-5 with 4 RBIs.

* And the California Angels and the Minnesota Twins were not scheduled.