June 22, 1974: East Germany 1, West Germany 0

The Captains: Franz Beckenbauer (left) and Bernd Bransch

June 22, 1974: The World Cup continues in West Germany. The host country falls victim to one of the biggest upsets in the tournament's history: They lose, 1-0, at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg… to East Germany. It is the greatest moment in the steroid-ridden sports history of that country: They beat the imperialist democrats on their own soil.

Around 1,500 East German citizens attended the match, including hundreds of members of the East German secret police, known as the Stasi. These fans were instructed to cheer on East Germany with the chant, "Sieben, acht, neun, zehn, Klasse!" ("7, 8, 9, 10, Great!")

FC Magdeburg were the leading team in East Germany in the early 1970s. One of their players was midfielder Jürgen Sparwasser. He scored in the 77th minute, to give the East the 1-0 win.

On May 8, FC Magdeburg defeated AC Milan, 2-0 at De Kuip in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to win the European Cup Winners' Cup. This turned out to be the only major European trophy won by an East German club.

So why did West Germany lose? Was it overconfidence? Probably. But there's a conspiracy theory: The team that finished at the top of the group, in the First Group Stage, would go into the Second Group Stage in a group with the Netherlands and Brazil: What would later be called a "group of death." So the West Germans, the theory goes, tanked the game, figuring that, if they got the easier Second Group, and won it, and then won the Final, people would remember that, and not that they lost to the Commies on their own ground. Well, people remember both.

 

Also on this day, Australia and Chile played to a 0-0 draw at West Berlin; Scotland and Yugoslavia played to a 1-1 draw at Frankfurt; and Brazil beat Zaire, 3-0, at Gelsenkirchen. So, in the Second Group Stage, it would be the Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina and East Germany in Group A; and West Germany, Poland, Yugoslavia and Sweden in Group B.

In the Second Group Stage, East Germany lost to Brazil, 1-0; lost to the Netherlands, 2-0; and played Argentina to a 1-1 draw. In contrast, West Germany went 3-0, beating Yugoslavia, 2-0; Sweden, 4-2; and Poland, 1-0. Poland went on to win the Third Place Playoff, their best performance ever. They matched that in 1982, but they've never topped it.

That set up a Final between West Germany and the Netherlands, a story unto itself.

West Germany and East Germany never met again at the senior level despite West Germany frequently requesting a rematch but the East declining, despite strong interest from East German players, coaches and fans.

Sparwasser later said, "Rumor had it I was richly rewarded for the goal, with a car, a house and a cash premium. But that is not true." In 1988, he defected to West Germany while taking part in a veterans' tournament there. After his playing career he had a brief managerial career, working as assistant manager at Eintracht Frankfurt in 1988 and 1989, and as head coach at Darmstadt in 1990 and 1991.

With the German reunification, a special game between the two former countries was planned for November 21, 1990 in Leipzig, but was cancelled after a fatal shooting of a supporter at a game between Sachsen Leipzig and Berliner Dynamo by the police on November 3. West Germany and East Germany had been drawn with each other for the qualifying for the 1992 European Championship, but the reunification meant that East Germany ceased to exist, and could no longer compete.

For the 2022-23 season, out of 18 teams in the united Germany's Bundesliga, only 2, Union Berlin and RB Leipzig, are in places formerly controlled by East Germany.

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June 22, 1974 was a Saturday. Actor Donald Faison was born. This was also the day the Sears Tower opened in Chicago. I have a separate entry for that event.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 4-1 at Yankee Stadium. The game was tied 1-1 after 8 innings, but Dick Tidrow ran out of gas in the 9th inning, also stricken by a rare error by Graig Nettles. Thurman Munson went 4-for-4.

* The New York Mets were swept by the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-2 and 8-5 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Ron Schueler went the distance in the 1st game, while Harry Parker didn't get out of the 2nd inning. Rusty Staub went 2-for-4 with a home run and both Met RBIs, but the rest of the team only got 3 hits.

Wayne Twitchell was the winning pitcher in the 2nd game, while the Mets' George Stone only lasted 2 innings. Ken Boswell and John Milner hit home runs for the Mets, but it wasn't enough. Over the 2 games, Mike Schmidt went 2-for-6 with 2 walks and 2 RBIs.

* A doubleheader was split at Fenway Park in Boston. The Cleveland Indians won the opener, 11-0. Gaylord Perry pitched a 4-hit shutout. The Boston Red Sox won the nightcap, 8-3. Over the 2 games, Carl Yastrzemski went 3-for-6 with 2 walks.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 1-for-3 with a walk. Johnny Bench went 0-for-2 with 2 walks. Hank Aaron went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ken Brett pitched an 8-hit shutout. Willie Stargell went 1-for-5.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-4. Rookie Robin Yount hit a home run.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Jorge Orta hit a home run in the top of the 10th inning to win it. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-4. Rod Carew went 1-for-4.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Montreal Expos, 4-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The California Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 7-4 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Nolan Ryan went the distance, striking out 10, walking 3.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Houston Astros, 6-2 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 3-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Joe Ferguson won it by leading off the bottom of the 10th inning with a home run.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Reggie Jackson went 2-for-4. Rookie George Brett went 0-for-4.

April 30, 1993: The Attack On Monica Seles

April 30, 1993: Tennis star Monica Seles is stabbed at the Citizen Cup tournament in Hamburg, Germany. The stabbing itself was not caught on video, but her scream was caught on audio.

Although her wound was not life-threatening, it cut enough muscle to put her out of action for a few months. It disturbed her enough mentally that she didn't come back for another 2 years after that.

The native of Novi Sad, Serbia, but ethnically Hungarian, was 19 years old, and had already won 8 of the last 10 majors: The 1990, '91 and '92 French Opens; the '91, '92 and '93 Australian Opens; and the '91 and '92 U.S. Opens. Oddly, she hadn't yet won Wimbledon.

Her attacker, Günter Parche, was obsessed with Steffi Graf, a fellow German whom Seles had replaced as the best female tennis player in the world. Prior to Seles' 1st major win, Graff had won the French Open in 1987, '88 and '93; the Australian Open in 1988, '89 and '90; Wimbledon in 1988, '89, '91 and '92; and the U.S. Open in 1988 and '89.

If Parche's goal was to allow Graf to once again dominate women's tennis, it worked -- at first: She won Wimbledon and the U.S. in 1993, and the Australian in '94. After that, though, Graf slowed down a bit. Arantxa Sánchez Vicario won the next French and U.S. Opens, Conchita Martínez the next Wimbledon. Graf took the French, Wimbledon and the U.S. in 1995, and again in '96, but she never won the Australian again. And after the '96 U.S., she was 27, and won just 1 more major, the '99 French.

Parche spent 6 months in prison, with 2 years of probation. As of April 30, 2022, he is believed to be living in a German nursing home, suffering from a long-term illness. Disenchanted by what she thought was a lenient sentence, Seles refused to play in Germany again. After her return, she won only 1 more major, the 1996 Australian Open.

Seles retired from tennis in 2003, and was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2009. Now 49, she lives in Sarasota, Florida, and is married to Tom Golisano, the Rochester-based payroll billionaire who once owned the NHL's Buffalo Sabres. She has no children, although Golisano has children from previous marriages.

UPDATE: The German magazine Bild revealed on April 22, 2023 that Parche had died the previous August, at the age of 68, confirming that he had spent the last 14 years bedridden in a nursing home in Nordhausen, Germany.

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April 30, 1993 was a Friday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners, 3-0 at Yankee Stadium. Mélido Pérez went 8 innings, while Steve Howe and Steve Farr finished a 4-hit shutout for him. Jim Leyritz hit a home run. He and Mike Gallego each had 3 hits. Don Mattingly went 0-for-3 with a walk. Ken Griffey Jr. went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The New York Mets lost to the San Diego Padres, 7-6 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. The Mets led 5-3 going into the bottom of the 7th, but the Padres took a 6-5 lead. The Mets tied it in the 8th, but the Padres took the lead back on an RBI single by Tony Gwynn. The losing pitcher was Anthony Young. It was the 17th straight decision he'd lost, a streak that would reach a major league record of 27.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the California Angels, 6-1 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Kansas City Royals, 12-5 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Cal Ripken Jr. went 0-for-3, but drew 2 walks. George Brett, in his final season, hit a home run.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Damon Berryhill, the Braves' backup catcher, hit a home run to win the game in the bottom of the 11th inning.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Florida Marlins, 6-2 at Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida. The National League's 2 new expansion franchises weren't doing that badly: Counting this game, the Marlins were 10-13, the Rockies 8-14. The Rockies would finish 67-95, the Marlins 64-98. Neither finished last in their Division: The Mets had a horrible season on several fronts, and needed to win their last 5 games just to finish at the bottom of the East at 59-103; while the Padres had a fire sale, and trailed the West at 61-101.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. And Rickey Henderson drew a leadoff walk in the top of the 10th inning, leading to 6 Cleveland runs, including home runs by Rubén Sierra and Terry Steinbach.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-3 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 8-0 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. David Wells went 7 innings, and Greg Gohr finished the 4-hit shutout.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 10-2 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago. This turned out to be a preview of the American League Championship Series. However, in the interim, the Blue Jays traded for Rickey Henderson, making a huge difference.

* The Houston Astros beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 11-2 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-6 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Montreal Expos, 5-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Barry Bonds went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Texas Rangers, 5-4 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup Playoffs were underway, but no games were scheduled for that day. The NBA Playoffs had just gotten underway, and 4 games were played:

* The New York Knicks beat the Indiana Pacers, 107-104 at Madison Square Garden, in spite of 32 points from Reggie Miller.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Atlanta Hawks, 114-90 at the Chicago Stadium. Michael Jordan scored 35 points.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns, 107-103 at the America West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix. Sedale Threatt scored 35 for the Lakers.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Utah Jazz, 99-85 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.