September 29, 1982: The Tylenol Murders Begin

September 29, 1982: The Chicago Tylenol Murders begin. Over the next few days, 7 people die after taking Tylenol-branded acetaminophen capsules that had been laced with potassium cyanide.

James William Lewis, a New Yorker, would be convicted of extortion, for sending Johnson & Johnson a letter claiming credit for the deaths, and demanding $1 million to stop them. But no one has ever found evidence tying him to the poisonings themselves. It remains a great unsolved mystery.

James William Lewis

Johnson & Johnson, makers of Tylenol, repackaged their capsules to prevent tampering, and introduced "caplets," a combination of tablets and capsules. But the bottles have become more "child-proof" than ever. Whoever tainted those pills was one of those "people who ruined it for everybody."

Seven people died from tainted Tylenol, and we can't get the damn bottles open anymore. But thousands of people die from gun violence, and guns get easier to get, not harder.

UPDATE: Lewis died on July 9, 2023, at the age of 78.

*

September 29, 1982 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that Fyodor Cherenkov led Spartak Moscow to victory in a UEFA Cup match against Arsenal in North London. I have a separate entry for that event.

These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 13-6 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Ken Griffey Sr. went 4-for-4 with 5 RBIs, Jerry Mumphrey went 3-for-5 with 4 RBIs, and Dave Winfield went 1-for-5, with rookie Don Mattingly driving in a run with a sacrifice fly, all in support of Jay Howell. Nevertheless, the dynasty of 1976-81 was over, as the Yankees had their worst season since 1967.

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 4-1 at Shea Stadium. Bill Buckner hit a home run. I don't know if it was his best day at Shea, but the worst was yet to come.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. For the Brew Crew, on their way to their 1st Pennant, Don Money and Ned Yost hit home runs. Robin Yount went 0-for-2, but drew 2 walks and had an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Paul Molitor went 2-for-4 with a walk. For the BoSox, Jim Rice and Gary Allenson homered, and Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Montreal Expos, 4-0 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. It was Win Day: Steve Carlton pitched a 2-hit shutout. Mike Schmidt went 1-for-4 with an RBI, and Pete Rose went 0-for-4 with an RBI groundout.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-0 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Gary Ward went 2-for-4 with a home run and 4 RBIs, in support of Brad Havens, who allowed 9 hits bur kept the shutout.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Willie Stargell, in his last week as an active player, did not get into the game. In spite of this loss, the Cardinals went on to win the World Series, beating the Brewers in 7 games.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Eddie Murray went 0-for-4, but Cal Ripken hit a home run.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 6-5 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the California Angels, 6-5 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 1-for-4 with an RBI. For the Angels, Reggie Jackson and Don Baylor hit home runs, and Rod Carew went 2-for-4.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-3 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Rickey Henderson went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Terry Kennedy singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Tony Gwynn went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Johnny Bench did not play.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The Braves scored 2 runs in the top of the 12th, while the Dodgers could only score 1 in the bottom half.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 6-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

September 26, 1994: President Clinton's Health Care Reform Effort Dies

September 26, 1994: What had been considered a great chance at achieving some form of health care reform dies. It would take another 16 years, and 2 Presidents, before another serious attempt was made.

In 1992, Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas ran for President, and national health care was a big part of his platform. He made the point that there were only two industrialized nations without national health care: The United States of America, and South Africa. At the time, South Africa was not a country you wanted your own to be compared to.

Clinton won in a landslide, mainly due to the state of the American economy as a whole, but health care was a big part of it. On September 22, 1993, Clinton made a major speech to Congress, announcing a program that was aimed at achieving universal coverage through a national health care plan. This was one of the most prominent items on Clinton's legislative agenda, and resulted from a task force headed by First Lady Hillary Clinton.

The plan was hardly extreme, or radical. It was not as far to the left as the plan put forward by former President Theodore Roosevelt when he ran to regain the office in 1912; or as far to the left as the plan put forward by President Harry Truman as part of his Fair Deal program in 1949; or even as far to the left as the plan put forward by President Richard Nixon in 1974. (He may have thought it would convince Democrats to focus on that instead of Watergate. They didn't.)

But pretty much every conservative in America, in public office and in the media, called the Clinton plan "Communism," "Socialism," "socialized medicine," "extreme," and, in reflection of the fact that the First Lady was unpopular, "Hillarycare."

There had been a tradition where, since the Presidency had to be respected, and the President himself couldn't be attacked, another major figure in the office faced the vitriol. For Franklin Roosevelt, it was his wife and chief advisor, Eleanor. For Harry Truman, it was Secretary of State Dean Acheson. For Dwight D. Eisenhower, it was Chief of Staff Sherman Adams. For John F. Kennedy, it was his brother and Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy.

The Vietnam War made it possible for Lyndon Johnson to become the 1st President to really face that kind of anger, and so every President since has faced it. Still, conservatives hated Hillary more than they hated Bill.

Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, the Minority Leader, practically already running for President in the 1996 election, led the chorus of Republicans saying, "America has the best health care system in the world" (ignoring the fact that America had the worst way of paying for it), and, "There isn't any crisis in health care" (which, for millions of Americans, was a bald-faced lie).

The American Medical Association, which led the opposition that stopped Truman's measure when it looked like a done deal, launched a multimedia assault. On September 8, 1993, the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) launched the "Harry and Louise" ads, a series showing a couple, played by Harry Johnson and Louise Clare Clark, worrying about what the Clinton plan would do to their lives.

Not to America on the whole, as they never mentioned the dreaded words "socialized medicine." To themselves, on a personal level, in a way that was intended to resonate with the average American family. It sure did: Support for Hillarycare crashed.

Clinton was willing to compromise a little, as long as whatever bill that hit his desk covered everybody. But on January 25, 1994, he delivered the State of the Union Address, and threw down the gauntlet. He held up a pen, and told Congress:

I want to make this very clear. I am open, as I have said repeatedly, to the best ideas of concerned Members of both Parties. I have no special brief for any specific approach, even in our own bill, except this: If you send me legislation that does not guarantee every American private health insurance that can never be taken away, you will force me to take this pen, veto the legislation, and we'll come right back here and start all over again.

But I don't think that's going to happen. I think we're ready to act now. I believe that you're ready to act now. And if you're ready to guarantee every American the same health care that you have, health care that can never be taken away, now -- not next year, or the year after -- now is the time to stand with the people who sent us here, now.

He thought he had the cards. Or maybe he didn't think so, and he thought he could bluff. He couldn't. On January 10, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which was key to drafting a bill, had gone on NBC's Sunday morning news program, Meet the Press. His name was Daniel Patrick "Pat" Moynihan.

He told the show's moderator, Tim Russert, who had once been an aide of his, "We don't have a health care crisis in this country. But we do have a welfare crisis." It was a shocking remark to a Democratic viewer not old enough to remember 1965. It was not shocking to those old enough to remember that year, when, as Assistant Secretary of Labor under President Lyndon B. Johnson, Moynihan had issued a report that essentially blamed black people for their own poverty.

Such a belief forced him out of the Administration, but also led the next President, Nixon, a Republican, to bring him back. Moynihan got elected to the Senate in 1976, and was beloved by his New York constituents for bring home helpful projects -- "pork-barrel spending," or just "pork," in Washington lingo -- but he never lifted a finger for health care reform in his long political career.

This time, when it was absolutely necessary, he refused to even hold a hearing on a reform bill, Clinton's or anyone else's. Not even the Republicans' own alternative to it, which was basically a compromise that kept private insurance, but allowed Medicaid to accept costs.

Other Committee Chairmen -- Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts on Senate Labor and Human Resources, Robert Byrd of West Virginia on Senate Appropriations, Jim Sasser of Tennessee on Senate Budget, Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois on House Ways and Means -- held hearings. Moynihan, on Senate Finance? Not one hearing. I have never forgiven him for that.

That same year, South Africa held its first all-races election. Nelson Mandela's party won. He was sworn in as President. The first bill he signed into law had nothing specific to do with easing race relations. It was to establish national health care.

That left only one industrialized nation without it. "God bless America."

Clinton had been juggling priorities, "spending his political capital" as best he could, basically running out of that capital to get the Crime Bill passed on September 13, 1994. On September 26, Senator George Mitchell of Maine, the Majority Leader, announced that no further hearings would be held, accepting the truth that they would be a waste of time. Clinton accepted this. It was a surrender.

The Democrats paid for their successful effort to pass a crime bill with gun control legislation, and for their failed effort to pass "socialized medicine": On November 8, the Republicans won the Congressional elections, winning majorities in both houses.

Times changed. In 2008, the same actors who played Harry and Louise appeared in a short film that aired at the Democratic National Convention, saying that it was time to reform health care. In 2010, the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare -- basically, the main Republican alternative to Hillarycare in 1993-94 -- passed, without one single Republican vote. Again, the Republicans called it "extreme" and "socialized medicine." This time, they lost, and the American people won.

As of September 26, 2022, Harry Johnson and Louise Clare Clark are still alive. (UPDATE: Harry died in 2024.)

*

September 26, 1994 was a Monday. Baseball's Strike of '94 was on, and the remainder of the season, including the postseason, had been canceled. It was too early for the NBA and NHL seasons to start. There was 1 score on this historic day: On ABC Monday Night Football, the Buffalo Bills beat the Denver Broncos, 27-20 at Rich Stadium in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York. The stadium would later be renamed Ralph Wilson Stadium, New Era Field, Bills Stadium and Highmark Stadium.

July 30, 1980: The Tragedy of J.R. Richard

July 30, 1980: Houston Astros pitcher J.R. Richard suffers a stroke. A career that looked like it was headed for the Baseball Hall of Fame is over.

James Rodney Richard was born on March 7, 1950 in Vienna, in Northern Louisiana. He grew up near Ruston, at the same time as quarterback Bert Jones, and, about 70 miles to the west in Shreveport, quarterback Terry Bradshaw. By the time he was a senior at Lincoln High School in Ruston, he was already 6-foot-8 and 220 pounds, so he certainly had the build of a football or basketball player.

But baseball was his sport. His idol was St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson, and it showed: Gibson was "only" 6-foot-2, but was a black man with a savage glare on the mound, and not afraid to throw close to a batter, and with good enough control to do it while scaring him but not hitting him. And Richard turned out to be the closest thing we've had to Gibson since Gibson.

Colleges saw his size and wanted him for their basketball programs. But in the 1969 amateur baseball draft, the Houston Astros made J.R. the 2nd overall pick, after the Washington Senators picked Jeff Burroughs. (Burroughs would become an All-Star for the Senators after they moved to become the Texas Rangers, and for the Atlanta Braves. But medical issues, in his case standard injuries, would cut his career short, too.)

He struggled with his control in the minor leagues, but secured it enough to pitch a no-hitter for the Cocoa Astros of the Class A Florida State League. He developed a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and a 93-mile-per-hour slider. In 1970, with the Class AAA Oklahoma City 89ers, he began wearing Number 50, and would keep that number throughout his career.

He made his major league debut on September 5, 1971, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. He set a new major league record for strikeouts by a pitcher in his debut: 15 San Francisco Giants went down that way. Willie Mays? 0-for-3 with a walk and 3 strikeouts. He said after the game, "He nearly scared me half to death." Bobby Bonds? 1-for-4 with 2 strikeouts. Willie McCovey? Lucky him: He didn't play. (Mays played 1st base.) Richard went the distance, allowed 3 runs, 2 of them earned, on 7 hits and 3 walks. He was supported by 2 hits and 2 RBIs each by Cesar Geronimo and César Cedeño, and the Astros won, 5-3.

Richard still had control difficulties, and made only 4 appearances in 1971, 4 more in 1972, 16 in 1973, and 14 in 1974. He got into the Astros' rotation in 1975, but led the National League in walks and wild pitches, going 12-10. He was considerably better in 1976: Although he again led the NL in walks, he went 20-15 with a 2.75 ERA, and topped 200 strikeouts for the 1st time. He did it again in 1977, going 18-12.

From 1971 to 1997, Zander Hollander published The Complete Handbook of Baseball, including profiles of major league teams' key players. He usually began those profiles with a player's nickname. In the 1978 edition, he began his profile of J.R. Richard this way: "His name is James Rodney, but call him Sir."

That season, while he again led the NL in walks, he also led it in strikeouts, his 303 a new record for a righthanded pitcher in the NL. He went 18-11. In 1979, He went 18-13, led the NL with a 2.71 ERA, and broke his strikeout record, with 313. He finished 4th in the voting for the NL Cy Young Award in '78, and 3rd in '79.

*

In 1980, he was off to another great start, and was selected as the NL's starting pitcher in the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. He went 2 innings, and struck out Reggie Jackson of the New York Yankees, Carlton Fisk of the Chicago White Sox, and opposing starting pitcher Steve Stone of the Baltimore Orioles. The only baserunners he allowed were walks to Rod Carew of the California Angels and Ben Oglivie of the Milwaukee Brewers, and a single to Bucky Dent of the Yankees. Under the rules, he could have pitched a 3rd inning, but left because of pain in his back and shoulder.

This was a big year for the Astros. After some close calls, team owner John McMullen, a naval engineer who had been a part-owner under the Yankees' George Steinbrenner, and would bring an NHL team to New Jersey as the Devils, decided he wanted to follow Steinbrenner's path: He opened the vault, and tried to buy a champion.

He gave Nolan Ryan the 1st $1 million-a-year contract, adding him to a rotation that already included Richard, Joe Niekro, Ken Forsch and Vern Ruhle. He also brought Joe Morgan back to the Astros, after 8 successful seasons in Cincinnati, to a lineup that already included Cedeño, José Cruz Sr., Jeffrey Leonard, Enos Cabell, Terry Puhl and Art Howe.

And, despite Ryan being a native of the Houston suburbs, Richard looked like the centerpiece of the operation. In 2012, Braves legend Dale Murphy was asked who the toughest pitcher he ever faced was. He said, "Anybody that played in the late Seventies or early Eighties will probably give you the same answer: J.R. Richard."

Dusty Baker, then an All-Star left fielder with the Los Angeles Dodgers -- and, today, the manager of the Astros -- said NL batters suffered from "J.R.-thritis": 

It was like J.R. was only throwing from about 50 feet. With his reach, and he was all legs, you didn't have much time to make up your mind... You didn't really feel comfortable at the plate. He was the toughest guy I ever faced.

Morgan, now grateful to be Richard's teammate, backed this up as well: "He had the greatest stuff I have ever seen, and it still gives me goosebumps to think of what he might have become."

On July 14, 1980, J.R. Richard started for the Astros against Murphy's Braves. At the time, the Astros had the best record in the NL, 48-36, and were half a game ahead of the Dodgers in the NL Western Division.

Richard was then 30 years old, and had a career record of 107-71, with a 3.15 ERA, a 1.243 WHIP, and 1,493 strikeouts. He pitched a 1-2-3 1st inning, then struck out the side in the 2nd: Gary Matthews Sr., Bob Horner, and the aforementioned Jeff Burroughs. Murphy ended up going 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a walk.

But Richard had trouble seeing the signs from catcher Alan Ashby, 60 feet away. By the 4th inning, his fingers were too numb to even hold the ball. He had to leave the game.

The Astros put him on the 21-Day Disabled List. On July 23, he checked into Methodist Hospital in Houston, to find out what was wrong. They found an arterial obstruction in his right arm, his pitching arm. They took his blood pressure in both arms. In his left, it was within normal healthy range. In his right, there was no blood pressure at all.

Every time he tried to warm up, he said he had pain in his forearm, his shoulder, and even his neck. Astro management refused to listen, and the Houston media reported leaks that he was "whining" and "malingering." It was also suggested that, making $195,000, which would have been an enormous sum in the reserve clause years that ended in 1976, he was jealous of Ryan making a cool million.

On July 30, 1980, having not made the Astros' trip to Philadelphia to play the Phillies, Richard went to see a chiropractor. This man thought the flow of blood in J.R.'s upper body would benefit by having his neck rotated. As occasionally happens to people, the "solution" turned out to be far worse than the problem.

Richard went to the Astrodome that night, and was warming up for a simulated game in the outfield. He later said that he developed a headache, heard a ringing in his ear, and felt complete weakness in his body. He collapsed. He was taken back to Methodist Hospital, and found to have had a stroke: The arterial blockage found in his arm had gone to his carotid artery, and required emergency surgery.

A CAT scan of his brain showed it was actually three separate strokes, and the arteries in his right arm were still obstructed. In other words, he was still heavily at risk for another stroke, which, in his weakened condition, would probably have killed him. Finally, Astro management took his earlier complaints seriously.

I remembered this photo, but misremembered the headline:

I thought it said "THE TRAGEDY OF J.R. RICHARD,"

hence the title of this post.

Without Richard, the Astros ended up needing to win a 1-game Playoff with the Dodgers, in Los Angeles, to decide the NL West title. They won it. They played the Phillies in the NL Championship Series, at the time a best-3-out-of-5 series. It turned out to be one of the greatest postseason series of the Divisional Play era. The last 4 games all went to extra innings.

The Astros scored 4 runs in the 10th inning to win Game 2. Morgan's leadoff triple and Denny Walling's sacrifice fly won Game 3 in the 11th. They led Game 4 2-0 after 7 innings, and were 6 outs away from the franchise's 1st Pennant, with a game to spare. But the Phillies rallied to win in 10 innings. The Astros again led after 7 in Game 5, 5-2, but, again, down to their last 6 outs, the Phillies came back, knocked Ryan out of the game, and won in 10 innings, to win their 1st Pennant in 30 years, and then the World Series against the Kansas City Royals.

Would a healthy J.R. Richard have made the difference? Almost certainly. In Game 4, the Astros started Vern Ruhle, a career 67-88 pitcher, who fell apart in the 8th inning. In Game 5, they started Ryan, who fell apart in the 8th. Had Richard started Game 4, or had Ryan done so and then Richard started Game 5, who knows? The Astros might have won their 1st Pennant, 25 years earlier than they actually did; and their 1st World Series, 37 years earlier than they actually did, and without cheating.

But, at age 30, J.R. Richard never threw another major league pitch. He tried to work his way back, to regain his strength. This did not include any rehabilitation starts in the Astros' minor-league system. When rosters were expanded on September 1, 1981, Richard was called up. But manager Bill Virdon did not think he was ready to enter a game, and he didn't.

In 1982, the rehab games began. He pitched well in 6 games with the Class A Daytona Beach Astros. He was called up to the Class AAA Tucson Toros. But in 6 games, he had little control: In 6 games, he went 0-2 with a 2.548 WHIP and a 13.68 ERA. Again, he was called up to the big club on September 1. Again, he made no appearances.

He was assigned to the Rookie League in 1983, and seemed to be pitching better, but felt pain in his left calf. This was where an arterial graft was taken to save his life 3 years earlier, and now, he needed a surgical bypass in the leg. That was it: On April 27, 1984, the Astros released Richard, and he never threw another professional pitch.

Since the Baseball Hall of Fame measures eligibility from a player's last major league game, he became eligible for election in the vote of January 1986. He received only 7 votes, 1.6 percent, and dropped off the ballot.

Baseball-Reference.com has a "Hall of Fame Monitor," on which it says a "Likely HOFer" has a score of 100. Richard's is 64. It also has a "Hall of Fame Standards," which is weighted more toward career stats, on which it says the "Average HOFer" has a score of 50. Richard's is 24. He had Hall of Fame talent, but not Hall of Fame numbers.

Let the record show: In addition to possibly making a huge difference in 1980, a healthy Richard might have made even more of a difference. In the split-season format of 1981, the Astros won the NL West in the 2nd half of the season, and lost the NL Division Series to the Dodgers. Since they went on to win the World Series, it's reasonable to conclude that the Astros with a healthy Richard had a good chance to do the same thing. The Astros were 12 games behind the Braves in 1982. But in 1983, they finished 6 games behind the Dodgers for the Division title, so Richard could have made a difference that season as well. 

In 1986, with Mike Scott having a Cy Young Award season, the Astros won the NL West, and lost the NLCS to the Mets in 6 games. Scott won Games 1 and 4. Ryan lost Game 2. Bob Knepper started Game 3, and allowed the Mets to score 4 runs in the 6th. It's likely Richard, even at age 36, wouldn't have let that happen, or allowed the walkoff home run to Lenny Dykstra. And Knepper started Game 6, which turned into a classic that the Mets won in 16 innings.

If Richard had been available for Game 6, and the Astros had won, then Scott, a former Met who had handcuffed the Mets all season long, would have started Game 7 at the Astrodome, and it would have been an Astros-Red Sox World Series. The Mets' "inevitable" title would have been ruined, they would be without a title since 1969, and we would be talking about The Curse of Amos Otis.

By that point, Richard would have had about 250 career wins, and might have gone on to become a member of the 3,000 Strikeout Club, and he would have been elected to the Hall of Fame sometime in the mid-1990s.

*

Instead, J.R. Richard was out of baseball. He went back home to Louisiana, and fell prey to an oil business scam. His 1st wife divorced him. Between these two events, he lost $1 million. He married a 2nd time, but was again divorced, and he lost his house in the Houston suburbs, along with whatever money he had left.

In 1989, the Senior Professional Baseball Association, a Florida-based league for players age 35 and up (the oldest turned out to be 54, and catchers were allowed in at 32), offered him, at 39, income and a chance to play baseball again. He tried out for the Orlando Juice, but didn't make the team. It might not have mattered, as the league folded after just 1 season.

By the Winter of 1994, one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history, only 44 years old, was living under the overpass of U.S. Highway 59 at Beechnut Road in Houston. The following March 7, he turned 45, making him eligible for his MLB pension, giving him an income.

He turned to the nearby New Testament Church and its pastor, the Rev. Floyd Lewis. The pastor got him a job with an asphalt company, and into divinity school. Soon, Richard was ordained himself, and became the Astros' team chaplain. It was also through this church that he met his 3rd wife, Lula. He is not known to have had any children.

The Astros have never retired his Number 50, but have elected him to their team Hall of Fame, and invited him to throw out the ceremonial first ball on several occasions, including postseason games.

In 2005, a film was made about him, titled: Resurrection: The J.R. Richard Story. David Ramsey, better known as John Diggle in The CW's "Arrowverse" shows, played Richard. In 2015, Richard he published a memoir: Still Throwing Heat: Strikeouts, the Streets, and a Second Chance. He died on August 4, 2021, from complications from COVID-19. He was 71 years old, and was buried at Houston Memorial Gardens, in suburban Pearland, Texas.

*

July 30, 1980 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that Władysław Kozakiewicz set a world record in the pole vault, winning the event at the Olympics, and, standing up for his homeland of Poland amid boos from the crowd in Moscow, made an obscene gesture. I have a separate entry for that event.

These Major League Baseball games were played:

* In a bit of foreshadowing, without J.R. Richard available, the Houston Astros lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-4 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The losing pitcher was... Nolan Ryan. The winning pitcher was Dick Ruthven. Mike Schmidt drew 2 walks and had to leave the game due to injury, but would be named the NL's Most Valuable Player that season. Pete Rose went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The New York Yankees lost to the Minnesota Twins, 2-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. John Castino doubled home Ken Landreaux with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning, off Goose Gossage, after Tom Underwood had started. Jerry Koosman went the distance for the Twins. The lone Yankee run came in the 3rd, when Eric Soderholm singled home Bob Watson. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-0 at Shea Stadium. Pat Zachry pitched a 4-hit shutout. Claudell Washington had 3 hits.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Johnny Bench went 1-for-4.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 11-1 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Rickey Henderson went 2-for-5 with a stolen base. The A's got home runs from Wayne Gross (2 of them), Dave Revering and Jeff Newman.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Seattle Mariners, 5-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The California Angels beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-5 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Rod Carew only appeared as a pinch-hitter, but, as you might guess, he got a hit.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-5 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Robin Yount went 0-for-4. Paul Molitor went 2-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 7-1 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. It was renamed Kauffman Stadium in 1993. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-5. George Brett went 2-for-2 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Texas Rangers, 3-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Eddie Murray went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-2 at San Diego Stadium. It was renamed Jack Murphy Stadium the next year, and Qualcomm Stadium in 1997.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Willie Stargell did not play. Jerry Reuss pitched a 4-hit shutout, to beat John Candelaria, who also went the distance.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the the San Francisco Giants, 4-0 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. John Fulgham pitched a 5-hit shutout.

July 30, 1965: Medicare and Medicaid Become Law

July 30, 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Amendments of 1965 into law, in a ceremony at the Harry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum, in Independence, Missouri, outside Kansas City.

Former President Truman had tried to get a national health service, offering universal coverage, similar to Britain's passed in 1949, but failed. Holding the signing ceremony at his library was a tribute to his efforts. Also in attendance were each man's wife, Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson and Elizabeth "Bess" Truman; Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and Governor Warren Hearnes of Missouri, for whom the University of Missouri's arena is named.

Although the Amendments increased benefits for people who met the legal definition of being disabled, the two main components were Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare provides coverage for healthcare for people aged 65 and up. Medicaid helps with health care costs for people of limited income, including nursing home and personal care services, which Medicare doesn't cover.

Medicare and Medicaid joined the Office of Economic Opportunity (a.k.a. "the War On Poverty"), and two major education reform bills to form Johnson's "Great Society." Within days of signing this bill, LBJ would add the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It remains the high point of American liberalism.

Canada passed National Health Service with universal coverage in 1967. Australia did so in 1984. In both cases, they use the term Medicare. In America, however, that term is still limited to health care for senior citizens.

*

July 30, 1965 was a Friday. It was the offseason for the NFL, the NBA and the NHL. However, there was a full slate of Major League Baseball games played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 5-0 at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees were shut out by Sonny Siebert, who allowed only 4 hits, 2 of them by Elston Howard.

* The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-3 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 7-1 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Milwaukee Braves, 9-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the st. Louis Cardinals, 4-2 at Busch Stadium, formerly Sportsman's Park, in St Louis.

* The Washington Senators beat the Kansas City Athletics, 3-1 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* And the California Angels beat the Boston Red Sox, 9-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. From 1962 to 1965, the Angels shared Chavez Ravine with the city's National League team, before opening Anaheim Stadium for 1966, now named Angel Stadium. 

May 22, 1964: President Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" Speech

May 22, 1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson gives the commencement address at the graduation ceremony at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. Although he had already used the phrase "a Great Society" 15 days earlier, on the campus of Ohio University in Athens, this address becomes known as "the Great Society Speech."

Johnson had been a young aide to Representative Richard Kleberg of Texas in 1933 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched his "New Deal" in response to the Great Depression. The New Deal contained emergency measures, but some of them, such as banking insurance and Social Security, worked so well that they were kept in operation.

Johnson was a Congressman himself in 1944 when, with American troops marching toward victory in World War II, FDR created the G.I. Bill of Rights, allowing for a postwar economic boom.

With the economy booming again in the early 1960s, in part due to the measures enacted over the previous 3 years by the recently assassinated President John F. Kennedy, Johnson thought now was the time for another New Deal -- not out of necessity, like in 1933; or out of gratitude, like in 1944; but out of opportunity. There had never been a better chance for the American federal government to help the people who had "fallen through the cracks." He told the commencement crowd:

For a century, we labored to settle and to subdue a continent. For half a century, we called upon unbounded invention and untiring industry to create an order of plenty for all of our people.

The challenge of the next half century is whether we have the wisdom to use that wealth to enrich and elevate our national life, and to advance the quality of our American civilization.

Your imagination, your initiative, and your indignation will determine whether we build a society where progress is the servant of our needs, or a society where old values and new visions are buried under unbridled growth. For in your time we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society.

The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning.

The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents. It is a place where leisure is a welcome chance to build and reflect, not a feared cause of boredom and restlessness. It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community.

It is a place where man can renew contact with nature. It is a place which honors creation for its own sake and for what it adds to the understanding of the race. It is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods.

But most of all, the Great Society is not a safe harbor, a resting place, a final objective, a finished work. It is a challenge constantly renewed, beckoning us toward a destiny where the meaning of our lives matches the marvelous products of our labor.

Johnson had already declared "War On Poverty" in his State of the Union Address on the preceding January 8. That war, with the founding of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), became a subset of the Great Society. He noted in his speech that the University of Michigan was the birthplace of the Peace Corps, and he added VISTA, Volunteers In Service To America, as a kind of "domestic Peace Corps" for poor places on our own shores, both urban and rural.

Head Start created better preschools for millions of children. His Higher Education Act of 1965 expanded college access. The Social Security Act of 1965 created Medicaid for the poor and Medicare for people age 65 and up.

Most of all, despite being a white Southerner, LBJ attacked the problem of racism. He created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to alleviate discrimination in hiring based on race and gender. He saw JFK's civil rights bill through to passage as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He demanded, and got, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And the Civil Rights Act of 1968, the Fair Housing Act, made it easier for black people to move into houses wherever they wanted, and to repair the homes they already had.

LBJ gave the speech just as the 1964 Republican Presidential Primaries were nearing their conclusion. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona won the nomination, and ran against the Great Society -- what had already been passed, and what LBJ had hinted -- and, beyond that, what the conservative movement suspected was yet to come -- as "overreach." He believed such things were unconstitutional, powers not specifically granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.

It is likely that Johnson would have defeated Goldwater solidly even if Goldwater hadn't voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which he challenged on constitutional grounds. He may have forgotten that the Constitution, in its very Preamble, says it was ordained an established in part to perform the rather vaguely worded tasks to "promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."

But the full term that Johnson won would be stricken with a different challenge: The Vietnam War. In essence, he got one full term as President, 4 years: From JFK's assassination on November 22, 1963 until November 30, 1967, when Senator Eugene McCarthy of Oregon announced he would challenge him in the 1968 Democratic Primaries, LBJ pretty much had free rein to govern how he wanted.

This was true in large part because he was backed by large Congressional majorities. In the 1964 election, led by LBJ as JFK's "heir," the Democrats gained 37 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, giving them 295 seats for the 1965-66 term, which remains their highest total since the 1937-38 session. And they gained 2 Senate seats, giving them 68, which remains their highest total since 1939-40.

But in the 1966 elections, while they only lost 4 Senate seats, they lost 47 seats in the House, proving that LBJ was not invincible. And the public turned on him. So did the media: On August 1, 1967, Herbert Block, the editorial cartoonist for The Washington Post, under the name "Herblock," drew Johnson arm-in-arm with a trash-looking woman, whose mink stole was labeled "VIETNAM WAR," while he pointed a finger at a thin woman in a raggedy dress labeled "U.S. URBAN NEEDS," and tells her, "There's money enough to support both of you - Now doesn't that make you feel better?"

(In addition, Barbara Garson, one of the University of California students who was arrested during the "Free Speech Movement" protest of late 1964, wrote a satirical play titled MacBird! in 1966, imagining LBJ as Macbeth, assassinating JFK, and talking about his plan for "The Smooth Society." Interviewed in 2006, she said it was just a satire, and that she never believed that LBJ had anything to do with the assassination, adding, "If he did, it's the least of his crimes.")

The intraparty challenge by McCarthy made LBJ nervous. But then, JFK's brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, got into the race. Unlike McCarthy, with his obsession with Vietnam, RFK was not a one-issue candidate, and could out-promise LBJ on issues connected with the Great Society, because, as his brother's Attorney General, he had a record on such issues, one that LBJ had built on.

On March 31, 1968, LBJ announced he wouldn't run for a 2nd full term. In June, RFK knocked McCarthy out, then was assassinated. LBJ's Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, was nominated, then lost the general election to former Vice President Richard Nixon.

How Nixon handled it depends on who you talk to. Most liberals thought that Nixon "dismantled" the Great Society. He did end the OEO, and cut spending on many programs. But many conservatives, especially those affiliated with the later Presidency of Ronald Reagan, thought that Nixon had let them down on the issue, especially with his institution of what became known as "Food Stamps": After Nixon's death in 1994, Fred Barnes of The New Republic said that Nixon "let the Great Society flower."

After leaving office, Johnson told his aide Doris Kearns -- who would later marry Richard Goodwin, author of the Great Society Speech -- with his usual away-from-microphones earthiness:

I knew from the start that I was bound to be crucified, either way I moved. If I left the woman I really loved, the Great Society, in order to get involved in that bitch of a war on the other side of the world, then I would lose everything at home. All my programs, all my hopes, all my dreams.

But if I left that war and let the Communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward, and my nation would be seen as an appeaser, and we would both find it impossible to accomplish anything, for anybody, anywhere on the entire globe.

Johnson died in 1973. Running for President in 1980, Reagan said in his speeches, "We fought a war on poverty, and poverty won." He wasn't lying, but he was far from completely correct: Just as FDR's New Deal had cut poverty in America by 1/3rd in its 1st 30 years, 1933 to 1963, so too did LBJ's Great Society cut poverty in America by another 1/3rd in its 1st 30 years, 1964 to 1994.

*

May 22, 1964 was a Friday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Los Angeles Angels, 4-3 at Yankee Stadium. Whitey Ford started, but left after 3 innings due to an injury, and Pete Mikkelsen ended up as the winning pitcher. Mickey Mantle went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Roger Maris went 1-for-4.

* The New York Mets beat the Houston Colt .45s, 2-1 at Colt Stadium in Houston. The Colts became the Houston Astros the next season.

* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Earl Wilson was the Boston starter and loser, despite hitting a home run in his own cause. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-5 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The O's trailed 5-4 in the bottom of the 9th, but got back-to-back home runs by Sam Bowens and John Orsino to win it. Bowens had already homered. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-4. Harmon Killebrew went 3-for-3 with 2 walks and 2 RBIs.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Al Kaline went 0-for-4, although he did draw a walk.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-1 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Ernie Banks did not play. Frank Robinson went 1-for-4. Pete Rose went 0-for-4.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 3-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Braves, 6-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Hank Aaron went 0-for-4.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Chris Short allowed 8 hits, but kept the shutout, and beat Don Drysdale.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The Giants got home runs from Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda and Tom Haller. For the Pirates, Roberto Clemente went 0-for-5, and Willie Stargell went 1-for-4 with an RBI.