December 9, 2023: The NBA's 1st In-Season Tournament

December 9, 2023: The Final of the NBA's 1st "In-Season Tournament" is held at the T-Mobile Arena, on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada.

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

I've often compared English soccer's FA Cup to college basketball's NCAA Tournament, except that it preceded the NCAA Tournament by 67 years, and it runs all season long. The In-Season Tournament -- hereafter abbreviated as "IST" -- wasn't quite all season long, but it was comparable to "March Madness." November Nuthousery, and December Delirium?

The NBA introduced the Tournament for the 2023–24 season, with all games except the championship final counting towards the regular-season standings. It was structured as follows:

* Six intraconference pools of five.

* Tuesdays and Fridays during November featured group games against each of the other teams in their pool, 2 at home and 2 on the road. These games still counted as regular season games.

* The winners of each pool, and two wild-card teams, advanced to a single-elimination tournament.

* The Semifinals and Final were to be played in Las Vegas. (Well, in the suburbs of Las Vegas.)

* Players for the Tournament Champion will each receive $500,000.

* To compensate, the NBA's regular season scheduling formula was modified, so only 80 games for each team are initially announced during the offseason. The 1st 2 rounds of the in-season tournament would then count as regular-season games 81 and 82. The Championship Game would then be an extra 83rd game that would not count toward the regular season.

* Teams that did not qualify for the in-season tournament knockout round, or were eliminated in the quarterfinals, would then be scheduled additional games against each other that are eliminated in the same conference (if possible) and round to reach 82 games.

The Tournament began on November 3. In the East, the Groups were won by the Indiana Pacers, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Boston Celtics. In the West, it was the Los Angeles Lakers, the New Orleans Pelicans and the Sacramento Kings. The New York Knicks from the East and the Phoenix Suns from the West qualified for the Knockout Stage as the remaining teams with the best records.

Despite accusations that the IST was just a money grab for the NBA, and that the hyper-decorated courts were a bad look, it was an overwhelming success, in both attendance and television viewership. And the quality of play was considered excellent.

Two games of the Quarterfinals were held on December 4: The Pacers beat the Celtics, 122-112 at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis; and the Pelicans beat the Kings, 127-117 at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. The other 2 Quarterfinals were held on December 5: The Bucks beat the Knicks, 146-122 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, with Julius Randle scoring 41 in defeat but Giannis Antetokounmpo scoring 35; and the Lakers beating the Suns, 106-103 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

The Semifinals were held on December 7. The Pacers beat the Bucks, 128-119 in Milwaukee, and the Lakers clobbered the Pelicans, 133-89 in Los Angeles. Having covered that game for ESPN, Michael Wilbon said this while co-hosting the network's Pardon the Interruption the following night:

LeBron wants his name on that hardware, the first one! So, guess what? Russell's name can't be on it. Magic's name, Bird's name, Jordan's name, Isiah, none of their names, Hakeem, none of their names are on it. Not Kobe. His name is gonna be on it, 'cause they're gonna beat Indiana, and they're gonna beat 'em convincingly. So his will to win is what matters... The fact that he wants it is what matters.

Wilbon had a point: Pretty much everything else that can be done in the NBA, LeBron had already done: Winning the Championship, leading the league in scoring, winning the Most Valuable Player award in the regular season, winning it in the All-Star Game, winning it in the Finals. Winning this tournament, leading a team to victory in it, is something that nobody had ever done before.

In that Final, the Pacers hung with the Lakers most of the way, getting within 4 points in the 4th quarter. But the Lakers pulled away, and won, 123-109. Anthony Davis was the star of the Final, scoring 41 points. But the MVP award was for the entire Tournament, and, of course, it went to LeBron.

UPDATE: In 2024, the tournament was renamed the Emirates NBA Cup, sponsored by Emirates Airways, the airline owned by the royal family of the United Arab Emirates. In 2024, the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Final.

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December 9, 2023 was a Saturday. This was also the day that "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" hit Number 1 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100, making Brenda Lee, at age 78, the oldest singer ever to have a Number 1 hit. I have a separate entry for that event.

This was the only NBA game scheduled for the day. Baseball was in the off-season, although this was the day on which the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani to the biggest contract in North American sports history to that point, $700 million over 10 years. One college football game was played: Army beat Navy, 17-11 at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

There were 12 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Washington Capitals, 4-0 at the Capital One Arena in Washington.

* The New York Islanders beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2 at the UBS Arena in Elmont, Long Island, New York. Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored the winning goal, 13 seconds into overtime.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Calgary Flames, 4-2 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Arizona Coyotes, 5-3 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Nashville Predators, 4-0 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 in a shootout at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-1 at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-1 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Dallas Stars, 6-1 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Colorado Avalanche, 5-2 at the Ball Arena in Denver.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Seattle Kraken, 4-3 at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with 1:48 left in overtime.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-3 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

In American soccer, the MLS Cup Final was played: The Columbus Crew beat Los Angeles F.C., 2-1 at Lower.com Field in Columbus, Ohio. And in English soccer, Arsenal F.C., the North London team I support, lost to Aston Villa, 1-0 at Villa Park in Birmingham, West Midlands.

November 19, 2004: The Malice at The Palace

November 19, 2004: The most notorious brawl in the history of North American sports breaks out. In the tradition of giving rhyming names to big prizefights, it quickly became known as "The Malice at the Palace." 

The Detroit Pistons were playing the Indiana Pacers, at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Auburn Hills is in the suburbs of Detroit, 33 miles northwest of Cadillac Square, and far from the city's notorious ghettos. The Pistons had been playing there since 1988, after playing the previous 10 seasons at the Silverdome, 4 miles to the south in Pontiac.

They were the defending NBA Champions, and had previously won back-to-back titles in 1989 and '90, when they were the roughest team of their generation, "the Motor City Bad Boys." A member of that team, Joe Dumars, was now the general manager, and he had assembled a strong team, coached by Larry Brown. Having coached the University of Kansas to the National Championship in 1988, Brown became the 1st coach to win both NCAA and NBA Championships. Through 2022, he remains the only one.

The Pistons' starting center and Captain was Ben Wallace. Forward Rasheed Wallace (no relation) was considered the most aggressive member of the team. He had been acquired from the Portland Trail Blazers, who, at the time, were not only very aggressive on the court, but got into legal trouble off it, leading to the nickname "the Jail Blazers."

The team also included guards Chauncey Billups, Richard "Rip" Hamilton and Lindsey Hunter; forwards Antonio McDyess and Tayshaun Prince; and newly-acquired center Derrick Coleman, once on the verge of superstardom with the New Jersey Nets, but had worn out his welcome with 4 different teams, and was trying a comeback with his hometown team.

The Pacers were coached by Rick Carlisle, the coach that Dumars fired in order to get Brown. Their general manager was Larry Bird, an Indiana native who led the Boston Celtics to 3 NBA titles, including in 1986 with Carlisle as a bench player. They were led by guard Reggie Miller, one of the greatest shooters in NBA history, but he was injured, and did not play in this game. Their next-most-notable player was a forward known for his bad behavior, Ronald William Artest Jr., then using the name Ron Artest.

There wasn't much history between the Pistons and the Pacers. They were in the same Division, in adjoining States, but the Pistons had always considered the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers to be their biggest rivals. The Pacers also considered the Bulls to be their rivals, and, to a lesser extent, due to a pair of difficult Playoff series between them, the New York Knicks.

They had played each other in the 1st Round in 1990, and, although this was the height of the Pistons' Bad Boys era, there were no incidents. In 2004, they played each other in the Conference Finals, so they were very familiar with each other by the following November; but in that May series, there were no incidents.

ESPN televised the game nationally, which helped embed the incident in fans' minds more than ESPN just replaying it endlessly on SportsCenter and its other shows could have done. By the 2nd quarter, the Pacers had jumped out to a 20-point lead, and the game never got close. Artest ended up scoring 20 points for the Pacers, and Jermaine O'Neal had 20. Hamilton scored 20 to lead the Pistons.

With 46 seconds left in regulation, the Pacers were up 97-82. Ben Wallace attempted a layup, but Artest slapped him on the back of the head. (Note: As Rasheed, despite his reputation, was not one of the principals in the brawl, hereafter, when I say, "Wallace," I mean, Ben.) Wallace shoved Artest in the face. Both benches emptied, with Prince being the only player not to get up.

The officials separated them, and, at first, that looked like the end of it. If it had been, the incident would have been chalked up as just another end-of-game scuffle involving a frustrated player on a losing team and a player on a winning team who should have left well enough alone.

Donnie Walsh, president of the Pacers organization, had told Artest that, to calm down and avoid trouble in a volatile situation, he should walk off the court, and lay down on the scorer's table. Whether the people at that table, or the Pistons, or the officials knew about this, I don't know. If that had been the end of it, it might have been chalked up as the kind of weird thing that some athletes did, such as Artest's contemporaries, baseball star Manny Ramirez and football star Terrell Owens.

But Wallace escalated the situation, throwing a towel at Artest. Artest got up to retaliate, but was held back by Pacer coaches. Then, a spectator, later identified as John Green, threw a plastic cup with soda in it at Artest, hitting him in the chest. Artest went into the stands, and grabbed the man he thought responsible, yelling, "Did you do it?" But it was the wrong fan, identified as Michael Ryan, who said, "No, man, no!"

Pacers broadcaster Mark Boyle tried to hold Artest back, but Artest knocked him backwards and stepped on him, resulting in 5 fractured vertebrae. Boyle was the only person Artest ever apologized to over the incident.

Another fan, William Paulson, threw another drink in Artest's face, while Artest was restrained. The Pacers' Stephen Jackson went into the stands and punched Paulson in the face. Players on both sides, including Miller and Rasheed Wallace, and even Pistons broadcaster Rick Mahorn, known in his playing days as the "baddest" of the Bad Boys, went into the stands to get their own players out. When the situation is so bad that Rick Mahorn is trying to ply peacemaker, that's historically bad.

Somehow, Green, the initial drink-thrower, got to Artest, and twice punched him in the back of the head. Artest was finally led out. But 2 fans who had gotten onto the court, Alvin Shackleford and Charlie Haddad, got in Artest's face, and Artest punched Shackleford in the face. Anthony Johnson of the Pacers punched Haddad. O'Neal did the same. Coleman, in a mature act that would have surprised Nets fans 10 years earlier, stood by Larry Brown and the Pistons' ball boy to protect them.

NBA Commissioner David Stern remembered watching all of this on television, and saying, "Holy shit." O'Neal later said, "As bad as it looked on TV, it was at least 20 times worse in person."

The referees and the Auburn Hills police cleared the court. With the Pacers leading by 15 with 45.9 seconds on the clock, the referees declared the game over. The Piston fans threw more objects at the Pacers as they left the court for their locker room, including a steel folding chair that nearly hit O'Neal. Brown took the public address announcer's microphone, and told the fans to stop. They didn't. He threw the microphone down. Nine fans were injured, 2 seriously enough to be taken to a hospital.

It still wasn't over. O'Neal yelled at Carlisle for making the coaches restrain players who were only trying to defend themselves, and was ready to fight him.

The next day, the NBA suspended Artest, Jackson, O'Neal and Ben Wallace indefinitely. When the punishments were finalized, Artest was suspended without pay for the rest of the season, which, counting the Pacers' Playoff games, amounted to 86 games. It remains the longest suspension for an on-court incident in NBA history. He lost almost $5 million in pay.

For the Pacers: Jackson was suspended 30 games, O'Neal 15, Johnson 5, Miller 1. For the Pistons: Ben Wallace was suspended 6 games, and Billups, Coleman and Elden Campbell were each suspended 1. A 1-game suspension is standard for a player who leaves the bench during a brawl, but is usually not applied if it can be shown that the player was trying to break the fight up.

In criminal court, Artest, Jackson, O'Neal and Harrison were sentenced to 1 year on probation, 60 hours of community service, $250 fines, and anger management counseling. Johnson was sentenced to 100 hours of community service.

Green, Haddad and Shackleford were banned for life from attending any future events at The Palace. So were Bryant Jackson, identified as the fan who threw the folding chair at O'Neal; and David Wallace, no relation to Ben or Rasheed, who was sentenced to one year of probation and community service for punching Pacer player Fred Jones.

Green and Haddad had season tickets, which were revoked, with refunds for the cost of the remainder of the season. Green had a rap sheet longer than a 3-point shot, and was already on probation from a DUI conviction. He was acquitted of the assault charge for throwing the cup, but convicted for punching Artest in the stands. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and 2 years' probation. Jackson pleaded no contest to a felony assault charge, and was sentenced to 2 years' probation.

The brawl had no long-term effect on the Pistons, as they returned to the NBA Finals in 2005, but lost in 7 games to the San Antonio Spurs. They have not been back since. In 2017, the Pistons and the NHL's Detroit Red Wings moved into the Little Caesars Arena, at the northern edge of downtown, a short walk from Comerica Park, the new home of MLB's Detroit Tigers, and Ford Field, the new home of the NFL's Detroit Lions. And so, for the 1st time since the Lions last played at Tiger Stadium on Thanksgiving Day 1974, 43 years earlier, all 4 of Detroit's major league sports teams were playing in the city.

Rick Carlisle remained the Pistons' coach until 2007. He coached the Dallas Mavericks for 13 seasons, winning the NBA Championship in 2011. The Pacers have not been a serious NBA title contender since 2004.

The Palace was also the site of a brawl between the WNBA's Detroit Shock and Los Angeles Sparks on July 22, 2008. This fight was dubbed "The Malice at the Palace II." The Sparks won the game, 84-81. Despite winning WNBA Championships in 2003, '06  and '08 -- hence the mailing address of The Palace was "Six Championship Drive," having previously been "One... " and counting upward -- the Shock moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2010. The Shock moved again in 2016, becoming the Dallas Wings.

Without a tenant, The Palace became most useful for the suburban land on which it stood. It was demolished in 2020, after only 32 years, and will be redeveloped for a mixed-use office park. (UPDATE: General Motors bought the land, and is planning to build an electric-car assembly plant on the site.)

After bouncing around the league, in 2010, Ron Artest won an NBA Championship with the Los Angeles Lakers. In 2011, to help improve his image, he legally changed his name to Metta World Peace. He explained that "Metta" is a Buddhist word that means "loving kindness and friendliness towards all." In 2020, having married Maya Sandiford, he changed his name again, to Metta Sandiford-Artest. He now runs The Artest Management Group, which helps athletes with real-life issues, including tax preparation. He seems to have found peace, if not world peace.

His son, who goes by Ron Artest III, is also a pro basketball player: He began the 2022-23 season with the KW Titans of the National Basketball League of Canada, representing the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario, outside Hamilton.

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November 19, 2004 was a Friday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. The NHL team owners had locked the players out, and ended up canceling the entire season. So the only other scores that night came from these other 8 NBA games:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Dallas Mavericks, 103-101 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Boston Celtics, 92-84 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Miami Heat beat the Utah Jazz, 107-105 in overtime at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami. Dwyane Wade led all scorers on the night with 39 points.

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Toronto Raptors, 101-94 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Chicago Bulls, 99-81 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 107-102 at the America West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

* The Sacramento Kings beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 107-105 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 110-98 at the Rose Garden (now the Moda Center) in Portland.

October 30, 2002: The NBA Debut of Yao Ming

October 30, 2002: The Indiana Pacers beat the Houston Rockets, 91-82 at the Conseco Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis. Steve Francis scored 39 points for the Rockets, but it wasn't enough.

It was the NBA debut for Yao Ming. He did not start, played just 10 minutes and 36 seconds, attempted just 1 shot and missed it, and committed 2 turnovers and 3 fouls. He did grab 2 rebounds. Few people expected the 22-year-old center to have a spectacular debut, but, for hype divided by results, it was a grand disappointment. However, he got better.

Yao was born on September 12, 1980 in Shanghai, China. At 7-foot-6, he led the Shanghai Sharks to the Chinese Basketball Association title in 2002, having won the CBA's Most Valuable Player award the year before. The hype for his coming into the NBA was huge, although soon surpassed by that of LeBron James.

Yao played 9 seasons for the Rockets, and was an All-Star in 8 of them. But they couldn’t build around him, and won just 1 Playoff series in that time. Still, they retired his Number 11, and he has been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, an election that few fans question.

You wouldn't think that Yao Ming would have much in common with Tom Seaver, but, like the late pitching legend, he bought and runs a winery in California's Napa Valley.

*

October 30, 2002 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that rap legend Jam Master Jay was murdered. I have a separate entry for that event.

Every NBA team then in operation, except for the Sacramento Kings, played that night. In addition to Yao's debut:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Detroit Pistons, 86-77 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, New York.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 105-94 at the Continental Airlines Arena in the Meadowlands. Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson scored 34 points for the Hawks, but it wasn't enough.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 98-95 at the First Union Center (now the Wachovia Center) in Philadelphia.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Boston Celtics, 99-96 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Miami Heat, 100-86 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 119-108 at The Pyramid in Memphis.

* The New Orleans Hornets make their debut, after 14 seasons as the original Charlotte Hornets. Ironically, it's against the last team to represent New Orleans in the NBA, the Utah Jazz, who left in 1979. The Hornets win, 100-75 at the New Orleans Arena (now named the Smoothie King Center). Karl Malone scores 20 points for the visitors, and John Stockton 14. But Baron Davis of the Hornets leads all scorers with 21 points, while Courtney Alexander scores 19 off the bench.

In 2004, Charlotte got a new NBA team, the Charlotte Bobcats. In 2013, the NBA made a deal but which the New Orleans franchise gave up the Hornets name, and became the New Orleans Pelicans. In 2014, the Bobcats reclaimed their city's old name, and became the Charlotte Hornets.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Washington Wizards, 74-68 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Denver Nuggets, 83-77 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 98-96 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the San Antonio Spurs, 106-98 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named The Arena in Oakland). Antawn Jamison scored 36 points.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 102-90 at the Rose Garden (now the Moda Center) in Portland.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Phoenix Suns, 86-73 at the KeyArena in Seattle.

Baseball season had ended 3 days earlier, with the team then known as the Anaheim Angels beating the San Francisco Giants, in Game 7 of the World Series. Football was in midweek, although, at a press conference, New York Jets coach Herman Edwards explained, "You play to win the game!" I have a separate entry for that event.

There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-0 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-2 at the RBC Center (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Washington Capitals, 7-2 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington. The Bruin goals came from 7 different scorers: P.J. Axelsson, Rob Zamuner, Jozef Stümpel, Brian Rolston, Bryan Berard, Joe Thornton and Glenn Murray.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Ottawa Senators, 4-1 at the Corel Center (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Nashville Predators, 7-0 at the Savvis Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis. Like the Bruins, the Blues got 7 goals from 7 different players on this night: Reed Lowe, Al MacInnis, Keith Tkachuk, Pavol Demitra, Petr Čajánek, Shjon Podein and Dallas Drake.

* And the Florida Panthers beat the Dallas Stars, 3-2 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Valeri Bure scored the winning goal with 1:39 left in overtime. Bure was the younger, less successful brother of Hall-of-Famer Pavel Bure, but he's probably better remembered for his wife, actress Candace Cameron Bure. Attendance at this game: 18,532, matching the title of the sitcom starring his wife: Full House.

May 22, 1975: Kentucky Wins a Pro Sports Championship

May 22, 1975: Kentucky and Indiana meet for a basketball title – not collegiate, but professional.

The Game is Game 5 of the ABA Finals, at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky, previously home to 6 NCAA Final Fours. Billy Knight scored 40 points for the Indiana Pacers in front of 16,622 fans. The effort was not enough, as the Kentucky Colonels won 110-105, to claim the title.

Hubie Brown was the head coach. The owner was John Y. Brown Jr. They were not related. In the team photo, Hubie is seated next to "Ellie Brown" -- John's wife, the former Eleanor Durrell.

Artis Gilmore was named the Most Valuable Player of the championship series. The Colonels had won 22 of their last 25 regular-season games, and were now, arguably (since most fans considered the result of the NBA Finals to be a huge upset), the best basketball team in the world.

Just 14 months later, they would no longer exist, as the NBA gave John Y. Brown a $3 million payoff and the right to buy the NBA's Buffalo Braves. Although Cincinnati is right across the Ohio River, and a team could have built a venue in Covington, the Commonwealth of Kentucky has never had another team that could be called "major league," in any sport, unless you count Racing Louisville FC of the National Women's Soccer League, a team that began play in 2021.

The Colonels did not last long enough to establish a team Hall of Fame, or to retire any numbers. But Larry Conley, Darrel Carrier, Louie Dampier, Dan Issel, Artis Gilmore and John Y. Brown have all been elected to the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame. Conley played only the Colonels' 1st season, 1967-68, and was elected because of his play for the University of Kentucky. Carrier was with the Colonels when they lost the 1971 Finals. Dampier, Issel and Gilmore, of course, were members of the 1975 ABA Champions.

*

May 22, 1975 was a Thursday. The NBA Finals were between Games 2 and 3, and the Golden State Warriors would pull a big upset in sweeping the Washington Bullets.

Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals was played. The Buffalo Sabres beat the defending Champions, the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. Through the 2022 Playoffs, the Sabres would win only 2 more Stanley Cup Finals games.

And these 5 games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The California Angels beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Bill Singer outpitched Rick Wise. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-3 with a walk. Fred Lynn, on his way to becoming the 1st player to win a League's Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards in the same season, hit a home run.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 2-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Jim Kaat, for 5 2/3rds innings, and Rich "Goose" Gossage, the rest of the way, outpitched Mike Cuellar. Brooks Robinson went 2-for-3.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-0 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Bill Hands pitched a 5-hit shutout. Hank Aaron went 2-for-4 for the Brewers. Robin Yount went 0-for-4.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Diego Padres, 4-2 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Willie Stargell went 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk, and 2 RBIs. Dave Winfield went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

May 15, 1972: Governor George Wallace Is Shot

May 15, 1972: Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama, campaigning for the next day’s Maryland Primary, is shot at the Laurel Shopping Center, about halfway between Baltimore and Washington. He survives, but is paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life.

 

Although Wallace already had significant support from the blue-collar and country votes in Maryland and Michigan, which also had its Primary the next day, it may have been a sympathy vote that put him over the top. In Maryland, Wallace won 38 percent of the vote, to 26 percent for Senator and former Vice President Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, and 22 percent for Senator George McGovern of South Dakota. In Michigan, it’s Wallace 51, McGovern 27, Humphrey 16.

Wallace with his wife Cornelia,

at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland,

holding up the May 17 Baltimore Sun headline on his win

The shooter, Arthur Bremer, a janitor from Milwaukee, had been following Wallace around, after realizing that his original target, the man Wallace wanted to replace as President, Richard Nixon, would be too difficult to get close to. His motive was self-aggrandizement, not politics.

 

An appeal to have his mental illness taken into account was rejected, and he was sentenced to 53 years in prison, and was released after 35, in 2007. As of May 15 2022, he is still alive, 71 years old. Since it could not be proven that Wallace’s death in 1998 was directly connected to the shooting, he was not then charged with murder.

Wallace could not continue as a candidate, but, if any single day can be said to be the one where it became clear that the Democrats were doomed for November, this was it. McGovern won only 2 Counties in Michigan, and only 2 in Maryland. Humphrey didn’t win any in either.

To people the Democratic candidates needed to reach, the disaffected within each party's ranks and the independents, Humphrey, a civil rights and labor icon who had been Vice President under Lyndon Johnson in the years of the Great Society, race riots and the early Vietnam War, represented a past they didn’t want to go back to; and McGovern, the favorite of the younger, more radical Democrats, represented a future that terrified them.

Each in their own way, Wallace and President Richard Nixon represented a past they did want to go back to, a time when they were the people being listened to, not black people, Hispanics, gays, feminists, abortion-rights activists, people looking to get drugs decriminalized. They wanted, as both Wallace and Nixon said, "Law and order," and seemed willing to give up other people's rights to get it -- not realizing that they might have to give up something themselves.

The Democratic Party's only hope seemed to be Nixon falling into a terrible scandal. He did -- but nobody seemed to care until the Spring of 1973.

When Wallace ran as a 3rd-party candidate in 1968, he got just under 10 million votes, and won 5 Southern States with 45 Electoral Votes: His native Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas, plus 1 Electoral Vote in North Carolina, to give him 46.

Humphrey was the Democratic nominee, and Wallace's presence on the ballot may have swung several other States to Nixon: Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Kentucky, Delaware, Alaska, Ohio, Missouri, New Jersey, Illinois, Wisconsin and California, for as many as 206 Electoral Votes. Wallace couldn't beat Nixon, but he did beat Humphrey, despite finishing far behind him.

Overall, in 1968, the combined Nixon-Wallace vote meant that 57 percent of American voters, representing 347 Electoral Votes, were willing to say, "We have had enough of progress for the poor and minorities." In 1972, with McGovern edging Humphrey for the Democratic nomination, and almost everybody who hoped to vote for Wallace in November going to Nixon, Nixon won 60.7 percent of the vote, the 2nd-most ever behind Franklin Roosevelt in 1936, and 49 out of the 50 States, all but Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, for 520 Electoral Votes to McGovern's 17 (and 1 stray Elector).

So which was the nightmare scenario: Wallace dying, or Wallace surviving with only a minor wound?

* Had Wallace died: He would have become a martyr to white supremacy, and, eventually, this country might have had a President Jesse Helms.

* Had Wallace been able to continue campaigning: He could have won the Democratic nomination, and the Party would have been fractured, possibly irrevocably, in its worst shape in 100 years. A new liberal party would have had to grow out of the old New Deal coalition that McGovern, Humphrey, and the later Senator Robert F. Kennedy or New York (who was trying to do so more in the way adopted by McGovern than in the way Humphrey had always done it) had been trying to revive.

And with former Governor Ronald Reagan of California ready to take up the conservative mantle in 1976, it might have taken many years for the Democrats to recover -- just as it actually did, until 1992, as the 1976 win of former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia represented something of a false dawn, a win that wouldn't have been possible if not for the falls of Nixon and his Vice President, Spiro Agnew, in separate scandals.

Wallace did run for President again in 1976, but he didn't get very far. Aside from his home State of Alabama, he didn't win a single Primary, although he did win the Mississippi Caucus. He finished 2nd in Florida, Illinois, and North Carolina, but Carter projected himself as a son of the "New South" that was ready to move past the hatreds of the 1960s. His moment had passed.

Plus, Wallace faced a problem that Roosevelt didn't face: Television coverage of himself in a wheelchair. Although he did get elected to a 3rd and a 4th term as Governor, and lived until 1998 (though in constant pain throughout), he didn't look healthy enough to be President in 1976. A big part of his 1968 and 1972 persona was that he was a strong man who would hold the line against them. After being shot, he didn't look like he could hold the line against anything.

Art imitated life: The film Taxi Driver is partly based on Bremer's pursuit of Wallace, although there appears to have been no real-life counterpart to the teenage prostitute played by Jodie Foster. Then, life imitated art: Inspired by Robert De Niro’s taxi driver and his desire to protect people like Foster's character, John Hinckley tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

*

May 15, 1972 was a Monday. There were 9 Major League Baseball games played that day, none postponed due to the attempted assassination. I suspect that, given the polarization he engendered in the American people, if Wallace had died before the games could begin, none would have been postponed, except maybe the one in Maryland, in Baltimore, had the Orioles been at home that day. But they weren't:

* The New York Mets beat the Montreal Expos, 5-3 at Shea Stadium. Tommie Agee and Jim Fregosi hit home runs in support of Jon Matlack.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-0 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Woodie Fryman pitched a 6-hit shutout, to beat Ferguson Jenkins. The next night, the Cubs won, 8-1, with Rick Monday hitting 3 home runs. Greg Luzinski hit one off the mockup of the Liberty Bell on the Vet's mezzanine. After that, to make sure that he would remain the only one ever to hit it, it was moved up to the stadium's roof.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-1 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente hit a 3-run homer, and Willie Stargell went 1-for-4. For the Cards, Lou Brock went 1-for-4 with a stolen base, and Joe Torre went 1-for-3 and was hit with a pitch. Dock Ellis outpitched Bob Gibson.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Merv Rettenmund hit a home run, and Brooks Robinson went 2-for-4 in support of Jim Palmer, who helped his own cause with a triple in this last year without the designated hitter in the American League. Al Kaline did not enter the game for the Tigers.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Harmon Killebrew hit a home run. Rod Carew went 0-for-3, but drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. But knuckleballer Wilbur Wood outpitched Jim Perry.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Texas Rangers, 5-4 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* The Houston Astros beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-2 at the Astrodome in Houston. Hank Aaron had 2 hits, but neither of them was a home run. He had 645 of those for his career.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 2-1 at San Diego Stadium. (It was later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium, Qualcomm Stadium and SDCCU Stadium.) Frank Robinson, in his only season with the Dodgers, went 0-for-3, but also walked and scored, driven in by Bobby Valentine.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the California Angels, 2-1 at Anaheim Stadium. (It was later renamed Edison International Field, and Angel Stadium of Anaheim.) A home run was hit for the A's by... Angel Mangual. Not Reggie Jackson, who went 0-for-4. John "Blue Moon" Odom was the winning pitcher. Nolan Ryan left the game in the 4th, after giving up Mangual's homer, but it appears to have been due to an injury. On this day, the trade that sent Ryan to Anaheim and Fregosi to Flushing Meadow looked like a win for the Mets.

* The Cincinnati Reds were supposed to play the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, but the game was rained out. It was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Reds swept, winning the opener, 4-3; and the nightcap, 2-0. 

In the twinbill, Pete Rose went 1-for-6 with 2 walks and 2 RBIs, Johnny Bench 1-for-4 (he didn't play in the 2nd game), Joe Morgan 0-for-4 with 3 walks, and Willie McCovey did not play.

* The New York Yankees were supposed to play the Cleveland Indians at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, and the Boston Red Sox were supposed to play the Milwaukee Brewers at Milwaukee County Stadium. Both of these games were rained out, and neither was ever made up.

Football was out of season. The hockey season ended 4 days earlier, when the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup, beating the New York Rangers in 6 games.

The basketball season wasn't quite over. True, 4 days before the Bruins' Cup win, the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Championship, beating the New York Knicks in 5 games. But the American Basketball Association Finals were ongoing. In Game 4, at the Nassau Coliseum, the New York Nets beat the Indiana Pacers, 110-105, to tie the series. But the Pacers won the next 2 games to take the title.

May 13, 1976: The Last ABA Game

David Thompson (left) and Julius Erving

May 13, 1976: The New York Nets beat the Denver Nuggets, 121-106 at the Nassau County Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Hempstead, New York, and win the American Basketball Association Championship in 6 games.

(The Nassau Coliseum is in the Town of Hempstead, in Nassau County, on Long Island, but its mailing address is Uniondale, NY.)

For the Nets, coached by Kevin Loughery; Julius Erving, known as Dr. J, scored 31 points, John Williamson 28, Brian Taylor 24, Jim Eakins 15, Bill Melchionni and Tim Bassett each scored 4, Al Skinner 3, Rich Jones 2, and Ted McClain 1.

For the Nuggets, coached by Larry Brown (with some irony, a Nassau County native): David Thompson, known as "Skywalker" before there was a Star Wars, led all scorers with 42 points, Dan Issel 30, Chuck Williams 14, Monte Towe 6, Ralph Simpson and Bobby Jones 4 each; and Byron Beck, Marvin Webster and Gus Gerard 2 each.

This turns out to be the last game in ABA history. It is also the last game that Erving plays for the Nets.

Before the 1975-76 season began, the Memphis Sounds, who had been the Memphis Tams (1972-74), the Memphis Pros (1970-72), and the New Orleans Buccaneers (1967-70), moved again, becoming the Baltimore Claws, but only played 3 exhibition games before being folded by the league for nonpayment of fees. The San Diego Conquistadors became the San Diego Sails, but folded 11 games into the season; the Utah Stars, only 2 seasons removed from a Finals berth and the 1971 ABA Champions, folded 16 games in.

So only 7 teams completed the season: The Nets, the Nuggets, the San Antonio Spurs, the Indiana Pacers, the Kentucky Colonels, the Spirits of St. Louis and the Virginia Squires. The ABA required the remaining teams to each put up $75,000 before merger talks with the NBA, and the Squires didn't, folding, and ending what remains Virginia's last sports team with major league pretensions. (The Washington Commanders have their offices and training camp in Virginia, but, as of the 2022 season, their stadium is in Maryland.)

Despite being 1 of only 2 teams, the Pacers being the other, to play every ABA season under the same name and in the same metro area, and being only 1 season removed from an ABA Championship, the Colonels folded. Team owner John Y. Brown Jr., who bought Kentucky Fried Chicken from "Colonel" Harland Sanders and made it a nationwide brand, took a $3.3 million payoff from the NBA.

Brown took the money he received for the Colonels and used part of it to purchase the NBA's Buffalo Braves, which he later parlayed into ownership of the Boston Celtics. In 1979, he was elected Governor of Kentucky. To this day, no major league team in any sport has called Kentucky home, unless you count Racing Louisville FC of the National Women's Soccer League.

The Spirits' demise was a bit more interesting. The team known from 1967 to 1969 as the Houston Mavericks, and from then until 1974 as the Carolina Cougars, were owned by brothers Ozzie and Daniel Silva, textile magnates, who had previously tried to buy the NBA's Detroit Pistons. They had planned to move the Spirits to Salt Lake City if the NBA would accept them. It didn't, thinking both St. Louis and Salt Lake City too small as markets. However, in 1979, the NBA did not stop the New Orleans Jazz from moving to Salt Lake City.

In June 1976, the ABA owners agreed, in return for the Spirits of St. Louis ceasing operations, to pay the Silnas $2.2 million in cash up front, in addition to a 1/7th share of the 4 remaining teams' television revenues in perpetuity. As the NBA's popularity exploded in 1980s and 1990s, the league's television rights were sold to CBS, and then NBC, and additional deals were struck with the cable networks TBS and TNT, league television revenue soared into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

From 1976 to 2012, the Silnas collected approximately $255 million from the NBA, despite the fact that the Spirits never played an NBA game. (Nor has the NBA placed a new team in St. Louis since the Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968.) In 2014, the Silnas reached agreement with the NBA to greatly reduce the perpetual payments, and take a lump sum of $500 million. Ozzie died in 2016, at the age of 83. As of May 13, 2022, Dan is still alive, 77 years old, and still receiving money from the NBA, even though he hasn't owned a pro basketball team in 46 years.

When the 1976-77 season begins, the Nets, the Nuggets, the Pacers and the Spurs were in the NBA. But, as a result of having to pay an entry fee and a territorial indemnification fee to the Knicks, the Nets sold Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers. The Nets went from the best team in their old league to the worst in their new one, while Dr. J helped the Sixers reach 4 NBA Finals, including in that 1st season, winning the title in 1983.

The Nets changed their name to the New Jersey Nets in 1977, moved to the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, then to the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford in 1981, then to the Prudential Center in Newark in 2010, and finally to the Barclays Center in 2012, becoming the Brooklyn Nets. They reached the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003, but, for the most part, due to poor drafts, poor trades, and internal dissension that occasionally breaks them up, they have been an NBA failure.

However, it should also be noted that the 1976 ABA title is the last league championship won by a basketball team in the New York Tri-State Area. The Knicks won the NBA in 1970 and 1973, the Nets won the ABA in 1974 and 1976. Since then, between them, they are 0-4 in NBA Finals, winning just 6 Finals games in 40 years. The Nuggets haven't even reached the NBA Finals.

The NBA never adopted the ABA's red-white-and-blue ball, keeping their traditional orange. But in 1979, they adopted the 3-point field goal, which the ABA had, as had the American Basketball League of 1961-62.

UPDATE: The Nuggets finally reached the NBA Finals in 2023, and won. The New York Liberty won the WNBA Championship in 2024, finally succeeding the '76 Nets.

*

May 13, 1976 was a Thursday. The NBA Playoffs were in progress, but no games were played on this date.

The Montreal Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, and won Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals. They completed the sweep 3 days later. The World Hockey Association Playoffs were in the Semifinals, and the Houston Aeros beat the New England Whalers, 4-2 at The Summit in Houston. (Televangelist Joel Osteen later turned the arena into the Central Campus of his Lakewood Church.)

Football was out of season. And these 6 Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at Yankee Stadium. Vern Ruhle outpitched Rudy May. Rusty Staub hit a home run for the Tigers, and Chris Chambliss hit one for the Yankees.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-5 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Luis Tiant outpitched Jim Kern. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-5 with an RBI. Indians player-manager Frank Robinson did not put himself into the game.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 9-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Jim Palmer outpitched Bill Travers. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-3, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Reggie Jackson, in his only season with the Orioles, went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Robin Yount went 1-for-4.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Chicago White Sox, 13-2 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 3-for-4 with a solo home run.

* And the California Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 7-5 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

May 12, 1973: The Indiana Pacers: The "Celtics" of the ABA

May 12, 1973: Game 7 of the American Basketball Association Finals is played at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. The Kentucky Colonels have home court. But the Indiana Pacers win, 88-81, and take their 3rd ABA Championship in the last 4 seasons.

The Pacers had been founded with the ABA in 1967, and played at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum, now known as the Corteva Coliseum. In 1969, they reached the ABA Finals for the 1st time, losing to the Oakland Oaks. In 1970, they reached the Finals again, and, this time, beat the Colonels.

They fell short in 1971, but in 1972, they beat the New York Nets in the Finals. In 1973, they beat the Colonels. After falling short in 1974, they moved into the new Market Square Arena, and got back to the Finals in 1975. This time, the Colonels beat them, for the only championship by a Kentucky team that could, conceivably, be called "major league."

Those 3 titles in 4 seasons, and 4 Finals appearances in 5, made the Pacers look like "The Celtics of the ABA." They hadn't quite dominated the way the Boston Celtics had dominated the NBA -- 13 seasons, 12 trips to the Finals, 11 titles -- but then, the ABA didn't last long enough for that type of domination to be possible. Indeed, when a team does dominate a "rebel league" like that, as the Cleveland Browns did, winning all 4 titles in the All-America Football Conference in the late 1940s, it's bad for business.

While Indiana and Kentucky are both big States for high school and college basketball, they've never really drawn well at the pro level. The 1975-76 season would be the last for the ABA. The Pacers, the Nets, the Denver Nuggets and the San Antonio Spurs were admitted to the NBA.

The ABA's other 6 remaining teams were not, and went out of business: The Baltimore Claws, formerly the Memphis Pros/Tams/Sounds, didn't even make it to the regular season; the San Diego Sails and the Utah Stars folded early in the season; and the Colonels, the Virginia Squires, and the Spirits of St. Louis all folded after their inability to get into the NBA was confirmed.

From the 1972-73 team, the Pacers have retired the numbers of George McGinnis (30), Mel Daniels (34) and Roger Brown (35), and raised a banner bearing the number 529, the number of games won as Pacers head coach by Bobby "Slick" Leonard.

In the 40 years since, the Pacers have never again gone as far as the rules allowed them to go. Indeed, only once since coming into the NBA have they even made the Finals: 2000, when Reggie Miller and his teammates got swept by the Shaq/Kobe Lakers.

UPDATE: The Pacers do not yet have a team Hall of Fame, but they do retire uniform numbers: 30, for 1970s forward George McGinnis; 34, for 1970s center Mel Daniels; 35, for 1970s forward Roger Brown; and 31, for 1990s guard Reggie Miller. They have also honored Bobby "Slick" Leonard, coach of their ABA Championship teams, with a banner with the number of his coaching wins, 529.

McGinnis, Miller and Leonard have been elected to the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame. So have Bob Netolicky, a forward on their title teams of 1970 and '72, but not '73; Rick Mount, a guard, also on their 1970 and '72 teams but not '73, most likely elected more for his tenure at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana; Herb Simon, owner of the Pacers since 1983; Rik Smits, a 1990s forward who helped the Pacers reach the 2000 NBA Finals; and Larry Bird, the native of French Lick, Indiana who starred for the Boston Celtics, coached the Pacers from 1997 to 2000, served as their general manager from 2003 to 2017, and remains a consultant for the team.

*

May 12, 1973 was a Saturday. The NBA season had ended 2 days earlier, when the New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers for the Championship. The NHL season had ended the same day, when the Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Black Hawks for the Stanley Cup. The World Hockey Association had ended 4 days before that, as the New England Whalers beat the Winnipeg Jets for the title.

And these games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 8-0 at Yankee Stadium. George "Doc" Medich allowed 9 hits, 3 of them by Al Bumbry, but kept the shutout, beating Mike Cuellar. Bobby Murcer and Celerino Sánchez hit home runs. Murcer, Roy White and Horace Clarke each had 2 hits. For the Orioles, Brooks Robinson went 0-for-4.

* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-0 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Tom Seaver allowed only 2 hits: Singles to Willie Stargell and, oddly, the opposing pitcher, Bob Moose. Wayne Garrett hit a home run. Félix Millán and Ed Kranepool each got 3 hits. Willie Mays, in his final season as a player, did not play.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Diego Padres, 14-2 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Hank Aaron went 3-for-3 with an RBI, and Mike Lum went 3-for-5 with 4 RBIs, but the only Brave home run was hit by Davey Johnson.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 10-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Buddy Bell went 4-for-5 with a home run. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline did not play.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Montreal Expos beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Lou Brock went 0-for-4, but did draw a walk and steal a base.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-2 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-3 with a walk, and Rod Carew went 0-for-4, but had an RBI on a groundout.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers, 4-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Houston Astros beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Pete Rose went 1-for-4. Johnny Bench went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The California Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-5 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* And the San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-4 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.