November 2, 1995: The Yankees Hire "Clueless" Joe Torre

November 2, 1995: The New York Yankees name Joe Torre as their new manager‚ replacing Buck Showalter.

Torre had been a good catcher with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves in the 1960s, a decent 1st baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals in the early 1970s, and a very good hitter throughout his playing career.

His managing was another matter. He managed the New York Mets in the late 1970s, and he didn't have much to work with. He managed the Braves in the early 1980s, and got them to a Division title in 1982 and almost to another in 1983, but that was it. He managed the Cardinals in the 1990s, and didn't get too far.

The Cardinals fired him in 1995, and he thought he'd never manage again. "I'd run out of teams," he said, noting that he'd played for 3 teams, and managed all of them. He'd been a broadcaster between his Braves and Cardinals jobs, and figured he'd go back into the broadcast booth, and that's how he'd finish out his days in baseball.

Then George Steinbrenner called to offer him the Yankee managing job. Joe had never played in the American League, let alone managed in it. But George thought he was the guy.

The New York Daily News didn't think so: Citing his lackluster managerial record up until then, and also the circus that tended to surround Steinbrenner, especially where managers were concerned, they printed the headline "CLUELESS JOE," a play on early baseball star "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. As a Yankee Fan, I will admit: I was very skeptical about this hire.

The results: World Champions in his 1st season, 1996. Wild Card in 1997. World Champions in 1998, winning more games than any team ever had in a regular season and postseason combined, 125, including a 4-game sweep in the World Series. World Champions in 1999, including the best postseason record of the 1995-present Division Series era, 11-1. World Champions in 2000, beating the Mets in the World Series. American League Champions in 2001, missing another title by 1 run. Division Champions in 2002. AL Champions in 2003, with the dramatic AL Championship Series win over the Boston Red Sox.

Then, of course, the downturn, the kind of things that the Daily News probably expected when it printed the headline. A shocking ALCS loss in 2004. Pathetic performances in the AL Division Series in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Joe got lowballed by George's heirs, of both the family and the business variety: His sons Hank and Hal, Yankee brass Randy Levine and Lonn Trost, and general manager Brian Cashman. He walked out, and managed the Los Angeles Dodgers to a pair of Division titles, before taking a job in Major League Baseball's office.

Joe and the House of Steinbrenner made up. He's been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and is honored in Monument Park at the new Yankee Stadium.

The Daily News called him "CLUELESS JOE." They get reminded of that more than they do of "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD."

*

November 2, 1995 was a Thursday. Baseball season had ended 5 days earlier, when the Atlanta Braves beat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series. There was a college football game, a big one, which decided the Atlantic Coast Conference title: Number 2 Florida State were upset by Number 24 Virginia, 33-28 at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The NBA season started the next day. There were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Los Angeles Kings, 5-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The New Jersey Devils and the San Jose Sharks played to a tie, 3-3 at the San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center).

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Hartford Whalers, 5-0 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Detroit Red Wings beat the Boston Bruins, 6-5 at the brand-new FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston. Steve Yzerman scored with 3:50 left in overtime.

* And the Florida Panthers beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

October 26, 2000: Yankees Have Scoreboard for All Time

October 26, 2000: Major League Baseball's 1st All-New York World Series in 44 years -- a "Subway Series" -- comes to what should have been its inevitable conclusion: As Yankee broadcaster John Sterling said: "Ballgame over! World Series over! Yankees win! Theeeeeeee Yankees win!"

Remember: It's not a "Subway Series" unless it's a World Series. Nobody ever called regular-season games between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers a "Subway Series."

There had been exhibition games between the Yankees and the Mets from the Mets' 1962 debut onward. There had been preseason games, and the midseason "Mayor's Trophy" games. But they didn't count. Met fans thought they did. They didn't. In 1997, Interleague Play began, and the New York media called it a "Subway Series," but who was kidding who?

The 1985 season was the 1st time the Yankees and the Mets both stayed in their Divisional races until the last week of the regular season. The 1999 season was the 1st time that both made the Playoffs. Lots of people in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were sure that was going to be it. The Yankees held up their end of the bargain. The Mets didn't hold theirs up.

Now, after 39 years of hoping, wishing, praying for a chance to beat the Yankees in a World Series, Met fans finally had that chance. And they were sure they were going to win it.

After all, Al Leiter was going to start Games 1 and 5, and Mike Hampton was going to start Games 2 and 6. And, as everybody knows, "The Yankees can't hit lefthanded pitching. Especially in the postseason." I guess Met fans, whom I nicknamed "the Flushing Heathen," hadn't noticed how the Yankees beat all pitchers, left and right alike, in winning the Series in 1996, '98 and '99, and winning another Pennant to put them in this Series.

Still, Met fans always wanted this chance. In the immortal words of Leonard Nimoy -- who, being a Bostonian, probably knew just how illogical baseball can be -- "You may find that having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting."

*

October 21, 2000: Game 1 of the 1st Subway Series since 1956 is played at the original Yankee Stadium. Billy Joel, who was the first singer to sell out the Stadium, and later played the last concert at Shea, sang the National Anthem. Don Larsen threw out the ceremonial first ball to Yogi Berra, evoking memories of that 1956 Series, when the Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, including Larsen's perfect game in Game 5, and Yogi's 2 homers in Game 7.

Game 1 of the 2000 World Series came on the 25th Anniversary of the Carlton Fisk Game, and on the 20th Anniversary of the Philadelphia Phillies' 1st World Series win. It turns out to be, quite possibly, the greatest game I've ever seen. At the least, it was the most nerve-wracking game I've ever seen.

(Note: I realize I'm going back and forth between using present tense and past tense. As I've already alluded to, baseball is often illogical, and so is writing.)

Leiter outpitches Andy Pettitte, but 4 baserunning blunders by the Mets leave the score 3-2 in the Mets' favor entering the bottom of the 9th. Still, to be able to take Game 1 at Yankee Stadium would be a huge boost to the Mets.

Manager Bobby Valentine brings in his closer. Unfortunately for him, it's Armando Benítez. Paul O’Neill fouls off pitch after pitch, and finally draws the most clutch walk in baseball history. The Yankees bring him around to score on DH Chuck Knoblauch's sacrifice fly, and the game goes into extra innings.

It goes to the bottom of the 12th, and to 1:04 AM. With 1 out, Tino Martinez singles off Turk Wendell. Jorge Posada doubles, but Tino doesn't run well, and has to hold at 3rd. O'Neill is walked again, this time intentionally, to set up the double play. Luis Sojo pops up. And a Met castoff, José Vizcaino, playing 2nd base because Knoblauch is not fielding well, singles home the winning run.

José Vizcaino

Yankees 4, Mets 3. Essentially, the World Series that Met fans had waited their whole lives for has been decided in Game 1. Had the Mets won this game, the Series would have been very, very different.

Maybe the Yankees would have been shaken by the events of Game 1, and instead of just holding the Mets off in Game 2, 6-5, they would have fully blown that lead. The Mets won Game 3, and their idiot fans would have been thinking sweep.

Would the Yankees still have won Game 4? It was pretty shaky in the 5th inning. Would they still have won Game 5? It was tied in the 9th. Would they have won a Game 6? Would they have completed the ultimate comeback in Game 7, 4 years before the Red Sox did it to them?

*

October 22, 2000: Game 2 is one of the most bizarre contests in baseball history. It begins with Robert Merrill, the Brooklyn-born singer for the Metropolitan Opera Company whose recording of "The Star-Spangled Banner" had been the one the Yankees had used since 1967, singing it in person. (He died in 2004.) 

In the top of the 1st, with 2 out and a man on, Mike Piazza bats for the Mets against Roger Clemens of the Yankees. Piazza had hit some long home runs off Clemens, and in July, in an Interleague game also at Yankee Stadium, Clemens had nailed Piazza on the helmet with a fastball, giving him a concussion.

This time, Piazza hits a foul ball, and breaks his bat. The barrel of the bat comes back to Clemens, and... he throws the jagged-edged bat barrel across the 1st-base foul line. Right in Piazza's path, and Piazza almost steps into it.

We may never know what was going on in the head of the Rocket, but what's going on in the head of Piazza is rage. He thinks Clemens was throwing the sharp object at him. Piazza moves toward Clemens, and both benches empty. For one of the few times in his career, there's an on-field controversy with Clemens on the field, and Clemens is not the most insane man involved.

The umpires restore order, and Clemens finishes the at-bat by getting Piazza to ground to 2nd. He pitches 8 strong innings, and the Yankees pound Mike Hampton, and take a 6-0 lead into the 9th.

But the bullpen can't hold it, and the Mets come to within 6-5, including home runs by Piazza (the 1st-ever World Series homer for the alleged "greatest-hitting catcher ever") and Jay Payton, before Joe Torre has enough and brings in the Hammer of God, Mariano Rivera, to slam the door and keep it 6-5. The Yankees take a 2-games-to-0 lead in the Series, which now heads across town to Shea.

Clemens will be fined $50,000 for his what-the-hell moment. But Met fans have never gotten this into their thick skulls: Clemens was not throwing the bat at Piazza. If there's one thing that Roger Clemens made perfectly clear many times in his playing career, it's this: If he wants to throw something at someone with the intention of hitting him, that person will get hit. If he wanted to throw the bat at

Piazza, that bat would have hit Piazza.

And now, the question needs to be asked: Which of these men was on steroids, warping their perceptions of what was happening? Was it Clemens? Was it Piazza? Was it both? Until either man, or both men, decide to change their stories, we may never know for sure.

As it turned out, both men played their last game in 2007, meaning that both became eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in the election of January 2013. Piazza was elected in 2016. Clemens is still waiting. That did, however, avoid what would have been the most awkward induction ceremony in the Hall's history.

*

October 24, 2000: The World Series moves to Shea Stadium for Game 3. NSYNC sing the National Anthem. The Mets defeat the Yankees‚ 4-2‚ behind the pitching of Rick Reed and their bullpen. Benny Agbayani's 8th inning double is the key hit for the Mets as they cut the Yankees Series lead to 2-games-to-1.

Orlando "El Duque" Hernández strikes out 12, a Series record for a Yankee pitcher, but loses a postseason game for the 1st time after 8 wins. John Franco, the senior Met, is the winning pitcher.

Benítez, having blown Game 1, saves Game 3.

The loss ends the Yankees' record streak of 14 consecutive wins in World Series action. This would be the last World Series game won by the Mets until Game 3 in 2015.

*

October 25, 2000: Bobby Valentine chooses Bobby Jones as the Mets' Game 4 starter, and he's not especially good. However, the Yankees will have to choose between an aging and struggling David Cone, a struggling Denny Neagle, and Andy Pettitte on 3 days' rest.

This bodes well for the Mets, and if they win this one, then the Series is tied, and they've really got momentum. In Game 5, also at Shea, Al Leiter can outpitch Pettitte as he did in Game 1, and maybe this time the bullpen won't blow it; after all, after blowing the save in Game 1, Armando Benítez got it in Game 3.

Then the Mets only have to win 1 of 2 at Yankee Stadium to win the Subway Series, and reclaim New York from the Yankees. The Yanks will start Roger Clemens in Game 6, and after the bat-throwing incident in Game 2, the Mets will be loaded for bear, and Mike Hampton can't possibly have as bad a start in Game 6 as he had in Game 2, right? And if it still goes to Game 7, it'll be Rick Reed against Orlando Hernández again, and Reed showed in Game 3 he could outpitch "El Duque."

So, at this point, if you're a Met fan, you don't have a lot of reason to be confident of ultimate victory. But your position is quite defensible, your team is hardly in deep trouble following the Game 3 win, and, as the one man who has ever managed both these teams to Pennants, Yogi Berra, has said, "It ain't over 'til it's over." This World Series is far from over, and if you're a Met fan, at this point, you do have some reason to be optimistic.

Sheryl Crow sings the National Anthem, Game 4 begins, and that reason lasts all of one pitch. The 1st pitch of the game is from Jones to Derek Jeter, who knocks it over the left-field fence for a home run. The kind of hit that, once he was named team Captain in 2003, earned him the nickname "Captain Clutch."

Neagle struggles in the 5th, and manager Joe Torre plays a huge hunch, bringing Cone, once a superb Met starter, out of the bullpen to face the dangerous Mike Piazza with the bases loaded. I have to admit, I was sure he was going to either walk a run home, or serve up a gopher ball for a grand slam.

Instead, Cone gets Piazza to pop up, ending the threat. Cone never throws another postseason pitch, and he never throws another pitch for the Yankees. But he got the job done. (Dwight Gooden, back with the Yankees, had appeared in the ALCS, but was left off the World Series roster, and got a nice hand at Shea went introduced. He then retired.)

David Cone

The Yankees hang on to win the game, 3-2, and take a 3 games to 1 lead in the Series. They can wrap it up tomorrow night. Met fans, who began the day feeling like it was still possible, are no longer using Tug McGraw’s old rallying cry of "Ya Gotta Believe!" Now, they're using another familiar rallying cry, that of "Yankees Suck!"

But all is not good news in Yankeeland. Darryl Strawberry, who was introduced to stardom and drug as a Met, and has been one of George Steinbrenner's reclamation projects, is arrested and jailed, after leaving a treatment center following a weekend drug binge.

*

October 26, 2000: The Euro, the currency of the European Union, which had started, on January 1, 1999, at $1.10 in comparison to the American dollar, drops to 83 cents. This remains its all-time low. Its all-time high is $1.60, achieved on July 15, 2008.

More importantly for me, on this day, Game 5 of the World Series is played at Shea Stadium. Marc Anthony, a New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent and a Met fan, sang the National Anthem. Jeter and Bernie Williams homer off Al Leiter. Pettitte and Leiter give it their all. The game is tied 2-2 in the top of the 9th. Two outs. Posada on 2nd, Scott Brosius on 1st. Not great speed on the basepaths. 

Luis Sojo, playing 2nd base because Knoblauch's fielding difficulties limited him to DH status, is coming up to bat. Leiter had thrown 141 pitches. A number that would not have caused Catfish Hunter and Tom Seaver to flinch, but by the standards of the 1990s and 2000s, a lot.

Met Manager Bobby Valentine's choices are not good:

* A: Stick with an exhausted Leiter. He would be pitching on brains, courage and fumes, and pray that he gets the out that sends it to the bottom of the 9th still tied.

* B: Put in Armando Benítez. He led the National League in saves that year and saved Game 3, but also blew Game 1 for Leiter, and also blew a Division Series game against the Giants (which the Mets ended up winning anyway), and had previously messed up 2 ALCS games against the Yankees for the Orioles (including the Jeffrey Maier Game). Or...

* C: Put in John Franco. He was the winning pitcher in Game 3, and also pitched well in Game 4, but would be pitching for the 3rd day in a row. And he was 39: There was a reason Valentine had taken the closer's job from Franco and given it to Benítez.

Valentine decided a tired Leiter was better than an aging, potentially tired Franco or an inconsistent, unreliable Benítez. Although I frequently accused Valentine of overmanaging, and sometimes outright stupidity, I can't fault him for this choice. If he had put in the very popular New York native Franco and lost anyway, he might have gotten away with it. But if he had put in the already suspicious Benítez and he blew yet another game, Valentine would have been run out of Flushing on the Long Island Railroad.

Leiter throws his 142nd pitch to Sojo. He knocks it up the middle. A Met fan once told me that Rey

Ordóñez would have stopped this grounder. This Met fan was a fool: Ordóñez would not have gotten it. Mike Bordick was the shortstop that night, and he was a good shortstop, and he couldn't quite get it.

Base hit for Sojo. Posada comes around 3rd. Center fielder Jay Payton's throw... never makes it to Mike Piazza at the plate, instead hitting Posada in the back and getting away, toward the backstop. This enables not only Posada to score the tiebreaking run, but also Brosius to score an insurance run as well. Yankees 4, Mets 2.

Bottom of the 9th. Two out. The Mets get a man on. Piazza comes up to the plate. If you're a Met fan, this is the man you want up: The best offensive player the Mets have ever had (cough-steroids-cough), one of the best fastball hitters of his time, power hitter against power pitcher, Mariano Rivera.

But if you're a Yankee Fan, there’s no one you'd rather have on the mound, and there's no one you’d rather get as the final out. It was similar to the final matchup of the 1978 Boston Tie Party, with Carl Yastrzemski, one of the greatest fastball hitters ever, and the most beloved player in his franchise's history (remember, Sox fans didn't always love Ted Williams), coming up to try to save his club against one of the fastest and most fearsome pitchers ever, Rich "Goose" Gossage.

Yaz popped up to end that game in victory for the Yankees; 22 years later, Piazza gets considerably better wood on his pitch, and hits one deep to straightaway center field.

For a moment, many of us, including myself -- and, years later, on the YES Network broadcast of a Yanks-Mets regular-season game, the entire announcing team of Michael Kay, Paul O'Neill and David Cone -- think, "Uh-oh!" Translation, at least in my case: "No! Tie game! The Mets will go on to win it, and take the next 2 in The Bronx, and the Yanks will have choked it away!"

Because we had grown up with the Mets as the team that won and the Yanks as the team that fell short. We had the arrogance of Yankee Fans of old, but deep down, in places we don't like to talk about at parties, we had the fears that came so easily to fans of the team then known as the Cleveland Indians, the pre-2004 Red Sox, the pre-2007 Phillies, the pre-2016 Cubs -- and the post-2006 Mets.

But Piazza had juuuust gotten under it. The ball has too much height and not enough distance. As the clock strikes 12:00 Midnight, Bernie stands on the warning track, settles under it, makes the easy catch, and it's over.

Jeter becomes the 1st player ever to be named Most Valuable Player of the All-Star Game and the World Series in the same season. Still, he would never be named MVP of a regular season. At the site of his 1st game as a manager, 23 years earlier, Torre is picked up by his grateful players, and carried off the field.

There were 25,000 people at Shea chanting "Let's Go Yankees!" and "We're Number 1!" Eventually, the owner came out to talk to the press, and he and the announcers couldn't talk, because the Yankee Fans were so loud, chanting "Thank you, George!" Imagine that, thousands of people saluting George Steinbrenner at Shea Stadium.

I loved it. October 26, 2000 – actually, the final out came just before Midnight, so it was really October 27 that we celebrated – remains my favorite moment as a sports fan.

For the 1st time, the Mets had the chance -- their first, their best, maybe their last -- to beat the Yankees in a Subway Series, and to irrevocably "take over New York." And while they had their chances and fought hard, in the end, the better team won.

The Yankees have beaten the Mets in a World Series. The other way around has never happened. And it never will. Never, never, never. Or, in the words of Flushing's own Fran Drescher, "It begins with an N and ends with an A: Nev-a."

This was the 26th World Championship. And for those of us who grew up as Yankee Fans during the Mets' "glory" years of 1984 to 1990, the Dynasty That Never Was -- or, as Michael Wilbon of The Washington Post and ESPN's Pardon the Interruption would say, a Dynasty of One -- and had to deal with the unearned arrogance of Met fans, delusional that their 2 titles outweighed our 22 (until 1996; now 27), damn fools to believe that the 1986 Mets could have beaten the Yankees of 1927, 1938, 1941, 1953, 1961 and 1978, and eventually even the 1998 juggernaut... for us, this was the greatest, sweetest moment of them all.

We beat the Mets. And it wasn't close. All 5 games were close, so it wasn't domination. But winning in 5 games is definitive, beyond any question. And we clinched at their place, on their field, at the William A. Shea International Airport, at the Flushing Toilet.

After all, we could have had worse luck, and it would have been all our own fault. We could have chosen to be Met fans. We chose Yankees. We chose greatness. Or, to put it another way: No matter how bad the 2004 ALCS was, losing the 2000 World Series to the Mets would have been 10 times worse.

As we saw in 2015, we don't have to live around very many Red Sox fans with their cheated-for arrogance, but we do have to live around Met fans with their unearned arrogance.

How arrogant are Met fans? Some insist that 2000 and the other World Series the Yankees have won since 1978 don't count, because they used steroids; therefore, the count since 1986 is 1 to 0, and the count since 1962 is 2-2. These fans are idiots: We have more evidence against the 2000 Mets (Piazza) than we do against the 1996-2009 Yankees. So if 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009 don't count for the Yankees, then 2000 doesn't count for the Mets, either.

For the moment, the count remains 27 to 2, and 5 to 0 since 1986.

This was the 13th World Series game played at Shea. An unlucky 13th. It was also the last, which no one (not even a wiseass Yankee Fan like me) could have predicted at the time.

I once saw a Met fan with a cap that had the 2000 World Series logo on the side, but razored off, with some of the stitching still visible. That's how much it bothers them. It should bother them: It basically erased their team's reason to exist.

As we've seen, the Yankees are (depending on your point of view: again, or still) the better team now. And let us not pretend that any Met World Series win -- be it 1969, 1986, or any future win -- is better than all of the Yankees' World Series wins.

Most of all, winning the 2000 World Series means that, as Paul Louis, a Yankee Fan and a Facebook Friend who was my age, said at the time, "The Yankees have scoreboard over the Mets for all time."

For all time.

*

October 26, 2000 was a Thursday. There was 1 college football game played that night: Brigham Young University beat Wyoming, 19-7 at Cougar Stadium in Provo, Utah. At the end of the season, BYU head coach LaVell Edwards retired after 19 Conference Championships and the 1984 National Championship, and the school renamed the facility LaVell Edwards Stadium.

The NBA season started 5 days later, on Halloween. There were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-0 at the First Union Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Washington Capitals, 4-1 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-0 at the United Center in Chicago.

* And the St. Louis Blues beat the Calgary Flames, 4-3 at the Savvis Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.

October 26, 1996: The Yankees' Return to Glory

October 26, 1996: New York Yankees 3, Atlanta Braves 2, clinching the Yankees' 23rd World Championship, their 1st in 18 years, at the original Yankee Stadium. The Yanks scored all 3 runs in the bottom of the 3rd, including a triple off Greg Maddux by catcher Joe Girardi.

Now that Girardi has come and gone as the Yankee manager, it's easy to forget what kind of a player he was. He was a good defensive catcher, Maddux won more games than any pitcher alive through the 2022 season, 355, including more games in the 1990s than any other pitcher, 176. Girardi hitting a triple off Maddux in a World Series game was really unexpected. It wasn't quite the U.S. college kids beating the "amateur" hockey players in their 30s put up by the Soviet Union in the 1980 Olympics, nor was it quite Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson in 1990. But it was a shock. A beautiful shock.

When Mariano Rivera, then the "bridge" reliever, was on the mound in the 8th, Fox announcer Tim McCarver said, "There's not a lot of secret as to what you're gonna get from Mariano Rivera: A lot of high gas." It would be the next year, when Mo succeeded John Wetteland as the closer, that he developed the cut fastball that made him the greatest relief pitcher of all time.

When Mo got a strikeout to end the 8th, McCarver and Joe Buck wisely didn't say a word, and let the roar of the crowd be what took them to commercial. Those cheers seemed to contain not a word, but they spoke volumes. Some who were there said that the old Yankee Stadium actually shook at that moment.

An inning later, Wetteland, who became the 1st reliever ever to save all 4 of his team's wins in a World Series (and remains the only one) and was named MVP, got Mark Lemke to pop up to 3rd base, and Charlie Hayes caught it. As John Sterling said on WABC (the Yankees' radio station at the time), "Hayes... makes the catch! Yankees win! Theeeeeeee Yankees win!" He didn't start adding "Ballgame over!" until the next year, and didn't start adding "(name of series) over!" until the next.

Derek Jeter was the last active player from the 1996 Yankees, playing until 2014.

UPDATE: Among the Yankees' many traditions is Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. From the 1996-2001 team that won 5 American League Pennants, including 4 World Series, they have given a Monument to team owner George Steinbrenner; and Plaques to manager Joe Torre, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, 1st baseman Tino Martinez, shortstop Derek Jeter, center fielder Bernie Williams, right fielder Paul O'Neill, pitchers Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera; and public address announcer Bob Sheppard.

General manager Bob Watson has not yet been honored. Nor has his predecessor, and still overall Yankee executive at this point, Gene "Stick" Michael. Nor has his successor, Brian Cashman.

Phil Rizzuto retired as a broadcaster after the 1996 season. They have retired the uniform numbers of Jeter, 2; Posada, 20; O'Neill, 21; Rivera, 42; Pettitte, 46; and Williams, 51.

*

October 26, 1996 was a Saturday. There were no NFL games played that day, but there were college football games of note:

* Number 1-ranked Florida did not play. Nor did Notre Dame, having been Number 8 the week before, but losing at home to the Air Force Academy.

* Number 2 Florida State did play, beating Number 14 Virginia, 31-24 at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida. On November 3, Florida State beat Florida in Tallahassee, only to have the AP and UPI poll give in to Florida's "God Wants a Rematch" campaign. Florida got their revenge in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, 50-25, to win the National Championship.

* Number 3 Ohio State beat Number 20 Iowa, 38-26 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City. Ohio State blew their shot at the National Championship, and essentially forced the "God Wants a Rematch" title game, by losing to Michigan 4 weeks later.

* Number 6 Tennessee beat Number 7 Alabama, 20-13 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee. This was in a rare stretch in which Tennessee dominated this rivalry, taking 9 out of 10. But Alabama has now beaten Tennessee every year since 2007, including 2021.

* Number 17 Penn State beat Indiana, 48-26 at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana.

* Rutgers beat Temple, 28-17 at the new Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey. In their season opener, Rutgers beat Villanova at home. In games that were against teams in Philadelphia's "Big 5," RU were 2-0. In all other games, they were 0-9.

* And Princeton lost to Harvard, 24-0 at Palmer Stadium. Opened in 1914, Palmer Stadium hosted its final game on November 23, and Princeton lost to Dartmouth, 24-0. The stadium was then demolished, and Powers Field at Princeton Stadium opened in 1998.

In 1997, Princeton played a "home game" at Giants Stadium, and another on the campus of The College of New Jersey -- ironically, using the original name of Princeton University. That school, in Ewing, had previously been known as Trenton State College. Otherwise, the Tigers played all official away games.

The NBA season didn't start for another 5 days. But 11 NHL games were played:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-1 at the Ice Palace (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa. The Devils got goals from Bobby Carpenter, Randy McKay, Dave Andreychuk and Bill Guerin.

* The New York Islanders played the San Jose Sharks to a tie, 2-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-5 at the Molson Centre (now the Bell Centre) in Montreal.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Boston Bruins, 2-1 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Hartford Whalers, 6-3 at the Marine Midland Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 5-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens.

* The Washington Capitals beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-4 at the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Ottawa Senators, 5-1 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2 at the Northlands Coliseum (then known as the Edmonton Coliseum).

* The Calgary Flames played the Los Angeles Kings to a tie, 0-0 at The Forum in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2-1 at GM Place (now Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.

Also, Arsenal beat Leeds United, 3-0 at Highbury in North London. 

October 22, 2003: The Jeff Weaver Game

October 22, 2003: The Jeff Weaver Game. As Phil Rizzuto would have said, I get agita just thinking about it.

It's Game 4 of the World Series at the Dolphins/Marlins Stadium. I’ve seen the location listed as "Miami," "Miami Gardens," "Miami Lakes," "Carol City" and "Opa-Locka." Just as the stadium itself has gone through several names: Joe Robbie Stadium, Pro Player Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, Land Shark Stadium, Sun Life Stadium, and, currently, Hard Rock Stadium.

The Florida Marlins lead the Yankees 3-1 after 7 innings, but as he strikes out Luis Castillo (a name that will feature in the Yankees-Mets rivalry in 2009) to end the 7th, Roger Clemens walks off the mound, and a crowd of 65,934 gives him a standing ovation, thinking that the 41-year-old legendary fireballer is walking off the field as an active player for the last time. (Within weeks, this will prove to have been, as his distant cousin Samuel Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain, might have said, greatly exaggerated -- and not because Clemens could have appeared in Game 7, had this Series gone that long.)

Marlins starter Carl Pavano holds the Yankees to 1 run through 8 strong innings. Like Clemens' retirement, Pavano's frustration of Yankee Fans is happening for the first time, but by no means for the last.

The Yankees rally in the 9th against reliever Ugueth Urbina, whose post-baseball career will be more troubled than even Clemens', as he will serve 7 years in prison for attempted murder in his native Venezuela. Bernie Williams singles with one out, Hideki Matsui walks and Jorge Posada grounds into a force play. Pinch-hitter Rubén Sierra fouls off two full-count pitches before tripling into the right-field corner to tie the ball game.

This is Sierra's 2nd tenure with the Yanks, having made up with manager Joe Torre after Torre had him traded for Cecil Fielder in '96 due to disciplinary issues. This is the biggest hit Sierra ever got for the Yankees – or for anyone else, for that matter. But he is stranded on 3rd.

No matter, as the momentum seems to have shifted to the Yankees, and if they can win the game in extra innings, they will take a 3-games-to-1 lead, and can clinch their 27th World Championship tomorrow night over a Marlins team that really was unworthy of being there. This unworthiness is almost certain now that nearly everybody suspects Iván "Pudge" Rodríguez of steroid use.

The Yankees threaten to score in the top of the 11th when they load the bases with one out off Chad Fox. Braden Looper relieves and strikes out Aaron Boone, and replacement catcher John Flaherty pops out to third. (Yes, the same John Flaherty who has since parlayed one big regular-season hit, against the Red Sox in 2004, into a career as a mediocre broadcaster. At least he had one big hit, as Boone did 6 days earlier, which is more than the similar Fran Healy ever got.) Still, the Yankees have the chance to win this game.

But in the bottom of the 11th, Torre makes a mistake every bit as critical as the stranding of Sierra on 3rd in the 9th. He had already used Jeff Nelson, and José Contreras, originally a starter, had already pitched 2 innings. Torre could have left Contreras in.

He could have brought in his closer, Mariano Rivera. But he had this mental block about using Mo in non-save situations -- Game 7 of the ALCS, just 6 days earlier, being the most notable exception. He could also have brought in Chris Hammond, one of the best middle-relievers of that period, in his only season with the Yankees.

Instead, he brings in Jeff Weaver, who gets through the 11th with no trouble, but Álex González leads off the bottom of the 12th. This is not the Alex Gonzalez, ironically from Miami, who uses no accent marks on the A's in his name, and whose error at shortstop made the Cubs' collapse in the previous week's Steve Bartman Game possible. This is the Venezuelan shortstop, who had a .245 lifetime batting average, although he did hit 18 home runs that season, and a respectable 157 for a career that included a 1999 All-Star berth.

Weaver throws him a hanging curveball, and González hits it down the left-field line, and it creeps over the fence for a game-winning home run. Marlins 4, Yankees 3.

Not since Bill Mazeroski, 43 years earlier, had the Yankees given up a walkoff home run in a Series game. By bringing in Weaver – or, as Red Sox fans would say if this happened to them, Jeff Fucking
Weaver – Torre turned the Yankees from a team that was 1 run away from being up 3 games to 1 to a team that ends up losing the World Series to a team that was lucky to even get the NL's Wild Card and then needed both steroids and the Bartman-connected collapse.

The Yankees don't win another World Series game until October 29, 2009.

This loss really, really pissed me off. I was not heartbroken. I was enraged. And that was before I knew that Pudge, the Marlins' emotional leader, was a steroid cheat. And before I knew that Josh Beckett, who shut the Yankees out in Game 6 to clinch it, was going to become a typical classless Red Sock. This loss angers me more nearly 20 years later than it did at the time.

On July 5, 2002, the Yankees traded Ted Lilly to the A's. Lilly was a much-hyped prospect, but had been horrible for the Yankees.  When I heard he'd been traded, I used the old line: "Great trade. Who did we get?"

It was a 3-team deal, also involving the Tigers. The only player worth mentioning that the A's got was Lilly, who turned out to be a good pitcher -- when he wasn't wearing Pinstripes: He won 130 games in the major leagues, but only 8 of them for the Yankees. The Tigers got Carlos Peña, who ended up hitting 286 career home runs, and Jeremy Bonderman, who gave them some good pitching.

The only player the Yankees got as part of the deal was Weaver, who, to that point, was an average pitcher at best.  He would be less than that with the Yankees. He pitched poorly in the 2002 Playoffs, had nearly a 6 ERA in the 2003 regular season. Joe Torre didn't trust Weaver enough to put him on the Division Series roster, or on the League Championship Series roster. But he put him on the World Series roster.

In that Game 4, Torre used Clemens into the 8th, Nelson to get out of the 8th, Contreras in the 9th and 10th, and Weaver in the 11th. Aside from facing González to lead off the 12th, that was the only inning Weaver pitched in the entire postseason. Those 4 games against the Minnesota Twins, and those 7 games against the Red Sox, including the epic Game 7? No sign of Weaver. And the Yankees won both series.

As former UCLA quarterback Mark Harmon would say on NCIS, a TV series that began airing on CBS the previous month, would say in character as Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, "There is no such thing as coincidence."

In Game 5 the next night, David Wells lasted only an inning, and Torre threw Contreras out there with no notice and about 20 hours' rest. He had nothing, and the Marlins won. In Game 6, the last World Series game ever played at the old Yankee Stadium, Beckett shut out a lifeless bunch of Yankees, and the Marlins were World Champions for the 2nd time -- both times as a Wild Card.

Torre trusted Weaver, and the World Series turned on that one pitch.

Does this look like the kind of guy you can trust?

On December 13, 2003, the Yankees traded Weaver and 2 guys you don't need to know about to the Los Angeles Dodgers, for a better pitcher. Or so we thought.

On April 29, 2004, I went to Shea Stadium to see the Mets play the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Mets beat the Dodgers, 6-1. The losing pitcher was Jeff Weaver. I went to that game for the sole purpose of booing Weaver. Cheering for the Mets? That felt lame. But booing Jeff Fucking Weaver? Damn, that felt good.

On June 18 of that year, the Yankees went out to L.A. to play the Dodgers in an Interleague series. I did not go to any games of that series. The Dodgers won that day, 6-3. The winning pitcher was Jeff Weaver. That felt lousy.

But Weaver wasn't done screwing the Yanks over. You know that pitcher the Yanks got for him? Well, he also gave up a major postseason homer for the Yanks. It was Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS. The batter was David Ortiz. The pitcher was Kevin Brown.

In 2006, the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series. On their Series roster was... Jeff Weaver. He has a World Series ring.

You know who doesn't have a World Series ring? Pre-expansion era greats Ty Cobb, Nap Lajoie, George Sisler, Luke Appling, Ted Williams, Early Wynn, Ralph Kiner, Robin Roberts, Richie Ashburn, Luis Aparicio, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Harmon Killebrew and Juan Marichal.

You know who else doesn't have a World Series ring? The following players that I can remember seeing: Willie McCovey, Carl Yastrzemski, Gaylord Perry, Ferguson Jenkins, Phil Niekro, Ferguson Jenkins, Bobby Murcer, Don Sutton, Rod Carew, Carlton Fisk, Robin Yount, Jim Rice, Andre Dawson, Dale Murphy, Ryne Sandberg, Tony Gwynn, Don Mattingly, Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Mike Piazza, Trevor Hoffman, Ichiro Suzuki, David Wright and José Reyes.

You know who else doesn't have a World Series ring? So far, the still-active Evan Longoria, Zack Greinke, Joey Votto, Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge.

You know who else doesn't have a World Series ring? Jered Weaver, the younger and considerably better brother of Jeff. Reaching the majors with the Los Angeles Angels in 2006, he spent his entire career with them, before finishing in 2017 with the San Diego Padres. He won 150 games against only 98 losses, and an ERA+ of 111, making him 11 percent better at preventing earned runs since 2006 than the average pitcher over those 12 years.

Jeff, whose career ended in 2010, when he was only 34 years old, had a record of 104-119, and an ERA+ of 93 -- meaning he was 7 percent less effective at preventing earned runs from 1999 to 2010 than the average pitcher was over that stretch.

But Jeff Weaver has a World Series ring.

I would hate Jeff Weaver's guts -- if he had any guts to hate.

*

October 22, 2003 was a Wednesday. This was the only baseball game played that day. Football was in midweek. The NBA season didn't start for another 6 days. There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Florida Panthers, 2-1 at the Continental Airlines Arena (as the Meadowlands Arena was then known).

* The Carolina Hurricanes and the Pittsburgh Penguins played to a 1-1 tie at the Mellon Arena (as the Civic Arena was then known) in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-1 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Dallas Stars, 3-1 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-3 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now the Honda Center). Rob Niedermayer scored the winning goal with 3:50 left in overtime.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-2 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.

April 14, 1969: The 1st Major League Baseball Game Outside the U.S.

April 14, 1969: For the 1st time, a regular-season Major League Baseball game is played outside the United States of America.

The location was Jarry Park, a 28,000-seat no-frills stadium on the north side of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Expos, an expansion team, had debuted a week earlier, playing their 1st 6 games on the road, going 3-3.

That pool beyond the right field fence

was the landing place for a few home runs.

Jarry Park was never meant to be their permanent home. A condition for Montreal getting the franchise was a domed stadium that would be ready for the 1972 season. And when the city was awarded the 1976 Olympics, it looked like the domed stadium would be ready.

It wasn't: When the Olympics got underway in 1976, the stadium still wasn't ready -- not for the Olympics, not for baseball, not for the Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes, and not for any of the professional soccer teams that played there.

But that was a problem for the future. At this moment in 1969, the Expos, named for the Expo '67 World's Fair that had been held in Montreal, took the field against the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-time defending National League Champions.

Larry Jaster was the starting pitcher, and he began the game by getting Lou Brock to line out to 2nd baseman Gary Sutherland. The 1st Expo batter was Don Bosch, and he singled off Nelson Briles. Maury Wills popped up, but Rusty Staub drew a walk, and then Mack Jones hit a home run to right field to make it 3-0 Expos. Jones hit a triple in the 2nd inning to make it 5-0. Jaster helped his own cause with an RBI single in the 3rd.

But he fell apart in the 4th, blowing the 6-0 lead he'd been given, giving up a grand slam to Dal Maxvill, an RBI single by Vada Pinson, and a 2-run homer by Joe Torre. (Torre had also hit the 1st home run in a regular-season major league game at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, 3 years earlier.) It was 7-6 St. Louis.

But Briles didn't last much longer. A single, a double, a walk and a wild pitch tied the game in the bottom of the 4th. With 1 out in the bottom of the 7th, 3rd baseman José "Coco" Laboy doubled. Following a groundout, pitcher Dan McGinn singled Laboy home with what turned out to be the winning run. The Expos won, 8-7. McGinn turned out to be the winning pitcher.

For a long time, this was the high-water mark for the Expo franchise. They lost 110 games in that 1st season. In 1973, there were 6 teams in the National League Eastern Division, and except for the Philadelphia Phillies, none of them seemed willing to lose it -- but the other 5 didn't seem to be willing to win it, either. The Expos finished 79-83, but only 3 1/2 games out of 1st place.

They moved into the Olympic Stadium in 1977, finally reached their 1st Pennant race in 1979, just missed the NL East title in 1980, and won it in 1981, before losing the NL Championship Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 1994, they had the best record in MLB when the strike hit, and never recovered, having to trade off several good players before the games resumed. After the 2004 season, they were moved, becoming the Washington Nationals, finally winning their 1st Pennant and World Series in 2019.

In 1996, Jarry Park was converted into the 11,815-seat national tennis stadium of Canada, now named Stade IGA (IGA Stadium in English), after a supermarket chain. The home plate stands are the only remaining original part of the stadium, serving as its west end.

*

April 14, 1969 was a Monday. These other MLB games were played that day:

* The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Woody Fryman limited the Mets to 4 hits, and they fell to 2-5. At this point, anybody saying that they would have won the season's World Series would have been taken to Bellevue Hospital. (The New York Yankees did not play on the day.)

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. For the Red Sox, Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-4. For the Orioles, Brooks Robinson went 0-for-4, and Frank Robinson went 1-for-3.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ken Holtzman pitched a 7-hit shutout, and Ernie Banks went 1-for-4. For the Pirates, Roberto Clemente went 0-for-3, and Willie Stargell went 1-for-3.

* The Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 11-5 at the Astrodome.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the California Angels, 4-3 at Anaheim Stadium. (It was renamed Edison Field in 1998, and Angel Stadium in 2004.)

* And in a game between the 2 expansion teams in the American League, the Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Pilots, 2-1 at Sick's Stadium in Seattle. Roger Nelson outpitched Mike Marshall, and the Pilots did not, as their manager Joe Schultz wanted, "Zitz 'em and then go pound some Budwieser."

Jim Bouton, pitching for the Pilots, recorded the season in a diary, published the next season under the title Ball Four. That night, he was sent down to the Pilot's Class AAA farm team, the Vancouver Mounties of the Pacific Coast League. Or, as he put it, using a classic ballplayer's phrase for being sent down: "I died tonight." He was called back up on April 29.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs were between rounds. Game 5 of the NBA Eastern Division Finals was played at Madison Square Garden. The New York Knicks beat the Boston Celtics, 112-104. But the Celtics won Game 6 in Boston to take the series. They would beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.

April 12, 1966: Atlanta: "The City Too Busy to Hate"

Atlanta, 1966

April 12, 1966: The Braves play their 1st game in Atlanta. Joe Torre hits the 1st major league home run in Atlanta Stadium, but the Pittsburgh Pirates spoil the festivities in 13 innings, 3-1, on a home run by Willie Stargell. (The stadium was renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1975.)

The Braves announced their move to Atlanta in 1965. That year was the high-water mark of the Civil Rights Movement. The Voting Rights Act was signed into law. The Selma-to-Montgomery March had just happened. The Civil Rights Act had been signed into law the year before. The lunch-counter sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, the March On Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and the integrations of the universities of Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama had all taken place, with mixed success in some cases and total success in others. All this had happened within the last 5 years. And Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the current holder of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dr. King was from Atlanta. The Mayor at the time was Ivan Allen Jr. He ran his father's office-supply company, and took it to new heights, making himself one of the South's richest men. He lived long enough to get an offer he couldn't refuse: Staples bought him out in 1999.

In 1961, Allen ran for Mayor against segregationist Lester Maddox, who would later be elected Governor of Georgia. Allen won, and began to build on the work of his predecessor, William Hartsfield, for whom the city's famous airport is named.

As a businessman, Allen understood that he had the chance to change the image of his city. More than that, he had the chance to help change perceptions of the State of Georgia and of the South itself. The city underwent its greatest construction phase since after its burning in the Civil War 100 years earlier. He built the Memorial (now the Woodruff) Arts Center, in effect Atlanta's version of New York's Lincoln Center. He created MARTA, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, which reworked the city's bus system, and, after he left office, built its subway. He also got Interstate 285, a beltway, a.k.a. "The Perimeter" and "The O Around the A," built.

He got Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium) built and, although it wouldn't open until after he left office, he got the Omni Coliseum approved. This enabled the city to go from no major league teams when he took office on January 1, 1962 to 3 of them when he left on January 1, 1970.

Allen posing inside the stadium his Administration was building, 1964.

It opened in 1965, and hosted the Beatles

before it hosted the Braves or the Falcons.

More low-income housing was built in his 8 years in office than in the previous 30. He needed to do this to alleviate the concerns of local black leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King Sr., that he wasn't doing enough for the poor and was focusing too much on business, especially downtown -- a criticism since leveled at many urban mayors, black and white alike (including Newark's Sharpe James in the 1980s and '90s).

"It is wonderful to be idealistic and to speak about human values," Allen said, "but you are not going to be able to do one thing about them if you are not economically strong. If there is any one slogan I lived by as Mayor of Atlanta, that would be it."

So, with the concerns of both business and civil rights in mind, he brought the 2 concepts together. The day he was sworn in, he ordered all "WHITE" and "COLORED" signs removed from City Hall, and personally desegregated the City Hall cafeteria by dining with local black activists. He desegregated municipal hiring. He hired the city's first black firemen. He let it be known that black Atlanta policemen would be allowed to arrest white criminals. He desegregated the city's pools. By January 1964, 6 months before President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, 14 Atlanta hotels had already desegregated themselves.

Allen billed Atlanta as "The City Too Busy to Hate." That made the sports establishments stand up and take notice. Atlanta also offered a bigger stadium, if not necessarily a better one, than Milwaukee County Stadium: 52,000 to 44,000. (Milwaukee County Stadium would later expand to 53,000.) Today, the Braves' team museum is named for Allen.

Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium was a multipurpose facility, designed to host both baseball and football, and it didn't do a good job with either one, so much so that, by 1997, both the Braves and the Falcons had gotten new stadiums and their 1st home was demolished. That process was repeated in 2017, as both teams abandoned their still relatively new stadiums for brand-new ones, the Falcons with a retractable-roof stadium next-door, the Braves for a "ballpark village" in the city's northwest suburbs.

Just another oversized concrete ashtray.

At least it had real grass, not artificial turf.

But Atlanta has seen little success. From 1966 to 1990, the Braves won just 2 Division titles and no Pennants. Then, they won their Division in every completed season from 1991 to 2005, and won 5 Pennants, but just 1 World Series. They eventually won another in 2021. The Falcons have been to just 2 Super Bowls, and lost both ignominiously.

The NBA's Hawks should be so lucky: They reached the Conference Finals their 1st 2 seasons after moving from St. Louis, 1968-69 and 1969-70; then didn't make the Conference Finals again until 2015, and again in 2021. They haven't made the NBA Finals since 1961, or won them since 1958, both times in St. Louis.

And the city has failed with 2 NHL teams: The Flames arrived in 1972 and moved to Calgary in 1980, and the Thrashers arrived in 1999 and moved to Winnipeg in 2011. A Sun Belt city that lost 2 teams to Canada: This is NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman's nightmare.

The city has had decent success with soccer. The Atlanta Chiefs won the North American Soccer League title in 1968, and reached the Final again in 1969. Atlanta United debuted in 2017, won the MLS Cup the next season, and won the U.S. Open Cup the year after that.

UPDATE: The Braves have a team Hall of Fame. Their inductees from their Atlanta years are: Players Hank Aaron, Rico Carty, Phil Niekro, Ralph Garr, Dale Murphy, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, David Justice, Terry Pendleton, Javy López, Greg Maddux, Larry "Chipper" Jones, Andruw Jones (no relation) and Tim Hudson; plus managers Joe Torre and Bobby Cox, and coach Leo Mazzone; team owners Bill Bartholomay and Ted Turner; executives Bill Lucas, Paul Snyder and John Schuerholz; trainer Dave Pursley; and broadcasters Ernie Johnson Sr., Pete Van Wieren, Skip Caray, Don Sutton and Joe Simpson.

The Falcons have a Ring of Honor. Their inductees are: Tommy Nobis, Claude Humphrey, Jeff Van Note, Steve Bartkowski, Mike Kenn, William Andrews, Gerald Riggs, Jessie Tuggle, Deion Sanders, Todd McClure, Warrick Dunn, Roddy White, Matt Ryan, and team owner Arthur Blank.

The Hawks don't have a team Hall of Fame, but they do retire numbers: 9, for Bob Pettit from their St. Louis years; 21, Dominique Wilkins; 23, Lou Hudson; 44, Pete Maravich; and 55, Dikembe Mutombo. They have also witheld 40 from circulation since Jason Collier died as an active player. They also have banners honoring former owner Ted Turner and former Mayor Kasim Reed, who was involved in keeping the team from moving.

There is also a Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, in Macon. It honors State natives who excelled in sports, stars from colleges such as the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech, and these major league stars:

* Braves: Aaron, Nierko, Murphy, Smoltz, Glavine, both Joneses, Tim Hudson, Cox, Mazzone, Bartholomay, Turner, Lucas, Schuerholz, Johnson, Van Wieren, Caray, Bob Horner, Brian Jordan, Jeff Treadway (more for being a Georgia native than for being a Brave), Marquis Grissom, and executive Stan Kasten.

* Falcons: Nobis, Humphrey, Van Note, Bartkowski, Tuggle, Blank, Alfred Jenkins, Billy "White Shoes" Johnson, founding owner Rankin Smith, coach Mario Campbell, and coach Dan Reeves, elected more for being a Georgia native and a UGa player than for coaching the Falcons into their 1st Super Bowl.

* Hawks: Wilkins, Lou Hudson, Wayne "Tree" Rollins, and Shareef Abdur-Rahim.

* Through 2025, no Flames, Thrashers, Chiefs or Atlanta United have been honored.

*

April 12, 1966 was a Tuesday. Future football star Lorenzo White was born. Two days later, on April 14, two Atlanta Braves legends were born: Greg Maddux in San Angelo, Texas; and David Justice in Cincinnati.

These other baseball games were played that Opening Day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 2-1 at Yankee Stadium. Mickey Lolich outpitched Whitey Ford. The Yankees' only run came on a home run by Joe Pepitone. Mickey Mantle went 2-for-3, before being replaced to ease his aching legs. Roger Maris went 1-for-3 with a walk. Al Kaline went 0-for-3 with a walk.

After winning 5 straight Pennants, and 13 of the last 16, the Yankees fell to 6th place the season before, as everybody seemed to get hurt, or old, or both, all at once. And 1966 would be their only last-place finish between 1912 and 1990.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. This game went 13 innings, and in a rarity, the winning run, Luis Aparicio, scored on a bases-loaded balk by pitcher Jim Lonborg. It was a weird beginning for what turned out to be the greatest season in Orioles history.

New acquisition Frank Robinson went 2-for-4 with a walk. Brooks Robinson went 3-for-6. Each of them hit a home run. Brooks had 3 RBIs. For the Sox, Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-6.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 3-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. With Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale both still working into shape following their Spring Training holdouts, Claude Osteen was the winning pitcher, outpitching Robin Roberts, who was entering his final season.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 9-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Juan Marichal outpitched Larry Jackson. Willie Mays and Len Gabrielson hit home runs for the Jints. Ernie Banks went 0-for-3 with the Cubs.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the California Angels, 3-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Tommy McCraw singled Floyd Robinson home with the winning run in the bottom of the 14th inning.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Athletics, 2-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Sandy Valdespino singled Zoilo Versalles home off Jim "Catfish" Hunter in the bottom of the 9th, making a winning pitcher out of Jim "Mudcat" Grant. So, 2 Jims, 2 fishing nicknames. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-3.

* The day before, in the traditional American League opener in the nation's capital, the Cleveland Indians beat the Washington Senators, 5-2 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.) President Lyndon B. Johnson was unavailable for the traditional first ball ceremony, so Vice President Hubert Humphrey stepped in for him. Sam McDowell outpitched Pete Richert.

* And these teams had yet to debut for the season: The New York Mets, the Cincinnati Reds, the Philadelphia Phillies and the St. Louis Cardinals. In the Reds' case, this was unusual: They traditionally hosted the 1st National League game of the season, because of their predecessors, the 1869-70 Cincinnati Red Stockings, baseball's 1st openly professional team.

The NBA Playoffs were underway. The Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 120-112, in Game 5 of the Eastern Division Finals, at the Philadelphia Civic Center, to advance to the NBA Finals. They did this despite 46 points and 34 rebounds from Wilt Chamberlain. John Havlicek led the Celtics with 32 points, and Bill Russell had 31 rebounds.

The Los Angeles Lakers went on to beat the St. Louis Hawks in the Western Division Finals, and the Celtics beat the Lakers in the NBA Finals.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs were also underway. In Game 3 of one Semifinal, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. In Game 3 of the other, the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. The Canadiens went on to beat the Black Hawks in the Finals.

February 18, 1999: The Yankees Trade David Wells for Roger Clemens

February 18, 1999: The New York Yankees make a blockbuster trade, sending pitchers David Wells and Graeme Lloyd, who had helped them win the 1996 and 1998 Word Series, and infielder Homer Bush to the Toronto Blue Jays for pitcher Roger Clemens.

In 2 seasons in Pinstripes, Wells had gone 39-14, including the postseason, including a perfect game in the 1998 regular season. And he was popular among Yankee Fans. But he and manager Joe Torre didn't get along, due to Wells' personal habits.

And, while team owner George Steinbrenner had mellowed considerably, every now and then, he still went into "I want it now!" mode. And when it looked like Clemens was available, he told "my baseball people" to go for it. And, given that Clemens was then considered the best pitcher in baseball, rather than lament the loss of Wells, most Yankee Fans approved of the trade, considering it an upgrade. (Bush was a throw-in, never more than a reserve player.)

For the Yankees, Clemens went 83-41, had a 4.01 ERA, struck out 1,014 batters, and helped them win the 1999 and 2000 World Series, and win the 2001 and 2003 American League Pennants before losing the World Series in those seasons. In 2003, in the same game, Clemens notched his 300th career win and his 4,000th strikeout. By that point, the Yankees had re-acquired Wells.

How much performance-enhancing drugs had to do with that has been debated, but he's never been proven to have used them. Indeed, he's the one guy, so far, to ever beat the rap. Nevertheless, his professions of faith have not matched up with the realities of his character – and that hasn't helped his bid for the Baseball Hall of Fame. But now that proven steroid users have gotten in, keeping Clemens out, even if he ends up being proven to have uses, seems ridiculous.

Clemens also has not had his uniform number officially retired by any team. The Boston Red Sox have never reissued his Number 21 since he left, but have not retired it. The Blue Jays have issues Number 21, and the Yankees and the Houston Astros have issued Number 22. Nor has Clemens been honored with a plaque in Monument Park at the new Yankee Stadium. Nor has he been invited back for Old-Timers Day. Wells has, and has accepted and appeared.

For fans of some teams, Clemens is a man they love to hate. For Yankee Fans, Clemens is a man we hate to love. We wouldn't have won those Pennants without him, but we'd rather not admit we ever had him.

*

February 18, 1999 was a Thursday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 5 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers, 98-74 at the Gund Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Houston Rockets, 93-92 in overtime at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Washington Wizards beat the Toronto Raptors, 95-88 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 99-95 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* And the Utah Jazz beat their arch-rivals, the Denver Nuggets, 97-86 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

And there were 5 games in the NHL:

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-1 at the First Union Center in Philadelphia. Now known as the Xfiniti Mobile Arena, Philly fans got a kick out of calling it "The F.U. Center."

* The Washington Capitals and the Carolina Hurricanes played to a tie, 2-2 at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Boston Bruins, 2-0 at the Corel Centre (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* The Florida Panthers and the St. Louis Blues played to a tie, 0-0 at the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-2 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.