November 4, 1969: John Lindsay's Upset Win

November 4, 1969: John Lindsay, denied renomination by the Republican Party, and running as the nominee of the Liberal Party, is re-elected Mayor of New York City.

The opposition to him had fragmented: The Democratic nominee was Mario Procaccino, a conservative serving as City Comptroller, and widely viewed as a racist; while the nominee of the Republican and Conservative Parties was John Marchi, a State Senator from Staten Island, who was so conservative, he made Barry Goldwater look like Bobby Kennedy.

When Lindsay was denied renomination, he looked finished. The fact that he had presided over race riots and municipal strikes while calling New York "Fun City" didn't help. He may have been the 1st major politician to run having used the expression "Mistakes were made" -- used many times by many people since, without specifically saying, "I have made mistakes" -- and used an expression that would later be used by some of his successors, calling the job of Mayor of New York "the second-toughest job in America."

On this day, Lindsay got 42.4 percent of the vote -- not a majority, but a plurality, and over the 40 percent threshold for a runoff -- while Procaccino got 34.8 percent and Marchi got 22.7 percent. The Borough tallies were as follows:

* Manhattan: Lindsay 67 percent, Procaccino 20, March 12.

* Bronx: Procaccino 41, Lindsay 40, Marchi 19.

* Brooklyn: Procaccino 42, Lindsay 36, Marchi 25.

* Queens: Lindsay 36.3, Procaccino 35.8, March 28.

* Staten Island: March 62, Procaccino 20, Lindsay 17.

What saved Lindsay? It wasn't just liberals and minorities, afraid of what Procaccino or Marchi would do. It was the New York Mets. Their run to a World Series win allowed him to identify with them, and he was in the locker room when they won the Series at Shea Stadium on October 16, 19 days before the election. He then gave them a ticker-tape parade and a big ceremony at City Hall. (He gave the Super Bowl-winning Jets a ceremony, too, but not a parade.)

Lindsay in the Mets' locker room, October 16, 1969

Lindsay's 1st term was hard. His 2nd term was a bit more peaceful in terms of civil strife, but harder in terms of holding the City's government and economy together. He might have wished he had lost. He did not run for a 3rd term in 1973 -- he wouldn't have had a chance -- and he died in 2000.

Procaccino never won another election, and died in 1995. Marchi won the Republican and Conservative nominations for Mayor in 1973, but lost to Abe Beame, the Comptroller that Lindsay had beaten for Mayor in 1965. Marchi set a record that has never been surpassed in any State: 50 years in the State Legislature, January 1, 1957 to December 31, 2006. He died in 2009.

Also on this day, William T. Cahill, a Republican Congressman representing Camden County, is elected Governor of New Jersey. After 16 years of Democratic Governors, under Robert Meyner and, since a Governor of New Jersey can't serve 3 consecutive terms, Richard J. Hughes, people wanted something different, and when Meyner was nominated to regain the office, he couldn't get any traction.

Cahill got the State legislature to pass the bill creating the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which built the Meadowlands Sports Complex. But he raised taxes, and 3 major Republican officials were convicted of crimes. He was denied renomination by his own Party in 1973. He went on to teach at Princeton University, and died in 1996. Meyner died in 1990.

Also on this day, The Allman Brothers Band release their self-titled debut album. It includes the song "Whipping Post."

Also on this day, Matthew McConaughey (no middle name) is born in Uvalde, Texas. Admit it: After playing a stoner in Dazed and Confused, a lawyer in A Time to Kill, winning an Oscar as an AIDS patient in Dallas Buyers Club, and apparently playing another stoner in some Cadillac commercials, you forgot he was in a baseball movie, playing left fielder Ben Williams in the 1994 remake of Angels In the Outfield.

Also on this day, Sean John Combs is born in Manhattan, and grows up in nearby Mount Vernon, Westchester County, New York. The rapper, music producer, and fashion designer is known by many names: Sean John, Puff Daddy, Puffy, P. Diddy, or just Diddy. Personally, I will always think of him as The Guy Who Got Jennifer Lopez Arrested.

*

November 4, 1969, like all modern American Election Days, was a Tuesday. Actor Matthew McConaughey and hip-hip mogul Sean Combs (Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy) were born on this day.

The baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Phoenix Suns, 116-99 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Despite the Suns' defeat, Connie Hawkins led all scorers on the night with 39 points.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the San Francisco Warriors, 124-105 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena). This was actually part of a doubleheader that also included this game:

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Chicago Bulls, 113-109.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Detroit Pistons, 116-102 at Cobo Hall (now the Huntington Center) in Detroit.

There was 1 game in the American Basketball Association: The Washington Capitols beat the Carolina Cougars, 117-107 at the Washington Coliseum.

Only 1 game was played in the NHL: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Oakland Seals, 5-2 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

November 2, 1965: John Lindsay Is Elected Mayor of New York

November 2, 1965: John Vliet Lindsay, a liberal Republican Congressman, is elected Mayor of New York City. He defeats the Democratic nominee, City Comptroller Abraham D. Beame.

A few days short of his 43rd birthday at the time of his election, he had served in World War II, in battles in both the European and the Pacific Theaters of Operations, rising to the rank of 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. In 1958, he was elected to Congress, representing the East Side of Manhattan, the district nicknamed the Perfumed Stockade, and re-elected in 1960, '62 and '64.

He was handsome and well-spoken, and, up to this point, people found him eminently likable. His basic decency allowed him to connect with liberals, moderates and minorities. However, he was elected as a plurality Mayor in a 3-way race. He got the nominations of the Republican and Liberal Parties, and got 45 percent of the vote. Democratic nominee Beame got 41 percent.

William F. Buckley Jr., publisher of National Review magazine and founder of the Conservative Party of the State of New York, got 13 percent, despite the fact that he didn't even live in the City, said he didn't want to. He even said he didn't want the job: He just wanted to make a point that conservatives should have a choice between Democrats and liberal Republicans.

Lindsay would proclaim, "New York is a fun city." and was lampooned as "Mayor Linseed" on the Batman TV series that soon premiered. (The equivalent to Governor Nelson Rockefeller would be "Governor Stonefellow.") But Fun City would not respond well to him: The day of his Inauguration, January 1, 1966, was the day the Transport Workers Union's contract ran out, and the Subway employees went on strike. After 11 days, Lindsay caved in to the union, and his support never recovered.

Seeming to have pandered to civil rights groups and the antiwar movement, and responding too slowly to a blizzard early in 1969, his own party dumped him for re-election that year. But he secured the Liberal Party's nomination in New York State's odd four-party structure, and rode the "miracles" of the Mets and Jets to victory.

But his 2nd term was even more troubling than his 1st, as the City spiraled downward in crime and corruption that, try as he might, he couldn't stop. I've often thought that Lindsay and Rockefeller, also a liberal Republican, should have switched jobs: Rocky could have governed what University of Massachusetts historian Vincent J. Cannato, writing in 2002 about about Lindsay's terms, titled The Ungovernable City; while Lindsay would have been better off in Albany.

But many people thought Lindsay was merely using the Mayoralty as a stepping-stone for the Presidency -- a charge also leveled at Rockefeller. In the end, neither ever came close to it. Indeed, dumped by the Republicans, Lindsay ran in the Democratic Primaries in 1972, and was laughed out of the race. My mother, a City native, likes to say that she knew Lindsay was really a Democrat before he did.

Lindsay did not dare run for a 3rd term in 1973. Having regained the Comptroller's post in 1969, Abe Beame ran for Mayor again, and was elected. But things got even worse, and he wouldn't even get nominated for a 2nd term. Lindsay was ill for a long time, lost his fortune due to his medical bills, and died at age 79 at the end of 2000. Beame died a few days later, at 94, also a tragic figure.

*

November 2, 1965 was, like all Election Days in modern America, a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. And no games were scheduled in the NBA or the NHL. So there were no scores on this historic day.

May 8, 1970: The Hard Hat Riot

May 8, 1970: The Hard Hat Riot takes place in Lower Manhattan, a backlash against antiwar demonstrators, 4 days after 4 of them were murdered in cold blood at Kent State University.

One sign that survives in a photograph took a shot at Mayor John Lindsay: "IMPEACH THE RED MAYOR." Lindsay was an old-money Republican, but, because he supported civil rights and opposed the war, that demonstrator thought he was a Communist.

President Richard Nixon had called them "The great silent majority of Americans" 6 months earlier. They were never a majority, and if they were silent before, in the more than 50 years since, they have never shut up.

Back then, these were the guys, as much as Warren Mitchell's Alf Garnett on the British show on which it was based, Till Death Us Do Part, who inspired the creation of the character of Archie Bunker, played by Carroll O’Connor on All In the Family, which premiered on CBS 8 months later. They were under-educated, bigoted, and ignorant as hell, but they considered themselves to be the real "working-class heroes."

By 2015, they had become Donald Trump's base.

*

May 8, 1970 was a Friday. The New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 113-99 at Madison Square Garden, to win Game 7 of the NBA Finals, and the Knicks' 1st NBA Championship. I have a separate entry for that event.

It was an off-day in the American Basketball Association Playoffs, which would be won 17 days later by the Indiana Pacers over the Los Angeles Stars. It was also an off-day in the Stanley Cup Finals, which would be won 2 days later by the Boston Bruins over the St. Louis Blues. And football was out of season.

These Major League Baseball games were played that night:

* The New York Yankees lost to the California Angels, 4-3 at Anaheim Stadium. (It was renamed Edison International Field in 1997, and Angel Stadium of Anaheim in 2004.) Clyde Wright outpitched Ron Klimkowski. Former Yankee Roger Repoz and future Yankee Jim Spencer hit home runs for the Halos, while Ron Woods hit one for the Bronx Bombers.

* The New York Mets lost to the San Francisco Giants, 7-1 at Shea Stadium. Ken Boswell hit a home run for the Mets, but Willie Mays hit 2 and Bobby Bonds 1 for the Giants.

* A doubleheader was split at Jarry Park in Montreal. The San Diego Padres won the opener, 11-1. The Montreal Expos won the nightcap, 7-6. In the bottom of the 11th inning, Jimmy Qualls scored the winning run on a wild pitch by Gary Ross with Bobby Wine at bat.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-4 at Connie Mack Stadium. The Phils' bullpen collapsed in the top of the 12th inning, including allowing a home run to Bill Sudakis.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Boog Powell hit a home run, Brooks Robinson went 2-for-4, and Frank Robinson went 1-for-4.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-7 at Atlanta Stadium. (It was renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1975.) For the Cards, Dick Allen went 2-for-5, but no RBIs. Lou Brock went 0-for-5, Joe Torre 0-for-3. For the Braves, Hank Aaron hit his 566th career home run, and Hal King his 2nd. Aaron would finish his career with 755, King with 24.

* The Houston Astros beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-5 at the Astrodome in Houston. Roberto Clemente only entered the game as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-6 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Harmon Killebrew hit a home run, and Rod Carew went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Dalton Jones and Bill Freehan hit homers for the Tigers, but it wasn't enough. Al Kaline did not play.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 10-7 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks went 0-for-5, but hit his 500th career home run 4 days later. Billy Williams hit 2 home runs. Pete Rose went 0-for-4, Johnny Bench went 1-for-4 with an RBI, and Hal McRae and Tony Perez each hit 2 home runs for the Big Red Machine, but it wasn't enough.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. The only Boston run came on a home run by Carl Yastrzemski. Reggie Jackson did not play for Oakland.

* And the game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Washington Senators at Milwaukee County Stadium was rained out. It was rescheduled as part of a doubleheader 2 days later. The Brewers won the opener, 6-5. In the bottom of the 9th, Ted Kubiak led off with a game-tying home run, followed by a walk by Ted Savage (not quite a leadoff walk, but every bit as deadly, as it turned out), a double by Danny Walton, an intentional walk by Jerry McNertney, and a single by Wayne Comer.

The Brewers also won the nightcap in walkoff fashion, 7-6, with McNertney singling home the winning run.

February 10, 1969: The Lindsay Snowstorm

February 10, 1969: A severe Winter storm hits the Northeastern U.S. Although the heaviest snowfalls, up to 32 inches, are recorded in Maine, it hits hardest in New York City. Depths were reported at 15 inches in Central Park, and 20 inches at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Of the 94 deaths that were attributed to the storm, 42 were in the City, 3 of them at JFK Airport, found trapped and frozen in a car.

The Airport estimated that 6,000 travelers were stranded there. Drivers became trapped on the highways. As with the massive traffic jam caused by the Woodstock concert 6 months later, the New York State Thruway was closed, man. Cars were abandoned on the Tappan Zee Bridge. The Long Island Rail Road suspended service.

All the financial exchanges closed. It was the 1st time the New York Stock Exchange had ever closed due to bad weather. The bulk of the snow fell on a Sunday, but schools were still closed the next day. Buses, taxis, delivery vehicles, mail trucks and garbage trucks couldn't get through. Nor could food delivery trucks get to the stores. Comedian Vic DiBitetto had just turned 8 years old, and was living in Brooklyn. This may have been the original storm that inspired his famous 2013 video: "They said snow! I gotta get the bread and milk!"

Mayor John Lindsay got the streets of Manhattan cleared fairly quickly. But the "Outer Boroughs"? The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island? It was almost as if Lindsay forgot they were part of the City. And the people living there were furious, especially in Queens. He tried to go there to apologize, but in the neighborhood of Kew Gardens, he got booed. It got worse: In Rego Park, his limousine got stuck. It became known as the Lindsay Snowstorm.

It was an election year, and Lindsay was running for re-election. The City's Republican Party ran John Marchi, a State Senator from Staten Island, against him in the primary, and beat him. Marchi also got the nomination of the City's Conservative Party.

The Democratic nominee was the City Comptroller, Mario Procaccino, and he turned out to be a conservative Democrat. Remembering Lindsay's limo trouble, he coined the expression "limousine liberal," to describe liberals who loved humanity in concept, but were out of touch with real people. But he also made some racist remarks, and it looked like the City had a choice between an Italian version of a Strom Thurmond-style "Dixiecrat" and a Barry Goldwater-style Republican. After all, while Lindsay did manage to keep the nomination of the City's Liberal Party, nobody wanted him for 4 more years.

As it turned out, enough people wanted Lindsay that he won the general election anyway.

*

February 10, 1969 was a Sunday. Baseball and football were out of season. No games were scheduled in either the NBA or the NHL. One game was scheduled in the American Basketball Association: The Miami Floridians beat the Los Angeles Stars, 126-112 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

January 1, 1966: The New York Transit Strike

Mike Quill

January 1, 1966: For the 1st time, the New York City Transit Workers Union goes on strike, shutting down the City's Subway and bus systems.

Their contract with the City had expired, and, after threatening strikes before, the union's head, Michael Joseph Quill, called it at 5:00 AM.

This was just 5 hours into the Administration of the new Mayor, John Vliet Lindsay. At his Inaugural Ball that night, the lead entertainer was New York native Sammy Davis Jr., who told the crowd, "Just one day in office, and he's already eliminated crime in the Subways!"

In their issue dated on this day, Billboard magazine's chart of the biggest songs in America, the Hot 100, was topped by "The Sound of Silence," by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. It includes Simon's line, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, and tenement halls." But nobody saw the words on this day. 

Lindsay had won the office because he was good-looking, well-spoken, charismatic, smart, and seemed to be paying attention to the City's nonwhite neighborhoods. Though a Republican (he had been a Congressman for 6 years before that), he stood by his Party's stance in favor of civil rights after the national edition of the Party had abandoned it.

You wanted the job, John.

Mike Quill had been a personal friend of the outgoing Mayor, Robert F. Wagner Jr., and worked things out with him rather than go on strike, making what he considered acceptable gains. But Lindsay was not his friend.

Quill was 60, an immigrant from Ireland, a Roman Catholic, a former ditch-digger, who had founded the TWU in 1934, at a time when being in the American labor movement meant that you, quite literally, took your life into your own hands. He had served 12 years on the City Council, with the leftist American Labor Party, earning him the nickname Red Mike.

Lindsay was 44, of English descent, a Protestant, as patrician as you could get, and had pretty much run the year before against the idea of New York's old Democratic political machine, of which Quill's friend Wagner had been a symbol. And each man took it personally.

As Jimmy Breslin wrote in the New York Daily News, "John Lindsay looked at Mike Quill, and he saw the past. And Mike Quill looked at John Lindsay, and he saw the Church of England." Quill was not Boss Tweed, and Lindsay was not Oliver Cromwell. But they had one thing in common: They were stubborn as hell. You couldn't tell either of them anything.

And Quill managed to gain the upper hand in the media. At a time when the Irish were still the best-known ethnic group in New York (if not the biggest), and when not just the TWU, but the police and fire departments were dominated by Irish-Americans, the City that had elected Lindsay with a plurality in a 3-way race, with 45 percent of the vote, decided that it liked Quill better. This pretty much poisoned the political atmosphere and made Lindsay a lame duck, literally from Day One.

Lindsay didn't help himself. He tried to brush it off by saying, "New York is a fun city." "Fun City" soon became a nickname, every bit as sarcastic as calling the New York Mets baseball team "Amazin'" was at the time. What's worse, all of Lindsay's public relations skills, his greatest asset the year before, abandoned him. Evidence of this was his suggestion that "nonessential" workers stay home. When the holiday ended, a lot of people decided they were "nonessential." It was, for all intents and purposes, a sympathy strike.

Lindsay got a judge to issue an injunction against the strike, meaning that Quill was subject to arrest. Shortly after midnight on January 4, Quill said, "The judge can drop dead in his black robes. I don't care if I rot in jail: I will not call off the strike." He was arrested.

If enforcing the law was intended to give Lindsay the upper hand with the public, it backfired massively. Quill was sick, and was taken to Bellevue Hospital. (And not to the hospital's famous psychiatric ward.) The City's sympathy was with Quill.

On January 10, 15,000 workers picketed City Hall. Lindsay knew he had lost, and ordered negotiations to start. On January 13, the strike was settled, on terms the union embraced. 

Quill was released from the hospital on January 25. He made a victory speech to the union that day. He died on January 28. As with Bart Giamatti's fatal heart attack a week after his permanent ban of Pete Rose perhaps dooming Rose's chance of ever being reinstated, Quill's death so soon after his win in the transit strike cast a pall over Lindsay's mayoralty that he was never able to shake. He had a rough time running for re-election in 1969, and didn't dare run for a 3rd term in 1973.

New York would have another transit strike in 1980. That time, Mayor Ed Koch seized the media narrative from the beginning, and made the union out to be the villains, and won.

*

January 1, 1966 was a Saturday. It was the off-season for Major League Baseball. The major pro football leagues were wrapping up their seasons.

The American Football League had its Championship Game 6 days earlier, on December 26, 1965, and the Buffalo Bills beat the San Diego Chargers, 23-0 at Balboa Stadium in San Diego. Neither team has won a league championship since.

The National Football League had its Championship Game the next day, January 2, 1966. It was the 1st time its season extended beyond New Year's Day. The Green Bay Packers beat the defending Champion Cleveland Browns, 23-12 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Jim Brown -- the team was not named for him -- ran for just 50 yards. This was his last game, as he retired the following Summer.

There were 3 National Basketball Association games played that day:

* The New York Knicks beat the Cincinnati Royals, 147-122 at the old Madison Square Garden. For the Knicks, Willis Reed and Dick Barnett each scored 36 points. For the Royals, Happy Hairston scored 26, and Oscar Robertson 23. The Royals moved to Kansas City to become the Kings in 1972, and to Sacramento in 1985.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Detroit Pistons, 116-112 at the Baltimore Civic Center. The Bullets moved to Washington in 1973, and changed their name to the Washington Wizards in 1997. The Civic Center still stands, under the name of the CFG Bank Arena.

* And the St. Louis Hawks beat the Boston Celtics, 100-98. The Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968. Lenny Wilkens scored 25 for the Hawks. The Celtics' Sam Jones scored 37 points to lead all scorers on the day.

There were 2 National Hockey League games played that day:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 5-1 at the Montreal Forum. Jean Ratelle scored the Rangers' only goal.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 6-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The other two members of the NHL's "Original Six," the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Black Hawks, were not scheduled.

Being New Year's Day, college football bowl games were played: 

* In the Rose Bowl in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California, UCLA, the University of California at Los Angeles, beat Michigan State University, 14-12. Michigan State had been declared the National Champions before the bowls by the AP, the sportswriters' poll, so this put that into question.

* In the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Louisiana State University beat the University of Arkansas, 14-7. Arkansas had won a share of the National Championship for the 1964 season, and had they won this game, their Number 2 ranking and Michigan State's loss would have given them a sweep of the polls. But they lost, and were out.

* In the Orange Bowl in Miami, the University of Alabama beat the University of Nebraska, 39-28. Since Alabama went in ranking Number 3, this led to UPI, the coaches' poll, declaring them the National Champions.

* In the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, the University of Missouri beat the University of Florida, 20-18.

Also, Arsenal lost to Fulham, 1-0 at Craven Cottage in West London.