October 13, 2001: The Jeter Flip

October 13, 2001: The New York Yankees enter Game 3 of the American League Division Series at the Oakland Coliseum (then carrying the corporate name "Network Associates Coliseum") down 2 games to none against the Oakland Athletics, and are desperate for a victory.

Jorge Posada homers in the top of the 5th, to give the Yanks a 1-0 lead. That lead holds in the 7th, but Terrence Long drives one into the corner. Right fielder Shane Spencer heaves the ball home, but it's off the line. Jeremy Giambi, brother of star Oakland slugger Jason Giambi, will score for sure.

Except… out of nowhere comes shortstop Derek Jeter, who sprints in, grabs the ball, and, holding it for less than half a second, flips it to Posada at the plate, and Posada juuuust barely tags Giambi on the back of the knee, before his foot touches the plate, completing one of the most amazing defensive plays in baseball history.

"The Flip" allows Mike Mussina and, in the 9th, Mariano Rivera to preserve the 1-0 shutout, and keep the Yankees from being eliminated. The Yankees would win the series in Game 5 at the old Yankee Stadium, with Jeter making another amazing play, tumbling into the stands to catch a foul pop, also off the bat of Terence Long.

Jeter's critics like to say he was "a poor defensive shortstop." He "had no range." He "couldn't go to his left." This one play makes them all look like idiots.

*

October 13, 2001 was a Saturday. In Game 3 of the other ALDS, the Cleveland Indians clobbered the heavily-favored Seattle Mariners, 17-2 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland. The Mariners would win the series in 5 games, but the Yankees would beat them for the Pennant.

In the National League Championship Series, the Atlanta Braves finished off a sweep of the Houston Astros the day before; and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 4, 4-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. But the Diamondbacks won Game 5, then beat the Braves for the Pennant, and beat the Yankees in a classic World Series.

There were college football games that day, including the following:

* There were a few upsets, including Number 1 Florida losing to Auburn, 23-20 at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama. Florida bounced back, and won the Orange Bowl.

* Number 2 Miami beat their arch-rivals, Number 14 Florida State, 49-27 at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida. Miami went on to win the Big East Conference title. 

* Number 3 Oklahoma beat Kansas, 38-10 at David Booth Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas. Oklahoma later lost to rival Nebraska, but bounced back to reach the Cotton Bowl.

* Number 4 Nebraska beat Baylor, 48-7 at Floyd Casey Stadium in Waco, Texas. Miami beat Nebraska in the Rose Bowl, and won the National Championship.

* Number 5 Oregon beat California, 48-7 at California Memorial Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Berkeley. Oregon won the Pacific-Ten Conference title.

* Number 6 Virginia Tech beat Boston College, 34-20 at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia. But Tech lost their next 2 games, hurting their title chances.

* Number 7 UCLA beat Number 10 Washington, 35-13 at the Rose Bowl in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California.

* Number 8 Fresno State beat Colorado State, 25-22 at Hughes Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado.

* Number 9 South Carolina were upset by Arkansas, 10-7 at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Arkansas reached the Cotton Bowl, but lost to Oklahoma.

* Number 11 Tennessee were idle, and went on to reach the Number 2 ranking and the Southeastern Conference Championship Game.

* Number 12 Michigan beat Number 17 Purdue, 24-10 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

* Number 20 Colorado beat Number 25 Texas A&M, 31-21 at Folsom Field in the Denver suburb of Boulder, Colorado. Colorado later beat Texas in the Big Twelve Conference Championship Game, but lost the Fiesta Bowl to Oregon.

* Number 21 Ohio State lost to Wisconsin 20-17 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

* Notre Dame, unranked, beat West Virginia, 34-24 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

* Illinois, unranked, beat Indiana, 35-14 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois. Illinois won the Big Ten Conference title.

* Louisiana State, unranked, beat Kentucky, 29-25 at Commonwealth Stadium (now Kroger Field) in Lexington, Kentucky. LSU went on to upset then-Number 2 Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game, followed by an upset of then-Number 7 Illinois in the Sugar Bowl.

* Among the service academies, Air Force beat Wyoming, 24-13 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Army lost to East Carolina, 49-26 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York; and Navy lost to Rice, 21-13 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.

* And among New Jersey teams, Rutgers lost to temple, 30-5 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia; while Princeton lost to Brown, 35-24 at Brown Stadium in Providence, Rhode Island.

The NBA season wouldn't start for another 17 days. There were 12 NHL games:

* The New York Rangers played the Ottawa Senators to a tie, 2-2 at the Corel Centre (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 5-4 at the Nassau Coliseum. Steve Yzerman scored the winning goal with 2:28 left in overtime.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the Bell Centre in Montreal. 

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 5-2 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Florida Panthers, 5-2 at the National Car Rental Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Nashville Predators, 4-3 at the Gaylord Entertainment Center (now the Bridgestone Arena) in Nashville.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Dallas Stars, 4-3 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Craig Conroy scored the winning goal with 40 seconds left in overtime.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Washington Capitals, 5-2 at the America West Arena (now the Footprint Center) in Phoenix.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Los Angeles Kings, 1-0 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* The San Jose Sharks beat the Boston Bruins, 3-2 at the Compaq Center (now the SAP Center) in San Jose, California.

* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Colorado Avalanche, 4-0 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.

* And the Chicago Blackhawks, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Buffalo Sabres, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild were not scheduled.

And in English soccer, North London team Arsenal beat Southampton, 2-0 at the St. Mary's Stadium in Southampton, Hampshire.

October 11, 2003: Pedro Martinez Commits 3 Felonies During a Playoff Game

October 11, 2003: Pedro Martinez of the Boston Red Sox commits 3 felonies, all witnessed by 34,209 people at Fenway Park in Boston, and by millions of people on live national television:

* Count 1: Assault with a deadly weapon, on Karim Garcia of the New York Yankees, by hitting him with a pitch, and it would have hit him in the head had he not ducked.

* Count 2: Conspiracy to commit murder, against Yankee Jorge Posada, by pointing to his head, as if to say, "You're next."

* Count 3: Felonious assault (and possibly attempted murder) on Yankee coach Don Zimmer, by grabbing a 72-year-old man by the head and throwing him to the ground.

In spite of this, he is not arrested. The felonies, after all, occurred at Fenway Park, not Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees beat the Red Sox, 3-2, with Roger Clemens outpitching Martinez, and take a 2-games-to-1 lead in the ALCS. That's right: A little over 13 years after becoming the most recent MLB player to be thrown out of a postseason game, Clemens was the one who kept his cool.

The New York Post, in one of the rare instances in which I agree with it, labeled Pedro the Fenway Punk. Ever since, he has been the opposing athlete I have loathed the most. Which is why my favorite home run of all time is no longer the one that Aaron Boone hit 5 days later, but the one Hideki Matsui hit off Pedro to clinch the 2009 World Series -- which turned out to be Pedro's last game in the major leagues.

This was the day that Yankee Fans finally went beyond mere posturing, and began to hate the Red Sox and their fans as much as Sox fans hate the Yankees and their fans. This was the day the idea of the Mets' being Yankee Fans' team "they love to hate" went out the window. The Red Sox became, as they would say in English soccer, "The Scum."

*

October 11, 2003 was a Saturday. On the same day, the Chicago Cubs beat the Florida Marlins, 8-3 at Pro Player (now Hard Rock) Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, and take a 3-games-to-1 lead in the NLCS. Just 1 more win, and the Cubs will have their 1st Pennant in 58 years. But they needed another 13 years to get that 1 more NLCS win.

The NBA season didn't begin until October 28. There were 11 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 5-0 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The New York Islanders beat the Buffalo Sabres, 6-0 at the HSBC Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 2-1 at the RBC Center (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh.

*  The Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins played to a tie, 3-3 at the Wachovia Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Thrashers beat the Washington Capitals, 4-3 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* The Boston Bruins and the Florida Panthers played to a tie, 1-1 at the Office Depot Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Nashville Predators, 3-1 at the Gaylord Entertainment Center (now the Bridgestone Arena) in Nashville.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, and in the opener of CBC's broadcast of Hockey Night In Canada, the Montreal Canadiens beat their arch-rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-0 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Ottawa Senators, 3-2 at the Corel Centre (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* The Calgary Flames beat the San Jose Sharks, 3-2 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* And in the nightcap of Hockey Night In Canada, the Vancouver Canucks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-0 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.

And there were college football games played, including the following:

* The night before, in a rare matchup when both halves of the "Little Brown Jug" rivalry were ranked, Number 20 Michigan beat Number 17 Minnesota, 38-35 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* Number 1 Oklahoma beat Number 11 Texas, 65-13 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

* Number 2 Miami beat Number 5 Florida State, 22-14 at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida. They had a rematch in the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day, and Miami won again.

* Number 3 Ohio State were upset by Number 23 Wisconsin, 17-10 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. Ohio State would beat Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl.

* Number 4 Virginia Tech beat Syracuse, 51-7 at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia.

* Number 6 Louisiana State were upset by Florida, 19-7 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU would rise to Number 2, and beat Number 3 Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl.

* Number 7 Arkansas were upset by Auburn, 10-3 at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

* Number 8 Georgia beat Number 13 Tennessee, 41-14 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee.

* Number 9 Southern California beat Stanford, 44-21 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC would rise to Number 1, and beat then-Number 4 Michigan in the Rose Bowl, to win the National Championship.

* Number 10 Nebraska were upset by Missouri, 41-24 at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri.

* Notre Dame upset Number 15 Pittsburgh, 20-14 at Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium) in Pittsburgh.

* Navy beat Vanderbilt, 37-27 at Vanderbilt Stadium (now First Bank Stadium) in Nashville. But Army lost to Louisville, 34-10 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.

* And Rutgers lost to West Virginia, 34-19 at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, West Virginia.

July 10, 1999: The Matt Franco Game

July 10, 1999: An Interleague game is played at Shea Stadium, the New York Mets hosting the New York Yankees. The Yankees were the defending World Champions, the Mets a team on the rise. The Fox network broadcast this game as their Saturday Game of the Week.

The starting pitchers were Andy Pettitte for the Bronx team, Rick Reed for the Queens club. In the top of the 1st inning, Bernie Williams singled, and Paul O'Neill hit a home run, to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. But the Mets came right back, with a Rickey Henderson single and a Mike Piazza double. In the bottom of the 2nd, a sacrifice fly by Rey Ordóñez tied it at 2-2.

The Mets took a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the 4th, but the Yankees got back-to-back home runs in the top of the 5th, from Ricky Ledée and Jorge Posada, to tie it. These were followed by a homer in the 6th from O'Neill, and one in the 7th from Chuck Knoblauch, to take a 6-4 lead. In the bottom of the 7th, Henderson doubled, John Olerud drew a walk, and Mike Piazza hit a home run. The Mets led, 7-6. But Scott Brosius led off the top of the 8th with a walk, and Posada hit his 2nd home run of the game, and it was 8-7 Yankees.

Mariano Rivera got the 1st out in the bottom of the 9th. But, Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you. And Henderson, who went on to break Babe Ruth's career record for most walks (before Barry Bonds took the record from him), drew a walk. Edgardo Alfonzo doubled, but Henderson, now 40 years old, was no no longer fast enough to score. Rivera got Olerud to ground out, and the runners held. Not willing to to take a chance on Piazza getting the winning hit, Yankee manager Joe Torre ordered him intentionally walked, to set up the final out at any base.

But on a 1-ball-2-strike count, Matt Franco singled to right field, scoring Henderson with the tying run, and Alfonzo with the winning run: Mets 9, Yankees 8. The crowd of 53,792, about 90 percent Met fans, went wild. The winning pitcher was Pat Mahomes, whose son, Patrick Mahomes, would later star at quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs.

This game helps to illustrate the difference between the Yankees and the Mets. When the DVD The Essential Games of Shea Stadium was released in 2008, this game was included on it. When the DVD The Essential Games of Yankee Stadium was released at the same time, there were only postseason games on it. Aside from no-hitters and perfect games, the Yankees would never ascribe such importance to any single regular-season game.

Yet the Small Club in Flushing, and their fans, celebrated this game as if they had won the World Series. To this day, whenever Yankee Fans mention Rivera as the greatest relief pitcher ever, a Met fan will bring up The Matt Franco Game -- even though the Mets went on to lose the National League Championship Series to the Atlanta Braves, and the Yankees then beat the Braves in the World Series, and then, the next season, beat the Mets in the World Series.

In 2007, Franco was exposed as a user of performance-enhancing drugs. Mets fans don't want you to know that, as it spoils their narrative that they are somehow more virtuous and heroic then the Yankees.

*

July 10, 1999 was a Saturday. This was also the day women's soccer grew up, with the U.S. team winning the Women's World Cup over China on penalties at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. I have a separate entry for that event.

These other MLB games were played on that day, all of them Interleague:

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Montreal Expos, 7-6 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-4 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Mussina outpitched Paul Byrd. Cal Ripken went 1-for-4 with 2 RBIs.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Boston Red Sox, 2-1 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. John Wasdin walked Andruw Jones to start the bottom of the 11th inning. Brian Hunter bunted, and Wasdin threw the ball away, allowing Jones to score the winning run.

* The Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Florida Marlins, 9-8 at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Cincinnati Reds, 11-10 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland. The Reds led 9-4 going into the bottom of the 5th, but the Indians clawed back, and tied the game in the 8th. The Reds took a 10-9 lead in the top of the 9th.

Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Danny Graves started the bottom of the 9th by walking Jim Thome. He was replaced by Scott Williamson, who gave up a game-winning home run to Omar Vizquel. Thome drawing a walk, and Vizquel hitting a home run, instead of the other way around? That's the way it happened.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Chicago White Sox, 10-2 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field). Sammy Sosa went 0-for-5, but the Cubs got home runs from José Hernández and Glenallen Hill.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-4 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Houston Astros beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Anaheim Angels beat the Colorado Rockies, 9-3 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2-0 at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix. Tim Hudson took a 3-hit shutout into the 9th inning, but A's manager Art Howe decided he needed Billy Taylor to get the last 2 outs.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Texas Rangers, 5-4 at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium). Tony Gwynn did not play.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Seattle Mariners, 2-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Adrián Beltré singled Devon White home with the winning run in the bottom of the 9th inning. Ken Griffey Jr. went 0-for-4.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-2 at Candlestick Park (then known as 3Com Park at Candlestick Park) in San Francisco. Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire did not play.

April 16, 2009: The New Yankee Stadium Opens

April 16, 2009: The New York Yankees open the new Yankee Stadium, on the west side of River Avenue in the South Bronx, on the north side of East 161st Street, across from the old Yankee Stadium on the south side.

Team owner George Steinbrenner wanted it to have all the modern amenities that the old Stadium couldn't have, including more luxury suites, more and bigger food-service areas, and more and bigger bathrooms. He also wanted it to look as much as possible like the old Stadium did before its 1973-76 renovation. Its exterior is a light brown, sandstone, as the original Stadium was from its opening in 1923 until it was painted white in 1967. The "wedding-cake façade" (actually a frieze), moved to the top of the back wall of the Bleachers in 1976, was restored to the roof of the main structure.

The old Stadium had a peak seating capacity of 67,224, reduced to 65,010 for the 1967 renovation, and 57,545 for the 1976 renovation. The new Stadium was listed at a capacity of 50,287 when it opened, and is now listed at 46,537.

The Yankees got off to a hard start in the 2009 season, dropping their 1st 2 games, in a roadtrip to Baltimore, before winning the finale; then winning the 1st 2 in Kansas City before losing the last; then losing the opener of their series in Tampa Bay, 15-5, before taking the last 2. So they were 5-4 going into their home opener. The 15-5 loss was so bad that newly-acquired outfielder Nick Swisher pitched the 9th inning -- and kept it scoreless.

For the 1st game at the new Yankee Stadium, many Yankee legends were introduced, including Hall-of-Famers Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and Reggie Jackson. Oddly, the National Anthem singer wasn't a native of the New York Tri-State Area, although she was a big singing star and a Yankee Fan, who would go on to host a talk show that she taped in New York: Kelly Clarkson.

John Fogerty, the former lead singer of Creedence Clearwater Revival, and thus a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and was 13 years old when the New York Giants moved to San Francisco, had previously been a Yankee Fan, and mentioned both the Giants' Willie Mays and the Yankees' Joe DiMaggio -- but not DiMaggio's successor, Mickey Mantle -- in his 1985 hit song "Centerfield." He sang that song after Clarkson's National Anthem, playing a guitar designed to look like a baseball bat, which he donated to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Clarkson will be eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2028. That Hall is located in Cleveland -- Steinbrenner's hometown.

It was probably a coincidence that the opponent for the Yankee Stadium II opener was the Cleveland Indians. The game began with former Indians pitcher CC Sabathia, newly signed to a big free-agent contract by the Yankees, getting Grady Sizemore to ground to 1st base, where another new acquisition, Mark Teixeira, handled the play unassisted.

And for 6 innings, the game was a nice pitchers' duel between Sabathia and the Indians' Cliff Lee. The Indians took the lead in the top of the 4th, on doubles by Jhonny Peralta and Kelly Shoppach. The Yankees tied it back up in the bottom of the 5th. Given that he was injured for the last game at the old Stadium, and that his backup, José Molina, hit the last home run there, it was appropriate that the 1st home run in the new Stadium was hit by Yankee catcher Jorge Posada.

With 1 out in the top of the 6th, Sabathia gave up a walk, Then he got a strikeout. But he had now thrown 122 pitches, and manager Joe Girardi replaced him. Big mistake. If a pitcher's last result was a strikeout, and he's not visibly in pain, leave him in. Girardi brought in Edwar Ramirez, and the next batter reached on an error, and the next on a single. Girardi pulled Ramirez, and brought in Phil Coke, who got out of it, with the score still 1-1.

But the seed of the Yankees' defeat had been sown. Instead of letting Coke come back out for the top of the 7th, Girardi brought in José Veras. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Veras gave up walk, double, double. Girardi got him out of there, and replaced him with Damaso Marte. He hit a batter, got a fielder's choice, allowed a single to load the bases, got a popup, then allowed walk, grand slam home run, groundout, solo home run, flyout.

And when the dust had settled, and the men saw what had occurred, the Yankees trailed 10-1, and I spoke "George Carlin words." (I was not at the game, but I was watching on television.)

Robinson Canó singled home a run in the bottom of the 7th, but the Yankees would get no closer. The Indians won, 10-2. The Yankees had won the 1st home game in franchise history in 1903, their 1st game at the old Stadium in 1923, and their 1st game at the renovated version of the old Stadium in 1976. But, as with their 1st game ever, they lost the opener of the new Stadium.

The Yankees rebounded the next game, winning 6-5. But on Saturday, they suffered one of their worst defeats ever, losing to the Indians, 22-4. The Indians scored 14 runs in the 2nd inning, chasing Chien-Ming Wang. This time, there was no position player coming in to pitch.

On Sunday, April 19, I made my 1st visit to the new Stadium. Outside Gate 6 in right field, I saw Freddy Schuman, the elderly Bronx native with the good-luck pan and the homemade signs starting with "FREDDY SEZ." He had lived long enough to see every Yankee from Babe Ruth onward, and now he had lived to see the new Stadium. I heard somebody tell him, "Freddy, you can't retire!" Having met him a couple of times before, I said, "Retire? At this rate, we may need him to pitch!" Fortunately, he laughed. (He died late the next season, having seen one more title.)

Fortunately, in this game, the Yankees came from 3-0 down in the 7th inning, including another Posada home run, and won that game, 7-3. In contrast, they lost my 1st game at the old Stadium, in 1978. They did win my last game at the old Stadium. And they went on to win the 2009 World Series, clinching over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6, at the new Yankee Stadium.

Let me close with this: In every measurable way, the new Yankee Stadium is an improvement over the old one. But some things simply cannot be measured. I like the new Stadium, but I miss the old Stadium terribly.

*

April 16, 2009 was a Thursday. These other Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Mets lost to the San Diego Padres, 6-5 at Citi Field.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-2 at Nationals Park in Washington.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-2 at Turner Field in Atlanta.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 3-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.

* The Houston Astros beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-3 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 7-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Minnesota Twins, 9-2 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 7-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the Los Angeles Angels beat the Seattle Mariners, 5-1 at Safeco Field in Seattle. (It's now named T-Mobile Park.)

Football was out of season. The NBA regular season had ended the night before, and their Playoffs hadn't yet started. But the Stanley Cup Playoffs were underway. In opening games of opening-round series:

* The Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-2 at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston. (It's now known as just the TD Garden.)

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

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Calgary Flames, 3-2 at the United Center in Chicago. Martin Havlat scored the winning goal, just 12 seconds into overtime.

* And the Anaheim Ducks beat the San Jose Sharks, 2-0 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. (It's now named the SAP Arena.)