December 13, 2003: The Yankees Trade Jeff Weaver for Kevin Brown

December 13, 2003: The Yankees trade Jeff Weaver – 2 months 2 late -- and 2 other pitchers, Yhency Brazobán and Brandon Weeden, for a better pitcher. Or so we thought. It was Kevin Brown.

Neither Brazobán nor Weeden had yet reached the major leagues. Weeden never did. Brazobán soon did so, but was not especially distinguished. And Weaver... somehow won a World Series ring with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006. That still ticks me off. (Not that the Cardinals won that Series, but that Weaver was a part of it.)

Kevin Brown was a very good pitcher. In 1992, he went 21-12 for the Texas Rangers. In 1996, with the Florida Marlins, he went 17-11, and led the National League with an ERA of 1.89 and a WHIP of 0.944. In 1997, he went 16-8, and helped the Marlins win the World Series. In 1998, he went 18-7, and helped the San Diego Padres win the Pennant.

On December 12, 1998, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed him to a 7-year contract worth $105 million, the 1st contract in North American major league sports worth more than $100 million. At first, it seemed like it would pay off: He went 18-9 in 1999, and in 2000, went 13-6 and led the NL with a 2.58 ERA. He battled injury after that, but still went 10-4 in 2001. In 2003, he went 14-9 with a 2.39 ERA, and made an All-Star Game for the 6th time. He had a career record of 197-131. He was approaching Hall of Fame worthiness.

Sounds like the Yankees made a good acquisition. Except he would be turning 39 during Spring Training 2004. And he was not a big-game pitcher. Although the Marlins won the 1997 World Series, Brown had lost Games 2 and 6. In the 1998 World Series, he started Game 1 against the Yankees, and while he wasn't the losing pitcher, the Yankees did win; and he was the losing pitcher in Game 4.

In 2004, he posted a 10–6 record with a 4.09 ERA. On September 3, after being removed from a game he lost to the Baltimore Orioles, he punched a concrete column in frustration, breaking his hand. He returned to the rotation on September 26, and lost his last 2 regular-season starts: He didn't get out of the 1st inning against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, and lost to away to the Toronto Blue Jays.

During that season's Playoffs, Brown pitched well in the American League Division Series against the Minnesota Twins. But, with little choice, manager Joe Torre started Brown in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series against the Red Sox. He gave up a 2-run home run to David Ortiz in the 1st inning, left with the bases loaded in the 2nd, and was charged with all 3 runs that Johnny Damon drove in ahead of him when he subsequently hit a grand slam off Javier Vázquez -- whom the Yankees had acquired 3 days after Brown, as if that trade hadn't been bad enough. Brown had authored the worst start in Yankee postseason history -- emotionally, if not statistically.

Brown struggled with injury through 2005, and finished it 4-7 with a 6.50 ERA. The Yankees did not lift a finger to sign him to a new contract -- though many Yankee Fans lifted some fingers for him -- and he retired, with a career record of 211-144, a 3.28 ERA, and a WHIP of 1.222.

He became eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011. He has never come close to election.

*

December 13, 2003 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. There were no college football games that day, and the NFL played the next day. There were 8 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Denver Nuggets, 95-88 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Memphis Grizzlies, 110-63 at the Memphis Pyramid.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Atlanta Hawks, 105-102 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 105-98 at the Quicken Loans Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland. Paul Pierce led all scorers on the night with 41 points.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Indiana Pacers, 86-75 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat their arch-rivals, the Houston Rockets, 86-73 at the AT&T Center (now the Frost Bank Center) in San Antonio.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Phoenix Suns, 106-91 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 112-108 at the Moda Center in Portland. Kobe Bryant scored 35 points in defeat.

And there were 12 games in the NHL:

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the New York Rangers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-1 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The New York Islanders beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 4-0 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-0 at the Wachovia Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Washington Capitals, 5-1 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-2 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Florida Panthers and the Nashville Predators played to a tie, 2-2 at the Gaylord Entertainment Center (now the Bridgestone Arena) in Nashville.

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

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 5-3 at the Mellon Arena (as the Civic Arena was then named) in Pittsburgh.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Los Angeles Kings, 2-1 at the Savvis Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.

* The Colorado Avalanche and the Calgary Flames played to a tie, 1-1 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* The San Jose Sharks beat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 2-0 at the HP Pavilion at San Jose (now the SAP Center).

* And the Chicago Blackhawks, the Dallas Stars, the Vancouver Canucks, the Edmonton Oilers, the Carolina Hurricanes and the Arizona Coyotes were not scheduled.

December 12, 1998: Baseball's 1st $100 Million Contract

December 12, 1998: The Los Angeles Dodgers sign free agent pitcher Kevin Brown to a contract worth $105 million over 7 years. It is the 1st contract in any of the "Big Four" North American sports leagues worth as much as $100 million. And it turns out to be a bad contract.

James Kevin Brown was born on March 14, 1965 in Milledgeville, Georgia, outside Macon. A white couple in Georgia, naming their son "James Brown"? No wonder he went by "Kevin" -- although Kevin Brown is also a very common name, even in sports: There's another baseball pitcher, a year younger, with the name.

This Kevin Brown won 211 games in the major leagues, against 144 losses, a very good percentage. He was a 6-time All-Star, twice led the National League in earned run average, pitched a no-hitter in 1997, and reached the postseason with 3 different teams -- and it probably would have been 4 times with 4 teams if the 1994 strike hadn't hit, denying the Texas Rangers the American League Western Division title. He won the World Series with the 1997 Florida Marlins, and another Pennant with the 1998 San Diego Padres. In 1999, the Dodgers thought he was worth a contract worth more than $100 million.

(UPDATE: With inflation factored in, that $105 million in 1998 would be worth $190 million in 2022.)

So why isn't he in the Baseball Hall of Fame? Mainly because of the 2004 season, his last full one in the majors. Known as a "Yankee Killer" during is time with the Rangers and the Baltimore Orioles -- but losing twice against them in the '98 World Series -- the Yankees traded for him, and became a bigger Yankee Killer than ever. During a September loss, he reacted to being taken out of the game by punching the dugout wall and breaking his pitching and. He returned in time to start Game 7 of the AL Championship Series, and turned in the worst postseason start in Yankee history. He got hurt again the next year, and retired.

He has been the subject of steroid rumors, which may also be keeping him out of the Hall. He lives in Macon, and does not work in baseball, in any capacity. No one seems to want him around.

*

December 12, 1998 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. This was the weekend between college football's Conference Championship Games and its bowl games. And the NBA team owners had locked the players out, so the season hadn't started yet.

There were 11 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 2-1 at the Nassau Coliseum. Former Islander Benoit Hogue scored the winning goal, with 48 seconds left in overtime.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Colorado Avalanche, 5-3 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands.

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

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-0 at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Florida Panthers, 4-2 at the National Car Rental Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Montreal Canadiens and the Nashville Predators played to a tie, 2-2 at the Nashville Arena (now the Bridgestone Arena).

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

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-3 at the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-0 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The San Jose Sharks beat the Washington Capitals, 2-1 at the San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center).

* And the New York Rangers, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Dallas Stars, the Edmonton Oilers and the Anaheim Ducks were not scheduled.

November 18, 1966: Sandy Koufax Retires

November 18, 1966: Sandy Koufax, superstar pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, announces his retirement from Major League Baseball, in a press conference at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in the Los Angeles suburb of Beverly Hills, California. He is a few weeks short of his 31st birthday.

This is the most stunning retirement in the history of professional sports, even more so than Jim Brown's retirement from the NFL 4 months earlier, before turning 30.

It was stunning because Koufax had just completed a season in which he went 27-9, with a 1.73 ERA. He led the Dodgers to a Pennant, and had just won the Cy Young Award. For the past 6 seasons, after finding his control after a difficult start to his career, he had 129 wins, 35 of them by shutout, 4 of them by no-hitter, 1 of those by perfect game, and 1,713 strikeouts, winning 3 Cy Young Awards -- at a time when the Award was given to the best pitcher in both Leagues.

Counting 1959, before he found his control, he had helped the Dodgers win 4 Pennants and 3 World Series, being named the Most Valuable Player in 2 of them. In 1963, he was named the MVP of the National League in the regular season and of the World Series, the 1st time that feat had ever been pulled off. It has since been matched only by Willie Stargell in 1979 and Mike Schmidt in 1980. It's also been done in the American League by Frank Robinson in 1966 and Reggie Jackson in 1973. So, a total of 5 times since the establishment of the World Series MVP in 1955.

But he had pitched 1,192 2/3rds innings in the last 4 seasons, and that was despite missing the last 7 weeks of the 1964 season with the 1st diagnosed instance of arthritis in his elbow. All that pitching was taking a toll on his arm. His arthritis had been caused by a circulatory problem that threatened further use of the arm.

When he pitched a complete-game 2-hit shutout against the Minnesota Twins in Game 7 of the 1965 World Series, he did it throwing only fastballs. It hurt too much to throw a curve. (In other words, all those Twins hitters, including 500 Home Run Club member Harmon Killebrew and 2-time batting champion Tony Oliva, knew exactly what was coming, every time, and it didn't help.)

In Spring Training of 1966, Koufax told San Diego sportswriter Phil Collier that the upcoming season would be his last. He told Collier that if he kept the secret until right before the official announcement, he could have the scoop. Collier kept the secret, and Koufax kept his part of the bargain.

At the press conference announcing his retirement, a reporter asked, "The question is, 'Why?', Sandy." His answer:

The question is, "Why?" I don't know if cortisone is good for you or not. But, uh, to take a shot every other ballgame is, uh, more than I wanted to do, and to walk around with a constant upset stomach because of the pills, and to be high half the time during the ballgame because you're taking painkillers. I don't want to -- I don't want to have to do that.

He was asked about the loss of income. Before the season, he had held out for $125,000 (about $1.15 million in 2022 money). His response:

Well, the loss of income. Uh, let's put it this way: If there were a man who did not have use of one of his arms, and you told him it would cost a lot of money, and he could buy back that use, he'd give 'em every dime he had, I believe. That's my feeling. And, in a sense, maybe, this is what I'm doing. I don't know.

You know, I got a lot of years to live after baseball, and just, I would like to live them with complete use of my body. I don't regret one minute of the last twelve years, but I think I would regret one year that was too many.

In 1972, in his 1st year of eligibility, Koufax was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. At 36, he was the youngest person ever elected to it, and remains so. This broke, by a few weeks, the record set in 1939 when the writers voted in Lou Gehrig in a special election, because they knew he was dying.

For comparison's sake: In pro football, is is Gale Sayers, who was 34, having retired due to injuries to both knees; in basketball, it is Ed Macauley, who was 32, having retired because he didn't think he could be a player and a coach at the same time; and in hockey, it is Bobby Orr, who was 31, had injuries to both knees like Sayers, and had the usual waiting period waived for him, due to his big impact on the sport in his comparatively short career.

Just before the 1993-94 season began, Michael Jordan, then 30, considered the best player in the NBA, and one of its best players ever, announced his retirement. It remains the only retirement announcement more shocking than Koufax's. However, Jordan wasn't injured, the Basketball Hall of Fame did not waive its waiting period to elect him, and, by late in the 1994-95 season, he was ready, willing and able to return. Koufax never did.

As of November 18, 2022, Sandy Koufax is 86 years old, and in good health. His left arm has held up enough to allow him to pitch in old-timers games in his 40s and 50s, and to throw out the occasional ceremonial first ball in the Dodgers' World Series appearances in 2017 and 2018. (He did not attend in 2020, due to COVID restrictions.)

Because of the combination of his greatness, his status as a Jewish baseball player who refused to pitch in a World Series game because it fell on Yom Kippur, his early retirement, which keeps us guessing as to what he could have done if not for his injury, and his guarding of his privacy to the point where he doesn't make many public appearances, he is one of the few living baseball players who can genuinely be said to have a "mystique."

Built in 1928, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where the press conference was held, opened at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Rodeo Drive. Elvis Presley often stayed there while filming movies, and John Lennon lived there during his 1973-74 separation from Yoko Ono, which he called his "Lost Weekend." It's been a filming location for several movies and TV shows.

*

November 18, 1966 was a Friday. Baseball season was over. No games were scheduled in the NFL, the AFL or the NHL. There were 2 college football games played. The University of Miami beat Iowa, 44-0 at the Orange Bowl in Miami. And Long Beach State (California State University at Long Beach) beat the University of the Pacific, 34-14 at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Long Beach, California, outside Los Angeles.

And there were 3 games played in the NBA:

* Two of them were a doubleheader at the Boston Garden. In the 1st game, the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Chicago Bulls, 145-120.

* In the 2nd game, the Boston Celtics beat the Baltimore Bullets, 143-119.

* And the Detroit Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 121-118 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.

November 13, 2020: Kim Ng Becomes the 1st Female GM In American Sports

November 13, 2020: Kim Ng is named the general manager of Major League Baseball's Miami Marlins. She is the 1st woman to be named GM of any team in North American major league sports. She is also the 1st person of Asian descent to hold such a post.

Despite her surname, pronounced "eng," she is not of Vietnamese ethnicity. The daughter of a Cantonese-American financial analyst and a Thai Chinese banker, she was born in 1968 in Indianapolis, but grew up in Queens, New York City. Her father was a sports nut, and she played softball and tennis at Ridgewood High School in Queens (not the one in nearby Ridgewood, Bergen County, New Jersey). She continued played softball at the University of Chicago, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in public policy.

She stayed in Chicago to get her first front-office job, as assistant director of baseball operations for the Chicago White Sox, working under GM Ron Scheuler, who had also pitched for the White Sox. In 1995, she became the 1st woman, and the youngest person, to present a salary arbitration case, against pitcher Alex Fernandez. She won.

That got the attention of not just the other 29 MLB organizations, but of the MLB offices, who are about holding down player salaries first, and protecting and promoting the sport second. In 1997, the American League hired her away from the White Sox, appointing her Director of Waivers and Records, meaning she had to decide whether to approve any transaction.

In 1998, Bob Watson left his post as GM of the New York Yankees, and his assistant, Brian Cashman, was promoted into that post. He offered Ng his former assistant's job. She held it through 2001, receiving 3 World Series rings. She was hired as assistant GM by the Los Angeles Dodgers, and held that post through the 2010 season. She then took a job as senior vice president of baseball operations for MLB, reporting to the president of baseball operations, former Yankee and Dodger manager Joe Torre.

It was working for Torre that led to her getting hired by the Marlins, because, at the time, the Marlins' CEO was former Yankee Derek Jeter. Jeter and the group he was with ended up selling the Marlins in 2022, but Ng has stayed, and is now responsible for one of the franchise's periodic rebuilding efforts.

She is married to Tony Markwand, who runs a winery in Oregon. She has no children.

UPDATE: The Marlins made the Playoffs in the 2023 season, but Ng resigned at the end of it, anyway, citing differences with how the rest of team management wanted to proceed. She became the Commissioner of Athletes Unlimited Pro Softball, the 1st serious attempt at a women's professional softball league.

*

November 13, 2020 was a Friday -- a Friday the 13th. Certainly, it wasn't unlucky for Kim Ng. Baseball season was over. And, due to COVID restrictions having postponed the 2020 Playoffs in each league, the 2020-21 NBA and NHL seasons hadn't started yet.

There were 3 college football games played, including one with a Top 10 team, an intra-metro area rivalry, and a major trophy rivalry:

* The University of Cincinnati, then ranked Number 7, beat East Carolina, 55-17 at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati.

* Florida Atlantic, based in Boca Raton, beat Florida International, 38-19 at Riccardo Silva Stadium in Miami. This rivalry is known as the Shula Bowl, complete with a trophy named the Don Shula Award, because both schools, relatively new to college football at the top level, had ties to Shula, the longtime Miami Dolphins head coach. FAU's 1st head coach, Howard Schnellenberger, who coached the University of Miami to the 1983 National Championship, was an assistant coach to Shula on the Super Bowl VII and VIII winners. And FIU's 1st head coach, Don Strock, was a backup quarterback for Shula's Dolphins a few years later.

* And Iowa beat Minnesota, 35-7 at TCF Bank Stadium (now Huntington Bank Stadium) in Minneapolis, for the bronze pig trophy known as Floyd of Rosedale.

October 30, 2024: A Nightmare Inning for the Yankees, Glory for the Dodgers

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

October 30, 2024: Game 5 of the 2024 World Series at Yankee Stadium started out so well for the New York Yankees. It ended as one of the worst performances in the team's history, a set of 4 innings that were worse than the first 3 games combined, as bad as those were.

It started out so well. Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm hit back-to-back home runs in the 1st inning, giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead. Alex Verdugo singled Anthony Volpe home in the 2nd, to make it 4-0. Giancarlo Stanton hit one out in the 3rd, making it 5-0. And through the 1st 4 innings, Gerrit Cole had allowed no runs, no hits, just 2 walks. He wasn't overpowering, but he was getting the job done beautifully.

And then came the top of the 5th inning. Yankee Fans who saw this inning will see it in their nightmares until they die:

* Kike Hernández singled to right.

* Tommy Edman hit a fly ball to center field, and Judge dropped it.

* Will Smith grounded to short, but Volpe can't make the double play. Bases loaded, nobody out.

* Cole struck Gavin Lux out.

* Cole struck Shohei Ohtani out. He got to within 1 strike of getting out of it with no runs.

* Mookie Betts grounded to 1st. But 1st baseman Anthony Rizzo was too far from the base to make the play. And so was Cole, so Rizzo couldn't throw to him. It was like Bill Buckner and Bob Stanley in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, except that, this time, the 1st baseman did get the grounder. Stanley often gets blamed for not covering 1st, but Cole wouldn't have made it in time, either. This was not bad defense, it was just bad luck, and good hitting by Betts. Kike scored. 5-1.

* Freddie Freeman, who seemed to be out-hitting not just the Yankees but his own teammates, singled to center, scoring Edman and Smith. 5-3.

* Teoscar Hernández doubled to center, scoring Betts and Freeman. 5-5.

* Max Muncy drew a walk.

* And Kike batted again, grounding to short, and Volpe stepped on 2nd base to force Teoscar out, and finally end the inning. That's 5 runs on 4 hits (1 of them an infield hit), 1 walk and 2 errors.

It would have been understandable if the Yankees were shellshocked by this. But they loaded the bases in the bottom of the 5th -- but couldn't score. Somehow, Cole survived all this, and pitched a 1-2-3 6th inning. He went 6 innings, allowing no earned runs -- 5 unearned.

In the bottom of the 6th, Juan Soto and Judge walked, Chisholm grounded into a force play that eliminated Judge and moved Soto to 3rd, and Stanton flew to center to sacrifice Soto home. Rizzo drew a walk, but Volpe grounded out to end the rally.

It was 6-5 Yankees, and there was hope again. But the shadow of that 5th inning was too large: It didn't feel like all we had to do was get 9 more outs.

Cole and Clay Holmes got through the 7th. But manager Aaron Boone did not leave Holmes in to pitch the 8th, and Tommy Kahnle allowed singles to Kike and Erdman, and walked Smith. Again, bases loaded and nobody out. Boone brought the closer in, Luke Weaver. Lux hit a sac fly to center, scoring Kike. Ohtani was awarded 1st base on a very dubious catcher's interference call. And Betts flew to center, scoring, Edman. 7-6 Dodgers.

Dodger fans have ripped their manager, Dave Roberts, for the Dodgers' shortfalls over the last few years, with their only World Series win being in the "COVID Bubble" year of 2020. But with this "bullpen game," he outmanaged Boone -- or, rather, Boone let Roberts outmanage him.

The Yankees had men on 1st & 2nd with 1 out in the 8th, but didn't score. And they went very quietly in the 9th, with Walker Buehler striking Verdugo out swinging for the final out. The Dodgers had won the World Series in 5 games, despite Clayton Kershaw being injured and unavailable for the postseason. Freeman, of course, was named the Series Most Valuable Player.

For the Dodgers, a glorious moment, an 8th World Series win, 7 if you properly do not count the 1955 title in Brooklyn. For Roberts, total redemption, and putting himself in the conversation for election to the Hall of Fame once he retires. For Ohtani, a title that cements him as a baseball legend, though his own World Series performance was awful. For Freeman, who had previously won the Series with the 2021 Atlanta Braves, and Betts, who had previously won it with the 2018 Boston Red Sox *, possibly raised to the status of future Hall-of-Famer. (They might have gone on to make it, anyway.)

For the Yankees, a season of big moments, including the 1st American League Pennant in 15 years. And yet, it cannot be termed anything other than a failure. They scored just 7 runs in the 1st 3 games, won Game 4, took a big lead in Game 5 to forge some hope of the greatest comeback in baseball history... and then had the nightmare inning. Once again, the fundamentals were bad. The Yankees took out the fun, and left "da mentals."

*

October 30, 2024 was a Wednesday. Football was in midweek. There were 11 games in the NBA:

* New York had considerably more success in basketball on this night than in baseball, as both of their NBA teams won. The New York Knicks beat the Miami Heat, 116-107 at the Kaseya Center in Miami. Karl-Anthony Towns led all scorers on the night with 44 points.

* The Brooklyn Nets beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 119-106 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 105-95 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Wizards beat the Atlanta Hawks, 133-120 at the Capital One Arena in Washington.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Toronto Raptors, 138-133 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 134-110 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Boston Celtics, 135-132 in overtime at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Orlando Magic, 102-99 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the San Antonio Spurs, 105-93 at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 106-105 at the new Intuit Dome outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 104-89 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

And there were 6 games in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-0 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 2-0 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-2 at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Colorado Avalanche, 5-2 at the Ball Arena in Denver.

* The Utah Hockey Club beat the Calgary Flames, 5-1 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Vegas Golden Knights, 6-3 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

October 28, 1981: The Last Night of My Yankee Dynasty

October 28, 1981: A dark day in my life. One might even say a blue day... Dodger Blue.

No two franchises have played each other in the World Series as often as the New York Yankees and the Dodgers. They played each other in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955 and 1956, when the Dodgers were in Brooklyn. The Dodgers won in 1955, but the Yankees won all the rest.

After the 1957 season, the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. They beat the Yankees in 1963. They didn't play each other again until 1977, and the Yankees won. The Yankees beat them again in 1978.

By this point, I was old enough to watch baseball on television, and these were the Yankees of Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, Catfish Hunter, Ron Guidry, Graig Nettles and Goose Gossage. And these were the Dodgers of Steve Garvey and Don Sutton, with a young Dusty Baker in left field. And while the Yankees had replaced their managers periodically -- Billy Martin managed the 1977 title, Bob Lemon the one in 1978 -- Tommy Lasorda had been their manager since late in 1976.

This Dodger team had also won the National League Pennant in 1974, while still managed by the man who'd led them since 1954, Walter Alston. They lost that World Series to the Oakland Athletics, then including Jackson, Hunter, and Ken Holtzman, who would also pitch for the Yankees in 1977, but was traded in 1978. The Yankees had also won the American League Pennant in 1976, losing the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.

Pretty much everybody outside each team's market hated both teams. The Yankees were seen as New York gangsters, rough and nasty, ready to run over your grandmother if she got in their way; the Dodgers as L.A. nice guys, All-American Boys, a little too clean, too good to be true (which turned out to be the case). No longer the beloved underdogs, a.k.a. "Dem Bums," as they were in Brooklyn, the Los Angeles Dodgers were popular from the Pacific Ocean to Las Vegas, but not east of there.

But when they played each other in the World Series, even people who hated the Dodgers rooted for them, because they hated the Yankees more.

In 1978, the Dodgers had won the 1st 2 games of the Series in Los Angeles. Then the Yankees took the next 4, 3 at Yankee Stadium and Game 6 at Dodger Stadium, to win the title.

Both teams had done a little retooling. In 1979, neither made the Playoffs, and Munson, the Yankees' catcher and Captain, was killed in a plane crash. Hunter retired due to a shoulder injury. Roy White also retired. Sparky Lyle (a season earlier), Ed Figueroa, Mickey Rivers and Chris Chambliss were traded. Lemon, Oscar Gamble and Rudy May had left, and returned. Bobby Murcer, the popular center fielder traded after the 1974 season, had also returned. The Yankees signed pitcher Tommy John away from the Dodgers, and brought in Bob Watson, Jerry Mumphrey and Rick Cerone.

In 1980, the Yankees won the AL Eastern Division again, but lost the AL Championship Series to the Kansas City Royals, whom they had beaten in the ALCS in 1976, '77 and '78. The Dodgers finished in a tie with the Houston Astros for the NL Western Division title, but lost a Playoff game to the Astros.

The Dodgers traded Sutton, but benefited from the arrival in 1981 of Fernando Valenzuela, a chubby Mexican lefthander with a sensational screwball that allowed him to win his 1st 8 decisions. Even people who didn't like the Dodgers were gripped by "Fernandomania," and, for the first time, the huge Mexican-American community in Southern California found a reason to root for the Dodgers instead of a team from Mexico. Valenzuela finished 13-7, and was named the NL's Rookie of the Year, just as their reliever Steve Howe had been in 1980, and their starting pitcher Rick Sutcliffe in 1979.

The Yankees signed San Diego Padres star Dave Winfield to their 1st contract worth more than $1 million a year. Remembering how he wasn't exactly welcomed as the big free agent signing 4 years earlier, Reggie showed Dave the courtesy he'd wanted.

The strike that interrupted the 1981 season meant that a team had to finish 1st in either half of the season to qualify for the Playoffs. The Yankees won the AL East in the 1st half; beat the 2nd-half winners, the Milwaukee Brewers; and finally the A's for the Pennant. The Dodgers won the NL West in the 1st half, beat the Astros, and then beat the Montreal Expos for the Pennant.

*

October 20, 1981: Game 1 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. A banner is hung from the upper deck: "DON'T THE DODGERS EVER LEARN"?

Not yet, they don't, as Watson's 1st-inning homer and the pitching of Guidry and Gossage shut the Bums down, 5-3.

October 21, 1981: The Yankees take a 2-0 lead, as John and Gossage combine on a 3-0 shutout. Watson has 2 hits and an RBI.

The Yankees are 2 wins away from their 23rd World Championship. No one can imagine it now, but the team will not win another competitive game until April 12, 1982 (the next season opened later than it should have, due to a late snowstorm postponing a week's worth of games), and it will take them 15 more years to get that 23rd title.

The Yankees also make a trade on this day, sending 22-year-old outfielder Willie McGee to the St. Louis Cardinals for pitcher Bob Sykes. It will be one of the worst trades in Yankee history, as Sykes, a native of nearby Neptune, New Jersey, is already damaged goods, and never appears in another big-league game, finished at 27. McGee helps the Cards win the next year’s World Series and 3 of the next 6 NL Pennants.

October 23, 1981: Despite an uncharacteristically poor performance (9 hits‚ 7 walks), Valenzuela goes the distance in the Dodgers' 5-4 come-from-behind win in Game 3. The deciding run scores on a double play.

Yankee starter Dave Righetti lasts just 2 innings‚ walking 2 and allowing 5 hits‚ but it is reliever George Frazier who takes the loss. Ron Cey hits a 3-run homer for the Dodgers. Starters Valenzuela and Righetti are the 1st 2 Rookies of the Year, of any position, to oppose each other in the World Series since Willie Mays and Gil McDougald in 1951.

October 24, 1981: The Dodgers tie the World Series up at 2 games apiece, 8-7, thanks to some poor Yankee fielding. Jackson and Willie Randolph hit home runs for the Bronx Bombers -- Reggie's last in a Yankee uniform, as it turned out -- but Jay Johnstone, who'd helped the Yankees beat the Dodgers in the 1978 World Series, returns the favor for the Dodgers.

Johnstone would later write, in his memoir Temporary Insanity (a title based on his quirky personality), that George Steinbrenner stormed into the locker room and demanded that Ron Davis (Yankee reliever and future Met player Ike's father) tell him why he threw Johnstone a fastball.

October 25, 1981: The Dodgers win Game 5, as back-to-back homers by Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager off Guidry give the Dodgers their 3rd consecutive win, 2-1. Winfield singled in the 5th, but that turned out to be his only hit in the Series. Even then, he didn't score, as he was eliminated when Reggie grounded into a double play.

After this game, George said he'd scuffled with 2 Dodger fans in a hotel elevator, and that explained his fat lip and his broken hand.

*

October 28, 1981: Game 6 of the World Series is played at Yankee Stadium, having been postponed a day due to rain. John started for the Yankees, Burt Hooton for the Dodgers, and both of them got through the 2nd inning without allowing a run.

The Yankees, needing to win to force a Game 7, got on the board first: With 2 out in the bottom of the 3rd, Randolph hit a home run. They got 2 more men on, and that brought up Mr. October. But Reggie flied to left. The Dodgers tied it in the top of the 4th, on singles by Baker, Rick Monday and Yeager.

With 1 out in the bottom of the 4th, Nettles doubled, and Cerone struck out. Lasorda ordered the weak-hitting shortstop, Larry Milbourne, walked intentionally, to bring the pitcher's spot in the order up. Lemon gambled, and sent Bobby Murcer up to pinch-hit for a pitcher who'd allowed only 1 run in 4 innings. Having made his major league debut 16 years earlier, this was the biggest plate appearance that Murcer would ever have. He nearly hit it out to right field, but not quite long enough.

Lemon, himself a Hall of Fame pitcher and a pitching coach before becoming a manager, might have been justified in pinch-hitting for John. But he couldn't get the pitching right afterward. He sent Frazier out for the 5th, and he had nothing, allowing an RBI single by Cey and an RBI triple by Guerrero, giving the Dodgers a 4-1 lead.

It got worse in the 6th, as Davis walked Hooton, walked Davey Lopes, and allowed an RBI single to Bill Russell. Lemon replaced him with Rick Reuschel. When Lopes and Russell advanced on a double steal, Lemon ordered Garvey walked to set up the double play. It didn't work: Derrel Thomas hit a grounder to 3rd that got Lopes home. Baker reached on an error, and Guerrero singled home 2 runs. It was 8-1 Los Angeles.

Lou Piniella singled home a run in the bottom of the 6th, but that would be it for the Bronx Bombers, no further bombing. In the top of the 8th, Guerrero hit a home run. In the bottom of the 9th, Howe walked Randolph, struck Mumphrey out, and got Winfield to fly to left.

Mr. October came to bat as a Yankee one more time, and grounded to Lopes at 2nd. Lopes had driven the Yankees crazy in all 3 World Series. This time, he bobbled the ball, and Reggie reached base in Pinstripes one last time. It made no difference, as Watson made the last out, flying to Lee Lacy in center.

Dodgers 9, Yankees 2. The L.A. Bums had finally beaten the Yankees in the World Series. For the 1st time, the Series' Most Valuable Player award was split, awarded to 3 players: Guerrero, Cey and Yeager.

Winfield was just 1-for-21‚ while Frazier tied a Series record by losing 3 games. The record was set by the White Sox' Lefty Williams in 1919‚ but Williams‚ one of the 8 "Black Sox‚" was losing on purpose. Frazier was trying to win, and didn't.

The long-term effects on the Yankees were as follows:

* This was the last time that Reggie Jackson suited up as a player for the Yankees, and George Steinbrenner refused to exercise the option for a 6th year on his contract. Reggie happily accepted an offer from Gene Autry to return to the West Coast and play for the California Angels.

* Winfield's performance contrasted so much with Reggie's Mr. October persona that George eventually nicknamed him Mr. May, never gave him the respect he deserved, and ended up chasing Dave out of town – coincidentally, also to the Angels, although Reggie was retired by that point – and getting himself in trouble with how he did it.

While George gave Dave a "Day" after he was elected to the Hall of Fame, to this day, Dave's Number 31 has not been retired, along with those of his Yankee teammates Jackson (44), Ron Guidry (49) and, later, Don Mattingly (23), and his occasional manager Billy Martin (1). Nor has he gotten a Plaque in Monument Park like those 4, and also like teammates Randolph and Gossage.

* George went through various experiments in managers and styles of play (booming bats one year, speed the next, and so on) to get the Yankees back on top, but they wouldn't reach the World Series again for 15 years, giving the new ownership of the Mets the chance to become from 1984 to 1992 what they have not been since '92, New York's first team. (Despite their 2015 Pennant, they still aren't.)

Blowing that lead, to the evil O'Malley Bums and their fat hypocritical slob of a manager, Tommy Lasorda, losing the Series at home, and when I was just 11 going on 12...

More than any other Yankee defeat, this one sticks in my craw. As bad as the 2001 and 2003 World Series losses were (I don't really remember the 1976 sweep loss); or the 1980 and 2012 ALCS sweeps; or the 2010, 2017, 2019 and 2022 ALCS folds; or the ALDS losses of 1995, 1997, 2006, 2011, 2018 and 2020; or the 1985 and 1988 regular-season near-misses; or the complete bottle-jobs in the Wild Card Games of 2015 and 2021. Even the 2004 ALCS collapse doesn't bother me as much as the 1981 World Series.

And, unlike with the 2004 Red Sox and the 2017, '19 and '22 Astros, I can't even rationalize it away by saying the Dodgers cheated! That I know of. There are some people who have alleged that the mound at Dodger Stadium was actually less than 60 feet 6 inches from home plate in the Lasorda era, but I don't think this was ever seriously challenged.

In 1998, the Yankees celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the '77 and '78 World Champions by inviting the Dodgers of that period to Old-Timers' Day. The Old-Timers' Game usually goes 3 innings, but since it was tied, it went to a 4th inning, and Willie Randolph hit a home run off Tommy John to win it for the Yankees. So not only did John pitch on the losing side in all 3 of these Yankee-Dodger World Series, but he lost this Old-Timers' Game as well.

Among the interviews done on WPIX-Channel 11, Bobby Murcer, by then a broadcaster, and wearing a special hookup on his belt so he could announce a game he was playing in, talked to Lasorda. The man who liked to say, "I bleed Dodger Blue," and referred to God as "the Big Dodger in the Sky," talked about the '77 and '78 Series, but brought up '81, Murcer's only World Series in 17 seasons in the major leagues, 13 of them with the Yankees, and said, "We brought that World Championship trophy back to Los Angeles where it belongs!"

The fat bigoted slob forgot: Los Angeles isn't even where the Dodgers belong. Brooklyn is.

Buster Olney titled his book about the 2001 Yankees, with a focus on their loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 7 of the World Series, The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty. Peter Golenbock, in Dynasty: The New York Yankees, 1949-1964; David Halberstam, in October 1964; and Philip Bashe, in Dog Days: The New York Yankees' Fall from Grace and Return to Glory, 1964-1976 have all written about how the Yankees' loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7 of the 1964 World Series was the last day of the old Yankee Dynasty.

October 28, 1981 was the last day of my Yankee Dynasty. That wasn't apparent at the time. But the team's collapse in 1982 made it clear.

The Yankees were now 8-3 in World Series against the Dodgers, 2-2 in their Los Angeles period. In the 41 years since, the teams have never played each other in another World Series. In Interleague Play, yes; in the World Series, no.

They've both made the Playoffs in 1995, 1996, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. They've both reached their respective League Championship Series in 2009, 2017 and 2019. But, since 1981, they've never again met in the World Series.

And at the rate Brian Cashman is going, it looks like it won't happen again for years to come, through no fault of the Dodgers and their management.

UPDATE: They did face each other in the 2024 World Series. The Dodgers won in 5 games.

*

October 28, 1981 was a Wednesday. The baseball season was over. It was midweek for football. The NBA season started 2 days later. There were 7 games played that night in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Edmonton Oilers, 5-3 at Madison Square Garden. The Broadway Blueshirts blew leads of 2-0 and 3-1, as Wayne Gretzky had 2 goals and 2 assists.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-3 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Winnipeg Jets, 7-6 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Calgary Flames, 6-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Colorado Rockies, 3-1 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. The Rockies became the New Jersey Devils the next season.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Washington Capitals, 3-0 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

Also, Milan Baroš, a Czech soccer player who helped Liverpool FC win the 2005 UEFA Champions League, was born on this day. 

October 27, 2018: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting

October 27, 2018: Shabbat morning services at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh are desecrated, as 17 people are shot, 11 of them dying. It was, and remains, the deadliest attack on Jewish people in American history.

Robert Bowers, a man with a history of online anti-Semitism, was shot and arrested by the police. He survived, and was charged with 63 federal crimes and 36 State crimes. As of this writing, his case has not yet gone to trial.

This shooting was part of a culture of bigotry drummed up by Donald Trump and his illegal, immoral Administration. It was reflective of the neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017, chanting, "Jews will not replace us!"

The Pittsburgh metropolitan area did not stand for this act, perpetrated in Squirrel Hill, an inclusive place that was once the home of the Rev. Fred Rogers, the longtime host of the PBS children's program Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. This happened in Mr. Rogers' actual neighborhood, and it was treated like a desecration. One of those occasional "(City Name) Strong" movements began, with an accompanying logo, in this case based on the U.S. Steel Corporation's "Steelmark" logo that had been used by the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers since 1962.

*

October 27, 2018 was a Saturday. It was the end of the Major League Baseball season, and Game 4 of the World Series was played that night. The night before, we saw the longest game in World Series history, going 18 innings, before Max Muncy hit a home run to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a 3-2 win over the Boston Red Sox.

But that would be the only game won by the Dodgers in the Series. They took a 4-0 lead in the 6th inning of Game 4, only to see the Sox score 3 in the 7th, 1 in the 8th, and 5 in the 9th. The Dodgers came back with 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th, but it wasn't enough, and the Red Sox won, 9-6. The next day, the Sox wrapped the Series up, winning Game 5, 5-1.

There were 9 NBA games played that day. Neither the New York Knicks nor the Brooklyn Nets were scheduled:

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Charlotte Hornets, 105-103 at the Wells Fargo Arena (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Atlanta Hawks, 97-85 at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

* The Miami Heat beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 120-111 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 119-107 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons, 109-89 at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Phoenix Suns, 117-96 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

* The Utah Jazz beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 132-111 at the Smoothie King Arena in New Orleans.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Orlando Magic, 113-91 at the new Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

* And the San Antonio Spurs beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 110-106 at the AT&T Center (now the Frost Bank Center) in San Antonio.

There were 11 NHL games played that day:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Florida Panthers, 3-2 at the Prudential Center in Newark.

* The New York Islanders beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-1 at the Wells Fargo Center, which had hosted the 76ers-Hornets game earlier in the day. (The New York Rangers were not scheduled.)

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston bruins, 3-0 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Winnipeg Jets, 3-2 at what's now named the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-4 in overtime at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Nashville Predators, 5-3 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 7-3 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the Colorado Avalanche, 3-2 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 7-1 at the Gila River Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Calgary Flames, 4-3 in a shootout at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* And the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-0 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

It was a Saturday, so no NFL games were scheduled. But there were some notable college football games played:

* As is traditional, the last Saturday in October saw "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party," played on "neutral ground" in Jacksonville. That's a laugh: Not only is TIAA Bank Field, home of the NFL's Jaguars, in Florida, but the University of Florida's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is 81 miles away, while the University of Georgia's Sanford Stadium is a considerably farther 341 miles away.

Both teams came into the game highly ranked: Georgia was the Number 7 team in the country, Florida the Number 9. Georgia won, 36-17.

* Alabama was then ranked Number 1, but had the week off. Number 2 Clemson went to Tallahassee and beat Florida State, 59-10. Clemson would go on to defeat Alabama in the National Championship Game.

* Number 3 Notre Dame played Navy at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Given that San Diego is a Navy city, it should have been a "home game" for the Naval Academy. But Notre Dame won, 44-22.

* In New Jersey, Rutgers had the week off, while Princeton walloped Cornell 66-0 at Powers Field in Princeton.

* And in New York City, Columbia beat Yale 17-10 at Wien Stadium in Upper Manhattan.

October 26, 2018: The Longest Game In World Series History

October 26, 2018: Game 3 of the World Series is played at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. It turns out to be the longest game in World Series history. Joc Pederson gives the Los Angeles Dodgers the lead with a home run in the 3rd inning, and Jackie Bradley Jr. ties it for the Boston Red Sox with a home run in the 8th, to make it 2-2. The Red Sox scored in the top of the 13th on a walk, a wild pitch and a single-and-error. But the Dodgers tied it on a walk, a fly out, and a single-and-error of their own.

As the game went on and on, Twitter users began making jokes about its length: This game had started at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and was moved to Dodger Stadium; Sandy Koufax had started the game for the Dodgers, Cy Young for the Red Sox; Ted Williams and Jackie Robinson had traded home runs in the 14th, and so on.

Max Muncy nearly hit a walkoff home run in the bottom of the 15th, but his drive hooked just foul. He finally hit one in the bottom of the 18th, giving the Dodgers a 3-2 win. Nathan Eovaldi, normally a starting pitcher, had thrown 7 innings in relief before taking the loss.

But Eovaldi's effort helped save the Boston bullpen, keeping their relievers fresh. This would be the only game the Dodgers would win in the Series.

The 18 innings broke the Series record of 14, set by the same teams in 1916, and tied by the Chicago White Sox and Houston Astros in Game 3 in 2005. The first pitch was at 5:10 PM Pacific Time (8:10 Eastern), and it ended at 12:30 AM (3:30 Eastern).

At 7 hours and 20 minutes, it broke the record of that 2005 Game 3, 5 hours and 41 minutes, and tied the record for longest postseason game ever, set in Game 4 of the 2005 National League Division Series, won by the Astros on Chris Burke's home run against the Cardinals. This game was longer than the entire 1939 World Series, a 4-game sweep by the Yankees over the Reds, which took a combined 7 hours and 5 minutes to play.

*

October 26, 2018 was a Friday. It was the only baseball game played that day. Football would be played for the next 3 days. There were 7 games played in the NBA that night:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Golden State Warriors, 128-100 at Madison Square Garden. Kevin Durant scored 41 points.

* The Brooklyn Nets lost to the New Orleans Hornets, 117-115 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Chicago Bulls, 135-106 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Dallas Mavericks, 116-107 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Houston Rockets, 133-113 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 125-95 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* And the Sacramento Kings beat the Washington Wizards, 116-112 at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.

And there were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-3 in a shootout at the PNC Arena (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh.

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Ottawa Senators, 6-3 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

* And the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Vegas Golden Knights, 3-2 at the T-Mobile Center outside Las Vegas in Paradise, Nevada.

October 25, 2024: The Freddie Freeman Game

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

October 25, 2024: Game 1 of the World Series was played at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Dodgers were looking to win the World Series, as they had done in the "COVID Bubble" season of 2020, but not in a full season since 1988. The New York Yankees were looking to win the Series for the 1st time since 2009.

The Yankees needed baserunners, and didn't get enough of them. Juan Soto drew a walk in the 1st inning, and was stranded. Anthony Rizzo led off the 2nd with a single, got to 2nd base, but got no closer. Gleyber Torres singled to lead off the 3rd, but was erased on a double play. Alex Verdugo, who went on to make 2 great catches, singled in the 5th, but was stranded. 

With the Dodgers leading 1-0, Soto led off the top of the 6th with a single. Aaron Judge struck out -- his 3rd of the game, and his 2nd with Soto on 1st. Then Giancarlo Stanton hit a long drive down the left-field line, and out. 2-1 Yankees.

Jazz Chisholm singled. But Rizzo struck out. Anthony Volpe was intentionally walked, and Austin Wells singled. Bases loaded. This could have been where the Yankees broke the game wide open. But Verdugo struck out to end the inning.

At the age of 32, Judge finally got his 1st World Series hit, a single, with 2 out in the 7th. But Stanton, who has been doing in this season what we had hoped Judge would do, flipped the script, and stranded him by striking out.

The Dodgers tied the game in the 8th. With 2 out in the top of the 9th, Torres doubled, and Soto was intentionally walked to set up the force play. Walking somebody intentionally to pitch to Aaron Judge? In the postseason, it works: Judge popped up.

The game went to extra innings. The hated "ghost runner" rule, instituted in 2020, is not used in the postseason. Stanton struck out. But Chisholm stole 2nd. Rizzo was intentionally walked. Chisholm stole 3rd. Volpe grounded to short, and Tommy Edman, the Most Valuable Player of the National League Championship Series, couldn't make the throw to home plate, opting to go to 2nd base instead. Rizzo was out, but Chisholm scored, and Volpe was safe at 1st. Then Volpe stole 2nd. This could have been a big inning. Then Wells struck out.

If the top of the 10th felt like a return to the Joe Torre era, the bottom of the 10th was pure Brian Cashman "gutless wonder" baseball, with a bit of Aaron Boone "Baboone" managing thrown in. After Luke Weaver got out of a jam in the 8th with only 1 run, and pitched a scoreless 9th, Boone brought Jake Cousins in to pitch the 10th. He got Will Smith to fly out, but walked Gavin Lux. (Sounds like the real name of a comic book villain.) Edman grounded to 2nd, and Oswaldo Cabrera, having replaced Torres, couldn't make a throw.

A 1-run lead, but men on 1st and 2nd, 1 out, and the next 3 batters are Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. Career regular-season OPS+'s through the 2024 season, respectively: 157, 138 and 142. Career home runs? Ohtani 225 at age 30, Betts 271 at 32, and Freeman 343 at 35. Barring further injury, all 3 of them are likely to finish with at least 400, and Ohtani may well top 500.

Boone could have brought in Tim Hill, who has been very effective in this postseason. Instead, he (apparently) looked at stats only for Yankee pitchers against Ohtani, and brought in Nestor Cortés, who, due to injury, hadn't pitched since September 18. The Yankees have a history of unlikely postseason heroes, but this move looked really unlikely.

Ohtani sliced one into the left-field corner. It looked like a sure double, to tie or even win the game. Instead, Verdugo ran over and made a great catch, then managed to throw back and hold the runners. If Cortés had managed to get 1 more out, and the Yankees ended up winning the Series, it would have been a play that lived forever.

It lived just 2 more plate appearances. Boone made the mistake of ordering Betts walked to load the bases, and set up the out at any base. The next batter was Freeman, who has already won a World Series with the 2021 Atlanta Braves, and has been key for the Dodgers ever since.

He hit a no-doubt-about-it game-winning grand slam, landing in the right field pavilion, roughly where the ball that Kirk Gibson hit to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series landed, the 1st homer to be called a "walkoff." Dodgers 6, Yankees 3.

The Yankees were 1 out away from taking home-field advantage away from the Dodgers. But they lost this game because Boone made the wrong strategy choices, and because, in innings 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9 combined, they got only 5 singles and 2 walks, 1 of those intentional.

Indeed, as the Series went on, each team had only 1 player who really produced: Stanton for the Yankees, Freeman for the Dodgers. Freeman was a little bit better, and, like that aforementioned 1988 Fall Classic -- and a few others, including in 1954, 1966, 1970, 1972, 1990, 1998, 2000 and 2007 -- the 2024 World Series was basically won in Game 1. And Freeman was rightly named its Most Valuable Player.

*

October 25, 2024 was a Friday. There were 3 college football games played:

* Also between teams from the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, the University of Southern California (USC) beat Rutgers, 42-20 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 5 miles south of Dodger Stadium.

* Number 17 Boise State beat the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV), 29-24 at Allegiant Stadium in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada.

* And the University of Louisville beat Boston College, 31-27 at Alumni Stadium in the Boston suburb of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Louisville scored 14 points in the 4th quarter to come from behind.

There were 10 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Indiana Pacers, 123-98 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Brooklyn Nets lost to the Orlando Magic, 116-101 at the Kia Center in Orlando.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Charlotte Hornets, 125-120 at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Trae Young scored 38 points.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 128-108 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 115-107 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Detroit Pistons, 113-101 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 133-122 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Utah Jazz, 127-86 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns, 123-116 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, 3 miles south of Dodger Stadium. Anthony Davis scored 35 points.

* And the New Orleans Pelicans beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 105-103 at the Moda Center in Portland.

There were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the New Jersey Devils, 4-3 at the Prudential Center in Newark. These teams are metropolitan rivals, but not arch-rivals: Each team's arch-rival is the New York Rangers. Bo Horvat scored the winning goal with 3:51 left in overtime.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-0 at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

* And the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Ottawa Senators, 6-4 at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.

And in New Jersey high school football, my Alma Mater, East Brunswick won away to South Brunswick, 24-14.