December 8, 1980: John Lennon is Killed

Howard Cosell and John Lennon, December 9, 1974.

Six years later, John would be dead.

December 8, 1980: The New England Patriots are playing the Miami Dolphins at the Orange Bowl in Miami, a game being broadcast on ABC Monday Night Football. As John Smith of the Patriots comes onto the field to attempt a last-play game-winning field goal, Howard Cosell gives an announcement about another Englishman named John:

Cosell: But it's suddenly been placed in total perspective for us. I'll finish this. They're in the hurry-up offense.

Frank Gifford: Third down, four. Foreman. (Chuck Foreman is stopped on a run.) It'll be fourth down. (Quarterback Matt) Cavanaugh will let it run down for one final attempt. He'll let the seconds tick off to give Miami no opportunity whatsoever. (Whistle blows.) Timeout is called with three seconds remaining. John Smith is on the line. And I don't care what's on the line, Howard: You have got to say what we know in the booth.

Cosell: Yes, we have to say it. Remember: This is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City -- the most famous, perhaps, of all of The Beatles -- shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that newsflash, which, in duty bound, we have to take. Frank?

Gifford: Indeed, it is.

Lennon had been shot at 10:50 PM, Eastern Standard Time. Cosell had read an initial report, before the full facts were known: Five shots had been fired, four of them hit Lennon, and, according to the doctors who tried in vain to save him, any one of the four that hit him, had it been the only one, would have done enough damage to kill him. He was pronounced dead at 11:15. He was 40 years old.

Cosell made the announcement a few minutes later. On December 9, 1974, Monday Night Football had broadcast a game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Washington Redskins at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Redskins won, 23-17. Lennon had attended, and Cosell interviewed him at halftime.

Cosell was already 43 years old when The Beatles first arrived in America, and hardly in their target group, but his journalistic instincts kicked in, and, surprising those of us who knew him only as a blowhard who tried to convince people he knew more about things than he did, he handled it like a complete professional.

Lennon had been living in America for a little over 3 years, and knew who Cosell was, and said of American football, "It makes rock concerts look like tea parties." The interview went very well, and, off-camera, Cosell even introduced Lennon to another attendee, the outgoing Governor of California, Ronald Reagan. (I was sure I had seen video footage of Lennon and Reagan talking and laughing together that night, but I can't find a still photo of it anywhere.)

Now, 6 years earlier, almost to the day, Lennon was dead, and Reagan was the President-elect, having defeated incumbent President Jimmy Carter a month earlier. Less than 4 months later, Reagan would be shot as well, but would barely survive.

When Cosell spoke the words, "dead on arrival," the camera caught Smith looking right into it, and nodding, as if he had heard what Cosell had said. Of course, none of the players knew anything about it until the game was over. Smith missed his game-winning field goal. The game went to overtime, and Uwe von Schamann, born in West Berlin, Germany but raised in Fort Worth, Texas, won it for the Dolphins with a field goal, 16-13.

This being a Monday, the Pats-'Phins game was the only NFL game scheduled. This being December, no MLB games were scheduled. Only one game was played in the NBA: The Seattle SuperSonics beat the San Antonio Spurs, 104-99 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

Only one game was played in the NHL: The Calgary Flames beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-2 at the Forum in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California.

October 27, 1986: The Mets Win the World Series

October 27, 1986: The New York Mets win the World Series. I was not happy about this.

They have not done so since. I am very happy about that.

After escaping from the nether regions of the National League with a 2nd-place finish in the Eastern Division in 1984, and nearly winning the Division in 1985, Met fans began to treat the winning of the 1986 World Series as inevitable: They bragged to Yankee fans that the would win the '86 Series, even before the '85 Pennants were decided.

The Mets, celebrating their 25th season with an anniversary patch, began the 1986 regular season 2-3, then rattled off an 11-game winning streak to the end of April, lost 1, then won another 7 in a row. So they went 17-1 from April 18 to May 10, at which point they already led the NL East by 5 games over the Montreal Expos. Already, anybody who couldn't stand the Mets was sick of the commercials used to drum up ticket sales, with the "Baseball Like It Oughta Be" and "We got the teamwork to make the dream work" songs.

A 10-1 run from June 6 to 16 put them up by 11 1/2 games over the Expos. Around this time, I was at the Woodbridge Center Mall in Woodbridge, Middlesex County, New Jersey, and The Sports Corner, a store that sold sports memorabilia, and also served as a Ticketron outlet (Ticketmaster bought them out in 1991). One of the items they were selling was a T-shirt that read, "New York Mets, 1986 World Series Champions." The World Series was still 4 months away.

Come the All-Star Break on July 13, they were 13 1/2 in front of the Expos. Pitcher Dwight Gooden, catcher Gary Carter, 1st baseman Keith Hernandez and right fielder Darryl Strawberry were all voted in as starters for the National League in the All-Star Game at the Astrodome in Houston. Pitcher Sid Fernandez was selected as a reserve. But the game turned out to be a minor embarrassment for the Mets: Lou Whitaker of the Detroit Tigers hit a home run off Gooden, and the American League won, 3-2.

By August 23, the Mets were 20 games ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies. On September 6, I had been invited to attend a game at Shea Stadium, my 1st live National League game. The Mets trailed the San Diego Padres, 3-2 going into the bottom of the 8th, but Carter hit his 2nd home run of the game, and the Mets won, 4-3. They led the Phillies by 20 1/2.

"The inevitable" began to take shape on September 17. The Mets beat the Chicago Cubs 4-2 at Shea, and clinched the Division title with 17 games to go. It was their 1st postseason berth in 13 years. Gooden went the distance for the win. The fans rushed the field, and one was already in fair territory before the final out reached Hernandez's 1st baseman's mitt. The field was ripped to shreds, and the Mets had a day game scheduled for just 16 hours later. Somehow, the grounds crew got the field in playable shape, not that a forfeit would have mattered.

After what the British would call "pitch invasions" at Met clinchers in 1969, 1973, and this night, and Yankee clinchers in 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1981, Mayor Ed Koch, invoking the City's ownership of both ballclubs' stadiums, ordered mounted police to come on the field and surround the field at each clincher, and announced that punishments for charging the field would be more severe.

The Mets needed a walkoff home run from Lenny Dykstra to win Game 3 of the NL Championship Series. They led the series, 3 games to 2, but the 2 losses were to Mike Scott, an ex-Met who found success with the split-fingered fastball, and they had to avoid facing him in Game 7 in the Astrodome. So Game 6 was a death struggle, going back and forth for 16 innings before the Mets finally won it to take the Pennant. It was on the road, so fans charging the field was not an issue.

The World Series was against the Boston Red Sox. There were 3 men in uniform who had been in uniform for the Mets' previous World Series win, in 1969: Manager Davey Johnson had been the 2nd baseman for the Baltimore Orioles, and had made the last out; '69 shortstop Bud Harrelson was now the Mets' 3rd base coach; and former Met ace Tom Seaver was playing out the string with the Red Sox, unable to pitch in this Series due to injury, but got a huge ovation when introduced before Game 1.

The Red Sox stunned the Mets in the 1st 2 games of the World Series, leading the New York Daily News to reference Boston's nickname of "Beantown" with the headline "BEANS!" The Mets won Games 3 and 4 in Fenway Park, but lost Game 5 there. So they had to win Games 6 and 7 at Shea to win. Game 6 was an epic, with the Red Sox taking a 5-3 lead in the top of the 10th inning. With 2 outs in the bottom of the 10th, a message on the Shea scoreboard congratulated the Sox. Sox pitcher Bruce Hurst was named the Series' Most Valuable Player. Then came the comeback/collapse of all time, and the Mets won, 6-5.

Game 7 was pushed back a day by rain. In its place, NBC aired the baseball-themed movie The Natural, as part of its usual NBC Sunday Night Movie show. Despite airing on a Monday night, when another New York team, the Giants, were playing on ABC Monday Night Football at the same time, this game got more TV viewers than any Major League Baseball game ever: 60 million people.

The Red Sox actually seemed to be shaking off the historical, hysterical Game 6 loss. They led the Mets, 3-0 in the bottom of the 6th inning. Hurst, with an extra day's rest, was doing just fine. The Sox chased Ron Darling. Sid Fernandez relieved him. The Sox were just 12 outs away from their 1st World Championship in 68 years after all.

But these were the pre-steroid Boston Red Sox, and they couldn't hold it. The Mets tied it up in the 6th. Manager John McNamara brought in Calvin Schiraldi, who choked in the 10th the night before, to pitch the 7th, and Ray Knight led off with a home run. The Mets made it 6-3 by the inning's end.

The Sox made it 6-5 in the top of the 8th, so there was still hope. But Al Nipper served one up to Strawberry, and he hit it out, and took a leisurely stroll around the bases. NBC could have run a commercial.

The Mets let reliever Jesse Orosco bat for himself, and he drove in another run, and he got the last out by striking out Marty Barrett. Mets 8, Red Sox 5. Orosco hurled his glove high into the Flushing air.

The bullpen gate was opened, and mounted policemen came onto the field. The fans stayed in the stands. They had obeyed the Mayor. No New York clincher since has seen a pitch invasion. So I guess we should thank Koch for that.

The Mets had won their 1st World Championship on October 16, 1969. It took them 17 years and 11 days, but they had now won their 2nd World Championship. Anyone then thinking that they wouldn't win their 3rd World Championship for at least another 36 years would have been asked what he was smoking.

But, tonight, exactly 36 years later, more than one-third of a century, the Mets are still looking for that 3rd World Championship. They've won just 2 more Pennants and just 2 more World Series games since that night -- 1 in 2000, and 1 in 2015. To make matters worse, following the 1st of those Pennants, they went on to lose to the Yankees in the World Series, 1 of 5 the Yankees have won since 1986.

UPDATE: The Red Sox have a team Hall of Fame. From their 1986 Pennant, they have inducted left fielder Jim Rice, right fielder Dwight Evans, 2nd baseman Marty Barrett, 3rd baseman Wade Boggs, left fielder Mike Greenwell, catcher Rich Gedman; pitchers Roger Clemens, Bruce Hurst and Bob Stanley; owner Jean Yawkey, general manager Lou Gorman, executive Haywood Sullivan, scout George Digby, executives Edward Kenney and Dick Bresciani, farm system director Ben Mondor, groundskeeper Joe Mooney, guest relations director Al Green, public address announcer Sherm Feller; broadcasters Ken Coleman, Ned Martin, Jerry Remy and Joe Castiglione; and longtime vendor Arthur D'Angelo. They have not, as yet, inducted manager John McNamara.

From between their 1986 Pennant and their 1999 ALCS appearance, they have inducted manager Joe Morgan, 1st baseman Mo Vaughn and left fielder Ellis Burks.

*

October 27, 1986 was a Monday. And another New York Tri-State Area team won: On ABC Monday Night Football, the New York Giants beat the team then known as the Washington Redskins, 27-20 at Giants Stadium, in the Meadowlands of East Rutherford, New Jersey.

The NBA season wouldn't start for another 4 days. And only 1 NHL game was scheduled for that night: The Montreal Canadiens beat the Los Angeles Kings, 6-5 at the Montreal Forum. Chris Nilan, better known as an enforcer, scored the winner for Les Habitantes with 7:36 left in regulation.

And Jon Niese, who would pitch for the Mets from 2008 to 2016, including in the 2015 World Series, was born on this day. 

October 11, 1967: The NHL's Great Expansion

October 11, 1967: It is a huge day in the history of the National Hockey League, as five of its "Second Six" expansion teams play their 1st regular season games:

* At the St. Louis Arena, the St. Louis Blues and the Minnesota North Stars play to a 2-2 tie. Larry Keenan scores the 1st goal for St. Louis. Bill Masterton, a longtime minor-league star finally getting his chance with expansion, scores the 1st for Minnesota.

But Masterton played with no helmet, and his shaved head offered no protection. Later in the season, he will hit his head on the ice, and become the only player in the League's 105-year history (so far) to die as the direct result of an in-game injury. The NHL will dedicate an annual trophy for perseverance and courage in his memory.

* At the Oakland Coliseum Arena, the Oakland Seals defeat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-1. Bill Sutherland scores the 1st Flyer goal, while Kent Douglas scores the 1st for the Seals.

This is a false dawn for the Seals: The team later known as the California Golden Seals will make the Playoffs just once before moving to become the Cleveland Browns in 1976, and in 1978 were merged with the also-bankrupt North Stars, the combined franchise staying in Minnesota. The Flyers will finish 1st in the NHL Western Division, be mostly competitive until the late 1980s, and win the 1974 and '75 Stanley Cups.

* At Pittsburgh's Civic Arena, former New York Rangers star Andy Bathgate scores the 1st goal in Pittsburgh Penguins history, but the Pens lose 2-1 to the Montreal Canadiens, whose Captain, Jean Béliveau, scores his 400th career NHL goal.

* The Los Angeles Kings will debut on October 14, at the Long Beach Convention Center, as The Forum in Inglewood is not yet ready. They beat the Flyers, 4-2. The 1st L.A. goal is scored by Brian Kilrea, a nephew of 3 NHL players. He goes on to be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame for his work as a coach and executive in junior hockey in the family's native Ottawa.

Jack Kent Cooke, owner of the original Toronto Maple Leafs, the minor-league baseball team that gave its name to the city's NHL team, bought the rights to the Los Angeles franchise when he was told that there were 300,000 Canadian expatriates living within a 3-hour drive of Los Angeles. The team's early struggle for attendance led him to sell the Kings, the NBA's Lakers, and The Forum to Jerry Buss in 1979. Cooke said of those alleged 300,000 people, "Now I know why they left Canada: They hate hockey!"

As I said, the Flyers won their 1st Stanley Cup in 1974, and their 2nd in 1975. They have not won it since, going 0-6 in Finals. The Penguins won their 1st in 1991, and now have 5.

The North Stars never won it, and in 1993 they moved, becoming the Dallas Stars, winning the Cup in 1999. In the process, they, in a manner of speaking, won a Cup for the Seals/Barons franchise as well. A year later, the expansion Minnesota Wild took their place in the Twin Cities. They haven't won a Cup, either.

The Kings did not reach the Stanley Cup Finals until 1993, and didn't win a Cup until 2012. They won another in 2014. And the Blues finally won one in 2019, to complete the circuit.

*

October 11, 1967 was a Wednesday. So there was no football. And the NBA and the just-founded ABA were about to begin their seasons. These other games were played in the NHL that day:

* The New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Boston Bruins and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 4-4 at the Boston Garden.

* Along with the Kings, the Maple Leafs did not play.

And there was baseball played that day, Game 6 of the World Series at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski, Reggie Smith and Rico Petrocelli hit the only back-to-back-to-back home runs in Series history. Petrocelli adds another, and the Boston Red Sox defeat the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-4, and send the Series to a deciding Game 7.

Cardinal manager Red Schoendienst, himself a World Series winner as a player with the Cardinals of 1946 and the Milwaukee Braves of 1957, announces his choice to pitch Game 7: Bob Gibson, on 3 days rest. Sox manager Dick Williams, knowing that his ace, Jim Lonborg, would have only 2 days rest, announces his starter to the Boston media: "Lonborg and champagne."

Those words are put on the front page of the Boston Globe the next day, and it ticks the Cards off. And the last thing anyone wants to see in a World Series game is a ticked-off Bob Gibson. As it turned out, Lonborg had nothing, Gibson hit a home run off him, and Gibson went the distance. The Cards won, 7-2.

There is one other notable baseball story on October 11, 1967: Former Brooklyn Dodger star Gil Hodges, who married a Brooklyn woman, Joan Lombardi, and stayed in the Borough after the Dodgers moved, leaves the managerial post of the Washington Senators, to become the manager of the Queens-based Mets. The Mets do compensate the Senators. Hodges will only manage the Mets for 4 seasons before a heart attack claims his life, but one of those seasons will be the Miracle of '69.

Comedian Artie Lange was born that day. So was PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.

June 11, 2012: The Los Angeles Kings Are Finally Crowned

June 11, 2012: The Los Angeles Kings win the Stanley Cup for the 1st time, in their 45th season of play -- their 44th, if you don't count the owner-canceled 2004-05 season.

Founded with the NHL's "Great Expansion" of 1967, the Kings had been a Playoff team more often than not. But, once in the Playoffs, they hadn't done well. In just their 2nd season, 1969, they reached the Stanley Cup Semifinals. But they didn't get that far again until 1993. That time, they reached the Stanley Cup Finals for the 1st time, before losing to the Montreal Canadiens.

It took them until the 2011-12 season to get back to the Playoffs' round of 4, by this point named the NHL Western Conference Finals. In December, general manager Dean Lombardi fired head coach Terry Murray, and replaced him with Darryl Sutter, of the famous 6 Sutter Brothers of Viking, Alberta.

The Kings' leading players were right wing and Captain Dustin Brown, Slovenian center Anže Kopitar, right Justin Williams, center Mike Richards, defenseman Drew Doughty, and goaltender Jonathan Quick. In the Playoffs, they beat the Vancouver Canucks in 5 games, the St. Louis Blues in a 4-game sweep, and the Phoenix Coyotes in 5.

They would be facing the New Jersey Devils, who were coming off an emotional high, having won the Eastern Conference Championship by beating their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, on an overtime goal by Adam Henrique in 6 games.

The 1st 2 games were played at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The Kings won Game 1, 2-1, with Kopitar scoring at 8:13 of overtime. It made the Kings the 1st team to win their 1st 9 road games in a single postseason. The Kings won Game 2 2-1 in overtime as well, with Jeff Carter scoring at 13:42.

The action moved to the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles for Game 3, and the Kings won, 4-0. It made the Kings the 1st team to take a 3-0 lead in all 4 rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In nearly 202 minutes of action, Quick had allowed just 2 goals. The Kings were dominating.

The Devils woke up in Game 4: Henrique scored with 4:31 left in regulation to break a tie, and Ilya Kovalchuk scored an empty-net goal to gain a 3-1 victory. The series went back to Newark for Game 5, and Bryce Salvador's goal with 10:55 left in regulation gave the Devils a 2-1 lead that they held onto. Since a potential Game 7 would be at home, Devils fans had hope that maybe, just maybe, they could become the 2nd team in NHL history to lose the 1st 3 games of a Stanley Cup Finals, and then win the next 4.

Those hopes were dashed in Los Angeles in Game 6. The Kings played an incredibly dirty game, and the officials let them get away with it. At 10:10 of the 1st period, the referee, Dan O'Rourke, assessed a major boarding penalty and a game misconduct on the Devils' Steve Bernier, throwing him out of the game for a hit on Rob Scuderi.

The game was scoreless at that point. But that dubious 5-minute power play awarded to the Kings in the led to 3 goals, and the game was pretty much over there. The Kings won, 6-1, and took their 1st Stanley Cup. Quick was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as Most Valuable Player of the Playoffs. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman handed the Stanley Cup to Captain Dustin Brown.

This allowed Los Angeles to have won World Championships in all the major North American sports: The World Series had been won by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1959, 1963, 1965, 1981 and 1988; the NFL Championship had been won by the Los Angeles Rams in 1951 and the Los Angeles Raiders in 1984; the Los Angeles Lakers had won the NBA Championship in 1972, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2009 and 2010; and top-flight soccer league titles were won by the Los Angeles Wolves in 1967, the Los Angeles Aztecs in 1974, and the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2002, 2005 and 2011.

Actually, and very embarrassingly for their fanbase, the Kings had been beaten to the Los Angeles area's 1st Stanley Cup by the 2007 Anaheim Ducks. The Los Angeles Angels, then known as the Anaheim Angels, had won a title for Anaheim with the 2002 World Series.

The Kings won the Cup again in 2014, beating the Rangers in 5 games, all of which went to overtime. Kyle Clifford scored the clincher, at 5:43 of double overtime in Game 5 at Madison Square Garden.

UPDATE: Through the 2025-26 season, the Kings do not have a team Hall of Fame. But they have retired the uniform numbers of 7 players:

* 1970s goaltender Rogatien "Rogie" Vachon, Number 30.

* From the 1970s and '80s, center Marcel Dionne, Number 16; and right wing Dave Taylor, Number 18. The 3rd member of "the Triple Crown Line," left wing Charlie Simmer, has not yet had his Number 11 retired, possibly because a later Kings great wore it.

* From their 1993 NHL Western Conference Champions, defenseman Rob Blake, Number 4; left wing Luc Robitaille, Number 20; and center Wayne Gretzky, Number 99.

* From their 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cup winners, right wing Dustin Brown, Number 23. Presumably, they will add the Number 32 of goaltender Jonathan Quick, and maybe also the Number 11 of center Anže Kopitar, possibly to share with Charlie Simmer.

* They have also honored 1973-2017 broadcaster Bob Miller with a banner, with a microphone in place of a number.

*

June 11, 2012 was a Monday. Football was out of season. The NBA Finals opened, at the Chesapeake Energy Arena (now the Paycom Center) in Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma City Thunder, the franchise that had been the Seattle SuperSonics from 1967 to 2008, played their 1st Finals game since 1996, and beat LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the rest of the Miami Heat, 105-94. Kevin Durant scored 36 points. But the Heat won the next 4 games, to take the title.

And there were 4 games played in Major League Baseball, all of them Interleague:

* The New York Yankees beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-0 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. How many Yankees does it take to pitch a 5-hit shutout? This time, 5: Iván Nova pitched the 1st 7, Cody Eppley got the 1st out in the 8th, Clay Rapada got the last 2 outs in the 8th, Cory Wade got the 1st out in the 9th, and Boone Logan managed to finish it off without screwing it up, which I, as a Yankee Fan, can tell you was a welcome relief.

Eppley and Wade each pitched to 1 batter; Wade and Logan, to 2. Is it so hard to believe that the Yankees didn't have a single reliever capable of holding the Braves to 2 runs or fewer over the 8th and 9th innings?

At any rate, Raúl Ibañez hit a home run, Derek Jeter went 1-for-5, and Alex Rodriguez went 1-for-4.

* The Miami Marlins beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-1 at the brand-new Marlins Park (now LoanDepot Park) in Miami. Since this was the 1st era of Interleague Play, 1997 to 2019, and the rule was that the designated hitter could not be used when the National League team was the home team, David Ortiz, the big fat lying cheater, actually played the field, at 1st base, and went 0-for-4.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-3 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

* And the Los Angeles Angels beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

June 3, 1993: "Stickgate" In the Stanley Cup Finals

June 3, 1993: The Los Angeles Kings lead the Montreal Canadiens 2-1, late in the 3rd period of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, at the Montreal Forum. The Kings, in the Finals for the 1st time in their 26-year history, are mere minutes away from taking a 2-games-to-0 lead back to Los Angeles (well, Inglewood, to their own Forum). And they are doing so on the home ice of the greatest franchise in hockey, playing in their 34th Stanley Cup Finals -- having already won a record 23.

But Jacques Demers, head coach of the Canadiens, notices something. During a break in the action, with 1:45 left in regulation, he asks to speak to the referee. He asks them to measure the curve of the stick used by Kings defenseman Marty McSorley.

In the 1960s, players such as Bobby Hull used what became known as the "banana blade," a stick whose blade curved by up to 3 inches. These curves made the puck faster and more erratic. Since most goaltenders didn't yet use facemasks, this scared them. By 1967, most were using masks, but shots off the banana blade were still dangerous. So the NHL made a rule, limiting stick blade curves to 3/4 of an inch.

McSorley was a part of the Edmonton Oilers' dynasty of the 1980s, led by Wayne Gretzky. At this point, Gretzky was leading the Kings. In addition to McSorley, he was joined by fellow ex-Oilers Jari Kurri and Paul Coffey.

McSorley's stick is measured, and is found to have too great a curve. He is given a 2-minut minor penalty for "unsportsmanlike conduct." The Canadiens will have a power play for the rest of regulation. So Demers pulls goalie Patrick Roy, to give the Habs a 6-on-4 advantage.

And defenseman Eric Desjardins, who had already scored, scores again, to force overtime. And just 51 seconds into overtime, Desjardins scores again, to give the Canadiens a 3-2 win. This made him the 1st defenseman ever to score a hat trick in a Stanley Cup Finals game. He remains the only one.

It was all Canadiens from that point on. They blew a 3-0 lead in Game 3, but won on an overtime goal by John LeClair. Game 4 was similar: Montreal blew a 2-0 lead, but LeClair won it with another overtime goal. Game 5 was back in Montreal, and this one did not go to overtime: The Canadiens won 4-1, and clinched their 24th Stanley Cup on home ice.

If McSorley had simply obeyed the rules, the Kings would have been up 2-0 and been in great position to win the Cup. He blew it for them. They didn't win the franchise's 1st Cup until 2012.

*

June 3, 1993 was a Thursday. Football was out of season, but the NBA Playoffs were in the Conference Finals. Game 6 was played in the West, and the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Phoenix Suns, 118-102 at the Seattle Center Coliseum. But the Suns won Game 7 in Phoenix, 2 days later. On the day in between, the Chicago Bulls won the East, beating the New York Knicks in Game 6. The Bulls won the title, beating the Suns in 6.

There were 6 Major League Baseball games played that day. Neither of the New York teams was involved:

* The Montreal Expos beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Atlanta Braves, 12-4 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Tony Gwynn went 3-for-5 with an RBI, and Fred McGriff and Phil Plantier hit home runs.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-5 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. A month later, on July 2, it was renamed Kauffman Stadium, for founding owner Ewing Kauffman. Each in their final season, the Brewers' Robin Yount went 2-for-4 with an RBI, and the Royals' George Brett did not play.

* And the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Francisco Giants, 2-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Barry Bonds, who had spurned the Pirates for the Giants' free-agent dollars, went 0-for-3.

May 27, 1993: A Gift for Gretzky

May 27, 1993: Game 6 of the NHL Western Conference Finals, at what was then named the Great Western Forum in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California. The Toronto Maple Leafs haven't won the Stanley Cup, or even been to the Finals, since 1967. The following season, the Los Angeles Kings began play, and have never been to the Finals. Something's got to give.

The Kings had some big names on their roster. They had Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri and Paul Coffey -- and, if you want to count him as a "legend," Marty McSorley -- from the 1980s Edmonton Oilers dynasty. They also had Dave Taylor, the last remaining player from their 1980s "Triple Crown Line" with Marcel Dionne and Charlie Simmer. They also had Luc Robitaille, Rob Blake, Tomas Sandstrom, Alexei Zhitnik and Darryl Sydor. And a decent goalie, Kelly Hrudey.

The Leafs were no slouches, either. They had their own 1980s Edmonton refugees, Grant Fuhr, Glenn Anderson and Mike Krushelnyski. They also had Doug Gilmour, from the 1989 Calgary Flames Champions. They had Dave Andreychuk, Wendel Clark, Peter Zezel, Mike Foligno, Sylvain Lefebvre, and a good goalie in Felix Potvin (to whom the more accomplished Fuhr was backup).

What's more, the Leafs went into Game 6 with a 3-games-to-2 lead. Win Game 6, and they were in the Finals, and against their ancient rivals, no less: The Montreal Canadiens. The Habs and the Leafs were (and are) the last 2 remaining founding franchises of the NHL from 1917. (The new Ottawa Senators, named for the founding franchise that went bust in 1935, had just played their 1st season.)

Leaf fans from St. John's Newfoundland to Kenora, Ontario were pumped. This was going to be The Year. And it was far from a delusion: Their team was talented enough to deserve to get as far as they already had, 5 wins from the Cup.

There was already bad blood between the Leafs and the Kings. On November 22, 1992, Gilmour had slashed at Sandstrom with his stick, breaking Sandstrom's arm. The injury kept him out for over a month. Gilmour was suspended for 8 days.

Game 6 went to overtime, 4-4. Then, in the 1st minute of overtime, Gretzky, so often hailed as the greatest player of all time (even then), and as a class guy, did something decidedly unclassy: He high-sticked Gilmour in the face, drawing blood from his chin.

According to the rules, this should have meant a game misconduct penalty, meaning Gretzky should have been thrown out of the game; and a 5-minute major penalty (with another player sent to the penalty box in Gretzky's place), meaning the Leafs should have had a 5-minute power play in overtime. Gretzky probably also should have been suspended for a potential Game 7.

But referee Kerry Fraser did not penalize Gretzky. Apparently, 2 "unwritten rules" came into play: Don't call penalties in overtime, and don't call penalties on The Great One.

The Hero

To make matters worse, within a minute of the unpenalized infraction, 1:41 into the overtime, Gretzky scored the winning goal. In Game 7 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, the Kings won 5-4, with Gretzky scoring 3 times and assisting on another goal.

He would call that the greatest game he'd ever played -- and it was a game which, due to what he'd done in the previous game, at the very least, he shouldn't even have been in; and, at the most, shouldn't have been played, because his absence and the 5-minute power play that should have resulted should have given the Leafs the win that would have made a Game 7 unnecessary.

It's been 27 years. Leaf fans are still outraged. This was probably their best team since the breakup of their 1960s dynasty (4 Cups in 7 years).

What's more, in a 2016 article for Canadian newspaper The National Post, Fraser admitted he blew the call:

I was uncertain but thought I had it right. I’m sorry. Most people probably know the story, but they know it from the perspective of a single camera in one corner of the Great Western Forum. All I can tell you is my perspective from the ice..

As the Kings set up on the power play, I was down by the far circle, away from the puck. In my brain, this is what I was processing: Gretzky gets the puck. He shoots it, and my eyes go to the net. But Jamie Macoun blocks it. The puck rebounds between Gretzky and Doug Gilmour. When my eyes go back to Gretzky, I see a motion. Gilmour goes down.

Did Gretzky’s stick follow through and catch him? Gilmour’s bent over now. He’s got blood on his chin. And I have no idea what happened. That’s a helpless, helpless feeling.

Under the 1993 rules, if Gretzky high-sticks Gilmour and it draws blood, it’s a five-minute major. He’s gone. It was a huge call to make — a worse one to miss.

Guys from both teams were skating up to me. It didn’t smell right. I should have known when I saw Gretzky skating away. Whenever there was a dispute, Gretz was always at the forefront arguing his side of it. But this time, he kind of slinked away. That was uncharacteristic. That should have tipped me off.

But to be honest, I was attempting to roll back the play in my mind, over and over, looking for some measure of recall that would provide the evidence I needed. 

Fraser consulted with his linesmen. They were unable to tell him that Gretzky had conclusively done anything wrong. As with the rule the NFL would later institute for instant replay, if it's not conclusive that the initial call was wrong, it has to stand. Fraser continued:

I had to make a decision. In referee school, they hammer it into you: Call what you see. Don’t guess. The honest to God truth is, I didn’t see it. I had to eat it. I said, “No penalty.”

The next faceoff, Gretzky stays in the game and scores to win it. He went on to have the game of his career in Game 7, and the Kings went to the Finals.

At the time, I had no idea the call would follow me for the rest of my life. There weren’t all the slow-motion cameras like they have today. It wasn’t until the next day that I saw another angle of the play on television. You could clearly see Gretzky high-sticking Gilmour. It was missed. Period.

It was agony for Leafs fans. I understand the passion, the emotion and the frustration that Leafs fans have endured. They felt it was their time. When people come up to me and ask about it now, I just try to have a conversation with them. If I had one opportunity to turn back the hands of time for a “do-over,” it would be to catch that high-stick. I’m sure I’m not alone in that department.

Would it make Leaf fans angrier if he still denied it? Maybe. But it makes them feel justified in their anger to hear Fraser admit it.

The Leafs would return to the Conference Finals the next year, and again in 1999, but lost both. They still haven't made the Finals since 1967.

The Kings took a 1-0 lead over the Canadiens in the finals, and were leading in Game 2. This time, they got caught cheating: McSorley was cited for having too big a curve on his stick, and the Canadiens tied the game, and then won it in overtime, and made it 4 straight wins for the Cup. They haven't won it since, either. The Kings would finally win their 1st Cup in 2012, and a 2nd in 2014. But the 1988 Cup with Edmonton remained Gretzky's last.

Barry Melrose was the Kings' coach then. He has since built a career as an ESPN hockey pundit. He points out that the Leafs' huge fan base, encompassing so much of Canada (including some places that have NHL teams, but didn't before the expansions of the 1970s):

Of course, it gets more attention because it's Toronto... The minute I get on a plane, someone will say, "Barry, high stick, what do you think?" And I'll go, "Toronto, right?" And he'll go, "Yeah, yeah, Toronto." It's funny to figure that out. I never hear an L.A. guy ask me that question...

I'm a big believer in the harder you work, the luckier you get. And I really feel like we were the hardest-working club in that series. We deserved everything we got.

Fraser admitted he blew the call. But was he really the sole, or the biggest, reason the Leafs lost that series? No. The linesmen missed the call, too. Had one of them said, "Absolutely, Gretzky cut Gilmour with a high stick. It might not have been intentionally malicious, but he did it," Fraser would have had the justification he needed to send Gretzky off. He never got it until he saw the replay the next day, when it was too late.

Which brings us to the fact that, at the time, the NHL only used instant replay to check whether a goal had been properly scored. It wouldn't be until the 2015-16 season that coaches could challenge other plays. Had that rule been in place in 1993, it would have been obvious, Gretzky would have been sent off, and the Leafs would have had a golden opportunity to finish the Kings off, and the next game in Toronto would have been Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals. (Not Game 1: The Canadiens had the better record, and thus would have had home-ice advantage.)

Fraser was one of the NHL's most respected officials. He had been calling games since 1973, and as a full referee since 1980. He was so respected by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) that, after this incident, he was still hired to officiate at the 1996 World Cup and the 1998 Winter Olympics. In 2005, NHL players -- the players, mind you -- voted him the League's most consistent referee.

He retired in 2010, having officiated at the NHL Winter Classic, and still holds the NHL records for most regular-season and most Playoff games officiated.

Did he make a mistake in that 1993 game? Yes, and he admitted it. Was it indicative of a pattern of favoritism toward Gretzky, or toward the Kings? Far from it.

Then there were the goaltenders. In the 7 games, Felix Potvin of the Leafs allowed 22 goals, or 3.14 per game. Kelly Hrudey of the Kings allowed 23, or 3.28 per game. Sounds like the Leafs had the better goalie, right? Not so fast. Games 2, 5, 6 and 7 were all 1-goal games, and the Leafs only won 1 of the 4. And when the Leafs needed Potvin to help them win Game 6, and then Game 7, he allowed 5 goals each time.

And remember that "golden opportunity" I mentioned? Sometimes, when opportunity knocks, the door isn't fully opened. Suppose Gretzky had been sent off, and the Leafs had gotten a 5-minute power play. Does that mean they would have gotten the goal they needed to win the game? Not necessarily. Paul Coffey was a Hall of Fame defenseman. So was Rob Blake. Darryl Sydor probably should be in the Hall.

And the Kings could have won the game anyway. After all, they had other good attacking players besides Gretzky. And they were at home.

Of course, home-ice advantage is no guarantee, either. Which brings us to the fact that there was a Game 7, in Toronto. The Leafs had home-ice advantage, in front of their fans, who were out for blood. There was no way they should have lost that game. But they did. They fell behind 3-0, and tied it 3-3, before losing 5-4.

They became the hockey equivalent of the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals: Instead of saying, "The hell with what happened in Game 6, let's beat these guys in Game 7," they let the mistake stick in their heads, and fell totally flat. And unlike the '85 Cards, they had the home comforts and home crowd behind them. (The NHL and the NBA go 2-2-1-1-1, while MLB goes 2-3-2, so if a World Series or an LCS goes the full 7, the same team hosts Games 6 and 7.)

If you blow Game 7 on home ice, you're (Atrocious Pun Alert) on thin ice to claim you got screwed out of a deserved victory in that round.

Furthermore, the Kings were better. They won Games 2 and 7 in Toronto. And they were 1 minute and 14 seconds away from going to home ice up 2-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals, before McSorley got caught cheating. True, it's possible he was cheating the whole way, and maybe other Kings were as well. But we don't know that.

We do know that the Kings had more talent -- and still might have even without Gretzky. If they had won Game 6 without him, they might have won Game 7 without him, too.

Fraser pleaded guilty to making a mistake. But he certainly didn't singlehandedly cost the Leafs the series.

*

May 27, 1993 was a Thursday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3 at Yankee Stadium. Mike Devereaux singled home Brady Anderson with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning. Cal Ripken Jr. went 0-for-4. Don Mattingly did not play, with Jim Leyritz playing 1st base.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 9-3 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Florida Marlins, 13-8 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-4 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-4 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago. George Brett, in his final season, went 0-for-4.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Yes, both Chicago teams were at home on the same day. Barry Bonds only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and struck out.

* The Houston Astros beat the Colorado Rockies, 8-0 at the Astrodome in Houston. Doug Drabek pitched a 7-hit shutout.

* And the California Angels beat the Seattle Mariners, 5-0 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Scott Sanderson pitched a 5-hit shutout. Ken Griffey Jr. went 0-for-4.

April 10, 1982: The Miracle On Manchester

April 10, 1982: The Los Angeles Kings pull off a stunning victory, the signature win in franchise history, at least for the next 30 years. It is known as the Miracle On Manchester.

It was the 1st Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and they were playing one of the NHL's rising teams, the Edmonton Oilers, featuring a group of young players that had excited fans all over, but not yet won more than a Division title: Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson, Kevin Lowe and Grant Fuhr.

The Kings, with a crown as their logo, had the Triple Crown Line of center Marcel Dionne, right wing Dave Taylor and left wing Charlie Simmer; center Bernie Nicholls; defensemen Larry Murphy and Mark Hardy; and goaltender Mario Lessard.

Having started play with the NHL's "Great Expansion" in 1967, the Kings had now made the Playoffs in 11 of their 1st 15 seasons, a very good record. But they'd only won 3 series, their best performance a 7-game loss to the Boston Bruins in the 1976 Quarterfinals. They had also never finished 1st in their Division. (Even today, with over half a century in their history, they've won their Division only once, in 1991.)

The Kings shocked the Northlands Coliseum ground by winning Game 1, 10-8. It was the highest-scoring game in Stanley Cup Playoff history. Much more calmly, the Oilers won Game 2, 3-2.

The action shifted to The Forum, at 3900 West Manchester Boulevard, in Inglewood, 10 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles. The Kings had shared it with the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers since it opened in 1967, but the Lakers had already been far more successful there: They were about to win their 3rd out of 6 NBA Finals appearances since moving in.

It looked like a disaster for the Kings. Halfway through the 1st period, Messier scored. With 37 seconds left, Gretzky scored a shorthanded goal. In the 2nd period, the Kings got another goal by Gretzky; another shorthanded goal, this one by Lee Fogolin; and another goal by Risto Slitanen. The Oilers led, 5-0.

But 2:46 into the 3rd period, Jay Wells got the Kings on the board. At 5:58, Doug Smith made it 5-2. It looked to be too little, too late. But it wasn't: With 5:22 left, Simmer made it 5-3. With 4:01 to go, Hardy made it 5-4. The Kings got a power play, and head coach Don Perry pulled Lessard for the extra attacker. With 5 seconds left, Steve Bozek scored to tie the game.

At 2 minutes and 35 seconds into the 1st overtime, Daryl Evans -- no related to baseball All-Star Darrell Evans -- fired a shot that Fuhr tried to swipe with his glove, but just missed. It was over: Kings 6, Oilers 5.

It was the 1st time an NHL team had won a game after trailing by at least 5 goals, and it had happened in the Playoffs. Since then, there have been 9 other games where a team has won an NHL game after trailing by 5 goals -- but never by 6, and never again in the Playoffs.

The Oilers were stunned, but recovered in time to win Game 4, 3-2. A deciding Game 5 was played in Edmonton, and the Kings unloaded, winning 7-4. The Kings were moving on, and the Oilers were out.

The Kings lost the next round to the Vancouver Canucks, 4 games to 1. The Oilers reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1983, losing to the New York Islanders, who won their 4th straight Cup. But in 1984, the Oilers reached the Finals again, and beat the Islanders to end their "Drive for Five." The Oilers won the Cup again in 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1990.

But Gretzky got a taste of what life in Los Angeles was like. In 1988, having married actress Janet Jones, he asked to be traded to Los Angeles. He got his wish, and in 1991, he led the Kings to their 1st Division title; and in 1993, to their 1st Western Conference Championship and Stanley Cup Finals berth, where they lost to the Montreal Canadiens.

The Oilers won that 1990 Cup without Gretzky -- and without Kurri, who had joined him on the Kings; and without Coffey, and with Fuhr now backing up new goalie Andy Moog. But they haven't won one since, making only 1 Finals, in 2006, losing to the Carolina Hurricanes.

In 1999, the Kings moved into the Staples Center, since renamed the Crypto.com Arena, in downtown Los Angeles. They finally won the Cup in 2012, and did it again in 2014.

*

April 10, 1982 was a Saturday. These other Stanley Cup Playoff games were played that day:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2-1 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. Rick Kehoe scored the winner, 4:14 into overtime. But the Isles would win the series.

* The New York Rangers beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-3 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Cam Connor scored the winner with 1:09 left in regulation.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, 2-1 at the Colisée de Québec. They would win the series in overtime in Game 5.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Boston Bruins, 5-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 7-1 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Winnipeg Jets, 6-3 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Calgary Flames, 3-1 at the Stampede Corral in Calgary.

The NBA was still in the regular season. These 7 games were played:

* The New York Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 117-114 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Indiana Pacers, 115-86 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 115-114 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Houston Rockets beat the San Antonio Spurs, 105-100 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.") George Gervin scored 38 for the Spurs, but it wasn't enough, as Moses Malone had 27 points and 17 rebounds.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 116-99 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Denver Nuggets, 151-136 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. Nope, there was no overtime in this one. For the Jazz, Adrian Dantley scored 53, and Rickey Green scored 32. The Nuggets got 25 from Dan Issel, and 24 each from Alex English and Kiki Vandeweghe.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat the San Diego Clippers, 132-119 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Purvis Short scored 33 points for the Warriors.

Football was out of season. There were 12 Major League Baseball games played that day. The New York Yankees were not in any of them, as a snowstorm the previous Monday had left Yankee Stadium unplayable until the next day.

* The New York Mets beat the Chicago Cubs, 9-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 11-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* A doubleheader was split at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Boston Red Sox won the 1st game, 2-0. Dennis Eckersley pitched a 6-hit shutout. The Baltimore Orioles won the 2nd game, 5-3. In the doubleheader, for the Red Sox, Carl Yastrzemski went 3-for-7 with a home run and 2 RBIs; while, for the Orioles, Murray 5-for-9 with 3 RBIs, and Cal Ripken went 1-for-8.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 8-6 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 3-2 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Barry Bonnell singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-5 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. For the Giants, Joe Morgan won the game with a top of the 10th inning single against his former team.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 11-7 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-2 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. (It was renamed Kauffman Stadium in 1993.)

* The California Angels beat the Minnesota Twins, 8-1 at the new Metrodome in Minneapolis. Against his former team, Rod Carew went 0-for-2, but with 3 walks. New Angels signing Reggie Jackson did not play.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 6-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, on the 20th Anniversary of the 1st game ever played there. Fernando Valenzuela left the game after pitching 6 shutout innings, and Dusty Baker hit a home run.

Also, North London soccer team Arsenal traveled to the Goldstone Ground in Hove, East Sussex, and lost to Brighton & Hove Albion, 2-1.

And Andre Ethier, a 2-time All-Star outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers, was born on this day. So was Chyler Leigh, who played Alex Danvers/Sentinel, the adoptive sister of the title character on the superhero TV series Supergirl.

April 2, 1979: The Sverdlovsk Anthrax Leak

Yekaterinburg

April 2, 1979: Spores of Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of the disease anthrax, were accidentally released from a Soviet military research facility in the city of Sverdlovsk, in the Soviet Union -- now Yekaterinburg, Russia.

The ensuing outbreak of the disease resulted in the deaths of at least 68 people, although, given the Soviet penchant for secrecy, the exact number of victims remains unknown.

The cause of the outbreak was denied for years by the Soviet authorities, which blamed the deaths on consumption of tainted meat from the area, and subcutaneous exposure due to butchers handling the tainted meat. Interestingly, U.S. sources, normally all too willing to make Communist countries look bad, backed them up on it. They didn't want to create a panic over anthrax.

The accident was the first major indication in the Western world hat the Soviet Union had embarked upon an offensive program aimed at the development and large-scale production of biological weapons.

It wasn't the first environmental disaster the Soviets sustained, and then had to cover up. And it wouldn't be the last, or the worst: Seven years later, to the month, the Chernobyl disaster occurred.

*

April 2, 1979 was a Wednesday. 

Football was out of season. The Major League Baseball season began 2 days later. There were no games in the NBA or the World Hockey Association on this night. There was 1 in the NHL: The New York Rangers beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-4 at Madison Square Garden.

 

March 30, 1976: The End of Major League Hockey In Kansas City

Guy Charron

March 30, 1976: The major league hockey game in Kansas City, to date, is played at the Kemper Arena. The Kansas City Scouts lose 8-6 to the Los Angeles Kings.

The Scouts were founded by Edwin G. Thompson, a real estate developer who, through March 30, 2022, still holds Kansas City's record for points scored in a high school basketball game, with 41. The name "Scouts" was chosen as a tribute to the Scout statue that overlooks the city, and was copied for the team's logo. It also served as a nod towards local Boy Scout troops and military personnel stationed at nearby Fort Leavenworth Army Base, both groups considered essential parts of life in K.C. at that period.

For 2 years, Kansas City had teams in all of the "Big Four" North American sports: The Royals in MLB, the Chiefs in the NFL, the Kings in the NBA, and the Scouts in the NHL. But it couldn't be sustained, because, like so many sports team owners in the 1970s, Thompson underestimated how much it would cost to run a team. The Scouts went 15-54-11 in 1974-75, and 12-56-12 in 1975-76, and averaged just 8,218 fans per game, leaving Kemper Arena only half-full. This may have been due to the St. Louis Blues having already had a hold on Missouri as a territory.

After this last home game, they played 3 more games on the road to end a horrible season in which they lost their last 7 games, failed to win any of their last 27 (0-21-6), and won just 1 of their last 54 (0-46-8).

On June 25, Denver-based oilman Jack Vickers bought the team, and moved them to his hometown, where they became the Colorado Rockies. They failed there as well, making the Playoffs just once in 6 season, before moving again. In 1982, they become the New Jersey Devils. Kansas City has had minor-league teams since, but no major league team.

The Kemper Arena, built almost right on the Missouri-Kansas State Line, still stands, under the name of the Hy-Vee Arena. The Sprint Center opened in 2007, and was renamed the T-Mobile Center in 2020, but, due to Kansas City's relatively small size as a market -- its metropolitan area ranks it 28th in MLB and 26th in the NFL and it would be 24th in the NBA and 27th in the NHL -- it has never attracted a team.

Edwin Thompson died in 2015, at the age of 80.

*

March 30, 1976 was a Tuesday. These 4 other games were played in the NHL that day:

* The Boston Bruins and the Buffalo Sabres played to a tie, 4-4 at the Boston Garden.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-3 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Minnesota North Stars, 5-3 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the California Golden Seals and the Vancouver Canucks played to a tie, 4-4 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

There were 3 games played in the World Hockey Association:

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Edmonton Oilers, 8-3 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The San Diego Mariners beat the Houston Aeros, 4-3 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.)

* And the Calgary Cowboys beat the Toronto Toros (perhaps appropriately), 6-2 at the Stampede Corral in Calgary.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. These 6 games were played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Phoenix Suns, 113-97 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Buffalo Braves beat the Boston Celtics, 93-83 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Houston Rockets, 95-86 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Chicago Bulls, 94-84 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Atlanta Hawks, 130-126 in overtime at the Milwaukee Exposition and Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA. (It's now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.)

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Kansas City Kings, 114-113 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

There was 1 game in the American Basketball Association: The Denver Nuggets beat the Spirits of St. Louis, 133-12 at the St. Louis Arena.

March 23, 1994: Wayne Gretzky Becomes the NHL's All-Time Goals Leader

March 23, 1994: Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings scores the 802nd goal of his NHL career, surpassing the record of 801 by Gordie Howe.

The milestone occurred at 14:47 of the 2nd period, on a power play. The goaltender who gave up the goal was Kirk McLean of the Vancouver Canucks. Nevertheless, the Canucks won the game, 6-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

Gretzky set the single-season record in 1982, with 92 goals. He also had seasons of 87, 73 and 71. Howe never reached 50 goals in a season, topping out at 49 in 1953.

He would finish his career with 894 goals. What's more, he had 1,963 career assists, for a total of 2,857 points. To put that in perspective: Through the end of the 2020-21 season, Gretzky had more assists in his career than any other player has had points. (Jaromir Jágr had 766 goals and 1,155 assists, for 1,921 points.)

Counting playing in the World Hockey Association, Gretzky never caught Howe, scoring 940 to Howe's 975. But that's in the regular season. Counting both leagues, and their respective Playoffs (not now, Jim Mora Sr.), Gretzky had 1,072 goals, Howe 1,071.

It's also worth remembering that Gretzky played 82-game seasons with 4 rounds of Playoffs, while for most of Howe's career, it was 70 games and 2 rounds. "The Great One" was not the greatest player in hockey history: "Mr. Hockey" was.

In a 2016 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, Zach Sherwin played Gretzky, against competitive skateboarder Tony Hawk, played by "Nice" Peter Shukoff.

UPDATE: In 2025, Alexander Ovechkin surpassed Gretzky, finishing the season with 897 goals.

*

March 23, 1994 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that Luis Donaldo Colosio, running for President of Mexico, was assassinated. And it was also the day of the Green Ramp Disaster at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina. I have separate entries for those events.

There were 5 other games in the NHL that night:

* The New York Rangers, who turned out to be Gretzky's last team, beat his 1st NHL team, the Edmonton Oilers, 5-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers played to a tie, 1-1 at the Miami Arena.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-4 at the Ottawa Civic Centre (now the TD Place Arena).

* The St. Louis Blues, for whom Gretzky played 18 games in 1996, beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the Winnipeg Arena.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 6 games in the NBA:

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 99-87 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Charlotte Hornets, 100-92 at The Omni in Atlanta. Kevin Willis scored 32 points and grabbed 16 rebounds. Despite their proximity, Atlanta and Charlotte have never become an NBA rivalry.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Dallas Mavericks, 112-109 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas. Doug Smith led all scorers on the night with 36 points.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 111-107 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 78-77 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* And the Orlando Magic beat the Utah Jazz, 98-93 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.