October 20, 1982: "That's a Winner!" In St. Louis

Bruce Sutter (left) hugs Darrell Porter

October 20, 1982: Game 7 of the World Series was played at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. It concludes the "Suds Series": Not only were the teams involved playing in the American cities best known for producing beer, but one was named the Milwaukee Brewers; while the other, the St. Louis Cardinals, was owned by August Anheuser Busch Jr., a.k.a. Gussie Busch, also the owner of Anheuser-Busch Brewing, producers of Budweiser.

For the Cardinals, it was their 17th Pennant, their 13th since entering the National League, but their 1st in 14 years. They were managed by Dorrel Norman Elvert Herzog. "Whitey" Herzog, or "The White Rat," was from near St. Louis, in New Athens, Illinois. He had been a mediocre infielder, and then managed the Kansas City Royals to 3 straight American League Western Division titles, but couldn't get them to the Pennant.

This was his 1st, with a team designed to take advantage of Busch Stadium's artificial turf and deep outfield. His "Whiteyball" was reminiscent of past Cardinal titlists, including the 1934 "Gashouse Gang" and the Billy Southworth teams of the 1940s.

For the Brewers, it was their 1st Pennant ever, coming from 2 games to none down in the AL Championship Series to beat the California Angels, 3-2. It was the 1st Pennant for any Milwaukee team since the 1958 Braves. They were managed by a Milwaukee native, former AL batting champion Harvey Kuenn, and had power hitters like "Stormin'" Gorman Thomas, Cecil Cooper, Don Money and Ben Oglivie, plus contact hitters like former Cardinal catcher Ted Simmons, Robin Yount and Paul Molitor, who was nicknamed "The Ignitor." They were known as "Harvey's Wallbangers."

At first, it looked like a wipeout: The Brewers won Game 1, 10-0. Ted Simmons, the Brewers' catcher, hit a home run against the team with whom he'd built his Hall of Fame credentials. Mike Caldwell, owner of one of the best curveballs of that era, pitched a 3-hit shutout, outpitching Bob Forsch. Molitor became the 1st player ever to get 5 hits in a single World Series game.

And when the Brew Crew jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the 3rd inning in Game 2, with the next 3 games -- if they were all to be necessary -- in Milwaukee, it looked like the Cardinals were in deep trouble.

But the Cards came back, tying the game at 4-4 in the 6th, on a 2-RBI double by Darrell Porter. The Brewers were without their Hall of Fame reliever, Rollie Fingers: The 1981 AL Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Award winner, who'd helped the Oakland Athletics win 3 straight World Series in the 1970s, had a back injury that caused him to miss not just the last month of this season and the entire postseason, but the entire 1983 season.

Pete Ladd was forced to take the closer role, and in the bottom of the 8th, he walked Steve Braun with the bases loaded, and the Cardinals won, 5-4. There would be a relief pitcher ending up in the Hall of Fame who was this game's winning pitcher, but it was Bruce Sutter of the Cardinals, rather than Fingers.

Bill Haller was the home plate umpire. He was retiring, and this was his last time behind the plate. This made him the last home plate umpire to wear the "balloon" chest protector. When he umpired at 1st base in Game 7, it made him the last umpire to wear a tie as part of his uniform.

Each team's ace started Game 3 at Milwaukee County Stadium: Joaquín Andújar for the Cardinals, and former Cardinal Pete Vukovich, the 1982 AL Cy Young winner, for the Brewers. Andújar was backed by 2 home runs and 2 great defensive plays by Willie McGee, who probably should have been awarded the NL's Rookie of the Year. The Cardinals won, 6-3.

The Brewers scored 6 runs in the 7th inning to take Game 4, 7-5. Behind Caldwell and a home run by Yount, they won Game 5, 6-4. The only had to take 1 of the 2 remaining games in St. Louis to win their city's 1st World Championship since 1957.

But the Cardinals, already up 7-0, including a home run by Porter, exploded for 6 runs in the bottom of the 6th, including a home run by Keith Hernandez. They won, 13-1.

Game 7 was played on Hernandez's 29th birthday. As in Game 3, the starters were Andújar and Vuckovich. With 1 out in the bottom of the 6th, the Brewers led, 3-1, with Oglivie having hit a home run. They were 11 outs from the title.

But Vukovich was dealing with a shoulder injury, which would limit him to 14 innings in 1983, missing all of 1984, and retiring after 1986, right before his 34th birthday. He gave up a single to Ozzie Smith, and a double to Lonnie Smith (no relation).

Kuenn pulled him for Bob McClure. Instead of Fingers, the 1970s A's hero who ended up making a difference in this Series was Gene Tenace, who drew a walk to load the bases. Mike Ramsey (no relation to the 1980 Olympic hockey Gold Medalist of the same name) was sent in to pinch-run for Tenace. And then Hernandez singled both Smiths home to tie the game, and George Hendrick singled Ramsey home to give the Cards the lead.

Porter drove in another run in the 8th, and was named the Series' MVP. Sutter came on to close the game out, and did so by striking out the powerful Thomas. The final score was 6-3. On KMOX, the flagship station of their powerful radio network, Cardinal broadcaster Jack Buck said, "Sutter from the belt, to the plate, a swing and a miss! And that's a winner! That's a winner! A World Series winner for the Cardinals!"

This "pitch invasion" did not result in any injuries,

unlike the one in Moscow earlier in the day.

This was also the only World Series ever broadcast by Dick Enberg, and the 11th and last for Tony Kubek, both on NBC. (Enberg had been a regular announcer for the team then known as the California Angels, while Kubek had previously been a star shortstop for the New York Yankees.)

The Cardinals won their 9th World Series, a total surpassed only by the Yankees. Since then, if you combine their Philadelphia and Oakland titles, it has been matched by the Athletics, although the Cards have now made it 11.

As far as I know, Hernandez is the only player ever to appear on the winning side of a World Series-winning game on his birthday.

Porter had been a member of the Kansas City Royals team that lost the 1980 World Series. Ironically, he would be a member of the Cardinal team that lost to the Royals in the 1985 World Series.

The next season, Herzog, also the Cardinals' general manager, had had enough of Hernandez's ego and cocaine use, and traded him to the New York Mets. This turned out to be a great move for the Mets, and a bad one for the Cards. They won the Pennant in 1985 and 1987, but lost the World Series each time; while Hernandez cleaned up his act, and led the Mets to win the 1986 World Series.

The Cardinals didn't make the Playoffs again until 1996, blowing a 3-1 NLCS lead to the Atlanta Braves. In 2004, they won the Pennant, but got swept in the World Series by the Boston Red Sox. In Game 3, pitcher Jeff Suppan, not used to running the bases, made a blunder at 3rd base. It probably didn't matter as far as determining the outcome, but someone noticed that Suppan wore Number 37, which had been Hernandez's number with the Cardinals.

That, and the team's inability to win a Series since 1982 led to talk of a "curse" on the team, "The Curse of Keith Hernandez." But such talk ended when they won the 2006 World Series, ending the "drought" at 24 years.

The Brewers should have been so lucky: After their 1982 Pennant, they have never won another. In 1998, the Brewers moved to the National League, into its Central Division, where they play the Cardinals several times a season. In 2008, they won the NL Wild Card, but lost the NL Division Series to the Philadelphia Phillies. In 2011, they won the Division and got to the NLCS, but lost to the Cardinals, who won another World Series. From 2018 to 2021, they made 4 straight postseasons, including winning the NL Central in 2018 and 2021, but failed to win the Pennant, losing the 2018 NLCS to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7.

In addition, Yount and Molitor played in Milwaukee, not Chicago or St. Louis, and didn't have nearly the same kind of media coverage, so lots of people never realized how good they were. Yount collected 3,142 hits, including 1,731 in the 1980s, the most of any player; Molitor got even more hits in his career, 3,319. Between them, that's 6,461 hits. But Yount never won a World Series, and Molitor didn't win one until he went to the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993.

UPDATE: The Cardinals have a team Hall of Fame. From their 1982 World Champions, they have inducted team owner August "Gussie" Busch, coach Albert "Red" Schoendienst, scout George Kissell, broadcasters Jack Buck and Mike Shannon, manager and general manager Whitey Herzog; 1st baseman Keith Hernandez, 2nd baseman Tom Herr, shortstop Ozzie Smith, center fielder Willie McGee; and pitchers Bob Forsch and Bruce Sutter.

From their 1985 World Champions: Busch, Schoendienst, Kissell, Buck, Shannon, Herzog, Herr, Smith, McGee, Forsch; left fielder Vince Coleman, pitcher John Tudor, and former pitcher turned broadcaster Al Hrabosky. From their 1987 Pennant: All of those, plus 2nd baseman José Oquendo.

After losing the 1987 World Series, the Cardinals had some near-misses. In 1996, they blew a 3-1 lead in the National League Championship Series to the Atlanta Braves. In 2000, they lost the NCLS to the New York Mets. In 2001, they lost the NL Division Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks. In 2002, they lost the NLCS to the San Francisco Giants. In 2004, they won the Pennant, but were swept in the World Series by the Boston Red Sox, who not only ended an 86-year title drought (by means both fair and not), but avenged Series defeats to the Cardinals in 1946 and 1967. In 2005, the Cardinals lost the NCLS to the Houston Astros, who thus won their 1st Pennant in team history. Finally, in 2006, the Cardinals won another World Series.

Elected to the Cardinals Hall of Fame from this period, but not the one before or the one after, have been 1st baseman Mark McGwire, center fielder Ray Laknford, shortstop Édgar Rentería and pitcher Matt Morris.

Busch, Herzog, Schoendienst, Kissell, Buck, Shannon, Adamie, Hernandez, Herr, Smith, McGee, Porter, Forsch, Sutter, 3rd baseman Terry Pendleton, left fielders Bernard Gilkey and Kerry Robinson, right fielder Andy Van Slyke, catchers Tim Pagnozzi and Mike Matheny; pitchers Mark Littell, Danny Cox, Todd Worrell, Ricky Horton, Lee Smith, Alan Benes, his brother Andy Benes, and Rick Ankiel; and coach Lee Thomas were elected to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

Busch, Schoendienst, Kissell, Buck, Shannon, Herzog, Sutter, Hernandez, Herr, Smith, Van Slyke, Cox, Worrell, Gilkey, Smith, Lankford, 2nd baseman Ken Oberkfell, 3rd baseman Gary Gaetti (after having been on the opposite side of the 1987 World Series, with the Minnesota Twins) were elected to the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame.

*

October 20, 1982 was a Wednesday. This was also the day of the Luzhniki Stadium disaster, at a soccer game in Moscow. I have a separate entry for that event.

It was midweek for American football. The NBA regular season wouldn't start for another 9 days. There were 8 games played in the new National Hockey League season:

* The New Jersey Devils, having debuted on October 5, lost to the Los Angeles Kings, 7-4 at The Forum in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California.

* The New York Rangers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-5 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Montreal Canadiens and the Washington Capitals played to a tie, 3-3 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Minnesota North Stars, 5-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-3 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-3 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-0 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Hartford Whalers, 4-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton. 

October 12, 2018: Columbus Saves the Crew

October 12, 2018: The Columbus Crew are "saved." This was not a given.

One of the founding franchises of Major League Soccer in 1996, the team in Ohio's capital city were the 1st to move into a soccer-specific stadium, in 1999, which became known as Historic Crew Stadium. The Crew won the U.S. Open Cup in 2002, won the Supporters' Shield as regular-season champions in 2004, won the Shield and the MLS Cup in 2008, won the Shield again in 2009, and reached the MLS Cup Final again in 2015.

In 2013, hedge fund manager Anthony Precourt bought the team from Clark Hunt, owner of the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs. (and son of Lamar Hunt, the founding owner of both teams). Like so many other sports team owners, decided he didn't like the team's current playing venue. (So why buy the team, stupid?) On October 17, 2017, he announced intentions to relocate the franchise to Austin, Texas if a downtown stadium could not be secured in Columbus.

Following this news, fans and supporters of the club began a campaign and movement known as #SaveTheCrew. Later in the month, it was revealed that Precourt had a clause in his purchase of the club that would allow him to relocate the franchise, but only to Austin.

This made no sense. First of all, by playing in a Summer league, the Crew had no competition. The city's baseball team, the Columbus Clippers, was only Class AAA. There was competition early in the season, from the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets, but the Crew are arguably more popular, and the closest NBA teams were in Cleveland and Indianapolis. And at the end of the season, there was no NFL team to hog the schedule, although Ohio State football sure does.

Second of all, Precourt moving the team to Austin made no sense. It was a metropolitan area that had never previously had any major league sports team, not even in a secondary "rebel league" like the AFL, the ABA, the WHA, the WFL or the USFL. He'd still have to get a stadium built, no matter where he wanted to play, unless he wanted to play before 90,000 empty seats at the University of Texas' Memorial Stadium, or fill a high school stadium.

And the location made no sense for Precourt himself: He grew up in Denver, went to high school in Connecticut, went to college at Pepperdine outside Los Angeles, worked at Merrill Lynch in New York, and started his firm in San Francisco. He had no connection to Austin, or even to Texas.

Responding to fans' demands, on March 5, 2018, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein filed a lawsuit against Precourt, citing a previously untested 1996 State law that prevents sports teams that benefited from public facilities or financial assistance from relocating to another city without a six-month notice and attempting to sell the team to a local ownership group. This was known as the Modell Law, and was passed after Art Modell moved the original version of the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore.

The new Browns franchise was established in 1999, and was now owned by Jimmy Haslam, who owned the Pilot Flying J chain of truck stops, and the Browns, and also a share of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks. His brother, Bill Haslam, was then the Governor of Tennessee, owns minor-league baseball's Knoxville-based Tennessee Smokies, and, as of 2022, is in the process of buying the NHL's Nashville Predators. So the family is involved in all 5 sports at the professional, if not major-league, level.

On October 12, 2018, Jimmy Haslam revealed that he was in the process of buying the Crew from Precourt. MLS Commissioner Don Garber said that if this deal went through, Precourt would get an expansion team in Austin. The State's lawsuit against Precourt was dropped, and the Modell Law remains untested. The fans and the State government, working together, had #SavedTheCrew. It is one of the few examples of fan power saving their team.

Haslam officially became owner of the Crew on January 1, 2019. With the fans getting a second chance, the Crew won the MLS Cup in 2020. In 2021, the Crew moved into Lower.com Field. Their former home, now named Historic Crew Stadium, remains in operation as the team's training facility and a concert venue. (UPDATE: The Crew won the MLS Cup again in 2023.)

Precourt began operating Austin FC almost immediately after the sale to Haslam went through, hiring coaches and other staff starting in July 2019, and signing players starting in July 2020. They began play on April 17, 2021, losing 2-0 away to Los Angeles F.C. Served Precourt right. They played their 1st 8 games on the road, until the stadium that Precourt wanted so badly, Q2 Stadium, opened on June 19. Austin and the San Jose Earthquakes played to a dull 0-0 draw. Also served Precourt right.

*

October 12, 2018 was a Friday. Game 1 of the National League Championship Series was played at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee. The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-5. But the Dodgers won the series in 7 games, and then lost the World Series to the Boston Red Sox.

The NBA season hadn't started yet. The NHL season had, but no games were scheduled for the day.

And in New Jersey high school football, my Alma Mater, East Brunswick, lost to Edison, 31-14 at Matthew J. Drwal Stadium in Edison.

October 4, 1987: The Blow Jays

George Bell

October 4, 1987: The Detroit Tigers beat the 2nd-place Blue Jays 1-0 at Tiger Stadium, to win the American League Eastern Division title. The Tigers were one game behind the Jays entering their 3-game season-ending showdown‚ and won each game by a single run: 4-3‚ 3-2‚ and 1-0. Frank Tanana outduels Jimmy Key in the finale‚ and Larry Herndon's 2nd-inning home run provides the game's only run.

After trying and failing to get a team in the Continental League in 1960, and in the Major League Baseball expansions of 1961-62 and 1970, and the deal to get the San Francisco Giants fell through in 1976, Toronto got an expansion team for the American League in 1977, along with the Seattle Mariners. They were terrible at first, losing 107, 102 and 109 games in their 1st 3 seasons.

But, managed by Bobby Cox, the once-and-future manager of the Atlanta Braves, they won 89 games in 1983, repeated that in 1984, and won 99 games and the AL East title in 1985. That was the 1st season that the League Championship Series went from best-3-out-of-5 to best-4-out-of-7. In the 1985 ALCS, they won 3 of the 1st 4 games against the Kansas City Royals. Under the previous year's format, that would have won them the Pennant. But the Royals won 3 straight, and went on to win the World Series. They Jays followed that huge choke by finishing 4th in 1986.

In 1987, the Jays looked ready. They jumped into 1st place on June 8, with an 11-0 beating of the New York Yankees, part of a 3-game sweep at Yankee Stadium, itself part of an 11-game winning streak. They fell out of 1st place on June 29, but stayed close, and regained the lead on August 9. From August 3 onward, they were never worse off than 2 games out of 1st.

The Jays' run was aided by the collapse of the Milwaukee Brewers. They won their 1st 13 games to open the season, and 17 of their 1st 18. The 9th of those 13 was a no-hitter by Juan Nieves, the 1st ever pitched by a Brewer, and the 1st ever pitched by a native of Puerto Rico.

But from May 3 to 19, they lost 12 straight. After winning 2 straight, they lost another 6 in a row. Had they only split those games, 10-10, instead of 2-18, they would have won the Division. Instead, they finished 91-71, 7 games behind the eventual winners.

Jays left fielder George Bell would be named the AL's Most Valuable Player, batting .308, hitting 47 home runs, with 134 RBIs. They got 28 homers from right fielder Jesse Barfield, 26 from center fielder Lloyd Moseby, 20 from lefthanded designated hitter Fred McGriff, 19 from catcher Ernie Whitt, 15 from 1st baseman Willie Upshaw, 14 from righthanded DH Cecil Fielder, and from their 3rd basemen, they got 12 from Kelly Gruber and 11 from Rance Mulliniks.

Key led the starters with a 17-8 record, followed by Jim Clancy at 15-11, and Dave Stieb at 13-9. Their closer, Tom Henke, went 0-6, but he had 34 saves, his ERA was 2.49, and his WHIP was 0.926. The other Canadian team, the Montreal Expos, had Jeff Reardon as their closer, and he was "The Terminator"; so Henke was nicknamed "The Exterminator."

But the Tigers still had the core of the team that won the 1984 World Series: Shortstop Alan Trammell, 2nd baseman Lou Whitaker, left fielder Kirk Gibson, and center fielder Chet Lemon. Catcher Lance Parrish was gone, but Matt Nokes filled in with similar stats. They had also acquired Bill Madlock, a 3rd baseman who had won 4 batting titles in the NL.

A rotation of Tanana, Jack Morris, Dan Petry and Walt Terrell was very effective, and so was a bullpen-by-committee, including the 1984 AL MVP and Cy Young Award winner, although he was no longer their closer, Willie Hernandez.

On September 26, with 7 games to go, the Jays won their 7th straight, beating the Tigers on a walkoff for the 2nd day in a row, and led by 3 1/2 games. Their Magic Number to clinch the Division was 4: All they had to do was win 4 of their last 7, and there would be nothing the Tigers could do.

But the Tigers won the series finale on the 27th, 3-2 in 13 innings. Then the Milwaukee Brewers came into Exhibition Stadium, and beat the Jays 3 straight: 6-4, 5-3 and 5-2. Meanwhile, the Tigers had their last 7 games of the season at home at Tiger Stadium. They split 4 games with the Baltimore Orioles.

So when the Tigers and Jays began the last series of the season, against each other, on October 2 at Tiger Stadium, the Jays led by 1. Whichever team could win 2 out of 3 would be Division Champions.

On Friday, October 2, the Jays took a 3-0 lead in the top of the 2nd. But the Tigers scored 2 in the 2nd and 2 in the 3rd, and won, 4-3. Doyle Alexander, 37 years old, and the Jays' ace for their Division title team 2 years earlier, was the winning pitcher for the Tigers, over Clancy.

October 3 was the NBC Saturday Game of the Week. It went to the bottom of the 12th, when, with 1 out, Whitaker and Madlock singled. Jim Walewander was sent in to pinch-run for Whitaker. Jeff Musselman walked Gibson, and was replaced by Mark Eichhorn. It didn't work: Trammell singled Walewander home with the winning run, 3-2.

The Tigers now led by a game: The Jays had to win the finale, just to set up a 1-game Playoff. Bur Herndon's home run in the 2nd inning assured that there would be no Playoff. The Tigers had won. They lost the ALCS to the Minnesota Twins in a big upset.

The Jays had been up by 4 with 7 to go, and had blown it. This collapse, on top of their choke in the 1985 ALCS, gives them the nickname "Blow Jays." They did not get rid of it in 1988, finishing 2 games behind the Division-winning Boston Red Sox. They did not get rid of it in 1989, winning the Division, but losing the ALCS to the Oakland Athletics. They did not get rid of it in 1990, again finishing 2 games behind the Red Sox. And they did not get rid of it in 1991, winning the Division, but losing the ALCS to the Minnesota Twins.

They finally got rid of it in 1992, becoming the 1st Canada-based team to win a Pennant, and the 1st to win a World Series. They repeated in 1993.

*

October 4, 1987 was a Sunday. These other Major League Baseball games were played on this regular-season finale:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 4-2 at Yankee Stadium. Eric Bell outpitched Charles Hudson. Eddie Murray went 0-for-4, but Cal Ripken Jr. went 1-for-3 with a home run, a walk and 2 RBIs. For the Yankees, Dan Pasqua hit a home run, pinch-hitting for Henry Cotto. Dave Winfield and Don Mattingly each went 1-for-4.

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 11-6 at Busch Memorial Stadium. The Mets scored 5 runs in the top of the 9th inning. Gary Carter and former Cardinal Keith Hernandez hit home runs. Too little, too late: The Cards beat the Mets out for the National League Eastern Division title by 3 games.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Montreal Expos, 7-5 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. Roger Clemens won his 20th game of the season, striking out 12, walking none, and allowing only 2 hits: A double to Mike Felder, and a single to Dale Sveum.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-2 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-3 with a walk. Barry Bonds appeared as a pinch-hitter, drawing a walk and scoring.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Ron Hassey and Carlton Fisk hit home runs. This was the last major league game for Reggie Jackson. Having played 9 seasons with the A's, 1 for the Baltimore Orioles, 5 with the New York Yankees, and 5 with the California Angels, he had returned to the A's for what he had announced would be his last season.

He doubled home Jose Canseco off Floyd Bannister in the 1st inning, drew a walk against Bannister in the 4th, flew out to center field against Bill Long in the 6th, and then, with 2 out in the top of the 8th, he took his last at-bat, against Bobby Thigpen. It was not the kind of result you would expect from Reggie Jackson, but it worked: He stroked a single up the middle, breaking his bat in the process.

He finished the day 1-for-3 with an RBI, and closed his career with 2,584 hits, including 563 home runs, making him the leading home-run hitter of his generation. But the White Sox won.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 10-1 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett sat this season finale out, but the Royals got a home run from Frank White.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers, 7-4 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington Texas. Charlie Hough of the Rangers made his 40th start of the season. No pitcher has been allowed to accomplish this since, not even a knuckleballer like Hough. He was the losing pitcher, and the winning pitcher was Mark Langston.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 2-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Tom Browning outpitched Nolan Ryan.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 5-3 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn drew a walk, then left the game.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the California Angels, 10-6 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-4 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Bob Brenly, later to manage the Arizona Diamondbacks to the 2001 World Championship, won it with a home run leading off the bottom of the 10th.

And these NFL games were played:

* The New York Jets lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 38-24 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the New England Patriots, 20-10 at Sullivan Stadium (formerly Schafer Stadium, later Foxboro Stadium) in the Boston suburb of Foxboro, Massachusetts.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 35-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Redskins beat the NFL version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 28-21 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Atlanta Falcons, 28-12 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Los Angeles Rams, 37-10 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the Buffalo Bills, 47-6 at Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 10-9 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Detroit Lions, 31-27 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 23-16 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Houston Oilers beat the Denver Broncos, 40-10 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Los Angeles Raiders beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-17 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Miami Dolphins, 24-20 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the New York Giants lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 41-21 at Giants Stadium.

October 3, 1976: A Career, a Race and a Dynasty End In Baseball

October 3, 1976: Hank Aaron plays his last game. In his last at-bat, playing for the Milwaukee Brewers at Milwaukee County Stadium, where he had previously played for the Milwaukee Braves, he singles off Dave Roberts of the Detroit Tigers -- the same pitcher who, for the Houston Astros, had given up his 712th and 713th career home runs. But the Tigers win the game, 5-2.

Hank retires with 3,771 hits and 2,174 runs scored, both 2nd at the time only to Ty Cobb; a .305 batting average, a 155 OPS+; and with these all-time records: 755 home runs, 2,297 RBIs, 6,856 total bases, and 1,477 extra-base hits (624 doubles, 98 triples and 755 homers). Only the home run record has been broken, and that, dubiously.

The Brewers retire his Number 44 on this day, even though he only played 2 seasons for them. It's more of a recognition for his contribution to baseball in Milwaukee, which was 14 seasons counting his tenure there with the Braves. The Atlanta version of the Braves will retire Number 44 for him on their next Opening Day.

This was the 30th season of racially integrated Major League Baseball. Hank Aaron was the last active MLB player who had played in the Negro Leagues.

Another note from the '76 Brewers: On September 23, pitcher Danny Frisella, a member of the Mets' 1969 World Champions, made his last appearance of the season. There was no indication that he wouldn't be pitching in 1977. But on New Year's Day, in Phoenix, he was killed in a dune buggy accident. He was only 30 years old, and was the 1st member of the "Miracle Mets" to die.

This Brewers-Tigers game was also the last for Tiger catcher Bill Freehan. A key member of their 1968 World Series winners, he had been battling a thumb injury, and retired at age 34. In the late 1960s and early '70s, he was, beyond any question, the AL's best catcher. He made 11 appearances in the All-Star Game. No other player has made that many and still not been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Another Tiger whose career was ending was Alex Johnson, who last played on October 1. As a rookie in 1964, he nearly helped the Philadelphia Phillies win the NL Pennant. In 1970, with the California Angels, he won the AL batting title. But he rarely played so well again, and wore out his welcome with 7 different teams. He later took over his father's trucking company, and admitted he enjoyed it more than baseball. Also in 1970, his brother, Ron Johnson, playing for the Giants, became the 1st player for an NFL team in New York to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.

*

On the same day, the last day of the regular season, the Kansas City Royals' George Brett and Hal McRae, and the Minnesota Twins' Rod Carew, 3 players, are separated by .001 for the American League batting title -- and their teams are playing each other at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. (It was renamed Kauffman Stadium in 1993.)

Brett, who goes 3-for-4, edges his Royals teammate for the crown with the deciding hit, an inside-the-park home run, a line drive that outfielder Steve Brye misplayed, leading McRae to believe the lack of effort was intentional, and racist. (Like McRae, Carew was black; unlike McRae, he was also Hispanic. His thoughts on McRae's theory are unrecorded.) The final totals: Brett .333, McRae .332, Carew .331. Or, to take the decimal point one step further: Brett .3333, McRae .3321, Carew .3306.

In case you're wondering about on-base percentage: McRae .407 (to lead the AL), Carew .395, Brett .377. So Brett had the lowest of the 3 in that category.

Both Carew and Brett would win more batting titles, and both would flirt with a .400 batting average: Carew finished at .388 in 1977, while Brett finished at .390 in 1980.

Another former AL batting champion, Tony Oliva, had been battling knee injuries, and last played for the Twins on September 29. He retired, at age 38.

Tommy Davis had been a National League batting champion, in 1962 and '63 with the Los Angeles Dodgers. But he never fully recovered from a broken ankle in 1965, and over the next 11 seasons, played for 9 teams, including Finley's A's twice. He played his last game for the Royals on October 2, and retired at 37.

*

Also on this day, only 9,155 fans come out to the Oakland Coliseum to witness what is already expected -- correctly, as it turned out -- to be the end of an era. The California Angels beat the Oakland Athletics, 1-0. Nolan Ryan of the Halos and Mike Torrez of the A's each go the distance.

With the reserve clause having been struck down in the previous off-season, free agency is coming in the upcoming one. Having already lost ace pitcher Jim "Catfish" Hunter to a legal wrinkle, and having traded away his best player, right fielder Reggie Jackson, A's owner Charlie Finley goes on to refuse to offer new contracts to reliever Rollie Fingers, 3rd baseman and team captain Sal Bando, left fielder Joe Rudi, 1st baseman Gene Tenace, shortstop Bert Campaneris, or even the recently acquired right fielder Don Baylor. He also looks to trade pitcher Vida Blue, this time without the interference of Commissioner Bowie Kuhn.

Hunter, Jackson and Fingers would make the Hall of Fame. All-Star Game appearances for these players: Jackson 14, Hunter 8, Fingers 7, Campaneris and Blue 6 each, Bando 4, Rudi 3, and Tenace and Baylor 1 each. Blue and Hunter had won an AL Cy Young Award; Blue, Jackson, Baylor and Fingers would each win an AL Most Valuable Player award.

Finley thought that, with the money he saved by not paying them, he could build a new dynasty. In the next 3 seasons, the A's were dreadful. But in the 4th, 1980, they finished 2nd; in the 5th, 1981, they won the AL Western Division. But before the 1980 season ended, he sold the team, and didn't get to enjoy being proven, at least partially, right.

This was also the last game in Oakland uniforms for future Hall-of-Famers Billy Williams, the great former Chicago Cub left fielder, who retires; and Willie McCovey, who heads back across the Bay and re-signs with the San Francisco Giants. Nate Colbert, former star for the San Diego Padres, was also on the A's roster, and had last played on October 1. That would be his last game as well: After trying to catch on with the expansion Toronto Blue Jays in the next season's Spring Training, his back injury convinced him to retire at the age of 30.

Over the next 3 seasons, the A's would lose 299 games, and play before a total of 1,329,361 home fans -- an average of 5,471 fans per game. Their attendance had never been good, and the Coliseum, even when new and considered suitable, had already been nicknamed the Oakland Mausoleum. Finley's cheapness and stubbornness had blinded him to what needed to be done, and one of the best teams in baseball history became a joke franchise almost overnight.

A note from the '76 Angels: This game against the A's turned out to be the last major league game for shortstop Mike Miley. A quarterback at Louisiana State University, where he was known as "Miracle Mike," he got them into the 1974 Orange Bowl, losing to Penn State. He left school to play pro baseball, and played 70 games with the Angels in '75 and another 14 in '76. But on January 6, 1977, back in LSU's seat of Baton Rouge, he was killed in a car crash, only 23 years old.

*

October 3, 1976 was a Sunday. These other Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Steve Carlton outpitched Craig Swan. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Rick Burleson singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 15th inning. Carl Yastrzemski did not play. Brooks Robinson went 2-for-6.

Rico Petrocelli did not play, either. The shortstop on the Sox' 1967 AL Pennant winners, and the 3rd baseman on their 1975 Pennant winners, had been battling an inner ear infection, and hadn't played since September 14. The Sox released him early in 1977, without playing him again. He was not quite 34 years old. There were no hard feelings, and he later coached and broadcast for the Sox.

On September 29, Tommy Harper played for the Orioles, and it turned out to be his last major league game. He had been one of baseball's top base stealers, but his hitting had tailed off, and he retired at 36.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates swept a doubleheader from the St. Louis Cardinals at Three Rivers Stadium, winning both games by a 1-0 score. Jim Rooker pitched a 7-hit shutout in the opener, while Jerry Reuss pitched a 5-hit shutout in the nightcap. Neither the Pirates' Willie Stargell nor the Cardinals' Lou Brock got into either game.

Bob Moose didn't get into the game for the Pirates, either. The relief pitcher had last appeared on September 25. On October 9, his 29th birthday, he was driving back from the charity golf tournament of former teammate Bill Mazeroski, in Maz's hometown of Martins Ferry, Ohio, when he was killed in a car crash.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 11-1 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 2-for-3 with 2 walks and an RBI. Johnny Bench went 0-for-2 with 2 walks. On June 13 of that season, Pat Darcy, who gave up the game-winning home run to Carlton Fisk in Game 6 of the previous year's World Series, was sent down to the minors. At 26, he never appeared in another major league game.

Carl Morton, the 1970 National League Rookie of the Year, had lost his consistency, and last pitched for the Braves on August 21. After struggling in the minor leagues the next 2 seasons, he retired, and died of a heart attack while jogging in 1983, only 39.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Montreal Expos, 8-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-0 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Len Barker pitched a 3-hit shutout. Earlier in the year, on June 19, former Yankee pitcher Fritz Peterson made his last major league appearance, for the Rangers. Injuries convinced him to retire at age 34.

On August 17, another member of the Oakland dynasty, pitcher John "Blue Moon" Odom, made his last appearance, for the White Sox. He returned to Oakland's minor-league system in 1977, but an injury forced him to wrap it up at 32.

Cleon Jones, a key figure on the 1969 Mets, made what turned out to be his last major league appearance with the '76 ChiSox, on May 1. Team owner Bill Veeck saw him not hit well in 13 games, and released him. It was just as well: Veeck had given the team awful uniforms, and made them worse later on, with shorts. Jones was spared this indignity.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Dave Winfield did not play.

* The New York Yankees, the Cleveland Indians, the Houston Astros and the San Francisco Giants finished their seasons the day before. Frank Robinson, officially still the player-manager of the Indians, had not played since September 18, although he never officially announced his retirement as a player. On September 29, former Twins star César Tovar, now with the Yankees, played his last game.

And these games were played in the NFL:

* The New York Giants lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 27-21 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The New York Jets lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 17-6 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* The New England Patriots beat the Oakland Raiders, 48-17 at Schaefer Stadium (later Sullivan Stadium and Foxboro Stadium) in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts. But the Raiders would beat the Pats in the Playoffs, en route to winning Super Bowl XI.

* The Baltimore Colts beat the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 42-17 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Atlanta Falcons, 14-13 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Miami Dolphins, 31-28 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

* The Houston Oilers beat the New Orleans Saints, 31-26 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 50-17 at Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium) in Orchard Park, New York.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat their arch-rivals, the Cleveland Browns, 45-24 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Washington Redskins, 33-7 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Detroit Lions, 24-14 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

* The Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers, 26-0 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the expansion Seattle Seahawks, 28-13 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Minnesota Vikings beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 17-6 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

Actor Seann William Scott was born on this day. And the NBC drama Quincy, M.E. premiered, marking Jack Klugman's return to TV after The Odd Couple. He played a Los Angeles medical examiner, with both just enough similarities to Oscar Madison and just enough differences to make it work. It lasted 7 years.

The other half of The Odd Couple had debuted The Tony Randall Show on September 23, 1976. He played a widowed judge with teenage daughters in Philadelphia. It ran on ABC for a season, then on CBS for a season, before being canceled.

July 13, 1977: Blackout and Looting In New York

July 13, 1977: New York City gets hit with a blackout, and all hell breaks loose.

A lightning strike at a power station along the Hudson River overloaded New York City's electrical grid, and forced Consolidated Edison, New York City's electric company (a.k.a. Con Edison or Con Ed) to shut down all power, since losing it temporarily was better than increasing the damage and losing it for the long term.

I was 7 years old, and living in East Brunswick, New Jersey, watching TV with my parents. We were watching Susan and Sam, a pilot that NBC didn't pick up, on WNBC-Channel 4. ABC was airing the Robert Blake private detective series Baretta. CBS was airing a movie, Made for Each Other, from 1971, written by and starring real-life married couple Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna.

I remember nothing about Susan and Sam other than the title. Looking up the TV grid for that night, the description is as follows: "A pair of reporters are lovers until competition on the job starts to get rough." The stars were Robert Foxworth, later of Falcon Crest, and Christine Belford, who never became a star -- but not only grew up in Amityville, Long Island, New York, but for 5 years lived in the actual house that The Amityville Horror was based on.

I figure we must have been watching Donnie and Marie on ABC at 8:00, since the Osmond siblings' guests were Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, and my mother was a huge fan of the King and Queen of the West. But she hated Baretta, mainly because she hated Blake, even though they both once lived in Nutley, New Jersey. (So did Martha Stewart, and the joke is that the wrong one went to prison.)

So, at 9:00, seeing that her options were Baretta, Made for Each Other and CPO Sharkey, starring Don Rickles on a naval base, and she hated Rickles, too, my mother stopped watching TV for the night. But my father liked Rickles, so we watched that until 9:30. Then came Susan and Sam. Although the still-ongoing story of the New York serial killer known as the Son of Sam was freaking me out (me and lots of other people), at the time, I didn't make any connection between him and the title of the show. Nor did my father. So, at 9:30, we started watching.

And then, at 9:37... the TV went out. Dad got up to change the channel (we didn't have a remote control), and got nothing. WCBS-Channel 2 had their transmitting tower at the Empire State Building. Every other station used the one at the World Trade Center. And both transmitters were out.

The original World Trade Center, with backup generators

lighting the roofs. In the distance, New Jersey is still lit up.

We called my grandmother, who lived in Brick, near the Jersey Shore. She and my grandfather were about equidistant from New York and Philadelphia, and able to get both cities' stations clearly, whereas we could get a little bit of a signal from WPVI-Channel 6, the ABC affiliate, if we fiddled with our TV set's antenna, but that was it for the Philly stations. At her house, the Philly stations were still coming in fine, but they were broadcasting as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

This was before 24-hour news channels, let alone social media. We were forced to guess what had happened. Since none of the Philly stations were breaking into a Special Report from their national network headquarters, we knew it wasn't something horrible, like a nuclear strike or a natural disaster. (Well, it was a natural phenomenon that caused the technical mishap, but neither the lightning strike nor the blackout qualified as a "disaster.")

Finally, Dad went old-school, and turned on the radio, and that's how we found out about the blackout: He turned the dial until he got a station broadcasting from somewhere in New Jersey, probably from Newark. Unlike "The Night the Lights Went Out" in 1965, and the later blackout of 2003, New Jersey's electricity wasn't affected at all.

Channel 4 got their backup generator running, and got back on the air in 25 minutes. Channel 2 took an hour and 28 minutes to do so. The other stations -- WNEW-Channel 5, WABC-Channel 7, WOR-Channel 9, WPIX-Channel 11, WNET-Channel 13, and the various UHF stations -- were out for an entire day.

As it turned out, there were a few buildings in The City whose owners had learned from the '65 blackout, and installed private generators. The Pratt Institute, which teaches electrical work, had generators for that purpose at their campus in Downtown Brooklyn, and they came in handy. And the Rockaways, across Jamaica Bay from John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, were in The City, but were nonetheless served not by Con Ed, but by the Long Island Lighting Company, or LILCO. 

(LILCO's mishandling of restoration after Hurricane Gloria in 1985 led to calls for its replacement. It took until 1998 for it to be replaced by the Long Island Power Authority, or LIPA. In 2014, Long Island's power was handed over to Public Service Enterprise Group, PSEG, the successor to North Jersey's company, Public Service Electric & Gas, or PSE&G, which ran our electricity in 1977, was unaffected. In 2022, PSEG still runs my local electric power, and provides excellent service.)

But nearly all of New York City was out. That included traffic lights. And the Subway system. And Shea Stadium, where the New York Mets were playing the Chicago Cubs. It was the bottom of the 6th inning, the Mets trailed 2-1, and 3rd baseman Lenny Randle was at bat, when the power went out. Shea's backup generators kicked in, allowing people to leave safely, but the game had to be suspended.

Not a good night on which to

"bring your kiddies and bring your wife."

In the 1965 blackout, power went out at 5:27 PM, at the height of the evening rush hour. In the 2003 blackout, it was around 4:00 in the afternoon, which messed things up for rush hour. This time, 9:37 was well past rush hour, so that wasn't a problem -- although if you were on the road, for example one of the people at Shea that night, including 14,626 paying customers, it was still difficult.

After the '65 blackout, the New York Police Department said that The City had the fewest reported crimes of any night since records began to be kept, breaking the record of February 9, 1964, the night The Beatles made their 1st appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

That would not be the case on July 13, 1977. Increasing crime was already an issue in '65, but it had gotten considerably worse by '77. The City's finances were still in their comeback from nearly defaulting 2 years earlier, and a few thousand officers had been laid off, leaving the NYPD seriously understaffed. They were also still chasing the Son of Sam, who had already shot 11 people, killing 5 of them, in 7 separate incidents.

Two of those incidents were in The Bronx, near Pelham Bay Park, and people in that area began patrolling the streets with bats, pipes, and whatever other blunt instruments they could get their hands on, for fear of the Son of Sam taking advantage of the blackout to strike again.

The City was also in a nasty heat wave, topping out at 104 degrees on July 6. So, between the poverty, the heat, the crime, and the anger at "the system," nerves were on edge. And once The City's poor people realized that the blackout meant that security systems wouldn't work, they began smashing store windows and taking what they wanted.

It was a horrible mess. The NYPD later said it was the most arrests the NYPD ever made in 1 night: 3,776. Let me type that out: Three thousand, seven hundred and seventy-six people were arrested. I can't find a record of how many of them were ever convicted and imprisoned. But from 9:37 PM to sunrise at 5:39 AM, 8 hours, it works out to about 481 arrests an hour, 8 arrests per minute, or 1 arrest every 7.5 seconds. It works out to about 1 out of every 2,000 people living in The City at the time being arrested that night.

Incredibly, there was only one murder in The City that night: Dominick Ciscone, 19, in front of his apartment building in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. The killer was never caught. And it had nothing to do with either the rioting or the Son of Sam.

Other than that, nobody died -- not by the hand of a rioter, not by the hand of a policeman, not by the hand of a civilian vigilante, not in any of the fires that were started that night, not even in an accident. Aside from Ciscone, the only people who died in New York City that night were from illnesses.

The Sun came up, and people could see the messes the rioters left behind. But it didn't stop. A Pontiac dealership in The Bronx reported 50 of their new cars being stolen. Geraldo Rivera, then a young reporter for ABC News, did a report from Broadway -- not "The Great White Way" in Manhattan, but the one in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. While the camera was rolling and he was giving his report, the window of the store behind him was shattered -- from the inside. And 2 men jumped through it, apparently not caring about being cut by broken glass. Rivera didn't even flinch: He just continued his report.

The most-remembered photo from the looting,

under the elevated tracks of the Broadway Line in Brooklyn,

now the J, M and Z Trains.

It has been suggested that the looting of music stores that night, including the stealing of records, record players, and other disc jockey equipment, helped to turn hip-hop culture from a minor movement in The Bronx and Upper Manhattan into a Citywide craze, and eventually a worldwide phenomenon. It enabled anybody who could get access to that equipment to become a hip-hop version of what 1960s rock and roll fans called a "garage band."

Con Ed got Staten Island and Queens their power back by 1:45 PM on July 14, but it took until 10:39 PM to get the entire City fully operational again. The 1965 and 2003 blackouts were more widespread, but the former was merely a one night's inconvenience, and the latter little more than an annoyance. The 1977 blackout was an absolute debacle, all by itself, before even considering the unrest that followed.

The Son of Sam struck once more, in Brooklyn on July 31. But he parked his car too close to a fire hydrant, and the ticket he got was traced. David Berkowitz, a mailman living in adjoining Yonkers with a Bronx mail route, was arrested on August 10, and pled guilty. New Yorkers calmed down, and turned their attention back to more pleasurable pursuits, such as the disco dancing craze, and the Yankees' run for another title.

But there was an election for Mayor on, and once TV service was restored, people saw the film of the rioters, and that killed the hopes of the incumbent, Abe Beame. The fact that the rioters were mostly black killed those of Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton. The fact that he was also a minority killed those of Herman Badillo of The Bronx, the 1st Congressman of Puerto Rican descent. And the fact that she seemed to be soft on crime killed those of former Congresswoman Bella Abzug.

So the race came down to the Secretary of State of the State of New York, a former crusading lawyer from Queens, Mario Cuomo; and Manhattan-based Congressman Ed Koch. And Koch positioned himself as the tough guy on crime, demanding a return to the death penalty. The Mayor of New York has no say in that: It's the State legislature and the Governor. But he used the crime issue to beat Cuomo -- who nonetheless got elected Lieutenant Governor the next year, and Governor 4 years after that, and his rivalry with Koch continued until Koch was beaten in 1989.

Con Ed, the NYPD, and the City as a whole all learned their lessons from the '77 sizzle. The August 14, 2003 outage has been the only one in New York since, and it was handled well. Social media allowed police and civilians alike to communicate better. Some people even used their cell phones as flashlights to help each other out. There was no violence, and crime was minimal.

UPDATE: There was a brief, 20-minute blackout, shortly after midnight on December 15, 2023. And it took me until 2024 to think of this, but the 1970s were Schrödinger's Decade. Between the police brutality and the police layoffs, there was too much crimefighting, and, at the same time, not enough of it.

*

July 13, 1977 was a Wednesday. It was the off-season for the NFL, the NBA and the NHL. But a full slate of Major League Baseball games was scheduled:

* In the aforementioned game at Shea Stadium, the Cubs led the Mets 2-1 in the bottom of the 6th when the lights went out. Steve Ontiveros had hit a 2-run home run for the Cubs, and Mike Vail hit a solo homer for the Mets.

An open date was found for both teams, September 16, and the game was resumed at that point. Ed Kranepool tied the game with a single in the 7th. But Jerry Koosman fell apart in the 8th, and Steve Swisher, father of future Yankee Nick Swisher, singled home 2 runs. Once-and-future-Yankee Bobby Murcer singled home another in the 9th. I wonder how many fans were in Shea for the resumption, and I wonder how many of them cheered Murcer. The Cubs won, 5-2.

* The New York Yankees were on the road, and not affected by the blackout. They were, however, affected by the Milwaukee Brewers, losing to them 9-8 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Catfish Hunter was battling a sore shoulder, and only lasted 5 innings, giving up home runs to Don Money, Sixto Lezcano and Cecil Cooper. Mickey Rivers hit 2 homers for the Yankees, and Dell Alston hit 1, as the Yankees scored 5 runs in the top of the 8th to come close, but it wasn't enough.

But the game was almost incidental to the Yankees' night. Afterward, in the bar of their hotel, catcher and Captain Thurman Munson and left fielder Lou Piniella were drinking and complaining about how team owner George Steinbrenner was treating manager Billy Martin.

Remembering that George said that if you had a problem, "my door is always open," they went up to George's room, and Thurman said, point blank: "Either fire Billy, or get off his back!" Since George loved Thurman, he was willing to take his advice and get off Billy's back -- for a while.

The problem was, Billy had the room next door, and heard George, Thurman and Lou talking. His paranoia kicked in, he demanded to be let in, and he accused them all of plotting against him -- which was the exact opposite of what was going on. George almost fired Billy on the spot anyway, but everybody calmed down, and, eventually, they got their act together and won the World Series.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-2 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Montreal Expos, 6-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 9-7 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Butch Hobson hit a home run in the 10th inning.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* A doubleheader was split at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The Chicago White Sox won the 1st game 6-3. The Toronto Blue Jays won the 2nd game 5-3, on a Doug Rader homer in the 11th inning.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-4 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. (It was renamed Kauffman Stadium  in 1993.) 

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Texas Rangers, 4-3 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-2 at the Astrodome in Houston. Bob Watson won it with an RBI double in the 13th inning. In the bottom of the 11th, Al Downing of the Dodgers pitched to 1 batter, José Cruz Sr., and walked him. That was the last batter he ever faced in the major leagues, and it made him the last active member of the Yankees' 1961 World Champions.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 5-4 at San Diego Stadium.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. A's owner Charlie Finley, notorious for his cheapness, had broken up his dynasty and was trying to inexpensively build a new good team, but the results were proving disastrous. Like the Blue Jays, the Mariners were a 1st-year expansion team. Unlike the Jays, who would lose 107 games, the M's would avoid finishing last, and ended up ahead of the A's.

* And the Minnesota Twins beat the California Angels, 6-3 at Anaheim Stadium in the Los Angeles suburb of Anaheim, California. 

July 9, 2002: Bud Selig Messes Up His Own All-Star Game

July 9, 2002: Major League Baseball's All-Star Game is played at Miller Park (now named American Family Field) in Milwaukee -- but not to a conclusion. It was only the 2nd tie in Midsummer Classic history: One of the 1961 games was called due to rain after 9 innings.

Allan H. "Bud" Selig had bought the expansion Seattle Pilots in 1970, and moved them to his hometown, making them the Milwaukee Brewers. They had hosted the All-Star Game at Milwaukee County Stadium in 1975, with no issues.

In 1992, the MLB team owners fired Commissioner Francis T. "Fay" Vincent. As Chairman of MLB's Executive Committee, Selig was next in the line of succession. He remained Acting Commissioner while also being a team owner, a walking conflict of interest. In 1998, he terminated this status by transferring control of the team to his daughter, Wendy Selig-Prieb, allowing him to be appointed Commissioner in his own right.

As Acting Commissioner, he oversaw the Strike of '94, canceling the 1994 postseason, and forever tainting his record, regardless of what good he might have done. He further tainted his record by allowing the steroid explosion of the 1990s to reach epidemic proportions, without punishing anyone for it -- until after the Congressional hearing during 2005's Spring Training -- after the Boston Red Sox had already ridden steroids to win the previous year's World Series.

He replaced County Stadium, a classic ballpark, with Miller Park, a building that looked like an airplane hangar, with a retractable roof. He got the All-Star Game awarded to it in 2002.

The starting pitchers were Derek Lowe of the Boston Red Sox for the American League, and Curt Schilling of the defending World Champion Arizona Diamondbacks for the National League. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hit a fly ball which looked to be deep enough to be a home run. Instead, center fielder Torii Hunter of the Minnesota Twins reached over the wall and caught it for the last out of the inning. As Hunter walked off, Bonds, laughing, picked Hunter up. It was a rare moment of fun for Bonds, who was one of the moodiest players in baseball history, even before he started using steroids. Bonds hit one out in the 3rd inning, extending the NL's lead to 4-0.

The AL made a comeback, including a 5th-inning home run from Alfonso Soriano of the New York Yankees. In the 7th, a double from Paul Konerko of the Chicago White Sox gave the AL a 6-5. The NL made it 7-6 in the bottom of the 7th. Omar Vizquel of the Cleveland Indians drove in a run with a triple in the 8th inning, making it 7-7.

Neither team scored in the 9th, and the game went to extra innings. Neither team scored in the 10th, an inning pitched by Vicente Padilla of the Philadelphia Phillies and Freddy García of the Seattle Mariners -- the last available pitchers on each team.

The AL didn't score in the top of the 11th. At that point, the opposing managers, Joe Torre of the Yankees and Bob Brenly of the Diamondbacks, walked over to Selig's box to discuss the situation. Selig made a decision, and called the home plate umpire, Gerry Davis, over. Davis had a microphone connection to the public-address announcer, Robb Edwards. Edwards announced the decision to the crowd: If the NL did not score in the bottom of the 11th, the game would be declared over and a tie.

The fans booed. Some threw beer bottles onto the field. Some, remembering the 1977 baseball film The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training, chanted, "Let them play!" Other chants included "Re-fund!" "Rip-off!" and "Bud must go!"

Garcia retired the NL side in the 11th, and the game was over: American League 7, National League 7. The booing was so bad, Selig didn't dare take the field and announce a Most Valuable Player for the game.

He had canceled a postseason, screwed up a Spring Training, and had now screwed up an All-Star Game in his hometown, in a stadium he had built. How's that for a definition of the worst Commissioner in the history of major league sports?

A solution would have been so simple: Just declare every player who had already left the game eligible to return. Unfortunately, Selig, who had built that whacked-out stadium and torn down its beautiful predecessor out of greed, was not interested in what was good for baseball. And so he got the hell booed out of him in the stadium he built, by his own team's fans.

In 2008, the All-Star Game was played at the old Yankee Stadium, in its last season. It went 15 innings, 4 innings longer than this one, and a winner was determined. The game went to 10 innings in 2017 and 2018, and a winner was found each time.

Selig remained Commissioner until 2015, having handpicked his successor, Rob Manfred. He has not been much of an improvement.

*

July 9, 2002 was a Tuesday. As is usually the case on the day of the MLB ASG, it was the only game, in any major league sport in North America, scheduled for the day.

May 23, 2002: Shawn Green Has 19 Total Bases

May 23, 2002: Shawn Green, right fielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers, ties major league records with 4 home runs and 5 extra-base hits, and adds a single for a new record of 19 total bases. The Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 16-3 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

Joe Adcock held the previous single-game total bases record of 18, with 4 homers and a double in a 1954 game for the Milwaukee Braves.

Green was born in 1972 in the Chicago suburbs. He debuted in 1993 with the Toronto Blue Jays, and in 1999, made his 1st All-Star Game and won his 1st Gold Glove. Before the next season, he was traded to the Dodgers, probably as a cost-cutting measure.

On September 26, 2001, following the example of earlier Jewish baseball stars Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax, he sat out a game that fell on Yom Kippur – and also donated his day's pay of $75,000 to a charity for 9/11 survivors. The Dodgers lost the game, 6-4 to their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Unlike the games that Greenberg and Koufax sat out, it didn't matter much: The Dodgers were about to be eliminated from Playoff consideration. Green reached career highs in home runs with 49, and RBIs with 125. Those 49 home runs remain a single-season Dodger franchise high, in either Brooklyn or Los Angeles.

In the May 23, 2002 game, with Glendon Rusch starting for the Brewers, Green doubled in the top of the 1st inning, driving in a run; hit a 3-run home run in the 2nd inning; led off the 4th with a home run off Brian Mallette; hit a 3rd homer in the 5th, also off Mallette; led off the 8th with a single off José Cabrera; and was in the middle of a run of 3 straight home runs in the 9th, along with Adrián Beltré and Dave Hansen, all off Cabrera.

Also hitting home runs for the Dodgers in this game were Brian Jordan in the 2nd, and Hiram Bocachica in the 8th. Kazuhisa Ishii was the starting and winning pitcher for the Dodgers. Alex Ochoa had the only homer for the Brewers.

Green hit another homer the next day, and 2 the next, making him the only player ever to hit 7 home runs over a 3-game span. He finished the season with 42. Green was named an All-Star again that season.

He helped the Dodgers win the National League Western Division title in 2004. He was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks before the 2005 season, and was traded to the New York Mets late in the 2006 season, helping them win the NL Eastern Division title.

His hitting had already been in decline in 2007 when he broke his foot by fouling a ball off it. The Mets did not sign him to a new contract after the season, and he chose to retire, despite being only 35 years old. He finished with a .283 lifetime batting average, and 2,003 hits including 328 home runs, right behind Greenberg with 331 to be 2nd-all-time among Jewish players.

Green came out of retirement to play for the Israel team in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. He then founded a software company named Greenfly, specializing in developing technology for sports and entertainment organizations. The Dodgers are his main client. He is not a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but is a member of the National and the International Jewish Sports Halls of Fame.

UPDATE: In 2024, Shohei Ohtani set a new Dodger single-season record with 54 home runs. On June 25, 2025, Nick Kurtz, a rookie designated hitter for the Sacramento Athletics, went 6-for-6 with 4 home runs and 8 RBIs, and tied Green's record with 19 total bases.

*

May 23, 2002 was a Thursday. These other Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 3-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Pedro Martinez outpitched Ted Lilly -- not exactly an accomplishment. Rickey Henderson was with the Red Sox this season, and went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Derek Jeter went 2-for-4, but the rest of the Yankees only got 3 hits. Bernie Williams drove in their only run with a sacrifice fly.

* The New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The game was scoreless until the top of the 9th inning, when Joe McEwing singled, Jeromy Burnitz was hit by a pitch, and Mark Johnson doubled McEwing home, all of José Mesa.

A combined 5-hit shutout was pitched by Steve Traschel (3 hits over 6 innings), Scott Strickland (1 over 2, ended up as the winning pitcher), and Armando Benitez (1 in 1, got the save). Brandon Duckworth had pitched 8 innings of 5-hit shutout ball for the Phils, before the Mets got to Mesa.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-4 at Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium) in Cincinnati. Ken Griffey Jr. was injured, and did not play.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 11-6 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Houston Astros, 5-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres, 16-3 at Coors Field in Denver. The Rox got homers from Larry Walker, Todd Helton and Todd Hollandsworth. Todd Zeile went 3-for-5 with 5 RBIs.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Oakland Athletics, 11-3 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the Network Associates Coliseum).

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 7-3 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. Ichiro Suzuki went 3-for-5 with a stolen base, and John Olerud hit a 3-run home run.

* And the Anaheim Angels, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Atlanta Braves, the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Indians, the Detroit Tigers, the Kansas City Royals, the Minnesota Twins, the Montreal Expos, the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays were not scheduled.