October 4, 1970: Janis Joplin Dies

October 4, 1970: Janis Joplin dies of a heroin overdose at the Landmark Motor Hotel in Los Angeles. She was 27 years old.

She had starred at the Monterey Pop Festival in California in 1967, became a symbol of the Hippie era, and had also played Woodstock. Jimi Hendrix had done each of these things as well. He died on September 16, as a result of mixing drugs and alcohol. When asked for her thoughts on his death, Janis said, "There but for the grace of God go I."

She wasn't kidding. She died just 16 days later.

When he found out about Jimi's death, Jim Morrison, the lead singer of The Doors, himself a hippie icon with a booze problem and a drug problem, asked his friends, "Do you believe in omens?" Like Janis, he didn't take the hint. When Janis died, Jim told his friends, "Believe it or not, you're drinking with number three."

If any of those friends tried to get him to stop, it didn't take. Nine months after Jimi and Janis, Jim Morris was dead, too. All 3 of them died at the age of 27, giving rise to the idea of rock and roll's "27 Club."

*

October 4, 1970 was a Sunday. The NBA, the ABA and the NHL were still a few days away from starting their new seasons. But Major League Baseball had begun its Playoffs:

* In Game 2 of the American League Championship Series, the Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins, 11-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. It was only 4-3 O's going into the 9th inning, but the Birds scored 7 runs to put it away. Frank Robinson and David Johnson hit home runs for Baltimore, and Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva did so for Minnesota.

* In Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, the Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-1 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Bobby Tolan hit a home run for the Big Red Machine. Pete Rose went 0-for-4, and Johnny Bench went 0-for-3 with a walk, but they weren't needed. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4 with an RBI, and Willie Stargell went 0-for-4.

Baltimore and Cincinnati would clinch their Leagues' respective Pennants the next day, each completing a 3-game sweep.

*

And there were NFL games that day: 

* The New York Giants lost to the New Orleans Saints, 14-10 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. It was 1 of only 2 games the Saints would win all season, the other coming on November 8, when they beat the Detroit Lions at home, on the last play of the game, a record-setting 63-yard field goal by Tom Dempsey.

* The New York Jets lost to the Buffalo Bills, 34-31 at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo.

* The Baltimore Colts beat the Boston Patriots, 14-6 at Harvard Stadium in Boston. The next season, the Patriots would move to Foxborough, Massachusetts, and change their name to the New England Patriots.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 33-21 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the San Francisco 49ers, 21-20 at Atlanta (later Atlanta-Fulton County) Stadium.

* The Houston Oilers beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 13-10 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 13-10 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Dallas Cowboys, 20-7 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 26-13 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the San Diego Chargers, 37-10 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

You'll notice that this accounts for 20 of the 26 teams then in the newly-merged NFL. On Saturday, October 3, the Miami Dolphins beat the Oakland Raiders, 20-13 at the Orange Bowl in Miami. And the Cleveland Browns beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 15-7 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

And, on October 5, in the new phenomenon of ABC Monday Night Football, which had begun just 2 weeks earlier, the Detroit Lions beat the Chicago Bears, 28-14 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

September 18, 1970: Jimi Hendrix Dies

September 18, 1970: Jimi Hendrix dies in his apartment at the Samarkand Hotel in London. He was just 27 years old. Often called the greatest guitarist in rock and roll history, he made the mistake of mixing alcoholic beverages and barbiturates.

Just 15 months earlier, just 3 miles away across Hyde Park, Judy Garland had made the same mistake, and died at age 47. She had already been through tough times for most of her life, little of which was of her own making, and looked considerably older. It wasn't hard to imagine that her story had come to an end.

But Hendrix was still in his prime, and apparently healthy. He had released 4 albums, all of them considered "instant classics." With the Jimi Hendrix Experience, he had released Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold as Love in 1967, and Electric Ladyland in 1968. With Band of Gypsys, he had released an album of the same title only 6 months earlier.

I have never been a fan of his -- the version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" he played as he closed the Woodstock festival a year earlier particularly bothers me -- but it's clear that he had more to say. It's not hard to imagine him going through the 1970s, working, experimenting, finding new things that worked (and some things that didn't), much in the same way that Miles Davis, David Bowie and Lou Reed did. It's also easy to imagine him approaching age 50, in 1992, by making a cultural shift like Davis and Paul Simon did. (Indeed, Miles attended his funeral in Seattle.) But we'll never know.

When asked for her thoughts on the death of Hendrix, who had starred at the Monterey Pop Festival in California in 1967, became a symbol of the Hippie era, and had also played Woodstock, all things she had also done, Janis Joplin said, "There but for the grace of God go I."

She wasn't kidding: She, too, had a drug problem. She died just 16 days later.

When he found out about Jimi's death, Jim Morrison, the lead singer of The Doors, himself a hippie icon with a booze problem and a drug problem (but hadn't played either Monterey or Woodstock), asked his friends, "Do you believe in omens?" Like Janis, he didn't take the hint. When Janis died, Jim told his friends, "Believe it or not, you're drinking with number three."

If any of those friends tried to get him to stop, it didn't take. Nine months after Jimi and Janis, Jim Morrison was dead, too. All 3 of them died at the age of 27, beginning the idea of rock and roll's "27 Club."

I've read that Jimi Hendrix liked football, but I can't find any reference as to whether he was a baseball fan. He grew up in Seattle, which had a team in the Pacific Coast League, but only played 1 season in the major leagues during his lifetime, 1969, with the American League's Seattle Pilots. They quickly went bankrupt, and moved to become the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970. The Queen City of the Northwest didn't rejoin the major leagues until the AL added the Seattle Mariners in 1977.

I once read a list that somebody made up of the best-dressed and worst-dressed athletes. This was in 1980, and Rich Gossage of the Yankees was then one of the top relievers in baseball. Whoever was writing it put the Goose on his worst-dressed list, saying he "has one tie that could have doubled as Jimi Hendrix's headband."

*

September 18, 1970 was a Friday. Actress Aisha Tyler was born.

The NFL played games 2 days later, and the NBA, the ABA, and the NHL started new seasons a few weeks later. But there was an entire slate of Major League Baseball games: 

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-0 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. A 4-run 1st inning, including a 3-run home run by John Ellis, was all Ron Klimkowski needed, as he pitched 3-hit shutout in one of the best hitter's parks in baseball history.

* The New York Mets lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. Steve Blass outpitched Jim McAndrew.

* The Chicago Cubs swept a doubleheader from the Montreal Expos at Jarry Park in Montreal. In the opener, Fergie Jenkins won his 20th game of the season, and the Cubs won 3-2. In the nightcap, Ron Santo singled in the winning run in the top of the 10th, and the Cubs won 5-4. Ernie Banks did not appear in the 1st game, and only appeared in the 2nd as a pinch-hitter, unsuccessfully.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Don Baylor singled home a run in the bottom of the 11th inning to win it for the Birds. Neither Brooks Robinson nor Frank Robinson played.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 11-6 at Atlanta (later Atlanta-Fulton County) Stadium. For the Reds, Pete Rose went 1-for-5 with 2 RBIs, Johnny Bench went 1-for-3 with 4 RBIs, and each hit a home run. For the Braves, Hank Aaron went 0-for-2, but did draw 2 walks.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Neither Harmon Killebrew nor Rod Carew entered the game.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-7 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 3-2 at San Diego Stadium. Ken Henderson drove in the winning run with a double in the top of the 10th. Willie Mays went 2-for-5.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 3-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the California Angels, 3-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. The bottom of the 9th began with the game tied and Ken Tatum walking Don Mincher, included a wild pitch that got Mincher, kind of chunky and not fleet of foot, to 3rd base, and intentional walks to Reggie Jackson and Frank Fernandez to load the bases. After Dave LaRoche was brought in to relieve, he struck out Dick Green. But with the bases still loaded, he walked Gene Tenace, and the A's had beaten the Halos.

June 16, 17 & 18, 1967: The Monterey Pop Festival

June 16, 1967: The Monterey Pop Festival begins, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. The performances came to symbolize the San Francisco-based "Summer of Love," and turned some performers from little-known to superstars.

The next year, the documentary Monterey Pop made millions feel as though they had been there, and made the following year's Woodstock festival in New York's Catskill Mountains possible.

The performers on day one at Monterey: The Association, The Paupers, Lou Rawls, Beverly Kutner, Johnny Rivers, The Animals, and Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel.

Despite it being a Friday, there was not a full slate of Major League Baseball games played that day. The New York Yankees, the Chicago White Sox, the Detroit Tigers and the Kansas City Athletics were not scheduled.

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 at Shea Stadium. John Boccabella drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly of Don Shaw in the top of the 10th, making a winner of Joe Niekro.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-3 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The California Angels swept a doubleheader from the Baltimore Orioles, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Halos won the 1st game 2-1, and the 2nd game 5-3.

* The Washington Senators swept a doubleheader from the Boston Red Sox, at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington (later Robert F. Kennedy Stadium). The Senators won the opener 1-0, and the nightcap 4-3.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Chuck Hinton's single won it in the bottom of the 10th. Luis Tiant went the distance for the Tribe.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 9-8 at the Astrodome. In the top of the 10th, Hank Aaron got aboard due to an error, and former Yankee Clete Boyer got him home on a groundout.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. In Monterey, 109 miles to the south, few cared. Psychedelic music seemed like the path to the future, while baseball increasingly felt like a pastime that was for the past time.

And German soccer manager Jürgen Klopp was born that day.

*

On Saturday, June 17, the musical lineup was: Canned Heat, Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin singing lead, Country Joe and the Fish, Al Kooper, The Butterfield Blues Band, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Steve Miller Band, The Electric Flag, Moby Grape, Hugh Masekela, The Byrds, Layra Nyro, Jefferson Airplane, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, and Otis Redding.

Quicksilver Messenger Service, like The Grateful Dead and many of these others, were out of San Francisco. Sometimes, those two bands would be booked together, as "The Quick and the Dead."

MLB games for that Saturday:

* This time, the Yankees and the White Sox did play, against each other, at Comiskey Park, on the South Side of Chicago, birthplace of the electric blues that so many of the Monterey acts tried to copy, some with more success than others.

The ChiSox won, 1-0. The only run came in the bottom of the 8th, on a double off Fritz Peterson by Walt Williams, an outfielder known as "No Neck," who would later play for the Yankees. Joe Horlen pitched the 1st 8 innings for the Pale Hose, and Hall of Fame knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm pitched the 9th for the save.

* It was also New York vs. Chicago in the National League, and, again, the Mets lost to the Cubs at Shea, this time 9-1.

* The Pirates beat the Phillies, 6-5 in Philadelphia.

* The Orioles beat the Angels, 7-5 in Baltimore.

* The Red Sox beat the Senators, 5-1 in Washington.

* The Indians beat the Twins, 7-3 in Cleveland.

* The A's and the Tigers did not play the day before. They made up for it on this day, playing 3 games' worth of baseball at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. In the 1st game of a doubleheader, the Tigers won 7-6. The 2nd game went 19, before Dave Duncan, these days best known as the right-hand man on Tony La Russa's coaching staffs, hit a home run off Mike Marshall to give the A's a 6-5 win.

Believe it or not, 28 innings is not a record for most innings played in 1 day. In 1964, the Mets hosted the Giants in a doubleheader where the nightcap went 23 innings, for a total of 32.

* Another doubleheader was played at the Astrodome. In the opener, another Aaron hit and a wild pitch helped to give the Braves a 3-1 win in 10 innings. But the Astros won the 2nd game, 4-3.

* The Dodgers beat the Reds, 6-1 in Los Angeles.

* And the Giants beat the Cardinals, 3-2 in San Francisco.

*

On Sunday, June 18, these were the performers at Monterey: Ravi Shankar, The Blues Project, Big Brother and Janis Joplin again (because they wanted to be in the film, and their Saturday set wasn't filmed), The Group With No Name (not to be confused with The Band, who were not there), Buffalo Springfield, The Who, The Grateful Dead, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and, closing the show, The Mama's & the Papa's, led by John Phillips, with guest vocalist Scott McKenzie.

Phillips had written, and McKenzie had recorded, a song they hoped would be the theme for the Summer of Love: "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair."

But that's not what the festival would be most remembered for. First, The Who closed by playing "My Generation," and, as they so often did, destroying their instruments onstage. Then came the Dead, with their "Relax, man" vibe. Then came Hendrix, another really intense performer. It was the psychedelic rock equivalent of the Yankees' early 1950s pitching rotation of fastballer Allie Reynolds, followed by junkballer Eddie Lopat, followed by fastballer Vic Raschi.

But Hendrix went even further than The Who. He didn't just smash his guitar -- which caused somebody to tell Who leader Pete Townshend, "He's stealing your act," and Pete to say, "He's not stealing my act, he's doing my act" -- he put the remains on the ground, and, while bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell kept playing, poured lighter fluid, struck a match, dropped to his knees, dropped the lit match it on the guitar, and knelt there, fanning the flames.

He had done this before, but this was the first time it had been widely reported. He went on to do it so many times, it's a wonder he lived another 3 years.

The MLB games for that Sunday:

* The Yankees got swept by the White Sox in Chicago. In the opener, despite a home run by Bill Robinson, Al Downing didn't get out of the 3rd inning, and the South Siders won 7-3. In the nightcap, a young man named Tommy John pitched a 6-hit shutout, winning 4-0. The Yankee pitchers were Fred Talbot and Dooley Womack, both immortalized in teammate Jim Bouton's later book Ball Four; and Steve Hamilton.

* The Mets split with the Cubs at Shea. In the 1st game, Tommie Reynolds hit a walkoff home run off Cal Koonce in the 10th, giving the Mets a 4-3 win. The Mets must've liked something they saw in Koonce, because they soon traded for him, and he would still be with them when they won the World Series in 1969. Jack Fisher was the winning pitcher, in relief of starter Bob Shaw.

The 2nd game would also be 4-3, but a Cubs win. In the top of the 8th, Lee Thomas hit a sacrifice fly to make a losing pitcher out of Tom Seaver. Seaver, of course, went on to become the NL Rookie of the Year, and the face of the Mets' 1st run of glory.

* The Pirates beat the Phillies, 5-3 in Philadelphia.

* The Angels beat the Orioles, 5-3 in Baltimore.

* The Senators beat the Red Sox, 3-2 in Washington. Hank Allen, brother of Dick Allen, singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th.

* The Twins beat the Indians, 4-2 in Cleveland.

* The A's beat the Tigers, 8-4 in Detroit, mercifully in only 9 innings.

* The Astros beat the Braves 2-0 in Houston. This time, Hank Aaron didn't get a hit. No Brave did: Don Wilson pitched a no-hitter for the Astros. It wasn't all that close to a perfect game: He walked Denis Menke in the 5th inning, Aaron in the 7th, and Menke again in the 8th. But it was a no-hitter against a dangerous-hitting team.

* The Dodgers beat the Reds, 5-3 in L.A.

* And the Cardinals beat the Giants, 4-1 in San Francisco. So, that weekend, if you were in Northern California, the place to be was definitely the Monterey County Fairgrounds, not Candlestick Park.