December 18, 2022: The Crowning of Lionel Messi

December 18, 2022: A controversial World Cup comes to an end with a classic Final, won by Argentina, lifting its biggest star, Lionel Messi, into a legitimate place in the discussion for the title of the greatest player in the history of soccer.

The tournament never should have been given to Qatar. We all know that this country -- bigoted toward women, Jews and gays -- never should have been considered, let alone given the tournament. But the country's royal family guaranteed FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, its most profitable World Cup ever, and got it. As with Russia 2018, it was a bribe.

Throw in the moving of the tournament from late Spring and early Summer to late Autumn, due to the intense Middle East heat, the fact that the construction of these stadiums was a reminder of the plight of migrant labor, and even a reminder that there are places in this world where slavery still exists, and it was, clearly, the worst World Cup ever, from an administrative standpoint, surpassing the ones hosted by fascist governments in Italy in 1934, Argentina in 1978, and Russia in 2018.

The time zone differences were a minor issue. Certainly, it was more workable than in 2002, when Japan and South Korea teamed to hold it. If Australia -- with or without New Zealand stepping in as co-hosts -- want to host it in 2030 or beyond, that will have to be dealt with. The tournament has to be convenient for the hosts, but the rest of the world's needs also need to be taken into consideration. (At least Australia is a free country, and, due to having held the Olympics in 2000, and having a thriving A-League, would have the infrastructure already in place.)

(UPDATE: In 2023, FIFA awarded the World Cup for 2030 to a joint effort by the neighboring nations of Spain, Portugal and Morocco, because it was Europe's "turn," and Morocco was a bone thrown to Africa, which lasted hosted in South Africa in 2010. And they awarded the 2034 edition to Saudi Arabia, for the same reason as in 2018 and 2022: Money.)

Fox broadcast the tournament in America. A defeat during the Group Stage doesn't necessarily mean disaster. Argentina were upset by Saudi Arabia. It ended up not mattering, any more than did the most embarrassing Group Stage loss ever, West Germany falling to political (if not footballing) arch-rival East Germany on West German soil in 1974.

The English love to remind the Americans of certain things. "It's called 'football,' not 'soccer.'" The English love to remind us that they invented the sport. They did not. They invented its organization, but even that was a co-invention with the Scots. They love to remind us that they've won the World Cup, and we haven't. Well, we've won 4 World Cups. When they hear that, They say the women's game doesn't count. Then that means that their women's team, which has been more successful recently than their men's team, gets insulted.

And England claiming superiority because they've won 1 of the 17 World Cups, and that 1 being 56 years ago, is like Toronto Maple Leafs fans claiming 13 Stanley Cups, when they haven't even made the Finals since 1967. At least the New York Yankees have won 7 of their 27 World Series since England '66 and Toronto '67, and that's still the most since then, as well as overall.

And when the game was played, the U.S. did not play well, and England controlled the game most of the way. And still, it ended 0-0. It had all the markings of a Premier League game where Arsenal dominate but still can't find a win. England were better, but couldn't prove it on the scoreboard.

It was better for England than the 2010 match in South Africa, which became a 1-1 draw thanks to Rob Green's "Hand of Clod" mishandling of a Clint Dempsey shot. That was reminiscent of an Arsenal failure to win because of a fluke goal that never should have happened. For the vast majority of English fans, who like to mock Arsenal, the shoe seems to go on the other foot every 4 years.

Throw in the biggest upset in World Cup history, America's 1950 win over England in Brazil, and the record is as follows: American wins, 1; draws, 2; England wins, exactly none. For all their braggadocio, England have never beaten America at the World Cup.

The draw with England was encouraging, but it followed a draw with England's neighbors, Wales. That was depressing: We led 1-0 after 80 minutes, but indiscipline took over, and we gave away a stupid penalty.

This put us in a position where we had to beat Iran, which had the world supporting them as their people finally seem to have taken the initiative in challenging their evil religious-fanatic government. We won, but it was a very sluggish 1-0, and we felt like the least deserving team in the last 16.

And then we had to play the Netherlands, one of the teams that always seems to grab the world's attention at the World Cup. Haji Wright's goal to pull us within 2-1 was quickly canceled out, and the Dutch won, 3-1.

After not making the tournament at all the time before, making the knockout stage this time was a success. But the Dutch showed us that the difference between Top 16 and Top 8 is big. Manager Gregg Berhalter earned the right to be the man to bridge that difference, but, bridge it, he must, if we are to go any further than this on home soil in 2026.

To go with superstar midfielder Christian Pulisic, we need an out-and-out scorer, and we need stronger defenders. And it's not like "club football," where we can just go out and buy them. They have to be trained. Maybe Berhalter can bring Arsène Wenger in as a consultant, to help them develop "the quality" and "the mental strength." Because, for now, as to either one, we can truthfully say, "I did not see it."

One person who will never get to see it is Grant Wahl, a journalist who did as much as anyone in the MLS era to spread knowledge of soccer through America. The 49-year-old native of the Kansas side of the Kansas City area, a Princeton graduate, wrote the 2002 Sports Illustrated cover story that introduced the world to a high school basketball star named LeBron James, and continued to write for SI on the subject of soccer, for which Fox Sports hired him as a studio analyst.

He was in the press box watching the Quarterfinal between Argentina and the Netherlands, which Argentina won on penalties (of course: When it comes to penalties, the Dutch are famously as useless as the English), when he collapsed in his seat. Despite his detainment by Qatari authorities after flouting their rules against political statements, and subsequent death threats, it was quickly determined that his claims of feeling unwell were due to an aortic aneurysm, which ruptured.

After showing Senegal the difference between Teams 1 through 8 and Teams 9 through 16, England had to face France, and were lucky to be level going into the 78th minute, when former Arsenal star Olivier Giroud scored for France.

In the 84th minute, the Three Lions were awarded a penalty, and, of course, it would be Harry Kane, golden boy for England and Tottenham Hotspur, who took it. But his former Tottenham teammate, France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, stopped him. After his giveaway performance in Russia 2018, and now this, any discussion of whether Kane, a known diver for penalties, is "world class" needs to end.

Of course, Kane wasn't the only choker. England haven't had a good defense in 30 years, and, once again, their attack tightened up after falling behind. For England, at least historically, the difference between Teams 1 through 4 and Teams 5 through 8 might be bigger than the U.S.'s difference between Teams 1 through 8 and Teams 9 through 16.

No team from the African continent had ever reached a World Cup Semifinal. The only Muslim-majority country to have done so was Turkey in 2002. But Morocco won Group F. Then, avenging their geopolitical defeat of the Middle Ages, they beat Spain on penalties after a 0-0 draw, with goalkeeper Yassine Bounou stopping 3 penalties. "Bono" then played his club soccer in Spain, for Sevilla.

They faced Portugal in the Quarterfinal. Portugal were expected to play hard in what was to be the last World Cup for Cristiano Ronaldo. But Morocco held them, and Bounou's Sevilla teammate Youssef En-Nesyri scored in the 42nd minute, and Morocco were through to the Semifinal.

Which meant that they would face their former colonial overlords, France, the defending Champions. The dream ended quickly, as France scored in the 5th minute, and Morocco never looked like scoring. France added a goal to make the final 2-0.

As Croatia had done in the previous tournament by reaching the Final and holding their own in it, Morocco had won the world's hearts, but someone else would win the World Cup. It would be between, France, Les Bleus, and Argentina, La Albiceleste (the Sky Blues), at the Lusail Iconic Stadium, in Lusail, outside the Qatari capital of Doha. 

Only once before had a player scored 3 goals -- known among hockey fans as a "hat trick," and the term has drifted to soccer -- in a World Cup Final. That was Geoff Hurst of England in 1966, and the 2nd of those goals remains controversial.

Kylian Mbappé was a big reason why France won in 2018. He stood to be an even bigger reason why France won in 2022, had they done so. For the 1st 80 minutes of the Final, France did practically nothing in attack. They couldn't: Argentina just controlled the ball the whole way. There was no doubt in my mind that Argentina were the better team.

That said, it was a very rough game. Argentina have been accused of dirty tactics by the world's English-language media since their performance in England in 1966, and this game was no exception. Eventually, the French began replying with their own roughhousing.

I watched the game at Jack Doyle's, a bar in Midtown Manhattan, supporting France but surrounded by Argentina fans. A few of them had been in America long enough to get the joke, adapted from comedian Rodney Dangerfield's line about going to a prizefight: "I went to the World Cup, and a hockey game broke out!" The fact that this bar was only 2 blocks from Madison Square Garden deepened the connection.

Argentina's 1st goal was a penalty, given after an obvious dive by Ángel Di María. No surprise there, because he's spent most of his career at teams where cheating is the norm: Real Madrid, Manchester United, and was then with Juventus. Of course, the penalty was taken by their premier player, Messi.

It would have been hard to say Argentina cheated their way to victory, though, had the subsequent score of 2-0 held up: In the 36th minute, they had a strong setup, leading to a very nice goal by Di María, totally legit. "Ballgame," I said at the time. "France are not coming back from this."

And, until the 80th minute, it looked like I was right. But Randal Kolo Mouani was brought down in the box. That gave France a penalty and a lifeline. Mbappé took it and scored, and France had a chance. Just 1 minute later, Mbappé scored brilliantly from open play. It was 2-2. Argentina had blown a game they had controlled for its 1st 87 percent. As the old English soccer saying goes, "Two-nil, and they fucked it up!"

The last 10 minutes were nervy. And, as usual, given the heat and the injury stoppages, there were 8 minutes of stoppage time, but neither team could find a 3rd goal. On to extra time.

In the 108th minute, Messi fired. The ball crossed the goal line, but was kicked out by a France player before it could reach the back of the next. VAR (Video-Aided Refereeing) showed that the goal was complete, and it was properly awarded. Argentina, again, had it won.

Except, again, they didn't. A handball in the box by Gonzalo Montiel meant another penalty for France. Mbappé took it, and it was 3-3. After 123 minutes -- 134 minutes, counting all the stoppage time -- referee Szymon Marciniak of Poland blew his whistle, and this insane game was not over yet. It went to penalties.

France won the toss, and elected to kick first, against Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, of Aston Villa of Birmingham, England -- and, formerly, of Arsenal. There was no question that Mbappé was going to take the 1st one for them, even if it wouldn't be credited as a record-breaking 4th goal in a Final. He made it. Likewise, there was no question that the 1st Argentine to shoot toward Lloris would be Messi. He made it.

But in the 2nd Round, Martínez stopped Kingsley Coman. Paulo Dybala made it 2-1 Argentina. And then, after having a great tournament for France, Real Madrid's Aurélien Tchouaméni missed the net completely, shooting wide left. Leandro Parades made it 3-1. Kolo Muani converted to keep France going, but Montiel, a right back for Sevilla in the club game, converted to give Argentina the 4-2 win, and their 3rd World Cup.

And to give Lionel Messi the World Cup that had previously been denied to him, as he'd been with Argentina as they lost to Germany in penalties at the 2006 Quarterfinals; were knocked out by Germany in regular time at the 2010 Quarterfinals; lost to Germany yet again, in extra time, in the 2014 Final; and were knocked out by France in the Round of 16 in 2018. Finally, the "GOAT" (Greatest Of All Time) had removed the only doubt as to that title, by winning the biggest trophy of all, the one that had, until now, eluded him.

Pelé -- whose illness prevented his attendance at the World Cup for the 1st time since 1954, and who died before the month was out -- won 3 World Cups, was definitively the best player in the world longer than the debate between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo has raged; and, unlike Messi and Cristiano, never had to cheat, or to benefit from his teammates' cheating.

But Messi and Argentina had the World Cup. Although I didn't like the result, it was a great way to end a very shady tournament.

UPDATE: An article for ESPN.com, published after the 2026 World Cup, ranking all 23 tournaments, rated this one 11th, citing the shadiness of the background, but also the upsets, and the atmosphere brought by the fans of the upsetting teams.

*

December 18, 2022 was a Sunday. As crazy as the World Cup Final was, in America, it was, beyond any doubt, the craziest weekend in NFL history, and I have a separate entry for that.

There were no college football bowl games. Baseball was out of season. There were 7 games in that NBA that day: 

* The New York Knicks beat the Indiana Pacers, 109-106 at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

* The Brooklyn Nets beat the Detroit Pistons, 124-121 at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Boston Celtics, 95-92 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Toronto Raptors, 126-110 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Chicago Bulls, 150-126 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Charlotte Hornets, 119-115 at the Ball Arena in Denver.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Washington Wizards, 119-117 at the Crypto.com Arena.

And there were 5 games played in the NHL:

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the New York Rangers beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 7-1 at the United Center in Chicago. The Rangers pulled off the unusual feat of having 7 different scorers: Filip Chytil, Artemi Panarin, Kaapo Kakko, Jacob Trouba, Vincent Trochck, Vitali Kravtsov and Jonny Brodzinski.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2 at the PNC Arena (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the Ottawa Senators, 4-2 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

* The Calgary Flames beat the San Jose Sharks, 5-2 at the SAP Center in San Jose.

* And the Seattle Kraken beat the Winnipeg Jets, 3-2 at the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg.

November 26, 1942: "Casablanca" Premieres

November 26, 1942: Casablanca premieres at the Hollywood Theatre -- not in the Hollywood section, or any other section, of Los Angeles, but in New York. It is the greatest movie of all time.

No, Gone with the Wind is not the greatest. Nor is Citizen Kane. Nor is The Godfather. Nor is Star Wars (and certainly not The Empire Strikes Back).

Casablanca was based on Everybody Comes to Rick's, a play written in 1940 by Murray Burnett and Joan Allson, but not yet staged. It was written after the writers had visited Vienna in 1938, and saw what the Nazis were doing, including the refugee situation they were creating. They couldn't get anyone to produce the play, and sold it to the Warner Brothers film studio for $20,000 -- about $354,000 in today's money.

So the play was re-written by twin brothers Julius and Philip Epstein, and Howard Koch. (Philip's grandson is baseball executive Theo Epstein.) All 3 were Jewish New Yorkers.

The director was Michael Curtiz, a Hungarian Jew, although not a refugee: He came to America in 1926 because the Warner Brothers had been impressed with his work in the film industry in Germany's interwar Weimar Republic. He directed Errol Flynn in Captain Blood and The Adventures of Robin Hood. He directed James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy. He directed both Cagney and Humphrey Bogart in Angels with Dirty Faces. And he would later direct Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye in White Christmas. So he was equally at home with adventure films and musicals, and Casablanca has elements of both.

Casablanca is set in December 1941, apparently just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, in Casablanca, in French-controlled Morocco -- or, as Captain Renault called it, "Unoccupied France." In the film, as in real life, it was a link in a chain of refugee ports. People would flee their various European homelands as they were taken over by the Nazis, and arrive in North Africa.

The example cited at the beginning of the film: French people would take the train from the capital of Paris to the port city of Marseille; then a ferry across the Mediterranean Sea to Oran, in Algeria, then controlled by France; then, any way they could across the North African desert, on foot if they had to, to Casablanca.

From there, they would try to obtain an exit visa, or a letter of transit, to get on a plane from Casablanca to Lisbon, Portugal. (Like neighboring Spain, Portugal then had a fascist government; but, also like Spain, they were neutral in World War II, not aiding the Nazis, and did not turn refugees over to them.) And from Lisbon, they would get on a transport ship to America. But if they couldn't get an exit visa or a letter of transit, they were stuck in Casablanca, to be preyed upon by the city's price-gougers and con artists.

The major characters:

* Humphrey Bogart plays Rick Blaine, a New York native who, for a reason the film never reveals, cannot return to America. Although he says he is neutral in the war, Captain Renault reveals that Rick aided both Ethiopia when invaded by Fascist Italy in 1935, and the Spanish Republic when the Fascists started the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Rick says he got paid handsomely both times. Renault reminds him that the winning side would have paid him more, and accuses him of secretly being a sentimentalist.

Rick runs what he calls "a saloon," but is also a casino. He does well, and is respected by the refugees, some of whom he employs, one of whom is his girlfriend. But he is also willing to allow Nazi officials inside. He receives 2 letters of transit for safekeeping, because the man who had them had killed 2 Nazi officers to get them, and is soon himself arrested and killed in custody.

* Arthur "Dooley" Wilson plays Sam (his last name is never revealed), Rick's piano player, who had been with him in Paris as well. Although Sam is black, and calls Rick "Boss" to his face and "Mr. Rick" to others, Rick treats him as a friend, and trusts him completely -- to the point where he hides the letters of transit in Sam's piano. In real life, Wilson was a drummer, and had never played piano before, so he had to fake playing it. Elliot Carpenter played the piano for the soundtrack. He and Wilson were the only black people on the film's set.

* Claude Rains, an English actor, plays Captain Louis Renault, police prefect of Casablanca. He tries to stay out of politics: "I blow with the prevailing wind, and the prevailing wind is from Vichy." Meaning the Nazi-dominated new French government. He is the man who must decide whether to approve exit visas from the city, and, with women, is not above trading the exit visas for sex  -- something the film can only imply, due to the Hays Code. But Rick says Louis always keeps his word. And there have been times when Louis has had to close Rick's saloon, and Rick has had to bribe him to reopen it.

* Ingrid Bergman, a Swedish actress, plays Ilsa Lund, a Norwegian woman with a flair for languages. In a flashback sequence, we see Rick and Ilsa in love in Paris. He asks her why she is not already married. She says she was, but that her husband is dead. As the Nazis arrive in June 1940, they have to flee. At the last minute, just as Rick and Sam are to board the last train out of Paris to Marseille, Sam hands Rick a note from Ilsa: She can't come with him. 

* Paul Heinreid, an Austrian actor, plays Victor Laszlo, a Czech resistance fighter, who has escaped from a Nazi concentration camp, and is trying to reach America. He is Ilsa's husband, who had not been killed after all. And they show up at Rick's together.

* Conrad Veidt, a German actor with a Jewish wife, who rather enjoyed playing Nazis in order to make them look bad, plays Major Heinrich Strasser, the Nazi officer pursuing Laszlo.

Laszlo has been promised the letters of transit, to use for himself and Ilsa. Renault finds out that Rick and Ilsa used to be an item, and bets Rick 10,000 francs that he'll end up using the letters for himself and Ilsa, stealing Laszlo's wife and leaving him to the wolves.

Rick has a plan, which includes selling his casino to a rival, Signor Ferrari, played by British actor Sydney Greenstreet, with the promise to keep all his employees, including Sam, on at the same salary. In order for his plan to work, he has to let Renault -- and Ilsa -- think that Renault's prediction that he will sell Victor out is exactly what he's doing.

But when they get to the airport -- filmed at the Van Nuys airport outside Los Angeles, the only scene not filmed on a Hollywood soundstage -- Rick gives Laszlo the letters, and reveals that he's no longer neutral: He's on the Allies' side.

He then tells Ilsa to go with Victor, with the famous speech: "If that plane leaves the ground, and you're not on it, you'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life." She asks, "But what about us?" He says, "We'll always have Paris." And he closes by giving her the toast he used to deliver there: "Here's looking at you, kid."

As the plane is taxiing down the runway with the Laszlos aboard, Strasser arrives. He gets on the phone to air-traffic control to try to stop the plane. He and Rick shoot at each other, but, as Han Solo would in Star Wars, 35 years later, Rick shoots first, and kills him.

Renault discovers/recovers his patriotism as well, and covers for Rick, and tells him that the 10,000 francs he owes Rick will cover their escape expenses. As they walk off, not into a sunset like Western movie heroes but into a fog, the same fog into which the plane disappeared, Rick says, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

(UPDATE: In 2026, for the website Nofilmschool.com, Jason Hellerman reminded us that, when the film was released, not only was The War -- as my grandmother, 18 at the time of its release, taught me, always Capital T, Capital W -- still underway, but nobody yet knew how it would end. In November 1942, in all theaters of operations, the Axis was winning. Hellerman wrote: "I can picture audiences sitting in the dark while World War II raged, hearing words that perfectly captured the exhausting, morally gray reality of a world on fire." And he had a point: Nobody in the movie was all good, not even Ilsa. But, in the end, the people who had to do the right thing did it. Hellerman added, "They had to feel ignited by this movie and its message.")

The 10,000 francs that Rick and Louis had bet? In December 1941, that was worth considerably less than it sounds to current American ears: About $214, or about $4,200 today, 80 years later. Still not an amount you want to lose, if only for pride. In current French money? 3,965 euros.

For the record: Ilsa tells Sam, "Play it, Sam, for old times' sake. Play 'As Time Goes By.'" Later, Rick tells Sam, "You played it for her, you can play it for me. If she can take it, I can. Play it." He never says, "Play it again, Sam."

There was an urban legend that Ronald Reagan, then a rising star in Hollywood, was the original choice to play Rick. It wasn't true, and it probably came about due to the facts that Reagan went on to become President, and "casa blanca" is Spanish for "white house."

It would take until 1991 for Everybody Comes to Rick's to be staged, as written, anywhere in the world, in London, running for 6 weeks. That same year, the Hollywood Theatre in New York, having long since become the Mark Hellinger Theatre, became the new home of the Times Square Church. The address is 237 West 51st Street.

Given how much the characters smoked and drank in the movie, it's enough to make a viewer wonder how any of them survived to see the end of the war. Indeed, Conrad Veidt had a bad heart, and died in 1943, only 50 years old, 2 years and a few days short of V-E Day.

Humphrey Bogart also smoked himself to death, dying in 1957. He was preceded in death by Dooley Wilson, who died in 1953 from an undisclosed long-term illness. Sydney Greenstreet, who played secondary character Ferrari, and co-starred with Bogart in several films, most notably The Maltese Falcon, was well overweight, and died in 1954. Peter Lorre, who played Ugarte, the man who gave Rick the letters of transit, and who was also in The Maltese Falcon, died in 1964, which pretty much buried a plan to film a live-action version of The Lord of the Rings, with Lorre playing Gollum.

Claude Rains lived until 1967, Ingrid Bergman until 1982, and Paul Heinreid made it to 1992. The last living actor from Casablanca was Madeleine Lebeau, who played Yvonne, who starts the film as Rick's girlfriend and ends it as the French refugee who had tearfully sung along with Laszlo's leading of "La Marseillaise." She left us on May 1, 2016.

On March 18, 2021, following the premiere of his version of Justice League, I wrote on Facebook: "If Zack Snyder had directed Casablanca, Major Strasser would have flown the plane that dropped The Bomb on New York. If Joss Whedon had directed Casablanca, Strasser would have captured Ilsa and ordered her to strip."

A friend responded: "If Terence Malick directed, the entire thing would have been narrated in voiceover by Bogie, but filmed with him walking constantly with a Steadicam camera DIRECTLY BEHIND HIS HEAD. Intercut with shots of an empty airport field."

I suppose if Quentin Tarantino had directed it, there would have been a massive shootout at the airport, and the movie would have ended with Victor massaging Ilsa's feet on the plane.

*

November 26, 1942 was a Thursday. In America, it was Thanksgiving Day. What was actually going on in Casablanca at the time? Two weeks earlier, the Allies launched Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa -- in a manner of speaking, World War II's 1st "D-Day."

Among the Allied troops was the U.S. Third Army, commanded by General George S. Patton. Among those under his command was Sergeant George Goldberg, who later changed his name to George Golden, so his wife wouldn't have to deal with the anti-Semitism that he faced. He hated war, but he hated the Nazis as much as they hated the Jews. So he found himself a non-combat role, but a critical one: He was an Army stenographer, vital in getting communications through.

He rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant, came home, and became a commercial photographer, a New York taxi driver, a husband, a father, and a grandfather -- my grandfather.

The NFL didn't play games on Thanksgiving during World War II. But many college games were played:

* Virginia Tech played, but not against the University of Virginia: The Cavaliers had already finished their season the preceding Saturday. UVa and VT (or VPI, as Virginia Polytechnic Institute was then usually called ) did play on a holiday, but it was Halloween, and Tech won. On Thanksgiving, Tech played the Virginia Military Institute, beating them 20-6 at Victory Stadium in Roanoke.

* Elsewhere in Virginia, the College of William & Mary, ranked Number 19 beat the University of Richmond, 10-0 at City Stadium in Richmond.

* Wake Forest beat South Carolina, 33-14 on more or less neutral ground at American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.

* Louisiana State beat arch-rival Tulane, 18-6 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

* Missouri beat arch-rival Kansas, 42-13 at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Missouri.

* The University of Tulsa came in ranked Number 6, and beat Arkansas, 40-7 at Skelly Field in Tulsa. They rose to Number 4, before losing the Sugar Bowl to Tennessee.

* Number 18 Texas beat Texas A&M, 12-6 at Memorial Stadium in Austin.

* The University of Cincinnati beat arch-rival Miami University of Oxford, Ohio, 21-12 at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati. 

* In those days, Colorado had a major rival, but it wasn't Colorado State or Nebraska. It was the University of Denver. On Thanksgiving Day 1942, Colorado beat Denver, 31-6 at DU Stadium in Denver. That stadium hosted the DU program from 1926 until its suspension in 1960, and also hosted home games for the Air Force Academy from 1955 to 1961, and 1 home game for the Denver Broncos in their expansion season of 1960. It was torn down in 1971.

* Also in the Rocky Mountains, the University of Utah beats the University of Idaho, 13-7 at Ute Stadium in Salt Lake City.

However, most teams, including Rutgers, had already finished their seasons the preceding Saturday. Most of those that didn't played the following Saturday, including Notre Dame, who beat USC in Los Angeles; and Boston College, who blew a shot at the National Championship by getting clobbered by their arch-rivals in that era, Holy Cross. But that led to the cancellation of a victory party at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, which caught fire and killed nearly 500 people.

Baseball was out of season, and there was no NBA yet. But there was NHL action, with four of the "Original Six" in action. It's worth noting that Canada does have a holiday named Thanksgiving Day, but it's in mid-October. For that reason, the NHL's 2 Canadian teams, the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs, saw no reason to play on the day.

The Detroit Red Wings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. And the New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 2-1 at the Chicago Stadium. The Ranger goals are scored by Lynn Patrick, son of general manager Lester Patrick; and Clint Smith, who lived until 2009, thus making him the last survivor of not just this game, but of the Rangers' 1940 Stanley Cup winners. 

November 8, 1942: Operation Torch: D-Day In North Africa

November 8, 1942: Operation Torch is launched, the Allied invasion of Nazi-held North Africa in World War II. Landing points include several points in Morocco, including Casablanca; and the Algerian cities of Algiers and Oran. At the time, Morocco and Algeria were French colonies, but were heavily influenced by Nazi-controlled "Vichy France."

The invasion is planned by Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who would learn from both the successes and mistakes of Operation Torch a year and a half later, when planning the Allied invasion of Western Europe, codenamed Operation Overlord, a.k.a. "D-Day."

By Thanksgiving Day, November 26, the Allies were in control of Morocco. On that day, the film Casablanca premiered, set in early December 1941, right before America entered The War due to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Among the American soldiers stationed in Casablanca at the time was Sergeant George Goldberg, later to rename himself George Golden, my future grandfather. A Yankee Fan from The Bronx, he was nominally Jewish, but hated organized religion, believing it to be the cause of all human strife. But, as they were determined to wipe the Jews off the face of the Earth, he hated the Nazis more than he hated religion, and enlisted.

Grandpa was a photographer in civilian life, and my mother once showed me some pictures he'd taken in the service. One showed a very tall French general, conferring with 2 of his officers. Grandpa may not have known who the general was, but, clearly, he was a man of some importance. It turned out to be Charles de Gaulle. If a soldier tried to take a picture of an army's commanding officer like that today, he'd be in big trouble.

Grandpa also served with the invading U.S. Army in Italy. In both cases, his ultimate commanding officer --- aside, of course, from his Commander-in-Chief, President Franklin D. Roosevelt -- was Major General, later Lieutenant General, George S. Patton, "Old Blood and Guts."

Also on this day, Ángel Tomás Cordero Jr. is born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, the same hometown as Roberto Clemente. The 1st Puerto Rican elected to the United States Racing Hall of Fame, the son of renowned jockey and horse trainer Angel Cordero Sr. won 7,057 races, including the Kentucky Derby in 1974, 1976 and 1985; the Preakness Stakes in 1980 and 1984; the Belmont Stakes in 1976; 4 Breeders' Cup races, 3 Jockey Club Gold Cups, and an Arlington Million. He is still alive.

He came into controversy at the 1980 Preakness. He was riding Codex, and came upon Genuine Risk, who, 2 weeks earlier, had become the 1st filly in 65 years to win the Kentucky Derby. Jacinto Vásquez, Genuine Risk's Panamanian jockey and, as a fellow Hispanic, something of a rival to Cordero, got a little too close. Cordero nudged Codex over and bumped Genuine Risk, affecting the outcome of the race. Don't judge Cordero too harshly: Vásquez later got involved in some shady things, while this remained the only blot on Cordero's career.

*

November 8, 1942 was a Sunday. Baseball season was over. The NBA wasn't founded yet. But there were 2 games played in the NHL. The Chicago Black Hawks and the Detroit Red Wings played to a 3-3 tie at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

And the New York Rangers lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 10-4 at the Montreal Forum. Among the Canadiens players who scored was a rookie with his 1st NHL goal. His name was Maurice Richard. There would be 543 more.

And there were 5 games played in the NFL:

* The New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 14-0 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The NFL version of the Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Chicago Bears, 35-0 at Ebbets Field.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Chicago Cardinals, 28-0 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Cleveland Rams, 30-12 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Rams would win the NFL Championship in 1945, but, due to low attendance, moved to Los Angeles the next season.

* And the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Detroit Lions, 35-7 at Briggs Stadium (later renamed Tiger Stadium) in Detroit.

Also on this day, Alessandro Mazzola is born in Turin, Italy, where his father, Valentino Mazzola, was a star with soccer team Torino, but died with most of his teammates in a plane crash in 1949, known as the Superga Disaster.

Sandro and his brother, Ferruccio Mazzola, overcame the loss of their father, and both played top-flight calcio (what the Italians call soccer). Ferruccio (1945-2013) was a midfielder for several teams, helping Rome club Lazio win its 1st Serie A (national league) title in 1974, alongside future New York Cosmos star Giorgio Chinaglia.

Sandro Mazzola was an attacking midfielder who played 17 seasons for Internazionale Milano, leading La Grande Inter to league titles in 1963, 1965, 1966 and 1971, and the European Cup in 1964 and 1965. He and Ferruccio were briefly teammates in 1967, when Inter again reached the European Cup Final, losing to Celtic. Between them, the father and 2 sons won 10 league titles.

Sandro helped Italy win Euro 1968, but they lost the Final of the 1970 World Cup, because the manager, Ferruccio Valcareggi, could never find a way to put the 2 great Milan-based stars of the era, Sandro Mazzola of Inter and Gianni Rivera of AC Milan, together in the same lineup. Sandro also played in the 1966 and 1974 World Cups. Sandro became a commentator for Italian network RAI, including for Italy's wins in the 1982 and 2006 World Cups, and is still active in that role.

October 28, 1949: Marcel Cerdan's Plane Crash

October 28, 1949: A Lockheed Constellation crashes in the Azores islands off the coast of Portugal, a refueling stop on the regular route from Paris to New York. All 48 people on board are killed, including Marcel Cerdan, former Middleweight Champion of the World. The man known as the Moroccan Bomber and the Casablanca Clouter was only 33 years old.

He was born on July 22, 1916 in Sidi Bel Abbès, in Algeria, then a colony of France, giving him French citizenship. Both of his parents had gone there from Spain. He grew up in Casablanca, Morocco, and won the French welterweight title in 1938. With World War II on, he won the Inter-Allied Championship in 1944, making him, effectively, the welterweight champion of Europe.

He moved up in weight class, and won the Middleweight Championship of the World by knocking out Tony Zale at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City on September 21, 1948. He lost the title in his 1st defense, against Jake LaMotta at Briggs Stadium (later renamed Tiger Stadium) in Detroit on June 16, 1949, as he had to drop out of the fight due to a dislocated shoulder.

It was only fair that he get a rematch, and the contract was signed. He was flying from Paris to New York to prepare for his rematch with "the Raging Bull" when his plane crashed. His career record was an amazing 113-4, although it should be noted that nearly all his fights were against Europeans, not exactly the best of competition.

Louis Raftis played him in Martin Scorcese's 1980 film about LaMotta, Raging Bull. In 1983, Marcel Cerdan Jr. played his father in the French film Edith et Marcel, which told of the affair Cerdan Sr. had with the legendary French singer Edith Piaf, played by Evelyn Bouix. In 2007, Jean-Pierre Martins played him opposite Marion Cotillard in her Oscar-winning role as Piaf in La Vie en Rose.

*

October 28, 1949 was a Friday. Also on this day, William Bruce Jenner was born in Tarrytown, Westchester County, New York. Bruce won the decathlon at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, becoming an international hero and the best-remembered man on the Wheaties cereal box.

But he became better-known as the weird, desperately trying to hang onto his youth husband of Kris Jenner; the stepfather of Kim, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian; and the father of Burton and Cassandra Jenner with 1st wife Chrystie Crownover; Brandon and Brody Jenner with 2nd wife Linda Thompson; and Kendall and Kylie Jenner with Kris.

In 2014, he and Kris split up. In 2015, he decided to accept the reality of his identity, and made the transition to a woman. She now calls herself Caitlyn Marie Jenner, or "Cait," and has faced both praise for her courage and anger from people who are too bigoted to understand.

Unfortunately, she has also supported Donald Trump, who probably loved Bruce, but hates people like Cait. In 2018, she finally admitted that it was wrong for gay people, or transgender people like herself, to have supported Trump, since he has taken official actions against them.

Also on this day, John Prescott McGovern was born in Montrose, Scotland. A midfielder, he played for manager Brian Clough at Hartlepool United, Derby County, Leeds United and Nottingham Forest. Buying him from Derby was Clough's last-ditch attempt to hang onto the Leeds job, which he lost after only 44 days.

Otherwise, McGovern was one of Clough's golden boys, helping him get the other 3 clubs promoted to the Football League Division One. Together, they won the League at both Derby in 1972 and their East Midlands arch-rivals Forest in 1978. Forest also won the Anglo-Scottish Cup in 1977, the League Cup in 1978 and 1979, and, with McGovern as Captain, the European Cup in 1979 and 1980. They are the only English team to win the European Cup, now called the UEFA Champions League, more than they've won the English top flight.

Despite his success as a Captain, he was unsuccessful as a manager, starting in the 1982-83 and 1983-84 seasons as a player-manager with Lancashire club Bolton Wanderers. His most recent job was with Ilkeston Town in Derbyshire in 2001. He now works as a club ambassador for Forest, and a pundit on Radio Nottingham. He is a member of the Scottish Football Hall of Fame.

Baseball season had ended 19 days earlier, when the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers to win the World Series. The NBA season started the next day. The NHL season was underway, but no games were scheduled. There were 3 college football games played:

* Villanova beat Boston College, 28-14 at Alumni Field outside Boston in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

* George Washington University beat Lafayette, 14-7 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* And the University of Detroit beat Oklahoma State, 13-7 at Titan Stadium in Detroit.

And 1 game was played in the All-America Football Conference: The Los Angeles Dons beat the Chicago Hornets, 24-14 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

October 23, 1995: Def Leppard Play 3 Concerts on 3 Continents in 30 Hours

Left to right: Rick Savage, Vivian Campbell,

Phil Collen, Rick Allen, Joe Elliott

October 23, 1995: English heavy metal band Def Leppard, having released their greatest hits album Vault, decided to mark the occasion by playing three acoustic shows on three different continents on the same day, as a special "Vaulting The World" publicity event.

"It was the band’s idea to do something weird and wacky," lead singer Joe Elliott said, as the band boarded a plane at London's Gatwick Airport ahead of the 2 hour, 45 minute flight to Tangier, Morocco in Africa for their first gig of the whirlwind tour at Hercules Cave. (The city is officially "Tangier," but "Tangiers" is sometimes also used.)

"We haven't actually had the chance to nail this person's head to a coffee table yet who actually came up with this three gigs in one day lark," Elliott later said. "But, I mean, it is a challenge, and we do like a bit of a challenge."

The quintet’s second gig took place at the Bottom Line club in West London, with Leppard playing "Little Wing" by Jimi Hendrix, "Ziggy Stardust" by David Bowie, and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by The Rolling Stones, along with their own hits "Animal," "Two Steps Behind" and "Pour Some Sugar On Me."

The same three covers, plus a set-closing run through T. Rex's "Bang A Gong (Get It On)," featured in the band’s final show of the day, at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. With that show starting at 10:45 PM local time, Leppard technically played their 3 shows in 30 hours. But, as the time difference meant it was 6:45 AM in London, the record of 3 concerts on 3 continents in 1 day was allowed to stand.

"The audience was stunning," Elliott said of the Vancouver crowd. "It was like Beatlemania, with people moshing - moshing! - during our acoustic set."

"Would we do it all again?" the singer asked, rhetorically, with the record in the bag. "Yes. Would I do it all again next week? No fucking way."

*

October 23, 1995 was a Monday. It was an off-day between Games 2 and 3 of the World Series, which the Atlanta Braves would win in 6 games over the Cleveland Indians. On ABC Monday Night Football, the New England Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills, 27-14 at Foxboro Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

The NBA season started 11 days later. There were 2 games played in the NHL. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Los Angeles Kings, 6-3 at the Montreal Forum. And the Colorado Avalanche beat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 3-1 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

June 24, 1904: The Perdicaris Affair

Ion Perdicaris

June 24, 1904: What had become known as the Perdicaris Affair is resolved.

Ion Hanford Perdicaris was born in Athens, Greece in 1840, and grew up in Trenton, New Jersey. He became a journalist, and fought for the rights of the Moorish people in Morocco, then a French colony. In the 1870s, he and his wife Ellen established Place of the Nightingales, an estate in the Moroccan city of Tangier.

Mulai Ahmed er Raisuni -- for some reason, his name was usually written as "Raisuli" in the English-language press -- was born in Zinat, Morocco in 1871. He was a leader of the Jebala tribal confederacy in Morocco. Typical of nonwhite leaders of his time, he was viewed by his own people as a heroic figure, fighting against a tyrannical government of outsiders; and by the rest of the world as a villainous barbarian. 

Mulai Ahmed er Raisuni

The mansion on the Perdicaris estate was raided by 200 bandits on May 18, 1904. Ion and his stepson Cromwell Varley were kidnapped by Raisuni and brought to the mountains. Perdicaris broke his leg during the ordeal.

U.S. Consul Samuel R. Gummeré alerted the U.S. government about the incident. Ion was in the mountains for several weeks. Perdicaris and the kidnapper became very good friends, and the incident is regarded as an example of Stockholm syndrome. Raisuni demanded a ransom $70,000 -- about $2.3 million in 2022 money -- from the U.S. government.

Theodore Roosevelt had become President upon the assassination of William McKinley in 1901. To that point, no Vice President who had become President had ever won a term of his own. And, at the time, he was very popular, but it was hardly a given that he would win.

But the Perdicaris Affair played right into his hands. The Republican Party pushed the slogan "Perdicaris Alive or Raisuli Dead!" Due to Perdicaris' political background and wealth, by May 30, Roosevelt had sent the U.S. Navy's South Atlantic Squadron to Morocco.

The Republican National Convention began on June 21, 1904, at the Chicago Coliseum. Roosevelt was nominated for a full term. Senator Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana was nominated for Vice President. Secretary of State John Hay did not speak at the Convention, but he sent a message to it, read on June 22 by the Convention Chairman, the Speaker of the House, Joseph Cannon of Illinois. The message was the established slogan: "This government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuni dead." The delegates roared their approval.

What no one at the Convention yet knew was that the ransom had been paid. When the Convention adjourned on June 24, Perdicaris and Varley were already back at Place of the Nightingales. Everybody had gotten what they wanted: Roosevelt and the Republicans -- and Raisuli (and Varley) -- had gotten Perdicaris (and Varley) alive, and the political goodwill that came from it; while Raisuni had gotten his money and the prestige that had come from standing up to America.

The Democratic Party had its Convention at the St. Louis Music and Exposition Hall from July 6 to 10. They nominated perhaps the most obscure major-party nominee ever: Alton B. Parker, the Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals. With the popularity he already had, the successful resolution of the Perdicaris Affair, and the Democrats running a candidate that one historian called "colorless," Theodore Roosevelt won a landslide victory.

In 1910, Ion and Ellen Perdicaris moved to London. Ellen died in 1920, Ion in 1925. His Place of the Nightingales has become a public park. Cromwell Varley died in 1934.

In 1913, Raisuni led several Rif tribes in a bloody revolt against the Spanish, and continued a protracted guerilla war against them. His men were finally defeated in 1919, although Raisuni and most of his troops managed to slip away. After having been reported dead in 1914 and 1923, he was finally captured in 1925, and died of edema in captivity.

The film The Wind and the Lion was released in 1975. Sean Connery played Raisuli, but, to add a hint of "romance" to it, the character of Ion Perdicaris was changed to a woman, Eden Pedecaris, played by Candice Bergen. Brian Keith played Roosevelt, John Huston played Hay, and Geoffrey Lewis played Gummeré.

*

June 24, 1904 was a Friday. Phil Harris was born, leader of a "Big Band," music director for The Jack Benny Program, and husband of actress-singer Alice Faye.

These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Highlanders, forerunners of the Yankees, beat the Washington Senators, 5-3 at American League Park in Washington.

* The New York Giants beat the Boston Beaneaters, forerunners of the Braves, 5-3 at the South End Grounds in Boston. "Iron" Joe McGinnity beat Irvin "Kaiser" Wilhelm.

* The Brooklyn Superbas, forerunners of the Dodgers, beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 at Washington Park in Brooklyn.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Boston Americans, forerunners of the Red Sox, 8-4 at Columbia Park in Philadelphia.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-0 at Bennett Park in Detroit. Nick Altrock pitched a 4-hit shutout.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-1 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. Patsy Flaherty outpitched Kid Nichols. Honus Wagner went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* And the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the St. Louis Browns and the Cleveland Naps -- forerunners of the Indians and the Guardians -- were not scheduled.

February 17, 2017: A Soccer Lineup From 11 Different Countries

February 17, 2017: Granada Club de Fútbol play Seville-based Real Betis, at Nuevo Estadio de Los Cármenes in Granada, in Andalusia in southern Spain. This game, in Spain's La Liga, is a milestone: Granada fielded players from 11 different countries. No two of their players came from the same country. This is believed to be the first time it has ever happened in any soccer league, anywhere in the world. Here is the lineup:

Goalkeeper: Number 13, Guillermo Ochoa, Mexico.

Right Back: 25, Sverrir Ingi Ingason, Iceland.

Left Back: 3, Gastón Silva, Uruguay.

Centerback: 23, Héctor Hernández (known by just his first name), Spain

Centerback: 22, Dmitri Foulquier, France, the team's Captain.

Central Midfielder: 5 Uche Agbo (also known by just his first name), Nigeria.

Right Midfielder: 29, Martin Hongla, Cameroon.

Left Midfielder: 8, Mubarak Wakaso, Ghana.

Center Forward: 18, Andreas Pereira, Brazil

Right Wing: 16, Mehdi Carcela, Morocco.

Left Wing: 7, Adrián Ramos, Colombia.

That's 11 different players, from 11 different countries, and from 4 different continents: 4 from Africa, 3 from Europe, 3 from South America, and 1 from North America.

And it worked: Carcela scored in the 18th minute. Ramos scored in the 28th. Pereira scored in the 33rd, and Granada went into halftime up 3-0. Ramos scored again in the 64th. There was a fight in the 66th minute, and both Pereira and Matías Nahuel of Betis were sent off, leaving both teams to finish the game with 10 men. Brazilian player Petros got a consolation goal in the 75th, and it ended 4-1 to Granada.

It was the highlight of the season for Granada. They had already fired manager Paco Jémez early in the season. His successor, Lucas Alcaraz, was no better, as they won only 1 of their 15 remaining La Liga games, and were relegated. Alcaraz was fired on April 10, and former Arsenal Captain Tony Adams managed their last 7 games, all losses.

Granada were promoted back to La Liga in 2019. Jémez now manages U.D. Ibiza in Spain's 2nd division, Alcaraz manages Olympiakos Nicosia in Cyprus' 1st division, and Adams has never managed again.

(UPDATE: Granada were relegated again in 2022. Jémez now manages a team in Iran's 1st division. Oddly, Alcaraz succeeded Jémez as manager in Ibiza. As of the conclusion of the 2024-25 season, Adams, one of the greatest centrebacks of his generation, still has never managed since being fired by Granada in 2017.)

*

February 17, 2017 was a Friday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA was in its All-Star Break. There were 3 games played in the NHL:

* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 2-1 at the PNC Arena (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh. Mikko Rantanen scored the winning goal with 37 seconds left in overtime.

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2-1 at the Nationwide Arena in in Columbus. Brandon Dubinsky scored the winning goal with 3:56 left in overtime.

* And the Florida Panthers beat the Anaheim Ducks, 4-1 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.