November 25, 1901: Gustav Mahler's 5th Symphony Premieres

November 25, 1901: Symphony No. 4 in G major, by Gustav Mahler, premieres at the Kaim-Saal, a concert hall in Munich, Germany. Felix Weingartner was the conductor, chosen by the composer.

This work was so highly anticipated that not only did cities compete for the right to host the premiere, Vienna losing out to Munich, but other conductors practically begged Mahler for the right to conduct it, including Richard Strauss, composer of Also Sprach Zarathustra (the theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey). But Mahler, himself one of the world's leading living conductors at the time, had promised it to Weingartner, feeling too anxious to do it himself.

Mahler was born on July 7, 1860 in Kaliště, in what was then the Austrian Empire, and is now in Czechia, a.k.a. the Czech Republic. Raised in nearby Jihlava by German-speaking Jewish parents, he graduated from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878.

From 1880 onward, he held a succession of conducting posts of rising importance in the opera houses of Europe, culminating in his appointment in 1897 as director of the Vienna Court Opera, the Hofoper, converting to Catholicism to secure the post. He still faced anti-Semitism from newspaper coverage of his music. He was noted for conducting the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Wagner (still alive when he began working, living until 1883), and Pyotr Tchiakovsky (who lived on until 1893).

Deryck Cooke and other analysts have divided Mahler's composing life into three distinct phases: a long "first period", extending from Das klagende Lied in 1880 to the end of the Wunderhorn phase in 1901; a "middle period" of more concentrated composition ending with Mahler's departure for New York in 1907; and a brief "late period" of elegiac works before his death from heart trouble on May 18, 1911, at the age of 50.

For much of his life, composing was necessarily a part-time activity while he earned his living as a conductor. Aside from early works such as a movement from a piano quartet composed when he was a student in Vienna, Mahler's works are generally designed for large orchestral forces, symphonic choruses and operatic soloists.

These works were frequently controversial when first performed, and several were slow to receive critical and popular approval. Exceptions included Second Symphony, in 1895; and his Eighth Symphony, in 1910. I suppose I could joke that he's the reverse of Ludwig van Beethoven: His better symphonies are the even-numbered ones.

Indeed, even the Fourth Symphony was controversial: Its premiere in Munich got mixed reviews. Its Berlin premiere, a few days later, and its Vienna premiere, early in 1902, was even more harshly treated. But its premieres in America in 1904 and Britain in 1905 were very well received, and helped to restore his reputation.

Late in his life he was briefly director of New York's Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic. While in his lifetime, his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect, which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era.

After 1945, his compositions were rediscovered by a new generation of listeners. He then became one of the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers, a position he has sustained into the 21st Century. The musicologist Donald Mitchell believed the Fourth and its accessibility were largely responsible for the postwar rise in Mahler's popularity.

The Kaim-Saal no longer stands: It was destroyed in the Allied bombing of Munich in 1944.

*

November 25, 1901 was a Monday. There were no scores on this historic day: Baseball was out of season, football was in midweek, basketball barely existed, and hockey season was a few days away.

November 9, 1923: The Beer Hall Putsch

Center: Ludendorff. To the immediate right: Hitler.

November 9, 1923: An attempt is made to overthrow the government of the German state of Bavaria. It doesn't go so well. The man behind it doesn't truly pay for it, and gets to try again. He succeeds, on a far larger scale.

After its defeat in what is now known as World War I, Germany fell into chaos. The Weimar Republic straightened things out for a while, but by 1923, the payments of reparations to the countries that Germany had attacked in the war, and payments due on the borrowing done to finance their part in the war, had become so hard to make, the currency fell into hyperinflation, becoming just about worthless.

For much of the year, Germany, one of the largest countries in the world, with more people than any other on the European continent (except Russia, which straddled Europe and Asia), essentially had no economy. The Republic had to scrap the old currency: On October 15, 1923, the parliament, the Reichstag, issued a decree that the Reichsmark would be replaced by the Rentenmark on November 16.

That stabilized the German economy, until the worldwide stock market crashes of 1929. But on November 8, nobody knew for sure that the stabilization would happen. People were still worried. Many believed more drastic measures needed to be taken.

Many of those belonged to the National Socialist German Workers' Party -- Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or NSDAP. Or, "Nationalsozialistische" shortened to "Nazi." They were led by Adolf Hitler, a 34-year-old World War I veteran and failed painter; and a former General, Erich Ludendorff.

Note: If you saw the 2017 film Wonder Woman, in which the titular superheroine killed Ludendorff in the closing days of World War I, keep in mind that the film is a work of fiction. They didn't use the heroine as a stand-in for how he really died. In real life, Ludendorff survived that war, and lived on until 1937, having seen the Nazis come to power.

On November 8, inspired by the previous year's fascist March On Rome, about 600 Nazi Party members marched into the Bürgerbräukeller (Citizen brew cellar) in Munich, the capital of the state of Bavaria. Hitler fired a shot into the ceiling, and jumped on a chair, yelling: "The national revolution has broken out! The hall is surrounded by six hundred men. Nobody is allowed to leave." He went on to state that the Bavarian government was deposed, and declared the formation of a new government with Ludendorff. He got a big cheer from the people who were already inside.

At around 3:00 AM on November 9, some of Hitler's men left the beer hall, in an attempt to reach the nearby barracks, and thus get some weapons, of the Reichswehr (Army). Except the army was waiting for them, and fired some shots. No one was killed, but it was a sign that the putsch was doomed to fail.

In the morning, Hitler ordered the seizure of the Munich City Council as hostages. It didn't happen. By mid-morning, it was clear that the putsch was going nowhere. Ludendorff cried out, "We will march!" Now having about 2,000 men, they did:  Ludendorff led them to the Bavarian Defense Ministry. But the army was in the way, and fire was exchanged, killing 16 Nazis and 4 state police officers.

Hitler escaped immediate arrest, and was spirited off to safety in the countryside. After 2 days, he was found, arrested, and charged with treason. He was found guilty, and, on April 1, 1924, he was sentenced to 5 years in Landsberg Prison.

Five years. For treason.

While there, he dictated what became his book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle) to fellow prisoners. On December 20, 1924, having served only 9 months, he was released. This turned out to be a very bad idea. Once released, Hitler redirected his focus towards obtaining power through legal means, rather than by revolution or force, and accordingly changed his tactics.

On January 30, 1933, with the Great Depression at its lowest point, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg, and proclaimed the Third Reich -- as he put it, "The Thousand Year Reich." It lasted 12 years, and caused a war that killed 75 million people.

November 9 has become Germany's "Day of Destiny": On that date, in 1918, the Kaiser abdicated and the 1st German Republic was proclaimed; in 1923, the Beer Hall Putsch failed; in 1938, Kristallnacht was carried out by the Nazis; and in 1989, the Berlin Wall was rendered legally moot.

*

November 9, 1923 was a Friday. Baseball was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season didn't start until December 15. There was 1 college football game on this day: Clemson beat Davidson, 12-0 at Riggs Field in Calhoun, South Carolina.

September 30, 1938: The Munich Agreement

September 30, 1938: The Munich Agreement is reached. Terrified of what another continent-wide war would mean, just 20 years after the conclusion of "The Great War" -- which we now know as World War I -- Britain and France abandon their ally Czechoslovakia, and cave in to Nazi Germany's demand for the western part of that country, the Sudetenland, which was mostly ethnically and linguistically German.

This was "appeasement," and most of Europe celebrated it at the time, because it meant peace, following nearly a month of the Nazis, led by Chancellor Adolf Hitler, saying they would invade and take the Sudetenland, and that if Britain and France, their enemies in the previous war, tried to stop them, it would mean war again.

The 4 years of war, 1914 to 1918, were unbearable on both sides. Hitler was willing to risk it, even though his country had suffered more than Britain and France had. Britain and France were not willing to risk it.

Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of Britain, had gone to Munich to negotiate. He returned to London, got off the plane at Heston Aerodrome, and immediately met the press, saying:

The settlement of the Czechoslovak problem, which has now been achieved is, in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace.

This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler. And here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. 

He held up the document for all to see. It would have been heavily symbolic if it had blown away in the wind. He returned to 10 Downing Street, the traditional residence for the Prime Minister, and said:

My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.

The words are usually incorrectly listed as "peace in our time." But Hitler, having watched the later newsreel of Chamberlain's return, told his inner circle that the piece of paper meant nothing. In that, at the least, he was honest: In March 1939, he took the entirety of Czechoslovakia, and the British people, including Chamberlain himself, knew Chamberlain had been duped.

Time magazine named Hitler its Man of the Year for 1938. Many subscribers protested, demanding an explanation for giving Hitler the honor. Owner Henry Luce reminded them that it wasn't an honor, just a recognition that this was the person who had most affected the news during the calendar year.

On September 1, 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland. Two days later, Chamberlain asked Parliament for a declaration of war. France followed suit. To this day, it is debated whether the extra year gave Britain the time they needed to build up their defenses. Even if it did, it also gave Germany time to build up theirs. Would Britain and France have beaten Germany had the war started in October 1938, like it looked like it might? We'll never know.

In May 1940, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium fell. Chamberlain resigned in disgrace. Winston Churchill became the new Prime Minister. In June, France fell. It might not have mattered, in Chamberlain's case: He had cancer. Before the year was out, he was dead, and Nazi planes were bombing London and the other major cities in Britain.

Britain hung on long enough for America to get into the war in December 1941. By May 1945, the Nazis were defeated, and Hitler was dead.

But, in the years to come, "appeasement" would be the cry of anyone who wanted war rather than a "dishonorable" peace. Nowhere would this be a bigger problem for America than in Vietnam. In 1972, with the Vietnam War still going, "Munich" ceased to mean the appeasement of 1938. It now meant the massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the Olympics. So when the War On Terror and the Iraq War came along, America's warmongers couldn't use "Munich" as a code word any longer.

*

September 30, 1938 was a Friday. There were 5 games played in what would later be called Major League Baseball:

* A doubleheader was split at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Reds won the 1st game, 7-1. The Pittsburgh Pirates won the 2nd game, 4-2.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the St. Louis Browns, 7-5 in the opener of a doubleheader at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The nightcap was 3-3 after 8 innings, before being called due to darkness.

* And the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals were tied, 7-7 after 9 innings at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, when that game was called due to darkness.

September 9, 1972: The Soviets Steal the Basketball Gold Medal

September 9, 1972: The most blatant cheating in sports history takes place -- at least, until Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" goal in the 1986 World Cup.

Basketball was first competed for in the Olympic Games in 1936 in Berlin. And, each time, the American team had won the Gold Medal:

* 1936 in Berlin, Germany: Beat the Philippines by 33, Mexico by 15, Canada by 11. Keep in mind, this was still when the game was at an early stage. The margins would get bigger.

* 1948 in London, Great Britain: Beat Switzerland by 65, Czechoslovakia by 25, Argentina by 2 (even then, Argentina were good), Egypt by 34, Peru by 28, Uruguay by 35, Mexico by 31, France by 44.

* 1952 in Helsinki, Finland: Beat Hungary by 18, Czechoslovakia by 25, Uruguay by 12, the Soviet Union by 28, Chile by 48, Brazil by 4 (even then, Brazil were good), Argentina by 9, and, in the Gold Medal Game, the Soviets again by 11. This was the 1st Games in which the Soviets competed. Clearly, they were as good at basketball as any other European country. But no country was as good as the U.S.

* 1956 in Melbourne, Australia, with a team that included Bill Russell and K.C. Jones: Beat Japan by 58, Thailand by 72, the Philippines by 68, Bulgaria by 41, Brazil by 62, the Soviets by 30, Uruguay by 63, and the Soviets again by 34.

* 1960 in Rome, Italy. This was the original "Dream Team," the finest basketball team that had ever been assembled, and would remain so until Los Angeles in 1984, before Barcelona in 1992 set what may be an impossible standard. This team had Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Jerry Lucas, Darrall Imhoff and Walt Bellamy, all of whom made the Basketball Hall of Fame long before the entire team was elected. This team was so good (How good was it?), future Hall-of-Famer John Havlicek only made it as an alternate.

They beat host Italy by 34 (and Italy usually has a strong league and a good national team), Japan by 59, Hungary by 34, Yugoslavia by 62, Uruguay by 58, and the Soviets by 24. 

* 1964 in Tokyo, Japan, with a team that included Bill Bradley, Walt Hazzard, Luke Jackson, and future coaching legend Larry Brown, who was a pretty good player: Beat Australia by 33, Finland by 26, Peru by 15, Uruguay by 55, Yugoslavia by 8 (they were beginning to get good), Brazil by 33, South Korea by 66, Puerto Rico by 20 (they have a national team separate from America's), and the Soviets by 14.

* 1968 in Mexico City, Mexico. This one was complicated by the fact that some of the country's best college players were boycotting the team, in response to America's racial inequities. These included Lew Alcindor (who later renamed himself Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and his UCLA teammates, and Elvin Hayes of the University of Houston. This U.S. team still had Spencer Haywood, Jo Jo White, Charlie Scott, and Bill Hosket, who became a reserve on the New York Knicks' title team of 1970.

And they were strong enough to beat Spain by 35, Senegal by 57, the Philippines by 21, Yugoslavia by 15, Panama by 35, Italy by 39, Puerto Rico by 5, Brazil by 12, and Yugoslavia by 15. The Yugoslavs had beaten the Soviets by 1 point in the Semifinal.

*

In 1972, in Munich, West Germany, America's best player, Bill Walton, didn't play. Hank Iba, the legendary coach of Oklahoma State, insisted that every player who wanted to be on the team had to try out. Walton, who had just led UCLA to a National Championship as a sophomore, believed he was good enough to not have to try out.

These players did try out, and did make it (listed here in alphabetical order):

* Mike Bantom, of St. Joseph's of Philadelphia, who later helped the Philadelphia 76ers reach the 1982 NBA Finals.

* Jim Brewer, who starred at the University of Illinois, and became a member of the 1982 NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers.

* Tom Burleson, who later helped North Carolina State win the 1974 National Championship, and played 7 seasons in the NBA.

* Kenny Davis, an NAIA All-American at Georgetown -- the one in Kentucky, not the one in D.C.

* Doug Collins, a star at Illinois State, who later helped the 76ers reach 3 NBA Finals, then became a decent coach, and a Hall of Fame broadcaster.

* James Forbes, of Texas-El Paso (UTEP), who never played in either the NBA or the ABA, but went back home to El Paso and became a renowned high school coach.

* Tom Henderson, of the University of Hawaii, later a member of the 1978 NBA Champion Washington Bullets.

* Bobby Jones, who helped North Carolina reach the 1972 NCAA Final Four, reached the 1976 ABA Finals with the Denver Nuggets, and reached 3 NBA Finals with the 76ers, winning in 1983. They retired his Number 24.

* Dwight Jones, of the University of Houston, who later reached the 1983 NBA Finals with the Lakers.

* Kevin Joyce, of Bayside, Queens, the prestigious Archbishop Molloy High School of Queens, and the University of South Carolina, whose coach, Frank McGuire, had previously raided New York City while coaching at North Carolina. He went on to play in the ABA, but not the NBA.

* Tom McMillen, who starred on the ill-fated Maryland team with Len Elmore that kept running into the North Carolina team of Bobby Jones and the N.C. State team of Burleson and David Thompson, and, under the rules of the time, couldn't make the NCAA Tournament because they hadn't won the Atlantic Coast Conference title. He later played 11 seasons in the NBA, and served 6 years as a Democratic Congressman from Maryland (1987-93).

* And Ed Ratleff, of Cal State-Long Beach (a.k.a. Long Beach State), who later played 5 seasons with the Houston Rockets.

Most observers figured, if the '68 U.S. team, without Kareem or the Big E, could win the Gold Medal without much trouble, then this team could do it without Walton.

And they did go through the Group Stage as if nothing out of the ordinary was going to happen. They beat Czechoslovakia 66-35. They beat Australia 81-55. They beat Cuba 67-48. Brazil gave them a tough game before falling 61-54. They beat Egypt 96-31. They beat Spain 72-56. And they beat Japan 99-33.

The Soviets were in the other Group, and won all 7 of their games, by an average of 21 points. The Semifinals surprised nobody: The U.S. beat Italy 68-38, and the Soviets beat Cuba 67-61.

All-time in Olympic basketball competition, the U.S. was now 58-0. Only 6 of those 58 games were within 10 points. They were 7-0 in Gold Medal Games. They were 6-0 against the Soviets, including 4-0 in Gold Medal Games.

So, in spite of the cloud that had hung over the Games since the massacre of 11 Israeli representatives by Palestinian terrorists 4 days earlier, there seemed little reason to believe that the Soviets would win as the teams took the floor of the Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle in Munich, West Germany on September 9, 1972. (The arena was named after the president of the Bavarian State Sport Association. It still stands, is now named the Audi Dome, and is home to the basketball team of Bayern Munich, far better known for its soccer team.)

This was the era when, if the Soviets -- and also the athletes competing for East Germany -- couldn't win honestly, they would cheat. They gave their performers steroids. When testing for steroids came out, many of their performers -- runners, throwers in track's "field" events, swimmers, weightlifters -- started losing. Others simply stopped competing. This was especially noteworthy among female competitors in swimming and track and field.

And the Soviet teams were known for rough play in other events, most notably the water polo competition against Hungary in 1956, held after Soviet tanks crushed a Hungarian rebellion.

In the 1972 basketball Gold Medal Game, the Soviets took an early lead, and held it through the end of the 1st half, 26-21. Early in the 2nd half, Dwight Jones and Mikheil Korkia both went for a loose ball. Korkia punched Jones. Jones punched back. Both players were ejected. This was fine with the Soviets: Jones had been the leading scorer of the tournament, so it was the equivalent of a hockey "goon," who had no talent beyond fighting, causing both himself and the opposing team's best player to be thrown out of the game.

A minute later, one of the Soviets' better players, Alexander Belov, purposely injured Brewer. The officials called a foul, but that was it. Belov was allowed to continue. With 10 minutes to go (like U.S. college basketball, Olympic basketball games are played in 2 20-minute halves, so this was roughly the end of the 3rd quarter), the Soviets had their biggest lead, 10 points.

The U.S. should have "switched to their A game" a lot sooner, but now, they began to press. With 38 seconds left, they closed to within 1 point. With 7 seconds left, Belov attempted a cross-court pass at half-court, and Collins stole the ball. (Boston Celtics announcer Johnny Most couldn't be reached for comment.) He drove toward the basket, and was hammered by Zurab Sakandelidze.

By rights, Sakandelidze should have been assessed a technical foul, Collins should have been awarded 2 unimpeded free throws, and the U.S. should then have gotten the ball back. Instead, this was treated as an ordinary foul. Collins made the 1st, making the score 49-49. But as he made his 2nd attempt, the horn from the scorer's table sounded. Was it an attempt to distract him? If so, it didn't work: He sank it. USA 50, USSR 49. There were 3 seconds left to play.

The Soviets got the ball back, got the ball to halfcourt, and called timeout with 1 second left. But the officials put a full 3 seconds back on the clock. That's 2 seconds the Soviets didn't deserve. They made 2 passes, getting the ball to Belov, but he couldn't get a shot off. The horn sounded, and the U.S. had a 50-49 victory and the Gold Medal.

Except the officials put another 3 seconds on the clock. Iba challenged this, and threatened to take his team off the floor. He was told that if he did that, the game would be forfeited to the Soviets. Iba considered doing it anyway, since, at the time, the U.S. was on good terms with FIBA, the governing body for international basketball, and was confident of a ruling in his favor. But he later said, "I don't want to lose this game later tonight, sitting on my butt." He would win or lose it on the court.

Ivan Edeshko prepared to make the inbounds pass. Referee Artenik Arabadjian -- from Bulgaria, a Warsaw Pact nation dominated by the Soviets, and an ethnic Armenian, therefore with ties to the Soviet Union -- told McMillen to back off a bit, to give Edeshko room. McMillen knew there was no rule requiring him to do so. But he figured, if he didn't, Arabadjian would asses a technical foul.

So Edeshko's inbounds pass got away with no trouble. It became known in the Soviet Union as "The Golden Pass." Except he stepped on the end line. He should have been called for a violation, making it U.S. ball. The infraction was not called. Another cheat.

Belov, Joyce and Forbes all went for his pass as it came down. Belov caught it, Forbes fell to the floor, and Joyce fell out of bounds. Belov had an easy shot. The horn sounded again, and, this time, no more seconds were put on the clock. USSR 51, USA 50.

Left to right: Dwight Jones, James Forbes and Ed Ratleff

There were 2 referees in the game, as prescribed by FIBA rules. Arabadjian signed the official scoring sheet. The other ref, Renato Righetto of Brazil (there are a lot of people of Italian descent in South America), knew it was a screwjob, and refused to sign it.

Naturally, the U.S. protested the result to FIBA. A 5-man jury was to decide. It consisted of 2 men from Warsaw Pact nations, Ferenc Hepp of Hungary and Adam Baglajewski of Poland; Andres Keiser of Cuba, a nation hostile to the U.S.; and Rafael Lopez of Puerto Rico and Claudio Coccia of Italy, both pro-U.S. countries. Hepp announced that the jury had ruled in the Soviets' favor, and refused to say what the count was, only that it was not unanimous.

The medal ceremony was held. The Soviets accepted their Gold Medals. Cuba, which beat Italy 66-65, accepted their Bronze Medals. The U.S. team did not attend the medal ceremony, and did not accept their Silver Medals.

The U.S. appealed again, this time to the executive committee of the International Olympic Committee. The appeal was not heard until February 1973, 5 months later, and the IOC ruled that FIBA's verdict stood.

The IOC announced that, in order to release the Silver Medals to the players, the vote would have to be unanimous. For 20 years, the 12 American players were unanimous in refusing. But in 1992, Ratleff said that, while he still didn't want his, his wife wanted to be able to show the medal to their children. So he was the 1st member of the team to change his vote on accepting the medal. 

To avoid a similar situation, Davis announced that he had put a clause into his will, forbidding his wife, children, or their descendants from accepting his medal after his death. In 2012, when all 12 members were brought together for the 1st time since the Games, on the 40th Anniversary of the robbery, they all said, "No." Ratleff had since gotten divorced, and had changed his vote back, to make it unanimous once again.

The 2012 reunion

The Soviet players all claimed that they won legitimately. Of course, they said that. Sergei Belov, Alexander's brother and the team's best player, later elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, and Edeshko went out of their way to say the Americans should accept that they lost.

Hepp died in 1980, Righetto in 2001, and Arabadjian in 2017. Soviet head coach Vladimir Kondrashin died in 1999. Alexander Belov died of cancer in 1978. Zurab Sakandelidze, Mikheil Korkia and Sergei Kovalenko all died in 2004. Gennadi Volnov in 2008, Aleksandr Boloshev in 2010, Sergei Belov in 2013, Ivan Dovrny in 2015. As of September 9, 2022, the 50th Anniversary of the game, the other Soviet players are still alive: Ivan Edeshko, Modestas Paulauskas, Alzhan Zharmukhamedov and Anatoli Polivoda.

Hank Iba died in 1993. Dwight Jones died in 2016, making further reunions impossible. He never accepted his Silver Medal. The other 11 players are still alive. None of them have ever accepted theirs. They still sit in a vault at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

*

September 9, 1972 was a Saturday. Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids premiered on CBS on this day. And All-Star baseball pitcher Mike Hampton and Croatian actor Goran Višnjić, best known in America for his role as Dr. Luka Kovac on the TV show ER, were born.

The NFL season wouldn't begin for another week. The NBA season didn't start for another few weeks. The NHL and the brand-new WHA were awaiting the conclusion of another Soviet Union vs. West confrontation, the hockey "Summit Series" against Team Canada. There were Major League Baseball games played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Rob Gardner was the winning pitcher, and Bernie Allen hit a home run. Yes, these men were Yankees. Bobby Murcer and Gene Michael played in this game, but the only 2 men who played for the Yankees in this game who were still around when the team won its next Pennant were Roy White and Thurman Munson.

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1 at Shea Stadium. Gary Gentry got the win, and Bob Gibson the loss. Willie Mays did not play.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Montreal Expos, 8-3 at Jarry Park in Montreal.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-4 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles swept a doubleheader from the Milwaukee Brewers at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Birds won the opener 2-1, and the nightcap 8-0. Doyle Alexander pitched a 2-hit shutout.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 2-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Tribe's 3rd baseman won it with a walkoff home run in the 10th inning. His name was Graig Nettles.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the California Angels, 3-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-2 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Danny Thompson won it with a double in the top of the 13th inning, driving home Jim Nettles, Graig's brother.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. This was an anomaly: The Rangers, in their 1st season after moving as the Washington Senators, were terrible, and the A's went on to start a dynasty.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 4-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Claude Osteen pitched a 3-hit shutout.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* And the Atlanta Braves and the San Diego Padres were not scheduled to play. So, no chance for Hank Aaron to add to his career total of home runs, then standing at 668.

There were also some notable college football games played on the day. By far, the most significant was played at Grant Field, a.k.a. Bobby Dodd Stadium, in Atlanta, where the University of Tennessee beat Georgia Tech, 34-3. Tennessee's Condredge Holloway became the 1st black starting quarterback in Southeastern Conference history. I have a separate entry for this event.

Nebraska, defending National Champions and still ranked Number 1, went to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and lost 20-17 to UCLA. The Coliseum's other collegiate tenant, Number 8 USC, went to Little Rock and upset Number 4 Arkansas, 31-10.

Number 7 Alabama beat Duke 35-12 at Legion Field in Birmingham. Penn State and Notre Dame, then ranked Number 5 and 23, respectively, hadn't yet begun their seasons. Nor had Rutgers, which started out 2-4 before beginning a stretch from October 28, 1972 to October 27, 1973 where they went 10-1, their only loss at home to the University of Massachusetts, whose top receiver at the time was Tim Berra, Yogi's son, who played 14 games for the Baltimore Colts in 1974.

Also, Arsenal lost to Newcastle United, 2-1 at St. James Park in Newcastle, in the North-East of England.

September 5, 1972: The Munich Massacre

September 5, 1972: The Munich Massacre takes place, bringing terrorism into the modern era.

The Olympic Games were being held in Munich, in the Federal Republic of Germany -- a.k.a. West Germany. It was the 1st time the Games were held on German soil since 1936, when Germany was controlled by the Nazi Party and Chancellor Adolf Hitler.

But all signs pointed toward the host nation, a democratic and capitalist nation, handling things properly. There were no incidents between German officials, or Olympic officials, and the athletes, coaches and support staff from Israel, which had founded itself as a nation in 1948, after the defeat of the Nazis in World War II.

But that founding resulted in great bitterness with the people calling themselves "Palestinians." With the support of Egypt, Jordan and Syria, they launched a war against Israel, but when it became clear that the war was a stalemate, a settlement was reached. Another war was launched in 1967, and, this time, there was a clear result: Israel won it in 6 days.

King Hussein I of Jordan decided that further wars against Israel were not worth it. On September 16, 1970, he responded to an Islamic fundamentalist group called the Fedayeen and its attempt at a coup by declaring martial law. Thousands of Palestinians were expelled from the country, and some were killed.

In response, a new terrorist group was formed, named Black September for this event. They waited for their chance to make a big statement. They decided that the 1972 Olympics were it, as the whole world would be watching.

At 4:30 AM, Central European Time -- 10:30 PM, September 4, U.S. Eastern Time -- eight Black September operatives snuck into the Olympic Village, wearing tracksuits so as to blend in. They found the Israeli team's quarters at Connollystraße 31. They broke in. Yossef Gutfreund, an Israeli but an official, a referee for the wrestling matches rather than an athlete or a coach, tried to distract the operatives so that others could escape. Only one did, weightlifting coach Tuvia Sokolovsky. Gutfreund was knocked out and taken prisoner. Weightlifter Yossef Romano and wrestling coach Moshe Weinberg tried to fight them off, but were killed.

The gunmen took and bound 9 hostages: Gutfreund, wrestlers Eliezer Halfin and Mark Slavin, weightlifters David Berger and Ze'ev Friedman, track and field coach Amituzur Shapira, fencing coach Andre Spitzer, sharpshooting coach Kehat Shorr, and weightlifting judge Yakov Springer.

One Israeli athlete who managed to get away before being seen by the gunmen was racewalker Shaul Ladany, a survivor of the Nazis' concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. He got word to American officials.

Prime Minister Golda Meir of Israel asked for help from other countries: "If we should give in, then no Israeli anywhere in the world shall feel that his life is safe... It's blackmail of the worst kind." King Hussein called it a "savage crime against civilization, perpetrated by sick minds." But he was the only Arab, and the only Muslim, public figure to denounce the action which had already left 2 men dead. President Richard Nixon did not take any direct action, but asked the United Nations to do so.

Black September demanded the release of 234 Palestinians jailed in Israel, and also those of the founders of the infamous West German terrorist group Red Army Faction, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. Meir refused to negotiate.

The hours dragged on. ABC, covering the Olympics for the United States, kept going back and forth between Jim McKay, their Olympic anchor, and Peter Jennings, who headed their international news desk in London, and who was in Munich because, even before the terrorists struck, that was where the news was for the moment. McKay would receive a special Emmy Award for his coverage, and his coverage Munich is often given as a reason why Jennings ended up as the anchor of ABC World News Tonight after the death of Frank Reynolds.

By 4:30 PM (10:30 AM, U.S. Eastern), Munich police had the complex surrounded. At 6:00 PM (12:00 noon, U.S. Eastern), the terrorists demanded transportation to Cairo, the capital of Egypt, a country they believed would be friendly to them.

The West German authorities reached Prime Minister Aziz Sedki of Egypt (not President Anwar Sadat), and he told them that his country did not want to get involved. So the West German authorities lied to the terrorists, saying that the demand had been accepted.

A bus transported the terrorists and their hostages to Fürstenfeldbruck Airport. A Boeing 727 jet was waiting, but the flight crew were actually Munich police. The terrorists tried to board the plane, but realized they had been lured into a trap, and ran back. At 12:04 AM on September 6 (6:04 PM on September 5, U.S. Eastern), the terrorists' leader shot the hostages with an AK-47. The police started firing, and most of the terrorists were killed within minutes. The ones who got away were all captured by sunrise.

At 3:24 AM on the 6th -- 9:24 PM on the 5th, U.S. Eastern -- Jim McKay gave America the tragic news:

You know, when I was a kid, my father used to say, "Our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized." Our worst fears have been realized tonight. They've now said that there were eleven hostages. Two were killed in their rooms yesterday morning. Nine were killed at the airport tonight. They're all gone.

There were demands that the rest of the Games be canceled. Instead, the International Olympic Committee postponed all events set for September 6, and hosted a memorial service in the Olympiastadion, attended by 80,000 people. The callous reaction of IOC President Avery Brundage, a known anti-Semite from his days as U.S. Olympic Committee President in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, led to his being fired.

The remaining members of the Israeli team withdrew from the Games and went home. Mark Spitz, the Jewish American swimmer who had already completed his remarkable feat of winning 7 Gold Medals, also left. So did the Egyptian team, fearing reprisals, since it was now known that they weren't helping Black September. So did the teams of Algeria and the Philippines.

During the 1972 World Series, pitcher Ken Holtzman and 1st baseman Mike Epstein, Jewish players for the Oakland Athletics, wore black armbands in memory of the 11 Israelis killed at the Olympics. Reggie Jackson, a black man who had grown up in a mostly-Jewish neighborhood, also wore a black armband, although he was injured and unable to play. Major League Baseball officials, so often behind the times when it came to social issues, allowed it.

One more note: The Olympiastadion in Munich is 1 of 3 stadiums to have hosted an Olympic Games, a World Cup Final and a UEFA European Cup/Champions League Final. The others are the Olympiastadion in Berlin and the old Wembley Stadium in London. In 2024, the Stade de France outside Paris will make it 4.

*

September 5, 1972 was a Tuesday. It was a little early for the NFL, and a bit earlier for the NBA, the ABA, the NHL and the WHA. But Major League Baseball played 10 games that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-6 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. In a weird turn of events, neither starting pitcher got out of the 1st inning, which ended 5-2 in the Yankees' favor. It wasn't due to injury: George "Doc" Medich of the Yanks was making his major league debut, and admitted he'd been nervous; while Dave McNally of the O's simply didn't have it. Neither team hit a home run, but Roy White went 3-for-5 with an RBI for the Yankees.

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 3-0 at Shea Stadium. Rick Reuschel outpitched Tom Seaver. Willie Mays did not play.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline went 1-for-3.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Harmon Killebrew hit a home run, and Rod Carew went 2-for-4, but it wasn't enough.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-5.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Montreal Expos, 5-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Texas Rangers, 7-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 5-3 at the Astrodome in Houston. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 4-3 at San Diego Stadium.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Pete Rose went 2-for-5 with a solo home run, Johnny Bench went 1-for-3, and Joe Morgan went 0-for-4.

* The California Angels, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates were not scheduled. 

July 7, 1974: The Netherlands' Lost Final

Johan Cruyff and Franz Beckenbauer in the Final.

The fact that the Dutch wore a bright color

and the Germans wore black and white

seemed symbolic of each country's soccer style.

July 7, 1974: Rarely is a sports competition remembered less for the team that won than for the team, or one of the teams, that lost. The 1974 World Cup was one of them.

The tournament was being held in West Germany, and the Dutch team seemed to have the best of all Dutch worlds:

* From AFC Ajax, of Amsterdam (currently or formerly), came forwards Johan Cruyff and Piet Kiezer, midfielder Johan Neeskens, right wing Johnny Rep centerback Arie Haan, right back Wim Suurbier, and left back Ruud Krol.

(Note: Since his name was usually written as "Cruyff" for the English-speaking world, that's how I'm going to spell it in this post, even though it was always written as "Cruijff" in his homeland.)

* From Feyenoord, of Rotterdam, who formed the country's greatest rivalry with Ajax, came goalkeeper Eddy Treijtel; defenders Wim Rijsbergen, Wim Jansen, Rinus Israel and Harry Vos; and midfielders Willem van Hanegem and Theo de Jong.

* From PSV Eindhoven came defender Pleun Strik and twin brother midfielders René and Willy van de Kerkhof.

* From Twente Enschede came goalkeeper Piet Schrijvers and defender Kees van Ierssel.

* From FC Amsterdam came starting goalkeeper Jan Jongbloed.

* From Belgian club Anderlecht came forward Rob Rensenbrink.

* And from Anderlecht's arch-rivals, Club Brugge, came midfielder Ruud Giels. While Belgium is mostly divided among ethnic French (Wallonia) and ethnic Dutch (Flanders), both Anderlecht and Brugge are on the Dutch side of the country.

(And to clear something up: The names "Holland" and "the Netherlands" are not interchangeable. While Holland includes the country's 3 largest and most important cities -- Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague -- it has about 1/3rd of the country's population, and about 1/6th of its area. Telling someone from Eindhoven, in North Brabant, that he lives in "Holland" is less dangerous than telling someone from Glasgow that he lives in "England," but it's still an insult.)

The Netherlands defeated Uruguay 2-0, drew 0-0 with Sweden, and demolished Bulgaria 4-1 to advance to the 2nd Group Stage. There, they beat Argentina 4-0, East Germany 2-0, and defending champions Brazil 2-0. The match with Sweden featured Cruyff faking out Jan Olsson with a move that became known as "The Cruyff Turn," and it became his signature play. Two things, though: He wasn't the first to do it -- no one knows for sure who was, although Pelé is known to have done it in 1960 -- and it didn't result in a shot, let alone a goal.

It was beginning to look easy. They had played 6 games, and had an aggregate advantage of 14-1. With their flowing football, flowing hair and bright orange uniforms, they had captivated the entire world -- especially since this was, for many countries, still the early days of color television. But not in America: No matches were broadcast live. CBS broadcast the Final a few days later.

On July 7, 1974, at the Olympiastadion in Munich, the dream seemed to be coming true. The Dutch lined up for the Final against a West Germany side dominated by players from Bundesliga winners Bayern Munich, including defender Franz Beckenbauer, goalie Sepp Meier and forward Gerd Müller. In only the 1st minute of the game, Crujiff advanced into the penalty area, and Bayern's Uli Hoeness brought him down. A penalty was rightly awarded, the 1st ever awarded in a World Cup Final, and Neeskens converted to give the Dutch a lead before 2 minutes had passed.

The Olympiastadion in Munich

But the Dutch may have scored too soon, and rested on their laurels. The Germans fought back, and got a legitimate penalty of their own in the 25th minute. Müller scored in the 43rd to give West Germany the lead. The half soon came, and Cruyff argued with the referee, Englishman Jack Taylor, and was booked for this.

The Dutch came a little unglued, and although they fell no further behind, neither did they get any closer. West Germany won, 2-1. It was not a home soil victory: Indeed, in the 2nd half, they had a goal waved off for offside, and were denied what looked like another legitimate penalty.

Playwright Johan Timmers wrote, "The defeat of 1974 is the biggest trauma that happened to Holland in the 20th Century, apart from the floods of 1953 and World War II." Historian Bastiaan Bommeljé wrote, "It should have been the epiphany of the sixties. Instead it turned out to be its requiem. The team was a product of an age that had put all its money on youth and the promise of youth and the idea that good times will be here when a new generation takes over."

In his book Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer, David Winner wrote, "The most talented group of footballers their country -- almost any country -- ever produced blew it. How? Why? It's a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." He cited a 20th Anniversary survey that showed that nearly everyone old enough to watch remembered exactly where they were, and, on that basis, he compared it to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

Despite the defeat in the Final, Cruyff, since 1973 playing his "club football" for FC Barcelona in Spain, was awarded the Ballon d'Or (Golden Ball), as World Player of the Year, for the 3rd time in the last 4 years. There was no doubt that he was now the best player in the world, even if he couldn't quite get his country to the greatest prize of all.

In 1977, Cruyff announced his retirement from international soccer, refusing to play in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. For 30 years, it was believed that he was protesting the military dictatorship that took over Argentina in 1976, after the country was awarded the tournament. But in 2008, he revealed the truth: There was a threat against his family, and it got into his head, and he didn't think he would be at his best for the tournament.

Again, the Netherlands reached the Final, even without Cruyff. This time, it was a home soil victory, as the Argentines' mere qualification for the Final under the system then in place was dubious, and they scored 2 dubious goals in extra time to win 3-1. There were some Dutch players who were quoted as saying they didn't know if they would leave the stadium alive if they won.

Cruyff has been called the greatest player that Europe has ever produced. However, the lack of a World Cup sticks out on his resume, as it does for players like Puskás, Argentina's Di Stéfano and (so far) Lionel Messi, France's Raymond Kopa, Wales' John Charles, Northern Ireland's George Best, Italy's Paolo Maldini, and Portugal's Eusébio and (so far) Cristiano Ronaldo. (UPDATE: In 2022, Argentina, with Messi, won the World Cup.)

For some of those players (particularly Charles and Best), it's because their countrymen were not up to their level. For Maldini, it was down to luck: He was considered too young to make the national side in 1982, and too old in 2006, despite his 25 years of top-flight football.

But the Netherlands has had so much talent, yet their only major tournament win has been Euro 88. They would lose the World Cup Final again in 2010, to Spain. No other country that's been in at least 3 Finals has failed to win at least 1.

One more note: The Olympiastadion in Munich is 1 of 3 stadiums to have hosted an Olympic Games, a World Cup Final and a UEFA European Cup/Champions League Final. The others are the Olympiastadion in Berlin and the old Wembley Stadium in London. In 2024, the Stade de France outside Paris will make it 4.

UPDATE: An article for ESPN.com, published after the 2026 World Cup, ranking all 23 tournaments, rated this one 4th.

*

July 7, 1974 was a Sunday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Texas Rangers, 3-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Steve Hargan outpitched Pat Dobson. Chris Chambliss went 3-for-4 with an RBI in defeat.

* The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-0 at Shea Stadium. Ted Martinez went 3-for-4 with 4 RBIs. Tom Seaver had to leave the game after 5 innings, allowing 2 hits. Bob Apodaca went the rest of the way, for a 3-hit shutout.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers swept a doubleheader from the Montreal Expos, 4-1 and 5-3 at Jarry Park in Montreal.

* A doubleheader was split at Fenway Park in Boston. The Kansas City Royals won the 1st game, 11-9. Hal McRae singled home the winning run in the top of the 10th inning. Rick Miller went 5-for-5 with an RBI in defeat. The Boston Red Sox won the 2nd game, 5-3. After going 0-for-4 in the 1st game, Carl Yastrzemski went 3-for-3 with a walk in the 2nd game. George Brett was nursing an injury: He didn't play in the 1st game, and was removed from the 2nd after going 1-for-2.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Diego Padres, 9-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Schmidt went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Willie McCovey, then with the Padres, went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Dave Winfield did not play.

* The Cincinnati Reds swept a doubleheader from the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1 and 11-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 1-for-5 with 4 walks in the doubleheader. Johnny Bench went 1-for-9. Joe Morgan went 0-for-4 in the 1st game, and didn't play in the 2nd game. Lou Brock went 0-for-4 in the 1st game, and didn't play in the 2nd game. Joe Torre didn't play in the 1st game, but went 1-for-4 in the 2nd game.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline, in his last season, did not play.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Hank Aaron went 2-for-4, including his 725th career home run.

* A doubleheader was split at Milwaukee County Stadium. The Milwaukee Brewers won the 1st game, 8-5. The Minnesota Twins won the 2nd game, 5-3. Steve Brye doubled home the winning run in the top of the 11th inning. He and Bobby Darwin each went 4-for-5, and Darwin had a home run and 4 RBIs. Harmon Killebrew only appeared as a pinch-hitter in each game, getting a hit in the 2nd game. Rod Carew went 3-for-9 with a walk.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Houston Astros, 6-4 at the Astrodome in Houston. Richie Zisk hit 2 home runs, and Willie Stargell went 1-for-2 with 3 walks and an RBI.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the California Angels, 6-2 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Frank Robinson was then with the Angels, did not play in this game, was traded to the Indians later in the year, and was named their manager, the 1st black manager in the major leagues, at the end of the season.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Dave McNally outpitched Ken Holtzman. Reggie Jackson drove in the only run for the A's.

June 25, 1988: The Dutch Win a Tournament At Last

Ruud Gullit

June 25, 1988: The Netherlands defeats the Soviet Union, 2–0, to win the Final of Euro 88 at the Olympiastadion in Munich -- having already beaten West Germany, the hosts and their arch-rivals, in the Semifinal.

Rinus Michels, who had built the Totalvoetball (Total Football) system at AFC Ajax in Amsterdam in the late 1960s and early 1970s, was their manager, as he had been at the 1974 World Cup.

Forwards Ruud Gullit, their Captain, and Marco van Basten, then both of AC Milan, scored the goals. The team also featured Milan centerback Frank Rijkaard. van Basten, Rijkaard and Vanenburg had previously played for Ajax. Midfielders Jan Wouters and Arnold Mühren were currently with Ajax.

From the PSV Eindhoven team that had just won the 1988 European Cup, making them, through the 2021-22 season, the only Dutch team to win a European Treble (Eredivisie, KNVB Beker, European Cup/UEFA Champions League), came goalkeeper Hans van Breuekelen, right back Berry van Aerle, centerback Ronald Koeman, and midfielder Gerald Vanenburg. Left back Adrianus "Adri" van Tiggelen played for Belgian team Anderlecht. Midfielder Erwin Koeman, Ron's brother, played for Belgian team Mechelen.

Gullit had previously played for Feyenoord and PSV. He and Erwin Koeman had previously played for PSV. Ron Koeman had previously played for Ajax, and would go on to play for Feyenoord, the only one of these to play for all of the Eredivisie's Big 3. van Tiggelen and Wouters later played for PSV.

Never has a sports team looked so good for their style -- while, at the same time, looking so bad for their uniforms.

Incredibly, for all their talent over the years, this is the one and only major tournament the Dutch have ever won. The fact that they won it in the same stadium where they'd lost the World Cup Final, 14 years earlier, made it even sweeter.

The Soviet Union would soon break up, and no country that was once a part of it has ever come close again, unless you want to count Russia reaching the Semifinal of Euro 2008.

*

June 25, 1988 was a Saturday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-1 at Yankee Stadium. Tommy John, age 45, outpitched Greg Swindell, for the 282nd win of his career. Jack Clark, in his 1 season with the Yankees, hit a home run. Dave Winfield went 3-for-4. Don Mattingly went 1-for-4. Rickey Henderson was injured and did not play.

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 5-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Cubs scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th to win it.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Montreal Expos, 5-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Barry Bonds went 3-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Diego Padres, 8-4 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Tom Glavine started for the Braves, but Charlie Puleo won the game in relief. Tony Gwynn went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-2 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 10-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. The Sox scored 7 runs in the bottom of the 8th. Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken both homered for the O's.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-4 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-4.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 10-5 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 4-1 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The California Angels beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-3 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Robin Yount went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Paul Molitor was injured and did not play.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* And the Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Mariners, 7-3 at the Kingdome in Seattle. George Brett did not play.

February 22, 1943: The White Rose Society

Sophie Scholl

February 22, 1943: Sophie Scholl, her brother Hans Scholl, and their friend, Christoph Probst, are executed at Stadelheim Prison in Munich, Germany. This was, effectively, the end of one of the biggest resistance groups within Nazi Germany, Der Weiße Rose -- the White Rose Society.

Sophia Magdalena Scholl was born on May 9, 1921 in Forchtenburg, in Baden-Württemberg, in southwestern Germany. In 1941, Sophie and her brother Hans were among the University of Munich students who founded of Der Weiße Rose, an anti-Nazi resistance group. The group conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign that called for active opposition to the Nazi regime.

(As far as I can tell, their choice of a white rose had nothing to do with its use as a symbol by Britain's royal House of York.)

On February 18, 1943, all 6 members were arrested in Munich. Four days later, they were found guilty of treason. The same day, they were executed by guillotine. Her last words were, "It is such a splendid sunny day, and I have to go. But how many have to die on the battlefield in these days, how many young, promising lives. What does my death matter if by our acts thousands are warned and alerted. Among the student body there will certainly be a revolt."

We may never know what the Scholls would have done had they survived the war. If Sophie had lived to see the reunification of Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall and Communist East Germany, she would have been 69 years old.

In 2003, 60 years after her death, Germans were invited by television network ZDF to participate in Unsere Besten (Our Best), a nationwide competition to choose the Top 10 most important Germans of all time. The 1st postwar Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, finished 1st; Martin Luther, founder of the Protestant Reformation, was 2nd; and Karl Marx, the founder of Communism, 3rd.

Voters under the age of 40 helped Scholl and her brother Hans to finish in 4th place, above composers Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms; writers Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller and Friedrich Nietzsche; printing press inventor Johannes Gutenberg; Chancellors Otto von Bismarck and Willy Brandt; and physicist Albert Einstein.

*

February 22, 1943 was a Monday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL had no games scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day.

February 6, 1958: The Munich Air Disaster

February 6, 1958. It may be hard to imagine a time when the English soccer team Manchester United was worthy of delight and sympathy, rather than disgust and loathing. But Manager Matt Busby had built a team that had won the English Football League in 1956 and 1957, despite an average age of 21 and 22, hence the nickname "the Busby Babes." By the standards of the time, they were producing not only great results, but "beautiful football."

They were returning from a European Cup Quarterfinal match against Red Star Belgrade, a team from the capital of Yugoslavia. After defeated them in the 1st leg, 2-1 at Old Trafford in Salford, the game at Partizan Stadium -- oddly, the home of Red Star's arch-rivals, Partizan -- ended in a 3-3 draw, allowing United to advance on aggregate.

They flew out of Belgrade, and stopped to refuel in Munich, in what was then called West Germany. The plane tried to take off in a snowstorm, and crashed.

There were 23 people killed, but, amazingly, 21 survived. Among the dead were Man United players Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Tommy Taylor and Liam "Billy" Whelan, all killed instantly. An 8th player, Duncan Edwards, already the most-lauded of the Busby Babes, died in a hospital 15 days later.

Duncan Edwards

Two other players, Jackie Blanchflower and Johnny Berry, survived, but were hurt so badly that they never played again. Busby himself was badly injured. Goalkeeper Harry Gregg, despite his own injuries, managed to rescue some passengers before the plane exploded.

Assistant manager Jimmy Murphy was not with the United team: A Welshman, he was also the manager of the Wales national team, who were also playing on February 5. They defeated Israel, 2-0 at Ninian Park in Cardiff.

An American newsreel covered the crash, suggesting that it was, for England, as if the Milwaukee Braves, who had won the World Series 4 months earlier, had crashed.

In spite of the crash, Murphy filled in for Busby, and signed some emergency acquisitions, and guided United to advance to the 1958 FA Cup Final, losing to Bolton Wanderers. Busby returned to managing duties for the 1958-59 season, and built a new group of Babes, which won the 1963 FA Cup and the League Championship in 1965 and 1967.

The only United players to survive the crash and to play for the '65 and '67 champions were Bill Foulkes, and the far better-remembered Bobby Charlton, who also went on to be a key member (along with his brother Jack, who played for Leeds United) of England's World Cup win in 1966. 

Along with Sir Bobby and Foulkes, that United team is remembered for the Scottish star Denis Law and the Northern Ireland superstar George Best. Charlton, Law and Best are remembered as "United's Holy Trinity," and a statue of them stands outside their stadium, Old Trafford.

Still, with several good players killed, the course of English football was changed: Without it, the subsequent return to glory of Wolverhampton Wanderers, a.k.a. Wolves, the team United dethroned as the defining team in England, might not have happened. Nor might the rise of Tottenham Hotspur (captained by Jackie's brother Danny Blanchflower), and the 2 Liverpool-based teams, Liverpool and Everton. And it might not have taken until United's win in 1968 for an English team to win the European Cup. (Glasgow, Scotland-based Celtic became the 1st British team to win it, in 1967.)

Matt Busby, after the 1968 European Cup win

Today, there are United fans, and English people in general, who are convinced that, had the crash not happened, and those United players (Whelan was from Ireland, and Blanchflower and Gregg were from Northern Ireland, but the rest were English) had been available to play, England would have won the 1958 and 1962 World Cups. No, they wouldn't have: They still wouldn't have been better than the Brazil of Garrincha and the young Pelé.

Instead, managed by Walter Winterbottom, England did not advance to the Group Stage. Murphy coached Wales to the Quarterfinals before losing to Brazil.

The Munich Air Disaster is commemorated at Old Trafford, with the Munich Tunnel, which the players walk through to get to the field; and the Munich Clock, with the date of the crash inscribed on it and the time permanently set to the time of the crash, 3:04 PM (in Manchester, 4:04 in Munich). It now stands above the front gate and a statue of Busby.

United fans, naturally, get sensitive when opposing fans talk or sing about airplanes, or call the team "the Munichs." But that's no excuse for United's fans, not exactly known for having class, to call Liverpool fans "murderers" because of the Heysel and Hillsborough disasters of the 1980s, neither of which were murders, or the fault of Liverpool fans.

Other plane crashes to wipe out nearly entire soccer teams include the Superga crash of 1949, which ended a decade of dominance of Italy's Torino FC (among those killed was Valentino Mazzola, a big star of the time, whose son Sandro Mazzola would be a legend with Internazionale Milano in the 1960s); a 1987 crash that killed the entire roster of Alianza Lima of Peru; a 1989 crash that killed 11 players from Suriname; and a 1993 crash in Gabon that killed several members of the national team of Zambia.

Crashes also wiped out, or nearly wiped out, the California Polytechnic State University football team in 1960, the football teams of both Wichita State and Marshall University in 1970 (the latter crash inspiring the recent film We Are Marshall), the 1977 crash that killed the University of Evansville basketball team; and, on February 15, 1961, a crash in Belgium that killed 73, including the entire U.S. figure skating team, men and women alike. U.S. figure skating would not even begin to recover from that until 1968, when Peggy Fleming won her Olympic Gold Medal.

*

February 6, 1958 was a Thursday. It was the off-season for Major League Baseball and the NFL. There were no NBA games played that day. But there were 2 NHL games played that day:

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Boston Bruins, 4-1 at the Boston Garden. Bobby Hull scored twice, and was looking like he would be awarded the Calder Memorial Trophy as Rookie of the Year. Instead, it went to Frank Mahovlich of the Toronto Maple Leafs -- who, like the New York Rangers, were not scheduled to play on this day.

In 1986, Hawks management found the team's original 1926 charter, and discovered that the team's name was officially spelled as one word, "Blackhawks," and that's how it's been ever since. Before that, it was always listed as two words, "Black Hawks."

* And the Montreal Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 1-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. Dickie Moore scored for the Habs, Nick Mickoski for the Wings.