August 30, 1997: The 1st WNBA Championship

Left to right: Cynthia Cooper, Tina Thompson, Sheryl Swoopes

August 30, 1997: The 1st WNBA Championship is awarded. Instead of a series, as it is today, it is a single game, at the Compaq Center -- formerly The Summit -- in Houston, and the Houston Comets beat the New York Liberty, 65-51.

Despite having such stars as Rebecca Lobo, Teresa Weatherspoon, Kym Hampton and Rutgers graduate Sue Wicks, the Libs couldn't keep up with Sheryl Swoopes and Cynthia Cooper -- "Swoopes to the Hoop" and "Coop to the Hoop." Cooper led all scorers with 25 points, and was named the game's Most Valuable Player.

Under head coach Van Chancellor, the Rockets won the WNBA's 1st 4 Championships. In comparison, Houston's other teams combined have won 5: The Rockets 2, MLS' Dynamo 2, the Astros 1, the Texans none and the Oilers none. (This does not count the AFL Championships won by the Oilers in 1960 and '61, or the WHA Championships won by the Aeros in 1974 and '75, as those were not World Championships.) In contrast, the Liberty have gone 0-for-4 in Finals. But the Liberty are still in business, while the Comets folded in 2008.

When the Rockets and the Comets left The Summit for the Toyota Center in 2003, Dr. Joel Osteen bought the old arena, and turned it into Lakewood Church Central Campus, the base of his “megachurch.” He will never recover from the knowledge that the most popular person ever to speak in that building is a black Muslim immigrant whose first language was not English, Hakeem Olajuwon.

The WNBA title roll: The Comets 4, the Minnesota Lynx 4, the Seattle Storm 4, the Los Angeles Sparks 3, the Detroit Shock 3 (they moved in 2009, are now the Dallas Wings, and haven't won another), the Phoenix Mercury 3, the Sacramento Monarchs 1 (they folded in 2009), the Indiana Fever 1, the Washington Mystics 1, and the Chicago Sky 1.

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August 30, 1997 was a Saturday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Montreal Expos, 7-2 at Yankee Stadium. It was foreshadowing for darker things for the Yankees: Pedro Martínez outpitched David Wells.

* The New York Mets beat the Baltimore Orioles, 13-6 at Camden Yards. Bernard Gilkey hit a home run in support of Brian Bohanon. Cal Ripken went 0-for-2 with a walk.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Boston Red Sox, 15-2 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-1 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians, 9-4 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Detroit Tigers, 2-0 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Matt Beech went 7 2/3rds innings, and Ricky Bottalico finished the 8-hit shutout.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Houston Astros, 9-2 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 3-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-1 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Kansas City Royals beat their cross-State rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, 16-5 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Mark McGwire was making his 1st serious run at the home run record. He didn't hit any. The Royals hit 5: Dean Palmer, Chili Davis, Jermaine Dye, Jeff King and Shane Halter.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-3 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Texas Rangers, 4-1 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn went 1-for-4.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Seattle Mariners, 11-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Ken Griffey Jr. went 0-for-3.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the team then known as the Anaheim Angels, 7-3 at Candlestick Park (then named 3Com Park at Candlestick Point) in San Francisco. J.T. Snow hit 2 home runs. Barry Bonds went 1-for-3 with a walk.

This was also the opening weekend of the college football season. Some notable games from the day:

* Number 2 Florida beat Southern Mississippi, 21-6 at Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida. (Penn State began the season ranked Number 1, but did not open their season until the following Saturday.)

* Number 5 Tennessee beat Texas Tech, 52-17 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee.

* Number 6 Nebraska beat the University of Akron, 59-14 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.

* Number 13 Syracuse was upset by North Carolina State, 32-31 in overtime at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York. The Carrier Dome was recently renamed the JMA Wireless Dome.

* Number 14 Miami beat Baylor, 45-14 at Floyd Casey Stadium in Waco, Texas.

* Number 16 Alabama beat the University of Houston, 42-17 at Legion Field in Birmingham.

* In a cross-State rivalry, West Virginia beat Marshall, 42-31 at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, West Virginia.

* In another, Kentucky beat Louisville, 38-24 at Commonwealth Stadium (now Kroger Field) in Lexington, Kentucky.

* In another, Utah State beat Utah, 21-14 at Rice Stadium (now Rice-Eccles Stadium) in Salt Lake City.

* The University of Mississippi, a.k.a. Ole Miss, beat Central Florida, 24-23 in overtime at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in oxford, Mississippi. This was the only other game that went to overtime that day.

* And in a game I actually attended, Michael Vick led Virginia Tech to a 59-19 win over Rutgers, 59-19 at the new Rutgers Stadium (now SHI Stadium) in Piscataway, New Jersey.

Also on that day, there was a North London Derby at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury. Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur played to a 0-0 draw.

June 7, 2023: Quebec Wildfire Causes Northeast U.S. Smog

Yankee Stadium, June 7, 2023.

The game scheduled for that night was postponed.

June 7, 2023: A wildfire in the Canadian Province of Québec causes a haze to spread south to the Northeastern U.S. The resulting low air quality produced warnings from America's National Weather Service, telling people to stay home if they didn't have to leave the house; and, if they must go back to wearing masks like they did during the COVID pandemic.

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

The smog resulted in New York City's worst air quality since the 1960s. People not used to seeing the sky that color, the skyscrapers that shrouded in smog, or the air that dirty and hard to breathe, compared it to apocalyptic movies.

For those of us who do remember the 1970s and '80s, when the joke was that the crosswalk signs switched from saying "WALK" and "DON'T WALK" to "BREATHE" and "DON'T BREATHE," it was an unfortunate reminder of what life was like before the Environmental Protection Agency and its safeguards kicked in.

Major League Baseball postponed games set for that day at Yankee Stadium in New York and Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Both games were moved to the next day. The Yankees and the Chicago White Sox had already played in something of a haze the night before, and would again on Thursday, but both turned out to be not as bad as on Wednesday, June 7.

The WNBA postponed a game set for the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, despite it being an indoor facility. And a National Women's Soccer League game, set for the outdoor Red Bull Arena, just outside New York City in Harrison, New Jersey, was also postponed.

The New York Racing Association kept a close eye on the situation, since the Belmont Stakes was supposed to be held 3 days later, at Belmont Park in Elmont, Long Island. By that point, the air quality had improved to the point where it was not considered a danger to the horses, the riders, or the spectators, and the race was held as scheduled. Arcangelo won, ridden by Javier Castellano.

As of July 1, 2023, no deaths had been attributed to either the wildfires or the resulting smog.

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June 7, 2023 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves, 7-5 at Truist Park in the Atlanta suburb of Cumberland, Georgia.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Washington Nationals, 6-2 at Nationals Park in Washington. The D.C. area was not as badly affected by the smog as the New York and Philadelphia areas were.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-1 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Miami Marlins beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-1 at LoanDepot Park in Miami.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Houston Astros, 3-2 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-5 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Guardians beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-2 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-6 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 10-2 at American Family Field in Milwaukee.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers, 1-0 at Globe Life Field in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. The only run of the game came in the top of the 8th inning, on a home run by Alec Burleson. Jon Gray went the distance for the Rangers, taking the loss. In contrast, it took 4 Cardinal pitchers to complete a 4-hit shutout: Jack Flaherty (6 innings), Jordan Hicks (7th inning, winning pitcher), Giovanny Gallegos (8th inning) and Ryan Helsley (9th inning, save).

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies, 5-4 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Seattle Mariners, 10-3 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-2 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Mike Trout. Shohei Ohtani did not, but did go 1-for-4 with a walk.

* As stated, the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox were postponed, resulting in a doubleheader the next day at the new Yankee Stadium. The White Sox won the opener, 6-5. The Yankees had a rally going in the bottom of the 9th, with the tying and winning runs on, but Isiah Kiner-Falefa was called out on a 3rd strike that was nowhere near the plate.

The Yankees won the nightcap of the "smoggleheader," 3-0. Billy McKinney hit his 1st home run as a Yankee. Rookie Randy Vásquez got his 1st major league win, taking a shutout into the 6th inning, allowing only 2 hits and a walk. And seemed upset when he was removed after getting into a little trouble, having thrown only 86 pitches. Ron Marinaccio ended the threat, and pitched the 7th and the 8th, allowing only a walk. Clay Holmes closed out the 2-hit shutout.

* And in the other game postponed from this date to the next, the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. The Tigers tied the game in the top of the 8th, then took the lead in the top of the 9th. But the Phillies got a leadoff double from Bryce Harper, a walk from Trea Turner, a single from Bryson Scott, a tying sacrifice fly from Brandon Marsh, and a game-winning double from Kody Clemens, 1st baseman and son of Roger Clemens.

Game 3 of the NBA Finals was played at the Kaseya Center in Miami. The Denver Nuggets beat the Miami Heat, 109-94. The Nuggets went on to win the title in 5 games.

And the Stanley Cup Finals were between Games 2 and 3. The Vegas Golden Knights would beat the Florida Panthers, also in 5 games.