December 31, 1972: Roberto Clemente Is Killed

December 31, 1972: Roberto Clemente is killed in a plane crash, trying to get relief supplies from his native Puerto Rico to earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua.

Eight days earlier -- the same day as the football play known as the "Immaculate Reception" -- an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale struck the Nicaraguan capital of Managua.

As with the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, there were fires started, and the city's firefighting equipment was damaged by the earthquake. Between the initial quake and the fires, the Managua disaster killed about 11,000 people, and left about 300,000 of the city's 1 million or so people homeless. The city's top 4 hospitals were destroyed, and there were food shortages.

The world responded with relief, but the country's right-wing dictator, Anastasio Somoza Debayle -- my autocorrect poignantly tried to turn that into "Debacle" -- had it distributed according to his own purposes, much like an old-style American city "machine politician."

Enter Roberto Clemente. The right fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates had just completed his 18th major league season. At age 38, he showed no signs of slowing down. That season, he batted .312, helped the Pirates win their 3rd straight National League Eastern Division title, was named to his 15th All-Star game, was awarded his 12th Gold Glove, and collected his 3,000th career hit. 

He had won 4 NL batting titles, was named the NL's Most Valuable Player in 1966, and had helped the Pirates win the World Series in 1960 and 1971, being named the Series MVP in the ladder. 

He was not the first black Hispanic player in the major leagues, but, at this point, he was easily the greatest. Indeed, like actor-comedian Jackie Gleason was, and hockey star Wayne Gretzky later would be, he was nicknamed "The Great One." He was a point of pride for baseball fans all over Latin America, not just in his native Puerto Rico.

Already heavily involved in charities all over Latin America, Clemente had visited Managua only a few weeks before the earthquake. He organized three planeloads of relief supplies, but heard they had all been diverted by the Somoza government. He decided to accompany the fourth flight himself, to make sure that it didn't happen again.

The plane was a propeller-driven cargo plane, a DC-7. This particular plane, one of 338 that McDonnell-Douglas built between 1953 and 1958, was a bad choice, as it had a history of mechanical problems. On December 31, 1972, New Year's Eve, it was loaded up at Isla Verde International Airport outside the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan.

A DC-7, similar to the Clemente relief plane

Between cargo, and regular supplies like fuel, the plane ended up 4,200 pounds over its recommended limit. The plane took off at 9:20 PM (8:20 PM, U.S. East Coast time), for a 4-hour flight from San Juan to Managua -- meaning the New Year of 1973 would have begun for them in midflight.

But within 3 minutes, the pilot, Jerry Hill, realized he couldn't get the plane high enough due to the weight, and told the San Juan control tower that he had begun to turn around. Just afterward, one of the plane's four engines exploded, and it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. 

Although most pieces of the plane were found, Hill was the only one of the five people on board whose body was found. There is no grand memorial for Roberto Clemente at any cemetery: He still lies somewhere off the coast of his homeland. He left behind a wife and three sons.

For baseball fans, January 1, 1973 did not present a "Happy New Year." The Pirates retired Clemente's Number 21, and wore that number in a patch on their sleeves all season long. It would be the only season from 1970 to 1975 that they didn't win the NL East title. On March 20, a special election was held for the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the five-year waiting period after a player's last game was waived, making Clemente eligible. He was elected with nearly 93 percent of the vote.

Manager Bill Virdon with the patch

The Pirates dedicated a statue of him outside Three Rivers Stadium. When they moved to the adjacent PNC Park in 2001, the statue went with them, and the neighboring 6th Street Bridge connecting the North Side with downtown Pittsburgh was renamed the Roberto Clemente Bridge.

An arena that was nearly ready to open in San Juan at the time of his death was named the Roberto Clemente Coliseum. New York City named a park across from the Bronx apartment building where Hank Greenberg grew up after a member of the Hall of Fame -- not Greenberg, but, reflecting that this neighborhood is now mostly Puerto Rican, Clemente.

On December 31, 1985, 13 years later, another New Year's Eve would be struck by air travel tragedy, as the crash outside Dallas of another McDonnell-Douglas plane with a troubled history, this one an old DC-3, killed seven people including early rock and roll star Ricky Nelson.

Earlier in 1985, Isla Verde International Airport in San Juan was renamed Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, after the 1st elected Governor of the island, who had presided over the airport's opening in 1955.

*

December 31, 1972 was a Sunday. The end of the year marked the 1st year that Americans bought more color television sets than black-and-white sets, and the 1st year that a majority of American homes had color TV sets. I have a separate entry for that event.

It was the off-season for baseball. The NFL played its Conference Championship Games:

* Although the Miami Dolphins had an undefeated regular season, the Pittsburgh Steelers hosted the AFC Championship Game at Three Rivers Stadium, because the NFL was still using a rotating system for hosting the title game, not home field advantage.

Eight days after the franchise's 1st-ever Playoff win, on the Franco Harris "Immaculate Reception," the Steelers led 10-7 in the 3rd quarter. But the Dolphins came from behind to win, 21-17.

* The Washington Redskins dominated the defending NFL Champions, the Dallas Cowboys, 26-3 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium. Head coach George Allen led his veteran "Over-the-Hill Gang" to the team's 1st Playoff win in 30 years. 

But the Dolphins would complete the perfect season by beating the Redskins in Super Bowl VII, 2 weeks later at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

There were no games played in the NBA or the ABA on New Year's Eve 1972. There were 3 NHL games played that day:

* The New York Rangers beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-1 at Madison Square Garden. 

* The Detroit Red Wings and the Minnesota North Stars played to a tie, 4-4 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. 

* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-2 at Chicago Stadium. 

And there were 3 games played in the World Hockey Association, which was in its 1st season:

* The New England Whalers beat the New York Raiders, 3-0 in the other game played on Madison Square Garden ice that day.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Ottawa Nationals, 8-4 at Le Colisée de Québec. Rene Levesque must have loved that.

* And the Philadelphia Blazers beat the Los Angeles Sharks, 3-1 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. 

December 23, 1972: The Managua Earthquake

December 23, 1972: An earthquake, measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, strikes Managua, the capital of the Central American nation of Nicaragua, shortly after Midnight, local time: 12:29 AM. It would not be a merry Christmas for the nation, already stricken by poverty and political unrest.

Managua, which lies on the southern shore of Lake Xolotlán, near the western coast of Nicaragua, is situated within an active volcanic zone known as the Central American Volcanic Chain. The city has a long history of volcanic and seismic activity: It had previously been hit by a 6.1 earthquake on March 31, 1931, resulting in a fire, and, between them, the quake and the fire killed about 2,450 people.

As with the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, there were fires started, and the city's firefighting equipment was damaged. Between the initial quake and the fires, the disaster killed about 11,000 people, and left about 300,000 of the city's 1 million or so people homeless. The city's top 4 hospitals were destroyed, and there were food shortages.

The world responded with relief, but the country's right-wing dictator, Anastasio Somoza Debayle -- my autocorrect poignantly tried to turn that into "Debacle" -- had it distributed according to his own purposes, much like an old-style American city "machine politician."

Among the relief efforts was one put together in Puerto Rico by baseball star Roberto Clemente. On December 31, he loaded up a plane with relief supplies -- over-loaded it, so that it crashed into the Caribbean Sea shortly after takeoff, and was never found. I have a separate entry for this event.

On April 10, 2014, Nicaragua was struck by another 6.1 earthquake. The next day, an aftershock registered at 6.6. However, these were not nearly as damaging as the quakes of 1931 and 1972, probably due to new building codes that made buildings more "earthquake-proof." Only one person is known to have died as a result of the 2014 quakes.

*

December 23, 1972 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. Two NFL Playoff games were played that day. The Dallas Cowboys beat the San Francisco 49ers, 30-28 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. And the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Oakland Raiders, 13-7 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, thanks to the last-minute touchdown pass from Terry Bradshaw to Franco Harris that became known as "The Immaculate Reception." I have a separate entry for that event.

The next day, Christmas Eve, the Washington Redskins beat the Green Bay Packers, 16-3 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. And the Miami Dolphins beat the Cleveland Browns, 20-14 at the Orange Bowl in Miami. The following week, New Year's Eve, saw the Conference Championships: Dolphins 21, Steelers 17 at Three Rivers; and Redskins 26, Cowboys 3 at RFK Stadium. On January 14, 1973, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Dolphins completed their undefeated season, beating the Redskins, 14-7 in Super Bowl VII.

There were 4 games played in the NBA on December 23, 1972:

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Detroit Pistons, 104-97 at the Baltimore Civic Center. While the arena still stands, now known as the CFG Bank Arena, this would be the Bullets' last season in Baltimore, as they moved to the Washington area, and are now named the Washington Wizards.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 124-112 at The Omni in Atlanta. Pistol Pete Maravich scored 42 points, Super Lou Hudson scored 31, and Bob Christian scored 13 and had 25 rebounds.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Boston Celtics, 104-98 at the Milwaukee Arena. In 1974, it was renamed the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat the Chicago Bulls, 127-109 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

There were 4 games played in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets lost to the Memphis Tams, 105-103 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.

* The Virginia Squires beat the Dallas Chaparrals, 112-107 at The Scope in Norfolk. Julius "Dr. J" Erving scored 41 points.

* The Carolina Cougars beat the Utah Stars, 123-117 at the Greensboro Coliseum. Billy Cunningham scored 34 points and grabbed 15 rebounds.

* And the Kentucky Colonels beat the San Diego Conquistadors, 116-105 at Freedom Hall in Louisville.

These games were played in the NHL:

* The expansion New York Islanders beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-3 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Boston Bruins beat the expansion Atlanta Flames, 3-1 at the Boston Garden.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-1 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Buffalo Sabres, 2-0 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The New York Rangers and the California Golden Seals were not scheduled.

And these games were played in the inaugural-season World Hockey Association:

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Los Angeles Sharks, 2-1 at the Colisee de Quebec.

* The Cleveland Crusaders beat the Minnesota Fighting Saints, 3-1 at the Cleveland Arena.

* The Chicago Cougars beat the Alberta Oilers (as the Edmonton Oilers were named in that inaugural season alone), 3-2 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago.

* And the Houston Aeros beat the Philadelphia Blazers, 7-3 at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston.

Also: Arsenal played Birmingham City to a 1-1 draw at St. Andrews Stadium in Birmingham.  

November 25, 1986: The Iran-Contra Scandal

November 25, 1986: Of all the scandals in the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, what already should have been the biggest one gets a lot bigger.

On November 3, 1 day before the midterm Congressional elections, Ash-Shiraa (Arabic for "The Sail"), a magazine based in the Middle Eastern nation of Lebanon, reported that the American government had secretly been selling weapons to Iran, in order to secure the release of 7 American hostages held in Lebanon by pro-Iranian groups.

And if this had been the extent of Reagan's involvement, it would have been bad enough, an impeachable offense. This was not the extent of it.

On November 4, the Democratic Party gained 8 seats in the U.S. Senate, enough to take control for the 1st time in 6 years. That was actually more seats than they gained in the House of Representatives, 5, but they already had control there.

Representative Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill of Massachusetts, retiring after 34 years in Congress, the last 10 as Speaker of the House, told the media, "The Reagan Revolution is dead." It sure seemed likely: For the last 2 years of Reagan's 2nd term -- regardless of whether he finished it -- Congress would be fully under Democratic control, making it more willing to investigate any misdeeds for which he and his men were responsible. And the new Speaker would be Jim Wright of Texas: While O'Neill and Reagan put partisanship aside enough to become friendly when not talking politics, relying on their shared Irishness and love of baseball, Wright had no such connection with Reagan.

On November 25, U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, who had worked with Reagan since the beginning of his tenure as Governor of California in 1967, publicly admitted that profits from weapons sales to Iran were made available to assist the Contras, a right-wing paramilitary group looking to overthrow the Communist government of Nicaragua.

This was prohibited by the Boland Amendment to the War Powers Act of 1973. Like O'Neill, a close friend of his, Eddie Boland was a Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts, and he wanted to outlaw such assistance, because people from his District, aid workers in Nicaragua, had been killed by the Contras. It was unanimously passed by Congress in 1982, and Reagan himself had signed it into law.

Therefore, if it could be proven that Reagan had authorized the "Contra" part of what had now become known as "The Iran-Contra Affair," he needed to be impeached by the House, and convicted and removed from office by the Senate. This was just 12 years after Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency, rather than face that likelihood over the Watergate scandal, and many of the major players in Congress in 1974 were still there at this point, so it was fresh in people's memory. 

Also on November 25, former U.S. Navy Admiral John Poindexter, Reagan's National Security Adviser, up to his neck in the scandal, resigned. One of his aides, Oliver North, a Lieutenant Colonel still on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps, was discovered to have shredded documents relating to the funding of the Contras, and Reagan flat-out fired him.

An actor before going into politics, Reagan made 69 films between 1937 and 1964, 4 with his 1st wife, Jane Wyman, and 1 with his 2nd wife and eventual First Lady, then billed as Nancy Davis. In 2 of his films, he, a former football player at NCAA Division III Eureka College in Illinois, played sports legends: Notre Dame back George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All-American in 1940; and St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander (a man named for a President) in The Winning Team in 1952.

But there was no role he played better than "President Reagan." Parodying a commercial for pain reliever that debuted during his 1st term, "I'm not a doctor, but... " I said, "Ronald Reagan isn't a great President, but he plays one on TV." And no matter what bad things happened on his watch, nothing seemed to stick to him -- hence the nickname "The Teflon President" -- and nothing seemed to faze him.

But Iran-Contra fazed Ronald Reagan. He was now approaching his 76th birthday, and, for the first time, he looked tired. The familiar smile was seen less often. There were times, especially during press conferences, where not only was his famed ability to verbally fence with, and disarm, reporters gone, but he looked like, as had often been said of boxers who had taken a beating, he didn't know where he was.

After bad performances in his debates with Walter Mondale during the 1984 election, people began to joke that Reagan, by that point the oldest President in American history, had Alzheimer's disease. Now, it looked like it was no longer a joke. Indeed, in 1994, he revealed that he now had it, but wouldn't admit to having had it while still President.

One great performance came on the December 6, 1986 episode of Saturday Night Live. Phil Hartman played Reagan, showing that his friendly but out-of-it persona was a façade, and that the Iran-Contra scandal was actually masking a James Bond-style supervillain, trading money, armaments and illicit goods all over the world -- including to Iraq, with whom America would end up at war 4 years later.

Hartman as Reagan on SNL

Howard Baker, the former Senate Majority Leader from Tennessee, who had been one of Reagan's competitors for the 1980 Republican nomination for President, and had been a member of the Senate Select Committee investigating Watergate, was brought in as his new White House Chief of Staff, to get the White House running properly again, and also to calm his old friends in Congress down.

On February 26, 1987, the Tower Commission -- chaired by his old friend, former Senator John Tower of Texas -- issued its report. As historian Michael Farquhar put it in his 2015 book Bad Days In History:

Rather than being seen as a maniacal schemer bent on undermining the law, Reagan was portrayed by the commission as something almost as bad: in essence, a doddering old coot who remained clueless as members of his administration ran amok, dealing with terrorists and illegally funding a foreign war.

By early May 1987, when hearings were underway, it became clear that, unlike with Nixon, nobody was going to "flip" on Reagan. There would be no "John Dean," only a bunch of "G. Gordon Liddys." No Articles of Impeachment were ever drawn up against him. If he was still alive on January 20, 1989, the end of his 2nd term, he was going to serve it out.

He did, leaving office just short of turning 78. (The current President, Joe Biden, has broken his record. Despite attacks by Republicans, his mind is still sharp.) Reagan admitted to having Alzheimer's in 1994, stepped out of public life, and died in 2004, at age 93, at the time the oldest former President ever.

In 1998, with Reagan and most of the people associated with his Administration still alive, PBS aired a documentary as part of its series The American Experience: The Presidents. Nancy was not interviewed, but his children were: Sons Michael and Ronald, and daughters Maureen and Patti (who uses her mother's maiden name as her last name, Davis).

Meese was interviewed, but while he resigned as Attorney General due to his apparent role in the Wedtech scandal, he has never been indicted for any crimes, and he appears not to have committed any of the crimes connected to Iran-Contra. The major figures involved in Iran-Contra were not interviewed: Not Poindexter, not North, not Fawn Hall, the secretary he ordered to do the document shredding.

One exception was Robert C. "Bud" McFarlane, Poindexter's predecessor as National Security Adviser. In his interview, he said that, on July 18, 1985, while Reagan was hospitalized for cancer surgery, he presented the President with the plan of the arms sales to Iran and the redirection of the profits to the Contras, and that Reagan -- possibly compromised due to the drugs he was being prescribed -- approved it.

This contradicted what McFarlane had said in his testimony before Congress. He had already pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress, and was sentenced to 2 years' probation -- no jail time. Reagan's Vice President and successor as President, George H.W. Bush, made McFarlane the beneficiary of one of his "Christmas Pardons" on December 24, 1992.

If McFarlane had told Congress the truth in the Spring of 1987, Reagan could well have been impeached and removed by the end of the calendar year. Bush would have had a full year as an incumbent under his belt as he ran for President in 1988, but would have had to do a lot more defending of himself, his people, and the Republican Party in general than he actually ended up having to do. And, instead of winning in a landslide, he might have lost.

McFarlane died on May 12, 2022, at the age of 84. Lots of people were convicted in connection with Iran-Contra. Thanks to Bush, few of them really paid for it. Reagan got away with it completely.

*

November 25, 1986 was a Tuesday, 2 days before Thanksgiving. That made it the off-season for baseball, and an off-day for the NFL. There were 8 games played in the NBA that night:

* The New York Knicks beat the Houston Rockets, 102-93 at Madison Square Garden. Gerald Henderson came off the bench to lead Knick scorers with 21 points. Patrick Ewing did not play, for reasons I've forgotten and for which I can't find a reason online. Hakeem Olajuwon matched his uniform number by scoring 34 in defeat.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the San Antonio Spurs, 117-99 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio. Orlando Woolridge led the Meadowlands team with 21 points.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics, 102-100 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Maurice Cheeks led the Sixers with 23 points. A young Charles Barkley scored 17. Julius "Dr. J" Erving, in his final season, scored 16. The Celtics' Big Three? Kevin McHale 29, Larry Bird 22, Robert Parish 10.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 111-99 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 113-107 at the Great Western Forum in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California. Dominique Wilkins scored 26, while Magic Johnson had 22 and Byron Scott 20 for the Lakers. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was held to 16.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Utah Jazz, 111-106 at what's now named the Oracle Arena in Oakland.

* The Sacramento Kings beat the Phoenix Suns, 123-102 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento. This was the 10,333-seat original version, not its 17,317-seat successor built in 1988, later known as the Power Balance Pavilion and the Sleep Train Arena. The old arena, in California's capital city, has been converted into office space, and now houses the State's Department of Consumer Affairs. The new arena has been converted into a hospital for COVID-19 victims, and its long-term fate is uncertain.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 113-103 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 3 NHL games played on the day, only 1 involving a New York Tri-State Area team:

* The New York Islanders beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-1 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, 2-1 at Le Colisée de Québec. 

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 11-5 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.