October 6, 2010: Roy Halladay's Postseason No-Hitter

October 6, 2010: At Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Roy Halladay throws the 2nd no-hitter in postseason history, and becomes the 1st National League hurler to throw one. He had also thrown a no-hitter in this year's regular season, so he becomes the 1st pitcher to throw a no-hitter in both the regular season and the postseason, ever, let alone in the same season. The Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-0, in Game 1 of the NL Division Series.

It's nearly a perfect game: He walked Jay Bruce in the 5th inning, but that was the only baserunner he allowed. His teammates made no errors. They gave him a run in the bottom of the 1st inning, on a sacrifice fly by Chase Utley; and 3 in the 2nd, including his own RBI single.

Halladay had gone 148-76 and the 2003 American League Cy Young Award with the Toronto Blue Jays, but had never pitched in the postseason. After the 2009 season, the Jays traded him to the Phils for 3 players, and he went 55-29 for them, helping them win the NL Eastern Division in 2010 and 2011, and winning another Cy Young in 2011. So this game wasn't just his 2nd no-hitter, it was the 1st postseason game in which he'd ever played.

An injury ended his career at the age of 36, and a plane crash ended his life at 40. With a career record of 203-105, an ERA of 3.38, an ERA+ of 131, and a WHIP of 1.178, he was probably headed for the Baseball Hall of Fame, anyway. His early death may have led to a sympathy vote that won him election in 2019, his 1st year of eligibility.

*

October 6, 2010 was a Wednesday. There were 2 other Playoff series opening that day, both in the AL. The New York Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-4. It was the 1st postseason game played at the Twins' new Target Field in Minneapolis. CC Sabathia was the winning pitcher. Mark Teixeira hit a home run. Derek Jeter went 1-for-5. Alex Rodriguez went 1-for-3 with a walk.

In the other game, the Texas Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 5-1 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Cliff Lee, the previous year's big pitching acquisition for the Phillies, was the winning pitcher for the Rangers, who went on to win their 1st Pennant.

There were no other games: Football was in midweek, the NHL season started the next day, and the NBA season started 20 days later.

September 28, 2012: The Barclays Center Opens

September 28, 2012: The Barclays Center opens, at the eastern edge of Downtown Brooklyn. It is bounded by Atlantic Avenue on the north, 6th Avenue on the east, Dean Street on the south, and Flatbush Avenue on the west. The official address is 620 Atlantic Avenue.

It is across from the Atlantic Terminal of the Long Island Rail Road, and the Atlantic Terminal Mall. It is thus accessible via the LIRR. For this reason, it was the site chosen by Walter O'Malley in 1954 for the new home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, a domed stadium he was calling the Brooklyn Sports Center. It never happened, because Robert Moses, who controlled several City and State agencies, and had to decide whether or not to give the order to clear the land necessary for the stadium, decided not to. This became O'Malley's excuse to take the Dodgers out of Brooklyn.

It is also accessible by Subway: The Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center station on the 2, 3, 4, 5, B, D, N, Q, R, and W Trains; and the Bergen Street station on the 2, 3 and 4 Trains.

It was part of the Atlantic Yards project, built by real estate developer Bruce Ratner, who had bought the NBA's New Jersey Nets in 2004, at the height of their success: A 3rd straight Atlantic Division title, and the 2 previous Eastern Conference titles. He said he would build an arena at the site, and move the Nets there.

Delay after delay happened. Not only were the Nets a lame-duck team even longer than baseball's Montreal Expos were, but they ended up moving in the interim, in 2010, from the Meadowlands Arena to the Prudential Center in Newark. I had hoped that the crowds in Newark, a good basketball city, would impress Rather so much that he would keep the Nets there.

Instead, the crowds were every bit as sparse at The Rock as they were at the Meadowlands. And Ratner lost so much money on the project that he had to sell the Nets, to Russian businessman Mikhail Prokhorov. Contingent on the sale was agreeing to move the team into the Barclays Center as soon as it was ready.

The 1st event at the Barclays Center was a concert by Brooklyn native Shawn Carter, a.k.a. rapper Jay-Z. Within its 1st year, the new building had surpassed its intracity rival Madison Square Garden to become America's highest-grossing venue for the category of concerts and family shows.

The Nets' 1st regular-season game there, originally intended as November 1, 2012 against the New York Knicks, was delayed due to Hurricane Sandy. Instead, it was November 3, against the Toronto Raptors, and the Nets won, 107-100.

The Nets have played there ever since. Long Island University, based a few blocks away (Brooklyn and Queens are part of Long Island geologically, if not politically or culturally), have used it for some home games since then as well. The NHL's New York Islanders used it from 2015 to 2020. And the WNBA's New York Liberty started using it as their home court this year. Seating capacity is 17,732 for basketball, and 15,795 for hockey.

*

September 28, 2012 was a Friday. The NBA and NHL weren't quite ready to start their seasons, and the NFL doesn't play games on Fridays. But Major League Baseball was moving into the last weekend of its regular season:

* The New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 11-4 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Russell Martin and Eric Chavez hit home runs in support of Hiroki Kuroda.

* The New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-1 at Turner Field in Atlanta.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, 9-1 at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

* The Miami Marlins beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1 at Marlins Park (now LoanDepot Park) in Miami.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 1-0 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Homer Bailey pitched a no-hitter for the Reds, striking out 10 and walking 1.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals, 8-5 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 3-1 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Houston Astros beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-6 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-2 at Target Field in Minneapolis.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Washington Nationals, 12-2 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 7-4 at Globe Life Park (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-3 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 3-1 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Avalanche, 8-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Seattle Mariners, 8-2 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the O.co Coliseum).

Also, my high school, East Brunswick, lost to Monroe, 27-0 at home at Jay Doyle Field in East Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey. 

September 18, 1996: Bob Dole and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day

September 18, 1996: Bob Dole, the former U.S. Senator from Kansas and Senate Majority Leader, now the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States, spends the day in California, hoping to win the State, which would be a big step toward beating the Democratic Party's nominee, the incumbent President, Bill Clinton.

It turns out to be, as author Judith Viorst would say, a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day. Though it could have been considerably worse.

The night before, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies, 9-0 at Coors Field in Denver. The fact that a no-hitter had been pitched at the ballpark with the highest altitude in Major League Baseball history, making it easier to hit home runs there than anywhere else, ever, was astounding enough.

It was pitched by Hideo Nomo, whose arrival in the North American major leagues the season before opened the door to players from Japan, and indeed from all over Asia. It makes him the 1st pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the North American majors. Five years later, with the Boston Red Sox, he would pitch another, making him one of the few pitchers to throw a no-hitter in each League.

The Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in the 1957-58 off-season. At the time, Dole was 34 years old, and the attorney for Russell County, his home County in Kansas. He was a sports fan, and had even played basketball at the University of Kansas, which was already one of the top programs in college basketball.

His hope of continuing a sports career ended in World War II, when he was wounded in the shoulder while serving in the U.S. Army in Italy, rendering his right arm all but useless. From that point onward, he shook hands with his left hand, raised his left hand to be sworn into offices, saluted with his left hand at veterans' events and other patriotic occasions, and kept a pen in his right hand, to show people, in his words, "That hand's occupied."

Dole was elected to the State House of Representatives in 1950, County Attorney in 1952, the U.S. House of Representatives in 1960, and the U.S. Senate in 1968. In 1971 and 1972, he was the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, including during the break-in at the Democratic National Committee's headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, at the office of his opposite number, Larry O'Brien, later the Commissioner of the NBA. Dole's successor as RNC Chairman was George H.W. Bush.

Dole was nominated for Vice President by the Republicans in 1976, on the ticket with Gerald Ford. In 1980, he ran in the Republican Primaries, as did Bush, but both lost to Ronald Reagan, who took Bush as his running mate. In 1985, Dole was named Republican leader in the Senate. In 1988, he and Bush both ran for the Party's Presidential nomination, and Bush won it. When Bush was beaten by Bill Clinton in 1992, Dole effectively set himself up as the Republicans' "opposition leader."

Everyone knew he was running for President in 1996, but nothing seemed to work. He took a chance, and, once he had the nomination wrapped up, resigned from the Senate completely, to show that he was willing to give up the job he loved to protect the jobs of everyday Americans from the damage Clinton was doing to the economy. But most people didn't buy it: They saw that Clinton was making the economy grow faster than at any time since the 1960s.

 

The Electoral College map favored Clinton, but Dole thought that if he could take away the State with the most Electoral Votes, California, with 54, he could win on that basis, even if he, always respected but never especially popular, even within his own Party, couldn't win the popular vote.

Dole was 73 years old -- the age Reagan was when he was elected to a 2nd term in 1984. He was aiming to become the oldest person ever elected President. He seemed relatively healthy for his age, but people remembered how dotty Reagan seemed at the same age, and worried about whether Dole could do the job at his age.

(Since then, John McCain has been nominated at 72, Donald Trump has been elected at 70, and Joe Biden has been elected at 78.) 

Early in the day, Dole campaigned at Chaminade High School, 30 miles from Los Angeles City Hall, but still within the city limits, in the neighborhood of West Hills. He showed how out of touch he was, citing Nomo’s no-hitter for the Dodgers the night before. The Dodgers had been in Los Angeles, the very city he was in, for 38 years. Instead, Dole said, "The Brooklyn Dodgers had a no-hitter last night. I'm going to follow what Nomo did, and we're going to wipe them out between now and November 5!"

The enthusiasm was great. The memory was not. And it restarted the questions about his age. It also made him look insensitive to Dodger fans in their own city, and brought up memories previous insensitive moments for Dole.

But things got worse for him a few hours later, nearly 500 miles to the north in Chico -- further north in the State than San Francisco, Sacramento, and even Lake Tahoe. This was a section of California that, then as now, tended to vote Republican, and he thought that if he could get a big vote in that part of the State, he could offset the heavy Democratic vote in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas.

He was reaching down to shake the hand of a supporter, when the railing on the stage gave way, and he fell 4 feet to the ground. Considering that his right arm had been rendered nearly useless due to his World War II combat injury, he only had one (old) arm to brace himself with.

Fortunately, he only sustained a minor injury. Through the 2020 election, no major-party Presidential nominee has ever died, or had to drop out for medical reasons, in mid-campaign. Vice Presidential nominee Jack F. Kemp, a former quarterback, Congressman, and Secretary of Housing & Urban Development, did not have to step in for Dole.

(He might have done better, though: He was 60, more popular within his own party, and even Democrats admitted that he was considerably better-looking and more likable. He even had convenient initials: He was known as "the Republican JFK.")

But the televised image of Dole falling and landing in pain, reminded everyone that he was 73 years old, and Clinton was only 50, and, despite his hair having gone entirely gray, still seemed a lot younger than that.

Dole was back on the campaign trail the next day. On October 6, he had his 1st of 2 debates with Clinton, in Hartford, Connecticut. He did all right, making his policy positions clear, making his policy differences with Clinton clear, showing a sense of humor, and doing his best to make himself look 63 instead of 73.

Debate moderator Jim Lehrer, co-anchor of PBS' evening news, asked Clinton if he thought Dole was too old for the job. As he so often did, Clinton had the perfect answer: "No, I don't think the Senator is too old to be President. It's the age of his ideas that I question."

On November 5, Clinton won 379 Electoral Votes, including California's 54 with 51 percent of the vote, to Dole's 38, with Reform Party candidate Ross Perot winning 7 percent. Dole did manage to win nearly 200,000 more votes in California than Bush had in 1992.

In the end, the main reason Clinton won wasn't the Republican nominee's age, it was, indeed, the Republican Party's ideas, against his. Dole being the Party's nominee was mostly irrelevant, and his age almost entirely was.

Two months later, shortly before Clinton was inaugurated for his 2nd term, he awarded Dole the Presidential Medal of Freedom. As both George Bushes went on to do, Dole later worked with Clinton in charitable causes. Dole died in 2021, at the age of 98, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

*

September 18, 1996 was a Wednesday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-0 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Roger Clemens of the Red Sox struck 20 batters out. To that point, it was only the 2nd time that a pitcher had done this in a 9-inning game, and Clemens had done it both times. I have a separate entry for this event.

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2 at Yankee Stadium. Rubén Rivera, once the Rivera the Yankees thought was going to be the star, not his cousin Mariano, singled home Derek Jeter, soon to be the American League Rookie of the Year, home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. This made Mariano the winning pitcher, in relief of Andy Pettitte.

* The New York Mets lost to the Montreal Expos, 4-3 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Dave Mlicki loaded the bases in the bottom of the 8th, and hit F.P. Santangelo with a pitch, forcing Moisés Alou home with the winning run.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Florida Marlins, 8-6 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 6-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Greg Maddux went the distance, outpitching Mike Hampton. Fred McGriff went 2-for-3 with 2 home runs, a walk, and 4 RBIs.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-3 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 2-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 5-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals, 7-4 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Paul Molitor went 0-for-4 with a walk.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-4 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The California Angels beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* The San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants, 8-5 at 3Com Park (as Candlestick Park was then known) in San Francisco. For the Padres, Ken Caminiti went 3-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Tony Gwynn pinch-hit, stayed in the game in right field, and went 2-for-2. Rickey Henderson went 0-for-2 with 2 walks. For the Giants, Barry Bonds went 0-for-1, but drew 3 walks, and had an RBI on a sacrifice fly.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers, 5-2 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Jay Buhner went 2-for-3 with a home run, a walk, and 4 RBIs. Ken Griffey Jr. went 2-for-3 with a walk. Rookie Alex Rodriguez went 2-for-4 with a walk. 

September 9, 1965: Sandy Koufax's Perfect Game

September 9, 1965: The Los Angeles Dodgers host the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. In the 1st 152 seasons of what we now call Major League Baseball, no game has ever had fewer hits, both teams combined.

Sandy Koufax started for the Dodgers. He had pitched a no-hitter in each of the last 3 seasons: 1962, 1963 and 1964. He was pitching as well as anybody ever had in the history of baseball.

Bob Hendley started for the Cubs. He was not a particularly well-known pitcher. On this night, he pitched the game of his life. Unfortunately for him, it was only the 2nd-best pitched game... in that game.

Neither pitcher allowed a single baserunner until the bottom of the 5th. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. So can errors. Hendley walked Lou Johnson to start the inning. Ron Fairly sacrificed Johnson over to 2nd base. Johnson tried to steal 3rd base. Cub catcher Chris Krug made a bad throw, allowing Johnson to score. Johnson would also get a hit, the Dodgers' only hit: A "Texas Leaguer" double to right field with 2 out in the 7th, but would be stranded.

The Dodgers had 1 run, without a hit contributing to it. That was all Koufax needed: One run. He went to a 3-balls, 2-strikes count on Ernie Banks in the top of the 5th, but struck him out. He went to another full count on Billy Williams in the 7th, but got him to fly out. He struck out the side in the 8th: Ron Santo, Banks, and Byron Browne.

He went into the 9th inning without having allowed a baserunner. Krug led off. He got to a 2-and-2 count, before Koufax struck him out swinging. Joey Amalfitano came up. Koufax struck him out on 3 pitches, the last a swing and a miss.

Cub manager Lou Klein sent Harvey Kuenn up to bad for Hendley, who had pitched 8 innings, allowing 1 run, 1 hit, and 1 walk, striking out 3. Ordinarily, even in that pitching-friendly era of baseball, it would have been enough to win. Not on this night.

Kuenn was 34 years old, and nearing the end of the line. But he was a .303 lifetime hitter, the 1953 American League Rookie of the Year, the 1959 AL batting champion with a .353 average, a 4-time AL leader in hits, a 3-time AL leader in doubles, an All-Star in 8 seasons (including 2 in which there were 2 All-Star Games, so he's sometimes listed as a 10-time All-Star), and, while not really a power hitter, topping off at 12 home runs in 1956, he was certainly capable of driving in runs, topping off at 88 RBIs that same year. He had spent most of his career with the Detroit Tigers, but had helped the San Francisco Giants win the 1962 NL Pennant.

No less than Casey Stengel had said that Kuenn was "one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball. The guy can hurt you a million ways. He has no weakness at the plate that I have ever noticed." However, he was now batting just .217. He had previously made the last out in Koufax's 2nd no-hitter, over the Giants in 1963.

There is no surviving film or videotape of this game, just a recording of Vin Scully's broadcast on radio station KFI, 640 on the AM dial: "It is 9:46 PM. Two and two to Harvey Kuenn. One strike away. Sandy into his windup. Here's the pitch: Swung on and missed, a perfect game!" (Note: That's 9:46 PM Pacific Time, so it was 12:46 AM Eastern Time on September 10.)

The perfect game was also his 4th no-hitter, breaking the record of 3, which had been shared by Larry Corcoran, Cy Young and Bob Feller. Young's 2nd no-hitter was a perfect game.

Koufax threw 113 pitches, 79 of them for strikes. He struck out 14 batters. Home plate umpire Ed Vargo didn't have the chance to make bad calls. His single-game strikeout peak was 18, having done it in 1959 (before he found his control) and 1962. The 14 from this game would be part of a total of 382, a major league record at the time. Nolan Ryan would raise the record to 383 in 1973, a year in which he pitched 2 no-hitters. Koufax's 382 remains a National League record, and a major league record for lefthanded pitchers.

Koufax's 4 no-hitters would be a record until Ryan pitched a 5th in 1981, eventually reaching 7 -- although none of those was a perfect game. In a weird twist of events, Jeff Torborg caught Koufax's last no-hitter, and also caught Ryan's 1st in 1973. That made him the 2nd catcher to catch no-hitters in both leagues, following Gus Triandos. They have since been joined by Darrell Porter, Ron Hassey and Drew Butera.

Torborg also caught Bill Singer's no-hitter for the Dodgers, in 1970, so he was the 1st catcher to catch 3 no-hitters. Jason Varitek now holds the record, with 4.

The Dodgers went on to win the World Series. Koufax would be the story of that Series, in more ways than one.

Harvey Kuenn would go on to manage the Milwaukee Brewers to their 1st Pennant, in 1982. He died in 1988. Ed Vargo died in 2008. Lou Johnson, who got the Dodgers' only hit, died in 2020. Vin Scully died on August 2, 2022. As of September 9, 2022, Sandy Koufax, Jeff Torborg and Bob Hendley are still alive.

UPDATE: Torborg died in 2025.

*

September 9, 1965 was a Thursday. Future basketball star Dan Majerle was born. Hurricane Betsy hit the Gulf of Mexico region, killing 81 people. This was also the day that both the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Gatorade made their debuts. I have separate entries for those events.

There were only 4 other major league games that night:

* The New York Mets lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Rookie Tug McGraw, not yet converted into a reliever, started for the Mets, and allowed 2 runs over 7 innings. The Mets tied the game in the 8th, but Tony Pérez won it with a home run off Gordie Richardson in the bottom of the 9th. Frank Robinson -- as it turned out, in his last month with the Reds -- went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 10-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Jim Kaat outpitched Joe Horlen. Harmon Killebrew did not play. The Twins were about to win Minnesota's 1st major league Pennant, the franchise's 1st since 1933, when they were the Washington Senators. But they would lose the World Series to the Dodgers.

* The California Angels beat the Kansas City Athletics, 7-2 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 4-0 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Juan Marichal, having returned from his suspension after hitting John Roseboro with his bat on August 22, pitched a 4-hit shutout. Tom Haller hit a home run. Willie Mays went 0-for-3.

September 2, 1972: Bruce Froemming Blows Milt Pappas' Perfect Game

September 2, 1972: The Chicago Cubs host the San Diego Padres at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Milt Pappas is the Cubs' starting pitcher, entering the game with a record of 11-7. Although a decent pitcher, he is best known for being the pitcher that the Cincinnati Reds traded their best player, Frank Robinson, for following the 1965 season. In the past 7 years, that trade had already gone down in history as one of baseball's worst trades. The events of this game did not change that.

The Cubs granted Pappas a quick lead, scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the 1st inning. They made it 4-0 in the 3rd. In the 8th, they extended it to 8-0. The result of the game was no longer in doubt. But Pappas inched closer and closer to baseball history. In the 8th inning, he made a fine play on a comebacker hit by Derrel Thomas for the final out. It was 24 men up 24 men down.

Johnny Jeter, no relation to Derek, led off the top of the 9th inning, and he hit a line shot to left-center field, where future Hall-of-Famer Billy Williams caught it. Fred Kendall, father of future All-Star Jason Kendall, grounded to shortstop, and Don Kessinger threw him out.

The batter was Larry Stahl, pinch-hitting for Al Severinsen, who had relieved Padre starter Mike Caldwell. He ran the count full. Pappas threw a pitch that was a little outside. Stahl checked his swing, but appeared to go around. It should have been strike 3, the last out, a no-hitter and a perfect game for Pappas.

The home plate umpire was Bruce Froemming, in only his 2nd season in the major leagues. A native of Milwaukee, a few days away from his 33rd birthday, he called the pitch a ball, and sent Stahl to 1st base. The perfect game was ruined.

Garry Jestadt was the next batter. He popped up, and 2nd baseman Carmen Fanzone caught it for the final out. Pappas had his no-hitter. But this game went into the books as a perfect game ruined on a walk to the 27th and, potentially, last batter. It remains the only such game in baseball history: 27th men have reached on hits, and on errors, but only this one due to a base on balls.

After the game, Pappas approached Froemming, and appealed to his ego. He reminded Froemming of how few perfect games had been pitched -- 10 at that point -- and thus how few umpires had called them. Froemming told Pappas, "Milt, if I'd called that pitch a strike, I'd never be able to live with myself." Pappas forgot the high road and yelled, "How do you live with yourself with all the other lousy calls you make?"

Pappas would finish his career with a fine record of 209 wins and 164 losses, a 3.40 ERA, and a 1.225 WHIP. He deserved better than to be remembered only as the man acquired in the Frank Robinson trade. Certainly, he deserved that perfect game. He is still remembered for having pitched a no-hitter for the Cubs, something that Burt Hooton had done the season before, and Ken Holtzman had done 1 and 3 seasons before. Pappas died in 2016, shortly after the 50th Anniversary of the infamous trade.

Froemming went on to umpire for a record 37 years (since broken), and became one of the worst ever. In Philadelphia, he is notorious for a call at 1st base that cost the Phillies an out that would have clinched the 1977 National League Pennant, leading to the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the Pennant. Froemming's swan song was the 2007 American League Division Series between the Yankees and the Cleveland Indians, when he, as crew chief, refused to stop the game until the Lake Erie Midges left.

*

September 2, 1972 was a Saturday. These other Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 2-1 at Yankee Stadium. Steve Kline outpitched Tom Bradley. Bernie Allen hit a home run. Thurman Munson went 1-for-3 with the team's other RBI.

* The New York Mets beat the Houston Astros, 11-8 at the Astrodome in Houston. Ken Boswell hit a home run for the Mets. Willie Mays appeared only as a defensive replacement, and did not come to bat.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-3, with an RBI on a sacrifice fly.

* A doubleheader was split at Atlanta Stadium (later renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). The Atlanta Braves won the opener, 10-7. The Philadelphia Phillies won the nightcap, 3-0. Dave Downs pitched an 8-0 shutout. It was 1 of 13 shutouts pitched by the Phillies that year, 8 of which were pitched by Steve Carlton.

Over the 2 games, Hank Aaron went 4-for-8 with a walk and 4 RBIs, including hitting the 666th and 667th home runs of his career. Ten days later, Mike Schmidt would make his major league debut for the Phils.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente went 2-for-3 with 2 walks, a home run, and 3 RBIs. It was the 239th home run of his career. He would hit 1 more.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Pete Rose and Johnny Bench both went 0-for-4, with Rose adding a walk.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-3 at Metropolitan stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Steve Dunning was the winning pitcher, and helped his own cause with a 2-run home run. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Rod Carew went 2-for-5.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Lou Brock went 0-for-3. Frank Robinson, in his only season with the Dodgers, did not enter the game.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Texas Rangers, 6-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The California Angels beat the Baltimore Orioles, 2-0 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium). Rudy May pitched a 3-hit shutout to beat Jim Palmer. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-4.

* And the Detroit Tigers beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Bill Freehan and Mickey Stanley hit home runs in the top of the 11th inning, off Dave Hamilton, who blew the game for Vida Blue. Fred Scherman was the winning pitcher, in relief of Mickey Lolich. Al Kaline went 2-for-5. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-4.

This was also the day of Game 1 of the "Summit Series," and the Soviet Union shocked Canada, 7-3 at the Montreal Forum.

It was the week before the college football season opened in America. In English soccer, it was a battle of London teams, and Arsenal and Chelsea played to a 1-1 draw at Highbury.

August 25, 1952: Virgil Trucks: Feast Or Famine

August 25, 1952: The Detroit Tigers beat the New York Yankees, 1-0 at Yankee Stadium. Virgil Trucks pitches a no-hitter.

It wasn't a perfect game. Hank Bauer reached on an error in the 1st inning. In the 3rd, Phil Rizzuto reached on an error, and Mickey Mantle drew a walk. The Tigers scored their run in the top of the 7th, when Walt Dropo doubled down the left field line, and Bud Souchock singled him home.

It is the 2nd no-hitter of his career, and makes him one of the few pitchers to throw 2 no-hitters in a single season. He had pitched one against the Washington Senators on May 15, also winning that one, 1-0.

Trucks finished the season 5-19. In other words, take out the no-hitters, and he was 3-19. It was not all his fault: The Tigers finished 51-103 in 1952, 8th and last in the American League, 46 games behind the Pennant-winning Yankees.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1917, Trucks debuted with the Tigers in 1941. Serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he was discharged in time to help the Tigers win the 1945 World Series. In 1949, he was named to the All-Star Game, and led the AL in strikeouts.

Nicknamed "Fire" Trucks, he was traded to the St. Louis Browns before the 1953 season. In mid-season, the Browns traded him to the Chicago White Sox. Between the teams, he had his only 20-win season, going 20-10.

In 1954, he started for the White Sox against the Baltimore Orioles in the 1st game at Baltimore's Memorial Stadium. The Orioles won, 3-1, with Bob Turley getting the win. In 1991, for the final Opening Day at Memorial Stadium before the move to Camden Yards, the Orioles invited Trucks and Turley, in copies of their 1954 jerseys, to throw out ceremonial first balls. Trucks made the All-Star Game again.

The White Sox traded him back to the Tigers for 1956, the Tigers traded him to the Kansas City Athletics for 1957, and the A's traded him to the Yankees in 1958. Now, he and Turley were on the same side, as Turley won the Cy Young Award, and the two of them helped the Yankees win the Pennant. However, Trucks was not placed on the World Series roster. The Yankees won, anyway.

They released him early in the 1959 season, and his career was over, with a record of 177-135. The Pittsburgh Pirates hired him as pitching coach, and they beat the Yankees in the 1960 World Series, giving Trucks another World Series ring and a measure of revenge. He later coached with the Atlanta Braves and back with the Tigers.

Trucks was elected to the Sports Halls of Fame of both Alabama and Michigan. He died in 2013. His nephew, Butch Trucks, was a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band.

*

August 25, 1952 was a Monday. These other baseball games were played:

* The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-0 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Ken Raffensberger pitched a 6-hit shutout. Willie Mays was serving in the Korean War, and unavailable to the Giants.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers swept a doubleheader from the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1 and 9-5 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Over the 2 games, Jackie Robinson went 3-for-8 with a walk, Duke Snider went 1-for-6 with a home run, a walk and an RBI, and Stan Musial went 1-for-8 with 2 RBIs.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Washington Senators, 7-2 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Bob Lemon outpitched Connie Marrero. 

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Granny Hamner hit a 3-run home run in the top of the 10th inning.

* And the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox, the Philadelphia Athletics, the St. Louis Browns, the Boston Braves and the Pittsburgh Pirates were not scheduled.

August 19, 1965: Jim Maloney's 10-Inning, 10-Walk No-Hitter

August 19, 1965: In the 1st game of a doubleheader at Wrigley Field in Chicago, the Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 1-0 in 10 innings. Leo Cárdenas won it with a 10th inning home run.

Reds pitcher Jim Maloney, who had previously pitched 10 no-hit innings against the Mets that season, but lost the no-hitter and the game in the 11th inning, this time goes 10 innings and keeps the no-hitter and the win. It was hardly a perfect game: He hit a batter and walked 10, but struck out 12. He also went 2-for-4 in his own cause. In other words, he had 2 more hits than he allowed.

Maloney threw 187 pitches. Do not show this fact to Yankee general manager Brian Cashman, or he may well have a stroke. Larry Jackson went the distance for the Cubs, allowing only that 1 run on 9 hits. He didn't walk anybody, but struck out 5.

Surprisingly, given the high cost of videotape, especially in those days, there is surviving color footage of this game, the WGN, Chicago Channel 9, broadcast, with Jack Brickhouse.

In the 2nd game, the Cubs trailed the Reds, 4-0, but scored 3 runs in the 8th and 2 in the 9th to win it, 5-4. Billy Williams homered in the 8th, and Don Landrum homered off Billy McCool in the 9th, making a winning pitcher of Lindy McDaniel in relief of Cal Koonce. Over the 2 games, Frank Robinson went 3-for-8 with an RBI, and Pete Rose went 2-for-9 with a walk. For the Cubs, Ernie Banks went 0-for-9.

Maloney would pitch a 3rd no-hitter in 1969 (but MLB only gives him credit for the last 2, even though he did pitch at least 9 no-hit innings in the 1st one). Born in Fresno, California in 1940, he was the 1st pitcher from that city to throw a no-hitter for the Reds. But he wouldn't be the last: Tom Seaver did it in 1978.

Maloney pitched for the Reds from 1960 to 1970, winning a Pennant with them in 1961, and nearly another in 1964. He might have been the fastest pitcher of the 1960s, throwing in excess of 100 miles per hour. In 1963, he went 23-7. In a game against the Milwaukee Braves, he struck out 15 batters, and Hank Aaron said, "He was faster than anyone else I've seen this season. Yes, he was faster than Sandy Koufax." Two months later, he pitched a shutout against the San Francisco Giants, and their manager, Alvin Dark, called him "a right-handed Sandy Koufax."

Jim O’Toole, also in the Reds' 1960s starting rotation, said, "Maloney had such a great fastball and curve that he was unhittable if he got them both over. He was as good as Koufax." Bob Gibson said, "I don't throw as hard as Jim Maloney. Nobody throws as hard as Maloney. He's the only guy who can simply overpower you. You know he's going to throw the fastball, you set for it, but you still can't catch up with it."

But in a pitching-rich decade, with Hall-of-Famers Gibson, Koufax, Don Drysdale, Juan Marichal, Jim Bunning, Ferguson Jenkins and Phil Niekro all in the National League, Maloney made just 1 All-Star Game, in 1965. He ruptured his Achilles tendon in a game on April 16, 1970, and barely pitched the rest of the season. He was not on their postseason roster as they won another Pennant.

His 100-mile-per-hour fastball was gone. He pitched the 1971 season with the California Angels, and was released. The Angels then traded for the pitcher who gave them what they had hoped to get from Maloney: Nolan Ryan. Maloney was stuck in the San Francisco Giants' minor-league system in 1972. When no team pursued him by the trade deadline, he retired, only 32 years old.

For his career, he was 134-84, with a 3.19 ERA and 1,605 strikeouts. His total of 1,592 strikeouts with the Reds remains a team record. They elected him to their team Hall of Fame, although his Number 46 remains in circulation. Like Seaver, he was a good hitter for a pitcher, batting .201 with 7 home runs and 53 RBIs.

As so often happens to retired players, the adjustment to not being part of the game was difficult, and he started drinking too much. "I sort of had a hard time sliding back into society," he told The Cincinnati Post. The Giants hired him to manage their Fresno farm team in 1982, but the club had a bad year, and he was out of baseball again. In 1985, he underwent treatment for alcoholism. He completed the program and went on to become director of Fresno’s Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Council. As of August 19, 2022, he is still alive.

In addition to Maloney and Seaver, graduates of Fresno High School have included Cubs pitcher Dick Ellsworth (who was in the other dugout during this doubleheader), Baseball Hall-of-Famer Frank Chance, 1930s Yankee pitcher Monte Pearson (who also pitched a no-hitter), pitcher Dick Selma (a rookie with the New York Mets at this time), major league manager Pat Corrales, later Mets pitcher Bobby Jones, Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Les Richter, Mannix star Mike Connors, film director Sam Peckinpah, Chipmunks creator Ross Bagdasarian, and author William Saroyan. (Fresno has a large community of people of Armenian descent, including the Bagdasarian and Saroyan families. Connors' real name was Krekor Ohanian Jr.)

*

August 19, 1965 was a Thursday. Actors Kevin Dillon and Kyra Sedgwick were born. And these 6 other baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the California Angels, 3-1 at Yankee Stadium. Mel Stottlemyre outpitched Marcelino López. Clete Boyer hit a home run. Mickey Mantle went 1-for-1 with 3 walks, before being replaced by Ross Moschitto, the backup outfielder who replaced him so often, he became known as "Mickey Mantle's Legs," just as Sammy Byrd had been nicknamed "Babe Ruth's Legs" over 30 years earlier.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 11-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Jim Lonborg outpitched Wally Bunker. Jim Gosger hit a home run for the Sox. (Yeah, surrre!) No, really, Ball Four fans, he did. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-3 with 2 walks. Boog Powell hit a home run for the O's, but Brooks Robinson went 0-for-5.

* The Minnesota Twins swept a doubleheader from the Detroit Tigers, 8-3 and 2-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Jim "Mudcat" Grant and Jim Kaat were the winning pitchers. Al Kaline left the 1st game with an injury before coming to bat, and was replaced by Don Demeter, who hit a home run. Don Mincher and Rich Rollins homered for the Twins. Harmon Killebrew did not play in either game.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Braves, 5-4 at the 1st Busch Stadium (formerly the last Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Bill White hit a home run. Lou Brock went 1-for3 with a walk and a stolen base. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 8-5 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The Giants scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th to send the game to extra innings, but a Lou Johnson home run off Gaylord Perry was the start of 3 runs for the Dodgers in the top of the 15th. Willie Mays went 1-for-6 with 2 RBIs, including the 478th home run of his career. Willie McCovey went 0-for-5 with a walk.

Ron Perranoski pitched 4 innings in relief of Don Drysdale for the win. Former Braves ace Warren Spahn made the 694th appearance, and the 629th start, of his legendary career. He would make 10 more appearances, 6 of them starts, that season, and retire at age 44.

This was the start of a series that concluded 3 days later, with the awful incident between the Giants' Juan Marichal and the Dodgers' John Roseboro.

August 17, 1992: Conservatives Declare a "Religious War" On Liberals

August 17, 1992: The Republican Convention opens at the Astrodome in Houston. Despite the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, there was never any question that the incumbents, President George H.W. Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle, were going to be nominated for 2nd terms.

However, that recession, and Bush having broken his promise from the 1988 Convention of, "Read my lips: No new taxes!" infuriated the archconservative wing of the Party. This led to an insurgent candidacy by Patrick J. Buchanan, who had served as a speechwriter for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and as White House Communications Director under President Ronald Reagan. (In terms of the TV show The West Wing, he was Nixon's "Sam Seaborn" and Reagan's "Toby Ziegler." Not to be confused with Ron Ziegler, who was Nixon's "Toby.") Now a nationally-syndicated newspaper columnist with a populist-conservative bent, Buchanan was one of the few people still willing to publicly support the disgraced Nixon.

He challenged Bush in the Primaries, getting a surprising 37 percent in the New Hampshire Primary. Bush and Quayle got part of the message: Double down on the attack of, "The Democrats will raise your taxes, we Republicans will not."

But the other main Republican message then in place was now useless: With the Cold War over, the Republicans could no longer run on "The Democrats are soft on Communism." Or... could they? They would do their best to link the Democratic nominee, Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas, his wife Hillary, and the Vice Presidential nominee, Senator Al Gore of Tennessee, to "Communism" and "Socialism."

They were sure it would work. After all, they thought, it had worked every previous time it was tried: In 1952, in 1968, in 1972, in 1980, in 1984, and in 1988. It hadn't really been tried in 1960 or in 1976. Nor had it been necessary in 1956. But they forgot: It hadn't worked in 1936, in 1940, in 1944, in 1948, or in 1964.

And then came the race riot in South Central Los Angeles. Instead of blaming it on the anger that black people faced over police officers getting away with police brutality, and other economic issues -- including, but not limited to, the recession that Bush's dedication to Reaganomics had caused -- they decided to blame it on "the breakdown of the family."

On May 19, Quayle gave a speech to the Commonwealth Club, a conservative outpost in normally liberal San Francisco. He said fathers leaving the home was a problem, which it was. He said women raising children as single mothers was a problem, as if it was their fault.

The previous night, CBS aired the season finale of Murphy Brown, in which the fictional TV journalist Murphy had her baby, and Quayle said that the show "glamorized single motherhood," was "mocking the importance of fathers," and "calling it just another lifestyle choice."

It did none of those things. Quayle wasn't lying: He was simply too stupid to recognize that he was wrong. The national media, which had mocked Quayle so many times before, did so again, the best headline being in the Philadelphia Daily News: "MURPHY HAS A BABY, QUAYLE HAS A COW!"

But the Republican Convention dug the hole deeper, with more speeches saying that liberals, dominant in the Democratic Party, were insulting "family values" by promoting single mothers -- and, worse still, by promoting gay rights. Signs were held up, reading, "FAMILY RIGHTS FOREVER GAY RIGHTS NEVER." Baltimore Sun political columnist Jules Witcover recalled that one delegate stuck his finger in his face and said, "You cannot be a Christian and a Democrat."

Astrodome

Buchanan gave a speech on the opening night of the Convention. He assured the Bush campaign that, in his speech, he would endorse Bush wholeheartedly. He did, beyond any doubt. But he also went out of his way to praise Reagan, and then...

There would be steps along the way. House Speaker Newt Gingrich's "Revolution" in 1994-95. The Administration of Bush's son, George W. Bush, saying in 2001, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists," and then being a bunch of draft-deferred Republican politicians insulting the patriotism of Democratic war veterans. The rise of the "Tea Party" in 2009. And the 2016 embrace of Donald Trump by evangelicals, seeing that incredibly immoral man as their best chance to overturn abortion rights. Each time, the conservative movement seemed to get angrier, crazier, and more ignorant.

If you want to know when the Republican Party lost its mind and decided that bigotry -- against women, against nonwhite people, against non-Christian people, against LGBT people, against immigrants, etc. -- was okay, this was the moment: Pat Buchanan's speech before the 1992 Republican National Convention. Here are some of the "highlights":

My friends, like many of you last month, I watched that giant masquerade ball up at Madison Square Garden -- where 20,000 liberals and radicals came dressed up as moderates and centrists -- in the greatest single exhibition of cross-dressing in American political history...

This was a major misinterpretation: At their Convention, the previous month, the Democrats were completely open about their liberalism.

As President, George Bush presided over the liberation of Eastern Europe and the termination of the Warsaw Pact. And what about Mr. Clinton? Well, Bill Clinton couldn’t find 150 words to discuss foreign policy in an acceptance speech that lasted almost an hour. As was said of another Democratic candidate, Bill Clinton’s foreign policy experience is pretty much confined to having had breakfast once at the International House of Pancakes...

Really, Pat? I don't recall George H.W. Bush being the President of the Soviet Union. Or of East Germany. Or of Poland. Or of any country other than the United States. He didn't preside over any of those things. Although the IHOP line was a good zinger.

George Bush is a defender of right-to-life, and a champion of the Judeo-Christian values and beliefs upon which America was founded. Mr. Clinton, however, has a different agenda. At its top is unrestricted abortion on demand. When the Irish Catholic Governor of Pennsylvania, Robert Casey, asked to say a few words on behalf of the 25 million unborn children destroyed since Roe v. Wade, Bob Casey was told there was no place for him at the podium at Bill Clinton’s convention, no room at the inn.

Being, himself, Irish and Catholic, Pat took that personally. But he was telling a half-truth: The real reason there was no speech for Governor Casey at the Democratic Convention was because he refused to endorse Clinton. Except for former Governor Jerry Brown of California, himself a candidate for President up until that moment, every single speaker at that Convention endorsed Clinton in his speech. Casey wouldn't -- true, because he disagreed with Clinton on abortion, and also on guns -- but that refusal was why he was not allowed to address the Convention, not his reason for his refusal.

Fast-forward to 2008: The Governor's son, Bob Casey Jr., had been elected to the U.S. Senate, and was every bit as anti-abortion and pro-gun as his father. But he happily endorsed the Democrats' nominee for President, the pro-choice and pro-gun-control Barack Obama. Because he did, he was given a prime-time speaking slot at the Democratic Convention in Denver. In that speech, he said that Party members need not agree with the nominee on every issue in order to endorse that nominee.

Essentially, he said that his father was wrong not to endorse Clinton -- and so were any other single-issue voters, from Southerners in 1948 to antiwar voters in 1968 to anti-"corporatist" voters in 2016. (UPDATE: And supporters of Gaza in 2024.) In 1992, Bob Casey Sr. refused to accept that, but Pat Buchanan did accept it.

Buchanan went on:

Yet a militant leader of the homosexual rights movement could rise at that same Convention, and say: "Bill Clinton and Al Gore represent the most pro-lesbian and pro-gay ticket in history." And so they do.

At that point, that statement was true. And in his Convention speech, Clinton said, to anyone willing to listen, "You matter to America. And don't you ever let anybody tell you can't become whatever you want to be. And if other politicians make you feel like you are not part of their family, come on and be part of ours." Now, that was family values.

Bill Clinton says he supports school choice – but only for state-run schools. Parents who send their children to Christian schools, or private schools, or Jewish schools, or Catholic schools need not apply.

Damn right, they need not apply. Says who? Says James Madison: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" -- which is exactly what the federal government promoting religious schools would be. And the federal government funding religious schools would be tantamount to promoting them, and to promoting their specific religion. There's a reason this particular Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was the First one.

Elect me, and you get two for the price of one, Mr. Clinton says of his lawyer-spouse. And what does Hillary believe? Well, Hillary believes that 12-year-olds should have the right to sue their parents, and Hillary has compared marriage and the family as institutions to slavery and life on an Indian reservation. Well, speak for yourself, Hillary.

Sounds like you're speaking for her, Pat. Hillary Clinton did not say any of those things.

This, my friends, is radical feminism. The agenda that Clinton & Clinton would impose on America -- abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat units -- that’s change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America needs. It is not the kind of change America wants. And it is not the kind of change we can abide in a nation that we still call God’s country.

You may call it "God's country," but the 1st Amendment calls you a liar. Of course, the Republicans had a litmus test for the Supreme Court, and no abortions (never mind that rich people, as they did before 1973, would still be able to get around the law), discrimination against gays, etc.

My friends, this election is about more than who gets what. It is about who we are. It is about what we believe, and what we stand for as Americans. There is a religious war going on in this country. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as was the Cold War itself, for this war is for the soul of America. And in that struggle for the soul of America, Clinton & Clinton are on the other side, and George Bush is on our side. 

After a speech like that, a lot of people didn't want to be on Bush's side, knowing he was on Buchanan's side. Sometime later, after the bombing of an abortion clinic killed an innocent receptionist, even Buchanan admitted, "Sometimes, you don't want to be on your own side."

He closed with this:

My friends, we must take back our cities, and take back our culture, and take back our country. God bless you, and God bless America.

The cities were never yours, Pat. Nor was the country. As for your culture, please, yes, take it back, so the majority of America never has to see it again. There's a reason the 1960s happened, and it was that all that "freedom" you mentioned in that speech (in parts I haven't quoted here) didn't exist for women, for black people, for gay people -- as comedian Bill Maher would later put it, "which is why Little Richard was always screaming."

I remember watching that Convention, and while I can't say it got any worse than that, it certainly didn't get any better. Anybody who wasn't already for the Bush-Quayle ticket wasn't won over, the way many had been by the considerably more moderate GOP get-togethers in Detroit in 1980, in Dallas in 1984, and in New Orleans in 1988. Buchanan and some of the other speakers had turned the Astrodome into a Nuremburg rally.

And when Bush, the last vestige of Reagan's "sunny optimism," lost badly to Clinton in November, those Delegates and elected officials were now free to be who they always wanted to be -- which is to say, angry and mean, and bigoted to others who just wanted to be free to be who they always wanted to be.

Comedian Mort Sahl, who had been lampooning politicians of both parties since the Harry Truman Administration, said, "If anybody comes up to you and says, 'My kid is a conservative, why is that?' You say, 'Remember in the Sixties, when we told you, if you keep using drugs, your kids will be mutants'?"

Without Pat Buchanan's 1992 Republican Convention speech, the Congressional "revolution" that Gingrich led in 1994 would have been considerably harder to pull off. Without Buchanan's speech, there never would have been an Administration in which George Bush the son was much further to the right than George Bush the father. Without Buchanan's speech, there would have been no Tea Party to oppose Obama from 2009 to 2014, before Trump became the Party's standard-bearer. And without Buchanan's speech, and the other speeches he made in 1992, Trump's philosophy of "Make America Great Again" through bigotry, higher tariffs and unregulated capitalism would never have had a chance.

None of those things should have had a chance.

*

August 17, 1992 was a Monday. There were only 4 Major League Baseball games scheduled for that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Chicago White Sox, 4-2 at the new Comiskey Park in Chicago. (It was renamed U.S. Cellular Field in 2002, Guaranteed Rate Field in 2016, and just "Rate Field" in 2025.) Each team got only 5 hits, but the Pale Hose made more of theirs than did the Bronx Bombers.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-4 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Mark Lemke won the game with a ground-rule double in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-4 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. (It was renamed Kauffman Stadium the next season.) George Brett went 1-for-4, and Mike Macfarlane went 3-for-4 with a home run and 3 RBIs.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 2-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Kevin Gross pitched a no-hitter. He walked Cory Snyder and Matt Williams in the 2nd inning, but got out of it with a double play. And he hit Mark Leonard with a pitch in the 9th. Those would be the only baserunners he allowed. Eric Karros hit a home run for the Dodgers in the 2nd inning.