November 16, 1907: Oklahoma Is Admitted As the 46th State

November 16, 1907: Oklahoma is admitted to the Union as the 46th State.

Oklahoma, depending on your point of view, is either in the Midwest, the Southeast, or, most apparent to me, the Southwest. It had been acquired as part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, moving from the Louisiana Territory to the Arkansas Territory in 1819. It was set aside as "Indian Territory" in 1824.

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 uprooted "The Five Civilized Tribes" -- the Cherokee Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole -- from the Southeastern U.S. to the Indian Territory. With the end of the American Civil War, land-hungry people sought land in the West. European Americans pressed their legislators to open the Indian Territory.

On March 2, 1889, President Grover Cleveland signed the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889, which officially opened the Unassigned Lands to non-native settlers nunder tenets of the Homestead Act. Uder a section in this original Act, those who entered these unassigned lands illegally, before their respective racing times as designated in the President's opening proclamation, would be denied the rights to the lands they claimed. These people were termed "Sooners," with this section of the act being termed as the "sooner clause."

But there was growing political pressure to open these unassigned lands to settlement quickly. Thus, later in 1889, an amendment to the Act allowed President Benjamin Harrison to be involved in this historical bill as well, proclaiming unassigned lands were open for settlement under much less stringent rules.

This led to hundreds of legal contests that were decided, first at local land offices, and eventually by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Arguments included what constituted the "legal time of entry." While some people think that the settlers who entered the territory at the legally appointed time were known as "Boomers," the term actually refers to those who campaigned for the opening of the lands.

Harrison made the declaration that, on April 22, 1889, at 12:00 Noon, the Unassigned Land in Indian Territory would be open for settlement. At the time of the opening, which was indicated by gunshot, the line of people on horse and in wagons dispersed into a kaleidoscope of motion and dust and oxen and wagons. The chase for land was frenzied and much chaos and disorder ensued. The rush did not last long, and by the end of the day, nearly 2 million acres of land had been claimed. By the end of the year, 62,000 settlers lived in the Unassigned Lands located between the Five Tribes on the east and the Plains Tribes on the west. Oklahoma was admitted as the 46th State on November 16, 1907.

Oklahoma became known for oil, ranching and mining. It produced humorist Will Rogers, country singer Gene Autry, Native American all-around sports legend Jim Thorpe. and baseball legends Mickey Mantle and Johnny Bench. Politically, it has fallen victim to evangelical Protestantism, with Republican U.S. Senators pushing racist, pro-gun and anti-environment policies. Their highest-ranking politician has been Patrick J. Hurley, Secretary of War under President Herbert Hoover.

The University of Oklahoma was founded in Norman, outside the capital of Oklahoma City, on December 19, 1890, just 20 months after the Land Rush. Just 6 days later, on Christmas Day, the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College was founded. It was renamed Oklahoma State University in 1957. Both preceded Statehood by nearly 17 years.

Although the Oklahoma Sooners have had great success in football, and Oklahoma State in basketball and wrestling, major league sports teams in Oklahoma have been few and far between. From 1978 to 1984, the Tulsa Roughnecks played in the North American Soccer League, and won the title in 1983. The Oklahoma Outlaws of the United States Football League played in Tulsa in the 1984 season. From 2010 to 2015, the Tulsa Shock played in the WNBA. In 2008, the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics were moved, becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder, reaching the NBA Finals in 2012. (UPDATE: They won the title in 2025.)

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November 16, 1907 was a Saturday. There were college football games played, including these:

* Army beat Tufts, 21-0 on The Plain at West Point, New York.

* Navy beat Penn State, 6-4 at Worden Field in Annapolis, Maryland.

* Dartmouth beat Harvard, 22-0 at Harvard Stadium in Boston.

* The University of Alabama and the Alabama Polytechnic Institute played to a tie, 6-6 at Lakeview Park in Birmingham, Alabama. The rivalry was stopped for bureaucratic reasons. It was not played again until 1948, when the State legislature threatened to withhold funding from both schools unless they began playing each other again. In 1960, Alabama Tech was renamed for its location: Auburn University. In 1964, the game became known as the Iron Bowl.

* The University of Pennsylvania beat the University of Michigan, 6-0 at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Not only was this Michigan's 1st loss of the season, but Penn were the 1st team to even score on them. After their Thanksgiving Day win over Cornell, Penn were recognized as the National Champions.

* Yale beat Princeton, 12-10 at Yale Field in New Haven, Connecticut.

* And New Jersey's team, Rutgers, lost to Jefferson Medical College, 27-0 at Neilson Field in New Brunswick. Located in Philadelphia, JMC became Thomas Jefferson University.

November 6, 2012: President Barack Obama Is Re-Elected

November 6, 2012: President Barack Obama is re-elected, defeating former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.

Romney had run the most dishonest Presidential campaign of all time -- a record that didn't even survive a full election cycle. But Obama won the popular vote, 51.1 percent to 47.2; and the Electoral Vote, 332 to 206.

Going into Election Day, Republicans were sure that Romney was going to win Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida. If he had, it would have been a shift of 67 Electoral Votes, making Romney the winner, 273 to 265. But Obama won Florida by 45,000 votes, and both Ohio and Pennsylvania by 50,000. Ohio, which can fairly be called "the Swingiest of Swing States," did not trust the economy, which Obama had rescued after being crashed 4 years earlier by conservative businessmen, to another conservative businessman.

As he had the 1st time around, Obama went over the threshold of 270 Electoral Votes when the Pacific Coast States closed their polls at 8:00 PM their time, 11:00 Eastern Time. Romney conceded at 12:55 AM, November 7.

George W. Bush hung over the GOP like Jacob Marley's ghost, like Jimmy Carter did over the Democratic Party from 1980 to 1992, but not afterward, thanks to Bill Clinton, no matter how hard Republicans have since tried; like Herbert Hoover did over the Republican Party from 1932 to 1980, when Ronald Reagan finally liberated them; like Woodrow Wilson did over the Democrats from 1920 to 1932, when Franklin Roosevelt exorcised the ghost; and like the Civil War did over the Democrats from 1864 to 1912, when Wilson moved them into the 20th Century.

Voters may have believed that Obama hadn't done enough to restore the economy, but they knew damn well that he didn't cause the crash and the recession, Bush did. Conservative businessmen did. And Romney, as he kept telling us, was a conservative businessman.

Obama's successful "Seal Team Six" operation that killed Osama bin Laden the year before was also a factor. If they had failed, it would have been for Obama what "Desert One," the failed attempt to rescue the hostages from Iran in 1980, was to Jimmy Carter. It would have made the Carter-Obama comparisons a lot more honest. Instead, Obama got a victory that, no matter what Romney and his surrogates said about Benghazi, essentially took foreign policy off the table, because they had no chance to beat Obama on the issue.

Then there was Hurricane Sandy, just 8 days before the election. True, every State affected by it was going to go for Obama anyway. But Obama's response, a polar opposite from Bush's on Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005 (and, as we have now seen, from Donald Trump's on Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017), and his bipartisan work with Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, made him look like a man who cared enough to help, was flexible enough to reach across the aisle, and competent enough to get things done.

Was Romney flexible? Certainly. Was he competent enough? Possibly. Did he care enough? Don't make me laugh. Obama's response to Sandy didn't turn a single State affected by it -- that was unnecessary -- but it helped him nationally.

When the hurricane hit on October 29, not long before my power went out, I posted this online: 

At times like this, a CEO is useless. What's he going to do, fire the hurricane? Transfer it to another city? Outsource it to another country? Offer it stock options if it'll do something helpful? Offer it a "golden parachute" if it'll go away?

A CEO can't help us now. A community organizer is exactly what we need - before, during, and after the storm.

Paul Ryan, Congressman from Wisconsin and Ryan's Vice Presidential nominee, didn't help bring his home State into the Romney column. But that's because, despite a lot of Republicans' hopes, and a few pundits bold predictions, Wisconsin was never going to vote for Romney.

James Carville's 1992 line for Bill Clinton still works: "It's the economy, stupid." As I said, people still blamed Bush and other "conservative businessmen" for causing the bad economy, much more than they blame Obama for not getting back to where it was in mid-2007, let alone where it was in 2000 before the tech bubble burst.

And it was getting better, in spite of all the GOP's obstructionism: Unemployment, which Obama did not cause to go to 10 percent, was now down below 8 percent. 750,000 jobs lost per month became job growth for 32 months in a row. The Dow Jones was down to 6,500 after the crash; it was double that, 13,000, on Election Day.

And people got it: "The massive debt" wasn't Obama's fault, not by a long shot. They accepted the truth that it was due to the tax cuts and the wars that Bush didn't pay for; and the debt that Obama did add on was necessary to clean up the mess Bush left. Blaming Obama for the deficit was like blaming the Yankees' pitching for their 2012 Playoff loss: It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't the problem.

Also, the Republican base pushed Romney into disavowing his greatest (if not, as I've suggested, "only") accomplishment in his only political job: A health-care reform law that was further to the left than Obama's. They're the ones who pushed him into abandoning his pro-choice -- or, as Ted Kennedy called it in their 1994 Senate battle, his "multiple-choice" -- stance on abortion.

They're the ones who made him sound like Dick Cheney on foreign policy. They're the ones who pushed him to the hard right on immigration and gay rights, when he'd previously been a moderate on the former, and was at least willing to discuss the latter.

Primary opponents Rick Perry, then Newt Gingrich, and finally Rick Santorum worked so hard to pain Romney as "Massachusetts Moderate Mitt" -- trying to make him sound like John Kerry or, God forbid, Michael Dukakis, and even invoking the State as the only won one in 1972 by the late George McGovern -- that Romney had to come out and not only act like, but actually come out and say he was, someone who was "severely conservative."

"Severely." That one word, more than "I like being able to fire people," or "47 percent," or "Ten thousand bucks?" or even "Let Detroit go bankrupt," may have doomed him. You may not hear any other observer of the election say it. But "severe" has connotations of "bad," "harsh," "harmful." You hear of a man in a hospital being "severely injured," a soldier being "severely wounded."

The lunatics who use religion as a justification for their greed, or as an excuse for bigotry, pushed Romney away from the center-right man he'd been, more or less continuously, from 1994 to 2008. But since it became clear that McCain was not going to win in November 2008, he became "severely conservative" -- until that stopped working, because (as I'll return to later), Obama's campaign machine basically said, "Yeah, he is, and here's what that means."

The last time Romney looked like he had a real chance to win was after the first debate, when Obama looked tentative and underprepared, and Romney sounded like a prepared, reasonable, competent moderate. If he'd been that from the moment he clinched the nomination onward, he would have had a very good chance of winning. But if he'd been that during the Republican Primaries, he wouldn't have gotten out of New Hampshire with his candidacy intact.

Thinking he needed to appease the hard right may also have been a reason why Romney chose Ryan as the Vice Presidential nominee, instead of a more moderate conservative, such as Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, or Governor Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire.

In 2000, the so-called "liberal" media let the Bush team paint their man as honest and Gore as a liar. The voices stepping forward to defend Gore and to expose Bush as the real liar, as an intellectual lightweight, as a man monumentally underprepared for the Presidency, were too timid, or courageous enough but without enough power to spread their message.

In 2004, the same thing: The media let Bush lie through his teeth about himself and Kerry, to the point where Kerry (rather than Bush) looked like the elitist who was unfit to command our troops, and Bush looked like an average guy with the strength to lead our nation (both bull).

In 2008, the economic crash made the media's job easier: The facts showed the GOP couldn't be trusted, and McCain's efforts to lie about Obama were halfhearted; he's just not that kind of guy, although the kind of guy he is, isn't someone I could ever vote for.

This time, Romney and his surrogates told lie after lie after lie, and the Obama campaign struck back, saying, "Here's the truth," and showing the truth... and the media told the story. Would that they had done so in 2016 as well, but they didn't. Romney didn't boost their ratings, Trump did.

It never occurs to these candidates to not say things that they know are untrue, or represent their true feelings but could be taken out of context. Instead of blaming the media for telling the story, try blaming yourself for making the story available.

Whatever you think of Obama, personally or politically, he ran a great campaign. He defined Romney before Romney could define him. He demolished Romney's attempts to define him as socialist, as weak on foreign policy, as someone who "doesn't believe in America," as someone who is "not really one of us."

Moreover, it's very hard to beat an incumbent President, even with an economy that is still growing slowly. The Rose Garden strategy" didn't work for Ford in 1976, or the elder Bush in 1992; but it did work for Reagan in 1984, Clinton in 1996, and the younger Bush in 2004. It worked for Obama in 2012.

Obama not only campaigned to keep his job, he continued to do his job. Whether it was on keeping the government running, or keeping the auto industry afloat, or passing health care reform, or ending the Iraq War, or killing bin Laden, or biding his time instead of diving right into the Arab Spring, people saw him do what Presidents do. Individual observers didn't have to agree with what he was doing, but they still saw him do it, still saw him "be President."

Romney looked like a President, for sure; but he didn't act like a President. Obama was able to show what Michael Douglas (whose wife I still love) said in The American President, after Richard Dreyfus (a liberal in real life) spent most of the movie playing a stand-in for Bob Dole, and closing every speech with, "My name is Bob Rumson, and I'm running for President!" Near the end of the film, Douglas defended his actions and those of his girlfriend, Sydney Ellen Wade, played by Annette Bening, closing with, "This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your 15 minutes are up. My name is Andrew Shepherd, and I am the President."

If Obama hadn't defended himself, and gone on offense, like Clinton -- if he'd rolled over like Kerry, Gore, Dukakis, Mondale, McGovern and Hubert Humphrey -- he'd have been a one-term President, a footnote, "the first black President," and little more. And the gains of his 2nd term wouldn't have happened.

Obama's win didn't help the Democrats much in the Congressional elections: They gained 8 seats in the House of Representatives, not enough to take control; and 2 in the Senate, where they already held control.

Among the new Senators elected were Democrats Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts, Tim Kaine in Virginia, and Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, the first openly gay Senator; and Republican Ted Cruz in Texas.

As they usually do with the winner of the Presidential election, Time magazine named Obama its Person of the Year for 2012, and they had in 2008.

Obama served out his term, and, doing his constitutional duty, handed the Presidency over to Donald Trump on January 20, 2017. In 2018, Romney returned to Utah, and won a Senate seat there. In 2020, he became the 1st U.S. Senator ever to vote to convict a President of his own party in an impeachment trial.

In a 2012 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist played Romney, against Iman Crosson, a.k.a. Alphacat, playing Obama.

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November 6, 2012, like all modern U.S. Election Days, was a Tuesday. The baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. And the NHL owners had locked the players out, so the regular season didn't start until January 19, 2013. But there were 3 NBA games played that day:

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Orlando Magic, 99-93 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Toronto Raptors, 108-88 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City. (It's now named the Paycom Center.)

* And the Denver Nuggets beat the Detroit Pistons, 107-97 at the Pepsi Arena in Denver. (It's now named the Ball Arena. Good name for a home for basketball, not so much for a home for hockey.)

Also, Arsenal played a UEFA Champions League match, playing Schalke 04 to a draw, 2-2 at Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. 

October 29, 2008: The End of the Curse of Billy Penn

October 29, 2008: After a 2-day delay for rain, Game 5 of the World Series is resumed at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. It ends a 25-year drought for the City of Philadelphia. It also ends the Curse of Billy Penn.

In 1894, a 37-foot-high statue of Pennsylvania founder William Penn was placed atop Philadelphia City Hall. At 548 feet high, this made the Hall the tallest building in the world until 1908. While many American cities embraced the concept of the skyscraper, a "gentlemen's agreement" forbade any structure in Philadelphia from rising above the hat on the Penn statue. The idea was that Penn could look out over his city, in any direction, without his view being blocked. (The statue, of course, is in a fixed position, facing northeast.)

With that agreement in place, the World Series was won by the Philadelphia Athletics in 1910, 1911, 1913, 1929 and 1930, and the Philadelphia Phillies in 1980; the NFL Championship was won by the Frankford Yellow Jackets in 1926, and the Philadelphia Eagles in 1948, 1949 and 1960; the NBA Championship was won by the Philadelphia Warriors in 1947 and 1956, and the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967 and 1983; and the Stanley Cup was won by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1974 and 1975.

On May 27, 1987, One Liberty Place broke the gentleman's agreement, rising to 945 feet. For the first time, something in the city could "block Billy Penn's view." And, apparently, he didn't like this, because:

* May 31, 1987: Just 4 days after One Liberty Place opened, the Flyers lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals to the Edmonton Oilers.

* December 31, 1988: The Eagles were in an NFC Divisional Playoff against the Chicago Bears, when a fog rolled off Lake Michigan and enveloped Soldier Field. Eagle fans still blame the fog for their 20-12 loss, ignoring the fact that the Bears already led 17-6.

* October 1993: The Phillies lost the World Series. This included blowing a 14-9 lead in the 8th inning of Game 4, on October 20, at home, before Joe Carter of the Toronto Blue Jays hit a Series-winning home run in Game 6, on October 23.

* June 11, 1995: The Flyers were tied 2-2 with the New Jersey Devils in the NHL Eastern Conference Finals, but lost Game 5 in the last minute of regulation, and then lost Game 6.

* June 7, 1997: The Flyers were swept by the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals.

* May 26, 2000: The Flyers led the Devils 3-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals, and lost 3 straight, including losing Eric Lindros to a concussion.

* June 15, 2001: The 76ers won the NBA Eastern Conference title, but lost the Finals to the Lakers. This remains their only Finals appearance since 1983.

* January 27, 2002: The Eagles lost the NFC Championship Game to the St. Louis Rams.

* January 19, 2003: In their last game at Veterans Stadium, before moving into Lincoln Financial Field, the Eagles lost the NFC Championship Game to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Since entering the NFL in 1976, the Bucs had never won a Playoff game on the road, and had never won when the temperature was less than 32 degrees Fahrenheit. With this game, they had done both.

If that could happen, and it could happen to the Eagles, then, it was reasoned, larger forces could be at work. This is when the idea of a "curse" began to be discussed. People looked to the last title won by a Philly team, and it was the 1983 76ers, so it had to be something after that.

Between that title and the rise of Liberty Place, the Flyers had lost the 1985 Stanley Cup Finals, but that was while Liberty Place was still under construction, so it's not counted. Nor was the death, early the next season, of Flyer goaltender Pelle Lindbergh, from drunk driving. There was the 76ers' 1986 Draft Day debacle, but that was also before Liberty Place was topped off. So a Curse of Howard Katz, or a Curse of Pelle Lindbergh, was possible. The city's media decided, instead, on Penn, for "blocking his view." (The fact that the two Liberty Place skyscrapers are behind his back, and weren't in his line of sight, seems not to have occurred to them.)

* January 18, 2004: The Eagles made it 3 straight NFC Championship Game losses, 2 straight at home, losing to the Carolina Panthers.

* June 5, 2004: It appeared that the curse even extended to horse racing. Smarty Jones, a horse bred and trained in suburban Chester County, Pennsylvania, won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, but fell short of the Triple Crown when he lost the Belmont Stakes by blowing a late lead.

* February 6, 2005: Finally winning an NFC Championship Game on their 4th straight try, the Eagles beat the Atlanta Falcons. But, despite threatening late, they could not beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX.

Someone must have decided that enough was enough. On June 18, 2007, ironworkers helped raise the final beam in the construction of the 974-foot Comcast Center. In addition to the Philadelphia tradition of finishing a building with an American flag and a small evergreen tree, they attached a statue of William Penn. Now, atop the new tallest building in town, his view was, again, unblocked.

Did it work? Not yet: Three months later, the Phillies came from 7 games back in the National League Eastern Division with 17 games to go, surged past the New York Mets, and won the Division title. But lost the NL Division Series to the Colorado Rockies -- the 1st postseason series win for the Rockies, who began play in 1993, the year of the Phillies' most recent Pennant.

But it all came together in 2008. The Phillies beat the Mets out for the Division again, beat the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS, and then beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Championship Series for their 1st Pennant in 15 years. It was on to the World Series, with a first: A father and son broadcasting for the opposing teams, Harry Kalas for the Phils, and Todd Kalas for the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Phillies won Game 1 in St. Petersburg, 3-2, before losing Game 2, 4-2. Coming home to Citizens Bank Park, they won Game 3, 5-4; and Game 4, 10-2. Game 5 began on Monday, October 27, but it rained throughout. The Phillies led 2-1 after 5 innings. Under normal conditions, games are considered to be official games after 5 innings, or 4 1/2 if the home team is leading at that point. However, both Rays and Phillies management knew before the first pitch that Commissioner Bud Selig, who was responsible for the scheduling of post-season games, would not allow a team to clinch the Series by winning a rain-shortened game.

The umpires let the game continue, and the Rays tied the game in the top of the 6th. When that half-inning ended, as Phils 2nd baseman Chase Utley remembered, "The infield was basically underwater." The umpires suspended the game. Rain continued to fall in Philadelphia on Tuesday, October 28, further postponing the game to Wednesday, October 29.

Game 5 was resumed in the bottom of the 6th, with the Philadelphia Phillies batting, and needing 1 run plus 9 outs to win the World Series. Geoff Jenkins doubled, was bunted to 3rd by Jimmy Rollins, and was driven in by a Jayson Werth single.

Rocco Baldelli tied the game with a home run in the 7th. Later in the inning, Utley took a grounder, faked a throw to 1stn base, then threw Jason Bartlett out at home for the 3rd out in a play later described as having saved the Series for the Phillies.

In the bottom of the 7th, Pat Burrell led off with a double. Eric Bruntlett, pinch-running for Burrell, scored on a single by Pedro Feliz to put the Phillies up by a run again, 4–3.

In the 2004 NLCS, pitching for the Houston Astros, Brad Lidge had given up a tremendous home run to Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals, to lose a game. It was said that he was never the same after that. That wasn't true: The Astros won the Pennant the next year. In 2008, Lidge was the Phillies' closer, and, going into Game 5, was 47-for-47 in save opportunities over the season. For fans still traumatized by the 1993 World Series, he was no Mitch Williams.

In the top of the 9th, Lidge gave up a single and a stolen base, but faced Eric Hinske with the chance to give the city its 1st World Series win since 1980, and its 1st World Championship in any sport since the 1983 76ers. Harry Kalas, the Hall of Fame voice of the Phils, had the call:

One strike away, nothing-and-two to Hinske. Fans on their feet. Brad Lidge stretches. The oh-two pitch: Swing and a miss! Struck him out! The Philadelphia Phillies are 2008 World Champions of baseball!

Brad Lidge does it again, and stays perfect for the 2008 season, 48-for-48 in save opportunities! And let the city celebrate! Don't let the 48-hour wait diminish the euphoria of this moment and celebration! Twenty-five years in this city that a team has enjoyed a World Championship, and the fans are ready to celebrate. What a night! Phils winning, 4–3, Brad Lidge gets the job done once again!

Harry would die early the next season. He deserved that title.

Three months later, the Eagles reached the NFC Championship Game, with a shot at Super Bowl XLIII, but lost to the Arizona Cardinals, a team that hadn't reached an NFL Championship Game, under any name, since 1948. That was embarrassing. 

The Phils won the Pennant again in 2009, but lost the World Series to the New York Yankees. They won the NL East again in 2010 and 2011, then fell apart for a few years. The Flyers reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 2010, but lost to the Chicago Blackhawks. It was beginning to look like the Phillies had broken a curse that had been put on them sometime after 1980, and the other teams in town were under seaprate curses. But in 2018, the Eagles broke a 57-year drought, beating the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII.

Also in 2018, a new tallest building in the city opened: The Comcast Technology Center, at 1,121 feet, making it the tallest building in America not in either New York City or Chicago. As with its predecessor and sort-of namesake, a small statue of William Penn was put on top, just in case.

UPDATE: In 2022, the Phillies won the Pennant, but lost the World Series to the Houston Astros. Major League Soccer's Philadelphia Union, who began play in 2010, after the Curse of Billy Penn was ended, reached their 1st MLS Cup Final in 2022, but lost to Los Angeles F.C. And the Eagles reached Super Bowl LVII, but lost to the Kansas City Chiefs. The 76ers are still looking for their 1st Finals berth since 2001, and their 1st title since 1983; the Flyers, 2010 and 1975, respectively.

From the 2008 World Champions, the Phillies have elected the following figures to their Wall of Fame: Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Pat Burrell, manager Charlie Manuel, executives Pat Gillick and Ed Wade, team owner David Montgomery, and broadcaster Harry Kalas. Roy Halladay, who was a part of the 2010 and '11 Division Champions, but not the 2008 World Champions or the '09 Pennant winners, has also been elected. Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels and Brad Lidge will, presumably, be elected in the next few years.

Rollins, Utley, Howard, Manuel, Montgomery, Kalas, Jamie Moyer, Carlos Ruiz, team owner Bill Giles, and Veterans Stadium public address announcer Dan Baker have also been elected to the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame.

The Rays also now have a team Hall of Fame. From their founding era, as the "Tampa Bay Devil Rays," they have inducted 1st baseman Fred McGriff and 3rd baseman Wade Boggs. From their 2008 Pennant, they have inducted left fielder Carl Crawford, 3rd baseman Evan Longoria, coach Don Zimmer and broadcaster Dave Wills -- but not, as yet, manager Lou Piniella.

McGriff, Boggs and Piniella are Tampa natives; while Zimmer, a Cincinnati native, made Tampa his off-season home due to the Cincinnati Reds using it as their longtime Spring Training home.

The Florida Sports Hall of Fame has inducted McGriff, Boggs, Piniella, and Jim Morris, the pitcher who was the subject of the film The Rookie.

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October 29, 2008 was a Wednesday. Football was in midweek. It was the opening night of the NBA season. The Oklahoma City Thunder, who for the previous 41 years had been the Seattle SuperSonics, made their debut. Kevin Durant was not yet the superstar he would become, and scored only 12 points. Richard Jefferson, Charlie Villanueva and Michael Redd each scored 20 points, and the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Thunder, 98-87 at the Ford Center (now the Paycom Center).

There were 11 other games in the NBA that night:

* The New York Knicks beat the Miami Heat, 120-115 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Washington Bullets, 95-85 at the Verizon Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 95-84 at the Wachovia Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia. Given the Phillies' win, I doubt too many people cared much.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Orlando Magic, 99-85 at the Amway Arena in Orlando.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 82-71 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the San Antonio Spurs, 103-98 at the AT&T Center (now the Frost Bank Center) in San Antonio.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Indiana Pacers, 100-94 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Sacramento Kings, 98-96 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Utah Jazz beat their arch-rivals, the Denver Nuggets, 98-94 at the EnergySolutions Arena (as the Delta Center was then known) in Salt Lake City.

* The New Orleans Hornets beat the Golden State Warriors, 108-103 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named the Oracle Arena).

* In the "Tunnel Series," the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 117-79 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in what was, officially, a home game for the Clippers.

There were 3 games played in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-5 in a shootout at the Prudential Center.

* The Dallas Stars, formerly the Minnesota North Stars, beat their replacements, the Minnesota Wild, 4-2 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* And the Anaheim Ducks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-4 at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Francois Beauchemin scored the winning goal with 3:21 left in overtime.

Also on this day, a North London Derby is played at the Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal. Their arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, took an early 1-0 lead. David Bentley, a member of Arsenal's 2003-04 "Invincibles" who never quite panned out, scored against them for Tottenham. But Arsenal came back, and, on goals by Mikael Silvestre, William Gallas, Emmanuel Adebayor and Robin van Persie (the first 2 considerably more surprising as scorers than the second 2), led 4-2 in the 88th minute. Darren Bent, always a problem for Arsenal, scored the other goal for "Spurs," but Arsenal were in command.

And they blew it. Jermaine Jenas scored in the 89th, and, with more stoppage time given than necessary, Aaron Lennon scored in the 94th. It's a 4-4 draw.

Within 12 hours, before the last chorus of "Four-two, and you fucked it up!" could stop ringing around North London, Tottenham released a DVD of this match. That's right, they released a video of a draw. True, Arsenal celebrated a draw at White Hart Lane in 2004, but that draw gave them the 1 point they needed to clinch the League title away to their arch-rivals. What did "Spurs" get out of this draw? Not bragging rights: They still hadn't won a League game against Arsenal in 9 years. (That streak would end in 2010.)

Because they were both young black Englishmen who played on the right wing, Lennon (from Leeds in West Yorkshire) and Arsenal's Theo Walcott (from the Stanmore section of Northwest London) often got compared to each other. Tottenham fans called Walcott "a shit Aaron Lennon." No, Aaron Lennon was a shit Aaron Lennon. (That refers only to his performance. He is regarded by all as a man of fine character.)

June 21, 2012: LeBron Gets His Ring

Dwyane Wade (left) and LeBron James

June 21, 2012: LeBron James, the most-hyped basketball player of all time, gets his validation as an all-time great confirmed, by winning his 1st NBA Championship.

He had been hyped since high school in Akron, Ohio. He was hyped from there to his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers, without having attended a single college class. He got them to the Finals in 4 years. But after 7 years, and only 1 Finals appearance, his contract had run out, and he asked team owner Dan Gilbert to bring in new players that he could lead to an NBA Championship. Gilbert did not give him that assurance, and so James made "The Decision": "I'm taking my talents to South Beach."

He went to the Miami Heat, who already had Dwyane Wade, who had led them to the title in 2006. They brought in Chris Bosh, Juwan Howard, Shane Battier, Udonis Haslem and Eddy Curry. LeBron knew that Wade was The Man in Miami, but, unlike Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, he didn't have to be The Man: He wanted a title, not recognition as the leader.

The Heat won the Eastern Conference title in 2011, but were beaten in the NBA Finals by the veteran San Antonio Spurs. In 2012, they got back to the Finals, this time against the Oklahoma City Thunder, making their 1st Finals appearance since 1996, when the franchise was the Seattle SuperSonics. The Thunder were no slouches, as they had Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Kendrick Perkins, Nick Collison, Nazr Mohammed, Reggie Jackson (no relation to the Baseball Hall-of-Famer of the same name) and the veteran Derek Fisher, in his 8th NBA Finals, having won 5 of them.

In 1991, in winning his 1st title, Michael Jordan saw his Chicago Bulls lose Game 1, but he took over, and led them to win the next 4 straight. This would also happen to LeBron in 2012. The Thunder won Game 1 in Oklahoma city, 105-94, Durant scored 36, James 30. But the Heat took home-court advantage away in Game 2, 100-96. James and Durant each scored 32.

The series moved to Miami, and Games 3 and 4 were close, 91-85 and 104-98, respectively. Westbrook scored 43 points in Game 4, one of the best performances ever in an NBA Finals defeat. Game 5, at the American Airlines Arena (now named the Kaseya Center) was a coronation, as the Heat won, 121-106. Durant scored 32, James 26, but a 36-22 3rd quarter gave the Heat the advantage, and eventually the title.

LeBron had his title, and his ring. He then led the U.S. team to the Gold Medal at the Olympic Games in London. Sports Illustrated named him its Sportsperson of the Year.

He led the Heat to the title again in 2013, beating the Spurs in 7 games. But the following year, the Spurs beat the Heat in 5 games, ending LeBron's tenure in Miami. In hindsight, the long LeBron Era can be broken up into halves: The 1st half being the Tim Duncan Era (2003-14), the 2nd half being the Steph Curry Era (afterward).

James would get a 3rd title, in 2016, having returned to the Cavaliers; and a 4th, with the Los Angeles Lakers, in 2020.

UPDATE: The Heat do not yet have a team Hall of Fame, but they have retired some uniform numbers. From their founding era, they have retired 10 for guard Tim Hardaway Sr. From their 2006 NBA Championship, they have retired 3 for guard Dwyane Wade, 32 for center Shaquille O'Neal, 33 for forward Alonzo Mourning, and 40 for forward Udonis Haslem. From their 2012 and 2013 NBA Championships, in addition to holdovers Wade and Haslem, they have retired 1 for forward Chris Bosh.

As yet, they have not retired 6 for LeBron James, probably due to the fact that he is still an active player. But they have retired 23 for Michael Jordan -- not because he had anything to do with their team, but for overall contributions to basketball. And 6 has been retired by the entire league for Bill Russell.

Hardaway and Mourning have been elected to the Florida Sports Hall of Fame.

*

June 21, 2012 was a Thursday. The Stanley Cup Finals had ended 10 days earlier, as the Los Angeles Kings defeated the New Jersey Devils, to my chagrin, in 6 games. Football was out of season. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Miami Marlins, 6-5 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Chris Nelson and Wilin Rosario hit home runs for the Rox, while Jimmy Rollins did so for the Phils.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 5-2 at Nationals Park in Washington.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Minnesota Twins, 9-1 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1 at Comerica Park in Detroit. Quintin Berry singled Ramón Santiago home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-1 at the O.co Coliseum (as the Oakland Coliseum was then known). Travis Blackley had been level with Clayton Kershaw for 8 innings. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Josh Lindblom relieved Kershaw, and started the bottom of the 9th by walking Coco Crisp. Jemile Weeks singled, and Yoenis Céspedes hit a 3-run home run off Josh Lindblom, to make a winning pitcher out of Ryan Cook.

April 13, 2008: The End of the Seattle SuperSonics -- For Now

April 13, 2008: Although it is not yet official, the Seattle SuperSonics play their last game. They beat the Dallas Mavericks, 99-95 at the KeyArena. Earl Watson leads the Sonics with 21 points, and rookie Kevin Durant scored 19. In defeat, Dirk Nowitzki leads all scorers with 32.

The SuperSonics were Seattle's 1st true major league sports team. Before that, the city had the University of Washington, Seattle University, and the Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, 1917 Stanley Cup winners, but they folded in 1926. The team known at various times as the Seattle Indians, the Seattle Rainiers and the Seattle Angels had won 7 Pennants, but they were all in the Pacific Coast League.

Losing the Sonics, a team that existed for 41 years, made the Playoffs 22 times, reaching 6 Conference Finals, winning 3 Conference Championships and the 1979 NBA title was a blow to the Queen City of the Northwest.

And, the thing is, it didn't seem to make any sense. Seattle's a big city: 650,000 people in the city, 4.4 million people in the metropolitan area. The arena was relatively new: It opened in 1994. Attendance wasn't an issue: Although their last 3 seasons in Seattle were competitively terrible, the attendance was good (15,955 in the next-to-last season, before they officially became a lame duck and dropped to 13,355).

Granted, since then, Oklahoma City has strongly supported the team. It proved to be a good city for the NBA. But they should have gotten an expansion team, not taken somebody else's team.

The NBA did a "Cleveland Browns" with the Sonics: The Thunder could take the organization and the players, but not the history or the trademarks. They do not hang banners for the titles won by the Sonics. The NBA committed itself to restoring the Sonics, but, through the 2021-22 season, has not done so.

UPDATE: The original version of the Sonics never had a team Hall of Fame. But they did retire 6 uniform numbers: 1, for 1970s and '80s guard Gus Williams; 10, for 1980s and '90s guard Nate McMillan; 19, for 1970s guard and head coach Lenny Wilkens; 24, for 1970s forward Spencer Haywood; 32, for 1970s and '80s guard Fred Brown; and 43, for 1970s and '80s guard Jack Sikma. They also raised a banner in honor of Bo Blackburn, who broadcast for them from their debut in 1967 until 1992.

Should the franchise be re-established, they would be entitled to re-raise those banners, as well as for their 1979 NBA Championship; their Western Conference Championships of 1978, 1979 and 1996; and their Division Championships of 1979, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2005.

Wilkens, Brown and Blackburn have been elected to the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame. So have 1990s guard Gary Payton, 1990s forward Detlef Schrempf (also a University of Washington graduate), and forward Steve Hawes, a UW graduate who played only the 1983-84 season with the Sonics.

For now, the Thunder do not have a team Hall of Fame, but are honoring the Sonics' retired numbers. To those, they have added 4, for 2000s and '10s forward Nick Collison. The only Thunder personnel yet elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame have been forward Carmelo Anthony, who played the 2017-18 season for them; and Billy Donovan, their head coach from 2015 to 2020, but elected on the basis of having coached the University of Florida to back-to-back National Championships in 2006 and '07.

There is an Oklahoma Hall of Fame, for citizens of the State in all walks of life, in Oklahoma City, but not yet an Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. 2007-16 forward Kevin Durant (taken in the team's last NBA Draft as the Sonics) and 2008-19 guard Russell Westbrook were elected to it while still with the Thunder. General manager Sam Presti was elected after the 2025 NBA Championship.

*

April 13, 2008 was a Sunday. There were 5 other games in the NBA that day:

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Miami Heat, 84-76 at the Quicken Loans Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Toronto Raptors, 91-84 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Chicago Bulls, 104-84 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Houston Rockets, 111-94 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver. Allen Iverson scored 33 for the Nugs.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 106-85 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees lost to their arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox, 8-5 at Fenway Park in Boston. Daisuke Matsuzaka was the winning pitcher, while Phil Hughes didn't get an out in the 3rd inning. David Ortiz did not play, but the other main steroid cheat, Manny Ramirez, went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Of the Yankees' steroid users, Jason Giambi hit a home run, but Alex Rodriguez went 0-for-5. Derek Jeter did not play.

* The New York Mets lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-7 at Shea Stadium. Gabe Kapler and Rickie Weeks hit home runs for the Brew Crew, David Wright for the Metropolitans.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-5 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. In the top of the 10th inning, Carlos Zambrano grounded out, but it allowed Ronny Cedeño to score the winning run. Mark DeRosa hit a home run for the Cubs, Jayson Werth and Eric Bruntlett for the Phils.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-4 at Nationals Park in Washington.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-1 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Ken Griffey Jr. went 0-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-1 at Progressive Field in Cleveland. 

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-0 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago. Javier Vázquez pitched 7 innings of 5-hit shutout ball. Matt Thornton and Nick Masset completed the 6-hit shutout. Paul Konerko went 2-for-5 with a home run and 5 RBIs. Joe Crede hit a grand slam.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-1 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers, 5-4 at Rangers Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Joe Inglett hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th inning, to score Marco Scutaro with the winning run.

* The Houston Astros beat the Florida Marlins, 5-1 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 13-5 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* The San Diego Padres beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 1-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. How many Padre pitchers does it take to pitch a 5-hit shutout? On this afternoon, 5: Greg Maddux, 2 hits over 5 innings; Joe Thatcher, a hit in the 6th; Cla Meredith, a hitless 7th; Heath Bell, a hit in the 8th; and Trevor Hoffman, a hit in the 9th. The only run of the game came in the top of the 4th, Jim Edmonds scoring on a sacrifice fly by Paul McAnulty.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-4 at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Seattle Mariners, 10-5 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. Ichiro Suzuki went 0-for-3, but drew 2 walks and stole a base.

Football was out of season. The NHL was in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and 4 games were played:

* The New Jersey Devils beat their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 4-3 at Madison Square Garden. John Madden (no relation to the football coach, broadcaster and video game impresario) scored the winning goal, 6:01 into overtime. Unfortunately for me, that was the only game the Devils won in that series.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 2-1 at the TD Banknorth Garden (now the TD Garden) in Boston. Marc Savard scored the winning goal, 9:25 into overtime. Marc is not related to Canadiens legend Serge Savard, although Serge does have a son named Marc.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Washington Capitals, 2-0 at the Verizon Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* And the Calgary Flames beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-3 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

And in English soccer, Manchester United beat Arsenal, 2-1 at Old Trafford in Salford. Owen Hargreaves scored the winning goal in the 72nd minute. This didn't quite clinch the Premier League title for United, but it did pretty much knock Arsenal out. United ended up beating Chelsea for the title by 2 points, and Arsenal by 4.