December 26, 1999: The Premier League's 1st All-Foreign Starting XI

Tore André Flo

December 26, 1999: For the 1st time, a team in English soccer's Premier League puts out a stating eleven (or "XI") made up entirely of non-British players. None from England, none from Wales, none from Scotland, and none from Northern Ireland.

The game was played on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, a traditional playing date for English soccer, at The Dell, home ground of Southampton Football Club. Southampton, the leading team in Hampshire, on the South Coast, hosted Chelsea F.C., of West London. It was Chelsea who had the all-foreign XI. (Looking back, it surprises a lot of people that it wasn't North London team Arsenal F.C. who did that.)

Chelsea's XI that day, selected by manager Gianluca Vialli, himself from Italy and a former star forward for Genoa team Sampdoria and Turin team Juventus: Ed De Goey (Netherlands); Albert Ferrer (Spain), Frank Leboeuf (France), Emerson Thome (Brazil), Celestine Babayaro (Nigeria); Dan Petrescu (Romania), Gabriele Ambrosetti (Italy), Roberto Di Matteo (Italy), Gus Poyet (Uruguay) and Didier Deschamps (France); Tore André Flo (Norway).

Flo scored in the 18th minute, and again in the 43rd. Kevin Davies pulled one back for "The Saints" in the 80th, but they could not find an equalizer. Chelsea held on to win, 2-1. It was the 2nd game in a run of 14 unbeaten for "The Blues" -- 7 wins and 7 draws -- and it helped them finish 5th in the Premier League, allowing them to qualify for the next season's UEFA Cup (the tournament now known as the UEFA Europa League).

Southampton finished 15th that season. In 2001, they left The Dell, where they had played since 1898, and moved into the new St. Mary's Stadium.

*

December 26, 1999 was a Sunday. The North London soccer team that I would one day support, Arsenal, went to the Midlands, and lost to Coventry City, 3-2 at Highfield Road.

Baseball was out of season. These NFL games were played:

* The New York Giants lost to the Minnesota Vikings, 34-17 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the New England Patriots, 13-10 at Foxboro Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Baltimore Ravens beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 22-0 at PSINet Stadium (now M&T Bank Stadium) in Baltimore.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Green Bay Packers, 29-10 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

* The Tennessee Titans beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 41-14 at the Adelphia Coliseum in Nashville.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Carolina Panthers, 30-20 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the Cleveland Browns, 29-28 at Cleveland Browns Stadium (now named Huntington Bank Field).

* The St. Louis Rams beat the Chicago Bears, 34-12 at the Trans World Dome (now The Dome at America's Center) in St. Louis. Along with the Chiefs, the Bears should have been a geographic rival for the former Los Angeles Rams, but neither rivalry ever caught on.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Arizona Cardinals, 37-14 at Sun Devil Stadium (now Mountain America Stadium) in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona.

* The San Diego Chargers beat their arch-rivals, the Oakland Raiders, 23-20 at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium).

* The Washington Redskins beat the San Francisco 49ers, 26-20 at Candlestick Park (then named 3Com Park at Candlestick Point) in San Francisco.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 23-14 at the Kingdome in Seattle. This was the Seahawks' last regular-season game at the Kingdome, after 24 seasons. They lost a Playoff game there to the Dolphins, 20-17 on January 9, 2000, and that was the last event there. The 'Hawks played the next 2 seasons at the University of Washington's Husky Stadium, while what's now known as Lumen Field was built on the site of the Kingdome, opening in 2002.

* The previous day, Christmas Day, the Denver Broncos beat the Detroit Lions, 17-7 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The day before that Christmas Eve, the New Orleans Saints beat the Dallas Cowboys, 31-24 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* On the 27th, on ABC Monday Night Football, the New York Jets beat the Miami Dolphins, 38-31 at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* And, in this period between the re-establishment of the Browns and the expansion of the Houston Texans, when there were 31 teams in the NFL, the Philadelphia Eagles had a bye week.

There were 10 games played in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Chicago Bulls, 103-76 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Washington Wizards beat the Houston Rockets, 103-92 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 98-95 at the Gund Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland. Vince Carter led all scorers on the day, with 36 points for the Raptors.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Charlotte Hornets, 114-96 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Miami Heat, 93-85 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Vancouver Grizzlies, 109-86 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Golden State Warriors, 108-88 at the America West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Boston Celtics, 103-100 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* The Sacramento Kings beat the Dallas Mavericks, 118-111 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

* And the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 92-86 at the KeyArena in Seattle. Allen Iverson scored 34 for the Sixers.

And there were 8 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils played their rivalry to a 3-3 tie at Madison Square Garden.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Florida Panthers, 4-3 at the Raleigh Entertainment & Sports Arena (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina. Nolan Pratt scored just 27 seconds into overtime.

* The Atlanta Thrashers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-3 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-2 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Nashville Predators beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-2 at the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2 at the Staples Center. Yes, it hosted an NBA game and an NHL game on the same day. Jeremy Roenick scored with 1:42 left in overtime.

* The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the San Jose Sharks, 1-0 at the San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center).

* And the Calgary Flames beat the Vancouver Canucks, 2-0 at GM Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.

December 11, 1886: The 1st Arsenal Match

Not quite the 1st Arsenal team, but perhaps the earliest known team photo,

1888, including some of the original players.

December 11, 1886: The Arsenal Football Club played its 1st game. It was on the Isle of Dogs, at a ground recently occupied by Millwall Football Club, against a team named Eastern Wanderers, which went out of business a few years later. The new club won, 6-0.

They were originally a works team -- what we in the U.S. would call a company team, as both the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers began -- at the Royal Arsenal (hence the nickname "The Gunners," which led to their fans later being tagged "The Gooners") in Woolwich (the 2nd W is silent), in what was then the county of Kent, but is now part of Southeast London (SE16).

They called themselves Dial Square Football Club, after the section of the Arsenal where they worked. On Christmas Day, December 25, 1886, they met at the nearby Royal Oak pub, to make things more official, and changed their name to the Royal Arsenal Football Club.

The 1st game under the new name, and the 1st game that could be called a "home game" for them, was on January 8, 1887, at Plumstead Common, 2 miles away, against a nearby club called Erith, and Royal Arsenal won, 6-1.

The Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. Photo dated 1960.

In 1893, they turned professional, and were admitted to England's Football League, but had to change their name, as Queen Victoria had signed a law that prohibited any professional sports team from having "Royal" in its name. (This is not the case in Spain, where there are professional soccer teams named Real Madrid, Real Mallorca, Real Betis, etc.)

And, of course, being professional, they had ceased to be a "club," even though the word remains part of the organization's name, and the fans continue to call their team "my club."

So they took on the name of their locality, and were Woolwich Arsenal from then until 1913, when they moved to a new stadium at Highbury in North London, "The Arsenal" until 1919 and "Arsenal Football Club" since, although "The Arsenal," Capital T, Capital A, is frequently still used, especially by the club's fans.

They could have changed their name to "Highbury Arsenal," or "Islington Arsenal," even though neither the Borough of Islington nor the Highbury neighborhood had any connection to the Royal Arsenal, aside from the club. As a result, Arsenal are 1 of only 2 professional clubs in England without a locality as part of their official name. The other is Port Vale, located in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

Herbert Chapman was signed to manage Arsenal in 1925. He led them to win the Football Association Cup in 1930, and the Football League Division One in 1931 and 1933, before his death midway through the 1933-34 season. Under Joe Shaw, and then George Allison, the team he built went on to win the League again in 1934, 1935 and 1938, and the FA Cup in 1936. A rebuild after World War II, under manager Tom Whittaker, resulted in League titles in 1948 and 1953, and an FA Cup in 1950.

Like Chapman, Whittaker died in office, in 1956, and a down period resulted. The team's fortunes were turned around under Bertie Mee. In 1970, he guided the team to the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the tournament now known as the UEFA Europa League. In 1971, Arsenal took both the League and the FA Cup, "The Double." A mid-1970s rebuild under Terry Neill led to an FA Cup win in 1979.

In 1986, George Graham, one of the players from the '71 Double was named manager. He led the team to the 1987 League Cup, the 1989 and 1991 League titles, the 1st-ever English domestic "cup double" (the League Cup and the FA Cup) in 1993, and the European Cup Winners' Cup (a tournament that no longer exists) in 1994.

In 1996, Arsène Wenger was named the team's 1st manager not a native of the British Isles, and he revamped everything, from tactics to exercise to diet. In 1998, now in the era of the Premier League, he took Arsenal to another Double. He did it again in 2002. He led them to another FA Cup in 2003. And he led them through the entire 2003-04 Premier League season without losing a game: Played 38, won 26, drawn 2, lost exactly none. It had never been done before, and it hasn't been done since. The unbeaten string eventually reached 49 games.

(The 1st season of the Football League was in 1888-89, and Lancashire team Preston North End went through the 22-game season unbeaten, and also won the FA Cup. But 38 is a lot more games than 22.)

After another FA Cup win in 2005, Arsenal advanced to the Final of the UEFA Champions League in 2006, their last season at Highbury. With the opening of the new 60,000-seat Emirates Stadium, the construction debt had to be paid off, and Wenger had less of a budget than before. Still, he managed to keep the team in the Champions League places.

A small but loud and angry section of the fanbase began to demand that Wenger spend more money on "world-class players," because they believed that winning the League title was all that mattered. When Wenger ended a 9-year trophy drought by winning the 2014 FA Cup, this small but loud and angry section decided that it wasn't enough.

Nor was it enough when he did it again in 2015 and 2017. They demanded that he be fired for not giving them another League title -- as if he hadn't already given them 3, as many as any other Arsenal manager had ever done. (Allison had won 3; Chapman, Whittaker and Graham had each won 2, Shaw 1.)

By 2017, Arsenal had been surpassed by bigger-spending teams run by billionaire owners, and fell out of the Champions League places. Late in the 2018 season, Wenger announced he was leaving. It is still debated whether he was fired, or he quit due to even his great patience finally being worn out by the whiners.

New manager Unai Emery turned out to be a poor replacement, and was fired in favor of Mikel Arteta, the Spanish midfielder who had captained the 2014 and '15 Cup wins. His leadership led to victory in the 2020 FA Cup, and a 2nd-place finish and a return to Champions League qualification in 2022.

The Arsenal have a great past, and a promising future. The hope is that the team can, within a short time, return to its former heights.

Good old Arsenal, we're proud to say your name.

While we sing this song, we'll win the game!

There are no other scores on this historic day. England's Football League wouldn't be founded for another 2 years, and, given the distances involved in the pre-automobile era, scheduling was risky. In America, the baseball season was over, the college football season was also over, basketball hadn't been invented yet, and hockey hardly had been.

November 27, 2011: The Tragedy of Gary Speed

Note the White Rose of the House of York,

still the symbol of Yorkshire, on Leeds' badge.

November 27, 2011: Gary Speed, the Welsh soccer star who became one of Britain's greatest TV studio analysts for the sport, takes his own life. He was 42 years old.

Gary Andrew Speed was born on September 8, 1969 in Mancot, Flintshire, Wales. He grew up on the street where Kevin Ratcliffe, then captain of Liverpool-based team Everton Football Club, lived. As Liverpool is near Wales, many people in the Principality support Everton, and many others support Liverpool FC. Also from Wales, and on the great Everton teams of the 1980s, were goalkeeper Neville Southall and left back Pat Van Den Hauwe. So was midfielder Barry Horne, a star (along with Southall) of their 1995 FA Cup winners.

A midfielder, with pace to match his name, Speed was signed by Yorkshire club Leeds United, and helped them win the Football League Division One title in 1992 -- the last title under the old banner, before the English top flight became known as the Premier League.

In 1996, he was sold to the club he loved growing up, Everton. A year later, Howard Wilkinson, his manager at Leeds, became his manager again, but their relationship soured. In 1998, he was sold to Newcastle United, and helped them reach the FA Cup Final that year (although they lost to North London team Arsenal) and the next (losing to Man United). In 2002, he helped Newcastle qualify for the UEFA Champions League.

He was sold to Lancashire team Bolton Wanderers in 2004, and stayed with them until 2008. They sold him to Yorkshire team Sheffield United, and he played the last 2 seasons of his career with them. He scored 104 goals in his career, and was known for scoring with headers.

He appeared 85 times for the Wales national team between 1990 and 2004, eventually serving as their Captain 44 times. Rarely troubled by injury or suspension, at the time of his retirement, he held the record for the most appearances in the Premier League at 535, until it was surpassed by David James; and only his Everton teammate Southall had made more appearances for Wales.

He retired as a player when Sheffield United named him manager. Only 4 months later, on December 11, 2010, he was named manager of his national team. As usual, Wales struggled, and by August 2011, they were ranked 117th in the world (out of 211 "nations" recognized by FIFA, the world's governing body for soccer). But 2 wins in the Autumn got them up to 45th.

Speed as Wales manager,

with one of his successors as team Captain,

Aaron Ramsey of Arsenal.

He married Louise in 1996, and had sons Tommy and Eddie. In 2010, he was awarded an MBE: Member of the Order of the British Empire.

On November 26, 2011, still manager of Wales, he appeared on the BBC One TV show Football Focus, and joined his former Newcastle United teammate Alan Shearer to watch that team play Manchester United, at Man U's Old Trafford. No one seemed to think anything was wrong.

The next day, Louise found him dead in the garage at their home in Huntington, Cheshire, England. He had hanged himself.

He seemed to have so much to look forward to, and so much respect among his peers, and so many friends. He didn't leave a suicide note, so no one really knows why he did it. It has been suggested that he was depressed. It is also possible that, with his reputation for heading the ball, he may have sustained brain damage, similar to American football players, and a few other British soccer stars. He was cremated, so there is no gravesite.

*

November 27, 2011 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. These games were played in the NFL:

* The New York Jets beat the Buffalo Bills, 28-24 at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New England Patriots beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 38-20 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Minnesota Vikings, 24-14 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* The Houston Texans beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 20-13 at EverBank Field (now EverBank Stadium) in Jacksonville.

* The Tennessee Titans beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 23-17 at LP Field (now Nissan Stadium) in Nashville.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat their arch-rivals, the Cleveland Browns, 23-20 at Paul Brown Stadium (now Paycor Stadium) in Cincinnati.

* The Carolina Panthers beat the Indianapolis Colts, 27-19 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

* The Arizona Cardinals beat the St. Louis Rams, 23-20 at the Edward Jones Dome (now The Dome at America's Center) in St. Louis.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 13-9 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers, 16-13 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the Chicago Bears, 25-20 at the O.co Coliseum (as the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum was then known).

* The Washington Redskins beat the Seattle Seahawks, 23-17 at CenturyLink Field (now Lumen Field) in Seattle.

* Three days earlier, on Thanksgiving Day, the Green Bay Packers beat the Detroit Lions, 27-15 at Ford Field in Detroit; the Dallas Cowboys beat the Miami Dolphins, 20-19 at AT&T Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas; and the Baltimore Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers, 16-6 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

* And on ESPN Monday Night Football, the New Orleans Saints beat the New York Giants, 49-24 at the Superdome.

The NBA team owners had locked the players out, and the season did not begin until Christmas Day. But there were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-3 at Scotiabank Place (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 2-1 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Minnesota Wild, 5-2 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Anaheim Ducks, 5-2 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

November 25, 2001: Don't Talk to Jim Mora About Playoffs

November 25, 2001: The Indianapolis Colts lose to the San Francisco 49ers, 40-21 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. It's the team's 3rd straight loss, and they fall 4-6.

The Colts' coach, Jim Mora is rightly upset. He was 66 years old, a football lifer, from the Los Angeles area. He'd been the head coach at Occidental College in L.A., and served on Dick Vermeil's staff at UCLA and Don James' staff at Washington. He coached the Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars to all 3 USFL Championship Games, winning 2 of them. He coached the New Orleans Saints for 11 seasons, including the franchise's 1st 4 Playoff berths. He was now in his 4th season as head man in Indianapolis, having made the Playoffs the preceding 2 years.

He had seen it all. He now acted like he'd seen enough, and launched into one of the press conference tirades he was known for occasionally giving:

Well, I'll start off by saying this: Do not blame that game on the defense, okay? I don't care who you play, whether it's a high school team, a junior college team, a college team, much less an NFL team: When you turn the ball over 5 times, 4 interceptions, 1 for a touchdown, 3 others in field position to set up touchdowns, you ain't gonna beat anybody I just talked about, anybody. All right?

And that was a disgraceful performance in my opinion. We threw that game. We gave it away by doing that. We gave 'em the friggin' game. In my opinion, that sucked.

Uh, you know, you can't turn the ball over 5 times like that. Holy crap, I don't know who the hell we think we are, when we do something like that. Unbelievable. Five turnovers. One of 'em for -- We threw 4 interceptions for touchdowns this year. That might be an NFL record. That's pitiful. I mean, it's absolutely pitiful, to perform like that. Pitiful.

At this point, Tim Bragg of WRTV-Channel 6, the ABC affiliate in Indianapolis, asked Mora if he thought his team could still make the Playoffs. His response might be the most famous coach's press conference rant of all time:

What's that? Ah -- Playoffs? Don't talk about -- Playoffs? You kiddin' me? Playoffs? I just hope we can win a game! Another game!"

Mora was right to worry: The Colts won only 2 of their last 6 games, finishing 6-10, and missing the Playoffs. The Colts averaged 30.4 points per game, more than any team in the NFL. So, maybe he should have blamed the defense.

Mora was fired, and has never coached again. Although his regular-season record was an impressive 125-106, and he won a Division title with New Orleans and another in Indianapolis, he went 0-6 in the... Playoffs!

The Colts replaced him with Tony Dungy. He was able to get more out of Mora's former quarterback, Peyton Manning. But, as a defensive back who played on the Pittsburgh Steelers' Super Bowl teams of the 1970s, Dungy also built a better defense. As a result, he coached them for 7 years, and, every season, made the Playoffs, including the 2006 season, which ended with him leading them to win Super Bowl XLI.

Mora's son, usually listed as Jim L. Mora, served on his father's staff in New Orleans, and as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons and the Seattle Seahawks, and at UCLA, winning an NFC South Division with the Falcons and a Pac-12 South Division with UCLA. As of November 25, 2022, Jim Mora is still alive, age 87; and Jim L. Mora, 61, is the head coach at the University of Connecticut.

On September 17, 2013, while writing my original blog, Uncle Mike's Musings, I discovered that, if you Google just that one word, "playoffs," the first thing that came up was Mora's rant. Not a link to any sport's postseason. I checked again while writing this post, and found that that was no longer the case. Still, it held up for at least 12 years.

*

November 25, 2001 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played that day:

* The New York Giants lost to the Oakland Raiders, 28-10 at Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 13-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Carolina Panthers, 10-7 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

* The Baltimore Ravens beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 24-21 at Alltel Stadium (now EverBank Stadium) in Jacksonville.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Tennessee Titans, 34-24 at the Adelphia Coliseum (now Nissan Stadium) in Nashville.

* The New England Patriots beat the New Orleans Saints, 34-17 at Foxboro Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Buffalo Bills, 34-27 at Ralph Wilson Stadium (formerly Rich Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 18-0 at Cleveland Browns Stadium (now named Huntington Bank Field).

* The Chicago Bears beat the Minnesota Vikings, 13-6 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Arizona Cardinals beat the San Diego Chargers, 20-17 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Seattle Seahawks, 19-7 at Husky Stadium in Seattle.

* Three days earlier, on Thanksgiving Day, the Green Bay Packers beat the Detroit Lions, 29-27 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* Also on Thanksgiving, the Denver Broncos beat the Dallas Cowboys, 26-24 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* The next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the St. Louis Rams, 24-17 at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis. (That stadium has gone through some name changes, but now has that name again.)

* And, in this last of 3 seasons between the arrival of the reborn Cleveland Browns and that of the Houston Texans, when the NFL had 31 teams, the New York Jets had a bye week.

The Grey Cup, the championship game of the Canadian Football League, was played at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. The Calgary Stampeders beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 27-19.

Baseball was in the off-season. There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Golden State Warriors, 101-85 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named The Arena in Oakland).

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 107-88 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* There was a doubleheader at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles. In the opener, the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Houston Rockets, 90-83.

* In the nightcap, the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Denver Nuggets, 105-98. Nick Van Exel led all scorers on the day with 34 points.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Indiana Pacers, 99-88 at the KeyArena in Seattle.

And there were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 3-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Vancouver Canucks lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1 at the First Union Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-0 at the Raleigh Entertainment & Sports Arena (now the Lenovo Center).

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Calgary Flames, 4-3 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings, arch-rivals, played to a 4-4 tie at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* And the Dallas Stars beat the Minnesota Wild, 4-3 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

And in English soccer, Arsenal beat Manchester United, 3-1 at Highbury in North London.

October 24, 2004: The Battle of the Buffet

October 24, 2004: The Boston Red Sox take a 2-games-to-0 lead in the World Series with a 6-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Fenway Park. Curt Schilling, again wearing the Bloody Sock, gets the win. Orlando Cabrera‚ Mark Bellhorn‚ and Jason Varitek each drive in a pair of runs.

But, as disgusting as the Red Sox cheating their way to another win was, that wasn't the most disgusting sporting event that happened on this day. Not by a long shot.

Arsenal Football Club, of North London, had gone 49 straight Premier League games without a loss, a record streak for top-flight English "football" dating back to the founding of The Football League in 1888. Arsenal F.C. hadn't lost since Yorkshire team Leeds United beat them on May 7, 2003 -- 536 days. That included the entire 2003-04 season, making Arsenal the only "Invincibles" of the modern era.

Making it 50 straight games without a loss would have been great semantically, but more important was who they were playing in Game 50: They went into Old Trafford, home of the other dominant team of the era, Manchester United. Either Arsenal or Man U had won the last 9 League titles, and 13 of the last 16.

The game was scoreless going into the 72nd minute (out of 90, so, 80 percent done), mainly because

United's players, particularly the Neville brothers -- right back Gary and midfielder Phil, not the singing Neville brothers of New Orleans -- were kicking Gunners forward José Antonio Reyes into oblivion, rendering him too timid to shoot. He was, literally, intimidated.

In addition, United's Dutch striker, Ruud van Nistelrooy -- nicknamed Van Horseface due to an uncanny facial resemblance to Seattle Slew -- had a challenge on Arsenal defender Ashley Cole that was clearly worthy of a straight red card. So the Red Devils should have been down to no more than 10 men, possibly as few as 8.

But the referee for this game was Mike Riley, and he hates Arsenal. He gave only 2 cards to United throughout the match, a yellow each to the Neville brothers. Indeed, van Nistelrooy was retroactively given the punishment he would have gotten if, in fact, he had received a straight red during the game: 3 domestic games. (2 yellows, which equal 1 red, would have been a mere 1-game suspension.)

In that 72nd minute, United's young striker, Wayne Rooney, on his 19th birthday, executed a blatant dive in the 18-yard box, going down without being touched, in an attempt to be awarded a penalty kick. Instead of properly giving him a straight red card and sending him off, Riley called a foul on Arsenal defender Sol Campbell, who never even touched Rooney. It was a completely bogus call, and Riley awarded a penalty, which van Nistelrooy converted. Rooney added another goal that he didn't deserve to even be on the pitch for, in the 90th minute, and United had unfairly won, 2-0.

In contrast to the 2 yellow cards on United, Riley had actually given Arsenal 3 yellow cards -- and the alleged penalty foul by Campbell wasn't one of them.

The fireworks for this most dubious of games in the long and fractious history of Arsenal-Manchester United matches were hardly over at the final whistle. Despite being teammates on the national side, Campbell refused to shake Rooney's hand, a deserved mark of disrespect. Entering the tunnel to head to the locker rooms, United manager Alex Ferguson was hit in the face by a slice of pizza from the postgame spread in Arsenal's locker room.

The game became known as "The Battle of the Buffet" -- a 1990 match between the teams, featuring a fight, had already been given the name "The Battle of Old Trafford" -- and, as it turned out, the Arsenal player who threw the slice was 17-year-old Spanish midfield wizard Cesc Fàbregas. As it also turned out, this, not anything he did on the field from 2003 to 2011, was the best thing Fàbregas did in an Arsenal uniform.

In 2009, Mike Riley was appointed the general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited, the governing body for English soccer referees. Arsenal have not won the Premier League since 2004. That is not a coincidence, although Riley's influence over such corrupt referees as Mike Dean, Howard Webb, Phil Dowd, Anthony Taylor and Michael Oliver is just one reason. (UPDATE: He stepped down in 2023.)

*

October 24, 2004 was a Sunday. The NBA season didn't start for another 9 days. The NHL players were locked out by the team owners, and, eventually, the entire 2004-05 season was canceled. These NFL games were played that day:

* The New York Giants lost to the Detroit Lions, 28-13 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New York Jets lost to their arch-rivals, the New England Patriots, 13-7 at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Baltimore Ravens beat the Buffalo Bills, 20-6 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Carolina Panthers, 17-6 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Chicago Bears, 19-7 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the St. Louis Rams, 31-14 at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Cleveland Browns, 34-31 at Cleveland Browns Stadium (now Huntington Bank Field). Jeff Garcia sent the game to overtime with a 4-yard quarterback draw for the Browns, but David Akers kicked a 50-yard field goal with 5:02 left in overtime to win it for the Eagles.

* The Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Indianapolis Colts, 27-24 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. Josh Scobee kicked a 53-yard field goal with 38 seconds left to win it.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Dallas Cowboys, 41-20 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Tennessee Titans, 20-3 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Atlanta Falcons, 56-10 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Yes, you read that right: Fifty-six to ten.

* The Arizona Cardinals beat the Seattle Seahawks, 25-17 at Sun Devil Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Oakland Raiders, 31-26 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the Network Associates Coliseum).

* The next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Denver Broncos, 23-10 at Paul Brown Stadium (now Paycor Stadium) in Cincinnati.

* And the Houston Texans, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the San Francisco 49ers and the Washington Redskins had a bye week.

September 28, 1884: Anfield Opens

September 28, 1884: Anfield opens on the edge of Stanley Park in Liverpool, England. The home team wins.

Present-day fans of Liverpool Football Club will not be surprised to learn this. But they may be surprised to learn that the home team was Everton Football Club. The "Toffees" beat nearby team Earlestown, 5-0, and went on to use Anfield as their home ground until 1892, when Goodison Park opened, a mile away on another side of Stanley Park.

Imagine if, instead of at their actual locations in The Bronx and Queens, respectively, Yankee Stadium had been built where the American Museum of Natural History is, at 79th Street and Central Park West; and Shea Stadium had been built across Central Park, 1 mile away, where the Metropolitan Museum of Art is, at 81st Street and 5th Avenue. That's how close Anfield and Goodison Park are.

The stadium is named after the surrounding area. The word "Anfield" originated in the combination of Old English and Middle English words, which mean "a field on a slope." An alternate explanation is that the name is linked to the influx of people fleeing the Irish potato famine of the 1840s, crossing the Irish sea from Dublin to Liverpool, and was associated with Annefield, outside New Ross, County Wexford.

A dispute between Everton and the land's owner, John Houlding, led to them moving to Goodison. Houlding was left with an empty stadium, and decided to form a new club to occupy it. Liverpool F.C.'s 1st game there was played on September 1, 1892, and they beat South Yorkshire team Rotherham Town, 7-1.

Seating capacity was originally 8,000, and was expanded to 11,000 in 1895. In 1906, a new stand was built along Walton Breck Road. Ernest Edwards, the sports editor of newspapers the Liverpool Daily Post (which went out of business in 2013) and the Liverpool Echo (still in business), named it the Spion Kop, after a famous hill in South Africa where a local regiment had suffered heavy losses during the Boer War in 1900. More than 300 men had died, many of them from Liverpool, as the British army attempted to capture the strategic hilltop. While many soccer stadiums would call one of their end sections the Spion Kop, most, like Liverpool's have been "The Kop" for short.

In 1928, the Kop was redesigned and extended, to hold 30,000 spectators, all standing. A roof was erected as well. The stadium got lights in 1957. In 1963, the old Kemlyn Road Stand was replaced by a cantilevered stand, accommodating 6,700 spectators. Two years later, responding to the demand for tickets following Liverpool's 1964 Football League title and 1965 FA Cup win, alterations were made at the Anfield Road Stand, turning it into a larger covered standing area with refreshments under the structure.

The biggest redevelopment came in 1973, when the old Main Stand was partially demolished and extended backwards with a new roof. In the 1980s the paddock in front of the Main Stand was turned into seating, and in 1982 seats were introduced at the Anfield Road Stand. The Shankly Gates were erected in 1982, a tribute to former manager Bill Shankly.

Across the Shankly Gates are the words "You'll Never Walk Alone." In the 1960s, at Anfield, games would be preceded by the public address system playing the Top 10 songs in the country. Gerry & The Pacemakers' version of "You'll Never Walk Alone," from the 1945 Broadway musical Carousel, debuted in the Top 10 on October 19, 1963, and so it was played at Anfield for the 1st time. It hit Number 1 in Britain. (It was not a hit in America.)

But when it fell out of the Top 10, Liverpool fans demanded that it be played at Anfield, anyway, just before the team walked onto the pitch. This was done, and Liverpool, managed by Shankly, won the Football League in 1964. After that, in England, the song was considered a good-luck charm by fans of the Mersey Reds, and was irrevocably tied to the team. Everton fans would become sick of the song, and one of their fans' slogans is "I'd rather walk alone."

Shankly retired after the 1973-74 season, but under his right-hand man, Bob Paisley, they actually got better. I've often compared Liverpool to American football's Pittsburgh Steelers: A "football" team from a hardscrabble, hardworking town, with the loss of so much industry casting a pall over the era, starts winning, dominating their league in the decade, and becomes everything to the people, many of them of Irish descent. The biggest difference between the teams is that, unlike the Steelers, the Mersey Reds did have some success before the 1970s.

In fact, they won 18 titles in the Football League Division One: 1901, 1906, 1922, 1923, 1947, 1964, 1966, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988 and 1990. The Premier League was founded in 1992, and, infamously, it took them until the COVID season of 2019-20 for them to win it, as Manchester United surpassed them with a 19th and a 20th title, in 2011 and 2013, respectively.

They've also won the FA Cup, English soccer's season-long national tournament, 8 times: 1965, 1974, 1986, 1989, 1992, 2001, 2006 and 2022. And they've won the European Cup/UEFA Champions League 6 times, more than any other British team: 1977, 1978, 1981, 1984, 2005 and 2019. The 1985-86 season remains the only one in which they've won both the League and the Cup, known in England as "doing The Double."

They almost did it again in 1989. In the FA Cup Semifinal, they were playing Nottingham Forest, on neutral ground at Hillsborough Stadium in South Yorkshire, home of Sheffield Wednesday. A mistake in opening the gates led to the deaths of 97 people. The game was replayed, Liverpool won, and, as in 1986, they beat Everton in an All-Merseyside Final.

And with North London team Arsenal having blown a lead for the League title, all Liverpool had to do to win the League was avoid losing the last game of the season, home to Arsenal, by more than 1 goal. Arsenal hadn't won at Anfield in 15 years. With the home fans singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" with more emotion than ever, giving hope to a grieving city over the last few weeks, it seemed impossible for Arsenal to do what needed to be done. But a goal by Michael Thomas in stoppage time gave Arsenal a 2-0 win.

The Hillsborough Disaster led to, among other things, the conversion of English stadiums to all-seater. This would reduce capacity, without more building. The Kemlyn Road Stand was double-decked, and renamed the Cenentary Stand in 1992, in connection with the team's 100th Anniversary. The Kop was demolished and rebuilt in 1994, its capacity reduced to 12,390, but still the most intimidating stand in the sport. Overall, the stadium's seating capacity was down to 35,000. In 1998, a new, 2-tier Anfield Road Stand was opened, bringing capacity back up to 44,736.

In 2017, the Centenary Stand was renamed the Kenny Dalglish Stand, for the team's all-time greatest player, who had managed them to the 1986 Double while still playing.

Since the 2010 purchase of the team by Fenway Sports Group, owners of the Boston Red Sox, the stadium has been redeveloped and modernized. Unlike a ballpark, a four-sided soccer stadium can have parts demolished and rebuilt without the team having to leave. The new Main Stand (southeast) opened in 2016, raising capacity to 54,074. The new Anfield Road Stand (northeast) is set to open in 2023, raising capacity to 60,725. (UPDATE: It took until February 10, 2024.)

As of September 28, 2022, there are no plans to redevelop the Kop (southwest) or the Kenny Dalglish Stand (southeast, and as a 1992 construction the oldest current part of the stadium). 

Outside the stadium are a bust of builder John Houlding, statues of managers Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley, and a memorial to the victims of Hillsborough.

*

September 28, 1884 was a Sunday. In America, the only league sport of the time was baseball, and the National League prohibited its teams from playing on Sundays. The American Association allowed it, but had no games scheduled for the day. The Union Association, which played only in this season before folding, allowed Sunday ball, and 3 games were played:

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Washington Nationals, 5-0 at the Wright Street Grounds in Milwaukee. Both of these teams folded with the UA, and have no connection to the present-day National League teams of the same names.

* The St. Louis Maroons beat the Baltimore Monumentals, 12-1 at Union Base Ball Park in St. Louis. In those days, the sport's name was usually written as 2 words, "base ball." The Maroons were run by Henry V. Lucas, a St. Louis businessman and founder of the league. Naturally, he favored his team, and they ran away with the Pennant. That dominance, producing the feeling throughout the league that everybody else's games were meaningless, was a big reason for its demise.

* And the Kansas City Unions beat the Boston Reds, 6-1 at Athletic Park in Kansas City.

September 8, 1888, The Football League Begins Play

September 8, 1888: The 1st games are played in England's Football League. Their national sport, which America would come to call "soccer," had been played for decades. The Football Association (FA) had been founded in 1863. A national tournament, the FA Cup, had been contested since the 1871-72 season. But now, there was a national league.

It was made up solely of teams from the North. From Birmingham and the surrounding area: Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers, a.k.a. Wolves. From the East Midlands: Derby County and Notts County. (Nottingham Forest had applied to be a charter member, but were turned down. They were admitted in 1892.) From Staffordshire: Stoke City. From Liverpool: Everton. (Liverpool F.C. would be founded in 1892.) From the Manchester area: Bolton Wanderers. (Manchester United wouldn't join the League until 1892, and Manchester City weren't founded until 1894.) From Lancashire: Preston North End, Blackburn Rovers, Burnley and Accrington Stanley.

Of the 12 teams, 10 played on the 1st day. The 2 that didn't were Blackburn Rovers and Notts County.

The 1st goal was scored by Kenny Davenport of Bolton, 2 minutes into their match with Derby. However, Derby won the game, 6-3. West Brom beat Stoke 2-0. Preston beat Burnley 5-2. Everton beat Accrington 2-1. And Aston Villa and Wolves drew 1-1.

Preston, which had won the FA Cup the previous season, not only won it again in 1889, but went through the League season undefeated: Played 22, won 18, drew 4, lost exactly none. At the time, a win was 2 points, and a draw 1. They finished with 40 points, with Aston Villa finishing 2nd with 29 points.

Hail the Champions: James Trainer, goalkeeper; Bob Howarth, right back; Bob Holmes, left back; George Drummond, right half; David Russell, centre half; Johnny Graham, left half; Jack Gordon, right wing; Jimmy Ross, inside forward; John Goodall, centre forward; Fred Dewhurst, inside forward; Sammy Thomson, left wing.

It would take 115 years for another English team to go through a League season unbeaten: In the 2003-04 season, North London team Arsenal played 38, won 26, drew 12, lost exactly none.

*

September 8, 1888 was a Saturday. There was no professional football, as Americans understand that word. There was no professional hockey. Basketball wouldn't even be invented for another 3 years. But there was what we would later call Major League Baseball:

* The New York Giants beat the Indianapolis Hoosiers, 3-2 at Athletic Park in Indianapolis. The Giants went on to win the National League Pennant. The Hoosiers played just 1 more season before going out of business.

* A doubleheader was split at Recreation Park in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Alleghenys won the opener, 2-0. The Philadelphia Quakers won the nightcap, 3-2. The Alleghenys would be accused of unfairly acquiring a player, a method that was called "nothing but piratical." So they became the Pittsburgh Pirates for the 1891 season. The Quakers became the Philadelphia Phillies in 1890.

* The Cleveland Blues beat the Cincinnati Red Stockings, 2-1 at League Park in Cleveland. The following season, the Blues became the Cleveland Spiders, because a writer noted that their fielders were so good, they seemed to have 8 arms. They went out of business after the 1899 season. The Red Stockings became simply the Reds in 1890.

* A doubleheader was split at Recreation Park in Detroit. The Washington Nationals won the 1st game, 2-1. The Detroit Wolverines won the 2nd game, 7-2. Despite having won the Pennant in 1887, the Wolverines ran out of money, and folded at the end of the 1888 season. The Nationals went out of business after the 1899 season, and have no connection to the current National League team of that name.

* The Chicago White Stockings beat the Boston Beaneaters, 11-6 in Chicago. The White Stockings became the Cubs in 1903, and the Beaneaters became the Braves in 1912. 

August 31, 2006: Arsenal Sell Ashley Cole to Chelsea

March 17, 1978: Elvis Costello & the Attractions release their album This Year’s Model. It included a song titled "I Don't Want to Go to Chelsea."

If only Ashley Cole had listened to that song.

August 31, 2006: On the last day of the Summer transfer window, Arsenal F.C. sell left back Ashley Cole to Chelsea F.C., sending him from North London to West London.

They didn't have much choice.

Making his Premier League debut in 2000, Cole established himself as the best English left back of his generation. He helped Arsenal reach the FA Cup Final in 2001, win the Premier League and the FA Cup in 2002 (winning both is called "The Double"), win another Cup in 2003, produce the PL's only unbeaten season in 2004, and win another Cup in 2005. At 24, he had already won 2 League titles and 3 FA Cups, and had played for England in the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004.

Unfortunately, like so many other great athletes, he began to confuse payment with respect. He wanted £60,000 a week -- with the exchange rate then in effect, this amounted to an annual salary of $3.2 million. Arsenal offered him £55,000 -- about $2.9 million. For a team as big as Arsenal, an additional £5,000 a week shouldn't have been too much to keep the man who, at the time, was the best player at his position in the world, maybe 2nd to Paolo Maldini of A.C. Milan, and only 24 years old.

But Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein, responsible for such negotiations in place of manager Arsène Wenger, wouldn't pay the extra 5 grand. Hearing that over the radio while driving on London's beltway, the M25, Cole, "trembling with anger" as he put it in his autobiography, pulled over, picked up his phone, and called his agent, Jonathan Barnett. He yelled, "They are taking the piss, Jonathan!" The expression -- also "taking the mickey," which comes from Cockney rhyming slang, from "Mickey Bliss" -- is roughly equivalent to the American expressions "busting your chops" or "busting your balls." But Cole considered it a sign of tremendous disrespect.

In January 2005, Cole and Barnett met with Chelsea manager José Mourinho and chief executive Peter Kenyon at the Royal Park Hotel in Lancaster Gate, Central London. Simply having the meeting, without having informed his current club first, was a violation of PL rules. So was negotiating a transfer without the permission of the current club. By offering a contract, of any amount, Chelsea were violating a rule as well. The process is called "tapping-up."

Word got out, and while it didn't seem to affect either team on the field as the 2004-05 season came to a close -- Chelsea won the League, and Arsenal won the Cup -- on June 1, an independent commission charged by the PL with investigating the story issued its findings. Cole was found guilty, and fined £100,000. Chelsea were found guilty, and fined £300,000. Mourinho was found guilty -- a manager should not be present at such a meeting -- and fined £200,000.

Arsenal fans turned on Cole, calling him "Cashley." Rumors abounded, some with more merit to them than others. He was married to Cheryl Tweedy, the lead singer of vocal group Girls Aloud. The joke was that she, white, had to marry him, black, to prove she wasn't a racist; and he had to marry her to prove he wasn't gay. Another rumor spread that he had a gay affair with Jermaine Jenas, a star player with Arsenal's North London arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur; and that, for reasons known only to him, he shoved a cell phone up his ass at a party.

The familiar terrace chant, "Ten men went to mow, went to mow a meadow!" became "Ten men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley!" And the rhyming of his name made another song easy: "Oh, Ashley Cole, yer a fuckin' arsehole!"

He played the 2005-06 season with Arsenal, helping them reach the UEFA Champions League Final. On August 31, having been held out of the team's 1st 2 games of the 2006-07 PL season -- a draw against Aston Villa in the 1st competitive match at the new Emirates Stadium, and a loss away to Manchester City -- Arsenal bowed to the inevitable, and made a trade, a rarity in English football: They sent Cole to Chelsea for £5 million and centreback William Gallas.

Cole made a public statement saying he forgave Arsenal team management for their treatment of him. He... forgave them? They didn't do anything wrong. All they did was offer a great player 91 percent of what he thought he was worth.

Gallas did next to nothing for Arsenal, developed a bad attitude, and was gone within 3 years. Cole played 8 seasons for Chelsea, and, while Cheryl divorced him due to his womanizing -- apparently, he is completely straight -- his on-pitch reputation only grew. Between the 2 London clubs, ended up with 5 Premier League titles, a record 7 FA Cup wins, and, with Chelsea, the 2012 Champions League title.

Whether he will ever be forgiven by Arsenal fans remains to be seen, but he set the pattern for future moves for players like Alexander Hleb, Emmanuel Adebayor, Cesc Fàbregas, Samir Nasri, Robin van Persie and Alexis Sánchez.

*

August 31, 2006 was a Thursday. There were 10 games played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-4 at Yankee Stadium. Randy Johnson was the winning pitcher, although he didn't pitch especially well. He may have been the most disappointing pitcher in Yankee history. Alex Rodriguez went 3-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Derek Jeter went 1-for-2 with 3 walks.

* The New York Mets lost to the Colorado Rockies, 8-4 at Coors Field in Denver. Jeff Francis outpitched Óliver Pérez. David Wright hit a home run for the Mets.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. David Ortiz did not play.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-5 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. The game went to 10 innings, and both teams scored on mishandled pitched: The Phillies got a run home in the top half, thanks to a passed ball by Nats catcher Brian Schneider; while the Nats tied the game on a Brian Schneider single, and then, with Ryan Church at bat, Aaron Fultz threw a wild pitch, and Marlon Anderson scored the winning run.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-6 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. Barry Bonds went 2-for-3 with a walk before leaving the game.

* The Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-3 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago. Jorge Cantú singled home the winning runs in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-1 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Florida Marlins, 5-2 at the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Albert Pujols went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-5 at Ameriquest Field (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* And the Houston Astros beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-3 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

August 22, 1964: "Match of the Day" Premieres

August 22, 1964: Match of the Day is first broadcast on BBC1. It becomes British television's most popular TV program -- or "programme," as it would be "spelt" over there.

The 1st game was at Anfield, home stadium of Liverpool Football Club, defending Champions of the Football League Division One, who beat Arsenal Football Club, of North London, 3-2.

The game is not broadcast live: It is filmed, so that it can be shown that night from the BBC's London headquarters. It will be many years before live games are shown, the reasoning being that it would hurt attendance, and thus gate receipts, by far the main source of teams' income. Eventually, they would figure out that TV broadcast rights would be more lucrative than gate receipts.

But, for many years to come, only a scattered few games would be broadcast live, including the annual FA Cup Final. And so, on Saturday nights, MOTD became what Americans would later call "must-see TV." In 1968, ITV, the BBC's main rival, would introduce a show for Sunday afternoons, The Big Match. It, too, becomes a must-watch for footie fans. Both shows are still run today.

*

August 22, 1964 was a Saturday. Tennis player Mats Wilander was born. So was Trey Gowdy, right-wing fanatic Republican Congressman turned Fox News host. And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees and their arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox, split a doubleheader at Fenway Park in Boston. The Red Sox won the opener, 5-3. They scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th, off Al Downing, making a winner of Dick Radatz in relief of Bill Monbouquette. Elston Howard hit a home run for the Yankees, Lee Thomas for the Red Sox.

The Yankees won the nightcap, 8-0. Mel Stottlemyre pitched a 6-hit shutout. Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Johnny Blanchard hit home runs. Over the 2 games, Mantle went 2-for-7 with a walk and 3 RBIs, Maris went 2-for-6 with 2 walks and 3 RBIs, and Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-6 with a walk.

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. Ernie Banks went 1-for-4.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-4 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Roberto Clemente went 3-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Washington Senators, 6-2 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in 1969.)

* The Cleveland Indians swept a doubleheader from the Los Angeles Angels, 1-0 and 5-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Sonny Siebert pitched a 5-hit shutout in the 1st game.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Brooks Robinson went 2-for-4 with a home run and 3 RBIs.

* The Houston Colt .45s beat the Milwaukee Braves, 5-4 at Colt Stadium in Houston. Hank Aaron went 3-for-5, and Joe Torre went 2-for-4. The following year, the Astrodome opened, and the Colts became the Houston Astros.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Don Drysdale pitched 8 innings for the Dodgers, Joey Jay 10 for the Reds, and neither ended up as the winning pitcher. Frank Robinson went 2-for-5 with 3 RBIs. Leo Cardenas drew a bases-loaded walk on Howie Reed in the top of the 15th inning.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie Mays went 0-for-3, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Lou Brock went 1-for-5 with 2 stolen bases.

* And the Detroit Tigers and the Minnesota Twins were rained out at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Twins won the 1st game, 6-5. The Tigers won the 2nd game, 5-2. Over the 2 games, Al Kaline went 1-for-7 with 2 walks, and Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-7 with 2 walks.

August 17, 2013: NBC Begins Broadcasting the Premier League

Rebecca Lowe, flanked by the Men In Blazers:

Michael Davies (left) and Roger Bennett

#LivingTheDream

August 17, 2013: NBC begins broadcasting soccer games of England's Premier League in America. This leads to an explosion of fandom for the League, and for the sport in general, in the U.S.

Let me tell you what the American media's coverage of soccer was like in America when I grew up, in the 1970s and '80s:

* If your metropolitan area had a team is the North American Soccer League, one of the local independent stations -- that is, not affiliated with 1 of the 3 major networks of the time, NBC, CBS or ABC -- might broadcast their games. Or maybe the local PBS affiliate would show it. But it would probably handle them the same way the independent stations handled the NBA and the NHL: Broadcasting them on tape delay instead of live, and often at 11:30 at night.

* Every year, ABC Wide World of Sports would broadcast England's FA Cup Final, and the European Cup Final (the tournament now known as the UEFA Champions League) -- also on tape delay. (The FA Cup Final having been played earlier in the day, Saturday, but the European Cup Final having been played the preceding Wednesday.) And, when the World Cup or the European championships were held, ABC would broadcast a highlight show, followed by the Final, which, if the time zones worked out right, could be live.

* Magazines like Sports Illustrated and Time might have mentions of major results, days after the fact.

* If you found a newsstand that sold out-of-town and foreign periodicals, you could get a British newspaper on a 2-or-3-day delay, and get the results of Saturday's games on Monday or Tuesday. Or a foreign magazine like England's Shoot!, Germany's Kicker or France Football, which would be about a month behind.

* But the only way you could get a broadcast of a Football League Division One game, or a game in a European league, was through "ham radio": Find a fellow fan of said team, in the city in question, and have him put his ham radio microphone next to his regular radio's speaker. So, even that wouldn't be on television.

And that was about it. At the dawn of the 21st Century, the growth of cable and satellite TV allowed bars in cities with expatriate populations, including New York, to broadcast the games live. Other than that, if you were a fan of a particular team in England, or elsewhere in Europe, and you wanted to watch them, you had to pay through the nose to your cable company to get the games yourselves, or go to one of those bars, or else you were out of luck, Jack.

By the time I began to get interested in Europeans soccer, following the 2006 World Cup, the tide had begun to turn. American cable systems began to get British networks like Sky Sports, Ireland's Setanta Sports, and Qatar-based beIN Sports, which broadcast games from France, Spain and Italy.

And so, fans like me would go to places like Nevada Smith's (R.I.P.) in New York's East Village, the Phoenix Landing in Cambridge outside Boston, the Globe Tavern in Chicago, the Fox and Hound in Los Angeles, the Mad Dog in the Fog in San Francisco, and various outlets of the Fadó chain (most of them now gone, though the ones in Philadelphia and Atlanta remain open). We would get out of bed early to catch a 10:00 AM start, because of the 5-hour time difference between New York and London. And if you were on the Pacific Coast, well, one of the earliest U.S.-based Arsenal-themed blogs came out of Seattle, and was titled 7AM Kickoff.

At first, the vast majority of Americans watching were fans of one of the teams then comprising the "Big Four": In descending order, Manchester United, Liverpool, West London team Chelsea, and North London team Arsenal. This was because they were the most successful teams at the time, and thus the teams most often shown on TV, just as NFL fans of the 1970s became fans of Dallas, Pittsburgh, Miami and the Whatever City They're In Now Raiders, because they were on TV and winning when their local team might not have been.

There were a few fans who had been indoctrinated into watching other teams, usually by expats they'd met at such bars. But if you were a fan of Man United's neighbors Manchester City, Liverpool's neighbors Everton, Arsenal's neighbors Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United, or another Premier League team, perhaps Birmingham's Aston Villa or Newcastle United, you were part of a special breed indeed, who got in on the ground floor of this phenomenon, before the explosion of watching possibilities.

Finally, NBC decided to strike while the iron was hot, and allowed its various sub-networks to broadcast the games. As with American football, they had a studio show to do pregame, halftime and postgame analysis.

Unusually, it was hosted by a woman, Rebecca Lowe, a West London native who had attended the private Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania for a time, and was familiar with American culture; and included American goalie Tim Howard, and "The Two Robbies," former Middlesbrough midfielder Robin Mustoe and former Wimbledon FC midfielder Robbie Earle.

Like ex-NFL players Irv Cross on CBS' The NFL Today and Paul Maguire on NBC's NFL Live in the '70s, '80s and '90s, the Robbies' analysis reminded you that they were former players, but the actual details of their careers seemed not to matter. These were not men like ex-baseball player Joe Garagiola -- or, more to the point, British ex-"footballers" Graeme Souness and Jamie Carragher, ex-athletes who knew little about their sport beyond the fact that they used to be good at it. They knew their stuff.

The games themselves were usually broadcast by names familiar to English audiences, such as Martin Tyler, Peter Drury and Arlo White; with color commentary by former players like Arsenal's Lee Dixon and Chelsea's Graeme Le Saux. They were familiar with the records and "cultures" of the various teams and their fans, and so viewers became familiar with them as well.

They would have postgame wrapup shows like Premier League Goal Zone. For a while, timing it just right as the Emirati sheiks had bought Man City and poured enough money into the team to start winning trophies, they had Manchester Monday, showing highlights of both Manc teams. (There was no corresponding show for the London teams, of which there were too many; or the Birmingham teams, Aston Villa and Birmingham City; or the Merseyside teams, Liverpool and Everton; or the North-East teams, Newcastle United, Sunderland and Middlesbrough.)

And then, starting in 2014, came Men In Blazers. This was an extension of a podcast done by Michael Davies (and that's pronounced DAY-viss, as if there were no E in there, not DAY-veez), from Southeast London, who abandoned his local team Crystal Palace to support Chelsea; and Roger Bennett, from Liverpool, and an Everton fan. "Davo," who got his start as a TV producer, is the straight man; "Rog," who spent a Summer in Chicago as a teenager, and went back to America as soon as he could and has embraced our country so much that he titled his memoir Reborn In the U.S.A., is the funny one. Davo is Abbott, Rog is Costello; Davo is Felix, Roger is Oscar. Except they really do like each other, if not each other's teams.

(Reborn In the U.S.A. is a terrific book, showing just how stark a Liverpool boyhood in the 1970s and '80s, especially for a Jewish kid in a largely Irish-Catholic city, could be. Rog really found himself in America. The weird thing about the book is that he hardly mentions soccer at all, talking more about his love of Chicago's Bears, White Sox and Blackhawks -- but not the Bulls, as Michael Jordan was just getting started at the time.)

Davo and Rog show highlights, make pithy comments, and do interviews with soccer personalities and American celebrities who happen to love one PL team or another. Davo usually doesn't taunt Rog over Chelsea's success and/or Everton's misery. But let the record show that, last season (2021-22), Rog celebrated Everton's avoidance of relegation more than Davo has celebrated any of Chelsea's achievements.

Through NBC's coverage, it is no longer unusual to see Americans wearing English team shirts, caps, scarves, jackets, and so on. And as Man City and Leicester City have won League titles and stayed in the League's elite, and Tottenham have improved, while the former Big Four teams have each had bad years (though each of them, except Man United, have since improved), being an American and a fan of a team not in the former Big Four, while still unusual, is no longer a big deal.

NBC has done what previous TV networks, Pelé, David Beckham, and even the U.S. team's performances in the 1994, 2002 and 2010 World Cups couldn't do: It has made Americans embrace soccer, the world's game -- as Pelé put it, "the beautiful game."

*

August 17, 2013 was a Saturday. These games were played in the Premier League on that day:

* In the early start on this 1st day of the 2013-14 season, starting at 7:30 AM on the U.S. East Coast, and 12:30 PM in Britain, Liverpool hosted Stoke City of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire at Anfield in Liverpool. Liverpool won, 1-0.

* In the late game, a 12:30/5:30 start, Manchester United went to Swansea City in Swansea, Wales, and won 4-1 at the Liberty Stadium. All the other games played that day began at the traditional English soccer kickoff time at 3:00 PM, making them 10:00 AM in America's Eastern Time Zone.

* Arsenal were stunned at home at the Emirates Stadium in North London, 3-1 by Birmingham team Aston Villa. Some Arsenal fans blamed injuries. Some blamed the referee, Anthony Taylor. The very stupid among them blamed the team's manager, Arsène Wenger.

* Southampton, of Hampshire on the English Channel coast, went to the West Midlands outside Birmingham, and beat West Bromwich Albion, 1-0 at The Hawthorns.

* Fulham, of West London, went to the North-East, and beat Sunderland, 1-0 at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland.

* West Ham United of East London, beat the other Welsh team then in the League, Cardiff City, 2-0 at Upton Park.

The following day, Tottenham Hotspur (or "Spurs" for short) beat Crystal Palace, 1-0 at Selhurst Park in Southeast London; while Chelsea beat Hull City of Yorkshire, 2-0 at Stamford Bridge in West London. The day after that, in England's version of Monday Night Football, Manchester City beat Newcastle United, 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.

In America's Major League Soccer:

* The New York Red Bulls and the Philadelphia Union played to a 0-0 draw at Red Bull Arena (now Sports Illustrated Stadium) in Harrison, New Jersey, outside New York.

* The Montreal Impact (now named CF Montréal) beat D.C. United, 2-1 at Saputo Stadium in Montreal.

* The New England Revolution beat the Chicago Fire, 2-0 at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Columbus Crew beat Toronto FC, 2-0 at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.

* The Houston Dynamo beat the Seattle Sounders, 3-1 at BBVA Compass Stadium (now Shell Energy Stadium) in Houston.

* The Colorado Rapids beat the Vancouver Whitecaps, 2-0 at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, in the Denver suburb of Commerce City, Colorado.

* The Los Angeles Galaxy beat Real Salt Lake, 4-2 at the StubHub Center (now Dignity Health Sports Park) in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California.

* The Portland Timbers beat FC Dallas, 2-1 at Jeld-Wen Field (now Providence Park) in Portland, Oregon.

The next day, the San Jose Earthquakes beat Sporting Kansas City, 1-0 at Buck Shaw Stadium (now Stevens Stadium) in the San Francisco suburb of Santa Clara, California. Los Angeles-based Chivas USA did not play that weekend, and are now defunct.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 6-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. So, between this, Arsenal getting embarrassed, and the Red Bulls only able to get a 0-0 draw at home, it was a bad day for me.

Lyle Overbay got 3 hits, but the rest of the Yankees combined only got 5. Derek Jeter did not play. John Lackey outpitched Hiroki Kuroda. David Ortiz, of course, hit another steroid-aided home run off the Yankees.

* The New York Mets lost to the San Diego Padres, 8-2 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-0 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Clayton Kershaw pitched 8 innings of 3-hit shutout ball.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Colorado Rockies, 8-4 at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-7 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. Adam LaRoche won the game with a home run in the top of the 15th inning.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 6-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Miami Marlins, 6-4 at Marlins Park (now LoanDepot Park) in Miami.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 15-5 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-5 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 4-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. It took 4 Cardinal pitchers to pitch a 5-hit shutout.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-0 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee. It took 3 Brewer pitchers to pitch a 5-hit shutout.

* And the Texas Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners, 15-3 at Rangers Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 8-5 at Target Field in Minneapolis.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Houston Astros, 6-5 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Josh Hamilton won it with a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* And the Cleveland Indians beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-1 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the O.co Coliseum).