December 31, 1972: Roberto Clemente Is Killed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A DC-7, similar to the Clemente relief plane

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

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

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

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

Manager Bill Virdon with the patch

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

December 30, 1898: Bill Stearns, Baseball's 1st Casualty of War

December 30, 1898: For the 1st time, a man who had played professional baseball dies as a result of serving his country.

William Stearns (no middle name) was born on March 20, 1853 in Washington, D.C. Although he was only 12 years old when the American Civil War ended, he was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans' organization that grew out of that war, which indicates he served in some capacity during the war, perhaps as a drummer, a bugler, or a messenger.

In 1871, the 1st season of the National Association, baseball's 1st professional league, he pitched 2 games for the Washington Olympics, completing and winning both. He was just 18 years old, and it seemed like he had a good career in front of him.

If you're a believer in foreshadowing, you may have guessed that he was killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn just 5 years later. But the date at the start of this post rules that out.

The Olympics had begun play in 1867, and it was their defeat of a team from Cincinnati that inspired businessmen from that city to form the sport's 1st openly professional team, the Red Stockings, in 1869. But the Washington Nationals were an even older team, going back to 1860. Stearns pitched for them in 1872, but went 0-11. I guess the NA batters had figured him out. He went 7-25 for them in 1873 and, bowing to the fact that their move to the professional ranks had exposed them as inadequate, the Nationals dropped out of the NA. 

Stearns went 3-14, albeit with a decent 2.95 ERA, for a a terrible Hartford Dark Blues team in 1874. A new Washington Nationals team was even worse in 1875, and Stearns went 1-14 for them. In 1874, he became an outfielder as well as a pitcher, but didn't hit well: He batted .159 with 11 RBIs in 33 games in 1874, and .256 with 7 RBIs in 21 games in 1875.

After the 1875 season, the NA collapsed, and, rather than join the new National League for 1876, the Nationals disbanded. There would be more professional teams in Washington, but the "Washington Nationals" name remained dormant until 1973, when it was rumored (incorrectly, as it turned out) that the San Diego Padres were going to move to D.C. for the 1974 season; and then again until 2004, when the Montreal Expos moved to the capital.

Stearns became an umpire, and remained in baseball that way. In 1898, with the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Stearns volunteered for military service. Despite being 45 years old, he was accepted. He was a Private with the First District of Columbia Volunteers, and deployed to Puerto Rico in July. While there, he contracted malaria. He returned to his hometown in September, but he never recovered, and died there on December 30.

No Washington team -- not the "Old Senators" of 1901 to 1960, who became the Minnesota Twins; the "New Senators" of 1961 to 1971, who became the Texas Rangers; or the Nationals -- has ever made any mention of hometown hero Bill Stearns at their ballpark. He may not have died in combat, but he did die in service to his country, and he should be remembered.

*

December 30, 1898 was a Friday. Baseball was out of season. Football season had ended. Basketball barely existed. And hockey was all-amateur. So there were no scores on this historic day.

November 1, 1950: The Attempted Assassination of President Harry Truman

November 1, 1950: President Harry Truman faces an assassination attempt. The Truman family is staying at Blair House, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, while the White House is being renovated. Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, Puerto Rican independence activists, approached Blair House with guns, hoping that killing Truman would help their cause.

Blair House

Collazo shot D.C. police officer Donald Birdzell. He survived, and lived until 1991. Secret Service Agent Vincent Mroz heard this, came outside, and shot Collazo in the chest. He survived. Torresola shot White House Police Officer Leslie Coffelt. He then shot Officer Joseph Downs, but Downs was able to get up and secure a door into the house. He survived, and lived until 1978.

Torresola was reloading when Truman, having heard the shots, made a potentially terrible mistake, and looked outside his 2nd floor window, exposing him to the shooters. Secret Service Agents shouted at him to get away. He did.

Coffelt managed to return fire, hitting Torresola in the head and killing him instantly. But Coffelt was mortally wounded, and died 4 hours later. He was the 1st person ever to, as the Secret Service's saying goes, "take a bullet for the President."

Officer Leslie Coffelt

Had the attempt succeeded, Vice President Alben Barkley would have become President. Next in line would have been the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Sam Rayburn of Texas.

Collazo was convicted and sentenced to death. Truman, a World War I veteran who said he wasn't scared, because had already "been shot at by professionals," commuted Collazo's sentence to life imprisonment. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter further commuted his sentence to time served, which turned out to be 29 years. He returned to Puerto Rico, continued to support its independence, and died in 1994.

Truman served out his term until January 20, 1953, did not run for another, and retired to his home in Independence, Missouri, outside Kansas City. He died on December 26, 1972. Agent Mroz, who had played football at the University of Michigan, was the last survivor of the incident, living until 2008.

*

November 1, 1950 was a Wednesday. There were 3 NBA games played on the day:

* The Fort Wayne Pistons beat the Boston Celtics, 107-84 at the gymnasium of North Side High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana. That's right: A high school gym. The NBA was still trying to gain its footing as a "major league." It would be 2 more years before the Pistons moved into a real arena, and another 5 before they moved to Detroit.

Chuck Cooper, the 1st black player drafted by an NBA team, made his NBA debut, the night after Earl Lloyd of the Washington Capitols became the 1st black player to appear in an NBA game. Cooper scored 9 points for the Celtics, and Bob Cousy scored 16, but they got clobbered. Larry Foust of the Pistons led all scorers with 19.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 81-71 at the Baltimore Coliseum. This version of the Bullets, who won the NBA Championship in 1948, folded in 1954, and bore no connection besides name to the Baltimore Bullets who began play in 1963, and are now the Washington Wizards. George Mikan, the dominant player of the pre-24-second shot clock era (1946-54), scored 34, but it wasn't anywhere near enough.

* And the Washington Capitols beat the Indianapolis Olympians, 100-84 at the Uline Arena, later renamed the Washington Coliseum. Although it hasn't been used for sporting events since 1971, this building still stands. The aforementioned Earl Lloyd scored 8 points. Despite having reached the NBA Finals in 1949, the Capitols only lasted until the end of this season.

The Olympians lost players Alex Groza and Ralph Beard, when the NBA banned them for life due to their role in the college basketball point-shaving scandal while they were at the University of Kentucky. Their former Kentucky, now Indianapolis, teammates Cliff Barker and Wallace "Wah Wah" Jones were not implicated, but each only lasted 1 more season in the NBA, and the Olympians lasted only 1 more after that.

And there was 1 NHL game played on this day, the League's biggest rivalry: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens. Maurice Richard of the Canadiens and Max Bentley of the Leafs -- nicknamed "the Rocket" and "the Dipsy Doodle Dandy from Delisle" (his hometown in Saskatchewan), respectively -- each scored 2 goals. There were 5 goals in the 3rd period, 3 by Toronto and both of Richard's goals.

October 2, 2017: Hurricane Maria Devastates Puerto Rico

October 2, 2017: Hurricane Maria strikes Puerto Rico, killing about 3,000 people -- about as many as died in the 9/11 attacks 16 years earlier.

Donald Trump went down there a few days later, and was seen tossing rolls of paper towels to victims, as if that was enough.

There are certain things a President needs to avoid: A recession that begins on his watch, a war that goes badly (a "Vietnam"), a corruption scandal (a "Watergate"), and botching his response to a hurricane (a "Katrina"). With the COVID-19 pandemic shutting the American economy down, Trump now has 3 of the 4. He ended up not taking us to war, although what happened in Niger was his "Benghazi."

*

October 2, 2017 was a Monday. Baseball was between the end of its regular season and the start of its Playoffs. The NBA and NHL seasons were about to start. On Monday Night Football, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Washington Redskins, 29-20 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. The Redskins have since dropped the Native American nickname, becoming the Washington Commanders.

The Chiefs have no intention of dropping theirs, possibly because "Chief" is a title of leadership, and thus a mark of respect.

April 19, 1989: The USS Iowa Explosion

April 19, 1989: An explosion onboard the USS Iowa kills 47 crewmen, during a fleet exercise in the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla. This hastened the ship's retirement, and that of the other remaining World War II-Korean War era battleships.

The NIS (Naval Investigative Service), the precursor to the NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service), determined that it was caused by a sailor's suicide attempt.

Battleships BB-65, USS Illinois, and BB-66, USS Kentucky, were still under construction when World War II ended, were never completed, and were ultimately scrapped, never joining the Iowa-class battleships that actually did sail. Those 4 have all become "museum ships":

* BB-61, USS Iowa, "The Grey Ghost." Decommissioned October 26, 1990. It is berthed at the Pacific Battleship Center, Port of Los Angeles.

* BB-62, USS New Jersey, "The Big J" or "The Black Dragon," it saw more battles than the other 3 combined. Decommissioned February 8, 1991. It is berthed at the Home Port Alliance in Camden, New Jersey, across the Delaware River from Philadelphia.

* BB-63, USS Missouri, "The Mighty Mo," the ship on which the Empire of Japan formally surrendered to the Allies. Decommissioned March 31, 1992, making it America's last battleship. It is berthed at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii. The place where, for America, World War II began seems an appropriate place for the ship where it formally ended.

* BB-64, USS Wisconsin, "The Big Wisky." Decommissioned September 30, 1991. It is berthed at Nauticus, a museum at the Norfolk Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia.

*

April 19, 1989 was a Wednesday. Actor Simu Liu was born. This was also the day the "Central Park Jogger" case began. I have a separate entry for that event.

These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-2 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. John Candelaria outpitched future Yankee Jimmy Key. Steve Sax, Bob Brower and Álvaro Espinoza each had 2 hits for the Yankees. Don Mattingly and Rickey Henderson each went 1-for-5.

* The New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-2 at Shea Stadium. Lee Mazzilli hit a 3-run home run in the bottom of the 8th inning, to make Randy Myers a winning pitcher in relief of David Cone. Mike Schmidt, entering his final season, went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-2 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-5 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Cal Ripken went 1-for-4. George Brett and Bo Jackson hit home runs for the Royals.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 4-3 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The California Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-2 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-5 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Barry Bonds went 2-for-5.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-1 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Robin Yount went 0-for-3 with a walk. Paul Molitor went 2-for-4.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. How many Dodgers does it take to pitch a 5-hit shutout? On this night, 4: Mike Morgan, 4 over 5 2/3rds innings; Tim Crews, 1 before getting the last out in the 6th; Ray Searage, a perfect 7th; and Jay Howell, a perfect 8th and 9th.

* The San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Tony Gwynn went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Seattle Mariners, 7-5 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Ken Griffey Jr. went 2-for-4.

Football was out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Miami Heat, 117-91 at the Miami Arena.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Indiana Pacers, 115-105 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 100-92 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

* And the Houston Rockets beat the San Antonio Spurs, 99-84 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

There were 2 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, both in Game 2 of the Prince of Wales Conference Finals. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 3-2 at the Montreal Forum, in Game 2 of their series. Bobby Smith scored the winner, at 12:24 of the 1st overtime. And the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

April 1, 2001: Major League Baseball In Puerto Rico

April 1, 2001: For the 1st time, a regular-season Major League Baseball game is played in Puerto Rico. The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers, 8-1 at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan.

The 1st at-bat was the Jays' Esteban Loaiza hitting the Rangers' Rusty Greer with a pitch. He was then erased in a double play. But Alex Rodriguez, playing his 1st game for the Rangers after signing a record $252 million contract, singled, and Rafael Palmeiro doubled him home.

That would be the highlight for the Rangers. In the 3rd, Shannon Stewart hit Puerto Rico's 1st regular-season MLB home run. Tony Batista would also hit a home run for the Jays.

Built in 1962, the stadium was named for Hiram Gabriel Bithorn Sosa, the 1st Puerto Rican to play in the major leagues. Light-skinned enough to be considered "white" in that segregated era, "Hi" Bithorn debuted with the Chicago Cubs in 1942, and led the National League in shutouts in 1943 with 7, then served in the U.S. Navy in World War II, missing the Cubs' Pennant season of 1945.

He returned to the Cubs in 1946, and pitched with the Chicago White Sox in 1947. His major league record was 34-31, with a 3.16 ERA. In 1951, still in professional baseball, he was murdered by a Mexican policeman who falsely accused him of being a Communist. Bithorn was only 35 years old. The policeman served 8 years in prison.

In 1973, an arena, the Roberto Clemente Coliseum, opened next-door to Bithorn Stadium. This was appropriate, not just because of all that Clemente, who had died a few weeks earlier, did for Puerto Rico, but because he had played for the team that still plays its home games at Bithorn Stadium, Cangrejeros de Santurce (the Santurce Crabbers).

The Expos played 11 "home games" at Bithorn Stadium in 2003, and again in 2004, but between San Juan and Montreal, they were unsuccessful in 3 languages, and were moved to become the Washington Nationals for 2005.

In 2010, Major League Baseball returned to the stadium, as the Florida Marlins faced the New York Mets in a 3-game series during the regular season. Known as the Miami Marlins since 2012, they were to play the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 30 and 31, 2016 in honor of Roberto Clemente Day. However, on May 6, 2016, it was announced that the Puerto Rico games would be postponed due to the Zika virus outbreak, and moved to Marlins Park in Miami.

The Cleveland Indians and the Minnesota Twins played a 2-game series at Hiram Bithorn Stadium on April 17 and 18, 2018. Another series, between the Marlins and the Mets, was scheduled for April 2020, but was canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bithorn Stadium has also hosted Caribbean "Winter league" games and World Baseball Classic games.

*

April 1, 2001 was a Sunday. This was the 1st game of the MLB season, and no other games were played that day. Football was out of season. There were 10 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 79-78 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles. Shaquille O'Neal scored 31 points.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Houston Rockets, 101-98 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Indiana Pacers, 104-93 at the First Union Center (now the Wells Fargo Center) in Philadelphia. Allen Iverson scored 37 points.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Boston Celtics, 80-79 at the Charlotte Coliseum.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Toronto Raptors, 104-101 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Golden State Warriors, 104-87 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. Jerry Stackhouse scored 32 points.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 106-99 at the America West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix. Ray Allen scored 31 points.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Sacramento Kings, 119-107 at the Arco Arena in Sacramento. Juwan Howard scored 32 points.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 99-95 at the Rose Garden (now the Moda Center) in Portland. Terrell Brandon scored 30 points.

* And the Utah Jazz beat the Vancouver Grizzlies, 92-73 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver. Karl Malone scored 31 for the Jazz. The Grizzlies moved to Memphis the next season.

And there were 7 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 4-2 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-2 at the Ice Palace (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Ottawa Senators, 3-2 at the Corel Centre (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa. Shane Willis scored the winning goal with 3:42 left in overtime.

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

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Washington Capitals, 2-1 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Steve Yzerman scored the winning goal, only 11 seconds into overtime.

* The Edmonton Oilers and the Chicago Blackhawks played to a tie, 3-3 at the United Center in Chicago.

* And the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Vancouver Canucks, 2-1 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now the Honda Center).

March 29, 1951: The 1st Hispanic Oscar Winner

March 29, 1951: The Academy Awards are held at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles. Fred Astaire is the host. All About Eve wins 6 "Oscars," including Best Picture. But stars Bette Davis and Anne Baxter, and also Gloria Swanson for Sunset Boulevard, are defeated for Best Actress by Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday.

José Ferrer wins Best Actor, for the title role in a film version of Edmond Rostand's 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac. The real Cyrano, born in 1619, was a French writer, who died young in 1655, from a cause still not determined, but possibly murder. And while a sketch of him drawn during his lifetime shows him to have had a big nose, it wasn't exaggerated, as in the various portrayals of him.

Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico on January 8, 1912, Ferrer had previously played Cyrano on Broadway. This award made him both the 1st actor of either gender to win both a Tony and an Oscar for the same role, and the 1st Hispanic Academy Award winner, preceding fellow Puerto Rican Rita Moreno by 11 years.

The actors he beat out for this award: James Stewart for Harvey, Spencer Tracy for Father of the Bride, William Holden for Sunset Boulevard, and Louis Calhern in The Magnificent Yankee. (Not a baseball movie: He was playing Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.) So he was up against some difficult competition.

He later starred in Moulin Rouge, The Caine Mutiny, Lawrence of Arabia, Ship of Fools, and the 1984 version of Dune. He was married to actress Uta Hagen, then dancer Phyllis Hill, and then to singer Rosemary Clooney, which eventually made him the father of actor Miguel Ferrer and the uncle of actor George Clooney. He was not related to actor Mel Ferrer (who was of Catalan descent), but did once direct him on Broadway.

José Ferrer passed away on January 26, 1992, the day the Washington Redskins beat the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVI. He was 80 years old.

*

March 29, 1951 was a Thursday. Nick Ut, the Vietnamese photographer who took the photo of Kim Phuc running through her napalm-bombed village, was born on this day. This was also the day The King and I premiered on Broadway. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 2 games in the NBA. The New York Knicks lost to the Syracuse Nationals, 102-80 at the State Fair Coliseum in Syracuse, New York. And the Minneapolis Lakers beat the Rochester Royals, 76-73 at the Minneapolis Auditorium.

There was a Stanley Cup Playoff game that night: The Montreal Canadiens beat the Detroit Red Wings, 1-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. It took until 2:20 of the 3rd overtime before a goal could be found, and Maurice "the Rocket" Richard of the Canadiens found it.

March 22, 1978: The Death of Karl Wallenda

March 22, 1978: Karl Wallenda, the most famous daredevil of his era, dies doing what he loved.

He was born on January 21, 1905, in Magdeburg, in what was then Prussia in the German Empire. In 1922, he formed a high-wire-walking act with his brother Herman, and his eventual wife, Helen Kreis. They toured Europe, and when John Ringling saw them in Cuba, he hired them to America to perform for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

The Great Wallendas made their American debut at the then-new "old Madison Square Garden" in 1928. At some point, the press began calling them "The Flying Wallendas," and the name stuck. The troupe was not all members of the Wallenda family and their in-laws, but were mostly so.

On July 6, 1944, a fire broke out at the Circus' performance in Hartford, Connecticut, during the Wallendas' performance. It killed 167 people, and injured over 700. Wile none of the Wallendas were hurt, it was the 1st time their act had been touched by tragedy. It would not be the last.

The highlight of their act was a seven-person chair pyramid. On January 30, 1962, at the Michigan State Fair Coliseum in Detroit, the front man on the wire, Karl's nephew, Dieter Schepp, fell, and brought everyone down with him. Schepp and Karl's son-in-law Richard Faughnan were killed. Karl broke his pelvis. His adopted son Mario was paralyzed from the waist down. And Karl's niece, Dieter's sister, Jana Schepp, sustained a head injury.

The show went on, including the pyramid. Into his 60s, Karl performed high-wire walks that men half his age would have been crazy to do, including over the Tallulah Gorge in Georgia in 1970, across Veterans Stadium between games of a doubleheader in 1972, and 1,800 feet above the ground at the Kings Island amusement park outside Cincinnati in 1974.

On March 22, 1978, to promote the family's appearance at a circus in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Karl, 73 years old, tried to walk between the 2 towers of the 10-story Condada Plaza Hotel, 121 feet above the ground. He did it because he had heard that there were children who couldn't afford the admission fee, and he wanted them to see it.

There was no net. There were high winds. The wire was not properly secured. He slipped, and despite the long bar meant to help him keep his balance, he wasn't strong enough to hang on. He fell, and landed on a parked taxicab, and then fell to the ground. He never had a chance.

I was 8 years old, and saw the footage on ABC World News Tonight. Ironically, the reporter's name was James Walker. I never knew Karl was alive until I knew he was dead. It shook me up then.  

Karl once said, "The only place I feel alive is on the wire." He may have been a fool to try it at his age, and under those conditions. But there would have been no other way he would have wanted to go.

His great-grandson Nik Wallenda, not yet born when Karl died, now leads the troupe, having started in it at age 13. In 2010, he broke his father's Kings Island record by walking 2,000 feet above the ground. That same year, he completed the San Juan walk that Karl couldn't. He walked across Niagara Falls in 2012, and the Grand Canyon in 2013.

*

March 22, 1978 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash premiered on NBC. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 6 games played in the NBA that night:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Chicago Bulls, 105-99 at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey. (It's now named the Jersey Mike's Arena.) Bernard King, not yet the star he would become, had 33 points and 18 rebounds.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 105-99 at the Boston Garden.

* The Washington Bullets beat the New Orleans Jazz, 124-109 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 120-108 at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City. (It's now named the Hy-Vee Arena.)

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Houston Rockets, 124-106 at The Summit in Houston. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 31 points for the Lakers, Calvin Murphy 36 for the Rockets. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Buffalo Braves, 97-92 at the Seattle Center Coliseum. Within 15 months, the Bullets and the Sonics had played each other in back-to-back NBA Finals, each team having won one; while the Braves had moved to San Diego and the Jazz to Salt Lake City.

There were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-1 at the St. Louis Arena -- or, as it was known from 1977 to 1980, during Ralston Purina's ownership of the team, the Checkerdome. Ron Greschner, a defenseman, had a hat trick. Phil Esposito scored 2 goals, and Pat Hickey scored the other Ranger goal.

* The New York Islanders beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The Isles had 6 different scorers: Lorne Henning, Bryan Trottier, Denis Potvin, Billy Harris, Bob Nystrom and Stefan Persson.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Washington Capitals, 6-2 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. This would be the only season, out of the 6 they played in Denver before becoming the New Jersey Devils, that the Rockies made the Playoffs.

* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Atlanta Flames, 4-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

There were 3 games played in the World Hockey Association:

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the New England Whalers, 5-3 at the Springfield Civic Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, where they were playing home games during the repair work on the Hartford Civic Center. (It's now named the MassMutual Center.)

* The Cincinnati Stingers beat the Houston Aeroes, 9-2 at the Riverfront Coliseum. (It's now named the Heritage Bank Center.)

* And the Birmingham Bulls beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

Also, Josh Heupel was born. He quarterbacked the University of Oklahoma to the 2000 National Championship. He is now the head coach at the University of Tennessee.

March 21, 1937: The Ponce Massacre

March 21, 1937: Police in Ponce, Puerto Rico kill 19 members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Two policemen also end up killed.

The Ponce Massacre was nearly 5 times as bad as the Kent State Massacre of 1970, but it wasn't shown on TV news. That's because, at the time, TV news did not exist. But, between that, and the distance of time, and the fact that it wasn't white people who died, it got buried in history.

It was nearly 4 times as bad as the Boston Massacre of 1770, but didn't become an important part of a successful revolution. That's another reason why most of you won't know about it.

No one who participated in the killings was punished, although President Franklin D. Roosevelt did remove Governor Blanton Winship from his post -- 2 years later.

*

March 21, 1937 was a Sunday. Tom Flores was born that day. He was the 1st starting quarterback for the Oakland Raiders in 1960, and coached them to win Super Bowls XI and XV (the latter after they had moved to Los Angeles).

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. It was the last day of the NHL's regular season, and these 3 games were played:

* The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the old Madison square Garden.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-1 at the Boston Garden.

* The Montreal Maroons beat the Detroit Red wings, 5-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs were not scheduled.

March 1, 1954: Shootout In the U.S. Capitol

March 1, 1954: Four Puerto Rican nationalists open fire on the U.S. House of Representatives chamber from the gallery. They fire 30 shots, and wound 5 members, interrupting debate on an immigration bill.

This comes about three and a half years after a pair of Puerto Rican independence activists attempted to assassinate President Harry Truman at Blair House, and failed. It was the greatest attack on the U.S. Capitol Building between the burning of Washington in 1814 and the Trump Insurrection in 2021.

The would-be assassins were: Dolores "Lolita" Lebrón, 34; Rafael Cancel Miranda, also 34; Irvin Flores, 29; and Andres Figueroa, also 29. That morning, they all met in New York, and took a train to Washington. As they began the short walk from Union Station to the Capitol, Miranda noted the lateness of the hour and the rainy weather, and suggested they call it off. Flores and Figueroa agreed. Lebrón said, "I am alone," and kept walking. Emboldened -- or perhaps, embarrassed that a woman had more courage than they did -- the men followed her.

There were no metal detectors at the Capitol at the time, so sneaking their semi-automatic pistols in wasn't that hard. Prior to opening fire, Lebrón shouted, "¡Viva Puerto Rico libre!" and unfurled a Puerto Rican flag.

The wounded members, all of whom recovered:

* Alvin M. Bentley, 35, first elected as a Republican from Michigan in 1952. He was hit in the chest. He was re-elected in 1954, 1956 and 1958. In 1960, he ran for the U.S. Senate, and lost. He fell into poor health, unrelated to the shooting, and died in 1969.

* Ben F. Jensen, 61, first elected as a Republican from Iowa in 1938. He was wounded in the shoulder. He was re-elected until losing in the Lyndon Johnson landslide of 1964, and lived until 1970.

* Clifford Davis, 56, first elected as a Democrat from Tennessee in 1940. He was wounded in the leg. He was re-elected until he was primaried out by a more segregationist Democrat in 1964, and lived until 1970.

* George H. Fallon, 51, first elected as a Democrat from Maryland in 1944. He was wounded in the back. He was re-elected until 1970, when he was primaried out by eventual U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes over his environmental record. He lived until 1980.

* Kenneth A. Roberts, 41, first elected as a Democrat from Alabama in 1950. He was wounded in the back. He was re-elected until he retired in 1964, and lived until 1989, the last survivor of the 5.

The defendants were immediately arrested, and charged with attempted murder, among other crimes. On June 16, after a 13-day trial, all 4 defendants were found guilty. Lebrón was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison, while the 3 men were sentenced to 75 years. They were sent to separate prisons: Lebrón to the women's prison in Alderson, West Virginia; Cancel Miranda to Alcatraz in San Francisco; Figueroa to Atlanta; and Flores to Leavenworth, Kansas.

Figueroa, ill, was given compassionate release in 1978, and died in 1979. That same year, President Jimmy Carter commuted the sentences of the other 3, who, like Figueroa in his final days, returned to Puerto Rico. Flores died in 1994, Lebrón in 2010, and Cancel Miranda in 2020.

*

March 1, 1954 was a Monday. Baseball had just begun Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were no NHL games played that day. And Only 1 game was played in the NBA that night.

The Philadelphia Warriors beat the Milwaukee Hawks, 78-73 -- in the Philadelphia suburb of Collingswood, Camden County, New Jersey. Neil Johnston had 33 points and 15 rebounds for the Warriors. I can find no source as to the name of the venue in Collingswood, or why the game was played there, instead of at the Philadelphia Arena or the Philadelphia Civic Center.

Also on this day, actors Ron Howard and Catherine Bach were born. Yes, Opie Taylor of Mayberry, North Carolina and Daisy Duke of Hazzard, Georgia were born on the same day. (Richie Cunningham of Milwaukee would have been 19 years older.)

February 8, 2026: A Super Bowl of Redemptions

Sam Darnold (left) and Kenneth Walker III

Siri, what is Super Bowl Sunday?

Liberal Siri: It is America's annual tribute to violence, unregulated capitalism, and cholesterol.

Conservative Siri: It's the most wonderful time of the year!

*

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

February 8, 2026: Super Bowl LX was played, at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, home of the San Francisco 49ers, although it's 43 miles from downtown San Francisco, and 7 miles from downtown San Jose.

It was a chance at redemption for the Seattle Seahawks, after their loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX, 11 years earlier, when their head coach at the time, Pete Carroll, made the dumbest play call in the history of football.

It was a chance at redemption for their quarterback, Sam Darnold, who had previously washed out with the New York Jets, the Carolina Panthers and the San Francisco 49ers, and had been rejected by the Minnesota Vikings, despite getting them to a 14-3 regular-season record last season, before failing in the Playoffs. It was even a chance at redemption for his Southern California hometown, San Clemente, which is where Richard Nixon moved after he resigned the Presidency in disgrace.

Some people thought it was a chance at redemption for the Patriots: For the 1st time in 29 years, they were playing in a Super Bowl without Bill Belichick as head coach and Tom Brady at quarterback. They had been 6-3 in Super Bowls when suspected of cheating, and 0-2 in them before that when not.

There would be no redemption for the New York Jets or their fans. If the Patriots won, that would be the Jets' arch-rivals winning it -- again! If the Seahawks won, that would be Darnold winning it, reminding them of how their team totally mishandled him.

Unfortunately, for most of the game, it was looking like the worst-played Super Bowl, both teams combined, ever. For the 1st 46 minutes of the game, into the 4th quarter, the score was Seahawks 12, Patriots 0. Being a Yankee Fan, and thus hating all New England sports teams (though not the region of New England itself), and being a fan of fairness, and thus hating all cheating, I was happy about the score.

But, despite the fact that there were no turnovers until a Patriot fumble in the last 15 seconds of the 3rd quarter, the level of play was terrible. The Patriots had 4 1st Downs, while the Seahawks had 4 field goals, and neither team had scored a touchdown. There was a decent shot at the 1st shutout in a Super Bowl, and it wasn't even because the Seattle defense was so strong: It was that the New England offense, coached by Mike Vrabel and quarterbacked by Derek Maye, was so inept. They had not gotten further downfield than the Seahawks' 43-yard line.

Seahawk kicker Jason Myers was beginning to look like he would be the 1st placekicker to be named the Most Valuable Player of the Super Bowl. He ended up becoming the 1st man to kick 5 field goals in a Super Bowl, matching his uniform number; and scoring 17 points overall. (James White of the Patriots scored 20 -- 3 touchdowns and a 2-point conversion -- in Super Bowl LI, and Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles tied that record in Super Bowl LVII.)

Finally, with 13 minutes and 24 seconds to go, Darnold threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to AJ Barner, to give the Seahawks a 19-0 lead. Very briefly, the Patriots started to make it interesting, getting to 19-7 and driving for a 2nd touchdown, and we were all, "Oh, here we go again: No Belichick, no Brady, but are the Patriots cheating again? Is this gonna be another comeback like Super Bowl LI between the Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons, 28-3 becomes a Patriot overtime win?

But, no: That drive ended with 8:37 to go, with an interception by Julian Love that led to Myers' 5th field goal. It was then that I saw in the eyes of Maye the look of a quarterback who knew he was going to lose the Super Bowl. I had seen it before, in the eyes of Craig Morton in 1978, Ron Jaworski in 1981, Joe Theismann in 1984, Dan Marino in 1985, Tony Eason in 1986, John Elway 3 times in the late 1980s before he finally won two in the late 1990s, Jim Kelly 4 times in the early 1990s, Kurt Warner in 2002, Peyton Manning in 2014, and even 3-time winner Patrick Mahomes last year.

And on the Pats' next drive, Uchenna Nwosu intercepted a weak Maye pass, and returned it 45 yards for, Cliché Alert, the nail in the coffin. These 2 turnovers were a quick redemption for the Seahawk defense, which people were beginning to doubt. Final score: Seattle 29, New England 13.

The Seahawks had won their 2nd Super Bowl, and Seattle's 4th World Championship, following their win in Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014, the 1979 NBA Championship of the now-on-hiatus Seattle SuperSonics, and the 1st Stanley Cup won by an American team, in 1917, but the long-defunct Seattle Metropolitans. If you count Major League Soccer, add 2 for the Seattle Sounders: 2016 and 2019. If you count the WNBA, add 4 for the Seattle Storm: 2004, 2010, 2018 and 2020. So that would be 10 titles for the Queen City of the Northwest.

Mike McDonald, at 38, became the 3rd-youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl, following Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams in LV and Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers in XLIII, who were each 36. Kenneth Walker III rushed for 135 yards, the most in a Super Bowl in 28 years, and was named the MVP. And Darnold joined a select group of quarterbacks who had been mishandled by teams before being signed by teams willing to take a chance on them, and leading them to Super Bowl glory: Len Dawson, Earl Morrall, Jim Plunkett, Doug Williams, Brad Johnson, Drew Brees and Matthew Stafford.

*

As for the entertainment: The opening ceremony was led by Bay Area-based rock band Green Day, who played the title track of their best-known album, American Idiot. It was written in reflection of the President at the time, George W. Bush. Who knew that, one day, we would have a President whose words and actions would make him look even more idiotic?

Openly lesbian singer Brandi Carlisle sang "America the Beautiful." Black singer Coco Jones, daughter of 1990s Patriots player Mike Jones, sang "Lift Every Voice and Sing," a.k.a. "The Black National Anthem," to which Trump and conservatives have objected in the past. The actual National Anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," was sung by Charlie Puth, a white singer; but he was accompanied by saxophonist Kenny G, who is Jewish; and 3 multicultural groups: The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, the Sainted Trap Choir, and the Color of Noize Orchestra. All 3 songs were signed for the hearing impaired by men of color: "America the Beautiful" by Julian Ortiz, Hispanic; the other 2 by Fred Beam, black. It was multicultural, it was intersectional, and regardless of whether it was designed to make Trump angry, it surely did.

The halftime show was led by Puerto Rican singer Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, a.k.a. Bad Bunny. When it was announced that he would be the halftime performer, Donald Trump lost whatever passes for his mind, seeing him as an immigrant who doesn't speak English, and doesn't represent American values. Puerto Ricans have officially been American citizens since President Woodrow Wilson, a man not exactly known for his tolerance of people of color, signed the Jones-Shafroth Act in 1917.

Did Bad Bunny make a political statement? Puedes apostar lo que quieras. (That means, "You can bet whatever you want." Apparently, there is no proper Spanish translation for the old Laugh-In phrase, "You bet your sweet bippy.") His delivery was almost entirely in Spanish. The show began with a stage full of people working in sugarcane fields, emblematic of Puerto Rico's poverty. He made a reference to Puerto Rico's troublesome electrical power grid, which the federal government has a responsibility to maintain, and doesn't.

He had a stage set of a block in a Puerto Rican city neighborhood, showing that Latinos and Latinas are just like Anglos, and just like any other immigrants. At one point, he fell through the stage, and seemed to crash into a private home, which the viewing audience took as a swipe at ICE's illegal entries.

In the show's most-talked-about moment, he handed an actual Grammy Award to a little boy. Officially, the boy was supposed to represent the boy he had once been, dreaming of stardom. But millions of people thought the boy was supposed to represent Liam Ramos, the 5-year-old Minneapolis resident detained by ICE for 12 days. Millions of those thought it actually was Liam, inadvertently bringing up the old racist trope of "They all look alike to me."

Guest stars included an earlier Puerto Rican singer, Ricky Martin; Dominican-American rapper Cardi B; Mexican-American actress and businesswoman, and Bay Area native, Jessica Alba; and the only English-first performer of the show, Lady Gaga, who had been the halftime performer at Super Bowl LI. Bad Bunny closed by holding up a football printed with the words, "TOGETHER, WE ARE AMERICA," surrounded by the flags of every nation in the Western Hemisphere -- including, it should be noted, the United States -- and, emblazoned on the main scoreboard in big capital letters, "THE ONLY THING STRONGER THAN HATE IS LOVE." The message was inescapable.

So this Super Bowl also provided a moment of redemption for all of us, not just those of Spanish heritage, because we are all descended from immigrants. I understood maybe 1 word out of 5 that Bad Bunny sang, and I am not a fan of Latin music. And I didn't immediately understand every message that he was trying to send. But I certainly understood that he was sending messages.

And Trump got the message. Instead of watching the "alternative halftime show" put on by Turning Point USA, the organization run by the recently assassinated bigot Charlie Kirk, Trump clearly watched the Bad Bunny show, and called it "disgusting," and saying it didn't uphold American values.

This has now been said so often, I have to issue a Cliché Alert for it: With Donald Trump, every accusation is a confession.

The alternative show was watched by about 6 million people. The main show, and the game it paused? About 135 million. The game itself had an average of about 125 million, slightly under last season's all-time record.

The Seahawks have a Ring of Honor. The inductees are:

* From the 1980s: Quarterbacks Jim Zorn and Dave Krieg, running back Curt Warner, receiver Steve Largent, defensive end Jacob Green, cornerback Dave Brown, safety Kenny Easley, head coach Chuck Knox, and broadcaster Pete Gross.

* From the 1990s: Defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy.

* From their 2005 AFC Champions: Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, running back Shaun Alexander, offensive tackle Walter Jones, head coach Mike Holmgren, and team owner Paul Allen.

* As of yet, no members of the Super Bowl XLVIII winners, and obviously not from their Super Bowl LX winners, have yet been inducted.

Zorn, Warner, Holmgren and Gross have been elected to the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame. So have 1992-93 running bach Rueben Mayes and 1995-98 head coach Dennis Erickson (both elected mainly on their performance at Washington State University), 1997-98 quarterback Warren Moon (a University of Washington graduate who starred elsewhere), 1970s to 2000s executive Gary Wright, 1980s and '90s executive Chuck Allen (no relation to Paul, but a UW graduate), and 1970s receiver and 1990s-onward broadcaster Steve Raible.

*

February 8, 2026 was, like all Super Bowl days, a Sunday. Of course, there were no other football games. Baseball was out of season. The NHL was on its Winter Olympic hiatus. There were 4 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knick beat their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics, 111-89 at the TD Garden in Boston. Jalen Brunson scored 31 points.

* The Miami Heat beat the Washington Wizards, 132-101 at the Capital One Arena in Washington.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Indiana Pacers, 122-104 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* And the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 115-96 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Kawhi Leonard scored 41.