December 24, 1931: The 1st Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

December 24, 1931: This is the 1st Christmas with a Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center in New York, even though the project is still under construction. 30 Rockefeller Plaza -- a.k.a. 30 Rock, and known as the RCA Building, then the GE Building from 1988 to 2015, and now the Comcast Building -- opened on May 1, 1933, and the Rockefeller Center Skating Rink in 1936. The tree has been placed between 30 Rock's front entrance and the Rink ever since.

The tree is usually a Norway Spruce, nearly always cut from somewhere in New York State, and tends to rise to between 70 and 100 feet. It is decorated only with lights, not "ornaments" as we now understand that term. With 30 Rock's most famous tenant being NBC, the tree-lighting ceremony, presided over by the Mayor of New York, was televised locally beginning in 1951 and nationally since 1997.

Some cities, including Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Miami and Denver,  have their main trees at City Hall. Other cities:

* Atlanta: Colony Square.

* Boston: Boston Common.

* Chicago: Millennium Park.

* Cincinnati: Fountain Square.

* Cleveland: Public Square.

* Dallas: The Galleria Dallas, a shopping mall.

* Detroit: Campus Martius Park.

* Kansas City: Crown Center.

* Los Angeles: The Grove at The Farmers' Market.

* Milwaukee: Fiserv Forum, the new sports arena.

* Minneapolis: Nordic Plaza.

* New Orleans: The French Market.

* St. Louis: Kiener Plaza Park, in front of the Old Courthouse.

* San Diego: Liberty Station.

* San Francisco: Union Square.

* Seattle: Pike Place Market.

* Washington, D.C.: In front of the White House.

*

December 24, 1931 was a Thursday. Baseball was in the off-season. Football was in midweek: There was a college game on Christmas Day, but no college or pro games on this Christmas Eve. The NBA hadn't been founded yet.

There was 1 game in the NHL: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, 2-1 at the Montreal Forum. Harvey "Busher" Jackson, the left wing on the Leafs' "Kid Line" with right wing Charlie Conacher and center Joe Primeau, scored the winning goal 9:55 into overtime.

December 21, 1940: F. Scott Fitzgerald Dies

December 21, 1940: F. Scott Fitzgerald dies of a heart attack in Los Angeles, where he had gone to write for movies. He was 44 years old.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald had been born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He became known as part of the "Lost Generation" writers, disillusioned by their experiences in World War I, and willing to critique American society where mainstream writers went out of their way to praise it.

Although he wrote many short stories, including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in 1922, he only published 5 novels. This Side of Paradise was published in 1920, and was a runaway success. The Beautiful and the Damned came in 1922, and was considerably less successful. The Great Gatsby was published in 1925, and did well at the time, but not well enough that people then would have considered it an all-time classic.

Fitzgerald stuck to writing short stories for a while, then went back to novels with Tender Is the Night in 1934. It didn't sell well. He moved west, thinking writing screenplays would make him a lot of money. He was right. But he had begun working on another novel, The Last Tycoon. It was unfinished at the time of his death. Edmund Wilson, a writer and literary critic who was a close friend, finished it and published it.

As with many creative people, death was a great career move for Fitzgerald. He could no longer disappoint people with weak new product, and what little he left behind left people wondering what more he could have done. His books became popular among U.S. soldiers in World War II. By the 1950s, the nostalgia wave for the "Roaring Twenties" was underway, and Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda Sayre, the archetypal "flapper," became icons. The other 4 novels are afterthoughts: It is The Great Gatsby that everyone remembers.

He was played by Gregory Peck in Beloved Infidel in 1959, Richard Chamberlain in Last of the Belles (which focused on Zelda) in 1974, Jason Miller in F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood in 1976, Timothy Hutton in Zelda in 1993, Malcolm Gets in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (about the Algonquin Round Table, of which he was a semi-member) in 1994, Jeremy Irons in Last Call in 2002, Tom Hiddleston in Midnight in Paris in 2011, David Hoflin in Z: The Beginning of Everything in 2016, and Guy Pearce in Genius in 2016.

*

December 21, 1940 was a Saturday. Rock singer Frank Zappa was born on this day. That he was born the day Scott Fitzgerald died must mean something.

Baseball was out of season. College football was between the regular season and the bowls. The NFL season was over. And there was no NBA yet.

But there were 2 games played in the NHL.  The New York Americans played the Toronto Maple Leafs to a tie, 2-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 3-1 at the Boston Garden. 

December 20, 1926: The Hornsby-Frisch Trade

Rogers Hornsby

December 20, 1926: The New York Giants trade their 2nd baseman and Captain, Frankie Frisch, and Jimmy Ring to the St. Louis Cardinals for Rogers Hornsby.

Frisch had led the Giants to 4 straight National League Pennants from 1921 to 1924, including winning the 1921 and 1922 World Series. But on August 20, Giant manager John McGraw berated him in front of his teammates for missing a sign that cost the team a run in a game -- with retroactive irony, against the Cardinals. So he quit the team.

Frankie Frisch, the Fordham Flash

Giants management refused to step in and straighten things out between the manager and his best player. And since McGraw was also a part-owner of the Giants, and had the backing of main owner Charles Stoneham, he was not going to be the one to go. And Ring was a mediocre pitcher nearing the end of the line.

John McGraw

In exchange, the Giants got Hornsby, also a 2nd baseman, and the best hitter in the National League. From 1920 to 1925, Hornsby had won 6 straight NL batting titles, batting .370, .397, .401, .384, .424 (which remains the highest batting average since 1901, and the highest in the NL since 1887) and .403. In 1922 and 1925, he also led the NHL in home runs (with 42 and 39, respectively) and RBIs (152 and 143), becoming the 1st player to win the Triple Crown twice (an achievement since matched only by Ted Williams).

How good a hitter was he? Legend tells of the greatest umpire of that era, Bill Klem, calling a pitch that Hornsby took a ball; and, when the catcher objected, Klem told him, "Young man, when the pitcher throws a strike, Mr. Hornsby will show you." In other words, by hitting it.

Hornsby had also managed the Cardinals in 1925 and '26, and even owned some stock in them. Since he had to divest himself of that stock in order for the trade to go through, and majority owner Sam Breadon was offering less than Hornsby wanted, the trade was held up for a while. But it did go through.

At first, this blockbuster deal looked great for the Giants. The trade was great -- for the Cardinals. Hornsby's attitude was considerably worse than Frisch's, and McGraw had enough of him that 1st season, trading him afterward. The Giants didn't win another Pennant until 1933, after McGraw retired.

McGraw could be one ornery cuss, but Hornsby was nearly impossible to deal with. As would a later slugger, Dick Allen, he put up All-Star-worthy numbers 4 years in a row, for 4 different teams: He batted .317 with 11 home runs and 93 RBIs for the 1926 Cardinals; .361, 26 and 125 for the 1927 Giants; a League-leading .387, 21 and 94 for the 1928 Boston Braves; and .380, 39 and 149 for the 1929 Chicago Cubs.

He did help the Cubs win Pennants in 1929 and 1932, but was in decline by the latter year. The Cardinals took him back in 1933, but quickly traded him to their Sportsman's Park landlords, the woeful St. Louis Browns, and he served as a player-manager until 1937, when he retired as a player. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1942.

His .358 lifetime batting average ranks 2nd all-time behind Ty Cobb, and tops all National League hitters and all righthanded hitters. His 301 home runs included 298 in NL play, which topped all NL players at the time of his retirement in 1937. He fell short of 3,000 hits, though, at 2,930. 

Like later basketball star Bill Russell, he found it considerably harder to be a manager/head coach without himself as a contributing player. He was also a racist, and a compulsive gambler. Had the extent of his betting on horse racing been known at the time, he might have gotten banned from baseball.

But because he had lost so much money gambling, he had to stay employed in baseball, which wasn't easy. He was a player-manager for the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Southern Association in 1938, and the Baltimore Orioles of the International League in 1939. He went back to Texas, and got into the Texas League Playoffs managing the Oklahoma City Indians in 1940 and the Fort Worth Cats in 1942. Then the TL decided to suspend play for the duration of World War II.

He served as a Spring Training instructor for the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians. In 1949, he broadcast Cubs games on TV. In 1950, he went back to the Texas League, and led the Beaumont Roughnecks to the Pennant. In 1951, he won the Pacific Coast League Pennant with the Seattle Rainiers.

That got the majors' attention again. In 1952, Bill Veeck hired him to manage the Browns. It lasted 2 months, and when Veeck fired him, the Browns players gave him an engraved trophy to thank him. A few weeks later, the Cincinnati Reds hired him, but, frustrated, he resigned with 8 games left in the season. He coached for the Cubs.

In 1962, when no one else would hire him, his former Giant teammate Casey Stengel hired him as 3rd base coach for the expansion New York Mets. Rogers Hornsby coached that season, and was expecting to be brought back for the next season, when he died on January 5, 1963, in Chicago, of a heart attack. He was 66 years old.

Helped tremendously by a change of scenery, teammates and bosses, Frisch helped the Cardinals win Pennants in 1928, '30, '31 and, as player-manager of a team that became known as the Gashouse Gang, '34. So he was a member 8 Pennant winners, and 4 World Series winners.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1947, and became a broadcaster, first for the Giants, then for CBS and its Game of the Week. He became known for moaning about walks: "Oh, those bases on balls!"

As a member of the Hall of Fame's Committee on Veterans, he was known for lobbying for the election of his former Giant and Cardinal teammates, which many later fans have suggested were undeserving. The term "The Frisch Five" was coined, although there is not consensus on who the 5 players are. From the Giants, they have included George "High Pockets" Kelly, Ross Youngs, Dave Bancroft, Travis Jackson and Freddie Lindstrom. From the Cardinals, they have included Jim Bottomley, Chick Hafey, Jesse Haines and Burleigh Grimes.

Frankie Frisch died on March 12, 1973, at the age of 75, at a hospital in Wilmington, Delaware, from injuries sustained in a car crash in nearby Elkton, Maryland.

In 1949, Ogden Nash, my grandmother's favorite poet, even though he was a Giant fan and she was a Brooklyn Dodger fan, wrote "Line-Up for Yesterday" for Sport magazine, an alphabetical list of star players. For the letter F, he wrote: 

F is for Fordham
And Frankie and Frisch;
I wish he were back
With the Giants, I wish.

And for H:

H is for Hornsby;
When pitching to Rog,
The pitcher would pitch,
Then the pitcher would dodge.

*

December 20, 1926 was a Monday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't yet been founded. One game was played in the NHL, and what would eventually be called "the old Madison Square Garden," but was then new: The New York Americans beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-0.

December 19, 1917: The NHL's 1st Games

Dave Ritchie

December 19, 1917: The 1st games in the National Hockey League are played. There are no other games: It's the off-season for Major League Baseball, and the NFL and the NBA haven't been founded yet.

The NHL had been founded on November 26. And, on this Wednesday night, it debuted. Calling it "National" was a stretch, since there were only 5 member teams, all in Eastern Canada, and one of those, the Quebec Bulldogs, had trouble fielding a team. Western Canada, and America's Pacific Northwest with the Seattle Metropolitans and the Portland Rosebuds, had the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. (It would take until the founding of the Boston Bruins in 1924 for an American-based team to join the NHL.)

The game of hockey was very different then. Forward passing was not allowed. There were no zones. Lineup changes could only be made with time-outs, so "changing on the fly" wasn't allowed. Minor penalties were 3 minutes instead of 2. And goaltenders had to serve their own penalties, forcing teams to let a less-protected player guard the goal.

At Dey's Arena, in Canada's national capital of Ottawa, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators 7-4. Attendance was cited in the newspapers as about 6,000, even though the arena supposedly seated just 4,500.

"Phantom" Joe Malone scored 5 of the Canadiens' goals, on his way to scoring 44 in the League's 20-game season, a pace that even Wayne Gretzky never managed. (When the Quebec team finally got onto the ice for the 1919-20 season, Malone would join them, and set an NHL record that still stands with 7 goals in a game.)

In addition to Malone, the Canadiens -- who were founded in 1909, and had won the title in the now-defunct National Hockey Association in 1916 and 1917, and won the Stanley Cup in 1916 -- had goaltender Georges Vezina, and attacking players Edouard "Newsy" Lalonde, Didier "Cannonball" Pitre and Jack Laviolette.

The Senators, who had won the Cup in 1903, 1904, 1905, 1909 and 1911, had goalie Clint Benedict and attackers Eddie Gerard, Cy Denneny and Jack Darragh. Each of these men would later be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Gerard was also their head coach, and just 27 years old. He would remain the youngest head coach in NHL history until 1979, surpassed by Gary Green of the Washington Capitals at 26.

Eddie Gerard

At the Westmount Arena, just outside the city limits of Montreal, the Montreal Wanderers outlasted the Toronto Arenas 10-9. Just 1 minute into the game, defenseman Dave Ritchie scored the NHL's 1st goal, and future Hall-of-Famer Harry Hyland scored 5. Reg Noble, also on the way into the Hall, scored 4 for Toronto.

The Wanderers had Art Ross playing out the string, and once had Lester Patrick as well. These men would later have their names on trophies, and in Patrick's case, a Division. Ross would later run the Bruins, and Patrick the New York Rangers. But in 1906, 1907, 1908 and 1910, they would lead the Wanderers, known as "the Little Men of Iron," to the Stanley Cup.

But after this opener, the Wanderers would never win another game. They lost their next 3 games. And then, on January 2, 1918, the Westmount Arena burned down. This left both Montreal teams homeless. The Canadiens moved into the smaller Jubilee Rink, in the city's East End. The Wanderers folded.

The Senators would win the Cup in 1920, 1921, 1923 and 1927, but the Great Depression would doom them in 1934. A new franchise with their name would begin play in 1992. The Quebec Bulldogs didn't last long, either, moving in 1920 to become the Hamilton Tigers, and folding in 1925.

In 1924, the Montreal Forum opened, pretty much across the street from where the Westmount Arena was (but within the city limits). The Canadiens have won 24 Stanley Cups, more than any other team -- but they haven't won it since 1993.

The Arenas still exist, too, changing their name to the Toronto St. Patricks in 1919 and the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1927. They would win the 1st NHL title, and the 1918 Stanley Cup, the 1st of 13 they would win -- but they haven't won it since 1967, or even appeared in the Finals since then.

Dave Ritchie, scorer of the 1st NHL goal, would go on to play for all 5 of the League's charter teams, including the Canadiens, as you can see by the photo at the top of this post. He played professional hockey from 1914 to 1926, and lived until 1973, age 81.

December 19, 1917 was a Wednesday.

December 12, 1933: Eddie Shore vs. Ace Bailey

A colorized photo of Ace Bailey, included in a composite photo

of a Maple Leafs' Centennial Team, 2016

December 12, 1933: Perhaps the ugliest game in National Hockey League history is played. But it led to one of the game's greatest moments.

The Boston Bruins were hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Boston Garden. The Bruins still had most of the players who had led them to the 1929 Stanley Cup, including 2 of the greatest defensemen the game has ever known, Eddie Shore and Aubrey "Dit" Clapper. The Leafs, winners of the Cup in 1932, had another, Francis "King" Clancy.

This game, which the Leafs would win 4-1, was in the 2nd period. The Leafs had taken 2 quick penalties, and sent Clancy, defenseman George "Red" Horner, and right wing Irvine Wallace "Ace" Bailey out to defend the 5-on-3 Bruin power play.

Shore, who helped the Bruins win the Stanley Cup in 1929, rushed up the ice. Clancy, charitably listed at 5-foot-7 and 155 pounds, and a winner of the Cup with the Ottawa Senators in 1922, '23 and '27, and with the Leafs in '32, followed him, and checked him into the boards.

Shore got up, and, in his daze, he figured the closest Leaf player to him must have been the one who did it. He guessed wrong: The closest Leaf player to him was Bailey. Shore hit him from the side, and he landed head-first on the ice.

Horner skated over, knowing full well that it wasn't Bailey who had checked Shore, and yelled, "What did you do that for, Eddie?" Shore, not realizing the enormity of what he had done, gave Horner a big grin. What happened next is in dispute: The first source I saw on the story said that Horner hit Shore over the head with the blade of his stick. Another source said that Horner punched Shore, knocking him out in an instant.

Whatever the truth was, Shore was also out cold. The Boston crowd booed the hell out of Horner, who was already known as one of the dirtiest players in the game. But so was Shore, who, with his attitude, his receding hairline, and the fact that he was admired but not especially liked, was practically the Ty Cobb of hockey.

But it quickly became apparent that Bailey was hurt worse. Both men regained consciousness, and were carried off the ice together. Shore apologized. Bailey seemed to forgive him, saying, "It's all part of the game," and then passed out again.

Bailey was taken to Boston City Hospital. He was diagnosed with a fractured skull and an extradural clot on the brain. His father, listening to the game on the radio in Toronto, packed a gun, and immediately boarded a train for Boston, intending to kill Shore.

Leafs owner Conn Smythe found out about this, and talked to his general manager, Frank Selke. Selke had a friend working with the Boston Police, who met Bailey's father at the hotel, and talked him out of the murder plot.

Nevertheless, the BPD said they would charge Shore with manslaughter if Bailey died. Within 24 hours, he underwent 2 spinal taps to relieve intracranial pressure. There was at least one news report that Bailey had died. But, through several procedures, he came out of his coma after 10 days. He hung on, through Christmas and New Year's. In mid-January 1934, he was released from the hospital.

NHL President Frank Calder suspended Horner for 6 games, and Shore indefinitely. Once he was confident that Bailey was going to live, Calder set Shore's suspension at 16 games, or 1/3rd of the season at the time (48 games). Bailey never played again.

Walter Gilhooly, sports editor of the Ottawa Journal, recommended that a benefit game be played, to offset Bailey's loss of income. Calder agreed. The Leafs would host the game, and put their team out against a team made up of players from the rest of the League, 2 from each of the other 8 teams then in it.

The game was played at Maple Leaf Gardens on February 14, 1934. Here were the lineups:

* From the Toronto Maple Leafs, coached by Dick Irvin, once a great player, and the father of eventual Hall of Fame broadcaster Dick Irvin Jr.: Number 1, goaltender George Hainsworth, formerly a star with the Montreal Canadiens; 2, defenseman Red Horner; 3, defenseman Alex Levinsky; 4, defenseman Clarence "Hap" Day; 5, center Andy Blair; 7, defenseman King Clancy; 8, left wing Harold "Baldy" Cotton; 9, right wing Charlie "the Bomber" Conacher; 10, center Joe Primeau; 11, left wing Harvey "Busher" Jackson; 12, left wing Hector "Hec" Kilrea; 14, center Bill Thoms; 15, right wing Ken Doraty; 16, right wing Charlie Sands; 17, left wing Frank "Buzz" Boll.

NHL All-Stars, coached by Lester Patrick of the New York Rangers, also once a great player:

* From the Chicago Black Hawks: 1, goaltender Charlie Gardiner; and 7, defenseman Lionel Conacher, brother of Charlie.

* From the Boston Bruins: 2, defenseman Eddie Shore; and 9, center Nelson "Nels" Stewart, better known as a Montreal Maroon.

* From the Ottawa Senators: 3, right wing Frank Finnigan; and 17, defenseman Al Shields.

* From the Montreal Canadiens: 4, left wing Aurele Joliat; and 16, center Howie Morenz. Morenz, known as "the Babe Ruth of Hockey" -- like Ruth, he had several nicknames -- normally wore 7, but Lionel Conacher was considered the greatest all-around athlete in Canada, and had priority.

* From the Detroit Red Wings: 5, left wing Herbie Lewis; and 14, right wing Larry Aurie.

* From the New York Rangers: 6, defenseman Ivan "Ching" Johnson; and 15, right wing Bill Cook. Somebody decided that the Irish-Canadian Johnson looked Chinese, and nicknamed him Ching. He had seniority over Aurie, who also wore 6; but Lewis had seniority over Cook, who wore 5 with the Rangers.

* From the Montreal Maroons: 10, center Reginald "Hooley" Smith; and 18, right wing Jimmy Ward.

* From the New York Americans: 11, center Norman Himes; and 12, defenseman Norman "Red" Dutton.

Before the game, the other teams' players posed at center ice in their regular sweaters. Then they were given white jerseys with "NHL" on them. And the Leafs had special jerseys, too, with "ACE" on them.

The selection of Shore was controversial. When he skated up to receive his Number 2 jersey, the crowd of 14,074 was silent. Then he skated over to the Leafs bench, where Bailey was sitting in a suit, long coat and fedora. Shore offered his hand, and Bailey shook it. The crowd roared, and the players tapped their sticks on the ice, in what was already a long-established hockey salute.

The ceremony concluded with Smythe giving Bailey his Number 6 jersey, and announced that it would be retired.

Bailey dropped a puck for a ceremonial faceoff, and the game began. Charlie Conacher already had an injured knee, and left the game early. Other than that, there wasn't much hitting, and no penalties were called. Cotton and Jackson scored to put the Leafs up 2-0, before Stewart scored to make it 2-1 Leafs at the end of the 1st period.

Jackson scored again early in the 2nd period. Morenz and Finnigan scored to tie it up. But it was all Leafs the rest of the way: Day scored halfway through the 2nd, and Kilrea, Doraty and Blair scored in the 3rd. The Leafs won, beating the entire rest of the NHL, 7-3.

The game raised $20,909 for Bailey's family, about $426,000 in 2022 money. Bailey applied to the NHL to be a referee, but was turned down. Smythe hired him to work in the team's front office. He worked there, in one capacity or another, until a later owner, Harold Ballard, already perhaps the most hated man in the history of Canadian sports, fired him in 1986. Bailey lived until 1992.

A later player, Garnet Bailey, no relation, played in the NHL from 1969 to 1978, and was known as Ace Bailey. He was working as a scout for the Los Angeles Kings when he died in the destruction of United Airlines Flight 175 at the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Shore continued to play with the Bruins through their 1939 Stanley Cup win. In 1940, he bought the minor-league Springfield Indians of Massachusetts, and remained their owner until his death in 1986. Both he and Bailey were elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Bailey wanted the benefit game to become an annual event, for injured players. That didn't happen. But additional benefit games were held for the families of Morenz, who died of heart trouble in 1937, and the Canadiens' Albert "Babe" Siebert, who drowned in 1939. Both of those games were played at the Montreal Forum: The former was a combined Montreal team, Canadiens and Maroons, against the rest of the NHL. The Maroons folded in 1938, so it was just the Canadiens against the rest of the NHL in Siebert's benefit. Both times, the NHL All-Stars won. In 1947, the NHL finally established an annual All-Star Game.

*

December 12, 1933 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season, although this was also the day of what would now be called a "fire sale" by the Philadelphia Athletics. I have a separate entry for that event.

The NBA hadn't been founded yet. The NFL was going to play its 1st official Championship Game the following Sunday, and the Chicago Bears won it, 23-21 over the New York Giants.

There were 3 other games played in the NHL that night:

* The New York Americans beat the New York Rangers, 3-0 at the old Madison Square Garden, which was still fairly new at the time. The company that ran the Garden owned the Rangers, and the Amerks were tenants, so any win the tenants had over the landlords was considered big.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* And the Montreal Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators played to a 1-1 tie at the Ottawa Auditorium.

November 23, 1943: Baseball Bans an Owner

November 23, 1943: Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the Commissioner of Baseball, does something shocking: He bans a team owner for life.

William Drought Cox was born on November 8, 1909 in Manhattan. A Yale University graduate who built a fortune as a lumber broker, in 1941 he was President of the 3rd American Football League, and the owner of its New York Americans. Under the rules of that league, that was legal. But the manpower drain of World War II killed the league.

In 1943, he bought the bankrupt Philadelphia Phillies. At age 33, he was the youngest owner in Major League Baseball. He was a hands-on owner, who invested in the team's farm system, brought in a Yale classmate who was a conditioning coach, and, by July 25, they were 39-50, having won just 3 fewer games than they had won all through 1942. And their per-game attendance had doubled.

But manager Bucky Harris, once the "Boy Wonder" manager of the 1924 World Champion Washington Senators, chafed against his methods. On July 27, Cox fired Harris. On July 28, Harris dropped a bomb: He revealed that Cox had placed bets on the Phillies. To win. That detail didn't matter. Cox freely admitted it. That didn't matter, either. On November 23, having completed his investigation, Commissioner Landis banned Cox for life -- the only owner ever to receive this penalty and have it stand.

The Phillies went 25-40 the rest of the way, under manager Fred Fitzsimmons, a former All-Star pitcher, finishing 64-90, in 7th place, 41 games out of 1st.

Shortly after Cox was banned, the Phillies were taken over by the National League, and sold to Bob Carpenter, who owned them for the next 38 years. He continued the Cox innovations, but not the Cox gambling. As a member of the wealthy Carpenter and du Pont families, he didn't need the money.

The Phillies won the Pennant in 1950, but never came close again, and fell apart by the end of the decade. In 1972, Carpenter turned the operation of the Phillies over to his son Ruly, who thus followed in Cox' footsteps as the youngest operator of an MLB team and as a rebuilder, reaching the Playoffs by 1976, and winning the World Series in 1980.

Cox lived long enough to see these events. In 1960, he created the International Soccer League. In 1967, he founded the National Professional Soccer League. The next year, it was merged with another league to become the North American Soccer League. Cox then left sports for other business interests, and lived until March 28, 1989.

Since Cox, only 2 men have been permanently banned from baseball: George Steinbrenner, who applied for reinstatement after 2 years, and got it; and Pete Rose, who applied for reinstatement and has never had his appeal heard. 

UPDATE: Rose died in 2024, and was reinstated in 2025. That same year, I learned something about Cox that I wish I hadn't. In his book FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944, David M. Jordan, who has also written books about the Phillies, wrote that Cox had written a letter to Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, congratulating him on receiving the Republican nomination for President. Cox told him, "Your election in November is the only means of correcting the fabulous mistakes of the past twelve years."

Jordan's narrative didn't say what Cox thought those "fabulous mistakes" were, or even if Cox himself listed any of them. And, to be fair, Jordan's book did treat both campaigns fairly, pointing out both the strengths and the foibles of both candidates, and of the people around them.

But it's easy to see the appeal of Dewey to a man like Cox. Cox was a New Yorker by birth, Dewey one by adoption. (He grew up on a farm in Michigan.) They had both achieved big things at an early age. (Cox was 7 years younger.) And Cox was a man who got rich in spite of the Great Depression, so he felt no debt to the incumbent Democratic President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and wanted to keep his money without government interference.

Given how bad the Phillies were at the time he bought then, though, he probably didn't resent Roosevelt for drafting some of his players. On the other hand, the war effort probably increased the need for Cox's lumber, so he should have thanked FDR for that.

*

November 23, 1943 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There was 1 game in the NHL: The Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 8-5 at the Boston Garden. Former Leafs star Harvey "Busher" Jackson scored 2 goals against his former team.

November 12, 1942: Bep Guidolin: The NHL's Youngest Player

November 12, 1942: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Boston Bruins, 3-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Gaye Stewart scores 2 goals for the Leafs, Jack McLean 1. Former Leaf Frank "Buzz" Boll scores the only goal for the Bruins.

Among the players for the Bruins was left wing Bep Guidolin. He was 16 years, 11 months and 2 days old. He remains the youngest player ever to enter an NHL game.

Armand Guidolin (no middle name) was born on December 9, 1925, in Thorold, Ontario, outside Niagara Falls. When he was a boy, the family moved considerably further north, to Timmins, Ontario. He was the youngest child in the family, and his Italian mother pronounced "baby" as "beppy." This got shortened to "Bep."

He was just 5-foot-8, 175 pounds, and not yet 17 years old. But the manpower drain caused by World War II had already thinned NHL rosters, especially since Canada was still part of the British Empire. The Bruins' entire main front line of Milt Schmidt, Woody Dumart and Bobby Bauer, which had led them to the 1939 and 1941 Stanley Cups, were now serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force.

That line, all Canadians of German descent, were known as the Kraut Line. Come the war, the name was changed to the Kitchener Line, for their common Ontario hometown. There was precedent: Kitchener, outside Hamilton, had long been home to German immigrants and their families, and had been known as Berlin until World War I. The name was changed to memorialize Lord Kitchener, the highest-ranking British officer killed in that war, and whose image on recruiting posters predated America's Uncle Sam "I WANT YOU for U.S. Army" posters by a year.

Despite his youth and size, Guidolin had already distinguished himself on the ice. The previous season, he had led the Oshawa Generals to win the Ontario Hockey Association title, and got them to the Final of the Memorial Cup, the championship of Canadian junior hockey, where they lost to a team from Manitoba, the Portage La Prairie Terriers.

Guidolin played in 42 games for the Bruins that 1942-43 season, helping them reach the Stanley Cup Finals, where they lost to the Detroit Red Wings. He remained with them through the 1947 season, played the next with the Wings, then played 4 more with the Chicago Black Hawks. He scored 107 goals in NHL play, topping out at 17 in 2 seasons, and, in those "Original Six" days, with only 120 NHL playing jobs available, was still playing in hockey's high minors until 1961, at age 35.

In 1958, while still playing, he coached the Belleville McFarlands (of Belleville, Ontario, hometown of Bobby Hull) to the Allan Cup, the championship of senior amateur hockey in Canada. In 1965, the Bruins brought him back, to coach the Generals, including a teenage phenom named Bobby Orr. In 1966, once again, this time as head coach, Guidolin got the Generals to the Final of the Memorial Cup but lost it, this time to the Edmonton Oil Kings.

Midway through the 1972-73 season, Tom Johnson stepped down as coach of the Bruins, then the Stanley Cup holders, and Guidolin was named to replace him. He became the 1st NHL head coach ever to win his 1st 5 games. He got them to the 1974 Stanley Cup Finals, losing to the Philadelphia Flyers. He coached the expansion Kansas City Scouts in the 1974-75 and 1975-76 seasons, and was still coaching in professional hockey as late as 1984. He died on November 24, 2008, at age 82.

*

November 12, 1942 was a Thursday. Only 1 other game was played in the NHL: The Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-2 at the Montreal Forum. The New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings were not scheduled.

There were no other scores on this historic day: Baseball season was over, football was in midweek, and the NBA hadn't been founded yet.

November 12, 1931: Maple Leaf Gardens Opens

November 12, 1931: Maple Leaf Gardens opens in Toronto, replacing the Mutual Street Arena. It will be home to the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League for the next 67 seasons.

The Leafs lost the 1st game there, 2-1 to the Chicago Black Hawks. (That team always spelled "Black Hawks" as 2 words, until 1986, when their original charter was found, and they discovered that it had been written as 1 word, "Blackhawks," and that's how they've officially been listed ever since.) Charlie Conacher, the Leafs' biggest star at the time, scored the arena's 1st goal, but it wasn't enough. The Leafs did, however, go on to win the Stanley Cup that season, clinching on home ice.

They also won the Cup while playing at the Gardens in 1942, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1967 -- clinching on home ice in '42, '47, '49, '51, '63, '64 and '67. In addition, the New York Rangers clinched the Cup by beating the Leafs at the Gardens in 1933 and 1940, the Detroit Red Wings in 1937, and the Montreal Canadiens in 1959 and 1960.

Leafs player Irvine "Ace" Bailey had been injured by Eddie Shore of the Boston Bruins in a game in Boston in 1933, and never played again. On February 12, 1934, the Gardens hosted a benefit game for him: The Leafs against a team of players from all the other teams in the League. When Shore skated over to the Leafs' bench, where Bailey was in street clothes, and shook hands with him, the Gardens erupted in cheers. The Leafs won the game. In 1947, the Leafs beat an All-Star team from the rest of the League again in the 1st official NHL All-Star Game.

The Gardens became known as "The Shrine of Hockey," with CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, broadcasting Hockey Night in Canada from the building on most Saturday nights, first on radio, and then, starting in 1952, on television. It helped to make the Gardens -- even more than Parliament Hill in Ottawa or the Montreal Forum -- the most famous building in Canada.

On November 1, 1946, the Gardens hosted the 1st game in the league that would become the National Basketball Association. But the Toronto Huskies lost it to the New York Knicks, and only lasted that 1 season before folding. Pro basketball would return, briefly: From 1971 to 1975, the Buffalo Braves (the team now known as the Los Angeles Clippers) played 16 "home games" there, and the Toronto Raptors played 6 home games there in 1997, '98 and '99 when the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) was unavailable.

Also due to a scheduling conflict, the Rangers played their 1950 Stanley Cup Finals games at Maple Leaf Gardens, possibly costing them the Cup, as they lost to the Red Wings. In the World Hockey Association, the Ottawa Nationals had to move their 1973 Playoff games there, and the Toronto Toros played the 1974-75 and 1975-76 seasons there, before being forced to a smaller arena by the onerous rent charged by Leafs owner Harold Ballard, who, because of his presiding over the declines of both the Leafs and the CFL's Toronto Argonauts, became the most hated man in Canada.

Ballard was cheap, he was evil, and he was crooked. Smythe wasn't flat-out evil, but he was imperious, and he was certainly cheap. At one end of the Gardens was a large portrait of Canada's head of state, the British monarch. From 1931 to 1936, this was King George V. For much of 1936, it was King Edward VIII. Then, until 1952, it was King George VI. Finally, it was Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1968, the seating capacity at the Gardens was raised from 13,718 to 16,316. This was done through installing narrower seats, and removing the Queen's portrait so that more seats could be installed. Smythe, who had sold the team to a consortium including his son Stafford Smythe and Ballard, said of the new seats, "Only a young man could sit in them, and only a fat old rich man could afford them."

As for the removal of the portrait of the woman to whom Canadian citizens still paid a share of their taxes (and still do, to this day), Ballard pointed out that, in spite of a visit to the building in 1951, before she became Queen, she didn't pay admission to games: "She doesn't pay me. I pay her. Besides, what the hell position can a queen play?"

Maple Leaf Gardens hosted Game 2 of the 1972 "Summit Series" between Canada and the Soviet Union, a 4-1 win for Canada. It also hosted minor-league hockey: The Toronto Lions of the Ontario Hockey Association, 1931-39; the Toronto Marlboros (or "Marlies") of the OHA and its successor, the Ontario Hockey League, 1931-89; the Toronto Young Rangers of the OHA and the OHL, 1937 to 1948; the Toronto Knob Hill Farms of the Metro Junior A League, in the 1962-63 season; and the Toronto St. Michael's Majors (or "St. Mike's") of the OHL, 1997-2000.

Lacrosse is not considered a major sport in America. In Canada, where it was invented, it is considerably bigger. Canada's National Lacrosse League had the Toronto Tomahawks playing at the Gardens in 1974, and the Toronto Rock in the 1999-2000 season. The Gardens also hosted professional indoor soccer, the "pinball" version of "the beautiful game": The Toronto Blizzard in the 1980-81 and 1981-82 seasons, and the Toronto Shooting Stars in 1996-97.

The Gardens was 1 of 16 buildings to have hosted both Elvis Presley and The Beatles. Because Elvis' manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was an illegal immigrant from the Netherlands, a fact not known during Elvis' lifetime, Elvis could only leave the North American continent to fulfill his U.S. Army obligation from 1958 to 1960. He sang at the Gardens on April 2, 1957. It was the only building to host The Beatles on all 3 of their North American tours: September 7, 1964; August 17, 1965; and August 17, 1966.

It also hosted boxing and "professional wrestling," with Killer Kowalski making that "sport" popular in his native Canada. On March 29, 1966, Muhammad Ali defended the Heavyweight Championship of the World there, defeating Canada's heavyweight champion, George Chuvalo.

Conn Smythe, who had served in the Canadian Army during both World Wars, and enjoyed being called "Major Smythe," resigned from the Gardens' board of directors over the decision to host a fight featuring a man who had already been making statements about how he would refuse to accept being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. Smythe said of the owners, including his son, that they had "put cash ahead of class."

They could do that because the Leafs were a gold mine. From 1946, when the boys came back from World War II, until 1999, the Leafs never played to an unsold seat. This was in spite of the fact that, after the closing of the dynasty coached and managed by George "Punch" Imlach on May 2, 1967, the Leafs never appeared in another Stanley Cup Finals game at the Gardens -- and still haven't. The building, whose address was 60 Carlton Street, became known as the Carlton Street Cashbox.

The Gardens outlasted the somewhat enlightened despot Smythe, and the tyrant Ballard. It outlasted the Great Depression, World War II, and the high tide of the conflict between the Canadian federal government and Quebec nationalists. It outlasted the League of Nations, the Third Reich, the British Empire and the Warsaw Pact.

It outlasted 20 Mayors of Toronto, 12 Premiers of Ontario (equivalent to the Governor of a State), 10 Prime Ministers of Canada, and 1 Flag of Canada. (The current Maple Leaf Flag replaced the old "Red Ensign" in 1965.) It outlasted Maple Leaf Stadium (home of the minor-league baseball team that gave the NHL Maple Leafs their name), the Mutual Street Arena, the original Varsity Stadium, and Exhibition Stadium.

It outlasted the Montreal Maroons, the New York Americans, the California Golden Seals, the Cleveland Barons, the Atlanta Flames (now the Calgary Flames), the Kansas City Scouts and the Colorado Rockies that they became (now the New Jersey Devils), the Minnesota North Stars (now the Dallas Stars), the Quebec Nordiques (now the Colorado Avalanche), the original version of the Winnipeg Jets (now the Arizona Coyotes), the Hartford Whalers (now the Carolina Hurricanes), and the entire World Hockey Association.

It outlasted the NHL's other "Original Six" arenas, some by plenty: New York replaced "the old Madison Square Garden" with "the new Madison Square Garden" in 1968, Detroit replaced the Olympia Stadium with the Joe Louis Arena in 1979, Chicago replaced the Chicago Stadium with the United Center in 1994, Boston replaced the Boston Garden with the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in 1995, and Montreal replaced the Montreal Forum with the Molson Centre (now the Bell Centre) in 1996.

While not home to "Original Six" teams, the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium and the St. Louis Arena were contemporaries, and they were also replaced before 1999. Considerably newer arenas were replaced in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Vancouver, Atlanta, Ottawa, Tampa and the San Francisco Bay Area. (And the ones in Minnesota and Atlanta were demolished before the Gardens closed.)

But nothing lasts forever. The ownership group for the NBA's Raptors didn't like playing in the huge SkyDome, and wanted to build their own arena, the Air Canada Centre, next to Toronto's Union Station. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, owners of the Leafs and the Gardens, knew that there was only so much that could be done to modernize the Gardens, and increasing seating capacity, including adding more luxury boxes, was impossible. So they bought the Raptors, and had the plans for the ACC to be altered so that it could host hockey as well. (In 2018, the building was renamed the Scotiabank Arena.)

On February 13, 1999, the Toronto Maple Leafs played their last game at Maple Leaf Gardens. Not only was the opponent the same as in the 1st game in 1931, the Chicago Blackhawks, but a member of each team that played in that 1st game was on hand for a ceremonial puck drop: George "Red" Horner of the Leafs, and Harold "Mush" March of the Hawks. (March died in 2002, Horner in 2005.) As they did in the 1st game, the Hawks won, 6-2. Derek King scored the Leafs' last goal, while Bob Probert, better known for his fighting and his drug abuse, scored the last goal overall.

The Gardens didn't close immediately. It still hosted amateur hockey and professional lacrosse, and the British rock band Oasis gave a concert there in 2000. The last "sporting event" there came in 2004, a re-creation of prizefights of eventual Heavyweight Champion James Braddock for the film Cinderella Man, taking advantage of the Gardens' old-time appearance.

But MLSE didn't want to own a dormant building, and they also didn't want to sell the old arena to anyone who would use it as a competing arena. In 2000, after a massive renovation, the Montreal Forum reopened as a mall, with stores, a movie theater, and other entertainments. It was suggested that the same be done with the Gardens. But a feasibility study showed that it couldn't be done: If the bowls of seating were removed, the exterior walls would collapse.

In 2004, Loblaw Companies, Canada's largest food retailer, bought the Gardens for $12 million. In 2009, they made a deal with Toronto's Ryerson University to renovate the building, to make the playing area a rink with 2,796 seats, while the rest of the building would host retail space.

In 2011, the new Loblaw's store finally opened, with a red dot on the floor marking the original location of centre ice. In 2012, the Mattamy Athletic Centre at the Gardens opened, and has been home to Rynearson's hockey team ever since. From 2013 to 2017, it also hosted the Toronto Predators of the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League.

*

November 12, 1931 was a Monday. The baseball season was over. There was no Monday Night Football in the NFL until 1970. There was no NBA at all until 1946, with the Gardens hosting the 1st game. But there were 2 other NHL games played that night. The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-1 at the Montreal Forum. And the New York Americans beat the Detroit Falcons, 5-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. The Falcons were renamed the Red Wings the next year.

November 3, 1954: The Debut of Godzilla

The original Japanese version

November 3, 1954: The New York Yankees begin a tour or Japan, and draw a record crowd of 64‚000 when they play the 1st game against the All-Japan Stars at Nippon Life Stadium in Osaka.

On the 25-game tour, 3rd base prospect Andy Carey slugs 13 home runs‚ and catching prospect Elston Howard bats .468 on the 25-game tour. Each has thoroughly impressed the Yankee brass, and both get promoted to the Yankees for 1955 -- in Howard's case, making him the 1st black player for the Yankees in a regular-season game.

But the Yankees are not the biggest thing to hit Japan on this date. On the same day, the film Gojira premieres, directed by Ishirō Honda, and distributed by Toho Company, Limited. It is the debut of the creature known in the English-speaking world as Godzilla.

The name Godzilla is a romanization of the original Japanese name Gojira (ゴジラ), which is a combination of two Japanese words: gorira (ゴリラ), meaning "gorilla"; and kujira (クジラ), meaning "whale." The word alludes to the size, power and aquatic origin of the creature. As developed by Toho, the monster is an offshoot of the combination of radioactivity and ancient dinosaur-like creatures, indestructible and possessing special powers, including the ability to shoot a radioactive beam out of its mouth.

The Godzilla costume was worn by actor Haruo Nakajima. In the film, Godzilla is an ancient sea creature that has been mutated by atomic testing in the Pacific Ocean, and progresses to attacking fishing boats, threatening Japan's food supply and economy; to attacking islands, and finally the home islands themselves, including the capital of Tokyo.

Japanese authorities estimate him at 50 meters tall (about 164 feet, the size of a 20-story building). After depth charges, fighter jets, tanks and an electrified fence along the coast fail to stop the creature, an "oxygen destroyer" is used, cutting off its air supply, and, apparently, killing it.

This film was released in America in 1956, under the title Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (The exclamation point was the producers', not mine.) For American audiences, scenes were added with Raymond Burr as an American observer. In 1985, Godzilla 1985 was released, a sequel to the original, and Burr reprised the role.

The franchise has now reached 32 films in Japan, with a 33rd planned for a 2023 release. In 1962, King Kong vs. Godzilla was released, and the legendary giant ape beats the big lizard. Among the monsters, or kaiju (meaning "strange beast") that Godzilla later battles are Mothra, a giant moth, in 1964; Ghidorah, a 3-headed winged dinosaur, also in 1964; Rodan, a flying dinosaur, also in 1964; Ebirah, a giant lobster, in 1966; Hedorah, a "smog monster," in 1971; Megalon, a giant beetle, in 1973; and Mechagodzilla, a giant robot version of Godzilla, in 1974.

An all-American version came out in 1998, depicting Godzilla not as an upright dinosaur, but as a bent-over, "more realistic" creature, which attacks New York, rips the roof off Madison Square Garden, and lays eggs there. The eggs hatch, and the "baby Godzillas" are occupied eating all the concessions in the arena, buying the American military time, as the genderless, asexual Godzilla is lured into the Brooklyn Bridge, tangled in its cables, and destroyed along with the bridge. Finally, a jet drops a bomb on The Garden, killing all of the baby Godzillas. Except one last egg remains, and hatches as the film ends...

This film was seriously panned by the critics. But no legend stays off the big screen forever. A separate American franchise began in 2014, and has released 3 films, with a 4th planned for 2024. This is the Legendary Pictures "Monsterverse," and includes the 2021 film Godzilla vs. Kong. This time, to emphasize the studio's insistence that Godzilla, now 393 feet high, nearly 50 stories high, is the absolute "King of the Monsters," Godzilla won, but Kong, now 337 feet, still helped him beat the other monsters in the film.

The Monsterverse's Godzilla

Ishirō Honda and Raymond Burr both died in 1993. Haruo Nakajima died in 2017.

A 2024 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History featured "Nice" Peter Shukoff voicing Godzilla, and "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist voicing King Kong.

*

November 3, 1954 was a Wednesday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. The NBA season had begun, but no games were scheduled for this day. One game was played in the NHL: The Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs played to a 1-1 tie at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

British rock singer Adam Ant was born on this day. So was Kathy Kinney, who played Mimi Bobek on The Drew Carey Show.

November 2, 1947: The Max Bentley Trade

November 2, 1947: The Toronto Maple Leafs trade Gus Bodnar, Bud Polie, Gaye Stewart, Ernie Dickens and Bob Goldham to the Chicago Black Hawks, for Max Bentley and Cy Thomas.

The trade sent shockwaves throughout the league. The 5 players sent to Chicago essentially formed an entire starting unit. NHL President Clarence Campbell stated he was "astounded" by the deal, and stated it ranked with the Maple Leafs' purchase of King Clancy in 1930 as one of the most significant transactions in league history. "It is the biggest deal in NHL hockey in a long, long time," he said, "and only goes to emphasize the worth of such a player as Bentley, and puts him on a very high plane."

Nevertheless, he allowed it -- because, many Montreal Canadiens fans thought, he was secretly a Maple Leafs fan.

The trade was still being discussed weeks later as observers throughout the league attempted to assess which team received the better deal. Bentley was initially disappointed to leave his brother in Chicago, but quickly adapted to Toronto where he was immediately popular.

Maxwell Herbert Lloyd Bentley was born on March 1, 1920 in Delisle, Saskatchewan. His brother, Douglas Wagner Bentley, preceded him on September 3, 1916. Preceding them both was another brother, Reginald Stewart Bentley, on May 3, 1914. Their father, Bill Bentley, emigrated from Yorkshire in northern England, and moved to Canada, becoming Mayor of Delisle and building the town's skating rink, where his boys became hockey players, and Max became a local champion speed skater.

Doug was a left wing, and debuted in the NHL with the Black Hawks in 1939. Max was a center, and debuted with the Hawks in 1940. Reg was also a left wing, but, despite being older, he didn't reach the NHL until 1942.

On January 1, 1943, the Bentleys formed what remains the NHL's only all-brother forward line, in a 6-5 win over the New York Rangers at Chicago Stadium. On January 3, in a 3-3 draw with the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, Reg scored what turned out to be his only NHL goal, with Max and Doug assisting, the only all-brother goal in NHL history.

The Black Hawks reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1944. After the trade to Toronto, Max, known as "the Dipsy Doodle Dandy from Delisle," helped the Leafs win the Cup in 1948, 1949 and 1951. He remained with them through the 1952-53 season, and played the 1954-55 season with the Rangers. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966.

In the off-season, the brothers ran the family wheat farm and cattle ranch outside Delisle. Doug remained with the Black Hawks into the 1951-52 season, and was still playing professionally as late as 1963. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1964, and died in 1972. Reg's career had lasted only 11 games at the NHL level, last playing professionally in 1952. He died in 1980. Max followed in 1984, only 63 years old.

*

November 2, 1947 was a Sunday. That day, before the trade was finalized, the Leafs lost to the New York Rangers, 7-4 at Madison Square Garden. Poile and Stewart were the only players involved in the trade who played in the game.

The Black Hawks lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 4-2 at the Chicago Stadium. Both Bentley brothers played for the Hawks, as the trade hadn't yet been announced. And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Boston Bruins, 2-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

Baseball was out of season. The league that would become the NBA began its season 10 days later. There were 5 games played in the NFL:

* The New York Giants lost to the Detroit Lions, 35-7 at Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium) in Detroit.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Boston Yanks, 28-24 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Washington Redskins, 38-14 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Chicago Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Rams, 17-10 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* And the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Green Bay Packers, 18-17 at the Dairy Bowl in the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis, Wisconsin. The Dairy Bowl was a football stadium built in the infield of a speedway, now known as the Milwaukee Mile, at the Wisconsin State Fair Park.

And there were 3 games played in the All-America Football Conference:

* The football version of the New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Colts, 35-21 at Yankee Stadium.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Buffalo Bills (not the current version), 28-7 at Civic Stadium (later War Memorial Stadium) in Buffalo.

* And the San Francisco 49ers beat the Los Angeles Dons, 26-16 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

October 21, 1953: "The Conservative Mind" Is Published

Kirk usually favored cigars, rather than a pipe, as seen here.

October 21, 1953: The Conservative Mind, edited by Russell Kirk, is published by Regnery Press, still basking in its publication, 2 years earlier, of William F. Buckley's God and Man at Yale.

A 34-year-old native of the suburbs of Detroit, Kirk was heavily influenced by Our Enemy, the State, a far-right book written by Albert Jay Nock, published in 1935. In his own book, Kirk developed what he called six canons of conservatism:

1. A belief in a transcendent order, which he described variously as based in tradition, divine revelation, or natural law;
2. An affection for the "variety and mystery" of human existence;
3. A conviction that society requires orders and classes that emphasize natural distinctions;
4. A belief that property and freedom are closely linked;
5. A faith in custom, convention, and prescription; and
6. A recognition that innovation must be tied to existing traditions and customs, which entails a respect for the political value of prudence.

Number 1 seems to suggest that, for conservatives, a belief in God, or in some form of higher power, is necessary. This would lead to the linking of conservatism and evangelical Christianity, which has harmed both the philosophy and the religion. Number 2 sounds more like a tenet of liberalism than one of 21st Century conservatism.

Numbers 3 and 4 seem to mark conservatism as a political philosophy of, by and for rich people. Numbers 5 and 6 tie in with a classic tenet of conservatism, outlined in the years leading up to the English Civil War of the 1640s, in which he would die, by Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland, for whom the British islands off the coast of Argentina would be named: He wrote, "Where it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change."

In the book, Kirk included writings by Edmund Burke, John C. Calhoun and Benjamin Disraeli, as politicians whose work he considered to be conservative. But he also included George Washington, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton among their numbers, which is dubious.

He included writings by authors he considered conservative, including Sir Walter Scott, George Santayana and T.S. Eliot, which makes sense; but also Alexis de Tocqueville, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Robert Frost, which most certainly does not. (In 1961, the elderly Frost spoke at the Inauguration of President John F. Kennedy.)

Unlike Friedrich Hayek's 1944 The Road to Serfdom, and Milton Friedman's 1962 Capitalism and Freedom, The Conservative Mind hardly mentions economics at all. Kirk grounded his version of conservatism in tradition, political philosophy, literary efforts, and religious faith, rather than free-market economic reasoning.

Whittaker Chambers called The Conservative Mind the most important book of the 20th Century. Conservative newspaper columnist James J. Kilpatrick called it the best and clearest exposition of the conservative philosophy. Along with The Road to Serfdom, Capitalism and Freedom, and Chambers' 1952 memoir Witness, it became required reading for right-of-center Americans thereafter.

Kirk died in 1994. The following year, the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard began publication, and started a Conservative Hall of Fame. Its 1st 2 inductees were Ronald Reagan and Russell Kirk -- before either Buckley, Hayek, Milton Friedman, Chambers or Kilpatrick.

But the times were changing: The conservative intellectual "revolution" led by House Speaker Newt Gingrich, based on the writings of Kirk and Buckley and on the 1980s' "Reagan Revolution," was about to fall apart, replaced by the evangelical conservatism of George W. Bush, and, later still, by the narcissistic kleptocracy of Donald Trump

*

October 21, 1953 was a Friday. The baseball season had ended 14 days earlier, when the New York Yankees won Game 6 to clinch the World Series over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Football was in midweek. The NBA season started 9 days later. There was 1 game played in the NHL: The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 1-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.