October 17, 1979: The Pittsburgh Pirates' "Family"

October 17, 1979: As in 1971, the Pittsburgh Pirates win the World Series by beating the Baltimore Orioles in Game 7 at Memorial Stadium, winning 4-1 to complete a comeback from 3 games to 1 down.

Willie Stargell, the 1st baseman known as "Pops" not just for his age (39) but because of his playing of Sister Sledge's hit disco song "We Are Family," hits his 3rd home run of the Series, and is named Series MVP, after having also been named MVP of the National League Championship Series.

Despite the group being from Philadelphia, and being about sisters rather than brothers, the song was adopted by the baseball team across Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Pirates, as they made their postseason run. It did not quite hit Number 1, getting stuck in June behind another iconic disco track, “Hot Stuff” by Donna Summer.

An online friend and fellow Yankee Fan, Paul Louis, once told me, "Part of me has come to suspect it might have been a subtle swipe at the dysfunctional image of the previous two seasons' World Series winning teams."

After the season, it was be announced that there was a tie vote for the regular-season MVP, between Stargell and the NL's batting champion, St. Louis Cardinals 1st baseman Keith Hernandez. Despite the only tie vote for an MVP in either League, Stargell became the 1st man, and remains the only one, ever to sweep the regular season, LCS and World Series MVPs in a single season.

This was the worst-looking World Series of all time. I don't mean it was poorly-played; that was hardly the case. I mean it looked bad. The Orioles had those bright orange home jerseys with the black lettering, and those dumb black caps with the white front panels and the Oriole head; the all-black caps with that head, which they wore from 1966 to 1974, looked a lot better.

Six of the NL's 12 teams wore 19th Century-style caps to celebrate the League's 100th Anniversary in 1976, and the Pirates were the only team to keep them, and continued to wear them until 1986. I didn't mind that. But their mix-and-match of white, white with yellow pinstripes, gold, and black, sometimes mixing up the jerseys and pants, was atrocious.

The stadiums were little better: I saw 3 games at Memorial Stadium, and liked it, but it had terrible lighting, and a grass field that was already chopped up by Colts games; while Three Rivers Stadium was a concrete ashtray with a hideous pea-green carpet of artificial turf. This was a World Series made for radio, not television.

The 1979 season was an outlier in its era. In the American League Eastern Division, the Yankees won in every season from 1976 to 1981, except 1979, when the Orioles won it. In the Western Division, the Kansas City Royals won in every season, except 1979, when the California Angels won it, for the 1st time in their 19-season history.

In the National League Eastern Division, the Philadelphia Phillies won it every year from 1976 to 1980, except 1979, when the Pirates won it, before giving way to the Montreal Expos in 1981. And in the NL West, the Cincinnati Reds completed their "Big Red Machine" era of dominance in 1976, and then the Los Angeles Dodgers won it in 1977, 1978 and 1981, losing a Playoff for it to the Houston Astros in 1980,  with the Reds winning again in 1979.

In the League Championship Series, the Pirates swept the Reds in 3 straight, gaining revenge for NLCS losses in 1970, 1972, 1974 and 1975, though they'd beaten the San Francisco Giants in the series since 1971; while the Orioles, having won the Pennant in 1969, 1970 and 1971, and lost the ALCS in 1973 and 1974, beat the Angels 3 games to 1.

Stargell, pitcher Bruce Kison and catcher Manny Sanguillen were the only players to have played for the Pirates in both the '71 and the '79 Series, although Sanguillen had left and since returned.

Game 1 of the World Series was supposed to be played in Baltimore on October 9, but was postponed due to rain and snow. The temperature for the postponed Game 1 was 41 degrees, the coldest on record, although there had been snow at a Series game in 1907. The O's won, 5-4, behind the pitching of Mike Flanagan, despite a Stargell home run. The Pirates scored in the 9th to win Game 2, 3-2.

Game 3 in Pittsburgh had a midgame rain delay, and the Pirates blew a 3-0 lead. Scott McGregor outpitched John Candelaria, as the O's won, 8-4. Despite another Stargell homer, the Bucs blew a 4-0 lead in Game 4, and the O's won, 9-6. Coming back from being down 3 games to 1 had only happened 3 times in World Series history to this point -- but the Pirates had done it twice, in 1925 against the Washington Senators, and in 1971 against the Orioles, with a few of the same people involved.

Pirate manager Chuck Tanner had planned to start Jim Rooker on short rest in Game 5, and then go to curveball master Bert Blyleven. That morning, his mother died. According to Kent Tekulve, the Pirates' submarine-pitching reliever, Tanner told the team before the game that his mother "knew we needed some help, so she went to get us some." Whatever the cause, Rooker had a no-hitter for the 1st 4 innings, and Tanner brought Blyleven in for the 6th, with the Orioles leading, 1-0. Then the Pirates got to Flanagan, and won the game, 7-1.

Back in Pittsburgh for Game 6, Candelaria and Jim Palmer traded goose eggs for 6 innings, before the Pirates reached Palmer, and they won, 4-0.

For what turns out to be the only time in his Presidency, Jimmy Carter attends a Major League Baseball game, and he picks a good one. He threw out the ceremonial first ball, saw Stargell homer off McGregor, saw Tekulve get his 3rd save in relief of Grant Jackson, and was among those congratulating the Pirates in the locker room afterward.

And, with the Pittsburgh Steelers having won Super Bowl XIII 9 months earlier, it gave the Steel City a rare MLB-NFL double, and the nickname "City of Champions." This was maintained 3 months later, when the Steelers won Super Bowl XIV. Sports Illustrated named Stargell and Steeler quarterback Terry Bradshaw "Sportsmen of the Year."

But in the 43 years since -- 2 full generations -- the Pirates have never won another Pennant, though they reached Game 7 of the NLCS in 1991 and '92, losing to the Atlanta Braves both times. The Steelers have since won 3 Super Bowls and appeared in 2 others; the Penguins have reached the Stanley Cup Finals 6 times, winning 5; and the University of Pittsburgh football team has won some bowl games and has usually been a contender for their conference title (formerly the Big East, now the Atlantic Coast Conference).

The Pirates? After 21 years out of the postseason, they made it for 3 straight seasons, 2011 to '13, but, so far, they can't get beyond the NLDS. So they're still waiting for the next generation of the Family to make good.

One more note about the '79 Series: When the Orioles won Game 4, the winning pitcher was Tim Stoddard. By simply appearing in the game, he became the 1st man ever to appear in both a World Series game and an NCAA basketball Final Four game. He was a member of the North Carolina State team that won the 1974 National Championship. He was still with the Orioles when they won the World Series in 1983.

He has since been joined only by Kenny Lofton, who reached the Final Four with Arizona in 1988, and the World Series with 3 different teams, the 1st being the Cleveland Indians in 1995.

Stargell retired after the 1982 season, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988. The Pirates retired his Number 8. He threw out the ceremonial first ball before the last game at Three Rivers Stadium in 2000. He was invited to do it again for the first game at the new PNC Park, scheduled for April 9, 2001, with the dedication of a statue of him outside the park 2 days earlier. But his health declined, and he died the morning of the regular-season opener. He was only 61 years old.

Sister Sledge weren't quite "one-hit wonders," also hitting the Top 10 with their follow-up, "He's the Greatest Dancer." But they were one-shot wonders, as later albums failed to make much chart impact.

Nile Rodgers, leader of the disco band Chic, was their main songwriter and producer, and made them the 1st major music act to namecheck different fashion designers in music. He said, "They didn't even know what we were talking about when we wrote the lyric 'Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci'. First time anybody had ever name checked fashion designers." 

From oldest to youngest, the sisters were Debbie, Joni, Kim and Kathy. Joni passed away in 2017. As of October 17, 2022, the others are still alive. Debbie's daughters Amber and Camille, and Kim's daughter Julie, have toured with their mother and aunts. Kathy's daughter Kristen has not. Joni was the only sister to have had a son and no daughters.

UPDATE: The Pirates have a team Hall of Fame. From their 1979 World Champions, they have inducted 1st baseman Willie Stargell, catcher Manuel "Manny" Sanguillén, and pitcher Kent Tekulve -- but not yet manager Chuck Tanner, right fielder Dave Parker, or pitcher Bert Blyleven.

*

October 17, 1979 was a Wednesday. Football was in midweek. There were 7 games played in the NBA that night:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 113-88 at the Rutgers Athletic Center (now the Jersey Mike's Arena) in Piscataway, New Jersey. Julius "Dr. J" Arena scored 22 points against his former team.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 127-108 at the Boston Garden.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 100-97 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Indiana Pacers, 116-112 at The Summit in Houston. Moses Malone had a monster game, 44 points and 29 rebounds. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Denver Nuggets, 125-97 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Kansas City Kings, 107-94 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 112-110 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

And there were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Boston Bruins, 3-2 at the Boston Garden.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Minnesota North Stars, 6-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Hartford Whalers, 3-1 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-4 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Vancouver Canucks beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-1 at the Checkerdome, as the St. Louis Arena was then known.

* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-1 at the Winnipeg Arena.

September 1, 1971: MLB's 1st All-Minority Starting Lineup

September 1, 1971: The Pittsburgh Pirates make history -- by accident.

They host their cross-State rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies, at Three Rivers Stadium. Under normal circumstances, the Pirates, defending Champions of the National League Eastern Division, and entering this game with a 4 1/2-game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals -- the hopeless Phillies are 22 1/2 games back -- would take the field with this lineup:

9, 2nd base, Bill Mazeroski

20, 3rd base, Richie Hebner

21, right field, Roberto Clemente

8, left field, Willie Stargell

16, center field, Al Oliver

35, catcher, Manuel "Manny" Sanguillén

7, 1st base, Bob Robertson

2, shortstop, Jacinto "Jackie" Hernández

And that day's starting pitcher.

Clemente, Mazeroski and Stargell have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Oliver and Sanguillén were All-Stars. And Robertson and Hebner had some power: Later in the decade, the Pirates would be nicknamed "The Lumber Company," before an aging but still slugging "Pops" Stargell proclaimed them "The Family." So this was a very effective lineup.

But there were injuries. Hebner did not play between August 21 and September 4; Robertson, between August 30 and September 4. And Mazeroski had gotten hurt the day before, and would be out until September 5.

This was not an "injury crisis." The Pirates had a deep bench. And manager Danny Murtaugh would use it on this Wednesday night, in front of a crowd of 11,278, who had no idea as they filed into Three Rivers, on the north bank of the Ohio River across from downtown Pittsburgh, that they were going to witness history.

Indeed, Murtagh, a 53-year-old white man from Chester, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, who had managed a Pirate team including Clemente and Mazeroski to win the 1960 World Series, didn't realize it himself as he was making out this lineup:

6 2B Reinaldo "Rennie" Stennett

15 CF Gene Clines

21 RF Roberto Clemente

8 LF Willie Stargell

35 C Manny Sanguillén

30 3B Dave Cash

16 1B Al Oliver

2 SS Jackie Hernández

17 P Dock Ellis ("Dock" was his real name, not a nickname)

Still a pretty good lineup, aside from Ellis, who, like most pitchers, was not a good hitter. Hernández was the only weak spot. Each of the top 6 men in the lineup entered the game batting .300 or better.

But as the Pirate players took the field at 8:05 PM, they looked around, and it dawned on them what had happened: They were all minorities. Clemente, the heart and soul of the team, was a dark-skinned Puerto Rican. Sanguillén was a dark-skinned Cuban. Hernández was a comparatively light-skinned Cuban, but still wouldn't have been accepted as "white" before Jackie Robinson. Stennett was a dark-skinned Panamanian. And Stargell, Oliver, Clines, Cash and Ellis were all African-Americans.

Murtaugh, having long since put aside whatever prejudices he had had, and treating his players equally, had put out the 1st all-black-and/or-Hispanic lineup in baseball history. At first, no one was sure whether this was the 1st time it had been done, but no one could remember it happening before. Research later determined that it hadn't.

Did the lineup work? At first, it wasn't clear that it would. The Phils scored 2 runs in the top of the 1st, but the Bucs scored 5 in the bottom of the 1st. In the 2nd, the Phils scored 4, to take a 6-5 lead, but the Pirates came back to take an 8-6 lead, thanks in part to a home run by Sanguillén. And that was just in the 1st 2 innings.

Stennett, Clines, Clemente, Stargell and Sanguillén each got 2 hits. Clemente, Stargell and Sanguillén each had 2 RBIs. Pitching was an issue: Ellis did not have good stuff, and left the game in the 2nd inning. He was replaced by Bob Moose, who was white. In the 3rd, he was replaced by Bob Veale, black. In the 4th, he was replaced by Luke Walker, white, who pitched the rest of the way, and was credited as the winning pitcher. Final score: Pirates 10, Phillies 7. In other words, Murtaugh's unintentionally-historic lineup got the job done.

By September 5, the injured starters had returned. The Pirates won the NL East by 7 games over the Cardinals. In the NL Championship Series, they beat the San Francisco Giants, 3 games to 1, to win their 1st Pennant in 11 years. They fell behind the Baltimore Orioles 3 games to 1, but, with Clemente getting a hit in every game, including 2 home runs, with 4 RBIs, and stellar defensive play, the Pirates came back to win the World Series in 7 games. With this 2nd World Series win, Murtaugh, like Clemente, Mazeroski and Stargell, secured his election to the Hall of Fame.

In 2009, baseball historian Bruce Markusen published The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates. He argued that, by being fully-integrated -- at their peak, nearly half the roster, 12 out of 25, was black and/or Hispanic -- the '71 Pirates paved the way for the well-integrated teams that would dominate the decade: The Oakland Athletics, the Cincinnati Reds, and, later, the New York Yankees.

And 2 teams that had long resisted integration would get it done, and have their best periods for a while: The Boston Red Sox were the last team in MLB to integrate, yet the won the American League Pennant in 1975, with near-misses for the AL Eastern Division in 1972, '74, '77 and '78; while the Phillies, the last team in the NL to integrate, won 3 straight NL East titles from 1976 to '78, won the World Series in 1980, made the Playoffs again in '81, and won another Pennant in '83.

Here's why it was a big deal: As pitcher Jim Bouton noted in Ball Four, his diary of the 1969 season, the defending World Champions were the Detroit Tigers, and yet they had only 3 black players on their roster: Willie Horton, one of the top sluggers of that generation; Gates Brown, recognized as the best pinch-hitter in the game; and Earl Wilson, who had been the 1st black pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the AL, and was good enough to be the ace on some teams, but was behind Denny McLain and Mickey Lolich on the Tigers.

Bouton, white, realized that, in order to be black and in the major leagues, you had to be a genuine star. If you were an average player, they weren't going to take a chance on you. But the '68 Tigers had Don Wert as their starting 3rd baseman, and he batted just .200; while Ray Oyler, Bouton's teammate on the 1969 Seattle Pilots, had been the main shortstop for the '68 Tigers, and he batted just .135. Even for "The Year of the Pitcher," that was pathetic. So to take that hole out of their lineup, once the future Hall-of-Famer Al Kaline returned from injury to right field, his replacement, Mickey Stanley, was moved to shortstop. He batted .259. There were black shortstops and 3rd basemen who could hit as well as Stanley, and better than Oyler and Wert, but the Tigers made no effort to acquire them.

But after the '71 Pirates, teams finally accepted that they couldn't win without black talent in numbers, whether their 1st language was English or Spanish.

*

September 1, 1971, as I said, was a Wednesday. These other games were played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Washington Senators, 2-0 at Yankee Stadium. Bill Gogolewski pitched a 4-0 hit shutout to beat Steve Kline, who got 1 of the hits. Thurman Munson did not, going 0-for-4. 

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Tom Seaver outpitched Bob Gibson. Bud Harrelson went 3-for-5, and Ken Boswell went 2-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Lou Brock went 0-for-4. Joe Torre went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-4 with a walk. Frank Robinson did not play. Instead, Merv Rettenmund played right field, and hit a home run. Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-1 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 0-for-4. Johnny Bench went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline went 1-for-4.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Montreal Expos, 5-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Fergie Jenkins went the distance for the win, and helped his own cause with 2 home runs. Ernie Banks, entering his final month as a major league player, did not play.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-0 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Carlos May singled home the winning run in the top of the 11th inning. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-4 with a walk. Rod Carew went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 9-2 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the California Angels, 7-0 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Chuck Dobson pitched a 7-hit shutout. Reggie Jackson went 3-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-0 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. John Cumberland pitched a 4-hit shutout. Willie Mays did not play. Hank Aaron went 0-for-4.

April 12, 1966: Atlanta: "The City Too Busy to Hate"

Atlanta, 1966

April 12, 1966: The Braves play their 1st game in Atlanta. Joe Torre hits the 1st major league home run in Atlanta Stadium, but the Pittsburgh Pirates spoil the festivities in 13 innings, 3-1, on a home run by Willie Stargell. (The stadium was renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1975.)

The Braves announced their move to Atlanta in 1965. That year was the high-water mark of the Civil Rights Movement. The Voting Rights Act was signed into law. The Selma-to-Montgomery March had just happened. The Civil Rights Act had been signed into law the year before. The lunch-counter sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, the March On Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and the integrations of the universities of Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama had all taken place, with mixed success in some cases and total success in others. All this had happened within the last 5 years. And Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the current holder of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dr. King was from Atlanta. The Mayor at the time was Ivan Allen Jr. He ran his father's office-supply company, and took it to new heights, making himself one of the South's richest men. He lived long enough to get an offer he couldn't refuse: Staples bought him out in 1999.

In 1961, Allen ran for Mayor against segregationist Lester Maddox, who would later be elected Governor of Georgia. Allen won, and began to build on the work of his predecessor, William Hartsfield, for whom the city's famous airport is named.

As a businessman, Allen understood that he had the chance to change the image of his city. More than that, he had the chance to help change perceptions of the State of Georgia and of the South itself. The city underwent its greatest construction phase since after its burning in the Civil War 100 years earlier. He built the Memorial (now the Woodruff) Arts Center, in effect Atlanta's version of New York's Lincoln Center. He created MARTA, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, which reworked the city's bus system, and, after he left office, built its subway. He also got Interstate 285, a beltway, a.k.a. "The Perimeter" and "The O Around the A," built.

He got Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium) built and, although it wouldn't open until after he left office, he got the Omni Coliseum approved. This enabled the city to go from no major league teams when he took office on January 1, 1962 to 3 of them when he left on January 1, 1970.

Allen posing inside the stadium his Administration was building, 1964.

It opened in 1965, and hosted the Beatles

before it hosted the Braves or the Falcons.

More low-income housing was built in his 8 years in office than in the previous 30. He needed to do this to alleviate the concerns of local black leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King Sr., that he wasn't doing enough for the poor and was focusing too much on business, especially downtown -- a criticism since leveled at many urban mayors, black and white alike (including Newark's Sharpe James in the 1980s and '90s).

"It is wonderful to be idealistic and to speak about human values," Allen said, "but you are not going to be able to do one thing about them if you are not economically strong. If there is any one slogan I lived by as Mayor of Atlanta, that would be it."

So, with the concerns of both business and civil rights in mind, he brought the 2 concepts together. The day he was sworn in, he ordered all "WHITE" and "COLORED" signs removed from City Hall, and personally desegregated the City Hall cafeteria by dining with local black activists. He desegregated municipal hiring. He hired the city's first black firemen. He let it be known that black Atlanta policemen would be allowed to arrest white criminals. He desegregated the city's pools. By January 1964, 6 months before President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, 14 Atlanta hotels had already desegregated themselves.

Allen billed Atlanta as "The City Too Busy to Hate." That made the sports establishments stand up and take notice. Atlanta also offered a bigger stadium, if not necessarily a better one, than Milwaukee County Stadium: 52,000 to 44,000. (Milwaukee County Stadium would later expand to 53,000.) Today, the Braves' team museum is named for Allen.

Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium was a multipurpose facility, designed to host both baseball and football, and it didn't do a good job with either one, so much so that, by 1997, both the Braves and the Falcons had gotten new stadiums and their 1st home was demolished. That process was repeated in 2017, as both teams abandoned their still relatively new stadiums for brand-new ones, the Falcons with a retractable-roof stadium next-door, the Braves for a "ballpark village" in the city's northwest suburbs.

Just another oversized concrete ashtray.

At least it had real grass, not artificial turf.

But Atlanta has seen little success. From 1966 to 1990, the Braves won just 2 Division titles and no Pennants. Then, they won their Division in every completed season from 1991 to 2005, and won 5 Pennants, but just 1 World Series. They eventually won another in 2021. The Falcons have been to just 2 Super Bowls, and lost both ignominiously.

The NBA's Hawks should be so lucky: They reached the Conference Finals their 1st 2 seasons after moving from St. Louis, 1968-69 and 1969-70; then didn't make the Conference Finals again until 2015, and again in 2021. They haven't made the NBA Finals since 1961, or won them since 1958, both times in St. Louis.

And the city has failed with 2 NHL teams: The Flames arrived in 1972 and moved to Calgary in 1980, and the Thrashers arrived in 1999 and moved to Winnipeg in 2011. A Sun Belt city that lost 2 teams to Canada: This is NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman's nightmare.

The city has had decent success with soccer. The Atlanta Chiefs won the North American Soccer League title in 1968, and reached the Final again in 1969. Atlanta United debuted in 2017, won the MLS Cup the next season, and won the U.S. Open Cup the year after that.

UPDATE: The Braves have a team Hall of Fame. Their inductees from their Atlanta years are: Players Hank Aaron, Rico Carty, Phil Niekro, Ralph Garr, Dale Murphy, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, David Justice, Terry Pendleton, Javy López, Greg Maddux, Larry "Chipper" Jones, Andruw Jones (no relation) and Tim Hudson; plus managers Joe Torre and Bobby Cox, and coach Leo Mazzone; team owners Bill Bartholomay and Ted Turner; executives Bill Lucas, Paul Snyder and John Schuerholz; trainer Dave Pursley; and broadcasters Ernie Johnson Sr., Pete Van Wieren, Skip Caray, Don Sutton and Joe Simpson.

The Falcons have a Ring of Honor. Their inductees are: Tommy Nobis, Claude Humphrey, Jeff Van Note, Steve Bartkowski, Mike Kenn, William Andrews, Gerald Riggs, Jessie Tuggle, Deion Sanders, Todd McClure, Warrick Dunn, Roddy White, Matt Ryan, and team owner Arthur Blank.

The Hawks don't have a team Hall of Fame, but they do retire numbers: 9, for Bob Pettit from their St. Louis years; 21, Dominique Wilkins; 23, Lou Hudson; 44, Pete Maravich; and 55, Dikembe Mutombo. They have also witheld 40 from circulation since Jason Collier died as an active player. They also have banners honoring former owner Ted Turner and former Mayor Kasim Reed, who was involved in keeping the team from moving.

There is also a Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, in Macon. It honors State natives who excelled in sports, stars from colleges such as the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech, and these major league stars:

* Braves: Aaron, Nierko, Murphy, Smoltz, Glavine, both Joneses, Tim Hudson, Cox, Mazzone, Bartholomay, Turner, Lucas, Schuerholz, Johnson, Van Wieren, Caray, Bob Horner, Brian Jordan, Jeff Treadway (more for being a Georgia native than for being a Brave), Marquis Grissom, and executive Stan Kasten.

* Falcons: Nobis, Humphrey, Van Note, Bartkowski, Tuggle, Blank, Alfred Jenkins, Billy "White Shoes" Johnson, founding owner Rankin Smith, coach Mario Campbell, and coach Dan Reeves, elected more for being a Georgia native and a UGa player than for coaching the Falcons into their 1st Super Bowl.

* Hawks: Wilkins, Lou Hudson, Wayne "Tree" Rollins, and Shareef Abdur-Rahim.

* Through 2025, no Flames, Thrashers, Chiefs or Atlanta United have been honored.

*

April 12, 1966 was a Tuesday. Future football star Lorenzo White was born. Two days later, on April 14, two Atlanta Braves legends were born: Greg Maddux in San Angelo, Texas; and David Justice in Cincinnati.

These other baseball games were played that Opening Day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 2-1 at Yankee Stadium. Mickey Lolich outpitched Whitey Ford. The Yankees' only run came on a home run by Joe Pepitone. Mickey Mantle went 2-for-3, before being replaced to ease his aching legs. Roger Maris went 1-for-3 with a walk. Al Kaline went 0-for-3 with a walk.

After winning 5 straight Pennants, and 13 of the last 16, the Yankees fell to 6th place the season before, as everybody seemed to get hurt, or old, or both, all at once. And 1966 would be their only last-place finish between 1912 and 1990.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. This game went 13 innings, and in a rarity, the winning run, Luis Aparicio, scored on a bases-loaded balk by pitcher Jim Lonborg. It was a weird beginning for what turned out to be the greatest season in Orioles history.

New acquisition Frank Robinson went 2-for-4 with a walk. Brooks Robinson went 3-for-6. Each of them hit a home run. Brooks had 3 RBIs. For the Sox, Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-6.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 3-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. With Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale both still working into shape following their Spring Training holdouts, Claude Osteen was the winning pitcher, outpitching Robin Roberts, who was entering his final season.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 9-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Juan Marichal outpitched Larry Jackson. Willie Mays and Len Gabrielson hit home runs for the Jints. Ernie Banks went 0-for-3 with the Cubs.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the California Angels, 3-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Tommy McCraw singled Floyd Robinson home with the winning run in the bottom of the 14th inning.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Athletics, 2-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Sandy Valdespino singled Zoilo Versalles home off Jim "Catfish" Hunter in the bottom of the 9th, making a winning pitcher out of Jim "Mudcat" Grant. So, 2 Jims, 2 fishing nicknames. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-3.

* The day before, in the traditional American League opener in the nation's capital, the Cleveland Indians beat the Washington Senators, 5-2 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.) President Lyndon B. Johnson was unavailable for the traditional first ball ceremony, so Vice President Hubert Humphrey stepped in for him. Sam McDowell outpitched Pete Richert.

* And these teams had yet to debut for the season: The New York Mets, the Cincinnati Reds, the Philadelphia Phillies and the St. Louis Cardinals. In the Reds' case, this was unusual: They traditionally hosted the 1st National League game of the season, because of their predecessors, the 1869-70 Cincinnati Red Stockings, baseball's 1st openly professional team.

The NBA Playoffs were underway. The Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 120-112, in Game 5 of the Eastern Division Finals, at the Philadelphia Civic Center, to advance to the NBA Finals. They did this despite 46 points and 34 rebounds from Wilt Chamberlain. John Havlicek led the Celtics with 32 points, and Bill Russell had 31 rebounds.

The Los Angeles Lakers went on to beat the St. Louis Hawks in the Western Division Finals, and the Celtics beat the Lakers in the NBA Finals.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs were also underway. In Game 3 of one Semifinal, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. In Game 3 of the other, the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. The Canadiens went on to beat the Black Hawks in the Finals.