Scores On This Historic Day

September 30, 1973:  The last game is played at Yankee Stadium before its renovation. The Yankees lose 8-5 to the Detroit Tigers. The renovation was necessary, not because the Mets were talking about how much better Shea Stadium was, but because there were actual structural issues. The institution of Bat Day led to kids sitting in the upper deck, banging their bats on the floor, weakening the stadium structure. So Mayor John Lindsay negotiated a deal in which the Department of Parks of the City of New York, which already owned Shea, bought both Yankee Stadium and the land on which it sat -- previously owned by separate entities -- and would renovate it, to reopen in time for the 1976 season. The Yankees would play the 1974 and '75 seasons at Shea. This also forced the football Giants out of Yankee Stadium after 2 games, a 34-14 win over the Houston Oilers on September 16, and a 23-23 tie with the Philadelphia Eagles on September 23. The rest of their home schedule for 1973, and all...

September 30, 1934: Baseball's regular season comes to a close. Among the games played on this day, the Detroit Tigers sweep a doubleheader from the St. Louis Browns, 10-6 and 6-2 at Navin Field in Detroit. The ballpark will be renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938, and Tiger Stadium in 1961. The Tigers played in it from 1912 to 1999. The game doesn't mean much: The Tigers won the American League Pennant by 7 games over the New York Yankees, while the Browns, as was usually the case, were far in the other direction, 6th place, 33 games out of 1st. But in the top of the 6th inning, Charley O'Leary pinch-hit for Browns pitcher George Blaeholder, and singled off Elden Auker. Following a single by Jake Garms and a double by Jack Burns, he scored. At first glance, this doesn't seem all that remarkable. But it was: O'Leary had just become the oldest player in Major League Baseball history, the oldest to bat, the oldest to get a hit, and the oldest to score a run. Charles Timoth...

September 30, 1971:  The last Washington Senators game is played, against the New York Yankees at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington. Team owner Bob Short, having already moved the NBA's Minneapolis Lakers to Los Angeles in 1960, has announced he's moving the Senators to the Dallas area, to become the Texas Rangers. He complains about the low attendance, despite having the highest ticket prices in the American League, and no subway access to RFK Stadium. (Washington's Metro would not open until 1976.) Frank Howard, the Senators' most popular player in their 2nd go-around of 1961-71, hits the last home run. Dick Bosman starts, and stands to be the winning pitcher, as the Senators lead 7-5 with 1 out left in the 9th. All he has to do is get Bobby Murcer out. Frank Howard But he can't, through no fault of his own. Angry fans from the "crowd" of 14,461 people storm the field. The umpires cannot restore order, and they forfeit the game to the Yank...

September 30, 1967:  The Spectrum, a new sports arena, opens in South Philadelphia, just to the north of John F. Kennedy Stadium. The new baseball and football facility, Veterans Stadium, had recently begun construction, just to the north.  The first event at the arena was the Quaker City Jazz Festival. Lou Scheinfeld, former President of the Spectrum, explained that the name "Spectrum" was selected to evoke the broad range of events to be held there: * SP: "SPorts" and "South Philadelphia" * E: "Entertainment" * C: "Circuses" * T: "Theatricals" * R: "Recreation" * UM: "Um, what a nice building!" That last one was a bit of a stretch.  Scheinfeld also said that a seat in the city's first superbox initially cost $1,000 a year: "For every Flyers game, Sixers game, circus, you name it, you got 250 events for $1,000." The first sporting event at the arena was a fight card on October 17, headlined b...

Nate Northington September 30, 1967: For the 1st time, a black man plays football for a school in the Southeastern Conference. The circumstances become physically painful. They were already emotionally painful, and for a reason above and beyond the region's racist history. The University of Kentucky, the northernmost school in the SEC, and far better known for their basketball program, which had already won 4 NCAA Tournaments, was the 1st school to break the barrier. They signed 2 black players: Running back Nate Northington and defensive end Greg Page. But on August 22, 1967, in a preseason practice, Page was injured. His back was broken, and he was paralyzed. Northington, his dorm-mate, would have to go into the season's home opener, at home to the University of Mississippi (a.k.a. "Ole Miss"), as the lone black player in the game. Greg Page The season did not begin with that home opener. Kentucky started the season away to Indiana University -- a major rivalry in ...

Unused game program from the 1964 World Series, which was to be sold at Connie Mack Stadium, with the other flag blank, since the opponent was yet to be determined. September 30, 1964:  The Philadelphia Phillies complete what remains the most stunning regular-season collapse in Major League Baseball history, losing their 10th straight game, 8-5 to the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis.  Going into the games of September 21, the Phillies led the National League by 6 1/2 games. There were 12 games left. Their Magic Number to clinch the Pennant was 6: All they had to do was win half of their remaining games, 6 out of 12, and it wouldn't have mattered what any other team did. The Phils would have won the Pennant. Unused 1964 World Series press pin for the Phillies Instead, the following happened: * 1. September 21, at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia: Cincinnati Reds 1, Phillies 0. The only run came in the top of the 6th inning, when ...

September 30, 1958: The Rifleman premieres on ABC. It is a Western, the most popular form of TV programming at the time. Chuck Connors played Lucas McCain, a Lieutenant in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Having lost his wife Margaret to illness, in 1881, he buys a ranch about 3 miles outside the fictional town of North Folk, in the New Mexico Territory, where he raises his son, Mark, played by Johnny Crawford. (New Mexico gained Statehood in 1912.) The opening theme at the beginning of each episode depicted McCain walking down the street of a town, while rapid-firing his Winchester 44-40 1892  model rifle that had been modified at the trigger and lever. (This makes the rifle an anachronism.) The rifle's modification allowed McCain to fire the rifle only by hand pumping the lever, which had a setscrew imbedded in it to trip the weapon's trigger. McCain fires 12 shots from his rifle during the opening credits: 7 shots in the 1st close-up, and 5 more as the camera ...