This is mostly about sports, and then mostly about baseball. It will favor the New York Yankees, the New Jersey Devils, Rutgers University football, and the London soccer club Arsenal. You got a problem with that? Make your own blog.
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Ford welcomes Reagan to the rostrum, as Nancy Reagan (left) and Nelson Rockefeller (right) look on August 19, 1976, 50 years ago: The Republican National Convention wraps up, at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri. Hearing the speakers talk of upcoming victory, in the Presidential election and in the Congressional elections, you'd never know they were 2 years out from a President of their…
August 19, 1951, 75 years ago: Eddie Gaedel makes his major league debut. He reaches base in his 1st plate appearance. He never makes a 2nd. Born on February 9, 1914 in Chicago, William Louis Veeck Jr. was the son of a Chicago Cubs executive, and, in 1937, was responsible for putting the ivy on the brick outfield wall at Wrigley Field, and supervised the building of the hand-operated scoreboard…
August 19, 1936, 90 years ago: Federico García Lorca, the Spanish poet, playwright and theater director, is assassinated near Alfacar, Granada, in the southern region of Spain, known as Andalusia. He was 38 years old. Born on on June 5, 1898 in Fuente Vaqueros, outside Granada, García Lorca gained fame as a member of "The Generation of '27," a group of Spanish poets that tapped into the European…
Over the weekend, the Yankees' injury-induced difficulty in scoring runs continued, over the border in Toronto. And those pesky Blue Jays took advantage, nearly sweeping the series. When it should have been the other way around. On Friday night, Gerrit Cole pitched 6 innings, allowing 2 runs, 1 of them earned, 5 hits and 2 walks, striking out 5. On Saturday afternoon, Cam Schlittler went 5 1/3rd…
August 17, 1986, 40 years ago: The San Diego Padres beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-5 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. John Kruk hits a home run for the Padres, and Tony Gwynn goes 3-for-5 with an RBI. For the Reds, Buddy Bell and Barry Larkin hit home runs. In the bottom of the 8th inning, Reds manager Pete Rose, 45 years old, sent himself up to bat, to pinch-hit for pitcher Ron Robinson. Against…
August 17, 1876, 150 years ago: Götterdämmerung premieres, as part of the opening festival of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, Bavaria, Germany. It is the 1st performance in the final part of Richard Wagner's operas, Der Ring des Nibelungen ( The Ring of the Nibelung ) . Born on May 22, 1813 in Leipzig, Saxony, Richard Wagner (pronounced "REE-kard VOG-ner"), 61 years old at the time of the…
August 16, 1996, 30 years ago: For the 1st time, a regular-season Major League Baseball game is played in a country other than the United States of America and Canada. It was the 1st game in a 3-game series between the New York Mets and the San Diego Padres at the Estadio de B éisbol de Monterrey, Nuevo León , Mexico. The reason was that the Republican Party was holding its National Convention at…
Before the surgery, for 31 years, there was the man. After the surgery debuted, for 52 years, there was the man. And, as rough as the condition that requires the surgery, and the return from it, can be, you'd much rather have the surgery named for Tommy John than the disease named for an earlier Yankee star, Lou Gehrig. Thomas Edward John Jr. was born on May 22, 1943 in Terre Haute, Indiana. He…
August 16, 1951, 75 years ago: The Delaware Memorial Bridge opens, connecting New Castle, New Castle County, Delaware and Pennsville, Salem County, New Jersey, over the Delaware River. It is operated by the Delaware River and Bay Authority. It is 5 miles southeast of Rodney Square in Wilmington; 34 miles southwest of Center City, Philadelphia; 50 miles north of Legislative Hall (Delaware's State…
August 16, 1948: George Herman "Babe" Ruth dies of throat cancer in New York. He was 53 years old. August 16, 1977: Elvis Presley dies of a drug-aided heart attack in Memphis. He was 42. Recently, on Facebook, I saw somebody compare Elvis, the King of Rock and Roll, the greatest of all popular singers; to the Babe, the Sultan of Swat, the greatest of all baseball players. Actually, the Babe and…
