April 16, 1954, 70 years ago: Only twice in the history of the Stanley Cup Finals has a Game 7 gone to overtime. They happened within 4 years of each other, and both were won by the Detroit Red Wings. The Wings had won the Cup in 1950, when Pete Babando scored in double overtime of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. They won it again in 1952, becoming the 1st team ever to sweep the 2 rounds of the Playoffs in 8 straight. They still had enough talent to start a future Hall-of-Famer at every position: The Production Line of right wing Gordie Howe and left wing Ted Lindsay had a new center ..read more

I don't need reminders of my advancing age. My bones, muscles and joints do that for me, just fine, even after two hip replacements. I certainly don't need news that another member of the first team I ever loved has died, even though I know they're all old now. Kenneth Dale Holtzman was born on November 3, 1945 in St. Louis. Debuting with the Chicago Cubs in 1965, this Jewish lefthander was called "the new Sandy Koufax." In Koufax's 3rd-from-last regular-season appearance, on September 25, 1966, Ken Holtzman's Cubs beat Koufax's Dodgers, 2-1. He didn't become the new Koufax, but he did go ..read more

When I was a kid, the Yankees never, ever lost to the Cleveland Guardians. Of course, when I was a kid, the Yankees never, ever beat the Cleveland Guardians, either. They were known as the Cleveland Indians from 1915 to 2021. The Yankees and the Guardians were supposed to start a 3-game series at Progressive Field in Cleveland on Friday night, but it rained, resulting in a doubleheader on Saturday. Clarke Schmidt started the opener, and allowed 2 runs, 1 of them earned, over 5 innings and change. It was a little worrying that he walked 5 batters, along with allowing 3 hits, but he struck ou ..read more

April 15, 1964, 60 years ago: The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel opens, carrying U.S. Route 13 over, and under, the Chesapeake Bay, connecting Cape Charles, on the Delmarva Peninsula ("Del-mar-va": Delaware, Maryland and Virginia), with the resort city of Virginia Beach. It is 17.6 miles long, and replaced a ferry service that had been operating since the 1930s. The company sold their ferry boats to the Delaware Bay Authority, which introduced the Cape May-Lewes Ferry service between New Jersey and Delaware, 3 months later. Theoretically, the span saves people trying to get from the Nort ..read more

The team with baseball's best record, the New York Yankees, played a 3-game series against the team with baseball's worst record, the Miami Marlins, at the new Yankee Stadium. Nestor Cortés started the series opener, and it was easily the best Yankee starting pitching performance of the season thus far: 8 innings, no runs, 2 hits, no walks, 6 strikeouts. Josh Maciejewski pitched a perfect 9th, making it a Cuban-Polish 2-hit shutout. Anthony Volpe and Juan Soto hit home runs. Each had 3 RBIs on the night. Alex Verdugo went 3-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. The Yankees won, 7-0. In a game push ..read more

  When I was a kid in the 1970s, the Weekly Reader would poll kids of various ages, boys and girls alike, and ask them who their heroes were. O.J. Simpson, a running back who never appeared in a winning NFL Playoff game, always finished 1st. Finishing 2nd was Neil Armstrong. The 1st man to walk on the Moon was Number 2. (Note: I originally wrote this for his 70th birthday, after seeing someone compare him with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had turned 70 3 months earlier. I updated it for his 75th birthday, and have updated it again.) * Orenthal James Simpson was born on July 9, 1947, in Sa ..read more

April 10, 1934, 90 years ago: The Chicago Black Hawks win the Stanley Cup for the 1st time, thanks to a spectacular Finals performance by goaltender Charlie Gardiner. He never played again. (Note on names: Gardiner was alternately listed as "Charlie" and "Chuck." I've seen "Charlie" used more, so that's what I'm going with. And the team was also listed as "Black Hawks," two words, until 1986, when someone found their original charter admitting them to the NHL, and saw that it was written as one word, "Blackhawks." They notified the NHL office, who made the single word official, and they ..read more

April 9, 1974, 50 years ago: The San Diego Padres begin the new baseball season. They were very close to beginning it elsewhere. They may have wished they had. After 5 seasons in the National League, all in last place, all losing money, founding owner C. Arnholdt Smith reached an agreement to sell the Padres to Joseph Danzansky, who was going to move the team to Washington, D.C., which had lost the Senators 2 years earlier. New uniforms were designed. A choice of new names was down to 2: Washington Stars or Washington Nationals. There were even baseball cards produced by Topps, showing ..read more

So I'm not trying to blog, either print or video, after every Yankee game this season. And they've started out 8-2. As a character in one of my favorite movies of all time said, "When you've been at this as long as I have, you learn to stop believing in coincidences." After sweeping the cheating Astros... Yes, "cheating." Present tense. I have no evidence that they are still cheating in 2024. I don't need evidence. We have proof that they cheated in 2017. José Altuve gave us, for all intents and purposes, a confession on his home run that won the 2019 Pennant. So it wasn't a one-time ..read more

April 8, 1974, 50 years ago: A testament to longevity, perseverance, strength of body and strength of character is finalized, as Hank Aaron becomes Major League Baseball's all-time home run leader. Henry Louis Aaron was born on February 5, 1934 in Mobile, Alabama. Like Mickey Mantle, he had to play local semipro baseball because his high school did not have a baseball team. His timing was right: He was 13 years old when Jackie Robinson reintegrated what we would now call Major League Baseball, with the Brooklyn Dodgers. When he was 15, he got a tryout with the Dodgers, but did not get a ..read more