Today in Sports History: September 2nd
by ZombieMonta on Sep 2, 2010 10:17 AM EDT
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(Everett and Mussina. Photo by Lawrence Jackson, AP)
9/02/1972 - Pappas loses perfect game
Milt Pappas of the Chicago Cubs was just one out away from throwing a perfect game, from retiring all 27 batters without allowing a single base-runner. With his Chicago Cubs leading the San Diego Padres 8-0, outfielder Larry Stahl, a lifetime .232 hitter, stepped to the plate as the last obstacle in Pappas' quest for perfection.
As the hometown fans at Wrigley Field stood in anticipation, they soon found themselves booing ferociously. After the count ran to 1-2, home plate umpire Bruce Froemming called the final three pitches of the at-bat balls, and Stahl was put on base with an inopportune walk; it was the first time a perfect game had ever been broken up by a bases on balls. Pappas was livid at the umpire -- the last two pitches had been borderline if anything. He stayed in the game and retired the following batter to preserve the no-hitter, but the greater prize had been lost.
Pappas, otherwise known for being in a trade that sent Frank Robinson to Baltimore, was cordial of Froemming when interviewed after the game. "I wanted that perfect game so badly. But I guess I shouldn't be greedy, " he said. "The pitches were balls. They were borderline but balls. Froemming called a real good game."
But Pappas never forgave him, and in his 2000 autobiography, he explained that his postgame comments were "to keep me from being fined." In the years following his retirement in 1973, Pappas made his objections known. "They were strikes or 'that close' to being strikes that he should've raised his right hand. I had the opportunity to have a perfect game and unfortunately, Bruce Froemming did not help me at all. ... It's a home game in Wrigley Field. I'm pitching for the Chicago Cubs. The score is 8-0 in favor of the Cubs. What does he have to lose by not calling the last pitch a strike to call a perfect game?"
"They were off the plate and I don't care if he gets a perfect game or not," Froemming would say. "I'm an umpire and I have to call a pitch where it is. ... As an umpire, you're not thinking on the pitch, 'geez, this is a perfect game.' You're not into that; you're an official, not a fan. I can't give him something that he doesn't have coming, either. It's either a ball or a strike, and that's the way I've umpired all my life."
Today in Sports History: September 1st
by ZombieMonta on Sep 1, 2010 3:07 PM EDT
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(Kobe Bryant. Photo by Joe Murphy, Getty Images)
9/01/1989 - Atlanta hands Koncak big money
In one of the most dubious decisions in the history of the franchise, the Atlanta Hawks hand reserve center Jon Koncak a six-year, $13.2 million deal. The Detroit Pistons, desperate to find a power forward with the loss of Rick Mahorn, had offered Koncak a signing sheet where he'd make $2.1 million a year. The Hawks, to everyone's surprise, matched the offer.
$13.2 million doesn't sound like much -- nowadays, it's peanuts compared to what the average professional athlete makes -- but back then it made him one of the highest-paid players in the league, right there with Michael Jordan and Larry Bird. Koncak wasn't a horrible player -- he was more than serviceable at the defensive end -- but for one of the top-paid men in the league, Koncak was a bust. He averaged around four points and five rebounds in his time in Atlanta, and he was too expensive for the Hawks to trade.
Koncak certainly earned his money, as he was routinely heckled by the hometown fans who wanted him to be more than a backup center. Koncak was labeled "Jon Contract" by them, an unfortunate nickname that was more the fault of the Hawks for giving it to him than than his own.
9/01/2004 - The Kobe trial comes to an end
Fourteen months and one day after the whole affair went down, charges that Kobe Bryant sexually assaulted a woman in Colorado are dropped. The prosecutors stated that the primary reason for the dismissal was that the woman in question did not wish to testify, leaving the state no choice but to end the trial.
Bryant did not come out of the proceedings unscathed, as he lost almost all of his corporate sponsorships. However for someone accused of something so sordid, Bryant maintained a more than respectable reputation. It took a few years, but Bryant slowly started to reappear in advertisements, as the short-term memory of the trial coverage wore off.
9/01/2007 - Appalachian State beats Michigan
The University of Michigan was one of the most prestigious football schools in the country -- it had been over four decades since they last had a losing season. Therefore, you can imagine what a colossal upset it was when the giant of college football lost to a university that no one had ever heard of: Appalachian State.
To read more about this story, click here for an in-depth Inhistoric article:
9/01/2007 - Appalachian State upsets Michigan
by ZombieMonta on Sep 1, 2010 3:05 PM EDT
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(Running back Kevin Richardson celebrates. Photo by Duane Burleson, AP)
In one of the largest upsets ever seen in college football, Appalachian State, a Division I-AA school, when into the Big House and knocked off the Michigan Wolverines, 34-32. Appalachian State had won the Division I-AA championship two years in a row and were carrying a 14-game winning streak. Still, the fact that a team that anonymous could go in and beat the 5th ranked team in the country was undeniably incredible.
Just the way the Mountaineers pulled off the upset was sensational. In the final 100 seconds of regulation, Appalachian State kicked a game-winning field goal and blocked two, count 'em, two Michigan field goals. The final block occurred in the closing seconds of the game, as Corey Lynch prevented a 37-yard field goal from taking place, and then ran joyously down the opposite end of the field. Never have 110,000 fans been more silent.
Almost instantaneously, talk began if this was the biggest upset in NCAA football history. While some were initially defiant to call a game on the first Saturday of the season the greatest upset ever, the facts certainly pointed to it that way. No Division I-AA school had ever beaten a ranked Division I-A school. Plus it happened to Michigan, the winningest college football school of all time.
Today in Sports History: August 31st
by ZombieMonta on Aug 31, 2010 10:29 AM EDT
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8/31/1969 - Marciano dies in plane crash
Rocky Marciano, widely respected as one of the greatest boxers of all time, dies in a plane just outside Newton, Iowa. He was one day shy of his 46th birthday and a surprise party had been planned for him when he arrived. The NTSB concluded that the inexperience of pilot Glenn Belz, who had only 231 hours of total experience, was the reason for the accident, stating, "The pilot attempted operation exceeding his experience and ability level, continued visual flight rules under adverse weather conditions, and experienced spatial disorientation in the last moments of the flight." Belz and another passenger, Frank Farrell, also perished in the crash.
At 45, Marciano had been retired for over a decade. He left the sport of boxing as the first heavyweight champion to end his career with a flawless record: 49 wins, 43 by knockout, zero losses. A man of Italian decent, he was born "Rocco Marchegiano," but he changed his fighting alias to the more Italian-sounding "Marciano" when a ringside announcer struggled to pronounce his last name.
Perhaps an even greater footnote is that Marciano was the inspiration for the Rocky series, widely viewed as some of the best sports movies ever made.
8/30/2002 - Baseball avoids another lockout
by ZombieMonta on Aug 30, 2010 5:00 AM EDT
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(Fans at Coors Field voice their displeasure. David Zalubowski, AP Photos)
The 1994 players strike devastated Major League Baseball. With the cancellation of the World Series, and the perceived selfishness of the athletes and owners, fan loyalty was at an all-time low. Even with the resurgence of the New York Yankees, an epic duel between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, and a dramatic (and suspicious) increase in home runs, baseball lost a sizable amount of viewers in the years following the strike.
Baseball also lost a gargantuan amount of money. Commissioner Bud Selig reported that the sport lost $519 million in 2001 alone, with only a handful of teams posting a profit. Selig and the club owners devised an ultimatum for the MLB Players Association: contract at least two teams, drastically increase revenue sharing, increase the payroll luxury tax, and implement steroid testing. The players' union was unwilling to fold on any issue. And as the calendar turned to 2002, the lingering memories of the '94 strike permeated the heads of baseball fans.
"The clubs recognize that our current economic circumstance make contraction absolutely inevitable," Selig said, "as certain franchises simply cannot compete and cannot generate enough revenues to survive. Quite a few of our clubs advocate contraction by as many as four clubs."
Today in Sports History: August 29th
by ZombieMonta on Aug 29, 2010 12:00 AM EDT
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8/29/1974 - Malone heads to the pros
A major moment in basketball occurs as Petersburg High School star Moses Malone signs with the Utah Stars of the ABA, rather than with the University of Maryland. Malone had been actively pursued by over 300 universities and had appeared to be heading to Maryland after signing a letter of intent and being urged to go there by his mom. Instead, he chose a million-dollar contract and became the first player to jump to the pros directly out of high school.
For years there had been a rule forbidding underclassmen from entering the NBA Draft; Wilt Chamberlain would have come out of high school, but he wasn't allowed and instead spent a year with the Harlem Globetrotters. Malone's move would have a long-lasting impact, even as the ABA merged with the NBA.
In 1987, nine kids out of high school declared themselves for the NBA Draft, and then in 1995, when Kevin Garnett came out of high school, a whole slew of teenagers followed him. In 2001, four of the top eight draft picks came directly out of high school, and in 2002, 45 underclassman were eligible to be drafted. There were so many high schoolers applying for the draft that many become concerned, and so in 2005, the league officially ceased the immediate entry of high school basketball players.
Malone would turn out to be worth the hype, although he didn't spend much time in Utah. He was sold to the Spirits of St. Louis of the ABA, was then picked up by the Buffalo Braves in the Dispersal Draft, and would go on to play for the Braves, Rockets, Sixers, Bullets, Hawks, Bucks, and Spurs in the NBA. Malone won three MVP awards and was voted into the Hall of Fame in 2001; he was best known for his tendency to intentionally miss wide-open layups so that he could augment his rebounding numbers.
Today in Sports History: August 28th
by ZombieMonta on Aug 28, 2010 2:43 PM EDT
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8/28/2003 - Five-way wildcard tie
This isn't normally the type of article I write, but I do think it's interesting to look at where the baseball standings were on August 28, 2003. Five National League teams were tied for the wildcard position, with another three teams within one game of the loss column. An eight-team race with only a month remaining in the regular season -- you don't see that everyday.
Montreal Expos: the 'Spos were the best story of the year. Threatened by contraction only a year earlier, the Expos split time between Olympic Stadium in Montreal and Hiram Bithorn Stadium in Puerto Rico.
Despite traveling to three separate countries over the course of their schedule, and despite having an incredibly small payroll, the Frank Robinson-led Expos were the feel-good story of 2003 and finished with a winning record. Sadly, the team lost nine of their next ten games to completely fall out of contention. The team's star player, Vladimir Guerrero, left for the Anaheim Angels a year later, and due to poor attendance numbers in Montreal, the team moved to Washington D.C. in 2005.
Houston Astros: technically, the wildcard race was a 7-team race, but because the NL Central-leading Astros were tied with the Cardinals, eight teams were involved. Houston would lose the Central by a single game while finishing as the runner-up in the wildcard too. Houston later added Roger Clemens and Andy Pettite, and with their already formidable batting order, the Astros went to the World Series in 2005. There they were swept by the Chicago White Sox.
Philadelphia Phillies: every season, the Phillies were the dark horse team that could have been a contender but oddly wasn't. This year was no exception. On September 19, with less than ten games to go, Philadelphia was atop the wildcard standings. But in true Philadelphia style, the Phillies lost seven of their last eight games to erase any shred they had of the postseason. In 2008, the Phillies finally made it to the World Series. Less than a handful of players from the '03 team were on the 2008 version.
Today in Sports History: August 27th
by ZombieMonta on Aug 28, 2010 2:39 PM EDT
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8/27/2004 - America loses in basketball
Going into the 2004 Athens Olympics, the United States men's basketball team had lost just two games in 68 years of Olympic competition. Both losses come against the Soviet Union, and one was excusable because the refs gave the Russians three chances to score the winning basket.
Yet it had grown more and more apparent that the rest of the world was catching up. The US finished a dismal sixth at the 2002 World Basketball Championship, fielding a team that had barely any top-caliber players.
The 2004 Athens team wasn't much better. Many All-Stars stayed home instead of participating, citing security concerns or wanting to use the time to rest. Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Tracy McGrady, Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, and Ben Wallace were all absent from the Athens roster.
In their place, a hastily thrown together mix of youngsters and role players represented the United States. LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Dwyane Wade were all there -- though they had just come off their rookie campaigns and weren't as polished as the other players. Coach Larry Brown, who was always resistant to playing rookies, used those three scarcely. The rest of the roster was filled with players who had yet to evolve into All-Stars such as Carlos Boozer, Emeka Okafor, and Amare Stoudemire, and pretty solid players in Richard Jefferson, Lamar Odom, Stephen Marbury and Shawn Marion. The only athletes who could be legitimately considered superstars were Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan, the two players who had won an MVP trophy.
The U.S. got roughed up as soon as the tournament began. In its first game, America lost by 21 to a Puerto Rican team that had only one active NBA player: Carlos Arroyo. The squad would lose a close game to Lithuania a few days later, but won its next two games to advance to the Semifinal round. It was there that they met Argentina, the same country that first defeated them in the most recent World Basketball Championship.
On Aug. 27, 2004, the US once again lost to Argentina, 89-81. For the very first time, the United States failed to win the gold medal in basketball with a roster comprised of NBA players. Argentina had seven current or future NBA players on their team, the best of whom was Manu Ginobili who scored a game-high 29 points. America finished with the bronze medal while Argentina collected the gold.
The moral of the Athens Olympics was that the United States could no longer assemble a group of second-rate players and guarantee that they would collect the gold. The other countries were playing together for years at a time while America's teams were thrown together last-second and had little time to gel.
The United States lost more games in the 2004 Olympics than they did in the previous 68 years combined. Vowing not to repeat such a lackluster performance, the U.S. team began planning for the '08 Olympics three years in advance. With better players signed on and a much greater resolve, the U.S. team won every game at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, proving that USA was still the king of basketball.
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