Today in Sports History: June 15th

6/15/1964 - Brock for Broglio

The Chicago Cubs trade a future Hall of Famer for someone of... lesser value. For Cubs fans, who would go more than 100 years without a championship, this trade would haunt them for years and years and years.

To read more about this story, click here for an in-depth Inhistoric article:

6/15/1976 - Astrodome experiences rainout

Something very, very ironic happened on this day in 1976. The Astrodome, the so-called "Eighth Wonder of the World," which had been built specifically to remove the possibility of a rainout... experiences its first and only rainout. Seven to ten inches of rain had flooded everything around the stadium, including the entrance ramps to the ballpark. While the field was perfectly dry, no one could get in -- including the umpires. And so a Houston Astros home game against the Pittsburgh Pirates was postponed, officially because of rain.

"We could have played the game," said Astros GM Tal Smith. "But if we had announced the game was on, we would have been inviting misfortune. Many would have tried to make it and would have become stranded. We just felt it was best to postpone it."

"Concession workers set up a buffet and tables behind second base, and both teams ate dinner on the field together," Mike Acosta, the team's unoffical historian, recounted in 2009 to the Houston Chronicle. "The players were in their uniforms, but some of them were wearing shower flip-flops on their feet. The Astrodome staff ate with the players, too."

Only about 20 die-hard fans had managed to get into the stadium that day. For their trouble, those fans got to eat with the players on the field -- a nice consolation prize for a wasted game ticket.

6/15/2004 - Pistons upset the Lakers

The Detroit Pistons stomp on the Los Angeles Lakers, 100-87, in Game 5 of the NBA Finals -- giving the Pistons their first championship since 1990. It was the first time since the league had gone to a 2-3-2 format in the finals that the home team won Games 3, 4, and 5. It was also the first time since 1989 that the series MVP (Chauncey Billups) had not been an All-Star -- in 1989, it was Pistons guard Joe Dumars, who was the general manager of the 2004 Detroit team.

A huge television audience at home watched not only the Pistons' upset of the prohibitively-favored Lakers -- who had four Hall of Famers in their starting lineup -- but the end of the Shaq-Kobe tandem as well. Their usually contentious relationship had reached a new level, and from all accounts, it appeared that one or both of them would be dealt by the beginning of the next season.

Sure enough, the team went through a complete overhaul that offseason. Shaquille O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat for Lamar Odom and Caron Butler; Gary Payton, who had signed on with the team just to win a tile, was traded along with Rick Fox to the Boston Celtics; Derek Fisher left for the Golden State Warriors; head coach Phil Jackson did not renew his contract and wrote a book in the offseason where he described Bryant as "uncoachable." Rudy Tomjanovich, who had spent the previous decade coaching the Houston Rockets, was hired as his replacement.

Before anyone could bat an eye, the Lakers team that had controlled the West for the last five years was gone. In its place was a bunch of ragtag role players and Kobe Bryant. The only major piece from the 2004 squad who wasn't shoved out the door was Karl Malone, who like Payton had only joined the team to win a championship. Malone, who needed only 1,500 points to pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the all-time scoring leader, was conflicted whether to retire or come back for a season on a bad time. He voiced his decision that December, when Bryant told a local radio station that Malone had made a pass at his wife.

"Misery loves company," Malone said. "This is a Hollywood soap opera, and I'm not going to be a star in another Bryant soap opera.”

At that moment, the Lakers were a mess. Most people believed that Kobe Bryant had gotten Shaq off the team, as well as everyone else who had helped them win. Although later accounts showed that Lakers owner Jerry Buss played a major role in the club's demolition, Bryant was blamed for breaking up the Lakers the same way Jerry Krause was blamed for breaking up the Bulls. In 2005, the Lakers lost 48 years and missed the postseason for just the fifth team in franchise history.

The next season, Phil Jackson returned to coach the team, who got noticeably better because of it. They continued to struggle in the Western Conference until 2008, when they were somehow able to trade for Pau Gasol.