Today is the 707th anniversary of the day Sir William Wallace was put to death in London. Wallace’s story was told in in Mel Gibson’s brilliant 1995 film, Braveheart. Those who knew Wallace say he wasn’t quite as good looking as Gibson, but far less of a dick.
“They can take away our lives, but they can never take away our seven Tour de France wins…or something like that.”
River Phoenix was born on this day in 1970, and later that same night, the Velvet Underground played their last gig with Lou Reed, at Max’s Kansas City in Manhattan. The unheralded, (or was it heralded but under-loved?) group’s set was probably this day’s most notorious NYC event (quick, name a Velvet Underground song… ok, under-loved for sure) until 1988 when the Heavyweight Champion of the World got into a fistfight in broad daylight outside of a store in Harlem. Mike Tyson had beaten up Mitch “Blood” Green in their 1986 fight, but the afternoon brawl was far more entertaining. Complete with all the pre-fight trash talking, Green jumped over a car to take a shot at Iron Mike and Tyson broke his hand landing a straight right to Green’s nose.
Birthday wishes also go out to two young men turning 34 today, and talk amongst yourselves as to who has the better stroke: Kobe Bryant and Julian Casablancas. As lead singer of The Strokes, Casablancas was NYC’s “it” boy a decade ago, and the city may not have had such a collective crush until last winter, when Jeremy Lin had his bite out of the Apple. Lin turns 24 today, and, like Casablancas is to New Yorkers just somebody that I used to know.
Somebody who we should all still certainly know is Bob Feller. On this day in 1936, Feller took the mound in Cleveland as a 17-year old rookie and fanned 15 St. Louis Browns in a 4-1 win. 17 years old! Do you think the mass media of today would have had a field day with that at all? Skip Bayless would have claimed he was on roids and the twitterverse would have debated what his innings limit should be.
It dawns on me that kids starting college next week have no idea who River Phoenix is. That’s probably fine, but they should certainly know who Bob Feller is.
Finally, a shout out to Julio Franco, who turns 1,004 today and is leading off and playing second base for the New York Mets. (He’s 54 and finally retired at 49, the oldest regular position player of all time. And although he’s not starting for the Mets tonight, he probably should be.)