Don Larsen threw the only perfect game in World Series history today in 1956. It was the sixth perfect game in baseball history and the first in 34 years. Larsen was pitching on just two days rest, he had started game two for the Yankees and even though he’d been handed a 6-0 lead, he only lasted 1.2 innings in a game the Yanks would lose to the Brooklyn Dodgers 13-8. The Yankees’ pitcher would put together five straight complete games to win the series 4-3 and Larsen was named MVP. It was the last World Series to ever be played with no scheduled days off.
It was this day in 1967 that the CIA and Bolivian police captured Che Guevara, the Argentine Marxist revolutionary, who was also a major figure in the Cuban revolution. Guevara was killed the next day by Bolivian police, he was 39 years old and his picture has become the face of counterculture and rebellion. Time magazine voted Guevara one of the 100 most influential people of last century. He was probably the top rated “Che.”
Speaking of rebellious Cubans, it was today in 1972 that the A’s Bert Campaneris whipped his bat at Tigers pitcher Lerrin LaGrow. Campy had three hits and had scored two runs by the time LeGrow hit him in the ankle in the seventh inning. Campaneris was suspended for the rest of the series. Tigers manager Billy Martin had to be restrained from going after Campy and it prompted this quote from Martin after the game: “I’m not going to get after him now, but if there’s ever another fight out there, I’m going out there and find him and beat the shit out of him.”
By my count, five Oscars have been won by movies released today (Matt Damon’s birthday) over the years. “The Last Picture Show” came out today in 1971, the story of small-town kids in West Texas caught between adolescence and adulthood won supporting Oscars for Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman. Another movie set in a small town, this one in Nebraska, came out today in 1999. Hilary Swank won best actress for her role in, “Boys Don’t Cry.” Though Boston is anything but a small town, murder was the centerpiece for “Mystic River,” which was released today in 2003. Both Sean Penn and Tim Robbins won Oscars for their work in that movie.
No Oscars were won, but 2004’s, “Friday Night Lights” did spawn one of the best television shows ever made.
“Cats” opened on Broadway today in 1982 and ran for nearly 18 years, making it the second longest running Broadway show ever.
Believe it or not, I’ve seen all of those movies, but not the play.
Prince hit the big time today in 1980 with the release of, “Dirty Mind.” Called, “new-wave funk by a sex junkie,” “Dirty Mind” had the hits, “Dirty Mind,”, “Head,” “Uptown,” “When You Were Mine,” and “Do It All Night.”
John Mellencamp released his first album without “Cougar” involved today in 1991. “Whenever We Wanted” contained the hit songs “Again Tonight,” “Get A Leg Up,” and “Now More Than Ever.”
In 1999 Debbie Rowe filed for divorce. Probably because her husband looked like this:
— Bill Hubbell