Today we are going to focus on Basketball and games with special performances. We start at the Forum in Inglewood, California on February 21, 1984, when the Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Seattle SuperSonics. It did not the fans long to see that there was Magic in the air that evening. Earvin "Magic" Johnson was on the top of his game, he had 12 first quarter assists and six more in the second quarter for a total of 18 assists in the half. Johnsons teamwork gave the Lakers the boost that they needed for a 128-112 win over the SuperSonics.
Another way to contribute to a win without scoring yourself is to steal the win as Thomas Gugliotta of the Minnesota TimberWolves tried to do on February 21, 1995 in a game against the Portland TrailBlazers at Portland. Gugliotta had 7 steals in one quarter, unfortunatly his teammates did not cooperate in his efforts as the home club won anyways by a score of 99-86. One year later in a game at The Spectrum in Philadelphia the '76ers and the Miami Heat played as if they were all afraid of the basket. The final score of that game showed that the Heat won by a score of 66-57. Are they sure that they even played all four quarters?
On February 21, 1999 the Toronto Raptors played their first home game at the Air Canada Centre. The Raptors beat their transcontinental rivals the Vancouver Grizzlies by a score of 102-87. The game occurred just one day after the Maple Leafs hockey team played their first game in the new arena a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens in overtime. The final game we are looking at this a 136-132 win by the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the D-League over the Arkansas RimRockers on February 21, 2007 in double overtime at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Trivia answer time, the answer to yesterday question about the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League is the Rochester Americans who have been in the league since 1956, the Providence Bruins who have in the league since 1992 and the Portland Maine Pirates who have been in the league since 1993. The Providence market had been out of the league since 1977. The Providence Reds had fielded a team from 1926 until the team moved following the 1976-77 season. The Portland club would have been firmly in third place except for a one season gap before the Pirates arrived, the City of Portland has been in the league since 1977. The City of Springfield, Massachusetts has been in the league since 1954 however, there was a change of franchises after the 1993-94 season. The long standing franchise was transferred to Worcester, Massachusetts and was replaced in Springfield by an expansion franchise. The City of Albany, New York would have made the list having been in the league since 1993, however they had the same situation as the City of Springfield.
Now for todays question. On May 4, 1975 Bob Watson of the Houston Astros scored baseballs 1,000,000 run since the National League began play in 1876. How many runs have scored since Watson crossed the plate on that fateful day? The answer will be posted in tomorrows blog about the great Miracle on Ice Hockey game.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Baseball First Minor League
On February 20, 1877 The International Association was formed. The seven club league has gone down in history as Baseball's first minor league. Although no evidence was found that any of the National League clubs farmed any players out to the International Association during the 1877 season or any of the seasons that followed. The clubs that took franchises in the league were the Columbus Ohio Buckeyes, Guelph Ontario Maple Leafs, London Ontario Tecumsehs, Lynn Massachusetts Live Oaks, Manchester New Hampshire, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Allegheny and Rochester New York. One of the more interesting things here was that two of the clubs pulled double duty as members of the New England League as well. The Lynn and Manchester Clubs were the two clubs doing this.
The Tecuseh club played 18 league games winning 14 of them, they played 80 games in all. The Allegheny club played 92 games in all, winning 11 of 16 league games. The other 5 clubs played between 11 and 16 league games each. The league expanded to 16 clubs for the 1878 season, the league took in the other 3 members of the New England League. The Buckeyes and Maple Leafs did not reenter the league for the second season. The clubs played as many as 38 games between them.
The league downgraded to 10 clubs and changed its name to the National Association for the 1879 season. The league only had 4 clubs returning from its third season. Two of the returning clubs were from the first season. The league clubs played as many as 41 games in the season. The league struggled to put 4 clubs on the field for its fourth and final season. Many of the leagues players went on to long careers in the Major Leagues. Many of the cities that had clubs in the league have had long histories in the game and many are in the game today; cities like Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Rochester, New York and Syracuse, New York.
I am hoping that you found yesterdays trivia question an easy one. The Baltimore Ravens franchise originated as the Cleveland Browns in the All-American Football Conference before moving to the NFL for many years as the Browns before their 1996 move to Baltimore. Todays trivia question is the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League have been in the league since 1938 making them the oldest minor league hockey team. The question is which three active franchises are next in line for the title of oldest active team in the league? The answer will be posted in tomorrows daily blog looking at some basketball games.
The Tecuseh club played 18 league games winning 14 of them, they played 80 games in all. The Allegheny club played 92 games in all, winning 11 of 16 league games. The other 5 clubs played between 11 and 16 league games each. The league expanded to 16 clubs for the 1878 season, the league took in the other 3 members of the New England League. The Buckeyes and Maple Leafs did not reenter the league for the second season. The clubs played as many as 38 games between them.
The league downgraded to 10 clubs and changed its name to the National Association for the 1879 season. The league only had 4 clubs returning from its third season. Two of the returning clubs were from the first season. The league clubs played as many as 41 games in the season. The league struggled to put 4 clubs on the field for its fourth and final season. Many of the leagues players went on to long careers in the Major Leagues. Many of the cities that had clubs in the league have had long histories in the game and many are in the game today; cities like Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Rochester, New York and Syracuse, New York.
I am hoping that you found yesterdays trivia question an easy one. The Baltimore Ravens franchise originated as the Cleveland Browns in the All-American Football Conference before moving to the NFL for many years as the Browns before their 1996 move to Baltimore. Todays trivia question is the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League have been in the league since 1938 making them the oldest minor league hockey team. The question is which three active franchises are next in line for the title of oldest active team in the league? The answer will be posted in tomorrows daily blog looking at some basketball games.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
The Showman
On February 19, 1996 the Sporting World lost one of the more colorful characters ever to own a Major League sports franchise. Charles Oscar Finley passed away in Chicago just days before what would have been his 78th birthday. The Alabama born Finley packed alot into his almost 78 years of life. After hitting hit big in the insurance business after World War II he set his sights on making it big as a baseball owner. He tried in 1954 to buy the Philadelphia Athletics from the Mack family. Several attempts later just after losing out on a chance to buy the Los Angeles American League expansion franchise that went to Gene Autry, his chance finally came when the then Kansas City Athletics went up for sale again.
Those began one of the stranger eras in sports history. Many of his innovations did not go over real well. They are too numberous to have any kind of discussion in this forum. His choice of uniform colors was not the first choice of many of the players, however many of them took him up on the offer of a $300 bonus to grow a moustache. Finley must of had some sort of an itch to move the club away from Kansas City as he courted as many as six other cities before settling on Oakland, California as the new home of the club, after he was denied a chance to move to Louisville, Kentucky.
What many people do not realize was that the A's were not his only team. In 1970, he purchased the Oakland Seals of the National Hockey League and owned them for 4 years. Two years later the Seals were moved to Cleveland, Ohio. In 1972 he purchased the Memphis Club of the American Basketball Association and renamed them the TAMs (Tennessee-Alabama-Mississippi). He would own the team for two years. He also tried to start his own football league in 1987.
The stories about Finley during his 20 year tenure as owner of the A's would fill volumes. The battles he had micromanaging players and his own field managers were frequent. He was the owner they loved to hate.
He will probably never great elected to any hall of fame but, he did leave quite a legacy of stories behind.
We move now to the answer of yesterdays trivia question. The question should have been an easy one for frequent readers of this blog as I took it from the one post of the blog that has been read the most the December 30, 2010 "A Forum First", the answer being the Kings Hockey team played before the Lakers. Todays trivia question is what is the name of the league where the Baltimore Ravens franchise originated. The answer will be in tomorrows post about the third baseball league ever formed. Have a great day!!
Those began one of the stranger eras in sports history. Many of his innovations did not go over real well. They are too numberous to have any kind of discussion in this forum. His choice of uniform colors was not the first choice of many of the players, however many of them took him up on the offer of a $300 bonus to grow a moustache. Finley must of had some sort of an itch to move the club away from Kansas City as he courted as many as six other cities before settling on Oakland, California as the new home of the club, after he was denied a chance to move to Louisville, Kentucky.
What many people do not realize was that the A's were not his only team. In 1970, he purchased the Oakland Seals of the National Hockey League and owned them for 4 years. Two years later the Seals were moved to Cleveland, Ohio. In 1972 he purchased the Memphis Club of the American Basketball Association and renamed them the TAMs (Tennessee-Alabama-Mississippi). He would own the team for two years. He also tried to start his own football league in 1987.
The stories about Finley during his 20 year tenure as owner of the A's would fill volumes. The battles he had micromanaging players and his own field managers were frequent. He was the owner they loved to hate.
He will probably never great elected to any hall of fame but, he did leave quite a legacy of stories behind.
We move now to the answer of yesterdays trivia question. The question should have been an easy one for frequent readers of this blog as I took it from the one post of the blog that has been read the most the December 30, 2010 "A Forum First", the answer being the Kings Hockey team played before the Lakers. Todays trivia question is what is the name of the league where the Baltimore Ravens franchise originated. The answer will be in tomorrows post about the third baseball league ever formed. Have a great day!!
Friday, February 18, 2011
A Few Soccer Games
Many Soccer games end with very little or no scoring at all. Not all Soccer games are played this way. As I stated yesterday, when two countries get together for a sporting event scores can get out of hand, even in Soccer. We start today on February 18, 1882 at Knock Ground in Belfast, Ireland. The English were playing only their 14th international match and playing the Irish for the very first time. The English had only played the Scottish or Welsh teams before this match. The English scored a 13-1 win over the Irish. Their previous record for most goals was 7 in a match against Scotland in 1878. The leading scorers for the match were Howard Vaughton and Arthur Alfred Brown, both of whom were making their international debuts with the team. Vaughton who scored 5 goals, was just 40 days past his 21st birthday. He would only play in 5 matchs in just over two years, he would score only one more career goal. Brown who scored 4 goals, was a month shy of his 23rd birthday. He would play in only three career matchs with the English National team over the course of the next month, he would not score another goal. Both played for the Aston Villa Club from Birmingham.
Before the 19th Century was done the two clubs would play each other many times. The last time was on February 18, 1899 at Roker Park in Sunderland during the British Home Championships. If guessed that the English tied their record for most goals in a single match with 13, you would be correct!! They did win the match by a score of 13-2, leaving the Irish still waiting for their first win over the English. The English lead the game at halftime by a score of 5-2. They were led this time by their captain Gilbert Oswald Smith and Jimmy Settle. Smith scored 4 of his career 11 goals in the match, was considered the best soccer player of the century. Settle was like Brown and Vaughton made his international debut against Ireland in a blowout scoring 3 of his career 6 goals in the game. Settle would play only 6 international matchs with half of them against Ireland.
The English and the Irish are not the only teams that can play a blowout game on February 18th. We move forward into the present century all the way to 2006. The teams for this game at Cap d'Ail, France were Monaco and Chechnya. The club from the breakway Russian Republic of Chechnya scored only one goal. If you guessed that the club from the tiny country of Monaco scored 13 goals, once again you are correct. Three soccer games, three teams scoring 13 goals. The number 13 cant be unlucky for everyone!
For those of you looking for the answer to yesterdays trivia question here it is: Of the ten Major League ballparks in history that are at 10 feet in altitude or less the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum has hosted the most games by far with 3413. The ballpark sits at sea level and is the lowest MLB ballpark in elevation ever. My thanks to the folks at Seamheads.com for that question. Todays trivia question is The Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and the Los Angeles Kings hockey team shared the Forum in Inglewood, California from the end of 1967 until their seasons ended in early 1999. The question is which team played their first game in the new facility first? Tomorrow the answer to todays question and a look at one of baseballs more interesting owners ever.
Before the 19th Century was done the two clubs would play each other many times. The last time was on February 18, 1899 at Roker Park in Sunderland during the British Home Championships. If guessed that the English tied their record for most goals in a single match with 13, you would be correct!! They did win the match by a score of 13-2, leaving the Irish still waiting for their first win over the English. The English lead the game at halftime by a score of 5-2. They were led this time by their captain Gilbert Oswald Smith and Jimmy Settle. Smith scored 4 of his career 11 goals in the match, was considered the best soccer player of the century. Settle was like Brown and Vaughton made his international debut against Ireland in a blowout scoring 3 of his career 6 goals in the game. Settle would play only 6 international matchs with half of them against Ireland.
The English and the Irish are not the only teams that can play a blowout game on February 18th. We move forward into the present century all the way to 2006. The teams for this game at Cap d'Ail, France were Monaco and Chechnya. The club from the breakway Russian Republic of Chechnya scored only one goal. If you guessed that the club from the tiny country of Monaco scored 13 goals, once again you are correct. Three soccer games, three teams scoring 13 goals. The number 13 cant be unlucky for everyone!
For those of you looking for the answer to yesterdays trivia question here it is: Of the ten Major League ballparks in history that are at 10 feet in altitude or less the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum has hosted the most games by far with 3413. The ballpark sits at sea level and is the lowest MLB ballpark in elevation ever. My thanks to the folks at Seamheads.com for that question. Todays trivia question is The Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and the Los Angeles Kings hockey team shared the Forum in Inglewood, California from the end of 1967 until their seasons ended in early 1999. The question is which team played their first game in the new facility first? Tomorrow the answer to todays question and a look at one of baseballs more interesting owners ever.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Basketball Oddities and Facts
Today we are going to take a look at some of the more interesting games in Basketball history. These games are not all going to be the high scoring games that are frequently discussed on this blog, we are going to look at some of the other records that could be set during the course of a game.
Today we start at February 17, 1955 with the New York Knicks-Fort Wayne Pistons game at Miami Beach, FL. The Knicks won the game 93-86, the interesting thing here was that both clubs registered only 6 assists in the game!!
Two years later at the Minneapolis Auditorium in the game between the Lakers and the Saint Louis Hawks things got real ugly. To say a couple people got in foul trouble would be an understatement. If the object of the game was to have one of your players foul out, then the Lakers would have won the game by a score of 5-4. Thats right 9 players in all fouled out of the game!! The Lakers attempted 69 of the games 136 free throw attempts. Oh, yeah the Hawks won the game where it counted by a score of 118-115.
The Lakers-Hawks game was exactly 9 years to the day before the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opened at Springfield, Massachusetts. This event in 1968 was nine years after the first class of inductees were announced. Today 295 people and 8 teams are members of the Basketball Hall of Fame. If you noticed I said 295 people, not 295 men. Many of the Hall of Famers are women who contributed to the game just as much as the men have.
We close today with the Boston Celtics-Vancouver Grizzlies game at the GM Place in Vancouver that was played on February 17, 1999. This game went to triple overtime before the Celtics took a 131-129 win over the home club.
Today I am starting a new feature on this blog in an effort to get readers to spend a little more time on the site and encourage you to comeback more often. This feature will be at the end of each of the daily blogs, it will be the daily trivia question. Some of the answers will be found in the blogs archives, some of the answers will found on the companion website, some of the answers will be found on other websites. If you think that your website may contain some great information that I could use, please let me know.
Here is todays question: 10 ballparks that have hosted at least 15 Major League Baseball games sit an altitude of 10 feet or less, which one of the 10 parks has hosted the most Major League Games? I will reveal the answer in tomorrows daily blog which will take a look at three soccer games.
Today we start at February 17, 1955 with the New York Knicks-Fort Wayne Pistons game at Miami Beach, FL. The Knicks won the game 93-86, the interesting thing here was that both clubs registered only 6 assists in the game!!
Two years later at the Minneapolis Auditorium in the game between the Lakers and the Saint Louis Hawks things got real ugly. To say a couple people got in foul trouble would be an understatement. If the object of the game was to have one of your players foul out, then the Lakers would have won the game by a score of 5-4. Thats right 9 players in all fouled out of the game!! The Lakers attempted 69 of the games 136 free throw attempts. Oh, yeah the Hawks won the game where it counted by a score of 118-115.
The Lakers-Hawks game was exactly 9 years to the day before the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opened at Springfield, Massachusetts. This event in 1968 was nine years after the first class of inductees were announced. Today 295 people and 8 teams are members of the Basketball Hall of Fame. If you noticed I said 295 people, not 295 men. Many of the Hall of Famers are women who contributed to the game just as much as the men have.
We close today with the Boston Celtics-Vancouver Grizzlies game at the GM Place in Vancouver that was played on February 17, 1999. This game went to triple overtime before the Celtics took a 131-129 win over the home club.
Today I am starting a new feature on this blog in an effort to get readers to spend a little more time on the site and encourage you to comeback more often. This feature will be at the end of each of the daily blogs, it will be the daily trivia question. Some of the answers will be found in the blogs archives, some of the answers will found on the companion website, some of the answers will be found on other websites. If you think that your website may contain some great information that I could use, please let me know.
Here is todays question: 10 ballparks that have hosted at least 15 Major League Baseball games sit an altitude of 10 feet or less, which one of the 10 parks has hosted the most Major League Games? I will reveal the answer in tomorrows daily blog which will take a look at three soccer games.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Thats Alot of Scoring
As I have stated before in this blog, in international sporting events scores have a bad habit if getting out of hand. Any give day of the year can easily prove this. Take February 16th for example, just in Ice Hockey, I have found four games betweeen the Olympics and the World Championships where scores got out of hand. I have also found 8 league games with the same type of results, half of them in the NHL. For today lets focus on the International contests.
We start on February 16, 1947 at Prague, Czechoslovakia and the World Championships. The Swedish and the team from Belgium played one such game. The Swedes averaged eight goals per period and the team from Belgium only scored 1 in losing 24-1. The Swedes finished with a strong 9 goal third period. If things were not bad enough for the Belgium team, they were defeated five days later by the Czechoslovakians by a score of 24-0.
At the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway, they had twice the fun. When the Switzerland-Finland game went into the third period with the Swiss leading 4-0, things were alot closer to being normal. Then the Swiss tripled their score in the final 20 minutes scoring 8 goals to finish off the Finns by a score of 12-0. The Swedes went into the second period of their game with the Poles with a slim 1-0 lead. A 9 goal second period went a long way towards a 17-1 win.
Not all the games had two countries facing each other. On February 16, 1959 in a Western Hockey League game at the Winnipeg Arena, the last place Winnipeg Warriors blasted the Edmonton Flyers by a score of 11-0.
If the team from Finland knew their history, they made sure that February 16, 1988 would not end the same way the day did 36 years earlier. They took out any frustations on the French beating them 10-0 at Winter Olympic games at Calgary. One never knows when the next game of this type will take place, my guess is it just might be at a hockey rink near you.
Tomorrow we will look at some interesting events in Basketball history.
We start on February 16, 1947 at Prague, Czechoslovakia and the World Championships. The Swedish and the team from Belgium played one such game. The Swedes averaged eight goals per period and the team from Belgium only scored 1 in losing 24-1. The Swedes finished with a strong 9 goal third period. If things were not bad enough for the Belgium team, they were defeated five days later by the Czechoslovakians by a score of 24-0.
At the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway, they had twice the fun. When the Switzerland-Finland game went into the third period with the Swiss leading 4-0, things were alot closer to being normal. Then the Swiss tripled their score in the final 20 minutes scoring 8 goals to finish off the Finns by a score of 12-0. The Swedes went into the second period of their game with the Poles with a slim 1-0 lead. A 9 goal second period went a long way towards a 17-1 win.
Not all the games had two countries facing each other. On February 16, 1959 in a Western Hockey League game at the Winnipeg Arena, the last place Winnipeg Warriors blasted the Edmonton Flyers by a score of 11-0.
If the team from Finland knew their history, they made sure that February 16, 1988 would not end the same way the day did 36 years earlier. They took out any frustations on the French beating them 10-0 at Winter Olympic games at Calgary. One never knows when the next game of this type will take place, my guess is it just might be at a hockey rink near you.
Tomorrow we will look at some interesting events in Basketball history.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
A Wild Day in the NBA
February 15, 1970 was no ordinary Sunday in the National Basketball Association. Five league games were played on that Sunday many years ago. The Philadelphia '76ers led by Jim Washington scored a monster 159-125 win over the Phoenix Suns. Washington led the '76ers with a game high 34 points. The '76ers also used a 47 point fourth quater to put the game out of reach, this gave them an 85 point second half. The two clubs combined to score an amazing 89 points in the fourth quarter at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. The '76ers 36 point first quarter was their weakest quarter of the game.
In that the facts of the game at Philadelphia were impressive to say the least, the '76ers were not the only league club to score a 47 point performance in their final quarter. The San Diego Rockets duplicated the feat in their game against the Cincinnati Royals at the San Diego Sports Arena. The Rockets used an 88 point second half performance, 36 points by Stu Lantz and 31 points by Elvin Hayes to beat the Royals 150-123. The Royals even outscored the Rockets in the second quarter and matched them in the third quarter with 41 points.
If these two games were not enough scoring for you, then at Atlanta there was the Hawks 146-125 win over the Boston Celtics. The Hawks were lead by Lou Hudson who scored 36 points. The Hawks however scored only 31 points in the final quarter in joining the Rockets and the '76ers as big winners in the night.
The biggest individual scorer of the night, did not appear in any of these games. Dave Bing of the Detriot Pistons led his team to a 126-119 win over the Chicago Bulls, with 38 points. The Pistons team total was good enough to take fourth place on the night and would have barely beaten out the forementioned losers of the night. There was however, a game that night where neither team even cracked a 100 points. The Los Angeles Lakers led by the great Jerry West scored a 98-96 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in Milwaukee. The Bucks were handicapped by a league low 18 points in the third quarter. West scored 28 points in the game.
Many fans would love it if games like this were to happen everyday. There are a couple of leagues currently operating that do regularly feature games with scoring like that, however further reading in this blog is one of several ways to find out which leagues I am referring to. I will not tell you the secret tomorrow, however we will take another look at international Ice Hockey.
In that the facts of the game at Philadelphia were impressive to say the least, the '76ers were not the only league club to score a 47 point performance in their final quarter. The San Diego Rockets duplicated the feat in their game against the Cincinnati Royals at the San Diego Sports Arena. The Rockets used an 88 point second half performance, 36 points by Stu Lantz and 31 points by Elvin Hayes to beat the Royals 150-123. The Royals even outscored the Rockets in the second quarter and matched them in the third quarter with 41 points.
If these two games were not enough scoring for you, then at Atlanta there was the Hawks 146-125 win over the Boston Celtics. The Hawks were lead by Lou Hudson who scored 36 points. The Hawks however scored only 31 points in the final quarter in joining the Rockets and the '76ers as big winners in the night.
The biggest individual scorer of the night, did not appear in any of these games. Dave Bing of the Detriot Pistons led his team to a 126-119 win over the Chicago Bulls, with 38 points. The Pistons team total was good enough to take fourth place on the night and would have barely beaten out the forementioned losers of the night. There was however, a game that night where neither team even cracked a 100 points. The Los Angeles Lakers led by the great Jerry West scored a 98-96 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in Milwaukee. The Bucks were handicapped by a league low 18 points in the third quarter. West scored 28 points in the game.
Many fans would love it if games like this were to happen everyday. There are a couple of leagues currently operating that do regularly feature games with scoring like that, however further reading in this blog is one of several ways to find out which leagues I am referring to. I will not tell you the secret tomorrow, however we will take another look at international Ice Hockey.
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