Wednesday, October 26, 2005

The Royal Order of Beatles...

This was the day in 1965 that the Beatles rocked the Palace. On October 26, 1965 the Queen of England awarded the Fab Four the prestigious MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) at Buckingham Palace in London. The Beatles were now royalty...

The Beatles also made this date famous with other events in the 60s, 70s and 80s as highlighted below in my dateline of memories...

More October 26 Memories...

1955) "Rebel Without A Cause" starring James Dean premieres several weeks after the death of the 24-year old acting phenom...

1955) "The Village Voice" recently sold just days ago, is published for the first time...

1962) The Beatles perform at the Liverpool Empire. Also on the bill is Little Richard...

1965) The Beatles receive MBE honors at Buckingham Palace (feature story)...

1968) "Hey Jude" by the Beatles tops the charts for the 9th consecutive week...

1970) Gary Trudeau's "Doonesbury" premieres in 28 newspapers...

1971) Al Green's "Tired of Being Alone" goes gold...

1973) Paul McCartney & Wings release "Helen Wheels" in the U.K...

1978) Nick Gilder tops the charts with "Hot Child in the City"...

1980) 22-year old college senior Alberto Salazar runs his first New York City Marathon and sets a new course record of 2 hours 9 minutes 41 seconds...

1982) Australia's Men at Work top the charts with "Who Can It Be Now ?" (One of the groups I promoted while at CBS Records International)...

1984) Paul McCartney promotes his film "Give My Regards To Broad Street" and its soundtrack album on "Good Morning America"...

1985) Umpire Don Denkinger's controversial 1st base call helps Kansas City beat St. Louis in Game 6 of the World Series (see my commentary)...

1988) The Beatles' 1967 film "Magical Mystery Tour" is released on home video...

1990) William S. Paley, founder of CBS Inc. dies at 89...

1990) Wayne Gretzky becomes the first NHL player to reach 2,000 points...

1991) Former Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry begins a 6-month sentence for cocaine possession...

1994) Wilbert ("Kansas City") Harrison dies of a stroke at 65...

1996) The Yankees come back from a 2-game deficit to beat the Braves to win the World Series, their 1st since 1978...

1996) Federal prosecutors clear Richard Jewell as a suspect in the Olympic park bombing...

1997) The Florida Marlins beat the Cleveland Indians to win the World Series after only 5 years of existence...

1998) The Mets potential free-agent all-star catcher Mike Piazza signs the most lucrative contract in major league history when he agrees to 7 years and over $91 million dollars from the Mets...

2000) The Yankees become the 1st team in more than a quarter of a century to win 3 straight World Series championships by beating the Mets in Game 5 of the "Subway Series" (see my commentary)...

2002) Chechen rebels siege hostages at a Moscow theater. Russian special forces use a deadly knockout gas in an attempt to rescue hostages but 129 of the 800 plus captives die...

Happy Birthday To...

1942) Bob Hoskins...

1947) Hillary Rodham Clinton...

1947) Pat Sajak...

1947) Jaclyn Smith...

1962) Dylan McDermott...

1963) Natalie ("10,000 Maniacs) Merchant

1984) Figure skater Sasha Cohen...

Commentary...

I have 2 baseball related stories, both are connected to the World Series. ESPN recently interviewed former umpire Don Denkinger who blew (admittedly) an obvious call at 1st base in the 1985 World Series that not only led to Kansas City winning the game but the World Series also. The other story is about being at Game 5 of the 2000 World Series...

Don Denkinger was pretty sure he made the right call on that play but when he saw the video replay after the game, realized he blew it. What followed were hate letters and even death threats from irate Cardinal fans. His family was also threatened. Denkinger has the photo of that play on his wall along with highlights of his career. When asked why he simply answered that he wanted a reminder that people can make mistakes in their lives. If ESPN ever runs that piece again make an effort to watch it...

Story 2 is a sad one for me. Diane and I were at Game 5 of the 2000 "Subway Series" between the Yankees and Mets and when Mike Piazza hit a long drive to the warning track that Bernie Williams had in his sights, I turned to Diane and said "we're out of here". I did not want to see the ball come down in Williams glove for the 3rd out of the game nor see the Yankees celebrate on Shea Stadium soil...