Completing a Trifecta...
New York City had already owned championships in baseball and football by virtue of the Mets winning the World Series and the Jets with a Super Bowl win in the same season. The Knicks had a chance to make it a trifecta if they could beat the Lakers in Game 7...
19,500 screaming spectators were on hand at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, May 8, 1970. The big question that night was "would he or wouldn't he ?". He, being Willis Reed answered that question when he limped on to the court looking like Chester of "Gunsmoke". The Lakers could have taken the next flight back to Los Angeles at that point because Reed's presence inspired the Knicks to play their best basketball of the year when it counted the most. Reed would only score 4 points after injuring a thigh muscle in Game 5 but just seeing Willis provided the inspiration this team needed...
Walt "Clyde" Frazier pumped in 36 points with 19 assists and the Knicks team played as they never played before. Final score: Knicks 113 Lakers 99. The Knicks won their 1st NBA title and locked up a Trifecta for New York Sports...
More May 8 Memories...
1886] Atlanta pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invents the flavored syrup for Coca-Cola (which originally contained a dash of cocaine used in the 1800's for stomach distress, honest)...
1879] George Selden applies for the 1st automobile patent (so how come people weren't driving around in a model A Selden ?)...
1915] Regret becomes the first filly to win the Kentucky Derby (hey, how about my pick of Barbaro ?)...
1926] A fire destroys the left field stands at Fenway Park (the bleachers along the left field foul line are not replaced, giving outfielders a chance to catch fly balls hit that way)...
1935] Jockey Ralph Neves is declared dead after being trampled by 4 horses during a race at California's Bay Meadows. Placed in a storage area, somehow he is "revived". Ralph hails a cab and goes back to the track to ride the next day...
1944] The 1st "eye bank" is established in New York City...
1945] President Harry S. Truman announces that WWII has officially ended in Europe...
1956] That handsome devil Alfred E. Neuman appears on the cover of Mad Magazine for the 1st time...
1958] President Dwight D. Eisenhower orders the National Guard out of Little Rock as Ernest Green becomes the 1st black to graduate from an Arkansas public school...
1960] Diplomatic relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union resume (which can only mean one thing: Trouble with a capital "T")...
1961] The New York Metropolitan Baseball Club, Inc. announces the new team's nickname: the Mets...
1967] Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction in the U.S. Army (his heavyweight title was taken away earlier)...
1969] The 5th Dimension are #1 with "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In"...
1970] The Beatles "Let It Be" LP is released...
1973] Militant American Indians who had held the South Dakota town of Wounded Knee for 10 weeks, surrender...
1977] Olivia Newton-John makes her New York City debut with a concert at the Metropolitan Opera House (after barely not being allowed to enter because she was wearing boots)...
1977] Leo Sayer becomes the only singer to wear pancake makeup and a clown suit and have a #1 hit, with "When I Need You"...
1978] "Son of Sam" a.k.a. David R. Berkowitz pleads quilty to 6 murder charges in Brooklyn...
1984] Joanie (Erin Moran) and Chaci (Scott Baio) get hitched on ABC-TV's "Happy Days"...
1988] "Anything For You" is #1 for Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine...
1987] Gary Hart, hounded by questions of the Donna Rice "Love Boat" cruise, withdraws from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination...
1988] Mike Tyson crashes his $183,000 Bently on Varick Street in Manhattan (when asked why he crashed his car he replies "what car ?")...
1994] President Clinton announces that the U.S. will no longer repatriate boat people (Cuban pitchers return to their teams)...
1997] Tea Leoni and David Duchovny walk down the aisle in Greenwich Village (but only after Tea signs a pre-nuptial agreeing that "they are out there")...
1999] The 1st female cadet graduates from The Citadel...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
"Kissing Time"...
That guy in Cincinnati who was caught on camera by a parole officer while attending a Reds game was not "killing" his girlfriend (unless it was "softly with his song"), he was "kissing" her. And that's why they call it "Kiss Cam", Mel...
Happy Birthday To...
1926] Environmentalist and nature show host David Attenborough ("right now I'm standing on an active volcano where the temperature is over 1,000 degrees and I could evaporate at any moment"...)
1926] Don ("I kid because I love") Rickles...
1942] Former jockey, now current trainer Angel Cordero Jr...
1943] Toni Tennille...
1951] Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind and Fire...
1964] Melissa Gilbert...
[Today is the 128th day of 2006 with 237 days left in the year and 21 days remaining until Memorial Day]...
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