Did I Drop the Ball on the Hammer?

Every year I get my baseball annuals from the nearest bookstore, and the March/April issue of Baseball Digest is in this year's haul. Page 64 of that magazine tells me I might have erred greatly in relating a huge sports story for 1974. Here's what I wrote.

He [Hank Aaron] had finished 1973 one short of 714 [home runs], but ties the record in his first at-bat of the season in Cincinnati April 4...Commissioner Bowie Kuhn wanted him to skip that road series, but no way.

In this account ("The Game I'll Never Forget" by Hank Aaron as told to Bruce Levine and Joel Bierig), it is the Atlanta Braves' owner, Bill Bartholomay, who suggested that Aaron not play the two games following the first. But then, says the article:

...Commissioner Bowie Kuhn intervened. Barring tangible injury to Aaron, Kuhn ruled the Braves would face serious consequences if he didn't play in two of the season's first three contests.

Along with the first game, Aaron played the third game of that series. Two weeks from today marks the forty-fifth anniversary of the night he made history with his 715th home run.

In doing my research for the Muhammad Ali tribute, I'd been given a little doubt about the usual story of his "rope a dope," but I didn't change my post. In this case, however, I've probably been misled into posting the opposite of what really happened. Kuhn, in fact, urged the Braves to have the Hammer play ball when they didn't want to risk the milestone happening on the road. I will correct the baseball post now.

The Capitals' First Season

I went to my first Washington Nationals game June 9, and so many people there were "rocking the red" for the Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals. The hockey team was at the ballpark, and not only did they bring out the trophy for the ceremonial first pitch, but they would show it in the stands at several points to get the crowd to make noise. Make noise we did.

This hockey team, in its 43rd season, was the fourth-oldest extant NHL franchise that hadn't won the Cup (the St. Louis Blues, Buffalo Sabres, and Vancouver Canucks are older). They hadn't even made the final for 20 years, their '98 campaign ending in a sweep by the Detroit Red Wings.

The long journey began with the Capitals in a humble place. By the end of their first calendar year, they had lost 30 of their first 37 games, winning just one in each of their first three months. Long strings of L's or T's separate pairs of their 8 wins that season, including a 17-loss streak bookended by their Feb. 16, 1975, win over the Kansas City Scouts -- the team's first shutout -- and their March 28, 1975, win against the California Golden Seals -- the team's first road win.

Yvon Labre, scorer of the Caps' first home goal in their first home game and captain of the team later on in the '70s, was honored in 1981 with his sweater number, 7, being the first one retired. The defenseman came to the Beltway as the eighth pick in the expansion draft, leaving the Pittsburgh Penguins. He scored four goals and made 23 assists that first season, with 12 potted pucks and 84 helpers in his time with the team overall. Labre had a team-high 182 penalty minutes in that first season and 756 on the Caps altogether, for what it's worth.

Not until late in the '74-75 season would Capitals players get hat tricks. In a March 30 home game against Detroit, December trade acquisition Ron Lalonde accomplished the franchise's first, but the Red Wings still won 8-5. One week later, in the season finale, February trade acquisition Stan Gilbertson put four in the basket, helping the Caps win 8-4 over the visiting Penguins.

In the June 12 expansion draft, the Caps picked their goalies first: Ron Low from the Toronto Maple Leafs and Michel Belheumeur from the Philadelphia Flyers. Low is the goalie of record for all 8 wins and 36 of their 67 losses. Belheumeur made 52 saves Dec. 7, 1974 -- tied for a team record for one game -- but St. Louis won 8-2.

Jim Hrycuik scored the team's first goal Oct. 9, assisted by #1 draft pick Greg Joly and eventual All-Star Denis Dupere. Bill Mikkelsen's hooking penalty that night in Madison Square Garden was another team first. Jack Egers clinched the Capitals' first win Oct. 15, and Mike Bloom got in the franchise's first fight two days later. The team's overall goals leader was Tommy Williams with 22, and his 36 assists and 58 points paced the club as well.

The Capitals attracted 10,004 per home game, with two sellouts. The day after Christmas 1974 was their first; they drew 18,130 to that Thursday contest against the eventual champion Flyers. On the road, the Caps didn't even win until their third-to-last away game, the one in California. They allowed 12 goals on two occasions in the season and 14 in one game the next season.

Needless to say, the Capitals have come a long way. How they got to the summit of hockey is a story that's probably been told elsewhere; my blog's purpose is to cover the year the Capitals began. Come to think of it, this stands in contrast to a certain other team's maiden voyage.

Source for most data: 2017-18 Capitals Media Guide, available here for now

Arnold Palmer, 1929-2016

Arnold Palmer died two weeks before yesterday.

In 1974, he was named to the first class of the World Golf Hall of Fame. The 44-year-old was a year removed from what would be his 62nd and final PGA Tour win at the 1973 Bob Hope Classic, and his prime was in the rear-view mirror. A four-time Masters champion, Palmer went 5 under in the final round of the 1974 edition to finish 2 over par for a share of eleventh place.

He finished fifth at the US Open during a tough tournament. His total score was 292 -- five strokes behind Hale Irwin, who won while going 7 over -- including a high 76 in the final round. Palmer had finished third and fourth in the previous two years and would finish in the top ten for the last time in 1975, placing ninth.

At the PGA Championship, a second-round 75 on a par-70 helped bring Palmer to 9 over par and a tie for 28th place, which was an improvement over his missing the cut the previous year. Outside the majors, he was consistent at the Western Open and wound up tied with three other players for fifth. That was his only top-ten finish of the year other than the US Open.

Another note: in 1974, Palmer bought a Cadillac dealership in Charlotte, and one former employee reports the golfer treated everyone well there.

After that year, he played in PGA Tour events for 30 years more. Such was his legacy.

Pat Summitt, 1952-2016

Pat Summitt died Tuesday. Her accomplishments in the sphere of women's basketball are unparalleled.

One of the most appreciated individuals in University of Tennessee history, Pat Head received her physical education bachelor's in 1974 after four years on the Martin campus, and that fall she started coaching in Knoxville. She was teaching in Martin when she received the letter requesting that she dedicate her winters to the "excellent potential team" that was the Lady Vols. They finished 16-8 in her first year, and the 16-11 team of the next year would remain the only Tennessee squad on her watch not to win at least two-thirds of its games.

Head was so young in the mid-'70s that after her first season on the sidelines in Knoxville (and the one grad school year it took for her to get her master's), she was on the court for the US team at the 1975 women's world championship and the subsequent Pan American Games. She won a silver medal at the '76 Olympics, and she coached the national team in 1980, the year she married the man with whom she'd stay for over a quarter-century.

Her first staff included Judy Rose, UNC-Charlotte's future athletics director. Though Rose began her time at Charlotte in 1976, she remained a close friend over the years. Rose recalls, among many other things, Summitt's willingness to "mentor younger people coming up," something she saw on frequent encounters in high school gyms with the woman who'd hired her in '74.

There was much more to Summitt than her signature stare. She was all business when she needed to be and less serious other times. Like any good coach, she'd have players work hard (and preferably smart), but even while she was on the job, they could call her Pat.

[EDIT 11/30/2023, 2:15 p.m.: Added "basketball" label]

Gordie Howe, 1928-2016

Gordie Howe died Friday.

In the 1973-74 season, after two years off the ice, the 45-year-old first laced up skates for the Houston Aeros of the WHA, leaving an uneventful job in the Detroit Red Wings' front office to join sons Mark and Marty. His signing in June of '73 no doubt captivated audiences and drew all sorts of reactions.

His wrists might not have been what they used to be, and fears of the comeback being a flop preceded the season, but he was still a very capable player, and it didn't just seem that way because of the league in which he played. His 69 assists in '73-74 were the second-most in the WHA, and his total of 100 points was the third-highest. Led by the Howes, the Aeros won the Avco Cup. Also among Gordie's hardware was the MVP award, which by the end of the league's time bore his name.

Before the next season, Gordie joined the WHA's delegation for a series structured almost like the Summit Series two years before. His wearing of the Canadian red and white, he said, would assure his countrymen that despite over a quarter-century in Detroit and his move to Texas of all places that he was still one of their own. A repeat of '72 wasn't to be, but it gave the Soviet players a chance to play against Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull, two legends who couldn't be present the last time.

With another championship in '74-75, as well as 34 goals and 65 assists, Gordie was once again the right winger for the mythical all-WHA team (as opposed to the one that visited Moscow). His role in the WHA's influence on hockey was no small one, to say nothing of his illustrious career in the NHL.