Fiers shaved off the tail after that game, but perhaps the legend is true that cats have nine lives. On Wednesday, it made a comeback, sort of.
Detroit Tigers Face CoveringsJeff Passan: As partial as I am to the Carter/Alomar/McGriff/Fernandez blockbuster trade in 1990, the only answer is the Texas Rangers signing Alex Rodriguez to a 10-year, $252 million deal at the 2000 meetings in Dallas. It's the single most consequential contract in sports history.
Well, in Orlando a couple of years ago, I found myself in line to get food behind Bill James. I'm not unlike many baseball writers and wanna-be analysts -- James has had and continues to have a profound impact on the way I think about the game. We also happen to have both been raised in the rural Midwest. I was introduced to him once years ago at a SABR event in Kansas City, but it was awkward and fleeting, so I knew he didn't recognize me. I followed him through the food line, which had to take at least 10 minutes. I encountered him again waiting for the elevator, then rode up the elevator with him for a few floors, just the two of us. I may have nodded at him at some point, but no words were exchanged.
Minnesota Twins Face CoveringsWhen the Phillies returned home from a road trip a few days later, white fans took their anger out on Allen. “Every time a ball was hit to Allen, fair or foul, every time he came to bat, the crowd booed. It was not just a few hundred people, but many thousands,” sportswriter Arnold Hano wrote at the time. Though Allen wasn’t the only Black player on the team, his stature as an outspoken star made him a target for hostile white fans. The booing became so commonplace that a September article in the Philadelphia Inquirer expressed astonishment that Allen hadn’t been booed.
Sills said the fact that a decision was made so quickly on close contacts was a reflection of the league's intensive protocol and the "tremendous job" the Ravens have done with compliance around their facility leading up to the game.
Los Angeles Angels Face CoveringsPhillies managing partner John Middleton broke from the team's longstanding "unwritten" policy of retiring only the number of players who are in the Hall of Fame to honor Allen.
That night, on April 17, 1963, the 21-year-old Allen would be making his debut for the Arkansas Travelers, the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate. In doing so he would be breaking the minor league team’s color barrier, a prospect that enraged a local white supremacist group that led the protest outside Travelers Field.
Seattle Mariners Face Coverings