🗓On This Day : January 4th, 1984
Adrian Dantley knocked down 28 of 29 free throw attempts in a Utah Jazz 116-111 victory over the Houston Rockets. The 28 makes tied the record set by Wilt Chamberlin for the most converted freebies in a NBA Game. Dantley finished the game with 46 points. Did you know the contest was one of 11 home games that the Jazz played in Las Vegas at the Thomas & Mack Center that season?
Today we’re remembering the AFC Divisional Round Cleveland Browns Overtime Victory over the New York Jets, most commonly referred to as ‘The Marathon By The Lake.’ Browns Quarterback Bernie Kosar threw for 489 yards in the 4 hour plus contest, a playoff passing yardage record he held until 2017. Who broke Bernie’s Record?
The Browns last Playoff Home game just happened to be another famous Nickname Game in Cleveland history:
The infamous ‘Red Right 88’ game played six years earlier against the Oakland Raiders back on 1-4-1981.
With the Marathon victory over NY, perhaps an even more popular Nickname game came to be the following week. Any guesses on that one?? Hint: 98 yards
Wishing everyone a Happy & prosperous New Year! Bring Back the Sonics!
Can you name these seven Super Sonics who sported # 24 for the franchise?
Can you name these masked men of NFL Past?
Who can tell us the voice synonymous with this Introduction?
This is Clemente Nunez. He became the 1st player signed by the Expansion Florida Marlins back on December 16th, 1991. Clemente was a 16 year old pitcher from the Dominican Republic at the time with an 88mph fastball.
He never did make it to the show however, but had a few decent seasons in the Marlins Farm system. His best outing came on May 28th, 1995 as a member of the Brevard Manatees, when he tossed a no-hitter against the West Palm Beach Expos. In fact he was only 1 walk away from a perfect game that day in the 2-0 decision.
The No-No was actually the 2nd one to occur for the new organization. A 25th round draft pick threw one in 1993 for the Elmira Pioneers of the New York-Penn League. Can you name him?
The Big League Marlins wouldn’t record their first no-hitter until the 1996 season. Who threw it?
Back in 2000, during a 90-85 Phoenix Suns loss to the NY Knicks, Suns point guard Jason Kidd tied a record he probably wished he hadn’t by committing 14 turnovers in the game. Can you dig deep in NBA lore and tell us the player who also threw the ball away that many times way back in 1978?
Oh yeah! Despite his sloppy night, Jason did happen to also record a Triple Double. 18 points, 12 rebounds, & 10 assists.
On this Day - 1988 The Expansion Miami Heat finally claim their first victory as a franchise. After a 0-17 start, the Heat were able to squeak out a 1 point win over the Los Angeles Clippers 89-88. Grant Long, Pat Cummings, & Billy Thompson each scored 15 for the victorious Heat. Danny Manning led the Clippers with 23.
November 26th, 1990
There must’ve been quite the Turkey Day Hangover happening back in Week 12 of the 1990 NFL Season, as all Six 1st place teams would lose over the Holiday weekend.
However, each of those teams would hold onto their first place standing over the last weeks of the season, winning their respective divisions. (There were only six divisions back in 1990)
Can you name those Six Teams? Select the Quarterbacks pictured below representing each team.
For more Bonus Points —Name the 1990 Quarterback that…
Was Voted League MVP
Won Offensive Player of Year
Threw most INT’s
Lost in Super Bowl
Won Super Bowl (not pictured)
Had longest Pass
Always one of my favorite cheap card sets back in the day. 1990 Pro-Set.
Barry Sanders historic 2,053 yard rushing season in 1997 included a huge performance on Thanksgiving Day against the Chicago Bears. Sanders ran through the Bears Defense for 167 yards on 19 carries with three TD’s in a 55-20 Detroit win. Always thought it kinda sucked that the Lions were on TV every Thanksgiving, but at least we all got to watch Barry’s brilliance each year. Happy Turkey Day Dudes!!
November 22nd, 1987 - Chicago, IL- During the Sunday Evening News recap of a Chicago Bears 30-10 victory over the Detroit Lions, an un-identified person dressed in a Max Headroom mask, hi-jacked the WGN Channel 9 broadcast for almost 30 seconds. Sportscaster Dan Rohn seemed quite confused but waved off the wacky interruption as a computer glitch.
Approximately two hours later during an episode of ‘Dr. Who?’ on Chicago Channel 11 (WTTW) the mysterious masked Max was back. This time there was audio to go along with the disorienting frenetic visuals. Channel 11 engineers weren’t able to stop the feed for 1 minute & 28 seconds. During the masked bandit’s rant, for reasons unknown, he also called out local Sports Voice Chuck "The Swirsk" Swirsky as some kind of ‘Frickin Liberal.’ This is quite the odd mashup of Sports/Pop culture with True Crime. I suggest you guys check out the clips on YouTube, as well as the @unresolvedpod episode on this bizarre act of anarchy. Any other Blaze/True Crime fans out there??
Spoiler Alert!!
No one has ever been charged with the crime, nor has anyone taken responsibility. The statute of limitations has expired in this case. To be continuted………
Since 1961 there have only been 12 occurrences of a ‘Battery’ (Catcher & Pitcher) hitting back-to-back home runs. Montreal Expos Catcher Sal Buerta & Pitcher Bryn Smith hit back to back shots off Cubs reliever Ray Fontenot back on August 14th, 1985. It wouldn’t happen again until a couple of Cardinals did it in 1994.
I’ve got a FREE Issue of Blaze for the first person who messages over the Cardinals Battery who went back to back.
After kicking a 22 yard field goal with :54 seconds left in the 4th quarter to send the game into Overtime, St. Louis Cardinals kicker Neil O’donoghue would go on to miss 3 field goals in the extra period, to secure a 20-20 tie with NFC East foe, The New York Football Giants. This happens to be the only tie game in Monday Night Football history;
Ken Hubbs became the 1st Rookie to win a Gold Glove back in 1962. Sadly Ken would pass away at just 22 years old in February of 1964 as the small plane he piloted crashed in snowstorm near Provo,Utah.
An ** can go next to Boston Red Sox’s third baseman Frank Malzone, who arguably was first Rookie to win the award back in the inaugural year of the Gold Glove, 1957. See, Frank had already qualified as a rookie in 1956 by old standards, but using today’s eligibility guidelines, Malzone’s would have been considered a rookie in 1957.
Another fun fact is that Malzone, would win the 3B Gold Glove honor for the first three seasons of the awards existence, (‘57-’60) before a Baltimore Oriole named Brooks Robinson would emerge on the scene and take the award for the next sixteen seasons.
📅 On November 8th,1989, Chicago Cubs OF Jerome Walton was named the National League Rookie of the Year. He was the 1st Cubbie to win the award in 27 seasons.
Any Blaze fans out there who can tell the crowd that previous ROY winner from 1962?
Bonus points if you can also name the runner up in 1989.
(Hint) He happened to be Jerome's teammate. 🔥
Flashing it way back this Friday to November 8th, 1970 when New Orleans Saints Kicker Tom Dempsey kicked an NFL record 63 yard field goal. Tom was born without toes on his right foot, so he was forced to wear a modified square looking kicking shoe. The boot at the end of regulation gave the Saints a 19-17 victory over the Detroit Lions. A few dudes were able to match this feat over the years, but it wouldn’t be surpassed until 2013 when Matt Prater hit a 64 yarder. Happy Friday!!
On November 5th, 1992 Dominique Wilkins poured in 30 points in an Opening Night 106-94 loss to the New York Knicks. For his efforts ‘The Human Highlight Reel’ became the 17th player in NBA History to reach the 20,000 point plateau. He would finish his playing days with 26,668 career points. Happy Friday Everybody!!
