Yours truly was born thirty-seven years ago this week. Fittingly, the night before was the infamous Cleveland 10 cent beer night game that resulted in a forfeiture when fans started throwing chairs and beer bottles on the field. This, of course, led to a reaction against Beer Nights in baseball. (By the way, if we adjust for inflation, this would be like having something less than 50 cent beer night now at a baseball game).

I watched this game in the middle of the night at an Arrowhead watch party, awesome atmosphere: USA 3, Portugal 2 (2002) . . . Kevin McHale cheap shots Kurt Rambis (1984) . . . Drazen Petrovic dies in car crash (1993) . . . An inadvertent message leads to AP reporting invasion of Europe a day early, and on June 6th, the Normandy landings began (1944) . . . Larry Bird is richest rookie in sports history, at 3.25 million for 5 years (1979) . . . John Rocker goes after Jeff Pearlman (2000) . . . Baseball postponed games after Robert Kennedy was assassinated (1968) . . . Mark Spitz goes from Olympic hero to dud (1976) . . .

Insufferable Ohio State fans probably stuffed the ballots to vote the 1968 Buckeyes National Championship team as the best of the decade (1970) . . . Jim Frey accuses Mike Scott of scuffing the ball with sandpaper (1985) . . . Michael Chang beats #1 ranked Ivan Lendl en route to becoming youngest French Open champion (1989) . . . Jake LaMotta quits boxing (1954) . . . Gordie Howe retires (1980) . . . Rafael Nadal makes his first French Open Final after beating Federer (2005) . . . AFL and NFL both talk about expansion (1965) . . . Gym classes must be sexually integrated, except for bodily contact sports (1975) . . .

A campaign to save the Winnipeg Jets from moving is close to collapsing (1995) . . . Portugal stuns England in World Cup, Mexico wins its opener as the hosts over the Red Devils (1986) . . . Albert Belle sent to AAA after loafing on a double play (1991) . . . LA Voters decide whether to give Dodgers property at Chavez Ravine (1958) . . . Canada tries to make a bid for the 1986 World Cup, when it looks like Colombia won’t be ready after being awarded the tournament 8 years earlier (1982) . . . Baseball Uniform Barbie (1999) . . . NFLPA asks federal commission to ban the use of artificial turf until safety studies done (1973) . . . Lemieux ends Gretzky’s string of 8 straight years as league MVP (1988).

[photo via Getty]