Daily Archives: April 6, 2022

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The ancient Greeks, who staged the first Olympic Games back in 776 B.C., gave the world the idea of organized big-time sports events as entertainment for arenas full of spectators. More than that, they were the first culture in which people idolized their favorite athletic superstars, to a level that even todays most fanatical sports fans might find extreme.

The Greeks believed that athletes had special powers, explains David Lunt, an associate professor of history at Southern Utah University who is an expert on ancient Greek athletics and author of The Crown Games of Ancient Greece: Archaeology, Athletes and Heroes. They commissioned poems to be sung about them, and they told stories about statues of athletes that could heal people."

Lunt cites the example of Theagenes of Thasos, a champion boxer, runner and competitor in Pankration, the ancient equivalent of mixed martial arts, who was so idolized for his athletic prowess that archaeologists in the 1930s found an altar at which he was venerated, centuries after his death. As Lunt says, They were pretty crazy for these athletes.

The ancient Greeks may have loved sports because males grew up participating in them. As Lunt notes, every Greek city had its own gymnasium, where local males took off their clothes and competed in the nude at various sports, such as wrestling and foot races.

The Greeks valued physical and athletic prowess, and the toned male body was sought after as aesthetically pleasing, says Zina Giannopoulou, an associate professor of classics at the University of California, Irvine who has comparedthe ancient and modern Olympics. Physical strength and prowess were also signs of moral strength, denoting self-discipline, hard work, and dedication to winning. Athletes were seen as the epitome of arete, a Greek word that means virtue or excellence.

The Greeks also simply loved to watch competitions. In addition to the Olympics every four years, they held games at other religious festivalsthe Pythian Games for Apollo at Delphi, the Isthmian Games for Poseidon and the Nemean Games, which honored Zeus. The Crown Games, as these competitions collectively were known, featured a range of events, from chariot races to track and field events and combat sports.

The athletes who competed in these events most likely were well-to-do Greeks who could afford to train instead of having to work for a living. If you wanted to compete in the Olympics, you had to show up at least a month early to train under the watch of the officials, who presumably would weed out anybody who wasnt up to the level of competition, Lunt says.

The Greeks didnt have team sports, only individual competitions, and they didnt allow women to compete in eventsor even, in the case of married women, to attend the games. There was one legendary exceptionKallipateira of Rhodes, who disguised herself as a male trainer so she could watch her sons boxing match. When caught, she defended herself by saying that she of all women should be allowed to attend having had a father, three brothers, a son, and a nephew who had among themselves won eight times, says Giannopoulou. Her life was spared, but in the aftermath the trainers were required to attend the Games in the nude.

Here are some of the sports in which ancient Greek athletes competed.

Greek hero and king of Argos n Amphiaraus depicted competing in a chariot race in a relief dating to the 4th century B.C.

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Chariot races were one of the oldest Greek sportsartistic evidence on ancient pottery suggests that the event dates back to the Mycenean Period from 1600 to 1100 B.C., and the poet Homer describes a chariot race held at the funeral of Patroclus in the Iliad, Giannopoulou notes. First included in the Olympics in 680 B.C., drivers raced in both four and two-horse chariot races.

According to Miller, the race consisted of 12 laps around a hippodrome, or horse track, and then 12 times in the opposite direction. The actual length varied depending upon where the event was held. Chariot racing was an expensive sport to compete in, and the owners of the horses and chariotswho watched as drivers competed in their nameused the event to flaunt their wealth. Hippodromes didnt have a divider in the center of the oval, head-on crashes between chariots and horse teams sometimes occurred, which made chariot racing an extremely dangerous sport.

Relief depicting horses and riders commemorating the victory of the Leontis tribe in a horse race, Athens, Greece.

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Kele, or riders competing in horseback, was added to the Olympics in 648 B.C., according to Millers book. The race was about 1.2 kilometers (approximately three quarters of a mile) in length. The jockeyswho were young boys and probably slavesrode bareback, without stirrups, though they did have reins and a whip to guide the horses.

Art on an ancient Greek cup features athletes running.

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The Greeks loved footraces, particularly the stadion, which was named after an ancient unit of measurement and corresponded to the 200-meter sprint in modern track, according to Stephen Gaylord Millers Ancient Greek Athletics. From 776 to 726 B.C., it was the only event at the Olympic Games. The Greeks later added the diaulos, the equivalent of todays 400 meters event, as well as a distance event, the dolichos, which was between 7.5 and 9 kilometersroughly similar to the 10K event that countless recreational runners now participate in each weekend. But the Greeks had one event that has no modern counterpartthe hoplitodromos, in which competitors emulated Greek infantry, and ran wearing helmets and bronze shin guards and carried shields.

A relief depicting a wrestling competition between athletes, from Kerameikos necropolis, Athens, Greece, circa 510 B.C.

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In ancient Greek-style wrestling, grapplers fought in a standing position, with the object of throwing the opponent to the ground, according to Miller. The concept of pinning an adversarys shoulders to the ground didnt yet exist. Instead, wrestlers won a match by throwing an opponent three times. Another unique feature of the ancient event was that there were no weight classes, according to Lunt. The most fearsome wrestler of ancient times wasMilos of Kroton, who in legend developed his great strength by lifting and carrying a newborn calf until it grew into a full-sized ox.

A ancient Greek athlete competing in the discus.

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The discus and javelin, to modern field events, date back to the ancient Greeks, but back then, they werent separate events. Instead, they were part of the pentathlon, a five-event combination that also included the long jump, running and wrestling. The Greeks had lead or stone weights, called halteres, that some believe jumpers used in an effort to propel themselves further during the competition, though Lunt believes that the weights were only used in training.

Ancient Greek boxing, as portrayed on a ceramic vessel.

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Unlike modern boxing, the Greeks version had no rounds and no time limit. Instead, boxers simply fought until one man was either unable to continue or admitted that he was beaten. Like wrestling, the Greek boxers competed in a single open division, and they wore thin leather thongs called himantes around their knuckles and wrists, but no padded gloves.

The Pankration was an athletic contest that combined boxing, wrestling and kicking.

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This sport, whose name means complete victory in ancient Greek, was a sort of no-holds barred version of modern mixed martial arts. According to Thomas A. Greens Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia, Vol.1, contestants used some of the same techniques as modern MMA, including boxing punches, elbows, knee strikes, low kicks aimed at an opponents legs, submission holds and ground grappling. They also were allowed to hit or kick opponents in the groin, something thats not allowed in MMA, and unlike modern UFC fighters, they didnt wear gloves, which allowed them to use karate-style knife hand strikes. Only biting and gouging were outlawed.

According to Michael B. Poliakoffs Combat Sports in the Ancient World: Competition, Violence, and Culture, Sostratos of Sikyon won numerous crowns in competitions by bending opponents fingers back painfully until they were in danger of breaking (another technique outlawed in MMA).

Instead of the octagon, with its padded surface, competitors fought in a sand pit. The result was a bloody, brutal contest that not only tested an athletes fighting skills, but his ability to endure pain. As the 2nd Century A.D. writer Lucian described, fighters would pummel each other until their mouths were full of blood and sand, as a referee urges them on and praises the one who struck the blow.

Ancient Greek athletes didnt earn anything comparable to the astronomical salaries that NBA and NFL players receive today, though they did have an opportunity to win prizes. At the Panathenaea, the games held to honor Athens and Athena, the winner of a foot race got 200 large, ornate jars filled with olive oil.

I guess he could sell it, or else it would be a lifetime supply, Lunt says. But for many ancient competitors, the adulation of the crowd, and the chance to achieve immortality because of their ability, may have been enough of a payoff.

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7 Sports of Ancient Greece - History

A decade before Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, a tiny team of renegades attempted to build the modern smartphone. Nearly forgotten by history, a little startup called Handspring tried to make the future before it was ready. In Springboard: the secret history of the first real smartphone, Dieter Bohn talks to the visionaries at Handspring and dives into their early successes and eventual failures.

Join us at the Computer History Museum (CHM) in Mountain View, California, on Friday, May 6th, at 7PM PT for a screening of Springboard and a panel discussion featuring Dieter Bohn, former Handspring CEO Donna Dubinsky, and former Handspring president and COO Ed Colligan.

Registration for the free event is open now. Everyone who enters CHM must be vaccinated, including all staff, volunteers, and visitors. Please review CHMs health and safety guidelines prior to visiting the Museum.

The program will also be livestreamed using Zoom. Make sure to sign up for virtual access using the registration form. Guests registered for the virtual program will receive a link to join 24 hours prior to the event date.

Springboard is also streaming online. You can watch it on The Verges YouTube channel or our new app on Android TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, or Apple TV.

To watch on your TV, visit your preferred streaming devices app store and search for The Verge, or follow these instructions for each of the streaming devices.

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Join us for a screening and panel discussion of Springboard at the Computer History Museum - The Verge

In the five weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, scores of articles have drawn upon history to explain Moscow's actions and intent. Some point to the Soviet suppression of a democracy movement in Hungaryin 1956, while others draw lessons from the Russian Federations assault on the Chechen city of Groznyin 1999. The idea seems to be to fit Russias actions in Ukraine into a playbook that might tell us what happens next. But this approach, whether applied to the current conflict or others, often obscures the uniqueness of given historical events. The 20th-century philosopher George Santayana said that those who do not understand the past are condemned to repeat it.Notice that Santayana chose the word past and not the word history. That is because history constructs a story of the past; history itself is not repeatable.

But it is important, and historical cases can offer lessons and insights about potential pitfalls that lie ahead. Understanding how present events differ from those of the past adds additional, vital nuance to analysis. Conversely, drawing straight lines from history to explain todays situation is not particularly helpful because Russias actions in Ukraine are without parallel. Russia, today, is not the Soviet Union; the Russian military not the Red Army; Ukraine is not Chechnya; this war is not like Afghanistan in the 1980s. Or in other words history does not quite repeat itself.

History as playbook has been used to paint the Ukraine conflict as start of larger battle for Europe. Citing 20th-century events, some have suggested that after Ukraine, Russia will move on to other countries, like the Baltics or Poland. The Soviet suppression of pro-democracy movements in Hungary in 1956, in Czechoslovakia in 1968, and once again in Poland in 1980, suggest a sequence of dominoes that have fallen in the past, and will continue now with the Russians in Ukraine.

But even if it is Putins intent to knock over one domino of a European country after another, the Russian Armyunlike the Soviet Army of oldsimply does not have the capacity to do that. Eastern European countries are no longer members of the Soviet Bloc, but rather members of NATO and the European Union, and as such have collective defense agreements that make it unlikely that Russia could pick them off one at a time. Moreover, with an estimated three-quarters of its battalion tactical groups committed to Ukraine, Russia does not have the combat nor the logistical capability to widen the conflict further. At this point, it is barely holding onto slivers of Ukrainian territory on the eastern edge of the country. Even the thought of attacking to the west, to seal off the border with Poland, is a pipe dream.

History has also been used to predict the operational contours of the Ukraine conflict. In particular, the fact that Russians turned most of the Grozny to rubble has been used to argue that Moscow will likely adopt a similar approach today in Ukraine. However, the differences between Ukraine today and Chechnya in 1999 are important. Chechnya was a small Russian territory with 1.3 million inhabitants; Ukraine is a sovereign nation with over 43 million people. Grozny had less than a fifth the number of residents and a third of the geographical area of Ukraines capital, Kyiv. As such, Russia in 1999 could easily surround Grozny and pummel it to the ground without any real fear of Chechen attacks against it. Not so with Kyiv.

Finally, history has been used to predict the duration of the conflict. The analogy commonly used here is the case of the Soviet Army in Afghanistan. In that war, the Soviet Army remained in Afghanistan for about a decade, while suffering at least 15,000 casualties. The argument is that Ukraine will become a similarly protracted conflict. But again, the differences between then and now, and the two invaded nations, are crucial: The Soviet deployment to Afghanistansome 115,000 troops at its peakwas still only 2.5 percent of the 4.5-million-man Soviet Army at that time. The casualties that Russia is suffering in Ukraine are orders of magnitude higher than in Afghanistan. It appears that Russia may have already lost 7,000 to 15,000 soldiers in just the first month. Moreover, military support given to Ukrainiansalready amounting to billions of dollars from 25 countriesis an order of magnitude more than what the United States gave to the Afghan mujahadeen in the early years of the Soviet campaign.

Historical analogies allow us to make sense of complex world events. They should not be seen as a playbook to divine the future. In fact, treating them as such can have the opposite effect: It can cause us to misread the present.

Gian Gentile is a senior historian and Raphael S. Cohen is a senior political scientist at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation

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Russia, Ukraine, and the Misuse of History - Defense One

CLEVELAND, Ohio You cant examine the history of the concert industry and its historic music venues without Northeast Ohio. After all, the first major rock and roll concert took place at Cleveland Arena 70 years ago.

The Moondog Coronation Ball, put on by Alan Free, Leo Mintz and others, helped usher in the rock and roll era on March 21, 1952. But it was just the start of Cleveland playing a major role in the genres evolution with a collection of legendary concert venues that played host to the greatest artists of all time during pivotal moments in their careers.

A free event at Music Box Supper Club in Clevelands Flats celebrates the areas lineage of premier concert halls, arenas and clubs. Backed by an all-star panel of historians, CLE Rocks Presents No Sleep Till Cleveland, will revisit the legacies of The Agora, Richfield Coliseum, Cleveland Stadium, Public Auditorium, Leos Casino, Musicarninval and more.

[Reserve your table for CLE Rocks Presents No Sleep Till Cleveland]

The event, hosted by cleveland.com life and culture reporter Troy L. Smith, will be recorded as an episode of the CLE Rocks podcast. Attendance is free. But you must reserve a table at the Music Boxs website.

The panel includes Deanna R. Adams, author of fiction and nonfiction works including Rock and Roll and the Cleveland Connection and Clevelands Rock and Roll Venues. Also on hand will be veteran TV and radio reporter Mike Olszewski, author of multiple books on Cleveland history including Smoky, Sweaty, Rowdy, and Loud: Tales of Clevelands Legendary Rock & Roll Landmarks, and Susan Csendes, a veteran box office manager and disc jockey who worked at The Agora, The Odeon and Tower City Amphitheatre during their heydays.

Together, the panel will discuss the impact of some of the most important moments in Cleveland music history, such as Bruce Springsteens famous 1978 Agora concert, Led Zeppelin performing at Musicarnival the same day as the Moon Landing, the glory days of Richfield Coliseum and more.

CLE Rocks Presents... No Sleep Till Cleveland is sponsored by Wonderstruck Music & Arts Festival, taking place July 9 and 10 at Lakeland Community College, featuring some of the best local, regional and national music artists in the world. Get your TICKETS today.

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The Agora to the Coliseum: A history of legendary Cleveland concert venues - cleveland.com

Its official: there will soon be a wedding reception in the White House.

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden recently confirmed they will host a celebratory soire at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for their granddaughter, Naomi Biden, and her soon-to-be-husband Peter Neal, on November 19. "The first family, the couple, and their parents are still in the planning stages of all of the wedding festivities and look forward to announcing further details in the coming months," the East Wing communications director Elizabeth Alexander said.

Anything involving weddings qualifies as joyous news, but this one especially so: the American public hasnt had a presidential family member mark their marriage in Washington D.C. for around 15 years (Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of George W. Bush and Laura Bush, had a 600-person reception in June 2008). Yet, throughout history, many White House weddings have been held in the East Wing.

An illustration depicting Grover Cleveland's wedding in 1886.

In 1812, Lucy Payne Washington (sister of First Lady Dolley Madison) became the first person to wed at the then-called Presidential Mansion when she married Supreme Court Associate Justice Thomas Todd. Over the next several decades, the Monroe, Quincy Adams, Jackson, Tyler, and Grant administrations also held their fair share of ceremonies for their children and relatives. (The East Room has been repaired and decorated for the occasion, the New York Times wrote matter-of-factly about Nellie Grants marriage in May 1874. The number of invitations issued has been limited and will not exceed 300 in all.)

It was President Grover Cleveland himself, however, who had the buzziest White House wedding of the 19th century when he married Frances Folsom in the Blue Room in June 1886. The bride wore a dress of corded ivory satin, heavy enough to stand without a woman in it, according to the New York Timess full-page spread of the affair at the time. The gown was complete with a 15-foot train and orange-flower embroidery. Afterwards, they held a reception in a state dining room. The talk of the event was the floral centerpiece made to look like a ship, where scarlet blossoms and bits of coral stood for seals and rocks, and the banks were made of Jacqueminots, reported the Times.

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The Grandest White House Weddings in History - Vogue

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) A Newport News, Virginia, history teacher is suing one of his former students after he says multiple acts of racism were committed against him.

In his 21 years as a history teacher at Menchville High School, Joel Mungo has never seen anything like it.

Someone left a banana at my door. The banana was perfectly placed in the doorway, Mungo told Nexstars WAVY.

Mungo shared images with WAVY that were taken two weeks ago. The first instance happened in October.

Then it happened once a month, Mungo explained.

A banana was always in the same spot in Mungos classroom doorway.

It was clearly a deliberate act, Mungo stated.

After the sixth time, Mungo said enough was enough.

Mungo reported the problem to Menchville administrators who pulled up surveillance video and found the student believed to be responsible: a 10th-grader in one of Mungos classes.

I gave the student a chance to come clean. I asked him, Hey did you do this? He said No, he played dumb, No idea what youre talking about. So I said OK, go down to the assistant principal. Im the only Black teacher he has. He has six other teachers. No other teachers were involved, Mungo said.

Mungo says the students parents were contacted. He was placed on a two-day suspension and removed from Mungos class.

Initially when the parents were contacted, the parents seemed to be truly embarrassed. Then when the student was suspended and the parents were informed, then the parents were irate. Its 2022. Just to have some type of hate crime is absolutely ridiculous. I was sickened. I was highly upset. So upset, I took the next day off. I didnt go to work that Friday, Mungo recalled.

Now, Mungo is in the process of pursuing legal action against the racist act.

Im just fed up with the racism around, especially at our academic institutions. Coming from the HBCUs and other colleges, the bomb threats, the nooses, the bananas and now its streaming into public education. Its time to take a stand and just let people know it will not be tolerated. I know Im not tolerating it. You have to speak up. You cant allow it to go on because then it will just continue to go on, Mungo said.

A Newport News Public Schools spokesperson told WAVY the district is investigating the report and has met with Mungo about the racist act.

Link:

Newport News history teacher sues student after reported acts of racism - WRIC ABC 8News

For the fourth year, the University of West Florida will honor traditions, engage in the community and celebrate the future of the University during its annual Founders Week, which will be held April 9-14. Founders Week is a weeklong celebration that serves as an opportunity to bring the UWF family together, welcome alumni and visitors to campus and give back to the community.

Founders Week serves as a time to reflect on UWFs storied past, celebrate our current success and look ahead to our future together, said UWF President Martha D. Saunders. I hope everyone takes the opportunity to showcase their Argo pride during this weeklong celebration.

Founders Week will get underway with UWF Day of Play on Saturday, April 9. Beginning at noon, members of the community are invited to the UWF Sports Complex for a day of fun-filled activities including yard games, tie-dye shirt creation stations, Hawaiian shaved ice treats, vendor booths and baseball and softball games. At 1 p.m., UWFs softball and baseball teams will play Alabama Huntsville at Jim Spooner Field and the UWF Softball Complex.

UWFs Day of Giving, a 24-hour fundraising event, will be held on Thursday, April 14. Day of Giving is an online, social-media-driven effort that supports the University and its programs by giving to any of 80 UWF funds at dayofgiving.uwf.edu. Alumni are invited to share their graduating decade when giving and non-alumni donors can choose from supporting the decade they got involved at UWF or when they made their first gift to the University. Donate $30 to earn a pair of exclusive UWF socks. Last year, the 90s decade raised the most dollars, while the 20s decade had the most donors.

Additional Founders Week events include:

For more information about UWF Founders Week and information on each event, visit uwf.edu/foundersweek.

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UWF invites Argos and community members to celebrate University's history and traditions at fourth Founders Week - UWF Newsroom

Though the Rays are heading into their 25th season, they plan to wait until 2023 to celebrate their silver anniversary. But we couldnt wait to look back, updating our list of the greatest moments in franchise history.

Maybe time will prove otherwise, but the date Wander Franco made his big-league debut, at age 20, after two years as the games top prospect, seems like something worth commemorating. Maybe one day from Cooperstown. Plus, five months later the Rays signed him to an 11-year, $182 million contract.

Making it back for a cameo in the regular-season finale after being sidelined since July 22, Yandy Diaz made quite an impact in the 2019 AL wild-card game at Oakland. He homered his first two times up to lead the Rays to a 5-1 win in their first postseason appearance in six years.

It had become a matter of when, not if, but seeing Evan Longoria cradle a foul popup by the Twins Joe Mauer against the stands behind third base and clinch the Rays first playoff berth was breathtaking, especially for those who had been with the franchise through the dark days. The party they had in the clubhouse afterward was pretty good, too.

The significance wasnt immediately obvious, but minor-leaguer Elliot Johnson crashing into Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli in the ninth inning of a spring game set the stage for a season-long effort to show that the Rays were no longer going to be pushed around.

Carl Crawford headlined the Rays large contingent five players, manager Joe Maddon and the full coaching staff at the 2009 All-Star Game by earning MVP honors, primarily for a spectacular home-run-robbing catch. (The next year was pretty cool, too, as three Rays were in the AL All-Star lineup, with David Price on the mound, Evan Longoria at third and Crawford in left.)

After spending most of eight seasons as one of the games least successful and worst-run franchises, the Rays were under new management. The Stuart Sternberg-led group took over and promised to do things differently and better. A re-branding and a name-shortening two years later were well received, and they have made the playoffs seven times in the last 14 years.

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Triple-A callup Dan Johnson was supposed to be in the starting lineup at Fenway Park, but flight delays from Scranton, Pa., delayed him enough that manager Joe Maddon had to change plans. Serendipitously, Johnson was then available to pinch hit in the ninth and delivered a tying homer off Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon as the Rays went on to win a game that kept them from dropping out of first place.

The Rays had to win on the final day of the season in Toronto for the right to fly to Texas for a Game 163 playoff with the Rangers to reach the playoffs for the fourth time in six seasons. Their two biggest stars stepped up in a 5-2 win in the 14th tiebreaker game in MLB history. Evan Longoria hit a two-run homer and David Price pitched a complete game, punctuating the final out by yelling, Thats what Im talking about.

Losing to the last-place Tigers wouldnt be cause for celebration, but the Rays came back to Comerica Park later that night, after the Red Soxs rain-delayed loss to the Yankees was complete, and popped bottles to enjoy winning the first of what now is four American League East championships.

All Randy Arozarena did in Game 7 of the 2020 ALCS against the Astros was hit a two-run homer in the first inning to give the Rays a lead they wouldnt relinquish in winning their second AL pennant. What Arozarena did for the week was hit .321 with four homers and six RBIs to win the ALCS MVP award, the first rookie position player to do so. And that was all part of his record-smashing month, when he hit .377 with a record 10 homers and 14 RBIs for the 20-game postseason.

After parting ways with disgruntled Joe Maddon, the Rays took what seemed like a chance in hiring as their next manager, Kevin Cash, the Indians bullpen coach known for his baseball savvy and mediocre playing career. Cash has led the Rays to three consecutive playoff berths including back-to-back AL East titles and a second trip to the World Series and became the first to win back-to-back AL manager of the year awards.

After parting ways with disgruntled Lou Piniella, the Rays took what seemed like a chance in hiring as their next manager Joe Maddon, the Angels bench coach known for his funky glasses and creative thinking. The move turned out to be brilliant. Maddon led the Rays to four playoff appearances in six years and won two AL manager of the year awards.

Blake Snell was in the minority, believing he could do great things after a miserable 2017 season in which he was sent down twice. He was most definitely right, winning 21 games losing five and posting a sterling 1.89 ERA and the second Cy Young Award in franchise history.

Winning 20 games was a big deal for the Rays David Price in the 2012 season. A bigger one came when he was voted winner of the American League Cy Young award, the most prestigious individual honor won by a Tampa Bay player to this day.

Having been on the wrong end of four no-hitters at the time, the Rays finally got to do the celebrating as Matt Garza blanked the Tigers, walking one in a 120-pitch gem.

Evan Longorias Game 162, 12th-inning homer understandably is the moment recorded in history, but Dan Johnson made it all possible three innings earlier. Down to his and the Rays last strike against the Yankees, Johnson stunned the crowd with a liner that tucked just inside the rightfield pole for a tying homer, setting the stage for the dramatic ending that sent the Rays to the playoffs thanks to Boston also losing at Baltimore that night.

The Rays made it back to the World Series a second time, but there was little pomp and extremely odd circumstance given the pandemic that delayed and cut short the season. The Rays clinched the pennant by surviving a seven-games-in-seven-days ALCS against the Astros played in San Diego, then flew to Arlington, Texas, to take on the Dodgers in the neutral site World Series.

Scott Kazmirs first-pitch strike was one of the few highlights in the 3-2 loss to the Phillies in the World Series opener, but the reality was that there was a real, live World Series game being played in St. Petersburg. And that alone was pretty amazing.

Mike Brosseau didnt want to call it revenge, which was fine because everyone else did it for him. Having nearly been hit in the head in by a 101-mph Aroldis Chapman fastball in a Sept. 1 game at Yankee Stadium, the Rays infielder struck back at a most dramatic time. Facing Chapman in the eighth inning of the fifth and deciding game of the 2020 ALDS, batting with the score tied and one out, battling back from an 0-2 count and through 10 pitches, Brosseau homered to send the Rays to the next round and the Yankees home. Hands down the greatest moment Ive been a part of in baseball, Rays manager Kevin Cash said.

Tampa product Wade Boggs came home to make history, and that he did, reaching 3,000 hits in dramatic fashion. He became the first of the then-22 players to reach the milestone with a home run. Boggs made an emotional trip around the bases, saluting his mother, who was killed in a 1986 car accident, then dropping to his knees and kissing home plate.

Twenty years of trying to get a team in Tampa Bay and three years of building the franchise under managing general partner Vince Naimoli culminated with a fastball from Wilson Alvarez to Detroits Brian Hunter low and inside, but who cared to the delight of a roaring sellout crowd of 45,369 at Tropicana Field.

The Rays were the winners in one of the wildest endings to a World Series game after trailing 7-6 with two outs in the ninth, and two on. They got a single from Seminole native Brett Phillips who hadnt had an at-bat in nearly three weeks or a hit in a month to score the tying run, then an error by Dodgers centerfielder Chris Taylor that allowed Randy Arozarena, who fell down after rounding third, to get back up and slide home safely head-first, banging the plate with his hand.

Evan Longoria hit the modern-day shot heard round the world, his 12th-inning homer capping a wild comeback from a 7-0 deficit as the Rays not only beat the Yankees but clinched the AL wild-card playoff berth. Longoria joined Bobby Thomson of the 1951 Giants as the only players to hit a walkoff homer in the final regular-season game to put his team in the playoffs.

David Price threw the pitch, Bostons Jed Lowrie hit the ground ball, Akinori Iwamura made the pickup and raced to step on second base and the Rays the Tampa Bay Rays won the American League pennant and were going to the World Series. This improbable season, as radio broadcaster Dave Wills screamed, did indeed have another chapter.

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From Wander to the World: Top 24 moments in Rays history - Tampa Bay Times