Greatest Blunder in Baseball History, Braves book it out of Boston, and a Bronco Bracket Bustin' Upset - This DiSH for March 18

This day in sports history.

It's March 18th and on this day we had what one guy called the greatest blunder in baseball

history.

A Bronco Bustin Bracket Buster and the highest scoring tournament game in history all

happened on this day.

Stick around for those stories and a few more and I'll get started right after this.

And that's the end of the first half as the team said to the locker room the Spartans

lead the Bulldogs by a score.

You guys stink.

Jeez coach, we're only down a couple of points.

No, I mean you guys really smell.

You need to hit the showers.

And here I got every one of you new bars of soap from the Sterling soap company.

Each bar is artisan crafted using natural ingredients and essential oils.

They also have shaved soaps, cologne's, beard balm and a whole lot more.

Now get in there.

But coach, we have another half to play.

I don't care.

I can't stand to be around you a few minutes later.

All right, bring it in tight.

You guys are still playing terrible, but you're smelling great out there.

Now listen, you're going to need to stock up for the rest of the season.

We got a lot of tough games left.

So go to sterlingsoap.com after the game.

That's STIRLINGSOP.com.

You got that?

Yes coach?

Great.

Sterlingsoap.com on three.

One, two, three.

Sterlingsoap.com.

I know everybody's got basketball in the brain with the first four games getting underway

last night and the tournament getting cranked up and full force tomorrow, but with baseball

only a few weeks away from opening day, well, let's start with some diamond dealings

on this day, starting with what happened on this day in 1981 when Carlton Fisk finally

signed a deal to play for the Chicago White Sox.

Fisk was a died in the wool New Englander.

Born in Vermont, grew up in New Hampshire, starred in both basketball and baseball at

UNH, and he signed with the Red Sox in 1969, playing in Boston's minor league system until

he became a member of their major league roster in 1972.

He became a hometown hero in the 75-year-old series when he waived a homer fair and

game six.

He loved the Red Sox, loved Boston, verbally swore he wanted to remain with Boston for

his entire career.

So hell did Fisk end up in Chicago.

Well, it really comes down to poor timing, a little sleight of hand by Marvin Miller and

Boston's general manager, Haywood Sullivan, not paying attention to the fine print.

Fisk's five-year contract was coming to an end, and negotiation got started after

the 1980 season.

Fisk wanted a five-year deal.

Sullivan was offering four, but he thought he had a get out of jail free card in his back

pocket.

You see, the contract that Fisk had signed back in 1976 had initially had a clause in

it, allowing the Red Sox the right of first refusal for eight-sixth year.

In essence, wiping away the newly acquired right to free agency.

Now, when the baseball players association president Marvin Miller read that contract,

he quietly removed that line, disallowing the right to a sixth year since it violated

the player's right to free agency.

GM Sullivan thought that clause was still in the contract and available to use to him,

but it wasn't.

His next mistake was mailing Fisk's contract to late.

It was supposed to be delivered by December 20, 1980, instead it did not get mailed until

the 22nd.

It wasn't that he forgot to drop it off at the post office, or the date slipped his mind,

though it was intentional, because again, he thought he had that clause in the contract

and that he could use to keep Fisk around another year.

The missed deadline, however, made Fisk a free agent.

Once ensued, please were made Red Sox fans, nearly rioted at the news that they were losing

Fisk possibly.

A Boston-Herald colonnist wrote, it might be the worst blunder in baseball history.

Fisk and the Red Sox did go to arbitration.

Boston came back again with a four-year two-million-dollar contract.

Fisk wanted that five-year deal, though, and Boston would not budge, so Pudge bolted

for the door.

The saga ended on this day when Fisk signed his desired five-year deal worth $2.9 million.

He played another 13 seasons in the majors, retiring after the 1993 season.

When he was inducted into the baseball hall of fame in 2000, he did so as a member of

the Boston Red Sox.

On this day in 1953, it was another major departure from Boston as the Braves loaded

up the moving vans and shipped off to Milwaukee.

Now the Braves had ties to Boston going back to 1876 as a charter member of the National

League and had shared the town with the Red Sox since 1901.

But Braves owner Lou Perrini said that since the advent of television, Boston had become

a one-team city.

The Braves had definitely fallen behind the Red Sox in attendance.

In 1952, the Braves drew 800,000 less fans to their field than the Red Sox did to Fenway

with Perrini's losses estimated at $700,000.

Perrini was granted permission by the commissioner and the other National League owners to relocate.

He paid $50,000 to move the Braves minor league team, the Milwaukee Brewers to Toledo, Ohio,

and then he set up his team in County Stadium.

It was the first baseball landscape change since 1903 when Baltimore moved to New York

to become the Highlanders.

The move was a big deal for the people of Milwaukee.

They had not had major league baseball since the original Brewers left in 1901 becoming

the St. Louis Browns.

The city embraced the Braves who won 92 games in 53 and finished second in the National

League and they led the league in attendance.

The relationship was short-lived though the Braves would be on the move again in 13 years.

On this day in 1985, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle were reinstated by new baseball commissioner

Peter Uberoth.

Mays and Mantle had been permanently banned from baseball by the previous commissioner

Buickune for their associations with casinos after they retired as players.

Mays was working as a hitting coach with the New York Mets when Cune found out Mays

was working at Valley's Park Place Hotel in Casino in Atlantic City.

Cune forced him to resign from his match job and then banned him for life.

A few years later, Mantle needed money and so he took a job as a greeter at the Clarege

Casino in Atlantic City.

He felt like the Mays ban was a bit of a joke.

Cune wasn't laughing though and he banned the Mick too.

Cune was big on protecting the integrity of the game and no player or coach present or

past apparently should have any affiliations with casinos.

Upon his reinstatement on this day, Mantle said, I tried to act like a didn't bother

me but it did.

You don't want to be kicked out of your favorite bar and you don't want to be banned from

baseball.

Cune wasn't big on Uberoth's decision and it wasn't like the new commission was lenient

on gambling or associations with casinos but he felt that the two meant too much to the

game to keep them permanently sidelined.

Mantle never returned to any job with a major league club.

Mays however did sign on as the special assistant to the president in San Francisco.

Alright, alright, to college basketball now.

So you've got your brackets filled out, you're ready for the madness to officially start.

Let's go back to this day in 1993 when Santa Clara busted a whole lot of people's brackets

as the Broncos pulled one of those 15 beating a two upsets.

The Santa Clara Broncos were an 18 win team that had finished third in the West Coast

conference in the regular season that year and they were here by virtue of winning the

conference tournament.

This team featured a baby faced freshman by the name of Steve Nash, a kid who averaged

eight points and two assists during the year.

He didn't start in this one.

John Woolery was the starting point guard on the team but Nash came up big in the end.

On the other side of the court, Arizona knew better than to take any team lightly though

they probably did not expect to get struck by lightning for the second year in a row.

The Wildcats had been knocked out of the first round the previous year by 14th-seated East

Tennessee State.

Arizona had a starting lineup of guys who would play in the NBA, including Damon Stautomire

and Chris Mills and a sixth coming off the bench.

But Santa Clara jumped on the catch early and led by as many as 13 in this one.

Arizona went on a 25-nothing run at the end of the first half and at the beginning of

the second to take a 12-point lead.

But the Broncos didn't fade.

They fall back.

With just over a minute to play and up one, the Broncos got a big bucket from another freshman.

Nash, the dish, Lewis Goodfake, oh it doesn't go.

Reef Dunn, get it!

Kevin Dunn, the freshman.

What's the biggest basket in his young line?

The Wildcats had to resort to falling and Nash kept getting the ball going to the free-throw

line and making shots.

He hit eight straight to keep extending the lead.

But after Mills rained in a three to make it a three-point game, Nash faltered on the

line and he missed a pair.

But Santa Clara rebounded the second miss and the other freshman Kevin Dunn went to the

line.

But he missed two, giving Arizona a shot to tie it.

Let's rewind the clock a decade to 1983 and on this day, NC State was in a first round

battle for its life against Pepperdine.

The last time we caught up with the cardiac pack was in the ACC tournament when they managed

to beat Virginia to win the automatic bid, which was going to be the only way they made

it to the big dance.

So here Jim Volvano's team traveled to Corvalus, Oregon to play Pepperdine.

State was a six seed, the waves were an eleven as winners of the West Coast Conference

tournament.

You may also remember there being a shot clock and a three-point shot used in the ACC tournament.

Because it was a trial year in different leagues and not adopted everywhere just yet, the

NCAA tournament had no shot clock and no three-pointer.

And so this game became a slowdown game.

With 240 left to play in regulation, it was 47 all and neither team would score again.

The pack held the ball for the final two minutes and 20 seconds of the game and did not

get a shot off.

And so they went to overtime.

The teams actually got to shooting in the OT and with a minute left, Pepperdine was up

six and they had the ball, but they threw it away on the in-bounds and State got two

back quickly.

The waves had a chance to win it on the free throw line, but a miss on the front end

of a one-and-one gave the pack another shot and a thorough Bayley dunk made it a two-point

game.

Another front-end one-and-one was missed and State had the ball with a chance to tie.

Derek Wittenberg was the beneficiary of a phantom call and he went to the line for a

one-and-one with nine seconds left.

And in the second OT, it was a bit more of the same.

Terry Ganon had a chance to put the game out of reach on the free throw line, but missed

the front end of his one-and-one opportunity.

Terry Ganon missed the free throw, nine seconds to go.

The waves will tie them, send it into three overtime.

We'll see.

Fire is enough.

Got it!

No!

It's off.

No good.

Terry Ganon had a chance to put the game out of reach on the free throw line, but missed the

first round.

The eventual national champion Wolfpack came on this night in 1983.

On this day in 1990, it was the highest scoring game in NCAA basketball tournament history.

It was a second round match-up between the 11-seed Loyola Marymount and the number three-seed

Michigan.

And of course, this is just two weeks after LMU's Hank Gathers had collapsed on the

court during the West Coast Conference tournament and then died in the hospital a few hours

later.

The Wolverines were the defending national champions.

In the 1990 season, Michigan had been in the top 25 all year, peaking at number three before

entering the tournament as the 13th best team in the country, according to the AP poll.

They had five future NBA players on the roster, including three first rounders in the draft

that was still a few months away.

From the other bench, the Lions were obviously missing Gathers who had led the nation in scoring

and rebounding in 1989.

But if you remember from the March 4th edition, Bo Kimball had been the leading scorer for

Paul West Ted's run-and-gun high-octane style.

But one guy that I did not mention back on the fourth who played a huge role in this game

was Jeff Friar.

During the regular season, Friar had been the third leading scorer on the team behind Kimball

and Gathers, hitting an average of about 4-3 pointers a game.

Well, Friar had that by the 8-38 mark in the first half.

The teams averaged a shot every six seconds in the first half, and they combined to score

123 points in the opening 20 minutes with Loyola Marymount leading 65-58 at the break.

But if the first half was a track meet, the second half was a Formula 1 race, the pace

quickened and points poured in.

The Lions had 84 in the second half alone, and started to pull away with about 14-1-1-1

minutes to play.

Friar continued his hot shooting, finishing with a game high 41 points.

He hit 11-3 pointers, which is still the NCAA tournament record for threes in a game.

Kimball had 37, including one point off of his left-handed free throw and tribute to his

lost friend Hank Gathers.

In total, 10 players scored in double digits as Marymount beat Michigan 149-1-15, which adds

up to 264 points, the most combined in an NCAA tournament game.

The mark eclipsed the total from the Lions game against Wyoming to years prior in the tournament.

In fact, Loyola Marymount has been in the top 5 highest scoring NCAA tournament games.

At time now for today's, that's got nothing to do with sports, fun fact.

In 1947, General Mills Cereal included an atomic bomb ring as a toy prize in boxes of

Kicks Cereal.

Now, this ring contained a tiny amount of Polonium 210, and looking through a small aperture

in the ring, the ring holder could see flashes of light as alpha particles hit a tiny,

zinc background.

The company assured parents it was safe, and with a half-life of about 140 days, any

atomic bomb ring still in existence today would truly be safe.

This has been an original, Thrive Suite production.