1983 Play-by-Play

January

Note: On Jan. 1, 1983, Pontius, Gazette editor since March 1981, handed over the editorial reins to the King of Pain.

Scoring began on January 4th, as seven lists carried Rep. Benjamin Rosenthal for five points each... Jan. 8th, 15 lists tallied four on Oregon's Gov. Tom McCall for four points. In the lead at 9 & 2 were the Dead Reckoners, Ithaca Psychics, L. Smith, G. Reaper and Deathbed... Jan. 11th, Pontius soloed for one on Andrew Fleischer, inventor of a device to measure blood pressure; the hit, however, would go unnoticed for several months... Jan. 15th, nine lists led by the Dead Reckoners tallied two on Meyer Lansky, the financial mastermind of organized crime. The DR's now led at 11 & 3... Jan. 24th, director George Cukor yelled "Cut!" and M. Hamilton was joined by Twinkie Defense in scoring two... Jan. 26th, Alabama football coach Bear Bryant made good on his prediction that he couldn't live without football, dying just weeks into retirement. Mr. Goodvibes and C. Stanley were among the seven who made the call for four points.

February '83

February 12th, piano man, composer and centenarian performer Eubie Blake played his last, and 16 lists made the call. The Dead Reckoners went wild for five to boost their leading tally to 16 & 4... Feb. 19th, Phaedrus had a lovely five-point solo on C. G. Bluhdorn, founder and chairman of Gulf & Western, who died in flight... Feb. 23rd, M. Hamilton had a nice one-point solo on conductor Sir Adrian Boult... Feb. 25th, playwright Tennessee Williams choked to death on a medicine bottle cap and yielded three points each to Danse Macabre, G. Reaper and Mr. Dit.

March '83

March 6th, British spy Donald Maclean slipped four points at a letter drop to the shady trio of the Ithaca Psychics, National Health and Twinkie Defense... Mar. 7th, Deathbed got the jitters with a two-point solo on Chock Full o' Nuts founder William "Make Mine" Black... Mar. 13th, Slick, Slim & Amy scored four on Woody Guthrie's widow, dance teacher Marge Guthrie. The hit gave them a tie for the lead with the Dead Reckoners at 16 points... Mar. 15th Dupont Fluvius scored a one-point solo on Dame Rebecca West... Mar. 16th, 14 gamesters tallied three on TV & radio host Arthur Godfrey... Mar. 18th, Pontius and the Ithaca Psychics scored three on Italy's last king, Umberto II, dying in exile in Portugal; the Psychics (a team said to be made up of three people and one computer) tied the leaders at 16... Mar. 23rd, 33 gamesters tallied four on Barney Clark, the first human to receive an artificial heart. Plumb de Numb went Wild for five; the Ithaca Psychics and Slick, Slim & Amy used the four to take dual possession of the lead at 20 points. And scoring hit #5 to win the Silver Bobcat were the Ithaca Psychics, Pontius, Deathbed and Slick, Slim & Amy.. Mar. 26th, D. Trageser scored a two-point solo on the "fourth man," British spy Anthony Blunt. What a month for British spies!.. Mar. 28th, The National Health scored a terrific five-point solo when Malawi political activist Attati Mpakati opened a letter bomb sent by President Hastings Banda... Mar. 30th, Pontius scored one of the Game's most stylish hits ever, a beauty on Lorraine Peterson, who was the model for the girl on the Sunmaid Raisin box.

April '83

April 4th, Gloria Swanson took her last close-up and seven gamesters including Skul and M. Hamilton applauded for two points... Apr. 12th, Bonedog soloed for four on Salvadorian FPL leader Salvador Cayetano Carpio, a suicide while under investigation for the murder of a fellow revolutionary... Apr. 15th, Pontius soloed for one on Frank Wheaton Sr., chairman of Wheaton Industries and active in the firm at 101... Apr. 23rd, C. Stanley had a swell solo on Olympic gold medalist and actor Buster Crabbe... Apr. 30th, George Balanchine did a sprightly leap into the Hereafter and the Ithaca Psychics and Slick, Slim & Amy used the points to pirouette to 23 & 6. Same day, S. Donovan soloed for four on blues legend Muddy Waters.

May '83

May 2nd, the Dead Reckoners, P. & E. Hepner and Mr. Goodvibes went deep for five points on football Hall of Famer Norm Van Brocklin... May 11th, Pontius soloed for five and a solo on Jory Graham, author of a cookbook for cancer patients who had chronicled her five-year battle with the disease in a Chicago newspaper column... May 16th, the great, great Morbo Chucks and The Register scored five each on baseball's Mel Wright... May 28th, 15 gamesters scored three and two more -- OPEC and Winstam -- went Wild for five on Erastus Corning, the longest serving big city mayor in the U.S., who had led Albany, New York, the cradle of the Game, since 1942. The Ithaca Psychics took over sole possession of first place at 26 & 7 with the hit... May 29th, Boneroller, Deathwatch and Pontius scored two each on Arvid Pelshe, the oldest member of the Soviet Politburo; the hit lifted Pontius to within shouting distance of the lead... May 31st, OPEC soloed for two on Sen. Milton Young, who held the record for the longest continuous service by a Republican Senator... Same day, Jack Dempsey hit the canvas and 14 gamesters rang the bell twice; Pontius rose to within one point of the leading Ithaca Psychics.

June '83

June 12th, six movie fans scored two each on Oscar winner Norma Shearer... June 30th, Faintly Macabre soloed for three on radio actress Mary Livingstone, Jack Benny's better half.

July '83

July 1st, M. Hamilton and D. Perry hammered the gavel twice on Judge Julius Hoffman who presided over the trial of the Chicago Seven... Same day, nine gamesters tallied two on Buckminster Fuller, futurist and poet. M. Hamilton was there for the Daily Double!... July 7th, D. Trageser soloed for four on nuclear theorist Herman Kahn... July 16th, Ghostwriter tallied six on Michel Micombero, former president of Burundi. Ghostie thought Micombero was facing trial and execution following a coup, but he actually died quietly in exile in Somalia. Ghostie took the points anyway... July 29th, Deathwatch, Mr. Dit, In Extremis and L. Smith bade farewell to actor David Niven for three... Same day, OPEC, the Portland Sisters (with a team member who would become The Merry Little Breezes) and Extreme Unction scored two points on actor Raymond Massey... July 30th, five gamesters scored one on actress Lynn Fontaine. Just missing a Daily Double were Deathwatch, OPEC and The Portland Sisters.

August '83

August 5th, Game legend e. mcgrath ended the Game's longest Dry Spell with her first hit in 978 days, a solo (of course) on British economist Joan Robinson, for three points and a huge sigh of relief... Aug. 17th, OPEC and Deathbed scored two each on lyricist Ira Gershwin... Aug. 21st, D. Trageser scored a sudden five points on Begnigno Aquino, exiled rival of president Ferdinand Marcos, assassinated within minutes of his return to the Philippines... Aug. 24th, M. Hamilton scored a WILD CARD SOLO on Scott Nearing, centenarian, pacifist, environmentalist and organic farmer.

September '83

September 1st, Montressor soloed for three on Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson... Sept. 10th, Montressor was back with another solo, this one on South Africa's former Prime Minister, John Vorster for four points... Sept. 17th, six gamesters led by the Ithaca Psychics scored six on 800-lb. John Minnoch, a Guinness book record holder, slimmed down from 1400 lbs., but not enough. It was the Psychics' first hit since May 28th, and lifted them to 32 & 8... Same day, Twinkie Defense soloed for four on Cardinal Humberto Medeiros... Sept. 25th, a day of infamy. Three gamesters had listed actor and ALS-afflictee Roger Smith, husband of Ann Margaret, but had the gall to accept six points on another Roger Smith, a track coach for an Oregon community college. Utterly tacky, and expunged in 1993, when the current editor got wind of the fraud while reviewing the records for the first edition of "The Game's Greatest Hits."

October '83

October 10th, four gamesters scored two on actor Sir Ralph Richardson... Oct. 15, five gamesters scored two on actor Pat O'Brien... Oct. 19th, the Artful Dodger scored a solo on Grenada's Maurice Bishop, leader of the People's Revolutionary Government, slain by the henchmen of a fellow revolutionary. The sudden solo was worth seven points... Oct. 20th, Nonomis Morair soloed for two on investment pioneer T. Rowe Price... Oct. 30th, 26 gamesters garnered two points on Lillian Carter, the delightful "Miss Lillian," mother of the president and Peace Corps volunteer; Deathbed went Wild for five and took the lead at 33 &9... Oct. 31st, 11 gamesters led by Mr. Goodvibes tallied two on the NFL's George Halas.

November '83

November 6th, The Portland Sisters soloed for four on the U.S. Steelworkers president Lloyd McBride... Nov. 7th, Pontius and M. Hamilton tallied one each on French composer Germaine Tailleferre of "Les Six"... Nov. 13th, Bonedog soloed for one on Jamison Handy, public relations pioneer, inventor of the filmstrip and the nation's oldest living Olympian, having won a bronze for swimming in 1904... Same day, the Morbo Chucks soloed for two on Louise Tracy, widow of Spencer Tracy and founder of the world's largest provider of services to deaf children... Nov. 15th, D. Perry soloed for two on the Chicago Cubs' Charlie Grimm, who led them to three pennants... Nov. 20th, the Ithaca Psychics led nine gamesters in five points on "Hill Street Blues" actor Michael Conrad and took back the lead, moving to 37 & 9. Pontius also had the score, and was close behind in second at 34 points, one ahead of Deathbed.

December '83

December 8th, the Ithaca Psychics joined Pontius and eight others in stretching out with actor Slim Pickens; the leaders moved to 41 & 10... Dec. 15th, the Ithaca Psychics added two more, moving to 43 & 11, with a duet on college basketball coach John Merritt with P. & E. Hepner... Dec. 16th, 22 gamesters scored seven on the New York (football) Giants' Doug Kotar; moving to 50 & 12 were the Ithaca Psychics, followed closely by Pontius and Deathbed... Dec. 22nd, The National Health soloed for two on radio actress Gwen Berryman, who played Doris on "The Archers" for 29 years; when her character was killed off in 1980, Berryman was thought to be dead as well... Dec. 25th, ten gamesters scored one point on the last of the original surrealist painters, Joan Miro. This stocking stuffer lifted the Ithaca Psychics to 51 & 13, provided hit #17 to Pontius, who set a new single season hits record... Dec. 27th, D. Beach, L. Lantz and the Morbo Chucks scored one each on character actor William Demerest... Dec. 28th, Captain Cadaver soloed for five on business scholar and author William Abernathy, who blamed shortsighted managers for America's lagging productivity... Same day, Razor hit one of the Game's best, a seven-point solo on Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, who dove into the 12-foot-deep water next to his boat in Marina Del Ray, California, and didn't come back up. In accordance with his wishes and with the help of the Coast Guard, Wilson was buried at sea.

And so it ended, with the Ithaca Psychics winning the Gran Prix (51), Pontius the Perriman Pennant (17), L. Smith the Reaper Ribbon for High QPA (5.00), Dupont Fluvius Clete's Cup (1.67), Freydis Rookie of the Year, and D. Trageser Doc's Diploma for Class List.

Let's look at the Top Ten for 1983.

Take me on to 1984.

Take me back to Play-by-Play.