He arrived on the day of the New York City blackout where he was reunited with his friend and partner Pelé and helped the Cosmos capture two consecutive NASL titles in 1977 and 1978.
Also, although much of New York City was still without power, Belmont Park (a racetrack on the border of Queens and Nassau County in Elmont) did stage their scheduled racing program that afternoon in front of a relatively sparse crowd, as many thought racing would be cancelled that day due to the blackout (this is famously described in Andrew Beyer's book My $50,000 Year at the Races).
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The 1977 New York Yankees is one of the key plot points, along with the Son of Sam and the New York City Blackout of 1977, in the movie Summer of Sam directed by (Yankees fan) Spike Lee.
New York City itself was going through a financial crisis under Mayor Abraham Beame and experienced the Son of Sam and a major blackout, all chronicled in The Bronx is Burning.