Sooner or later, someone or something always...

Sooner or later, someone or something always has to be the “last.” In honor of this being the last appearance of this column, the Footnotes staff has decided to explore “last.”

* William Randolph Hearst founded the Los Angeles Examiner in 1903. The newspaper’s last issue was Jan. 7, 1962, when it merged with the Los Angeles Herald to form the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. The Los Angeles Herald Examiner published its last issue Nov. 2, 1989.

* The Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn on Sept. 24, 1957, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0. The Rams and Raiders both played their last games as home teams in Southern California on Dec. 24, 1994. The Rams lost 24-21 to the Washington Redskins before an Anaheim Stadium (now Edison Field) crowd of about 25,000, ending a disappointing 4-12 season. The Raiders lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 19-9 at the Coliseum in front of about 64,000 tear-stained Angelenos.

* Twenty years ago today, Bob “Bear” Hite of the rock group Canned Heat died after a final performance at the Palomino nightclub in North Hollywood. The last business day of the Palomino venue was sometime in August 1995.

* Most television series leave the airwaves with a whimper rather than a bang and never have an official “last” episode. But the last episode of TV’s “M*A*S*H” on Feb. 28, 1983, was seen by what is still the largest audience ever to watch a single television program. Other “last” episodes that garnered huge ratings include those for “The Fugitive” on Aug. 29, 1967; “Cheers,” May 20, 1993; and “Seinfeld,” May 14, 1998.

* Does being last have more inherent drama than being first? Is that why there are more good movies with “last” in the title (“The Last Picture Show,” “The Last Detail,” “The Last of the Mohicans,” “Last of the Red-Hot Lovers,” to name a few) than “first” (“First Wives Club,” “The First Time,” “First Time Felon”)?

Who knows?