The Briefing Room
General Category => Sports/Entertainment/MSM/Social Media => Topic started by: EasyAce on October 23, 2018, 01:06:32 am
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It's two teams who last met in the Series when Babe Ruth pitched for one and Casey Stengel played left for the other.
By Yours Truly
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"The World Series," George F. Will observed in October 1983, "occurs four times as frequently as the Iowa caucuses. What a wonderful country America is." Since Mr. Will's sage remark there have been 35 World Series, only eleven of which have gone to a full seven games. The World Series to begin Tuesday night has a splendid chance of becoming the twelfth such contest.
The Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers have met in the Series once before---in 1916. When Babe Ruth was a Red Sox pitcher (who won Game Two with a thirteen-inning pitching performance), Casey Stengel was a Dodgers outfielder (the team was known then as the Robins and hailed from Brooklyn), and of the four home runs hit in the set three were inside-the-park jobs.
Little chance of 75 percent inside-the-park homers this time around. The Red Sox hit 208 home runs on the regular season; the Dodgers, 235. That doesn't mean this World Series will be a bludgeon competition exclusively. If good pitching beats good hitting (and vice versa), both teams have pitching splendid enough to keep the nuclear weaponry from poking out of its silos very much. But as the late Joaquin Andujar (righthanded pitcher and human time bomb) once observed, "In baseball, there's just one word: you never know."
Lately the nation is wringing hands, gnashing teeth, pulling hair (its own and each other's, apparently), and otherwise ranting its fool head off about the forthcoming Congressional election. Like the old-style corrupt cop who seems more interested in beating his suspect to a pulp than gathering actual criminal information and affirmation, today's American citizens seem far more interested in beating each other into the middle of next month than deciding which between two parties with non-existent agendas---other than likewise beating each other into the middle of the next presidential contest---will hold how many Capitol Hill seats from which to do mischief.
Things were a lot less combative in 1916, and that's even including World War I. Among the babies born that year were a U.S. surgeon general (C. Everett Koop), a British prime minister (Harold Wilson), an Italian prime minister (Aldo Moro), an automotive legend (Ferruccio Lamborghini), an automotive anti-legend (Roy Brown, Jr., who designed the Edsel), a jazz star and his movie star wife (Harry James, Betty Grable), a Baby Boomer-favourite children's author (Beverly Cleary), a virtuoso violinist (Yehudi Menuhin), the almost-first man to pitch a World Series no-hitter (Bill Bevens), and the man who did the most to stop Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak. (Ken Keltner, third baseman.)
In the same year, the British Royal Army Medical Corps performed the world's first successful blood transfusion, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland College in football with a score of 222-0, Woodrow Wilson won the presidency with a comparable margin (that's a joke, son), an Ethiopian king was overthrown by his aunt, a circus elephant was hanged in Tennessee for killing her handler (yes, you can look it up), Wilson signed the bill creating the National Park Service, the man considered the founding father of the National Weather Service (Cleveland Addo) died, and William Boeing created the aircraft manufacturer that has long borne his name.
Meanwhile, the World Series about to begin features the first two former teammates to manage against each other in a Fall Classic since 2002. That was then: Former Dodger teammates (1983) Mike Scioscia and Dusty Baker managed, respectively, the champion Anaheim Angels and runner-up San Francisco Giants. This is now: Dave Roberts and Alex Cora, former teammates on both the Dodgers and the Red Sox, manage, respectively, the Dodgers and the Red Sox.
The current political season dominated as it is to a certain extent by racialist conversation and argument, one can't help noticing something about these teams. Roberts, who is half black and half Japanese, manages the team that smashed baseball's ancient and disgraceful colour line in 1948. Cora, who is Puerto Rican, manages the team that was, shamefully enough, the last major league baseball team to admit a black player to its ranks, in 1959.
The Red Sox have come a long way, baby, not always simply, from the ancien regime of Tom Yawkey, whose subordinates, with or without his explicit say-so, rejected Willie Mays as a major league prospect before the New York Giants happily enough accepted the honour of signing him. But this year's model had the next best thing to Mays in Game Four of the American League Championship Series.
With the bases loaded and two out in the bottom of the ninth, Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman hit a sinking line drive to left field that looked as though it would send all three runners home with an Astros victory. Except that Andrew Benintendi, Red Sox left fielder, playing practically against the warning track, scampered in, took a dive, and came up with the ball, which landed in his glove a second before Benintendi hit the deck. It preserved the third of four straight wins the Red Sox achieved after losing the set's first game.
A couple of days later, Dodgers left fielder Chris Taylor, moved there from second base during Game Seven of the National League Championship Series, announced that the Red Sox weren't the only Series contestants-to-be with acrobats in the outfield. In the bottom of the fifth, Taylor ran down a deep drive by likely National League Most Valuable Player Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers, extending his glove hand out over his shoulder, avoiding plowing or being plowed by center fielder Cody Bellinger, and catching the ball just as he began to hit the warning track sliding.
Both teams have solid starting pitching. Both teams have bullpen pitching that proved badly underestimated in the postseason's previous sets. Both teams can deploy anything from hand held cruise missiles to burp guns to score runs and have enough men who can become perfect impressionists of the Road Runner on the bases. Both have pitchers who wield anything from howitzers to grenades. Both have field magicians who devoutly hope not to be kidnapped by jugglers. And both have managers who are remembered for surrealistic moments as players.
One happened while they were Dodger teammates. 12 May 2004, Dodger Stadium: Cora stepped up to hit with a man on against Chicago Cubs pitcher Matt Clement. On a 2-1 count, Cora began fouling off pitch after pitch after pitch after pitch until, after the fourteenth such foul and on the eighteenth pitch of the at-bat, he drove one over the right field bullpen gates. His most ardent cheerleader in the Dodger dugout was teammate Roberts.
Roberts was traded to the Red Sox at that year's deadline for non-waiver trades. In Game Four of that year's ALCS, with the Red Sox three outs away from being swept out of the set, outfielder Kevin Millar drew a leadoff walk of New York Yankees relief star Mariano Rivera and Roberts was sent to pinch run for Millar. After drawing three throws to first, Roberts stole second, scoring promptly on third baseman Bill Mueller's base hit up the middle, and tying the game at four. It pushed the game to the extra innings where David Ortiz hit the game-winning, game-ending two-run homer that started the Red Sox's improbable ALCS overthrow and four-game, (actual or alleged) curse busting World Series sweep.
Now these two ex-teammates with moments such as those on their playing resumes get to try to out-think, out-smart, out-maneuver, and out-run each other. They're renowned lately for flipping the script: their bullpens weren't supposed to be as good as their opponents; at least two of their starting pitchers (Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers; David Price, Red Sox) weren't supposed to be strong in the postseason---until they were, of course. This World Series entry couldn't have been scripted if the Marx Brothers had collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on the preliminary storyboards.
Those 2004 Red Sox cheerfully called themselves the Idiots. Once upon a time---inspired by a legendary newspaper cartoonist (Willard Mullin), who promptly responded to a Brooklyn cabbie's dismissal by henceforth drawing the Dodgers in the image of circus legend Emmett Kelly, Jr.'s battered-hobo character---the Dodgers became known colloquially as the Bums. There's a World Series concept for you: Idiots versus Bums. Sounds a lot like the last couple of years' worth of Republicans versus Democrats. It also sounds like a lot more genuine fun.
These two teams going in stand an excellent chance of taking this World Series to seven games. That should please their ownerships, to whom making money is not heretofore known as an unwanted imposition. But it should please baseball fans and the nation even more. All politicking and no play makes Jack and Jill a boring couple.
Just after the Dodgers won the NLCS, Victoria, British Columbia proudly tweeted that more people attended the baseball games of the collegiate-league Victoria Harbour Cats than voted in the city's mayoral election. Thanks to two storied ballparks (Fenway Park, Dodger Stadium), radio, television, and the Internet, the World Series has the chance to draw more listeners and viewers than voters to the forthcoming Congressional election. Maybe America has her priorities straight, after all.
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@Polly Ticks
@Machiavelli
@AllThatJazzZ
@AmericanaPrime
@Applewood
@Bigun
@catfish1957
@corbe
@Cyber Liberty
@DCPatriot
@dfwgator
@Freya
@GrouchoTex
@Mom MD
@musiclady
@Right_in_Virginia
@Sanguine
@Slip18
@Suppressed
@TomSea
@truth_seeker
@WarmPotato
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Dodgers and Red Sox?!?!
What's a Yankees fan to do?!?!
@Freya
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Isn't there a lost and found crevice for this baseball malarkey???
Lord have mercy!
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Dodgers and Red Sox?!?!
What's a Yankees fan to do?!?!
@Freya
@Suppressed
They'll do what they've done every year but one since the turn of this century. wink777
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Isn't there a lost and found crevice for this baseball malarkey???
Lord have mercy!
@Absalom
Who put the gun to your head and forced you to look?
This is the sports, entertainment, and arts section, you know.
Now, 'fess up. Which team were you rooting for who didn't make it to the World Series this time? wink777
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@Absalom
Who put the gun to your head and forced you to look?
This is the sports, entertainment, and arts section, you know.
Now, 'fess up. Which team were you rooting for who didn't make it to the World Series this time? wink777
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The site was clearly labeled, in caps, POLITICS!
I root for my grandchildren and their careers.
Let the Latin Americans drool over bazeball.
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The site was clearly labeled, in caps, POLITICS!
I root for my grandchildren and their careers.
Let the Latin Americans drool over bazeball.
You must be a lot of fun at parties.
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Go Dodgers!
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@Suppressed
They'll do what they've done every year but one since the turn of this century. wink777
@EasyAce
There has always been someone to root for during that time, but to have the two historical rivals in there...!
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@Suppressed
They'll do what they've done every year but one since the turn of this century. wink777
Yes. 888cryingkitty 888cryingkitty 888cryingkitty
Btw, in my house growing up, the Dodgers were off limits. They were seen as the worst team in baseball, because they left Brooklyn. Therefore, even though I’m a die hard blue and white pinstripe Yankee fan, I would take the Red Socks over the Dodgers. alas.
@Suppressed
@EasyAce
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Btw, I think the Yankees stink because the new stadium is cursed. Ruth didn’t build it!
(Beautiful article @EasyAce )
I’m going to print it and read it to my dad later this week. Maybe he can hear it. Who knows? That man sure loved baseball. Baseball and my mom.
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If I have to pick, I am going with the Red Sox, for selfish reasons.
It would make the Astros loss easier to bear if we lost to the eventual world series winner.
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@EasyAce
There has always been someone to root for during that time, but to have the two historical rivals in there...!
@Suppressed
There's always that fun factor to consider. But think of it this way: The World Series about to begin features two teams who haven't met in the World Series since the Cubs played their first game in what came to be known as Wrigley Field. (They moved into Weeghman Park beginning in 1916.) It was also the same year in which Norman Rockwell painted his first cover for the Saturday Evening Post and Jackie Gleason was born. There could be a greater fun factor in the Red Sox vs. the Dodgers than the Red Sox vs. the Yankees and, anyway, the Dodgers and the Yankees have tangled in eleven World Series already. A little fresh blood is a wonderful thing.
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Btw, I think the Yankees stink because the new stadium is cursed. Ruth didn’t build it!
I guess you can call the new Yankee Stadium the House that Ruthless Built. ;)
(Beautiful article @EasyAce )
I’m going to print it and read it to my dad later this week. Maybe he can hear it. Who knows? That man sure loved baseball. Baseball and my mom.
I hope your father enjoys it. :amen:
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Yes. 888cryingkitty 888cryingkitty 888cryingkitty
Btw, in my house growing up, the Dodgers were off limits. They were seen as the worst team in baseball, because they left Brooklyn.
It should have been just another reason to despise Robert Moses, the too-long building and planning czar of New York who did the most to keep Walter O'Malley from building in Brooklyn what actually would have been baseball's first retractable-roof stadium and, in fact, tried to strong-arm O'Malley into accepting what eventually became Shea Stadium. (To which O'Malley replied, once famously, "If we play in Queens, we're not the Brooklyn Dodgers anymore.") Moses was hell bent on making sure no one ever again built a privately-owned sports facility while he had anything to say about building in New York. You can get the entire story in these two books:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511nr1ECRkL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61BrKKh5g0L._SX342_.jpg)
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You must be a lot of fun at parties.
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Go Dodgers!
@AllThatJazzZ
As once said a man who was born the same year in which the Red Sox and the Dodgers last tangled in a World Series, he's a regular riot, Alice! :beer:
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I guess you can call the new Yankee Stadium the House that Ruthless Built. ;)
(Beautiful article @EasyAce )
I hope your father enjoys it. :amen:
Dad’s up in heaven. He’s seeing better ball games with all the greats I hope but then he did get to see DiMaggio and Gehrig and all the greats play in his lifetime. 😇
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Dad’s up in heaven. He’s seeing better ball games with all the greats I hope but then he did get to see DiMaggio and Gehrig and all the greats play in his lifetime. 😇
@Freya
Think, too (your father would surely remind you), of the Hall of Famers we've seen in our lifetime: Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Warren Spahn, Ted Williams, Roberto Clemente, Luis Aparicio, Duke Snider (though admittedly on the downslope of his career but at least we got to see one or two of the Boys of Summer!), Nellie Fox, Red Schoendienst, Don Drysdale, Bill Mazeroski, Ernie Banks, Sandy Koufax, Juan Marichal, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, Jim Bunning, Carl Yastrzemski, Al Kaline, Robin Roberts, Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson (I'm beginning to see him in my sleep--I'm afraid if I drop this plate he'll pick it on one hop and throw me out at first---Sparky Anderson), Ron Santo, Johnny Bench, Tom Seaver, Jim Palmer, Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Steve Carlton, Billy Williams, Ferguson Jenkins, Nolan Ryan, Catfish Hunter, Carlton Fisk, Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Joe Morgan, Reggie Jackson (love him or hate him the man had presence and could flat out hit), Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Robin Yount, Cal Ripken, Rickey Henderson, Jack Morris, Alan Trammell, Wade Boggs, Gary Carter, Eddie Murray, Andre Dawson, Dennis Eckersley, Randy Johnson, Tony Gwynn, Ozzie Smith, Paul Molitor, Kirby Puckett, Ken Griffey, Jr., Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Chipper Jones, Roberto Alomar, Barry Larkin, Pedro Martinez, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Jim Thome, Frank Thomas, Vladimir Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman . . . I'm sure I missed one or two from my lifetime.
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Only ones I can think of are Dave Wells and Don Mattingly. I bought autograph balls of each man for dad!
And I liked Reggie Jackson. And his candy bar. :beer:
I wish I had money to get him a Honus Wagner baseball card. Got him a framed poster instead
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A few years ago, I went into a shop with baseball cards but they also had a lot of old comics,
Now a few of these shops have sprung up. I kind of wonder how they can do business year round, especially with competition but they must do okay.
The shops may have mixed purposes, baseball, football cards, some gloves, each one is different but it is interesting.
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Dave Winfield.
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Only ones I can think of are Dave Wells and Don Mattingly. I bought autograph balls of each man for dad!
Don Mattingly was on the Hall of Fame track until his back told him, Don't even think about it! Dale Murphy, too, was on the Hall of Fame track until injuries began draining him in earnest after leaving Atlanta. And, come to think of it, back and shoulder issues took the Mets' now-retired David Wright off the Hall of Fame track. I can think of a lot of players who looked like they had Hall of Fame talent but were compromised by injuries or other issues, including but not limited to Carl Erskine, Don Newcombe, Herb Score, Denny McLain, Sam McDowell, Tony Conigliaro, Keith Hernandez, Dwight Gooden.
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Dave Winfield.
Yep. You also have Winfield, Willie Stargell, Gaylord Perry, Mike Piazza, Tony Perez, Jim Rice, Ivan Rodriguez, Ryne Sandberg, Bruce Sutter, Don Sutton, and Hoyt Wilhelm.
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Btw, I think the Yankees stink because the new stadium is cursed. Ruth didn’t build it!
(Beautiful article @EasyAce )
I’m going to print it and read it to my dad later this week. Maybe he can hear it. Who knows? That man sure loved baseball. Baseball and my mom.
@Freya
That is so beautiful. I'm fortunate to still have my dad with us, though it's hard for him to follow over the phone, so I've printed some @EasyAce columns for Mom to read to him. But getting Mom to do it is tough. Guess what I'll be doing if I get to visit for the holidays!
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@Suppressed
There's always that fun factor to consider. But think of it this way: The World Series about to begin features two teams who haven't met in the World Series since the Cubs played their first game in what came to be known as Wrigley Field. (They moved into Weeghman Park beginning in 1916.) It was also the same year in which Norman Rockwell painted his first cover for the Saturday Evening Post and Jackie Gleason was born. There could be a greater fun factor in the Red Sox vs. the Dodgers than the Red Sox vs. the Yankees and, anyway, the Dodgers and the Yankees have tangled in eleven World Series already. A little fresh blood is a wonderful thing.
@EasyAce
I love the sport and will enjoy it.
Doesn't mean it ain't a dilemma!
I almost didn't exist because of the Dodgers. My Mom decided to start rooting for them just to be contrary, and my dad admitted it made dating her very challenging! :laugh:
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If I have to pick, I am going with the Red Sox, for selfish reasons.
It would make the Astros loss easier to bear if we lost to the eventual world series winner.
@GrouchoTex
I understand your thinking process and tend to reason in the exact same way in most cases. Because of "the most egregious play...in baseball" (Garry Sheffield) in game 4, I have a bad taste in my mouth re the series. Not that we'd necessarily have won the series if it hadn't been called. It was just so blatantly unfair. Most of my anger is toward Joe West, but Mookie's insistence he was interfered with didn't put him in my good graces, although I don't blame him for pleading his case. He wanted to get to the World Series. If he has viewed the replay, he already knows what a gift it was.
It's easier for me to root for the Dodgers because I used to live in L.A. (before it was overrun with wacko liberals and illegals). I loved it back then. In fact, I was about 5 miles from Dodger Stadium, but we were NFL and never followed baseball back then. Also, my son-in-law lives in Ventura and is a season ticket holder. He's a walking encyclopedia about baseball as @EasyAce is, and he loves his Dodgers. I want to see him happy, especially since we beat them last year. He was disappointed but very gracious. The only downside about rooting for L.A. is that I'm also rooting for the team that leftist celebs root for. I rather enjoyed seeing their dejected expressions after last year's defeat.
BTW, prayers for Altuve. He had knee surgery the day after game 5. I pray for a full recovery and that he comes back better than ever. I'm still trying to decide if I want to stay with baseball. In the words of Donald Trump, "We'll have to wait and see."
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I almost didn't exist because of the Dodgers. My Mom decided to start rooting for them just to be contrary, and my dad admitted it made dating her very challenging! :laugh:
@Suppressed
:silly: I can identify with this when it comes to political differences, but baseball? Too funny!!
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I grew up in New England, so I'm pulling for the Idiots vs. the Bums.
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BTW, prayers for Altuve. He had knee surgery the day after game 5. I pray for a full recovery and that he comes back better than ever. I'm still trying to decide if I want to stay with baseball.
@AllThatJazzZ
The word is that Jose Altuve's knee surgery was successful and he'll be ready for spring training. Which is excellent news. The Astros will need him at full strength if they want to get back to the postseason next year.
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I grew up in New England, so I'm pulling for the Idiots vs. the Bums.
@Jazzhead
My parents (RIP) had a mixed marriage---my father was a Dodger fan and my mother was the daughter of New York Giant fans. So naturally I've been a Met fan since the day they were born. But I'm also a Red Sox fan since the 1967 pennant race. (Want to see my Class A drug bills from October 1986?)
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@Jazzhead
My parents (RIP) had a mixed marriage---my father was a Dodger fan and my mother was the daughter of New York Giant fans. So naturally I've been a Met fan since the day they were born. But I'm also a Red Sox fan since the 1967 pennant race. (Want to see my Class A drug bills from October 1986?)
I was a ten year old kid in thrall to baseball during the Impossible Dream year. Ah, to be that young again! As for 1986 - I feel directly responsible for the debacle. I was watching the sixth game and feeling confident that Red Sox would soon be triumphant. Then a college buddy who was working in New York called me to let me know he had secured tickets for him and me to see Game 7, if such an eventuality were necessary. At that moment, the kharma was broken - my Red Sox loyalties were compromised by the thought that a loss would let me see the ultimate game. And of course that ball got past Bill Buckner and I knew we had no chance. Game 7 was foreordained before it began.
I recall that winter, and the agony felt by the unfortunate Mr. Buckner. I recall the tale that, despondent at his buzzard's luck, he had jumped in front of a subway train. Of course, it went through his legs.
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I was a ten year old kid in thrall to baseball during the Impossible Dream year. Ah, to be that young again! As for 1986 - I feel directly responsible for the debacle. I was watching the sixth game and feeling confident that Red Sox would soon be triumphant. Then a college buddy who was working in New York called me to let me know he had secured tickets for him and me to see Game 7, if such an eventuality were necessary. At that moment, the kharma was broken - my Red Sox loyalties were compromised by the thought that a loss would let me see the ultimate game. And of course that ball got past Bill Buckner and I knew we had no chance. Game 7 was foreordained before it began.
I recall that winter, and the agony felt by the unfortunate Mr. Buckner. I recall the tale that, despondent at his buzzard's luck, he had jumped in front of a subway train. Of course, it went through his legs.
@Jazzhead
Whether or not Game Seven of the 1986 World Series was foreordained, the fact that there was a seventh game should have been in the Red Sox's favour---particularly with the rainout pushing the game back a day and allowing Red Sox manager John McNamara to start his best postseason pitcher, Bruce Hurst, who'd been hamstringing the Mets' largely lefthanded front-line lineups. Until the Mets tied the game in the sixth, no one could have expected Hurst to run out of fuel; or, that Calvin Schiraldi, the Red Sox closer brought in to relieve Hurst for the seventh inning, would turn out to be a nervous wreck. (He'd had a couple of looks with the Mets before being dealt to the Red Sox in the Bob Ojeda trade, and the Mets proved to have had deep questions about Schiraldi's makeup: he was thought to be a lazy worker between pitching appearances despite having good stuff. The Red Sox sent him to Pawtucket and brought him up in August and turned to him as their closer, which he did well until the postseason proved too big for him too soon.)
One thing that ended up hurting the Red Sox: their one viable lefthanded relief pitcher, Sammy Stewart, got into McNamara's doghouse unfairly, when he was late for the team bus months earlier---because he'd been delayed from the hospital where he was visiting his sick son (cystic fibrosis, from which the boy eventually died in 1991) and argued with the team traveling secretary over it: the bus pulled away while Stewart was parking his car. Stewart never got a postseason look that year and it cost the Red Sox dearly when they had no solid lefthanded relief options (Al Nipper proved to be dead meat to the Mets) to stop the Mets.
The real X-factor in the game: Mets lefthander Sid Fernandez, moved to the bullpen for the World Series and shutting the Red Sox offense down for two and a third including four strikeouts, giving the Mets room to tie the game while the score was still low. And once the Mets were into the Red Sox bullpen---which lacked depth, consistency, and lefthanded pitching---it was no contest.
Buckner also knew something much forgotten when Mookie Wilson rapped the ill-fated grounder: Wilson had the play beaten at first base, with Buckner having been playing toward the outfield grass and Red Sox reliever Bob Stanley not being swift enough off the mound to cover first in time to get the out. The best-case scenario for the Red Sox on that play would have been first and third and two out---with Howard Johnson on deck for the Mets and about to come into his own as one of the National League's premier power hitters. (He had his breakout season in 1987.)