mlb

Rants of the Codger

~ latskojerry ~ Leave a comment

I’m many miles away from qualifying as a major league baseball scout but some things are clear even to a fool like me. We fell far too much in love with 100 miles per hour pitch speeds. I’m not impressed in a kindly way with fireworks. I think that what MLB pitchers should be good at is getting batters out.

The San Francisco Giants have a man named Camilo Doval who throws very fast fastballs and even better sliders. They have used him as a “closer”, admittedly a term that has annoyed me ever since I sold cars for a living. Doval lost his closer job last summer and now the team honchos are saying that it was because he walked too many batters ( 5+ every 9 innings). Sorry, but that, as bad as it was, is not the whole story. A relief pitcher who is assigned the task of holding leads late in the game does not want to walk the first batter he faces. That’s trouble. But Doval has another problem. He is, as they say, deliberate. He does not hold base runners well at all. Consequently, a lead off walk is often equivocal to a lead off double. He also tends to lose track of the pitch clock and you could make yourself a Dagwood type sandwich and consume most of it while he hurls a half inning. Umpires are not supposed to do it but they frequently become skeptical of a hurler’s ability to throw strikes when these things are happening. So now you have a runner on second and you need to make better pitches.. Better pitches sometimes leave the yard. We lost, but we saw 6-8 pitches that  traveled over 100 mph.

Now we are also in love with bat speed. Home run swings on every pitch still seem to be acceptable long past the steroid era. Sacrifice bunts and squeeze plays appear to be coming somewhat back into favor, but only during the “cold” months. Starting pitchers don’t hurl more than 5 innings in MLB because they have never previously been asked to do that and they consequently lack the strength or “know how” required. That issue, which costs teams a bundle by forcing them to carry two or three more pitchers to compensate, will take a long time to overcome if it ever is attempted. But I’m just a fan. Can’t wait for it to get started again, though.

 

Back to the Fifties?

~ latskojerry ~ 2 Comments

February has traditionally been the time of year when the winter thaw begins to hint that it might be starting. Let’s not start playing catch yet, but in a couple of weeks the pitchers and catchers will start showing up in the warmer portions of the country where “spring training” takes place. Sports pages and other media outlets begin to pry themselves away from football obsessions (hoping here that it includes Taylor Swift) and allow what used to be called the “National Pastime” some space. The mood has generally been warm, even optimistic. This year it seems a bit different. The great game is looking a bit shoddy and decadent.

The World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers, despite having a horrific bolt of reality dealt to the community in which they operate by the stupendous loss of people, living space,wildlife, and morale, apparently decided to keep on spending money like everything was going to be okay. Kirby Yates, Roki Sasaki, everybody, come on down. Sign up. The sun will still shine behind all the smoke there in fantasy land and we’ve got a great television contract. We survivors are all still rich, right? I’m not sure that that is what is meant by resilience.The Oakland A’s are gone to a minor league yard but who needs Oakland, right? It’s just working class people without the glitter of Las Vegas and the glitter of gambling (now a proud partner of Major League Baseball) or the glitter of over rated show business has beens.You may or may not agree with me that there is no place in organized baseball for glitter. Sacramento will be the so called temporary home for the A’s as they share a field there with the Triple A team that the San Francisco Giants are affiliated with, the River Cats. Sacramento deserves better than the ignorant slobs running that franchise.

Rob Cumberworld Manfred is the perfect commissioner in the Trump II era who doesn’t have a clue what the product he’s selling is all about. Just take their money and feed them bullcrap. Honor the billionaires and laugh at the peasants.

Eventually the athletes will help us to feel better. That’s what I’m hoping. I’m glad that Juan Soto is a New York Met, not a Yankee. I’m glad Justin Verlander is still going to work. Here’s hoping, but it looks like 1954.

The New York Yankees string of five consecutive pennants was broken that year by a remarkable Cleveland team that won 111 games against 43 losses but the Yanks won 103 . The big weapon the Yankees had, and still have, was cash. Cleveland was greatly aided that year by their “acqusition” of slugger Vic Wertz from the Baltimore Orioles, formerly the sad sack St. Louis Browns. Baltimore finished seventh in the eight team American League that year by losing 100 games. They were outdone in losing by the Philadelphia A’s, who were 51-103. Fourth place Boston finished 44 games behind Cleveland. Third place Chicago won 94 games. So money talked big back in the day. The National League came closer to parity. Eighth place Pittsburgh finished 44 games behind the pennant winning New York Giants with a 53-101 record. Steps were eventually taken to even things out somewhat. The amateur draft began in 1965 and the expansion drafts led to creation of divisions within each league so that more teams qualified for the post season. Obviously, the independence of players increased tremendously when free agency was fought for and won in the 70s.

The big enemy of parity is the capability of team owners to sign players to contracts with payment deferred for years and years. This helps teams get around being financially punished for spending too much on salaries in any given year. The Dodgers have done this, most notably with the massive contract they have with Shohei Ohtani. The idea is to spend into the future in order to sell tickets and television rights today. This is what needs to be banished if true parity is ever to exist. The big problem is that the players don’t seem to mind and the fans don’t get a vote. Okay, let’s all go shovel the snow or whatever. We”ll feel better in the Spring. Won’t we?

From Dream to Nightmare

~ latskojerry ~ 3 Comments

Have I learned my lesson? Let’s hope so. Game five of the 2024 World Series was a pleasant dream for the New York Yankees and their fans which, in the vernacular of John Smoltz, I allowed myself to join for the past week. To thine own self be true, right? No, this life long Yankees hater was overcome with desire for defeat of the best team money could buy and became openly in favor of victory for the sons of Steinbrenner. For four fun innings, it looked like the momentum had definitely shifted. A walk to Juan Soto was followed by a home run to the previously struggling Aaron Judge. Then Jazz Chisholm, who comes close to defying the Yankees grooming orders, hit another. Gerrit Cole was his determined, poker faced self mowing down the Dodgers hitters. Anthony Volpe and Alex Verdugo produced a fourth run in the second inning and the remarkably resurgent Giancarlo Stanton blasted yet another home run to make it 5-0 after three innings. One could imagine Dave Roberts flashing back to 20 years ago, when his team (the Red Sox at the time) came back in the league championship series from a three games to none deficit to vault past the Yankees to the World Series.

Then came the meltdown. Judge, who had made a great catch to deny the unstoppable Freddie freeman in the fourth, dropped a routine fly ball after Kike Hernandez started the fifth inning with the Dodger’s first hit, a single. Then Volpe made a bad throw to Chisholm at third on another routine play and the two errors had loaded the bases with none out. Cole gathered himself and struck out Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani and the pleasant dream was revived. Mookie Betts rolled a grounder wide of first base and Anthony Rizzo had it easily, but Betts runs hard and fast and Gerrit Cole was caught being a spectator without a ticket. Five to one, still nobody out and the bases sacked. Then came Freddie with a base hit to make it 5-3. Teoscar Hernandez then cracked a double and the score was tied and the air was out of the balloon. Cole is an experienced, fiery competitor but it was amazing that no mound visit was made yet–not by the catcher, not by pitching coach Mark Prior, not by the ghost of Thurmon Munson. After Max Muncy walked there finally was a mound visit and somehow, after that 38 pitch inning, Cole returned to pitch the sixth and part of the seventh but momentum, ever slippery, had gone back to the visitors.

Stanton’s sacrifice fly put New York back in front but the fearsome Bronx Bombers had turned into zombies. Helped by a catcher’s interference in the eighth inning, Los Angeles got what they wanted despite Ohtani’s 0 for 4 night.

Just like that it became time to say good bye to repetitive commercials for things I’ll never buy and verbose announcers that I actually listened to quite a bit this game. Now, until next Spring, the TV can rest except for English Premiere League futbol and the European Women Super League along with U.S. men and women games as they occur. Plus streaming movies and shows . Overall, MLB was very interesting all season. I’m starting to favor going back to a 154 game schedule, though. These playoffs go long, and they might turn some of us into zombies if we’re not careful.

Back to the Fifties

~ latskojerry ~ 4 Comments

It’s the Yankees and the Dodgers in the World Series! Casey Stengel‘s five straight World Series appearances as manager of the Yanks began in 1949, once with the Phillies and once with the Giants and the other three with Brooklyn. That was when television was in its infancy and they were still making Studebakers.

My first was one of my favorites, 1955. I wanted to be like Johnny Podres. Brooklyn’s lefty pitched two complete game victories, including a 2-0 win in the seventh game at Yankee Stadium helped by a great running catch by left fielder Sandy Amoros to win the series for the Dodgers and a new Chevrolet Corvette for himself as the most valuable player. Eleven years later, I was the letter carrier who delivered to his bleary early morning eyes his contract offer from the Detroit Tigers. We don’t always realize how quickly the time is passing.

Then ’56 when Sister Angeles let us watch the first three innings during my favorite school period, lunch, and then the end of Don Larsen‘s perfect game.

Being a Dodgers fan was fun in the fifties. They were the underdogs of autumn in the big city against the we like white Yankees of Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford and friends. The Dodgers had Roy Campanella, Jim Gilliam, Gil Hodges, Don Newcombe, and Carl Furillo, plus a guy who didn’t mind being called Pee Wee Reese. In addition, their center fielder was the Duke of Flatbush, Mr. Snider.

The two teams met again after being separated by thousands of miles. Kind of the same but not. The last time was in the punctuated season of 1981. That brings up the sad shock of learning of the passing of Fernando Valenzuela. Even after I stopped loving the Dodgers I still loved “The Fat Kid”. He was an absolute tiger to oppose and an absolute gentleman to observe at all times.

That still won’t make me favor the Dodgers. There are matchups sometimes when I want both teams to win and sometimes I want both teams to lose. This one comes close to the latter. The best contests are the ones where you don’t care who wins, you just want to see the games. My solution to the Joe Davis /John Smoltz thing is to just kill the audio. That also works well between innings. Let’s just enjoy it.

Pride and Prejudice

~ latskojerry ~ 2 Comments

How is the 2024 Major League Baseball “post season” going for you so far? There are only four teams remaining now. Some of us can remember the awful old days when only two teams participated unless one of the two leagues ended the regular season with a tie for first place as the National league did in 1951, 1959, and 1962 and the American League did in 1948. Then, at most, ten games would be played to decide what is called the World Champion. So far, in 2024, 27 games have been played and we are just getting started. We think that it’s great.

Being exclusively a television viewing fan, which as we know is short for fanatic, we do get tired beyond exhaustion with the same old insurance, beer, car, truck and stomach churning fast food advertising but it’s the price we pay for living in a country where Rupert Murdoch and now the loathsome Larry Ellison control much of the airwaves. We do get some really good games and, when TBS is involved, some really good analysis from the likes of Pedro Martinez, Dusty Baker, Jimmy Rollins, and Curtis Granderson with Lauren Shehardi as an excellent host.

It’s great to know that Cleveland will be there to challenge the New York Yankees. Tarik Skubal and the Detroit Tigers were a great late season story and proved that, though it seemed they were giving up at trade deadline time, they will be a force to reckon with in the future. Their addition of Trey Sweeney at shortstop looks like it will solve the hideous Javier Baez situation very well. A.J. Hinch has bounced back well from the over rated “scandal” of his Houston Astros tenure. I’ll be rooting for the Guardians in their matchup with the powerful Yankees. Aaron Judge is likely to wreak havoc with Cleveland’s overworked pitching staff but Stephen Vogt has them believing. Emmanuel Clase is the true “closer” that most teams wish they had. Jose Ramirez and Andres Gimenez give them veteran strength that all teams crave. Judge, Juan Soto, and Giancarlo Stanton strike real fear in opposition but the Yanks may be vulnerable on the mound after Gerrit Cole. We must not fail to mention the stalwart, inspirational story of the Kansas City Royals, the team that lost 106 games in 2023 and won lots of games and many hearts as they became very serious threats this season Few if any of us expected three teams from the A.L. Central to make the playoffs but there they all were, and deservedly so.

For the first time since 1969, I will be a diehard New York Mets follower this autumn. Like the San Diego Padres, they were a fabulous second half team. No one should count them out against the Los Angeles Dodgers in this League Championship Series. Francisco Lindor is on a sensational roll these days and the Mets have a strong balance of speed, defense, and pitching that is reminding me of a World Series team from last year–the Arizona Diamondbacks. If this is a “new” trend in baseball, we will all be happier. Full counts, walks, and solo home runs are large contributors to snoring nationally. I once loved the Dodgers, but their yard has turned into a noiseatorium and they just have too much money . I do like Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez but they are like the old Yankees, too arrogant and wealthy. Plus, their DH has poor judgement. San Diego might actually be the better team, but not for the last 25 innings. After the Braves fell out amid lots of bad injury luck, I thought the Phillies would end up N.L. champs. That’s why I think the Mets are for real.

In other news, what do you call it, irony? Pete Rose, deservedly banished, has passed away in the year that Fan Dual has become “a proud partner of MLB”. Line up, suckers! Also, all of those team color towels were a bit tacky.

It’s still the best game in the world, let’s enjoy!

 

 

When Men Were Boys

~ latskojerry ~ 1 Comment

Ninety one years ago the first major league All Star game was played in Chicago. My first memory of what has been called the midsummer classic was July 12, 1955 in Milwaukee, a city that was enjoying its third season of major league baseball. The Braves, formerly of Boston, were represented by Eddie Mathews, Henry Aaron,Johnny Logan, Del Crandall, and Gene Conley, who became the winning pitcher when Stan Musial hit Frank Sullivan‘s first pitch in the 12th inning for a home run and the National League prevailed, 6-5. Everyone I was watching the game with on TV was happy about that.

This year’s version was a good game, won by the American League after everybody’s best friend, Shohei Ohtani, hit a three run homer to give the senior circuit (nobody calls it that anymore so I had to) a 3-0 early lead.

Some of the best ball players in the world put on their clown suits and microphones to battle one another in Arlington, Texas. Actually,some of the athletes were not electronically audibly enhanced but Joe Davis, who is not the guy I would want to be seated next to on a crowded bus for a trip longer than a quarter mile, was able to keep telling each participant’s life story all the way through nine innings despite the interference of action. I’m fairly used to Joe because just about all the ball I see is on TV and there he is. John Smoltz needs someone like Jon Miller or Dan Shulman to team with so that some quiet time exists on the air between fascinating biographies.

Davis actually tried to converse with Tarik Skubal while he was on the mound pitching. I went into my what if that was Bob Gibson spin, gasping for air. No doubt Gibson would have told FOX and the commissioner to put their microphone where the sun doesn’t shine. Joe Davis talked to three infielders at once and then two outfielders at once during play. Everyone but Skubal was kind and considerate. I was aghast. This is not what many of us tune in to receive when athletic contests are being played. Neither would an interview with a working chef or musician be interesting or informative.

It was a good game with some good plays. However, for Bruce Bochy to have to wear that worse than any beer league or “city connect” outfit was just embarrassing. Someone or, most likely, a committee may actually have been paid to come up with those designs and colors. Put them back in their team unis and stop this dress up nonsense. Torey Lovullo and Bochy both did well as did Juan Soto and the guy who charged Ohtani three million for the cab ride to the park.

The Goal Was Parity

~ latskojerry ~ Leave a comment

The most noticeable thing about the 2024 major league baseball season so far, other than the high number of broken bats and strained hamstrings, is the absence of many teams from the races for first place. Coming into this weekend, eight of the fifteen American League teams had winning records, but four of those were in the Central Division. There,the Cleveland Guardians held a five game lead over Kansas City. Both of those clubs are considered pleasant surprises by the National Committee of Baseball Know It Alls but, as the opthalmologists say, we will see. The fifth team in that division, the Chicago White Sox, are not in contention for anything other than 122 defeats at their current rate of play. In the A.L. West, the Costa Mesa Angels are in a race with Oakland for fifth place and Seattle is the only team that has won more than it has lost. Baltimore and the New York Yankees are the only teams above .500 in the East, and they are the two teams clearly superior to the rest of the league. In the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, and Los Angeles Dodgers are your three good teams out of fifteen –so far, I have to add, since we are only a bit more than a third of the way through the schedule. It is no doubt fun to be a follower of those successful franchises, but success in competitive sports associations (business) is dependent on, well, competition. When the people know who is going to win most of the time, the interest in each individual game sags to a dangerous low and not even television can adequately compensate.

Back in the days of Elvis, Ed Sullivan, and ubiquitous movies about World War II, the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers dominated the post season, which consisted of the World Series only unless there was a tie for a pennant. So all of us got to be familiar with Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, and Whitey Ford. Those were very good teams but the sad sack teams like the St. Louis Browns, Pittsburgh Pirates, and any team from Philadelphia were usually not really worthy opponents. Things began to change as the sixties appeared, and the lords of the diamonds made an admirable leap toward progress, otherwise known as parity. The amateur draft was instituted in 1965. Rick Monday was drafted by the Kansas City Athletics and the team with the worst record each season would get that first “draft pick” followed in order by each of the other teams in reverse order of the standings. The goal was to help the losers catch up to the winners and, to a certain extent, it helped. Before long, teams like Baltimore, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and, yes, even the expansion teams won pennants and World Series.

Years later, free agency came along and it was very good for the players as far as salaries and other conditions of employment. Expansion and subsequent widening of the post season participation helped the game become more popular and television contracts enriched all teams and increased the money available. At long last, we may have reached the point that, like most big businesses, MLB had so much cash at its disposal that some teams, like some corporations, had a whole lot more to spend on things like free agents than others. That may account for today’s disparity. Now is a good time, by the way, to tell all baseball commentators around North America that a “ton” equals 2,000 pounds, although Webster says that it can also mean a great quantity, but I would not use it a “ton” of the time.

OTHER MATTERS: May 26 marked the 65th anniversary of one of the weirdest baseball games ever. On that date in 1959, Harvey Haddix of the Pirates pitched 12 perfect innings against the Braves in Milwaukee. He lost the game in the 13th when Felix Mantilla reached on Pirate third baseman Don Hoak‘s throwing error. Eddie Mathews sacrifice bunted Mantilla to second base. Henry Aaron was then intentionally walked. Joe Adcock then delivered a home run except it wasn’t. Adcock passed Aaron between second and third base because Aaron stopped, thinking the ball had landed inside the fence. The umpire ruled Adcock out (correctly) and said the Braves won 2-0. Later, National league president Warren Giles ruled Adcock’s hit a double and the score therefore 1-0. Lew Burdette was the winning pitcher with a 13 inning 12 hitter (all singles). The question is, how many pitches did they throw? They were not counted. Haddix walked one (Aaron) and Burdette none.

More trivia:Who were the first Most Valuable Players to wear glasses at the time? Jim Konstanty of the 1950 Phillies in the National League and Dick Allen of the White Sox in the 1972 American League. You needed to know that, right?

Reduce Fun, Add Revenue, Then Play

~ latskojerry ~ Leave a comment

We might just be reaching the peak of the Era of Analytics, emphasis on the first two syllables of that word. Everyone has studied and learned the catechism: loopy, launch angle swings, pitchers throwing as hard as they can for as long as they can, buying Tommy John insurance, miles per hour obsession whether hitting or throwing, on base percentage et cetera ad infinitum.

Heretics are beginning to assemble, however. His Eminence Justin Verlander is a skeptic. We are not teaching pitchers to pitch the whole game anymore. That’s old school rubbish. Pitchers batting is way long ago now. Bunting might make a comeback, but I don’t think it is being taught anymore. Home runs are losing their luster as spectators yawn waiting for walks and strikeouts to be reduced. Runners are being stranded after reaching third base with fewer than two out. Things got better last season with the “speed up”, although pitchers aren’t getting much rest between pitches, batters, innings, or seasons. If your child can’t learn to hit balls over the fence or throw 100 mph, send him or her to med school to learn arm, shoulder, or elbow surgery. This is the 21st century, nimrod.

There are a couple of things I’ve noticed in the first quarter of the 2024 major league season that have me bothered a bit. Oh, I’ve noticed that the Philadelphia Phillies are kicking ass and taking names and also that Shohei Ohtani apparently does his own bookkeeping, but, no these are other, perhaps less significant things. One is, why do batters always have something in their back pockets now? What would Ted Williams say about that? I didn’t play anything close to professional baseball, but when I was trying to hit a pitch I needed to relax, feel comfortable and have some balance. I didn’t want a wallet or car keys or loose change upsetting the balance. Now nobody minds that. Maybe it’s part of the “speed up”, which has never affected between innings commercials. They don’t want a batter reaching base to have to wait for someone to bring them the oven mitt, even though it would be an opportunity to say that “…this oven mitt delivery and shin guard retrieval is brought to you by Door Dash.” More important than that, this marriage of MLB (and other pro sports too) with the gambling vampires is outlandish and dangerous and no one seems to care. There is now even ESPN Bet. We can see the odds not only of Kansas City overcoming a 12-1 deficit after six innings but also the over/under on how many Jack in the Box ads we’ll see by the seventh inning stretch. Genuinely disgusting.

The thing that is most bugging me though is another thing that has been spawned by the analytic bunch. Patrick Bailey has been one of the bright new talents to come along in baseball. He is a gamer, a smart player, and infinite fun behind the plate. The “smart” people, who are kind of like “smart” phones, “smart” doorbells, and “smart” vacuum cleaners, have convinced baseball management that having catchers creep closer to batters and catch on one knee is smart. The motivation is to “steal” strikes for the pitcher by “framing”. That is probably worth 2.346 runs per season so it’s “smart”. Patrick Bailey is just one of several catchers who have been drilled by 100 mph foul tips and served time on the concussion injury list more than once. I don’t have a degree in physics but it is becoming obvious that this tactic is too dangerous and needs be outlawed. Careers are in jeopardy. Ask Mike Matheny.

On a brighter note, congratulations to, besides the Phillies, the Atlanta Braves, the Chicago Cubs, the Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Guardians and the Kansas City Royals for giving their fans lots to cheer about so far. Dodgers fans have been busy with their GO FUND ME account raising money to get a “smart” calculator for their designated sitter.

Those Silly Millionaires

~ latskojerry ~ 1 Comment

Imagine what you could do with 4.5 million dollars. Perhaps some of you don’t have to imagine. If so, congratulations. You can probably afford season tickets. We may never learn the real story with the probably untouchable Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher/slugger. His interpreter said he had a problem and his buddy helped him out. I really wish that I had a second language. I keep going back in my mind to Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.

In today’s world, gambling and sports are partners, simultaneously raking in the big bucks with little or no consternation. Not so long ago, their paths were separate. Betting made money for some, but the whole thing was mostly underground, illegal, and considered by many to be immoral. The Black Sox scandal of 1919 nearly destroyed the integrity of the game of baseball when Chicago White Sox players were paid by “gamblers” to throw the World Series to the obliging Cincinnati Reds. Professional boxing and horse racing were other “sports” often linked to “fixes”. From club owners’ point of view, people buying tickets to watch sporting events need reassurance that the outcomes are not prearranged.

1951 was the first season that Mays and Mantle played for the Giants and Yankees and New York City simultaneously claimed three of the best center fielders of all time. Duke Snider was already established in Brooklyn. They each eventually played in World Series and were elected to the Hall of Fame. They were all three extremely talented and relatively well paid. Plus, if you played in New York, it was easier to make a few extra bucks endorsing products enjoyed by baseball fans of the day such as tobacco, beer, shaving cream, and razor blades. They didn’t have the kind of paydays we see now. One hundred thousand dollars was a huge salary in those days, not tens of millions. However, for a quick study of the ravages of inflation, please note that $65,000 then was like $500,000 today.

Players not named Yogi Berra were not able to manage their money so well. It would be a couple of decades before free agency,player agents, and financial managers joined the game. Neither Mays nor Mantle was headed for the poorhouse after retirement but they needed work. After former Cleveland star Al Rosen left his job with the Yankees to become executive vice president at Bally’s casino in Atlantic City, he quickly offered Mays a ten year contract at $100,000 per year to become a Bally’s employee, essentially a casino greeter. Soon, another casino, Claridge, made the same offer to Mantle.

Commissioner Bowie Kuhn countered that the two stars could work for casinos if they wanted to but they could not be employed by any baseball team at the same time. That was how squeaky clean the sports world wanted to be or at least look to be as late as the 1970s. A later commissioner, Peter Ueberroth of Los Angeles Olympics fame, lifted the ban and, oh how far we have come since then. Some of us had reflexes of shock and dismay to the recent merger of sport and betting. Now, articles concerning ballplayers note their salaries and length of contract details as much if not more than their batting averages, earned run averages and other statistics. Now we see the odds on everything from winning a game, winning a pennant, or striking out as part of every telecast brought to us by Fan Dual and other venues for dropping cash. I’ve lately been watching a lot of European soccer matches and the advertising in the stadiums and even on the uniforms for betting outlets is widespread.

Millionaires abound, paid by billionaires in the world of professional sports. Is this a good thing? Young people in their twenties or early thirties have enough spare wealth to “help their friends” in million dollar debt. it’s worrisome.

We’ll Miss Tito

~ latskojerry ~ 1 Comment

 

In 2024 major league baseball will have to proceed for the first time in a very long while without the on field presence of one of the best managers in its history. It’s a good thing that Bruce Bochy came out of retirement last season so that he could win another World Series because we are faced with the retirement of Terry Francona. We like Francona because, while he was very successful as a manager and as a player, he also has been a leader with about as positive an attitude as could be imagined and he is a good sport, something that seems to be in short supply these days.

In his eleven seasons managing Cleveland, his teams won 921 games and lost 757, a nifty .549 percentage. In 2016, they made the World Series and lost to Joe Maddon and his Chicago Cubs. Francona was manager of the year that season, as he was selected also in 2013 and 2022. His record over a 23 year managing career was 1950-1672 (.538). He had managed the Philadelphia Phillies from 1997 to 2000 and then, perhaps most memorably, the Boston Red Sox from 2004 to 2011. The Sox won it all in 2004 and 2007. There are countless ups and downs throughout any baseball season just like there are at your house, but Terry Francona was never one to look for scapegoats or make excuses. That’s why he had the support of his players and did well.

2004 was the most fun season for those of us who are fond of beating the Yankees. New York won the American league East division by three games over Boston and, after being shut out by Johan Santana and friends in the first game, won the next three division series games while Boston was sweeping Anaheim. The League Championship Series opened October 12 with the Yankees routing Curt Schilling and the Sox 10-7. New York’s Jon Lieber bested Pedro Martinez the next day, 3-1, and then it was off to Boston. Fenway Park was no help at all as the Yankees totally thrashed Boston, 19-8. Was it over? Not quite. The Red Sox won the next two at home, two more in the Bronx, and then four straight over Tony LaRussa, Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals to rid themselves of the Bambino Curse as World Champions. Terry Francona could have been governor of Massachusetts after that triumph but he had a better job.

From 1981 to 1990 Terry Francona was a pretty good outfielder for the Montreal Expos, the Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland and the Milwaukee Brewers. He was among the league leaders in batting average after 58 games in 1984 when he twisted a knee trying to avoid a John Tudor tag. He and his .346 average were finished for the season and Terry was never the same, losing much of his speed. He pitched one scoreless inning for the Brewers in that final ’90 season.

Terry was the son of John Patsy “Tito” Francona of New Brighton, Pennsylvania, who died February 13, 2018, and is frequently called Tito as well. Terry was born in April of 1959, which just happens to be the best year of his father’s major league career. Papa was born in Aliquippa, Pa. , not far from New Brighton. The elder Francona played for Cleveland in ’59 and, in 122 games, tore up the American League for a .363 batting average with 20 home runs. He stayed with Cleveland through 1964. He, like his son, played outfield, first base, and pinch hit a lot in the days before designated sitters. Both Franconas ended their careers playing for Milwaukee, father in the American League and son in the National. Another interesting fact for Tito the elder is that, before that big ’59 season, he was traded to Cleveland by Detroit in exchange for Larry Doby, who is famous for many important things such as winning a pennant in 1954 and earlier becoming the first black player in the American League.