The World Series Edition

This is a World Series that is by the numbers. Baseball has such a long documented history from its earliest gestation to the adolescence that it entertains today. Everyone knows that it has been 108 years since the Cubs last won a title. Some baseball fans know that it has been 68 years for the Indians since their last title. Cub fan had morphed into the lovable loser mentality within the Chicago Bulls era and the White Sox year. Cleveland as a city that had morphed into the mistake by the Lake with the Browns, the Indians and the Cavaliers all sustaining long stretches of futility. Wrigley was becoming a tourist attraction not home to a major league team. The Cubs have barely challenged to even get into the WS since 1908 with one visit in 1945 during WW2 when many MLB stars were still serving the military. But that storied series did give the Cubs the Goat story. It is hard to imagine a hex based on a goat not being allowed into the fall classic but it just shows how furtive Chicago was for an answer or at least some better voodoo. The Indians have not won a title in 68 years which is the second longest drought in the majors behind the Chicago North Side. But the Indians went to the WS twice in the 90’s. If you have time to see the 30 for 30 on the 1997 World Series, it is the most snatched from the jaws of victory losses ever recorded. The champagne was out, the shirts and caps were out, the trophy had been wheeled into the owner’s suite and the Indians were two outs from the first Cleveland title in forever. Those two outs never came and the freaking Florida Marlins won a title in their fifth season of baseball. Cub fan has never had that kind of Deer Hunter gun to the temple roulette options until now. When the Red Sox won in 2004, it had been 86 years since the city had won a title. The coach of that ended that city’s futility is the same person coaching the Indians. Terry Francona seems to be the hex buster as he opposes his old GM Theo Epstein. It will be emotional on all sides of the diamonds as they fight for theirs encrusted on the long awaited ring. With another win tonight, there will be pall that will fall over the Windy City that took over a century to render. 1988 was the year of the last baseball championship for Los Angeles. The Anaheim Angels who think they are in Los Angeles won in 2002 over the Giants which we enjoyed but that does not count for most LA sports fans. 1988 is also the last year that the NBA Champion and MLB Champion were from the same city. The Showtime era was winding down but the Lake show still vanquished the hard charging Pistons to win the title. So there is a chance that for the first time in 28 years the NBA and MLB champ will be from the same city. There is no chance LA will see this scenario in a long time with the Lakers. It has been a long time for the Dodgers without winning a championship. Longest drought since moving to Los Angeles which is remarkable. The Brooklyn Dodgers and the Los Angeles Dodgers each have played in nine World Series. The Brooklyn bunch only won one once in 1955 with the Boys of Summer. Brooklyn fought for mindshare in the city of Yankees fans and their 20 titles. And their loyal Brooklyn fans waited for over 50 years for their first title from the hated Yankees. They got out their party outfits eight times only to do down in defeat. They finally crack the champagne and then moved the franchise to LA three years later. That is heartbreak Yard youth mildly endured when the woeful Rams moved to St. Louis. And here they are back in LA during our lifetime and still woeful. It never seemed the Dodgers were going to make it interesting this year. With all of the injuries, with Kershaw out for three months, with the sketchy starting pitching, it just seemed like a next year kind of year at best. Then they bitch slapped the Giants back into the Wild Card, won their first deciding playoff game in nearly a generation and took a 2-1 lead on the Cubs going into Game Four on their way to their first World Series. We threw our playoff trepidation just in time to throw up in playoff misery for the next six days. After the Dodgers clinched in our nation’s capital, they were off to Chicago and won a stunning game two with Kershaw exorcising his October demons. The rout in game three had Cub fan in a deplorable place. All of the playoff maladies manifested themselves in Game 5. Dr. Phil and son were able to join myself and first daughter to watch Kenta Maeda try and stem the hemorrhaging. He is not the Dr. Phil but I like him better and he is married to my sister. He is a massive Cubs fan but was exceptional in his muted thrill of watching the Cubs maul the Dodgers again. As the game progressed, we regressed into the bitter funk that has emanated from this storied franchise for 28 years. The Dodgers got pummeled in those last three games and even Clayton found time for one of his traditional post season meltdowns. It would be way more painful to be leading by three runs going into a decisive game and give up four to lose and get bounced out of the playoffs in an even numbered year. That is real pain. Getting beat down 26-6 over three games is not a fun thing to observe for sure but the dripping defeat is easier to take than the gripping one. Overtime: The Ryder Cup this past month was brilliant. The US team finally pulled together like a real team with the required underlying individual performances. They pulled together the right mix of up and comers with experience. The Ryder Cup used to just be a US beat down of Great Britain which was not so great back then. The US dominated 18 of the first 21 official Ryder Cups. Then in 1979 it morphed into US versus Europe and it has been game on ever since. I can imagine the Brits, Scots and Irish had a hard time. twelve teammates to combat the American invasion. And oh how it has turned. Before 1979, the Ryder cup was hardly even televised and it was not front page of the sports page news. Now it is like the Olympics of golf every two years. It seems to well attended, TV everywhere, merchandise, players do not get paid, so who gets the money? Patriotism over Benjamin’s how benign.

Red Sox Curse 2.0

The post season is why Fox pays the freight for the MLB contract. Regular season baseball is certainly not the highest rated of telecasts. But Baseball games do not struggle to find time for advertising spots like a long drive in football or extended stretches in an exciting basketball game. There is a lot of downtime during a baseball game at any level. Fox gets to pitch their fall lineup while we all get ears jammed with political agendas of non-transparent origins. With the season of the witch and the warlock fighting for our souls, baseball is a tremendous relief from the deluge on political ads while there is game action. The baseball playoffs bring all of the magic that makes baseball so maddeningly entertaining for this Yardiot. Every single pitch is a battle within the game. Every moment within a baseball playoff game can have consequence. 162 regular season battles mean little when the Ides of October suffocate a key at bat. Having the best record in your league only gets you to the first round playing a team that has already won a playoff game. There are several compelling stories in these playoffs beyond the 108-year drought of the Cubs last title. There is no getting around a bad century. The White Sox got it done for the south side but Wrigley Ville has laid barren since the Taft presidency. The Indians have a shot this year to end their 68-year drought ebbing on the shores of Lake Erie. The Dodgers have not sniffed October bunting since 1988. And the immigrant Blue Jays are the most recent champion among the bunch. The Rangers wish Trump had started the wall across Lake Ontario. It is the history of baseball that adds to the historic nature of the sport. But beyond the droughts, the goat, the curses, and Bartman, the Boston Red Sox are the real story of this MLB playoffs. The Bosox enjoyed a solid season with the retiring David “Big Papi” Ortiz. They had all of the reason to win this year and looked to make a long run in the playoffs. Alas the Sox failed miserably to the Indians. The Cubs are the current starlings with their longer curse and tortured fan base. In 2007, the Red Sox had all of the pieces in place to win more than two titles in five years. The curse was bloodied socked off the planet in 2004 and in 2007 the future was validated with the second title for three generations of knuckle heads. Two more titles than Ted Williams was hated for and more titles than the Pesky Pole ever saved. It was two titles in five years after an 86-year drought. Wrap your head around that for 75 years or so. The next Red Sox curse was spawned by the owners of the Red Sox-John Henry and Tom Werner. John Henry is the former investment tycoon whose only solid investment was the Red Sox. Tom Werner was the television guy who was going to revolutionize the product of baseball in New England. After two titles in five years, the Sox were more popular than the Celtics or Patriots at that time. But selling 81 home games versus 41 or 8 was daunting for the revenue streams the Red Sox ownership wanted from their provincial followers. Tom Werner, the TV guy, was put in charge of promoting the Sox on their local television. He reported the Sox needed superstars who would command attention. He knew this because he was the owner of the Cosby show. Bill Cosby was a huge star who was a recurring revenue stream paying for Tom Werner’s investments. The Red Sox regime ran off Theo Epstein and Terry Francona. The architect and field general who slayed a near century of New England baseball futility. They were pushed out by a management team that wanted regular season superstars not World Series heroes. They got Adrian Gonzales and Carl Crawford to spark their television audience when they already had Nomar, Johnny Damon and David Ortiz. Theo knows all about curses, villains, and barren landscapes. He also knew of false expectations and disaffected ownership. Epstein designed and built the re-incarnation of the Boston Red Sox of 2004 into the Cubs of 2016. Theo’s partner in the club house was Terry Francona. Francona managed the Indians into the winningest team in the American League. Theo has rebuilt the Cubs into the story of 100 years and Terry has the Indians one win from the World Series for the first time since 1996. And for Tom Werner, Doctor Clint Huxtable is no longer paying the bills. The Giants have won three World Series in the past six years if you have not heard. Enter any conversation with any Giant fan and they will remind you that the Giants have won the title in each of the even years since 2010. And oh wait, this is 2016 and they were in the playoffs and if history continues to repeat itself, the Giants should win the title. It was a concern when the Giants beat the Mets and took a game from the Cubs. The Giants went all in on starting pitching while blowing 30 save opportunities with their patch work bull pen. It was no more evident in the undecided game four that was decided by four Cubs run against 27 Giant pitchers in the 9th. We had never seen Bochy waddle so many feet in such a short period. AT&T groundskeepers were not pleased either. The Dodgers and Nationals were the most contested playoff series so far. The Dodgers were lucky to win game one with a shaky Clayton Kershaw laboring through six innings of eight hit ball. They won game five with a shaky Kenley Jensen needing Kershaw for the save. The Dodger relievers as they have all season, closed out the game before it became a mess. Dave Roberts has made over 600 pitching changes this year so far. The Dodgers averaged nearly four pitchers per game for the season. One would think that would wear out a bullpen and it could and it might. GM Andrew Friedman uses the minor leagues like baseball purgatory with pitching getting called up from OKC to the pearly gates at the Ravine at a record setting pace. It was not the big signing this off season it was all of the myriad of little signings that are the signature of this team. The Dodgers had fifteen different pitchers start games this year. The Dodgers had seven pitchers who started at least ten games each. There is not another major league team that is close to that number of starters. If the Dodgers win game three at home, the plan is to start 20-year-old Julio Urias in game four. Young Julio was year away in April and here he is in October potentially pitching a deciding game. Young Julio is going to need to win a game this week. Dodgers need to win three. Unlikely but that is the math.

The Last Days of Vin and Roses

The inflection point of the Dodger’s season did not have Vin Scully calling the game. It is surprising since he has been there for every memorable moment of Dodger history. Scully was in the booth for all six World Series Championships that the Dodgers have ever won. He was also there to call the nine times that they lost in the World Series. Vinny called nine World Series that pitted the Dodgers against the Yankees. That those two storied franchises have played in nine World Series is remarkable but Mr. Scully calling all of them is unprecedented. He was there when the Boys of Summer won their first title in 1955. And he was in the booth one year later to watch Don Larsen pitch the only perfect game in WS history to beat the Dodgers. But he was not in the booth on a dreary night in Colorado. Mr. Scully has gradually pared back his travel with the Dodgers since 2006. The east coast travel was rugged and gradually anything outside of CA was rugged. Scully always conceded that having his broadcast partner Don Drysdale die of a heart attack alone in his Montreal hotel room in 1993 was terrifying. He felt for Drysdale and his family but he also feared the same fate. So Vin was not there on the final day of August on another miserable Colorado summer night. The Dodgers were coming off a playoff like six game stretch they went 4-2 against the Cubs and Giants. I was able to attend both defeats during that stretch which was nice. The first loss against the Giants was on Corey Seager Bobblehead night. The head might be worth something someday but the Dodgers were worthless this night. Seager did get the Dodgers only hit with two outs in the bottom of the 9th. We were some of the taillights leaving that night before the Texas leaguer fell in to break up the no no. The following night the Cubs got off the deck to tie and win the game in the 10th. In between, the Dodgers dusted the Giants and the Cubs for 2 of 3 each. Better to suffer through the losses for the greater good. The Blue Crew bolted to Colorado to play the lukewarm Rockies who are always tough at home. Vinny was relaxing at home turning the duties over to Slick Monday and Charlie Steincooler. It is not a future we ever envisioned. And the Dodgers got steamrollered in Colorado. Colorado has biblical weather in August and the series was vexed with its vagaries. The opening game was rain delayed and then dissolved into an 8-1 loss. The Tuesday game was rained out with a split doubleheader to be played on Wednesday. The first game was a 7-0 beat down on a sunny afternoon. The night game started with a Rocky first inning Grand Slam and had the Dodgers trailing 8-2 in the 8th. A three game sweep by the Rockies was all but assured. Then the improbable happened. The Dodgers scored three in the 8th and five in the 9th to win. On a night, when the team had every reason to fold up the tent and move on, the team rallied to an impossible win. It was at that moment this team figured out they were keeping up the tents and storming the palace. It was a moment I heard Vinny call in my head. Coming of sports age in the 60’s Yard youth was rewarded with the brilliance of Scully. The bar for Los Angeles sports was set high with Vin broadcasting the Dodgers, Chick Hearn was setting records with the Lakers and Dick Enberg was announcing John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins. Beyond these historical sportscasters, Jim Murray was a Hall of Fame LA times sportswriter. The seeds of the Yard were planted amongst this furtive expanse of sports legends tied to the legends of our sports heroes. Since that lonely night in Colorado, the Dodgers had bounced up to win 17 of 26 games. They had expanded to a seven game lead while previously trailing the Halloween colors managed by the pumpkin head at the All-Star break by eight games. So in Vinny’s final season, with Vin back home tuning up for his final broadcasts, the team rallied and made it all relevant. Vin called the game when the Dodger clinched the NL West for the 4th straight season. Vin was there today when the Giants clinched their fourth Wild Card Berth in the last six years. Scully was a Giant fan first and Dodger fan through his course of employment. If the Dodgers get to big dance, and it is a long way off, Vin will be relaxing at home that night as well. He is leaving us all with memories beyond our own and a legacy larger than any other human connected to Los Angeles sports. He is our first memory and his will always last. One of my most prized possessions as Dodger youth, was an LP of the 1959 season’s highlights as broadcasted by Vin Scully. My parents had acquired this record after the miracle 1959 season, the Dodgers second season in Los Angeles. The Dodgers first season in 1958 started with 75,000 fans to see the first professional baseball game ever played in Los Angeles. The vinyl carried the cherished radio calls by Vin Scully 58 years ago mesmerized by a scrawny kid with limited skills and a vivid mind. I listened to the LP 100’s of times on my parent’s old turntable. I did not listen to it until 1966 but Vin Scully’s voice, story-telling ability and skill took me back to 1959 and I lived for each moment over and over. During that miracle 1959 season, the Dodgers picked no better than 5th in the NL ended up winning the pennant. The season started with a tribute to Roy Campanella who was paralyzed in a car crash before the Dodgers moved west. There are memorable clips that pepper the vinyl. Vin called a Giant Dodger dust ups as bitter as they are now. A young Sandy Koufax struck out a then record 18 players who all were Giants at the end of that season. The Dodgers had to play the Atlanta Braves in a three game series to get into the World Series. In the 12th inning of the deciding game with runners in scoring position it was the call I still recall to this moment with Carl Furillo at bat Vin started, “A big bouncer over the mound, over second base Matilla up with hit throws in the dirt, Hodges score, we go to Chicago!” It was magic that still gives me goosebumps. The record ends there but the Dodgers did go to Chicago and sweep the heavily favored White Sox. Alas, the impact on vinyl in hot summer vehicles were not fully appreciated until Led Zeppelin. God bless, you Vin Scully, God bless you for all you have done for all of us mere mortals. The American political process has become farcical. The Yard does not have a dog in the national fight. Herr Donald has become a caricature of the caricature that is Donald Trump. He does not seem to be well versed on the topics and he wants to drop the Bill Clinton cherry bomb but does not want to hurt Chelsea. She might have heard about some of Billy’s sordid transgressions over the last 20+ years. Trump has a point if Hillary is going to throw stones at Trump for being a misogynist. Trump may say a lot of bad things but her husband did a lot of really bad things. Trump was a businessman at that time but Bill Clinton was President of the United States. A position that Hillary now wants us to trust her to elevate. The Clinton Foundation is a far shadier enterprise or at least as shady as Trump University. Trump U misled their students, Hillary Rodham has misled our nation with her activities as Secretary of State. The striking connection between foreign nationals that the Secretary met with on her many self-aggrandizing trips that in turn donated to their foundation is startling. It shows an egregious lack of judgment under the banner of a do-gooding family foundation. The lack of transparency and the volumes of money flowing to this family owned and operated foundation should be thoroughly investigated. From what is publicly available, the foundation spends more money on salaries and travel than on outlays for their initiatives. The foundation employs nearly 300 well paid people who are also part of the Hillary political machine. To shake down faithful domestic donors has been going on for hundreds of years. To pass the basket to foreign nationals with shadowy agendas is borderline criminal. Forget the emails, they are a diversion to keep eyes off the Foundation. Bush senior and junior never passed the basket for themselves in the overstepping way the Clintons have. Bill, Hillary, Chelsea and the Minions will continue to as long as people see them as they wish to be seen not as they are. In the fall, we will only vote for the senators and congress folks who support the initiatives my tax dollars are subsidizing. The person in the Oval office has far less influence than these debates would lead us to believe. Just look at the last eight years.