Welcome to LV Title town, baby! We always thought LA was our Title town but there are not many resident titles in LA recently. The Dodgers and Lakers each got one in 2020. It was in the shroud of COVID and there were no parades or visits to the White House. They were championships that were celebrated in mute mode. We have been bragging about our Vegas Golden Knights Stanley Cup and the Aces WNBA title in 2022-23. The champion of the NFL will be awarded the Lombardi trophy in Las Vegas in February 2024. There will be a Formula One Champion in Las Vegas this coming Saturday night. There will be a National Finals Rodeo Champion in December at the Thomas and Mack. And there will be a World Beer Pong Champion awarded at South Point when they can get it scheduled. What other US city has a slate like that?
Congratulations to the Texas Rangers winning the first title in franchise history. It had been a 63-year drought covering two cities, Washington, DC, and Arlington, TX. The Washington Senators were founded in 1961 as an American League expansion team in our Nation’s capital. It looked good on paper, but the Senators never drew more than 918,000 or won more than 86 games in a season. The season they achieved both of those accomplishments was in 1969 with Ted Williams skippering the team in his fourth and final season. The DC Senators became Texas Rangers in 1972 and drew even less fans for their first two summers in DFW. The franchise finally made their first playoff appearance in 1996 in their 37th season. Ivan Rodriguez was the leader of those teams. It would be another decade before the Josh Hamilton-Ian Kinsler runs of back-to-back WS losses.
The Rangers needed some voodoo to get them over the top. In 2011, the Rangers just outs away from the title, the Cardinals snatched Game 6 and flattened TX in Game 7. Tony LaRussa became a legend joining Sparky Anderson as the only managers to win titles in both the AL and NL. That 2nd LaRussa title has haunted the Rangers and the ghosts of George Bush until this season’s day of the dead. The story begins finding their savior, retired and fishing in Tennessee hanging with grandkids. Bruce Bochy had accomplished more than but a rare few. He got the Padres to their second world series and always had scrappy competitive teams. The Giants poached Bochy from the Friars, and everything came together for Bochy and the Giants in 2010. Just like the Rangers, the Giants had not won a title in nearly 60 years. The Giants had never won a title since moving to San Francisco. Bochy led them to the first of three titles in five years. The Yard constantly poked the melon atop Bochy’s lumbering frame. His hands can make a baseball disappear. It was tough to witness the SF titles in the moment but now it is legend. An old legend now, Giant fan.
The Rangers celebrated their WS title on the day when a historic name in franchise history passed to Cooperstown in the sky. Frank “Hondo” Howard died on October 30, 2023. Howard was a 6’7” 275 Bunyanesque character in baseball folklore. Howard came up in the Dodger organization. Hondo was a left fielder and first baseman who was the NL rookie of the year in 1960. He was on the 1963 Dodger team that swept the Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford Yankees. The only other time the Yankees were swept in the WS was in 1922 by the NY Giants baseball team. We digress, Howard batted .300 and had an HR in the series. He ended up with the Washington Senators for several seasons. He enjoyed some of his biggest seasons playing for Ted Williams. Frank averaged 40 HR, 103 RBI’s while batting .280 from 1967-71. Howard made approximately $770K in his career. He was making $125K annually during his best stretch. Yard Staff is trying to use some of our new AI software to see if we could recreate his career if it happened now and the financial impact on his family. Our office copier and coffee maker have started to become surprisingly militant and we have moved these devices off WIFI. Back to the Howards, he is inducted into the Washington Nationals Ring of Honor. He never played for the Nats, who the former Montreal Expos are. He did play baseball in our nation’s capital! RIP Frank Howard!
Overtime: The Big Ten conference dropped the hammer on Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh last Friday night. While the Wolverines’ charter was in the air, the Big Ten suspended Harbaugh for the balance of the regular season. Michigan was accused of actively scouting teams and stealing signs in real time. This is a violation of conduct and ethics in Big Ten bylaws. So is due process, which Michigan was given none. The story was in the wind for weeks but why the timing. It was unfair to Michigan; it was unfair to Penn State. Harbaugh spent the evening with his team in Happy Valley. Harbaugh can motivate a team without martyrdom at stake. The PSU faithful, the largest crowd ever at Beaver stadium suffered through their demise to the Wolverines hellfire.
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