Root, Root, Root for the...

...Cubbies!

I was still on the fence at Midnight.

Game 7 was tied, 6-6, and in a rain delay. At Fenway Park, a rain delay means they pull out the tarp, which takes a coordinated effort from about 30 Canvas Alley grounds crew guys (there might be some women on the grounds crew, but I haven't noticed it). Then they wait for the rain to end. When it does, the grounds crew takes about 30 minutes to get the field in playable condition. Why would Wrigley be any different? It was, though. The delay was only 17 minutes.

Some people went to bed.

That includes my older brother Hugh and my younger brother Peter. We had been exchanging Theo or Tito emails for about a week, debating on which drought should end and which set of ex-Red Sox folks to root, root, root for.

We were all leaning toward the Tribe.

One brother gave up when it was 6-3 Cubs with two outs in the bottom of the 8th. My wife Kathy walked into the Man Cave and asked how it was going just as Rajai Davis tied it up with a tater (nod there to the late George Scott) off Aroldis Chapman. My friend Gay Vernon was rooting for the Indians, but that was an easy choice. Her father, Mickey Vernon, was a two-time AL Batting Champion who played for the Indians. Also the Senators and Red Sox.

You really couldn't write a better script.

Seriously, if you wrote a movie script about the Cubs trying to break the 108-year World Series drought and you had them winning 103 games, way more than any team in baseball, knocking off the Giants (3 WS championships in 5 years this decade) but not in a sweep, falling behind the Dodgers then knocking them off back at home, finally getting to the World Series for the first time since the end of World War II, getting shut out in four of their last eight games, finally having a game at Wrigley but losing the first one and the second one, almost getting swept at home and losing the series in front of all those long-suffering fans, having to win both Game 6 and Game 7 on the road, Cubs fans traveling to Cleveland and paying as much as $10,000 for a seat behind the Cubs dugout at Progressive Field, being four outs away from a championship and having your 102-mile-an-hour closer blow a 6-3 lead with two outs in the bottom of the 8th, having a rain delay at midnight with the game tied after 9 innings and possibly not be able to continue until the next night...if you wrote that script, critics would say you're stretching Willing Suspension of Disbelief a little too far.

Red Sox fans know how it feels.

In 2004 people went out after midnight and honked horns. All the neighbors understood. There was a Red Sox banner hanging on the front of the State House below the gold dome. People visited graves of their parents to share the news. In Chicago it will be the same, but the grave visiting will be grandparents or great-grandparents. Maybe even great-great. The UBS building in Chicago is already adorned.

Congrats to the legions of Cubs fans.

And to the Indians fans...as any Cubs fan will remind you...there's always next year.

It's a good thing the Red Sox aren't in the World Series

This year, anyway.

Except for the 5-1/2 New England states, nobody would be rooting for the Sox. But I'm flummoxed. For whom do I root?

Not sure.

The Cubs, as pretty much everyone knows, have gone 108 years without winning, and have not even been to the World Series since 1945. 71 years. Most of us, including yours truly, were not even a twinkle in our father's eye. What you never hear anyone mention is that the Cubs had been in the World Series three straight years, 1906-1908, losing to the crosstown and much less popular White Sox in 6 games in 1906, then they were back-to-back winners in 1907 and 1908, defeating the Tigers both times. A sweep in 1907 and a win in 5 games in 1908. Both wins came at Navin Field, also known as Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium, which opened in 1912, the same year as Fenway Park. The Cubs have never clinched at home. When the Red Sox clinched at Fenway Park in 2013 for the first time in 95 years it was a record that will never be broken.

Then came the Cubs drought.

They lost to the Philadelphia A's in 1910, lost to the Red Sox in 1918, lost to the A's again in 1929, were swept by the Yankees in 1932, lost to the Tigers in 1935, swept by the Yankees again in 1938, lost to the Tigers again in 1945, and that's it until 2016. 2 and 8 in World Series play.

Bad, but not as bad.

I guess. Not as bad in World Series play, but probably worse overall. The Cleveland Indians, meanwhile, beat the Brooklyn Robins, now the LA Dodgers, in a 7-game series in 1920. Flash forward to 1948, when we almost had a Boston vs. Boston World Series. It could have been the Comm Ave Series. The Indians beat the Red Sox in a one-game AL playoff. Braves Field (which is still there, now known as BU's Nickerson Field) was the site of the Indians win in a 6-game Series. Someone at BU dug up a piece of the field on Monday and sent it to Cleveland for spirit.

They won 111 games in 1954.

Then they were swept in the World Series by the New York Giants. This was the winningest team ever to wind up not winning the World Series.

Cleveland then went about 40 years without finishing within 14 games of 1st place. They made the movie "Major League" about moving the Indians out of Cleveland. Their old ballpark held 70,000 but only about 7,000 would show up. You'd see a home run shot and there was nobody in the bleachers except some guy reading a newspaper and the guy at the back row in center field pounding the drum.

Then suddenly it was 1995.

They had a brand new ballpark, "The Jake" (Jacobs Field, now known as Progressive Field), and a sellout crowd (a requirement by the city for funding "The Jake") for four years. 1995 was a rematch of the Indians-Braves 1948 series. Competing Native American mascots. This time the Braves won, Atlanta's only win ever.

Two years later...

...the Indians lost again, when Jose Mesa blew it in Game 7 and the Florida Marlins, in only their 5th season, won it all. Cleveland is 2 and 3 in World Series play.

So here we are in 2016.

Lots of Boston alum involved. Are we rooting for...Theo or Tito? Theo hired Tito for the 2004 season. Plus points for both. Theo signed Curt Schilling. He was the biggest difference in the 2004 win. Plus point for Theo, but also for Tito, because Schilling really liked working for Tito in Philly and that was a factor in signing him.

Theo traded for Mike Lowell, MVP of the 2007 Series win. Plus point. He signed Lugo. Minus point. Tito talked Theo into that, so he gets a minus point as well. He signed JD Drew, who failed the toothpick test. (Go ahead, ask.) Minus point. He traded highly-rated minor-leaguer Anthony Rizzo, now a Cubs star, for Adrian Gonzalez. Minus point. He signed Carl Crawford for way too much money. Another minus point.

Beer and chicken.

The Red Sox were in 1st place on September 1st, 2011 and failed to make the playoffs. Theo fled to Chicago, but Tito was pushed out. I give a plus point to Tito on that. Ben Cherington was a Theo guy, and he signed Bobby Valentine, Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez. Not sure whom you blame for those bad signings, but it's not Tito.

The Curse?

Dan Shaughnessey's "Curse of the Bambino" made a lot of sense, and it was a big deal when it was finally broken in 2004. But the billygoat curse at Wrigley? A lame attempt at copying the Babe Ruth curse. Not even in the same ballpark.

So, as I watched Game 1 and start to watch Game 2, I'm still undecided. On one side you've got Theo, Lester, Lackey, Ross and Rizzo. On the other you have Tito, Napoli, Miller and Coco. It's a good thing the Red Sox are not in the Series this year.

Either way, a long drought for someone ends.

My week at Red Sox Spring Training. The highs, the lows, the maybes.

Just got back from a week in Ft. Myers.

Great weather, fun time, very relaxing.

Good for you, but how do they look?

Many pundits have predicted a real bounce-back year. USA Today predicts the Red Sox to win 88 games and finish 1st in the AL East. Didn't they predict that last year as well? Or maybe that was in 2014.

Who looked bad?

In a bad news-good news scenario I always prefer the bad news first so we get a nice finish. The pitching rotation was supposedly already set, with ace David Price, Clay Buchholz, Rick Porcello, Eduardo Rodriguez (please stop calling him E-Rod-he may like it, but Boston fans do not) and Henry Owens. Or maybe Steven Wright. Eduardo subfluxated his knee and hash't pitched, so there's a competition for a starting spot.

The pitching:

Sunday was not a quality start for Rick Porcello. 10 hits and 8 earned runs over three innings. On Monday Brian Johnson came in to face the Pirates with a 1-0 lead in the 6th and gave up four straight hits and got nobody out before being pulled. Thee runs across and he got the loss. I was rooting for Brian, because, like Joe Kelly, he's an alum of the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox of the Cape Cod League, but that was a D performance.

On Tuesday Robbie Ross Jr. did himself no favors. He started the 8th inning against the Yankees. It was a 1-1 tie. He hit the first batter, got a K, then gave up a double, a single, one out later a guy reached on an error (by Ross), followed by a walk, a double, a single and another hit batter. Seven batters reached, five scored. He took the loss. And it was the 8th, so he wasn't even facing any Yankee starters.

On Wednesday Clay started an away game. He wasn't horrible but was shaky. Gave up 3 runs over 4 innings on 3 hits, 3 walks and 2 K's. A C+ outing. Clay likes to say that in spring training he's working on mechanics, not really trying to get guys out. Maybe. Trailing 3-1, Koji came in to pitch the 5th. Why so early, you ask? Because in spring training games the regulars are all replaced by wannabes by the 7th inning and they want to see him face real Major League hitters. Like Johnson and Ross, he didn't do himself any favors either. Koji got a quick out. Twins fans sitting behind me were asking how can do that when he's only throwing 82? I told them it was his very high spin rate. But wait. Uehara then gave up a single and a home run. One out later there was another single, a walk and a double. At this point the Sox were down 7-1. Out comes Koji. 2/3 of an inning, 4 hits, 4 runs, one walk, no strikeouts. ERA of 27.00. He was great in 2013, but this was a D.

Henry Owens, vying for that 5th starter's spot, faced the Orioles and didn't get through the 3rd inning. A leadoff single erased by a double-play in the 1st. A two-out single followed by a double then a 3-run homer in the second. It was his second straight bad outing.

Looking good:

At this point in spring training they like to see a starter get through four innings. On Monday Joe Kelly faced the Pirates and gave up a one-out single. The next batter hit a routine 4-6-3 double-play ball, but Xander bobbled it on the transfer. The out was recorded but the batter reached on a fielder's choice because you cannot assume a double-play. No no error and no hit. A walk and two singles in the 2nd produced nothing, the 3rd was 1-2-3, and the 4th saw a hit batter and an error by guess who? (we'll get to that) but nothing across. Four innings, 3 hits, no runs, 1 walk, 3 K's. An A outing.

In his first two appearances Price gave up four home runs: one on his very first pitch, then back-to-back in the 3rd. By his second start, on Tuesday night facing the Yankees, he scattered three hits over four innings. A leadoff home run by Aaron Hicks in the 3rd inning was the only damage. No walks, two strikeouts. I give him an A-.

New closer Craig Kimbrel had a 1-2-3 inning. Carson Smith and Tazawa did as well. So the pitching looks better than last year, but there are some pretty big question marks.

Defense. Really only two people worth mentioning here: Pablo and Hanley. Pablo has been charged with 4 errors, but official scorers are very generous in spring training and you could make a case for several more. The first shocker for me was when this guy on the Pirates hits a shot down the 3rd base line. Pablo dives to his right, picks it, then drops it, then picks it up and makes a low throw in the dirt to 1st. And woah...Hanley scoops it and the guy is out on a bang-bang. This sort of thing happened several times. A grounder to 3rd, Pablo bobbles it, makes a bad throw and Hanley pulls it in. There were several other "hits" toward 3rd that a nimbler guy than Pablo...like Youk, or Mike Lowell, or Bill Mueller or John Valentin or Wade Boggs or Frank Malzone or...Travis Shaw...would have likely handled. Hanley, though, is a surprise. The worst outfielder in the history of the Red Sox looks like he's a pretty good 1st baseman. Go figure. I should also mention Christian Vasquez. He says he is fully recovered from Tommy John surgery, but on the first attempted steal he threw high and wide to second. Dustin Pedroia had to leap to catch it. He also made several poor "comin' down" throws at the end of between-innings warmups so he's probably not quite all the way back.

Hitting.

Mookie Betts is looking great. So is Pedey. Xander is off to a slow start. So is JBJ. Travis Shaw is on fire. He's great at bat and defensively. So is Sam Travis. Travis S. and S. Travis. #47 and #74. Easily confused. A word of caution: hitters can light it up in spring training and then fall flat in April. Think Jackie Bradley Jr. in 2013, Grady Sizemore in 2014 and Mike Napoli in 2015. Maybe it's the pitchers not trying that hard in March. But the game is more fun when Travis and Travis are on the field. And Chris Young. I'm also rooting for David Murphy to make the team. A good guy they never should have traded.

Ortiz is going through the motions. Two at-bats in every other game. At the game against the Yankees a typical loud-mouth Yankee fan yells, "Come on, strike him out!" I'm thinking that will not happen. He'll swing at the 1st or second pitch and pop it up or whatever. Unlike Pablo, Papi has nothing to prove. He's the DH, and no one is challenging him.

One more thing.

This may sound trivial, but I think it's important. Many of the Red Sox were featuring red socks. In the game against the Yankees, the pitcher (Price), all the infielders (Hanley, Pedey, Xander and Pablo), all the outfielders (Rusney, David Murphy and Chris Young) and the catcher (Blake Swihart) all wore their socks high. It looked great. Like they're all ready to play, dammit. If these were the Arizona Diamondbacks I wouldn't even mention it, but there are the red Sox. Let's see those red socks!

The Great Northeast Power Blackout. Knew it in a minute.

It was 50 years ago today

At 5:17PM on November 9, 1965 the lights went out all over New England, New York and Ontario. A lot of people suspecred the Russians were behind it. A story in today's Boston Globe says that hardly anyone knew how widespread it was until the next morning.

But I knew within a minute

Because of the radio. My aunt was having a glaucoma procedure done at Mass Eye & Ear (pronounced "the Eye-uh-Knee-uh") and was staying with us. We needed to pick up her prescription. Just after 5 my mother drove to Wellesley Square and parked at a meter in front of Clement Drug. I hopped out of the passenger seat and went in to buy it.

As the pharmacist was in the middle of ringing it up on one of those newfangled Monroe-Sweda registers that had spinning numbers - they replaced the old school National Cash Register ones that actually made the ca-ching sound - the lights went out and the numbers stopped spinning. The pharmacist said, "Ooh. I guess I didn't pay the electric bill" and took out his wallet to make change.

Then we both looked out the window and saw that all of the lights in Wellesley Square were out. "Ooh. Guess it's not just me." Being a polite teenager, I thanked him, walked out and hopped in the passenger seat of my mother's car.

What's the first thing a teenager in 1965 would do getting into a car? Turn on the radio. Our 1960 red Ford Galaxie 500 had, like most cars at the time, an AM radio with 5 buttons. The middle one was set to my favorite station, WBZ, "W-Beatle-Z, The Boss Sound of Boss-Town" and the first thing I heard was Jefferson Kaye saying that due to the power outage in Boston they were operating on an emergency generator. So this goes all the way into town.

My second favorite station was WMEX, 1510, The Home of the Good Guys. Being a radio nut even then, I guessed that Wimmex was too cheap to have an emergency generator, so I hit the 5th button and I was right. WMEX was off the air. AM radio bounces off the ionosphere, so in a situation like this an adjacent channel would come in. Which is what happened. WKBW, 1520 in Buffalo, came in clearly. Right away I heard the announcer, Dan Neavreth, say that because of the power outage across the city of Buffalo they were operating on an emergency generator. All of this happened in less than a minute.

It lasted until mid-morning

No power all night, no power when we woke up. But school wasn't canceled. With no power they had no way to cancel it. Power finally came back on around 10:30AM.

And for years to come people would ask...

where were you when the lights went out? But it's hard to beat my knew-it-in-a-minute story...thanks to the radio.

A Big Redemption for Spenser's Ace

Three years ago Ace Atkins got a D.

But he pulled his grade up to at least an A-. Some background: In the summer of 1981 I started reading Spenser mysteries by Robert B. Parker. I read all 39 of them, as well as all of Parker's Jesse Stone series (the Paradise, MA Police Chief character played on TV by Tom Selleck), all of the Sunny Randall series and a few other Parker novels. That comes to about two a year for over 30 years. Safe to say I was a fan of his work.

When Parker died in 2010 I thought that would be it.

But no. There was another Spenser book all set for release that summer, and another one posthumously released the next year. And Then Parker's wife Joan Parker wanted to keep the Spenser series going, so she sold the rights to Ace Atkins, a writer from Troy, Alabama who was a big Spenser fan. It probably didn't hurt that "Ace" was also Joan's nickname for Robert B.

I read the first one, Lullaby, and gave it a scathing review.

Which it deserved. Click here if you missed it. The story itself was pretty good, but his Boston stuff was absolutely horrible. I wasn't looking for mistakes, I was just trying to enjoy a new Spenser book. But the mistakes kept jumping off the pages and I started keeping track. I wound up with about 80 of them without breaking a sweat. Going the wrong way on well-known one-way streets, incorrect location references, screwing up characters that any Spenser fan would know, talking like a southerner, not a Bostonian. You name it. I was so disappointed I gave him one star on amazon.com and a D in my blog and decided to give up on Spenser.

Then he wrote a second one, Wonderland.

You can go on amazon.com and get a free preview of the first 25 pages or so. So I decided to at least give it a try and see if he'd learned anything. How far would I get before running into a screwup that screamed Alabama and not Boston? Not very far. I got to page one, paragraph two, when Spenser, who is in Revere chatting with Henry Cimoli and getting some fried clams from the takeout window at Kelly's. Okay so far. But as Spenser and Henry talk, he reaches into his bucket of fried clams to eat one. Bucket? You don't get fried clams in a bucket, but people from Troy, Alabama probably don't know that. In the interest of due diligence I went to the Kelly's web site, clicked on menu, then seafood, and read the choices for fried clams. Just what I expected. You can get a clam roll or a clam plate. No buckets. Kelly's is not a KFC. Ace had clearly not learned anything about Boston, so I logged out, didn't buy the book, and swore off of Spenser.

Then he wrote a third one, Cheap Shot.

My dentist and long-time friend Kevin Toomey saved the day for Ace. He had just returned from a trip to Italy and mentioned that on the flight he had just finished the latest Spenser and enjoyed it. He added that he knew I'd been greatly disappointed in the first Ace Atkins attempt at Spenser but thought I should give it a shot. It was late summer and I was missing my former summer ritual of reading a Spenser book on the beach, and I have always respected Kevin's opinion, so I downloaded both book #2 and #3.

Major improvement.

I have no delusions about Ace Atkins having read my scathing review and taken it to heart, but in book #2, Wonderland, he still made mistakes: "I drove down Tremont and under the Mass Pike" (No, Ace - Tremont Street passes over the Pike. You should try it sometime. Or look at Google Earth.) "I reached into the sack of muffins from Dunkin' Donuts" (No, Ace - we don't have "sacks" here. We have paper bags.) "I was listening to jazz on WICN." (No you weren't. You're at home in Boston, and WICN is a low-power station from Worcester that doesn't even show up in the Boston Nielsen ratings. This is a repeated mistake from book #1.) But...the error count was way down...from 80-something to about 10. And the story line about the fight for the Boston casino license is very timely.

In Cheap Shot it was down to maybe two.

And again, very timely. The son of a Patriots player is kidnapped and Spenser is on the case, helped by Hawk and Zebulon Sixkill, the new sidekick introduced in the last book written by Parker. Very timely given the Aaron Hernandez and you-know-what-gate stories. And hardly any Boston mistakes. Yeah, he did say "sack" instead of "paper bag" again, but only once, and he does a ton of spot-on local references. The story line is really good. And an associate of mine, Jordan Rich, does a talk show on WBZ and had Ace on with him for an in-studio interview so we now know that Ace has actually seen some of the places he's writing about.

Just finished Cheap Shot, started to write this review...

...and realized that there's already a fourth one called Kickback that came out in May. Now I'm remembering that there was a review in the Boston Globe by Thomas Farragher and he said the book was very good, but ended by saying that Ace made some mistakes, like referring to a Bruins match. Match? Does he think that the Bruins play soccer, or just not know anything about hockey? I forwarded Thomas a copy of my 2012 review and he responded that I paid closer attention to details than he did.

And there's a fifth one coming out next May.

It's called Slow Burn, which is perhaps what Ace Atkins did when he got slammed for completely whiffing on Boston in his first attempt. He wound up getting it 98% right, so kudos to Ace.

World Series is Underway. For Whom Am I Rooting?

Still Not sure.

My #1 choice - Red Sox win - faded sometime in July. On the very first night of the playoffs, the AL Wild Card, my #2 choice - #AnybodybuttheYankees (I didn't even invent that hashtag) went away. Thanks Astros. My next choice was the Cubs proving Back to the Future II to be partially correct. But no. So here we are and it's the Mets and Royals.

Still a little annoyed.

1986 still bugs me a bit, but really it was more the Red Sox losing that series than the Mets winning it. My daughter Caitlin lives in Manhattan, and she assures me that anyone in NYC wearing a Mets cap is by definition not a Yankee fan. So that's a point in their favor.

They've also got Daniel Murphy.

Murphy isn't Kelley, but it's in the same ballpark, so to speak. And he might set a playoff home run record. They have four excellent young starters. They have Yoenis Cespedes mostly doing a great job in center field. As Bob Lobel used to say, why can't we get players like that? More on that coming up.

Inside the Park.

Has that ever happened before? The leadoff guy for the home team gets an inside-the-park home run? Alcides Escobar hit one off Matt Harvey and motored all the way around. It actually happened once before...Game 2 of the 1903 World Series between Boston and Pittsburg (no h at the end of the name back then). Left fielder Pasty Dougherty (perfect Boston name) lead off with an inside-the-park home run off Sam Lever at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds, where the Red Sox played from 1901-1911 prior to moving to Fenway Park in 1912.

But Yoenis cost the Mets the game.

That first inning inside-the-park home run should have been caught by Yoenis. He sort of went for it, but didn't use his glove. The ball bounced off his leg and rolled away. If he'd caught it then that the 9th inning homer by Alex Gordon would have brought KC to within a run, but wouldn't have tied the game. Instead of 14 innings it would have ended as a 4-3 Mets win in the 9th.

So what about Kansas City?

It's sort of noplace. Everyone is midwest nice. Almost as nice as in St. Louis, but that's hard to match. Kansas City isn't even in Kansas. Kauffman Stadium isn't even in Kansas City. It's in Independence, MO, which is Harry S Truman's hometown. The nearby highway is the Harry S. Truman Expressway, which right there in his hometown spells his name incorrectly. The S doesn't stand for anything, so there should be no period. In the Army they'd put (IO) after the S, meaning Initial Only. Whatever. But I've heard that they have some crazy little women there.

Tonight, I guess tonight I'm with KC.

Game One should always go to the hometown team.

Tonight's the last chance

It's Back to the Future Day.

If the Cubs are going to win the World Series as predicted in B2TF2 they have to start tonight by beating New York four straight times after being down 3 games to none, then sweeping the World Series opponent. (It obviously won't be Miami.)

Sound familiar?

If Theo can actually pull that off he can write his ticket to Cooperstown.

View from Section 29: Amazing Innings in the Playoffs

We've had a few amazing innings.

Ten of the 30 MLB teams made the playoffs. Not everyone agrees with that system, but it keep things alive in a lot of markets. Much better than in the 50's when there were no divisions, only 8 teams per league, and if the Yankees were in 1st by 40 games in July what was the point of any non-Yankee fan even paying attention?

Think of this year's possible combinations.

We could have had a New York v. New York World Series. (That happened in 2000. Didn't really watch that series - it was my least favorite combination of teams and had my least favorite outcome.) We could have had LA v. LA. We could have had an all-Missouri series, we could have had an all Texas ALCS. But the Angels caved on the last day of the regular season, the Astros thankfully put the Yankees away quickly, the Cardinals lost the NLDS, killing the all-MO idea and giving the looooonnnng-suffering Cubs fans a reason to celebrate.

The Blue Jays dropped two games at home and faced elimination on Sunday.

And on Monday. And on Wednesday. But they won all three. Wednesday's clincher at the Rogers Centre featured a truly bizarre 7th inning. The game was tied 2-2, and in the top of the 7th Rougnet Odor (doesn't that sound like a Game of Thrones name?) is on 3rd, Shin Shoo Choo is at bat. Jays catcher Russell Martin catches a 2-1 pitch and throws it back to pitcher Aaron Sanchez...but the throw hits Choo's bat and rolls toward the mound. Rougnet scoots home from 3rd and the Rangers lead, 3-2. The Blue Jays and the entire crowd of 50,000 at the Rogers Centre is majorly pissed. Beer cans are thrown onto the field. The umpires put on the headsets and check with New York. According to the rule book the ball is in play and the run scores. (This is correct. As a certified umpire I can attest that, unless a dead ball has been declared due to, say, a foul, any time a catcher makes a bad throw to the pitcher the ball is live and runners can advance at their own risk as long as there was no attempt at interference by the batter.) The issue was whether Choo's bat was hanging over the strike zone and therefore interfered with Russell's throw back to Sanchez. Headsets came off and New York said safe, no interference, the run counts. Blue Jays coach John Gibbons is now playing under protest, so there's a big P on the scoreboard (first time I'd seen that). Bumma for the Blue Jays, but only for a little while. In the bottom of the inning the Rangers make four errors to load the bases. Toronto gets a run in to tie the game, and with two on and two out Jose Bautista, who has the Soprano-esque nickname Joey Bats, launches one practically into the hotel on the 3rd deck, then does a bat flip for the ages and the Jays win, 6-3.

Meanwhile the Royals also faced elimination by the Astros on Tuesday and on Wednesday. Not sure for whom I was rooting. I'm not a huge fan of Texas in general, but the Astros do get props for knocking off the Yankees. After all, my #1 choice for winning the World Series is the Red Sox, but it was obvious by May that was not going to happen in 2015. My #2 choice (it was always #1 prior to 2004) is #Anyone But the Yankees. And Houston took care of that for us.

On Monday the Royals looked almost completely dead. I was listening as I drove back from Cape Cod and the 8th inning alone took me all the way from Bourne to Needham. That's like an hour. The Astros were leading, 3-2, and added 3 runs with back-to-back homers. Royals are down, 6-2, bottom 8, elimination game. ESPN has already named some Astro as the Player of the Game. But noooo. Bottom 8, KC gets 5 straight hits with an error mixed in and takes a 7-6 lead, then adds a couple more in the 9th for a 9-6 win to tie the series at 2-2. On Wednesday both the Royals and Astros faced elimination and Tom Bergeron said the Royals are safe and the Astros will now leave us, so that's it for the all-Texas ALCS threat. All the ex's live in Texas.

Now we're down to 5.

And tonight it will be four when either the Dodgers or the Mets advance. Whom do we want to win? Hmmm. I'm still a little annoyed about the Mets in 1986. If you watch the video there's an old lady right in the first row behind the plate rolling toilet paper onto the field while Bob Stanley is facing Mookie Betts in the 10th inning of Game 6. Sorry, I meant Mookie Wilson. Gotta keep my Mookies straight. But the toilet paper thing lacked class. Really though, the Mets didn't win that World Series as much as the Red Sox lost it. And anyone in NYC who wears a Mets cap is a non-Yankee fan. So that's a good thing. The Dodgers, though, did us a favor by taking Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Beckett and saving the Sox enough money to splurge on Hanley and Panda. So I don't know. Maybe this winter they'll repeat the favor. Actually, they already know about Hanley, so that part is unlikely to happen. If the Dodgers wind up playing the Royals the uniforms will look too similar. If the Blue Jays play the Mets it will be between the biggest city in the USA and the biggest city in Canada. That would make it an actual World Series. But...in "Back to the Future II" they predicted a Cubs World Series win in 2015. Against Miami. Okay, even if they're half right, wouldn't the vast majority of Americans want he Cubbies to finally win after 107 years?

Amazing Innings in the Playoffs

We've had a few amazing innings.

Ten of the 30 MLB teams made the playoffs. Not everyone agrees with that system, but it keep things alive in a lot of markets. Much better than in the 50's when there were no divisions, only 8 teams per league, and if the Yankees were in 1st by 40 games in July what was the point of any non-Yankee fan even paying attention?

Think of this year's possible combinations.

We could have had a New York v. New York World Series. (That happened in 2000. Didn't really watch that series - it was my least favorite combination of teams and had my least favorite outcome.) We could have had LA v. LA. We could have had an all-Missouri series, we could have had an all Texas ALCS. But the Angels caved on the last day of the regular season, the Astros thankfully put the Yankees away quickly, the Cardinals lost the NLDS, killing the all-MO idea and giving the looooonnnng-suffering Cubs fans a reason to celebrate.

The Blue Jays dropped two games at home and faced elimination on Sunday.

And on Monday. And on Wednesday. But they won all three. Wednesday's clincher at the Rogers Centre featured a truly bizarre 7th inning. The game was tied 2-2, and in the top of the 7th Rougnet Odor (doesn't that sound like a Game of Thrones name?) is on 3rd, Shin Shoo Choo is at bat. Jays catcher Russell Martin catches a 2-1 pitch and throws it back to pitcher Aaron Sanchez...but the throw hits Choo's bat and rolls toward the mound. Rougnet scoots home from 3rd and the Rangers lead, 3-2. The Blue Jays and the entire crowd of 50,000 at the Rogers Centre is majorly pissed. Beer cans are thrown onto the field. The umpires put on the headsets and check with New York. According to the rule book the ball is in play and the run scores. (This is correct. As a certified umpire I can attest that, unless a dead ball has been declared due to, say, a foul, any time a catcher makes a bad throw to the pitcher the ball is live and runners can advance at their own risk as long as there was no attempt at interference by the batter.) The issue was whether Choo's bat was hanging over the strike zone and therefore interfered with Russell's throw back to Sanchez. Headsets came off and New York said safe, no interference, the run counts. Blue Jays coach John Gibbons is now playing under protest, so there's a big P on the scoreboard (first time I'd seen that). Bumma for the Blue Jays, but only for a little while. In the bottom of the inning the Rangers make four errors to load the bases. Toronto gets a run in to tie the game, and with two on and two out Jose Bautista, who has the Sopranoesque nickname Joey Bats, launches one practically into the hotel on the 3rd deck, then does a bat flip for the ages and the Jays win, 6-3.

Meanwhile the Royals also faced elimination by the Astros on Tuesday and on Wednesday.

Not sure for whom I was rooting. I'm not a huge fan of Texas in general, but the Astros do get props for knocking off the Yankees. After all, my #1 choice for winning the World Series is the Red Sox, but it was obvious by May that was not going to happen in 2015. My #2 choice (it was always #1 prior to 2004) is #Anyone But the Yankees. And Houston took çare of that for us.

On Monday the Royals looked almost completely dead. I was listening as I drove back from Cape Cod and the 8th inning alone took me all the way from Bourne to Needham. That's like an hour. The Astros were leading, 3-2, and added 3 runs with back-to-back homers. Royals are down, 6-2, bottom 8, elimination game. ESPN has already named some Astro as the Player of the Game. But noooo. Bottom 8, KC gets 5 straight hits with an error mixed in and takes a 7-6 lead, then adds a couple more in the 9th for a 9-6 win to tie the series at 2-2. On Wednesday both the Royals and Astros faced elimination and Tom Bergeron said the Royals are safe and the Astros will now leave us, so that's it for the all-Texas ALCS threat. All the ex's live in Texas.

Now we're down to 5.

And tonight it will be four when either the Dodgers or the Mets advance. Whom do we want to win? Hmmm. I'm still a little annoyed about the Mets in 1986. If you watch the video there's an old lady right in the first row behind the plate rolling toilet paper onto the field while Bob Stanley is facing Mookie Betts. Sorry, I meant Mookie Wilson. Gotta keep my Mookies straight. But the toilet paper thing lacked class. Really though, the Mets didn't win that World Series as much as the Red Sox lost it. And anyone in NYC who wears a Mets cap is a non-Yankee fan. So that's a good thing. The Dodgers, though, did us a favor by taking Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Beckett and saving the Sox enough money to splurge on Hanley and Panda. So I don't know. If the Dodgers wind up playing the Royals the uniforms will look too similar. If the Blue Jays play the Mets it will be between the biggest city in the USA and the biggest city in Canada. That would make it an actual World Series. As people on the radio like to say, "We'll keep you posted."

Why all the Red Sox should wear the the high red socks

That's right - they should all wear the high red socks.

This is a shot from the Tuesday, June16th Red Sox-Braves game at Fenway. Notice that all four Red Sox infielders are wearing the high red socks. Or the high pants that show them off. It's a good look, but there's more to it than that.

Quick sock history.

In the late 1800's and early 1900's players would wear "plus-fours" - pants that reached four inches below the knee, with high ribbed socks. By the 1920's stirrups were the look. When you see old pictures of Ted Williams and Johnny Pesky and Yaz from the 40's, 50's and 60's they wore stirrup socks that were mostly red, but at the top there were white and blue stripes. Over the years the stirrups got stretched higher and the pants got longer. By 1980 Red Sox players wore pants long enough that you'd only see the red in the socks. By 2000 you'd only see a little bit of the red (Curt Schilling's bloody sock from 2004 is a great example) and many players (think David Ortiz) started wearing pants so long you'd think they'd trip on them.

Still, there were exceptions.

If you look at videos of 2003 and 2004 - or watch the movie "Fever Pitch" with Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore - you'll see that Jason Varitek is wearing full red socks that go all the way up the calf. So does Trot Nixon. And Bill Mueller. And Kevin Millar. And Mark Bellhorn. And Mike Timlin. In 2003 even Manny did.

As those players went away, one by one, the look went away.

Sure the occasional relief pitcher would sport the look, but that was about it.

Now it's making a comeback.

In the shot above you see Pablo Sandoval, Xander Bogaerts, Brock Holt and Mike Napoli sporting the full red socks. Mookie Betts does it as well. Hanley Ramirez may be the worst left fielder in baseball, but once in a while he goes after a ball, and once in a while he does the socks right.

So does Pedey. Once in a while. He should do it all the time. So should anyone who's either short or tall. Here's why: There's been a lot of talk about the strike zone being lower this year. When there's a borderline pitch at the bottom of the strike zone and the umpire sees the ball at the same height as the top of a red sock he's more likely to call it a ball. If he's looking at the same pitch at the same height and all he sees is an expanse of white or grey pant leg the call could go either way. So a hitter with high socks is less likely to get punched out on a borderline strike.

How do I know?

I'm an umpire. ASA, SMUA, PCCSUA, NFHS. I know how strikes are called.

By the way...

If we were talking about the Tampa Bay Rays or the Arizona Diamondbacks where there's no real history and no reference to sock color in their team name I wouldn't even bring this up.