Ten Best World Series Since 1975

We are probably going to have a lot to say about the 2025 MLB season.  The quality of play throughout the playoffs, the excellence of the World Series, and the meaning of this season to Dodger and Blue Jay fans, all justify more coverage than usual.  But to begin with, let's place this World Series in context.  Tim Kurkjian, who has covered the last 44 World Series, said last night that it was the best one he has covered.  Of course, I believe that the 1975 Classic, between the Reds and Red Sox, is the best World Series ever played.  I would still rank that Series above this one, in large part due to the cultural significance of the Big Red Machine and Red Sox Nation.  The Red Sox play a big role in Field of Dreams, and Game Six of the 1975 Series drives a critical plot point in Good Will Hunting, and I don't expect this World Series to have that type of cultural cachet -- although I could see it having a big impact on Canadians of a certain age.

But what about since 1975?  What are the ten best World Series since Carl Yastrzemski flew out to end that Series.  Here is my list:

1.  2025.  We'll be discussing this Series further.

2.  2001.  The last stand of the last great Yankee dynasty.  That series had a lot in common with this one, except that the D-Backs (unlike the Blue Jays) got their game-winning hit in the bottom of the ninth.

3.  1986.  Another Boston classic, and I always found that Mets team to be uniquely charismatic.

4.  2016.  The Cubs finally break the curse, although the curse remains for Cleveland.

5.  1991.  A series that was extremely beloved at the time, and Game Seven remains a classic for the ages.

6.  2011.  A great series that would have gotten a lot more cultural attention if folks in Dallas cared very much about the Rangers.

7.  2014.  The Bruce Bochy Giants were a wonderful team, and in my opinion, this was their greatest moment.

8.  1997.  If there were any Florida Marlins fans -- or if Cleveland had won this series -- this excellent contest would get more credit.

9.  1979.  We Are Family!  A fitting end to a wonderful decade of baseball.

10.  1985.  Yes, the Cardinals should have won it in six games.  But the Dodgers shouldn't have pitched to Jack Clark in Game Six of the N.L.C.S.  You have to take the bad with the good.

Month of MLB: Day 29

And what a month it has been.  Last night, the Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 6-5 in 18 innings, thanks to a walk-off home run by Dodger first baseman Freddie Freeman in the bottom of the 18th.  At some point, I will have a lot more to say about this game.  But I will be on business travel today and tomorrow, and I probably won't be able to write about the Series for a while.

Spare a Thought for the Mariners

In my experience as a fan, nothing is more emotionally difficult that having your team eliminated deep in the MLB playoffs.  If you get this far into the baseball season -- especially if you reach Game Seven of the LCS -- you have really been through a lot with your team.  The Mariners played 174 official games this season.  They played 12 playoff games, one of which went 15 innings.  In the last game of the season, they had a 3-1 lead at the seventh-inning stretch, and were only nine outs away from their first pennant in history.  Even at the end, they still had a chance -- their season ended with Cal Raleigh, their star, the guy who hit 60 regular season home runs, who homered in this game -- on deck.  But all three of their batters in the ninth inning struck out, and Raleigh never got another chance.

Now as a fan, there is no getting over this type of loss.  It will never stop hurting.  Because you were right there.  It's not like you had no chance.  Every Mariner fan knows, in his or her heart, that their team is just as good as Toronto.  But that's not what the record books will show.

I've watched a lot of playoff series in my time, and I have rarely seen one more evenly matched, or where the players seemed to play with more serious effort.  There was enormous pressure on both teams, and both of them played well.

Mariner fans will spend the rest of their lives replaying that seventh inning.  Should they have left Woo in the game?  Should they have brought in someone other than Bazardo?  Should they have walked Springer to set up the force at every base?  I can still remember watching Tommy Lasorda -- my favorite manager of all time -- leaving in Tom Niedenfuer to pitch to Jack Clark in Game Six of the 1985 N.L.C.S.  I knew that Clark would hit the game-winning (and pennant-winning) home run, and he did.  I still think Lasorda made a mistake.  And it's possible that Seattle manager Dan Wilson -- a man who played 12 seasons for the Mariners, and who wants them to win the pennant more than anyone else -- made a mistake tonight.  We will never know.

But it is the genius of baseball that it forces difficult choices on everyone.  Tonight Wilson got caught in a basic principle of baseball -- one that Earl Weaver described years ago, in one of my favorite baseball quotes of all time:

"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock.  You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance.  That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."

So you shouldn't blame the Mariners, or Dan Wilson, or Eduard Bazardo.  Give credit to the Blue Jays, who pulled off a miracle comeback and who really deserve the 2025 American League Pennant.  Give credit to George Springer, who had his chance -- and who took it.

As for the Mariners' fans, they can always take comfort in another great baseball quote:  Wait 'til next year.

NHL Update/Oh, Canada

We recently vacationed in Montreal and Quebec City, and, wow, that was fun! 

One reason that my family is pretty good at traveling together is that, once it gets dark, each of the three of us pretty much just wants to get back to a clean hotel room, drink a free cup of coffee, flip on a TV, catch up on messages and explore various YouTube larks. So we typically throw something up on big room TV that we are kind of in and out on, because mostly we are all doing our own things on our laptops. It's usually a pretty happy scene.

I always make the point that it used to be such an adventure when traveling to discover what was being televised in a different market (i.e., "Hey, they're getting My Three Sons and Hazel in the afternoons in Ruston!") but that now you get pretty much the same stuff everywhere but more channels of it. By the time I'm about midway through this sermon, the women, who've heard it probably 45 times over the last 15 years, have usually found the Golden Girls marathon on whichever of those junior-varsity cable networks that roll those every night. Golden Girls is good. It's not good enough for us to binge through the series at home in the way we have great Cosby Show, Gilmore Girls, Good Place, Modern Family, currently Brooklyn Nine-Nine, etc. But it's good--and even excellent for this particular type of in-and-out-with-it application.

On this Canada trip, however, we actually did more local programming just to feel exotic and fancy. Some of it even was in French! None of us speaks French, but the daughter Duolingo-ed her way in advance of the trip to being a pretty good interpreter for my wife and me. We watched some public-broadcasting stuff on First Nations people (I knew pretty much zero about any of that), and we looked some at a Canadian sitcom, Corner Gas. We watched a little curling.

We watched a lot of hockey. My daughter has never much gotten into sports other than rollerskating, but, if she happens to go to college way up north with a bunch of other liberal girls who dig boygenius, I could see her getting into intramural hockey at some rich school with a rink in its student-rec center. She's a pretty big and strong kid, and she likes the speed and the violence. 

I was shocked to discover that the Montreal Canadiens had missed the playoffs the last couple of seasons because it still feels to me that Guy Lafleur and the garçons hoist the ol' Stanley Cup every other year or so. But the daughter deciphered enough of the French pregame April 2 to decipher that our newly beloved Habs were almost certainly soon to be eliminated from contention either that night or one of the next couple of games.

It looked bad early on that Tuesday evening as the Florida Panthers took 1-0 and then 2-1 leads at Centre Bell, about a two-kilometer walk from our Springhill Suites in Old Montreal. But then our main man from London (Ontario), Nick Suzuki, ripped the Panthers for two second-period goals, and the Canadiens never looked back, prevailing 5-3 (or 3-5 as the homies say).

Maybe the Montreal miracle was starting right here, right now! Over the next couple of days, I enjoyed consuming Wikipedia's unsurprisingly super "History of the Montreal Canadiens" page, and, on a trip uptown to see Olympic Stadium and pretend I was a sportswriter in to cover the start of the Expos' season in MLB77, I was thrilled to discover Aréna Maurice-Richard, which is where Sugar Ray Leonard, Leon Spinks and all of those other great U.S. boxers won their medals at XXI Olympic Summer Games, Montreal 1976, and one of the places where Speed Skating Canada trains their great athletes today.

 

Totally juiced by the whole experience, I became almost convinced that our Habs would be climbing out of the Atlantic Division cellar and into the playoffs to chase their 25th Stanley Cup championship in their 108th National Hockey League season. But by Thursday night, both the Canadians and we had ditched Montreal amid the city's biggest snowfall of the year--them down to Tampa and us up to Quebec City. The Canadiens were rocked by the Lightning, 7-4, on April 4 and eliminated from postseason contention; we, on the other hand, had a fantastic time.

So now the Stanley Cup playoffs are underway, and I'm back in the USA rooting for my usual favorites, the Washington Capitals (because they were red, white and blue on the first Topps hockey cards I bought after Innsbruck 1976), the Carolina Hurricanes (because of our happy days in the Triangle) and the Nashville Predators (because of I-24). (The Athletic says the Hurricanes have a chance!) Thank you, Wikipedia, for this bracket.

I guess I'm also kind of rooting for the Toronto Maple Leafs (because of John Candy).

XXXIII Olympic Summer Games, Tokyo 2020 (Day 4)

 

Previous reports:

 

-- XXX Olympic Summer Games, London 2012 

-- XXXI Olympic Summer Games, Rio 2016 

-- XXXII Olympic Summer Games, Tokyo 2020 (Programming Note) 

-- XXXIII Olympic Summer Games, Tokyo 2020 (Day 0) 

-- XXXIII Olympic Summer Games, Tokyo 2020 (Days 1 and 2)

-- XXXIII Olympic Summer Games, Tokyo 2020 (Day 3)

Hockey

 I'm not really a hockey fan, but I'd probably be fine with the idea of playing all hockey games outdoors.

Forty First Podcast

The forty first podcast is up. Thanks to freemidi.org for the audio files. Eric and Matthew finish simulating the Fake CBK.

RSS Feed

Newsstand, February 1973

I have an idea for a new HP feature, which I think might bring us all some mirth and insight. I'm considering it part of #freakinweekend family of posts, and, an ongoing basis, #newsstand might even be only the occasional focus of "The Freakin' Weekend"-labeled posts. But, for its debut today, "Newsstand" gets its own standalone header, and here we go.

No surprise that this month's Golf Digest reveals Jack Nicklaus as its player of 1972, but the sublime LeRoy Nieman cover mustn't be missed!

February 1973 me believes that Cesar Cedeno is headed to a Hall-of-Fame career, and Baseball Digest is steeling my conviction.

I really like it that World Soccer, "The International Magazine," expects February 1973 us to know who this dude is without any labeling or even identifiable jersey markings.

In Chess Life & Review, David Levy has a compelling report on “Church’s Fried Chicken Inc. First International Chess Tournament:”

Not since New York 1924 has there been such a strong tournament in the USA … Bill Church evolved the idea of this magnificent event almost two years before the first pawn was pushed. While he and his wife Kaye were on a visit to San Francisco in February 1971, they were invited to the home of George Koltanowski, where Bill took a beating from Kolty at the chessboard. “To make a long story not so long,” recalls Koltanowski, “the Churches took my wife Leah and me to dinner. Even if it doesn’t pay to win it costs to lose. And it was then, by a chance remark, that the idea of the first Church’s Fried Chicken International Tournament was hatched.

In New York, there's a feature on the New Yorkest of Knicks:

Most of the New York Knicks’ front-line stars came from out of town. Frazier, Reed, DeBusschere, Bradley—they’re here because they came here. But one of the brightest new Knicks is a home-town boy, and the crowd loves him for it. Dean Meminger grew up in Harlem, made the All-City team, and realized the great ghetto dream of making it big. Tony Kornheiser, who covers pro basketball for Newsday, relates the rise of Dean the Dream.

Turning away from sports (mostly), the February Crawdaddy centerfold is the board for its “American Buy-Buy-Buy Centennial Game.” It’s a more-meandering Monopoly-style layout with corner squares for “Revolution” and “Disneyland” (instead of “Jail,” “Free Parking,” etc.) Here are some of the spaces, printed in all-caps, typewriter font:

-- “BURN SOCIAL SECURITY CARD AT DISNEYLAND. MAULED BY MECHANCIAL CROCODILE. GO TO V.A. HOSPITAL WHERE YOU’RE FORGOTTEN.”

-- “WORKERS STRIKE AT YOUR FACTORY FOR NATIONAL HOLIDAY ON BETSY ROSS’ BIRTHDAY. LOSE TEMPER AND ONE TURN.”

-- “STOCK IN RED, WHITE AND BLUE A.B.A. BASKETBALL SOARS. DRIBBLE AHEAD 1 SPACE.”

Newsweek this month clues us in on "The Hottest Movie,” Last Tango In Paris, and asks “Whatever Happened To Black America?” 

Meanwhile, in Canada, ...

Here are some features from other titles this month in February 1973:

-- Rolling Stone, “Joan Baez in Hanoi: 12 Days Under the Bombs”

-- Cosmopolitan, “101 Ways a Man Can Please You—If You Would Only Tell Him”

-- Guns&Ammo, "GUN CONTROL IS NOT CRIME CONTROL!"

-- Good Housekeeping, “EXCLUSIVE: John Wayne in his very private world” and “Make our nubby-knit pull-on sweater, page 76"

-- For Teens Only, “DATE DONNY!” and “Be a part of the great date debate between SUSAN, DAVID, MAUREEN & BARRY!”

-- SHAZAM! It's Captain Marvel.

-- Better Homes and Gardens, “Tax deductions—an easy-to-follow chart” and “Design a kitchen just for your family”

-- Mademoiselle, “women are the creators of male chauvinism—a sizzling interview with esther vilar”

-- Popular Science, "Before You Buy: The Facts About MICROWAVE OVENS”

XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018 (Day 1)

We had some stuff come up in the last 24 hours, so my XXIII Olympic Winter Games watching is off to a sporadic start. It's Saturday night, and we're about half through NBC's Friday-night show featuring the opening ceremonies. It has been fantastic so far--fantastic! Now we've switched over to the live Saturday-night show. There is some figure skating happening. I'm OK with figure skating.

The Olympics are great. And you know what? They're even greater with a 9-year-old. But there's not a lot of time for blogging.

Previous reports:

-- I Olympic Winter Games, Chamonix 1924
-- II Olympic Winter Games, Saint Moritz 1928
-- VIII Olympic Winter Games, Squaw Valley 1960
-- XII Olympic Winter Games, Innsbruck 1976 
-- XVII Olympic Winter Games, Lillehammer 1994
-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014
-- XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018 (Preface)
-- XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018 (Introduction/Day 0)

Oh, Kentucky

On human trafficking, "in every county, city and community in this state."

The status of about 100 refugees who were scheduled to be resettled in Bowling Green is up in the air until at least October.

Merry Christmas from Somerset.

Bevin followed up, tweeting that “over 112,600 jobs in Kentucky depend on trade and investment with Canada.” https://t.co/392piaLzlJ

— Bluegrass Politics (@BGPolitics) July 15, 2017

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s new Strategic Highway Investment Formula for Tomorrow (or, “SHIFT”) formula "uses quantitative data — measures such as crashes, fatalities, traffic volumes, delays, employment – to assess the benefits of planned projects and compare them to each other.” Each proposed project is measured in terms of its potential to improve safety, reduce congestion, fuel job grown, wisely leverage tax dollars and preserve infrastructure.

Madisonville is getting a new K-8 school.

More police officers in Hopkinsville. Another firefighter in Leitchfield. More machinists via Louisville.

Rest in peace, Mr. Fitzpatrick, who, one Election Day in the 1960s, missed voting because he was visiting family in Tennessee and returned to Ferguson to learn he had been elected mayor.

Oh, Kentucky

Welcome to Kentucky, Canada. #CanadaWeekKY17 @DouglasGeorgeCG @CanCGDetroit pic.twitter.com/MPIhsjM0ro

— Governor Matt Bevin (@GovMattBevin) February 13, 2017

From Lexington: "Roe v. Wade — it doesn’t matter if they overturn it or not."

A Cadiz man in Louisville, as reported in Hazard: "What I saw outside the abortion clinic."

Per the University of Virginia (FiveThirtyEight.com), cancer incidence has been falling overall--but not in places like Owsley County.

Fifty-two overdose calls in 32 hours in Louisville.

Paducah's old El Chico is turning into a Starbucks.

Good jobs news from Owensboro.

The Kentucky high-school affiliate of @Rivals, @KentuckyPreps, is back up and running.

Will NKU go the way of Georgetown College by selling its radio station?

Kentucky for sale:

Bulgaria Update

For the fifth year in a row, the 2015-16 Bulgarian A soccer title went to PFC Ludogorets Razgrad.  So once again, Ludogorets Razgrad was eligible for the Championship of Europe.  Here's how they've done.

They started in the Second Qualifying Round in mid-July, where they played Mladost Podgorica, the champions of Montenegro.  Ludogorets crushed Mladost over two legs, 2-0, and 3-0, and they were on to the Third Qualifying Round.

In the Third Qualifying Round, which took place in late July and early August, Ludogorets played Red Star Belgrade, the champions of Serbia.  On July 26, the teams played to a 2-all tie in Razgrad before a crowd of 7,759.  (That's pretty much a capacity crowd in Razgrad.)  The teams then went to Red Star Stadium, in Belgrade, where 50,223 fans showed up.  This game was a cracker:

After 17 minutes, Red Star led 1-0 on the night, and 3-2 on aggregate.
After 24 minutes, the score was 1-1 on the night, 3-3 on aggregate, and Red Star led on the Away Goals rule.
After 40 minutes, Ludogorets led 2-1 on the night, and 4-3 on aggregate.
After a penalty kick in the 62d minute, Red Star and Ludogorets were tied 2-2 on the night, and 4-4 on aggregate.  They were also tied 2-2 on the Away Goals rule.  So the game went to extra time.

And in extra time, Ludogorets's Brazilian star -- Wanderson -- completed a hat trick with goals in the 92d and 97th minute.  (He had also scored in the 40th minute).  So Ludogorets won 4-2 in Belgrade, and 6-4 on the night.  You can see the highlights here.

With that thrilling victory, Ludogorets advanced to the Playoff Round, where they took on Viktoria Plzen, the champions of the Czech Republic.  This time, 11,812 folks turned up at the Vasil Levski National Stadium in Sofia for the first leg on August 17, where Ludogorets rolled to a 2-0 victory.  Six days later, Ludogorets got a 2-2 draw in Plzen, and they were ON TO THE GROUP STAGES!  This was only the third time any team from Bulgaria had turned that feat.

Ludogorets Razgrad (BUL) was drawn into Group A, along with Arsenal (ENG), Paris Saint-Germain (FRA), and Basel (SUI).  Due to UEFA rules, Ludogorets played their home games at the National Stadium in Sofia.  Here's how they started (home teams listed first):

09/13/2016:  Basel 1 - 1 Ludogorets Razgrad
09/28/2016:  Ludogorets Razgrad 1 - 3 Paris Saint-Germain
10/19/2016:  Arsenal 6 - 0 Ludogorets Razgrad

Their next game, in Sofia on November 1, was against Arsenal.  A crowd of 30,862 showed up to see Nick Hornby's favorite team take on the Champions of Bulgaria.  It was quite a game, as you can see here. In the 12th minute, Cafu gave Ludogorets a 1-0 lead.  And then, three minutes later, Ludogorets tacked on another goal to go up 2-0.  Bulgaria was transported!  But Arsenal struck back six minutes later, making the score 2-1.  Late in the first half, the Gunners headed in another goal, and we were all tied at 2.  It was a tense second half, as Ludogorets sought a famous victory.  But in the 86th minute, Mesut Ozil, a star for the German National Team who is one of the greatest players in the world, got the ball at the back of the Ludogorets defense, and he made a spectacular goal to win the game for the Gunners, 3 to 2.

So the standings in Group A look like this:

Arsenal:  3-0-1 (10 points) 
Paris Saint-Germain:  3-0-1 (10)
Ludogorets Razgrad:  0-3-1 (1)
Basel:  0-3-1 (1)

With only two group games left, Ludogorets is too far behind to reach the knockout rounds.  But once again, they have made a noble effort.

Cleveland v. Toronto

Cleveland, Ohio sits on the south shore of Lake Erie, while Toronto sits on the north shore of Lake Ontario.  And thereby hangs a tale.  Because when the Americans pressed into the upper Midwest, they needed a port on Lake Erie to handle all the goods going back and forth between the upper Midwest and the Northeast, and Cleveland became that port.  The population of Cleveland boomed from 93,000 in 1870 to over 900,000 by 1930.  Meanwhile, the British subjects in Canada needed a big port on Lake Ontario that they could use to ship their goods back and forth between the Atlantic and the Great Plains, and Toronto became that port -- its population soared from 56,000 in 1871 to 667,500 in 1941.  Cleveland was bigger, of course, because the United States was much bigger than Canada.  But that was all about to change.

After the Great Depression and World War II, Americans decided to change their economy.  The old Midwest coalition that had dominated Americans politics from the time of Lincoln until 1932 was broken, and replaced by a new coalition focused on New York and Boston.  No longer did American Presidents come from Ohio -- instead, we got presidents from New York, Massachusetts, Texas, and California.  The new version of America was more excited about banking than industry; more focused on services than on supply.  The new Americans no longer believed that the country could set itself apart from the rest of the world -- they thought that the United States had to help other countries in order to avoid future wars.  And so they changed the laws in ways that made it harder and harder for the old industrial towns of the Midwest -- and Cleveland started to shrink.  By 2010, only 396,815 people still lived inside the city limits of Cleveland -- which left it as the 51st largest city in America, between Arlington, Tex. and Bakersfield, Calif.  The entire Cleveland metropolitan area had a population of just over 2 million -- 31st in the country.

Meanwhile, Toronto's experience with the post-War world was somewhat different.  Canada benefited enormously from the Americans' interest in the Cold War -- no longer did Canadians have to fight on behalf of the British Empire, as they had from 1914 to 1918 and from 1939 to 1945, while the Americans dithered about whether to fight or stay home.  Instead, Canada was able to cut its defense spending and rely on the Americans instead.  Moreover, thanks to America's new trade policy -- and the clever deals negotiated by successive Canadian governments -- the Canadians had almost the same access to the vast U.S. market as people in Ohio.  Furthermore, the revolt against English-speaking rule in Quebec that took place in the 1960's undermined Montreal's traditional role as the first city in Canada.  More and more of the English-speaking elites ended up in Toronto instead.  By 2011, the population of the amalgamated City of Toronto exceeded 2.6 million, and Toronto could look down on its American neighbors in Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo.

And some people say politics don't matter.

All of this had an effect on baseball.  The first Canadian MLB team was Montreal, in 1969, but Toronto joined the American League in 1977, and became the only Canadian team in MLB after the Montreal franchise collapsed in 2004.  Toronto and Cleveland have now spent  40 years together in the American League, much of that time in the same division, but they were rarely good at the same time.  This ALCS will be their first meeting with so much at stake.  Of course, they did face off earlier this year in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, with the Cavs beating the Raptors.

Here are Cleveland's prior appearances in the ALCS (wins in bold):

1995, 1997, 1998, 2007

Here are Cleveland's top five players by Wins Above Replacement Player:

1.  Nap Lajoie:  79
2.  Tris Speaker:  74
3.  Bob Feller:  63
4.  Lou Boudreau:  61
5.  Stan Coveleski:  51

Here are Toronto's prior appearances in the ALCS (wins in bold):

1985, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 2015

Here are Toronto's top five players by WAR:

1.  Dave Steib:  57
2.  Roy Halladay:  48
3.  Jose Bautista:  37
4.  Tony Fernandez:  37
5.  Carlos Delgado:  36

Oh, Kentucky

We follow in the footsteps of many named and unnamed women who have steadily and faithfully spread the good news of Jesus Christ, and they have significantly impacted our church, our community, and the American culture.

Our founding mission was to provide young women with access to education at a time when education was mainly available to men. We have fulfilled that mission for 169 years and this decision will ensure that we continue to do so.

*If he/she says no at proposal, another winner will be drawn.

How great does that KET logo look on the @LexingtonLegend field? We are loving education day here! pic.twitter.com/6MV7A7Xjnu

— EducationKET (@EducationKET) May 25, 2016

The Berea chapter of Parents of Murdered Children is now meeting monthly at Glades Christian Church.

Bomb threats against Lexington's Wal-Marts are under investigation.

Louisville and Quebec are seeking to take their trading relationship to the next level.

The "Appalachian Homestead Act" sounds like a heck of a good idea to me. 

Per Mental Floss, Kentucky is the least-expensive U.S. state in which to live.

OK, this edition of the new "Kentucky for sale" feature has everything! Hoptown! Wall-to-wall carpeting, air conditioning, a pool, TV and a restaurant! Coffee and cake! Evansville! U.S. 41! Everything!

What's On TV Today (1970)?

Super Bowl IV, of course ...

 

Hoptown 1970 me thought about getting myself a ticket and going to Tulane Stadium for the game ...

Ticket for Super Bowl IV (Chiefs vs. Vikings), Tulane Stadium, 1/11/1970. pic.twitter.com/iIiTItW7C2

— Sports Paper (@PressRoomGFS) July 30, 2015

#OTD in 1970 the American Football League went out in style in Super Bowl IV. https://t.co/utMqhTB4of pic.twitter.com/IxmaXaS4UD

— Sports Paper (@PressRoomGFS) January 11, 2016

But it feels like I just got back from Texas, and it's nice to be home ...

When Minnesota has the ball (with our cat, River!) ...

The Viking offensive backfield (with Topps on the color commentary here) ...

One of the matchups to watch today (I really should have Curley Culp in this picture, too) ...

The Chiefs' linebackers and secondary (but will Johnny Robinson even play?) ...

When Kansas City has the ball (mugs from the International House of Pancakes!) ...

The Vikings' front seven (beautiful board game from Ideal; you're totally right about industrial design, Go Heath) ...

More key matchup (maybe my calling is to open a gallery of the Topps cartoonist's work) ...

It's almost kickoff time, and here come the Chiefs ...

Willie Lanier Chiefs Runs On Field Prior to Super Bowl IV  8x10 photo MA1582 http://t.co/k8weTytmd9 pic.twitter.com/ER2Mip8DXt

— highly posh offers (@rosalisandro) April 14, 2015

Our men in the CBS booth today are Pat Summerall and Jack Buck ...

On this day in 1970, Jack Buck and Pat Summerall called Super Bowl IV between Vikings and Chiefs in New Orleans. pic.twitter.com/axVXgPGrFs

— Announcer Database (@SAnnouncer_DB) January 11, 2015

Time to tune in to the game ...

MLB Playoffs: Day 15

This entry is a tribute to all the baseball books for boys that I read growing up in the 1970's:

LORENZO CAIN'S BIG RUN

Growing up in the small town of Madison, Florida, Lorenzo Cain ran everywhere.  He ran to catch the school bus.  He ran around the playground at recess.  He ran errands for his mother, who raised him and his brother after his father died.  He liked running, and he was good at it.

By the time he entered high school, Lorenzo was one of the fastest kids in town.  He hoped to use his speed to play basketball -- his favorite sport.  But being fast wasn't enough for him to make the high school basketball team.  So he decided to try out for the baseball team.  He had never cared much for baseball -- he didn't even have a glove.  But he could hit -- and his speed made him a great defensive player.  Within a few years, he was playing baseball for Tallahassee Community College -- and then he was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers.  By 2010, at the age of 24, Lorenzo Cain was in the majors!

The next year, however, the Brewers traded Lorenzo to Kansas City.  This appeared to be a dead end.  The Royals had been a great power in the 1970's and 1980's, but the franchise had fallen on hard times.  Some experts thought it was impossible to build a winning franchise in a town of Kansas City's size.  But Lorenzo didn't give up.  In 2011, he played only six games for the Royals.  In 2012, he played 61 games.  In 2013, he was playing almost every day.

As Lorenzo played more games, the Royals were getting better.  In 2014, he batted .301 for the season -- his first year as a .300 hitter.  The Royals stunned the baseball world by winning the American League pennant for the first time since 1985.  In the World Series, Lorenzo batted .308 and played great defense in center field, but the Royals lost in seven games to the Giants.

Many experts thought that the Royals' 2014 season was a fluke, and that they wouldn't be back in 2015.  But Lorenzo and his teammates knew better.  In 2015, Lorenzo batted .307 and made the All Star Game for the first time.  The Royals won 97 games -- the most wins of any team in the American League -- and returned to the playoffs.  After beating Houston in the first round, they needed to get past the Toronto Blue Jays and return to the World Series.

In Game 1 against Toronto, Lorenzo drove in a run in a 5-0 win for Kansas City.  In Game 2, he singled and scored in a come-from-behind 6-3 win.  Toronto won Game 3 by the score 11 to 8, but the next day, Lorenzo got two walks and two singles as Kansas City won 14 to 2.  The Royals needed only one more win to clinch another pennant -- but the Blue Jays beat them 7 to 1 in Game 5.  So the teams traveled to Kansas City for Game 6.

It was a great game.  In the bottom of the 1st, Ben Zobrist homered to left to put the Royals up 1-0.  Another home run from Mike Moustakas in the 2d gave Kansas City a 2-0 lead.  But Toronto fought back with a home run from Jose Bautista in the top of the 4th to make the score 2 to 1.

The score remained 2-1 until the bottom of the 7th, when the Royals got a run on a single, a groundout, and another single to make the score 3 to 1.  Now only six outs from the pennant, Kansas City sent out Ryan Madson to protect its lead.  Madson was normally a great relief pitcher, but in the top of the 8th, he gave up a single to Ben Revere and a long home run to Bautista.  Suddenly, the game was tied at 3.  Kansas City was forced to bring in its closer, Wade Davis, to retire the Blue Jays.

And then, after Toronto was retired in the 8th, it started to rain.  Hard.  So hard that the umpires had to stop the game.  For over 45 minutes, Lorenzo and his teammates watched the rain, waiting for their turn to bat in the bottom of the eighth.  Finally, the rain stopped and the players returned to the field.  None of the Kansas City fans had left, and they cheered as Lorenzo Cain came up to bat in the bottom of the 8th.

He knew that the Royals needed to score now.  Davis was Kansas City's best relief pitcher, but he couldn't be expected to go more than one more inning.  If Toronto won this game, anything could happen in a Game 7.  If the Royals wanted to go back to the World Series, they needed to score in the bottom of the 8th.  But Toronto knew this, and had inserted their own closer -- Roberto Osuna, who had 20 saves with an E.R.A. of 2.58 in the regular season.

As the lead-off hitter, Lorenzo knew it was important for him to get on base.  Osuna was a tough pitcher, and soon Lorenzo had a count of one ball and two strikes.  But Lorenzo would not give up.  He watched two balls, and then faced a full count.  Osuna threw a difficult pitch.  Lorenzo fouled it off.  Osuna came back with another.  Lorenzo fouled it off.  The crowd cheered Lorenzo's determination.  Finally, Osuna's next pitch missed the strike zone.  Lorenzo was on first with a walk!

The next batter was Eric Hosmer.  Lorenzo danced off first -- hoping for the chance to use his speed on the base paths.  Hosmer worked the count to 2 and 2, and then hit a long, slicing fly to right.  Bautista, the Toronto right fielder, raced toward the ball, determined to hold Hosmer to a single.  With a spectacular effort, he reached the ball and hurled it back toward second base.

But Lorenzo had left first as soon as the ball was hit, and he was almost to third base by the time the ball landed.  Meanwhile, because Bautista had been off-balance, his throw to second was sailing higher than usual, staying in the air for a few more precious seconds.  Looking up, Lorenzo saw the third base coach frantically waving him home!  He didn't stop for a moment, but turned on the speed, trying to beat the relay from second.  Ryan Goins, the Toronto second baseman, saw that Lorenzo was trying to score from first on a single -- and quickly zipped the ball home to stop him.  It was too late -- Lorenzo beat the throw.  Thanks to his great speed and determination, the Royals had taken the lead on a walk and a single!

Now it was up to Davis to defend the lead in the bottom of the 9th.  At first, he struggled, and the Blue Jays soon had runners on second and third with no one out.  A single would give him the lead.  But then Davis bore down.  He struck out Toronto pinch hitter Dioner Navarro.  Then he struck out Ben Revere.  Then he got Josh Donaldson to ground out to third.  The game was over, and the Royals had won 4 to 3.  Thanks to Lorenzo Cain's big run, the Royals had won the American League pennant for the second year in a row.  Next up, they faced the National League Champions -- the New York Mets.

National League Championship Series:
New York beat Chicago 4-0

American League Championship Series:
Kansas City beat Toronto 4-2