Goodbye to 2024

Some Fall Classic—Aaron Judge dropped a ball hit right at him; Gerrit Cole couldn’t be bothered to cover first base on a groundball; Austin Wells got called for catcher’s interference. Plus the Yankees blew a five-run lead to lose game five and the Series to the Dodgers, 7-6. Shohei Ohtani Series MVP? Judge? Nope. Freddie Freeman with his twelve RBIs was. Ohtani went 2-for-19, Judge 4-for-18. So, big teams, big stage, pop-gun results. Bring on 2025 with two different participants, please. Oh, and Aaron Boone will be out as Yankees’ manager. It’s never good to remind people of Mickey Mouse.

Class Act

After watching last night’s World Series’ game, I’m coming to the conclusion that all athletic contests should be played without fans present. Take Yankee Stadium, please. Two morons in right field challenged Mookie Betts in the bottom of the first inning as he leaned into the stands for a foul fly by Gleyber Torres. One fan pried the ball out of Betts’ glove while the other held onto Betts’ throwing arm, to give the other clown more time. The umpire ruled fan interference, and, for all I know, that bad behavior fueled the Yankees to a 11-4 win. The ball-prying clown told ESPN, “I patrol that wall, and they know that.” No, buddy, you’re entitled to watch a game and try to catch a ball that comes your way. If you’re so deluded as to think you’re part of the team (roving thug, maybe), you need help.

They Asked

Clare called last night to ask if I saw Aaron Judge strike out, which he’s done twenty times this postseason. My daughter is proving how spot-on that Progressive Insurance ad campaign is, the one about turning into your parents. She saw a Yankee go fishing for an outside pitch, and she caught herself saying, “And where would that ball have gone had he managed to hit it?” I’m flattered by the imitation. Afterward, Michele asked, “What’s wrong with Aaron Judge? He looks terrible.” I told my wife that, when a hitter goes bad like this, it’s likely one of three things—age, injury, or a slump, something no player can avoid. Judge is 32 and coming off a season where he hit 58 homeruns to go with 144 RBIs, so I’d say it’s not age. An injury? It’s possible the Yankees are trying to keep one secret, but I doubt it. That leaves a slump, which can happen anytime. Unfortunately for Judge, it’s in a World Series where he’s being paired against Shohei Ohtani. Ironically, Ohtani is hitting .091 to Judge’s .083. Freddie Freeman is lapping them both with three homers and a .333 BA, but I digress. My wife also asked, “How can he get out of a slump?” to which I answered, “By getting some hits.” This is where the mental part of the game comes in. Judge has to control the urge to swing at everything and, instead, stay small. Some singles to the opposite field could lead to an avalanche of homers. A slump can turn that quickly. Judge has had pretty decent stats in the postseason until this year, which coincides with his first World Series’ appearance. Some guys have all the luck. Right now, Aaron Judge is not one of them.

Sounds Familiar

Oh, boy. The Munsters lost yesterday in D.C. 18-15 on a Hail Mary pass play that started with cornerback Tyrique Stevenson busy taunting Washington fans instead of being in position. Then, Stevenson ended up tipping the ball into the hands of Commanders’ receiver Noah Brown. Oh, Bears. Wait, there’s more. Stevenson, who also picked up an unnecessary roughness penalty and got beat on a 61-yard reception, didn’t address the media after the game. Coach Matt Eberflus and tight end Cole Kmet did but needed to say different things. Eberflus talked taking lessons from the game while Kmet offered that “to obsess over the result of what happened I think is just a little immature.” Kmet then clarified that he was referring to players, not reporters. Whatever and whichever. He’s wrong either way. One game in the NFL is equivalent to nine games in MLB. That means the Bears now find themselves on what would be a nine-game losing streak for a baseball team. At nine games, I want my manager ticked and demanding accountability from his players, his staff and himself. Mickey Mouse was incapable to doing that, which is one of the reasons he’s now an ex-manager. If there’s a silver lining in this Bears’ loss, it’s that Eberflus will be joining him in the unemployment line sooner than later.

Smart Money

In baseball, there’s a direct correlation between winning and spending. The team with the biggest payroll doesn’t necessarily win it all, but I think the team with the biggest payroll reflecting money spent smart does. Take this World Series. The Yankees spent more on their payroll than the Dodgers, $303.3 million vs. $249.8 million according to USA Today. The Dodgers, though, look to be getting more for their dollar than the right-now pretty-hapless Yankees, who are down 0-2 in the Series after falling by a score of 4-2 last night. New York went with Carlos Rodon to face Yoshinobu Yamamoto, or the $162 million pitcher vs. the $325 million pitcher. It wasn’t even close. Rodon couldn’t get out of the fourth inning, giving up four runs on three homeruns. Compare that to Yamamoto, who went 6.1 innings, giving up one run on one hit. You get what you pay for. With Rodon, the Yankees went hook, line and sinker for the stats agent Scott Boras fed them. What they forgot is Rodon’s history of injuries, which have affected his pitching. The Carlos Rodon who pitched for the Sad Sox was better than the journeyman who posted a 3.96 ERA in the regular season. Yes, Yamamoto was injured, too, in the regular season, but he still posted an ERA nearly a point lower than Rodon’s. The proof was in the pudding, as they say. But I’m not going to jump on Aaron Judge here. Judge is having a terrible postseason with nineteen strikeouts in 40 at-bats to go with a .150 BA. Granted, not much of a return on a $360 million contract, but Judge is the guy who dragged his team into the postseason. Right now, he looks to be having a Ted Williams World Series. I’d take either of them to get me there. By the way, has anyone seen the Yankees’ Marcus Stroman, he of the $37 million contract? That’s what a 4.31 ERA in the regular season will do to a guy.

Get a Grip, Guys

The Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman hit a two-out, tenth-inning grand slam last night to beat the Yankees 6-3 in game one of the World Series. It was the greatest game of all time, from what the announcers said and what I read in The Athletic today. Please. Those of us who don’t live on either coast know otherwise. Of greater interest to me was MLBPA executive director Tony Clark calling out teams for the way they handle pitchers. Clark charged that the current analytics-driven mindset is to “have pitchers, starting and relievers, [give] max effort for the period of time that they [teams] can have them. As soon as they seem to run out of gas, as the data suggests they’re going to, [teams] recycle them out and [get ready] to burn out another pitcher.” [today’s online Tribune sports’ section] The story also noted that fastball velocity is up over the last ten years, along with pitcher injuries. Fastballs that used to average 93.3 mph in 2014 are now averaging 95.5 mph, an increase that has seen a near doubling of the number of pitchers who go on the IL, to 484 this past season. So, why not teach more pitchers the knuckleball?

Progress Report

My grandson called—OK, his mom called and put him on the phone—yesterday afternoon to tell me, “Grandpa, I hit the ball over the fence!” In fact, he did it five times, both a testament to his talent and his mother’s resilience. Clare was pitching to Leo just a month after undergoing a Caeserean. Amazon child, that one. Leo has been putting the ball over a six-foot fence into the neighbor’s yard for the past two months, which isn’t bad for a kid three years and three months old. I said something about him clearing the Green Monster, but he didn’t understand. Monsters give him pause, even the ones he can hit a ball over. So, now, I just tell him what a good job he’s doing. He's hitting the ball at least forty feet, in part because both his parents were college athletes and because he likes to make the ball go far. Clare said he’s striding into pitches, which I think is a good habit. I also suggested she emphasize the good stuff that happens when he follows the ball all the way to the bat. You can never start too early. Now, all I have to do is stick around to watch my grandson play organized ball.