SZ671

BY JIM DAWSON

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

THE WORLD SERIES

Truly enjoyed the 7 game set between the Houston Astros and the LA Dodgers. Hopefully you were one of the lucky ones to stay up to watch the end of Games #2 and #5. Drama personified. Death defying rallies. Home runs (25 combined, a new record) in crucial situations. The Astros hit 15 of those home runs.

In what was supposed to be a matchup of pitching staffs, the hitters made the difference.

The Astros staff ERA (4.64) was worse than the Dodgers (4.45). And as reader Richard Flinn observed after the 5^th game, the runs scored were close. A look at the stats show that the Astros, while leading 3 games to 2, had been outscored 30 to 28. After Game #7, the Astros and the Dodgers had both scored 34 runs.

The Astros won despite Jose Altuve’s .194 BA, Alex Bregman’s .233 BA, Yuri Gurriel’s .214, Marwin Gonzalez’s .208, Brian McCann’s .200 and Josh Reddick’s .167. Only George Springer (.379, 5 HRs, 7 RBI ) and Carlos Correa (.276, 2 HRs, 5 RBI) performed well batting for average.

However Altuve had 2 HRs, 6 RBI. Bregman had 2 HRs and 5 RBI (and played excellent 3B). And Gurriel had 2 HRs and 4 RBI. So they made their hits count. Even Marwin Gonzalez, with just 1 homer, did it to tie Game #2 against the usually untouchable Kenley Jansen (41 saves, only 1 blown save in the regular season). Clutch hitting.

Houston got good starting pitching from Lance McCullers (1-0, 3.52), Justin Verlander (0-1, 3.75) and Charlie Morton (1-0, 1.74 ERA and winner of the 7^th game). The Astros had shaky but ‘just enough’ relief pitching to earn two of their four wins with Chris Devenski (7.20 ERA) and Joe Musgrove (6.75 ERA) getting those wins. Brad Peacock (2.45 ERA ) saved McCullers Game #3 win.

LA’s loss of the Series can be traced to Yu Darvish’s two starts (0-2, 21.60 ERA, 3.1 innings pitched) and the failure of Kenley Jansen (loss and blown save). Also Brandon Morrow (regular season 2.06 ERA), who pitched in all 7 games, had the misfortune of giving up runs in only 2 games but one came in the 8^th inning of Game # 2 and got the Astros within a run (Gonzalez tied it in the 9^th) and Game #5 (4 runs).

It was a fun World Series and I was happy to see Houston win for the first time ever. Also congrats to Connecticut’s own – George Springer – on his MVP win. Springer was a 1^st round pick in 2011 from U Conn. (Source – Wikipedia).

BULLETS

• Richard Flinn (English Dept. Head at the Naval Academy Preparatory School) emailed me info about a baseball game he attended at Cardines Field in which Army played Navy. It was to honor the baseball games played by the US Army and Navy during WW 1. Navy won the most recent one (9/29) 13-7. Participants wore old time uniforms.

• And the account Richard sent me (Fox News/AP – 9/29/17) revealed for whom the field in Newport is named: “Prior to the game, the City of Newport rededicated the field in honor of Bernardo Cardines, a Newport resident who was killed while serving in the U.S. Army in World War I. Cardines was born near Monte Casino, Italy and was not an American citizen when he joined the U.S. Armed Forces.”

• The Red Sox named Alex Cora as their manager today (Monday – 11/6). He is Boston’s first Latino manager (Puerto Rico). The bilingual 42-year old Cora is the youngest BoSox manager since Kevin Kennedy (40). Cora won the World Series with Boston in 2007. (Source – Boston.com’s Rachel Bowers – 11/6). Red Sox fans wish him much success.

• Among Cora’s new coaches will be Carlos Febles, who managed Portland the last two years, but has managed in Boston’s system since 2011. Febles knows many of the young BoSox players. Febles will coach 3^rd and be the infield instructor. From the prior staff, bullpen coach and catching coordinator Dana LeVangie was retained.

• Personally I will miss BoSox 3B coach Brian Butterfield and hitting instructor Chili Davis. I will not miss ex-Manager John Farrell nor ex-pitching coach Carl Willis. In fact when Brad and I were in Memphis, we caught Game #4 versus the Astros. When Farrell was thrown out, I thought that was the end of his ‘managing’. And then either Farrell (from the locker room) or bench coach Gary DiSarcina let Chris Sale go out for one more inning (after he had pitched 4 innings). Justin Verlander had given up Andrew Benintendi’s two-run homer and could have been the losing pitcher had the Sox used Addison Reed in the 8^th and Craig Kimbrel in the 9^th. Nope! Bye John.

• A story in the NY Times (Ken Belson - 11/4) about ex-Patriot LB Nick Buoniconti was sad to read. The 76-year old Buoniconti has agreed to donate his brain to BU’s CTE Center. The Hall of Famer has become forgetful, has trouble speaking and completing basic tasks and has been falling more frequently.

EMAIL

Finally, after way too long, Mark Knopfler's old band Dire Straits is up for nomination into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and fans can do the voting (by email or by Facebook). rockhall.com/vote is the link and even if you vote just once (they allow one per day, until Dec 5) that would help. Hopefully, you have liked "Sultans of Swing" and the many other Straits' songs over the years, to feel they deserve recognition.

Brad Dawson

Brad, I’m going to vote right now. And any of my readers who love Rock n’ Roll should also vote too. - Z

My daughter Cara sent this in:

just saw this article - do you think there's any truth to this?https://247sports.com/nfl/new-england-patriots/Bolt/Tom-Brady-camp-felt-New-England-Patriots-could-trade-him-after-t-109787042

Cara, maybe but I don't think so. The Pats and Belichick knew they couldn't sign Garoppolo after the season. And they didn't want to pay to franchise him. So they traded him to SF for a 2nd which will be like a late 1st round pick because SF is terrible. They have to feel that Brady can go 2-3 more years. Hope they are right. Hoyer is a stopgap. They'll grab a QB in the next draft. - Dad

An email exchange with my brother, Brad:

Glad to see Houston win and Alex Cora named the BoSox manager. The Celtics have been out-rebounding other teams though OKC should be a test. The young Bruins are trying to win with some veterans out. Montreal is next to last. Wait til I see Paul.

Jim, I think Cora will be 'listened to' by the players and should make the right moves

during games.

Yes, I've been watching the Celts stats and they are indeed rebounding (my pet peeve) better as a team, and while they bettered OKC by one RB last night in that nice win, they have also been getting to the FT line more than other teams....a good sign as they are going to the hoop. Jaylen Brown has helped Horford in the RB dept. and seems to be more controlled. Shooting percentage in most of these wins has been better, too.

Brad

Sportzine is available at jimdawsonsports.com thanks to Buffalo Steve Lenz

THE HOT CLUB

The Hot Club has a drawing for patrons who buy the craft beer of the week. If you do, you get your name added to the monthly drawing. Winner gets a $50 gift card to the HC.

Some of the beers of the week: Stone’s Neapolitan Dynamite, a double Imperial stout (ABV of 8.5), Hanging Hills’ Russian Imperial stout called Kompromat (ABV of 11), and Stone’s Xocoveza, a mocha stout (ABV of 8.1). So be sure to check with your server about the ABV and try a few of these great craft brews. You might even win a gift card.

While we were discussing these craft beers, a gentleman nearby who hales from Michigan put in a pitch for his hometown brewery of Founders (Grand Rapids). The gent, whom we’ll call Bob Seger, said he loved their Breakfast Stout. I looked it up and the Double Imperial stout has an ABV of 8.3.

While talking with Captain Jack, Making his Mark and Big John, I mentioned that ever since owing a Datsun 240 Z, my cars have always been manual transmissions. Big John then said he had seen a story about a car jacking that went awry when the thief tried to steal a car with a stick shift but didn’t know how to operate it! Sure enough, the Boston Herald (Mike Pingree – 11/5) noted that a 17-year old in Birmingham, Ala. was foiled. The thief left with just the owner’s cell phone which was then used to track him down.

LAST ISSUE’S QUIZ ANSWER

Last issue’s quiz was a mix of music and sports. This Boston Red Sox fixture for many years was not a player or front office man but excelled at his job as he was with the team for 26 years. He also received a co-writing credit on a song that was a big enough hit that it was released a second time. In fact, he got half the royalties for the song and all the publishing rights. Who was this man, what job did he have and what song was involved? The only person that knew it was Bob Kumins – Sherman Feller who was the PA announcer at Fenway Park for 26 years. Sherm was the manager of Boston band The Jamies who had a chart topper twice with Summertime Summertime (#26 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1958 and #38 in 1962). The band was led by the brother-sister team of Tom (who wrote the song) and Serena Jameson. Feller took co-writing credit, half of the songwriting royalties and the publishing rights. This was a common practice by managers at the time. (Source – Wikipedia)

THIS ISSUE’S QUIZ

This bit of music trivia was sent in by reader Jim Dwyer. The question: Who are the 6 people mentioned on We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel who are still alive?