Tag: Baseball

The National Past-Time Baseball, a sport that has been forgotten by many, suddenly emerged from the shadow of football and basketball during the World Series of 2025.  No one will dispute the fact that the National League’s Los Angeles Dodgers and the American League’s Toronto Blue Jays put on a spectacle that will be long remembered.  Although I live in Southern California, amongst Dodger fans, I rooted for the Blue Jays, who at the start of the Series, were the underdogs. Their team had not appeared in a World Series since 1993. The Dodgers had spent a huge amount of money to have stars such as Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Freddy Freeman and many others.  Although Toronto paid a steep price to keep their star Vladimir Guerrero Jr., their payroll did not compare to that of the Dodgers; this made the contest a battle between David and Goliath. 

The result of the Series we all know now was hardly a blow-out victory for Los Angeles.  Rather, they won by the skin of their teeth.  In fact, when Toronto returned home to play the last two games of the Series, they were ahead 3 to 2.  I think it was good for baseball that a team with a small bank account gave the Dodgers, a team with deep pockets, a run for their money.  By the 7^th and final game of the Series, 51 million people viewed it from the U.S., Canada and Japan, an audience larger than any other since the 1992 World Series.  I am quite sure they were not disappointed in seeing a thrilling game that ended in eleven innings.

Although all the games in the Series had their moments of greatness, I will only discuss the last and perhaps greatest game of all.  Shohei Ohtani started for of the Dodgers against the veteran 41-year-old, Max Scherzer, of the Blue Jays.  At the outset, both pitchers performed well with Scherzer, especially, having little trouble getting outs in the first 3 innings.  In the bottom of the 3rd, with a runner on third base and only one out, Dodger manager, Dave Roberts had Ohtani intentionally walk Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to pitch to Bo Bichette.  Bichette, who prior to the World Series had been out of the lineup for two months due to a knee injury, hit the first pitch thrown to him well over 400 feet for a three-run homer.  Between Guerrero and Bichette, Dave Roberts had chosen the wrong poison, Bichette, to have Ohtani face.  Soon after, Ohtani was removed from his pitching duties, but not before the Blue Jays held a three-run lead (3 to 0) over the Dodgers.

With a three-run lead in the top of the 4^th, Scherzer appeared to be coasting.  But unlike the first three innings, he started having difficulty with the Dodger lineup as a combination of a walk and two hits resulted in him leaving the game.  Now, the Dodgers had bases loaded with just one out.  With Louis Varland relieving Scherzer, Kike Hernández hit a line drive that looked like it would drop in for a single bringing in 2 runs.  But suddenly, Daulton Varsho, coming from nowhere made a diving catch resulting in an out and a sacrifice fly for Hernandez making the score 3 to 1 instead of 3 to 2.

Because the game was played in Toronto, the fans were going wild as the score was 4 to 3 with the Blue Jays ahead going into the 9^th inning.  Their closer, Jeff Hoffman, came in to face the 8^th, 9^th, and 1^st batters of the Dodgers.  The 1^st batter for the Dodgers, Ohtani, no doubt would be the most difficult hitter who Hoffman needed to retire to secure the win for Toronto.  But this baseball game, like so many others, did not follow the obvious script.  Hoffman struck out Kike Hernández for an easy out.  The next batter he pitched to was Miguel Rojas, a player who had started a game only for the second time in nearly a month.  Rojas swung and missed the first pitch, a pitch so far outside that a golf club probably could not have reached it.  It looked like he was easy prey for Hoffman, a second quick out with only Ohtani to face for the final out.  But suddenly Hoffman was off the mark and, the count went to 3 balls and 2 strikes.  Everyone in Toronto knew Hoffman was not about to walk the worst batter on the Dodger team to pitch to Ohtani.  Hoffman knew it too but his next pitch was very hittable:  A hanging slider that Rojas sent sailing over the left field wall.  The score now tied, Ohtani and Smith were both retired ending the Dodger half of the inning.  Because the Dodgers evened the score at 3 to 3, Toronto had not sealed the victory.

Things got even more interesting in the bottom of the 9^th inning.  Dave Roberts brought in Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who had pitched 6 innings the previous day to get the win, to pitch in the 9^th inning with two men on base.  He hit Alejandro Kirk on the forearm in his first pitch to load the bases with only one out.  Daulton Varsho then hit a hard grounder to Rojas, who fell to the ground, but somehow, he recovered to throw Toronto’s runner from third base out at home plate by a step.  Then Ernie Clement hit a long drive to center field but Andy Pages, inserted in center field for defensive purposes, a wise move by Dave Roberts, made an outstanding catch to end the inning.

In the top of the 10^th inning, the Dodgers had bases loaded with only one out but also failed to score.  In the top of the 11^th inning, Will Smith hit a home run to put the Dodgers ahead 5 to 4.  In the bottom of the 11^th, the Blue Jays had men on first and third with only one out.  Alejandro Kirk, not known for his speed, hit into a double play that ended the game that really either team could have won.  It was a great game to win but a heart breaker to lose. 

The MVP of the Series was Yamamoto who pitched 2 and 2/3 innings after having thrown 96 pitches the previous day.  He recorded two consecutive wins and incredibly won 3 of the 4 games of the World Series for the Dodgers. 

LA had suffered the worst fires in its history last January so winning the World Series came at no better a time.  But the real winner was baseball because fans witnessed some amazing plays in an errorless game where both teams excelled in the field.  As I have said before in previous blogs, sports are perhaps the only television programs that are not scripted and totally unpredictable. Who would have guessed that the Dodger’s poorest hitter, Miguel Rojas, would hit the tying home run and then make a spectacular play at second base to keep the Dodgers alive:  Probably no one.

I had the pleasure of seeing Rafael Devers’ debut game against the Seattle Mariners in Seattle on July 26^th, 2017.  Although he went hitless that day, the next day he hit a home run, his first in the major leagues.  Devers’ confidence as a rookie, I believed, augured well for the Red Sox.  The Sox management apparently agreed with my assessment, and before Devers could wander off to another team as a free agent, they rewarded him with a 10-year contract that paid over 313 million dollars two years ago.

When I was coming of age, my father told me that I had adjusted to and handled the vagaries of life quite well.  Baseball, like life, has its own vagaries.  Unfortunately, I do not believe Rafael reacted well to those vicissitudes, so much a part of baseball.  Although most of the sportswriters took the side of Devers after the Red Sox traded him to the San Francisco Giants, I disagreed.  The sportswriters criticized the Boston team’s owners for not treating Devers wisely insofar as they had not communicated to him he would not be playing third base when they signed Alex Bregman, a third baseman, regarded as a much better fielder than Devers.  Was it necessary to tell Devers that they were pursuing a superior player at his position before the offer was made?  I, for one, do not think so.  After all, how would they know that they were going to land Bregman, a highly touted player, who had received a lot of attention from other ball clubs.

Devers balked at management’s desire to use him as a designated hitter.  He stubbornly resisted, stating his position was third base with finality, unwilling to bend to the wishes of management.   The Sox ownership based their decision to choose Bregman as the starter at third base because it was understood that he was the superior fielder.  Throughout his time with the Boston club, Devers had committed more than his share of fielding errors at third base.  Devers’ refused to accept this reality resulting in bad vibes for all the younger players that looked up to Devers for his overall skills as a more seasoned teammate.

So, the season started with Devers as the designated hitter against his will; he did not get a hit for his first 28 at bats striking out much of the time.  It was apparent to me that Rafael had become enslaved by an overactive ego.  Fortunately for the Red Sox, Devers broke out of his hitting slump and began living up to the reputation he had had as an excellent hitter.  But unfortunately, soon after, early in the season, both Devers and his team encountered a second unknown when Triston Casas, the Sox first baseman, suffered a knee injury that put him out of commission for the entire season. 

Because Boston did not have a good substitute for Casas, the management wanted Devers to replace Casas.  The owners tried to encourage Devers to take practice fielding balls at first base, a position regarded as easier to learn than other positions in the infield.  Devers again refused. On May 9^th, 2025, John Henry, the principal owner of the Sox along with president Sam Kennedy and Craig Breslow, chief baseball officer, all flew out to Kansas City where the Bosox were playing, to sit down with Devers and talk about the club needs.  The content of the meeting was not made public but, after the meeting, it was evident that Devers did not wish to comply with management’s need to fill the gap left at first base due to Casas’ knee injury.

On June 15^th, Devers was traded to the San Franciso Giants, the team that agreed to pick up the 255 million left on Devers’ contract with the Red Sox and send them four pitchers, two in the major league, and two in the minor league.  Perhaps David Ortiz, ex Red Sox Hall of Famer, put it in the most concise yet truthful manner in discussing Devers plight: “Your worst enemy is your ego.”

Recently, baseball’s vagaries once more attacked the Red Sox when their ace, Garret Crochet, pitched an excellent game, in which his team was beating the Los Angeles Angels 1 to 0 going into the 8^th inning.  In the bottom of the 8^th inning, Greg Weissert, one of Boston’s better relievers came in and allowed Christian Moore, one of the Angel’s worst hitters to hit a home run.  This resulted in Crochet not being able to obtain the win for his stellar performance.  But it does not end here.  In the bottom of the 10^th inning, with Boston ahead 2 to 1, Christian Moore hit another home run with a runner on base off Justin Wilson.  That home run ended the game with an Angel victory 3 to 2.

However, it is not like good pitchers never receive team support. When Crochet pitched again against the Cincinnati Reds, his teammates got 7 runs in the 1^st inning of the game.  Crochet’s performance, that day was not great because he gave up 4 earned runs and one unearned run in 6 innings.  But the 1^st inning lead gave Boston the cushion Crochet needed to win the game at a score of 13 to 6.  The irony here, of course, is that Crochet did not get the win against the Angels where his performance was far better than against the Reds where he was credited for the victory.  Such is the beauty of baseball:  One never knows what is going to happen next.  Rafael Devers discovered this in spring training.  As Big Papi (D. Oritz) alluded:  What’s best for the team takes priority over what’s best for the individual player.

Among those of us that are baseball fans, sadness filled the air when we heard that Willie Mays had died. Although my allegiance went first to the Red Sox, it was because of Willie Mays that the baseball team I liked second best became the New York Giants. Each year my Aunt Ruth, who lived in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, would invite me to see Willie and the New York Giants play at the Polo Grounds.  Seeing him play baseball for the New York Giants had been one of the greater joys of my childhood.  He made some of the most difficult plays look easy.  To become a major league ball player is no easy task but it is nothing less than extraordinary to exceed in all aspects of the game.  And Mays could do it all from hitting to fielding, along with his speed, always a threat to steal a base.

I can still remember his famous basket catches along with his running the bases and seeing his cap fly off his upon his sliding into second or third base.  The way he relished the game made it that more special when he performed, with such great agility, on the baseball diamond.  And indeed, I had the excitement of seeing Willie make that most famous of all catches in the World Series against the Cleveland Indians (now called the Guardians) in 1954. That was the year that Cleveland had 111 wins losing only 43 games with a winning percentage of .721.  This record, set before the baseball season was lengthened to 162 games, remains the American League’s all-time winning percentage record.  That season the Indians easily had won the American League pennant by eight games.  Going into the World Series, the Indians had been the clear favorites to beat the New York Giants, the opposing team.

To this day, I remember it well as if it had been etched in my mind.  The game took place at the Polo Grounds.  It was the opening game of the Series on the afternoon of September 25^th.  With the score tied at 2-2 in the 8^th inning, Leo Durocher, then the manager of the Giants, replaced Sal Maglie, with the left-handed pitcher Don Liddle, to face the lefty-batting Vic Wertz.  There were men on first and second base and no out as Liddle got set to deliver the first pitch to the power hitting Wertz.  Wertz drove that first pitch to the right of dead center field.  At the sound of the crack of the baseball, the camera caught Mays dashing back with his back to home plate.  As he ran for the ball, somehow, I was confident that he would make the catch as long as it had not been hit out of the park.  Some 425 to 450 feet from the plate Mays caught the ball over his left shoulder.    

That catch has been said to have been the greatest catch in baseball.  But the heroics did not end there.  After catching the ball, Mays turned and whirled firing to second base keeping the Cleveland runner on first base.  I strongly believe that that one play sealed the fate of the Indians as the Giants went on to win the Series:  4-0.  After all what chance did they have against the Giants when they were playing against a player with superhuman skills.

After the Giants moved to San Francisco from New York, the games were no longer televised on the East Coast so I stopped following the Giants and devoted my baseball enthusiasm to the Red Sox.  But I really miss the artistry of Willie Mays catching a ball, running the bases and hitting a home run.  And what luck it was to actually see on T.V. that most unbelievable catch Mays made against the Indians in the Series of 1954.

Years ago, I was on a subway in New York City enroute to a Yankee-Red Sox game with my friend Sanford Lewis when I began a conversation with a Yankee fan much younger than myself.  Because of the frequency of players trading teams, I told him it was difficult to keep track of which ones were on what team. I mentioned everyone knew what team the greats from the past played for such as Ted Williams, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle.  He agreed with me stating that we no longer root for the players but for a uniform.  What he meant was players no longer had a loyalty to the club they first played for if they could sign a more lucrative monetary contract with another team. 

The late Tim Wakefield, Red Sox hurler, to his credit, honored on opening day at Fenway Park in Boston, did not follow this pattern of switching teams.  Tim did not start his career with the Sox but rather with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  In the early ’90s he struggled, but was demoted to the minors, and finally released in 1995.  Subsequently, he signed on with the Red Sox, developed a knuckleball, and soon after, found himself once more in the major league with Boston.  During his time in Boston, he fell in love with the city where he met his wife, Stacy, and with her, had two children, Trevor and Brianna.  He became very much involved in charitable work, helping out the Jimmy Fund, the monies of which went to the pediatric care of cancer patients. 

Regarding Tim’s pitching career with the Red Sox, he played on two World Series winners in his 17 seasons at Boston.  There he resurrected his career in performing quite admirably throwing his choice pitch, the knuckleball.  During the unforgettable playoff series with the Yankees in 2004, when the Red Sox, in a legendary effort, overcame a 3-game deficit, Wakefield showed himself to be the ultimate team player: He sacrificed his turn to start in the 4^th game, by telling Terry Francona, Boston manager, to put him in as a reliever in the 3^rd game, saving the bullpen.  The game was a Yankee rout, 19-8, of which Wakefield and the rest of the Sox pitching squad got blasted.  However, this move was essential in the Sox conquest of the Yankees insofar as Games 4 and 5 each required extra innings that necessitated prolonged use of the Red Sox bullpen.  The Red Sox triumphed in those games, along with the 6^th and 7^th games, to make a comeback, considered to be one of the greatest of all time, and win the series from the Yankees 4 to 3. 

After having been pummeled by the Yankee batters in the 3^rd game, in the 5^th game,Wakefield’s knuckleball totally baffled the Yankee hitters.  As the last Boston reliever in the game, he pitched three scoreless innings, to receive the win after 14 innings, 5 to 4.  The winning run came on a single by David Ortiz after the game had lasted close to 6 hours.  That Wakefield could come back and make such a huge effort in the win showed his grit and determination.

In the following year, Tim was already 38 years old and in the final season of a 13-million-dollar contract he had signed.  Although he did not wish to retire, he did not want to leave Boston, where as earlier mentioned, he was involved with much of the charity work he oversaw.  Because the reserve clause that kept players on the same team had been superseded by player free agency, Wakefield could have left the Red Sox to receive a better offer from another team.  However, because of his love of Boston and the Red Sox organization, he and his agent, Barry Meister, agreed to a one-year guarantee, below his market value, if he were to be picked up by another club.  This contract had the option of renewing each year paying Wakefield the same amount.  Meanwhile, Wakefield’s pitching continued to shine in the subsequent years so it turned out to be a great deal for the Red Sox, who named the agreement a perpetual option.

Tim retired at the ripe “young age” of 45 in 2012.  His loyalty to the Sox, a decision never made by other players, kept him with them, allowing fans to root not only for a “uniform” but also a player they cared about.

It was fitting that in the Sox home opener, celebrating Tim, the ceremonial pitch before the game started was thrown by Brianna, Tim’s daughter, to the ex-Red Sox catcher, Jason Varitek.  Because Wakefield’s knuckleball could be hard to catch, Doug Mirabelli, who had a special glove, was the regular catcher, during the season, when Tim pitched.  However, in the playoff series against the Yankees in 2004, Terry Francona, then the Boston manager, needed Varitek in the lineup.  He was a much better hitter than Mirabelli and, fortunately for the Sox, was able to catch Wakefield’s unpredictable knuckleball in that 5^th game. This allowed the Sox to return to Yankee Stadium and to win the last two games in that amazing series.

Unless the arbiters of baseball make some changes in how the game is played, we are in danger of seeing that sport becoming a relic of the past.  As a child, I was in awe of the players, and the game sparked my enthusiasm much of which I have maintained in my adult life.  But in the last few years, and especially this year, the pitchers appear to be winning the duel between them and the batters.  Batting averages have plummeted well below .250, an average less than one hit in four at bats.  The New York Yankees, also know as the Bronx Bombers, are bombing out more than they are hitting home runs.  As a team, their current strike out or fan rate is 25.3 percent, slightly higher than the major league average of 24.1 percent.

Perhaps the greatest thrill of baseball is the sound of the bat making contact with the baseball.  Even if the ball results in an out, the crack of the bat, putting the fielders in motion when they sometimes make great plays, is exciting.  In my day as a childhood fan, every once in a while, you would see pitcher duels between two great hurlers.  Because you were seeing a rivalry between the best pitchers in the game, as a fan you knew you were witnessing something special.  These games offered their own brand of excitement even if the players on both sides struck out.  Now, because the ratio of strike outs is so high, it doesn’t seem to matter who is pitching.  Because of the high frequency of strike outs, I would maintain much of the thrill of the game is lost.

So, what can be done about this problem?  When we were kids, we discovered what a spitball was, the adding of saliva or a moist substance to make the ball move in an unpredictable manner. The rumor mill has it that pitchers may very well be using some substance, such as tar or rosin, that causes the ball to spin more or move erratically making it more difficult to hit.  Recently, in a Zoom conference with reporters, Gerrit Cole, Yankee ace pitcher, was asked if he used Spider Tack, a sticky paste that can greatly increase the spin on pitches.  He sidestepped answering the question when he said: “I don’t know quite how to answer that, to be honest.”  One would have expected him to simply reply “no” if he didn’t use it. His response, however, left the reporters doubtful of his innocence in this area. 

The problem is not that the practice of pitchers doctoring the ball to increase its spin rate is forbidden, which it is in baseball.  Rather the use of such substances has been widespread and accepted by the teams.  However, if the use of Spider Track or other substances is causing the increase in strike outs, then Major League Baseball (M.L.B.) need attend to the matter ASAP.  Umpires need to check all the equipment a pitcher brings to a game such as his glove, cap and uniform–resulting in a steep fine and/or suspension for a specified time–if that pitcher is in violation of the rules.  If the enforcement of this policy results in fewer strike outs, then it is clear that we have found a solution to the issue at hand. 

If the strict enforcement of the above rule does not significantly alter the strike out rate, then baseball need look elsewhere.  Here I can offer one of two options or both: 1) Move the pitcher’s mound further from home plate (i.e., from where the batter stands) and/or 2) Make a narrower strike zone by decreasing the size of home plate.  I’m sure either of these suggestions would be hotly debated, especially by current pitchers, but they, like the rest of us, need to understand that the greater balance between pitcher and batter makes a far superior entertainment than when the pitcher invariably wins the battle. 

To conclude, pitchers are currently overwhelming batters making baseball less exciting than in the past.  I think the best resolution for all involved would be to strictly limit any doctoring of baseballs by pitchers with the hope that the strike out rate decreases.  Regardless, one of the most important elements in baseball is when fans hear the sound of a bat whacking a baseball resulting in either a great play by a fielder or a hit.  I am sure baseball enthusiasts will be delighted when M.L.B. finds a way to make the hitter’s role more productive than it is presently.