El Zen Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 The Brewers advance to the NLCS. Nyjer Morgan with the walk-off hit in the bottom of the 10th. Go Crew! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted October 8, 2011 VT Supporter Share Posted October 8, 2011 ^^Great anecdote On a side note, Connie Mack managed the Athletics for fifty (yes fifty) years. And was from my longtime neck of the woods... The two gentlemen featured in the painting are probably the two most famous personages associated with my hometown: George M. "Give My Regards to Broadway" Cohan and Connie Mack... the ballfield behind Mack is a couple of blocks from the house I grew up in and has had regular organized baseball played there going back to the 1850s: it may be the oldest ballfield with that distinction. In the 1930s, the Philadelphia A's played an exhibition game against the rubber shop's team there: the rubber shop won! Semi-related note: I've played baseball on the same field on which the Red Sox and Yankees played an exhibition game in 1946... which means that I've taken pitches from the same batter's box that Teddy Ballgame stood in nearly 50 years before. The 1946 Red Sox outpaced the Yankees all season before clinching the pennant on September 13. Their exploits have been well-chronicled except for the story of a game where Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams had to be warned not to use their shotguns on the opposing pitchers. On September 26, a crowd of 12,000 filled the stands at Soldiers Field in East Douglas, Massachusetts to watch the Yankees play the Red Sox. The exhibition game was part of the festivities for the town’s 200th anniversary, and was a gift from the Hayward-Schuster company, a major textile manufacturer in the Blackstone Valley. Known as the cradle of the American Industrial Revolution, the Blackstone Valley stretches from Worcester, Massachusetts to Pawtucket, Rhode Island. From the 1920s to the 1950s, it was a hotbed of semi-pro baseball. Companies such as Hayward-Schuster made significant investments in their teams and playing facilities, recognizing that baseball promoted company loyalty and worker morale while providing wholesome entertainment for the entire town. Their managers recruited talent not only from the local area, but from leading New England colleges and Southern factories. Recruits were given jobs that allowed plenty of time for practice. Hall of Fame first baseman Hank Greenberg and Red Sox pitcher Wes Ferrell were among those who began their careers in East Douglas. When Greenberg hit a home run in his first at-bat after riding the bench, Walter Schuster paid him $175. on the spot to ensure the continuation of his services; the amount was equivalent to two months’ wages for a working man of the era. In 1927, Schuster hired future Boston pitcher and Hall of Famer Lefty Grove to pitch a championship game, paying him $300. plus $10 per strikeout. Birdie Tebbets, the Red Sox catcher, played for East Douglas at the end of each college season in the early 1930’s; in a single week he caught Grove and another Hall of Famer, Carl Hubbell. The color barrier fell in East Douglas a generation before it did in Boston or New York. In 1929, Schuster hired ‘Cannonball’ Bill Jackman of the Philadelphia Giants to pitch in the Blackstone Valley championship game, paying him $175 plus $10 per strikeout. Said by observers to be faster than Bob Feller, Jackman won the game, striking out 14. The Yankees won the East Douglas game, 8-7. DiMaggio and Williams supplied the highlight with a local newspaper reporting: “The terrific thumper of the Boston Red Sox, Teddy Williams, failed to get a hit yesterday afternoon…but it took a glittering gloved hand stab by Joe DiMaggio to prevent “The Kid” from getting a home run in the third inning.” A new element was introduced into the traditional Yankees-Red Sox rivalry during the pre-game ceremony when players were showered with presents, including camel hair coats and automatic shotguns. Master of ceremonies Joe Cashman admonished them: “Don’t use these guns on opposing pitchers.” The town observed its 250th anniversary in 1996 with a re-enactment of the 1946 game that featured area notables including former Sox catcher Rich Gedman. Journalist Thomas Mattson reported that fifteen of the original players were also on hand including Dom DiMaggio (Joe’s brother and an All-Star in his own right), Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky, and Dave Ferris from the Red Sox, and Clarence Marshall, Al Gettel, and Bobby Brown from the Yankees. Marshall, the former pitcher, shook DiMaggio’s hand and said: “Dom always hit me real good.” Responding to a question about the rivalry between the two teams, he continued: “We liked the Red Sox. We just liked to beat them.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 1903 in the life of erratic pitcher Rube Waddell, cataloged by Cooperstown historian Lee Allen: “He began that year sleeping in a firehouse in Camden, New Jersey, and ended it tending bar in a saloon in Wheeling, West Virginia. In between those events he won 22 games for the Philadelphia Athletics, played left end for the Business Men’s Rugby Football Club of Grand Rapids, Michigan, toured the nation in a melodrama called The Stain of Guilt, courted, married and became separated from May Wynne Skinner of Lynn, Massachusetts, saved a woman from drowning, accidentally shot a friend through the hand, and was bitten by a lion.” And that was just 1903. In one game against the Athletics, Waddell was at bat in the eighth inning with two out and a tying run on second. The catcher threw to second, trying to pick off the runner, but overthrew, and the ball went into the outfield. The runner took off for home. As he rounded third, the center fielder hurled the ball in to home plate … … and Waddell, to everyone’s horror, knocked it out of the park. He was declared out for interference. “They’d been feeding me curves all afternoon,” he told a flabbergasted Connie Mack, “and this was the first straight ball I’d looked at!” Futility Closet Haha, never heard of this guy, that's good stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 All Midwest NLCS. Gotta give the Brewers the edge. But Carpenter pitched the game of his life tonight. Great game, that Furcal play at short was incredible. Who says 1-0 games are boring? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 **** YEAH! Philadelphia teams can't even buy Championships. What's that now, 1 in the last 20-odd years between them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Zen Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 I know I'm not in a position to say anything, but hahahaha Phillies And yeah, what a game by Carpenter! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted October 8, 2011 Share Posted October 8, 2011 What makes it better is that the Phillies stopped trying for the last few weeks of the regular season, only to go all out to play spoiler when they played the Braves hoping to ruin a divisional rivals playoff chances. It worked and the Cards made it in at the Braves expense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 For the history buffs- (Old photos of in Boston) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Well, well...that was easily one of the greatest WS games ever played. Texas one strike away from winning it all in consecutive innings...up by 2 runs in both of them....and St. Louis pulls it out.... Incredible game, one for the ages! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juanpabloangel18 Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Looking forward to game 7 tonight! (tho gutted to have missed last night) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Zen Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 I am gutted too that I missed last night's drama. Watching game seven now though, and it looks like could be a close one again tonight. Cards currently leading 3-2, bottom of the fifth (one out). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Zen Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Oh jeezes christ. Yadier Molina earns a bases loaded RBI walk and Texas call on CJ Wilson from the bullpen. What does the poor sod do? He plunks Furcal with his first **** pitch to make it 5-2! Hahaha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NibblyPig Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Top of ninth. TX need four plus runs to stay alive. I think a St Louis world series victory is on the cards... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 And so it is. Epic Game 6, one to be remembered for a very long time indeed. Teams that win like that in a game 6, almost always go on to finish it off. Credit to St. Louis, they were in the hinterlands in August, totally written off. Squeaked in on the last day, beat two monster clubs to get to the WS, went down to their last strike twice last night, but pulled it out. As for Texas....being a Red Sox fan, I know all about what they're dealing with. That was a spectacular choke job. But f*ck 'em, Texas can kiss my Boston ass! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parisvilla Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 Great news to wake up to; 3 Dodgers win gold gloves for the first time in franchise history and Frank McCourt agrees to sell the team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Wilson Ramos was kidnapped in Venezuela yesterday.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Papelbon to Philly.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Zen Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Wow. I honestly didn't see that one coming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Ramos rescued in a flurry of gunfire....Venezuela is not a good place to be wealthy and famous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Zen Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 I don't want Jesus Montero to go back home for his holidays, that's for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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