Category Archives: Baseball

Side Trip: Detroit Tigers in the Playoffs

Baseball

A little diversion today.

Taking a little side trip.

Feel free to come along. Jump in the back, remember to fasten your seat belt.

May not be as fun a diversion as, oh, stopping at the Weekie Watchie Alligator Farm. Or a spinoff to Buc-ees for a brisket on bun, one of those killer iced cinnamon buns, and a logo mini surboard for the grandkid.

But I’m looking forward to it.

Venturing into the world of post-season baseball. Because (for context) . . .

. . . my maternal grandfather owned a fruit/ vegetable stand outside the clubhouse entrance at Navin Field l/k/a Briggs Stadium l/k/a Tiger Stadium. The home of my faves, the Detroit Tigers. He knew a lot of the stars that came through.

My dad loved baseball.

Among the moments I cherish most from my youth are playing pitch and catch with him after dinner in the yard of our apartment building. I still drive by there, and many times just stop and soak in the memories.

Such was his affection, when they started a little league (small caps, was never Williamsport “official”) at the JCC, dad became Commissioner. Which some of my long time pals continued to call him until he passed away.

My first MLB game was at Briggs Stadium for the home opener of the 1956 season, the year after Al Kaline became the youngest winner of an AL batting crown. My Aunt Martha took my cousin Eddie and me. On a gloriously gray and drippy and chilly April afternoon, we sat in deep center field seats. Continue reading Side Trip: Detroit Tigers in the Playoffs →

Say Hey & Farewell

Baseball

That there was a time when any endeavor would be universally regarded as the National Pastime seems quaint in retrospect.

So it was in the early 50s with baseball.

Johnny U hadn’t transformed pro football yet. The NFL still had local telecasts.

College pigskin was also regional. Two platoons. T formations. Five bowl games.

The NBA style was stiff and slow with teams in Fort Wayne and Syracuse. Before Bill Russell and the Joneses that is.

Kentucky, Indiana, Philly and maybe North Carolina were the only places where fans really cared about college hoops.

Hockey as today was but a niche.

But baseball . . . Continue reading Say Hey & Farewell →

Back to the Jim

Baseball

Saturday dawned like the first true day of printemps.

(I know, too precious. But there are times when invocation of French is simply called for, the language is so resonant and lyrical. I gotta work the word for grapefruit in sometime soon.)

My immediate thought when seeing the sun glowing through my window: It’s time to get back to the ballyard.

I am a child of Willie, Mickey and the Duke. (As NY-centric as that may be. I mean, I recall asking my baseball-loving dad what the deal was when the Giants and Indians were in the ’54 Series. Still very young I thought it was just the Dodgers and Yankees every year.)

There were actual toys in boxes of Cracker Jack.

Baseball’s were the sounds of my youth.

The crack of ball against ash. The thwack of horsehide into leather.

The lingo. Continue reading Back to the Jim →

U of L is a . . . What Kind o’ School?

Baseball, College Sports, Football,

As I hear tell, the University of Louisville is now a Football School.

Given how wobbly the other major men’s sport has have been lately, it could be, it might be true.

Unless, of course, it’s a Volleyball school.

Or, with good reason, arguably a Swimming school.

But, for our purposes here, I’ll buy in. Despite my deep seated belief that hoops, once the ship is righted, will be top o’ the pyramid regardless.

We all expected an uptick when legacy Jeff Brohm returned to where he once belonged. The fanbase has been apoplectic.

So too, local scribes with a propensity toward pigskin.

Like Card Chronicle’s ConorShea, who has applied his seriously complex, perhaps telling and most difficult to understand CUCFWTT. (Conor’s Ultimate Cardinal Football Win Trend Tracker.) According to which unwieldy analytical logistics the Cards are trending upward winwise. Like, if  they were a stock, they would be dubbed a buy.

Truth be told, it’s not just locals who are high on the Cards. Continue reading U of L is a . . . What Kind o’ School? →

A Sports Guy’s Nirvana: Whatta Weekend

Baseball, College Sports, Football, Soccer

There are a couple of reasons why I’ve graced this article with a photo of the cover of Charley Pierce’s magnificent collection of essays.

Not the least of which is that they are adroitly perceived and exquisitely rendered.

Writing on any subject matter doesn’t get much better. Check it out.

But also, if like some around here, you have little other life and nourish yourself with athletic contests, meaning you’re a Sports Guy (gender neutral), it was a veritable smorgasbord of a weekend.

With the peripheral benefit for some, that they could watch without their favorite teams competing, thus eliminating the angst factor.

Like Buckeye fans. Like Cardinal fans. Like Lions fans.

 * * * * *

It all started, in these environs anyway, with a Friday night sighting of an octopus on the ice.

Some readers may get the reference, even if they could care less. Continue reading A Sports Guy’s Nirvana: Whatta Weekend →

Mt. Rushmore of Louisville Sports

Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Football

In the wake of Bill Russell’s passing, my current favorite sportswriter Joe Posnanski riffed in a blog about who would be on a Mt. Rushmore of American Sports? He also considered one for the city of Boston.

Russell he observed was a given for both.

Like Top 10/100/Whatever lists, such an endeavor by default always generates disagreements.

It’s why we do them, right? We all need something to disagree on, or so I’d observe.

So, as it happens I’ll steal another’s idea. Because Joe’s conjecture got me to thinking what Louisville sports figure’s faces would be carved on such an elevation? (I guess you could do one for U of L too , but that only came to mind right now as I compose.)

So here goes nothing. Well, something actually. If just to pass the time until the fall sports season kicks off.

I’m so very sure you shall free to disagree with one or some of my selections.

For me, three are No Brainers. Continue reading Mt. Rushmore of Louisville Sports →

Russell & Scully: Two Icons Gone

Announcing, Baseball, Basketball,
Boston Celtics Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson in action. (Photo by Sporting News via Getty Images/Sporting News via Getty Images via Getty Images)

Rare is the occasion when you can consider a person, and can say beyond peradventure, “They are the best ever at what they do.”

We lost two this week.

Bill Russell, the greatest winner in American sports. Not only basketball.

Vin Scully, the greatest broadcaster in American sports. Not only baseball.

 * * * * *

I have a vague memory that I might have seen Bill Russell play in person once.

At some point in the early to mid 60s, if memory serves, there was a preseason NBA doubleheader at Freedom Hall. One of the games featured Philly — either the Warriors or 76ers — because I remember walking up and standing next to Wilt Chamberlain, who was the biggest human being I’d ever seen

Though my memory is shoddy, I believe the Celtics played the other game. Continue reading Russell & Scully: Two Icons Gone →

Card Nine’s Season Ends in a Grinder

Baseball,

Of the nuances of another game we love, Larry Bird once observed — and I paraphrase — a free throw made or missed in the 1st quarter is just as important as one in the final seconds.

This thinking applies in college baseball, both micro in a specific game being contested, but also macro if somewhat differently over the course of the long season.

In ultra-steamy College Station, Texas, U of L’s Cardinals dropped two one-run Super Regional affairs, grinders in balance until the final AB. To a similarly talented ball club, blessed to be sleeping in their own beds.

Playing in familiar confines, before a rabid Aggie crowd with that institutional 12th Man attitude, as loud and quirky and inclined to try to get under foe’s skin as any in the land.

Given how the collegiate post-season is structured, what happens in March and April and May informs the scenario come tournament time.

I can’t help but wonder what if . . . Continue reading Card Nine’s Season Ends in a Grinder →

Regional Roundup: Cards Balk Way to Supers

Baseball, College Sports,

Monday. Inclemency imminent.

Loser packs spikes for season. Winner to College Station for Super Texas Death Match.

High Noon. Do not forsake me, oh my darlin’.

PRP fave son Garrett Schmeltz surrenders two to Wolverines in top of 1st.

Looking to capture third straight in Astro stripes, U of L Cardinals blast back in their half.

Knapczyk single. Metzinger walk. Two go down. Usher doubles to right. Two score. Masterman drives him home. Humphrey HBP. Beard single scores another. Bianco HBP. Sacks full. Knapczyk bunt RBI. Metzinger walks again, run scores. Rushing reaches on error, Bianco tallies.

And, just like that, Cards up 7-2.

The fun had just begun. Continue reading Regional Roundup: Cards Balk Way to Supers →

Monday Musing: The Tourney Draw & Griff’s Shot

Baseball, Basketball,

Idling at entrance of the Cul de Sac, the Cardinal Nine hit reverse in the ACC tourney, driving themselves out of a possible coveted Top #8 seed in the NCAA tourney.

So, a #12 it is.

It could be worse. There’s a regional on the home diamond at the Jim.

Last year the Cards were in line at the Dairy Kastle, when they ran out of soft serve at closing time. While 64 schools advanced to the playdown.

Despite the double meltdown last week at Truist Park, this campaign isn’t over, U of L lives for another day.

While the Cards might have hoped for more clutch knocks last week, it would appear they’re only going to advance as far as the guys taking the mound carry them.

Last week’s hurling performances fell short of engendering hope.

Their ace and closer gave up the tying and winning runs in the opener against Pitt. And umpteen hurlers failed to derail the Ramblin’ Wreck, who loaded the bases in four different innings, and scored a lot of runs.

But, as we wags are wont to offer, everybody’s equal at the moment.

A part of me wants to point out that U of L fans should also be pulling for TCU, Louisiana and Oral Roberts. Those are the three schools journeying to College Station to join #5 seed regional host Texas A&M. The winner of the foursome here plays the survivor of that one in a Super, at the home of the higher seeded school.

You do the math.

Then again, I must admonish myself as I so very often admonish others.

It’s the post season. You only play whom you play. Continue reading Monday Musing: The Tourney Draw & Griff’s Shot →