Good news: The Baseball Writers Association of America decide to remove the evil K.Landis name from their MVP awards. Good riddance. Hopefully the HOF will follow suit.
ETA:
MVPs Barry Larkin, Mike Schmidt and Terry Pendleton told the AP in June that they are in favor of removing Landis’ name from the award.
More channeling 1984. That was the same summer Ghostbusters was a huge hit. So of course there was a parody “Cubs Busters” song (which was pretty good for it’s genre), and about 79% of the city was wearing various versions of “Cubs Busters” TV shirts… some more approved than others (above). Mine succumbed to the washing machine “shrinking” all my clothes, even unwashed, over the following years.
He also liked hitting. He was the only .300 hitter on the NL champ 1968 Card’s. After he retired, he refused to do old-timers games unless he got to hit.
ETA: He pitched so good in 1968 that they changed the rules.
My mom was a White Sox fan growing up (I think - she grew up on the north side, but I don’t remember her talking about the Cubs), but she went to Washington University and became a huge Bob Gibson fan. Gale Sayers was also her favorite football player. Not a great week for my mom’s sports heroes.
And man, the Cards losing Gibson and Brock. So sad.
All-Star Sabo-Metrics recognizes the Minnesota Twins as 2020 Central Pennant winners !!!1!
Twins Franchise Pennants (* won WS): 1924*, 1925, 1933 (AL as Washington); 1965, 1987*, 1991* (AL); 2020 (Central).
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Background: With the advent of inter-league play in 1997, All-Star Sabo-Metrics discontinued the recognition of AL, NL Pennant winners. Instead, the World Series champ has been considered the winner of a MLB unified pennant. However, the regionally segregated schedule used in 2020 has reinstated the concept of pennants. Therefore, All-Star Sabo-Metrics will recognize Western, Central, Eastern Pennant winners for 2020.
1924 Washington Senators
Analysis: With the collapse of the central teams in the playoffs (the seven teams were 0-7 in series, and 2-14 in games), the divisional distinction becomes moot. The Twins had the best regular season record (36-24 .600) and the best combined record (36-26 .581) of the 10 central teams.
Just when you think something is new in baseball… is just when you should be checking out the record books. There will be seven postseason series this season at a single site… there have been three World Series where the teams shared stadiums (above).
There will be 24-41 neutral site postseason games this season… there were 10 neutral site World Series games in the 1910s. Also 3/4 of the quarter-final matchups have met at neutral sites previously (below).
Year
Bat 1st
Bat 2nd
Neutral Site
1914 WS
A’s (0-2)
Braves
Fenway Park
1915 WS
Phillies (0-2)
Red Sox
Nickerson Field
1916 WS
Dodgers (0-3)
Red Sox
Nickerson Field
1918 WS
Red Sox (2-1)
Cubs
Comiskey Park
2004
Yankees (1-1)
Rays
Tokyo Dome
2016
Marlins (1-0)
Braves
Fort Bragg Field
2018
Dodgers (1-2)
Padres
EdeB Monterrey
The 1914 “Miracle” Braves were between stadiums. The Red Sox and Cubs moved their games to higher capacity stadiums. Braves Field is now Boston U’s Nickerson Field. This gives rise to the Official Best Trivia Question Ever™: Where did Babe Ruth get his first World Series hit? FYI: All time records, and records at the neutral sites, are below…
WS
Franchise
vs Opponate
2020
@ Venue
Sabo*
2020
27
Yankees
231-167
2-4
1-0
Rays
8-2
5-1
1-0
1
Astros
149-224 (2-5)
1-2
9
A’s
75-74
7-3
23-35^ (1-3)
1-1
Padres
2-0
2-0
6
Dodgers
483-403-1
6-4
2-1
2-1
2
Marlins
19-24
3
Braves
277-191 (2-4)
6-4
18-29 (3-3)
Includes postseason in (parens). ^ Includes 15-21 vs Angels 1962-1965. * At Petco, Sabo the dog saw the hated Yankees win 6-3 on 2016-7-3, and the Rays win 7-5 on 2019-8-13.
Didn’t you have any beaches or canyons to explore, or Calvin Ball to play with the kids in the neighborhood, or enjoy just spending time with your friends, or by yourself, without the adults organizing everything and telling you what to do?
I always kept the “school time sink” at the absolute legal minimum, and worked at taking it below that level whenever I could get away with it.
