Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Heroes

The World Series is about to begin. The October Classic would not be complete without a tribute to the sweet-natured patron saint of baseball, pictured above. Like my other pictures lately, he needs no introduction. Help me pay homage to this great man.

In other sports news, in about 24 hours, give or take a few minutes, the Yankees will again become the American League's representative to the World Series. They will play some team from the National League. This will make their 11,006th appearance in the World Series.

On this day in baseball history, October 21, 1975, a catcher by the name of Carlton "Pudge" Fisk homers in the 12th inning to hand Cincinnati a 7-6 loss and force a 7th game in the World Series. Although the Sox went on to lose the next game and the Big Red Machine would finally prevail, the 1975 series will go down as one of the most exciting. In fact, ESPN ranked it as the second greatest series of all time.

Johnny Bench
Dave Conception
George Foster
Cesar Geronimo
Ken Griffey
Joe Morgan
Tony Perez
Pete Rose
(Don Gullet)
::Sparky Anderson::

Rick Burleson
Cecil Cooper
Denny Doyle
Dwight Evans
Carlton Fisk
Fred Lynn
Rico Petrocelli
Carl Yastrzemski
(Bill Lee)
::Darrell Johnson::

11 comments:

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

Clarity required here. They haven't won since 1975? In 11,006 appearances?

Redbeard76 said...

Aww, Max you done me proud, you wrote a baseball post, even including the Red Sox - I wish I was alive in '75 to have seen that series, even if they fell in 7 games...

And what a cute cuddly photo of ol' Georgie himself, don't you just want to take him home and snuggle up to that... (sarcasm, of course!)

Clarity for Sheila: nothing was mentioned about not winning since 1975 - Steinbrenner's Yankees last won the Series in 2000, losing in their 2001 and 2003 appearances.

Stephanie Barr said...

I not only have no idea who this is, I feel safe in saying you could have paraded ANY baseball god and I would have been as clueless.

Redbeard76 said...

The Yankees are like the Manchester United of baseball, in other words. Obnoxious fair weather fans, having an astronomical payroll, etc.

soubriquet said...

World?

The world series?

Oh. Yes. Baseball. Something americans do, I think.

Redbeard76 said...

Yes, I know. Fancy rounders. There is one Canadian team in the league (there used to be 2), so it's international, but barely. But there are players from several countries who come to play here: Japan, Korea, China, Venezuela, Cuba, Dominican Republic.

Not quite like the World Cup, I realise. But it is called that since the 1880s because "The series were promoted and referred to as the "The Championship of the United States",[4][5] "World's Championship Series", or "World's Series" for short. As baseball outside of North America was not equal to that of North America at the time, the winners of the championships were by default the best baseball team in the world." (per Wikipedia)

A. said...

Oh BASEBALL. I see. It's like a foreign language. I thought it must be marbles... or conkers...

soubriquet said...

Well done, Redbeard, good explanation.

And I quite agree that you might as well call it the world series, I mean, if we brits would just damn well learn it, we could enter too, couldn't we, and Lithuania, and Moldova too.

I was reading a book recently set around cricket in New York.... Apparently there are several cricket clubs active there.
I never got to the end of the book though, it was so gripping that I kept falling asleep.

Relax Max said...

@Sheila - who hasn't won since 1975?

3 paragraphs, 3 different thoughts. Sorry. I will slow down. :)

@Redbeard76 - It was a good series, for sure.

Relax Max said...

@Stephanie B - Soooo... you're saying no more baseball posts? But the WS is upon us!

@Redbeard76 - Ah, yes. The Mancoonian Molesters. I wonder if their payroll really approaches George's?

@Soubriquet - Is that really you? Torn yourself away from the mud and wheel to talk baseball? Could it be?

Evidence of life...

@Redbeard76 - Fancy Rounders? Realise?

Wanker.

All I know is Detroit got exactly what they deserve. ::choke:: ::choke::

@A. - I forgot what conkers are. I have lasted more than a year without remembering.

Stephanie Barr said...

I wouldn't presume to dictate your topics, Relax Max. Just noting that this is a subject I cannot contribute meaningfully to.

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