Baseball

[Shirley]

Full disclosure: I want every series in every sport to last all, in this case, 7 games, no matter who is playing.

I grew up a Yankees fan, but George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin cured me of that.

I only ever saw one game at Metropolitan Stadium in KC, the Athletics vs. the Yankees, August 26, 1961. I was so young I barely remember it, but we drove up from Wichita. There was lots of excitement because it was getting late in the season and Mickey Mantle was chasing Roger Maris to be the American League home run leader. Maris hit his 51st home run of the season that day, (I remember being disappointed because I was a huge Mickey Mantel fan.), on his way to breaking Babe Ruth's record with 61 homers that season.

I guess if I was only going to ever see one game at Metro, that wasn't a bad one to see. My dad bought me a blue Yankees batting helmet that I had and wore for years afterward. (Wish I still had it...)

One of my most vivid memories of the trip is driving thru KC on the way to the stadium. Of course, it was a hot summer evening, and there were hundreds of times more Black people than I had ever seen before hanging out on the front stoops of their "brownstones", for what seemed like miles, as we drove by. Of course, back then, Blacks knew their place, so I don't recall feeling intimidated, at all...

[KUTradition]

defense wins (or in this case loses, oof) championships

as one who has muffed a consequential fly ball myself, i kinda felt bad for Judge…for only a few seconds, because, fuck the yankees

[pdub]

Here's Soto immediately after the loss:

“I don’t know what’s the teams that are going to come after me... I don’t have any doors closed. I’m gonna be available for all 30 teams.”

Yea. Fuck that.

[jfish26]

Royals fans should be very encouraged by the message in the 3/$51mm Wacha extension - the other two choices (let him walk for nothing, or make a "qualifying offer" of 1/$21mm and get a ~40th pick when he signs elsewhere) would have been cheaper for ownership.

I, personally, would have gone the QO route anyway. But I'm not mad about this at all, except that I'm probably a 90th percentile Singer fan, and this portends a Singer-for-a-bat deal.