Justin Barrasso, a previous MillersTime baseball contest winner, models the ‘highly prized’ T-shirt awarded to all winners. This ‘invaluable’ T-shirt has been slightly updated.
Well now that the 2019 baseball season has come to a (wonderful) conclusion, it’s time to announce the various winners of the MillersTime Baseball Contests for this year.
Contest #1:
Name the two teams who will play in the 2019 World Series, which team will it all, and if a tie-breaker is necessary, what is the total number of games it will take to win it all this year?
The clear winner is Joe Higdon who predicted the Washington Nationals would defeat the Houston Astros.
The runner-up was Jeff Friedman, a past winner, who predicted the Astros would beat the Nats.
They both said the series would go six games. Fortunately, for all, it took seven, but the tie-breaker was not necessary as far as determining the winner of this contest..
Joe wins one ticket to the 2020 World Series, which hopefully will be in Boston or Washington. Or in both places!
Jeff (and guest) can join me in DC for a Nats’ game.
Contest #2:
Pick your favorite MLB team, and prove you’re not a ‘homer’ by predicting your team’s 2019 regular season record, whether they’ll make it to the playoffs, and if so, how far will they go. Also, what will be the determining factor in their season?
This contest was a much more difficult one to choose the winner.
Basically, Yankee fans were good on their team’s record, but not so good on how far they would go in the playoffs. (Fortunately, in my humble opinion, they lost 4-2 in the ALCS.)
Red Sox fans did even worse, overrating their record. Plus, the Sox didn’t even make it into the playoffs. (So sad.)
Orioles’ fans did well predicting their losing record, etc., but that wasn’t too difficult a call. And one Mets’ fan predicted their won-loss record exactly but erroneously said they’d make it into the playoffs.
Two Nats’ fans, Ronnie Davis & Joe Higdon, were close on the won-loss portion of this contest, and both had them winning the World Series.
Ben Senturia, a long suffering Cards’ fan, had St. Louis with the exact won-loss record (91-71) and predicted they’d lose in the NLCS (which they did to you know whom).
By the power granted to me by me, I’m declaring this contest a three-way tie.
Ben Senturia and Bronwen get to join me at Nats’ park for a Cards vs Nats game at a convenient time in the future. Alternatively, Ellen and I could make our way to St. Louis and spring for four tickets there.
Joe and Ronnie each get two seats to a Nats’ game in 2020, and I’ll likely join each of them for those games.
Contest #3:
Choose which League will win the All Star game in 2019, and name one AL and one NL team who will be leading their Division on July 9. Tie-breakers: Name the first MLB player to hit 25 HRs and the first MLB pitcher to win 12 games.
This contest winner was announced on MillersTime previously, but I repeat those results here for full disclosure.
A dozen of you got the right answer to Part 1 (American League) along with an AL & NL team leading in their Division:
Ed Scholl, Andrew & Noah Cate, Todd Endo, Jeff Friedman, Matt Wax-Krell, Brandt & Samantha Tilis, Chris Eacho, Justin Barrasso, Maury Maniff, Jesse Maniff, Jon Frank, Tim Malieckal.
The Tie-Breaker separated the pack. Many of you seemed to choose individuals who were particularly good last year.
No one got both the first to hit 25 home runs (Christian Yellich) and the first to 12 wins (Lance Lynn).
But one of you did identify Yellich who just barely beat out Alonso and Bellinger:
So Tim Malieckal wins.
Tim and a friend can join me for a Nats’ game of his choice next year. If he can’t make it to DC, maybe I can make it to see a Mets’ game, and we’ll go together at my expense.
Contest #4.
True or False:
A. The New York Yankees WILL win the AL East in 2019.TRUE.
B. The Washington Nationals WILL win the NL East in 2019. False.
C. There will be at least one 20 game winning pitcher in each League in 2019. False. (None in NL).
D. No pitcher in MLB will have two complete shutout games (from Ben Senturia).False. (Three did – Giolito, Alcantara, & Bieber).
E. At least two teams in 2019 will loose 100 games or more. True. (Four had the dishonor of so doing – O’s, Royals, Tigers, Marlins).
F. A manager will be fired by the All Star game (from Brent Schultz). False.
G. In 2019 the two AL and the two NL Wild Card teams will each come from the same Division in their League.False. (All four were from different Divisions.)
H. Either Manny Machado or Bryce Harper will fail to live up to expectations in 2019. Specifically, one of the two will not perform well, will not have a particularly good year as defined by factors such as BA, HRs, RBIs, OPS, Fielding Average, etc. True. (While Harper didn’t live up to the expectations of the Phillies’ fans, he did perform about as well as he had the past couple of years with the Nats. But Machado more clearly makes this question True as in almost all categories he performed less well than he did in 2018.)
I. At least three teams will win 100 games or more in 2019. True. (Four did: Astros – 107, Dodgers – 106, Yankees – 103, Twins – 101).
J. One of Grand Papa’s (c’est moi) grandchildren will witness in person (at an MLB game at least one of the following: a grand slam, a triple play, a no hitter, Teddy winning the President’s race at the Nats’ stadium, will go home with a foul ball, will have his/her picture taken with an MLB team mascot or will be on the TV screen at an MLB stadium.Very True. (Between the three grandchildren living in the DC area, at least one saw a grand slam, one saw Teddy winning a President’s race, one went home with a foul ball, one had his picture taken with the Nats’ mascot, and one was on the big TV screen at Nats’ stadium.)
Three winners. Matt Galati, Jerome Greene, and Jess Maniff each got nine of the ten True/False questions correct.
Monica McHugh and Tim Malieckal had eight correct and are entitled to a MillersTime Winner Baseball Contest T-Shirt. (Monica, please send me shirt size and address. Tim has several T-shirts already. Do you want a Nats’ WS T instead?)
Contest #5:
For all five questions, choose the MLB team who in the 2019 season will:
Have the most wins (Astros – 107)
Have the worst BA (Blue Jays – .236)
Have the most errors (Mariners – 132/ .978 FA)
Have the highest pitching save percentage (Blue Jays – 76.7%)
Have the lowest WHIP (Dodgers – 1.10)
These questions, all suggested by MillersTime contestants (and clearly baseball nerds/obsessives, positive virtues imho) proved to be the most difficult as judged by how many of the five questions were predicted correctly.
HOUSTON, TEXAS – OCTOBER 30: The Washington Nationals pose for a team photo as they celebrate after defeating the Houston Astros in Game Seven to win the 2019 World Series at Minute Maid Park on October 30, 2019 in Houston, Texas. The Washington Nationals defeated the Houston Astros with a score of 6 to 2. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
When I last posted on this topic of baseball – my beloved obsession forever (at least 70+ years), this life giving and taking, romantic, heart-breaking, exhilarating, logical and illogical, and occasionally magical game – I wrote about a dilemma, whether it was better for my grandson’s learning if the Nats won or lost the final game of the 2019 World Series.
I knew, as FH reminded me in an email, that I had no choice in the game’s outcome. But I was leaning towards the benefits to him of a loss.
Wisely, a number of you reminded me that he could learn from a victory as well as a defeat, although the lesson(s) would be different ones. (See these Comments from readers like Charlie, Tim, Janet, Brian, Hugh, etc.).
Even (even?) my son-in-law who hasn’t even reached his mid-30s yet had some wise counsel:
“While exciting, I hope tonight isn’t a pivotal moment in Eli’s life. Win or lose, the lesson he should take is that when a champion is crowned, it is final. If it’s the Astros, it isn’t unfair, it’s unfortunate (for him but not for the Houston version of Eli). If it’s the Nationals, he will probably be happy, and he will go to school tomorrow with a nice memory. Hopefully, he learns to appreciate the ecstasy the champion feels and recognizes the hard work that was put into the accomplishment.”
Plus, I had told Eli the moment the Nats had lost the third straight game in DC that ” it’s not over yet.”
But I knew the Nats were now facing two hurdles, as a loss in either of the final games in Houston would mean the end of this dream. And in my heart and soul I thought the Astros would win. (It’s hard to overcome the ‘schooling’ of being a Sox fan. Tho, I guess I may have forgotten the full lesson of that ‘schooling,’ – that when the win does comes, and it eventually will, it’s an overwhelming joy.)
Hell, I even forgot, ignored (?), to some degree, what my then 21-year old daughter had written to me fifteen years ago and I had posted about lessons I had taught her about “never say never” and the importance of believing in miracles (more on that word below).
So as everyone everywhere now knows, the Nats did win that final game, coming from behind in the 7th inning, to complete a simply amazing series of comebacks and five months of truly extraordinary achievements.
I shoulda known.
I shoulda believed.
And for those of you who have a few more minutes to devote to this important topic, even if you’ve read, listened to, and talked about what the Nats achieved, I’m posting below an article that sums up how truly extraordinary what the Nats have done. It’s written by Jason Stark in the The Athletic.
He writes that this was a truly magical event.
If you remove ‘divine intervention’ from the definition of magical and stick to simply supernatural, then I totally agree with Stark.
Actually, maybe there was some divine intervention. See what you think.
HOUSTON – Do you believe in miracles? You should. Here’s all the proof you need that miracles happen in sports: The Washington Nationals just won the World Series. Just don’t try to explain how. That’s the miraculous part.
They just completed a journey unlike any that has been completed before. They just spent their season and their October doing things that no team has ever done. And then, for their final act – in a wild Game 7, on a shocking Wednesday evening in Houston – they won one more game they couldn’t possibly win, which finished off one of the greatest upsets in the history of the World Series. That’s all.
Do you believe in miracles? Well, when it’s the seventh game of the World Series and you’re getting one-hit in the seventh inning by a future Hall of Famer – against a 107-win juggernaut that needs just nine more outs to start comparing itself to the ’27 Yankees – you don’t need to consult the Win Probability charts to understand what a preposterous formula that is for winning that game, let alone that World Series.
But “preposterous” is actually an excellent way to describe the wild and crazy ride of the 2019 Nationals. So of course Anthony Rendon launched one more staggering home run into the Crawford Boxes in left, off Zack Greinke. And of course the apparently ageless Howie Kendrick then sliced a game-changing, Series-changing, life-changing home run off the foul pole in right. And of course the Nationals would perform their latest elimination-game magic trick and turn one more near-certain defeat into one more death-defying victory.
Because this is what they do. A little over four weeks ago, the Nationals were four outs from not even advancing past the wild card game. And now they’re the champions of baseball. Because if ever there was a baseball team you just couldn’t kill, this was it.
“OK, this is now the most 2019 Nats thing to ever happen,” said reliever Sean Doolittle, as the champagne dripped from his championship goggles after one final 6-2 stunner of a win over the mighty Houston Astros.
For two weeks now, Doolittle has been spinning off variations of that quote, all while we’ve been carrying on a running dialogue about whether this team qualifies as miraculous. He instructed us at one point to come up with some sort of metric to determine what constituted a true miracle. Weighted Miracles Created Plus maybe? That sort of thing. That part of this project didn’t go well. But Doolittle continued to weigh this heavy-duty topic.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this,” he said – but he still wasn’t sure, even as the champagne flowed. So we were forced to turn elsewhere. We then asked this team’s hitting coach, Kevin Long, if he thought what this team has just done could be called a miracle.
“Yeah, I do,” Long said instantly, then realized tears were welling in his eyes. “I’m going to get emotional. But the stuff and the things that these guys have overcome, it’s truly amazing.
“I really do think this was a dream team,” he said. “I really think this was one of the most amazing feats that any team has ever accomplished. If somebody had said that we’d beat the (2017) world champions in Houston tonight and they’d crown us world champions, I don’t think anybody would believe that.”
But there’s no choice but to believe it now, because they’ve done what they’ve done. So why do we think it’s safe to call these men the Miracle Nationals? It’s our mission today to make that case to all of you. It’s not as hard as you’d think.
The miracle of the elimination games
When we say that no team has had an October like the October of the 2019 Nationals, that’s not an opinion. That’s a fact. Let’s lay out those facts for you now:
Other teams in baseball history have won five potential elimination games in one postseason. But the Nationals put a slightly different twist on that feat – because they trailed in all five of them at some point. And how many teams in history have ever come from behind to win five elimination games in the same postseason? That would be none, says STATS LLC.
That feat is miraculous enough, but now let’s move along to the three winner-take-all games this team played. The Nationals trailed by two runs in the eighth inning of the wild card game against Milwaukee, with the fearsome Josh Hader on the mound. They trailed by two runs in the eighth inning of NLDS Game 5 in Los Angeles, with the great Clayton Kershaw on the mound. Then on Wednesday, they trailed by two in the seventh inning of this Game 7, with Greinke dialing up the most dominant postseason start of his life. So what happened? Yep. The Nationals roared back to win all three of those games.
So how many other teams have ever won three elimination games — let alone winner-take-all games — in one postseason after trailing by two runs or more in the seventh inning or later? How many do you think? There are no other teams that have done that, according to our friends from STATS. Ever. In fact, just one other team — the 1980 Phillies — has even won two potential elimination games like that.
We were down in the wild card game,” Long said. “I mean, are you kidding me? We were down five times (in elimination games). Really? I can’t say that enough. We were down in all these games late, and just continued to fight and come back and stay together. And the pitchers knew if they just stayed close, we’d find a way to win. And we certainly did.”
The miracle of the World Series
Now let’s think about the team the Nationals just beat in this World Series. The Astros won 107 games this year. That’s the most in baseball. But even that doesn’t adequately capture how good they were.
Teams like that don’t lose the World Series. Teams like that normally dominate the World Series. But that isn’t how this World Series turned out, is it?
Their powerhouse pitching staff had an Adjusted ERA-Plus of 127. Their deep, talented offense had an adjusted OPS-Plus of 119. That’s nuts. Want to know how nuts? Over the last 100 years, there has been only one other team that had both an OPS-Plus and ERA-Plus of 119 or higher. That team was Babe Ruth’s 1927 Yankees.
The Astros won 14 more games this season than the Nationals. And only two other teams in history ever had that large a win differential over the team they played in the World Series and didn’t win it. One was Vic Wertz’s 111-win 1954 Indians, who lost to Willie Mays’ 97-win New York Giants. The other was Three Finger Brown’s 116-win 1906 Cubs, who lost to Jiggs Donahue’s 93-win White Sox.
So just based on the history, this goes down as one of the biggest World Series upsets of all time.
There’s also the Vegas take on how large an upset it was:
Yet from the first inning of Game 1, the Nationals played like a team that never bought either of those narratives. And even after they lost Games 3-4-5 at home without ever leading for a single pitch, they still thought of themselves as 100 percent alive — because they never looked at the Astros as the unbeatable behemoth that Vegas thought they were.
“There was something going on,” Doolittle said. “We totally felt it. We totally fed off it. We kind of thought coming into the series that the pressure was on them. We could tell right away from the questions that they got on Media Day, versus the questions we got on Media Day. There was a totally different vibe to those questions.
“They were getting asked, ‘What are you gonna do after you win the World Series? What are you gonna buy?’ And people were asking us, like: ‘What does it mean to be in the first World Series ever in Nationals history?’ And we were like, ‘I don’t know. It’s cool. We’re happy to be here.’ So we were very aware that they were the team to beat and we were the biggest underdogs, according to Vegas, in the last — what? — 15 years? Something like that? But you know what Han Solo says: ‘Never tell me the odds.’”
The road-field advantage miracle
The 2019 Astros didn’t merely run up the best home record in baseball (60-21) this season. They were one of the most unbeatable teams at home in modern times.
In fact, in the nearly six decades since baseball went to a 162-game schedule, just four teams won more home games in any season than the Astros won this season:
So just winning a World Series in which the Astros had home-field advantage would have been a sensational feat. But as you might have heard, that isn’t all that happened, right? In a very weird World Series, in which the home team won zero games, the Nationals did something unheard of:
They became the first team in the history of any of the four major professional sports to win a championship by winning all four games of a best-of-seven series on the road. How many times did the Astros lose four in a row at home all season? Yessir. That would be never. In fact, they didn’t lose four games at home over the course of the entire season to any team except the A’s — who beat them four times, but needed 10 games in Houston to do it.
“Remember the other night, when I said after Game 5, ‘Hey, we’re just fine. The road team’s winning every game?’” Doolittle said. “I was just joking. But hey, look at us now.”
The “Fall of the Titans” miracle
Before the Nationals wiped out those 107-win Astros, they pulled another monumental upset — by beating the 106-win Dodgers in the NLDS. So who does that — wins a World Series by upending two teams that won at least 106 games in the same postseason? Nobody does that, naturally. Or at least nobody did it until now.
“We believed in ourselves from the beginning,” said catcher Kurt Suzuki. “You know, everyone always says that to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best — and we beat ’em.”
The miracle of 19-and-31
Back on May 23, the Nationals were 50 games into their season — and somehow found themselves 12 games under .500 (at 19-31), just like the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers went on to lose 114 games. The Nationals went on to win the World Series. You don’t see that much.
OK, to be honest, you don’t see that ever. No team in history had ever had that bad a record after 50 games and gone on to win a World Series. But the Nationals did. And only one team had ever been 12 games under (or more) at any point in any season and gone on to win a World Series. That, as you also might have heard, was Possum Whitted’s 1914 Boston Braves – who have been known throughout history as the “Miracle” Braves.
So if there’s only one other team that has followed this path and their nickname is “Miracle,” doesn’t that automatically qualify these Nationals as a miracle unto themselves? We’ll get back to that in a moment.
What’s more important than what we call it is how they did it. And they did it by reminding themselves, as they finally started to get healthy, that they were way too talented to be hanging out with the Marlins and Tigers in the standings.
The road back from 12 games under began with a team meeting, in a conference room off the clubhouse in late May. All the coaches and position players were there. The message from the veterans in the room was firm and clear.
Long’s everlasting memory of that session: “I remember these guys saying, ‘We can do this, and it will be the greatest accomplishment of our lives.’”
Maybe that resuscitation alone — from life after 19-31 to triumph in October — isn’t enough to make you believe we should hang that “miracle” sign on this team. But now add in all of it — the elimination games, the upset of the Astros, the upset of the Dodgers, the four World Series victories in one of baseball’s most intimidating environments — and think about this one more time.
Also remember that this is a franchise that had never won a single postseason series since moving to Washington. And remember that no team from Washington had won a World Series in 95 years.
So now add all that up. Has there ever been any World Series champion — any league, any town, any year — that did all of that on the road to the parade floats? You know that answer. That answer is: No way.
And even if you weren’t sure about these guys before Wednesday, how could you have watched the final chapter in this story and not believed in this miracle?
Their starting pitcher, Max Scherzer, went from having to fall out of bed on Sunday to gutting his way through five innings Wednesday. That’s not a miracle?
One minute on Wednesday, Greinke was making the Nationals’ lineup look so overmatched that Long said that when he saw Gerrit Cole begin to throw lightly in the bullpen midway through the game, his reaction was: “‘Please bring him in,’ because that’s how good Zack Grinke was.”But next thing you knew, Rendon was lofting a Greinke changeup into the left-field seats, for just the Nationals’ second hit of the day. And even that seemed like a miracle at the time.
“You know, momentum’s tough to change,” Long said. “And something like that really, really lifted everyone’s spirits in the dugout. You could see it on the field. It was almost like those (Astros) said, ‘Oh no. Here they come.’”
Yep. Here they came, all right. Juan Soto would walk to end Greinke’s day. Kendrick would welcome Will Harris to the festivities with a what-just-happened two-run homer. And in a span of only eight pitches, the Nationals had gone from nearly dead to somehow leading. You mean that wasn’t a miracle?
“I had a flashback — to the wild card game,” Suzuki said. “I said, ‘This seems kind of familiar.’”
They were eight pitches that changed a game and changed the World Series. But if they seemed miraculous to those on the outside, they seemed like business as usual for the Miracle Nationals.
“It was just fitting for our season,” Suzuki said. “We’ve been playing elimination games since the middle of May. At least it feels like it. We had to fight for everything. So what a fitting way to end this season.”
We understand that your definition of a miracle may be different from ours, or Sean Doolittle’s, or Kevin Long’s. So when we ask, one more time, if you believe in miracles, the answer doesn’t really matter. What matters is that this somehow happened. In real life.
And so, on this one last crazy evening at the ballpark, it was the Washington Nationals standing on a makeshift podium in Houston, kissing their trophy and wiping away tears. It was all so powerful an experience that even they don’t completely understand how everything it took to hoist that trophy was even possible.
“You know, I was just talking to a friend of mine,” said right fielder Adam Eaton. “He was talking about all the things (that happened to us). He just went through, like, six or seven or eight different things. And when you hear them, it’s like yeah, it’s remarkable. If I was not here, I’d be home watching it. That’s for darned sure.”
“And if you weren’t here, if you hadn’t seen it and you hadn’t lived it, would you believe it?” we asked.
“No,” said Adam Eaton. “And that’s why I’d be watching.”
Good idea — because how can you believe in miracles unless you watch them with your very own eyes?
Contest #1: Name the two teams who will make it to the 2019 World Series. Who wins it all and in how many games?
MillersTime contestants overwhelmingly predicted it would be the Yankees and the Dodgers.
Well that didn’t happen.
A number of you had either the Astros or the Nats but not both:
*Pernell Choren had the Brewers over the Astros in six.
*Rob Higdon had the Astros over the Cubs in six.
*Ron Davis had the Nats over the Yankees in seven.
*Brandt & Samantha Tilis had the Sox over the Nats in six.
*Hopeless Chris Eacho had the O’s over the Nats in four.
*Shawn Scarlett had the Astros over the Cubs in five.
*Ben Senturia had the Nats over the Yankees in six.
*Robert Smythe had the Dodgers over the Astros in six.
*Nellie Romero had the Astros over the Dodgers in six.
But there are two contestants who had both the Astros and the Nats in the World Series and thus are in the running for a ticket to the 2020 World Series:
*Jeff Friedman has the Astros over the Nats in six games. Jeff is a former MillersTime winner, perhaps more than once.
*Joe Higdon, father of Rob above, has the Nats over the Astros in six.
Hoping it will be a good WS.
And of course I hope that Joe is the winner and Jeff is the runner-up.
I’ve been a season ticket holder for each of the 15 years the Washington Nationals have been in DC.
That’s not as long as I’ve been a Red Sox fan – since I was seven years old, 69 years ago – nor have I been as obsessive about the Nats as I have been and am about the Sox. But I’ve attended approximately 20 Nats’ games each year since 2005 and enjoyed most of them.
After all, it’s baseball, which I love, and when watching
the Nats, I don’t have to be afraid of high places or sharp instruments (my
usual concern when watching the Sox). And in every game I’ve attended, I’m
always looking for something I’ve never seen before.
Last night that ‘never seen before’ was not so much what
happened on the field, though that was thrilling, but what happened in the
stadium.
Bear with me for a bit of background and several diversions.
The Nats have won the NL East Division four times (2012, 2014, 2016, and 2017), but they’ve never won a post-season series and were eliminated from post-season play in each of those four years (often in game five).
That changed last night. (I’ll leave it to the water cooler
pundits – do they still have water coolers? – to argue as to whether a one-game
Wild Card playoff can be considered a post-season series.)
The game opened with the Nats’ franchise face, All Star pitcher, 35 year-old Max Sherzer, giving up a walk to the lead off batter and then immediately thereafter a home run to the Milwaukee Brewers’ second batter, Yasmani Grandal.
Bang. Down 0-2 after less than five minutes.
It got a bit worse in the second inning when Scherzer gave
up his second home run, this time to Eric Thames. Now it was 0-3. Was this
going to be a one and off and just another post-season heartbreak for the Nats
and their fans?
Until the 8th inning nothing changed. Scherzer settled down, as he often does after giving up his usual two home runs a game, but he wasn’t sharp. Stephen Strasburg, 31, took over in the 6th inning and did what he’s been doing all season (18-6 for the year with 251 strikeouts), shut down the opposition though it was the first time he’s pitched as a reliever. Over his three innings, he only gave up two hits, struck out four, and kept the Nats in the game.
But they couldn’t score more than the one run they got in the third inning (a home run by Trea Turner). The Brewers pitchers shut down the Nats with just three hits through the first seven innings.
On came Brewers’ truly sensational All Star closer Josh Hader (138 strike outs in 75 2/3 innings this year…virtually unheard of in the history of baseball). He just needed to get the final six outs so his team could win the Wild Card game.
Another digression please.
The Nats started the 2019 season with great expectations and
predictions of winning the NL East Division by nearly everyone who follows
baseball. Then they lost 19 of their first 31 games. The Phillies, Braves, and
Mets were looking good, and the Nats seemed headed for a dismal year.
Then they went 69-36 beginning in June to end with a 94-69 season record and a Wild Card playoff spot. The Brewers went 20-7 in September, even without their wonderful right fielder, All Star and 44-home run hitter Christian Yellich. Though the Brewers faltered in their final season series, the stage was set for one of baseball’s cruelest tests, a one play-off game to continue towards with World Series.
In the 8th inning of last nights’ 163rd game of the season, Hader faulted. Despite his 100+ fastball, he couldn’t keep the Nats off the bases (thanks to a disputed hit batsman to pinch hitter Michael A Taylor, a broken bat, bloop single to center by the aging and oft injured 35 year-old Ryan Zimmerman, and a walk to the dangerous but slumping MVP candidate Anthony Rendon).
Then the baseball Gods smiled on the Nats and rained on the Brewers’ fortunes when the 20 year old Juan Soto hit a sharp line drive to right, scoring two for the tie, and when 22-year old rookie Trent Graham misplayed (bad hop?) that line drive, Rendon scored from first, giving the Nats a 4-3 lead. (Soto was tagged out between second and third but celebrated, along with the 42,933 fans in the stadium, despite his mistake in allowing himself to be the third out of the inning.)
Then in the 9th, on came the shaky Nats’ bullpen in the person of Daniel Hudson, who shut down the shocked Brewers and nailed the 4-3 victory, saving not only the game but also the reputation and confidence of the shaky bullpen and the play-off season for the Nats.
So why was this night different from all others as I
indicated at the outset above?
For me. it was not that the Nats won, although I loved that.
It was not simply the manner in which they won, though that was thrilling too.
It was what occurred in the stands.
In the 15 years I’ve attend Nats’ games (approximately 300 games), I’ve never seen the Nationals’ fans as they were last night. From the time we entered the stadium until we left three and a half hours later, there was not a moment of silence. There was not just a buzz when we arrived; the fans were already making themselves heard. The cheering, flag waving, and chanting prior to, during, and at the conclusion of the game was something I’ve never seen or heard here before. The fans were not just loud (led by a speaker system and scoreboard that encouraged their emotions), they were relentless. Even when Scherzer put them in a hole right off, the fans were not silenced.
Another small diversion. When I went to the fourth game of the Red Sox World Series game in St. Louis in 2004 with the Sox up three games to zero and not having won a WS in the preceding 86 years, the truly wonderful Cards’ fans around me said the Sox would not win in four, not that night, not in St. Louis. Then Johnny Damon hit a lead off home run for the Sox into the Cards’ bullpen, and the air went out of the stadium.
Not so at Nationals Park last night.
The fans were on their feet as much as they were in their seats, a phenomena I’ve never seen in Washington, where the fans are not particularly vocal nor overly demonstrative. (I’ve spent some time in Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs, and understand what it’s like to be with truly vocal and demonstrative fans.)
Last night, the fans were truly a part of why the Nats’ won.
They never gave up, despite the dreaded feeling that the Nats were about to be
eliminated once again.
Final diversion. I don’t know what people saw who were watching the game on TV, though I saw on Twitter from a long-time Fenway friend that at one point the camera showed eight straight TV shots of Nats’ fans holding their head(s) in their hands prior to that 8th inning rebound. But that’s not what I experienced in the stadium. I don’t mean to take anything away from what the Nats’ players, manager, and entire team accomplished. They truly never gave up (forgive that tired phrase) and never seemed to feel they were entirely out of it, a spirit they have shown for much of the season.
While there were a number of Nats’ ‘heroes ‘ in this win, it was the energy, voices, and the once in 15 years truly exuberant enthusiasm of the fans that I believe made the difference in DC last night.
Indeed, what a delight to walk out of the stadium and hear the sustained chanting and celebration of the 42,993 participants in this win.
PS – The Nats record since June, that 69-36 run. is a game and a half better than the 104-58 Dodgers did since June. Da Bums, who play in a much weaker Division than the Nats, better not take this team, nor its fans, for granted for the best of five starting Thursday.
Can’t we just be friends? Gleyber Torres (Yankees) and Mookie Betts (Red Sox), ASG, July 9. Photo Credit: Ron Schwane
No doubt you’ve been anxiously awaiting the announcement of the first winner of the 2019 MillersTime Baseball Contests.
Contest # 3:
1. Name which League will win the All Star Game. 2. Name one AL team and one NL team who will be leading their Division July 9.
2. Tie-Breaker: Name the first MLB player to hit 25 HRS and the first MLB player to win 12 games.
A dozen of you got the right answer to Part 1 (American League) along with an AL & NL team leading in their Division:
Ed Scholl, Andrew & Noah Cate, Todd Endo, Jeff Friedman, Matt Wax-Krell, Brandt & Samantha Tilis, Chris Eacho, Justin Barasso, Maury Maniff, Jesse Maniff, Jon Frank, Tim Malieckal.
The Tie-Breaker separated the pack. Many of you seemed to choose individuals who were particularly good last year.
No one got both the first to hit 25 home runs (Christian Yellich) and the first to 12 wins (Lance Lynn).
But one of you did identify Yellich who just barely beat out Alonso and Bellinger:
So Tim Malieckal wins.
Prize: Bring a friend and join me for a Nats’ game in the second half of the 2019 season or a Nats’ game of your choice next year (except for Opening Day). If you can’t make it to DC, maybe I can make it to where you live, and we’ll see a game together there.
Notes: There were a few choices and comments that ‘deserve’ notice:
Jeff Friedman wrote, “Anyone who picks the AL this year is nuts.”
David Price (not the player but an unapologetic Yunkee fan) said the Sox and the Nats would be leading their Divisions at the All Star break. Neither were close.
Elizabeth Tilis:Yes. My own progeny, for whom I had high hopes at one point, picked the NL to win the ASG.
Ed Scholl is the Runner Up for Contest #3 as he submitted his correct winning League and Division leaders first, Feb. 21, almost a month before anyone else. He gets one of the ‘highly prized’ MillersTime T-shirts when he sends me his size.
Results from the other three contests must await the end of the season, but for those of you keeping track, one of grand Papa’s grandchildren (Ryan) has already seen a grand slam and Teddy winning the President’s race
How many times have you yelled, “You’re Blind, Ump”?
There is now proof that at least 20% of the calls by the umpires behind the plate over the last 11 years are wrong. That’s one in every five calls.
Recent data of over four million pitches between 2008 and 2018, with the use of sophisticated, triangulated tracking cameras, say this is so.
Further, there is a two strike bias, where umpires make more mistakes on these counts, calling a pitch a strike when in fact it is a ball. As umpires were twice as likely to call a true ball a strike on a two strike count, batters called out in these situations had reason to be angry with the ump (see photo of Mookie Betts above).
Specifically, 55 games ended with incorrect calls.
In 2018, there were 34,294 incorrect calls, an average of 14 per game, or 1.6 per inning.
And it is the older, more experienced umpires who made the most mistakes as the less experienced and younger ones were more likely to get the calls correct. Long time umpire Joe West had 21 errors per game, and Angel Hernandez had 19, for example, while John Libka, 32 and with only 1.5 years of experience, had got many more calls correct (as did Mark Wegner, 47).
Also, umpires selected for the World Series were not the best performing umps.
You can see these details, and many others, along with charts and names in this article by Boston University’s Mark T. Williams, who, assisted by a group of graduate students at BU’s Questrom School of Business, dove deeply into the data, analytics, and statistics to come up with these results.
Although MLB has had a system of rating their umpires, no one has done the kind of analysis that the new technology of triangulated cameras has made possible.
What will it mean for the future?
Williams believes that it doesn’t mean robots should replace umpires, but he believes there are some solutions that could make the situation significantly better. (See the end of the linked article above.)
In the meantime, it may be an overstatement to say the umpires ARE blind (in fact, they do seem to be getting the calls a bit better, tho they are still missing enough to change outcomes of games).
But if they’re still missing an average of 14 calls a game, then there is something seriously wrong. To what seems an unacceptable degree pitchers are benefiting, batters are losing out, and the outcomes of some of the games are questionable.
If your team has ever been the victim of bad ball/strike umpiring, you were not crazy to say “We waz robbed.”
From Fenway Park in 2005 and soon to be repeated. See Notes below
I. Some Predictions from MillersTime Baseball Contestants
Contest 1: MillersTime contestants say it will be the Dodgers vs either the Red Sox or Yankees in the 2019 World Series, and they believe the American League team will win it in six games.
Contest 3: No doubt here. Overwhelming choice is the American League to win the All Star game. Scherzer (or maybe Sale) will be the first pitcher to win 12 games. Harper, Stanton, and Judge all tied for first to hit 25 home runs.
Contest 4: Contestants split evenly between those who think the Yankees will win the AL East and those who don’t, but they seem to think the Nats will definitely not win the NL East. Everyone seems to think one of my ‘grand’ children will see at least one of the following: a grand slam, a triple play, a no hitter, Teddy winning the President’s race, will go home with a foul ball, will have his/her pix taken with an MLB mascot, or will be on the TV screen at an MLB stadium. (Has happened yet, but I’m working on this one.)
Other Contest Predictions: Too complicated to post here. But thanks to all who participated.
II. Baseball Notes and Two Questions:
***Check out this article that looks at a different, but easy way to judge who are the best hitters in baseball: Secondary Average by Victor Mather, NY Times, April 5, 2019. (Hat Tip to Joe H for alerting me)
***There’s a new book out by one of today’s top baseball writers, Tyler Kepner of the NY Times. A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches. Reviews have been outstanding, and I’ll let you know what I think as soon as I finish it. (It’s due to arrive at my house April 7.)
***Every time I attend a baseball game, I’m looking for something I never saw before. A few days ago this: Tie game between the Phillies and the Nats in DC. Bottom of the 9th. First man up for the Nats gets a single. Then the the Phillies’ pitcher walks the next two batters. Bases loaded. And he does it again. A third walk. Walking in the winning run for the Nats. What do we call that? A Three Walk Walk-Off? A Triple Walk Walk-Off? A Walk-Off Walk? Bad pitching? Terrible managing? Let me know what you would call it. And I suppose you all know the actual definition of ‘Walk-Off’ win. It’s not the winning team walking off. It’s about the losing team having to ‘walk off’ the field after they’ve ‘blown’ the game.
***Not sure if it’s my getting older (which is certainly happening), but I’ve already attended four games at Nats’ Park, and I’m sure they’ve cranked up the loud speakers, making it difficult to talk and hear each other between innings. one of the enjoyable aspects of seeing a game with a son, daughter, wife, father, grandfather, grandchild and/or friends. Is this increase in noise level happening elsewhere too? Or am I just getting more like my parents did at a similar stage in their lives?
III. Repeating History
***Finally, heading to Boston with the three females in my life – wife Ellen, and daughters Annie and Elizabeth – to ‘treat’ them to Opening Day, April 9 in Fenway where the World Series flag will be raised, a huge banner will be dropped across the Green Monster, and the WS rings will be given out. I took them in 2005 (see photo above) when the Yankees had to sit in the Visitors’ dugout and watch the ceremonies after the best ever WS win in my lifetime. Now, with this fourth WS victory in this early part of the 21st century — eat your hearts out Yankee fans — my only regret is that my daughters and grand children will never truly understand what I had to go through for most of my baseball life – though I think Elizabeth kind of understands. If you’ve never read this, don’t miss: The E-Mail on the Kitchen Table,posted 12.19.08 on MillersTime but written just after the Sox finally won it all in 2004. A must read.
IV. PS
***You can look forward to an upcoming post, Opening Day Thru Ellen’s Lens, with commentary attached.
MLB, with the agreement of the MLB Players Association, have announced the rule changes in effect for 2019 and ones that will go into effect in 2020.
The most significant ones won’t be in effect until next year. But take a look, and see what you think. Maybe we can get a bit of a discussion going.
For me, I don’t really care about speeding up the game, and I don’t like taking away decisions that have been traditionally managers’ prerogatives. Some of the other changes seem to make sense (All Star ones and the change in July 31 trade deadline), without impacting the nature of the game.
But I’m conservative (as far as baseball is concerned) and believe that trying to speed up the game to try to placate our Attention Deficit Disordered audiences is generally a fool’s errand.
Comments?
Thoughts?
Changes for the 2019 Season
Inning Breaks: Subject to discussions with broadcast partners, inning breaks will be reduced from 2:05 to 2:00 in local games, and from 2:25 to 2:00 in national games. (The Office of the Commissioner retains the right to reduce the inning breaks to 1:55 in local and national games for the 2020 season.)
Mound Visits: The maximum number of mound visits per team will be reduced from six to five.
Trade Deadline: The trade deadline will remain July 31st; however, trade waivers will be eliminated. Players may be placed and claimed on outright waivers after July 31st, but players may not be traded after that date.
Joint Committee: MLB and the MLBPA will form a joint committee to study other potential changes.
All-Star Game:
All-Star
Game fan voting will be conducted in two rounds. During the “Primary
Round,” each Club will nominate one player per eligible position (three
outfielders), who will be voted on by fans. In late June or early July,
an “Election Day” will be held in which the top three vote-getters at
each position in each League during the Primary Round (including the top
nine outfielders) will be voted on by fans during a prescribed time
period to determine the All-Star Game starters. Further details on the
new fan voting format will be announced in April.
All-Star bonus
payments will be given to the top three vote-getters at each position
in each League during the Primary Round (top six for outfielders).
Additionally, the prize money awarded to players on the winning All-Star
team will be increased beginning with the 2019 All-Star Game.
Both
Clubs will start the 10th inning of the All-Star Game, and each
subsequent inning, with a runner on second base (re-entry substitutions
allowed for runners).
Home Run Derby: Total
player prize money for the Home Run Derby will be increased to $2.5
million. The winner of the Home Run Derby will receive $1 million.
The
single July 31 trade deadline means there will likely be a lot more
action. The MLBPA is hopeful that the single deadline will also
incentivize teams to be more aggressive in the offseason knowing that
trades in August are no longer an option. The All-Star Game Election Day
will be a chance for MLB to market its players. Fans will vote online
for All-Star starters, and the top three vote-getters will take part in a
one-day election. (More details on the two-step voting process here.)
Changes for the 2020 Season
Active Roster Provisions:
The
active roster limit from Opening Day through August 31st and in
Postseason games will increase from 25 to 26, and the minimum number of
active players will increase from 24 to 25. The current Major League
Rules allowing for a 26th player for doubleheaders will be amended to
allow for a 27th player.
Elimination of 40-man active roster
limit in September. From September 1st through the end of the
championship season, all Clubs must carry 28 players on the active
roster.
The number of pitchers a Club may carry on the active
roster will be capped at a number determined by the joint committee.
Clubs must designate each of its players as either a pitcher or a
position player prior to each player’s first day on the active roster
for a given season. That designation will remain in effect for the
player, and cannot change, for the remainder of the championship season
and Postseason. No player on the active roster other than those
designated as pitchers by the Club may appear in a championship season
or Postseason game as a pitcher except in the following scenarios:
Players
designated as a “Two-Way Player.” A player qualifies as a “Two-Way
Player” only if he accrues at least 20 Major League innings pitched and
at least 20 Major League games started as a position player or
designated hitter (with at least three plate appearances in each of
those games) in either the current championship season or the prior
championship season;
Following the ninth inning of an extra-inning game; or
In any game in which his team is losing or winning by more than six runs when the player enters as a pitcher.
Minimum Number of Batters for Pitchers: The
Office of the Commissioner will implement an amended Official Baseball
Rule 5.10(g) requiring that starting pitchers and relief pitchers must
pitch to either a minimum of three batters or the end of a half-inning
(with exceptions for incapacitating injury or illness). The Players
Association has agreed that it will not grieve or otherwise challenge
the Office of the Commissioner’s implementation of the amended Rule
5.10(g).
Injured List and Option Period for Pitchers: Subject
to input from the joint committee, the minimum placement period for
pitchers on the Injured List shall increase from 10 days to 15 days, and
the minimum assignment period of pitchers who are optionally assigned
to the minors will increase from 10 days to 15 days.
Name the two teams who will play in the World Series in 2019?
Which team will win it all?
Tie-Breaker: What will be the total number of games played in the 2019 World Series – 4, 5, 6, or 7?
Prize: One ticket to the 2020 World Series.
Contest #2:
Pick your favorite MLB team
(or the team you know the best) and answer the following questions to prove
whether you’re just a homer (“Someone who shows blind loyalty to a team
or organization, typically ignoring any shortcomings or faults they have”) or
whether you really know something about your team and can honestly evaluate its
strengths and weaknesses. Please answer all three parts of the question.
1. What will your team’s regular season 162 game record be in 2019?
2. Will they make the playoffs, and if so, how far will they go?
3. What will be the most important SINGLE factor (hitting, starting pitching, bullpen, an individual’s performance, the manager, injuries, etc.) in determining their season?
Prize: Two tickets to a regular season game with your favorite team (details
to be negotiated with me.)
Contest #3: Questions to be decided by the 2019 All Star game, July 9.
Name
which League will win the All Star game.
Name
one AL team & one NL team who will be leading their Division July 9.
Tie-Breakers: (May take longer than July 9 to decide these)Name the first MLB player to hit 25 HRs.
3. Name the first MLB player to hit 25 HRs.
4. Name the first MLB pitcher win 12 games.
Contest 4: True or False:
Prize: Bring a friend and join me for a Nats’ game in the second half of the 2019 season or a Nats’ game of your choice next year (except for Opening Day). If you can’t make it to DC, maybe I can make it to where you live, and we’ll see a game together there.
A. The New York Yankees WILL win the AL East in 2019.
B. The Washington Nationals WILL win the NL East in 2019.
C. There will be at least one 20 game winning pitcher in each League in 2019. (There were two from the AL in 2018 – Snell – 21 & Kluber – 20; none in 2017, three in 2016 – Porcello – 22, Scherzer 20, Happ – 20). (from Chris Boutourline)
D. No pitcher in MLB will have two complete shutout games. (from Ben Sentura)
E. At least two teams in 2019 will lose 100 games or more. (Three did so in 2018 – Orioles lost 115, Royals lost 104 and White Sox lost 100. Five other teams lost between 95-99 games: Reds, Rangers, Padres, Marlins, & Tigers)
F. A manager will be fired by the All Star game in 2019? (from Brent Schultz)
G. In 2019 the two AL & the two NL wild card teams will each come from the same division in their League.
H.
Either Manny Machado or Bryce Harper
will fail to live up to expectations in 2019. In other words, one of the two
will not perform well, will not have a particularly good year as defined by
factors such as BA, HRs, RBIs, OPS, Fielding Average, etc.)
I. At least three teams will win 100 games or more in 2019. (Three teams did so in 2018: Red Sox – 108, Astros – 103, Yankees – 100).
J. One of Grand Papa’s (c’est moi) grandchildren will witness in person (at an MLB game) at least one of the following: a grand slam, a triple play, a no hitter, Teddy winning the President’s race at the Nats’ stadium, will go home with a foul ball, will have his/her picture taken with an MLB team mascot, or will be on the TV screen at an MLB stadium.
These questions are inspired by MillersTime baseball contestants Matt Galati, Nick Nyhart, and Maury Maniff. They are mostly for unrepentent baseball nerds, ones who have been known get up in the middle of the night to see how their favorite team did, check all the baseball scores, look at video of a game, etc. To gather information before answering, you might want to go to this site – http://proxy.espn.com/mlb/stats/team?stat=pitching – to see what the correct answers would have been before 2018:
For all of these five questions, choose the MLB team who in the 2019 regular season will:
1. Have the most wins? (Boston in 2018)
2. Have the worst BA? (Miami in 2018)
3. Have the most errors? (St. Louis in 2018)
4. Have the highest (pitching) save percentage? (Texas in 2018)
All winners get the ‘one-of-a-kind,’ specially designed and updated MillersTime Baseball Winner T-Shirt.
Enter as many or as few of the contests as you want.
Be sure to answer all parts of each contest you do enter.
If you get a friend (or a foe) to participate in these contests, and he/she wins and has mentioned your name in their submission, you will get a prize also.
First time entrants who are runners up in any contest will get THE T-shirt. Any two-generation submissions (mother/son, grandfather/granddaughter, etc.) who are runners up will also get THE T-Shirt
Get your predictions in soon. In case of ties in any contest, the individual who submitted his/her prediction first will be the winner.
Submissions should be sent to me at:
Samesty84@gmail.comor by snail mail – Richard Miller – 2501 Tracy PL NW, Washington, DC 20008.
Deadline for Submissions: Opening Day: Thursday, March 28, Noon, EDT
Pick your favorite MLB team (or the one you know most about) and answer the following questions to prove whether you’re just a homer (“Someone who shows blind loyalty to a team or organization typically ignoring any shortcomings or faults they have”) or whether you really know something about your team and can honestly evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. Answers to the following three questions will determine who wins this contest:
A. What will your team’s regular season 162 game record be in 2018?
B. Will they make the playoffs (or postseason as someone pointed out to me MLB calls the playoffs), and if so, how far will they go?
C. What will be the most important SINGLE factor in determining their season?
I asked for help in determining the winner to this contest (see Comment Section with the many of the answers I received. I had a few more sent to me in emails). Your responses were thoughtful, readers make strong arguments for A, B, C, & D (see Comments at the end of this post, and led to the following very close decision(s) between A, B, C, and D.
Winner:
Mary Lincer. Contestant D: Picked the Nationals whose season record was 82-80. They did not make the postseason, tho many had predicted they would, and probably the two reasons they did not do so had to do with not bringing in runners who were on base (i.e., hitting) and/or being ranked 7th out of 15 National League teams in pitching). Mary predicted their record would be 83-79, they would not make the playoffs, and said the single most important factor in their season would be lack of hitting.
(Editor’s Note: Not only did Mary get the most votes from MillersTime readers, it was comments such as the following that carried the day for me: “(D) wins with not only the closest record prediction, but the most unexpected. Picking the Sox to win between 90-99 wins was not a stretch, but picking an expected winner to struggle and nailing it (only better prediction would have been because of injuries) is the point of this contest.” She’s definitely not a homer. PS – She didn’t even vote for herself.)
Mary gets two tickets to the game of her choice for the NATS’ 2019 season and, of course, the prized T-Shirt.
Runners-Up:
Ben Senturia. Contestant A: Picked the Cards whose season record was 88-74. They did not make the playoffs. They were ranked 9th out of the 15 teams in the NL in terms of BA vs their pitchers and were 13th out of 15th in WHIP. This contestant predicted the Cards record would be 86-76, they wouldn’t make the playoffs, and said the single most important factor in their season would be pitching. (T-Shirt winner.)
Chris Bourtourline. Contestant B: Picked the Red Sox who season record was 108-54. They won the World Series, hitting and pitching and some other factors all played important roles in the season and the postseason. This contestant said the Red Sox record would be 93-69, they’d win the WS over the Dodgers, and said the single most important factor in their season would be hitting. (T-Shirt winner)
Jere Smith. Contestant C: Also picked the Red Sox who season record was 108-54. They won the World Series, hitting and pitching and some other factors all played important roles in the season and the postseason. This contestant said the Red Sox record would be 99-63, they’d win the WS, and JD Martinez would hit 44 HRs (he hit 43) which would be the single most important factor in their season. (T-Shirt winner)
Meg Gage & Steve King: Contestants E: Also picked the Red Sox who season record was 108-54. They won the World Series, hitting and pitching and some other factors all played important roles in the season and the postseason. This contestant said their record would be 95-67, they’d lose to the Dodgers in the WS, and the single most important factor in their season with be hitting. (T-Shirt winners.)
Tie-Breakers: Name the first MLB player to hit 30 HRs and the first MLB pitcher to win 12 games.
Winner:
Tim Malieckal wins as a result of his being the first (3/21) to chose the American League and Judge & Scherzer. Tim will join me in 2019 for a Nats vs Mets game in DC. And, of course, he will receive the ever popular and desired MillersTime Baseball Winner T-Shirt.
Runners-Up:
Justin Stoyer (3/24) and Brandt/Samantha Tilis (3/26) are the runners up, predicting the American League and Judge & Scherzer. They will receive the fabulous T-Shirts. (Note for 2019: Just a bit slower to get in their predictions.)
CONTEST #3: True/False:
A. The new MLB rules (shorter commercial breaks and limit of six non pitching visits to the mound by manager, coach or other players) will NOT result in reducing the average game time to under three hours. (Average time in 2017 was 3:04.) TRUE. Average time in 2018 was 3:08.
B. The New York Yankees WILL win the AL East in 2018. FALSE. Duh.
C. The Washington Nationals WILL NOT win the NL East in 2018. TRUE. Sadly.
D. There will be no 20 game winning pitchers in either league in 2018. (There were none in 2017 and three in 2016.) FALSE. Snell won 21 and Kluber won 20.
E. At least one pitcher in the regular 2018 MLB season will have an ERA under 2.0. (There were none in 2017 or 2016. One did it in 2015 and two in 2014.) TRUE: De Grom – 1.70 and Snell – 1.89.
F. Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge together will hit at least 115 regular season HRs in 2018. (In 2017 they ‘combined’ for 111.) FALSE. Stanton – 38, Judge 27 + 65 HRs.
G. At least one MLB batter will strike out 220 times or more in 2018 regular season play. (Aaron Judge struck out 208 times in 2017, and Chris Davis struck out 217 times in 2016.) FALSE. Moncada the closest with 211 SOs, followed by Stanton’s 211.
H. There will be at least 8 Triple Plays in the MLB this year. (Over the last 10 years the average has been 4.1 per year, and in each of the last two years there were 7 each year.) FALSE. There were only two. Mariners and Rangers, the latter, not done for 106 years, an unusual 5-5-4.
I. At least three teams will win 100 games or more in 2018. (Three teams did so in 2017: Astros – 101, Indians – 102, Dodgers – 104). TRUE. Yunkees 100, Astros – 103, Sox 108.
J. One of Grand Papa’s (c’est moi) grandchildren will witness in person (at an MLB game) a grand slam, a triple play, a no hitter, an extra inning game, or Teddy win the President’s race at the Nats’ stadium. FALSE. Unfortunately.
WINNER:
Mary Lincer, see Contest #1 above, got the first nine correct and only missed the final one, probably because she thought I’d get the grands to more games than I did. Wins her choice of one of The 20 Best Books Ever Written About Baseballor a new book Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game by ESPN writer, Rob Neyer (Published Oct. 9, 2018) and not to be confused with Michael Lew’s’ Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.
Who will be the two teams in the World Series in 2018 and which team will win it all?
Tie-Breaker: Name the five teams in each league who will make the playoffs.
Winner: Chris Bourtourline had the Sox over the Dodgers. No need for the tie-breaker (tho he got 6-10 right there). He is a repeat winner in these contests and will get one ticket to the 2019 World Series. Plus one of the new, updated T-Shirts.
Runner-Up: Maury Maniff, who both had the right teams in the WS but the wrong winners. He gets runner up based on his 6 out of 10 correct teams in the post season. He gets a T-Shirt.
Meg Gage/Steve King had the right teams but were behind Maury in the Tie-Breaker. Jere Smith had the Sox winning it all but over the Cubs, not the Dodgers. They both were runners- up above, but if they want to give a T-Shirt to a friend, I have plenty.
As everyone who cares about such things knows, they won the World Series.
They lost only three games on their way to the World Series, one each against the three (other) best teams in 2018 – Yankees, Astros, Dodgers.
Admission: I did not watch the first 13 games.
But I did watch the 14th and final game from start to finish.
So what’s up with that? How could I not watch my heroes?
Digression: In 2004, when the Sox hadn’t won the World Series in 86 years, I was watching at home on TV when they defeated the Cards in the third game of the WS to take a 3-0 lead. I got on a plane in DC early the next morning to fly to St. Louis (didn’t have a ticket to the game), after wrestling with myself whether or not to go.
My dilemma was how could I not go when my wonderful grandfather (Pappy) had introduced me to the Sox when I was seven years old. Never in his lifetime did he see the Sox win a World Series. I had to go for him. But, having been ‘schooled’ by being a Red Sox fan for 54 years at that time (now it’s been 68 years of pain and joy), I feared another disaster (think Bill Buckner, Bucky Dent, etc.) and wondered about being far away from home if that disaster struck, and the Sox lost to the Cards.
My love for my grandfather and reasoning that if I went to St. Louis and they lost the fourth game, I could stay for one more game. If they lost that one, I could hasten home with the Sox up three games to two, and I could lock myself in our study and suck my thumb while they blew the next two games.
I went. They won. It was the end of a long nightmare and a wonderful night that I will never forget (see this earlier post from my younger daughter who left a letter for me on the kitchen table to see when I returned: The Email on the Kitchen Table).
Admission, cont.:
Knowing myself, somewhat, I chose not to watch or listen to the first 13 games of the 2018 post season. The regular season had been superb with the Sox winning the most games ever in their history, going 108-54. They had a winning percentage of 67%, and I had watched many of those games as it was clear to me that something special was happening this year. And I posted that it didn’t matter if they won the World Series or not as they had given me and other fans a wonderful season (see For Me, the Sox Don’t HAVE to Win the World Series). I got a lot of criticism for that post and disbelief. But I meant it.
Plus, I couldn’t bear to watch them lose to the Yankees, Astros, or the Dodgers, as anything is possible in the postseason, especially to the Sox. So I went to bed every night not knowing the score of the first 13 games, often waking in the middle of the night to see what had happened. (Fortunately, Ellen kept silent about what was happening in each game as she apparently continually checked the score on her iPhone). If I saw they won, I would then watch every video and read everything about that win. If they lost (which they only did three times), I would immediately go back to sleep, except for that 18 inning game they lost to the Dodgers. That one demanded I read about what happened, and the ‘boo birds’ started with saying the WS had turned around, and the Sox would likely lose now.
When the Sox won the next game the next day and went ahead 3-1 over the Dodgers, I was presented with the same dilemma as I had had in 2004. If I watched, and they lost, it would be a miserable three-four hours, leaving me in pain.
But if they won, how could I not have watched it, including the celebrations at the end?
And after all, I ‘reasoned,’ they still would have three more chances to win the WS. So I didn’t really need to be fearful of sharp instruments or high places if they lost that fifth game.
I’ve been toting up the answers and winners, etc. for three of the four MillersTime Baseball Contests for 2018. One contest was already decided, and the winner and runners up were announced earlier: Contest #2: Which League will win the All-Star game in 2018 (click on link to see that result.).
But I need some advice and your suggestions about the winner(s) for Contest #1. Contests #3 and #4 have clear winners and runners up and will be announced as soon as I’ve sorted out, with your help, Contest #1.
So, regarding Contest #1, there are five individuals I am considering. I will list them below by Contest Number so you will not be influenced by a name (though if you recognize your own submission, feel free to push for yourself if that is something you wish to do).
Here are the details:
Contest #1: Pick your favorite MLB team (or the one you know most about) and answer the following questions to prove whether you’re just a homer (“Someone who shows blind loyalty to a team or organization typically ignoring any shortcomings or faults they have”) or whether you really know something about your team and can honestly evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. Answers to the following three questions will determine who wins this contest:
A. What will your team’s regular season 162 game record be in 2018?
B. Will they make the playoffs (or postseason as someone pointed out to me MLB calls the playoffs), and if so, how far will they go?
C. What will be the most important SINGLE factor in determining their season?
Possible Winners, Co-Winners, Runners-Up:
Contestant A: Picked the Cards whose season record was 88-74. They did not make the playoffs. They were ranked 9th out of the 15 teams in the NL in terms of BA vs their pitchers and were 13th out of 15th in WHIP. This contestant predicted the Cards record would be 86-76, they wouldn’t make the playoffs, and said the single most important factor in their season would be pitching.
Contestant B: Picked the Red Sox who season record was 108-54. They won the World Series, hitting and pitching and some other factors all played important roles in the season and the postseason. This contestant said the Red Sox record would be 93-69, they’d win the WS over the Dodgers, and said the single most important factor in their season would be hitting.
Contestant C: Also picked the Red Sox who season record was 108-54. They won the World Series, hitting and pitching and some other factors all played important roles in the season and the postseason. This contestant said the Red Sox record would be 99-63, they’d win the WS, and JD Martinez would hit 44 HRs (he hit 43) which would be the single most important factor in their season.
Contestant D: Picked the Nationals who season record was 82-80. They did not make the postseason, tho many had predicted they would, and probably the two reasons they did not do so had to do with not bringing in runners who were on base (i.e., hitting) and/or being ranked 7th out of 15 National League teams in pitching). This contestant said their record would be 83-79, they would not make the playoffs and said the single most important factor in their season would be lack of hitting.
Contestant E: Also picked the Red Sox who season record was 108-54. They won the World Series, hitting and pitching and some other factors all played important roles in the season and the postseason. This contestant said their record would be 95-67, they’d lose to the Dodgers in the WS, and the single most important factor in their season with be hitting.
You can help determine the winner by ranking these five contestants in order from one to five (one being the best answer, etc.).
You may determine that there should be co-winners (two or more being tied for first).
It would be helpful for me, who will ultimately have to make the choice of who wins, if you gave a reason(s) for you votes and rankings.
You have until Tuesday of next week (Nov. 6) to submit your votes, which you can do either in the Comment section of this post or in an email to me (Samesty84@gmail.com).
I head off later today to Boston with my nine year old grandson Eli for a trip to Fenway Park, planned months and months ago, to see the final three games of what has turned out for me to be a wonderful 2018 baseball season. (If you haven’t seen my earlier post about our first trip to this Red Sox temple, check out A Seven Year Old’s First Trip to Fenway.)
All three of these games will be against the Yankees, but these three games will have no major bearing on the playoffs. Rather, for me they will be a celebration of what has been the best regular season record in the 118 year history of the team. Their record, prior to these last three games, is 107-52, two wins better than their previous franchise record.
I could write pages on why this year has been so successful (see my earlier post, Success Has Many Fathers… for at least some the reasons I believe my heroes have done so well). And I could also list dozens of reasons why it has been the single best season in at least the 68 years since my grandfather first took me to Fenway when I was seven.
Yes. They won the World Series in 2004 after almost a century of not doing so. And then they won the WS twice more within the succeeding ten year period. The 2004 win was certainly the highlight of my (baseball) life as a long suffering Sox fan.
But, in some ways, this year has been at least as wonderful. Ever since Spring Training when the Sox went 22-9 (.710), they have played at a pace between .675 and .700+. Do you know what that means to a baseball fan, especially to a Red Sox fan?
It has meant that almost seven out of every ten games the Sox have played, they’ve won – sometimes on hitting, sometimes on starting pitching, some on relief pitching, some times on fielding, sometimes on base running, and often even when they were down as many as six or seven runs. They never lost more than three games in a row the entire season.
For me, that meant that I could go to sleep most nights ‘celebrating’ a victory. Also, it meant my wife Ellen did not have to sleep beside a disgruntled bed partner. And that went on for SIX months, half a year. Simply unheard of for this obsessive baseball fan.
Now, I’ve been reading and hearing for months that the season doesn’t matter if the Sox don’t at least make it into the World Series…and for some, they have to win the WS to make 2018 truly a special year.
Not so for me.
Of course I want them to win it all, and I’ll not be a happy camper if they don’t go far into the playoffs.
But nothing can take away how wonderful this season has been. How delightful it has been to see this group of 25+ players, along with their coaches, their staff, their ownership do what no other Red Sox team has ever done, and to see the joy on their faces seven out of every ten games.
Isn’t there some over used meme about getting there being half the fun?
In fact, I think one of my daughters wrote her college essay on the Ursula La Guin quote, “It’s good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.”
For me, this year’s Red Sox journey has been what matters.
With the unexpected weekend sweep of four games over the Yankees Sunday night, the Sox went 9.5 games ahead of their chief rivals, the boys from the Bronx. As of last night, the Sox have a record of 81-35 (.704), and both Sox and Yankee followers are saying the race is over for the AL East Division.
Those of us who have been Sox fans for many years (at least 68 of my 75 years) know the truth of “it’s never over ’til it’s over.” With six games remaining between these two teams in the last 12 games of the season, if the Yankees make up five or so in the meantime, anything can happen.
Nevertheless, to play at a rate of winning seven out of every ten games for the first 115 games of the season is pretty special. Friends and foes alike have been asking me what’s making the Sox so good this year and are asking if I think it will it last.
As an obsessed and subjective Sox fan, these are the factors that strike me.
