by John Walters
Who’s Your Yadi?
Rule No. 7 (In any baseball game you have a chance of seeing something you’ve never seen before) was in full effect last night as the Cardinals put up a 10-run first that included one sacrifice bunt and zero home runs. The series was over before the Braves ever got to bat.
St. Louis wins Game 5 13-1 in a contest in which they were out-homered by Atlanta, 1-0.
Defeat of Clay
In a first-ballot Hall of Fame career, Los Angeles Dodger pitcher has never given up back-to-back home runs on consecutive pitches—in the regular season. He’s now done it twice in October as he allowed back-to-back blasts to Washington’s top hitters, Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto. The Nats tied the game 3-3 on those bombs and then used a Howie Kendrick grand slam in the 10th to win 7-3 and advance.
Meanwhile, anyone remember when Bryce Harper’s departure was supposed to leave the Nats mediocre? Also, another Rule No. 7 moment as in the bottom of the first Joc Pederson hit a ball through the outfield fence (an opening in the chain link fence).
By the way, the Nats are now 3-0 this postseason in their navy-blue tops. Manager Davey Martinez: “I’m not superstitious. I’m just a little stitious.”
There’s An App For That
Given a rare prime-time TV appearance, Appalachian State moves to 5-0 with a 17-7 win at Louisiana. The Mountaineers are now 16-2 the past two seasons, the lone defeats being at Georgia Southern and in overtime at Penn State. A note on first-year coach Eli Drinkwitz, 36: he never played college football but was the student body president at Arkansas Tech.
The Mountaineers have a decent shot of being the Group of Five school that plays in a New Year’s Six bowl.
Pence-ive Reply
This is what “I Want Not To Be Here” looks like from a compromised politician whose sole role is to defend his crooked boss.
Give Her The Turnover Chain
Speaking of dumb crooks, check out this amazing turnover in a foiled robbery at a hotel in Kentucky….
For most of the past decade, I would hear chatter every Spring that “THIS is the year the Nationals are going to win the World Series!” Sometimes, that chatter would still be chatting into September but then…. the Nats would lose early in baseball’s “post-season” if they got in at all. THIS Spring, I heard nuthin, no chatter, just left-over moaning from losing their big star Harper. So, when I saw that the Nats got into the post-season as a Wild Card, I was shocked & impressed. That they WON that game, made me more so. That the Nats have now beaten the “best team in baseball this year” (according to some) in a final Game 5 with the Dodgers to advance in the NLDS leaves me & most of the DMV shell-shocked. To sum up Washington pro sports right now : the Nationals are playing & fighting to eventually get into & win the World Series. The Mystics are playing & fighting to win the WNBA’s championship. And the Redskins are fighting…. to be the worst team in the entire NFL. Yep, it’s confirmed – the world is now upside-down. 🙂
About the NBA & China : on one hand, the current “crisis” was inevitable. That the NBA got as large as it has in that country is actually a bigger shock. The most “progressive sports league” in our country, perhaps the world, with the most outspoken athletes & insert them into a totalitarian regime that says “sure, we’ve got free speech as long as you DON’T say anything we don’t want you to say!”? The only reason it hasn’t blown up till now is that America barely pays attention to the abuses in that country. To make money, we slap on some blinders & kid ourselves that any business, sports, entertainment that goes from the West to the East is “OPENING” China & that they will then “see the light of democracy, etc, etc,”. LOL! This whole blinders thing had been working up till now, but what happens when the blinders get ripped off & you realize who you’re REALLY ‘in bed with’?
I was disappointed with Silver’s opening statement & sadly wonder if he ‘re-spoke’ his & the NBA’s position only after the stink it caused here. I don’t envy him or the NBA right now. However, the loud-mouthed gutless wonders in Congress & the media that have jumped on this to “insist” the NBA sever all business in China? WTF? Hey, Apple, McDonalds, Disney, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Tapestry, Activision and many, many other AMERICAN businesses & all you American farmers – STOP DOING BUSINESS IN & WITH CHINA RIGHT NOW too! Do you hear all those politicians & media types screaming for that? What a bunch of, um, ‘phooey’.
I have no plans to ever start up my own blog but if I do, I already have the name for it : GREAT & UNMATCHED WISDOM. I hereby grant you the right to “lease” it for a new segment on MH. 🙂 (Honestly, when you 1st saw ‘that tweet’, did you not think you & the entire world were being punked?)
Finally, I clicked on NBA-TV this morning to see if that NBA preseason game was actually going to happen. It was. Guess who’s wearing a headband again?! If I was 15, I’d be asking my best friend “so, do you think he wants to get back together?” 🙂 🙂