Yankee4Life

Pie Traynor Harold Joseph Traynor was born on November 11, 1898, in Framingham, Massachusetts, about 22 miles west of Boston. When Harold was 5 years old, the family relocated to Somerville, three miles northwest of downtown Boston, and soon he was nagging the older boys in his neighborhood to let him join their baseball games. When they finally gave in, they put 6-year-old Harold behind the plate — without a mask. In his first game, a pitch smacked him in the mouth and knocked out two teeth.Undeterred by that rough initiation, Harold became a fixture at the neighborhood games, where he met the man who tagged him with his memorable nickname. Traynor and the other kids in his neighborhood befriended a slightly older boy named Ben Nangle, whose family owned a popular corner store. “The kids, in fact nearly everybody in town, used to gather at [the] store in the afternoon or evening,” according to Traynor. Nangle sometimes would umpire the younger children’s games and then parade them back to the store. When they arrived, Nangle would ask them what they wanted. Without fail, Traynor would request a slice of pie. Nangle took to calling him “Pie Face,” which his buddies later shortened to “Pie.” His father made a decent living working as a typesetter for the Boston Transcript, but with such a large family to feed, young Pie had to pull his weight. Starting at the age of 12, he worked after school as a messenger boy and office hand, adding a few extra dollars to the family war chest. When he wasn’t at school or work, Pie played pickup baseball games on Boston Common and for his high-school team in Somerville. After the war, Traynor managed to secure a tryout with the Boston Braves. “I wanted to play for the Braves ever since I was a little boy in Framingham,” he said. But the tryout was a disaster. He started out by taking some groundballs during batting practice. “Then the bell rang for fielding practice and I stayed in the infield,” he remembered. “I didn’t even know what the bell meant. I soon found out. [Braves manager] George Stallings ran me out of there in a hurry and I was so scared I never came back.” Instead, he spent the summer of 1919 playing for Falmouth in the Cape League (later known as the Cape Cod League). The next spring, though, Boston Record sportswriter Eddie Hurley arranged for Traynor to work out with the Boston Red Sox. Veteran pitcher Joe Bush watched Traynor pick groundball after groundball during batting practice. “I grabbed a fungo stick one day and yelled to him, ‘Hey, Sonny, let’s see you get the ones I’m going to hit you.’ The kid was amazing.” But veteran Red Sox shortstop Everett Scott, perhaps with an eye toward protecting his own job, told manager Ed Barrow that he wasn’t all that impressed. So instead of signing Traynor, Barrow recommended him to Portsmouth of the Class-B Virginia League, a team with which the Red Sox had an unofficial but not legally binding working relationship. Traynor signed with Portsmouth for $200 a month on May 11, 1920. According to Barrow, “I made it plain [to Portsmouth owner H.P. Dawson] he belonged to Boston, even though I hadn’t signed him to a Red Sox contract.” Batting leadoff and playing shortstop, Traynor batted .270 in 104 games. Although his glove work was suspect (31 errors), major-league teams took notice. So Dawson, who obviously looked at Portsmouth’s relationship with the Red Sox a little differently than Barrow did, sat back and dangled Traynor before one suitor after another. The New York Giants wanted Traynor, but refused to pay more than $7,500, an offer Dawson dismissed. Washington Senators owner Calvin Griffith, still annoyed more than a quarter-century later, claimed that Traynor should have been his. “They owed me the pick of their club in exchange for three ballplayers I sent them the summer before,” Griffith griped to Washington Post columnist Shirley Povich in 1947. “So I picked Traynor and thought he belonged to me. Then the owner weaseled out of it. He told me I’d have to give him $5,000 extra. … If we’d have had Traynor for third base and [Ossie] Bluege for shortstop we would have won four straight pennants instead of two.” On September 11, 1920, it was the Pittsburgh Pirates who, on the recommendation of scout Tom McNamara, finally met Dawson’s asking price, shelling out $10,000 for Traynor; up to that point it was the largest amount ever paid for a Virginia League player. Like Griffith, Barrow thought he’d been had. “I hit the ceiling. I grabbed the phone and called Dawson and called him everything I could think of.” He even appealed to American League President Ban Johnson, but there was nothing Johnson could do. The Red Sox had just let one of the best players of his generation slip through their fingers. “I never stopped giving Barrow the needle about his mistake,” said Bush. From 1923 until injuries started to take their toll around 1929, Traynor probably was the best defensive third baseman in baseball. He was 6 feet tall, which was large for a third baseman of his era, but very agile. He was brilliant at charging bunts and weakly hit groundballs, and had a knack for moving quickly to his right and making backhanded stops. “Pie had the quickest hands, the quickest arm of any third baseman,” said former teammate Charlie Grimm. “And from any angle he threw strikes.” The Cubs’ Billy Herman agreed. “Most marvelous pair of hands you’d ever want to see.” To columnist Red Smith, watching Traynor play third was “like looking over daVinci’s shoulder.” Traynor led National League third basemen in assists three times, putouts seven times, and double plays four times. His biggest defensive flaw was his arm — extremely strong, but often wild; but he learned how to compensate, according to Herman. “You’d hit a shot at him, a play that he could take his time on, and he’d catch it and throw it right quick, so that if his peg was wild, the first baseman had time to get off the bag, take the throw, and get back on again. It was the only way Traynor could throw; if he took his time, he was really wild.” Traynor established himself as an offensive force in 1923, putting together what might have been his best overall season at the plate. He hit .338 with a career-high 12 home runs and 101 RBIs. His 19 triples tied teammate Max Carey for tops in the major leagues, and his 28 stolen bases were also a career best. The Giants set the pace in the National League early in 1925, but by mid-June the Pirates were charging hard. After the Pirates beat the Giants 13-11 in 10 innings on June 16 to complete a four-game sweep), Harry Cross of the New York Times wrote of the Giants, “Their temperature is far above normal, respiration is alarming, blood pressure is kiting, and they are suffering from housemaid’s knee and their appetites have gone blooey.” The rumors of the Giants’ death were greatly exaggerated, though; they went back and forth with the Pirates until August. But from August 26 through September 23 Pittsburgh won 22 of 30 games, including a pair of nine-game winning streaks, and took the pennant by 8½ games. Traynor was marvelous, batting .320 with 106 RBIs, and leading third basemen in fielding percentage and total chances. His 41 double plays set a National League record for third basemen that stood for 25 years; four of those double plays came in one game, which set a major-league record later tied by Johnny Vergez in 1935. After having an abscess on his hip lanced in late September, Traynor was fully healthy for the World Series matchup against defending champion Washington. In Game One, Traynor homered off Walter Johnson and made a spectacular diving grab of a Muddy Ruel smash, but the Senators won, 4-1. Down three games to one, the Bucs rallied to force a classic Game Seven. In the rain and muck of Forbes Field, the Senators touched Vic Aldridge for four runs in the first inning. But Pittsburgh chipped away; in the seventh inning, Traynor rocketed an RBI triple deep into the fog to tie the game, 6-6. He was tagged out trying to stretch it into a home run. Then with the score tied 7-7 in the bottom of the eighth, Kiki Cuyler lashed a bases-loaded two-run double off a worn-out Johnson to give the Pirates their second World Series championship. The 1927 Pirates added little Lloyd Waner to the lineup. Traynor took one look at the 132-pound Waner and deemed him “too small, too thin, and too scrawny.” But his .355 batting average helped propel the Pirates to another National League pennant, as they edged out St. Louis and the Giants in a spirited race. Traynor batted .342, drove in 106 runs, finished seventh in the National League MVP voting, and was The Sporting News‘ all-star third baseman for the third straight season. In the World Series, Pittsburgh was merely fresh meat for the ’27 Yankees, perhaps the greatest team ever. “We had just gone through as tough a pennant race as you could image … and we were worn to a bone,” recalled Traynor. He claimed that he was down to 150 pounds (from his normal playing weight of 170), while Paul and Lloyd Waner had shriveled to 125 and 127 pounds, respectively. “We were whipped before we took the field,” Traynor remarked. Legend has it that prior to Game One the young Pirates stood in front of their dugout mesmerized as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig sent one towering drive after another out of the park. Traynor always asserted that was bunk. “It’s just not true. We finished our batting practice and immediately went in for a clubhouse meeting.” There is no disputing what happened once the games began, however. The Yankees ripped through the Pirates in four straight, winning the deciding game on a wild pitch by Johnny Miljus in the bottom of the ninth. A nasty eye infection had Traynor on the sidelines for several weeks during the spring of 1930. It was so bad that he could hardly see out of his left eye. Thinking that the infection stemmed from another infection in his teeth, doctors resorted to pulling two teeth in hopes of clearing the bacteria from his system; even after his vision returned to full strength, Traynor still had to wear smoked glasses to protect his eye from the sunlight. He didn’t return to the lineup full time until late May, but he compiled the highest batting average (.366) and on-base percentage (.423) of his career. The Pirates struggled to a fifth-place finish in 1931 and Traynor was a big reason why. His defense was well below its usual standard, due in large part to a sore throwing arm that he nursed all season. It was a bit of an ordeal at the plate for him, too; for the first time in seven seasons, Traynor fell short of the .300 mark, at .298. Nonetheless, he drove in over 100 runs (103, to be precise) for the fifth straight year. Traynor and the Pirates both enjoyed nice recoveries in 1932. Although a sore shoulder in late May snapped his streak of 317 consecutive games played, Traynor boosted his average back up to .329, tightened up his defense a bit, and finished third (behind Chuck Klein and Lefty O’Doul) in the balloting for The Sporting News‘ National League MVP. Against the Boston Braves on August 30, he recorded his 2,000th career hit. The Pirates entered August leading the National League by 5½ games, but a 10-20 record that month doomed them to second place, four games behind Chicago. The Cincinnati Reds wanted Traynor as their player-manager for 1933, but Traynor said he wasn’t interested — and even if he were, Pirates management wasn’t about to let him go. In ’33, the Pirates again came home in second place, this time five games behind the Giants. Traynor hit .304 and was named to his seventh and final Sporting News all-star team. On July 6 he appeared as a pinch-hitter in the inaugural major-league All-Star Game at Comiskey Park, doubling off Lefty Grove in the seventh inning. The Pirates started strong in 1934. On May 24 they moved into first place, thanks in part to a reinvigorated Traynor, who was batting .469 (Traynor had played in only 13 games by this point thanks to a shoulder that sometimes hurt so much that he could hardly sleep). By June, though, the Pirates were in a tailspin and the fans, frustrated by the near misses of ’32 and ’33, had turned on Gibson. At a June 17 game, which the Pirates lost, 9-3, a crowd of 16,000 booed Gibson lustily every time he stuck his head out of the dugout. Two days later, with the Pirates 27-24 but losers of seven of their last eight games, Pirates president Bill Benswanger released Gibson and asked a stunned Traynor to take over as player-manager. The Bucs won 10 of their first 16 games under Traynor; however, much of that record was built up against second-division punching bags Cincinnati and Philadelphia. During one of those games in Philadelphia he suffered an injury from which he would never fully recover. Traynor overslid the plate on a close play at home, and as he reached back to touch it, catcher Jimmie Wilson fell on his arm. “I felt something snap and was certain I had a broken arm,” said Traynor. “I didn’t, but I couldn’t throw well anymore.” Just when it appeared Pittsburgh was crawling back into the race, the Pirates lost nine straight in July and freefell out of contention, eventually finishing in fifth place. Through it all, Traynor appeared to be teetering on the edge of nervous breakdown. Traynor was, in many ways, psychologically unsuited for the role of major-league manager. By August he had lost 10 pounds in two months, appeared remarkably gaunt, and had all but stopped sleeping. Traynor played in 57 games in 1935, but the Pirates likely would have been better off if he hadn’t. He batted around .230 for much of the year. A late surge got him up to .279, but that was still the lowest mark of his career for a full season. Traynor’s playing days quietly melted away. He spent the 1935-36 offseason working with doctors in Cincinnati and California trying to get his arm in shape. He came to spring training with plans to play if he had to, but Cookie Lavagetto and perennial prospect Bill Brubaker showed enough promise at third base that Traynor decided not to take the field at all in 1936, although he kept himself on the active roster. In July 1937 injuries forced Traynor back into the lineup for a series against the Dodgers. He hadn’t taken infield or batting practice in weeks and admitted before his first game back, “I’m nervous as a bride. I’m really a little scared.” Then 1938. The Pirates caught fire in June and July, going 40-14 over those months, including a 13-game winning streak. They entered September with a comfortable seven-game lead over the Chicago Cubs. Chicago player-manager Gabby Hartnett returned from a broken thumb in September, and the Cubs immediately started playing their best baseball of the year. But still, seven games seemed a lot to overcome. Giants manager Bill Terry joked that the Pirates ought to quit baseball if they blew the lead. Traynor was irate when he read that, but a lot people agreed with Terry. On September 21, with the lead down to 3½ games, Shirley Povich wrote in the Washington Post that the World Series was coming to Pittsburgh “unless the Pirates suffer a complete collapse.” The next day Roscoe McGowen of the New York Times predicted that nothing short of “the greatest flop in history” would keep the Pirates from the pennant. A Chicago Tribune headline blared “Cubs Must Work Miracle.” The Pirates moved ahead with the sale of World Series tickets (they sold $1.5 million worth) and the construction of special bleachers at Forbes Field. But the Cubs didn’t care. They just kept on winning. On September 27 the Cubs won the first game of the series, 2-1, to close to within a half-game. Then the next day, with darkness approaching, Hartnett smacked a Mace Brown pitch over the wall in the bottom of the ninth to give the Cubs a 6-5 victory. The home run became known in Cubs lore as the “Homer in the Gloamin’.” Although Pittsburgh still had five games remaining, that blow by Hartnett shattered their spirit. The Cubs won the next day, 10-1, and officially clinched the pennant on October 1. In 1939 the Bucs hung around the periphery of the pennant race for a while, but a 12-game losing streak in August doomed the Pirates to their worst finish in 22 years. On September 28, exactly one year removed from Hartnett’s crushing homer, Traynor tendered his resignation, and accepted a job within the organization as a scout. In a seventeen-year major league career, Traynor played in 1,941 games, accumulating 2,416 hits in 7,559 at bats for a .320 career batting average along with 58 home runs, 1,273 runs batted in and an on-base percentage of .362. He retired with a .946 fielding percentage.

Arky Vaughan Arky Vaughan’s career achievements were remarkable. In 1935 Vaughan led the National League with a .385 batting average, and his .318 lifetime average is second among all shortstops to Honus Wagner’s .327. Over his career Vaughan walked 937 times, while striking out just 276 times. He was among the most difficult players to double up, grounding into only seventy double plays in the last thirteen years of his fourteen-year career. (GIDP was not tracked in 1932). Vaughan’s on-base average was an impressive .406 while his slugging percentage was a highly respectable .453. An All-Star selection for nine consecutive years, he compiled a .364 batting average in All-Star Games, and he was the first player to hit two home runs in one. Joseph Floyd Vaughan was born on March 9, 1912, in Clifty, Arkansas, a farm village about twenty-five miles northeast of Fayetteville. When Arky was seven months old, his parents, Robert and Laura Vaughan, moved the family, including two older sisters, to Mendocino County near San Francisco. They later relocated to Fullerton, California, where Robert found work in the California oilfields. Joseph Floyd Vaughan’s childhood friends began calling him Arky as soon as they learned of his birthplace, and he was known as Arky Vaughan for the rest of his life. Playing his first season of professional baseball for the 1931 Wichita Aviators of the Class A Western League, the nineteen-year-old Vaughan made an immediate impact. He batted .338 with twenty-one home runs, eighty-one runs batted in, and a league-leading 145 runs scored and forty-three stolen bases. Vaughan’s performance earned him a promotion to the Pirates. No-hit, good-field Tommy Thevenow had been the Pirates’ regular shortstop in 1931, and manager George Gibson started him at the position in the 1932 opener. Five days later, on April 17, the twenty-year-old Vaughan made his major-league debut, striking out as a pinch-hitter against Cincinnati’s Larry Benton. Vaughan got his first start at shortstop on April 28, after Thevenow broke a finger. The left-handed hitting Californian made an impressive debut with two triples and three runs batted in. The next day, facing future Hall of Fame pitcher Eppa Rixey, Vaughan went 2-for-4. Now firmly established as the Pirates’ starting shortstop, Vaughan had a 5-for-5 day on June 7. He hit his first major-league home run on July 26, off Jim Mooney of the New York Giants. Vaughan’s rookie batting average was .318, but he struggled in the field, committing a league-leading forty-six errors. On August 11, Vaughan the youngest player in the National League, made a crucial error in the tenth inning that allowed the Chicago Cubs to beat Pittsburgh and take over first place in the National League. The Pirates eventually finished second, four games behind the Cubs. In 1933 Vaughan played shortstop in all but two of the Pirates’ games and began to exhibit good power as well as outstanding speed. On May 1 he and catcher Earl Grace both slugged grand slams in a rout of the Philadelphia Phillies. For Vaughan, whose home run was inside-the-park, it was the first of his four major-league grand slams. On June 24, he hit for the cycle, going 5-for-5 with five RBIs against Brooklyn. In 1935 Vaughan had the best season of his career. He was hitting .401 in mid-September, but an eight-game slump lowered his final batting average to .385. Arky led the league in walks (97), on-base percentage (.491) and slugging percentage (.607), and his nineteen home runs and ninety-nine runs batted in were career highs. His .491 on-base percentage remains the highest ever for a Pirates’ player. Vaughan finished third in the baseball writers vote for the National League’s Most Valuable Player; however, The Sporting News selected him as their MVP in the National League and the shortstop on their postseason Major League All-Star team. In 1940, under new manager Frankie Frisch, Vaughan batted an even .300, drove in ninety-five runs, and led the National League in runs scored and triples. The 1941 season was Vaughan’s last year in Pittsburgh. Playing in only 106 games, he hit .316 with six home runs and just thirty-eight RBIs. Vaughan’s playing time was limited by two injuries. In midseason he suffered a spike wound and was out of the lineup for two weeks. Then, on August 30, he suffered a concussion when he was hit in the head by a pitch during an exhibition game in London, Ontario. Vaughan tried to return to the lineup, but he had severe headaches, and the team doctors ordered him to bed. Despite his drop in production, Vaughan was again selected as the starting shortstop for the National League All-Star team. In the All-Star Game at Briggs Stadium in Detroit, Vaughan had perhaps his most memorable performance. After getting a single early in the contest, he homered in the seventh with a man on base, putting the National League ahead, 3–2. In the next inning, Vaughan hit his second successive two-run homer, raising the National League’s lead to 5–2. Vaughan appeared to be the day’s hero until Ted Williams of the Red Sox won the game for the American League, 7–5, with a dramatic ninth-inning, three-run homer. The Dodgers won the National League pennant in 1947, and Vaughan had an opportunity to play in his only World Series. Facing the Yankees, Vaughan drew a walk and belted a double in three pinch-hitting appearances. Vaughan returned to the Dodgers in 1948 as a part-time player, but by 1949, wanting to be closer to home, he joined the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. In his final season of professional baseball, Arky batted .288 in ninety-seven games. Following his retirement from baseball, Vaughan devoted all his energies to his family, his ranch, and his hobby of fishing. On August 30, 1952, he and a friend, Bill Wimer, sailed their fishing boat to Lost Lake, east of the Northern California town of Eagleville. The lake, in the crater of an extinct volcano, had reportedly never been sounded. The skiff capsized and, according to a witness, Vaughan and Wimer started swimming for shore. The men swam about sixty-five yards in the chilly water and were only twenty feet from shore when they sank in water that was twenty feet deep. Later reports stated that Vaughan was trying to save Wimer, who, it was reported, could not swim. Their bodies were recovered early the next morning. Vaughan was forty years old. Ignoring his accomplishments, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America never gave Vaughan more than 29 percent of their votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame. (75 percent is required for election.) Vaughan dropped off the BBWAA ballot after 1968, and not until 1985 did he at last gain election, by a vote of the Veterans’ Committee. Yet Arky Vaughan remains relatively unknown in comparison to his fellow Hall of Famers. Overlooked and underappreciated, Vaughan ranks among the top shortstops and offensive stars of his or any era.

9 out of 10, 87 seconds. Tough but fair questions today.

10 out of 10, 41 seconds. Easy questions! I mean there is no way anyone will have missed question two (Which of the following players' last name, does NOT start with a "G"?)

4 out of 10, 79 seconds. This was really tough today.

10 out of 10, 46 seconds. A good comeback.

5 out of 10, 55 seconds. I am terrible guessing what college some guy went to. What do I care?

2 out of 10, 41 seconds. I believe this is my worst one ever.

6 out of 10, 81 seconds. Not a good day at all.

10 out of 10, 44 seconds. Sometimes when they say "easy" they really mean it.

Updated to 11-20 ...The 2022 Yankees: Different season, same result, Dept: It was another predictable end to the Yankees season as they quietly lost their last four games to the eventual World Champion Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series. It is very hard to win when your team does not show up except for one guy (Harrison Bader) who did not get the memorandum that you were supposed to go up there, take three mighty swings and then walk back to the dugout. Aaron Judge and Josh Donaldson sure did. Like most people I like to make predictions during the baseball season and just like anyone else I am usually wrong. But I was not wrong about this Yankee team because I said back in February that I had no faith and confidence in this team and I did not change my mind even when they started out like gangbusters. That was nice to see but it’s better to finish like that and by the time the season was coming to a close it seemed that someone was getting hurt every single day. The Yankees may have not won since 2009 but they once again lead the major leagues in injuries. Their good start allowed them to hold off a very tough Tampa ball club and if it wasn’t for Aaron Judge’s incredible year they’d have never held on to first place. Every team gets in slumps but not as long as the Yankees did. For two months all they did was make every opposing pitcher look like Cy Young reincarnated. I know I do not have the gift of patience when it comes to being a Yankee fan but even this was pushing the limit. I don’t care if they sign Judge or not. They already are overpaying Stanton who always seems to take the summer off with injuries and I am counting on him doing it again next year. If Judge wants eight years or more then all I got to say is that he will look good in a Giant uniform or wherever he goes. Anything lower than that I won’t complain but since Cashman calls the shots I am not hopeful. What I think the Yankees need to do is give their young players a shot. The kids like Peraza, Volpe, Cabrera and Florial. But does anyone see that happening? Neither do I. Florial’s up for two games and then they send him down again. Houston won with a rookie shortstop. We did too back in 1996. I don’t see it repeating any time soon. ...There are some that may think that the San Diego Padres were fortunate to make the playoffs this season especially the way Juan Soto struggled after joining the team at the beginning of August but for anyone who has watched the team play on MLB.TV it was one player who was the basically kept things running smoothly and it wasn’t one of their multi-million dollar players. Ha-Seong Kim hit .251 this season with eleven home runs and fifty-nine runs batted in. Most importantly he only made eight errors in 150 games and his steady play at the position overshadowed the selfish me-first attitude of Fernando Tatis, Jr. and it was just what the Padres needed for their playoff push. It is a shame that Kim may be regulated to the bench when Tatis comes back next spring. This was a lost season for Tatis, who, with his actions in the 2021 off season forced him to have surgery because of two motorcycle accidents. That took care of the first three months of the season. Tatis was then suspended on August 12th for the remainder of the season for eighty games because he was caught using steroids. His father came out with some unintentionally amusing comments a few days after the decision to ban his son for the rest of the season. He called it "a catastrophe" and that his son’s reputation has been tarnished because of it. No you idiot. A catastrophe is the hurricane they had down in Florida not that long ago or the 6.1 earthquake Japan had this month. That’s a catastrophe, not whether your self-centered son was going to be able to play. But he wasn’t done. The older Tatis said that millions of fans were going to stop watching baseball because his son wasn’t going to be able to play. It’s obvious to see where Tatis Jr. gets his brains from. He will be back with San Diego once the remaining games of his suspension is served and if it were any other player I’d say this would be a big help for San Diego but the only thing Tatis, Jr is interested in is Tatis, Jr. Ha-Seong Kim was the right guy for San Diego this year but now has to take a back seat to a big contract and an even bigger ego. ...One of my favorite things to do especially with the winter months here is going to see a movie on the big screen but I have not been to one since I saw Jurassic World: Dominion back in June. That’s because more often then not a new comic book movie is being released and while I generally do enjoy one or two of them the steady bombardment of them has become a little bit too much. It’s like being given nothing to eat for dinner but pizza and wings and and while that sounds good on the surface eventually you will find yourself sick of it. ...I have never been a member of the Twitter world and I have never had the desire to but whatever Elon Musk is doing or planning on doing to it I just have to ask one question. Isn’t there another place that people can gravitate to so they can continue posting their complaints along with their whining and moaning and groaning about everything they don’t like or what does not go their way? There has to be another social media outlet where all the cool kids can run off to and start posting again and calling this, that and the other thing “racial.” If not, pay your money and make a rich guy even richer. ...Why the hell do people pile on Jewish folks and give them so much hate? I have always wondered that and I have even wanted to go and ask a rabbi about this but I don’t know where any temples are in my area even though we do have quite a few. In every society Jews have made positive contributions in the world of science, medicine, literature, entertainment and sports and that is hardly an exaggeration. I wonder what made Kanye West start in on the Jews although to be fair I have to wonder what makes that guy do anything. He has been getting away with a lot of things and he even thought he was untouchable with Adidas with the comments he made about Jewish people because he said they wouldn’t touch him. Well, they did and now along with other companies that dropped him (all non-Jewish) he lost over a billion dollars. Don’t start a GoFundMe for him yet because he still has four hundred million dollars left so he should be ok for the next hundred years, give or take a few decades. Remember back in 2006 with Mel Gibson was arrested for suspected drink driving in Malibu? He made anti-Semitic remarks to a policeman, which he later apologized for, stating that the comments were “blurted out in a moment of insanity”. He was was blacklisted by Hollywood for a short time but has since returned. When he wasn’t working no one would touch him and he received zero support. It wasn’t the same for West. Antisemitic demonstrators referenced him in signs raised in Los Angeles and Jacksonville in support of what he said. I won’t make excuses for what either one said but Gibson’s comments, wrong as they were, were said when he was intoxicated. The same could not be said for West which just goes to show how he really feels about the people who follow the Hebrew faith and nothing he said can be excused by having one too many drinks. ...From Russia, With Love, Dept: For the next nine and one half years that is exactly what basketball star Brittney Griner is going to learn to do because that is how long she was sentenced by a Russian court for trying to smuggle less than 1 gram of cannabis oil in her luggage back in February when she arrived there to play with the Russian Premier League during the WNBA offseason. There’s been some talk that the Russians did this to her because she’s a lesbian but I don’t buy that at all. If they had a problem with her being gay they’d have let her play out the basketball season there and then got her the hell out of the country. Some people have been arguing that she “only had” less than a gram of the cannabis oil and that she accidentally packed the drugs while in a hurry to be able to catch her flight to Russia. If that’s what she did then she is even dumber than she looks. First of all less than a gram of anything illegal entering Russia is more than enough for them to detain you and arrest you, which is what happened here. And if she was in a hurry and just threw stuff in her suitcase without double-checking the contents knowing that she was going to a country that is famous for having a tight control over the rights of their countrymen, then all of this is on her and her alone. When you’re in Russia they are the home team and you play by their rules. She’s going to be there so long that by the time she gets out she’s going to know the language. All this for less than a gram. ...Last year Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna was arrested on charges of aggravated assault by strangulation and battery after police officers said they witnessed him attacking his wife. The guy couldn’t even try to deny it since the cops were right there watching him trying to take all the air out of his wife. He skated by on that one when all the charges were dropped after he completed a pretrial diversion program. He later told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that what he mostly learned from that program was that if he did this again to look around first and be sure there were no police officers in his proximity. Recently Ozuna was at it again as he was arrested and booked on a driving under the influence charge. Ozuna is in his third season in Atlanta and in the second year of a sixty-five million, four-year contract and there is a good chance that the Braves may want to cut ties with him once this season concludes. No worries though because if Ozunza’s off-field troubles do lead him out of Atlanta the Boston Red Sox are the perfect team to pick him up. It will be the perfect marriage of a ballplayer who could care less about what he does off the field and a team that feels the same. Paging C.C. Sabathia, Dept: During the MLB draft three of the first six players picked were African-Americans. I can almost hear what you are saying after you read that. “So what!!” Well, for a long time retired loudmouth C.C. Sabathia has been making noise about the lack of black major league players and when you look at all the rosters he’s right. Sabathia wants more black players in the game but he fails to mention that no one is intentionally keeping them out. It’s a easy way to complain about racism when it clearly isn’t there and the only thing this does is give him attention now that his career is done. He has no rationalization for saying this and is only pointing fingers at a problem that isn’t there. Do what you do best and pour yourself a cold one. Baseball has enough problems already without you adding to the mix. This did die down after awhile as the season progressed because there were better things to worry about but union head Tony Clark had to bring it up again during the World Series when he said that this was the first World Series being played without any U.S.born Black players since 1950. Again, so what? Are there any young black athletes who have been told by baseball that they won’t be allowed to play? You know the answer to that as well as I do. The NFL and NBA gets them almost every time and that is all there is to this. Sabathia and Clark are right but they only want you to know half of the story. That’s why there is no real outrage about this. ...Daniel Vogelbach is the only player in the history of baseball that can put on five pounds while circling the bases after a home run. The Anti-Scully Group Dept: Back on August 2nd the baseball world lost unarguably the greatest broadcaster we have ever heard when Vin Scully passed away at the age of ninety-four. Even if you did not care about the fortunes of the Dodgers just listening to Scully describe a game made you realize right away that he was so much better than any of his contemporaries. Losing him was probably the last connection to Brooklyn and their beloved Bums and the battles with the Giants and the Yankees. Every announcer to sit behind the microphone at the ball park describing the action to their audience should not be compared to Scully just like every .220 swing-for-the-fences-every-time-up hitter should not be compared to hitters from forty years ago because at that time it was more important to get on base, move the runner over and put pressure on the opposition instead of only caring about the launch angle of their home runs provided that they were able to connect. Which brings us to the point of this post, namely the broadcasting crew of the New York Yankees. The only comparison with this group of on-air “talent” to Vin Scully is that like Scully they are paid to talk about baseball but after listening to them for a few innings you wonder why someone is paying them. There are a lot of Yankee broadcasters and only one of them is worth listening to and he’s not around every game. Michael Kay is the lead announcer and he does his best work when he’s not there. He’s a blowhard and he sometimes thinks the announcer’s booth is an extension of his radio show which is uninformative and opinionated. The Yankees had the perfect opportunity to hire one of the best broadcasters today in Don Orsillo after the Red Sox fired him after the 2015 season but they let him go to the Padres. Orsillo makes you want to stay with the telecast no matter what is happening out on the field. When the Yankees are getting killed and Kay is doing the game you grab your remote to see what’s on Hulu. Comparing Orsillo to Michael Kay is like comparing a Delmonico steak to a McDonald’s double cheeseburger. Paul O’Neill doesn’t come to the games because he’s unvaccinated and while this gave the Yankees a perfect reason to get rid of him they allow him to work from home. O’Neill always says “I’ll tell you what” about everything. Have a drinking game on Opening Day next year and count how many times he says that and I promise you that you will be passed out by the fourth inning. Carlos Beltran may have a good baseball mind and knowledgeable about the game but I’m just guessing here since I can not understand anything he is saying. He’d fit right in on the Spanish language telecasts and I think he would shine there if given the opportunity to work in a language he is more comfortable in. Cameron Maybin is as guy that just will not shut up. He went on and on one time after someone grounded out to shortstop. Cameron, sometimes when a player grounds out to short that’s all there is to it. Move on to the next batter and stop trying to analyze the obvious. David Cone is the only regular there that justifies his paycheck and if he is not there you may as well listen to the game on the radio but you can’t even do that because the Yankees have you beat there too. A lot of people can take or leave John Sterling but he doesn’t really bother me when you compare him to Susan Waldman, who spends half the time screeching into her microphone. Waldman does nothing but tell the listeners after every pitch how fast it was and what kind of pitch was thrown. After a home run she lets you know how far the ball went and the all important exit velocity. What the score is, what inning it is, if anyone is on base, who is warming up in the bullpen,, etc is not important to her. It makes me really miss the days with Frank Messer, Bill White and Phil Rizzuto when there were real pros working the Yankee radio airwaves. I’m sure you have heard the comparison about a player who does not measure up to another player in any way when it is said that he “couldn’t hold his jockstrap.” Something similar can be said here since none of these people could even carry Vin Scully’s scorecard. ...Y4L vs RG&E, a mismatch: not too long ago something reminded me of what happened to me way back in the spring. After a long winter we were treated to our second day in a row of warm temperatures as the thermometer hit close to seventy degrees. But instead of enjoying the day I had to remain at home because our gas and energy company, one Rochester Gas and Electric, was supposed to come by between the hours of 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM to read my meter. They told me that before someone got there I would get a phone call to let me know that they were on their way so I could be ready and I was. I took a shower before 8:00 because I didn’t want to miss the call just in case they called when I was in there. I should not have bothered. When it got to be a little past noon I decided to give them a call just to see if everything was ok because I began to have the feeling that it wasn’t. They reassured me and told me that if I didn't hear anything from them by 3:30 PM that I should call back. I said thank you and that is what I’ll do and I said to myself that I really hope I didn't have to call back. I think that you can probably guess what happened next. 3:30 p.m. came and went and I did call back -three times- but before I got any answers out of them I was put on hold because I was going to be transferred to “customer service” I was accidentally or maybe on purpose hung up on twice and I had to call back again. That meant going through the automated system and hitting the proper numbers on my phone and finally waiting to talk to someone. By this time I knew no one was coming by but I had to know why. When I heard why no one was coming I knew it was a down right lie. First they said my appointment was canceled and I told them there is no way that I canceled anything because it took me three tries just to talk to customer service and they said they canceled the appointment themselves because of the rain in our area. I asked them what rain and what area were they talking about because that day was a wonderful spring day. No rain, no wind at all. Just a sunny and warm day. Then they told me that they could come by on the tenth of May to read my meter, once again between the hours of 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM. I told them if you do not show up that day don't ever bother coming in the future. And the lady I spoke with said if I wanted to give my meter reads today I can do so. I told her I would be happy to do it but I have to go in the cellar to do it and my knees do not allow me to go downstairs very fast. Three geological ages later I made it down the stairs and I gave her my readings. And that was that. Well, not really. I found out after I hung up that I had a splitting headache and that I was so mad I made myself light headed. I typed this out a few days after this happened and the more I think about it I believe automated systems are made with the sole intent of frustrating the customer and when and if they do get to talk to someone they are so relieved to be doing it that they will agree to just about anything. These people had me beat the second I dialed their number. ...Finally I want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving on Thursday and I hope you have a nice time wherever you are. Between the meal and the desserts we will be overflowed with the NFL because if there is one day out of the year that the NFL owns most of all it is Thanksgiving Day. Find that day on your calendar and you know there will be three games on television. When Christmas comes the NBA is the big shot although I have yet to find someone that watched any game to the halfway point. The first game on CBS will have the Buffalo Bills visiting the Detroit Lions at 12:30 p.m. eastern. That’s always a nice way to start the holiday off right because that game will put your guests to sleep and keep them out of the kitchen and out of the way. The Lions accomplish this every year. Next on FOX at 4:30 p.m. (eastern) is the New York Giants going to Dallas to take on the Cowboys. Why the NFL insists on shoving the Cowboys at us every year is baffling. Lastly in the evening on NBC after your Turkey Day nap is done is the New England Patriots going to Minnesota to play the Vikings at 8:20 p.m. (eastern.) This is Minnesota’s first Thanksgiving appearance in twenty-two years and that really is a shame compared to how much we have to see the Cowboys. Have a good one everyone and drive safe if you are traveling.

6 out of 10, 86 seconds. These were some hard ones.

10 out of 10, 53 seconds. I knew nine of them but guessed well on one.

7 out of 10, 53 seconds. I was fortunate to get this many right.

7 out of 10, 73 seconds. I got the first three wrong and then made a comeback.

5 out of 10, 46 seconds. Nope, I had no clue.

9 out of 10, 51 seconds. I misread question one.

9 out of 10, 55 seconds. I knew the Babe Ruth question but I still messed it up.

10 out of 10, 53 seconds. A nice comeback from yesterday.

4 out of 10, 44 seconds. Just awful today.

10 out of 10, 51 seconds. Things just clicked for me today.

6 out of 10, 45 seconds. I got the first six in a row right and then blew it on the remaining four.

10 out of 10, 41 seconds. Easy ones today.

6 out of 10, 57 seconds. I thought I was doing ok but then I found out how wrong I was.

10 out of 10, 70 seconds. For some reason I was very slow today.