Author: vet4golfing51

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Sports: Finally, A Real College Football Playoff.

For the first time in history College Football will have a true 12 team playoff. Of course there were a couple of controversies. The panel on ESPN felt like the first-round byes should be just given to the top 4 ranked teams, no matter if they were a conference champion or not. They pointed to Arizona St. and Boise St. getting 1st round byes instead of Notre Dame and most likely Texas. I disagree. After years of conference championships being pretty much meaningless, it is great to see them get rewarded with a bye. Notre Dame will just have to join a conference, poor babies. Picking SMU over Alabama to me was a no brainer. The always effervescent Nick Saban stated that Athletic Directors would start to schedule easier teams to get wins. Here was Alabama’s non-conference schedule, Western Kentucky, South Florida and Wisconsin. There are some real ball busters there. The fact remains Alabama lost 3 conference games and 2 of those to teams that had a combined conference record of 5-11. It wasn’t so much who Alabama beat, but who they lost to that kept them out of the playoffs. In previous years any time the committee has made a controversial pick or decision, they have come out smelling like a rose. Usually, the teams that they have put into the playoffs do pretty well and sometimes they become the national champion. We will see if SMU, Arizona St. and Boise St. do the committee proud. Now, let’s look at those first round games.

Three out of the four games will feature Big Ten teams. Now I am a Big Ten guy having graduated from Ohio State many moons ago, but I believe the Big Ten is the most overrated conference in football. These first-round games could go a long way to proving me right or might show that I am all wet, which won’t be the first time. Notre Dame will be a solid favorite against Indiana, which in my view should have been the team left off the bracket. I feel they won’t even give Notre Dame a game. However, if they do or somehow pull off the upset it will be a huge feather in the Big Ten’s cap and I hope the egg on my face will be scrambled. The Ohio State (Go Bucks) vs. Tennessee game is pretty much a toss-up. It should be a close game no matter who wins but if OSU loses a close one it won’t tarnish the Big Ten’s stature. Penn St. may not be as big a favorite as Notre Dame, but they are expected to beat SMU. James Franklin is one of the worst in game coaches in the country and if he lives up to his horrible play calling and strategy, SMU will have a real shot at this game. The Mustangs (I love that name) should come into the game with a chip on their shoulder and even though they lost the ACC Championship game, they made a great comeback, which should make them confident and ready to play. The Big Ten needs to win at least one of these 3 games to show that they deserve the rating that the committee bestowed upon them. The Big Ten is more likely to go 0-3 in this first round of the playoffs than 3-0. The remaining game is Clemson going to play Texas. Texas will be the solid favorite here but again Clemson is on a roll with a big Championship win.

Whatever happens I will follow it right along until the National Championship Game around the 3rd week of January. I will blog right before each round discussing the previous round and previewing the next round. The only team that will surprise me if they do not make it to the Championship game would be the Oregon Ducks. On the other side of the coin if Indiana wins one game, I will be shocked. The other 10 teams will not surprise me no matter what they do. Any one of the ten could make it to the title game. I love watching college football. I believe it is the most entertaining of the team sports. I am so happy that I am finally going to get to see a real college football playoff season. I do not think the system needs tweaked at all. Keep giving those byes to the conference champions. They deserve it, it is quite an accomplishment.

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Golf: Playing The Game, Part 1

We take lessons, we watch videos, we get fitted for clubs, and we practice. After all that we go to the golf course and we have to play. Sometimes I believe all the things we do in preparation for playing is a subconscious way to avoid playing. More often than not after going through that process we seem to fail miserably on the golf course, and it is very difficult to improve. What is it about this game that seems to bring out the worst in our abilities? I admit I do not take lessons, and do not practice. I did get fitted for clubs, a set of irons once. I do watch instructional gold videos. Even though my game has not gotten any better I have not seen it decline either. If I could get a stroke for every time I have heard about how great somebody hit it on the range and now, they can’t hit the ball at all, I would break 70 at least 25% of the time. Today let’s look at some general things that go wrong when we get on the golf course and actually play the game.

The first problem is we are thinking about our swings rather than thinking about the purpose of the game and that is to get the ball into the hole. This immediately sets up a conflict between the body and mind. The body wants to perform a particular function, and the mind wants to get the ball in the hole. This leads to the basic problem of swinging too hard. There are other factors that lead to swinging too hard. We do not take the time to get a feel for our swing at the beginning of a round. Add to that the anxiety of trying to keep the ball in play and we get an overall tightness of the muscles which makes them harder to move and allow the club to flash through the hitting zone. On the 1st tee you must immediately get into play mode and think about where you want the ball to go. Whatever you were working on should just take over naturally. Start a round out slowly and conservatively until you get a feel for the round. Always take an extra club on the first hole. Allow your swing to have a mind of its own so to speak. It will gradually want to speed up as the round progresses and just let it do so. The main thing to remember is to stay in balance as much as you can.

When we start to play golf, we become way to conscious of our score whether it be good or bad. This mere fact of not knowing what your score is separates the men from the boys. First, we will look at the hot start. You play the first 6 holes much better than you usually do. You begin to put more emphasis on the results of each shot from that point on. You must get back in the mode that enabled you to get off to the good start in the first place. Part of that good start had to be related to making some nice putts. There is nothing from stopping you from making more. Conversely if you get off to a bad start over the first 6 holes you have to push through that and continue to think about how and where you want the ball to go. A lot of times bad starts can be related to poor or unlucky putting. Remember, all it takes is to make one putt to get the confidence back and make up some ground. You will never know when the big comeback is going to happen if you never give it a chance.

The final problem when playing the game is not adjusting to conditions and not being able to hit the shots that the conditions require. The shots themselves I will discuss in future blogs about playing. Most players think that not adjusting to conditions is only associated with conditions that are considered bad. Conditions that are considered ideal can get you into trouble if you are not paying attention. The types of conditions golfers play under are as varied as the weather. I have always been amazed at my own game when I shoot a really good score under way less than ideal conditions. It could be rain, cold or wind and I will sometimes shoot a round in the low 70’s. I often think that I don’t shoot that good a round when it is sunny, 80 degrees, and no wind. I think the reason for this is that when conditions are not that good, we start to think and plan better, and our expectations are low. When the conditions are ideal, we forget about how far a ball can roll into trouble when compared with very wet and soft conditions. Usually in the summer the greens can be faster, so it is more important to stay below the hole and avoid downhill putts. One of the toughest conditions to play in is when it is windy. All of these things add up to make the game more difficult to play, than practice. Playing the game can be very frustrating. Over the next 3 or 4 blogs I will cover certain aspects of playing the game. The main goal of any golfer should be to play to their maximum ability. It is a lot tougher than it sounds.

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Pirates Morning Report: The Blake Snell Signing, High Risk But What Kind Of Reward.

The Dodgers signed Blake Snell to a 5 year contract that will pay him about 36 million a year for the next 5 years. Blake Snell was a high risk signing. He has played in the majors for 9 seasons. In only 2 of those seasons has he pitched in over 30 games. He has had 2 outstanding seasons which has netted him 2 Cy Young awards. Besides not coming to the post all that often his overall numbers are not that impressive. His career OPS+, the comparison stat where 100 is league average, is 128. Simply put, over the past 9 years he has pitched better than 28% of major league pitchers. Max Fried of the Braves is a free agent also this year. His career OPS+ over 8 years is 140. He has had his share of injuries, even more so than Snell. He has averaged 21 starts per year whereas Snell has averaged close to 24 starts. Snell’s biggest problem is his control. Even his Cy Young year with the Padres he averaged 5 walks per 9 innings. Until Snell threw his no hitter this year where he went 9 innings, he had never had a complete game. Let that one sink in for a while. Naturally when the Dodgers signed Snell all of the media was moaning and complaining that the system is broken, blah blah blah. The idea that only about 5 or 6 teams could afford Snell is ridiculous. Even the Pirates could afford Snell even though they would never admit it. However, what teams like the Pirates cannot do is take the risk of Snell having a mediocre year which he did for 3 of those 9 years. They also cannot take the risk of him taking the mound only 24 times or less which he did 5 out of 9 seasons. The Dodgers can take that risk and are taking that risk. In my view it is a big risk. The Dodgers have one of the strongest stables of starting pitching in all of baseball. The question will be how many of them will be able to come to the post. Not many did last year for various reasons. Despite all of this the Dodgers did manage to win the World Series. They still have the big three, Betts, Ohtani, and Freeman, who combined for 15 WAR last year. The starting 9 for the Pirates had a combined WAR of 8. This was not a player that the Pirates needed to or should have signed. It is obvious they need position players. Even for the Dodgers the Blake Snell signing is a burden for their payroll. It is very likely a signing that they will regret.

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Pirates Morning Report: Let’s Set The Record Straight

The offseason is now in full swing, although not much has happened yet with everybody waiting to see where Juan Soto signs and for how much. The off season may be tougher on Pirate fans than the regular season because the Pirates do so little. Even when they sign someone it is usually on garbage. They spent over 35 million on garbage last year. With the exception of Andrew McCutchen and Aroldis Chapman, the free agent signings of Rowdy Tellez, Michael A. Taylor, Yasmani Grandal, Marcos Gonzales, and Martin Perez contributed absolutely nothing to the Pirates cause. The propaganda put out by the Pittsburgh media is the Pirates cannot afford someone like Juan Soto or other top free agents. The system is unfair. Baseball needs a salary cap. As I will show this is another example of pure garbage. Let’s look at the facts, Jack

The Pirate payroll in 2024 came in at around 85 million, which put them 29th in baseball only ahead of the Oakland A’s. When you remove the free agents from the equation in 2025 this will drop it to around 50 million. The only free agent the Pirates might resign would be Andrew McCutchen from last year’s bunch. The speculation on what Juan Soto might sign for is really wild. I will go with one number that has been bandied about. If he would sign for 700,000 million for 13 years this would come out to an annual salary of almost 54 million. This would put the Pirate payroll at approximately 104 million. If the Pirates can’t have a 100 million dollar payroll, then they might as well trade Paul Skenes, Oneil Cruz, Jared Jones immediately. People will argue that if you sign Soto for that much that the Pirates will not be able to sign those 3 players to long term contracts. I wrote before that one of the top priorities this year for the Pirates should be to sign Skenes to a 6 year deal worth 30 million per year. However, to get a player like Juan Soto that plan could certainly be tabled. Adding Soto makes the Pirates immediate contenders not only for the playoffs but for the World Series. Those revenues would certainly help toward extending those three players. The bottom line is it’s not that the Pirates can’t afford Soto, it’s that they really do not want to sign Soto. There are many in the list of top 30 free agents that could really help turn the Pirates into contenders. They probably won’t sign any of them even though they could easily afford at least two of them. Here is a list of the ones that fill the Pirates needs the most.

In no particular order, Pete Alonso 1st base age 30, Alex Bregman 3rd base age 31, Teoscar Hernadez OF age 32, Anthony Santander OF age 30, Tyler O’ Neill OF age 30, Jurickson Profar OF age 32, Tanner Scott left handed relief pitcher age 30, Christian Walker 1st base age 34, Paul Goldschmidt 1st base age 37 and good old Carlos Santana 1st base age 39. With the exception of Bergman all of these free agents listed are areas of need for the Pirates. There are some great starting pitchers out there and although this is a Pirate strength as the old saying goes you cannot have enough pitching. Getting another top of the rotation starter may send one or more of the starters to the bullpen, which is a good way to bolster a very thin bullpen. It might set up a trade for an offensive threat by sending one of the mid rotation guys to another team. Last year I wrote that the Pirates should sign Cody Bellinger. The Cubs signed him for 30 million, less than what the Pirates paid for all that garbage. Granted Bellinger did not really light it up last year with a slash line of .266/.325/.484 with a WAR of 2.2, think Oneil Cruz with defense. These numbers were way better than anything the Pirate first basemen and centerfielder put up in 2024. Would it had been enough to get the Pirates into the playoffs, who knows, but it would have most likely meant meaningful games in September. Will the Pirates sign anybody in the top 30 free agent market? Most likely not. There is always a risk when it comes to signing free agents. All of the above players are 30 or over. However, the Pirates in their current state have a lot of young unproven players. They only have 3 bonified major league position players, Oneil Cruz, barely, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Bryan Reynolds, solidly. Any free agent they signm if they only perform at the Major League average will be a huge upgrade. They desperately need a corner outfielder and a first baseman. They are sitting there right in front of them. Instead, the Pirates will probably continue as the king of the waiver deals and minor league contract signings. Here are their last two. I will withhold their names to protect their families and agents from embarrassment. Waiver player no. 1 has 139 major league at bats with a slash line of .209/.245/.331. He is an outfielder and a 1st baseman but not like Cody Bellinger. With Waiver player no. 2 it even gets better. Career minor league player, 28 years old with 139 major league at bats. His slash line is .152/.222/.273. What I get a big kick out of is when you read the articles about these acquisitions they somehow write about how they can help the Pirates. They actually have the audacity to give some justification to picking up these players. The only things these players can do is to help continue the losing ways of this pathetic organization. It is too bad there is something not politically incorrect about the nickname Pirates. There would be no problem coming up with the Pirates new name. The Pittsburgh Pathetics. The Pirate payroll is set up perfectly to make at least 2 free agent pick ups that would run between 20 and 30 million per year per player. It is so sad that this has practically no chance of happening. Which is the same that can be said for a winning season next year.

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Golf: Revisiting Grip Pressure, Overswinging, and Starting The Downswing.

I wrote these three articles about 2 to 3 years ago and they remain my most popular blogs, especially the one on grip pressure. The overswinging blog was titled You Cannot Overswing and the blog on starting the downswing was Maybe Sam Snead Was Right After All. Snead had a unique thought on how to start the downswing which was mostly criticized by other golf instructors. Over these last 3 years I haven’t really changed my mind, but I thought it might be time to clarify a few points in each area and even strengthen some points because there are still instructors out there that teach a different philosophy that in my view hurts the average golfer more than helps. All three subjects are what it takes to hit a golf ball consistently. A most important aspect of the address, the grip, how to make a backswing, and the first move in making the downswing. If you can do these things correctly then your chances of making solid contact with the ball increase dramatically. Unfortunately, golf instruction has some strange ideas on these subjects, especially the first two, which makes learning the game very difficult. They are not as far off on starting the downswing mainly because there are as many ways to start the downswing as there are body parts. What makes this difficult at times is that the methods used will work, it just boils down to finding what might work for you. This is different when it comes to the grip and backswing, because what most golf instruction teaches is wrong. So, let’s dive in.

There are way too many endorsers of the light grip. I saw a recent video aimed at senior golfers that said it is very important to start with a light grip. They say that your grip will tighten up automatically when you start to swing. What happen to constant grip pressure during the swing. Most of the older instruction books write about having a firm grip. The pressure points are the middle two fingers of the right hand and the last 3 fingers of the left hand. All of this light grip stuff started because some beginners take a death grip on the club. To put a number on it, let’s say that 1 is the lightest you can hold the club and 10 is the tightest you can squeeze the club. In order to grip the club with the correct firmness I would put a number around 7 to 8 depending on the shot. 8 for the driver and longer clubs and for hitting out of the rough no matter what the club. If you don’t want the club closing over out of the rough, you had better firm up those last 3 fingers of the left hand. For all short shots and short irons I would say it should be closer to a 7. It is perfectly fine to work your fingers and have some hand movement before the shot. Just before you start the swing you want to feel that the hands are firming up and ready to control the clubhead. Your hands are never going to be able to react to the movement of the swing, especially at the point of contact with club accelerating at full speed. You do not need to choke the life out of the club, no pun intended, but you do need to take full command of the club and the clubhead. There is no way you are doing this with a light grip. If you played these sports think of how you held a baseball bat or a tennis racket. Be the firm handshake, not the dead fish.

I still believe that you cannot overswing. However, you do have to do two things at the end of your backswing. Your weight should be solidly on the right foot, and you should feel that you are in balance. One of the biggest swing faults I see is that people take too short of a backswing. This short backswing is caused by anxiety in trying to hit the ball, and the odd feeling of turning away from your target. It does not help that most golf instruction talks about restricting the hip turn. This all started with what is known as the X factor. The X factor being the more you can turn your shoulders without turning your hips the farther you will hit the ball. The basic swing is a 45 degree hip turn and a 90-degree shoulder turn. This is a difference of 45 degrees. The goal of the X factor swing is to increase this 10 to 20 degrees. If you do this, you will hit the ball farther. Is this correct. Absolutely. Will you be able to play golf well into your 70’s with this method. Probably not. A big hip turn is essential if you are going to minimize the wear and tear on the body. I feel the hips should turn at least 45 degrees and you should try to turn them anywhere from 60 to 70 degrees. The great Bobby Jones had a huge hip turn. None other than Jack Nicklaus had a big hip turn. He even raised his heel off the ground to ensure that his hips were turning quite a bit. Once you start making a big hip turn you will really feel your swing loosening up and become more fluid. The only danger of making a big hip turn is that as you turn toward the 70 degree mark, there may be a tendency to throw the body toward the left side or on the left foot. Make sure you maintain the weight on the right foot at the top of the backswing, and you will be hitting the ball in an effortless way. You will not be stretching the left side of the body to its limits, causing damage to tendons and muscles. Try a big hip turn backswing and let the body heal from restricting those hips.

All right, we are at the top of the swing. Now it is time to start down and make contact with the ball. There are many correct ways to start the downswing. None of them are wrong. As a player you need to find the one that works for you. However, you don’t need to be a slave to any of them. If one of them does not seem to be working, then go to another one. Before we get to all the ways to start down, let’s look at what Sam Snead said. He said that the best way to start down was to think about pulling a rope down that was attached to a church bell. Snead was really panned for that idea because as golf instruction developed and video came into use, the lower body became king as the way to start down. The idea was to keep the hands out of the picture until the last minute when they would release for a powerful smash right at the ball, but not any sooner. What Snead did not emphasize when he wrote about this, is that the hands need to start straight down form the top. All of a sudden you see this being advocated under the heading of the gravity swing. When you get to the top drop the hands straight down. The difference is, Snead used the word pull, and now people are talking about letting the hands just drop. To me this indicates a more passive move to start the downswing, where Snead’s words of pulling the hands down is more aggressive. It is a matter of semantics but there is no question this is what Snead was telling people to do 65 years ago. There are other effective ways to start the downswing. I am going to briefly mention a number of them without any explanation. If you want to read more about them, you can look them up. They all can work. Straightening your left leg. Kicking your right knee toward the ball. Raising your left shoulder. It helps if you are thinking of lowering your left shoulder during the back swing. Bump your hips to the left before turning toward the target. Just shift you weight to the left foot before starting down. Falling into the lead foot. Unscrewing your backswing with the legs and then firing the shoulder away from the body. Moving the core forward then increasing the arm speed. Lots to choose from there and none of them are bad. However, none of them are going to give Snead’s method of starting the downswing a thumbs up. Believe me it is another effective and yet very simple way to start the downswing. It is a method you should definitely try.

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Golf: My 2024 Season

Yes, I am still playing and playing often. So far this year I have played 135 rounds of golf. Besides the Pirates taking up most of the blog space during the spring, summer and early fall, I really have not found anything knew or exciting about how to play the game. As usual, there have been times that I thought I found something that may be of benefit to my game as well as to others struggling at this game. Whatever it was, it was short lived to be filed in the trash bin like about 500 other things I thought might have some merit. Over the next month or two, golf will be the main topic of the blog as I will discuss some things I have talked about in the past. There are some ball striking views and how to play this game, I have tweaked over the years. I had a really up and down year as you will see with some of the same old problems rearing their ugly head.

The good news is that I shot my age, 74 or better, 18 times. The majority of those rounds were from the gold tees. The highlights were a 72 from the white tees at South Park. I hadn’t done that for about 2 to 3 years. I shot a 2 under 70 from gold for my low round of the year. On the other side of the coin, I had 42 rounds between 80 and 88 with the remaining 75 rounds between 75 and 79. My handicap index started the season at 5.7 reached a high of 7.1 in mid May when I had the most trouble with the yips but then took a steady decline until the end of October to 4.7 but jump up to the present 5.0. I have about 5 rounds to go in posting scores as the last day is November 14th. My driving continues to be the best part of my game by far. My iron game as been good to awful, but never great. By far the most erratic part of my game. The short game has not been bad when I do not yip. My putting has been the 2nd most erratic part of my game. Even when I do not yip I will have bad putting days. A lot of the issue is my green reading, which continues to deteriorate. During my age shooting rounds my putting was spot on. In my other rounds including rounds that I shot in the 70’s my putting kept me from having more age shooting rounds. That was the story of my year. A very inconsistent year with the yips rearing their ugly head way too many times. I will go into more depth on that in a later blog.

I consider the 72 from the whites the best round of the year. I had 5 birdies to offset a poor iron shot and chip yip double bogey on the 9th hole. I have proved the saying it’s not where your good shots go but where your bad shots go that is the key to scoring in golf. Some of my shots can be ranked up as horrid. What is amazing to me is that they can come up even in the middle of some of my best rounds of the year. I have tried a lot of stuff this year. I have not swung the same for more than 10 days tops. Our weather is looking good so the season is far from over and I will do a final post at the end of the year. As I stated before, the blog will be about golf for the next 3 months unless the Pirates do something unusual in the off season like acquire a major league player. I am going to revisit 3 of my most popular articles, grip pressure, you cannot overswing, and how to start the downswing in the next blog. I think all of those articles need a bit of an update. Stay tuned.

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Pirates Morning Report: World Series, The Final Game

Final Score: Dodgers 7 Yankees 6

Why The Dodgers Won: Thanks to the worst fielding inning in World Series history the Dodgers were able to come back from a 5-0 deficit to win the 2024 Fall Classic in 5 games. Instead of 2 out lightening, the Dodgers had 5 out lightening as the Yankees handed them 5 runs all unearned in the 5th inning. The go-ahead run was set up by catcher’s interference in the year of catcher’s interference. The Dodgers took the lead for good in the top of the 8th on 2 sacrifice flies. Dave Roberts’s gamble paid off by giving the A squad bullpen a rest on a bullpen game. He brought in his big starter Walker Buehler in the 9th to nail down the win. This move is far from unprecedented, but Roberts started Buehler warming up in the top of the 8th inning, giving him plenty of time to loosen up. I think he had no intention of bringing him in the bottom of the 8th. He stuck with Blake Treinen when the Yankees threatened in the 8th inning and Treinen came through getting out of the jam. Buehler came in the 9th and mowed the Yankees down to give the Dodgers the World Series win.

The Key Moments Of The Game: Gerrit Cole was breezing along through 4 innings giving up 2 walks and 0 hits. Then the nightmare began. Kiki Hernandez started the inning off with a single to right field for the first hit of the game. Tommy Edman hit a little humpback liner to centerfield that Aaron Judge just dropped when he took his eye off the ball to check the runner. The drop surprised Judge so much that there was just enough of a hesitation to pick up the ball, that Hernandez avoided being forced at 2nd base. Will Smith hit a ground ball to the hole at short, and Anthony Volpe made a terrible throw to third base that Jazz Chisholm could not short hop and everybody was safe to load the bases. Then Cole bore down and struck out the next two batters on 8 pitches. Mookie Betts hit a ground ball to 1st that took a little bit of a strange hop that moved Rizzo to his right just a touch. On a play that Cole thought Rizzo was going to take it himself and Rizzo thought Cole was covering the bag the Yankees failed to get an out. This was the 5th out that the Yankees failed to get. The Dodgers then struck with 5 out lightening when Freddie Freeman singled to drive in 2 runs. Teoscar Hernandez then doubled off the left centerfield wall to drive in the tying runs and the Dodgers were eyeballing the Yankees 5-5. This was an inning that was gift wrapped by the Yankees and the Dodgers said thank you very much, see you next year.

Next Game: None, the season is over. This was the redemption post season for Dave Roberts of the Dodgers. He may not get manager of the year this year, but he was the manager of the post season. Going into the playoffs the Dodger pitching was going to be their big weakness. Roberts managed the bullpen superbly, always keeping his eye on the main goal which is to win each series. He was especially brilliant in the World Series saving his bullpen in game 4 when the Dodgers had a 3-0 lead in games. On the other side of the coin Aaron Boone continues to prove that you cannot go from the broadcast booth to managing a baseball team no matter how much talent they have. I am not all that familiar with the Yankee bench, but it looks like Boone is not either. He only used two pinch hitters the entire series and that was to interchange catchers both times. He put a pitcher in the game in the bottom of the 10th in game 1 that had not pitched in over a month and never relieved this late in a game in his career. Result, grand slam home run, game over. After it was all said and done, the Dodgers won this World Series because they made baseball plays, and the Yankees did not. Hopefully the Yankees will really have a spring training next year.

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Pirates Morning Report: World Series, Game 4

Final Score: Yankees 11 Dodgers 4

Why The Yankees Won: The Yankee bats came alive, Dave Roberts decided to use the B squad in the bullpen game, and the Dodgers failed to execute basic baseball plays in the 8th inning that helped break the game open. The one bat that finally broke out of a huge slump was Austin Wells going 2 for 3 with a walk, including a home run and a double. We will see if Aaron Boone will move him up in the batting order tonight. Dave Roberts decision to go with the B squad will be looked at as brilliant, if the bullpen has a big game tonight with the extra day of rest. On the other hand, if the Yankees make a series of it, he will be second guessed for allowing the Yankees to get off the mat. I am not a big Dave Roberts fan but, in this case, I have to agree with him and give him credit for a very gutsy move. Tonight’s game is the one the Dodgers should win. If they don’t then we have a series that might even go 7 games. This was another game marred by walks and foul balls. The Dodgers walked 6 batters and hit another. The bad news for the Yankees is that their big 3 did not contribute much to this win. They went 2 for 11 with 1 RBI. There is no question that Shohei Ohtani is greatly affected by his shoulder injury. The Yankees need to challenge him more until he shows he can do more than just hit line drives to the middle of the outfield.

The Key Moments Of The Game: In the bottom of the 3rd B squad leader Daniel Hudson entered the game with the Dodgers leading 2-1. He threw 6 straight sliders to Juan Soto to strike him out. He hit the slumping Aaron Judger on a first pitch fast ball. The first pitch fast ball to Jazz Chisholm got ripped 110 MPH into right field for a base hit sending Judge to third. He walked Giancarlo Stanton on 6 pitches but none of them were in the strike zone, 4 sliders two fastballs. He did get Anthony Rizzo to pop out after falling behind him 2-0. Anthony Volpe took a first pitch slider on the lower inside of the plate and golfed it into the seats for a grand slam home run to turn the game and maybe the series around giving the Yankees a 5-4 lead. In the bottom of the 8th with Yankees leading 6-4 and preparing to use their closer Luke Weaver for 2 and 1/3 innings, the Dodgers failed to execute a tag and made a bad throw to the plate from a drawn-up 2nd base. The dropped ball on the tag saved the Yankees from the consequences of another base running blunder and opened the floodgates for a 5 run inning. This enabled the Yankees to keep their closer on the bench for the 9th.

Next Game: Tonight, in Yankee Stadium. It is ridiculous to say that this is a must win for the Dodgers tonight, but they did everything last night to set themselves up to end this series in 5 games. Yes, the Yankee bats came alive last night, but they did it against the B squad of the Dodger bullpen. Unless the Dodgers break open one of the games, we may never see them again the rest of the series, with the exception Landon Knack, who distinguished himself with 4 solid innings to help keep the A squad well rested. If somehow some way the Yankees win tonight, then the pressure of the Series will equal out. Maybe we will see history after all.

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Pirates Morning Report: World Series, Game 3

Final Score: Dodgers 4 Yankees 2

Why The Dodgers Won: The Dodger’s pitching continued to shine, the defense came up big, and even the umpires helped the Dodgers to their 3rd straight win over the Yankees. This game got into post season mode 2024, by both teams walking a combined 12 batters and the Yankees hitting 2 just for good measure. There were lots of foul balls just to make things perfect. Freddie Freeman hit another homer for 3 games in a row and 5 games in a row going back to the Atlanta series. The Yankees made it a little interesting in the 9th with a 2 out 2 run homer, but it was too little too late. The Dodgers are one win away from a World Series Championship and unless something radically changes, they should get it tonight. The Yankees do not play sound baseball and with such a good team like the Dodgers you are going to lose.

The Key Moments Of The Game: This game had a lot of big plays. In the bottom of the 4th with one out Giancarlo Stanton doubled to left field. Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a sinking line drive that Mookie Betts, after getting a late jump made a spectacular catch. Anthony Volpe lined a single to left but Stanton was thrown out at the plate on a great throw by Teoscar Hernandez and tag by Will Smith. There was no room for error and the Dodgers executed the play perfectly to end the inning. In the bottom of the 6th Tommy Edman made a great play to catch a bad throw by pitcher Brusdar Graterol to get a force out at 2nd. If he does not make that play, most likely the Yankees go on to score a run in the inning. The Yankees had 1st and 2nd with 2 out in the bottom of the 7th with Gleyber Torres at the plate. He had worked the count to 2-2 when a pitch that was at least 2 baseballs above the strike zone was called a strike. This should have been ball 3 and the at bat would have continued but with that call the inning was over. Electronic strike zone HELP! The Yankees never threatened after that other than the home run and are on the brink of elimination.

The Next Game: Tonight, Yankee Stadium. Even though I do not see the Yankees coming back to pull off the miracle, there is one interesting historical note. Dodger manager Dave Roberts was a member of the Boston Red Sox team that came back from the 3-0 deficit to defeat the Yankees in the League Championship Series in 2004. In fact, he stole 2nd in the bottom of the ninth and scored the tying run to send game 4 into extra innings, that the Red Sox won to start that amazing comeback. Could the fates even things up here? I do not see that happening, because the Dodgers are simply out baseballing the Yankees. Could be the last baseball game of 2024.

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Pirates Morning Report: World Series, Game 2

Final Score: Dodgers 4 Yankees 2

Why The Dodgers Won: Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched an outstanding 6 and 1/3 innings giving up a home run for the only Yankee hit, walking 2 and striking out 4. The bullpen took over from there until a shaky 9th inning. The Dodgers hit 3 more home runs to account for all 4 runs. Freddie Freeman and Tommy Edman hit solo shots and Teoscar Hernandez hit a 2 run home run. It was pretty much a standoff with the big 3. The Dodger big 3 went 3 for 11 with a walk and a home run and RBI. The Yankees big 3 went 3 for 12 with a home run and 2 RBI’s. The bad news for the Yankees is that Aaron Judge is still in a funk going 0 for 4 striking out 3 times. The Dodgers seemed to have this game under control until the top of the 9th

Key Moment Of The Game: It was 4-1 Dodgers going into the 9th inning when Juan Soto led off with a single off Blake Treinen. Treinen struck out Judge thanks to him taking a 2nd strike and swinging at a ball out of the strike zone. During the at bat Soto moved to 2nd on a wild pitch. Giancarlo Stanton singled Soto home to make the score 4-2. Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled and Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Anthony Volpe had a worse at bat than Judge, if you can believe that. He received 6 pitches and swung at 3 pitches out of the strike zone to strike out. If he would have just stood there with the bat on his shoulder, the Yankees would have scored a run. Dave Roberts had seen enough and brought in the left hander Alex Vesia to face the struggling Austin Wells. Aaron Boone countered with Jose Trevino. One pitch and Vesia got Trevino to fly out to centerfield to end the game. The lack of plate discipline really hurt the Yankees in the 9th

Next Game: Tomorrow night, Yankee Stadium. The Yankees trail in the series 2 games to none. I mentioned this in the history of this rivalry, that in 11 World Series meetings 4 times the team that won the first two games lost the series including the last 2. It will not happen a 5th time if Aaron Judge does not come out of his slump. It will be a must win situation for the Yankees come Monday night. The other big news in last night’s game was the injury that Shohei Ohtani suffered when sliding, a rare and unusual baseball maneuver. The Dodgers are hopeful that he will be able to play on Monday. Let’s hope they teach him to slide today.