The World Series, Then And Now

Last night's game, while not quite as exciting as Game 1, still had the tying run come up to the plate in the 9th inning. In each of the two games so far, whoever scored first has gone on to win the game without ever relinquishing the lead. The teams seem fairly evenly-matched so far (as indicated by the 1-1 series result), although the Phillies are going to self-destruct soon if they don't start hitting with runners in scoring position. I believe they've sunk to something like 1-for-26 in that statistic after last night's 4-2 loss. More damning was the stat that they were 0-for-7 with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs. As I said to Vicki when they flashed that up, "That's 7 golden opportunities to hit the ball out of the infield and score a run... and they've come up empty on every one of them!" It should be interesting to see what happens in the next 3 games, as they're all played in the relatively tight confines of Veterans Stadium [Edit: oops, I guess they play in Citizens Bank Park now!] in Philadelphia... the Phillies will be glad to be home, but the Rays will no doubt enjoy launching a few rockets into the unfriendly seats there!

While I was looking something up regarding the World Series today, I happened upon this particular link: a nice, concise write-up on the 1919 "Black Sox" scandal. I've been fascinated by that particular World Series ever since seeing Eight Men Out for the first time, long before I realized that it was a John Sayles film or even had any idea who the heck Sayles was (only one of the best directors ever). In that re-telling of the throwing of the 1919 World Series by "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and seven of his White Sox teammates, you get a real sense for why the players would've done what they did, and also for the trust that they broke with the fans of the day. (Many people don't know, for example, that the expression, "Say it ain't so, Joe!" comes from the period in 1920 when the players were on trial for fixing the series.) It's an incredible tale of human failings - all kinds of them! - and I just love finding out more and more about it.