Sports Then and Now

No major leaguer has come close to matching Joe DiMaggio's record hitting streak of 56 straight games.

The Major League Baseball players of today are capable of accomplishing amazing feats, but I am going to go out on a limb and predict that no major leaguer of today will ever hit in 56 consecutive regular season games.

It was 69 years ago today that one of the most amazing individual streaks in sports history ended following an amazing two month performance by future Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio.

After knocking out a hit in every game from May 15th through July 16th, the luck finally ran out for DiMaggio in a game against the Cleveland Indians. As he had done throughout most of the streak, DiMaggio hit the ball hard, but unlike in previous days, there was always someone there to make the play.

His best chance to extend the streak came in his first at bat when DiMaggio laced the ball down the third base line. Unfortunately, third baseman Ken Keltner was playing deep and was able to grab the ball and throw DiMaggio out at first.

After walking in the fourth inning, DiMaggio hit another drive toward third in the seventh inning, but Keltner made another play to throw out the Yankee Clipper.

With the bases loaded and one out in the eighth inning, DiMaggio managed not to hit the ball to Keltner, but instead grounded to shortstop Lou Boudreau who turned it into an inning ending double play.

During the streak, DiMaggio hit .408 with 15 home runs and 55 runs batted in. He had multiple hits 22 times, including four games with four hits. Read the rest of this entry →

Last night, for the first time since my baby sister was born, the National League won the Major League Baseball All-Star game. For those of you who missed my running timeline of things that happened the last time the NL won an All-Star Game because you don’t follow me on Twitter (shameless plug: www.twitter.com/HubSportsLive), here’s the complete version:

• Last time the NL won an All-Star game, they didn’t play hockey in AZ and baseball’s most cherished records were held by guys named Maris and Aaron.

One of 1996's greatest highlights was also the scene of one of its greatest tragedies

• Last time the NL won an All-Star game, Bret Michaels was a musician, Tom Cruise wasn’t a theologist and Tiger Woods was a golfer.
• Last time the NL won an All-Star game, MTV played music videos, AOL was the preferred ISP and @UmpJoeWest didn’t have his own twitter handle
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, Kirby Puckett was loved by everyone and Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones weren’t yet household names.
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, “Macarena” was on top of the Billboard charts. Who Let The Dogs Out was, sadly, still four years out.
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, Betty White was a ripe, young 74 and Joe Torre was in his 1st year with the Yankees
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, the Yankees hadn’t won a World Series in 18 years and we thought we were done with Bush as President
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, neither Kobe Bryant, Peyton Manning nor Alex Rodriguez were world champions. There’s a happy thought.
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, Conan O’Brien wasn’t the name of the gum on Jay Leno’s shoe and Seinfeld was still filming new episodes
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game,  “The Rachel” was a popular hairstyle, leggings and cords were trendy and Blink 182 wasn’t yet famous
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, the Cowboys were America’s team, Nintendo 64 was released and a sheep named Dolly was a celebrity
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, Robert Dole was a presidential candidate and not a Pepsi spokesperson

This look familiar? You must have been born after the NL won its last all-star game, then.

• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, OJ was a free man, Clinton wasn’t impersonating Kennedy and Tupac was still alive
• Last time the NL won an All-Star Game, Britney wasn’t a MILF, Miley was in diapers and nobody knew about Megan Fox.

Sad but true. Sad, but true.

Base Ruth hit the first home run in All-Star Game history.

Since its inception in 1933, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game has provided fans an annual opportunity to see most of the great stars of the game on the same field. While the game is an exhibition and has withstood periods of indifference by some players, management and fans, it remains a special mid-season moment.

There have been many memorable games and moments in the first 80 incarnations of the annual meeting between the top players of the American and National Leagues.

This is the first of a three-part series where we will relive some of the great moments and games in the history of this special series.

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As many of my readers know, I’m a sucker for a good story. Not only to write one, which hopefully happens on occasion, but to read one. To become inspired, motivated, challenged and pushed to my own personal limits after reading it.

I personally believe that the challenges of others are placed before us so that we can learn, grow, become better, and raise our own personal bar. This makes the “Why’s” in life seem a little less arbitrary and a little bit more easily explained and accepted.

“Why did this have to happen?” is easily explained by “Because it serves a greater purpose.”

I’ve been blessed to become friends with Dick and Rick Hoyt over the past year or so. For those who live under a rock or don’t pay attention, Dick and Rick are the Father/Son marathon and triathlon team who have spent the last three plus decades teaching all us “less fortunate” folk the phrase “Yes, You Can” by there every action. Read the rest of this entry →

As far as trends go with something happening, it is said that one time could be by chance, two times could be a coincidence, and three times could be a legitimate pattern. Then again, it is also said that lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place. So even doing the same thing the second time, either consecutively or in a short time frame, could be a sign that things happen repeatedly not by mistake, but by skill or a method that really works.

The Cornell men’s lacrosse team has been trendy much of this season, especially recently. The Big Red has been playing some back-and-forth games of late in which they have seen their late leads evaporate in both losses and wins. This has made what has seemed at times to be sure Cornell wins interesting, before players like Max Feely, Ryan Hurley, and Ivy League Player of the Year Rob Pannell have made clutch plays to win games.

Go back to their third game of the year on March 6 when the Big Red hosted

Senior midfielder Austin Boykin, shown here in a faceoff against Princeton during the Ivy League Tournament Championship Game on May 9, leads Cornell with a 56.4 percent faceoff percentage (158-for-280), this season.

Army at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca. Although Cornell won 12-11, they needed overtime to do it. The Big Red lead 11-8 with 10:56 to play in the fourth quarter. Army stormed back with three straight goals to force an 11-11 tie. Hurley scored the game-winning goal with 41 seconds left to play.

Was this by chance? Especially considering Cornell has a young team this year after graduating so many key players last year. This included 2009 Tewaaraton Trophy winner Max Seibald, the aggressive midfielder who lead the Big Red with 120 shots last year. Defender Matt Moyer, who had 33 ground balls last year, was a fixture on defense and joined Seibald as a first team All-American.

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For years, Cornell and Princeton have dominated Ivy League men’s lacrosse. The perennial powers have been facing each other since 1922 and have combined to win at least a share of 44-of-54 Ivy League titles. Recent history has been no different as one of the two schools has won at least a share of the last 16 Ivy League titles including this year’s crown.

Thus, it was no surprise that the two teams played for the inaugural Ivy League Tournament Championship on Sunday May 9 at Schoellkopf Field on the campus of the Big Red. The tournament was comprised of four teams. Top-seeded Cornell played fourth-seeded Brown while third-seeded Yale faced the Tigers, the second seed, on Friday May 7.

Some of the brave 2,942 fans of Cornell and Princeton viewed the game from the unique crescent at Schoellkopf Field on the campus of Cornell.

Those matchups came about following the final weekend of the regular season when the Big Red won at Princeton 10-9 which helped to force a four-way regular season tie at 4-2 in conference play between the four schools. Cornell and the Tigers each went 2-1 against the other three teams while Brown and Yale each went 1-2. The Big Red’s head-to-head victory over Princeton gave them the edge in securing the tournament’s number one seed and thus being the host of the tournament.

Cornell disposed of a pesky Brown team 14-8 in the tournament semifinals on Friday May 7 to avenge a 13-10 home loss to the Bears on April 24. That was preceeded by the Tigers’ 7-6 win over Yale earlier that night. With the Big Red and Princeton facing off in the first ever league tournament championship game, nothing short of a spectacular game was expected and the two teams delivered on that with the Tigers prevailing 10-9 in overtime.

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