The Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month pitched
in four decades, was a veteran of World War II and is one of only two pitchers
to finish with exactly 300 career victories.
Hall of Famer Early Wynn began his career as a 19-year old in
1939 by pitching three games for the Washington Senators. After spending the
1940 season in the minors, he went 3-1 with a 1.58 ERA in a brief stint in the
majors in 1941.
The Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month was a hard-throwing lefthander who often led Major League Baseball in both strikeouts and walks. His off-the-field story also made him the prototype for a famed television character.
Sudden Sam McDowell made his Major League debut for the Cleveland Indians a week before his 19th birthday and pitched in the majors for 15 seasons. Read the rest of this entry →
Corey Kluber is trying to become the first pitcher since Mickey Lolich in 1968 to start and win three World Series games.
It is certainly fitting that a “World Series for the Ages” between two teams trying to break generational streaks of disappointments would culminate in a winner-take-all seventh game. Regardless of whether the Chicago Cubs or Cleveland Indians come out victorious, the 2016 World Series will go down in baseball annals as one of the most memorable World Series of all-time.
This marks the 37th time that a World Series champion will be crowned in a seventh game. Of the previous 36, 14 have been one-run games and four were decided in extra innings.
The last time a game seven went to extra innings was in 1997 when the Cleveland Indians could not close the game despite a one-run lead in the ninth inning and ultimately lost in the eleventh inning on a game-winning hit by Edgar Renteria.
While the closer for the Indians in 1997 was the shaky Jose Mesa, if Cleveland enters the final innings of this seventh game with a lead they have the strength of a bullpen that has been lights out during the 2016 postseason.
The only game seven appearance for the Chicago Cubs was during the 1945 World Series. The game seven starter for the Cubs that year was Hank Bowry, who had lost game five and then pitched four innings of relief to win game six 8-7 in 12 innings. He didn’t make it out of the first inning of game seven as the Detroit Tigers scored five runs on their way to a 9-3 victory.
This time the Cubs have the luxury of pitching a likely Cy Young Award winner who is working on regular rest after starting game three.
Though Kyle Hendricks did not allow a run before being lifted in the fifth inning of game three, the Cubs ultimately lost that game 1-0. Hendricks will certainly be trying to duplicate his performance in game six of the National League Championship Series when he allowed only two hits in 7.1 innings.
His adversary for this game seven is looking to become the first pitcher since Mickey Lolich in 1968 to win three games in a World Series and first since Bob Gibson in 1967 to win games 1, 4 and 7 in the same series. Just for the record, Lolich recorded complete game victories in games two, five and seven in 1968. Read the rest of this entry →
The Chicago Cubs got to celebrate their first National League pennant in 71 years. Will they have another celebration following the World Series?
With just two weeks remaining in one of the bitterest presidential elections of all time, the Baseball Gods have provided a much needed national distraction that has been a combined 176 years in the making.
While many Americans likely cannot name the last five World Series Champions, even casual sports fans are already aware that the Cubs and Indians will be playing in a World Series for all ages.
After all, these are not just any two Major League teams, these are two teams with epic histories of finding new ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. There have been movies, songs, poems and books chronicling the failures and collapses of these two storied franchises.
What we do know, is that within the next 10 days either the 68 year streak of futility for the Indians or the 108 year streak for the Cubs will be over.
How we get from here to that moment is a compelling story that seems likely to shift at least some of the Facebook and Twitter focus from the Trump-Clinton election to America’s pastime.
The Cubs are not only making their first World Series appearance since 1945, but they finished the regular season with the best record in baseball for the first time since they lost that dramatic seven game series to the Detroit Tigers 71 years ago. Their 103 victories is the most in a season for the Cubs since winning 100 games in 1935 (they lost that series in six games to the Tigers).
Though the Indians have made three World Series appearances since last winning a championship in 1948, until the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA Championship earlier this year to end the 52-year championship drought for the city of Cleveland, their burden seemed just as daunting as that of the Cubs.
However, now that the pressure of a city has been lifted from their shoulders, it almost seems like the Indians are playing with house money. While their 68 year World Series drought is certainly significant, it pales in comparison to that of the Cubs and the national fan base that watched much of their misery over the last several decades thanks to the WGN super-cable network. Read the rest of this entry →
The May Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month is the only person in professional baseball history to appear in a game in seven different decades.
Jim Thome's return to Cleveland is a reminder of past glory.
The decision by Jim Thome to waive his no-trade clause with the Minnesota Twins and accept a return to the Cleveland Indians brings the career of baseball’s newest 600 Club member full circle.
It was the Indians that picked Thome in the 13th round of the 1989 baseball draft and for the Indians that Thome blasted a franchise record 334 home runs while helping the team reach two World Series.
Cleveland fell just short in both of those Fall Classic appearances and the perfect ending to the Thome story would be for the slugger to help his old team finally achieve championship glory.
However, not every sports story has a happy “fairy tale” ending and it isn’t likely that even Thome playing at his best would be the enough to get this Cleveland team to championship glory.
The Indians are currently six games out of first place in the AL Central and are 30-44 since June 1st.
While Thome has enjoyed a brief resurgence with four home runs and 13 RBI in August, he is still on pace for his lowest full season home run total (not counting his injury-plagued 2005 campaign) since hitting 20 homers with the Indians in 1994.
Even if Thome and the Indians can catch lightning in a bottle and somehow reach the playoffs, Thome will have to change his recent postseason ways to help the Indians advance to the World Series. Read the rest of this entry →
The Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month is a former major league baseball player who came into the game as a teenager and stayed until he was in his 40s. In between, Rusty Staub put up a solid career that was primarily spent on expansion or rebuilding teams.
Originally signed by the Colt .45s at age 17, he made his major league debut as a 19-year old rookie and became only the second player in the modern era to play in more than 150 games as a teenager.
Though he hit only .224 splitting time between first base and rightfield, Staub did start building a foundation that would turn him into an All-Star by 1967 when he finished fifth in the league with a .333 batting average.
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