Sports Then and Now

Natalie Niekro at Pre-game Ceremonies at previous event in Houston

“And that’s the rest of the story” was, of course, the famous phrase uttered countless times by the late, great, Paul Harvey. For those readers too young or too sheltered to remember the immortal radio legend, Harvey gave listeners the endings to stories that were news worthy one day and faded away from our memories the next. Harvey would present to listeners the happy or ironic outcome of a story long since forgotten.

I often think about how many times, the readers, the watchers, the audience become enthralled by the beginning and middle of a story and are never given the opportunity to hear the “and they lived happily ever after” piece.

So in hopes of righting a journalistic wrong, I’ve tracked down my favorite knuckleballer’s favorite little girl to see how Natalie Niekro and The Joe Niekro Foundation made out at the expense of the whiffers from the Arizona Fall League. Read the rest of this entry →

Charlie Manuel says he’s team is resilient. He points out the fact that the team has lost

Can Cliff Lee pitch another gem versus the Yankees?

22 games this season where they led after the 7th inning. That sounds like the 2008 New York Mets to me. But in this case it was the Phillies this year and not the Mets last year who ultimately wound up winning the World Series. (ouch)

I too am quite confident that this series is far from over. On the Yankee side all one must do is just look back a short 5 years when they were one game from eliminating their most hated rival,the Boston Red Sox and unless you’ve been hiding in a time capsule you know what happened there.

For the Yanks to close this puppy out they are going to have to do it on the arms of A.J. Burnett, who like his counterpart C.C. Sabathia, will be pitching on three days rest. If he doesn’t get past Cliff Lee they will have to use Andy Pettitte once again on three days rest and if it goes to a seventh game it will be CC once more time on the short rest period.

Personally I can’t see this as a formula for success therefore my unwillingness to count the Phillies out just yet.

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Red Sox Nation cried, smiled, and celebrated on October 27, 2004.

October 27^th marks the fifth anniversary of the Red Sox reversing the 86 year curse. Damn five years went by quickly (I hate getting old!), but I remember that night like it was yesterday. It was a crisp clear autumn night with a full moon. I was meeting all my friends at the Grand Canal in Boston to witness arguably the most exciting, incredible, and unbelievable moment in Boston Sports History.

The Red Sox were on the cusp of finally Reversing that f@$#@*& curse!

However, let’s step back and rewind back to the ALCS versus the hated Yankees.  After dispatching the LA California Angels of Anaheim at Disney in the Divisional Series, the Sox sputtered and were left for dead after a 19-8 thrashing at home. They were in a three games to none hole. Everyone in Red Sox Nation began to focus on the Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics (If you really thought they were coming back from down 3-0, you are a liar or a psychic).

Baseball season in Boston was over.

Or was it?

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It was snowing in Foxboro in October. How will the weather be for baseball in November?

Let It Snow!!!

For the first time, the World Series is actually scheduled to finish up in November. The Series did go into November in 2001, but that was because of 9/11, but this year for some reason the baseball powers think November baseball is a good thing.

Now I love baseball and will miss it when the season is over, but that doesn’t mean I think they need to be playing past Halloween.

Sports seasons used to be pretty clean. Baseball started in early April and ended in mid-October. Football started in early-September and ended in mid-January. Basketball started in early November and ended in mid-June. Hockey started in early October and ended in mid-May.

For some reason, in recent years each of the seasons seems to be gradually getting bigger, much like my waistline. They just keep extending further out little by little until eventually you don’t even remember when it wasn’t at its current (enlarged) size.

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The following is part of a weekly series called “Through the Eyes of…” In each segment, I share interviews with or stories about those who I view to be the “Good Guys.” The men and women who participate in and are the very fiber that make up the great game of baseball.

“Through the Eyes of…” is a part of my personal crusade to present baseball in all its beauty, splendor, and goodness, instead of through hashing and rehashing all that is broken with our national treasure. TC

Bill Artz, alone in the pen, waiting to warm up a Phillies reliever.

There is hardly a soul who has ever picked up a leather glove and a hardball, who hasn’t also dreamed of making the journey to the the big leagues. The two travel nearly hand in hand once the sound of rawhide against hardwood is experienced.

And for nearly every child who dreams the dream of playing major league baseball, so too goes the subtle disappointment that comes with the realization that the dream is just that: a dream. They are few and far between, those with the gift, the willingness to work and the dedication necessary to succeed that make it all the way to the Show.

But then there are the nearly chosen few, who don’t make it to the big leagues, but by luck or by circumstance still get to pull up the stirrups next to the big boys.

For 486 consecutive games from Opening Day of 1998 to the call of “wait til next year” in 2000, Bill Artz was privileged enough to put on the uniform of the present World Champion Philadelphia Phillies and catch the likes of Curt Schilling, Randy Wolf, and Mark Portugal in his role as the Bull Pen catcher.

Though not a glamorous position on the hierarchy of the baseball org chart, there is nary  a one of us, that wouldn’t give up doing what we are doing today to experience a cup of coffee or two and maybe a mid game catch with Paul Byrd, Mark Leiter or Vicente Padilla.

Today, Artz owns and operate Big League Floors, a Philadelphia based company that provides residential and commercial floorings services for an eight county area in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

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