One Pitch Can Change Everything!

One pitch can change everything from a walk off home run in the bottom of the ninth in game seven of the World Series to keeping a young Iowa junior high school team from going to the state tournament.

Iowa, unlike its neighboring states, of Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska has run its baseball program in the summer. The Iowa High School Athletic Association feels it is necessary so young boys can participate in their summer months and run track in the spring if they choose so. In Iowa, I could play four sports. I played baseball in the summer, football in the fall, basketball in the winter and ran track in the spring. I only did that one year as I started going to school in Worthington and commuted with Dad who had started coaching and counseling at Worthington State Junior College in September 1968.That was in my eighth grade year. We stayed in Sibley until our house was completed in February 1969.

The first picture I want to show you is when we were getting ready to go to the 9th District Tournament Championship game to qualify for the Iowa State Tournament:

The next picture is the rundown of our game as it appeared in the Sibley Gazette:

 

The next picture was our practice picture and does not have all the team members at practice.


I want to show you our team of student/athletes at our practice field, which doubled as a demolition derby on weekends at the Osceola County Fairgrounds. It was an all dirt field with very little grass in the outfield. My dad was our coach, bus driver, groundskeeper and third-base coach. He had to reinstall the pitching rubber every Monday after a demolition derby that weekend and performed any other tasks deemed necessary. He is standing on the far right. He also coached the high school team.

Our loss came on one pitch in the bottom of the seventh when Mark Huisenga hit a smash up the middle and the pitcher blindly snagged, which abruptly ended our rally and our season. It was a sad ride home that day.

Baseball was fun to play and watch. I miss being able to play catch with my dad with a baseball, football or shoot baskets with him teaching and mentoring me all the way.

The regulations that govern Iowa baseball state your birthday has to come before a certain day to be eligible to play on that team. We were lucky because our three best players all have the same birthday falling into the parameters in the rulebook. Bob Wahl, Dan Pomerenke and Mark Huisenga were those players.

I built lifelong friendships with that team and still keep in touch through Facebook with a few of them, their friends, sisters, wives and other people from Sibley. We only lived in Iowa for two and one-half years; but it was an active, carefree, fun existence for a young boy in a quiet, little town in northwest Iowa in the late 60s!


I often think about what other memories we would have made if that pitcher had not made that one pitch!

Now, I get my coaching and mentoring fun by watching the Minnesota Twins and the University of Minnesota's Gophers men's basketball team. Both of them have been hard to watch lately.

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

I Love October!

If you like sports like I do, you may be in seventh heaven like I am! With the Major League Baseball (MLB) playoffs in full swing, the NFL nearing its halfway point and college football on every Saturday I am able to watch football or baseball every day.

College basketball will be starting soon as will the big guys in the NBA. I start my thirty-sixth straight season as a season ticket holder for Minnesota Gophers basketball team next month and I am excited to see what happens this year after a frustrating season last year. I just heard there is new information about the growing scandal at the U and hope it does not interfere with new allegations regarding the basketball program.

It is fun to be in The Barn those nineteen or twenty nights every winter when the place gets rocking! It is what keeps me in Minnesota!

Back to October: as you well know I tend to get sidelined when I start writing! With the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets dueling it out in the Eastern League Championship Series I am torn between which team I want to see win. Of the two New York teams I like to see the Mets do well; however, it has been over 100 years since the Cubs won the World Series and I am rooting for them to play the Kansas City Royals in the World Series.

On one hand, I would like to see the Royals win after coming so close last year. I also like the fact they are the champions of the American League North Division, which is where the Minnesota Twins play. That is a whole another story about how well the Twins improved from last year. I believe they are setting the groundwork for an exciting future with the hiring of Paul Moliter as their manager and the rookie players stepping up to play a great part of this season's success. I believe next year they will be very fun to watch. The fact they were in the Wild Card race until the second to last day of the season was a good indication of what is to come.

Meanwhile, the NFL has provided many exciting games already with a record number of overtime games already this season. Parity is definitely back in the NFL, which is the way it should be. Right now I can watch one, two and sometimes even three games in one day! 

Since I cannot play anymore, I have a lot of fun following and even coaching from bed while I watch a game. You may know I have been bedridden since June and have only recently been allowed to sit up for two hours at a time. That forces me to watch television while lying down. I use these prism glasses to watch the games. If you have never seen a pair of these classes, they allow me to watch at a 90° angle. I look straight up and can see the television at my feet. Here is what they look like:

As always, click on the image to make it larger.

I need to end this, as my two hours are almost up. I will lie down, take a nap and wait for tonight's baseball game. Have I mentioned yet how much I like October?

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Mo'ne Davis Throws Like A Girl

That's correct, Mo'ne Davis throws like a girl! That is because she is a 13-year-old girl from Philadelphia who can bring the heat! In the Boy's Little League World Series on August 15th she pitched a complete game shutout for the Pennsylvania team to throw her second shutout in the first round of the Little League World Series in the game against a team from Nashville, Tennessee.

She also pitched a no-hit shut out in the game that qualified her team to go to Williamsport, Pennsylvania to play in the World Series! She did not have far to travel staying in her home state.

She throws 70 miles an hour, which is equivalent of a 90 mile an hour fastball the big boys can throw!

She looks and acts completely calm and relaxed as she strikes out one boy after another. She is doing only seventeen other girls have done, and that is playing in the Little League World Series! The amazing thing about her is how she is taking her celebrity status in stride. She is very calm for a 13-year-old.

Her mother, LaKeisha McLean, is "very proud" to see the success her daughter is having and how well she is handling it. She says Mo'ne has a great relationship with her teammates and they protect her when they go out.

Nobody messes with Mo'ne when the Taney Youth Baseball Association team in Philadelphia is around, which is making history as the first time the Taney Youth Baseball Association has made it to the Little League World Series! Her teammates protect her like a little sister.

Here is a photograph of Mo'ne pitching in her first game of the Little League World Series:

Click on the image to make it larger:

ESPN did a great story on her I had seen a couple of times. She has also been on all the news shows and featured interviews with several talk shows. She is very composed for young lady of only thirteen!

She also loves to play soccer and basketball. From interviews I have seen, it looks like she is even better at basketball and soccer then baseball! The good thing for her is there may very well be a college scholarship waiting for her to play college  basketball after she finishes high school.

The WNBA and NCAA scouts are supposedly already looking at her. The problem with a star at such a young age is they develop early and often the other children catch up to her physically.

That remains to be seen with this young phenom. It will be exciting to follow her career and see how well she does with one or more of the three sports.

The young lady has been on quite a ride since her Little League World Series success. She had the privilege of throwing out the first pitch of Game 4 of the World Series in Kansas City and spent some face time with Hall of Famers Frank Robinson and Hank Aaron. In my book, that would have been a huge highlight!

Here she has walking off the field after throwing out the first pitch in Game 4:

Again, click on the image to make it larger:

I know this is old news to some of you, but if you are not a big sports fan, this may be new news to you. I have been holding it for an appropriate time to do it; and since the Vikings had a bye week today seemed like a good time to post this.

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Wrigley Field Is 100 Years Old!

The first game ever played in Weeghman Park, which was later named Wrigley Field when William Wrigley, Jr. bought the stadium from Charles Weeghman after the Independent Federal League folded in 1915. The Independent Federal League was giving the American and National League a run for their money and paying customers, but its original eight teams could not keep up. 

That game was played April 23, 1914. Please forgive me as I missed the exact date by two days. The Chicago Federals and the Kansas City Packers played the first game ever played at the new stadium, which was built for $250,000 in 1914. The Chicago Cubs moved into the stadium in 1916, where they have remained ever since in the second oldest ballpark in major league baseball just a couple years newer than Fenway Park in Boston.

Here is a photograph of the stadium just after completion in 1914. The seating capacity was 14,000 people. Click on the image to make it larger:

Wrigley Field has undergone many changes and growth since this picture. Most notably the planting of the Ivy covered outfield wall in 1937. Obviously, there have been other additions including the centerfield scoreboard which is still operated manually and updated inning by inning of the other games going on and additional seating to get it to where its capacity is today of just over 41,000 people.

In February 1914, workman tore down a few old seminary buildings on the corner of Clark and Addison on the North Side of Chicago. By mid April they were ready to play ball. That is amazing when you consider how long it takes to build a stadium today! Of course it is like comparing apples to oranges, but just think of the comparison in construction techniques and size of stadiums.

I wanted to give you a little history behind the stadium because it is now a Mecca for Cubs fans from all over the country. People who have attended games in Wrigley Field tell me the atmosphere is like no place else! I have heard stories about how fans and players alike feel differently when they walk or roll into Wrigley Field! I find that incredible. Can AT&T Park in North Texas make that claim? At a cost of $1.8 billion, Jerry's World, as is affectionately known and is now the largest stadium in the country is the epitome of opulence and Jerry Jones arrogant ego!

I know people that will take their children and go to a three-game weekend series in Chicago to experience three days of baseball in the confines of beautiful, old Wrigley Field.

I have mentioned my attendant, Robert, in previous blogs. He grew up in Chicago and tells fondly of going to games in Wrigley Field. He said his greatest memories revolve around the taste of the hot dogs, hoping to catch a fly ball with his tiny glove, and most importantly the sound of the bat hitting the ball and trying to watch it fly over the Ivy covered wall.

He has not been at a game in more than three decades, but those memories remain vivid.

We have all heard of the Bucket List. One of the items on my Bucket List is going to Wrigley Field and experience a weekend of baseball in this cool old stadium. Fenway Park is another one on my list. Of course, I love watching baseball. If you are not a baseball fan, you may not feel the way I do. However, you may still like going to Wrigley or Fenway just for the experience.

Here is another photo from the outside of Wrigley Field I enjoy:

Matt Snyder wrote this on CBS's Eye On Baseball two days ago. Obviously, he grew up in Chicago and still writes for the Cubs:

"If we could leave the business end out of things, the across-the-street rooftop gatherings are also part of the equation.

And, of course, there's the ivy on the brick outfield wall, which isn't yet grown out this season, given that it's still April. By the middle of the summer, though, the ivy will be a full, beautiful green, just as it has been since Bill Veeck decided to plant ivy out there all the way back in 1937.

Those features alone are worth a visit for non-Cubs fans at least once. Wrigley is a bucket-list type stadium.

Every baseball stadium has a potpourri, but Wrigley's is so endearing. It's like a mish-mash of peanut shells, stale beer, brick dust, freshly-mown lawn, hot dogs, popcorn and hope. Yes, hope. Our good friend Andy Dufresne taught us hope was a good thing long ago and Cubs fans would be wise to embracing this mantra years later in the great Wrigley Field. Hope is a good thing, Red, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.

For generations of Cubs fans, though, it's so much more than the look and smell and even, yes, the necessary hope. Wrigley Field is a shrine. It's home, in a way. It's where we first heard bleacher bums chanting "left field sucks!" and "right field sucks!" in taunting fashion directed at each other. The view of the outfield when first emerging from a tunnel in the grandstand with the ivy and scoreboard as the backdrop on a beautiful summer day cannot possibly be described or matched. It's just so perfect; so gorgeous.

Each of us has a childhood memory that stands out above the rest — mine being that I saw an Andre Dawson homer that didn't count in his MVP season (the game was rained out before the fifth inning was completed and eventually restarted from the top). I went home and made sure to grab No. 8 in Little League because I wanted to be like the Hawk.

Similar stories could be told through the years about players like Gabby Hartnett, Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, Derrek Lee and a host of others. Or pitchers like Fergie Jenkins, Greg Maddux and Kerry Wood."


You can see his passion for Wrigley and the Cubs.

There is just one more thing to say, "Play ball!"

I look forward to your memories of Wrigley Field. As always, I look forward to your comments even if you have never been to Chicago or Wrigley Field.

Later,

Mike

The End Of An Era

As we left the Gopher basketball game last night and started to turn off Washington Avenue, my friend, Phil Echert said, "Take a look at that. That's a view we'll never see again."

He was looking up at Mall of America Field, better known as the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. He was right, that big, white, Teflon hump was coming down after today's Vikings — Lions game!

The Vikings opened the Metrodome September 12, 1982 with a 17-10 win over Tampa Bay. Since then, they are 168-92. Today they closed their run with a 14-13 win over Detroit; and will go home to reload to play the next two seasons outside at the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium while their new home is being built. That means games like today will be played outdoors!

In between two-hundred sixty Vikings games, the Metrodome housed the 1991 World Series, the 1992 Super Bowl and the 1992 Final Four. No other venue can make that claim. You add in the 1985 All-Star Game, and no other venue in the history of college and professional sports can make that claim! Oh yes, there was the 1987 World Series Championship too!

Besides all the University of Minnesota football and baseball games in the Metrodome, there have been countless high school and small college football and baseball games, as well as many other events including monster truck rallies, motocross rallies and major rock concerts that literally shook buildings close to the dome.

The Minnesota Prep Bowl, which is Minnesota's version of a football state championship playoff system, also started playing in the Metrodome the year it opened in 1982. In the early years, they played seven games in one day for the state championships in each division. I believe they now stretch that over two days. They also play the semifinals for each class in the Metrodome.

When the Metrodome was built, it came in under budget, which was about $55 million. The new dome will cost just under $1 billion. That seems like an incredible rate of inflation for a building that was only thirty-two years old! I understand the new building will have certain amenities the Metrodome did not have and will be a football only stadium.

I also understand from some long time season-ticket holders the price of season tickets in the new dome will be substantially higher to the point where they will not be able to afford their season tickets anymore. That is a shame!

I understand how big-time college and professional sports has gone the way of the corporate sponsorship which has eliminated the average family from being able to attend many sporting events. Just because I understand it, does not mean I like it! In fact, I despise the fact everything now has to revolve around money. It is not just sports; money seems to buy everything in our country today. I do not like the direction that is taking us.

I believe that is also an end of an era when corporate sponsorships are needed to supply even equipment for high school activities like sports and bands. But that is a whole other rant!

I have many memories of events I watched in the Metrodome including the 1991 World Series when Kirby Puckett hit his home run in game six to send the Series to possibly one of the best World Series games in history when Jack Morris pitched a 10 inning shutout! It is hard to believe that was more than twenty-two years ago already!

I would like to hear your favorite Metrodome memories. Feel free to share them.

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

I Feel Bad Today

Let me start this post by saying, "I LOVE BASEBALL! I loved playing the game. I love the strategy, I love watching good baseball, even if it can go rather slowly sometimes. In the matter of one swing, a whole game, series or even an entire season can be changed."

I feel bad because I will not get to watch three more games of the American League Championship Series (ALCS) because the Detroit Tigers swept the New York Yankees in four straight games. I feel bad because two hundred million dollars cannot buy a pennant let alone the World Series. Actually, I don't feel bad about that at all, I rather like it!

If you know me, you know I do not like the Yankees and the way they acquire the best talent by having the deepest pockets in the largest market, and they are expected to win the World Series every year because they put the most talent on the field every year with a team payroll over two hundred million dollars! I believe that takes away from the game.

I am glad to see Detroit sweep the Yankees with a former Minnesota Twin, Delmon Young, play such an integral part and was named the MVP. I did not like to see him go, but I hope he gets his ring now.

I know there are Yankee fans out there who disagree with me, and that is okay. They are by far the most successful sports franchise in all four major sports, MLB, NFL, NBA and the NHL. They have been buying championships since they bought Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for one hundred twenty-five thousand dollars on January 5, 1920.

I like to see the underdog win, and Detroit was definitely the underdog in this ALCS. The Tigers won every aspect of the game and never trailed in the four-game sweep. The vaunted Yankee hitters only batted .188 as a team. That is the worst team batting average in Major League Post-season History! That is extraordinary!

I know their Captain, Derek Jeter, and their best player, went down with a broken ankle in Game 1, but very few of their other players stepped up at all, let alone critical times in any of the three remaining games. To top it all off, the ace of their pitching staff, C.C. Sabathia, was knocked out in the fourth inning. That was not supposed to happen either.

Now, I am going to watch Game 5 of the National League Championship Series and see if San Francisco can come back on the defending Champion Cardinals, or if Detroit will play St. Louis in the World Series. Such a dilemma to have while the Yankees clean out their lockers and head for the golf courses in Florida, or the winter leagues in the Caribbean.

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

Adam Bender The Left-handed Catcher

When you watch this video, you immediately notice there is something different about young Adam Bender. He is left-handed! Rarely do you see a left-handed catcher. It is an almost an unwritten rule that catchers throw with their right hand. If you are not a baseball player or fan, you probably wonder why that is. The reason is most hitters are right-handed and it is easier for the catcher to throw back to the pitcher or one of the bases if there is not a batter in front of them.


Oh, there is one more thing you notice about young Adam. He only has one leg. He had his left leg amputated when he was one because of cancer. It is another wonderful story about a young person with a disability who is not letting his disability keep him down. They seem to be everywhere.

This story was originally published in the Lexington Harold Leader on May 31, 2008. You can watch a great video and read the entire story about young Adam by clicking here.


Adam has also played football and soccer. He has overcome adversity to do what he wants to do. I admire that. And to think he was only eight years old when this story was done. I looked around a bit to find out how he is doing and could not find any updates. Whatever he is doing this summer, I am sure he is having fun. He certainly has the heart of a champion and a good attitude. We all know how important it is to have a good attitude!

I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

TWINS WIN!

That was fun! If you're not a Minnesota Twins, or even a baseball fan, this post will still have a fun picture I hope you will enjoy.

As a lifelong Twins fan, I got to go to the 1991 World Series games at the Metrodome, but I had to give my Game 7 tickets to a friend because I had a speaking engagement in Eveleth the next day. So, I had to watch Jack Morris pitch the best pitched game in World Series history from my hotel room in Eveleth. At least I got to see Kirby Puckett win Game 6. That was fun too!

But tonight, the Dome just was not done! It was magical! It was like the '87 and '91 World Series were back! It does not want to give up the Twins! I thought it was fun! Baseball is fun. I am constantly amazed at what Abner Doubleday invented more than one hundred years ago!

The fact he put the bases ninety feet apart, the pitching rubber sixty feet-six inches from home plate, and put it on a mound, four balls, three strikes, three outs, all the rules that dictate the game were foreseen in the nineteenth century! I find that amazing! Think how different the game would be if he would have made the game last ten innings, or had allowed for free substitution, or made the rule a batter gets four strikes? As it is, he invented a perfect game! At least, that is my opinion.

Watching the managers make their changes tonight was fun to see. If you are a student of the game, would you have made some of Ron Gardenhire or Jim Leyland's decisions?

Anyway, the Twins now get to play the dreaded Yankees. And, most importantly, the Metrodome gets at least one more game!

Now, here's the photo I have been saving to share. A friend sent me this a few weeks ago and I was hoping to find a way to use it. As Forest Gump would say, "Stupid is as stupid does."


I wonder what old Abner would say about the current style of wearing baseball caps with the built-in sun visor on the back of the head?

GO TWINS!

Any comments?

Later,

Mike