Good morning, all! I hope your weekend is off to a great start!
It is already Week 5 of the NFL season and my Picks for Kicks segment is in the above video.
Here are some other Saturday thoughts:
One of the many things I love about baseball is the connection players have. Take Cam Schlittler, who turned in his historical performance in the Yankees win over the Red Sox Thursday night to capture the ALWCS against their rivals. On April 4, Schlittler was the Opening Day starter for the Somerset Patriots against the Hartford Yard Goats at Dunkin’ Park. I broadcast that game, along with the “Voice of the Yard Goats,” Jeff Dooley. Here is my scorecard from that night:
As you can see, Schlittler threw 82 pitches in 5 2/3 innings. He allowed one run, a first inning home run by Kyle Karros, the son of former major leaguer Eric Karros. It was Kyle’s first at bat at AA. Karros would end the game with a walk-off HR in the ninth. On Thursday night, Yankees third baseman Ryan McMahon made a sensational, tumbling catch into the Red Sox dugout in the eighth inning. The Colorado Rockies traded McMahon to the Yankees in July and called up Karros to play third base. See what I mean?
And that leads us to that McMahon catch. In 2024, then Hartford Yard Goats first baseman Kyle Datres also caught a foul ball, tumbling into the first base dugout against Somerset, the Yankees AA affiliate. McMahon’s grab was a mirror image of the Datres grab on the opposite side of the field.
Better yet, the Yard Goats did a superb job of melding the video of both catches. Here’s the link. Baseball really is an amazing game.
The ratings for the first game of the ALWCS between the Red Sox and Yankees were a record for a wild card game, since the format switched to a best-of-three, averaging 6.52M viewers and peaking at over 9M. I will be interested to see the Game 2 and 3 numbers.
Carlos Mendoza saved his job as manager of the New York Mets, but others paid a heavy price because of the team’s collapse. The Mets announced on Friday that most of the coaching staff will not return, including baseball lifer and former big league manager John Gibbons, who was allowed to resign, rather than be fired.
All four divisional series start today:
Does every story about the WNBA have to be about the impending labor strife or where the Connecticut Sun will end up playing? The finals started last night. How about putting more focus on that!
Mac Jones really misses being a QB for the Patriots, doesn’t he?
Miami-Florida St. tonight ought to be a good one.
That is going to do it for today’s newsletter. Thank you for subscribing and have a terrific Saturday.
DAN
