Good morning, all! I hope your Tuesday is off to a great start!
The above video covers the following topics:
A good weekend for Picks for Kicks
Vitello would make history, if Giants name him manager
McDaniel’s hot seat
BC football
Here are some other thoughts, as I think about New Britain, CT’s contribution to the AL pennant-winning Toronto Blue Jays:
When George Springer hit the big three-run HR in the seventh inning last night, to overcome a 3-1 Seattle lead and put the Blue Jays ahead, 4-3, I swear not only did the Rogers Centre in Toronto shake, so did the earth in Connecticut, especially in New Britain. No question New Britain, CT has to be feeling proud today, as their favorite son hit one of the biggest home runs of his career. And then to put the icing on the cake, Jeff Hoffman pitched the ninth inning to register the save. Hoffman is also no stranger to New Britain, even though he is a native of Latham, NY. Hoffman pitched for the New Britain Rock Cats in 2015, when he was in the Colorado Rockies organization. Not to mention that the Blue Jays associate manager DeMarlo Hale once played for the New Britain Red Sox. I had the honor of interviewing DeMarlo, when I was broadcasting games for the Kinston Blue Jays and he was playing for the Winston-Salem Red Sox.
By the way, guess who is going to the World Series for the first time? Yankees great Don Mattingly. In his career as a Yankee player and coach and also as a manager with the Dodgers and Marlins, he had never been to a World Series, but now as the bench coach for manager John Schneider, he is going to his first fall classic.
This World Series will have a heavy Eastern League flavor, beginning with Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider, who managed the New Hampshire Fisher Cats to the EL title in 2018.
Once considered a lock to become the next manager of the Los Angeles Angels, Albert Pujols is now out of the running, according to several reports. From what I read, it came down to length of contract and how much say Pujols would have in picking his coaches. Supposedly, he will interview for the Padres and Orioles openings.
You have to admit, with seven managerial openings, you would have thought more would have been filled by now but so far only the Texas Rangers have a new manager: Skip Schumaker.
Former Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais is reportedly in the running to be the next manager of the Minnesota Twins, per La Velle E. Neal III of the Minnesota Star Tribune.
The NBA season opens tonight. The Oklahoma City Thunder are favored to repeat. The NBA will also return to NBC and the network’s Peacock streaming service. ESPN, ABC and Amazon Prime will also have coverage under the new television deals signed by the league.
Fired Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau has been making the rounds of NBA team practices and was spotted at the Celtics practice on Monday. You don’t suppose he imparted some secrets about his ex-team do you?
Yes, the 5-2 New England Patriots are for real.
That is going to do it for today’s newsletter. As always, thank you for subscribing and have a great day!
DAN
