Baseball HOF Class of 2022

Congratulations to the National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees for 2022.  Nine new members joined the hall this afternoon in ceremonies in Cooperstown, New York.

The newest members are:  Bud Fowler, Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Minnie Miñoso, Tony Oliva, Buck O'Neil, and David Ortiz.  For a well written article and videos from the induction ceremony, check out this article by Anthony Castrovince written for MLB.com.

I was lucky enough to see four of them play or manage in person during their careers.

Gil Hodges - I did not see Hodges play in person because I was too young as he completed his playing career.  But, I saw him manage the "Miracle Mets" of 1969.  That team won the National League pennant and then went on to upset a highly favored Baltimore Oriole team in the World Series.  I can remember watching a St. Louis Cardinal - New York Mets doubleheader in July and not being impressed so much by Hodges managerial skills, but the amount of talent the Mets had on that team and pitching staff.   But, in looking back, I realize now that team was managed by a man who knew he had talent and managed those young players to an NL Championship over a highly regarded Chicago Cubs club that faded down the stretch in September.  One other thing about Hodges, he died way too  young of a heart attack.

Jim Kaat - I had the opportunity to watch Kaat play with the St. Louis Cardinals for four years at the end of his career and saw him at Busch Stadium II eight or nine times in 1982 when the Cardinals won the World Series.  Kaat was a pitcher at the end of his career.  He craftily changed speeds and locations to keep hitters off balance.  In that 1982 season Kaat was 5-3 with an ERA of 4.08.  In his four years with Cards Kaat was a work horse pitching in 176 games and over 290 innings.  Kaat pitched a total of 25 years and ended his career with 283 wins and a career ERA of 3.45.  His selection is long overdue.

Minnie Miñoso - I believe I saw Miñoso play for St. Louis in 1962.  (I was nine years old and my Dad took me to several games that year, but I can't say for certain it was before Miñoso got injured on May 11, when he collided head first into the concrete left field wall).  His season was cut short by the skull fracture and wrist fracture from trying to chase down that Duke Snider line drive.  He came back later in the season but  got hit in his left arm on August 19th by a pitch from the Mets Craig Anderson.  Two days later while playing left field he had to leave the game with a swollen arm.  X-rays revealed a broken forearm.  It was somewhat ironic that his career in St. Louis ended with being hit by a pitch.  Miñoso had led the American League in being hit-by-pitches for ten years as a member of the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians.  Miñoso had a career that started when he was 25 with the Indians and stretched over five decades.  Minnie played a game with the White Sox when he was 56 years old to be able to say he had played in those five decades.  He amassed a total of 2113 hits, 195 homers and 216 stolen bases leading the American League in that category three times.  To say Miñoso was fast during his prime, would be an understatement. He was selected to the Hall by the Old Timers committee.

David Ortiz - There's not much I can say about him that hasn't been written.  I saw him and the Boston Red Sox play in person against the Cardinals in Game Three of the 2013 WorldSeries.  The Redbirds won the game 5-4 on a bizarre play in the bottom of the ninth.  But, Ortiz was on base three of four times he came to the plate.  He had a single and two walks.  In that series he hit .688 with a 1.948 OPS.  It was a small sample but indicative of his whole career.  I was also at Fenway Park on September 9, 2015 while on vacation; Ortiz's second to last active season.  He came up in the third inning and hit a three run home run off of Blue Jays pitcher Drew Hutchinson.  But, what was more impressive was his show of strength in batting practice.  From my perch on top of the Green Monster, I watched him drive ball after ball into the outfield seats, including one that flew over our heads above the "Monster" and out of Fenway onto Lansdowne Street.  He was a very strong man and a very good baseball player.  He is deserving of his first ballot election.

Congratulations Big Papi!

In the event you missed it, David Ortiz has been elected as the newest member of baseball's Hall of Fame.  Ortiz was named on over 78% of the votes in his first time on the ballot.  75% was needed to win election into the hall.

"Big Papi" as he was known to Boston Red Sox fans and his teammates was a powerful player who slammed 541 career home runs, ranking him 17th in baseball history.  In addition to the 541 HRs, Ortiz ended his career with a .286 lifetime batting average along with 1768 RBI.  And during an era in which PEDs were used extensively, Ortiz was tested frequently and every time was clean.

I was fortunate to see him in person in mid September of 2015 at Fenway Park.  I was on vacation and took a tour of the park early in the afternoon prior to that night's game against the Toronto Blue Jays.  During our time on the field I was within about 30 feet of Big Papi and he was enjoying life laughing and joking with his Red Sox teammates.

The tour ended with a trip to the top of the Green Monster in left field while the Sox took batting practice.  I was visiting with some Blue Jay fans when another fan yelled "heads up".  I looked up to see a baseball screaming about ten feet over our heads before departing Fenway and landing across Lansdowne Street.  I knew he was strong but that blast removed any doubt of how much power he really had.  He repeated this two more times while I looked on in awe.

I had a chance to buy tickets to the Jays - Red Sox game that night, but because of having to leave early the next morning and the length of American League games I decided against it.  I should have gone to the game.  That same evening Ortiz slammed a three run homer to deep left center field off of Jay's starter Drew Hutchinson.  I looked it up today and it was his then 32nd homer of the year.  He would go on to hit 37 that season even though he was in the twilight of his career and 39 years old.

Ortiz's WAR was 55.3 which was a little lower than some of his peers in the hall, and I really didn't think he would get elected in the first year he was eligible.  But, I am glad he is the Hall of Fame's newest member.  Congratulations David Ortiz!

Classic? Hardly

ESPN, one of Major League Baseball's business partners, has taken it upon itself to declare last night's playoff game between Tampa Bay and Boston a "classic".  I've been watching baseball for over 60 years and this game was far from being a classic.

First off the game was just one of a best of five series, of four playoff series.  In the grand scheme of all baseball games played it is just a flyspeck on the windshield of all games played.

The game lasted 13 innings, which in MLB's bastardized version of baseball is fairly long.  But, that doesn't make it a classic.  In fact the game was boring and lasted 5 hours and 14 minutes.  Snooze. Yawn.  Boring.

And to top it off, 35 of the 105 at bats in the game had absolutely no action by the fielders.  28 batters struck out and there were an additional seven hitters who walked.  A full one third of the game was played without the ball being put into play.

Still, MLB plods along clueless as to why attendance is falling and TV ratings continue to shrink.  It's simple; the games are boring and they last way too long.

Congratulations to the Newest HOF Members!

Derek Jeter and Larry Walker are the two newest members of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  I count myself fortunate to have not just watched both of them play but to have watched them in person.  I saw Walker on a number of occasions at Busch Stadium II in downtown St. Louis and that's where I also watched Jeter play with the New York Yankees against the Cardinals on June 11th, 2005.

#2 Derek Jeter - "The Captain"

Jeter's selection was a given.  The only question I have is who didn't vote for him?  Jeter was one vote away from unanimous selection.  As I write this the identity of the Hall of Fame elector is unknown and what that voter was thinking is even more difficult to comprehend.  Jeter had a career with almost 35 hundred hits in over 11 thousand at bats and a lifetime .310 batting average.  The image of Jeter to the left is from a trip I made to the Bronx two years ago.  The image of him is on the exterior right field wall of Yankee Stadium.  I was standing on River Avenue when I took the photo.

The day I saw Jeter play against the Cardinals in St. Louis he was 2-4 with two RBI and two runs scored.  In the field he handled five chances flawlessly.  Normally I wouldn't remember one players day from 15 years ago, but I remembered he had a good day and went back to look it up.  "The Captain" was not a favorite of mine at the time, but as the years passed he earned my respect and now I am proud to be able to say I saw him in person and believe him to be one of the best to ever play shortstop in the history of the game.

The Yankees beat the Cardinals 5-0 the day I saw Jeter play.  But, he wasn't the only future Hall of Famer on the Field.  Larry Walker also played that day coming into the game as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 8th for Cardinal outfield So Taguchi.  And who you ask was on the hill for the Yankees when Walker came into the game?  Why none other than HOF reliever Mariano Rivera who was elected unanimously to the Hall last  year.

The match up ended up in Rivera's favor with Walker being called out on strikes that afternoon. As it turns out Rivera got a four out save and another Hall of Famer, Randy Johnson, got the win.

Larry Walker playing for the St. Louis Cardinals

Walker was near the end of his career that afternoon, but he had an illustrious one.  Walker had a lifetime average of .313 in 17 seasons with 383 home runs and 230 stolen bases.  He started his career with the Montreal Expos then moved to Colorado to play for the Rockies and ended it with his last two years in St. Louis.  In 2004 Walker was a trade deadline pickup and he helped the Cardinals to the World Series that year against the Boston Red Sox.  Walker hit .293 in the 2004 post season including six home runs with two of them coming against the Red Sox in the World Series.

Walker retired after the 2005 season and in those two years he became a huge fan favorite in St. Louis.  Walker says he will enter the Hall with a Colorado Rockie hat on his plaque.  Walker will become just the second Canadian to enter the Hall.  He will join former Chicago Cub pitcher Ferguson Jenkins who was inducted in 1991.

Walker and Jeter will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 26th along with former Cardinal Ted Simmons and labor leader Marvin Miller who were selected by the Modern Era baseball committe a little over a month ago.

Congratulations to the Hall of Fame class of 2020!

Epic Fail!

 Copyright United Features Syndicate

Once again Major League Baseball has taken a golden opportunity and turned it into a colossal screw up.

This past Saturday and Sunday MLB managed to get two games scheduled in London between the Red Sox and Yankees.  Baseball says the plan was to expose Europeans to the game played every day in the US during the summer.  Well, they played two games and the result was two of the most boring baseball games you've ever seen.  MLB hyped the game on Saturday as a classic.  It was won by the Yankees 17-13.  The nine inning game lasted 4 hours 42 minutes.  So, yes, in a way it was a classic.  It was a classic snooze-fest!  And the game on Sunday was almost as horrible.  It lasted 18 minutes less checking in at 4:24 with the Yankees winning 12-8.  It sounds exciting but it wasn't.  I found myself flipping channels on Saturday and never bothered to return to the game.  On Sunday I decided I didn't have five hours of my life to waste watching Triple A pitchers strike out hitters slugging for the fences on every pitch and striking out at an alarming rate.

I suppose the Londoners wondered what kind of game this was.  It wasn't cricket but the long boring game on Saturday might have resembled it to the Brits who were brave enough to go to think it was going to be fun.

MLB do us a favor and cancel your plans for another London series next summer between the Cardinals and Cubs.  I am a longtime fan of the Cardinals but I won't watch a rehash of the debacle on Saturday and Sunday that lasted a combined nine hours and six minutes.

And the Series is Over. Game Five = 3:00

Funny how when you thought the Dodgers, who were facing elimination, would pull out all of the stops, they didn't.  This was the "fastest" game of the 2018 World Series coming in at three hours.  Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox on their latest World Championship.  The Red Sox now own nine baseball championships.  They still trail the Cardinals by two World Series championships and the Yankees by 18.

The five games of this series took a total of 21 hours and 21 minutes to play 53 innings or a little over 24 minutes to play one full inning.  The average time of game was four hours and 16 minutes.  If you consider the 18 inning game as two games the length of each game averaged 3:33.

Baseball moves at a snail's pace and if the game wants to thrive it must do some soul searching if it is serious about speeding up the game.  This generation of fans will not put up with long periods of inactivity when it wants instant gratification.  MLB you can do the right thing if you really want to speed things up.

Game Four = 3:57

The Red Sox won the game 9-6 after having fallen behind the Dodgers 4-0.  But, with big seventh, eighth, and ninth innings the Red Sox are now on the verge of clinching the 2018 World Series.  There was nothing special about the game, it was just another overly long baseball game played by two teams at a snail's pace.

So far it has now taken a total of 18 hours and 21 minutes to play 44 innings or about 25 minutes to play one inning  The Red Sox lead the series three games to one.  Game Five will be played this evening in Los Angeles.

Game Three = 7:20

OK, OK, I know this game lasted 18 innings and was the longest game in World Series History.  But, if we look at it as if the 18 innings were two games; each of the games lasted three hours and 40 minutes.  I live in the Central Time Zone and the last thing I remember seeing was the game was tied at 1-1 in the eleventh inning.

To be honest I did not watch the game(s) because it was too long and boring.  Instead I fell asleep in the middle innings and then woke up later when the game was tied in extra innings.  My guess is not many people in the country watched the entire seven hours and 20 minutes.

So far it has now taken a total of 14 hours and 24 minutes to play 35 innings or a little over 24 minutes to play an inning.  The Red Sox lead the series two games to one.  Game Four will be played this evening in California.

Game Two = 3:12

Relatively speaking Game Two was a quick one; well for Major League Baseball.  Relatively is the key word here.  It took three hours and 12 minutes to play an eight and a half inning game in which Los Angeles had a total of three singles.  The Red Sox won 4-2 and used four pitchers.  Meanwhile, the Dodgers used six pitchers to go down two games to none in the series.

So, thus far it has taken a total of seven hours and four minutes to play 17 innings.  That's a lot of wasted time for the people at the game in Boston where the Wind Chill Index was 42 at the start of the game.  Way to go MLB!

Just Another "Who Cares World Series"

In a little under an hour the 2018 World Series will begin in Boston.  I predicted Boston would win it all earlier this summer and missed when I incorrectly chose Milwaukee to beat the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series.

But, honestly I don't plan on watching much of what Major League Baseball (MLB) calls the "Fall Classic".  I am not invested in either of the teams and both clubs have an unfair advantage over their smaller market opponents.  But, the real reason I won't watch is I just don't have three and a half to four hours a night to devote to the games.  Thiis is why I call it a "Who Cares World Series".  This was the headline of an East Coast newspaper prior to the start of the 1985 World Series between the Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals.

The average time of the National League Championship Series games was 3:33.  And if you add in the 13 inning game between the Brewers and Dodgers the average time becomes 3:53.  This is too long and much of the time there is no action.  (Unless you want to say batters stepping out of the box and adjusting their gloves is "action".)

And the American League is worse.  The average time of the AL Championship Series games was 3:57.  Three hours and 57 minutes on the average to watch a nine inning game.  And while MLB would tell you it was a classic, Game 4 lasted 4 hours and 33 minutes.  The final score was 8-6 and it was a nine inning game.  That amount of time for a baseball game is way, way, way too long.

And what makes this all worse is grade school kids won't be able to see the end of most games unless they live in the Pacific time zone.  Based on the average times of the NLCS and ALCS contests, games in this World Series games will take about 3:45 minutes to play.  For those living in the Eastern Time Zone the games probably won't end until several minutes before midnight.  For the Pacific Time Zone it is a little more manageable for children in that the games should end about 8:53.

MLB brags about record attendance figures every year but the bottom line is the people who will be paying for tickets in ten to 15 years will be shut out from seeing the World Series games to their conclusion.  MLB my advice to you is wake up! (No pun intended.)

Rants and Rambles

Happy October!  The weather has finally cooled off to more seasonable temperatures and fall has finally checked in where I live.  Instead of highs in the low 90s temperatures are now in the upper 50s.  I welcome fall, but wait until this winter and I will bitch about how cold it is.

In no particular order here are a few things I have been thinking about.

-NCAA Football.  My beloved Missouri Tigers are 3-2 on the young season and play at Tuscaloosa this Saturday night against the top rated team in the country; the Alabama Crimson Tide.  'Bama is a 28 point favorite and the over under number is 74.  I think if I were a betting man I would take the over number.  Mizzou has generated offense in every game it has played this year, but it's secondary leaves a lot to be desired and will have a hard time getting stops against the Tide.

-Times of games.  The NCAA still needs to figure out a way to speed up its games.  They are way too long and I am getting tired of sitting in the stands at Mizzou games watching the teams stand around and do absolutely nothing.  For starters, when a 30 second timeout is called, make the teams stay at the line of scrimmage and start play 30 seconds after the timeout is called.

-Baseball has done absolutely nothing and despite all of the hype about limiting the number of visits to the mound the games are still way to long.  The playoffs have brought the games to a crawl, with too many now taking over four hours to play.  This is ridiculous.  As I wrote earlier this year, keep the hitters in the box and the pitchers on the rubber, and limit the number of commercials and the games will have more action.  Oh, and have the umpires call the strike zone as it is written in the rule book.

-Baseball Predictions.  I think it will be the Red Sox and Brewers in the World Series.  And I think the Red Sox will win it all.  The Sox won 108 games this year and seem to have it all.  I look forward to both of the League Championship series too. While I like the Sox and Brewers, I may be wrong since Houston and the Dodgers seem to be peaking at the right time.

Well enough for now.  But, I will leave you with a picture I took while on vacation of a spot I had always wanted to visit.  It is the new Yankee Stadium at 161st Avenue in the Bronx.  The view is looking down the first base side of the ballpark.  I hope you enjoy it.

Random Thoughts at Baseball's All-Star Break

My beloved Cardinals baseball team has fired Mike Matheny as its manager and now starts the second half of the season with interim manager Mike Schildt.  I'm not sure I would have made the change to Schildt now.  If the Cards are serious they would have named a new permanent manager immediately.  My choice would have been former infielder Jose Oquendo who reportedly relates well to Latin players and young players.  But, the Cardinals went interim instead.  Perhaps Oquendo doesn't want the job or the Cardinals have something else planned.  I am skeptical the team will get back into the National League Central division race this season.

-The MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday night epitomized everything wrong with the professional game.  Just like regular season games, batters were swinging for the fences in each at bat and striking out at a record pace.  While the home run is an exciting part of the game its pursuit results in a lack of action on the field.  Wake up MLB.  As far as the All-Star Game, thank God we won't have to deal with it for another year.

-Finally, if you put a gun to my head and ask who will be in the World Series this year, I will say the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The Dodgers have struggled at times, but in my opinion they are the best of a mediocre National League.  Ultimately I expect the Dodgers' pitching to put them into the series.  I also think the Red Sox are much better than any team that would face them in the World Series.  The Bosox pitching, hitting, defense and speed will carry them to their second world title in the last six years.

A Look Back at 2015 - What a Year

I hope this finds you well and that you all had a nice Christmas.

My 2015 was good with the highlight coming in September.  I made a journey through 13 states and drove 3,000 miles to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, the Green Mountains of Vermont, Boston and its Freedom Trail and Fenway Park and then up the coast of New Hampshire to Maine.  I had a blast visiting places I had only read about previously.  The Hall of Fame  was awesome and I've attached a photo of the plaque of my favorite player as a child.  The plaque of Stan Musial.

Boston was nicer than I expected and the Freedom Trail brought the Revolutionary War to life as I visited the likes of Paul Revere's home, the Old North Church, the USS Constitution, Bunker Hill, the site of the Boston Massacre and Boston Common.  I was impressed with most of what I saw there, but the USS Constitution (in dry dock) was a highlight of walking the Freedom Trail.  On my way back to the burbs (where I stayed because Boston hotels are too darn expensive) I visited Fenway Park and took a tour of the facility.  I got down on the field while the Red Sox were taking batting practice, got to touch the Green Monster and then got to sit in the seats on top of it.  It is old but to me was in better shape than Chicago's Wrigley Field.   (It also doesn't smell like urine as does Wrigley).

The ocean in New England was different than anywhere else I have been. I drove through Seabrook and Portsmouth, NH and then into Maine.  The rock on the beach looks like lava.  The beach was rugged but beautiful in its own way.  After leaving Maine I made it home in two days.  The day I started back was 9/11 and it took me about four hours to get around the suburbs of New York City.  I made it as far as Hershey, PA.  (Somehow I had never heard of this place before arriving there late that night.. What a pleasant surprise!)  The next day I drove 850 miles and got home late evening.  After sleeping in hotels and motels for a week it was nice to sleep in my own bed.  It was a lot of miles and time in the car but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

This past football season was unlike any I have ever seen in almost 50 years of watching Mizzou.  As  you know the football team joined campus protests which ultimately led to the resignation of the University President and Chancellor.  And head coach Gary Pinkel resigned at the end of the season because he is battling a form of Leukemia.  On top of this throw in the starting QB getting suspended mid season and then being suspended for the rest of the year after he got into a fight while being heckled at the Fieldhouse the night after he was initially re-instated.  Maty Mauk has now been re-instated to the team by new coach Barry Odom.  My guess is Mauk won't be back to Columbia.  While, Mizzou's offense struggled, the new QB true freshman Drew Lock learned under fire in the SEC.  His offensive line was not very good and his receivers dropped passes they should have caught.  In reality the Tigers were lucky to go 5-7.  I am glad they made the decision not to pursue a bowl berth because they would have just embarrassed themselves.  Still, I am glad to have my season tickets and have a lot of good times going back to tailgate each week

In my spare time I followed the Cardinals and Rams, who are apparently not long for St. Louis.  I also hacked around on the golf course when time allowed and I watch the kids play tournaments on travelling teams in the summer time.  One is 14 and the other is 12.  I also spent a lot of time visiting craft breweries when I could.  I have developed a liking for craft beers after drinking the pee water that came out of the AB plant in St. Louis for the first 40 years of my life and now know there are a lot more styles and flavor to choose from.  I live in an area that now has about 35 breweries and I have to support the local economy..

Well reader. I have told you more than you probably care to know and did not mean for this to become such a long post.  I hope 2016 brings you peace, health and prosperity!

Congratulations to the Bearded Bunch from Boston

Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox! You were the better team in this World Series. Here's hoping you and your fans enjoy your championship!  You certainly have worked for it and outplayed the rest of the American League in the regular season, the ALDS, the ALCS and the Cardinals in the Series.

Congratulations to my beloved Saint Louis Cardinals. I am proud of the way you played this year and proud to be a Cards fan. You may have come up two games short of being "Baseball Kings" for the 12th time, but you are champs in my book and many other Cardinal fans.

Apparently there is only one team of value in Major League Baseball

I must have missed the memo.  Why you ask?  Well, on each of the past two weekends the Boston Red Sox have been the featured team on nationally televised games.

Last week the MLB Network, Fox and ESPN teamed up to ram the Red Sox and New York Yankees down the rest of the nation's collective throat.  This week Fox and ESPN are again doing their very best to make us think the Red Sox are the only team of value in the Majors.  Why?  Fox and ESPN have both decided the Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers are the only games the entire nations cares to see.

In fairness to the Red Sox and Dodgers they are the best teams in each of their leagues.  And they are both playing great baseball.  (The same can not be said of the Yankees).

Once upon a time the Boston Nine were a bunch of lovable losers.  But no so any more.  So MLB Network, Fox and ESPN remember there are 30 teams in the Big Leagues and most of us could care less about the Boston Red Sox.

Congratulations Cardinals and Rays

Six weeks ago I gave up on the St. Louis Cardinals and declared them to "officially suck". Apparently, I was wrong. The team completed an improbable run to the playoffs with an 8-0 win last night over the hapless Houston Astros and finished the season as the National League Wild Card champion.

This Cardinal team trailed the Atlanta Braves by 10 1/2 games in late August and to be honest I had stopped watching. I just couldn't stand the poor defense, mediocre relief pitching and crappy management by Tony LaRussa. But, with the aid of one of the biggest chokes of all times by the Braves, the Cardinals are now in Major League Baseball's 2011 World Series tournament.

As amazing as the Cards were in overcoming that huge deficit, the Tampa Bay Rays overcome even bigger odds. The Rays clinched the Wild Card spot in the American League with a come from behind win over the evil New York Yankees. The Yanks led at one point 7-0, but the Rays kept battling and came back to tie it with a two out solo homer in the bottom of the ninth. Then in the bottom of the 12th Evan Longoria hit a walkoff homerun to win the game 8-7. At the same time an even bigger choke artist, the Boston Red Sox, blew a lead to a bad Baltimore Orioles team, and the Rays are in the playoffs. Hey Boston, don't let the door hit you in the ass.

Watch out now, because while the Yanks (the best team money could buy) had the best record in the American League this year, I believe the Rays are to them what Kryptonite is to Superman. It should be a fun post season.

Yankees and Red Sox are on TV again

Just like last time they played, this is what 90 percent of the baseball world thinks of this matchup:

WHO CARES?

For some reason the thought of watching these two overpaid teams compete unfairly against the rest of baseball just doesnt seem right. They play at a snail's pace which is just downright boring. I'm watching golf on CBS instead and that's not exactly exciting. Hey Fox get your head out of your ass.

Yankees vs. Red Sox

Who cares?

Fortunatly,the Cards Aren't Alone

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have done the rest of the baseball world a favor by eliminating one of the most overhyped overpaid ballclubs that made the playoffs. Goodbye, Boston Red Sox.

The Angels came from two runs down in the top of the ninth this afternoon to beat the Sox and sweep them out of the American League playoffs. The final this afternoon was 7-6.

I am not a hater of the Red Sox, but I am glad to see their high priced team go the way of the rest of most MLB clubs. Now if only the Twins can bounce back against those low life Yankees.