ghost of miles

Only three innings in, and already a barnburner in San Diego!

Sad news. Among his many accomplishments, he threw a 173-pitch complete game against the Reds in game 4 of the 1975 WS. That’s *two* deep starts in one game by modern-day pitch count standards. He was also very entertaining to watch. Pretty much! Every single division series now a 1-1 dogfight.

Padres were smart to hold out for him in the Soto trade. Mets-Phillies is quite the interesting battle as well. And in the AL playoffs you have *three* teams from the Central Division standing among the final four. That was not on my 2024 MLB bingo card. An entertaining postseason so far!

Fantastic set, just finished revisiting it a couple of weeks ago. Had no idea that it was already out of print!

Padres looking like they might be the team to beat in the postseason--quite a war they have going on with the Dodgers right now. Interesting that the Soto trade seemed to work out well for both San Diego and the Yankees, with Michael King and Higgy becoming such key players on this year's SD roster. NY did not want to give up King, I can tell you that. He was one of the best homegrown pitchers they'd developed over the past few years. Fortunately Clarke Schmidt (the guy they would have preferred to have included in the trade) has pitched quite well in what would have been King's spot in the rotation. Momentum is definitely in the Padres' favor, heading home after getting through L.A.'s two best starters with a split on the road. Also a tip of the cap to Manny Machado, who used to strike me as an exceptionally talented but less-than-mature player when he was with the Orioles. The meeting he called in the dugout in the 8th after all of the ugliness in the preceding inning clearly helped set the table for San Diego turning the game into a laugher.

Yankees and Royals meeting in the playoffs for the first time in 44 years. Oh man, does that ever bring back childhood baseball memories. Those were epic showdowns. The current Royals looked very, very good to me when the Yankees faced them late this season. I understand their offense may be a little suspect beyond Bobby Witt Jr and Salvador Perez, but so’s NY’s beyond Judge and Soto. Those two guys have off nights and it’s not so hard to shut down this Yankee lineup. Plus NY just lost first Rizzo and then Cortes, both likely for much or all of the postseason. Pinstripe Alley has a write-up on the Royals that will behoove me to study.

Indeed it was! Nail-biting ending to the Tigers-Astros game, with a great trivia twist. Going into the ninth inning, Houston was down 3-0. Since 1990, what's the postseason record of teams entering the final inning with such a deficit or more? 1-538. The only team in the past 24 years to surmount a three-run lead or more in the 9th inning was the 2016 Chicago Cubs, a team that included Jason Heyward on their roster. And Heyward made the final out in yesterday's game--a smoked line-drive that, if not caught, could well have cleared the bases and made Houston only the second postseason team to storm back from a three-run deficit in the ninth in a quarter of a century. Instead, Heyward and his teammates became a part of loss 539. Huzzah! I am definitely rooting for Detroit in this series.

Interesting recent publication—book is arriving today, hoping to read it sometime in the coming weeks: In With the In Crowd: Popular Jazz in 1960s Black America

Hey gang, looking at going to a rock concert at Soldier Field next August. Any board members have any experience seeing music there and offering recommendations on decent seats for a show?

I'm in!

Got the promo today! Looking forward to listening to it this week as I work on a Gibbs tribute.

Revisited a film last night from my childhood that I'd enjoyed and found it still fun the second time around, all these decades later. H.G. Wells chasing Jack the Ripper through 1979 San Francisco:

My brother was a big fan, me not so much, but he was an avatar of 1970s baseball, an era I love to think back on now (and watch clips from on YouTube). Speaking of 1970s icons, I just read a brilliant 1987 piece on Reggie Jackson by David Remnick, who'd go on to become the editor of the New Yorker. "Mr. October's September Song" is included in the Library of America's Major League Baseball Anthology, as well as Remnick's collection The Devil Problem. Highly recommended, as good (if much more expansive in its scope) as John Updike's famous elegy for Ted Williams, "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu."

Braves up 1-0 in the bottom of the 7th. If they hold on, would this be the first time two teams facing each other on the same day have each clinched a playoff spot with a win? Braves just went up 3-0. If they do end up winning, we are going to see two teams clinching a playoff spot by defeating the other and celebrating on the same field on the same day, and both teams finishing with the same record (89-73) for the season.

Well that was a helluva game!

Here are the various scenarios (from the ESPN article I linked to above): What are the scenarios for each team to clinch a playoff spot? Let's run through these: 1. The Mets win the first game, the Braves win the second game. The Braves are the No. 5 seed and head to the No. 4 San Diego Padres for a best-of-three wild-card series starting Tuesday. The Mets are the No. 6 seed and play the No. 3 Milwaukee Brewers. Yes, that means the Mets would have gone from Milwaukee on Sunday to Atlanta on Monday, and then back to Milwaukee on Tuesday. (The Braves would have to fly cross-country, but at least they were already in Atlanta.) 2. If the Braves win the first game and the Mets win the second, it's the same result. The Braves are the No. 5 seed and the Mets are the No. 6 seed. 3. The Mets win both games. New York is the No. 5 seed and plays the Padres. The Diamondbacks are the No. 6 seed and play the Brewers in a rematch of last year's wild-card series. The Mets travel from Milwaukee to Atlanta to San Diego. (They won't complain.) 4. The Braves win both games. Atlanta is the No. 5 seed and plays the Padres; the Diamondbacks are the No. 6 seed and play the Brewers.

Quite the eventful doubleheader going down in Atlanta today between the Mets and the Braves: Who moves on to October? Arizona needs a sweep from either team to get in. If it's a sweep, it's the winner of said sweep and Arizona, and the loser goes home for the offseason. If it's a split, Arizona is out and both the Mets and Braves are in. Good drama for the last day of regular-season play!

Thanks--I did a topic search before starting this thread and didn't realize that it was already under discussion in the DeJohnette conversation.

Paging Mark Stryker: some damn tapes have been found!

Press release: On November 22, Blue Note Records will release of Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs’, a never-before-issued live recording of jazz legends McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson leading a stellar quartet with bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Jack DeJohnette at the hallowed lost NYC jazz shrine, Slugs' Saloon, in 1966. The release was produced by Zev Feldman, Jack DeJohnette, and Lydia DeJohnette. Forces of Nature includes an elaborate booklet with rare photos by Francis Wolff, Raymond Ross, and Robert Polillo; plus liner notes by esteemed author and critic Nate Chinen, and interviews and statements with DeJohnette, Jason Moran, Joe Lovano, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Nasheet Waits, and Terri Lyne Carrington. Originally recorded by the legendary engineer Orville O’Brien — who recorded classic 1960s jazz albums such as Freddie Hubbard’s The Night of the Cookers, Charles Tolliver’s Music Inc. and Alice Coltrane's Journey in Satchidananda — the tape has been in DeJohnette's personal archives for nearly 60 years. The 2-LP 180g vinyl set is transferred from the original tape reel and mastered by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab, who also mastered the 2-CD and digital.

Friends of mine in a baseball text chain commenting on how the AL Central has placed three teams in the playoffs: >>And the Twins aren’t one of them. Tigers look really good. They swept the Rays this week in 3 very well played games by both teams. Rays manager Kevin Cash called them “dangerous in the playoffs, they do a lot of things well and they play an unpredictable style.”<<

Much credit, I’m sure, to the stewardship of A.J. Hinch. AL postseason opponents beware!

Congrats to the Detroit Tigers, who clinched an AL wild-card spot tonight after being 55-63 on August 11 (they’ve been 31-11 since). And condolences to the team they defeated, the Chicago White Sox, who have now displaced the 1962 NY Mets as holders of the worst-ever MLB season record.

Upping this for Bud's centennial today, and because we're re-airing it this week: The Scene Changes: The Life and Music of Bud Powell, Part 2