Don’t say we didn’t warn you
There is no doubt that Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz is having a great World Series, maybe the greatest ever.
Through five games against the St. Louis Cardinals, Ortiz is batting .733 -yes, .733 (11 for 15) - with 2 doubles, 2 home runs, 6 RBI, 5 runs scored, 4 bases on balls and 0 strikeouts. He has reached base 14 times in 19 plate appearances.
He is clearly the favorite to win the World Series MVP, even, some say, if the Cardinals are able to win Games 6 and 7 in Boston and come back to win the title.
Just don’t try to tell that to Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny during a news conference a half-hour after St. Louis lost 3-1 to the Red Sox.
Boston’s second consecutive victory in St. Louis on Monday gave the Red Sox a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 series.
To his credit, Matheny kept his cool, but that didn’t stop him from giving the reporter who asked the question a steely glare.
“Just in total with the damage that he’s done, win or lose, whether you guys come back or not, do you think Ortiz is the MVP of the series?” the reporter asked. “Is that decided already in terms of what he’s done?”
“That’s not even a conversation we’re even thinking about,” Matheny replied. “We’ve got games to play, and we’ve got two games we could still win here. So that kind of stuff isn’t even on our radar.”
The Cardinals skipper continued to stare at the reporter as he repeated the question.
“I mean … if you guys come back and win, just because he’s had such a great series …” the reporter continued.
“I don’t know,” Matheny replied. “Same answer.”
The reporter got off lucky, according to David Brown of Yahoo Sports.
“Matheny talks a little like Dirty Harry Callahan, the iconic cop character made famous by Clint Eastwood,” Brown wrote.
“Not necessarily violent, but jut-jawed with a piercing glare.
Matheny also seems like one who has no time for punks. So it comes as something of a surprise that the reporter … still has use of his higher functions.
“A man’s got to know his limitations, and this fellow (not sure who it was) was pushing the boundaries. Did he feel lucky or something ?”
Breaker one-nine?
Akron’s minor league baseball team, formerly known as the Aeros, is now the Rubber Ducks.
The Class AA affiliate for the Cleveland Indians announced the new nickname Tuesday.
Team owner Ken Babby said the new nickname and logo are designed to “honor the history of Akron and the rubber industry while creating a new identity that was fun, exciting, and family-friendly.”
Sorry, but when we see Rubber Ducks, we don’t think about baseball players in Akron.
We do, however, recall C.W. McCall’s “Convoy,” which topped the pop and the country and western charts in 1975.
With “Rubber Duck” leading the way, “Pig Pen” as his backdoor and “Sod Buster” in between, the song details the exploits of a fictitious trucker rebellion stretching on the highways from coast to coast through a series of conversations between truckers on citizen band radios.
So before the Akron club starts handing out bath toys, maybe it should consider putting Kenworth trucks behind the outfield wall and giving the kids free CB radios.
10-4?
Quote of the day
“I was born for this.” Boston Red Sox first baseman David Ortiz, who is batting .733 in the World Series
Sports, Pages 20 on 10/30/2013