It's amazing anybody can come back from such a thing let alone pitch again in the MAJORS, wow, that's pretty amazing. But I'm sure it wasn't a massive hart attack, it's still very very impressive though.

Notice the tilt, as if the earth has given up on this gravity crap, the shot taken just at the moment Hiller's attention moves from home plate to gazing toward the direction of the tilt with a "what the hell..." kind of look, just before realizing that perhaps armageddon is upon us.

Then there's the background--nothing but God and green grass beyond the infield dirt except for what appears to be a humble subdivision or trailer park in deep, deep center field. One wonders what games were played here, what joys took place (baseball fields always have joys) and also, what motivated someone to look at a gigantic expanse of land where hardly a sentient being resides and and make the decision to build a baseball field.

Perhaps it was because nothing else was being done with the land and our field designer thought like most of us that a baseball diamond can improve any patch of acreage. Perhaps the idea of a field started out as a noble idea that was ultimately given up on, a dream deferred by any number of things and in disappointment, left behind was the infield dirt and the barely scuffed bases. Either way, the creator of this field in whatever location this is could've hardly known that a player from the gosh-darned major leagues would one day stride the mound ("My mound? You're kidding!") for a photograph seen by thousands.

Unless of course it's just a drawing of a ballfield with Hiller's picture pasted on it. That, of course, would change everything I've written here.

I just finished reading Gomes Wikipedia, is 8% body fat a lot? I'm just glad theres no history of hart attack in my family. Gomes looks kind of chubby these days.

In 1971, I collected baseball cards for the first time and the World Series Game 4 card had the headline "Reds Stay Alive" with a picture that didn't really reflect the big event of the game, which was a 3-run homer by Lee May in the 8th.

The Game 2 card had the headline "Buford Goes 2 for 4!"

He started Game 6 of the 1971 World Series. His last start that year had been on August 31.

Bob Moose died on his 29th birthday.

he was on his way to his 29th birthday party, no less.

Steve Blass was the only guy to pitch two.

Moose was starting Game 6 in part because Game 1 starter Dock Ellis had a sore elbow.

Four of the starting pitchers in that series have passed away: Moose, Dave McNally, Pat Dobson, and Nelson Briles.

Additionally, other players who played in that series who have passed on are: Roberto Clemente, Bob Miller, Willie Stargell, Mark Belanger, and Elrod Hendricks.

Moose threw the wild pitch that scored George Foster with the winning run in the 1972 NLCS.

Of course, I've had asthma all my life and the wheezing has gone on and off for about 36 years.

But I'm a hypochondriac. Given enough time, I will develop symptoms of Lester's cancer.

They won in 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, and 1918 before winning in 2004.

Perhaps a nice distribution like the Braves is best: 1914, 1957, 1995.

The pancreatic cancer was what got him. Actually it caused a blood clot in his lungs.

Which brings me back to Aaron Cook.

DUH.

I'm just having surgery related discomfort. Thank goodness it's nothing like that.

The Braves hit the only homer in the 1914 series against the A's. Hank Gowdy hit in the top of the 10th with the Braves trailing 4-2. They scratched out another run and then won in the 12th.

It's hard to be trailing in the top of an extra inning.

The Red Sox played the 1916 World Series at Braves Field also, but in 1918 moved back to Fenway.

People are already calling this the worst World Series ever. The national baseball media has turned into a collective version of Comic Book Guy.

Hank Gowdy is the answer to the trivia question on the back of the John Hiller card featured in today's post. Anybody care to hazard a guess at the question? (Hint: It has to do with Gowdy's off-the-field doings.)

If it's a strike, it's a strike, whether you're Curt Schilling on start #400 or Jon Lester on start #4.

The same thing with the hitters-if it is waist high and crosses the edge of the plate, it's a strike, no matter how good Tim McCarver says you are.

I cheated & looked it up.

Here's the question:

"Which player served in World War I and World War II?"

he was the first ML'er to join WW1 with the Ohio National Guard. He went on speaking tours for a while detailing his efforts. He also committed a costly error in the '23 or '24 fall classic apparently that lead to the Senators winning the series.

Ruel followed with a double. Then there was an error on shortstop Freddie Lindstrom and Earl McNeely drove in Ruel with the winning run on a bad hop double to left.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/treasure/autont2002b.shtml

What it really proves is that eight days off throws off hitters' timing terribly.

According to Bob T. & Mike Carminati its a myth (they wrote about it on there blogs) & I tend to agree with the notion.

But we love to extrapolate.

Lonestar??? Who the frig is that? This middle-America country bs is killing me.

But I firmly believe the American League is the better of the two leagues.

You honestly believe it's the layoff? Really?

Ellsbury?
Pedroia?
Lowell?
Lugo?
Papelbon?

(yawn)

See I pissed off Hawpe. There you go.

It's depth that makes the difference, I think. It doesn't matter so much if you have a Jamey Carroll on your team in the NL. You really can't afford that in the AL.

If need be, I can post something about David Eckstein on The Griddle and get about five people complaining about him within ten minutes.

"The Red Sox have been throwing Brad Hawpe high fastballs all series, and Brad finally caught up to one."

Does McCarver even watch the games he's announcing?

Oh, what the hey, I'll talk about the essays I'm grading.

1) My students are no longer allowed to use "you" in their essays.

2) Ditto with "all" "everything" "everyone knows" "Of course it's true" and "I agree to a certain extent."

3) Every student will know verb agreement by Christmas.

4) Every student will know the difference between there, their and they're by Tuesday.

5) Did I mention I'm banning the word you?

Which could be his problem. Like the 2001 DBacks, the Rockies made it to the World Series in spite of their manager not because of their manager.

Everybody knows that.

Believe me, I'm better at grading papers and developing students than doing the actual writing. So I've been told...

102 It's high school. I'm at a school that is intensely standards based. Basically, my students who can write at the freshman college level are getting A's and B's. If they will likely be able to write at the college level, they will get a "C". Anything lower is D and F.

I'm shortcutting it but that's basically what I do.

Wow.

It's obvious!

OK, they have shut up about A-Rod now.

There's been nothing like "Frank TV" ads or the previous campaigns to promote the debuts of "House" or "Skin."

Just the Taco Bell shilling.

I'm just sayin...

I'm just sayin...

Never mind...

Manny would not have caught that ball, probably.

I would rather lose in six or five than get swept.

Nope.

Will they finally go to a 7-G first round?

http://tinyurl.com/3dhpwn

Congrats to the Red Sox!

Congratulations, Josh. Thanks for sharing your space. And, well, yeah... congratulations Red Sox.

Damn straight. Sleep well.

much thanks everyone, it's been a lot of fun

Papelbon for series MVP

Just didn't want to leave you dangling in case those commercials are still running. :-)