Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2008
BARROW JOURNAL
PAGE 3B
AMERICA’S PASTTIME
Synthesizing the World Series
STRONG DEFENSE
Westside Middle School’s Khadary Hawthorne (47) intercepts a pass in the league
championship game against West Jackson. Huskie coach Paul DeFoor credited his
team’s defense with playing a key part in the championship. Photo by Lyn Sengupta
Title continued from IB
A s I write this col
umn, the 2008
World Series
begins in 1 hour, 20 minutes.
This will be, contrary to
what you may have heard,
much like the other Series
played for the last 100 years.
However, as I was gather
ing data for this article the
other day, I discovered a trav
esty in recent Series games
that few may know. First
the data, then the revelation
of what baseball has done
to a key part of the game.
Of the last 10 World series
(1998 - 2007), the American
league has dominated - as
they have the All Star games
- by defeating the National
League pennant winners by
an impressive seven series to
three. Of those seven series
wins, the American League
has swept the National
League contenders five times.
Only two series of the last
ten have gone seven games,
and only one more has gone
six. One can conclude that
the last decade of series play
has been very predictable and
lopsided. I suspect that this
year's series will be the same.
Of the twenty teams that
have played in the last ten
World Series, eight have
been from the east coast,
five from the west coast,
four from the Midwest and
three from the south. East
coast teams have dominated
by winning five of the ten.
The most runs scored per
inning (1.35) series was in
2002 when the Angels took
down the Giants in seven
despite Barry Bonds' four
home runs. The least runs
per inning (.72) series was
in 2003. Here, the amazing
Marlins took control of the
New York Yankees, beat
ing them in six games.
In this
decade
of series,
the entire
decade,
only four
teen tri
ples were
recorded.
In those
ten years,
50 Series
games
were
played in 459 innings. My
calculations show that only
one triple was recorded
every 3.57 games or one
every 32.79 innings.
If you were not interested
in really watching the play,
one could come to the game
for the peripheral entertain
ment. In 2006, Stan Musial
threw out the first pitch in
game 5. (Stan will be 68
years old on November 21.)
In 2007, the Boston Pops per
formed the National Anthem.
In 1998, Tony Bennett sang
“America The Beautiful.” In
2001 some guy named John
McCain, a Senator from
Arizona, threw out the first
pitch in game 7. In 2003,
David Cassidy warbled
“God Bless America” in
game 3. In 1999, the aging
Warren Spahn threw out
the first pitch of game one.
In 2000, the ceremonial
first pitch of the series was
delivered by Don Larson.
And my personal favor
ite: in the fourth game of
the 2002 series, Natalie
Cole sang the National
Anthem and Tony Bennett
sang, “I Left My Heart in
San Francisco.” Heck, I
would have paid the admis
sion price just to have
heard them perform.
From 1998 to 2004, the
seventh inning stretch, as it
had been for the past fifty
years, was enhanced by the
singing of “Take Me Out to
the Ballgame” by the throng
of fans. In 2004, the organ
ist at Busch Stadium in St.
Louis kept everyone in tune
as she tickled the ivories
to the delight of all. Then
suddenly, in 2005, this all
came to a crashing end. My
story of World Series past
becomes as dark as the ghost
of Jacob Marley. For it was
in 2005, the organ fell silent,
replaced by a recording of the
fans' favorite song. Baseball
had become synthesized.
Now I admit to being a
traditionalist, a stalwart of
the “old” game, sans desig
nated hitter and inter-league
play. I have had to endure
these assaults on the game
and more recently the instant
replay to determine a ques
tionable home run. But syn
thesizing our favorite baseball
song may be the last straw.
It is no surprise that
the old tradition of the
live organ was broken in
Minutemaid Park in Houston.
This is the same park
(and I use that term loosely
as Minutemaid resembles
an old ironclad monstros
ity which was pulled up
from the murky waters of
the Mississippi) which has a
“tickertape” electronic board
which runs the current stock
quotes for the fans’ “enjoy
ment” during field changes.
Video games, iPods,
cell phones, Blackberries.
Heaven help us. Now they’ve
synthesized the World Series.
John Rieken is an avid
baseball fan and contrib
uting column ist for The
Barrow Journal. E-mail com
ments about this column to
jrieken @ winds tream. net.
In the final regular season
game, the Huskies played
Oconee County in monsoon-
type conditions. The game
was called three minutes into
the third quarter with Oconee
leading 23-8.
“We like to say that we
were undefeated in completed
games,” DeFoor said.
Eventually, Westside would
meet West Jackson in the
league championship contest
and once again solid defense
played a role in the 44-0 win.
“West Jackson had a lot of
very good athletes,” DeFoor
said. “I really did not know
how our team would rebound
after the monsoon game with
Oconee. We had two great
days of practice and I felt like
the kids wanted a champion
ship.”
On Westside’s first drive the
offense was stopped inches
from a first down and West
Jackson took over at midfield.
After moving to the Huskie
10-yard line, West Jackson
was stopped.
That defensive stand seemed
to change the game’s momen
tum.
It was also a standout day for
Zay Henry who would score
six times for the Huskies.
The Westside second
ary played a key role in the
win stopping West Jackson’s
passing attack. Linebackers
Chris Morris, Davis Holmes,
Alex Visbal and Khadary
Hawthorne did their part to
keep the running game in
check.
“The coaches and I had a
lot of fun this year coaching
a great group of young men,”
DeFoor said. “We are very
proud of what they accom
plished. I have to give credit
to our linemen. They played
hard in the trenches and put in
extra work at practice. They
would stay late for extra con
ditioning almost every day for
200 yards of bear crawls.”
DeFoor also credited his
coaching staff of Clay Carlyle,
Dustin Davis, Jeff Johnson
and Holt Persinger.
“They love what they do
and are committed to giving
our players their best,” the
head coach said.
\ . I
4
john w.
rieken
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