Unfinished Business

  This weekend, I rectified a wrong that occurred just over 56 years ago. Let me explain.

Growing up in Highland Park, New Jersey, I did not long for much. What I did like was sports. Playing. Watching. Helping. Everything else was secondary. 

I was not very tall. I reached an adult height of 5’5”. I was heavy until the middle of 9th grade when I dropped 30 pounds and began a life-long love of weight lifting.  

Nobody told me I couldn’t play a sport. Baseball was easy for me. I thought I was good at football and basketball—until I learned that size and weight mattered. Being on the receiving end of a full blown hit from a 200 pound lineman during my freshman year playing football gave me pause about playing varsity. I ended my football career with one carry for a gain of five yards. 

From seventh grade on, I became proficient in keeping score and statistics in baseball, basketball and football. Which the coaches noticed. And it led me to being the football and basketball scorekeeper/statistician at Highland Park High School. I didn’t play baseball after my freshman year for reasons not germane to this blog. 

I loved my time as a statistician in high school. I became a necessary arm of the coaching staff for both sports. Which opened me up to strategy sessions when I delivered my morning after the game football statistics or post-game numbers in basketball. 

I knew I was destined for college. There was only one choice for me—if I could get in. That was my father’s school, Franklin and Marshall. At a young age, I avidly read the magazines sent to F&M alumni. I learned so much about the school. 

I devoured the sports section. I followed F&M football closely, with great interest in the undefeated 1964 team led by Seiki Murono at quarterback. 

It was that year that I set foot on campus. I fell in love with the beauty of the small school. I had my eyes set on F&M. 

I arrived in Lancaster with some athletic goals to augment my desire to graduate and attend law school. First, I fully intended to walk onto the freshman baseball team. Which started with my daily workouts in the gym and in the dusty dirt area called “The Pit.” I succeeded at that goal. 

Second, I wanted to do football statistics. So I approached a new freshman coach named Bob Curtis to volunteer my services. He said yes. Unlike basketball, which had no interest in my availability. Which worked out fine, as I could continue my studies without long road trips other than with football or baseball. 

Sophomore year I received a promotion to the varsity. Which placed me in the rickety old wooden press box atop Williamson Field, the home of Diplomats football. 

I was in heaven—even if the team wasn’t very good. I was given a sandwich of my choice, a drink and a spot on the 50 yard line to keep track of the plays. I ate with the team for the road games. I was glad to be part of the “training table’ and the older players adopted me immediately. 

My job was to tally the statistics and have them to the Head Coach by 8:00 on Sunday morning, which I did—except for the time the coach found my dorm room and woke me at 7:30, angry after a loss and wanting his numbers. I was accurate and honest in my job. 

F&M played an eight game schedule in 1969. Most of the games were at home. I did go to the first away game at Dickinson College on October 18th. We lost, as we would continue to do, except for the opener versus Ursinus. 

Next up was a road trip to Pittsburgh to face Carnegie Tech on October 25th. That would be my 19th birthday. I was excited about the chance to stay overnight with the the squad. 

Until I was called into the coach’s office. Without looking up, he told me I wasn’t needed and I wasn’t going. I should make myself available for the home game against Lebanon Valley the next week. 

I was crushed. It hurt big time. 

I continued my work, which included calls to the local media for some good pizza money, not only in my sophomore year but also for my junior year. I went to all the road contests. None were further than Baltimore at Johns Hopkins University. 

By my senior year, I had landed a summer internship in Congress as a Government major, which I parlayed into attending the Washington Semester Honors Program in Government at American University as one of the first to go from F&M. Coach Curtis, now the head coach, said it made no sense to travel to the games from D.C. My career as a statistician at F&M was over (I did fill in for Jersey City State College for two games in the 1980’s).

I had other pursuits to deal with, which included attending law school in Delaware and a career with the New Jersey Public Defender’s Office. I managed to see some F&M games. When they would come to New Jersey, which was rare, I would go. I went to basketball games at Muhlenberg and Moravian Colleges, easily accessible via Interstate 78.

I began to go to more home and away football games as my children got older. Of course, I go to baseball games—I did play two years before being injured my junior season. I watch F&M play on the computer. I guess I bleed Blue & White. 

Yet something lingered within me. With Carnegie-Mellon joining the Centennial Conference this year for football, the schedule had one date which leaped out to me. Saturday, November 8, F&M would be returning to Pittsburgh. My wonderful, understanding wife said sure to my craziness—said she would go to Pittsburgh to see this particular game which I have wanted to see since 1969. 

So with our daughter, who began her film and TV career in Pittsburgh, a city we are very at home with joining us for the trip, we drove the familiar route to the Steel City. The mid-Fall colors were as muted as they were bright. 

The loveliness and charm of Pittsburgh has never diminished. In fact, locales which were once warehouses are very trendy and upbeat. PNC Park is my favorite baseball stadium (and of all of the cookie cutter, dual purpose stadiums of the 1960’s and ’70’s, Three Rivers Stadium was the best). And I had been in the Steelers’ home field, then known as Heinz Field, to film a PSA spot as an extra. 

I visited Carnegie-Mellon previously and had driven through the area numerous times. It is one of the better-looking University Athletic Association campuses which includes a number of fine academic institutions (the UAA is the league CMU competes in with Brandeis University; Case-Western Reserve University; University of Chicago; Emory University; New York University; University of Rochester; and Washington University in St. Lous).

When I reached out to F&M Athletic Director Lauren Packer Webster about my adventure, she contacted Mark Fisher, the Sports Information Director at CMU and a good friend of hers, to make arrangements. I entered a press box for an F&M game for the first time since 1970, hopeful for a picture to document my presence. 

Instead, my wife and I were treated to the best time I ever had at an away venue. We were invited to sit in the second tier of the lower level of the press box, behind Mark, who was keeping the statistics on his computer, and adjacent to the live feed TV director and where the live stats were imputed. 

Everyone was so gracious to us. I was introduced to a Tartans sports institution, Donnie Michel, who once had my job as a CMU student. (Donnie played golf at CMU and stays jn touch with his coach, Richard Erdelyi—who was one of my coaches in Junior League baseball in Highland Park; Rich stayed in Pittsburgh after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh and then coached a young high school quarterback named Dan Marino as well at CMU)

Donnie assisted in a very necessary way—calling out down, distance and players involved in a play so Mark could enter the information in real time, to be swallowed up and regurgitated by a NCAA program designed to give coaches and fans comprehensive data they need and want. This was so far different than what I was doing in 1969. He also does basketball stats too; that’s true love and dedication to his alma mater.

What made it more fun was that at times, Mark of Donnie called for help and I was able to aid them with the number of a yard line where something had occurred at or which player(s) may have been on the play. Throughout the game I felt that surge of adrenaline which I had on Saturdays. The camaraderie in the press box was awesome. 

Oh, and by the way, jt was a great game. Franklin and Marshall went out to a significant lead, only to have CMU come all the way back to forge ahead. F&M then went down the field and scored the winning touchdown and two-point conversion to leave Pittsburgh with a crucial win and ruin CMU’s Homecoming. (In 1969, Carnegie Tech won 7-6)

This sets up a Centennial Conference winner-take-all matchup in Lancaster on Saturday between #3 Johns Hopkins (9-0; 6-0 CC) and #25 F&M (8-1; 6-0 CC). If I recover from this weekend and the long road trip with high speed crazy drivers out everywhere, my wife and I might just be inside Shadek Stadium on November 15th. 

Many thanks to Lauren Packer Webster, Mark Fisher and Donnie Michel for helping me relive the magic which a press box had for me all those years ago. And for allowing me to take care of unfinished business in the best way possible. 

The Best World Series Ever

  Unless you were on a remote island with no Internet access or somewhere like that, you could not have missed the end of the 2025 World Series between the defending champion and reigning National League kings, the Los Angeles Dodgers and their American League counterparts, the Toronto Blue Jays. Because those who gave the Series the nickname “The Fall Classic,” meant it for this particular set. 

The seven games were as riveting as I have ever seen a World Series. And my first one was in 1957, watching the New York Yankees lose to Henry Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Joe Adcock, Lew Burdette and Warren Spahn  and the rest of the Milwaukee Braves. (History lesson: the Braves abandoned Wisconsin after the 1965 season for the greener pastures of Atlanta, where the team is now in its third ballpark in 50 years; meanwhile, the Brewers were born in 1970 from the remnants of the Seattle Pilots—who lasted one season in the Pacific Northwest— and have played in two stadiums while members of both the American and National Leagues)

I have seen most every notable play in World Series lore. Ron Swoboda’s catch in 1969 for the Miracle New York Mets. Bill Buckner booting the ball at Shea Stadium in Game 6 of the Red Sox, giving the Mets a most improbable win. On my 36th birthday. Or the Chicago Cubs finally breaking the curse and downing Cleveland in 2016. 

You want home runs? Joe Carter’s walk off homer in 1993 gave the Blue Jays the title. Kirk Gibson limping around the bases after his clutch homer for the Dodgers. Bill Mazeroski’s winner in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series to give the Pittsburgh Pirates the crown although the Yankees out hit and out scored the Bucs overall. 

Yankees moments? They are aplenty, courtesy of the dynasties in the 1950’s-60’s, 1970’s, 1990’s-2000’s and the most recent win in 2009, which seems like eons ago for the spoiled NYY fans. 

I can see Bobby Richardson squeezing Hall of Famer Willie Mc Covey’s shot to the second baseman to secure the win for the Bombers over San Francisco. How about Mickey Mantle’s titanic blast into the Yankee Stadium upper deck to cement a win versus St. Louis? Could it be Reggie Jackson, “Mr. October,” and his three home run night against LAD? Or the highlights from Derek Jeter, which included a lead off home run at Shea Stadium in The Subway Series?

I can go on and on about the Yankees exploits and what I have watched on TV. I made it to the 1971 World Series in Baltimore to see the Orioles defeat the Pirates. What I remember most is the late Roberto Clemente unleashing a monster throw from the warning track in right field at Memorial Stadium, on a line and on the fly to third base. 

This is what made the World Series compelling to me. The drama. The excitement. The glory.

But as much as any one World Series before 2025 may have been must-see-TV, this year’s edition outdid every other one—by far. And nobody expects this to happen.

Sure, the Dodgers were the favorites. Besides being the defending champs, they buzz-sawed through the National League playoffs and seemed poised to do the same to Toronto. Especially since the Blue Jays endured two brutally tough series against the Yankees and Seattle Mariners, the latter going to seven games. 

Except that no one sent the memo to the Toronto team. In fact, they sent a huge opening salvo to LAD in the form of a major beat down of ace Blake Snell and emerging with a 11-2 victory in Game 1 in Toronto. 

Never count out the champion, who knows what it takes to win the title. LAD rebounded in Game 2 to tie the series at 1. Remember these Dodges’ names—pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto and his battery mate, catcher Will Smith. Yamamoto shut down the Jays with a complete game four-hitter and Seth blasted a three run homer in support of his pitcher. 

Home field had shifted in favor of the Dodgers. Many thought that the Blue Jays might fold under the pressure. 

Then there was Game 3. Which morphed into a doubleheader by the time it was over. I gave up in the eighth inning, with the score tied at 5, courtesy of a Shohei Ohtnai home run. 

That would be the last run scored until Freddie Freeman, the first baseman with the knack for game-winning blasts, ended the marathon with a home run. This was an epic game, where both managers literally emptied their lineup and used 19 pitchers until Freeman mercifully ended the contest. 

Was this a killer game for the Blue Jays? Especially when they were facing Ohtani on the mound in Game 4? Would they not be up for the task at hand?

Less than nine innings later, we saw the series knotted up at 2. The Blue Jays were alert and hungry. LAD was roasted from the night before. Ohtani pitched admirably for 6 innings given the fact he had played 18 innings the night before. Vlad Guerrero, Jr. continued his impressive play for Toronto, with almost all of the lineup contributing in an eleven hit attack. 

Phenom Trey Yesavage. He was the Toronto pitcher in Game 5. He began the year in the lowest minor league and now he was unstoppable. The Blue Jays hopped on Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell early with home runs from Davis Schneider and Guerrero en route to a 6-2 win. 

The series was headed back to Canada and it seemed like Toronto was in control. The Jays needed one win to record their first title since 1993. 

That’s where things started to unravel for the Jays. Remember that guy Yamamoto? Well, he pitched another gem, this time for six innings and the Dodgers relief corps held off repeated Toronto assaults. 

Yet it came down to one play. LAD skipper Dave Roberts rolled the dice and inserted top starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow into a situation where one hit could have changed the outcome and given the Jays game, set and match. 

With three pitches, LAD survived. First, Glasnow retired Ernie Clement on a pop up; Clement was hitting lights out and would go on to set a record with over 30 base hits in one playoff. 

Up next was shortstop Andres Giminez. On the second pitch he saw, Giminez stroked a liner to left field. Playing little shallower than normal, Dodgers left fielder Kike Hernandez raced in, caught the ball and fired it on the run to second base, where Miguel Rojas, inserted into the lineup for more punch at second base, speared the on target throw and acrobatically completed a force out of Addison Barger, who had strayed just a bit too much thinking Giminez’s hit would land in the playing field and he would score the Series-ending run. Barger’s double was wedged under the padding in left-center field, depriving the Jays of more runs and maybe putting him on third base. 

With the luck that the Dodgers had on Friday night, it was inevitable that these two teams would go to the maximum to decide who would be the champ. Ohtani would face certain Hall of Fame pitcher Max Scherezer to begin what would prove to be an epic game. 

Ohtani was nearly mortal, surrendering 3 runs in only 2.1 innings. Toronto forged ahead 3-0 on a Bo Bichette home run. After Will Smith doubled, he eventually scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Teoscar Hernandez. 

Another sacrifice fly, this time from the bat of Tommy Edman, scored Mookie Betts in the top of the sixth inning. LAD now trailed by one, 3-2. In the bottom half of the inning, Clement singled, stole second and scored on a Giminez double. 4-2 Toronto. 

Yesavage came in to save the day for the Jays. He made it through the seventh inning okay, but in the eighth he surrendered a home run to LAD’s Max Muncy, cutting the lead again to one. 

Blake Snell came in to pitch the eighth inning, surviving a Cement double. On to the ninth inning with the crowd full of anticipation. 

That was until with one out and full count, Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman left a full count pitch over the plate and Rojas swatted the ball out of the park. Tie score. 

Roberts put Andy Pages into the game for more defense in center field with one out and the bases loaded. Clement lifted a shot to left center field and left fielder Kike Hernandez sped towards the ball. Pages, covering an amazing 121 feet of ground in an all-out sprint crashed into the smaller Hernandez and made the game-saving catch. 

That was after Rojas, plans in, stabbed a ground ball, righted himself and threw to home plate to nail Isaiah Kiner-Falefa by inches, confirmed by replay which showed catcher Smith’s foot leaving home pate before returning just in the nick of time. This was the second consecutive night Rojas saved the LAD season. 

The Dodgers threatened in the 10th inning with some slick defense. Roberts, desperate for the win, summoned Yamamoto to pitch the bottom of the tenth. Which he did, keeping Toronto at bay.

LAD catcher Smith dramatically hit a game-winning home run in the top of the 11th inning off of Toronto starter-turned-reliever Shane Bieber. Which led to a heart-stopping double play started by Betts to end the World Series. 

Maybe the greatest game ever played to decide the World Series did just that. Nobody left anything out on the field. Both teams were equal rivals. Sure, Toronto out hit the Dodgers, whose cumulative batting average was near .200. Yet LAD had emotion, talent and luck on their side. Which was enough for them to emerge as the winner of this epic struggle. 

Yamamoto, having thrown over 130 pitches in consecutive days while raking up his third victory, was named the M.V.P. Los Angeles would have a celebration. More people watched this game than in nearly a decade. 

It was riveting. It was dramatic. This was the best World Series I had ever seen. 

Birthday Gifts

  Saturday was my 75th birthday. It was a fun day with family and friends. Good food. Good times. It was everything I wanted, including the Katz’s Delicatessen apron gifted me by my editor and her husband. I felt blessed.

But this is primarily a sports blog. For I love sports. And I love to talk and report on the topics related to the sports world. 

So on my birthday, I had three football games to monitor and another one on Sunday to complete the weekend. The Saturday games were Rutgers at Purdue; Franklin and Marshall visiting Ursinus; and Jonathan Dayton High School, located just around the block, hosting arch rival Brearley. Sunday’s match involved the New York Jets traveling to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals. Plus the New Jersey Devils were hosting Nathan McKinnon and the ever-dangerous Colorado Avalanche at the Prudential Center in Newark. 

The odds of all of the games resulting in wins for the teams I was rooting for was astronomical. After all, Rutgers had been free falling in the Big Ten standings, and even a visit to a woeful Purdue Boilermakers squad was anything but a gimme for the Scarlet Knights. 

F&M was tied with perennial Centennial Conference top dog Johns Hopkins atop the CC Football Standings. Ursinus had amassed a 4-2 record heading into the clash, although the team was coming off a trouncing in Baltimore at the hands of Hopkins. The Diplomats came to Collegeville sporting a 5-1 mark, slightly deceiving in that F&M barely defeated Muhlenberg and Dickinson in the previous two weeks. 

Dayton had suffered only a loss to my alma mater, Highland Park High school to mar its record. JDHS had demolished the Dunellen Destroyers by a score of 48-0. Brearley had a pedestrian 4-4 record entering the game; one of the wins was against my HPHS Owls by a point. 

The Devils were streaking, winners of seven in a row after an Opening Night loss at Carolina. The Ads came to New Jersey with only one loss in the early season. 

And the putrid 0-7 Jets were faced with starting Justin Fields at quarterback after owner 

Woody Johnson and Head Coach Aaron Glenn showed little faith and patience in him, only because backup QB Tyrod Taylor was unavailable due to injury. New York was facing old friend now foe Joe Flacco, substituting under center for the injured Joe Burrow; Flacco had looked young again in a loss the week before. 

How did all of this shake out? You would be surprised. Really surprised. As was I. 

The only loss was the one game I was least invested in—the high school contest. Brearley eked out a win over the Dayton Bulldogs, securing a playoff spot based on Power Points, a method devised by the NJSIAA to secure the best teams in the post-season by group. Brearley moves on to face Mountain Lakes. Dayton has to settle for a consolation game and now has a 6-2 record. 

Rutgers felt like they owed Head Coach Greg Schiano a much-needed victory for all the effort Schiano invested in this team preparing them for each game. For once, and on the road, RU played with poise and determination. 

Still, it took some late game heroics and a field goal with no time left to secure a victory and a happy plane flight back to New Jersey. Whether this is the last game RU wins this season or not, the team could savor the moment and have some renewed energy when they began practice in preparation for a road game this Saturday at Illinois. 

How did F&M do? Did the Diplomats escape with another victory? Did they remain tied with JHU for the CC lead? 

Yes, the Diplomats downed the Bears. It wasn’t close, for a change. F&M dominated Ursinus and gave its remaining CC foes (Mc Daniel, Carnegie-Mellon and Johns Hopkins at home which could be a Centennial championship showdown) something to think about. Some pollsters were so impressed that F&M was actually ranked in one poll. 

It took overtime for the Devils to prevail and extend their winning streak to eight on Saturday afternoon. That streak would end abruptly when the team traveled to Denver where the hosts attained revenge by an 8-4 score. 

Thus, I was happy where I stood entering Sunday’s last game. My sense of appreciating the Jets this season led me to believe that there was little-to-no chance the Green and White could pull off the upset. 

Maybe it was karma. Or the dedication of the game to former Jets star Nick Mangold, who lost his battle with kidney disease the night before in New Jersey. Mangold was a huge human being who I saw up close when he brought his daughter to swim school adjacent to the gym I belonged to in his adopted home town of Florham Park. Losing him so young was so tragic. He is already in the team’s Ring of Honor. I hope he is posthumously elected this year to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as a worthy tribute to his legacy. 

Fields played his best game of the season. The team excelled in almost all areas. Yet it took a Nick Folk field goal after a great drive led by the embattled quarterback to get into field goal range with very little time left. It also was fortunate that for New York that Flacco was injured and unable to do more, giving the Jets just enough opportunity to shrink the demons following the team.

Final score: NYJ 39 CIN 38. Whatever momentum this game gave the team is muted by this week being the team’s bye week. Still, it was an exciting game that had me out of my seat repeatedly. 

I add in the Kansas City Chiefs win over a depleted Washington team on Monday night and only by mere three points did I not have all my teams win. I cannot remember being so lucky. 

Switching to baseball—if you have been out of the loop regarding the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers meeting in the World Series, then shame on you. For this has been one of the most exciting Fall Classics in recent memory. 

The level of play has been outstanding from the start to where we now stand entering Friday night’s Game 6 in Canada. Both teams sport a number of future Hall of Fame players. Most of them are excelling. 

So many records have been set for World Series and post-season play. Listing them would take too much time and space. 

Vlad Guerrero, Jr. has shown the baseball world why he remained in Canada and is driven to play for his hometown team. The guy is a monster who has an infectious enthusiasm which his teammates absorb. 

What’s not to say about Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese multi-talent who has raised his game to new heights, even if he was almost mortal in Game 4 as the starting pitcher for the Dodgers? 

These teams are so invested in playing hard that Game 3 lasted an outrageous 18 innings before LAD first baseman Freddie Freeman, born in Canada but reared in Southern California, sent everyone home with a walk off blast to give LAD a 6-5 win. Almost everybody on the two squads played in that epic affair. I certainly wasn’t awake when it ended near 3:00 am on the East Coast. 

Even if the Blue Jays win on Friday over an exhausted Dodgers team which seemed flat on Wednesday night and had to endure a long flight facing elimination, it should not diminish what has played out thus far. Far from it. 

There are these names to remember. First, Trey Yesavage, the young Toronto hurler who began the year in Single A ball and set records in the post-season. Then there is Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who has emerged as a star pitching for LAD. The Dodgers’ fate on Friday night is in his hands. And Toronto outfielder Addison Barger has made a name for himself in this Series.

I know I will be watching on Friday night. And maybe Saturday if we are so fortunate. Could there be another walk off homer on the same field where Joe Carter did that to give Toronto its only World Championship in 1993? Who knows?

This is for sure. I am having a blast watching the games I care about. That is what sports is all about. Especially when they are birthday gifts.