When It Rains, It Pours?

  My mind must have been jumbled last week. After all, I was suffering from October Overload. 

It was brought to my attention by my intrepid editor that she was indeed in Warwick with her family for the weekend. For the celebration of apples. 

My mind went to somewhere familiar. Warwick, Rhode Island. That’s where I placed her and her family. Although I openly questioned in my mind why would Warwick, RI host a festival for apples? 

Well, I didn’t do my due diligence. Evidently there is a Warwick, New York. Right in the heart of Orange County. Where apples are normally grown. 

But I could easily have thought she might have traveled to one of the other 14 places named Warwick in the United States. Since it was for a weekend, I could readily foreclose Colorado, Kansas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington state as being too distant. 

Perhaps I could have eliminated the Warwicks in Georgia, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia as being too far, too. But that would have left me with towns bearing the Warwick name in Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania as accessible as the ones in New York and Rhode Island. 

Then it dawned on me—could the Rhode Island town have its own apple festival? Sure enough, the 1st Annual Apple Fest was actually held in Warwick, Rhode Island on September 19, 2026 at Greenwood Credit Union City Hall Plaza. 

Yes, the dates didn’t align. Still, this fact takes the sting out of the scolding I received for thinking that only Warwick, New York had an apple festival. 

Speaking of taking the sting out of my life, I am taking the New York Yankees sweep at the hands of the AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays better than expected. Largely because my expectations were based on hope—and  nothing more. 

I didn’t care that the Yankees starting pitching staff was considered the top-ranked MLB group. If the lineup had holes in it both on defense and offense, and if that a few players playing key roles had been in the minors a good portion of the season or others were playing out of position, then we were watching a team trying to perform with smoke and mirrors. 

Sure, the Yankees took it to the Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card round. The bats awoke against Red Sox pitching which wasn’t very good. And if I thought NYY was a flawed team, then Boston was far more porous. 

Yankees fans, always a very optimistic lot, were buoyed by their team’s performance. Surely the bats would not fail—even if too many times the silent bats would doom the team. The primary question was this: would the absence of 3X AL MVP Aaron Judge be enough to derail this trip to the World Series? 

Except that not enough credit was given to the Rays. Manager Kevin Cash had a team he could rely on—they could hit, field—and yes, like the Yankees—pitch. 

That pitching began with one Drew Rasmussen. His overall record for 2026 was 16-5 with a 2.67 E.R.A. and he recorded 174 strikeouts. Very nice statistics. 

Rasmussen jelled after the All-Star break. The Rays went 12-0—no pitcher in American League history had ever made at least 12 regular-season starts with his team winning every one. Rasmussen himself was 9-0 over that period with a dominant 1.86 E.R.A. That’s almost as good as New York ace Cam Schlittler, the presumptive AL Cy Young ward frontrunner, who posted a 1.69 E.R.A. Those are some eye-popping statistics.

Moreover, Rasmussen had a 5-2 all-time record versus the Yankees in the regular season with a 1.81 E.R.A. and 70 strikeouts. His last loss was to the Yankees just before the All-Star break. On September 23, 2026, Rasmussen tamed the Yankees, allowing 1 hit in 6.2 innings while striking out 11 NYY batters. 

One would have thought that this kind of dominance might have ended once the post-season rolled around. Especially with the show the Yankees bats put on against the Red Sox pitchers. 

That would have been considered fake news. Rasmussen silenced the Yankees hitters, allowing one hit in 8 masterful innings. He out-dueled from Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole and three relievers. Cole allowed a home run to Jonathan Aranda—the only run scored in the game. 

Rasmussen was helped by fine defense. That was no more apparent than when he surrendered the lone Yankees hit—a smash down the right field line in the eighth inning by New York catcher Austin Wells. 

It seemed to be a surefire double with two outs which could exert some needed pressure on Rasmussen or allow Cash to use his bullpen. The Yankees finally had some life. 

Unfortunately, Wells figured he could defy the odds with his slow speed and leg out a triple to put even great pressure on the Rays. A perfect pair of relay throws cut down Wells. Inning over. And a foreshadowing of the desperation the Yankees felt. 

Game 2 saw the Yankees bats score two runs. The problem was that an overused Schlittler could not stop the Rays hitters. Moreover, the Yankees were atrocious in the field, committing four bad errors and actually weren’t credited for a fifth one. 

With the hitting still adrift, Manager Aaron Boone made some changes in his lineup. The key insertion was Anthony Volpe at second base to replace the struggling Jazz Chisholm, Jr. 

Volpe made some important contributions. His liner to left field temporarily tied the score at 4 in the elimination game. Replays showed that a fan interfered with the hit, resulting in a ground rule double and only one run scoring instead of two. 

In that instant, the final nail was hammered home. New York’s bats remained at sea. 

Tampa Bay would move on. The Yankees will now have to figure out what went wrong besides Judge’s unavailability and the loss of Giancarlo Stanton for most of the season, who was thrust into pinch hitting and struck out twice in two at bats. 

A healthy Yankees team might have been far more competitive. The right team decisively won this series. 

For me, I saw the handwriting much earlier in the summer. NYY was simply not a championship-caliber team without Judge, Stanton and more seasoning was needed for its rookies, who showed how green they really were. Chisholm and Ryan Mc Mahon didn’t produce. Cody Bellinger was subpar. Trent Grisham took too many strikes. The list goes on.

At least now my nights won’t be spent rooting for the Yankees when they can continue to underperform. I can turn my sports attention elsewhere. I’m not necessarily at peace with the outcome for this season, but then again, I didn’t construct this ball club. Nor do I understand the minds of the players as to their approach to pitchers—especially ones who possess wicked changeups or sweeping breaking balls. 

With a lockout looming, it will be hard to predict how the Yankees brass will be moving forward, addressing the obvious needs—including the manager. It isn’t worth reassessing the season or fixating on what went wrong. It’s time to move on. 

In the National League, Los Angeles took out Atlanta in four games and Milwaukee downed San Diego also in four. This will be a fun rematch of last year’s NLCS. The Brewers gave LAD trouble last time. They might have improved just enough to make their first trip to the World Series. 

Tampa Bay awaits the winner of the ALDS between Cleveland and the Chicago White Sox. For the first time since 2017, a team has climbed back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the series and force a deciding Game 5. 

What made this more interesting is that the road team won all of the four contests. Considering how loud and boisterous the White Sox crowd was on Thursday night, that makes Cleveland’s road win that much more impressive. 

A remarkable feat for Chicago. Coming off of a couple of 100+ loss seasons, making it to a deciding game of the ALDS is really something. Well done, Pale Hose. Even if you set a MLB record with 21 strikeouts in the Game 5 2-0 loss. 

Should Tampa Bay and Milwaukee meet in the World Series, it is guaranteed that a first time champion will emerge. Milwaukee’s roots go back to 1969 as the Seattle Pilots, before moving to Wisconsin in 1970. The Brew Crew made it to the 1982 World Series as the American League representative, losing to St. Louis. The Rays lost in the 2008 and 2020 Fall Classic. (Colorado and San Diego have never won a World Series; the Seattle Mariners are the only franchise never to play in one)

So now that I have moved on from the Yankees, I first turned myself to college football. Because I went with my wife to see Franklin and Marshall play at Muhlenberg College Saturday afternoon. 

We like going to Allentown, Pennsylvania because it is the closest school in the Centennial Conference, a tad under 70 miles from our home in New Jersey. Traffic usually isn’t bad even on a Saturday in the fall. Parking is on the street, so we expected a little hike to the Scotty Wood Stadium. 

Plus we dined on one of our favorite lunches—the chicken salad sub from the Chatham Sandwich Shop. We devoured it sitting at a picnic table at the I-78 rest area just over the Delaware River in Pennsylvania, a necessary stop anyway at our ages. 

Saturday was a beautiful day weather wise. High around 70. The calm before the anticipated deluge from the remnants of Hurricane Isaias which quickly moved northward after clubbing the Florida Panhandle and adjacent states. Who knew another storm would erupt on the field in Allentown as a prelude to Sunday’s bad weather? 

We have gone a number of times to either Muhlenberg or nearby Moravian College, when the Greyhounds were in the Centennial Conference, to see F&M play. F&M has never fared well at either site.

When I was the statistician for F&M football, we traveled to Allentown on November 14, 1970. I arose early that morning to join the team for its pre-game meal at the dining hall—we had our own room and it was a buffet of steak and eggs among other things I remember.

The bus ride to Muhlenberg was uneventful. I recall that the day was cold enough even though the forecast called for a high of near 50 degrees. I was underdressed for the unheated press box and, as if the final score of 27-21 in favor of the Mules wasn’t enough, it was the chill which enveloped me and the team in its final game of a miserable season which led to the firing of Head Coach Dave Pooley that I have deeper memories of. That bus ride back to Lancaster was somber. 

Recently, F&M has not done well against the Mules. While F&M eked out a victory last season en route to the Centennial Conference crown, the Diplomats had lost 6 previous games to Muhlenberg and the guys from Lancaster hadn’t won in Allentown since 2010. My wife reminded me of the fact that we had never seen F&M defeat Muhlenberg—and  for me, that included the 1970 loss.

Talk about places where teams go to lose—this was F&M’s kryptonite. Even Superman would not have fared not that well against the Mules.

While struggling early and despite allowing a 91 yard kickoff return for a TD after opening the scoring, F&M held a 20-14 lead at the half then upped the margin to 28-14 in the third quarter. 

Alas, the F&M defense, which had stopped Muhlenberg repeatedly on third and fourth down, was worn down by the no huddle offense run by the Mules. When the home team tied the score with 7:21 left, the F&M faithful in the stands were as stunned as the players. 

A final series by the Dips went nowhere and they had to punt. Muhlenberg opened with decent field position and systematically moved down the field. 

With no time left on the clock, the Muhlenberg kicker nailed a 29 yard game winner; he had missed a field goal and an extra point earlier in the game. Final score Muhlenberg 31 Franklin & Marshall 28. 

The undefeated season was over. Another torturous loss at the F&M House of Horrors. My ride home with my wife was painful. Just like it was in 1970—she was spared the glumness back then. Stopping for apples at an area farm stand dulled the pain. Momentarily. At least the weather wasn’t chilly today. 

As I rested after a long day, a similar ending happened in Dallas when Oklahoma stunned #1 Texas and heralded QB Arch Manning with a longer game-winning field goal. Is there something in the Fall air?

. Twin defeats in the span of a few days. I can’t say I’m surprised. 

I can always go for the trifecta with the New York Jets hosting a resurgent Cleveland Browns team with a gloomy weather forecast. Because I am a glutton for self-inflicted punishment. 

When it rains, it pours, I guess.