Search Results for: durocher
July 3, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Heading into the 1967 season, the Chicago Cubs had not finished in the top half of the National League since 1946, and had experienced only one winning season since that year (1963, when they went 82-80). The Cubs had hoped that their fortunes would turn around when, in 1966, they hired Leo Durocher as manager. Durocher had won a pennant managing the Brooklyn Dodgers and two pennants and a world
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October 4, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
In 1969, both of baseball’s two leagues split into two divisions. The division winners in the respective leagues were to face off in league championship series, with the winners moving on to the World Series. On October 4, the first game of both series were played. In the basement of one of Dartmouth’s dorms, I watched the NLCS game between the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves. I think
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September 10, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The New York Mets’ come from behind victory over the Chicago Cubs in early July of 1969 left the Mets believing they could catch the Cubs and win the NL East. When the Mets took a series from the Cubs later that month to pull within 3.5 games of the Cubs, they believed this even more. After that, though, the Mets went into a tailspin. By mid-August, they trailed the
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August 27, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The next round of debating among Democratic presidential candidates is set for the second week of September. It’s not clear, though, how many debates there will be. The number depends on how many candidates qualify. As of last night (Monday), ten had done so. If that remains the number through Wednesday, there will be only one debate. But, as I understand things, if just one more candidate qualifies, the group
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August 19, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
By mid-August of 1969, it was clear that the New York Mets would have a banner season. Not only were the Mets virtually assured of their first winning season in club history, they were on pace for 90 wins. A pennant seemed out of reach, though. On the morning of August 19, they trailed the Chicago Cubs by 7.5 games. But the Mets hadn’t given up. They still thought they
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August 16, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The last time we peeked in on Bob Gibson’s historic 1968 season, back in late June, he had pitched five consecutive shutouts. Nor was Gibson done shutting teams out. In July, he blanked the opposition three more times. In Gibson’s first start in August, he gave up four earned runs (tied for his season high) in 11 innings against the Chicago Cubs. In that start, on August 4, Gibson squared
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December 27, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Every year around this time I look forward to Tevi Troy’s “The Year in Books.” Yesterday, he published this year’s edition. Tevi’s list centers around his attempt “to get a handle on what was going on in our strange political environment.” He leads off with a book by our friend Seth Leibsohn (along with Chris Buskirk) — American Greatness: How Conservatism, Inc. Missed the 2016 Election and What the D.C.
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September 11, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Throughout the summer of 1966, the Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants, and Los Angeles Dodgers battled for first place in the National League. We’ve peeked in once on this great pennant race. During most of the summer, the Dodgers were in third place but almost always within two, or at worst three, games of the lead. Heading into the weekend of September 9-11, they were still in third, a game
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April 21, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
When we last visited the Philadelphia Phillies, they had blown a huge lead in the 1964 National League pennant race. However, Phillies fans had reason to believe that if their team could overcome the psychological impact of their fold, the future held good things in store. The team’s two best hitters, Johnny Callison and Richie Allen, were 25 and 22. Their quality center fielder Tony Gonzales was 27. Solid second
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October 16, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
On October 16, 1964, during a post-World Series press conference, Cardinals manager Johnny Keane announced that he was resigning. On the same day, the New York Yankees, whom the Cards had just bested in the World Series, fired their manager, Yogi Berra. Four days later, the Yankees hired Keane to replace Berra. The Yankees had been talking to Keane for some time. Keane’s move to the Yankees may already have
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October 4, 2014 — Paul Mirengoff
Sunday, October 4, 1964 was the final day of the regular baseball season. The New York Yankees had finally clinched the American League pennant the day before with an 8-3 victory over Cleveland at Yankee Stadium. A five-run eighth inning did the deed. Reliever Pete Mikkelsen picked up the win in relief of Al Downing. Pete Ramos got the save, his eighth since coming to the Yankees on September 5
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July 31, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Jim Hibbs was an All-American catcher for Stanford University, a member of the 1964 Olympic baseball team, a minor leaguer for eight years, and, briefly, a major leaguer with the (then) California Angels. He is also a Power Line reader. Jim has written the story of his baseball playing career in a book called A Catcher’s Story. I like the book a lot, and believe that those who followed baseball
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September 5, 2011 — John Hinderaker
The finale of the Miss Universe pageant is a week from tonight on NBC. It will take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We began our annual preview of the pageant here. I noted several of my favorite contestants, but didn’t get past the letter “B.” I may have to ditch the alphabetical approach. With the contest drawing near, there are lots of sources of information. At the top of the
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February 10, 2010 — Scott Johnson
Gerald Eskenazi covered sports for the New York Times for almost 50 years. Along the way he wrote biographies of Bill Veeck and Leo Durocher as well as as-told-to autobiographies of Carl Yastrzemski and Phil Esposito, among others. From his perch at the Times Eskenazi covered just about every noteworthy sports story of the 50 years preceding his retirement from the Times. Following his retirement Eskenazi wrote his very own
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October 25, 2009 — Paul Mirengoff
The Chicago White Sox and Los Angles Dodgers split the first two games of the 1959 World Series in Chicago. The scene then shifted to LA for the first ever West Coast World Series games. The Dodgers, their pitching rotation having been thrown off by a playoff series with Milwaukee, were finally able to start their ace, Don Drysdale, in Game Three. White Sox manager Al Lopez opted for Dick
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November 1, 2006 — Scott Johnson
In a post below John notes the contemporary deficiencies of the New York Times’s sports coverage. John’s post reminded me of Gerald Eskenazi, the venerable Times reporter who covered sports for almost 50 years. Along the way he wrote biographies of Bill Veeck and Leo Durocher as well as as-told-to autobiographies of Carl Yastrzemski and Willie Mays. From his perch at the Times Eskenazi covered just about every noteworthy sports
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January 1, 2005 — Scott Johnson
In 2004, I read more books than I have in a long time. Three stand out in my mind for the attention they deserved but failed to receive and the pleasure I took in reading them. Gerald Eskenazi covered sports for the New York Times for almost 50 years. Along the way he wrote biographies of Bill Veeck and Leo Durocher as well as as-told-to autobiographies of Carl Yastrzemski and
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