Baseball season is over Bubba!
Philadelphia Phillies 1 Houston Astros 4, 5th November 2022.
Philadelphia Phillies 1 Houston Astros 4, 5th November 2022.
Baseball season is over Bubba and I saw it with my very own two eyes. The denouement was a bitter sweet affair for this underdog cheering and very temporary Philadelphia Phillies fan as a pitchers duel was in progress with Framber Valdez muttering to himself on the mound, laughing, crouching and exhibiting the widest of life affirming smiles as he skittled 9 Astros batters by way of a strike out and whatever respected baseball writers may have espoused post game, the man with the Caribbean smile was this evening’s standard bearer for sporting victory. It was tough on Valdez’s counterpart Zack Wheeler, but losing is tough Bubba, and especially so when the World Series is at stake.
I may not have heard the greatest sound in all of sports in real life but I’ve experienced it many hundreds of times when watching on television. The “crack of the bat”, that sweetest of all tunes, that sure fire wake up call at 3.47am on a dark UK morning, that sonic signal flare that a small white ball had been hit so very perfectly and so very far, there isn’t a baseball park in all America big enough to stop it.
Losing the World Series is tough Bubba. Tough on Phillies catcher JT Realmuto, a Game 1 hero. Tough on their talisman Bryce Harper, hitless last night but inspirational throughout the post season. Nick Castellanos’ defensive plays defined 2 games in the series and number 9 hitter Brandon Marsh who, at 24 years of age is both the oldest looking 24 year old you ever did see as well as being the youngest member of a young team who over played their way from rank outsiders to just 2 wins away from winning it all. My heart said the Phillies would win it in 6 but alas, losing the World Series is tough Bubba.
Just ask Phillies left field slugger Kyle Schwarber. Top of the 6th inning and Framber Valdez, that smiling pitching assassin from the Dominican Republic, is next to unhittable. “Spinning a gem” as they say in all good cliched ridden baseball articles, ancient and modern. Valdez would be tonight’s winner for the season winning Houston Astros but not now, not at a 2–2 pitch count and facing the Phillies slugger from Middletown, Ohio. Not now, for Kyle Schwarber, and Framber Valdez for that matter, heard that distinctly sweet sound of the crack of a baseball bat, and the game winning Valdez’s fastball was smashed high into the right field seats of Minute Maid Park by this evening’s loser Kyle Schwarber, and the visiting Phillies from Philadelphia were leading in a monumental and historic World Series game they’d quickly lose.
Losing a World Series is tough Bubba.
Yordan Alvarez will now be forever remembered as the man with the crack of the bat in Game 6 of the 2022 World Series that sent a baseball fizzing like a firework 450 feet into a Houston night, but spare a thought for Phillies relief pitcher Jose Alvarado. He’ll be remembered too. It’s the way of the life of baseball and the keeping of the human record. For every victor and victory there must be a loser and in the sport of baseball, for every slugger described by his manager Dusty Baker (he of the forever toothpick in the corner of his mouth) as “Barry Bonds like”, and who has now carved his name in the baseball records of forever following last night’s 6th inning home run, there’s always the guy who’s baseball has been crushed into next week.
Jose Alvarado, a Venezuelan born 27 year old pitcher for the Phillies, was brought on to pitch in relief and deliberately so to face his almost namesake, 25 year old Cuban born Yordan Alvarez. Alvarado hurled a fastball at 99mph and Alvarez hit a tracer bullet back past him faster and 450 Houston feet later, this game had indeed been turned upside down in accordance with Joe Davis’ iconic and immediate Fox TV commentary, but spare a thought for Alvarado and for that matter, spare a thought or two for Zack Wheeler who’d also spun a gem tonight, and both in a losing cause.
Losing a World Series sure is tough Bubba.
But winning one? Just ask the 73 year old Californian with the forever toothpick, Astros manager Dusty Baker, or his veteran pitcher Justin Verlander. Tonight’s smiling sporting assassin Framber Valdez or Philadelphian native Chas McCormick and ask him, for what will soon become the first questions of every interview for the rest of his life, how does it feel to have a play, a defensive catch, become immortalised into a play all of its own, for the annals of all history, and how does it feel to be remembered in this way in a World Series victory against your own home town? Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker, Ryan Pressly. World Series champions all and an entire Houston Astros squad far too voluminous to name.
But for those vaunted annals of World Series history we need a name for the ages, a name for the record books and a name that will forever be associated with the 2022 World Series, and that name is Jeremy Pena. Correctly accorded with the title of the series MVP or “Most Valuable Player”, one must not forget that it was the rookie Pena who excelled not only during the regular season and not only spectacularly so during the play offs leading to the all American and season ending “Big Dance”, but the 25 year old shortstop from the Dominican Republic has continued his astonishing form throughout the toughest sporting contest of all and on the largest of all possible stages. Last night it was Pena who broke the pitching spell of the Phillies Zack Wheeler with an authoritative base hit into centre field in the 4th inning and the Astros first base hit of the night, and it was the series MVP who would hit Wheeler’s 70th and last pitch of the night in an almost exact replica between 2nd and 3rd base, and with Wheeler now retired for the evening and Pena joining his catcher Martin Maldonaldo on base, they watched Jose Alvarado stride to the mound, their slugger and teammate Yordan Alvarez stride to the batters box and soon, that sweet sound of the crack of a baseball bat ended yet another baseball season for the ages.
The Phillies came close and fought they way through as a fighting underdog but the Astros, the Houston Astros, are writing the story of this baseball season. Not the monied men of New York or Los Angeles or the Braves of Atlanta or the Padres of San Diego. This season’s story is written by a 73 year old man named Dusty from California and a 25 year old rookie and kid from the Dominican Republic.
Postscript post game quotes courtesy of www.mlb.com
Dusty Baker, manager of the victorious Houston Astros
“Well, I thought about it a lot,” Baker said of being the manager with the most wins to not win a World Series Championship. “I tried not to dwell on it, but tried to have faith and perseverance and knowing that with the right team and the right personnel and right everything that this is going to happen. Had this happened years ago, I might not even be here. So maybe it wasn’t supposed to happen so that I could hopefully influence a few young men’s lives and their families and a number of people in the country through showing what perseverance and character can do for you in the long run.”
Jeremy Pena, Houston Astros shortstop and World Series MVP
“I’d say the hardest part was just blocking everything that’s not part of the game,” Peña said. “There’s a saying that you can’t sink a ship with water around. It sinks if water gets inside. So I just try to stay strong and keep the water outside my head. Just keep playing my game, show up every single day, and just trust in my preparation.”
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to delve into the cave of wonders that is my archives here or linked below are my articles on Games 1 through 5 of the World Series this year:
Rookie breaks Phillies hearts in a thriller. Astros a game away from World Series glory
Houston Astros 3 Philadelphia Phillies 2, 3rd November 2022.medium.com
“The Reptile” leads the Astros to historic no hitter in Philadelphia. World Series is tied 2–2
Houston Astros 5 Philadelphia Phillies 0, 2nd November 2022.medium.com
Blowout in Game 3 as the Phillies shut out the Astros
Houston Astros 0 Philadelphia Phillies 7, 1st November 2022.medium.com
Framber Valdez spins a gem as the Astros level up the World Series at 1–1
Philadelphia Phillies 2 Houston Astros 5, 29th October 2022.medium.com
Phillies take Game 1 on a wild night in Houston
Philadelphia Phillies 6 Houston Astros 5, 28th October 2022.medium.com