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The First Pitch: October 10, 2025
The Dodgers are one step closer to their second straight NL pennant, ousting the Phillies at Los Angeles in 11 innings, 2-1.
The deciding run comes courtesy of a glaringly bad decision from Philadelphia reliever Ollie Kerkering. With the bases loaded and two outs, Kerkering drops a grounder hit back to him from Andy Pages; in a panic, he throws wildly past home where Hyeseong Kim is already crossing the plate—all while he had much more time to throw out Pages at first and send the game to the 12th.
Early on, Tyler Glasnow barely gets the better of the Phillies’ Cristopher Sanchez, throwing six shutout innings to Sanchez’s 6.1 frames (allowing one Dodger run). But it’s Roki Sasaki, the 23-year-old Japanese rookie, who truly stifles the Phillies in the late going and keeps them from pulling away with a series-tying victory as he racks up three perfect innings of relief.
This will be the seventh time in the last 10 years that the Dodgers have reached the NLCS.
The Cubs force a winner-take-all Game Five against the Brewers, scoring early and often once again while five pitchers combine to shut down the Brewers on three hits, 6-0 at Chicago. For a postseason-record fourth straight game, the Cubs belt a home run in the first inning as Ian Happ’s three-run shot gives Chicago the early lead. (Happ is hitless in his three other at-bats—flying out somewhere between the edge of the warning track and the outfield wall in each.)
Game Five at Milwaukee will take place Saturday evening. At upload time, starting pitchers have not been announced.
The baseball world says goodbye to former Red Sox outfielder Mike Greenwell, who succumbs to cancer at the age of 62. A two-time All-Star, Greenwell played all 12 of his seasons in Boston, batting a career .303 with 1,400 hits. His best season came in 1988 when he set personal bests in homers (22) and RBIs (119), finishing second in the AL MVP vote behind the A’s Jose Canseco; after Canseco later admitted to juicing during that season, Greenwell argued that the he should be recrowned as the true MVP.
Greenwell’s most eye-opening game came in 1996, when he knocked in all nine Boston runs in a 9-8, 10-inning win at Seattle. No other player, before or since, has knocked in more runs in a game without his teammates contributing an additional ribbie.
It Was Whatever-Something Years Ago Today
1920: It’s an historic day for the Cleveland Indians as they take control of the World Series against the Brooklyn Robins. Elmer Smith sets the pace with a first-inning grand slam, the first in Fall Classic history and, in the fifth, Indians second baseman Bill Wambsganss pulls off the rarest of rare plays—an unassisted triple play—to really kill off any hopes of a Brooklyn comeback. Cleveland wins 8-1—despite being outhit, 13-12.
1924: The Washington Senators are champions of baseball for the only time during their 60-year stay in D.C., as Earl McNeely’s big-time hopper over 18-year-old Giants third baseman Freddie Lindstrom brings home the winning run in the bottom of the 12th for a 4-3 victory. Lindstrom will blame his inability to snag McNeely’s grounder—and another pivotal grounder hit his way earlier in the game—on a pebble in the infield.
1926: In one of baseball’s most fabled World Series tales, the Cardinals are holding on for dear life in Game Seven against the almighty Yankees when star hitter/manager Rogers Hornsby brings in ace Pete Alexander—who just pitched a complete game the day before and was reportedly hung over from a celebratory drinking binge—to get out of a bases-loaded jam with two outs. Alexander delivers, striking out Tony Lazzeri, before shutting down the Yankees over the final two innings to secure a 3-2 win and the first world title in Cardinals history.
1957: Once-discarded Yankee prospect Lew Burdette throws a seven-hit shutout—his second in four days—in Game Seven against the Yankees to give the Milwaukee Braves their first (and only) world title since moving to Wisconsin four years earlier.
1980: The Royals win their first AL pennant, sweeping the Yankees (the team that beat them at the ALCS each year from 1976-78) thanks in large part to George Brett’s two-out, three-run blast to Yankee Stadium’s upper deck in the seventh that puts Kansas City ahead to stay, 4-2.
1982: On another good day in Milwaukee baseball history, the Brewers capture their only AL pennant to date with a come-from-behind 4-3 victory over the California Angels, their third straight win after dropping the first two games of the series. It’s another blow for Angels manager Gene Mauch, whose career is dotted with late-season/playoff collapses.
You Say It’s Your Birthday
Happy birthday to:
Kansas City slugger Vinnie Pasquantino (28)
Yankees reliever David Bednar (31), closer of 111 saves; two-time All-Star
Arizona outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (32), 2023 All-Star
Milwaukee pitcher Shelby Miller (35)
Jeurys Familia (36), reliever of 127 saves, including MLB-best 51 in 2016
Once-and-current Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen (39), 2013 NL MVP; top NL hitter of 2014; five-time All-Star; 332 career home runs
Troy Tulowitzki (41), five-time All-Star shortstop whose career was derailed by a myriad of injuries; recipient of two Gold Gloves
Brad Ziegler (46), reliever of 739 appearances; didn’t allow a run over his first 39.1 innings
Pat Burrell (49), slugger of 292 home runs; two-time collector of 100+ RBIs
Placido Polanco (50), 16-year infielder with 2,142 career hits; two-time All-Star; recipient of three Gold Gloves
Roger Metzger (78), 1970s shortstop whose career was upended when he lost four fingertips in chainsaw accident; two-time MLB leader in triples
Gene Tenace (79), catcher/first baseman with 201 career home runs; 1972 World Series hero; drew over 100 walks six times
Born on this date:
Wally Berger (1905), highly underrated slugger who carried Braves on his back through early 1930s; 242 career homers; four-time All-Star
John Stone (1905), 11-year outfielder with career .310 batting average
Rube Curry (1898), 1920s Negro League pitcher who accrued lifetime 82-59 record
Ad Gumbert (1867), owner of 123-102 record from 1888-96
Shameless Link of the Day
As the Brewers try to avoid blowing a 2-0 NLDS lead to the Cubs, they’ll recall 1982—when they were down two games to none in a best-of-five ALCS against California, before winning straight three to take their only pennant to date.
Book Review: “Attorneys in the Baseball Hall of Fame: A Collection of Biographical Essays”
Edited by Louis H. Schiff and Robert M. Jarvis
One of the things I’ve always loved about baseball literature is its expansive and diverse nature of subjects. For every book that focuses on, say, the storied but familiar history of the New York Yankees, there’s another that digs deeper into the weeds and nudges you with a subject that leaves you thinking, “Huh—I didn’t know that.”
Such a book is Attorneys in the Baseball Hall of Fame: A Collection of Biographical Essays. Published by MacFarland Books—the North Carolina-based baseball book factory—this collection of articles overseen by retired judge Louis Schiff and law professor Robert Jarvis is a meticulously researched book that focuses on a fascinating collection of 11 people who played, managed or ran the game of baseball and, at some point in their lives, took up law. Fun fact, as revealed in this book: Eight managers in the history of major league baseball acquired law degrees—and six of them are in the Hall of Fame. All six are profiled in this book.
What makes Attorneys in the Baseball Hall of Fame such an intriguing read is how these 11 people used their law experience to great benefit during their time in baseball. Branch Rickey, almost overqualified for a life in law school, used his lawyerly instincts to trailblaze his way through baseball history, perfecting the art of the farm system, overhauling failing franchises and, of course, shattering baseball’s race barrier by bringing Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Larry MacPhail, less the law prodigy than Rickey, nevertheless leveraged what he learned into a far more successful calling as a businessman known for turning companies (and major league teams) around. Walter O’Malley fused his knowledge of the law with his father’s past as a corrupt New York City politician to become the man that tactfully stole the Dodgers from Brooklyn. And Tony La Russa, failed major league ballplayer, eagerly pursued a law degree to empower his stature as a rising manager—first in the minors, then at the major league level where he collected more wins than anyone not named Connie Mack.
Some of those featured in the book are not surprising for their inclusion, like O’Malley or Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Federal judge turned baseball’s first commissioner. One unexpected subject is Hughie Jennings, who from past reading always struck me as the whoop-it-up baseball character who would have least thought of a career in law. Less ironic but still surprising is Miller Huggins, manager of the Yankees during the 1920s who, as a child, was encouraged by his working-class father-in-law to get a law degree because of his penchant for arguing—and was fortunate enough to be taught by, among others, future President William Howard Taft. There’s also Jim O’Rourke, the man who struck the first-ever hit in National League history whose lofty use of “five-syllable words”—which would have made even George Will blush—gained him the nickname “Orator,” lending himself all too naturally to a post-baseball career in law.
The 10 writers who contribute to Attorneys in the Baseball Hall of Fame are not lightweights; they’re highly experienced lawyers, professors and judges who know their craft—and they know their baseball, too. This double-barreled knowledge results in a smooth, self-assured narrative, not delving too deep into law linguistics that might wear down the many laymen among us (to which I count myself as one). And while most of the authors play it buttoned up and refrain from overt opinion, Elizabeth Marquez’s write-up on Bowie Kuhn stands out for her critical views of the former commissioner, writing that he “often…turned out to be on the wrong side of history” with his rulings and opinions.
Some readers adverse to long books may feel compelled to back away from the 253 pages offered in Attorneys in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but nearly half of the content consists of footnotes and addenda, greatly shortening the core writing while being made available as an option for further digestion of the facts. The book can be useful for reference, or simply enjoyed as 11 well-written bios on some of baseball’s most influential men, and how their appetite for the law helped mold their place in the game.
Attorneys in the Baseball Hall of Fame can be purchased from MacFarland Books, Amazon, and other online book sellers.
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