Tag Archives: Red Sox

29 Oct

going seven

In its most recent issue, Baseball Digest chose the top 13 World Series Game 7’s in major league history, and two of them involved Mississippians. In 1997, Meridian native and ex-West Lauderdale High and Mississippi State star Jay Powell got the win as Florida beat Cleveland 3-2 in 11 innings. Powell worked a scoreless top of the 11th, keeping the score at 2-2, and the Marlins won the championship in the bottom half on Edgar Renteria’s memorable two-out hit. In 1946, Pascagoula native Harry Walker delivered the game-winning hit for St. Louis against Boston. Walker’s eighth-inning double, with two down, scored Enos Slaughter from first base on the latter’s famous “mad dash,” and the Cardinals held on to win 4-3. Shaw native and former Delta State coaching legend Boo Ferriss, who had a win earlier in that Series, started Game 7 for the Red Sox, departing in the fifth. Tonight’s San Francisco-Kansas City clash will be the 37th Game 7 (under the best-of-7 format) in World Series history. Aren’t we lucky?

06 Oct

thinking october

Dennis Boyd, better known as “Oil Can,” celebrates his 55th birthday today. The colorful and controversial Meridian native and ex-Jackson State star was a respectable 78-77 with a 4.04 ERA in 10 big league seasons, from 1982-91. His best year was 1986, when he won 16 games for the Boston Red Sox. Boyd won a game in the ’86 American League Championship Series against California but lost his only start in the World Series, which the BoSox infamously dropped in seven to the New York Mets. Boyd put a stain on his own career when he claimed in a recent biography that he frequently pitched under the influence of cocaine, even in 1986. … More deserving of an October shout out is Chad Bradford, the Jackson native of “Moneyball” fame. Bradford pitched in seven different postseasons for five different teams. In 23 1/3 innings over 24 appearances, he allowed one run. That’s a 0.39 ERA. In the October spotlight. Bradford made it to only one World Series and was on the losing end with Tampa Bay in 2008. The former Byram High, Hinds Community College and Southern Miss star put up a 3.26 ERA in 561 MLB games. He is now the pitching coach at HCC. … Another October achievement to marvel at was accomplished by Mississippi State product Will Clark. Clark was 29-for-62, a .468 batting average, in League Championship Series play. That’s a record by a wide margin for players with at least 50 LCS at-bats. Clark also came up short of winning a World Series ring. His only appearance in the Fall Classic came in 1989, when his San Francisco club lost to Oakland in the Earthquake Series.

05 Oct

no looking back

He was one of the best high school players in the state in 2011, a first-team All-America outfielder from a strong Pascagoula High program. He was drafted in the eighth round by the Boston Red Sox and reportedly offered $1.4M to sign. Had he done so, he might have reached the Double-A level by now, knocking on the door of the big leagues. But he turned the Red Sox down, going off instead to try his hand at two sports, football and baseball, at Ole Miss. That plan didn’t work out so well. He’s barely played any baseball for the Rebels and he hadn’t made a huge impact in football either. Until Saturday. If Senquez Golson had any regrets about passing on pro baseball, he doesn’t have any at this moment. The 5-foot-9 senior defensive back’s interception in the back of the end zone against Alabama sealed one of Ole Miss’ biggest football victories ever. This might be a special season for the Rebels, and Golson surely will love having been a part of it. He might have a future in football. Heck, he might get another shot at baseball — though he won’t get another $1.4M bonus. As Peter Marshall used to say on Hollywood Squares, “I might have gone to Paul Lynde to block, but this may work out.”

27 Aug

that’s great, but …

Jonathan Papelbon notched his 100th save as the Philadelphia Phillies closer on Tuesday, finishing off a win for the second straight game over first-place Washington. Papelbon is 100-for-114 in save opportunities in three years in Philly. That’s good stuff. But barring a trade, which seems unlikely at this stage, the former Mississippi State star will miss the postseason for the third straight season. He has made it very clear that he isn’t happy about that. The Phillies reportedly have tried to accommodate his wish to be moved but have found no takers for the brash, 33-year-old right-hander with the fat contract. Papelbon has had a very good year for a scuffling Phillies team: He is 33-of-36 in saves with a 1.60 ERA. Earlier this season, he recorded his 300th career save — an impressive milestone — and is 319-for-362 in his 10-year career. He also won a World Series ring with the 2007 Boston Red Sox, his original club. He saved three games in what has been his only Fall Classic appearance to date. Can’t really blame him for wanting to taste that experience again before he’s done.

21 Oct

looking ahead — and back

If you are a baseball fan, you’ve got to like a World Series that features the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals, two of the game’s truly storied franchises. (And the best teams, by record, in their respective leagues this season.) This will be the fourth time the Red Sox and Cardinals have met in the Fall Classic, and two of the previous three were indeed classics in which Mississippians played significant roles. In 1967, the year of The Impossible Dream in Boston, the Cardinals took down the Red Sox in seven games behind the brilliant pitching of Bob Gibson, who won three times. McComb native Dalton Jones, an infielder for the BoSox, went 7-for-18 in that series, and the late, great George Scott was 6-for-26 with a double and a triple (but no taters or even RBIs). Scott managed one of the three hits Gibson allowed in Game 7, a 7-2 Redbirds win at Fenway Park. Back in 1946, the Cardinals and Red Sox also played a seven-game grinder, with St. Louis winning the finale, 4-3 at Sportsman’s Park, thanks to one of baseball’s historic moments. Enos Slaughter scored the game-winning run in the eighth inning, racing around from first base on a hit by Harry “The Hat” Walker, a native of Pascagoula. Walker had a great series, going 7-for-17 with three runs and six RBIs. Dave “Boo” Ferriss, the Shaw native and legendary Delta State coach, made two starts for Boston, including Game 7. He was 1-0 with a 2.03 ERA in 13 1/3 innings. He left Game 7 after 4 1/3, trailing 3-1. Boston tied the score in the top of the eighth, but Slaughter’s famous mad dash put the Cards back on top. In 2004, when Boston finally ended its 86-year curse with a World Series sweep of St. Louis, there were no Mississippians on the roster of either club. Vicksburg’s Ellis Burks, the slugging outfielder, did start that season with the BoSox, and Meridian native Jamie Brown also made a handful of pitching appearances that year. P.S. On the subject of championships, former Nettleton High star Bill Hall earned a ring with the Long Island Ducks, who won the independent Atlantic League championship. The veteran Hall, who played briefly in the Los Angeles Angels’ system this year, hit .239 with 16 homers for the Ducks.