I went to the last game of the Syracuse Mets season today, then went out to Big Don's on Route 31 for some mini-golf, (he'll be own for a few more weeks). It was an absolutely perfect day, even with a couple of raindrops right after the baseball game. The temperature was perfect. The breeze was perfect. the sky was interesting. You wanted to bottle the day so you could open it up next January to remind yourself that there are days like this. The next best thing was to record some video with my phone camera, reassuring me that if I stick it out through the winter, there will be more days like this.
The SMets have had a weird season, being 60-35 at one point, the first time the franchise was 25 games over .500 since 1970, when they won the IL Pennant, the Governor's Cup and the Junior World Series. Then they went through a hideous 11-33 stretch, then closed out the season with a 6-3 stretch during which they out-scored their opponents 86-42. Such is the life of a Triple A team; you gain, lose, sometimes regain players and get new guys up from AA and what you can put on the field changes during the season. The team came up short of the rather limited playoff plan the IL uses and so the season is over. But as long as the Mets continue to stress the development and acquisition of young players, the baseball seasons in Syracuse will continue to be interesting.
Tonight Mike Vasil, who has had a rough year, (6.02 ERA), pitched a decent 4 innings, getting 12 guys out, putting 8 guys on base but only 2 of them scored and one was unearned. He left with a 4-2 lead, thanks to a towering 3 run homer by first baseman JT Schwartz that bounced off the roof of the party deck in right. The SMets had a chance to add some insurance runs in the 5th when Drew Gilbert and Brett Baty opened the inning with walks and got to 3rd and 2nd on a wild pitch. But Luke Ritter stuck out. Carlos Cortez flied out to short left and Yolmer Sanchez grounded out. That left it 4-2 going into the 9th.
The Charlotte Knights didn't want the season to end. Michael Chavis walked and Rafael Ortega singled and advanced to second when rightfielder Cortez bobbled the ball, (not far from where I was eating chocolate ice cream in my late-inning peregrinations). Chavis scored and Ortega went to 3rd on a ground out. A walk and steal by Wilmer Difo put the go-ahead run on second. Adam Hackenberg hit the ball to Baty at second an Bret came home with it. It was a good throw but catcher Hayden Senger reach out away from his body to make the tag, (I'm going by the radio description) and Ortega kicked the ball out of his glove to tie it while Difo went to third. Edgar Quero struck out and Tim Elko grounded out and we went to the bottom of the 9th.
The SMets went three up and three down and we went to the 10th. Elko became the free runner. Colson Montgomery struck out. Elko, a power hitter, not a base steal, got thrown out trying to steal second. Oscar Colas struck out. Drew Gilbert was our free runner and went to third on a Baty grounded out. Our top RBI man, Luke Ritter came to the plate. He bounced it back to the pitcher, not what he wanted. But the aggressive Gilbert was flying down the baseline and beat the tag to win the game and end the season. After the game, a line of kids a mile long poured on to the field to run the based while the sun appeared out from over a cloud, (the sun is never 'under' a cloud). I took a picture and went to Big Don's.
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'Baseball Anecdotes' had chapters on the sad end of Lou Gehrig, Hank Greenberg's insistence on not playing on Jewish holidays, even though he wasn't particularly religious himself, and some Dizzy Dean stories I'm sure you've heard before. But you may not have heard of Art Shires, a first baseman for the White Sox in the late 20's, who anticipating Marvelous Marv Throneberry, insisted on being referred to as "Art the Great". He was pretty good at baseball for a while, hitting .300 four times as a part-time player. He was really good at fisticuffs, twice decking his manager, Lena Blackburne. He then challenged Gene Tunney, the world heavyweight champion at the time for a shot at the title but got turned down. Shires challenged George Trafton of the Chicago Bears, noted as the toughest man in the NFL to a bout and lost. He did the same to Eddie Shore, who had a similar reputation in the NHL but Commissioner Landis intervened, saying that "any baseball player engaging in boxing matches could consider himself retired from baseball as the activities do not mix," thus putting a stop to Shires' fighting career.
He met Eddie Gottlieb, the owner of the professional basketball team then known as the Philadelphia SPHAs, (South Philadelphia Hebrew Association - now they are known as the Warriors), and told him that he was "a great basketball player". Gottlieb invited him to play for the SPHAs, (scouting back then wasn't what it later became). "But during practice, Shires , who had a bathtub full of beer waiting back at his hotel, missed every shot by a foot or more. Gottlieb was thus reluctant to use him in a game , but once the fans began chanting "We want Shires", Gottlieb relented, at the same time instructing the other players not to give Shires the ball. Whereupon the fans chanted "Give it to Shires" The SPHAs wouldn't but the opposition simply handed the ball to Shires, who, of course shot and missed. They handed it to him again and again until Gottlieb yanked him out of the game." But he gave him $250 for drawing a large crowd. Shires was probably pretty lucky Tunney turned him down.
He then went to Hollywood to become a movie star but instead was arrested for public drunkenness. He tried a comeback with the Re Sox but when you hit .238, people are less likely to put up with your antics. Per Wikipedia, he beat a man to death in 1948, was found guilty of aggravated assault and fined $25. I never saw anything like that on Law and Order.
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