October 22 has been a memorable day for me:
Flash back to October 22, 1972; I was 12 years old, the A’s were playing Game 7 of the World Series in Cincinnati. Big day; when Joe Rudi caught a fly ball in left field for the last out, the A’s had won their first of three consecutive World Series. 12-year old me was very happy.
Some stuff about that game:
— Game 7 of that World Series started at 1:00 on a Sunday afternoon; things have changed. All seven games in this year’s World Series will start at 8:00- none of the games are on a Sunday.
— Rollie Fingers got the last six outs for the save; back then, closers often got more than three outs to get a save. So when you hear people describe Mariano Rivera as “the best closer ever” remember that he almost always got three outs per game. Guys like Fingers and Bruce Sutter did more than that.
— Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter got eight outs and the win in Game 7, two days after he started Game 5; he was 7-2, 2.55 in 14 playoff games with the A’s. He threw a perfect game in May 1968.
So the A’s won the World Series, then the 4:00 NFL games came on TV; Rams wound up beating the Bengals 15-12 on a last-second field goal. All in all, October 22, 1972 was a very good day.
12-year old me was really, really happy.
Flash forward to October 22, 2019; on October 12, the retina in my right eye detached while I was in Las Vegas. I knew it was bad, but I had no idea what the problem was; I saw a few doctors when I got home, and on October 22, Dr Mallick fixed my retina.
Thanks for my cousins for driving me to the hospital that day.
I am forever grateful to Dr Mallick and Dr Lemanski (she did my cataract surgery 10 months later) for fixing my eye. Must be a cool job, helping people to see again.
Anyway, that is why October 22 stands out on the calendar for me.
— Famous birthdays, October 22nd:
Christopher Lloyd, 87
Wilbur Wood, 84
Jeff Goldblum, 73
Jamie Quirk, 71
Bob Odenkirk, 63
Carmen Ejogo, 52
Ichiro Suzuki, 52
Jeff McInnis, 51
Leonard Marshall, 44
Robinson Cano, 43
Corbin Burnes, 31
Geraldo Perdomo, 26
— Thunder 125, Rockets 124, 2 OTs
Gilgeous-Alexander had 5 points at halftime, wound up with 35.
Thunder shot 13-52 on the src, 33-52 inside the arc.
Houston had 21 turnovers, Thunder only 11.
Alperen Sengun scored 39 points for Houston
— Kennesaw State 45, Florida International 26
Owls led 24-14 at half, snapped a 13-game road losing streak.
Both teams ran ball for 200+ yards.
Kennesaw played two QB’s, averaged 16.7 yards/pass attempt
QB Jenkins threw for 296 yards and a TD for FIU
— Western Kentucky 28, Louisiana Tech 27 OT
WKU scored TD, then scored on a 2-point conversion for the OT win.
Hilltoppers led 20-7 at halftime.
Tech outgained WKU 449-340; they were 10-19 on third down.
WKU is 6-2 and is now bowl eligible.
— Los Angeles Angels hired Kurt Suzuki as their new manager; Suzuki hit .255 in his 16-year career as a catcher, for five different teams. He was with the Washington Nationals when they won the 2019 World Series.
Suzuki has no professional coaching experience; the Angels have the longest playoff drought in the major leagues- they last made the postseason in 2014. Suzuki is the Angels’ fifth manager in eight years.
— Dodgers are -210 to win the World Series; Blue Jays are +175.
— Toronto P Trey Yesavage started this season in Class A ball; he threw 98 IP for four different minor league teams this year, then pitched 14 innings for Toronto in the regular season and has now thrown 15 more innings in the playoffs. Impressive season for the 21-year old.
— Blue Jays OF Vladimir Guerrero Jr is hitting .442 in this year’s playoffs, with 12 RBI in 11 games.
