News
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October 17: The American Supplemental Security Income program is approved by Congress, providing monthly Social Security benefits for disabled and aged persons who had not worked long enough to receive standard benefits from the Social Security Administration. The measure itself is a compromise, rejecting a proposal by President Nixon for a "Family Assistance Program" that would have paid a minimum monthly amount to all households... what? Am I reading that right? A (tiny) UBI?
October 17: Park Chung Hee, the President of South Korea, declares martial law nationwide, dissolves the National Assembly, and suspends the Constitution. Emergency rule will be suspended on December 13 but martial law will continue in the country into the 1980s.
October 17: Lars Korvald forms a minority coalition and becomes the Prime Minister of Norway even though his party only holds 39 of 155 seats in the unicameral parliament. PM Brattelli's party had 74 seats but he resigned on September 26 after Norwegian voters rejected is plan for entry into the Common Market. I'd love to see how this ends... but we're almost to the point of the year where I stop giving daily news updates so I will probably no.
October 17: The Crown Prince of Serbia, George, dies. He was forced to renounce his rights to the throne in favori of his younger brother Alexander in 1921 and at this point in time Serbia is part of Yugoslavia, which is ruled by Tito. Still, he died I guess.
October 17: Eminem is born in St. Joseph, Missouri.
October 17: The Pirates face a must-win situation today in Detroit and their best pitcher for the past month and a half is on the mound to do it for them in the person of Jeremy Battaglia (2-0, 0.50 in the postseason). He's facing off against Jimmy Goddard, who himself had a complete game win against the Angels on the 7th but got blown up in Game 2 to the tune of 7 runs allowed in 5+ innings. You've got to be thinking that Goddard wants to even that score. It's still cold for baseball at 49 degrees but the fans, all 47,484 of them, are still out in force.
Top 1st: Hearl walks to lead off Game 5. Goddard has walked 6 batters in 14 postseason innings so far; he's not quite got his normal control. Villar lays down a first inning bunt to get Hearl to second. It works but at what cost? Jackson flies to left. Lawson lines to left to end the inning and one has to wonder, what if the manager let Henry Villar hit? 0-0.
Bottom 1st: Speaking of bunts, Alvin Romero tried to bunt his way aboard, missed the pitch for a strike, and hten after fouling off a couple of 0-2 pitches, struck out looking. Curran flies to left. Joey Ramone gets things started out right, at least for him, as he LAUNCHES it into the left field stands! Homerun! 1-0, Tigers, and that was only Jeremy Battaglia's 2nd run allowed all October! Villegas grounds out 6-3. 1-0, Tigers.
Top 2nd: Webster flies to center. Ganzalez drops one into center field in front of Alvin Romero for a base hit. Williams Jr. flies out to center. I'd say Alvin Romero is getting a lot of work this inning but he hasn't had to move much from his spot. Doug Connally looks like he's going to put one into center but SS Rob Curran dives and gets to it before it can land or get into centerfield. Score it a L6 and that's the end of this frame. 1-0, Tigers.
Bottom 2nd: Ayala flies to left. Bill WIlson was 1-10 going into the game and I was considering pulling him... but hey! He nails one down the right field line for a double! Danny Hohman strikes out with a great chance to pick up his 6th postseason RBI. Farinelli singles up the middle... Wilson's rounding third! He's going to attempt to score! The throw in from CF Justin Hearl is... in time to get Wilson at home! Inning over. 1-0, Tigers.
Top 3rd: Battaglia grounds out to short. Hearl flies to left. Villar gets to actually swing the bat this time and he grounds to short. Remember in Strat where you'd look at the dice totals and think "hey, if I had let this guy swing instead of bunting him he'd have done X"? Maybe this was the game saying that Villar just would have grounded into a double play. 1-0, Tigers.
Bottom 3rd: Goddard hits an easy grounder to short for 1 out. Alvin Romero singles to left. He's all the way up to .229 for the postseason. Rob Curran, who replaced him as the slumper at the top of the order, also knocks an opposite field single (to left); Romero chugs into 3rd and we've got a prime scoring opportunity with just one out. Joey Ramone tops a ball down the line at first base where it just kind of dies. Battaglis gets to it and throws to first but Ramone, who's got good speed, beats it out for a single! Romero flies in from 3rd and the Tigers have now gotten themselves a 2-0 lead! Battaglia hits Villegas. No way he wanted to hit the bases loaded; that just got away from him. The sacks are drunk for Jose Ayala, who was 5-17 with a grand salami in that situation in the regular season. He hits a ball hard but not hard enough - CF Justin Hearl chases it down in center for the out but it's hit deep enough for Rob Curran to tag up and score! It's a sac fly and boom, a 3-0 game! Bill Wilson singles, bringing in Ramone from second! 4-0! Where was this offense yesterday? Danny Hohman barely makes contact with a 1-strike changeup and hits it into the dirt in front of home plate. Doug Connally is on top of it to throw him out to retire the side. The Tigers have busted this one open though at 4-0.
Top 4th: Jackson grounds out 5-3. Lawson singles into left field. Webster strikes out on three pitches, looking. He's gonna get a talking-to in the dugout for that. That's also Goddard's first strikeout this evening. Ganzalez ends the inning on a 6-4 forceout. 4-0, Tigers.
Bottom 4th: Farinelli flies out to left. Battaglia Ks Goddard; that's his 3rd on the night and 20th of the postseason. He then misses on a 3-1 cut fastball and allows Alvin Romero to reach base. In fairness to Romero, he will take a pitch when it's given to him - he had 75 walks in the regular season and a .374 on-base percentage. He's at 4 and .308 against tougher postseason pitching. Up by 4, I guess, Alvin Romero doesn't get a jump - instead, Rob Curran hits a nubber in front of the pitcher. Battaglia is a decent enough fielder for a pitcher but he doesn't handle it in time; Curran's on with the infield single. Joey Ramone hits a fly out to right, the first time all day he hasn't gotten on base. 4-0, Tigers.
Top 5th: Goddard issues a leadoff walk to Hank Williams Jr. Levine's Law seems to come into action... and it does! Connolly hits a ground ball right back to the pitcher, who initiates a 1-6-3 double play. A leadoff walk will always come around to score unless it doesn't. This time it doens't. Battaglia pops out to 2nd to retire the side. 4-0, Tigers.
Bottom 5th: Villegas walks to lead it off. I hate to be sacrilegious after Battaglia looked so good for the Bucs in Game 2 but... does he just not have it today? Is it time to start thinking about pulling him? Ayala flies to center. Bill Wilson hits one OVER THE FENCE IN LEFT CENTER FOR A 2 RUN HOMERUN! THAR SHE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOES! Man. It feels like too little, too late, but I think it is time to pull Battaglia and see if we can keep this close and stage an unlikely comeback.
Paz Lemus will come in; he's only at 87% rested status but he pitches a lot of multi-inning games so he'll be fine. Hohman gets to a full count against him and lines one down the right field line for a double. Not a nice way to greet one of the top relief aces in the game! Farinelli Ks. Goddard also Ks to retire the side, but not before the Tigers add to their lead. 6-0.
Top 6th: Goddard will work against the 1-2-3 guys to start out the inning, which also means he's only faced 3 men above the legal minimum. Hearl was one of the guys who reached but this time around he puts some good wood on the ball only to have Danny Hohman chase it down in deep left-center for out #1. Villar grounds to 2nd. Brian Jackson grounds to short. 1-2-3 goes down 1-2-3. 6-0, Tigers.
Bottom 6th: Romero singles up the middle. He's been really determined the past couple games. Curran flies out to center. Ramone gets hit in the foot by Paz Lemus to put guys on first and second. Come on, Paz! There's no need to get chippy out there just because you're losing! Villegas walks and the bases are loaded with just one out. Jose Ayala's up; he's been pretty much quiet since Game 1 of the ALCS and at this point he's batting just .219 in the postseason. He makes an out this time, too, but like his last time up (the time before last?) he hits a fly to deep center that brings in a run. 7-0, Tigers! Wilson grounds out 3 unassisted. 7-0, Tigers.
Top 7th: Lawson flies to left. Jimmy Goddard is putting together a very efficient game, just 1 strikeout but he's got the entire defense playing for him. Webster gets hit by a pitch! The umpire looks at Goddard sternly and barks something at him. Was that retaliation? Ganzalez continues his torrid October with a base hit into right. Tyler Webster, smarting foot or no, legs it out to third base on the play. And Jimmy Goddard gets the good old pitcher's best friend on Hank Williams Jr., a 6-4-3 double play, to retire the side! 7-0 Tigers and the Pirates are down to their final 6 outs.
Bottom 7th: Danny Hohman hits a soft liner right at 2B Tyler Webster. Farinelli strikes out. Lemus has gotten 3 Ks today, 2 of them against this man. Jimmy Goddard's got the shutout stuff so he'll stay in. If anyone's about to come out, it's Lemus, who looks out of gas. Gas or no gas, he's facing the pitcher and he gets the strikeout looking. 7-0, Tigers.
Top 8th: Pinch-hitting for Connally is Miklos Nemeth. I have to say, priority #1 this offseason for the Pirates has to be: find a pinch-hitter. Well, find a 1st baseman maybe. Nemeth grounds out 4-3. Dr. Jack Holman's in for Paz Lemus, who held the Tigers to 1 run over 2.2 innings of work. He'd have preferred to have held them scoreless but the Pirates are down deep either way. Holman takes a wicked cut on a 2-2 fastball and misses for out #2. Justin Hearl hits a ball to center that doesn't have the life it looked like it had at first; Alvin Romero takes around 5 steps and squeezes it for out #3. 7-0, Tigers.
Bottom 8th: Miklos Nemeth takes over behind the plate and with two lefties due up, LHP Miguel Urbina comes on in relief. He gave up the losing run in the 3-2 loss on the 15th. Romero flies to left. Rob Curran will stay in for now but he flies to left, too. Joey Ramone grounds to 3rd base. 7-0, Tigers.
Top 9th: A little bit of defensive substitution: Rob Curran checks in at shortstop and Rob Curran moves down to third base to give the Tigers three plus-plus fielders in the infield... and Danny Villegas, a converted 2nd baseman, is no slouch himself. Henry Villar coaxes out a walk to lead it off. Jackson hits one into right center but Alvin Romero races over and takes it in for the first out. Justin Lawson hits it pretty well into center but here, too, Romero just has to run back a few steps to track it down. 2 outs and now the possible final batter of the season gets up there in the person of Tyler Webster. Webster's hitting just 6-31 (.194) for the postseason but he hit a solid .254 with 18 HRs and 57 RBIs in the regular season. The season will not end with him! He singles into right. Lawson holds up at 2nd with the score where it is and now it's up to Arturo Ganzalez to keep up his hot hitting (he's 15-33 in the playoffs). It will not happen! He grounds out to SS Matt Mullen, who throws to first, and THE TIGERS HAVE WON THE WORLD SERIES! THE TIGERS HAVE WON THE WORLD SERIES!
What a way to end the year! For Detroit, at least. Joey Ramone went 11-23 (.478) with 2 HRs and 5 RBIs to win the World Series MVP honors. This was the first, like, actual trophy the 23 year old punk rocker has received, although a ROY is a possibility (actually... Tony Danza of the Royals won the batting title so probably not). Well, other than the All-Star trip he had. That's not a trophy, is it? Pundits will forever second-guess the move to keep Cheeves in the game in the 11th of Game 4 but really, when you lose in 5, you need more than just one bad break to go against you.
