Good morning!<\/p>\n
When the Dodgers took the lead in Milwaukee this week, casual fans could go to bed knowing they wouldn\u2019t miss a thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brewers batters struck out 18 times against Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and had five hits in 58 at-bats (.086).\u00a0 Desperate for something to cheer about, fans gave Joey Ortiz a standing ovation for working a one-out walk. \u201cPostseason rally when a man gets on,\u201d said John Smoltz.<\/p>\n
In the 15 inning game between Detroit and Seattle, the two teams combined to strike out 37 times and bat .163 (16-for-98). Was it an instant classic, or instant Sominex?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s reminiscent of the Stanley Cup playoffs where every score is 3-2 and fans have learned to record and fast forward until GOAL! flashes on the screen.<\/p>\n
Low scores and predictable outcomes aren\u2019t all that\u2019s wrong with the postseason. Turning the volume off to avoid another intrusive dugout interview, I looked up to see Joe Davis in the TV booth carving a turkey. Is that what it\u2019s come to, MLB meets the Food Channel?<\/p>\n
There was a time when television cameras were behind home plate, in center field and next to the dugouts. Now they\u2019re everywhere like weather forecasters in a hurricane.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cameramen with hand-helds scurry to get close-ups of home run trots; other cameras eavesdrop into the dugout like paparazzi to ogle at a batter who\u2019s just struck out with the bases loaded. When Terry Francona was managing in Cleveland and the camera would zoom in on him, Francona would scratch the side of his face with his middle finger.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should have tried the in-game interviews when Billy Martin was managing,\u201d wrote Skip Smith. \u201cThat would\u2019ve put an end to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith\u2019s a retired cameraman from St. Petersburg who for decades was on production crews that televised the Tampa Bay Rays and Tampa Bay Lightning games. \u201cWhy MLB allows so many cameras on the field and in the dugouts is beyond me. The home run trot and walking off the pitcher does nothing for me, dugouts should be off limits the entire game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Out of sight out of mind which is why I listen to the radio broadcasts \u2014 just like the old days.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong, I dread the final out of the World Series and all it portends, the falling leaves, shorter days and long trek through winter to spring, but this feels like a fait accompli. The Dodgers have the pitching, hitting and the confidence that comes with being the West Coast version of Casey Stengel\u2019s Yankees.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
The 2025-26 UMass men\u2019s basketball season begins two weeks from Monday when the Minutemen host Marshall.<\/p>\n
According to the 2026 Pomeroy College Basketball Rankings of the 365 D-1 teams, UMass is ranked No. 196 and Marshall is No. 197.<\/p>\n
The MAC opener isn\u2019t until Dec. 20 at 2 p.m. against Kent State at the Mullins Center. Using the Pomeroy rankings as a barometer, UMass will finish in sixth place in the 13-team conference behind Akron, Kent State, Miami-Ohio, Ohio and Toledo.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Akron was 28-7 last season, including 17-1 in the MAC but the Zips were ousted in the first round of the NCAA tournament by Arizona, 93-65.<\/p>\n
UMass was 12-20 last season and 7-11 in the A-10. The MAC is softer, but that doesn\u2019t mean Frank Martin won\u2019t be feeling the pressure. \u201cI would expect we win every game we play in the MAC these next five years,\u201d says Marty Maroon.<\/p>\n
****<\/p>\n
Crawling through the Desert: The UMass football team has gone 721 consecutive days without beating an FBS opponent. \u2026 Last week Kent State snapped its 1,050-day winless streak by beating UMass 42-6 in front of 11,523 fans at Dix Stadium. \u2026 This afternoon the Minutemen are 16 1\/2-point underdogs at home against Buffalo, and Kent State is a 26 1\/2-point \u2018dog at Toledo. \u2026 Derek Morris\u2019s 39-yard field goal pulled UMass to within 14-3 in the second quarter, but an offside call ruined a perfectly executed onside kick. \u201cLook at the difference between the special teams,\u201d said Kent State radio analyst Rob Polinsky. \u2026 The Minutemen were 0-for-3 on fourth down conversions. Somebody forgot to tell Joe Harasymiak that the Flashes are eighth in the FBS in fourth down defense. \u2026 UMass is 0-6. Six more L\u2019s and Charley Molnar will be off the hook. Molnar had back-to-back 1-11 seasons in 2012-13. \u2026 OK, let\u2019s end this on a positive note. UMass linebacker Timmy Hinspeter is fifth in the FBS in tackles with 65. Hooray.<\/p>\n
****<\/p>\n
At halftime of last week\u2019s UMass \u2013 Kent State game, MAC president Jon Steinbrecher told the Kent State radio crew that he envisioned Buffalo and UMass becoming natural rivals. Who knew?<\/p>\n
This week both schools announced the birth of the Flagship Cup Rivalry Series sponsored by Milton Cat. It turns out a rivalry is a rivalry\u00a0when the marketing department says it is, even when the two campuses are 380 miles apart.<\/p>\n
The hook, according to the press release, is that UMass and Buffalo are \u201cthe only two flagship public research campuses in the Mid American Conference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Move over Harvard and Yale, Amherst and Williams, here comes the Flagship Cup.<\/p>\n
****<\/p>\n
Tickets to see Boston College (1-5) host No. 14 Notre Dame (4-2) on Nov. 1 are priced as low as $217 including fees on Seat Geek, but tailgate permits are around $1,000. BC has lost nine straight games to the Fighting Irish, the last four by a combined score of 178-58.<\/p>\n
****<\/p>\n
SQUIBBERS:\u00a0 There\u2019s no doubt Kent State return man Da\u2019realyst Clark would have been on Garry Brown\u2019s list of all-time favorite sports names \u2026 Gavin McKenna has a goal and four assits in his first four games at Penn State. McKenna, who signed for a reported $750,000, had 41 goals and 88 assists in 56 games last season at Medicine Hat. \u2026 BSJ\u2019s Greg Bedard on Drake Maye: \u201cYou\u2019re going to start to hear some chatter about Drake Maye and MVP. The way he\u2019s playing I\u2019m not going to disregard that.\u201d \u2026 The 22nd annual 5K Hot Chocolate Run for Safe Passage is Dec. 7 at 8 a.m. at Hampton Avenue and Old South Street in Northampton. Go to\u00a0 hotchocolaterun.com<\/a> for more details. \u2026 The voice of the Tigers Dan Dickerson wasn\u2019t in the mood to do a postgame recap after the 15 inning loss to the Mariners and muttered, \u201cF\u2014 this game recap.\u201d Dickerson blamed a hot mic and apologized for the rough language. \u2026 Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez hopes the team doesn\u2019t have to return to Milwaukee. It\u2019s Halloween season and the the Pfister Hotel is supposedly haunted. \u201cTeoscar Hernandez doesn\u2019t believe in ghosts but his wife does, so they have switched hotels in downtown Milwaukee,\u201d reported USA Today\u2019s Bob Nightengale. \u2026 Chris Russo doesn\u2019t like NFL games played overseas. \u201cIf I start betting at ten o\u2019clock on a Sunday morning, God\u2019s never gonna let me win,\u201d Russo chuckled. \u2026 Detroit\u2019s two-thru-five hitters, Gleyber Torres, Riley Greene, Spencer Torkleson and Colt Keith went 0-for-23 in the 15 inning game. Someone please blow up analytics. \u2026 When Tarik Skubal leaves after six innings with the season on the line you know baseball is about money more than winning. Skubal\u2019s a free agent after next season. \u2026 \u201cI took my family to the Northwestern game on Saturday,\u201d said Ross Tucker. \u201cPenn State toward the end of the game tried to let Northwestern score and Northwestern wouldn\u2019t do it. They were being strategic. My mom thought they were just being nice.\u201d \u2026 Alex Bregman is destined to play with the Yankees who need his glove and his bat, or for the Mets who need him to bridge the personality gap between Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto \u2026 Kyle Schwarber in a Red Sox uniform? Sure, if you can handle his 205 strikeouts this season including the playoffs. \u2026 Bob Socci and sidekick Scott Zolak were broadcasting from a booth near the PA announcer last week at the Superdome. \u201cLoud PA announcer,\u201d said Socci. \u201cI wish he\u2019d shut up!\u201d yelled Zo. \u2026 The Cubs\u2019 quick exit from the playoffs was painful, but nothing compared to what fans endured in the middle of last century when they had 20 straight losing seasons. \u201cOne thing you learned as a Cubs fan,\u201d said Joe Garagiola, \u201cwas when you bought your ticket you could bank on seeing the bottom of the ninth.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhat to Read Next<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning! When the Dodgers took the lead in Milwaukee this week, casual fans could go to bed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[94626,363,129628,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-233092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-homecenterpiece2","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-northfield-ma","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}