Cleaning out the Inbox: Baseball Passings

       I continue catching up at TRS with another tribute post.

Goodbye to Carl Erskine at the age of 97.

Erskine played for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1948-59, winning two World Series titles.

Erskine won twenty games for Brooklyn in 1953 and struck our fourteen Yankees in game three of that season's World Series to set the record (since broken by Sandy Koufax) for strikeouts in a World Series game.

Erskine threw no-hitters in 1952 and 1956, which places him with Sandy Koufax as the only Dodger pitchers to throw multiple no-hitters.

Erskine was the sole remaining Dodger from the famed "Boys of Summer" Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s at the time of his passing.

Goodbye to Whitey Herzog at the age of  92.

A journeyman outfielder for eight seasons, it was as a manager that Whitey Herzog made his reputation, winning three division titles with the Royals from 1976-78 and after accepting the manager and general manager roles for the Cardinals in 1980, revamped the entire organization into a perennial contender through the 1980s.

Voted into the Hall of Fame, Herzog won the 1982 World Series and arguably was robbed of the 1985 title by the brutal call in game six by Don Denkinger that decided the game and cost the Cardinals a chance to clinch the series.

Herzog employed a style known as "Whitey Ball" with the Royals and Cardinals, using fast players with the ability to put the ball in play in vast stadiums with hard artificial turf, along with a willingness to platoon and use role players to their potential that allowed those teams to take advantage of their home park.

Goodbye to Ken Holtzman at the age of 78.

The lefthander pitched for four teams in his career, all contenders, winning three World Series with the Oakland Athletics.

Holtzman won seventeen games or more six times with a high of 21 for Oakland in 1973, and threw two no-hitters, both with the Cubs in 1969 and 1971.

Holtzman is the winningest Jewish pitcher in major league history as his 174 wins is nine more than Sandy Koufax.

 Goodbye to Fritz Peterson at the age of 82.

Peterson was a twenty-game winner for a mediocre Yankees team in 1970 but is more remembered for his off-the-field affairs, most notably his wife-swapping with teammate Mike Kekich in 1973, along with his elaborate practical jokes which were written about in books by Jim Bouton (Ball Four) and Sparky Lyle (The Bronx Zoo).

Peterson led the American League in walks per nine innings from 1968-72, which had only been accomplished previously by Cy Young, and won fourteen games or more on five occasions, four with New York and once with Cleveland. 

Goodbye to Jerry Grote at the age of 81.

The long-time catcher for the Miracle Mets and their terrific pitching staff, Grote was one of the best-throwing catchers in the game and one of the top defenders behind the plate.

Grote played in four World Series, two each with the Mets and Dodgers, and made the All-Star team twice in his sixteen-season career.

Goodbye to Larry Brown at the age of 84.

Brown played for four teams but spent most of his career with the Cleveland Indians as a light-hitting infielder for nine of his twelve seasons.

Browns is remembered for his frightening 1966 collision with Leon Wagner in Yankee Stadium with both chasing a fly ball Brown suffered a fractured skull, broken nose, and both cheekbones.

Cleaning out the Inbox: Football Passings

      

 I've been quite tardy in cleaning out the inbox of late and there are many tributes to write, especially from the world of football, so this post will be dedicated to the recent passings from that sport.

Goodbye to Roman Gabriel at the age of 83.

Gabriel was the star quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams under George Allen in the sixties and won the league MVP in 1969 after the Rams selected him as the second overall pick in the 1962 draft from N.C. State.

Gabriel led the league in passing touchdowns in 1969 and was named first-team All-Pro for the only time in his career for the Rams.

Gabriel was traded to the Eagles in 1973, where he would win Comeback Player of the Year after throwing twenty-three touchdowns in his final top season. Gabriel would finish his career in 1977 as the Eagles' backup.

Goodbye to Jimmy Johnson at the age of 86.

The brother of 1960 Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete Rafer Johnson, the Hall of Fame cornerback spent his sixteen-year career with the San Francisco 49ers after the Niners took him in the first round in the 1961 draft and was either a first or second-team All-Pro eight times during his career.

Johnson's number 37 is retired by the team and finished with forty-seven interceptions as arguably the best cover corner of his era.

Goodbye to Steve Sloan at the age of 79.

Sloan led Alabama to the 1964 and 65 National titles as their quarterback and spent two seasons with the expansion Atlanta Falcons before entering coaching.

Sloan took over the constantly-inept Vanderbilt Commodores in 1973 in his first head coaching position, and in his second year led Vandy to a 7-3-1 record and a rare bowl bid in the Peach Bowl (this is the famous only to me game that made me a Texas Tech fan), where they tied 6-6 with Texas Tech in maybe the most boring bowl game ever.

Sloan then took over at Texas Tech for the 1975 season, where he finished 23-12 in three seasons with a top-five ranking during the 1976 season, with two bowl bids, and looked like a rising star in the coaching business at only thirty-three years of age.

Sloan would never coach a winning team again as he left Tech for five years at Ole Miss and four seasons at Duke, all losing records before moving into athletic administration for several schools including his alma mater, Alabama.

Goodbye to Joe Collier at the age of 91.

The defensive wizard of the Denver Broncos Orange Crush defense from 1972-88, Collier could have been a hot property as a potential head coach after his Denver work.

Collier had been a head coach before for three seasons with the AFL's Buffalo Bills and coached the Bills to the AFL title game in his first season in 1966, losing to Kansas City.

The Bills slumped to 4-10 in 1967 but Collier's decision to scrimmage immediately following a bad preseason game in 1968 backfired when starting quarterback Jack Kemp broke his leg during the scrimmage.

After losses in their first two games, Buffalo fired Collier and he would never receive another chance as a head coach.

Goodbye to Bob Avellini at the age of 70,

Avellini led Maryland to bowl games in 1973 and 74 to break an eighteen-year bowl drought and was the Terrapins leader for their 1974 ACC championship team.

Avellini was drafted in the sixth round by the Chicago Bears in 1975 and led the Bears to the playoffs as their starter in 1977.

Avellini threw over twice as many interceptions as touchdowns in his career (69 to 33) and was replaced in 1978 as the starter by Mike Phipps although he would remain as the Bears backup through 1984.

Goodbye to Eric Sievers at the age of 66.

Known for his blocking as a tight end at Maryland, Sievers caught over two hundred passes over a ten-year career spent mostly with the then-San Diego Chargers as one of the many tight ends that Air Coryell used to spell Kellen Winslow when Winslow was moved to different positions on the field to take advantage of matchups.

Sievers had his best season in his final full season, catching fifty-four passes for the Patriots in 1989 to lead AFC tight ends before a career-ending knee injury in 1990.

Devils hire Sheldon Keefe

      While I was on hiatus, the New Jersey Devils hired their new coach, who will hopefully help the team rebound from a disappointing season.

Sheldon Keefe wasn't without a job for very long after the Toronto Maple Leafs let him go after five seasons in blue and like I wrote about J.B. Bickerstaff with the Cavaliers, some times a coach can do a good job but the time has come for both parties to separate.

Keefe led the Maple Leafs to the postseason in all five of his seasons but Toronto escaped the first round only once in those five seasons and in that season, they lost in the second round, so it made sense that Leafs fans were ready to wave goodbye to Keefe.

When Toronto lost again in the first round of this year's playoffs (in seven games to the Boston Bruins). Keefe's fate was set but again, I'm not seeing a lot of blame for Keefe for that defeat.

Teams do need new voices some times when they hit a level they are unable to scale and I think that's the case with Sheldon Keefe.

All About The Jersey writes about Keefe's style of play and coaching and the Leafs tended to be a mixture of rush and possession rather than the Devils run and gun system under Lindy Ruff.

The Devils do have the defensive corps to be able to play a possession based system, so the transition shouldn't be one that is difficult to master.

The last time the Devils hired a head coach who had experience with the Toronto Maple Leafs, they won a Stanley Cup behind Pat Burns.

If the Devils have hired a coach as good as Pat Burns, Sheldon Keefe's hire will be a successful one.

Boxing Challenge: Goodbye to Broner

      The three fights in the boxing challenge over the weekend were not only far from exciting, they weren't very competitive with all three fights lasting the scheduled distance.

Friday on a PPV from Don King ( complete with a dedication to the tenth anniversary of the death of former WBC President Jose Sulaiman) what's left of Adrien Broner's career looks to finally washed away as Blair Cobbs knocked Broner down in round two and dominated him on the way to an easy unanimous decision triumph.

Cobbs isn't noted as a puncher but his right hand in round two sent Broner ass over tea kettles (Knocking a tooth out from Broner) and a harder hitter might have ended the fight then and there.

After that, every round was similar with Cobbs landing whenever he threw and Broner unable to fire back with any offense.

I scored the fight 99-91 for Cobbs, which could have been generous as the ninth round that I scored for Broner was a close round, which was closer to the truth than the official scorecards which gave Cobbs the win by scores of 97-92 and two awful scores of 96-93.

Hopefully, this is the last fight for Broner, who was slow and uninspired, after being dominated by Cobbs, who is more of a top twenty welterweight than a contender, Broner will be a sideshow at best in his future fights.

About the only excitement of the weekend came in Verona, New York, when Gerardo Zapata knocked down and badly hurt WBO minimumweight champion Oscar Collazo in the second round of their championship battle.

Other than the final minute of that round, it was all Collazo, winning every other round on my card (118-109) and most others in retaining his title by unanimous decision by official scores of 119-109 times two and 117-111.

Saturday in New York City, highly touted junior middleweight Xander Zayas earned his biggest win to date with a unanimous decision over a shopworn Patrick Teixeira.

Teixeira was backed up for the entire fight, suffered a cut in round nine, and didn't win a round as Zayas dominated but never seriously threatened to stop the former WBO champion.

Zayas won 100-90 on two cards (Including mine) and 99-91 on the other, which is very hard for me to find a possible round to give Teixeira but while Zayas looked good, he didn't look dynamic and if the twenty-one-year-old is to be the star that Top Rank hopes for, he'll have to do better against overmatched opponents in the future.

Boxing Challenge

Ramon Malpica: 80 Pts (5)

TRS: 68 Pts (5)
Vince Samano:43 Pts (2)

Cavaliers fire J.B.Bickerstaff

        During my hiatus, I mentioned that two of the teams that I follow made decisions on their head coaching positions.

In this post, I'll write about the Cleveland Cavaliers decision to remove J.B. Bickerstaff as head coach following their elimination in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.

Bickerstaff spent parts of five seasons as the Cavaliers head coach, took Cleveland to two playoffs, and this year led the Cavaliers to their first playoff series win without LeBron James in over two decades, so on the surface one could think that Bickerstaff received a raw deal.

One could look at the opposite and say that it took him that long to win a series, Cleveland was taken to seven games by a team that it was favored to defeat in six or less, and perhaps the worst sin- he had begun to lose his club.

Some players made mild digs at Bickerstaff after playoff losses for lack of adjustments and personnel decisions and for a team that is involved with a looming decision by Donovan Mitchell that could affect the franchise's immediate and long-term future, keeping Bickerstaff could have been a key factor in Mitchell deciding to accept or reject his extension offer.

Keeping Donovan Mitchell happy enough to sign his extension is paramount at this point over just about anything in the organization and if he's disenchanted with J.B. Bickerstaff, then a change is needed.

I'm not usually in favor of allowing the star player to rule the franchise but allowing Mitchell to leave (even if by trade, Cleveland wouldn't get anything nearly as enticing as what they sent to Utah to acquire him)  when the Cavaliers haven't even given the Jazz any of the three first-rounders that they owe for Mitchell yet would be foolish.

The Cavaliers improved under Bickerstaff but I think they plateaued and Darius Garland and Evan Mobley have reached a point where if they have not regressed, they certainly have yet to progress.

Garland's team is rumored to have told the Cavaliers that should Donovan Mitchell sign an extension Garland would ask to be traded.

Evan Mobley ranks only behind Mitchell as a core player he played very well in the series defeat to the Boston Celtics, Mobley's game has yet to develop offensively as the Cavaliers have hoped and some of that has to fall on J.B. Bickerstaff.

J.B. Bickerstaff did a fine job in his time in Cleveland but coaches of his level are fairly easy to find and have a certain shelf life.

Bickerstaff reached his time with Cleveland and this is a move that makes sense to make now rather than wait for a slow start to next season to replace him.

Good work from a good coach whose time had come.

Boxing Challenge

     The boxing weekend has a few events but only a few bouts for the return of the challenge.

Friday night will have the most interesting, if not significant, fight of the weekend as Don King returns with a pay-per-view from Hollywood Florida as former multiple-division champion and vastly troubled Adrien Broner attempts yet another ring return- this time against welterweight Blair Cobbs.

Broner hasn't fought in almost two years (two days shy of that mark) since trudging through a unanimous decision win over unknown Bill Hutchinson.

The flashy Cobbs scored his biggest win in his last fight with a unanimous decision over former WBO junior welterweight champion Maurice Hooker and has only one defeat, a ninth-round KO loss to welterweight contender Alexis Rocha.

Broner isn't nearly the fighter he was once and Cobbs should be able to outbox him for a while but can he win on the cards against the bigger draw as Cobbs goes backwards?

Also on Friday from Golden Boy/DAZN, explosive Oscar Collazo defends his WBO minimumweight title against Gerardo Zapata in Verona, New York.

Collazo has seven knockouts in his nine wins and is one of the more exciting fighters you'll see in the smaller divisions.

Zapata has lost only once but fights in the United States for the first time.

Saturday, ESPN+/Top Rank is at the Madison Square Garden Theatre in New York City as unbeaten junior middleweight prospect Xander Zayas takes the next step to contention as he meets former WBO champion Patrick Teixeira in a ten-round main event.

Zayas stopped Jorge Fortas in five rounds last December and fighting a former champion is a logical next step for the twenty-one-year-old.

Teixeira upset current WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames in 2019 to win the vacant WBO title and lost three straight following the win, losing the title to Brian Castano, losing by DQ to Paul Valenzuela, and losing to current WBA boss Magomed Kurbanov by decision.

Teixeira has won three straight since the losing streak and will be looking to score an upset win that could lead to a potential title chance.

Boxing Challenge

Welterweights. 10 Rds

Adrien Broner vs Blair Cobbs

Ramon Malpica: Cobbs Majority Decision

TRS and Vince Samano: Cobbs Unanimous Decision

WBO Minimumweight Title. 12 Rds

Oscar Collazo vs Gerardo Zapata

R.L: Collazo Unanimous Decision

TRS: Collazo KO 6
V.S: Zapata Unanimous Decision

Junior Middleweights. 10 Rds

Xander Zayas vs Patrick Teixeira

R.L and TRS: Zayas Unanimous Decision

V.S: Teixeira Unanimous Decision

Ten Days Later

      I had the best of intentions.

I watched the pictured match to the right as Jack Catterall avenged his controversial 2022 defeat to Josh Taylor with a unanimous decision win (116-112 Catterall on my card) in a better fight than their first match but one that might be remembered more for Bob Arum's post-fight rant about the decision (I like Arum but he was way off on this one) than what happened in the ring. 

I saved the photo from the fight, placed it in the template, and planned on starting the review.

That was ten days ago and a thousand miles from where I sit now.

The window on my PC hasn't been closed since, yet not one word had been typed, only a photo of Jack Catterall and Josh Taylor.

Nothing on the excellent card from Saudi Arabia the following weekend.

Nothing about the Cavaliers firing J.B. Bickerstaff or anything written on the Devils' hiring Sheldon Keefe as their new head coach.

No ranting about the Devils signing a useless player to a ridiculous contract extension or even Newcastle United missing out on European play next season due to powerful league champion Manchester City's mind-boggling loss to Manchester United.

Only the photo of Jack Catterall following through with a left hand against Josh Taylor.

Was I busy?

Sure, I had many things to see and do in Omaha (more on that soon), returning from midway across the country, and doing the things we all need to do at home after a long trip but I surely had a few minutes over that time to write something, anything at all.

And the answer was- I just didn't feel like it.

I didn't want to be in Omaha and I didn't want to be home.

I didn't want to do anything or stay at home, it wasn't that I was overly down in the dumps either.

Other than a pounding headache that wouldn't go away and morning back spasms (from sleeping on a different surface) there wasn't anything wrong.

How do you figure out what's wrong when there isn't really anything wrong?

The answer was easy, don't force writing and wait until you want to write.

So, that leaves me here and feeling like I'm behind in things.

I'll have more as I catch up on topics other than sports soon.