Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Oklahoma's Trail of Tears

The State of Oklahoma has produced some great athletes. Jim Thorpe. Johnny Bench. Heisman Trophy winners galore. And Yankee Legends Mickey Mantle, Allie Reynolds and Bobby Murcer.

They've also had a lot of trouble. The "Trail of Tears" of Native Americans in the 1830s. The Dust Bowl in the 1930s. Grinding rural poverty even in times of plenty for the rest of the country. The federal building bombing in 1995. And the State was called Tornado Alley long before yesterday's disaster. The State's history is one long trail of tears.

Jeremy Hefner may be having the worst season any baseball player has ever had, without being injured or killed himself. The Met pitcher is 0-5, his ERA is 5.00, the Mets have lost all 8 games he has started, and he's from Oklahoma. I had heard that he was from Moore, the town struck by that horrible tornado yesterday. Actually, he's from Perkins, 65 miles to the northeast. Maybe someone got the story wrong, and he's got family there.  Either way, he doesn't deserve any of this.

In spite of the thrill of Cashman's Crushers getting the job done again last night, the Yankees' 6-4, 10-inning win in the opener of a series in Baltimore against the Orioles doesn't seem so important.

The Yanks got home runs in the 1st from Robinson Cano (his 13th) to take a 1-0 lead, in the 7th from Cashman acquisition Lyle Overbay (his 7th) to tie it 3-3, and in the 9th from Cashman acquisition Travis Hafner (his 8th) to tie it 4-4 to send it to extra innings.

In the 10th, last year's Cashman acquisition, Ichiro Suzuki, led off with a double. Cashman acquisition Vernon Wells followed it up with another double to score Ichiro. Austin Romine bunted Wells over to 3rd, and Hafner singled Wells home to provide the final score.

WP: David Robertson (3-0, in relief of a somewhat shaky CC Sabathia). SV: Mariano Rivera (now 17-for-17). LP: Pedro Strop (0-1).

The series continues tonight, Phil Hughes against Miguel Gonzalez.

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