Monday, August 31, 2020

Did Yanks Turn Season Around vs. Mets?

UPDATE and Spoiler Alert: No, they didn't.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced postponements in Major League Baseball to the point where the Yankees had to play 5 games against the Mets in 2 days -- or, as it turned out, 39 innings in a span of 48 hours, with the doubleheader games limited to 7 innings.

The Friday games turned into utter disasters for the Pinstripes. Jordan Montgomery pitched 5 strong innings in the opener, and was given a 4-0 lead after just 2 innings, including a home run by Clint Frazier.

But Montgomery got shaky in the 6th, and then Chad Green finished blowing the lead. The Mets scored 5 runs, and won it, 6-4. WP: Walter Lockett (1-0, and, no, I'd never heard of him, either). SV: Edwin Diaz (2, and you know you've had a bad game when you let Edwin Diaz nail down a save). LP: Green (2-2).

*

The nightcap was even worse. Because this was the rescheduling of a game that was meant to be played at Citi Field, the Yankees were officially the visiting team: Still wearing their home Pinstripes, but batting in the top halves of the innings.

Jonathan Loaisiga was, in effect, an "opener," and allowed just 1 run over 3 innings. But, because Brian Cashman is the operational manager of the Yankees, and Aaron Boone is just his press secretary, taking the hard questions so that the coward Cashman doesn't have to, Boone had to pull Loaisiga.

At first, this worked, as Adam Ottavino pitched a scoreless 4th. So, leave him in, right? Wrong: Cashman told Boone to pull him, and bring in Nick Nelson, to protect a 3-1 lead. He allowed a run. Then Cashman told Boone to bring in another relief pitcher, in this case the known unreliable Luis Cessa. He was okay in the 6th.

But for the 7th and last inning, Cashman told Boone to bring in another relief pitcher. Seriously: How many pitchers does it take to pitch 7 innings? It should only take one.

This time, which pitcher was being brought in was understandable: Aroldis Chapman, the closer. Except...

Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. Chapman walked the leadoff man, Jeff McNeil. Then he gave up a home run to Amed Rosario. Game over. Mets 4, Yankees 3. WP: Jared Hughes (1-1). No save. LP: Chapman (0-1).

A walkoff home run for the Mets, over the Yankees, at Yankee Stadium. That had never happened before, in either Yankee Stadium.

The preceding Monday, the Yankees were 16-6, and led the American League Eastern Division by 2 1/2 games over the Tampa Bay Rays. Now, they were 16-13, and 4 games behind the Rays.

Seven straight losses. Including 2, at home, in ghastly fashion, to the Mets.

The season was looking over. It looked like, for all their complaints about their own general manager, Brodie Van Wagenen was the best GM in New York baseball.

And the thought of firing Brian Cashman has still never crossed Hal Steinbrenner's mind. Maybe he was adopted.

*

The Saturday game would be the only game intended as 9 innings. And it looked like the Yankees would lose their 8th straight game. Every team in Major League Baseball has had at least one losing streak of at least 8 games since 2007 -- except the Yankees, who hadn't had one since 1995.

But DJ LeMahieu and Gio Urshela were back, off the Injured List. This would turn out to be huge. Huger still: J.A. Happ, the Yankees' worst starter so far this season, pitched beautifully, going into the 8th inning (but only 90 pitches, so maybe Cashman didn't feel like he was having a stroke), allowing no runs on 3 hits and no walks, striking out 5.

And then Boone, probably on Cashman's orders, took Happ out after getting the 1st out in the 8th. Worse, he brought in Ottavino. As Papa Bear would say in the Berenstain Bears stories, "That is what you should not do. Now. let that be a lesson to you." The score was only 1-0, thanks to an early Luke Voit home run. Ottavino gave up a homer to Wilson Ramos. Tie ballgame.

It was still 1-1 in the bottom of the 9th. Who comes in to pitch for the Mets? Ex-Yankee Dellin Betances. Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. He walked Clint Frazier. He struck Brett Gardner out, then allowed a single to Jordy Mercer, a longtime journeyman for the Pittsburgh Pirates that the Yankees had recently signed. Frazier got to 3rd.

And, with backup catcher Erik Kratz at the plate, Betances threw a wild pitch. Frazier came home. Ballgame over, Yankees... You know the rest.

Yankees 2, Mets 1. WP: Chapman (1-1). No save. LP: Betances (0-1).

What a Mets way to win the game. So much so that John Sterling did not turn to Suzyn Waldman and say, "You know, Suzyn, you just can't predict baseball." The Mets will never be a complete surprise with the way they lose games. They will always be a team with its roots in the 40-120 inaugural season of 1962, when former Yankee manager Casey Stengel said, "Come and see my amazing Mets! I been in this game 100 years, but they've shown me ways to lose I never knew existed before."

*

Did that game turn the season around for the Yankees? Mike King started yesterday's opener, and he was a little shaky. Brooks Kriskie came in to relieve, and he was a lot shaky. Between them, Ben Heller and Green pitched 3 scoreless innings.

It didn't seem to matter. Rick Porcello, given up for dead by most baseball fans, allowed only 2 runs over 5 innings, and it looked like the Yankees didn't deserve to win. They went into the bottom of the 7th and last inning trailing 7-2, and it looked hopeless.

But among the things that can cause as much damage as a leadoff walk is a leadoff error, and Andres Giminez mishandled Mike Ford's leadoff grounder to 3rd. Hughes got the next 2 outs, but then, well, here comes that cliche about walks again. He walked Tyler Wade. Then he loaded the bases by hitting Thairo Estrada with a pitch. Voit singled home 2 runs.

Met manager Luis Rojas brought in his closer, Diaz. Estrada scored on a wild pitch. And then Aaron Hicks hit a screamer that just got over the right field fence. Tie ballgame.

It went to the 8th, which, under the current rules, takes the form of the 10th, and it starts with a runner on 2nd base. I don't like this rule, and it should go before next season. This time, though, it helped the Yankees. The runner on 2nd was Mike Tauchman. With 1 out in the 8th, Ford worked Diaz for a walk. Diaz got Gardner to fly out to center, but Urshela singled Tauchman home.

Yankees 8, Mets 7. WP: Green (3-2). No save. LP: Diaz (1-1).

As John Lennon would have said if he were a baseball Met fan, "Nobody told me there'd be Diaz like these. Strange Diaz, indeed. Most peculiar, Mama!"

*

The nightcap, also with the Yankees serving as the visiting team, featured the major league debut of 21-year-old Dominican righthander Deivi García, one of Cashman's precious "prospects" he's been building around since the infamous Trade Deadline Surrender of '16.

He didn't allow a baserunner through the 1st 3 innings, and the Yankees gave him a boost through a home run by Tyler Wade leading off the 3rd. But an error by Voit in the 6th led to the Mets tying the game, and denying García the victory. Jonathan Holder pitched a scoreless 7th.

The game went to the 8th inning, with Gardner as the man starting on 2nd. Drew Smith was on the mound for the Mets, and, well, what do I say about leadoff walks? He walked Frazier. He got Urshela to fly to left, but it was enough to advance the runners. He intentionally walked Tauchman to load the bases and set up an out at any base.

Boone sent Gary Sanchez to pinch-hit for Kratz, and Yankee Fans everywhere lost their minds, because Sanchez has been hitting so poorly. Sanchez crushed a grand slam deep into the left-center Bleachers. Michael Kay said, "Boy, did he need that!"

Holder got a strikeout to start the bottom of the 8th, but walked a batter. Uh-oh... He got a forceout, but then allowed an RBI single, and another single, and Boone had to take him out. And he put in Cessa. There was no reason to do that: Chapman hadn't pitched all day. But Cessa struck Ramos out to end it.

Yankees 5, Mets 2. WP: Holder (1-0). SV: Cessa (1). LP: Smith (0-1).

*

So the Yankees lost the 1st 2 games of this series with the Mets, and won the last 3. They could have lost all 5, but then, they also could have won all 5.

Now, the Rays come in, and the Yankees trail them by 3 1/2 games, but just 2 in the loss column. There are 28 games to play.

If we can just get through today's trading deadline without Cashman trading any established major league players for a bunch of prospects...

Friday, August 28, 2020

Yankees Lack the Mental Strength; Lute Olson, 1934-2020

A week ago, the Yankees and their fans were on an emotional high after sweeping the Boston Red Sox 4 straight.

Then they dropped 3 straight at home to the Tampa Bay Rays, making it 6 losses in our last 7 games against them. Then we had to postpone the interleague Citi Series/Subway Derby with the Mets, due to COVID-19 restrictions. Then we lost 2 games against the Atlanta Braves, including Gerrit Cole's 20-game winning streak coming to an end, scoring just 2 runs in the process.

Now, we have to face the Mets 5 times in the next 3 days, without sending either Cole or Masahiro Tanaka out there. Or any other good starting pitcher, for that matter, because of our injuries and suspensions.

We were in 1st place in the American League Eastern Division. Now, we're 2 1/2 games behind the Rays, although we're dead even with them in the all-important loss column.

There are 28 games left in this most irregular of regular seasons, assuming we play at all, between the restrictions and the boycotts due to racist white cops shooting unarmed black suspects.

The Yankees aren't physically ready to play these games, given all their injuries. I don't know if they're mentally ready to play these games, given that, thanks to the acquisitions and other maneuvers of Brian Cashman, Yankees don't seem to have what former Arsenal manager manager Arsène Wenger called "the mental strength."

Plus, for the last 4 days, we've had to listen to Donald Trump and his lackeys tell lie after bigoted lie on national television. That's enough to sap anybody's mental strength.

Anybody really ready for baseball at this point?

*

Lute Olson died yesterday, from complications of a series of strokes, at the age of 85. Born on September 22, 1934 in Mayville, North Dakota as Robert Luther Olson, he was only the 2nd-greatest basketball coach to come from North Dakota, behind Phil Jackson. But he was the best one at the college level.

A graduate of Augsburg College, an NCAA Division III school in Minneapolis, the closest big city to the Dakotas, he wasn't drafted by an NBA team. So he went right into coaching, at high schools, from 1956 to 1969.

In 1969, he became the head coach at Long Beach City College outside Los Angeles. In 1973, he was hired by nearby California State University, Long Beach (usually listed as "Long Beach State" for sports purposes). After just 1 season there, winning the 1974 Pacific Coast Athletic Association title, he was hired by the University of Iowa. He took the Hawkeyes to the 1979 Big Ten Conference regular-season title, and to the NCAA Final Four in 1980. He remains the best basketball coach the school has ever had.

Which is saying something about his abilities, because that's not the school he's best remembered for. In 1983, he was hired by the University of Arizona. He led them to the Pacific-10 (now Pacific-12) Conference regular-season title in 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003 and 2005. He won the Pac-10 Tournament in 1988, 1989, 1990 and 2002 -- meaning he won both, what English soccer fans would call "The Double," in 1988, 1989 and 1990, 3 straight seasons.

He got the school to its 1st Final Four in 1988, marking the 1st time any school from the State of Arizona had made it. He did it again in 1994, and again in 1997, winning the National Championship. His Wildcats defeated the Kentucky Wildcats in the Final, stopping them from winning 3 straight National Championships. He got Arizona to another Final Four in 2001. He also coached the U.S. national team, still all-amateur back then, to the 1986 FIBA World Championship.

He retired due to health issues after the 2008 season, with a career record of 781-280. Overall, he won 13 Conference Championships, 4 Conference Tournaments, and 8 league and 2 national Coach of the Year awards. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2001, his wife Bobbi, formerly Roberta Russell, died of cancer, and the playing surface at Arizona's arena, the McKale Center, is named the Lute and Bobbi Olson Court. A statue of Lute stands outside the arena.

Lute and Bobbi had 5 children. After she died, Lute married twice more. His daughter Jody Brase is a high school principal. Her son Matt Brase played for his grandfather at Arizona, then became an assistant coach at the school, and is now an assistant with the Houston Rockets. Jody's daughter Julie Hairgrove played for the Arizona women's team, and is now an assistant with the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury.

*

Days until Rutgers University plays football again: Unknown. They were supposed to kick off the 2020 season on September 5. Then the Big Ten Conference canceled all nonconference games, pushing the season opener ahead to September 26. Then they canceled all Fall sports, with the hope of playing the 2020 football season in the Spring. Who knows.

Days until the next Rutgers-Penn State football game: Unknown. It was supposed to be the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, November 28.

Days until East Brunswick High School plays football again: Unknown. They were supposed to kick off the 2020 season on September 3. Then it got pushed back to October 2. Now, nobody knows.

Days until the next East Brunswick-Old Bridge football game: See the previous answer. The Big Green's season opener was supposed to be against the Purple Bastards.

Days until the next U.S. national soccer team game: Unknown. Currently, neither the men's nor the women's team has any matches scheduled.

Days until Arsenal play again: 1, tomorrow, at 11:30 AM New York time, in the Community Shield, English soccer's annual season-opening exhibition game at the national stadium, the new Wembley Stadium in West London, between the winners of the previous season's FA Cup, in this case Arsenal; and the winners of the previous season's Premier League title, in this case Liverpool.

Days until the New York Red Bulls play again: 1, tomorrow night at 8:00, against the New England Revolution, at the MLS "bubble" outside Orlando.

Days until the Red Bulls play another "derby" game: See the previous answer.

Days until the next Yankees-Red Sox series begins: 3, this Monday night, at Fenway Park.

Days until the 1st Presidential Debate: 32, on Tuesday night, September 29, in Cleveland. Joe Biden and Donald Trump will also debate on Thursday night, October 15, in Miami; and on Thursday night, October 22, in Nashville. If, that is, the cowardly Trump shows up.

Days until the 2020 Presidential election: 67, on Tuesday, November 3. Under 10 weeks. As the old saying goes, and it really is true this time, "This time, vote like your life depended on it."

Days until the New Jersey Devils play again: Unknown, as the NHL hasn't yet made out its 2020-21 season schedule. That's understandable, given all the uncertainty with trying to wrap up the 2019-20 season. Last I heard, the League was talking about starting next season on or around December 1. If that is the date, then it's 95 days, or a little over 3 months.

Days until the Devils play another local rival: Unknown, although it's unlikely that their 1st game of the season, or even their 1st home game, will be against a traditional rival.

Days until the next North London Derby: 99, on Saturday, December 5, at 10:00 AM New York time, at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in North London. This game will likely be moved, either to another time that day, or to the next day, or maybe to the Monday night, for TV and ratings purposes.

Days until a new Congress convenes, hopefully fully Democratic: 129, on Monday, January 4, 2021. A little over 4 months. Ordinarily, it would be January 3, but that's a Sunday next year.

Days until the next Presidential Inauguration: 145, on Wednesday, January 20, 2021. Under 5 months. Liberation Day.

Days until the COVID-delayed Euro 2020 opens in Paris: 287, on June 11, 2021. Under 10 months.

Days until the COVID-delayed 2020 Olympics open in Tokyo, Japan: 310, on July 4, 2021. A little over 10 months.

Days until Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz become eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame: 501, on January 11, 2022. Under 17 months until we find out whether lying about having been caught taking steroids, as Big Papi did, is better than telling the truth about it, as A-Rod did.

Days until the next Winter Olympics open in Beijing, China: 525, on February 4, 2022. A little over 17 months.

Days until the next World Cup opens in Qatar: 815, on November 21, 2022. Under 27 months.

Days until the next Women's World Cup opens, a joint hosting by Australia and New Zealand: 1,046, on July 10, 2023. A little over 34 months.

Sunday, August 23, 2020

How Many More Years of Failure Will You Accept, Before You Accept That Cashman Must Go?

To paraphrase Billy Joel, himself a Yankee Fan:

In the space of less than 3 full days, the Yankees went from the Mountains of Faith to the Valley of Fear, the Jungle of Doubt, and, especially (given comments by alleged Yankee Fans on social media) the Desert of Truth.

We were on such a high after sweeping the Boston Red Sox 4 straight. Then we lost 3 straight to the Tampa Bay Rays, a team that shouldn't even exist.

I'll spare you the details of things like losing pitchers, blown leads, failed comebacks, et al. Suffice it to say that none of these losses should have happened.

Injuries is no excuse. I don't care if we're down to the Scranton lineup: The New York Yankees should be able to win at least 1 game of a home series against the Tampa Bay Rays.

This as followed by the next series, against the Mets, being postponed because Met players had tested positive for COVID-19. For once, it looks like the Yankees and their fans who benefited more from the postponement.

Officially, the Yankees are still in 1st place in the American League Eastern Division -- tied with the Rays, but, having played fewer games, a game ahead of them in the all-important loss column.

But this makes 6 out of 7 recent games against them lost.

Why?

Because general manager Brian Cashman has assembled a roster incapable of beating the Rays.

I saw some Yankee Fans blaming field manager Aaron Boone for it. I saw one Twitterer write, "It's over. The Boone love affair from "savages in the box" is over. Fun while it lasted."

We will always love Boone, because of one swing of the bat in 2003.

But it has become obvious that he is not the actual manager of the New York Yankees. He is merely the press secretary for the real manager, Cashman. Boone is there to take the hard questions as to why the Yankees aren't winning, so Cashman doesn't have to.

Cashman gets to take the praise from making the transactions that look like they will build a World Champion. Boone has to take the bullets for when they don't.

Joe Girardi got tired of being treated like this, and when his contract ran out, he wasn't given a new one. Now, he is the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, and is probably the one man for whom facing the Philadelphia media must feel like a piece of cake.

It seems like every player on the Yankees is either injured, or a gutless wonder, or both.

Brian Cashman built this team, but he didn't build this team on rock and roll.

Meanwhile, Didi Gregorius is batting .299.

Until the Yankees fire Cashman from all roles within the organization, they will not win a Pennant.

He is to the Yankees what Jeff Wilpon is to the Mets, and what James Dolan is to the Knicks and the Rangers. You know the old saying, "The (Name of Team) is just one man away from a title"? For the Yankees, that one man is Brian Cashman.

There are idiots on Facebook pages who tell me Cashman is the best GM in baseball; that, if the Yankees fired him, any other team would hire him immediately.

Based on what? His record? Not his recent record. 10 years of failure. He has won nothing without George Steinbrenner's money and Gene Michael's players. He gets no credit for the World Series wins of 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009; and the Pennants won, but World Series lost, of 2001 and 2003.

They tell me he's built a team that puts the Yankees in position to win every year. But they don't win, any year. This is the New York Yankees. This is not the New York Mets, who infamously had owner Fred Wilpon say the goal was "playing meaningful games in September." This is not the Atlanta Braves, for whom winning the Division is enough -- and there's only been 3 Division titles in those 10 years.

Here's his record since George Steinbrenner died on July 10, 2010:

* Lost the AL Championship Series in 2010, 2012, 2017 and 2019.

* Lost the AL Division Series in 2011 and 2018.

* Lost the AL Wild Card Game in 2015.

* Missed the Playoffs completely in 2013, 2014 and 2016.

* The Houston Astros won 2 Pennants, including their 1st-ever World Championship, thanks to a trade Cashman made (and some cheating).

* The Chicago Cubs won their 1st World Series in 108 years, and their 1st Pennant in 71 years, thanks to a trade Cashman made.

* The Cleveland Indians won a Pennant, only the 6th in their 116-year history, thanks to a trade Cashman made.

* The Texas Rangers won their 1st 2 Pennants, partly due to beating the Yankees thanks to Cashman's obsession with bringing in a "lefty one out guy"; and won another Division title thanks to a trade Cashman made.

* The San Francisco Giants won 3 World Series, including their 1st in 46 years, their 1st since moving from New York.

* The Kansas City Royals won their 1st Pennant in 29 years, and the next year, their 1st World Series in 30 years.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers won their 1st Pennant in 29 years, and then another.

* The Washington Nationals won the 1st Pennant and World Series in the franchise's 51-year history, the 1st Pennant for a Washington team in 86 years, and the 1st World Championship for a Washington team in 95 years.

* The Boston Red Sox have cheated their way to 2 more World Championships. Since 2000, they are 4-0 in the World Series; the Yankees, 1-2.

* And even the New York Mets have won a Pennant more recently.

How does Cashman's record look now?

Here's another question the Cashman fanboys refuse to answer:

How many more years of failure are you willing to accept? How many more years of not winning the Pennant is acceptable to you?

One more year?

Two years?

Five years?

Ten years?

Twenty years? Are you still going to be on social media in 2040, telling Yankee Fans not yet born, "Give Cashman a chance, he knows what he's doing" when he hasn't won so much as a Pennant since 2009?

Today is August 23, 2020. At this point, supporting Brian Cashman is like supporting Donald Trump: We have to ask you the question, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

August 18, 1920: Women Get the Right to Vote

August 18, 1920, 100 years ago: The legislature of the State of Tennessee ratifies an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, granting women the right to vote in all American elections.

Previously, only 4 States had granted women the right to vote, and that was just in State and local elections, not for federal offices such as President and Congress.

The Constitution prescribes a procedure for amending it: A proposed Amendment must pass each house of Congress by a 2/3rds majority, and then must pass 3/4 of the State legislatures. Under today's format, that means 290 out of 435 in the U.S. House of Representatives, 67 out of 100 in the U.S. Senate, and 38 out of the 50 State legislatures.

In 1920, there were 48 States, and Tennessee became the 36th State to ratify the proposal, making it the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. At least, all women at least 21 years of age who were U.S. Citizens could vote. (The 26th Amendment, in 1971, lowered the voting age to 18.)

Always Good to Sweep the Red Sox

Last night, I saw some Yankee Fans online saying that it's not as much fun beating the Boston Red Sox when they're a bad team.

They're so wrong. (How wrong are they?) It's always good to beat the Red Sox. The Scum will always be The Scum.

Jordan Montgomery started for the Yankees, and took a no-hitter into the 4th inning. He was boosted by a 2-out rally in the 2nd. Martin Perez, the Boston starter, hit Tyler Wade with a pitch. This was not the usual Red Sox "Let's hit the Yankees on purpose and try to injure them, because we know we can get away with it" maneuver. Aaron Hicks doubled Wade home, and then Luke Voit crushed a home run.

The Sox pulled a run back in the top of the 4th, but Thairo Estrada canceled that out by leading off the bottom of the 4th with a home run. Voit led off the bottom of the 5th with another homer. The Sox scored again in the 6th, but the Yanks got another leadoff homer in the 7th, from Hicks.

Aroldis Chapman, fully recovered from COVID-19, and wearing short sleeves that showed he'd really been working out, made his season debut, and it was a typical Chapman inning: Impressive in some moments, shaky in others. He got Alex Verdugo to line out, ut allows a triple to Jose Peraza, and an RBI double to Jonathan Arauz. Then he bore down, and struck Kevin Pillar and Rafael Devers out to end it.

Yankees 6, Red Sox 3. WP: Mike King (1-1, his 1st major league win). No save, because Chapman came in with a 4-run lead. LP: Perez (2-3). (UPDATE: Since the 2021 season, Mike King has usually been referred to as "Michael King.")

So we swept the Red Sox. That's always good. Especially when it's 4 straight, instead of the usual 3. In fact, it's our 10th straight win against them, going back to last season. The team record is 12 straight wins over the Red Sox, which happened in 1952 and '53.

Tonight, the Yankees begin a home series against the Tampa Bay Rays. Masahiro Tanaka starts against Blake Snell.

Monday, August 17, 2020

Yankees Happ-en to Beat Red Sox Again

In the 1st 2 games of this home series against the Auld Enemy, the Yankee bats unloaded on the Boston Red Sox. In last night's game, the Yankees didn't score big.

And, with J.A. Happ on the mound to start, that was not encouraging.

Fortunately, Happ pitched like the pitcher we thought we were getting.in 2018. He pitched 5 2/3rds innings, allowing just 1 run on 3 hits and 2 walks, striking out 3. The 1 run he allowed was a home run in the top of the 3rd, by Kevin Pillar, not to be confused with former Red Sock pain in the ass Kevin Millar.

In the bottom of the 1st inning, the Yankees got singles by Gio Urshela, Mike Tauchman and Mike Ford to go up 1-0. Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. And Brett Gardner led off the 2nd inning with a walk, and was doubled home by Aaron Hicks.

Pillar's homer made it 2-1 Yankees, but the Yankees struck back in the bottom of the inning, on singles by Tauchman and Gleyber Torres, and a home run by Ford.

Adam Ottavino pitched decently in relief, and Chad Green lowered his ERA to 0.77, proving that he's a middle reliever, not an "opener," as he was used last year. More Brian Cashman stupidity exposed. Zack Britton was shaky in the 9th, allowing a run thanks to a double, a wild pitch and an error, but he finished the Sox off.

Yankees 4, Red Sox 2. WP: Happ (1-1). SV: Britton (8). LP: Chris Mazza (0-1).

Today, the Yankees reinstated Aroldis Chapman, fully recovered from COVID-19, from the Injured List, and designated David Hale for assignment.

The series concludes tonight. Jordan Montgomery pitches to help us get the sweep, and Martin Perez will try to give the Boston bats the chance to avoid it. Come on you Pinstripes!

Sunday, August 16, 2020

You Love to See It: Yanks Smack Sox Around Again

In 2003, the Boston Red Sox just missed winning the American League Pennant. In 2006, they fell apart in August, and finished 3rd in the AL Eastern Division. In 2012, they had a losing season. In 2017, they won the AL East, but lost in the 1st round of the Playoffs to the Houston Astros, including Jose Altuve, a team that we now know was cheating.

Each time, the Sox tinkered with their roster, and found a new way to cheat, and won the next season's World Series.

The thought occurred to me that, with both the Sox and the Astros, especially Altuve, off to lousy starts this season, the Sox could trade for Altuve, find a new way to cheat, teach it to him, and, together, they could win the 2021 World Series. And the baseball establishment, and their willing lackeys in the national media, would insist that it was fair and square.

*

Until then, though, the Sox are getting smacked around by the Yankees. As the kids are saying these days, "You love to see it."

The Yankees didn't waste any time last night at Yankee Stadium. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Luke Voit singled, and Gio Urshela hit a home run to make it 2-0 Bronx Bombers. The Sox took a 3-2 lead in the top of the 3rd, but James Paxton settled down from there, allowing only that damage over 5 innings.

In the bottom of the 4th, Gleyber Torres singled, and Gary Sanchez continued his burial of that awful season-ending start with another home run.

DJ LeMahieu had to leave the game, due to an injury. So, no Giancarlo Stanton, no Aaron Judge, no LeMahieu -- the 1st for most of the rest of the regular season, the latter 2 hopefully not for very long.

The Yankees put the game away in the 6th. Torres led off with a single, followed by Mike Tauchmann hitting a double. Sanchez struck out, but Clint Frazier, playing in right field in place of Judge (and making me nervous every time a ball came his way), hit a screamer that cleared the right field wall. Home run.

It didn't stop there. Brett Gardner doubled, and that knocked out former Yankee Nathan Evoaldi, whom Brian Cashman stupidly got rid of after an injury and came back to haunt us in the 2018 AL Division Series.

Gardner stole 3rd. That proved to be unnecessary, as Tyler Wade, who had gone to 2nd base in place of LeMahieu, doubled him home. 8-3. In the 7th, Frazier singled home 2 more runs, and Gardner got one home on a sacrifice fly.

The game was so much of a laugher, Aaron Boone brought Luis Cessa in to pitch. It seemed like a good idea: Give him work in a game he couldn't possibly blow. Sure enough, he went 1-2-3 in the 8th. But he allowed 2 runs in the 9th, before settling down and ending it in victory for the Pinstripes.

Yankees 11, Red Sox 5. WP: Paxton (1-1). No save. LP: Eovaldi (1-2).

Things I like: These include...

1. The Yankees winning.
2. The Red Sox losing.
3. A combination thereof.

The series concludes tonight. J.A. Happ starts for us, Chris Mazza for them. Happ vs. a pitcher the Yankees have never seen before? In the Sunday night ESPN game? In the words of the immortal Han Solo, "I've got a bad feeling about this!"

But things have gone pretty well for the Yankees so far, in spite of the injuries. Maybe this horrible year will turn out to be a great year in baseball. 

Is Carl Mays a Hall-of-Famer?

August 16, 1920, 100 years ago: The New York Yankees, now in their 1st season with Babe Ruth, are playing the Cleveland Indians at the Polo Grounds in New York. These 2 teams are in a 3-way American League Pennant race with the Chicago White Sox.

Submarine-style hurler Carl Mays hits Indian shortstop Ray Chapman in the head with a pitch. The impact makes such a sound, and the ball comes back to Mays with such force, that Mays thinks Chapman actually hit the ball -- shades of the Roger Clemens-Mike Piazza incident 80 years later -- and throws to 1st base.

This backs up Mays' claim, which he held for the last 51 years of his life, that he did not intentionally hit Chapman, who was known at the time for hanging over the plate.

The audience gasped at the sound -- no batting helmets in those days -- and Chapman got up, and told Yankee catcher Wally Schang, "I'm all right. Tell Mays not to worry." He took some steps, then collapsed, with his left ear bleeding. He never regained consciousness, and died the next day. He was 29 years old.
Aside from the possibility of Mike "Doc" Powers of the 1909 Philadelphia Athletics, whose death may not have been caused by an on-field injury, but was surely worsened by it, Chapman is the only Major League Baseball player to die as the result of an on-field incident.

The Indians won the game, 4-3, and went on to win the World Series in spite of Chapman's death, with rookie Joe Sewell taking his place, and building a Hall of Fame career. They dedicated a monument to him at League Park, but it got lost in the move to Cleveland Municipal Stadium. It was placed in a trunk, and, without anyone still with the team knowing it was in the trunk, it got moved to Jacobs (now Progressive) Field, and was found, and became the centerpiece of the Indians' version of the Yankees' Monument Park, their Heritage Park behind the center field fence.
So the only uniformed person ever to kill another person on a Major League Baseball field, intentionally or otherwise, was a Yankee. Amazingly, this is not often cited by Yankee Haters (Flushing Heathen, Chowdaheads and others) as a reason why they hate the Yankees. It's been 100 years, and pretty much everybody who cared about Chapman and the Indians at the time is gone. But it's still a dark day in Yankee history.

Understandably, despite his protests of non-intent, Mays was vilified by all and sundry, partly because he already had a reputation as a difficult man. People wanted to believe he did it on purpose. It's probably the biggest reason why, despite a career record of 207-126, he's not in the Hall of Fame.

Does Carl Mays deserve election to the Baseball Hall of Fame, in spite of this?

*

Carl William Mays was born on November 12, 1891, in Liberty, Kentucky. When he was 12 years old, his father died, and the family moved to Kingfisher, Oklahoma. He internalized his grief, and never made an effort to make friends. He quit high school to play baseball, even though he seemed not to have a personality that was well-suited to a team sport. He might have been better off as a boxer.

Apparently, though, he couldn't explain it: "I always have wondered why I have encountered this antipathy from so many people, wherever I have been. And I have never been able to explain it, even to myself."

He played for a Class D team in Boise, Idaho in 1912, then a Class A team in Portland, Oregon in 1913. The manager was Joe McGinnity, a star pitcher for the New York Giants, who would make the Hall of Fame. Supposedly, McGinnity taught Mays the underhanded "submarine" delivery. In 1914, he was signed by the Providence Grays of the International League. The nearby Boston Red Sox took notice of him, and signed him after the season.

He helped the Red Sox win the World Series in 1915, 1916 and 1918. So did Babe Ruth, and a few other players who would help build the Yankee Dynasty of the 1920s.


While he was at Spring Training in 1919, his farm house in Missouri burned down. He believed it was arson. He began the 1919 season with a 5-11 record. In a game in Philadelphia, home fans at Shibe Park pounded on the roof of the visitors' dugout, and Mays reacted to this by getting up and throwing a ball into the stands, hitting a fan in the head.

On July 13, against the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park, Eddie Collins tried to steal 2nd base. Catcher Wally Schang tried to throw him out, and hit Mays in the head by mistake. When the inning ended, Mays walked off the field, walked into the clubhouse, changed his clothes, went to the train station, and headed back to Boston. He told Burt Whitman, a Boston sportswriter:

I’m convinced that it will be impossible for me to preserve my confidence in myself as a ballplayer and stay with the Red Sox as the team is now handled. The entire team is up in the air and things have gone from bad to worse. The team cannot win with me pitching, so I am getting out…

Maybe there will be a trade or a sale of my services. I do not care where I go.


His teammates had turned against him. One (I can't find a record of which one) said, "He has the disposition of a man with a permanent toothache." In modern parlance, he was "a clubhouse cancer."

Sox owner Harry Frazee was eager to get rid of him. The Yankees, needing pitching, were willing to make the trade. So, on July 30, 1919, the Sox traded Mays to the Yankees for pitchers Bob McGraw and Allen Russell, and $40,000.

But between his "jumping the club" on the 13th and the trade on the 30th, Frazee had suspended Mays. And Byron Bancroft "Ban" Johnson, President of the American League, and one of its co-founders, ruled that Mays could not be traded while he was suspended.

"Baseball cannot tolerate such a breach of discipline," Johnson said. "It was up to the owners of the Boston club to suspend Carl Mays for breaking his contract, and when they failed to do so, it is my duty as head of the American League to act."

The Yankees went to court, and got an injunction against Johnson's ability to prevent the trade. Mays went 9-3 the rest of the way, finishing the season 14-14. He would win 80 games for the Yankees, helping them win the Pennant in 1921 and 1922, and their 1st World Series in 1923.

The Cincinnati Reds purchased him from the Yankees after the 1923 season, suggesting that, even after 3 straight Pennants and a World Series win, he had worn out his welcome with the now-Bronx Bombers. He had 20-9 and 19-12 seasons with them, and was released in 1928, pitching with the New York Giants in 1929, and then hanging them up.

There was no All-Star Game until 1933. If there had been one during Mays' career, he likely would have been named to it in 1916, 1917, 1918, and, if whoever was voting was judging him solely on his on-field performance, also in 1920, 1921, 1924 and 1926 -- 7 times.

Baseball-Reference.com, a website which is your friend whether you know it or not, and makes writing this blog considerably easier, has a "Hall of Fame Monitor," on which a "Likely HOFer" is at 100. Mays is at 114, meaning he should be in. They also have "Hall of Fame Standards," which is weighted more toward career stats, and on which the "Average HOFer" is at 50. Mays is at 41, which suggests that he falls a bit short.

They also have "Similarity Scores," comparing players, usually at the same positions. Their top 10 most similar pitchers to Mays are Stan Coveleski, Lon Warneke, Chief Bender, Urban Shocker, Jack Chesbro, Art Nehf, Eddie Cicotte, Jesse Tannehill, Babe Adams and Freddie Fitzsimmons.

So that's 3 guys who are in the Hall (Coveleski, Bender and Chesbro), 2 guys who may also deserve it (Warneke and Shocker), and another guy who might have had a good shot had he not been one of the White Sox players who threw the 1919 World Series (Cicotte).

His 6 Pennants and 4 World Series wins should help his cause. The testimonies as to his character may hurt him, though.

It could be argued that Mays is better than some pitchers in the Hall. And, given that he was still an All-Star quality pitcher in 1926, after the introduction of the Lively Ball, we can say with some certainty that his success on the mound was not a product of a certain era.

His career winning percentage was .622. Or, more accurately, .6216. Hall-of-Fame starting pitchers under the 60-feet-6-inches pitching distance who top this are Whitey Ford, Pedro Martinez, Lefty Grove, Christy Mathewson, Roy Halladay, Sandy Koufax, Lefty Gomez, Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown, Randy Johnson, Dizzy Dean, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Mike Mussina, Jim Palmer, Joe McGinnity, Juan Marichal, Eddie Plank, Bender and Addie Joss. So that's just 18 guys. It's matched by Carl Hubbell. Were they in the Hall, it would also be topped by Roger Clemens, Ron Guidry, Dwight Gooden, Andy Pettitte and Don Newcombe.

His career ERA was 2.92. 1893-2014 HOF starters topping that are Ed Walsh, Joss, Brown, Mathewson, Rube Waddell, Walter Johnson, Plank, Alexander, Cy Young, Vic Willis, McGinnity, Chesbro, Ford, Koufax, Palmer, Tom Seaver, Marichal, Coveleski and Bob Gibson. 19 guys.

His ERA+ was 119, meaning that he was 19 percent better at preventing runs than the average pitcher in his time. 1893-2014 HOF starters topping that are Pedro, Grove, Walter Johnson, Walsh, Joss, Brown, Young, Mathewson, Alexander, Randy Johnson, Waddell, Ford, Maddux, Dean, Halladay, Koufax, Hubbell, Hal Newhouser, Coveleski, Gibson, Seaver, Gomez, Palmer, John Smoltz, Dazzy Vance, Marichal, Mussina, Bob Feller, Plank, Drysdale, Clark Griffith, McGinnity, Red Faber and Bob Lemon. 34 guys. Suddenly, his candidacy looks less compelling.

His career WHIP was 1.207. 1893-2014 HOF starters topping that are Joss, Walsh, Pedro, Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Brown, Marichal, Waddell, Koufax, Bender, Plank, Seaver, Alexander, Young, Catfish Hunter, Fergie Jenkins, Don Sutton, Greg Maddux, Don Drysdale, Chesbro, Hubbell, Robin Roberts, Randy Johnson, Smoltz, Halladay, Jim Bunning, Palmer, Gaylord Perry, McGinnity, Gibson, Mussina, Warren Spahn, Bert Blyleven and Dean. 34 guys. 

His strikeout-to-walk ratio was 1.174. That's not especially impressive: He's barely in the top 1,000 of all time.

But how many of those 60-footer HOFers are ahead of him in all of these categories? 9: Mathewson, Koufax, Brown, Alexander, Palmer, McGinnity, Marichal, Plank and Joss. And only 4 -- Koufax, Alexander, Palmer and Marichal -- also pitched after the introduction of the Lively Ball in 1920. And, due to the injury that cut short the career of Koufax, only Alexander, Palmer and Marichal won more games.

Still, that's a lot of comparisons that have to be thrown in. I have to say that, if I get a vote, then, based on what I've seen, Carl Mays does not get into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Not because of any perception of his character, but because the numbers just aren't quite sufficient.

As for his life beyond and after baseball, he married twice, and had a son and a daughter. He later worked as a scout for several teams. Ironically, the 1st team to hire him as such was the Indians. He was scouting for the Braves when they moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta in 1966, and was part of the original scouting team for the Kansas City Royals in 1969. He died on April 4, 1971. A distant cousin, Joe Mays, pitched for the Minnesota Twins, making the All-Star Game in 2001.

He first appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot in 1958, and got only 2 percent of the vote, dropping off. In 2008, following the reformatting of the Baseball Hall of Fame's procedure for voting on the candidacies of long-ago retired players, the Veterans Committee considered him, but he was named on only 25 percent of the ballots. That's the closest he's ever come to election. It had been 88 years since the death of Ray Chapman, so it's unlikely that factored into the voting.

August 16 and 17, 1920: The Beaning and Death of Ray Chapman

 
August 16, 1920, 100 years ago: The New York Yankees, now in their 1st season with Babe Ruth, are playing the Cleveland Indians at the Polo Grounds in New York. These 2 teams are in a 3-way American League Pennant race with the Chicago White Sox.

Submarine-style hurler Carl Mays hits Indian shortstop Ray Chapman in the head with a pitch. The impact makes such a sound, and the ball comes back to Mays with such force, that Mays thinks Chapman actually hit the ball -- shades of the Roger Clemens-Mike Piazza incident 80 years later -- and throws to 1st base.

This backs up Mays' claim, which he held for the last 51 years of his life, that he did not intentionally hit Chapman, who was known at the time for hanging over the plate.

The audience gasped at the sound -- no batting helmets in those days -- and Chapman got up, and told Yankee catcher Wally Schang, "I'm all right. Tell Mays not to worry." He took some steps, then collapsed, with his left ear bleeding. He never regained consciousness, and died the next day. He was 29 years old.

Aside from the possibility of Mike "Doc" Powers of the 1909 Philadelphia Athletics, whose death may not have been caused by an on-field injury, but was surely worsened by it, Chapman is the only Major League Baseball player to die as the result of an on-field incident.


The Indians won the game, 4-3, and went on to win the World Series in spite of Chapman's death, with rookie Joe Sewell taking his place, and building a Hall of Fame career. They dedicated a monument to him at League Park, but it got lost in the move to Cleveland Municipal Stadium. It was placed in a trunk, and, without anyone still with the team knowing it was in the trunk, it got moved to Jacobs (now Progressive) Field, and was found, and became the centerpiece of the Indians' version of the Yankees' Monument Park, their Heritage Park behind the center field fence.
So the only uniformed person ever to kill another person on a Major League Baseball field, intentionally or otherwise, was a Yankee. Amazingly, this is not often cited by Yankee Haters (Flushing Heathen, Chowdaheads and others) as a reason why they hate the Yankees. It's been 100 years, and pretty much everybody who cared about Chapman and the Indians at the time is gone. But it's still a dark day in Yankee history.

On August 17, only the Yankees-Indians game was postponed in Chapman's memory. Also not playing were the Chicago White Sox, the Philadelphia Athletics, the Boston Braves and the Brooklyn Dodgers -- but that was because they weren't scheduled, anyway.

Saturday, August 15, 2020

Young King Cole, Bats Make Yankee Fans Merry Old Souls vs. Red Sox

Things I like to see include:

* The New York Yankees winning.
* The Boston Red Sox losing.
* A combination thereof.

We got a combination thereof at Yankee Stadium II last night. In the words of former University of Texas football coach Fred Akers, "Get out the wide-angle lens, boys. I'm gettin' ready to smile."

The Yankees knocked Sox starter Colten Brewer out of the box in the 3rd inning, with Luke Voit beating out an infield single, Aaron Hicks drawing a walk, Gio Urshela moving the runners over with a groundout, and Gleyber Torres doubling Voit and Hicks home.

Gerrit Cole allowed just 1 hit in the 1st 3 innings, but but Alex Verdugo led off the top of the 4th with a home run off him, giving the Sox hope. Cole settled down, though, and the Yankees gave him a cushion with a 2-out rally in the 5th. Torres singled, Mike Tauchman doubled him home, and then Gary Sanchez continued his bid to have his horrible start to the season swept aside with a long home run to left-center.

The Yankees scored 3 more runs in the 7th, the highlights being an RBI single by Tauchman and a 2-RBI double by Clint Frazier. Jonathan Holder allowed the Sox a couple of runs in the 8th, but Ben Heller pitched a scoreless 9th to end it, keeping Zack Britton fresh for the last 2 games of the series.

Yankees 10, Red Sox 3. WP: Cole (4-0). It was his 20th straight winning decision, just 4 off the all-time record set by Carl Hubbell of the New York Giants in 1937. (Jacob deGrom couldn't be reached for comment, as he was scratched from last night's start.) No save. LP: Brewer (0-1).

So, Young King Cole is a merry old soul, and merry old souls are we.

The series continues tonight. James Paxton starts for us, and former Yankee Nathan Eovaldi, whom Brian Cashman stupidly let get away, starts for The Scum. Come on you Pinstripes!

Friday, August 14, 2020

Yanks Sweep Braves, Bring On the Sox

 

This 2-game series against the Atlanta Braves at Yankee Stadium II brought back memories of 2 World Series against the Braves at Yankee Stadium I (and Fulton County Stadium, and Turner Field).

The Yankees continue to be careful with Masahiro Tanaka as he comes back from injury, and only let him pitch 4 innings on Wednesday night, allowing 2 runs, both in the top of the 2nd. But the bottom of that inning began with back-to-back home runs, each by a guy who really needed to hit one: The badly slumping Gary Sanchez, then the returning Clint Frazier.

In the 4th, a DJ LeMahieu single, an Aaron Hicks double, and a Gleyber Torres single gave the Yankees a 4-2 lead. Jonathan Loaisiga then pitched shutout ball over the next 3 innings. Luis Avilan pitched a scoreless 8th. Jonathan Holder got into trouble in the 9th, allowing a run, so Zack Britton was brought on, and he got the last 2 outs.

Yankees 6, Braves 3. WP: Loaisiga (2-0). SV: Britton (7). LP: Tyler Matzek (2-1).

So, the Yankees are now 12-6, 1 game ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays, a game and a half ahead of the Baltimore Orioles, 4 1/2 ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays, and 6 1/2 ahead of the Boston Red Sox.

But in the all-important loss column, the Yankees are 1 game ahead of the O's, 2 ahead of the Rays, 3 ahead of the Jays, and 7 ahead of the Sox. This is because the COVID-19 epidemic has thrown the schedule completely out of whack. It's August 14, and the Jays have played just 15 games, the O's 17, the Yanks 18, the Sox 19, and the Rays 20. It could be worse: Due to postponements, the St. Louis Cardinals have only played 5 (2-3).

At any rate, tonight, the Yankees start a 3-game home series against the Sox. The Scum. The Cheaters Before the Astros Learned How to Cheat. Here are the projected pitching matchups:

* Tonight, 7:05: Gerrit Cole vs. Colten Brewer. With a name like that, he should either be playing baseball in Milwaukee or football in Baltimore. Or Indianapolis.

* Saturday, 7:15: James Paxton vs. former Yankee Nathan Eovaldi.

* Sunday, 7:00: The Yankees will start J.A. Happ, and the Sox are currently undecided.

Come on you Pinstripes! Beat The Scum!

August 14, 1945: V-J Day + 75

 

August 14, 1945, 75 years ago today: V-J Day, Victory over Japan. Afraid of the United States of America unleashing further nuclear devastation, as on the cities of Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9, the Empire of Japan surrenders to the Allies, ending World War II. V-E Day, Victory In Europe, had been on May 8, the day after Nazi Germany signed their articles of surrender.

This is an update of a post I did on the 70th Anniversary of V-J Day.

Every anniversary, the number of living World War II veterans becomes fewer and fewer. An 18-year-old kid who enlisted toward the end would now be 93 years old.

For this reason, we must keep the facts of what everyone who survived it, including on "the home front," would call "The War" for the rest of their lives, alive.

The Axis -- Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and the Empire of Japan -- had to be defeated, dismantled, and replaced by governments more like America's than like what they had before.

If that meant allying with the British Empire, the French Empire, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, whose own leaders weren't exactly paragons of democracy, then so be it. The British and the French got better after The War; the Soviet Union did not.

When the U.S. Army began reaching the Nazis' concentration camps, which led to the deaths of 11 million people, 6 million of them Jews, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, later to become President of the United States, called for photographers and film crews to document what was found. He believed that, eventually, prominent people would deny that what became known as The Holocaust had occurred, and he wanted irrefutable proof that its horrors had happened. "Ike" turned out to be right.

*

Some of the information in this post comes from the extensive site Baseball in Wartime, run by Gary Bedingfield.

All told, there were 1,343 men who both played in the major leagues and served in World War II. All but 5 of them served in the armed forces of the U.S. 1 major league player served in the Cuban Army: Pitcher Adrian Zabala. 4 were Canadian: Hank Biasatti and Dick Fowler in the Army, and Joe Krakauskas and Phil Marchildon of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Biasatti was a 1st baseman, the other Canadians were pitchers.

1 man served in the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA: Moe Berg, the longtime backup catcher who spoke multiple languages -- a side effect when you grew up in Newark, New Jersey in the 1920s, and definitely a plus when you served your country in the 1930s and 1940s.

566 served in the U.S. Army, including Hall-of-Famers Luke Appling, Bobby Doerr, Warren Spahn, Red Schoendienst, Monte Irvin, Hoyt Wilhelm and (broadcasters' wing) Joe Garagiola.

466 served in the U.S. Navy, including HOFers Mickey Cochrane, Bill Dickey, Charlie Gehringer, Harold "Pee Wee" Reese, Phil Rizzuto, Stan Musial, Bob Lemon, and the 1 man involved in the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944 who would go on to play in MLB: Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra, pictured above in his Navy uniform. A year later, Yogi "won his first world championship." And, by far, his most important one.

180 served in the U.S. Army Air Force -- which wouldn't be separated from the Army as the U.S. Air Force until after The War, in 1947 -- including HOFers Joe DiMaggio, Hank Greenberg and Enos Slaughter.

68 served in the U.S. Marine Corps, including HOFers Ted Williams and Ted Lyons, and should-be HOFer Gil Hodges. So did a pair of HOF broadcasters, Jack Brickhouse (not surprising, he seemed like a really gruff guy) and Ernie Harwell (very surprising, since he seemed like such a gentle soul).

At one point, Lyons pitched for a Marine team against a USAAF team, and DiMaggio was on it. Lyons said, "I enlisted to get away from DiMaggio, and, now, here he is!"

50 served in the U.S. Coast Guard, the most notable of them being Yankee star (hard to call him a "Yankee Legend" since he doesn't have a Plaque in Monument Park -- maybe he should, given his WWII service and his nickname of "Ol' Reliable") Tommy Henrich.

7 served in the U.S. Merchant Marine, including Yankee slugger Charlie Keller.

There were 2 major leaguers killed in The War. Neither was a star:

Elmer John Gedeon, born April 15, 1917 in Cleveland. He was an All-American in track and a letterwinner in baseball and football at the University of Michigan. He appeared in 5 major league games, all with the Washington Senators in September 1939, 4 as CF, 1 as RF. He wore Number 34. Had 3 hits in 15 at-bats, for a .200 batting average. He played for the Charlotte Hornets -- not the World Football League team, or either of the NBA franchises that have had the name, but a minor-league baseball team.

He was drafted into the Army in 1941, and was assigned to the Army Air Force. He crashed in a B-25 bomber training mission in 1942, but survived, and resumed pilot training. Captain Gedeon was shot down in a B-26 over St. Pol, France on April 20, 1944. He had just turned 27. There is no mention of him at Nationals Park in Washington. Nor was there at its predecessors, Robert F. Kennedy Stadium and Griffith Stadium.
Also wearing Number 34 for the Senators was Bert Shepard, a pitcher who lost a leg when his plane was shot down, but used a prosthesis, and pitched 1 game for the Senators in 1945, and continued to pitch in the minor leagues until 1954.

Harry Mink O'Neill, born May 8, 1917 in Philadelphia. He graduated from Gettysburg College, within walking distance of the site of the greatest battle of the American Civil War. At GC, he played baseball, football and basketball. He played 1 inning with the Philadelphia Athletics, also in 1939, on July 23, as a defensive replacement at catcher, wearing Number 30, and never came to bat -- making him a true "Moonlight Graham."
He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942. He survived being shot by a Japanese sniper at the Battle of Saipan. 1st Lieutenant O'Neill was killed in the Battle of Iwo Jima on March 6, 1945. He was not quite 28. There is no mention of him at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Nor was there at its predecessors, Veterans Stadium and Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium.

There is one other possibility: Charles Andrew Frye of Hickory, North Carolina was born in 1913, and pitched in 15 major league games, all with the 1940 Philadelphia Phillies. With a terrible team, he went 0-6 with a 4.65 ERA. He pitched 2 more seasons in the minors, enlisted, and was discharged on December 22, 1944 -- 8 months before V-J Day, and listed as 154 pounds, about 20 under his playing weight. But his weight and the timing together, and it's not proof of an illness contracted during his service, but does suggest it.

Charlie Frye died on May 25, 1945, in Hickory, of a ruptured gastric ulcer, 5 months after his discharge. So, officially, he isn't a former MLB player who died as a result of his military service in World War II. Unofficially, the evidence that he should be counted as one is, as he was upon his discharge, rather thin. Perhaps more information is needed.
By a macabre coincidence, the only major leaguer believed to have been killed in the Korean War was also born in 1917, and also appeared in the majors only briefly in 1939:

Bob Neighbors of Talihina, Oklahoma, the St. Louis Browns and the U.S. Air Force. He played 7 games at shortstop. (Strangely, there is no known record of what uniform number he wore. Baseball-Reference.com doesn't have one. Nor does Jack Looney's fantastic book Now Batting, Number... which charts baseball uniform numbers from the first-ever experiment with them in 1916 right up to 2005, just before the book's publication.)

He enlisted in 1942, and unlike most players, stayed in the service after the War, rising to the rank of Major. Like Gedeon, he flew a B-26. His plane was reported missing in 1952, and his body has never been found. There is no mention of him at the new Busch Stadium, nor was there at its predecessors, Busch Memorial Stadium and Sportsman's Park.

*

Today, exactly 75 years after V-J Day, we are down to 16 men who are living veterans of both World War II and Major League Baseball: 

* Cloyd Boyer, born September 1, 1927, from Alba, Missouri. He pitched for his home-State St. Louis Cardinals 1949 to 1952. He returned to the majors with the first edition of the other Missouri team of the era, the 1955 Kansas City Athletics. He was the brother of All-Star 3rd basemen Ken and Clete (a Yankee star).

* Bobby Brown, born October 25, 1924 in Seattle, grew up in San Francisco. A 3rd baseman, he played for the Yankees from 1947 to 1954. He is the last surviving member of the Yankees' '47 and '49 title winners. He was Yogi's roommate at the time. He also won rings in '50 and '51. Then he returned to the service, in the Korean War.

He became a cardiologist, and served as President of the American League from 1984 to 1994. He should not be confused with the Bobby Brown who helped the Yankees win the 1981 Pennant, a black outfielder.

* Billy DeMars, born August 25, 1925, from Brooklyn. He was a shortstop, mostly with the Browns. He became a longtime coach, including the hitting instructor for the Phillies in their 1976-83 quasi-dynasty. He is 1 of 8 surviving former Browns. He is also 1 of 7 surviving former Philadelphia Athletics, and the last living man to have played for Connie Mack.

* Carl Erskine, born December 13, 1926, from Anderson, Indiana. A pitcher, he spent his entire career with the Dodgers, from 1948 in Brooklyn to 1959 in Los Angeles. He is the last surviving player featured in Roger Kahn's book about the 1952-53 Dodgers, The Boys of Summer.

* Johnny Groth, born July 23, 1926, from Chicago. A center fielder, mostly with the Tigers, he played in 157 games in 1950, a record until the 162-game schedule was instituted in 1961. (Players get credit for statistics in games that are called due to rainouts when tied.)

* Chris Haughey, born October 3, 1925, from Astoria, Queens. "Bud" Haughey's major league debut was on his 18th birthday, the last game of the 1943 season, as a pitcher for his hometown Dodgers. It was also his last major league game. Dodger legend Gil Hodges also made his big-league debut in this game.

* Howie Judson, born February 16, 1926, from Hebron, Illinois, outside Chicago. A pitcher, went 1-14 for the 1949 White Sox, and was unotherwise unremarkable.

* Ed Mickelson, born September 9, 1926, from Ottawa, Illinois, also outside Chicago. Despite getting 1,374 hits in minor league play, the 1st baseman's major league career was fleeting, with brief callups with the 1950 Cardinals, 1953 Browns and 1957 Cubs.

* Larry Miggins, born August 20, 1925, from The Bronx. An outfielder, he had end-of-season callups with the Cardinals in 1948 and 1952.

* Robert J. "Bob" Miller, born June 16, 1926, from Detroit. A pitcher, he went 42-42 over 10 season with the Phillies, including pitching in the 1950 World Series for the "Whiz Kids." He and Curt Simmons are the last 2 surviving players from that team. He later served as the head coach at the University of Detroit Mercy. His sons Pat and Bob also became baseball coaches.

He should not be confused with the 2 Bob Millers who not only both played for the 1962 Mets, but even roomed together, and, whenever the phone would ring, would answer, "Hello, Bob Miller here."

* Bobby Morgan, born June 29, 1926, from Oklahoma City. 3B, starred with the Montreal Royals, had a callup with the Dodgers in 1950, spent '51 back in Montreal, and filled in for Billy Cox with the Dodgers in '52 and '53, appearing in 3 World Series games. Also played with the Phils, Cards and Cubs until 1958.

* William Edward "Eddie" Robinson, born December 15, 1920, from Paris, Texas. A 1st baseman, he is the last surviving member of the last Cleveland Indians team to win the World Series, in 1948. A 4-time All-Star, he had 3 100+ RBI seasons, with the White Sox and A's.

He came to the Yankees in the infamous 1953 trade that sent Vic Power to the A's. He helped the Yankees win the 1955 Pennant, although he did not win a World Series with them. He closed his career with the 1957 Orioles.

He later served in the front offices of the Orioles, Houston Astros, A's, Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers, including 5 seasons (1972-76) as Braves general manager and 5 (1978-82) as Rangers GM. He losed his active baseball career as a scout for the Red Sox, the only 1 of the original 8 AL teams for whom he didn't play. Currently the oldest living ex-MLB player, if he lives at least another 4 months and change, he will be 100 years old.

* Frank Saucier, born May 28, 1926, from Leslie, Missouri. An outfielder, he was The Sporting News' Minor League Player of the Year with the San Antonio Missions in 1950. He played 18 games with his hometown St. Louis Browns in 1951, going just 1-for-14.

He is best remembered for a game in which he barely played: On August 19, 1951, he began the game in right field, and was listed as the Browns' leadoff batter, but never came to bat. Instead, he was removed for a pinch-hitter, the 3-foot-7 midget Eddie Gaedel. His baseball opportunity apparently at an end, re-enlisted, serving in the Korean War.

* Bobby Shantz, born September 26, 1925, from Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Though listed at just 5-foot-6 and 139 pounds, he was the last of the many great pitchers brought to the Philadelphia Athletics by manager-owner Connie Mack. In 1952, he went 24-7 for an A's team that went 79-75. Despite the 4th place finish, he was named AL MVP.

He moved with the A's to Kansas City, and in 1957, he came to the Yankees in one of the many lopsided trades that led people to think that, as had been the case before the A's moved in, that Kansas City was still a "Yankee farm team." He went 11-5 and led the AL with a 2.45 ERA, helping the Yankees win the Pennant. He won a World Series ring in 1958, but did not appear in the Series. He pitched 3 Series games each in 1957 and 1960.

He was traded to the Pirates, then became an original Houston Colt .45 (Astro) in the 1962 expansion draft. He closed his career with another hometown team, the ill-fated 1964 Phillies, but their epic collapse was hardly his fault: In 14 games, 11 in relief, he had a 2.25 ERA at age 39.

A 3-time All-Star, his career record was 119-99. He won Gold Gloves the 1st 8 seasons they were given out, 1957 to 1964. In 2003, he was one of several surviving A's players invited to Veterans Stadium, as the Interleague schedule allows the A's to play their 1 game in Philadelphia since 1954. (I was there.) His brother Billy Shantz (1927-1993) was a teammate on both the A's and the Yankees.

* Willard Wayne Terwilliger (who went by his middle name), born June 27, 1925, from Clare, Michigan. 

A 2nd baseman, he debuted with the Cubs in 1949, and played for both the Dodgers and the Giants before they moved. He is 1 of only 4 surviving men on both rosters, combined, from the Bobby Thomson game on October 3, 1951. (The others are Dodgers Carl Erskine and Tommy Brown, and Giant Willie Mays.) He is 1 of 16 surviving former Brooklyn Dodgers, 1 of 14 surviving former New York Giants, and 1 of 27 surviving former "old" Washington Senators, the ones who moved to become the Minnesota Twins in 1960-61.

He closed out his career with the A's in 1960. He coached in the Yankees system, and was the 3rd base coach for the "new" Washington Senators when they moved to become the Texas Rangers in 1971-72. He coached on teams managed by Ted Williams and Don Zimmer in Texas, before winning rings as Tom Kelly's 3rd base coach with the 1987 and 1991 Twins. He returned to the Dallas area to coach the independent league Fort Worth Cats (named for the old Texas League team), and left them and retired from baseball for good after the 2010 season, at age 85.

* George Rezin Elder Jr., born March 10, 1921, from Lebanon, Kentucky. An outfielder, he played 41 games in the majors, all with the St. Louis Browns in the 2nd half of the 1949 season.

UPDATE: Howie Judson died on August 18, 2020. Bob Miller died on November 27, 2020. Billy DeMars died on December 10, 2020. Wayne Terwilliger died on February 3, 2021. Bobby Brown died on March 25, 2021. Johnny Groth died on August 7, 2021. Cloyd Boyer died on September 20, 2021. Eddie Robinson died on October 4, 2021. Chris Haughey died on April 24, 2022. George Elder died on July 7, 2022. Bobby Morgan died on June 1, 2023.

That leaves 5: Carl Erskine, Ed Mickelson, Larry Miggins, Frank Saucier and Bobby Shantz.

*

With the death of Hall-of-Fame Red Sox 2nd baseman and Army veteran Bobby Doerr at age 99 on November 13, 2017, there were no more living men who played in MLB in the 1930s. With the death of A's pitcher and Army veteran Fred Caliguiri at 100 on November 30, 2018, there were no more living men who debuted in MLB before the Pearl Harbor naval base at Honolulu, Hawaii was bombed by the Japanese, bringing America into The War.

There are 4 remaining men who played in MLB during World War II:

* Eddie Robinson, 99, who debuted on September 9, 1942, and last played on September 15, 1957.
* Chris Haughey, 94, his only appearance coming on October 3, 1943.
* Eddie Basinski, 97, who did not serve, May 20, 1944 to July 4, 1947.
* Tommy "Buckshot" Brown, 91, who was too young to serve, August 3, 1944, and remains the 2nd-youngest MLB player ever, to September 25, 1953.

Basinski is the last surviving player who played in the "Tricornered Game" in which the Giants, Dodgers and Yankees all played against each other to sell war bonds at the Polo Grounds in 1944; and the last surviving player mentioned in Dave Frischberg's song "Van Lingle Mungo."

Brown remains the 2nd-youngest MLB player ever, behind Joe Nuxhall, who got shelled in 1 inning for the Cincinnati Reds in 1944, shortly before turning 16, returned to the majors from 1952 to 1965, mostly for the Reds, and became a broadcaster for them.

UPDATE: As I said, Robinson died on October 4, 2021. And Basinski died on January 8, 2022. That leaves 2: Haughey and Brown.

*

The best baseball player killed in World War II was Eiji Sawamura. When an All-Star team of U.S. players toured Japan in the Autumn of 1934, he was 17, and pitched against them, striking out Charlie Gehringer, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx, all in a row. But he lost the game 2-1 because he gave up a home run to Gehrig.

From 1936 to 1943, he pitched for the Tokyo Kyogin, the team that became known as the Yomiuri Giants, helping them win 4 Pennants, pitching 3 no-hitters, and winning the league's Most Valuable Player award in 1937.
On December 2, 1944, he was 1 of 2,134 men killed when the Hawaii Maru, a ship named for Japan's victory at Pearl Harbor ("maru" is Japanese for "ship"), was sunk by the submarine USS Sea Devil off the coast of Yakushima Island in the East China Sea.

The Yomiuri Giants retired his Number 14. In 1947, the Sawamura Award for Japan's best pitcher was established, 9 years before America had its equivalent, the Cy Young Award. He was a charter inductee into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1959.

There appear to have been 20 former NFL players killed in World War II. Two of them played for the New York Giants, Al Blozis and Jack Lummus. Plaques in their memory were placed on the center field clubhouse at the Polo Grounds, and both have been honored in the Giants' Ring of Honor. Blozis' Number 32 has been retired.
Al Blozis

(Lummus' plaque was found in 2005, and the football Giants bought it and put it on display. The whereabouts of the other Polo Grounds plaques are unknown.) 

The best football player killed in World War II never played a down of professional ball. Nile Kinnick, winner of the 1939 Heisman Trophy as a two-way back at the University of Iowa, turned down a contract from the NFL version of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who had drafted him.
Instead, he enrolled in law school, since he was considering a career in politics. There are still living Republicans in Iowa who believe that, had he lived, he would have beaten John F. Kennedy in the 1960 Presidential election. Of course, that presumes that he would have beaten Richard Nixon, either for the Republican nomination for President that year, or for the Vice Presidential nomination under Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952.

Kinnick left law school to enlist in the Navy -- 3 days before the attack on Pearl Harbor -- and was killed during a flight training accident off the coast of Venezuela on June 2, 1943. The University of Iowa retired his Number 24, and, in 1972, renamed Iowa Stadium for him: Kinnick Stadium.

There were 2 former NHL players killed in World War II: Joe Turner, a goaltender who played only 1 game, for the Detroit Red Wings against the Toronto Maple Leafs on February 5, 1942. Despite being Canadian, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. On December 13, 1944, he was lost in action with in the Hurtgen Forest of Germany.
And Dudley "Red" Garrett was a defenseman who played 23 games for the New York Rangers in the 1942-43 season. He was serving aboard the HMCS Shawinigan when it was sunk by the Nazi submarine U-1228 in Cabot Strait, off the coast of Newfoundland, on November 25, 1944. He was only 20.
The NBA wasn't founded until 1946, so none of its former players were killed in World War II. Nor have any been killed in any war. Nor can I find a reference to any prominent college player, who hadn't yet gotten to play in a pro league, who was killed in World War II.

There have been so many soccer teams, all over the world and especially in Europe, that a definitive list of players fitting any category is difficult. Given what happened to records in Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union, we may never know how many "footballers" from those countries were lost in action in World War II.

There appear to have been at least 73 British players who were killed as a result of their military service in that war, 5 of them Scottish, the rest English. The best of them may have been Herbie Roberts, a centreback for North London team Arsenal, who helped them win the Football League in 1931, '33, '34 and '35, and the FA Cup in 1930 and '36, before dying of a blood disease, not in combat, on June 19, 1944, at 39. He was 1 of 9 players who had played for Arsenal who were lost.
*

The East Brunswick Veterans' Memorial, at the Civic Center off Ryders Lane, has a memorial dating to 1949, to 12 natives of the Township who were killed in action in World War II: Adam Albrecht, Edward Biernacki, Casper Fetyko, Milton Finkelstein, Constantine Haransky, Henry Jensen, Lawrence Kossman, William Kossman, Joseph Mihalichko, Edward Modzelewski, Alex Volgyi and Alfred Wolff.

The Kossmans were brothers. According to the East Brunswick Public Library, also at the Civic Center, both of them, and also Haranski and Jensen, were killed on February 10, 1944, in the Battle of Anzio in Italy. Albrecht was killed in Italy 7 days later, and while the Library does not go into further detail, it seems likely that his death was also during the Anzio campaign.

Albrecht, Biernacki, Fetyko, Jensen, the Kossmans, Mihalichko, Modzelewski and Wolff have streets named after them in the Township. So does Michael Lonczak, killed in action in Germany, but whose name, for a reason I don't know, does not appear on the memorial. Also with streets named for them are the 4 we lost in Vietnam, and the 1 each we lost in Afghanistan and Iraq. We lost 1 in the Civil War and 4 in World War I, but none of them has a street named for him.

Of the 4 we lost in World War I, 3 were actually stateside, in the Spanish Flu epidemic that ended up killing twice as many people as the war. Joseph Crandall died in combat, and had a school named after him, just 2 blocks from the town's WWI memorial, at the American Legion Post.