by Mitch Albom | Oct 22, 1986 | Detroit Free Press
BOSTON — Forget what they say about old friends. Bobby Ojeda was looking to leave the Red Sox in the dirt and the Sox were hoping to paste his pitches and his face to the left field wall. Oh, he got along OK with everybody here during his eight years in the Boston organization. But this is the World Series, Ojeda is now a Met, and that means to hell with you these days in bean town.
“To hell with whom?” he seemed to say from the Fenway mound Tuesday night, where his Mets finally won a World Series Game, 7-1, to close Boston’s lead to 2-1. “What did you say?”
by Mitch Albom | Oct 21, 1986 | Detroit Free Press
BOSTON — Yeah, yeah, yeah. Talk all you want. The Mets are slumping, the Red Sox are grooving. The Mets have lefties. The Sox have righties. You can study your box score, you can study your scorecard, you can study your scouting report of this 83d World Series....
by Mitch Albom | Oct 20, 1986 | Detroit Free Press
NEW YORK — Start spreading the blues. They’re leaving today. So much for the Big Apple party, the home-field advantage, the friendly smell of airplane fumes. The Mets are heading for the airport trailing the Boston Red Sox, 0-2, in this World Series, and...
by Mitch Albom | Oct 20, 1986 | Detroit Free Press
NEW YORK — Roger Clemens stood along the edge of the field, without a glove, without a ball. He was due to pitch in two hours. He carried a bat.A bat?He did not swing it. He did not rest it on his shoulder. He carried it grudgingly, the way you carry an umbrella...
by Mitch Albom | Oct 19, 1986 | Detroit Free Press
There are hot dogs and caps and pennants all around me. On the bed is a notebook full of box scores. Over here are the batting averages, and here are the lefty-right tendencies, and Sparky Anderson’s predictions, I left them around here somewhere. . . .
“Ahem,” says a distant voice.
Ahem?
“Football,” it says.
Football? Yeah, sure. That’s a good one. It’s World Series time. Where did I put those pitching charts? Dwight Gooden’s book. Keith Hernandez’s book. Darryl Strawberry’s book. Does he have a book? Every Met has a book, doesn’t he? I think —
by Mitch Albom | Oct 19, 1986 | Detroit Free Press
NEW YORK — It was the simplest of plays, the simplest of errors. Tim Teufel did not get his glove down far enough on Rich Gedman’s ground ball and it went between his legs and into right field. And Jim Rice headed home from second base with the first run of Saturday night’s game, the only run of the game, the run that would decide who took the lead in this 1986 World Series. An unearned run. An error on the second baseman. Red Sox win, 1-0. Mets lose.
The simplest of plays.
by Mitch Albom | Oct 19, 1986 | Detroit Free Press
NEW YORK — Here are a few baseball basics. When you pitch, try to throw to the catcher’s glove. If you don’t, the results could be bad.And when you field a ground ball, put your glove all the way down, or else the ball may go between your legs. And...
by Mitch Albom | Oct 17, 1986 | Detroit Free Press
NEW YORK — “What will be?” you say.”Will be,” I say.”Huh?” you say.”What will be will be.””No, no,” you say, “with the World Series. What will be? You picked the Mets, didn’t...
by Mitch Albom | Oct 16, 1986 | Detroit Free Press
BOSTON — That was no baseball. That was a rock heading straight for heaven’s window. “THE RED SOX WIN THE PENNANT!” Did you hear that, angels?Did you hear that, Angels? The Red Sox win the pennant. They are going to the World Series. That ball...
by Mitch Albom | Oct 15, 1986 | Detroit Free Press
BOSTON — One game for the pennant now. One game left. One more chance for the Boston Red Sox, who, when they needed their steadiest pitching performance of the year, went to their unsteadiest pitcher. Naturally. And true to form in this wacko American League Championship Series, he delivered. Naturally.
“Did you hear them yelling OIL CAN! OIL CAN!” someone asked Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd, after his team stuffed California, 10-4, behind seven strong innings of his pitching, to force Game 7 of this American League Championship Series.
