Good morning!
Tigers fans are getting a taste of what it was like to be a Red Sox fan in 1978 when the Yankees came from 14 back to beat Boston in a one-game playoff that happened 47 years ago this Thursday.
On Wednesday night in Cleveland, the Guardians capped a 15 1/2-game comeback by beating the Tigers and taking a one-game lead in the AL Central. “Tigers might be authoring one of the biggest collapses in modern memory,” texted Crosby Hunt from his home in Florida. “Blame will go to GM for not adding a decent starter at the deadline but really their key weapons just stopped hitting.”
Hunt, incidentally, is still mad at Sports Illustrated for using a two column black-and-white photo of Detroit pitcher Mickey Lolich after he beat the Cardinals three times in the ’68 World Series.
Who knows, the Tigers might be back in first place by the time you read this. Crazy things happen in September, none crazier than in 2011 when the Red Sox let a 9 1/2-game lead for the league’s lone wild card spot slip away to Tampa Bay.
The Red Sox went from playoffs to castoffs in a matter of minutes on the last night of the regular season. Here’s how it went down. Both teams had 91-70 records. The Rays were hosting the division-winning Yankees and the Red Sox were at Camden Yards, and for most of the night Boston was in the catbird seat.
The Yankees led the Rays, 7-0, and the Red Sox led the O’s, 3-2. Closer Jonathan Paplebon came on for the bottom of the ninth and struck out the first two batters, but Chris Davis and Nolan Reimold both doubled to tie the score, and Robert Andino singled home Reimold with the winning run.
All eyes shifted to Tampa where the Rays scored six runs in the eighth inning and one in the ninth to tie the game, and Evan Longoria hit a line drive in the 12th inning that barely cleared the short left field fence.
Everyone everywhere was stunned. Just like that the Rays were in and the Red Sox were out. The loss marked the end for manager Terry Francona and GM Theo Epstein, and the beginning of the disastrous but short-lived Bobby Valentine era.
As John Sterling would say, “That’s baseball, Suzyn.”
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The UMass hockey season begins a week from today at the Mullins Center where the Minutemen will host Northern Michigan. UMass is ranked No. 15 in the preseason polls, but coach Greg Carvel wrote in an email, “It’s too early to tell you much. We have to play against an actual opponent to know what we really have, but I expect a similar season to last year.”
Northern Michigan might not offer much resistance. The Wildcats had just five wins in 2024-25 and finished last in the nine-team Central Collegiate Hockey Association.
UMass meanwhile was 21-14-5 and ranked No. 10 in the final polls after upsetting Minnesota at the NCAA regionals and losing to eventual national champion Western Michigan, 2-1.
“We are young up front but I think we will see a lot of growth out of our forward group,” said Carvel. “Our back end is solid and will be the backbone of our team. Hopefully Michael Hrabal will be one of the top goalies in the country.
“We are a BIG team, maybe the biggest in college hockey. If we compete the way we always do we’ll be playing our best hockey at the end of the season and scratching for an NCAA spot.”
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West County native Skip Smith is a longtime St. Petersburg resident and retired TV cameraman who worked his share of Rays baseball and Lightning hockey games.
“Fan support has been one of my pet peeves ever since the folks across the Bay claimed they’d sell out every game if they played in Tampa,” said Smith. “They had their chance after Hurricane Milton blew the roof off the Trop. They played at Steinbrenner Field and averaged 9,700 fans compared to almost 17,000 at the Trop last season.
“I also found it interesting that they had no rainouts,” Smith added. “I wouldn’t have guessed that.”
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In Northfield Thursday morning the only sound outside was of rain gently falling through the trees onto the ground. I turned on WFAN and listened to Karen Stuart give the traffic report. “Got a lot going on in Jersey as we start things off this morning,” she said. “Eastbound Interstate 80 near Exit 60 a tractor trailer accident with all lanes subject to closure westbound and two lanes closed eastbound. Eastbound 24 meanwhile is completely closed, all lanes closed… It’s another day of gridlock alert in Manhattan because of the UN General Assembly that’s running until Monday. Stick right here, we’ll keep you posted all morning.”
That’s all right, we’re happy to be right here in Franklin County.
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SQUIBBERS: The Amherst College football team hosts undefeated Tufts today at Pratt Field. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. and admission is free. … Florida State scored 35 points in the first quarter of a 66-10 rout against Kent State last week. UMass and the Golden Flashes will collide in Ohio on Oct. 11. … Western Michigan beat Toledo 14-13 last week in front of 20,744 fans at Waldo Stadium, which doesn’t bode well for UMass next week. … Today UMass plays the No. 20 Missouri Tigers in Columbia. The Minutemen are slight 42 1/2-point underdogs. … Boomer Esiason on recently benched Giants QB Russell Wilson: “This is a guy, he has spent his entire career spending his off day going to childrens’ hospitals. That’s not phony, that’s him knowing an NFL quarterback carries a lot of weight with kids.” … Giants castoff Daniel Jones has the third highest passer rating in the NFL in his first three games with the Colts. A good O-Line means a lot. … Through Wednesday the Mets had made nine errors in their previous six games. … At this writing Raffie Devers has 19 home runs and 49 RBIs with the Giants, giving him 34 and 107 overall. Devers goes to the post as Don Zimmer would say. His 716 plate appearances this season are among the most in both leagues. … Barb Weinberg’s undefeated (8-0) UMass field hockey team is No. 11 in the coaches’ rankings, right between Princeton and Michigan. … The defending champion UVM men’s soccer team is 6-0-3 and ranked No. 7 in the coaches’ poll. … NFL veteran Chase Edmonds to Ross Tucker on why he chose Fordham over any of the bottom-rung FBS teams: “There’s some cuckoo shows at some of those small FBS schools.” … Baseball analyst Ryan Spilborghs on the Mets’ pending downfall: “The game that stands out for me was Sept. 20 against Washington. Extra innings. First and second, nobody out. They do not bunt, they do not score, and they lose. Any player should be able to bunt.” … The O’s are in the running for the worst free agent signing of ’25, inking Tyler O’Neill for three years and $49.5 million and getting eight home runs and 25 RBIs in return. …Former Cincinnati Bengal punter Pat McInally was asked how art history courses at Harvard helped him in the NFL: “Well,” he said, “we do have a draw play.”