BASEBALL BRINGS YOU BACK

AND THE SUNDAY NOTES

BEEN THERE, FELT THAT

Friday night, the Yankees lost. The Mets lost. The Knicks lost.

Been there, done that.

My goodness, it could have been any date in 1975 for New Yorkers.

In 1975 New York:

• The Yankees were a third-place team, managed by Bill Virdon (53-51) and Billy Martin (30-26). They had Sandy Alomar at second, Jim Mason at short, and Pat Dobson on the mound.

  

  Billy Martin was fired by Texas, and then hired by the Yankees

• The Mets were a third-place team, managed by Yogi Berra (56-53) and Roy McMillan (26-27). They had Mike Phillips at short, Del Unser in center, and Bob Apodaca in the bullpen.

• The Knicks were a third-place team, coached by Red Holzman (40-42). John Gianelli was their center, Harthorne Wingo was their power forward, and Henry Bibby, off the bench.

• The (1975-76) Rangers were a fourth-place team, coached by Ron Stewart (15-20-4), John Ferguson (14-22-5). They had Pat Hickey on the left wing, Carol Vadnais played defense, and Dunc Wilson was their backup goalie.

On top of that, New York City that year dealt with a severe fiscal crisis and faced a near-bankruptcy situation, with issues like shuttered schools, firehouses, and a backlog of garbage. The city's unemployment rate reached 12%.

Well, I admit the three losses of the New York teams evoked memories of the past; it really wasn’t as bad as 1975. But here’s what you do need to take away from my fun look at the past.

New York needs a win.

• The last championship by the Yankees was in 2009.

• The last championship by the Rangers was in 1993.

• The last championship by the Mets was in 1986.

• The last championship by the Knicks was in 1972-73.

Let’s go to the notes…

SUNDAY NOTES

Rafael Devers leads the AL in RBI. Maybe the Sox mid- and upper-management should keep trying to humiliate him so that he can keep proving them wrong….Devers had an eight-RBI night against the Orioles, who look horrible. Fangraphs projects Baltimore to finish 72-90. I think they get there only if their fielding improves….Have you heard of Nick Kurtz? Nick is another one of those guys playing for the Roving Athletics. He’s their first baseman. If you define a “work week” as Monday through Friday, Kurtz had a decent work week. He played in all five A’s losses and hit .278, going 5-18. But, four of the five hits were homers, and he drove in eight runs. He boosted his average from .208 to .231….Brandon Lowe, whose name rhymes with 'now', hit his 135th homer the other night. Not momentous, by any means, but it was his 101st in a Tampa Bay victory. 74.8% of his homers have come in Rays victories….The Astros are pitching with Gusto. Really. They have a pitcher named “Ryan Gusto.” His numbers aren’t great, 4.58 ERA, 1.528 WHIP, but his name is….Speaking of familiar names, Albuquerque’s top prosecutor, Sam Bregman, wants to be governor of New Mexico. Maybe if Red Sox fans contribute to his campaign, his son, Alex Bregman, will stay with the team after this season. The primary is on June 2….Speaking of the Sox shortstop, Alex suffered a severe quad strain on Friday, similar to the one he experienced in 2021 that caused him to miss over 50 games. Boston brought up one of their uber-prospects, Marcelo Mayer to play the infield….In Juan Soto’s first 50 games with the Mets, he had 18 oh-fers. Before you get to freaking out, he had no hits in 22 of his first 50 games in 2023 and no hits in 20 of his first 50 games in 2021 and 2022….Aaron Judge now has 333 career homers, 120 to give the Yankees the lead….Kyle Schwarber hit his 300th career regular-season home run on Monday and became the 11th active player to reach the 300-homer mark. He became the 163rd player in history to hit 300 home runs. On this date in 1953, Ralph Kiner hit his 300th home run and became the 12th player to reach the mark.