A Sunday Morning Reflection

Bull Durham 1988
Annie Savoy and Crash Davis

I woke up on Sunday, November 2 thinking about baseball.  The 2025 World Series had wrapped up the night before less than 12 hours ago.  I can't think of any other team (maybe Milwaukee or St. Louis) who I wanted more to NOT win than the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Here we are, the Los Angeles Dodgers are the World Series Champs and not just the WS Champs but back to back WS champs.  Congrats to them and their fans.  I firmly believe that to win the World Series back-to-back is more difficult than any of the major U.S. team sports (NBA, NFL, NHL).  

When I think of baseball on a Sunday morning, I can't help but think about the Church of Baseball.  This is not my creation, the Church of Baseball.  It comes from perhaps the best baseball film of all time, Bull Durham. 

I believe in the Church of Baseball.  I've tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones.  And the only church that truly feeds the soul, day-in and day-out, is the Church of Baseball. 

         -Annie Savoy 

I woke up thinking about baseball and what a memorable season this has been for me.  It was an amazing first half of the season with the Cubs and Tigers leading the way in first place in their respective divisions.  Both teams giving us a peek at the future as both teams showed a youth movement as young players became team leaders.  Pete Crow Armstrong, Michael Busch, Matt Shaw, Cade Horton led by veterans Ian Happ, Kyle Tucker, James Taillon, Matthew Boyd, Seiya Suzuki were impactful players for the Cubs.  Colt Keith, Trey Sweeney, Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, Kerry Carpenter, Dillion Dingler, Casey Mize, Will Vest, Tarik  Skubal all emerged as players who make an impact for the Detroit Tigers.  While both teams struggled in the second half of the season, both went on to make the playoffs and both advanced to the NLDS and the ALDS.  I believe happy days are ahead. 

My thoughts returned to the World Series and what an amazing series it turned out to be.  Let's review: 

• Each team gets a win in games 1 and 2.
• An 18 inning Monday night game that the Dodgers win to go 2-1 in the series.
• The Blue Jays come back with two wins to make the series 3-2. 
• The Dodgers win in Toronto in Game Six to tie it up 3-3. 
• Game 7...let's recap
• Shohei Ohtani is the starting pitcher and bats leadoff for the Dodgers.
• Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer is the oldest (41 yrs) starting pitcher in WS game seven.
• Blue Jays objected to the more than 3 minutes Ohtani took between innings to start the inning.  
• Benches cleared in a shoving match situation after Gimenez is hit by pitch, the second time the Dodgers pitchers plunked him this World Series.  
• Light hitting Miguel Rojas ties the game for the Dodgers in the ninth with the  Blue Jays two outs from a World Series title. 
• Extra innings!  
• The Dodgers never led the game until the 11th inning.  
• Previous night's Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto closes out the game

No wonder my mind was still buzzing with baseball when I woke up Sunday morning.  An amazing  baseball season replayed itself in my mind filling my soul with the Church of Baseball.  

Coca Cola Kids "B Team" Baseball Club makes the Playoffs

Semifinal (lower bracket):

Coca Cola Kids vs. Trot's Cardinals  10-5 "Kids Move Past Trot's Cardinals to make it to the Fifth Place Finals Matchup with Gourmet by Gorman" 

Finals (5th Place Match-up)

Coca Cola Kids vs. Gourmet by Gorman  7-8 "Kids Can't Hold the Lead and Drop the Final Contest to Gourmet by Gorman"  

6th Place finish

The Coca Cola Kids "B Team" Baseball Club missed the top bracket of the playoffs with three games back.  It is disappointing as they spent the majority of the season in the top three spots of the league.  But, if you go back to the Week One opening back in April, you'd find that the Kids excel at mediocrity.  

If the Kids round out the bottom of the bracket with two wins and a fifth place finish, that is, well, right in the middle of this 10 team league.  Kinda feels, mediocre.  

Well, here is the line-up for the 2025 playoffs for the Coca Cola Kids "B Team" Baseball Club: 

C: Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners

1B: Matt Olson, Atlanta Braves

2B: Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers

3B: Blaze Alexander, Arizona Diamondbacks

SS: Jose Pena, Houston Astros

OF: Siya Suzuki, Chicago Cubs

OF:  Kyle Schwarber, Philadelphia Phillies

OF: Ceddanne Rafaela, Boston Red Sox

Util: Steven Kwan, Cleveland Guardians

Bench: Kyle Tucker, Chicago  Cubs

SP: Nick Pivetta, San Diego Padres

SP: Shota Imanaga, Chicago Cubs

SP: Bryan Woo Seattle Mariners

RP: Ryan Helsley New York Mets

RP: Fernando Cruz, New York Yankees

RP: Luke Weaver, New York Yankees

BN: Jesus Luzardo Philadelphia Phillies

BN: Jason DeGrom Texas Rangers

BN: Carlos Vargas Seattle Mariners

IL: Kyle Stowers OF Miami Marlins

IL: Daniel Palencia, Chicago Cubs

Coca Cola Kids "A Team" Baseball Club makes the Fantasy Playoffs

It was a season to remember for the Coca Cola Kids as they dominated the first half of the season.  Players that contributed to the historic first half are Cal Raleigh, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Josh Naylor, Katel Marte, Elly de la Cruz, Julio Rodriguez, Matthew Boyd, Jason Adams, Freddie Peralta and Shota Imanaga.  The Kids blew out teams week after week mid-July.  

July and August was a different story for the Kids.  As players like Pete Crow-Armstrong, Elly de la Cruz, and the starting pitching went cold and players like Spencer Torkelson, and Bryson Stott cooled off the Kids' dominance ended.  They lost the last six weeks of the regular season, and their first place in the league.  

Some roster changes heading into the playoffs include bringing in Blaze Alexander 3B (Arizona), Mike Yastrzemski OF (Kansas City), Zach Gelof 2B (Las Vegas), Will Vest RP (Detroit) to help fill or back up some spots that have shown weakness in the last several weeks.  

The Kids did manage to hold onto, by a thread, the second spot in the playoffs, earning a first week bye.  This post will update the results of the playoffs for the Kids, so stay tuned. 

Until then, here are the regular season leaders for the Coca Cola Kids "A Team" Baseball Club: 

Team Leaders after 18 Weeks:

Runs: 94 - Elly De La Cruz

1B: 95 - Julio Rodriguez

2B: 34 - Pete Crow-Armstrong

3B: 6 - Elly De La Cruz

HR:  50 - Cal Raleigh

RBI: 107 - Cal Raleigh

SB:  32 - Elly De La Cruz

BB:  81 - Cal Raleigh

K's: 160 - Cal Raleigh

Ave:  .291 - Ketel Marte

IP: 164.1 - Framber Valdez

W:  16 - Freddie Peralta

L: 13 - MacKenzie Gore

SV: 20 - Will Vest

Hits: 142 - MacKenzie Gore

BB: 58 - Freddie Peralta

K: 173 - MacKenzie Gore

HLD:  29 - Jason Adam

SP ERA:  2.58 - Freddie Peralta

RP ERA:  1.81 - Jason Adam

QS:  18 - Framber Valdez

Topps Bunt Community - Paying It Forward

The first week of October when the Major League Baseball playoffs began an unusual thing happened on my Topps Bunt app.  See, my profile picture on the app is the Detroit Tigers "Old English D."  I am supporting my second favorite team, but my favorite in the playoffs.  Suddenly, I started getting unbalanced trades by 4 or 5 different people on the opening day of the Wildcard games.  When I say unbalanced, I mean unbalanced in my favor.  These people started sending me Tigers cards out of the blue with "Go Tigers!"  messages.  They weren't sending base cards; they were sending common and uncommon cards.  How fun!  It really made my day.  

I don't know.  I thought this was an amazing little trend, so I paid it forward and a sent whole bunch of my Tigers doubles to those who have the "Old English D" on their profile.  As the games continue through the playoffs, I plan to do this with fans of other teams.

Let's take this random act and pass it on in the other card apps.  Take a look at someone's profile and ship off unwanted dupes that match team or character of their profile.  This, by the way, isn't a trade you send to get something, just ask for a random base card.  Let that person know that you are celebrating their team or character.