12/21/24
July 08, 2011
SportsFilter: The Friday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Former baseball manager Dick Williams dead at age 82. Williams led 3 different teams to the World Series, winning twice with powerful Oakland Athletics teams. He was the manager of the "Impossible Dream" Boston Red Sox of 1967, changing the entire attitude of the organization and taking a team that had finished 9th in the previous season to 1st.
I really should detest Dick Williams. Before the 1967 season, one could always walk up to the park and buy a good seat. I remember in the early '60s cutting Electrical Engineering labs (you could make them up later) on a nice summer day and walking across The Fenway from Northeastern University to Fenway Park. A bleacher seat was less than a buck, beer was also less than a buck. We would often have some conversation with the bullpen pitchers, and once even smuggled a beer to them. Since 1967, tickets to Fenway have become difficult to get and expensive, parking is terrible, and beer is out of sight. Williams made winning baseball in Boston a regular thing, and made Fenway the place to be in the summer.
posted by Howard_T at 04:21 PM on July 08, 2011
beer is out of sight
To clarify, beer prices are out of sight. You won't have much trouble finding suds there. Thankfully, none of the remembrances of Williams have touched on his misunderstanding of the concept of "Fantasy Camp" back in 2000.
posted by yerfatma at 04:56 PM on July 08, 2011
Dick Williams was truly remarkable. I don't know how many other managers were involved in as many memorable moments at multiple stops in their careers. In multiple decades no less. The 67 Sox, getting hosed by Finley after all he'd done for the A's in the 70's, the Expos devastating coulda-shoulda in 81, then piling more heartbreak on the back of Cubs fans with the Padres in 84.
Finley was kind of like Nixon: an incisive, interesting guy who gave a good interview after he was no longer an officeholder (he predicted the Reds sweep over the A's in the 1990 World Series right after Game 1). But an ornery bastard for the most part when he was a team owner.
posted by beaverboard at 05:15 PM on July 08, 2011
When the Wings signed Mike Commodore last week, I made a comment on FB that if he doesn't wear # 64 I'd be very upset. Did someone hear me?
posted by MeatSaber at 06:31 PM on July 08, 2011
Mavericks get their NBA championship rings. But not from the NBA or the Mavs organization. There's a lockout, you know.
posted by graymatters at 12:44 AM on July 09, 2011
Yao retires. It's going to be awkward when he's voted in to next year's all star game.