Hi all. There’s nothing I can say about the passing of Dallas Green yesterday that hasn’t been said with more cleverness than I have. Mike Lupica wrote an awesome piece about the tragic death of Green’s granddaughter 6 years ago in a hail of bullets that killed 6 and injured many more including an Arizona congresswoman.
One bullet ended her career while another took the life of katie-Taylor Green, who was 9 years old.
Dallas Green had managed the Phillies to their first World Series win in 1980 and nearly drove the Cubs to the Series in 1984. Had they held a lead of 2 games to none over San Diego they would have faced the Tigers in the 1984 World Series. By the time the north siders were back in the playoffs Green had moved on to the Yankees, after which he joined the Mets. He laid the groundwork for an awful mets team in 1993 to reach the playoffs by 1999. Again, by the time the fruit ripened on the vine the man who planted the seeds had left. Now he’s permanently with the angels, particularly his granddaughter. R I P

On a much lighter note, the USA won the World Baseball classic defeating Puerto Rico in the final game early  this morning in Los Angeles.   The Japanese had won the first classic in 2006, then the Dominican Republic took the next 2 tournaments but were eliminated Monday night.  So, in spite of all the criticism from the talking heads about the pitchers who weren’t on the US team-Arrieta, Kershaw, Syndergaard, Bumgarner-The US team won anyway.  Hopefully the next time the finals won’t be scheduled in the Pacific time zone so somebody can watch them as they unfold, as opposed to on demand.