There’s a chance that the Major League Baseball season comes to an end tonight and if it doesn’t happen tonight, it will definitely end tomorrow night.
The Houston Astros are one win away from winning the World Series and I’m always surprised when they mention that this will be the first time that their manager Dusty Baker has won a World Series. Baker has had a very successful managerial career, but this is just the third time that a team he’s managed has made it to the World Series.
Baker led the San Francisco Giants to the World Series in 2002, but they lost that series to the Anaheim Angels. Baker didn’t return to the World Series until last season when the Astros lost to the Atlanta Braves. Counting this season this is the 12th time that Baker has managed a team into the playoffs out of the 25 seasons he’s managed. I think that’s one of the reasons I’m surprised that he’s never managed a World Series winner.
Baker has taken all five teams he managed to the playoffs and has a regular season managerial record of 2093-1790. Now Baker has a 17-12 record in the playoffs but is still looking for that first World series win.
Now, to be fair Baker has won a World Series, but as a player. Baker was a member of the 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers who won the World Series that season. As a player Baker appeared in three World Series 1977,1978 and 1981 all while with the Dodgers. In 1977 Baker was voted the Most Valuable Player of the National League Championship Series. Baker hit .357 with 2 home runs and 8 RBIs on his way to winning that award.
The World Series returns to Houston giving the Astros to wrap up the championship at home. Game 6 is tonight and Framber Valdez is the Astros starting pitcher. On the brink of elimination, the Philadelphia Phillies are turning to Zack Wheeler to help get them to a Game 7.
Valdez was the starter in Game 2 and pitched very well as the Astros picked up a win 5-2. Valdez pitched 6 1/3rd innings, he gave up 4 hits and 1 run while walking 3 and striking out 9. I’m sure that the Astros would be very happy if they could get a repeat pitching performance like that from Valdez.
Wheeler was the Phillies starter in the Game 2 loss, and he didn’t have the best of outings. Wheeler pitched 5 innings and gave up all 5 of the Astros runs in that game on 6 hits while walking 3 and striking out 3. One of the runs Wheeler gave up was unearned. Obviously, Wheeler will need a better start for Philadelphia to get this series to a Game 7.
Well let me know what you think is going to happen tonight. Will the Astros close it out and win the World Series? Or do the Phillies take this series to a Game 7?
We made some preseason predictions coming into this baseball season and I don’t think that we did very well with them. It was myself, Schaumburg Stu and Dan the Man. None of us had the Astros or the Phillies making it into the World Series. We did at least have both teams making the playoffs. Like a lot of people coming into this season we all picked the Dodgers to win the World Series. Schaumburg Stu and Dan the Man had them beating the New York Yankees and I had them beating the Chicago White Sox.
We also made some predictions on who would win individual awards, but I’m going to wait until they’re announced until I reveal who we picked. It does look as though we have a chance to get a couple of those right, but not very many of them. We made picks for MVP, Cy Young, Manager of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Comeback Player of the Year.
I will let you in on one thing. Both of the managers I picked to win Manager of the Year were fired during the season. So, you can kind of see how my predictions went.
I know I haven’t written about it much this year, but the NASCAR championship will be decided tomorrow. The champion will be decided in Phoenix at the Phoenix Raceway.
There are four drivers competing for the NASCAR championship. Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain or Chase Elliott will be the champion this season.
If you’re interested in watching or just checking in on the race it airs live tomorrow on NBC. The pre-race show starts at 12:30 p.m. while the race itself is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m.
Don’t forget to set your clocks back and remember to look for me on Twitter @Burketime.
Initially, I was rooting for Schwarber and the Phillies to upset the Astros in the world series. But now, I’m rooting for Dusty Baker to finally get his first managerial W/S title and I think that it will happen tonight.
Schwarber, Castellaneous and Robertson will have to wait another day while secretly thanking the Cubs for dealing them!
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