Baseball: Palos Verdes is winning with talent, not luck
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Baseball is like Scrabble -- it takes nearly as much luck as it does talent.
That’s why a win streak on the diamond is so astounding. Just a slew of quirks can wreck a streak: a bad-hop grounder, a wind-blown home run, an umpire’s crummy call, a pitcher’s sore elbow -- you get my point.
That’s also why Palos Verdes’ stretch is so awesome. The No. 18-ranked Sea Kings have won 20 consecutive games -- wow, 20 --and have not lost since March 12 when the ‘27 Yankees Incarnate (a.k.a Crespi) beat them. Palos Verdes wins with hitting, it wins with pitching, it just wins and wins and wins.
But here it looms, the streak’s most menacing threat...
On Wednesday, the Sea Kings (23-3, 6-0) play Bay League rival and No. 11 West Torrance (21-3, 5-1), then play the Warriors again three days later. Not only is the Sea King’s streak on the line -- but the league title is, too.
Tangent alert, tangent alert...
OK, so I just mentioned the ’27 Yanks, who were known as Murderers’ Row. Well, I recently learned it was the 1918 Yankees who first earned the moniker. Here’s how a 90-year-old newspaper article described them:
“New York fans have come to know a section of the Yankees’ batting order as ‘murderers’ row.’ It is composed of the first six players in the batting order—Gilhooley, Peckinpaugh, Baker, Pratt, Pipp, and Bodie. This sextet has been hammering the offerings of all comers.”
Man, that was fun to read.
-- Anthony Stitt
-- Image from wordpress.com