Larry the K's LIneup: Welcome and bienvenue ....

Welcome to "Larry the K's Lineup." 

As the name suggests, there will be a lot about sports, baseball and especially about the Red Sox included in these write-ups.
But over the course of a long career in newspapers as an editor, columnist and writer before retiring from The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro in 2017, I covered a lot of ground in local news, features and sports. So, as suggested by the word "lineup" in the blog title, there will be many topics covered. I still write on various subjects as a freelance writer and columnist. 
Enjoy.
Thank you, and take care,
Larry Kessler

COVID-19 baseball: While many of us were glad to get sports, and baseball, back, the Red Sox season has been tough to watch. Even before the pandemic, the season started downhill with the salary-dump trade of Mookie Betts and David Price, and it only got worse with the loss of starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez, which left the Sox with a depleted staff, a situation that was exacerbated by the injury to Nathan Eovaldi. As a friend told me, this team is as bad as that of the pre-1967 Sox of the early '60s and late '50s. But for those of us who have missed baseball so much, we'll still tune in, because it will be a long winter before "Truck Day" in February.

RIP Tom Seaver: The baseball world is mourning the passing of Tom Seaver, who became a Hall of Fame pitcher with the New York Mets, especially for his role in helping the "Amazin' Mets" stun the Baltimore Orioles to win the 1969 World Series. But Red Sox fans fondly remember him when he came over to the team in 1986 in a mid-season trade with the Chicago White Sox for Steve "Psycho" Lyons. A knee injury prevented Seaver from being active in the postseason, which robbed basseball fans of seeing Seaver face his old team in the World Series. His passing is a huge loss for the game and makes all Sox fans of a certain age feel even older. Condolences go out to his family, friends and former teammates.
PawSox memories: In January and February, Pawtucket Red Sox fans ---- who bought season-ticket packages to what should have been the team's final season at McCoy Stadium before moving in 2021 to Worcester --- would have been looking forward to seeing a lot of games this week, culminating in the final game of the season on Labor Day (Sept. 7). But the pandemic changed all that. As a tribute to decades of memories of watching baseball at McCoy -- and all the future stars we saw develop there --- I'd like to leave you today with a couple of PawSox columns that I wrote this summer.
The first one was published July 7 in The Sun Chronicle, and the second one was published July 13 in The Sun Chronicle, and also in the August edition of Jewish Rhode Island in Providence. Enjoy -- and think of all the memories we would have enjoyed at McCoy in 2020.

AN ODE TO McCOY

When the news broke that minor league baseball, including the Pawtucket Red Sox’ Triple A season at McCoy Stadium, had been canceled, it wasn’t a surprise. The cancellation was just a formality, given our coronavirus pandemic-imposed “new normal.” 

That, however, didn’t make the realization that loyal PawSox fans had likely seen their last game at McCoy Stadium any easier to take. That’s because, unless the team’s new home in Worcester experiences more construction delays, and won’t be ready for the start of the 2021 season, chances are pretty good that the team is done at McCoy Stadium.
As a result, the PawSox’ final year at McCoy has become one more thing that COVID-19 has stolen from us. Back in January, when many PawSox fans bought 2020 flex or season tickets, there was a lot of optimism that it would be a busy and enjoyable --- if somewhat bittersweet --- final year at McCoy. What should have been a time to celebrate the 50^th year of the Pawtucket-Boston Red Sox affiliation as a minor league franchise, going back to when it was a Double A club, instead turned into a nightmare for PawSox team officials, players and their fans.
The closest that fans have gotten to the field in 2020 has been to have dinner on the infield at McCoy, which has been turned into a socially- distanced restaurant by team officials trying to let their fans enjoy the stadium. The virus has robbed us of spending summer afternoons and evenings at the park watching and talking baseball with friends and family, as we had done for decades.
The team’s news release announcing the cancellation of the season made it clear that the team still intends to open the 2021 season at its new home in Worcester: “The club hopes to open the 2021 season at the northern end of the Blackstone Valley, at Worcester’s Polar Park.”
Yet there could be a glimmer of hope for PawSox diehards as the release also stated: “The club will also explore ways to have a fitting farewell to their longtime home, 78-year-old McCoy Stadium.”
That could mean any number of things, but if team officials are sincere about making the situation right with longtime PawSox fans, they should strongly consider playing some games at McCoy Stadium in 2021, even if the team's new home is declared ready for the season.
Although such a move would be highly unconventional, it’d be the best way to properly thank their fans --- and to offer them the closure that the cancellation of this season has failed to provide.
Such a gesture would be applauded by fans, which include thousands of folks of all ages in the Attleboro area. Over the last several years, I attended 12-16 games a year at McCoy, and over that time I’d inevitably see residents with Attleboro-area community ties involved in pregame ceremonies and in the activities held in between the half-inning breaks. Veterans, youth sports teams, fraternal groups, senior centers, schools, camps and businesses from The Sun Chronicle area all were heavily represented at the 70 home games held yearly at McCoy.
The one thing the team shouldn’t do is simply walk away from McCoy, which would leave Attleboro area fans with a bitter after-taste. I last saw a game at McCoy on Saturday evening Aug. 31, 2019. The PawSox lost, but there was another spectacular fireworks display – something that fans missed this year, especially in early July, when pre-Fourth fireworks had become a longstanding McCoy tradition.
But COVID-19 took all of that away from us, and while that wasn’t the fault of the owners, the team should make things right with the fans by thinking out of the box and playing some games in 2021 at McCoy.
That’s the least that the PawSox can do to make up for the Lost Season of 2020.

THE LONGEST GAME

PawSox Longest Game June-July 2020

Before the coronavirus pandemic canceled their season, the Pawtucket Red Sox were about to mark their final year at McCoy Stadium, in advance of their move to Worcester in 2021, by celebrating the team’s 50^th year at McCoy. Those celebratory events had included the induction of The Longest Game in professional baseball history into the Pawtucket Red Sox Hall of Fame.
The Longest Game, which forever transformed the PawSox franchise, is considered one of the most historic baseball games ever played, and before the world changed, I had been scheduled to discuss the game at the North Attleboro Senior Center. That talk, of course, didn’t happen, as the senior center was closed to the public.
But even without baseball at McCoy, the game that made history 39 years ago has become current again thanks to two documentary series accessible at pawsox.com.
The first involves the PawSox counting down their Top 10 best games of all time, including The Longest Game. The weekly audio documentary series is being presented by Cox Communications and WEEI 103.7 FM. The series --- which is available as a podcast on most major platforms and is streaming at pawsox.com and radio.com --- is called “Solid Gold: Stories of the Best Games in PawSox history.”
In the second documentary, The Longest Game is being featured as part of a four-part video series, “COX Legendary PawSox Stories,” that can be viewed on pawsox.com. Both series are informing a new generation of fans about the regular-season game played in 1981 between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings, which was then the Triple A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles.
***
The game was remarkable for many reasons, none more than the fact that it took two months to complete. That's right: the game began Saturday, April 18, was suspended after 4 a.m. on Sunday, April 19 and finally finished with an additional 18 minutes of baseball on Tuesday, June 23.
But that's only part of what makes The Longest Game so unique. I'd like to share with you what I learned about the game during an interview for a Sun Chronicle story that I did in 2018 with PawSox longtime executive Mike Tamburro. The former president of the team and now the current vice chairman and co-owner, Tamburro was the team's general manager in 1981, and during my interview, he offered these insights into The Longest Game:
* It was played on a cold April night, with 40 mph winds blowing straight in from right field.
* The game was delayed at the start for a half-hour because one of the light towers wasn't working.
* The game lasted 33 innings, but all of the scoring took place in just four innings:
1. The Red Wings opened up the scoring with a run in the top of the seventh to take a 1-0 lead.
2. The PawSox tied it in the ninth to make it 1-1 to push the game to extra innings.
3. Rochester went ahead 2-1 in the top of the21st inning, but the PawSox kept the marathon going by knotting it at 2-2 in the bottom of that inning.
4. The bottom of the 33^rd inning on June 23, when the PawSox won the game 3-2.
* The reason that the game dragged on all night long is linked to a vastly different era of communications before texting and cell phones. The delay in halting the game was due to a faulty mimeograph machine, which for younger readers is best described as a bulky copying machine. What happened was that the International League rules governing the league's 12:50 a.m. curfew – which mandated that no inning start after that time – was inadvertently missing from the umpires' copy of the rules, and as a result, the umpires refused to half the game without direct authorization from the league.
That forced Tamburro to spend several hours calling International League President Harold Cooper, but to no avail. Remember: that was 1981 – decades before cellphones --- so it took Tamburro until after 4 a.m. to get Cooper on the phone, and by then, 32 innings had been played. Cooper immediately suspended the game.
* The teams had a regular game scheduled Sunday, which was Easter, but since the players, and especially the pitchers, were exhausted, the decision was made to finish the suspended game on June 23 – the next time that the two rivals would meet in Pawtucket. That decision proved prudent as Sunday's game was tied 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth and would have gone into extra innings had PawSox player Sam Bowen not hit a walk-off home run.
The game, of course, ended with a PawSox win, and it's destined to remain The Longest Game, at least in the minor leagues, because the International League, starting in 2018, revised the way extra-inning games are handled. Now, from the 10^th inning on, both teams start their respective extra innings with a man on second base, making an extended extra-inning game unlikely.
Learn more about The Longest Game in the quiz that accompanies this column. One of the best books about the game is “The Longest Game” by Steven Krasner; it's suitable for all ages.

LONGEST GAME QUIZ

Here’s a short quiz about The Longest Game; answers are at the bottom.

1. The Longest Game started on April 18-19 and was suspended at 4:07 a.m. on Easter Sunday after the Rochester Red Wings and PawSox had played 32 innings. Why did the June 23 finale receive unprecedented news coverage worldwide?
2. Name the two Hall of Famers, one with each team, who played in the Longest Game.
3. The Longest Game was 1-1 until both teams scored in the 21^st inning. Who knocked in the PawSox run to make the game 2-2?
4. Former Red Sox southpaw Bruce Hurst pitched the 27^th through 32^nd innings in the early-morning hours of April 19. What Red Wings player did he strike out at 4 a.m.?
5. Which PawSox pitcher, who as a member of the Boston Red Sox was traded before the 1986 season to the New York Mets, got the win after pitching a scoreless 33^rd inning?
6. Which former Red Sox second baseman, who was named the MVP of the 1986 American League Championship Series, scored the winning run to end the game on June 23?
7. Whose bases-loaded single to left field scored Barrett to win the game?
8. The PawSox were managed by which future Red Sox manager?
9. Which three former PawSox players are in both the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., and the PawSox Hall of Fame?
10. Name the owner of the PawSox who turned the franchise around in the mid-70s.

The answers

1. Major League baseball players, for the first time in history, struck during the season on June 10, and with no end in sight to the strike two weeks later, the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings were at the epicenter of the baseball world on the evening of June 23.
2. Cal Ripken for Rochester, then a Baltimore Oriole affiliate, and Wade Boggs of the Red Sox. Although Ripken became a Hall of Fame shortstop, he played third base in the game, as did Boggs.
3. Wade Boggs
4. Cal Ripken
5. Bobby Ojeda
6. Marty Barrett
7. Dave Koza
8. Joe Morgan, who was inducted into the PawSox Hall of Fame in 2017.
9. Wade Boggs, Jim Rice and Carlton Fisk. (Boggs and Rice went into the PawSox Hall of Fame in its first year, 2016, and Fisk was inducted in 2017.)
10. Ben Mondor, who's enshrined in both the International League and PawSox Halls of Fame.