Congratulations to our Boys Soccer All-OCC award winners:
OPY Luke Lavengood
DPY Gary George (2x)
COY Dustin Hosler
1st team: Ethan Haag, Eric Cao
2nd team: Parker Morton
HM: Ward Schaaf, Jonah Coffee
Jose Ramirez learned to hit on a dirt field across the river from his house, swinging a stick at bottle caps.
Cleveland signed him out of there for $50,000.
Tonight he hit a home run on a pitch that was under 9 inches off the ground, and the Cleveland Guardians are going to the American League Championship Series.
Here is the whole thing.
He grew up in Bani, in the Dominican Republic. The family house sat across the Rio Bani from the field where the kids played.
His father could not find steady work.
"He didn't have much work, we didn't have much money."
His grandmother Santa raised him.
"She taught me the values of helping the community."
She died in 2023.
The game they played in Bani is called Vitilla. A bottle cap for a ball, a stick for a bat.
"I had to play with a glove that was too tight."
Miguel Tejada, who is also from Bani, used to run a clinic that handed out food and equipment to kids who needed it. Ramirez remembers getting in that line.
Then in 2009 he took some swings at a showcase in front of Cleveland scouts, and they signed him for $50,000.
That was 17 years ago. He has never played for anybody else.
In January he signed an extension through 2032 with a full no trade clause, and tore up a deal that still had three years and $69 million on it.
Seven All Star teams. 285 home runs and 287 stolen bases.
He has never won a World Series. Cleveland has not won one since 1948.
And this was the worst year of his career. He had surgery on the hamate bone in his left hand and he never really looked like himself again.
Then this series started and Cleveland lost the first two games at home to the Chicago White Sox.
Down 0 and 2. One loss from the end of it.
Game 3 he went 2 for 4 and Cleveland won.
Game 4, facing elimination, he hit a two run home run and drove in three, and Cleveland won again.
Game 5 tonight, facing elimination again. Fourth inning. Sean Burke throws him a 78 mile an hour curveball that crosses the plate 0.74 feet off the ground.
He hits it 348 feet over the right field fence.
Nobody has homered on a lower pitch in a postseason game since baseball started tracking where pitches cross the plate in 2008.
He is also the first Cleveland hitter ever to homer in two straight postseason games while facing elimination in both of them.
Those two runs were the only runs anybody scored. Gavin Williams struck out 12 and gave up one hit. Cleveland 2, Chicago White Sox 0.
Now the honest part. He is 34 and he had a bad regular season, Cleveland lost five of six to the Tampa Bay Rays this year, and Game 1 is Monday night in Tampa.
But a kid who learned to hit bottle caps with a stick just took a curveball off his shoelaces and ended a series with it.
The 1999 Memorial. Tiger Woods has a 2 iron in his hand. 274 yards out. fires an absolute laser beam. Those were the glory days 🔥
Stevie: “That’s a great shot there!”
🏆Arrow Volleyball Senior Night🏆
💥PACK THE STANDS💥
If you can't make it, we've got you covered!
📍Arrow Arena
⏰ 5:45 p(ish) J&H Lawncare & Snowplowing Pregame Show
🏐 Ashland v Dover
🎤 Aidan Chandler, Kory Oslie
📺 https://t.co/OvbjLBw0Nu
@paramoc@AshlandAll@ArrowsAD
2027 gets another interesting storyline...
Andrew Bailey spent the U.S. Open in June working the merch tent. A volunteer shift for Holderness & Bourne, the brand he reps for his day job.
He was playing mini tours until a broken wrist in 2015 ended that run. Fast forward 11 years and 12 USGA starts later, Bailey just won the U.S. Mid-Am. Next summer, he’s teeing it up at Pebble Beach for the U.S. Open.
Bucket hat. Bucket list.
Sean McDermott reveals what struck him about Todd Monken's willingness to seek advice before his first team meeting with the Browns.
"I didn't really know Todd well. I knew his work, but I had never really interacted with him. Funny story. So, he reaches out this past, I believe it was early March, and he was really curious about my first team meeting in 2017 in Buffalo. And that's not something I've ever been asked before as a head coach in my nine seasons in Buffalo, or just a question that people are vulnerable enough to ask. We get asked questions about scheme and leadership and so on and so forth, but Todd reached out, and he wanted to know about my first team meeting. He had heard about it, and really how I connected the building and made sure everybody valued each and every department, not just the football departments, and it really just struck me, and this is not about me, it's about Todd. What struck me about it was how vulnerable one has to be to reach out to a peer about a question like a team meeting, especially when he just got his job, and he's about to go into his first team meeting with his new group."
(via @RichEisenShow)
We had Anthony Kim earlier this season getting a comeback win. Then it was Gary Woodland with that emotional victory in Houston. Now we get Tom Kim winning to avoid military service. Just an incredible trio of victories this season in pro golf.
https://t.co/t33lAWWkBu