I hope everyone is staying well. My family is all doing ok so far, and we're quite thankful for that. I've lost some momentum as to what I posted about last time, which is making my way through the 1987 World Series on YouTube. I'm towards the end of Game 4 right now, but haven't watched any for a couple of days. I guess it's more interesting for me when the Twins are winning, so I'll have to slog through the rest of Game 4 and then Game 5 before I get the part I like.
Anyway, I thought I'd show a few cards of guys who are showing up in the series. You might think it's odd that I've got Tony Gwynn and Paul Molitor here, then. But they're a noticeable part of the broadcast. Every time there's a new pitcher, the network puts on Gwynn (if it's a Cardinal) or Molitor (if it's a Twin, since the Brewers were in the AL back then) to give their views of the pitcher's style, strengths, and weaknesses. Of course they were both great hitters, but they also did a great job of the task at hand.
Then we have two retired players, who were two of the three broadcasters for ABC, joined by Al Michaels. They had a chat at one point about pitchers that use personal catchers, which is something McCarver knows about first-hand, being at one time Steve Carlton's personal catcher.
Speaking of Carlton, he's someone you don't see in the World Series, although he was there. Carlton was a shadow of his former self at that point but still in the majors, and was on the Twins roster. The story is that he made the trip to the White House with the Twins but was identified in a photo as a Secret Service agent.
And, I'll throw in this card of Carlton and Palmer, together with Dave Goltz (a Twin, which seems appropriate for this post) and longtime Royal Dennis Leonard. Carlton led the NL with 23 wins, then Tom Seaver was second in the majors with 21. Four NL pitchers, John Candelaria, Bob Forsch, Tommy John, and Rick Reuschel, tied the three AL leaders with 20 wins each.
That's it for this post -- thanks for reading! Best wishes to you all and your families to stay safe and healthy.
I've never heard that bit about Carlton being listed as a Secret Service agent. That's hilarious considering that Carlton is a total tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorist who thinks that the government is basically there to kill Americans.
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