The month where folks fondly remember the caramel popcorn balls that the Fitzgeralds handmade and gave out to trick or treaters in Inverness is here.
Used to be, we were ever so close to the World Series and could focus on squirrel hunting and bow season. But with the expanded playoffs, Mr. October has an even chillier and ever-so-wrong moniker, Mr. November. Baseball should only be played when shorts are needed and folks are sweating a bit.
Like I tell folks who ask me to ice fish, if I can’t wear shorts and sweat and enjoy an ice cold beer, then it’s not fishing season.
Reggie Jackson was the first to my knowledge to be called Mr. October. He excelled in the playoffs and World Series. In a decade spent in Oakland, he helped them win five consecutive American League West divisional titles, three straight American League pennants and three consecutive World Series titles from 1972 to 1974.
Mr. October took his talents to the Yankees and helped New York win four American League East divisional pennants, three American League pennants and back-to-back World Series titles, in 1977 and 1978.
All was right with the world when Reggie was at-bat in a pressure situation and the stakes were high. He didn’t get to play in the 1972 series as he snapped his hamstring stealing home in a win against Detroit to put them in the World Series.
The beginning of his legend.
But who are today’s possible Mr. Octobers? The Braves’ Ronald Acuna with his 40 home runs and 70 stolen bases? Freddie Freeman with the Dodgers? Bryce Harper with the Phillies? Vladimir Guerrero Jr with the Blue Jays?
There are plenty of folks to choose from. Mookie Betts with the Dodgers, Christian Yelich with the Brewers and plenty of deplorable Astros who shall not get a mention in my space.
And there are pitchers but I don’t see any Orel Hershiser-esqe or Andy Pettites running out to the mound these days. Nobody named Larsen or White or Drysdale. I do see a Kyle Bradish for the Orioles, Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers who gives a ‘70s/’80s-type of World Series glimmer. But is there anyone else these days who will rise above it all? Will there be a bloody sock?
A broken bat thrown back by Roger Clemens? Will there be passion and despair? Will it be a post-season to remember?
Heck, it’s hard to recall the regular season when your team with 27 World Series banners battles to stay out of the American League East basement.
But I’ll be watching. Probably after the Wild Card dust settles. I need to see what baseball these days on the Major League postseason level is and if there’s hope for a future Mr. October.
But maybe he’s still being cast. Maybe the heat of the post season hasn’t melded him into the champion he’ll become. But I’m watching and cheering and tuning in to see the next Mr. October come this November.
