OBSERVATIONS: India wins Rookie of Year (And, YES, I voted for him)

By HAL McCoy

UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave, typed in my new office-style executive swivel chair, which Office Depot put together for me for an additional $15.

—As he said early in spring, Jonathan India wanted to win the Jackie Robinson National League Rookie of the Year Award.

Mission accomplished. . .and almost unanimously. Each National League city had two BBWAA writers vote on the award and India received 29 of the 30 first-place votes

I was one of the two Cincinnati chapter voters and it was revealed on MLB-TV that, “Ironically, the one vote he didn’t get came from Cincinnati and that vote went to (pitcher) Trevor Rogers.”

Not guilty. It wasn’t me. I STRONGLY voted for India, not just because he played for the Reds, but because he was firmly the Rookie of the Year.

I don’t know who the other Cincinnati voter was, but he is the one who voted for Rogers and he is certainly entitled to his vote. . .even if he disagreed with 29 other voters, including me.

Hey, even the two voters from St. Louis voted for India and not Dylan Carlson and the two voters from Miami voted for India and not Rogers.

—If there is a more avid baseball fan than Chuck Harlow, I’d like to meet that person. It isn’t true that Harlow was born with red seams in his head, it only seems that way.

After coaching high school baseball in the Dayton area for 43 years, 34 at Northmont, Harlow is calling it a career, and what a career it was. He won 743 games and lost a few.

He most likely would have been a fantastic manager of the Cincinnati Reds, because he loves them with the same passion he loves the game.

I once spoke to one of his classes at Northmont. Once. I must have stunk it up because he never invited me back. For sure, though, he never stunk it up.

—When Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman pitched for the ’69 Miracle Mets, they went together like peas and carrots, if you like peas and carrots. They pitched together like a barber shop: “Who’s next?”

In mid-August of 1969, the New York Mets trailed the Chicago Cubs by 10 games.

And here is what you’ll never see again. From that point to the end of the season,, Seaver pitched eight straight complete game and won them all. Koosman went 9-and-2 with seven complete games. All millennials can look up the meaning of ‘complete game.’

And the Mets won the National League East by eight games, an 18-game turnaround in a month-and-a-half.

—Just when you think the Cleveland Browns are close to living up to the pre-season hype and press clippings, they go to New England and get treated like the British Red Coats.

Bill Belichick, the former Browns coach, gave current Browns coach Kevin Stefanski, a free tutorial Sunday afternoon. . .the second Boston Massacre. Using an imaginative playbook, the New England Patriots romped, 45-7.

On this day, a much-confused Browns defense couldn’t stop Wally Peepers. Plowing mostly between the tackles, running back Rhamondre Stevenson toured the Browns’ secondary 20 times for 100 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Mac Jones, who is not Tom Brady or even Bert Jones, hit 19 of 23 passes for 198 yards and three touchdowns.

After the game, Cleveland’s star pass rusher, sacked the coaching staff by saying, “We didn’t make the adjustments on the sideline or when we had time to.” The sideline adjustment to start the second quarter should have been, “OK, everybody get on the bus.”

The Browns play the winless Detroit Lions Sunday, but I think I have to rake leaves or shovel snow or take apart the motor in Nadine’s Lincoln and put it back together. Or maybe my dentist, Dr. Ross Shira, will come in on Sunday and give me a root canal.

—As the University of Dayton football team discovered, giving Jake Chisholm the football is like handing him the keys to a Porsche. He’ll give it a high-performance.

For the third time this season, Chisholm was named the Pioneer Football League Offensive Player of the Week. He tied a school record with five touchdowns and carried 34 times for 226 yards as the Flyers upset first-place
Davidson, 38-29.

Chisholm stands only 5-foot-9, but is an oak-solid 195 pounds. He leads the PFL with 235 carries (23.5 a game), leads in rushing yardage with 1,123 yards and leads with 16 touchdowns. He scored 13 times in UD’s last three games, all wins

Amazingly, after game all heavy workloads, he looks as if he just slept 10 hours and rolled out of bed.

“His conditioning. . .he is very particular about his diet and his sleep habits,” said UD coach Rick Chamberlin. “You can’t wear him down, you can’t.”

—Florida 70, Samford 52. Thought it was a basketball game until I double-checked. It, indeed, was a football game played in The Swamp.

Are you kidding? Samford, an FCS program in the Southern Conference scored 52 points? Hey, they scored 42 in the first half.

And this team lost to Chattanooga, 52-13, lost to VMI, 46-45, lost to Mercer, 45-42, lost to East Tennessee State, 55-48, and lost to Tennessee-Martin, 33-27.

They scored 52 against Florida, scared the hell out of them and took their $525,000 guarantee and scurried on back to Birmingham, Ala.

—Why college football is fun. Kansas was a 35 1/2-point underdog for a game at Texas and the Jayhawks had lost 56 straight Big 12 road games.

Final Score: Kansas 57, Texas 56, in overtime. Texas scored first in the overtime and kicked the extra point. The Jayhawks then scored a touchdown. . .and Kansas coach Lance Leipold is a brave (or silly man). He wanted no part of a possible nine-overtime game like Illinois-Penn State.

He decided to do-or-die in the first overtime and went for a game-winning, or game-losing, two-point conversion. A completed pass just over the goal-line gave Kansas the most improbable win for a college team this season.

Rock chalk, Jayhawk. And what the hell does that mean? Glad you asked. The chant was first adopted by the university’s science club in 1886. Chemistry professor E.H.S. Bailey and his colleagues were returning by train to Lawrence after a conference. During their travel, they discussed a need of a rousing yell. They came up with, “Rah, Rah, Jayhawk, Go KU,” which later became “Rock chalk, Jayhawk, Go KU.”

—Watched the Team USA-Mexico World Cup soccer qualifier last week in Cincinnati. The US won, 2-0, but but there were so many fights I thought it was a hockey game with the ice melted.

—Is Green Bay the only place I can buy frozen tundra? Beware of a guy named Rodgers offering to sell you some.