Why Aaron Boone will succeed in New York
By Hal McCoy The first purchase Aaron Boone should make as new manager of the New York Yankees is a fire retardant suit. He is going to need it in The Bronx, where putting out fires in the Yankee Stadium clubhouse is a prerequisite to occupying the manager’s chair. Just ask Joe Girardi, Boone’s predecessor. […]
Too many three-point misses dooms Flyers
By HAL McCOY The young and inexperienced University of Dayton basketball team played like a young and inexperienced basketball team Sunday afternoon in the Charleston Classic. In a season during which the Flyers will learn some valuable lessons, many of them painful, they learned a couple Sunday during a 75-67 loss to Old Dominion. ONE: […]
UD loses but The Greek Freak II emerges
By HAL McCOY The Young & The Restless University of Dayton basketball team, under new coach Anthony Grant, is expected to find a few lumps of coal on the floor this season. They began the season with the seventh fewest returning minutes from is returning players — experience at its lowest common denominator. And they […]
Barnhart wins Gold Glove, Hamilton doesn’t
By HAL McCOY Amazingly, the last place Cincinnati Reds had four finalists for a Gold Glove this season, more than any other team in the majors. Of the four — Billy Hamilton, Joey Votto, Adam Duvall and Tucker Barnhart — the least likely to win one, it seemed, would be catcher Tucker Barnhart. That isn’t […]
Astros rules the baseball world for first time
By HAL McCOY For the first time in its 56 years, or the first time ever, members of the Houston Astros will be wearing gaudy diamonds on their fingers, a ring emblematic of a World Series championship. And they earned every carat. With a 5-1 victory in Game 7 over the Los Angeles Dodges in […]
What else? A World Series Game 7 (of course)
By HAL McCOY Strap yourself in because the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodges are going to strap it on for Game 7 of the 2017 World Series Wednesday night in raucous Dodger Stadium. And that’s the only way this highly entertaining roller coaster World Series should end between two talent-stuffed teams that both won […]
Expect the unexpected in World Series for the ages
By HAL McCOY If there is one thing fans can expect in this most enticing and exciting and enigmatic World Series, it is this: Expect the unexpected. Who would expect the Houston Astros to fall behind 4-0 and 7-4, then blow a three-run lead in the ninth inning and still win Game 5 Sunday night […]
Pitching rules as Dodgers level Series
By HAL McCOY When it comes to postseason play, what wins most often is pitching, pitching, pitching, pitching and more pitching. There was no better exhibit of it than Saturday night in Game Four of the World Series as the pitchers on both sides laid waste to the two best offenses in the baseball world, […]
Astros are as proud as a ‘Peacock’
By HAL McCOY Yu Darvish made a request he probably now wishes he hadn’t made. And Los Angeles Dodger manager Dave Roberts probably wishes he hadn’t granted Darvish his request. Under normal circumstances, Darvish would have pitched Game Two of the 2017 World Series against the Houston Astros in Dodger Stadium. Darvish, though, has had […]