October 26, 2021

1. The World Series starts tonight in Houston

Framber Valdez vs. Charlie Morton. 8:09 ET.

For the love of God, and all things baseball righteous — let’s go Braves.

2. Notes and news as the World Series begins

Astros ace Lance McCullers will be out for the entire series:

Mini-sized pinch-runner extraordinaire, Terrance Gore (5'7"), is added to the Braves’ roster. A guy who could end up being the hero.

And the first pitch tonight will be thrown by a Hall of Famer:

3. Knock on wood, but Ozzie Guillen might be returning to baseball

We need this. Baseball needs this. San Diego needs this.

Here’s what he’s up to now, a nostalgic tweet from this afternoon:

4. Anthony Rizzo wants to return to the Yankees

And in some small way, he’s still be playing in the World Series.

5. Baseball superstar Brett Phillips is an official “correspondent” at the World Series

Not tonight, but starting Game 2 he’ll be on the field, interviewing players. Hopefully trying to sneak on the mound and pitch, while he’s at it.

Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of that hit.

6. Willson Contreras gets stuck at the airport

It’s a slow news day. This newsletter is trying hard to stretch this thing out to at least ten stories. This one, for relatability alone, has to qualify:

Coming back from a teammate vacation:

7. Bubba Starling, the fifth-overall MLB draft pick in 2011, decides to retire

He only appeared in 91 career major-league games (all for the Royals), and one of those sad never-made-it-happen stories you see here and there with top prospects, especially in baseball:

8. Scenes from Minute Maid Park before Game 1

9. And the roof sliding closed

A very cool timelapse video, here:

10. And lastly, some great old photos from World Series games long ago

To fill the thumb-twiddling slow news days downtime until this game gets going: