#1

the chance to be part of a leg

in Allgemein 19.11.2019 13:50
von MJL456 • 2.720 Beiträge

DETROIT -- Clevelands most pressing concern was the health of its ace. Tuesdays 12-0 loss to Detroit was just another game.Corey Kluber has a mild quadriceps strain, which could force the AL Central champions to delay his first playoff start. Its another blow for the Indians, who already were missing starting pitchers Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar.Its obviously not the best possible news, but it is a heck of a lot better than it could have been, manager Terry Francona said. This will give him a chance to rest up and hopefully throw a couple bullpens. In the long run, that could help him.Klubers outing was cut short Monday, when Cleveland won at Detroit to clinch the division. The right-hander, who won the 2014 AL Cy Young Award and is a top contender for the honor again this year, had an MRI on Tuesday in Cleveland that confirmed the quadriceps injury.The team says his timetable for returning to game activity is a week to 10 days. Clevelands first playoff game is Oct. 6.The Indians fielded a makeshift lineup Tuesday night. Although Cleveland still has a chance to finish with the American Leagues best record and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, Francona indicated there are other priorities to consider.Cleveland also is bumping right-hander Trevor Bauer back to the weekend. The Indians will start Zach McAllister, who has pitched almost exclusively out of the bullpen this year, on Wednesday night against the Tigers. On Thursday, Ryan Merritt makes his first career start.Our objective always is to win, but well get to see everybody, well try to manage peoples innings, Francona said. We really need to keep our pitchers healthy so they can be productive.Thats the big concern as the postseason approaches. The Indians entered Tuesday second in the AL in runs and first in ERA, but the team thats available to Francona now isnt the same as the one that controlled the division for much of the season. Now Cleveland looks like the ALs version of the Mets, a team with a potentially outstanding starting rotation thats been decimated by injuries.But unlike New York, the Indians are safely in the playoffs already.People have come up and filled in, slugger Mike Napoli said. We were able to clinch the division. When you get there, anything can happen.Boston, Cleveland and Texas are in a tight race for the best record in the AL, but Francona is more concerned about having his team enter the playoffs rested and ready.If I had my choice, Id rather play at home, I think anybody would, but not at the expense of burning out your entire rotation or your bullpen, he said. Having your guys ready to play is the most important thing.Salazar threw a bullpen session Monday, but Carrasco is out for the season.Clevelands lineup Tuesday was almost unrecognizable. Napoli, Francisco Lindor, Jason Kipnis, Jose Ramirez, Rajai Davis and Lonnie Chisenhall were left out.Catcher Chris Gimenez got the start at third base. He had played five innings there previously in a major league career that began in 2009.We should be all right, he said before the game. Hopefully I dont make five errors or something. That would be pretty embarrassing.Gimenez said bench coach Brad Mills passed along the news that he would be at third -- while the team was still celebrating the night before.I just started spraying him with champagne, Gimenez said. He seemed serious, but I wasnt really sure.Carlos Santana did play as the designated hitter Tuesday, although the switch-hitters power wasnt the primary reason, according to Francona.Thats only because we ran out of guys, the manager said.---Follow Noah Trister at www.Twitter.com/noahtrister Fake Yeezys Store . -- The Sacramento Kings are set to become the first major professional sports franchise to accept Bitcoin virtual currency for ticket and merchandise purchases. Fake Yeezy Boost 700 . The Barrie Colts defenceman, who impressed many with his play for Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship, is the top-ranked skater in the February rankings. He has 19 goals and 24 assists for 43 points in 45 games with the Colts this season. http://www.fakeyeezysforsale.com/fake-yeezy-boost-750/ . Rob Manfred, baseballs chief operating officer, testified last week during the grievance filed by the players union to overturn Rodriguezs 211-game suspension. 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When Dr. Mike Shingles had helped to pop Michigan States most beloved hip into place from his seat in the back of an Ann Arbor ambulance, he did what most football fans were doing on the night of Oct. 17, 2015: He reached into his pocket for a cellphone and started searching for the clip.Beside him, Jalen Watts-Jackson reclined in a relative moment of comfort and let the last half-hour start to wash over him. He braced for the next bump in the road on the short drive to the University of Michigans hospital and strained his neck to try to see what Shingles had on his screen. The clip wouldnt load. The cell towers near Michigan Stadium that night were working overtime.The relevant material, whether viewed on Internet video cut-ups or live on television that night, started shortly after 7:20 p.m. Michigan punter Blake ONeill bobbled a low snap, collided with a pair of Spartan rushers and flipped the ball directly into the arms of Watts-Jackson. A 37-yard sprint later, Watts-Jackson lunged into the end zone with two Wolverines draped around his legs, leaving a cleat and a healthy hip behind.If a viewer makes it this far without scrubbing backward to confirm what his or her eyes just saw, the scoreboard graphic in the corner speeds into action, scrolling to a final score: Michigan State 27, Michigan 23.Victoria Norris made it to the exit gate at Michigan Stadium around the time Watts-Jacksons hip was sliding into place. She walked into the concourse and tapped in a password to check her messages on her cellphone. Then a junior in Michigans kinesiology school, Norris kept her cellphone in airplane mode during football games to preserve the battery. Tonight, she was going to need it.Two sections over, Chris Baldwin climbed the steps of the Big Houses low, sloping bowl and ignored the incessant buzzing in the pocket of his jeans. The Saginaw, Michigan, native had friends and family on both sides of the rivalry and knew they would all be pinging him tonight to gloat or commiserate. He had no plans to respond to anyone until he thumbed through the list of incoming messages and saw each came with an attached picture of his shocked face.With social media it happens almost instantly, Norris said. We saw that happen before, so I wasnt that surprised when my phone started blowing up. I didnt realize to what extent it would be until probably the next morning.Norris and Baldwin, along with Watts-Jackson, of course, became the faces of an unforgettable moment in college football history. Do you remember the final score when Stanfords band took the field too early? Can you recall how far Doug Flutie launched his Hail Mary before leaping into the arms of a teammate? The details of last years rivalry game -- the 27-23 final score, the 37-yard return -- will start to fade. The displays of emotions are the parts that are built to last.In the clip, the camera tilts up into the stands, and Baldwins face is the first we see after Watts-Jackson reaches the end zone. His wrists are pressed against the sides of his head in a mixture of anguish and disbelief. Behind his left elbow a young woman stands with her bottom jaw temporarily detached from the rest of her face. Next to her a man in the same yellow sweatshirt as Baldwin wraps his arms around his own head like hes trying to squeeze the sight of Michigan States touchdown out of his eyes. For whatever reason, the camera settled on Baldwin.He had been coming to the Big House to watch his Wolverines since kindergarten, making the decision to move a couple of hours south and study computer engineering an easy one. As far as he can remember, Baldwin says, he had never been on the stadium videoboard or more than a spec in the camera lens in a television broadcast before that night.I figured this will be funny for a day at the most, Baldwin said. Then well move on to the NFL Sunday, and thatll be the end of it.Two months later, he was in Atlanta shaking hands with Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry and Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson. Baldwin attended the Home Depot College Football Awards in December to hand Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio his trophy for the years best play. Dantonio looked shocked -- how fitting -- to see him.Is that you? Dantonio asked the very first time they saw each other in person.Yeah, Baldwin said. Thats me.No further explanation was needed. Baldwin has met hundreds of new people since the play, all starting with some form of, Hey, arent you the guy ... Most want to recount their own memories or heartbreak or glee from that night. He has taken countless photos in the past year. His image has appeared on T-shirts from at least two companies (one of them sent him some food and made a donationn to the Chad Tough Foundation).dddddddddddd He and Norris even became a popular East Lansing Halloween costume last October.His favorite story came when old neighbors from Saginaw, diehard Spartan fans who were watching the game at their daughters wedding reception, let him know that they had seen him amid their celebration. The whole wedding party gathered around the TV with Baldwins face frozen in anguish and took a picture of their smiling faces beside his.At that point, Baldwin realized that this whole thing might be fun.Norris didnt appear on screen until nearly a minute after the touchdown. The camera danced between bewildered folks in blue and maize and giddy ones in green and white. Then it found Norris with her fingers laced together on top of a blue headband and her mouth and eyes still equally gaping.Her grandfather used to coach the golf team at Michigan, and football games at the Big House were personal for Norris. She spent Saturdays growing up yelling at the television screen with her mother while a trio of brothers less in love with sports found other ways to stay busy.It was an easy decision when a coach at nearby Skyline High School asked if Norris, then a goalkeeper for the high schools soccer team, wanted to try to kick field goals for his football team.Norris could put one through the uprights from as far as 45 yards out. She gave punting a brief try as well.I wasnt as good at it as kicking, she said. Knowing that I could get hit while punting was not my forte, so I decided it best to leave that to someone else.She semi-seriously entertained the idea of trying to be a walk-on at Michigan when she first enrolled, but decided instead to play goalkeeper for the Wolverines club soccer team.Norris got the photo requests and the questions just like Baldwin, albeit probably not quite as many. She saw the Halloween costume, too. When she needs a fun fact icebreaker at a new job or her last year of classes, she normally tells people that she has been made into a Crying Jordan meme on the web. No one has been able to top that one yet.Norris mother didnt see the pictures of her daughter until they landed in her email inbox a couple of days after the game. Norris visited the family home later that day to show her mom all the various places her picture had appeared over the weekend. The two gawked at Victoria now on the other side of the TV screen they had hollered at together.She was just mind-blown, Norris said. She thought it was really cool.A couple of days earlier, Norris phone battery had dripped down to 60 percent before kickoff. She slid it into airplane mode as she always does to conserve power and eliminate distractions from her post in the front row of the student section. The messages piled up as soon as she reconnected to the network leaving the stadium, and by the time she walked through town to her apartment the battery was dead.Watts-Jacksons phone was going through its own struggles at just about the same time. It sat unattended in in the visitors locker room at Michigan Stadium, vibrating until it could vibrate no more.When he was reunited with his belongings the following day after surgery in Ann Arbor, Watts-Jackson tried to flip through all the messages he had received. He had a couple of days to watch the clip and its aftermath while recovering in the hospital. His overloaded phone continued to freeze every time he turned it on.Appreciation for his play and concern for his hip poured in through other avenues that week. He received letters and phone calls and soon learned that someone had named a horse after him.Watts-Jackson, like Baldwin and Norris, described the moment as bittersweet, the chance to be part of a legend mixed in with a considerable dose of pain. He wasnt able to return to the field during the Spartans run to the College Football Playoff, and it would be several months before he could walk without some type of help.Id do it all over again, just as long as I knew it would get us to the playoff and keep our goals alive, he said in December.Norris and Baldwin cant say the same. Both said theyd gladly give up their extended 15 minutes of fame for a Michigan victory. The ordeal, though, hasnt come without its lessons. Why do players sacrifice as much as they do, and why do fans torture themselves with their deep emotional connections to a college football team? The sport can be so cruel and painful at times. But shared pain can be beautiful.I guess it really did lift my spirits, said Baldwin, who is still searching for tickets for another round of the rivalry on Saturday. ' ' '

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