The Indians in six.
That’s the World Series prediction of former Cleveland player-manager Lou Boudreau. The Indians and Florida Marlins are tied 1-1 entering Game 3 at Jacobs Field Tuesday night.
“That is a strong lineup that the Indians have and they will score some runs. That puts the pressure on the opposing pitcher,” Boudreau, 81, said Monday from his south suburban home.
Boudreau led the Indians to their last World Series championship in 1948 against the Boston Braves. The Hall of Fame shortstop nicknamed “Good Kid” hit .355 that wondrous year.
Team owner Alva Bradley named Boudreau player-manager in 1941, when the shortstop was 24 years old. After Bill Veeck purchased the ballclub, Boudreau maintained the dual role until 1950.
The 1948 Indians finished with the same regular-season record as the Boston Red Sox, forcing a one-game playoff that Cleveland won 8-3. Boudreau went 4 for 4 with two homers in that game at Fenway Park.
Cleveland went on to beat the Braves four games to two in the World Series.
Asked his most enduring memory of the ’48 World Series, Boudreau said: “Besides winning it, I remember Bob Feller’s pickoff play in the first game. We had Phil Masi picked off second base and the umpire called him safe. The next pitch, Tommy Holmes singled to left. And Feller didn’t get a chance to win a World Series game.”
These days, Boudreau is restricted in his travels because of arthritis in his spine.
“I would be there in Cleveland, if I could,” he said. “It would be nice if they would have a reunion for those of us who are still living from that 1948 team.”
Tough route: Marshall receiver Randy Moss is being mentioned as a possible Heisman Trophy candidate, but only two players from midlevel major college programs have cracked the top 10 in Heisman balloting in the last 30 years–Toledo quarterback Chuck Ealey, who finished eighth in 1971, and Northern Illinois tailback LeShon Johnson, who was sixth in 1993.
Inside information: WMAQ-AM 670 sportscaster Peggy Kusinski made the most of the Bears’ bye weekend. She got married to Chicagoan Jason Kinander. . . . Brett Hull led a group of his St. Louis Blues teammates into Iron Mike’s Grille for dinner before playing the Blackhawks last Sunday. Blues players Tony Twist and Geoff Courtnall went upstairs to the cigar parlor after dinner and learned how to roll their own stogies. . . . Bears defensive lineman Jim Flanigan will announce the kickoff of his foundation to promote literacy at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the University of Chicago Children’s Hospital. The John A. (Jack) Kennedy Award was presented to the winning foursome at last month’s “Barat on the Green” celebrity golf tournament at Knollwood Club in Knollwood.
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Send e-mail to Fred Mitchell at Kick3485@aol.com
