Weekend Buzz: Father's death strengthens Molina brothers' bond
By Scott Miller | CBSSports.com Senior Writer Follow ScottLook Ahead: AL East title 'just a step' for Yanks
The Weekend Buzz while you were wondering why the weather report reads Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. ...
1. Know your Molinas: Brotherly love will extend only so far this postseason. As far as the San Francisco Giants (or, perhaps more accurately, the Colorado Rockies or Atlanta Braves) allow.
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| Yadier, the youngest Molina brother, is having a strong year for St. Louis. (Getty Images) |
The Yankees on Sunday clinched the AL East, which fast-tracks a second catching Molina brother into the playoffs (Jose).
But a complete Molina-palooza in October does not look promising. With the Giants trailing the Rockies by five games in the NL wild-card chase, the cool website www.coolstandings.com, which calculates statistical probabilities and historical trends, on Sunday gave the Giants a 0.3 percent chance to storm back this week and take the wild-card slot.
Which would leave the eldest catching Molina, Bengie, as the odd brother out.
"That would suck," Bengie, 35, was saying the other day in San Francisco. "That would suck, man."
With the Yankees, who actually became the first team to clinch a playoff slot back on Tuesday night, Jose agreed.
"That's what I told him, too," Jose, 34, said of Bengie's impending October absence. "It's hard. They've got a great team."
But not nearly as great as the Yankees, for whom Jose serves as the backup to starter Jorge Posada. And not nearly as great as the Cardinals, for whom baby brother Yadier, 27, is hitting .291 with six homers, 52 RBI and, as usual, is doing a beautiful job of handling a star-laden pitching staff that includes aces Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright.
The catching Molina brothers, who each have earned a World Series ring (Bengie and Jose with the Angels in 2002, Yadier with the Cardinals in 2006), are one of the game's most remarkable stories.
"That's a special family, you know?" says Giants shortstop Edgar Renteria, who has been a teammate of both Bengie (this year) and Yadier (2004, in St. Louis). "And they've had such a rough year."
Yes, sadly, this fall is a particularly emotional one for the Molinas. Their father, Benjamin, passed away suddenly in their native Puerto Rico last October. He died doing what he loved, tending to the baseball field he had built for the children in his hometown. He was stricken with a heart attack while on that field.
"All of his life, he was there for us," Jose says. "That's the reason we're here."
The boys' mother, Gladys, has spent much of the summer with her sons, shuttling back and forth between road trips. She was with Bengie when the Giants opened the season in San Francisco. She stayed with Jose for part of the summer when the Yankees were home. She stayed for a time with Yadier when the Cardinals were home.
Currently, she's back in Puerto Rico, because, on Oct. 11, the one-year anniversary of her late husband's passing, there will be a church service and a memorial.
In the States, Jose and the Yankees will be playing a Game 3 that day -- in Detroit, the way things stand now. Yadier? His Cardinals would be playing a Game 4, if necessary, in either Colorado or at home against the Dodgers, leaving Bengie to tend to Gladys. The brothers expect to be back in the States later in October if their baseball odyssey extends deep into a League Championship Series and, hopefully, a World Series.
"She's not the same woman she was before," Bengie says quietly. "She's sad. Her soul mate for so many years is not here. Her laugh isn't the same. When she talks it isn't the same.
"People don't know things like this. They tell me I can't run, I can't catch, I can't hit. They tell me I don't look like a baseball player.
"They don't see what real life is."
On the flip side, though Bengie probably will spend October on the sidelines, maybe part of the Molina's postseason life will help bring back a part of Gladys' laugh, put some of the zest back into her voice.
"It means the world to us just to help teams be in this position," Jose says. "We know how many teams are out [of the playoff race] already. It's awesome. It's amazing. That's why we take so much pride in what we do."
And if two or three of them can help their teams qualify for the postseason tournament, that's even better.
"We always look at it and see where we're at, look at the different scenarios," Jose says.
2. Jon Lester's scare: Boston's probable Game 1 playoffs starter was drilled near the right knee Friday night by a Melky Cabrera line drive, crumpled to the ground and the Sox saw their October lives flash before their eyes. Fortunately, by Saturday, Lester had nothing more than a bruise (Red Sox skipper Terry Francona: "He looks fantastic") -- thus freeing up the Red Sox to join everybody else in worrying about Florida quarterback Tim Tebow's injury.
3. Jim Leyland's jitters: The Tigers continue to hang on in the AL Central, but this week will be far from the cruise-control situation they hoped for. Minnesota has whittled the Tigers' divisional lead to two games heading into the opener Monday of a four-game series between the two contenders in Detroit. Good thing for Detroit that Zack Greinke pitched like Cy Young against the Twins again in Kansas City on Sunday, or the margin could be slimmer.
Two hot sticks to watch in the series: Detroit's Magglio Ordonez leads all American League hitters with a .408 September batting average. Minnesota's Denard Span, since Aug. 18, is hitting .363 with five doubles, five triples, two homers and 22 RBI in 34 games.
Detroit All-Star right-hander Edwin Jackson faced the White Sox on Sunday, so he won't pitch in a series that will feature Tigers hurlers Rick Porcello, Justin Verlander, Eddie Bonine and Nate Robertson. Meantime, the rotation from Minnesota's side: Nick Blackburn, Brian Duensing, Carl Pavano and Scott Baker.
Bottom line: The Twins have to win three of four, and maybe sweep, or Detroit will be spraying champagne by next weekend.
4. Atlanta sweeps Washington, moves 2 1/2 behind Colorado in NL wild-card race: Scary thing for the Rockies? The Nationals already have mailed their RSVPs for next weekend's season-finishing four-game series in Atlanta. Cute, too, the way the lowly Gnats scrawled on the inside of the RSVPs, "We'll bring four more Braves victories. Anything else?"
5. Dodgers miss chance to clinch NL West: Cover story Sunday was something about Andre Ethier muffing a ninth-inning fly ball to lose the game. Come on. Do you think we're that naïve?
Clearly, security for the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh was not going to allow any wild celebrations. Did you see how difficult it was for the Dodgers to simply arrive in the Steel City following Thursday's game in Washington, D.C.? They had to stop for two hours at Washington Dulles Airport, and then their bus trip from the Pittsburgh airport to their hotel included, according to Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times, "several literal twists, turns and stops."
"It seemed like we drove around the city for 45 minutes before we even got to the hotel," pitcher Jon Garland told the newspaper.
After that, you really think security was going to turn Manny Ramirez loose with a case of champagne and spring-loaded corks?
6. Brewers' Yankees' Sabathia dominates: Aw, remember how sweet life was with your first girlfriend? Now you know how Milwaukee feels as the Yanks' CC Sabathia does now what, well, what he did for the Brewers last summer. Since Aug. 1, Sabathia now is 9-0 with a 1.93 ERA and a .198 opponents' batting average.
7. Cubs lose another player: Four days after kicking Milton Bradley off the team, the Cubs approved a request from pitcher Rich Harden (arm fatigue) to shut it down for the rest of the season. Can't blame him, either. Even Ernie Banks would want out on this team. Tune in for the radio broadcast on the season finale, when the play-by-play simply will be one long, agonizing moan from Ron Santo (who should be in the Hall of Fame, by the way).
8. Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame -- or not: White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen's entertaining, expletive-filled response upon entering the clubhouse following Saturday's blown 5-0 lead to Detroit and finding college football on the clubhouse televisions?
"If they think the season's over for them, yes," Ozzie said. "If they think it's over for me, no. I want to make it clear. There's a bunch of [something that didn't sound like "Notre Dame fans"] out there watching football games like a piece of [something that didn't sound like "Penn State loyalists"] with no pride. By the way they [something that didn't sound like "Florida alums"] play, that's embarrassing. If you don't have pride about the way you play, get another job.
"I'm not in a pennant race, but at least have some pride. When you get [to the clubhouse] and turn on a stupid-ass football game when those [something that didn't sound like "Illinois"] football players don't give a [something that didn't sound like "USC touchdown"] about you, that's embarrassing."
9. Ichiro ejected: Just like that, talk of the record nine consecutive 200-hit seasons turned to another career first -- the first big league ejection for Seattle's star. Disagreeing with plate umpire Brian Runge that a called strike three was outside Saturday, Ichiro, who still needs a translator to help him through interviews, used international sign language to disagree: He drew a line in the dirt with his bat to indicate how far off the plate the pitch was. Which sent Runge on a mad search for an English-to-Japanese dictionary, looking for the Japanese phrase for, "You're outta here!'"
10. Sonia Sotomayor throws out first pitch at Yankee Stadium: You remember her, the newest Supreme Court Justice who issued THE injunction in 1995 that ended the players' strike. Great thing about her pitch Saturday was that as she spoke with Yankees manager Joe Girardi in the dugout as she left the field, she slipped him an undated injunction that can be filled out and used in 2011 in case the next scheduled labor talks lead to another strike.
