Chicago Tribune Front Page
Headline
‘AT LAST’
The Chicago Cubs finally
broke the 108 year old hoodoo by taking the 2016 World (Baseball) Series in the
final moments -almost- of the 7 game series in the opposition city of Cleveland
on Thursday morning Irish time. It was one of the most dramatic finales ever to
a World Series tiebreaker. It is as if the whole series has been following a
script from early games when Chicago struggled and were led after four games by
Cleveland 3 Chicago 1. So Chicago were left with a mountain to climb and had to
win the last three games to take the title with the finishing games away. (It
is well to note that it has been a real long time since Cleveland also won a
World Series or since that city won any other sporting national title so it is
hard for them.) Still it was mostly about Chicago and ‘the curse of the Billy
goat’ which I will give a few lines to as an epilogue.
I have been tuned into this
epic since the start through various sources and it really took off for Chicago
in game six where they got one of those magic scores the ‘home run’ in the
first inning and led 7 to 0 in the 6th and ran out comfortable
winners with an impressive score of 9 to 3. Records fell there in home runs and
R.B.I.s i.e. Runs Batted In where the scoring runs are on bases ahead of the
batter. People who have played the GAA game of rounders’ will understand all
that. So it was all down to the wire and the final game seven. With Chicago
again getting off with a homer to lead 1to 0 and after that it 1-0/1-1/2-1/ 4-1
in the 5th/ a Cleveland fight back brought it to 5-3/ but a home run
in the 6th 6-3 then 6-4 to the Cubs/ then in dramatic fashion a two
run homer tied the game at 6-6 at the bottom of the 9th. And so it
was into extra inning but…..just then the rain came and the covers went on. Can
you imagine how the fanatic fans of both sides felt. Into the tie-breaking 10th
and Chicago scored 7-6 then 8-6 and then it was Cleveland’s turn at bat at the
bottom of the 10th and a need to save the game. They brought in a
run to make it 8-7 but despite a dramatic effort failed to tie it and Chicago
were the champions and the minority Chicago support the stadium erupted as did
the crowd back in Chicago watching around Wrigley field and throughout Chicago
City itself. The scenes were reminiscent of the Boston Red Sox win in 2004
which ended ‘the curse of the Bambino’ or the best All-Ireland winning
supporter celebratory outburst that I have witnessed, that of Clare in ’95. So
the Cubs ended the longest drought for a major sporting club in the U.S. After
a slow start the series took off ended in the most dramatic and emotional
way and the city of Chicago will benefit enormously from it at least in the
short term.
Epilogue:
This has been the year of the
underdog with Leicester incredibly winning the Premiership in England, the Sons
of Iceland creating chaos in France, Brexit, Trump, the U.S. winning the Ryder
Cup, Oran defeating Four Roads in a replay and so on. Sadly Mayo did not get on
the train and are left at the station for another year.
The ‘curse of the Billy goat’
stems from the late forties when the proprietor of a Tavern close to Wrigley
Field whose mascot was a goat which he brought to a Cubs game but was ejected
and issued a curse (much later withdrawn to little effect) that the Cubs would
never win a Series. Many efforts have been made to exorcise the curse but last
night put a stake in it. In 2004 the Boston Red Sox did a similar thing with a
longer curse which was ‘the curse of the Bambino’ . That followed from the sale
by the Sox of the greatest baseball slugger in the game’s history, Babe Ruth.
Not only did they sell the Bambino but they sold him to their greatest rivals
the New York Yankees who dominated the game with Babe Ruth on their team.
The Mayo GAA curse stems from
the notion that the celebrating Mayo winning team of ’51 disrespected a funeral
and that the officiating priest said that Mayo would never win a senior
All-Ireland until all members of the team were deceased. Like nearly everybody
I put no credence in this yarn. There are just two members of that winning team
alive.
Another curse was Biddy
Earley - a witch in Clare-on the Clare hurling team not winning All-Irelands. It
was nonsense since Biddy had been around decades before the GAA was founded.
Mention of a Billy Goat I
remember Dr. Hugh Gibbons telling me that the U.C.G. Sigerson team brought a
Billy Goat as a mascot to the Sigerson finals in Belfast in the 30s’.
The Irish Rugby team are in
Chicago as they are playing New Zealand in Soldier Field (another iconic ground
and home to the Chicago Bears football team…remember the ‘refrigerator’) on
Saturday at 9 pm Irish time.
(Have we any Chicago-Irish-
readers?)
Hold the Back Page Sunday
Independent
I often mention Gurteen man
Eamonn Sweeney’s Sunday Independent ‘Back Page’. Last Sunday’s included an
excellent piece on the issues of club players and the way they are treated in
terms of lack of games for long periods and then a surge of games in a short
space of time and so on. This was exemplified by the experience of Kilmore in
the Connacht Intermediate C’Ship first round. I hope the Club Players Assoc.
gets traction though it will be difficult to establish momentum and maintain
it.
Eamonn’s piece should be
helpful to it.
Eamon had a lovely sardonic
piece on the FAI president resigning from the IOC committee ending with that
great Wilde quote ‘you’d need the heart of a stone no to laugh’.
It was also something reading
Dermot Crowe’s column and the sentiments he quoted from Aogan O Fearghail as he
wails basically, ‘ I feel your pain!’. Being the top man you could say to him
‘can you do more about it then and do a bit pain management for yourself’.
The Cathal McCarron piece by
Paul Kimmage painted some dark pictures. I had heard a little about it but not
nearly as much as that contained in the piece which used some material from
McCarron’s book with Clare’s Christy O’Connor titled ‘Out of Control’ .
Mc Carron certainly went to some dark places. I hope he comes through. It is
something that he has stuck with the football in a kind of redemptive way.
Garda Numbers on the Beat
On Friday 4th the Gardaí go on
strike. They do not call it that of course. I happened to overhear a
contributor to the Joe Duffy show during the week on issues related to the
dispute. His name was Michael Noonan, no not THE Michael Noonan. He was talking
of Garda boots/shoes on the ground and referenced being present in a Dublin
court and seeing the number of Gardaí there giving evidence, partaking and
basically being tied down for days on end in that process. Then he went along
the route of the numbers off as per rotas/rosters, the numbers out through
illness, leave, holidays, the numbers tied up with administrative work in
police stations and so on. So in fact while we may have a Garda force of
approximately 12,000 the numbers actually ‘out there’ as it were at any one
time is but a fraction of the actual total number. I have never heard any
reference to such a breakdown. I imagine it would be interesting and telling.
Japanese Knotweed
Information Evenings
On page 10 of the Roscommon
Herald there is information on a subject I mentioned here some time ago to with
information seminars on Japanese Knotweed. Roscommon County Council is running
two free workshops on the issue one on Tuesday Nov. 8th and the
second the following day Wed. 9th at the Council Offices in
Roscommon town from 7 pm to 9.30 pm.
Church of Ireland Supper
Social
The annual social takes place
on Friday the 4th in the Saddlers Inn with music by Sean Brennan.
The U.S. Election
It has been one of the most
bruising, damaging, wearing and at this point wearying elections in U.S.
electoral history. I do not want to say too much about it at this stage. Most
everything has been said. Millions of people throughout the world, not just the
U.S., are watching and waiting for the result and are very nervous about it.
The Dublin Marathon
One can only commend all
those thousands who participated in last Sunday’s Dublin City Marathon which
was a magnificent spectacle. It is a real test of character as well as being a
huge physical test. I liked the quote of Dorothy Shannon (King House Tearooms)
who completed the Marathon. It was posted here on realboyle a few days ago. It
went “There will be days when I don’t know if I can run a Marathon …
There will be a lifetime knowing that I have !”
I know a few Boyle people who
completed the run on Sunday and I say ‘fair play to you all’. It was a real
achievement. I was excited and delighted to be there to witness it on a
beautiful day with a marvellous atmosphere. And there is incredible video
material to remember it with along with the medal of course. In watching
marathons I remember John Joe Nerney who participated in six -I think- when he
was a senior runner. I may get back to the run next week.
P.S. This Thursday
night there was a great line up of sports people and ‘dignitaries’ out to
honour Rob Heffernan getting his London Olympic Bronze medal for the 50 K. walk
in Cork City Hall. His upgrade from 4th resulted after the Russian
gold medal athlete was disqualified for doping offences. It is a unique event
that an Olympic medal is being presented in Ireland. It a fine and just reward
for a great Cork athlete, for his supportive wife, family and friends.
Greetings To
Christmas is coming and……This
is not the first of that season's greeting but in conversation with a friend I
decided to mention a few people who are in distant places this week. First of
all Niamh Brennan has been mentioned by an Innisbofin colleague who told me
Niamh was ‘coming home for Christmas’ accompanied by her Kiwi partner Phil so
Niamh I might do a Bord Failte thing by including a few New Zealand questions
in the Christmas Quiz. Now if the All Blacks hammer us in the two upcoming
tests I’ll have to review the situation!
In Dubai there are Megan
Morris, Aoife Brady and long-term resident Niall Nangle.
New Zealand; Niamh,
Australia; Ciaran Conlon/ Paraic Sweeney/ Conor Nangle/ Enda
and Emer O’Callaghan/ Seamie Gallagher/ Damien Keenehan/ Ciaran Keenehan/ Joan
O’Gara her mam and all the O’Gara family and honorary Boyle man Sean Casey.
Miss Egan from Green St.
The U.S.; Damien Dooley/ Frankie Flaherty/ Marcus
Kennedy/ Joseph Mahon/ Brendan O’Callaghan/ Chris O’Dowd/ Austin and Paraic
Beisty/ The Spellman family x Forest View/ Pat and Margaret Lavin also x Forest
View now.
Canada; Tadgh Egan/ Sean Mullaney/ Brian and Jake McCrann/
Miss Compton/ Dearbhaile Mac Namara.
England; Caoimhin Young/ Killian Egan/ John Harrington, quiz
winner 201x/ Paddy Conlon/ Gary Tiernan
Germany and Belgrade; The Gannon family.
Scotland; Liam Young/ Rory Nangle.
Spain; Conor Tivnan/ Sean Young and family. John & Joan Gallagher and family
South Africa; Carmel Finneran.
The above is only my stab at
it. I am certain that there are many not listed, perhaps in other exotic
places. Maybe we can get a kind of inventory as to ‘where in the world’ there
are Boyle people residing at this time.
Congratulations To
Cian Smith and his wife
Michelle on their wedding last
weekend. It was a great occasion and reports from Kilronan Castle suggest that
it was an event thoroughly enjoyed by all present. So very best wishes to you
both.
Diarmuid Sutton son of Boyle GAA activist Leonard and wife Dara-on
Diarmuid’s swimming wins in recent weeks. It is very rare for Boyle to feature
in swimming acknowledgements.
 |
Cian McKeon, Boyle, accepts his award for Gaelic Sport
2015-16 from the authorities of Cavan Institute recently
|
To Sean Purcell and
especially Cian McKeon on being
selected on a Roscommon People ‘GAA Team of the Year’. While Seanie has been a
consistent fine performer for Boyle for a number of years the emergence and
progress of Cian this year has been very, very, impressive. He was also awarded
the Cavan College Sports Achiever of the year for 2015-16.
To Dessie Carlos on
reaching the Dublin Senior Football C’Ship Final with Castleknock taking on St.
Vincent’s which will be played on Saturday the 5th in Parnell Park
at 3 o clock. So if you are a Roscommon person living in Dublin there are at
least four strong links to the Castleknock team.
The best of luck to Boyle
Musical Society who present the
musical ‘Hairspray’ starting Wednesday 16th until Sunday the 20th in Boyle. It
is always a show worth seeing/hearing and I am sure we are in for another treat
this year.
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