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Brian Schneider to catch first pitch of World Series Game Three in honor of his several appearances catching Mets pitchers at Nationals Park. At least I've decided that's why.

DeGrom also MLBPA NL SP.

Thing Astros said didn't happen they now say happened; they fire Taubman, apologize to Apstein.

Pete Alonso is MLBPA NL ROY.

Jacob deGrom named starting pitcher on Sporting News NL All-Star Team.

Nats up 11-2. Chances Brandon Taubman will harass anybody in a jubilant Astros clubhouse diminishing.

Eaton two-run shot, Nats up, 10-2. Al Hunt high-fives Andrea Mitchell electronically.

When Marge Schott was spewing racist BS, and thus very bad for MLB business, she was suspended. I don't see how Drake making threats can be construed as anything less.

8-2. Astronomically awful/Nationally nice.

Asdrubal flashing that 2016 Most Valuable Met form, drives in 2, pushes WSH lead to 4.

And Bregman boot (scored a hit) makes strategy backfire. 4-2 DC.

Astros issue their 1st IBB of 2019 to Soto to load bases for Kendrick.

MFYs should be ashamed in general.

3-2 in the 7th on Suzuki's HR not off Diaz but Verlander.

2-2 through six. Pretty good Series so far.

Been watching with sound down, local radio on — Astros last night, Nats tonight. Much more palatable.

Very touching Seaver profile by Verducci. Toms Terrific. https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/10/23/tom-seaver-1969-mets-world-serieshttps://www.si.com/mlb/2019/10/23/tom-seaver-1969-mets-world-series Says Swoboda, "I wish none of this was happening: Bud Harrelson, Tom . . . two of the smartest guys on the team. God, it's an awful thing." Shamsky first telephoned Seaver. "Look, talk to my wife," he said. "She's making my schedule." Tom put Nancy on the phone. "There are good days and bad days," Nancy told Shamsky. "I can't guarantee you anything. You could get all the way out here and he might not feel well that day." Shamsky and the teammates coordinated their trips for a weekend: Shamsky and Harrelson from New York; Koosman from Wisconsin; and Swoboda from Louisiana. They landed late on a Friday afternoon in San Francisco, intending to drive up that day. Shamsky phoned Nancy. The news was bad. "He's not feeling great," she said. Shamsky's heart sank. He knew that left only Saturday before their return flights on Sunday. The next morning, a fearful Shamsky called Nancy for the verdict. "You lucked out," she said. "Get over as soon as you can."

The enforced geographic detachment of my college years (fall '81 to spring '85) was alleviated by box scores, calls to Sports Phone and occasional indulgences at the out-of-town newsstand for a National-edition News or day-old Post. I missed the day-to-day buzz and a few September callups, but strove to keep up and generally succeeded. The 1984 renaissance, enjoyed as best as it could be from afar, doesn't quite resonate with me as it does others because I took a summer term that year and was in New York for less than six weeks, just in time for the Mets to peak before falling definitively behind the Cubs.

Pete Alonso is The Sporting News's NL Rookie of the Year.

Juan Soto has fans back home.

A season of watching Pete Alonso watching his 430-foot home runs leave the ballpark without doubt had nudged my “RUN TO FIRST BASE FIRST!” instinct incrementally to “well, maybe these guys know in their bones when it's going out,” but then something like Springer being a spectator happens in the frigging World Series and it's a mystery to me that these guys don't run first, watch the replay later. Rickey Henderson, a pioneer in the art form, had a situation like that in 1999, landing on second instead of on third (and landing on first instead of second in 2000 as prelude to his release). Hell, I've never understood why Todd Pratt stopped at first to see if Steve Finley caught his NLDS-winning home run, never considering simply running to second in case the ball ticked off Finley's glove and stayed in play.

Nationals 5 Astros 4. The frontrunning just grew a tad more intense.

This kind of article was inevitable. https://www.cjr.org/first_person/washington-world-series.phphttps://www.cjr.org/first_person/washington-world-series.php The Nationals, now of the National League, head to the World Series today. The joy is palpable, non-partisan, and has squeezed (temporarily) an ounce of optimism out of an embattled press corps. When the Nats, as they're known, secured victories earlier in the playoffs, reporters high-fived on the campaign trail; Andrea Mitchell and Judy Woodruff (my wife) tweeted excitedly; and The Atlantic's Ron Brownstein flew in from California for a game. “At a time of daily news eruptions, it's particularly a tonic for the folks working in and covering politics,” Jonathan Martin, chief political correspondent for The New York Times, says. At Nationals Park, Peter Baker, the chief Washington correspondent for the Times, takes his spot in the low section between home plate and the dugout. A section over is the oracle of baseball-loving political columnists, George Will. “There's no more unifying force in established Washington journalism than the Nats,” James Carville, the political operative and commentator, tells me. Carville, who's flying in from New Orleans for the first championship home game, on Friday, sits next to Luke Russert. A fat cat offered Russert thousands of dollars above list price for his tickets. He, of course, said no. Russert wondered aloud to his mom—Maureen Orth, a writer for Vanity Fair—who he might take to the game. She had a quick, emphatic response: “Moi.” Natsmania has affected the whole town. There are signs everywhere; customers at Starbucks are wearing Nationals hats and shirts. “It's a funny window into how Washington works,” Michael Tackett, deputy Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press and a Nats fanatic, says, of the World Series. Tickets to Game Four of the division series (when the Los Angeles Dodgers might have ended it) didn't sell out; there were some five thousand empty seats. Now, for the championship, standing-room spots are going for seven hundred dollars apiece; upper deck seats for fourteen thousand. There's a mad dash to get in. “Every fixer is making a deal,” Tackett explains, “every connection leverager.”

Couldn't not feel good for Zimmerman homering in his first WS AB.