Sportsman of the Week Ending 10/28/2018

The Boston Red Sox definitely proved they were the best baseball team in 2018, but it wasn't necessarily their best player that carried them to the title.  In fact, it was a very unlikely one.  Steve Pearce was an afterthought at the trade deadline.  But he wasn't in the final stretch of the World Series.  Three of the biggest hits in Games 4 and 5 came from the unlikely hero.  In Game 4 in the 8th inning with the Red Sox trailing 4-3, he hit a solo home run to tie the game, then followed it in the 9th inning with a 3 run double to push the Red Sox ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers for good.  And then shift to Game 5, where he gave the Red Sox a lead 2-0 lead they would never relinquish in the first inning on a home run, then got another solo shot in the 8th in what ended up being a 5-1 win over the Dodgers.  So keeping score at home, that's 8 RBI in 11 innings of batting for his team, or 8 AB total.  The World Series MVP was just that, clearly the best player among a team of All Stars and is our Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week!  one might be surprised, this is his second time for the honor.

Sportsman of the Week Ending 7/30/2017

The dog days of summer are usually associated with baseball.  On the weekend of the National Baseball Hall of Fame induction, a rarity within the sport indeed occurred.  It's one thing to get a walk off grand slam home run once in a career.  Let alone twice.  The same week.  Against all odds, the Toronto Blue Jays Steve Pearce did just that.  The career .255 hitter with fewer than 100 HR teed off twice in ... days, once off Liam Hendricks of the Oakland A's, then off of Bud Norris of the Los Angeles Angels.  The second being more dramatic in that his team was trailing by 3 runs, and it capped off a 7 run ninth inning rally for an 11-10 Blue Jays win.  For the week, Pearce was but 5-26, but add two doubles to the two grand slams and he wins our Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week!