Page 21 - Florida Sentinel 11-1-19

Sports
Nationals Win First World Series Title, 6-2
LeBron James Says After
'Crazy' Night Seeking Refuge,
Family Still Displaced By Fire
When LeBron James exits Staples Center on Tues- day night after the Los Ange- les Lakers play the Memphis Grizzlies, he is unsure where he'll go next.
James and his family were evacuated from their Brentwood, California, home around 2 a.m. PT Monday and have been staying at a hotel ever since because of the Getty Fire.
The fire, covering more than 600 acres in the Man- deville Canyon, has already damaged or destroyed more than a dozen structures.
James said he received the first notification about the fire around 1:30 a.m. Monday -- hours after the Lakers' win against the Char- lotte Hornets on Sunday night -- and an evacuation notice 15 minutes later. He could see the fire raging in the distance from the roof of his house.
Taco Tuesday: LeBron James Sends Food Truck To Feed Getty Fire First Responders
Los Angeles Lakers star
LEBRON JAMES
LeBron James, one of many Southern California residents forced to leave their homes due to a nearby wildfire this week, sent a taco truck to feed first responders battling the Getty Fire.
“Thank you, @King- James, for generously send- ing a taco truck to support our @LAFD firefighters, first responders, and partner agencies working to fight the #GettyFire," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti tweeted Tuesday.
In addition to his basket- ball prowess, James has be- come known as a taco aficionado. In recent months, James has posted several "Taco Tuesday" videos on Instagram showing his family or teammates hav- ing taco dinners.
Suddenly, it was all over, and the blue-jerseyed visitors were spilling and screaming out of every corner of Minute Maid Park — from their dugout along the third base line, the bullpen in left field, the expanse of outfield, all four corners of the diamond — and converging upon the joyous pile of humanity forming near the center. Once the Washington Na- tionals had no more giant mountains to climb, they took the small dirt hill of the pitcher’s mound, and they hugged and bounced.
With one more comeback win, at the end of a comeback season for the ages, the Na- tionals were World Series champions. A 6-2 victory over the Houston Astros in
Nationals top Astros in Game 7 to win 1st World Series title.
Game 7 on Wednesday night sealed it, delivering the first baseball title for the nation’s capital since Walter John- son’s Senators won their only one in 1924.
Seventh-inning home runs by Anthony Rendon and Howie Kendrick, the former MVP-caliber third
baseman possibly playing his last game in a Nationals uni- form, the latter a 36-year-old veteran in the deepest au- tumn of his career, turned a slim deficit into a slim lead for the Nationals. A tacked- on run in the eighth and two more in the ninth provided some breathing room.
In Truth, Tiger Woods Left Sam Snead's Record In His Rearview Years Ago
Some numbers illuminate glory. Like 82, the bench- mark for most PGA Tour vic- tories that Tiger Woods tied this weekend. Or 15, which places him second for most major championships. Or 683, his tally of weeks spent as world No. 1, more than twice that of his nearest competitor.
Even more compelling at times are the numbers that speak to guts.
Like the 1,876 barren days between wins 79 and 80, two peaks separated by a valley whose walls once seemed in- surmountable. Or the 3,954 days that elapsed between his 14th major victory and his as- tonishing 15th earlier this year at Augusta National. Or 1,199, the lowly, lonely posi- tion in the world ranking to which he had fallen less than two years ago.
Surviving all three threats that have destroyed lesser athletes — a broken body, a broken game, a broken pri- vate life — Tiger Woods has become sport’s most improb- able symbol of longevity.
Two months shy of his 44th birthday, he is breaking performance records.
TIGER WOODS
What makes win No. 82 so remarkable isn’t the man- ner of the victory — we’ve long since become accus- tomed to seeing Woods cruise past a quality field as he did at the Zozo Champi- onship in Japan — but the fact that few people genuinely expected to witness even wins 80 and 81. It was August 2013 when he notched No. 79 at the Bridgestone Invita- tional. Then came injuries. Surgeries. Personal travails. Chipping yips. Scorecards more worthy of a 10-handi- cap.
Even Woods himself wondered aloud if he was fin- ished. “I don’t know what my future holds,” he said two years ago with an air of resig-
Sam Snead giving the young Tiger Woods an autograph.
nation.
For perspective on how
much has changed since Woods’ first win 8,421 days ago, of the world’s top 25 golfers that same week, Phil Mickelson stands alone in not yet having been con- signed to the PGA Tour Champions or the TV booth. Some are now retired even from the senior circuit.
“I’ve put myself up there with a chance to win on a number of occasions,” Woods said, rioting in un- derstatement after his wire- to-wire, rain-delayed triumph in Japan. “It’s been a long week. Five days at the top of the board is a long time.” Twenty-three years at the top is a long time too.
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