JOPLIN MINER MAGAZINE

                                         Freddie Freeman leads Miners in Series Opener The Miners opened the 2019 season by taking 3 out of 4 from the new and improved Ravenwood Infidels.   Game 1 Infidels: 0-5-0 Miners: 1-5-0 W:Kimbrel L: Foltynewicz HR: None The Miners hoisted their first OL Championship flag in pregame ceremonies.  New Miner ace Chris Sale and Infidel starter Mike Foltynewicz both pitched 8 scoreless innings. The Miners scored the winning run in the 9th.  Freeman led the inning off with a walk, Jeff Mathis hit a pinch hit double, Inciarte was given an intentional walk to load the bases before Franchy Cordero hit a game winning pinch hit single. Game 2 ( 15 innings) Infidels: 9-20-0 Miners: 10-14-1 W: Claudio L; Buehler HR:  Freese, Betts, Freeman (2), Iglesias, S. Rodriguez (2), Freeman Freddie Freeman hit a walkoff HR in the 15th off of the Infidels rookie sensation Walker Buehler to win this slugfest.  It was Freeman's second blast in a game which inclu

         A Formula for the Hall of Fame and my 2018 Ballot  After hearing all the talk about Harold Baines' induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, I came up with a two step formula which is impartial and flexible at the same time.  The automatic way to get into the Hall of Fame is to accumulate career bWAR which equals or exceeds  50 bWAR  for relievers, 62.5 bWAR for pitchers who split their careers as relievers and starters , 75 bWAR for starting pitchers and all hitters.  The second way to get my vote is to accumulate 10 points with 1 point for every All Star appearance and each World Series plus 2 points for every MVP or Cy Young award.  I ignored the steroids issue given there are several players who have used PEDs in the past.  Here are the 2019 inductees based on this formula: Automatically qualify under the career war numbers: Mike Mussina- 83 Roger Clemens- 139.6 Barry Bonds- 162.8 Curt Schilling- 79.6 Mariano Rivera- 56.2 The following qualify under the poin