Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

10-3-90 Wednesday. The news is baseball. First, the Boston Red Sox won the American League Eastern Division title for the second time in three years and third time in five (Detroit [the Tigers] won in 1984, Toronto [the Blue Jays] in 1985, Detroit again in 1987, and Toronto again in 1989; Boston won in 1986, 1988, and 1990). The matchups are now set: Boston and Oakland [the Athletics] in the American League and Pittsburgh [the Pirates] and Cincinnati [the Reds] in the National League. Second, Detroit’s Cecil Fielder became the first player since 1977 to hit fifty or more home runs. He went into the last game of the season with forty-nine home runs. Lo and behold, he hit two today against the New York Yankees to finish the season with fifty-one homers and 132 runs batted in. I’m happy for him. Fielder is a strong candidate for Most Valuable Player, despite playing for a sub-.500 team. The Tigers would have done far worse without him. Third, George Brett, the ageless wonder, won his third batting title, finishing the season at .329, four percentage points ahead of Rickey Henderson. Brett has now won batting titles in three decades. He won his first in 1976, his second in 1980, and his third in 1990. That’s a ten-year gap between batting titles, the largest in history. Amazing. If there was any question that Brett belongs in the [National Baseball] Hall of Fame, it has been answered. But George has one more goal: 3000 hits. Barring injuries, which have hampered him throughout his career, he’ll reach it in 1992. Then he’ll be a shoo-in for the Hall. [Brett finished with 3,154 hits. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.]