USA Today - 17.10.2019

E2 USA TODAY z THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019 z SECTION C

Rainout alters ALCS plans

Nightengale: Astros benefit with pitching 3C

Off-field moves in NFL

Jones: Hot read on Rams’ defensive back trades 4C

Another take on LeBron remarks

Zillgitt: What the superstar ‘should have’ said 6C

IN SPORTS

ZACK GREINKE BY PATRICK GORSKI/USA TODAY SPORTS

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FIRST WORD

We are thrilled that Joe
is coming back home
and bringing an exciting
brand of baseball to our
fans.”

Angels GM Billy Eppler in a
statement Wednesday an-
nouncing that recently re-
leased Cubs manager Joe Mad-
don has been hired by Los
Angeles. The deal returns Mad-
don, 65, to the organization
where he spent the first 31
years of his baseball career. He
began as a catcher, before
starting a coaching career.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

58

Penalty strokes added

to the first two rounds

Monday and Tuesday of Lee

Ann Walker’s score in the Sen-

ior LPGA Championship in

French Lick, Indiana. The extra

strokes gave her scores of

127-90. They were adjusted

after it came to Walker’s atten-

tion that she had violated the

rules by having her caddie line

her up on the putting surface

at the Pete Dye Course. Walker

incurred a two-stroke penalty

for each time it happened.

317

Career goals for high

school soccer player

Chloe DeLyser, a national rec-

ord. The senior at Marion High

School in Wayne County, New

York, just east of Rochester, on

Tuesday broke the record set

from 2013 to 2016 by Esmer-

alda Gonzales of South Hills

High School in Fort Worth,

Texas.

LAST WORD

We don’t like it. We

think it’s one of the

most overt signs of disre-

spect we have ever seen.”

Eddie Payton, brother of NFL

legend and former Jackson

(Mississippi) State football star

Walter Payton, about plans to

redesign the recreation and

wellness center on the campus

built by the school and named

in Walter’s honor. Eddie says

the changes veer the building

away from its intended use as a

place for students and the

public to work out toward more

of a facility for the football

program. The school says the

move is designed to make

better use of an area it calls

“underutilized” in the nearly

100,000-square-foot center.

The current use of the facility

by students and the public, it

said via email, would “not be

compromised.”

From staff and wire reports

JEFF CURRY/USA TODAY SPORTS

SPORTSLINE

The NFL is in the middle of

a youth movement at its most

important position: quarter-

back.

Sixteen starting quarter-

backs in the league, half of the

NFL, are 26 or younger. If the

Jaguars eventually appoint

Gardner Minshew at the posi-

tion over Nick Foles, that

number goes up to 17. If

Dwayne Haskins takes over

for the Redskins, it becomes

18, or what would be 56.3% of

starters.

Perhaps most interesting is

that so many of these younger

passers are enjoying early

success. They bring their own

unique talent and perspective

to the position, but they are

also using elements from

quarterbacks who came be-

fore them.

Here’s a look at the crop of

young star quarterbacks and

the skill sets they possess that

resemble those of established

veterans or previous greats.

Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes:

Aaron Rodgers

This comparison works

best for two reasons: How

dangerous both players are

once they leave the pocket,

and the creative arm angles

with which they throw. But

objectively speaking, Ma-

homes might be in his own

category. He won the NFL

MVP Award last season after

just turning 23. While Rodgers

has more experience and a

proven track record, Ma-

homes is gifted with more arm

strength, and he constantly

churns out plays that defy the

norms – throwing across his

body, rifling passes on the

run, whipping side-armed

passes to avoid defenders.

Perhaps the scariest thing for

Young

QBs

model

greats

Lorenzo Reyes

USA TODAY

See QBS, Page 2C

WASHINGTON – There is no
strain of joy quite like when a
team, a town, gets its first taste
of World Series glory in at least
a generation.
From Kansas City to Cleve-
land, Houston to Queens, base-
ball’s circus has in recent years
arrived in long-forgotten places
with a vigor strong enough to
stoke the masses and hold off
winter just a few more days.
Now it is our nation’s capi-
tal’s turn.
The Nationals have ad-
vanced to the first World Series
in franchise history, an odd and
curious past that began in

start, the Nationals are 81-40,

climbing from the nether

reaches of the NL East to claw

their way into a home wild-card

game.

Since entering the playoffs,

they have won eight of 10

games, a fascinating mix of

derring-do and dominance –

erasing 3-1, eighth-inning defi-

cits in win-or-go-home games

against the Brewers and the

Dodgers, followed by an utter

splattering of the Cardinals,

who never so much as took the

lead in this NLCS.

“Bumpy roads lead to beau-

tiful places,” once-embattled

manager Dave Martinez said

atop the championship podium

at Nationals Park, “and this is a

beautiful place.”

So Washington will see its

first World Series in the city

since 1933, when the Senators

succumbed in five games to

Carl Hubbell’s New York Gi-

ants.

The Astros or Yankees will

arrive with greater fanfare

and pedigrees – winners of

107 and 103 games, respec-

tively, Houston boasting a

World Series title as recently

as 2017 and the Yankees with

27 such flags decorating their

billion-dollar manse in the

Bronx.

These Nationals? Well,

they are an appropriate bunch

to introduce this delirious, ab-

surd civic celebration called

the World Series to a town

gradually regaining its base-

ball bearings.

For this club, imperfection

Catcher Yan Gomes hugs relief pitcher Daniel Hudson as the Nationals celebrate their sweep of the Cardinals in the NL
Championship Series on Tuesday night. BRAD MILLS/USA TODAY SPORTS

See LACQUES, Page 2C

Gabe Lacques

USA TODAY

World Series-bound Nats

put failures behind them

Montreal and landed just south

of the Capitol in 2005. Their

D.C. period was an often-blue

one, marked first by ghastly

teams that befitted the Dis-

trict’s sordid baseball history

and then by star-crossed clubs

that stubbed their toe in win-

ner-take-all games in 2012,

2016 and 2017.

These Nationals, though, are

not staggering into the Fall

Classic like an oversize Teddy

Roosevelt tripping over the fin-

ish line of their iconic Presi-

dents’ Race.

After Tuesday night’s 7-

dispatching of the Cardinals in

Game 4 of the NL Champion-

ship Series, these Nationals

come in with credentials that

belie their franchise, and their

city’s, odd baseball past.

Since their infamous 19-