A World Series Ring's Rambling Journey

What's in the box?

Welcome to Warning Track Power, a weekly newsletter of baseball stories and analysis grounded in front office and scouting experiences and the personalities encountered along the way.

There’s a very good chance that the 2022 Major League Baseball season will end today. If not today, then definitely tomorrow.

Is it too early to miss baseball? I’m ready for pitchers and catchers, I’m ready for the first games of Spring Training, I’m ready for Opening Day.

But winter pays for summer. Before we get to see Bruce Bochy in a Rangers uniform and Aaron Judge in a very expensive uniform, we’ll channel our inner Rogers Hornsby, stare out the window and wait for spring.

Alas, there is at least one more game left in the season. We’ve reached the moment that all (most) teams begin working towards in February.

There are two teams still standing: Houston and Philadelphia.

It was more than six months ago that I spoke with former player and current Astros color analyst Geoff Blum in an attempt to help me see beyond the sign-stealing, can-banging transgressions of the franchise. I looked towards rookie shortstop Jeremy Peña as the potential leader of a new era in Astros baseball.

Well, that rookie shortstop was the ALCS MVP. He’s been similarly outstanding in the Fall Classic; Peña homered and drove in two runs in his team’s 3-2 victory on Thursday.

You can revisit the April piece that featured Blum right here.

We Don’t Talk About Luhnow

After Game 5, I checked back in with one of the heroes of the 2005 World Series and asked what he was looking for from the Astros as they attempt to close out the Phillies.

“The only thing the Astros need to do is keep being themselves,” Blum said. “They win with pitching — keep pitching their asses off.”

All-Star lefty Framber Valdez, who led the AL in innings pitched and complete games this season and was second in wins only to teammate Justin Verlander, is the right guy to follow Blum’s prescription.

Valdez suppressed the Phillies offense for six-plus innings in the Game 2 victory at Minute Maid Park one week ago.

A repeat performance tonight certainly seems like one of the Astros’ clearest paths to the Commissioner’s Trophy.

It was back in the 2005 World Series when Geoff Blum, traded to the White Sox from the Padres at the trade deadline, stepped up with the pinch hit of a lifetime.

In the top of the 14th inning of Game 3, Blum unknotted a five-all tie with a screaming home run that landed about 10 rows deep in the right field bleachers at Minute Maid Park. It was the switch-hitting utility player’s only at bat of the World Series against the Astros. He made it count.

The White Sox went on to sweep, and Blum, who only had 99 regular season plate appearances for the South Siders, became part of franchise lore.

(If you’re wondering how much technology has evolved since then, watch this clip of the homer.)

Shortly after the Champagne had dried, Blum found himself back with the Padres, re-signing in free agency.

So while his former teammates received their World Series rings in a pregame ceremony early the following season, Blum’s jewelry was sent via FedEx to Petco Park.

What I remember next was Kevin Towers calling out of his office: “Hey, come on in here! Check this out.”

I walked in to find KT opening the shipping box. “I think this is Blummer’s ring,” he said with a hint of mischief in his voice. Then he unearthed a black wooden box.

It looked like a cross between a cigar box and the novelty safe I had as a child. I’m pretty sure it featured the Sox logo on the lid.

Without hesitation, he opened it. There lied the World Series ring that belonged to Geoff Blum.

At that moment, I felt like it was the closest I had ever come to looking into Marsellus Wallace’s briefcase. Before I could bask in the aura of the diamond-studded Sox logo atop black onyx, well…

Here’s a trivia question: Who was the first person to wear Blum’s ring?

(Hint: Not Geoff Blum!)

The second person to wear the ring is telling this story. It was so big on me — and the ring itself was so large — that I’m not sure I could even bend my finger with it on. It was a two-knuckler.

The ring eventually was taken to the clubhouse, where it was turned over to its rightful owner. Apparently, when he was called into Bochy’s office to receive the ring and found members of team management in there as well, Blum feared he was once again being traded.

Baseball is the best.

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