Page 14

Yanks and Sox meet again

The Big Story – Sox and Yanks Face Off Again: It’s playoff Round 7 of baseball’s greatest rivalry. And since I’m writing on Monday morning, it could be over by the time you see this or it could be the decisive Game 3 happening.

The Sox’ biggest problem going in is their lack of hitting, where they averaged just 2.3 runs a game in their final 13 games, exacerbated by the iffy status of Willson Contreras. Of course, Aaron Judge was the same for NY and most would take that one-for-one trade.

Prediction: Sox in three.

Sports 101: With 45 homers and 40 steals Pete Crow–Armstrong became the seventh member of baseball’s 40-40 club. Name the other six.

News Item – Pats Embarrassed 35-6 by Jax: Maye-day, Maye-day is what the pilot of Patriot Nation Airlines is screaming into the mic after seven turnovers in the first three games as the confidence drains from their young star Drake Maye. Question: Why in the name of Babe Parilli did Mike Vrabel take a T.O. with just 49 seconds left in the first half when Jax had the ball on its own 20, no timeouts left and having the kicker with the league’s strongest leg?

Time to panic? No. I said in my pre-season predictions they’d be doing well to get out of their first four games at 2-2. But it does make next week in Buffalo huge!

News Item – Red Sox Prediction: I had them going 92-72. Missed by five games. My biggest miss since taking Baltimore big in SB 3.

News Item – Baseball 2026 Notables:

• Anyone else notice old friend Eduardo Rodriguez had the second most wins in baseball in going 16-7 with a 2.89 ERA?

• Jacob Misiorowski: The young Milwaukee hurler had 252 k’s in 174.2 innings. At that rate of 13 k’s per 9 innings, if he pitched the same 335 innings Sandy Koufax did when he struck out 382 in 1965, Miso would whiff 492.

• Houston somehow won the pathetically weak AL West with the worst ever division-winning record of 81-81.

• Got to love the All Name Team Trade executedby now St. Louis GM Chaim Bloom of sending Brendan Donovan to Seattle in a three-team deal that brought back pitching prospect Jurrangelo Cijntje along with outfielders Tai Peete and Colton Ledbetter.

• Love seeing the second-highest-payrolled $350 million Mets finish last in the NL East at 74-88, while $128 million Milwaukee produced baseball’s best record at 103-59.

The Numbers:

7 – Brewers struck out by the Phillies’ Zack Wheeler to start the game in a win last week.

224 – MLB record most batter strikeouts in one season recorded by White Sox infielder Colson Montgomery.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up OTW – Detroit Tigers: For their classy celebration of certain Hall of Famer Justin Verlander’s final game by having daughter Genevieve come to the mound for an emotional embrace and be with him as he left it for the final time.

Broadcasting Faux Pas OTW: Tom Brady saying, “oh, [blank]” live on Fox as Jayden Daniels dislocated his left elbow in an ugly sight. Realizing the whoops, the quick thinking we’re accustomed to followed as he immediately said “excuse me.”

Weird NFL Stat OTW: After being the second guy on a hook and ladder play, SF wideout Deebo Samuel was credited with 80 receiving yards and a receiving TD despite having no official catches in SF’s 36-30 win over Arizona.

Random Thought: What’s with those yellow batting gloves from Caleb Durbin? He looks like he’s in a 1960s TV commercial doing the dishes with Palmolive.

Sports 101 Answer: Jose Canseco (42 & 40), Barry Bonds (42 & 40), A-Rod (42 & 46), Ronald Acuña (41 & 73), Shohei Ohtani (54 & 59) and Alfonso Soriano (46 & 41) are the members of 40-40 club.

Final Thought – Prospect Expectations vs. Reality:

Red Sox Nation spent the 2025 off-season talking/lusting over/bragging about the four supposedly can’t miss guys they had from MLB’s Top 35 prospects. Here’s what all have done two years later.

Kyle Teel – The catcher who delivered Garrett Crochet in a big trade struggled through an injury-riddled season where he hit .210 with five homers and 26 RBI in 28 games.

Kristian Campbell – still in the minors searching for a position since his 2025 demotion last June where he hit .256 with eight homers and 51 RBI. Good thing they hired those Driveline swing coaches, ’cause all they did was wreck the swing of a guy who hit .362 on the way up in 2024.

Marcelo Mayer – the biggest bust. The once fourth overall pick hit .223 with seven homers and 32 RBI in 114 games over two years, which both ended with him on the DL.

Roman Anthony – After a solid Year 1, he was .243-5-15 in 54 games in 2026. True, it was affected by injury, which has already wrecked or ended his two seasons. The 2026 numbers project to 15 homers and 45 RBI in a full season. Hardly superstar numbers.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

Quality of Life 26/10/01

Maybe just burn a pile of money, instead

As reported in a Sept. 20 online article by WMUR, the current record prices for heating oil in New Hampshire are expected to climb even more aggressively than usual. “The average house will pay 31 percent more for home heating oil,” the article read, “running the average household nearly $2,300 this winter. The rising prices are closely tied to the Iran war, and New England will feel the greatest impact, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.”

QOL score: -1

Comment: WMUR reported in the same article that the state recently passed new laws requiring heating oil companies to be more transparent about their fees.

“Oh, that was due this month?”

New Hampshire Public Radio reported in a Sept. 28 online article that “credit card delinquency in New Hampshire is reaching levels not seen since the Great Recession.” NHPR wrote, “The state’s Department of Employment Security recently analyzed consumer debt data for the first quarter of 2025, the most recent state-level information available. Their analysis shows nearly 12 percent of New Hampshire borrowers have severely delinquent debt, and they’re particularly behind on paying off credit card and auto loan debt. Nearly 10 percent of Granite State borrowers are severely delinquent on credit card payments, similar to the rate between 2006 and 2010 leading up to and during the Great Recession. Severely delinquent auto loans have also increased to 4.6 percent, although they haven’t reached the recession-era peak of six percent.”

QOL score: -1

Comment: NHPR said, “A borrower is considered delinquent when they haven’t paid their scheduled debt payment, and they are ‘severely delinquent’ if their bill is at least 90 days past due.”

The bird-watching equivalent of spotting a yeti

In a Sept. 16 Joy of Birding blog post the New Hampshire Audubon Society (nhaudubon.org) confirmed that a Chilean Skua, a species normally found at the very southern tip of South America, had been reliably identified near the Isles of Shoals on Sept. 8. “The two trip leaders were split,” the post read. “Steve Mirick believed we had seen a South Polar Skua, a rare sighting for New Hampshire but not totally unexpected bird (this would be the 4th record for the state), and Ben Griffith thought it was a Great Skua, a bird never seen in New Hampshire waters but that occasionally had been found in the Gulf of Maine.” Ultimately, it turned out to be a much more unlikely sighting.

QOL score: +1

Comment: An editor’s note at the end of the Audubon post put the sighting in perspective. “To understand how truly rare a Chilean Skua would be in New Hampshire and North America, visit eBird and look at past reports of Chilean Skua globally. … As far as we can tell, there are no previous records of Chilean Skua in North America, let alone New Hampshire.” Visit joyofbirding.nhaudubon.org.

QOL score last week: 62

Net change: -1

QOL this week: 63

What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire? Let us know at news@hippopress.com.

News & Notes 26/10/01

Follow-up

Some follow-up to two news stories from last week that made the QOL:

• The Manchester Police Department has “made an arrest in the vandalism of the Moka Pot” in downtown Manchester, according to a Sept. 25 department press release. “Twenty-year-old Tyler Inman of Allenstown has been charged with Criminal Mischief and Falsifying Evidence in connection with the incident,” the release said. “Given the nature of the alleged conduct, the case will be prosecuted in coordination with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office,” the release said.

• After closing on Sept. 21, the Queen City Bridge was reopened, according to a press release dated Sept. 24 from Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais’ office, posted on the Manchester Department of Public Works’ Facebook page. “[E]ngineers cleared the bridge for reopening following the additional testing and evaluation conducted in response to concerts identified during the recent inspection,” the release said. In a statement in the press release, Ruais said, “The City also appreciated the cooperation and patience of motorists who were impacted by the closure and detours.” Tim Clougherty, director of Public Works, also had a statement in the press release, saying, “The additional inspection and testing were conducted to ensure that the condition of the bridge was fully understood before it was returned to service.”

Family summit

Tickets are on sale now to the 14th Annual Strengthening Families Summit slated for Tuesday, Nov. 3, at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord and held by the NH Children’s Trust (described on its website as an organization “leading the drive to strengthen families and communities, through education, advocacy, and collaboration that prevents child abuse and neglect.”), according to a press release. The summit runs from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and includes a continental breakfast and a lunch as well as a keynote speech by Tim Rourke, “a national consultant and strategist focused on behavioral health policy, systems transformation and expanding equitable access to care,” according to nhchildrenstrust.org, where you can purchase tickets.

Potato & Hawk

Current and future voters can get the basics on voting and what to expect to see on election day in New Hampshire in the roughly five-and-a-half-minute video “Ed and Cate Go to the Polls,” a civic education project by the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office and KartoonEDU. The video, launched in September at Nottingham Elementary School, features Ed, a potato (the state vegetable), and Cate, a red-tailed hawk (the state raptor), according to a Sept. 4 press release. “In the video, Ed and Cate educate voters on each step of the voting process on election day, highlighting the many checks and balances in place that ensure our elections are safe, secure and accessible,” the release said. The video also includes an up-close look at ballot counting devices. Find a link to the video via the NH Secretary of State’s Facebook page or under the “Notices” section at sos.nh.gov, where you can also find voting information.

An artist reception for photographer Becky Field for the exhibit “Finding Home: Portraits and Memories of Immigrants” will be held Thursday, Oct. 1, from 6 to 7 p.m. at Proctor Academy, 204 Main St. in Andover, in the Brown Gallery, according to a press release. To view the exhibit or attend the reception, email campus curator Molly Leith at leithmo@proctoracademy.org, the release said.

The Forum Pub, 15 Village St. in Concord, will honor the late actor Tim Curry with “Tim Curry Evening and Rocky Horror Sing-along” on Saturday, Oct. 3, from 6 to 11 p.m., according to the Forum Pub’s Facebook page.

The Wilton Folk Cafe Coffeehouse at the Wilton Collaborative Space, 21 Gregg St., 2nd Congregational Church Hall in Wilton, will present Coastwise Radio, a six-piece American roots acoustic band from Massachusetts, on Friday, Oct. 2, at 7:30 p.m., according to a press release. Doors open at 7 p.m.; reserve seats by emailing strumma@aol.com or calling Sandy at 603-654-1245.

“Swordplay!,” a presentation that will “focus on sharp, pointy weapons with re-enactor Anne Kraemer,” is slated for the Oct. 8 Beer for History program at the American Independence Center’s Folsom Tavern in Exeter, held on select Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m., according to a press release. Tickets cost $25; see aicnh.org.

Drama! — 09/24/2026

Oon the cover

8 Shakespeare walked into a bar — OK, it’s more like, a theater company is bringing staged readings of Shakespeare to a local brewery. And other area theater companies are offering up murder mysteries. Musicals this fall go way beyond the classics — you can catch two productions of Carrie The Musical. Michael Witthaus looks at the screen-to-stage adaptations, new takes on classic tales and more headed to area stages this season. Photo above, on the cover and on page 8 is of Quinn Spiewak in a VanGuard Shakespeare performance in Salem, Mass. This courtesy photo is by Glenn Provost, founder of Stage of Fools, who has performed with VanGuard, which he calls comparable to his Shakesbeer series running this season at Stark Brewing Co.in Manchester.

Also on the cover: Michael Witthaus talks to John Ondrasik, aka Five For Fighting, ahead of his show with a string quartet in Concord on Friday (page 22). John Fladd talks to Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Concord about their one-day A Taste of Greece (page 18). And the Canterbury Shaker Village shares its history in objects (page 14).

Read the e-edition

News & Notes 26/09/24

260924 Featured Content News

Color Main Street Coloring Main Street returns to downtown Nashua on Saturday, Sept. 26, on Main Street from the Main ...

Quality of Life 26/09/24

260924 News Quality Of Life

Bridge closed On Monday, Sept. 21, a routine inspection by the NH DOT found “potential structural deficiencies” in Manchester’s Queen ...

Baseball playoffs dead ahead

260924 News Sports

The Big Story – Sox Headed for Postseason: The good news is, after a truly dreadful first three months of ...

This Week 26/09/24

Advertisement for the Greg and the Morning Buzz Ball depicts a snow covered red sign next to a large green Christmas ornament.

260924 News This Week

Friday, Sept. 25 Catch the second to last Final Friday this season in downtown Manchester today between 4 and 8 ...

Drama!

A women in a fantasy green outfit and dyed hair points towards an audience with a glass goblet in hand.

260924 Cover Stories Featured Content

Find Shakespeare at a brewery, spooky tales, murder mysteries, updated classics and more theater this season By Michael Witthausmwitthaus@hippopress.com From ...

Made in New Hampshire

Rob Livie sits by his desk, where a monitor is running a video game.

260924 Art & Theater Featured Content

Sci-fi series Resonance develops in Derry By Michael Witthausmwitthaus@hippopress.com A few weeks ago, New London Barn Playhouse presented a four-day ...

History in objects

Two large chairs flank a small third chair in the middle, all under direct light with a cream background

260924 Featured Content Outdoors

Show and tell at the Canterbury Shaker Village By John Fladdjfladd@hippopress.com According to Garrett Bethmann of the Canterbury Shaker Village ...

Treasure Hunt 26/09/24

An intricate and gilded gold colored frame holds a beautiful painting of a green coated woman in a yellow hat.

260924 Family Fun Treasure Hunt

Hi, Donna, My wife and I own a frame shop and we acquired this piece many years ago. I sent ...

One day of Greek goodies

A bunch of kids surround a table with art stuff as a woman in a Greek dress helps them with their projects.

260924 Featured Content Food

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church will hold its annual Greek Food Festival By John Fladdjfladd@hippopress.com On Saturday, Sept. 26, the ...

The Weekly Dish 26/09/24

260924 Food

By John Fladdjfladd@hippopress.com • NH Brewfest has been canceled: In a Sept. 10 press release, the Prescott Park Arts Festival, ...

Album Reviews 26/09/24

Album covers for The Church, Lacuna and Ibibio Sound Machine, Chopping

260924 Albums Pop

The Church, Lacuna (Cooking Vinyl Records) U.S. rock fans will — or more likely won’t — know this Australian gloom-pop ...

Strings and Superman

260924 Featured Content Nightlife Pop

Five for Fighting orchestral comes to town By Michael Witthaus mwitthaus@hippopress.com Fittingly given their moniker, when Five For Fighting’s 2000 ...

The Music Roundup 26/09/24

260924 Music This Week

By Michael Witthausmwitthaus@hippopress.com • Princely sound: Get funky with LoVeSeXy, New England’s top Prince tribute band that also covers Purple ...

The Music Roundup 26/09/24

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

• Princely sound: Get funky with LoVeSeXy, New England’s top Prince tribute band that also covers Purple One-adjacent acts Morris Day & the Time and Sheila E. Backing vocalist Jodee Frawlee does a great job on the latter, and as Prince’s duet partner Sheena Easton on “You Got the Look” and “Love Bizarre.” The show also has hits like “Little Red Corvette” and “Let’s Go Crazy.” Thursday, Sept. 24, 8 p.m., LaBelle Winery, 14 Route 111, Derry, $40, labellewinery.com.

• Generous guys: Along with their blues/rock bonafides, the Guitar Monsters — Johnny A., Jon Butcher and Dave Amato — have a history of giving back to the community. The Rockin’ 4 Vets show benefits Liberty House, a Manchester shelter that provides veterans with substance-free housing and assistance aimed at helping them to manage crises, get back on their feet and build stable futures. Friday, Sept. 25, 8 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $35 and up, tupelohall.com.

• Freedom rocks: A music fan weary of driving an hour and a half to shows started the Live Free Festival in 2023 after a test effort in his backyard the previous year. That DIY spirit paid off, and the fourth annual gathering has eight area acts, including Cozy Throne, Lost River Fleet, Thoughtstick, cellardoor, Saguaro, Cloth Mother and Jiggery Pokery. Saturday, Sept 26, 12:30 p.m., Hillsborough County Fairgrounds, 17 Hilldale Lane, New Boston, $10 and up, livefreefestnh.com.

• Comeback kids: The Jonas Brothers —Joe, Nick and Kevin Jonas — are rolling through arenas with a live show that sold out when the tour kicked off at Madison Square Garden. The event revives their 2008 Burning Up tour. Saturday, Sept. 26, 7:30 p.m., SNHU Arena, 555 Elm St., Manchester, $32 and up, snhuarena.com.

Strings and Superman

Five for Fighting orchestral comes to town

By Michael Witthaus

mwitthaus@hippopress.com

Fittingly given their moniker, when Five For Fighting’s 2000 single “Easy Tonight” stalled in the charts, its leader decided to be bold in choosing a radio follow-up from their album America Town. The result was the biggest hit of their career, a milestone that’s still reverberating today.

“I figured if I was going to go down, might as well go down swinging with a song I truly believe in,” John Ondrasik said in a recent Zoom call from his home in Southern California. The tune was “Superman (It’s Not Easy),” and it turned a then-obscure singer-songwriter with a hockey penalty for a band name into a star.

Piano ballads weren’t much of a thing at the time, but he was undeterred after their first try did just well enough to earn a second shot.

“The record company said, ‘Well, what song would you want to put out?’ and I said, Superman,” he recalled. “Because I had a sense that it could hit the heart.”

He was right, and when 9/11 happened the next year, the song became part of the national vocabulary.

On Friday, Sept. 25, Ondrasik, backed by four top-shelf string players pulled largely from Broadway pits, performs at BNH Stage in Concord. He plans a stripped-down evening of music drawing from a catalog that includes “100 Years,” “The Riddle,” “World” and of course the song that launched him.

It’s his second New England fall run in as many years, following a 2025 stretch the native Californian still marvels about.

“I haven’t had a lot of experience with the fall turn,” he said of New England’s foliage. “It was just stunning. So we said, let’s do another run, and instead of doing three weeks we’re doing five or six.”

How Ondrasik went from solo singer-songwriter to a name that gets him lots of free hockey tickets is a fun story.

When he signed a major label deal in the mid-’90s, a suit there told him Elton John and Billy Joel types didn’t fly in the era of boy bands, grunge and Lilith Fair. He needed something else on the marquee. Ondrasik had just watched Wayne Gretzky’s enforcer, Marty McSorley, rack up two five-minute fighting majors at an L.A. Kings game.

A bit miffed at the exec’s suggestion, he tossed off the phrase half-sarcastically, expecting it to be rejected, only to hear an enthusiastic reply. “I’m like, ‘you’re crazy,’” Ondrasik recalled. Those early years bore out his belief, as he was sometimes mistakenly booked as a metal act, and looked like a piano man lost in the mosh pit.

He’s come to like it over time. “There’s some silver linings to the name … it also keeps the focus on the music.”

The string-quartet format grew out of full-orchestra symphony dates Ondrasik couldn’t take to smaller markets, so 15 years ago he scaled the arrangements down to four players, and he still alternates between that in the fall and winter months, taking a full rock band on the road in summer.
It lets him dig into catalog deep cuts like “Devil in the Wishing Well” and “Two Lights,” and reframe hits like “100 Years” and “Chances” in a more intimate, storytelling setting. His favorite part of the night happens when he hands it over to the band. “I kind of just walk off stage and let them jam,” he said. “They always get a standing ovation.”

The current lineup includes Tony-winning violinist Katie Kresek, Melissa Tong, Chris Cardona and Peter Sachon. The band is drawn from a rotating pool of about eight or nine Broadway and session veterans Ondrasik met through longtime producer Greg Wattenberg and Dave Eggar, who’s both a master cellist and piano player.

“They love rock ’n’ roll, and, frankly, not playing the same piece of music eight days a week in a pit,” he said.

Opening the Concord show is Lace & Lee, a folk duo Ondrasik is happy to gush about, as it includes his daughter, Olivia. She joins him onstage most nights for a song of her own.

“Touring with [her] is pretty wonderful,” he said. “The whole quartet, everybody just enjoys them, and I think the audiences too are in for a treat.”

Five For Fighting with String Quartet
When: Friday, Sept. 25, at 7:30 p.m.
Where: BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord
Tickets: $67 and up at ccanh.com

Featured Photo: Courtesy photo.

Yanks and Sox meet again

Quality of Life 26/10/01

News & Notes 26/10/01

Drama! — 09/24/2026

The Music Roundup 26/09/24

Strings and Superman

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