Blog Posts For Tag: Baseball

The baseball playoffs have begun after the Detroit Tigers self destructed and let the Minnesota Twins win the AL Central. If anything, the very fact that the Tigers bombed so badly proves that there is a reason not to discount even the seemingly most ridiculous statistic, like the magic number in this case. The development also proves something else, that any team that has managed to make it to the MLB postseason has a very real shot if winning it all.

Everybody knew that the intensity of the MLB after the All Star game would quickly separate the real contenders from the handful of clubs that were going to receive participation trophies at best. It was what happened that has been such a surprise to those of us who do not make a living sitting down, reading all the stats, studying every box score, and enabling a Google alert for every MLB transaction.

After Mark Buerhle became just the 18th player to throw a perfect game I began to wonder if that feat would make him a lock for the Hall of Fame. After setting the record for consecutive outs on Tuesday at 45 I asked myself the same thing. Now I am wondering who else among his peers is going to be considered in the Hall of Fame debate.

His peers do not include guys like Randy Johnson, but pitchers around the age of 30, let’s say between the ages of 28 and 32. These guys have had enough experience to dismiss any fluke seasons and have come up in the age of the 100-pitch limit, as noted by ESPN columnist Tim Kurkjian. These are the guys that are going to be competing for votes on the same Hall of Fame ballots in a decade or so.

The major league baseball season is a long one. At 162 games it dwarfs the NFL (16 games), NBA (82 games), and the NHL (82 games). Sure that gives fans plenty of chances to sit in the bleachers and enjoy a lazy summer afternoon with a hotdog and a few beers (and then subsequently spend the next month staying in on the weekends waiting for the ban account to heal), but the long season also makes pleasantly surprising statistics anomalies in the long run.

This means that all those players we looked upon with wonder as they approached some record and were putting together impressive seasons fall back to earth shattering our midseason expectations, which is fitting when you consider how many fans hopes for their team are painfully beaten down as well. The question, then, is will these players that follow be able to beat the odds and actually keep up with there midseason form.

Tuesday night the American League won the All Star game for the twelfth time in a row, defeating the National League 4-3. The best players from both leagues squared off in a rather short contest (2 hours and 30 minutes) instead of a marathon like last season (which went 15 innings).

Now that this annual contest is over and the American League again has home field advantage in the World Series the real season begins, with teams looking for a pennant and players looking for individual honors. There will be two MVPs, two Cy Young winners, and two Gold Glove first basemen. There will be two of everything because MLB, unlike the NFL and NBA do not announce an all MLB team.

This team has the third best batting average in the league. This team has the second best on base percentage and slugging percentage in the league. This team has scored the most runs and has stolen the most bases in the league. This team averages more than a run more than their opponents. This team is leading the division with an absurd win-loss record, right? Wrong. This team is hovering around .500 and is in fourth place in the American League East. This is team is the Tampa Bay Rays.

A third of the MLB season has passed and the early season surprises have subsided. The Toronto Blue Jays unceremoniously fell from first place in the AL East after losing nine straight in the final two weeks of May. The Pittsburgh Pirates pitching staff, other than Zack Duke, fell apart and the general manager quickly disappointed fans by trading Nate McLouth, firmly reestablishing the keen sense of doubt and depression at PNC Park. Plenty more inflated individual stats on every team deflated as the law of averages finally won again. Still, some surprises have remained, lingering, threatening to go from an early season trend to one of the dominant storylines of the year.

A few months ago if you asked me who was the best third baseman in New York I would have to begrudgingly give A-Rod the honor. He was an offensive force that successfully made the transition from shortstop to the corner.

Monday morning Chicago sports fan went that extra mile to prove that the fair city deserved the first local ESPN page, ESPN Chicago. According to the Chicago Tribune, disturbingly motivated fans placed a severed goat head outside of Wrigley Field in what can safely be hypothesized to be an attempt to end the Curse of the Billy Goat.

The outrageous numbers of the steroid era are gone, though thanks to New York Yankees whipping boy Alex Rodriguez the sport continues to be tainted with PED residue, and now I have to wonder: Who is the most dangerous bat in the league?

Baseball is a wonderful sport for a few reasons. The first is that the game is played at a leisurely pace. Many people may hate this, but how many people would like to run several miles a day in 90 degree weather that is oftentimes humid in constricting cotton uniforms with optimal body coverage. My simple sense of humanitarianism would make feel guilty while I tried to enjoy my gloriously cold beer in the bleachers while watching a man literally kill himself on the field below me. The second is that it is a game nerds and geeks love for the simple fact that it is a game where the law of averages reigns supreme. These laws lead to certain results that cannot be denied. So, the question is: what certainties do we have to look forward to this season?

I love sports. I check ESPN's website dozens of times a day for the latest development on the NFL front and for things as silly as the New York Yankees ERA last season. I am not so completely insulated from reality that I can not appreciate how silly the idea of professional sports can sometimes be, and sometimes I wonder which sport is the silliest.

Four months ago Frank McCourt and the Los Angeles Dodgers offered Scott Boras and Manny Ramirez $45 million dollars over two years to stay in sunny L.A. Boras retorted that he would then be taking serious offers. In the coming months magical mystery teams offered more, apparently these teams were from alternate universes because no other team that I have heard of even came to the table with enough to match the offer.

Many, including me, have condemned Scott Boras and Manny Ramirez as greedy bastards, but I think the pair knew they were never going to get the four-year, $100 deal. I think that was a mystical number chosen to do one thing: make sure Manny did not have to report to spring training until March.

Sometimes it seems like every aspect of our culture rewards greedy brats. I think that trying to teach children to be respectful adults might actually be a detriment to their adult lives. We bail out a banking industry with billions after that cost millions their retirement portfolio. We offer reality shows to rich kids who do absolutely nothing and put them on covers of magazines. We even reward players who act ridiculously with multi-millionaire contracts.

Last weekend my spirit died a little bit as I caved and took my girlfriend to see He’s Just Not That Into You. Here’s the plot summary. The first two acts tell girls that they trick themselves into believing that every man they meet likes them, and then the third act betrays the first two as every female character becomes the exception to the rule.

Gaggles of teenage girls and desperate women were squealing toward the end and I had the urge to jab my plastic straw through my ocular cavity to damage enough of my brain to forget the gruesome two hours I had just witnessed. The only thing I could do was to try and apply the rules from the first two acts of the movie to the sports universe.

It is times like these when the average person is thrust into a life of hardship and they are wading waist deep in corruption that Americans try and return to the simple things in life. Baseball used to be one of those things, but the league is trying America’s patience.