Blog Posts For Tag: Baseball

Let us pretend for a second that up to this point your summer had been filled with weddings, home improvement projects, and countless hours of overtime. You have not had time to pay attention to America’s pastime and took a gander over at the MLB page on ESPN to catch up quickly. Would anything shock you?

The New York Yankees are heading into the weekend trying to widen the gap between themselves and the Boston Red Sox at the top of the AL East with a pivotal four-game series with the third place Tampa Bay Rays from July 7th to July 10th. This is the first meeting between the two division rivals.

The New York Yankees are right where they belong, at least according to fans with season tickets to Yankees games, in first place. This AL East leading team came into the 2011 MLB season with valid criticism of the batting order and the pitching staff. Now, Yankee Stadium, in any incarnation, is no stranger to poor starting pitching, but to assess the offense as “lacking” felt quite foreign to anyone who has followed baseball since the 1990s.

As the 2011 MLB season kicks off I am still flummoxed by just how the perennial powerhouses have fallen, the New York Yankees. This is not to say that this fan base is going to have to endure losing seasons. Rather, it is how the baseball franchises that could once be counted on to take first place in their AL East each season (even when they were not winning World Series) have serious concerns.

Fifty games left in the MLB season and we are lucky enough to have five pennant races remaining. The only division that is all but statistically won is the AL West, where the Texas Rangers have pulled themselves out of the middle of the pack and nearly out of bankruptcy.

This weekend marks the beginning of MLB’s vaunted “Put the NL in its Place” Week and the completion of the first quarter of the 2010 baseball season. Instead of ragging on the National League, making fun of its Triple A pitchers and Little League hitting, I am going to play stat geek and look at the best each league has to offer.

Half way through April the baseball season is in full swing. Sure it is way too early to close the polls and declare a winner, but some very interesting things are happening through the first 10 or 20 games. Every division has its own story, so let’s take a look at the American League.

The first week of MLB baseball has come and gone, and if the season ended today there would be one clear MVP candidate in the AL, the Texas Rangers’ Nelson Cruz. Cruz has been on a tear, crushing the ball over the fence, making plenty of contact, and driving in the runners when he has the chance.

This weekend four major sports stories dominated: Butler beat Michigan State to reach the NCAA Men’s finals, the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees opened the MLB season, Tiger began taking practice swings at Augusta in preparation for the Masters, and Donovan McNabb was traded to the Washington Redskins. That is actually quite a bit to handle, but this begs the question, how do these stories rank?

To dissolve or not to dissolve, that is the question. Commission Bud Selig has been presented with a few ideas to improve the game as MLB tries to offer something new to divert our attention from the steroid saga that simply will not die. The latest ideas include realigning the leagues to do away with the divisions.

The Minnesota sports fans must be in agony. Not only did they just have to listen to Brad Childress tell the public he is going to let Brett Favre waffle all summer long, but they just found out that the best pitcher they have, Closer Joe Nathan, will miss the entire season to go under the knife for Tommy John surgery.

Infidelity and unsavory business practices are the backdrop for the Los Angeles Dodgers upcoming season. Accusations and thousand-page divorce documents have been made very public and suddenly Los Angeles Dodgers tickets are available for a family drama fitting of a Greek tragedy as well as America’s pastime.

The first official pitch has yet to be thrown at the Cactus League in Arizona and the first error has to doom the Double-A ballplayer trying to get a shot at the majors. Still, most of the American fan base is beginning to take stock of the upcoming 2010 MLB season. They are trying to get a grasp on their favorite team’s starting rotation (who’s our number three starter?) and trying to see if there is any hope late in the lineup.

The world seemed off its axis to most of New York for the first decade of the new century. Nothing seemed right as the Yankees failed to win year after year following their annihilation of the Mets in 2000. The Yanks lost two World Series and the Red Sox came back from a 4-0 deficit to go on to win their first one since 1918. It was a dreadful eight years marked by the bastardization of the homerun by steroids and the inability of George Steinbrenner to sign a big-name starting pitcher. Then came 2009 and the baseball world was jolted back to its natural axis as the Yankees finally won another championship. Now that things appear to be right again in the world and here are five reasons to believe that they will stay right as the Yankees will defend their 27th World Series.

This Valentine’s Day thousands of husbands bought their wives and girlfriends diamond necklaces. Los Angeles Angels’ first baseman Kendry Morales took his wife to a meeting with super agent Scott Boras and promised that next season (after either arbitration or a massive contract extension) he will be making enough to buy her a diamond encrusted house in Orange County.

The World Series is finishing up with the Yanks up 3 games to 1. The NFL season is about halfway through and just about every team still has a shot at the playoffs. The college football season has just a few weeks over, meaning it is time for the BCS standings to screw a deserving team over and start the annual clamor for a playoff system. In the midst of all this the NHL and NBA seasons have started.

This could definitely be a World Series the country could get behind. On one side there are the New York Yankees, the most hated team in baseball trying to win its first title since the 20th Century. On the other side are the Philadelphia Phillies, the defending champions trying to start a dynasty of their own. On both sides there are insanely passionate sports fans that could leave 108 miles worth of blood and guts between New Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and Citizens Bank Park in Philly.

The National League, also known as Quadruple A baseball, looks like they will have few surprises as the final 50 or so games dwindle down in this awful August heat. Most of the divisions look pretty set no matter what the standings say about a team nipping at their heals. The only real question is who will win the Wild Card spot?

If you have doubts over my brazen predictions lets go through the three divisions first and clear the air.

Baseball has passed the 100-game mark, the trade deadline has come and gone, and the All Star game has once again ended in the American League’s favor. Now its time to deconstruct the American League and decide which teams have a chance and which teams are destined to fall apart

This weekend’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which honored former Boston Red Sox right fielder Jim Rice, former Oakland A’s and New York Yankees outfielder Rickey Henderson, and former Yankees and Cleveland Indians second baseman Joe Gordon, came and passed with some tears, some humor, and, of course, some controversy. While some may lament spoiling a moment that is meant to celebrate baseball with continued strife, perhaps it is best to discuss these larger issues when so many are listening. The two subjects that were discussed, or at least mentioned on ESPN and in newspapers across the country, were the Pete Rose and steroids.

The All Star game has passed, the pennant race has officially begun, and the trade deadline (July 31) is fast approaching. Any team with a chance to win their division or compete for the wild card is looking for ways to improve their chances, while any team that is more than 10 games out is looking to deal the soon-to-be free agents for some young arms and position players with potential.

As of the MLB standings right now, five American League teams are facing double digit deficits in the standings and truly have no hope of qualifying for even a Little League regional final and one AL team has already called it quits despite being just 9.5 games back (the most exciting thing for Blue Jays fans the rest of the season will be waiting to see who they get for Roy Halladay). The rest of the teams have some chance for the division crown or a wild card spot. These teams could all use something to shore up their chances and what follows is a quick grocery list of wants and needs for those remaining nine American League teams.

The first half of the baseball season is over and after Tuesday night’s All Star game the pennant race really begins. Well, as the pennant race begins, so must the quest for the MVP award and like the first place teams in each division, certain players already have a huge advantage.

It now less than a month until the All Star teams are announced, something I realized this weekend when I received a ballot at my baseball game of the season. I looked at the ballot and realized that I really did not have a clue who to vote for (even though I get to vote 25 times according to the MLB website). My attention has been waning as my favorite team has been busy dashing all my delusional spring training hopes. The only stats I really know are those for the players on my fantasy team, so I took about an hour and looked at the list of names and decided who actually deserves to make an appearance at the game and contemplated who many players will get voted on just because of rabid fans and name recognition.

I do not know if anyone noticed between news of Randy Johnson reaching 300 wins and the Braves dishonoring Tom Glavine, but this weekend the only two teams with winning percentages above .600 are playing. The Los Angeles Dodgers, who have continued to play incredible baseball in the absence of Manny Ramirez, host the Philadelphia Phillies in a rematch of last season’s NLCS.

The American League is being dominated in the early season by shades of blue. Every division has a team clad in blue, in powder blue, in blue block lettering, or in a bright blue outline, leading the way. Each team, the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East, the Kansas City Royals in the AL Central, and the Texas Rangers in the AL West, is surprised to be there. So which team will hold on to a little bit of Their Blue Heaven and which teams will come crashing down to Earth and be singing the blues by the time the pennant race really begins?

Woe is the Greeks. They have a mythology seemingly based on the gods’ series of one night stands (all those father-less children destined to perish in misguided quests just to get their father’s attention), they have had their greatest ruler defiled by Oliver Stone in the movie Alexander (a movie with Angelina Jolie and Rosario Dawson clad in revealing robes, yet the most intimate moments are between Colin Farrell and Jared Leto), they have endured an unwarranted attempt to turn My Big Fat Greek Wedding (which resurrected Joey Fatone’s career) into a television series, My Big Fat Greek Life, (and Fatone’s career began its downward spiral once again), and, frankly, have been nothing but bad for the beautiful game of baseball.

One of the most exciting things about the beginning of the baseball season is the first few weeks. I think they are kind of like he first few rounds of the NCAA Tournament. You get some real surprises at first before reality sets in and brings those hopeful teams and players crashing down to Earth. Here are some of my favorite trends that will come burning through the stratosphere over the next couple of weeks.

After a few months of wondering what was going to happen in this new season of MLB, opening day finally commenced yesterday. Of course this was simply game one for many teams (apart from the Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves who officially opened the season on Sunday night) in a long schedule that will give the winners 161 more chances to end their perfect season and losers 161 more games to find redemption. Still, to say that a few things did not surprise me would be a liar.

I have been one of the many baseball fans outraged by the Alex Rodriguez saga this summer, but sometimes it helps to back up and take a look at the allegations I have simply accepted as fact in the last few months. I have to really look at facts, our at least first hand encounters, and decide does A-Rod really deserve all the flak he has been getting.

My heart jumped when I realized that my latest move landed me in the cave of married friends’ duplex in Chicago without any means to watch March Madness. They did not want to get cable, which is cool, and meant to get rabbit ears at some time but never quite got around to it. I could have gone out and splurged on rabbit ears and that digital signal box but I really did not want to start feeding me television habit. So there I was stuck between my desire to watch endless hours of basketball and not wanting to spend needless money on something I was going to use for a couple weeks. Then I found that NCAA.com was streaming the games live and the heart murmur went subsided.

Normally I would be appalled by the rampant East Coast bias that has an undeniable imprint on ESPN and many other major publications and media outlets. However, with three number teams in March Madness, the return of the NFC East to the forefront of competitive football ball this last fall, and after a  quick look at the divisions throughout Major League Baseball I simply cannot blame the networks. Even though the MLB season has yet to begin I can already rank the divisions pretty confidently and found that the East is king this year.

This weekend not only signals the beginning of the March Madness, but it also marks the final playoff games of the World Baseball Classic and the beginning of the MLS season. The sad reality is that I do not care about either one. I do not care about the WBC because I have 162 games of MLB baseball in front of me and that is a lot of baseball to care about. I simply do not know why I cannot get myself to care about the MLS though.

Back in the 19th century the Netherlands surprised the world. They were a small country with more channels than natural resources, yet they built a Dutch imperial empire that dominated parts of Brazil, South Africa, southern India, and Indonesia. Now the year is 2009 and the little country has again upset the world, this time keeping the Dominican Republic out of tournament play in the World Baseball Classic.

Terrell Owens left America’s Team for a team he dubbed North America’s Team. While some might be amused by this clever turn of phrase, many more are surprised by the decision to play in Buffalo for Dick Jauron, the place offense goes to die. In retrospect, the last couple of years have actually been a pretty dynamic and shocking time for us in the sports world. Owens decision joins the ranks of these other sundry moments that have kept me on my feet in the last couple years.

If the Los Angeles Dodgers thought the pressure was on when they spent all winter trying to deal with Greed Master General Scott Boras, then they need only wait until the season begins to find a whole new boulder thrust upon them smashing a few vital organs.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, between suicidal thoughts, once said that intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. According to this definition, Chicago Cubs fans must be geniuses.

First the pitchers and catchers reported. Then the rest of the position players came to camp. Now, on this fine Wednesday, the first exciting, but meaningless games begin.

New York Yankees fans will get the chance to heckle A-Rod in the Grapefruit opener, Chicago Cubs fans will reset the doomsday clock, and everyone else will practice making pitchers cry on the mound. Tomorrow morning baseball “enthusiasts” will read there first box scores since October 28, 2008, back when Bush was president and Philadelphia was rewarded with a team that did not let them down.

The Chicago spring tease is on and the snow that was frozen into impenetrable blocks of polar ice blocks is finally begin to melt and all I can think about is baseball, baseball, and baseball. I feel like ignoring the return of the steroid scandal (I thought that tumor was benign) and daydreaming about the bleacher seats and the box scores.

This weekend was one of extremes. It started with a Sports Illustrated expose that implicated New York Yankees Alex Rodriguez as one of 104 people who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and ended with an NBA match up between two of the best basketball players in a game that did not disappoint.