Sports Thoughts for May 12, 2010
Hey Mets fans, how’s your blood pressure doing these days?
Chalk it up to our Amazin’s to give us yet another “cardiac-style” game last night. Just when you thought it was safe to turn off your televisions or radios and go pay attention to something else, our Mets came back from a 6-2 8th inning deficit to score 6 runs and beat the Washington Nationals, 8-6. Stars of the game? How about catcher Rod Barajas and another clutch hit? How about newly called-up Chris Carter knocking in the go-ahead run on his first major league hit? How about Ike Davis making yet another acrobatic catch near the dugout? And one more time… how about our bullpen with yet another yeoman performance, holding the Nats scoreless inning after inning until the bats came through?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t know how much I can take of these roller coaster games. I may have to watch or listen to them with a bottle of Maalox next to me!
Case in point, this afternoon’s 6-4 rubber match loss to the Nats. Mike Pelfrey struggled most of his start, but the Mets bats awoke to rally to a 4-4 tie in the 5th inning. Alas, K-Rod gives up a 2-run homer to a rookie (second of the game, first of his career) in the top of the ninth, and that was all she wrote.
As inconsistent and maddening our Mets are, at least they’re relatively healthy, bringing up new energy with Ike Davis and Chris Carter, and they bust their butts every game for the most part. If this isn’t enough reason to keep watching or listening to game broadcasts, what else do you need to know?! Hey, at least we know our Mets almost always keep Keith Hernandez awake!
Speaking of snoozes and catnaps, could we please get off Ken Griffey, Jr.’s back about his sleeping in the Mariners clubhouse?! Have you looked at their team batting average lately? If we had a team batting average of .229 (at least nine players hitting below .220) going into yesterday we’d occasionally suffer from narcolepsy or fall asleep from sheer boredom too!
And the Mariners don’t even have the WORST tam batting average. The AL worst? The Chicago White Sox at .228. MLB worst? The Houston Astros at .225. Our Mets? Let’s not get too full of ourselves… a team batting average of .238 is nothing to be proud of, much less perk you up. Oh, NOW I understand why Keith’s falling asleep… Now at bat, number zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…………….
But let’s get real for a moment. Bobby Bonilla and Rickey Henderson were playing cards in the Mets clubhouse during game 6 of the 1999 NLCS. Kevin Mitchell, one of the key contributors in the 1986 Mets wild game 6 rally and win over Boston in the world series (the Bill Buckner game) was taking a shower when his turn at bat unexpectedly came up again. Gee… you don’t suppose there was something in the ventilation system at Shea Stadium, do you?
Speaking of stadiums, last week while driving along the Massachusetts Turnpike en route to Boston for a business meeting, I passed by Fenway Park minutes before a night game. Talk about a site. The place was all abuzz, seats already filled up, lights on and bright. I wondered if this was the case for all Red Sox games, then I later found out that was the night Nomar was honored by Red Sox Nation.
Speaking of more stadiums, how it is that only about 7,500 fans showed up on Sunday to watch Oakland’s Dallas Braden pitch his perfecto against Tampa Bay? I realize it was Mother’s Day, but c’mon… the Rays have MLB’s best record, especially on the road, the A’s are playing better than .500 ball, and Braden has to be an entertaining pitcher now that we know A-Rod knows who he is.
And, one last mention of stadiums… why is next month’s interleague series between the Phillies and Blue Jays being moved to PHILADELPHIA?! Okay, okay, there’s a G-20 summit and baseball officials are afraid of escalating violence… but moving the game to Philly?! What, Montreal’s Olympic Stadium isn’t available? The Phillies security personnel won’t be allowed to bring tasers with them over the border?
So, in the infinite wisdom of MLB, this three-game series will be played in Philadelphia, but Toronto will be the home team AND the DH will be used. Oh sure… great idea! Give the Phillies yet another bat to use in that bandbox of a ballpark.
So please explain this… will MLB fly in Blue Jays fans from Canada so the home team doesn’t feel outnumbered by 50,000 drunken PHILLIES fans each day?! Oops… details, details. We know you’re trying, Mr. Selig… we know you mean well.
In a previous posting, I pointed out how few MLB teams have winning records at home and away this season. Well, here’s another stat for you to consider when you project your hopes for your favorite team towards October… intradivisional record. That’s right, folks; the road to October is paved by how well you play against your divisional rivals. Why? Because to make the playoffs, you really need to win your division, given each league only has one wild card.
For those of you who bellyache that teams like Kansas City and Pittsburgh never have a chance each year, because their payrolls are dirt-cheap and who can ever compete with the Yankees, wah, wah, wah!!! OH SHUT UP! Since when are the Yankees in the AL Central or NL Central? Did you know the Yankees and Pirates don’t play each other this year, and the Yankees and Royals only play each other eight times (YES, only EIGHT times) between mid-July and early-August?
So what’s Kansas City’s excuse for the other 154 games?! Oh, let’s take a quick peek at their record against fellow AL Central teams. Well, blow me down, as Popeye used to say… the Royals are an impressive 4-9 against their divisional brethren. That’s barely .300 baseball, folks… against teams they have to play as many as NINETEEN GAMES this season. EACH! What’s the Royals’ home record? 4-9! What’s their road record? 7-13.
Do you realize what this means? The Royals stink worse at home than on the road, and they especially stink when they play Minnesota, Detroit, Cleveland, and the White Sox. 19 times 4 equals 78, almost half the games played in a full regular season schedule. If the Royals can only win one-third of their intradivisional games, do you realize that’s a 26-52 record? And if we toss in the 8 games all you Yankee haters assume the Royals will lose, that’s 60 losses already! The old axiom has been that every team will win and lose 60 games; the remaining 42 are what separate the good from bad teams. Well, if we assume the Royals’ only troubles are within their division and against the Yankees, heck, that means all Kansas City needs to do is beat everyone else at a 64-12 clip just to win 90 games. Easy, right? WRONG!
What’s my point? Don’t blame your team’s ineptitude on the Yankees, no matter how repulsive the Steinbrenner monolith seems. If the Royals ever hope to be a good team, it starts first being able to play a LOT better than .300 ball against their own divisional rivals. Think I’m being too snarky? Look no further than Minnesota. They win two-thirds of their divisional games, and play better than .500 on the road and home. The Twins hardly have the payroll of the Yankees, and yet we see them in the playoff mix year after year after year…
Are there any teams we should worry about because of their intradivisional record? Yep – our Mets are 6-8 against NL East foes, Atlanta’s 3-9. The Brewers are a divisional worst 6-9 within the NL Central, and the Giants and Dodgers are 3-6 and 5-7, respectively, within the NL West.
Hopes for Red Sox fans? It’s a little worrisome that they’re 9-12 within the AL East, perhaps a primary reason they’re barely above .500. And for those of us who’d like to see Toronto hang in there against the Yankees, keep in mind they’re 4-7 within the AL east while Tampa bay and the Yankees are 12-4 and 11-4, respectively.
So, if you want to be the beast of your division, not only do you need to play winning baseball at home and away, you also need to play winning baseball within your own division, especially with the unbalanced schedule.
Looking for a good book to buy and read? As I tweeted last night, I highly recommend Bill Madden’s (New York Daily News) new one on Yankee Boss George Steinbrenner – Steinbrenner: The last lion of baseball. After reading three consecutive days of excerpts, I’m hooked. As we all know, George had very interesting owner-manager relationships with Billy Martin and Joe Torre, but who would’ve expected such a colorful replay of his friendship with Barbara Walters?
Speaking of Ms. Walters, best wishes for a successful heart valve replacement surgery later this week, and may you have a speedy recovery. In fact, I think it would be wonderful if her first show back on “The View” this fall included Bob Uecker, voice of the Milwaukee Brewers, so they could share their recovery experiences. Who knows? It might be better television than when Regis chewed the cardiac fat on Dave Letterman’s show.
On another medical front, if you haven’t been keeping tabs on Denver Nuggets head coach George Karl, he’s still in the hospital recovering from DVT complications associated with chemotherapy for throat and neck cancer. I hate to be a back-seat physician, but since I have personal experience with both cancer treatment and a DVT, could someone please explain to me why Karl’s physicians foolishly elected to remove the venous stents? Standard medical protocol is to keep the stents in for a maximum of 4-6 weeks, but if a patient is still undergoing treatments that could induce DVT formation, wouldn’t it be better in the long term to keep the stents in until all treatments are completely done and the patient is asymptomatic, or simply leave the stents in place for the rest of the man’s life? If multiple stents can remain in the arteries of Dick Cheney and Bill Clinton for cardiovascular disease, why add an extra risk for non-cardiac patients?
Speaking of anatomy and physiology, has anyone located the Cleveland Cavaliers’ backbone yet, especially the backbone of LeBron James? Now I didn’t watch much of last night’s game 5 home-court debacle against the Celtics, but it sure seemed like a few important body systems were missing from the Cavs’ players. For example, we’ve always learned that there’s no “I” in team… funny, there’s no GUTS in Cavaliers, either!
Is it disturbing to see the Cavs lay an egg at home like this (well, it was a pretty big omelet)? No, it could happen to any team, especially considering the Celtics aren’t a tomato can like the Knicks, but most disturbing was LeBron James simply didn’t seem to give a damn, and to even have the chutzpah to say “only 3 bad games in 7 years”, and “legacy” afterwards is even more mind-boggling.
Can James turn it around in Boston tomorrow night? Sure. Would I bet on it? NOPE. As great a basketball player he is, you really have to question his heart and mental toughness after last year’s pouting exit after Orlando eliminated the Cavs, now this. And Knick fans want him to come to New York and save the franchise?! If he can’t elevate a superior Cavs team during the playoffs, how is he going to do the same with the bozos wearing Knicks jerseys next year at the Garden?! In fact, you can’t help but wonder if he’d melt under the glare of the Garden lights 41 nights playing for the home team.
Do I honestly care what the future brings for LeBron James? No… that’s why I’m a football and baseball guy. But I do know a troubling sight in sports when I see one, and injured or not, it’s very troubling to see one of the NBA’s marquee players and fiscal meal tickets show the “Eye of the Tiger” once in five games, and the heart of the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz the rest of the time. Even if his arm is falling off, a true champion drags it along the floor and gives it everything he has.
So, the Associated Press re-voted again on the NFL defensive rookie of the year award, and Houston’s Brian Cushing still won it, but by a smaller margin. The whole story doesn’t make sense to me. Why were football writers re-voting? Would Cushing’s performance be any different if the NFL suspended him last season? But most importantly, why did it take until now for us to learn Cushing tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs prior to the 2009 regular season? Just like health care reform advocates wanted to eliminate the “doughnut hole” in Medicare prescription drug coverage, something tells me NFL commissioner Roger Goodell needs to take a look at a serious gap in the testing-appeals-suspension timeline.
And for those who think sportswriters should legislate morality against players who break rules and laws on and off-field, let me say this – if you want to take back Rookie of the Year awards, Pro Bowl nominations, and Hall of Fame inductions, I’m fine with it, but where were you guys years ago? Was Ty Cobb a model citizen? Do you think Lawrence Taylor is the first member of the NFL alumni who’s transgressed against women? Perhaps the name O.J. Simpson rings a bell?
Finally, does anyone else besides me smell a future Will Ferrell movie involving a very off-beat pitcher named Rojo Johnson?
No comments:
Post a Comment