Baseball Playoff Races Heating Up!

As the dog days of summer wind down and kids head back to school, the baseball season in the world of pro sports begins to make its stretch run. I am sure that we learned just from last season when the St. Louis Cardinals who barely made the playoffs with a just over .500 record went on to upset both the New York Mets in the NL championship series and the favored Detroit Tigers in the World Series; that nothing is guaranteed.

Revenue sharing, an idea that Bud Selig the commissioner insisted be apart of the baseball landscape has been one of the factors that has brought about parity in baseball. With major league teams now more or less on equal footing with the revenue sharing ideal, the era in which the teams that spent the most money often had the best chance of achieving success in the playoffs, (read New York Yankees of the late 1990's thanks to the deep pockets of owner George Steinbrenner) is probably over.

Now organizations that invest wisely on developing players, while spending money judiciously on free agents are the ones that are successful. Of late, a pattern has emerged the last several years. Teams that appear to peak at the right time, in the playoffs; are often the teams that carry home the trophy. As proof consider St. Louis last year, the Chicago White Sox in 2005, and the Florida Marlins in 2003 being prime examples. No longer is it a guarantee that a team like the Yankees who dominate during the regular season, (or the Detroit Tigers of last year); achieving the best record over the 162 game season, being called a certifiable lock beforehand to win the World Series trophy.

This season continues the same trend that has been the rule this decade. The Cardinals, (with two of their players pictured above Albert Pujols and Rick Ankiel) despite a record that is still below .500, lurk just behind the leaders in the NL Central division, the inexperienced Milwaukee Brewers. St. Louis has lost their best pitcher to season-ending elbow surgery, Chris Carpenter. The team has faced other adversity, too - the drunk driving death of one of their other pitchers, as well as sub-par, injury-filled seasons from former all-stars Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen. Yet, the Cardinals have been rejuvenated emotionally as an organization by the amazing comeback of their new right fielder Rick Ankiel. Ankiel once was a promising left handed pitcher who inexplicably lost command of his pitches. Ankiel once threw 6-7 wild pitchers during an important playoff game, and was ruined psychologically by that performance.

Instead of quitting the sport for good, Ankiel went back to the minor leagues and developed into a quality hitter with power, simultaneously learning to play a position in the outfield. Don't count the Cardinals out, yet. Last year, I incorrectly assumed that they would have no chance at beating the powerhouse Mets in the NL championship series. Late in the final game their weak-hitting catcher, Yadier Molina hit a shocking go-ahead home run in the top of the ninth inning. Shortly thereafter, when Carlos Beltran the Mets' star centerfielder, who represented the winning run at the plate with a runner on base, struck out in the bottom of the ninth inning to end the game and the series, how wrong my prediction of a Mets NL championship victory was proven to be. In sports, nothing is 100% certain. That's why they play the games.

The American League, following a trend of recent years, appears to have the better teams in baseball. The Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim lead the pack, and on paper anyway look to be better than any single National League team. But, again one only has to go back to last fall when a juggernaut Detroit Tigers team lost to St. Louis. The team's downfall was partially attributed to the fact that Tiger pitchers somehow forgot how to field their position during the Series; comically throwing fielded balls all over the park, and allowing St. Louis to take the World Series in 5 games. Again, you have to play the games. Who would have suspected before the 2003 World Series began that an upstart Florida Marlins team would have any chance in beating the powerful Yankees that season? Or, that the Chicago White Sox, who had not won a World Series since before the United States got involved in W.W.I, (1917) would go on and become baseball champions in 2005?

In the AL East Division it could be 1978 all over again. In July of that year, the Red Sox had a fourteen and a half game lead over the New York Yankees. That season will forever be a dark time in New England as the Yankees did end up catching the Red Sox. In a one-game playoff to decide who would meet Kansas City in the AL championship series, the Yankees defeated Red Sox 5-4 in what is forever known as the "Bucky bleepin' Dent" game in Boston. Dent, a weak hitting shortstop for the Yankees who probably had a career batting average under .260 hit a stunning 3-run homer late in the game to complete a dramatic Yankee comeback not only in that particular game; but the season as well for New York.

Could history repeat itself this season? Late in May, the Red Sox once again had a fourteen and a half game lead over the Yankees. At the time the Bronx Bombers looked completely inept. Half of their position players looked old, and to be honest finished as ball players, (Bobby Abreu, Johnny Damon, Hidecki Matsui, and Jason Giambi). Their starting pitchers were injury prone, (early leg injuries to Chiang Meng Wang, Mike Mussina, and Phil Hughes landed each of them on the disabled list) and their bullpen was a sieve. Even the great closer Mariano Rivera looked vulnerable blowing two early games. Everyone was calling for Joe Torre to be replaced as the team's manager. The Yankees' answer to all of their critics and fans request to do something to improve the team was to sign a 44, (now 45) year old pitcher, Roger Clemens, to a contract that pays him about one million dollars per start. Although, as I have stated many times in this blog, I am not a Yankees' fan, I also refused to count them out this summer.

I was born and grew up in an area in Connecticut that is nothing but Red Sox country, (although I am not a Red Sox fan either. My late father, for his entire life worshipped Boston). I keenly remember what happened in 1978, (actually the Red Sox blew a lead to the Yankees in 1977, as well). Pessimism, rather than optimism is a way of life for Red Sox fans from Maine, down to Cape Cod, and Connecticut. Bosox fans always view the glass as half-empty, rather than half-full. Fans of the team, for years have been disappointed so much that it is in their nature to look at the negative side of things. My father, during his lifetime epitomized the true Red Sox fan. Sure, many a time in past years they might have won a game against the lowly Baltimore Orioles or Cleveland Indians for instance. But, to Red Sox fans, they would dwell negatively on the fact that Carl Yastrezmski, or Jim Rice happened to go 0 for 4 during a particular game, striking out two times and leaving 5 runners on base. Luis Tiant or Mike Torrez gave up 10 hits in the game, and beside while the Red Sox won one game, the Yankees swept a doubleheader!

True "Red Sox Nation" fans know that nothing is guaranteed in baseball. Sure, the curse of the Babe, (that inexplicable trade of the player who would become the best in history by the Red Sox to the Yankees before the 1920 season to help the then Red Sox owner Harry Frazee finance a Broadway theatrical play) has finally been reversed thanks to what happened in 2004. But this season, that once huge Red Sox lead is now down to but 5 games, (the Red Sox did win last night, while the Yankees lost a late game out in Anaheim to the Angeles). The last month, the Yankee bats have come alive. Bobby Abreu, Damon, and Hidecki Matsui have proven that they still have some life left in their playing careers, swinging hot bats as of late. Matsui, in particular appears to be on his way to another .300, 30 homerun, 100 RBI season, individually. The pitching, (the bullpen in particular) has been stabilized.

A late Yankee call-up, the young flame-throwing rookie Joba Chamberlain looks to be the real deal. Meanwhile, the Red Sox acquisition of Eric Gagne, a former great closer obtained from Texas in order to provide additional set-up for closer Jonathan Papelbon has more or less blown up in the Red Sox face. Gagne blew leads in two of the first three games that he entered late in games pitching for Boston. It looks as if the Red Sox purchased Gagne about 4 years past his prime pitching days. Looking ahead, the two staunch AL East opponents have 6 games remaining to be played against each other, the first series being in Yankee Stadium next week. I do agree that Boston has the better pitching of the two teams. But, New York has the mojo, and a lot of history on their side. One would be foolish by stating that the Yankees will not catch Boston, then go on to win the AL East division. About a million Red Sox fans living in New England have been witness to seeing it happen before.

Other surprise teams making their mark this season are the Seattle Mariners and the Arizona Diamondbacks in the AL and NL West, respectively At the moment, Seattle which survived the surprising resignation July 1st of their manager Mike Hargrove, (who quit stating that his heart was no longer into baseball), is leading the wild-card race, ahead of the Yankees and Cleveland. Except for one stellar player in Ichiro Suzuki, the team's all-world leadoff hitter who leads the AL in batting, no one in this country who resides east of the state of Washington knows much about this team. And, wouldn't it be interesting if the Mariners, who once had a young Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr. in his prime, and Randy Johnson on the same team; and another season in which they won 116 games only to be upset in the playoffs by the Yankees, be able to complete an amazing comeback as a franchise from the scrapheap that they have become in recent years - and make the playoffs?

As for the Diamondbacks when they won the World Series in 2001, with an exciting 7-game victory of the NY Yankees the team had mortgaged their future to win at all costs that season. The team's foundation was based on high-salaried, star players, (Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, and aging Matt Williams as examples). After they defeated the Yankees, gradually the team was disassembled, and deteriorating badly in quality. It has taken about 4-5 seasons for their farm system to develop star players. But Arizona, led by the hottest pitcher in the major leagues, (last year's NL Cy Young winner Brandon Webb - who has not allowed a run in 42 innings) and a stud, 5-tool, 19 year old named Chase Upton has slowly built up a lead in the NL West. Knowledgeable scouts have proclaimed that Upton will be the next great baseball player, having the skills to be the next A-Rod. Other than the Yankees, Arizona has been the hottest team in baseball since the All-Star game.

So, as summer dwindles down to its last remaining days, September looks as if it will be an exciting month for baseball. Will the Yankees catch the Red Sox? Will the Mets finally play up to the level that they were last season, or will Atlanta or Philadelphia catch them? Will Arizona and Seattle complete comebacks as franchises and make the playoffs? Can the Cardinals, a team that no one respects outside of the state of Missouri, repeat their improbable run of last season? Yes, the football season in pro sports begins on Sept. 9th. But, pro sports fans would be wise not to turn off baseball too soon.

I welcome any comments to this post, especially from fans of the sport of baseball!

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