Not that I have anything against Detroit. It's just that they're in the league that plays a debased version of the game; one in which strategy has been sacrificed to short attention spans.
Update: The Cards got off to a good start last night, which was particularly important because they started a rookie pitcher with a questionable record, but who happened to have the only fully rested arm available.
Fray colleague JMB weighs in on my side in the DH rule contoversy, but backs the Tigers because he's Detroit born and raised. Fair enough. I give my wife a pass to support an AL team because she's from Massachusetts.
Update-update: Unfortunately, there are bad precedents concerning winning the first and losing the second game of a series in this post-season. Just ask Joe Torre and Willie Randolph. I hope Tony LaRussa's law degree will help him distinguish the Cards' case.
As for Twiff's (scroll down) arguments in favor of the DH, I have these replies: (1) it makes the game more interesting; and (2) there's something wrong with a low ERA?
Update-update-update: Twiff (scroll down s'more) comes right back at me. OK, I'll freely admit that the AL game is, as a general proposition, tougher on pitchers than the NL version. By the same token, though, it's got to be easier on batters. I haven't seen a comparison of batting averages of players who switch leagues, but I'd be willing to wager that those going American to National see their averages decline more often than not. As anecdotal evidence, I can think of Roberto Alomar, who batted in the high .200s his first three years at San Diego, then, after moving to the AL, batted .300 or better for nine of eleven seasons (the other two he batted .295 and .282), but whose average plummeted to .266 when he returned to the NL in 2001. Then there's Eddie Murray, whose average bounced around the .300 mark over his twelve years in Baltimore, then plunged to .247 his first year with the Dodgers. (He did bounce back and have a career high average of .330 his second year in LA; I guess the sunshine did him good. But the following year he was back down to .260.)
When all is said and done, I guess it comes down to whether you prefer a game with lots of hitting and scoring or one with lots of subtleties and strategy. I'm in that camp that enjoys "little ball"; for example, seeing a pitcher lay down a perfect bunt with one out (there are many pitchers who can do it), or seeing a manager having to decide whether to pinch hit for a pitcher who's been throwing well with a tie game in the sixth or seventh. I even enjoy seeing a pitcher surprise everyone by hitting a home run, as Bronson Arroyo, new to the NL, showed he could do twice this year.
Showing posts with label Baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baseball. Show all posts
Friday, October 20, 2006
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Red Hook container port in Indian summer.
Not far from where I live is a small port for container ships. In an era of larger and larger cargo vessels (although this trend may have reached a limit, at least for now, with Emma Maersk and her planned sisters), little facilities like Red Hook are at some disadvantage, though there are enough smaller ships serving less heavily trafficked routes to provide a market for them. Red Hook has the additional problems of not having a vast expanse of landside storage space and lacking a direct rail connection. Trucks handle many of the containers there, though some are transshipped to barges for delivery to railheads in New Jersey or elsewhere.
Despite these handicaps, much to my delight the little port thrived for a number of years after I moved to Brooklyn. I made it an at least daily routine, weather allowing, to walk across the street and down a short path to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, from which I could (in addition to seeing the Statue of Liberty, the lower Manhattan skyline, and the Brooklyn Bridge with the Empire State Building and Midtown beyond) check on the activity at Red Hook. I even developed a private superstition: that the Mets were more likely to win if there was a ship docked at Red Hook. One night, I was watching a game in which the Mets had a one run lead going into the seventh. As the visiting team came to bat, I heard three blasts of a ship's horn. I walked outside to see the only vessel that had been docked at Red Hook pulling out into the Buttermilk Channel. When I got back to my TV, the visitors had scored a two run homer that put them ahead for good.
A couple of years ago, I noticed that the likelihood of there being a ship or two docked there when I made one of my Promenade strolls had gotten smaller. At first, I put this down to greater cargo-handling efficiency meaning shorter turn-around times. Then I began seeing hints in the local press that developers were eying this stretch of waterfront for residential development. I noted this in an earlier post; now, it seems confirmed by stories to the effect that the Port Authority, which owns the land and piers that the port uses, is encouraging shipping companies to use other facilities in New Jersey, and is preparing to evict the stevedoring firm that operates the port so as to sell the land at a considerable profit.
I was delighted, therefore, on one of my Promenade excursions a few days ago to see three ships docked at Red Hook. In the photograph to the left, taken from the Promenade, you can see the superstrucure and funnel of the nearest ship, the forecastle and prow of one docked beyond it, and, above that, the superstructure of a third vessel docked at an angle almost perpendicular to the closer two.
In the photo to the right, you see Red Hook from the vantage of the Battery Park Esplanade, at the southern tip of Manhattan, where the gull is resting on the railing. Beyond the bird is the channel between lower Manhattan and Governor's Island, and beyond it the northern tip of the Island, with the ventilating tower for the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel to the left. Beyond that is Buttermilk Channel, and on its far side is a container ship docked at Red Hook.
Below is another view from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Beyond the cargo vessel, a cruise ship is docked at the new passenger terminal just south of the container port. My consolation prize, should the container port close, is that the cruise ship terminal will remain, and even likely expand. I am no great enthusiast for contemporary cruise ships, with the exception of Queen Mary 2 and a few others, which maintain a modicum of shipshapeness and don't try to disguise themeselves as floating Morris Lapidus hotels, not that I have anything against his hotels, so long as they're on land.
At least my hypothesized connection between Red Hook traffic and the Mets' success has been disproved.
Update: Twiffer gives me a link to H.P. Lovecraft's The Horror at Red Hook, which is set in a lurid version of the neighborhood as it might have been in the early twentieth century. While I'm sure it then had the raffish character common to dockside communities, I doubt it was quite the squalid sinkhole of depravity Lovecraft depicts (and I seriously doubt it was ever likely to become a Little Kurdistan). Warning: Lovecraft's writing is permeated with the casual racism charcteristic of his time. He uses "swarthy" as a virtual synonym for "sinister", refers to "squinting Orientals", and contrasts the "squat" denizens of Red Hook (consisting of "Syrian, Spanish, Italian, and Negro elements impinging upon one another") with the "sturdy Vikings" of a nearby Norwegian neighborhood (remnants of which remain today).
I'm intrigued by the cover illustration on the issue of Weird Tales in which "The Horror" was published. It shows what looks like a giant version of one of the Wicked Witch of the West's flying monkeys swooping down on a cape-clad woman who appears to be making her way on a path through a glacier. If you click on the cover, you get a link to the table of contents; unfortunately, there's no link to to the text of instalment one of John Martin Leahy's serial novel Drome, which this is supposed to illustrate. However, a bit of Google research got me this quote:
1927 Drome by John Martin Leahy. An inner world, hideous monsters, a wicked priest, a beautiful princess and apparently, absolutely terrible writing.
The quote comes from this amusing page in an Edgar Rice Burroughs tribute site. According to the author, Drome, along with Burroughs' Pellucidar, Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, and many others, exemplifies speculative fiction based on the "hollow earth" theory (now pretty much put paid by plate tectonics) that posited inhabited worlds in vast caverns honeycombing earth's interior.
Mets augury update: Twiffer (scroll down to second comment) may have been right about the efficacy of the augury continuing. Late yesterday afternoon, I was delighted to see three ships docked at Red Hook: a hulking, ungainly Lapidus-hotel style cruise ship; a not-so-hulking but still ungainly National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia container ship, and a trim little tramp freighter. As game time approached, the cruiser and the Arab departed, but the little tramp remained as the Mets managed to stay alive. I just checked, and she's still there (photo taken at 3:10 PM):
The fate of the Mets' season may rest on her remaining at her berth until tonight's game is over. It's a tough, lonely job. I hope she's up to it.
Case disproved: the ship's still there, but they lost, anyway.
Congrats, Twiff. Now I get to root for the Cards.
Despite these handicaps, much to my delight the little port thrived for a number of years after I moved to Brooklyn. I made it an at least daily routine, weather allowing, to walk across the street and down a short path to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, from which I could (in addition to seeing the Statue of Liberty, the lower Manhattan skyline, and the Brooklyn Bridge with the Empire State Building and Midtown beyond) check on the activity at Red Hook. I even developed a private superstition: that the Mets were more likely to win if there was a ship docked at Red Hook. One night, I was watching a game in which the Mets had a one run lead going into the seventh. As the visiting team came to bat, I heard three blasts of a ship's horn. I walked outside to see the only vessel that had been docked at Red Hook pulling out into the Buttermilk Channel. When I got back to my TV, the visitors had scored a two run homer that put them ahead for good.
A couple of years ago, I noticed that the likelihood of there being a ship or two docked there when I made one of my Promenade strolls had gotten smaller. At first, I put this down to greater cargo-handling efficiency meaning shorter turn-around times. Then I began seeing hints in the local press that developers were eying this stretch of waterfront for residential development. I noted this in an earlier post; now, it seems confirmed by stories to the effect that the Port Authority, which owns the land and piers that the port uses, is encouraging shipping companies to use other facilities in New Jersey, and is preparing to evict the stevedoring firm that operates the port so as to sell the land at a considerable profit.
I was delighted, therefore, on one of my Promenade excursions a few days ago to see three ships docked at Red Hook. In the photograph to the left, taken from the Promenade, you can see the superstrucure and funnel of the nearest ship, the forecastle and prow of one docked beyond it, and, above that, the superstructure of a third vessel docked at an angle almost perpendicular to the closer two.
In the photo to the right, you see Red Hook from the vantage of the Battery Park Esplanade, at the southern tip of Manhattan, where the gull is resting on the railing. Beyond the bird is the channel between lower Manhattan and Governor's Island, and beyond it the northern tip of the Island, with the ventilating tower for the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel to the left. Beyond that is Buttermilk Channel, and on its far side is a container ship docked at Red Hook.
Below is another view from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Beyond the cargo vessel, a cruise ship is docked at the new passenger terminal just south of the container port. My consolation prize, should the container port close, is that the cruise ship terminal will remain, and even likely expand. I am no great enthusiast for contemporary cruise ships, with the exception of Queen Mary 2 and a few others, which maintain a modicum of shipshapeness and don't try to disguise themeselves as floating Morris Lapidus hotels, not that I have anything against his hotels, so long as they're on land.
At least my hypothesized connection between Red Hook traffic and the Mets' success has been disproved.
Update: Twiffer gives me a link to H.P. Lovecraft's The Horror at Red Hook, which is set in a lurid version of the neighborhood as it might have been in the early twentieth century. While I'm sure it then had the raffish character common to dockside communities, I doubt it was quite the squalid sinkhole of depravity Lovecraft depicts (and I seriously doubt it was ever likely to become a Little Kurdistan). Warning: Lovecraft's writing is permeated with the casual racism charcteristic of his time. He uses "swarthy" as a virtual synonym for "sinister", refers to "squinting Orientals", and contrasts the "squat" denizens of Red Hook (consisting of "Syrian, Spanish, Italian, and Negro elements impinging upon one another") with the "sturdy Vikings" of a nearby Norwegian neighborhood (remnants of which remain today).
I'm intrigued by the cover illustration on the issue of Weird Tales in which "The Horror" was published. It shows what looks like a giant version of one of the Wicked Witch of the West's flying monkeys swooping down on a cape-clad woman who appears to be making her way on a path through a glacier. If you click on the cover, you get a link to the table of contents; unfortunately, there's no link to to the text of instalment one of John Martin Leahy's serial novel Drome, which this is supposed to illustrate. However, a bit of Google research got me this quote:
1927 Drome by John Martin Leahy. An inner world, hideous monsters, a wicked priest, a beautiful princess and apparently, absolutely terrible writing.
The quote comes from this amusing page in an Edgar Rice Burroughs tribute site. According to the author, Drome, along with Burroughs' Pellucidar, Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, and many others, exemplifies speculative fiction based on the "hollow earth" theory (now pretty much put paid by plate tectonics) that posited inhabited worlds in vast caverns honeycombing earth's interior.
Mets augury update: Twiffer (scroll down to second comment) may have been right about the efficacy of the augury continuing. Late yesterday afternoon, I was delighted to see three ships docked at Red Hook: a hulking, ungainly Lapidus-hotel style cruise ship; a not-so-hulking but still ungainly National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia container ship, and a trim little tramp freighter. As game time approached, the cruiser and the Arab departed, but the little tramp remained as the Mets managed to stay alive. I just checked, and she's still there (photo taken at 3:10 PM):
The fate of the Mets' season may rest on her remaining at her berth until tonight's game is over. It's a tough, lonely job. I hope she's up to it.
Case disproved: the ship's still there, but they lost, anyway.
Congrats, Twiff. Now I get to root for the Cards.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
MLB playoff confession.
I fell for the conventional wisdom that the Mets, without Pedro, and especially without Pedro and El Duque, were doomed to fall to the Dodgers in the NLDS. My hope was that they could at least make it a five game series. That they could sweep it seemed (here I'm picturing Wallace Shawn in The Princess Bride) inconceivable.
Ah, well, it's still inconceivable that they could win it all. Or is it? (At least they won't have to deal with the Yanks' batting order, though they'll miss the opportunity to feast on Bronx pitching.)
Update: Twiffer sends me a slightly stale slice of The Onion.
Ah, well, it's still inconceivable that they could win it all. Or is it? (At least they won't have to deal with the Yanks' batting order, though they'll miss the opportunity to feast on Bronx pitching.)
Update: Twiffer sends me a slightly stale slice of The Onion.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Goodbye, Pedro.
No complaints. You were vital to our getting here. Now we have to see if we can go on without you. I'm not giving up, yet.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Believe!
So says Ron Borges of the Boston Globe and MSNBC.
Pedro's performance tonight - four shutout innings before a shaky fifth - gives reason for optimism.
Did I really use the "O" word?
Pedro's performance tonight - four shutout innings before a shaky fifth - gives reason for optimism.
Did I really use the "O" word?
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Good news for the Mets.
It now appears that Tom Glavine will be able to pitch again soon. Nevertheless, it's still an open question whether either he or Pedro Martinez will be in top form for the post-season.
Evening update: Mets survive John Maine's inevitable Dark Night of the Soul (I hope John does, too), coming back from a 7-1 deficit to win 8-7. Nights like tonight, it looks like 1986 again. Nevertheless, I have to agree with Tim Marchman's assessment.
Unfortunately, it appears that, if the Mets do get to the Series, they won't face the same opponent as in '86.
Evening update: Mets survive John Maine's inevitable Dark Night of the Soul (I hope John does, too), coming back from a 7-1 deficit to win 8-7. Nights like tonight, it looks like 1986 again. Nevertheless, I have to agree with Tim Marchman's assessment.
Unfortunately, it appears that, if the Mets do get to the Series, they won't face the same opponent as in '86.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Monday, August 14, 2006
Sometimes, pessimism works.
Especially when you've gotten to the point of discounting it.
Could Pedro Martinez be like The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay?
After all, 'twas a poem writ in Boston.
Could Pedro Martinez be like The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay?
After all, 'twas a poem writ in Boston.
Friday, August 11, 2006
The Curse explained.
Back at the All-Star break, I bemoaned the appearance of five Mets on the cover of Sports Illustrated, predicting "dire consequences." My prediction has, so far, been off the mark, much to my delight. Now, with typical acuity, Tim Marchman explains the SI cover curse, in a way that makes me say "D'oh!"
This leads to another question: are the Mets, as the saying goes, the exception that proves the rule? I've never understood that one. How can an exception "prove" a rule?
This leads to another question: are the Mets, as the saying goes, the exception that proves the rule? I've never understood that one. How can an exception "prove" a rule?
Monday, July 31, 2006
Pessimism never works.
That's the slogan on a t-shirt I'm thinking of buying. Yes, I was convinced that the Mets would go to Atlanta carefree and cocky, and leave saddened and swept. I just knew that the Ray Gliers of the world would pound their keyboards, proclaiming the resurgence of the rightful NL East champs and lauding the unsurpassable genius of Schuerholz and Cox.
Well, it kinda went the other way. Yes, Braves fans, I'll grant that your DL resembled the Roll of Honor from the Battle of the Somme while ours was a mere four names, one of whom, Victor Zambrano, arguably constituted addition by subtraction. Nevertheless, it does feel good.
Ah, but the life of a Mets fan has few stretches of unrelieved joy. In the process of moving the road show to Miami, ace setup man Duaner Sanchez boarded a cab that promptly got into a smash-up, separating Sanchez's shoulder. To plug this breach in their bullpen, the Mets gave up Xavier Nady, who has done yeoman service in right field and at the plate. In return, the Pirates gave back to the Mets (who let him go in the off-season) Roberto Hernandez, who comes with a respectable 2.93 ERA and some experience of pitching at Shea, as well as 41 years under his belt. Oh, yes, we also got a starter, Oliver Perez, who had a great season two years ago, has since collapsed, and is optioned to Norfolk.
As for right field, Lastings Milledge will return from the minors to share that space with Endy Chavez, another of the Mets' surprising yeomen of the season. (I can recall seeing Endy's brother, Ender, playing center field for the Brooklyn Cyclones a couple of seasons ago. Endy, Ender. What is it with the name game in Venezuela, the country that also gave us siblings Edgardo and Edgar Alfonso?) Anyway, it looks like we'll get to see this season whether Tim Marchman's misgivings about young Milledge's potential are well founded.
Well, it kinda went the other way. Yes, Braves fans, I'll grant that your DL resembled the Roll of Honor from the Battle of the Somme while ours was a mere four names, one of whom, Victor Zambrano, arguably constituted addition by subtraction. Nevertheless, it does feel good.
Ah, but the life of a Mets fan has few stretches of unrelieved joy. In the process of moving the road show to Miami, ace setup man Duaner Sanchez boarded a cab that promptly got into a smash-up, separating Sanchez's shoulder. To plug this breach in their bullpen, the Mets gave up Xavier Nady, who has done yeoman service in right field and at the plate. In return, the Pirates gave back to the Mets (who let him go in the off-season) Roberto Hernandez, who comes with a respectable 2.93 ERA and some experience of pitching at Shea, as well as 41 years under his belt. Oh, yes, we also got a starter, Oliver Perez, who had a great season two years ago, has since collapsed, and is optioned to Norfolk.
As for right field, Lastings Milledge will return from the minors to share that space with Endy Chavez, another of the Mets' surprising yeomen of the season. (I can recall seeing Endy's brother, Ender, playing center field for the Brooklyn Cyclones a couple of seasons ago. Endy, Ender. What is it with the name game in Venezuela, the country that also gave us siblings Edgardo and Edgar Alfonso?) Anyway, it looks like we'll get to see this season whether Tim Marchman's misgivings about young Milledge's potential are well founded.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Friday, July 14, 2006
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Whoa, David!
I read somewhere that, before the All-Star Game, David Wright said it was to determine whether the Mets would get home field advantage in the World Series. I'm surprised, to say the least, that the usually circumspect Mr. Wright would be so presumptuous. After all, there are the small matters of (1) winning the division pennant or the wild card, (2) surviving the first round of playoffs and (3) winning the NLCS, to be taken care of before home field advantage in the series (which, in the event, now belongs to the Designated Hitter League) becomes an issue.
Okay, I'll grant that, even at the All-Star break, the likelihood of (1) seems more than 50-50. Still, being a Mets fan accustomed to catastrophe and collapse, I envision, say, Pedro's hip problem being a more than transient thing. I won't be convinced until the magic number reaches zero. (I know, "Ya gotta believe!", and all that. Sorry, Mets, but you've made me a skeptic.)
Meanwhile, Tom Van Riper of Forbes pleases me by including the 1986 Mets in his list of the top ten major league teams of all time, but disappoints me by failing to include the 1962 Mets in his list of the ten worst. He notes that they mananged to lose 120 games "supposedly in a humorous way." Come on, Tom, haven't you ever read Jimmy Breslin's Can't Anybody Here Play This Game? "Supposedly"?
Okay, I'll grant that, even at the All-Star break, the likelihood of (1) seems more than 50-50. Still, being a Mets fan accustomed to catastrophe and collapse, I envision, say, Pedro's hip problem being a more than transient thing. I won't be convinced until the magic number reaches zero. (I know, "Ya gotta believe!", and all that. Sorry, Mets, but you've made me a skeptic.)
Meanwhile, Tom Van Riper of Forbes pleases me by including the 1986 Mets in his list of the top ten major league teams of all time, but disappoints me by failing to include the 1962 Mets in his list of the ten worst. He notes that they mananged to lose 120 games "supposedly in a humorous way." Come on, Tom, haven't you ever read Jimmy Breslin's Can't Anybody Here Play This Game? "Supposedly"?
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Sox sweep Mets
I'll rerain from complaining, if only to ensure domestic tranquility. After all, the Mets could afford to lose three, and every Sox win is another nail in the Yanks' coffin.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Julio for El Duque?
It seems an all so typical Mets trade: an up-and-comer for a veteran with a glittering past, but lately on the skids. Julio, of course, is not Kazmir. Indeed, he was one of those vets-on-the-skids when the Mets acquired him. Lately, though, he'd turned things around, and was becoming a reliable reliever.
Much is made of Hernandez's late season success. Let's hope it continues, and that the Mets prove to be in a position to benefit by it.
Much is made of Hernandez's late season success. Let's hope it continues, and that the Mets prove to be in a position to benefit by it.
Monday, February 20, 2006
A pre-season contest.
How will the Mets blow it this year?
Martinez's toe? Reyes's hamstring? Delgado succumbing to no-hit-itis while Beltran fails to recover? Clubhouse acrimony?
Your suggestions, please ...
3/3/06 update: Twiff, as I might have guessed, offers "All of the above." Spring training results so far (opener a 12-7 win over the Cards with Delgado looking great and Nady going 4 for 4 with a grand slam; Cards ahead 11-7 tonight in the top of the 9th, with no details available) indicate lots of offensive fireworks. Pitching, as might be expected, is shaky at this point (but a good inning from Wagner last night is encouraging).
Martinez emerges as the big question. Even with the new shoe, he's reporting some pain. I'm anticipating an early season exit and surgery.
Martinez's toe? Reyes's hamstring? Delgado succumbing to no-hit-itis while Beltran fails to recover? Clubhouse acrimony?
Your suggestions, please ...
3/3/06 update: Twiff, as I might have guessed, offers "All of the above." Spring training results so far (opener a 12-7 win over the Cards with Delgado looking great and Nady going 4 for 4 with a grand slam; Cards ahead 11-7 tonight in the top of the 9th, with no details available) indicate lots of offensive fireworks. Pitching, as might be expected, is shaky at this point (but a good inning from Wagner last night is encouraging).
Martinez emerges as the big question. Even with the new shoe, he's reporting some pain. I'm anticipating an early season exit and surgery.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Wot, no curse?
White Sox win, for the first time since 1917. This, despite my favor (see my "I give the kiss of death" post below). So, the teams that hadn't won since the administration of Woodrow Wilson have both done it in the administration of the single W. Can the team that hasn't done it since the administration of William Howard Taft (yes, Joe Queenan, I stole that from you) be next?
Actually, I hope the 2006 champ will be a team that last won it during the second Reagan administration, just in time for the twentieth anniversary of their last World Series triumph.
Actually, I hope the 2006 champ will be a team that last won it during the second Reagan administration, just in time for the twentieth anniversary of their last World Series triumph.
Monday, October 10, 2005
I give the kiss of death; or, why I want the White Sox to win the championship.
In an earlier post, I told how I became a Brooklyn Dodger fan at age nine, so you know I have a thing for underdogs. Now that the Red Sox are out of it, the bonds of spousal loyalty have been cut, and now that the Braves are gone, only one team that I loathe (the one I loathe maximally) is still in the chase. (As I write this, the Angels cling to a two run lead over said loathed team in the bottom of the seventh, having survived an onslaught by the cream of said team's order in the top of the inning, yielding only a solo homer to Jeter. So there's hope.)
Assuming the Angels succeed in driving a stake through the Steinbrennerian heart tonight, that leaves Angels vs. White Sox, Astros vs. Cards. I was glad when the Angels got it a couple of years ago. They were classic underdogs. But since their ridiculous name change - why couldn't they just call themselves Los Angeles de Anaheim? - I can no longer take them seriously. Normally, I would root for the National League team in any event, out of loyalty to my Mets and disdain for the AL game. (What's good about the designated hitter rule? Oh, yeah. It extends the careers of great old warhorses like Rafael Palmiero.) And the Cards, everyone's favorite to win the NLCS, happen to be the team I admire most on purely aesthetic grounds.
But the Chisox haven't won it since 1917, and there would be something nice about their winning it the year after the team that hadn't since 1918. That, and getting over the Black Sox thing, just like getting past the Curse. And Chicago's a great town.
Sorry, guys. Teams I root for have about the same success ratio as politicians I back. But, go Sox!
Assuming the Angels succeed in driving a stake through the Steinbrennerian heart tonight, that leaves Angels vs. White Sox, Astros vs. Cards. I was glad when the Angels got it a couple of years ago. They were classic underdogs. But since their ridiculous name change - why couldn't they just call themselves Los Angeles de Anaheim? - I can no longer take them seriously. Normally, I would root for the National League team in any event, out of loyalty to my Mets and disdain for the AL game. (What's good about the designated hitter rule? Oh, yeah. It extends the careers of great old warhorses like Rafael Palmiero.) And the Cards, everyone's favorite to win the NLCS, happen to be the team I admire most on purely aesthetic grounds.
But the Chisox haven't won it since 1917, and there would be something nice about their winning it the year after the team that hadn't since 1918. That, and getting over the Black Sox thing, just like getting past the Curse. And Chicago's a great town.
Sorry, guys. Teams I root for have about the same success ratio as politicians I back. But, go Sox!
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Fifty years ago today, ...
At the outset of the '55 Series, everyone expected the Yankees to win. Since I have a propensity to identify with underdogs, and since Brooklyn was the first place where I touched U.S. concrete after returning from overseas, I decided to root for the Dodgers. My faith was rewarded. When the Dodgers left Brooklyn my loyalty shifted to the Pittsburgh Pirates (I was born near there), who thrilled me with victory over the Yanks in 1960, and, later, to the Dodgers' natural successors, the Mets.
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