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October 3- My new favorite team is now the St. Louis Cardinals. If they lose, then my new favorite team will be the winner of the Giants/Mets series. If the winner of the Giants/Mets loses, then my new favorite team will be whoever wins the AL pennant. Translation: FUCK YOU, Atlanta!!
There's always something cool about waking up the first week in October and realizing, "hey,
baseball playoffs are on". It's true that I don't really care who wins this thing (as long as
they don't have the words "Atlanta" and "Braves" in their name), but there's a certain
apocalyptic feeling to every out that's recorded. The St Louis broadcast crew picked up on
this, today. Midway through the fifth, they started saying "well, folks, only 10 more outs to go".
In the end of any series, it always seems like the smallest miscue, bloop single or
bobbled ball ends up destroying one team's year while making the other team's. Like
the Indians booting that grounder up the middle in the World Series, or Sid Bream
sneaking past Spanky LaValliere to score the winning run.
It makes a typical Tuesday seem slightly important. Just by turning on
that goofy RealAduio feed of the playoff games, the day's going by quicker
and Tuesday suddenly has relevance. Too bad 90% of the ding dongs I see throughout
the day have NO idea what's going on.
The other items that come up this time of year are the annual awards. The Rookie of the Year
seems to be a toilet award, lately. Winning the Rookie of the Year is about as
prestigious as winning the MTV "Best Dance Video" trophy. Todd Hollandsworth, Ron Kittle,
Todd Worrell, Pat Listach, Bob Hamelin, Kerry Wood... the names themselves make you quiver. MVP and
Cy Young are still huge, though.
Maybe it's my geographic bias, but I'd have no problem with Todd Helton walking away with the
NL MVP. If that jackass Larry Walker can convince the national media that he had an MVP
year while playing in Coors Field in 97, then Helton should be a shoo-in for 2000. The Rockies
would have been a complete disaster without Helton's hitting and fielding.
The playoff teams (Atlanta, St Louis, New York and San Francisco) lack that one
big dominating stud machine on their teams. The media loves Mike Piazza, but his numbers
don't exactly overwhelm. Barry Bonds is certainly deserving, but voters seem to dislike him.
Plus, the presence of Jeff Kent only helps to steal Bonds' votes. The closest thing St Louis
has to an MVP candidate would be Jim Edmonds, who cooled off after some guy named
McGwire went on the DL. My pick is Helton, but my prediction is Piazza finally cashes in on
the media push he's been given since 1993 and walks away with the 2000 NL MVP.
The AL MVP should be Carlos Delgado of the BlueJays. He kept his team in the hunt until
mid-September and put up near Triple Crown numbers. Either Delgado, Frank Thomas or Jason Giambi. Thomas
may have the edge because he won the thing in 93 and 94. But, Thomas may also lose
votes because he's "only" a DH. Frank does add that intangible "leadership
quality" to his team... but who knows what the hell that means. Larry Walker
displays "leadership quality" occassionally...he's usually the FIRST one to pull himself
out of a game, LEADING the team back to the locker room. Jason Giambi of Oakland
may sneak in and steal the award, though. He had an insane month of September, and on
a team where the average dude bats about .250, he stands out as their legitimate
stud horse. The torid finish combined with the A's surge to the division title
may be enough to land the MVP for Giambi. A final AL MVP candidate is Seattle's
Alex Rodriguez, for the same reasons as Mike Piazza. Decent player on a playoff team, although
much of the credit for Seattle's run should be given to Edgar Martinez.
I'd still give the nod to Delgado, simply because he's a consistent postion player. It'd be nice to
get some "new blood" into the MVP awards, too.
Cy Youngs? Seems to be strictly a numbers game for this one. Using that creedo, look
for David Wells and Tom Glavine to win. Randy Johnson was on his way to repeating, but
mysteriously snapped in July. He ended the season by giving up something like
7 runs in a little over 2 innings. Re-igniting speculation that he's fallen into
the "brooding lame-duck" attitude that he displayed his final two seasons in Seattle. If Pedro
Martinez repeats in the AL, something is messed up!
Seeing Eye Singles
The dreaded "SI Jinx" lives..just ask the Red Sox... || ... Now, while I'm MALE and
had no interest in watching the females oriented Olympic coverage, I gotta admit that
USA beating Cuba was HUGE. The USA team was made up of journeymen and marginal
prospects (raise your hand if you were anticipating the ML debut of 2B Brent Butler...) and
the Cubans have always been stocked. Further proof that communism SUCKS. Tom Morello and
Zach De La Rocha: stick that in your burrito and eat it! ... || ... And just think,
only four months until all you fat office slobs can attend your Spring Fantasy Camp! Maybe you can
get Ed Yost to sign your duffle bag this year!!...
|| ... Pittsburgh's erecting a statue of Willie Stargell outside their new park, next year.
Pittsburgh's a traditionalist town, so they'd BETTER keep the current one of Roberto Clemente! A better
tribute for Stargell would have been to re-instate "Chicken on the Hill, with Will"... || ...
Watching Game 2 of the A's/Yankees, I was thankful that we only get exposed to Tim McCarver once a year.
A camera showed Denny Neagle clowning around in the dugout, throwing some mock pro wreslting
manuevers. Play by play man Joe Buck, "heh, Neagle's a big wrestling fan and is probably helping
his teammates keep up on the latest". To which McCarver responded, "Yeah, and Matt Stairs of Oakland is a
hockey fan". Brilliant..they just don't teach transitions that smooth in broadcasting school.
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