Baseball
More than any year I can remember since fifth or sixth grade, I've been into baseball. I've always loosely followed the standings and league leaders as the season progresses, but this year I've sat down to watch a number of games and late in the season have made it a point to check ESPNs Gamecast updates.
As a kid collecting baseball cards and baseball books, I used to know a lot of stats and records about the game. Although there are so many statistical categories that each year some of them are broken or some oddity occurs, there were several this year of note. Curtis Granderson and Jimmy Rollins became the third and fourth players in the history of the game to have 20 doubles, triples, home runs, and stolen bases. It had happened twice in over 100 years, and now two guys did it this year. Curtis Granderson also nearly became the first player in the history of the game to have over 500 at-bats and NOT hit into a double play all year.
A number of players passed milestones this year. Frank Thomas, Jim Thome, and Alex Rodriguez hit their 500th home run. I believe Sammy Sosa bested 600, and of course Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron's all-time record. Craig Biggio collected his 3000th hit and Tom Glavine picked up his 300th career win. Was there another pitcher to get 300 wins this year? I should have done my homework.
I think Ryan Howard set the single season record for strikeouts. Homework...
Alex Rodriguez nearly became the second or third player to score 150 runs and drive in 150 runs in the the same season. I think Mickey Mantle did it back in the 60s. Again...homework. Also, in one of the last games of the season, Rodriguez both scored his 1500th career run and collected his 1500th career RBI. If Alex Rodriguez has the drive and the desire to play another eight to ten years and stays uninjured, he could easily break the all-time home run record, RBI record, and runs record. Some are predicted he will hit 800-900 home runs. He would definitely have more hits than Saduhara Oh. Beastie Boys reference for you. Saduhara Oh was a Japanese baseball player who hit over 800 home runs. But the all time RBI and runs scored records are both below 2300. With Rodriguez averaging well over 100 of each every season, he will break both records in seven or eight years. Oh, and collect roughly 3750 hits.
I have never been a fan of the National League, but I have to say that it was incredibly exciting this year down the stretch. The first playoff spot wasn't decided until the second to last day of the season. The NL East was decided on the last day of the season, while the wildcard needed an extra game to be determined. What an incredible game. Jake Peavey gets knocked around for San Diego, Matt Holiday misses a catch that could have won the game for Colorado, a questionable non-home run call is made when a ball bounces off a wheelchair back into the playing field, Trevor Hoffman blows a save for the Padres, and Colorado wins it on a sacrifice fly in the 12th after a questionable home-plate call. It is unclear whether Holiday touched home-plate or not, but he was called safe. It was confusing why he never tagged home plate while the catcher lost the ball on the collision, leaving the umpire no doubt on the call, but as it was, I guess the umpire had already made his decision.
People say baseball is a boring sport to watch and I agree to a certain extent. Regular season baseball can be tedious, but playoff baseball is something entirely different. I've always been excited to watch baseball later in the season when division races get tight and the playoffs near. There is just as much down time between pitches as there is between plays in football, so get over it.
The NL MVP race should be interesting to watch. Prince Fielder and Matt Holiday seem to be the frontrunners, but a large number of players deserve consideration including Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Hanley Martinez, Jimmy Rollins, Jake Peavey, and some dude from the Mets, can't remember the name. Many more could receive votes.
The AL MVP seems all but determined. Magglio Ordonez had a great season and Carlos Pena finished incredibly strong, but neither of their teams made the playoffs and Alex Rodriguez had much better numbers. Rodriguez could possibly be a unanimous selection.
Predictions:
NL MVP--Matt Holiday of the Colorado Rockies
AL MVP--Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees
NL Cy Young--Jake Peavey of the San Diego Padres, although there are many here who deserve credit, there is only one winner
AL Cy Young--C.C. Sabathia of the Cleveland Indians (who will get rocked by the Yankees)
NL Rookie of the Year--Tulitzsky or whatever his name is from Colorado
AL Rookie of the Year--Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Red Sox
AL Championships: Yankees vs. Boston (old school matchup/AL East matchup)
NL Championships: Arizona vs. Colorado (expansion team matchup/NL West matchup)
World Series: Yankees vs. Colorado
Champions: The New York Yankees
My favorite team is the New York Yankees. I've never really hated the Yankees like most do, but when they acquired Alex Rodriguez I started following their team and learning more about all of their players. The Yankees seem to be disliked for two main reasons. First, they compete at a high level almost every year, which people tend to dislike, unless they are from that city. Second, they buy a lot of talent to help them win championships. It's funny that the Boston Red Sox seem to be universally liked about as much as the Yankees are vilified, yet Boston competes at the same level and has the second highest payroll in baseball. They are the Yankees, they just don't do it as well.
I don't necessarily agree with buying talent to win championships, either, so I was glad to see the emergence of some farm-system players for the Yankees. Over the past three years, the Yankees have developed Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera, Shelley Duncan, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, and several others.
It seems like the Yankees have a number of payroll busts, but that is a gamble they are willing to take. Carl Pavano was making 8-10 million this year to be injured in the first week of the season. Jason Giambi made something like 16 million to hit .225 and not even play a position most of the year. Kyle Farnsworth was paid about 6 million to do nothing in the bullpen. Bobby Abreu was somewhat of a bust, especially at 16 million. Kei Igawa made 4 million to play in the minors most of the year, while Johnny Damon and Mike Mussina had less than stellar years to make about 15 million and 11 million, respectively. Even Roger Clemens was paid more than a million dollars per start this year. While his contributions to the clubhouse may have been invaluable (or valuable, see: 1 million dollars per start), his pitching was less than stellar. This happens all around baseball, where guys are paid outrageous salaries to produce little for the team, but the Yankees take it to a whole new level.
Well, if you've read this far, you must be a baseball fan too. I won't take up more space talking about steroids, BALCO, the infield fly rule, asterisks, why Roger Maris is the most underappreciated Yankee and perhaps professional baseball player of all-time, why Babe Ruth should always be considered the best baseball player of all time (even if Alex Rodriguez breaks all those records, Ruth can always scoff and say "Yeah, but can you pitch?"), why the Devil Rays will never ever win anything, and why Steve Bartman is my hero and I will never care about the Chicago Cubs.
posted by Kevin Seiler @ 7:39 PM
12 comments
12 Comments:
Wait. Your wife and I were the ones that said last night we get bored watching baseball on television... That stings a little.
Using the word "developed" is a little liberal when you consider the lineup into which these young talents are dropped. Would these kids "develop" with the same coaching, but in a Royals lineup?
I got to give props to baseball a little bit. Watching can be very boring, but it can also be very fun. I think this honestly goes for every sport. I admit, i have enjoyed watching Golf.
There is something to be said about baseball as it has been around for so long as well. All i can say is Go Twins! (mn fan for forever) and is there really a sport that is not fun to watch?
back on this, i think one of my favorite to watch is curling...i guess any Olympic game is pretty Awesome to watch. During the last winter games i watched the cross country ski race and that was really fun to watch as well. i end with the already asked question...is there an unfun sport to watch?
Women's tennis.
Yeah, there is a boring sport to watch, it's called BASEBALL- their announcers tend to suck more, so the down time is a lot harder to deal with. There are a bunch of them that are old & fat. Jim Edmonds is an exception b/c he makes some great layouts. Yes, there are a few that are athletic, but overall, not so much.
This year I've (re)gained some appreciation for football: now those guys are athletes.
Golf can be fun to watch b/c there is so much downtime, there is plenty of time for backstory on people.
Dancing & figure skating are pretty sweet to watch.
Rob (or Katie), you give some props to everything b/c you are so positive.
Doesn't it ever make you want to vomit thinking about how much money these people make? It does me.
i prefer to watch professional Dominoes on ESPN2.... The Sniper AKA the sharp shoota!!!
Rachel, I don't want to make you sad, but Jim Edmonds has become old and fat. He doesn't really play anymore, and when he does, it's not at the spectacular levels he formerly reached.
Baseball is and always has been my favorite sport. Great post, Kevin. One milestone you forgot--Crotchety old Bobby Cox, the manager of the Atlanta Braves, set the all-time record for ejections this season!
At a former job, I had a picture hanging up in my office of Bobby Cox arguing with an umpire. His face was literally pressed up against the ump's mask.
Details like that are what make the game special. I think people who find it boring go into it looking for dazzling feats of athleticism, like you would find in other sports. But baseball's interesting elements lie in the dramatic tension, the colorful characters, the cat-and-mouse strategic maneuvering, and the statistical trends that Kevin wrote about more than the swinging of a bat or the throwing of a ball. You have to look for the action behind the action, and yes, it does take a little bit of work, but that work rewards you in a way that other less demanding sports do not.
Moby Dick is a challenging and sometimes boring read, but when you get through it, you close the book and say to yourself, "That was AMAZING!" There aren't many 100 page novellas that can evoke the same response.
Also, Kevin, this website is a great resource in case you want to do any of that "homework":
http://www.baseball-reference.com
Baseball is by far my favorite professional sport. First of all, Jim Edmonds (who is old and lame now) has had a lot of great layouts, but I always felt like that was because he was relatively slow. Granted, there's something to be said about making the most of your ability, but I always felt like there were other people in the league that would have made some of those grabs look more routine. But maybe that's my bias because I hate the Cardinals.
Second, it's a common mistake that baseball players aren't athletes. Go stand at third base on a baseball diamond sometime and try to imagine fielding a sharp hit grounder backhand and throwing across the diamond while you're momentum is taking you away from first all in time to beat someone (Ichiro Suzuki, for example) who is sprinting all out from the batters box. I promise you that nobody who reads Kevin's blog is capable of doing that. Well, maybe with a lot of practice, but still probably not. For that matter, imagine trying to hit a ball moving 100 mph.
But I digress. The worst part of baseball is the announcers. They say so much stupid shit. God, I hate baseball announcers.
Lastly, I should say that my first round winner picks were the exact opposite of Kevin's in every instance. But I picked them before the SD/CO tie breaker, and have no idea what I was thinking when I decided the Angels would beat the BoSox. Oh well, too late to change them now.
Responding to a couple of comments here, instead of making another blog post addendum.
Great post Brendan.
I forgot to mention a few other things about the season, I realized after watching a ESPN Top 10 stories of the season shortly after posting. How could I have left out the 30-3 victory down in Texas? A game that they were LOSING 3-0 in the fifth inning. Also, the collapse of the Mets/rise of the Phillies was certainly noteworthy.
Seth, I suppose you picked the Cubs. I debated about that pick the most. As bad as people make out the Diamondbacks to be and as terrible as their numbers are, they won the most games in the National League and in the hardest division. Hard to bet against that. Plus, I'll take Brandon Webb over Carlos Zambrano anyday. Of course it's easy to say that the day after the game, but I did predict the D'Backs.
Well, I looked at ESPN writer predictions and none of them matched mine. Out of 20, not a single writer had the same first round results that I predicted. But, through the first day the Red Sox are 1-0, Rockies now 2-0, D'Backs 1-0, and the Yanks/Indians are playing right now. I'll give a preemptive "Take that Peter Gammons, Buster Olney, and Tim Kurkijan, et al."
To comment about Rachel's post. I've actually started enjoying football a lot more, too. (Still can't stand the NBA). Football to me seems a lot more unathletic, although it probably isn't. You have a small number of skill position players running behind 300 pound behemoths that typically have severe health problems once their careers are over. Also, in a sport like football and basketball, players athletic abilities are put on display because of the nature of how the game is played. Baseball players don't get to display their athletic abilities as much because of the way it is played. You have the occasional outfield or infield dive, the stolen base, the tag-up from third, but the basics of the game are hitting, fielding, and throwing, not a lot of running or jumping.
Gibbs, stop stinging.
The whole NL was pretty hard to pick, I thought. I'd also take Webb over Zambrano, partly because his approach on the mound (calm and focused) is much more like my own approach in sports than Zambrano's (emotional), partly because he doesn't have a history of beating up his own teammates, but mostly because he's a better pitcher (Cy Young winner, after all).
Best way to watch baseball? TiVO, and fast forward in between pitches.
what happened to the yanks?
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