By Blaidd Drwg
Jim Caple of ESPN.com recently wrote a piece, which, among other things had a list of reasons why baseball is better than football. Here are some of the better points:

2. The world’s game: This week the Mariners called up Alex Liddi, the first major leaguer born and raised in Italy. He wasn’t their first European this season, either — that distinction went to Greg Halman, who grew up in the other Haarlem, in the Netherlands. So contrary to what the International Olympic Committee may think, baseball’s popularity is growing around the world. In fact, there currently are major leaguers who grew up playing baseball on five continents — North and South America, Australia, Asia and Europe — plus, there are minor leaguers from Africa. And of course, Manny Ramirez was from another planet.
Meanwhile, the NFL closed its European league four years ago. But at least fans across the Atlantic no longer have to worry about the owners blacking out non-sellout games on Radio Free Europe.

True on so many fronts, especially the comment about Manny Ramirez.

5. Fan relations: It never ceases to amaze me how shabbily the NFL treats its fans. Can’t afford a ticket? You’d better hope the rest of your city can, or the league will black out television coverage of a game played in the stadium you helped fund with your tax money. Have enough money for a season ticket? Well, before the team will sell you one, you’ll also probably have to buy equally priced tickets to meaningless exhibition games (and don’t get me started on personal seat licenses). Imagine if baseball teams required their season-ticket holders to buy tickets to every Cactus and Grapefruit League game as well. NFL fans should consider themselves lucky the league doesn’t require they attend two-a-days.

It is amazing that you have to pay full price as part of your season ticket package for 2 meaningless exhibition games which you may get to see your team’s starters for one quarter in each game, unless you were lucky enough to get to see the 4th preseason game this year in which most of the teams didn’t even play their starters. Then again, I will argue that I had to pay full price for my 6 meaningless September Mariners games as part of my season ticket package just to see the AAA Rainiers lineup they are currently running out there every day.

A few other fine snippets from the article:

BASEBALL CARD OF THE WEEK
Here’s the amazing thing about this card (1979 Topps No. 595): Even though Phil Niekro looks like Jamie Moyer’s crazy grandfather, what with the long gray-and-white hair as well as the warm-up jacket buttoned up to his neck, he was still in his 30s when it was released. He pitched for another eight years!

It never occurred to me, but he is right. Niekro did look like he was about 60 at that point. On the flip side, he looks pretty much the same now as he did back in 1979.

Jim has a box score of the week which I easily got as the Mike Scott no-hitter which clinched the NL West for the Astros in 1986. What I had forgotten was that this from the box score:

Rick Lancellotti PH

You are probably saying, “Who the hell is Rick Lancellotti?” Well, I will tell you. He was a terrible OF for the Padres, Giants and Red Sox who had the distinction of appearing in the majors in 3 different seasons each 4 years apart (1982, 1986 and 1990) and was out of baseball in the US between 1986 and 1990.

His career transactions look like this:
June 7, 1977: Drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 11th round of the 1977 amateur draft.
August 5, 1980: Traded by the Pittsburgh Pirates with Luis Salazar to the San Diego Padres for a player to be named later and Kurt Bevacqua. The San Diego Padres sent Mark Lee (August 12, 1980) to the Pittsburgh Pirates to complete the trade.
October 7, 1982: Purchased by the Montreal Expos from the San Diego Padres.
May 30, 1983: Released by the Montreal Expos.
June 10, 1983: Signed as a Free Agent with the Texas Rangers.
July 26, 1983: Released by the Texas Rangers.
August 2, 1983: Signed as a Free Agent with the San Diego Padres.
March 31, 1985: Traded by the San Diego Padres to the New York Mets for Rusty Tillman.
July 31, 1985: Purchased by the San Francisco Giants from the New York Mets.
October 15, 1985: Granted Free Agency.
February 7, 1986: Signed as a Free Agent with the San Francisco Giants.
November 10, 1986: Released by the San Francisco Giants.
May 17, 1989: Signed as a Free Agent with the Boston Red Sox.
October 15, 1990: Granted Free Agency.

The guy had been around with a few teams, not counting stints in Japan, Canada, Mexico, Italy, Venezuela and the Senior Professional Baseball Association.

I Mean No Disrespect But … If we absolutely must demonstrate proper, dignified respect for our nation by playing a patriotic song before “Cotton Eyed Joe” (Yankees and Rangers), “Louie Louie” (Mariners), “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” (Orioles) and “Build Me Up Buttercup” (Angels), then why not occasionally mix in a more pleasing tune than Kate Smith bellowing “God Bless America” again? There is no song that makes you feel better about being an American than Ray Charles singing “America the Beautiful.” There is no more empowering and inclusive song than “This Land is Your Land.” And it would be nice to hear them. …

I still don’t understand the need to play God Bless America during the 7th inning stretch. It really slows the game down and honestly, I hate the song. It was a nice thing to do for the remaining games in 2001 and was probably fine for the first couple of years in NY, but there is no reason why it couldn’t be done before the National Anthem. Either of the two songs he mentioned would be better choices anyway – besides when it comes to American icons, I would say Ray Charles and Woody Guthrie are more well-known than Kate Smith. Besides, how many people even knew who Kate Smith was before 2001?

By Blaidd Drwg

Last night produced not one, but two epic disasters in the majors with wide ranging playoff implications.

While the Cardinals were pounding the snot out of the Astros last night, the Braves were clinging on to a lead. In the 7th, the Braves were up 3-1 with Tim Hudson cruising along nicely. With one out, Raul Ibanez doubled and then Placido Polanco hit a shot up the middle that was stopped by a great dive by Dan Uggla, preventing Ibanez from scoring, putting runners on the corners. Hudson then got Carlos Ruiz to hit a hard ground ball right at Jack Wilson. The ball was hit just to the shortstop side of second and Wilson hardly had to move. You could have hardly asked for a more tailor-made double play ball. Wilson then proceeded to let the ball bounce off him, extending the inning and allowing Ibanez to score. The Braves eventually got out of the inning with a 3-2 lead, but that run would be important.

Flash forward to the top of the 9th inning. The Braves bring in flame thrower Craig Kimbrel to close out the Phillies. Kimbrel gives up a leadoff single to Polanco and then strikes out Carols Ruiz. Two outs away. After the strikeout, the wheels come off. Kimbrel all of a sudden can’t find the strike zone and walks both Ben Francisco and Jimmy Rollins to load the bases, bringing up Chase Utley. Utley smacks a fly ball to left, easily deep enough to score the runner from third and tie the game. Another walk to Hunter Pence loaded the bases and the Braves mercifully removed Kimbrel from the game. The new pitcher, Kris Medlen got the next hitter to pop up and end the inning, but not before we have bonus baseball.

The Phillies eventually broke the tie in the 13th with a walk and couple of hits, ending the Braves season. The Braves managed to blow an 8 _ game lead in the wild card and would probably be remembered for this epic collapse if it weren’t for what happened in Boston and Tampa last night.

The interesting thing about this game is where the damage was done by each team. The Braves score all of their runs early in the game against Joe Blanton and Cole Hamels (making a relief appearance) and then managed just 2 hits and 4 walks in the final 8 innings of the game against a parade of Phillie relievers. The Phillies however did their most severe damage against the vaunted Braves bullpen – Braves relievers gave up 5 hits and 8 walks in their 6.2 innings of work, but they also threw a lot of pitches – Venters took 27 pitches to record 3 outs, Kimbrel 29 and Linebrink 32. I do have to give the Phillies credit; they played like they were trying to win the game, unlike what happened in Tampa.

Just up I-95, an even bigger collapse was brewing. Everything was lining up for the Sox to take the wild card – they had Jon Lester pitching against Alfredo Simon and were hanging onto a 3-2 lead with the Yankees pounding David Price to the tune of 7-0. Much was being made of Lester pitching on 3 days’ rest, but here is the way I see it – he only threw 55 pitches in his last start, he has dominated the Orioles over his career and he is the best starter the Sox, so who else would you want to hand the ball to? Lester did not look sharp – I don’t think it was fatigue; he hasn’t looked sharp all month. The 6th inning was a nail biter as Lester labored to find the strike zone. Three walks made it tight. The Sox were saved by a double play ball hit by Guerrero that took a great play by Marco Scutaro to make it happen. The Vlad Guerrero of 5 or 6 years ago would have easily beaten the throw to first on that play, but the current Vlad can’t run and was thrown out at first by a good bit. That ugly inning ended Lester’s night since the rain came in the 7th inning. The Sox pen shut down the O’s in the 7th and 8th, but the offence could not extend their lead. In the 9th, the Sox brought in Jon Papelbon to shut the door. Papelbon had been having a great stretch in August/September, giving up just 1 run and 6 hits over 19 innings with 25 strikeouts and just 2 walks. Papelbon didn’t have the most stellar outing of the season on the 27th when it took him 28 pitches to close out the Orioles, giving up a run and 2 hits in the process. The last time that he pitched 2 consecutive games was early August (where he pitched 3 straight days, throwing 37 pitches over 3 innings). I was concerned after watching him on the 27th – he didn’t have his best stuff and I was nervous with him closing the game out. He got off to a great start, striking out the 2 biggest threats he would face – Mark Reynolds and Adam Jones. Then the wheels came off – a couple of doubles and a single and all of a sudden, the Sox lose. Couple that with the incredible comeback in Tampa where the Rays managed to score 8 runs against a parade of Yankee relievers, and my worst fear was realized – the Sox, a team built to win the World Series, wouldn’t even be going to the playoffs.

This is not the end of the world, well as long as the Yankees don’t win the World Series it isn’t.

By Blaidd Drwg

A scant one month ago, on September 2nd, the AL and NL wild card standings looked like this:

It looked like the Sox and Braves were mortal locks. Injuries, poor play and a couple of hot streaks eventually brought us to this as of this morning with 2 games left to play:

The Giants were eliminated on Sunday and the Angels last night, so both divisions have a dog fight in the last 2 games. The Braves, just 8 – 15 in the month of September, have the unfortunate luck of matching up against the Phillies in Atlanta for the last 2. The Phillies are starting their regulars, so they aren’t rolling over and playing dead and making it easy on the Braves. Braves have to deal with Lowe vs. Oswalt tonight and Hudson vs. TBA tomorrow. I assume that pitcher is either going to be Joe Blanton or Tim Worley and not Cole Hamels, although Hamels would be in line to pitch game 3 of the NLDS on regular rest if he starts tomorrow.

The Cardinals play the worst team in baseball (the Astros) in Houston for the last 2. The Astros did beat the Cards last night behind their best starter, Wandy Rodriguez, and have Jake Westbrook and Chris Carpenter scheduled to start for their last 2 games, so they stand a pretty good chance, especially considering the opposing pitchers are Henry Sosa and Bret Myers.

Over in the AL, it is panic time for the Red Sox Nation. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote this as a comment to a post about the wild card race:

I am most concerned about the Yankees/Rays series at the end of the Month. If the Yankees have already clinched after playing the Sox and there is still a race between the Sox and the Rays, I would be concerned about the Yankees rolling over and playing dead, letting the Rays sweep the last 3.

Well, the worst case scenario is upon us. The Yankees started Hector Noesi last night, Bartolo Colon tonight and a TBA tomorrow. I would not be surprised if the TBA is someone making their first MLB start, while the Rays are countering with their 3 best pitchers – Shields, Hellickson and Price. The Yankees have been playing their regulars for part of the game and then pulling them out, so a sweep by the Rays, who are 15-8 in the month, is not out of the question.

As for the Red Sox, what can I say? They lost last night against the Orioles (!), dropping their record for the month to 6-17(!!!). I can’t imagine that they will be swept by the Orioles, so you have to figure that either Erik Bedard or Jon Lester will salvage at least one win. The critical game is tonight – the Sox need to win regardless of what the Rays do – and I would feel much more comfortable with a 1 game lead going into the last game of the season against the Orioles with Jon Lester on the mound.

What looked to be a boring September has turned out to be one hell of a finish.