mlb-general
With Opening Day on the horizon now is a perfect opportunity to break down the season ahead of us. Every year teams over achieve or fail to live up to expectations due to injuries or various ailments, causing predictions to fluctuate from reality, but hey that’s why they play the game.
Baseball’s offseason this year was overshadowed by Barry Bonds, the Game of Shadows, and the forthcoming steroid investigation. That’s a shame, because there are a lot of other interesting stories heading into this baseball season. The White Sox appear to have a good chance at becoming the first team to repeat as World Series champions since the Yankees dynasty ended in 2000. In speaking of the Yankees, they signed star outfielder Johnny Damon from the Red Sox, giving them a shot at the title. And in the NL, can anyone top the Braves and Cardinals from repeating again as division champions? Here are my team and individual predictions for the 2006 MLB season.
Johnny Damon, when age and ability are both taken into consideration, was the best available free agent in this off season’s anorexic market. Instead of receiving the due diligence owed from his employer, The Boston Red Sox, both Damon and his representation felt slighted by the organization when they took a decidedly lackadaisical approach toward negotiations. When the New York Yankees stepped up both their pursuit and offer, Damon bolted, shedding ties with the team and fans that catapulted his image into stardom, and granted him the opportunity to shine on Baseball’s biggest stage. He did this with all the complex tact of a thief in the night, tainting sacred memories still lifting the spirit of Greater New England.
The 2006 Major League Baseball season is finally upon us. The front offices have stopped worrying about signing that key free agent or making that blockbuster trade. Now, they are just focused on spring training and preparing their teams to make a run at the playoffs. Who will take the division titles? The pennants? Who will be visiting the White House next year?
For answers to these questions, look no further, because I have them. Here are my predictions and analysis for the 2006 Major League Baseball season, American League version.
*Denotes my wild-card prediction
— Rosters current as of 3/20/06
USA beats Mexico by two in soccer and loses to them by one in baseball. What is this world coming to?
So I’m pretty mad at Bud Selig right now. He made do something that I though I would never do…root for Alex Rodriguez (or any Yankee for that matter). Looking back at the beginning of March when the World Baseball Classic started I was pretty skeptical. All the pitch count regulations and the sense that it was going to be an exhibition made me a little hesitant to jump on the band wagon. But I will admit it last night…I watched Team USA lose to Team Mexico. Wow has this world turned upside down. Remember when Charles Barkley said, “It’s a weird world we live in when the best rapper is white, and the best golfer is black.” Well it’s a weird world when the United States beats Mexico at soccer, and Mexico beats the United States at baseball.
Thanks to “Field Of Dreams” and “Shoeless Joe” (the W. P. Kinsella novel upon which the film was based) we’ve all heard of Archibald “Moonlight” Graham’s one-game career. And I’m sure some of you know about Larry Yount, Robin’s brother who was a pitching prospect for the Astros. Larry came into a game, hurt him arm during warm-ups, and never played again. Since he was technically announced into the game, his bizarre career line reads: 1 G 0 IP 0 H 0 BB. These are special cases, it’s pretty rare for a player to play just the one game in the majors.
To date, there have been only 961 times its happened, if you only count only players who have been to the plate, going back to 1871. Add a couple dozen more when you consider pitchers who didn’t last out there long enough to get their hacks. Rather than the one game, a player will typically stay a few days or weeks, usually at the end of a bad season, or to fill in for an injury or two. Most players who never made it swear they’d give their right arm for a “cup of coffee,” as such a short visit is called.
For the past week I’ve been reading columnists, and hearing talking heads, who constantly make reference to Pete Rose when addressing the Barry Bonds issue. Some say that Rose should be reinstated, or Hall of Fame eligible, because what he did was no worse than what Barry Bonds is accused of, and Bonds is still in the game. Others say that Bonds should be banished from the game and Hall of Fame, ala Pete Rose, because he has cheated, and tarnished the integrity of the game in a way that even Charlie Hustle didn’t.
Not only are both points of view incorrect, but Rose should forever stay banned from the game and HOF, and Bonds should never be banned from the game or HOF. Their situations, their crimes, share no similarities. As a matter of fact, they are as different as night and day.
With March madness rolling in and the weather warming up, I realize it’s just a matter of time before I’ll be forced to take up healthy outdoor activities to fill the void left by watching competitive sports. This is the time of year when otherwise intelligent, reasonable people invest themselves in a game based on statistics that are completely meaningless today. It’s time for Major League Baseball.
Remember that spoiled kid who lived down the street who owned the most expensive bike and the newest video game? How you had to go by whatever rules he made up if you wanted to use all his cool stuff? And how you always wanted to punch that kid in the face whenever he pulled the “it’s my ball and I’m taking it home” shtick? Well, after Sunday’s controversial 4-3 win over Japan in the World Baseball Classic, I’m starting to feel a bit like that kid.