Scrutiny which has been paid, in only just the past two years, over drug use among MLB players, while having been a black eye for MLB, is also convenient as Commissioner Bud Selig need not address myriad other issues which also play their part in preserving the integrity of the game.
Category: MLB General
mlb-general
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MLB Power Rankings for June 26- 2007
Welcome to week 12 of the Sportscolumn.com MLB Power Rankings. The big movers and shakers of this week are the Braves and the White Sox, who both dropped four places, and ironically, both have coaches moving in opposite directions in their own power rankings. Ozzie Guillen is unquestionably on the hot seat, even though general manager Kenny Williams in noncommittal either way, while Bobby Cox set the new statistical standard for… well, let’s just call it like it is… he set the statistical standard for bitching, moaning, and acting like a horse’s ass. Congratulations.
As always, questions, comments and complaints are encouraged.
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Baseball- Radio- and Jackie Robinson
It’s hard to remember a time when the World Series was important, when the World Series defined American life.
At one point, the World Series was an autumn standard, as routine as changing the clocks for daylight savings time.
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MLB Power Rankings for June 20- 2007
The big news of this week has been the health of several aces. The news is bad for two teams in the NL West, as the Dodgers lose Jason Schmidt and the Diamondbacks lose Randy Johnson, both for an undetermined amount of time. Schmidt has already spent most of the season on the disabled list and has made comments that he never really felt like himself, posting a 1-4 record with an ERA over 6.00.
Johnson, on the other hand, began the season on the DL, but more often than not has looked like the 2001 World Series winning Big Unit, instead of the Booed in the Bronx Big Unit.
While the news out West is bad, Red Sox nation is breathing a sigh of relief, when Curt Schilling’s MRI revealed no damage to his shoulder, and he shouldn’t miss more than a start or two.
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MLB Power Rankings for June 13- 2007
The amateur draft has come and gone, and the next event in line for the baseball season is the All-Star game, a juxtaposition of what baseball has done right and what they have done wrong for the sport.
Televising the draft can only be a positive thing, even if the ratings and reviews weren’t that good for its first season. It will surely be a work in progress, but definitely has the potential to increase interest in the sport at all stages, including the upcoming College World Series, where fans of MLB teams can take interest in a variety of players from different schools.
On the other hand, the All-Star game is an exhibition, and the idea that an exhibition game will determine home field advantage for the World Series is ridiculous. Bud… if you’re reading this… immediate All-Star game reform is a necessity.
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Legends of the Fall: Part IV of V
The fourth contest was washed away by rain, leaving the tabloid vultures to pick at the carcass of Game 3.
Everyone would have a say.
There was New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, suggesting that Pedro Martinez, now known as an enemy of the elderly, would have been arrested if he pulled his shenanigans at Yankee Stadium.
There was Pedro, the man himself, maintaining his intent to gently push Zimmer aside.
There was Red Sox manager Grady Little, displaying little tact in declaring the Series a battle upgraded to war.
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Legends of the Fall: Part III of V
The A’s had fallen, tortuously, in the playoffs once again. The defeat offered zero consolation. There were no moral victories.
In their shattered clubhouse, Billy Beane lost it, railing about the payroll disparity separating the two teams.
But on the field, they had been so close.
So close…
As the Red Sox raucously celebrated that night, ready to challenge the New York Yankees, ready to spit in the face of history, one lingering, exhausting thought couldn’t have been far from their minds.
They had survived.
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Legends of the Fall: Part II of V
Spring bowed to summer before summer submitted to autumn, and the most marvelous postseason in Baseball history postseason began.
In the American League, the 101 win Yankees, champions of the American League East, were matched with the determined Minnesota Twins, a team consumed with reaching the World Series after falling one step short against Anaheim a year prior.
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MLB Power Rankings for June 7- 2007
What is it with the American powers-that-be and their long, obsessive, and expensive pursuits of pointless conflicts? Golf, the War in Iraq, the Mitchell Investigation, etc.
In the year or so that the Mitchell Investigation has been conducted, it has cost Major League Baseball $2 million per month, and has yielded little or no evidence concerning the current or past state of illegal performance enhancing substances in the game. And more, it has done nothing to solve the problem of former “cheaters” or how to eliminate “cheaters” from the game today.
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Legends of the Fall: Part I of V
Sports couldn’t exist without opposing forces. Here is the story of two teams destined for no greater glory than to define each other. Here is one legend of the fall, among many others.