Monday, July 21, 2003
The San Francisco Giants
I suspect that if I had been given the chance to pick the color of my blood, mine would be black with orange trim.
In the world of sports, to me, there is baseball. Well above every other sport. And the Giants are hands down my favorite team. I love hockey, too, but baseball's dominance in my world relegates the frozen game to a distant second. Then there's college basketball, and pro football. The NBA is pretty much unwatchable. Is there any other sport worth mentioning? More on these other sports later.
Right now the Giants are in first place in the N.L. West by seven games. They begin a four-game stand against the second-place Diamondbacks tonight, so by Thursday evening we could be up by as few as three games or by as many as 11 games. I didn't think they'd be as far up as they are right now come July, but I did pick them to win another National League pennant this year. If my preseason World Series prediction comes true, the Giants will lose the World Series to Boston. Probably in seven games, what with the A.L. having home-field advantage in the Series.
So yeah. There's that stupid, stupid, stupid idea of having the outcome of the All-Star Game, the least important game during the entire baseball season, determine which league gets home-field advantage in the World Series, including Game 7, the most important game of any baseball season. It's a bad enough idea as it is. But it's especially bad for the National League pennant winner, which under regular circumstances would have hosted Games 1, 2, 6, and 7 this year due to the alternating turns concept, but now has its home field edge stripped away because a a man from the last-place Rangers hit a late home run in a meaningless exhibition game. And if we get to Game 7, and if the Giants are there, wearing their road grays, the fact that a freakin' Dodger gave up that eighth-inning lead in the All-Star game will not go unnoticed.
Bud Selig's ideas are horrible. He is ruining the game of baseball bit by bit. That's bad enough, but he points to changes he thinks must be made to improve the game without acknowledging that his idiocy made baseball seem like a mess to begin with. The All-Star Game did not need any spicing up. HE chose to end last year's game in a tie--and I still believe he owes every fan in attendance at last year's game in Milwaukee the face value of their tickets, at LEAST, not to mention parking, hot dogs, souvenirs, etc.--so I don't want to hear him ever take credit for "improving" the All-Star festivities by pointing to the "This time it counts" media blitz.
In the world of sports, to me, there is baseball. Well above every other sport. And the Giants are hands down my favorite team. I love hockey, too, but baseball's dominance in my world relegates the frozen game to a distant second. Then there's college basketball, and pro football. The NBA is pretty much unwatchable. Is there any other sport worth mentioning? More on these other sports later.
Right now the Giants are in first place in the N.L. West by seven games. They begin a four-game stand against the second-place Diamondbacks tonight, so by Thursday evening we could be up by as few as three games or by as many as 11 games. I didn't think they'd be as far up as they are right now come July, but I did pick them to win another National League pennant this year. If my preseason World Series prediction comes true, the Giants will lose the World Series to Boston. Probably in seven games, what with the A.L. having home-field advantage in the Series.
So yeah. There's that stupid, stupid, stupid idea of having the outcome of the All-Star Game, the least important game during the entire baseball season, determine which league gets home-field advantage in the World Series, including Game 7, the most important game of any baseball season. It's a bad enough idea as it is. But it's especially bad for the National League pennant winner, which under regular circumstances would have hosted Games 1, 2, 6, and 7 this year due to the alternating turns concept, but now has its home field edge stripped away because a a man from the last-place Rangers hit a late home run in a meaningless exhibition game. And if we get to Game 7, and if the Giants are there, wearing their road grays, the fact that a freakin' Dodger gave up that eighth-inning lead in the All-Star game will not go unnoticed.
Bud Selig's ideas are horrible. He is ruining the game of baseball bit by bit. That's bad enough, but he points to changes he thinks must be made to improve the game without acknowledging that his idiocy made baseball seem like a mess to begin with. The All-Star Game did not need any spicing up. HE chose to end last year's game in a tie--and I still believe he owes every fan in attendance at last year's game in Milwaukee the face value of their tickets, at LEAST, not to mention parking, hot dogs, souvenirs, etc.--so I don't want to hear him ever take credit for "improving" the All-Star festivities by pointing to the "This time it counts" media blitz.
