Monday, September 20, 2004
So Much To Talk About
Am back from a whirlwind tour in the Midwest that included a game played by two teams not based in the city it was played in, a walk-off home run, back-to-back-to-back home runs, a grand slam by Sammy Sosa, and even a quick stop in Milwaukee for Thursday afternoon's Bonds-Did-Not-Hit-700 Giants game against the Brewers. We have some pictures and want to include them in our wrap-up, but we'll wait to see if we can figure out how to upload them to this site. We'll get to all this as soon as possible.
As for the Giants and the latest in baseball offerings, we can hardly believe it ourselves, that the Giants are still in the wild-card lead, and that Chicagoans are actually happy to have Neifi Perez, and frankly, he didn't disappoint when we saw him.
We also can't believe (well, maybe we can) that so much was made of the Red Sox-Yankees series that was just played over the weekend. Folks, news flash, and I don't know if you've realized this or not: The series meant little, certainly not nearly as much as everyone made it out to.
The wild-card system has denied us a great pennant race. Nobody thought the 1978 A.L. East race would have been as exciting as it was if both teams had been allowed to get into the playoffs, just like nobody thought the 1993 race between the Giants and Braves would have been improved if both teams were given a playoff spot. The Yankees and Red Sox are so far ahead in the divison and wild-card races that this past weekend's series, next weekend's series, and the rest of the season preclude any really good drama. They're both going to get in, from the looks of it. This isn't a great race. They're both in. A lot of people in Baseball World (and possibly Neverland) seem to think this series has the importance of an actual, bona fide pennat race. Where these people get these ideas is beyond me. (More quotes from Bob Costas on this matter here.)
Oh, sorry. Home-field advantage is at stake. Oops. My error. I stand corrected. What drama!!
As for the Giants and the latest in baseball offerings, we can hardly believe it ourselves, that the Giants are still in the wild-card lead, and that Chicagoans are actually happy to have Neifi Perez, and frankly, he didn't disappoint when we saw him.
We also can't believe (well, maybe we can) that so much was made of the Red Sox-Yankees series that was just played over the weekend. Folks, news flash, and I don't know if you've realized this or not: The series meant little, certainly not nearly as much as everyone made it out to.
The wild-card system has denied us a great pennant race. Nobody thought the 1978 A.L. East race would have been as exciting as it was if both teams had been allowed to get into the playoffs, just like nobody thought the 1993 race between the Giants and Braves would have been improved if both teams were given a playoff spot. The Yankees and Red Sox are so far ahead in the divison and wild-card races that this past weekend's series, next weekend's series, and the rest of the season preclude any really good drama. They're both going to get in, from the looks of it. This isn't a great race. They're both in. A lot of people in Baseball World (and possibly Neverland) seem to think this series has the importance of an actual, bona fide pennat race. Where these people get these ideas is beyond me. (More quotes from Bob Costas on this matter here.)
Oh, sorry. Home-field advantage is at stake. Oops. My error. I stand corrected. What drama!!
