A NEW FORMAT

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Well we have gotten through the new playoff format with two Wild Card teams from each league in Major League Baseball. It didn’t take long for things to get interesting. The infield fly rule is invoked almost every day and the one time it is invoked in the new playoffs: controversy!

The bottom of the eight, the bases loaded and the Braves Brian McCann hits a pop fly, and the Cardinals Pete Kozma drops back backwards onto the outfield grass, back, back, back! Suddenly he breaks off the chase and the ball falls between Kozma and Matt Holliday, but before the ball hits the ground the ump invokes the ‘Infield Fly Rule”!

The call was correct, but it raised a question, if it wasn’t invoked, would the other side protest? The ball certainly was playable for the outfielder to catch the ball. The rule states:

An INFIELD FLY is a fair fly ball (not including a line drive nor an attempted bunt) which can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort, when first and second, or first, second and third bases are occupied, before two are out. The pitcher, catcher and any outfielder who stations himself in the infield on the play shall be considered infielders for the purpose of this rule.

When it seems apparent that a batted ball will be an Infield Fly, the umpire shall immediately declare "Infield Fly" for the benefit of the runners. If the ball is near the baselines, the umpire shall declare "Infield Fly, if Fair."

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Rule 2.00 (Infield Fly) Comment: On the infield fly rule the umpire is to rule whether the ball could ordinarily have been handled by an infielder – not by some arbitrary limitation such as the grass, or the base lines. The umpire must rule also that a ball is an infield fly, even if handled by an outfielder, if, in the umpire’s judgment, the ball could have been as easily handled by an infielder. The infield fly is in no sense to be considered an appeal play. The umpire’s judgment must govern, and the decision should be made immediately.

When an infield fly rule is called, runners may advance at their own risk. …

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ORDINARY EFFORT is the effort that a fielder of average skill at a position in that league or classification of leagues should exhibit on a play, with due consideration given to the condition of the field and weather conditions.

The ball was closer to the outfield wall than the infield dirt. The Home fans in Atlanta showed their dismay by tossing drink cups, wrappers and junk on the field that held up the game. If you look at what happened, it seems like the biggest injustice ever in baseball!

That’s all I will write, folks! The amount of readers is not worth the time to write this blog. Since I get no comments either for or against it, I decided that today is the last of it.

Thanks for reading, I appreciate it.

HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

The NHL has decided to lop off the first two weeks of the 2012-13 schedule: which includes 85 games across the board of teams. This is after killing off the pre-season and will cost the league in general about $100 Million!

This is all due to the $3 billion in annual revenue that is to be divided among the players and owners. Killing off the first two weeks of the season has a huge impact on the sponsors, the broadcasting media and the workers in the arenas that service these games. Everyone is impacted.

The last contract the players were getting about 57% of the income and now the owners want them to take less, under 47%. Of course the players will not agree to a cut. This is the third lock-out since the 1994-1995 season that there is a lockout.

In the two weeks affecting the game, the players will lose from October 11 to the 24^th pay that if he makes say $1 million annually, will lose $77,000! That is a lot of money for the players who don’t feel it from the obscene contracts the players had.

If the players can demand that much money and the owners feel that that is undeserved, then blame the owners for allowing these crazy contracts to begin with. If the players feel so crucial to the success of the game, then why doesn’t the support staff of the league get more money too? Without the support of the common man, the janitorial services, the people that maintain the arenas, the ticket sellers etc., the game isn’t played either. How about a little revenue sharing with the low-paid guys and gals that make hockey possible on a professional basis?

It is always about the players, how they are paid and treated, and never anybody else. To me, if you don’t like the fact that an owner is making money on a sport, then get the hell out of it or buy your own team and make money.

Donald Fehr, Executive Director of the Player’s Association said: 

”If the owners truly cared about the game and the fans, they would lift the lockout and allow the season to begin on time.”

The owners don’t care about the fans is a lot of bologna, of course the owners care, that is the source of revenue! If the players cared, they might consider more reasonable salary demands and profit sharing.

That’s all I wrote, folks!

EVER DOWNWARD

It is hard to win when you lose your best players. Managers and Head Coaches do not make all that much of a difference except when they have a unique playing philosophy.

Billy Martin had ‘Billy Ball’ and Rex Ryan has ‘Ground & Pound’. Both can work and both can fail. The philosophy is only as good as the players and playmakers. You can talk a good season before hand and then you have to back it up.

The New York Jets have a tough season in store for themselves, with their best offensive playmaker in Santonio Holmes gone for the season and the best player in the league in Derrelle Revis gone from the defensive side this season, due to season ending injuries.

The players looked so out of sync against the 49er’s I was rooting against them they were so bad. The idea of bringing Tebow in to confuse Mark Sanchez and have him looking over his shoulder was stupid as stupid gets. That move was in response to the Giants winning the Super Bowl, and both brothers had a hand in it: Peyton for going to Denver and chasing Tebow and Eli for winning it all for the Giants.

There is one lingering question I have. How much of an influence did Eric Mangini personnel have on the first two years of the Ryan regime? Was the reason the Jets got to the playoffs in ’09 and ’10 was because there was a large contingent of Mangini players on the roster and in 2011 that finally dissipated to the point that the Jets weren’t as good as they used to be?

It is just 4 games into the season and they are as good as the Patriots until the next week when the records change. The Jets share first place with the Patriots and Bills at 2-2 and something might give. The Jets need to win and winning is all they need. They are up against the Houston Texans, with a 4-0 record, and the Jets can’t afford to be blown out again after the fiasco in Met Death Stadium.

That’s all I wrote, folks!

AND HERE WE GO!

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R. A. Dickey, the knuckleball wonder, will undergo surgery on October 18^th, after experiencing a muscle tear in April! He worked the whole season with the tear and then on his last start against the Miami Marlins he felt it tear more in the second inning, but managed to pitch an incredible game!

Unfortunately there is talk about his not winning the Cy Young Award, and if that happens a great injustice has occurred not only to the man, but to baseball as well.

Look at the numbers-

GM-34 W-20 L-6 BB-54 K-230 ERA-2.73

How can anyone discriminate against that record because he is a knuckleball pitcher? That would be a stupid reason, since the pitch is legal, they have used it forever, he used no steroids and there is a great story behind the man having this incredible season.

Just the ratio of walks to strikeouts is so fantastic: especially coming from a knuckleballer just blows my mind! All through baseball history, knuckleballers have been notorious for walks and high pitch counts, achieving what Dickey did seems impossible! Very few have ever won 20 games, and he did it coming form a career he almost lost, but because he loved the game so much, reinvented himself into the best pitcher on a pretty good starting rotation, even though the team lost. Couple one more fact, the team, the Mets only won about 74 games and he won 20 of them!

That’s all I wrote, folks!

LET THE FUN BEGIN

It looks like the post-season about to begin will be exciting. Some of the best teams to compete in many years are going to knock heads, and there are a lot of interesting stories that will develop.

Looking around, the best run organization in baseball, the Texas Rangers has once again returned to the playoffs. The team’s Adrian Beltre with his over 35 home runs and .319 average can carry this team all the way to the promise land.

The A’s look to impact the playoffs for the first time since 2006, creating an interesting dichotomy with little power and average, they can pitch their way through the games.

Detroit hasn’t surprised anyone, and Prince Fielder can now find a showplace for his quest to be enshrined some day in the Hall of Fame.

The Yankees are the Yankees and what can you say? They have the talent with a suspect relief corp. So as long as they hit, they will beat you into the ground.

The Orioles are the surprise team in this league, and you have to hand it to Bucky Showalter for the incredible job he did this year. There is enough inspiration in the team to do what the 69 Mets did to Baltimore.

Over in the National League you just have to love those Giants. Lincecum had an off year, and still they won a lot of games. Had he done his thing this team would have won over 100 games. The team itself hits for average that is high among their regulars. They are a good bet to be in the World Series.

Cincinnati is baseball, as much as the Yankees are. The oldest franchise in baseball, rich in tradition is going to the post season for the first time in a long while, and you can thank Joey Votto and Dusty Baker. Votto will kill you just like that and Dusty Baker after a mini-stroke will bring a new dynamic to an already dynamic season.

Like Baltimore, the Cinderella team of the National League resides in the East too. The Washington Nationals have played like the perfect team, going out and executing. This is the results of hiring the best manager in the National League, Davey Johnsin. This is a young team that should be around for a long time, finally giving Washington a winning season in a new league.

The Atlanta Braves have returned to what was once a given, sneaking into the playoffs by playing winning baseball. They deserve the final spot, but I think they will exit quickly.

To me, the most interesting World Series would be Baltimore and Washington. It would be great for that area of the country, it would have the two Cinderella teams and the two best managers in baseball. Frankly I would hate to predict the winner of that one.

That’s all I wrote, folks.

GROUND AND POUND

The worst game in the history of the NFL was played against the San Francisco 49er’s on the last day of September. If you are a Jets fan, you have to wonder what goes on all week in prepping for a game. Was there a game plan, was there even a playbook opened? Who wrote the playbook?

The coaches, where are the coaches? Does Tony Spano work just one day a week on Sundays? I thought that Rex Ryan was going to be more involved with what is going on in the locker room. He didn’t seem to be very involved and greatly surprised at how his team was performing!

How can a team that went to 2 straight AFC championship games fall so quickly? Where did all the talent go? I kind of remember seeing once a quarterback named Mark Sanchez, leading his team downfield to score, sometimes rallying them to victory, sometimes: willing them.

I recall a defense that tackled, an offensive line that moved the ball. I could see receivers catching the ball more often than dropping it.

How can a team not once get into the red zone???

How can a pro team not score in a full 60 minutes???

Where is the pride?

And the General Manager, what is he thinking? Where is the new developing talent needed to win, to step in when a Santonio Holmes goes down? And why oh why did they bring in Tebow, to confuse Sanchez, to take some of the spotlight off of the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants?

Just exactly where the hell are the Jets going, except to be grounded and pounded?

That’s all I wrote, folks!

YOU CAN ALL HATE THE YANKEES…

But you can’t hate Mr. Jeter!

When I was growing up as a baseball fan, there were many players of Hall of Fame caliber. Stan the Man Musial, Ted Williams, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, who electrified the stadiums they played in.

There were players who had a high moral fiber that made them endearing and loved, like Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese and Gil Hodges, who played for my team the Brooklyn Dodgers. Through the years as the game transformed from a sport into a business, there were few players that I cared about in terms of the moral character they had. No longer was there a Yogi Berra, but instead we had Barry Bonds and Jose Consecos that polluted the sport.

There is however one player that I see as a class act, highly moral and truly great, and that guy is Derek Jeter. He is the epitome of high standards, belief in himself and dedicated to excellence. He has proven time and time again that being a man is not proving anything, but just going out and doing what you are paid for.

As he reaches his old age of playing in baseball years, he once again amazed me with his dedication and production, earning every penny he gets from the Yankees. He carries his team on his shoulders, and I can see in his eyes the pain of failure if his team loses. He is a true Hall of Famer, who doesn’t need the record books to back it up. Seeing him play is exciting, and you know he comes through more times than not in a game of inches and averages,

Watching him play as he reaches his late 30’s, I can’t help but smile, as I do at the great Mickey Mantle, in terms of greatness in his sport, and value he had to the Yankees, or the hated Willie Mays who made baseball so exciting in his younger days as a New York Giant, or the great Jackie Robinson.

I feel sorry for people who are not baseball fans, they miss the opportunity to witness greatness, see it happen over a period of years and know instantly that a player will be a Hall of Famer some day without a doubt, like Mr. Jeter, who has saved the game from being worse than it s already with the bums that inhabit it.

That's all I wrote, folks!