Fallout Baseball Is It Really What It Should Be ?
I’m not so sure that the AL East will end the way that many of us expected and with there being a thrilling outcome to what has been an exciting season in some respects. The New York Yankees have literally played themselves back into contention and appear to be less than six games away from winning another AL East title. For their part the Tampa Bay Rays have given all that they possess but now seem to falling short of what their fans expected. Albeit that manager Joe Maddon has done his utmost with this team their flaws have arisen at a time when so much had been expected.This was the year when the Tampa Bay Rays had been expected to challenge the supremacy and dominance of the New York Yankees. And from a financial standpoint now more than ever the Rays need to be seen as a perennial contender. Granted, their precarious situation hasn’t been helped by the backbiting and infantile behavior of the local politicians and that of the Rays’ front office . Is it any wonder when one looks across the spectrum of Major League Baseball (MLB) and that of the owners and the commissioner’s office you get a sense that the game is being ran by a bunch of imbeciles . Where else can you get a group of executives and owners fawning over a commissioner who has been as much use to the game than a five inch gaping whole would be at the bottom of a bucket filled with water.
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Slide-show for your perusal.
Commissioner Bud Selig has been the 1,000lb gorilla in the room bringing mayhem to the the game. Now if there was a way with which things could change for the better then it’s knowing that Bud Selig will be stepping down in his role as commissioner. That if anything has to a blessing to the true baseball fans out there. Unfortunately however amongst the archaic presence of the owners and than their belief that having a commissioner whose only purpose is to serve them then it clearly shows how out of touch they have been and the ever changing environment of the baseball landscape. From a business standpoint that baseball is in a severe financial mess. At least three quarters of the league’s thirty teams are struggling to make ends meet from a financial standpoint. And were it not for the tax sharing revenue scheme instigated by Selig’s office we’d now be seeing several teams around the league fighting to stave off bankruptcy. Who amongst you knew that the Chicago Cubs was placed into bankruptcy by its former owner billionaire Sam Zell in order to stave off financial ruin ? And now that the team has been sold to the Ricketts’ family we’re seeing that the woes that has been the Cubs’ mantra still exists. Lou Piniella is no longer the team manager and the players do not seem to be playing with a passion much less with any pride. And for the woeful fans who for each home series attend Wrigley Field to watch this team play they can’t be entirely happy witnessing the mess on the field who’ve got to watch this idiocy.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are in the midst of an acrimonious ownership struggle wherein owners Frank and Jamie McCourt are laying out their private lives on display for all to savor, the mess that comes with a divorce that has all the ingredients of a soap opera. Never mind the fact that there too manager Joe Torre has sought to walk away from the organization rather than deal with a team that has no wish to play with a zeal or passion. Tell me how in God’s name this team was going to contend in the NL West given the fact that the players have no stomach for a fight ? GM Ned Colletti is no closer to making this team a competitor than Mitt Romney’s chances were in winning the GOP nomination for the Presidency in 2004. Now in the midst of a downward spiral that appears to have no end in sight and the fans at Chavez Revine (Dodgers’ Stadium) must be wondering what the hell is going on ? Personally I look at the saga as if it were simply just another Hollywood script that the writers couldn’t have scripted any better themselves. There seems to be everything happening with the Dodgers as a team other than the fact that they’re not winning. And if you’d ask anyone to try and explain the malaise behind the team I doubt that one would be able to get a succinct answer from any baseball analyst or pundit much less the fans themselves. The Dodgers have become a paradigm of unending ineptitude both on and off the field.
Now as the closing weeks of the regular season is upon us many of the divisional races seem to be playing themselves out. In some cases it’s all over bar the shouting as the Cincinnati Reds seem to be well on their way to winning that particular race (NL Central). In the NL East it looks as if the Philadelphia Phillies will make a successful defense their divisional title albeit at the expense of Bobby Cox’s farewell parade after the monumental success he achieved with the Atlanta Braves. Cox led the team with a great deal of pride and dignity as he sought to make this his last season within major league baseball.
Now for all of the furor over the AL West I’ve got to ask myself what must Mike Sciocsia and the Los Angeles Angels __ front office be thinking ? Having released hard hitting outfielder Vladimir Guerrero who would then find a home with the Texas Rangers. And the Rangers seem to be on the cusp of winning the division and making it something of an inspiring season for the new ownership of the Rangers led by Chuck Greenberg and former baseball great Nolan Ryan. As to how the Rangers will fare in the postseason remains to be seen.
Pardon me for saying this but how is it that the Minnesota Twins can consistently year in and year out play with such abandonment , remain competitive but yet do so on budget that most major sports franchises would struggle to survive? . Clearly the front office of the Twins in conjunction with manager Ron Gardenhire have managed to acquire talent nurture it and see it all come to fruition with the team now on the cusp of winning another divisional title and playing themselves into contention this postseason. Don’t be surprised by the fact this team now has the second best record within the league(MLB). They’ve played with confidence and a great deal of maturity. And although within their division that opposition was posed by the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox haven’t been anything near what many had expected them to be about. And the Minnestoa Twins have been all that and a great deal more throughout much of the season.
As the regular season winds down I just hope that the postseason will have something to offer us all and that there’ll be as much excitement there for the fans to be happy in seeing ! If nothing else we can but hope that will be the case. And as far choosing an outright winner of the World Series ,well as much as the New York Yankees are perceived as the favorites to win it all merely because of their storied history and the fact that they’re the reigning champions. To my mind as good as the team appears to be on paper their weakness appears to be with their pitching . Beyond C C Sabathia and Phil Hughes their team’s pitching isn’t an imposing one. So that in of-itself should give their opponents in the postseason some hope . But I’m liable to believe that the Yankees will make it all the way to the playoffs but as to how far they go,will in part rest with their pitching. If that’s not up to scratch then we are liable to see them fall from grace for all of the wrong reasons. And as talented as this team is they’re still an offensive threat but beyond Sabathia, to my mind this team can be something of a Jekyll & Hyde !
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Picture gallery . By clicking on an individual frame you can see the picture in its original format.
Your thoughts if any as to how you see the remainder of the postseason playing out and that of the postseason also ? Which team do you believe will have what it takes for the long haul of the postseason and raise the World Series trophy in November ?
😦
Alan aka tophatal 🙂 * 🙂
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Model & actress Olga Kurylenko
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