Monday, September 12, 2011

I WAS WR-WR-WRONG

I know, it's hard to believe, but it's true. A couple of weeks ago, Buck Showwalter, who may not be the smartest man in baseball, predicted that the Tampa Bay Rays would win the wild card. Later, he amended that, claiming that he said they would be in the fight for the wild card. I sneered at this, along with everybody else. Who knew that Boston would fold like a wet noodle, that their famed starting rotation is relying on Tim Wakefield, who hasn't won a game in seven weeks, and John Lackey, whose last name seems very appropriate right now.
As I've said many times, baseball is cyclical - what goes around, comes around. Boston was never as good as they were projected to be in the spring, and they're certainly not as bad as they've played in the last two weeks. However, they are no longer looking up, trying catch the Yanks, they are looking down, trying to stave off the streaking Rays. That's never good. They haven't been hitting well, pitching well or fielding well. A triple threat.
Even David Ortiz, in channeling his inner Yogi Berra, said, "No one's to blame except everybody."
So it's come down to this: when Tampa plays New York next week, the Red Sox will be rooting for the Yanks. It can't get any worse than that for Boston.

***AND, FOR THE YANKS...***
Garcia fought his way thru 5 innings, the Yankee bats finally woke up and then their bullpen, obviously the best in baseball, shut the Angels down on three hits over the last 4 innings.
Mariano got the save, number 40 for the year, and now sits at 599 career saves, on his way to the all-time record. With one more year left on his contract, Rivera could end up with close to 650 saves, a record I don't think will ever be broken.
But I've been wrong before.

***AS IF WE DIDN'T KNOW***
Back in 2001, after the 9/11 terrorist act, the NY Mets asked for permission to play their game wearing FDNY and PDNY baseball caps. Major League baseball refused. The Mets told Bud Selig to sit on it and wore them anyway. Yesterday, on the tenth anniversary, the Mets again requested to wear the hats in honor of the first reponders, but Selig, who is nothing if not consistently stupid, again refused. This time, the Mets front office, reacting, I suppose, to the threat of a severe tongue-lashing by Bungling Bud, acceded to his decision. From Janice Hough: "As if we needed any more proof that Bud Selig was an idiot." And also this: "As awful as acts of terrorism are, I suppose on some level it is comforting to know they are way outnumbered by acts of simple stupidity."

One of the funniest comedic writers around, and one of my favorites, Brad Dickson, wrote a wonderful column about the 9/11 disaster. It's certainly worth the read:
http://www.omaha.com/article/20110911/LIVING/709119933/0

CP-

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