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Posted by Hasan H, August 26, 2008 - 12:46 pm
I love the fact that ESPN.com has a front page headline about the mets calling up “Top” prospect Jonathan Niese. Bringing up the kids like Daniel Murphy and Niese on a first place team in the middle of a pennant race is a big middle finger to all GMs around the league who refused to trade for our kids at the deadline. Dry farm system? Take this!
I love the ‘top’ and ‘untouchable’ tags. And all of a sudden these tags are being applied to the kids whose numbers have always been good, but now they are being brought to the forefont. Omar has handled the perception that the Mets farm system was depleted to begin with and then further weakened after the Santana trade, very nicely.
And as we have seen from Murphy so far, maybe these kids ARE that good and the rest of the league has just undervalued them. Fantastic job by Omar Minaya. Yet again.
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Baseball, Football, Major Sports
Posted by Obiora, August 1, 2008 - 12:20 pm
Maintaining loyalty in the face of extreme losing
It is a cruel irony that the man most responsible for establishing the Fall Classic was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the same day that has for the greater part of 16 years signaled the unofficial end of baseball season here in Western PA, the start of Steelers training camp. During Barney Dreyfuss‘ 32 years as owner, the Pittsburgh Pirates finished in 2nd place or higher 13 times, won 6 pennants and claimed 2 World Series titles. He would be mortified to know that his team is now working on its 16th straight losing season, a new US sports record.
In the past week, the Pirates have almost singlehandedly managed to inject new life into the AL East race by trading OF Xavier Nady and RP Damaso Marte to the Yankees and now OF Jason Bay to the Red Sox. Two-thirds of the most productive outfield in baseball gone for young players and prospects. As the ghosts of Aramis Ramirez, Jason Schmidt and Chris Young circle around my head, I find both optimism and pessimism swirling through an endless, numbing void.
Baseball was actually my first sports love. I came to sports in the early 90’s when the Pirates and Penguins were winning and the Steelers were languishing in mediocrity. I remember when Pedro Martinez was called PJ Martinez because there was a Pedro A. Martinez in the Big Leagues; I remember when Joe Torre was the manager of a pretty mediocre St. Louis Cardinals team; and I remember when Barry Bonds was skinny, stole bases and batted lead-off. It was easy to enjoy the game.
All sports fans experience periods that test their resolve. Some fandoms, like that of the Chicago Cubs, are practically built around the (ridiculously idiotic) idea of “lovable losers”. Some emphasize the ‘experience’ of the game as a way to avoid facing losing - “Boy that park sure is purrty!”, others are simply cursed, such as the Cleveland Browns, and some just deserve to lose, such as any fandom in Philadelphia. But in most cases, a dearth of winning refers to winning championships, not winning seasons.
If your team is at least occasionally in the hunt, you can have hope. In order for Steve Bartman to have become an issue, the Cubs needed to be in contention in the first place. We have, on this site, rightly decried bandwagon jumpers, those mealy-mouthed cretins who enjoy the peaks and avoid the valleys.
But losing on the scale of the Pirates is, methinks, a different kettle o’ fish. It’s not that they haven’t reached the World Series since 1979 or that they haven’t won a Division Title since 1992. To my knowledge, the Pittsburgh Pirates have not had a .500+ overall record at any point past the All-Star break in any individual season since 1999. This hallowed .500+ post All-Star mark has been reached only twice since Barry Bonds took his big bat to the East Bay after the 1992/93 season.
I’ve picked sides in the World Series from time to time but I’m a homer and as such, I can’t truly cheer for another baseball team. But 16 years of spectacularly bad baseball have robbed me and many others of our passion for the (former) National Pastime. I don’t live and die with this team. I die and die with them yet still attend 5-6 games at PNC Park each season.
So the question is - should I be considered no better than the bandwagon jumper because I describe baseball season as the winter of my sports discontent or hang my head when the Pirates come on Sportscenter. When faced with such extreme losing, what’s a fan to do? Oh that’s right - Steelers training camp just opened. Here we go!
Photo Credit: Icon/SMI
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College Football, Major Sports
Posted by Obiora, July 30, 2008 - 12:25 pm
- With a new college football season coming, I can just hear the griping about to start - the polls are biased against this team, the voters don’t know anything, the polls favor that team, we need a playoff, we need a playoff, we need a playoff. Like most folks, I too would favor a playoff to decide the national championship. I’ve come to accept that a playoff would be the best way to decide a largely unbalanced season though mine would only feature four teams. But it ain’t gonna happen. So I’ll make a pact with you, oh my droogies. I won’t go off into any diatribes about how the BCS is responsible for the imminent downfall of western civilization as we know it if you don’t. That is until everyone’s “favorite” Big Ten whipping boy gets to the BCS title game again.
- Most of the major sports websites have been previewing the upcoming season but for me, the coup de grace is today’s ESPN.com articles on Hate. I think sports is driven more by hatred of other teams than by love of one’s own chosen squad and nowhere is this more true than in the seething cauldron of collegiate athletics. Is there an occasion where I’ll pay attention to Big East traitor Boston College - yes, when they play Notre Dame. Why do I occasionally cheer for Texas or Michigan - because I despise Oklahoma and Ohio State.
- It may surprise the unacquainted to know that I hate Ohio State since I made the apparently unpardonable sin of ranking the Frakeyes #1 a couple months ago. For the record, I despise everything to do with the state of Ohio, from the boring, flat terrain to that sorry excuse for a city called the Mistake by the Lake to the moronic dotting of the I. However, I’ll stand by the pick even as it makes me want to hurl because no other major program is a better bet to get to the big game. I’ll also be weeping tears of joy with any decent human being (Ohioans aren’t human) when OSU gets waxed by whichever opponent faces them.
- Last weekend’s Outside the Lines delivered a scathing indictment of Joe Paterno Univ, I mean Penn State University’s football program. I’m not going to crucify PSU for its problems given that many Universities seem to be having troubles these days. However, I was a little disturbed at JoePa’s reaction. Whereas University President Graham Spanier called the numbers (72 charges in 2007 alone, resulting in 9 convictions) staggering, Mr Penn State brushed it aside as a witch hunt. Maybe boys are just as naughty now as they have ever been. Maybe not. But with bigger dollar signs in college football, comes bigger scrutiny and more incentive for programs to walk the tight line. PSU needs to get it in gear - and hire Greg Schiano away from Rutgers next year.
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