Saturday, October 28, 2006

The end of the World...series

This is the most depressing weekend of the year. The end of baseball and the end of Daylight Savings Time. I hate it when it gets dark at 2 in the afternoon.

And now for my weekend post – something REALLY controversial. Again, a reminder, when you write your angry hate comments on this upcoming piece, include your name.

Here are my World Series final thoughts:

When Jeff Weaver wins the clinching game of the Fall Classic you know we’re living in a world gone mad.

If the Tigers weren’t so young and inexperienced I’d wonder if we didn’t have another Black Sox scandal brewing. (And still I’d like to know who Tony Soprano had money on.) It was staggering how many errors the Tigers made, not to mention baserunning blunders, and inept hitting. Far from a championship team, they looked like a fat man’s picnic out there.

And they STILL beat the Yankees.

Now I know why the A’s fired their manager after being swept by this bunch.

Was there ever a more boring World Series? When “Schmootzgate” is the big story, you know you’re not seeing one for the ages.

Hope you got the chance to hear Jon Miller’s play-by-play on ESPN radio. He made the World Series sound, well…exciting even.

Did you ever think the Cardinals would win a World Series where Pujols batted .200?

Joe Buck on TV was his usual excellent self. And even on those very rare occasions when Tim McCarver made a good point (when he didn’t have the wrong score or was misidentifying a player) he repeated himself six or seven times until you still wanted to kill him anyway.

“Now it counts” – that big All-Star win for the American League giving them homefield advantage really was important.

I-Rod had a World Series worthy of A-Rod.

I loved the sign at Busch Stadium “Clone Suppan”.

So typical. the network showing series stars in the stands. Of course, since it’s Fox, the biggest star I saw was the crazed guy who plays Tea Bag on PRISON BREAK.

Maybe fielding practice for pitchers should not be exclusive to Spring Training.

With all the rainouts I was kinda hoping for a World Series/Superbowl doubleheader.

In victory or defeat, Jim Leyland is the classiest manager in baseball.

David Eckstein was a worthy MVP… although a case could be made for Yadier Molina.

Doesn’t it seem like one of the Molina brothers is always in the World Series?

Tiger fans can take great comfort in knowing Kenny Rogers WOULD have won the sixth game if there was one.

MLB is selling DVD’s of this year’s World Series. Biggest seller should be the rainout night when Fox showed a WAR AT HOME marathon.

Commissioner Bud Selig called this World Series a remarkable end to a remarkable season. Bud, that champagne is for spraying, not drinking.

How many days until pitchers and catchers report?

8 comments :

Mike Barer said...

Still, game 4 was a cliffhanger

Anonymous said...

The World Series on Fox was unwatchable. Did the director get paid by the number of camera changes and extreme close ups? I'm still dizzy. And I didn't watch a lot of it. Baseball on Fox is worse than all sports on A(ways) B(ad) C(overage).

VP81955 said...

Hot Stove League time...if you're Stan Kasten and Jim Bowden, whom do you hire as the Nats' next manager: John Russell or Manny Acta?

Mustang Bobby said...

How many days until pitchers and catchers report?

I wish it was tomorrow.

I take comfort in the fact that as a life-long Tiger fan who was there for the highs in '68 and '84 and there for all the lows in between, I still love them. My fondest memories as a kid were listening to Ernie Harwell call the games from Briggs Field -- oops, Tiger Stadium -- as I lay on the back porch on a summer night and swatted mosquitoes, or drove to the Dairy Queen in the hot summer afternoon as he told us "That ball is loooooooong gone!" And being there when Denny McClain won 31, or watched the antics of the Bird, or living big league dream vicariously by going to the Lucas County Recreation Center in Maumee, Ohio, to watch the Mud Hens, the Tigers farm team play, and wonder which of the kids would some day put on the big D. I'm proud that Jim Leyland is from my home town (Perrysburg, Ohio, Class of 1962) and that baseball still means as much to me as it did when I was twelve or fifteen or twenty-one or whatever age I am now.

Thanks for your wrap-up, Ken; it puts it all away for me and ready to bring them out when it's dark this winter -- even if it never gets cold -- and I can remember the day when Ernie opened the season with "the voice of the turtle." They don't do that for the Super Bowl.

Anonymous said...

In case you're wondering, the feeling you get standing in the middle of 10,000 screaming fans streaming through the gates of left field feels very much like a ride at the water park...

...oh, and we loved the world series in St. Louis by the way... but no hard feelings towards those who didn't.

...see ya in 109...

VP81955 said...

Well, at least I can still hear Harry Kalas do play-by-play...for NFL games on Westwood One radio. (He's nearly as good doing football as he is doing Phillies games.)

NY Expat said...

Congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals for winning the 2006 World Series!

And a special congratulations to all the African-American fans of the Cardinals...both of them.

-3- said...

"The End Of The World Series"

I think that's an Armageddon Comedy pitch Levine & Isaacs could sell. Maybe not a decade and a half ago, but in the modern social environment your old title could be gold.