The Florida Marlins are back in the World Series for the second time in seven seasons. The Yankees are back in the World Series for the first time in two seasons. And the Pirates… well, they’re just hoping to be .500 next year. All this and much more news from Florida, New York and Pittsburgh in your Friday edition of Prospectus Triple Play.
Does it really get any better than this? I live the East Bay in the Northern California, about 20 miles from Oakland. It’s not as if there’s any love for the Red Sox or Yankees based on favors done for the A’s over the last few years. Nonetheless, the renaissance has hit. People are dashing into stores, grabbing coronary artery-busting snacks, and rushing back into cars to get home to watch the game. As I was coming home from Roseville, I was stuck in traffic next to two cars driven by goateed young men, one with a Red Sox hat, one with a Yankee hat. Both shared my concern about the crowded nature of the throughway, and both shared their opinions rather vocally. How cool is it that 3,000 miles away from tonight’s baseball epicenter, people are rushing home to sit in front of the TV?
A lot of the people who cover baseball exclusively are concerned and/or bitter about baseball’s loss of mindshare to lesser sports, like, well…all of them. The stages of college basketball, football, hockey, and even preseason basketball have expanded, often at the expense of attention on what could once be called “America’s Pastime” without challenge. How bad has it gotten? It’s gotten pretty bad. Two nights ago, KHTK 1140 in Sacramento–one of the premiere (and highest rated) sports radio stations in the country–ran an 88-72 preseason loss of the Sacramento Kings instead of Game Seven of the ALCS. In March, cactus and grapefruit league coverage has diminished, and far more attention nationwide is spent on tracking NCAA College Basketball brackets than rookies and veterans competing for jobs or getting in shape in places like Scottsdale and Vero Beach.
It’s 2:32 a.m. PDT. Let me check again. Wow. It really happened.
It still doesn’t seem real. Game Seven of the American League Championship Series, even now, feels more like a weird morphing of Game Six of the NLCS and Game Four of the 2001 World Series.
Three runs down… five outs left… best pitcher in the league… tiring suddenly… manager riding him… extra innings… solo home run… Yankee Stadium bedlam.
It’s like a playoff edition of Mad Libs.
I gave up. I carried hope through the seventh inning, but when Alfonso Soriano was allowed to face Pedro Martinez as the tying run–I was begging for Ruben Sierra, to give you an idea of the desperation–with as much chance of hitting Martinez as he did of spontaneously combusting, I packed it in. The Sox had outplayed the Yankees, they had the best pitcher in the game pitching well, and for the umpteenth straight game, the Yanks hadn’t looked good at the plate. Jason Giambi’s two home runs only served to taunt Yankee fans with the thought of how either of those blasts, in one of his many high-leverage at-bats, could have made all this unnecessary.
I predict that the Marlins will be a great value bet. They can’t be that big an underdog to win four out of seven games from this Yankee team. They’ve been outplaying the Yankees for four months, and other than the bullpen situation, they match up well with the Bombers. Whatever the odds end up being, they’ll be way out of line.
I also predict that whichever teams gets to three wins, with a three-run lead and one out in the eighth inning, is just asking for trouble.
This is a much closer series than the reputations of the two teams would have you believe. It’s tempting to pick the Marlins just on the basis of the edge they have hitting the ball into the Yankee defense’s holes. That’s worth a lot of runs, and more to a team that goes first-to-third and second-to-home a lot.
However, the Yankees, unlike the Giants and Cubs, are almost certain to not lose a game they lead in the seventh inning. Nelson and Rivera are going to shorten these games to six-inning affairs. The Marlins’ great postseason has been built on overcoming bad starts and beating opposition bullpens. That’s not going to work this time.
Jack McKeon knew that he had to play Game Seven like there was no tomorrow, throwing Brad Penny and Josh Beckett on short rest, while Dontrelle Willis was in the bullpen warming up, at one stage, after pitching in Game Six. It’s one thing to play like there’s no tomorrow, but it does make things a bit awkward when tomorrow comes. The Marlins enter the World Series with two off days, giving the likely start to Dontrelle Willis, both on match up and on account of the fact he’s about the only one that will be ready to go. I’ll have more on this in tomorrow’s Series Health Report.
Johan Santana had his expected scope of his elbow, and the results are about as good as could be expected. While you never want your young ace pitcher getting cut, it was a scope-job, and only one chip was found. Santana could be back throwing inside of a month and will certainly have no ill effects by spring training.
Despite the suggestion of his manager, Larry Walker isn’t going to retire. Instead, he’s having his annual tune up–this time, it was a cleanup in his shoulder and minor knee surgery to clean up the cartilage. As usual, Walker will be ready for spring training, but it’s just a matter of time before he’s injured again–the only question is how effective he’ll be in between those inevitable injuries.