Some late April baseball thoughts
I say with great confidence that the most extreme bias by the national news media is not left-wing, right wing, or even profit-based (at least not directly.) It's on behalf of Boston and New York sports teams against the rest of the sports world.Because the issue of balanced sports coverage is limited to the sports page, anchors and reporters feel no obligation to hide their colors. It's completely accepted practice that East Coast teams playing in states that border Connecticut get twice or three times the amount of coverage that other teams get because of their large population bases.
ESPN's Sportscenter, the American television show in most dire need of a well-resourced competitor, covered yesterday's Red Sox/Devil Rays brawl in Tampa in huffy detail. The Red Sox, since winning the World Series in a very professional manner, have behaved abominably on and off the field. Miffed by high and tight pitches by the D-Rays' Lance Carter yesterday, Boston sluggers Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz both staged re-enactions of that famous play-- "I'm going to charge the mound, but I'm going to do it very slowly so the catcher has time to step between us. Then I'll just point my bat at the pitcher while my teammates rush onto the field." The ESPN anchor, whose name I neither know nor care about, said (I'm paraphrasing all,) "listen to Devil Rays' broadcaster Joe Magrane." Magrane: "Look at Curt Schilling out there running his mouth. What else is new? How old is he? Shouldn't he have a walker with him?"
Now, just a note about Magrane: he's a former Cardinals pitcher, and a favorite one of mine. He was the NL ERA leader in 1988, and an 18 game winner in 1989. He used to wear a t-shirt under his jersey that read, "Throw Strikes, Babe Ruth is dead," and he once told reporters that he was reading a book called "JFK, The Man and the Airport."
Anyway, this stooge anchor- and Craig Kilborn wannabe- adds, "By the way, Magrane won 57 games in his career." Huh? Really, and how many did you win? He'd probably never heard of Magrane before viewing the tape. Am I the only person that thinks this is blatant sucking up to Boston fans? Maybe it's me.
God, I hate Curt Schilling.
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It's time for a round of Real/Not for Real. Four MLB teams have winning percentages of .600 or better this morning...
Baltimore (12-7), however, is Not for Real. The Orioles will stay near the head of the pack in the AL East for another month or so, but they don't have the pitching at the front or the back end to hang with the ESPN clubs in the division.
The Chicago White Sox (15-4) are Not for Real. You have to like their starting pitching, but this Ozzie Guillen thing is going to blow. This guy's off his rocker, and it takes precious little to hurt Frank Thomas' feelings. The Sox are a good club, but the Twins are going to be division champs again, and the Wild Card will come from the East.
The Los Angeles Dodgers (13-5) are For Real. I'm shocked that the absence of Barry Bonds would have such an immediate impact on the NL Western Division. The Los Angeles Seniors are off to a fabulous start, and they've done it without closer Eric Gagne, and slugger Jayson Werth, a guy who impressed me enormously in the playoffs. Brad Penny didn't make his first start until Sunday, and it looks like he's ready to go as well. The Dodgers are headed back to the playoffs, and they'll be tough to beat, especially at home.
St. Louis (12-5) is For Real. Despite 105 regular season wins last season and wins in 9 of their first 14 games this year, the Cardinals were 15th in last week's CNNSI power rankings. How can this be? Because the national press doesn't know how good Chris Carpenter is. His late-season injury kept him out of the October spotlight last year, but this year will be different for the pitcher and the team. There might be little margin for error for the Cubs, who need to fix their bullpen, and the Astros, who need to find a way to score runs. The Cards have been cruising early despite slow starts by their big sluggers. If the Cards remain healthy, and get pitching from Mark Mulder and Matt Morris like they did last week, the division is wrapped up already.
posted by CM @ 8:12 PM
7 Comments:
Famous last words: "the division is wrapped up already" if Mulder and Morris simply keep pitching well and the team stays healthy? It's still April! Those 105 wins last year have gone to your head.
Fox was my choice, and Dusty's appearently, to replace that scoundrel LaTroy Hawkins as closer. But last night, after giving up a three-run homer in the ninth, Fox went and re-injured his elbow.
What the Hell is that?
I stand by my statement. I gave a week's thought to it before I wrote it.
I remember Fox being tough in the 2003 playoffs, but this injury has been par for the course for him. The good news for the Cubs is Borowski. I heard they moved his return date up from June to May.
Uh oh. The Cardinals are about to put their closer on the disabled list. Let's not be calling division titles in April.
In case you missed it: Tonight on ESPN's Baseball Tonight, all four guys spoke out against Schilling's actions.
I don't really care for the Red Sox. I realized that when, after a loss to the Yankees at the start of the season, Johnny Damon was whisked to the Cone Zone (Late Night w/ Conan O'Brien) to enjoy his hangover celebrity status.
I didn't mind when my roommate's Sports Illustrated showed up a couple weeks ago with Johnny Damon on the cover, but then 2 days later I saw him on the cover of Entertainment Weekly and realized how out of control it was.
If a baseball player is going to get attention for his hair, I'd prefer it to be Diamondback shortstop Royce Clayton. Have you seen his hair lately? His jeri curl is out of control.
As to the Isringhausen injury Tuesday, I would invite you to recall the part of my prediction where I said, "if they stay healthy." And this injury is quite minor.
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