This post was originally going to be dedicated to the great city of Detroit. I was going to write a nice long diatribe about the long overdue end of the Matt Millen Era, and about how this seemingly small act could begin to turn the tide for one of America’s most downtrodden cities and restore it to a place of significance in not only the world of sports, but within the consciousness of this country. I even had it all planned out: I was going to talk about the history of sports in Detroit and how it’s affected economic factors in the city; about how events like the Malice in the Palace (as well as its little sister fracas committed by Rick Mahorn and Lisa Leslie, a witty name for which I’ve yet to come up with) have affected the perception of Detroit as a city; about how the city’s only saving grace in the sports world is the Red Wings, who have been and continue to be the class of the NHL, but no one seems to notice, largely thanks to Gary Bettman’s absolute ineptitude as Commissioner. I was ready to talk about Millen’s record as a player thru college and the pros, about his career as Madden Jr. before the Ford family anointed him the savior of the silver and blue. I was ready to talk about Millen’s abysmal record, the Millen Man March protests, the paper bag fans, the Fire Millen t-shirts, the Bears, Packers and Vikings fans showing up at Lions games with signs saying, “We Love Millen!!!”…a truly comprehensive (and probably even longer than my usual rantings) look at Detroit and how it can take this experience and build on it. But then, two things happened:
1) Every sportswriter on Earth already did that yesterday.
2) A whole bunch of crap happened in the sports world yesterday that, sadly, push the Lions soap opera off the page.
…so I gotta stay current. Matt Millen and the Lions will have to wait (which means I most likely will never get around to writing about it). Let’s begin.
The Mets looked like they actually wanted to win the NL East on a rainy Thursday night in NYC, beating the Cubs in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the ninth with a walk-off single by Carlos Voltron (or Beltran, whichever you prefer). The Brewers, entering the night deadlocked with the Mets in the wildcard race, held serve in their victory over the woeful Pirates in even more dramatic fashion, with Ryan Braun’s first career walk-off home run (which also happened to be his first career grand slam). The Phillies had the night off in anticipation of their weekend series against the mighty Washington Nationals, so the Mets gained a half-game on the Phils, leaving them one game back in the East, while still deadlocked with Milwaukee in the wild card race. While listening to Mike and Mike this morning, something crossed my mind. Greeny stated his opinion that teams that have clinched playoff berths at this point don’t need to prove anything…if they wanna rest their marquee guys, or give September callups some significant PT to further determine the path they wanna take with them, fine. They don’t owe anything to anyone. Which got me thinking…
Could the Cubs be deliberately playing under speed?
Think about it. MLB playoff rules state that a team can not play a team from its own division in the Divisional round of the playoffs. Which means, if the Mets emerge on top of this wildcard race, then the Cubs will face off with them in a five-gamer in the first round. If the Mets catch the Phils, and the Phils get the wildcard, then Charlie Manuel’s crew is heading to Wrigleyville. In either of those scenarios, the Cubbies get the wildcard winner. However, if the Brewers end up winning the wildcard, then the Cubs will get the division winner with the weakest record (as the Cubs and Brewers both play in the NL Central), which would be the Dodgers, who lost last night, but backed into the playoffs with an Arizona loss.
So with the Phils and Mets both at home for the final weekend of the season playing weak divisional opponents, you have to ask, what are the Cubs hoping happens here? By dropping the series against the Mets, they put the Mets in a good spot to catch the Phils. Now let’s say the Nats relish the spoiler role and take the Phils series 2-1 this weekend; and the Mets take two of three against the Marlins, that sets up a play-in game for the East. The outcome of that game may or may not determine who wins the wildcard…if this scenario happens, the wildcard winner will also depend on the Brewers road series this weekend against…wait for it…the Cubs.
I’m a conspiracy theorist…I don’t think the Cubbies want any of Manny or the Dodgers in a five-gamer. I think they’re going to win at least two of the three games this weekend and keep the Brewers out. My prediction is that the Phils win the East, with the Mets getting the wildcard, which would set up the Phils/Dodgers and Cubs/Mets series in the NLDS.
In other news, the Rays failed to lock up the AL East last night, with their loss and Boston’s relatively easy victory over the Indians. Boston looks like they’re beginning to get into postseason mode, so the Rays better hope they can get at least one win this weekend and lock up the East so they can get a matchup with either the White Sox or the Twins in the ALDS. Otherwise, they’re going to have to make the trip west and face my Angels in a five-gamer. Come to think of it, that might be a preferable scenario for me…let’s think about this. A young team with no playoff experience coming to Anaheim to face the AL West champions with loads of experience…I like it. Go Red Sox! I don’t think that’s going to happen. I don’t think the Tigers have it in them to sweep the Rays, and I seriously doubt the Yanks are going to drop all three to the Sox when they can play a mild spoiler. Prediction here is that the Sox are coming west for a short series against the Angels.
That just leaves the race in the AL Central. The Twins got themselves on a hot streak and caught the White Sox on a downturn…and currently lead the Central by a half-game. The Twins have a homer against the lowly Royals this weekend, while the Pale Hose have a homer against the lowly Indians. The White Sox have a unique problem here…they still owe a game to the Tigers, which, if necessary, is scheduled for Monday. Let’s say both the Twinkies and the Sox sweep their weekend series, still leaving the Twins a half-game up…that makeup game against the Tigers determines just about everything for the White Sox. The Tigers—who damn near every sportswriter in the country predicted was going to score 1,000 runs this year and could start printing World Series tickets in April; and who currently sit 14 games below .500—could have the opportunity to play the ultimate spoiler and keep Ozzie’s crew out of the postseason, and end any hope of a Windy City Series.
And we haven’t even talked about the weather yet...I’m not going to go into it, but it could play serious havoc with the NL East race.
All of this adds up to an incredibly intriguing weekend of baseball. And I won’t see any of it. Going to Happy Valley to watch Penn State play Illinois…so I’ll be pretty drunk all weekend.
Speaking of college football, there was a game last night. Some team from SoCal got beat by some team from Oregon. From what I hear it was pretty important…
1) Every sportswriter on Earth already did that yesterday.
2) A whole bunch of crap happened in the sports world yesterday that, sadly, push the Lions soap opera off the page.
…so I gotta stay current. Matt Millen and the Lions will have to wait (which means I most likely will never get around to writing about it). Let’s begin.
The Mets looked like they actually wanted to win the NL East on a rainy Thursday night in NYC, beating the Cubs in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the ninth with a walk-off single by Carlos Voltron (or Beltran, whichever you prefer). The Brewers, entering the night deadlocked with the Mets in the wildcard race, held serve in their victory over the woeful Pirates in even more dramatic fashion, with Ryan Braun’s first career walk-off home run (which also happened to be his first career grand slam). The Phillies had the night off in anticipation of their weekend series against the mighty Washington Nationals, so the Mets gained a half-game on the Phils, leaving them one game back in the East, while still deadlocked with Milwaukee in the wild card race. While listening to Mike and Mike this morning, something crossed my mind. Greeny stated his opinion that teams that have clinched playoff berths at this point don’t need to prove anything…if they wanna rest their marquee guys, or give September callups some significant PT to further determine the path they wanna take with them, fine. They don’t owe anything to anyone. Which got me thinking…
Could the Cubs be deliberately playing under speed?
Think about it. MLB playoff rules state that a team can not play a team from its own division in the Divisional round of the playoffs. Which means, if the Mets emerge on top of this wildcard race, then the Cubs will face off with them in a five-gamer in the first round. If the Mets catch the Phils, and the Phils get the wildcard, then Charlie Manuel’s crew is heading to Wrigleyville. In either of those scenarios, the Cubbies get the wildcard winner. However, if the Brewers end up winning the wildcard, then the Cubs will get the division winner with the weakest record (as the Cubs and Brewers both play in the NL Central), which would be the Dodgers, who lost last night, but backed into the playoffs with an Arizona loss.
So with the Phils and Mets both at home for the final weekend of the season playing weak divisional opponents, you have to ask, what are the Cubs hoping happens here? By dropping the series against the Mets, they put the Mets in a good spot to catch the Phils. Now let’s say the Nats relish the spoiler role and take the Phils series 2-1 this weekend; and the Mets take two of three against the Marlins, that sets up a play-in game for the East. The outcome of that game may or may not determine who wins the wildcard…if this scenario happens, the wildcard winner will also depend on the Brewers road series this weekend against…wait for it…the Cubs.
I’m a conspiracy theorist…I don’t think the Cubbies want any of Manny or the Dodgers in a five-gamer. I think they’re going to win at least two of the three games this weekend and keep the Brewers out. My prediction is that the Phils win the East, with the Mets getting the wildcard, which would set up the Phils/Dodgers and Cubs/Mets series in the NLDS.
In other news, the Rays failed to lock up the AL East last night, with their loss and Boston’s relatively easy victory over the Indians. Boston looks like they’re beginning to get into postseason mode, so the Rays better hope they can get at least one win this weekend and lock up the East so they can get a matchup with either the White Sox or the Twins in the ALDS. Otherwise, they’re going to have to make the trip west and face my Angels in a five-gamer. Come to think of it, that might be a preferable scenario for me…let’s think about this. A young team with no playoff experience coming to Anaheim to face the AL West champions with loads of experience…I like it. Go Red Sox! I don’t think that’s going to happen. I don’t think the Tigers have it in them to sweep the Rays, and I seriously doubt the Yanks are going to drop all three to the Sox when they can play a mild spoiler. Prediction here is that the Sox are coming west for a short series against the Angels.
That just leaves the race in the AL Central. The Twins got themselves on a hot streak and caught the White Sox on a downturn…and currently lead the Central by a half-game. The Twins have a homer against the lowly Royals this weekend, while the Pale Hose have a homer against the lowly Indians. The White Sox have a unique problem here…they still owe a game to the Tigers, which, if necessary, is scheduled for Monday. Let’s say both the Twinkies and the Sox sweep their weekend series, still leaving the Twins a half-game up…that makeup game against the Tigers determines just about everything for the White Sox. The Tigers—who damn near every sportswriter in the country predicted was going to score 1,000 runs this year and could start printing World Series tickets in April; and who currently sit 14 games below .500—could have the opportunity to play the ultimate spoiler and keep Ozzie’s crew out of the postseason, and end any hope of a Windy City Series.
And we haven’t even talked about the weather yet...I’m not going to go into it, but it could play serious havoc with the NL East race.
All of this adds up to an incredibly intriguing weekend of baseball. And I won’t see any of it. Going to Happy Valley to watch Penn State play Illinois…so I’ll be pretty drunk all weekend.
Speaking of college football, there was a game last night. Some team from SoCal got beat by some team from Oregon. From what I hear it was pretty important…
1 comment:
The highlight of my day happened this morning when I heard you laugh all the way from the shower... and it turned out that you had just heard of USC's loss on ESPN. So happy about that.
Post a Comment