Road Warriors

What does it take to win a playoff spot? Good pitching is essential. Good, timely hitting is an absolute. Solid relief pitching is a must. But the one statistic that rules is this: you cannot have a losing record on the road. Road warriors rule.

Take a look at this season’s playoff contenders: Boston has the second best record in all of baseball and tops in the American League. Not only do they win in Fenway, but they have a winning record on the road…the second best road record in the league. Oakland also is a road warrior with more wins then losses. The Detroit Tigers were road winners over the season. Tampa was even with a 41-41 record.

Over in the National League, the only teams that are .500 or better are Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Los Angeles. Atlanta is one game under on the road. However, their home record is the tops in all of baseball.

Why is it these teams perform better sleeping on a Sealy away from home? The answer lies in the make up of the teams. Travel distances are one of the things to consider. Boston is part of a rather tight geographic fit in their division. But this brings up the issue that teams who have a big geographic spread and have to travel great distances should not do as well. While travel distances can be a factor they are not THE factor why a team plays better on the road than other teams.

Veterans are the key. Look at each team and see how age and wisdom contribute to a winning road record. Boston has regular position players Drew (30), Napoli (31), Pedroia (30), Gomes (32), Victorino (32) and Ortiz (37), all of whom have played on playoff teams previously. They are experienced road warriors. Oakland has Cespedes (27), Crisp (33), Callaspo (30) and Young (30), again, all have had playoff experience.

Perhaps you get the point. Experience in understanding a season is a marathon (not a sprint) and being able to kick it up into another gear, especially on the road, makes for a winning season on the road.

Pittsburgh may be the perfect case in point. Here is a team that finally has their first winning season in over 20 years. And their lineup is loaded with experienced road warriors who have had valuable playoff experience to support the likes of Alverez and McCutchen who do not. Morneau (32), Martin (30), Byrd (36), Barmes (34) all have playoff experience plus they have pitchers who have done so as well. A.J. Burnett, Francisco Liriano both bring added understanding to this year’s team, as does their manager, Clint Hurdle. He has won the National League pennant previously.

Then look at the Dodgers. Capuano (35), Greinke (29), Wilson (31), Gonzalez (31), Hairston, Jr. (37), Punto (35), Uribe (34), Young (36), Crawford (32) and Ethier (31).

Case in point: Nothing blends a team better than experience. The veterans are, at their very best, teachers. All of these teams who are fighting for a league pennant have young, exciting players on their roster. But those who succeed, especially on the road, have experience to guide the youth.

Humans are not unlike any heard of animals. Elephants look to their older members to guide them to water holes through a season, filled with drought and the unknown.

Experienced veterans are a the key to blending young and old while creating that thing called ‘chemistry’ that makes a group a team. That makes all of the difference in winning on the road. 

It’s going to be an exciting playoff.

Play Ball!

Eight Eyes Fail Sight Test

There they were. Gathered in the night, with a close game at hand, the home team Cleveland Indians were hanging on to a one run lead when up to the plate stepped Adam Rosales.

Last season,the Oakland A’s, Rosales’ team, won the Western Division of the American League by one game. On this night, they were trailing by one and all they hoped was to get one more run to have the change to win the game.

Road wins are always better.

This is the way Billy’s ball players do it. Come back late in the game after hanging the fans out to dry, and then snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. But that is not when Angel Hernandez and his band of daffy umpires rule on a play during a game. Beware baseball fans if this crew descends upon your city and calls the balls and strikes along with fair and foul balls.Which get us to ruling on a ball that went into the stands in left center field hit a railing behind the wall and dropped back onto the field where most of the 14,000+ fans in Cleveland and nearly everyone else in the stadium believed it was a home run.

Adam Rosales go the Hernandez WigWag.

This little know part of the game is when an umpire crew headed by one Angel Hernandez looks at a play, then goes into the video replay booth and comes out claiming they didn’t have a clear enough view of the play. They called Rosales shot into the stands a double, not a home run.

Rozales protested. But went back to second base.

The A’s manager, Melvin, protested. He went to take a shower after being thrown out by this daffy crew.

The world protested. We have not been heard. The Commish ain’t listening to people like us who treat baseball like a religion.

This past week in baseball has been a mess with umpires making bad calls and no calls at all. One umpire was suspended for two games. Three others fined.

But the problem here is that an umpiring crew made a call that was clearly wrong in every one’s eyes. Eight eyes were not enough in Cleveland on this night when the A’s were robbed of a chance to win a game.

The solution suggest here is that Major League Baseball have a former retired umpire placed in the stands for every single game and have the right to call for a replay and review it himself. Perhaps it now takes five sets of eyeballs to make the right decision. Can ten eyes get it right?

The game demands accuracy. It is time to understand technology exists and we must use it even if Sir Bud of Selig Ford or Chevrolet waffles back and forth and forth and back on this issue.

Bruce Froemming in the stands is better than four umps on the field these days. Knowing Bruce is looking down should scare the living bugs out of these umps. They won’t be traveling with these crews and becoming ‘buds’ but will stay at home at one site throughout the season. Bruce and other fellow retired big league umps have a new payday ahead of them. And this time, the fans are demanding it.

Play Ball!

It Is Official

“I’m just a little bit caught in the middle.”

That was the lead lyric from “Moneyball”, the Academy Award nominated movie that brings baseball’s greatest attribute to the forefront each and every year…hope. Without it we cannot survive. And each spring, like yesterday in Maryvale, hope was once again put on the front burner. Lost was the cold of the snowy North. Welcome to another amazing season of hope, or as we call it, baseball.

The thrill of a new season is born days and months ahead of the walk up to the gate. The anticipation builds as the crowd grows as you get nearer and nearer. It is a ritual that commands respect because it brings renewal. You have been here before when all was clean and pure and the world was still well ahead of you. This was always the seminal moment of time as it marked that new year of hope.

Now, as we enter the gate, tickets in hand and searching ahead for that first view of the field that allows us to know that the world is OK and everything is in its place, we in fact are caught in the middle…in the middle of life from the first day of discovery of this magnificent game to the last game of life.

Yesterday we made that same journey again.

The hawkers were monotone in their chant of ‘can’t tell the player without a program’ to the beer vendor’s taunt, ‘it’s cold and it’s from Milwaukee’. The smell was the key. The brats smoking on the grills indicated that all was well with the world. In his very first at bat in the bottom of the first, Ryan Braun cracked a home run to right center to launch a new season. The refreshing journey was true to form. Life is good and baseball is back.

Play Ball!

EBL. The Key To Success.

The battle in baseball is centered around pitching, especially relief pitching. It is a treasured position. Just as the Milwaukee Brewers found out this past season by having their relief pitchers fail with 28 blown saves, the most in the entire major leagues, it is all about that guy coming in out of the bullpen late in the game to preserve the lead and save the game. These guys are a different breed. They think differently. Hall of Fame relief pitcher, Rollie Fingers, probably said it best. “I focus on making that one pitch. That’s what I tell myself, “One pitch.” You can’t worry about the next one. Even with a good hitter, he’ll get out seven times out of ten. I want to make sure that this is one of those seven.”

This off-season, especially in the Western Division of the National League, it is completely about that…finding the guy who can concentrate on that one pitch that will make a difference and take their team to the World Series and win it. Of import is the knowledge that in order to win the World Series, teams first have to defeat the San Francisco Giants and their amazing bullpen which will only improve with the return of one Brian Patrick Wilson. With his four-seam fastball, slider and cutter, teamed with Sergio Romo’s slider, two-seamer, change-up and three World Series saves against Detroit this past season, the team that resides in The City is once again the team to chase.

Arizona Diamondbacks made the first move to beef up their bullpen by signing closer Heath Bell. GM Kevin Towers was able to release him from Miami Marlins hell and bring him into the world of Gibson, which is much different from the world of Ozzie. Gibby will grunt where as Guillen simply blows his top with expletives. Look for Bell to reclaim his old form that was his calling card in San Diego two years ago.

The Dodgers made their big move in strengthening their bullpen by re-signing their top reliever this past season, Brandon League. General Manager Ned Colletti understood League’s importance to his team’s rise to the top of the NL West was resting on the guy he traded for last July 30th from Seattle. League went 6 for 6 in closes after succeeding Kenley Jansen who went on the disabled list with an irregular heartbeat.

In San Diego, they are set through 2015 with their closer, Houston Street. With an excellent ERA of 1.85, Street, the former Rookie of the Year in 2005 for Oakland, finished last season with 23 saves in the 40 games in which he appeared. He earned All-Star status for the first time in his career last season.

For those who live in the East, you may be in a bit of a time-warp. Not everything in baseball revolves around New York and Boston. What may appear to be a little late for many in the Eastern time zone to see, fabulous play has been going on this decade West of the Rockies. It’s understood that you can’t read about it in your morning newspapers anymore (but who reads the newspaper anymore for news?). In those early Eastern slumber hours, when head hits the pillow, they are playing baseball out West, good solid baseball. In fact, the last three champions have come out of the National League and in two of those years, the Western Division champion became the champion in all of baseball.

The key this coming season will be to find out which team in the NL West can come up with the bullpen that can deliver the save, especially on the road. Tom House, the former Atlanta Braves reliever stated, “When I’m on the road, my greatest ambition is to get a standing boo.” That’s what the rest of this division is hoping they have on their staff…the ‘on-the-road boo leader. Look for it this coming season as the newest stat in baseball, the EBL, Earned Boo Leader.

No. Don’t look for that stat in your newspaper. This is the season to look for it on your mobile. It’s under “E” as in Earned Boo Leader.

Play Ball!

It Was A Season To Forget For 29 Others

The San Francisco Giants are champions of baseball, once again. Their sold out season at home was a testament to their power in the West and throughout all of the game. The center of attention come spring will be Scottsdale. That is where they will begin to defend their title this past season and second in the past three years. For other teams it was a season to forget.

In Miami, what should have been a season to remember, became a nightmare quicker than you can say Fidel Castro. Of course when Ozzie said those two words, the beginning of the end began. Ozzie is no longer the manager of the Miami Marlins. He’s out of the fish tank. Now he can spout off about the aged dictator in Cuba all he wants with his profanity laced vocabulary. Así que lo siento. Me encanta el béisbol.

In Boston there was a tea party like only Beantown can deliver. They had fired the most successful manager in their history, who won not one but two World Series supposedly because he had lost control of his team. Guys were actually drinking beer in the clubhouse. Imagine that. Baseball players drinking beer in the clubhouse. After that horrible discovery was blabbed throughout New England on every fish wrap and sports talk mediums, there was a long debate between the candidates they would select as the next great Red Sox manager. Suffice to say the guy they should have taken grabbed the job with the Cubs before the Red Sox decided on Bobby Valentine. Yikes!

In Philadelphia and Milwaukee, great pre-season pitching staffs do not materialize to automatically put them into the playoffs. In Minneapolis, they found out that you can’t have a team built around one high-priced catcher. On the North side of Chicago, Dale Sveum is facing, like others who have taken over that franchise before him, another losing season which must be followed with a winning season or Sveum will have swum. On the South side of Chicago, they let a season of great leadership by one of their own disintegrate in September. St. Louis, Atlanta and Cincinnati had hopes crushed by the tidal wave known as the Giants. Arizona’s owner showed how he knows more about baseball than anybody because he has all the baseball cards Topps has ever printed. That makes him an authority. Unfortunately, Gibson can’t manage cardboard players. Houston was seen rushing over to the American League. They forgot to play ball in 2012.

Seattle had a season to remember. They gave up the greatest player in the game to the Yankees but had more great pitching performances at their stadium than anywhere on the planet ever. They are smiling in Seattle. Same with the fans in Washington, DC, where they were rewarded with a team that brought the city their first divisional championship. Quite an accomplishment for a City that had not seen a title winner since 1933.

Pittsburgh did it again. After a hot start, they faded badly. What do you expect from a team  that is managed by Clint Hurdle. Cleveland was never in the papers the entire season. Nor were the Padres. The New York Mets were non-factors this past season. Colorado disappeared in their own thin air plus their manager left after the season. Kansas City’s only claim to fame this season was hosting the All-Star game. The two ‘T-Towns’, Toronto and Tampa Bay had flashes of brilliance but not enough to put them in the big dance. On top of that, the Blue Jays lost their manager who became the head dude of the Boston Valentines.

Then there were the New York Yankees. The rapid loss of skills of A-Rod and the physical loss of The Captain, doomed the pinstripers this past season. In Dallas, the almost unexplainable coldness of Hamilton’s bat late in the season doomed the Rangers third attempt to win it all in three straight seasons. This franchise still hasn’t realized it needs pitching to win. Did you hear that Nolan Ryan? Remember what you did better than most? It wasn’t hitting. And what can you say about Detroit that hasn’t already been said?

That brings us to Baltimore. What a magical season Buck Showalter brought to baseball. 93 wins. Finally, Buck got his due. After rebuilding the Yankees and then getting fired; after building the Diamondback from scratch and setting all of the pieces together to win the World Series and got fired; after rebuilding the Rangers before he got fired; he took over a team that had won only 66 games the year before he got there and in two short years took them to the door of greatness.

Then there is Oakland and Billyball. The Athletics won the American League West title. And they played for the Championship of the American League. Go ahead. Name three players on the A’s besides Coco Crisp. They won an exciting 94 games. This was one of the most amazing stories in baseball. Billy Bean for President. He is the star of this franchise. Nobody understands the game better…on how to get the most out of talent like Mr. Bean.

On the other side of the equation is the Battle for LA. On one hand there is a billionaire who  bought a pig in a poke and thought he could win the American League pennant and finished third. On the other hand there are billionaires who not only  have to improve a team on the field but a stadium they play in and make it once again safe to go and see games. The Pujols Angels were only exciting because of one rookie. Their manager finally showed what he is made of. Arte has to take a look at his manager if he hopes to capture a title soon. As for the former LaLa Dodgers, they have gotten rid of all that has been bad over the past couple of years by taking out of the game the battling McCourts.

Which leads us to the Giants of San Francisco. Jack Elliot once said “Baseball is grown men getting paid to play a game.” In the City by the Bay, men enjoyed playing baseball this season like few before them. The had food fights before the games. One of their biggest boosters was an injured pitcher who played Ernie Kovacs routine of The Nairobi Trio in the dugout during the game. There were more than smiles. There was laughter and joy of being in a game they love to play. Pandemonium ruled. They put new gas into the gashouse gang. Think of them as the laughing gasers. They have all winter to smile the smile of victory.

Play Ball!

From The Navy Yard To Pigsville And Beyond

In case you are living under a rock, baseball fever is at an all-time high due to the expanded playoff spots now up for grabs. It is pandemonium in the parks. All you have to do is watch the Fightin’s and the BrewCrew to see what’s happening. Both teams, picked to finish near or at the top of their divisions before the season began, struggled to find their bearings throughout the summer. But now when the window is closing fast, both Philadelphia and Milwaukee are putting together winning streaks that are defying the odds.

As of this morning, both teams are closing in. The Phillies are only one game behind in the loss column and the Brewers two games behind because the Dodgers pulled off another great 9th inning rally to beat St. Louis and tie the Cardinals for the wild card spot. That leads us all to the next question: if you tie for the Wild Card at the end of the season, do you have a one game playoff? And, where would that game be played? How is it determined? Let’s not forget the D’Backs. There are only 4 games out in the loss column.

Wild Card fever is not only limited to the National League. In the American League, there is an insane rush  for the playoffs going on as well. The Amazing A’s not only are in the driver’s seat for the Wild Card spot, they are only 2 1/2 games behind the mighty Texas Rangers for the top spot in the AL West. Baltimore, behind their Manager of the Year candidate, Buck Showalter, are three games ahead of the payroll laden Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the unbelievable Tampa Bay Rays and the powerful Detroit Tigers. For everyone who wants a final half month of the season to be up for grabs, you’ve got it this year.

The Angels are another interesting story in all of this. With a payroll that is bigger than most, along with an amazing AL Rookie of the Year candidate in Mike Trout, they continue to stumble when they need it the most. The latest Scioscia Slip occurred last night in Kansas City where former Royal’s Cy Young Award winner, Zach Greinke, the former Brewer earlier in the season, took the mound and was Greinkesque. He masterfully shut out his former team for 8 innings. Then Scioscia, as only he can do, decided to let him go  back out to the mound for he 9th. With the pitch count running into the low 100s, Greinke had not finished  a complete game in years. But if Big Mike wills it, it will happen.

Or not.

Greinke got the first two out before he gave up a single into left. Now Mike the Merciless jumped out of the dugout and immediately called for a reliever who promptly gave up a game tying home run and then the winning home run, back-to-back. If you could have seen Greinke’s face in the dugout when Billy Butler slammed the game tying home run, you would have been whisked back to an earlier few days in the season when he had the same experiences while a member of the Milwaukee Brewers. Deja Vu all over again.

How quickly we come full circle back to Pigsville’s favorite ball park. Last night the Crew unloaded against the Mets only to see Scoscia’s disciple, Ron Roenicke bring in Axford in the ninth inning with a big lead. Axford promptly made the game interesting as he gave up his usual runs in the 9th. But unlike what happened in KC or in Dodger Stadium, the game at Miller Park ended with no more runs scoring.

We’re in for a great final few weeks in September. As Jim Murray said, “The charm of baseball is that as  dull as it may be on the field, it is endlessly fascinating as a rehash.”

Play Ball!