In early April, each of the 30 Major League Baseball teams had high hopes and expectations. Like the beginning of any season in any sport, the new year brought about a renewed sense of excitement. Even as I was anticipating the start of the Diamondbacks' season, I pushed aside the fact that my team had finished with the worst record in baseball in 2014. We had a lot of young talent ready to step in and make some noise, we had a new manager, and we had the best first baseman in the league. While the team certainly did progress in 2015, it was clear before the All-Star break that my team wasn't exactly championship caliber. It might have been disappointing, but in retrospect, I think the Diamondbacks did show quite a bit of improvement and in April of 2016, I will have those same championship aspirations, even though most people will probably find that laughable. However, sometimes laughable scenarios can turn out to be reality, and starting tomorrow night, we are going to see one of those times when fantasy becomes reality.
After the conclusion of the 2014 season, we were enamored with the progress that the Kansas City Royals had displayed, and we saw that hope of their organization had become reality, as they reached the World Series. While they lost to the San Francisco Giants, the Royals roster was littered with young and talented players, and it seemed as though the fans in Kansas City were only seeing the beginning of a stretch of great baseball. 2015 was no different, as the Royals motored from Opening Day into October, and now into the World Series. In an American League Central division full of mediocre competition, the Royals finished the regular season 12 games ahead of the second place Minnesota Twins, and their 95 wins earned them the top spot in the entire American League. So, if you told me in April that the Royals would be back in the World Series, I would not have been surprised to hear so. What would have shocked me though, is the team that they would be facing for baseball's biggest prize.
At the beginning of the season, I can't recall anyone saying that the National League East division race would even be close. The Washington Nationals had all the young and talented players, and they would run away and hide with the division crown easily in their grasp. Yet, a funny thing happened along the way, and it has become the new calling card of baseball over the past decade. The only thing to expect is the unexpected. The NL East saw a runaway winner, but the Nationals were on the wrong end of the race. The New York Mets, despite pretty much all preseason prognostications, took the NL East by storm, and they were actually the dominant team in the division. Bryce Harper had an MVP-caliber season for Washington, but the rest of the roster did not come close to meeting expectations, and because of that, the Mets will now be playing tomorrow night in their first World Series in 15 years.
Major League Baseball is in the midst of an unprecedented youth movement, the likes of which we have not seen before. Madison Bumgarner dominated the World Series last year, and he is only approaching the prime of his career. Guys like Harper, Mike Trout, and Giancarlo Stanton are outfielders who are not only household names right now, but will be household names for the next decade. In comparison, those guys are ancient compared to other youngsters who are only beginning to burst onto the Major League scene.
We saw the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros in the postseason for the first time in quite a while, and guys like Carlos Correa and Kris Bryant are already superstars despite being 21 and 23 years old, respectively. A youth movement is sweeping all across baseball, and the World Series will showcase that movement in full form. Last season, we learned names like Lorenzo Cain, Salvador Perez, Yordano Ventura, and Kelvin Herrera. This year, the league has been enthralled with the abundance of young pitching talent that the Mets have shown. Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, and Noah Syndergaard are all flame-throwing studs, and their talents will be on full display in the 2015 World Series. Add Steven Matz to the mix, and the Mets have so much young pitching talent that, at least in my opinion, it has made the increasingly harder to like Matt Harvey actually expendable (however that is another story for another day).
I cannot say that I know what will happen once the World Series gets underway tomorrow, but what I do know is that it will be filled with a whole lot of young and talented players who are only beginning to scratch the surface of their unbelievable levels of talent. The hot bats of Daniel Murphy, Yoenis Cespedes, Alcides Escobar, and Alex Rios will all be ready, but they will be met with a whole lot of young, flame-throwing arms. I won't predict what will happen over the course of the next (at most) seven games, because if I did, I know I would be wrong. What I can tell everyone though, is that the names we hear over the next week or so will be names that we will be hearing for many years to come, and Major League Baseball should be ecstatic that on its biggest stage, they will be able to showcase some of the best young talent it has to offer.
Daily Rangers Update: A win last night over Calgary now puts the Rangers at 6-2-2, which is good for the second best record in the Eastern Conference, behind the red hot Montreal Canadiens, who have started the season with nine wins in their first nine games. Through the first 10 games, the Rangers are off to a nice start. After a few days of rest, the Rangers will be at home to face a Toronto Maple Leafs team that has stumbled out of the gate with only one win in their first seven games.
Daily Giants Update: A win against Dallas, paired with an Eagles loss to Carolina, has put the Giants back atop the division with a record of 4-3. I will get into more detail tomorrow with a full recap of the NFL weekend, but there are plenty of ways to spin this game positively, as well as many ways to spin it negatively. The bottom line is, the team is in first place, and like Bill Parcells once said, "you are what your record is." Right now the Giants have the best record in the NFC East.
Monday, October 26, 2015
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
A disturbing recent trend in sports
Vices and addictions come in all different shapes and sizes, and they affect all different types of people in seemingly endless ways. They transcend lines of gender, race, social status, and any other sort of category that one may or may not fit into. I do not pretend to be an expert when it comes to this subject, but I do know that there are a whole lot of people fighting personal demons, and even if you may not see it in the way they live their everyday lives, those demons can often times end up being too much to overcome.
I write about sports, and this is the type of subject that usually does not come up unless things end up truly tragic. Sadly, we may be in the midst of one of those moments, but I hope that I am wrong. We have seen star athletes pass away far too early in various ways. Names like Pat Tillman, Junior Seau, Roberto Clemente, Ray Chapman, and Len Bias will always be remembered more for how they were lost and less for how great they all were in their own individual sports.
Only a few weeks ago, the sports world was shocked to learn that, on the eve of the playoffs, C.C. Sabathia announced that he was entering an alcohol rehabilitation center. The news itself was surprising enough, but the timing of it was what made it even more unbelievable. For Sabathia to make such an announcement the day before his team was about to fight to make the postseason demonstrated to me that he must have been in desperate need of help. On the surface, the public was unaware of any kind of problem Sabathia may have had, but for him to make such an announcement at that time means that we had no idea whatsoever the kinds of demons he was trying to battle.
Then, only a few days ago, The University of Southern California fired head coach Steve Sarkisian only one day after putting him on an indefinite leave of absence due to recurring problems with alcohol. Sarkisian had shown signs of his problem here and there, and in retrospect, it is easy to say that his addiction was being wrongly overlooked.
On the surface, it seemed like Sarkisian was leading a storied football program back towards the promised land. After finally seeming to overcome the sanctions levied upon the program thanks to the previous regime, USC had put together a few good recruiting classes, and it seemed as though Sarkisian was guiding the program back to a place that we have become so accustomed to seeing it. Just like Sabathia, it may have seemed as though everything was fine from afar, but after learning more about just exactly what was going on in Sarkisian's personal life, it is easy to see that what he was fighting had become too much to brush aside.
After these two instances, a bombshell dropped on the sports world yesterday, when it was learned that former NBA star Lamar Odom was found face down and unresponsive on the floor of a Nevada brothel, and had to be rushed to the hospital and to this point, is still unable to breathe on his own. According to reports, Odom had spent the past few days at the brothel, and had been using sexual performance drugs, at least one illicit drug (cocaine), and drinking alcohol as well. Being found face down and unresponsive on the floor clearly points to an overdose, and Odom is now fighting for his life in a hospital.
As Odom neared the end of his playing career, we started to see signs of drug and alcohol addiction, and it continued after his playing days ended, as he remained in the national spotlight because of his marriage to a member of the Kardashian family, and his presence on their television show. Odom and his wife eventually divorced, and he began to fade from the national spotlight. Clearly though, his addictions did not fade. In fact, they most likely worsened.
As a player, I remember Odom as a dominant collegiate player at Rhode Island, and I remember him as a key member of championship Los Angeles Lakers teams. He seemed like a nice guy, and I don't recall ever hearing any type of negative feelings towards him. However, this is the gift and the curse of being a star professional athlete. Sometimes, the athletes that we watch and idolize are just exactly who we think they are. Other times, we only see the good, and we never have any kind of clue about what might lie behind the curtain when an athlete steps off the field of play. We saw Len Bias as an unbelievable talent on the court. We saw Junior Seau as a Hall of Fame linebacker, we saw C.C. Sabathia as a proven pitching star, and we saw Lamar Odom as a very good NBA player. However, what recent weeks has taught me is that despite their athletic gifts, these guys are all just regular human beings at heart, and despite how we may idolize them, they are far from immune to the problems that any other person may be subject to.
As I said, I do not pretend to be an expert when it comes to a subject like this. I am just relaying my feelings to anyone out there who may take a few minutes out of their day to read this. I also know that millionaire athletes with addictions are surely not exactly sympathetic figures in the eyes of many people. There are millions of people out there that the public will never know about who are dealing with similar and far worse problems than these guys, but the point is that there are some things that no one is immune to, and recent weeks in the sports world have been a sad example of this fact.
I was deeply saddened when I heard about what happened to Odom, and I really hope that he can make it through this and some day come out on the other end fully recovered. Because no matter how much money you may have or how famous you may or may not be, it is never ok to have to see someone succumb to any kind of serious addiction. This isn't about just one man and just one moment in time. It is about an unseen world of personal demons that far too many people deal with. If even one person out there somewhere can learn from Odom's situation, then it is one less person that has to deal with such a personal burden. I hope that Lamar Odom is able to fight through these extremely saddening and depressing circumstances, and if that does happen, I'm sure it will make him feel better than any sort of acclaim he ever received on the basketball court.
Daily Rangers Update: The Rangers suffered their first loss against Winnipeg last night, losing 4-1 at home. Next up is a trip to Montreal to face the 4-0 Canadiens, in a matchup of teams that will both have expectations of playing deep into the postseason. Young Oscar Lindberg has gotten off to a great start, with four goals in the first four games, and if he can provide a spark like that moving forward, it will be a huge boost for the Rangers.
Daily Giants Update: With the next game coming on Monday night, the Giants will have an extra day of rest this week, and that could prove extremely helpful, as both Rueben Randle and Odell Beckham Jr. were injured last week. Beckham was able to return, but Randle was not. Hopefully an extra day off will be enough to get them both back on the field Monday night because without them, the receiving corps was in total shambles. Here is to a speedy recovery for both!
Daily Diamondbacks Update: Nothing new here from a team standpoint, as the offseason hasn't even really begun with the postseason now in full swing. Until the news starts coming in, I will use this section as a daily recap of the baseball still being played.
The Chicago Cubs (yes, the Chicago Cubs) have officially moved on to the NLCS after defeating the St. Louis Cardinals last night, and the Toronto Blue Jays won a thrilling game just only a few hours ago to advance to the ALCS for the first time since 1993. The Astros are currently up 2-0 in Kansas City in the final game of that series, and the Mets and Dodgers will play a decisive fifth game tomorrow night in Chavez Ravine. This entire season has only proven one thing, and that it to expect the unexpected. I would make predictions, but I would only make myself look bad, so instead I am just going to sit back and enjoy October baseball.
I write about sports, and this is the type of subject that usually does not come up unless things end up truly tragic. Sadly, we may be in the midst of one of those moments, but I hope that I am wrong. We have seen star athletes pass away far too early in various ways. Names like Pat Tillman, Junior Seau, Roberto Clemente, Ray Chapman, and Len Bias will always be remembered more for how they were lost and less for how great they all were in their own individual sports.
Only a few weeks ago, the sports world was shocked to learn that, on the eve of the playoffs, C.C. Sabathia announced that he was entering an alcohol rehabilitation center. The news itself was surprising enough, but the timing of it was what made it even more unbelievable. For Sabathia to make such an announcement the day before his team was about to fight to make the postseason demonstrated to me that he must have been in desperate need of help. On the surface, the public was unaware of any kind of problem Sabathia may have had, but for him to make such an announcement at that time means that we had no idea whatsoever the kinds of demons he was trying to battle.
Then, only a few days ago, The University of Southern California fired head coach Steve Sarkisian only one day after putting him on an indefinite leave of absence due to recurring problems with alcohol. Sarkisian had shown signs of his problem here and there, and in retrospect, it is easy to say that his addiction was being wrongly overlooked.
On the surface, it seemed like Sarkisian was leading a storied football program back towards the promised land. After finally seeming to overcome the sanctions levied upon the program thanks to the previous regime, USC had put together a few good recruiting classes, and it seemed as though Sarkisian was guiding the program back to a place that we have become so accustomed to seeing it. Just like Sabathia, it may have seemed as though everything was fine from afar, but after learning more about just exactly what was going on in Sarkisian's personal life, it is easy to see that what he was fighting had become too much to brush aside.
After these two instances, a bombshell dropped on the sports world yesterday, when it was learned that former NBA star Lamar Odom was found face down and unresponsive on the floor of a Nevada brothel, and had to be rushed to the hospital and to this point, is still unable to breathe on his own. According to reports, Odom had spent the past few days at the brothel, and had been using sexual performance drugs, at least one illicit drug (cocaine), and drinking alcohol as well. Being found face down and unresponsive on the floor clearly points to an overdose, and Odom is now fighting for his life in a hospital.
As Odom neared the end of his playing career, we started to see signs of drug and alcohol addiction, and it continued after his playing days ended, as he remained in the national spotlight because of his marriage to a member of the Kardashian family, and his presence on their television show. Odom and his wife eventually divorced, and he began to fade from the national spotlight. Clearly though, his addictions did not fade. In fact, they most likely worsened.
As a player, I remember Odom as a dominant collegiate player at Rhode Island, and I remember him as a key member of championship Los Angeles Lakers teams. He seemed like a nice guy, and I don't recall ever hearing any type of negative feelings towards him. However, this is the gift and the curse of being a star professional athlete. Sometimes, the athletes that we watch and idolize are just exactly who we think they are. Other times, we only see the good, and we never have any kind of clue about what might lie behind the curtain when an athlete steps off the field of play. We saw Len Bias as an unbelievable talent on the court. We saw Junior Seau as a Hall of Fame linebacker, we saw C.C. Sabathia as a proven pitching star, and we saw Lamar Odom as a very good NBA player. However, what recent weeks has taught me is that despite their athletic gifts, these guys are all just regular human beings at heart, and despite how we may idolize them, they are far from immune to the problems that any other person may be subject to.
As I said, I do not pretend to be an expert when it comes to a subject like this. I am just relaying my feelings to anyone out there who may take a few minutes out of their day to read this. I also know that millionaire athletes with addictions are surely not exactly sympathetic figures in the eyes of many people. There are millions of people out there that the public will never know about who are dealing with similar and far worse problems than these guys, but the point is that there are some things that no one is immune to, and recent weeks in the sports world have been a sad example of this fact.
I was deeply saddened when I heard about what happened to Odom, and I really hope that he can make it through this and some day come out on the other end fully recovered. Because no matter how much money you may have or how famous you may or may not be, it is never ok to have to see someone succumb to any kind of serious addiction. This isn't about just one man and just one moment in time. It is about an unseen world of personal demons that far too many people deal with. If even one person out there somewhere can learn from Odom's situation, then it is one less person that has to deal with such a personal burden. I hope that Lamar Odom is able to fight through these extremely saddening and depressing circumstances, and if that does happen, I'm sure it will make him feel better than any sort of acclaim he ever received on the basketball court.
Daily Rangers Update: The Rangers suffered their first loss against Winnipeg last night, losing 4-1 at home. Next up is a trip to Montreal to face the 4-0 Canadiens, in a matchup of teams that will both have expectations of playing deep into the postseason. Young Oscar Lindberg has gotten off to a great start, with four goals in the first four games, and if he can provide a spark like that moving forward, it will be a huge boost for the Rangers.
Daily Giants Update: With the next game coming on Monday night, the Giants will have an extra day of rest this week, and that could prove extremely helpful, as both Rueben Randle and Odell Beckham Jr. were injured last week. Beckham was able to return, but Randle was not. Hopefully an extra day off will be enough to get them both back on the field Monday night because without them, the receiving corps was in total shambles. Here is to a speedy recovery for both!
Daily Diamondbacks Update: Nothing new here from a team standpoint, as the offseason hasn't even really begun with the postseason now in full swing. Until the news starts coming in, I will use this section as a daily recap of the baseball still being played.
The Chicago Cubs (yes, the Chicago Cubs) have officially moved on to the NLCS after defeating the St. Louis Cardinals last night, and the Toronto Blue Jays won a thrilling game just only a few hours ago to advance to the ALCS for the first time since 1993. The Astros are currently up 2-0 in Kansas City in the final game of that series, and the Mets and Dodgers will play a decisive fifth game tomorrow night in Chavez Ravine. This entire season has only proven one thing, and that it to expect the unexpected. I would make predictions, but I would only make myself look bad, so instead I am just going to sit back and enjoy October baseball.
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Dear Major League Baseball: This is your chance, now go and take it!
Even though baseball will still always be referred to as "America's Pastime," anyone with any kind of sense of reality knows that in 2015, that is simply not the case. If you don't believe me, I have the data to prove it, and the data is overwhelmingly convincing.
October is what baseball purists love. Parity has (for the most part) started to seep through baseball, and we have seen all kinds of new faces and teams play into October. While we are used to seeing the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees, and San Francisco Giants in the playoffs, the rest of the field has been filled with all sorts of newcomers in recent years, and 2015 is no different. Who would have ever thought in April that we would see the Cubs, Astros, Mets, and Blue Jays all in the postseason in the same year? Nobody. And at the same time, the Kansas City Royals entered the postseason as a team with World Series experience and expectations to be back right there again. 2015 has seen a youth explosion in Major League Baseball, and this is the stage for that youth movement to take full stage on a national level. The only problem is, that isn't happening.
Yesterday was an amazingly great day of baseball. All of the eight remaining teams played, and we were treated to some unbelievable games. The Blue Jays staved off elimination against the Rangers, and that series is going to a decisive fifth game in Toronto in a series which has seen the road team win every game. The Royals climbed off of their death bed in Houston with an amazing rally to force a decisive fifth game back in Kansas City, and they now have the momentum in a series that the Astros were six outs away from winning.
In the National League, we saw Jake Arrieta, in the midst of one of the greatest stretches of individual pitching in baseball history, face off against Michael Wacha in what would seemingly be a pitchers' duel at Wrigley Field, and the ball was flying all over the ballpark as the Cubs have now given themselves a chance to move to the NLCS with a win in Game Four at home tonight. Then to finish the day off, the Mets continued their improbable run, and they too have a chance to reach the NLCS with a win at home tonight. It was a great day for baseball. But then, Monday Night Football happened, and reality sunk back in.
The Pittsburgh Steelers took on the San Diego Chargers last night. While those are two intriguing teams in many ways, Pittsburgh vs San Diego isn't exactly the prototypical primetime, edge of your seat type of matchup, even though the game did have a thrilling finish (as well as a serious game clock issue that no one is talking about). The two National League games drew an average rating of 3.5 nationwide, with the ratings obviously being higher in Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and Los Angeles. The Monday Night Football game drew an 8.5 national TV rating. So, not only is the nation more interested in a Week 5 matchup of not so epic proportions than primetime playoff baseball, but the race isn't even close. Why is this happening? There are so many good things going on in baseball right now, but it still just cannot come close to touching the NFL. I don't know if I have all of the answers as to why this is, but spending my morning off watching sports television certainly gave me some insight as to what the problem is that Major League Baseball continually fails to address.
Think of all of the young talent that is now shining on baseball's biggest stage. The Cubs have a seemingly endless supply of young, powerful, and exciting position players. The Mets have an embarrassment of young pitching depth. The Astros have an entire roster full of kids who seemingly could still attend a high school prom and not stand out as a bit too old to be there. The Royals have a team full of young stars, and they are actually a seasoned group of experienced veterans in comparison to these other teams. Major League Baseball should be taking this opportunity to showcase its youth and vitality and running with it, but that just is not happening. It is no fault of the players, as they are most certainly doing their part. The fault lies right at the feet of the commissioner, the owners, and the executives in the MLB offices.
When Rob Manfred took over as MLB Commissioner, he had an opportunity to put his stamp on the game of baseball. I don't mean adding instant replay or adding interviews with managers in the dugouts during games. I mean that he had (and still does have) a chance to market the game like it needs to be marketed. As I watched TV for a few hours this morning, I saw Andrew Luck in a commercial for DirecTV. I saw Peyton and Eli Manning. I saw J.J. Watt. I even saw Richard Sherman and Cam Newton marketing beef jerky and yogurt. Beef jerky and yogurt! Take a moment to think about that. These NFL players aren't marketing rough and tough products, they are doing ads for beef jerky and yogurt. In that same span of time, do you know how many baseball players I saw in those dozens and dozens of commercials? The answer is zero, and this is what MLB somehow just doesn't seem to understand.
The list of young and budding superstars in the MLB postseason right now seemingly reads like an encyclopedia. Carlos Correa, Kris Bryant, Jacod deGrom, Addison Russell, Lorenzo Cain. Kevin Pillar is a human highlight film in center field for Toronto. Noah Syndergaard and Matt Harvey are absolutely dominant young arms for the Mets. Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez are elite talents in Kansas City. And then there are dozens of players who aren't even playing in October who have seemingly endless amounts of talent and are only entering the prime of their careers. Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen, Giancarlo Stanton, Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, the list goes on and on. Yet, if you asked a casual sports fan to pick these guys out of a lineup of faces, most of them would have a tough time doing so. Ask someone who knows nothing about sports who Peyton or Eli Manning are. They are those guys who have hosted Saturday Night Live. Aaron Rodgers is the Discount Double Check guy. Tom Brady is the guy married to the supermodel. NFL stars are not only great players on the field, but they are known nationwide. Major League Baseball just doesn't seem to realize that in order for their postseason games to be more appealing nationwide than a matchup of middle-of-the-pack NFL teams, it has to do a far better job of marketing these guys than they do now. NFL players spend their Sundays covered in helmets and facemasks and they are still more recognizable than MLB players who are in plain sight for nine innings! Come on, MLB, what are you doing?!?!
What yesterday showed us was that baseball has become relegated to a regional sport. People in Wrigleyville and Dodgerstown might be interested in baseball right now, but if not for their Cubs and Dodgers making the playoffs, they wouldn't watch any baseball until 2016. As a native of Brooklyn, New York, I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt, that without the Mets, everyone in the five boroughs of New York City would be 100% focused on the Jets and Giants, and would have no impetus whatsoever to watch the MLB postseason, and as I look at the NFL primetime schedule for next week, it is going to be more of the same. On Sunday night, the Patriots go to Indianapolis to play the Colts, and I will be watching that game without question unless something unbelievable happens in whatever MLB game might be going on. Either way, I will be watching football, and maybe, occasionally, switching to baseball. Then, on Monday night, the Giants will be in Philadelphia, and the chances of me ever switching channels while that game is on is even less than the chances of a snowball surviving in hell.
I really like baseball, and when I watch my team, I am hanging on every pitch. When I watch anyone else though, baseball just seems to sort of be background noise, and based on what cable ratings say, I seem to be in the vast majority. When I watch my football team, I am hanging on every snap. When I watch any other team, the game is still front and center, and I don't see that changing anytime in the near future, unless Major League Baseball can make these young stars recognizable not only on the field, but off the field as well. The last time Major League Baseball was truly on the top of the charts on a nationwide scale was when the sport was dominated by athletes pumping all kinds of performance enhancing drugs into their bodies. The substances may have been legal at the time, but the entire steroid era has really skewed the baseball record books, and looking back on the time with 20/20 vision, it seriously hurt the history and tradition of a game that I love.
So, to conclude this far too long diatribe, I just want to try to get my point across that the players are doing their job. It is the MLB executives who are failing them miserably. If they could market their stars to a national audience, it would mean more money for everyone. Why they don't seem to realize this fact is beyond me, but until it changes, Major League Baseball will continue to be background noise in the national sports consciousness, and the NFL will dominate the sports world just like it has been doing for quite a while now.
Daily Giants Update: With a typical, New York Giants, teetering on the verge of defeat kind of comeback victory, we now sit alone atop a very mediocre NFC East. A win in Philadelphia this coming Monday would be huge, and with the Cowboys facing a dire situation due to injuries, the Giants need to take this opportunity and run with it. Anything less will be unacceptable.
Daily Rangers Update: It is only three games into the season, but the Rangers couldn't have started off better at 3-0. We get Winnipeg tonight, and as is the case now with every single game the Rangers play, I expect to win. It is all about the postseason now with this team though. I thought they had the best squad heading into the playoffs the past two seasons, and they failed to get it done. Excuse me for saying this so early, but this regular season really doesn't matter. It is Stanley Cup or bust. Nothing else matters.
Daily Diamondbacks Update: 2015 brought about a whole lot of positive things for Arizona. We actually have an embarrassment of riches in the outfield, and while we also don't exactly have two concrete starters in the middle infield, there are certainly a number of solid candidates. With #1 pick Dansby Swanson on the way as well, I think the future looks a heck of a lot better than finishing 2014 with the worst record in all of baseball. The pitching staff needs to be the main focus of the offseason, because Patrick Corbin may be a future top of the rotation fixture, but we really need to shore up the spots after him. It will be interesting to see what Dave Stewart and Tony LaRussa can do this offseason.
October is what baseball purists love. Parity has (for the most part) started to seep through baseball, and we have seen all kinds of new faces and teams play into October. While we are used to seeing the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees, and San Francisco Giants in the playoffs, the rest of the field has been filled with all sorts of newcomers in recent years, and 2015 is no different. Who would have ever thought in April that we would see the Cubs, Astros, Mets, and Blue Jays all in the postseason in the same year? Nobody. And at the same time, the Kansas City Royals entered the postseason as a team with World Series experience and expectations to be back right there again. 2015 has seen a youth explosion in Major League Baseball, and this is the stage for that youth movement to take full stage on a national level. The only problem is, that isn't happening.
Yesterday was an amazingly great day of baseball. All of the eight remaining teams played, and we were treated to some unbelievable games. The Blue Jays staved off elimination against the Rangers, and that series is going to a decisive fifth game in Toronto in a series which has seen the road team win every game. The Royals climbed off of their death bed in Houston with an amazing rally to force a decisive fifth game back in Kansas City, and they now have the momentum in a series that the Astros were six outs away from winning.
In the National League, we saw Jake Arrieta, in the midst of one of the greatest stretches of individual pitching in baseball history, face off against Michael Wacha in what would seemingly be a pitchers' duel at Wrigley Field, and the ball was flying all over the ballpark as the Cubs have now given themselves a chance to move to the NLCS with a win in Game Four at home tonight. Then to finish the day off, the Mets continued their improbable run, and they too have a chance to reach the NLCS with a win at home tonight. It was a great day for baseball. But then, Monday Night Football happened, and reality sunk back in.
The Pittsburgh Steelers took on the San Diego Chargers last night. While those are two intriguing teams in many ways, Pittsburgh vs San Diego isn't exactly the prototypical primetime, edge of your seat type of matchup, even though the game did have a thrilling finish (as well as a serious game clock issue that no one is talking about). The two National League games drew an average rating of 3.5 nationwide, with the ratings obviously being higher in Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and Los Angeles. The Monday Night Football game drew an 8.5 national TV rating. So, not only is the nation more interested in a Week 5 matchup of not so epic proportions than primetime playoff baseball, but the race isn't even close. Why is this happening? There are so many good things going on in baseball right now, but it still just cannot come close to touching the NFL. I don't know if I have all of the answers as to why this is, but spending my morning off watching sports television certainly gave me some insight as to what the problem is that Major League Baseball continually fails to address.
Think of all of the young talent that is now shining on baseball's biggest stage. The Cubs have a seemingly endless supply of young, powerful, and exciting position players. The Mets have an embarrassment of young pitching depth. The Astros have an entire roster full of kids who seemingly could still attend a high school prom and not stand out as a bit too old to be there. The Royals have a team full of young stars, and they are actually a seasoned group of experienced veterans in comparison to these other teams. Major League Baseball should be taking this opportunity to showcase its youth and vitality and running with it, but that just is not happening. It is no fault of the players, as they are most certainly doing their part. The fault lies right at the feet of the commissioner, the owners, and the executives in the MLB offices.
When Rob Manfred took over as MLB Commissioner, he had an opportunity to put his stamp on the game of baseball. I don't mean adding instant replay or adding interviews with managers in the dugouts during games. I mean that he had (and still does have) a chance to market the game like it needs to be marketed. As I watched TV for a few hours this morning, I saw Andrew Luck in a commercial for DirecTV. I saw Peyton and Eli Manning. I saw J.J. Watt. I even saw Richard Sherman and Cam Newton marketing beef jerky and yogurt. Beef jerky and yogurt! Take a moment to think about that. These NFL players aren't marketing rough and tough products, they are doing ads for beef jerky and yogurt. In that same span of time, do you know how many baseball players I saw in those dozens and dozens of commercials? The answer is zero, and this is what MLB somehow just doesn't seem to understand.
The list of young and budding superstars in the MLB postseason right now seemingly reads like an encyclopedia. Carlos Correa, Kris Bryant, Jacod deGrom, Addison Russell, Lorenzo Cain. Kevin Pillar is a human highlight film in center field for Toronto. Noah Syndergaard and Matt Harvey are absolutely dominant young arms for the Mets. Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez are elite talents in Kansas City. And then there are dozens of players who aren't even playing in October who have seemingly endless amounts of talent and are only entering the prime of their careers. Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen, Giancarlo Stanton, Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, the list goes on and on. Yet, if you asked a casual sports fan to pick these guys out of a lineup of faces, most of them would have a tough time doing so. Ask someone who knows nothing about sports who Peyton or Eli Manning are. They are those guys who have hosted Saturday Night Live. Aaron Rodgers is the Discount Double Check guy. Tom Brady is the guy married to the supermodel. NFL stars are not only great players on the field, but they are known nationwide. Major League Baseball just doesn't seem to realize that in order for their postseason games to be more appealing nationwide than a matchup of middle-of-the-pack NFL teams, it has to do a far better job of marketing these guys than they do now. NFL players spend their Sundays covered in helmets and facemasks and they are still more recognizable than MLB players who are in plain sight for nine innings! Come on, MLB, what are you doing?!?!
What yesterday showed us was that baseball has become relegated to a regional sport. People in Wrigleyville and Dodgerstown might be interested in baseball right now, but if not for their Cubs and Dodgers making the playoffs, they wouldn't watch any baseball until 2016. As a native of Brooklyn, New York, I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt, that without the Mets, everyone in the five boroughs of New York City would be 100% focused on the Jets and Giants, and would have no impetus whatsoever to watch the MLB postseason, and as I look at the NFL primetime schedule for next week, it is going to be more of the same. On Sunday night, the Patriots go to Indianapolis to play the Colts, and I will be watching that game without question unless something unbelievable happens in whatever MLB game might be going on. Either way, I will be watching football, and maybe, occasionally, switching to baseball. Then, on Monday night, the Giants will be in Philadelphia, and the chances of me ever switching channels while that game is on is even less than the chances of a snowball surviving in hell.
I really like baseball, and when I watch my team, I am hanging on every pitch. When I watch anyone else though, baseball just seems to sort of be background noise, and based on what cable ratings say, I seem to be in the vast majority. When I watch my football team, I am hanging on every snap. When I watch any other team, the game is still front and center, and I don't see that changing anytime in the near future, unless Major League Baseball can make these young stars recognizable not only on the field, but off the field as well. The last time Major League Baseball was truly on the top of the charts on a nationwide scale was when the sport was dominated by athletes pumping all kinds of performance enhancing drugs into their bodies. The substances may have been legal at the time, but the entire steroid era has really skewed the baseball record books, and looking back on the time with 20/20 vision, it seriously hurt the history and tradition of a game that I love.
So, to conclude this far too long diatribe, I just want to try to get my point across that the players are doing their job. It is the MLB executives who are failing them miserably. If they could market their stars to a national audience, it would mean more money for everyone. Why they don't seem to realize this fact is beyond me, but until it changes, Major League Baseball will continue to be background noise in the national sports consciousness, and the NFL will dominate the sports world just like it has been doing for quite a while now.
Daily Giants Update: With a typical, New York Giants, teetering on the verge of defeat kind of comeback victory, we now sit alone atop a very mediocre NFC East. A win in Philadelphia this coming Monday would be huge, and with the Cowboys facing a dire situation due to injuries, the Giants need to take this opportunity and run with it. Anything less will be unacceptable.
Daily Rangers Update: It is only three games into the season, but the Rangers couldn't have started off better at 3-0. We get Winnipeg tonight, and as is the case now with every single game the Rangers play, I expect to win. It is all about the postseason now with this team though. I thought they had the best squad heading into the playoffs the past two seasons, and they failed to get it done. Excuse me for saying this so early, but this regular season really doesn't matter. It is Stanley Cup or bust. Nothing else matters.
Daily Diamondbacks Update: 2015 brought about a whole lot of positive things for Arizona. We actually have an embarrassment of riches in the outfield, and while we also don't exactly have two concrete starters in the middle infield, there are certainly a number of solid candidates. With #1 pick Dansby Swanson on the way as well, I think the future looks a heck of a lot better than finishing 2014 with the worst record in all of baseball. The pitching staff needs to be the main focus of the offseason, because Patrick Corbin may be a future top of the rotation fixture, but we really need to shore up the spots after him. It will be interesting to see what Dave Stewart and Tony LaRussa can do this offseason.
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