Before the 2015 season started, the general consensus was that the American League West division title was going to be fought over mainly between a revitalized Seattle Mariners team and the Bellflower Angels, who might have had the best team in baseball in 2014. The Houston Astros were considered the dark horse as they had stockpiled prospects all around the diamond, especially pitchers, but it was safe to say that they were at least a year away from real contention. No one expected much from the Texas Rangers, who had been decimated by injuries the previous season. The Oakland Athletics were not recognizable as Billy Beane channeled Frank Lane, apparently just because he could.

Houston surprised many of us by leading the division most of the way despite their youth and propensity for swinging and missing. The Angels’ pitching did not nearly match the strong performance of 2014 but they stayed in contention in a division where just a tad above mediocre was going to be enough. Texas won it on the last day as Cole Hamels won his seventh game for the Rangers after his trading deadline acquisition from Philadelphia. Therefore, since Texas would have Yu Darvish back for 2016, they have become the  odds on favorite to repeat, right? I’m not so sure.

The Angels have Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Kole Calhoun, and C.J. Cron, so they are going to score a lot of runs. They have Andrelton Simmons at shortstop now, so their good defense is now slightly better, and if young catcher Carlos Perez plays well over a full season they have an upgrade there. But C.J. Wilson and Jared Weaver do not appear to be the pitchers they once were, although young lefty Andrew Heaney looks good. Huston Street and Joe Smith do not look as good as they once did either, so that a once deep bullpen is sagging a bit. I’ll be surprised if Azusa finishes higher than third.

Oakland has strengthened its lineup but the pitching will relegate them to another last place finish unless they get off to a hot start and acquire two more Sonny Gray types.

The Rangers are pretty solid, especially on the mound, and if Rougned Odor continues to develop and improves defensively they will be strong up the middle. Designated sitter Prince Fielder, Adrian Beltre and new left fielder Ian Desmond give them some pop along with the strikeout prone young Joey Gallo so we won’t write them off.

Seattle is neither as good as we thought they were nor as bad as they seemed to be last season but this time it would be a surprise if they put together a real consistent threat. Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz, and Felix Hernandez keep them interesting, but trying to hit well in their yard seems to wear on people.

The Astos look like the real thing now because guys like George Springer and the shortstop Carlos Correa will probably only get better and the pitching staff has become perhaps the strongest in baseball. Carlos Gomez will be a key element. So I say they will prevail.

Rich “Goose” Gossage was a mean, tough pitcher for 17 seasons in the major leagues with a commanding, intimidating presence. He pitched for several teams during his great career, most notably for the Yankees in the Bronx zoo era of the late 70s and early 80s. He was the guy who enabled the reptilian George Steinbrenner to rid himself of another great relief pitcher, lefty Sparky Lyle, who talked, and wrote,too much to please the Boss, and I don’t mean Bruce Springsteen.
In 1976, Gossage was mostly a starting pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, completing 15 of his 29 starts while winning 9 games and losing 17 with a 3.94 earned run average in 224 innings of work. The next season the Goose became a bullpen specialist for Chuck Tanner‘s Pittsburgh Pirates and he was spectacular. He finished 55 games with 26 saves with a 1.62 ERA in 133 innings. That innings total would make about three seasons’ worth for “closers” nowadays but Gossage gave Tanner and the Pirates up to three innings per appearance and combined with the relief work of Kent Tekulve to get the Pirates very close to the Eastern Division crown won by the Philadelphia Phillies. Pittsburgh needed that because, other than John Candelaria and Jim Rooker, their starters were not among the best.
Steinbrenner opened up his saddlebags full of cash and signed Gossage for 1978 and Gossage did not disappoint the Lyin’ King. He just about duplicated the previous season by again pitching often and well, notching 134 and one third innings with 55 finished games, 27 saves, and a 2.01 earned run average.
That’s the sort of player he was and he continued for quite a good long while.
Now, the Goose has grabbed headlines again without touching a ball. He’s done it the way it’s most often done these days—with his mouth. Apparently his profanity laced diatribe on ESPN contained damning statements about “celebrating” on the field, pointing in particular to the Blue Jays’ Jose Bautista‘s bat flip during the playoffs as an example of what players in his day did not approve of or engage in very often.
Before getting into whether or not Gossage’s old school rant was justified, let’s pick a bone about what constitutes journalism in 2016. I wonder sometimes if it is even being taught the way some of us once learned it, and I am more than certain that it is not being learned. Click bait is just another form of old yeller in journalism that, while not admirable, has its roots in the fact that if nothing sells no one gets paid. What bugs me more is that I was taught that what a person does should hold substantially more weight than what a person says. That’s an important thing, in my opinion, in journalism as well as the rest of life. What that means, for instance, is that when an apparently drunk driver loses control of his vehicle and smashes into a tree it is not really necessary to interview his neighbors about whether or not he is a nice person who pays his rent on time. It is also not necessary to interview the tree. Yet, to an ever increasing degree, that is what we get. Headlines are created more and more by quotes and less and less by events. That is, in part, how we came to the time when an amoral asshole like Donald Trump dominates news space and time. As Spencer Crump, my old instructor, would say, “That ain’t news.”
Now back to the “celebrating” by Bautista et al. What the Toronto outfielder did, in the context of where and when he did it, was okay in my book. There is a big difference between genuine joy at accomplishing something important like winning a World Series or a pennant and “showing up” your opponent with some mean display such as finger pointing and other gestures only fit for Republican presidential candidates. Celebrating smaller accomplishments is only natural and is okay as well. I don’t think we need Miss Manners on the sidelines telling the players what is cool and what is not but, on the other hand…some displays are a bit much. In the NBA, at least back when I used to watch games, it became an embarrassment to see players getting patted on the butt and high fives all around after a missed free throw. Maybe they were just encouraging him to perhaps make the next one. The first cooler full of overrated sugar water to get poured over the coach’s head by surprise was kind of funny. Every one since then has been lame. All of the convoluted dance routines that have ever been performed by touchdown scorers have been lame. That is especially so when it makes the score 52-7. In baseball, sometimes we see little hand signals from one teammate to another or to the dugout. That’s a bonding thing, absolutely cool. The pointing to the sky thing rather baffles me but harms no one.
The whole thing about “showmanship” and entertainment began in the early days of Monday Night Football while Howard Cosell was committing weekly sins of omission as extra cameras began to focus more and more on the boasters and the jerks. Now, it is important to remember that TV runs the whole mess. It’s not like the old days, Goose. Every inning of every game is on the tube or online. These players are exposed for good or bad on a daily basis. The cameras are in the dugout and the clubhouse and they are always on. How would you like to have all of your workdays on tape? And these players have grown up with that fact and no other way of seeing things. So we can cut them some slack no matter how much more money they make than we do. Just like we did when you and Reggie and Billy and Graig were “entertaining”.

When Salvador Perez popped out to Pablo Sandoval to end the 2014 World Series, the Kansas City Royals left the tying run at third base and the San Francisco Giants won their third championship in five years. That was a tough moment for Perez and the Royals, but without question that moment could not have existed without the stellar performance from the Royals’ catcher all season long. Last season,the St. Louis Cardinals won 100 games to win the National League Central Division, but with Yadier Molina trying to play through a torn ligament in his right thumb they faltered in the playoffs against the Chicago Cubs. Meanwhile those Giants, with Buster Posey limited to 106 games catching while also covering for often injured Brandon Belt at first base, missed the playoffs altogether. This time the Royals, with Perez behind the plate for 139 games, won it all.
The fact that these three teams have been able to contend and excel over the past few seasons has been, in my opinion, in large part due to those three towers of strength at the catching position.
Perez, Posey, and Molina are all excellent defensive catchers. Last season Molina was once again strong offensively as well, batting .270 with 61 RBI. He doesn’t walk much but he also doesn’t strike out a lot. Plus, he is a threat to steal the occasional base despite possessing what we call “Molina speed” in honor of his brothers Benjie and Jose as well as himself. Posey hit .318 in 2015 along with 19 home runs and 95 RBI and a .379 on base percentage. Those numbers may have been helped by his not having to squat so much. Perez batted .260 with 21 home runs and 70 RBI, very good for a slow catcher in a tough home ballpark for hitters. He wasn’t perfect, as his 13 walks (4 intentional) qualify Perez as a free swinger with a low .280 on base percentage.
Sabermetrics cough up an astounding mass of statistical information, most notably Wins Against Replacement with the suitable American acronym of WAR. We now can tell you the average velocity at which spit sunflower seed shells travel before hitting the ground adjusted for ballpark and weather conditions. There are still some things, however, that are very difficult to quantify. With team sports, every player is presumably trying her best to accomplish the goal of winning the game. Being skillful will always be the most important asset in achieving that goal. In times of crisis, though, each player has his own way of responding. It is at these moments of tension that a player who remains calm, assured, and relaxed is able to keep the rest of the team confident that the storm can be weathered successfully. In baseball, it usually falls to the shortstop, the center fielder, or the catcher to fill this role. That’s because the center fielder is the captain of the outfield, taking charge and reminding his cohorts in right and left of their responsibilities as well as cheerfully fulfilling his own. The shortstop should be the captain of the infield. These are the places where most plays are made. The catcher, ideally, is the captain of the whole team. He can be the one to direct all other players as to positioning, communicate with the pitcher especially as to pitch selection and location, and be a coach on the field and a buffer between the manager and that screwball left hander on the mound.
Their coaches and teammates agree that Molina, Perez, and Posey all perform this duty very well. In the past, we have seen catchers such as Gary Carter, Johnny Bench, and Yogi Berra glue winning teams together. In general, there are and have been catchers who can hit but aren’t so good behind the plate, and excellent defensive catchers who don’t hit so well on average teams that try to get by that way. When catchers are good at both hitting and defense, that’s a big plus. When they combine those skills with Darren Daulton type leadership, as Posey, Perez and Molina do, you get teams that win lots and lots of games.

Professional sports in America have never before been as lucrative and expensive as they are today. Piles of money are being made by the owners, the athletes, and the media that cover them. At the same time, as with all commodities in our capitalist system, the prices paid by consumers have risen higher and higher while the prices paid to keep the performers fit and the insurance premiums paid have likewise increased. Gladiators who are broken in the process now have the advantage of attaining a measure of financial security that in times past, when the big money was not there, was denied.

Young people have always been willing to sacrifice their bodies and perhaps their souls as well when they believe that the opportunity to raise their fortunes exists. Kenny Stabler, the free spirited quarterback who starred for the University of Alabama and the the Oakland Raiders in the glory days before that organization fell to shit, died from colon cancer last July. Stabler’s family donated his brain to science, and it is now revealed that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease believed caused by repeated blows to the head. Those of us who have played organized football are acutely aware of what pleased our coaches and the fans in the stands:big hits. If you are going to knock something or somebody down, no love taps,please. Hit that son of a bitch as hard as you can or else you will be the one going down. I know that there have been rule changes about using the helmet as a weapon. I know that the types of blocking and tackling that were once considered sportsmanlike even while dangerous have been modified by the rules even if not by spirit. I will also confess that I gave up on the NFL (National Felons League) and the rest of football several years ago and that I don’t give a rat’s ass who wins the Super Bowl or any other football game. I gave up football mostly in favor of soccer long before all this concussion stuff began to come out for other reasons. Kill the quarterback is not my idea of a fun pastime; when I played, I was fine with blocking and pretty good at it but tackling and hurting people did not interest me much, particularly after the big testosterone buildup era faded.

Boxing is another “sport” that does not interest me. I have admired individual boxers, especially Muhammad Ali, but it is a slave owners’ game that has the object of inflicting permanent damage to human beings in exchange for cash. Fuck that. Americans, and a lot of other people as well, apparently don’t have enough violence and bloodletting in their personal lives and need to experience it vicariously to satisfy the craving.

We cannot and should not expect to live without danger and pain and we should train to be as physically strong as we can be. We need also to be mentally and emotionally strong enough to avoid hurting each other just for fun or for money. Clayton Kershaw or Madison Bumgarner can buzz me at 90 miles per hour on the inside if they like just to keep me honest. That’s fair. And they had better be ready as well if Paul Goldschmidt rips one right back up the middle. When coaches and fans are screaming for linebackers and pass rushers to put somebody out of action, however, that is a different repulsive thing.

Mike Trout and Bryce Harper will get more ink, air time, and social media following than any other major league players again this coming season, and not just because they are young white guys in a sports world that once was dominated by white guys but now sees them as an endangered species. It will also be because they are very good at playing baseball.
Those of us who would have to hit the lottery to be able to afford tickets to major sporting events but aren’t stupid enough to buy lottery tickets have to be content to enjoy our games on television or radio. Therefore, rather than sit among cell phone cradling, mostly overweight “fans” who are stuffing their faces with highly overpriced fatty and sugary snacks and pleading for stray baseballs, we are forced to endure the constant chatter from play-by-play announcers and their sidekicks in the booths, which all now have corporate names. It is especially prevalent on national broadcasts while some of us,particularly in the San Francisco area where we can enjoy Jon Miller, Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper, are more fortunate than others. Here are some things we are absolutely guaranteed to be hearing again this season: 1)VELOCITY. In the days before radar guns, when all we had were slide rules, compasses, and our eyes and ears, there were pitchers who were “fast”. They could “bring it”. They threw “aspirin tablets”. We didn’t know precisely what the miles per hour were but we knew that we’d be lucky to get a foul tip. Now the big deal is to hit 100mph on the gun to impress the scouts and elbow surgeons. So we’ll be hearing about how some poor bastard used to average 96-98 but now it’s more like 89-92 and maybe he’ll have to learn how to pitch with all that that entails.
2)THE DESIGNATED HITTER. Already there is talk from chowderheads wanting to make both leagues uniform about the 43 year old rule that looked good at first but is so boring now. I’m all for uniformity if we can have it where pitchers hit in both leagues. The controversy, however, seems a bit manufactured so, instead of endless speculation, maybe we can just give it a rest. With the crowded booths at ESPN and Fox, someone is certain to bring it up while interviewing a player or manager as we all miss some action on the field.
3)BUYING AND SELLING. “Gee, Luke, the Pirates have lost their first five games.No doubt they’ll be thinking about dumping Marte and Cole by the trading deadline.” We used to hear old time players turned “color” men rhapsodize about the hit and run or how to properly execute the sacrifice bunt. In 2016, we’ll be hearing more about how much money will be freed to teams by dumping big contracts and how much so and so will be worth in his free agency year and all that other owner/manager bullshit. Please, people, there is a GAME being played here.
4)WORKING THE COUNT. Is Moneyball discredited yet? Look, if you’ve got no speed and all you can do is hit one over the wall every 21.5 at bats then, yeah, get yourself a walk and hope the next guy gets lucky. If your whole roster is filled with these John Jaha types then that might be your strategy,but don’t pretend you planned it that way because that is not very bright. I like the Dusty Baker approach: if it looks like something you can drive,rip. Not that walks are bad, especially compared to strikeouts, but let’s not make a religion out of it.
5)Finally,you and I will be certain to hear often that it takes “a certain mentality, etc.” to be a pitcher that pitches the ninth inning. The whole closer thing is so lame and tired. It takes guts to start a game too, and also to pitch out of trouble. Without courage, you might not get past American Legion ball.

Nevertheless, it’s 26 days until Spring Training starts and that, I guarantee you, is exciting.

Despite his ties to Tommy Lasorda, I wholeheartedly agree that Mike Piazza is most deserving of his selection to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  He was no Johnny Bench behind the plate, but his career was lengthy and stellar. Any slow footed catcher with a lifetime batting average of .308 has proven that he could hit the ball where they ain’t and damned hard at that. I am re-publishing this post from a year ago because it still, unfortunately, pertains.

What, however, about a guy who played seven more seasons than Piazza, played 590 more games, had an on base percentage 8 points higher, was a great defender and stole 791 more bases? Okay, that last part was not fair but of course I am talking about the great Tim Raines.

Many old timers seem to have gotten a rather easy pass to the Hall but it seems as though the voters have been a bit hardassed of late. Look, if Ty Cobb and some of those other varmints can be there, let’s not get too choosy on the character thing. I am okay with Peckerhead Rose being there (as a plaque, not in person) and , yeah, Barry Bonds and the despicable Roger Clemens too. It’s not as though they are trying to buy automatic rifles or something.

The accomplishments on the field are what matters most or else it’s a horseshit barn full of Dale Murphy types who never pissed off the writers.

Raines came close in the latest balloting and it pains me to read stuff like, “…he’s bound to make it next time” or “…it’s too bad he played at the same time as Rickey Henderson.” He’s qualified, okay, get him in there while he’s still walking. That comparison to Henderson bit is really lame. Maybe they shouldn’t have let Lou Gehrig in because he was concurrent with Babe Ruth.

Piazza’s slugging percentage lifetime was a stupendous .545 but Raines was no mere singles hitter as his .425 slugging percentage shows. He logged 713 extra base hits among his career total of 2,605, which is 478 more hits than big Mike. He tallied 134 outfield assists. The 808 stolen bases are almost enough alone to qualify Raines for the Hall. Joe Morgan had 689 steals and a lifetime average of .271. Raines  batted .294 for his 23 year career.

There is something wrong with a system that denies a guy with all of those hits and steals and 1,571 runs scored. I don’t think it’s racism; I think baseball still has a way to go on racism but that it doesn’t  discriminate on Hall of  Fame selections that way.  So, no excuse: let’s get it right next time, boys and girls.

With the commissioner of baseball’s decision not to reinstate Pete Rose comes a rather embarrassing conundrum: on one hand, the so called integrity of the game is upheld with the exclusion of admitted and habitual gamblers but, on the other hand, the very close association with DraftKings and Fan Duel and the like apparently continues. What Peckerhead did was dead wrong and he is rightfully paying the price with no evident remorse. Major League Baseball, however, is hypocritical to the extreme to join with organized gangs that are openly looting fans who are either naive or just too stupid to abstain. The hypocrisy here is comparable to the way everyone involved strained hard to look the other way during the steroid era when team earned run averages were in the fives.
I don’t mean to imply that betting by fans on individual player performances has the potential to affect wins and losses in the manner of the Black Sox scandal, but what it definitely has the potential for is the harm to fans financially while they dream of the big jackpot. It’s no different than playing the numbers. The trouble is, ever since the Mob got states involved in various lottery games and casinos sprouted all over the country, throwing your hard earned money away not only became legal (for the most part)but also acceptable, worthy behavior.
The biggest change in sports in the last 25 years or so is the amount of money involved. Television has had everything to do with that, with the result being that television now dictates most of the rules as far as scheduling and sponsorships. Therefore I would not expect that any TV executive who wants to remain employed will ever say no to any entity that wants to fork over a bunch of cash in exchange for air time. That’s why the DraftKings ads and logo were plastered all over our screens all last season. So what I suggest is that the commissioner maintain some consistency by dropping the ban on Pete Rose unless he orders the banishment from MLB of the gambling sites. Could that happen? In this age where not only is poker considered a sport but also people actually watch other people play it, I have serious doubts; it’s about as likely as a Republican presidential candidate telling the Koch brothers to ram their money up their asses.

Around the time that the new commissioner of Major League Baseball replaced the Chevy salesman, speculation arose as to whether or not he would consider rescinding the banishment of Pete Rose from baseball.  There has yet to be a decision announced on that matter, although the Fox network has already welcomed the slime into its large family of questionable characters and nearly qualified journalists. The inquiry prompted a review of Rose’s case on ESPN and, in somber terms, that network’s report concluded that what made it so difficult to forgive the former Cincinnati and Philadelphia horse’s ass was the fact that he had bet on games played by his team when he was its manager.

Remember when gambling wasn’t cool? The odd thing about the ESPN report was that, when it ended and they broke to commercials, an ad for DraftKings appeared. DraftKings came from out of nowhere this season to suddenly be everywhere your eyes could see, the official separator of fools from their money for MLB. Every screen you looked at, every fence behind every backstop bore their logo and seemingly every break between innings of every game featured that advertisement that bragged about how 300 million dollars were going to be “awarded” that summer—just pick your players and win, fool. Now I see that there are other players in this great scam and I also see that the attorney general of the state of New York calls it illegal gambling and wants to boot them out of that state. Of course, they have no doubt raked in enough money to fight whatever legal battles that may be on the horizon but folks, let’s tell it like it is—it’s gambling. If I pick my player, say Wilmer Flores, and he gets five doubles in six plate appearances, maybe I will win. So where do my winnings come from? Probably from all of those idiots who chose Mike Trout, who struck out all four at bats. However, I’ll “bet” that you need to pick more than one player What everyone knows who follows baseball is this:you have good days and bad days and, for just about everyone, bad days rule. The house always wins, or someone gets a broken back.

Picking a group of players to do well all on the same day is equivalent to what was called a “parlay” when I was a lad and my father and his friend John would often pick a two or three team group to win on a certain day. They made their choices, carefully considering the starting pitchers (always important, but even more so in the 50s before the bullpen got crowded with guys the manager could barely remember), the home ballpark, who was “hot”, etc. Still, nothing was automatic; there were days when Washington’s Chuck Stobbs was going to beat Whitey Ford, even at Yankee Stadium. If they “hit” a 3-teamer it was cold draft beer and a shot for everybody, but how often do you think that happened? Yeah.

Gambling was illegal just about everywhere in those days. That did not, of course, mean that it was not prevalent. The reasoning was that only the poorest fools would squander their earnings so recklessly and that their families, and society would suffer as a result, although I often thought that, as with so many other forbidden practices, the earning power for the racketeers ballooned as a result of the law. The other part though is that gamblers could seek to influence competition to insure the desired results for their shareholders. They tried and, as we know, sometimes succeeded. That’s why Rose was banned, along with the fact that even though a player or manager might be betting on his team to win, when he inevitably falls into debt to the bookies, things could change. Gambling is so very mainstream these days. We used to have Las Vegas and the rest of the state of Nevada; now it’s everywhere. Indian casinos, a bass ackward attempt at paying 2 or 3 per cent of the surviving members of the people who lived in the Americas before Europeans came to slaughter a large amount of money to exploit the rest of us, are ubiquitous. State lotteries, church bingo, whatever. Much of it is relatively harmless and helps raise funds for worthy causes. This Fan Duel and DraftKings stuff is not like that. It’s more like big business and easy money, just like online poker etc.

Major league baseball should not be endorsing it and you, brothers and sisters, should not participate. Unless, of course, you like being a loser.

Did it really matter that Matt Harvey won the argument about pitching the ninth inning? Well, his determination was admirable and the bullpen options were not very enticing by the time the fifth game of the 2015 World Series rolled around, so all it really proved was that his manager would vacillate in a crucial situation. Mets manager Terry Collins showed poor judgement more obviously earlier when Yoenes Cespedes was allowed to complete his at bat after fouling a pitch off his knee and proving that standing upright took as much energy as he had to use. To answer the question, though, no.
The Mets, it is true, had that game won with a Harvey masterpiece taking them to a 2-0 lead with three outs to go. If he comes out after the lead off walk, maybe. If Daniel Murphy isn’t the mediocre to bad infielder he has always been, maybe. However, were they then going to go to Kansas City and win two more games? It’s baseball, and anything can happen, but no, hell no.
We have seen many times how a strong pitching staff, which the New York Mets certainly have, can carry an otherwise ordinary team to great success. When the pitchers strike out a lot of the opposition batters, a relatively weak infield defense can be compensated for if not totally made irrelevant. The 1969 version of the Mets is a case in point. Also, in a short series at least, even the worst team can win or even sweep the series against the very best team. I don’t know whether or not the 1954 Philadelphia A’s swept or even won any series against the Yankees or Indians, teams that combined for 214 wins, that season but it could have happened. In baseball, however, it is over the long haul of an entire regular season that cream rises to the top. So it was for the Royals this season despite the parity that now seems to exist throughout the major leagues. Every team has holes, but Kansas City had the fewest.
The Royals team of 1985 was somewhat similar, with outstanding defense and strong pitching led by Bret Saberhagen and Dan Quisenberry. In October, although I guess I should now say November, that is what usually gets it done.
One of the nasty things about the culture that we live in now is that winning means so much while contending but finishing second or third is considered failure by so many otherwise friendly people. I want to give credit to all eight playoff teams (admittedly enough for an entire league not so long ago) for providing us with a mostly entertaining (despite Fox television) postseason in 2015.
Now it time to count the days until everyone reports to spring training. The pundits are already going on and on about free agent signings, money for contracts, and all that other business page bullshit. Others turn to football or basketball for sports fixes, or even hockey, but, finding no solace or stimulation there, I will continue posting about the game I love throughout the winter. No money stuff though.

What did you think, the Mets were chopped liver? Come on! This is New York, buddy. Those starting pitchers are all Tom Seaver. At least for a few innings. And David Wright, you thought he was done,dinja? We’ll show those cowtown fakers who’s real.

We have seen many games delayed by inclement weather and a few by fights or near riots, but now, for the first time, we have seen a game delayed because Fox lost power, which probably means electricity. It’s a good thing that they start the games so early in the day. I figure it was either the Islamic state or LGBT people pissed off at Daniel Murphy. We were spared Joe Buck for a while.
You have to love the way that the Kansas City fellows play the game. The only thing missing from their arsenal is East coast hype. The Mets, however, have many good weapons available, now including Juan Uribe. It’s difficult to understand why Juan Lagares isn’t in center field every game but Terry Collins usually appears to know what he’s doing. Curtis Granderson is playing the best ball of his life, Wright is an inspiration, and Yoenis Cespedes truly has transformed the lineup almost single handedly, but the final verdict may come down to the fact that the Royals’ bullpen is stronger and deeper.
Meanwhile, isn’t it gratifying to know that no game henceforth shall proceed without the sterling pronouncements of Buck, A-Rod,Peckerhead, and the ever pertinent Erin Andrews? I know, the official reason given was that they would be without the replay analysis so vital to today’s game. But isn’t that why God made carrier pigeons?