HITTING THE HALLMARK

Mark McGwire’s former team, the St. Louis Cardinals, has recently hired him as their hitting coach. It’s part of that organization and their famous slugger’s plan to help “Big Mac” slink back into baseball’s good graces–culminating with his Hall of Fame induction in Cooperstown, New York.

Some of America’s best sports writers weighed in on “Big Mac” after his tearful interview with Bob Costas during which the former slugger confessed to using steroids.

Here is a sampling:

MIKE LUPICA – New York Daily News

You walked away feeling sorry for McGwire…because how could you not? You walked away hoping he does make the most of this second chance, in a country of second chances. But if he only took drugs to heal a wounded body, why has he been this tortured for this long?

Full article here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2010/01/12/2010-01-12_attempt_to_come_clean_covers_up_real_dirt.html?page=1

A brilliant question don’t you think? If Mark McGwire really believed what he did was for health and recovery reasons, why not bring it up during his congressional testimony? Steroids were not banned from baseball at the time and are legal, even now, under a doctor’s supervision. This would have been the course of action a self-respecting adult with qualities such as responsibility, character, and honesty would have taken.

Who is advising these athletes? Has to be image-makers and misguided friends. In fact, McGwire’s every move since his laughable testimony before Congress has been calculated in the same manner that you will see Tiger Woods do in mid-March as well as Barry Bonds after he finally cops to being the liar we all know he is–rebuild his “image”.

Here is Merriam Webster’s definition of that word: a reproduction or imitation of the form of a person or thing; especially: an imitation in solid form.

In other words, something fake.

BOB RAISSMAN – New York Daily News

Now, we are left to wonder about the circumstances surrounding McGwire’s drug use. Were their trainers or other people in baseball involved? Costas has a well-deserved reputation of being a fair and pointed interviewer. Yet, in this case, his alliance with the MLB Network and the fact he did not ask specific details concerning the particulars of McGwire’s drug use leave a bad perception.

Full Article here: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2010/01/12/2010-01-12_mac_show_a_cryin_shame.html

And there Mr. Raissman reveals another tarnished instance of the media’s complicity in the whole sordid steroids mess. Who were the main cheerleaders during the steroid-fueled home run race between McGwire and Sosa? ESPN and the other outlets airing baseball games. The same culprits conspired when the Great Pumpkin sprouted from Barry Bonds’s shoulders during his “pursuit” of McGwire’s “record”.

BERNIE MIKLASZ – St. Louis Post Dispatch

The one thing that bothers me (and others) is McGwire’s refusal to link steroids with enhanced power. I pressed him on it Monday, and he would not agree that there’s a connection. It was all about his health and recovering from injuries. He insisted his power numbers were valid; the added clout came through improved hitting mechanics.

From this we can reasonably reach the following conclusion:

Mark McGwire is clinically delusional.

Miklasz continues:

His best power seasons — in terms of homers per at-bat — occurred in a four-season sequence that began in 1996. This is also the time McGwire said he used steroids.

Full article here:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/columnists.nsf/berniemiklasz/story/3DE7C1EDD73389EC862576A90017C64E?OpenDocument

As we’ve noted in this space before, an athlete breaking a 40-year-old record in no way proves he/she is on steroids or HGH–which, by the way, is probably the most commonly used enhancer. But, breaking that 40-year-old record in proportions never seen in the sport or in the annals of human competition is absolute proof of cheating.

Miklasz ends an otherwise insightful column by unwittingly joining the effort to rebuild McGwire’s image with this question, (brackets mine):

But he, [McGwire], honestly does not believe it, [hitting power], is related [to steroids]. So what do we want from him? Should he lie and go against what he really believes to score points with the baseball writers?

No, Wimpy, we only want responsible journalists to ask tough probing questions. When interviewees obviously lie or deny reality, the questioner is obligated to confront his subject with facts–if they exist–that unequivocally prove he is a liar.

The facts say it took Roger Maris 30+ years to break Babe Ruth’s record by one–and he had eight more games in which to do it. Maris broke that record by 1.64%. Logic says thousands of bigger, stronger men–during an era the baseball lords were dying to inject (pun intended) more offense into the game by lowering the mound and producing livelier balls–failed to break Maris’s record.

Big Mac broke Maris’s record by 15%. Want some perspective? To break his 50.58 second Olympic record in the 100m butterfly and equal that 15% proportion, Michael Phelps would have to swim that same 100m in 43 seconds.

How fast do you think the IOC would be demanding blood from any swimmer who swam that time?

Fact: Phelps broke his 2004 Olympic record of 51.25 seibds by a smidgen over 1.3%

Fact: Prior to the four years Mr.Miklasz cites above, McCryer approached 50 homers only once, hitting 49 in 1986.

Here is McGwire’s quoted answer to Miklasz:

“There is no way that a pill or an injection will give you the hand-eye coordination you need to hit a baseball,” McGwire said. “There’s one thing that I know: I was born a home run hitter.”

Conclusion: Mark McGwire is clinically stupid.

Nobody in any medium ever intimated steroids or HGH has even a remote connection to hand-eye coordination–or that McGwire wasn’t as natural a home run hitter as there ever has been.

What McGwire and his cheatin’ heart won’t acknowledge is that 20-30 pounds of muscle mass enables natural power hitters to increase their output at least 50-70%, and often more. Low line drive singles or shallow fly-outs become gap shots. Long lazy fly balls to the warning track, ground rule doubles and line drives to the wall become home runs.

During the twelve years McGwire himself says he didn’t use steroids he averaged 28 homers a year. During the time he admits to PED use, he averaged 61.

Perhaps “delusional” and “stupid” are far too kind.

Apologies…I seldom resort to name-calling, but these “bitch-letes” make me puke. They think that they can hire a slick former media manipulator like Ari Fleischer, make a few phone calls, cry like a startled toddler on television and, BOOM, they are off the hook and back on their way to Cooperstown.

McGwire saying he used steroids only to “get healthy” and never to increase muscle mass–and ultimately hitting power–is like some old guy insisting he uses Viagra to lower blood pressure and has no idea why his wife has started walking around bowl-legged.

Make no mistake–it’s all about McGwire and his major league of liars trying to slither their way into baseball’s Mecca, the Hall of Fame.

If cheaters like Mark McGwire are voted in, Cooperstown will become baseball’s graveyard.

• August 5, 2009 -- Release the List! (4)
• July 19, 2009 -- A-Roid Strikes Again (3)
• May 15, 2009 -- Drugs, Sports and Society (1)
• February 22, 2009 -- VideoDeep: A-Roid No Surprise (0)
• February 18, 2009 -- Cinderella Story, Part 2… Who’s to Blame? (12)

Sports Disappointments, On and Off the Field

Sports, by their very nature, are filled with disappointment. To quote Highlander, “There can be only one.” In any given sport, in any given event, a single, solitary champion (okay, college football occasionally accepted, more on this later). That means for a vast percentage of athletes and a vast percentage of fans, each season (or event) ends in disappointment. He, she, they lost.

There are exceptions, to be sure. Sometimes the triumph of overcoming an injury or ailment actually to compete trumps any glory achieved in victory; such a win would only be the icing on top an already delicious cake. And there are degrees, too. Rightly or wrongly, it is far more disappointing to fail miserably when one is expected to do well than when one is not of when one is defeated by a performance of pure, unadulterated brilliance.

That having been said, the sports scene the last month has been particularly disappointing one for me on the sports scene, and just not for the omnipresent pain of defeat. These past few weeks have been filled with athletes, coaches and executives disappointing fans in a plethora of ways that have nothing to do with losses. These disappointments are nothing new, either, but the concentration and variety lately have been staggering. In no specific order:

• The Indianapolis Colts thumb their nose at history and refuse to make a run at an undefeated season.
• The much-anticipated Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight collapses. Pacquiao may have tainted himself by refusing Mayweather’s steroid testing demands, but Mayweather has a long reputation of trying to mess with his opponents’ heads. I’m not a huge boxing fan and I wanted to see that fight.
• The Bowl Championship Series continues its annual screwing of all college football fans by once again denying us the privilege of a playoff to crown a true national champion. The egregious flaws of the BCS system were underscored to a hitherto unseen degree by the fact that five teams entered the bowl season undefeated.
• Mark McGwire admits to taking performance-enhancing drugs. While it is good finally to hear the truth–albeit on a matter long suspected, if not outright believed–this is just another in a long list of disappointments stemming from Major League Baseball’s steroid scandal.
• Gilbert Arenas threatens a teammate with a gun in the locker room. Are you kidding me? How many things are wrong with this picture?
• The football coaching carousel hits new ridiculous levels, with Lane Kiffin jumping ship from Tennessee to USC after only one year and Brian Kelly ripping the soul out of the Cincinnati Bearcats’ perfect regular season by taking the Notre Dame job before the Sugar Bowl.
• NCAA violations by programs in numerous sports coming out the wazoo.

And that’s not to mention, stretching slightly further back in time, the whole Tiger Woods debacle… plus several others I am probably forgetting.

The one constant across every such disappointment is that it is sports fans who always lose.

It’s almost enough to make one stop loving sports. Pile these discouraging developments on top of the “typical” sports disappointments–which for me this winter season included TCU losing to Boise State, the Patriots fumbling their post-season away (literally and figuratively), and the Saints and legitimately losing their chance at perfection–and it has been a very discouraging Winter 2009-2010 indeed.

But in that parlance spoken at Wrigley Field for over a century, “There’s always next year.” The world of sports is a microcosm of society at large. No matter what happens, sooner or later, we move on. It’s why we keep on following, keep on rooting, despite everything else that happens.

I know I do.

• August 1, 2009 -- Top Ten American Sports Franchises (32)
• February 12, 2009 -- Who’s Next (0)
• October 29, 2008 -- Welcome to Deep Into Sports! (0)
• May 15, 2009 -- Drugs, Sports and Society (1)
• April 29, 2009 -- The Hate List: 4/29/09 – My Top Two Most Hated Sports Teams (11)

Memories and the Hawk

1969: Twins versus Tigers in Metropolitan Stadium, Bloomington, Minnesota. 4-1, Tigers win.

The Stonewall riots occur. The Woodstock music festival happens. Men land upon the Moon with Apollo 11. The Brady Bunch premieres.

As a boy growing up in small town Wisconsin, I was force-fed a diet of NFL football as the only acceptable sport by my father. I loved my father, mind you, but he didn’t much care about anything that wasn’t Minnesota Vikings football. It wasn’t that he didn’t try, but ultimately all he seemed to care about was football (without going into gory details, that might be true of his life, too…). The first baseball game that I attended was a Minnesota Twins game in 1969. I was 6 years old and we had driven to Minnesota specifically for the game. I was too young to understand much, but, after that game, baseball had a magical quality for me. Tony Oliva, right fielder for the Minnesota Twins, was my hero, and while I grew up with very little opportunity to watch baseball, I still considered it my favorite sport.

In 1977 Montreal Expos center fielder Andre Dawson won the Rookie of the Year award. His career was just beginning, and what a career it would be. He could throw with accuracy and velocity, he could field gracefully, he was fast and stole bases, he could hit for average and power, and he was a very good representative of the sport of baseball.

In 1978 my family moved from one small town to another in Wisconsin where my father took a similar position of work at a different company. The town was isolated, very rural and stood at the top of hill. I was fortunate enough to have my own room, finally at the age of 14, and, when I turned on the radio, I found out that 90% of the time I could hear the Minnesota Twins play. I was immediately hooked. I ordered Sporting News, bought all sorts of baseball cards, and rooted for the team I loved. But, there were also times during which I could not pick up the Twins game, and I was left with no choice but to scan the radio for other games. Strangely, perhaps, the best non-Twins and non-Milwaukee Brewers broadcasts was the French language coverage of the Montreal Expos from the beautiful province of Quebec, Canada. I didn’t altogether know what was going on, mind you, but I loved the play calling, the raw emotions, and every damn time Andre Dawson came up to bat or had an opportunity to field a ball was a moment on fire. The announcers would gush, scream even, and you could, for a moment or two, see what was going on, even without knowing, exactly, what was going on.

I collected all of Andre Dawson’s sports cards, and I thought about if only the Twins had such a player, instead of Willie Norwood, Mike Edwards, or various other forgotten outfielders. I read about Dawson’s games and followed his career. The rare times his team was on broadcast television I watched intently, and I tried, unsuccessfully, to petition my father to travel to a National League city to catch an Expos game. My father, remember, wasn’t a fan of baseball in general, and, frankly, didn’t like Canada at all. He thought I was insane. And perhaps I was or am, but it has nothing to do with why I wanted to go to Chicago or Saint Louis to catch an Expos game.

1987: I get engaged to my spouse Beth Wallace; we are still married today. Jim Bakker bangs Jessica Hahn. The Stock Market crashes on Black Monday. Twins win the World Series, Andre Dawson destroys the opposition as the MVP for the Chicago Cubs.

But my dad had hidden a secret from me that I didn’t find out about until Andre Dawson moved to the Chicago Cubs as a player. It turned out that as a young man he had lived in Chicago and had a love for the Chicago Cubs. We never had cable, and being stuck between the Brewers and Twins, he just couldn’t find the interest to follow games he had no fan stake in the outcome. In 1987 when I came home from university, I learned that he now had cable and made it a point to watch the Cubs, every chance he could. So we came to find out some things that summer. First, he was a Cubs fan, but not so much a baseball fan without the Cubs. Second, Andre Dawson gave him the best reason to watch baseball ever. After great seasons with Gold Gloves, RBIs, home runs and high batting averages, his days in Montreal had left his knees chewed up from playing as hard as he had upon an artificial surface. Some looked upon his arrival at Wrigley Field in Chicago as his being sent to pasture, a warrior having seen his best days finishing his career out. The grass would in fact help lengthen his career. His move to right field from his typical center field position additionally conserved his body. A single look at his first campaign in Chicago will tell you he was a man upon a mission. He hit the most home runs he had ever hit, drove in his most runs ever, and, as a force upon the field, was recognized with the Most Valuable Player award for the 1987 season.

After that pinnacle year he had a number of other good seasons for the Cubs. He was a great leader, and while his career ended in Florida and Boston, his fans will think of him first as that Rookie of the Year for Montreal and then the MVP for the Cubs.

In the steroid age of baseball numbers and achievements became distorted. For whatever reason, the statistical aspect of the sport has long dominated the perception of achievement and quality of play, and for 8 years voters of the Baseball Hall of Fame ignored Andre Dawson’s career. But upon the bright light of seeing how much the game had been juiced by steroids, the absolute excellence of Dawson’s career became clear. A true five tool athlete, Dawson rightly deserved election to the Hall, and I remain a fan of his.

• May 4, 2009 -- Wrigley Field Pilgrimage (0)
• January 14, 2009 -- Feeling Old (2)
• January 20, 2010 -- Mark McGwire’s Steroid Admission – MLB Baseball (0)
• December 24, 2009 -- Matt Holliday & Jason Bay to the Yankees & Red Sox? – MLB Baseball (0)
• November 18, 2009 -- Zack “Cy Young” Greinke (2)

Underbidding by the Big-Spenders?

There was a great article today on Yahoo! Sports today about baseball’s economics, specifically in regards to how the two most monied teams could actually end up signing the two premiere position players (Matt Holliday and Jason Bay) on the current free agent market at relative bargain prices.

Now I am the first to bemoan the imbalance between baseball’s haves and have-nots, even though my team, the Red Sox, is the second most financially well-off in the sport after the Yankees. The fiscal inequities are not good for the game, period.

As you may have noticed, I said relative bargain prices. Neither will come cheaply, to be sure. But compared to what Holliday and Bay may each offer their respective teams in terms of potential wins, they are currently available at a discount.

A lot of factors play into this situation beyond Boston and New York’s obvious financial strength, which is so sound that those two teams can buck an economy forcing even other big spenders to cut back. Premium position players are essentially a dime-a-dozen compared to their pitching counterparts, with new ones available in every free agent class. And since the Sox and Yanks have not shown great interest so far, other teams with offers on the table have not felt the competitive pressure they might otherwise to overspend (potentially) and lock Holliday and Bay in. The players have thus been willing to wait those teams out for more money–a tactic could eventually backfire. Even if their current suitors don’t eventually lose interest due to being spurned, if and when Boston and New York do make offers, they will be able to do so far below that which the players are hoping.

Holliday and Bay will then be forced to take what they can get… and both the Red Sox and Yankees provide a great chance to win a World Series, an opportunity with which few other clubs can compete.

Of course, this may have been the Boston’s strategy all along. As strong as the Red Sox are financially, the gap between them and the Bombers is still quite large. How the Sox have compensated for the Yankees’ largesse is by making shrewder business decisions (and developing from within–Boston has a loaded farm system). Where the Yankees simply spend, the Red Sox in general spend more wisely. This year they quickly seized up the premiere pitcher on the market, John Lackey, and now can afford to wait for Holliday and Bay to come down in price.

Unfortunately, most teams don’t have the money to spend, whether wisely or not. And that’s the problem baseball needs somehow to resolve.

• November 5, 2009 -- World Series Title $201 Million, Not Priceless (2)
• October 27, 2009 -- The 2009 World Series (0)
• October 12, 2009 -- Umpires (8)
• April 29, 2009 -- The Hate List: 4/29/09 – My Top Two Most Hated Sports Teams (11)
• January 20, 2010 -- Mark McGwire’s Steroid Admission – MLB Baseball (0)

Too often post-season awards (in all sports) are doled out to the best players on the best teams, regardless of whether those players were actually the best that year in the entirety of the game. This can be due to a false measure of personal success in relation to team success, an over-reliance on the wrong statistics for measuring a player’s performance relative to his peers, or just plain lack of coverage.

For baseball’s Cy Young award, the second situation often comes into play. Historically, wins have been heavily over-weighted in the minds of voters. The fact that a pitcher win total relies mightily on his team’s offense actually generating enough run support to garner the victory is frequently, and sadly, ignored.

Not this year. For Zack Greinke has won this year’s American League Cy Young Award.

Greinke went 16-8 with a stellar 2.16 ERA this year for the lowly Kansas City Royals. 16-8 is a good record, but not usually Cy Young caliber. His 2.16 ERA, however, was the best in all of Major League Baseball.

Put Greinke on all but about five other clubs in 2009–let alone a contender–and his win total would have been much higher. And on a playoff team… who knows?

I attended KC’s game against the Angels May 9th in Anaheim. Greinke gave up a single run in an eight-inning complete game, raising his ERA to a mere 0.51. He pitched absolutely brilliantly, but, because of a lack of offense, lost the game.

Fortunately, this year the voters looked past the number in the win column to the total package, and the right man received the honor.

• October 6, 2009 -- MLB Playoffs: League Division Series Predictions (0)
• May 13, 2009 -- Old School Baseball (0)
• January 20, 2010 -- Mark McGwire’s Steroid Admission – MLB Baseball (0)
• January 7, 2010 -- Andre Dawson Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame – MLB (2)
• December 24, 2009 -- Matt Holliday & Jason Bay to the Yankees & Red Sox? – MLB Baseball (0)

To put things into perspective, the Yankees $201 million payroll in 2009 was $52 million more than the next highest team (the Mets, $149 million). That difference is more than the entire payroll of three other teams: the Pirates ($49 million), the Padres ($44 million), and the Marlins ($37 million). Even currently exuberant Yankee fans, if the least bit rational, must admit that such a disparity is disgusting and detrimental to the game. If you don’t… wow. That would make you even more myopic than most sports fans.

That baseball desperately needs a salary cap to restore competitive balance has long been accepted by pretty much everybody other than the Major League Baseball Players Association. But the situation has sunk to a new low when fans everywhere considered the World Series championship to be “bought”.

• October 27, 2009 -- The 2009 World Series (0)
• December 24, 2009 -- Matt Holliday & Jason Bay to the Yankees & Red Sox? – MLB Baseball (0)
• October 12, 2009 -- Umpires (8)
• April 29, 2009 -- The Hate List: 4/29/09 – My Top Two Most Hated Sports Teams (11)
• April 8, 2009 -- Panic in the Bronx (or, The Soap Opera Continues) (2)

The Philadelphia Phillies versus New York Yankees. Two long-lived franchises with decidedly different histories. The Yankees, of course, have more titles than any other team in North American professional sports (26). The Phillies, on the other hand, have the most losses (10,167) of any franchise in American pro sports and were the last pre-expansion team to win a World Series, in 1980. They remained stuck at one until last year’s victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

All that is ancient history, of course. This is 2009.

I’ll admit it–I picked against the Phillies in both the League Division Series and the League Championship Series. In the LDS I thought Colorado, although not as talented as Philadelphia, would ride their hot hand into the next round. I was wrong. In the LCS I thought the Dodgers’ home field advantage and the shakiness of the Phils’ bullpen this year would do the home of the Phanatic in.

Wrong again. The LA bullpen imploded and Philadelphia’s was rock solid.

As for the Yankees… I had them over both the Twins and the Angels. Can’t say I liked to pick them–my heart was definitely against it–but the brain knew better.

I believe that Philadelphia, however, matches up with New York much better than either Minnesota or Los Angeles-Anaheim (whichever you want to consider the place the Angels call home). Better hitting, better starting pitching, and, now that the relief corps has solidified, a better bullpen than either of those two squads, and at a talent level comparable to the Bronx Bombers. Don’t get me wrong, the Yanks are strong–super strong–but the Phils aren’t that far behind. Although New York had the best record in baseball this year and has home field advantage in the Series, Philadelphia has the more recent experience (with mostly the same ball club) and took two out of three in the Big Apple during Interleague Play this year. And the Phillies offense should enjoy the homer-happy new Yankees Stadium just as much as the Bombers do.

So, while I do think the Yankees are better on paper, I’m not picking against the Phillies again. Just got a hunch it’s going to be a repeat for a club long deserving of one. Philadelphia in 6.

• November 5, 2009 -- World Series Title $201 Million, Not Priceless (2)
• December 24, 2009 -- Matt Holliday & Jason Bay to the Yankees & Red Sox? – MLB Baseball (0)
• October 15, 2009 -- The League Championship Series (4)
• October 12, 2009 -- Umpires (8)
• April 29, 2009 -- The Hate List: 4/29/09 – My Top Two Most Hated Sports Teams (11)

National League Championship Series

Philadelphia Phillies vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

It’s a rematch of the 2008 NLCS, only the third time in nearly twenty years that the Senior Circuit has seen the same two teams in back to back seasons.

My first glance analysis of this series bears striking resemblance to that of the Cardinals – Dodgers Division Series, with the Phils replacing the Cards. The Phillies have the better starting pitching, but closer Brad Lidge has been a shadow of the picture of perfection that hew was in 2008. That means I have to give the relief pitching edge to the Dodgers stellar pen. Both teams can hit; neither has a particular advantage in that department.

LA has really come into its own in 2009. The young Dodgers got their feet wet in last year’s playoffs but weren’t ready for primetime in the same way the Phillies were. It showed, as Philadelphia took the NLCS and then the World Series. Not so this year. The boys in blue now have experience and home field advantage. This one could go the distance. Dodgers in 7.

American League Championship Series

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim vs. New York Yankees

Ugh! I’m not even going to pretend to hide my biases here. Can one imagine a more miserable series? The two most despicable teams in baseball, with the worst, most obnoxious fans–one group arrogant (the Yankees), the other baseball idiots (the Angels). At least Yankee fans are knowledgeable about the game–one Bomber fan knows more about baseball than the entire Angels Stadium full of Halo fans.

All I can root for is an Act of God.

The Yankees will win this one with their ungodly payroll and homer-happy new ballpar. Seriously, just when you thought the Steinbrenners couldn’t do any more damage to the game, they build a stadium that makes a complete joke out of offensive statistics. The Yanks have too much talent and are too complete a team for the Angels. I expect the Halos to nab a couple games in Anaheim, but that won’t be enough to take the series. Yankees in 6.

(I’m still rooting for an Act of God.)

• October 27, 2009 -- The 2009 World Series (0)
• December 24, 2009 -- Matt Holliday & Jason Bay to the Yankees & Red Sox? – MLB Baseball (0)
• November 5, 2009 -- World Series Title $201 Million, Not Priceless (2)
• October 12, 2009 -- Umpires (8)
• September 24, 2009 -- The Manager Who Cried Wolf (2)

In all these instances, the player or coach will sometimes gesticulate wildly, loudly object and/or remind his target to keep his next eye appointment because he sure as hell forgot the last one. Sometimes an NFL ref listens politely and nods as a coach vents in his ear. If the objection becomes too intense, a football official will throw a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct flag; a hockey linesman might put an offending team member in the penalty box, and an NBA ref can call a technical foul.

This game-long interplay between athletes and officials has a “political” dynamic, as well. When some officials realize they blew a call, a phenomenon known as the “make-up call” can rear its ugly head. The ensuing questionable pass interference, holding, charging, or roughing call–you know, just to even things out–becomes part of the game. Athletes won’t own up to it, but they expect those always denied make-up calls.

Striped shirts generally tolerate defiant behavior by players and coaches–up to the point of blatant or personal disrespect and have embraced the notion people involved in athletic competition are mostly passionate, emotional, and confident in their pursuits. Most referees understand you must give talented, intense people room to have their say.

And, maybe they won’t admit it, but athletes understand officials are human and good teams overcome any obstacle fate throws at them–even bad calls.

The mitigating factor in much of the conflict described above has been the acceptance of replay as a tool to reverse obviously incorrect or unjust calls.

The technology has aided officials in professional basketball, hockey, and football.

However, very little of the above applies to baseball–or the men who umpire the games.

Who the hell do these guys think they are?

I caught the tail end of the Yankees/Twins play-off game just in time to catch the announcers recapping the terrible job umpires have been doing beginning with that Twins/Tigers play-off, and in almost every series since then.

Then came the play that proved the point. In the 11th inning at the new Yankee Stadium, the Twins’ Joe Mauer hit a slicing fly ball that clanged off the glove of Melky Cabrera and was called foul by umpire Phil Cuzzi.

The ball hit Cabrera’s glove in fair territory then landed about 16 inches inside the foul line. It wasn’t even close.

It dawned on me… Why do we need umpires? Their overblown view of their own necessity to the game smacks of arrogance sprouting from insecurity. “Don’t say f**k in my presence!” “Don’t question my judgment.”

Among the major professional sports, baseball is the only sport where pinpoint visual and electronic technology could render obviously bad calls like Cuzzi’s a painful remembrance of things past.

Umpires, as we know them, would become obsolete.

Think about it; the tempo of the average baseball game barely exceeds that of your run-of-the-mill spelling bee.

We have the technology.

Put a microscopic tracer chip in the bases, home plate, each ball and every player’s mitt. Wire the foul poles, the white lines and the top of the home-run fences. The strike zone can be electronically configured for a game in any stadium–a consistent, inarguable “box” the television audience and the crowd can see.

Umpires would still be employed in case the technology fails. They would still have to call out runners on the bases but could be overturned in the case of a clearly incorrect call.

In fact, MLB could utilize the technology without telling anyone. Each man in blue would be outfitted in a CIA style earpiece and could communicate with a fellow ump in the press box.

Then we could watch umpires argue with themselves instead of being subjected to the ridiculous theater-starring, veiny-necked managers cussing at ego-driven blind men who actually work on their “ejection mechanics” as they move up the ranks to the majors.

Oh yeah, you’re real important, pal.

• December 24, 2009 -- Matt Holliday & Jason Bay to the Yankees & Red Sox? – MLB Baseball (0)
• November 5, 2009 -- World Series Title $201 Million, Not Priceless (2)
• October 27, 2009 -- The 2009 World Series (0)
• April 29, 2009 -- The Hate List: 4/29/09 – My Top Two Most Hated Sports Teams (11)
• January 20, 2010 -- Mark McGwire’s Steroid Admission – MLB Baseball (0)

National League Division Series

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

Neither of these teams came into the playoffs playing good baseball; the Dodgers finished the year 4-6, almost blowing the National West Division Title and home field advantage to the Rockies, while the Cardinals were an even more woeful 2-8. I suppose the only consolation for either squad is that the other was just as pathetic coming down the stretch.

The Cardinals without a doubt have the better starting pitching, the Dodgers a better bullpen, and both teams have great hitting. Matt Holiday was a great acquisition for the Cards to bolster the lineup around superman Albert Pujols, while this is the year that Andre Ethier, James Loney and Matt Kemp really came into their own for the Dodgers. Casey Blake’s return from injury really injected a spark into the Dodgers for the last two games of the season. Since starting pitching wins championships, my brain says Cardinals, but my gut says Dodgers. Los Angeles in 5.

Colorado Rockies vs. Philadelphia Phillies

Not to be outdone by St. Louis and Los Angeles, Philadelphia also struggled at the end of the season, losing six of their last ten (seriously, did anyone want the National League’s home field advantage throughout). The Rockies, on the other hand, come into the postseason red-hot, the two losses to LA to end the year notwithstanding. Both these teams have been there before, with the Phillies winning it all last year and the Rockies losing to the Red Sox in 2007, so postseason experience should not be a factor.

The playoffs are all about momentum, however, especially in the divisional round. That’s why so many Wild Card teams have gone on to the World Series; with the pressure on even to make the playoffs, the Wild Cards are often playing their best ball of the year. Divisional leaders frequently put themselves into rest mode and struggle to regain their championship form.

The Rockies are the only NL team with any sort of momentum, and this is the second time in three years they’ve had a great late season run. Colorado in 4.

American League Division Series

Boston Red Sox vs. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

When it comes to the postseason, the Red Sox, quite simply, are in the Angels head. It’s not a good sign when winning one game in a series is considered an improvement, but that was the case for the Angels last year. The Sox are now 12-1 versus the Angels in their last 13 playoff games. Ouch. And this year the Angels were lucky to escape with one game in their September series at Fenway. Was the late season swoon already in effect?

The Angels had some more competition this year than they usually do in the American League West–the Rangers actually gave them a run for their money until close to the end of the year–but, even so, have not had to face nearly the same grind that the Sox did in the AL East. Although Beckett has occasionally been shaky this year and Buchholz struggled in his last couple starts, the Sox have incredible pitching both in the starting rotation and in the bullpen, perhaps the best in baseball. As I said previously, pitching wins championships. This time I’m following that maxim. Boston in 4.

Minnesota Twins vs. New York Yankees

If Detroit had won today’s one-game playoff, I would have said New York in 3. The Tigers had been limping toward the post-season and the Yankees are just too good. I still expect the Yankees to win, but–and this is going to shock some people–against Minnesota I’m calling New York in 5. Yes, the Bronx Bombers are the superior team, and, yes, the Twins will be tired (although they do have some momentum and should be emotionally energized after their thrilling victory over the Tigers).

Why, then, do I think it will take the Yankees five games to beat the Twins? The Metrodome. Minnesota has the single greatest home-field advantage in all of baseball when playing at the Metrodome during the postseason. With the deafening noise, the waving hankies, and the stadium’s unique quirks (such as the white roof so easy to lose a ball in), the Metrodome is perhaps the most challenging ballpark in baseball for an opponent to steal a playoff victory. The Yanks will prevail, with each team winning their home games.

There you have it–MLB first round predictions. Let the games begin!

• November 18, 2009 -- Zack “Cy Young” Greinke (2)
• January 20, 2010 -- Mark McGwire’s Steroid Admission – MLB Baseball (0)
• January 7, 2010 -- Andre Dawson Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame – MLB (2)
• December 24, 2009 -- Matt Holliday & Jason Bay to the Yankees & Red Sox? – MLB Baseball (0)
• November 5, 2009 -- World Series Title $201 Million, Not Priceless (2)