Curse Of The Curse

Dan Troy

One of the great benefits of making lots of predictions is that, thanks to the law of averages, every now and then you get to be right. I did well with my prognostications in the AL, picking the Sox over the A's and identifying the Yankees as the strongest team. While I can't take credit for predicting that the Marlins would be a postseason success, I did tell you that Miguel Cabrera was a young man worth watching.

Indeed, faster than you can say "Andruw Jones," Cabrera announced his presence to the world with a bombtastic NLCS. His three-run homer off Kerry Wood to kick off the deciding game had Steve Bartman busily checking the real estate listings in Miami. All in all, Cabrera hit .318/.378/.568 in the series, and looked pretty darn comfortable in the outfield, a position he only began playing in midseason. It makes you wonder how good he'll be by the time he's old enough to drink.

Cabrera, though, will have to kick up quite a storm in the World Series to draw attention away from all the curse talk. The Cubs and Red Sox both managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in dropping their respective League Championship Series. Were curses to blame for the fall of the Sox and Cubs, though? We here at Strikethree.com are not so superstitious as to believe in that kind of nonsense, though it is worth noting that Pedro did not have the "good face" in Game 7.

Rather than cursing billy goats or the Bambino, the bleacher bums and Red Sox Nation might instead aim their foul language at Dusty Baker and Grady Little, both of whom held their aces in for too long. While nobody has more respect for Pedro Martinez's skill than I, it was apparent that Pedro wasn't really Pedro in the postseason. His velocity was down, he struggled with his control, and left too many breaking pitches up in the zone. Chris Singleton managed two extra base hits off him in the ALDS, for cryin' out loud!

As well as he pitched for 6 innings on Thursday, it didn't appear too difficult to see that Pedro was toast after that, and the memory of leaving him in to surrender seven hits and four runs in his final inning-and-a-third may give Grady Little some dyspeptic moments this offseason, and probably the next several after that. And then he might consider why he kept sending all those runners. The Red Sox, a pretty slow team with a lot of power, had five runners caught stealing in the first four games. Ouch.

For Dusty, allowing his bullpen to show up late for work was a season-long trend, as he allowed Mark Prior (114 pitches per game) and Kerry Wood (111) to throw obscene numbers of pitches throughout the season. Everyone but Steve Lyons was stunned that Prior was left in Game 2 to throw 116 pitches while the Cubs led by 11 runs. What's the big deal, Steve thought aloud, when Prior threw over 130 pitches in his previous three outings?

Yes, the only crime that rivals Dusty Baker's treatment of young arms is FOX's willingness to assault the viewing public with the bleatings of Steve Lyons. Someone please alert the Department of Homeland Security before the start of the World Series. If baseball fans are forced to listen to Steve plead for teams to play Small Ball for the entire month of October, then the terrorists have already won.

While I imagine Dusty thinks it's okay to leave guys on the mound as long as they're still getting hitters out, you have to wonder what he was thinking by leaving an obviously gassed and hittable Kerry Wood in for as long as he did in Game 7. How much more evidence of Wood's ineffectiveness was required after the fourth, fifth,and sixth runs crossed the plate in the fifth inning? And then Dusty sent him out to start the sixth inning. Billy goat, indeed.

And what exactly are the Marlins doing in the World Series anyway? Generally considered a franchise that almost made contraction sound palatable (note, Mr. Selig, that I said "almost"), many-myself included-scoffed as the Fish held onto their non-minimum-waged tradable assets over the summer and acquired an officially sanctioned Big League Closer for what appeared to be a dubious playoff run. I guess the joke's on us, as the real underdogs—a team given virtually no chance to compete in this millennium—overcame a 3-1 deficit to beat the mythic underdogs and their two aces. If it weren't for the presence of Jeff Loria, I might even be tempted to root for them.

I suppose I could go down the line and explain how the Marlins are better than many thought, have a balanced lineup, an emerging ace, a wily old fox of a manager, blah, blah, blah, but that would probably be ascribing too much meaning to the outcomes of closely contested postseason series. As I said in my previous article, the best team cannot be conclusively identified by the results of a five- or seven-game series. If such were the case, we might reasonably expect the team that won the most games over the course of a full season to consistently emerge as champions, but, in fact, the last two times this actually happened was 1998 and 1989. It's just a tournament, folks.

But, what a tournament! So far, this has been maybe the best postseason since 1986, and the World Series hasn't even started yet. Hopefully, the departure of the curse-ridden teams won't deter the public from tuning in.

Prediction: Beckett's yeoman work in Game 7 means he'll likely be unavailable until Game 3. Florida's hitters will be less able to wear down a relatively efficient Yankee staff. Dontrelle-mania appears to be slowing down. Yankees in 5.

about the author

Dan Troy suffers from the Curse of Psoriasis. Ask him exactly when it went from heartbreak to curse at dt@strikethree.com.