Baseballhead:
(No) Sign O' the Times

Michael Cox

I'm not crazy. No, really, I'm not. Shortly after the Giants fell to Colorado yesterday, every single media outlet announced the game time of the Cubs-Giants tiebreaker as 1:07 Chicago time. I still see the wire report on all the possible permutations of playoffs, with the title, "All tiebreaker playoffs would be day games."

So I navigate a series of unnecessary extra links, courtesy of official audio supplier Broadcast.com, to get to the game on RealAudio. Imagine my surprise when the audio consists of a guy with a British accent telling me I must be mistaken and to check my game times again. A quick trip to MLB's site gives me the info - the game is actually at 7:07.

But it wasn't. Neither is there any sort of indication as to why it was changed, or in the new wire articles, even that it was ever anything else. C'mon, what's it gonna hurt to add a little blurb stating that ESPN leveraged a move to prime-time, in order to drop any potential litigation over MLB's removal of the last few weeks' Sunday night games. (Why NFL sucks, number 3802: pennant- and homer-race games would have been shunted to the little-seen ESPN2 by the Disney outlet's new football deal.)

It doesn't hurt me, mind you -- I actually got to see the game, rather than watching it on videotape last night. Just step up and take a little responsibility, eh?

Anyway, now that I'm done ranting, here are some quick picks for the first round of playoffs, in order of prediction ease:

Easy:

Yankees over Rangers, 3 games to 1. The Rangers finish with the worst record of any first-round team, and the Yankee rotation on their worst day (think David Cone dog bite and David Wells heartburn) compares favorably to the Ranger staff on their best. At least the fans in Arlington will get to see two games this time around.

Braves over Cubs, 3 games to 1. Credit the lone Cub win to an offensive breakout against Smoltz. Am I the only one who thinks Maddux got his bad starts out of his system in September this year?

Difficult:

Astros over Padres, 3 games to 2. The Astros have it all, and could just as easily sweep, but if the Pads get close they've got the pen to win a squeaker or two. This series oughta be fun to watch, even when Randy Johnson's not pitching.

Red Sox over Indians, 3 games to 2. Never count the Tribe out, even with their substandard rotation, they seem to find a way to do those often overhyped "little things." Pedro Martinez, however, is a big thing, and the Bosox can use him twice.

Item: Of all the guys to put the Cubs into the playoffs, I'd have never expected the dumped-by-the-Cardinals (the goddamn Cardinals! Then again, they would have drawn three million fans with eight Ozzie Guillens and Mark McGwire, and Mac would still have gotten pitches to hit) Gary Gaetti to be a hero. Well, Steve Trachsel's Houdini-like pitching performance has to be credited too, as well as the Giants for fielding J.T.Snow and Jose Mesa.

And perhaps every Joe Carter at-bat this year should have been accompanied by a replay of his sayonara homer from the '93 Series, to make it more palatable.

Item: Mac hits four more off pas difficile Expos pitching to take the mythical Home Run Crown. Gift pitches or no, you can't begrudge a guy who hits 70 anything...unless you're the NFL. At the St. Louis (ex-LA) Rams-Arizona (ex-St. Louis) Cardinals game across town at the RCA Dome, the team's scoreboard operator let the fans know that Mac just hit number 70. The fans gave the hometown hero a five-minute ovation -- so the Rams were penalized for delay of game.

I know the NFL tries to pretend other sports don't exist, but for them to refuse to acknowledge the once-a-millennium achievement occurring simultaneously in the same city with a little tolerance is yet another reason that the NFL bites hard.

Item: A lot of ink has been written about the fact that McGwire is unlikely to do much product endorsement during the offseason. Well, considering he's already endorsed two officially-licensed signature caps (one for #62 and one for #70) and Disney World, we may have to redefine "much."

Item: Wasn't it a bit strange that the Rangers decided to rest their A-team rather than play to get home field advantage, and the right not to play the Yankees, for the first round? They just needed to win their last two games, including a game Saturday where Griffey played each outfield position. Maybe Johnny Oates thought Junior was playing the entire outfield, and thought there'd be no chance against a batting order composed of one-third Griffey. Johnny Oates' post-game "explanation" sounded more like he was on drugs: "I don't think there's a right answer...You can have all the right answers and still be wrong." What th'?

Item: Again under cover of Mark McGwire's immortal year, Ken Griffey Jr. became the youngest player in the history of the game to hit 350 homers. If there's a record that's harder to break than the single-season dinger mark, even more difficult than the RBI record, it's the lifetime homer crown, and 350 is like getting halfway up Mount Everest. Still, health and skills willing, he's the guy to do it.

Like we've said before. the kid's real good.

 

about the author

Michael Cox just found out that Joe Carter's being considered for a commentator role, and if it means you'll be seeing Joe's homer as often as you see Steve Lyons dropping his drawers, he'll be watching a lot less ball on TV. Sympathize at mc@strikethree.com.