Wait until next year

October 8, 2009

MLB play-offs braindump #1

It’s probably high time for a disclaimer. I don’t profess to be a baseball expert. Thinking about it, I don’t profess to be an expert in anything. I’m just another voice in the crowd, yelling the first thing that comes into my head. The power of blogging, eh?

Still reading? Wow.

I’d thought about putting up some sort of play-offs predictions/preview post earlier this week. However, I figured that there were already plenty of good, and plenty of bad, posts of that nature already floating around the ether. And who needed another one?

I also think the New York Yankees are probably going to win it all. And as a New York Mets fan, I couldn’t bring myself to dedicate a whole post to that.

So, I thought I’d just assemble some random ramblings on the baseball and see where it takes us. This could be ongoing over the course of the play-offs, or could sit lonely in the archive, a #1 without a #2, let alone a #3, for company.

Finally, here’s what you’ve been waiting for – some ill-thought-out thoughts from a self-professed non-expert. And fan of hyphens, if the last sentence is anything to go by.

Throwing logic out the window, let’s start with something from before the play-offs – that amazing Twins/Tigers game from the other night. What struck me in the aftermath was the fantastic sportsmanship of the Detroit Tigers. They had just lost an epic, classic battle. There had been suspect calls that would have changed the course of the game in their favour. They’d thrown away a three game lead with four games to play. Yet, somehow, they were able to take the loss in the proper sporting way. No sour grapes here.

I was struck by Brandon Inge’s comment, “No matter what we did, it seems like it wasn’t to be. This is the best game, by far, that I’ve ever played in no matter the outcome.” If only everyone in sport could be that dignified when losing…

OK, onwards and upwards to last night, the first night of the play-offs. I was pleased to see that bog-standard normal mlb.tv has returned for international viewers catching the game online. I’m not sure where I’m going to find the time to watch all the games, so the condensed game, while very much second best, is a handy substitute when time isn’t on my side.

No real surprises in the Phillies/Rockies game. The Phillies do look vulnerable in the later innings of games, but the Rockies need to still be in the game for that to be a factor. No chance of that last night.

The Yankees looked very strong. My first thought was who can actually beat them? My second thought was perhaps the Twins made them look good, as the Twins had been on the booze after their win against the Tigers, and then on an overnight flight to New York. I doubt that is the best way to prepare for any game.

The Dodgers looked promising, beating the Cardinals without too much strain, but I very much doubt this series is finished yet. Both teams finished the season badly, but have been amongst the best over the course of the year, so a bit of a weird situation. Who will get good again first? The Dodgers, by last night’s evidence, I guess.

The other play-off starts tonight with the Angels against the Red Sox. I think this is too close to call. Oh dear. The insight has dried up before it started. More tomorrow! Maybe!

In the meantime I’m not ignoring other sports, I just think it’s worth concentrating on the fun stuff. And I’m finding the baseball a lot of fun at the moment. But I’ll try and get some other non-baseball odds and sods up soon. Maybe even more man-crushes? Wait, don’t leave me…

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October 7, 2009

Twins beat the Tigers to reach the play-offs in an epic

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162 regular season games couldn’t separate them. Neither could the regulation nine innings of their one-off game for the final play-off spot. They kept playing and playing, until finally in the bottom of the twelfth inning the Twins scored, with Alexi Casilla hitting a single, to send home Carlos Gomez from second base.

It was a horrible, horrible way for the Detroit Tigers’ season to end, particularly as they had led their division for so long. Before the Minnesota Twins made their late-season push, this was their 17th win in 21 games, the Tigers looked a safe bet for the play-offs.

But what an incredible prelude to the post-season for the neutral, like myself.

The Twins now face a massive challenge. Tonight they start a series against the New York Yankees, just 20-odd hours after last night’s win. The Yankees are arguably the strongest side in the play-offs, and very much the bookie’s favourite. To make matters worse for Minnesota, the Yankees beat the Twins on each of the seven occasions the teams met during the regular season.

I enjoyed last night’s game via mlb.tv, but was greeted TBS HotCorner, rather than the standard mlb.tv I’m used to. So, instead of the feed from one of the main broadcasters, I had the option of watching from one of eight cameras stationed around the stadium. There was also the option to watch two or four camera feeds at once.

It was a strangely disorienting experience, and made me realise how used I am to being led by a television director. It was interesting in the unlikely moments, such as focusing on the catcher between pitches, or on the hitter watching as he popped a ball up.

However, I’m not sure I want this feature for the whole of the post-season. It could be infuriating as it wasn’t always clear where the ball had gone, or what was happening elsewhere on the pitch. I wouldn’t mind using it for the odd inning, but it could be a little much game after game.

But baseball is baseball, I’ll take what I can get!

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October 6, 2009

The end of a season

Last Sunday was the end of the line for the majority of major league baseball teams, as the regular season wound to its conclusion.

Seven sides have now made the play-offs: New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, St Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies. Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers, drawn level after a 162 game season, will have a one-off game for the final play-off spot tonight. All those games, and it comes down to one single evening. No pressure there, then.

For the other 21 teams, the season is over. Time to clear out the locker and have a well-earned rest.

The play-offs are an interesting sporting format, for an Englishman like me who didn’t grow up with them, in the sense that the end of the season is essentially staggered. There’s no final day blow-out, like in other sports. Instead, after the initial cull of play-off qualification, each team will face their very own individual end to the season. While the play-offs are a huge reward after such a long season, they also, for all but one team, provide a very public, high-profile and (perhaps) demoralising defeat to finish the year.

But for those other 21, the end has come already, and much more gently. For them, the season has ended with the proverbial whimper, rather than the bang.

This, I feel, suits the game of baseball. The game, at its heart, is a leisurely, even-paced one. Even the most frantic game takes over two hours. There is an ebb and flow, not just across the course of a game, but across the course of a season. It makes sense that the season ends this way for most teams.

With so many games to play, and a game nearly every day, baseball does not suffer from the hype overload other sports do. Many a NFL game, or English Premier League game can be (and will be) touted as ‘must-win’, even if that is not strictly the case. Baseball, however, saves such talk for when it is truly necessary, as for most of the year there is enough time and enough games ahead to catch up, to recover from a loss.

Baseball can be enjoyed in the moment. For much of the season, it doesn’t rely as much on the context of league standings as other sports do. And that is one of its main charms, for me. I can watch the game for what it is, rather than worry about what the result might mean. Mid-season, one game won’t ruin everything.

I think baseball also feels so languid as it is a summer sport. It’s the sort of game that can be played day-in, day-out, without killing the playing staff. It suits a summers day when the spectator wants his entertainment to wash over him, not smack him in the face (figuratively, not literally, of course!).

Being a summer game, it also lends itself to a certain wistfulness at the season’s conclusion. Not only is the season over. So too is the summer.

The autumn play-offs, however, are a different beast. After 162 games, this truly is high-stakes stuff. Will a whole season’s effort be for nothing? Or will there be a shot at making history? This is sport at its most unpredictable. No team in the play-offs can be ruled out. No one team is a lock-in.

So, there is still some excitement to come (and some). But here’s to the regular season. Where the game means more than the result. Where a team can hope and dream. And where there is always another game tomorrow, no matter how badly today went.

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October 4, 2009

This week’s sporting links

Quite a week for the blog – comments and people actually reading it and everything! Thanks in particular to Steven and Nathan for their comments. Do check out their sites.

Now onwards and upwards with sports stuff I’ve enjoyed this week…

Baseball

Faith and Fear in Flushing write the letter the New York Mets should have sent to their fans after a very disappointing season.

Wezen-Ball looks forward to the play-offs with a Simpsons clip and some choice dialogue.

Ninety Percent Scar Tissue considers a simple way to improve baseball.

Football (soccer, for our American friends!)

The ever reliable Twohundredpercent praises floodlit football.

Pitch Invasion looks at FIFA and potential bias towards larger countries.

A bit of a two-sport week, then, links-wise.

So, what have you enjoyed reading this week, in whatever sport? Has there been any decent commentary on Rio’s successful Olympic bid?

I’d love to hear about more of the good stuff out there…

October 3, 2009

Come Hull or high water

A frankly bizarre story yesterday, with Hull City, and their colourful (that colour predominantly being orange) manager Phil Brown, playing their part in some sort of Samaritian-esque fable.

Brown decided that he would take his players for a walk, as part of his efforts to turn around what has been a poor start to the season. I’ll let Phil himself take up the story:

“I have been up on the Humber Bridge many times. I walk over the Humber on many nights in the week. I was born on the river [Tyne] and I get strength from the river.

“We were looking for clarity up there. Did we find it? Absolutely. When you are jogging you cannot speak, when you are walking you can.”

But clarity was not all they found.

“We walked across the Humber Bridge on Wednesday and saved a girl actually.

“She was considering her future, shall we say, but you never know whether somebody is just standing there until they jump. But there was no need to be up there unless you were a football team looking for inspiration. Maybe she must have seen us and thought ‘at least it’s not that bad’. Well for me in particular – not the players.

“She was claiming she was 40-plus, but she looked a lot younger I tell you. Nobody said she was going to jump. She was contemplating her future, but so was I. In the end she tootled off back to wherever she had come from. I’d sweet-talked her out of it.”

Brown then completed his fable with a lesson. I can’t tell if he is mad, some sort of benevolent genius or a modern-day Confucius.

“The bridge was built with modern-day engineering so that when an ill-wind blows, it gets stronger. The weight bears down harder and it becomes a sturdier structure.”

I have something of a soft spot for Hull and hope they stay up, and hope that Phil Brown sticks around. He certainly makes the Premier League a more interesting place, and it’s good to see that eccentricity can still survive in sport. And after this week’s events, he’s a bit of a hero, really.

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