No matter how much the game of baseball changes, the game of baseball never really changes. Baseball, or at least winning baseball, has always been about three things. Starting pitching. The ability to get two-out hits. Defense. The Washington Nationals are one game from their first World Series appearance ever. […]
So many games come down to one or two pitches. Last night’s came down to three. The last three. The last three pitches covered the gamut of crime, retribution, and justice. The Crime: With the top of the eleventh, in a game tied 2-2, in a game the Astros absolutely […]
Billy Joel played in hip hop musical show, last night at the Ballpark in Arlington. The Texas Rangers didn’t. Think about that for one second. It’s not November or December. It’s mid-October. In January, the promoters of the Billy Joel concert put tickets on sale for his show in Arlington […]
You know you have a good team when your fourth starter has to start Game 1 and he pitches seven and two-thirds hitless innings for the win. You’re in a good position when you have a one-game lead under your belt and you still have yet to march out Max […]
The outcome was merely a formality. The two best teams, by far, in the American League are going to meet in an epic Championship Series. It just took Houston longer than expected to dispose of Tampa Bay. New York had the equivalent of a first-round bye. It played Minnesota. So […]
The best thing about baseball is its capacity for redemption. In Game 1 of the Nationals-Dodgers series, Howard Kendrick made a critical error in the fifth inning to allow the Dodgers second run to score. It was his second error of the game. The Nationals lost 6-0. The Nationals moved […]
Never mind launch angles. And spin rates. And shifts. Last night, baseball fans witnessed something that has not been talked about in baseball for a long, long time. Fundamentals. Lost in the three-outcome de-evolution of the game has been any mention or even concern with fundamentals. Honestly, when was the […]
This season Minnesota set a major league record with 309 home runs this season. It came out of nowhere to surprise Cleveland and win the A.L Central, which, until this year, had been a one-team division. It won 101 games. It bowed out of the playoffs yesterday. This season Minnesoty […]
Another four playoff games today. With the very real chance of four Champaign-soaked celebrations, all in visitor’s clubhouses. It’s hard to see anybody beating the Astros or Yankees this year. They are just way too tough. Which makes these first rounds just the unwanted entrée to the main course. They […]
Before the Division Series began, the Twins front office printed up t-shirts with the slogan, “Slay The Dragon.” It was a reference to their not being able to get past the Yankees in the playoffs, having lost six consecutive playoff series to New York. Talk is cheap. But not as […]
