MLB Announces Expanded Playoffs for This Year

Article first published as MLB Announces Expanded Playoffs for This Year on Blogcritics.


If you go by the old philosophy of less is more, then you may be baffled by the announcement by Major League Baseball that it is expanding the playoff schedule for this season. Commissioner Bud Selig has been hinting at this happening for years, but now it is a reality that was condoned by Players Association executive director Michael Weiner, who claims players are in favor of the expanded format. "Players want to expand the the importance of winning the division." You have to wonder if Bud has his hand up this guy's back and is working his lips.

I have never liked the idea of expanding anything in sports because more games mean more risk for injuries. Look at the NFL going to a sixteen game season. There have never been more injuries and more players threatened by not just losing a season but also their careers.

Another worry is weather, and that is not coming into play in the thought process here. Teams like Minnesota and Milwaukee can realistically expect that being in the playoffs (and then the World Series) could mean snow delays instead of rain delays, and even canceled games because of snow. I doubt that Selig is going to grab a shovel and help out in that case, so why is he so hot for this expansion?

Of course, the answer is revenue. By expanding the playoffs to include ten teams, the idea is to no doubt push the playoffs to a longer (and more lucrative) format. For this year only the scheme will involve a one-game playoff between the four wild card teams, with those teams then having the home field advantage for the first two games of the division series. Yes, you read that correctly! It doesn't make much sense rewarding the teams who did not finish first in their divisions, but that is how it will be this fall.

In the 2013 season the Houston Astros will move to the American League west, making two fifteen team leagues with three divisions of five. While Selig isn't saying so, the future looks like there will be more playoff games in the future, meaning perhaps two more wild card teams (giving each division a wild card) and more games between these teams (perhaps a three-game series).

I don't know about you, but to me this "expansion" is all about more money, and the prospect of watching Game 7 of the World Series over Thanksgiving weekend becomes more of a possibility. So if you like the idea of hearing "Play ball" and passing the sweet potatoes, enjoy! For me this is just another example of a executives ignoring what is good for a sport, the players, and the fans. I hope all that revenue allows teams to purchase long johns for their players; their going to need them.

Photo Credit - Sports Illustrated

Mets Mess: Beltran Gets Standing Ovation Before Last at Bat

Article first published as Mets Mess: Beltran Gets Standing Ovation Before Last at Bat on Blogcritics.

Carlos Beltran is most certainly going off to see the wizard; his teammates know it, the fans know it, and most importantly, he knows it. It was actually a fitting moment at Citi Field on Thursday, July 21, when Beltran came to bat in the ninth inning of what is no doubt his last home game as a New York Met.

You may ask: what were the fans cheering about? Beltran came to the team as a much anticipated Superman, but we got more of Clark Kent than anything else. Many times over the years it seemed like Beltran wasn't even in the lineup. Of course, that was true during his extended stays on the DL, but even when he was in the lineup, it was like he wasn't there.

I, like most Mets fans, probably can never forgive or forget that called third strike from Adam Wainwright in the NLCS in 2006 that sent the Mets home. It was one of those moments etched in memory, indelible as say Bill Buckner's mishandling of Mookie Wilson's grounder in the 1986 World Series. Red Sox fans would never forget that either.

I was surprised by the applause and the standing ovation. For a second there, it seemed like the audience of Jersey Boys after they sing "Who Loves You" and the people stand and keep applauding for actors who are not Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. It's an incongruous moment, and Beltran walks out the door and into New York Mets history. I truly doubt he will be remembered as fondly as Ed Kranepool, Cleon Jones, Mike Piazza, and Tom Seaver. He is probably stuck somewhere between Carlos Delgado and Bobby Bonilla; in other words, he goes into the limbo section where he will be mostly forgotten.

Beltran always seemed likable and pleasant with reporters and fans. He just never clicked in New York. Let it suffice to say that the best playing he has done for the team has been these last few months. Now he is a leader, playing with effort and gusto, and looking like the guy he should have been the last seven years. What a shame it took so long. How sad for the fans, the players, and for Beltran most of all.

Now he will be in a new uniform the next time he comes to New York. There are a number of teams still in contention that want his services. What will the Mets get back for him? Can you say Jim Fregosi or Pat Zachary without wincing? Hopefully GM Sandy Alderson will realize he is holding all the cards and make certain that he gets a good return on the deal, nothing like those meaningless "players to be named later" he got from Milwaukee for K-Rod.

We bid adieu to Carlos Beltran. Carlos, we hardly knew you, and that is probably the saddest part of all.

Photo Credit: Daily News

Subway Series Part II: This Time It's Personal

Article first published as Subway Series Part II: This Time It's Personal on Blogcritics.


Okay, I'll admit that I was kind of down on the Subway Series the last time around, but that is not the case now. Why is that? Because back then the Mets were playing like they were in the Pee-Wee Herman League and the New York Yankees were doing their best Incredible Hulk impersonation in the American League East. Since then the Mets have incredulously bounced back from adveristy (even with key players on the disabled list) - with Jose Reyes taking the part of The Flash while his teammates, even the AAA Buffalo contingency, are looking like superheroes in training. So now it is at least interesting enough for this old Mets fan to put on his blue cap with the orange NY and brave the Number 7 train to get out to Citi Field.

Make no mistake - the Yankees have to be favored today. They just steamrolled over Milwaukee, but these are the Brewers and not the Boston Red Sox or the Philadelphia Phillies. When you put the pitching poor Yankees up against those types of teams, they wilt and that is what they will have to face once again in the playoffs this year. Of course, at least they can say they have the playoffs in their future, but that is still a reality for Yankees fans; too bad Sabathia can't pitch every day.

The Mets led by Reyes and much lesser names like Turner, Murphy, and Hairston, are definitely going to be David going up against Goliath in the Subway Series, but we all know how that turned out. Truth be told, the Mets are playing like the Mets of old - most notably the 1973 version - and that team was the little engine that could, knocking out the Big Red Machine of Cincinnati and taking the Oakland A's to the seventh game of the World Series.

I'm not saying anything like that can happen this year, but there is hope in Flushing and the Mets fans can invoke the old Tug McGraw mantra of "Ya Gotta Believe" again, so in that way it becomes very personal for me (and most Mets fans). And don't forget, these are the dreaded Yankees, the minions of Darth Steinbrenner who once circled the city in his Death Star thinking he could rule the baseball galaxy.

So break out your old copies of Return of the Jedi if you need inspiration, Mets fans, and "you gotta believe" the force is with these young Met padawans. Jose Reyes is wielding that bat like a light saber, and maybe, just maybe, some Yankee heads will roll this weekend. So yeah, it's personal this time, and Mets fans have to get out there and cheer this underdog team for no other reason than they are New Yorkers who are not Yankees' fans.

Let's go Mets!

Photo Credit: NY Daily News

A Celestial Celebration: The Giants Win the World Series

Article first published as A Celestial Celebration: The Giants Win the World Series on Blogcritics.

"Old New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodger fans don't die, they just become Mets fans."
-my grandfather in conversation.

The San Francisco Giants won the World Series in Texas last night, fifty-six years since they did so as the New York Giants playing in the Polo Grounds. It has been a long time coming for old New York Giants fans, who like their cross river National League cousins the Brooklyn Dodgers, see this as a victory for them as well as those cheering people in the city by the bay.

There was no logic or reason in being a Giant or Dodger fan back in those days, except as a defiant and perhaps illogical stand against those damned Yankees from the Bronx. I asked my grandfather if he ever thought about becoming a Yankee fan after the Dodgers left in 1957, and he shook his head sadly. "Not a chance."

Old Fred and my uncles Matty and Charlie were under the assumption that the Yankees and their fans had made a pact with the devil, and something like the play Damn Yankees could only confirm that for them.

My grandfather said of 1957 that "I cried me a river of blue" when the Dodgers left, and my uncle "cried him a river of orange" for the Giants. This eventually "washed out to sea" as he saw it, but somehow or other came back in 1962, swirling around the waters of Flushing Bay, and a nascent team crawled out of those waters in blue and orange and called itself the Mets. Fred and his brothers were back in business, having a team to root for that was not the Yankees.


Now all this time has passed, and the San Francisco Giants were dancing around with the World Series Trophy in Texas. They are a spunky team, with no big guns like the great Willie Mays, but they have great pitching and lots of heart, and sometimes that stops the big guns dead in their tracks.

So this was a win for those Giants fans who have long passed on, but were no doubt watching in the celestial place they call home. All that noise we heard last night over New York wasn't thunder, but the sound of champagne corks popping in paradise.

At one time the gods of baseball deemed New York City as its own Mount Olympus. Can you imagine having three center fielders like Duke Snider, Willie Mays, and Mickey Mantle all playing in the same city at the same time? There is simply no comparison today in all of sports. It was too overwhelming to be real but it was real nonetheless.

Many years later, I had asked my grandfather about rumors I heard regarding a "big trade" that involved Mickey Mantle for either the Duke of Flatbush or the Say Hey Kid. My grandfather shook his head as he would do. "Mickey Mantle could have never played for Brooklyn or the Giants, and the Duke and Willie could have never been Yankees. It wasn't in their blood."

Well, all these years later, I think my grandfather was right. He is no doubt raising an ethereal glass of the bubbly with my uncles. Besides that one time when Bobby Thomson's homer caused a spat between them, they basically always rooted for each other's teams because they hoped they would win and beat the Yankees. I am so happy for them up there, and all those people out in San Francisco too. As a Met fan, born from Dodger blue and Giant orange, I could never see it any other way.

 

It's Over: The Fat Lady Sings for the Yankees in Texas

Article first published as It's Over: The Fat Lady Sings for the Yankees in Texas on Blogcritics.

Okay, I'm not going to lie about it. I took a little pleasure in turning on the TV the other night and seeing that the New York Yankees were down 5-1 to the Texas Rangers in the sixth game of the American League Championship Series. Oh, come on, you could say, you're a New Yorker and you want those Texas boys beating your Yankees? Hey, they aren't "my" Yankees and never will be. When Texas beat them, why wouldn't I be happy about it?

When manager Joe Girardi sent Mariano Rivera out to pitch the bottom of the eighth, you knew he knew it was over. This doesn't mean that the Fat Lady is singing just about this championship series, but the whole Yankee era of Jeter, Rivera, Posada, and the ghosts of Paul O'Neill and Bernie Williams and all those other Yankees who played for Joe Torre along with them. After this year and this loss, things will never be the same.

After the game Girardi said something about it not being easy to see the other team celebrating after a loss in a postseason series. Well, it only reminds me of Jeter and company celebrating at Shea back in 2000 when they beat my Mets. We Met fans all had to suffer through seeing that one, on our sacred ground no less, where Seaver, Agee, Jones, McGraw and all the rest played and won two World Series titles in 1969 and 1986. It was hard to see the Yankees whooping it up back then, so it felt great to see Jeter staring out at the field in something like disbelief. Keep looking Derek, because you're 36 and probably might never see another World Series ring.

One thing this series taught me is that all the king's money and all the king's men couldn't put the Yankees back together again. The highest paid team in baseball couldn't hit Texas pitching. Beside Robinson Cano (who had four homers in this series against the Rangers), the Yankees looked like guys I see up at the park hitting those softballs into the dirt. A-Rod hit a buck ninety and had no dingers. Swisher did a lot of swishing (struck out seven times), and the pitchers might as well have been soft tossing those big softballs the way Texas was whacking the ball (the Yankees staff ended with a 6.58 ERA in the six games).

I'm sorry to have to say it, but the Yankees actually got lucky in this series. They almost got swept. If they hadn't come back and won that first game, it would have been a clean sweep. Yankee announcer - and bloviator par excellence - Michael Kay pronounced the series "over" after the Yankees came back and won the first game. Can you believe that guy? Hey, Michael, what do you have to say about that now? And how about the most annoying announcer in baseball, the Yankees' John Sterling? Could he maybe do a prolonged "The...Yankees...lose; The...Yankees...lose" just to make every Mets fan's day?

So, yes I know we Mets fans have to wait until next year. I know we didn't even make the playoffs and lost 83 games. I know, I know, I know, but guess what? Yankees fans have to wait until next year too, and some of the Yankees players will have to wait forever.

This winter Andy Pettite is probably going to talk about retirement as many times as Brett Favre, and Jeter needs a new contract. A-Rod is starting to act his age without the joy juice flowing through his veins, and Mariano Rivera, now 40 years old, just might be feeling the years as well. Posado will be seeing a lot more DH next year or perhaps not catch at all, and the team has to be thinking free agent outfielder sooner or later. Swisher better take a good look around while cleaning out his locker; the trade winds are in the air.

Will the Yankees make a run for Cliff Lee? Uh, I can hear the Steinbrenner brothers unlocking the family safe as I type this thing. The Yankees need pitching, they need hitting, and they need something that my guys across the river have in abundance: humility; but waiting for the Yankees to lose that inherent arrogance is like waiting for a train in the New York City subway system. You hope it is coming but you have no idea when it will get there or if it will even stop when it does.

I'm betting on Texas over the Giants in six games. Cliff Lee, best pitcher in the universe, will lead the way. Will he be in pinstripes next year? Yankees players and fans will be wondering that as they watch the Series on TV. Keep dreaming, Yankees fans. The Mets fans and players will be watching too, and maybe the Wilpons will finally open their own safe, drag out some of that cash that Bernie Madoff didn't swipe, and give the Yankees a run for their money for Lee.

The way things are it will be a long and cold winter for Mets and Yankees fans, and by Christmas the thought off Cliff Lee in either uniform might be better than sugar plums dancing in their heads, but don't bet on Lee having to get himself a MetroCard. If he goes on to win the whole enchilada with Texas, the Rangers' owner Nolan Ryan could find the money and incentives to keep Lee in the Lone Star State for a long time, and that just might make Texas the new sheriff in the American League. Yippee ki-yay, Yankee fans.