Land of the Rising Sun

It is a great public relations gimmick.

Send at least one of the league's premier teams from the previous season overseas, or to another country on the same continent to help cultivate the game in a country that's already baseball crazy.

It will be the fifth time since 1999 that Major League Baseball will start its season on foreign soil. In 1999 it was the the 1998 pennant winning Padres taking on the Rockies in Monterrey, Mexico. In 2000 the 1999 NL wild-card Mets, winners of 97 games, played the bottom of the NL Central barrel Cubs in Tokyo. Four years later, the capital of Nippon hosted the AL Champion Yankees against the bottom feeding Devil Rays. In 2001 it was the bottom scrubbing Rangers playing a Blue Jays team that missed the AL East title by a mere four and a half games.

This season it's the World Champion Red Sox opening against an Athletics squad that finished only a game out of last place in the AL West and 20 wins behind the Red Sox. Not exactly a marquee match-up.

But this is less about the match-up than about the impact of opening in a different country.

What does it really mean? Is it difficult for the team's involved to recover from the requisite travel? Or is the impact dependent on the team make-up, the manager, and any number of other factors? The numbers are less than telling.

The Yankees in 2004 got off to a horrible start, struggling in April and May, but recovered to win 101 games.

On the other hand are the 1999 Padres, just a season earlier with 98 wins and an appearance in the World Series, dropped to fourth place and 74 wins when starting the season in Mexico. Their opponents, the Rockies dropped from 77 to 72 wins.

In 2000 the Cubs slipped by two games from 67 to 65 wins, while the Mets still qualified for the wild card with 94 wins, down from their 1999 total of 97 after taking their first at-bats of the season in Tokyo. That same year the Rangers and Blue Jays won 71 and 83 games respectively. The following season, kicking off the season in (I know, technically American soil) Puerto Rico, those Rangers and Jays finished 2001 with 73 and 80 games respectively. An increase for the Rangers, but a drop-off for the Jays.

In 2004 the Yankees matched their previous season's win total, while the Rays increased their win total from 63 to 70 after starting it all in Tokyo.

Eight teams, a variety of results. Nothing telling. One team broke even. Two teams increased their win total by an average of 4.5 games, and five teams slipped a combined total of 37 games. Realistically, the Padres skew that number with a 24 game drop-off. Sixty-two-and-a-half percent of the teams experienced a drop in performance reflected in their win-loss record. The average drop, not including the Padres, is 3.25 games per team.

Assuming this is actually indicative of this season's performance, there's a 62.5 percent chance that the Sox will drop to 93 wins from last season's 96-win showing. Last year that would have put the team a game behind the Yankees in the final standings, and given the Red Sox the wild card.

What any statistician will tell you is that eight teams, eight results in over a century's worth of seasons is not a sampling that is indicative of anything.

Hope Springs eternal

Spring.

It's a time of renewal, a time for new hope. It's when fans of the Cubs and Indians say things like, "this is the year. This year the [insert team name here] are gonna win it all."

On the surface, it might seem a little ridiculous. There are twelve franchises in Major League Baseball that haven't won a World Series for at least 25 years (some of the teams haven't won since their inception as long ago as 1961...the Texas Rangers/Washington Senators). For Cleveland it's been 60 years and this will mark 100 for the Cubs. As the saying goes...when the sun comes up every morning, you come to rely on the fact that it will rise the next morning.

The Cubs perennially seem to find a way to blow their championship opportunities. The Indians haven't exactly fared much better.

Why should these teams, the fans of these teams hold out hope? Fans of the Cubs, Indians, Giants, Rangers, Astros, Brewers, Nationals, Padres, Mariners, Pirates, Phillies, and Orioles will all have differing levels of hope based on personnel, management, and ownership of their respective teams.

The fans of the Cubs and Indians hope to be this season's 2004 Red Sox, breaking a Championship drought that spans generations. Fans of the Orioles hope for a chance, in spite of the past incompetencies of Peter Angelos' ownership.

Why do they continue to hope, in spite of years of heartbreak?

Why, when there are teams that, on paper, that are better? Teams like the Red Sox, Mets, and Tigers.

It's simple really...

It comes down to two things. One is faith.

I've talked before about the religion of sport and the teams being the different denominations. It's no more evident than at the beginning of a season when, in spite of all proof to the contrary, we believe that the team we root for will be the one standing at the end of the season...whether on the diamond, the court, the gridiron, or the rink.

But the second is a little more tangible.

We watch the Red Sox break an 86-year drought to win two World Series titles in four seasons. We watch a Colorado Rockies team that wasn't even supposed to be a contender sweep its way into the 2007 Series. We see a Cardinals team that barely played over .500 ball during the regular season in 2006 win that year's championship.

We see these things and think about our teams, "why not us? Why not this season?" And we believe.

Ultimately, we believe because we're fans.

Go Sox.

On the brink...

Of a Rocky Mountain winter...

The problem with Cinderella stories is that at some point the clock strikes midnight. Somewhere in Colorado a bell tower has chimed for the eleventh time, the twelfth chime is only seconds away.

The Rockies' offense showed signs of life for the first time during the World Series last night. Unfortunately, for the second time in three games Colorado's pitching didn't show. Through three games, Colorado has scored a total of seven runs to the Red Sox 25.

With Jon Lester on the mound, the Rockies have their best chance of taking a game from the Sox...but only if they get the pitching performance from their starter and bullpen that they got in game two. Otherwise, the celebrations will begin from Abington to Yarmouth.

It will be the second time this decade that the Sox will have won MLB's championship - the only team that will be able to claim multiple World Series wins since the start of the century in 2001. It gives me a warm fuzzy that the Sox will have won two titles since the last time the Yankees won one - and boy is that franchise looking dysfunctional right about now.

For Yankees fans that think next year is going to be the year, get a reality check - they are carrying an aging, prone to break-down, erratic first-baseman/DH in Jason Giambi. They have a left-fielder in Johnny Damon who's another year older and also having his share of health problems, they might have issues retaining their best catcher in Posada who had a career year heading into free-agency. The Bronx brain-trust plans on pulling Chamberlain out of an already undermanned/overworked bullpen and into the rotation - and all of this is just the tip of the ice-berg.

Get used to the following term in New York - rebuilding.

As for Colorado - there's a lot of young talent over there. If this year wasn't just the serendipitous convergence of career years, the Rockies should contend for some time to come. Like a bad horror film villain, they'll be back.

Lateral movement on the brink of defeat...

This has to be seen to be believed...Division III Trinity U. puts the nail in the coffin in the last 30 seconds for one helluva come-back.

Stern problems on the brink of irrelevance...

David Stern has officially sunk the NBA to a new level. After years of issues and accusations about games being fixed to get the best match-ups in the play-offs and finals it has come out that more than half of the NBA's 56 officials have violated the league's anti-gambling statutes.

Stern's reaction? He has decided that the rule is too out of date and needs to be changed.

Rather than remove the doubt that he could have up to 30 officials that might have been involved in fixing games, Stern has decided he wants to accommodate the officials' collective penchant for visiting casinos. Then to compound matters, Detroit Piston center Rasheed Wallace hits the press with the following rant -

"I still don't think they (Cavaliers) beat us, we beat ourselves," Wallace said. "And I think we also fell victim to that personal NBA thing where they are trying to make it a world game and get (television) ratings. They wanted to put their darling in there (the NBA Finals) and they did, and look what ended up happening.
"This game ain't basketball anymore, it's entertainment," Wallace said. "It's starting to get like the WWF. There ain't no real wrestling anymore either. It's all fake."

Yeah, this has been a good off-season for the NBA (note the sarcasm). After managing the league to unprecedented popularity in the 1990's Stern is now managing basketball into the ground - above and beyond the image problems caused by players like Allen Iverson, the infamous Portland "Jailblazers," and the thugs involved in the incident in Detroit a few years ago (author Jeff Benedict, writer of the book Out of Bounds: Inside the NBA's Culture of Rape, Violence & Crime, said in 2004 that 40 percent of NBA players have criminal records - that's two players out of every starting five in the league, not including the bench). This is who the NBA is trying to market to people who have to pay on average $51.00 to get a seat to a game.

Not exactly a great group to market to the people that can afford half-a-C-note to go see a game (and that doesn't even include parking, so think more like $70.00, $75.00 per game).

What do you suppose the over-under is on when the NBA starts to feel like the NHL?

Rocked

The first game of the World Series decisively went the way of the Red Sox in a 13-1 thrashing of the hottest team in baseball.

Terry Francona, evidently is given to understatement. "I thought the whole night we did a good job taking what [they] gave us, laying off pitches out of the zone," said the Boston manager. A good job? Every Boston starter with the exception of Mike Lowell had at least one RBI, and Lowell still doubled, walked twice and scored a run. Every Boston starter with the exception of Jacoby Ellsbury had a hit, and he still had a run scored and a RBI.

Rockies manager Clint Hurdle in his post game comments said that the Rockies are, "a no excuse ball club." Were I a fan of the C-Rocks, I would be thinking this morning that there was no excuse for that performance last night.

From the first inning until the Rockies pitching put up donuts from the sixth inning on, Colorado held the Sox scoreless in only the third inning and of the innings in which the Sox scored, only the second wasn't a multi-run inning.

A lot has been written recently about how good the Rockies pitching was this year. Several pundits said that the Rockies led the National League in ERA. As a matter of fact, ESPN's Jason Stark gives the Rockies an advantage both at the plate and in the rotation for the series.

From what I have been able to find, they were eighth out of 16 National League clubs in ERA with a 4.32 team ERA. Their hitters, however, led the NL with a .280 batting average in what is generally considered the MLB JV.

The Sox, on the other hand, led the AL with a 3.87 team ERA, and were fifth in the AL with a .279 batting average. Overall, the Red Sox had the second best pitching in the majors.

Stark even pointed out that the Rockies had more players in their lineup with more than 80 RBI's than the Sox. He didn't, however, point out that the Sox were fourth in the majors in RBI production with 829. The Rockies were fifth with 823...once again, playing in the inferior NL.

With the possibility of their mojo having been broken, even shattered last night, the Rockies might have a tough uphill fight to bring the first World Series trophy back to Colorado. I'm not saying it can't happen, but it's looking like the Red Sox are going to have the same sort of series against the Rockies they had against the Cardinals.

Sorry, Mr. Helton, maybe if the trade had worked out...

Interesting week...

I'm gonna start with the bad and work my way back to the good....

Do The Right Thing...

Thirty-seven years ago I was born to Lawrence and Elaine Smith in the City of Brotherly Love. At the age of three my parents moved to Sudbury, MA. Growing up we would visit my extended family, almost all of whom remained in the Philadelphia area.

I remember being taken to see the Phillies at Veteran's Stadium when growing up. I may have seen more Phillies games in person while living just outside of Boston than I did Sox games.

I rooted for the Phillies during the 1980 World Series (familial ties and all).

That said, I have to admit, in light of recent actions by the Colorado Rockies players, I am rooting for the Coors Field crew this year. During an era filled with "me-first" players, this is one of those stories about players doing the right thing for the right reasons.

For those of you who don't know, a first-base coach, Mike Coolbaugh, for one of the Rockies' minor league affiliates was struck in the head and killed by a line-drive earlier this season. Coolbaugh was survived by his pregnant wife and two small children. The players voted Coolbaugh's widow, Amanda, a full playoff share.

For more on this, check out this article.

Sorry Philly, but the playoff share is bigger for the winner than for the loser, and I think the Rockies are playing for more right now than you are.

Spankees...

Chien-Ming Wang is supposed to be the Yankees' Ace. The roster Joe Torre and Brian Cashman activated for the playoffs is supposed to give the Bommahs their best chance to win.

Wang gave up eight earned in four-and-two-thirds innings.

The pitcher who relieved him, Ross Ohlendorf, gave up another four in just an inning of work.

At this point I'm unwilling to count out the Yankees due to their record against the Indians this year (6-0), however, a team that has struggled to get quality starting pitching like the Yankees have, this sort of performance from the team's ace cannot be reassuring to the Yankees faithful.

About as surprising as a bad Yankees pitching performance...

Track star Marion Jones is reportedly admitting to doping use after years of vehement denials.

For anyone familiar with Jones, she has been fighting allegations since before the 2004 Olympics, however they were heard the loudest at the '04 Games. Her denials always rang hollow with me.

I'm a track and field guy. I was a quarter-miler and hurdler in high school and college. I used to follow the sport much more closely than I do now, but now it seems as though for all the biggest names in the sport that it's not a matter of whether or not they're doping so much as when they'll be caught doping.

Marion Jones should come as no surprise.

Her former coach Trevor Graham was a reputed supplier, she has links to Victor Conte and BALCO, her former boyfriend Tim Montgomery is serving a two-year ban for doping, her then-husband, shot-putter CJ Hunter and fellow Olympian at the time of the 2004 Olympics was dismissed from the world's biggest sporting event when he tested positive. Graham also coached fellow banned track stars Michelle Collins and Justin Gatlin. Jones also hired Canadian coach Charlie Francis, who had already admitted providing drugs to banned Canadian track-star Ben Johnson when she hired him.

She has surrounded herself with people of questionable character. Is it really any surprise that she is too?