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Thursday, September 02, 20102010: If we still had pennant racesLet's take a gander at how good the "pennant races," 1969-93 style, would look this year. Obviously the schedules would be slightly different, but the impact of the unbalanced schedule is generally much less than most think anyway. The Yankees and Devil Rays would be neck and neck with no safety net. 1993 Braves-Giants or 1980 Yankees-Orioles anyone? This would be one of the classic pennant races for the ages. We'd have the Twins, Rangers and White Sox in an excellent three-team race. The Phillies would be pulling away. Wow, the Cardinals really have fallen apart—five games back from Philly at the start of play today (Thursday). I didn't realize this one was turning into a clunker. Think about how the Phillies' season would look from this perspective. Finally, check out the NL West: 1982 all over again . . . Atlanta and Cincy tied, San Diego a game and a half back and the Giants lurking 4 1/2 back. The tension that would have been building over this season with these races would have been phenomenal. Instead I've barely paid attention to the season, knowing eight of these 11 teams are going to be in the tournament anyway. And what has the wild-card and three division set-up given us? A safety net for the Rays/Yankees. Boston would be just as far out, and there are no additional contenders (which is the whole point of the wild card) in the AL. Texas has no pennant race; the Rangers just get to cruise. The Twins have an extra cushion as well. Again, this completely sucks the life out of the regular season. In the NL there are no additional contenders either. This alignment has made the Phillies' season more exciting, but really they've just swapped spots with the Rangers. The Phightins are a game and a half up on SF as opposed to five up on St. Louis. SF is a couple of games closer to the playoffs also, but the Giants are still a contender in either scenario. So instead of three great month-long races, we get a week of manufactured playoffs where everyone starts even again. We also risk losing both of the two best teams in the AL from the final four, instead of guaranteeing one will be there in addition to the great final month of the season they'd provide. I do follow the "old school" standings all season long every year. Generally in the first round, aside from the Yankees, I root for whatever the LCS would have been in that format. As a fan, I would gladly sacrifice the Yankees making the playoffs as often if it meant getting my pennant races back. Almost every year the old pennant races would have made for a much more exciting September than the current one, and it's amazing how generally very few "extra contenders" are created, which was the whole point of the thing: to boost September attendance around the league. The extra week of playoffs was secondary in the motivation for changing the alignment. There is so much public clamor for those games, that they've landed on cable: The networks don't even care about them. They'd rather show soap operas. Major League Baseball has devalued the regular season much like the NCAA Tournament has for college basketball (don't get me wrong, I love the NCAA Tournament, but I don't pay much attention to the sport before the conference tournaments). I'm obviously a serious baseball fan, but each year I find myself more and more focused on October and less and less on April-September, which is a shame. Twenty years ago today (9/2/10)Twenty years ago today, on September 2, 1990, Dave Stieb finally did it. After years of painful teasing, he finally threw a complete game no-hitter. Rarely had a pitcher gone such torture to achieve this goal. Prior to that day, Stieb had five separate complete game one-hitters. As an added bonus: all five one-hitters had come in a fairly rapid sequence, in a 15-month sequence from May 1988 to August 1989. The first one, on May 31, 1988, wasn’t too bad. B. J. Surhoff singled with one out in the fourth inning. Eh, that’s too early to get too anxious about a no-hitter. The next one was quite different. Against the Cleveland Indians on September 24, 1988 – Stieb’s next-to-last start of the season – he went quite a bit deeper into the game without allowing a hit. He made it all the way to the ninth inning without allowing a hit. He retired the first two batters, putting him only one out away from history. At this point, Cleveland’s star second baseman – the already veteran Julio Franco – stepped to the plate. He fought Stieb mightily, fouling off three straights pitches after falling into a 1-2 hole, but Stieb couldn’t seem to put him away. Finally, on the eighth pitch of the battle, Franco put the ball into play – and it looked like Stieb had won. An easy grounder went to Toronto’s second baseman Manuel Lee. As everyone got up, expecting Stieb to get his no-hitter, the inexplicable happened. As the ball approached Lee, it took this bizarre hop well over Lee’s head, catapulting into centerfield for a mother of all flukes single. I believe the ball hit the boundary between Toronto’s turf and the dirt around second. Whatever, Stieb had been denied. He had to settle for a hard-fought 1-0 win, but not a no-hitter. Well, he shrugged it off well and came out firing in his next start on September 30, 1988. In fact, wouldn’t you know it – for the second straight start he took a no-hitter into the ninth inning. For the second straight start, he retired the first two batters in the ninth, putting him within one out of a no-hitter. For the second straight game, the potential last out (pinch hitter Jim Traber) fought Stieb hard, this time running the at bat for six pitches. And yes, for the second straight game, would-be out #27 became hit #1 with a single. Dave Stieb was a cursed version of Johnny Vander Meer. Stieb came back the next year and on April 10, 1989 – only his second start of the new year – threw yet another complete game one-hitter. This time the Fates were less malicious: the single came in the fifth inning with one out by Yankee catcher Jaime Quirk. But overall, it was entirely ridiculous. Stieb had now thrown four complete game one-hitters in less than 12 months – including three in his last four starts. On August 26, 1989, it happened one more time. Stieb threw a no-hitter for five and two-thirds innings – long enough into the game to make everyone aware of what was possible – before Robin Yount singled for what would be the Brewers’ only hit on the day. It was an infield single to third. Ouch. Again, God had forsaken Dave Stieb. Which brings us to today’s anniversary: September 2, 1990, Stieb finally did it. For the third time, he took a no-hitter into the ninth inning. For the second time, it was against the Cleveland Indians. Fortunately, Julio Franco now played for Texas. That said, the ninth inning was no picnic for Stieb. Leading off the inning, pinch hitter Chris James fought Stieb for six pitches before flying out deep to left field. Next up, Candy Maldanado fought Stieb for another six pitches before Stieb – rallying from a 2-1 count, fanned him. OK, now Stieb, for the third time, was one out away from his long-sought no-hitter. Was the pressure getting to him? Well, I’ll tell you this much – he walked the next batter (Alex Cole) on four pitches. Yeah, I think he felt some butterflies. Now Jerry Browne came to the plate. Like Franco two years before, he was Cleveland’s second baseman and represented their last chance to break up yet another possible Dave Stieb no-hitter. Ball one. That was Stieb’s fifth straight pitch to miss the strike zone. That’s one way to stop them from getting a hit. Next pitch Browne took, and it finally caught the strike zone, evening up the count. Meanwhile, Cole advanced to second on defensive interference. (The game was only 2-0 and the final itself was still in doubt). Stieb tossed another ball, and then evened the count up again, 2-2. It was another called strike – Browne hadn’t moved his bat yet. No one had for eight straight pitches. Stieb threw his next pitch – number five in this appearance and #123 for the game and this time Browne liked it – and finally swung. The shot had its chances – it was a liner beyond the infield – but towards right, where Junior Felix caught it. Game over – Dave Stieb had FINALLY done it. It’s a damn good thing he did it that day, too, because his days as an effective starter were pretty much done. That win put Stieb at 17-5 for the year. He won one more game that year, and then only four in each of the next two years – and he never won multiple games in a season after that. Though long overdue, Stieb finally did it, twenty years ago today. Click for more... And That HappenedMarlins 16, Nationals 10: Fisticuffsmanship! Nyjer Morgan's mound-charge was pretty good until he whiffed on that punch, but the star of this show was Gabby Sanchez, who came over from first base with a move that put me in mind of Manny Fernandez's flying burrito. Wait, you're not telling me you don't know who Manny Fernandez is, do you? He teamed with the Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant for cryin' out loud! They took the tag team belt from the Rock 'n' Roll Express! Really, you don't know him? Philistines. Reds 6, Brewers 1: Aroldis Chapman faced six batters, struck out three and hit 103.9 mph on the radar gun. Only Joel Zumaya has thrown a faster pitch in the few short years Pitch f/x has been around. Yikes. Diamondbacks 5, Padres 2: Brandon Allen's first major league action this year was occasioned by a home run and a couple of nice plays in the outfield. Not bad for a guy who has never played left field in the bigs before. Oh, and the Padres are just happy that the Cardinals' late-season implosion is getting more attention than theirs is. For now. Giants 2, Rockies 1: Welcome back to the land of the living, Tim Lincecum (8 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 9K). Three games are now all that separate the Giants and the Padres. Twins 2, Tigers 1: Max Scherzer deserved better (9 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 9K), but so too did Francisco Liriano who threw seven shutout innings and got a no decision as well. Danny Valencia won it with an RBI single in the 10th. Braves 4, Mets 1: Freddie Freeman's debut isn't going to do anything to keep Derrek Lee on the bench (0 for 3 with a K), but old men like Jason Heyward and Tommy Hanson were able to carry the load. Pretty sure I own underwear older than all three of 'em. Rangers 4, Royals 3: I'm crestfallen that Francoeur didn't report to the Rangers in time to make it into this one. The Royals probably are too, because that's one fewer game they have to scout Frenchy before their as-inevitable-as-the-sun-rising-tomorrow signing of him this winter. Yankees 4, Athletics 3: A.J. Burnett returns from the land of the living dead to get his first win in a long damn time (6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 8K). The Yankees maintain their one-game lead in the East. Rays 2, Blue Jays 1: Sean Rodriguez was a double short of the cycle (take THAT Gleeman!) and David Price picked up his 16th win. Which, as you can see from the Tigers-Twins game, is a totally useful statistic. Phillies 5, Dodgers 1: Roy Oswalt walked six dudes in six innings, but he got away with it because he only allowed one hit. Clayton Kershaw struck out 11 dudes but didn't have a win to show for it in part because he gave up two homers. Oh, and because the Dodgers bullpen kind of sucks these days. There's probably some kind of lesson in there somewhere. Red Sox 9, Orioles 6: Again, wins don't mean anything, but Jon Lester is now 13-0 lifetime against Baltimore, and that's pretty cool. Well, not for Baltimore, but you know what I mean. Astros 5, Cardinals 2: I hit this one up yesterday, but suffice it to say that Jeff Suppan is not who I think of when I think of the term "stopper." Cubs 5, Pirates 3: Tom Gorzelanny got knocked out of the game when a comebacker hit his right hand in the third, but the bullpen kept the Cubbies safe and dry for six innings. Fukudome was 3 for 3 with a couple of doubles an RBI and a walk. Dude had an outstanding August and looks to be continuing his tear. Angels 4, Mariners 2: Matsui's two-run homer won the game for Anaheim, but Franklin Gutierrez had the snag of the game. White Sox 6, Indians 4: Alex Rios hit a solo shot and Paul Konerko hit a three-run homer in the eighth to bring the Sox back from a 4-1 deficit. Manny's debut only amounted to a single, but if you're really starving for Manny news, you can read this inside report about how he really got to the White Sox. Shocking, I know, but I believe that's what really happened. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||