World Series - blah blah blah

[Ferret]

At the beginning of this year's post-season it looked like we might have an exciting World Series w/ a possible victory for the Boston Red Sox or the Chicago Cubs (both teams have about three centuries of combined seasons w/o a World Series victory).

Well, between last night's meltdown for the Cubbies and another victory for Roger Clemmons and the best team money can buy, it's going to be Yankees-Marlins going for the big title. I haven't been this apathetic toward baseball since the SF/Oakland series of '89...

...while watching the Cubs play last night I noticed that there were only two names that I recognised: Sammy Sosa (even if you don't follow baseball you know this guy) and Dusty Baker (he played for the Dodgers when I was a kid). The rest were all strangers to me. Perhaps it's because of free agency, lots of new players coming up from the farm systems, or the fact that I just don't watch the games. Not sure. All I know is that each one was mentionned playing for someone else a couple of years ago. What gives? How can you cheer for a team if they change lineups every couple of years? Are we just cheering for logos and uniforms?

-Ferret

"maybe if we're lucky, Yankee Stadium will explode during Game One - no big loss, really..."

 

[Jigglypuff]

Man, I cannot believe that the Sox melted down like that. The game was theirs to lose. And lose it they did.

(- Steve -)

 

[Apollo]

I hate the Yankees. I despise them. Passionately. But if you had come up to me and told me that the Yanks were going to the Series no matter what, and I could pick the way they would get there, I would have said "By Pedro Martinez choking away game 7 for the Red Sox."

So at least I got that out of it. Pedro blows the big one. How sweet. If only it wasn't to the Yankees...

 

[Ferret]

When I saw which four teams were representing the "playoff" teams, it was pretty grim because I hate three out of four of them (Yankee$, Red Sox, and the Fish) so when the Cubbies lost, I was hoping for the lesser of the two evils (Sox) to win and they blew it...I'll check out the updates on MLB.com and find out how quickly the Yankees buy - I mean win - this series...

-Ferret

"Seriously: who are these people?"

 

[Reverend Love]

??????????

Ferret you sound as if watching the richest team in baseball repeatedly win the world serious due to outspending isn't exciting.

Dude what do you expect from a lame sport who refuses to implement a salary cap.

 

[Svenmonkey]

I think baseball needs to modernize. First, they need a salary cap as Reverend Love pointed out. Second, they need to adopt a system where plays can be reviewed on film (like in football) by the umpires so they can actually make a freaking correct call every once in a while.

 

[Ferret]

Originally posted by Svenmonkey
I think baseball needs to modernize. First, they need a salary cap as Reverend Love pointed out. Second, they need to adopt a system where plays can be reviewed on film (like in football) by the umpires so they can actually make a freaking correct call every once in a while.

Both of those sound like a good idea. Let's take a look at them:

Cap: free agency has already made it to where we no longer are watching the teams, but watching the players constantly move to the players w/ the largest pocketbooks is ridiculous. What's even worse is when the players threaten to strike over a cap. What's the problem here? Each one of them has two commas in their anual salaries! How much is too much?

Play Reviews: Not a bad idea. It would make the games more fair - however, do we really need something else to slow down baseball?

-Ferret

"Either I get $8,000,000 a year or I walk!"

 

[Svenmonkey]

I say let the players strike. Put in a salary cap, and when they strike, just fire them and get some new ones from the minors and/or various other countries. Sounds like a good idea to me.

 

[train]

Ferret - Are you a Devil Rays Fan?...

 

[Ferret]

Originally posted by train
Ferret - Are you a Devil Rays Fan?...

No. I like to watch the minor league teams that play down here. They only play for about $20k or less and play harder than any of those cry-babies in the "big leagues".

The real problem I have w/ the Devil Rays is that the owners don't really care about the fans (expensive tickets), or care about winning (sell the good players, try to buy power hitters to win and act shocked when the team can't even hit .500). They remind me too much of Culverhouses (the Bucs' former owners).

-Ferret

"and I don't even like how the city of St. Pete raised sales tax to build a stadium that took TEN YEARS to get a team..."

 

[Reverend Love]

Baseball needs to:

1. Shorten their season. 100+ games is 70 to many.
2. Institute a cap AND ban incentive packages.
3. ****-can a few teams. Baseball is bloated with hack teams who can't even break .500.

Even if they did all this I would still not give a rat's musty-nuts about "America's Pastime"..why... because of the almighty NCAA Football.

 

[train]

NCAA is the way to go for action...

NFL is the way to go for great strategy...

 

[Svenmonkey]

Uh, about #3 there, Reverend Love, every team being over .500 wouldn't exactly be possible. For one team to win, the other has to lose. And I don't think every team winning exactly half its games would be much fun, either.

 

[Reverend Love]

Break..as in achieve .500 as in not being a consistent W for the well funded teams.

 

[train]

every team being over .500 wouldn't exactly be possible.

But every team could be 500...

 

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

Re Rev. Love: Must... resist... semantics...

There are too many teams though. Probably too many games too, although I don't think they should cut 70 or any number near there.

 

[train]

I think they could cut 42, make it a good 120 games, and then have better games, and pitchers that played every 2-3 games...

Where's the iron-horse pitchers anymore?...

 

[Apollo]

They're in the hospital... unable to use their arms... because they were overworked all their lives...

 

[Svenmonkey]

Hey, I used to pitch every game. Back in... elementary and middle school... and I didn't get hurt.

 

[Ferret]

Originally posted by Svenmonkey
Hey, I used to pitch every game. Back in... elementary and middle school... and I didn't get hurt.

Yeah! And you weren't even getting paid a salary w/ two commas in it! I can't believe how many times I've seen a pitcher put himself on the DL w/ a sprained wrist or jammed finger. I say "get over it! You get paid more in one year than I expect to get my ENTIRE LIFE! Be a man! Fight back the pain and play, darn it!"

-Ferret

"Oh yeah, let's get rid of the stupid DH rule. Let them know how it feels to get beaned!"