Go Cubs!

Go Cubs

 

Damn

I can't believe it. I have to go to Chicago next week on business, and I was so hoping the cubs would make the series. I would have loved to have gotten to see a world series game in Chicago.

I coached my kids (5-6 yr. olds) baseball team this year, and we were the Cubs. We won the regular season (1st Place), and then lost the final tournament game to the Marlins on a comeback in the last inning. Last year we were the Giants, and came in second place to the Angels. So, whoever wins the 5-6 year league next year I am going to put my money on that team in the majors.

Oh well I guess I will pull for the Marlins now. Any team but the Yankees!

 

He, he he. It seems like the valiant efforts of my Marlins succeeded in preserving the sanctity of one of the few traditions we have left in the sport of baseball.

 

Since I was hoping the Cubs would win, I can now sympathize more deeply with the true meaning of being a Cub fan.

 

I think it will be a Yankees year!

 

Ditto! Although I'm a CUBS fan, I'm going to be pulling for the Marlins to knock off the Yankees. I think they'll need all the support they can get in that regard.........................................especially considering they don't have any (real) fans in Miami.

 

MLB Player Payroll figures:

1. NY Yankees $156,948,495

3. Boston $100,651,177

8. Chicago Cubs $86,252,833

20. Florida $52,538,298

Although I live in South Florida am not a Marlins fan. Haven't forgiven the team being named "Florida" instead of Miami.

But the thought of the Yankees again is too much!

 

Believe me, they're mixing the Jonestown Kool-Aid in Boston right now.

I think the Yankees winning the World Series yet again this year would be very bad for baseball. What's the sense of watching a whole season where the outcome is all but pre-determined? You would think Steinbrenner would realize that, but he probably knows that the fair-weather Yankee fans would bail on his team in a heartbeat if they ever had a sub-par season.

A Cubs-Red Sox World Series would have been baseball heaven and drawn a lot of people back into the game, but it wasn't meant to be.

 

I think Marlins will pull it off (4-2). Marlins score most of the runs in the late innings and Yankees bullpen is so vulnerable. I am not a fan of Marlins, but I love the way they play the baseball.

 

I agree

MLB Player Payroll (beginning 2003)

4. Atlanta $99,195,593

27. Pittsburgh $42,106,059

28. Milwaukee $27,887,000

29. Toronto $27,523,500

30. Tampa Bay $18,730,000

 

The payroll numbers for the NYY and MLB league totals are at:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/salaries?team=nyy

 

I'm burned out on baseball.

The Giants and A's had high hopes but got their butts kicked.

I switched my allegiance to the Cubs and Red Sox, but at the end there seemed to be a kind of inevitability to their losing.

And now we have two teams in the series that I simply don't care about.

I suppose that I favor the Marlins, simply because I can't stand all that New York "dynasty" attitude. But I'm not interested enough, or enough of a hard-core baseball fan, to waste any of my time watching the games.

As always, better luck next year I guess...

 

Baseball is a great game. I believe that Steinbrenner (and Turner in the national league) have done great damage baseball. If the owners don't figure out how to fix it, baseball will continue to decline in popularity relative to other sports.

 

I don't follow baseball much anymore. I didn't realize New York is seeking its 27th Series title and sixth in eight seasons.

Back to football!

 

Speaking of doing damage to the sport of baseball...

I don't know if it has hit the world press yet, but a major sports doping scandal is breaking in the bay area as we speak.

It seems that chemists have invented a designer steroid that is undetectable in the normal urine tests given athletes. An anonymous track and field coach informed authorities, saying that the athletes were all using it, and sent a used hypodermic syringe with some residue as proof. The syringe was sent to UCLA, where chemists verified that it contained something called tetrahydrogestrinone (THG). Once they knew what to look for, urine samples taken at the recent US track and field championships were retested, and reportedly a number came up positive.

The drug was traced to something called the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO), in Burlingame California. Authorities proceeded to raid it.

Well, it seems that BALCO has a golden client list, including names like baseball's Barry Bonds, football's Bill Romonowski, and some of the US Olympic team. Federal Grand Jury subpoenas have just gone out to what are described as 40 "elite" professional and Olympic athletes.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/10/18/sports2029EDT0447.DTL

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/10/18/MNGLC2EG4O1.DTL

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/10/19/BALCO.TMP

The rumblings in my gut tell me that some brown anal extrusions may soon be encountering fans.

 

The Yankees organization (not the individual players) is the classic school yard bully....they have to win every game, or else they take their ball and go home.

I don't think that George Steinbrenner is a stupid man, but I think it's incredible that he can't see the damage he's doing (along with Ted Turner) to the game of baseball.

 

A local sportswriter proposes what I think is a fantastic idea. Some network other than Fox hires the Redsox and the Cubs to play a best-of-seven series right now . . . "The People's World Series." Can you imagine what ratings that would get, compared with the Florida-NY thing.

 

Ratings akin to the Super Bowl, I believe. However, I suspect both MLB and Fox would have to acquiesce for something like that to happen which, of course, is extremely unlikely. Plus, we'd have to endure the likes of Steinbrenner and Turner throwing (Looney Tune) Tasmanian Devil-type fits in the process.

How about something like this?

Play the regular season as usual (162 games). Nothing changes with respect to division champions and wildcards.

After the LDS there will be 4 teams left (2 AL and 2 NL). Let the fans, sportswriters, and broadcasters VOTE for the two teams they would like to see in the World Series (900 number, or whatever, that would cost a buck or two thus generating even more revenue for MLB).

Take the total number of votes and make adjustments (upward or downward) for factors such as team payroll, number of fans in attendance at home games, etc.

With the foregoing, although the Yankees might get tons of votes as a result of being in a huge market, the total would be drastically reduced by the payroll factor (e.g. this year, since the Yankees payroll was 50% MORE than the other qualifying team in the AL, the Red Sox, the Yankees' vote total would be reduced by that amount). Further, although total attendance at Sox home games was less than total attendance at Yankees home games, the Sox had a higher attendance percentage (seats available v seats filled) than the Yankees and, thus, the Sox vote total would be adjusted upward accordingly.

As for the Cubs, they would certainly receive more votes than the Marlins but that total would be reduced as a result of the higher Cubs payroll. However, the Cubs would receive an upward adjustment as a result of much higher attendance at home games (like 94% for the Cubs versus 44% for the Marlins).

This would accomplish several goals; it would involve the fans in the process, encourage attendance at home games, and provide a disincentive for owners to attempt to buy their way to the World Series.

I realize that none of the foregoing will work for various reasons and the entire concept sucks so please don't flame me

 

KPIX/KCBS local news on Yahoo is reporting that New York Yankees player Jason Giambi is among those subpoenaed in the BALCO steroid probe.

 

It might get ratings but it would ruin baseball much the same way "linear champions," "people's champs," etc., in boxing have ruined that sport.