The Commissioner of Baseball is objective, right? He’s the caretaker for the game, the objective overseer who makes certain it runs right — and each season his fondest hope is that the best team wins, no matter who it is. But in a most fundamental way, fans of the game know that’s a crock: baseball is a business. At the end the year, what’s important is the bottom line.
Which is why the 2011 Brew Crew are Bud Selig’s nightmare, it’s the team that keeps him awake at night. For the truth is that, if the Yankees and Phillies make it to the World Series, baseball will benefit from television viewer ratings in two of the most important media markets in the U.S., while if the Brewers and Tigers (say) make it to the series, the numbers will . . . well, they’ll be less good.
The numbers don’t lie. Since the mid-1980s, baseball’s post-season television numbers have suffered an overall decline, and it’s worse if a big market team isn’t playing. While the 2009 Phillies-Yankees ratings weren’t any great shakes (as compared to 1986 — when the Mets and Red Sox played each other), they were a damned sight better than 2010. If the Brewers beat the D-Backs, and then the winner of the Phillies-Cardinals tilt, those post-season numbers will continue to slide.
Of course, this view can be totally wrong. The Brewers have turned into one of the most successful teams in the sport, and not just on the field. This year the Brewers set an all-time attendance record, selling 3,068,781 tickets — which made them seventh in MLB in total attendance, and fourth in the N.L. And this in baseball’s smallest metropolitan area.
The story of the Brewers is, in fact, the best business story in the major leagues. After limping into Milwaukee from Seattle in 1970, the Brewers built a fan base and a new ballpark — cultivating a market wedded to the Green Bay Packers in a town with rust belt and failing industries. The man who authored this transition was Bud Selig.
. . . because, while the Nationals keep winning in Philly, they still have seven games to play and, no matter what they do, will finish no better than third. We’re not just being killjoys: while it’s wonderful to see our Anacostia Nine play so well (especially at “Nats Park North”), there are some among us who (in the middle of the 7th inning last night — and then again in the 8th) stood up and screamed — “that’s just great, but where were you in June?”
The answer oughta be obvious: trying to find a pitching staff. That the Nats have now won consistently, when it counts the least, is evidence that (finally), that seems to have been done. John Lannan didn’t pitch brilliantly last night, but he fought hard and well (he’s not the same pitcher we saw last year), and a whole handful of other arms have now emerged: Milone and Peacock, and Wang and Detwiler — not to mention Jordan Zimmermann and Stephen Strasburg (and, just maybe, Livan Hernandez). And those are just the starters.
Then too, the bats have nearly ended their slumber: the Nationals pounded out ten hits last night, which included home runs from Danny Espinosa (his 21st, setting a Nationals rookie record), and the vastly underrated Wilson Ramos (who hit his 14th, which is none too shabby). More importantly, the Nats shook off their disturbing habit of serving tea to men on base — eight were left on base last night, but that number is going down, and they’ve damned near returned to the league mean.
As important (we think) is that the Nationals are now 9-8 against their in-division rivals — with the bonus that Nats fans have started to stream north. That an indication (perhaps), that Nats fans are anticipating what might (might) happen next year. “It’s a fun time,” Danny Espinosa said of his visit to the not-so-friendly confines of The Bank. “It’s a fun game to play against them. I want to play them hard because I know we can beat them. We are showing that. For myself, personally, I enjoy playing against the team.”
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: We’ve decided to change the description of the New York Mets — they’re no longer “the chokes.” That description more aptly fits the Atlanta Braves, who barely showed up to play the Marlins last night in Miami, and lost to the stinking Fish. It wasn’t even close. Now they know how it feels. The Braves now lead the Cardinals (who woulda thought — and certainly not us), by a single game and some spit. The Cardinals surprised everyone (including their own fans) and rallied to beat the Mets in St. Louis, 6-5 . . .
Former hockey player (and Washington Nationals) Nyjer Morgan turned “chippy” in Milwaukee last night after striking out against Cardinals’ starter Chris Carpenter. Morgan had battled through the ten-pitch at bat and was headed back to the dugout when he said something to Carpenter and tossed his chewing tobacco at him. Albert Pujols sprinted down the line to confront Morgan and the benches emptied, but no punches were thrown. Morgan was tossed.
“I just got in the middle to make sure that Morgan didn’t jump on Carp,” Pujols later explained. “The last thing you want is our guy that’s trying a shutout game to lose his focus. I actually like that guy. I don’t mind having a guy like that on my team. He brings a lot of energy to the ballclub, and you want to have a guy like that. But sometimes I think he goes (a little overboard) and tries to put too much energy.”
After the game, Morgan claimed that Carpenter had cursed him from the mound, and Morgan returned the favor before tossing his tobacco and shouting at him. The Cardinals won the game, a pitchers’ duel that pitted Cardinals’ hurler Chris Carpenter against Milwaukee’s Zach Greinke. Carpenter pitched a beauty, blanking the Brew Crew 2-0 on a four hitter. But the Cardinals still trail Milwaukee by a wide margin in the N.L. Central.
Morgan seemed to shrug off the incident after the game . . . but wait, wait — there’s more. Later, on Twitter, “Tony Plush” talked about Pujols — as if the game was the baseball version of Hockey Night in Canada. “Alberta couldn’t see Plush if she had her gloves on!!!” he chirped. “Wat was she thinking running afta Plush!!! She never been n tha ring!!!” Ugh.
The incident overshadowed a very, very fine game. With St. Louis struggling to catch the Brewers in the N.L. Central, the team needed a good outing from Carpenter, and they got one. He struck out five and threw a complete game, despite being up and down (he’s 9-9 on the season), during the 2011 campaign. As important, perhaps, was that Carpenter threw this magic while facing Zack Greinke, who was nearly as effective (seven innings, two earned).
They call it “The Great American Ball Park,” but in fact it’s only the “Good American Ballpark.” That became clear last night when two light stands at the ballpark went out in the eighth inning — and the game was delayed.
At first, no one in the park understood the delay, and from where we were sitting (CFG is on the road — and in Cincinnati of all places), it didn’t look as if the field had actually lost any light. But then, from the nose bleed section (Section 524), the little men scurrying around attempting to solve the problem (down below us, and in the far distance), were far more exciting than the game itself, unless you were a Redlegs fan.
The Nationals came to Cincinnati hoping to reverse their fortunes after hardly showing up for the Snakes in D.C., but they faced the same problems in the “Queen City” that they faced at home: poor hitting, indifferent pitching and a heart stopping inability to show of their young talent. The result was too predictable — a Reds’ walkoff engineered by the I’m-old-but-I-can-still-play Miguel Cairo in the bottom of the ninth.
Aaron Boone and the BBTN crowd over at ESPN were asked the three things they would do now, if they were the Cubs, and they talked of clubhouse character and finding good talent — all of it good advice. But transforming the Cubs will take more than adding good players at reasonable prices, and saying that the team needs to “change the culture of losing” doesn’t help. What exactly does that mean? So here, unbidden, are our three simple ideas of what the Cubs can do.
First, show some patience. The best pitcher in the Cubs system is now in Tampa Bay — and his name is Chris Archer. The 6-3 righty was traded, with a packet of prospects, for Matt Garza last winter. Garza is plenty good, but Archer could be a lot better. The Cubs will never know, because they got impatient, and Garza looked attractive. This is an almost genetic habit of the North Side Drama Queens. Enough already: develop players and hang on to them. Like they have done (finally, blessedly) with Starlin Castro and Darwin Barney. Listen (you stupid jerks), instead of shipping out Josh Vitters (he can play third, for Aramis Ramirez — who’s going to get injured again, any minute now) and Tyler Colvin, play them. And when they don’t play well, play them anyway . . .
This was a Hail Mary pass if ever there was one. When Mike Rizzo signed Chien-Ming Wang back in February of 2010, there was absolutely no reason to believe that he would someday once again pitch in the majors. Wang was then rehabbing from right shoulder surgery, but it was worse than that: his shoulder was shredded. It was thought then that he could pitch by May of that year: it took him another fourteen months, an extended rehab assignment in the minors and two lousy outings.
But “the Michael Jordan of Taiwan” (as Rizzo described him then), is apparently now all the way back, though baseball gurus say that his shoulder still hurts when he throws a slider. Never mind: he only needs his sinker, as he proved against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday, throwing six complete innings while giving up only a single hit. Wang’s outing (and homers by Michael Morse and Jonny Gomes) allowed the Nats to best the Cubs at Wrigley Field, 3-1.
Wang was the story of the night. The righty threw 81 pitches, 53 of them for strikes. More importantly, his sinker was working. The former Yankee Cy Young candidate registered eleven groundouts, issued only two walks and struck out one. Unlike his first two outings with the Washington Nine, he was never really in danger.
The return of Wang might be the best late-season news the Nationals have ever had — he symbolizes another solid arm in the mix for 2012 (is there really any question he’ll return?), that will include Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann and John Lannan. A Strasburg-Zimmermann-Lannan-Wang rotation (if all are healthy) would give Washington one of the best front fours in the game. The Nationals must be ecstatic: “Real nice job. Outstanding,” pitching coach Steve McCatty said.
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The North Side Drama Queens are in the middle of a revival of sorts. Prior to Tuesday’s loss to the Nationals, the Cubs had won seven in a row, including a sweep of the Pirates. Don’t let that fool you, the streak only provided hope where little exists . . .
Washington and the Rockies rapped out 33 hits in scoring 22 runs on Saturday — but the Heltons were just too powerful and downed the Nationals, 15-7. This was a poor outing for Livan Hernandez (now 6-11 on the year) who gave up nine hits and seven runs in just 3.2 innings.
The big bats of Colorado showed up in force: Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki were a combined 5-8, while normally light hitting catcher Chris Iannetta was 4-5. The Nationals bullpen was also ineffective. Tom Gorzelanny, Todd Coffey, Sean Burnett and Henry Rodriguez gave up a combined ten hits in 4.2 innings of work.
The Nationals fought back in the top of the sixth, scoring four runs to bring the game to within three, at 10-7. It was the only strong point of the Washington showing. “I was really pleased with the team,” skipper Davey Johnson said, after the loss. “We battled back and scored a bunch of runs with two outs, and that was a good sign. Stuff like that happens here.”
Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: The Cincinnati Reds were swept by the Mets at the end of July, but then took three of three from the Giants — a sure sign the team was still in the thick of the N.L. Central race. But since then the Redlegs have tanked. They dropped two of three from the Astros and have now dropped two in a row to the Cubs . . .
They look awful. Yesterday in Chicago (which has a seven game winning streak, though no one knows exactly why), Dusty Baker’s boys were eaten by Carlos Zambrano, who gave up six hits in six innings and homered off Johnny Cueto in the second inning. Zambrano (whose homer was a straight-away-to-center shot), is now 9-6 . . . Cueto couldn’t make it out of the fourth . . .
