Results tagged ‘ ESPN ’

East Coast Bias

 

For years sports fans throughout the mid-west and west have been complaining that there is a media bias toward east coast teams. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it hasn’t really bothered me if it is.

 

Something is going on now though that probably deserves a little bias. All 10 teams in the Eastern Division of baseball’s NL and the AL are above .500

 

It’s still early, 2/3 of the season still remains to be played, but the standings in those two divisions bear watching.

 

If even just one of these two divisions finish with all 5 teams above .500 it would be a major accomplishment. Why? Since baseball went to three divisions in each league in 1994 it’s never happened. That’s 18 seasons, six divisions per league, 108 chances; and it’s never happened.

 

Actually the NL East came the closest in 2005. The Braves, Phillies, Marlins, and the Mets all finished above .500, only the Nationals didn’t, but they came very close. Washington lost the last game of the season to finish at an even 81-81.

 

So for the rest of the summer while ESPN is talkin’ up the eastern division teams, maybe it’s not just bias, maybe it’s something that is really warranted. 

 

Baseball Realignment, Inter-league Play and Schedule

Yesterday ESPN.com had an article about possible schedule realignment and inter-league play next season. You can read the short article here.

 

We know that there will be a change to the schedule next year for sure because the Houston Astros will be moving to the American League. Each league will now have three divisions of five, for an odd numbered total of 15. It makes all the divisions equal in number, but it also creates a situation in which there will be inter-league play on every day of the season, from Opening Day right through to the last game of the season.

 

Personally, I have no problem with inter-league play every day, if it’s good enough on May 18th, why not September 18th? And I think most people feel the same. However, if I’ve heard one beef about it though, it would be playing against the other league down the stretch of the season all the way to the last game. Most people like the idea of division games that last week, and I do to, but it rarely works out to be the 1st and 2nd place teams playing each other anyway. On the last day of the season this year, Minnesota will be playing Toronto, Atlanta is at Pittsburgh, San Diego at Milwaukee; Not exactly heated division rivalries, but I didn’t hear any complaints about that scheduling when it was posted.

 

If you read the ESPN article, you know the real gist of it was about the possible reduction in “Rivalry Games” like Mets-Yankees, Cubs-Sox, and Reds- Indians.

 

Good! I say.

 

I don’t need the Cubs to play the Sox 6 games each year in a home and home matchup.

 

MLB has a real opportunity to make the schedule right for the foreseeable future. But because I don’t trust them to come up with the correct plan……….I’m going to give it to them ;) .

 

Every team plays 18 games against the other 4 teams in their Division: 72 Games Total

 

Every team plays 6 games against the other 10 non-division teams in its League: 60 Games Total

 

Every team plays 30 inter-league games. 6 games against each of the 5 teams in one of the three divisions in the other league. All the teams in your division will play the same other league division as you. Each year the division that they play will rotate: 30 Games

 

That’s a total of 162 games. It’s really that simple.

 

The only “flaw”, natural rivalry games (Cubs-Sox/NY-NY etc.) are reduced to happening only every three years. And that’s perfectly fine with me. The Cubs went from 1901 to 1997 without ever playing the Sox in the regular season and nobody had a problem with it. If MLB really needs the Cubs and the Sox to play against each other every year, they should have put them in the same division….. then it would REALLY be a rivalry, but until then I’m happy to play against the Cardinals every year and the Sox once every three years.

 

So there it is, so simple that it will never happen.

 

But hey Mr. Commissioner, if you are reading this and want to talk about it, just leave a comment down below or feel free to email me.

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Side Note:  I’m taking WrigleyRegular on the road; I will be in Cincinnati tomorrow. You can look for a trip and game review with pictures coming soon.

What If………………

This morning I was in a waiting room…….waiting.  Waiting the worst kind of wait, the kind of
wait that has no time period. It could be 5 minutes or 5 hours…Ok, I knew it
wasn’t gonna be five hours, but you get the point, I really wasn’t sure how long
I was going to be there. This is the kind of wait that drives people nuts.  I’m not talking about – “I can’t wait til 9
when my favorite show comes on” – type of wait. I’m not talking about – “I can’t
wait til the season starts” – wait.  I’m
talking about – “I’m trapped in this room waiting for someone to come get me
and I can’t focus on anything until it happens” – type of wait.

Usually when I know I’m going to be in those situations I bring
a book with me. It doesn’t do me much good most of the time because the unknown
period of the wait ruins my concentration. I generally end up reading each page
twice because I can’t focus while………..waiting.
This morning I didn’t bring a book, I had just finished a previous one
and trying to start a new one under those conditions would be like trying to
watch Pulp Fiction without the sound,
you can do it, but it wouldn’t make sense.

So after waiting for a couple minutes I decided to pick up a
magazine, ESPN the Magazine.  As I flipped the pages I ran across a feature called
What If…….

The contributors to the magazine would take a ‘What If’, and
in 5 steps get us from then to now. Two examples are; What If…….. John Elway
had agreed to sign with the Baltimore Colts, and What If…….baseball had named
Texas Rangers owner George W. Bush the commissioner instead of Brewers owner
Bud Selig.

I’d give a couple more examples, but my – “If I can get
through this wait without jumping up on the chair and screaming ‘My turn, my
turn” – wait was over after just 8 minutes and I didn’t have time to read
anymore of them.

So I thought I’d give it a try here myself.

What If………………….. 


Steve Bartman didn’t touch the ball and Moises
Alou caught it.



1- The Cubs go on to win the game, the NLCS and then the
World Series

2- Instead of winning the WS, the Florida Marlins lose their
fans and end up moving to Washington DC in 2005 instead of the Expos. Ryan
Zimmerman plays in Montreal and no one knows who he is.

3- Dusty Baker becomes a hero in Chicago on the same level
as Mike Ditka and stays with the team the next 8 years. Kerry Wood and Mark Prior
still undergo arm surgeries, as do Randy Wells, Ted Lilly, Sean Marshall and
Jeff Samardzija.

4- Lou Piniella gets the Yankees managerial job instead of
Joe Girardi. Piniella and the Yankees win two World Series together and Lou is
a lock for the Hall of Fame. Girardi ends up with the Pirates and gets fired
after the 2010 season. No one is trying to outbid the other to hire him.

5- Only friends and family know who Steve Bartman. 2003′s
most popular Halloween costume in Chicago is not “The Bartman”, it’s “The SARS
patient”.

– If you have a “What If……….” that you would like answered, send it to Wrigley Regular@comcast.net

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