With the Rays cruising to a playoff spot and the Twins only a game back, TBS could have a nightmarish Division Series match up... possibly even worse than their Rockies/Diamondbacks NLCS last year.
Great blimp shots, eh? "We're looking down on... well... a monstroscity and we can't even see the f---ing game!"
And while both teams play great fundemental baseball, how are they going to promote it? "GARZA VERSUS BAKER! Only ONE can win!"
I guess "Hey! Here are a pair of over achieving teams that just 7 years ago were threatened with contraction... now at least one of them will get to the ALCS. They play the game with heart, spirit and without spoiled stars! Come watch!"
Today the team with the highest payroll in baseball is playing the team with the smallest payroll in the American League.
One of the teams is the best team in baseball trying to secure a division title. The other faces a double digit defecit and has to be content playing the role of spoiler.
Guess which team is which? Yup... all the Yankees can do is be a spoiler as the Rays are October bound.
Remember the firesale the Marlins had that shrunk their payroll to baseball's lowest? Remember how they sent off their best known players to the Tigers and the Tigers payroll skyrocketed to over $100 million?
On September 4th, only one of those two teams has a winning record. Guess which one it is... no guess!
I can feel the glory of 26 Championships basking over me! I can feel the honor and the pride of the Pinstripes!
I get choked up thinking of those great Yankees honored in Monument Park and knowing that the Yankees... the team I am rooting for today... has been the standard for generations.
Putting on the uniform just DOES something to a fan.
And Red Sox fans all across this country need to root for the Yankees tonight!
Sure we all hate the Yankees and man oh man is it fun seeing them as relevant as the Washington Nationals in September.
Yes it is great watching Jeter doing the math in his head realizing "Holy Cow... I'm going home this October."
And nobody has more fun watching the Yankees tumble and even fanticising about a 4th place finish.
But there is a bigger picture to follow. The Yankees are 10 back of the Rays and 7 games behind the Defending World Champion Boston Red Sox.
As long as the Defending World Champion Boston Red Sox keep winning, the Yankees won't make up a week of games.
And there is no way they are going to make up 10 games behind Tampa. They are dead.
They are one of the Thugees falling off the bridge in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. No matter how much the Yankees flail their arms, they are falling into the river and will be eaten by crocodiles.
But the division is in sight. A Yankees win will pull the Sox to within 2 1/2 games (3 in the loss collumn)with 6 head to head Tampa games left.
And yeah, I know the important thing is to get into the playoffs... but I think that home field advantage will be huge for the Sox this year. They play better at Fenway and they aren't as deep as the '04 and '07 teams. They need every advantage they can get.
And while the Sox plowed through the Angels in their two World Championship seasons, I want no part of them this year. I'd much rather face either the Twins or the White Sox in the first round.
So I want that division... Even if it means holding your nose and rooting for the Yankees.
We'll call it the CC Sabathia rule. The Official Scorer has to make sure the first hit of any game is not a judgement call.
Now normally this would be a complete non issue. Most games have a sharp hit or a grounder with eyes in the first couple of innings.
But if in those first few innings the only hit you got is a questionable judgement call... here's the rule: You call it an error.
If there has been no hits by a team and they even have to ASK if it was a hit, call it an error.
But I don't want to have a situation like what happened this weekend with CC Sabathia to happen again.
He fumbles a play in the 5th inning, the Pirate's scorekeeper calls it a hit... and that's the only hit they got.
And eeeeevvvvveryone was in a tizzy. John Kruk said it should count as a no hitter.
But that's absurd. You pitch differently with a no hitter than you would with a 1 hitter. (I'm guessing that of course... I never even pitched a no hitter playing Hard Ball.)
You can't go back and make it a no hitter any more than the Cardinals can put the 1985 team back on the field and call Jorge Orta out.
But that one simple rule would change everything.
If it is questionable, call it an error until the first clean hit. Most of the times, this rule would come and go without notice as most pitchers stink and will let up a hit sooner rather than later.
It's kind of like at rule in Hearts where you can't drop the Queen or any hearts on the first trick.
(Granted my mother doesn't like that rule.)
Now of course this would cause a problem if a guy is looking for their 3,000 hit or trying to win a batting crown, but I'm sure they'd want to win in on a clean hit too.
Either way, I think preserving a no hitter is more exciting than recreating the plot for Mr. 3,000. (Also about a Brewer.)
