Sports Then and Now

Late game celebrations have been a regular occurrence for the Baltimore Orioles is 2012.

If you are under the age of 35 you may find it hard to believe, but for nearly two decades, the Baltimore Orioles were the class of Major League Baseball and terms such as “The Oriole Way” and “Oriole Magic” were just as familiar to baseball fans as “Red Sox Nation” is today.

With the 2012 season now nearly a third of the way complete, it is way too early to declare Baltimore “back” among the upper echelon teams in baseball, but for the first time in quite a while the future in Baltimore does appear to be promising.

Following back-to-back extra inning victories over the Philadelphia Phillies, the Orioles sport an impressive 34-26 record and are right in the mix of the highly competitive American League East.

The hot early start is definitely a reason for fans of a franchise that hasn’t posted a winning record since 1997 to be excited, but this is not the first time in the last 15 years that Baltimore has teased fans into June.

In 2005 the Orioles had a 42-28 record on June 21st and a two game lead in the AL East. A 3-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays the next day started a stretch in which Baltimore lost 11 of 14 games and 60 of their final 92 games to end with a 74-88 record and 21 games out in the standings. Read the rest of this entry →

It appears that the prayers of baseball fans will not be answered as Bud Selig is sticking around for at least another three years.

Like a veteran player who doesn’t know when to hang up his jersey, looks like Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is determined to stick around as long as possible. Though it was originally announced that 2012 would be his final season as commissioner, Selig has now changed his mind and will remain in his role until at least the end of the 2014 season.

Shockingly (or maybe not), major league owners voted 29-1 to extend Selig’s contract for two additional years to ensure that Selig will be commissioner at least past his 80th birthday at a reported salary of $22 million per year.

Given his hubris, it seems very likely that Selig will do everything he can to remain in control of the league at least through the 2016 season as that would ensure he passes Kenesaw “Mountain” Landis for the longest tenure as commissioner in league history.

What seems strange is that while ownership considers Selig to be a great commissioner, many outside the owner’s boxes look as Selig as the epitome of all things bad about baseball.

While football had already started to eclipse baseball as “America’s Pastime”  when Selig took over as interim commissioner in 1992, he seemingly has spent the last 20 years doing everything he can to ensure that baseball never gets close to retaking that title.

At the time, Selig was the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers and like the other owners in the game had tired of a commissioner whose focus was on the integrity of the sport, rather than supporting the owners and their desires.

When the owners fired Commissioner Fay Vincent, they installed Selig on an interim basis and within two years he was spearheading a battle with the players union that would eventually ensure that the World Series would be missed for the first time in 90 years.

While both sides can certainly take some of the blame for missing the World Series and the subsequent agreement that ensured that teams willing to over-spend would have a significant advantage over other teams moving forward, the fact that Selig was running the show for the owners makes him culpable for that disaster.

Between 1950 and 1994, only four teams (two of which were expansion squads) registered 10 or more consecutive losing seasons (1953-1962 Chicago Cubs, 1953-1967 Kansas City Athletics, 1969-78 Montreal Expos and the 1977-1990 Seattle Mariners). Since 1994, five teams have reached that dubious plateau (1993-2011 Pittsburgh Pirates, 1993-2004 Milwaukee Brewers, 1994-2005 Detroit Tigers, 1998-2007 Tampa Bay Rays and the 1998-2011 Baltimore Orioles). In addition, the Kansas City Royals have been below .500 in 16 of 17 seasons (2003 being their only exception), the Cincinnati Reds have been below .500 in 10 of the last 11 seasons (2010 being their only winning season when they won the NL Central) and the Colorado Rockies have had a losing record in 10 of the last 13 seasons.

Yes, there have been small market teams like the Minnesota Twins and Oakland A’s that have enjoyed occasional success, but the A’s have not had a winning record since 2006 and the Twins lost 99 games last season to illustrate that even small market teams that are able to build winning programs do not have the same ability to reload that is afforded to teams with greater revenue streams. Read the rest of this entry →

Jacoby Ellsbury and the Boston Red Sox have hit a lot of walls during their attempt to secure a 2011 playoff spot.

Popular alternative-rock band, Green Day, had a platinum hit single titled “Wake Me Up When September Ends” off of their American Idiot album in 2005. While the song may have debuted in June of 2005, it has become popular now more than ever. At least in the cities of Boston and Atlanta.

Sheer misery, agony, and torture wouldn’t even begin to describe the pain that the fans of these two historically reputable teams have had to endure over the past twenty-seven days. The month has been a, for lack of a better word, curse to the Red Sox and Braves, something Boston is far too familiar with and something Atlanta wants no part of. September has handed the Braves and Red Sox a combined 36 losses and taken near double-digit leads in both wild-card races away from each team.

On the other side of the equation, there’s the Tampa Bay Rays and St. Louis Cardinals. With a lot of the talk coming from how poorly the Red Sox have played, much credit is due to Tampa Bay, who has gone 16-8 since being down 9 games to Boston on September 2. The Rays have baseball fanatics around the country wondering how they’ve managed to battle their way back into a tie with Boston for the wild-card. The answer is simple. They believe they can win it.

“There’s a real strong believability about what we’re trying to accomplish right now but when you get to this point, you really want to finish things off,” said manager Joe Maddon.

Rays players, fans, and coaches are all going to need to keep that belief up for one maybe even two more days if they want to make it to the postseason. Read the rest of this entry →

After a strong start, the Pittsburgh Pirates have wilted in the heat of summer.

It has been 18 long, dreadful years since the city of Pittsburgh shared a playoff experience for the Pirates. Trust me, it will be  19 very shortly.

In a competitive NL Central, there’s no margin for error. The Brewers lead the division by 3 games, with the St.Louis Cardinals on their back, and the Cincinnati Reds are being quietly diminished as a division contender. It’s one thing if you go 3-7, or 4-6, but 0-10? Really? Here’s how the Pirates’ ship sank, and how it happened: Read the rest of this entry →

Erik Bedard was 15-14 for the Mariners after being acquired from Baltimore in 2008.

After losing Rich Harden hours after seemingly trading for him, the Boston Red Sox did indeed make a deal for an arm. They acquired Seattle Mariners right hander Erik Bedard in a very confusing three team deal. Boston surrendered minor leaguers Chih-Hsien Chiang, Tim Federowicz, Juan Rodriguez and Stephen Fife to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Federowicz goes to the Seattle Mariners and  minor league outfielder Trayvon Robinson goes to Seattle.

Bedard allowed six runs to the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday, a key start for his trade value. The Red Sox were in on Bedard along with the the New York Yankees it was reported. Bedard has a career ERA of 3.69 in Seattle and Baltimore. He was traded from the Orioles in 2008 for Adam Jones and George Sherrill. Bedard’s strikeout average per nine innings is also at 8.35.

The prospects that Boston gave up are not devastating or really big impact players. Federowicz has the best defense of any catcher in the Boston system and he is a marginal hitter. He probably has the best future of three players. He is hitting .275 this season with 7 home runs. They also trade away Stephen Fife, who lacks some fastball command and tends to let his pitches fall flat. With Portland last season he had an ERA of 4.75 but this season he has improved to 3.66. Likely a high end bullpen pitcher at best. Read the rest of this entry →

No major leaguer has come close to matching Joe DiMaggio's record hitting streak of 56 straight games.

The Major League Baseball players of today are capable of accomplishing amazing feats, but I am going to go out on a limb and predict that no major leaguer of today will ever hit in 56 consecutive regular season games.

It was 70 years ago today that one of the most amazing individual streaks in sports history ended following an unbelievable two month performance by future Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio.

After knocking out a hit in every game from May 15th through July 16th, the luck finally ran out for DiMaggio in a game against the Cleveland Indians. As he had done throughout most of the streak, DiMaggio hit the ball hard, but unlike in previous days, there was always someone there to make the play.

His best chance to extend the streak came in his first at bat when DiMaggio laced the ball down the third base line. Unfortunately, third baseman Ken Keltner was playing deep and was able to grab the ball and throw DiMaggio out at first.

After walking in the fourth inning, DiMaggio hit another drive toward third in the seventh inning, but Keltner made another play to throw out the Yankee Clipper.

With the bases loaded and one out in the eighth inning, DiMaggio managed not to hit the ball to Keltner, but instead grounded to shortstop Lou Boudreau who turned it into an inning ending double play.

During the streak, DiMaggio hit .408 with 15 home runs and 55 runs batted in. He had multiple hits 22 times, including four games with four hits. Read the rest of this entry →