Sports Then and Now

Jorge Posada is going to retire after 17 seasons with the New York Yankees.

It appears that another key component of the great New York Yankees teams from the last two decades is hanging up his pinstripes with word that Jorge Posada will be announcing his retirement.

After his struggles during the 2011 season it isn’t a complete surprise that Posada is calling it a career, but his retirement is another nail into the coffin of the great group of former Yankees farm hands that helped build the team into a juggernaut in the late 1990s with four titles in five years.

While the Yankees are historically known for building their success through signing free agents and trading for the best players from other teams, their championship teams from the 1990s included a core of home-grown players that proved to be vital to their success.

In addition to Posada, shortstop Derek Jeter, centerfielder Bernie Williams, starting pitcher Andy Pettitte and reliever Mariano Rivera all came up through the minor league system with the Yankees and each spent were key cornerstones of the Yankees’ success.

However, of those five, it seems that only Jeter and Rivera are sure-fire to receive a plaque in Cooperstown.

Williams (.297 career average, 287 home runs, 1,257 RBI) is on the ballot for the first time this year and while he is not expected to earn selection, it will be interesting to see how close he gets in his initial year.

Pettitte, who retired following the 2010 season, won 240 games during his 16-year career (13 seasons with the Yankees), but his 3.88 career ERA makes it unlikely that he will have smooth sailing into the HOF.

Like Pettitte and Williams, you can make great arguments that Posada belongs in the HOF and equally credible arguments against his selection.

His career statistics (.273 average, 275 home runs, 1,065 RBI) would not be even close to Hall of Fame consideration if Posada were not a catcher. Annually, Posada was among the top catchers in the game in offensive statistics as he topped 20 home runs and 80 RBIs eight times. Read the rest of this entry →

Despite having many of the top stars in Major League Baseballs, the Brooklyn Dodgers won only one World Series title.

Now that the 2011-12 NBA season will happen, sports prognosticators will return to projecting how many championships the Miami Heat will win. Forget about the disappointment of last season — this team has more than enough talent to bring home at least a few Larry O’Brien Trophies, right? That’s what people were saying about the Lakers in the ’60s, Mets in the ’80s, and Mariners in the ’90s (different trophies for the latter two, of course), yet they wound up with just two championships between them when all was said and done. The following would-be dynasties failed to meet expectations for a multitude of reasons — including injuries, team chemistry problems, free agency, drugs, and even a strike — leaving fans wondering what might have been had things gone a little differently.

1940s and ’50s Brooklyn Dodgers
Even if the Dodgers had won multiple World Series titles during this era, the franchise would’ve been more remembered for its role in integrating baseball by signing and promoting Jackie Robinson. More than just an inspiring figure in the Civil Rights Movement, Robinson was an ideal second baseman with tremendous speed, excellent contact ability, and exemplary defense. He played alongside Hall of Famers Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Don Drysdale, and Sandy Koufax, one of the most talent-rich rosters in baseball history. From 1947 to 1956, the team won six NL pennants and the 1955 World Series, a resume worthy of NL dynasty status, but not MLB dynasty status.

1960s and ’70s Los Angeles Lakers
Before the Buffalo Bills, there were the Lakers. Sure, they had already won four of the first 10 NBA championships, but, with seven Finals losses in nine seasons during the 1960s and ’70s, they were the original poster child for second best. The primary culprit for their failures was the Celtics, who reeled off a remarkable 11 championships in 13 seasons. The Lakers also faced a 76ers team with perhaps the most dominant player off all time, Wilt Chamberlain, and a hungry Knicks team led by Willis Reid and Walt Frazier. When management figured out the mere presence of Jerry West and Elgin Baylor wasn’t enough, it added an older but still effective Chamberlain. The team finally got over the hump in 1973, after Baylor retired and Gail Goodrich had been added to the roster. Read the rest of this entry →

Bobby Valentine is not a great fit as the Boston Red Sox manager.

Bobby Valentine talked about reputation when he was introduced as the new Manager of the Boston Red Sox last Thursday. This is ironic since Valentine’s reputation with his past players and front office personnel are abysmal. While Valentine may win more games than he loses in his stint with the Red Sox, Valentine will ultimately fail in Boston.

Valentine’s position is even more tenuous because the Red Sox players got too comfortable under former manager Terry Francona and they collapsed in September (7-20 record) to finish in third place for the second straight season. Francona was a lame-duck manager in September because the owners failed to pick up his options for the next two seasons. After Francona graciously exited the stage, the owners decided to rip him by addressing his alleged problems with prescription pills and his crumbling marriage as possible black clouds adding to the downward spiral of the Sox during the 2011 season.

Valentine will not win titles in Boston because he will not be afraid to criticize players through the media and berate them publicly. How will the stubborn Josh Beckett pitch after he hears that his manager is willing to call him out in press conferences instead of through personal conversations? While the Red Sox players did this to themselves and they should not be treated as victims, they could still run mutiny on Valentine’s ship just like the New York Mets did in 2002. Valentine will be judged on his record as the manager.

Read the rest of this entry →

An improbable season ended with the St. Louis Cardinals as the 2011 World Series Champions.

The 2011 St. Louis Cardinals are a perfect reminder that in sports it isn’t how you start, it is about how you finish.

Considering that they lost their best pitcher to injury before the season even began and with just six weeks left were 10.5 games behind in the Wild Card race, it is quite amazing that last night they claimed the 11th World Series Championship in team history.

Even in the World Series they seemingly had an insurmountable mountain to climb as they were twice down to their final strike before rallying for an improbably extra inning victory in game six.

Then in the decisive seventh game they trailed early, but scored the final six runs to defeat the favored Texas Rangers.

Since Tony Larussa became manager of the Cardinals in 1996, the team has had their greatest success in seasons when they weren’t given much of a chance.

The 90-72 record that St. Louis posted in 2011 was actually the seventh best single season total for the franchise during Larussa’s tenure. Yet, the only other World Series title the team has earned came in 2006 when the team won only 83 games.

The Cardinals finished the 2011 season winning 24 of their final 33 games to sneak into the playoffs on the final day of the season.

They then won the final two games of their first round playoff matchup against the heavily favored Philadelphia Phillies to advance to the NL Championship Series. Read the rest of this entry →

The Red Sox & Angels staged a historic battle for the AL pennant 25 years ago this October.

It’s League Championship Series time right now in major league baseball, a time the people of Boston were able to get very used to in recent years, with four appearances in six years from 2003-08. The Sox also made this round in 1999 and prior to that the legendary (or infamous, depending on your point of view) team of 1986 played for the pennant. With this being the 25^th anniversary of the ’86 Sox, let’s take a look back on the epic seven-game war they waged with the then-California Angels for the American League flag.

Boston and California had each put away their division titles without drama (from 1969-93 the leagues were split into just two divisions with only the winners advancing straight into the LCS) and the Game 1 showdown of Roger Clemens and California’s Mike Witt was highly anticipated. Clemens had just completed a regular season that would win him the Cy Young and MVP award and Witt was easily the ace of the Angel staff. The series got off to a less than auspicious beginning as the Halos got four runs in the second inning. First baseman Wally Joyner, who’d already greeted Clemens with a double to right in the first, got up again in the second and doubled the other way to pick up two of the runs. Staked to a 4-0 lead, Witt never looked back and the Angels cruised to an 8-1 win. It gave California their goal of just taking one game at Fenway. The Red So were able to bounce back with a 9-2 win in Game 2. This game was closer than the score made it look, as Boston held a 3-2 lead after six and Fenway had to be a very jittery place, particularly when Bill Buckner missed a chance to put the game away early when he grounded into a bases-loaded double play. Ultimately though, three runs apiece in both the seventh and eighth opened the game up and sent the series west knotted at a game apiece.

The three games in Anaheim were all outstanding games, gradually building to the one that would ultimately give this ALCS a storied place in baseball lore. Boston’s Oil Can Boyd pitched very well in Game 3 and the Red So were holding a 1-0 lead, but this was another case where it could have been more. Second baseman Marty Barrett, dominant throughout the series with a record 14 hits (a record that still stands) missed a chance here and popped to first with the bases loaded. Thus when Joyner drew a walk and was moved to second, he was in position to score when Reggie Jackson singled him in to tie up the score for the Angels. Boyd finally lost it in the seventh and in the most maddening way—light-hitting shortstop Dick Schofield went deep, as did leadoff man Gary Pettis, generally a pure contact hitter. A three-run inning keyed California’s ultimate 4-3 win.

Read the rest of this entry →

Former Tiger Curtis Granderson will watch his former team play in the AL Championship Series.

Well, so much for the American League East being heads and shoulder above the rest of the American League in talent and baseball stature. Following the Detroit Tigers 3-2 victory in game five of the ALDS to eliminate the New York Yankees, we are now ensured that a team from one of the “lesser” divisions in the AL will represent the league in the World Series for the second straight year and fourth time in the last seven seasons.

There is no question that the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are still head and shoulders above the rest of the league in terms of spending, but they both are proving that in today’s baseball world money doesn’t buy you quite as much as it used to.

Don’t get me wrong, money has definitely helped them both become consistent contenders. The Yankees haven’t had a losing season since 1992 and have made the playoffs in all but one season since 1995 while the Red Sox last had a losing season in 1997 and have won two World Series and made the playoffs eight times since.

However, while spending lavishly on salaries to attract the top free agents and available veterans has helped both teams maintain a stranglehold on at least one playoff spot each season, it no longer seems to be enough to ensure they dominate the World Series. Read the rest of this entry →