.Sam Miller of ESPN has started a three-part series he calls, "The Radical Ideas Series." He says they are designed to open a conversation to fix baseball. I think baseball does need some work, but Mr. Miller's first idea isn't patently insane.
He suggests that every team make the playoffs and that they would start in September with some complicated format based on their winning percentage, beginning with the worst team playing the 2nd worst, etc. It's winner take all so lose and you go home. Imagine the excitement it would create.
Take last year's Tigers (64-98) playing the White Sox (67-95) in Chicago. You'd be lucky if they could draw 5000 fans from Chicago. On the other hand, 25 players get an extra month off. I still worry about some team with a .500 record knocking off a really good team because of some fluke play.
Keep that thinking cap on, Sam. The next two ideas have to be better.
Are we ever going to have a game when Angel Hernandez is one of the umpires when he doesn't escalate something into an argument when all a player is doing is blowing off steam? He was his usual asinine self Sunday night by chasing after CC Sabathia. CC is known for voicing his displeasure with calls as he walks off the mound. It means nothing. CC has forgotten about it by the time he reaches the dugout. But no, Angel has to chase after him, stopped by Mgr Aaron Boone before it got more out of hand. I've said it many times before: the minute an umpire goes after a player to argue or chastise him, the umpire is wrong. If an umpire got suspended for 5 games whenever that happened, this would stop very quickly.
Can you imagine a game with Country Joe West, Balking Bob Davidson and Angel Hernandez all doing their thing? I guarantee we'd end up with about 6 players on a side left by the 9th inning.
The Yanks were bound to lose eventually and the Astros are certainly no walk in the park. It would have been nice to manage more than 3 hits and 1 run, though. In a game where they only score one run, the Sonny Gray that the Yanks traded for finally showed up. Houston's Charlie Morton looked like he won't lose a game all year. Very dominating. The Yanks won't have to face anyone that overpowering for the rest of the series...wait, Verlander? Keuchel? McCullers? We better hope for a couple of rainouts. What's that? Oh yeah: a dome.
What's with the Dodgers? They're in 4th place, 8 games out. Only three teams in the NL have a worse record. I know, there's still 134 games left, but you don't want to get into too deep a hole. Speaking of strange occurrences, the Miami Marlins have won three in a row. I wouldn't have been surprised if they only won three games in a month. Check back in a month with these two teams.
***THEY SAID IT***
"You
can slip us this Mickey anytime: A 1952 Mantle baseball card
has sold for $2.88 million — or 384 times the $7,500 he was
paid to play that season." -- Dwight Perry
"People are still marveling at Brandon Belt’s at-bat for San Francisco
that lasted over 12 minutes against the Angels. Are you kidding me? It
took former major leaguer Mike Hargrove 12 minutes just to walk up to
the plate." -- Bill Littlejohn
"WR Dez Bryant turned down a multi-season offer from the Ravens in
hopes of landing a one-year deal somewhere. Even with the new catch
rules, insiders think he dropped the ball." -- RJ Currie
"Ersan Ilyasova said when the 76ers played the Heat “in Miami … the gym
was half-empty.” “Half-empty” -or as the Marlins call that, an opening
day crowd." -- Janice Hough
"Colin Kaeperinck’s tryout was cancelled at the
last minute by The Seahawks. His agent wanted Colin to be in
the game only when Seattle was up by more than 17 points
inside the 2 minute warning, and he could just come in and
take a knee." -- TC Chong
"A 20-year-old Colorado man, Dylan
McWilliams survived a rattlesnake bite, a bear bite and a
shark bite in a four-year span: “Based on these incidents,
we do know a lot about this man. For example, he must taste
delicious." -- James Corden
CP-
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