Some baseball questions
After 60-plus games, has baseball weeded out all the pretenders yet? Texas dropped five in a row recently to fall 2.5 games behing the Angels in the AL West. The Diamondbacks have faded after leading the NL West. And the Braves and Marlins have dropped 4.5 games back in the East after leading the division. Are they pretenders? Injury-riddled Atlanta, sure. But Florida? We'll see.
The Orioles are still hanging on in the AL East, led by former Tar Heel Brian Roberts. Jury's still out.
The NL East begs another question: How can you go 12-1 on a homestand and not gain any ground on the team you're chasing? Well, that's easy. That team, the first-place Washington Nationals, went 12-1 at home during the same stretch. Too bad for the Phillies. Great news for old Senators fans, who haven't seen the hometown team lead its division this late in the season since the Senators in 1933. They also hadn't seen 1.05 million fans pass through the turnstiles since the '40s. For an entire season. These Nats still have over half their home schedule left to play.
Are the Nats for real? I'm starting to think so. And give GM Jim Bowden credit. He dumped useless OF Endy Chavez off to a division rival for Marlon Byrd, who is still young and has the potential to be a solid major-league outfielder. And the club was going to just cut pitcher Tomo Ohka after he disrespected manager Frank Robinson while being pulled from a game. But the Milwaukee Brewers were willing to offer underrated 2B Junior Spivey in return. Spivey homered yesterday, of course.
Now, will the Nats start eating away at the Braves' fan base in North Carolina? Probably not. But I did notice 850-AM, "The Buzz," in Raleigh was giving away weekend getaway-ticket packages to DC on the air. That's something.
And, is it just me, or did the Cubs trade the mini-Sammy Sosa to the Orioles? It's not just that his power numbers are down, he just looks a lot smaller. I'm not saying he's suddenly off the juice or anything; just an observation.
Comments (3)
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I don't see how the Nationals can eat away at the Braves fan base here because the Nats don't have any TV in this market. On the other hand, local fans can catch every Braves game on TV, plus A.M. 790 carries the Braves on radio. You simply can't build a fan base without television and the Braves have that locked up.
The NL East is still wide-open. Even the Mets are just 5 1/2 out. I expect the Marlins to play better and if Atlanta can ever get healthy, they still are in it.
Posted on June 15, 2005 2:57 PM
I'm not sure what you're talking about with the "mini-Sammy Sosa," because I've been watching the O's and the guy is still completely jacked -- even though the power numbers aren't there to back it up. Have you seen his forearms?
Posted on June 16, 2005 11:47 AM
Fair enough on Sammy. I think what struck me was a) his body is trimmer and b) he doesn't appear to have Popeye arms that he can't bring down to his sides anymore. But I think the reason for that is he has shed his body armor, all those bulky elbow guards and what not. He does still have some pretty impressive forearms, though.
Posted on June 16, 2005 2:46 PM