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At the Intersection of Sports and Culture

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Monday Morning Musings: Day Old Coffee Edition

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I’m not proud to admit it, but I ran out of coffee Sunday morning and of all the days of the week, Sunday is the last possible day I can afford for this to happen. I have no problem reusing day old coffee on a Thursday or for some sort of iced beverage but Sunday is a totally different story. If I don’t get a fresh cup of hot coffee on Sunday morning then I can’t possibly be expected to complete the New York Times crossword puzzle. And if I can’t complete the New York Times crossword puzzle I certainly shouldn’t be expected to execute any of the assigned chores for the day which usually includes cooking, cleaning, mowing, and just being an all around helpful husband/father. Needless to say, yesterday was not a very productive day.

A Quick Trip Around the Bases

1B – Arizona keeps chugging right along, even after being swept by the Atlanta Braves over the weekend they still remain 1.5 game in front of reigning World Series champions the San Francisco Giants. Many are crediting the turnaround in the desert to the coaching staff full of ex major leaguers led by manager Kirk Gibson. And while I’m sure the “been-there-done-that” mentality from the coaching staff has helped, the real reason the D’Backs are contending this season is because of players like RF Justin Upton and P Ian Kennedy. How many of Kennedy’s 15 wins are you going to chalk up to pitching coach Charles Nagy? How many home runs has Matt Wiliams hit for Upton? Coaches matter but players matter more and it’s about time we gave this group of relative no names the attention they deserve.

2B – Now onto something not so surprising, how historically bad are my Baltimore Orioles? With all the elbow and shoulder issues the team has had to deal with, club orthopedist Dr. Lewis Yocum is about to become as synonymous with the city of Baltimore as Johnny Unitas and Detective McNulty.

At this point, general manager Andy MacPhail should consider hiring famous actors who have previously played baseball players on the big screen to come to Camden Yards and reprise their roles for the Orioles. Because I’m pretty sure there are plenty of Baltimore fans who would rather see Nuke Laloosh on the mound than the Class-AAAA slop they have been wheeling out there these last few months.

3B – Can we take a quick pulse of the current AL MVP race? Leading my list are four players: Adrian Gonzalez, Jacoby Ellsbury, Curtis Granderson, and Justin Verlander. Verlander is the clear leader for the AL Cy Young award but there are plenty of people now rumbling for his name to be included on the short list of MVP candidates as well.

How in the world do you put Jose Bautista as your AL MVP favorite, especially when you also openly acknowledge that he, along with the rest of the Toronto lineup, has been the beneficiary of a phantom sign stealer sitting alone in the Rogers Centre Hotel. I’ll give you that Bautista does hit a lot of home runs, but if this is our only piece of criteria for determining an MVP award, why not give the NL MVP to Dan Uggla?

Me, I’m going to go with Granderson who has more than made up for the fading power of ARod and the substandard average of Mark Teixiera. Of course, if the voting were to be determined by the female population of Revere, MA, Jacoby Ellsbury wins in a landslide.

HR – After weeks, if not years of speculation, the Chicago Cubs finally fired GM Jim Hendry. Now all anyone can talk about is who is line to become the next GM of the Cubbies. And according to the Courier-News, one of the primary qualifications to even be considered for this position is if you were either born in Chicago and/or remain a loyal Cubs fan. What is this, fantasy baseball? If we applied this same logic to say.. flying an airplane, we’d all be stuck with some sort of John Travolta type as our pilot and that wouldn’t be good for anyone. Last night on the Cubs/Cardinals SNB broadcast, Cubs owner Tom Ricketts said that he is looking for three main qualities in his next general manager: player development, analytical approach, and tradition of winning. Ricketts went on to add that all interested candidates should submit cover letters and resumes to: The Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL 60613.

view from Turner Field courtesy of @GABuckeye311 

Monday Musings: Golf, Erectile Dysfunction, and #FreeLoMo

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Before we delve into baseball, here are a few quick strokes from the final round of the PGA Championship. First, neither name may light up the box office but Keegan Bradley and Jason Dufner sure do know how to put on an exciting finish at a major championship. Happy to see the New England native Bradley pull through, most because I had this constant feeling that Dufner was a lukewarm Colt 45 away from the couch. Secondly, CBS must believe that everyone watching the broadcast suffers from erectile dysfunction and low testosterone. There were so many Cialis commercials that I almost felt like watching the coverage from my bathtub. And I’ll tell you another thing, next time I’m watching a PGA tour event in person, I’ll make sure to give a wide berth to my fellow onlookers. Who knows what’s going on down there after all. But, I digress.

A Quick Trip Around the Bases

1B – Too much LoMo for the Florida Marlins? Logan Morrison, the Marlins starting left fielder and outspoken twittaholic, was sent down to Class AAA New Orleans Saturday night after a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Tim Lincecum and the San Francisco Giants. Morrison is having a breakout season for the Marlins, batting .249 with 17 home runs and 60 RBI which is exactly the reason why his demotion was very surprising.  According to a justifiably prickly Morrison, he was told by the Marlins organization that his being sent down had to do with hitting .240 while manager Jack McKeon was equally cryptic, adding that it was a move which should help LoMo “go out and work on his game”. Not exactly inspiring words from the 80 year old Marlins skipper which, along with the timing and overall cloudy nature of the decision, has led many to continue wondering what the heck if going on in South Florida.

Now, as conspiracy theories continue to mount, people are starting to believe that the Marlins sent down Morrison for being too present on twitter, occasionally speaking out against the Florida organization and its has been star shortstop Hanley Ramirez. If this is truly the case, then the Marlins organization is out of touch with the winds of MLB fans/social media and must develop a much firmer backbone when it come to handling honest criticism from players. LoMo is good for the Marlins and the game of baseball because he has figured out a way to connect with and facilitate relationships with fans – not to mention the 17 HR’s and 60 RBI. As the Florida organization prepares to open its new stadium next summer it would be wise for the front office to embrace Morrison and his 50,ooo+ followers on twitter. They do after all represent 50K more people than the average attendance at Sun Life Stadium Marlins this season.

2B – Carlos Zambrano continues to be nothing but a counterproductive influence on the Chicago Cubs, MLB, and hefty starting pitchers worldwide. By this point we shouldn’t really be surprised by anything Big Z does, including threatening to retire from professional baseball mid season. His debilitating petulance was on full stage again over the weekend after he responded to another woeful performance against the Atlanta Braves by throwing at Chipper Jones. He would then later pack up the entire contents of his locker and swear to never return again. The Northside of Chicago probably wishes he was serious about retiring, that way the Cubs wouldn’t be on the hook for his substantial salary in 2012. Is there another MLB team out there dumb enough to trade for the starting pitcher? The Cubs are ready to listen to most offers including, but not limited to: a box of baseballs, Derek Jeter 3K hit memorabilia, or a tub of used pine tar. Nobody needs pitching that badly. Taking it a step further, all unemployed Chicago Cubs fans should be allowed to throw a bucket full of warm lemon-lime Gatorade at Zambrano in hopes that he will wake up and realize how fortunate he is to still have a job.

3B – No Sunday morning is complete w/out a little Ed Randall’s Talking Baseball on WFAN New York. In between reminders to get your prostate checked, Randall managed to squeeze in a brief discussion on the most sure-fired way to shorten the length of MLB games, which he believes is to simply have umpires call more strikes. Of course, in this the age of entitlement, players have slowly eroded what little confidence umpires once held – well all except for Cowboy Joe West – making it nearly impossible for the men in blue to call a letter high strike. Here’s an idea: replace the plate umpire with one of those pitch tracks boxes they use during the television broadcast. That way, when David Ortiz complains about a knee high strike he has no one to blame but Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

HR – Arizona has a problem and it has to do with their grass. They can’t grow any. Right now, the outfield at Chase Field looks like a patched up pair of corduroys. They need to install something similar to what the University of Phoenix Stadium uses which is a retractable surface that maintains appropriate amounts of sunshine and moisture. Or they can just keep doing what they’re doing which, if the Diamondbacks make the playoffs, means that we’ll have October baseball from the desert. Literally.

view from Sun Life Stadium courtesy of @ajlovesmegan

Monday Musings: Back from Vacation Edition

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How come you never feel well rested when returning from a vacation? Here it is the Monday morning, after a wonderful week away from the hustle and bustle of the Northeast, and all I find myself asking for is another week away where I can focus on three things: sleep, food, and sun. Of course with a 6 month old son, consistent sleep is not really an option plus you have to be careful exposing babies to too much sunlight. I guess the only thing I will really miss is the food, which when traveling through the northern Midwest means lots of bratwurst, cheese curds, and craft brews. Come to think of it, maybe it isn’t such a bad thing for my overall health that I’m back to a steady diet which includes at least one helping of vegetables a day.

Furthermore, because I’ve been semi “unplugged” for the last week or so, let me caution this tale by saying that I have kept up with the goings on in Major League Baseball primarily through my iPhone and a stealthy combination of the MLB app and twitter. To those curmudgeons out there who still believe that twitter is simply a fad or perhaps the narcissistic manifestation of youthful hyperactivity, let me tell you that people can tweet faster than the internet can refresh. And it’s good useful information too not just status updates and cyber-voyeurism. For instance, because of twitter I could tell that Adam Scott winning the Bridgestone Invitational Sunday afternoon was the biggest win of caddie Stevie Williams career long before the embittered looper launched into a suspiciously subversive diatribe directed at his previous employer Tiger Woods. The precognitive power of the “twittersphere” knows no bounds. Now if we can only use it to predict just how low the stock market is going to drop this week.

Finally, as a Baltimore Orioles fan, if being unplugged for a week has taught me anything about my team it’s that the more things change, the more they stay the same. When I left, the Orioles were barely treading water in the AL East basement and now, a week later, the Birds continue to sink lower and lower into the relative obscurity of professional baseball. And the saddest part about it all, much like with twitter, I knew it before it even happened.

A Quick Trip Around the Bases

1B – And speaking of the Orioles, if the Pittsburgh Pirates would like to blame anyone for their latest 10 game losing streak, which has essentially taken them completely out of the race in the NL Central, they should feel free to direct any and all animosity for their current plight towards the Baltimore Orioles. It was the Orioles after all that traded away Derrek Lee to the Pirates and since the first baseman has been in Pittsburgh the team hasn’t won a single game. Apparently the “stank” emanating from the warehouse on Eutaw Street can infect other teams as well. Too bad to as I had just pledged my NL allegiance this season to the Pirates.

2B – Staying in the NL Central for a second, the Chicago Cubs, winners of 7 of their last 10, are now only 6 games behind the Pirates for 4th place in the division. Amazing really considering how bad Chicago has been this season and how promising the Pirates play had been up until the trading deadline. Speaking of trades, if you’re in a MLB front office, why would you ever even consider giving a free agent a no trade clause? Look at the trouble it has gotten the Cubs in. Both Aramis Ramirez and Kerry Wood, two valuable trade chips for a team in desperate need of rebuilding, told the team that they would block any deal that sends them away from the Northside. Credit the Cubs organization for making their players feel so comfortable but shame on the front office for continuing to structure contracts that include no trade clauses.

3B – Move over Pittsburgh, hello Arizona. The Diamondbacks, now only a half game behind the NL West leading San Francisco Giants, have slowly emerged as the underdog darlings of 2011. It’s highly improbable, what with the arsenal of arms in the Bay Area, that the Snakes remain in this race to the very end but it’s a nice story nevertheless. And go ahead, name 3 players on the Diamondbacks roster? After Justin Upton things start to a get a little cloudy. Perhaps more folks are familiar with Arizona manager Kirk Gibson, he of “I don’t believe what i just saw” fame.

HR – Shifting away from the small market, can you believe that heading into last night’s Red Sox/Yankees game that both teams held a 7.5 game lead over the Los Angeles Angles in the AL Wild Card race? I understand that MLB teams are not in the habit of resting players for the playoffs, sort of like what happens in the NFL, but if there were ever a year where a baseball team could get away with it, this is that year. At this current pace the Yankees may tell Alex Rodriguez to spend a little more time rehabbing his surgically repaired knee. Well, so long as he stays away from any high stakes poker ring that also involves Tobey Maguire.

view from Chase Field courtesy of @jbroussard65