The Phillies are World Series Champions for the second time in their franchise history. Game 5 had – by my calculations – a 46.5-hour rain/weather delay; that has to be a World Series record. Television ratings for this World Series were not good up to the final game and I suspect they were not stupendous last night. But here is something that people who tuned into other television programming need to know:
You missed some great baseball games. Other than Game 4, which was a blow-out, the other games were close, exciting and well played. Of course, there were those two-and-a-half innings played in a monsoon on Monday night, but even that provided an interesting setup for last night’s conclusive game.
If you chose to watch something else, – - even a very good MNF game – - I’m sorry that you missed out on some excellent baseball.
The Phillies may be the champions, but the Tampa Bay Rays were the most compelling story of the 2008 baseball season. Unless they face mass defections from that squad and/or a rash of horrendous injuries, the Rays will be a contending team for the foreseeable future. Everyone has now heard of their star young players and will be watching them; I was very impressed by Dioner Navarro throughout the playoffs. He may not be nearly as well known as some of his teammates/compatriots, but he’s a really good young catcher!
I have been critical of Bud Selig and the MLB execs for the way they handled the weather problem last Monday night in Philly. Because there was some controversy on the subject, you knew that Fay Vincent would find a way to jump in and run his gums on the subject – - and of course say that he would have handled the situation far differently and far better than Bud Selig did. Fay Vincent is one of the ten most annoying hominids roaming the planet. He always knows a better way to do anything. The problem is that for the five or six-year period when he and his BFF, Bart Giamatti, ran baseball, he didn’t do anything that redounded to the greater glory of the game of baseball. He got trampled by the players’ union about once every month or so and then he took out those frustrations on Pete Rose. That is a one-sentence summary of his accomplishments as the grand poobah of baseball. So now, I have one simple request of Fay Vincent:
Please, shut up!
With the World Series concluded, baseball fans can look to the winter meetings and trades and free agency to tide them over until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in February. And there are some interesting things going on in the free agent marketplace this winter.
Manny Ramirez is a free agent. He demanded his freedom as part of his agreement to be traded from Boston in July and walked away from a two-year option on his contract at $20+M per year. Obviously, he will be looking to get that $40+M back and then some with a longer-term deal and higher annual salaries. Here is the argument he can make in his negotiations with the Dodgers:
The Dodgers paid $18M a year for Andruw Jones just last winter and he hit less than .200 with way less than 10 home runs. As fat as Jones became, he wasn’t significantly better in the outfield than Manny. So, if Jones is worth $18M per year to the Dodgers – and there is evidence to show that they thought he was – then Manny Ramirez should be worth about $40M per year to the same club using the yardstick of on-field performance per dollar.
CC Sabathia also looks to get very rich this winter. Last year, Johann Santana got a deal in the $20M per year range; Sabathia will expect at least that much and his performance with the Brewers in the final two months of the season was strong enough to make some owners open their wallets to acquire his services. Sabathia says that money is not the be all and end all in his contract negotiations and that he will consider “other factors” related to any offers. Yeah, right, he’ll consider the length of the proposed contract, endorsement opportunities, radio/TV deals in the local market, etc. Always remember that the more an athlete tries to convince you that it is not all about the money, the more you need to focus on the fact that it is only about the money.
While Ramirez and Sabathia look to make money by the wheel barrowful, there some other free agents out there who have a name that makes them tempting but a “history” that ought to scare the bejeepers out of any GM speaking to their agents. Front and center in that group would have to be Mark Prior. In 2006, Prior was a Cub but he sure didn’t pitch for them very much; in 2007, Prior was a Padre but he sure didn’t pitch for them very much either. For whatever reasons, Mark Prior seems destined to amass more months on the DL than career wins. Caveat emptor…
In a bit of good news not related to baseball, Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times informed me last night that the LA Times has reinstated their daily column, Morning Briefing, and that LA Times writer, Mike Penner, will be the primary author. Just last week, I wrote that the cancellation of columns such as Morning Briefing was a sad commentary on the state of the newspaper business in 2008. Lo and behold, a week later and the folks who make the decisions at the LA Times decided to reverse their field. I have no illusions that anything I wrote had even the least bit to do with their change of heart, but let me applaud their latest decision.
Finally, to keep a tad of symmetry here, let me close with this item from Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times related to the sport of baseball:
“The Mariners have filed a formal objection with the City of Seattle over a proposed topless joint in a building 400 feet from Safeco Field.
“In other words, the ballclub wants exclusive rights to leaving second base uncovered.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…