As I write this, the San Francisco Giants are one win away from clinching their first World Series title since 1954, when they were the New York Giants. A Giants championship seems inevitable, seeing as the Rangers, who have never won a game in Pac Bell Park (I know they renamed it, I just refuse to acknowledge that fact--the Blue Jays still play in SkyDome), will have to win there twice. Oh yeah, they're going to have to beat Matt Cain, too. But I don't think San Fran's going to get it done tonight. Cliff Lee's got something to prove after throwing BP in Game 1, and I don't see him getting rocked twice in the same series. Frankly, I kind of want the Rangers to win tonight (since that gives me at least one more baseball game this year). Even though I picked the Giants and I'm rooting for them to win the series, I always like it better when a team clinches a championship at home. Besides, in a series that's been dominated by Giants pitching, Edgar Renteria can't be the MVP, and he's probably the leading candidate to bring it home if the series ends tonight. But if it goes back to San Francisco and Cain is as dominant as he was in Game 2, which seems likely, he'll be the World Series MVP, and that just makes me feel a lot better.
Rangers CEO Chuck Greenberg has guaranteed that the series will go seven, to which I say, "Yeah sure." If they actually do manage to beat Lincecum and Cain, you don't think Madison Bumgarner will be ready to baffle Rangers hitters again in Game 7 if Jonathan Sanchez gets a quick hook? (Seriously, how bad did Vlad Guerrero look flailing at those changeups that were already past him when he swung?) And while I'm on the topic of Game 7, I completely agree with Ron Washington's decision to start Tommy Hunter. Lee's never thrown on three days' rest, and you want to ask him to do it twice? If you do that, you're also asking C.J. Wilson and Colby Lewis to do it, and these guys aren't CC, Burnett and Pettitte. There was no need to do it. If they were down 3-0, different story, but down 2-1, play it safe. Even Cliff Lee wouldn't have beaten Bumgarner last night anyway.
In other World Series news, Game 3 was the second-lowest rated game in World Series history, lower than only 86-year-old Jamie Moyer's turn-back-the-clock performance against the Rays in Game 3 two years ago in a game that started at 10:00 after a 90-minute rain delay. You know the reason why nobody watched the game? It has nothing to do with Cablevision. A deal was reached shortly before the first pitch, clearly because of Woody Johnson's plea (different topic for a different day). It's because Bud Selig and his "braintrust" scheduled the game to start at 6:30! Bud, people do things on Saturday afternoons! I know you've got this thing for earlier start times, but 6:30 is a little too early. And I'm sure not the only one wondering this next question, but it's food for thought nevertheless--if pretty much every game starts at 7 (techincally 7:07 or thereabouts) during the regular season, why don't you have a 7:00 start time? Not only is that not confusing, it actually makes sense. Imagine that! I never really got this whole 7:57 thing.
Anyway, another highlight of the day yesterday was those of us who have Cablevision actually being able to enjoy that FOX tripleheader yesterday after FOX inevitably won the dispute that pissed more than a few people off as it dragged on for two weeks. Earlier in the week, Jets owner Woody Johnson urged both sides to settle so that people could watch the Jets-Packers game on FOX (in hindsight, maybe he should've asked them to make sure it was blacked out!) Woody, I know this might be tough for you to understand, but the Jets aren't New York's favorite football team. People are only jumping on the bandwagon because the Jets are good. It took making the AFC Championship Game in January for most New Yorkers to even realize that we have two football teams. Why do you think you haven't sold out season tickets at "New Jets Stadium" yet? By the way, it's called "New MEADOWLANDS Stadium," not "New JETS Stadium." If people were willing to put up with a Giants game getting blacked out during all that nonsense, I think they would've gotten over not being able to watch the Jets play like the Jets of the Rich Kotite Era.
Speaking of the Jets and Packers, former Jets and Packers quarterback Brett Favre played with a special shoe to keep his streak of 292 consecutive regular season starts alive against the Patriots. Does this surprise anybody? I didn't think so. Favre plays with a broken foot, then goes and gets knocked out of the game in the fourth quarter with a hit to the chin that required 10 stitches. He's "questionable" for Sunday. Yeah, sure. Am I the only one who thinks that by the end of the season the Vikings will have somebody pushing him out in a wheelchair and full body cast just to keep this stupid streak going? Brett, I love you man. You've had a great career. But it's time to hang it up. You're old. That's why you get hurt every week. This is just getting silly now. Randy Moss has already been shipped off to another retirement home somewhere else, ending that experiment after a mere three weeks. Did they need to hire more medical staff for Brett, thereby making Moss too expensive? Just wondering.
No comments:
Post a Comment