Talkin' Baseball

I've been back to baseball now that the Olympics is over, and what a week it has been! This week, King Felix Hernandez's perfect game helped wash out the bad taste of Melky Cabrera's suspension for performance enhancing drugs, the Yankees have the best record in the AL, the Red Sox continue their downfall from last year and the Nationals talking about sitting their ace, Stephen Strasburg, in the midst of their first pennant race.
A few observations:

Felix Hernandez just threw the third perfect game this year making baseball observers call this the year of the pitcher. I happened across a TV screen at a local watering hole and was lucky enough to catch the 9th inning of this beauty LIVE! Now Josh Beckett and Jon Lester will disagree with that ìyear of the pitcher statement, but more on that later. King Felix just might be the best pitcher in baseball and he's only 26! What's even more crazy, he's been in the big leagues for 7 years! The Mariners say they will never let him go, but it's almost a shame if his entire career is tucked away in the ìoutpost of Americaî. Either way, if you ever get a chance to watch a game he's pitching, watch it! More likely than not, you will be impressed.

This year's All-Star Game MVP just got suspended for 50 games after testing positive for testosterone. Usually, this is just another story where everyone wants to say ìgood riddanceî to the cheater, but the Melkman won a lot of hearts in his supposed ìbreakout season. Melky broke in to ìThe Bigsî with the Yankees and had his moments, but the Yanks felt like he was ìfat and lazy and had no regrets about trading him to the Braves. The Braves, in turn, soon lost patience with his work ethic and production and had no problem letting him go, either. Then the Kansas City Royals took a flyer on him because he came cheap. After one pretty good season there showing signs of breaking out, he became too expensive for the low-budget Royals to keep. Enter the (steroid-friendly) San Francisco Giants (yes, Barry, I'm talking to you your numbers will always have an * next to them as far as I am concerned) took a chance. Melky showed up in the best shape of his life and was having the breakout season many thought he was capable of. This lead him to the All-Star Game where he shined in front of a national audience pulled in by his ìmake goodî story. Sadly, a nation of baseball fans now will never look at him the same again. Even worse, for San Francisco Giants fans, his suspension puts a major dent in their playoff hopes. He has a lot of making up to do. In my opinion, the Giants should forfeit every win they had with Bonds or Melky in their lineup, just like Penn State's punishment.

The Yankees now have the best record in the American League. Usually this surprises no one. Yankee lovers and haters know they will be in the mix somehow. What is most impressive is, they've done it without Mariano Rivera for most of the season and extended stints on the DL for A-Rod, CC Sabathia, Michael Pineda, Andy Pettitte and Brett Gardner. Some big names there! Kudos to Brian Cashman for picking up enough depth to soften those blows.

Now, as good as the Yankees' story has been, it has been that bad for their blood rivals in Boston. Coming off the worst regular season collapse in history last year, the Red Sox front office cleaned house a bit. They got rid of manager Terry Francona because they perceived him as too soft on his players. This is understandable, considering in the midst of that collapse, there were reports of players eating fried chicken and drinking beer in the clubhouse during games! Enter Bobby Valentine, a man who couldn't say two words without creating controversy. They brought him in to be the disciplinarian they felt Francona was not. Well, as we can see, this experiment has so far failed miserably. The Red Sox have been in last or second to last for most of the year. I'm not saying it is all Bobby V's fault, the club has its share of bad apples. Josh Beckett has been awful and doesn't even seem to care. Jon Lester cares, I think, but he's been awful as well. Both were culprits in the fried chicken and beer brouhaha. Boston has had its share of injuries as well, they just haven't dealt with them as well as the Yankees have.

Finally, we have the Washington Nationals in first place in the NL East. This is the first pennant race Washington DC has seen since the 1930s, I think. To be fair, the nation's capital didn't have baseball for decades after the Senators left to become the Texas Rangers. However, the Nats have been DC's team since 2005 and for the most part have been abysmal. Historical note: I caught the very first baseball game ever played in the Nats new stadium a college game between GWU and my Dad's alma mater, St. Joe's. After securing multiple high draft picks as their reward for being awful, Washington has built a young, talented team. Add in a few bucks from an owner who wants to win and the Nationals have become a force to be reckoned with. Their ace, Stephen Strasburg, is only 24 and has been brilliant this season, but the front office wants to sit him for the rest of the year. Yes, you read that right. Strasburg is young and coming off Tommy John surgery and the Nationals are thinking long term with him. They want to limit the wear and tear on his arm and keep him to an innings limit. This has nearly started a revolt among the rest of the players on the team who feel like this is their chance to win...THIS YEAR! Stay tuned - this should be interesting.

Although this is not a normal bloggy topic for me, I thought it was an interesting week of baseball and wanted to share some compelling stories. Now, who remembers the This Week In Baseball closing? I do!




Narrated by Mel Allen. How about that?

Be good,