Posted on 09/28/2011 9:38:31 PM PDT by SMCC1
Drama all around.
Good memories.
I chase the Phils now because of Halladay, the man did everything he possibly could have done for the Jays, but it was simply not enough to get them over the hump.
So while I was sad to see him go I was thrilled to see him finally get credit for what he’d been doing for the last 10 years.
At least we got you guys to take AJ Burnett off our hands. Heh, that was a good scam.
Anyway, I'm ready to celebrate # 28!
Which goes back to my argument about money not necessarily buying championships.
My daughter pitches softball, and her catcher moved here from Philly so it's kind of funny to hear them disagreeing about baseball during softball practice!
“Burnett is one of the great mysteries of the game. He has some of the best stuff, a nasty curve, and now a knuckle curve, good fastball, etc. All the tools, except for the ice in the veins. Get a hit off him and he’s shaken. Two runners on and his knees buckle. A homer and he’s done.”
He had one halfway decent year, where he was really, really lucky. It was heaven sent that the Yankees took his fat contract off the books.
I was perplexed when the Yankees wanted him, but who am I to argue.
How they managed to pick up Burnett and pass on Cliff Lee is the biggest mystery of all time.
It enabled the Phillies to assemble one of the greatest pitching staffs of all time. Not quite as good as the ‘95 braves, who had a 4 man rotation with all four over 120 ERA+ and Maddux, but that’s only because Oswalt had an off-season and got hurt.
Yanks do that sort of charity work every once in a while, just to keep it fair. Remember Kenny Rogers?
8^]
He actually had a pretty decent career. 3x all star after leaving the Yankees. Had his best and second best seasons bookending his time with the Yankees.
What was his problem as a yankee? He had a long career, and by far his worst season was with them.
Do you support banning the known freeper football fans from FR?
If you try to translate that into a world of competitive sports, you couldn't even get the industry off the ground -- because in sports, the competition is the product. How many people would be watching games in a 30-team league if the same three teams always finished at the top of the standings? Who would ever follow a team passionately if they knew that it could disappear overnight by getting run out of business or merged into another team with little advance warning? What if a team like the Florida Marlins decided one day that they'd be better as basketball players and move into a new "industry" (the NBA)?
The whole thing falls apart when you try to apply economic principles to professional sports. This is because a sports league is socialist by its very nature to a certain degree. "Managed competition" is what keeps a sports league in business, because when the product is the competition it's important for a league to have enough competitive teams to keep fans interested.
I'm sure NY would have preferred to see a Boston team in the playoffs with that was in the process of an epic choke rather than a Tampa team that had the character to gut it out when it counted.
Hats off to the Rays, the deserving team pulled through.
The only people that might feel worse than Red Sox fans (spit) this morning are the Rays fans that left the stadium early to beat the traffic.
Oops.
Go, Rangers...Go, Tigers!
Spoken like a true Red Sox fan. But you are the team that blew a 9-game lead in 23 days.
I've been "blessed" with having to work with a guy that grew up in Boston. He is a total ass when they (the Red Sox and the Patriots) win and he's even worse when they lose. He was strutting around a couple of weeks ago knowing... just totally confident that the Red Sox were going to the playoffs again. Afterall, 7 of their last 10 games were against "the worst team in baseball".
And all I have been hearing for the past two weeks is "I can't believe "we" can't beat the worst team in baseball..." Guess what? The Red Sox have been beating the worst team in baseball for the past month. Themselves. It was an epic choke job. One for the record books. The best thing Red Sox fans can do is to realize it and get over it. It happens.
Oh, and by the way.... The Orioles playing the spoiler role? I called it last week. ;-)
And now, my co-worker can focus all his passion on his "greatest football team ever"! Um, that is "the greatest football team ever" to uh, blow a 21-point lead...
(LOL!, It hasn't been a good week for him... he's a little grumpy.)
Like it or not, MLB became more of a business then a game years ago. Not saying I agree with that, just stating a fact. And if you apply your own business rules and sense of competition, the Yankees are doing nothing wrong.
Oh come on. Really?
Because for the very SIMPLE reason that this is a GAME, not the real world.
It is called fair rules for everyone. By your definition, EVERY fair game would be “socialist”.
The basic rules are the same for everyone. Allowing the Yankees and others their huge payroll advantage is the same thing as allowing one player three Knights in Chess, or starting a game of Monopoly with an extra $5000.00. You are not “guaranteed” a win, but you enjoy a HUFGE advantage from the outset.
The Yankees MAY be “well run”, (ahem....at times), but by far the major reason for the advantage they enjoy in financial resources is from the sheer size of the New York market.
“My pleasure. I’m really tired of the “jealous of money” kick the rich routine.”
####
BS.
That is not even remotely what is going on here.
Twisting logic and mixing wholly unrelated concepts can take you very far however.
Good posting, Josh. I agree with your view regarding capitalism. ....I disagree regarding the “home grown” thing, though, because the Yankees have a long history of raiding top performers from other teams by offering so much money and all of the media coverage and endorsements, etc.
I have never liked the Yanks unless they are playing in the WS against a NL team.
Amen. I'm a lifelong Tigers fan, but my allegiance is now with the Rangers....if they meet in the playoffs, I'm going to have a hard time rooting against either team....but at least I'll know one of my teams would make the World Series. I'm probably more for the Rangers, since they've never won a World Series.
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