A True Fall Classic

On August 22, 2011, the Cardinals began a 3-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.  They were swept 3 games to none, leaving them 10.5 games out of the wild card.  The Cards then went on to win 18 of they're last 25 games and watched as the Braves and the defending World Series Champs collapsing down the stretch.  It wasn't just the Red Sox that failed to hold a lead in the final month of the season. The Cardinals were only at the beginning of their uphill climb to the title.

St. Louis drew the Philadelphia Phillies.  The team many picked to win it all at the beginning of the season and had the best regular season record.  The Cards stayed hot and won the Division Series in 5 games.  Manager Tony La Russa kept his team believing in themselves as the prepared to play their division rival Milwaukee Brewers.  La Russa said, "Anything can happen if we can continue to play hard and play together, anything."  Let's be honest, know one really thought the Cardinals would get past the Brewers but then David Freese went nuclear.

Virtually unknown, this St. Louis native was quietly living the existence and a hometown hero no one had heard of.  Most people thought his play in game 4, with 4 RBIs and a HR, was an aberration.  After the NLCS, we all know, he was just getting started.  Freese battered the Brewers pitching staff hitting .545 with 3 HRs and 9 RBIs in 6 games.  Unknown no more, the Cards 3rd baseman was named NLCS MVP.  After an improbable finish to make the playoffs, The Cardinals had beaten the best in the NL and were in the World Series for the 3rd time in 7 years.

With the Texas Rangers coming to town, the Cardinals post season run started to turn from being a good 'cinderella' story to a great one.  All the Cardinals did was show the world that it is never over until its over.  Ten games back in August? No Problem.  Phillies in the NLDS? We Got This!  The Brewers in the NLCS? Check!  The Texas Rangers (in their 2nd consecutive WS)? Not Worried!!  At least, that is how it played out.  Rangers were one strike away from being champs twice in game 6.  Heart, poise, determination and Freese.  It was amazing to watch this series go from very good to EPIC!  It was what a World Series should be. Full of excitement and drama but best of all, great baseball.  A series were Pujols was Pujols (3HRs in game 3) and Carpenter, without his best stuff,  going 2-0 in three starts with 13Ks/5BB (post season 4-0 in six starts with a 3.25 ERA (21Ks/11BB)).

The first 7 game World Series since 2002 and was just as good.  Truly a Fall Classic for the ages.  And just like in 2002, game 6 will go down as one of the greatest games in World Series history.  It is true that heroes are made in October.  Congrats to the 2011 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals.  What a great run, what a great season!!

D!

Competitive Balance vs Parody....

With this 100+ day NBA lockout, many of us are forced to think about great seasons past.  Magic's rookie year, the ShowTime Lakers,  Isiah from '88-'90, Jordan and the Bulls in the '90s,  the Spurs from '99 on.  I could go and on but you get my point.  Coming off, probably the best NBA season in a few years, this lockout has been a slap in the face to fans.  Not pointing in one direction or the other, but the fans have been and after thought.  We all recall our favorite seasons and teams.  I remember exactly where I was when the Bulls won championships.  I remember being at 6th grade camp when the Pistons beat the Lakers in 1989.  I remember that terrible day in '93 when Jordan retired for the first time.  We all remember that day in March 1995 when Jordan came back!  Now, as I gather all this info regarding this lockout, I start to break things down.

The owners want more competitive balance.  They must have found this term right next to "the tuck rule" in the NFL.  I can't remember when the league was balanced.  First stat, and really the only one that matters, is since 1980, nine teams have won the NBA Finals.  Go ahead and Google it, I did.  Nine teams, Lakers, Celtics, 76ers, Pistons, Bulls, Rockets, Spurs, Heat and Mavs.  That isn't competitive considering there are 30 teams.  I will even throw in that if you count the losers of the NBA Finals, then the total is 16. So the list would include the Blazers, Suns,  Knicks, Magic, Pacers, Nets, Cavs and Blazers.  So, over the last 32 years, only half the league has made it to the Finals.  Is that not parody?  The Suns, Magic, Heat, Rockets, Blazer, Nets and Pacers have been less then 3 times during this time so that brings the list to 8 with the Rockets being the only team to win.  The Rockets won in '94 and '95 and Houston isn't a major market either.

Let's look at markets.  Obviously, LA, Texas and New York are the big 3 markets.  You can include Boston, Florida and Illinois as well.  Florida and Texas are combined in the market number (The reason for this is even though the populations are big, the sports teams are not that far spread out and often share TV time and/or have deals in place as to not have overlap.  Its just how the markets are reported.  Most of the numbers out of Illinois are the Chicago numbers).  The problem with all of this is, population numbers don't matter.  Most people want to see certain players regardless of what team they are on.  The Lakers/Pistons Finals in 2004, has been the highest rated Finals since the 1998 Finals.  Ratings for the Finals have been dropping since '98.    Some feel it was the change from NBC to ABC but this is only partially right.  Ratings started dropping due to the shortened '99 season.  There was a small drop in '00 but that was the Lakers first of three championships and ratings went up in '01, but that was short lived.  Let's face it though, no one wanted to watch the Pacers get blown out.  The Spurs have won 4 championships but each year they won, the ratings were the lowest in the history of the NBA.  No one outside of San Antonio wanted to watch the Spurs.  Ratings didn't climb again until the 2009 season, which included the Lakers/Celtics.  Well that figures.  But the 2011 Finals ratings were best since that '04 Finals.  The leagues became fun to watch again and fans were going crazy over all the good play.  Now this damn lockout has erased all of that.

The fans don't want balance.  Fans want to see their favorite players.  People are tired of the Spurs, Celtics and Lakers and want to see the Thunder, Bulls, and Knicks.  fans are also cheering for anyone who plays the Heat.  If you really think about it, this lockout is really about the owners and the fact that the owners don't like each other nor do they want to share anything.  Owners like Cuban and the OKC ownership are hated because they no how to conduct business in a way to make their teams competitive.  Remember how people said that Memphis was stupid for giving up Gasol?  Well 3 years later and the Grizzlies nearly made it to the Western Conference Finals.  Portland, Warriors, Jazz, Nuggets are all small market teams.  These teams don't have rosters full of over-the-hill players either.  Just decent management.   Looks like the competitive balance is fine to me.

My parting shot is aimed at the owners.  No where in the world is there a business where the employees who bring in your money are supposed to give back money just because the "heads" of these businesses want to increase profits.  You make business decisions and right or wrong you live with the fall out.  You don't tell your employees "that salaries and contracts will be cut but we expect a higher level of work out of you or at least the same level".   The NBA doesn't have to solicit for money.  The NBA sells itself.  Companies step all over themselves to get better visibility in the NBA.    Stop complaining that your profits are down and be happy that in this economy, you have profits to speak of.  Once you loose your fans, it will be hard as hell to get them back.  Just ask MLB.  Took them 4 years after the '94 strike to get fans to start to come back and 7 years before MLB was back to full strength.

Except the 4% increase in BRI and split the difference with the salary cap/luxury taxes.  Make rookie contract 3 years and no more then $5 mil per year.  I got you started.  Now get in done and lets play some basketball!!

D!

The Phoenix Report

So much is going on in the sports world that I really didn't know what to blog about.  So now, I will post a few blogs about some of the happenings in the sports world.

My Raiders have made a huge splash by trading for Carson Palmer.  This trade doesn't happen if Jason Campbell doesn't break his collarbone.  It is a risk but no bigger risk then any other team would take if in the same position.  The Raiders are 4-2 and a half game out of 1st in the division.  To put this in perspective, the Packers would have tried to get Palmer is Rodgers went down.  This talk of numbers between Palmer and Campbell is ridiculous.  If Palmer is 100% healthy, then Palmer can become the best QB in Oakland since Gannon.  For 8 years, palmer has been, at the least, a top 10 QB in the NFL.  Actually, only Brady, P Manning, Rodgers, Brees, Rivers come to mind at being better then Palmer.  So that puts Palmer at number 6.  I'm sure some people can say there are others but who?  Eli Manning?  Is it the ring?  Maybe but what has Eli Manning really done with the exception of that Super Bowl year?  Bottomline, no one knows what will happen with the Raiders the rest of the season.  In Palmer's Pro Bowl seasons, he had a good running game so he didn't have to "be the offense" in Cincy.  With the Raiders, Palmer has McFadden, the leading rusher in the NFL right now.  The Raiders have the #2 rushing offense in the NFL.  Palmer is being asked to manage the Raider offense.  He has to learn an offense that he is already familiar with and has a coach he has known and worked with going back to his days at USC.  The Raiders are #19 in passing.  Are you really saying that Palmer can't get the Raiders passing attack into the top 10 by seasons end?  With no O-line in Cincy last year, Palmer had the Bengals at #13 in the NFL.  He will have protection in the pocket and has receivers who can actually catch the ball and stretch the field.  If anything, the Raiders will continue to do what they have been doing and they just got better at the QB position.  First the division then the Super Bowl.  See you in INDY!   YEAH, I SAID IT!

Since my dad is a St. Louis Cardinals fan, I wanted to speak on the World Series.  The 107th World Series is between the Texas Rangers (2nd straight trip) and the St. Louis Cardinals (3rd WS in the last 8 years; 2006 Champions).  The Cards won Game 1 and look to go up 2-0 tonight.  These teams are very evenly matched.  Both have power in the middle of the lineups and good contact hitting at the top and bottom.  The pitching staffs are on the same level.  These teams strengths and weaknesses are mirror images of each other.  This series can go down as one of the best in many years.  If game 1 was any indication of how the rest of the series will go, then its all good for baseball fans.  I'm encouraged by this especially since the NBA can't get right!  The Rangers and Cards can keep my mind off the NBA BS for another week or so.  I pick the Cardinals in 6!!