Who's Your Daddy Pedro?

[PigDogg]

Pedro on the mound in the Bronx tonight.

Look for the Yanks to get the pitch count high and then Ole Pedro will tire out and get spanked by Daddy.

The greatest franchise in the history of sports will clinch yet another title in Game 6.

Have to wake up at 7AM, argghh.

At least the beers are only 35 baht.

[farangbah]

Hope you're not jinxing us, buddy. Handy Andy going on short rest at 37 years old? He has to have the game of his life. But that cap'll be pulled down to the bridge of his nose, and it'll be GO TIME!

Fuggedaboudit . . .

[kahuna]

Your Boys won...proving once again they are the best team money can buy...

[Lefty]

They are a perfect example of what is wrong with baseball. You have most of the big market teams being the only ones who can afford to pay the big contracts. Teams like Milwaukee, Minnesota, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh cannot afford to compete on equal footing in the free agent market. Free agency has ruined major league baseball. They don't have it structured like the NFL, which has revenue sharing and a salary cap, and even the teams like the Bengals, Cardinals, Panthers, Packers, etc, from the smaller markets can pretty much compete on equal footing. Baseball with no salary cap, just allows assholes like the Steinbrenners to throw crazy money at any and every free agent they ever decide they want.
I lost 99% of my interest in baseball when those overpaid babies went on strike in the mid 90s and the world series was canceled. I haven't seen more than 10 games since. You know when utility infielders and middle relievers make more than an All Pro Linebacker that something is seriously wrong with the salary structure of baseball, compared to football.

[JaiDee]

(Lefty @ Nov. 05 2009,13:25) I lost 99% of my interest in baseball when .........

.........  they started taking 4 hours to play a fookin' game?

      too slow for me, thanks.....I will wait for my beloved football to start every year  

    Still  find it funny however whenever Red Sox fans chant "yankee's suck'' now that they have won 27 titles while the Sox have won ...... 2??   since the Titanic sank??    But as the great young sportswriter Matt Taibbi  said in Rolling Stone way back in May;  if the yanks DIDN'T  win it all this year it would be a shocker, not if they did.

[BlueBallz]

Have to agree with most of what Lefty said-ESPECIALLY the comparison between baseball and American football. In football you see many years where a 15-1 or 25-1 shot end up winning the Super Bowl.

Last year we had a HUGE exception to the rule when Tampa Bay went to the Series but it isnt enough as usually the big market/big payroll teams make the playoffs-my Mets excepted!!! However, I must say playoff baseball can be quite compelling and dramatic!!

BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!!

[kahuna]

(BlueBallz @ Nov. 06 2009,22:54) Have to agree with most of what Lefty said-ESPECIALLY the comparison between baseball and American football.  

Agree with one correction...The Cardinals can't really be called a small market team...Phoenix is the 5th largest city in the USA with a metro
population of nearly 4.5 million...Ain't a little cowboy town any more...

[Lefty]

Bottom line is no other teams can compete money wise with the New York and Los Angeles teams, if any one of them has their heart set on signing a particular free agent.
Just like this past off season. The two big name pitchers on the free agent market were CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. The Steinbrenners decided they wanted both, so offered both outlandish amounts of money, especially Sabathia, that no other team could equal. They bought their pennant for all intents and purposes IMO.

[blonde_havoc]

(Lefty @ Nov. 08 2009,13:21) Bottom line is no other teams can compete money wise with the New York and Los Angeles teams...

This is some serious butthurt, Lefty. Plenty of teams can compete with the Yankees. And putting the LA teams in the same league as the Yankees? When was the last time the Dodgers won a world series? 1988? The Angels won a fluke series against the Giants in 2002, a year in which the Dodgers were expected to win but collapsed late in the season.

The LA teams are nothing like the Yankees/Red Sox. It's true that the Angels are constant competitors in the AL West, but the AL West is traditionally terrible and the Angels do it with *talent* not free agents. Who was their biggest free agent signing? Abreu? He's old as the hills.

The Dodgers have Manny Ramirez... a fat, lazy, out of shape, only in it for himself, greedy player... one of the biggest frauds of modern baseball. They won't win a series until they shed him from their team and get their shit together. Ethier is a great player, but he's not going to win them a series with Manny still around.

Let's look at the last 15 years of baseball world series champions:

2009 - Yankees
2008 - Phillies
2007 - Red Sox
2006 - Cardinals
2005 - White Sox
2004 - Red Sox
2003 - Marlins
2002 - Angels
2001 - Arizona
2000 - Yankees
1999 - Yankees
1998 - Yankees
1997 - Marlins
1996 - Yankees
1995 - Braves
1994 - Canceled due to strike

People often forget that the Yankees domination in the last 90s wasn't really expected, especially that first year, because they hadn't won a series since 1978. Since then, they have used their massive popularity and finances to attract the best baseball players in the league, but still couldn't win a series for 9 years. In that short time, the Red Sox, who had been cursed for 86 years won two (with the 2004 win being a surprise... who expected it?), the fucking White Sox won one, the Angels made their sole appearance, the mother-fucking MARLINS have won TWO, and Arizona won in an upset.

There IS parity in baseball. You are just blinded by the fact that the big market teams throw money around like it is nothing. But this means very little in the long-term. Eight of those championships could be considered small to mid level markets.

Hell, you could even make the argument that the Yankees actually deserved to win the series this year and that several of their key players actually performed at sub-par levels. C.C. Sabathia ended up with 19 wins, but few remember how he was struggling in the earlier parts of the season and barely over .500. A.J. Burnett didn't exactly light up Yankee Stadium either. I believe he ended the season with a 4.04 ERA and only 13 or 14 wins with 9 losses. Texeira batted sub .300. Damon's arm is terrible. Matsui split time at DH with Damon. A-Rod looked sub-par as well and batted about .250 or so for much of the season. Don't get me started on the continuing adventures of Nick Swisher.

And in case anyone is wondering, I am a lifelong Cubs fan. We have one of the highest payrolls in MLB. And we didn't even make the playoffs. Look at the Mets as well. They were terrible. Money does mean something, but it doesn't mean everything. So next year when the Brewers or the Reds or the Rangers win the series, all will be well.

[BlueBallz]

You proved our point Blonde Havoc. Have a look at that list. All are huge/large payroll teams and are in big market. The only exception are the Marlins and when they own it they actually broke up the team because they didnt want to resign their free agents for big bucks....

[blonde_havoc]

(BlueBallz @ Nov. 09 2009,02:11) You proved our point Blonde Havoc.  Have a look at that list.  All are huge/large payroll teams and are in big market.  The only exception are the Marlins and when they own it they actually broke up the team because they didnt want to resign their free agents for big bucks....

So explain to me again why players shouldn't go the teams that are going to pay them the most? What's the problem with this? If you're offered 10 million by Team A but 15 million by Team B... then why play for A?

I guess I don't get the Yankee hate. They went a long stretch without a championship. They played great this year as a team and deserved to win. What team in the majors won more games? Had a better chemistry? Were coached better? Delivered better in the clutch? No one.

I still contend the following teams that won the series are not exactly big market teams...

The '04 Red Sox (remember this was a surprise... the team had not won in 86 years)
The '05 White Sox (they can't get any big names to play for them and average a fraction of the attendance of the Cubs... they also hadn't won a world series in like 80 years)
The '97 and '03 Marlins (they had a payroll of only 20 million in '03)
The '08 Phillies (who expected them to win the division over the Mets? No one)
The '06 Cardinals (Saint Louis' payroll is a fraction of the Yankees, Mets, and Cubs)
The '02 Angels (who expected them to win? no one... people said all season the Dodgers would win the series... and they didn't even make it... and then the Angels faced Bonds at his best)

That's seven world series titles in the last 12 years to teams that didn't exactly dominate or have the biggest payroll or expectations. So I ask again... what is the problem?

[farangbah]

"You can call us anything you want . . .


but you also have to call us 'world champions.'"

[bigmick22]

Don't you mean "World champions of North America" ?

[farangbah]

I was quoting. But no, what was meant was said, and what was said was meant. Those who follow baseball do not contest the title.

You, Anjin-san, will be interested to know that the MVP (man of the match) of the world championship was actually from The Japans. And no less than 4 continents were represented in the finals alone.

[bigmick22]

Ah Ingleeeeees!