Home But Not Free Yet

Yusmeiro Petit

After the postseason game of the longest duration in Major League history--6 hours, 23 minutes--both the SF Giants and the Washington Nationals got on a plane to fly 3 time zones away to San Francisco.  Today they rest (I'm guessing the scheduled workouts were cancelled or curtailed.)  Tomorrow they play the third game.

With a 2-0 lead and their ace taking the mound, the Giants could not find themselves in a better position--except for the unpredictable effects of that 18 inning marathon that ended after midnight DC time.  On paper everything lines up for a Giants sweep Monday--but the game ain't played on paper.

Here are the cautions: the Giants sleep two nights in their own beds.  They are home, and prey to everybody who wants them to supply tickets, etc.  They may show up at the ballpark relaxed and loose, or they could find themselves flat.  The Nats on the other hand will likely be wired.  They've already shown themselves to be a tightly wound team, and that's hurt them, but the energy of desperation could help them Monday.

The October cold and wind kept balls hit to left field in the ballpark in Washington.  Such will not be the case by the Bay.  Left field fences are far, but not that far.  With a left-hander on the mound, look for the Nats righties to swing for the big flies.  They will probably take those swings early, before Bumgarner gets settled into the game.

But if the third game isn't a done deal, how about the series?  The Giants have had really bad stretches at home this year, so losing two games in a row is not unthinkable.  And then there's the pitching rotation.  Petit might well have been the starter for the fourth game, but he pitched a full game in relief--80 pitches--on Saturday (and got the win, after Tim Hudson's heroic 8 innings, giving up a single run.)  Does Bochy go with Peavy on three days rest?  If not, who?  Vogelsong is back on the Giants roster, so he's a possibility.  Not a good year but he's been successful in the postseason.

I'm thinking Bochy held Lincecum out of Saturday's epic partly to make him available to start Tuesday, or be available for long relief, especially after he inserted Petit.  If the Nats manage to win both SF games, the Giants will have Hudson (or Peavy if he's isn't tapped for 4) available for the 5th and deciding game.

It may well not come to that but even though the pressure is obviously on the Nats, there's some on the Giants, too.  Their best possible outcome is to win tomorrow, and rest everybody for the next series.

The Epic

A few more notes on the epic 2-1 game Saturday.  Among Bochy's brilliant moves was to choose Petit in relief rather than Lincecum.  In doing so he may have sacrificed his fourth game starter.  Petit, who left relief pitching behind to become a starter late in the season, seemed somewhat unprepared when called upon.  But after a shaky first inning he settled into the game and was lights out. He gave up one hit and struck out seven in an 80 pitch, 6 inning performance.  And of course he gave up no runs--when for six innings the first Nats run scored would give them the victory, right then and there.  Bochy went with the pitcher he thought was the better one for this game, without thinking too far ahead.

Both teams virtually depleted their bullpens.  (Sandoval said (or kidded) later that he was ready to pitch if needed.)  But by using Petit, Bochy required fewer innings from his regular relievers.  That may pay off Monday.  

Both Baltimore and Kansas City swept the more favored American League teams of Detroit and Los Angeles on Sunday.  An omen for the Giants?  Well, maybe, but for now it means the game will start a little later in the afternoon for TV.

A Giant Epic

The superlatives start with this one: 18 innings, tied for the longest postseason game in Major League history.  Epic pitching on both sides but particularly by the Giants bullpen, which has held the Nats scoreless for 14 consecutive innings.  The Giants tied this game at 1-1 with two outs in the ninth, when the Nats made the fatal mistake of lifting the unhittable Zimmerman.  It was the length of a normal game later that (under the wind and temperature conditions prevailing in Washington) probably the only Giant capable of homering, did: Brandon Belt belted one more than 400 feet to right, it was gone off the bat and he knew it.  The Nats could not answer.  Now the Giants need just one of two games at home to take the series.

It was a pitcher's duel from the start, with Zimmerman getting stronger as the game went on, but Tim Hudson finding his pitches to mesmerize the Nats hitters.  But his wasn't the only "quality start" for the Giants in the game (as their announcers quipped): Petit--who figured to start a game in the series--was called in to pitch 6 innings of extras.  The flamethrowing kid, rookie Hunter Strickland, got the tense 18th inning save.

Bruce Bochy severely outmanaged the Nat's Matt Williams, who in addition to taking Zimmerman out, got himself thrown out of the game for arguing balls and strikes.  Catcher Buster Posey managed the parade of Giants pitchers brilliantly, got a key hit and almost scored the lead run in the ninth.  Pablo Sandoval doubled in the first Giants run and--though he's not having a particularly good postseason--has a record 12 postseason game hitting streak going.

The statistics and superlatives will continue to be compiled about this classic game, which clocked in at six hours.  But here's one stat that stands out: Brandon Belt's home run in the 18th was the first extra inning home run in a postseason game since one of the most famous homer in Giants history (in this case the New York Giants): Dusty Rhodes 10th inning homer to win the first game of the World Series in 1954.  That was the year the Giants swept the favored Indians.

Could these Giants sweep the favorite Nationals?  They have Madison Bumgarner on the mound for their first game at home on Monday.

I couldn't listen to every pitch for six hours, although I did hear more than 3/4 of the game.  Some of the announcers kind of got hoarse but it also meant 18 innings of Mike Krukow talking baseball, and that's worth it.  At one point he said that even when a batter decides to take a pitch, he should be watching and measuring velocity and so on, with his body as well as his eye.  He noted with some disgust that a Nats player hadn't done that, just spaced out for a pitch.  It's that kind of observation that adds to my baseball knowledge (I personally got maybe two or three tips from my so-called coaches in little and pony leagues, the rest I learned from other players, baseball novels by John R. Tunis and Joe Archibald and biographies, and mostly from Major League announcers) and that enhances my enjoyment of the game.

One Giant Step

Joe Panik

The San Francisco Giants played their game, and they won the first in the five game set with the Nats at Washington, 3-2.  Jake Peavy, a much underrated pitcher probably because he faltered in previous postseason game, outpitched his glorified opposite number Strasburg.

The Giants won the way they had to win, with pitching, stubborn hitting and above all with players who are new to the team this year to supplement their veterans on the field and in the bullpen.  They got the biggest out of the game from rookie Hunter Strickland, who struck out a fast ball hitter who often cleans up with the bases loaded, with a 100 mph fastball, with the bases loaded.

Strickland gave up the only runs the Nats got, two bases empty homers.  But the Giants veteran bullpen shut the door after that.

But the rookie of the postseason so far is second baseman Joe Panik.  A kid who looks like he stepped out of the cast of The Natural and with that perfect baseball fiction name, has done what no Giant did before in the team's long history: he's had five hits in his first two postseason games.  He had two in this one, including an RBI and a run scored.  He made some excellent plays in the field as well.

The two Brandons (Crawford and Belt) and now the two Hunters (Pence, who got a run with his running, and now Strickland) were among the standouts.

So the Giants got the game they probably had to win.  Now they can afford a split in DC, pitch Bumgarner at home, and see where they are after 3.  They go into the game tomorrow even more of an underdog than today, despite their win, knowing that Tim Hudson is capable of throwing a gem, or of getting really roughed up.  He'll have to recapture his magic and again keep it a low scoring game, the most likely scenario for a Giants win.

Meanwhile the O's have gone two games up on Detroit.  As of this moment the Dodgers and Cards are in a tense and testy opener to their series, and the Royals play the Angels later.  Update: The Cards got to Clayton Kershaw, wound up winning an improbable 9-8 pitcher's duel, upending that series with the first game.  And the Royals took down the Angels again, and again in extra innings--with a homer in the 11th.  Not a boring game in the postseason yet.

Mr. Peavy Goes to Washington

I'm too lazy to check the actual odds, but from what I've gleaned, the smart picks to win the World Series this year are either the Los Angeles Angels or the Washington Nationals.

Well, the Angels lost the first game of their series to Kansas City, who may be replacing the Pirates as the "destiny" team.  And the Orioles looked awfully good chewing up the superior pitching of the Tigers in their first game.

The Nationals are called a "complete team," excellent in all phases of the game, starting with starting pitching.  Based on the season, they do have a definite advantage over the Giants. Gone (for now) are the days of dominating Matt Cain (injured) and Tim Lincecum (who will likely be in the bullpen.) Bumgarner is the Giants' ace, and he won't pitch again until the 3rd of five games.

Jake Peavy gets the first game start Friday, with the former wonder boy Strasburg getting his first postseason start for the Nats.  After Peavy, there's a falling off in quality starters for the Giants.  Petit has pitched well, at times brilliantly, since he's become a starter late in the year. Tim Hudson is scheduled for the second game--he's been brilliant during the season but in recent games he's been uncomfortably hittable. He's facing Jordan Zimmerman, who pitched a no-hitter his last game.  So it's pretty important for the Giants to win the first game.

As for Lincecum, I have a feeling we're going to see him in this series, probably if a starter falters.  He did relief work in the 2012 postseason I believe, and did very well.

This is the early game--it'll be high noon around here.

The Giants Move On

Madison Bumgarner was the better pitcher and the San Francisco Giants were the better team in the Wild Card game on Wednesday in Pittsburgh.  Bumgarner's complete game shutout will go down as one of the best pitching performances of this season.  The air went out of the stadium and the Pirates' game when Brian Crawford dinked his grand slam but even without it, the Giants were in control.  The Pirates' depleted bullpen could do no better than starter Volquez did, their third best starter.

This loss is pretty directly attributable to the Pirates trying so hard to win the division in the past two games, which they also lost.  I thought (and said here) that the Giants were looser and the Pirates could be deflated by two tough important losses in a row to end the regular season.  The Giants, with nothing to gain or lose, could rest Bumgarner and give their starters some rest and easy innings.  But as the game with the Pirates went on, the Giants playoff experience also figured in.

I heard the game from the Giants radio announcers, and since they weren't doing TV, with the addition of Mike Krukow, whose comments I really miss all season--although he usually joins in for the analysis afterwards which is broadcast on both radio and TV.  (There's a nice ESPN piece about Krukow and the crew.)

Maybe they were a little hard on Clint Hurdle, talking about him limping out to the field every time he moved, and on the Pittsburgh fans, describing their exodus over the Clemente bridge in the late innings as looking like refugees, bundled up and forlorn.  But they are a fun group, and so I'm happy that I'll be listening to them for the Giants series with Washington, when the Giants will be definite underdogs.

Gamecasting Problems

Night before the game I really care about, checking in with the wild one in Kansas City.  And glad I'm not going to have to rely on ESPN gamecast for play by play tomorrow--I get the crack SF Giants radio team.  Gamecast is weird, with some information outrunning other pieces, and some stunning irrelevancies and mistakes.  Irrelevant: the percentage chance a team has of scoring 2 or more runs when it's the bottom of the ninth with the score tied.  Mistake: a foul out to second, very difficult to imagine.  To the second baseman maybe, I suppose, but the middle of the infield is kind of by definition not foul ground.

Sometimes it just freezes, like right now, at the very crucial last of the 12th.  When the little box at the bottom shows that the Royals just scored the winning run. And even there the icon of the runner at first is well not even superfluous, it's wrong. Gamecast doesn't even bother to try to catch up.

Sad for Oakland.  Ahead four runs late in the game, going ahead at the top of the 12th.  Now it shows that KC leads the series 1-0.  Hey, there is no series.  This was the wild card game.  It's over.  KC moves on, Oakland goes home.  Now we wonder whether this will be the only Bay Area team to squander its commanding lead, hang on for a wild card, but stop there.

Decided

The last day of the season turned out to be the last day of the season.  Before the games began on Sunday, it was possible for three division titles to still be decided by a game on Monday.  But none of the second place teams could earn a tie.

That included the Pittsburgh Pirates, who lost to the Reds' ace (and now 20 game winner) early in the day, even before St. Louis won their game.  Either outcome meant that Pittsburgh would host the SF Giants in the Wild Card game on Wednesday, and that's what will happen.

The Pirates gambled on the possibility of earning that tie and then winning the division by sending out their ace (Gerit Cole) to pitch Sunday.  Their loss meant that St. Louis scrapped their starting lineup that evening, including their ace, saving them all for the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the San Francisco Giants sent a rookie pitcher to the mound, and otherwise used the game as a tuneup for Wednesday.  They won easily over the Padres.

So it looks as if the Giants will send their ace Madison Bumgarner to the mound on Wednesday, while the Pirates will likely use a surprise starter, Edinson Volquez. The Giants seem pleased with the match-up.

So apart from the very apropos warning that in a single game, anything can happen, who has the edge?  The Pirates are playing at home, but they're coming off losing two tough games.  Volquez has been lights out in his recent starts, but that hasn't always been the case, and unless I'm mistaken this may be his first playoff game.  Volquez seems likely to be either devastating or gotten to quickly.  Bumgarner is steady, with great perseverance.

The Pirates have two hitters near the top of the league in average, and a lineup that's loaded with power.  The only significant injury might be to catcher Russell Martin, though that could be very significant.  (No word yet on whether he will play.)  And the team has the best home record in the league.  So in significant ways they should be the favorites (and they are clearly the better team for the long haul--that is, they are likely to go deeper into the playoffs than are the Giants.)

The Giants have lost the key to their lineup in Angel Pagan, and one of their power hitters in Michael Morse to injuries.  Pablo Sandoval and Hunter Pence are in deep slumps, especially for power.  Sandoval and to an extent Buster Posey are playing hurt.  So the Giants don't seem to have a lot of margin for error.  But there are possible advantages to some of these disadvantages.  The Pirates haven't seen (or seen much of) their rookies.  And their flamethrowing rookie reliever Hunter Strickland could very well be the Giants' secret weapon.

What nags at me is how loose the Giants are.  They had two meaningless games that they won.  The players, management, and the announcers (maybe especially the announcers) seem almost giddy to be in the postseason.  They are counting on their exploits of the past, and that confidence.  That and Bumgarner (and the Pirates can be stopped by really good pitching) may give them an edge, if the Pirates are tired or tight.

So where does all this place me, fanwise?  On other occasions that they played each other I could just root for the home team and really not worry much.  But in the past week it's become clear where my deepest loyalties lie, and that's with the Pirates.  So I'm rooting for them in the Wild Card game and, if they win, beyond it.  But if the Giants win, I'll be rooting for them the rest of the way.

This game has one significant advantage for me:  I am without TV capability, but a local radio station carries the Giants and will carry this game.  So I can listen to the game on the radio, broadcast by the Giants' radio team I've been listening to with great pleasure all season.

A side note: though I haven't followed them, the other Bay Area team--the Oakland A's, got their American League division Wild Card on Sunday.  They play Tuesday.

Defining Moments

SATURDAY: It's going to come down to the final day of the season, at best.  The Pirates and the Cards both lost on Saturday.  The Pirates lost a slugfest in the 10th inning, so the Cards went into their game later knowing that all they had to do was beat the weak Diamondbacks and they would take the division.  As it is, with the Pirates loss, the Cards clinched at least a tie.  If the Cards win Sunday or the Pirates lose, the Cards win the division. If the Pirates win and the Cards lose, they play the tie-breaker on Monday.  The Cards are sending their ace out on Sunday.

The tie-breaker is not a win or go home.  The winner of the game wins the division and move on to play a series.  The loser plays the Giants in the Wild Card game, which IS win or go home.

The Giants as surmised played their rookies on Saturday, and they won, with all the rookies looking good.  Sunday they will send out a rookie starting pitcher.  Neither game means anything to the Giants.  They know they will be playing away on Wednesday, though they still don't know whether it will be Pittsburgh or St. Louis.


FRIDAY: Arizona came within a base hit in the bottom of the ninth of putting the Pirates into a tie for first.  They came back from a 6-3 deficit to tie the Cards in the 8th, and had two men on in the 9th but couldn't bring in that winning run.  The Cards scored in the top of the 10th, Arizona couldn't answer, so the Cards got a one run victory.

The pressure was on them because earlier in the day the Pirates beat the Reds 3-1 in Cincinnati.  Also, the Giants lost at home to San Diego, so they now know they will not play the Wild Card game at home.  So in a way they are in the best position--they can rest whatever players they choose because the final 2 games are meaningless.  Meanwhile, the Pirates and Cards have to keep contending for that very important top spot.  It is still possible they will tie for first, which is the chanciest outcome for both teams as their top pitchers will likely be unavailable.

Still, the Pirates now know that if they wind up playing the Giants in the Wild Card, the game will be in Pittsburgh.

Post-Season Players Known, But Not Matchups

Edinson Volquez pitched lights out for the Pirates win

Though the National League teams involved are known with three games left in the regular season, nothing else is.

On Thursday the Pittsburgh Pirates walloped Atlanta to move to one game behind St. Louis for the division title.  The San Francisco Giants held on to defeat San Diego to remain one game behind the Pirates for (essentially) home field advantage in the Wild Card game.  However, that Wild Card game could instead be with St. Louis if the Pirates take the division.

If you were playing the odds, you'd probably figure that the situation will wind up as it is now.  Not just the math but the matchups.  The Cardinals finish the season in Arizona, while the Pirates finish theirs with three games in Cincinnati.  The Reds are a better team than Arizona, which is also in management chaos.  The Pirates however are the hotter team, though not by much over St. Louis, their recent nemesis in the division.

Enthused by backing into a playoff spot by the Brewers loss earlier in the day, the Giants' bats came alive Thursday. An especially good sign was the splash homer by Brandon Belt.  Unfortunately their pitching went to hell, and they blew a 6-0 lead to come from behind for a 9-8 victory.  Then they celebrated their Wild Card before the Bay Area fans.

Brandon Belt's power will be needed for the Giants

The Giants play their remaining three games against the Padres at home.  Bruce Bochy says he's not holding anybody back for the Wild Card game apparently scheduled for next Wednesday, but that seems to not include his likely starter, Madison Bumgarner, who won't pitch his regular rotation this weekend.  So right now chances are that it will be Bumgarner against Liriano in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

The Pirates seem much better equipped to win a series, even the long one of the World Series seven games.  They are hitting much better and they have the starting pitching.  The Giants have playoff experience but weaker hitting and probably just three reliable starters.

But of course that doesn't matter in a one game win or go home.  Anything can happen to win a single game or to lose it.  That's where the Giants postseason experience comes in, but the Pirates have also demonstrated a steadiness under pressure and an ability to come from behind.  You have to question the Giants hitting ability on that.  As for pitching, the Giants have the luxury of holding Bumgarner out for the wild card game, while the Pirates have to go all out to try to win the division, so they can't hold anyone out.

There's even the possibility of a Central Division tie, in which case the Pirates and Cards play a one game playoff for the division title.  The advantage of winning the division is tremendous.  It means no one and done, and no fewer than 5 games to decide anything.  

How Sweet It Is

In the city where it all ended for more than 20 years, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Atlanta team to clinch a postseason spot--the first time since 1990 and 91.  They clinched in part because the Brewers lost.

Their winning ways in September have been matched only by the Cardinals, but they've closed the gap to one game in the lost column for the division title.  With the Giants loss in LA, they are a full game ahead of the Giants for the top wild card slot.  The Giants can still secure the second slot but they face the possibility that the Dodgers will clinch the division against them tomorrow--and with Kershaw on the mound, it's a real possibility.

Update: Yeah, it happened, and the Dodgers fans could have started celebrating in the 7th inning of what became a lopsided game.  So the Dodgers got the West, but both the Pirates and Cards lost, so the Bucs are still a game out in the Central.  Apparently the Giants are very close to clinching a wild card but I've given up trying to figure this stuff out.

Update 2: So when the Brewers lost on Thursday, the Giants backed into a wild card.

Keeping It Going

For a long time it seemed like a sad summary of what the last few weeks have been like for the San Francisco Giants.  Jake Peavy and their bullpen held the Dodgers in check, but inning after inning they squandered opportunities to score.  In the 8th, in the 9th.  In the 10th.  And the 11th.  And the 12th.  They left ten on base.

But finally in the 13th inning they got deep into the Dodgers bullpen and scrambled together three runs, with pinch hitter and rookie catcher Andrew Susac driving in the winning run and scoring the third of the inning.  The game was iced by the fireballing rookie reliever Hunter Strickland, who struck out two and induced a ground ball out.  Though the hitting woes for many of the veterans continued, especially Pablo Sandoval and Hunter Pence, Brandon Belt started to look like his old self, and Gregor Blanco homered and drove in two.

Earlier, the Pittsburgh Pirates won their second consecutive 1-0 game, this time against their ancient enemy, Atlanta.  The sole run of the game was a homer by Andrew McCutchen. ESPN touted him as a repeat MVP.  Francisco Liriano pitched the shutdown shutout.

Which means my two teams are tied for the first wild card spot. It seems more and more likely they will be playing each other.

 They are also both barely alive for their respective division leads.  The Giants at least for the moment control their fate, as they are playing twice more against the division leading Dodgers.  The Pirates can't do anything but keep winning and hope that the Cards start to lose, which so far they are not doing.  They beat up on the Cubs on Monday.  But the Pirates every day look more and more like the real thing.  No longer just hoping to get into the postseason, they are showing the strength to go deep, even all the way.

Meanwhile, I've finally watched the second game of the 2004 NBA finals again, the only game (as it turned out) that the Lakers won against Detroit.  I hadn't remembered it as a great game, but it is--a great Laker game.  Maybe not the best this particular Laker team ever played, but definitely the last great game they played.  Shaq would go on to have a monster 4th game, but the Lakers couldn't compensate for Karl Malone's injury. They were outplayed and probably outcoached.  And that was the end for this team.  But this particular game was great, and I'm going to watch it again before I put it away.          

Pirates, Giants: Towards Defining Moments

Sunday Update: The Pirates enacted revenge on the Brewers with their own 1-0 victory to take the series.  However, they can't prevent the Cardinals from winning the division by continuing to win games.

The punchless Giants again wasted innings of strong starting pitching and ultimately collapsed in an 8-2 loss to the Padres, to complete the San Diego sweep.  Bochy did play two rookies in an effort to shake up the lineup but not successfully.  The Giants are now in danger of being overtaken by the Pirates for the first wild card slot.  A lot can still happen to both teams, but the Giants face three games against the division leading Dodgers in LA, at a very low point in their season.  


By sweeping the Red Sox and winning the first game against the Brewers, the Pittsburgh Pirates pretty much assured themselves a post-season slot.  But by losing the second game to the Brewers while the Cardinals continued to win, the odds are heavily against them in terms of the Central Division lead.  The Brewers 1-0 victory may prove expensive however as they sent two fast balls to hit Pirates star Andrew McCutchen, solidly both times.  It's a loser's kind of ugliness, as the Brewers are probably out of it.

Meanwhile the Padres are indeed playing the spoiler role for the Giants as I feared, and the Giants loss of leadoff hitter Angel Pagan has rendered the lineup dangerously askew.  Thanks also to the absence of power hitter Michael Morse, producing runs is a struggle, even with the excellent pitching they got on Saturday. Having lost the first two games of the series, and facing a schedule of nothing but the Padres and the Dodgers, the Giants could fall back even beyond the first wild card.  They could conceivably miss the postseason completely, although my math is pretty shaky on wild card combinations.  And if Pagan can't come back--a real possibility--the postseason might be pretty short anyway.  It's time for Bruce Bochy to take some chances with his lineup and insert a rookie in center field and perhaps elsewhere to try to shake things up and get some runs.

Down to the Wire

A good few days for the teams I follow.  At the moment both the Pirates and the Giants are two games back (in the loss column) in their divisions, and ahead for one wild card or another.  The Pirates at home are hitting and pitching very well and have taken two from the Red Sox with the third yet to be played, for 8 victories out of the last 10 games.  The Giants took 2 of 3 in Arizona while the Dodgers lost 2 in Colorado.

But the Giants are still on thin ice, mostly because once again Angel Pagan is out of the lineup.  Without him the hitting tends to fall apart.  Brandon Belt is still working on getting back to speed, and Michael Morse has a nagging injury.  The Giants could use Belt and Morse for RBI power but they really need Pagan, especially for the 3 in LA and whatever postseason they may get.

The Pirates on the other hand are getting healthy at exactly the right time, which is often a prescription for success.

The Pirates may have a slightly tougher schedule of remaining games though.  Three games with the Brewers are at home, which gives them an edge, but they are away for 4 games with Atlanta and 3 with the Reds.  Atlanta loves to break Pittsburgh's heart.

The Giants need to dominate the Padres and hope the Dodgers' fate in Colorado transfers elsewhere.  Unless the Padres sweep the upcoming three, those games in LA will be as advertised: a deciding series.

Giants-Dodgers, Pirates and RIP Football

Neil Walker

The two NL West rivals throwing their best pitchers against each other, and each of those pitchers among the best in the league--so three very tight games, right?  Not until Sunday.  Friday it was 9-0 Giants.  Saturday the Dodgers beat up Tim Hudson and ultimately won by the football-season score of 17-0.

But Sunday it was a real pitching duel, and the underdog Petit of the Giants held his own against the superstar of the year, Clayton Kershaw.  Unfortunately, Giants veterans made key fielding and base-running errors, Petit threw one more bad pitch than Kershaw, and the Dodgers left town with a 4-2 victory, and two out of three in this key series.

But again in this game, the Giants rookies (or at least new players) stood out.  Petit pitched valiantly, and flamethrowing rookie reliever Strickland pitched a scoreless ninth.  The big hits of the game were by rookies Andrew Susac and Matt Duffy.

Now both teams play lesser teams for awhile--always a dangerous thing at this time of the year--before meeting again in LA.  But with a 3 game lead, the Dodgers just have to remain steady, while the Giants would need a winning streak plus some luck to contend for the division lead.  I assume they are still good for a wild card but as I've always demonstrated, that math is beyond me.

But I read that the Pirates are still the team to beat for the second wild card slot.  They were behind Chicago 3-0 when on defense they pulled a triple play.  That seemed to inspire their hitting, and they went on to win 7-3.  Neil Walker homered, and the hometown boy broke the record for Pirates homers in a season by a second baseman held by none other than Bill Mazeroski.  Maz, though not a Pittsburgh native (like Walker) remained a western PA resident after his long career with the Pirates, his own big league team.

Lots of news and pseudo-news in football this week but all of the usual noise won't mean anything next to the court-mandated NFL study that says it expects one in three players to suffer cognitive problems from brain trauma, and at a significantly younger age than average.  Playing football also increases the chances of various neurological diseases.  It's the most authoritative, comprehensive document yet.

It will probably take awhile, but unless football changes the way it is played and its equipment significantly, its days as a major sport are numbered.  All the publicity about concussions has I am sure already reduced the number of kids going out for football in middle school and high school.  That's only going to increase.  Then there will be high schools that drop football--especially schools in high income areas.

Football continues to be highly profitable for high schools and especially colleges, but some attrition will be felt in their ranks as well.  Professional sports has always provided opportunities for those from poor backgrounds, and this will only intensify in football until the risks are judged to be greater than the possible rewards, as those with other options opt out.  If it continues without change--or only cosmetic change-- NFL football will increasingly take on the look and reality of gladiatorial entertainment.  How long it can go on like that is anyone's guess.  But probably not forever.

Crunch Time in the NL

Joe Panik

The San Francisco Giants begin their most important 3 game series of the year under the Friday night lights, with the Los Angeles Dodgers.  They took care of business with a sweep of Arizona, a team that at this point in the season seems barely interested enough to stand at their positions, but not enough to actually field them.  The Giants have won 9 straight at home, and 6 straight overall.

Now they face the three best Dodger pitchers at home.  The last time this scenario happened, they were swept.  This is the test of the money the Dodgers have spent precisely to have this short series pitching dominance, first to get past the Giants and then for postseason.  The Giants play the Dodgers three more games in LA, but this is the series they need to win, absent real heroics in LA--where they will face the same three starting pitchers.  Their starters will also be the same.

Whatever happens, the ups and downs of this season has solved one problem and possibly two for the Giants going forward.  They have found a solid second baseman in rookie Joe Panik, who is also a solid hitter right behind lead-off hitter Angel Pagan.  Panik went 5 for 5 in one of the games with Arizona.  In Andrew Sesak they may also have found a reliable backup catcher to Buster Posey, enabling him to play first base more often and perhaps extend his career.

Meanwhile the Pittsburgh Pirates are surging while both the Brewers and the Cards are having problems.  Like the Giants, they've been getting stellar starting pitching lately, pretty good relief, and lively bats.  But both teams have most recently beat up on inferior teams (Arizona, Philly.)

Still, they are both still in the hunt.  The Giants are just 2 games back of LA (with the third place team, San Diego, 15.5 back) in the West, while the Pirates are now in second place, 2.5 games behind St. Louis.  They don't go head to head again, but after the Cubs and Red Sox, they do have important series with current rivals for a playoff spot, the Brewers and Atlanta, finishing the season against the Reds, who are already relishing a spoiler role, having beat the Cards today 1-0.

The possible spoilers for SF are the Padres, if only for the sheer number of games left to play with them: 7, with four of those in San Diego.  But for this weekend, all eyes are on the Bay, as the Giants play the Dodgers.

  

Speaking of Sports: Wild Cards and Football Sadness

Excuse my math.  In suggesting that the Pirates are unlikely to make the playoffs without winning the division I was giving the wrong answer.  With three straight over the Cubs and the first game over the Phillies, both on the road, they're a game and a half ahead for the second Wild Card spot.  The Giants have the first in their sights.  But both are technically in play for division leads.

It turns out by this math that the Cards beating the Brewers two out of three was a good thing.  So now I've got my rooting straight--Brewers and Atlanta losing is good (well, Atlanta losing is always good.)

 Interesting new phenomenon reported--there are Pittsburgh Pirates fans in Philadelphia.  They were apparently the only ones left in the park to see the last innings of the Pirates 6-4 victory.  The Pirates play 3 more in Philly before returning home for 9 games with the Cubs, Red Sox and Brewers.  They then go to Atlanta for 4 games.  Those latter two series may very well determine whether they make the playoffs or not.  They've been looking strong, so when their pitching works they're tough to beat.

Returning from a 3-3 road trip, the Giants have 6 games at home, with Arizona and Los Angeles.  They face both teams for 3 games on the road.  The only other team they play for the rest of the season is San Diego, for 7 games.  If the Giants can hold their own with the Dodgers or even come out of those games with more wins than losses, they have a decent chance to hold on for a postseason berth. But taking the Dodger series is probably their only chance to win the division, at 3.5 games out.  They're capable but unpredictable.

The big news however was in football, and the events of Monday--the appearance of videos on the Internet of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice beating up his girlfriend on an elevator some months ago.  Within hours he was fired from the team and suspended indefinitely from the NFL.  But there are angry charges of too little too late, and calls for a range of resignations--from the top execs of the Ravens and the NFL as well as the prosecutors and judge involved.  Keith Olbermann seems to be talking about some kind of boycott.  It's interesting that this happened so quickly, as did the Sterling/Silver affair in the NBA.

There is question whether anyone on the Ravens or in the NFL saw the videos before, and there's considerable argument that it doesn't matter.  I've never liked the Ravens as a team or an organization, and their initial conduct doesn't surprise me--it jibes with my impression of them.  Maybe the NFL is finally beginning to deal with domestic violence.  But the NFL still hasn't dealt successfully or it seems even seriously with the concussion problem, and  the charge by numerous former players that their teams sent them back into action seriously hurt.

 I checked the scores of the first week, saw the Steelers highlights on ESPN online (though that site spends as much time on its commercial than the highlights) but I've got zero enthusiasm for this season.  At best I'm uncomfortable and sad.  The sport and its culture has become too violent.

So back to baseball.  I passed the local park where our semipro team plays.  Though their season was over, two uniformed teams were playing.  I was wearing my earphones and listening to music.  So even though I went into the park, sat in the bleachers and watched a couple of innings, I still don't know who was playing.  And I didn't care.  I watched the game.  There is a lot of game to watch.

Speaking of Sports: Early September Stretch

If the Pittsburgh Pirates don't make it to the playoffs, they'll probably look back at their last series with St. Louis.  The Cards are hot and swept the 3 games--the last one by the score of 1-0 in the last of the ninth.  Combined with the collapse of the Brewers, the Cards have taken over first place.  The Bucs and Cards don't play again this year.  The Cards go into a series right away with the Brewers, and all the Pirates can do is hope that the Brewers reassert themselves.  But as things are shaping up, the Pirates may have to win the division to get into the playoffs, and at the moment they are 5 back.  They have about the same number of home and away games left.

The Giants meanwhile are better positioned by their situation if not their play.  Only two games behind the Dodgers, they play Los Angeles six more times.  That gives them more control over their fate.  Plus they are in pretty good shape for a wild card even if they don't overtake the Dodgers.  But they are such an inconsistent team it's still a crap shoot.  When they are going good, they are great and fun to follow.

However the true wild card might be the games the Giants and Pirates play against American League teams.  Those are always hard to predict.  The Giants begin a series in Detroit, and they've had some trouble with AL teams.  The Pirates play the Red Sox, and it's hard to know which Sox team will show up.

Meanwhile, I've watched the 2004 Western Conference Finals.  The Minnesota Timberwolves won game 2 and their first elimination game in 5, and were playing a close game in 6.  Kevin Garnett was mesmerizing at times, all his moves before the shot, and the shots that he made.  Kobe and Shaq had their moments, as did Malone, but the Lakers were behind by 1 point at the end of the third quarter.  Then the Lakers took over in the fourth, with the key shots made by two of the newer and least known Lakers,  Slava Medvedenko and especially Kareem Rush, who hit 6 three pointers.  The Lakers won the game at home and the series, but it was clear at the conference trophy presentation that they considered this a minor moment on the way to the NBA championship.  Instead it would turn out to be the last championship of any kind that this particular team would win.

This 6th game would also turn out to be the high point of the careers of Medvedenko and Rush.  Injuries would short circuit both of them.  Rush would have some successful moments in the NBA and even taste stardom in Europe, but at this point he seemed to have the skills to become a Kobe-like NBA star.  It just wasn't to be.

Doug Collins was doing color commentary and he highlighted how coach Phil Jackson had prepared these two young players for playoff success during the season.  Particularly he built Kareem Rush's confidence by giving him playing time.  As Collins also noted, Jackson orchestrated this fourth quarter perfectly by putting sharpshooters Rush and Derek Fisher on the court with Shaq, Kobe and Malone (subbed for awhile by Medvedenko.)  Rush in particular got open shots and he hit them.

After the game Collins suggested the Lakers might have trouble with the defense of Detroit in the finals, and that certainly proved to be true. They shut down those "role players" and the heavily favored Lakers won only one game.   I'm not sure how much of the finals I'm going to watch.  I recall the fifth game as a bitter and pitiful loss, a surrender.  I recall there was dissension, and I remember Malone's injury being catastrophic.   I don't know if my curiosity is strong enough to check these impression by watching.

It was a one year experiment that was considered a failure, despite how far they got.  The end was just about total: Phil Jackson resigned as coach; Shaq and Gary Payton were traded, Derek Fisher left, Karl Malone and Rick Fox retired.  Malone never got his championship, though Payton did, with Shaq on the Miami Heat.  It would be several years before Kobe and the Lakers, with Jackson back as coach, won another championship.  My viewing so far has shown a lot of fun basketball, so even if this was hubris etc.  I don't think this experiment was doomed from the start or a complete failure.  There were games when this team was as good as it gets.

Now ten years later, Derek Fisher is starting his first coaching job, of the Knicks for Phil Jackson.  Steve Kerr, who played for the Bulls under Jackson and did color commentary for some of these games, is starting his first year of coaching Golden State, and Doc Rivers, also broadcasting some of these games, is back coaching the LA Clippers.  Kobie is still a Lakers star, after winning two more championships with coach Phil Jackson, but even one more in his future seems increasingly unlikely.  The oddest thing for me is that the core of the Spurs that lost four straight to the Lakers in the 2004 playoffs is still intact (Duncan, Parker, Genobli) and the Spurs are the reigning 2014 NBA champs.

Speaking of Sports: Giants Pitching, Kobe's Satori

After the pitching debacle Sunday, the San Francisco Giants have had an unexpectedly stellar week of starting pitching.  Madison Bumgarner came within one batter of a perfect game.  Tim Hudson came within one batter of a no-hitter.  Then in a start replacing the erratic Tim Lincecum,  Yusmiero Petit set a major league record by retiring 46 consecutive batters (though he did so mostly as a reliever over many games) and gave up only a single run.  The Giants won these three games against a club they should beat that was nevertheless a nemesis this year, the Colorado Rockies.  It took a walk-off homer to win one of them, after again losing the lead in the late innings.

Update: And the incredible starting pitching continued.  A day after Ryan Vogelsong pitched 7 strong innings in a 13-2 laugher, Jake Peavy took a no-hitter into the eighth inning, and wound up with a 1 hitter and the victory--both of these games against the NL Central leading Milwaukee Brewers.

Position players were at last getting some timely hits. If nothing else, this year's adversity has given some rookies a chance, and so the Giants have some young players proving themselves in what had been an aging lineup.  One of the Giants' announcers made a good point after their 13-2 victory: with rookie Joe Panik hitting second after a reasonably healthy Angel Pagan, the Giants have a pretty solid lineup (even absent Brandon Belt.)

Meanwhile, the Pirates took 2 of 3 from St. Louis, so winning the second series in a row against the two teams ahead of them in their division.  Then two straight over the Reds.

In my tape review of the 2004 Lakers playoffs, I'm now on the 5th game of the second round, with San Antonio.  After defeats in the first two games, the Lakers blew out the Spurs in the third, and in the fourth they eventually won handily propelled by a remarkable game by Kobe Bryant, scoring 40 points and dominating the action.  They won the 5th on the miracle shot of all miracle shots--Derek Fisher's swish as the ball was inbounded with .4 seconds on the clock.

 Once again, the tragic dimensions hover.  Not just that again Karl Malone is identified as the key player, or that the rumbles of discontent among the Lakers threaten to intrude.  Kobe played this game hours after flying back from Colorado where he entered a not guilty plea on the charge of sexual assault.  After the game he talked about playing basketball since he was three, and how great it feels to be on the basketball court.  He said the key to the Lakers success was playing every possession as if it might be their last.  Clearly he was talking about himself.  He was facing the possibility of jail, and the end of his basketball career.  Every moment on the court was probably heightened, and precious.

Speaking of Sports: late August

Because I follow the fortunes of the SF Giants and Pittsburgh Pirates, I've noticed what seems an inordinate number of times that they've won or lost on the same day, even by identical scores.  It's probably an illusion, but still...On Monday they both lost home games by the score of 3-2, and both had the tying run on base in the bottom of the ninth.

If it means anything it may be that these are two teams going nowhere this year, both about 5 games out of first and both looking for the same second Wild Card.  I've written before that the Pirates are more likely to be in it than the Giants, and I'll stick with that.  The Pirates are at least nearer full strength, and their valiant two wins against the division leading Brewers in Milwaukee suggest they can't be counted out.  I suspect they're the more exciting team to watch, with at least a little objectivity.

The Giants however appear to be falling apart.  Their tired bullpen got blown out on Sunday, they committed multiple errors in losing to Colorado at home--again--on Monday.  Tim Lincecum has been such a misadventure on the mound since the All Star break that he's been demoted, losing his spot in the starting rotation to a pitcher who has had much more success as a reliever than a starter.  They've definitely lost Scutaro for the season (he may well retire) which thanks to Joe Panik taking over at second hasn't been fatal, but Brandon Belt is still at least a couple of weeks away from returning, and their lineup misses his bat badly for timely hits (though they have been hitting better lately.)

  I've even begun to wonder whether Bruce Bochy is managing too much by the analytics and not enough by who is playing or pitching well on the day.  Lefty/righty percentages work out in the long run, not necessarily in a given game.  Monday in the ninth he pinch hit for a batter who'd hit a home run earlier in the game, and got nothing.

Meanwhile, I've been watching my tapes from the 2003-04 LA Lakers season.  My memory was colored by how it ended--I had forgotten what an amazing team they were at times, when everyone was healthy, including Carl Malone.  Even Gary Peyton, who I never liked, was a major asset in how he pushed the ball and gave the team speed and excitement.  Early in the year and then at the end of the season when everybody was at least back (if not fully healed) they just demolished the best teams in the league.

But knowing how they fell apart in the finals, a lot of this is like watching some NBA version of a Greek tragedy.  Announcers like Bill Walton confidently predicted this team would rule for several seasons to come.  They noted how important Karl Malone was to them, and how Shaq and Kobie adjusted to new roles, and how for all the talk of rivalry, the player who got the most assists for passing to Shaq when he scored was Kobie.

But the season played out with Kobie's legal and personal drama as an ongoing feature.  He seemed superhuman in flying back from court in Colorado to the game and playing extremely well.  But how long could that last without emotions showing up elsewhere?  Then just before the finals started, Malone got hurt again and didn't play.  I'm just getting into the second round of the playoffs, as the Lakers annihilate San Antonio, but I know what's coming.  Which was ignominious and acrimonious losses in the finals, and the subsequent dismantling of the team, losing Shaq,  Peyton, Malone (who retired without playing again), Rick Fox and (for awhile) Derek Fisher and coach Phil Jackson.

Finally, congratulations to Chicago's Jackie Robinson West, the Illinois/Great Lakes Region team, now the US Little League World Series champs. They lost the world title to South Korea. It's been fun and inspiring to watch some of this year's Little League WS. This all-black team of inner city Chicago kids that has their city rooting them on in watch parties across Chicago, as well as the Girl of Summer, Mo'ne Davis, are the prominent stories. But for all the attention (and the incredible mental and well as physical baseball skills of Davis, for instance) this is still Little League. Kids get scared and upset when they screw up, they cry when they lose. Their emotions are part of the game. But it does seem that coaches and officials take a lot of care to recognize they are kids and respond to their needs.

Sporting the Zeitgeist

"But this suggests that there is some future in which the sport can return to its earlier cultural dominance—some series of decisions that will rewire the contemporary American fan’s brain to prefer its intermittent grace to football’s dynamic cruelty."  So writes Ian Crouch in the New Yorker, as MLB gets a new commissioner.  Good piece, but that sentence in particular (and I'm even more a fan of sentences than of baseball) really describes the difference : baseball's "intermittent grace" versus football's "dynamic cruelty," at least as it is played today.  This popular preference in turns says a lot about the American Zeitgeist.

Which reminds me, may as well add to this blog a link to the best basketball piece I've read in awhile, by Bill Simmons on the occasion of LeBron James returning to Cleveland, but it's about basketball genius, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird etc. as well as James.  Haven't read a better piece about basketball since one I flagged here several years ago, about Phil Jackson.  It's also by Bill Simmons.

Speaking of Sports: The Injuries of August

Well, hello again.  I'm back here to post for two reasons.  First, I want to keep this blog active because of its back list--there are some post of real interest from the Bush years here.  I don't want them to disappear if google/blogger decides to purge old blogs.

Second I'm going to write about sports, which I've been doing lately at one of my other blogs, Dreaming Up Daily, but it's a bit embarrassing because I doubt that anybody is actually interested.  I'm doing this for myself mostly.  I mean, I'm following a fairly unique set of teams: namely the Pgh Pirates and SF Giants in baseball, with some interest in the NBA, following the gloomy fortunes of the Lakers for instance.  I note that the last post here was kind of down on following the NFL and the Steelers, but the Steelers are such a part of my backstory that I'll have to follow them, even from afar.  And again, I am in far northern CA now, and there's the Niners.

But I finally did carry through on my "threat" and dumped cable TV.  I was one of the last men in America to get a cell phone, and I'll be one of the last to get a smart phone and their neat sports apps.  So these days I listen to the Giants on radio, and otherwise follow sports online.

So on to baseball...

Right now I'm listening to the Giants first game back home after a so-so road trip, playing a fairly weak team (Philadelphia), and having lost their 3-1 lead in the 8th, the Phillies have scored twice in the 10th.  I can hear the depression in the announcer's voice--they don't believe they can win this one. (And they didn't.) The only bright spot: Michael Morse broke out of his home run slump with a three-run homer, the only scoring the Giants did.

The Giants just haven't bounced back after their disastrous late June and early July.  Once 8 games in first they are 5.5 back to the Dodgers (who fortunately for them lost tonight.)  Injuries have been and remain important.   The ones that hurt were Angel Pagan and Brandon Belt, and Belt is still out.  His hitting has turned out to be crucial. (The top photo is Hunter Pence, who has been one of the bright spots for much of the season, though he's had long dry spells too.)  Losing Matt Cain for the season is probably less important, for the remaining starters are brilliant or terrible for any given game.  But the bullpen exploding started their losing streak in July, and that's recurring.  This game tonight tells the tale.  The Giants are toast.  Unless they unaccountably catch fire immediately, they aren't going to win the division, and it will be a struggle to get a wild card.  (Now I see the SF Chron comes to the same conclusion.)

Right now the Pirates are even more wounded.  They lost Marte for many games, now their best hitter, the MVP Andrew McCutchen is out indefinitely, and Neil Walker has been in and out of the lineup.  They are now losing one run games they used to win.  But they are in better shape than the Giants, and look to remain competitive for at least awhile longer.

So the news isn't good for either team.  That they are both at least theoretically in pennant races makes rooting complicated--for example, that Dodger game tonight with the Brewers.  The Dodgers lead the Giants' division, and the Brewers lead the Pirates' division.  So when it came down to it tonight, I was rooting for the Brewers to lose.  It didn't work out that way, so the Pirates lost a game in the standings tonight.

No news in the NBA except the Clippers ownership seems to be resolved, which means the team and the coach will remain on the job.  I have been following the fortunes of both the Lakers and the Knicks because of the connections to back in the day: Phil Jackson prez of the Knicks with Derek Fisher the new coach,  the Lakers with Kobe and Byron Scott the new coach.  Come to that I guess I'll be checking out Golden State with Steve Kerr the new coach.

I've commented on Dreaming Up Daily on the disastrous decisions the Lakers have made in the years after losing Phil Jackson--one of which was failing to hire him back when they had a chance.  D'Antoni or whoever he was really blew the Dwight Howard possibility.  What a waste, all because Jerry Buss died and his son wanted to make his own mark.  Now he's hired an honored Laker to coach and the season will start with at least the good will of Lakers fans.

What I've actually been watching are tapes of the Shaq and Kobie Lakers of 00-03.  What a team they were!  The last glory game of that era turned out to be the end of the 1st round of the playoffs in 2003, game 6 against Minneapolis.

This was also Michael Jordan's final year as a player, his second for the Washington Wizards.  I was surprised that my memory wasn't quite correct--he was much better than I remembered, and became the oldest player to score 40 pts in a game. I saw the game he did some amazing things, including hitting his chin hard on the floor as he scrambled for the loose ball, only to lose by one point.  And afterwards he went after his team for not playing hard enough.  So when the Wizards dropped back beyond playoff contention, the team abandoned him.  I couldn't watch his last game--I just remember how the rest of the players ignored him, wouldn't pass him the ball, until he took himself out.  And that wasn't the end--he lost his ownership stake and presidency of the team as soon as he quit playing. Painful.

Any good new news?  Well, there's the Little League World Series. The first day gave us the victory of Jackie Robinson West of Chicago in their first game, sparked by three--count 'em, three--home runs (plus a triple) by leadoff batter Pierce Jones. Representing Great Lakes Region as the Illinois state champs, Jackie Robinson West from the South Side of Chicago is the first all-black team to make it to the LLWS in "over a decade" (according to this ESPN report) and the first Chicago team since the 80s. The team is part of the league's urban initiative program begun 15 years ago.  And Chicago is in love with this team.

On the second day of the Little League World Series, Pennsylvania team pitcher Mo'Ne Davis threw a two-hitter to become the first female pitcher to win a LLWS game. She's also black. Apart from the extra-sports significance, these stories are big deals for baseball because the proportion of African American MLB players has been diminishing.  So great sports news and more.

Speaking of Sports, Final Edition?

Talk about storybook: Saints qback Drew Brees broke the record for most yards in single season with a touchdown pass on Monday Night Football in his home stadium, in the city with one of the closest bonds to its football team in the NFL, New Orleans.

It's been a long time since I've posted here, on what had become my sports blog in recent years, since I moved most political etc. content to Dreaming Up Daily.  Partly that's because I'm less and less interested in major league and college sports.  Add up all the bad behavior, the obscene paychecks and money in general, the increasing evidence of physical damage in football, and all the commercials breaking up the rhythm of the games, I'm much less regularly engaged.  Then there's the absence of compelling teams, individuals and stories, at least for me at my age. 

So the whole thing is getting to be a road too much travelled, or, a rut.  The NBA season is starting, and I'm really not interested.  The Lakers are one of the few major teams not to improve themselves with trades, and seem to have gotten worse.  They traded their key sixth man and kept the guy who lost them the playoffs last year because his girlfriend left him.  I don't even look for their scores anymore.  I loathe Miami and although I thought I might find something in the new Bulls, I guess my era is over.  Magic and Kareem.  Michael Jordan.  Shaq and Kobe.  Now it's pale imitations at best. 

It was fun when the Pirates made a little run last season, and the longsuffering hometown fans got to cheer.  The Giants are worth following but not often worth watching on TV.  Nothing much is worth watching on TV, and that's the problem.

The Steelers are in my genes, so I always root for them, but the truth is I can't watch their games, even the few that are available here.  They are just too hard to watch.  From an entertainment perspective, they are simply not fun to watch.  I enjoy watching Drew Brees and the Saints, and I enjoy watching the Packers, and that's about it.  I have a rooting interest in the Niners if they get past the first round of the playoffs, for they seem to have the better chance of making the Bowl.  But I'm about to give up my cable, and my disenchantment with sports viewing is making it easier.    

NBA Degrees

In one of the most ignominious games in history, the LA Lakers defeated themselves out of the playoffs.  It was Phil Jackson's likely last game as a coach, and like Michael Jordan's actual last game as a player, it was a game nobody would want to remember. 

But there's this keeper of a portrait of Phil Jackson in 2011 by Bill Simmons that is the entire excuse for this post.  It's one of the best pieces I've read recently on any topic.

As for the NBA, I'm interested enough to watch the scores and highlights, and I might even watch game 7 of the Bulls-Heat series if it comes to that.  Before it started it seemed to me that the only chance the Bulls had was for the series to go 7, and that's still probably their best chance.  But while winning the first game (as the Bulls did, decisively) is usually important this late in the playoffs, and of course winning the seventh is the decider, the crucial games in how a seven game series goes are usually games 2 and 5.   If the first game winner takes game 2 as well, they will be hard to beat, especially because it means the loser's adjustments didn't work, and that could be fatal.  (Usually in a tight series the loser adjusts for the next game--which is why home court is crucial, and the Bulls have it.)  And especially when the series is tied, the team that wins 5 often wins 7.  So there's a long way to go, and the Heat have the m.o. of looking terrible in losses and unbeatable in wins. 

So just to be clear, I'm rooting for Chicago all the way.  If they can beat the Heat, they can beat the Mavs or the Thunder.  (But what if it's Heat v. Thunder?  The All-Climate Championship?)    

Take That, ESPN

You picked Kentucky, which didn't make it to the finals.  I picked Connecticut.  Connecticut won.

A great college sports story, too: Connecticut's 11 straight post-season wins, including 5 victories in 5 days in the Big East tournament.

But turns out that following conventional wisdom on women's NCAA bball is just as dangerous.  Both the prohibitive favorites, Stanford and UConn, lost in the semi-finals, on the same day.  Now it's Notre Dame v. Texas A&M.  I'm picking Notre Dame.  Also rooting for them.

Those Big Brains at ESPN

I get most of my sports news on TV and online at ESPN, which is at best a mixed blessing.  These guys have so much time to fill and you have to give them their props--though they spend endless hours bloviating, they do seem to work at the details--they seem to know every player in every sport over the age of eight. 

They are obsessed.  March Madness is made for them. But in the end they're like the rest of the cable pack--they're baying wolves.   I happened to be watching when the last four of the 64 teams to be included in the NCAA March Madness college men's basketball tournament were announced.  These guys were apoplectic about several of the choices, made by some NCAA board I don't understand, and don't have long enough to live to care about.  But they were offended by some of the choices--notably a school called VCU---which I think is Virginia Commonwealth University.  They couldn't understand how this team could be picked.

What was fascinating about this was that they were virtually unanimous, all those experts.  At a certain point they seemed to be feeding on each other, each guy getting angrier by the second.  Some questioned the integrity of the process, intimating that prejudice was involved, hinting perhaps that money changed hands.  They were especially offended that not enough basketball experts were involved in the decision.  You know, experts like...them.

So they were angry and offended that VCU even got into the tournament.  They didn't deserve to be among the 64, and it was terrible what this choice meant for the boys who really deserved to be there.

Now those 64 teams are down to four.  Gone are the top teams, the #1 seeds and the usual favorites: Ohio, Kansas, Pitt, Duke, North Carolina, Florida.  So who is left?  VCU.  They've beat a team from just about every conference, and in most cases, beat them handily.  VCU, who the experts at ESPN said didn't even belong in the first 64, is in the Final Four.

Now Kentucky is the only big school left that's a media favorite--so naturally the ESPNers now favor Kentucky to win it all.  It's VCU and another small school, Butler, a team that shocked everybody at ESPN last year.  And UConn.  Now you don't have to be an ESPN expert to expect the women's finals to be UConn vs. Stanford, with UConn winning by six points--although maybe not this time. If Stanford brings its A game, they could pull the upset.  But nobody picked the men's Connecticut team for the Final Four, and personally I think they have a good chance to win it all.

But who am I.  I'm not an expert like those guys at ESPN.      

RIP That Championship Season

Before any more time goes by, I wanted to say a few words about Chuck Tanner, who died a few weeks ago.

From the first time I dimly understood what baseball announcer Bob Prince was talking about on the radio, I was a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, growing up and forevermore (even if I follow the SF Giants a lot more closely these days.) Of all the managers the Pirates had since the 50s, I remember three: Danny Murtaugh, Chuck Tanner and Jim Leyland. Of those three, Chuck Tanner was the only one I met.

I interviewed him in his Pirates office for a piece I was doing for the New York Times Magazine on the relationship of Pittsburgh and its sports teams in the season after that championship year of 1979. I'd been in the clubhouse before and after a game, and it was afterwards I was finally ushered into his office. "Hello, son," Tanner said, with a smile. "What can I do for you?"

I don't remember anything else about the interview except that aura of a really, really nice guy. And so I wasn't surprised to read in Pittsburgh Post Gazette sports writer Ron Cook's memorial column that "Tanner did the right thing as much as any man I've known. He was, simply, the kindest, most decent person I've met in sports."

Tanner was manager of the 1979 "We Are Fam-a-lee" Pirates of Willie Stargell, and other players who projected a positive-feeling image, like Bill Robinson and Tim Foli. That 1979 team had a sense of possibility and even of destiny (I recall an interview on TV with Bill Robinson late in the season when the Pirates were behind Montreal and he said fans shouldn't worry, the Pirates would win the pennant, it was meant to be.) At the same time, the Pirates could be an overpowering team, especially with Stargell and the team's semi-official bad boy--Dave Parker--in the lineup. And Tanner was a wily baseball manager. All of that would come into play in the World Series when the Pirates were down 3 games to 1 to the Baltimore Orioles. They became the first team since 1906 to go on to win the Series, and they did it on the road. Bookended by the Steelers consecutive Super Bowl wins, Pittsburgh was the City of Champions.

There was a dark side to those Pirates that Tanner could be faulted for not seeing, or for overlooking. It was in later years that the players using cocaine were exposed, but the locker room on one of my visits in 1980 showed the signs--particularly (but not only) Dave Parker, who before a game manically threatened to cause me bodily harm if I quoted him, and after the game meekly apologized. But Tanner was still manager when that hit the fan in the 80s, and Cook says he always stood by his 1979 players.

Tanner was the last Pirates manager to win a World Series, and that distinction is likely to remain his. Over a beer in the press mess at Three Rivers Stadium in 1980, Harding Peterson, the Pirates General Manager, layed out for me the Pirates dim future: in a small market in the middle of other small markets, and in an area that wasn't growing in population or wealth, the Pirates ability to compete for players' payrolls with big market teams was dwindling.

The Pirates did manage one more world class team in the early 90s--the fabled Outfield of Dreams team (Bobby Bonilla, Andy Van Slyke and Barry Bonds)--but after winning the division, the Reds and the Atlanta Braves would always break our hearts in the championship series. The worst was in 1992, when the Pirates were one strike away from going to the World Series, only to lose improbably and dramatically, and for the city, tragically. Everyone knew that the team couldn't afford to keep the Outfield of Dreams together. Now the Pirates have been a losing team for 18 straight years, a record for a professional sports franchise.

Chuck Tanner managed in Atlanta for a few years after leaving the Pirates in 1985, but the Pirates were always special--he was a Pittsburgher born and bred. He remained a popular and sunny figure in Pittsburgh and in baseball, and in recent years worked for the Pirates as a consultant to the general manager. He'll always be associated with a special time in Pittsburgh, and he will be remembered as among the best that Pittsburgh had to offer. He died in February at his home in New Castle, PA. May he rest in peace.

Bowled Over

The last time a Steelers quarterback threw two interceptions and lost the Super Bowl, he was gone before the next season began. That would be the still infamous Neil O'Donnell back in the 90s. That's an unlikely fate for Ben R. since this offense is built around him, but his style means that he gets beat up, and he wasn't 100%, nor was Troy P., again whose style of play invites injury.

But I can't comment much on the Super Bowl since I didn't see it. I saw moments of it, but the first few commercials were so disgusting that I just recorded it, and peeked once in awhile (when I did, something disastrous invariably happened for the Steelers, so I gave up). Now I have no plans to look at the recording. I'm observing myself moving away from the game. I didn't watch even much of the playoffs live, mostly fast-forwarding through the recordings. Part of it is the useless expenditure of emotional energy over a bunch of millionaires, whose victories or defeats affect my life very marginally if at all. Yet there is this history of that emotional identification. I remember actual sleepless nights over fumbles or dropped passes, by players whose names I can barely remember, in those long years between Bowl appearances. And I was supposedly an adult by then. The phenomenon of fan identification has fascinated me for decades, and it's been worth exploring, both within myself and especially outside. But if it leads to such a bloated tawdry spectacle as the Super Bowl, I wonder.

So at this point it's less a deliberate decision to back off than something I seem to be doing, despite my interest in the game. Same thing with basketball. They were a fun way to waste time, and learn a few things. Maybe I've learned those few things, I don't know. It's time's winged chariot, too. As I wrote to someone recently--a line I think I'll keep: there aren't too many more floats in this parade.

Super Surprises

The sports pundits are reaching their consensus, which the game may well mock. It often does. What would be the surprises?

For the Packers: if they effectively run the ball.
For the Steelers: if they drop back in coverage more than they come after the quarterback.

Expectations now are for a high scoring game, despite the reputable defenses. So the surprise would be 14-10.

Expectations are that Rodgers will play well indoors. Surprise will be if he doesn't. Perhaps the concentrated Super Bowl dazzle gets in his eyes.

Of course the biggest surprise for the pundits would be: the Steelers win.

Super Bowl Ahead

Judged by the team and player merchandise sold, the Steelers are the most popular NFL team in the world--one writer insists they are the real "America's Team." But a poll claims that most people are rooting for the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl.

That pretty much says it all about two teams that are a lot like each other, and enter this game pretty evenly matched. Even the fans and their towns are similar. The Green Bay coach has a stronger Pittsburgh accent than the Steelers.' He's from a few streets away from where I last lived in the Burgh.

Pittsburgh is relatively small and Green Bay is even smaller, and they both lost a lot of people when industries faded (Pittsburgh more I'd guess.) For this and other reasons, their fans are spread out. There are a lot of Steeler fans who've never even been to Pittsburgh, but there are a lot of ex-Pittsburghers who stay in touch to some important degree through the Steelers. Like me, or this woman.

As for the game itself: when a reporter asked Big Ben how he won the championship game he replied, "luck." He's a smart guy. Luck is going to be important on Sunday. But though the Packers are still favored and have the offense to even run away with this one, I'm still giving the edge to the Steelers because of their Super Bowl experience. You saw it this past week already--while the Packers were publicly fighting among themselves, the Steelers were talking each other up, and otherwise pretty quiet. And with a little luck...

(The photos by the way tell a lot about that Super Bowl legacy--that's Franco and Rocky presenting the league trophy after the Jets game, and the scene after the last Super Bowl win.)

Both teams have particularly devoted fans, which led the New York Times to check with mental health professionals, and found that those in Wisconsin and PA are on high alert:

Therapists in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are prepared. Most have seen plenty of people who suffer from what could be called Football Attention Neurosis (F.A.N.), in their practices, in their living rooms, and sometimes in the mirror.

“The belief that these patients have is that the world will end if the Steelers — uh, I mean, their team loses,” said Mark Hogue, a psychologist at Northshore Psychological Associates in Erie, Pa., who owns a trunkload of Pittsburgh Steelers paraphernalia, including a Snuggie. “As a therapist, you need to take that fear seriously.”

(The rest of the piece is pretty funny.)

But there is a very ugly side to Super Bowl madness. Apart from bad behavior at the games (while on average it may not be worse than before, from what I've heard the worst of it is much worse) there's the dark side of the Super Bowl as an event. And I don't just mean the maddeningly frequent and long commercials (or the fact that they are why some people watch the game at all.) There is growing awareness that trafficking in human slaves, often children, especially for sex is a growing problem, and as the San Antonio Express News put it: "As thousands of fans flock to Texas for America's biggest sporting event, human traffickers are preparing to bring in hundreds of women and children to serve as sex slaves for what is also America's biggest sex trafficking weekend." Another report says that this involves children as young as 11, and that these children have a life expectancy of seven years after they are first trafficked.

The federal government is taking this seriously, as are officials in Texas and in Dallas itself. But some charge that the NFL itself is resisting. Personally I was unaware of this, and I expect a lot of football fans are as well. The NFL and its teams need to talk about this, because theirs are likely to be the most powerful voices to shame it out of existence.