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Baseball at the break

JEFF BLAIR

From Monday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 8:41 PM EST 14/07/08

There are nagging issues on the horizon but baseball has achieved a kind of happy medium in the first half ...Read the full article

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  1. Tobin Manley from The Bronx, NYC, United States writes: Don't forget the Brewers and C.C., I mean CC Sabathia.
  2. Terry Johnson from Canada writes: As we have seen with the Braves and the Yankees, dominance in your division and heavy spending do not necessarily translate into world titles. There is always a team that gets the right combination and makes it into the World Series and often wins it. The best team in baseball in any year is not always the team to win the WS. Over the past 20 years (including the year there was no World Series) there have been 13 World Series champions with some winning more than once (Yankees - 4; Boston - 2; Florida - 2; Toronto 2). Atlanta only won once. The Yankees, despite the most expensive payrolls year after year, have "only" won 4. Why did the Yankees, the Braves, the Dodgers and the Mets not win more or have more appearances in the World Series? Some years it may have been fate (see the Rockies in 2007). Some years a team loads up on pitching (see Arizona in 2001) and they stay healthy for the whole season. Other teams do the same and lose one or more of their pitchers to injuries. And then there is the element called "chemistry". Some teams with all the talent don't have it...some with much less talent do. Some years its like a kaleidoscope...one slight turn one way and you have a winner...a turn the other way and you come up short. Sometimes you can carry it over for a second year....sometimes it can be more than a decade apart (San Fran). Sometimes, like the Blue Jays this year, you have two or more key players not producing like they should. Notwithstanding what others on the team do, the key players become rally killers instead of run producers. In short, does this mean that Riccardi is any better or worse than the GM's of any of the other teams that made the World Series? Does preparing a plan, with so many variables, mean that it was poorly contrived or that it was poorly implemented when it doesn't achieve the desired results? To me its like a horse race...you know who the favourite is every time out but that doesn't mean he/she wins every time.
  3. Flames Forever from Canada writes: Miss the Expos?? They are missed!!!.. If the MLB did a little due diligence when they were in still Montreal ..the franchise would be flourishing right now..

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