The fight for the American League Championship Series pennant
ended last night, when the Cleveland Indians lost Game 7 against the
Boston Red Sox. The final score, 11-2, was not indicative of the
real head-to-head action of the game; the score was 3-2, with the Sox
just one ahead, from the fifth inning until the bottom of the
seventh.
Not so long ago, the Indians were leading the series against the Red
Sox three games to one.
Game
7 was one of bad luck for Cleveland: in the fifth inning,
Lofton led off with a single that bounced off the left-field wall, and
he stole second. But Manny Ramirez caught the ball so well from
the wall that he was able to throw it into second base just in time, and
with the second base umpire not seeing Lofton's left hand slide onto the
plate before the tag, he was called out instead of
safe.
That's where the lack of instant replays to judge calls in Major
League Baseball can be love or hate. Love for the Red Sox; this
time, unlucky for the Indians. Sometimes I love that about MLB,
that they use old fashioned rules and umps instead of technology,
adhering to that old the rules are the rules, three strikes and y'er
out! baseball mentality. What the ump sees is what you
get.
Then in the seventh, Gutierrez shot a single down the
third-base line with Lofton on second, and Lofton was stopped by Skinner
- Cleveland's third base coach - instead of rounding third for
home. He most likely would have made it, to tie up the game, but
it was a snap judgment call went wrong by Skinner, and then Blake hit
into a double play to end the inning.
That's not to say the Sox didn't have their mistakes, and still
recovered. They played a great game. Dustin Pedroia hit a
two-run homer. Manny Ramirez singled in a run in the first, and
later knocked in his 14th postseason RBI for Boston. A runner
scored on Julio Lugo's double-play grounder, then another runner on Mike
Lowell's sacrifice fly in the third.
Lugo
sent a grounder to Peralta, as Varitek scored. Kevin Youkilis hit
a giant two-run home run over the Green Monster in left field. One
of the player's homers bounced off the giant Coca-Cola bottle out by the
Green Monster.
Cleveland won three straight games against the Red Sox before
losing the next four. Heartbreak for Cleveland this October.
That's the thing about baseball: it breaks your heart. And
the old adage: there's always next
year.
You
know what I do not like about MLB, though? It doesn't seem to be
so much anymore about the city. People don't realize it, they
cheer on, chant the name of their city and their team with
pride.
But
it is not like you can say, "that Boston sure breeds good ball players,"
or "Cleveland really knows how to make 'em." It's not as often,
anymore, that the players on your city's team are even from your
city.
Training can account for a part of success, sure, but natural talent
stands for more of why each player is on that diamond.
But money, contracts, trading, ratings, corporate hoo-hah as I like to
call it: that is landing them there more than that any real sense
of loyalty as to where one came from.
You might be surprised to know that not one of the Cleveland Indians
on the active 2007 roster ending the ALCS was even from
Cleveland. Zero. On the Boston Red Sox, there is only one
player on the active roster from Boston.
And as for the Colorado Rockies, there isn't one player on their '07
active roster ending the National League Championship Series that is
from the entire state of Colorado.
Have a look at the three teams' active 25-man rosters:
What does that tell us? Does that mean that there is not one
person that was born and raised in the entire city of Cleveland nor
state of Colorado that is good enough to play Major League
Baseball?
No, there may well be Clevelanders and Colorado natives
on other teams in the MLB. But why other teams, then?
Money, contracts, trading, ratings, corporate hoo-hah. Not the
love of baseball.
RSS Feed
The fight for the American League Championship Series pennant
ended last night, when the Cleveland Indians lost Game 7 against the
Boston Red Sox. The final score, 11-2, was not indicative of the
real head-to-head action of the game; the score was 3-2, with the Sox
just one ahead, from the fifth inning until the bottom of the
seventh.
Then in the seventh, Gutierrez shot a single down the
third-base line with Lofton on second, and Lofton was stopped by Skinner
- Cleveland's third base coach - instead of rounding third for
home. He most likely would have made it, to tie up the game, but
it was a snap judgment call went wrong by Skinner, and then Blake hit
into a double play to end the inning.
