Before we get to the important stuff, the Fan has to get something off his chest. I have watched a ton of games this year and even more highlights. The lack of basic fundamentals in MLB is alarming. The players are the most talented, strongest, best conditioned athletes in the games history. Just don't ask one of them to bunt.

The latest manifestation of the degradation (two long words in one sentence!) of fundamentals (three) occurred in the second game of a Yankee double-header. I know that the Yankees have already clinched the division, but there is still the matter of home field advantage for having the best record. Here is what happened:

After winning the first game by a wide margin, giving Andy Pettitte his twenty-first win, the Yankees were in a nail-biter in the second game. Rookie pitcher, Jorge De Paula pitched no-hit ball for the first six innings of his first major league start. A single in the seventh off De Paula's glove cost him the no-hitter in the seventh. The suddenly lost Jeff Nelson then cost him the win with shoddy relief. The Yankees found themselves tied 2-2 as they batted in the bottom of the ninth.

Bernie Williams began the inning with a double. Rookie, Fernando Seguignol, then hit a little dribbler that couldn't be handled and it was first and second with no outs. All Karim Garcia had to do was move the runners to second and third and a fly ball would win the game. Garcia got the bunt sign and looked so foolish on his first two attempts that he had to swing away and did so for strike three. The Yankees were done in the inning and would lose the game in the tenth.

How can a twenty-eight year old Garcia grow up playing baseball his whole life and not know how to bunt? Phil Rizzuto had it right when he said there is to a bunt is to catch the ball with your bat. It's not a difficult thing to do. After all, every pitcher in the National League can do it. Heck, I can do it. But Garcia is not alone in the inability to lay the ball down.

And bunting isn't the only example of poor fundamentals. The Astros tonight had a golden opportunity to put pressure on the rained out Cubs. Instead they had a starting pitcher who couldn't throw strikes (only seven of his eighteen pitches were strikes) and the Astros made four errors and lost the game. Four errors!!

How many highlights to you see where outfielders are vaulting themselves in the air to throw the ball home in an attempt to prevent the run from scoring. That is terrible fundamentals. Where is Dwight Evans when we need him? To make a good throw from the outfield, you get behind the ball, take a step to plant and rifle the ball overhand on a low line drive. But instead, the current MLB outfielders end up on their bellies throwing up the lines or over everyone's head. Ugh!

How many players do you see rounding third to go home so wide that they are in danger of falling into the dugout? The Red Sox lost a big game the other day because their starting pitcher didn't cover first in time.

Obviously, MLB needs to start buying the instructional video you see on TV all the time about learning the fundamentals to the game. Perhaps with the emphasis on so many sports in youth, it is difficult to teach the fundamentals. Perhaps most youngsters see the long ball and focus on offense without learning the things we learned as kids on how to play the game.

But baseball isn't the only sport where sloppiness is rampant. Travel is a regular occurrence in the NBA as is palming. The fact that it's never called indicates just how rampant it is. And the NFL is no better. It seems that every play incurs a penalty. All this clumsy play is the reason why someone like Derek Jeter is extolled for his great fundamental base running and play. Twenty years ago, what Jeter does was the norm, not the exception.

I guess will talk tomorrow about the playoffs and the year Richie Sexson is having, or Bonds being two behind Mays or how the Phillies quit the season and how it showed tonight against the Braves. The flagrant rant of this Fan went longer than expected.