Yankees and Rays: Baseball Highs And Lows In Two Games

The New York Yankees came into this home series against the Tampa Bay Rays with an opportunity to increase their distance from the team's closest rival. On Monday night, after an exhilarating homer by Edwin Encarnacion put the Yankees ahead by two in the bottom of the eighth with the usually reliable, Aroldis Chapman, on the mound for the ninth to close it out. He never did, of course, and, for the team and the fans alike, the Rays gave the Yankees the most deflating loss of the season. In the course of one half inning, two games switched in the standings.  As low as that loss was and as angry the reaction, the following night turned the tables as the Yankees scored six in the eighth to bury the Rays and provided one of the best and most fun win of the season. Two nights led to anguish and euphoria!

And that is the beauty of baseball. This is why I chafe when all these talking heads on sports radio call baseball boring and needing a heavy dose of fixing. Bah humbug! I have even heard the talk of paring the season down to a hundred games! Sacrilege! The most I would ever accept would be 154 because there is a historical value to that number. That is how many games Babe Ruth played in a season.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with baseball as it stands right now. The game is as beautiful for me at 63 as it was when I was 13.  Oh, I know, I stand on the wrong side of demographics. It is a young person's world and I am the anachronism. Bah humbug again. My generation has buying power. My generation watches the games religiously. My generation grew up with the marvelous wave of each baseball season and love it as passionate as can be.

Once again, it is the media that is driving the narrative which drives social media which catches young people's attention like moths to flame. I will not beat this too far in the ground, but it is the me-first NBA and the head-cracking NFL and their crooked college counterparts who get all the media love and nothing else stands a chance.

These beacons of media say that baseball needs personalities. I do not totally disagree with the assessment. But if Mike Trout is considered boring because all he lives for is to play baseball, that passion itself for the game and his team is enough. And lets define personality for a second. What exactly are they talking about?

Apparently, on some level, personality means a sort of primal pounding of the chest when a player does something particularly above average. A big dunk or a long run or touchdown catch deserves such chest pounding. Am I all wet when my favorite memories were of Barry Sanders simply handing the ref the ball after another spectacular jig to the end zone? That was class. Sanders was quietly saying, I did this before and I'll do it again.

I remember the Knicks in the late sixties and early seventies when passing the ball was the prettiest thing I've ever seen and long shots getting buried with just a move back into assuming defense after the made shot. We went crazy over those teams as kids just like I'm sure Laker and Celtic fans cheered on Magic and Bird as their artistry on the court had no peers. There was no chest thumping and we ate it up.

So what then is personality? Is it becoming an "influencer" in social media? If that means having a good time with fans, well, great. Yeah. I seem to remember baseball players doing that first. Remember LoMo? I am all for such fun accounts online. But if it leads to politics, leave me out. Just like the stars of Hollywood, being really good at sports does not make one an expert on politics. I simply don't care what they think. I have my own mind, thank you.

Is personality when players get caught up in romances and gossip fodder with other famous people? Do I really care which Kardashian is shacking up with which famous basketball player? What does that have to do with the sport they play?

All the definitions of personality that I see so far are negatives. It is about the starved for attention, the adulation of a gullible public and the mockery of what is really news. The argument goes nowhere unless the idea is to get a bunch of gullible youngsters to want to emulate these news makers. And is that really what you want to have emulated? Should all kids want $200 sneakers because LeBron wears them?

No, it is the sport that counts. Mike Trout's problem is not that he is boring. Watch the dude play, for heaven sakes! The problem is that more than half of his games start after ten o'clock Eastern Time. And while we are on the Mike Trout subject, let's interject a minute about the All Star Game. I remember growing up and the really big stars like Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle played the entire All Star Game. Those were the guys everyone really wanted to see. Mike Trout is the biggest star in MLB. And he played four innings and got two at bats. Really!? Way to give the radio sports hounds some ammo.

I enjoy watching the NFL. I do. But I hate the primal peacock strutting. Seriously, your team is losing by three touchdowns and you are going to stomp around and pound your chest because you got a sack? Give me Barry Sanders' class any day. And the last I checked, an NFL game lasted just as long as most MLB games and the last time I studied this subject, there was even less time actually playing the game in the NFL than there is in a baseball game. I cannot watch the NBA. I was taught the game and loved it. But then players were allowed to travel at will, play zones with impunity, palm the basketball bringing it up the court and the inevitable primal exhibition when a successful dunk takes place. It is unwatchable for me.

I cannot watch college sports because of all the shenanigans that go on recruiting players and all the money that is made by the schools when the players receive nothing. I cannot support that.

All that aside, baseball is not perfect. Bad things happen. Players cheat. Players misbehave. Players get arrested just like any other sport. But baseball is as much a key part of my life as The Beatles were and are. It has been with me through loss and gain and more loss. Life lessons like: If things go badly, there is always tomorrow and this may have been a bad year, but there is always next year. It is a fabric of my being.

And this--for the millionth time--becomes crystal clear with the games Monday and Tuesday between the Yankees and the Rays. On Monday, Rays and Rays fans are soaring with a thrilling win by unlikely hero, Travis d'Arnaud. Yankee fans are crushed. The next night, Rays fans are crushed and Yankee fans are celebrating Aaron Judge and Didi Gregorius. That is baseball. That is the greatest sport on earth. That is the beauty of six games a week for six months and then a month of drama. Leave baseball alone. It is perfect the way it is.

MLB Game Picks - Tuesday: July 16, 2013

The All Star Game is tonight and I supposed I should pick who is going to win. After all, the road to October starts here. That was only slightly sarcastic. Home field advantage in the World Series is sort of a big deal. We could debate whether something so important should be decided by an exhibition game. I would be against the idea. But there it is. Despite having to get most of the players in the game, the managers also have to try to win it. Good luck with all of that.

Most of these games are decided early. Whichever starter is not effective will lose the game. The NL has jumped into an early lead in recent years and that lead has held up. The addition in recent years of lots of relief specialists has greatly changed the nature of the game. Having a starter warm up in a position he is unaccustomed is totally different than a pitcher who does it for a living. Frankly, only one or two relievers should be allowed on each team and that is it. But that is not the way it is.

The All Star Game pick:

• The National League over the American League: My gut feeling here is that Matt Harvey will come out smoking in his home park and blitz the AL hitters. Meanwhile, like his teammate, Justin Verlander, before him, Max Scherzer gets beat up early by NL hitters who build a lead they will not relinquish.

Sunday: 8-7

Week: 8-7

Month: 119-78

Season: 796-624

Games of the Day: 63-40

Game Picks - Wednesday: July 11, 2012

There was every intention to watch the All Star Game. But then Mike called and wanted to play nine holes of twilight golf and it was so nice out that the offer had to be accepted. So, after a quick nine that included four pars, the first inning was missed, and that was just as well because it looked to have been an ugly one. The television was turned on just in time to see Derek Jeter's hit. But then the daughter called. She is visiting her cousins in New Hampshire for a month. She talked an hour and Mike Trout's hit was missed and Chipper Jones'. Apparently Jones and Jeter, the two old men of the game, did not hit the ball very hard for their hits, but hits they were and that was perfect. All in all, it was a showcase for the National League and for the San Francisco Giants as Matt Cain, Buster Posey and Melky Cabrera were right in the thick of things. It was a total zonk for the American League which has now lost three of these things in a row. That does not bode well for the World Series again. And it also meant the sole pick for yesterday was again incorrect. Ah well. That's the way it goes.

There are no picks today, just the results from yesterday. There will be no game picks post tomorrow as there are no games scheduled. So let this old picker take this opportunity to again thank those of you who visit this feature every day. See you again on Friday.

Yesterday; 0-1

Week: 9-8

Month: 65-53

Season: 697-569

Games of the Day: 53-40

Game Picks - Tuesday: July 10, 2012

The early part of the Home Run Derby was sort of fun. The interviews during some of the performances were irritating. Seeing the home run balls splash in the fountain was fun. But the fun quickly wore off and there were some strong opinions of what happened late in the first round. It seems that since this picker has a particular team affiliation, any opinions here about what happened are not allowed. So we will leave it there. Let's just say the program was turned off and a rerun of Antique Roadshow was watched instead.

The odds were long on picking a winner. And those odds certainly worked against the pick. But that is okay. Being wrong was expected. It will count as a loss on the tally and that is fine. Today, the pick is for the winner of the All Star Game. The National League has won two years in a row. But those games began with power arms. This year will be different, hence the pick:

• The American League over the National League: The American League appears to have the stronger lineup. Matt Cain is a great pitcher. But he does not have blow-you-away stuff. Justin Verlander, on the other hand, has that kind of stuff. Here is a guess at how it will  go. The AL will score two or three runs in the first two innings. The NL will score a run or two off of Jered Weaver and Verlander. The AL will score a run against R.A. Dickey. The final score will be something like, 5-2. Enjoy.

Yesterday: 0-1

Week: 9-7

Month: 65-52

Season: 697-568

Games of the Day: 53-40

Hate the All Star Break

Major League Baseball's All Star Game is probably the best of its type. The NBA All Star Game is also very good, but the NFL "Pro Bowl" sucks. Even so, this writer hates the All Star Break for several reasons. First, it puts a halt for three days on the season and the Fan goes into serious withdrawals. Second, the game itself is usually anti-climatic. It's fun seeing all those stars together and then the big build up comes from the announcers and then the game itself is played and it's usually the pitchers dominating and a low scoring game.

The Home Run Derby that comes the day before the game is now somewhat tainted. It started with the exploits of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and it now seems to symbolize all that went wrong with baseball and the mess we are now left with. Sure, there are still fun moments like Josh Hamilton last year. But by and large, it's a pretty boring affair with far too many commercials and too much talking by the announcers to cover up the fact that the batter is mostly letting pitches go or hitting line drives that fall short of the fence. And man, don't you hate those awful interviews after each turn? The only positive is that some lucky American gets to win a house. Are they still doing that? And do they still play those gawd-awful celebrity softball games after? Now those were cheesy.

For the Fan, the All Star Break is something to get through and not something to look forward to. It's like a visit to Grandma's when you are a kid. "Man, let's just get this over with!" The Futures Game would be more exciting to this writer if he was better versed on the prospects. So add up the entire package and all it means is that for three days, the Fan can't make any picks, has no box scores to pore through, no rundown of the previous day on Josh's site, no Royals lament from Posnanski, no hair pulling from eyebleaf's site. It's just three days to endure until we get back to the fun that is the daily baseball odyssey toward the playoffs.