By The Jersey Hitman
League 6
League 17
Labor Day! Already? How can that be? As summer comes to and end, so does an era in baseball. The replay-free era is over. Welcome to the video age, Bud Selig. While the Joe Torre era came to an end this past off-season, the Yankees playoff run comes to an end this season. Maybe the Cubs era of no World Series titles will come to and end too!! Ya’ know, I taught that Cubs second baseman everything he knows (wink, wink).
The Good: Mark DeRosa
The MLB leader in RBIs over the last 30 days is Mark DeRosa. He has 27 RBIs over that span while hitting .360 with 7 HR.
DeRosa is having a career year with the Chicago Cubs this season. He has 18 HRs, 78 RBIs, 87 Runs, and 5 SBs, all career highs … already. His .291 BA isn’t too bad either. Put all this together with the fact that he is eligible at 2B, 3B, and OF, and he has been a very valuable fantasy player.
Back in 1990, in Carlstadt, NJ, I coached Mark, and my brother Sal, on a Babe Ruth League baseball team. My brother would be mad at me if I didn’t mention the fact that he was a pretty good hitter back then, too. He could hit the ball a mile but had the speed to turn a triple into a single.
DeRosa, on the other hand, had some speed, and as good as he was hitting, he was even better as a pitcher. His intelligence, athleticism, and arm strength lead him to be starting QB at the University of Pennsylvania.
Now, at age 33, and in his 10th Major League season, Mark DeRosa has become an important member of what may very well be the first Chicago Cubs team in 100 years to win a World Series. Wouldn’t that be sweet?
The Bad: Instant Replay
MLB has finally joined the 21st century. Beginning with this weekend’s series, instant replay will be used in all games. It will be used only to determine if a potential home run ball has cleared the wall or landed fair or foul. This type of call has come into play 18 times this season.
MLB has spent $2.5 million and two months time to install monitors and cable into all ballparks. Major League Baseball Advanced Media will now collect the television feeds from both teams playing every game and have it sent to its replay center. The center is located on the fifth floor of an old baking factory located in Manhattan’s meat packing district. I kid you not.
Baseball is the last major sport to use replay. While it is good to see them change with the times, a bit, I feel it is bad they haven’t taken it further. Use replay on calls on the base paths also. Let’s try to get those calls right too. It won’t take too much time during a game to change a call that replay shows was clearly wrong. In fact, you can look at the play while the slighted manager is on the field arguing.
If I can see the umpire blew the call on a replay at home, while sitting on my couch, why can’t someone in the replay center see the same thing? Just take a look while Lou Pinella is out there kicking dirt and cussing all over the field. You just might find he was right.
As of now, baseball has absolutely no plans to use replay for anything other than home run and fair-or-foul calls. That may change if a World Series is decided on a bad call by an umpire. Like the call Don Denkinger made in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series, calling Kansas City Royal Jorge Orta safe at first base when he was clearly out. That call led to a Royal comeback victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in that game and forced a Game 7 … which was also won by Kansas City.
In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with using replay to get the calls right. Always let the players decide the outcome of the game … never the umpire.
The Ugly: The Yankees
I just got done watching the Yankees get beat again by the Boston Red Sox. Watching this Yankee team go through the motions makes me sick. There is no fire - no sense of urgency at all. When the camera shows them in the dugout, they are just sitting there. GET UP! Root for your team-mates, encourage them, do something! ANYTHING!
The starting pitching, while not great, hasn’t been awful. Surprisingly, it’s the bats that have let this team down. Clutch hitting is not something this team does. Alex Rodriguez has been awful when it counts most … he has just two RBIs in the 8th and 9th innings of games this season. That seems almost impossible, but it’s true.
In the first game of this series, he went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and hit into two double plays. He may put up big numbers, but if it’s a big game or a big moment, he is not the guy any Yankee fan wants to see at bat.
It hasn’t been just A-Rod. The team, on a whole, is missing something. Robinson Cano shows little hustle, Johnny Damon doesn’t want to bunt, Jason Giambi can’t play first base or hit with any consistency, Andy Pettitte and Derek Jeter look a bit old.
With all due respect to Joe Girardi, I have to wonder if Joe Torre would have gotten more out of this team. With a $220 million payroll, you just had to expect more.