Yankees - Dodgers World Series: Can we finally put to rest the bullshit Moneyball theory of baseball?

 Among all of the major sports, Baseball has resisted the idea that Superstars are not only a sufficient condition but, also a necessary condition to win a Championship.  We've been assured throughout our childhoods that how you play the game is the most important aspect and that a scrappy team of fighters can overcome the obstacles and win.  This is so much nonsense.

Moneyball caught everyone's attention, mainly when the Brad Pitt led film came out in 2010 but, also with the book in 2002.  And all the Sports Nerds who asserted that professional scouts, and baseball managers and general managers didn't know the game at a deep fundamental level were ignoring the Holy Algorithm first established by Bill James, and then expanded refined, reinvented by PECOTA, Sabermetrics, Wins Over Replacement, or On-Base+Slugging Plus or any of the cutesy, new fangled statistics and statical measurements which many people claim are the true measure of the player and of the game.

Well, it's all crap.  And it's always been crap.  You need Superstars to win in Baseball, and superstars cost money.  Look at these rosters for Dodgers and Yankees.  Aaron Judge and Juan Soto?  Shohei Otani and Freddie Freeman?  These teams aren't comprised of plucky, grit and gristle, hustle players but, with players who cost more by themselves than many other teams rosters.

This list of the Team salaries for 2024, shows the top 6 highest payrolls made the Playoffs and #2 and #5 made the World Series.  You can go back to 2011 and find this pattern every time, the highest payrolls make the Playoffs and one of them wins.  But, you might point out other teams with lower payrolls also made the playoffs; and yes some teams get there and get bounced and then their best players are cannibalized by the Dodgers or Yankees. 

What's the last team you can think of built not bought to make and win the World Series;  the Kansas City Royals of 2014 and 2015?  That team hit with players on the rookie deals who panned out and since then when those players left (for Big Contracts) the Royals haven't sniffed the Playoffs until this year with a new crop of players on rookie contracts playing well.

And that Moneyball team in 2010 movie didn't win because of David Justice or Scott Hatteberg even though those players performed well enough, or because of Billy Beane's savvy mathematical wizardry.  They had Miguel Tejada (131 RBI), Barry Zito (23wins), Jermaine Dye, and a young Eric Chavez.  None of whom were even mentioned once in the movie.

But, nobody wants to admit that money is more important in this game than the vaunted Sabermetrics and even more important than old head baseball man Ken Hawk Harrelson's "TWTW" The Will to Win...  because then everyone would understand that as long as there are rich teams and poor teams, the rich are going to dominant the Playoffs and World Series and undercut the Hollywood fantasy of a Bad News Bears scruffy team of misfits catching lightning in a bottle and banding together to win it all, and all the LIES and PROPAGANDA sold to the GenX and Millennial kids about the True Champions winning.

This guy wants to tell me we're living in a community. 
Don't make me laugh. I'm living in America,
and in America, you're on your own. 
America's not a country.
It's just a business. 
Now fucking pay me.

So enjoy this Dodgers/Yankees World Series with big name players but, don't fool yourself into believing anyone can build a team and win because it's like everything in America, as Brad Pitt (playing Billy Beane) said about America in Killing them Softly the Official/Unofficial sequel to Moneyball...

The Twilight of the St. Louis Cardinals and the Missouri War on LGBTQ community

Two Birds, One Bat 
IFKWIMAITYD

As Your Chicago Cubs, just won 2 out of 3 from the Milwaukee Brewers to close the division leading gap to 3 games, before losing two 1-run games in the bottom of the 9th to those dastardly Cincinnati Reds (Choke Cubs Choke, Hey Chicago waddaya say, the Cubs are gonna Choke today) we can at least take solace the St. Louis Cardinals are currently in Last Place in the Central Division.

The last time the Cardinals finished last in the division was 1990, which was the twilight of those great 1980's teams, managed by Whitey Herzog and backed by light-hitting, slick-fielding, fast teams of Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, Vince Coleman, Terry Pendleton, and variety of other greats of the cocaine era.  Those teams made 3 World Series in the 1980's winning one in 1982 and probably denied a second series championship in 1985 in the infamous I-70 Series against KC.  In Game 6 the Cardinals suffered the vicissitudes of human error as Umpire Don Denkinger, who passed this May, made a wrong call and there was no official instant replay back in ancient 80's.  It's too bad The Blown Call was his legacy as he was apparently a stand up guy.

Since 2000, the Cardinals have made 16 post seasons (yes I know they are expanded) and have played in 4 World Series.  So this is uncharted (unchartered?) territory for the Mighty Red Birds.  But, Missouri has other much worse problems than a bad Baseball team. 

If you look at the classic Cardinals uniform it shows two birds on the bat.  If you know anything about Ornithology you might recognize red Cardinals are the male of the species.  So, the official uniform of the Missouri baseball team has a same-sex couple on front.  Will the MO Legislature order the Cardinals to change their uniforms or is this okay because baseball is for boys so boy birds are the only ones who can be displayed thus saving boys sports for boys?

Missouri, is plagued like so many states with Republicans.  And Republicans infest government for one purpose and one purpose only to make Americans lives worse in every conceivable way.  As you might know, Republicans passed a raft of anti-LGBTQ laws in the Republican test case for dehumanization and extermination of Americans.

Accountability would be nice

In February, a lying, deluded, paid propagandist named Jamie Reed alleged all sorts of medical malpractice and abuse of minors at Washington University in St. Louis and by inference declared this was standard practice in a hundred institutions Nationwide.   Buttressed by this carefully curated phony whistleblower, The Show Me State, decided scurrilous lies and innuendo was far more than enough to bring the awesome power of the state down upon people just trying to live their lives.  That infamous coward Josh Hawley proclaimed 'Accountability is Coming'.  

Except, as with all of these rightwing lies about LGBTQ persons and Teachers, this was a complete and utter fabrication.  A deliberate falsehood designed to get people to grant Republicans power to incarcerate and eliminate their ideological enemies.  Based on Jamie Reed's lies, Missouri Republicans passed the euphemistically titled SAFE Act which just made it past judicial injunction and as of September 1st denies Trans children medical care and criminalizes the providing Trans youth medical care.

Rightwing domestic terrorist attacks against the LGBTQ community are on the rise and Republicans plan to use governmental power at whatever level they control to kill them.  Understand the Republican Party is fully invested in lying and propaganda to maintain political power, but as they lose more and more elections, Republicans will transition to outright Fascist Violence following the well-worn model which presupposes their victims will be too cowed or too incredulous in believing it can happen here.  It's going to happen here, it's already happening here.

Be brave if you can, but be prepared.  Because once Republicans no longer see any hope in gerrymandering or voter suppression or the other tricks and chicanery they've engaged in to maintain power; Violence and murder will be the political weapons they use.

When was Baseball's Golden Age?

It's almost Baseball season (no preseason doesn't count) and don't give me that nostalgia of Pitchers & Catchers reporting as being the start of the season, that's just a throwback to the earlier times when ball players had jobs and didn't work out in the off-season.

In the Star Trek: DS9 universe Capitan Benjamin Sisko loves baseball and his favorite player is a Japanese born shortstop "Buck Bokai", who breaks Joe DiMaggio's immortal 57 game hitting streak, in 2026, but by the 2040's baseball's steep decline in popularity leads to the sports demise.

Nowadays with the massive amounts of money floating around Baseball and the valuation of the Yankees $6 Billion and the Red Sox, Dodgers, and Cubs at $4 Billion it seems far-fetched to imagine baseball disappearing in 20 years.  But, back when DS9 was on the air, baseball still hadn't recovered from the destructive 1994 strike and the 1998 Home Run chase by Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire was still a few years off, it seemed possible baseball might end.

So, in the DS9 universe the baseball of the 21st century was the Golden Era as it encompassed the actual Earth with the Planetary League replacing the Major Leagues but, when was Baseball Golden Age here in the semi-real world?

Tangentially, one of the ideas that baseball trainers and managers believed back in the day was for ballplayers not to lift weights because it will make them "muscle-bound".  Well, despite the now universal belief that weight-lifting is the best thing you can do for your body I sincerely hope teams and players are re-evaluating the idea that getting jacked is an unqualified benefit for ball players.

Last season, White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito decided to become the latest Chicago player to bulk up and he pitched terribly, now new Cubs player from Japan Seiya Suzuki decided he needed more muscle to make it through the grueling MLB season, but his added muscle mass appears to have led to an oblique strain which is apparently serious enough to keep him out of the World Baseball Classic and the foreseeable future for the 2023 Season.

After some consideration I decided a 25 year era bracketed by the bench mark years of 1947 (Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier) to 1972 (Roberto Clemente's untimely death) as a good representation of the best of baseball.

Anything prior to World War 1 can almost be considered a different game and even all the way up to the 1927 Yankees with Murderer's Row can be considered the Stone Age.  The interwar years showcase the greatness of Baseball as a game heard on Radio but, can't really be called a Golden Age due to segregation, training, and equipment.

So, in considering 1947-1972, we get a lot of all-time greats; Stan Musial, Sandy Koufax, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Bob Gibson, Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn, Carl Yastrzemski to name just the greatest.  You also have the great westward expansion as the Giants and Dodgers move to California, plus Kansas City gets the A's then the Royals, and the Senators keep getting eliminated first as the Minnesota Twins, then as the Rangers asTexas gets a couple teams.  So, Baseball had become a nationwide sport. 

It's also before the horrible round multi-use stadiums of the 1970's, or the home run happy Steroid Era, and the Moneyball stupidity of maximizing every at-bat leading to the bore-a-thon 3 True Outcome Era and 3-4 hour games.

And no a strikeout is not the same as any other out, and no the shift isn't bad for baseball, and no walks are not just as good as hits, and no home runs are not the most exciting thing in sports.

Baseball has finally recognized this and adopted a raft of changes for the 2023 season but, is it too late to arrest the current perception of baseball being a boring game? 

Play Ball...

The Cubs and the Ricketts Family Curse

Rickettsia -  small disease causing bacteria transmitted by ticks.

As the World Series draw near the Astros will make their 2nd appearance in 3 years, it's time for Chicago baseball fans to resurrect the time-honored eternal lament Wait till Next Year. And to recognize for all the talk about "every season is sacred" the Chicago Cubs are more than willing to coast and cash-in on the dying embers of the 2016 Championship for the Cubs fans must face the truth the "vaunted" World Series Window hath closed.

It's also time to note that while WSCR 670 The Score calls this the greatest era in Modern Cubs History, in reality the Cubs have not made the Playoffs for the last two seasons. The Theo Epstein-Jed Hoyer brain trust is chock full of Hubris, believing the hype that they are the smartest guys in baseball, they've overvalued their own players, made terrible decisions in Free Agent signings, and now need a new manager because they ran the last one out of town.

Now, this is nothing against any player on the Cubs, I wish them nothing but good luck in getting as much money from the Team and sport they can before the harsh Ricketts family ownership and wonder boy Epstein jettison them.

But, in reality I have not been a Cubs fan since the odious Ricketts family descended upon Chicago like a plague of locusts and got control of the Cubs in October 2009. Joe Ricketts is the TD Ameritrade Patriarch who made his fortune the old-fashioned way; by siphoning off money from people, like the blood-sucking tick borne disease which is their namesake

In 2007, Sam Zell another ruthless and worthless "investor" acquired the Tribune Company using the financial trickery of a "leveraged buyout" dumping Billions of dollars of debt onto the Tribune Corporation and then selling off the valuable assets; i.e. the Chicago Cubs. The Ricketts Family took note and implemented "Project North Side"; a complicated scheme of chicanery and inventive bookkeeping using the purposefully shady, complicated, and byzantine banking rules to buy the Cubs without actually having the assets or cash-in-hand.

With the Cubs purchase Joe Ricketts, an unabashed racist, felt no compunction in running 6 straight losing seasons with cut-rate players maximizing profits and now after 1 World Series Title, setting up as many revenue streams as possible to drain the Cubs Fanbase of dollars. Next season the Cubs will remove their games from TV onto their "Marquee Network", a pay-per-view channel.

Like, most of the Corporate Vulture Class, Joe Ricketts got rich spending other peoples' money. Then congratulated himself on his "work ethic" and set about using the Awesome power of the Government  to crush the Working Class. After winning the World Series, Ricketts worked to get Trump elected, ever since the Cubs have lost.

Will Sean Hannity and Michele Bachmann vigorously defend Delmon Young?

"I feel that this hate crime legislation could be considered the very definition of tyranny." - Michele Bachmann

MLB player Delmon Young was arrested and charged with a Hate Crime stemming from an altercation in New York City. Any day now the Faux News machine shall drop everything and show the Tyrannical Injustice of charging an American with Hate Crime Legislations!

Oh wait, is there some reason why conservatives don't support hate crime legislation?

Michele Bachmann spoke eloquently on the need to eliminate Hate Crime Legislation, "...Someone might hold some very hateful beliefs, but we are America, shouldn't they be allowed to hold those beliefs?"

Now what could be the reason Hannity, Bachmann, Virginia Foxx, Steve King, and all the Right-Wing punks wouldn't rise to Young's defense? I wonder what it could be...

I wonder what the difference is that will make Faux News reverse themselves and vilify the suspect in this case and support the charging of a hate crime?

Instead of watching the spectacle of Sean Hannity rising to the day-in, day-out defense of the suspect the way Sean did towards George Zimmerman, I wonder why Sean would be against Delmon Young and against Trayvon Martin? And against Shirley Sherrod? Hmmm, I wonder why it is Sean Hannity, Faux News, Michele Bachmann and the Republican Party always seem to be against "blahhh people", as Sick Rantorum put it so eloquently in Iowa?

Related:
Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) is receiving threats after Glenn Beck and the ghoulish Andrew Breitbart's websites created an edited video of her. Yet, again we have totally-not-racist conservatives targeting an African-American person in Government based on the lies of Breitbart or Beck...

Bachmann, the Republican Party and most conservatives blamed the Housing Bubble on poor minorities getting loans from the government... Michele Bachmann directly applied for and received a $417,000 Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac backed home loan in 2008. After getting hers Michele called for a dismantling of Fanne and Freddie.

The Obligatory Cubs Failure

The damn Chicago Cubs failed again and will not win the World Series. Most likely, the damn Cubs will never win the Series...

I spend to much damn time listening to Sports Talk Radio. I spend to much time watching baseball on TV. I need to become a grumpy White Sox fan or icky Cardinals fan or {shudder} Soul Sealing Hell Spawned Yankees fan. Or I need to more powerfully divest myself of Sports "Fever".

After two straight winning season in 2007 and 2008 the Cubs as a team choked both time in the Playoffs. While Lou Piniella is a good manager over the long hard slog of a 162 game baseball season and he's done a nice job of utilizing and maximizing his bench players potential; The short 5 game first round playoff series is too dicey and often one bad game or a couple hot players can take it over and crush the hopes and dreams of little Cubbie fans worldwide. Now, it's not totally Piniella's fault as the idea of playing 162 games and then having your Championship chances ruined by a "mere" 3 losses is bad planning by the MLB.

But, it's all based on the drive for more games and more revenue and if the Baseball Cartel could figure out a way to add more games and keep Fenway, Wrigley and Yankee Home Run Stadium open year round they would but Chicago winters, especially lately, aren't too conducive for that prospect. That's enough of Money Ball and wistful lamentations for Baseball purity.

The 2009 Cubs failed as an organization. Several players did very well, Derek Lee especially. But several decisions and baseball incidents caused the team to collapse.

The first and worst move was the acquisition of known malcontent Milton Bradley. Bradley appears to be a not nice person who finds ways to blame everyone but himself for his extensive history of problems. The Cubs ostensibly claimed they acquired Bradley to be a left-handed run producing hitter. Bradley does not drive in a large amount of runs and was not what the Cubs needed. So Bradley was what his history advertised and not what the Cubs declared... To make room for Bradley's forced signing the Cubs traded Mark DeRosa.

DeRosa has always been considered a role-player but if his last 4 seasons are taken alone his numbers show him to be an everyday player, who will produce a .285 average, 15-20 home runs, score and drive in 80+ runs. DeRosa was widely acknowledged as a good influence, clubhouse leader and showed a willingness to play a variety of positions for the Cubs during his two seasons with the team. Each of those attributes turned out to be exactly what the Cubs needed and missed in 2009.

The Cubs made the risky decision to enter the season with no backup for talented but slightly injury prone 3rd Baseman Aramis Ramirez and it turned out to probably be the worst cost-benefit analysis of the season. Ramirez got hurt and missed significant time during the season (DeRosa could have filled in at 3rd) but with DeRosa gone and when Ramirez went on the Disbaled List, the Cubs moved Mike Fontenot from 2nd Base to 3rd. Fontenot was to be given the shot to be the everyday 2nd baseman and he might have been okay this year if he also did not have to worry about playing everyday at the hot corner. The added pressure along with being a regular everyday player hampered his ability to adjust at the plate and kept Fontenot in an extended hitting slump.

Incredibly talented Carlos Zambrano again exploded into full blown Big Z meltdown mode in his underwhelming season. Zambrano is such a gifted baseball player he's got Nuke Laloosh's pitching power with the hitting ability of Crash Davis, unfortunately as Costner alluded to in Bull Durham Zambrano's apparently also got Laloosh's "5 cent head".

The off season abandonments of Felix Pie, Casey McGehee, and Jason Marquis contributed to the sad bad 2009 season.

And Non-Cub Alfonso Soriano continued his slow decline into baseball agedness. The Cubs have 6 years and $100 Million USC left of his .250 hitting Designated Hitter fielding ability left.

Fortunately for Cubs Fans the season's withering won't be seared into their psyche like 1969 or 1984 or 2003 or 2008...

Obama corrupts America's Pastime (The Perfect Game)

Mark Buehrle (in many ways the mirror image* of Greg Maddux) threw a perfect game for the Chicago White Sox against the strong hitting World Series Tampa Bay Rays. Is Drudge or She Who Shall Not Be Named 2 investigating this? I mean Obama wears a Sox jacket to the All Star Game, makes no effort to hide his partisan loyalities to a mere 3% of the Major League Baseball world and then a White Sox player throws only the 18th perfect game in over 100 years of the sport against a team with as many good hitters as the Rays? Come on.

And to deepen the conspiracy Buehrle was at the All Star game which I understand Obama spent more than an hour attending. No doubt some dastardly arrangement was reached. Obama probably had his ACORN thugs cow Evan Longoria and Ben Zobrist of the Tampa Bay Rays into acquiescence for fear of being held in one of Obama's Islamo-Black Panther Prisons.

*- Like the future Hall of Famer Maddux, Buehrle is a great pitcher who relies on control, location and a variety of pitches, however Buerhle throws left-handed and plays for the White Sox. Throughout history the left handed path is the sign of the devil and the Anti-Christ Obama is a White Sox fan while the White Sox are justy seen as the anti-Cubs and the Cubs are the heavenly team.

Can there be any more clear evidence of Obama's Tyranny and desire to destroy the very core of our Nation?

The Loss

“Bill Mazeroski, I hate him,” says Calogero. “He made Mickey Mantle cry. The papers said the Mick cried.”

“Mickey Mantle,” says Sonny. “That’s what you’re upset about? Mantle makes $100,000 a year. How much does your father make? . . . If your dad needs money, go ask Mickey Mantle. See what happens. Mickey Mantle don’t care about you. Why care about him”

“From that day on, I never felt the same about the Yankees.” Calogero ~ from A Bronx Tale

Spurred on by a conversation I had en route to a Kane County Cougars game a discussion came about concerning sports fandom. I informed the interested parties I (am/was) a Cubs fan. However, as the years have passed my emotional investment into Chicago sports teams has all but vanished. I never had A Bronx Tale epiphany it's merely been the acquired loss of interest over the slow years of reaching adulthood and the desire to not board the emotional roller coaster of sports teams fortunes and failures.

A large amount of this has to do with being a lamentable Cubs fan. For me the most crushing defeats were 1989 and 2003. 1984 was my initiation into Cubs woedom but I was still to young to be cognizant of the pitiful Cubs history and wary of the despairing Cubs future. By High School and the 1989 Cubbies I had full on Cubs Fever and was stoked to watch the World Series with Ryno, The Hawk, Mad Dog (1), The Shawn-o-meter, Gracie, Red Beard, ROY Walton and the rest! Sadly, the Cubs encountered the Will Clark playoff ban saw and then the 90's would be wasteland of steroid abusing cheaters, bad teams and mostly forgetable players.

My un-journey became complete in 2003 as I left the US for Afghanistan with the Cubs leading the Marlins 3-2 and arrived at my assignment having learned the Cubs lost after being 5 outs away.

Last year when the 2008 Cubs were winning 97 games I didn't even make it out to beautiful Wrigley Field. And predictably the 2008 Cubs lost 3 straight and Cubs fans said oh well wait until next year, just like they said in 2007, when they choked in the playoffs as well. However, Post-Playoff failure there was a fan backlash as Cubs fans decided to auction off their loyalty and 670 The Score received a number of calls in which the callers declared they were done watching the Cubs. Most of the Score hosts decried these statements as hyperbole and chastised the callers telling them they would be back watching the Cubs in 2009.

So now the 2009 Cubs are a miserable team having made several questionable player moves to deflect criticism over the 2 playoff collapses. Yet I have the cold comfort of having divested myself of the emotional trauma of worrying about millionaires I shall never be friends with, let alone even speak to...

Drunken Cubs "Fans"

So Come On And Have A Good Time
And Get Blinded Out Of Your Mind ~ AC/DC, Have a Drink On Me

Roughly 5 hours after the end of a Cubs game this last weekend, our Dispatch received a call from the Metra police asking for assistance in taking 12-15 Cubs fans off the train as it stopped in my town.

And guess why?

Becuase they had just spent the last 4 hours boozing it up in Wrigleyville and now were causing problems for the conductors by such admirable actions as urinating in the train, throwing beer cans at one another, jumping around the cars and generally being sloppy drunks.

When I arrived all I could hear over Coms was yelling. When I got onto the train the group was loud, disorderly, obniouxs, profane, vulgar, combative and whinny.

Their yelling was punctuated with variations of the following:

But, we’re going to fancy upscale Chicago Suburb How are weeeeee suppossed to get there? This is bullshit... What the fuck man... Screw you... I gah-tah piss... Dude, hey dude dude dude hey dude dude let me talk to you for a moment...

As I helped one young lady who refused to get off the train leave, she turned on me and shouted you can’t push me I know my rights.

I stopped (still holding her arm ever so gently) and said, "You do? Well, tell me your rights? What are your rights?"

She paused and with head titled, mouth slightly agape she looked at me wordlessly.

I continued, "Your behavior is prohibited by Metra, they want you off the train, You're getting off."

After the train had departed and the drunks had mostly been packaged off to their suburban wonderlands I asked a buddy of mine "Do you know who you would never see act like that? Brothers."

Because if they got blasted were throwing beer cans at each, swearing, jumping around the train and then decided to mean mug and confront a group of cops they know they would catch a beat down.

When was the last time you saw an African-American man run onto Wrigley Field? (Mute the Commentary.)

Soriano is NOT a Chicago Cub

he is a Yankee. And like all things New York Yankee, they are anathema to good baseball and a curse on the Major Leagues.

Alfonso Soriano was a bad signing. All the talk in Chicago was the Cubs brass wanted to make a big free agent acquisition and Soriano was the big name. Soriano parlayed a 40 home run 40 stolen base with the Washington Nationals into a 136 million contract over 8 years.

Soriano has several deficiencies (as a baseball player). He's selfish. He's a terrible leadoff hitter. He won't play unless he bats leadoff. He can not field. He can not run. He doesn't draw walks and he strikes out too much. His inability to run to and make attempts at catching fly balls in left field have led directly to the recent 3 losses to the Brewers and Cardinals.

Also it's great for the team when the highest paid player won't do something as simple as change his position in the batting order to aid the team. And what's worse is he isn't hitting. I might be able to stifle my discontent with his demands if Soriano was hitting, but he's not, he's batting a paltry .177. Ronny Cedeno and AAA player Mike Fontenot are out hitting him. He's not a superstar. And he's going to be doing this to Cub Fans until 2016.

For Cub Fans we are going to look back at the blown victory against the Brewers on 1 May as the turning point of the season. The day the season was lost.

But, you know the best thing about Baseball? Especially when it's delivered via The Glass Teat? The Federal Mafia knows the Bread and Circuses routine still works to distract the people they rule from things like $4.00+ per gallon gas and the dead and wounded in Iraq...