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jedi_of_urthSo baseball, a subject I know almost none of you care about but is my non-fiction fandom. Any other pro sport? Blerg, do not care, but baseball I love. And unlike all your sports I get a good seven months (more if I felt the need to follow spring training season the way football seems to think people are interested in pre-season games) of entertainment out of a baseball season each year.
To start with I address my Rockies’ season. In short, it pretty much sucked. Well, after about mid-May it mostly sucked because it started off pretty well. Unfortunately the last couple years they’ve reversed they’re previous habit of starting slow and digging themselves a hole before they righted the ship most likely too late; the last couple seasons have started promisingly, not spectacularly but promisingly only to fall over after a couple months and never quite right the ship again.
And I so badly wanted them to do well this season. I knew it was the last year on Helton’s contract and he’d probably retire at the end of the season, and I wanted him to get one more shot at a great season before he bowed out. Since the team ended up doing so poorly I was left hoping he’d decide to give it another year, it looked like he might have another year in him, but he still decided to hang up his glove and leave us all wondering what the Rockies will do about first base next year. In truth – for all in a pinch there’s still few people I wanted to see up there more – I can admit that replacing Todd’s bat won’t be that hard at this stage, he’s remained a fairly reliable hitter but hasn’t been great in a few years now, but the fielding is where he will be most missed for me. And just...me not liking change of course. Still, I’m happy for all the seasons he’s played for my team and the seeing the excellent numbers he’s put up over 17 years; and I’m glad he was able to retire on his terms and get the sendoff he deserved by the Colorado fans (and decent respect by the Dodger ones).
Outside of the first base question, next year they need to address the pitching situation. It’s a constant problem for the Rockies, and I understand why; high quality pitchers that would pull a good salary anywhere are probably going to need even more to come to or stick around in Colorado, pitching for this team is a complication they don’t need since they’re in demand elsewhere. And with the Rockies being at best a mid-market team (more accurately a small-market team that happens to draw from a fairly substantial area in terms of geography) don’t have the funds to hire and/or keep high value pitchers who could go elsewhere. Understanding the market forces that create this problem and being a fan watching the team struggle with the rotation are different problems though. And knowing it’s a problem management struggles with year after year to find the right balance doesn’t make it less disheartening to watch how big a problem it was this year.
However my pretend baseball boyfriend Charlie Blackman got to play for the Rockies more this season than before, and did pretty well these last few weeks so hopefully he’ll be up even more next season. That’s not the only positive of the season, but it’s a personal level of enjoyment to go out on.
Now, onto other baseball.
This season’s steroid scandal didn’t really impact my team so I didn’t have any reason to follow all the issues of it. It impacted enough high level players that I definitely got some of it, and it sparked a few different discussions of how this kind of thing is vs. maybe should be handled but I don’t have a ton of opinion.
Congrats to the Pirates on not only having a winning season for the first time in 20 years but making the post season (and would have even if there was still only one wild card team). And I will definitely be rooting for them in tonight’s wild card game.
I do love to watch big-spending team fail (comes from being a fan on a small-market team) so teams like Toronto and the Angels spending a fortune and failing by a lot this season amused me. That’s two years in a row the Angels have tried to buy themselves a championship team and failed spectacularly. Unfortunately the Dodgers’ spending worked out as did the Red Sox and the Yankees had a pretty good season even if they missed the post season by being in a good division, so yeah the big spenders do work out but I love it when they don’t.
I got my way on the first pseudo-play-off game, wanting Tampa to keep Texas out of the post season. As far as the wild card games go I’m rooting for the Pirates tonight; but don’t really have a preference for the AL game tomorrow (Cleveland has enough former Rockies that I want to cheer for them, but Tampa would be a decent underdog story). As far as post season contenders: I tend to find myself as a post-season Cardinals fan the last couple years, but I’ll have a hard time rooting against the Pirates if it comes to that; but I have a strong suspicious Atlanta will win the NL. Whichever AL wild card team it is I’m rooting for them next round along with Oakland, and fully expect to be disappointed on both fronts, I think the AL championship is likely Boston’s to lose. And as most always I root for the NL in the world series because I’m an NL girl. However I’d rather not pick a winner at this stage since the previous rounds could go completely different that I called, but if it is Boston vs. Atlanta, I think it will be a good series so I might as well say Braves.
So check back in a few weeks to see just how wrong I am.
To start with I address my Rockies’ season. In short, it pretty much sucked. Well, after about mid-May it mostly sucked because it started off pretty well. Unfortunately the last couple years they’ve reversed they’re previous habit of starting slow and digging themselves a hole before they righted the ship most likely too late; the last couple seasons have started promisingly, not spectacularly but promisingly only to fall over after a couple months and never quite right the ship again.
And I so badly wanted them to do well this season. I knew it was the last year on Helton’s contract and he’d probably retire at the end of the season, and I wanted him to get one more shot at a great season before he bowed out. Since the team ended up doing so poorly I was left hoping he’d decide to give it another year, it looked like he might have another year in him, but he still decided to hang up his glove and leave us all wondering what the Rockies will do about first base next year. In truth – for all in a pinch there’s still few people I wanted to see up there more – I can admit that replacing Todd’s bat won’t be that hard at this stage, he’s remained a fairly reliable hitter but hasn’t been great in a few years now, but the fielding is where he will be most missed for me. And just...me not liking change of course. Still, I’m happy for all the seasons he’s played for my team and the seeing the excellent numbers he’s put up over 17 years; and I’m glad he was able to retire on his terms and get the sendoff he deserved by the Colorado fans (and decent respect by the Dodger ones).
Outside of the first base question, next year they need to address the pitching situation. It’s a constant problem for the Rockies, and I understand why; high quality pitchers that would pull a good salary anywhere are probably going to need even more to come to or stick around in Colorado, pitching for this team is a complication they don’t need since they’re in demand elsewhere. And with the Rockies being at best a mid-market team (more accurately a small-market team that happens to draw from a fairly substantial area in terms of geography) don’t have the funds to hire and/or keep high value pitchers who could go elsewhere. Understanding the market forces that create this problem and being a fan watching the team struggle with the rotation are different problems though. And knowing it’s a problem management struggles with year after year to find the right balance doesn’t make it less disheartening to watch how big a problem it was this year.
However my pretend baseball boyfriend Charlie Blackman got to play for the Rockies more this season than before, and did pretty well these last few weeks so hopefully he’ll be up even more next season. That’s not the only positive of the season, but it’s a personal level of enjoyment to go out on.
Now, onto other baseball.
This season’s steroid scandal didn’t really impact my team so I didn’t have any reason to follow all the issues of it. It impacted enough high level players that I definitely got some of it, and it sparked a few different discussions of how this kind of thing is vs. maybe should be handled but I don’t have a ton of opinion.
Congrats to the Pirates on not only having a winning season for the first time in 20 years but making the post season (and would have even if there was still only one wild card team). And I will definitely be rooting for them in tonight’s wild card game.
I do love to watch big-spending team fail (comes from being a fan on a small-market team) so teams like Toronto and the Angels spending a fortune and failing by a lot this season amused me. That’s two years in a row the Angels have tried to buy themselves a championship team and failed spectacularly. Unfortunately the Dodgers’ spending worked out as did the Red Sox and the Yankees had a pretty good season even if they missed the post season by being in a good division, so yeah the big spenders do work out but I love it when they don’t.
I got my way on the first pseudo-play-off game, wanting Tampa to keep Texas out of the post season. As far as the wild card games go I’m rooting for the Pirates tonight; but don’t really have a preference for the AL game tomorrow (Cleveland has enough former Rockies that I want to cheer for them, but Tampa would be a decent underdog story). As far as post season contenders: I tend to find myself as a post-season Cardinals fan the last couple years, but I’ll have a hard time rooting against the Pirates if it comes to that; but I have a strong suspicious Atlanta will win the NL. Whichever AL wild card team it is I’m rooting for them next round along with Oakland, and fully expect to be disappointed on both fronts, I think the AL championship is likely Boston’s to lose. And as most always I root for the NL in the world series because I’m an NL girl. However I’d rather not pick a winner at this stage since the previous rounds could go completely different that I called, but if it is Boston vs. Atlanta, I think it will be a good series so I might as well say Braves.
So check back in a few weeks to see just how wrong I am.
