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The races that will define September

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It’s September, and while Green Day once asked that they be woken up when it ends, baseball fans would be wise to stay awake, because, once again, September looks like it will be a crazy month for baseball. Here are some (but not all) of the big races to look for:

The Chase for the AL East

The AL East will feature many games between the division’s teams this month, but the ones that will really count will be the ones between the Yankees, Orioles and Rays. Including games that have already been played or are being played as I type this, the Yankees and Orioles will face each other six times, the Orioles and Rays will face each other three times, and the Yankees and Rays will face each other six times. The Orioles and Yankees have so far split their first two games of their series (including the last day of August). The Yankees appear to be in control here, especially if they win today’s game against the Orioles, who are still somehow only three games back despite the fact that the run-differential suggests they should probably be closer to three games from being mathematically eliminated than three games out of first.

The race in the AL East will be interwoven with….

The AL Wild Card

The following teams have a chance at the AL Wild Card spots: The three division leaders, the Athletics, the Orioles, the Rays, the Tigers and the Angels. I can honestly say that I have no idea who will win this, other than that it will likely come down to not who had the best season, but who has the best September- a team needs to get hot to win this, and then remain hot during the one-game wild card game. An interesting twist: due to the fact that the Wild Cards will probably have to use their best pitchers to get a spot to begin with, it could get very interesting as to who they will be able to start if they make the play-in game.

Oh, and don’t even get me started on the possibility that there is a tie for the second-place wild card. If that happens, it will be madness, the baseball equivalent of the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Any team that could survive the ensuing gauntlet would probably become target practice for whatever division leader they then face. Unless, of course, the wild card survivor had gained so much momentum that they slice through the entire playoffs like a buzzsaw.

AL Central

The Tigers are going to win this, right? Right? I mean, they have Verlander. And Prince Fielder. And… wait, the White Sox are still in first? I’m telling you, the Robin Ventura hiring looks more genius by the day, and in any other year (such a year where Buck Showalter isn’t bringing the Orioles to a month away from the playoffs), he’d be shoo-in for manager of the year.

 

NL Wild Card

Like the AL Wild Card, but slightly less crazy, I cannot even fathom a guess as to who will get those two spots.

 

No, Joe Mauer is not getting traded.

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So, apparently Joe Mauer has been placed on waivers. Now, technically, seemingly every player is placed on waivers at one point or another almost every year, just as a formality to get an idea of what is out there. 99.8% of the time, it seems, nothing happens. But he’s Joe Mauer, the Dodgers and Red Sox recently had one of those 0.2% exceptions, and having speculation that one of the league’s best catchers is on waivers is a good way to get page views. Why, I’m guilty of that last one myself with this.

So, is Joe Mauer getting traded?

No. I can say with 99.8% certainty- albeit with the caveat that I do not have any sources in any Major League front offices- that he is now. Three reasons:

1) He’s Joe Mauer. He might not be as popular in the Twin Cities as he once was, and he probably is never going to be able to hit for power like he used to, but he remains the Twins’ most popular player and biggest drawing card. With the Twins now getting the 2014 All-Star Game, and with little else to cheer about, it would be a PR disaster to get rid of Joe Mauer for anything less than for multiple All-Stars.

2) Even if they did want to trade him, it’s unlikely anybody would have something to offer and be able to take on all of his salary. Okay, the Dodgers seemingly have broken into the Yankees’ room and stolen their “unlimited money” cheat codes, but money alone wouldn’t do it. It’s highly unlikely anybody would be able to offer both the money and the players needed for such a deal.

3) Players are placed on waivers all the time and nothing ever happens. And there is no reason to believe this is any different.

Putting baseball money in perspective

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$5.6 Billion: The amount of money ESPN is spending over a eight-year extension of their MLB broadcasting rights.

$700 Million: The average per-year cost of that deal.

$695 Million: The current GDP of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, given current exchange rates, according to the CIA World Factbook.

$1.85 billion: The value of the New York Yankees in 2012, according to Forbes. This is tied for third in the world, behind only Manchester United and Real Madrid and tied with the Dallas Cowboys.

$1.81 billion: Forbes estimate of the approx. value of the four most valuable NHL teams (Maple Leafs, Rangers, Canadiens, Red Wings) in 2011… combined.

$1.68 billion: Forbes 2012 estimate of the combined value of the NBA’s two most valuable teams (the Lakers and the Knicks).

$321 million: The value of the Oakland Athletics in 2012, according to Forbes. This makes them the least valuable MLB team. This still would put them sixth in the NHL and 19th on the list of Forbes’ most valuable soccer teams in the world.

$3,440,000: Average salary of an MLB player.

$2,921,713: 2011 prize money of Yani Tseng, the best female golf player in the world.

$1.2 million: Babe Ruth’s highest yearly salary ($80,000 in 1930-31), adjusted for inflation. This would make him about the 20th highest-paid player on the 2012 Yankees, behind David Robertson and just beating out Raul Ibanez.

$480,000: Minimum salary of an MLB player.

$400,000: Salary of the President of the United States.

$244,228.72: Honus Wagner’s 1912 salary of $10,000, adjusted for inflation.

$2.35 million: Cost of the T206 Honus Wagner baseball card that once belonged to Wayne Gretzky.

$2.88: The price of a ticket, adjusted for inflation, to the 1858 game between All-Stars representing New York and Brooklyn, believed to have been the first game where admission was charged.

$28: The cheapest ticket available on the Mets website for a upcoming game against the Braves. The All-Star game is in Flushing next year, and it probably will be even more expensive.

In other words: There is a lot of money in baseball, and it’s only gotten richer over the years.

 

How Baseball is Different

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Baseball is a weird game, completely unlike anything else in the North American sportscape (with the exception of it’s children) and like few other sports in the world, period.

For example:

Baseball can, literally, last forever: There is no limit to the number of innings in most competitive leagues (in certain parts of Asia, there are ties, and in some international competitions there are runners that start on the bases after 11 or 12 innings, but those are exceptions). There have been baseball games that have gone 25 innings, 26 innings and then called only because of curfew, and the professional record: 33 innings. In theory, if you played an infinite amount of baseball games, you would eventually have a game played that would continue until the end of the universe.

There are, of course, other sports that can go far past their ordinarily defined bounds. Tennis, for example, has had some very, very long matches, and basketball and playoff hockey have seen games that go several overtimes, but it still happens the most in baseball.

The defense has possession of the ball: Only other bat-and-ball games, such as cricket, have a similar situation. When there is a interception or fumble recovery in football, the defense has the ball, in a way, but that is more a case of the defense becoming the offense.

It is built upon failure: Can you imagine if a NFL quarterback made only three out of every 10 passes? He’d be run out of the league, possibly with pitchforks. But in baseball, somebody who hits three out of 10 balls safely is good, and somebody who hits four out of 10 is a legend.

You can avoid the best offensive player: In football, you can try to kick it away from Devin Hester. In basketball, you can try to foul a big man. But only in baseball can you just, well, pass the biggest offensive threat entirely, by giving him an intentional walk. You can even do it with the bases loaded- it’s happened a few times, including to Nap Lajoie, Barry Bonds and (most recently) Josh Hamilton.

The field is different everywhere: While the diamond itself is the same everywhere, every ballpark has different quirks and dimensions that can affect the game. Fenway Park is completely different from Yankee Stadium, which is different from Dodger Stadium or Camden Yards. No other sport has that. Can you imagine if Soldier Field had a semi-circular end-zone and wider goal posts, while Lambeau’s northern half was only 25 yards long with an extremely narrow goal post while the southern side was normal? What if Madison Square Garden had the NCAA three-point line while Boston had the hoop a little higher up? Well, that’s basically what baseball is like: every playing field has differences.

There are, of course, other differences… can you think of any?

The Black Swan and the Rise of the Dodgers

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In my rundown of The Palace Hotel Putsch, I noted that there was one possible outcome that we wouldn’t see coming. Actually, it was a category of possible outcomes: the Black Swan. Here’s what I wrote:

A black swan is an event that very few, if any, people see coming, but ultimately changes lots of things. The idea’s names comes from the fact that everybody thought that a swan couldn’t be black, until they found a species of swan that was black. The creation and wide-scale adoption of the internet, for example, was a black swan event. While it’s unlikely that there will be some earthshaking revelation or breakout player that will change the situation in the Boston clubhouse, it also is key that the possibility is not completely abandoned. In other words: expect the unexpected.

The Black Swan came into being with the trade that shook the world: Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto (who I can only presume was thrown in to make it a nice even number) for James Loney, prospects, and money. And all of this happened after the trade deadline.

While many have focused on the Red Sox, and deservedly so, what’s being lost in this is how this is another step in the rebirth of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Just think, last year at this time, they were one of the saddest stories in baseball, having been ravaged from their old glories by the decadence and divorce drama of the McCourt family. Now, they are ascendant, on the heels of the Giants in the NL West race and close to a Wild Card spot. They have good baseball men running things behind the scenes, the smile of Magic Johnson (which, if it could be harnessed as energy, would be able to light all of Southern California) as the public face, Vin Scully still on the call and Don Mattingly managing in his forever-hunt for a World Series ring (he is, by my calculation, the only person to ever play for the Yankees who remains in the hunt for a World Series ring. Okay, him and Mike Mussina.)

And it is only beginning for the Dodger Blues. This coming winter, the Dodgers will be selling the local TV rights to various interested buyers. Those rights, it should be noted, will be big. Very, very big. We’re talking billions of dollars,or a similarly high amount that is in Scrooge McDuck territory. Why, they could start making so much money, the Yankees will call for more revenue sharing…

…Okay, that last one is an exaggeration. The fact remains, though: the Dodgers are moving on up, and the big trades they have pulled this year could just be the beginning of a new era of Dodger Green. While there are some pitfalls that could strike this rise down- trading prospects, for example, could very easily come back to bite the Dodgers- it is clear that this new era might last awhile.

Bizarre Baseball Culture Theater: The Time Mark Wahlberg Shot Derek Jeter

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From the 2010 comedy The Other Guys:

The Marlins go early and Ozzie gets some final naughty-words in during the final episode of the 2012 edition of “The Franchise”

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So, it is done. The Franchise on the Miami Marlins is done. Much like, it should be noted, the Marlins’ playoff hopes. This was why it has ended early, only going seven episodes instead of the originally planned eight. Showtime and MLB Productions were having a hard time making the Marlins interesting as they fell deeper and deeper into the basement, so they basically just threw up their hands and said “screw it”. The result is a final episode where the documentarians basically throw in every prepacked bit they hadn’t included already, focus somewhat on the future of the Marlins, and with heavy doses of what might have been. Oh, and Ozzie Guillen swears. Of course.

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Great Baseball Lies: Roger Clemens is NOT pitching in the Minor Leagues this Saturday

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As you all likely know, the Rocket is back. Roger Clemens, last seen escaping government perjury charges, will be lacing them up for a start with the Atlantic League’s Sugar Land Skeeters. However, you see some news articles saying this means he is going to have a “Minor League” start.

This, in a way, is true, as it is in a league that isn’t a Major League. However, it isn’t really true, because the Atlantic League is not a Minor League (the Minor Leagues are all under the umbrella of the organization Minor League Baseball), it is an independent league. Let me explain:

Way back when, every minor league was an independent league. Teams weren’t tied up with affiliations, as there were no farm systems. Instead, they signed their own players and, if those players were good, they’d sell those players to a big club for a profit. For example, Babe Ruth was a member of the International League’s Baltimore Orioles, and was sold to the Boston Red Sox. Occasionally a team might have a deal with a big league team that they’d give them the first crack at signing a minor league star, but it was more of a case of the owners or managers being buddies, not anything official.

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Bizarre baseball connections and other trivia

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Weird connections between baseball and other areas, most of which have nothing to do with baseball. All of these are true:

  • Victor Conte, steroid guru, was a member of the band Tower of Power for a few years in the seventies and eighties.
  • Todd Zeile is a direct descendant of President John Adams.
  • Reggie Jackson was considered for the role of Geordi LaForge in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
  • Umpire Cal Hubbard is the only man in the baseball and pro football Halls of Fame.
  • Hugo Bezdek is the only man to manage a MLB team (Pirates from 1917-1919) and NFL team (Cleveland Rams, 1937-38). He also coached college football, college basketball and college baseball at one time or another.
  • Casey Candaele, who played for the Expos, Astros and Indians during the 80s and 90s, was the son of Helen Callaghan, a player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.
  • Ted Williams was John Glenn’s wingman in the Korean War.
  • Pitcher Trevor Bell, who pitched parts of the previous three seasons with the Angels but who is no longer in the majors, is the grandson of the original Bozo the Clown.
  • Todd Helton was replaced by Peyton Manning at QB at the University of Tennessee and ended up being his backup. Seth Smith was Eli Manning’s backup at Ole Miss. Helton and Smith were both on the Rockies from 2007 to 2011.
  • The Albuquerque Isotopes take their name from a episode of The Simpsons where the local baseball team, the Springfield Isotopes, almost moved to Albuquerque. Although to be fair, New Mexico certainly does have connections with nuclear isotopes.

Updates on previous posts

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Let’s look back at developments from some previous posts….

Oh, and the Cubs still stink, so the world isn’t ending.