Jeff Kent of the Astros came back to San Francisco this last week and made some interesting comments. First he asked KNBR to “enjoy the game” and not bitch and moan about the baseball all the time. Interesting comment, but nothing personal. Then he said the people in the Bay Area are so stupid for paying so much for real estate. Not sure why you would say something like that. Kent is a wannabe cowboy from Southern California. Why would anybody aspire to be a southern cowboy? There’s something wrong with you if that’s your goal in life. Not only does Kent not appreciate the sophistication of the Bay Area after living here for several years, he is actually talking down on it. A caller to KNBR later made a smart comment. He said we pay all this money for real estate to make sure our neighbor is not a red-neck ! That’s so true.
Living in SF can be an unique experience. Your neighbor might be a black guy married to a asian girl from Thailand. On the other side, you might have a White Buddhist Vegetarian family. Across the street you might have a lesbian couple living in peace. Down the street, there might be an Indian Yoga place. This is diversity at it’s best. Just by talking to your neighbors, you can know more about the World than probably going to high school in Shreveport, Louisiana! This is what you pay for. Of course if your are sophisticated enough to appreciate and like this kind of an experience. I have nothing against any part of this country. I truly love this country. Someday, I would like to live in every major city in this country. I know it’s a pipe dream, but it’s something I would like to do. I like White people, I like rednecks, I like everybody as long as they don’t hate others. But lets face it, it’s just a lot more fun to live in a diverse place like SF than to live with a bunch of white dudes in Houston. It just is.
Wild Card
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Now, on to the wild card discussion in baseball. This year, there were a bunch of teams competing for the one wild card spot in both leagues, especially the NL. Immediately everybody started saying how great wild card was for baseball. How it keeps a whole bunch of teams and their fans involved longer in the season. They were taking shots at the “purists” who criticize the wild card. Yeah, it does keep a whole bunch of people involved and excited for a long time. This makes a lot of business sense too. More revenue to be made all around and that’s probably why MLB likes it. Packed houses in Houston, San Diego and Chicago don’t hurt. But what’s good for more number of fans doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for baseball as a whole. I think it’s easy and obvious to see the apparent advantages of the wild card. But it needs a little more imagination and intelligence to appreciate the argument against the wild card.
If you read Bob Costas’ book Fairball, he makes a couple of points against the wild card. One of which is how it cheapens the pennant chase. The other point is about scheduling which we will deal with later. Though we don’t have a true pennant chase with the three divisions, even the division races and the rivalries that go with it are cheapened by the wild card. People seem to think this year was a good argument for wild card. Actually it was a good argument against as well. Look at the NL West. The Giants and the Dodgers are separated by a game and a half, but the Giants fans are more concerned about the Cubs and the wild card where the difference is just ½ a game because they don’t think they have a real shot at the division. Even when they play each other and the Giants lose, it’s always like “what happened to the Cubs today?” And the Giants fan is not too upset if the Cubs also lost. Can you imagine the intensity and relevance of these games if there were no wild card? Wouldn’t we rather have an unadulterated race for the NL west title between the Giants and the Dodgers?
Same story with the Yanks and Red Sox. A couple of weeks back they were playing each other when the Red Sox were 3 or so games behind the Yanks. But they had pretty much clinched the wild card. In spite of all the usual hype that goes with this East Coast rivalry, I didn’t really care. What were they playing for? Absolutely nothing. Both were pretty much in the playoffs when the series started and the story was the same when it ended. If there were no wild card, this series would have meant so much more even though Red Sox would have had an uphill task.
Lets look at the flip side of this argument. Teams like Houston, Chicago, Florida and San Diego, who are trailing their division leaders by 5 to 15 games, are still involved in this wild card race. Obviously their fans are very excited and they have something to follow. A Cubs-Astros series might draw a lot of interest from their fans. But lets look at it from a neutral fan’s standpoint. What really is all this hype about? Both these teams are 15 games behind in their division! They are nowhere near St. Louis and they are basically fighting for second place. Why are we getting all excited? It reminds me of a line from the TV show Seinfeld where Jerry says the worst thing in Olympics is to win the Silver medal! It just means that among all the losers, you are the best. In other words, you are the biggest loser! The wild card is kind of the same. The Astros and Cubs are fighting to be the biggest loser behind the Cards - to the tune of 15 games. I would rather watch a “meaningless” series between two division winners St. Louis and Atlanta than Houston - Chicago. At least we know we are watching good teams with St. Louis and Atlanta.
The other problem is with the scheduling. MLB went for a balanced schedule for a few years, which clearly takes away from the division races. We would rather want the Giants-Dodgers, Yankees-Red Sox and Oakland-Anaheim to be played more often than the other non-divisional matchups. But the problem with the unbalanced schedule is that it’s not the way to determine the wild card. Now MLB is back to an unbalanced schedule, which is great, but that makes the wild card even more stupid. You are basically picking between the Cubs, Giants and the Marlins who are all playing different schedules. How do you decide who’s better? The unbalanced schedule is too important for divisional races, but it basically screws up the wild card.
So I think the wild card has it pros and cons, but definitely more cons than pros. Lets junk it.
Fantasy Notes
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I had a rough second week in the Homies league. Deuce McAlister got hurt in the first quarter and everything went downhill from there. I did win the other two leagues. I picked up Aaron Stecker in the homies league. Not sure how he fell to me, but he helped me win my first game in week 3. In the forward lateral league, I am losing a big star to a season long injury every week First Steve Smith, next Kellen Winslow Jr. and now Nate Webster, but I am still 3-0. I am 2-1 in the Yahoo league after a close defeat in week 3. I had some bye week issues. I should be back in week 4.
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