True Pennant Race Drama: Quality over Quantity

The American League wild card race is garnering most of the attention these days, for understandable reasons. And if quantity is your thing, you can't beat it.

I beg you to consider quality, though. And for quality pennant race favor, the National League Central has the AL Wild Card race beat. HANDS DOWN. Sure, the American League features 6 teams fighting for 2 spots. Let's face it, the Red Sox are already in (and they might even have clinched the East title if the rules would break a tie between them and the Rays by appealing to head-to-head competition, since Boston beat Tampa Bay 12-7 this season). Oakland and Detroit would have to suffer collapses of Mauchian proportions to fall out of the postseason. As unlikely as that seems in Detroit's case, it seems even less likely in Oakland's case.

So we are left with Tampa Bay, Texas, Cleveland, Baltimore, Kansas City, and New York contending realistically for one of the two wild card spots, sort of like a mid-major conference tournament culminating in 2 survivors playing each other in 1 game for the right to ascend to the post season tournament ... as a double-digit seed. OK, I know. That's not really how bleak it is. Plenty of wild card teams have made it to the World Series and a few have even won it. So, the analogy breaks down. But we're talking about fan excitement here, not the realistic expectations of the players involved. While Boston, Detroit, and Oakland likely cool their heels and tend to their wounds, these 6 teams are scratching and clawing to be one of the 2 remaining teams to be included -- and those 2 teams then have to face off in a 1-game winner take all playoff match for the right to advance to the Division series round. It's a grueling path that Boston, Detroit, and Oakland will surely avoid.

What's more, these 2 teams won't have actually achieved anything. They won't finish 1st in their division. They -- well, as of 2012, one of the 2 -- will be akin to the lucky person who happens to wonder by a card table with 3 persons and a deck of cards wanting to play bridge but needing a fourth. The wild card itself is more of a gift or a reprieve from MLB to whoever proves to be the best ... loser. But, I get it. 6 becoming 2 becoming 1 IS fun. Heck, I'm a sucker for conference tournaments. Come March, I'm glued to the action in the Horizon League basketball tournament and the rest of the world can go fly a kite.

But this is Major League Baseball and the 162 game regular season -- the biggest sample size in professional sports. He who finishes 1st is absolutely the best in their division. EVERY team should be striving for that distinction and despise settling for 2nd best. That is what brings out the best in competition. That is a high standard, as well it should be.

So, while in the National League, the 5 team field is practically set, with the Washington Nationals having an long shot at best at one of the wild card slots, the Central division features 3 teams, all of whom will certainly make the post season BUT all of whom are in serious contention for the Central division title. As of this writing, the Cardinals hold a slim 1 game lead over the Pirates, who in turn hold a slim 1 game lead over the Reds. With about 9 games left to play, 1st place is literally up for grabs. Dusty's crew invades PNC Park this weekend, while St. Louis visits Miller Park, so the dust could settle a bit and it helps the Cardinals a tiny bit that the two teams chasing them have to play each other and neither one plays the Cardinals. But regardless of what happens this weekend, there will still be a huge fight for first place next week -- ALMOST LIKE IT WAS IN THE OLD DAYS WHEN THERE WAS NO WILD CARD. Think of AL West 1987, NL East 1973, NL West 1993, to say nothing of American League 1967. Even though all 3 teams are surely in the postseason, they are all EXTREMELY motivated to avoid that dangerous one-game playoff. It's not quite as gripping, but it's as close as we can come in the Wild Card era (notice how all 3 teams have strong, stellar records; this is not a fight for first place of a weak division).

The rest of the world may be focused on the AL wild card frenzy, but as for me and my house: this weekend and next week, my eyes will be focused exclusively on the NL Central. Even if the Nats somehow make a real run and the Reds fall off, we'll still have 2 teams neck-and-neck for first place. Now, THAT'S drama for you.

An Open Letter to Tigers Radio PBP team

Mr. Dickerson and Mr. Price,

I am a White Sox fan. I say that only in the interests of full disclosure. I actually come to you as a baseball fan to comment on one aspect of your commentary during the top of the 6th inning of the Tigers-White Sox game on Thursday, July 11, 2013. To refresh your memory: Josh Phegley cleared the bases with a grand slam, putting Chicago up 5-3. Alejandro DeAza was retired in ordinary fashion -- especially considering that earlier in the game, Chris Sale buzzed Prince Fielder's chin after Miguel Cabrera took him deep -- but then Luke Putkonen put one behind Alexei Ramirez. The latter took exception, benches emptied, tempers flared, but no punches were thrown. There was brief confusion over when/if Leyland had been ejected. Mario and Rod assumed his last protest came because he didn't realize he'd been tossed; you two guessed he was upset because Ramirez hadn't been.

After play resumed, Ramirez swung and missed twice to the delight of the crowd, but then dropped one in fair territory down the RF line. He might have made second, but he injured himself rounding 1st and stayed there, eventually being replaced by a pinch-runner, at which point the crowd applauded his injury.

It is what I heard next that I would like to comment on. I heard the two of you join in the behavior of the crowd -- behavior that Rod Allen on Tigers TV rightly called "unprofessional", by the way. Mr. Price called it "karma". Mr. Dickerson referred to "the man who started it all", meaning Alexei Ramirez.

It actually pains me to have to say what comes next because I think you two are one of the best baseball PBP teams in MLB, far better than what we have for White Sox broadcasts in my humble opinion. Many a time when the Sox have played the Tigers, I have willingly listened to your broadcast because I'm tired of the Sox broadcast teams. Until Thursday, my respect for you was unblemished.

When you labeled Alexei Ramirez as the instigator, I found that extremely insulting. To be clear: if Prince Fielder had taken the same kind of umbrage when Chris Sale just barely missed his head and Ed Farmer had berated him for pointing at Sale and then reveled in his injury after beating out a base hit, this same letter would be going to him instead. I am not writing to you as a Sox fan, but as a baseball fan. To suggest that Alexei Ramirez started it because he took umbrage at being used for target practice is insane.

Let me be more pointed: if I'm in the batter's box and you throw at me, I'm ALLOWED to be upset about it. Period. To suggest otherwise is tantamount to blaming the victim. You should know better, both of you. On the list of players who "started it", Alexei Ramirez is absent. If you want to blame a Sox player, blame Chris Sale for starting it. Runner up goes to Luke Putkonen for perpetuating the violence. It's great that he missed, but there is no guarantee of that. It's great that he stayed away from his head. Really, I appreciate that.

But Alexei Ramirez is absolutely allowed to take umbrage. And shame on you for joining the fans' classless behavior. Please take a cue from your TV counterpart.

If you want to know what I would have done if I was czar of discipline for MLB, I would have ejected Chris Sale immediately after that pitch to Prince, and decreed that it ends right there. I don't expect you to agree with that. Mr. Price played; I didn't. I defer to your experience. But I say this only to assure you that my complaint is not a partisan one.

Please keep up your fine work. Your broadcasts are generally interesting to listen to, as well as informative. I also appreciate Mr. Dickerson's occasional Detroit Titans' basketball play-by-play when I get to hear it. I am a Valpo basketball fan and our two teams have had some real classics in recent years.

I just wanted you to know how disappointed I was in this one broadcast. Thank you for your time.

Jim Squire
St. Louis, MO

An ending to a personal season

The 2012-2013 College Basketball season has been over for a month or so now. It was the most active season I have had as a fan, and I wanted to capture my feelings. Much as teams have been known to run out of gas in March or otherwise see their season end too soon, I as a #TMM9 member of @hoppingcats ran out of gas in March as well. Life intruded, I didn't manage my vacation bank very well, and I couldn't dig down deep at crunch time. Since the writing competition ended shortly after the Final Four, I write this ending on my own blog for no points whatsoever, but just to reflect on my season of traveling and writing about mid-major basketball, such as it was. I can't begin to touch this guy (who I ran into a handful of times this year, with the dawning realization that my team would gain no points on his from the game I was attending), but I had fun all the same.

I didn't have the wherewithal to go to that many games, mostly because of my full-time job. As much as I envy the life of Kyle (and marvel at the guy I mentioned above), I'm not ready to retire just yet. My participation was as limited as my free time was (flying was an alternative that I didn't fully explore because I felt it would be too expensive).

Commitment, not to mention zeal that borders on obsession, tends to bring pain and makes one vulnerable to the harshness of the real world. Like an athlete who is smooth as silk one game and writhing in agony the next, cruel chaos has been known to intrude, and then whatever weaknesses we have are exploited. Try as they might, my Valpo Crusaders could not grow extra bulk and inches in the span of a few days in order to match up with the Mighty Spartans of Michigan State. So they had to adapt, and for whatever reason they couldn't. Had they found a way, I would have been there on Saturday to not only write about Valpo-Memphis but also VCU-Michigan, and then who knows, maybe Valpo-Duke in Indianapolis? That's the kind of dreaming that I imagine Will Bogan, Ryan Broekhoff, Erik Buggs, and company allowed themselves to engage in.

Likewise, because I could not magically enlarge my vacation bank at The Boeing Company from 2 hours to 16, much less work 12 hour days around outside commitments, nor will my almost-55-year-old body to withstand even more stress and sleep deprivation, I had to wimp out on my plans to see my team Dance and write for my other team.

So, my 2013 season ended too soon. I couldn’t even make it across Missouri to Kansas City to attend that collection of 6 games. My season consists of 21 recaps and one challenge assignment. It seemed like more than that, but the website doesn't lie. Almost, but not quite the size of a Division I College Basketball regular season.

I divided my season between Valpo games and St. Louis games, the former because of personal allegiance (which was tested a couple of times), the latter because of proximity. Oh, there was that one trip where I stopped off at Hinkle to see the Billikens take on the Bulldogs again, then headed up to Valpo for the bracketbuster, then zagged over to Macomb to see Cleveland State take on Western Illinois. What mostly dominated my travels this year was nostalgia for a conference Valpo used to play in, personal investment in the conference they play in now, and the excitement of teams visiting St. Louis who had captured my imagination in recent years.

As I look back on it, there wasn't a lot of new exploration. I didn't venture into unknown territory. The only time I visited new venues was when Valpo was playing there. I always had to have a prior connection - an excuse to go to the game. The one time I was ready and willing to answer the call, I was unable to. Since warp drive has not yet been invented, I could not attend the Valpo bracketbuster game and avail myself of my last opportunity to see Nate Wolters in person (going up against Isaiah Canaan no less) because 5 hours is nowhere near enough time to go from Valparaiso, Indiana to Murray, Kentucky. It just wasn’t meant to be, and though I did get to see Canaan play, I will regret never finding a way to go see Wolters.

Wichita State lost in excruciating fashion, as it always seems to be predestined for mid-majors (not named Butler) to lose. Baseball season had already begun, but as I tweeted that Saturday night, "Sorry, baseball, you can take a hike for tonight. GO SHOCKERS!" Alas, they faltered and fell short, thus reaching the point every year where I dismiss basketball until November. I don't really do any sport year round. My calendar is neatly split into two halves. It is baseball season now.

Then again, conference realignment encroaches ever closer to the Horizon League. Furthermore, as I finish this off, Oakland has officially joined the Horizon League, my White Sox are miserable so far, and I can’t help looking forward to the renewal of an old conference rivalry that I thoroughly enjoyed. For the first time in several years, I’m more excited in May about College Basketball than I am about Major League Baseball.

Bringing Back Professional Broadcasting: A Modest Proposal

ESPN College Basketball play-by-play teams are not doing their jobs professionally, no matter who is filling those roles on any given gameday. I've noticed this for 2 or 3 years now. My intuition tells me it's not the fault of the actual announcers; it's the fault of the 4-letter network who seems to find our mid-major games kind of on the boring side, just on principle alone. Thus they feel the need to spice it up with extra-curricular stories that have nothing to do with the game at hand -- EVEN DURING LIVE BALL ACTION.

It's the height of condescension. It also suggests that they feel the majority of their viewing audience is only marginally interested in the two teams playing. I have little trouble believing that is true.

I have a modest proposal to satisfy both concerns.

A new channel: Maybe call it ESPN 4. A live TV talk show up in the nosebleed section, where 2 talking heads can discuss topics mildly tangential to the game at hand, maybe take calls, and discuss such topics as I heard yesterday during the Valpo-Green Bay game:

1. The idiocy of freaking out over road losses, with examples from the Miami Heat to the Louisville Cardinals.
2. Anticipation of the upcoming Duke-Maryland rematch (Duke's going to be angry, dontcha know).
3. Various other high major battles (which as we all know are the only games most basketball junkies really care about).
4. Bobby V's top 5 bracketbusters this year (none of which were mid-majors, funnily enough -- I thought bracketbusters was a mid-major thing)

Over the past 3 years, I've watched non-stop mid-major action paired with play-by-play commentary that sounded suspiciously like predictions of which conference is going to win this year's ACC-Big Ten Challenge, who are the top 5 point guards in the nation, who are going to be the 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament (the last mid-major to be a #1 seed was, I believe, St. Joseph, and we all remember what a scandal that was, Billy Packer), and a whole host of other things.

Since this is what the viewing public really wants (right?), let's have a separate channel for this. If something truly compelling does happen to take place on the mid-major court, the guys can take time out to highlight it and talk about it, if they want to. Otherwise, they can mind their own business and cater to their overwhelming throng of high-major basketball junkies.

Meanwhile, on ESPN3 or ESPNU or ESPN2 or ESPN, actually play-by-play guys can, ya know, concentrate on actually calling the game they were sent there to call. When the ball is live, they can be free to concentrate on describing the action. I realize it's not radio and a picture is worth a thousand words, but there are many situations where talk is still needed. For example, a whistle just blew. Not being a referee aficionado, I can't always decipher the hand motion. I can tell that the ball changed hands, but I can't tell if it was a foul, 3-seconds, traveling (especially if the camera is not focused on the official making the call), or a myriad of other things. Let's just say the play was obscure enough that I'm left hanging in limbo totally clueless as to what was just called. In moments like that, I couldn't care less about the Duke-Maryland rematch, I want to know what just happened. Or let's say one team just executed a masterful offensive set that freed up a shooter under the basket. Yes, I saw it with my own eyes, but the play was such a thrilling one it begs for some commentary, maybe some telestration showing me why the play I just saw worked so well. Again, this is no time to be predicting who is going to win the ACC-Big Ten Challenge or who you think is going to make the Final Four. I honestly don't give a crap about that. I want some expert commentary on the exciting play I just saw. I'm not an expert on basketball strategy, but I know enough to know that I just saw an outstanding play and I'm curious what made it so outstanding (or perhaps it wasn't quite as outstanding as it appeared to be, and I need to be educated on how the defense screwed up).

If you are a play-by-play or color commentator assigned to this game, it means your #1 job is to call and comment on this game, and EVERYTHING else should take a back seat. Since that doesn't serve ESPN's needs, how about giving us 2 broadcasts, 1 for those of us who watch a game in order to, ya know, watch the game, and 1 for those of us who are only mildly amused by these two largely irrelevant schools but really want to hear about the popular topics of the day.

Think about it, ESPN. It's the professional thing to do.