Thursday, July 13, 2006

Mo baseball for Budum

Baseball returns today after what was a pretty ho-hum All Star game. A few quick thoughts:

  • The American League's dominance is starting to get ridiculous. The NL team played well and was one out away from winning the game, but the AL was able to rally quickly and steal the game. When I was growing up, the NL teams would routinely crush their AL opponents, with an endless cavalcade of Joe Morgans, Willie Stargells, Tom Seavers and Johnny Benches whipping up whoever the AL would trot out. The NL has not won a game since the mid 90s now.
  • Although I know Budum would disagree, the Twins played a very minor role in the game. Johan Santana did pitch one inning and Joe Mauer did play for over half the game, but neither were instrumental. Meanwhile, Ozzie Guillen managed to mess up Francisco Liriano's vacation by calling him in at the last minute, then not using him at all during the game. Maybe next year....
  • If the Twins are going to get into the hunt, they'd better sweep the Indians this weekend. The primary reason the Twins are so far behind the Tigers and White Sox is that they have fared quite poorly against those squads. The Twins have whipped up on the rest of the American League and laid waste to the hapless NL teams, but if they want to win, they'd better do it now.
  • My beleagured Brewers are, despite everything, much better positioned for a playoff run. They are 5 games back and will be getting their ace pitcher, Ben Sheets, back for the second half. The Cardinals do not look as strong as last year and if a few things break right, the Brew Crew could be right there at the end.

Now, back to our regular programming.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yes, I do agree the Twins played in minor role in the All Star Game, however, Mr. Mauer played 3 innings as catcher - which included catching Johann Santana and Mariano Rivera. Not bad for a a kid in his 3rd year in the majors!

The Twins are doing great now and hopefully they can win today as Detroit lost. Detroit is next!!