Daily Archives: October 21, 2003

Is the World Serious boring you? Is there a lack of juice or excitement in watching the Yanks and Marlins duke it out? Well perhaps that will all change as the Serious shifts to Florida tonight. Mike Mussina starts against the Marlins ace, Josh Beckett. This could be a classic pitching duel, and a great game tonight could help make this a terrific Serious yet. Beckett was lights out in his last two appearances, and ain’t ascared of nobody. Mike Mussina was brilliant in a relief stint in Game 7 against Boston and is looking for his first win in the 2003 post season.

I haven’t been one for making predictions, but once again, I feel very good about the Yankees chances with Mussina tonight.

For more Serious coverage, stop by and check out the latest from Mike Carminati, Jay Jaffe, and Steve Goldman.

In other news, Jason Giambi is in the headlines after he was subpoenaed to testify before “a San Francisco grand jury that’s investigating Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or BALCO, a company which prescribes nutritional supplements and is now fighting charges that it also may be dabbling in tetrahydrohestrinone, a designer steriod.” Giambi appeared unfazed by the news. I don’t know much about the case, so I will reserve comment. Hopefully, Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus, will enlighten us in the coming weeks.

Bill Simmons, another columnist from ESPN (who also happens to be an avid Red Sox fan), weighs in on Game 7, with humor and disgust (not that he’s bitter or nothing):

As I wrote many times in this space, Grady was one of those rare managers who made you scream at the TV, “My God, what the (bleep) are you doing???” at the precise time he’s making a move (or sometimes, not making a move). Let the record show that he did the same thing with Pedro that he did with Burkett in the Oakland series (Game 4). He was in over his head. The ultimate Grady moment happened in the eighth inning of Game 7, when lefty Embree was pitching to switch-hitting Enrique Wilson (tie game, guy on second, two outs), and Grady brought in Mike Timlin, so Torre countered with Ruben Sierra … so poor Grady had to walk Sierra, meaning he had a righty pitching against lefty Karim Garcia with two runners on instead of one. Unbelievable!

What was it like in Boston last Friday? Ever heard of Dante’s Inferno?

One of my friends from home described Friday’s scene like this: “I have never seen anything like it. Everyone is in a catatonic trance — like a massive funeral ceremony that won’t end. You can’t imagine what its like. NO WORK being done today in the city of Boston. Even the lady at my Dunkin’ Donuts seemed upset and her name doesn’t contain any vowels.”

Speaking of bitterness, the Boston police are apparently going to press charges against Jeff Nelson and Karim Garcia for their part in the Game 3 bullpen fight. Think they’d go ahead with this if the Sox had actually won? I think you know the answer.

Rob Neyer, ESPN’s leading baseball analyst will be watching the World Serious because a) it’s his job and b) because he loves baseball. But he doesn’t have a rooting interest in either team. In fact, he thinks there are reasons to root against both teams:

The Marlins are a good story. They’re the underdogs, and nobody — I mean nobody — thought, six months ago they’d be where they are now. If they somehow manage to beat the Yankees, you have to be happy for Jack McKeon, who’s showing everybody there really is (baseball) life after 70. But it’s pretty hard to be happy for anybody else (except maybe Pudge Rodriguez).

The Marlins’ owner, Jeffrey Loria, is by most accounts a liar and a cheat (we’ll know more this winter, when various court proceedings are resolved). The Marlins’ ex-owner, Wayne Huizenga, is another awful man who stands to profit a great deal from the Marlins’ success, because he still makes a hefty sum from the sale of concessions and the rental of luxury suites at Pro Player Stadium.

And what about the Yankees? Is there any reason to root for them? Neyer has one:

If the Yankees lose, they might be just slightly more inclined to get better next season, and that’s not good for anybody except them. As you know, their defense at second base and shortstop isn’t good, and the Yankees might be even better if they address that deficiency. The Yankees are just sort of scraping by in right field, and if they lose they might be just slightly more likely to break the bank and sign Vladimir Guerrero. They’ve got some question marks in their starting rotation, and if they lose they might be just slightly more likely to buy every good pitcher that’s available this winter.

Granted, they’ll probably do most of these things anyway. But if they beat the Marlins, they might spend just a bit less money trying to defend their championship.

Problems, problems: what to do?