Fwd: My return and baseball

by way of Robert Zimmerman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Mon, 18 Nov 2002 05:57:26 -0800

>Let's see, the postseason, and the regular season too
>:-) I was very disappointed when Oakland lost, of
>course. It was, I think, symptomatic of the one thing
>that Billy Beane hasn't been able to deal with, and
>one of the major reasons for the Yankee's continued
>success in the postseason - the Yankee's money buys
>better coaching and better scouting. The As were
>simply poorly coached - witness Jeremy Giambi's
>memorable failure to slide last year.
>

> Let none of
>that take away from the Angels' remarkable
>achievement, however. They were an excellent team and
>absolutely deserved to win the World Series - in no
>way do they resemble the fluke Marlins of 1997. It
>was a fun World Series, on the whole - not as good as
>2001, but good nonetheless. If the owners would stop
>talking down baseball and actually _market the sport_
>then something like that will be wonderful indeed.
>
The Angels are a good team, well coached, and did deserve to win. Some
of the best games down the stretch were the two A's - Angels series.
Baseball at its best. I had trouble choosing a team to route for in the
Series. The Giants are local, of course, but there's always a rivalry
between A's and Giants fans, so that made it hard. Then there's the
fact that the Angels are essentially an L.A. team and its hard to route
for anything from L.A. (no offense 8^) ) Eventually I found myself
pulling for the Giants, but most of all I wanted for them to pitch to Bonds.

The yankees had trouble with the angles all year but I was surprised by the outcome. I know our pitching looked old this year but the angles were unbelievably hot and of course they got all the breaks. That happens often in sports and the Yankees have benefitted from that as well (think of some the met yank games of 2000. Met drives hitting the top of the wall and coming back into play. Same thing happened to the yanks this year.
>

>
>The other major takeaway from both the season and the
>postseason is, of course, that Barry Bonds is not a
>human being. He is either the best or the second best
>baseball player of all time, I think. The argument
>for him being the best, of course, rests on the fact
>that Babe Ruth played against a much lower level of
>competition generally, and specifically one that
>lacked African-American players (like, of course,
>Barry Bonds). I find those arguments to be almost,
>but not entirely, persuasive, so I'm not sure where I
>come down on that stance. In either case, he's a
>marvel to watch and we should count ourselves lucky to
>be seeing him play.

You know I think those sorts of comparisons are cannot be made but Bonds is one of the greatest ever. What is amazing to me is how well he is performing at his age. the whole steroid issue kind of clouds the assessment. He has certainly changed his body over the past few years and his power has increased dramatically but what cannot be explained by drug use is his overall perforrmance. My hunch is that he has not used steroids since he has not suffered from recurrent injuries and he has gotten better over the past few years. Steroid use is bad for you, long term steroid use is worse and old athletes are most likely to injuried (aging bodies made vulnerable by long term drug use). I think the Jordon analogy is correct. There is no one like Bonds. You can make a case for walking him every time he comes to bat

by the Gautam; if you ever want to have dinner with an old fart and talk baseball give me a call at NewYork Presbyterian Hospital.

>

Barry Bonds, Jerry Rice, Michael Jorden, Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky:
it's a great time to be a sports fan.

>
>My final comment before I head back to work - while
>the Angels were totally a deserving team, they also
>had pretty much every player have a career year _the
>same year_ - something that I do not think will happen
>next year. The As will win the West again next year -
>and hopefully the World Series, although I actually
>think Boston might just give them a run for their
>money :-)
>
We'll see. I think our young pitchers really proved themselves this
year. I hope they can move Durham to CF and keep him on board. The
rookie, Ellis, is an exciting player, very mature for his years, I''m
looking forward to seeing him improve in 2003. I don't think that the
Angels are going to go away though, they've got an exciting bunch of
young players down there as well. Seattle, on the other hand may go
away - with aging stars, a questionable rotation and no Pinnella I'm
guessing they'll have an off year.

>
>
>That's about it. I hope that all is well with
>everyone. I look forward to hearing from all of you.
>
Thanks for the update - and the titles. Good to hear from you again.

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Gautam Mukunda wrote:

>I'm lucky to have a job. The
>market just _sucks_.
>
Yes, I feel lucky that my wife and I both have relatively secure jobs.

>Let's see, the postseason, and the regular season too
>:-) I was very disappointed when Oakland lost, of
>course. It was, I think, symptomatic of the one thing
>that Billy Beane hasn't been able to deal with, and
>one of the major reasons for the Yankee's continued
>success in the postseason - the Yankee's money buys
>better coaching and better scouting. The As were
>simply poorly coached - witness Jeremy Giambi's
>memorable failure to slide last year.
>
I agree. I think that Howe made some questionable discussions this time
- why not set up your rotation so that both your lefties get two starts
against a team that performs poorly against southpaws, for starters.
I'm very relived that Beane didn't jump ship.

> Let none of
>that take away from the Angels' remarkable
>achievement, however. They were an excellent team and
>absolutely deserved to win the World Series - in no
>way do they resemble the fluke Marlins of 1997. It
>was a fun World Series, on the whole - not as good as
>2001, but good nonetheless. If the owners would stop
>talking down baseball and actually _market the sport_
>then something like that will be wonderful indeed.
>
The Angels are a good team, well coached, and did deserve to win. Some
of the best games down the stretch were the two A's - Angels series.
Baseball at its best. I had trouble choosing a team to route for in the
Series. The Giants are local, of course, but there's always a rivalry
between A's and Giants fans, so that made it hard. Then there's the
fact that the Angels are essentially an L.A. team and its hard to route
for anything from L.A. (no offense 8^) ) Eventually I found myself
pulling for the Giants, but most of all I wanted for them to pitch to Bonds.

>
>
>The other major takeaway from both the season and the
>postseason is, of course, that Barry Bonds is not a
>human being. He is either the best or the second best
>baseball player of all time, I think. The argument
>for him being the best, of course, rests on the fact
>that Babe Ruth played against a much lower level of
>competition generally, and specifically one that
>lacked African-American players (like, of course,
>Barry Bonds). I find those arguments to be almost,
>but not entirely, persuasive, so I'm not sure where I
>come down on that stance. In either case, he's a
>marvel to watch and we should count ourselves lucky to
>be seeing him play.
>
Barry Bonds, Jerry Rice, Michael Jorden, Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky:
it's a great time to be a sports fan.

>
>My final comment before I head back to work - while
>the Angels were totally a deserving team, they also
>had pretty much every player have a career year _the
>same year_ - something that I do not think will happen
>next year. The As will win the West again next year -
>and hopefully the World Series, although I actually
>think Boston might just give them a run for their
>money :-)
>
We'll see. I think our young pitchers really proved themselves this
year. I hope they can move Durham to CF and keep him on board. The
rookie, Ellis, is an exciting player, very mature for his years, I''m
looking forward to seeing him improve in 2003. I don't think that the
Angels are going to go away though, they've got an exciting bunch of
young players down there as well. Seattle, on the other hand may go
away - with aging stars, a questionable rotation and no Pinnella I'm
guessing they'll have an off year.

>
>
>That's about it. I hope that all is well with
>everyone. I look forward to hearing from all of you.
>
Thanks for the update - and the titles. Good to hear from you again.

Doug

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Fwd: My return and baseball

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